Shocking and unexpected development! I suppose that G. Maniakes would either ruling in stead of his new wife or assuming the regency...
The successor is Theodore II. Or properly speaking Theodore II Doukas Vatatzes Lascaris.
Oh oh... Icarus flew a bit too high and burned his wings.
So, a regency it is.
It's going to be interesting.
Theodoros II is barely two years old, and old Alexios is no longer around, so it's going to be run by Grandma Adrienne and the basilissa Agnes.
Adrienne the elder is 72, notably her OTL counterpart died at around 45... but I'm fond of her and she has had a better life TTL. Agnes is 36 at the moment. Of the other big players Alexios Gryphon is 58, Ioannis Buas 57 his OTL counterpart lived to 89. Alexandros Philanthropenos is 37.
And the war still not over.
Crete is basically conquered, and though Agnes and Adrienne Sr might be flexible on Methone and Euboea, they cannot really abandon Rhodes, Samos and all the other islands they just lost.
As long as the Venetians have a fleet and Candia has not fallen Crete is up in the air despite Greek successes.
Shocking development! The best thing for the Lascarids now would be to offer peace only to the Venetians and ask only for for Crete. Would the Venetians conclude a separate peace with the Lascarids though?
And accept loss of Crete? Nope. The war goes on until either the Sicilians or the Venetians are forced to concede peace.
I think Euboea is majority Lascarid too at this point,
No the Venetian navy broke the siege of Chalkis.
but I think Rhodes would be the main point of contention. The Lascarids can stop their expansion into the Serbs,
They can... then the Serbs killed Alexandros Philanthropenos elder brother and Alexandros is katepano of Greece...
I think that it would be even more shocking for the Sicilians and particularly for the comunes representatives that may be perceived as at least partially responsible of the territorial losses and the many casualties on them but especially from Alexandros' fall in battle due to being refused the necessary funds... Even more if the generalized popular mourning for their fallen Basileus would turn in patriotic furor to 'save their nation' and take revenge on Venice...
One could posit also a split in the popular attitudes between the communes of the old despotate, basically Eastern Sicily and Calabria and more recent additions. Syracuse is part of the despotate since 1282. Palermo for less than 20 years.
On Ioannis GM, as things stand, he is the heir presumptive of the Lascarid realm by virtue of his marriage.
That's correct, he is heir presumptive to Theodore II at the moment.
Alexandros' rushing to see the wedding concluded was very much understandable in this regard. Without his in person sanction, Ioannis place in the line of succession could have been seriously disputed and threatened, which in turn would have made the regency unstable. This gives Agnes a few years of peace, but it all depends on how much loyal Ioannis and Adrienne Jr are.
Also makes for a strong ally at a time it is needed.
@Lascaris
What was young Adrienne’s dowry? Cash? Lands? Enough to make the Gryphons really powerful?If you want the dynatoi not to be formed, the Lascarids better watch out what they give their in laws. At the same time, they probably might not have a lot of choice due to prestige reasons. A royal bride necessitates a royal dowry.
A crown made of eggs.
Primogeniture is a well established rule in the SICILIAN tradition of politics.That the Lascarids are ruling Sicily to begin with is entirely due to blood relations to Frederick II.
And that he showed up at the proverbial right time...
It is unthinkable for a totally unrelated noble to attempt a powergrab.They aren’t exactly governing with Byzantine tradition.In the latest chapter for example, they had consult with town representatives in the parliament to get taxes. Something that wasn’t done in the actual empire except through the senate, which was a body comprised of aristocrats in the capital instead of town representatives from the provinces.As noted previously, this empire is basically the Norman Kingdom larping as the ERE.
Larping as the Empire of Nikaia which was larping as the Roman empire may be a little been more accurate...
Like the Spanish Inquisition, one does not expect Lascaris' plot twists !
In the immortal words of admiral Shannon Foraker Republic of Haven Navy, a fellow engineer I note... "Surprise!"
The Venetians are winning but it is being a pyrrhic victory at best. They cannot let go of Crete as long as Candia stands. Nor can they exchange Crete for Samos and Ikaria - Rhodes goes to the Hospitallers. Even if they get Chios, Crete plays an important role in the venetian trade network. The Regents will find it difficult to throw Kallergis under the proverbial bus, especially since Alexandros died to liberate Crete and the greek half of the realm has an ideology based on reversing the 1204 frankish rule.
To put it politely it would be politically inconvenient...
At the same time, Rallis have more than enough men to lead a host against Euboea and if the Venetians want to protect their valuable base they will have to keep a squadron there at all times. At the same time, the bill is a large one and it is not as if Ikaria, Samos and Kos are worth the expenditure. John V was impoverised
John V besides personal reasons, could be paid off by the debt he had accumulated from Venice. Now how his ships get paid for a second or third yearif the Venetians do not cough up the cash...
as the Savoyards clearly saw in Constantinople. Lusignan also cannot keep paying his troops for any long period of time - and he cannot just plunder Rhodes that belongs to his allies.
The cost of the army Janus mobilized must have been around 173,000 (costs of cavalry had significantly decreased by then). The same army plus the fleet costs closer to 326,000 at the moment...
The Venetians must be covering the expenses of John and Peter. On top of that, they have launched bigger fleets than OTL Chioggia. So the cost is pretty high.
My estimation is the forced loans at the time of the war of Chioggia were around 600,000 ducats. So for now Venice can fund continuing the war. Longer term... why we shall see what we shall see.
Both sides are bleeding and the Sicilians are in the back foot. However, they are still in a stronger strategic position than the Venetians. But even so, if political instability follows Alexandros' death, they might have lost their will to fight. A truce might take place, but it will be a very short one and the side that recovers first will attack. Or the Venetians attack Otranto and Corfu to realize their centuries-old dream. Such move would rile up the Sicilians though. Or Alexandros Philanthropenos continues the war on his own - not perhaps the most prudent policy but he has the means.
The question is also perception of political weakness. Conveniently the Aragonese are tied down at the moment in the fighting with Castille but Castille is also in the middle of civil war.
How they proceed with the war depends on the domestic reaction within the empire.Are the people galvanised with the death of the emperor to actually throw their full support behind the war, with those who refuse to endorse the taxes seen as traitors?Or are the vultures within the empire plotting to rise up?
Or... both?
The communes provide the armies as well as shown in the earlier battles. As of now, they are probably the ones that provides most of the navy.Similarly, it’s also shown that many of the Norman knights who pre-date the Alexandrian takeover actually transferred their services to Alexandros and his heirs. They mainly got rid of the lords who were above baron level it seems.
The place conveniently did not have all that many knights Frederick with the entirety of Sicily had about 700 at hand and nothing above a baron, the latter dated back all the way to the Norman kings. Alexandros I played exactly on this, the handful of barons who sided with him got included into the inner circle and he granted pronoias instead of knightly fiefs for military service, Which was important because pronoias technically were not hereditary...
I also have to disagree with the notion that the Lascarids weren’t reusing the Norman system that was in place. How did a bunch of soldiers who were too busy fighting the war find people to collect taxes etc except for using the existing bureaucracy?
Of course they used the existing bureaucracy... under Frederick II it was the best in Europe, why ahead of its time and NOT dependent on nobles. Why would Alexandros want to break this when he could and DID take it over.
Honestly, with what I am about to say, I will probably make numerous enemies, but I would prefer that those horses remain where they are, because it would mean avoiding the death and total destruction of the beautiful lagoon city, by Greek fanatics hostile to it ( since in the Hellenic regions of possessions of Syracuse, the ideology that is most popular is to avenge 1204 ( conveniently forgetting that this tragedy did not happen in a vacuum,
Oh sure it did not happen in a vacuum... Latins were attacking the empire since 1081. Well earlier really given the Norman campaigns against south Italy.
Alexandros took something that was never Ioannes’, nor was it ever something Ioannes had the ability to take for himself.Arguably, he even did Ioannes a favour by eliminating the potential usurper for him.
To be exact he was asked to attack Kantakouzenos. Now if Ioannis V thought that anyone after conquering Lesbos on his instigation would then hand it over...
Now about the war. Damn that Peter guys is persistent! And man is Venice giving it all. If I am not mistaken they have gotten nothing for themselves for now. They have Candia but the Dodecanese are to be placed under the Knights more than likely. They have kept everything else outside Crete and Dalmatia so they could push now that they have another victory. I mean really they have only lost 1-2 naval battles mainly in the beginning and the Corfu debacle. With the mainland secure they could invest in more galleys to make some gains.
Manpower and money. There is an inconvenient gap in reporting of Venetian revenues we know it was 260,000 ducats in 1344 and 1,100,000 in 1435. In mid 1360s roughly 400,000 may not be inaccurate given the likely cost of the Venetian campaign in the war of Saint Titus.