Chapter 83: Toste Strikes (1254-1257)
Norse Rurikid soldiers conduct a siege somewhere in Anatolia, c. 1256, as illustrated in the Nygarðr Tapestry. [Leonardo AI, Phoenix 1.0, from reference image]
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Greece: ‘The Great Settlement’, October 1254
Fylkir Toste IV’s victory in the Great Holy War for Greece in 1254 meant much land had to be parcelled out to his vassals – while the Fylkir would also keep the former East Roman capital and grand city of Constantinople as part of his personal demesne. After consulting a specially convened Þing, his decisions were promulgated throughout the realm on 1 October 1254.
In the end, the counties were handed out in de jure jarldom packets to various magnates. Wallachia received a slice of land that linked its existing Anatolian and Bulgarian territory. Lotharingia was given a first outpost in the Greek-Middle East region, as was England. The ‘colourful’ (ie lunatic cannibal) King Dag ‘Son of Hel’ of Burgundy was given two counties in Thessaly and holdings in a nearby independent Greek county.
The Kings of Irland, Sviþjod, Aquitaine and Bohemia were all given territory adjoining or near to some of their existing regional holdings. Soon afterwards, Basileus Chrysogonos destroyed the title of the Duchy of Thrace, only for King Valdemar to revive it as a jarldom in early 1255. The new recipients – as had been anticipated – created new Jarldoms of Achaia, Krete and Athens in the days following the Settlement. Naturally, this left seven very happy magnates, some overflowing with gratitude to their magnanimous Emperor.
As stated, Toste would take Constantinople for himself but as he was already one over his ‘accepted’ demesne size, he decided one would have to be sacrificed. Of the three (slightly) least prominent baronies he held, Pest was deemed to be a like-for-like swap in terms of location. It was bequeathed to King Rikulfr of Könugarðr, who owned some of the adjoining land.
The imposing Theodosian Walls would now belong to the Russian Emperor – a long-held dream. With plenty of development able to be made, a keep upgrade was the first begun. In the following year-and-a-half, the new administration would eradicate the local thieves’ guild and Toste sought to build it into a new ‘southern capital’ for the Empire.
After the Great Settlement was made, another survey was made of the top 16 magnates – three of these being temporary Revolt leaders, who also split the strength of their home kingdoms. This had pushed Aquitaine out of the top spot in favour of Irland, though they remained third among the permanent lords.
The ‘top tier’ sub-realms (with over 20,000 levies to their name) also included Sviþjod, Lotharingia, England, Könugarðr, Wallachia and Germany. All of whom had been boosted in the recent settlement. Burgundy and Bohemia should also improve their position once their own civil wars were over; one way or another.
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Revolts
One existing major revolt that played out through to April 1255 was the attempted Liberation of Arabia. December 1254 saw the first major battle of the campaign with a large battle in Aden between similarly sized armies. The Rurikid Guard soldiers won a tough but decisive victory. This was followed by a series of battle to the north, where retinue/Jomsviking armies defeated the Arabs in Al Jawf (to raise a siege of the Russian castle) in January 1255.
Another army defeated the rebels in Petra in February, while their comrades marched from Al Jawf to Khaybar to break another siege and crush the rebels on 14 April, leading to their surrender and the execution of the rebel leader.
Two weeks later, the expanded retinue capacity (some held over from before the Great Holy War) was used to build 18 new retinue companies: four shock, six cavalry, three housecarl, three skirmish and two defence retinues. This would add 4,450 men to the Imperial Guard (1,500 HI, 900 archers, 300 HC, 1,200 LC and 500 pikemen). The hiring cost was a little under 2,000 gold and the recruitment rate was increased to maximum speed, taking the monthly budget from -1.1 to -37.11 gold to cover training costs.
Peasant revolt in Lepiel carried over from 1254 was put down in May 1255 by levies who had been kept on after the end of the Greek War, after which they were finally able to demobilise. Another revolt in Marrakech lasted from 1 December 1254 to 18 July 1255, requiring a large Aquitanian levy to be marched all the way down through the Pillars of Hercules to deal with them.
By August 1255 Toste’s total available army size was 352,000 men; this had grown to almost 386,000 by April 1256. Still, peasants would still periodically revolt; they rose in Pereyaslavl in December 1256, eventually destroyed by a large levy on its way to another battle front in April 1257 after no local force was able to dislodge them. All the rebels were routinely hung on standing orders from the Fylkir.
A new rebellion in Trier broke out in April 1257 and when none of the powerful local lords had dealt with it by late December of that year, 10,000 men for the German vassal levy were mustered in nearby Nassau to do what their lords had not and were still on their way as the year ended. On the other hand, a rebellion in Moramar in July 1257 was swiftly dealt with by a combined force from Könugarðr and Ryazan leading to the end of the revolt (and its leader) by November.
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The Holy War for Nikaea
After the wind-down from the Great Holy War and the Arabian Liberation War, Russia dealt with sporadic revolts and built up its Imperial Guard as the recent gains were absorbed. Then in June 1256, the Mongols made a costly diplomatic error. Khagan Yeke had begun a defensive pact against Tibet (ie the Rashtrakuta Empire) but at the same time left the pagan pact against Toste. At a time his troop levels, especially among the original Horde) had fallen significantly due to recent losses. Yeke also had three pacts formed
against him by then.
Toste was ready to pounce on 20 June 1256 with the declaration of a Holy War for Nikaea – in effect the two isolated Mongol provinces in eastern Anatolia (a larger Great Holy War could not be declared for years yet).
The Guard would keep up its raiding activities in the Middle East to keep the treasury full after recent expenditures. An initial vassal mobilisation of almost 110,000 levies was made. More – from both the Imperial demesne and other vassals – would be made in coming days. The closest, based in Hungary and Wallachia would be the first to arrive in Constantinople.
Three days later, reports of the Mongol mobilisation in Anatolia began to come in. Some large and hostile (due to raiding) Byzantine armies were also in the area and could become an issue if they crossed paths with the coming Russian armies. Byzantium was at that time in a major war against Irland.
A week later, Yeke called his ally the Abbasid Caliph Nasr III into the war – but the Caliphate was no longer the power it had been decades before. Just to be on the safe side, an army of 14,000 Guardsmen that had been raiding Aksum was redeployed to Arabia to stand guard after it finished its latest siege on 17 July. They would not end up clashing with the outmatched Abbasids for the rest of the war.
By 19 July, the Mongols had mobilised around 38,000 troops in northern Anatolia. But most appeared to be heading east rather than west to the Nikaean front. On 6 August, the first of their armies was heading across the Caucasus through Byzantine territory towards Kakheti.
In the absence of any visible Mongol opposition, on 18 October 1256 the lead Russian army brushed aside a small Kakheti (a Byzantine vassal) force that had imprudently advanced into Constantinople. They made for Prusa while their comrades under Gandalfr made to cross the Bosporus and head to Kyzikos.
Both would arrive before the end of November to begin their sieges. A smaller army would be split off from Þorgil (who was suffering some attrition in Prusa) under King Sumarliði to invest Herakleia, arriving there in mid-December. At that time, the entire Mongol army seemed to be spread out from the eastern end of the Black Sea across to the north of the Caspian. Apparently they had more important business in Central Asia!
In February 1257, Russian armies had gathered to keep an eye on the Mongols, who never turned north to attack Russian territory. Two armies had continued east, while two more (totalling around 20,000 men) loitered along the eastern Black Sea coast. The Russians observed but did not engage.
The Mongols in the Caucasus had tuned back south and disappeared into the Anatolian hinterland, with the Russian armies followed at a distance in a staggered line of march. An accidental encounter and attrition were the main hazards there for now. By late May they had pushed aside another obstructing Byzantine vassal force (commanded by the Byzantine elective heir) in Lazike as they approached Mongol Anatolia along the Black Sea coast.
Those Mongol armies showed up in Anatolia just as General Kol was leading the advance from the east through Lazike. On 9 May, a Mongol army under Hetman Chormakhan made to attack the larger levy army in Prusa, where siege progress had already been made.
But Chormakhan turned around a few days later when around 5,100 troops from the reserve in Nikomedeia were sent to reinforce them. He turned east to rendezvous with the other army in Paphlagonia. It was interesting to see how much smaller these (non-reinforcing) horde armies were than their starting point (originally a total of around 78,000 between them).
As more Mongol holdings fell in Eastern Anatolia
[+45% warscore] Trapezous was besieged in June and by mid-July Chaldea by the Russian armies moving along the Black Sea coast from the east. A few days later, the main combined Mongol army had reappeared in Dorylaion and around 19,300 united under Chormakhan advanced on Kyzikos, even though slightly outnumbered.
A large part of the army in Prusa was sent to reinforce Kyzikos while freshly arrived troops in Constantinople were ordered to replace them in Prusa. This would cause the Mongols to baulk a second time, breaking off their advance and withdrawing to Ancyra.
In early September the sieges in eastern Anatolia had progressed and it looked like the Mongols would be forced to come to terms soon unless they turned things around. Chormakhan’s army was in Galatia by then and moved to attack the recently arrived Russian army in Amisos.
Russian armies from the east and west rushed to reinforce Amisos but still the Mongols continued their advance. The army coming from the Chaldea in the east was due into Amisos the day before battle was due to start. Those from the west would take longer.
On 20 September the Mongols were about to arrive in Amisos as two Russian armies made it to Paphlagonia, one of them also continuing on towards Amisos as the other laid siege. Then suddenly, the day they were due to arrive, the Mongols baulked and refused combat for a third time, heading back towards Ancyra. Not a single field battle had been fought between the two sides since the war started.
The fall of Adrianutherai in Kyzikos on 25 September was enough to convince Khagan Yeke to surrender, with a rather meek and polite letter accepting the proposed terms a week later. Both counties were transferred to the Warchief of the Jomsvikings – their first territory in the region. Except for the barony of Docimium (as a Holy War, the two chiefs could not be easily deposed on victory), which Toste held for himself.
The campaign had been a relatively bloodless one as the Russian levies converged from two directions to outmanoeuvre the Mongols a forcing them to break off attacks on three separate occasions. No field battle had been fought between the two sides, the only losses coming in the siege of Herakleia and some attrition. The Mongol position was always hamstrung by half their army heading to the east early on, never to figure in the campaign at all.
[Image from Leonardo AI, Phoenix 1.0, prompts]
A new keep was commenced straight away in Docimium – its possession made palatable to Toste’s vassals by a law change that had been enacted by Toste earlier (more on that later).
There followed a strange ‘after war’ phase where there was more serious combat against various Byzantine forces than there had been against the Mongols as the Russian armies returned to home territory to disband. First, a small Russian contingent was attacked by a larger Anatolian army in Prusa on 29 October, soon after returning there from Nikaea. They chose to take advantage of favourable terrain to hold out until reinforcements could assist them.
The arrival of the Russian levies marching from Nikomedeia on 10 November was enough to guarantee victory. In the following days, all levy armies returning would be disbanded.
And while that was happening, Khagan Yeke took out his frustrations by declaring a conquest of the independent minor state of Nikaea on 2 November. Only the minor states of Tyana and Theodosiopolis came to Nikaea’s aid.
To the east, the last two Russian armies were leaving the Caucasus when one of them ran into a Byzantine vassal army in Imeretia. The Russians simply rolled over them, the battle starting at 11,600 to 5,200 enemy troops on 14 November, with another 10,200 Russian levies arriving from Lazike to reinforce a day or two later. Only 30 Russian troops fell, with 1,500 Greeks killed. These armies would soon also be disbanded on home territory, with the last troops not dismissed until 19 December, bringing the post-war phase to an end.
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The Irish Conquest of Kroton
A number of internal and external Russian magnate wars were waged during this period, some of them large-scale but not reported in detail this narrative. For example, King Anundr eventually lost his civil war and was forced to adopt gavelkind inheritance laws on 30 August 1255. And on 26 October 1255, war broke out between Germany (21,000 levies) and England 20,500 men) over King Knut’s claim against the boy King Öysteinn. Both sides would call in allies and the war would still be going by the end of 1257. Toste generally avoided these conflicts, militarily and diplomatically.
In November 1255, King Þorbjörn ‘the Mutilator’ of Irland, then the leading Russian magnate commanding around 46,500 troops, launched a conquest of Kroton in southern Italy from Basileus Chrysogonos (25,700 men). At first, Toste just let him get on with the job. We have seen how large Irish armies were spotted in Anatolia during the Holy War for Nikaea.
By July 1256 the war balance remained even. A check at that time revealed a large Byzantine army investing the Irish capital of Dyflinn (Dublin). Toste decided to mobilise the similar-sized English vassal levy under General Gandalfr, which began the march across from their Skottish capital on 26 July.
It took until 24 October for battle to be joined at Mellifont in Dyflinn. An epic running battle ensued that lasted almost two months, with the Basileus personally commanding the Byzantine right flank. By 18 November both the central and left Russian flanks had routed, though their right held on strongly. But the Byzantine’s had won a clear victory by 13 December.
It took until the end of February 1257 for the Russian army to rally and begin to cross back over to Irland from Skotland. By that time the Basileus had fully occupied Dyflinn, leaving a small garrison while the rest of his army went south to besiege Veisafjorðr. Now commanded by Hroðgar, the Russians attacked the Byzantine garrison in Dyflinn on 30 March, defeating it by 13 April. But just five days later, the main Byzantine army counter-attacked the Russians outside Dyflinn Castle. By then, Hroðgar had been joined by two of Russia’s best generals to lead the defence.
The Byzantines began with an advantage of around 1,000 but the Basileus was no longer in personal command. The first division to rout was the Russian right wing on 5 May and the defence appeared to be in trouble. Following this by 20 May the Russian centre had followed while the Byzantine centre and right had also been forced from the field, leaving an even contest between the respective left wings, who were locked in a vicious melee.
The elite Russian commander was able to shorten his line however, generating enormous combat power as his shield wall pressed the faltering Byzantines, who began suffering heavy casualties. By 23 May, these were becoming catastrophic for the Romans and after the pursuit was over on 1 June a touch but decisive victory in the third and final Battle of Dyflinn had been won by the English-Russian levy.
As Toste was not able to join Irland’s war, the Russian levy could not retake the holdings in Dyflinn. Instead, they went south without delay to dislodge the small Byzantine garrison in Veisafjorðr that had earlier retreated from Dyflinn (13-26 June).
At that time, the Irish-Byzantine War was still almost even
[+1% for Irland]. The Byzantine stragglers were pursued up to Strangfjorðr and destroyed on 29 July. The remnants of the main Byzantine army had just rallied in northern Skotland. On 11 October they were passing to the west of Jorvik and, following the recent end of the Holy War for Nikaea, the levy in Strangfjorðr was disbanded. The war was then slightly in Byzantium’s favour
[+3%] but Toste had opted out of further direct participation, For now, anyway.
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Raiding
The bulk of the Imperial Guard had resumed their raiding program in the Middle East and Aksum in December 1255, following the end of the Great Holy War for Greece. They would remain so engaged until the end of 1257, beginning a new round of raids in the northern lands of the Caliph. Casualties remained quite low and the takings useful as the coffers were replenished after large expenditures on new troops and infrastructure during the period which had cost thousands of gold pieces.
[Image from Leonardo AI, Phoenix 1.0, prompts]
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Dynastic and Domestic Issues
Soon after the end of the Great Holy War in 1254 there were no political factions left at the imperial level in Russia. A few would eventually return but were ignored, never mustering more than about 3-4% support.
King Toste of England had died young of cancer in January 1255. The boy king had no bride promised, so the Fylkir arranged the betrothal of one of his daughters to cement the allegiance of one of his most powerful vassals.
The Betrothal of Öysteinn and Saga, wooden panel in the Grand Temple of Jorvik, painted c. 1350. [Image from Leonardo AI, Phoenix 1.0, prompts]
As we have seen, Öysteinn would later be attacked by the Germans who claimed the crown for King Knut. If things came to a head, Toste would consider brokering a peace but by the end of 1257 that had not been done.
Crown Prince Björn came of age on 6 October 1255. He was considered an above average diplomat but was otherwise no more than solid (at best) in the other main governing skills. Having groomed an heir and achieved as much as he felt he could from his studies, the Fylkir turned a few weeks later to carousing among his powerful vassals to boost his own diplomatic skills. And it had the immediate useful effect of increasing his vassal span to once again being in equilibrium. Toste also looked to see the realm prosper but this was interrupted not long after by the declaration of war against the Mongols.
26 November 1255 saw the small Kingdom of Norðrriki pass to King Aatos after his father Olavi died from a heart attack, aged 57. A few months later, shocking news emerged from Oldenburg where the (very unwell) Ingfrid ‘the Holy’ was eaten by the thoroughly deranged and evil King Dag ‘Son of Hel’ of Burgundy.
He may be loyal to the Fylkir but he was almost certainly a vile butcher and member of the Fellowship of Hel. Toste had formed an intense dislike of his vassal, despite the recent gifts showered on him. But he was an excellent commander and loyal. For now, Toste did nothing. Even if he hoped Ingfrid gave Dag a bad case of indigestion.
Around this time Seer Hæsteinn had been working on the conversion of Abydos for a while when he was set upon and wounded by heathen assailants. Despite this, he continued his mission and just a few weeks later proclaimed the conversion of the county to the Light of Odin. He then transferred to Constantinople to do the same.
Unfortunately, the wound incurred in Abydos had become infected and by August he was dead. Toste hoped he would find a prominent and distinguished place in the next life, whether in Valhalla or elsewhere. The new Seer Helgi was selected more for political loyalty than skills and took over Hæsteinn’s task in Constantinople.
Russian military learning advanced again in February, which would benefit siege work and defence against them.
Then in May 1256 Toste initiated the first of his long-anticipated legal reforms. The final move to dis-empower the Imperial Council was taken after decades of Rurikid work to pare back their prerogatives over Imperial decision-making. In return, the size of the Imperial demesne was increased by two holdings (enabling Constantinople to be held without dissent and Docimium to be added after the Holy War for Nikaea).
Although part of the quid pro quo was losing the ability to appoint advisors to the Council, this did not seem to take immediate effect. Perhaps it would only mean new ones could not be appointed when the current incumbents died in office? It also meant that realm-wide peace could no longer be enforced. This was one of the precursors to later enforcing an Imperial Administration to match the vast span of the Rurikid Empire. But that ambition would have to wait for another ten years.
In August 1256, Toste’s disgust over King Dag’s antics reached breaking point. Dag was an imposing warrior, but Toste’s relative frailty was more than compensated for by his subsequent training and possession of even greater arms and armour than his potential adversary. Whose now clearly Hel-induced magical corruption balanced out the Fylkir’s frailty. A challenge to holmgang was issued on 24 August and accepted by the reckless Dag a few days later.
Dag’s berserk overconfidence soon betrayed him and Toste drove Death Strike into his opponent’s throat. Not only did Toste gain prestige and personal satisfaction at despatching a notorious Hel-fiend, but Dag’s son Sumarliði II bore no hard feelings and was awarded his father’s appointment as a commander, soon seeing action in the Holy War against the Mongols.
In less happy news, King Valdemar ‘the Just’ of Wallachia, recipient of so much recent Imperial favour, died a rather premature death. His son Klas, only recently come of age, had his own designs and was no great fan of the Fylkir. His hostility was turned around with a decent bribe and appointment as Lawspeaker.
An economic advance was made in February 1257 in construction technology, allowing the expansion of hospital wards. A survey of current Imperial demesne hospitals saw a huge sum spent on improvements to four of them and ensured the Guard would continue its focus on raiding rather than warfare.
The Crown Prince’s betrothed, Princess Markia of Byzantium (a reminder of a friendlier time in Russian-Byzantine relations) was still only 11 by March 1257 but it was hoped their eventual marriage might one day give the opportunity for her substantial claims on Byzantium to be taken up.
Another of the less powerful Russian kingdoms saw a succession in April 1257 when another king died prematurely. In this case, Bragi’s younger brother Rögnvaldr II Rurikid inherited the Kingdom of Volga Bulgaria.
Just as the war against the Mongols was drawing to a close, Toste’s half-sister and bitter rival Princess Halla, now remarried in Byzantium and living in Lykia, hatched a plot to kill the Fylkir. As she resided beyond the realm, Toste could not directly order her to cease.
Toste decided it would be better to be possibly considered a kinslayer than be ‘kinslain’ himself, so launched a counter plot after the treaty was signed with Khagan Yeke. By November, after a considerable investment in bribes, the plot was quite well advance – certainly more so than Halla’s, who had no additional backers as yet.
At the end of 1257, the Reformed Germanic Faith had seen the Old Gods’ sway expanded further in Bulgaria, Egypt, Greece, the Middle East, Anatolia and Thrace over the last three years.
The Russian levy base had been reduced after the recent fighting (and associated attrition) but still dwarfed that of any known rival and most pacts. In addition to Björn, three of Toste’s other children had reached maturity since May 1256, including the twins Linda (a very talented young woman) and Arni.
Prince Björn was at least a virtuous and diligent young scion of the great Rurikid dynasty, though frail like his father. He should make a solid enough successor should his time eventually come.
