(Draft; pictures to be added later 
for lack of tools in this frigging machine).
January 1102-January 1103. When the going gets desperately tough, Amat gets all intellectual. Or “We are hated throughout the whole world”.
Sand, sand and more sand. I read the north of Africa was once the Romans’ bread basked, but nowadays it seems there has been some climate change. At least, so I am told by my generals. I haven’t returned there for years.
But do sit down. It’s a long story, this time. And, as usual, it’s partly the Pope’s fault. Not that I can get many to share that opinion…
Let’s start at the beginning. In January 1103 I managed to reoccupy the last fortresses of the Kingdom of Germany. It didn’t take as much effort as the previous time: the battlements were still broken everywhere and the garrisons depleted.
As soon as the news arrived, together with the prisoners, I had Eberhard von Franken called back from his rooms again (he insisted in brooding and talking about “being imprisoned”, but he had the run of the Palace during those months and actually seemed to enjoy himself playing petanca in the garden). I allowed him to meet his captured garrison commanders in privacy and to form his own picture before calling him to audience.
Well, I have to say it. The last King of Germany behaved with dignity as he signed away his throne and the Duchy of Swabia. I liked his attitude so much that I let him keep the Duchy of Franconia and all of his provinces.
But when I turned back to my courtiers, all wore worried looks. After the (now) Franconian deputation departed, they became so glum as to be nearly reproachful. To put it into a nutshell, everyone was absolutely scared of the impact of this “expoliation of a historical, annointed family”, “desacralization of the remains of the Holy Roman Empire” and generally “breaking the principle of God-given authority of a King over his subjects”. In short, they feared we’d be facing a very ugly backlash, internal and external, for this.
Then there was the Pope. The old buzzard up and died on me. And the new one was controlled (you wouldn’t guess it) by the Count of Jülich. Yes. A single-county Count was the new protector of the landless Pope.
Well, I couldn’t have that, so I revoked the title of the Count. And he very meekly and appropriately renounced it. Which was great, except for the fact that most of my nobility was absolutely shocked at such an arbitrary action against a very loyal vassal. And we were again dumped into the legitimacy question, with risk of rebellions growing like weeds. I did everything I could, including sending Cristina a new slew of titles (Jülich included, and some twenty duchies: she’s got a roomful of coronets for the kids to play with). It helped a bit . We were no longer hated throughout the whole world. We were just regarded as dishonourable scum.
Amat, of all people, had an answer. He put it forth at a Great Council shortly after.
“My Lord Emperor, lords and ladies councellors”, he started, after gargling and spitting to clear his throat “I think we all have heard enough of the legitimacy problem. We know the Pope is currently unenthusiastic and stirring dissent. We know some people fear Navarra has broken too many crowns instituted by God and backed by the Church. And we know less haughty people simply worry that if Luis of Navarra here will not stop at throwing the von Frankens out of their home, he will stop at nothing, and all feudal relations are in jeopardy.
“But think.” He continued, as his listeners assented, “The Emperor has been established by the Pope himself to take care of the temporal matters of the Church. He has every right to take under his scepter any Christian kingdom, indeed it could be argued that he *should* do it, and so gather all Christendom under a single secular head, with the Pope acting as spiritual head, and the one reinforcing the other.
“It doesn’t matter that there is currently little chance of the Vicar of Christ seeing things that way”, he lifted a hand to quell comments. “We have the armies to enforce this view, and we have the people and the power to make these arguments heard. We can sway the opinions of the public, at least inside the Empire.”
“But” interjected Simonis, the Chancellor, “this kind of argumentation would give every Catholic kingdom an argument for war! It would be like a declaration of intent to revoke their crowns!”
“So it would”, nodded Lodovica, my Steward, liking the idea. “But only if we officially sponsored this view. We need only make it heard and taught all over Europe, not spread it openly from the Chancery. Indeed we can distance ourselves from it if asked”.
“That wouldn’t fool anybody!”, said some backbencher, who got instantly cuffed for speaking out of turn.
“Sire”, Laura the Spymistress turned to me, “this would be buying internal peace with the promise of foreign war!”
I took a time to meditate it, but of course there was nothing to argue. There was no other option, and further, I liked it.
“We don’t have a choice”, I said, and they knew it was true. “If establishing the principle of single Imperial authority is the price of avoiding civil war, we will establish it. If other sovereigns feel that this questions their right to rule independently, I think we can handle them. Neither Scotland, nor Norway or Denmark can dream of hurting us. England is probably another matter, especially now that my sister Garcenda is no longer Queen, but the family links are strong and I doubt we will have real trouble there. Poland is run by an excommunicated who has nothing more to fear. In short… it is decided. We will inherit the von Franken policy of Imperial supremacy in every material matter, and expand it to include a single throne for all Catholic Christendom. By next month this should be pushed, taught, and written through every channel we can control, directly and indirectly. Understood?”
Widespread nodding of heads. Only one remained still, eyebrow arched, general look of wizened-head-skeptically-regards-brat-who-doesn’t-get-it.
“Yes, Amat?”
“It will not be enough, Sire”, gruffed the Marshall. “You’re too feared and loathed right now for the nobles to listen to learned argumentations. The only way to correct your reputation fast enough to avoid problems is to earn the respect of the commoner as a defender of their faith and their customs.”
“In other words…?”, I urged him.
“Ehrm. Well, yes, my lord. You need to kick heathen ass, fast and hard. In other words, war. But this time, against the enemies of the faith, and if possible, against some of them that the people can actually identify.”
“A Crusade?”
“Sort of, Sire. I’m thinking about a wholesale invasion of the Barbary and Tripolitanian coasts. Go for the infidel pirates, clean the Mediterranean, show that the Emperor is really there to protect the faithful and do things their own princes can’t do. In short, use the sword to illustrate the truth of the new legitimacy theories”.
“Ehm… let me think about that”.
Well, no need to bother you with the details. I placated the worst of the fears of the nobility by giving Cristina a cartload of duchies and several counties. I backed some of the leading polemicists and sent them into battle: old Benzo of Alba and Waifer of Montecassino, for instance, and a young brat called Bernard of Fontaines who apparently can hold his own in debate with only thirteen years.
And we started the war in Africa. Currently, both Amat and his up-and-coming sidekick, Esteve, are burnishing my credentials as defender of Christendom by taking as many Sheikdoms and Emirates as we can get a hold on. Amat is pulling a royal rampage with the Alexandria regiment, going West along the Libian coast, and Esteve is playing understudy.
Since we don’t want the whole Muslim and Pagan world to jump at our neck, the conquests are being handled in a most delicate manner, with the sheiks usually left in their seats, a bit shaken up but usually not much the worse for the change in allegiance. We have already overrun the Tripolitania coast and the Kingdom of Beni Helal, and I don’t plan to stop until my reputation shines more than the Chains of Navarra.
By October, things got very critical: vassals everywhere questioned their loyalties, and winning them back was enormously urgent. The debaters and the universities were abuzz, and town squares too, and sometimes the discussions ended in worse than academic fisticuffs. And, yes, there were rebellions. The von Frankens took up arms, and some other minor nobility in Iberia and Gallia Cabelluda (or Belgium as they’ve taken to calling themselves). But they didn’t last long. There was a pretender in Trapani who allowed me to burnish my credentials as a generally good guy.
Then Abelard won a public debate at Notre Dame University in Paris (the old Gallic capital at Ille de France) and the tide changed. We started to see the end of the tunnel. Popularity was low, but no longer disastrous (hey, we poached Maine from England). The people are already beginning to appreciate the benefits of “One Church, One Emperor”. Amat was right, you see. I think we have passed this crisis. Hopefully.
On the other hand, our new policy is very probably taking us into some weird places…
The best satisfaction is knowing that, when I finally convince the Pope to establish in Jerusalem, he will do so in a very becoming apostolic poverty. Didn’t Jesus say, “give into Caesar what is Caesar’s and into God what is God’s”? He should forget about wordly pomp and strife… and let me take care of it. I do pomp beautifully, and as for strife, this year's been a good example.
Me, and eventually my son Juan. Who is already becoming a quite skeptical person.
for lack of tools in this frigging machine).January 1102-January 1103. When the going gets desperately tough, Amat gets all intellectual. Or “We are hated throughout the whole world”.
Sand, sand and more sand. I read the north of Africa was once the Romans’ bread basked, but nowadays it seems there has been some climate change. At least, so I am told by my generals. I haven’t returned there for years.
But do sit down. It’s a long story, this time. And, as usual, it’s partly the Pope’s fault. Not that I can get many to share that opinion…
Let’s start at the beginning. In January 1103 I managed to reoccupy the last fortresses of the Kingdom of Germany. It didn’t take as much effort as the previous time: the battlements were still broken everywhere and the garrisons depleted.
As soon as the news arrived, together with the prisoners, I had Eberhard von Franken called back from his rooms again (he insisted in brooding and talking about “being imprisoned”, but he had the run of the Palace during those months and actually seemed to enjoy himself playing petanca in the garden). I allowed him to meet his captured garrison commanders in privacy and to form his own picture before calling him to audience.
Well, I have to say it. The last King of Germany behaved with dignity as he signed away his throne and the Duchy of Swabia. I liked his attitude so much that I let him keep the Duchy of Franconia and all of his provinces.
But when I turned back to my courtiers, all wore worried looks. After the (now) Franconian deputation departed, they became so glum as to be nearly reproachful. To put it into a nutshell, everyone was absolutely scared of the impact of this “expoliation of a historical, annointed family”, “desacralization of the remains of the Holy Roman Empire” and generally “breaking the principle of God-given authority of a King over his subjects”. In short, they feared we’d be facing a very ugly backlash, internal and external, for this.
Then there was the Pope. The old buzzard up and died on me. And the new one was controlled (you wouldn’t guess it) by the Count of Jülich. Yes. A single-county Count was the new protector of the landless Pope.
Well, I couldn’t have that, so I revoked the title of the Count. And he very meekly and appropriately renounced it. Which was great, except for the fact that most of my nobility was absolutely shocked at such an arbitrary action against a very loyal vassal. And we were again dumped into the legitimacy question, with risk of rebellions growing like weeds. I did everything I could, including sending Cristina a new slew of titles (Jülich included, and some twenty duchies: she’s got a roomful of coronets for the kids to play with). It helped a bit . We were no longer hated throughout the whole world. We were just regarded as dishonourable scum.
Amat, of all people, had an answer. He put it forth at a Great Council shortly after.
“My Lord Emperor, lords and ladies councellors”, he started, after gargling and spitting to clear his throat “I think we all have heard enough of the legitimacy problem. We know the Pope is currently unenthusiastic and stirring dissent. We know some people fear Navarra has broken too many crowns instituted by God and backed by the Church. And we know less haughty people simply worry that if Luis of Navarra here will not stop at throwing the von Frankens out of their home, he will stop at nothing, and all feudal relations are in jeopardy.
“But think.” He continued, as his listeners assented, “The Emperor has been established by the Pope himself to take care of the temporal matters of the Church. He has every right to take under his scepter any Christian kingdom, indeed it could be argued that he *should* do it, and so gather all Christendom under a single secular head, with the Pope acting as spiritual head, and the one reinforcing the other.
“It doesn’t matter that there is currently little chance of the Vicar of Christ seeing things that way”, he lifted a hand to quell comments. “We have the armies to enforce this view, and we have the people and the power to make these arguments heard. We can sway the opinions of the public, at least inside the Empire.”
“But” interjected Simonis, the Chancellor, “this kind of argumentation would give every Catholic kingdom an argument for war! It would be like a declaration of intent to revoke their crowns!”
“So it would”, nodded Lodovica, my Steward, liking the idea. “But only if we officially sponsored this view. We need only make it heard and taught all over Europe, not spread it openly from the Chancery. Indeed we can distance ourselves from it if asked”.
“That wouldn’t fool anybody!”, said some backbencher, who got instantly cuffed for speaking out of turn.
“Sire”, Laura the Spymistress turned to me, “this would be buying internal peace with the promise of foreign war!”
I took a time to meditate it, but of course there was nothing to argue. There was no other option, and further, I liked it.
“We don’t have a choice”, I said, and they knew it was true. “If establishing the principle of single Imperial authority is the price of avoiding civil war, we will establish it. If other sovereigns feel that this questions their right to rule independently, I think we can handle them. Neither Scotland, nor Norway or Denmark can dream of hurting us. England is probably another matter, especially now that my sister Garcenda is no longer Queen, but the family links are strong and I doubt we will have real trouble there. Poland is run by an excommunicated who has nothing more to fear. In short… it is decided. We will inherit the von Franken policy of Imperial supremacy in every material matter, and expand it to include a single throne for all Catholic Christendom. By next month this should be pushed, taught, and written through every channel we can control, directly and indirectly. Understood?”
Widespread nodding of heads. Only one remained still, eyebrow arched, general look of wizened-head-skeptically-regards-brat-who-doesn’t-get-it.
“Yes, Amat?”
“It will not be enough, Sire”, gruffed the Marshall. “You’re too feared and loathed right now for the nobles to listen to learned argumentations. The only way to correct your reputation fast enough to avoid problems is to earn the respect of the commoner as a defender of their faith and their customs.”
“In other words…?”, I urged him.
“Ehrm. Well, yes, my lord. You need to kick heathen ass, fast and hard. In other words, war. But this time, against the enemies of the faith, and if possible, against some of them that the people can actually identify.”
“A Crusade?”
“Sort of, Sire. I’m thinking about a wholesale invasion of the Barbary and Tripolitanian coasts. Go for the infidel pirates, clean the Mediterranean, show that the Emperor is really there to protect the faithful and do things their own princes can’t do. In short, use the sword to illustrate the truth of the new legitimacy theories”.
“Ehm… let me think about that”.
Well, no need to bother you with the details. I placated the worst of the fears of the nobility by giving Cristina a cartload of duchies and several counties. I backed some of the leading polemicists and sent them into battle: old Benzo of Alba and Waifer of Montecassino, for instance, and a young brat called Bernard of Fontaines who apparently can hold his own in debate with only thirteen years.
And we started the war in Africa. Currently, both Amat and his up-and-coming sidekick, Esteve, are burnishing my credentials as defender of Christendom by taking as many Sheikdoms and Emirates as we can get a hold on. Amat is pulling a royal rampage with the Alexandria regiment, going West along the Libian coast, and Esteve is playing understudy.
Since we don’t want the whole Muslim and Pagan world to jump at our neck, the conquests are being handled in a most delicate manner, with the sheiks usually left in their seats, a bit shaken up but usually not much the worse for the change in allegiance. We have already overrun the Tripolitania coast and the Kingdom of Beni Helal, and I don’t plan to stop until my reputation shines more than the Chains of Navarra.
By October, things got very critical: vassals everywhere questioned their loyalties, and winning them back was enormously urgent. The debaters and the universities were abuzz, and town squares too, and sometimes the discussions ended in worse than academic fisticuffs. And, yes, there were rebellions. The von Frankens took up arms, and some other minor nobility in Iberia and Gallia Cabelluda (or Belgium as they’ve taken to calling themselves). But they didn’t last long. There was a pretender in Trapani who allowed me to burnish my credentials as a generally good guy.
Then Abelard won a public debate at Notre Dame University in Paris (the old Gallic capital at Ille de France) and the tide changed. We started to see the end of the tunnel. Popularity was low, but no longer disastrous (hey, we poached Maine from England). The people are already beginning to appreciate the benefits of “One Church, One Emperor”. Amat was right, you see. I think we have passed this crisis. Hopefully.
On the other hand, our new policy is very probably taking us into some weird places…
The best satisfaction is knowing that, when I finally convince the Pope to establish in Jerusalem, he will do so in a very becoming apostolic poverty. Didn’t Jesus say, “give into Caesar what is Caesar’s and into God what is God’s”? He should forget about wordly pomp and strife… and let me take care of it. I do pomp beautifully, and as for strife, this year's been a good example.
Me, and eventually my son Juan. Who is already becoming a quite skeptical person.
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