Re: [SV AAR] The Wolf Among Dogs - The Latin Empire
Prologue: The dogs of Greece
I remember the day when the news about the battle of Adrianople had arrived to our castle in Picardy. It was a cold and rainy day, and the runner was covered with mud as if he was coming straight from that battle which took place months before. He told us that on a spring day three hundred good knights and thousands of sergeants were massacred by the Bulgarians. Count Baldwin of Flanders, the first Roman Emperor crowned after the fall of Constantinople, was captured and died in a Bulgarian dungeon. It was a sad time for Christendom, and I will never forget the shock that came only a year after Constantinople returned to the Latin Church.
While the death of the king was grave news for many, our family was more worried about my brother Arnulf who left with the Count when the Fourth Crusade sailed from Venice. But it was not until years later when we learned that he is alive, upon his unexpected arrival. He told us that he came back to recruit knights to fight for King Henri, who followed his elder brother on the throne. He was in dire need of men as many of the crusaders returned home after the fall of Constantinople, leaving the King with few man to protect the realm. This provided an opportunity for both the Greeks in Nicaea and the Bulgarians to strangle the new Roman Empire in its infancy. And if that was not enough danger, many thought that Venice which grabbed the Greeks' most valuable possessions in the Aegean after the Fourth Crusade was an unreliable ally, serving nothing but their own rotten interests.
Arnulf was the second son of my father and he was very proud of him, maybe even prouder than of Louis who was the eldest and stayed home as his heir. I was the youngest and only a child when the Fourth Crusade had left, but my father expected me to seek fortune in the east too when my time comes. He named me after Robert II, the legendary Count of Flanders who went to Jerusalem with the First Crusade and came back as a rich and respected man. I accepted this fate for I had no other choice. Our family lands were inherited by Louis, so Arnulf and I had to look for our fortune elsewhere. We all knew that there was land to be taken in Greece, although some first had to be taken away from others.
In the Year of Our Lord 1212, I turned sixteen and my father approved my voyage to join Arnulf who was preparing to go back with a band of men he recruited in Picardy. During the journey, Arnulf talked a lot about the peculiar situation of the Frankish realm in Greece. It was several years after the fall of Constantinople, but the collapse of the once great empire still left most of the country in chaos. The task for King Henri and the barons was to establish the Frankish rule, organize the realm according to our customs and the spread the word of God by the rites of the Latin Church.
The south was still partly in Greek hands who ruled Epirus which was easy to defend and difficult to subdue. The Frank barons held strategic castles, first of all Mistra which was overlooking the ancient city of Sparta. The Greek lands were isolated, but strong enough to cause trouble. The resources to deal with them were limited because the Venetian colony of Negroponte dominated the trade routes, making the once rich cities of Athens and Korinthos decline.
In the central provinces of Thessalonica it was not the Greeks but the Bulgarians that caused much headache. I knew little about them apart from their role in the demise of King Baldwin. Arnulf told me that there was hardly a year without a Bulgarian raid on Thessalonica or Adrianople. The mountains to the north offered little help against the invaders because our men were few and were mostly residing in the two cities, surrounded by Greek and Slav peasants that saw them as enemies. This was where the danger as well as the need for men was the greatest and where Arnulf was planning to go.
Finally, in the north there was Constantinople, the jewel capital of the Roman Empire, right across from Nicaea. Knowing the Greek threat all too well, King Henri resided there with a strong force, understanding that losing Constantinople would mean losing the realm. Secretly, I hoped that I will soon have the opportunity to visit this city about which I have heard so many wonderful and mysterious things.
On the voyage, I have seen many signs of recent wars over the corpse of the Byzantine Empire. The Venetians were busy securing the islands for themselves, and while we were usually welcomed I was amazed how much we had to pay for everything. In contrast, when we stopped in the ancient city of Athens, the market was almost empty and the people, overwhelmingly Greek, were discontent. Prince Pierre de Courtenay, who was no other but the grandson of Louis VI the Fat, was in Mistra that time so we did not get to meet him.
Athens was the first city I saw in Frankish Greece, offering me a glimpse at the difficulties facing the realm. Shortage of knights and settlers, a discontent Orthodox Greek population, the difficulty to establish the Latin church organization, ambiguous relations with Venice... I felt that making our fortune would be more difficult than what I thought when I left Picardy. Still, Achaia was ruled by the Courtenay family with many good French knights and Arnulf said the Prince is an effective suzerain of these lands, which as I learned later was not the case everywhere.
We left the city after a few days, and following another two weeks at sea we arrived to the province of Thessalonica. The city was ruled by the Duke of Montferrat and this was where most of the northern Italian crusaders were. Few of my companions from Flanders and Picardy had good things to say about the men of Lombardy, but Arnulf warned us not to be arrogant.
"The previous Duke, Boniface, was the leader of the Fourth Crusade and almost became the king," he said as we rode toward the city. "But the Venetians voted against him, as these Italians hate each other, and this is how Count Baldwin was crowned. Boniface then took Thessalonica as his own fief. When years later he was ambushed and killed by the Bulgarians, his son, the current Duke took over."
"He is still the vassal of King Henri, I presume." I firmly believed in the divine order from God to King to barons and commoners. But Arnulf hesitated to answer.
"The Dukes of Montferrat are supposed to aid the king, and Boniface has done so many times before he was killed," he said. "But his son is different. He even calls himself the king of Thessalonica as I heard. Still, King Henri does not have other choice but to trust him. He needs every baron to fight our enemies. And these Italians here have had their share of fight. This province is the main target of the Bulgarians."
"So are we going to fight on the side of the Lombards?" I was not pleased with this possibility.
Arnulf smiled. "No. The men from Flanders and Picardy are mostly King Henri's vassals and have fiefs around Adrianople. But before we go there, I want to look around here. I have been away for a long time, and it is my duty to counsel the King in various affairs, which I can only do if I know this land well."
I never heard before that Arnulf was so close to the King. But again, the number of knights in Frankish Greece was probably small enough for the king to personally know most of them, and since he was from Flanders he must have chosen his immediate vassals from that region, preferring them to the French in Achaia and the Italians in Thessalonica.
While I was thinking about these things, the walls of Thessalonica appeared at the end of the road. But as we got closer, we saw dead bodies, abandoned siege engines and lost weapons everywhere, the unmistakable signs of a recently fought battle.
"What has happened here?" I asked.
"Welcome to Greece, little brother," said Arnulf. "These look like Bulgarians. This must have been a raid where the attackers paid with their lives for their failure." It was clear that he has seen things like that before. Then looking at my pale face, he added. "It seems you just missed your first battle."
He wanted to cheer me up, but watching how the dogs of Greece sniff around the corpses made my stomach sick. I spurred my horse so that I would not see how they feast on the dead bodies. This was not the land of fortune, rather the land of pain. Despite the blue sky and the gentle breeze, I felt sad and alone, and wished to be back in Picardy many miles from there.
And this is all I can say about how the young Robert de Loup arrived to Frankish Greece to write the humble account of the realm which was born in blood, treachery and deceit.
~
Last edited by Radzeer; March 25, 2012 at 10:03 PM.
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Originally Posted by robinzx
