Chapter 47: A New Player

“Look and see which way the wind blows before you commit yourself.” ― Aesop, Aesop’s Fables

Isfahan, Seljuk Empire. August 1076

Malik-Shah I sat on his throne in his capital city of Isfahan as he listened to an emissary from the Fatimid Caliphate. The message was simple: Al-Mustansir would give him anything if Malik helped him keep his throne. From his spies, Malik knew what had happened. From what rumors he had heard of Queen Marion, enslaving one of her subjects was the fastest way to a very destructive war. Al-Mustansir knew that, but he enslaved British sailors anyway. As far as Malik figured, Al-Mustansir got what was coming to him.

Aside from not wanting to get tangled up in fighting a powerful kingdom he couldn’t reach, Malik knew there wasn’t much left of value in Egypt. It would take years for Egypt to rebuild after the British had so thoroughly looted it. Still, the current situation presented certain opportunities for a man as interested in science as Malik that he couldn’t ignore.

The British were rumored to be an extremely advanced civilization; supposedly, they regularly sailed to China and back. From merchants trading in India and East Africa, Malik knew British merchants were making increasing appearances and traded in superior manufactured goods that nobody hoped to produce in the quality and quantity the British did.

After weeks of debate and begging, Malik agreed to send a small elite cavalry force to Egypt. Before they left, Malik quietly pulled the commander aside and told him not to risk his force in useless actions. His main goal was to gather intelligence on the British, and if he could capture some British soldiers, he should do so. If he captured any British, they would be treated with the utmost respect because Malik wanted the British to be willing to talk without torture. Malik knew that information gathered from tortured individuals was often suspect and incomplete.

Two days later, a force of 250 elite cavalry quietly slipped out of Isfahan; their destination was the Gulf of Suez. There, they would hire transportation across to Egypt. By avoiding the Sinai, the Seljuk troops hoped to avoid detection by the British. After leaving, their commander gave them the same orders Malik gave him.

Rome, Papal States. September 1076

‘It’s only been five months,’ thought Gregory. ‘She took power from me in only five months.’

What caused Gregory’s disbelief was Matilda had removed him from power in Italy by a bloodless coup. It had been so swift that Gregory didn’t hear anything about it until it was over. Matilda had stripped him of all governmental powers in the Italian government, although she didn’t mess with his position in the church. She also took all government power away from the church. From now on, the church dealt with spiritual matters only.

The most annoying thing about the coup was Matilda still expected Gregory to do his part in getting her pregnant. At least she was already pregnant, so she wouldn’t bother Gregory for a while. Matilda was due in January 1077.

Matilda sat in the Roman palace and reminded herself everything was worth it. She quickly found Italy was surrounded by either enemies or frenemies. Italy didn’t have any allies they could call on. The northern Italian states had dug in their heels at the thought of joining Italy, especially after Matilda seized power. The only consideration for her was they hated Henry IV just as much.

To the west sat Corsica and their pirates. By this time, they had learned not to attack British shipping. To compensate, they spent more time attacking other kingdoms’ ships, especially Italy’s. In North Africa, the cities had been destroyed by the British as punishment for their slave trade. However, in destroying the North African pirates, the British removed one of the factors that controlled the Corsican pirates. Before, North African pirates were much stronger and preyed on the Corsicans, keeping their pirate levels in check.

Every day, it seemed, the Italian Navy was engaging more pirates, and the navy even lost a few smaller ships to them. Matilda’s problem was Corsica belonged to Genoa, and they were not about to allow her to send troops and ships to the island to destroy the pirates. Genoa profited nicely from raids on Italian shipping, and they were not about to stop. If Matilda attacked Corsica, she would have to attack Genoa simultaneously, most likely triggering a war with the rest of the Italian States. Italy didn’t have the strength to fight that kind of war.

After many discussions, it was decided to focus on building a powerful navy since Italy was surrounded on three sides by water while maintaining the army. However, maintaining the army didn’t mean not investing in it. The army would continue heavy training and new weapons programs while not growing in size. Behind the front, security would be turned over to the new police, allowing the army to focus on defending the kingdom.

Another area of investment would be public infrastructure and industrial capacity. If the economy weren’t kept strong, the military would suffer. One area that didn’t receive much investment was public education, for as progressive as Matilda was, she was reactionary when it came to class structure. Matilda’s idea of the ultimate nightmare was where peasants could rise to become national leaders. The church was a major help since it helped reinforce the notion of divine providence, and since the idea of peasants ruling went against the natural order of the world, they had to be kept peasants.

With investments in industrial capacity came the increasing opportunity to use industrial espionage. It hadn’t escaped Matilda’s notice that the British had spent good money buying Byzantine silk, and the climate in Italy wasn’t that far off from Greece, where much of the Byzantine silk industry was located. If Matilda could steal the secrets of silk production, the peasants would have a new source of income by raising and selling the silkworm cocoons to state-owned processors. This would allow the state to make large amounts of money off the silk trade and hurt the Byzantines simultaneously.

Matilda knew it would take years to establish a silk trade, but the rewards would make it worthwhile. The first step in production was learning what was needed for production. To that end, Matilda sent several spies to Greece and Thrace to learn everything they could about silk production. If possible, they were authorized to bribe successful silk producers to move operations to Italy. While Matilda didn’t want to, she realized that to start silk production in Italy, it may be necessary to use gentle or not-so-gentle persuasion to obtain skilled craftspeople.

Frankfort, Holy Roman Empire. September 1076

General Roon continued to tighten his grip on Warsaw. There were no supplies in and no messages out for the last month. With the advanced logistics and healthcare introduced by the British, German troops didn’t suffer in their siege like in times past. Train tracks had been built from a village ten kilometers west of Warsaw to the German national rail network; this allowed supplies to be brought in with little problem.

While the Germans were being well-fed, the Poles were beginning to starve. There were too many people in the city, and the siege began at the worst possible time, right before the harvest, when food supplies were at their lowest. The first people were already dying, but since they were young, old, and infirm, it didn’t have much effect on the fighting strength of the defenders. While the weak non-combatants dying was bad for morale, it was good in that there were fewer mouths to feed.

The Germans had settled down behind their field fortifications and waited. They had no reason to attack since hunger would work more effectively than lead at capturing Warsaw. The same fortifications that kept the Germans out kept the Poles in. They couldn’t attack across their moat any easier than the Germans could.

Back in the Holy Roman Empire, the aristocratic rebellion continued to simmer. While the nobles were unhappy at losing their power, they didn’t have enough support among the common class. The commoners supported Emperor Henry since he supported them against the aristocracy. Henry invested in education for commoners and helped them get good jobs.

Henry had been tracking the brewing rebellion thanks to his improved intelligence network and daily thanked the changes that Gretchen had been instrumental in making when she was his courtesan. If she hadn’t sold him on the changes made, there was every likelihood he would be dealing with a powerful revolt.

There was still the threat of revolts, especially in Burgundy, where Philip had been stirring the pot, and in the northern Italian States, where Florence had already broken away. Fortunately for Henry, Matilda had fallen into the same trap that had claimed many rulers in the past; she tried to take too much power too quickly. The remaining states of Pisa, Genoa, Milan, and Venice refused to join.

If the German nobles were at a low simmer, Burgundian nobles were at a rolling boil over Henry’s reforms. Many of the reforms had stripped them of most of their power in what every last one considered illegal moves by Henry. However, with his army off in Poland fighting, Henry could not enforce his edicts. The nobles knew that would change as soon as the army was no longer dealing with the Poles. Everyone could see the writing on the walls for the Polish kingdom as their entire army and king were under siege in Warsaw.

Philip of France kept The Burgundian nobles in a state of near rebellion. He hadn’t rebuilt his army yet, but by keeping the Burgundian nobles pissed at Henry, it wouldn’t take much for them to move into a state of open rebellion. Once that happened, he could move and take Burgundy for France.

While Henry dealt with revolts and the threats of war, Brunhild continued her work to improve German technology. It annoyed her that she still hadn’t figured out how the British produced vast amounts of high-grade steel. All she could make was low-grade steel that was only good for reinforcing concrete, which was still difficult for the Germans to produce.

Brunhild’s most significant accomplishment so far was improving the home-built steam engines to perform similarly to the British machines from five years before. Modern British steam engines were much more powerful, efficient, and safer due to their use of high-strength steel in construction. Brunhild still hadn’t realized one of her problems was the quality of iron ore and coal she had to work with. British iron ore and coal were far superior, and even if they weren’t, Luke’s knowledge of metallurgy would have tipped the balance to them. The British didn’t use straight coal for steel making; they converted it to coke first. Since coke burned hotter than coal, it gave the British the edge in steel production.

The low quality of German iron ore and coal had plagued the German war machine during both world wars. They had gotten around it by forcing Sweden to sell them higher-quality iron ore to mix with the low-quality German ore. At this point, however, Swedish iron ore wasn’t a reality, and the ore being produced was sold to Great Britain.

Other problems Brunhild faced were a shortage of copper and lead since one of the only mines for these metals was at Rammelsberg in Lower Saxony. Another problem was the lack of known ore supplies since miners hadn’t adequately explored many areas of the Holy Roman Empire. While properly exploring the Holy Roman Empire for minerals was on the list of improvements needed, Henry didn’t have the resources available.

While there were numerous mineral deposits in the Alps, the infrastructure wasn’t in place to take full advantage of them. With the ever looming threat of war and rebellion, it would be years before the rail system could reach the mines to allow the ores to be transported away quickly.

Paris, France. September 1076

It was time. Philip knew if he was going to launch a major offensive, the time was now. The German Army was tied down in their siege of Warsaw, and if they withdrew to fight him, the Poles would break out. Additionally, the Burgundian nobility was as close to rebellion as possible without rebelling, while the German nobility’s rebellion wouldn’t take too much effort to ignite.

Philip had an army of 30,000 men that he was anxious to use. The growth of the French nobility had allowed him to rearm faster than before, especially since the new elite owed everything to Philip. Every French infantryman was armed with an advanced muzzle-loading musket that was accurate up to 600 meters and could fire four rounds per minute. Philip had 600 artillery pieces to supplement the infantry, although some were siege guns, impractical for battles. Thanks to the increased nobility, Philip’s cavalry forces were of higher quality than when he invaded Burgundy the previous time. Philip paid for his army with increased taxes from southern France and a secret loan from the Polish King Zima.

On 20 September 1076, Philip’s army crossed the frontier between Burgundy and France. At the same time as his army crossed the border, the Burgundian nobles revolted against Emperor Henry. With the nobles rebelling, Henry’s officials couldn’t do anything about the French invasion.

Unlike the previous invasion, Philip didn’t bother with looting. For one, there wasn’t much to loot, and two, Philip wanted this land to be part of France. With the nobles on his side, the cities and towns didn’t fight back, and they opened their gates when the French approached.

By 30 September, Philip conquered Burgundy’s southern quarter, giving him more access to the Mediterranean Sea and direct access to the northern Italian States. During the ten days of campaigning, Philip hadn’t lost a single soldier to enemy action. He had lost a few to diseases and a few more to accidents.

While the populace wasn’t happy to see Philip, the nobility was since Philip began giving them back the rights that Henry had stripped away. They were thrilled to regain their God-given rights and supported Philip wholeheartedly. As Philip swept through, the local nobles added to his army because they knew they would lose everything if Henry won the war.

The populous weren’t the only people who were unhappy with Philip. Bertha was furious that Philip would again endanger her, her children, and the people of France. Making it worse was Bertha couldn’t leave France. Philip wouldn’t let her, and Marion didn’t want her. All that was left of Bertha was to do her best to ensure Philip didn’t fail. She had to admit that Philip had picked the best time to invade because Henry’s army was tied down in Poland, and they couldn’t leave while the Italian States were threatening to leave the Holy Roman Empire.

New Cork, New Ireland. September 1076

Toirdelbach’s forces were busy clearing the region of natives. They operated in the area Luke would call New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, and downstate New York. Every village the Irish came to went through the same treatment: they would be ambushed, the men killed, and the young women taken back to New Cork. The Irish found the natives made terrible slaves and usually were not worth bringing back.

While the Irish Army was clearing the area of natives, the rest of the Irish were busy building New Cork into a small city. As more people came over, they brought cows, chickens, and pigs. With more animals coming over, food security for New Cork increased. Many of the first Irish were thrilled to see more animals come from Europe since they were tired of wild game and fish.