Chapter 21: New Wars

“Laws are silent in time of war.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero

Rome, Italy. March 1079

Matilda enjoyed being pregnant and looked forward to meeting the young person growing in her belly. While liking the feeling of her baby kicking, that feeling didn’t extend to when the bugger kicked her late at night and made her rush to the bathroom to pee. But outside of some inconveniences, she enjoyed her current state.

Hildebrand also liked Matilda being pregnant since it made her desire him more often. While he might be the pope, he was also a man and a husband and, as such, desired to be with his wife. And while the positions Hildebrand and Matilda knew were extremely limited, they still managed to have fun.

What wasn’t fun for Matilda was navigating the new political situation in Europe. The Seljuk Empire was collapsing, and the Byzantines were taking full advantage while the Seljuk governor of Damascus attacked Egypt, drawing the British Navy back into the Mediterranean. Now, Italian shipping had to be careful not to run from the British because when they saw a ship running from them, they tended to give chase.

If the Mediterranean situation wasn’t tense enough, Matilda also had to deal with the change in leadership in the Holy Roman Empire. Her cousin was dead, and his son, Henry V, was officially next in line since the nobility had been crushed. There were not enough senior nobles left to vote for the new emperor. If Brunhild had her way, there never would be.

In reality, Empress Brunhild ruled and, barring her death, would be ruling for many years. Brunhild was widely known to be more hostile to the proper ruling class than Queen Marion. Queen Marion didn’t try to crush the nobility unless they rebelled against her. Empress Brunhild was on record for saying that the best way to improve Europe would be to eliminate Europe’s nobles. Now that she was in power and had the nobility to blame for killing her husband, it wasn’t a good time to be a noble in the Holy Roman Empire.

As soon as Matilda heard the news of the Battle of Frankfort, she sent dispatches asking Brunhild about her intentions toward the Italian States and for trade agreements. Matilda saw no need to start off with Brunhild on the wrong foot. If she could get her agreement, she would take over the remaining Italian cities. Once the Italian cities were all under Matilda’s control, she would try to spend the rest of her reign to forge the states into a united Italian kingdom. In this, her role model was surprisingly Marion of York.

Matilda had studied Marion’s campaign to unite the British, a people far less likely to unite than the Italians. Marion had forged the different groups together and now had a quiet nation that didn’t suffer from constant warfare. However, Matilda would have to do some things differently. She wouldn’t destroy the nation’s nobility like Marion had hers. Matilda wanted to keep on the nobility’s good side. She also wasn’t going to make everyone living in Italy citizens. To her, citizens had to own property so they would have something to fight for. If you didn’t own property, then you had no business participating in government.

Another goal for Matilda was to improve the nation’s infrastructure, particularly with railroads, which would enable troops and goods to travel quickly across the country. If the army could move rapidly to trouble spots, there would be little need to spread the army to maintain control. That was another reason Matilda wanted to maintain good relations with the nobles; part of their responsibility was to maintain order and defend the realm.

One accomplishment she was proud of was forcing the Byzantine Emperor to share the secret of silk production. Matilda knew they would eventually gain access to firearm technology; this way, she would have easy access to what she had been after. Until now, her agents had been finding it impossible to steal the secrets of silk production. Once silk production was up to speed, they would make a significant dent in Byzantine revenues, while it would take the Byzantines years to set up a thriving arms industry.

Frankfort, Holy Roman Empire. March 1079

General Ó Braonáin stood next to Empress Brunhild as the queen sent dispatches. The two women had butted heads since the general had saved Brunhild’s bacon. Brunhild would try to order the general around, and General Ó Braonáin refused to tolerate Brunhild’s illegal orders. Even though the general was temporarily under the orders of Empress Brunhild, she was ultimately answerable only to Queen Marion and Field Marshal Jeevika. As such, she had orders to avoid pointlessly risking British troops.

Empress Brunhild would have ordered the British out, but she couldn’t afford to, as they kept order while her army was rebuilt. With British troops spread across the empire, foreign powers wouldn’t dare attack and risk killing British forces, thus angering Marion. Even King Zima of Poland was behaving for the time being.

After the noble’s rebellion had been crushed, Brunhild moved to crush the Polish uprising in early February. Once again, British troops were instrumental in defeating the rebels. The Polish rebels made the mistake of trying to battle with the British on an open field. They were used to poorly trained German troops with rifled muskets. When they met the highly trained British troops with their bolt action rifles and heavy artillery, the rebels were slaughtered.

With the Polish rebels demoralized and disorganized after their crushing defeat in late February, General Ó Braonáin began withdrawing her troops. Queen Marion needed the Grenadiers in the Middle East, and with the organized resistance gone, Empress Brunhild’s forces could handle security for the most part.

Empress Brunhild exploded when she learned that British troops were headed home, but when she confronted General Ó Braonáin, the general was less than impressed. She had been warned of Brunhild’s temper before being sent to Germany, but she hadn’t believed Marion. After dealing with Brunhild for the last three months, General Ó Braonáin couldn’t wait to leave even if she had to return to Egypt. Empress Brunhild’s desire for British troops would swing from needing them to stay in the empire one day to wanting them gone the next.

“General! You cannot leave yet! I have not rebuilt my army.”

“You do not have any immediate threats. The nobles’ rebellion has been crushed, and even Poland is calm. You have time to rebuild your army.”

“Damn it general. Are you trying to force me to fail?”

“Why would I do that after I lost all those troops saving your arse?” Brunhild glared at General Ó Braonáin, who didn’t care. “Brunhild, face it; you do NOT control my troops. You can request assistance with a problem, but ultimately, I do not answer to you. I answer to Field Marshal Jeevika, then Queen Marion, and finally the British people. So, you can either shut up and accept what help I give you, or I can order all my troops to leave.”

As furious as Brunhild was, a ray of good sense broke through, and she held her tongue. Even though only one and a half British divisions were left, they performed most of the patrols, and a majority of the people trusted them, unlike the new German troops.

After a day of dealing with the insulate British general, Brunhild knew what she needed; she needed a hard cock between her legs and a muscular body lying on top of her. Unfortunately, in her current position, such an action was highly frowned upon, especially since Henry had only been dead for a few months. Officially, she was still in mourning, and if she got pregnant, it would look really bad.

General Ó Braonáin knew what was bugging Brunhild and how the beautiful German queen could solve the problem, but Brunhild refused to accept that possibility. Brunhild had never been attracted in any way to women, possibly as a result of seeing what it did to her family when her mother was caught with another woman.

After her mother had been caught with another woman, Brunhild’s father began heavy drinking to deaden the shame he felt at being cuckolded by a woman. Brunhild’s brothers lost all their respect in the village, and her oldest brother lost his betrothed when the girl’s father ended their courtship.

If Brunhild found herself a man, she might get pregnant, weakening her position as queen. She absolutely never intended to turn over control to her stepson; instead, she planned to eventually give the throne to her son, Rudolf. That would give her two decades on the throne instead of one.

Paris, France. March 1079

Philip was panicking, as were many of the people. The war Philip wasn’t prepared for had arrived. Ahmad ibn Sulayman al-Muqtadir, the ruler of Taifa of Zaragoza, attacked Philip’s southern border without warning and quickly drove north. Unlike the last time a Muslim army invaded France, this time, the Muslims had complete surprise.

Thanks to a mild winter across the north of the Iberian Peninsula, al-Muqtadir was able to strike in February instead of waiting until April or May. Barcelona fell without a fight as al-Muqtadir had slipped agents into the city before he attacked. When he arrived at the gates, the agents seized control of a gate and opened it.

After they had control of the city, the Muslims forced the monks and nuns out of the churches and monasteries and into the center of the city. There, the monks and nuns were forced to strip. Any who didn’t strip were tied to a post and had their clothes cut off. Al-Muqtadir would have rather had them executed for not stripping but reasoned that would give the captives a way out of the coming festivities.

The naked captives shivered from fear and the cold wind that blew through the city. Muslim soldiers with torches walked down the line of captives, and when they saw a captive with body hair, they used the torch to burn the hair off. While one man held the torch, two burly soldiers held the captive still. Behind the torch man, a young slave girl followed with a bucket and a rag. Her job was to clean the ash off the victims. Around the square, civilians were forced to stand and watch. If they looked away, they lost an eye. The second time, they lost the other eye. If they “looked away” a third time, they lost their head.

It took over an hour to burn all the body hair off the 114 captives and wipe the ash off their body with a mix of vinegar and water. After the captives were clean, the males were tied to a line of barrels to allow for rear entry while their genitals were tied tightly with strips of leather. Al-Muqtadir decided to allow any of his soldiers the opportunity to commit sodomy without consequences. The women were laid flat on tables with their feet pulled up over their shoulders and tied to the table near their heads but out of the way of their mouths. That opened all three holes up for use.

After the captives were correctly positioned, al-Muqtadir released his men but had them rotate so that some were always on guard duty. During the orgy, every available hole was brutally used, and some captives lost their teeth when they bit the cock in their mouths. When one man couldn’t get his little soldier to come to attention, he rotated with a man on guard duty. At certain points, the orgy was paused, and town people were forced to clean the captives’ holes with their tongues. If the townspeople vomited while cleaning, they were forced to eat their vomit.

Once the captives were clean, the orgy would continue. For three days, the Muslims raped their captives. By the second day, the captives were no longer human as their minds had broken, and by the third day, most were turning into animals. Once the captives’ holes were too torn up to give any pleasure, their throats were cut, and they were thrown into a mass grave. After all the captives had been executed, pitch was thrown over the bodies along with a torch.

The smell in the city was nauseating as the Muslims burned the captives’ bodies upwind of the city. This way, the people knew without a shadow of a doubt who was in control. With the dead disposed of, all the single women of the city were lined up, and the men in the army got to take one as a slave. Al-Muqtadir took the only one in town that had golden-blonde hair.

Ever since his cousin, Urtatim Bint Asbat, had been killed, Al-Muqtadir had wanted a way to strike back at Great Britain and its Golden Queen. While a blonde slave wouldn’t matter, it allowed Al-Muqtadir the fantasy of fucking the reportedly beautiful golden queen.

With Barcelona secure, Al-Muqtadir moved north, with his next target being Toulouse. The Muslim Army would have to cross the Pyrénées Mountains in winter to reach Toulouse, which wouldn’t be the most straightforward task.

As the army began moving through the mountain passes, it became apparent why armies avoided moving during the winter. Several times, avalanches buried parts of the army and destroyed supplies. Many soldiers suffered from frostbite and hyperthermia, yet the army continued to fight. Al-Muqtadir wanted to capture Toulouse before King Philip could reinforce the city.

Al-Muqtadir drove toward Toulouse hard because he knew the city walls hadn’t been rebuilt after the Franco-German War, and if he could get there before reinforcements, taking the city would be easy. If he could take the city, it would erase the defeat of the Umayyad Muslim army in 721 at the Battle of Toulouse. Al-Muqtadir hoped if he could take Toulouse, he could jumpstart the Muslim expansion into Europe.

Thanks to a network of relay posts, Philip heard of the invasion just as the Muslims were finishing in Barcelona. As soon as he heard of the invasion, he gathered his army and any recruits that could be found and headed south. As the army marched, the recruits were taught the art of soldiering. Thankfully for the French, for once, there were plenty of muskets on the market, and Philip was able to buy enough to arm all his troops. While they did suffer from a lack of artillery, the poor condition of French roads turned that into an advantage because there wasn’t as much to slow the army.

Hearing about the roads’ poor condition and the problems it was causing for the army, Bertha allowed her husband to see her smirk before giving him an “I told you so” look. The roads would slow the army down by roughly a week, meaning they might arrive too late to save the city, be too exhausted to fight, or their equipment might be in too bad of condition to fight with. If the bad roads were not enough of a problem, there was the problem of having new recruits marching before having a proper chance to break their shoes in. This inevitably led to many new soldiers developing debilitating blisters on their feet.

With a new war on his hands, Philip turned all his attention to the fight and ignored his wife and whores. While Bertha was used to this behavior from Philip, his whores weren’t, and Bertha saw this as the perfect opportunity to get rid of them. One, they would be more likely to leave if Philip wasn’t paying attention to them, and two, Philip wouldn’t be there to stop them from leaving.