Italic Union

The **Italic Union** was a central Mediterranean kingdom in Season 2 of Brazilian Mapping's Alternate History of Europe series. It was a continuation of the Kingdom of Naples, which had annexed most of the Venetian territory in the 1517 treaty of Venezia. The Neapolitan king, Ferrante I di Sancarlo, became the first king of this new "union", which flew a flag almost identical to that of the late Venetian Republic.

*On the Tatsumaki score ranking, "Italic" is Level 13.*

## Italic Union

The flag of the Italic Union when ruled by King Ferrante di Sancarlo.

The flag of the Most Serene Republic of Venice which was dismantled in the 1517 treaty of Venezia.

## Territorial Info

### Preceded by

Kingdom of Naples
Most Serene Republic of Venice

## Foundation and Rise

### **Formation: The Great Mediterranean War**

The story of the Italic Union begins in the spring of 1517, during the Great Mediterranean War. The Mamluks inform Venice of a chest in Crete, containing details of a secret Malta Agreement between the Mamluks and the Neapolitans. The Venetian doge Cosimo Borgatizi went on to denounce Naples in a letter to the League of Varna, but Naples had already commissioned Romagna and Urbino to replace the Venetian letter with another. This other letter informed the League that Venice had betrayed Naples, but in reality the opposite was true. The League therefore kicked out and declared war on Venice on May 6th, 1517, sparking the Fourth Lombard War.

Neapolitan troops crossed the Po river and reached Venezia in only 6 days, only to find that the doge's palace had been set on fire by the enraged population. When the people learned of the death of Cosimo Borgatizi, they surrendered to the League's forces. The Treaty of Venezia was then signed; Venice would give away a few territories to League of Varna members, but most of it would united with Naples to form the **Italic Union**, and the Neapolitan king, Ferrante I di Sancarlo, would be the first king of this new "union". Ferrante then joined his forces in Libya for the final approach to Cairo, and the joint siege alongside Nerasid Persia. Ferrante then won a duel with the Mamluk caliph Qaitbay, on September 6th, 1517, ending both the Caliphate and the war.

The very next day, the other League of Varna leaders joined him in Cairo to discuss the terms of the famed Treaty of Cairo. Italia annexed most of its occupied territory in North Africa, and began sharing administration of a Cypriot Condominium with the Anatolian Empire.

### **Mistrust**

When Italia and Anatolia intervened in the Second Bulgarian Uprising, Italia acted as a mediator, securing eastern Bulgaria for Anatolia. King Ferrante had begun to believe that any country that he had helped owed him back in some way. Therefore, when he asked Anatolia to give up their claims on Italic-controlled Aegean islands, Anatolia very reluctantly agreed, for the last time.

In 1519, the Duchy of Milan collapsed, as the Duke had died without an heir. A certain Angelo Marangon took advantage of this to lead an uprising in the city of Brescia, and proclaim a successor state to the Venetian Republic. Ferrante immediately put down the rebellion and annexed Brescia from the old Duchy's territory, creating a rift with the new Milanese government.

Sometime in the spring of 1523, in the Adriatic Sea, an Italic galley collided with the boat of a Ragusan fisherman. The crew went back to their homeland to report the event, and when the news reached King Ferrante, he was furious, and immediately invaded and annexed Ragusa in the following weeks.

Four years later, Italia discovered a meeting between central Italian states, where Romagna and Urbino were confessing their involvement in Venice's demise. Immediately these central states found themselves at war with Italia and Sardinia. This, the 5th of June 1527, was the beginning of the First Italian War.

"TRAITORS! **Bid your last goodbyes, for the breakdown of peace has come!"** - Italia, June 4th, 1527,

The war was a string of Italic victories. Not only had Sardinia joined their side, but also Lucca. Despite being the smallest player in the war, the siege of the city of Lucca was very costly for the central Italians.

The most important event was on September 6th, 1527. Exactly 10 years after the Italic March on Cairo, was the Italic Sack of Roma. The news spread across Europe faster than wildfire, and soon a new Pope was elected, commissioned by Italia. Pompeo Colonna, styled as Pope Gennarus I, became the new head of Catholic Christianity, and agreed to cede Umbria to the Italic Union. The new pope had been elected as the previous Pope, Clement VII, had "gone missing", according to the Italics, but in reality, he had escaped to the city of Florence, where he resided in secret for the time being.

Once Sardinia invaded from Livorno to relieve Lucca, the central Italians were doomed. As Italia created vassal states in Arezzo and Grosseto, the remainder of Florence and Siena came under the rule of Lucca, which had reorganised into the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. Romagna and Urbino were directly incorporated into Italia, linking Napoli and Venezia directly by land.

"On May 6th, 1529, the Italic troops stormed Urbino, bringing an end to the First Italian War."

- Giovanni Morosini, the famed Milanese writer.

### The Aegean Crisis

Italia's expansion had decreased its stability, so it faced difficulty when trying to contend with rebels that had risen up in the Aegean islands. To King Ferrante it was clear as day that Anatolia was supplying these rebels, so on July 24th, 1529, Italia declared war on Anatolia. What was also clear as day was the Anatolian victory, as the Italic Union was in no state to fight a war after having ended another only two months prior. Another uprising took place in the Marche, during which rebels stormed the palace in Urbino. A final Anatolian attack in Albania forced Ferrante's hand, so he reluctantly signed away all Aegean islands except Crete and Rhodes, and also kept Crimea. He then learned that a letter had been transported by the Marche rebels to Giano Loredan, the recently-elected Captain & Defender of Milan. The truth, about the Malta Agreement, had now been spread among the governing body of Milan. The Italic declaration of war to Milan marked the beginning of the new year.

### The Second Italian War

The next two years granted Italia some military success. Their ally Sardinia rushed Genoa within only a few months, allowing the Italic and Tuscan armies to focus on southern and western Milanese territories. France briefly entered the war to steal away Savoy and half of Provence, but most Savoyard territories came under the control of the Italic vassal of Turin.

Milan now stood alone against the Italic First Army approaching from Turin. It was at this moment that Milan decided to use their ace, military veteran Bruno Morosini, to prevent an Italic hegemony over Padania. Bruno's army met the Italic army in Novara, on March 15th, 1532, and scored a decisive victory by concealing his cavalry until they were needed.

"You are so naïve, you know that? Focusing on obliterating the centre, while failing to notice the cavalry on your flanks. The same mistake the Romans made at Cannae... how petty."

*- Bruno Morosini to the Italic First Army, at the Battle of Novara.*

For the Italic Union, Novara was not only a tragedy, but the first of many. Next on the list was the Milanese invasion of Turin, and the unification of the two states into the Lombard Republic. A second offensive on Milan by the Italic Second Army was halted, once again by Bruno Morosini. The Lombards then invaded the Italic vassals of Aosta, Montferrat and Pavia. When Pavia declared their wishes to surrender, Italia declared war on them for their disloyalty, and the vassal states of Parma and Liguria (Sardinian vassal) immediately joined Pavia's side. As 1533 began, the three states soon signed truces with the Lombard Republic before voluntarily joining them, a month before Angelo Marangon, the leader of the First Brescian Uprising, now staged a second one. When he revealed himself, he revealed to Italy that Pope Clement VII had also survived the Sack of Roma, bringing Europe that much closer to a religious war. Giano Loredan also revealed his true identity of Lorenzo Furlan, the Ragusan fisherman who had been the first to discover the all-important box which revealed *the truth.*

Lombardy and Brescia linked their forces and marched east, for a confrontation with Italia at Lago di Garda. Just as the Italics were about to win, they were routed by the Austrians, and King Ferrante began to panic. As Brescia secured the surrounding territories, an Austro-Lombard army marched on, capturing the territories surrounding the city of Venezia.

"This is truly a sight to behold. Venice itself threatened, so low has Italia fallen!" - Lorenzo Furlan, Captain & Defender of Milan, July 28th, 1533.

Soon Venezia was completely surrounded, King Ferrante's panic developed into a hallucination, in which he saw Venice. The same Most Serene Republic of Venice which had come before the Italic Union. Then Ferrante saw flashes of all the other Italic enemies, but it was primarily Venice who haunted him, with the same massiveness as Banquo haunting Macbeth. Ferrante's hallucination had become a heart attack, and once the news reached Milan and Napoli, the entire Italian peninsula braced itself for a war of succession...

## a divided Italic Union

The new flag of the Italic Union under Giuseppe di Sancarlo.

The flag of the Italic Union used by Danilo von Habsburg during the Third Italian War.

## Population Info

### Background and Beginning

There were two claimants to the Italic throne after Ferrante's death: his illegitimate son Giuseppe di Sancarlo, and his nephew Danilo von Habsburg. As Italic armies on both sides prepared for what could have been called the Italic Civil War, Lombardy decided that they had done what they needed to. They met with a Sancarlist delegation in Venezia to sign a treaty on October 7th, 1533, securing the independence of Brescia, Prato, Pisa, Modena, Florence and Siena. These states then demobilised their armies.

The Second Italian War was over, and the Third Italian War had begun.

On one side, Sardinia continued to support the Sancarlists, and on the other side, Austria supported the Habsburgs, who had established their capital in Bari for the time being. As the Sancarlists scored victories in Romagna and Sicily, the main theatre in southern Italy was dominated by Habsburg victories from late 1533 onwards. On Christmas Day, the Habsburgs celebrated their victory in Treviso, before continuing their advancements into 1534.

### Giuseppe's Hallucinations

May 1534 saw a brief intervention by the Anatolians to claim Rhodes and Crimea, which distracted the Sancarlists and allowed the Habsburgs to besiege Napoli itself. Now it was Giuseppe's turn to experience haunting hallucinations, just like his father's. Italia saw a Mamluk-dominated world, then a Venetian one, and then a third world dominated by Italia and Sardinia. At this moment, Giuseppe broke out of the hallucination, as Sardinian troops had arrived to break the siege of Napoli, a much-needed Christmas gift to mark the end of 1534. On top of that, the Second Habsburg Italic Army surrendered in Ravenna two months later, which meant one less front for the Sancarlists.

### Provence's Departure

However, a new front opened when Provence declared full independence from Italia on July 18th, 1535. Just as the Provençals had allied with the French, both were pulled into the war when the Sancarlists invaded Provence. The Sardinian siege of the city was broken by French reinforcements, as the French navy managed to land on the island of Corsica. This time Spain delivered their Christmas present - by opening a new frontline in the Pyrenees mountains, the French were distracted, allowing the Sardinians to relieve Corsica.

The Western Mediterranean War was a brief conflict, which took place during the first few months of 1536, where Spain simply distracted French forces from the Provençal front. Spain took the opportunity to invade and annex Barcelona and Andorra at the same time, which prompted France to accept a white peace .Spain and France both left the war, and now that Provence was alone, they had no choice but to use their ace against the Sancarlists - pages of information regarding the role of Naples in the demise of Venice.

"Take one step towards Provence, *and I will reveal everything."* - Provence, April 25th, 1536.

With that, the Sancarlists had no choice but to let Provence go. The invasion force that Sardinia had prepared was hence diverted to Sicily to force the Habsburgs off the island.

{TBA: more about the Third Italian War, and The Italian Schism}