1290-1291

The following is the turn report covering the years of **1290 and 1291**, which took place from 22 May to 6 June 2017.

## The British Isles

In England Richard II has had a comparably calm start to his rule, which he spent honing his skills in intense study, seemingly possessed by a fervour to undo five decades of English royal degeneration. Richard's presence in Oxford has also lead to city to experience a small flowering, becoming a recognized center of trade. Cambridge is not too pleased.

Richard's relative absence from court has however caused his more ambitious projects to be stalled. While his court has set down most of the legal texts in a manner that should be acceptable to the nobility the nobles are calling for the king's presence in London and for provisions be made to involve them in the raising of taxes and application of law, specifically a parliament be formed on the model of Scotland and Navarre.

In Scotland clamours by the nobles for at least an advisory role when it comes to royal taxation are becoming louder.

## France

In France the years of prosperity continued, but to some it seemed like it the facade may be crumbling.

In Provence the building of the great royal capital continued, but slowly resentment started to spread in the region as many former independent imperial lords felt disquieted by this greater royal presence and also many towns and cities in the French lands themselves, such as Marseilles feared the greater prominence of the capital.

This resentment was kept in check by the presence of the king in 1290 and indeed few saw a problem with him, but with the nervous young boy he had brought along, who would be their future king, as Henri, ever unremarkable boy, has failed to make any great impression.

## The Holy Roman Empire

In Lüneburg further projects for expansion was made.

The construction of the great Cathedral was put on the back burner as it now became more of a long term projects as Duke Otto II tried to strengthen his Duchy more in real strength, than prestige. If this is merely a need for security following the attack on Thuringia or prelude to further expansion one cannot be sure.

His newly wedded son's return was greatly received by most of the local nobles, though less so with the remaining remnants of the Thieves Movement, who threw dung at the young heir, causing him to slay two of them in anger.

Some initiatives were taken to hire shipwrights and other labourers to built a war navy, but due to the ongoing conflict between Flanders and Holland highly skilled workers are in short supply, so only a skeleton work force could be mustered.

Of greater success was the expansion of Hannover, which following the acquisition of Magdeburgian, Jewish and Sienan credit has begun and is already showing fast advancement, much to the chagrin of the House of Schauenburg, which see their control of lower Elbian trade threatened.

In the Habsburg lands meanwhile pain continued as while large swathes of Switzerland were now part of the Eidgenossenschaft, many were not. Thus as the year of 1291 passes the Kyburgers are in full on war with the various Kantons of the Eidgenossenschaft, freeing most of their eastern central lands from the rebels, but losing most of their control of eastern Switzerland. Many of the local bishops and abbots as well as the free knights of western Switzerland have called on Rudolf of Habsburg to step in, after all his great army at Habsburg castle is perfectly positioned to bring the Swiss back to being reasonable.

The bishop of Geneva meanwhile has seized a shipment of French arms that passed through the county of Geneva to aid the Swiss rebels. The Bishop being a quite pious and proudly imperial fellow has written a *Brandbrief* denouncing the French aggression against "his noble liege the Emperor of Christendom".

In response the Savoyard lords of Burgundy have stopped tax payment to Prince Henry's regency in the absence of his father king Louis.

In Thuringia meanwhile a great war of succession has broken out as Waleran of Luxembourg and Godfrey of Limburg invaded Thuringia with a force far outnumbering the in many parts absent Thuringian forces. In swift attacks they managed to take almost all of western Thuringia before the end of 1291 only being halted when Duke Henry II returned from Italy at the head of his veteran army. Yet still the situation does not look good as Godfrey is ever advancing on the Wartburg.

Godfrey meanwhile has shown himself gracious in victory, sending a letter to Ottokar apologizing for his brash action and offering to accept the humble title of Landgrave of Hessen and the Hessian lands of Thuringia as compensation for his line's usurpation, leaving the richer and greater lands of the Duchy of Thuringia to Henry, for his and his families services to the Empire. This has caused quite a political stir as many of the Thuringians neighbours, such as the various Askanians, the Archbishop of Magdeburg, Imperial Meissen and many at the courts of the Welfs are very much in favour of such weakening of the Ludowingers, whereas men in Heidelberg and Saxony are clamouring to protect the Ludowingers against the Luxembourg expansion. Vladislaus of Görlitz has begged his uncle to give him leave to make war on the Luxembourgers in aid of his family.

In Austria after years of rapid expansion and building advances have somewhat stalled. If this is due to the absence of Wenceslaus and Ottokar at least in part of the years or because of the attempt to impose such drastic changes to the entirety of the Empire or simply due to the Premyslid slowly reaching their apex is not certain. What is certain that instead of their usual great successes, this time they were met with a more mixed bag.

The creation of the "Swiss Guard" went ahead relatively unproblematically and by the end of 1291 they had about 3,000 moderately trained men under arms. However, many of them were not Swiss, as for all their loyalty to the Emperor, few of them saw an interest in going to Italy, especially with war with the Kyburgs still ongoing. Due to Swabian and Bavarian armies of the past already having absorbed the bulk of the more battle ready forces of the region, thus the Imperial guard for now has to make due with more second rate recruits.

The initiative to Imperialize Jewish legislation meanwhile was met with harsh resistance by the middle and higher nobility as they saw the Jews as a lucrative source of revenue and were want to give them up, even several electors (Saxony, Magdeburg) have voiced objections despite their compensation. The initiative has however been met by approval by smaller land holders, Bishops and Abbeys, who hope that the Empire as a whole may attract more jews. The Jews themselves have also been quite overjoyed. Still due to the noble resistance to such a system and the time to put up the logistical framework, profits have been slow to trickle in (though on the plus side most of it has been able to be funneled to Austrian coffers).

On the edges of the Empire meanwhile the Count of Flanders scored a major victory as he along with his Burgundian and Hainault allies captured most of the County of Artois as well as the County of Zeeland. He has now send terms to the king of Scotland, demanding Zeeland along with a guarantee not to interfere in Flemish succession.

A minor conflict between two Swabian counts has sparked a bloody feud between the two.

The biggest conflict however in this time was without doubt "The King's War". As however, Danish chroniclers have written sufficient on such topics, I shall not comment it here.

## Iberia

In Iberia the event that gripped all was the Marinid invasion of 1291 where the Caliph of Morroco invaded the land of the Nasrids, conquering all of their lands by the end of the year. The King and Queen of Castille have declared war against him, but so far the king of Aragon and Navarre has failed to convince his nobles to back a holy war that would in the end benefit the Castillians.

## The North

In the North most affairs were dictated by "The King's War" in Denmark and Brandenburg.

Those efforts and expenses lead to the relatively slow advancement of any greater projects. Even worse, with the war between Holland and Flanders and the unruliness in Russia, trade along the straits has come down to a trickle.

In Norway meanwhile one saw with pleasure the trouble their southern neighbours were in and thus judged this a good time to rid themselves of a nuisance.

Using the continued war of Lord Balliol on the Island of Manx the king of Norway declared war on Scotland demanding the return of the entire kingdom of the Isles and a relinquishing of any claims to the kingdom of Norway.

Sweden meanwhile, though not directly involved in the conflicts of the surrounding lands still was affected by them, as the low supply of young men and the low allure of being a trapper or forester in Finland, expansion there as well as of churches in Estonia were only slow in these years. In 1291 king Eric XII passed, being inherited by his son Eric XIII. The actual ruler is the young king's father in law, the puppetmaster Emil Svenske.

In the far North the Russians' explorations into the east found some good hunting grounds for pelts as well as heathen tribes one could force to pay meagre tribute. Some expeditions into Finland and in the direction of Kola have found those grounds to be better and the possible tributes to be richer.

Meanwhile slow expansions were made to create a stable princely army as well as a small fleet in Riga, which by the end of 1291 could start patrolling the waters of Livonia.

However, Russia was not without problems as the city of Pskov fed up with being ruled by the petty Novgorod nobility petitioned both the Jochid Sultan and the Prince of Novogorod to be made a seperate Republic ruled by the same Prince.

## The East

Along the border to the west the forces of different faiths in a strange parallel pushed both east and westwards at the same time.

In Bulgaria the Teutonics descended to more and more dishonourable and brutal ways of war against their Wallachian enemies. Their strategy worked as slowly they cut their way eastwards, down the Danube, the Black Sea seemingly within their grasp.

Meanwhile Jochid Sultan in a hardly surprising turn has used the distraction of Romans, Poles and Teutons to lead his army into the Hungarian basin, taking most of the eastern half of the kingdom before the end of 1291. He has taken any Hungarian who has bend the knee to him as his personal vassal and given them great riches.

The King of Serbia has raised his troops to come to his allies aid against the infidels.

In Outremer the invasion of Hugh Aleman ended in complete failure as he was slain on the field of battle when he got lost behind enemy lines.

Leo has repelled the first great challenge to his rule. It seems like this new Outremer realm is here to stay for a small while longer.

In more private news, young Princess Isabella de Poitiers is coming along well, reading fast and eagerly at a very young age, using vocabulary far beyond her peers.

A mercenary force formerly hired by Hugh, which had remained almost untarnished by the decisive battle has entered the employ of the eldest son of the late king of Armenia in the ongoing civil war for the kingdom.

In Egypt meanwhile great projects were undertaken, which both hardened the religious spirit as well as the coins of the Egyptain realm.

The purchase of a large force of additional slave soldiers has especially been seen with great curiosity, though also some fear, as these new soldiers may be very loyal to the Sultan and thus break the balance of power inside the palace.

In Anatolia the Osman civil war continued more badly as good as Ancyra fell to the rebels. Osman had been reduced to Nicea, most of Anatolia was free.

In Rome displeasure at the inactivity of Romanos has spread leading to murmurs and naysaying.

Venice has used the confusion in Sicily to seize the Sicilian Greek islands as well as the two minor Islands of Malta, claiming both to be compensation for a debt owed.

Protests in Constantinople are suspiciously muted as many are eager to see payouts from the Polo stocks expecting a gigantic possible cash in.

## "The King's War" Part I

With the start of the war in Brandenburg and Denmark, it became common to refer in chronicles to "The King's" and "The Emperor's" War to distinguish between the parallel military actions taken by Ottokar Premyslid and Dietrich von Wittelsbach to promote their common agenda of Imperial dominance.

In Germany war errupted when Ottokar marched into Brandenburg set on imprisoning Eric of Spandau. Eric, who had recently buried his uncle had expected that with the ceasing of his actions the ban would be lifted. When he heard that instead of being returned into the imperial peace and confirmed as Elector for his swift compliance with the imperial ban, he rose his banners in rebellion, soon joined by his Askanian cousins in Neumark.

He has send letters to Dietrich claiming that Ottokar was abusing his rights and had invited foreign invasion into the Empire.

After all the Danes had attempted to march into Brandenburg from the north. Unfortunately they found that the Lords of Mecklenburg, not aware of the falling away of Brandenburg support had risen in rebellion. Surprised by the attack of the Mecklenburgers the Danes had to retreat to Holstein. As the royal crusading army was by this point already in the Mediterranean the Danes were decisively undermanned. When Lübeck rose in rebellion too a crack in the defensive border of Mecklenburg opened. Before the end of 1292 the Mecklenburgers had marched up to Kiel and put it under siege.

Back in Germany meanwhile the Dukes of Greater Poland and Pommeralia joined the Askanians in war claiming to following an aggressive attack by Ottokar on their Brandenburgian allies.

Ottokar found himself surprisingly outnumbered, his Danish support having fallen away and an unexpected large number of allies joining the Brandenburgers. Still he managed to hold on to souther Brandenburg, burning Spandau down in a raid and at one point threatening Frankfurt before the Greater Polish army relieved it.

Still while the Brandenburgers seemingly are holding unto their lands for now, Queen Hedwig is already sending further forces to her great-uncle, which should bring him full parity in forces if not greater strength.

As the war goes on, the Houses of Askania-Anhalt, Looz-Lausitz and Wettin-Brehna have lodged complaints against the king's brash actions, though have taken no further steps to raise troops or anything of the like.

The Houses of Mecklenburg meanwhile have pledged their support to king Ottokar as their rightful liege.

## "The Emperor's War" Part III

In Italy meanwhile the Imperial war raged on and indeed this latest phase of the Imperial war was full of reversals and tribulations, further and further driving Italy to the brink, a true harbinger of the era to come.

The Sicilian phase of the war started with a massive invasion by the French crusading army, which in 1290, harassed by Corsairs crossed over to take Naples from the unprepared Hohenstaufens. A diplomatic crisis ensued when soon after this Emperor Dietrich had himself crowned king of Sicily in Rome. A flurry of letters were exchanged at whichs end stood a reconciliation between Paris and Landshut.

The Count of Anjou was crowned king of Sardinia and a joint war effort was made to repel the Hohenstaufens from Sicily and make Dietrich sole king.

What ensued was a tactical victory, but a strategic stalemate.

On the Napolitan front Dietrich was met with great military success as he and his new French allies were able to take much of the kindom in the one year of campaigning they had, with some rebels even joining them.

But during this march the army also was plagued by sickness and famine as the country was depleted of finance, peasants had joined armies, had fled the maraudering mercenaries (who burned down a quarter of Naples before being reigned in by king Dietrich) or were simply dead. Grain from the island of Sicily had been cut off as the short civil war there raged.

Among the first killed was the heir of Burgundy, which lead to the Flemish succession in that Duchy. The king of France fell sick second. For a full week the fate of the Capetians hung in the balance, before Louis emerged from his tent healthy.

But greatest of all his the death of Prince Otto of the Holy Roman Empire, passing as only a child, leaving the Emperor with the younger Dietrich as his heir.

This is taken as an ill omen, just as the pillaging during Dietrich's coronation in Naples (which is mocked by the king in Palermo, as Palermo is the capital of the kingdom).

The French army is growing restless, a full 2,000 men deciding to head home. They wish to go on crusade, not earn the Emperor a kingdom, especially now that his heir is no longer betrothed to a Princess of France.

In Sicily itself meanwhile other issues took hold as king Henry II more and more retired from the public eye dying on February 11th 1291, leaving rule to his hapless son Conrad, who soon had alienated great parts of the court for openly floundering the idea of wedding his daughters to the Princes of Bavaria in return for peace. This came to a head when on September 30th his cousin Frederick returned with his army following a strategic retreat from Naples. He declared himself king Frederick II and marched on Palermo.

Conrad, abandoned even by his wife, fled on November Ninth after barely eight months of rule with his two daughters to the court of the young Duke of Murcia, wedding his eldest to him in early 1292.

Frederick II has officially denounced any peace with the Bavarians.

He has also send an open missive to the Emperor in Constantinople offering to wed his second daughter to a Princess of Rome. He further has send missives to the king of Rome, crying out against the injustices of the false Emperor Dietrich.

In Sardinia meanwhile an unsuccesful attempt was made by imperial troops to land in Sardinia itself, but the Count of Anjou in late November against have storms manages to land in Corsica, with a by now much depleted force as many Imperial forces have melted away into the sea and countryside. Curiously he seems to be supported in this war by Genoan ships.

In Lombardy meanwhile a short military campaign ensued as Vladislaus of Görlitz with his Bohemian forces and Imperial support made some inroads, but could not provoke a decisive battle. He and the Imperial commanders are also not getting along, especially the mercenaries, leading to often little to no coordination between the Imperial forces as Boniface is gathering a greater and greater host in Montferrat.

By late 1291 the Habsburg army finally arrived in Rome, sending word to the Emperor that they were at his command.

This war is far from over.