The Triumph of Barbarossa and the Victory of the Holy Roman Empire

[Tzeentch]

From Karl Sternberg's Geschichte der Heiliges Römisches Reich (History of the Holy Roman Empire):

Frederick I Barbarossa is doubtlessly one of the Great Men of history, having been pivotal to the success of the Third Crusade. There exists an apocryphal tale that he almost drowned in the Saleph River while bathing - its veracity is unknown. In any case, Barbarossa's forces linked up with Richard the Lionheart's forces near Acre, and defeated the forces of Saladin in the Battle of the Sands (its location is unknown, but it is thought to have happened near the Sea of Galilee), the first of a string of victories which culminated in Saladin's death at the Battle of the Jordan, after which Jerusalem was reclaimed. A succession crisis occurred in Egypt around this time, but Barbarossa was forced to return to his empire following troubles in Germany, preventing the Kingdom of Jerusalem from expanding.

After returning from the Holy Land, Barbarossa crushed some revolts that had grown in his absence and spent most of his time consolidating his power and dynasty. When he died in 1202, the throne went to his son, who would become Henry VI Hohenstaufen - the Great.

[Alex]

Hmm, I don't know if Barbarossa could have made it to 1202. He was 70 at the time of his death (IIRC 1187), and I doubt that he would have lasted more than another 5 years or so, considering that he didn't exactly lead a sheltered life. That said, if he did not die when he did, I could definitely see HRE capture of Jerusalem. The Germans were probably the best equipped and the best-led army of the Third Crusade, at least until Barbarossa's death, and they in my opinion stood the greatest chance of taking Jerusalem.

As far as Henry VI, I don't know if he would have been "great", although he certainly sounds like he was a competent, above-average leader. His son Frederick, now that would be an interesting character - in OTL, he was known as "Stupor Mundi", wonder of the world, and if he is still born here (he was more or less a miracle child, born when his mother was thought to have been past the childbearing age, and not expecting any children), he could inherit much stronger position than in OTL (where he spent much time trying to keep his Sicilian kingdom, and indirectly contributed to the decentralization of HRE).

I actually had a rather detailed timeline with Barbarossa's survival being a POD, eventually leading to the creation of a titular Unholy Roman Empire (and yes, there was a good reason for why it was called that - they were not Satanists or anything like that). Maybe some day I will find my files and post it here for everyone's viewing (dis)pleasure. But it would be very interesting to see where you can take this idea.

[Tzeentch]

Decided to resurrect this one.

From The Glory of Rhomanion (Ioannis Melas)

The success of the Third Crusade had, it has to be said, changed history. The reclamation of Jerusalem marked a large change in the Crusader's fortunes. The Egyptians had several claimants to the throne, trapped in a dynastic crisis, and it was only natural that they should be next. So it was in 1204 that the Fourth Crusade, after a brief, unremarkable stopover in Constantinople, landed at Alexandria, besieging the city and capturing it after a six-month siege. The Egyptian princes were quick to react to this new threat, but after a series of desperate battles, the Crusaders playing on their internal divisions, the Crusaders took the city of Cairo.

Despite this, the Egyptian princes continued their struggle, but the Crusaders also had problems of their own - their lines of supply were overextended. So, after five years of war, the war ended with the Crusaders firmly in control of the Nile Delta, the coast, and an area ending 100 miles to the north of Luxor. This territory, the Crusaders proclaimed the Kingdom of Egypt, choosing Boniface of Montferrat as King Boniface I. This move angered the Romans, but Egypt was too far for them to do much about it. Eventually, Boniface I died, all his possible heirs having predeceased him, and due to a personal union Egypt and Jerusalem merged into the Kingdom of Jerusalem-Egypt, under King Carolus I.

[Tzeentch]

Geschichte der Heiliges Römisches Reich (Karl Sternberg)

Henry VI was a great monarch, who kept the nobles and the Pope firmly in line. He continued the centralisation work of Barbarossa, and spent most of his time in the city of Rome when not travelling his kingdom or on campaign. As such, he built a new palace in Rome on the Palatine Hill, not far from the old Imperial palace - fancying himself a new Roman Emperor, which earned him some enmity from the Rhomaoi of Rhomanion. This Neo-Roman myth was essential to the Holy Roman Empire in the 1200s and later part of the Middle Ages, and enabled it to weather the various crises that hit the Empire in the later part of the 1200s.

Henry VI also did one very good thing for the Empire - he made the Emperorship hereditary, against great opposition. The firstborn son would inherit the title of Holy Roman Emperor, and if he predeceased the Emperor, it would move on to the second-born son, and so on. If there were no male heirs, a woman could theoretically inherit the title - but this was incredibly unlikely.

Henry died in 1227 - at the same time as the Mongol ruler Genghis Khan - . Little did he know, that Eastern Europe would soon, in a matter of decades, be assaulted by the armies of the largest contiguous empire ever to exist.

[Tzeentch]

The Mongol Tide (Ioannis Melas)

...The Mongols swept into Mesopotamia like a raging torrent, destroying the canals that had irrigated the area for centuries, then razing Baghdad to the ground. Nobody was safe, up to a million people fell at Baghdad alone - Mesopotamia was ruined for centuries. They then swept North-West into Anatolia, making the Turks flee before them into the northern Caucasus, before threatening Rhomanion itself. Emperor Alexandros I confronted them at Kaisareia, before they could threaten Rhomanion - the Mongols were defeated in the mountains.

Russia was not so lucky. Ruthenia was ravaged, Kiev burned to the ground. Moscow was obliterated by the tide, but they did not reach Novgorod, it being so far north. Russia would not be united until the 1800's, so devastating was the assault. Then, they attacked Poland, razing many cities, before invading the Holy Roman Empire, fully intending to do to Rome what they had done to Baghdad. But they reached their limit in Eastern Germania, their supply-lines stretched ridiculouskly long, their armies operating in unfamiliar weather and terrain - they reached ther place now called Austerlitz in Moravia before the horde was shattered there, broken by the death of their leader, the great majority dead, the remainder turned into little more than bandits. People now call Austerlitz the battle that saved Western Civilisation, but if so, the outcome of the battle was a foregone conclusion...

[Tzeentch]

Geschichte der Heiliges Römisches Reich (Karl Sternberg)

Otto IV, Son of Henry VI, having recently crushed the Mongols at Austerlitz, in 1280 resolved to focus on his realm, as particularist forces were rising in Germany and Italy. Due to a string of bad harvests due to poor weather, a series of peasant rebellions occurred in the years 1280-1291. The risings were eventually halted, but a far more insidious foe was soon to ravage Europe - the Reaping Plague (its name derived from records of 'a Great Reaping of Men').

The plague arrived in Constantinople in 1292 on trading routes from the east, but did not tarry long there, killing only about 600 people before spreading to Italy on a simple trading ship. When it finally arrived, carried in common rats, it was terrible indeed. At first it was seen as nothing more than another seasonal sickness, but then came the realisation that entire villages had died, and quarantines were ordered across Europe. But it was too little, too late, and the plague had already spread to Germany, and from there to Scandinavia, France and eventually England.

The House of Hohenstaufen and several other noble families connected to them were completely wiped out, and a civil war threatened to loom, undoing all their hard work, but eventually the House of Erzengel, a little-known family from Bavaria, took up the Imperial crown, averting a war for the throne.

The plague also spread throughout the Islamic world and the Kingdom of Jerusalem-Egypt, devastating those lands. Mesopotamia in particular, barely recovered from the Mongols, faced complete demographic collapse as half of its population was wiped out. Syria, caught in a tenous position, was also devastated.

France was particularly badly damaged in Europe, losing approximately 45-percent of its population (including its king and most of its royal family). By the time the Reaping Plague had passed, a third of Europe was dead, and a war was about to start, an English war for the French throne...

[Tzeentch]

The Thirty Years War: Fall of France (Alfred Jones)

In 1297, once the Reaping Plague was over, Europe was devastated. The English King, Arthur I Plantagenet, had a strong claim to the vacant French throne however, it being currently occupied by a regent, the oldest male heir being only three years old. The Holy Roman Empire also wanted to take France down a peg, eliminating a rival on the Continent, and as such the Thirty Years War began. It was not a war in the way we are accustomed to, such as the Long War (1915-1930), or the Rhomaoi-Persian War (1873-1882), as neither side could practice total mobilisation, as it would ensure that the homeland was not fed.

The Thirty Years War was as much a war of skirmishes, political manoeuvres, and waiting as it was of grand battles and sieges. The Empire did not enter the war until 1303, and the various duchies in France at the time rejoiced in playing both sides off each other. By ten years into the war, however, the war's primary reason was barely remembered, even though we remember this period as displaying Arthur I as a great warrior-King, comparable with the Rhomaoi Alexandros III (who reigned 1453-1500) or the Imperial Barbarossa (1155-1202). There were several periods of relative peace during the war, but they never lasted long.

Finally, in 1328, the war ended, with England retaining the former territories of the Angevin Empire, from Normandy to Navarre, and the Holy Roman Empire gauining some territories in Eastern France. France was reduced to a buffer state in personal union with England, which would in the 1400's be dissolved entirely. Now that the war was over, it was a time for the beginning of the Anagennisi - the rebirth of Roman culture in Western Europe and its flowering in Rhomanion.

[Tzeentch]

No comments? I have resurrected this TL, so why does nobody care? :(

[Alex]

One thing I would suggest is commenting on other people's works. It will make the people care quite a bit more, and give them an inclination to provide feedback (see Writer's Pledge in my signature).

That said, I have noticed several major issues to the concept here. First, the plague would not just kill 600 people in Constantinople and then move on. In OTL, plagues have been far more damaging in Constantinople than that, and it is extremely unlikely that the Byzantines would get off this lightly.

Second, Henry VI did try to make monarchy hereditary, just like Barbarossa before him, just like the Saxon Emperors before them. He would have to fight the most massive war the HRE ever had within its borders in order to do so - the Papacy (which would probably set up shop in Avignon or somewhere else to escape the Hohenstaufen control), the German nobles, the other crowned heads of Europe would all attempt to crush this endeavor. There is a reason the Empire did not become hereditary in theory (and only became such in practice centuries later, when the title of Holy Roman Emperor became fairly meaningless), and what you are suggesting was more or less impossible by this time. You need to decide how to address the entrenched interests that made it impossible for the Hohenstaufens to turn the Empire into a hereditary monarchy - and for those changes not to vanish the second the Hohenstaufen power faltered.

Third, you have the numbering of the Emperors wrong. Henry VI's son, if named Otto, would have been Otto V, not IV (Otto IV was a Saxon dynasty Emperor who had a major fixation with seing himself as a Roman Emperor, and who reigned about two centuries prior to the Hohenstaufen supremacy). A Byzantine Emperor named Alexander (Alexandros) would be IV, not I - the first one of the name being Alexander Severus (IIIrd century Emperor of the Severan dynasty), the second one being one of the short-lived IIIrd century "Soldier-Emperors", the third being one of the sons of Basil I (also reigned for a short time, and with a fairly bad reputation at that, succeeding Leo Sophotates and preceding Constantine Porphyrogenitos).

[Tzeentch]

The Path to the Anagennisi (Ioannis Melas)

Before talking about the Anagennisi, it is necessary to understand the nations of Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the Near East. Of these nations, Rhomanion was the most powerful. It had recently resettled Anatolia with Hellenised Slavs (the vast majority of the Turks had fled to the Northern Caucasus in the face of the Mongols), crushed Syria, and was reaching into Mesopotamia. In the Balkans, it had envassaled Serbia and Bosnia, and it had an unmatched military. Then, there was the Kingdom of Jerusalem-Egypt, a state sitting on a highly important (religiously and economically) region, but it had a weak standing army and unreliable vassals. It was also at the limit of its expansion, having pushed south to encompass all of Egypt.

It also saw Rhomanion as a rival, due to differing religions and the fact that Rhomanion wanted its territories. Also, it was an enemy of the Holy Roman Empire, due to long-standing diplomatic disputes over tolls for pilgrims passing through the Kingdom, but really due to the fact that Otto VI wanted the Kingdom's large wealth.

To the north, Poland was still recovering from the Mongols and the Plague. North of it lay the Kingdom of Prussia, a Kingdom of Christianised Prussians that the Plague had passed by, and was encroaching into Lithuania and Ruthenia. East of Poland and Prussia lay the territory of the Golden Horde, which ruled over Ruthenia and central Rossiya. North of it lay its puppet-states, Muscovy and the north-western state of Ryazan, which ruled over most of Western Russia. North of these states lay Novgorod, which maintained complete independence from the Horde and was the richest of the Russian states, as well as being at a nexus of trade in the Baltic.

So, the stage was set for one of the greatest flowerings of culture the world has ever seen.

[Tzeentch]

A History of the Uniate Church (Ioannis Melas)

In the year 1339 A.D, a great Ecumenical Council took place in Constantinople, its goal to heal the schism between East and West. Bishops from Rhomanion, the Holy Roman Empire, the Russian states, and the English Empire took part, and after ten years of finagling, it was decided that:



There would be one Uniate Rite, Creed and Mass. The Uniate Mass would be in the local language (the Western bishops, after several years of obstinacy, managed to get over this). The Uniate Creed would be recited in Greek, Church Slavonic, or Latin depending on the region. The Uniate Rite would be in either Latin or Greek.
The Church would be largely decentralised, with much of the power in the national episcopates under the authority of the local King or Emperor.
The Uniate Church would be under the authority of an Ecumenical Council of Bishops from all over Christendom, headed by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. The Bishop of Rome was angry about this, until he was bribed with the position of Patriarch of Rome, effectively the Ecumenical Patriarch's second-in-command.
Priests below the level of Bishop could marry, as in the East.


Not all were happy with these changes - Jerusalem-Egypt refused to accept the changes, and declared the Church of Jerusalem, which was effectively the same as the old Catholic Church, King Conrad III declaring himself the 'One and True Patriarch of the Christian Faith' while elsewhere rebellions occurred over the change in the Mass. Nevertheless, the Church was more united than it had been for centuries, even as the Anagennisi began.

[Tzeentch]

The Glory of Anagennisi (Ioannis Melas)

The Anagennisi is widely considered to have begun in Rhomanion in 1340, as the scholar and philosopher Alexandros Angelidis - who invented the doctrine of Anthropism, which derived from the thought 'if Man was made in God's image, what does that say about God?' - rose into prominence. Anthropists, in essence, thought they could deduce God by studying Man. Angelidis' thoughts made him receive a substantial number of followers. Also around this time, several Hellenistic artworks (primarily sculptures) were uncovered, and were much appreciated over stale, religious Ikons and altar-pieces.

Alexandros V Palaiologos, Basileus, was especially intrigued and in 1345 founded the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, which persists to this day. Soon, the new artwork was spreading as foreign dignitaries began to be impressed, and wanted their own artworks to increase their cultural prestige. In Rome, Henry VI's old palace was renovated - soon, most of it was in the new 'Neo-Hellenic' style, and it was filled with sculptures, frescoes and paintings in the new style of art.

http://ih2.redbubble.net/work.85294.11.flat,550x550,075,f.st-peters-dome-rome.jpg
The Great Dome of the Imperial Palace on the Palatine Hill, Rome - Viewed from inside

The new learning began in earnest as in the great Lycaea of Europe, Greek and Latin texts were read once more. It was the Imperial Alexius Romanus, Italian-born, who developed 'Negotium' - applying the new learning to practical life. This opened the floodgates, as the Anagennisi diffused through Germania and into France, from there into England, London, seat of the English Empire, becoming a key cultural centre in the west. It spread across the Baltic to Prussia and the incredibly rich Russian state of Novgorod - there was absolutely no chance of it being contained now, except by the incredible geographic barriers of the Atlantic, the endless Rossiyan steppe, and the deserts and mountains of the Middle East.

Warfare also experienced a revolution, as gunpowder began to be used in large numbers for the first time in Europe. The first true cannon were developed in 1360 by Rhomanion, as historical chronicles attest, and rapidly spread. Castle walls became worthless against such weapons, marking the beginning of the end for feudalism. However, Jerusalem-Egypt banned such weapons, as they posed a threat to the Crusader-nobility that dominated it. It was the beginning of its final fall into obsolescence, which would end when it was finally put out of its misery by Rhomanion in 1377.

[Tzeentch]

A History of the Uniate Church (Ioannis Melas)

Jerusalem-Egypt sat in a precarious position by 1377, although its self-absorbed elite did not notice that. There were perennial raiders, Bedouin from the desert and Muslims from the Hedjaz, but they were seen as no great threat. How wrong they were. Although the Holy Roman Empire was involved in a trade war with Prussia (which achieved very little for either side) and was aggressively pushing into Tunis, Rhomanion was the strongest power in the region, was aggressively Uniate, and had put up with Jerusalem-Egypt for far too long.

In 1377, Basileus Matthaios I Palaiologos declared in a formal decree that 'the innumerable Heresies and Blasphemies listed below...of the Kingdom of Jerusalem And Egypt against Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Word of God...have made me decide that the rulers of the Kingdom of Jerusalem And Egypt belong in Hell, and God has demanded that I put them there. Kyrie eleison, giati tha echei kanenas.'

Jerusalem-Egypt mustered its armies on the border, but Matthaios was quicker. His light cavalry drove deep into its underdefended vassals, damaging the supply lines of its army, led by King Conrad IV. Jerusalem-Egypt had banned the use of crossbows and cannon - Matthaios' army had both. The forces of Jerusalem-Egypt were routed in the first battle, Conrad IV was killed by a cannonball, and all Hell broke loose amongst Rhomanion's enemies.

The Lords of Egypt declared their independence - two factions developed, a civil war for the throne. It was the old game of Divide and Conquer, and Matthaios played it well. Fortifications easily toppled with the judicious use of cannon and Greek Fire sunk the entire enemy fleet off Acre. Soon, a second Rhomaoi army had landed at Alexandria, arriving from Iraklion, and Alexandria's and Cairo's walls were also levelled.

A third army landed at Acre, the first and third armies meeting up at Jerusalem while the one that had landed at Alexandria pacified Egypt. In the aftermath, the survivors of Jerusalem-Egypt's nobility were made to swear three oaths: that they would join the Uniate Church, that they would be loyal servants to the Basileus and that they would accept the fact that their lands would be joined into the Thematic system - essentially annexed into Rhomanion. Grudgingly, they did so.

The Uniatising of the new Themes of Palaistini and Aigyptos took place over the end of the 7th decade of the 14th Century and the beginning of the 8th, but a storm was coming - a storm by the name of Timur-i-Lenk*, a man who would become the largest threat to Rhomanion in centuries.But it would weather that storm, as it had many others.

Meanwhile, Rhomanion took over several new areas, incorporating the Themes of Nubia and Cyrenaica, as Granada fell to an Aragonese assault in 1383.

*The butterflies aren't that big in India yet.

[Tzeentch]

Prussia's Glory (Vasiliy Vasiliyev)

Prussia was the Baltic region's rising star, a strong state with a military that was decent, if not up to the standards of the Holy Roman Empire and Rhomanion. In 1390, it was the strongest power in the Baltic region, and it had earned a comfortable amount of wealth from the trade in amber. It was also one of the hotbeds of the Anagennisis, and had adopted cannon in 1386. And, in 1390, such power inspired jealousy from the Poles.

So, when the King of Prussia inherited the Polish city of Gdansk in the middle of 1390, they were not going to take this lying down. Gdansk was on the Vistula, one of the key Polish port cities, and a major trading city. If it went to a foreign power, all the Polish states would suffer. They justified what they were about to do quite easily - after all, hadn't the old ruler of Gdansk not been of sound mind shortly before his death? Weren't the Prussians only comparatively recent Christians? So, the Polish nobles convened, and decided to teach the King of Prussia a lesson in humility.

They attacked a few Prussian villages, but were repulsed when, in a fit of uncharacteristic boldness, they attacked Prussia's capital city - called Koenigsberg in German, harried by Prussian light cavalry back to the Polish border. From there, the King of Prussia invaded Poland, taking Gdansk, levelling its walls. From there his army ravaged the farmland of Mazovia and took Warsaw before heading south to crush and vassalise some eastern Polish states.

When the war ended in 1392, Gdansk and the area around it were annexed into Prussia, with Mazovia and Galicia-Volhynia vassalised as buffer states. The castles that had once stood there were levelled as a symbol of what would happen to those that defied Prussia.

[Tzeentch]

Norden United (Gustav Eriksson)

In 1395, the King of Denmark and Norway inherited Sweden. This was an unparalleled opportunity - the growing might of the Prussians and Imperials worried him, and so he declared the Kingdom of Norden, encompassing Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. This had several effects:



It made it so that it would be difficult to disunify the realms. In effect, it made so that the three Realms - Denmark, Norway, Sweden, were combined into one.
The lords of the area were severely weakened, as the King of Norden also abolished the holding of private armies, making it hard to oppose him.
The people of Norden were united behind a common leader.


The King of Denmark was crowned King of Norden by the Patriarch of Rome in late 1395, effectively giving him the support of the Uniate Church - support, which while less than was given to the Holy Roman Emperors and Rhomaoi Basileion, still meant something in the realm of temporal power.

However, soon the Golden Horde was going to be struck by a thunderbolt of destruction from Novgorod and Prussia...

[Tzeentch]

The Glory of Rhomanion (Ioannis Melas)

In 1402, Timur-i-Lenk invaded Rhomanion, his goal Constantinople. His reasons were simple - the ghazis of Islam, the Mongols and the Seljuk Turks had failed to take it, so Timur thought it would be an easy victory with his 30,000 men. Not so.

Basilissa Anastasia I Palaiologos was not a woman to be trifled with. She was young and beautiful, but as intelligent and strategic as any man. She was tall, with golden hair and pale skin, traits that made her exotically beautiful in Rhomanion. She had risen to power following the death of her father, Matthaios I Palaiologos, without any male issue. She was only twenty-two when the news of the Timurid invasion struck.

She acted quickly - orders were sent to Thematic governors to raise troops, and to garrisons in the cities and fortresses threatened to fight to the last man, denying the Timurids as much men and time as possible. Light cavalry harried the army's supply lines and flanks, channelling it into the trap set for it. Ten months after the invasion, Anastasia's army of 50,000, in three parts, led by herself and two of her must trusted captains, joined the Timurid host in battle near Edessa.

On the day of battle, Anastasia said these words to encourage the troops:

'The Timurids are coming. That much is certain. Victory is not certain, although our scouts tell us that we outnumber them. However I tell you this - whether we die, whether we lose or not, a new day will dawn for Rhomanion, and the ambitions of that vile Hellspawn will never be fulfilled. For this is a great storm, but it is one we can weather. Was not Manzikert our darkest hour? But we survived, we endured, and we prospered long after that.

They are coming upon us now. This day must be forever remembered as a day of glory for Rhomanion. Charge, and may all God's love be with you!

KYRIE ELEISON!'

The charge of the Rhomaoi Knights against the Timurid host, led by the brave young warrior-Empress, is an image indelibly marked upon our collective psyche, working to make the motto of the Rhomaoi Army 'Kyrie Eleison' - the battle-cry of Anastasia's knights as they charged the Timurids so long ago. The recent kinema Day of Glory shows this rather well. But it was a foregone conclusion, the Timurids were outnumbered to a great degree and their elephants and horse archers were not that effective against cannon.

The real turning point in the battle was when Timur-i-Lenk duelled with Anastasia, knocking aside her helmet. Shocked to discover that she was female, he paused, and was immediately transfixed through the heart. The cry went through the Timurid army, 'Timur-i-Lenk is dead'. Its morale shattered by its leader's death, the Timurid host routed, but was trapped and annihilated.

Anastasia returned to Constantinople in triumph, and nine months later gave birth to a healthy child, her firstborn son. He was named Andreas.

[Tzeentch]

The Death of France (Eleutherios Giorgatos)

In 1415 the nobility of France rose up against the King of England, due to the fact that they felt their wealth was being diverted to England. Indeed, this was the case in France, and many French noble families could stomach no more of what they felt was the abuse of their lands and titles to fatten England and the Plantagenet monarchy. So they rose up, using the peasants' dismay at a series of bad harvests and the recent raising of taxes to manipulate them into forming a rag-tag force aided by the nobles' own private armies.

The rebellion began in Spring, the urban mob rising up and burning Paris as all across the Kingdom of France, peasant revolts and military forces rose up. Several cities burned, and most English in France were brutally murdered. The nobles set up a Kingdom of France under the banner of the House of Bourbon, but the English King's revenge was bloody as his forces advanced into France. The farmland of many regions was ravaged and burned, fortresses were levelled, and at the village of Crecy the rebels met the might of England. Their knights charged across the muddy ground, but were laid low by a storm of arrows that seemed to block out the very sun. Cannon also blasted the knights and men-at-arms, and when the battle ended the House of Bourbon, along with half of France's noble houses, was dead.

When it was finished, the mopping-up began. The peasant rebellions were remorselessly crushed, and the farms of most of France were burned, as both the construction of new castles and the raising of private armies without the assent of Parliament or the King were now utterly forbidden. King Arthur II of England and France was crowned Gallic Emperor in 1417 by the Patriarch of Rome, the realms of England and France were now combined into one nation, effectively abolishing both the old Royaume de France and the Kingdom of England. However, in the courts of Rome and Constantinople, the Gallic Empire was met with some condescension and disdain.

France would not legally exist until 1795.

[Tzeentch]

The Rocket's Glare: A History of Military Rocketry (Ioannis Melas)

The Floga was invented by Theodoros of Nicaea* in 1411, inspired, or so he claimed, by a fireworks display that was made to celebrate Basilissa Anastasia's 5th child. It was, essentially similar to the Corean Hwacha, capable of firing up to two-hundred missiles in a short space of time, each missile containing a small amount of gunpowder and metal fragments. It was death incarnate against the massed formations common at the time, scything down charging knights or advancing infantry with ease, the fragments sent far flying by the explosions and causing bleeding wounds which with the medical technology of the time were practically fatal.

The missiles tended to overshoot their marks or explode in mid-air, but when they did land, they did so in massed groups. Also, misfires were invariably fatal, as the missiles exploded while still in the device.and detonated it, sending a storm of fragments and scorching the ground. The Floga was not good against castle walls, but it was lethal in pitched battles, and that piqued the interest of Rhomanion's military.

*Sort of like Leonardo da Vinci, but without his OTL counterpart's pacifism.

The Glory of Rhomanion (Ioannis Melas)

Anastasia I Palaiologina died in the year 1426, at the age of forty-six. Foul play was obvious, and when the perpetrator (a noble called Alexios Theodorakis) was found, he was executed and his entire family stripped of their lands and titles by her successor Andreas I 'The Explorer' Palaiologos. Anastasia had given birth to eight children, a strong legacy indeed, and had strengthened the military of Rhomanion greatly after repelling the Timurid invasion. Rhomanion had swallowed up Tripolitania during this period, Morocco going to Castille and Algeria to the Holy Roman Empire.

Andreas I reigned until 1453, and not for nothing was he known as 'The Explorer'.

[Tzeentch]

Rossiya: Road to Empire (Vasiliy Vasiliyev)

The confrontation between the states of the Commonwealth of Rossiya and the Kingdom of Prussia had begun with the war against the Golden Horde, only to erupt into open warfare in the year 1434. The reason was quite simple - Prussia held areas of Ruthenia, a territory that had been Rossiyan for a number of centuries. The Ryazanians, being the ones to directly border Prussian Ruthenia, convened the Council (Sovet) of the Commonwealth of Rossiya to determine the action that was to be taken against Prussia in 1432 - the nobles from Novgorod, Muscovy and Ryazan that made up the Council voted unanimously for war.

The next two years were spent procuring Rhomaoi Floges and fire-projectors, cannon, Imperial arquebus, handguns, and various over devices of war. The war began on 13th September 1434, when the Rossiyans engaged a Prussian army of larger size and won due to considerable use of the Floga against the densely-packed formations the Prussians favoured. Eyewitness reports of the battle's aftermath report it as 'the field...covered in blood and the dead...the moans of the dying were loud and agonising to hear until mercy was given unto them'.

The Rossiyans then masterfully used the Floga again, at the Battle of Odessa, in which whole batteries were used, lighting up the night with a swarm of missiles that rained death on the Prussian garrison. The Prussians however were wising up and began to use skirmishers and light cavalry to raid the flanks and supply lines of the Rossiyan forces. The Rossiyans however were used to such tactics, and began hitting every suspicious forest with Floga barrages, setting the trees alight and smoking out any skirmishers that might be there.

Eventually, in 1436 the war ended with Ryazan taking a great swathe of Ruthenia and Muscovy the important trade port of Odessa. Prussia made up for its loss by taking part of the Archbishopric of Riga (with suitable compensation given to the Uniate Church) as well as some minor Baltic states and annexing its Polish vassals in early 1437. This last act in particular marked the beginning of the end for Poland.

[Tzeentch]

Hispania: The Glory, The Grandeur (Ioannis Melas)

In 1439, dynastic crisis struck Portugal, Aragon and Barcelona soon after each other. One nation quickly profited from this - Castille. The nations originally existed in a state of Personal Union with Castille, but Juan Carlos I of Castille, Aragon, Barcelona and Portugal resolved to take it one step further, following the example of Norden. In 1440 his request for the creation of the Kingdom of Hispania (along with a great deal of gifts) reached the Ecumenical Patriarch, and in early 1441 he was crowned King of Hispania by the Patriarch of Rome.

Hispania was now moderately secure against annexation from foreign power, unlike Poland, which succumbed in the same year...

Poland's Slow Death (Ioannis Melas)

In 1441, diplomats from Prussia and the Holy Roman Empire met in Sigmaringen over the matter of Poland. It was decided that Lesser Poland would be partitioned between the Empire and Prussia, and that the Holy Roman Empire would gain all of Greater Poland. That very year, the forces of both nations moved into Poland, crushing all resistance before them. Poland was thus removed from existence as a nation, doomed to be culturally assimilated into either Prussia or the Holy Roman Empire until its language was almost forgotten (although lately it has been somewhat revitalised).

[Tzeentch]

The Avalonias: Voyage of Glory (Gustav Eriksson)

In 1451, Christoforos Doukakis, a Rhomaoi sailor working for Gallic Emperor Henry V, discovered the Avalonias. For years he had been trying to get his ideas accepted in his native land - where Andreas I had been taking parts of Africa from Yemen and establishing a coastal fortress at the Horn to guard the sea trade routes to the East to Transindusia against pirates that seemed to be rising in the ocean. Christoforos was a learned man, and knew of the Norse habitation of Greenland. So, he reasoned, there had to be something beyond Greenland.

He believed that it was a brave new continent, a whole new world. For such theories he received much flak from potential employers, but finally in 1450 the Gallic Emperor approved the voyage of discovery. Four ships were constructed, specially designed to brave the rough Atlantic waters.

The voyage began off the tip of Brittany and took nine months as the ships grew short of supplies, one was lost to ice off Greenland - but they arrived, and landed close to where Leif Eriksson had four-and-a-half centuries before them. The flag of the Gallic Empire was raised on the land, Christoforos kneeling and consecrating the area to almighty God who had allowed for their survival when all had seemed lost. They hunted and took the food supplies back to the ship, encountering a group of native Avalonians who attacked them. Three Avalonians were killed, one sailor was injured.

They sailed round the island where they had landed, deciding to name it 'Avalon' after the mythical place where King Arthur was entombed. From this decision comes the name 'Avalonia Superior' which eventually became simply 'Avalonia'.

Then they came home to Europe, telling of their findings to the Emperor, who approved a second expedition. The race for Avalonia was on.

[Tzeentch]

A Golden Era: 1452-1500 (Ioannis Melas)


With its ambitions on the Continent completed, the Gallic Empire annexed the various Irish and Scottish states in the 1450's and 60's. To the east, the Commonwealth period of Rossiya ended as Ryazan, Muscovy and Novgorod unified into one nation, the Czardom of Rossiya, in 1465 on the tail end of a successful war with the Golden Horde that pushed the borders of Rossiya many miles east, during which time Rhomanion consolidated its East African territories and expanded them to include Socotra.

Gallic Colonisation began in earnest in Avalonia, and in 1476 Christoforos Doukakis died peacefully, a rich man. Hispania, not to be outdone, took over the Azores and Canaries, using them a bases for its colonisation efforts on the east coast of Avalonia.

In 1480 Yao Cheng, tyrant of the state of Cheng, died while making preparations to invade Ming. His younger, more tactically and strategically adept son Long Cheng completed the plan, razing the capital of Ming and taking over the state of Ming. Long Cheng's empire was a dynamic state, remaining in contact with the West and avoiding the pitfall of isolationism.

The Timurids lost their grip over India to a series of rebellions in 1485, but continued in Persia until a major drought and resultant famine caused a rebellion against their rule, which resulted in anarchy from 1489 to 1493 until a warlord from Khorasan, of Afshar stock, took over Persia and began the Afshar Dynasty.

In the 1490's the Golden Horde was showing signs of stress, until in the 1498-1500 period due to a succession crisis it disintegrated into a group of feuding kingdoms and steppe tribes. The days when it had held suzerainty over Rossiya were long over, and before long, it would be their land that was Rossiya's.

[Tzeentch]

Languages of Europe (Ioannis Melas)

In the Holy Roman Empire, the language of choice was Latin. It had a long and proud pedigree and was highly prestigious, its spread increased by the invention of the Printing Press in 1481. To the west, in Gallia, another language was developing - Gallic, a hybrid of French and English, the two languages merging into one common tongue. This process was exemplified in Normandy, the interface between France and Britain. Far east of the Gallic Empire, New Prussian, a melting pot of many languages - German, Latin, Old Prussian, Lithuanian and Rossiyan - was steadily forming. South of Prussia, in Rhomanion, Greek was the lingua franca - if you needed to be understood, you spoke Greek. Nevertheless, regional dialects persisted in all of Europe, due to long travel distances, although these were being slowly ameliorated. And in far-eastern Rossiya, Rossiyan was the tongue of choice.

As the Early Modern Period began, Europe was beginning to become the centre of the world. And by the Twentieth Century, its languages would be the ones most widely spoken.

[Tzeentch]

The Glory of Rhomanion (Ioannis Melas)

In 1511, the Shah of Persia invaded Rhomanion, fully intending to defeat it and perhaps gain Mesopotamia, which he deeply desired. The Persians pressed in, but their northern army was rebuffed at Vagdati* and their southern force defeated trying to cross the Euphrates. The Rhomaoi then pushed south, crushing a Mesopotamian state that had endured since the Mongols had swept through Mesopotamia before.

Eight years later, the men of Rhomanion had pushed deep into Persia, and in the great battle of Isfahan they crushed the Persian army before in the terms of peace creating a vassal state in Western Persia. It was Basileus Anastasios Pailaiologos's last victory through, for in 1520 he died without having fathered a male heir. Soon, Anastasia Kapodistria Porphyrogenita was Basilissa Anastasia II, her reign would be a peaceful one, barring the annexation of a minor Turkish state in the Caucasus, and would be remembered as a flowering of Rhomaoi art and culture.

Asia: A History (Ioannis Melas)

In 1518, there were a series of wars between the Transindusian states that resulted in the north being under a Muslim Empire of Delhi and the south being under a Hindu state. Also in this period the state of Dai Viet was annexed by the Empire of Cheng after a war that began in 1509. Japan, under Shogun Yoshiro, a Shogun who knew where the future lay if Japan did not follow the advancements of the west, was using Rhomaoi weapons that had reached it from the West, particularly the Floga, in its invasion of Corea, which earned it some territory in the south.

It also colonised the Ryukyu Islands.


The Avalonias (Ioannis Melas)

After a series of colonial wars the Holy Roman Empire now controlled the Spanish holdings on the East Coast, also claiming the peninsula of Nova Austria*. However, the Spanish had not given up on colonising and were beginning to settle the Karribean Island of Virginia*. The Gallic Empire also claimed Avalon Superior*.

Rhomanion had claimed some rainforest and had a few token bases near the mouth of the Angelos* River. However its rulers were not that interested in colonisation in the west, although a few adventurers were intrigued by tales of cities of gold believed to be in Mexiko.

*Baghdad
*Florida
*Cuba
*OTL Quebec/Maine
*The Amazon

[AJNolte]

A History of the Uniate Church (Ioannis Melas)

In the year 1339 A.D, a great Ecumenical Council took place in Constantinople, its goal to heal the schism between East and West. Bishops from Rhomanion, the Holy Roman Empire, the Russian states, and the English Empire took part, and after ten years of finagling, it was decided that:



There would be one Uniate Rite, Creed and Mass. The Uniate Mass would be in the local language (the Western bishops, after several years of obstinacy, managed to get over this). The Uniate Creed would be recited in Greek, Church Slavonic, or Latin depending on the region. The Uniate Rite would be in either Latin or Greek.
The Church would be largely decentralised, with much of the power in the national episcopates under the authority of the local King or Emperor.
The Uniate Church would be under the authority of an Ecumenical Council of Bishops from all over Christendom, headed by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. The Bishop of Rome was angry about this, until he was bribed with the position of Patriarch of Rome, effectively the Ecumenical Patriarch's second-in-command.
Priests below the level of Bishop could marry, as in the East.


Not all were happy with these changes - Jerusalem-Egypt refused to accept the changes, and declared the Church of Jerusalem, which was effectively the same as the old Catholic Church, King Conrad III declaring himself the 'One and True Patriarch of the Christian Faith' while elsewhere rebellions occurred over the change in the Mass. Nevertheless, the Church was more united than it had been for centuries, even as the Anagennisi began.

No way in heck. There is no Pope of this time period who would even consider accepting this. Remember, you're less than fifty years OTL from Annum Sanctum (circa 1300), which is one of the most expansive claims to papal supremacy in history. Also, even the Eastern patriarchs recognize Rome as primus inter pares. So Rome would have to be lead dog--at a minimum--for anyone in the west to go along with this.