Chapter 85: The Quadricentennial Cometh (1260-1267)
‘Götterdämmerung’: artist unknown, c. mid-18th century, Imperial Gallery, Nygarðr. As four centuries of the Rurikid dynasty approached, quadricentennial cultists began to conjecture and spread rumours of the Twilight of the Gods. Stories and artwork depicting the Götterdämmerung became increasingly pervasive and doomsday-type cults (perhaps absorbing some of the still-pervasive Christian myths concerning the Apocalypse and End of Days) became increasingly alarmist. Some of the darker elements gravitated towards the darkest of them all: the Hel Worshippers. [Leonardo AI, Phoenix 1.0, prompt only, 'first take']
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‘Götterdämmerung’: artist unknown, c. mid-18th century, Imperial Gallery, Nygarðr. As four centuries of the Rurikid dynasty approached, quadricentennial cultists began to conjecture and spread rumours of the Twilight of the Gods. Stories and artwork depicting the Götterdämmerung became increasingly pervasive and doomsday-type cults (perhaps absorbing some of the still-pervasive Christian myths concerning the Apocalypse and End of Days) became increasingly alarmist. Some of the darker elements gravitated towards the darkest of them all: the Hel Worshippers. [Leonardo AI, Phoenix 1.0, prompt only, 'first take']
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Norwegian Claim War
By the late 1250s, the Kingdom of Noregr had become a disjointed realm of islands and enclaves. Little of its original core territory remained under the Norwegian crown – most of it had been gradually absorbed by Russian marcher lords over the centuries. Then in November 1260, Emperor Toste IV decided to end the saga by pursuing a claim on behalf of a vassal subordinate to the Jomsviking Warchief, one Chief Hysing Sleggja of Blois, against his kinsman the current King Sumarliði Sleggja, whose capital was on the North Sea island of Hjaltland.
In order to ensure a victory in the war would bring Noregr into the Rurikid Empire, in March 1261 Toste created a ‘junk’ kingdom title, for Pomerania and allocated it to Hysing. This made Hysing both very grateful and bound him to the Empire if his claim was sustained.
The Irish levy was used to move across a couple of straits to besiege Orknö from May 1261. Another army took the main fleet to Iceland (Island) in February 1261, arriving in Vestlandet in April. They would fight three battles in Iceland through to August, while the fall of Husavik castle in Austisland in September signalled the end of the war.
Two mini campaigns were fought to take the barony of Lillebone in Rouen and Yatvyagi in the east. In all, field and siege losses were minimal. Sumarliði surrendered after less than a year on 25 September 1261. The Kingdom of Noregr would live on under Hysing, but as part of the Russian Empire.
Norwegian Claim War of 1260-61, campaign map.
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Byzantine Civil War of 1261-62
In a return to the ‘good old days’, the again-allied Byzantine Empire was wracked by another revolt in 1261 and a few weeks later the Russian were called on for support. Naturally, Toste agreed, though did not do anything much early on to assist directly. After all, the revolt was localised to the east of the Basileus’ lands, he had a clear advantage in numbers and the Russians were focused on the early stages of the Norwegian Claim War at that time.
In July 1262, with the war dragging on, the liege levies of Wallachia and Aquitaine (the capital then conveniently located in Eilat) were mustered to assist. This eventually allowed the rebel’s capital in Palmyra to be added to the three existing sieges, but no headway was made over the next month before Neophytos suddenly negotiated the surrender of Doux Phokas in November 1262.
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Vassal and Foreign Affairs
As had been the case for many years, the Russian vassals (including second and even third tier lords) were busy either fighting each other (there were a great many internal demarcation wars, most not reported here) though also foreigners, whose land they coveted for themselves and the glory of the Rurikid Norse Germanic Empire.
After a good start to his campaign, King Klas of Wallachia suffered a major setback in March 1262 in his Holy War for Trebizond. Khagan Yeke sent a large army back from the east of over 35,000 men who defeated a Wallachian force of around half that strength in eastern Anatolia. Klas remained ahead (+13% warscore), but his lead – and ability to take more Mongol holdings) had been significantly constrained.
A raid of Aksum was interrupted in October 1262 when troops from Greater Poland arrived as part of a border war they were waging against the Suhailids. For a period, the Imperial Guard army there was enlisted to help with the Polish sieges. They would return to raiding when the Poles moved onto their next target.
In dynastic news, young King Öysteinn of England became bound to the Emperor with the consummation of his betrothal to Toste’s daughter Saga in October 1262.
[Image from Leonardo AI, Phoenix 1.0]
Another Russian marcher lord – the first among equals, King Þorbjörn of Irland – declared war on Khagan Yeke in January 1263. And the two could call on almost exactly the same number of men to fight for them! The struggle for Samarkand, where Þorbjörn had some extensive nearby holding – would be an interesting one.
Old King Hysing of Noregr only had a couple of years to enjoy his new privileges before he died quietly in bed, succeeded by his son Hemming. He was soon invited to Nygarðr to celebrate with his Fylkir at one of his private feasts.
As had been hoped after the distribution of titles after the Great Holy War for Greece, King Sumarliði II of Burgundy had launched a de jure war for the rest of Thessalia and in September 1265 he finally won it, making the borders in the area far tidier.
In a rather momentous development, Skotland was brought under the control of the English-backed claimant the new King Hvitserk in February 1266. The last of the old Norse realms had been absorbed (albeit leaving Toste three over his vassal limit and unable to reduce the number).
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Raid and Revolt
Throughout these years, the main money-making arm of the Rurikid military – the Guard/Jomsviking standing army – continued its semi-permanent raiding of the Middle East, Arabia, Egypt and Ethiopia. Its many targets, loot and casualties are summarised at the end of the section.
Half the Guard army based in the Caucasus after the end of the Byzantine Civil War of 1261-62 then raided in nearby Semender from May 1263 to February 1264. The others half moved east to Urgench – on the south of the Aral Sea – to raid and also be present in case the Irish might need any help with their Holy War against the Mongols for Samarkand. They would stay from December 1263 until August 1265, by which time the Semender contingent had joined them.
By March 1266 it became clear the Irish were handling things well enough themselves, so the 13,700 men of the Guard army then stationed north of the Aral Sea began returning to Constantinople. Soon after this, as we saw above, a major Egyptian Liberation Revolt had broken out in Pelusia on 30 March 1266. The 10,800 men raiding in Hebron under General Arngrimr finished there on 2 May and began heading to Egypt to deal with the rebels. A few days later, around 5,600 men were detached from the army raiding Dotawo to march north, to ensure the 13,700-odd rebels would be outnumbered.
The two contingents carefully coordinated their approaches to Pelusia to ensure they would arrive on the same day. Unfortunately, the castle of Tinis had fallen the month before but on 11 July 1266 the hammer of vengeance fell on the rebel army. While a convincing victory was won by 7 August, Russian casualties were more than token.
[Image from Leonardo AI, Phoenix 1.0]
After this battle, Arngrimr’s army (not the other raiding detachment sent to Pelusia, which then headed to Buhairya) began redeploying all the way to Anatolia – a long march that may eventually end in support for King Klas’s continuing Holy War for Trebizond, which dragged on still. Of note, during the entire six-year period up to early 1267, not a single peasant rebellion occurred across the vast expanse of the Russian Empire.
Raiding had continued in Tabuk, Medina, Semien and Aksum in late 1261. Various armies in different combinations then ranged around the Middle East and either side of the Red Sea (in addition to the ‘northern raiders’ in Semender and Urgench) for the following five years.
By January 1267, there were raiding armies hunting in pairs (for mutual support if needed) in Buhairya, Nubia, Sanaa and Al-Akhaf. Only one ‘clearing engagement’ had been fought during the time, in Kassala – quite a sharp engagement with comparable casualties on both sides). Arngrimr’s army was still on the march to Anatolia.
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Domestic Affairs
Factionalism at the Imperial level remained almost negligible throughout these years – the vassals more made up for this within their own subordinate kingdoms! One thing that had been dragging on for years now was the family feud between Toste and his estranged half-sister and bitter rival Princess Halla, who had initiated a death plot against Toste that had been reciprocated (with a spectacular lack of success).
In November 1261, this ugly disagreement again came into view with news from the spymaster that two lower tier vassals had discovered Toste’s latest murder plot and were trying to blackmail him. On inquiry, it also appeared his daughter-in-law (and niece) Princess Markia had recently joined Halla’s plot: perhaps no surprise, given Halla was her mother! She would probably cease soon, but Toste decided enough was enough. He decided to short-circuit the blackmail attempts by ending the plot, knowing Halla’s attempt was highly unlikely to ever succeed anyway – and risked him being branded a kinslayer even if it did.
Later that year, with the Norwegian and Byzantine Wars out of the way, Toste once again attempted to fulfil the ambition of maintained realm peace for the next five years. By January 1267 – the Rurikid quadricentenary – that ambition was still alive (the Egyptian revolt apparently not having invalidated it).
Despite bribes and the extraction of favours, in early 1263 Toste could not convince the Germanic Chief Antiochus of Baalbek (who became independent after the end of the latest Byzantine Civil War) to become a vassal of Russia. It would just have to wait – perhaps a marcher lord might try, as Toste remained unwilling to trigger the world-spanning defensive pact, even briefly, for such a small prize.
Toste did however continue his program of carousing as a tool of state to keep as many of his powerful vassals happy with his rule as he could. Though a majority remained distracted by internal wars for most of the time. In October 1263 he forced a white peace between Germany and England just so he could invite a number of lords involved in the war to carouse instead! One was his new son-in-law, the King of England.
[Image from Leonardo AI, Phoenix 1.0]
During this time, even with periodic increased replacement costs for slain raiders from the Imperial Retinue or new companies being raised, the monthly budget surplus was often around 60-70 gold. A nice addition to the massive Viking looting industry.
The Imperial Council was very loyal during the period, even as members came and went over time. King Þorbjörn of Irland remained in opposition in the sole ‘grandfathered’ Advisor slot remaining. Every so often, Toste would renew ‘loyalty payments’ to keep other well-disposed.
Two more ‘prison recruits’, both Greeks, were released in August 1266. One, Aikaterene, was a highly skilled financial manager. The other, Epiphania, was a Germanic convert and a renowned negotiator. Toste took her as a concubine, sent a gift and then replaced his (somewhat offended) daughter Alvör with her as Chancellor!
Building Program
As noted, a huge building program was pursued from 1261-66 in either the recently acquired counties or after technological developments in the ‘old counties’ of Russia, France and Spain.
In Prusa, where the Barony of Docimium had been obtained after the Greek War, there was confusion with some infrastructure ‘accidentally’ built in the similar-sounding county capital of Daricium (highlighted yellow below) for the lucky local owner. Docimium itself gained a couple of military upgrades.
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Court and Personal News
Other than his new-found reputation for cruelty, in May 1261 Toste had one of those periodic encounters with the Bringer of Light Himself … the mysterious Traveller. From that time, the Fylkir embraced his religious duties even more seriously than he had to date. It may also have led into the later display of cruelty against the infidel rebel leader in Egypt. [In fact it did, as there was some RP in that later interaction involved
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The home front remained largely quiet for the next four years, until the now zealous Toste decided to both mend his relationship with the Empress and finally convert her from her mistaken Tengrist heresies. As it often did, money came first. That, and the benefits of finally sharing her Fylkir (as Sea King) husband’s religion, did wonders for their relationship, far outweighing any irritation at being forced to convert.
Be that as it may, Toste continued to indulge the wilder side of life when, in addition to his zealotry, cruelty and adoption of a Greek prisoner as his concubine and Imperial Chancellor, he took on a young lover in August 1266. A Skottish princess who shared his puny physique and penchant for cruelty! And a rival to his own daughter Saga … the Queen of England.
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