Chapter 3: Feast and Famine (1041 – 47)
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A Wedding, Two Funerals, Two Births and a Blot (1041-43)
Hroðulfr’s next priority was to find a bride for young Crown Prince Toste. This he did as 1041 was ending. Ingibjörg was considered ‘the best filly of a poor herd’. She was a young widow who already had a son from her first marriage – which proved she was fertile. Toste would be expected to ‘get cracking’ soon to produce a new heir.
The first funeral of 1042 was of the despised Suni ‘the Seducer’ of Danzig. In the end, a murder plot wasn’t needed: his own dissolute habits saw him die a young man – from gout, rather than a vengeful husband.
The new Italian Raid began on 1 May 1042 when the Imperial army landed in Rome to sack the Pope’s home – again. His garrison had taken the field, but Sigbjörn’s raiders cared little. The Papal troops were massacred.
Many thought the formidable old Jarl Frirek had this time bitten off more than he could chew when he launched a prepared invasion of Aquitaine in mid-1042. Queen Tiburge fielded a large army. But they were all of them deceived!
In Rome, the sacking of the Pope’s castle yielded a very fine artefact in late June. Had it not been for the even better ‘Champion’ armour already crafted by the Rurikids some years before, it would the splint mail armour would have been equipped promptly. Instead it would be kept in reserve and perhaps bequeathed to a Rurikid son if he ever had need of it.
Two births came at once for Toste, with Ingibjörg (herself a twin) producing twins in January 1043. However, the boy Arni was sickly at birth and there were concerns the possible future emperor may not survive his infancy.
As Frirek continued to prosecute his ambitious war against Aquitaine, in early 1043 King Þorolfr of Sviþjod brought his own holy war for Lower Lorraine to a successful conclusion, reducing the Christian enclave in eastern France still further, bringing Metz under his and Rurikid control. Þorolfr soon created a new Jarldom to fold his conquest into.
The following month, Jarl Hroðulfr Yngling of Brabant succeeded in his conquest of Kleve as his rival and vassal Bertil sought to do the same to neighbouring Münster.
This must have all been too much for the jealous Jarl, who then turned his wrath once more on his mortal enemy, thus perpetuating the Brabantian Troubles, the enforced Realm Peace having expired some time before.
Having looted 612 gold out of Rome from May 1042 to May 1043, the raiders next turned their attention to Venice, once more attacking and easily defeating a defending army before settling down to their work.
Despite being attacked by his own liege, Bertil still managed to win his holy war for Münster in August 1043. His army then turned to confront his Jarl’s similarly sized host then besieging Hainaut to the south-west.
And the reports from Jarl Frirek in Aquitaine were very promising. Despite Queen Tiburge’s sizable army and six allies having come to her aid, Frirek had mustered a force of over 30,000 men, most of them adventurers. He currently had three large armies ranging through Aquitaine against little opposition.
On the diplomatic front, the Fylkir decided to reach out to the Roman Basileus in Constantinople that September, seeking to improve relations by sending his Chancellor Jarl Bersi the Brave to the capital of the other great empire as a resident ambassador extraordinary.
In France, the danger of disease reared its head in Mortain, with the outbreak of an epidemic of consumption in October 1043, even as the force of Jarl Öysteinn the Great of Orleans mustered to once more come to the aid of his old friend Bertil Skáld of Hainaut.
But just the following month, old Bertil would finally die – another victim of a depraved and dissolute lifestyle. His very young son Ormr inherited Hainaut from him, his other holdings being dispersed among two of his even younger brothers. But Jarl Hroðulfr’s war continued, as did the Brabantian Troubles.
At court, late 1043 had seen the once-in-nine-years celebration of another Great Blot, ending without incident at the end of December.
Marcher Lords Rule (1044-45)
The next marcher lord success in France came to Warchief Surt, whose holy war for Bourbon saw Duke Raimbaut evicted in March 1044.
The extraordinary run of marcher lord success continued when in October of that year, Chief Ivar of Mâcon won a feeding frenzy among his colleagues to take Forez and a nice new nickname. He had been lucky enough to capture Duke Bernard IV of Burgundy in battle at the end of September, leading to his capitulation soon after.
But the biggest windfall came to Jarl Frirek when he emerged victorious against Aquitaine, carving five rich counties out of that unfortunate Kingdom. Small Lothian had suddenly become a major power in southern France and added a new raiding base for the Rurikids in the Western Mediterranean. All without the Emperor needing to lift a finger.
The peaceful vassalisation of Frirek into the Empire some years before and the recent policy of letting the marcher lords do the heavy lifting of expansion was paying very handsome dividends. Meanwhile, the raiders in Venice emerged with another 566 gold there in March 1044 and would secure another 386 from Padua by the end of December.
Three more Retinue companies were raised in February 1045, this time bolstering the archer and light infantry components, for more balance. One skirmish and two light skirmish companies began training in Holmgarðr.
The Emperor was still growing his own brood of children, with another son – his eighth child and seventh still living – that March. Young Borkvard was to be prepared for a life of struggle.
In April, the Fylkir used his sizeable contingency fund to support a charitable donation for the poor. This magnanimous gift from the public purse was well regarded by his vassals.
The end of May brought yet more marcher lord success, the ever-active King Þorolfr this time adding Mainz to his demesne as the Rurikid infiltration of Germany continued.
Chancellor Bersi’s mission to Constantinople bore some initial fruit in July 1045, though the improvement in relations came with Basilissa Dorothea rather than her husband; Bersi would persist.
With no event of great note recorded for the rest of the year, the main interest was on the raid, where Segna Jan-Jul, 307 gold) and Istria (Jul-Dec, 343 gold) were both thoroughly looted before the raiders headed to Ferrara for the last part of their great raid.
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A Bitter Winter (1046-47)
The year 1046 began with yet another episode in the long-running sore of Brabantian in-fighting. This time, one of Hrodulfr’s vassals declared a revolt in the name of the Jarl’s brother Guðröðr – though apparently without his permission. Guðröðr sided with his brother
against the revolt.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, a rare marcher lord failure followed, with the bellicose Jarl Hroðulfr of Brabant losing his holy war for Upper Lorraine on 11 May. Then in June, a legend passed with the death of Jarl Frirek. His son Knut inherited the significant (though still war-ravaged) holdings in France but not his father’s huge army.
Ferrara yielded 249 gold to the Rurikid raiders in May, after which they took to their ships for the return to Amalfi. They would arrive on 2 July with a massive 2,463 gold in their treasure chests. The fleet then split, about 150 ships taking the army back to northern France, while the other 120-odd headed to the Gulf of Finland via the Russian river system to be ready to pick up the retinue troops preparing there. With another round of building commenced, the Imperial demesne was thriving in mid-1046, including the trade post in Tana.
The new Jarl of Lothian decided he would follow in his father’s footsteps, declaring a conquest of Nice in September. The raiding army was nearing northern France by then, meaning it would be an overland march to assist Knut, rather than a more convenient landing in friendly Provence. The raiders would skirt the continuing and expanding consumption outbreak and head to the staging area in Bourgogne.
The Emperor was greatly irritated when word came that November that a cousin, Hakon, was planning to raise an army for a claim on the imperial throne. Whispers at court that an ‘accident’ might befall Hakon appealed to Hroðulfr’s notorious cruel streak. A murder plot was soon under way – and heavily subscribed with willing accomplices.
Alas, one of the conspirators carelessly leaked news of the plot. Despite this, the Fylkir pressed on. He wanted the impudent Hakon – who he had come to detest – dead and his adventure snuffed out before it could cause any damage.
The raiding army, now under Magni’s command, arrived in Bourgogne on 9 December with 15,000 men and headed straight to Neuchatel, meaning to pass quickly across to Savoy, to assist Jarl Knut’s campaign. But the customary Rurikid care for logistics was neglected and, too late, the terrible conditions and lack of food in the snow-laden hills were recognised. On 1 January 1047, Magni turned his men around but it was too late. Three days before they made it back to the safety of Bourgogne, around 3,500 (22.5%) of the Empire’s elite soldiers had perished.
Then the plot against Hakon culminated in early February: it would be Hroðulfr’s favourite ploy – the manure bomb! But the success turned to ashes in the cruel Fylkir’s mouth: his part was revealed and he would henceforth be known not just as a murderer but a familial kinslayer at that! His large extended family would not be impressed.
The only unequivocally good news to emerge from this bitter winter was that Hroðulfr’s grandson Arni, now aged three, add overcome his sickly infancy and was now as healthy as the next toddler. Finally, sick of the distracting Brabantian Troubles, the Fylkir spent some prestige and a favour that was never likely to be called in by forcing the revolt leader Tyke to end the war and submit himself to Jarl Hroðulfr’s custody.
So ended a somewhat bitter winter after a run of bountiful years.
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Annex A: Religious Conversions. From December 1041 to September 1046, eight more counties were led to Odin’s light. Four in the steppe lands (Kyzyl-Kum, Karluk, Kazakh and Ili), two in Poland (Galindia and Plock) and one each in Finland (Finnmark) and France (Auxerre, converted by Seer Ale from the Waldensian heresy).
Annex B: Building. From May 1043 (three projects), April 1044 (two), August 1045 (one) to July 1046 (three more, after the end of the latest raid) a total of nine new buildings were paid for; thousands of gold from a mixture of tax income and loot. Three of these were for improved housecarl training grounds, the rest one each of a keep, barracks, militia training ground, castle shipyard, stables and training grounds. As an indication of the largesse that had gone into the long Rurikid building program, four of the Imperial demesne baronies were at the maximum development capacity for the technology of the time.