Byzantine Empire (Rule Byzantium)

Early New Comnenus Era
Emperor John III Comnenus, crowned in 1182, a grandchild of Emperor John II Comnenus, child of Emperor Andronikos I Comnenus (brother of the failed emperor, Manuel I Comnenus), establishes a clearer line of succession, following primogeniture, after a brief lack of emperor due to a poorly defined line. This allows for a clear Heir Apparent and adds much needed, though only temporary, stability to the Empire. Despite this, John, a revolutionary among the Byzantines, adopts a more western style of nobility which comes under heavy fire and he is thrown into a vicious and damaging Civil War with much of the Empire. Much territory seceded and left Byzantium Weakened. At that time, John died peacefully, though in deep worry and regret, in his bed. His son, John IV Comnenus, is crowned in 1201 and, in fear of his Dynasty and even his Empire's survival, begins treaties with Rome. Pope William II and John IV agreed to reunite the Greek Orthodox and Catholic Churches and declared Byzantium a Catholic Empire. John IV, now supported by much of Europe, receives loans and troops from thrones as far away as Poland and manages to reconquer much of his empire, forcing them to convert or be executed, winning the Civil War. John IV manages to secure his throne and gains some territory in both the Balkans and Anatolia and is forgiven of many debts and pays most of the remaining off before he died in 1233 of an infection relating to a cut he received during the Civil War. John IV's son, Alexios II Comnenus, was crowned only days after his father's death. Alexios inherited a throne in an opportunistic condition. He signed a treaty with the Seljuk Sultanate and several other Muslim Kingdoms and turned armies north into the Balkans. He made it as far North as Bucharest and ended his advances to keep troops line from being stretched too thin and to allow him to profit off of these newly conquered lands. Despite initial civil disobedience and minor financial problems, Alexios turned the new lands into loyal, profitable, provinces and the Byzantine Language was taught to many of them. Most of his reign focused on forwarding Byzantium Culture while also merging it with Western Cultures to help the Empire move forward. Alexios also led to the first Byzantine Cardinals being appointed and increasing relations with the Kingdom of Jerusalem. He died in 1262 of natural causes and left his empire to his son, who would be crowned John V days later and was the first emperor to refer to himself and his Empire as the Byzantine Empire, rather than the East Roman Empire, which he discarded in favor of promoting his empire as unique from Rome. John achieved immense success when he married Isabella of Jerusalem and produced more than 10 children with her, though the number is unsure do to his tenancy to sleep with many women, pretending their children to be of his wife and not them, and at least two known miscarriages of the Empress. John V died after only 19 years as emperor, though he took the throne at an older age and had many STDs at his death. Two weeks later, after an attempted regency to overthrow the then oversees Emperor apparent, Niketas Comnenus (second son of John V, after his older brother died at age 15, heir to the throne) takes the throne with a Latinised name of Nicolas I of Byzantium in 1281. In the same year, due to his mother's ancestry, Nicolas achieved for the first time a second throne and declared a new era to have begun.

High New Comnenus Era
With his father's marriage to Isabella and he being one of their many children, Nicolas was in line for the throne of Jerusalem. He had previously been uninterested in the Kingdom, but when the Last King of the Lusignan Dynasty (to which he was closely related) died leaving him the first choice for King, he was informed that the Royal Court of Jerusalem would allow him to become their King. He was crowned in Jerusalem in the same year he was made Emperor of Byzantium (1281). He only returned two times afterwards, one to reform the appointed representative from Regent to Hereditary Viceroy and one on a Pilgrimage. He used his increasing wealth to fortify both the Byzantine Empire and to Supply the soldier starved Kingdom of Jerusalem. He gained control of much of Croatia during his reign and married a daughter of the King of Hungary, a increasingly large and powerful kingdom, which proved to be an excellent choice in the long run for the Empire. He died in 1311, ruling for nearly exactly 30 years. His first son and then Crown Prince, John VI, then took the throne and began large scale reforms of the empire, including a more Westernised system of nobility and Latinising birth names of his subjects, which proved moderately effective. He also drastically modified the Kingdom of Jerusalem, declaring it no longer a mere personal union, but an actual part of the empire, naming the large province Levant, after the geographical are it was in. In the Levant, for the first time in ages, the Empire held Antioch and Edessa, which were made into the Provinces of Antioch and Edessa respectively. Though the Emperor had drastically increased land in the Holy Lands, he still had an overabundance of troops and hungered for power. He reconquered Crete, which had been under Venetian Control for much time and then invaded southern Italy and Sicily, declaring himself King of Sicily upon his victory. Rome, rather than condemning his action, praised them as being beneficial for Christianity. Despite these victories, John's largest land acquisition was, like Jerusalem has been for his father, an hereditary union of the crowns when he inherited the large Kingdom of Hungary, stretching as far east as Kiev, as far west as Vienna and has far north as southern Bohemia. He knew they would be reluctant to merge entirely with the Empire, though by his death in 1345, Hungary had already ceded land and much of its independence to Byzantium. The Emperor's son took the throne as John VII three days later. His first actions were to transfer his Hungarian Troops into the Byzantine army, a difficult matter due to potential legal issues. Luckily, he succeeded, though less troops were transfered than he wished. But, despite this, only 14 months later, the Nobles of Hungary agreed to one of the Emperor's frequent requests to merge Hungary with the Empire. They were granted higher titles and grants of money, alongside being able to govern their lands as full fledged provinces, answering only to the Emperor. The provinces were tiny usually though do to a combination of inheritances and legal purchases, the provinces were de facto merged, creating 5 main provinces. The Emperor officially merged them and slightly modified their lands to remove enclaves and exclaves to balance power. The Emperor by that point, had more land than the Holy Roman Empire (which, at the time and only briefly, controlled Greater Germany and France. He focused on expansion into Anatolia and married the first Daughter of the Armenian King in 1352 and produced a daughter by the end of the year. Over the next decade, the empire expanded in the Levant and Anatolia, establishing itself as the most powerful nation-state in the Mid-East and Eastern Europe. The Emperor, a vicious conqueror, caught his wife cheating on him and had her and her lover executed. When the Armenian King protested by killing his diplomats, he launched a large scale invasion of Armenia in 1361, and defeated them in early 1363. He declared it a province of the empire and used its position to invade Cyprus. The Cypriots, having revolted many years ago, opposed this with great furry, driving his army from the island, the empires first major defeat since then end of its Civil War. The Emperor was present at the defeat and was taken captive. His only child, his daughter, refused to pay his ransom and he was executed. She took the throne as Anna I, the first Empress of Byzantium.