Chapter 5
Gozelo decided to become a crusader in December 1153 for several reasons. His reputation was tarnished and needed to be repaired. He had very little prestige left and as a result was unable to claim the titles of any Christian leaders. Mostly importantly he had always dreamed of liberating the Holy Lands. If he were successful he would generate huge amounts of prestige and piety for himself.
Gozelo transported 25000 of his troops to Tunisia and declared war on the Emirate of Cyrenica, which only had a manpower of 14000. Twelve of the Emirate's thirteen provinces were overrun by early 1155 (the thirteenth being Oromieh in the Middle East) and Gozelo achieved a peace treaty with the Emirate. Gozelo had 15000 men remaining on the border with the Kingdom of Fatimids. Another 45000 arrived in the next few months and in the summer of 1155 he declared war on the Kingdom of Fatimids (manpower 99000).
The war went very well as the Fatimids were poorly organized and made poor use of their troops. Gozelo became King of Egypt in 1156, King of Arabia in 1158 and King of Jerusalem in
1159. Gozelo gave away his remaining provinces in Lithuania and the capital was moved to Alexandria to facilitate the planning for further conquest of the Middle East.
Meanwhile Gozelo's oldest son, Guntram had become a knowledged tactician (10,10,6,9) in 1157. Gozelo had arranged a marriage between Guntram and Clare von Mansfeld (9,13,8,10) that same year. That marriage had produced Karloman (5,10,7,9, born 1158). Guntram had shown himself to be a capable leader in the war against the Fatimids. As the Fatimids had been largely destroyed, and a temporary peace treaty obtained, Gozelo decided to give Guntram his own command.
Gozelo had gained great prestige in the war against the Fatimids. He claimed the throne of Norway (16000 prestige) and sent Guntram to conquer the Norwegians. Guntram was successful. Norway (23 provinces) was added to the Kingdom of Lithuania in fall of 1160. Gozelo now had enough to provinces under his control (20 out of 30) to usurp the King of Sweden (cost of 275 prestige), who controlled only five provinces himself. Guntram's armies crushed the Swedes in spring of 1161. Their five remaining provinces were added to the Kingdom of Lithuania.
Guntram's armies moved on to the lands of the Duke of Champagne, whose title Gozelo had recently claimed at a cost of 6000 prestige, in the summer of 1161. The Duke of Champagne's armies were easily destroyed. Gozelo was granted the title of Duke of Champagne and the previous Duke's five vassals become Gozelo's vassals. However the former Duke kept control of the four counties he still owned and did not become Gozelo's vassal.
Guntram moved on the Duchy of Brittany, which had also been claimed by Gozelo (3500 prestige), in the spring of 1162. The results were similar. Gozelo became Duke of Brittany, obtained five new one-province vassals, and the former Duke of Brittany became the independent Count of Nantes.
Guntram moved on to the border with the Duchy of Genoa. He offered the Governor of Genoa an offer to join the Kingdom of Lithuania peacefully. The Governor knew he was vastly outnumbered and wisely chose to become part of the Kingdom of Lithuania (offer of vassalization accepted).
As a reward for his excellent leadership of troops and to help improve his now tarnished reputation, Gozelo gave Guntram ten counties (Cordoba, which had become German Catholic, as well as most of Egypt) as well as all of his fifty-one ducal titles in 1162. This resulted in a gain of about 60000 prestige for Guntram. Guntram also gained about fifteen vassals of his own as these vassals were connected to ducal titles rather than the King of Lithuania title. Guntram immediately used large amount of this prestige to claim the titles of King of France, which he was due to inherit on Gozelo's death, and King of England, which Gozelo felt was a much more appropriate claim.
Gozelo had not been idle during these years. He had declared war on the Emirate of Palmyra in 1160, taking four of their five provinces before agreeing to a peace treaty. He had conquered the Kingdom of Abbasid, conquering twelve of their fourteen provinces before agreeing to a peace treaty in 1162. Finally he had destroyed the remainder of the Kingdom of Fatimids, becoming King of Basra in the process. The northern provinces that had once been part to the Fatimid kingdom had either become part of the newly independent Emirate of Derbent (five provinces) or been conquered by the Emirate of Volga (two provinces), which had taken advantage of the Fatimid's weakness.
Gozelo spent the remainder of 1162 and the first third of 1163 replenishing his troops. He felt strong enough to declare war on the Seljuk Turks (manpower 110000) in the summer of 1162, having amassed 100000 troops on their border. He did not use any troops from the recently conquered provinces as he felt the Islamic troops might revolt against him. He was therefore quite surprised to learn that on December 10, 1163 fifteen of his regiments consisting of almost 10000 men had been "disbanded" and were returning home. He angrily demanded an explanation from leaders of the various regiments. They explained that they were no longer a part of the Kingdom of Lithuania, and served the new King of England, Guntram von Mansfeld. Sivard Estridson (1101-1163), previous King of England had died without any heirs and Guntram was the only person alive with a valid claim on the kingdom of England. The troops were going to support him should anyone be rash enough to object to his claim. Gozelo was shocked, yet pleased. He would not be able to confer any more duchy titles he might claim on Guntram as he was now an independent king.
The last report he had from his English spies (ie. most recent save file) was nine months old, but indicated that Sivard Estridson had one remaining male heir from his dynasty, the 12 year old Frederic Estridson. Gozelo wondered if Frederic had died of natural causes as Sivard's other four sons had (none of whom had lived to be more than 15 years old), or whether Guntram had assassinated Frederic. Gozelo decided it did not really matter. Gozelo sent a note of congratulations to his son and returned to his campaign's against the heathens.
The war against the Seljuk Turks was difficult as Gozelo now had to defend a long border against incursions by their troops. Gozelo made slow yet steady progress against the Seljuk Turks over the next six years (1163-1169). He paused from his campaigning against the Turks to destroy the remainder of the Emirates of Cyrenica (one province), Palmyra(one province), and al Jazira(two provinces), as well as the rest of the Kingdom of Abbasid (two provinces). Finally a lasting peace was achieved with the Seljuk Turks in
August 1169 and Gozelo sent all his current troops home.
In the meantime Gozelo had used some of his prestige to claim the titles of Consul of Venice (1500 prestige) and King of Croatia (3000 prestige).
Venice was conquered in 1166. Following the war Gozelo was granted the title of Consul of Venice in exchange for peace. To Gozelo's surprise once the peace treaty had been signed the Magistrate of Venezia refused to acknowledge him their liege. Unfortunately the commander of Gozelo's army had already marched on to Croatia by the time this news reached Gozelo in the Middle East. Gozelo decided to leave the people of Venice for now. The conquest of Croatia (four provinces) went much more smoothly, with the King of Croatia giving up his title as king and becoming a duke in the Kingdom of Lithuania.
After peace with the Seljuk Turks had been obtained in 1169, Gozelo spent several months in his palace in Alexandria. By Christmas of 1169 Gozelo had became tired of the court proceedings and ceremonies, the intrigues and plotting. Gozelo knew that there were more heathens that needed to be converted to the true faith and more Christian lands that needed to be subjugated. He sent one army to conquer the Duchies of Flanders (3500 prestige) and Saxony (2000 prestige). They were conquered in 1170 (gain of four vassals) and 1172 (gain of two vassals) respectively. However Gozelo had failed to realize the Duke of Saxony was a vassal of the King of Scotland. When Gozelo declared war on Saxony in the spring of 1172, the kingdom of Scotland had declared war on Lithuania. The conquest of Saxony complete, Gozelo sent his northern army to fight the Scots.
Meanwhile Gozelo traveled to border of the Tribe of Pechenegs with 25000 men and declared war. The Tribe of Pechenegs (nine provinces) was destroyed by the end of 1170. Gozelo declared war on the neighbouring Tribe of Cuman (15 provinces). They were destroyed and added to the kingdom by September 1172. Gozelo moved on and declared war on the Emirate of Volga. Before any significant conquests could be made,
Gozelo died of old age on November 19, 1172.
Summary of New Kingdoms Obtained
Egypt 1155
Arabia 1157
Jerusalem 1159
Basra 1162
Mesopotamia 1165
Syria 1165
Persia 1169
Georgia 1169
