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France during the first half of the 12th century
By Bernhardus de Clairvaux

I, Bernhardus de Clairvaux, humble servant of the most glorious and famous king of the French Renaud, son of the magnificent king Philip, will tell you what happend during the reign of our beloved ruler both in France and the Holy land.

Chapter I
How Renaud Rex was molested by rebellious barons and namely the most naughty Duke of Toulouse.

In the year of our lord 1101 there was much weeping among the peasantry in Frankish lands. Noble lords constantly waged war against each other and even against their liege, Renaud Capet, King of all Francs. Especially in southern France a lot of noble families did not love the King as it would have been their duty. This was a very disgraceful behaviour of unheard naughtiness as the position of the King should not be questioned. But nontheless the Frankish barons kept feuding because they liked it greatly and there was nothing else to do. So the realm was in turmoil and still is as I write this document which is really sad.

One must know that the peasants fear feuding very much as their homes get burned and their crop destroyed by this terrible constant warfare. Many parts of France were so heavily pillaged that there was no single living creature left, neither man nor animal, for the peasants were either killed or dispelled without mercy.

This found Renaud, King of France, most unpleasant as there was noone left to be taxed and noone left to workship God. And therefore in his wisdom His Royal Highness gathered all his loyal lords in order to fight against any defiant vassal and namely against Lord Raymond, the infamous Duke of Toulouse, who was known for his rebellious and heretic attitude for a long time.

Duke Raymond of Toulouse was the liege of several powerful barons of southern France who had pledged allegiance to him and he was able to field many knights and serjeants. He also controlled huge castles which were all stocked up and therefore full of both men-at-arms and food. Renaud Rex became very sad when he saw the Duke’s might because there was no victory possible without a long and lossy campaign.

Then, in the year of our lord 1107, there happend something which was much appreciated by His Royal Highness. The Kingdom of Burgundry was inherited by Renaud Rex! This indeed were great news as now it was possible to use the Burgundian barons in the fight against the rebellious Duke of Toulouse who has caused so much evil.


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Chapter II
How the Kingdom of Jerusalem fought a hopeless battle against the infidels.

By that time however there was much grief among all Christians for the Kingdom of Jerusalem, vasall to the Crown of France, was severely ravaged by the infidels. Acre had already fallen to the saracens and the infant King of Jerusalem, Leon The Fat, was in great fear.

To the joy of all Christianity many great nobles took the cross and marched eastwards as noone was willing to let Jerusalem fall into the hands of the saracens again. But the infidels are utterly devilish and most snaky as everybody knows. They assaulted Jerusalem by night while everybody was sleeping and they attacked so surpisingly that noone could even grab his weapon! Many of the defending knights and serjeants were instantly slaughtered and so there was only a short battle with many christians dead and only few infidels slain. This was an utterly sad moment and the Holy City thus fell again to the saracens. Oh my dear God, what a tragedy!

But in the meantime there arrived in the holy land the most noble and powerful Frankish lord Guy de Cornouaille, Duke of Brittany, with great retinue. He immediatelly enquired what was going on, mounted his horse and rushed after the City of Jerusalem in which the citadel was still hold by a small but valorous group of christian soldiers. The ensuring battle was messy but this time the infidels were attacked by surprise and they soon fled in great panic as they always fear to meet Christian knights in open battle. Thus it happened that, by the will of god, the Holy City returned in the hands of Christianity!


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A Fight for the Tri Crown; A hope from the east.

The story about the child prince will soon be reached, i hope :p
(The prince is growing up so fast… it seems like it was yesterday when I told him about his first ancestor and now 4 years have passed.. I’m amazed)
You own me a story since long time; I’ve come just to hear it…
I thought you only came because you finished your trip with your cousins
Well… that too.

The year is 1113. At the age of 63 years, the great leader of southern Russia dies, Gleb Rurikovich.
Most of the important personalities of the area went to his service. When the pope got news of this he started the process for his beatification and commissioned the construction of a monument in Rome to honor his cause and life. But this couldn’t alleviate the sorrow produced by his departure. His beloved wife suffered a lot, especially because shortly after this also her daughter, the last child Gleb had, died too because of a estrange disease. Their bodies are nowadays in the Cathedral of Novgorod Seversky, which was the biggest church in the Duchy by that time and also the capital city.
After the days of his funeral, the council of the city gathered to choose which heir was to take the lead of the country, because the one designated by Gleb dies 2 years before Gleb’s dead itself, and he didn’t worried to name a new one.
The two possible candidates were Fedor Rurikovich, the last son of Gleb and Tvorimir Rurikovich, a distant cousin, of course the council elected the first one although not immediately because Fedor suffered from a disease since he was 4 years old, this made him into what we call, a transition ruler, with only 4 years at the throne. He died on 1117, his funeral passed by like a normal day, since from some days ago, the next leader in line of succession was told to run the country.
This leader you have seen or told about before, he is considered the father of the country.
Bandir? Already? Wow…
Not Bandir, it’s Bahadir, as he made the people call him, Bahadir the Turk.

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Bahadir's country after the first 2 years, most of his war entrepreneurs happened in this timeframe
He’s other competitor for the throne was his small brother, but this brother was too young to have it so instead he was given the title of count of Chuvash.
Anyway, Bahadir was known for its ideas of breaking up with the Poles, he always said that in councils and feasts that everybody who agreed the intervention of the poles would also agree to give away his body and soul for a few coins.
He was an intense catholic, which made him get important jobs and relations with the holy church but made him get in troubles with the not so happy orthodox counts…
“The task of converting the land of the Great Plains into the true faith is difficult, but I shall carry the torch and make sure the fire burns like it has never burned before” he said… It is also rumored that he was the first man to think about the idea of the unification of crown, although his thoughts only considered the Crown of Cuman and Bolgar…
The first part of his reign was a dynamic reconstruction of the legacy that Fedor left, the troops increased, the money was no issue and the counts loved all this, because of that, they said that Bahadir was the one that would put the plains on the maps of Europe once again. His Duchy also grew with the annexation of lands to the north of Moskva that included great cities like Vladimir and Rostov. And to the South with the vast lands that once belonged to polish dukes called don portage.
…..
All his reign was a commented success over the courts of Europe, but his final mission wasn’t over yet, this mission had a divine intervention, an intervention that would change the history with a 180° twist…
The last days of 1125 a small group of Cossacks and Turkish raiders was ordered to depart at the Castle of Saint Gleb (on those days called “little rus”)……
Several months after this situation the declaration of the sate of war was issued at the Kigndom of Poland…
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Pronsk at war for it's the creation of the Kigndom...


To tell you the details of why all that happened I need to find some ancients texts, because all that is not yet clear for me
I see


 
Roma Eterna

By Blayne Bradley

The Eastern half of the Roman empire otherwise known as the “Byzantine Empire” named for its capitol city lived on many centuries beyond the collapse of their western hald. But all is not well for the Millennial Empire, for in 1066 the Seljuk turks were overrunning Byzantium’s eastern border and marching onto the Millennial city itself. The Emperor of Byzantium sent messengers to the Eternal City of Rome and beseeched the Bishop of Roma to come to his aid to prevent the heathens from overrunning the holy city and from over running the holy land.

The Pope was quick to condemn the heathens and raised all of Christendom to marshal their armies to fight the heavens, and so the first of many crusades were launched in the aim of retaking the holy land and relieving Constantinople. After a long and bloody campaign the crusade ebbed out as the Kingdoms of Europe had better things to do then to aid an empire so far away and Byzantium itself fell to the hordes however this exhausted the Turks and peace was signed believing that the Byzantines were crippled.

They couldn’t have been more wrong. Fir the Emperor Basiloius carefully rebuilt his realm and brought it great wealth and during the 3rd crusade took the opportunity to attack the great Seljuk horde thinking it was weakened. This was a mistake and nearly paid for it dearly as the Seljuk had many troops available to engage the arrogant Byzantines.

The Byzantines retook the Millennial City and pushed the Turks to the Tasis river and here they halted and forced the Moslems to pay 10,000 ducats in indemnities, the Byzantines dared not send troops across for fear of angering the Poles for by treaty the Poles lent aid and Byzantine was to restrict themselves to the river.

When the war ended and very rich the Emperor concentrated on internal affairs and had occasional skirmishes with the Kingdom of Bulgaria to his north, regained many new vassals and rearranged his court so that only his lineage would inherit the empire.

The Emperor constructed a great many roads and other great improvements throughout the imperial provinces all with the goal of increasing the prosperity of the empire and preparing for the day when he could once more take up the crusading sword and engage the Turks and push them back to the Galis river! Upon declaring his intentions though the Czar of the Russia’s mentioned his displeasure at such a move and threatened with war should an action be taken to weaken the Turks unnecessarily? What followed would be a furious exchange of letters as both sides attempt to negotiate the upper hand, Byzantium wanting to reclaim lost glory and Russia wishing to extend its influence within the eastern Mediterranean. The Byzantine Emperor knew he would not be able to fight off the Russians alone so he sent letters pleading for aid to the King’s of the Alliance and many answer back agreeing to send aid should the Polish-Russo empire attempts to subdue the Byzantines.

What happens next will be up to history to record…