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| - Black Africa: King Sumaoro Kante of Sosso holds paramountry over the Mandinkas living along the upper flow of the Niger River. North Africa, East Africa: Bedouin Arab tribes overrun most of Nubia, trying to flee the oppressive Mamluk rule in Aswan. Nubia is gradually Islamicized, as Christianity begins to fade away. Middle East: The Myriamite faith spreads in Syria, Lebanon and eastern Anatolia, vainly persecuted by both Christians and Muslims. 1231 British Isles: Wales is wracked by civil war beyween king Owain III's older sons, Dafydd and Gruffydd. Norman intervention helps Dafydd to prevail; king Owain is ousted from power and exiled to Ireland. Western Europe: Massacre of the inhabitants of Carcassonne, in Gadary/Languedoc, after a failed revolt against Norman rule. Emperor Thomas of Greater Normandy appoints his cousins Philip of Caen and Robert the Black respectively as viceroy of Toulouse and hereditary duke of Catalonia. Infamous sack of Gumbusdeira (*OTL Santiago de Compostela) and its holy places by the Coghound pirates:mad: . Southern Europe: Roberto I of Lombardy and Ezzelino III da Romano crush the Venetic League and its Venetian allies at the battle of Campalto, extorting rich tributes from the vanquished towns. Venice is put under land blockade for her role in supporting the rebels. The Mensa Palatina, the Lesser Norman nobles' Parliament, first assembles in Melfi. The nobility has gained much power under the ineffective reign of young William III. Middle East, Byzantine Empire: Armenia Minor's prince consort Demetrios of Canossa-Novellara inherits Cyprus upon the early death of his brother Peter, lord of the island. Western Europe: Robert V of Flanders-Hainault dies after a prosperous rule which brought the march to independence and its apogee. Soon, however, his heir Robert VI is murdered by his own brothers Louis and Baldwin, and the land descends in civil war as the Communal towns begin to rebel against feudal overlordship. Caucasus: The Saifid Arabs devastate the former Ortoqid domains with repeated invasions, being finally repulsed by the newly arrived Turkic tribes from Persia/Iran and Azerbaijan. Far East: The Mongols invade Goryeo/Koryo (Korea), extorting tributes. When the Koreans move their capital from Songdo/Kaesong to Ganghwa island, the Mongols reinvade, but encounter fierce resistance and are forced to retreat; their commander, Sartai, is killed in battle. Caucasus: The Mongols crush Muslim rebellions in Azerbaijan and repeatedly raid Iberia/Georgia; the latter country, though namely still united, shatters into minor kingdoms ruled by competing Bagratuni scions reduced to a terrorized subservience to the Great Khan. Far East: The Mongols, in alliance with the southern Song dynasty, grind down and eventually liquidate the Jurchen Jin dynasty of northern China, destroying their last capitals, Kaifeng and Jingzhou. Western Europe, British Isles: Emperor Thomas I the Catholic of Greater Normandy dies while planning a campaign to restore peace in Flanders-Hainault. The crown passes to his cousin, duke William of Normandy, as William VI: he soon proves not to be interested at all in matters of state, leaving de facto in charge of the empire his ambitious Northumbrian wife Rowena and the sociopathic inquisitor Robert le Bougre, a renegade Cathar from Lombardy proper:eek: . Southern Europe: Venice pays a rich tribute to king Robert of Lombardy :o to be freed from the land blockade, significantly ruining its trade. Doge Jacopo Tiepolo has to knee before the Lombard ruler and formally acknowledge him as feudal overlord of the Most Serene Republic:o :o :o , a humiliation the Venetians, masters of a quarter of Constantinople, won't forget so soon. Ezzelino III da Romano, acting for king Robert, subdues Verona, the last Venetic city to yield to royalist forces. The Bosnian Bogomils depose ban (duke) Stephen, a hardline Catholic, replacing him with the more sympathetic Matej Ninoslav. Byzantine Empire, Southern Europe: Czar Theophilus of Megavlakia inflicts a crushing defeat to the Serbs in the battle of the Morlach Fields along the Toplica river: Serbia is vassalized under its king Stefan III Radoslav the Blind. Stefan III's brother, Stefan IV Vladislav, takes over in Zeta (*later Melanoria, OTL Montenegro) preserving independence; however most of Albania falls into the power of the Vlacho-Bulgarian Czar. Central-Eastern Europe: A Mongol army defeats the Volga Bulgarians on the Ural river, conquering the southern part of the local Bulgarian state. Middle East: Demetrios, lord of Cyprus and prince-consort of Armenia Minor, ousts the Templars from their possessions in the island to steal their riches, entering into conflict with Templar-held Antioch. A “Khorezmian” (Turkic) horde fleeing the Mongols defeats the Saifid Arabs in the battle of Marida/Mardin (Kurdistan) and ravages most of Syria and northern Iraq. East Africa: A party of a hundred Templars arrived by sea from Egypt help Yetbarak gain the throne of Ethiopia against his reigning cousin Na'akueto La'ab. The Templars, then, with help from the Siculo-Genoese fleet based in Suez, establish a fortified port at Kaladiopi (*OTL Marsa Ibrahim, Eritrea). Its aims are trading with Christian Ethiopia, extorting tribute form Muslim pilgrims heading to Mecca, exerting piracy and securing a route to India and its valuable goods - which, despite the occasional nature of the Indian trade, are making the Order immensely rich. British Isles: Northumbria falls in chaos after a massive Arnaldist rebellion in Yorwich (*OTL York) led by the False Thurstan, a minor noble from Cumbria (*OTL Cumberland), culminates in the slaughter of king Godwin I Strong Arm and half the royal family. The False Thurstan, pretending to be Godwin's long dead estranged son, manages to remain in power three years as several pretenders from the Godwinson royal clan claim the throne, supported either by Alban-Scot or Greater Norman armies sent into the Northumbrian meatgrinder. When finally Godwin's grandson Oswald the Hammer reduces Yorwich after a grueling siege thanks to Greater Norman help, Northumbria is a devastated country; in the meantime the Alban-Scots have reconquered Cumbria. 1233 Southern Europe: To appease the Papacy, upset over his annexation of Corsica, king Robert I of Lombardy begins another round of most violent eradication of Catharism, allowing the institution of the Papal Inquisition also in his reign. Paradoxically Catharism is stronger in Milan, a count-bishopric where officially the Pope is supreme as in any other ecclesiastical state (as for the Third Lateran council of 1216). Pope Dominic III is succeeded in Rome by Silvester II (archbishop Lanfranco of Ravenna, a scion of the Canossa clan), elected as a neutral choice to keep down unrest in the city between the Frangipane and Colonna factions. Byzantine Empire: The Akrite Order captures Melitene (*OTL Malatya) from the crumbling Ortoqids and defends it against repeated assault from the encroaching Turkic hordes from Ahlat (*Armenia). A “Crusader” Latin Army bolstered by some Teutonic Knights crosses the Bosphorus, but their siege of Nicaea fails. They are later disastrously defeated at Frangonica (*OTL Yenişehir) by Byzantine forces and Turkic mercenaries came from eastern Anatolia. Middle East: Having found a leader in Sungur Beg, the Turko-Khorezmian hordes roaming Syria ally with the Templars against the Saifid Arabs and crush them at the battle of Homs. Aleppo falls to the Templars, Edessa (*Urfa), Harran and many other cities to the Sungurid Turks; only Damascus resists under the Saifids. Arabia: The Saifid sultan Musa al-Jawhar Ghazi dies in Medina, leaving the throne to his appointed heir, Muhammad Nasir-ud-Din. Far East: A Mongol army liquidates Dongxia, a splinter Jurchen state just north of Korea, capturing its warlord Puxia Wannu, who had more than once switched alliances. Northern Europe: The Arnaldist peasant rebellion of the Stedingers in Eastern Frisia is crushed by a “Crusader” army summoned by the Papacy and the archbishopric of Bremen after the battle of Altenesch. 1234 Western Europe: Greater Norman intervention in Flanders-Hainault in support of Eudes, a cousin of emperor William who claims matrimonial rights over the marchional throne, precipitates a general conflict, as Otto, the Staufen ruler of Saxony-Brunswick, in turn intervenes in help of his brother-in-law Louis, the last surviving son of Robert V. The treacherous about-face of king Henry VII of Luxemburg against his Greater Norman overlords causes a major defeat for Norman forces in the great battle of Rebecq. Louis become the margrave of Flanders and Hainault. Having duke Theobald IV the Chansonnier of Champagne fallen in the battle, so extinguishing his dynasty, Champagne is occupied by Luxemburg, as is most of Lorraine. Eudes II of Brittany dies without male issue after a very long and peaceful reign; he is succeeded by the English-born cousin Roger I from the Rohan-de la Zouche family branch. North Africa: The Coghounds of the Canaries are defeated by sea at the hands of a coalition between Genoa, Andalusia and Mauretania (*OTL Morocco); they begin to turn from an outright pirate brotherhood to a sea-trading republic with an elective prince-for-life, chosen by the former pirate chiefs between the local Guanche menceys (kings). The Canaries by now have turned on the cultivation of sugarcane, exploiting slaves from western Africa and native Guanche serfs. Another sugar-growing region is Egypt, where the Templars have a monopoly. Byzantine Empire: The Genoese and Nicene Byzantine fleets crush the Venetians in the battle of Tenedo; the Byzantines then recapture Gallipoli, sealing Constantinople from external help. Michael I Megaplatos, the ruler of Turcopolia, liquidates the despotate of Thessaly, doomed by infighting among its rulers from the Melissenos family. India: A Mongol expedition plunders Ujjain, capital of the kingdom of Malwa, which is forced to accept Mongol overlordship. The unusual climate stops further Mongol penetration into India. Far East: Movable type metal printing is first employed in Korea to print the second example of the Tripitaka Koreana, a holy Buddhist text which was lost in the first Mongol invasion. However, due to the complexity of Chinese writing used in the region, printing will not still achieve mass diffusion for centuries to come. British Isles: Cormac mac Art O'Melaghlain, local king of Meath/Mide, leads a fierce revolt against Norman encroachments, freeing wide areas in the center of the island in alliance with the northern O'Neills from Ulster and their Picto-Scottish allies. Southern Europe: Hungary campaigns against the Bosnian Bogomils; Prijezda I is the new Hungarian-appointed ban (duke) of Bosnia, as his cousin Matej Ninoslav resists in remote mountain fastnesses with few followers. British Isles: Owain III of Wales reenters from his Irish exile with help from his relative earl Patrick I Maddox of Dublin, and carves his last domain in Deheubarth (SW Wales) against his son Dafydd II; upon his death Deheubarth reverts to the Welsh crown. British Isles, Western Europe: Henry VII of Luxemburg, Louis I of Flanders-Hainault and Otto of Brunswick invade northern France coming in sight of the Rouen, the Greater Norman main capital. The Capitulation of Soissons, a major blow for Greater Normandy:o , grants all of Champagne and Lorraine to Luxemburg, restored to its previous greatness; Valenciennes is retroceded to the Flemish, together with all land northeast of the Somme river. The Staufens of Saxony-Brunswick gain the port of Antwerp with control of duties over the Scheldt delta from their Flemish allies. The Papal Inquisition is allowed to operate into the empire of Greater Normandy through the efforts of the nefarious chamberlain Robert le Bougre, who, named inquisitor general, begins horrible purges against true and perceived heretics:eek: . Southern Europe: Ezzelino III da Romano defeats at Rovigo margrave Azzone VII of Este, the last major rebel against the Lombard crown; by now the fierce master of Veneto has become the most powerful man in the Lombard kingdom, and even king Robert begins to be afraid of him. Byzantine Empire: As the Vlacho-Bulgarians besiege the Teutonic Knights in Adrianople, the Nicene Byzantine army reconquers an underguarded Constantinople with a sneak attack. Latin Emperor Matthias and Latin Patriarch Nicholas de Castro Arquato are captured and later traded back for a huge ransom, and Theoktistos I Megas Branas is hailed into the ruined city as the legitimate basileus of the “Romans”, earning the nicknames “the Restorer” and “the new Constantine”. In exchange for the instrumental help of the Genoese fleet, the basileus grants Genoa his few remaining possessions in the Taurida (*OTL Crimea). Southern Europe: The Ridolfi, a family of remote Lombard ancestry, consolidate their power from their base in Camerino (Marches) as vassals of the Pope-king. Central-Eastern Europe: Hungary establishes relationship with the last Magyar (Ugric) tribes still living in the Urals, the Bashkirs, learning about the impending Mongol menace. Black Africa: The Mossi kingdom of Wagadugu (*taking its name from the actual self-styling of the former Ghana Empire, where “Ghana” was the ruler's title) emerges between the Gold Coast (*OTL Ghana) and upper Volta (*OTL Burkina Faso) under Mogho Naba (high king) Nedega. Actually the Mossi people are divided in several kingdoms acknowledging a vague suzerainty of the Wagadugu king.
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