Do the Dark Ages ever End?

[mortenstef]

Hi

im playing as Hre, everything has been going well, and i have expanded the empire by 2/3, I was making 30000 easily every round, but then the dark ages emerged. I was suddenly attacked by everyone, (inclueding the Pope,
whom I was allied to), he tried to take Florence, but when I beat him back, I got Excom.

I am currently at war with:

Hungary
Teutonic
England
Flanders
Venice
Milan
Papacy
Poland
Byzantines
Denmark
Castile & Leon

Due to this, most of my money goes to Army upkeep and mercenaries, but the plauge has cost me 50% of my family members, which makes it harder to control my vast amounts of cities.

I have tried to negotiate peace treaties but noone wants to accept, even if I offer them 40000????

My question is this: Do the Dark Ages ever end? and how will I know if it does end?

thx
Morten from Denmark

By the way I love this mod

[Vangar]

If you play 5.5, it's a small bug. Repman released a hotfix for that, but you have to restart your campaign. See the 5.5 Bug thread.