The Medieval Marine - Cauldron Simmering
Copyright© 2025 by somethin fishy
Chapter 2: Revolts Simmering
“Give me liberty or give me death.” ― Patrick Henry.
Rome, Italy. January 1078
Matilda stood up from where she had been leaning over the map table and put her fist into her back to stretch the knotted muscles. Laying on the table was a map of Corsica. The Corsican pirates had finally gone too far in capturing Italian shipping, and the Italian merchants were screaming for blood. In addition to regularly capturing merchant ships, the pirates raided coastal villages, forcing their entire populations into slavery.
Even though the British had destroyed the North African slave markets, the market for slaves was still strong, especially in the Byzantine Empire, Middle East, and Iberian territories. With northern European slaves off the market, slave traders turned to capturing slaves from the south of France, Italy, the Balkans, and North Africa.
While Matilda didn’t care about the poor coastal fishing villages, she did care about the merchants. Many merchants trading in the western Mediterranean were being driven out of business or were being captured for the slave market. The loss of merchants was a big hit to Matilda’s tax revenue and couldn’t be allowed to continue.
When Matilda and her staff began planning three weeks ago, every possible course of action had been on the table, from doing nothing to conquering Corsica. Each had its advantages and disadvantages. Doing nothing would keep Genoa from becoming angrier with Italy, but it wouldn’t solve the pirate problem. Genoa refused to do anything to take care of the problem.
The Italians knew that if they used a naval-only raid, the pirates would retreat and return as soon as the Italian ships disappeared from the horizon. If they added land forces to the mix, the pirate infrastructure would be damaged, but it wouldn’t do anything long-term. That left conquering the island.
If the Italians attempted to conquer Corsica, it would bring them into direct confrontation with Genoa, which had alliances with Pisa, Milan, and Venice. It could even bring the weight of the Holy Roman Empire down on her. While Henry hadn’t done much when Matilda moved Florance to the Papal States and turned them into Italy, if she went to war with Genoa, it might prove to be a bridge too far.
While Matilda was distracted by the Corsican problem, Pope Gregory attempted to rebuild his former power. It was difficult because many nobles saw Gregory as part of the problem. Under Matilda, their taxes had gone down while the economy grew steadily. They were not about to upset the cart unless Matilda made a disastrous mistake. Even the pirate problem didn’t help Gregory. The pirates flourished under him as he refused to do anything about them. It was already rumored that Matilda would launch an invasion of Corsica to eliminate the pirates there once and for all.
With Gregory’s command of the church, he had an excellent idea of what was happening away from the palaces. Many in the lower classes were unhappy with the idea of a female ruler and wished to return to the days when men ruled the kingdom.
The discontent in the lower classes gave Gregory hope, but he disliked the idea of relying on them. As far as Gregory was concerned, the peasants and common laborers were the scum of the Earth and not suitable for much. Unfortunately for him, the scum was the only large group that supported him. The Italian nobility and military were firm supporters of Matilda.
One reason the nobility was such firm supporters of Matilda was that she had pushed for increased industrialization of the kingdom. Since the nobles owned the new factories and farms, they were the ones who benefited. Matilda also violently crushed all demonstrations by the lower classes.
Not long after Matilda came to power, Rome had a large riot. When the riot broke out, she called in the army and ordered them to surround the rioters. After the rioters were trapped, the army moved in. Some were arrested, while others were killed. By the time calm was restored, the Tiber ran red with blood. Almost 600 were killed, and another 2,000 were arrested. The people arrested were sentenced to life in the mines as slave labor. It didn’t matter if they were man, woman, or child; all arrested were sent to the mines. In the slave-run mines, workers’ lifespans were usually measured in months, and it was guaranteed all female slaves would be brutally and repeatedly raped.
Frankfort, Holy Roman Empire. January 1078
Henry had a royal mess on his hands. There were active revolts in Poland and at home while the French and Italians bit off pieces of the Holy Roman Empire. When Warsaw finally surrendered in the spring of 1077, Henry thought his problems to the east were solved. He took everything west of Warsaw and incorporated it into the empire. He hadn’t counted on the Polish commoners not wanting to be under a German ruler.
The Polish peasants hated Henry and took every opportunity to show their hatred. From dodging taxes to burning government buildings, controlling Poland was proving to be a massive headache for Henry. It didn’t help that King Zima took every opportunity to stir the pot of revolt.
After Warsaw fell, Henry appointed a new Polish king who ruled from Lublin. However, Zima soon escaped and led a coup to retake the throne only three months after the end of the war. Back in command, Zima worked day and night to retake Polish land from the Germans. Since he didn’t have troops, he moved to stir up the Polish peasants against the Germans. Even Zima couldn’t have guessed how successful his campaign would be, and by winter, full-scale revolts broke out all over occupied Poland.
If revolts in Poland were not bad enough, the German nobility were in full-scale revolt. The revolts that had been simmering erupted after Matilda came into power in Italy. The German nobility saw a woman coming to power in Italy as a sign that Henry was weak and vulnerable.
The first city to revolt was Vienna when the mayor announced that all Henry’s officials were banned from the city and that taxes collected would not be sent to Frankfort. The revolt spread from Vienna as the nobles who had felt oppressed for years saw their chance. Never mind the irony that their final goal was to return to their places of dominating the lower classes.
After Vienna, the revolt began heading northwest up the Danube River. Although the Polish War was over, most of the German Army was either keeping the peace in Poland or fighting the French in Burgundy. The only thing keeping the noble’s revolt from overwhelming Henry was the large number of educated lower and middle-class citizens. Many saw the threat posed by the revolting nobles and formed volunteer regiments to defend the emperor by the beginning of winter 1077/78.
Outside of having the lower classes on his side, Henry had another advantage his enemies couldn’t hope to match: his wife, Brunhild. By this time, Brunhild was as much a mother to the emerging German nation as Henry was the father. She saw nurturing the growing sense of German nationalism as the best way for her and Henry’s family to stay in power.
While the idea of a German nation wasn’t new, deep discussions with Luke while she had been in Britain had caused the notion of a German nation to crystalize in Brunhild’s mind. After hearing of the death and destruction that would befall her homeland if changes were not made, Brunhild had set all her goals to help push for a unified German nation.
Paris, France. January 1078
Henry wasn’t the only monarch who saw rebel activity in occupied areas. The French dealt with the same thing in Burgundy, especially once the lower and artisan classes learned what would happen to them after Philip was in complete control. Under Henry, the serfs were freed, and those who wished to keep farming could buy land, while the artisans saw a drastic reduction in taxes and tolls for the roads.
Only a month after Philip invaded, he forcibly returned former serfs to their former master’s land. Once locked back on the land, many nobles were not kind to their serfs and sought to punish them for leaving. Many serfs were tortured or raped as punishment for defying their lord’s will. He also reintroduced tolls on the major roads and almost all bridges.
Although Philip quickly conquered the southern half of Burgundy, he just as promptly began hitting roadblocks. The French Army may have numbered 30,000, but its size was also a hindrance to its effectiveness. Very few roads could handle an army of that size without extensive modifications or having the army strung out over several kilometers. An army spread over several kilometers of road was an easy target for enemy raiding or partisans. It also slowed the army to a crawl.
Philip’s artillery also caused problems since almost no bridges in the region were strong enough to support them. This lesson was painfully driven home when several bridges collapsed under the weight of the artillery. During these accidents, valuable artillery pieces were lost, and trained crews were injured or killed. Also, the army was forced to halt until the bridge could be rebuilt.
Bridges were a problem all over and one that only the British Army had a consistent solution to. They tended to ignore pre-existing bridges and built their own from pontoons for their artillery to cross. Stopping to build a pontoon bridge might slow them down, but it was considerably faster and cheaper than rebuilding a collapsed bridge.
Rebuilding bridges exposed the greatest vulnerability of the French Army, namely its lack of engineering expertise. Without engineers, bridges were not rebuilt correctly and often failed soon after being rebuilt. The lack of engineering also became apparent after the lead elements of the German Army arrived. While the French had the numbers, the Germans were battle-hardened by years of experience with leather-lunged NCOs and dedicated officers. Not only that, but they had an experienced engineering corps that quickly built almost impenetrable field fortifications.
While Philip’s Army faced rebellions in Burgundy, Philip faced a more personal rebellion in Paris. Bertha was on the verge of taking the children and leaving. She was tired of the constant warfare Philip was plunging the kingdom into. It seemed that every time the kingdom began to get ahead, Philip would plunge it back into a pointless war.
Bertha often looked across the channel with envy. There, Marion was at peace, allowing her to raise her children without fearing them falling into foreign hands. Bertha constantly feared her children would end up captives of a foreign power, and she would lose them forever.
New Cork, New Ireland. January 1078
Órlaith stood at the window and watched the snow fall as she nursed her and Toirdelbach’s first child. Their first child was a boy named Diarmait mac Briain, after an old friend of Toirdelbach’s. Órlaith was glad she was married to Toirdelbach because it ensured she would get enough food. The winter was especially harsh, and food shortages already existed among the poor.
As Diarmait finished, his father entered and stomped the snow off his boots. Órlaith didn’t think much of men, but there was no way she would take Toirdelbach’s job or responsibilities. Toirdelbach had a never-ending list of worries and problems that never seemed to go away. If it wasn’t ensuring everyone had food, it was protecting them from the natives or ensuring they had fuel to feed their fires to keep from freezing to death.
Ensuring the people had fuel became a priority when a young family died after they couldn’t get to their firewood supply. After that, Toirdelbach had representatives visit every household at least once a week to check they had an adequate supply of firewood and food. People who didn’t have enough were given enough by the state or a more fortunate neighbor. Sometimes, all it took was for the neighbors to get together to help dig out the snow that buried firewood supplies.
The food stores were beginning to reach levels that concerned Toirdelbach. The autumn had been rough, with a severe storm at the worst possible time destroying much of their grain supply. With less grain, the people relied more on meat, but most of the game near the city was already gone, so they ate fish or their livestock. Eating the livestock helped because it meant fewer animals to feed. The Irish hadn’t considered planting animal fodder, and the sickly livestock couldn’t dig through the deep snow to reach food.
With the lack of carbohydrates in their diet, many Irish began suffering from ketosis, further endangering the people. While their bodies made the transition, they were useless. After transitioning entirely to a low-carb diet, many found they didn’t have the energy they had before.
If food and fuel were not enough concerns for Toirdelbach, aggressive natives and short-tempered colonists added to his misery. While the Irish had pushed most of the native tribes out of the area, there were a few near the edges of New Ireland. Those tribes were not too happy with the Irish and took every opportunity to make the Irish lives as short as possible.
The last of Toirdelbach’s significant problems was the hardest to deal with. Many new immigrants were from France and were displaced when Philip’s reforms left them with no land. Their choices were to leave or become serfs again. Many left, and while most settled in Britain or the Holy Roman Empire, some ended up in New Ireland.
When the French arrived in relatively large numbers, the Irish settlers were frightened and furious. They felt they were being invaded and directed their anger at Toirdelbach and the French. Most Irish ignored the French to the point where they wouldn’t acknowledge them in the streets. If a French settler were drowning, the most the native Irish would do was stop to piss on them.
The French were only trying to find a better life and reacted to the Irish hostility with their own. Since the numbers of Irish and French were close to equal, the French had no reason to hold back. It took Toirdelbach everything he had to keep the kingdom from erupting into a full-scale civil war.
After Toirdelbach finished knocking the snow off his clothing and warming himself at the fire, he approached Órlaith and held her tight. Órlaith could feel the tension in her husband’s body as he held her. She knew this helped him unwind at the end of the day, and even though she didn’t enjoy it physically, she craved it emotionally. It let her know he loved her even though she wasn’t attracted to him.
Finally, Toirdelbach let Órlaith go and kissed her neck. The kiss sent shivers down her spine, but she was relieved when her husband retreated to their bedroom to change. While she would have allowed her husband to use her body, Órlaith wouldn’t have enjoyed it. They had been married for just over a year and hadn’t found another woman to bring into their relationship.
Ingegerdsborg, Scandinavia. January 1078
Ingegerd was relieved when she found a business manager who could look after her diverse interests. His name was Alfred, and he had been a Swedish merchant before Ingegerd’s army captured his home. Seeing a better opportunity, he stayed behind when the rest of his family ran. His better opportunities began to pile up, and he became the wealthiest person in the region within a year.
His increasing wealth brought him to Ingegerd’s attention when she moved her capital. When they first met, they were weary of each other as they felt the other would take the other’s wealth. It took Anna to mediate between the two before they came to an agreement. Alfred would sell his business to Ingegerd before taking over the management of her business empire. By doing this, Ingegerd had someone to run her business, and Alfred made more money without fearing that he would lose everything with one turn of his fortunes.
Instead of instantly giving Alfred the reins, she sent him to Britain to learn about running diverse business interests from Bard. When Alfred arrived in Britain, he thought he knew everything about running a business and making money. When he left six weeks later, he felt he knew nothing. Everything about running a large company differed from running the small business he was used to. Before, Alfred had a handful of employees, and he knew every one of them. Now, Alfred had several thousand employees working for him across various industries.
Another difference was a prominent business operated on bank notes, not gold or silver. When they were used, bank notes left a paper trail, which helped keep money from sticking to people’s fingers. The increasing use of banknotes helped British merchants protect their hard-earned wealth from those who would steal it.
Ingegerd enjoyed living in her new capital. It was warmer in the winter and without the brutal storms that swept off the Atlantic. Being her capital was a new city, Ingegerd ensured it had every amenity she could install. The entire city had running water, sewer service, and electricity. The power came from several small dams nearby. The worst thing about her new capital was that it would become icebound every few years during the winter.
When Ingegerd realized she didn’t have much coal and wood wasn’t an efficient way to generate power, Ingegerd asked Pollyanna for advice. Pollyanna suggested building hydroelectric dams to supply the electricity for Ingegerdsborg. Since there were plenty of rivers, Ingegerd went with the hydroelectric option and ordered the construction of several small dams. This allowed Scandinavian engineers to gain experience with small dams before attempting to tackle larger projects.
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