| abstract
| - The exiled king of Sweden Valdemar I, aided by Norwegian forces, reenters his lands and conquers most of Götaland. His brother Magnus III keeps Sweden proper, but proves unable to dislodge the rival, as both refuse interested proposals of alliance from the Berestian Mongols and Denmark. Under Valdemar, the kingdom of the Geats is de facto re-established; it will be known as Gothia. Far East: Kublai Khan has the Grand Canal between the Huang He and the Yangtze river repaired and shortened, setting it upon its historical course. Far East: Nu'er Mang Zhang (Jean le Normande), a Christian slave captured as a boy in France during Mongol raids, is chief minister of the Yuan Empire for Kublai Khan, succeding in this role the wise Sakya lama and viceroy of Tibet Drogön Chögyal Phagpa. British isles: Simon I of Montfort, king of England, dies leaving a mighty reign to his eldest son Amalric (Amaury) III. Western Europe: The chaotic collapse of the Gallastrian kingdom, with the long subsequent civil war and foreign meddling, comes to an end after the Treaty of Burgos settles the issue. The western part, up to the Riu Normenoi (*OTL Rìo Navia), is carved among several local feudatories in strict allegiance to the Portuguese crown, unquestioned master of the Atlantic side of the Iberian peninsula. The eastern part is made into the duchy of Zheyzhuni (*OTL Gijón), an appanage for the heir to the Leonese princely throne, held by the Sanchez branch of the Castilian Besoncés dynasty. Southern Europe: Marquis Manfredo Pallavicino and his allies from Montferrat are defeated at Novi by communal militias from Alessandria and Genoa. Central-Eastern Europe: Nogai Khan formally converts to Judaism; consequently, his Khanate of Berestia begins to be mockingly called “Hebraestia” by Catholic scholars in the West. Emir Maimudas Blackbeard of Lithuania and Nogai's son Burilgi Qaratai, in charge of most of White Ruthenia, plunder and torch Smolensk, starting a major feud with the Golden Horde, liege of the local Rurikid rulers. The Horde, with its capital in Sarai on the lower Volga, is formally united under Köchü Khan, a cousin of Nogai, but divided on strategic issues: Köchü's White Horde eyes developments in Central Asia, whereas the Blue Horde led by Töde-Möngke now claims rights over Berestia, ostensibly in the name of the deceased Berke. Taking advatange from Nogai's commitments elsewhere, Transylvania rebels against Berestian suzerainty under Loránd Borsa, a half-Cuman nobleman, and massacres the few Tartar (as the Europeans call the Mongols) overlords and detachments in the region. Middle East, Caucasus: The Kurdish and Turkic tribes led by Abdullah Yalik gain the alliance of the Sungurid Turks of Syria and inflict a harsh defeat upon the Ilkhanid forces of Abaqa Khan of Persia/Iran in the great battle of Kurdbashi (Assyria). The Ilkhanate is severely weakened, losing any authority over Sungurid Syria, the Anatolian Turkic tribes, and of course Byzantium, who finds herself suddenly free of any tribute – but also pitifully exposed. In the midst the Yalikid empire of Kurdistan takes shape, with its capital at Van: a state with a host of subjects of diverse faith (from Waliist Sunnis as Abdullah himself to the mostly Yazdanist Kurds, to Alevis, Monophysite Christian Armenians and quickly growing numbers of Myriamites), spanning from the upper Euphrates to northern Iraq. Gaza, a pillar of Christian presence in the Holy Lands, presently de facto lent to Venice, is taken by the Myriamites after an epic six-month siege. The Knights Hospitaller defending the citadel show such desperate valor that Nasi Imam Yaqub Yeshua II, instead of slaying them as usual, sets them free without even asking for a ransom from their Order. Central Asia, Far East: Kublai Khan musters a strong army and recaptures most of Mongolia from the rebels supporting brothers Yehe Baghatur (the claimant Great Khan) and Mirza Mangudai of Yarkand. After occupying Karakorum, the army marches into the Uyghur lands but, hampered by its logistics train, now more “Chinese” and complex, suffers a heavy defeat near Lop Nor against the rebel tribes' lighter cavalry, who attack during a blinding sandstorm. Though Kublai manages to retain Great Khan title (by now largely devoid of real significance) the new khanate of Moghulistan is thus firmly established. It will maintain a loose alliance with Hindustan and a perpetual state of conflict with Kublai over Mongolia, Tibet, the Gansu corridor and the former Tangut/XiXia lands. SE Asia: King Mengrai of Lanna vassalizes the Mon kingdom of Haripunjaya (Haripunchai) sacking its capital Lamphun. Central-Eastern Europe: The Golden Horde fights a hit-and-run war against the encroachments of Lithuanian and Berestian forces in Russia. Dozens of Russian towns, whose princes change sides more often than they change their underwear, are sacked; Tver itself is besieged by Nogai's sons and later relieved. Byzantine Empire: Sebastea/Sivas replaces Tephrike/Divrigi as the capital of the resurgent Myriamites of Anatolia, but their state is later crushed between the Waliist Muslim sultanate of Kirikkale and the Akrite Order, whose knights capture the town. As a consequence, thousands of believers eventually flee east into Kurdistan to avoid persecution. Northern Hesperia (*OTL America): After Magnus I Haakonsson the Navigator dies, Screlingia/Skraelingarland (*OTL Acadia) falls into a long civil war between rival parties. The different factions are made by the Hespero-Norse native colonists, the “newcomers” (Norwegian troopes came with Magnus and their new families), the allied native Hesperian tribes and some 1000 feudal “Crusaders” who came from Europe in the last years (mostly Templars of Norman culture, with English, Pictish and Scottish knights) with their retinue “to fight for the diffusion of the faith”, that is acquiring lands to cultivate with local serfs. 1282 Northern Europe, Western Europe: Frederick, heir to the main Nassau line, reclaims Brabant at the head of an army of German and Ograinese (Kipchaks dwelling in Lorraine and Champagne) forces with a small Mongol detachment from Poland. But the Ograinese, while sacking Flanders, are caught and trounced at Geraardsbergen by a Flemish army of Communal militia, feudal cavalry, English and Irish mercenaries. Louis III of Lower Lorraine is thus able to capture and murder Frederick in Brussels/Bruxelles and put to flight his remaining forces. Southern Europe: Meinhard IV, count-margrave of Gurizberg (*OTL Gorizia), Tyrol and Merania and noted excommuniqué, conquers Trient (*OTL Trento), forcing its count-bishop Pier Lombardo to renounce any temporal powers. Arduino III, the titular king of Lombardy, dies in Ivrea to be succeeded by his son Berengario III, marquis of Ivrea and Susa and count palatine of Turin. Under Arduino, however the power of the Lombard crown has furthermore sunk to little more than lip service by the various feudatories. A Western Imperial army led by Jacob Protonotarius, a protegé of emperor Olympius, clash with the Ridolfis of Camerino in the battle of the Tronto river, suffering a catastrophic rout after which the restive petty lords of Abruzzo revolt and regain their freedom. Imperial presence in central Italy is reduced to a string of castles around half-abandoned Rome, surrounded by hostile lordships. Central-Eastern Europe: King Ottokar/Otakar II of Bohemia is murdered in Cracow on orders from Nogai Khan of Berestia. When the Bohemians elevate as the new king Ottokar's young son, 11 year-old Venceslaus IV, Nogai's army plunges on Prague and torches it for good. While the boy is taken away as prisoner and will end up murdered some years later, Nogai enthrones his relative, young Ottokar/Otakar III, founder of the Tatarský dynasty: he was born by the marriage of Beatrix, daughter of the murdered former king, with a Mongol general of Nogai's retinue. With that, the centuries old Premyslid dynasty is extinguished, apart for some illegitimate sons of Ottokar II who rule petty fiefs in Silesia. The regime change costs Bohemia dearly: Silesia is added to Berestia, whereas Carinthia and Styria are traded to Meinhard IV of Gurizberg (*OTL Gorizia) and Tyrol. In exhange Meinhard has to cede Fiume and surrounding Merania to Hungary, which is also awarded the formerly Bohemian possessions of Krain/Carniola (*Slovenia) and Pozsony/Pressburg/Preslavia (*OTL Bratislava). As it will turn out some years later, Nogai's suspicions and Ottokar's subsequent murder had been engineered by the machinations of king of Hungary, the Ezzelinian Alberico/Erberek I Attila. Byzantine Empire: Repeated raids are made by the Batiturks of Makri, who sack Smyrna and Philadelphia (*OTL Alaşehir); also the Muslim “Khorezmians” Turks from the Kirikkale sultanate reject vassalage to Byzantium and go on a rampage across Anatolia. Soon an army coup in Constantinople forces basileus Bardas IV to abdicate and retire in a monastery, to be replaced with his cousin Arsenius I Constantine, nicknamed the Peltast. Mastermind of the coup is megastratopedarch (general-in-chief) Alexius of Cybira, father-in-law of the new basileus (basileopator) and head of the military party. The Orthodox Patriarch, Jeremiah I, who strongly condemned the coup, is in turn deposed and closed in an island monastery, opening a deep rift in the Byzantine Church between the Jeremites (die-hard defenders of Church independence) and the Stemmarioi (who tend to accept Caesaropapism and “might makes right”). Central Asia: Turan Shah Ötmish, a relative of the late Bahram Shah as well as his murderer, is enthroned as ruler of the Chagatai khanate, actually as a figurehead for Yehe Baghatur of Moghulistan. In the meantime, exploiting the chaos, the Ilkhans of Persia/Iran have gobbled up Khorezm under local puppets, the White Horde and Sibir khanate raid from the north, and Central Asia remains an area of proxy war between rival Mongol “diadochs”. The Shaybanid clan, descended by Shayban, one of Batu's younger brothers, and part of the White Horde, converts to Islam in the Waliist creed. Far East: Ahmad Fanakati, the hated Muslim finance minister of Kublai Khan, is murdered in a power struggle inside the Yuan court. Middle East, Central Asia: Abaqa, the Ilkhanid ruler of Persia/Iran, is murdered and replaced by his brother Ahmed Tekuder, who, raised as a Jacobite/Nestorian Christian, had been converted to Waliist Islam. His pro-Muslim policy however soon alienates the Mongol dominant caste, and in the end his Buddhist nephew Arghun, Abaqa's son (*he has another mother than in OTL, but bears the same name), overthrows and kills him. SE Asia: Ramkhamhaeng the Great, ruler of Sukhothai, acting as a Mongol ally, wipes the last vestiges of Khmer and Cham power from central *Laos. Western Europe: Poitiers, the main city and de facto capital of Aquitaine/Occitania, falls to the League of St.-Arnaud after the battle of Buxerolles, where the massed use of the [I]zoucaine[/I] (repeating crossbow) thrashes the flower of the Aquitanian feudal cavalry. Among the fallen is also prince John the Handsome, heir to the throne; his father, king Bernard II, flees in Limoges and dies soon after, stricken by the grief for his loss. Thus the Aquitanian crown ends upon the head of John's sister Lucie, the last of the main line of the Poitou dynasty. The duke of Barcelona, Amalric the Greedy, in inheriting the fatherly estates (and wars against neighbours) receives the crown of king of Catalonia, as Pope John XIX is the former archbishop of Barcelona, and with Papal benediction takes an oath to fight heresy. His Catalo-Norman army then invades Septimania, torching Perpignan and massacring any Jew of Cathar they manage to put hand on; even Catholic chroniclers relate the event as “worse than the Tartar savagery”. Northern Europe, Southern Europe: Rudolph I of Habsburg-Alamannia plans the division of his holdings among his two sons, Albert and Rudolph II. He gains from Nogai Khan the recognition of the latter as duke of Swabia, assuring the remaining domains to Albert as the future duke of Alamannia. Southern Europe: Venice and its allies Treviso and Verona, once bought the friendship of the Cumans in western Friul, attack Meinhard IV of Gurizberg (*OTL Gorizia) and Tyrol, ostensibly to reinstate the Patriarchate of Aquileia in the name of the Catholic Church. The Venetian fleet takes Trieste, its true objective; the Trevisans conquer Feltre and Belluno and the Cumans sack Friul as the local population revolts. Central-Eastern Europe, Southern Europe: Nogai Khan devastates Transylvania, but ends up harassed and ousted by the rebels, with half his army killed in ambushes amidst the mountains and forests. Czar Ivailo of Bulgaria, helped by brothers Litovoi and Bărbat of Wallachia, also revolting against the Tartars in what now amounts to a general Vlach rebellion, evicts prince Eltimir from Drystra/Silistra. Eltimir rejoins Nogai and is rewarded for his loyalty with the princely title over Cumania (*OTL Moldavia). Middle East: The Myriamite army triumphs over the Sungurid Turks of Syria at the battle of Jebel Saffah (*non-existing OTL with this name), which gives them uncontested domination over most of Lebanon. In the aftermath of the battle emir Lalak ibn Sungur is murdered and replaced by his nephew Inan Salahuddin al-Burji. East Africa: Kaladiopi (*OTL Marsa Ibrahim, Eritrea), the only Templar trade post and fortress in the area, falls to a prolonged siege by Ethiopian forces, thus making contacts between the Western traders and India still more difficult. Caucasus, Central Asia: The intervention of Köchü Khan's White Horde, who wrests Khorezm from the Ilkhans, unleashes a harsh conflict between the khanate of Persia/Iran and the Golden Horde. The Ilkhanid army moves from Derbent into Daghestan, soon to be forced back as eastern Iberia/Georgia rises in revolt under Velizari I. In the meantime Hindustani forces invade Baluchistan and southern Afghanistan, wresting them from the Ilkhanate. Far East: Wen Tianxiang, one of the last chief ministers of the late Song dynasty, is executed for refusing to cooperate with the new Mongol Yuan administration. SE Asia: The Chinese-Mongol armies of Kublai Khan again defeat the Burmese of Pagan at the battle of Bhamo. Another southward bound Yuan expedition gains tribute from the Khmer emperor Jayavarman VIII without any fighting. Northern Europe: Benedict, brother of king Magnus III of Sweden, is appointed as the first count-bishop of Finland. The town center of Hamburg, one of the main Hansa outlets, is burnt in a major fire. Western Europe: A coalition comprising the counts of Foix, the kingdom of Gadary/Languedoc, Navarra and Valencia marches jointly against king Amalric the Greedy of Catalonia. The Norman ruler, a descendant of William the Conqueror, is defeated a first time by the Gadarians at Ceret, and then crushed and killed by a joint Valencian-Navarrese force at Cerdanyola. The short-lived kingdom, despite the vain excommunications fulminated by the Papacy, is carved into different feudal holdings. The counts of Foix gain most of the Pyrenaic area, Gadary/Languedoc the coast up to Barcelona, Valencia the lower Ebro valley and delta with Tarragona. Saragossa and Aragon, the main bone of contention in the first phase of the conflict, are duly ceded to Foix as a major feudal estate under a theoretical Navarrese suzerainty. Southern Europe: The Republic of Venice begins minting its own gold coin, the ducat or zecchino, soon to enjoy wide circulation in the Mediterranean and Europe. The Serbs, emboldened by Nogai's difficulties, wrest the Mačva area from the Hungarian vassal kingdom of Slavonia, successfully assaulting Belgrade itself on the wave of victory. King Svetozar I of Serbia strengthens his ties with Byzantium, the regional source of legitimacy, with a matrimonial alliance. Guglielmo, marquis of Carretto and lord of Finale (Liguria), reunifies the family holdings upon the early death of his elder brother Azzone. Caucasus. Byzantine Empire: After a long siege Abdullah Yalik of Kurdistan conquers Theodosiopolis (*OTL Erzerum) from its Iberian/Georgian prince Constantine Sfrantza, the last local ally of the Ilkhanids, who is skinned alive. North Africa: Alexandria of Egypt is taken with a sneak attack by a Venetian fleet. In the meantime, the Mamluks of the sultanate of Marisia take back Cairo and ravage the Delta area, as the Banu Suleiman Arabs of Cyrenaica crush the Templar strongholds of Siwa and Matruh. Soon the Papacy asks for a Crusade to save Egypt and recover Jerusalem. Black Africa: A new, uninhabited Atlantic archipelago is accidentally “discovered” and surveyed by a Maurian “ivory fleet” headed for Senegal and blown off course by the trade winds: initially christened Volcano islands, it will be soon rebaptized by scholars as the Gorgades (*OTL Cape Verde). India: Baraq Khan of Hindustan dies after a long tyrannical rule, and is succeeded by his second son, Duwa. The new Khan-i-Hind styles himself Rajadhiraja Shahanshah, “king of kings” both in Sanskrit and Persian, and officially adheres to Hinduism. In the meantime long-standing rivalry with the Buddhist Dharma Empire of Pataliputra/Patna has given rise to a “boundary march” across the middle Ganges valley consisting of local kingdoms of dubious loyalty. Far East: A second Mongol-Korean attack against Japan accomplishes the bloody conquest of Kyushu island, where hundreds of thousands are slain or reduced into slavery. By chance, the attack had come as Hōjō Tokimune, the strong shikken (regent) and de facto ruler of Japan, had died, leaving as heir 14 year-old Sadatoki; it's now to his entrusted guardian, Taira Yoritsuna, and to the influent Adachi clan to stop the Mongol assault. Kublai's attack however peters out, as the Japanese still refuse to pay any tribute and withdraw in good order on Honshu to continue the struggle. SE Asia: King Kertanegara of Singhasari (Giava) exacts tribute from the island of Bali. Northern Europe: Tile Kolup, a man of humble origins known also as Dietrich the Cobbler, claims to be a secret son of the long dead king Frederick III Porphyrogenitus of Germany, stirring up desperate peasant revolts backed by some minor nobles. Nogai Khan of Berestia intervenes heavily ravaging central Germany and torching a number of towns until the Germans themselves capture the impostor and burn him at the stake (technically, for high treason and heresy) to avoid further bashing. Southern Europe: Meinhard IV of Gurizberg (*OTL Gorizia), Tyrol, Styria and Carinthia (henceonwards “of Lurngau”, the family name) throws in the towel, ceding Trieste to Venice, Feltre and Belluno to Treviso. After much bloodshed, the pro-Patriarchal revolts in Friul are crushed, and the local Cumans' allegiance bought back. Central-Eastern Europe: Birger Wolksson/Fyodor Volkov, the military leader of the Pskov republic, gains a legendary victory against Maimudas Blackbeard and his Muslim Lithuanians at the Kukhva river. Byzantine Empire: A local Turcopolian force led by count Cyril of Leucas/Lefkada soundly defeats in a series of pitched battles the Batiturks of Patras and Morea/Peloponnesus, who had recrossed the strait and invaded Epirus. An imperial army from Constantinople recovers without much difficulty the important fortress of Serrai, just in time to stop the Bulgarians, and proceeds to occupy parts of Macedonia. The fragmentation of what remains of Turcopolia, however, complicates any serious attempt to reconquest. East Africa: The ancient sultanate of Shewa (*the region around Addis Abeba in OTL) is absorbed by the new rising state of Ifat, centered in Harar (eastern Ethiopia) and led by Ali ibn Wali Ashma, son of the founder Umar, ancestor to the Muslim Walashma dynasty. Central Asia: Ilkhanid and Hindustani armies clash in the battle of Hamun, Seistan: the Ilkhan ruler *Arghun is victorious, repelling the invaders; among the fallen are two half-brothers of Duwa, the Hindustani khan. Far East: Taira Yoritsuna exterminates most of the Adachi clan, accusing them of accepting bribes from Kublai Khan to liquidate the Hōjōs and rule Japan as Mongol puppets. SE Asia: Kublai Khan invades dai Viet (*northern Vietnam) as it refused free crossing to Champa, target of a planned Mongol punitive expedition. The Mongol army led by Sogetu and Toghan, one of Kublai's sons, razes Thang Long (*Hanoi) the Viet capital, but, worn by tropical disease, is later fully defeated by the Viets led by general Trần Hưng Đạo. ca. 1285 Northern Europe: Most of the “newcomers”, Norwegian soldiers dispatched to Hesperia (*OTL America) with late king Magnus, expelled by the native colonists, relocate with their families (some 5,000 people in all) to Iceland, now under Norwegian suzerainty, after a perilous return trip in crowded and outdated longships. Soon the office of Lawspeaker dies out in the Icelandic Althing (Parliament): Norwegian and “newcomer” jarls take over the supreme authority over the local population as an unwelcomed aristocracy.
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