Lords of the Earth Campaign 42, Turn 2

Lords of the Earth Campaign 42

Turn 2 Newsfax 1106-1110 AD

GM Note: Where nations have not submitted orders or are unplayed, I have simply marked them "Slept". There's not much else I can do since I can't play them myself and can't devote time to providing write-ups for playerless positions. If a player attacks a country which is unplayed, I will usually browbeat a friend who is unaffiliated with Lords of the Earth into giving me a sketch of some orders for the unplayed position - this can work out well for the NPN (consider turn 2 Paramaras) or very, very badly (turn 1 Khwarizim). It is not an ideal solution but it is far better than putting the GM in the position of conducting wars against players.

Nomenclature:

1 I/C/S: 200 men

1 FF: 2 strongholds

1 W: 2 ships

1NFP: 200 men

Armenian Orthodox Church: The Armenian Monophysites are not represented as a separate religion in the standard LOTE model. This is something I should have remedied before but did not so I have done so now. The Armenian Orthodox Church (ARM on your stat sheets) is identical to the Coptic Church and is represented by the anchor symbol on the map.

General Points

_ Submissions by players are welcome (encouraged, actually) though I reserve the right to alter them to fit more precisely with the outcome of events during the course of the turn.

_ Name your cities. No name = no city.

_ Feel free to name your fortresses.

Rule-Related Points

_ I gave a certain amount of leeway on turn 1 (no DF's and such) now on the gloves are off - CCR and PRA control webs will be enforced.

_ King Auto Admin is very much OFF.

_ In a slight modification to the Political Rules, it will be possible for two players with a Non-Aggression Treaty to have their forces fight alongside each other (as allies). However, a negative modifier will be applied to such a coalition force in combat. If the countries have a Mutual Defence Treaty or higher, the modifier will be reduced (the higher the degree of trust between the two countries, the lower the modifier will be to simulate the increased familiarity between the commanders).

_ It is possible to colonise a 1gpv Cultivated region to 2gpv but nothing beyond that. Anything worth more than 1gpv cannot be colonised to a greater value.

_ It is possible to recover some casualties lost in battle - see the variant combat rules for details. This is a cheap way to ensure that you don't lose your entire army in a single campaign.

_ Please do not forget that Heavy Warships (HW) cannot enter rivers because their keels run too deep.

Fees Policy Notes

_ If a player has zero or negative balance and does not submit orders, the player will be assumed to have dropped and the position will be made available for play.

_ If a player has a positive balance and does not submit orders, it will be assumed that the player wishes to retain the position and the standard fee will be debited.

_ If a player has a positive balance and does not submit order for two consecutive turns, it will be assumed that the player has dropped and the balance of the player's account will be refunded.

_ If a player's account falls below -$5, no orders will be processed until credit is received.

_ Players in the UK who intend to pay by cheque should please inform the GM in advance.

_ Exceptions to the policy on fees can be made if the GM is kept informed of the situation. I am not an ogre and, as a UK-based player, a lot of GM's have been patient in awaiting my fees. I can extend the same patience if you tell me about it.

_ US-based players can avoid any international currency conversion fees by remitting a US currency check to Thomas Harlan (address below) who will then forward it to Lorne.

General Game Notes

_ Anonymous play is allowed but any attempt by a player to conceal his or her identity from the GM results in the loss of the position.

_ To keep the game flowing, it will be possible for existing players to "adopt" an unplayed country and submit orders for it (so long as the adopted position is in no way connected with the player's primary positions - think Old World/ New World) with the proviso that, if/ when a regular players requests the "adopted" position, the "adoptive" player gives it up. Contact the GM for details.

_ GM contact details are given below. Enquiries specific to your positions, stat sheets or vacancies should be addressed to Leslie. Enquiries relating to the website, maps, PayPal payments or general advice (for players new to the game) should be directed to Lorne.

_ The URL of the game's Yahoo list is given below. It is strongly advised that you enrol (if you cannot enrol, please inform the GM) as the list will be the main forum for announcing deadlines, rule tweaks, new players and so on. This information may or may not be duplicated on the website.

_ The most important thing about any Lords campaign: it's a game. Do not take events in the game personally. Actions which take place within the context of the game should not be interpreted as a personal insult or attack on you as a person. If you wish to retaliate for something another player has done to you (i.e. invasion or assassination), retaliation should take place within the context of the game. It is in no way acceptable to indulge in personal attacks on other players nor to spread rumours, lies, innuendo or baseless accusations of cheating for the purpose of damaging the player's standing or reputation in the wider community. Such behaviour is heavily out-of-line and is grounds for losing your position.

GM Contact Details:

Leslie Dodd,

101, McCulloch St.,

Pollokshields,

Glasgow,

United Kingom.

G41 1NT

lords42gm@throneworld.com

Co-GM, Cartographer, Accountant, General Queries

Lorne Colmar

50, Promenade Court

Regent Walk

Aberdeen

United Kingdom.

AB24 1RF

lorne@lordsoftheearth.co.uk

US Address for payments by check/ cheque

Thomas Harlan

4858 East Second Street

Tucson

Arizona 85711-1207

USA

thomash@throneworld.com

Lords of the Earth, Campaign 42 Historia Calamitatum List: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lords42/

Lords of the Earth, Campaign 42 Historia Calamitatum Website: http://www.lordsoftheearth.co.uk/lote42/

Fees and Levies per turn: $5.00 US currency

£3.50 UK currency

Next Turn Due: Wednesday, 20th February 2002

JAPAN

The Insei Government of Japan

Ruler: Go-Shirikawa, In No Cho

Capital: Heian

Religion: Shinto/Buddhist

The In No Cho was most pleased when his ministers reported that all the major Japanese clans had paid the teikoku no zeikin in its entirety, each contributing one-twentieth of their total income (or so the clans claimed and Insei had, as yet, no way of ensuring that these claims were veracious). Devoted to his religion and monkly calling, Shirikawa ploughed most of the revenue he had raised into Buddhist monasteries and shrines, turning them into centres of excellence in any number of fields. Many new scholars, Buddhist and Shinto alike, were taken into the service of the Insei government and soon increasing numbers of noblemen were allowing their sons to receive part of their schooling in Buddhist temples loyal to the In No Cho. On a less pleasant note, many visitors to Heian commented on the sheer number of unruly monks hanging around the capital.

In workaday matters, Shirikawa continued to take a personal hand in expanding the Minamoto capital/port of Sakata. Many scores of monks were sent, in addition to those already present in the nascent city, and more than a few centres of Buddhist worship were established; too, more artisans, craftsmen and retainers who owed service to the In No Cho went to settle in Sakata. Perhaps they foresaw that the port would become a centre for trade with Korea and that a prosperous living might be made there.

The Fujiwara Kampaku

Ruler: Fujiwara Morimichi, Imperial Kampaku, Daimyo of the Fujiwara Clan

Capital: Heian

Religion: Shinto

Morimichi was determined to reclaim his precedence in Japan. To the island of Kyushu, he sent his loyal emissaries Ichiro and Nakamori both of whom had spent altogether too much time hanging around the capital and too little time serving the interests of the Kampaku. The clans in Saga and Kagoshima were most hospitable to the Fujiwara emissaries but they were cautious about making any formal commitment - the minor clans of Kyushu had managed to avoid being absorbed by the great warrior clans and they were fearful of compromising their independence. Too, they feared for their future if they became actively involved in Imperial politics. Some daimyos believed that, with civil war a distinct possibility, any closer alignment with the Fujiwara would amount to an invitation to the Taira to invade. They imagined the losses they could incur and how their ancestral estates might even be lost and handed out to Taira retainers... At the same time, the former authority of the Fujiwara was not completely forgotten and the office of the Kampaku still commanded some respect in the land so, after many seasons of negotiating, the diplomats were able to send messages to Heian reporting that the majority of the clans on Kyushu were willing to become clients of the Fujiwara.

Politically, then, things were going swimmingly and Morimichi had much to be pleased about. In domestic matters, things went much less well... At first, 1108 seemed like a good year for the Fujiwara; the Imperial Princess Masako was pregnant and the doctors happily predicted that this would be a healthy pregnancy; from the north, news came that Minamoto Yoshiie, an ally but a potential rival, was dead at the age of 28. A pregnant wife, the prospect of a child carrying Imperial blood and a dead rival - life just didn't get any better than that! But then things started to go wrong... Yoshiie's dour uncle, Yoshichika, became Daimyo of the clan and soon demonstrated an admirable ability to hold the clan and their territories together; worse, Yoshichika seemed, if anything, even more zealous than his late nephew to commit the Minamoto the cause of the Cloistered Emperor.

Nor was the birth of a healthy son from Masako attended by much joy. Morimichi's son and heir, Tadzane, displayed a deal of bitterness, fearing that the new son, having sprung from an Imperial broodmare, would undoubtedly be groomed to assume control of the clan. As if the threat to his political position were not enough, young Tadzane found that the birth of his own son in the same year was treated as an event of little import - all eyes were turned to his newborn half-brother, with one parent a full-blooded member of the Imperial Household and the other the Kampaku and Daimyo of the Fujiwara Clan...

And while Tadzane kicked around in a bad mood, feeling that his many achievements on the Kampaku's behalf had been forgotten, the beautiful and delicate Masako sickened and very quickly died. She had been too fragile for the ordeal of childbirth and, though she had been proud to have given her lord and husband a healthy son, the effort had left her physically broken. Morimichi, then, sank into a very real depression. His young wife had been a constant source of joy to him, so pretty was she and clever with it. His grief was not extravagant - he did not rend his clothes or cry or scream - yet all the pleasure went out of his life with Masako's passing. He paid little heed to other women or to his innumerable concubines and actively eschewed the gay and frivolous courtly life into which he had always thrown himself with such glee and obvious enjoyment. Throughout 1109 and 1110, Morimichi thought of little but work, the governance of the clan's lands and political manoeuvrings. The only other thing which truly drew his attention was his new son; he looked on the infant not merely as a political pawn but as his sole remaining link to that charming young girl with the lucent skin who had given him such joy for seven wonderful years.

The Minamoto Clan

Ruler: Minamoto Yoshichika, Daimyo of the Minamoto

Capital: Sakata

Religion: Shinto

Yoshiie arranged that several chests of silver be transported from the northern fastness of the Minamoto to Heian and the treasuries of the In No Cho. With that done, his main concern became the continued growth of the town of Sakata. At his urging, more and more villagers from nearby were forced into a sort of synoikism, effectively uprooting from their old homes and moving to the new centre of government. Many scholars came to be centred in the city as the Daimyo showed himself a most generous patron of such endeavours particularly those of a literary nature - the poets and writers of Sakata began to collect tales, even those which were popular in origin, and set them in a formal compilation. But it was a long task which would not be completed for many years yet.

For all that, it was political matters which dominated most people's minds. Yoshiie, whose wife had died only a short while before, married a local girl who bore him two sons in as many years. Unlike his eldest son, Inichi, who was virtually a cripple and could never lead the clan, the two new sons were strapping lads. Yoshiie breathed a palpable sigh of relief at the appearance of these children - they assured that his line would continue. As it turned out, fate had a trick to play on the Minamoto Daimyo...

One drizzly day, during the Autumn of 1108, Yoshiie, with only a few of his closest retainers as guards, went to visit a courtesan who happened to be a particular favourite. After arriving at the young lady's rather sumptuous residence, which he himself had ordered built within his new city of Sakata, Yoshiie became a little unwell. By nightfall, he felt no better and had developed a fever so a doctor was summoned who prescribed some herbal medicines. Yoshiie remained at the courtesan's home that night in the hope that, by the time morning came, he might be well enough to be moved back to his own residence. In fact, as dawn broke, it was clear that the Daimyo was much worse. More doctors were summoned and Minamoto officials and representative of allied and subsidiary clans came rushing to the courtesan's house to see what might be done. Lamentably, Minamoto Yoshiie died that afternoon of an illness which was never identified.

The Daimyo's demise left a real problem, namely that his heir was a five year old boy with a withered hand who could hardly stand upright unaided. Into the breach stepped Yoshiie's uncle, Yoshichika, who laid immediate claim to leadership of the clan. He was not met with universal acclaim for Yoshiie's closest friend and advisor, Hida Norikage (who also happened to be in command of almost all the clan's military forces), upheld the right of the boy Inichi, sickly though he may be. Norikage agreed that Yoshichika should become Regent (with the assistance of a Council of Advisors, including elements from the Imperial Court, in order to prevent the abuse of such a sensitive position) but he refused ever to countenance the idea that Yoshichika should become Daimyo in his own right. For a few weeks it was unclear who would prevail - Yoshichika was not a man to compromise but Norikage was widely respected by the clan's samurai and bushi and, most importantly, could claim to be upholding the right of the late Yoshiie's bloodline to lead the clan. War was avoided when Norikage miraculously died within a month of Yoshiie (and from very similar symptoms). Obviously some terrible illness was sweeping the Minamoto... It was peculiar that none of Yoshichika's supporters were afflicted by it.

The Taira Clan

Ruler: Taira Mosimori, Daimyo of the Taira

Capital: none

Religion: Shinto

Slept (and paid their Imperial Tax!).

THE FAR EAST

The Sung Empire

Ruler: Hui Tsung Chao Chi, Divine Emperor of China, The Son of Heaven

Capital: Kaifeng

Religion: Buddhist

With a huge swathe of Northern China occupied by the Manchurian invader, one might reasonably have expected the Emperor to take a full role in prosecuting the war but the Son of Heaven was happy to leave such workaday business in the hands of his able generals, Yue Fei and Di Qing. Indeed, the two generals had become veritable heroes throughout the Empire - in every village and town, patriotic posters and paintings depicted the courageous deeds of these two great warriors and the base atrocities committed by the Liao dogs. Ballads were sung in wineshops and taverns the length and breadth of China telling of Yue's bravery in battle (a quality matched only by his cunning in constantly outsmarting the boneheaded Khitans) and exhorting all Chinese to emulate him.

Soon, many thousands of new soldiers were being mustered throughout the Empire and a steady stream of boats brought money, weapons and recruits to the Imperial Capital, Kai-Feng. Although the soldiers were often poorly trained, their morale seemed, for the moment, to be good. All of China was behind the magnificent effort to drive the invader out and, at the urging of the Emperor, women were contributing their jewellery to help pay for the war effort while Imperial officials stalked villages and towns gathering woks and other iron objects to be melted down and cast again as swords. In truth, the iron was not needed and the jewellery did very little to help meet the endless expense of the war but it was very good for the morale of the Chinese people to feel that, by contributing just a little, they were helping in the defence of their Motherland. Remarkably, about a dozen pirate junks, which would normally have been exterminated on sight, sailed boldly into Chang-Ning-Fu where their chief met with officers of the Imperial Fleet. It is a strange time indeed when Emperors and common brigands can find common cause in the salvation of their country...

His Imperial Majesty realised that in such troubled times as these, even the help of foreigners might be useful and, so, he sent forth an emissary to the King of Nan-Chao, an ancient ally of China. In short order, the emissary returned with a promise that the Thais would send an expeditionary force to aid their ancient friends, the Chinese. Apart from this, the most significant activities undertaken by His Majesty were artistic in nature - Hui Tsung's goose paintings were particularly well-received and his poem Ode to the Moon of Middle-Fall was greatly acclaimed. When a ruler is a man of such rare artistic talent, what does it matter if he is not a great general?

Actually, some people thought it did matter. Although the Neo-Confucianists were still in disgrace and enjoyed neither popular support nor official influence, there were still some who muttered that all this bloodshed could have been avoided had the policy of appeasement been maintained. Most Neo-Confucianists had been dismissed from the service of the Emperor or had quietly recanted their pacifism but a very small number remained and pressed for a settlement; indeed, in their efforts to convince Hui Tsung of the need for peace, they even couched their arguments in patriotic terms - how, they asked, could those who love China wish to see her racked by war? How could a true patriot ever take joy in seeing tens of thousands of bold Chinese youths pressed into the army to die in some muddy field at the hands of foul-smelling barbarians?

The Emperor paid them little attention and retorted: "Are we not the descendants of the Yellow Emperor? Do we not rule by the Mandate of Heaven? Just as Huang Di beheaded Chi You, so we will behead the Liao beast. They shall soon learn that they have awakened the Dragon." Then he returned to his poetry and painting...

The Manchurian War 1101-????

The Abassid Sultanate of Baghdad

Ruler: Al'Mustahazir Sultan, Commander of Commanders, the Caliph

Capital: Baghdad

Religion: Sunni Islam

Al'Mustahazir observed the chaos ripping loose around with a mixture of horror and bemusement. Muslim fought Muslim; Christian fought Muslim; Shi'a fought Sunni... There was no doubt about it - this was an interesting time to be alive. Still, so long as the princelings of the world - Infidel, Heretic and even those infernal Turks - fought amongst themselves, the Abassids in Baghdad could sit quietly and gather power into their hands.

To that end, the Abassids did little but sit back and watch the world go by - in matter diplomatic, the tribes in Seleucia were visited by emissaries from Baghdad and agreed to give free passage to Abassid forces. In Mesopotamia itself, great areas of fallow land were brought into use and the irrigation systems were extended as unprecedented amounts of money poured out of Abassid coffers. As the years rolled by, the region began to look more like the limitlessly rich paradise it had once been decades ago before the endless wars and invading armies from Egypt and Persia had trampled back-and-forth across it.

Back in the city, the Sultan began rearranging the affairs of the Court and State. The Abassid polity, ever since the liberation by the Turks, had been feudalistic by nature. The military and governmental systems had long been based on the ikta system by which military officers and governmental officials received allotments of land in lieu of payment and were obliged to raise troops from these estates to serve the Abassid overlord. Given the hard decades of war and occupation to which the Abassid domains had been subject, it was perfectly natural that such a system should have evolved but now things were different - now Al'Mustahazir was certain that peace and stability were on the horizon. The professional class of jurists, bureaucrats, scholars and clerics who had formed the ruling class of the Abassid state since time beyond memory were re-introduced to the offices from which the military aristocracy had displaced them. These nobles, with the military at their command, were not very happy to be brushed aside and stripped of authority in favour of the weak-kneed quill-pushers who had failed to defend Baghdad against the Heretic Fatimids but they were bought off or, at least, mollified when their ownership of their allotments (the source of their financial wellbeing) was confirmed in perpetuity and their supremacy in matters of military policy was guaranteed. So it was that Al'Mustahazir could look with some satisfaction at a military and bureaucracy organised in careful strata; peasants, nobles, scholars all working together like cogs on a giant mill.

The Azeri Emirate

Ruler: Eldigiz, Yazdid of Shirvan

Capital: Tabriz

Religion: Sunni Islam

Slept.

The Crusader States of Outremer

Ruler: Baldwin I, Latin King of Jerusalem, Defender of the Holy Places of Christendom

Capital: Jerusalem

Religion: Roman Catholic

Representatives of the Greek Emperor were in Latin Jerusalem, closeted away with Baldwin in closed session discussing God knows what... And that could not be a good sign. To the mind of the average Crusader, whether Frankish, Norman or German, the damnable Greeks were the epitome of dishonesty, with their slick silver-tongued lies and constant politicking. The Latin knights who had come east in the service of Christ knew exactly what they had fought for - their Faith, their Church, their God - simple concepts which anyone could understand. With those effete Greeks, though, there was no telling what was in their crafty minds - they would play the left hand against the right, manoeuvre others into doing their fighting for them... Hadn't the ungrateful wretches begged the Holy Father to send warriors east to shore up an ailing Byzantium? And had they not then spurned the very hand of aid and friendship as soon as the Knights of Christ extended it? Pah! A pox on the slinking, slimy Greeks and their cowardly lies!

As it turned out, most of the Latin East's inhabitants were about to get a severe shock... After the departure of his Byzantine visitors, Baldwin summoned the few dozen important Latin nobles and clerics of the High Court to Jerusalem to hear a proclamation. Usually, when a proclamation was made, its contents would be known some time in advance for it was not the King's habit to issue a decree or take an important decision without prior discussions with Outremer's upper echelons - the Haute Cour. This time it was different. This time only Baldwin and Bishop Hugh of Jerusalem knew what he would announce...

From the Counties of Tripoli and Edessa, from the allied Kingdom of Armenia, from the great fiefs surrounding the Holy City they came - knights from every corner of the Christian world who had given up their homelands and ancestral fiefs to come here and defend the Holy Land, where the feet of Christ had trodden, against the depredations of the Infidel. There were men of all kinds - a couple of Spaniards whose fief lay around the hill of Montjoie not far from Jerusalem; many Franks, some from Crown France, others from Burgundy; a goodly number of Occitans who had come out with their Duke, William the Troubador, and had opted to remain when he returned home; Normans, most from Southern Italy but others from Northern France and not a few from England; there was even a single English Saxon, barely out of his teens, who ranked high enough in Baldwin's eyes to sit in the councils of the Haute Cour. So many men from so many lands but one was missing - alone of all the great Crusader nobles, Bohemond of Taranto and Antioch was absent. Why, wondered the members of the Court, had he not been invited?

"Brothers-in-Christ," began the King to the throng of knights and counts. "Comrades-in-Arms. Loyal subjects."

Baldwin paused and there were several unhappy looks from around the table. The King of Jerusalem's supremacy over all the Princes of the Latin East was never in question but there were some who did not take kindly to the kind of centralised government which Baldwin, backed by the Count of Edessa, strove for. There were some, most notably Bohemond of Antioch, who saw the States of Outremer as a loose alliance rather than a hierarchy. Here and now, though, at this convocation of the Haute Cour, Baldwin was leaving no doubt that these men were his subjects, his inferiors. Some guessed that whatever announcement he was about to make would prove less than popular with the Crusading nobles and that he wanted to make clear, from the start, that obedience to his will was not optional but obligatory.

"It is Our pleasure, with the full support of God's Most Holy and Catholic Church as represented by His Grace, the Lord Bishop of Jerusalem, that the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and all its attendant and allied fiefs should forthwith enter into a solemn pact and covenant of alliance with our Christian brethren in Constantinople."

The statement was made in flat and formal tones and was met with a gasp from those around the table. The objections were immediately raised :

"The Greeks are heretics!" shouted more than a few.

"Antioch!" decried another. "They continue to lay claim to a city for which we spilt our blood!"

"They cannot be trusted," declared most. "The Greeks are as treacherous as snakes. They'll betray us to the Musselmen as soon as it suits their purposes."

Baldwin allowed them to bluster and shout and sat, quietly, steepling his fingers and waiting for his High Councillors to tire themselves out with their exasperation. By and by, the raised voices and protests subsided and things grew a little calmer as the Haute Cour looked to him to say something...

"His Imperial Majesty, the Roman Emperor Alexius, has sent a number documents to me, marked with his personal seal. While I comprehend your distrust of the Romans and, indeed, share your disquiet at the many insults to which the Knights of Christ have been subjected at the hands of the Romans of Constantinople, I am convinced of Alexius' good intentions.

"Now, truly, it has been said that the Roman Empire of the East is heretical and that they are not to be trusted and have wronged us in the past. None of this can be denied. No man of honour could overlook their many transgressions and yet no man of good conscience would spurn an apology for past wrongs and that is what Alexius offers us. As an earnest of his goodwill and his keen desire that all Christian men might unite in the service of God's Holy Plan, he has offered me the hand of his daughter, the Princess Maria, in marriage. And I have accepted. I might add that certain other matters have been agreed upon between the Romans and myself, matters which I choose not to reveal at the moment."

The meeting of the High Court broke up in disquiet. No wonder Bohemond hadn't been invited - he would have exploded with rage! And doubtless he would explode whenever he happened to hear of the underhanded deal between Baldwin and the Greekling for a rumour began to sweep the Latin East that the price of the Byzantine alliance and this dynastic marriage had been Antioch. Those who looked at the matter pragmatically could see the many tangible advantages which this alliance might grant to Outremer - Byzantine aid, military or financial, could easily prove vital in holding back the Saracen horde. And, from a personal perspective too, it was widely seen as advantageous for Baldwin to wed Maria Comnena for his own wife, Godvere of Tosni, had died in 1097 and the girl, Maria, was known to be a remarkable beauty. Others, though, were unlikely to be so pragmatic about the Byzantine treaty....

The footsteps could be heard far down the corridor. Baldwin slouched wearily on his chair and folded his arms, all the better to convey an impression of calm indifference to the storm about to break. The quick and steady pace of the footfalls could only belong to one man - Bohemond of Taranto, sometime Prince of Antioch. How the king wished his nominal subject would go to his lands and attend to matters there rather than stalking the corridors of Baldwin’s palace.

The sturdy door to the room flew open with such force that it creaked and sagged on its heavy hinges. To a ruler accustomed to respect, especially in his own chambers, this would have been a most serious breach of etiquette but the king had known his fellow Crusader for long enough now. Such formalities as awaiting formal invitation into the king’s presence meant nothing to the headstrong Bohemond. The Norman Count scowled at the chamberlain and functionaries in the room and, with a contemptous nod of his head, indicated their continued presence was not required.

As the king’s servants scurried from the chamber, Baldwin steeled himself for the coming tirade. A most valiant knight and true Christian warrior though Bohemond was, he was equally possessed of a headstrong - even rash - nature. He revelled in the clash of combat and had scant patience with the subtleties of diplomacy and sound governance. Baldwin let an inaudible sigh escape his lips as the door was closed behind the last of the retreating servants.

This was Bohemond’s cue. His eyes ablaze, he fixed Baldwin with an almost scornful stare. "Well?" he exploded. “What is to be done?

“By your counsel do we turn the other cheek to the insults of the effete Greeks. We are told that God’s will would not be served by laying low the proud Alexius and his gaggle of cowardly lackeys. And what purpose has been served by this, if not to encourage the foul Turk to descend upon our lands? Were it not for the mighty deeds of Thosos the Armenian, surely the heathen would even now be at the gates of Jerusalem! Is this insult, too, to pass without redress?”

Baldwin returned Bohemond’s stare with a steely countenance of his own. Though he declined to admit it, he also harboured suspicions that the Turk had seized upon the impassive relations with the Empire as a sign of weakness. It was a feeling shared by many of the Haute Cour. Whether this was, indeed, the impetus for the northern raids, though, mattered little. Bohemond had a point. In his direct manner he was doing no more than voicing the concerns of many throughout the kingdom.

Though the cries had been for revenge in the immediate aftermath of the attack, Baldwin had, again, first trusted to an exchange of despatches with the Sultan Kilij Arslen. Beyond any doubt these had shown the Rum leader to be a man ill-disposed towards negotiation and possessed of limitless arrogance. That his armies had been sorely routed by the Crusaders on their initial advance into the Holy Land had not dismayed him. His intemperance and insults demonstrated his overweening confidence and ambition. He remained defiant of the will of God and no-one in Outremer - nor Christendom - could let that pass.

“No. It will not”, replied the king. “While we will not agree about the wisdom of bearing arms against Christians - though they be Greeks and heretics - in redress to the insults rendered Our Lord, with the Mahometan it is another matter. They have sought to despoil our lands and carry away our people into bondage. It would be well that they be punished for their transgressions.”

Baldwin allowed a wry smile to cross his face as he regarded Bohemond’s reaction to his words. Conflicting emotions were visible in his face as the momentum of anger fought with the joy at the prospect of action. With the wind momentarily taken from his sails, Baldwin capitalised on the opportunity.

“And I would have you to come with me into the land of the Turk that we may benefit from your skill-at-arms.”

Would it not have been below his station to do so, Bohemond would have let out a cry of celebration. Yet his obvious delight was discerned in the change of his tone.

“Indeed, sire. That would be my wish.”

Sire?, thought Baldwin. And not a hint of sarcasm? How easy it was to manipulate the respect of this princeling. His joy at the prospect of warring against the Turk had effectively buried the protests, complaints and threats about the Byzantine alliance and marriage with which Baldwin had been expecting to be deluged.

Over the weeks that followed, Baldwin and Bohemond worked side by side planning the forthcoming expedition. While Baldwin prepared the route of march to be taken, the Prince of Antioch set to summoning the lords of Outremer, their households, retainers and levies. The mighty force that assembled in Jerusalem in early 1106 demonstrated the differences already manifesting themselves in the composition of the Christian armies of the East. While many Frankish lords arrived leading contingents recognisable to Western eyes - armoured knights, spearmen and crossbowmen - others brought with them troops reflecting the varied nature of the peoples now under Christian rule: archers from the Maronite community, spear-armed hillmen from the Lebanese Druze and even Christianised Arabs equipped in their native manner - the Turcopouli. The Latin host was further swelled by the engagement of many Moslem mercenaries. Such religious differences as may have existed between the hirers and the hired were of little account - to the Syrian swords-for-hire, Christian gold was as good as any in such circumstances.

By March, 1106, the time of preparation had ended and the time to act had come¼.

Three days into the march north, Baldwin received a despatch from the Bishop of Jerusalem. It bore welcome tidings. In a most pious act of Christian faith and charity, Duke Borivoi of Bohemia had sworn a sacred oath upon the skull of St. Calixtus that he would send every stout-armed and pious-hearted knight in Bohemia to the defence of the Holy Land and the service of Christ while the Duchess Zuzana had sworn that she would personally make a pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre! More than half-a-thousand chevaliers had sworn to defend Her Grace with their lives during this most glorious of pilgrimages. Both king and bishop were struck by the stark contrast between the devout actions of the modest duchy and the apparent disinterest of the great Christian lords of the West for, while true and faithful Bohemia would show its commitment to God Almighty in such a potent manner, had not the Western kings taken to warring amongst themselves? That they would spill good Christian blood in their petty quarrels while the heathen pressed upon blessed Jerusalem was most disturbing.

It was with such thoughts in mind that Baldwin replied to the bishop’s missive. Heeding the ecclesiast’s reminder that the holy places needed to be robustly defended, the king granted the bishop sundry properties, fiefs, lands and even gold specie to be given the Bohemians on their arrival. Too, he delegated the authority to accommodate them in a manner best fitting the defence of the most sacred sites. (as it happened, the Bohemians never arrived - see the Bohemian and Bavarian Fax entries to find out what happened!)

A rather peculiar event took place at the Arab-controlled village of Hebron. The Muslim elders there had sworn fealty to Baldwin and, in return, the King respected authority of the waqf and left the local Mahometans unmolested. Hebron, as it happened, was home to the Tomb of the Patriarchs - a holy site for Muslim, Christian and Jew alike. Late one evening, a Christian knight accosted the two Muslim guards at the Tomb, blockaded himself in the shrine's chapel and announced that he would hold the Tomb in the name of Christ against all comers! When, at last, the Muslims broke down the door, they were fairly overpowered by the reek of wine from the man (who was not a Frank but was surely one of those other tribes of European Infidels); a struggle ensued during which one of the Muslims had his nose broken and, eventually, the Christian chevalier was dumped in the local well to sober up. After climbing out of the well, he wandered off suitably chastened. The Muslims kept his horse as recompense for his disgraceful behaviour.

In more sombre news, Raymond of St. Gilles, Count of Tripoli, died in 1107, at the age of 61, after a year of declining health during which he was subject to fevers and fits on a near weekly basis. He had been a popular man, highly respected by his fellow Crusaders. His character and virtues had marked him out as a fit mediator between the Emperor Alexius and the Crusader Princes, an office in which he did all in his power to heal the constant breaches that existed between the Latins and the Greeks. Count Raymond. He was sorely missed by the Princes of Outremer.

Some cheer, though, came from the birth of more children to Count Baldwin of Edessa and his beautiful wife, Morphia of Melitene - a daughter named Agnes in 1108 was followed by a strong son named Hugh in 1109.

The Anatolian Crusade 1106-1108

March 1106: The Crusader army struck out from the environs of Jerusalem at the start of the 1106 campaign season and moved northwards towards Rum at a reasonable rate-of-knots. A thousand Druze spearmen from the Lebanese hill country made up the van with another thousand Turcopouli scouting ahead of them lest the Syrians or Seljuk Atabegs attempt to intercept the army as it made its way towards Anatolia. Eight thousand fine men-at-arms were in the main body of the army but the real heart of the Crusader war effort was six thousand Frankish, Norman and Occitan knights - all wearing mail hauberks, bearing lance, shield and sword and riding on iron-shod horses. And that was only a small part of an army which, it was said, could be seen stretching from horizon to horizon if the watcher had a high enough vantage point... The Arab peasants along the route of march were most impressed at the fierce armament of their Frankish overlords (not to say a little perplexed at what motivated these Christians to such efforts) and enjoyed watching them pass before turning back, like peasants the whole world over, to their agricultural tasks.

The army's route of march would take it along the Mediterranean shore and into the allied Kingdom of Armenia where King Thosos I Ruben was busily been fortifying his lands and preparing to repulse any Turkish incursion. From Armenia, the Crusading army would crosse the Taurus Mountains into the dry and arid region surrounding the Seljuk city of Iconium. There, they would wreak revenge for the wrongs done to them by Kilij Arslan!

September 1107: The Crusaders had finished their depredations in Pamphyla and now moved north to their real prize - Psidia! All the while, Sinope remained under blockade. Until the third week of September, the situation was not absolutely terrible - there was little food but everyone received enough to survive. Yet, it was becoming increasingly clear to the garrison that they would soon run out of food and that they might have to wait for a very long time before a relief force arrived... So, it was decreed that civilians were no longer to be issued rations; only Seljuk warriors would eat for the duration of the siege. Naturally, this left the citizens of Sinope, Turk and Greek alike, in a quandry - the wealthier could bribe soldiers to sell food surreptitiously but the poor had no such recourse and were left to get by as best they could eating whatever scraps of "food" they could acquire - cats, rats, dogs, any street animal. Trees growing within the city were stripped of bark to make soup. The people wondered how long this could continue.

October-November 1107: As the campaigning season wound down, Alexius' men had built a comfortable camp beyond Sinope's walls - supplies flowed into their camp without interruption and well-built lean-to's and huts, warmed by fires and braziers, had replaced the tents favoured during the Spring and Summer.

Within the walls of Sinope, October saw the first cases of starvation. Shortage of food had given way to a dearth and dearth to a complete absence of anything to eat. The lucky could hope to catch a rat but the unlucky were more numerous and they began dying - the very young and very old first but even the healthy would not remain so in this environment. By late October, disease appeared and decimated the garrison (who, as it happened, had completely exhausted their food supply and were now in the same boat as everyone else). A black pall of misery settled on the city and rumours crept out that certain citizens were subsisting by consuming the flesh of the dead. As November arrived, the cold began to claim as many lives as hunger and disease while the cannibalism rumours were now sweeping the city. In this atmosphere, those who were suspected of such reprehensible behaviour were swiftly executed not, as one might have expected, by the mob but by the Turkish garrison. Evidence of guilt was seldom provided or sought.

At last, in the final week of November, the increasingly emaciated garrison (such as remained) sent for an emissary to seek terms. The Byzantines' terms were simple - the city was to surrender. With no viable military alternative (and a full-scale citizens' revolt only a few days away if the siege was not ended), the garrison agreed and handed over the keys to the city gates to Alexius. The blockade was lifted and food was made available once more to the unfortunates of this besieged city.

Young John Comnenus entered the city on horseback, following behind his august father, and seemed particularly affected by what he saw. The youth's normally handsome and delicate face was a mask of horror - he showed not the traditional aristocratic disdain for the hardships which the common folk suffered in times of war but, rather, revulsion at the hardships these poor people, these innocents, had endured. Alexius noticed his son's reaction and was not certain what it presaged: perhaps John would witness many such scenes as this and become inured to it (most Kings did, after all) or perhaps he would never become accustomed to such scenes of suffering and would become a weak ruler afraid of making hard decisions because he spent too much time worrying about their effects on the innocents. In truth, a ruler's subjects were the coinage of war - they existed to be spent, carefully or wantonly, in the hope of gaining an advantage. The deaths, the agonies of the people of Sinope had bought the Comneni an important new province and could, perhaps, be a start on the road to reclaiming all the Empire's old lands. So lofty a prize was worth a little starvation, Alexius reasoned, and one day these people, his newest subjects, would be grateful that they had been liberated even if the price of that liberty had been high.

March-April 1108: The new campaign season began with Baldwin's Latin army marching forth from the devastated region of Pamphyla, in March, heading for Psidia, heart of the Rum Sultanate. Further north, along the shores of the Black Sea, Alexius' Greeks moved out of newly-subjugated Galatia in April and made for Pontus to the northeast and the large port of Trebizond. It was June before they reached their destination.

May-June 1108: Baldwin entered Psidia virtually blind - the lightest mounted elements in his army were the thousand-strong Turcopouli and they were too few in number to provide accurate reports of the enemy's dispositions; as if that were not bad enough, the accursed Seljuks disposed of around 8,000 light horsemen and, so, were able to keep an almost constant eye on the location of the lumbering Latin army.

As the Crusaders pressed into the province, they ran across a good many strongpoints and castles that the Turks had prepared at strategic points - there were perhaps a dozen and a half in all. While the Turkish efforts at engineering were crude by comparison with the great walls of distant Antioch or Constantinople and while they certainly would not have been a threat to the Latins in normal times (for the Crusader army contained some thousands of quite brilliant sappers and engineers), Baldwin's problem was that he would have to split his army, sending part to subdue the castles and keeping the rest ready to repulse a Turkish attack which might come at any time (with precious little warning, of course, because of the shortage of Latin scouts and pickets).

None of this was not lost on Malik Shah, commanding of the Sultanate's army; he saw that the Christian enemy - though numerically superior and probably far tougher in a head-to-head fight - was facing a stark disadvantage and, naturally, he was going to take advantage of it. The route of march chosen by Baldwin and Bohemond was a fairly straightforward one (for the Christians lacked sufficient knowledge of the region to follow anything other than the most obvious path) and the Turks, with their superior knowledge of local topography, were able to make life difficult for the advancing army - ambushes in the narrow valleys became a normal part of life for the Crusaders as did mounted attacks by night and raids on the long supply trayne following on behind the army. The hardest times, though, were when the Crusaders were bent on subduing Seljuk strongholds for it was then, when the besiegers were most vulnerable to attack from behind, that small bands of Rum horsemen would slip through the patchy Latin picket lines and skirmish with the less mobile Crusader forces.

The net result of all the skirmishing was more psychological than physical - the Crusaders did not lose huge numbers of men and, on a few occasions, they even managed to best their ambushers but, for all that, the constant exposure to attack from every and any direction left the Franks demoralised. In any case, Baldwin and Bohemond drove the army onwards, deeper into Rum territory, until in mid-June they reached a wide flat plain on the edge of which rested the the town of Synnada (which, by way of an aside, had once been the bishopric of the Catholic St. Michael of Synnada who had opposed the Iconoclasts with such zeal three centuries earlier). Sitting directly astride the route which the Crusaders had planned on taking, just a few miles northeast of the town, was Malik Shah with the entire Rum army numbering about 16,000 men, almost all of whom were mounted but for a few brigades of Greek conscripts. Baldwin and Outremer's senior nobles were informed of the enemy's presence and rode out, ahead of the Latin vanguard, to a low hill where they might observed the Turk's dispositions.

"There shall be battle this day," said King Baldwin distractedly. His mind was on the fact that a quarter of his army was a day's march away liquidating a couple of troublesome Infidel forts.

"Then this shall be a great day!" replied Bohemond of Taranto zealously. "We shall split many a Turkish skull in twain and they shall learn not to transgress against God's Elect!"

Whether they were encouraged by Bohemond's words or not, the Frankish nobles returned to their contingents and began the process of deploying for combat and, by early afternoon, both sides were ready to begin the engagment - the Battle of Synnada...

The battle was mainly an affair for the mounted arm - about half the Crusaders and perhaps four-fifths of the Turks were on horseback so footsoldiers were relegated to a supporting role. The Franks pursued no complicated strategy on the battlefield but simply utilised the superior weight of their knights and charged, time and again, at the main body of the Turkish army. The Turks, by the same token, fell back on the tried-and-tested tactics of the steppe - their light horsemen constantly evaded the Frankish knights. As the Franks charged, in a great wall of iron, horseflesh and good Frankish muscle, the Turks would dodge the onslaught and empty their quivers into the mass of Christian cavaliers. Lamentably, neither tactic proved frightfully effective - after a couple of hours and many attempts at engaging the foe, neither side could claim any advantage. A goodly number of the ironclad Frankish knights were simply too exhausted to continue their fruitless charges while, on the Turkish side, the Seljuks looked on in horror as they fired arrow after arrow into the Crusaders to no effect! With such strong armour, the Frankish knights could safely withstand the Turkish archers and, indeed, many of the knights (not to mention their steeds!) were so filled with arrows that they ended up looking like porcupines!

Seeing that the light horse could achieve little, Malik Shah released the very heavily armoured regiments of Turkish cataphracts, numbering about fifteen hundred men, who crashed into the exhausted but numerically superior Frankish knights - chaos ensued as the Franks were pushed by the sheer momentum of the Infidel onslaught! Bohemond attempted to relieve the pressure on the knights by leading over a thousand Flemish and Occitan chevaliers, whose armour was not so heavy as that of the Franks, in a charge against the Greek conscript infantry who made up the left of the Seljuk army - the Latins horsemen rode the wretches in the ground, scattering thousands of Greeks in all directions. Bohemond, despite his martial skill, got carried away by the thrill of the charge and rode off the field with most of his knights to hunt down and spear the fleeing conscripts! Had he wheeled around and joined the main fray, he might have been able to save the Crusaders from the fate that befell them...

Most of the Latin knights were either regrouping in exhaustion or had left the field altogether - some rode off with the intention of rejoining their scattered comrades and returning to the battlefield; others were exhausted by the hot day's fighting and the inability to come to blows with the Infidel; and others still were disoriented by the Turkish countercharge and believed that the whole battle was lost. Only the doughty infantry - European men-at-arms, archers and crossbowmen backed by Druze, Maronite and Arab spearmen and archers - along with the Turcopouli and perhaps six hundred chevaliers of Baldwin's personal contingent remained. Malik Shah now bent all his attention to them. In his overconfidence, he ordered the cataphracts, who were just rallying after having swept the Frankish knights from the field, to charge! The cataphracts obeyed and suffered. The European crossbow proved a very effective weapon against the armour-clad Turks and, for those who escaped death at the end of a bolt, they found that the enemy pikemen, hardened by years of service on the fields of Europe, did not break and run. This was quite a shock for the Turks who were used to seeing formations of infantry collapse at the first approach of a determined cavalry charge.

Malik signalled to his askaris and horse archers to join the fray and extricate the cataphracts from the debacle. The askaris met the same fate as the cataphracts though, with their lighter armour, were better placed to escape. The horsearcher, though, were able to make the Latin footmen suffer as they poured clouds of missiles down into the tightly packed ranks. Wherever a soldier fell, Frankish sergeants would jam men together to ensure that no opening was left which the foeman's cavalry might exploit. Losses mounted and Baldwin saw that continued conflict could avail him of nothing - his knights, upon whom he had been depending for victory, were for the most part gone; even Bohemond had left the field (albeit in a fit of enthusiasm and in pursuit of glory rather than because of cowardice). The King had no option but to try to begin retreating and this was easier said than done given that the infernal Turk and his damnably-fast light horse outnumbered the whole of what remained of Baldwin's army. The small contingent of household knights made a brave counterattack in the hope of giving the infantry an opening. To an extent, it worked and many of the Turkish horse regiments were convinced to give up the fight and allow the Christians to retreat. Why, Baldwin was even able to save his honour by catching and exterminating several squadrons of the less careful Turkish horse. Yet, Malik Shah himself, leading a thousand archers of the Sultan's own household , also joined the fight and took delight in harassing the retreating Christian infantry. Baldwin's attempts to chase Malik off ended in failure and, for the whole hour that it took to withdraw in good order from the field of honour, the Latin nobles had to watch as Turks on horseback charged suddenly into range, shot down good soldiers and fled before a response could be made.

It had been a hardfought battle - as the armies withdrew, it became clear that most of the bodies on the battlefield were Turks. Malik Shah was informed that some regiments had lost as many as three-quarters of their members dead, injured, captured or just missing. Naturally, losses had been singularly high amongst the conscript infantrymen who had broken ranks and fled as soon as they had been able. On the side of the Crusaders, they found that their casualties, in terms of dead and injured, were fairly light (certainly by comparison with those of the Turk) but great numbers of knights had disappeared either having got lost or having gone missing while pursuing enemies off the field.

That night, Baldwin looked back on the events of the day with less pessimism than he had earlier felt. Bohemond had returned from his excursion with most of his knights and was feeling suitably embarrassed at having abandoned the main army to its fate; messengers, meanwhile, had been sent over the horizon recalling those forces still engaged in besieging distant Seljuk forts. Truly, Baldwin thought, the campaign was not over yet. He could regroup, attack once more and beat the Infidel resoundingly....

....but it was not to be. Irrespective of who had won the battle, what mattered was that the Christian infantry believed that they had lost. Their morale, already in a parlous state, had taken a battering and, as was usual, discipline began to wane. Knights and barons decided to return, of their own volition and without the King's approval, to the Holy Land. Even a few of the greater nobles announced that they would take no further part in the campaign. Baldwin abandoned all hope of continuing the campaign and agreed to retreat.

July 1108: The Crusaders, if they had not actually been beaten, acted like a routed army as they withdrew towards Pamphyla. All order was lost and the cunning Turks managed to ambush many columns of Crusaders; instead of fighting, though, the Crusaders mostly fled, sometimes reaching safety and sometimes meeting death at the hands of the pursuing Seljuks. The army's line of retreat was marked by abandoned armour, weapons and the other accoutrements of war. It was a sorry sight indeed.

Malik Shah could feel some pride at having inflicted so humiliating a defeat on his hated enemy - especially as it recovered some of the honour he had lost following the botched raids of a few years earlier. Instead of pursuing, he set to gathering up all the stragglers and deserters he could find and pushing them back into the ranks of the army.

August 1108: News came from the north that Alexius the Roman had subdued Pontus. Trebizond, the walls of which had been torn down by the Turks for fear that the city's huge Greek and Armenian population might revolt against Turkish rule, surrendered to a squadron of Greek scouts while the main army was still a couple of days march away.

The Aftermath: The Crusader army limped into Antioch much smaller than when it had passed though the towering city-fortress at the beginning of the expedition in 1106. Morale was low and the nobles were perplexed - by all rights, they should have swept the Infidel from the field but they had not... Had their ignominious defeat been mere bad luck? Was it a sign of Divine displeasure? Had the conduct of Baldwin or Bohemond somehow contributed to defeat? No-one could say for sure but it made fertile ground for the imaginings of clerics, knights and itinerant preachers and one of the immediate results was that all the women, both European and native, who habitually followed the army to provide, ahem, services for the soldiers were driven from the camp with dire warnings of what would happen if the harlots and slatterns dared return! Too, certain of the more zealous knights and barons took to thrashing any of their fellows who partook of the grape excessively. It seemed feasible that, at the very least, the lust and drunkeness of the Crusaders had contributed to the Lord's decision to forsake them.

Other knights, though, sought other explanations for the defeat and found them...

"Baldwin is not fit to lead us. We have need of a stronger hand at the tiller of the ship of state. And you, Count Bohemond, are the man to keep our Holy Cause from floundering." So spake a Norman knight from Southern Italy's Twin Duchies. He and a small group of others were in one of the innermost chambers of the private apartments of Bohemond of Taranto and Antioch high in one of the citadel towers. Bohemond sat with his arms folded, one leg resting on a stool in front of him, his face a deep frown. He said nothing.

Another Crusader, a German, cut in: "My Lord, we have followed Baldwin whither he led us and served him with all the loyalty that was his due. He led us to shame and defeat. We beseech thee, here and now, to depose him, take the Crown of Jerusalem and begin the task of defending the Holy Places and smiting the Unbeliever with the Wrath of the Lord."

"Baldwin..." said Bohemond, as though turning the word over in his mouth. "Baldwin... In truth, there has oftentimes been little love lost 'twixt us. Oftentimes I have doubted his ability and have questioned his decisions in council and in private.

"This, I think, is no secret," he went on, eyeing each of the men in the candlelit room in turn with a bellicose look. "Else why are you here, bending my ears with your plots? You think us great rivals, do you not? You think that I desire the Crown of the Holy City?"

"If it please Your Highness," began an oily French cleric of middling years in the most obsequious tone Bohemond had ever heard - he also happened to be the only priest in the group. "It is not that we suspect you of base ambition nor even that we think Your Highness a 'rival' of Baldwin. Rather, I invite Your Highness to consider the matter in this way: we have suffered an humiliating setback and that must surely be a sign of the Lord's displeasure. It follows that Baldwin does not enjoy Heaven's favour. That being so, we must seek a new leader, Highness, a man of courage, resolve and, above all, Faith.

"And I am inclined to believe," said the priest looking around the room, "that there is no finer candidate than your good self, no Prince amongst all the Knights of Christ who so embodies the essence of Christian virtue and martial glory. If Baldwin is to be displaced from the Sacred Throne of the Holy City, who other than Your Highness could possibly rule in his stead?"

There was a long pause while Bohemond pondered. At length he seemed to reach finish some internal dialogue, shifted in his chair and stretched over for something... His hand settle on his sword which he laid, still in its scabbard, on his lap. Then he spoke:

"Good Christian gentlemen, are ye? Loyal sons of the Church and servants of Christ? WRETCHES AND TRAITORS!" he shrieked leapt to his feet, knocking over his chair and half-drawing his sword. "You blame Baldwin for the Lord's disfavour? Blame thyselves! You, traitors with your plots fit only for Greeks, have brought this disaster on the Faithful! The Lord has put us through these sore trials of defeat to make test of our loyalty and virtue and you, treacherous dogs, have failed. You would betray your master as Judas betrayed Our Lord! Get gone from my presence and vex me no longer!"

The would-be conspirators left while they still had the option and, with Bohemond's loyalty to Baldwin no longer in any doubt, all talk of deposing the King died.

King Baldwin, though, was not so charitable and made no secret of his belief that the cause of the defeat had been Bohemond - both because his intense bellicosity had forced the Crusaders into this war and because his stupidity on the day when he had led his knights off the field in pursuit of a bunch of conscripted Greeks thus leaving the Army of Christ to face the Turkish onslaught alone.

Happier news came with the arrival of the Byzantine Princess, Maria Comnena, in 1109, to be wed to Baldwin of Jerusalem. The ceremony was to be held in Antioch - a city still claimed by the Greeks - and talk, naturally, turned to the question of dowry. The Count of Edessa was heard to remark that the Greeks would likely lift all claim to Antioch by way of dowry but Bohemond said that, since Antioch was not Alexius' property, he couldn't very well give it away as a dowry! No, ventured the Prince of Antioch with the certainty of one who knows, the dowry would surely be the island of Cyprus. Young Prince Roger of Salerno thought that the dowry should take the traditional form of lots and lots of gold. Everyone knew the Byzantines had far too much of that.

In any case, the marriage went ahead sealing the new spirit of cooperation between Greek and Latin. Whether it would prove to have any real value remained to be seen but consensus seemed to be that the union of Baldwin and Maria marked a final recognition that Latin dominion over the East was to be a thing long-lasting and that the Franks would not return home to Europe. No issue was immediately forthcoming from the marriage.

EASTERN EUROPE

The Byzantine Empire

Ruler: Alexius I Comnenus, August Emperor of the Romans, Basileus kai Autokratos, Head of the Eastern Rite

Capital: Constantinople

Religion: Eastern Orthodox

The advancing Bavarian footmen - and about eight thousand had been committed to the initial push with more held in reserve - found that the ground was more solid here and they were in no danger of sinking into the mud. Unfortunately, the ground for a hundred yards in front of the base of the ridge was scattered with triboli and caltrops - triangular iron spikes intended, primarily, to break cavalry charges. The Bavarians and their mercenaries cursed. Although they suffered no real harm (for they were moving slowly enough to pick their way through this field of traps), their ranks became broken and their ability to engage the tightly-packed and bristling ranks of enemy spearmen was much reduced. A few companies of Bavarians and mercenaries tried to form up and engage but they were soon sent packing - the Bohemians were able to push their foes back down the slope of the hill with little effort. As time passed, a disorganised sort of shoving match broke out between the two phalanxes - a shoving match in which the outnumbered but far better organised Bohemians had the best of it.

This tactic, too, had been Zuzana's idea. She had heard stories, from Norman knights passing through on their way back home from the Holy Land, of how the Greeks had used these little traps - the triboli and caltrops - to break the charges of Norman chevaliers. It had dawned on Zuzana that, though fatal to a cavalry charge, the same devices could be used to slow an infantry advance and break up ranks. And this was just what she had done.

While the Bavarian attack on the centre devolved into a chaotic scrum, Old Welf kept his cavalry aloof from the fray (partly to avoid the caltrops, partly to avoid giving the Bohemian cavalry an opportunity to outflank him). Now, he looked on as Zuzana ordered the Bohemian knights forward - their target was Welf IV himself, his distinctive fluttering banner. The Bohemian charge was slower than it could have been; this was largely because they were crossing such rough ground but Zuzana, given the choice between deploying her cavalry on the marshes to the right or the rough and uneven ground to the left, the uneven ground gave her the best chance of victory. The Bavarian knights did not move to attack but opted to receive the charge, trusting in their discipline and weight to throw the enemy back.

Welf cursed as he realised that he now faced two problems: first, he could not bring up mounted reinforcements because all of the open ground behind him was filled with his infantry - either his reserves, as yet unbloodied, or disorganised companies reeling from the assault- hence the reserve horsemen had no way of reach him; the second problem was connected - if the ground behind was occupied by milling mobs of infantry (lacking leadership, it must be said), he had nowhere to retreat if the Bohemian charge succeeded! But there was nothing to be done but to grit his teeth...

...and wait. The Bohemians, with Zuzana at their head, crashed into the Bavarians with an almighty bang like the walls of Jericho falling down. A confused melee followed but losses on both sides were surprisingly light - amidst the mud, drizzle and steam from horses, the shouting and clashing of steel, the important matter was that few blows found their mark in the chaos and, when they did, they usually bounced off of mail or shield or plate. Zuzana herself, her hair hidden under a helm and her identity unknown to the enemy, managed to claim a kill when she personally struck down a Bavarian chevalier - one of Welf's bodyguards no less. A well-placed blow split the man's helm letting her blade bite deep into his brain; a second blow, although the man's armour prevented it breaking his skin, knocked him from his horse to the muddy ground below where, if he wasn't already dead, he soon would be.

The Bohemians fell back to regroup perhaps five hundred yards away. The Bavarians quickly dressed ranks and pursued, albeit in a fairly ragged fashion. Zuzana, by sheer force of personality, was able to rally her knights very quickly and lead them in a countercharge. For thirty minutes, as the rain grew thicker, the two sets of cavalry hacked away at each other. This time the losses were high on both sides though, without a doubt, the Bavarians took the worst of it. Once more, the two sides disengaged but this time neither side attempted a countercharge.

While the knights had been so engaged, the Bohemian centre had been reinforced by the arrival of the archers and crossbowmen (having done their worst to the men who had got bogged down in the marshes, they had decided to lend their weight at the centre). The Bavarians had not committed many of their archers to the attack hence they were at a singular disadvantage - their lines were ragged from the caltrops while their enemy was tightly organised; arrows and quarrels were beginning to pour into their ranks; the infantry contingents who were actively engaged against the Bohemians could not withdraw because the men behind, who were still in good order and unaffected by the Bohemian traps, were pressing on their heels. At last, the jumble and confusion spread through the troops in the rear so that men who had not even come close to being engaged that day began to grow nervous and sought to withdraw.

Observing the disorder into which the Bavarians had fallen, Zuzana saw that another of her opinions had been vindicated: she had maintained that this field was far too small for an army as large as Welf's to operate effectively. By now, the armies had been engaged for about five hours, on and off, and both sides were ready to withdraw. The Bohemians, although they were winning the battle, did not seem to be aware of the fact and were inordinately keen to get off the battlefield. The Bavarians had simply degenerated into a mob although, once he'd brought them away from the vicinity of the enemy, Welf was quickly able to restore them to order. By the time darkness fell, neither side held the battlefield (thus, both could claim victory) although the Bohemians had departed last and in far better order.

Losses had been smaller in this battle than might have been expected. The Bavarian cavalry took the heaviest losses due to their debacle in the marshes - the hours of pointless struggle in the centre had been a shoving match rather than a bloodbath and had ended because the Bavarian combatants were simply too disorganised to carry on (while their opponents had an unperturbable sense of order and discipline as well as an easy position from which to defend).

Winter 1106-07: The Bavarians wintered at the little town of Strakonice in the southwest of Bohemia while Borivoi's army went back to Prague to spend the season in relative comfort. Zuzana's pivotal role at Gistelnitz had been inflated, if that were possible, in the popular telling of the story. Her popularity reached almost religious levels and she became the centre of a very intense following amongst at all levels of society - to the poor, she was simply the Lady Zuzana, who had been granted the gift of the Vision by the Lord and worked to save the souls of all her subjects; to the nobility, she was La Militissa, the Female Knight, saviour of the Duchy and victor of Gistelnitz. To everyone, she was marvellous, unnatural and more than a little frightening.

Old Duke Welf, upon being told that the mastermind of Gistelnitz had been a women, was heard to remark:

"God preserve us! This one's worse than Wulfhilde! How, in the Name of Heaven, does poor Borivoi put up with such a female?"

But Welf, though a gruff old man, was not so bitter that he grudged the girl her successes. She had been cunning and bold and had been entirely deserving of her victory. Indeed, once or twice Old Welf was even heard to raise a glass to Her Grace's health. She was a worthy opponent, in spite of her unfortunate gender.

Back at Prague, a messenger arrived from Croatia promising that Koloman would march north as soon as Winter had broken and the roads were free of mud and snow.

March-May 1107: The Bohemians were the first to break their winter camp, setting out from Prague at the beginning of March when some of the last snows could yet be seen on the fields. This time, Zuzana was the unquestioned leader of the army. Those who were uncomfortable at following a woman (and especially a slip of a girl not yet twenty-two) kept their mouths shut because they were aware that, but for her ability, the Bavarians would have swept all Bohemian resistance aside at Gistelnitz and would have had a clear march to Prague and victory.

By setting out early, Zuzana had gained the initiative and she did not intend to surrender it. When Old Welf finally led his men forth in April, he found the Bohemians waiting for him, ready and in high spirits. Many small-scale sparring matches took place between mounted detachments - neither side could have claimed, in any meaningful way, to be the victor of these skirmishes but, at the same time, it was significant that the Bavarians did not have everything their own way. Pushing on towards Prague, Old Welf found himself out-thought (if not out-fought) on a dozen occasions; he had always thought himself a solid strategist and tactician - indeed, he was a successful veteran of many wars and his prowess commanded much respect - but Zuzana's army would constantly appear in the place where he least expected it; Bavarian spies would often bring details of her location and the composition of her forces but, by the time he moved to attack, the Bohemians would have departed only to reappear somewhere else, skirmish with his pickets and withdraw...

Directly on the road from Strakonice to Prague lay the River Sazawa. It was here that the two armies would meet again in proper battle. Zuzana saw, ahead of time, that there were only a couple of fording points which could accommodate an army as large as that of the Welfs so she deployed her forces there and waited and she was not disappointed. On the 3rd of May, the Bavarian outriders spotted her army spread just behind the north bank of the Sazawa holding both fords. Welf was impressed at the skill his foe had shown and realised that to fight here would put him at a real risk - his army, though larger by far than the Bohemians, could never bring its full weight to bear on the enemy line if they had to attack across these little fords (worse, the banks above the fords were very steep and were defended not by the Bohemian Ducal army but by Zuzana's pilgrims). Yet, if he declined battle and tried to find some other route to Prague, there was no telling what would happen - Zuzana would never fight unless and until the odds favoured her and the Bavarians could never assault Prague unless and until they had defeated the Bohemians on the field and crushed all resistance.

It was no easy decision but Welf chose, with cold pragmatism, to try to force a passage of the River Sazawa at this point. He knew that his losses would be high but he reckoned that he could wear down his numerically inferior foe and perhaps achieve the decisive victory he needed.

From eleven in the morning until dusk, wave after wave of Bavarian soldiery went across the fords, wading ankle deep through the water, were met with hails of arrows, struggled up the banks and were repulsed. With each assault, the number of bodies at the foot of the river bank increased and the waters were gradually coloured red with men's blood. However many men died, Welf signalled for more to march until, at the last, the attackers were walking over the bodies of their dead comrades. During one such attack, the Margrave of Austria was injured by a Bohemian pike which pierced his mail armour and left a deep wound in his shoulder. His loyal guardsmen carried him back to southern bank and thence to his pavilion. Yet the Bohemians did not have it all their own way - the Bavarian archers and crossbowmen deployed on the south bank left many hundreds of Zuzana's soldiers dead; Zuzana herself escaped death by a hair's breadth during one such bombardment for she had removed her iron helmet to wipe the sweat from her forehead and only just replaced it when an arrow struck the rim and bounced harmlessly to the ground... It escaped no-one's attention that Bohemia's saviour had almost met her Maker then and there.

Her Grace, seeing how her ranks were being thinned by the enemy missiles, was beginning to contemplate a retreat when, just as the sun began to set, the Bavarian army began leaving the field. The withdrawal was orderly enough but its morale was broken. The soldiers would make no more assaults across the fords of the Sazawa. The Battle of the Sazawa had ended with a victory for Bohemia against the invading Bavarians!

So, far from retreating, Zuzana's battered force began to press upon the Bavarians, giving them no respite until they had crossed over into Austria at the end of the month. Both sides began licking their wounds, gathering their stragglers and reorganising but the actual conflict - which came to be known as Zuzana's Pilgrimage - was over. And, as May ended and June began, the Hungarians began entering Bohemia in accordance with their treaty obligations.

The Aftermath: The enemy were gone and Koloman, Bohemia's Magyar ally, sat outside Prague alongside the battered but victorious Bohemian army. Borivoi and Zuzana had much to be thankful for yet fate had not finished with them. Zuzana and the Pilgrims opted not to leave for the Holy Land yet - they would go one day and fulfil all their vows but not until they could be certain of Bohemia's safety. Perhaps as punishment for failing to go, 1109 saw Danousek, the younger son of Zuzana and Borivoi, grow ill from a fever, slowly sicken and finally die. Ironically, Zuzana had fallen pregnant only a little while before and, in 1110, gave birth to a healthy girl who was christened Adriana. Some wondered if the little girl would take after her mother. However that may be, Zuzana assumed that the death of Danousek was Divine Retribution for failure to fulfil her vow to pray in the Sepulchre in Jerusalem and nothing could lift her from the belief that she had caused it to happen.

With the enemy gone, Borivoi sent envoys to his nephew, the new King of Poland, requesting military aid under the terms of their treaty. Koloman of Hungary had but a low opinion of the Poles and began pushing Borivoi to agree to a joint campaign against the Bavarian Welfs without waiting for the Poles to mobilise. As it was, the Duke of Bohemia had a lot of damage to repair before he could think about pursuing the path of vengeance. Besides, there was no telling what way the Emperor would jump if the Bohemian - not strictly members of the Empire - were to introduce the hated Magyars into an Imperial Duchy.

NORTHERN EUROPE

The Kingdom of Denmark

Ruler: Erik I the Evergood, King of Denmark, Duke of Holstein

Capital: Copenhagen

Religion: Roman Catholic

Having annexed the Imperial province of Holstein during the recent war against the Welfs, Erik of Denmark was now eager to see his rule recognised as legitimate by both the Emperor and the great families of Northern Germany. The beginning of 1106 brought much news in this regard - the virtual surrender of Lothar Billung and, with it, Welf acknowledgment of Imperial supremacy; the defection of the Margrave of Meissen to Bohemia; the Saxon renunciation of all claim to Holstein... Erik waited, anxiously, to see how this would affect his own situation.

At last, during the final week of February, a messenger in the yellow and black livery of the Emperor arrived in Holstein bearing a missive under the seal of Henry V, King and Emperor. Erik's chamberlain broked the seal and read the contents out, translating the Latin into Danish as he went:

"From Henry, by the grace of God Emperor of the Romans, to his brother Erik, King of Denmark, greetings!

"It is Our pleasure that the lands of Holstein, having fallen under Your Majesty's sway, should remain under Your rule. It has escaped not Our attention that the venerable and ancient Crown of Denmark has demonstrated a rare loyalty and faithful commitment to Our rule and that of Our father before us, the August Henry IV of Blessed Memory.

"In recognition of such service as Your Majesty has done Us and the Empire, it is Our Will that Erik, King of Denmark, called the Evergood, shall henceforth bear the Imperial title Duke of Holstein and that the Ducal lands shall be His and His descendants in perpetuity. Let the Duke of Holstein henceforth sit in the Highest Councils of the Empire and let His voice be not absent from the Imperial Diet.

"Signed, Henry V, Rex Imperatorque."

Erik was, to say the least, pleased by this. He had half-expected that the Emperor might demand the return of Holstein. Now, though, that his rule had a legal basis, he could begin the task of convincing the local nobles to accept his rule. Virtually his first task was to take a local woman as wife - he chose a girl named Litwinde, the daughter of an old family of Welf loyalists who had been most resistant to Danish rule (for, by bringing them into his camp, Erik hoped to encourage everyone to accept him as their sovereign).

Taking his new wife with him, Erik returned to his court on the island of Zealand and began rearranging his court a little. With his elevation to the ranks of the Imperial nobility, the King felt it was time to bring the quasi-independent jarls of Jutland into line; law after law was promulgated stripping the local nobles of their legal authority and centralisation of the most important powers in the hands of the King. There was considerable resentment at this - Erik was, to be sure, a highly respected man but the Danish nobility considered him to be nothing more than "first among equals". Needless to say, his popularity in certain quarters decreased exactly as his personal power over Denmark increased.

When Litwinde bore Erik a son in 1107, some wondered whether it marked the start of a line of tyrants and still others wondered what Erik's brother and heir, the Crown Prince Niels, would do if and when he ascended the throne...

Back in Holstein, the Danish charm offensive paid off and, although the local nobles insisted on retaining a goodly degree of independence and bluntly refused to place their personal levies under the Crown's control, the economies of Denmark and Holstein became very closely aligned. Tax collectors of the Danish Crown became an increasingly common sight in Holstein. The city of Hamburg, which had been toying with its newfound independence, decided to follow suit and become a subject of Ducal Holstein (and, by extension, the Danes).

The Kingdom of Norway

Ruler: Magnus II "Bareleg", King of Norway, Earl of the Orkneys, King of Man

Capital: Christiana

Religion: Roman Catholic

The Norsemen threw off a long period of indolence and, once more, looked to vital matters at home and abroad. From his Great Hall in Christiana, Magnus "Bareleg" began the re-institution of the leidang (a muster of the King's Yeomen under which each region undertook to supply a fully crewed warship for royal service); too, Magnus began the Herculean task of resurrecting the old system of naval and coastal defences stretching the length of the Norwegian littoral, that had first been set in place by King Haakon between 945 and 960 to protect against the menace of foreign invasion and Viking raiders. A little gold was set aside to see the plan through and plans were drawn up for a whole series of bonfires and wooden watchtowers to be set atop mountain peaks. The exponents of the system theorised that the news of an attack anywhere on Norway's coast would reach the whole kingdom within a mere seven days.

As well as seeing to the governance of the wide Norwegian sea empire, Magnus demonstrated his Christian piety - the Shrine of St. Olav in Trondheim received much attention from the Crown and a detachment of a couple of hundred warriors was sent north from Christiana to guard the routes favoured by the thousands of pilgrims who flocked to the site each year from all over Northern Europe.

In foreign affairs, emissaries from the Swedish Crown arrived to negotiate the border between the two countries. Neither Magnus not his Swedish guests were in particularly bearish moods and, so, a treaty was drafted and acceded to very quickly although a rider was added at Swedish insistence that the monarchs of the two Scandinavian polities would come together in 1116 to ratify the treaty once more. (The precise wording of the treaty may be found under the Swedish entry).

While such matters were being undertaken, the Jarl Thorvald was sent off to pay a visit to the tributary Lords of the Shetlands. A flotilla of half-a-dozen impressive looking warships accompanied him though what effect that had on the final outcome of his visit is anyone's guess... After a number of long months of residence in the Longhouses of the Shetland Chieftains, Thorvald convinced one local lord after another to bow to the authority of the Norwegian Crown. In the fullness of time, he was pleased to be able to send back despatches to "Bareleg" informing him of the willingness of the Shetlanders to commit troops as well as gold to the service of the King in Christiana. By and large, the mission was a brilliant success. On a more personal note, Thorvald found the leisurely pace of life in the Shetlands to be far more conducive to his personal happiness than the bustle and hectic way in which the people of Christiana lived. He hoped the King would allow him to remain in these rugged and windswept islands a while longer for he had come to like them even more than the fjords and mountains of his homeland.

Back in the Great Hall, Magnus' heir, Eystein Magnusson, fathered a daughter in 1109. This was the signal for much merriment and the quaffing of unfeasible amounts of mead and ale.

From Ulster, though, came news that Vikings - not Norwegians, obviously - had sailed up the Irish sea and had raided three villages in the vicinity of Carrickfergus. Magnus wondered what it meant and pledged that no man would loot lands that were his and go unpunished...

The Kingdom of Sweden

Ruler: Inge II, the Younger, and Philip Halstensson, the Champion of Tyr,

Co-Kings of Sweden

Capital: Stockholm

Religion: Roman Catholic (sort of)

The Reflections of a Swedish sailor...

The seasons are heavy on my shoulders.

I have waited many years for this to happen, and finally a man of strong will and cunning has come amongst us to champion the traditional ways. Philip Halstensson has come like a storm, and has brought together many who were before divided, but he is a man of action, not thought.

Since he returned from the seas, I have pledged my lands and family to Philip, and have guided this youngster through the dangerous mires of the men who seek his favour.

In far Stockholm, Inge continues his pretence of the “good king”, although all see that he aspires to absolute power. His actions and new laws are unseemly in the eyes of the Elder Kin, and a reckoning will come for it. But that is for later - for now I have finally convinced Philip that true loyalty is not built on drunken words, but on the desires of men’s hearts: wealth, security, strength. Only a few days ago we set sail for Gotland where we will see if young Eyvindr truly looks for his peoples benefit - or only his own.

Other things concern me. If Sweden is truly to be a great Kingdom, we must be rid of this rulership by council - it is divisive and counter productive - but neither Inge or Philip have enough support to gain complete control. While we have the strongest navy in the Baltic Seas, Catholic Inge sits safely in Stockholm with a well equipped army manning the walls. We need our own army! But now with the new laws, the nobles are unable to raise their own armies without the permission of Inge - who will never allow any armed men unless they be his own.

Perhaps it can be done. There are other Swedes who would follow Philip besides the catholic cronies who surround Inge¼

But enough - the sea calls, and I must take my turn at the helm.

Knut Magnusson, Jarl of Västmanland.

Inge the Younger was more worried than ever about the effect his Co-King, Philip, was having on the Swedish people. Redoubling his efforts to turn Sweden into a united, peaceful and prosperous Christian realm, Inge first sent forth a number of trusted emissaries to the Court of Magnus "Bareleg" in Christiana to negotiate a treaty. The ease with which said treaty was concluded was a sign of encouragement to Inge though, at the insistence of some of Philip's partisans, the treaty would expire and require further ratification in 1116 of the Christian era. The text of the treaty ran as follows:

”It is agreed that the northern lands of our forefathers shall be divided by the Kjólen mountains between the Norwegians and the Swedish. All lands which lie before the western face shall be the territory of the Norwegian King Magnus II and his subjects, while those lands which lie before the eastern face chall be the territory of the Swedish Kings Inge II,Philip Halstensson and their subjects.

“Let no man cross this boundary while bearing the instruments of war.

“In the year of Our Lord 1116, let the rulers of both the Norwegians and Swedish come together to again ratify this agreement.”

While Inge gave his attention to foreign diplomacy, Philip was more concerned with finessing Sweden's vassal rulers and the nearby independent regions and clans. So it was that, in the Summer of 1106, he arrived in Gotland and remained there until the end of 1107. Philip spent most of his visit in the company of Eyvindr Tallberg, the foremost nobleman amongst Gotland's ruling clans, for the two were close friends and shared the same vision of the future. To the delight of the populace, the Swedish Co-King distributed, with a liberal hand, gifts of gold to the people of Gotland; no-one asked where he had acquired it though some of the coins were plainly of Moorish stamp while others bore the eagle seal of the German Imperium. Philip placed only one condition upon the gifts he had given - that every penny should be used to better the lot of the Gotlanders, to improve their villages, pay for the importation of the tools and agricultural equipment... His generosity won him many friends.

For his part, Philip Halstensson had his own reasons to be glad - his mistress, Astidis Hallbjornsdatter, returned from her recent sojourn in Poland. The two had been many years apart and, in some ways, Astidis seemed to show a certain coolness towards her lover; indeed, the members of Philip's retinue came to the conclusion that the long separation had effectively killed Astidis' love (for she was a passionate and fickle woman and, if the stories from Poland were true, she had shown herself not to be a great believer in the concept of absolute fidelity during long separations). In spite of all that, Philip was simply glad to be in her company again and the two spent many long nights together. Even if Astidis did not truly love Philip any longer, the fires of her lust had certainly not been quenched.

In any case, this peasant-bred pagan woman was able to succeed where even Philip, with his bottomless reserves of gold, had failed - with her sly arguments and winning personality (not to mention a copious supply of very convincing threats), she managed to bounce young Eyvindr and the great nobles of Gotland into sign an agreement which placed Gotland under the rule of the Swedish Crown. No small achievement, it must be said.

With Gotland's loyalty assured, Philip and his entourage set off for Kopparberg, north of Uppsala. The local clans were traditionalists and pagans who wanted nothing to do with the increasingly-centralised Swedish state nor the oppressive religion of the Crossmen and their strange deity, the Christ. Yet, they welcomed Philip, whose pagan sympathies were well-known; though the men of Kopparberg were fiercely insular, they followed events in Uppsala with a suspicious eye (for they were ever fearful that the Crossmen might make war upon them) and they had long identified Philip as the embodiment of opposition to Inge's religious and political innovations. After some sharp negotiations in which they demanded that their religious liberties be guarded and guaranteed by Philip himself, they agreed to pay some annual tribute to Stockholm; to seal the agreement, Philip took a bride from the leading local family.

This diplomatic task completed, Philip and Astidis once more separated - he to return to the Court of Stockholm with his new wife and she to take a trip to the Finnish tribes and Swedish colonists in the little region of Turku across the Gulf of Finland... (As an aside, many people noted that Astidis seemed rather ill during the negotiations and seldom appeared in public).

Philip arrived back in the capital just as Inge was preparing to depart for Copenhagen. To guard his Co-King and ensure a safe voyage, Philip, who had managed to bring virtually all the Swedish fleet under his control, handed over half-a-dozen of the strongest warships. Inge was not entirely clear on what to make of this sudden display of loyalty and concern for his safety but opted not to make an issue of it. Virtually the moment Inge had left the shores of Sweden, though, Philip summoned all his partisans and vassals to the Royal Court while dismissing those who were known to support Inge. Too, the more assiduous Christians were completely sidelined as Philip asserted his authority.

Acting fully within his legal rights, Philip called up the royal army - nobles, vassals and retainers as well as the traditional household regiments - and began ousting anyone whose loyalty he doubted. By and by, Inge's wife and three sons - Johan, Brandr and Geirr - were brought to Philip's personal estates in the hinterland beyond Stockholm ("in order that they might be guarded more securely"). There were protests in the Landstig, mainly from the Pro-Inge faction, but Philip could calmly point out that everything he had done was according to the Law (and the Law, he pointed out, had been set in place personally by King Inge II); too, he explained to any protestors that he was Inge's Co-King and that this granted him certain rights and duties but he had not yet made nor would he ever make a claim to rulership over the Kingdom of Sweden. The members of the Landstig listened and admitted to the truth of his words but they did not like it and could see, very clearly, that the irredeemable pagan was up to something nasty.

"As you wish," replied the still-smiling Glanville. Then he drew a scroll from the folds of his cloak, unfolded it. He gestured to Flambard to place his head upon the block, cleared his throat and began to read in his high, clear tones (for the benefit of the guards and axeman):

"Whereas Ranulph Flambard, sometime Treasurer of England and Prince Bishop of Durham, is and standeth condemned for High Treason; taking arms against the King, plotting the King’s death, treating with the King’s enemies, extortion of money and favours from the King’s subjects, blasphemy and un-natural practices and other high crimes; and sentence hath been pronounced against him by the King, to be put to death by the severing of his head from his body; of which sentence execution yet remaineth to be done: These are therefore to will and require you to see the said Sentence executed, in the Tower Of London, upon the morrow, being the first day of this instant month of January, between the hours of eight in the morning and ten in the morning, with full effect. And for so doing, this shall be your warrant. In addition, the estates, chattels and titles of Ranulph Flambard are confiscated and become property of the Crown.

Given under our hand and seal, Henry Beauclerc, King Of England, Duke Of Normandy."

From his place on the block, Flambard managed one last comment: "But it's not eight in the morning yet."

Then the axe fell. Flambard died. Glanville spoke: "Well, I don't think a few hours would have made much difference and I, for one, have a lot to do today."

News of the execution was greeted with delight by the general populace (who had languished under Flambard's yoke during the days of Bad King Rufus) and the detruncated head was placed on a spike atop Traitor's Gate where small children could come to laugh at it and, occasionally, throw things.

With the death of this hated foe, King Henry turned to a thing which gave him particular pleasure - scholarship (actually, it was the sponsorship of scholarship in this case). A small band of mud-splattered monks were given a reasonable endowment of silver (though it was nothing like the amount of money that the French King gave his scholars) and a grant of land within the market town of Oxenford, not far from London. The monks wandered off to the town and set about building a school and, with that done, attracting students. They named their school Eadgyth's College, in honour of the King's Saxon wife, and began teaching Latin and theology to the very small gang of students that they'd been able to attract; the students were a brave and hardy lot - they had to be for the Hall of Lecturing was little more than a wooden shack through which the wind blew and into which the rain would leak whenever the weather was wet (and, since it was England, that meant all the time). Truly, it was a hard life...

Yet, the monks were not entirely ignorant of their pupils' suffering nor were they at all heartless and they undertook to help their students survive the misery of life at Oxenford. The faculty of Eadgyth's College, being entirely wise and pious men, had worked out that the students would be more liable to study and less likely to die if they got some food. So, at the Candlemas Feast of 1109, the monks decided to begin something that would soon become a great Oxenford tradition. After the monks had eaten their Candlemas meal (which was by no means a grand affair and consisted only of nine courses), the Dean of the College took the scraps which had all been gathered by the College Servitors on a series of nine wooden trays (one tray for each course, you see). Solemnly, he lifted each tray and processed to the window of the Dining Hall; the window would be ceremonially opened by a Servitor and the Dean would empty the contents of the tray out of the open window and onto the cobbles below where a large band of penniless, ragged and hungry students had gathered. The process was repeated for each tray. Thus began the venerable tradition of The Poor Students' Supper.

As the students scrabbled in the mud hoping to find a bone with just a little meat on it, the monks of the Faculty retired to their chambers feeling satisfied at their benificence. Not only did they feed the soul with theology and the mind with Latin, now they fed the very bodies of their students. Yes, there were no two ways about it - the Oxenford students were generously treated by their teachers.

Eadgyth herself, after whom the Oxon. College was named, was heavily involved in domestic matters. A daughter was born in each of the years 1106 and 1108 - Matilda and Sibylla respectively - though this was overshadowed by some other dynastic matters. King Henry recalled his vassal, Earl Robert de Mowbray of Northumbria, from his diplomatic mission to Wales. Mowbray was probably England's most powerful nobleman and, certainly, he was the one who enjoyed the most independence from the Crown; though Earl Robert bowed before His Majesty, his vast fiefs in the Northern Marches were actually beyond Henry's direct control. Now it was time to remedy that...

The 50 year old Mowbray was to be wed to Henry's elder (widowed) sister, the Countess Adela of Champagne. Although she was some 43 years of age, the match was considered a good one for it put the Earl much closer to the Royal Family and gave him enormous influence at court. Old Robert agreed, too, to become stepfather to Adela's two children - Stephen, Count of Blois and Theobald, Count of Champagne - now that their father was dead. No sooner had the wedding vows been exchanged than de Mowbray was once more banished to Wales (well, not formally banished but it felt that way); this time, the Princes of Gwynned, who were as fed up of Robert as he was of them, agreed to pay an annual tribute to the English King though they reiterated with typical Celtic vehemence that they were independent and in no way recognised the suzerainty of any foreign King - be he Norman, Saxon or anything else.

The King himself seemed to recognise the peculiar nature of the various peoples who inhabited this grey island of Britain - he had come to the conclusion that his son, William, had the potential to unify the Saxon and Norman cultures. The boy was the grandson of William the Conqueror through his father's side and the great-great-grandson of the Saxon King, Edmund II, through his Anglo-Scottish mother. In recognition of little William's Saxon inheritance, Henry granted him the ancient title of Aethling, traditionally given to Saxon English Princes. It was the King's hope that this title would emphasise that the Saxons and Normans were now to be a single united people. Too, as soon as his son turned three, His Majesty took to spending a great deal of time with him in order to guide the little prince's development properly and drive home the belief that the future of the Normans lay in England and, more importantly, in union with the Saxons for it was Henry's conviction that nothing lay across the Channel in France but strife and trouble.

Apart from these things, the other significant event at Court involved the appointment of large numbers of professional administrators from among the able commoners of the realm. They quickly displaced the noble courtiers and churchmen who had, heretofore, overseen the government of the realm. A department, known as the Exchequer, was created to oversee the collection of revenues and, just as importantly, to call to account any sheriff, reeve or other magistrate who failed to pay proper dues to the Crown. Soon, officials of the Exchequer were travelling the country to judge local financial disputes thus, rather neatly, cutting away the powers of the courts of the feudal barons. Naturally, the nobles were not well pleased at having their part in ruling the Kingdom undermined so bluntly but Henry was able to ignore them largely because the new administrators and officials proved to be exceptionally good at their job.

Finally, the burghers of the town of Lynn in Norfolk petitioned His Majesty for a charter granting them the status of a city. Not only did His Majesty agree but, in a fit of largesse, even granted them the right to rename their town King's Lynn as a sign of the Crown's particular partiality for the place.

The Duchy of Aquitaine

Ruler: Guyaume IX "the Troubadour", Duke of Aquitaine, Count of Poitiers

Capital: Toulouse

Religion: Roman Catholic

Early in 1106, a series of meetings was held between agents of the Duchy and representatives of the region's Jewish community. The Jews had not really suffered under the rule of Duke Guyaume and, in fact, in recent years the number of Spanish Jews in Aquitaine had been increasing steadily. In return for their relative freedom, the Duke was now asking for some small consideration in the form of some significant loans. The Jews, being pragmatic, agreed to lend their Duke the money he required (under the usual terms, of course...).

In addition to securing such loans, the Duke had been most interested to hear how the Sicilian Hautevilles had, only recently, undertaken a great account of their Kingdom much in the manner of the Domesday Book of Norman England. He decided it was time for something similar to be done for his own little realm. A couple of hundred clerks and monks, under the lead of the bookish, peevish and thoroughly annoying Bernard Raymond de L'Armagnac, began compiling a great catalogue of the properties of the great nobles. It took only four years for the task to be completed and the book - the Catalogus Baronum - listed every single fief in the Duchy of Aquitaine and the Counties of Poitiers and Toulouse as well as the value of every village, every hamlet, every manor house, every farm, fishpond and field.... By wise use of this new resource, Guyaume's tax collectors were able to squeeze even more gold out of his subjects.

The Duke's personal life did not go quite so well as his tax-gathering arrangements. His wife, Philippa of Toulouse, gave him a new son - Raymond - in 1107 but, the following year, died giving birth to a second son - this time named Pons. Little Pons survived his mother by only a few hours.

Never being one to dwell on unhappiness, 1109 saw the Duke depart Toulouse and head for Bordeaux where he quickly convinced the locals to accept his direct rule (though not especially keen, there was much fear that the Viking raids might touch Bordeaux hence it was wise to accept Aquitaine's protection).

In the cultural life of this vibrant land, the usual large dispensations of gold were made to scholars and minstrels alike. Curiously, the Duke had taken a sudden interest in pantomime and the practitioners of this artform were singularly favoured but its cultural import continued to be dwarfed by literature, especially poetry. Indeed, 1108 saw the production of a thousand-line poem detailing the exploits of the Norman nobleman, Guy de Courtenay, and his courtly love for Countess Adelaide di Savona. Yet, science was not neglected - a couple of Jewish teachers from Spain were even recruited to begin giving classes in mathematics and astronomy (sciences they had learnt in the Taifa states of Southern Spain before the coming of the Almoravids). At the same time, there was a growing sense of religious fervour in the country and some churchmen and even noblemen questioned the sense in letting this singularly hated group of people enjoy any privileges in this, the Duchy which had virtually led the Crusade for the Liberation of the Holy Land.

The Kingdom of France

Ruler: Louis VI Capet, King of France

Capital: Paris

Religion: Roman Catholic

King Philip the Amorous was beginning to feel just a little under pressure. In the streets of Paris, never the most orderly of places, a most annoying religious revival was taking place. On the doors of churches all over the city, anonymous letters were being nailed up calling on the people to rise up against the Crown (admittedly, most people couldn't read but the ever-resourceful Parisians would simply hunt out someone who could and threaten him into reading it out to the throng):

Gero, in Westphalia with an army he could scarcely control, received an equally generous offer. It was Gero who truly worried Henry; Duke Lother, even if he wanted to renew the war, lacked the gold, the manpower or the popular support; Gero, though, already had men - men, it must be said, who were lacking money, food and a sense of purpose... If Gero could reinstil some sense of discipline into them, he could potentially cause much trouble in the Empire. So, Henry's offer was more handsome than might have been expected. Gero and all his men were to be pardoned and would be allowed to go whitherever they wished - within the Empire or without. Those who wished to return to Saxony and the service of the Welfs could do so; those who wanted to go elsewhere would find no obstacle placed in their path by the Emperor. Too, lest the shortage of money tempt them to brigandry or similar wrongdoing, His Imperial Majesty would pay the wages of the professional soldiers and reimburse the Saxon noblemen for some of the losses they had suffered. Gero equivocated for a while before finally accepting the offer but he had a trick of his own up his sleeve...

Having brought stability to the wider Empire, Henry decided to do something similar at home - he would take a wife! Unfortunately, Henry demonstrated less subtletly in his affaires d'amour than in his politicking. It happened that Henry's eye had long been settled on a certain daughter of the Margrave Rupert of Vohlburg - Ludgara was her name and she was a singularly beautiful girl with a fine mane of ash blonde hair, startling green eyes and a pale, creamy complexion. Young Ludgara, who had only just turned 16, had quickly been married off by her father to a Thuringian knight. The marriage had been far below her station but the knight was rich, having made his fortune in the recent war against the Welfs, and the Margrave of Vohlburg was both poor and rather overburdened with daughters (having seven in all but only one son!). When the Thuringian had offered to wed Ludgara while waiving any and all claim to the traditional dowry, Rupert of Vohlburg had leapt at the opportunity - after all, what other choice did he have? At least now he had one less daughter to feed and for whom to find a dowry.

Henry's interest in Ludgara was well known but it had generally been assumed to be a passing fancy for the Emperor had acquired something of a reputation as a gadabout where ladies were concerned. Certainly, no-one ever assumed that he could have wished her hand in marriage yet, upon discovering that the girl was married, Henry fell into a deep fit of melancholy. He spent most of his time seeing to the effective governance of the Empire, observing the little wars in Hesse and Bohemia and, of course, having many long talks with those German bishops whose loyalty lay with the Emperor rather than the Pope. Too, a Bohemian emissary, Vladislav Przemyslid, arrived at the Imperial Court to seek support from the Emperor; His Majesty was most sympathetic in light of recent events not to say grateful for the enormous support the little country had given to the Empire but he made no commitments and would sign no treaties...

Imagine Henry's surprise, therefore, as something quite remarkable happened - one day while hunting, the cavalier who had stolen away beautiful Ludgara was found in the forest close-by his Manor. Protruding from his chest were three crossbow bolts. It was a tragedy. The local magistrate was set to investigate the affair and decided it had been an accident - most likely, the poor man had startled some hunters who, perhaps mistaking him for game, had shot him to death. Being fearful of retribution, these hunters had probably fled the scened and would likely never reveal their guilt (and, in truth, they were not really guilty for the killing had been an unfortunate accident which could have happened to anyone). Very sad, agreed everyone...

....And, within a month, His Imperial Majesty had negotiated his marriage to Ludgara. So, at least some good came out of it all. No children were brought forth by the marriage until 1109 when Ludgara, now Empress of Germany, gave birth to a strong daughter.

The only other news of any import concerned the Jews of Saxony who beseeched their Emperor to do something about Duke Lothar's refusal to repay his father's loans. A pretty penny was owed and there was no telling what the wider economic effects of defaulting on the loans would be, especially given the parlous state of the Northern German economy.

The Duchy of Saxony

Ruler: Lothar Billung, Duke of Saxony, Grand Marshal of the Empire

Capital: none.

Religion: Roman Catholic

Lothar was free! Admittedly, the cost of his freedom was high - he had agreed to turn Saxony into a virtual extension of Franconia and to abandon all his rightful and legal claims to Holstein. Finally reaching his home, His Grace found that the Margrave of Meissen had defected to the wretched Bohemians (apparently, the Margrave had been cooperating with Borivoi of Bohemia for some years but had neglected to inform the Saxons of the fact). The Lausatian Marches, meanwhile, remained occupied by the Polish invader.

The Peace of Frankfurt, as the treaty between the Houses of Salier and Welf had been called, had made no mention of the Eastern Marches of the Billungs so Lothar, with perfect legality, continued to press a claim over both provinces and maintained that these were Imperial lands currently held by non-Imperial states. Indeed, Lothar took a perverse pleasure in reminding people that Bohemia was tributary to the Empire but not actually a member of the Empire in spite of the honorary Imperial titles the Bohemian Duke held.

Well, that aside, there was much to be done in Saxony. The land was in the grip of famine - the campaigns of Magnus had called away not merely grown men but young boys and aged grandfathers so that there were none but women in the Duchy to till the soil and work the farms. Whole villages did Lothar pass through in which there was not a full grown man to be seen. Nor, in all truth, were many of the menfolk likely to return. Magnus' army had suffered great losses - not through battle but through disease and desertion; many peasant deserters had gone to other provinces to settle and make new lives. Of those who remained with Gero in Westphalia (a province guaranteed to Saxony under the Peace of Frankfurt) many had given up all hope of doing their military service and then returning home - after six or seven years under arms (when they had signed up for forty days!!), they considered themselves professional soldiers and would most likely want to continue in this profession whether in Saxony's service or as mercenaries.

As the deaths from starvation began to increase, Lothar found himself approached, somewhat sheepishly, by representatives of the Jewish moneylenders whose coffers had funded Magnus' campaign. Were their loans not repaid, they explained, the Jews would suffer immeasurable financial hardship... And this would lead to a shortage of money for lending in the Empire and perhaps beyond. The Jews had not been keen to approach Lothar for they supposed, rightly, that he would not want to meet the costs of his father's disastrous advantures. Too, they expected, and once more were perfectly correct, that the haughty Imperial nobleman was not going to worry about the pecuniary problems of God's Chosen People. Lothar didn't really get angry at them but shoo'ed them out of his presence. Predictably, he had more important things to worry about than Jewish usurers.

Oh, what a state Magnus had put the Duchy into! Humiliated, defeated, existing only because of young Henry's generosity. There must be some way, thought Lothar, of restoring Saxony's fortunes...

As 1106 drew to its close, large quantities of gold from Franconia were used to secure supplies of grain which staved off the worst of the famine. Deaths occurred, to be sure, but the scale was much less than it might have been. No-one had enough to eat but many who would have had nothing now, at least, had a little something... Even this small blessing was like a knife in the heart of Welf honour for it was the bounty and generosity of that sworn enemy of the Welfs, Henry Salier of Franconia, that saved Lothar's people from the edge. Black days for Saxony. Black days.....

Off in Westphalia, Gero, now alone in command of the army, received emissaries from the new Saxon Duke and upset the proverbial applecart by refusing, outright, to return to Saxon service. Gero's own fief, Brandenburg in Lausatia, remained under the heel of the Pole. What, then, had Gero to return to? Service of a broken country, on its knees before the Franconians? Never! The whole Saxon army had shrunk by about a third (lost to disease and desertion); of the remainder, perhaps one in three returned to Saxony to serve their Duke as permanent men-at-arms or, more rarely, to return to the homes they had left all those years ago. Most of the rest stayed with Gero who promised them loot, adventure and rich lands for the taking! Those with an appreciation of the ironical would have felt something, whether bemusement or amusement, that these men - who had espoused the pacifistic principles of Ludwig of Hersfeld with such zeal and who had undergone the knout rather than betray that gentle man - had been changed into hardened and cruel mercenaries who knew neither loyalty nor piety. Truly, they must have undergone great hardships to have changed so drastically.

The Duchy of Swabia

Ruler: Frederick I Hohenstaufen, Duke of Swabia

Capital: none

Religion: Roman Catholic (Imperial)

Radovan of Bohemia arrived in Swabia and began a determined effort to improve relations between the two Duchies. The Swabian grandees received him politely but were wary of getting sucked into the dispute between the Przemyslids and the Bavarian Welfs.

The Duchy of Bavaria

Ruler: Welf IV, Duke of Bavaria

Capital: none

Religion: Roman Catholic

Duke Welf's first step was to recall his errant daughter-in-law, Wulfhilde, from Westphalia where she had been helping - not to say leading - resistance to the House of Salier. She was far from happy to hear news of her recall but obeyed. As she returned to Bavaria, through Franconian lands ironically, she was pleased to hear that her brother, Lothar Billung, had been released and that the Ducal Coronet of Saxony had been restored to him.

So, Bavaria had stood aside as the Salians smashed the Welfs of Saxony. The Bavarians had turned against their own kin... Now it was time for them to collect their reward...

Old Welf called up every knight and yeoman in Southern Germany and the Austrian Marches. Every man with a blade, spear or horse was summoned to the blue-and-white banner of Ducal Bavaria. Further, Welf agents went abroad and secured the services of endless parties of mercenaries - Flemish crossbowmen, Scottish archers, Swiss pikesmen, Burgundian swordsmen, landless knights and even small contingents from the smattering of independent counties spread across Germany. All came to Regensburg. In all, the Duke could survey an army of four thousand spearmen, twelve hundred peasant skirmishers, two and a half thousand mail-clad knights fighting on foot with spear, sword and shield, a ceremonial guard of four hundred fully mail-clad horsemen of Welf's own household, twelve hundred Bavarian and Austrian knights riding armoured horses, fifteen hundred knights on unarmoured steeds, eight hundred mounted squires and a mercenary contingent that reached twelve hundred horsemen and almost three thousand infantry. Supporting this formidable armament was a siege trayne of some two thousand engineers.

His Grace, Duke Welf IV, opted not to inform anyone of the target of his campaign. As the moved out from Regensburg, the betting men in the army reckoned that they were marching against the Emperor. When the great column turned southwards into Austria, talk turned to Hungary or maybe the Venetians - for had not Venice only recently insulted Welf's ally (and another daughter-in-law) Matilda of Tuscany? When they suddenly swung north, taking the dirt road towards Prague and Bohemia, there was a real sense of surprise in the army. Who could have foreseen so daring a move on old Welf's part? (see Zuzana's Pilgrimage to see how the invasion turns out)

The Duchy of Upper Lorraine

Ruler: Simon of Flanders, Count of Chatenois, Duke of Upper Lorraine

Capital: none.

Religion: Roman Catholic (Imperial)

Life in Upper Lorraine ticked by very quietly, by comparison with many of the other parts of Germany, so it came as something of a rude surprise when, in August of 1108, Gero of Brandenburg with six thousand very rough-looking soldiers came stomping into Hesse, the richest region of the Empire! It was not at all clear whether this vicious expedition took place with Imperial approval though it was widely held that His Imperial Majesty could not possibly support such actions undertaken against a loyal state of the Empire.

The response to this attack would undoubtedly have been harsh but for the tragic death of the Duke, Dietrich II, who slipped from his horse and broke his neck in a quite unforeseeable accident just a few weeks after the invasion took place. He was thirty years old at the time of his death. His nominated successor was his cousin, Simon of Flanders, but many disputed his right to the Ducal Coronet. By the time, Simon had implanted his authority firmly on Upper Lorraine, Gero's warband had secured all the landings and ferry points on the east of the Rhine and were preparing to repulse any counterattack. Simon lacked confidence in his ability to retake Hesse and, so, declined to take any action while he awaited news from the other parts of the Empire (and, particularly, from the Emperor). Gero, meanwhile, was claiming that Hesse was now independent of Lorraine and that he, Gero of Brandenburg, was the rightful ruler! He even sent a messenger to the Emperor requesting that his claim be recognised and legitimised.

The Margravate of Tuscany

Ruler: Matilda di Canossa, Margravine of Tuscany, Guardian and Vicereine of the Kingdom of Italy, Princess of the Empire

Capital: Milan

Religion: Roman Catholic

Things were praeternaturally quiet in Northern Italy. The Margravine continued to raise large numbers of troops while looking askance at neighbouring Verona. Her courtiers expected her to announce, at any time, that she was going to war against the Venetian Republic but, perhaps in deference to Venice's determined efforts to shore up the Latin East, Matilda did nothing. She did grow increasingly annoyed, though, as it became clear that the Venetians were not going to send the tribute (some twenty-five thousand silver marks) which they had promised in return for Matilda allowing them to retain control of Verona. It just went to show that you should never trust a Venetian.

In Savoy, Count Robert was pleased to see very large amounts of Tuscan money being poured into improving his fiefs - better roads, small canals, the clearance of farmland and vineyards and the beginnings of olive groves. Perhaps to repay the favour that the Margravine was lavishing upon him, Robert was called to Milan to assume command over a portion of the Tuscan army.

Away from such workaday matters, Matilda continued her patronage of conservative Catholic scholars and even secured the services of the up-and-coming scholar, Lotulf of Lombardy, who had been away from Northern Italy for some time - studying in Paris and teaching in Rheims. The flow of pilgrims to and from the Holy Land continued unabated and a couple of hundred Lombards and Tuscans volunteered to head off to Jerusalem and help in resisting the Heathens. Amid such religiosity, there was considerable discomfort in Italy over the Bavarian attack on Bohemia; it was particularly worrisome that the Margravine was so closely aligned with the Bavarian Welfs - indeed her husband was the son of Welf IV - when these people were engaged in such anti-Catholic activities. Very worrying stuff.

The County of Flanders

Ruler: Robert II, Count of Flanders

Capital: Ghent

Religion: Roman Catholic

Slept.

The Duchy of Burgundy

Ruler: Odo the Red, Duke of Burgundy

Capital: none.

Religion: Roman Catholic

Slept.

The Free Commune of Pisa

Ruler: Azzo Marignani, Consul of the Pisan Republic

Capital: Pisa

Religion: Roman Catholic

Consul Marignani had listened zealously to the plans expounded by his fellow-republican, the Doge of Venice. A grand war to liberate Egypt from the Heathen's filthy clutches! Yet, these two little maritime Republics had not the manpower to field armies capable of such an ambitious conquest. It was with a smile that Azzo had hit upon the plan of recruiting the Hautevilles. They were ever a warlike folk who delighted in the slaughter and glory of battle. Sure enough, the Normans had fairly jumped at the opportunity of participating in this expedition and had agreed to supply almost all the necessary soldiers. This, thought Azzo, could be the beginning of something truly great for Pisa...

About a hundred and thirty hulls were drawn up in the sea roads off Pisa including a large number of troop transports. They would not carry Pisan troops, though, but Apulian and Calabrian Normans! Command over the Pisan fleet was handed to Marignani's close political ally and nominated successor, the Vice-Consul Pepe the Mad (nicknamed "Pepe Furioso" by wags), a man who compensated for his lack of diplomatic nous and personal charm with a dangerously violent temperament. Under his leadership, most of the Commune's Deputies agreed, the expedition would surely achieve much which would be worthy of note. (see Bacqueville's Expedition).

While war was the main order of the day, the Consul sent another political ally, the Deputy Antonio de Capasca, to rugged Sardinia to seek out the support and loyalty of the mountain chieftains and independent-minded barons. Surprisingly, his expedition was a success and the Sardinians, who seemed quite interested in the whole Egyptian affair, agreed to become formal allies of the Pisan Commune.

The Norman County of Sicily

Ruler: Count Simon de Hauteville of Sicily

Capital: none

Religion: Roman Catholic

There was much talk in the County about the relationship between the Dowager Countess and her loyal vassal, Guy de Courtenay. There was no doubt that Guy, who was more than a decade younger than the Countess, was devoted to her but that was normal, was it not? Every loyal knight should be devoted to his liege. When the couple spent many hours closeted together in private chambers, without even a servant in attendance, their supporters would explain that Guy and Adelaide were discussing plans and strategems to ensure the continued survival of the County in these troubled times. Detractors, though, spread rumours of a quite inappropriate nature.

March of 1107 saw the courageous young Guy set off with 4,000 men at arms and 50 hulls. Unlike their cousins in the Twin Duchies, the Sicilian Hautevilles were not participating in the Egyptian expedition for they had ambitions of their own - less lofty, perhaps, than raising the red-and-white Hauteville standard over Alexandria but real and achievable. Before he departed Palermo, Guy paid a short visit to Her Grace who pressed into his hand a silk scarf - her own, of course - as a token of her favour on his coming adventures. As his flotilla slipped out of Palermo's docks, Adelaide stayed a long while by the shore watching the ships pass over the horizon and out of sight.

Guy's first stop on his journey was Gefara, the inhospitable desert regions at the southern edge of the Zirid Emirate; the place was home of a very peculiar collection of rather bellicose Berber tribes who, when they lacked foreigners, Bedu, Shi'a or Arabs to fight, would happily indulge in clan and tribal warfare. Guy's diplomatic efforts were a wonder to behold - he stalked from one end of the region to the other, camped in dry wadis with locals, crossed the salt marshes in the far west of the province and beheld the beginnings of the endless Sahara... In the end, the locals were sufficiently impressed to agree to pay a small tribute to the Count of Sicily (Guy had thought it politic not to dwell on the fact that the Count was a small boy and his mother ruled in his stead).

As 1110 opened, Guy departed Gerfara but, as he sailed up the Tunisian coast, he couldn't refrain from putting men ashore to raid and loot the locale. The Tunisians were ready to repel such an attack but Guy was a smart operator - as daring as he was cunning - and managed to commit his depredations and escape before the Zirids could catch him. Once more, loot and slaves were stuffed into the ships for the crossing to Palermo. Arriving there, he was feted as a gallant and a hero once more yet it was not Adelaide who greeted him after his years away but the Count himself, Simon de Hauteville, now grown to a young man of seventeen years.

During Guy's absence, young Simon had turned into a tall and handsome figure, strong and more than capable of handling a sword. He had only recently begun to take the weight of government on his own shoulders, pushing the Dowager Countess into the background in the process, and was beginning to demonstrate a remarkable talent for keeping the Norman nobles of Sicily in line.

In the last days of Adelaide's regency, great efforts, typical of Norman vitality, had been expended in the great port of Palermo - firstly, a great many of the city's rather sad-looking hovels were demolished and replaced by nicer, more durable buildings; too, a good many of the streets, made of packed dirt, were covered over with cobblestones. The whole place began to recover a little of the elegance it had enjoyed when the Saracens had ruled the place and there were few citizens who could truthfully complain that the rule of the Hautevilles (or Altavillas, as the Sicilians called their Norman overlord) had been too demanding. Indeed, there was hardly a district of Palermo which didn't have fresh water brought there by the extensive viaduct network which Adelaide had put in place.

The Twin Duchies of Calabria and Apulia

Ruler: Roger Borsa de Hauteville, Duke of Calabria and Apulia

Capital: none

Religion: Roman Catholic

The Ducal Court saw the arrival of many silver-tongued emissaries from the Italian Republics of Venice and Pisa. As a Norman, Roger was by nature a blunt and forceful man who spoke his mind but he was also used to dealing with sly diplomats - the sneaky Byzantines, the perpetually-lying Roman churchmen, even Infidel Moors and Saracens from time-to-time. Yes, despite his lack of erudition, Roger was experienced in handling negotiations and was not about to be cozened by any greasy merchant.

Half-expecting to hear insistent calls for the tax on goose fat to be relaxed or for preferential treatment to be given to Venetian imports of olive oil or whatever else it is that these infernal traders worried about, Roger was surprised, not to say shocked, at their proposal for a grand expedition to claim Egypt for Christ. Such an expedition, while the ships of the sea republics would be invaluable, would need a powerful leader and an army of unsurpassed might... In short, it needed Roger Borsa.

It was a daring proposition and tempting, too. Roger had recently been feeling overshadowed by the deeds of his brother, Count Bohemond of Taranto, who now styled himself Prince of Antioch and, if rumours were true, was about to lead a great and holy campaign against the Turk - indeed, already this year a few hundred Apulian knights had departed to serve Baldwin of Jerusalem. Yet, perhaps the Italians' idea was too daring... To travel so far, by sea, to a hostile coast - it was much to ask, much to risk, especially when the Princes of Outremer had foresworn warfare against the Fatimid Caliph. While the Duke engaged in internal debate, a single Venetian churchman made a simple quotation:

"Behold, the Lord rides on a swift cloud, and will come into Egypt, and the idols of Egypt will totter at His Presence, and the heart of Egypt will melt in the midst of it". (Isaiah 19: 1)

The appeal to piety (not to say vanity) was well made and Roger agreed to become the swift cloud by which the Lord would break the hold of the Infidel over the lands of the Nile. But, however much he was swept up in the glory of this great adventure, he was also a realist and understood the nature of his fellow Norman nobles well. His eldest son was only ten and it was doubtful, were Roger to leave Italy, that he would return to find his family still in control of the Duchies. Instead of leading the expedition himself, Roger would appoint his loyal retainer, Hildebrand de Bacqueville, to lead the Ducal army to the blazing shores of Africa there to visit the Lord's retribution upon the Infidel. Too, he summoned the vassal Duke of Spoleto, with his small feudal contingent, to participate in the campaign. It certainly would not be as glorious as Bohemond's crusading adventures - for Bohemond actually left his home rather than delegating the task to others - but it was considerably better than leaving his home fiefs unguarded in these troubled times.

Nine thousand footmen of differing types were gathered in Naples along with six thousand horsemen and a trayne of artificers. In April of 1106, the Pisan fleet arrived and, liaising with the not-inconsiderable Hauteville war fleet, began the process of transferring men, horses and armaments onto the ships. Bacqueville's Expedition was about to begin....

While his vassals were having adventures in distant dusty lands, Roger Borsa enjoyed the embraces of his wife, Adela of Flanders, who bore him four boys in as many years. All but the last were strong (the last son, born in 1109, died shortly after birth). The sadness of this event did not deflect Roger's eyes from the blessings he had been given in having so many strong and healthy son.

The Papal States of the Holy See

Ruler: Paschal II, Pope, Bishop and Supreme Metropolitan of Rome, Vicar of Christ, Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church, Temporal Lord of the Papal States, Servant of the Servants of God

Capital: Rome

Religion: Roman Catholic

Europe was finally beginning to discover some kind of stability after the chaos of the past few decades and God's Holy Church was ready and waiting to take advantage of the fact! The ecclesiastical establishments in Venice, Denmark, Norway, Sicily, Iceland, Scotland and Hungary were all brought swiftly under Rome's direct control - tithes were set in place and, soon, from all these disparate but Christian lands gold and silver specie flowed into the Pope's coffers. Yet, the flow of money was not a one way street for His Holiness generously provided a subvention of many thousands of silver marks to the Venetian Republic, to help support their righteous war against the Egyptian Heathens.

Still in Venice, Cardinal Gilbert, an Anglo-Norman, arrived in the city with a guard of 400 magnificently-attired ceremonial bodyguards. Without much ado, the Cardinal immediately dismissed most of the senior Roman clerics in the city who were, to be frank, far too independent in their thinking; new churchmen, who enjoyed His Holiness' confidence, were appointed to all the senior posts in the city's churches. Much further north, in Hamburg, the rich port by the shores of the frigid North Sea, Cardinal Ventidius oversaw the foundation of a great abbey just on the outskirts of the city to honour and celebrate the King of Denmark's new responsibilities as a Duke of the Empire.

In Rome, Garcia Ramirez, once Prince of Aragon and now a Cardinal of Rome, spoke out against a series of rumours sweeping the Vatican. Stories, perhaps unfounded, had arisen that His Holiness would lift the Papal Ban on Christians lending money at interest. His Eminence, Cardinal Garcia, became the centre of that, rather large, faction of the College of Cardinals which supported the Ban. "If moneylending is an affront to Our Lord, as is written in the Holy Testaments," said Garcia and his fellow Men of God, "let the Jews bear the sin. It will be some small recompense for the great ill they did to all mankind when they murdered Our Lord on the cross."

Garcia's simple argument met with a great deal of popular sympathy though many people were surprised that such sentiments should escape the mouth of a Spaniard - for was not Spain the most liberal of lands in her treatment of the Jews?

The Christian Kingdoms of Castille, Leon, Toledo and Galicia

Ruler: Urraca, Queen of Castille, Leon, Toledo and Galicia

Capital: Ciudad Leon

Religion: Roman Catholic

Distrust was running high in Spain. King Alfono the Valiant trusted his Muslim southern neighbours about as far as he could spit them (and, since he was an old man of sixty-four, that was not very far at all). While he remained behind in the capital to see to the administration of the realm, he handed over control of the Royal Armies and all the levies and allied contingents to his daughter, Uracca. She immediately set off for Toledo to see to the defence of that precious city lest the Heathens attack.

With the girl sent on her way, Alfonso oversaw not only the general running of his Kingdoms but also dealt with external diplomacy. Emissaries from Pedro of Aragon were received and a treaty was concluded between the two Christian Kings of Spain. While the treaty did not specifically state that it was directed against the Almoravids, it nevertheless gave the distinct impression that the Christians expected war - under the terms of their treaty, each signatory would support the other in event of an attack by a third party. Hypothetically, such an agreement could be directed against anyone - for example the crazed Viking raiders who had recently touched the beaches of Navarre - but, for most people in Spain, it was clear enough whom the Christian Kings feared.

As if to emphasise his anxieties over the southern frontier, the King ordered that more castles and towers be brought into use in New Castille and Salamanca. Yet, the Castillians seemed to realise that walls and steel alone would not win keep them safe - diplomacy was required to win the hearts and minds of those who might otherwise support Castille's foes. So it was that the Muslim Emir of Salamanca received a visit from the Basque knight, Vedillo Gonsalves; Vedillo was a rare man - both a bold warrior and a silver-tongued courtier - and he engaged in many long discussions with the young Emir, who already owed fealty to the Christian King, and explained that the sophisticated Moorish potentates - such as the Emir - had more to fear from the damnable desert tribesmen than from their fellow-Spaniards in Castille. After all, the major difference between the Castillians and the Salamancans was a matter of religion - but the differences between the Salamancans and the Almoravids? Ha! They were too many to be counted (not that an illiterate people like the Almoravids could count in the first place)... The Emir could not help but admit that Vedillo's words were convincing and his arguments were sound, being based in the truth. Salamanca agreed to cooperate more fully with the Christian overlord, Alfonso the Valiant.

Not long after, many Muslims began to have reason to question the goodwill of the Castillians. In the Duchy of Portugal, an independent fief owing fealty to the Castillian Crown, priests began arriving in large numbers from Occitan and set about converting the local people. The Muslims did not rise in arms to protest this and, in fairness, it must be said that the Christian clerics applied no undue pressure and made no threats to gain converts (though this might have been because the Christian Duke, Henrique, had sent some of his men-at-arms to keep an eye on the clerics and make sure that his law-abiding and tax-paying subjects were not going to be provoked into revolt). All the same, it was irksome for many Mahometans to see their brothers commit apostasy and undergo, willingly or not, the Christian rites of "baptism" and "the eucharist".

Such were the only major events to take place in Castille-Leon... Except for a couple of important deaths. First, with 1106 not yet over, Queen Isabel of Castille died suddenly at the age of 36. This was a tragedy which no-one had really foreseen. The next death was rather different - some people had actually been waiting for it: 1109 was the year that the old King shuffled off this mortal coil at the age of 69. He had left behind a single male heir, Prince Sancho of Leon, who was 11 years of age. In the aftermath of Alfonso the Valiant's death, the nobles at court immediately elevated the young Prince to the throne and set about choosing a suitable regent from among their own number.

Unfortunately, they overlooked one small point. Or, to put it another way, they overlooked more than ten thousand points for that was how many soldiers were now following the Princess Urraca who claimed that the Crown was hers by right of inheritance (she was the eldest child and had been born of Alfonso's first marriage to Constance of Burgundy); and if anyone wished to question her legal rights, she pointed out that she had the support of the whole of the army and most of the lower-ranking nobles and knights. Urraca was not well-versed in matters of law and diplomacy but she understood that a moderately-large army could make for a most convincing argument in any court.

The great courtiers, rather than risk a civil war which they could not win, agreed to bow to Urraca and recognise her as rightful Queen with the proviso that she should make her half-brother Sancho her heir. Given that, at the age of 29, Urraca was not married and that there were no likely suitors on the horizon, she found this offer acceptable. On Christmas Day 1109, Urraca was crowned at the Abbey of Sahagun, in New Castille, by the Bishop Bernard of Toledo. With not a little rancour, most of the great courtiers tramped down to Toledo to kneel before her, pay homage and kiss the Regnal Ring on her extended hand while many hundreds of her soldiers looked on.

A troubling tranfer of power but, at least, not a bloody one.

The Christian Kingdoms of Aragon and Navarre

Ruler: Alfonso I, El Battalador, King of Aragon and Navarre

Capital: none

Religion: Roman Catholic

King Pedro was still steaming mad over the Viking raids on Navarre so he sent off Sanche Espada to investigate. Or, at least, he sent off Sanche Espada because he was the most hated and stupid boor in the whole of Spain and there was always the possibility that, if one packed him off to investigate the raiders, he might get himself into mortal danger and be murdered.

That done, there were important things to be done. The King of Aragon and Navarre shared the fears of his Brother Monarch in Castille - he worried about Almoravid aggression and, like the Castillians, he pursued the twin policies of improving his defences and building relations with his Muslim subjects. In the rich province of Catalonia especially, many new fine new towers were built and this raised a few question - Castille's defences were all along the southern frontier but the Navarrese were fortifying their northern border... Did this mean that they feared Occitan invasion? Or perhaps they worried that the Heathens of the Balearics would raid Barcelona? No-one knew.

In the city of Valencia, which had so recently provided Alfonso the Warrior with a bride, efforts at building bridges with the Kingdom's Muslim subjects went on apace when Alfonso and his wife not only returned to the city but virtually set up a home there! Although the city was independent, Christian Alfonso became a familiar face at all the councils of the city's rulers. Through gentle words of persuasion, he was able to convince the Valencians to raise troops from amongst the city's inhabitant - Muslim and Christian alike - and to join with the Christian Kingdoms in a defensive arrangement to protect all their lands from invasion by the Almoravids. The Valencians, while they would have preferred independence, were definitely convinced that they were better as autonomous allies of the Christians than as their conquered subjects. And, anyway, at least the Aragonese and Navarrese were not so fervent in their beliefs as the Castillians...

In military matters, commmand of King Pedro's army was assumed by the knight, Ramiro Sanchez (who happened to be married to the daughter of Rodrigo Vivar, El Cid). The Aragonese and Navarrese pursued the unusual defensive tactic of actually reducing the number of men under arms. Yet, there was method in the madness: faced with great hordes of infantry raised from the feudal levies of the nobles, Caballero Ramiro simply dismissed most of them; all those who had not seen service in a battle were sent home (for what use were "raw" troops?) and then he began re-equipping the few who met his criteria in a heavier fashion - their light spears were thrown aside in favour of heavy pikes and each man received a helmet and a coat of mail. The archers and crossbowmen underwent similar treatment with all the unsuitables being weeded out - Ramiro drilled the archers intensely from dawn 'til dusk each day and every day excepting only Sundays and Saints' Days when he would allow the men to attend Mass before throwing them back to the archery range. Those who could hit their mark accurately and consistently despite fatigue were retained to serve the Crown; those who could not were dismissed. The great host of Aragonese knights was untouched by this policy of "weeding out" the unworthy. They, of course, were of noble birth and inherently worthy.

Back at court, His Majesty oversaw the expansion of the government. Many more clerks were recruited and additional ministers and officials - all from non-aristocratic backgrounds - were appointed to oversee different aspects of the state. The overall effect was to allow the King to leave the workaday business of government in the hands of these educated professionals thus freeing His Majesty up for other busines... And, in this connexion, Queen Berta bore the King a new each year from from 1106 to 1109 (inclusive)! Four sons for Pedro in as many years - things just couldn't get much better than that. Tragically, in 1109 King Pedro died on the Feast of St. Stephen, at the age of forty, after choking to death on some Moorish sweets. He would never get to see his sons grow up and the fault could be laid squarely at the feet of the Heathens (who made such deliciously tempting sweets with honey and almonds). The right to succeed Pedro was claimed by Alfonso the Warrior, His Majesty's brother and nominated heir. No-one objected - both because Alfonso was popular and because he was legally entitled to the Crown - but a few people wondered who would succeed Alfonso. Would he pass the Crown to his own son, also named Alfonso, or would it return to Pedro's bloodline and one of his four sons?

The al-Murabit Berber Sultanate

Ruler: Sultan Yusuf ibn Tashufin

Capital: none

Religion: Sunni Islam

The Spanish Muslims, it turned out, were just as distrustful as their Christian neighbours. The Sultan took command of his extremely large army - which combined a lot of his own Berber cavalry and camelry with huge numbers of local levies of footmen and slave soldiers - and oversaw the distribution of heavier armour, helms and weapons to the foot component.

In matters of government, the al-Murabit Sultan granted functioning independence to the city of Fez - his only demand being that they should continue to provide the Sultanate with troops and an annual tribute. The poverty-stricken region of Estremadura, meanwhile, was granted as a personal emirate to the well-known Berber jurist, Massoed ibn-Nabil-d'Ishoa, who had only recently returned from a long excursion to the Sahel where he spent many long months in religious dialogues with many of the tribes and clans who wandered the vicinity. Massoed was not exactly impressed at being given this worthless fiefdom but he accepted it in the spirit in which it was given.

And little else happened until, during the Autumn of 1107, a flotilla of Christian warships descended on the Andalusian coast. The Infidel dogs were obviously bent on loot, rapine and depredations of all kind but they had failed to foresee the extent to which the Almoravids had fortified this important province - thirty great castles guarded Andalusia and they were a formidable obstacle for any would-be raider. Too, Yusuf ibn Tashufin himself was prowling around the region half-expecting that someone would try to attack him; he disposed of a formidable army of twenty thousand men and they rushed at once to teach the Infidels a lesson... It was purely by luck that these raiders, whose identity remained unclear, escaped back out to sea (where, from the safety of their ships, they made obscene gestures to the Muslims and shouted remarks about Muslim women being good in bed before sailing off northwards).

Yusuf, in the aftermath of the attempted raid, was fuming with rage and almost made ready to march north against the Castillians or maybe the Aragonese. As time passed and his temper abated, he gradually came to the conclusion that the raiders, though Infidel Nazarene dogs, were not Spanish. Whether they were allies or hirelings of the Spanish Christians was quite another question. Some of the more level-headed Almoravid jurists and tribal elders remarked that they had heard rumours of Norse raids on Navarre a few years before; it could be, they suggested, that the filthy Norsemen had tired of despoiling the poor Christian North and had opted to try their luck on the wealthy Moorish provinces...

NORTH AFRICA

The Zirid Emirate of Tunisia

Ruler: Tamin ibn Zirid, Emir of Tunisia

Capital: Tunis

Religion: Sunni Islam

Yet again, the Hautevilles of Sicily visited Tunisia and burnt, raped and pillaged. The damage was not so great as in the last set of raids and attacks but, still, it was painful for the Emir to behold such horro and for his people to have to undergo such hardships. He began to contemplate making some diplomatic overture to the Count of Sicily, now fully grown into his patrimony....

The Fatimid Caliphate of Cairo

Ruler: Al'Amir, Commander of the Faithful, Whirlwind of God, Caliph of All Islam

Capital: Cairo

Religion: Shi'a Islam

Al' Mustali had much on his mind. The Burids of Damascus, who had come into control of Sinai only by nefarious means, were now refusing to return the province to its rightful suzerain - the Caliph of Cairo. It wasn't as though his rule was oppressive - he didn't even want tribute but just freedom-of-passage for his armies. Soon enough, His Highness was told of the refurbishments to Damietta and his rage reached a feverpitch - had these Heretical dogs no sense of decency? Well, they would be taught a lesson! War was proclaimed against the Syrians. The deeply-respected Al' Hafiz, a man of the most intense religious convictions and uncompromising sense of personal honour, was appointed to command the expedition. (See the Syrian Wars for details!).

Much else happened in the Caliphate while the war was being prepared and, indeed, waged. His Majesty recruited some quite magnificent Mameluke warriors - 200 mounted men to form a personal bodyguard and a further 1,200 muscle-bound, scimitar-wielding footmen to crush dissent wherever it might raise its treacherous head. The Mameluke corps of City Guards came to be identified by the crimson turbans and black robes; never smiling nor engaging in idle speech, their very presence on a street was enough to drive even honest and loyal Shi'ites scurrying for fear of attracting their attention. And, to be fair, there was much business for these gentlemen (who, as it happened, were all eunuchs) for half-a-dozen plots of varying degrees were uncovered between 1106 and 1108 varying from attempts by Damascene agents to poison His Highness to a most bizarre effort in which five smiling Nubians were uncovered hiding in a Nile dhow - they swore that they had merely come to see the sights of the big city but turned out to have detailed maps of the Caliph's palace and a rota - a frighteningly precise rota! - explaining when the guards would be changed (of course, the rota was out-of-date since it failed to take into account that the Mamelukes would take over every aspect of guarding the Caliph's person and palace). Closer examination showed them to be equipped with ropes, grappling irons, short swords, garrottes and copious supplies of dark robes. They swore blind (on their mothers' graves!) that these were for self-defence since they were innocent foreigners in a huge city and they had no idea what kinds of rascals and scallywags they might run across. The captain of the company who uncovered them remarked that, for ignorant foreigners, their knowledge of the colloquial Arabic of Cairo was amazing and swiftly lodged them in the City Gaol where they suffered the fate that all spies deserve just a short while later.

Happier news came in two forms - firstly, from the Sultan's seraglio where he saw a son born for each year from 1106-1109 (inclusive); secondly, the nominated heir Al' Amir showed up in southern Egypt after his sojourn in Dunquhla. He was accompanied by a group of Makourian advisers who said that they had come to help him overthrow Al'Mustali and raise himself to the throne. For all their grand plans, as soon as Al'Amir came within spitting distance of a Fatimid garrison, he had his erstwhile companions arrested and put to death. To escape Praetextatus' clutches, he had falsely agreed to help the Makourians undermine the Caliphate.... Unfortunately, as soon as he got back to Cairo, the treacherous pup, now rid of those annoying Copts, promptly set about trying to raise a revolt all on his own! He enjoyed but little success and was cast into the cells to await the Caliph's pleasure. Although Amir should surely have been executed, Mustali and all his generals were bending his mind to the task of throwing back the Infidel invasion of Africa which had already taken Ad'Diffah and now threatened Egypt itself! With the defence of Alexandria and Cairo upmost in his mind, Al' Mustali allowed his traitorous heir to live a little longer.

And the Christian invasion was, indeed, the other really important piece of news in Egypt... (see Bacqueville's Expedition to Africa for details).

Bacqueville's Expedition to Egypt 1107-1109

April 1107: The Pisan fleet came to rest off the rugged Libyan coast. The Norman knights and men-at-arms who packed the gunwhales got their first glance of Africa and the distant Jebel Akdar range, rising far above the gravel desert. The fleet put in at the little port of Cyrene and Hildebrand de Bacqueville began, with no particular hurry, the long and laborious process of unloading the men, horses, equipment and supplies which had been allocated for this grand campaign. He was joined by the Venetian Admiral Scalini with a regiment of Venetian marines, about a thousand Veronese knights who had volunteered for the campaign and a trayne of two thousand sappers and artificers.

The local Arabs watched with something like bemusement (or perhaps amusement?). They seemed unable to work out quite what these strapping iron-clad Infidels were doing in Libya but, for the most part, they were content to enjoy the show. So long as the Christians did not interfere with the locals, the locals would not interfere with the Christians...

It was most lamentable, therefore, that Pepe's Pisan fleet brough not only the flower of Norman chivalry but a number of Italian friars and Roman clerics who set about preaching to the locals. In the towns of Benghazi and Cyrene, the Christian attempts at conversion were seen as annoying but there was no reaction. Beyond the settlements, though, in the desert and mountains where the Bedu tribes dwelt, there was much anger at the grievous insults that the Unbelievers were heaping upon the Faithful of Allah. Some of the more bellicose clans began to talk of war while even the most pacific chieftains (and there were very few of those) rankled at the arrogance of the Pisans. It took only a little while before the Libyan Bedu tribesmen were in open revolt against their Pisan sovereigns and the Norman army they had introduced to the region.

While such affairs were going on, the Venetians were already haring around the Eastern Mediterranean snatching up any and all Egyptian merchantmen they ran across. Attempts to bring the Fatimid fleet to battle failed when the Mahometans, who were both outnumbered and outclassed, withdrew into the Mouths of the Nile and back to the great city and fortress of Cairo. Venetian attempts to pursue were doomed because the keels of their larger vessels were simply too deep in the water to allow entry to the Delta and, frankly, neither of the fleet's two admirals wanted to risk entry to the river without the support of their largest warships for they saw, on either bank, the seemingly endless castles, towers and strongholds which the Fatimids had been putting in place recently....

May-June 1107: Bacqueville was fairly fuming. A few careless words from some fat Italian priests and the whole of Libya was in arms against him! He knew that his men were more than capable of crushing the revolt but he resented the time he was losing - every day spent in the subjugation of the tribals was a day when he ought to have been marching through the Fatimid Empire. Worst of all, he had heard rumours and stories that the Cairenes were tied down in a war against some other band of Infidels. But for this revolt, he might have marched on Alexandria unopposed and taken his foe by surpise! Now, though, the Heathen Emperor, Al' Mustali, would have plenty of warning - the Cairenes would hear all about the arrival of the Normans, the revolt of the Libyans and, without a doubt, they would summon their armies home to defend Egypt. Nothing could be done about it now so Hildebrand resolved to accept the situation but he knew that the campaign had been made unnecessarily difficult by the actions of these boneheaded clerics.

For a couple of months, the Apulians engaged in a bothersome campaign against the Libyan natives. The Bedu staged attacks on Hildebrand's supply traynes and outlying picket and sentry posts but, due to their small numbers, Norman victory was never, truly, in doubt. Many hundreds of tribesmen were slain by the armour-clad Normans and, by the end of June, Hildebrand had installed his own garrison in the region and proclaimed that it would, henceforth, pay fealty to His Grace the Duke of Calabria and Apulia.

Pepe the Mad, who had hared off to join the Venetians around Cyprus, lived up to his nickname when he heard that the Normans had annexed Libya, which Pisa claimed as her own. Some of his officers tried to explain that Bacqueville had no choice but to install Norman troops to guard the place in the wake of the uprising but all that Pepe saw was the typically arrogant behaviour of the bastard Normans. It was an affront to himself, his fleet and the Republic. He stuck around to help in the war only because of his eagerness to take part in the plundering of the Egyptian merchant lanes.

September 1107-April 1108: The Normans pressed on with the advance and reached Ad' Diffah, a desert province which was not merely Muslim but an actualy part of the Cairene Caliphate. There were few to oppose them and the local tribesmen, unlike those in Libya, saw no particular reason to stick their necks out on behalf the Shi'ite Caliph. It took very little effort to bring the region under Norman contol nor was it a difficult task to find a few local chieftains who, though naturally wary of the foreigners, were willing to govern on behalf of the occupying force.

September also saw the arrival of the Fatimid General, Al' Hafiz, in Egypt. Fresh from defeat in the Sinai, he snatched up most of the garrison from Cairo and, without even paying his respects to the Caliph, swept off across the Nile and began preparing to repulse the invading Normans.

May 1108-April 1109: Pressing into the heartland of the Mahometan Unbeliever, Hildebrand kept his army close to the Mediterranean littoral whence he could receive supplies and maintain lines of the communication with the several hundred Christian warships in the Gulf of Cyprus.

Blocking the coastal road to Alexandria, though, was a whole series of forts and castles now garrisoned and supported by the additional troops Al'Hafiz had brought. The campaign that followed was long, drawn-out and bloody. Some castles fell to the waves of Norman besiegers while others managed to repulse one assault after another. Heat, thirst and Egyptian steel all took their toll on the invader but the simple, brutal martial skill of the Norman knights ensured that the Saracen did not escape unscathed either. In all, each side lost about a third of their combatants in the year-long pushing match across the sands of Egypt with the Saracens losing, in addition, about half-a-dozen of their castles to the Apulians and their damnable Venetian engineers.

By April of 1109, Hildebrand de Bacqueville was forced to accept that he had failed to defeat the Fatimids. He would have continued the campaign had it been possible but his army did not share his enthusiasm. After a year of constant battle, losses to sickness and warfare, separation from their homes and fiefs in Italy, the Apulian-Calabrian Ducal army wanted nothing more than to fall back to Ad'Diffah and perhaps await reinforcements. Too, there were considerable divisions between the large Apulian force and the smaller Venetian contingent - the Norman nobles and professional soldiers looked down with disdain on the artificers and the cowardly Veronese knights (this was actually a slander - the Veronese had acquitted themselves with much courage during the campaign but they were considerably less able than the Normans). The Venetians, though, had not been blameless and had, on more than one occasion, outright refused to accept orders from the Apulian noblemen unless and until their own commander, Admiral Scalini, had approved things.

So it was, then, that the Christians fell back into Ad'Diffah leaving Al'Hafiz to revel in the knowledge that, having failed his master in the Sinai campaign, he had more than redeemed himself by repulsing the Infidels depredations.

April of 1109 saw not only the retreat of the Christian field army but a joint raid by the Pisans and Venetians on Mansura. There were few regular Fatimid forces in this rich province but castles aplenty dotted the coast and eastern bank of the Nile. As the Italians descended, some local militias were rustled up to help man the castles. Things did not go well for the Christians - the Pisan Vice-Consul did not wish to co-operate with the Venetians while Admiral Aliano, of the Serene Republic, was not enthusiastic about sharing the booty he hoped to wrench from the province. In fact, tensions were so extreme that Pepe the Mad outright refused to participate in the Venetian landing but insisted that he would stage his own separate raids elsewhere while the the Venetians put ashore not only sailors but a strong corps of marines and even some pirates and mercenaries in the pay of the Serenissima. Some little damage was done to Mansura - a few villages were burnt, the palaces of some Shi'a grandees sacked and the valuables carried off; the Venetians were even lucky enough to capture the seraglio of a Cairene nobleman and dragged off the women to be sold in the slave pits of Marseilles. For all that, the damage was relatively superficial and the two Italian forces withdrew at about the same time. After staring at one another a little while in a fog of mutual mistrust, both departed for their respective cities.

February 1110: Al'Mustali had been most distressed by events of late - the war with the Christians had been a close-run thing and, he noted with more than a trace of irony, if Al'Hafiz had succeeded in the Sinai and had pressed into the heart of the Burid Emirate, there would have been no army - or almost none - left to defend Egypt herself. The Caliph was not truly a man of action - he loved the comforts of the palace and the favours of the harem-girls; he relied on his personal acuity and an intimate knowledge of the politics of Cairo and the palace to maintain his position. War was simply not a thing in which he could take delight and he was perturbed at exactly how close he had come to having to lead out an army against the Normans. Indeed, the Normans might well return in greater numbers than before...

One night, in the last week of February, His Highness, the Caliph of All Islam, retired to his chamber. Feeling a trifle unwell, he declined any female company. When slaves came to wake their master in the morning, they found him cold and dead. It was a disaster for the Caliphate (the death of a Caliph was always a disaster for the successions tended to be messy....).

March 1110: Things in Cairo had been tense since the Caliph's death - there was no immediate successor and any number of lesser relatives of the dead Al'Mustali had begun to foment plans which, they hoped, would elevate them to the throne.

Al' Mansur was not a member of the Caliph's family but he was a very well-known and influential Cairene courtier (by chance, it had been his harem that the Venetians had carried off in the preceeding April). He also happened, quite unexpectedly, to find himself in command of what passed for the Fatimid fleet in Cairo at the time of the Caliph's death. In a sudden and vicious act of treachery, Al'Mansur led a party of sailors on a rampage through the Caliph's palace where he and his men butchered every Fatimid prince and princeling that they could find - all, that is, except for one very distant seven year old cousin of Al'Mustali. While the palace's floors and gardens ran red with royal blood, Al' Mansur proclaimed the little boy the new Caliph (with he, Al'Mansur, as Vizier and Regent). But his treachery was not to go unpunished...

Al'Hafiz was far from happy at these activities and, with his fairly large army, seized Alexandria and managed to grab half of Cairo. The problem, though, was that Al'Hafiz, though he acted on behalf of the "true Caliph", had not the faintest idea who the true Caliph was! He was aware that Mansur could not be allowed to elevate himself to such high office and he felt, in his bones, that the massacre of the royal family must be avenged but, ultimately, poor Hafiz was a loyalist with no-one to be loyal to... Until he realised that, within the Great Gaol of Cairo, languished Al'Amir, one-time heir to Al'Mustali and now disgraced as a traitor...

Hafiz measured up his options - he had two traitors between whom to choose. It was not an attractive position but Amir at least was of the proper bloodline so, in the end, he opted to free Amir and have proclaimed the new Caliph. Mansur did not take it well and refused to yield or acknowledge Amir's right to rule for he guessed that the army would not fight for the unpopular traitor-prince and, in one way, he was correct - the Fatimid army cared nothing for Al'Amir but they believed very much in their beloved general, Al'Hafiz, and, when he ordered them to begin subduing the mutinous sailors, they obeyed without question.

A couple of days of fighting followed during which the sailors were gradually pushed back and, finally, put to flight. Al'Mansur blockaded himself in the palace where he was killed out of hand by the enraged Fatimid army. The child pretender was taken prisoner. If anyone had expected lenient treatment for one of such tender years, they were soon disappointed. Al'Amir, who could hardly believe that he had reclaimed his position after falling so far from grace, drowned the child personally to ensure that there could be no impediment to his ascension. When the navy found out what had happened, they opted for the easiest course and surrendered. Amir swiftly accepted their oaths of loyalty and rewarded Al'Hafiz with the considerable estates of the now-dead Al'Manusr. Hafiz muttered something about not having done it for the reward but accepted anyway....

Exciting times in Egypt, to be sure.

WEST AFRICA

The Kanem Empire

Ruler: Sefawa King of the Kanemi

Capital: Ngazargumu

Religion: Sunni Islam

Slept.

The Hausa States

Ruler: Dunama Dibbalemi, Sarkis of Daura, Paramount Chieftain of the Hausa tribes

Capital: none

Religion: African Pagan

Slept.

The Songhai Emirate of Gao

Ruler: Nkruma Muhammad, Emir of Gao

Capital: none

Religion: Sunni Islam

Nkruma ordered that many new levies be made upon the subject clans. Too, Arab noblemen and Bedu horse tribes were called to do their duty for their suzerain while, from the schools of Timbuktu, scores of men versed in the building and siegecraft were conscripted. It was obvious to all, now, that the war against Ghana was to be reopened. Some had thought that His Highness would be satisfied with having overrun the province of Segu but he would never be satisfied until he had broken the power of the Infidel Kingdom once and for all. Songhai alone would dominate the Sahel. No rival would be brooked and certainly no superstitious pagan dogs.

The Emir's son, Tournami, waited in Segu for reinforcements to arrive. Lamentably, it was May of 1108 before they arrived. Nkruma had ordered the loyal vizier, Okoto the Eunuch, to lead the reinforcements to the theatre of war but Okoto had gone off to Gorouol to continue the diplomatic pressure on the local animists. The trip to Gorouol was not in vain for the natives agreed to align their economies with that of the Emirate while retaining effective political independence.

In news away from the war, Nkruma personally oversaw the reorganisation of the Emirate's tax-gathering system. Each and every village in the Emirate was visited by His Highness' representatives and the number of inhabitants and relative wealth of each place was assessed. In the course of events, the officials of the government worked out that the Emir had not been receiving his full dues from his subjects and set about gathering the full and proper revenues.

Last but not least, the Emir was became father to no less than four children born in as many years! Two sons, in 1106 and 1108, and two daughters in 1107 and 1109. Joyous news indeed!

The Ghanaian Empire

Ruler: Niyabinghi, King of Ghana

Capital: Kumbi Saleh

Religion: African Pagan

Niyabinghi wondered how his people would remember him. In a hundred years time, would the inhabitants of Kumbi-Saleh venerate him as the great King who drove back the Muslim invader or would Ghana fall to the invading horde so that even his own descendants would be forced to worship the God of the Arabs and would curse him as a pagan and Infidel?

Truly, the war with the Arab Emir of Songhai was not a war for land or gold but for the soul of the Ghanaian nation - it was a war for the defence of their ancient way of life and ancestral cults... Defeat would mean the extinction not of a kingdom but of a people. And, sadly, Niyabinghi could envision no way of securing victory over the invader. Nevertheless, he did all the things expected of a King - he appointed Kwabena as commander of the armies and raised close to 2,000 infantry in expectation of an attack. Kwabena threw himself into the task of repulsing the expected attack from Segu. Reports began to filter through, beginning in May of 1108, that the Songhai army was finally on the move to finish the war. It was July of 1108 before the enemy assault began.

The Songhai host advanced in a very leisurely manner - there was no made rush for the capital. Rather, the campaign was spread out and the army sought to advance no more than a few miles each day. The region's various mud forts had mostly been reduced or destroyed in the previous abortive Songhai campaign and only a couple still remained. Prince Tourmani was pleased when he realised that his siege trayne was actually significantly larger than necessary for the task. Slowly and with great care to avoid casualties, the walls of these two forts were undermined by the engineers. When the walls were caused to collapse, the warrior of Songhai moved in - a curious mixture of Arabs, African Muslim converts, plenty of native pagans and even a few slave soldiers. They showed no discipline, mainly because they didn't need any, but tore through the breached ramparts in a shrieking mob waving their iron axes, spears and swords wildly. No mercy was shown to the defenders.

The briefest of battles was fought at the village of Argungu. The Ghanaians, outnumbered but determined to resist valiantly, deployed their forces (four thousand mixed foot) against a Muslim army of four thousand infantry equipped for close combat, eight hundred Bedouin horsemen with cane bows, six hundred mounted Arab noblemen and about fifteen hundred sappers and artificers.

The Bedouin horsemen took some pleasure in picking holes in the Infidel formation while remaining too far away and too fast moving for the few Ghanaian archers to hit. Eventually, Tourmani signalled the advance of his infantry and a flank attack by his cavalry. It took twenty minutes for the entire Ghanaian army to collapse into a rout. The entire Kingdom followed suit. King Niyabinghi was seized by a handful of loyal tribesmen who dragged him from the field and charged off to the goldfields of Boure where they hoped to find the resources to continue the struggle. Kwabena and what little remained of the army retreated, harried by the Arabs every step of the way, to the low walls of Kumbi-Saleh.

Tourmani arrived outside the city the following day and began a simple but effective blockade. The city surrendered after four months of siege though Kwabena himself managed to escape into the bush and, thence, into the forests and jungles which no empire claimed.

Of the remaining Ghanaian provinces, the tribes of Khalem declared their indepence and swore they'd have no part in support Niyabinghi (in this way, they hoped to convince the Muslims to spare them). Boure and Sankarani continued, for the present, to support their rightful King.

The Kingdom of Benin

Ruler: Edewa, Oba of Benin

Capital: Benin

Religion: African Pagan

Slept.

The Yoruba Kingdom of Ife

Ruler: Oranmiyan, Oba of Oyo and Ife, Lord of the First Men

Capital: Ife

Religion: African Pagan

Slept.

The Akan States

Ruler: Paramount Chieftain of the Akan Tribes

Capital: none

Religion: African Pagan

Slept.

EASTERN & SOUTHERN AFRICA

The Eparchate of Makouria

Ruler: Praetextatus I, the Negus Negesti, Eparch of Makouria

Capital: Dunquhla

Religion: Coptic Christian

The Eparch had, as his "guest", the Fatimid Prince Al'Amir captured by the young Domestikos Nazares during the campaign in Danakil. Now, though, he had to work out exactly what to do with this august captive. Demands had been brought from Cairo to release the Prince or face war. The Cairenes had made no mention of ransom and that irked the Negus Negesti severely.

Fearing for the safety of his people, Praetextatus send forth messages to his Brother-King, Marari of Abyssinia, offering alliance and seeking succour in this time when the good and righteous servants of the Lord were oppressed by the Unbeliever just as the Tribes of Israel had been oppressed in days gone by. By May of 1107, the Eparch was rewarded by the sight of 5,000 Abyssinian warriors arriving at Dunquhla. The Highlanders looked bold enough and the Negus assumed that they would acquit themselves honourably in battle but their equipment was not so well-made as that of the Makourians. Too, their discipline left something to be desired. Still, it did not do to be overly fussy; whatever their failings, these were Christians and warriors who had travelled further from their homes than they had ever thought possible in order to defend the Makourians - a people of whom most knew nothing except that they shared a Faith in the Lord of Hosts.

Shortly after the arrival of the Abyssinians, rumour of war floated down the Nile. The Cairenes had marched off to war against the Emirs of legendary Damascus while another army, apparently of Christians, had landed somewhere to the west of Egypt and had begun an invasion of the Fatimid lands! The Eparchate was very far removed from the centre of events and the reports that arrived in dusty Dunquhla were usually not entirely reliable; this being so, Praetextatus was unclear how much store he should set by these accounts. If they were true, and Christians now warred on Egypt, he wondered who the invaders could be - perhaps the Byzantines?

In any case, at long last His Majesty decided to release the captive Amir. The Prince and The Eparch had spent many long hours during the former's captivity closeted in private dialogues. It was assumed that Al'Amir had been able to prevail upon the Eparch to release him out of the goodness of his heart.... Just before Amir was making his preparations to departed, he was to have met with Timurat Nicetius, the renowned cavalry commander, but the meeting never took place for Timurat had been killed after his horse stumbled on a rock and threw him. He broke his neck and was dead within minutes. Amir was most sorry but set off northwards anyway.

The Christian Empire of Abyssinia

Ruler: Marari, All-Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, King of the Highlands, Negusa Negest, Guardian of the Ark of the Covenant, Emperor of Abyssinia

Capital: Aksum

Religion: Coptic Christian

The Lion of Judah was approaching old age - in fact, having lived more than fifty Summers, he was considered by some to have passed into his dotage long ago. He considered that he had spent a good life and had done good deeds for he had defended his people from the depredations of the Mussulmen. Many a time he had led out the clans and tribes under his banner - the banner of Christ - and repulsed the incursions of the Muslim dogs of Saylac. Through Marari's courage, dedication and steadfast faith, the people of the Highlands could live in peace and practise the True Faith without fear.

Now he was presented with a new challenge for the emissaries from Nubian Makouria had come seeking alliance and the spears of Abyssinian warriors to defend their great citadel of Dunquhla from the Caliph of distant Cairo. In the monastery by Lake Hayq, the Nubian ambassadors waited while the Lion of Judah contemplated what course to follow: on the one hand, Marari felt obliged to defend fellow believers against the overweening Infidel; on the other, he had to consider that his people might suffer if they came to the attention of a much larger empire - and this was quite likely to happen if he allowed his people to be sucked into war... The Emperor thought and prayed long and hard before arriving at a decision.

"I shall send forth five thousand Abyssinian spears," he explained to the assembled Abyssinian nobles and clergy and the Makourian emissaries. "My faithful Seyoum will lead them to the city of the Nubians and, together, the Believers might drive back the onslaught of the Faithless and in the churches of our Nubian brethren, the warriors of the Highlands shall give prayers of thanks to the Lord who is Mighty in Battle."

Truly, there seemed little choice to Marari. He was a simple and pious man. He disliked the effeteness and pretensions of the Makourians but they were his Brothers in Christ. He could not abandon them to the Infidel. In his heart, Marari almost expected that his loyal chieftain, Seyoum, and the five thousand bold warriors would meet their end in distant Nubia and that the day might yet come when he himself fell in bloody combat against the Egyptian foemen. Yet if such was the Will of the Lord, what could a simple man do but play his part with piety and honour? A formal treaty detailing the nature of the alliance was drawn up by the Makourians and Marari placed his signature though he had little time for legalistic quibblings and clauses. Shortly thereafter, the Abyssinian contingent began trailing out of Aksum, heading northwest around the shores of the Holy Lake and towards the plains and the faroff city of Dunquhla. At their head, the young Seyoum, a popular man, a brave fighter and a fiercely competent general.

While the army was off doing its duty, Marari took a trip to Walaga to visit the vassal Princes of the region. With some hard bargaining and much effort, he was able to convince them to yield up just a little of their independence and come more fully under the protective wing of Abyssinia. As part of the agreement, the foremost family of the province sent one of their fine daughters to become the bride of Crown Prince Aeizanas, Marari's son and the heir to the throne.

Little else happened though the Lion of Judah waited for messengers to come from the north informing him of battle, slaughter and terrible losses. It was with some relief that he heard the news that the Cairenes were bogged down in many other wars and had not yet turned their attention southwards.

The Zanj States

Ruler: Khalifah bin Haroub, Emir of Zanzibar

Capital: Zanzibar

Religion: Sunni Islam

Amongst the wealthy confederation of Muslim trading cities on the East African coast, things were satisfyingly quiet. In his opulent palace in Zanzibar, Emir Khalifah bin Haroub continued to do little but dwell in luxury and enjoy the attentions of harem girls. In theory, he and his brother (the heir, Aazaad bin Haroub) had undertaken the reins of government and should have been sitting in judgement on legal cases, drafting laws, counting the tribute and tax revenues as they drifted in... In practice, the wily Emir had hired a large number of new civil servants, quick-minded Arabs who dealt with the day-to-day running of the expanding state, and they relieved the Emir and Prince of all their most pressing duties except, of course, the most sacred duty - to enjoy all the many pleasures of wine, women and sweet fruits which Allah had placed before them. So busy with these activities was His Highness, the Emir, that he barely managed to find any time to spend with his dear wife. Only one child, a daughter who came along in 1110, was born to the couple. The ladies of the harem, of course, helped increase the progeny of the Emir in the most exponential manner.

To Mombassa, the eunuch Minister Bakr was sent to seek a closer rapprochement with the subjects tribes of the interior in the region of Mombassa. The local Bantu tribes were, at varying times, allies, enemies, sources of slaves but always tributary, always subjects of Muslim Zanzibar. After spending a great deal of time in deep and demanding negotiations with these unhappy folk, Bakr was able to extract a promise to serve the Emirate faithfully; the tribes, under a particulary able chieftain named Kgosi Knyara, agreed to field some 1,500 local warriors in service to the Arab Emir across on the island. By making such a large commitment, the Bantu tribes hoped desperately to avoid any future slave raids. Whether their actions would prove fruitful, only time would tell. To be sure, certain dikgosi (Bantu Kings) wondered whether they were not, in fact, betraying the small semblance of independence they had inherited from their fathers and hastening the day when they would be forced to adopt the religion of the Arabs who had dragged so many of their children away to toil in slavery in the distant and legendary lands of Yemen, Egypt and Persia.

Of course, slavery was never far away from the minds of the princes of the Zanj States. Trade was the lifeblood of the Zanj cities and the most important trade was in human beings. So, it was hardly a surprise when 2,000 swift-moving and lightly-armed Zanj warriors and 20 coastal dhows were prepared for a slaving expedition; 8 large ships were taken along and though empty on the outbound trip, few who saw the vessels being prepared in the harbour of Zanzibar had any doubt that they would return laden with fresh captives.

The General, Kaliq, led the expedition but not westwards to the interior, whence slaves were traditionally taken. Rather, he led them north and spent the greater part of 1106 harassing the region of Ras Hafun, a Muslim region! The raiders moved quickly enough that there was no opportunity for the tribes to organise any effective resistance. Soon, from the villages of the littoral and from the wandering tribes who drove their cattle through the arid interior, many hundreds of captives were taken - men, women and children alike. Nor did the Zanj raiders show any compunction about enslaving their co-religionists. Winding columns of newly-taken slaves were driven down to the beaches to be loaded into cargo ships and transported to the slave pits and markets of Zanzibar. Iron collars were locked around their necks while chains at the wrist and ankle linked all the members of each column together. The adults would likely be forced to toil in the plantations of Zanzibar until they died from overwork and were replaced by yet more human livestock. The unlucky ones would be sold on to the Middle East where they might expect to be used in gangs on dangerous and laborious tasks such as mining or the collection of salt from the coastal flats of southern Iraq. If the lives of those who remained in the Zanj States would be short and painful, those who were shipped northwards across the sea would be ten times worse for no Zanj slave ever survived more than five years under the lash of the Persians and Arabs. Yet, if the captives were worried for themselves, how much greater was their distress when they realised what would befall their children! Surely their sons would be castrated that they might become harem guards while their daughters would be raised up to become playthings in those selfsame seraglios.

The natives of Rus Hafun could see their fates stretching out before them... It was a bit odd, really, since they had always been certain that slavers would never touch them for they were Muslim... But the path Allah lays out is long and cannot be easily understood.

The Cwezi Dynasty of Kitara

Ruler: Tzuto Cwezi, King of Kitara and Great Chieftain of the Ten Tribes of the Mask

Capital: Kasese

Religion: African Pagan

Tzuto was displeased with his realm. The tribes who owed him fealty were scattered across a wide and rugged land, thick with jungle; they wandered from place to place with each season, always seeking fresh pastures for their herds of cattle. This made it very difficult for Tzuto to stamp his authority on his people in any meaningful way - although many tribes called him their King and Great Chieftain, he seldom had any idea where his erstwhile subjects actually were at any given time. It was time for the tribes to become more sedentary...

And so His Majesty, with all the members of the Royal Household, his retainers, their families, his dozen wives and countless sons, his herds of cattle and his bold warriors, moved down to the village of Kasese on the shores of the Great Lake. Kasese was large, by the standards of Kitara, and the people made their living by a mixture of fishing, pastoral farming and gold-panning. Sometimes, once or twice every decade, a handful of Arab traders might even slip into Kasese to buy gold or salt or slaves or the carapaces of tortoises in return for iron or textiles. To Tzuto's cunning mind, it seemed that, if he wanted the power of the Kingship to become more thoroughly concentrated on himself, he must create a great royal centre to which all the tribes, as well as foreign emissaries and traders, could come to pay their tribute and Kasese was the place he had chosen to become his capital.

All the members of the Cwezi family and their attendants and kindred clans settled in Kasese and, before long, a royal cult had sprung up centred on the veneration of the King and his ancestors. From the hinterland and the jungle, pastoral tribes were soon coming to Kasese to offer declarations of their continued loyalty to their King and to worship and sacrifice at the altars of the royal cult. Tzuto saw with increasingly pleasure that, at least once a year (and sometimes more than that), each and every tribe would visit Kasese to trade, to worship, to pay fealty or whatever; hence, their movements became more predictable and they ranged less widely across Ankolye. Kasese itself became a major centre for trade between the various Kitaran tribes - the clans might sell cattle, meat, ivory or slaves in the marketplace or they might wander the town's streets seeking out likely-looking grooms for their daughters. And, of course, in the King's Great City, all men obeyed the King's Peace so that even clans who were traditionally hostile to one another were forced to treat one another with respect within the environs of Kasese.

Tzuto himself, and his loyal minister Tchamba, crossed the Great Lake to visit their cousins in Burundi. The tribes were kindred, with those on either side of the Lake being part of the Ten Tribes of the Great Mask, but the links had long been sundered and none could remember a time when they had been anything other than the most distant of neighbours. Now, though, Tzuto sought to resurrect the ties between them. The chieftains of Burundi listened to the words of Tzuto, to his great plans for the future, and they were impressed enough to agree to send an annual tribute westwards across the lake. Tzuto felt well pleased with this and realised that he was obviously the man who would lead the Ten Tribes to glory everlasting!

The Sulahyid Emirate of Yemen

Ruler: Sayyida Arwa, Queen of Yemen

Capital: none.

Religion: Shi'a Islam

Slept.

The Sultanate of Adal

Ruler: Sultan of Adal

Capital: Saylac

Religion: Sunni Islam

Slept.

The Chewa Kingdom of Marawi

Ruler: Chewa King of the Marawi

Capital: none.

Religion: African Pagan

Slept.

The Xhona Tribes of Mwene Mutapa

Ruler: Great King of the Mutapa Tribes

Capital: none.

Religion: African Pagan

Slept.

The Kingdom of Kongo

Ruler: Abwanze, King of the Bakongo

Capital: none.

Religion: African Pagan

Abwanze, the heir and younger brother of King Imbudu, found himself still in the region of Mbundu which was really quite distant from his preferred stomping ground north of the Kongo River. Still, at least he was not alone, for he had with him a large delegation of the Bakongo tribe's most respected nobles and advisors, having been handed the thankless task of convincing the locals to willingly accept the rule of the King of the Bakongo. In his previous (and, from Abwanze's point-of-view, interminable) discussions, he had been very successful in dealing with the chieftains of the local tribes (the Kimbundu, the Mbaka and the Ndongo) and had finagled them into contributing many hundreds of their stoutest warriors to the service of the Kongo. Now, in 1106, negotiations were re-opened and took a fine turn, from a very early stage, after Abwanze agreed to take the eldest daughter of the most powerful Mbundu chieftain (the chief of the Ndongo Tribe) as his wife - the local tribes were pleased by the security this match assured them and, more importantly, by the influence they hoped they would gain when Abwanze ascended the Kongolese throne with a Queen drawn from Mbundu. This, though, was an event which came about sooner than most expected...

The Supreme God of the Bakongo, Nzambi Mpungu, set out the lengths of man's time on the earth and, as it turned out, he had set only a brief time for Imbudu to reign over the Bakongo tribes. Throughout 1106, everyone could see that Imbudu was painfully ill yet he pressed on with the enormous task he had set himself - after the excitment of the previous few years, during which practitioners of black magic had run rife in the land, Imbudu grew ever more fearful about the sheer number of witches in his Kingdom so he ordered a great head-count. Every man, woman and child would be counted and examined by the priests of Nzambi for signs of witchery or other evil activities. Too, His Majesty hoped to gain a clear idea of exactly how many of his subjects had been claimed by the murderous magicians. Before the end of 1106, the counting was complete but it came at a high cost - Imbudu, sick to begin with, had degenerated as the year progressed until, at last, the sheer exertion of organising the great head-count forced him to take to his bed. Crowds gathered to watch as their King was borne into the Royal Lodge by the priests and medicine men; thereafter, they did not see him alive again. There was a full week during which the priests flocked to the Lodge or capered around the great cultic centres imploring the Supreme God to save the King's life while the other holy men of the Kingdom created fetishes and charms to drive off the evil spirits which were obviously causing Imbudu's illness, but at the week's end the King died. Death was, at last, a blessed relief after a full year of sickness - a sickness which the Demon King, Ngworekara, had obviously sent to punish the pious Imbudu for resisting the evil magic of the witches...

Abwanze (who had, quite unknowingly, become King following his brother's death), was travelling the in the Mbundu bush when news of his brother's death and his ascension to the throne reached him. Curiously, the new King showed no eagerness to return to the lands of the Bakongo people - it had been several years since he had last visited the place and the rumours, of witchery and the reign of the Demon God, erturbed him. Abwanze was a simple man when it came to theology - if witchcraft had gained the upper hand in Kongo, it was probably a sign of bad times to come and that Nzambi had perhaps even turned his back on the Bakongo tribes. His own brother had just died, in the most gut-wrenching agony imaginable, and Abwanze was fearful that to return north would be to invite a similar fate so he opted to stay here, in bundu, with the family of his wife amongst the local tribes. This decision seemed to be vindicated when, during the following year, a strapping son was born to King Abwanze. In each of the following years, a new daughter was brought forth. Of course, if this gave pleasure to Abwanze, one could scarcely imagine the delight of the Mbundu tribes who saw, in the little baby boy, a future King who was half-Kongolese and half-Ndongo. Some of the more canny Mbundu chieftains even began whispering in Abwanze's ear, suggesting that he ought to stay down in the south permanently, far-removed from the sinister activities of his homeland and the dangers of witches and demons... Abwanze looked at his children, babes in arms or toddling infants, and opted to remain in Mbundu.

NORTH AMERICA

The Anasazi Pueblos

Ruler: Eototo, Father of Ceremonies

Capital: none

Religion: Northern Amerind

Eototo could mourn no longer, the kikmongwi said. He had duties to his people, to his sons and to the Great Spirit which could be shirked no longer. He must, once more, turn his full attention to these things instead of indulging in his extravagant grief. The Father of Ceremonies knew that there was truth in these injunctions so he forced himself to put aside his personal pain and deal with the matters in hand. The desert clans in Hopi could not (or would not) apprehend the wonder of the vision that had been granted to the Father of Ceremonies so Eototo would travel there personally.

Taking some of the extra corn which had been saved in accordance with the vision of the Great Spirit, Eototo distributed it evenly to the Hopi villages and families; even those who had laughed at Aholi when he had come to tell of the vision, a few years earlier, received a share of the maize and beans. It was, indeed, a most welcome gift for the rains had been unusually light and the harvest had been less than the locals were accustomed to. Too, new irrigation channels were dug in Hopi. The region was too arid ever to provide anything other than the most limited of agricultural yields so anything which might make farming easier was particularly appreciated by the Hopi clans. With these tangible benefits brought about as a result of Eototo's vision, the desert pueblos proved more receptive this time to the spiritual message of the Father of Ceremonies.

Eototo then returned to the clans in Anasazi to find the light rains were causing the same problems with the harvest there. Drought was not a new thing, unfortunately, but thanks to Eototo and Aholi the People (as the Anasazi named themselves) were now well-prepared and the food which Eototo had stored - corn, beans and squash - was distributed to all the pueblos of the Hisatsinom. Too, he oversaw the building of better storage areas for the future. It was clear now that greater organisation which Eototo espoused was bringing many material advantages (and in a relatively short time) - thus were the few doubters who remained silenced. With such matters dealt with, Eototo, by now quite exhausted, returned to his duties as the Father of Ceremonies - leading the rites and rituals which would bring the People to peace and prosperity in balance with the land just as the Great Spirit had shown him.

However, the Hisatsinom still faced danger from outside their own lands - the cannibal raiders of the south remained a threat and not only to the People but to the surrounding tribes such as the Navajo. The idea came to Aholi that the Great Spirit’s vision would be well served by peace between the Anasazi and Navajo. Why should they waste energy defending against each other with invaders harassing them both? Anasazi traders in the Navajo villages had already told tales of Eototo’s vision and of the singular advantages his reforms had brought so Aholi went off to the Navajo lands, with an escort of a few hundred warriors, to talk to the Navajo tribal elders and explain to them the wisdom contained in the Great Spirit's vision. Assuredly, relations between Anasazi and Navajo had been stormy in the past - they had raided and warred on each other - but it should be obvious to all, Aholi reasoned, that the cannibal invaders were a greater threat than mere tribal feuding.

Gifts of well-crafted turquoise jewellery were brought to the Navajo chieftains yet Aholi met with little success for he was a plain-spoken man - fiery and passionate but with little time for niceties. His complete lack of subtlety and inability to craft convincing arguments led the Navajo to believe that the Anasazi coveted their lands and wealth. Aholi spoke of how Eototo would defend the Navajo if only they acknowledged his leadership - this, in particular, caused bitter offence for it implied that Navajo could not defend themselves and, worse than that, that they should become subject to the Anasazi Father of Ceremonies. Aholi tried to elicit a wife for himself from amongst the Navajo, to help lay the ties of blood kinship, but he was sharply rebuffed. The Navajo had never had much love for the Anasazi and now feared that their independence would be subsumed if they agreed to link the tribes through marriage. For almost four years Aholi remained amongst the Navajo villages but everything he said fell on deaf ears and, at one point, some of the Navajo elders had to restrain the young bloods who wanted to kill Aholi for having the temerity to come to their land in the first place.

By 1110, Aholi had returned home from the Navajo lands feeling lucky that he still had his life and that the Navajo had not gone to war. Eototo was pleased at his nephew’s return but worried by the reaction of the Navajo. In time, he thought, they would see the advantages but it was unfortunate that they were being so obstinate. If the Anasazi (not to mention the Navajo, Hohokam and every other tribe in this part of the world) were to have a future, the rivalries between clans and tribes would have to be put aside and a new cooperative spirit found. Yet, if all the tribes felt as strongly as the Navajo, what hope could had Eototo of realising the Vision? Perhaps it would not fall to Eototo to see this thing through to its end. Perhaps he could only lay the foundations and leave it to his beloved sons to take up the task set down before them...

As it happened, Eototo was musing that, perhaps, he ought now to seek a new wife, a good woman who might help to raise his twins - Poqanghoya and Palangawhoya. Word was always being spread amongst the pueblos about their childhood deeds. They were splendid quick-witted boys, always foremost in games and full of mischief; they would surely grow up to be handsome men, strong in war and wise in council. It pleased all the tribes to see that the future of the tribe lay in such hands and that, one day, one of these unusual little boys would grow to become Father of Ceremonies. There was no shortage of helping hands with them, especially their grandmothers, but they needed someone young to keep up with their energy¼.

The Hohokam Villages

Ruler: Hawikuh, First Among the Elders

Capital: none

Religion: Northern Amerind

Slept.

The Aztalan Mississippians

Ruler: Unbowed-Moose, the Peace Chief

Capital: Aztalan

Religion: Northern Amerind

Slept.

The Moundbuilders of Cahokia

Ruler: Arrow Keeper, White Chief of the Ani-Kutani

Capital: Cahokia

Religion: Northern Amerind

While many of the greatest chiefs and nobles of the Moundbuilders were busily engaged in activities in Caddo, it seemed that it would be left to Crazy Cat to take charge of business in Michigamea. His task was to restructure the system for the collection of tax and tribute - the very same job which Arrow Keeper had fluffed so monumentally a few years earlier. Crazy Cat proved that he was deserving of his name - whenever the villagers tried to trick him by lying about their wealth, numbers or agricultural yields, beatings were swiftly delivered to the deceivers. The process of counting heads and calculating dues was laborious - indeed, it took Crazy Cat almost five years to complete his task but complete it he did and soon the Ani-Kutani were receiving all that they were owed by their subjects. Crazy Cat was not alone for long, however. Black Bear, the Red Chief of the Ani-Kutani, arrived from Caddo during the Summer of 1106 and took up residence in the Chief's Lodge atop the largest mound in the city. From there, he oversaw the governance of the Moundbuilders' realm.

Kelepi departed the great settlement at Capa and sailed across to the islands of the Carib tribe across the Leeward Sea. At precisely the same time, his nominated successor, Teo, returned home to Ciboney, took a wife (who bore him a rather sickly daughter) and assumed leadership of the Taino Councils. And, indeed, the Jatibonicu Taino were undergoing strange times for Kelepi's well-known ambitions, his earnest wish that the kindred tribes should all accept his rule and leadership, were beginning to have a tangible effect. In the past, the Great Council and Great Chieftain had jointly made all decisions relating to the future of the tribe. Now, though, there seemed to be a drift away from the traditions of the past - increasingly, Kelepi (or his appointees) would issue commands and decrees without even consulting the Council or the tribal elders let alone seeking their permission. Some of the Taino protested this radical departure from the ancestral traditions but there were others, ambitious men in the main, who believed that, by following Kelepi and his faction, they might potentially increase their personal power - these men tacitly approved of Kelepi's policies and worked to serve the Great Chieftain's radical plans. It was their earnest hope that they might gain favour with and influence over Kelepi.

Yet, despite his innovative ideas for the government of the Taino tribes, Kelepi was little in evidence on Ciboney. Instead, he spent several years among the Carib and attended many of their councils. Building on the work of preceding years, he convinced the Caribs to send tribute canoes westwards in recognition of (and appreciation for) the peace and good relations which attended the two peoples. Kelepi was most pleased for he imagined that this wealth of fish, yucca, cassava and fermented sugar-cane juice which the Carib were to send as tribute would make his position even more secure - if any opposed his methods or his rejection of conciliar rule, he could demonstrate the fruits his policies bore!

CENTRAL AMERICA

Toltec Empire of Tula Tollan

Ruler: Topiltzin, Birth of the Fifth Sun, Emperor of Tula Tollan under the Sun God Tezcatlipoca, Priest of the Jaguar and the Eagle.

Capital: Tula

Religion: Meso-American

It was a time of war and strife for the Toltecs. To the south, Quetzelcoatl waged a campaign of surpassing brutality against the Zapotecs while, in the domestic arena, Hueceptl appeared in Tula during the Summer of 1106 with 2,000 warriors - not mere levies or provincial militias but the fine eagle and coyote knights of the imperial army. Tula had been the scene of much religious unrest, culminating in the seizure of a section of the city and some of the more important temples by a force of about 1,500 disaffected religious students. The ragtag rebel army, armed with bows, slings and improvised spears, had fortified the city's largest pyramid temple and proudly proclaimed that they would hold it against all comers. However, on that July afternoon when they saw Hueceptl's army winding its way through the streets and plazas of Tula, converging on the pyramid from two different directions, obsidian blades glittering in the sun, the rebels' courage and convictions deserted them. Most fled, some surrendered and only a very few tried to resist - only a little blood was spilt and, by evening, the "rebellion" was effectively over. The majority of the prisoners were sent for sacrifice (ironically, the sacrifices were performed by the very same priests who had spurred the rebels on!). Once he was convinced that the city was safe and that Topiltzin's authority had been reasserted with an iron fist, Hueceptl and his brilliantly-disciplined brigade departed Tula and marched southwards to the Valley.

In Iztaccihuatl, where Emperor Topiltzin had established his court, news filtered in from the south of victories and defeats alike - throughout 1106, the whole of the Toltec Empire waited on tenterhooks to discover whether the Toltecs would be victorious. By the beginning of 1107, messengers crossed over the mountain bearing the news that Mitla had fallen and the whole of Oaxaca Valley was now annexed! The great cult city and ancient home of the Zapotecs were now under the control of Quetzelcoatl and his army! In celebration, the Emperor order that further labour be expended on the Tlapocoya temple complex though it remained a very long way from completion. In addition to the military conquest of the Zapotecs, news was brought that Popoluca had been finessed away from the contemptible Mayans. The natives, both of because of their fear that the Toltecs might retaliate for any diplomatic rebuff and their recognition of the cultural affinities with the people of Tula Tollan, had terminated their alliance with the Itza Maya.

All in all, things were busy for the Toltecs and His Majesty seemed to recognise that the government would require some considerable expansion. Many new officials and revenue-gatherers were trained and recruited to govern Tula Tollan's wide realms - the densely populated Valleys of Mexico and Oaxaca and newly-subjugated peoples...

The Itza Mayan Empire

Ruler: Ah-Kan-Xul, Lord of the Night, Halach Uinic of the Itza Maya

Capital: Chichen Itza

Religion: Meso-American

It was an uncertain time amongst the Mayans. The Nahuatl-speaking Toltecs were creeping ever closer and it seemed unlikely that their aims were friendly. The Lord of the Night ordered that defences be prepared - deep ditches and earthen ramparts were begun around Tikal and Palenque including a particularly impressive moat at the former city which was dug through solid limestone. In the frontier province of Popoluca, meanwhile, plans were made to convert almost a dozen old local temples into fortifications - their crumbling walls to be shored up, more ditches dug and Mayan garrisons installed.... But it was not to prove so easy. The Halach Uinic sent his kinswoman, Ix-Yax-Chel, to wed the greatest of the Populacan princes (Auitzotl, by name) and further cement the region into Chichen Itza's orbit but the Toltecs still had not given up their hopes of acquiring Popoluca. The wedding went ahead but Teotihua, the Toltec emissary, poured poison in Auitzotl's ears, liberally mixing threats of Toltec vengeance, promises of great rewards and bitter slanders against the foreign Mayans and their intentions. To the Mayans' chagrin, it worked. Ix-Yax-Chel tried her best to counter Teotihua's cunning words but she was no match for him - he visited every chieftain of note and convinced most of them to slacken their ties with the Mayans. By the end of 1110, Popoluca had severed all its links with the Lord of the Night and had made a formal and public recognition that their ancient ties of blood and language lay with their Toltec neighbours and not the Mayans.

Further south in Huave, Ah-Pacal-Balam arrived and distributed generous gifts to the local (Nahuatl-speaking) grandees. No commitments were given but the princely feathers, iridescent and brought out of the jungles of the far south, were well-received as were his fine Mayan ornaments of jade and the people of Huave seemed to indicate that they would look on future overtures favourably.

In Chichen Itza itself, the Lord of the Night took firm hold of the governance of his realm. On a regular basis, he shed his own blood by passing needles of bone and cactus spine through his tongue; the blood was collected on bark paper and burnt in a dish as an offering to the gods. In this way, Ah-Kan-Xul was able to propitiate the deities of the Maya and ensure their continued benevolent watch over the Empire of the Itza Maya. Too, it was widely believed that the gods had sent visions to the Halach Uinic while he performed his blood-letting rituals but, if this was true, he chose not share the revelations with his subjects.

It had not escaped the attention of the Halach Uinic that his uncle, the heir Ahau-Kakmo, was far from happy so, in the spirit of magnanimity, he honoured his uncle by allowing him to oversee the annual sacrifice of youths and maidens at the Sacred Cenote in honour of the Rain God, Yum Chaac. The cenote was a large natural sinkhole filled with green algae-filled scummy water and fed by a river deep underground. By casting virgins into the cenote during the Summer Solstice, the Maya hoped to ensure that the rains continued and that the terrifying spectre of drought might be staved off for another season. During the sacrifice of 1106, a strange thing happened - a couple of young girls and three young boys were thrown into the Well of Sacrifice; although four of them drowned quickly, one of the victims - youth of only 14 years - managed to tread water in the centre of the cenote for three hours. Such things rarely happened but, when they did, one could not deny that the gods were rejecting the sacrifice so a rope was brought and the boy extracted very quickly.

Wet and covered with algae, the boy was brought before Ahau-Kakmo who demanded to know if the Yum Chaac had sent a vision. The boy leant close to the heir's ear and whispered something. No-one else heard what was said but Kakmo blanched and was visibly shaken. The ritual was promptly declared to have been completed and Kakmo rushed off to find his nephew, the Lord of the Night. In the following months, Ahau-Kakmo grew ill and became less and less active in Mayan life and ritual, neglecting all his duties and taking no pleasure in anything; during the Spring of 1107, he passed on into the next world having lived 39 years.

The boy who had miraculously survived sacrifice sank into obscurity once more.

The Zapotec Kingdom of Mitla

Ruler: Xolotl, the Great Seer, Blood King of Oaxaca

Capital: Mitla

Religion: Meso-American

The Great Seer was certain that there would now be peace with the Toltecs. All doubt had been ended when the legendary Warrior-Prince of the Toltecs, Quetzelcoatl, had taken the Great Seer's own daughter - beautiful Loxyela - as his bride. All seemed well....

....until April of 1106 when, suddenly and without the least provocation, a Toltec army burst out of the high mountains intent on bloody conquest! To make matters all the more egregious, the speed of their arrival meant that the treacherous northerners must already have been inside the boundaries of the Zapotec Kingdom! The vile Quetzelcoatl, when he had come speaking words of peace the previous year, must have secreted the Tulan army high in the mountains around the Valley of Oaxaca. Even as he sought peace treaties and an alliance, the infamous Quetzel must have been plotting war against Mitla! It was like a dagger to Xolotl's heart that he had given his precious daughter to that viper.

Quetzel's army, almost 4,000 slingers and archers in support of a similar number of jaguar knights, swept out of the highlands and carried a number of Zapotec outposts almost before their victims realised what was happening. The Zapotecs had always expected that they would have plenty of warning should they be attacked (for the enemy would need to cross the mountains and would surely be spotted) but now they had been taken completely unawares and it was many weeks before Xolotl could gather his forces and respond to the invasion. When his men were finally mustered at Mitla, they numbered no more than 6,000 and were plainly of inferior training to the Toltecs. Instead of facing the invader in open battle, the Zapotecs spent most of the Summer of 1106 trying to bolster the defences of their many fortified posts in the Valley while small parties of skirmishers ambushed and waylaid Toltec patrols. Here and there, a few hundred warriors would clash ending sometimes in defeat and sometimes in victory. Beneath the walls of the Valley's dozen or so forts and strongholds, the blood of many hundreds of Toltecs was spilt but their advance, in spite of this, seemed unstoppable. By the time Autumn arrived, the Great Seer and his army retreated to the safety of Nahuatl and the coast. It was a bitter blow to abandon their homes and great city but they had no other choice - the Zapotec morale was close to collapse after the Summer's campaigning.

The Toltec army was hardly in a better state - they were exhausted by warfare or, more accurately, by the constant subjugation of Zapotec forts with insufficient sappers and engineers. With the retreat of Xolotl's main army, Quetzel was able to take a more leisurely approach to the work of conquest. When, at last, the final enemy stronghold had fallen and its defenders sent north in chains to become fodder for the altars of the Dark God Tezcatlipoca, the Toltecs turned to Mitla and starved the city into submission rather than test themselves upon its ditches and ramparts. By the Summer of 1107, it had surrendered and Quetzelcoatl sent the news north of his great victory and conquest. It was not clear what his young Zapotec bride thought of Quetzel's treacherous attack but it was interesting to note that she bore him no children.

The Tarascan Empire of Purepecha

Ruler: Tangaxoan, the Lord of the Men of the Wind, Warrior King of Tzin Tzun Tzan

Capital: Tzin Tzun Tzan

Religion: Meso-American

Slept.

SOUTH AMERICA

The Huari Empire

Ruler: Anquimarca, the Ciquic, Supreme King and Overlord of the Wari

Capital: Huari

Religion: Southern Amerind

The Wari Ciquic was once more turning his attention to strengthening the bonds between the Royal House and the outlying regions; to that end, Anta-Accla, the Ciquic's brother and heir, spend a goodly amount of time in Nazca trying to convince the local tribes, from amongst whose number his wife was drawn, to form a closer bond with the Great Overlord to the north. The Nazcans were not easily convinced for they had already made a great compromise by agreeing to supply the Ciquic with bold Nazcan warriors. They could not see how they could reasonably be expected to contribute more than this to the Wari. Yet fine gifts, ceramics and beautifully-crafted metalwork, were brought from Huari to smooth the way and convince the native princes of the high esteem in which they were held and of the importance which the northerners (not merely the Ciquic but all the Wari clans) attached to the friendship of the Nazca people. Most serendipitously, Accla's Nazcan wife (Marca) became pregnant while these long and tortuous negotiations were proceeding. Many Nazcans took this as a fine portent and a sign that they ought to accede to the ideas Accla put forth; others, though, were less convinced and, so, a kind of compromise was reached. More tribute and more men would be given to the Ciquic but Nazca would remain an independent state. Before he left Nazca at the beginning of 1107, Accla's wife gave birth to a large and healthy daughter. This was fine news and welcomed in all quarters.

With his mission to Nazca complete, Anta-Accla received a decree from the Ciquic that he should go at once to the province of Inca and bring these people, who had already acknowledged the bonds of language and culture between themselves and the Wari, under Anquimarca's rule. So, Anta-Accla along with chieftain, Apo, and a large party of advisors set out for Inca. The locals had already received a great deal of Wari attention and were far from happy at this renewed diplomatic mission - they feared that their neighbours were signalling, wittingly or otherwise, that they would never allow the province of Inca to remain free; the more fearful native chieftains remarked that Inca would be made a part of the Huari Empire one way or another so would it not be wiser if they bowed to Anquimarca willingly, thus drawing his goodwill, rather than continuing to spurn him? By acknowledging the Ciquic's suzerainty, the nobles of Inca might even be welcomed into the ruling circle of the Empire and might gain more power and influence than they currently had... But, as always, there were those who were justly fearful of any moves to compromise their independence. Bold efforts to counter these people were made by Anta-Accla who never tired of explaining the endless benefits that Anquimarca would rain down upon all the tribes and clans and provinces that bowed to him. Great trains of llamas came from the north bearing gifts in amounts beyond the wildest imaginings of the princes of the region - the finest variegated robes of virgin wool, silver (always silver!), slaves and, strangely, wonderfully-carved warclubs and knives of volcanic glass... The hint was clear enough - align with the Wari or suffer the consequences.

In 1110, the Ciquic himself, accompanied by the bulk of the army and the War Chief Apo, arrived in Inca ostensibly to visit his new kinsmen (for his wife, Chimbo-Inca, came from the region) and present his father-in-law with the children the marriage had produced; in practice, most of the locals saw the visit as a show of strength, almost as a threat. And so it was that, before long, the foremost princes and nobles of the region of Inca were kneeling in the dust before the Supreme King of the Wari and swearing fealty on behalf of themselves and their descendants.

At home, the city of Huari continued to swell in size as did the more northerly city of Chancha. In both places, people from the provinces and hinterland flocked to the cities to take advantage of the increased building space caused by the demolition of each city's walls. Of course, the increased urbanisation did not impress many of the local provincial nobles who suddenly found that their peasants and serfs were abandoning their allotments to run off to the cities where they hoped to find freedom and anonymity in the throng.

The Aymara Hegemony of Tiwanaku

Ruler: Curi-Paucar, Yatiri of the Gateway of the Sun God, First Among the Great Chiefs

Capital: Tiahuanaco

Religion: Southern Amerind

The Tiwanakans were beginning to shed a little of their nervousness, their anxiety at the ever-present prospect of civil war. The Yatiri Coyllas had worked hard to keep the many Aymara clans from pursuing their ancient feuds and hostilities and most believed that it was only because of his constant attention that the great clans had taken a step back from the pursuit of warfare. Coyllas was feted as the Peacebringer, the man who had forced even the greatest nobles to lay aside their selfish, clannish interests and overweening pride. So long as he led the clans, Tiwanaku would know peace and, praise be to the gods, Coyllas was a young man, having seen only 32 Summers, and he would surely lead the clans in peace and unity of purpose for many a long year to come...

...but such was not the plan that the Creator and Weather God, Viracocha, had set out for Coyllas. Before the Spring of 1106 had passed, the Yatiri had died. There was no warning, no lingering illness, nothing that could have foretold what was about to happen to him - he retired one evening and had left this world by the time morning came. Few, though, cared much about the details of his death - what mattered was whether or not it would result in war (most thought it would). Coyllas' brother, Curi-Paucar, had always been clearly designated as his successor (and Coyllas' own son was only 2 years of age when his father died) so it was no surprise to anyone when he stepped forward and proclaimed himself the new Yatiri of the Gateway of the Sun God. A solemn ceremony was staged, one hundred white llamas were sacrificed - the hearts of the animals were torn out and held up to the sky while their blood was scattered on the ground. Too, the other appropriate sacrifices were made to ensure that Curi-Paucar's ascension would meet with divine approval.

With the formalities completed, the new Yatiri took command of some 5,000 warriors and made ready for the challenge that would, he believed, inevitably come from the great clans... Yet, no challenge came and no hostilities were begun anywhere throughout the lands which bowed to Tiwanaku. The Aymaran chieftains, instead, sent emissaries to swear that their clans would remain as loyal to Curi as they had been to Coyllas. So, this made a fine start to the new overlord's reign and things proceeded in the same vein - the great cultic centre of Tiwanaku grew even larger in size for there appeared to be an increasingly willingness, on the part of the members and chieftains of the diverse Aymaran clans, to bury their differences for the moment and dwell much closer to the one place to which all the clans looked as the centre of their culture, heritage and religions - Holy Tiwanaku and the Sacred Lake. With such numbers pouring into the city, Curi-Paucar made some small effort to improve the city's inadequate supply of potable water by the building of some small aquaducts.

Apart from this, the only major event were the mission of the loyal minister, Cusi, to Arica far to the south - much further than the political power of Tiwanaku had ever reached before. The clans there, though of Aymaran stock and language, were very different from their northern cousins - they were nervous of centralisation but their chieftains agreed to bow to the obvious power which the Yatiri rightfully held, as Viracocha's representative on earth, and large sums of tribute and manpower were sent to serve the whim of the man who was First Amongst the Chiefs of the Aymaran Tribes.

Finally, as a bitter postscript, Coyllas' daughter, Inguill, died at the age of six after contracting a parasitic disease from some contaminated water. In the last year of her life, she wasted away, becoming ever weaker as the parasites grew stronger, before finally succumbing. All agreed it was a most tragic event and thought back to the portents they had seen in the skies just a few years earlier.

The Marajo People

Ruler:

Iawi, the Sun Chief

Capital: none

Religion: Southern Amerind

The Sun Chief was brooding over his little daughter, Tuia, who was now only 4 years of age. One day, she would probably lead the tribes for it was the tradition amongst Iawi's people that the succession alternated between the sexes - the eldest daughter of a male ruler would inherit and the eldest son of a female ruler. Tuia's lineage was venerable. For generations beyond reckoning, Iawi's family had been the most respected amongst all the Marajoara tribes and they alone had held the title of Sun Chief and leadership of the great council of all the kindred clans and tribes. Iawi's uncle, Moie, was the de facto heir - it had been generally understood that, should no female issue be forthcoming from Iawi's line, the chieftainship would devolve upon Moie and his branch of the family. Now that Tuia had been born, Moie would have to stand aside for this little girl despite being a respected man in his own right and a powerful chieftain. Some wondered whether the proud Moie would obey the traditions of the tribe for he was a tough man, ambitious, and had been a fierce warrior in his day. But he was bound by sacred oaths and, too, by the will of the Marajo people who considered Tuia's birth to be a most propitious event. Who could know what Moie would eventually do?

As it happened, the doting father Iawi was not worrying over politics but over his daughter's wellbeing for her mother had died while Tuia was still a babe in arms. Iawi, like most men, was often confused by women and was pondering whether he ought to take a new wife who might become a mother to the little girl. The closest members of his family and clan had participated in raising the child but, still, she probably needed a real mother. By and by, the Sun Chief took a local woman, Pucu, as wife. Pucu was a plain but kindly woman in her mid-twenties and had been married before but her husband had died a couple of years before after tragically succumbing to the candiru. His end had not been a pleasant one.

Pucu and Iawi were wed quickly, to general approval, and their union swiftly bore fruit for a second daughter was born to the Sun Chief within a year of marriage - a half-sister for young Tuia. Soon after, Pucu found herself pregnant once more but things did not go well. Early one morning, during, the seventh month of pregnancy, she complained of pains in her abdomen which increased in intensity as the day progressed. By early afternoon, she was bleeding heavily and it was apparent that she was, in fact, miscarrying. No matter how hard the shamans of the tribe and all those who were wise in the ways of childbirth tried, the haemorrhaging could not be stopped and she died within a few hours. Iawi was distraught and swore never to wed again (though whether this was mere hyperbole born of his shock and grief or whether he really meant it was not clear).

Away from the domestic arena, new villages were settled all through Terembembe as the Marajo population increased quite exponentially. Many new fields were cleared for cultivation, new fishing boats launched upon the Great River and ever more hunting parties went into the forests. Apart from the Sun Chief's griefs and the general fears about whether proud Moie would accept his relegation in favour of his great-niece, life was uneventful but productive for the Marajo people who dwell at the mouth of the Great River.

Mercenaries, Condottieri, Swords-for-Hire, Dogs-of-War and assorted vagabonds...

Mercenary Captains will become available as the game progresses.

Western Europe: 19i, 8c, 1hc, 5s, 5w, 5t (c-3, i-4, w-3, s-3)

Mercenary Captains:

Eastern Europe: 16i, 11xc, 7c, 2s, 2xw (c-3, i-4, w-2, s-1)

Mercenary Captains:

Middle East: 19i, 15xc, 8c, 3hc, 4w, 2t (c-4, i-3, w-2, s-4)

Mercenary Captains: Atelmalgut (M788)

N. America: 5xi, 5i, 2xw, 2w (i-1, w-2)

Mercenary Captains:

Central America: 13i, 11xi (i-2)

Mercenary Captains:

Central Asia: 9i, 21xc, 9c (c-5, i-2)

Mercenary Captains:

India: 19i, 11c, 16xc, 5w, 5t (c-3, i-3, w-1)

Mercenary Captains:

West Africa: 10i, 5xi (i-2)

Mercenary Captains: Kwabena the Ghanaian (M946)

Far East: 27i, 21xc, 11c, 5xw (c-3, i-2, w-2)

Mercenary Captains:

Japan: 12i, 5xc, 5c, 5xw, 2t (c-2, i-2, w-1)

Mercenary Captains: