The Fantastic Time Travelling Tales of Archi

Luke von Alaric-1180-1191

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By November Heinrich von Allenbaumberg had been forced to recant, but the Kingdom of Navarra have already retaken El Bierzo as Halsten was forced to march south to reinforce James of Mar's Old army.

In central Europe Lorraine and Zeeland announce their independance, while Siracuse simply lapse into independance in March 1181.

The loss of Siracuse is taken up by Ravenna as an excuse to break free from the Holy Roman Empire, a term seen less and less on offical documents.

In late June Luke's Army had crossed Europe, from Lubeck to Limosine and laid seige to the Castle de Hauteville.

In Iberia Halsten had finally broken through the fortifications at Sevillia and forced the King of Leon and Castille to surrender the crown of Leon.

A third army, raised from the now Vassel of Porto soon retakes El Bizero and the King of Navarra is forced to yield his crown as well.

Slowly the rebellious counts fall into line, Troyes and Lorraine followed by the annexure of Istria.

But not all was well, Charles de Cornouaille had died with no heirs, and his Dukedom of Britanny and Apulia had passed to the Count of Meath -Charles de Nevers - who had been in the service of the King of France at the time, though had soon broken free and was not winning the war.

Knowing that if France folded his claim would be considered weaker, Luke's army marches to Nantes in December 81.

The battle is hard, but Charles de Nevers was defeated and as the new year rolled on it looked as though Britanny would soon fold back into Germany again.

But, over the winter the Army of Britanny had its ranks swollen by fresh troops, and the Battle of Rennes was extremely one sided.

This defeat, along with a list of other slights is used by Istvan Csak as grounds for independance, which is granted with gritted teeth and a string of conquests to take his mind off of things.

This is met with renewed hostilities at Leece, in Southern Italy, though is ignored as an irrelevance.

Brunswich and Bavaria, seeing Bohemond de Hauteville, King of England, as a preferable King, start a war with Scotland to further weaken Luke's position. But, sure enough Germany wades into the war in aid of its vassels.

While Boldizsar of Evreux leads the push into Britanny, through Rennes, the Duchy of Porto leaves the Empire. A matter largely unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

And then, in late November 1182 Acfred finally dies, leaving the French Throne to the Kingdom of Germany. This, of course, happens at the worst possible time and the armies of Brianny are thrown into disarray as chaos reighs.

Several celebratory conquests in Nantes later, the Duke of Lancaster and Barcelona joins the Kingdom...matters entirely unrelated of course...and the old traitors in Westfriesland return...But, unfortunately, by late January 83 the garrison at Nantes had not been reinforced and after fighting to a man Luke is forced to flee...finding the disarray to have spread across the entire Kingdom, making new troops a rare commodity.

The situation grows worse when the newly appointed Duke of Dauphine, controller of a large portion of the old French Royal Demense, declares independance over not being invited to certain 'members only' parties.

Another year of fighting with few troops drags on before negotiations with Genoa are finally agreed on, transfering several provinces from the Imperial Demense to them, for a total of 10 years.

Another six months pass and gradually Britanny is worn down, but the battles will probably last another serveral years and so, eager to push light away from the debatcle a Crusade is called and rewards posted to encourage people to take up the challange.

In the short term attention was refocused, but with just a few thousand poorly armed and poorly trained peasant soliders against the well trained and well dug in Muslims army, the Crusade soon stalled and seeming in capable of defeating a mere Arab rabble, the Kingdom of Croatia invaded.

Sensing the end of Germany Halland in Scandinavia and Benevento in Italy broke with Germany.

But the with with Britanny rumbled on for another year, marking the forth that a large Duchy had survived the onslaught of Germany, the King of Kings, but with the end finally in sight Germany gave Britanny a final chance to avoid destruction, and they thankfully took it. Britanny was once again a German Vassal.

With the troops freed and the chaos abaing, Croatia began to fall back and the German offensive took Steiermark before the end of September 85.

Forcalquier, having somewhat missed the bus on revolution, declared independance and was swiftly put down by Genoa.

Croatia, unprepared for such resistance soon surrended Steinmark and the Duchy of Lesser Poland, and the peace of late 1185 turned into the restoration of 1186, with Trapini and Dauphine both returning to the fold.

But the restoration took a turn for the worse on May the Forth.

Genoa was never going to win the war...Abelino, Governor of Genoa had, for a long time, been considered crazed...the Imperial Demense bordering as it does, even when Trent came to their assistance in December.

While the innevitable battle raged in the South, in the North England called for Germany's aid in bringing the state of Anjou back under control. Germany, of course, through itself at Anjou and soon had taken it...much to England's displeasure.

With the European issues resolved the crusade was begun in earnest, from December 1187 to September the eleventh 1188, Germany fought towards Jerusalem...But then everything changed.

The Crusader army stuck south to intercept the rising Egyptian army, but is entirely outmatched and for the second time the Crusades sit dead in the water.

In Iberia the other Crusader heartland all sides withdraw. For the Muslims there is nothing to strike at, for Germany the Crusade was a secondary concern, and for England there was nothing to strike at.

Thus the main fighting occured in Eastern Germany and the rim of the Kingdom, against the Pagans, rather than the Muslims...and the occassional Englishman.

Viviers, Arques, Rostock, Bordeux, Cagliari, Angouleme, Blois, Orleans, all these felt the German Sword and all these became part of the Kingdom.

As though fought, though, Luke conquered and the vassals rebelled, Plauen, Evrex and the Duchy of Toulouse...and throughout Luke commanded with Great Skill, but also Great Energy, his meat grinder tactics decimating armies...but eventually his ways caught up with him when his shoulder was paralysed by an arrow.

But still he served, he through his energy into adminstration and the rule of law, while still masterminding the wars, still 'conquering' still educating his son, George...and then all the insanity caught up with him as well.

Yet he carried on.

Fits of insanity tightly controlled by some God given strength, enduring through the whole of 1190, which brought more revolts, more battles until, finally, in mid July George von Alaric came of age, and the Grand Duchy of Holstein was recreated.

Then insanity took hold...

Though some good came out of it too.

But his most significant contribution was to write the "Declaration of the League of Nations" a document that widely reiterated the Holy Roman Empire, but took the power away from the Church, and concentrated in the hands of the Grand Duchies...Britanny, Alsace, Holstien, Bavaria, Dauphine and Toulouse(Currently independant).

Then, one day, he just went out into the the forest and never came back.

After several weeks the Duchies met and elected George the new Emperor of the League of Nations.

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