Kings and Popes, Councils and Communes – Different High Middle Ages Year By Year, Starting in 1066

[Salvador79]

Kings and Popes, Councils and Communes – Different High Middle Ages Year By Year, Starting in 1066
I have decided to move beyond my comfort zone – not just writing about revolutions, real or otherwise, or about pre-historical cultures of which we know next to nothing – and try my hand at a High Middle Ages TL with a PoD that has been done very often – an Anglo-Saxon victory at Hastings 1066. But I’ll do it in a way that hasn’t been done often, I think. I’ll try to fathom how fundamental the underlying workings of what we perceive as “typically European medieval” can be affected by a significant divergence. There will be only so much talk of who marries whom, who begets whom etc. In the first decades, I’ll work with the personnel that we know, and from then on, I’ll assume people born after the PoD (in some remote regions, only years or decades after the PoD) will not be born ITTL so I’ll just make up names when names are necessary and not give their entire pedigrees each time. I’ll assume some things are harder to affect and would stay stable in almost all iterations of history, while others may look so, too, because they were dominant in our Medieval Europe, but might in fact be rather coincidental. I’ll try to work out which is which.

To follow through with this experiment, I need to make progress relatively fast, so that I can cover not just the rest of the 11th, but also at least much of the 12th, and maybe beyond. That means, most updates will be charts of what happens, year by year. Only a handful of updates – on major conflicts, major developments, some reflections on causes and effects – will concentrate on a single topic in greater detail. In contrast to most of my other TLs, this one won’t attempt to pretend to use “in-context sources”.

As always, you, my dear readers, (I hope there will be some out there) are cordially invited to comment on anything and everything, to speculate on future developments, criticize my decisions and suggest alternatives, suggest sources of relevant information, bring others to the party etc.!

Here goes nothing…



1066: Edward the Confessor, King of England, dies in January. The Witenagemot elects Harold Godwinson as his successor. At the end of the year, King Harold II. will emerge exhausted but triumphant from not just one, but two narrow and costly battles with foreign invaders who had come to steal his crown and subdue his lands: first the Norwegian King Harald Hardrada, whom he defeated at Stamford Bridge; then the Norman Duke William the Bastard, whose Norman, Boulonnais and Flemish knights were slain at Hastings [1]. [PoD]

King Harold the Great is duly celebrated in Winchester. He appoints his nephew Hakon Sweynson as Earl of Wessex and all the other holdings which Harold had previously been earl of himself.

Duke Conan II. of Brittany attacks the poorly guarded Normandy in an attempt to recapture lands of his duchy which had been lost to the Normans in previous conflicts. [2]

[as per OTL:]

Magnus Haraldsson becomes King in Norway; his brother Olav, who escaped alive from the lost battle at Stamford Bridge, stays in Orkney for the winter.

Stenkil, King of Sweden, dies. A struggle for his succession between Eric and Eric [yes, they were both called Eric, if we can trust Adam of Bremen’s chronicle] ensues.

Archbishop Adalbert of Hamburg-Bremen is deposed under accusations – brought forth primarily by Cologne’s Archbishop Anno and Rudolf of Rheinfelden – of alienating imperial possessions to cronies. Revolting pagan Obodrites overthrow their baptized ruler Gottschalk (son-in-law of King Sweyn II. of Denmark) and slay priests, monks and a bishop. Gottschalk’s son Heinrich flees to Denmark. The pagan Kruto now leads the Obodritic confederacy. Under his command, Haithabu / Hedeby is destroyed.

In the Massacre of Granada, the extremely unpopular Jewish Wesir Joseph and his son Shmuel as well as about 4,000 Jewish inhabitants of the city are murdered by their neighbours.

The Norman duke / prince Richard of Capua, who had helped Alexander II. gain his papacy, turns against him with a host of knights, captures Caprano, pillages the Lazio and encamps outside Rome, where he has allies among the Roman nobility, too, who feel shut out by the new rules for papal elections enshrined by the Reformers.

In the conflict about the archbishopric of Milan between Reformist Patarenes, supported by the pope, and Archbishop Guido, supported by the Milanese nobility, Pope Alexander II. excommunicates Guido. Guido and his faction whip up a Milanese gathering of townsfolk and succeed in having the Patarene leader Ariald chased out of the city. He is assassinated later this year.

Archbishop Eberhard of Trier dies. Anno, Archbishop of Cologne, appoints his nephew Cuno of Pfullingen with the office. Trier’s elites, who had not been consulted in this matter, abduct and kill Cuno. The cathedral chapter elects Udo of Nellenburg, from among their ranks, as the next Archbishop.

Huy in the Low Countries is granted city rights by Theodwin of Liège.

Šibenik is mentioned for the first time in a chapter by the Croatian King Petar Kresimir IV.

Tain becomes the first town in Scotland to be chartered as a royal burgh by King Malcolm III.



[1] It should probably be Haestingas, and the following names should probably also be more Anglo-Saxon, what with the English / Englisc language evolving differently without a Norman conquest. But since this is not an in-context source TL and I am no expert on Anglo-Saxon and find it cumbersome to search for symbols like Æ and ð, I’ll stick with OTL names.

[2] Conan was poisoned and died IOTL after the PoD, in December 1066, allegedly at William’s orders. Because William is dead by now ITTL, I have Conan live. For this inspiration, I have the old TL Crown of the Confessor to thank.

[Except for the different outcome of Hastings and Conan’s attack on Normandy, everything is unchanged compared to OTL. Hey, it’s the Middle Ages, even butterflies can’t travel too fast here 😉 I’ve only added the rest to give some colour and background, to hint at the kind of world all of this is happening in.)

 

[Salvador79]

1067:

What is left of the Norman nobility (thousands had died at Hastings) is divided among themselves as to whom to follow in the desperate attempt to defend against Conan’s invasion and do something about rebellious nobility in Maine and general violence and chaos. William’s heir would be Robert Curthose, who is only 13 years old. Against him and his mother Mathilda, who claims the regency for her minor son, Robert de Montgommerie, whom William had left in charge of Normandy in his stead before he left for England, also claims the mantle of leadership. Both sides also aim to install different people as Bishops of Bayeux, too (Odo of Bayeux has fought and died in Hastings). The Hautevilles have more strength in the North, the Montgommeries / Belêmes in the South of the Duchy. Because they did not reach an agreement, they sent separate forces Westwards against Conan – both of which are defeated in separate battles by the Duke of Brittany.

The situation is hardly better further North in the Boulonnais. Here, too, Count Eustache and many with him have died in Hastings. His three sons Godfrey, Eustache and Balduin are all small children, and their mother Ida has assumed regency. Into this power void, English King Harold the Great meddles, too, beginning a retaliatory invasion, landing near the small fishing village of Petresse, where the Channel is narrowest (today Calais), and moving Southwards from there. They capture and plunder Boulogne and take Eustache and Balduin as hostages with them, riding Southwards as far as Rouen, plundering and burning this city, too, and freeing the King’s brother, Wulfnoth, from his decade-long captivity in the castle of Rouen, before they move back up North.

Unrelated to these attacks, Count Balduin V. of Flanders dies. His son and heir, Balduin VI., rides Westwards deep into the Boulonnais to help against the Anglo-Saxon raiders, but his depleted forces are defeated in battle, too, and Balduin VI. suffers a severe wound of which he dies several days afterwards.

While yet more Flemish knights, after Hastings, have died in the Boulonnais and the power void extends to their large and wealthy county, too, the young German King Henry IV. and Count Robert of Frisia seize the opportunity and ride into Flanders, where Richilde of Hainault has assumed the regency for her son, Balduin’s 12 year-old heir, Arnulf. Robert of Frisia also has a claim on the title as Count of Flanders, and Emperor Henry has joined him to regain what previous Balduins had captured: Aalst, Oudenaarde, Dendermonde, Hulst – in short, so-called “imperial Flanders”. They capture Gent and Brygge easily because its inhabitants support Robert over Richilde [1], oust the few supporters of Arnulf and force his family to hide in a castle in the South of the county. In the chaotic fights and fires, one Judith of Flanders, widow of Tostig Godwinsson, dies, too.

(You think it’s weird that a King of the Germans would go on the offense for a strip of land along the mouth of the Maas instead of doing something against the atrocities Obodritic pagans are committing in the Archbishopric of Bremen? Well, that was what the Saxon nobility thought, too. But the Salians were IOTL and are at this point ITTL very much focused on the wealthy regions and commercial waterways in the West, and so were those who would follow the king, and Flanders is a wealthy strip of land, while the Obodritic North is just bogs and heath and woods full of pagan barbarians that you need some larger force to subdue.)

Henry and Robert ride to Petresse, where they meet the English, who are on their way back to their island, packed full with precious loot. Harold and Henry exchange a few looted items as gifts and tokens of friendship and alliance. The 17 year-old Henry is quite impressed by the English monarch, a fatherly figure, not looking quite so sophisticated as the Swabian nobles of Henry’s family tend to do, but with a large group of fiercely loyal fighters behind him and quite generally making a solemn but cordial impression on the young emperor. Harold Godwinsson, on the other hand, views young Henry somewhat skeptically as an easily impressable teenager who had risen much too early to a much too elevated position, but keeps this opinion to himself as he considers the situation to be potentially very useful for him. From Petresse, all invading sides return to their homes, except for Robert of Flanders, who intends to meet up with Duke Conan and the (just 15 year-old) King of France in Rouen.

The young King Philipp I. of France, who had grown up learning that the Normans in the North were a threat to their kingship and a permanent nuisance, had hesitated long to intervene, and was not entirely unhappy with the fate that had befallen the unruly duchy. It had also taken him time to assemble a sizable force with which he could hope to make a difference in the chaotic Northern regions. He had met with Conan and three Roberts – Curthose, Montgommerie and the Frisian – in Rouen after a revolt had broken out in Alençon, too. A solution was hammered out. Brittany would regain all the lands lost to the Normans over the past decades. Montgommerie would act as regent for Curthose for three more years, in which time Normandy would be exempt from any obligations to the crown in order to allow for its rebuilding. The Duchy of Normandy would relinquish its claims of control over the County of Maine, and Alençon would regain its status as francville (free / royal city). Philipp also recognized Robert’s claim to Frisia and reaffirmed the communal privileges of Gent and Brygge.

The teenage King Henry IV. celebrates the first military success of his reign. He has recaptured lands now and can hand them to his retainers without having to sell off imperial monasteries like IOTL. Also, it was a nice change from the permanent quarrels with Bertha.

King Harold has loot to distribute and reaches new heights of popularity. He announces to increase his huscarls, including new heavy cavalry, too. To this end, he presses the Earl of Northumbria to make the North pay roughly the same rates of taxes like the rest of the kingdom. Morcar, who knows that Harold’s brother Tostig had been overthrown by his Northerners just two years ago when he had attempted something similar, is very much opposed, but finds himself relatively isolated in the Witan.

On top of all that, Harold also comes home to find that his new and legal wife Ealdgyth / Edith of Mercia has born him twin sons: Eadberth and Leofdaeg.

In Rome, the Reformers who had come under both ideological and military pressure in the last year – militarily by Richard of Capua, ideologically by the failure of William’s invasion of England in spite of the Papal banner he bore – are going into the offense again. Militarily, Godfrey the Bearded comes to their aid. Robert had to leave his son Jordan in command of the forces he left at the gates of Rome and returned to deal with a revolt led by Count Amico of Giovinazzo, who has received Byzantine aid to fight against the Hautevilles. Jordan’s army is plagued by diseases, and when Richard returns, he is forced to retreat and seek to make amends with the Pope.

But the ambitious church reformer Hildebrand of Soana has a different agenda in mind. He convinces his mentor Pope Alexander II. not to rely on the treacherous, infighting Normans again [2] and to hold the next Synod not in Amalfi, but in Cremona, closer to where the Reformers are building up a fanatic popular powerbase for their fight against simony, heresy, and un-Christian tyranny. Hildegard has organized strong support for the new Patarene leader Erlembald, and Alexander is now also sending his blessed Peter’s banner to the rebels who attempt to install the Reformist Benedictine monk Desiderius as Prince-Bishop in Trento, against German King Henry IV’s wishes to install his namesake candidate Heinrich. At the Synod of Cremona, Pope Alexander II. excommunicates Richard of Capua for his pillaging, and furthermore deposes the bishops Lando of Nucerino, Landorf of Tortiboli, and Benedict of Biccari on accusations of simony. [3]

Although the cause of Reform seems to have weathered another serious crisis, the Reformers have come to depend even more than IOTL on urban masses, on the Margraves of Tuscany, and on balancing the different Norman factions of Southern Italy in their favour.



[as per OTL:]

Olaf Kyrre returns to Norway. He and his brother Magnus split the Kingdom of Norway between them.

Sancho II. of Castile lays siege to the Muslim city of Zaragoza and leaves with tribute. Queen Sancha dies. Her sons begin to fight over the Kingdoms of Galicia, Leon and Castile.

In a bloody struggle among Sweden’s aristocracy, both Erics and many nobles perish. Stenkil’s son Halsten becomes the new King of Sweden.



[1] They did IOTL, too, see the course of the Battle of Cassel in 1071.

[2] The Norman aura of invincibility has suffered from William’s failed invasion and the ensuing chaos in Normandy. That aura is the only way I can explain to myself why Alexander, who had been so callously betrayed by Richard, turned around without so much as blinking and bestowed the guy who had plundered the Patrimonium Petri and laid siege to Rome, after the latter had seen his army disintegrate before the gates of Rome and then returned with his tail between his legs and asked for forgiveness, with ducal honours, and not just anything, but the adjacent and wealthy Duchy of Calabria and Apulia. Sure, the Pope needs some strong force to counterbalance German Kings/Emperors, but Richard just had not proven to be such one, and even more so, not a reliable one.

ITTL, the cracks in the Norman nimbus lead to Alexander following Hildebrand’s strategy more coherently, namely appealing to populist urban sentiments in overthrowing un-Reform-able bishops backed by local noble profiteers, and replacing them with Reformers.

[3] The latter three are all OTL. Richard was also excommunicated at some point, of course, but not at this one.

 

[Salvador79]

1068:

King Harold “helps” a reluctant Earl Morcar to put down another revolt in Northumbria against the increased taxes. This time, the thegns who had led the attack on Bamburh are executed and all their lands redistributed and their slaves freed. [1]

Harold’s youngest brother Wulfnoth, who had long been held captive by the Normans, is entrusted with building up the new heavy cavalry segement of Harold’s huscarls.

Waltham Abbey, which already features the largest and most renowned medical school on the island, is generously endowed by Harold.

King Malcolm of Scotland marries the English princess Gytha. [2]

Robert de Montgommerie organizes for the two vacant bishoprics of Rouen and Bayeux to be filled again: in Rouen, the prominent Lanfranc is installed, while in Bayeux, Améry, the less-known abbot of Évreux, is preferred over the favourite of Curthose’s faction, Thomas. Overall, Montgommerie’s efforts at restoring order to the duchy are half-successful, partly also because a number of disaffected Norman nobles depart for Southern Italy, Anatolia or other places where they might gain more fame and glory.

The German King Henry IV. begins consolidating imperial possessions in the Harz and orders the construction of a number of castles there, like IOTL. Unlike IOTL, emboldened by his success in Flanders, he joins the expedition of Bishop Burchard of Halberstadt against Slavic pagans, in which Rethra, the main seat, sacred site and fort of the pagan Slavic Redarians, is completely destroyed. [3]

Desiderius is appointed to the Bishopric of Trent by Pope Alexander II., but Henry IV. refuses to accept him as the new prince-bishop and vassal.



[as per OTL:]

King Olaf Kyrre of Norway marries the Danish princess Ingerid.

William VII., Duke of Aquitaine and Gascogne, also called Guy-Geoffrey, marries for a third time, this time the 12 year-old Hildegard of Burgundy.

In Milan, Archbishop Guido resigns. He – and Henry IV., too – support Gotofredo of Castiglione as his successor, but the Milanese Patarenes and their Reformist supporters in Rome push for their candidate Atto. New violence erupts.

Pope Alexander II. deposes the Bishop of Florence for simony, too.

In the Battle of the Alta River, Cumans defeat forces of the Grand Price of Kiev Izaiaslav. The citizens of Kiev in their Veche (popular assembly) declare Izaiaslav as deposed and oust him from the city. Izaiaslav flees Westwards into Polish lands.

Normans under Robert Guiscard lay siege to Bari, the last Byzantine outpost in Apulia, while other Normans under Roger, during a raid near Palermo, come across a larger Zirid Muslim force and defeat it in the Battle of Misilmeri.

The Taifa of Badajoz is wrecked by succession strife between Mohammed Al-Muzaffar’s sons Yaya and Omar. King Alfonso VI. of Leon exploits this situation, attacks and extracts tribute from the taifa, which was supposed to be a vassal of his brother Garcia’s, King of Galicia. Their third brother, Sancho II. of Castile, meanwhile attacks Leon, but is driven out in the Battle of Llantada.



[1] Yes, Anglo-Saxons had slaves. This is particularly attested in the border regions (to Wales and Scotland, in earlier times also to Cornwall) where back-and-forth raiding of both sides meant that slaves were captured, too.

Harold’s expedition to Northumbria is by no means comparable to OTL William’s Harrowing of the North, which left deep marks on that region. What happened here, basically, is the reduction of certain Anglo-Danish nobles whose power has diminished greatly since their ties with Denmark (and the general cohesion of the wider previously “Viking” world) have loosened, but who would not let go of their privileges. The towns, who certainly didn’t like the taxation, either, are left unharmed after this show of royal determination, and the countryside is not scorched. It’s not a wholesale change of ruling elites and practices as IOTL, just one of the many conflicts between a throne and rebellious nobles like they occurred everywhere throughout the Middle Ages, this time won by a strong monarch.

[2] IOTL, Malcolm first married Ingibjorg Finnsdottir and, when she died in 1069 after only two or three years of marriage, he remarried another high English noblewoman, Margaret of Wessex. ITTL, he would have been ill-advised to marry Ingibjorg, and Harold’s eldest daughter Gytha is, in contrast to his OTL choice of Margaret, not a foreboding of conflict with England, but quite the opposite. Malcolm sees that attacking this England makes no sense (while IOTL William’s rule looked shaky at first, what with all the rebellions in the first years) and instead decides to cozy up to it.

[3] This happened IOTL, too, but without Henry’s involvement.

 

[Salvador79]

1069:

After King Harold of England has thoroughly dealt with Normandy, he and his new son-in-law Malcolm of Scotland decide to remove from the picture another invading force of 1066.
No, not Norway – Norway is far away and vast.
A combined English and Scottish fleet under the command of Harold’s eldest son Godwin and supplemented by marine mercenaries led by their seasoned leader Hereward descends on the Orkney Islands to depose Paul and Erlend Thorfinsson, the two brothers who had participated in Harald Hardrada’s invasion and who ruled as Norwegian Jarls over the Orkney islands. Kirkwall is taken by the Anglo-Scottish forces; the two brothers are captured and later brought to Winchester. Erlend’s very young son Erling is installed as nominal new Mormair (earl), now regarded as a vassal of the Scottish king, with English ministerials managing a regency for the foreseeable future, basing their power on Hereward's men and ships who sustain themselves, like all Orkney jarls had done, by “taxing” all passing ships. Hereward is officially awarded a fief among the islands, too.

After control over the Orkney archipelago has been secured, the bulk of the Anglo-Scottish fleet sails on under Godwin’s leadership, into the Irish Sea, where they capture Gofraid Croban, who was contending with England’s ally, the Irish High King Diarmait mac Maíl na mBó, for control over the Kingdom of the Isles. Godwin delivers Gofraid to Diarmait’s son Murchad, who controls Dublin. Upon Gofraid’s capture and Godwin’s arrival, an insurrection led by Conchobar mac Domnall, King of Mide, collapses on itself, and Diarmait’s and Murchad’s control over Dublin as well as the islands in the Irish Sea is restored. [1]

From his new strongholds in the Harz, German King Henry IV. embarks on another campaign against Slavic pagans to his North, this time leading forces of the Saxon duke Ordulf. They destroy the main settlement of the Wagrian tribe, slay their leader Kruto and manage to install Gottschalk’s son Budivoj as Knes of the Obodrites.

As a result of these two campaigns, Henry’s building activities are viewed differently in Saxony: less as imperial recuperation aimed at weakening Saxon nobility, and more as part of a renewed commitment to combatting the pagan Slavs. Whereas IOTL Henry would soon have to lead “Saxon wars”, ITTL he is on excellent terms with the (much older) Billung Duke Ordulf. Ordulf even accompanies Henry, after their victory, on a journey to Jutland, where they meet with the Danish King Sweyn Estridsson and celebrate the wedding of his second son Knut to Adela, the daughter of Henry’s ally Robert the Frisian. Members of English and Swedish nobility are present, too. Henry IV. sets eyes on the English princess Gunnhild, who travels in the company of her uncle Leofwine, Earl of Kent, Essex etc.

Upon his return, King Henry IV. convenes the leading nobility of the Empire in Worms, where he shares his views about the dangers the Christian world faces from both pagans and insubordinate zealots (the Reform faction…) who make its defense impossible. He also announces his intention to divorce Bertha of Savoy and marry Gunnhild of England. The Papal Legate Petrus Damiani threatens that, in that case, Pope Alexander II. would not crown him emperor. Henry, who IOTL backed down, tells Damiani to go to hell. He calls on the empire’s noble leaders to support his divorce and remarriage and a firmer stance against Reformist riots and meddlings in the organization of the empire’s defenses (i.e. installing “strong” prince-bishops), but the assembled nobility is split on the issue. For the moment, Henry must bide his time.

The besieged town of Bari is relieved by a Byzantine fleet joined by Norman mercenaries, many from the Conteville clan, led by Robert of Mortain, recently departed from Normandy and paid by Emperor Romanos. In the Battle of Gravina, Robert Guiscard is captured by Mortain’s men and packed onto a ship that sails back to Constantinople, where the emperor cannot wait to take revenge on Guiscard. [2]

King Sancho II. of Castile marries the English noblewoman Albertha. On this feast, Sancho and his brother Alfonso, who had quarrelled only a year before, conspire to attack and divide between themselves the Western Kingdom of their brother Garcia. Among the English nobility present at the celebrations is also Edgar Edwinson with a few Wessex companions. [3] Disgusted by the malice he observed, Edgar and his retainers travel on.





[as per OTL:]

King Magnus of Norway dies. His brother Olaf Kyrre inherits the entire kingdom and orders the construction of Bjørgvin (the city we know today as Bergen).

Izaiaslav returns with a Polish army commanded by Duke Boleslaw II. the Bold and retakes Kiev.

Almoravids commanded by Yusuf ibn Tashfin conquer Fes.

Siegburg is granted city rights by Henry IV.



[1] IOTL, this scheme succeeded; Murchad was wounded in 1069 and died in 1070; Diarmait was slain in 1072. Gofraid Croban went on to control the Kingdom of the Isles; the Dublin Norse managed to maintain their autonomy for a couple more decades. All of this can be interpreted as indirect consequences of the Norman conquest – Diarmait and Murchad had been closely allied with the Anglo-Saxon Kings of England and with the Kings of Ulaid, and after 1066, these ties were no longer very useful. ITTL, Anglo-Saxon political continuity also means their allies in Ireland fare better. As for why some Scottish are engaging in this adventure, too – well, I admit that this does not follow strictly logically. But it would be a continuation of a longer-term trend of cooperation between England and Alba in an attempt to reduce or possibly remove the threats from the insular Vikings, a policy that had, just a few decades ago, brought down the Kingdom of Strathclyde, which had allied with the Norse-Gael islanders.

[2] It may seem counter-intuitive that MORE Normans in Southern Italy lead to LESS Norman successes. IOTL, though, Norman forces were never very numerous; it was not their numbers which ensured their successes, but a combination of their military outlook, and the determination and ruthlessness of their leaders, combined with the Popes’ need for them. I’ve commented a little as to why Alexander and especially Hildebrand of Soana don’t rely that much on the Normans this time; Norman military is unchanged, of course, but more Norman leaders, especially when they bring their domestic rivalries with them to Italy, might well mean more strife and more divisions.

[3] I couldn’t find anything on where in England Albertha may have been from, so I treated her as a wildcard which might or might not have had any sort of acquaintance with the House of Wessex. Let’s assume that she did. You asked about Edgar the AEtheling – for the moment, I’ve made him a traveller.

 

[Salvador79]

1070:

After last year’s successful campaign, King Harold creates his son Godwin as the first Earl of the Isles.

Maredudd and Idwal, Welsh princes bereft of their lands by Harold Godwinsson, attack the two Welsh allies of the English, Rhiwallon and Bleddyn. With assistance from Hakon Godwinsson, Earl of Wessex, the rebels are defeated, but Rhiwallon dies in the fights. That makes Bleddyn the sole ruler in Wales. In exchange for English help, as negotiated with King Harold, he sends a hundred unfree peasant soldiers of his defeated opponents, who were reputed as good marksmen, to England, along with coins to pay for their maintenance. [1]

German King Henry IV. convenes another assembly attempting to achieve his vassals’ blessings for his plan to intervene in the episcopal struggles of Northern Italy, to divorce Bertha and marry Gunnhild. But the opposition has already coalesced into a bloc around Rudolf of Rheinfelden, Duke of Swabia. (Rudolf had been Henry’s brother-in-law, being married his Henry’s sister Mathilda until her death in 1060. In 1062, though, he had married Adelaide of Savoy, Bertha’s sister, whose honour he was now defending. But more than that, he was leading ducal opposition from the Southern and Alpine regions and even some of the old strongholds of the Salians along the Rhine, who had aligned with the church Reform movement and were skeptical of the “Saxon focus” and the attempts to centralise power in the hands of the German King.) Into the midst of these discussions came news from Milan that in a serious of violent clashes, the pro-Reformist Patarenes had ousted Gotofredo and his followers from Milan and secured the see for Atto. Henry gathered his loyal supporters and decided to pull through with his plans. In October, he gathered Northern Italian forces loyal to his episcopal choices and critical of Pope Alexander II., headed by Luitold of Eppenstein, Count of Verona. They invited Counter-Pope Honorius II., who came from his stronghold in Parma, and restored their affirmation of his claims on the papacy. Honorius declared Henry’s marriage with Bertha unconsummated and dissolved. [2]

Robert Guiscard proves that he does not wear his epithet without reason. He had bribed and tricked his way off the ship that was destined to take him to Constantinople, and ended up stranded on the island of Skyros. Now, he returns on board of a pirate ship to Calabria, only to find out that his castles had been divided between his nephews Abelard and Herman and Mortain’s followers, who had allied with the counts of Giovinazzo and Trani and the Drengots of Capua. He does not even manage to free his son Bohemond, who is held captive by his cousin in San Marco Argentano. Very few Hautevilles are willing to follow his lead again. With these few, the Fox departs for Sicily to find his youngest brother, Roger.



[as per OTL:]

Seljuks conquer Damascus.

Al-Mu`tamid, the Abbadid Emir of the Taifa of Sevilla, installs his friend, the poet Muhammad ibn Ammar, as minister. Ibn Ammar manages to oust his rival poet, the wesir Ibn Zaidun, who had just accomplished the inclusion of the taifa of Cordoba as a subordinate state into the Taifa of Sevilla. Ibn Zaidun goes back to Cordoba.

Abu Bakr ibn Umar founds Marrakesh as the new capital of the Almoravid emirate.

Halsten Stenkilsson is deposed as King of Sweden. He is succeeded by Anund from Gardariki (= the Rus) in Svealand and by Hakon the Red in Gotland.



[1] @Dragonboy gets his Welsh archers 😉 Archery was an occupation of the unfree, hence the slave deal. Comparing to OTL, the English get these slaves quite easily, given that Bleddyn achieved the same feat IOTL without English help. But then again, he couldn’t have known in advance, and improving one’s strength with the help of a powerful ally always seems like a good idea, doesn’t it.

[2] This may seem like Henry taking it rather slowly. Narratively, this is a nice cliffhanger, for I’ll take a week of Easter break with my family from AH writing now, before I’ll come back with the clash of titans… In-world, this makes some sort of sense, too, if we see how long the Investiture Controversy took to build up and escalate IOTL. While this young Henry has fought and won some battles already, frontally assaulting half his dukes and the pope, too, not to forget Mathilda of Tuscany’s force, of course, is something entirely different, and Henry needs to show his own supporters that he has tried his utmost to prevent this rupture which threatens the very foundations upon which the order of Western Christianity appears to rest.

 

[Salvador79]

I am back home. Here's a new update...

1071:

King Olaf of Norway assembles a fleet and sails for the Shetlands, from where he attempts to dislodge Hereward’s men from the Orkneys. Earl Godwin and King Malcolm come to the defense. After a few skirmishes, everybody agrees to wait until King Harold arrives. The weather turns against the Norwegians. [1] Harold, Malcolm and Olaf finally come to an agreement which the Norwegian finds hard to refuse: the crowns of England and Scotland pay the crown of Norway a yearly lease for the islands for the next seventy-seven years. In exchange, Olaf swears that he and his heirs shall never again support any attacks on or meddlings in England, Scotland, or Ireland. [2]

Violence related to episcopal investitures erupts in Constance, too, where the cathedral chapter refuses Henry’s choice of Karlmann for Rumold's successor, elects Siegfried from among their own number instead and declare themselves in obeyance to Alexander and his Reform party.

Because of the instability and opposition within the Empire, Henry IV. celebrates his marriage with Gunnhild “at her family’s”, wedded by Archbishop Stigand in the New Minster in Winchester. While the very elites of England and (the loyal part of) Germany still celebrate, news reach them that Pope Alexander II. has excommunicated Henry and all the bishops who had followed him in Verona.

In Basel, the opposition to Henry IV. convenes: Rudolf of Rheinfelden, Duke of Swabia; Berthold of Zähringen, Duke of Carinthia; the Prince-Bishops Anno of Köln, Altmann of Passau and Gebhard of Salzburg as well as Count Welf IV. (who is not made Duke of Bavaria ITTL because Otto of Northeim stays close to Henry) are their main leaders outside of the Italian and Burgundian lands (who are also mostly in Reformist hands, though). They elect Rudolf as counter-King.

Henry, supported by the Saxons, by Robert’s Frisians and Flemings, by the Lotharingian dukes Gottfried and Dietrich, by those Bavarians loyal to their duke Otto von Northeim, by Vratislav of Bohemia and many imperial knights, moves South, planning to cross the Alps and restore imperial control in Italy and Rome.

The opposition attempts to intercept them and forces the Battle of Rosenheim, which claims hundreds of knights and thousands of foot soldiers as casualties, among the latter Rudolf of Rheinfelden, who loses his right hand [3]. He dies soon after and cannot prevent Henry from crossing the Alps.



[as per OTL:]

Seljuks defeat a large Byzantine army at Manzikert. Emperor Romanos is captured and only released after making massive concessions. When news of the amplour of the concessions spread in Byzantium, John Doukas initiates a revolt. The emperor is blinded and sent away. John Doukas does not recognize the treaty with the Seljuks. John Doukas’s nephew Michael VII. is made Emperor.

Domenico Silvo becomes the new Doge of Venice.

Kings Sancho of Castile und Alfonso of Leon attack their brother Garcia and annex his Kingdom of Galicia.

King Sancho Ramirez I. of Aragon introduces the Roman liturgy at the Abbey San Juan de la Peña instead of the traditional Mozarabic rite, signaling support for the Reform party within the Church.



[1] Something similar happened IOTL to a Norwegian fleet trying to secure the archipelago much later.

[2] And with this, the first “story arc” focusing on the British Isles has come to a conclusion. I will come back to England and Britain occasionally, but as I’ve announced, for the moment, everybody’s attention is moving over to the continent and the imminent clash between Henry’s party and the Reform Papacy. England is as safe, strong, and centralized as never before, and has surrounded itself with allies. But, of course, Olaf Kyrre has given a promise which, even with his best intentions assumed, he cannot hold: what his heirs will do in the decades to come is beyond his control.

[3] Rudolf suffered a similar fate IOTL in the Battle of Hohenmölsen 1080. Like IOTL, Henry’s side will make great propagandistic use of this as God’s punishment for the oath-breaker, who has lost his oath-hand.

 

[Salvador79]

1072:

After the costly victory of Rosenheim and a crossing of the Alps threatened by the onset of winter, Henry IV. and his army had encamped themselves in Verona, where they were welcomed by his loyal vassal Luitold of Eppenstein, Margrave of the Krain and Verona, who has gathered a small force of his own.

Henry waits throughout winter for more enforcements which do not come forth. In spring, he decides to march Southwards regardless, dodging cities which he knows are mostly hostile to him.

Mathilda, Margrave of Tuscany, had likewise waited for the forces of her husband, Gottfried of Lower Lotharingia, to arrive, but Gottfried had other plans – he took Henry’s side, and although he doesn’t ride across the Alps with him, he secures the lands between Rhine and Meuse for Henry and supports a popular revolt in Cologne, managing to remove Archbishop Anno, replacing him with Hildolf, who opposes the Reformists.

Nevertheless, the Papal party has had time to gather a decent-sized force in Tuscany. The two sides clash in the Battle of Assisi. While Henry IV. can disperse his opponents ultimately and push on towards the Eternal City, casualties on his side include Magnus the Billung [1], who had only been created Duke of Saxony a few weeks ago upon the death of his father Ordulf. Henry appoints the Askanian Count Adalbert of Ballenstedt, who has fought valiantly and capably both in Rosenheim and Assisi, as new Duke of Saxony.

To make matters worse, counter-Pope Honorius also dies, although probably of natural reasons. [2] But King Henry cannot be stopped. He lays siege to Rome, from where Pope Alexander II. flees to Gaeta, where he soon falls ill and dies, too. [3]

In besieged Rome, Hildebrand of Soana is acclaimed as the new Pope by a Reformist urban mob [4] and oversees as best he can the organization of the city’s defenses. His predecessor had already called Robert de Mortain’s Normans to the eternal city’s aid, but as Mortain is not yet certain whether or not a revolt by Guiscard’s followers might threaten his new gains in Southern Italy, their departure for Rome is delayed.

King Henry’s army forces their way into Rome. Hildebrand and the reform clergy who support him flee. With his army protecting them against an unruly populace, Henry gathers those cardinals and Roman nobles who support him or are at least not followers of Gregor and have not fled the city, first for a conclave that elects Bishop Wibert of Ravenna as Counter-Pope Clement III. Then, he has Clement crown him as Emperor of the Romans.

Henry’s stay in Rome does not last long. News arrive that in Lombardy, the Milanese Archbishop Erlembald and his Patarene followers are committing atrocities against the supporters of the excommunicated Gottfried and emperor Henry, and that they have gained control over Brescia, Cremona, and Piacenza, too, acting likewise there and raising a large militia. Henry leaves a small contingent in Rome to oversee the efforts to protect Clement’s rule, and marches with the bulk of his army back Northwards.

In the meantime, Pope Gregory approaches Rome from the South accompanied by a host of Normans led by Robert de Mortain. Before they have even reached the pomerium (excuse this anachronistic term), a popular revolt has already overthrown Clement’s rule and forced him to flee, too.

Farther North, the clash between Henry’s imperial forces and their Milanese-led opponents is the bloodiest and most horrible in this war so far. On the imperial side, almost a thousand knights are wounded or killed, among them Otto of Northeim and Count Albert of Tyrol. On the side of the Milanese and the allies, thousands die. The proud city of Milan is sacked, and Bishop Erlembald dies as a martyr. Traumatised and with an exhausted army, Emperor Henry IV. moves back across the Alps.

While imperial and papal forces clash in Central Europe, the other Roman Empire in the East begins to fall apart after the colossal defeat at Manzikert last year. In the Western half of the Empire, Georgi Vojtech leads a Bulgarian revolt against the Empire, supported by Croatian, Serbian and Vlach forces as well as Norman mercenaries whose pay had not come forth due to the turmoil in Constantinople. The rebels elevate Konstantin Bodin, the prince of Zeta of royal Bulgarian blood, as Tsar Peter III. in Prizren. A Byzantine army led by Damianos Dalassanos and Nikephoros Bryennios is sent to crush the revolt, but is defeated in the Battle of Skuopoi / Skopje. [5]

In the East, the Seljuks do not immediately exploit their victory because their Sultan Alp Arslan decides to campaign in Central Asia first. He dies in battle there and is succeeded by his son Malik Shah. Malik Shah’s uncle Qavurt also claims the throne for himself, though, and occupies the capital of Isfahan. In spite of Seljuk indeterminacy, though, Byzantine defenders in the East are entirely left to their own devices because of Romanos’ deal with Alp Arslan and then because of the ensuing chaos. Philaretos Brachamios holds Koloneia, Isaak Kommenos Antiochia, Gregor Pakourianos Theodosiopolis, Abul Gharib maintains some level of control in Cilicia, Basileios Apokapés holds Edessa, and Theodore Gabras struggles against Seljuk groups in Chaldia. Between Ankyra and Amaseia, large amounts of Norman mercenaries entrench themselves and take over the defense against arriving Turkomans.

Roger d’Hauteville and Robert Guiscard are defeated by Palermitan defenders commanded by Ibn al-Ba’ba and forced to retreat to Rometta. Ibn-Abbad, the Emir of Syracuse, recaptures Catania from the Normans. Ibn-Abbad, who claims suzerainty over the entire island after the withdrawal of the Zirids, de facto only controls the South-East, though, while the Western half of the island is governed and defended by town councils of sheikhs and their urban militia. While rural Christians had indeed revolted against their Muslim overlords more than a decade ago at the advent of the Normans, Roger’s scorched earth tactics have stopped this phenomenon involuntarily. The countryside is calm, while Roger bases his rule over the North-Eastern third of the island, limited by the Val Demone mostly, on the administrative apparatus he has inherited from his former ally Ibn at-Timnah, who had been assassinated by enemies of his cooperation with the Normans in 1062. While the more educated among his retainers call him “comes”, to his Muslim subjects, Roger is the new “amir”, whereas the Greek-speaking Christians ambivalently speak of him as the new “doux”.

The British isles are relatively untouched by the continental conflicts so far. In terms of religion, Harold’s brother Gyrth, Earl of East Anglia, Cambridgeshire and Oxfordshire, and one of the few critics of the king among his kin [6] , lends his support to a growing wave of criticism against Stigand, Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and Winchester. Stigand, in turn, publicly preaches that he has seen how King Harold has healed people, making a lame woman walk and restoring another man’s eyesight. [7]

King Philipp of France does not marry Bertha of Holland – a marriage which IOTL was part of a deal after the Battle of Cassel 1071 –. Instead, he marries the 12 year-old Sibylla of Burgundy of the House Ivray.



[as per OTL:]

Sancho of Castile attacks Alfonso’s Leonese Kingdom and forces Alfonso to flee to the Muslim taifa of Toledo, his vassal. Sancho dies at the siege of Zamora, which their sister Urraca holds. After Sancho’s death, Alfonso VI. returns, now king of all three kingdoms their father had ruled.

In one of his last decrees, Alexander II. appoints the autochtonous Reformer Stanislaw as Bishop of Krakow.

Petrus Damiani and Adalbert of Bremen, two great old towering figures of the Reform camp and the Imperial camp within the church respectively, die of old age.



[1] He had a pretty bad martial reputation IOTL, but perhaps that’s because of the Saxon wars which don’t occur IOTL. Nevertheless, I thought that if some high-ranking noble on Henry’s side might fall in a battle, it might be him.

[2] He died this year IOTL, too.

[3] Lots of people dying here, but, again, Alexander’s death is only sped up by two years here, a change which I believe is justified when you take the greater stress and dangers he faces compared to IOTL into account.

[4] Again, like IOTL, only this time under conditions of military conflict.

[5] IOTL, the Battle of Skuopoi / Skopje is lost for the Byzantines by Dalassanos and the katepan Nikephoros Karantenos. ITTL, Karantenos is still in Bari because that city and its environs are still held by the Byzantines. Instead, Bryennios gets sent in earlier. IOTL, he arrived later, when cracks had already opened among the rebels, and then defeated them. ITTL, he suffers another defeat.

[6] Gyrth had counselled Harold against confronting William IOTL and ITTL pre-PoD.

[7] Similar rumours circulate(d) about Harold’s predecessor, Edward the Confessor. Can’t hurt to endear yourself to the king when you’re under pressure, can it.

 

[Salvador79]

1073:


The conflict between Henry and Gregory, between Emperor and Pope, expands across much of the Catholic world, as Pope Gregory calls together those who obey him to a Synod in Arles.

North of the Alps, Henry and his allies stabilize their control and eliminate the last pockets of resistance:

• In Delft, a pro-Gregory revolt had ousted the forces of pro-Henry Archbishop Wilhelm of Utrecht. Count Dirk V. of Holland comes to their aid, but then Duke Gottfried (Hunchback) rides in, defeats Dirk, crushes the revolt and restores Wilhelm.
• In Mainz, on the contrary, the city’s population forces archbishop Siegfried, who had taken Gregory’s position and crowned the counter-emperor Rudolf of Rheinfelden, to lay down his office and flee the city.
• In Bavaria, the pro-Gregory bishops of Passau and Salzburg are forced out and replaced by pro-Clement bishops appointed by Henry IV. After Duke Otto von Northeim’s death in the Italian campaign, Count Palatine Rapoto V. excels in these struggles and is elevated to the position of Duke of Bavaria by Henry.
• In Carinthia, Henry IV. himself intervenes in the fights between the forces of Luitold of Eppenstein and Count Ottakar of the Carantanian Mark on the imperial side and those of the anti-Henry Duke Berthold of Zähringen on the papal side. Berthold is foreign to these lands and easily defeated by the superior imperial forces. Henry captures and deposes him and creates Ottakar as the new Duke of Carinthia.
• In Constance, shielded by the forces of Bishop Siegfried, those who had supported Rudolf of Rheinfelden hold a council in which they elect Count Welf IV. of the Linzgau as new King. Siegfried crowns Welf, who is one of Henry’s most ardent enemies and fights, as the last scion of his house, for his inheritance, too, while Henry supports his uncle’s testament who had left the family’s possessions in the hands of the imperial monastery of Weingarten. Henry’s Swabian supporters, among them Friedrich (of the family who we would come to call “Staufen” IOTL) as well the duke of neighboring Upper Lotharingia, Dietrich, defeat this opposition and kill Welf IV. and force Siegfried to flee Constance. Far-reaching autonomy from the bishopric of Constance is awarded to the imperial monasteries of Reichenau, Weingarten and St. Gallen, who had supported the emperor against the bishop of Constance.

Elsewhere, though, supporters of Pope Gregory entrench themselves and celebrate partial victories, too: When Dietrich rides on South-Westwards into Burgundy to crush the Reformists there and then maybe ride on Southwards to capture the Reformists gathering in Arles, local forces supported by contingents of Zähringers and French knights led by Ebles II. of Roucy defeat him in the Battle of Orbe and force Dietrich to retreat.

At the Synod of Arles, Pope Gregory awards ducal honours over Apulia and Calabria to Robert de Mortain and excommunicates dozens of German counter-bishops and nobles supporting Henry. Of the ideas espoused by Gregory, his invectives against simony and lay investiture meet with some degree of general approvement, while his ideas about supreme papal authority over all Christian kingdoms and the foremost papal role in guaranteeing peace and God’s order are viewed rather skeptically e.g. by envoys of Alfonso VI., who has begun to style himself as “imperator totius Hispaniae”, and those of other European monarchs, too. In its stead, the nobility of imperial Burgundy put special emphasis on the inadmissibility of Henry’s divorce and remarriage, while Italian Reformers condemned the sack of Milan and stressed the need to condone and support communal efforts to protect upright true Christians from being harassed by tyrants. Such communalism is not shared at all e.g. by King Sancho Ramirez I. of Aragon, who is otherwise willing to fully submit to Pope Gregory’s authority and views the papal claim of suzerainty over all Iberian kingdoms as a potential check against Leonese hegemonial ambitions. Guy-Geoffrey, the powerful duke of Aquitaine and Gascogne, sent emissaries with the aim to negotiate a papal dispensation for his divorce and the recognition of his first (and any future) child with Hildegard of Burgundy. (That first child is a daughter. [1]) Guy-Geoffrey’s support for the Reform cause is conditional upon this papal concession, which Gregory finds difficult to stomach given the prominence of the controversy over Henry IV’s divorce. The Reformers’ camp, it became clear, was quite heterogeneous…

In Normandy, the supporters of Robert Curthose, who took the Pope’s side in this conflict, triumph over Montgommerie’s men, forcing the latter to flee across the Channel to England.

In Hungary, Geza leads a revolt of magnates, supported by Polish forces, against his brother, King Salamon. Salamon is forced to flee and seeks refuge with Emperor Henry, while Geza has himself crowned King of Hungary and swears obedience to Pope Gregory. Salamon, in turn, offers Henry the Hungarian crown of Saint Stephen as imperial fief if he manages to get him back his throne.

In Sweden, Hakon the Red, who announces his support for Pope Gregory by sending envoys to Arles, attacks Anund Gardske, defeats him and establishes control over Svealand, too.

In England, the archbishops have called together a synod to sort out the lingering tensions and accusations. The Synod of Oxford is a cautious victory of the Reform side, supported by Gyrth and the Mercians and the majority of the clergy. Stigand is compelled to step down as Archbishop of Canterbury and make way for Mannig, a Reformer from Glastonbury Abbey. [2] The victory is cautious because England’s Reform clergy does not openly position itself in the fight between the rivalling popes and emperors. It merely re-states the established procedures for the selection of bishops (by the cathedral chapters) and also mentions, by analogy, the rules laid down by the 1059 papal bull In nomine Domini for the election of popes by the conclave.

King Sancho Ramirez I. of Aragon attacks the Taifa of Zaragoza with the support of more a thousand Normans. [3] The Muslim ruler of Zaragoza, Ahmad al-Muqtadir, has forged a protective alliance with King Sancho of Navarra because his erstwhile overlord, Alfonso VI., was busy farther West. While the attack on Zaragoza is aborted inconclusively, Sancho Ramirez and his Normans turn against the Navarran and defeat him. Alfonso VI. opportunistically joins in the Navarra-bashing, recapturing lands which his father had lost to Navarra.

On the Balkans, the revolt gains amplour while at the same time cracks open up among its constituents. After their victory at Skoupoi, the core group of leaders branched out. While Normans led by Richard de Clare rode North and secured Naissus from its Byzantine-loyal defenders, and Georgi Vojetch rode North-Eastwards into Paristrion to unite his forces with those of Nestor, the Byzantine katepan who had switched sides and joined a local rebellion, Tsar Peter III. and his general Petrilo moved Southwards to gather more forces there for the assault on Constantinople. The Byzantine Caesar John Doukas decides it’s best to decapitate the revolt, and moves with an army commanded by Michael Saronites against Peter’s and Petrilo’s forces. They engage each other in the Battle of Kastoria, where internal divisions among the rebels contribute to their defeat; Tsar Peter III. is delivered to the Byzantines by some rebels who did not appreciate Peter’s leadership. [4] When Vojtech hears of Peter’s defeat, he moves South with new rebel forces and clashes with the imperial army in Makedonia. In the course of this battle, which goes better for the rebels, Caesar John Doukas is deserted by his own troops and captured by Vojtech. An exchange against Peter III. is impossible because the latter had been tortured to death by his Byzantine captors. Vojtech forbids his men to do the same to Doukas, though. Instead, Vojtech undertakes long negotiations with his prisoner, after which he has his troops acclaim John Doukas as the new Byzantine Emperor. [5]

The Seljuk Sultan Malik Shah defeats his rival Qavurt and then goes on to conquer Jerusalem from the Fatimids. He orders Omar Hajjam to build an observatory and establish a new astronomic calendar. While their sultan is busy elsewhere, Turkic bands continue to pour into Anatolia, raiding and burning villages and churches. They encounter the most dogged resistance by the Normans in Central Anatolia, whose commander Roussel de Bailleul declares himself monarch of a state independent from the Byzantine Empire. [6]


[as per OTL:]

Izaiaslav, who had been deposed by the Veche of Kiev and only returned with Polish help, is finally ousted by his brothers Sviatoslav and Vsevolod. Kiev’s veche acknowledges Sviatoslav as the new Prince.


[1] IOTL, his firstborn is William IX., “the first troubadour”.

[2] Don’t look him up, I made him up.

[3] IOTL, Sancho Ramirez was aided by French proto-crusaders led by Ebles de Roucy who ITTL meddles in Burgundy instead.

[4] This kind of divisions was the downfall of OTL’s revolt. Here, more Normans give it more amplour, so the show is not over, see the next sentences.

[5] Georgi Vojtech was apparently a strategic and humble guy – he had successfully kicked off a revolt, and then handed over the reigns to someone with a more aristocratic pedigree. And John Doukas was indeed proclaimed emperor by rebel troops who had just defeated him IOTL – only that IOTL this happened on the Asiatic side, and it was Roussel de Bailleul who made this move.

[6] This last paragraph is mostly OTL, only IOTL, this rebellion sparked a response by John Doukas who allied with the Seljuq leader Qutalmish in order to remove Roussel – and got captured by Roussel and then declared emperor, see above. ITTL, John Doukas is… temporarily unavailable.

 

[Salvador79]

1074:

Across Northern Italy, Reformist rebels storm bishoprics and the castles of the barons who supported Henry.

Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV. focuses his next moves on the lands North of the Alps, though. He moves mostly with Saxon, Austrian (Babenberger) and Przemyslid forces against Geza and his Hungarian rebels and their Polish Piast supporters in the East, defeating them soundly, making important prisoners, and securing the throne for his ally Salamon, who swears allegiance to him.

Rewarding one of his staunchest allies and further stressing the concept that he, as universal emperor, could indeed award crowns to kings, Henry then crowns Vratislav in Prague as King of Bohemia with a crown which his chroniclers claim has fallen from the heavens onto his tent as he was encamped in the campaign against Geza.

Among Henry’s prisoners is also Wladislaw Herman, brother of Boleslaw the Bold. Henry sends messengers to the castles of the Piasts demanding them to come to next year’s coronation of Wladislaw in Gniezno – that means, demanding their acceptance of his suzerainty.

Henry then triumphantly rides Westward to Speyer to recover and spend some time with his new wife and closest retainers.

As Vojtech’s rebels approach the gates of Constantinople, John Psellos, who had placed high hopes in his former friend Michael’s emperorship, but saw himself sidelined by Nikephoritzes and resented both bitterly for this, holds a convincing speech in the Byzantine Senate for the elevation of John Doukas. Among the Kommenos clan, the idea of making peace in the West in order to be able to focus on the East and the Seljuks who threaten their extensive properties, is also not unpopular, and Nikephoros Botaneiates lends the idea the support of the troops under his command. The gates of the city are, thus, opened to the Caesar, who is recognized by the Senate as Basileios. His nephew Michael suffers a milder fate than his predecessor, being sent off to a monastery, but at least with his eyesight unharmed.

John Doukas reshuffles the ministeries, dismissing Nikephoritzes, and elevating Georgi Vojtech to the rank of Caesar. The new Caesar George / Giorgios is practically running what used to be called the themes of Bulgaria, Sirmia, and Paristrion as he pleases, awarding lands and titles to de Clare’s Normans, improving his ally Nestor’s position and stopping all taxation of the region, ordering the improvement of fortifications and mobilisations against Pecheneg incursions instead.

Roussel de Bailleul, or rather, Rousselos Phrangopoulos, and his Normans, joined by the provincial Byzantine forces of Philaretos Brachiamos, come to the assistance of Theodore Gabras, massacring bands of Turkomans in Chaldia and chasing off others, restoring control over the city of Trapezunt. Trapezunt’s inhabitants and Gabras’ soldiers acclaim Rousselos as the new Basileios. Rousselos recognizes the governorates of the region as Gabras’ and Brachiamos’ personal fiefs.

Under the command of Gregor Pakourianos, Byzantio-Armenian forces defend Ani against Seljuk attacks [as per OTL.] Meanwhile, further South, other Seljuks commanded by Suleiman ibn Qutalmish defeat the Byzantine defenders of Antiochia under Isaak Kommenos and capture the city [as per OTL].

Diarmait mac Maíl na mBó, King of Leinster and High King of Ireland, dies. He is succeeded by his son, Murchad mac Diarmait. At the ceremony in Tara, not only Godwin Haroldsson, who continues to be on very good terms with Murchad, is present, but also his father, the King of England himself. This has since been (mis?)interpreted by some historians as a sign that Harold saw Murchad as his vassal, and Murchad Harold as his liege.

Reformist Bishop Stanislaw of Krakow, although helped into his office by the Piast Grand Duke Boleslaw the Bold, criticizes said monarch for his adultery and godless lifestyle [as per OTL].

Robert de Mortain, who has settled on Benevento as the powerbase of his faction of papal-loyal Normans, finds that his former ally Richard of Capua, who had fancied the ducal suzerainty over Southern Italy for himself, too, has deserted him. Nominally acknowledging Robert Guiscard’s ducal claim again (while Guiscard is away in Sicily), Richard brings Salerno, where Guiscard’s Lombard wife, Duchess Sichelgaita, runs the show, onto his side.

With English support, including the new heavy cavalry, Robert de Montgommerie returns to Normandy to recapture his family’s holdings. Robert Curthose leads the d’Hauteville forces who attempt to prevent them from doing so. But Montgommerie is also aided by Conan’s Bretons, and after a few weeks of turmoil, the city of Rouen erupts in popular revolt. Duke Robert is forced to return the holdings of the Montgommeries, cede a part of the Cotentin to the Duchy of Brittany, and grant the city of Rouen municipal autonomy and in its port, an exemption of English wool traders from any staple or other form of taxation.

Sancho Ramirez of Aragon and his Normans triumph over Sancho of Navarra. The latter is driven off a cliff by his brother and sister. [1] Peter de Valognes is created Count of Pamplona by Sancho Ramirez.



[1] This happened IOTL, too, only two years later. Effective Norman support speeds up the Navarran collapse ITTL.

 

[Salvador79]

1075

Counter-Pope Clemens III. is poisoned and dies in Ravenna.

Thousands of pagan Liuticians raid and plunder Saxony’s Eastern margraviate in an attack instigated, as turns out, by Boleslaw the Bold, who enters Bohemia with another army, attempting to free his brother in Prague. Vratislav’s men hold him off long enough for imperial forces to relieve them and cause Boleslaw to retreat. As the battles of the previous years have claimed the lives of too many armoured knights from the empire’s heartlands, Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV. knows he couldn’t muster enough forces to deal with both threats at once. Therefore he convinces the Saxon Duke Adalbert to raise an army of Saxon peasants and promise them the status of Schöffenbarfreiheit (it’s a concept between the old (Anglo)Saxon “ceorl” and the late medieval/early modern Polish “szlachta”; it means they become free landholders who can only be judged by their own kin etc.) in the lands they would clear of the pagan Elbe Slavs. Henry IV. rides with Vratislav’s men, Austrian contingents under Margrave Ernst of Babenberg and a few Hungarians after Boleslaw into Silesia, laying siege to Wroclaw, where Boleslaw has entrenched himself. Adalbert marches towards them with his Saxon host, plundering and burning their way across Lusatia, destroying dozens of wooden forts, killing those inside who oppose them and selling off those who surrender to the slave traders who travel with the host. When they join Henry’s forces, Wroclaw falls, and Boleslaw is captured by Henry’s ministerials. The assembled imperial army moves to Gniezno, where Henry awards the crown of Poland to Wladislaw Herman in a coronation ceremony held in Archbishop Bogumil’s cathedral.

Triumphantly, Henry returns to Goslar, where he meets leading ecclesiastics and discusses a possible successor for Clement III., and from there onward to Speyer, where Queen Gunnhild has given birth to a little daughter, Edith. From Speyer, he sends an ultimatum to Pope Gregory: Either he takes back his excommunication and ordains the bishops of Henry’s choice before next Easter Sunday, or the imperial army will march across the Alps into Italy once again. He enhances this threat, after having received emissaries from Sicily, by awarding Robert Guiscard the duchies of Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily (of which Guiscard controls very little – now Guiscard and Mortain are fighting each other as rivalling dukes with competing claims, one derived from the pope, the other from the emperor. Mortain controls areas closer to Rome, but he doesn’t have any meaningful overarching control over Southern Italy, either).

Pope Gregory sounds out options with King Philipp of France which would assure him of French intervention in the war on the papal side. Gregory offers a transfer of the title of Roman Emperor from the German to the French kings.

Some radical reform-oriented monks from North of the Alps, where the mood has turned sharply against them, peregrinate across the Alps. An important group among them gathers at the Monastery of Vallombroso near Florence, where the new abbot Gisulf has trasnformed Giovanni Gualberto’s convent of eremites into a monastic community of fighters who work, pray and exercise with the sword.

In another monastery, purportedly in Chur / Curia Raetorum, an entirely different phenomenon takes shape: “orationes pro conciliatione” – prayers for a Peace of Christ, for the settlement of the conflicts in a Council, for reconciliation, for an end to the bloodshed. The phenomenon soon finds imitators across the Alpine regions and in Burgundy, too.

In Navarra, Peter de Valognes is not able to provide all the eager Normans who have fought for him with castles and land. Most of them move on to join Alfonso VI.’s reconquista further West.

In the Battle of Amorion, Rousselos Phrangopoulos, leading a large army of provincial Byzantine forces, Armenians and Normans, defeats the army of Alexios Kommenos sent by John Doukas against the usurper.

One of his new Norman “counts”, Robert d’Ulfranville, Count of Tabai, marries Elena Pakouriana, the daughter of the renegate Byzantine provincial commander Gregor Pakourianos.

In Wales, Cadwgan ap Meurig prevails with assistance from King Bleddyn and some English help against an attempt to overthrow him by Caradog ap Gruffydd, who had allied with Rhys ap Owein of Deheubarth. The repeated feuds have weakened the South of Wales and brought it under tighter control by King Bleddyn of Gwynedd.

In Normandy, a part of the remaining nobility erupts in revolt against Duke Robert’s concessions, attempting to replace him with his younger brother William and to subdue Rouen again. Under the mediation of Bishop Lanfranc, a compromise is struck in which the duke solemnly swears not to cede parts of the duchy, establish or abolish privileges anymore without consulting the assembly of the duchy’s noble families.

[as per OTL:]

Almoravids under Ibn Tashfin conquer Nakur. The last Salihid emir flees across the sea into the taifa of Granada.

 

[Salvador79]

1076

King Sweyn of Denmark dies. From among his two sons, the nobles of the realm choose Harald over Cnut as the new King. Harald supports the continuation of good relations with England and the Holy Roman Empire and common efforts at subduing the pagan Slavs on the Southern shore of the Baltic, while Cnut opts for a clearer positioning in favour of the Reform papacy with the aim of obtaining an archbishopric independent of Bremen/Hamburg.

Pope Gregory travels to Arles again, where Count William of Burgundy has gathered the high nobility and clergy of the Arelate and invited King Philipp of France, who is married to his daughter Sibylla, too. The Reform papacy and opposition to Henry have strong support among the nobility of the Arelate. This is the heartland of Church Reform, where a monastery like Cluny stands from where the entire dynamic had sprung. Also, by his marriage to a member of the House of Ivrea, Philipp has now also acquired some veneer of Carolingian claim to the Burgundian crown which the German kings are claiming that they have inherited decades ago. Philipp’s election goes smoothly, and Pope Gregory anoints Philipp as King of Burgundy and new Emperor of the Romans in Arles.

On his way back to Rome, Gregory meets Margrave Mathilda of Tuscany and an assembly of bishops and other representatives of Italian cities in Lucca, swearing in the second pillar of the papacy’s defense to his new strategic vision and blessing the insignia of various city militias.

The third pillar are Robert de Mortain’s Normans, who are riding North from Benevento to man the Eternal City against the ultimate onslaught, should Henry break through the first two cordons.

After Easter, Emperor Henry IV. draws together the largest army he has ever seen in the Upper Rhineland, deliberately devastating the lands of his Zähringer opponents in the process, and then decides to divide this behemoth of an army into two parts. A smaller army, led by Duke Rapoto, should take the safe passes across the Alps through his own duchy and liaise with Salamon’s Hungarians in the Friuli, where they should wait for news of Henry’s arrival and their convergent progress into the Po valley.

Henry himself would lead the larger army, consisting of Lotharingians, Saxons, Franconians, Poles, Bohemians, and some Swabians South-Westward into Burgundy to beat Philipp out of the field.

In this clash of emperors, Henry succeeds where Dietrich had failed a few years ago. More than half of Philipp’s army consists of the knights of Burgundy, Macon, Montpeligard, Savoy, Besancon and all those other regions of the Arelate in this attempt to defend the Burgundian porte. Guy-Geoffrey, the Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony who controls the Western half of France, has moved more and more towards a neutral position in the conflict between the pope, who had not agreed to his divorce and remarriage, and the ever more powerful-looking emperor, declaring that he would rather have his priests, monks, and bishops pray for peace and reconciliation than have his counts and knights die in Italy. Robert Curthose’s own grip on his Norman duchy is so tenuous that he cannot spare any forces, while his Breton neighbor Conan has openly taken Henry’s side. In the South, the Reformist cause is comparatively more popular, but half of the Occitan knights are already busy in Iberia, engaging in Sancho’s Aragonese or in Alfonso’s Castilian-Leonese-Galician reconquistas. As a consequence, in the Battle of Belfort, Henry’s armies clearly outnumber Philipp’s and inflict an unambiguous defeat on the French and Burgundians, even capturing the Capetian king and having him escorted back to a castle near Mühlhausen in Lotharingia, where trusted ministerials of Henry would watch over the French monarch until this affair was over and a settlement could be found.

Henry now moves on unopposedly Southwards, then clinging to the Provencal coastline, feeding his large army off the land of his defeated opponents, except for the lands of neutral Genoa, for the Genoese let him pass without any obstructions.

Mathilda, fearing for the worst after news from Belfort have travelled faster than Henry’s army and reached the defenders of Tuscany, sorties with her army in an attempt to tackle the two Henrician armies separately before they can converge, even though this means giving up the advantage of the various high grounds which the mountain passes of Tuscany offer.

In the Battle of Modena, Mathilda throws everything she can muster against Henry: nobility from the region and beyond, Normans, and city militia from the communes of Pisa, Volterra, Pistoia, Florence, Modena etc. And indeed, Henry’s tired army does not seem able to break through the phalanxes of the city militia who are consolidating, under the instruction of a resourceful Gisulf of Vallombroso, into thickets of pikes. As dusk falls, after hours of bloodshed, Henry must call the attack off and order an encampment for the night, while aides on both sides are tending to the wounded as best they know. Among those who are wounded on this first day of the Battle of Modena and would succumb to their wounds over the next days is Duke Gottfried, derogatorily called “hunchback” by his detractors, who had fought for his emperor against the armies led by his wife Mathilda.

On the next morning, Henry leads the renewed assault, as he has grown accustomed to, from the front, inspiring his exhausted troops to assault the Italians once again. And once again, both sides grind each other to a halt, biting into each other, killing blindly as long as they can still stand and wield their weapons. In the midst of this melee, men from Pistoia are able to capture the imperial insignia, and emperor Henry himself suffers a wound on his left leg. But just as chaos threatens to befall the imperial camp, the clatter of countless hooves approaches. Blowing into their horns, the fresh cavalry of the Bavarians, Austrians and Hungarians charges into the exhausted Italian defenders, causing them to melt down, overthrowing their carrroccii, and inducing those who still can to flee the battlefield in disarray. Before the heat of this summer day recedes, the imperial army has triumphed at Modena, too, and they have captured their enemy’s leader, Mathilda, too. The brave margrave is mistreated by Henry’s brutalized men in unspeakable ways. Like the wounded emperor, she is dragged along on the army’s march towards Rome, but soon dies of the consequences of the torture she had to suffer.

As Henry’s still large army approaches Rome, which is only defended by an improvised militia and by Robert de Mortain’s knights, Pope Gregory and his closest followers hold out for as long as they can, blessing the city’s defenses, before they ultimately flee. Their path of escape is cut short, though, by a medium-sized host of fighters who have sailed here from Sicily, led by Robert Guiscard. Chased by the Normans, fleeing in panic, Pope Gregory attempts to cross the Tiber, but falls off his horse and drowns.

Henry’s men force their entry into Rome, killing de Mortain and countless others who dare to stand in their way, only to find that their true target has escaped – and then found his fate. Henry had hoped to capture Gregory alive and force him to submit to his terms. Now he must watch as the infection spreads through his leg. While he waits for a famous medic to arrive from Salerno, his men plunder the city and massacre what they call “bandits and insurgents”, but what amounts to an almost indiscriminate bloodbath of the urban population from which only known loyal supporters of Henry like the Frangipani clan are absolutely safe. Henry’s health is deteriorating quickly. His leg is amputated, but in spite of (or due to?) this treatment, Emperor Henry IV. dies in Rome on August 2nd, 1076.

After the emperor’s death, his army begins to disintegrate. News about attacks by Pecheneg or Cuman steppe nomads at Hungary’s Eastern frontier cause Salamon to depart immediately. While the dukes of Saxony and Bavaria call for a fast election of a new king and pope and the continuation of Henry’s policies, now that their enemies are scattered and demoralized, King Wladislaw Herman of Poland also withdraws, and there are no cardinals to be found in Rome who could elect a new pope.

From various cities, there are reports of monks and priests stirring up the lower rungs of urban society, who had not been called upon by Mathilda, her bishops and the patrician elites of their towns beforehand and thus had not bled white in the Battle of Modena, and preparing them for the redemption of the Eternal City, promising them absolution from all their sins if they massacre the “Salians”, “Henrician heretics” and “treacherous Normans”.

The dukes Adalbert and Rapoto and King Vratislav ultimately decide against confronting this mob and for sending messengers to the town halls and bishoprics of their opponents instead. The Reformist bishop Landolf of Pisa is the first among the Reform camp to signal readiness for negotiations in a Universal Synod or Council.

In Cluny, Abbot Hugo holds an oratio pro conciliatione which is attended by several thousand people. Smaller, but still significant orationes are held by Theodwin in Liege, by Stanislaw in Krakow and by Lanfranc in Bayeux.



Rousellos’ army, allied with some Little Armenians and Byzantine provincial forces under Basileios Apokapès, fights against other Little Armenians and Byzantine provincial forces and a Seljuk force led by Suleiman ibn Qutalmish. Although no clear winner emerges from the battle, Suleiman is fatally wounded. With him dies his ambitious plan to carve out a separate Seljuk state from former Byzantine Anatolia. The Seljuk provincial commander, Tutush I., brother of the Sultan Malik Shah, concludes a treaty with Rousellous and later this year also with Gregor Pakourianos in which he promises to abstain from sending more Turkoman ghazis into Anatolia in exchange for annual tribute.

Grand Prince Sviatoslav of Kiev dies. The veche acclaims his youngest brother Vsevolod as Grand Prince. Their deposed brother Izaiaslav cannot return once again with Polish help ITTL (Poland is busy in the Investiture Wars), and I doubt he could rely on people like Vseslav of Polotsk to help him out, either, so ITTL Vsevolod remains unchallenged for the moment.



[as per OTL:]

Koumbi Saleh is besieged by the Almoravids.

Seljuks under Atsiz conquer Damascus.

 

[Salvador79]

1077

Chaos has engulfed large parts of central Europe. Not only have pope and emperor died, with the leaders of both clergy and worldly nobility so far unable to gather behind new candidates. More importantly, with thousands of aristocrats lying dead on the fields of Belfort and Modena (not to forget Rosenheim, Assisi, and Orbe, and more battlefields in Hungary, Poland and Lusatia), and entire dynasties extinct, what little semblance of a legal order had existed in the Ottonian empire had broken down. Fights broke out over inheritances, and this was not merely Henricians against Reformers, this was turning into bellum omnium contra omnes. Cities and even villages imitated the model of the independent-minded Lombard communes, guarding their peace and property themselves, while in the larger cities of Italy, the radicalization of the Patarene movement caused even staunch supporters of church reform to recoil and fear for their safety and for the stability of Christian society. While some panicked and deemed the last days of humankind before the day of God’s judgment had come, others still saw a chance for Roman Christendom if the cooler heads on all sides pulled themselves together.

And so, as Robert Guiscard and his Normans left Rome to confront Pandulf of Benevento, who had taken over the leadership of the anti-Guiscard alliance after Mortain’s death,

as a Patarene army led by Gisulf reaches Rome, whose gates are opened to them by supporters from the inside, leading to yet another sack, now with the last pro-“Salians” killed and their property looted,

as separate groups of the highest ranks of surviving worldly nobility and clergy met in Luxembourg, in Goslar, and in Regensburg,

after preliminary talks between bishops of both sides of the Investiture War, an ecumenical Council is called in Basel, and the warring noble factions are invited to attend, too, and sort out their differences in a chivalric manner under the Truce of Christ.

Before the Council convenes, the different factions of dukes, margraves, count-palatines, counts, prince-bishops, abbots of imperial monasteries and other grandees of the empire each attempted to elect their own king. The few remaining anti-Henricians in Luxembourg invoke hereditary arguments – and since Henry’s only baby daughter Edith does not qualify, they bring up Hermann von Salm, of Salian royal blood. [1] They know they have little weight to throw around, and so they decide to make the journey to Basel, hoping that the Church would unite behind their cause, choosing the stability of inheritance of divinely blessed monarchs – and all other inheritances, too – as the last vestige against anarchy.

In Goslar, Duke Adalbert secured the support of his Saxons for his bid for the throne, negotiating also with the Polish King Boleslaw and the Danish King Harald. At the same time, another successful fighter for Henry IV’s cause, Duke Rapoto of Bavaria, gathered Bavarian, Austrian and Bohemian support for his own attempt to reach for the crown. Adalbert and Rapoto had fought side by side in Italy – now, they at least agreed to sort their rivalry out without further costly battles. God’s judgment would reveal the chosen king as the victor of a duel, which they undertook in Mühlhausen on the way to Basel. Rapoto emerged as the victor in this duel, in which he spared the life of his rival. Adalbert, in turn, brought his supporters unconditionally behind Rapoto’s claim now.

* * *

While Henry’s former supporters duked out the question of succession, in Italy, an Apulian alliance led by Joscelin de Malfetta as well as by Neapolitans led by Duke Sergius V. come to Pandulf of Benevento’s aid. They defeat Robert Guiscard and force him to retreat to Salerno.

The Patarene atrocities in Rome and the prospect of uncontrollable mobs ruling their cities brought even more Reformist bishops and Italian patricians into the camp of the compromisers, who are now organizing on their way to Basel to pursue their interests as a unified bloc. Bishop Landolf of Pisa will be their spokesperson both in the plenary of the Council as well as in backchamber negotiations in Basel.

Such backchamber negotiations also took place in Mühlhausen, where delegates of some of the most powerful men of Western Europe met with the clear favourite for the king- and emperorship, Rapoto of Bavaria, in May, while in Basel, the first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church after more than 200 years is opened by Bishop Burkhard of Fenis, with several hundred clerics from Iceland to Sicily and from Galicia to Hungary and the shores of the Baltic attending – and even some lower-ranking monks from the Orthodox Byzantine Empire, from Georgia and the Levante having travelled all the way to Basel to see what is being discussed here. Tensions between those who attend are high, bloody feuds between its members fresh in everybody’s memories, and brawls and duels occur.

While monks, priests and bishops of various persuasions discuss some of the less controversial theological issues first, in Mühlhausen, envoys of Guy-Geoffrey of Aquitaine and Gascony, and of Alfonso, the self-styled “imperator totius Hispaniae” meet with Rapoto and his closest supporters. They have a suggestion for a compromise – and for a candidate for the papacy who embodies this compromise: a Reform theologian with impeccable credentials, kinship ties with several of them, and at the same time also a credible reconciler, a charismatic leader who prioritises the strengthening of networks of internal reform within the Church, yet who would not claim the supreme suzerainty of the Papacy over all worldly monarchs and who would thus leave self-styled worldly emperors do their imperial things; a dignified nobleman who abhors the Patarene excesses which threaten to undermine the stability of Northern Italy, one of the strongholds of church reform: Hugo, the Abbot of Cluny.

This coalition of reconcilers and their candidate Hugo now approach both envoys from the court of the still-imprisoned King Philipp of France as well as Rapoto, who has gained the keys to Philipp’s prison. Hugo unfolds the big plan for a compromise:

• Rapoto is to release Philipp. Philipp is to swear a capitulation before the Council in which he proclaims to uphold and respect all the “agreements of old” [2], specifically to acknowledge the exclusive privilege of the German / Eastern Frankish Kings to be elevated as Emperors of the Romans by the Pope, to foreswear any claims to the Burgundian crown, and not to infringe upon the traditional autonomies of the duchies, counties, bishoprics and francvilles of his kingdom. [3]
• Rapoto and the bishops who support him are to support the election of Hugo to the Papacy. In exchange, Hugo would acknowledge the result of the duel, assist in the marginalization of the van Salm faction, and crown Rapoto as Emperor of the Romans.
• Both sides refrain from challenging the status quo of investments of bishops and archbishops. In the future, all bishops and archbishops everywhere are to be elected by their cathedral chapters. In the lands of the Eastern Frankish / German crown, the Emperor may attend such elections and endow them as his vassals with the scepter, and then they’re invested by the Pope with ring and staff. In the lands of the Burgundian and Lombard crowns, the Pope invests them with ring and staff first and only afterwards the emperor may appoint them as his vassals with the scepter. [4] In the lands of the Polish, Hungarian, and Bohemian crowns, everything remains as it was.

King Philipp’s retainers are livid and refuse to comment for weeks. But ultimately, they have no alternative. Philipp is escorted from Mühlhausen to Basel where the King of France, the designated King of Germans and the best-positioned candidate for the Papacy make their entrance.

Here, the theologians of the various different factions from different countries have agreed, in the meantime, on quite a number of issues:

the Latin Rite, including the creed with the filioque insertion, is embraced by a large majority, including “Henricians”, against a few Iberian dissenters, meaning that the Ambrosian and Mozarabic rites will have to be replaced, and the proliferation of the holy scripture in the Glagolithic script will have to be discontinued – to the anger of a few dissenters primarily from the Istrian / Kvarner islands. Priestly celibacy is enshrined as mandatory, consented by speakers from both camps. The rules of various monastic orders are confirmed. [5]

No consensus has been reached on the question of a Peace and Truce of God, which enjoys considerable support, but not nearly enough to allow for its implementation on an unruly worldly nobility. Likewise, debates on formally banning the enslavement of Christians and on a common foundation for how to deal with “heathens” within and beyond the Christian realms end inconclusive, too. [6]

With Philipp, Hugo and Rapoto present, the great compromise plan is vehiculated among broader circles now. It does not meet with unanimous support from all quarters at first. Italian bishops drive a hard bargain in order to accept a French Benedictine on the throne. [7] German Reformers, even though they had seen most of their theological agenda consented to by the Council, saw their personal positions as extremely unsafe, with them now being officially at the mercy of the Emperor – it took lengthy negotiations concerning church trials and an enshrinement of the right of self-organisation by monastical orders in order to mitigate these fears. Rapoto’s very own Bavarian noble dynasties, along with those of neighboring Austria, were highly dissatisfied with how the compromise practically divided spheres of influence between Emperor and Pope and thus gave up on Italy, the wealthiest part of the empire with which Bavarians and Austrians conducted much of their trade, as anything more than a ceremonial and theoretical component of the empire. Also, not all Saxons followed Adalbert’s endorsement of Rapoto after the duel, fearing – quite the opposite of the Bavarians’ and Austrians’ anxieties – too much of a Southerly focus of the new emperor. Participants from Poland and Hungary were dissatisfied with how the status of their kingdoms and its relation to the empire were left in the fog.

But, ultimately, as a particularly cold winter fell upon the Alpine lands, one that even caused Lake Constance to completely freeze over, a wide enough agreement finally took shape. It was all formalized when Hugo was elected as the new pope, assuming the papal name of Coelestin II., while Philipp of France swore his capitulations before him and the Council and received a papal blessing, and Rapoto was crowned as Emperor of the Romans by Coelestin II.



* * *

An allied army of Hungarians and officially provincial Byzantine but de facto independent Vlach and Bulgarian troops loyal to Caesar George defeat the Cumans at the Battle of the Iron Gates.

King Kresimir of Croatia dies of a natural cause.

Navarrese Normans conquer the castle of Muñones from King Ahmad al-Muqtadir of the Taifa of Zaragoza.

A fire destroys much of London, including its wooden bridge across the Thames. King Harold invites an architect from France for the construction of a stone bridge across the Thames, whose completion the English monarch would not live to see.



[as per OTL:]

The Fatimids defeat a Seljuk army under Atsiz.



[1] IOTL, Hermann von Salm was elected counter-emperor by Gregory’s supporters, too.

[2] The semantics of the discourse of that age practically demanded that any new decision was to be deduced from some old law, principle or tradition, to basically cloak the new as the old and long-established.

[3] This clause isn’t put in there only because of Guy-Geoffrey. When Raimund Berengar and Berengar Raimund, the twin counts of Barcelona, join the compromise party, too, they want a piece of the Septimanian pie. Their rival, Count William IV. of Toulouse, views things quite in the same way (although he wants some of the same parts of the pie that the Catalans also eye). Nobody here imagines King Philipp to be a plausible arbiter (as the Kings of France indeed weren’t IOTL, either, around that time, only ITTL, the French monarchy has just been weakened beyond anything it experienced IOTL).

[4] This is, more or less, OTL’s end result of the Investiture Controversy in the form of the Concordate of Worms of 1125. It reflects, as IOTL, the situation on the ground that the Germans could always invade Rome if they really wanted to, but they could not maintain permanent meaningful control over Italy or the Arelate. This was not necessarily a matter of language, for we are not yet in the age of nationalism by far – large parts of Lotharingia were Romance-speaking, too, and yet imperial control over them was always much more real. The Arelate and, even more so, Italy were much more urbanized regions – with not only a distinctly different culture from that of, say, rural Saxony and the entire frontier spirit of the North-East of the Empire, but also with different practical political priorities: they were trading all across the Mediterranean, and rivalling with many others in this business: they needed naval protection (from pirates etc.) which German Emperors never seemed to care about, and they each wanted support over their various rivals, which was something German Emperors might have been able to play to their own advantage if they had only known what was really the matter there – as things stood IOTL and even more so ITTL, it’s the Papacy that they would turn to in order to have their interests promoted. For example, in this very year IOTL, Pisa managed to have the entire island of Corsica be declared as part of the Bishopric of Pisa by Pope Gregory, which amounted to making the island a sort of Pisan colony. This act doesn’t happen ITTL, at least not in this year, but you get my meaning.

[5] All of these things became canon in the church during the 11th century IOTL, too, only IOTL there was never a big ecumenical council to consent to the reforms which IOTL are often lumped together as the “Gregorian Reforms” (although they began a lot earlier than Gregory’s papacy). While there were smaller synods, and discussions among leading theologians had occurred, most decisions were ultimately declared as binding by the Pope. ITTL, the mere fact that a Council officially assumes the role of discussing and ultimately deciding upon all these issues changes the church’s inner constitution, the relations of power between the papacy and the broader clergy.

Insisting on the Filioque also cements the schism with Eastern Orthodoxy which, at this point, is only two decades old, at least officially. One of the reasons why this update took a little longer than usual was because I pondered, at this crossroad, whether I wanted the Schism mended, too, or not. After all, a lot of the schismatic dynamics IOTL came from the papacy attempting to assert its leading role, and it might have been interesting to see a Medieval Christianity without the Great Schism of 1054. But then I realized just how much the entire Reformist agenda went diametrically against Eastern traditions: priestly celibacy, a universal church which overcame “ethnic churches” and all that. So, no, the schism is not mended.

[6] IOTL and ITTL, because it’s all before the PoD, the slave trade with Eastern Europeans, which had revitalized and remonetized the economy of Central-Western Europe in the 9th and 10th centuries, had mostly dried up – both because the lands bordering the empire to the East were mostly Christian kingdoms, too, now, and because al-Andalus, the primary buyer of Eastern European slaves, had fragmented and was forced into a defensive war by its Christian Iberian neighbors. The church had played an important part in upholding the rule that it turned a blind eye when heathens were enslaved by Christians, but enslaving fellow Christians was not acceptable. That was never formalized, though – and now that a Council occurs, you can imagine that delegates from Christian Poland, for example, would want to make it very clear that when THEY caught and sold heathen Balts, that was OK, but that no German or whoever else should come up with the idea that Poles were still fair game. The problem with formalizing this on an Ecumenical Council was, of course, that e.g. on the British isles, Christians holding other fellow Christians as slaves was a self-evident part of their culture, both Anglo-Saxon and Celtic. The Norman Conquest, which disrupted this IOTL, has failed ITTL.

There are similar practical reasons for a lack of consensus concerning how to deal with the non-Christians both within and beyond the empire. The treatment of Jews varied considerably from country to country, for example, and Alfonso of Castile-Leon-Galicia wanted just as much leeway in how to deal with conquered Muslim populations as Saxon nobles wanted when it came to Elbe Slavia. The “Gregorian Reformers” IOTL supported clear-cut distinctions: fellow Christians deserve a minimum of respect, while the dangerous heathens do not. This was probably a side effect of Christianity having finally grown really deep roots throughout much of Europe (the roots were only still shallow way up in the North and East). Concerning Jews, the Gregorian Reforms were ambivalent or self-contradictory: while several Reformist popes spoke up against persecutions of the Jews, the mere fact that e.g. the “People’s Crusade” – probably the biggest militant outgrowth IOTL of the culture from which church reform also sprang – came with mass pogroms in which tens of thousands of Jews were murdered must say something about aggressive anti-Semitism at least among the lower-ranking reformist clergy. All in all, by whatever haphazard means, the second half of the 11th century IOTL increased the sharpness of distinctions between how to treat a fellow Christian and how to treat a non-Christian. That such a discussion would spring up on an Ecumenical Council in 1077 is, I believe, inevitable, thus. I also believe, though, that there are good reasons why such a council would not be able to find a decent enough consensus on anything related to this topic, see above.

[7] More on what they gained in next year’s update.

 

[Salvador79]

1078

Pope Coelestin II. convenes the bishops and civilian heads of the communes of Pisa, Volterra, Pistoia, Florence, and Modena, who have all been awarded independence as immediate members of the Empire (following the death of Margrave Mathilda) [1], to celebrate Pentecoste with him and swear an oath to him and each other to “perpetually” maintain the Lord’s peace in their lands and among themselves, and to come to each other’s aid and defense should any member of the league violate their oath and attack a fellow member, or should an outside force attack them. They also swear to reconvene next year on Pentecost, too, and to renew their oaths then, and from then on annually. This will be noted in history books as the foundation of the Pentecoste League.

Emperor Rapoto creates Friedrich of Staufen as the new Duke of Swabia. As a replacement for the Lower Lotharingian Duke Gottfried the Hunchback, who had died at Modena, Hermann II. of the clan of the Ezzones is created as Duke of Lower Lotharingia. Both dukes immediately set upon their task of sorting out inheritance disputes (mostly in their clients' favour), restoring monastic communities and seeking ways to rebuild defensive forces under the conditions of the massive knightly bloodletting of the past few years.

In Croatia, various factions fight each other after King Kresimir has died without sons or brothers or otherwise self-evident heirs. The župans of Slavonia and Baranja support Zvonimir, a distant relative of Kresimir’s from the Trpimirovic dynasty, who stands for the continuation of a pro-Papal policy and centralization of monarchical power which Kresimir had pursued. Against him, the nobility of the South-East, supported by its neighbour, the Kingdom of Duklja, rallies behind Petrislav of the House of Vojislavljevic, who supports a pro-Byzantine policy [2]. Several Kvarner and Dalmatian islands as well as important Dalmatian cities seek to exploit this conflict in order to restore greater autonomy for themselves and mobilise their fleets.

In Capua, Richard Drengot dies, like IOTL. Unlike IOTL, his death and Guiscard’s and Drengot’s defeat against Pandulf, Joscelin and the Neapolitans last year inspire a revolt in Gaeta against the rule of Richard’s heir, Jourdan. Jourdan does not manage to gain control over Gaeta, whose rebels under the leadership of Atenulf II. seek an alliance with Naples and other anti-Drengot/Hauteville cities.

King Sancho Ramirez of Aragon and Peter de Valognes attack the Taifa of Zaragoza and conquer Bolea.

Queen Judith of Hungary, the consort of King Salamon, gives birth to their first son, Gyula.

King Malcolm of Scotland visits Carlisle upon the completion of its cathedral church. [3]

Archbishop Stigand dies of old age. The cathedral chapter at Winchester elects Maerwine as his successor.

After Qutalmish’s death and Atsiz’s defeat as well as following the deal he brokered with the Greek and Armenian Anatolians, Sultan Malik Shah’s brother Tutush has risen to the undisputed rank of the second man in the Seljuk sultanate. Tutush orders the construction of a medical school and new hospital in his provincial capital Damascus.

Rousellos Phrangopoulos leads an attack against the Danishmends, but fails and is forced to retreat.

In Tmutarakan, a revolt by the (predominantly still Chazar) population breaks out and ousts Prince Roman Svyatoslavich. Roman returns with his Cuman allies in an attempt to take back the city, but David has mobilised an Oghuz horde [4] who defeat and disperse the Cumans, killing Roman in the battle. David Igorevich awards lands to his Oghuz allies and receives a diplomatic mission from Constantinople which bestows the title of "arkhon of Khazaria" upon David who, in turn, nominally accepts Byzantine suzerainty over his city state which controls the Strait of Kerch.

Robert d’Arbrissell begins his great work Hermeneutica, in which he expands on the teachings of Anselm of Laon. [5]



[as per OTL:]

Almoravids begin the siege of Sebta / Ceuta.

Al-Mutamid, Taifa King of Sevilla, conquers lands South of the Guadiana River from the Taifa of Toledo.

King Harald of Denmark abolishes the trial by ordeal in his kingdom and makes the counterfeit of royal coins a crime punishable by death.

The people of Novgorod revolt against Prince Gleb Sviatoslavich and force him to flee. Later this year, he is slain by Chuds.



[1] All these communes / republics gained their independence IOTL a few decades later after Mathilda’s much later OTL death. And now – after last year has clearly demonstrated why this TL mentions “… COUNCILS” in the title -, I have also disclosed why it has “… AND COMMUNES” in there, too. This was actually one of the things I had wanted to explore with this TL right from the start: an earlier, stronger and different wave of city states (not only) in Italy. IOTL, this radiated across large swaths of Europe as a veritable communalist movement.

[2] “Pro-Byzantine” here means “pro Caesar George”, the Bulgarian de facto ruler of Byzantium’s European possessions North of Greece. George continues to pursue his close alliance with Serbian Duklja even after Konstantin Bodin’s death. Having triumphed over the Pechenegs in an alliance which included Hungarians, too, he is now beginning to meddle in Croatia.

[3] While the Norman kings of England would conquer Carlisle soon, the peaceful and friendly relation between Harold and Malcolm ITTL leaves the border at its status quo, meaning Carlisle is still Scottish. Establishing an episcopal see here and building a representative church are also signs of the stability of Scottish power and the positive development of this part of what, half a century ago, was still Strathclyde. These are all consequences of a much wealthier and populous English Northumberland on the other side of the border (without a Harrying of the North) as well as of the politically and militarily much calmer Irish Sea, still under the control of Earl Godwin of the Isles and no longer a source of Norse raids.

[4] More Oghuz turning up in the Pontic steppes are a direct result of Anatolia being less open to Oghuz settlement in spite of the Seljuk victory at Manzikert (due to encastellated "Norman" resistance).

[5] IOTL, Robert d’Arbrissell had to flee when the Reformist tide swept away his patron, Sylvestre de la Guerche, Bishop of Rennes. ITTL, a stronger and decidedly anti-Reformist Breton Duke Conan holds his protective hand over Sylvestre, who is accused of simony, and thus by implication also over Robert d’Arbrissell, who will never become an itinerant monk and instead continues Anselm’s work towards re-connecting medieval hermeneutics with the amplour of positions on the nature of text meaning and exegesis which were discussed by both Christian and non-Christian philosophers in antiquity, attempting a synthesis of the competing schools of hermeneutical thought.


This is my last post before I take a longer summer break - there's a crazy amount of work awaiting me in June, and then we're off on a holiday in July. I hope to see you again when this TL returns in August with more fun developments in 1079 and the 1080s... - in Iberia, on the British Isles and elsewhere...!