Beta AAR: The deeds of Salamon, King of Hungary

[Tamas]

The deeds of Salamon, King of Hungary

Okay, so here is an AARish thing, but it is more like a diary, as I was writing it as things happened. I didn't even try to be as novellistic as some of the betas can, my English is not good enough for that.

 

[Tamas]

This is the story of the King of Hungary, Salamon.
The year is 1066. Salamon is King of Hungary, Count of Esztergom, Pressburg and Pest.
He is 24 years old, and has a wife, Jutta Sabian, who is 19.
The King’s only brother, Levente has no titles, but he is the Marshal of his brother.
Otherwise, Salamon have 20 vassals, including his two royal cousins, Géza, Duke of Temes, who controls the border with the Pechenegs, and László, Count of Krizevci, who guards the southern end of the kingdom. It was a big country indeed. You can see a map of it below.

Upon getting rest after the new year celebrations, Salamon appointed his council members. He was able to find talented people for the various positions. Most notably his brother, who was an excellent military leader. What he lacked was a Diocese Bishop, but it was something he could live without at that moment.

Before he could finalize plans for the coming year, the Count of Pécs, Péter, appeared in the palace with his court, to ask the King’s cousin’s hand. Salamon gladly accepted, and in a few weeks, the wedding was held.

The Pechenegs

King Salamon, being a true, and devoted Christian, was always troubled by the Pechenegs. They were still living their pagan ways, stuck between Hungary, Byzantium, and Kiev. It looked certain that one power will convert these people sooner or later. And Salamon did not like to wait. He decided, that he would bring the teachings of God to those heretics, to save their soul, even if it means he must slay half of them.
With the huge lands of Hungary behind him, it didn’t look hard.

But there was a hard decision to make: which troops to use? It seemed very likely that the 3 regiments he commanded through his three demenses would be sufficient, at least for most of the task. But to reinforce the regiments, to find, train, and maintain new soldiers was a long task. It could render him unable to wage war on his own for years to come.
He could use his cousin and Duke, Géza to conq… convert the Pechenegs, but it would mean that those pagans would become the land of Géza. It did not seem like a good idea.

On 3rd of July, he made up his mind: he personally would bring God to the pagans. Thus, he issued the call to arms for his regiments, and marched to the border.

On 15th of August, he declared war ont he provinces of Severin, Tirgoviste and Birlag. Here is the situation prior to that:

Naturally, the whole Tribe of Pechenegs joined the war, but the chiefs not yet attacked did not feel like helping their brothers. They kept their armies to guard their own lands, so after the inital victories, sieges in the 3 provinces were going fine.
But it was a long process, as the King’s army was streched out: the biggest regiment had around 500 troops to use for the siege after the field battles, the other two had less then 400.

The King left his wife pregnant in the capital, and it was an excellent news for him, that on 19th of May, 1067, his son was born, and named János. The kingdom now had an heir!

But how cruel life can be. While Salamon was waiting for the Pecheneg provinces to fall, an other messenger arrived on the 11th of August: his infant, János, died because of poor health.
It was schocking, but the war had to go on.

After more then a year of campaigning, Severin fell to the Hungarians, and the leader of the siege, István Árpád, installed himself as Count of Severin, and –of course- loyal vassal of Salamon. He was immediately ordered to go and help the other sieges.

Tirgoviste fell on the 25th of Feburary, 1068, and it became part of the King’s demense.
Salamon went to help the third siege, while István moved south to bring war to the lands of Turnu.

On 1st of June, words came to Salamon that the nobles of Pressburg demands Prima Noctae rights. After some thinking, he sent back the messenger to let them know his approval.

15th of July: a miracle! The Queen gave birth to a daugher, named Berta.

On 9th of September, Birlag fell. It also became a personal fief of Salamon, but he intended to gave these lands to his loyal men.
While he moved north to take the northenmost province of the pagans, the leader of the Pechenegs moved in to Birlag and laid siege.

It was already April of 1069, when Berta died. Salamon’s wife earlier followed his husband, and at that time were camping on safe lands, not too far from his husband. At least, the fact that she was pregnant, indicates this.

At the end of August, Birlag fell to the united army of the Pechenegs. It had more then 700 men. North to them, Salamon had approximetly 670, István to the south had less then 400.
But the Pecheneg leader did not risk a decisive battle with either of them, instead he moved south to besiege Tirgoviste. Being fed up with the war taking more time then he expected, he sent the bloody sword to his cousing Géza, thus ordering him to gather his troops. On the map below, you can see the situation on the 26th of August, when the main Pecheneg army was moving toward Tirgoviste.

It was still August, when the King had a newborn daugher, Csilla.

Answer from Géza came on the 30th of August: his regiments were ready to go. Salamon ordered his two regiments to try and meet with the Pechenegs. Géza commanded only about 300 men, but the plan was to delay the Pagans until either the King or István could go and help them out

Their defeat was quick, and severe. During the last days of September, Géza, with his remaining 45 troops, were running back to his lands. Still, the King was determined to finish the sieges before going against the main army of his enemy.

On 1st of October, the northenmost province, Peresechen fell to Salamon, and he quickly marched south, pursuing the Pecheneg army. They met in Severin, and in the series of battles, Salamon routed the Pecheneg army by the beginning of December, altough he also lost many good men. With the last enemy threat defeated, it was time to finish this war.

Finally, as the King was becoming quite angry with the speed, István captured Turnu, again installed himself as Count, and moved to help his Liege.

During 1070, sieges of the last remaining Pecheneg provinces filled the King’s time. Not entirely, altough, as the birth of a daugher in November, named Ildikó, proves it.
And as it used to happen in those ages, the older daughter, Csilla, died within one month of her younger sister’s birth.
As the war itself had became a mere formality, Salamon turned his attention to his realm. In March of 1071, he ordered the building of a Court of Justice in Presburg, as a Thieves Guild was terrorizing the populace there. He also gave Tirgoviste to his Marshal, Levente. He had the plans of forming a Duchy of Wallachia later, and as he was his heir at that time, he wanted Levente to be the Duke.

On 26th of March, Count of Bergenshus married a young lady from the King’s court. Altough she was a talented administrator, Salamon decided such a marriage would raise his prestige.

Two months later, the King came to befriend a prisoner of his, a pecheneg noble, named Kaydum, that he appointed him not only to his court, but also as new Chancellor.

During December of 1071, the last Pecheneg province was under siege. Also, Salamon had enough money to create the Duchy of Wallachia, and gave it to Levente, his brother, and heir.
Also, he gave Birland to Lőrincz Pálóczi, a relatively new member of his court.

At last! 26th of September, 1072. The Pecheneg Tribe had became history.
Salamon created the Duchy of Torki, which was around the northeastern border of Transylvania, gave Pereschen to György of Pest, a courtier of his, Levente received the border province of Olvia. But Salamon kept Belgorod to himself, as he had dreams of a big Black Sea port. Also, after much thinking, appointed Kelemen, Count of Marmaros to be the Duke of the freshly created Duchy of Torki. Here is a map of how the region looked like after the end of the war:

So this is how Hungary gained a huge piece of land under the rule of Salamon. For him, now it was time to let the regiments be refilled, improve the provinces, and trying to have a son.

 

[Tamas]

Part2: Opportunities


With the regiments sent home, and Salamon back at the capital, it was time to decide the future.

First, he wanted to focus on his demense. He had been spending nearly all of his money to build new buildings, whenever he had enough.
He intended to continue this way. The question was: which class of the populace to give power to, if any? As he both needed tax income and prestige, he decided to leave alone the the peasants and the nobles.
Giving more power to one meant less for the other. The same was the case with the burghers and the clerics. However, Salamon felt, he must prove his dedication to the Church.
Thus, he -altough only marginally- raised the power of the clergy in all of his provinces, through various decrees.

On the longer run, Salamon basically had two choices: enjoy his high prestige among the rulers, take it to his grave so it would serve the fame of the Árpáds for generations to come, or sacrifce it by engaging in "digging up" dubious claims so he could leave more lands for his successor, who could use that to achieve more glory and fame. Seeing the conquest of the Pechenegs, it isn't hard to figure out, that he choosed the latter.

Who could be a target? To the west laid the Kingdom of Germany. A dangerous enemy. The various Dukes might leave their attacked brother alone, but if not, it would had been a too dangerous enemy to overcome. The same was true for Byzantium, the powerful southern neighbor. It was a bit unstable, but it could call up a huge force. Salamon was eager to try his power against the Emperor's, but it was not the time for it.
He also did not choose Croatia. A relatively rich country, definetly weaker then Hungary, and this was the reason why Salamon let them alone. He thought it would not worth the loss in prestige and reputation. Instead, he decided to keep an eye on the Croatian King's family, for a lucrative marriage possibility The very same was true for Gallich, the Principality to the Northwest. With a long war, it could had been conquered, probably, altough they were stronger then the Pechenegs. But in Salamon's opinion, it did not worth it.

All in all, it left Poland as the only target. A strong neighbor with rich lands, with their King's huge demense bordering Hungary. It was the perfect aim of conquest for Salamon: a challenge, with the promise of big rewards. A few nice counties, and maybe later, the Polish throne itself!

But the military wasn't in a perfect shape, however in better then what Salamon expected, thanks to the good economical situation of most of his provinces.
Still, he decided he would wait until 1076, and in the meantime, keep an eye on the neighbors, in case a good opportunity would arise.

In April of 1073, he sent an offer for the Prince of Gallich, to become Salamon's vassal. But before the answer came, a terrible tragedy happened, which caused great grief in the Kingdom: Jutta, the King's wife died while trying to give birth to their child. The newborn died with his mother. Salamon did not have much time for mourning the loss. He needed a son, thus, he needed a new wife.

The Prince of Gallich rejected Salamon's offer of protection. It was not a suprise: both the Prince and his Chancellor were excellent diplomats.

However, it came as a great suprise that the King of Poland, using a "legitimate" claim on a county in Gallich declared war on the Principality, on the 9th of May, 1073.
This was an opportunity which should not be missed. Salamon called up his regiments, and started to move to the Polish border.
In the meantime, while his armies were on the move, he officially laid claims on the counties of Sacz and Cieszyn.

During a couple of days in the middle of July, there was a big battle at Sacz, as the Polish King tried to drive away the forces of Gallich. But his forces were defeated, so the time was percect for Salamon's declaration of war. He did so on the second day of August. On the same day, he laid claim on Krakowskie. Below is the map of the are which would saw the majority of the fighting, showin the situation during the battle at Sacz.

On 23rd of January, 1074, Cieszyn fell to the Hungarians, while the armies of Poland and Gallich, both with the strentgh of app. 1200 men, were watching each other at their border. Salamon had around a 1300 men, so, instead of taking the battle with the Poles, he decided to move against Krakow, hoping that the Prince of Gallich would also start an offensive.

One month later, the situation was quite interesting: Salamon was besieging Krakow with 1300 men. South of him, a Polish army of almost 1000 were trying to take Cieszyn back, while a Polish regiment of a little more then 500 men, marched to yet unknown destination. Naturally, Gallich used this, and once again laid siege on Sacz. Salamon thought it was time to crush the main Polish army, as it seemed that the forces of Gallich would not do this for him. Thus, he abandoned the siege, and move south.

Fighting around Cieszyn lasted through the last week of March, but the Polish general, Warko, after seeing his men starting to loose, retreated. The decision was questionable, as the 500 men strong Polish regiment reached Krakow earlier, and at that time were moving south to help. But who knows, they would had arrived to take part of the rout of their defeated comrades, so one can not tell for sure, wether it was a good decision or not. But it certainly changed the course of the war.

And the worse was yet to come. Due to Polish manouvers in April, and the first two weeks of May, the rest of May and most of June saw an equal force of Hungarians and Poles in a series of bloody battles in the province of Krakowskie. It was an exciting battle, the Poles were led by the Polish Marshal, while the Hungarians were commanded by Salamon himself. The Poles badly needed to drive the Hungarians away, to get some breathing place, while the Hungarians needed to eliminate their enemy's main army. Thus, retreat was no option for either of them.
And when the last battle took place on the 17th of June, after the dust settled, only the red-white flag of the Árpáds was seen above the battlefield. More then a thousand Polish fighters were killed or captured. But the Hungarians also lost more then 600 men, the half of their forces.

The decisive battle between two Kings had ended. The King of Poland were clearly defeated. But most of his vassals had not been called up to help, neither the Hungarian counts raised their flags to help their liege. Salamon won the battle, but the war was yet to be won.

 

[Tamas]

Part3: The twists of fate

While still being busy with the war, Salamon sent a few of his trusted men, to ask the hand of Ippolita diParma, a courtier in the court of the Count of Ferrara.
She was a lovely 24 years old lady, but even more importantly, she was a very skilled diplomat.
The Count said yes, thus on the 30th of July, 1074, Salamon was married again!
While he was celebrating, the siege of Krakow was under way, but it went quite slowly, but at least, its fall seemed assured.

Until October. At that time, the 3 Polish Counts bordering Krakow from the west and the north, issued the call to arms, to help their liege. All of them sent their regiments, a strength of more then 3000 men against Salamon's army. It was not a question that the Hungarians needed to retreat, until they could meet up with their own reinforcements. Here is how it looked like, and it wasn't a pretty sight:

Salamon, immediately after receiving news of this huge force coming against him, called the Counts of Nitra, Gemer, Saris, and Orava to join the army. They were all relatively close to Poland, and they had a good amount of troops.
But he was a little late.He was pursued through Krakowskie by the Poles, and he was forced to retreat west, to Upper Silesia, thus, to enemy territory.

By the 11th of November, the situation was grim. Salamon, with his 400 men, were marching through Bohemia to avoid enemy regiments. He was fortunate so far to avoid contact with the 900 men regiment of the Duke of Silesia, stationed north of him, on Lower Silesia.
The huge Polish army divided into three roughly equal parts. One of them was guarding Krakow, but after the second group drove the regiments of Gallich from Sacz, this first group moved there to help in the siege.
In Cyeszin, the third group defeated half of the new Hungarian regiments, which were already there.

Salamon had been working hard to carve out a glorious kingdom for his dynasty, yet, it seemed at that time that God did not let him to have his own bloodline continue. His new wife, Ippolita, still pregnant, died in illness on the 16th of March, 1075. Salamon still had no son.

Was the military situation improving? Not really.Salamon had app. 1600 troops which he could lead to help out his besieged men in Cyeszin. The Poles had around 1000 men there, but another thousand of them were around the siege of Sacz. In the last two months, intense fighting took place there between the forces of the Polish King, and the Prince of Gallich. Altough the Poles lost more then a thousand fighters, the army of Gallich was eliminated.
Salamon decided he tries to win the war without further assistance from his vassals. Once again, he moved against Cyeszin.

In the following months of 1075, through a marvelous victory at Cyeszin, and further military movements, he was able to once again destroy the Polish army. The new year found him once again besieging Krakow.
His victories allowed Gallich to continue their war, but they had so few troops left, their hopes for a good peace were scarce.

Salamon got once again married in December. The bride was the daugher of a local noble. He did not waste time with looking for a good spouse. He needed kids.

Krakow fell on the 13th of August, 1076. After moving in to the city, Salamon sent a peace offer to the Polish King: he only wanted the Count title of Cyeszin, but his enemy promptly declined. There was no choice, but to continue the war. The Polish King had a demense of 4 provinces. 2 of these were under the control of Salamon, and 1 under the control of Gallich. Salamon moved west to capture the fourth.

But the previous 8 months were not without events: the King had to decide about the education of his only child, Ildikó. She was sent to get educated in court matters. In the meantime, Salamon used the huge amount of money he received as royal marriage aids to build buildings in all of his provinces.

On the 30th of October, Salamon's new wife gave birth to a... stillborn child. Salamon's fate was truly mixed: on a height of his military successes, his private life was a complete failure.

Peace with Poland was signed on the 7th of May, 1077. Salamon became Count of Cyeszin, and the years of bloodshed ended. It was well in time for the Hungarian King. His Counts who had their troops with him were becoming more and more angry, and he did not want to deal with a rebellion.

When he returned to his capital province, Pest, a road network was already completed there, and an even more extensive one was under construction.

Had seen enough chaos and destruction, he decided to devote the following decade to building, peace, and prosperity.

 

[Tamas]

Part4: The peaceful years

The following is a quick run-through of the peaceful years which followed the war with Poland, to let us concentrate on general development of events concerning Salamon.
Naturally, during all these years, Salamon had to make decisions: about province improvements, and the occassional conflicts between the various classes in his provinces. However, these were only changing the events indirectly, and we focus on the main happenings.

With a severly depleted army, a slightly tarnished reputation, and some angry vassals on the northern border, Salamon was happy to stay home and devote his time for the peaceful improvement of his Kingdom

The world was not so peaceful, though, but the fate of Europe was not changed drastically. The strongest fighting took place on Iberia, between Leon and two muslim countries.

But it was more important for Salamon, that in February of 1079, Byzantium and Croatia went into war, after the Emperor moved to capture a province he had a claim on.

In August, William, King of England was able to gain a foothold in southern Ireland by capturing a county there, which was even expanded in December, when he made peace with the Duke of Munster, taking the Duchy for himself.
During this time, Salamon was buys improving his provinces. He gave first priority to Courts of Justice, to could fight against thiefs.

In October of 1080, another interesting news reached the court: Sweden attacked a Danish county, thus provoking war between the two kingdoms, and Vladimir, Prince of Suzdal managed to unite the Duchies of Suzdal and Ryazan, through war.

In May of next year, Duke of Gallich finally made peace with Poland. Not just that he made the Polish King yield his claims on the Duke of Galich (including the Duchy itself), but received two counties.

This made Salamon to send an other envoy with the offer of vassalization. The Duke had a couple of claims on Hungarian counties, so he wanted to keep the man in bay.
Alexandrii, ruler of Galich declined Salamon's offer, as it was expected. The King's wife, who was also his Spy Master, suggested to assasinate the Duke, hoping that his 9 years old son would be more willing to accept Salamon as his liege. Salamon was tempted by the idea, but since Alexandrii, the Duke, was already 51 years old, he decided to wait.

In March of 1082, Byzantium and Croatia signed a white peace. It was certainly a success for Croatia, as the Emperor wasted lots of prestige on claiming the Croatian throne, during the war. But his treasury was empty, so really no one can blame him for stopping the war.

Other countries were not so lucky. Following the muslim conquest of the King's provinces, the Kingdom of Leon collapsed. It's western part became ruled by the Duke of Braganza, while the rest of the territories became independent counties. Which of them would have enough prestige and power to claim the throne seemed uncertain.

Years came and years passed by. In the years following years, there was only one scandalous event, but it was huge: In 1085,Salamon sent an assasin to kill the new Duke of Galich, a 13 years old boy, but the assasin was caught, and Salamon's involvment was discovered. The Pope was outraged, and condemned the Hungarian King. Also, the young Duke proclaimed that because of this sinful act, he now had claim on the throne of Hungary. He did not have a chance to succed, but it was troubling, as this claim was to pass on his successor.

Despite getting older, Salamon did not cease to try and extend his power. In 1086, the King of Croatia was a 17 years old boy. He had a 27 years old relative in his court, Slavich Trpirimovitch, who had a legitimate claim on the throne. He seemed like a perfect husband for Salamon's daughter, Ildikó, who recently turned. 16. The Croatian King, Dragshan, accepted the marriage, and the young couple were living in the Hungarian court. Now it was just a matter of finding a powerful enough title for Slavich. Sadly, Salamon had no available Duchy titles near to Croatia. So he had to wait.
And Slavich, beside being such a skilled soldier that Salamon appointed him Marshal, was suffering from Illness, so despite his initial joy over the marriage, the King could not hope for much.

1087 was a sad year. Dysentery appeared in Esztergom, and was spreading.
It was also in this year that the old Pecheneg Chancellor of Salamon died. He served well, and was mourned by his King.

It must be noted, that both Salamon, his brother Levente, and their cousins, Géza and László were becoming old. It was evil joke of fate that among them, only László had a legitimate son so far. So it seemed, that the throne would pass from Salamon to Levente, and from him either to Géza, or László, depending on wether Géza could live to see the death of Levente.

One year later, in 1088, the King's wife died. Still not giving up the hope for a son, he started to look for a wife for the fourth time in his life.
One year later, shortly after Bulgaria became an independent Kingdom, he choosed the 16 years old daughter of Bulgarian Count. The father, naturally, was happy to accept the marriage.
The new wife, Theopano, like the former one, became Spy Master.

Theopano gave birth to a daughter in 1090, who was named Dorottya. It was very hard for Salamon to hide his sadness over the fact, that he expected a son.



And at last! On 13th of July, 1091, Theopano gave birth to a son! Salamon named him Ödön, and hoped that he would live to take the throne from him.

In 1092, the terrible disease of Small Pox appeared in some territoires, and it spread to northern Hungary. Fearing that her children might get this disease contributed for the fact that Theopano had became more and more Stressed.

During this time, some council members urged Salamon to look for a room of expansion, to bring back the glory days of victories and conquest. But it is clear that the King was happy to pester his country and children. His brother, and Géza, Duke of Temes could receive claim on the throne when he dies, and he did not want to waste the troops which Ödön could need to defend his heritage.

Other rulers did not pursue such peaceful aims as he, of course. The most noticeable exeption was Wratislaw, who not so long ago proclamied himself King of Bohemia, and now was conquering Stettin and the coast around it. He was so succesful, that around the middle of 1093, he was able to found the Duchy of Pomerania. Also, in the the early 1090s, the Italian Dukes were involved in various wars against each other, but they were fighting mostly for money.

Salamon's second son, Bernát, borned on the 16th of March, 1093. Now, the continuation of his bloodline seemed assured, but the poor infant did not live to see his first birthday.

The was a county in Germany, west from Hungary which had became independent, ruled by a Swedish noble. Salamon thought, this was a very easy target, and a perfect spot for Slavich Trpirimovitch.
He called up two of his regiments, and declared a claim on the province, which was called Karnten.
Just to make the King even more happier then he was after realizing the above possibility, his wife gave birth to yet another son. They named him Bernát, after his recently died brother.
Declaration of War against Karnten came on the 1st of April. For someone who had seen so many battles as Salamon, this was an easy conquest. the Swedish Count was foolish to not swear allegiance to the King of Germany earlier. Peace was signed on the 3rd of September, and Salamon gave the county to Slavich. Here is a picture of the Hungarians on the move:

In the meantime, the Empire of Byzantium attacked Bulgaria. It was a war to be kept checked for Salamon.
Altough he still had not had the knowledge to build a port in Belgorod, his people there, by the end of 1094, mostly converted to Chatolicism. This just only made Salamon more determined to keep that province for himself and his heir.

The war between Byzantium and Bulgaria quite quickly became a standstill. the Emperor did not want to call up his vassals, and his personal troops were not enough to deal with the Kingdom of Bulgaria.

17 years passed since peace was made between Poland and Hungary. Salamon had placed his Kingdom on the right track, and inheritance seemed assured. Both Germany and Byzantium became weaker by the forming of the kingdoms of Bohemia and Bulgaria. Everything seemed to be allright.
But Salamon did not want to put down his sword.
On the 1st of January, 1096, the Pope called up all Christians for the Crusades, and Salamon became very enthusiastic. He saw the Crusades as his chance to once again be a conqueror, and to leave this world in glory. He called up his personal troops, and ordered a march to Belgorod, to embark on his greatest adventure!

 

[Tamas]

Part5: Crusader, or a fool?

By the end of March, Salamon gathered 2100 men on the coast of Belgorod. All along the way he was thinking, where to land?
The holy land was ruled by the Fatimids, a huge muslim kingdom. Among the alternatives, the best way seemed to be to reach Jerusalem as quickly as possible, before other Kings may think to heed the Pope's call.

So, upon closing on the shore with his rented fleet, he declared war on the Sheik of Acre. They landed on the 29th of June.

By 5th of August, the Sheik was defeated, and they started the siege, but was already down to 400 men! Salamon sent word to home, ordering the Duke of Temes, and his brother Levente, to join him with their armies.
Their troops (numbering a little above 1100) arrived to Belgorod in October. They came to receive the news: there is a huge fleet coming their way, wearing the flag of the Fatimids! The King of Fatimids, in a clever move, landed more then 4000 men in Belgorod!
The mustlims quickly changed from defense to invasion. Messengers with bloody swords rode through the country, calling into arms every noble.

It took until April of 1097 to drive them away. During the middle of the month, the still huge Fatimid army was moving to the coast through Bulgaria, and Levente, the King's brother, gave Belgorod to a French Countess.
There is a moral in this story: never go on a Crusade with a low number of troops.

In July, Salamon's nobles sent an army of 800 to reinforce their liege, while an other thousand went to attack the Fatimids in Egypt. They besieged a province at the coast. The remaining hungarian troops, more then 6000, remained in Hungary, in case of an other Fatimid sneak attack.

On 5th of September, Duke of Galich attacked the Count of Bereg, one of Salamon's vassal. Normally, the 6000 troops still in the country would be enough to easily defeat them, but now some of them had to be kept in reserve. So the generals decided to send two armies, each with app. 1500 men against the evil Duke. That quickly turned out to be only one group of 1500 men, as the Fatimid army was about to debark in Croatia.
Here you can see a picture of Bereg, and the backstabbing agressor moving in to besiege:

Acre was conquered on the 8th of November, and Salamon moved on toward Jerusalem.

In December, Salamon's daughter, Ildikó, died while trying to give birth for her fifth child. But Salamon did not have time to mourn his loss. On the 27th, he suffered a crushing defeat near to Jerusalem. He fled to a ship with a few trusted men of his.

At least, the Fatimid army was destroyed on the Croatian border by January, with a series of huge battles. It was a crucial victory, but more then 3500 Hungarian were lost. The remaining 1500 or so moved against Galich. The country's manpower was seriously depleted.

Because of his initial mistake of not committing his full power, the crusading had became quite a burden on Salamon's shoulders. It was just now independent group of soldiers fighting for their life. In Gabiyaha, and in Acre.

The only good thing came from the Order of St. John. This new order asked for fief from Salamon in May, 1098, and he gladly gave Acre to them.

All these losses depleted the manpower so dramatically, that Salamon neede peace. He did not dare to think what would happen, if either of his neighbors would attack at that time. So, he let the Duke of Galich to have Bereg, and disbanded his troops, except for an army to guard against a possible Fatimid invasion. It had around 1000 men. Here is the map of Hungary after the peace:

So, the crusade of Salamon last only two years, and ended in absolute disaster. If he had called up all of his troops, it could had ended an other way.

In November, 200 Teutonic knight joined Salamon, but he intended to keep them home, instead of crushing heathens. A few days later, the Fatimids offered a big amount of money for peace, and it was all Salamon hoped for.

Ending the disaster he called a crusade, he went back to internal matters. In March of 1099, he sent his second son, Bernát to have court education, realizing the boy's talent in diplomacy.

Already 57 years old, it was really time for him to maintain the peace, and prepare the realm to be passed on to his son.

 

[Tamas]

Part6: The last years

It was once again, a time fore peaceful building, and raising wealth.

The region itself was also quite peaceful, actually. Apart from occasionnal wars between various Russian Counts and Dukes, the biggest happening was that in a quick war, Byzantium conquered allo of Bulgaria by forcing its King to give up his realm as various Duke titles to the Emperor. It was about 3 years ago, that these two countries ended their long stalemate war. Now, Bulgaria was once again history.

Also, by 1103, when Salamon was 60, it was obvious that the fall of the Kingdom of Leon costed much for Christians. Nearl all of the peninsula had became Muslim territory, apart from a few Dukes and Counts still keeping Christianity there.

Three years later, in June of 1106, to make sure his son has some lands under his control, he gave the couny of Cyeszin, and the newly created Duchy of Pressburg to him.
By this, he let the 15 years old Ödön to choose his own wife.
It was also in the December of this year, that despite the King being already 65 years old, his still young wife gave birth to a son, Gyula.
It seems that for his elder years, Salamon found family happiness.


The English-Scottish war of 1109 made the King remember his one unfinished business: Galich. In July he re-stared his attempts to make the Duke join his realm.
On the 25th of October, Theopano, about to give birth to a child, died. It was one more, hopefully final slap from fate for Salamon. At that time, he was away in Esztergom, taking a look at the new kind of battering rams which were recently constructed there.

He was also about to have a grandchild, as his son married a young italian lady from Ancona. She gave birth to a girl, but neither of them survived. It was quite embarrasing for Salamon's heir, that soon after this tragic event, an unknown woman gave birth to his bastard son.

Next year, in February, it was time to give a title for his second son, Bernát, who turned 16. Salamon wanted to avoid the loss of prestige which comes from having one's sons demoted to courtiers.
He gave Pressburg to the young boy.

Bernát brought a wife from Denmark, the daughter of a Danish Duke. It seems, by 1111, the Árpáds had been widely accepted in European courts.

As one more step for one day peacefully conquering Galich, Salamon arranged a marriage between his 16 years old daughter, Rózsa, and the 21 years old son of the Duke of Galich.

In June of 1113, Poland and Galich once again went into war with each other. But the 71 years old Salamon decided to stay out of it. Altough he knew he was to old to have such ambitions, but he had been watching Byzantium, looking for a sign of weakness, a sign which yet had to come. But he often told his oldest son, to look to the south, when he would wear the crown.

In the February of 1116, Géza, the Duke of Temes, and cousin of Salamon died, and because of lack of living sons, his brother, László inherited his lands (including the Duke title), while a couple of nobles in the family, including Salamon's oldest son, received claims.

1 year later, on 19th of May, 1117, Levente, Salamon's brother, the one who was seen as an heir to throne for many years, died. He only had bastard sons, so Salamon inherited the titles of Duke of Wallachia, and Moldau (the latter was aquired by Levente on his own), the Count of Tirgoviste.
Salamon gave Tirgoviste and the Duchy of Wallachia to Máté Árpád, a courtier in his realm. He kept the Duchy of Moldau for himself.

And in less then 4 months, Salamon followed his brother. The great King died on the 1st of September, 1117, leaving a big realm, and a huge treasury to his son, Ödön. Salamon's other sons and grandsons received a claim to the throne.


Salamon went through a lot of things since 1066. He had his share of triumph and disaster, both on the battlefield, in the courtrooms of diplomacy, and in his private life. He was working devotedly on turning his kingdom into a major power, and succeeded in doing so. He was not able to become a real Crusader King, but maybe Hungary was not meant to be a crusader kingdom.

His son inherited a kingdom which was stable, but as in every feuadl kingdom, the family ties and claims presented an ever-present danger to safety and peace. Would Ödön be able to keep his throne, find a suitable wife, and have sons to continue the bloodline? It was up to the next generation of Árpáds to decide.