Chapter V Part I: The Iron Emperor

Carpathia is exhausted from its participation in the crusades and its constant battles with their Slavic neighbors. While their armies were once mighty, they have faced a decline after the Carpathian failure to hold onto the much smaller Latin Empire, and the mass-punishment and removal of Carpathia’s generals in the face of failure led to the deterioration of their stock of capable leaders.Further infighting caused the nation to begin splitting along cultural lines, and constant scheming and conniving in the royal family has constantly caused capable rulers to be forced away from the throne and has landed Carpathia with a series of weak and incapable leaders. The current, Judith Arpad, is at best average, and her nobles attempted to undermine her at every turn.After the King of Croatia died without a proper heir, his throne went to his daughter, married to Amaury I. When she passed away from the plague, Prince Amaury II rose to the Croatian throne. From there, he schemed more than any other noble in the Carpathian court, constantly attempting to undermine the Empress’s power and raise his own.His brutal repression of peasant rebellions in Croatian and his ceaseless centralization of his own authority has landed him with the name ‘the Iron’, and although personally, he is not an exceedingly capable ruler, his reputation has grown exponentially.His attempts to battle his empress has earned him a reputation from Paris to Cairo, and the Empress has acted accordingly. His imprisonment bolstered Amaury to invade Carpathia, gathering his armies and hiring the ever faithful Bulgarian Band. The Latin Empire, having spent several years recovering its strength and building her treasury, was able to field an army far larger than that of the Carpathians, especially with Amaury II’s regent refusing to aid the crown which imprisoned his master.As such, it came as no surprise that the 15,000 Roman soldiers marched almost unopposed through Carpathia towards the capital. Many of the lords were too exhausted to even bother fighting, or welcomed the Roman advance in the hopes of retaining power after the war.By the time Amaury reached Pecs, only 6,000 soldiers had reached muster to try and stop him. They were destroyed in a rather uneventful battle, their general, one of the only nobles in the land actually loyal to the Empress, being killed and forgotten in the annals of history. The Carpathian army broke after and showed no sign of recovery. It wasn’t long after that the Empress surrendered her lands to Amaury, at sword point.Amaury orders celebration across the entirety of the Empire, which now reaches from Kiev to Naxos. The campaign in its entirety only cost the lives of 2,000 or so Roman men, and only a slightly larger number of Carpathians. Perhaps the least bloodshed for the largest piece of land in European history. Amaury II is shortly thereafter freed from his prison and restored to his throne, now under his father.Although the former empress signs away all the lands of the throne of Carpathia to Amaury, he refuses the title of Emperor from her. He has little interest in becoming Europe’s first dual-emperor, or dealing with the title of Carpathia. In fact, Amaury despises the institution, the Carpathian Emperor’s stealing his own title away from him long ago and, in his mind, setting back the Latin Empire his forefathers carved out by decades.So instead of taking the throne, he declares in what would later be named the Declaration of Szekesfehervar, that the Empire of Carpathia is an illegitimate title, born of baseless claims and thereby forfeit, and transfers all lands previously under it to the kingdoms of Hungary and Wallachia, vassal kingdoms of the Latin Empire that remain without kings.In effect, Amaury destroys the Empire of Carpathia and has pulled the Latin Empire into its stead. While this angers many of the former Carpathian nobility, they are still weak and subdued by Amaury’s easy conquest. Those who dissent in Croatia have Amaury II to face as well, and nobody argues Amaury’s decree. At the end of the declaration, Amaury also has himself crowned King of the Greeks, claiming the former Byzantine lands of Western Anatolia, as well as all the lands south of Bulgaria, as his rightful lands.Delegates from Venice who had come to observe the ceremony, naturally, objected greatly to Amaury effectively declaring their lands his rightful patrimony, but he ignores their protests. Venice is dying, and Amaury is happy to push the Doge further into a grave, just as he did the Carpathians.The former empress, Judith, naturally protests more than any other. However, she now controls nothing besides a small duchy in central Hungary, and some borderlands west of the Elbe, on the borders of the Holy Roman Empire, and her power has been thoroughly checked. Amaury hardly spares a thought for her.With his power cemented, Amaury sets his armies towards the Count of Rashka, who has remained independent in the constantly shifting political climate of the Balkans. Although he has refused Amaury’s demands for his vassalization, he has few means to defend himself against Amaury’s forces, and he is soon forced to bend the knee to Amaury just as the Carpathian nobles had.While Amaury stamps out Rashka’s independence, word comes from the south, where King Onfroy of Jerusalem, now little more than a petty warlord constantly rattling his saber against the Muslims who have conquered his lands, usurps the islands of Lesbos from Sophie Blachernae.The move angers Amaury, but Onfroy has managed to manufacture a stronger claim to the islands, and he has little interest in pursuing a naval war with the King of Jerusalem at the moment, and he chooses instead to ignore it, especially now that he needs his ships to possibly fight the Venetians in the future.It matters not. Amaury’s plans stretch far and wide. He will cement his Empire to last for generations so that none of his descendants will ever feel threatened by the Mongol or Magyar or German. Nobody shall be able to threaten him or his great land. His legacy will be invincible.And as he goes to sleep one night, thinking of this, as he always does, Amaury does not wake up.King Amaury van Vlaanderen, the Bold, the Holy, Emperor of Romania, King of Greece, Duke of Thrace and Rashka, protector of Constantinople, Count of Thrake, Adrianopolis, Philippopolis, Methone, Lord of Flanders, defender of the Dnieper, ruler of the Carpathian, Defender of the Faith, Knight of the Order of St. Baldwin, Imperial Knight of Germany, Honorary Brother of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, Bulgar Slayer, Mongol Slayer, passed from the world into the arms of the Lord who he dutifully served on December 10th, 1325, at the age of 64.Although his plans were never completed, he would go down in history as one of the Empire’s most famous rulers, and a symbol for Christendom to rally behind for centuries to come.Amaury II is coronated from a cathedral outside his palace in Knin, Croatia, and a new era begins.Amaury starts his reign with the betrothal of one of his cousins to the second son of the Holy Roman Emperor, continuing the long held alliance between the two empires.Amaury’s ascension is marked by complete chaos in the world around him and relative stability in his own. To the south, the Muslim realms have collapsed in a series of succession wars, with Egypt and Jerusalem a battleground of petty sultans and Crusader warlords attempting to strike out from their keeps in Jerusalem. Their attempts to stake out renewed independence would most likely mean their heads if the Muslims regain control, but Amaury cares little about them. Jerusalem is dead and gone.To the north, Germany is beset by disease, an influx of bandits and sits as a constant battleground as thousands of skirmishes between Christians and Mongol take place. The Mongol Empire, while still horrifying powerful, sits in constant rebellion, and the lands of Germany and Anatolia have been made near useless by the constant pillaging. Germany, in particular, has not recovered from the crusades, or the initial Mongol invasion, and most of the great cities have been flattened by war, the ruins of once magnificent German castles, palaces, and cathedrals sitting in a state similar to the old Roman ruins many of them were built upon.And further west, in lands Amaury cares little for, France and England battle constantly for power over Aquitaine and in Britain proper, the Irish constantly make moves against their English overlords, while the Spanish kingdom’s constant infighting has led to a Muslim resurgence in Iberia.But the Empire, the Latin Empire, remains strong. The land of his father, his father’s father, and another Emperor before him, he and his family now see Greece as their rightful patronage, as do their subjects. The age of Frankish rulers desperately trying to hold on power has passed, and he now instead looks to expanding his power instead of holding it.Emperor Amaury II ‘The Iron’ van Vlaanderen is not the best ruler. He cares little about treating with members of foreign states and his understanding of the economy is average, at best, as well as his abilities to play games of intrigue. He was always more interested in matters of war, much like his father, and also remains fairly knowledgeable on the bible, despite only an average amount of interest in religion itself.Despite this, however, he is diligent and known as a strong ruler. Having held Croatia with an iron grip, he is not a man without a sense of reason, however, and in times of hardship, he himself learned to sup on water and bread while he forced his peasants to do the same. Devoid of care for much outside of his own gain, he does not care for petty matters like revelry and debauchery. His biggest enjoyment comes from ruling his realm and gaining more power.Some would call him cruel, vindictive. Amaury has killed almost as many of his own people than his actual enemies. His mass crackdowns on even the slightest of peasant unrest have become famous, and his own people fear him just as much as anyone else. Others, however, would call him a strong ruler, whose disdain for feudal politics and established orders make him the man needed to bring the Empire to a greater place.One thing is for sure, though, Amaury is the most well-known man to be coronated as Emperor. None before him have taken control with such a reputation already in place, and the normal batch of rebellions never begin. The Carpathians remain busy infighting, still reeling from the shock of their defeat, the Croats were subdued by him long ago, and the Greeks are far too nervous to attack an Emperor with such wide-reaching power.There is talk, rumbling of some attempt to stop him before he becomes too strong to fight. An alliance of Croatians and Hungarian minor lords to try to force Amaury to give them far-reaching powers, control over the succession in the Empire. Amaury’s spymaster gives him news of the rebellion soon after it forms. Not difficult when every other vassal is scared shitless of their Emperor. Oddly enough, however, he simply smiles and does not move on the knowledge.While he may not be a traditional ruler, he is a traditional father. Some would say his cruelty simply passes onto his life with his wife and children. He would say he simply knows how to discipline a child in an age where they seem to constantly speak out against their betters. Julienne frequently earns his ire for lying to her father.Amaury sits in his study when he isn’t raising his children or attending to the state. Recently, he had a map of the Empire, as well as those lands surrounding it, from the Venetian holdings in the Balkans to the Mongol’s in Anatolia. He sits and stares at the map while writing plans for his own use. If Amaury desires one thing and only one thing, it is more power.His spymaster comes to him again, warning him that the alliance of his vassals has been sealed and that several minor counts and the Duke of Pecs, a slob named Nandor, only notable for having spilled wine on Amaury’s lap during a feast three seasons prior, have begun preparing an ultimatum. Fast action, the spymaster advised, could weaken the faction, at the least dissuade some of the lords from putting their names to the ultimatum.Amaury once again simply laughs at his spymaster and continues staring at his maps.The ultimatum comes soon after.Amaury has the message nailed to the messenger’s head and has him escorted back to Duke Pecs before assembling his guard and ordering his vassals to gather their soldiers. Amaury seems unphased by the event, and despite the large numbers the rebels have managed to muster with mercenary support, he shows little fear for his crown.The campaign is short. Despite the rebel’s large numbers, most of the realm fears Amaury and pledge their aid to their Emperor. In addition, the Bulgarian Band, helpful as always, pledges their support with a frequent hire discount. After a few skirmishes near Tyrnovo and Vidin which sends the rebels over the Danube and cuts off their reinforcements from Croatia, the main rebel army is caught in Adony, where Amaury personally leads the van in battle.Although many die in the battle, on both sides, Amaury reigns victorious with his superior numbers. The rebel general, while highly skilled, has far less inspiring subordinates, and when the rebel general on the right flank is struck by an arrow before a loyalist charge, the rebel lines collapse completely.The rebels are soon after routed, nearly half of their force falling before the loyalist onslaught.The rest of the war consists of Amaury wiping up whatever resistance the rebels could attempt to muster. Several castles are taken and their defenders put to the sword, but the largest factor is the slaughter of rebel soldiers. While some nobles find themselves taken captive, the commoners are given no pardon by Amaury, and soldiers who dare stand with their rebel lords find themselves cut down mercilessly.The Duke of Pecs sends his formal surrender soon after, and Amaury has that too nailed to the envoys head. He personally escorts the man to the Duke’s castle, before taking him prisoner then and there. The flames of rebellion peter out and die shortly after, and Amaury laughs as he watches the procession of prisoners to his dungeons.By bringing on the civil war, Amaury has effectively imprisoned anyone who would dare lift a finger to stop him. The rest of the vassals, already having decided to remain loyal, are too afraid of ending up like the idiot Duke of Pecs, and none retain enough power to create a stable base for rebellion.With the rebellion dying, Princess Kamilla of Carpathia finds herself in a poor spot. Having sided with the rebels during the war, the last Arpad to hold a noble title, the Duke of Ostrogon (or at least, his regent) requests she is released from his dungeon in exchange for conceding her title’s to Dujam. Amaury decides to allow this, and the Arpad dynasty finds itself relegated to begging in various courts trying to find someone to help them take back their land.She should be lucky, Amaury is far less kind to the rest of the prisoners, who find themselves rotting in the deepest, darkest pits of his dungeon, despite their noble blood.With his vassals subdued, Amaury takes the chance to centralize his power further in the Empire and slowly begins stripping away the rights of his vassals and nobles. In truth, he despises his vassals, seeing them as little more than another obstacle to his proper running of the nation, and he enjoys hearing them whine over the loss of privilege.He also uses the chance to strike out at several other of his enemies on the peninsula, notably the Venetians. Amaury harbors the distaste for the merchants that his forefathers did, and desires nothing more than to strip them of their power and gold. Their presence in the Balkans is a personal affront to Amaury, whose father declared himself the ruler of their lands, a title which Amaury himself has gladly inherited.Several mobs are raised to destroy their trading posts, and although the Venetians beg him with gold to spare their holdings, Amaury has them burned. Nobody dares question him, and the Venetians have no allies in Amaury’s realm to use against him now that anyone who would stand against their Emperor sits in a dungeon.To support his claim to Venetian lands, Amaury has himself crowned the King of Serbia, cementing his right to Venetian lands. Their envoy leaves the Emperor’s court in protest, narrowly dodging having a message nailed to his head as Amaury enjoys doing.The Kaiser in Austria, forever battling the Venetians for power over Italy, sends his regards along with several of his knights to the coronation ceremony, along with a request that they cement an alliance against Venetian aggression. Amaury agrees wholeheartedly.While the Empire strengthens, Christendom continues to weaken. King Christopher II of England declares a bishop under his rule, Marinus IV, to be the rightful pope. This brings a rather large shock to the Christian world, which desperately needs unity in these times of strife.In order to ease the running of his realm, Amaury moves his court back from his personal estates in Croatia and back to Constantinople, adopting French as his main language. Having spent so long among Croats, he finds French harder to grasp than past Emperors, but his experience as a vassal king of the Carpathians means he has a strong understanding of French, Croatian, and Hungarian, as well as a smattering of various other Balkan languages.There is one more matter to attend to, however.Amaury has little wish to manage Hungary. The realm has been torched by various wars and its internal politics are a constant pathetic barrage of various petty lords attempting to gain some semblance of power over one another. The great Hungarian state that took Croatia and marched into Constantinople as conquerors has withered away and died.The Carpathian realms are little more than a drain, a constant requirement of Amaury’s money and men to try and retain order and prevent a further collapse into absolute chaos. The Declaration of Szekesfehervar technically created the Kingdom of Hungary and Wallachia, although it left the thrones vacant. To cut the dead leech from his realm, he decides to separate them fully.