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1269 AD- Ottokar II, after much political maneuvering, is elected King of the Romans, through bribery of the Archbishoprics, and marrying his daughter off to the Duke of Saxony.
1273 - 1274 AD - Ottokar did not go unchallenged. Rudolph I of Austria claimed Austria and Styria as his own, and he had the support of the Duke of Bavaria and (to some extent) the Count of Palatinate. But Bavaria quickly withdrew support of the Duke when many of the German states warned that should the conflict escalate, they would back Ottokar completely. Rudolph basically found himself alone in his opposition to the German King.
1276 AD - Ottokar is crowned Holy Roman Emperor. His services to Christendom (foundation of the Cistercian monastery of Goldenkron, Crusade against the Prussians) did not go unrecognized. The support of the Papacy of the Przemyslid rulers ensured stability in the Holy Roman Empire.
1279 AD - Ladislaus IV of Hungary successfully crushes internal dissent. Royal power in Hungary is largely restored.
1280 - 1291 AD - Albert III’s reign was marked by peace, but with growing tensions with the Scots. For over two hundred years the Scots and English have been friends. But the only reason for this was because the two houses that ruled the respective countries owed each other so much. To the Godwins the Atholls owed the entire reason they ruled Scotland. To the Atholls the Godwins owed the flowering of Northumbria, by reining-in the Scottish raids that had taken place for centuries previous.
Now things were changing. The Scots were getting antsy. They were a bit big for their britches now that they were, effectively, masters of Ireland. The Scots were beginning to take up old habits.
Albert III would prove to be the last Godwin king traced through the male line. He had four daughters, and his eldest daughter had married an earl by the name of Alfred Ealdgar. According to the laws of succession, the eldest son of the eldest daughter has the right to the throne. Alfred Ealdgar had a son named Harold Ealdgar. Because he was only ten years old at the time, the Witanegamot served as regent until Harold turned twenty.
1291 - 1301 AD - The regency of the Witanegamot. The Witan had presided over a mixed period as well. The situation with the Scots continued to deteriorate. Raids had started back up, and while they were not officially backed by the Scottish royalty, the fact that they even took place showed that the Scottish king tended to look the other way. In the private thoughts of the Scottish king, one might imagine the argument that any need to be civil to the English died with the death of Albert III.
However, England’s clout in the Netherlands continued to expand. The English were, arguably, the wealthiest state in Europe at this time. The residences of the Earls who invested in the “wool circle” became more and more opulent, and overall the country prospered.
1291 AD - The fall of Acre.
1295 - 1297 AD - Troubles in France. Louis IX has to contend with what is basically the dissolution of the Champagnian-Aquitanian “Empire” that had formed. Greed and malice had finally taken over. Over the last few centuries the Angevins and Bretons had drifted out of the Champagnian sphere of influence, as did Toulouse. Now Henri and Thibaut were fighting amongst themselves as to who shall have Champagne and Aquitaine.
Rather than allow his kingdom to be torn apart by this, Louis IX finally convinces the brothers to cease the fighting. The counties were now thoroughly divided, there was now no internal threat to the French crown’s power (theoretically).
1301 AD - The death of Ottokar I, Holy Roman Emperor. He had proven far more popular with the Church than the Hohenstaufen rulers, and this ensured the election of his son, Wenceslaus II (Wenceslaus I, HRE). This had profound ramifications, as Wenceslaus was also the Duke of Krakow, and by extension the King of Poland. To sum it up, Wenceslaus II was the King of the Romans, Bohemia, Poland, Duke of Austria, Styria, Carniola, Carinthia, and Krakow.
1305 AD - After procuring Papal recognition of his right to the throne of Poland, Wenceslaus defeats the rival claimant to the Polish throne, Ladislaus, lord of Pomerania, Kuyavia, Leczyca and Sieradz. Ladislaus is assassinated under mysterious circumstances soon after the battle.
1307 AD - Wenceslaus, elevates the various duchies
1310 AD - Wenceslaus notices that things in Rome have reached their nadir. The Papacy was actually considering a move! So Wenceslaus offers the Papacy moves for one year to Graz, while he takes care of the problem in Rome. Wenceslaus succeeds in persuading the Pope.
1311 AD - The Papal Exile. On January 1, 1311, the Pope rang in the new year in Graz. Whilst this was going on, Wenceslaus marched on Rome, in order to take control of the city. The fighting was fierce, but by September most of the anti-papal elements had been thoroughly rooted out.
Wenceslaus found himself in a very tempting position. He COULD try to (diplomatically) keep the papacy in Graz, where he could keep a close eye on it. Ultimately, however, it was not religion that moved him to return Rome to the control of the Papacy, so much as it was his situation. If he had the nerve to keep the Papacy captive, his son Wenceslaus III would stand no chance of winning the election, as the support of the Archbishops were instrumental to the security of the Imperial office for the Przemyslid line.
1312 AD - The Papacy returns to Rome, from what could have been a very, very long Captivity.
1321 AD - Death of Wenceslaus. His son Wenceslaus III is elected. But there are grumblings, which stemmed from the fact that he ruled over such a vast territory. The princes called for a Diet at Nuremburg to hammer-out, among other things, exactly who had the right to elect, and the seemingly rising power of the Emperor.
They finally set into law the electors. They would be the Archbishops of Cologne, Mainz, and Trier, the King of Bohemia, the Duke of Saxony, the Margrave of Brandenburg, and the Count Palatinate had the right to elect the King of the Romans. And the King of the Romans was to be crowned by the standing Pope as the Holy Roman Emperor.
1301 - 1346 AD - The reign of King Harold IV. Harold assumed power once he turned twenty, claiming that he had come of age. Harold IV reigned over a prosperous kingdom, and was one of the last to do so for a while (the Black Death made its entrance into Europe in 1347). Harold put this wealth to good use.
He understood the situation with the Scots. He knew that he had to, in a sense, prove himself to the Scots that the Ealdgar dynasty was to be respected, perhaps more so than the Godwins. He began first by increasing the kingdom’s military strength and presence in the region of Northumbria. What he was doing, essentially, was goading the Scots into attacking. And in 1312, it worked.
A number of Scots got it in their heads that they would pull off a daring raid by sea, like the Vikings did. This was backed by the Mormaer of Moray, brother of King Duncan III, who even provided an amount of ships. The Mormaer’s son was even one of the leaders of the raid. This was dangerous political ground on which to be treading. On March 1, 1312 the Scottish raiding party had, under the cover of night, arrived at Myton (OTL Kingston upon Hull). It was a small port, but it was close enough to Eoforwic to make the Earl of Northumbria very nervous.
During the raid of Myton the son of the Mormaer, Malmure, was killed by arrow fire. The body was seized by the English during the raid, and once the raid was over, Scottish captives positively identified it as Malmure, the King’s nephew. This enraged the English. A member of the royal family of Scotland was at the head of a raid within a day’s ride or so of Eoforwic!
This caused an uproar in both Witanceaster and Perth. Many in the Witan were crying for war, and Harold was happy to oblige. Harold himself wrote a scathing letter to Duncan, King of Scotland, demanding that the King of Scotland not simply act to cease the raids on Northumbria, but in addition to cease the buildup of the Scottish navy, and to even curb their expansion in Ireland. (The first words of the letter were “Lysergic Scotisc” --- [You] vile Scot.)
And when presented with these outrageous demands, what really got the Scots’ blood pumping was that rather than fight, Duncan III considered bowing to these demands. Whether or not that’s actually true is debatable, but his immediate actions following the reception of the letter (which were to return all Scottish ships to their ports post haste and to send a letter of apology) did not help his standing amongst the many Mormaers who clamored for action. Duncan’s actions are puzzling to many historians, but it seems most likely that these actions were meant only to pacify the English at the moment, to avoid immediate war. Duncan III’s other actions in his reign showed no real signs of being an English lap-dog, as some of his contemporaries had painted him to be.
Thus, in the middle of the night, November 4, 1312, as Duncan III was returning to his estate, was attacked by a group of men headed by Ferchar III, Mormaer of Ross. Duncan III was slain in the fighting, and on November 12 Ferchar had enough support in Perth to crown himself King of Scots, Leinster, Dublin, and Ulster as Ferchar I. Duncan III did have a son, and Duncan IV had little choice but to flee to England, where he really wasn’t welcome. But Harold IV welcomed him anyway, knowing him to be a useful pawn.
Toward the end of winter, in 1313, the Scottish campaign began in earnest. The fighting would rage on for four years. Mostly the fighting had been confined to Scotland, although Alfred the Earl of Cornweall (OTL Cornwall) led a daring (and successful) raid to seize Dublin and other Irish coastal cities during the height of the war in 1315.
Meanwhile, in Scotland proper, the war was raging. Unlike the last time England went into Scotland, over two centuries ago, this time the Scots were, more or less, united in their opposition to English invasion. What it ended up coming down to was the relative wealth of the two countries: how long they could sustain a prolonged conflict. The English were able to hire wave after wave of mercenaries from the continent and Ireland to bolster their forces, and to reduce the number of English dead (which turned out to be good P.R. for Harold).
Meanwhile, the Great Famine had struck Europe. From 1315 - 1316 the fighting had ground almost to a halt, as it was difficult to feed a stationary man in a foreign land, let alone an army on the move.
Ferchar simply could not keep up the fight, after four years of fighting, and being often unsuccessful in the field (the English were in control of Perth, the Hebrides [thanks to another naval raid by the Earl of Cornweall], Edinburgh, Glasgow, and several other key locations. Ferchar died under mysterious circumstances in August of 1317. The war weary Scots sought peace with the English, and they got it on September 27, 1317. The terms of the peace were that Cumbria and Edinburgh were to be given to England, and that England have full control of Irish ports on the Irish Sea The terms were harsh, but workable.
Duncan IV was allowed to take his throne, however he was to marry his son to Harold IV’s daughter, Edith. This helped to ensure a familial alliance of sorts, at least for now.
The rest of Harold IV’s reign was spent in relative peace. His son and heir-apparent, Sigemund, marries Joanna Duchess of Brabant in 1334. This was an important marriage, because with the death of Harold IV in 1346 Brabant is also joined to the English crown, making the English the uncontested masters of the Netherlands (sans Guelders and Luxembourg).
In 1346 Harold IV passes away. He is succeeded by his son Sigemund.
1346 - 1366 AD - The reign of King Sigemund was fraught with peril. The Black Death made its debut in Europe not one year after his coronation.
The Black Death had ravaged Europe, and by 1349 Yersinia Pestis had, like Julius Caesar, William of Normandy, and Harald Hardrada before him, arrived on the shores of England. Within weeks the whole of England had been effected, and within just a few months the disease worked its way to Ireland. The fast spread of the disease can be attributed to the fact that travel between Flanders and England was facilitated due to political unity, and the fact that the roads of England were among some of the best-maintained and easiest-traveled in the whole of Europe (thanks to the work of King Harold III, many years previous).
England came through the Black Death a lot worse off than before. There was now a labor shortage of sorts. And because the importation of textiles from the Low Countries was essentially cut off for two years or so, the English had to look for other ways to make their money. The result, was the creation of a textile industry in England itself. It had always been there, but it had for centuries played second fiddle to the Dutch textile mills. Now it had a real chance of overtaking Flanders. But, for now, this was of only minor concern. If the English wouldn’t buy from Flanders‘ mills, then Flanders’ mills would go market their goods elsewhere.
The rest of King Sigemund’s reign was more or less spent in rebuilding after the Black Death. England, that placid island kingdom, stayed largely out of the affairs of the continentals, when it could. But the King of England at this time was technically subservient to the Crown of France, as the County of Flanders was in the crown’s peerage. Sigemund didn’t like the idea one bit. It felt to him as though the King of France had some sort of power over him, and he wished to avoid that sticky situation.
And so he did. He effectively turned Flanders into an apanage, by resigning the title of “Count of Flanders”, and giving it to his son, Sigemund II. (Sigemund would then later grant the title to his son, and so forth) It still wasn’t ideal, but it was better than the King himself being subservient to the French crown. And while he was at it, he granted the Duchy of Brabant to the second-in-line to the throne.
Sigemund would die, and would be remembered as a mediocre king, that one who had to deal with the Black Death, and whose handling of it, while far from an exhibition of incompetence, was also far from an exhibition of administrative mastery. He did, however, show an understanding that in order to maintain England’s prosperity (or, because of the Black Death, regain it), he had to keep England off the continent politically. His successors would slowly find it more and more difficult to not be involved on the continent.
1350 AD - Death of Wenceslaus II (III of Bohemia), Holy Roman Emperor. His son Ottokar III was then elected as the Holy Roman Emperor. He would be the fourth Przemyslid to reign as Holy Roman Emperor.
1366 AD - Sigemund II ascends the throne of England. Like his grandfather before him, he seeks to place England in a strong position, for like the first of the Ealdgars, Sigemund II saw England as being on the cusp of greatness, if only it could just prove itself as being capable. This nation needed a pick-me-up, and it needed one now.
He wouldn’t have to wait all that long. The Scottish monarch had lost near-complete grip on his Irish possessions, and because the Irish were beginning to raid Scottish ports on the Irish sea, the ports that England now controls, Sigemund II let the king of Scotland know exactly how that made him feel.
“Why don’t you buy them from me?” inquired the king of Scotland.
And that’s just what Sigemund did. Leinster and Dublin were sold to England, for a fair price too. And so at the end of the year Sigemund had, for the most part, inherited the Scots’ problem. But in it he saw the pick me up he had been waiting for.
1367 AD - Polish Pomerania is left without an heir to the Duchy, and as such it was now upon Wenceslaus II, Holy Roman Emperor to invest somebody with that particular Duchy. He had four options. He could give it to the Duchy of Pomerania, a rather inconsequential Duchy on the Baltic. He could give it to the Margrave of Brandenburg, and perhaps secure the Przemyslid line completely for the next few generations. He could give it to the Teutonic Order, as a means of pleasing that rather powerful monastic neighbor who has been since the rise of Wencesalus II looking on Gdansk with hungry eyes. He could invest the entire territory to the Bishop of Gdansk. Or he could claim it as Imperial land, personal property of the Holy Roman Empire.
This left Wenceslaus in a rather difficult position. He could basically throw out Pomerania. Giving it to the Duchy of Pomerania would serve only to anger the Teutonic Knights AND Brandenburg. He could give it to the Imperial crown, as a means of expanding the Emperor’s influence, although this ran the risk of angering the Church, and ultimately the Archbishoprics of Trier, Cologne, and Mainz. Granting the entire territory to the Bishop of Gdansk (thus making it the Bishopric of Gdansk) would likely have the opposite effect, although a bishopric in that particular region might prove to be more of a strategic liability than anything.
And so he found himself torn between Brandenburg and the Teutonic Order. Who ought it be? Secure the vote of Brandenburg (and because it was ruled by a Wittelsbach, more than likely that of the Palatinate as well), stifle the growing power of the Teutonic Order? Or secure the friendship of the Teutonic Order, but face serious internal dissent?
1368 AD - After debating about the issue with himself and his advisors for a whole year (and leaving the Territory in a sort of political limbo in the meanwhile) the Emperor decided to confer with the Pope, and see what his thoughts were on the matter.
The Holy Father was quite understanding of his situation. But ultimately Wenceslaus left the meeting with one impression: the Pope wanted it to become either a bishopric, or be given to the Teutonic Knights, in the interests of securing the Baltic shores for the Catholic Church.
And this is exactly what Wenceslaus was prepared to do, when on a hot July day, 1368, the Emperor was bribed.
The Wittelsbachs of Bavaria, Palatinate, and Brandenburg all made a sort of cabal, and pooled their resources together in a mixture of bribery and blackmail. The Emperor knew that Bavaria, the Palatinate, and Brandenburg combined was enough to give the Emperor quite the headache should they choose the path of princely revolt.
The Emperor had his back against the wall. He was not a young man at this point, and he was faced with possible revolt. And while the support of the Archbishoprics and Papacy is nice, it really amounts to little when you have the entire House of Wittelsbach threatening armed rebellion.
And so on August 1, 1368, Wenceslaus had finally come to a fateful decision: the Margrave of Brandenburg was to be invested with Farther Pomerania. How future Przemyslids would come to rue the day that their forebear arrived at this decision…
1369 AD - The Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights was in disbelief. A cabal of Bavarians had taken from the Order the chance at domination of the Baltic Coast. A chance to expand the power of the one true faith to the farthest shores of the cold Baltic, a chance to curb the power of the money-grubbing Hanseatic League.
Meanwhile, the various branches of Wittelsbachs were in celebration. They had muscled their way onto the Baltic, and for it gained the very, very wealthy port of Gdansk. These Przemyslids, they weren’t such bad guys after all, no?
The Pope likewise was furious. He had TOLD Wenceslaus to invest the Teutonic Grand Master with the Duchy! And here he thought these Przemyslids were different, that they were a change from the Staufens of years gone by. He supposed he was wrong. And the Archbishops of Mainz, Trier, and Cologne reacted in the exact same way.
The Pope did not excommunicate Wenceslaus, but he had made it known to him that he no longer enjoyed his support, nor the support of the Archbishops. For eight more years there would be relative peace. But with the death of Wenceslaus, things were about to get very, VERY ugly.
1367 - 1372 AD - The Irish Adventures. For a period of four years, Sigemund put down the rebellions largely by 1369. So he got himself out of a mess that he purchased. He still wasn’t looking too good to the Witanagemot. Claiming (correctly) that these rebellions were backed by the High King (also rulers of Connacht), Sigemund basically used this as an excuse to conquer the island in whole (sans Munster and Scottish Ulster).
And so from late 1369 -1371 Sigemund made war on the High King himself. And a bloody war it was. The campaign reached an climax with the Battle of Tara in 1370, where both King Sigemund and the High King of Ireland himself fought. During the height of the battle, after King Sigemund’s horse was slain in the thick of the fighting, King Sigemund took his horse’s blood, and on his breastplate made the sign of the cross. After this, he shouted “Eadmund Æðeling!” (Saint Edmund!) This rallied the English troops, and the English carried the day. The High King of Ireland was slain.
While resting his forces in Dublin, Sigemund ordered that a crown be forged. On July 19th, 1370, he had himself crowned “King of Ireland” by the Archbishop of Dublin. The old, pagan “High Kingship” was now dead, and a proper, English king was put in its place.
By 1372 Connacht capitulated, and recognized Sigemund as their king. No more were their Crowns of Leinster, of Connacht, of Tara. Now there was but one, single, Irish crown. What better pick-me-up than the de facto conquest of Ireland? And the earls and thegns didn’t mind it either when they were granted shiny new earldoms in Ireland.
1373 AD - Sigemund II didn’t like England’s flag. He saw it as an old, pagan banner, that white dragon on the red field. And so it was this year that he made a new flag: a red Scandinavian cross on a white field, with the crown of St. Edmund in the top left corner. The flag is heralded as a new, Christian (and long overdue) flag of England.
1377 AD - The death of King Wenceslaus III. Ottokar III ascended the throne as King of Bohemia and Poland, Duke of Austria, Carnithia, Carniola, and Krakow. But something strange happened that year, something very strange indeed. Something that had not happened in a long time.
As was expected, the Count Palatinate, the King of Bohemia, and the Margrave of Brandenburg all elected Ottokar III as their Holy Roman Emperor. But Saxony and the three Archbishoprics supported someone else. Someone entirely different. This someone was none other than Rudolf III, son of Wenceslaus (Elector of Saxony). The majority vote had gone to the House of Saxe-Wittenburg, and this understandably angered Ottokar III. So much, in fact, that he refused to acknowledge Emperor Rudolf I, Holy Roman Emperor.
On the face of it, Rudolf I doesn’t seem to have much of a chance. But the situation in the east and within Bohemia itself will ensure that Rudolf I has a run at the Imperial crown. You see, Wenceslaus IV(III HRE) had two sons: Ottokar IV (III HRE) and Wenceslaus V. Wenceslaus V was younger, but had often demanded of his father the right to the Austrian duchies, while his older brother Ottokar IV would get Bohemia/Silesia, and Poland/Krakow. But Wenceslaus IV, like his ancestors, wanted to maintain the personal union that had existed for so long. So while his father gave him great influence throughout all of the Przemyslid realms, he refused to elevate him to Duke of Austria.
Understandably, Wenceslaus V was quite miffed. So when he heard of the troubles concerning the Imperial election, he raised an army to seize Austria for himself. But simultaneously, the Austrian nobility saw a way out of being ruled by the Przemyslids. They looked around and saw Frederick III, Landgrave of Thuringia and Margrave of Meissen. Frederick accepted, and because he found himself fighting Przemyslids, he decided to back Rudolf I.
1378 AD - Wenceslaus V of Bohemia is defeated by the forces of the Austrian nobility. Frederick III and Wenceslaus of Saxony (Rudolf’s father), meanwhile, are fighting Bohemia, with raids into both Silesia and Bohemia proper. Meanwhile the war on the Rhine against the Count Palatinate is slow-going (mostly fighting against Luxembourg, who backed Rudolf. Brandenburg is struggling against Pomerania in the north.
And Ottokar’s problems are about to get a lot bigger.
The Poles had from the war’s onset begun to feel the strain. Thousands of men were levied by the Emperor, and the Polish nobility had had enough. They rescinded Ottokar of the titles “Duke of Krakow” and “King of Poland”, and instead gave the crown to Siemowit III, Duke of Masovia.
Trouble is brewing in Italy. The Guelf factions in Italy, seeing this as their chance to finally break Imperial power in Italy, lead an armed rebellion against the Empire. This rebellion, headed largely by the lords of Milan (Galeazzo II and his brothers Matteo and Bernabo), is backed largely by the Pope.
Milan asks for the French king’s aid in the conflict, and he pounces on the opportunity, with backing from the Pope. The French king uses the pretext that the heir according to proximity of blood to the last Bohemian king of Sicily (descendant of a Bohemian noble installed by Ottokar I) is the French king’s cousin. Ottokar refused to acknowledge the French king’s cousin as King of Sicily, and thus France is added to the problem.
France finds much support in Italy, especially from Florence, Genoa, and Venice, who are looking to destroy the Holy Roman Empire’s hold on Italy.
1379 AD - A pivotal year in the conflict. The combined armies of Frederick III and Wenceslaus of Saxony succeed in defeating Ottokar IV himself at the Battle of Frýdlant. Once Rudolf I crosses over the Jizera Mountain Range, he had near free range over most of the Bohemian interior. Once Bohemia’s mountains had been breached, Frederick III was free to break off with Wenceslaus and fight his own battle with the Bavarians, who stood between him and the Austrian duchy.
Meanwhile, the armies of Siemowit II King of Poland were marching from the East to retake Silesia from Bohemia. Thanks to the defeat at Frýdlant, Silesia is more or less cut off from Bohemia’s armies, and Poland retakes it with barely a fight. Siemowit is then free to send his forces north to take Gdansk from Brandenburg.
Frederick III is quite successful in his attack on Bavaria’s northern borders. Bavaria is struggling to hold on to her southern possessions in the face of Austrian attack, and as such Frederick III practically marches over the border.
1380 AD - The Count Palatinate sues for peace, realizing that at this point that he stands to gain very little. This triggers a chain reaction, as Bavaria throws in the towel soon afterward. Only Brandenburg and Bohemia stand in the way of Rudolf’s claim to the throne.
This year, Wenceslaus of Saxony scores yet another major victory at Kralupy nad Vltavou, and Praha lies wide open to him. Ottokar IV, rather than flee, attempts to mount a defense of Praha, but he is assassinated by Bohemian noblemen who do not wish to lose their heads. Wenceslaus and his son Rudolf I, Holy Roman Emperor march triumphantly into Praha, and weeks later peace is secured with Poland and Brandenburg. Frederick III Wettin is formally invested with Austria.
1381 AD - Wenceslaus and his son Rudolf I, HRE, defeat Wenceslaus V Przemyslid, now the legitimate king of Bohemia, outside Ceské Budejovice. Rudolf I Saxe-Wittenberg is now the Holy Roman Emperor. But he still has a lot of problems to deal with. For one, the Italian Rebellion was in full swing. He needed to stop it, and he needed to do it peacefully.
Meanwhile, Frederick III Wettin dies, shortly after his investment with Austria. He is succeeded by his son Frederick IV without any trouble.
1382 AD - Rudolf I Saxe-Wittenberg creates the Duchy of Milan, a large Duchy comprising much of northern Italy. He also grants the King of France the right to invest the Kingdom of Sicily in whomever he so chooses. To Venice, he grants the entire Veneto region. This pacifies the Italian rebels and the Pope enough so that the rebellion is largely ended with winter of 1382’s onset.
Over the course of five years the Empire has gone through the implosion, and a triumphant reconstruction and redefinition. The civil war of 1377-1382 is today seen by many as a turning point in the history of the Holy Roman Empire, as Rudolf I is the first German to sit on the Imperial throne in over one hundred years.
Meanwhile, there was the awful, awful Bohemian question. There remained no more male Przemyslids left for the throne. However, Wencesalus V left a daughter, who married a Habsburg (who ruled over Breisgau, Argau, and Thurgau), and Ottokar IV left a daughter, who married a Hohenzollern (Franconian branch, ruling over small possessions, most notably the Imperial Free City of Nuremburg). Both families stood to gain a lot from being invested with Bohemia.
Rudolf invested Bohemia in Frederick V Hohenzollern (incidentally, the two shared a common ancestor, Albert II Elector of Saxony). The reason he did so was mostly out of the fact that the Hohenzollerns had the strongest claim (married to the eldest daughter of Ottokar IV, who was older than Wenceslaus V).
1383 AD - Rudolf I still had to deal with Poland’s status in the Holy Roman Empire. There never was any formal declaration making it subject to the Holy Roman Emperor, and the Przemyslids normally ruled it as a separate kingdom (although there were a few cases where the Duchies adhered to Imperial law). And so Rudolf I began writing to King Siemowit III of Poland.
Siemowit’s intentions were made very clear in this discourse. He wanted no part in what he saw as a strictly German nation. And while Siemowit wasn’t against the possibility of the King of Poland being the Holy Roman Emperor or an elector, he did not want to pledge his allegiance to Rudolf I, and this to him was unacceptable. The only man the King of Poland ought swear fealty to is the Holy Father in Rome, not some German sitting in Frankfurt, or wherever he took up his residence.
And so just as soon as Poland was added to the Holy Roman Empire, it was very quietly, very officially, divorced, from the Holy Roman Empire. But after a hundred-year-plus stint in that particular political amalgamation, Poland, whether Siemowit liked it or not, was now bound to the Holy Roman Empire’s fate. But he can afford to put it out of his mind. It is not something he will have to deal with in his lifetime.
1373 - 1392 AD - The rest of the reign of King Sigemund II of England was marked by him, for the most part, resting on his laurels. He threw diplomatic support behind Rudolf I during the Przemyslid/Saxe-Wittenberg civil war, but that was about it. The internal mechanics of the English state were like clockwork during this time. Bar the shouting, England was now the master of the British Isles.
The greatest accomplishment of King Sigemund II is that during the last nineteen years of his life, he devoted his time largely to the codification of English law. Once the codification had largely been completed ( by about 1387). Over the centuries many arcane practices (such as the Thrall-system, Trial by Ordeal, etc ) had been repealed in England, but it was never officially codified into a single series of volumes.
When he died in 1392 he was succeeded by his eldest son, Harold.
1392 - 1414 AD - The reign of King Harold V. Like his father before him, he presided over a mostly peaceful kingdom. However, unlike his father, toward the end of his reign (~1410) he presided over an escalating conflict between the Hanseatic League’s merchants throughout England and her realms, and local merchants. Most notable was the conflict between Dutch merchants and those of the Hanseatic League.
There was a sort of chain reaction across all of England and the Dutch possessions. The friction caused by this often resulted in acts of mob violence, as merchants hired gangs of thugs to destroy shops, and cause mayhem. Both sides were guilty to varying degrees, although surviving historical records would suggest that most of the violence was against the Hansa, rather than against local merchants.
Harold V spent the final years of his reign attempting to placate both sides. But in the end he left for his son (Harold VI) a very tenuous situation.
Harold V died in 1414, and he was succeeded by his son Harold VI.
1409 AD - Death of Siemowit III. His son, Siemowit IV, who through marriage will also inherit the Hungarian throne.
1412 AD - Siemowit IV King of Poland inherits the Kingdom of Hungary.
1419 AD - Death of Rudolf I. He is succeeded by his son Albert I as both Elector of Saxony and as Holy Roman Emperor.
1423 AD - All semblance of civility between Anglo-Dutch and Hansa merchants had largely evaporated by the summer of 1423. The Hansa cities in Germany were threatening to declare war on England if nothing was done to protect their trading rights. The Hanseatic League had a lot to lose if they lost their trading privileges in the Netherlands and England. Lundenwic was a kontore in the Hanseatic League, and Amsterdam had become a key city for the wealthy grain trade.
Harold VI had to be decisive. His father was indecisive, and now his own son was paying the price. In the end, Harold VI decided to revoke the Hansa’s trading rights. This caused a severe uproar throughout the Hanseatic League. And it wasn’t all that long before many Hanseatic cities declared war on England.
1423 - 1429 AD - What ensued was a rather sporadic naval war. The goal of the Hansa was not to destroy, or even invade England, so much that it was to disrupt England’s trade so much that England would have little choice but to grant the Hansa their trading rights once more.
This war was disastrous for the Hanseatic League. Not only were they not able to win a decisive victory over the English navy, but this war sparked off a shipbuilding fever in England, and many consider this war to be the first true test of the mighty English navy.
In 1429 the city of Lübeck surrendered, and with it the rest of the Hanseatic League’s resistance collapsed.
1428 AD - Death of Frederick IV Duke of Austria. He was succeeded by his son Frederick V as Duke of Austria, Carinthia, Carniola, Margrave of Meissen, and Landgrave of Thuringia.
1430 AD - The death of King Harold VI. He is succeeded by his son, Harold VII.
1430 - 1448 AD - The reign of King Harold VII. Harold VII enjoyed the kingdom that his father had left for him. Without the Hansa controlling large portions of the grain and textile industries, England’s wealth became staggering. King Harold VII is most noted for getting the Witenagemot to agree to move from Witenceaster to Lundenwic. Lundenwic had always been the more wealthy city, and the royals had long ago taken up residence there.
The most famous structure built during Harold VII’s reign is by far the Witanærn (“Witenagemot Building”), to house the Witan in Lundenwic. It was done in a largely continental style, as the architect hired to design it studied architecture at the University of Paris.
Harold VII died in 1448, and was succeeded by his son Sigemund III. For his patronage of architecture, Harold VII is remembered as “Harold Wyrhta.” (Harold the Builder)
1440 AD - Death of Albert I, Holy Roman Emperor. He is succeeded by his son, Albert II.
1445 AD - The last Wittelsbach margrave of Brandenburg. Albert I invests Brandenburg in the Luxembourg dynasty.
1448 - 1466 AD - The first part of the reign of King Sigemund III. Sigemund III continued his father’s patronage of construction, but also expanded the military (particularly the navy). The most notable part of this phase of Sigemund’s reign was the conquest of Munster in 1460. One of the Irish Earls claimed that he had the right of succession to Munster, and when the more prominent Munstercians failed to oblige, he appealed to his king to assist him in his claim. By 1462 All of Ireland was under the English crown except Ulster (ruled by Scotland, whose grip on Ulster was already beginning to deteriorate).
1453 AD - The Fall of Constantinople.
1467 AD - Death of Sigemund III. He is succeeded by Sigemund IV.
1467 - 1488 AD - The reign of Sigemund IV King of England and Ireland. Again, England was a prosperous nation at this time. With the Hansa merchants largely expelled (they were still allowed restricted trade in various minor ports), England had once again taken its place as one of the wealthiest nations in all of Europe.
Sigemund IV would play an important role in English history, for he is largely remembered for establishing in Cornwall a School of Navigation, similar to those found in Portugal, Castile, and Aragon. He understood that England, because of its long maritime tradition, was in a position to take control of trade with the Orient, since the usual routes were effectively severed.
Of course, he had one hell of a time trying to convince the Witenagemot the same thing. Why ruin a good thing? England has grown wealthy off supplying the Baltic and Rhineland areas with textiles and grain for centuries! And rather than furthering these, Sigemund proposes to throw precious money into exploring routes around Africa! Or even out west!
Well, Sigemund IV WAS king, and as such he did have the final say. So long as he didn’t start imposing more taxes to fund these projects, it was no skin off their noses. Sigemund understood this very well, and because of this he never got all that far with his dream of discovering an alternate route to the East. His son, however, was quite the mariner, and he is the king who would make all the difference.
During Sigemund IV’s reign English ships went further afield than under any king previous. English ships went as far as the Gold Coast, and the Azores (much to the chagrin of the King of Portugal), and there is clear documentation that ships arrived in Iceland, with the intent of sailing to Greenland colonies, were it not for the storms at the time, and later the threats of the Danish king to attack all English ships within the view of the Icelandic shore.
Sigemund IV died in 1488, and he would be succeeded by his son, Harold VIII.
1471 AD - Death of Albert II Holy Roman Emperor. He is succeeded by Albert III.
1478 AD - The Fall of Constantinople to the Germiyanid Empire.
1480 AD - The destruction of the Kingdom of Granada.
1482 AD - The beginning of troubles in Hungary. The last Polish king of Hungary was ousted. He was incompetent, and it was a miracle he wasn’t ousted in Poland as well. He was seen by the nobles as weak, having struck many deals with the Turk to ensure the safety of his Hungarian realms, and this greatly angered many Hungarian nobles, particularly those on the Turkish border, and those with ties (familial and political) to the Bulgarian and Serbian courts. On top of it, the Polish king had exacted large taxes and tolls from the Hungarians to fund the costly wars against the Lithuanians. While these wars were largely successful (the king of Lithuania converted to Christianity in 1464) they were costly. Rather than extract taxes from the court closest to home (in Poland), he decided to exact it from the faraway Hungarians.
Sounded like a plan. But the Hungarian nobility had a tendency to raise hell when they were overly taxed.
The ousting of the Polish king could only strengthen Hungary, if only the nobility could agree on whom should be crowned king. There were at least two different noblemen rallying support who wanted to, like the king previous, strike deals with the Turk (one had suggested the selling of Dalmatia, which was constantly being attacked by Venetian pirates anyhow). There was another man by the name of István of Transylvania who had taken on a very militant view about dealing with the Turks, going so far as proclaiming a Hungarian Crusade to take Constantinople. He was quite popular in Transylvania.
The rest had appealed to the Holy Roman Emperor Albert III (also Count of Tyrol) to aid them. Albert III felt it his duty to flex his might a little bit, and gladly accepted the Kingship of Hungary. Albert III took his imperial army and knocked a couple of heads around, and largely cemented himself within the Kingdom of Hungary. More or less, Hungary was safe, at least for now. The Saxe-Wittenberg dynasty of rulers were far from ideal, but with the Holy Roman Empire at their side, the Hungarian nobles could (sort of) breath easy in the knowledge that, at least for a while, they were safe.
1488 - 1506 AD - Reign of Harold VIII. He continued his father’s work, and like his father was quite hampered by the Witenagemot’s unwillingness to divert precious resources to what they considered a wild goose chase. It wasn’t until the arrival of one Nicolo Venier, a wealthy Venetian merchant-cum-captain who had lost just about everything with the fall of Constantinople, arrived at the Cornwall School of Navigation in 1490, offering his services. One might think it odd that a merchant would dedicate himself to what was essentially a teaching job, but Nicolo Venier knew that this would be but a stepping stone to greater things.
He was a welcome addition to the school, and his lessons caught Harold VIII’s eye (or rather, ear) as he was doing one of his occasional tours of the school. In particular, Harold VIII overheard Nicolo speaking to his students of the land known only as Bacalao, claiming that he was brought to that land by Navarrese fishermen. Harold VIII discussed in great length the exact location of this land, and when both had come to the conclusion that Bacalao was the easternmost island of Cathay or India, Harold VIII was willing to privately fund an expedition.
And so in 1498 England, with a Venetian merchant/captain/fisherman/teacher at the helm, made a journey for what was (unbeknownst to them) a New World.
Of course, they weren’t the first. In an effort to pioneer their own route to Asia, one that does not require a rounding of Africa, Castile had in 1495 sent out their own expedition to find Asia over the Atlantic, and had stumbled upon a large island which they called “Hispaniola”. The Kingdom of Aragon was also quite interested in the New World, and would send their own expedition later, in 1502. (they would find themselves in the Caribbean as well) Portugal wound up finding Brazil in 1503 by setting off from one of their African “colonies”.
On the dawn of July 29th, 1498, Nicolo Venier woke up to the shouts of “Land! Land!”. Nicolo Venier quickly confirmed that this was Bacalao (Fiscland, as his English crew referred to it. [OTL Newfoundland]). Within a few hours the men were on the land, and basking on the beach. They met natives, and the contact was actually quite friendly. Words were exchanged (as best as they could manage), and as were gifts. A few members of the Beothuk agreed to return with the English to meet the white men’s chief.
Nicolo Venier continued to sail around what is now known today as The Gulf of St. Mark (OTL Gulf of St. Lawrence). Nicolo had at the time christened it “Il Mare di San Marco” after the patron saint of Venice, Saint Mark. He had mistakenly believed that it was a large expanse of ocean lying between Bacalao and Cathay, hence “Il Mare”.
Nicolo Venier returned to England triumphantly in November of 1498, and the natives which were brought back were greeted warmly in Lundenwic by King Harold VIII. Both Harold and Nicolo received great accolades from all four Chambers of the Witenagemot (the Préosthád, the Æðelu, the þegnr?den, and the Líesingas). King Harold VIII proclaimed Nicolo Venier the “Earl of Fiscland,” and now the Witan was throwing its support behind Harold VIII and what was once called his “mad ambition”. For the first time in human history, one could link the lucrative Baltic/North Sea trade with the silk/spice trade of Cathay and India.
Or at least, that’s what was thought. When Nicolo went back in 1500, he came to the conclusion that he had not, as he thought, reached an outlying island of Cathay. He began to discover that the Sea of St. Mark was actually a large Bay, and that Cathay lay further to the west. And so he sailed further south, trying to find a way to reach Cathay by going around the landmass. But after sailing for a week it became quite clear to him that this was a far larger land than previously thought.
He believed to the end (which came in 1508) that if only you were to sail around it, you would reach Cathay proper. But as more and more lands were discovered by Portuguese, Castilians, and Aragonese navigators it became clear to all that this was indeed a New World.
Harold VIII died in 1506, and he would be succeeded by his son Albert IV.
1506 - 1530 AD - Reign of Albert IV. Albert IV largely continued his father’s work of exploring the New World. He did, however, preside over the division of the New World between Castile, Portugal, Aragon, and England with the signing of the Treaty of Burgos in 1515. It effectively granted Portugal all lands to the east of one line, and left the rest to Castile, Aragon, and England. The king of Castile was, understandably, a bit miffed at this, but remained quiet enough. The Pope told the rest that any internal divisions west of the Line of Demarcation would have to be worked out between Aragon, Castile, and England themselves.
For now, England’s interests were much farther north than those of Castile and Aragon, and so there was no foreseeable conflict with the Iberian powers. At least for now. It would take Albert IV’s son, Edward V, to shake things up.
In 1530 Albert IV died. He was succeeded by his son Edward V.
1512 AD - The aging Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor, while liked well enough in his German territories was not the picture of an effective ruler in Hungary. Indeed, Transylvania had for many years now been an independent principality, viciously fighting the Germiyanid Sultans in Romania. Dalmatia was all but lost, a small rump territory having been handed over to the Austrian Wettins a few years back. The rest was given to the Hohenzollern rulers of Bohemia, and Rudolf II was able to keep the crown of St. Stephen.
The Turkish Sultan Yakub III understood the precarious situation that Hungary was in. And understanding it, he took the opportunity to attack.
1512 - 1520 AD - The conquest of most of Hungary by Yakub III. The largely disunited Hungarian magnates got little help from either Transylavania or Rudolf II, and with the fall of Székesfehérvár, the Germiyanid conquest of Hungary was largely complete. Not wanting to drag in the for the moment passive Holy Roman Empire, Yakub III was content with allowing the Hohenzollerns and Wettins to keep their pieces of the pie.
The year 1520 not only marks the death of the Kingdom of Hungary, but also, ironically enough, the deaths of both Rudolf II Holy Roman Emperor and Sultan Yakub III of the Germiyanid Empire. Rudolf II was succeeded by his grandson, Rudolf III of the House of Nassau-Weilburg. The House of Nassau-Weilberg was seen by the electors as both very neutral (i.e. not in control of an electoral vote) and Rudolf was even descended from the previous Emperor.
