1291-1295: my present for this 2009
Hope it won't remain the only update for this year...
1291
Western Europe:
When
Lucie, titular queen of Aquitania/Occitania and last of the Poitou house, dies in exile at the Fois (*OTL Foix) court, her recently widowed brother-in-law
Sancho VI of Navarra formally claims the Aquitanian crown by rights of marriage. A Navarrese army reconquers Navarra north of the Pyrenees; duke Lop Guilhem IV of Gascony pays feudal homage to the Navarrese ruler. As Lucie's widowed husband
Peyre Berenger, brother of count Bernat V of Fois (*OTL Foix), now claims the crown too, Navarrese forces retake Saragossa, starting the long
War of Aquitanian Succession, or Twenty Years' War, that in several bouts of fighting will take place on both sides of the Pyrenees.
Northern Europe, Southern Europe:
When
Rudolph I of Habsburg-Alamannia dies,
Albert I inherits Alamannia and
Rudolph II inherits Swabia, both with ducal title. While Rudolph II remains nominally loyal to Nogai Khan, Albert soon joins the anti-Mongol rebels.
Southern Europe:
Count-Archbishop Mattia Della Torre is ousted from Milan by the partisans of his rival
Ugo Castiglioni, brother of the Patriarch of Aquileia, Gregorio. It is by this event that the
counts of Seprio's indirect control over Milan is first imposed. Mattia and his extended clan flee south to Lodi, under
Pallavicino lordship, and will keep on claiming authority over the Milanese church and estates still for some time.
Southern Europe, North Africa:
Pope John XIX dies in Bardapolis (*OTL Tunis) after a tenure during which the Papacy fell in wide discredit. His successor, appointed by Western imperial will more than by the Cardinals, is bishop
Reynard Peyre of Marseille, who takes the name of
Francis I to honor the Franciscan monks that took care of him as an orphan. In fear an Ifrigian independence movement could exploit the Papal presence, the aged and sick Western emperor
Olympius I has the Papal see trasferred in
Palermo, right in sight of the imperial palace.
North Africa, Middle East:
In compliance of their Caliphist creed, and after finding an “appropriate” line of descent from the Prophet's family, the Mameluks of Egypt-Marisia appoint their sultan
Abdurrahman I the One-Eyed as Caliph, a title that will be recognized by Caliphists throughout the Dar al-Islam. The Caliph maintains its capital in
Burj al-Maris in upper Egypt.
Middle East, Central Asia:
The Jews are “purged” from state offices in Ilkhanid Persia/Iran, after pressures from the rival Zoroastrian clergy. In later years they will be persecuted and exiled, finding refuge in the tens of thousands in Yalikid Kurdistan and Hindustan.
India:
Veera Ballala III ascends the throne of the Hoysala empire, ruling most of SW India.
1292
British isles:
King Tristan XV the Red of Alba and Scotland dies, leaving the double crown upon his eldest son
Malcolm III. The new king is soon challenged by his powerful brothers, supported by several of the main feudatories (in turn, mostly relatives from cadet branches of the Crovan dynasty), in a burst of anarchy.
Western Europe:
William I Coeur de Lion, duke of Anjou, defeats the Bretons at the battle of Blain and conquers Nantes.
The Navarrese try an attack towards Bordèu (*OTL Bordeaux) but suffer a resounding naval defeat at Biarritz and have to renounce, since the republic is now supplied from the sea with English goods and mercenaries.
Barthou Juic becomes the first Jewish marquis of Septimania, appointed directly by king
Raymond VII Trencavel of Gadary/Languedoc, whose life he had saved in a hunting accident. The king states that from now on the marquis of Septimania will always be from the Jewish community; this costs him an excommunication from the Papacy.
Southern Europe:
The Western Roman Emperor Olympius I dies in Palermo, succeeded by a grandson bearing the same name,
Olympius II the Young. Sicily has by now touched its apex of power, and begins a slow decline.
Central-Eastern Europe:
After back-and-forth raids, with Nogai's armies reaching almost as far as Saray, the Golden Horde's capital on the lower Volga, a huge battle is fought for the control of western Russia near Staritsa.
Maimudas Blackbeard falls on the battlefield leading his Lithuanians to ensure victory for Nogai's forces;
Temur Bayan, Nogai's rebel son, commits suicide to avoid capture. For now, the defeated
Toqta Khan of the Blue Horde accepts to pay tribute and cedes control over most of the Russian towns, including Tver'.
India:
Duwa Khan of Hindustan vassalizes the Hindu Seuna/Yadava kingdom after plundering its capital, Devagiri (in OTL Maharashtra).
SE Asia:
King
Mengrai of Lanna annexes the former kingdom of Haripunjaya (Haripunchai): northern Siam is now firmly in Thai hands.
1292-1293
Northern Europe:
Ivan Andreasson, son of the exiled Rurikid prince Andrey II Yaroslavich of Vladimir and nephew of the late Alexander Nevskij, is sent to Estonia by the regent (riksfader) of Sweden, the Danish Fredrik Eriksson, with a double task - to consolidate Danish domination there and try to capture as much as possibile of Livonia for the Swedish crown as well. Ivan completes his job with remarkable ferocity and success – and when his maternal cousin, prince
Erik Stenhuvd, dies in Riga, the Russo-Swede enthrones himself there, dispatching or putting to flight Erik's sons. Thenceon he effectively rules over the whole Baltic area, be it nominally Danish or Swedish.
Central-Eastern Europe, Southern Europe:
When Ivailo dies, Jagatariu, son of prince Eltimir of Cumania (*OTL Moldavia), invades Bulgaria and for a brief time manages to assert himself in Tarnovo, only to be quickly expelled by
Ivan I Slaven, Ivailo's nephew and the next Czar.
Caucasus:
Velizari I reunifies almost all of Iberia/Georgia under his sceptre, vassalizing his cousins in the western lands of Imereti.
SE Asia:
A Mongol fleet on a punitive expedition reaches Java to get revenge upon king
Kertanegara of Singhasari, who had refused paying tributes and slashed the faces of Kublai Khan's ambassadors before sending them back. The Mongol invaders find Singhasari in chaos after the recent assassination of the king by his vassal Jayakatwang of Kediri. Kertanegara's son-in-law,
Raden Wijaya/Kertarajasa Jayawardhana of Sunda Galuh, allies with the Yuan invaders to crush the usurper, then suddenly attacks and expels the Mongols for good. The new kingdom of
Majapahit is thus established.
1292-1297
Northern Europe, Central-Eastern Europe:
Lithuania is torn asunder by a civil war between Maimudas I's teenage heirs, the remaining pagan tribes and a Jewish-converted pretender, the Sudovian chieftain Saros, discreetly supported by Nogai. In the end
Guseinas Maimudonis prevails by liquidating or exiling his opponents; his descendants, the Waliist Muslim Guseinaitis, will be the Lithuanian reigning dynasty.
North Africa, Middle East, Arabia:
Caliph of Marisia (Egypt and Nubia)
Abdurrahman I the One-Eyed tries to attack Mecca through the Red Sea and crush the Waliate (*Sunni “Papacy”) once and for all – even more since hajj (pilgrimage) for Caliphists (*the Sunni faction rejecting the Walis of Mecca as supreme religious authority) had been forbidden, forcing pilgrims of that confession to either (falsely) abjure or renounce to one of the pillars of the faith, now characterized by the ritual weeping on the spot of the destroyed Ka'aba. The Waliate and its Hashemite wardens, after narrowly repulsing the sea-born invasion thanks to the help of the turbulent Bedouin tribes of the Arabian interior, strike a “blasphemous” alliance with the infidel Myriamites of Palestine to keep the Egyptians at bay (and assure Waliist Muslims unhindered pilgrimage to Jerusalem).
1293
Northern Europe:
Nogai Khan sends his sons and allied Bohemian, Polish and Ograinese forces to ravage rebellious Germany. Despite brutal massacres and plunders (the town of Worms is famously spared thanks to the intercession of Nogai's most trusted religious advisor, the Worms-born Rabbi Yehuda Rosen), the khan's forces are divided and incapable of gaining significant successes against the major feudatories - furthermore, the European feudal levies show a tendency to desert and sympathize with the rebels.
Western Europe:
After several sieges and countersieges of Saragossa, the Navarrese defeat the Fois (*OTL Foix) and their allies at the
battle of Sobradiel, expelling them from most of Aragon.
Lop Guilhem IV of Gascony rejects his allegiance to Navarra and claims himself by force of arms the Aquitanian/Occitanian crown, staging a coronation in Agen – this, in turn, involves in the war
Gadary/Languedoc and Bordèu (*OTL Bordeaux), who ally against him.
Southern Europe:
Genoa and Nice sign a comprehensive peace treaty, according to which the town of Ventimiglia is recognized as an ally (de facto vassal) of Nice and the Genoese-friendly county of Tenda has its strategic Alpine holdings confirmed.
Bernardo I da Canossa nicknamed il Vecchio (the Old) ousts the Este militias from Reggio Emilia, forcing the Communal authorities to recognize him as lord of the town.
Byzantine Empire:
The Byzantines gain time by bribing
Osman, the most brilliant of the Kirikkale Batiturk generals. Osman revolts against his master, sultan
Nasreddin Mawdud Khusrau, who dies some weeks after leaving his quarrelling sons in charge. The rebel founds an own emirate in Kotiaion (Cotyaeum, *OTL Kütahya), but despite the gold obtained from the Byzantines he soon begins to expand his domain.
Caucasus:
The Alans, now mostly Christianized in the Jacobite/Nestorian creed, free themselves from the yoke of the Golden Horde with Iberian/Georgian help.
Middle East:
The Sungurid Turks take out the Hospitaller fortress of Margat, Syria, after a long siege.
Far East:
In the so-called Heizen Gate incident
Hōjō Sadatoki liquidates
Taira Yoritsuna the Mongol-Slayer, his all-powerful patron and guardian, and his followers, asserting his own power as shikken (regent).
1294
Southern Europe:
The Peace of Treviso sees Venice regain its possessions in western Histria; Trieste becomes a free city, but has to pay an annual tribute to the Venetians.
The founder of the Apostolic brethren, Gherardo Segarelli, is jailed for life at Parma by local Church authorities after breaking its ban from the town; four of his followers are burnt at the stake.
Vilfredo, heir of Guglielmo II, count-margrave of Seprio and Pombia, defeats at Pontesesto the Della Torre militia and their Pallavicino patrons who were trying to reenter Milan.
Central-Eastern Europe:
Nogai Khan adds Pomerelia (eastern Pomerania, with Danzig) to the royal domain of the Berestian khanate after the extinction of the local ruling house. By now the
Teutonic Order in nearby Prussia has become something very different from its former self – full of Poles and Baltic Prussians
, it's a duchy like any other, except for its elective character, its Christian profession (despite Papal excommunication as Mongol vassals!) and its feared raiding navy contending the Baltic to the Hansa.
Central-Eastern Europe, Southern Europe:
Prince
Jagatariu of Cumania (*OTL Moldavia) launches a last great invasion of Bulgaria with Mongol reinforcements but is surrounded and trounced in battle at the Samovodene gorge by Czar
Ivan I Slaven, narrowly escaping subsequent ambushes as he crosses Wallachia on his way back with the survivors.
Byzantine Empire:
Albanian forces subdue most of Epirus; the Thessalian lordships, raided by Albanian bands, eventually ask for Byzantine protection accepting back the basileus' authority.
A Venetian fleet ousts the Batiturk pirates from Kefalonia.
Middle East, Central Asia:
*Arghun Khan dies during a campaign against the Yalikids in the Jezira region: the Ilkhanate crown is swiftly taken by his step-brother
Elchiney Bekburj. A traditional Tengriist, the new ruler again favors Buddhists, Christians (he will welcome even Catholic missionaries) and most of all Zoroastrians over Muslims, who still are a majority in Persia/Iran.
Far East:
Kublai Khan dies a natural death, leaving the Yuan throne of Mongol China to his grandson
Temür Öljeytü Khan.
Yehe Baghatur of Moghulistan marches on Karakorum and proclaims himself Great Khan of the Mongols there; Kublai's discredited heir, betrayed by several generals and tribes who pass to the rival ruler and by some relatives who stage a brief civil war, loses control over most of Mongolia proper. The new Yuan ruler will quickly reassert his own power in Khanbaliq/Dadu but from now on Yuan China will be essentially a Chinese state with a Mongol-descended military caste, with growing inner problems.
A Japanese fleet mainly composed by
Wokou pirates from Tsushima and the southern lands conquers Jeju island from the Mongols, making it a nest of piracy and basically negating Yuan and Goryeo control of sea.
SE Asia:
In the flux of disintegrating Burma Sao Hsam Long Hpa, brother of king Sao Hso Hkan Hpa of Mong Mao, a Shan kingdom (*located at OTL China-Burma borders), is able to plunder all the way to northern Arakan and the Bengal Sea coast.
1294-1296
Southern Europe:
The Ograinese led by
Kunya Khan repeatedly raid and sack Alamannia but are eventually repulsed by duke
Albert I of Habsburg.
Black Africa:
In an attempt to counter the effect of the loss of Egypt for Christianity (spice prices have risen and foster inflation) the Genoese privateer
Guglielmo Grimaldi sails with two carracks trying a circumnavigation of Africa to India. After stops in the Balearic islands, Mauretania/Mornavia (*OTL Morocco) and the Canary islands, and leaving his Maurian escort vessels bound for trade with the Wolofs of Senegal, the explorer heads south and then east along the coast for some months, reaching the Jeliba (*OTL Niger) delta before succumbing to a tropical disease. A handful of survivors, led by the Balearic seaman Liberio Gorta, will make it back later to the Canaries and Genoa to retell their adventure and make a fortune with the spices, gold and ivory taken down there.
1294-1297
Far East, SE Asia, India, North Africa, Western Europe:
Jean le Normande (Nu'er Mang Zhang) is retired as chief minister of the Mongol Yuan Empire by Temür Öljeytü Khan. The new ruler grants the former slave lavish gifts and its freedom, with the right to go back to his infancy's homeland as ambassador. After a three years voyage, mostly by sea, dotted with diplomatic duties, Jean comes back to his native Normandy. His “Tales of Grand Tartaria and Cathay” will become a cornerstone of Norman French literature and provide huge influence.
1294-1299
East Africa:
The sons of the Ethiopian emperor Solomon Yagbe'u Seyon fight for the throne after their father's demise till they're ousted from power by their uncle
Wedem Arad.
1295
British isles:
Malcolm III of Alba and Scotland is murdered and replaced by his brother
Brian III, in turn caught in a quarrel with his remaining siblings – the twin kingdoms are in flux.
Western Europe:
The would-be king of Aquitaine/Occitania, duke Lop Guilhem IV of Gascony, after being cornered in Agen by an army from Gadary/Languedoc, is murdered by his rival cousin
Ursel the Fat who renounces the claim to the Aquitanian crown renewing allegiance to Navarra in exchange for help. Navarrese support arrives too late to stop the Gadarians from taking the town and slaying the new duke.
Western Europe, Southern Europe:
Aimes II de Claret, duke of Lesser (or eastern) Occitania, trying to expand his domains gets killed in the battle of Vauclusa by
Guilhem II the Trobadour of Balz-Arenjo (*Baux-Orange), whose forces are however unable to subdue the territory left to the young Simon Peyre, the Claret heir.
Southern Europe:
Prince
Meinhard IV of Lurngau dies, dividing his extensive holdings between his eldest sons Henry and Otto – the former receiving the princely title, Styria, Carinthia and Tyrol, the latter Gurizberg (*OTL Gorizia) as count and Friul as Lord Protector, with two younger brothers and two sisters taking the spoils as vassals.
Byzantine Empire:
The Byzantine stronghold of Kastamon (Paphlagonia), whence the Megas Branas dynasty started its incredible reconquest of the empire, is taken by the Muslim Batiturks of the Kirikkale sultanate.
The Byzantine navy reconquers parts of Euboea from Venice and local Latin (Catholic) lords.
SE Asia:
Sri Indravarman III deposes his long-reigning father-in-law Jayavarman VIII to rule over the
Khmer empire, strictly adopting Theravada Buddhism in place of the earlier mix of Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhism.