The eagle's left head

[Lascaris]

Palermo, January 15th, 1348

The city threw open its gates to Theodore Doukas and his army. Fighting for the city was not over though as the Angevin garrison still held the city's castles. It would take several more months till the garrisons were forced to surrender the castles but with the Sicilian fleet controlling the sea, the Angevin soldiers could not hope to receive any support. Meanwhile Theodore systematically reduced the remaining Angevin holdings on the island.

Thessaloniki, April 1348

The city kept defying Ioannis VI and Gregory Palamas as its new archbishop. But it remained cut off with the Serbs dominating Macedonia. Its sole outlet to the outside world was through the sea.

Elasson, Thessaly, May 1348

The despotate's army retreated south. Dusan had brought an army of 26,000 men to invade the Lascarid holdings in Greece. Michael Philantropenos could initially gather only 8,000 men. Even reinforced by Theodore sending in a hurry about 3,000 men from Sicily the despotate's army had been severely outnumbered. But Michael had at least the advantage of highly defensible ground, you could not invade Thessaly from Macedonia only through the Tempi valley or through Elasson. Tempi was practically impassable with the Sicilians holding the castle of Platamon in its northern mouth and the despotate's fleet there to support it. Thus Dusan had chosen to invade from Servia down to Sarantaporon and Elasson. Michael had delayed him time and again but where the Serbian heavy cavalry had repeatedly failed to push out the Greek infantry holding the passes the Albanian light infantry recruited from Dusan's newly acquired holdings had finally succeeded. Michael retreated having lost a thousand men. He had inflicted notably heavier casualties on the Serbs but the Serb road to Thessaly was open...

Samos, July 1348

The last of the Turkish garrisons in the islands lost to the knights of Saint John and the Angevins surrendered to the Sicilian navy. By now the Sicilians had also seized the smaller Dodecanese islands under the control of the knights. Only Karpathos, a Venetian holding, remained outside the despotate's control.

Venice, August 1348

The republic signed an 8 years truce with the kingdom of Hungary.

Galata, Constantinople, September 1348

The local Genoese were busily reinforcing the fortifications of their quarter. They were not the only ones making preparations. In Constantinople proper Ioannis VI despite the imperial treasury being empty, was scrapping money from all sources, including loans from the aristocracy to rebuild the navy. By the end of the year he would be confident enough to reduce tolls in the harbors of Constantinople directly antagonizing the port of Galata which by now was controlling ten times the trade volume of Constantinople proper.

Larisa, Thessaly, November 1348

Dusan's advance into Thessaly had been seriously hindered by having to break through the castle of Damasi and Larisa's own fortifications. Dusan had the numbers to besiege both at the same time but despite the plague the garrison s had stubbornly held out for months. But Dusan had pushed with the sieges just as stubbornly despite his army suffering as much as the defenders from disease and having to deal with constant harassing from the smaller despotate army. In the end his persistence had born fruit with both garrisons being forced to come to terms. Dusan would appoint one of his magnates Preljub as governor of the conquered parts of Thessaly. But the war with the despotate was far from over. And this time Dusan also had to deal with a rebellious population that instead of being indifferent to its new conquerors had instead reasons to be loyals to the despotate.

Naples, December 1348

It had not been a good year for the kingdom. The black death had taken the lives of hundreds of thousands. But Charles III could at least count on the plague ravaging just as much the population of the so called despotate of Sicily, including killing thousands out of the army that had smashed his army at Imera. He had managed to raise 11,000 men this year and even launch an attack into Calabria. His attack had not amounted to much, it had been stopped cold by a Sicilian army under Alexandros but, Alexandros army had been actually slightly smaller than his own. This wasn't a bad sign in particular when coupled with news of the Serb invasion of Thessaly. Charles begun making plans for the next campaign season with increased confidence. They would be cut short when he caught the plague himself and died a couple of days before new year's eve...

Piraeus, March 1349

Alexandros Doukas Lascaris, had not been in Greece since before the war with the late and not so lamented Charles III had begun. Now he was bringing with him a thousand Cumans and twice as many infantry. They would be joined in Athens by another thousand recently recruited Greeks and Albanians under Ioannis Buas before marching north to join Philantropenos army in Lamia. The despotate could afford the effort. But it was not coming cheaply. Its debt had jumped to over 370,000 ducats.

Naples, April 1349

Louis of Taranto, newly crowned king of Sicily led the royal army south against Calabria. Theodore had offered him an one year truce when news of Charles III's death had reached him. Louis at the advice of his brother and Walter of Brienne had refused fearing that it would make him look weak to his barons, particularly given the rumors that Theodore had sent a fleet and army east. Theodore had indeed sent an army east. But he still had ten thousand men in Calabria. The Sicilian and Neapolitan armies would pass the next several months maneuvering back in forth, with no decisive battle and with neither gaining the upper hand.

East Macedonia, May 1349

Ioannis VI led an army of five thousand men into Macedonia. With Dusan tied down fighting Theodore he could not let the opportunity to try liberating Macedonia go to waste. His army would soon advance to Serres before Dusan was forced to send reinforcements to Macedonia under Preljub to stop him. While Ioannis VI and his army were tied down in Macedonia the Genoese of Galata would try to take advantage burning the new imperial fleet. But the Byzantines would reack attacking Galata in term forcing the Genoese to come to terms.

Pharsalus, Thessaly, July 1349

Stefan Dusan had start his second campaign with about 27,000 men. Over a third had been diverted to defend against the constant raiding of the Sicilian fleet in garrisons and to meet the attack of Ioannis VI into Macedonia, Dusan had been uncertain whether Kantakouzenos and Vatatzes were in collusion, but could not let Kantakouzenos snip at his Macedonian holdings unhindered. Michael and Alexandros had patiently avoided to give battle till he had been left with just with about 17,500 men facing 15,000. The Serb heavy cavalry would carry the day but at heavy cost, both armies would lose nearly 3,000 men, and the Sicilians would retreat south in good order. It was not the kind of low cost, high profit war Dusan and his nobles were used to waging for all these years. And Dusan was also receiving increasing complaints from his vassals in the north over raids into their lands by Stephen II Kotromanić the ban of Bosnia...

Ortona, Abruzzo, September 1349

Louis I king of Hungary, upon news of the death of Charles III had tried to convince pope Clement VI to support his claim to the throne of Naples to no avail, Clement had instead confirmed Joanna and her husband on the throne and instructed him that he should follow the church's advise. Louis had instead decided to take matters to his own hands and seize what he considered his own by force of arms. With the war with Venice over, he could take the shortest route directly across the Adriatic to attack Joanna. But Louis had no fleet. The Neapolitan fleet conveniently has but a shadow of its former self after its defeats at Sicilian hands, but the Venetians had refused Louis offer to charter ships to carry his army citing their neutrality, while the pope instructed Genoa to refuse Louis offers to hire ships us well. Happily for Louis Theodore Doulas Lascaris might have been a borderline schismatic but was a schismatic with no reason to heed to the pope's orders with ample ships ad even bore ample reason to want Louis in Italy. And thus Louis with an army of 12,000 men would land in Ortona and march south. The lords of Abruzzo and Aquila would immediately declare for him...

Corfu, October 1349

With Louis of Hungary landing in Italy, Louis of Taranto had been forced to march north to meet the invader, thus leaving the south open to attack. Theodore hadn't lost the opportunity to invade Basilicata faced only with the local feudal levies of the counts of Sanseverino. But at the same time he had dispatched part of his army and fleet to secure Corfu. The local population would welcome the Sicilians, but the Angevin garrison would hunker down to the nearly impregnable castle of Corfu hoping its supplies would hold out longer than the Sicilians...

 

[Lascaris]

Syracuse, December 25th, 1349

Between the ongoing war and fear of further outbreaks of the plague, and perhaps a bit of the by now famed Vatatzes thriftiness, back a century ago Ioannis III had managed to buy his wife a crown just from the proceeds of the eggs produced in the royal estates, the marriage ceremony between Alexandros and Blanche of Navarre in the cathedral of Syracuse had been relatively subdued. Blanche had first been baptized Agnes, a common occurrence for Latin princesses married in the east, although notably Agnes was almost a direct transliteration of her name in Greek. But the young couple appeared to be taking to each other well. Blanche, now Agnes, had spent the years of her betrothal to learn Greek and Sicilian, and was taking the court and commoners of Sicily by storm between beauty and good manners and this for certain was including her husband. But happily this appeared to be mutual, after all Alexandros had inherited his father's charm and his mother's good character.

Benevento, January 15th, 1350

The armies of Louis of Hungary and Louis of Taranto had been nearly evenly matched in overall numbers with the Hungarians having 12,000, half of then cavalry and a third knights. The Neapolitan army had 11,000 men with nearly as many knights as the Hungarians and more infantry. But the Hungarians had also brought along 2,000 Cuman horse archers and very much like the battle at Imera two and a half years ago they had proven decisive. Louis of Taranto had lost 4,000 men. Louis of Hungary barely a quarter as many.

Larisa, Thessaly, March 1350

Stephan Dusan led his army out of the city marching westwards against Trikala and the castle of Fanari. It was not the campaign Dusan would had liked to be waging this year, Bosnia up in the north had looked like a much more lucrative target. But it was the campaign he had to fight. Theodore was not going to accept losing Thessaly any more than Ioannis VI was going to accept losing Macedonia. Only where Ioannis could only hope to muster relatively small armies, Theodore was not under such constraints.

Constantinople, April 1350

Workers were busy at work making extensive repairs on Hagia Sophia, financed by a donation of Grand duke Symeon of Muskovy. Not all of Symeon's money had gone to their intended task as Ioannis VI had helped himself to part to finance hiring Turkish mercenaries to fight the Serbs instead. It had not been the only move of the emperor against Dusan, as on his instigation patriarch Callistus would excommunicate him upon rising to the patriarchate in June.

Corfu, May 1350

The Angevin garrison, watched in dismay the battle unfolding outside Vido. The Angevin fleet, all 17 galleys of it, had tried to break the Sicilian blockade at relieve the fortress. Their attempt had ended in disaster, the Sicilian fleet besieging Corfu had been much stronger at 30 galleys and Gryphon had used his numerical superiority to the utmost. Only a quartet of Angevin galleys had escaped the battle. Corfu would surrender a week later.

Taranto, June 1350

The city was placed under siege from land and sea by the Sicilian army and navy under Theodore in person. Since the start of the year Theodore had completed the conquest of Basilicata he had begun last year against a population mostly indifferent and some times hostile to the Angevins and their lords, after all the area had been ravaged by the plague and Theodore was preceded by rumors of land being redistributed and the peasantry and city communes protected under Sicilian rule. Not everything in such rumors was true of course but that the strongly centralized Sicilian administration was preferable for the commoners and Theodore and his father and brother had shown no compunctions in bringing down nobles that failed to side with them were not. Now with Basilicata secured Theodore had turned his attention to Terra di Otranto, all too important to permanently secure the communications between the two halves of the realm.

Thessaloniki, June 1350

The great city was in a bad way threatened by the Serbs, shunned by the empire as it refused to accept either Ioannis VI or Hesychasm, and ravaged by the plague. Things had been bad enough that one of the two archons of the city Andreas Palaiologos, perhaps bribed by Dusan even tried to deliver the city to the Serbs. But this was immediately opposed by the other archon Alexios Lascaris Metochites and the citizenry rose up in revolt against surrender to the Serbs. Ioannis VI was quick to show up and try to take advantage of the situation to reclaim the city. But he was not the only one to do so as Alexandros Doukas Lascaris upon receiving news the city was about to surrender to Dusan would show up as well at the head of a dozen galleys to try to prevent this. Between the two the people and boule of Thessaloniki would proclaim for Alexandros and his father.

Aversa, July 1350

Much to the frustration of Louis of Hungary the garrison, under Giacomo Pignataro had held up for months despite nearly the entire Hungarian army besieging it. But finally Pignataro had been forced to surrender allowing Louis to advance against his namesake in Naples. There Joanna had entertained though of escaping to her French holdings but Lous of Taranto had dissuaded her from doing so. The Sicilians were already reprising Roger de Lauria two generations earlier and after sizing Ischia were using it to blockade Naples. With Sicilian galleys patrolling outside Joanna had been forced to go by the plan of her husband. The regno would be defended against both the Greeks and the Hungarians if for no other reason because Joanna could not hope to safely make her escape.

Venice, August 1350

It was a troubling year for the Serenissima. The Lascarids had captured Corfu and had now invaded Terre Di Otranto, were Taranto had already thrown its gates open to Theodore the previous month and his army and navy were quickly gainting ground, Venetian spies wrote the entire province was likely to fall before the end of the year. While despots of Sicily had maintained correct relations with the republic for the past two generations and had even found common ground in battling piracy, relations were jut that correct. Alexandros and after him Ioannis and Theodore had kept brisk trade going and their ports open to Venetian merchants they had steadfastly refused to give either to Venice or Genoa any of the trading exceptions so common in the east. On the contrary they had placed somewhat lower dues on their own merchants compared to foreign ones and actively encouraged them, particularly traders from Messina and Monemvasia. If one coupled this with the destruction of the Latin statelets in the Cyclades and Theodore helping out the Hungarians the previous year letting the Sicilians get securely established on both sides of the straits of Otranto was a threat. But the republic also had to deal with a much more immediate threat as Genoa had tried to place a stranglehold on the lucrative Black sea trade by blockading the Bosporus and the Kerch straits. Dealing with Theodore would have to wait for now as Venice declared war on Genoa. By the end of the year it would be joined in its war by Peter IV of Aragon and Ioannis VI.

Naples, September 1350

The siege of the city went on, as Joanna and Louis of Taranto had put the time gained by the Hungarian siege of Aversa to good use preparing the Naples for a siege and driving the local population to a frenzy against the Hungarians, helped by a papal bull placing Louis of Hungary under an interdict for going to war with his Neapolitan relatives against the pope's instructions. Louis of Hungary had already spent though nearly a year away from his kingdom. He thus left Stephen Lackfi to continue the siege of Naples as he left himself for Hungary.

Thessaly, October 1350

The campaign season was nearing to its close. No great battle had taken place. The Serbs had gained some more ground securing Trikala. But the Sicilian army was also intact still in the field and not particularly smaller than the Serb one. Alexandros and Michael Philanthropenos had 15,000 men under arms. Dusan had 20,000. Till the Sicilian army got decisively defeated Dusan would still need to have the better part of his army tied down in Thessaly...

 

[Lascaris]

Chalkis, November 1350

The city, Negreponte to the Franks, was a Venetian stronghold since the time of the 4th crusade. Back in September it had received a Venetian squadron of 35 galleys, fresh from attacking 14 Genoese ships outside Nauplion and capturing 10 of them, much to the concern of Michael Philanthropenos as the battle had taken place in despotate waters. Now the four surviving Genoese ships, joined with five more from Galata struck back, making a daring raid in the port helped by the Genoese prisoners rising up. The Genoese would set the city of fire, a success that would cost both the Venetian admiral and the Venetian podesta their jobs...

Barcelona, January 1351

Peter IV of Aragon joined the war against Genoa on the side of Venice. Aragon promised to provide 18 galleys to the common war effort, two thirds of which would be paid by Venice. It was a promise Aragon would not just meet but actually exceed, with a fleet of 30 galleys sent only to the Aegean. Come May emperor Ioannis VI would also join the war providing a dozen ships out of which eight would be paid by Venice.

Naples, March 1351

Louis of Taranto led the royal army against the Hungarians besieging Naples. Helped by a not at all popular sale of Avignon to the pope for 80,000 ducats, Louis had managed to bring together am army of 11,000 men. Lackfi was by now actually outnumbered, as Louis had taken his Hungarians and Cumans back to Hungary and with a new war starting against Lithuania needed money back home. But Louis was above all else a stubborn man, even with war against Lithuania, Lackfi had been given just enough money to keep his mercenaries on the field... after squeezing the areas of the regno under Hungarian control white in taxation. But he would be severely defeated by Louis losing 3,000 out of his 8,000 men. Louis would enter relieved Naples in triumph. Then he would march south hoping to deal with the Sicilians now that the Hungarians had been checked.

Thessaloniki, April 1351

The dekarch start berating the unfortunate recruit that had dropped his pike. Little had changed in Thessaloniki since the great city had proclaimed for the despotate the previous year. Alexandros Philanthropenos, Michael's younger son had replaced pro-Serb Palaiologos who had fled the city for Athos as archon, Metochites the other archon had retained his position and a small contingent of despotate soldiers and civil servants had been shipped in to help reorganize the city. The despotate could not afford much more at the moment, Theodore had even demobilized half his fleet to reduce costs, a safe decision after the near destruction of both the Aydinid and Angevin fleets the previous years. If the commune had hoped for more spectacular support it would have to wait.

Bari, April 1351

The Sicilian army and navy placed the city under siege. But with the news of Louis marching against him, Theodore would be forced to raise the siege and march west to meet the Angevin army...

Constantinople, May 1351

What was supposed to be the final synod to solve the hesychast controversy was called. Presided over by Ioannis VI and the new patriarch Callistus a strong Palamite supporter its results were to be expected in advance. Hesychasm was proclaimed official church doctrine, anti-hesychast bishops deposed and Nikephoros Gregoras the most vocal anti-hesychast condemned and excommunicated. Gregoras would not wait for his condemnation taking instead a ship to Athens and ending up with a position in the university of Syracuse where he would die in 1360. But the decisions of the synod would be outright refused both by the strongly Barlaamite church within the despotate and elsewhere outside the empire with metropolitan Theognostus of Kiev calling Palamism "Greek polytheism".

Ofanto river, June 1351

If Louis had hoped to catch the Sicilians by surprise outside Bari, Theodore had been too experienced a commander to fall for that. If Theodore had hoped to join up with the Hungarians neither Louis nor for that matter the Hungarians had cooperated. When the two armies had finally met for battle the Sicilian army was only slightly superior in numbers with 10,000 met to 9,000. Theodore would win a hard fought victory with the Sicilians taking about 1,500 casualties and the Neapolitans slightly over 2,000. As Louis would retreat back to Naples Theodore would turn back east placing Bari again under siege.

Genoa, July 1351

A fleet of 60 galleys under Paganino Doria left the city for the Aegean. Doria would put Chalkis under siege in August, only to be forced to raise it upon news of an approaching Venetian-Aragonese fleet of 52 galleys. Doria would then raid Tenedos and Lesbos and try to attack Heraclea on the cost of Thrace only to be rebuffed by the imperial army, before sailing to Galata to wait out the winter. There the Genoese would receive supplies by both the Ottomans and the Aydinids despite the marriage of Orhan to Theodora Kantakouzene and the earlier alliance with Aydin.

Central Greece, September 1351

The Sicilian army retreated behind mount Othrys. After one more year of campaign the Serbs had managed to push the despotate almost entirely out of Thessaly, only Demetrias was holding out thanks to support from the sea. But Theodore had again refused to sign a peace treaty. The war would go on for one more year. But it would continue without Michael Philanthropenos who would pass out in October.

Bari, October 1351

The town surrendered to the Sicilians. It wasn't good news for the Neapolitans but then besides some minor gains against the Hungarians there were preciously little good news anyway. The Sicilians were by now holding Basilicata, Terra di Otranto and Terra di Bari and the local population whether Greek or Latin speaking was showing little if now discontent about the change of management. In the north, Lalle I Camponeschi was in open revolt, having proclaimed his ostensible support for the Hungarians and was directly controlling two thirds of Abruzzo Ultra. The Hungarians themselves despite their defeat outside Naples were still holding Capitanata, Principato Ultra and parts of Terra di Lavoro and Canto di Molisse. But Louis and Joanna could at least count upon the support of pope Clement VI and hope both the Hungarians and Sicilians would be distracted by their wars against Lithuania and Serbia respectively.

Syracuse, December 1351

Adrienne Doukas Vatatzes Lascaris smiled at the woman holding her in her hands. Her grandmother returned the smile. Life could be good after all. If her son had been here it would had been even better but Alexandros had to hurriedly return to Athens after the death of Michael.

Bosporus, February 1352

The joint fleet of Venice, Aragon and Byzantium gave battle with the Genoese. The allies had numerical superiority with 75 galleys facing 64 but bad coordination between them would lead to them losing twice as many ships as the Genoese who would lose 13 galleys, with the Aragonese taking particularly heavy casualties losing 19 out of their 30 ships. The failure would be made even worse when the Venetians under Niccolo Pisani, instead of staying in Constantinople and attacking Pera as Ioannis VI proposed would instead sail away leaving Ioannis to his own devices.

Messina, February 1352

Alexios Philanthropenos the younger, eldest son of the late Michael Philanthropenos reviewed the 5,000 his uncle had placed under his command. As soon as weather allowed they would be boarding the ships on their way east to join up with the army under Alexandros. The despotate had been forced to retreat again and again before Serb superior numbers. It was time to see how the Serbs liked a more equal fight...

 

[Lascaris]

Didymoteichon, Thrace, March 1352

Ioannis V Palaiologos was given an appanage over Western Thrace by Ioannis VI the senior emperor. Matthaios Kantakouzenos, Ioannis VI elder son would be moved to rule over Adrianople. The youngest of Ioannis VI sons, Manuel, had already been made governor of Lesbos, a much smaller holding compared to that of his brother and brother in law but nevertheless quite important given its large revenues and strategic position.

Constantinople, May 1352

With the Venetian fleet gone Ioannis VI was forced to come to terms with Genoa. The Genoese trade privileges within the empire would be renewed, their hold on Galata renewed and imperial ports closed to Venice. This would prove to have consequences...

Halmyros, Thessaly, July 1352

It had been the definition of what the Italians were calling bad war. The Serb army under Dusan had pressed on but between Sicilian naval raids, garrisons and commitments in Thrace had not been able to bring more that 19,000 men on the field. The Sicilians under Alexandros Doukas Lascaris had managed to bring together only slightly more men fielding 20,000 men. The Sicilians had the superior infantry and organization. the Serb heavy cavalry had proved itself to be among the best in Europe and unlike its counterparts in Western Europe was anything but alien to fighting light cavalry or horse archers. The end result had been a bloody had fought battle. The Sicilians would take three thousand casualties including Alexios Philanthropenos, Michael's elder son. But in the end the Moreot heavy horse under Michael Rallis had broken the Serb flank and the Serbs had been forced to retreat leaving four thousand dead in the battlefield.

Didymoteichon, July 1352

Ioannis V with a bit or perhaps more than a bit of prompting from Venice and Serbia attacked Matthaios Kantakouzenos. Patriarch Callistus would try and fail to mediate between the two rivals. Ioannis VI would try to mediate as well only to find himself also in conflict with the younger emperor as Ioannis V received an army of 4,000 men from the Serbs, further troops from Bulgaria and 20,000 ducats in financial aid from Venice.

Tzympe castle, Gallipoli, August 1352

The castle was surrendered to Suleiman pasha, Orhan's eldest son. It was the price Ioannis VI had to pay in exchange for Orhan's support as an army of 10,000 Ottomans under Suleiman marched into Thrace...

Thessaly, September 1352

The Sicilian advance in Thessaly came to a screeching halt in the face of Serb reinforcements. Alexandros had managed to push the Serbs out of most of the southern half of Thessaly but he would not risk a second battle against the reinforced Serb army...

Didymoteichon, October 1352

Ioannis V army was crushed by the Ottomans. The young emperor wiould be forced to flee to the little island of Tenedos. The renewed civil war appeared to have ended in triumph for Kantakouzenos.. But this had come at a cost as the Ottomans had looted yet again large sections of Thrace and perhaps worse were now refusing to leave Tzympe.

Avignon, December 1352

Innocent VI became the new pope. This was going to be unfortunate news for the Neapolitan Angevins as Innocent facing financial difficulties after the profligate spending of his predecessor cut the subsidies to the Angevins and begun negotiating for an accommodation with Louis of Hungary. Coming to terms with Sicily would prove more difficult as Theodore had no intention of paying tithes to the papacy and the Sicilian parliament and population after the multitude of excommunications thrown on their heads over the past 70 years stood behind Theodore on the matter. But even so Innocent would not show the unrelenting hostility of his predecessors.

Naples, February 1353

"No" The word, by Louis of Taranto king of Sicily, was almost a shout.

George Chrysaphis, Theodore's envoy to the Neapolitan cort gave a shrug. "I would strongly advise your majesty to reconsider. The despot's terms are only fair given your... circumstances."

"Release your master from his vassalage, and surrender to him the kingdom's holdings in Greece, Sicily, Terra di Otranto, Basilicata and Terra di Bari. And Theodore expects me to accept such terms?"

"I would note your majesty that you have lost the war. The war you had started I might note. Losing a war comes at a cost. And my lord has instructed me to warn you that if you fail to accept peace now his terms the next time he sends me over here are going to be worse."

"No"

Thessaly, March 1353

Stefan Dusan gave a sigh as he jumped on his horse. One more campaign was just about to begin. Theodore had not accepted peace on the status quo. He had not accepted to give up his Thessalian conquests in exchange for peace. The war would continue. Despite the costly defeats in Halmyros and Didymoteichon he still led 20,000 men for this year's campaign in Thessaly, as many as his spies claimed Alexandros had in the south.

Constantinople, April 1353

Ioannis VI proclaimed his son Matthaios co-emperor. There would be some trouble with patriarch Callistus refusing to crown Matthaios, which would be solved by the simple expedient of replacing Callistus with a new patriarch Philotheus. The new patriarch would duly crown Mattheos co-emperor the next February. But the Ottomans were still refusing to leave Tzympe and Ioannis V was still holed up in Tenedos. Manuel who had inherited his father's abilities was busily building up a fleet in Lesvos but as long as the Venetian navy was in the Aegean and allowed by Ioannis V to use Tenedos as a base was not in position to attack his brother in law.

Ascoli, June 1353

Theodore had avoided for the past couple of years to directly aid the Hungarians. But now he was angry. If Louis and Joanna were too stupid to come to terms then they had to be forced to terms. Thus he had linked up with the Hungarians and marched up from Basilicata forcing the Neapolitans to battle. Gregoras in his "Sicilian History" would not fail to note that back 16 centuries ago another Greek army under Pyrrhus had defeated the Latins in the same place carefully avoiding to point the Latins in question were the Romans. But if the Romans could afford the casualties inflicted on them by Pyrrhus, Louis did not have the strategic depth to survive losing half his army...

Port De Comte, Sardinia, August 1353

A Genoese fleet of 33 galleys under Antonio Grimaldi was crushed by the joint Aragonese-Venetian fleet with two thousand men killed and twice as many taken prisoner. But just the next month from the victory Marianus IV the judge of Arborea would rise up in revolt fearing the increase in Aragonese influence. Before the end of the year he would be joined in the revolt by the Doria family in the north of the island.

Athens, Ocrober 1353

Alexandros Doukas Lascaris took the baby in his hands. A second daughter. They would name her Ioanna after Agnes mother the late queen of Navarre. It was the only good thing to happen in an otherwise frustrating year. Over the previous months Dusan had stopped cold every single Sicilian advance in Thessaly. It was true that Alexander and his lieutenants had stopped in turn every Serb attempt to push south but this wasn't making things any less frustrating for him. At his age his grandfather had just liberated Siciy...

Naples, November 1353

Louis I put his signature of the document accepting a ten year truce with Sicily. It wasn't as if he could do much about it. After the defeat of Ascoli Sicilian and Hungarian armies had ranged unopposed for most of the year, taking several castles and looting the countryside. Innocent VI had excommunicated him, along with Joanna for refusing to send ecclesiastical tithes over to Avignon, with war ranging he could ill afford to do so. He needed to cut his losses and hopefully deal with the Hungarians and that little upstart in Abruzzo. As soon as they were dealt with he could revisit his relation with that Greek heretic and the Sicilian traitors who preferred him over their god anointed kings...

Messina, February 1354

Theodore Doukas Lascaris looked over the fleet assembling in Messina. With the war in Italy it had been reasonably easy to convince the Sicilian parliament to help finance for one more, hopefully final push to bring the war in Greece at an end. After all no person in Sicily could forget the Greek armies and fleets coming to the aid of Sicily earlier in the war. And even the ones willing to pretend to forget that, or the large Greek population in Sicily and South Italy being increasingly self concious of their ties to their brethren in the east of the Ionian sea thank to the growth in learning, were not as willing to forget the lively trade going between the two halves of the realm and the profits coming out of it...

 

[Lascaris]

Gallipoli, March 1354

The Ottomans took advantage of an earthquake to capture and refortify the city. Ioannis VI would offer to buy it back. Orhan would first agree to give it back in exchange for money then fail to appear in the meeting where he was supposed to get paid...

Demetrias, April 1354

Theodore Doukas Lascaris landed in Demetrias at the head of an army of 5,000 men moving quickly west to join with Alexandros army that was already campaigning against Dusan's Serbs. Theodore had virtually stripped Sicily of troops leaving behind only 2,000 men aside from garrisons. But it was likely a risk that could be taken. Even if Louis broke the recently concluded truce he could barely scrap together 5,000 men. The Hungarians had about 4,000 mercenaries in Italy. Lalle lord of Abruzzo over 2,000 more...

Scotussa, Thessaly, September 1354

Dusan had refused battle for the previous six months frustrating time and again every move by Theodore. But in the end he had been forced into battle in the hills north of Scotussa, a place that had seen its share of battles in the past. The Sicilians would enter the fight with about 25,000 men. Dusan would be slightly outnumbered fielding about 23,000 men. The Sicilians would win the battle but it would not come cheaply as they would lose 4,000 men to the Serbs nearly 6,000. And while not every man on the winning side was dying this wasn't making the casualties much less painful after nearly a decade of war...

Larisa, Thessaly, November 1354

The city had been liberated from the Serbs in the aftermath of the battle of Scotussa but with the campaign season so late Theodore's army had failed to make any spectacular gains besides Larisa in the aftermath of the victory. And for Theodore an entire campaign first in Thessaly's heat and then in its winter had been brutal for the health of a 64 year old. Theodore would die after a short illness in Larisa.

Sapienza, Peloponnese, November 1354

The Genoese navy decisively defeated the Venetian outside Methone. The war between Genoa and Venice would technically continue till the next June when the duke of Milan would mediate a peace between the two republics but was as good as over...

Athens, December 1354

With virtually the entire Sicilian army under him Alexandros did not have much trouble proclaiming himself despot of Sicily and Hellas. After all it wasn't as if anyone could seriously challenge the hold of the dynasty in their lands any more...

Constantinople, December 1354

Ioannis V had offered Francesco Gattilusio the hand of his sister and the lordship of Lesbos is he managed to restore him in Constantinople. Francesco had enough self confidence to do so with all of two galleys entering Constantinople at night and raising the city in revolt. Within days Ioannis V would be back in the queen of cities and Ioannis VI Kantakouzenos would retire to a monastery where he would spend the next several decades writing. But if Ioannis VI had decided for some reason to retire without a fight this was not true for his sons, who both remained at large...

Milan, January 1355

Charles IV of Bohemia was proclaimed king on Italy. Come April he would be proclaimed holy Roman emperor in Rome and true to his agreement with the pope leave Rome on the same day with his coronation.

Syracuse, March 1355

Alexandros II Doukas Vatatzes Lascaris was crowned for the second time, in the cathedral of Syracuse with the parliament of Sicily proclaiming its fealty to him. Back in Greece Alexandros had left Ioannis Buas in command of the army that was to continue the war against the Serbs. With Alexandros having to take troops back with him to Sicily, Buas task was not going to be as easy as it would had been had Theodore still lived...

Serbia, April 1355

The ongoing war against Lithuania had kept king Louis of Hungary from going to war against Serbia despite skirmishing between Hungarian and Serb forces on the border. But now Louis third Lithuanian campaign was over and and the pope was also instigating Louis to taje more active measures against the Serbs, as Stefan Dusan on one hand was writing to the pope that he wanted to covert his entire kingdom to Catholicism but at the same time was outright persecuting Catholics within his realm. The Hungarian invasion of Serbia would have only limited effect with Dusan stalling it and avoiding battle. But it also meant that the largest part of the Serb army had to move north to fight the Hungarians instead of fighting the Sicilians in the south...

Lesbos, July 1355

Manuel Kantakouzenos had taken less than well to Gattilusio showing up in Mytiline with imperial order to give Lesbos over to a Genoese former pirate. Francesco was hardly the kind of man to be deterred by a mere Greek's refusal or the odds. Perhaps he should have as Manuel would prove a much tougher customer than his father crushing Francesco small squadron and killing him.

Skopje, November 1355

Stefan Dusan took the reports from the south in stride. With two thirds of his army fighting the Hungarians in the north the Greeks had been able to drive his army and garrisons out of their remaining holdings in Thessaly. He could try a new invasion he supposed. But the war against the Sicilian despot, now the despot of Sicily and Hellas he supposed had proven a frustrating affair with little gain. The war with Hungary and the advance of the Ottoman armies in Thrace gave him as good an excuse as any to cut his losses and offer peace to the new despot. He could invade again under better conditions in the future...

 

[Lascaris]

Syracuse, December 1355

Alexandros II was tempted. Sorely tempted to fight on now that Serbia finally was on the back foot having to also face the Hungarians in the north. But the despotate had had to deal with all out war for the past decade, with the black death ravaging the land on top of it. Hundreds of thousands had died, debt was in excess of 1.5 million florins and threatened to get out of control. The country needed peace to catch up its breath.

Messina, April 1356

Ioannis Buas brought three thousand men from Greece. Some of were Sicilians and Calabrians Theodore had brought with him east, although Alexandros what taken most of them back to Italy the previous year. Most of them were Greeks, Albanians, Vlachs and surviving Cuman mercenaries that would be given pronoias to settle in Apulia and Basilicata in return for military service.

Molyvos, Lesbos, April 1356

The castle garrison was taken by surprise at the sight of two dozen war galleys and even more merchant ships bearing the double headed eagle of House Vatatzes out of the morning fog. With over six thousand soldiers under Michael Rallis landing in the island, the castle garrison would surrender after only token resistance and Rallis would march south towards Mytiline. Ioannis V had not taken well to Manuel rejecting his orders and killing his new brother in law in battle. Being nearly bankrupt and having no fleet of his own he had turned west for aid. Alexandros was all too happy to oblige him for his own reasons. After all Lesbos and Phokaia thanks to their alum mines were rich...

Zagreb, April 1356

King Louis of Hungary had gathered an army of 35,000 men for the invasion of Serbia. With pope Innocent VI having conveniently proclaimed a crusade in support of the Hungarian invasion, Louis begun his march east. It was time for Stefan Dusan to be dealt with...

Kragujevac, July 1356

Stefan Dusan had prudently tried to avoid battle in the face of superior Hungarian numbers. Just as practically Louis had unleashed his light cavalry to loot, nurn and rape, all in the name of bringing Serbia back to the true church of course. And thus Stefan had been forced to give battle despite his army of 25,000 men being outnumbered by the Hungarians. Dusan had by now enough experience in big field battles to extricate himself when things start turning wrong but his army still lost nearly 4,500 men. But the Hungarians would also lose about three thousand men, shockingly high casualties for Louis who was not accustomed to such losses in his previous wars...

Kyreneia, August 1356

Manuel Kantakouzenos disembarked from the ship bringing him and his wife Isabella de Lusignan to Cyprus. Trying to hold at bay the far larger Lascarid army had proven impossible back in Lesbos the army and fleet Alexandros II had sent after him had outnumbered his own by four to one. He had to give it to Vatatzes he was not doing things by halves unlike his father. So when Alexandros, through the new katepano of Hellas, George Chrysafis, a diplomat not a general he noted, had offered him to surrender on terms he had taken him up on the offer instead continuing what appeared to be a futile fight. And then he had probably surprised Chrysafis in turn when instead of sailing north for Thrace where his brother still held Adrianople he had instead sailed south for Cyprus. But it made sense. He did not much fancy the chances of his brother. Better Cyprus where Isabella was lady of Aradippou and as the granddaughter of king Hugh III and daughter of the king of Armenia Constantine IV would have a fair bit of influence. After all Cyprus was prospering and he was not coming to the island penniless...

Poitiers, September 1356

It was not true that English longbowment were invincible. But when things went as the English wanted them then casualties were disproportionately in their favor, a not uncommon occurrence when an army got routed. And the French despite coming close to breaking the English defensive lines and this time fighting mostly as dismounted infantry had been routed when a small English force had managed to attack them in the rear. Thousand of men at arms and common soldiers would end up either dead or captured, with Walter VI of Brienne who had exchanged Neapolitan for French service dying in action and the French king John II being captured by the English.

Syracuse, October 1356

The third daughter of Alexandros II and Agnes of Navarre, born back in January was christened Anna after Alexandros great grandmother Anna of Hohenstauffen. And if there was any discomfort at the ruling couple having only daughters so far, these were subdued lest they reach them or worse Adrienne who was very fond of her daughter in law. After all Agnes was barely 25. Surely more children would come...

Constantinople, April 1357

His serenity, basileus of the Romans Ioannis V looked at the old man in front of him in frustration. Leo Kalothetos had been born in Chios. So was his subject. If one forgot that Chios was directly ruled from Syracuse for the past two generations. Of course the empire maintained the fiction that the despotate of Sicily was rightful imperial territory, something the despots recognized when they found convenient and ignored when they did not. To exacerbate things while the previous despot was a friend of his late father, which had proven useful during the two civil wars against Kantakouzenos he had never met Alexandros in person.

"It is only proper that the despot follows my instructions to return Lesbos and Phokaia, which we are grateful he liberated in our name from the usurper Kantakouzenos of course, returns now both to our control. As a reward for his services we will provide him the sum of 100,000 heperpyra."

"I'm under strict orders to insist that the administration of Lesbos and Phokaia will be retained by the despot."

"That is not acceptable. I order both you and him as our imperial subjects to surrender them immediately to the governor we will appoint."

"This is out of the question. The island and Phokaia remain with us. Assign them to Alexandros as governor so that you can retain the fiction of ruling over him."

"That is intolerable. YOU are intolerable. You are a subject of the basileus and will behave as such! Or else."

Kalothetos was a capable man. None had ever accused him of not being a prideful man who would not back down easily though. The elder Alexandros, Ioannis and Theodore had carefully cultivated him over half a century lest he cause them trouble in their control of the ever important Chios, giving him high office as far away from Chios and as close to their eyes as they could. Alexandros II had done the same making him his mesazon and sending him as his envoy to deal with Ioannis V over Lesbos. Perhaps he should had chosen a more diplomatic man. Now Kalothetos outright sneered at Ioannis.

"Last time your great-grandfather got such ideas Theodore took away Peloponnese. I'm not giving up Lesbos so that you can lose it to some Turkish emir or hand it over to a Genoese pirate. YOU should be grateful Manuel isn't a danger any more."

"Intolerable I say. I'M the basileus!" Kalothetos just sneered again. In front of what was not a private audience. The last thing Ioannis needed was his imperial authority being outright flaunted in such a way in front of his entire court. His hold on the purple was still shaky after all...

"Throw that treasonous scum to a cell."

Kalothetos for the first time was properly startled. "I'm an envoy!"

"You are my subject. Bearing messages from another of my subjects. Refusing my orders. Take this scum away I said!" Kalothetos would be literally dragged out of the court by imperial guards and thrown to the prison of Anemas. In his sixties he would die there a week later.

Syracuse, June 5th, 1357

Alexandros II despot of Sicily and Hellas had initially been taken aback from the news from Constantinople. From the reports he had received Leo Kalothetos had behaved... less than diplomatically. But this didn't mean he could afford the joke playing at being basileus of the Romans treating his envoys this way or thinking he could give him orders. After all his grandfather had more rights to the purple. He and his father had not pursued them for the good of the empire and that what he what his family was getting in return? Something had to be done and this properly viewed was as much an opportunity as a problem. He would not claim the purple outright, his mother was right to advise this was liable to cause more trouble than it was worth at the moment. Taking a page from Stefan Dusan, instead Alexandros was crowned on the day of the pentecost basileus of Sicily and Hellas by the archbishop of Syracuse, with the imperial crown jewels pawned by Anna of Savoy to Alexandros uncle, used for the coronation...

 

[Lascaris]

Cesena, September 1357

The city fell to the papal army under cardinal Gil de Albornoz. The city, defended by Marzia de li Ubaldini the wife of Francesco II Orledaffi lord of Forli had held out for months before being forced to surrender. It might had fallen earlier if the 4,000 men strong army sent by Louis of Hungary, initially intended to reinforce the papal forces had actually done so. But Louis had received news that Louis of Taranto had actually regained a number of castles from his viceroy the previous year and thus had diverted the Hungarian expeditionary force against the Neapolitans instead.

Adrianople, April 1358

Matthew Kantakouzenos marched south to deal with the continuing raiding of Suleiman pasha. It wouldn't go well as his army was surprised and destroyed by Suleiman with Matthew killed on the battlefield. Ottoman raiders would reach all the way to Adrianople following the battle but fail to capture the strongly fortified city itself. But the Byzantines seemed incapable of holding back the Ottomans, the Serbs despite proclamations by Dusan that he was going to campaign against the Serbs were instead focused on the continuing war with Hungary, now entering its third year and the Sicilians between war exhaustion and the diplomatic scuffle between Alexandros II and Ioannis V that had led to the proclamation of Alexandros as basileus were not showing of any signs of being interested of going to war with the Ottomans in support of the empire limiting themselves to vigorously suppressing piracy in the Aegean...

France, July 1358

French oble forces under Charles II of Navarre, the brother of Agnes crushed the peasant rebellion that had errupted in the aftermath of the French defeat at Poitiers. Charles and Alexandros had never met in person with their contacts limited to letters exchanged between the two courts and a trade expedition organized by Messinese and Monemvasiot merchants to Flanders, with the support of the crown using the ports of Navarre. The expedition had proven rather profitable. That news of it had not been taken all that well by either Venetian or Genoese merchant circles was something of an ubderstandment of course.

Epirus, September 1358

Nikephoros II Orsini, had taken his chances with the continuing Serb-Hungarian war and invited by Epirote nobles had landed at the head of a small band of Turkish mercenaries to try to force out the Serbs. His campaign had started out well with Arta throwing its gates open to him. But things had gone downhill from there. The bulk of the Serb army might have been tied down fighting the Hungarians, but the local garrisons reinforced by Albanian mercenaries had proven too much for him. Nikephoros had been killed in battle near Ioannina and the Serbs had recovered all lost castles.

Thrace, October 1358

Didymoteichon fell to an Ottoman army under Lala Sahin pasha. By now the Ottomans were in control of a large swathe of Thrace and were not showing any signs of slowing down. A proposed armistice and marriage of Orhan's son Halil with Ioannis V daughter had been refused outright by the Ottoman sultan.

Syracuse, December 1358

The fourth daughter of Alexandros II and Agnes was baptized Maria after Alexandros paternal grandmother in the cathedral of Syracuse on Christmas eve. The now royal or imperial couple, basileus could translate in both ways in Latin and Alexandros II was very careful to point in his letters to both king Louis of Hungary and the pope that he was not laying claim to the title of king of Sicily and his was a different one, was not showing any sign of slowing down in the child making department. But a son still eluded them...

South Italy, April 1359

Two years of energetic campaigning by the reinforced Hungarian army had pushed the Neapolitans back to their strongholds on the western coast provinces of the regno. Now the reinforcements sent over by Louis of Hungary were gone but the situation wasn't any less dire for Joanna and her husband who could barely field 5,500 men for this year's campaign being outnumbered by the joint forces of Hungary and the lord of Abruzzo.

Mykonos, June 1359

Turkish piracy in the Aegean had waned in the aftermath of the Aydinid naval defeats the previous decade but it was increasing again as the maritime emirates in the Anatolian coast were gradually recovering. But large Turkish raiding fleets would inevitably draw Christian reaction as well and the Sicilians were ever vigilant to the threat attacking a large Tukish raiding fleet and destroying 35 ships outside Mykonos...

Adrianople, August 1359

The strongly fortified city fell to the Ottoman army of Suleiman pasha. This was something of a shock to Dusan who could not deal with the Ottomans while still having to fight the Hungarians. Peace feelers would be sent to the Hungarian court in a much more serious manner...

Cyprus, October 1359

Peter I succeeded Hugh IV as king of Cyprus. Unlike his father Peter was showing great zest over the crusading idea and defending Christedom against infidels and schismatics alike. And egged on by Roger de Pins, the grand master of the knights of St John who had settled back to Cyprus after the loss of Rhodes and Manuel Kantakouzenos, Peter also had a particularly dim view of the House pf Lascaris-Vatatzes...

Skopje, December 1359

Peace had finally been signed between signed between Hungary and Serbia and Stefan Dusan could now turn his effort east declaring he was going to drive the Ottomans out of Europe. He would do nothing of the short as he would suddenly die in his court two days before Christmas. He would be succeeded to the Serb throne by his son Stefan Uros V but the new king would prove incapable of controlling the nobles, already disgruntled by the costly unprofitable wars against the Sicilians and the Hungarians, in the way his father did. The Serb empire would immediately start splintering in all but name.

Syracuse, March 1360

Demetrios Kydones joined the university faculty. If Kydones, a former mesazon under emperor Ioannis VI Kantakouzenos had hoped for more he would be deeply disappointed. Alexandros II might might appreciate his education and the anti-hesychast position of Demetrios brother Prochoros, the Hesychast controversy was still raging with support of the Palamists and the Baarlamists often enough a sign of political support of House Palaiologos or House Lascaris-Vatatzes by now, but he was not going to trust a former Kantakouzenist high official in the administration of Sicily. Particularly one that had been vocally against the commune of Thessaloniki that now was a loyal and important part of his realm...

Epirus, June 1360

It had taken just months and the Serb nobles were already at each others throats with Radoslav Hlapen the governor of Edessa invading Epirus held by Simeon Uros Palaiologos the half brother of Stefan Dusan. Further north in Albania Karl Thopia had seized control of Durazzo and proclaimed himself independent from the Serb emperor.

 

[Lascaris]

Syracuse, September 1360

"A girl, your serenity!" the midwife announced as she brought the newborn. Alexandros smiled at his new daughter and wondered what she should be named. Adrienne, Ioanna, Anna, Maria. Irene after his maternal grandmother sounded right. As for a son, he and Agnes had at least a decade ahead to keep trying...

Bologna, September 1360

A Hungarian army of 7,000 men had been sent to Italy ostensibly to support papal forces against Bernabo Visconti. Instead they had attacked their Neapolitan rivals thought the spring and the summer, capturing several castles before finally showing under the walls of Bologna. The Hungarians would raid and loot the surrounding areas but fail to make any permanent gains against the Milanese.

Epirus, March 1361

The war between Radoslav Hlapen and Simeon Uros Palaiologos entered its second year. The two rulers domains were roughly comparable in population, with Hlapen having the slight advantage in numbers. Stefan Uros V the new emperor of Serbia was both weak and not particularly interested in reining over his two vassals, after all Simeon was the emperor's uncle and a rival for the Serbian throne.

San Ruffillo, Italy, July 1361

A joinn Papal-Hungarian-German army under Galeotto I Malatesta severely defeated the Milanese army. With Visconti defeated the Hungarians would turn again south in the continuing war on the regno...

Thessaloniki, August 1361

Alexandros Philanthropenos, archon of Thessaloniki read once more the reports of the skirmishing on the borders between the commune and the Serb held territories. Thessaloniki was directly bordering with Hlapen to the west and with dowager empress Helena to the east. With Dusan dead neither cared much about strictly adhering to the peace treaty which was frustrating to say the least. Alexandros was quite tempted to take more drastic measures with either Hlapen or Helena if not both but he recognized that at the moment Thessaloniki was an island surrounded by Serb lands and taking on either of the two Serb magnates would require mobilizing the rest of Greece thus effectively restarting the war with Serbia. That was a decision for his cousin to take...

Attaleia (Antalya), August 1361

A Cypriot fleet of 120 ships after king Peter I descended upon the city seizing it from Mehmed bey of Teke. The Cypriot king would place a garrison on the city and make arrangement to receive tribute from the bey before returning to Cyprus. But his offer to grand master Roger de Pins for the Hospitallers to take over the city was refused. The grand master had no interest in getting the order into an endless war in Anatolia. Instead he kept his eyes focused on regaining Rhodes from the Sicilians.

Bursa, March 1362

Orhan, second sultan of the Ottoman empire died after a reign of thirty years. His eldest son Suleiman bey would normally become the new sultan. But as soon as their father, his younger brother Murad the governor of Bursa would rise up claiming the throne. Murad taking advantage of his position in the capital would quickly execute Ibrahim bey the second eldest son, then governor of Eskisehir, the Greek Dorylaion, and Halil bey, the youngest brother and son of Theodora Kantakouzenos. Suleiman would prove a tougher opponent though and gathering his army in Adrianople would march south to settle the succesion on the battlefield. But Lala Sahin pasha the beylerbey of Rumeli would rise behind him in support of Murad. Caught between Murad who had landed with an army of his own in Gallipoli and Lala Sahin pasha in his rear Suleimam would be quickly defeated and killed as well leaving Murad as the undisputed sultan. The same year Murad would lead his army against the Karamanids and the beys of Ankara.

Naples, May 1362

Louis of Taranto, king of Sicily lay dead. Not much remained of the kingdom under the control of his widow. Successive Hungarian campaigns in 1257, 1358, 1360, and 1361 had crushed what little recovery had been made in the aftermath of the peace treaty with Sicily. If Joanna could not had counted on her Provencal incomes Neapolitan resistance would had already collapsed. But even with French mercenaries Joanna barely controlled Terra di Lavoro and the Hungarians were already making inroads there endangering Naples...

Zagreb, June 1362

With war with Serbia over king Louis of Hungary had begun preparing for war with Venice. But his plans were derailed after a serious diplomatic incident erupted between Louis and emperor Charles IV after Charles IV and Rudolf IV of Austria had allied the previous year against the patriarch of Aquileia, a Hungarian ally and then Charles IV had insulted Louis mother in front of Hungarian envoys. Thus Louis preparations had instead turned against Bohemia with the Hungarian king concentrating his army in Slovakia. The mediation of king Casimir III of Poland would stop the eruption of the war but it would take several months for the crisis to end.

Syracuse, July 1362

The sixth daughter of Alexandros II and Agnes, Margaret was born...

Bosnia, May 1363

With the crisis with Bohemia resolved, Louis turned his attention to Bosnia were ban Tvrtko was showing dangerous signs of independence invading it. The campaign would have mixed results with Louis returning to Hungary in August.

Crete, August 1363

Venice was not blind to the Hungarian threat and was promptly taking measures to meet it. But the measures would violently backfire when additional taxation in Crete would lead to revolt of not just the Greek Cretans under Ioannis Kallergis but also the Venetian colonists under Marco Gradenigo who would proclaim the island the independent republic of Saint Titus...

 

[Lascaris]

Adrianople, December 1363

Sultan Murad I moved the capital of the Ottoman state to Adrianople from Bursa, a sign of the increasing importance the Ottomans were now placing to Europe, where earlier in the year the Ottomans had captured Philippoulolis given away to the Bulgarians during the Byzantine civil war and Didymoteichon. As for emperor Ioannis V, the basileus instead of taking on the Ottomans had found it a better idea to invade Bulgaria too capturing Anchialos and putting Mesembria under siege...

Venice, January 1364

News of the Cretan revolt had reached Venice the previous September. An attempt to reconcile with the Venetian colonists on the islands had failed causing feverish military and diplomatic activity by the republic to deal with the rebels. As an army and fleet were being prepared Venetian envoys had gone off to the papacy, Genoa, Naples, Cyprus, Hungary, Constantinople and Sicily demanding that no aid would be given to the rebels. Most responses, had been positive, with the pope even proclaiming a crusade against the rebels, with two ominous exceptions. King Louis of Hungary had refused to receive the Venetian envoys. Alexandros II in Syracuse had accepted them but had also received envoys from Crete at the same time asking for Sicilian protection. When the chief Venetian envoy had threatened him if he did anything of the short it had not been received all that well...

Brno, March 1364

Louis I of Hungary, met with Charles IV of Bohemia and Rudolf IV of Austria signing a treaty that finally put at an end the conflict that had arisen from their alliance against the patriarch of Aquileia, a Hungarian ally. As soon as the treaty was signed Louis was on his way south.

Venice. April 10th 1364

A fleet of 33 war galleys and even more merchant ships carrying 2,000 infantry and 800 horse under Luchino Dal Verme left the lagoon. It would take four weeks to reach Crete.

Crete, May 7th, 1364

The Venetian army landed in Fraskia bay, to the west on Candia and advanced on the Cretan capital. The city would fall within three days, most of the Venetian colonists would refuse to fight against the motherland and the Greeks were to few to hold out on their own. Marco Gradenigo, the governor of the republic of Saint Titus executed. But the quick victory did not mean the revolt was over. The Venetians would move out of Candia to capture the other cities of the island as the remaining rebels took to the mountains to continue resisting.

Venice, June 1364

The news of the victory in Candia had been greeted with large celebrations in the city. But the celebrations would be cut short when news were received that king Louis of Hungary had declared war against Venice from Zagreb and his army was on the march to invade Dalmatia and Venetia proper. By late July Louis would put Treviso under siege. Francesco I da Carrara the lord of Padua with the Hungarian army devastating his territory and the Venetians refusing, or unable, to provide aid would ally instead with the Hungarians and declare war against Venice as well.

Messina, July 1364

Alexandros II Doukas Lascaris boarded his flagship. Two dozen Sicilian galleys and an army of 4,000 men were heading east, the largest Sicilian force since the time of the war against the Angevins. More galleys and troops were already gathering in Piraeus under Alexios Gryphon. Yet more troops were mobilizing in the Peloponesse and Central Greece.

Chalkis, August 1364

Four thousand men under Ioannis Buas crossed into Euboea putting the capital of Chalkis, Negreponte for the Latins under siege. The local Latin lords and the Venetian garrison could barely place a quarter as many men. Thus holing up in their castles and Chalkis formidable fortifications was the only possible solution...

Methone and Corone, August 1364

The two fortresses had been called "the eyes of the republic" since the Venetians had seized them in the aftermath of the 4th crusade. Since then they had rarely been seriously threatened, even during the reconquest of the Morea Lascarid armies had scrupulously avoided them. But now the tensions simmering between Sicily and the Serenissima for decades had finally broken out to all out war. Michael Rallis led an army of four thousand men against them.

Syracuse, September 1364

Adrienne Doukas Lascaris nee Palaiologos gave a grunt as her namesake virtually jumped on her. At twelve the younger Adrienne was getting too big too handle. "Grandma it's a boy!" she blurted out beaming all over. Now the elder Adrienne joined her in the smile. While she loved her daughter in law she had start to worry after Agnes and her son had had half a dozen daughters and no son. As for naming the young one? Theodore was a given...

Souda bay, September 12, 1364

Dal Verme after retaking Candia had marched on Rethymno retaking it after a short siege and then had moved on Chania. Chania, and Souda, stronger fortresses than Rethymnos had held out longer but in the end had also fallen with the Venetian army then turning against the Greek rebels that had holed up in the mountains of western Crete and Sfakia. His attacks with the numbers of his army swelled to nearly four and a half thousand men by feudatories switching sides back to Venice in hopes of securing their holdings had been met with not inconsiderable success. And then the Sicilian fleet under Alexandros II had shown up into Souda bay with 41 galleys. The Venetian fleet had come out to fight but had been defeated after and extremely hard fought action with the Sicilians losing ten ships and the Venetians fourteen before an enterprising Venetian captain Vettor Pisani had managed to effect a breakout and escape east with the surviving ships. But that meant the Sicilians now had a secure port in Souda and their fleet was now unopposed.

Apokoronas, Crete, September 17, 1364

Alexandros II had landed a little over six thousand men as Souda. His initial plans to march west against Chania had been changed as over six hundred Sfakia rebels under Constantine Skordilis "carrying swords the Greek way and going nowhere without their bows" as a Venetian chronicler had described them had flocked to his army bringing with them news that Luchino Dal Verme and his army were nearby trying to subdue the rebellious Sfakia villages. Dal Verme had tried to retreat towards Rethymno but the Sicilians had caught up with him thanks to local guides. in the ensuing battle the severely outnumbered Venetian army would be crushed with over three thousand men killed, the Cretans in Alexandros army were not much in the mood of taking prisoners. Chania, already besieged by Gryphon would surrender 6 weeks later as Alexandros marched east to besiege Rethymno which would surrender in December.

Avignon, October 1364

Pope Urban V was in a bind. He was on friendly terms with Venice having ecommunicated the Cretan rebels and even proclaimed a crusade against them. But in Italy he very much needed the support of Louis I of Hungary in particular given the continuing Papal war against Bernabo Visconti and now Louis was at war with Venice had rejected the popes attempt at mediation and was even insisting on papal support against Venice. He could not turn against Hungary in support of Venice but he didn't want to completely alianate Venice either. Fortunately the Lascarid ruler offered a convenient scapegoat. The Hungarians it could be argued with a straight face were fighting a separate war with Venice that happened to coincide with the Cretan rebellion. The Sicilians were outright supporting the rebels Urban had excommunicated and proclaimed a crusade against. On these grounds Urban excommunicated Alexandros II and placed Sicily under interdict. By this time it was starting to grow so common many Sicilians could not remember when their island was not under interdict. Unfortunately for the papacy putting Sicily under near constant interdict these was not working out all that well with the Greek rite making continuous inroads and sects like the Fraticelli gaining ground in the Catholic parts of the population...

Nicosia, December 1364

King Peter I of Cyprus was back in Cyprus and not happy at all. His plans for a crusade were falling apart with the king of Hungary instead of fighting for Christ, attacking Venice and the schismatics in Crete rising up with the Sicilians, a bunch defying the true church for the past three generations jumping in. It was his duty to do something about it. Even his father had recognized as much two decades ago even though he had not had his heart on it...

 

[Lascaris]

Venice, January 1365

With disaster threatening the republic underwent drastic measures to deal with the Hungarians and Sicilians. Mass conscription was instituted and wealthy citizens obliged to provide forced loans to finance the war effort. Thanks to these measures 37 new galleys had been armed in Venice. Some would be kept in Venetian waters to deal with the Hungarians, thankfully Louis had no fleet of his own. More would be sailing south to take on the Sicilians.

Crete, February 1365

Alexandros II marched east from Rethymnon to put Candia under siege. As soon as weather allowed the Sicilian fleet would leave its anchorage at Souda bay to cut off Candia from the sea.

Adrianople, March 1365

The Ottoman army begun its campaign. This time the target was not the empire. Instead Murad would directly his armies against Bulgaria securing the territory to the south of the Balkan mountains by the end of the year.

North Italy, April 1365

Treviso held out despite nine months of persistent Hungatian and Paduan attacks. Undeterred Louis of Hungary would send more troops, rotating feudal levies to keep a constant pressure on the Venetians. But nevertheless the Venetian defenders would continue to hold out for the rest of the year.

Syracuse, April 1365

A squadron of thirteen galleys sailed off to join the fleet further to the east. More ships could had been raised. But this, unlike previous wars was one of choice. Alexandros so far was avoiding to either raise the subvertio generalis or new loans. After all so far it did not appear to be necessary...

Limassol, April 1365

A huge fleet of 171 ships including 37 galleys, 19 of them Venetian, 6 of them Hospitaller, a pair of them Papal and the rest Cypriot set sail for the west. Peter I of Lusignan had been determined to have his crusade. If the so called basileus of Sicily wanted it to be against him instead of the infidels then so be it, after all the pope HAD proclaimed a crusade against the Cretans and anyone who supported them. As for the knights, the new grand master Raymond Berenger was willing to break the bank for the knights to get back a state of their own...

Off Sason island, May 1365

The Venetian squadron of twenty galleys jumped the Sicilians. Eight Sicilian galleys would be lost with the remaining five escaping to Corfu. But the victory would not come cheaply to the Venetians. With a large part of their crews being relatively inexperienced conscripts they would lose over eight hundred men in the battle. But the Venetian squadron was free to continue on its way south...

Fraskia bay, Crete May 1365

The crusader fleet drove the Sicilians out, destroying five Sicilian galleys. Following their victory Peter would land with an army of 8,000 men in Candia and link with the Venetians...

West of Candia, May 1365

Between his own Army and the Venetians Peter I had 10,400 men. Alexandros II reinforced by the Cretan rebels had 9,200. The veteran Sicilian troops and the Cretan archers would prove much tougher than Peter had expected. The ensuing battle would be bloody and inconclusive with the crusaders losing 1,400 men and the Sicilians slightly fewer. Peter would claim victory as Alexandros was forced to lift the siege of Candia. But most of the island remained under solid Sicilian control and it looked unlikely that the crusaders would be able to push them out.

Thessaly, May 1365

The combination of Venetian bribes and hope of loot would prove enough to get Simeor Uros Palaiologos to attack Thessaly now that the empire?, how to call the former despotate after Alexandros II had proclaimed himself basileus was a bit unclear. His rival Radoslav Hlapen was also raiding Thessaloniki....

Methone, June 1365

The garrison of 400 men had held out against a Sicilian army ten times its size thanks to the efforts of a young priest that had taken over command of the defense Carlo Zeno. Now the arrival of the Venetian fleet would provide him with sorely needed men and supplies. But Michael Rallis in command of the Sicilian army was a persistent man. The siege went on.

Chalkis, June 1365

The fleet of Vettor Pisani entered the straits breaking the siege. It was about time as the defenders were coming close to the end of their tether. If the siege had continued for a month or two more Chalkis would had likely surrendered.

Rhodes, July 1365

Despite the Venetian entreaties Peter would not stay in Crete, even if he was personally inclined to do so his men were not inclined to continue a bloody war with unlikely gains in the island. Instead Peter had convinced himself that retaking Rhodes was a better idea, not least as it would get the Hospitallers out of his hair back in Cyprus. And thus a crusader army of seven thousand men had landed on the island and put Rhodes town under siege. But the local garrison did not show much inclination to surrender.

Crete, July 1365

Following the defeat in the battle of Fraskia Alexandros II had feared he might be stranded in Crete. Thus he had seized the opportunity given him by the Cypriots and Venetians and sailed north to Piraeus. The Cretan rebels would not be left on their own devices though as Alexandros would leave nearly 3,000 Sicilian soldier behind under the command of Ioannis Kallergis.

Dalmatia, July 1365

Split rebelled against Venice with its citizens defeating the Venetian garrison and declaring their allegiance to Hungary. It would be followed the next day by Trau. The Hungarians would take advantage of the successful revolt to lay siege on Zara. But the newly elected doge of Venice Marco Cornaro would remain defiant.

Arta, August 1365

Alexandros II had not taken well to the news of Serb lords trying to stab him in the back. As soon as he was in Athens he had marched north together with Ioannis Buas at the head of an army of over seven thousand men. Simeon's much smaller army had tried to escape but had been caught and crushed as it tried to retreat back to Epirus. With the Albanian tribes that had moved to Epirus in recent years rising up and Alexandros army closing Arta had thrown its gates open for the Sicilians.

Dalmatia, September 1365

Zara was taken by storm by the Hungarian army with the survivors of the Venetian garrison retreating to the city's castle. With Zara fallen the Hungarians would cut a swath through Dalmatia with other towns switching sides and other forced to surrender. The Venetians fearing that following the fall of Dalmatia, Treviso would also fall and Louis would threaten Venice itself ask the Hungarians for terms in late November.

Kos, September 1365

The naval war had remained inconclusive after the Sicilian setbacks back in May. Pisani with Chalkis and Methone for now secure had used his fleet to support the Cypriot siege of Rhodes and conquer any less well defended islands. Gryphon his fleet outnumbered had tried to frustrate his Venetian counterpart's efforts and keeps Rhodes in supply. Finally the two fleets had met outside Kos. With the Sicilians outnumbered with 31 galleys against Pisani's 49 it had not gone well for the Sicilians with Gryphon forced to break contact and make a run for Piraeus after losing eleven ships and over two thousand men, Pisani's casualties were about half as many. Despite being late in the season the Venetians would manage to secure Kos and Ikaria in the aftermath of the victory.

Constantinople, October 1365

Ioannis V was convinced by the Venetian bailo to join the war against the Sicilians with the Venetians promising Ioannis subsidies for half a dozen galleys and to return to him land lost to the Sicilians in the past...

 

[Lascaris]

Rhodes. January 6th, 1366

Both the besiegers and the besieged were celebrating the day of the epiphany. Or nearly everyone was doing so as 300 Hospitaller knights and men at arms were instead taking one of the supposedly closed underground passages into the fortress, it helped still having at hand some of the men who had designed the fortifications you were trying to defeat in the first place. By the end of day Rhodes was once more in the hands of the Knights of St John.

Syracuse, February 1st, 1366

"Our lands are still recovering from a dozen years of war. On behalf of the commune of Palermo, we cannot in good conscience agree to the raising of the subvertio generalis. We can understand why it is in the interest of the realm for Crete to join us but this country has lived without Crete for 8 decades. It can live without it for a few more years if need be."

Agnes Doukas Lascaris Vatatzes suppressed a sigh. Not much could be done about it. Her husband would have to deal with the Venetians and their puppets without the additional taxes...

Venice, February 25th, 1366

The Venetian senate accepted peace with Hungary, surrendering the entirety of her Dalmatian holdings to Hungary and accepting the independence of Ragusa. Francesco I da Carrara of Padua, much to his disgruntlement would be forced to also accept the peace without making any gains against Venice. The republic would not forget though that he had turned against the Serenissima at here hour of need.

Ioannina, March 1366

The city threw its gates open to the Sicilian army. Between Alexandros II, a Serb princeling and Charles Thopia Albanians it was not all that difficult to make a choice. But between the Serb remnants and Thopia's Albanians descending south securing Ioannina was different from securing Epirus. Alexandros would leave Ioannis Buas behind at the head of the army to continue the campaign in Epirus.
Rhodes, March 1366

The fleet and army under Vettor Pisani and Peter I moved against Samos and Ikaria. Smaller detachments were trying to bring the lesser Dodecanese islands under the control of the knights but unlike the hopes of some the islands and their small garrisons were resisting instead of merely submitting to the Knights.

Athens, April 1366

George Chrysaphis had died of old age earlier in the year. Alexandros II replaced him with his cousin Alexandros Philanthropenos as ketepano of Hellas before sailing at the head of 48 galleys to lift the siege of Samos.

Contantinople, April 1366

Andronikos IV Palaiologos had been made co-emperor at age 4 back in 1352. But now he had come of age. It was about time he thought. His father was just 34 years old it was true but Andronikos thought he had excellent reasons to believe he would be a better emperor than his father. After all Ioannis V had just joined the Venetians in war against the Sicilians merely because he did not like Alexandros II and owned Venice 50.000 ducats about as much as half a dozen ships would had cost for a year.

Corfu, April 1366

A Venetian fleet of 25 galleys with 1,500 mercenaries aboard showed up before the island putting it under siege. Corfu was strongly fortified and well provisioned but the Venetian senate correctly identified it as of key strategic importance...

Samos, May 1366

Alexandros II was forced to order a retreat. He had hoped to outnumber Pisani. Thanks to the galleys brought by Ioannis V, the man apparently disliked him badly enough to show up in person, he was slightly outnumbered after all, with the Venetians and their allies having 53 galleys in total. His fleet was giving almost as good as it got but was already down half a dozen galleys. He could not afford to lose his fleet. Better pull back to Piraeus and it secure anchorage and come back for a repeat engagement. The garrison of Samos would be forced to surrender in early July.

Piraeus, June 1366

The shipwrights were busy at work repairing the fleet. The news reaching Alexandros were not good. With peace between Venice and Hungary the Venetians had proven bold enough to risk their Adriatic fleet to attack Corfu. If Corfu fell his position would get considerably more difficult. But the Venetian fleet being split between Corfu and Samos also offered opportunities. The Sicilian fleet would head off into the sea as soon as the ships were ready and the crews filled up...

Syracuse, July 1366

Adrienne Lascaris Vatatzes was betrothed to Ioannis Gryphon Maniakes, the son of Alexios Gryphon. Ioannis was not a royal it was true. But the much offered several advantages given his family's network within Sicily, family ties with the Philanthropenos family and illustrious descent from George Maniakes and Leo Phokas. And for good reason the young man, he was 3 years Adrienne's senior appeared clever, courageous and had a crush on Adrienne who reciprocated. As far as the elder Adrienne and Agnes were concerned this was a match combining political expedient with getting the younger Adrienne happy...

Genoa, July 1366

The republic was forced into peace with the Viscontis after the Milanese had put Genoa itself under siege. Genoa was forced to pay 60,000 ducats in war reparations. It would take a bit of time for Genoa to recover from its ordeal.

Corfu channel, July 11th, 1366

The Venetians besieging Corfu were expecting to get at least some warning if a Sicilian fleet passed Methone on it's way westwards. Alexandros II had made the same though and instead of hugging the coast of the Peloponesse on his way west had sailed down to Souda bay instead and from there had taken a wide ark westwards to reach Cephalonia to water his fleet and move north. It had been riskier but had worked as the Venetians had been forced to battle despite being severely outnumbered with 25 galleys against 42. The Venetian fleet would be forced to flee north after losing a third of its ships.

Corfu, July 15th, 1366

"Our contract forbids us from fighting Venice though..."

Alexandros II Doukas Lascaris gave a tight smile. "Of course I will not ask you to break your condotta." he answered in perfect Italian. "But I don't think you have any trouble fighting Albanians or Serbs for a price. Do you?"

The mercenary smiled in turn and 1,500 men switched from Venetian to Greek service without a nose opening.

Naples, August 1366

The Hungarian army, or typically that of the kingdom of Sicily if you asked Louis I of Anjou put Naples under siege. Charles of Gravina who had been chosen by Louis as the future king of Sicily was back from Hungary to Italy to lead the siege...

Chioggia, August 15th, 1366

The garrison, 1,500 militiamen, did try to fight back against the 38 galleys and 3,000 soldiers Alexandros had brought. But the enemy force was overwhelmingly stronger. Chioggia was forced to surrender within two days. The shocked Venetian senate would offer peace to the Sicilians. But when Alexandros would ask for Venice surrendering Crete, Euboea and Methone in exchange for peace the Venetians would refuse outright and prepare for a siege instead.

Ikaria, August 22nd, 1366

The fortress fell to Peter I of Cyprus and Ioannis V. The crusade moved north against a far more difficult but also far more rewarding target. Chios. Soon the siege of Chios difficult already would become all the more difficult when news would reach Pisani that Alexandros was threatening Venice itself and he would sail with the entire Venetian squadron of 29 galleys west to relieve the motherland.

Crete, October 1366

Ierapetra fell to the Greeks. Only Candia remained still in Venetian hands...

Brondolo, Venice, December 22nd, 1366

When Pisani had showed up before Chioggia he had hopped to cut off Alexandros and his men in Chioggia. Alexandros, who not unsurprisingly had been taught at a very young age what had happened to the Athenian fleet at Syracuse had accepted losing Chioggia and had made a breakout. He had succeeded as well in a very hard fought battle that had cost the Sicilians nearly 3,000 men and the Venetians not much fewer. But among the casualties was Alexandros II himself who has heavily wounded leading his fleet...

Syracuse, January 20th, 1367

Alexandros II oversaw the marriage of Adrienne with Ioannis Gryphon Maniakes. It had been a hurried affair, just a week after the fleet was back to Syracuse. But Alexandros had reason to hurry as he would succumb to his wounds a week afterwards.

 

[Lascaris]

Naples, February 1367

A quartet of heavily laden galleys sailed away from Naples with Joanna I aboard. The triumphant Charles of Gravina would be properly crowned as Charles IV king of Sicily two weeks later. The Neapolitan war was over. It was leaving behind a fought over kingdom, with the local barons virtually independent, Abruzzo effectively its own state and the southern provinces of Basilicata, Terra di Bari and Terra di Otranto lost to the Sicilians. Charles IV even with Hungarian backing would have his work cut out for him.

Syracuse, February 14th, 1367

Theodore II was crowned basileus in the cathedral of Syracuse. The little boy, not even three years old yet, understood little of the ceremony of course. His mother did though and was not leaving anything to luck. Alexandros II is his will had made Agnes the regent of Theodore with Alexios Gryphon and Alexandros Philanthropenos as co-regents under her. Philanthropenos should not be much of a problem, he had been raised together with Alexandros II and had been a close friend of the late basileus and Agnes. Alexios just had his son married to Adrienne so should stay in line for the immediate future. Agnes did not fear her own daughter, thankfully the late Theodore and the elder Adrienne had made certain their family felt and act like a family which could not be said for all royal houses of Europe. As soon as the coronation was over the entire parliament, along with the army, navy and civil servants would give an oath of allegiance to Theodore and house Vatatzes.

Albania, February 1367

Ioannis Buas and Alexandros Philanthropenos could not be in Syracuse for the coronation of Theodore II. Instead they were leading an invasion of the Thopia domain in the middle of winter catching him off guard and defeating his hastily assembled army in the Aoos river. Thopia offered peace if he would recognize Sicilian control of Epirus would swiftly agree. With peace restored Alexandros would force march south to Preveza and sail away with most of the army while Buas remained behind to make sure Karl Thopia actually held to the peace terms.

Chios, March 1367

Peter I had had had to choose between paying his fleet or paying his army or paying his fleet, since Cypriot revenues would not suffice for both. He had made the conscious choice of paying for his army in order to press on the siege of Chios counting on his allies, particularly Venice to provide a fleet. It was a reasonable gambit. But Alexandros Philanthropenos had taken his chances and sailed out of Piraeus early in the season well ahead of his fellow Sicilians or for that matter the Venetians would sail out of Sicilian ports. His gamble had paid off when his squadron of 25 galleys had caught the Byzantine-Hospitaller squadron blockading Chios by surprise and crushed it destroying 8 out of its 13 ships. Philanthropenos had then landed 7,000 men in Chios and attacked Peter's army, which was down to 5,500 men. Peter would lose almost a third of his army against about a thousand Greeks before he could retreat south. But he would refuse Philanthropenos call to surrender hoping instead the Venetians would be coming to his relief.

Otranto, April 1367

The entire Venetian fleet of 45 galleys raided the villages around the fortress before moving further south to raid Calabria and the coast of Eastern Sicily. Sicilian cavalry and infantry would check the raiders while a Sicilian squadron of 22 galleys under Ioannis Gryphon-Maniakes tried to hinder the Venetians while sensibly avoiding battle with the much stronger Venetian squadron. The raids over Vettor Pisani would take 25 galleys east to Greece while the rest remained in Italian waters.

Chios, May 1367

The Sicilian fleet had avoided battle with Pisani's squadron, Pisani joined by the surviving Hospitaller ships had 30 galleys to Philanthropenos 22. But Pisani and Peter I had correctly surmised that renewing the attack on Chios was out of the question. Instead Peter's army had boarded the Venetia ships and fled south, Pisani not unsurprisingly would transport the surviving Cypriot army to Candia, where Peter would spend the rest of the year battling Kallergis soldiers. The Venetians and Cypriots would manage to secure several villages around Candia but the Greek hold on the rest of the island would remain secure.

Rome, October 1367

Urban V became the first pope to set foot in Rome in sixty years. Whether he would remain in Rome despite pressure from his French cardinals to return to Avignon remained to be seen.

Messina, November 1367

The beautiful woman, was clad in a seemingly plain black dress, it was made of local Sicilian silk of course. The only jewels she was wearing were a cross and her wedding ring. Behind her her six daughters were dressed in a similar fashion as was the little basileus.

"The reason I am standing before you and not my husband, is that Alexandros died serving his country. As his father and grandfather had before him. And he died because some people", she pointedly looked daggers at the representatives of Palermo, "were too miserly to give the country and my husbands the means to fight the war. "A war of choice they said. When the same parliament accepted the offer our Cretan brothers, who stand amongst you in this room today, to join the realm it was not a war of choice. It became a war of choice when sacrifices were to be made. But mistakes can be made by all of us, we are mere humans and to err is human. My question is are you going to repeat the same error again and let the death of your basileus go in vain? Will you continue to let the country fight this war with a hand tied behind its back?"

There was some grumbling particularly from the communes in Val di Mazzara and Basilicata but war taxes were voted in...

Constantinople, February 1368

The empire was effectively out of the Venetian Sicilian war. The loss of all three ships the previous year amounted to half the little navy Ioannis V had put together with Venetian funding. And now Ioannis had problems closer to home. The Ottomans had resumed the war with both the Bulgarians and the Byzantines and neither seemed to be able to put much of a resistance, against them. The desperate Ioannis would go to extreme measures and journey north by ship to the Danube and along the Danube to Hungary to seek help.

Candia, March 1368

Peter I of Cyprus looked in some distaste the 2,000 Turkish mercenaries the Venetians had brought into the island. But while tempted to act independently his defeat at Chios last year was a pointed reminder that he could not and should not do so. After all even though he had armed 4 galleys of his own this year and the knights 5 more both were entirely dependent on the Venetians at sea.

Chalkis, March 1368

The Sicilians were back in strength as Alexandros Philanthropenos led an army of 10,000 men and 25 galleys to besiege the city again.

Genoa, April 1368

Much tothe frustration of Alexios Gryphon, doge Gabriele Adorno was adamant. Genoa was in no position to join the war against Venice. Or so at least the doge claimed, if he was concerned over the extend of Sicilian influence in Eastern waters he did not let go. But Adorno was not in position to control his fractious subjects over taking Sicilian gold to serve as mercenaries. Gryphon would be back in Palermo with 11 Genoese galleys in tow contracted for a period of two years...

 

[Lascaris]

Buda, April 1368

The first meeting between Ioannis V and Louis I of Hungary had not gone well. Louis had not taken well to the emperor refusing to dismount first from his horse when they had met, and Ioannis had been faced with the demands by Louis for the unconditional surrender of the Greek church to the pope. Ioannis V would continue his journey to Europe empty handed.

Chalkis, July 1368

Vettor Pisani signaled to his ships to retreat. His fleet had pressed on trying to reach Chalkis and failed. Philanthropenos taking advantage of the proximity of the coast had loaded over a thousand additional infantrymen on his galleys. Between his fleet and catapults, archers and crossbowmen emplaced in field fortifications along both coasts the Venetians and their allies had been forced to turn back. Meanwhile, while Chalkis still held on, Philanthropenos troops were ranging all over the rest of the island carrying everything before them.

Crete, September 1368

Kallergis men were forced into one more retreat, Cypriot and Venetian troops had doubled the territory under their control since the start of the year with over a quarter of the island under their control by now. Were it not for Sicilian supplies and men things would had been far worse for the Cretans. As it were they held most of the island. On the Cypriot and Venetian side Peter had to deal with increasing discontent among his own men and wasn't all too happy with the progress of the war himself. But he was committed to the war and understood that to win it he had to stick to a common strategy with Venice. Which meant first crushing the Cretan revolt...

Chalkis, October 29th, 1368

The town was forced to surrender to Philanthropenos forces. For the first time since 1304 the entirety of Euboea was back in Greek hands. But further to the south the Venetians were still holding fast in Methone and Korone.

Adrianople, November 1368

Sultan Murad was back to his capital. His armies had seized Sozopolis in the Black sea coast and North Thracian plain up to it with neither the Bulgarians not the Byzantines being able to offer effective resistance. Meanwhile Ioannis V was still away in Western Europe begging for help from anyone willing to hear him.

Methone, February 1369

Alexandros Philanthropenos moved against Methone and Korone at the head of nearly 14,000 men and 38 Greek and Genoese galleys. The garrisons under Carlo Zeno were too weak at the moment to hold out for long if not reinforced.

Candia, March 1369

Vettor Pisani received the few news managing to slip out of the Venetian castles in the Morea with increasing concern. His fleet of 25 galleys was too weak to be able to directly challenge Philanthropenos, not without reinforcements and this were unlikely to come from Venice. Young Maniakes, was so far proving much more of a nuisance than his father had been over the years with his squadron operating variously out of Corfu, Bari and Otranto keeping the hands of the Venetian Adriatic squadron full. Peter had agreed with him for the need for the Cypriots to arm as many ships as they could but this was coming at a cost with Peter having to release part of his army.

Methone and Korone, May 1369

Forty-one Venetian, Cypriot and Hospitaller galleys helped by favorable winds entered the ports bringing over a thousand Turkish mercenaries along with supplies. The Sicilian sieges of the two Venetian fortresses would continue but the going would become much tougher.

Thrace, June 1369

The Ottomans had turned their attentions to the remaining Byzantine holdings in Thrace taking Saranta Ekklisies and Vizye. At the same time the campaign against the Bulgarians continued with several fortresses falling to the Ottomans.

Crete, September 1369

The campaign was proving too frustrating for king Peter's tastes. His joint army was only slightly numerically superior to Kallergis who had kept his advances checked. With increasingly bad news from Cyprus where the Turks had pushed the Cypriots out of their holdings in the Anatolian coast, renewed plague had hit the island and there was growing unrest against the absent king and the regency of his brother John, the king would decide to return to Nicosia to set things in order during the winter before he could return to pursue the war.

Rome, October 1369

Ioannis V kissed three times the feet of pope Urban V and proclaimed acceptance of the union of the churches or rather subordination of the Greek Church to the pope. It was humiliating but it was not as if the basileus could do much given the tragic situation of the empire.

Palermo, December 1369

It had taken some work to arrange the meeting, the empire might had dropped out of the war with Sicily but no formal peace had been arranged yet. Ioannis V would had been normally loath to come begging hat in hand the Sicilians. But it was not as if he had much option with the Turks running amok in Thrace conquering everything in sight. The regent who had come all the way from Syracuse looked at him coldly.

"So you are coming here, to seek help?

"It is needed. The Turks, have conquered most of Thrace, invaded Bulgaria, attack the Serbs, they are a danger for all of us. Including you"

"And what are we to do, stop the war with Venice, throw the Cretans to the wolves and instead come marching to Constantinople's aid?"

"Venice holds Crete for the last 160 years. Do a bunch of unruly peasants matter to you more than the Turks threatening Constantinople and all of us?"

"Actually they do, my late father in in law was very careful to teach me how much this poor peasants matter. He had been taught that from his own father. This is why this realm has kept prospering while the lands your great-grandfather had taken from Theodore's cousin had not. But is doesn't matter. The truth is I don't give a shit about your current predicament?"

"What?" that Ioannis V had been taken aback by the language was an understatement.

"You helped kill my husband, after attacking his envoys and now you expect me to come to your aid? That is NEVER going to happen. Now please do all of us a favor and leave."

The audience was over.

Nicosia, January 1370

The three knights barged into the kings bedroom killing Peter I in front of his mistress. The unpopular plans of the late king for one more campaign in the west, coupled with the multitude of adulteries with nobles wives and daughters had proven a lethal combination.

Otranto straits, March 1370

The Venetian Adriatic squadron slipped south past Sicilian patrols to link up with that of VettorPisani. The Council of Ten had taken seriously the letters of Pisani that with the Cypriots out of the war his fleet was now severely outnumbered. But the Venetians would be sighted further south and the Sicilian fleet in Greek waters would be ordered by Philanthropenos away before it could be trapped between the two enemy fleets and hole up in Piraeus to wait for their Sicilian brethren to come to their aid.

Sapienza, July 1370

The two fleets were about evenly matched in numbers. Philanthropenos and Ioannis Maniakes, the younger man tended to use the second surname, reminding his illustrious ancestor, had 56 galleys, the Genoese had refused to renew their contract. The Venetians had 49 with 6 more provided by the Hospitallers. But the Sicilians could draw on more marines thanks to the proximity of their army and Pisani was well aware that the Venetian manpower reserves were nearly exhausted. With casualties nearing 3,000 on each side and the Sicilians showing no signs of retreating, the Venetian fleet would disengage first. But eith Venice potentially exposed Pisani would take his fleet back north...

Methone, August 28th, 1370

The fortress surrendered under terms to Alexandros Philanthropenos, the Venetian garrison would be allowed to leave for Crete. Korone would follow two weeks later. And with the Venetian fleet now away the Sicilians could attack the minnor Aegean islands with relative impunity. By the end of the year Samos, Ikaria and Kos had been recovered, annd Kythera and Karpathos, held by Venetian feudatories since the 4th crusade would fall to the Greeks.

Crete, November 1370

With the Cypriot army gone after the death of Peter I, the Venetian army in the island had found itself on the defensive. Kallergis troops had puhed the Venetians out of most of their gains in the past two years.

Avignon, December 1370

Pierre Roger de Beaufort became pope Gregory XI following the death of Urban V. When the news of the election of yet another French pope would reach Italy they would not be received.

 

[Lascaris]

Bulgaria, February 1371

Ivan Stratsimir and Ivan Shisman succeeded their father Ivan Alexander in the tsardom of Bulgaria. This of course given the rivalry between the two brothers meant that the Bulgarian state already broken in two would now be broken in three...

Corfu, March 1371

Adrienne Lascaris had followed her husband on the island. 28 Sicilian and Calabrian galleys and 20 Greek galleys had gathered in the island under the command of Ioannis Maniakes. If the Venetian navy wanted to get out of the Adriatic it would have to get past them. Sicilian spies in spies had reported that Venice was arming 47 galleys this year and had been forced to impose more forced loans on its citizens to keep the fleet and the army in Crete paid.

Frascia bay, Crete, April 1371

Over a hundred transport ships begun unloading ten thousand soldiers under Alexandros Philanthropenos. Philanthropenos would soon link up with the army of Ioannis Kallergis and move on Candia. With fifteen thousand men marching on them, the Venetians would prudently hole up behing the fortifications. But they would be besieged there by Philanthropenos and Kallergis, while a squadron of 8 galleys blockaded the city from the sea. The blockade would prove porous, the blockading quadron would prove not numerous enough to cut off every Venetian blockade runner but the Venetian defenders would slowly but surely be cut off from supplies.

Padua, August 1371

The previous year Francesco Carrara, the lord of Padua had diverted the waters to Camposampiero river from flowing into the Trevisano river which was controlled by Venice. Now emboldened by the troubles Venice was finding itself in, he begun building new fortifications on the contested border with Venice. The signoria would react by proclaiming an embargo on Paduan trade.

Candia, October 16th, 1371

The city was finally forced to surrender under terms. The garrison and every Venetian colonist so desiring would be allowed to leave for Venice with their arms and movable property. It was lighter terms than Philanthropenos could possibly squeeze, but what truly mattered was Crete being free from end to end...

Adrianople, October 1371

A Serb army of 20,000 men under co-king Vukasin and his brother Jovan Ugliesa the ruler of Serres put the Ottoman capital under siege taking advantage of the move of the bulk of the Ottoman army for campaign in Anatolia. But Adrianople, defended by Lala Shahin pasha would stand up against the besiegers.

Venice, January 1372

The news of the surrender of Candia had not been received well in the city. Vettor Pisani in command of the Venetian navy would be unceremoniously sacked and sentenced to prison for six months. Pisani, well aware his fleet was the last Venice could mobilize had prudently avoided to give battle with the Sicilian fleet at Corfu. But this had also meant he had failed to come to the aid of Candia, while Greek privateers had played havoc on Venetian trade outside the straits of Otranto, Syracuse had been giving letters of marque to Sicilian captains with both hands. Thus the public and perhaps more importantly the aristocratic houses suffering from the Sicilian raiding and the loss of Cretan plantations wanted a scapegoat. Pisani, as the man in the head of the fleet made an excellent one.

Adrianople, January 1372

Murad I had crossed the Hellespont aboard ships provided by the Genoese of Galata in the middle of winter, forced marched his way to Adrianople in eight days and attacked the besieging Serb army taking them by surprise. The Serbs would be routed and thousands would drown in the waters of the Ebros river. Both Ugliesa brothers would die in the battle. Coupled with the death of Stefan Uros V in December the last semblance of Serb centralization would be gone. Vukasin's son Marko would be proclaimed king of Serbia but in effect every semblance of centralized authority would come apart.

Candia, February 1372

Men were flocking from all over Crete to Candia, the "Magalo Kastro", the Great Castle as the Cretans used to call it. For years the Cretans had been providing crews to the Venetian fleet. Now for the first time in nearly two centuries the Cretans were arming a dozen galleys on their own volition. As soon as the weather allowed the squadron would be sailing north to meet the rest of the fleet.

Thessaloniki, March 1372

Alexandros Philanthropenos marched east after Chalkidiki at the head of 10,000 men. Thessaloniki had been a Greek island among Serb controlled territory for the past two decades. But now the Serbs had been crushed before Adrianople by the Turks and Philanthropenos had no intention of letting the opportunity go to waste, after all he very much remembered his elder brother dying fighting the Serbs during Dusan's invasion of Thessaly. It was time to liberate Macedonia and of course that hardly meant restoring it to the control of that weakling in Constantinople.

Off Lissa, May 16th, 1372

The Venetian fleet attacked. If any of the Venetian commanders had second thoughts over taking on Maniakes fifty galleys with their forty-eight, the fate of Vettor Pisani earlier in the year was enough to dissuade them from expressing them. The battle not unexpectedly remained in the balance with neither side gaining the advantage and neither willing to pull back. Then twenty more sail appeared over the horizon as the squadron under Kallergis sailed to the aid of their comrades...

Chioggia, June 30, 1372

Vettor Pisani had been dragged out of prison to be placed in command of the Venetian fleet and defenses. But his report back to the council of ten was bleak. Twenty-three galleys had survived the disaster at Lissa. Maniakes had fifty, after sending half a dozen east to deal with the siege of Rhodes. The fortifications at Chioggia had been improved since the assault of Alexandros II, but not enough to stand up to the five thousand Cretans and Calabrians, Maniakes and Kallergis had brought along. And just to compound the Venetian problems, Francesco Carrara of Padua despite the efforts of pope Gregory XI to mediate between him an Venice had first made a failed plot to assassinate several leading Venetian citizens and as soon as the treaty was over had declared war on Venice. Louis I of Hungary had not followed him for now at least but had already sent 1,500 cavalry to the aid of the Paduans. Something had to give.

Venice, July 1372

Doge Andrea Contarini put his signature on the peace treaty between Sicily and the republic. The republic was to surrender, Crete, Euboea, Korone, Methone, Kythera and Karpathos. Sicily was to secure the right of Venetian merchants to freely trade in the realms of the basileus... as long as they adhered to his laws and payed their taxes. The Sicilians undertook to keep the custom duties imposed on Venetian merchants at their post-war levels but then, Alexandros I had already copied the Aragonese in placing somewhat higher custom duties on foreign merchants over Sicilian ones...

Rhodes, August 15th, 1372

Back in May Ioannis Buas had landed with six thousand men on the island. Now Kallergis had joined him with even more men and ships following the peace with Venice. But the knights despite being massively outnumbered had no intention of giving up easily.

Macedonia, December 1372

Serres, Drama had just thrown their gates open to Philanthropenos army. The Athonite monks had not, the Sicilians after all were potentially closet papists and definately anti-hesychast Baa rlamites. But Philanthropenos had an army, they had not and they had no real alternatives thus had submitted. By the end of the year Macedonia between Thessaloniki and the Nestos river was back under Greek control and Philanthropenos was looking after the lands of Radoslav Hlapen to the west. After all why should Hlapen be left between the Lascarid lands to his east, south and west?

Rhodes, February 25th, 1373

The knights had held out to incessant Sicilian attacks for over half a year. But in the end the Sicilians were too many and the Hospital could not expect support from anywhere. After seven years the second occupation of Rhodes was over.

 

[Lascaris]

Lemesos, Cyprus, March 21st, 1373

With Rhodes back under Sicilian control the army that had forced the Hospitallers into surrender had split. Three thousand men under Buas had sailed back to Epirus. The rest along with twenty-eight galleys under Maniakes and Kallergis had instead sailed east against Cyprus, investing the castle of Lemesos. John of Lusignan, the regent of the kingdom would start assembling an army to deal with the invaders, but would also prudently seek terms. Maniakes would refuse outright...

Syracuse, March 1373

Constant campaigning, had not helped Adrienne and Ioannis Maniakes in having children, even or perhaps due to the young princess following her husband on campaign. But finally the couple had had a son in June 1372. Unsurprisingly he would now be baptized Alexandros after his grandfather.

Ioannina, April 1373

Five thousand men under Ioannis Buas marched west to the Metsovon pass and from there into the Hlapen domains from the west. Ten thousand men under Alexandros Philanthropenos were already invading Hlapen's lands from the east.

Constantinople, May 1373

Co-emperor Andronikos IV had been anything but happy at his father being forced into vassalage by sultan Murad. His solution had been to organize a coup to overthrow him... in conjunction with Murad's son Savci bey launching a coup against his own father. Both coups would fail with Murad executing his son and forcing ioannis V to bind Andronikos. Ioannis would only partially do so but come September would make his second son Manuel co-emperor.

Germasogeia, June 1373

John of Lusignan had hoped to avoid battle. His knights and barons were of a different mind, with Lemesos on the bring of surrender and Greek light cavalry burning down their estates and letting the serfs run away and join them. That Maniakes and Kallergis had no knights of their own had just made the calls for battle all the more louder. And John had a thousand knights and three thousand infantry into battle against a Sicilian army twice as large under his two namesakes. He would be proven right in not wanting to give battle, as the Sicilians would inflict on him 1,500 casualties on him for just a third as many casualties. Lemesos would surrender in the end of the month with the Sicilian army moving then west to invest Paphos.

North Italy, September 1373

Francesco Carrara, lord of Padua, had start his second war against Venice with high hopes given the Venetian defeats at Sicilian hands and the Hungarians and Austrians coming to his aid. But the Venetians after accepting peace with Sicily had proven of sterner stuff, defeating the Hungarian invading army at Treviso and taking their commander Nicola Lackfi prisoner, capturing the fortress of Borgoforte from the Paduans and funding a plot by his half-brothers against him. With Louis I of Hungary more interested in securing his succession to the Polish throne, he had accepted peace with Venice and so had Carrara despite the harsh Venetians terms.

Cyprus, November 1373

Paphos surrendered to the Greeks. Over a third of the island had fallen to the Sicilians so far.

Thessaloniki, December 1373

Agnes took a mental note that the Greeks were thinking differently. Even after several decades in Sicily and the Greek mainland she sometimes had to remind herself of that. Take Philanthropenos. His wife Maria was the daughter of a notary and militia commander here in Thessaloniki, who had a fair bit of influence with the Zealots. Which by Frankish standards made her not just a commoner but the daughter of a rebel as well. The Greeks just did not care that way. Neither did she anymore, truth to tell. Otherwise Ioanna wouldn't be getting married in Saint Demetrios cathedral with their son Michael.

Bursa, February 1374

Sultan Murad I looked thoughtfully at the Serb emissaries before him. Radoslav Hlapen had survived the campaign against him the previous year. Short off. The Greeks had driven him out of Veroia, Pieria and Grevena. His fellow Serb lords were not coming to his aid between their disputed and fearing the Greeks. And thus Hlapen had come begging for his aid. Murad was tempted. After all sooner or later war with the Sicilians was inevitable. But not just yet. The huge gains made the past few years had to be absorbed first. After all Sicily was going to be a far tougher nut to crack than the other Christians had proven so far.

Avignon, April 1374

Pope Gregory XI had received the Sicilian envoys well. But the negotiations to lift the ban on Sicily would fail as the Sicilians would refuse to stop the war on Cyprus or to return Rhodes to the Hospitallers. But common ground nevertheless existed and Gregory worried about Muslim expansion in the Balkans. The split would remain but both sides would continue negotiating.

Cagliari, July 1374

The Genoese fleet that had come to the aid of Martinus IV retreated having failed to bring down the Aragonese defenses. But despite the failure nearly the entirety of Sardinia remained under the control of Martinus Sardinians. Only Cagliari, Alghero and Sassari remained under Aragonese control.

Syracuse, December 1374
Adrienne Lascaris Doukas Palaiologos died at age 79. She would be interred together with Theodore I in the imperial crypt at Syracuse....

Cyprus, January 1375

Famagusta surrendered to Ioannis Maniakes. The Lusignans still held Nicosia in the center of the island and its surrounding areas but all the coastal towns were by now under Lascarid control.

Ohrid, February 1375

Radoslav Hlapen had escaped to his son in law prince Marko, after the last of his strongholds in Macedonia had fallen to the army of Philanthropenos. Marko had given him asylum but at the same time had sent envoys to Thessaloniki to find out the Sicilians intentions. The Sicilians had proven without doubt that they were not to be triffled with. If they invaded his own holding Marko would fight back. But otherwise he was not going to bring a war with them on his head...

Cilicia April 1375

The last Armenian king went into Mameluke captivity, as the Mamelukes destroyed the remnants of the kingdom of Lesser Armenia.

Spain, June 1375

Crown prince John of Castille was married to Eleanor of Aragon, finally bringing to an end the war of the two Peters.

Tuscany, July 1375

Florence signed an alliance with Milan. It would be followed by Florentine agents trying to incite revolts in forty towns within the Papal states and paying John Hawkwood, the leading condottiere in Papal service 130,000 florins to refrain from fighting against them. The war of the eight saints between Florence and the Papacy had begun...

Milan, October 1375

Cypriot envoys had tried to secure a marriage between the infant Peter II and Valentina Visconti. Her father Bernabo, the lord of Milan had been to cunning to enter a marriage alliance with Cyprus that would bring him in conflict with Syracuse. Instead he had start negotiations with the Sicilians for a marriage alliance. And thus Rodolfo Visconti the third legitimate son of Bernabo would be married with Maria Lascaris Vatatzes the fourth daughter of the late Alexandros II. Further to the marriage, negotiations would be opened for the betrothal of Theodore with Lucia Visconti....

Nicosia, November 1375

The city and Peter II of Lusignan surrendered to the soldiers of Ioannis Kallergis. The Cretan warlord would be amply rewarded for his success and loyalty to Syracuse. Not least by Anna Lascaris Vatatzes the third sister of Theodore II being married to Ioannis son Leon.