Ack, how did I forget to post here. It's always good to see another MEIOU AAR and to have one from the mod author themselves only makes it better. Even though I have a rough idea of how it ends I really want to see the journey there.
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(Redirected from "The First War of the Silk Road")
Tenth Crusade
The Tenth Crusade started in 1387, intended on recapturing Jerusalem and the Holy Land. The first step was to gain control of the wealthy Egypt to first weaken the Mameluks' strength. Both goals were achieved, with Portugal capturing Matruh, and Aragon liberating Jerusalem.
In the direct line from the Sixth Crusade onward, with the erosion of the Papal authority, the Tenth Crusade was launched by an individual king, Duarte I of Portugal, without the Pope's involvement.
Prologue
The end of the IXth Crusade in 1272 with the withdrawall of Prince Edward of England was a severe blow to the prestige of the Christiandom. Some saw it as the fact that the Crusading spirit was all but extinct. Seemingly to prove this, Charles of Anjou and Hugues III of Cyprus started an internecine war over control of the rump kingdom of Jerusalem. That and the near constant border strifes with the Mameluk neighbour led to the end of the last Crusader presence in the Holy Land, on the Ruad Island, in 1303, twelve years after the fall of Acre.
Crusader operations in the HolyLand
Duarte I of Portugal organised a substancial army with the intent of attacking Egypt. His plan was to be joined by Joan I before landing in Alexandria. Eventhough Joan was devoted the goal of liberating Jerusalem, he replied that he would be delayed ; in 1386, during the First Aragono-Genoese War, the Aragonese fleet met the Genoese fleet of the coast of Corsica. The result of of that naval battle was the complete destruction of the Aragonese fleet and a profound trauma for the Thalassocracy. It would take two years in the Crusade for the Aragonese fleet to set sail once again.
By the time the Aragonese exército arrived in Egypt, a complete Portuguese expeditionnary force had been annihilated after progessing to far inland, in pursuit of a retreating Mameluk army.
Joan quickly took charge of the Crusader operations, suggesting to Duarte the creation of two beachheads in Matruh and Alexandria, under the responsability of, respectively, the Portuguese and the Aragonese forces. Each army organised the siege of their designated targets, and placed troops ready to repell any Mameluk relieving army.
Queen Henriette, judging the situation was stable enough in the new provinces of the Crown, sent Ponç Galindo, with a second exército to her husband. When Galindo arrived and joined with his overlord, Joan was ebboldenned ; he left, with his army, from Cairo he was besieging, towards the Mameluk army regrouging in Al Gizah. This caught al-Hasan Sayfuddin off guard. The fierce battle [link] proved to be the turning point of the war, much like the Battle of Hattin over a century before ; Tûmân Bay left Cairo that was about to be besieged by the Portuguese-Aragonese coalition, and moved to Damascus.
By the end of 1390, the Egyptian beachhead was secured. Joan thus took his exército to Nablus by sea, leaving Ponç Galindo to defend the Alexandria beachhead. He would only be hassled in a fair number of skirmishes from hastly recruited regiments.
Joan I personally laid siege to Jerusalem at the end of year, after capturing Nablus. Last news Imad ibn Bashir heard, before being closed in the Holy City, was that there was little to no chance of relief, that Gazah and Safad were under siege and that a large Aragonese army was marching towards Damascus and Tûmân Bay. He started negociating the surrender of the city, in order to avoid the bloodbath of the previous sieges of Jerusalem. Three months after entering Jerusalem, Joan I left to supervise Ponç Galindo's siege of Damascus. On the road, his party was ambushed by a sizable Mameluk force. Joan I is killed in the battle that ensues, before the Mameluk troops are routed. Joan's cousin Ferran heads on to Damascus as planned.
On May 21st 1392, Ponç Galindo captures the temporary capital of the Mameluks. During the following weeks, Duarte I, Ferran I and Tûmân Bay I would negociate for peace. Ferran I wishes to go back to Zaragoza to be officially crowned to prevent a succession crisis. Tûmân Bay I realises that he needs to cut his losses ; a truce would give him time to rebuild his army and drive the Crusaders away. The agreement is reached in early June : Portugal would gain their conquered province of Matruh, and Aragon would gain Jerusalem, Galilea, Nablus and Gaza.
Aftermath
Since the start of the millenium, it was the third time Jerusalem was captured by crusaders. At the end of the two previous conquest, the city was delivered an independent Kingdom of Jerusalem, that were created along side other Crusader states. Each time, internecine struggles got hold of the different Crusader states, allowing for a reconquest by Muslim nations. Therfore, Ferran I decided that Jerusalem should remain within a powerful Christian kingdom : the Holy City was annexed to the Royal Demesne.
During the next centuries, several Muslim nations would try to take Jerusalem back, the Mameluks and Anazah mostly, to no avail.
Controversy
There is a debate among historians, a debate that dates back as early as 1390, wether this was a true Crusade or not.
Those in favor of calling it the Xth Crusade, mostly in nowadays Spain and many in Portugal, in Italy and in Eastern Europe, state that it was an alliance of two Catholic kings, Duarte of Portugal and Joan I of Aragon against the Muslim nation of the Mameluks, in an effort to recover the Holy City of Jerusalem.
Others, mostly in France, England and the former Holy Roman Empire, argue that this war was never veted by the Pope, that the Crusades ended with the Fall of Acre in 1291. They add that the real goal of the war was not the liberation of Jerusalem, but was the capture of the Egyptian center of trade of Alexandria.
.
Tenth Crusade
The Tenth Crusade started in 1387, intended on recapturing Jerusalem and the Holy Land. The first step was to gain control of the wealthy Egypt to first weaken the Mameluks' strength. Both goals were achieved, with Portugal capturing Matruh, and Aragon liberating Jerusalem.
In the direct line from the Sixth Crusade onward, with the erosion of the Papal authority, the Tenth Crusade was launched by an individual king, Duarte I of Portugal, without the Pope's involvement.
Prologue
The end of the IXth Crusade in 1272 with the withdrawall of Prince Edward of England was a severe blow to the prestige of the Christiandom. Some saw it as the fact that the Crusading spirit was all but extinct. Seemingly to prove this, Charles of Anjou and Hugues III of Cyprus started an internecine war over control of the rump kingdom of Jerusalem. That and the near constant border strifes with the Mameluk neighbour led to the end of the last Crusader presence in the Holy Land, on the Ruad Island, in 1303, twelve years after the fall of Acre.
Crusader operations in the HolyLand
Duarte I of Portugal organised a substancial army with the intent of attacking Egypt. His plan was to be joined by Joan I before landing in Alexandria. Eventhough Joan was devoted the goal of liberating Jerusalem, he replied that he would be delayed ; in 1386, during the First Aragono-Genoese War, the Aragonese fleet met the Genoese fleet of the coast of Corsica. The result of of that naval battle was the complete destruction of the Aragonese fleet and a profound trauma for the Thalassocracy. It would take two years in the Crusade for the Aragonese fleet to set sail once again.
By the time the Aragonese exército arrived in Egypt, a complete Portuguese expeditionnary force had been annihilated after progessing to far inland, in pursuit of a retreating Mameluk army.
Joan quickly took charge of the Crusader operations, suggesting to Duarte the creation of two beachheads in Matruh and Alexandria, under the responsability of, respectively, the Portuguese and the Aragonese forces. Each army organised the siege of their designated targets, and placed troops ready to repell any Mameluk relieving army.
Queen Henriette, judging the situation was stable enough in the new provinces of the Crown, sent Ponç Galindo, with a second exército to her husband. When Galindo arrived and joined with his overlord, Joan was ebboldenned ; he left, with his army, from Cairo he was besieging, towards the Mameluk army regrouging in Al Gizah. This caught al-Hasan Sayfuddin off guard. The fierce battle [link] proved to be the turning point of the war, much like the Battle of Hattin over a century before ; Tûmân Bay left Cairo that was about to be besieged by the Portuguese-Aragonese coalition, and moved to Damascus.
By the end of 1390, the Egyptian beachhead was secured. Joan thus took his exército to Nablus by sea, leaving Ponç Galindo to defend the Alexandria beachhead. He would only be hassled in a fair number of skirmishes from hastly recruited regiments.
Joan I personally laid siege to Jerusalem at the end of year, after capturing Nablus. Last news Imad ibn Bashir heard, before being closed in the Holy City, was that there was little to no chance of relief, that Gazah and Safad were under siege and that a large Aragonese army was marching towards Damascus and Tûmân Bay. He started negociating the surrender of the city, in order to avoid the bloodbath of the previous sieges of Jerusalem. Three months after entering Jerusalem, Joan I left to supervise Ponç Galindo's siege of Damascus. On the road, his party was ambushed by a sizable Mameluk force. Joan I is killed in the battle that ensues, before the Mameluk troops are routed. Joan's cousin Ferran heads on to Damascus as planned.
On May 21st 1392, Ponç Galindo captures the temporary capital of the Mameluks. During the following weeks, Duarte I, Ferran I and Tûmân Bay I would negociate for peace. Ferran I wishes to go back to Zaragoza to be officially crowned to prevent a succession crisis. Tûmân Bay I realises that he needs to cut his losses ; a truce would give him time to rebuild his army and drive the Crusaders away. The agreement is reached in early June : Portugal would gain their conquered province of Matruh, and Aragon would gain Jerusalem, Galilea, Nablus and Gaza.
Aftermath
Since the start of the millenium, it was the third time Jerusalem was captured by crusaders. At the end of the two previous conquest, the city was delivered an independent Kingdom of Jerusalem, that were created along side other Crusader states. Each time, internecine struggles got hold of the different Crusader states, allowing for a reconquest by Muslim nations. Therfore, Ferran I decided that Jerusalem should remain within a powerful Christian kingdom : the Holy City was annexed to the Royal Demesne.
During the next centuries, several Muslim nations would try to take Jerusalem back, the Mameluks and Anazah mostly, to no avail.
Controversy
There is a debate among historians, a debate that dates back as early as 1390, wether this was a true Crusade or not.
Those in favor of calling it the Xth Crusade, mostly in nowadays Spain and many in Portugal, in Italy and in Eastern Europe, state that it was an alliance of two Catholic kings, Duarte of Portugal and Joan I of Aragon against the Muslim nation of the Mameluks, in an effort to recover the Holy City of Jerusalem.
Others, mostly in France, England and the former Holy Roman Empire, argue that this war was never veted by the Pope, that the Crusades ended with the Fall of Acre in 1291. They add that the real goal of the war was not the liberation of Jerusalem, but was the capture of the Egyptian center of trade of Alexandria.
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Crusade or not it was a great succes 
I guess no puppet there? IIRC someone (a King probably) said that the key to keeping Jerusalem Catholic is Egypt.
And ironically the Kingdom of Jerusalem nearly went for it. but they did it badly. they only crippled Cairo and made pathway for Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn.
it seems you succeed where they failed
great update Gig you are on the roll
I guess no puppet there?
IIRC someone (a King probably) said that the key to keeping Jerusalem Catholic is Egypt. And ironically the Kingdom of Jerusalem nearly went for it. but they did it badly. they only crippled Cairo and made pathway for Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn.
it seems you succeed where they failed
great update Gig you are on the roll
Well written. I must admit this (rather embarrassingly) but when I first read this I was confused about actual history and tried to look it up on wikipedia. Thankfully my memory was correct and this never happened. You still wrote well enough to make me do a double take. Congrats.
Excellent AAR, though nothing that is surprising considering it is written by you gigau, if it had not been good I would have believed some had hacked your account. I really like that or those images, which one it is, that you have which really gives it like a history book feeling. A nice story telling and a really nice AAR about a country that not to many are playing AARs about.
Really liked it!
Really liked it!
Brilliant update, great format particularly the images used. I very much enjoyed the historians debate over the motivation for the crusade, great narrative to accompany the game.
Joan I d'Aragón
Joan (Aragonese : Chuan, Spanish : Juan, English : John, French : Jean), called el Croat ("the Cruzader"), was the King of Aragon, the King of Sardinia and Corsica, the King of Valencia, King of Mallorca, Duke of Provence, and Count of Barcelona (and the rest of the Principality of Catalonia) from 1378 until his death.
Biography
Joan was born in Perpignan, in the province of Rosselló, to Pere IV and to his third wife Elionor of Sicily, and died on the road from Jerusalem to Damascus, in an ambush from Mameluk troops. He was a man of characted, with a taste for verse, but he was also a misguided warrior.
Joan contniued this father's policies of friendship toward Castile, Portugal and England, but he would also make steps for closer relations his northern neighbour, the king of France. His reign was marked the continued Aragonese suspicion and mistrust towards the Roman Papacy.
During the first half of his reign, the Aragonese battled to subjugate the Arborean resistance in Sardinia. In 1385, rebels rapidly drove back the Exército Reial, killing Joan's brother and heir presumptive Martí. The rebellion would eventually be suppressed later the same year.
Conquest of Corsica
Jaume II received the royal investiture frm Pope Boniface VIII in 1297 as Rex Sardiniae et Corsicae. But it wouldn't be until 1323 that he would take actual possession of the isle, with a successful military campaign against the Pisans. Alfonso IV would remain content of an uneasy position on the island, and it would take a campaign of Pere IV to achieve full control over Sardinia.
This would not suffice to Joan, who, during several years, tried to commit his father to the conquest of Corsica. Pere continuely refused as it was owned by Genoa, with whom he had signed a trade league compact.
During the first years of his reign, Joan strengthened his position, before declaring war on Genoa in 1383. The Doge broke the trade league compact. Ponç Galindo, a cunning general from Lleida and friend to the king, landed the Exército de Sardinia in Corsica and started subjugating it. Joan led the Exército Reial from Provence , through the County of Nice, and into Liguria, laying siege to Punente.
At the end of 1385, the situation of the Doge grows dire : Punente has fallen and Aragonese troops arrive in the vicinity of Genoa. He decides to set sail to settle a peace in Crimea, with the Blue Horde, to bring back his troops there. As his fleet start leaving the port, the Aragonese fleet arrives to destroy them. The Battle of the Lanterna (named after the lighthouse of the Genoese port, replaced in 1543 by the current tower). Having the element of surprise, a slight advantage in numbers (Aragon : 35 galleys, 15 warcogs and 5 crayers - Genoa : 35 galleys, 7 warcogs) and more room to manoeuvre, Pero de Luna expected a crushing victory. He discounted the energy of dispair of the Genoese forces ; not only did it turn out to be a complete tactical victory for Genoa, but the Aragonese fleet was completely annihilated. If this victory wasn't the turning point the Doge hoped for, it would severely cripple Aragon for decades, as Joan would have to mint a lot to rebuild the backbone of the thalassocracy's ability to control his demesne and to expand. Some say this was source of the inlfation that would gradually plague the Empire.
In October 1387, when the Doge managed to bring his forces back to Genoa, the city had just been captured. In order to not destroy any hope of rebuilding the merchant republic to its former glory, the Doge accepted to sign a peace treaty with Joan, ceding Punente and Corsica.
This war would have lasting effects on the relations between Aragon and Genoa until the end of the XVIIIth century. Some historians suspect many rebellions over the three centuries in question to have been funded and organised by Genoese spies. However, only a handful of such ties could ever be proven.
The Crusader
See also Tenth Crusade
As Joan arrived back in Barcelona from Genoa, he received the visit of an ambassador from his ally Duarte I, king of Portugal. He had launched a Crusade in Egypt, in the hopes of liberating Jerusalem, and his main expeditionary force had been defeated.
Joan set sail on Christmas day 1387, with his brother Alfons and his cousin Ferran, for Alexandria, with his brand new fleet. His wife Henriette de Valois was regent in his absence.
In June 1388, Joan won a decisive victory against al Hasan Sayffudin, the Mameluk general, in Gizeh. With the Mameluk army eanrly disbanded, their strongholds started to fall one after the other, first in Egypt, then in the Holy Land.
In January 1392, Joan entered the Holy city of Jerusalem, 150 years after Frederick II the Holy Roman Emperor. Like him, Joan was condemned by the Pope, on the basis that the Crusade was not vetted by the Papacy and the the true motives of the conquest was not the interests of the Christiandom, but that of Iberian greed.
Joan's dream of wearing the Crown of Jerusalem fell short for a couple of months : as he was riding to supervise the siege of Damascus and ultimately the end of the Tenth Crusade, he was ambushed by a Mameluk force. As he was rallying his troops and slowly pushing the enemy back, he received an arrow in the chest. After an agony of three days, he died on the shores of the Llac de Tiberíades.
His cousin and successor Ferran, son of Pere IV's younger brother Jaume, had him embalmed to be brought back to be buried at the [URL="http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?655861-Arag%F3n-and-its-Place-in-European-History-a-MEIOU-AAR&p=14837654&viewfull=1#post14837654]Monastary of Poblet[/URL]. Before sailing back to Barcelona, Ferran would enter Damascus, and sign the peace with Duarte I and Tûmân Bay I. Joan's dream of bringing Jerusalem into the Crown of Aragon.
Gains of Joan I for the Crown of Aragon
Yellow : Aragonese demesne upon Pere's death
Green : Vassal kingdom of Sicily
Blue-grey : Vassal duchy of Epirus
Pink : Vassal principality of Cephalonia
Circled in dark red : Joan's expansions
Hatched : under Aragonese control
Green : Vassal kingdom of Sicily
Blue-grey : Vassal duchy of Epirus
Pink : Vassal principality of Cephalonia
Circled in dark red : Joan's expansions
Hatched : under Aragonese control
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I think your misgivings about your writing are unfounded. I rather enjoyed reading what you have so far.
Royal Monastery of Santa Maria de Poblet
The Royal Monastery of Santa Maria de Poblet (Reial Monestir de Santa Maria de Poblet in Catalan) is a monastery of the Cistercian order, founded during the XIIth century . It is located at the feet of the mountains of Prades , in the Tarragona province. It is counted among the most important monasteries of Europe, being in fact the largest inhabited monastic complex of the continent. Since the Middle Age, it is regarded as an important landmark of the former Crown of Aragon.
From the reign of Peter the Ceremonious to well into the XVIIIth century, it was the royal pantheon of the Sovereigns of the Crown of Aragon and later the Kings of Spain, but it also houses the tombs of some previous monarchs and other individuals of the royal family and different noble lineages.
The Poblet Monastery was founded on August 18th of 1150, when Ramon Berenguer IV de Barcelona, after finishing the conquest of Lleida from the Saracens, gave the abbey of Fontfreda some lands of Conca de Barbera to establish a Cistercian monastery. This grant had a dual purpose : spiritual (creating a center of Christianization in lands conquered from the Moors) and economic (cultivating wasteland and abandoned lands). The new monastery was to be a place of work and prayer. Thus, in 1153, when the last Muslims redoubts of Prades and Siurana Prades were conquered, twelve monks took possession of the land. The new community began the construction of the church, which was consecrated to Santa Maria.
King Peter the Ceremonious protected the Community, enriched and converted it into a symbol of the dynasty and of the Crown. For this purpose, the monastary was fortified. The wall has twelve gates and watchtowers easily protected. He gave his collection of history books to the library of the monastery on the condition that they sculpted his royal coat of arms. Within the third precinct, he had rooms constructed for when he wanted to retire to work and pray in peace. He was buried in the Santa Maria Church and made it the Pantheon of Crown of Aragon.
Blue : royal tombs
Green : royal chambers
Green : royal chambers
The Church of Santa Mariade Poblet served as a burial place for monarchs, children and other members of the royal family of Aragon, other important members of noble lineages, abbots, monks and other notable people.
Between the two pillars close to the high altar is the Royal Pantheon, located on two arches, one on the nave of the Epistle, the other on the nave of the Gospel. The rest of the royal family graves are in the crypt.
Royal Pantheon (nave of the Epistle)
A list prepared by the great historian of the monastery Jaume Finistres is an important reference to determine the identity of the people buried in the monastery and the original location of their graves, many of them having been poorly conserved or, for some, having even disappeared after the destruction of the nineteenth century.
Tomb of Pere IV el Cerimoniós
Peter the Ceremonious, according to Abbot Copons, decided, in 1340, to have the Monastary of Poblet becme the official pantheon of the House of Barchinona. In the following years, the king commissioned the work in the Church. Some of the best sculptors in the country would build the tombs of the monarchs with the finest alabaster of Catalonia, from the quarry of Beuda . In the magnificent tombs, the figures were lying with, at their feet, lions, symbol of strength and power, while the queens had dogs, a symbol of fidelity and loyalty. The tombs were originally covered by canopies of gilded wood, representing the sky and the heavens, but those have not been rebuilt.
Tomb of Joan I el Croat
Another great update Gigau, I'm really enjoying the different styles of each post, and the fantastic background. Keep them coming!
I am enjoying the wikipedia style, it is different in a good way.
I think it is attached to a lion at his feet.why is there a head at King's Pere feet?
Thanks.
Actually, that last one is a slightlyadapted and summarised version of a mix of the Spanish and the Catalan Wikipedia article on that Monastery. It fitted so well the history and was so interesting that i ended up adding it (actually that update wasn't initially planned
).why is there a head at King's Pere feet?
Someone hasn't been properly been reading....
... or he wasn't sober enough... again....
Glad you like it.
Just want to add to the chorus gigau. I love the mod, I was a manga mundi faithful till that whole debacle and moved over to try your mod. Very impressed with it and play it exclusively now. Enjoying this AAR immensely. I look forward to further updates!
