| abstract
| - Central-Eastern Europe: Incessant civil wars between the Russian principalities: the Kipchak/Cumans take part in droves as mercenaries. Western Europe: Duke Medeiro II leaves Leòn to his son-in-law, the Gallastrian heir to the throne, John II Ramiro of the Mabinardo dynasty. Southern Europe: Roger II of Lesser Normandy (southern Italy) marches on Rome, ousting Innocent II and having Anacletus II recognized as the sole Pope and king of Italy/Spoleto. Thus begins the Norman patronage of the Papacy:cool: ; a Norman guard is assigned to Anacletus for his safety. The exiled rival takes refuge in the friendly Canossa kingdom and sets up his first court in Mantua, then later in the free republic of Pisa. Genoa and Pisa begin an all-out war for control over Corsica, the eastern reaches of the Ligurian Riviera and the Mediterranean trades at large. Byzantine Empire: The Danishmendiyya Turks of Melitene (*OTL Malatya) crush and annex the Crusader buffer state of Caesarea/Mazhak, razing the Cappadocian stronghold and prompting yet another Batiturk insurrection in southern Anatolia: the echo in Constantinople and, even more, in western Europe, is considerable. Middle East: The Seljuk sultan of Baghdad, Mahmud II, dies. His successors will prove weak puppets of their generals, and will be eclipsed in time by the more powerful relative Sanjar of Khorassan. Northern Europe: Following the murder of Knut Lavard, his half-brother Erik Emune rises against the king, uncle Niels. In the end the rebel is forced to flee to Scania, but when Niels and his heir, Magnus the Strong, try to finish him off, they are crushed at the battle of Fodevig bay. Magnus dies in battle, while Niels makes the fatal error of sailing back to Slesvig, where he is massacred by the populace :eek: for killing the popular Knut Lavard. Erik becomes thus the new king of Denmark. Southern Europe: Innocent II and Anacletus II dispute for the Papacy and the related crown of Italy/Spoleto. Anacletus reigns in Rome until his death, being only then regularly succeeded by Innocent, with Roger II's final approval. Most Christian states recognize Innocent II as the true Pope-in-exile, with the notable exception of Aquitaine/Occitania. Western Europe: The Second Crusade is announced in Dijon by the Burgundian preacher St. Bernard of Clairvaux, a supporter of Pope Innocent II in the Papal schism, and, due to Bernard's great fame, finds a wild reception even without being called by a Pope. Duke John III of Valencia rejects Zenete suzerainty and defeats his former overlords and their southern Spanish allies at the battle of Alt dels Sanc; eastern Spain is freed of Zenete control. A Genoese fleet attacks Maiorca but is eventually driven back by the Pisans and the local Norman lords. Byzantine Empire: John II Comnenus campaigns in Anatolia against the Turks with mixed success, stemming the Turkic hordes in many skirmishes. Central-Eastern Europe: Boleslaw III of Poland campaigns against Hungary, not achieving any decisive result; Slovakia remains Hungarian. 1133 Southern Europe: Innocent II, from his exile see in Pisa, detaches from the archbishopric of Milan the episcopal see of Genoa and the powerful abbey of Bobbio, which are instead put under a newly created archbishopric of Pavia (the capital of the Lombard kingdom). This in punishment for archbishop Anselmo Pusterla's support for Anacletus II:o ; the Milanese themselves then exile the high prelate. Innocent II also settles the Genoan-Pisan struggle by dividing rebellious Corsica between the two warring cities, the western side to Genoa and the eastern one to Pisa. Central-Eastern Europe, Byzantine Empire: Two main Crusader armies of some 40,000 men reach Constantinople, the first led by land by duke Henry the Proud of Bavaria, and the second by sea through Lombardy and Italy by the king of Burgundy, Adalbert III the Orphaned. Both armies are received as unrequested hosts and promptly ferried across the Bosphorus. After ravaging Thrace and Asia Minor for supplies, the German army takes a beating :( from the Danishmendiyyas in the battle of the Salt Lakes in the very heart of Anatolia and has to withdraw to Angora, where it is later reached by the Anglo-French-Burgundian-Lombard army (the Franks, in the Byzantine nomenclature) who decide to winter before further campaigning in the barren Anatolian plateau. North Africa: St. Barca from Bona preaches the Second Crusade in Numidia and Ifrigia (*later Punia, OTL Tunisia), raising an army due for the Levant. Western Europe: King Conan III the Great of Brittany crushes at Alençon the counts of Anjou, Fulk V and his son Geoffroy V, relatives of his mother, on behalf of emperor William III. The two had revolted against the emperor, as the sovereign objected to their expansionism. The defeated rulers are jailed and killed, their relatives exiled in different places inside the Norman empire and in the Levant, or forced to take monastic vows. Anjou is bestowed upon the earl of Richmond Alain the Black, Conan's son-in-law and a close friend of the Norman emperor. North Africa, Middle East: The African crusaders sail from Bardapolis (*OTL Tunis) led by the heir to the imperial "Roman" throne of the West, young Matthias Ghiffiotto, and come ashore in Genoese-held Jaffa. Thence they attack and capture the Fatimid strongholds of Ashqelon and Gaza, ousting the Muslims from Palestine. After much debate with the Genoese and the kingdom of Jerusalem, it is decided that both will be Western imperial holdings (Terra Christi Transmaritima). Byzantine Empire: In Angora a deal is reached between basileus John II and the Crusaders. A part of the latter will assist in repressing the Batiturk (*western Turks, formerly Rum-Seljuks) rebels, while part of the Byzantines will advance with the main armies to retake Caesarea/Mazhak and Melitene (*OTL Malatya); of these two cities, the first to fall will be given to the Crusaders, the other to the Byzantines. When the powerful Christian armies attack, both cities are retaken, as the Turks refrain from giving battle, resorting to guerrilla. John II leads a Byzantine force to the recapture of Sebastea/Sivas as well. The seat of the Danishmendiyya emirate is again transferred, this time to Artzingane/Erzincan. 1135 Southern Europe: A Pisan fleet plunders Amalfi ending its independence as a sea-trading town: Roger II's Normans occupy it, causing a new conflict with the Sicilian-based Western “Roman” empire. Byzantine Empire, Middle East: As predictable, the Byzantines and the Crusaders soon break their temporary pacts :rolleyes:. The imperial army led by John II drives the Crusader garrison from Caesarea/Mazhak and Cappadocia is retaken for Byzantium; Melitene remains a Crusader border march under the noble German Adalbert von Babenberg, who had renounced his rights of primogeniture to the Austrian March to depart as a crusader. Then the main Crusader force heads south, opening its way amidst grave losses until Edessa (*OTL Urfa), where they rout the Ortoqid Turks, making the city yet another Crusader county under Wido of Tarantasia, a close relative of count Peter I of Savoy. Aleppo too at last falls to the Crusaders and is ceded to the principality of Antioch. Then the remnants of the Crusader army proceed south towards Hamah but are trounced by atabeg Zengi of Mosul's cavalry at Ubaiza (al-Huwayz). Middle East: The African-Western imperial crusaders attack Damascus but fail after a long siege, being mercilessly harassed along their withdrawal route to Galilee by the Burid army led by atabeg-regent Mui'd ad-Din Unur. Black Africa: Ghana (emperor) Bawl II of the weakened Ghana Empire shakes off Zenete tutelage.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)