Medieval Croatia Remains Independent

The Kingdom of Croatia entered into a union with the Kingdom of Hungary in 1102 after over a decade of civil war caused by the death of King Dmitar Zvonimir and his son Radovan. This TL will focus on how Croatian, and after the Fourth Crusade, European and global history would be different had Croatia remained an independent country, with the POD being Prince Radovan surviving.

Certain more important rulers will be covered in more detail than others.

Timeline:

1085-1100

 * 1) Prince Radovan of Croatia, aged 20, son of King Dmitar Zvonimir and Queen Illona Arpad, contracts tuberculosis in May 1085, and is on the verge of death, but unlike in the OTL he survives and makes a full recovery by the end of the year, thus securing the continuation of Zvonimir's line.
 * 2) Radovan marries Projeta, daughter of Lord Dragoslav of Zagorje and Drid, in April 1087. Their first child, a son named Ivan is born on the 4th of February 1088.
 * 3) King Dmitar Zvonimir suffers a fatal stroke and dies in July 1089, aged 52. Radovan, now 24, is proclaimed King by the nobles of Croatia and he sends a messenger to Pope Urban II, to send him a delegate to officially crown him, as his father did before him. However, his father's Ban (Croatian word for viceroy) the Lord of Kamičak Petar Snačić, refuses to recognise Radovan on the grounds that his father, who served as Ban under Petar Krešimir IV, betrayed his then liege to be killed by the Normans and grabbed his crown, under rather dubious claims of belonging to a cadet branch of the ruling Trpimirović dynasty. Petar Snačić rises in open rebellion in late December, supported by the Ban of Bosnia Stjepan Praska and members of House Kačić of Omiš, and the rebels proclaim the elderly and childless Stjepan Trpimirović, the last male member of the deposed line of the dynasty, as king. However, since Stjepan lives in seclusion in a monastery in Split, Radovan places him under house arrest before they can get to him.
 * 4) Papal Legate Theobald of Bavaria crowns Radovan as King of Croatia on the 15th of January 1090, in the Cathedral of Split, six months after his father had passed away. Immediately the new King orders that Stjepan Trpimirović be poisoned, so that he can't be blamed for killing him outright. This move, however, does not deter the rebels, who already took control of the eastern and central parts of the realm, including all of Bosnia and southern Dalmatia, since Stjepan was only an excuse to rebel, so Petar Snačić proclaims himself as King. Radovan begins to assemble his armies and asks his maternal uncle, King Ladislaus of Hungary to send him aid. His uncle, however, sends only some funds, as he is not willing to spend his manpower in keeping alliances with Croatia, while the Cumans and Pechengs loomed over the eastern side of the Carpathians.
 * 5) On the 5th of June 1090 the rebels defeat Radovan's armies at the Battle of Livno and capture Knin, the capital of the realm, cutting the loyalist forces of Lord Petar the Black of Mosor and Archbishop Lovro of Split from Radovan, who transfers his court to the fortress of Bišće (modern-day Bihać), on the Una river. Heeding the advice of his uncle, Radovan creates the Zagreb Bishopric in the north, to cement the loyalty of the Slavonian nobles. As soon as he captured the capital Petar Snačić had himself formally crowned by the rebel Bishop of Knin Grgur II.
 * 6) 1092; Archbishop Lovro of Split defeats the rebels in the Siege of Klis, but Peter the Black is killed in the fray.
 * 7) 1093; the First Crusade is called.
 * 8) Petar Snačić captures Nin and Šibenik, in July 1094. Projeta gives birth to the couple's second child, Princess Jelena, later that year.
 * 9) As both the People's and the Prince's Crusades pass trough Croatia, some commoners and minor nobles join their ranks, but this all is insignificant as the civil war keeps raging.
 * 10) Normans from Sicily attempt to take Brač, Split and Zadar, but Lovro's forces repel them.
 * 11) Anti-king Petar marries his son Juraj to Zora, the daughter of Neda, the last member of the other line of the Trpimirović Dynasty, daughter of Petar Krešimir IV, to cement his claim on the throne in 1095. He also begins to negotiate in secret with the neighbouring Kingdom of Duklja, promising the Serb King Bodin all of Bosnia in exchange for his assistance against Radovan. However, news of this reaches Bosnian Ban Stjepan.
 * 12) As Stjepan Praska learns that the Anti-king has been plotting with the Serbs to betray him and grant Bosnia to Bodin's brother Stefan Vojislavljević, he defects to Radovan. Radovan comes in contact with Bodin's nephew Vukan, who ruled as Župan of Rascia and Lord Kočapar, promising them assistance in toppling Bodin in Duklja, if they help him. As the Dioclean army enters Croatia in mid-August 1096, both sides prepare for a final battle.
 * 13) Snačić and the Serbs spend winter in Knin mustering their forces and march northward to Bišće in late April 1097. Radovan and Stjepan Praska assemble their armies and prepare to meet them.
 * 14) The two forces meet on the 6th of May 1097, at the foot of Mount Klekovača, halfway between Knin and Bišće. As the battle commences neither side seems to be able to take the upper hand, but by the end of the day the scales start to tip in favour of the Anti-king. This all changes as Vukan and Kočapar's forces decide to fulfill their end of the bargain and turn on their liege and his ally. In the chaos of the moment Snačić and Bodin are cut off from their forces and killed in battle, ending the civil war.
 * 15) Radovan sends his brother-in-law Viniha Lapčanin to assist Kočapar and Vukan in taking control of Duklja.
 * 16) Stjepan Praska dies of old age in 1099, but not before Radovan rewards him by giving his family hereditary Banship of Bosnia, so his son Godimir succeeds him.
 * 17) The First Crusade takes Jerusalem from the Isma'ili Fatimid Caliphate on 15 July 1099.
 * 18) Radovan builds a large Romanesque church in Nin, dedicating it to Saint Joseph.
 * 19) Queen Protjeha gives birth to twin sons, Josip and Radovan, in late 1099.

1100-1150

 * 1) 1100 rolls around with Jerusalem in Christian hands, Alexios Komnenos recovering Byzantine territories, Vukan ruling over the Serb lands and Radovan secured in his position in Croatia.
 * 2) Protjeha gives birth to a daughter, Budislava in 1103.
 * 3) In 1105 Duke Almos of Nyitra rebels against Coloman of Hungary and Radovan sends troops to assist his cousin. With direct and ample Croatian assistance the rebellion is soon crushed and Radovan talks Coloman into executing his brother and his under-aged son Bela, to prevent further rebellions, but instead he decides to blind them and allow them to live.
 * 4) The Byzantine Empire looks unfavourably upon Vukan ruling Serbia, because of his dubious church allegiance and continuous balancing between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, especially since the Serbian realm is mostly Orthodox, aligned with Constantinople, instead of Rome, so in 1107 the Byzantine forces invade Duklja and Rascia. Radovan sends aid to his ally, so the Byzantines are pushed back. Vukan definitely opts for Orthodoxy to avoid any further Byzantine incursions. In exchange, Vukan allows Radovan to impose his direct rule over the up-until-then semi-independent Duchy of Zahumlje, a border area between Croatia and Serbia, that kept switching allegiance from one realm to another continuously over the past few decades.
 * 5) King Radovan I of Croatia dies of cardiac arrest on July 5th 1111, at the age of 46. His son Ivan (23), succeeds him and is crowned.
 * 6) King Ivan moves the capital from Knin to Split, as Split is a much larger and more prosperous city and to send a message to Venice that the eastern coast of the Adriatic belongs to him.
 * 7) Coloman attempts to invade the Pecheng-held region of Wallachia, but is repelled. Ivan marries Coloman's daughter Sophia in 1114. A son named Vladimir is soon born to the couple.
 * 8) Coloman dies in 1116 and is succeeded by his son Stephen II.
 * 9) King Ivan's reign is characterised by relative peace and economic prosperity and by the strengthening of royal authority in Slavonia and Bosnia, where Ivan granted lands to feudal lords loyal to him.
 * 10) The Kingdom of Jerusalem strengthens in the third decade of the 12th century.
 * 11) Byzantine Emperor John II Komnenos defeats the Pechengs at the Battle of Beroia in 1122. The battle is a complete defeat of the Pecheng tribal confederacy and they stop existing as an independent people as a result. The power vacuum in Wallachia and Moldavia is immediately contested between Constantinople, Hungary and the Cumans.
 * 12) Imad ad-Din Zengi becomes the Atabeg of Mosul and Aleppo in 1127.
 * 13) Aided by Ivan and the Germans, Stephen II manages to defeat a Byzantine army at the other side of the Danube near Vidin in 1128, thus securing his hold over western and central Wallachia, while the Cumans manage to control the rest.
 * 14) In 1128 the childless Stephen II fell ill and proclaimed his blinded cousin Bela as his successor, to prevent his half-brother Boris from taking the crown. Boris, called Kalamanos (son of Coloman) by the Greeks, was the son of Coloman and Euphemia of Kiev, whom Coloman banished for infidelity, but Boris claimed to be legitimate. Stephen died in 1131 and part of the nobility that had proclaimed his half-brother Boris as king three years earlier, even though he was Orthodox having grown up in Rus', now called on him again, especially after Bela's wife Helen of Rascia began to execute their political opponents. Boris was supported by the Kievan Rus', Poland, Byzantium and Croatia, while Bela received support from only Austria and Serbia. Croatia had interest in Boris being king, since Radovan's support of Coloman led to the blinding of Bela. Emperor John II Komnenos marries his niece Anna Doukaina to Boris sometime in that year. Thus, the Hungarian War of Succession began.
 * 15) King Ivan mobilized his armies and marched into Hungary in mid-March 1132. He quickly crossed over the Mura river, pillaging his way to Veszprem and besieged the city with some 6000 men. Another Croatian army besieged Pecs, while the Poles entered the Nyitra region and the Rus' forces with Boris crossed the Carpathians. Austrian Duke Leopold III arrived at Szekesfehervar in July to assist Bela. Bela's father-in-law Uroš I of Rascia started attacking Croatian territories in southern Dalmatia, while King Ivan ordered Pribko Praska, Ban of Bosnia, to launch raids into Serbia.
 * 16) The armies of Leopold and Bela arrive at Veszprem on July 8th and battle is joined. The battle lasts for two hours and ends in a Hungarian victory, as King Ivan of Croatia is killed by an arrow to the neck. The reminder of the Croatian army under župan Didovit of Prigorje retreats from the field and crosses to the south of the Mura river, but halts and fortifies there, wanting to keep the small territory between Drava and Mura for themselves. Meanwhile the other Croatian force manages to break the defenders of Pecs and occupy the city.
 * 17) Boris Kalamanos learns about the death of his ally and quickly marches south toward Torda, to take control of Transylvania. Bela reaches an agreement with the Cumans khans to attack the Rus' in exchange for granting all of Wallachia to them.
 * 18) Mstislav I of Kiev dies and his realm is split between his son Yaropolk II, who takes Kiev and Davyd Sviatoslavich, who takes Novgorod and Rostov. Yaropolk clashes with the Cumans, who have already taken Wallachia, despite it being promised to them only after the war. At the Battle of the Arabat Spit on the 5th of May 1133, Yaropolk's forces crush the Cuman armies, killing two khans in the process.
 * 19) The forces of Pribko Praska launch a surprise night attack on the Serb capital at Ras, which results in them capturing both Uroš I and his son, also called Uroš. Seizing on the opportunity, Emperor John II marches his armies into Serbia and fully occupies it. Meanwhile, late Ivan's son Vladimir is crowned King of Croatia, by the Archbishop of Split.
 * 20) Bela and Duke Leopold defeat the Polish armies of Boleslaus III at the Second Battle of Presburg on the 5th of October 1133.
 * 21) Manuel ransoms the Serb royalty held captive by Ban Pribko and grants them lands in Anatolia. This is an already tried and tested Byzantine tactic to prevent any future uprisings in newly acquired lands, the same was done to the Bulgarian aristocracy a century earlier. He organises Rascia and Duklja into the Theme of Serbia. The Catholic Archbishop of Bar Ilija attempts to reach an agreement on recognising privileges of the coastal cities in former Duklja with the Emperor, who was de jure his nominal overlord for centuries, but is turned down. Archbishop Ilija rises up in arms in 1134 and takes the entire, predominantly Catholic, coast between Travunia and Bar with him. He asks for protection from the Pope, Croatia and Venice.
 * 22) Vladimir proclaims Pribko Praska as the Ban of Croatia in 1135 and grants him the viceroyal possessions in Lika. This coupled with his position in Bosnia elevates Pribko to being the most powerful feudal lord in Croatia. Vladimir also marries Pribko's daughter Agata. The Catholic city of Dubrovnik swears fealty to Vladimir in an act of defiance to Constantinople. Archbishop Ilija does the same. Croatian and Byzantine armies clash in an indecisive battle at the Morača Canyon, sometime in 1136.
 * 23) By 1137, in Hungary Boris Kalamanos's forces make slow gains against Bela. However, since the defeat of Boleslaus and the death of Ivan, his position has been weakened. Leopold returns to Austria but leaves 4000 of his men with Bela, who marches upon Croatian-held Pecs. Learning this Vladimir sends Ban Praska to aid the occupying forces and sends word to Kalamanos of the upcoming attack.
 * 24) Both Pribko and Boris arrive at Pecs in early September of 1137, while a 5000 strong Cuman force arrives from the east and joins Bela who marches from the north. With both armies numbering around 10,000 men, battle is joined on the 25th of September at Zengo Mountain, north of Pecs. The battle lasts for almost an entire day, with the Cumans attempting five failed encirclements. The battle ends when a group of Russian bogatyrs captures Bela the Blind in a charge on his vanguard. Bela and his wife Helen are promptly executed.
 * 25) Boris Kalamanos, his wife and two sons convert from Eastern Orthodoxy to Roman Catholicism in the immediate aftermath of the battle, which angers the Byzantines. Negotiations are called in Szekesfehervar in December, where Emperor John demands that all of Wallachia be handed over to him, which Boris accepts. John and Vladimir reach an agreement, by which Vladimir accepts the Byzantine annexation of Serbia, in exchange for the Byzantines accepting his rule over Dubrovnik, Travunia, the Bay of Kotor and Bar. Boris also gives off to Croatia the Međimurje region, strategically important parts of southern Baranja, south of Pecs, the Vlco county and parts of Syrmium, a border which mostly stands up until today. Vladimir is quick to fortify his new gains.
 * 26) Boris Kalamanos is crowned as the King of Hungary on the 20th of December 1137.
 * 27) Emperor John II launches an invasion into Cuman-held Wallachia and Moldavia and defeats the Cumans at the Battle of Dniester River in late 1138, annexing the regions. He organises Wallachia into the Theme of Dacia Superior and Moldavia into the Theme of Dacia Inferior.
 * 28) A son is born to Vladimir and Agata, named Vladimir, in 1139.
 * 29) Vladimir spends the majority of the 1140's in building churches and towns and granting lands to nobles. German settlers start arriving in the eastern and southern Catholic kingdoms, beginning the Ostsiedlung.
 * 30) Atabeg Zengi captures the capital of the Crusader County of Edessa on the 24th of December 1144, prompting the Pope Eugene III to call the Second Crusade a year later. Some minor Croatian nobles participate in the Crusade, but it fails to recover Edessa. Afonso I of Portugal and an army of English Crusaders capture Lisbon from the Taifa of Badajoz  on the 25th of October 1147.
 * 31) Vladimir of Croatia proclaims the Edict of Novograd in 1148, allowing Jews to freely practice their faith in Croatia, but prohibits proselytization and conversions to Judaism on pain of death. Boris of Hungary declares a similar law for his realm a year later.

1150-1200

 * 1) The University of Sorbonne in Paris is founded in 1150.
 * 2) At the request of Croatia's true ruler Ban Praska, King Vladimir of starts to enforce contemporary mainstream Catholic doctrine among the clergy and population in mountainous rural parts of central and eastern Bosnia, where the Church hierarchy is almost non-existent and both the clergy and the people practice an archaic version of Catholicism, mixed with pre-Christian folk beliefs, in what they call the Church of Bosnia, while calling themselves dobri krstjani - meaning Good Christians. Several mass executions of the priests of the Bosnian Church occur in the first half of the 1150's.
 * 3) Boris I of Hungary dies in 1155 and his son Constantine succeeds him.
 * 4) Vladimir puts down several small-scale rebellions of the Bosnian Church adherents between 1156 and 1159.
 * 5) Pribko Praska dies on December 23, 1159.
 * 6) Rolando Bandinelli of Siena is elected Pope Alexander III on September 7, 1159. Victor IV is elected Antipope by the Ghibelline faction in Italy in 1159, thus beginning over two decades of antipopes against Alexander.
 * 7) A massive armed rebellion, led by the Djed - the head of the Bosnian Church, Radoslav, erupts in early 1160. The rebels take control of Vrhbosna, Hodidjed, as well as parts of Podrinje and Pliva. King Vladimir meets the rebels in the Lašva Valley, in April 1160. In the subsequent poorly-documented battle King Vladimir is killed fighting and the rebels manage to chase away the royal forces out of much of Bosnia, with part of the local nobility joining them. Only Borić, a noble with lands on both the Bosnian and Slavonian side of the Sava river remains in Bosnia, as a loyalist.
 * 8) Vladimir's son, also named Vladimir (22), is hastily crowned as Vladimir II in January of 1161. Immediately the Council of Nobles, calling itself the Sabor for the first time in history (which is still the name of the Croatian Parliament), asks Pope Alexander III for assistance, who sends funds and calls for a small-scale Crusade against the Bosnian Church. Meanwhile, Radoslav, now titling himself as Djed and Protector of Bosnia and Donji Kraji, defeats a Byzantine incursion force near what would later be Srebrenica. In 1162 the Krstjani army conquers northern Zahumlje and nears the coast.
 * 9) Temujin is born to Khan Yesugei of the Borjigin clan and his wife Hoelun.
 * 10) Up to a thousand German and Italian Crusaders reach Split by the beginning of 1163 and a force, under the command of Lord Juraj of Krbava and Lord Bogdan Šubić, marches its way toward Bosnia. They defeat a Krstjani army at the Battle of the Gates of Kupres and manage to regain small parts of Donji Kraji and Zahumlje, but are unable to break the well organized defence of the Krstjani core area in central Bosnia. Djed Radoslav successfully takes back most of Zahumlje by the end of 1164, almost reaching the sea.
 * 11) Lord Juraj of Krbava is killed at the Battle of Čelebić, during a Krstjani raid. By 1169 the Bosnian Crusade is an utter failure, the only true success being that Borić manages to hold on to the entirety of the Bosnian side of Posavina. For this he is named Ban of Bosnia, since all the male members of the Praska family are dead, but this means little, given the Krstjani control of Bosnia.
 * 12) Vladimir II marries Marija, daughter of Hranislav, a minor noble from the Varaždin county, which angers the upper-classes of the nobility, in 1171. Marija soon gives birth to a daughter Elizabeta and in 1173 to a son Aleksandar, named after the Pope.
 * 13) Saladin deposes the Fatimid Caliphate in 1174, following the death of al-Adid, and proclaims himself as Sultan, thus returning Egypt to Sunni rule.
 * 14) Djed Radoslav sends a letter to the Pope in 1175, calling him the Antichrist and himself the New Apostle. The Pope calls a new crusade, but to no avail, since the turn-out is minimal.
 * 15) The Seljuk Sultan of Rum Kilij Arslan II defeats the forces of Byzantine Emperor Manuel I at the battle of Myriokephalon, on September 17, 1176, forever ending the Greek hopes of recovering the interior of Anatolia.
 * 16) Vladimir II leads a small army into Zahumlje in 1178, but is badly wounded by the rebels near Mount Hum and retreats home, barely surviving the wound.
 * 17) In an interesting turn of events both Pope Alexander III and Djed Radoslav die during the course of 1181. The Krstjani leadership elects a man called Voleša as the new Djed.
 * 18) Vladimir II mobilizes and meets with the forces of Borić's son Kulin near the soutern edge of the Vrbas river. They march deep into Krstjani territory and engage the rebels at the Battle of Mount Vlašić, on the 5th of August 1182. Djed Voleša dies during the battle, and without their leader the rebels scatter. The royal forces take back control of Bosnia and Zahumlje in a matter of months. The Krstjani State, which survived thanks to Radoslavs' genious and charisma, dissapears over night. Vladimir II starts a decades long proccess of emposing, both violently and non-violently, mainstream Catholicism in the region.
 * 19) Since his father died in 1180, Kulin is rewarded for his services as the new Ban of Bosnia.
 * 20) Croatia begins to grow more rapidly due to maritime trade in the final decades of the 12th century and in the north of the country the city of Zagreb starts to play a more prominent role, due to its proximity to the HRE.
 * 21) The Ayyubid-Jerusalemite War starts in 1182.
 * 22) King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem dies from leprosy at the age of 24, on the 16th of March, 1185. His sister Sybilla crowns her son as Baldwin V, but as the child dies (also of leprosy) a year later, she and her husband Guy de Lusignan crown themselves as co-monarchs.
 * 23) The dramatic events of 11 September 1185 take place and Andrionikos I is deposed and later killed, while Isaac II is crowned as the new Byzantine Emperor, thus ending the Komnenian and starting the Angeloi rule over the Eastern Roman Empire.
 * 24) The Battle of Hattin and the Siege of Jerusalem play out as in the OTL and the Ayyubid Sultanate conquers the Holy City and most of Palestine.
 * 25) The Third Crusade is called in 1189 and Vladimir's younger brother Vladislav joins Emperor Barbarossa, Richard I and Philip II in the war, bringing around 500 men with himself.
 * 26) Vladimir II dies, at the age of 52, in 1191, after rulling Croatia for 30 years. His son Aleksandar (18) is crowned as King by the end of the year.
 * 27) The Third Crusade manages to retake some territory back, but fails to capture Jerusalem, thus ending in 1192. Saladin dies a year later.
 * 28) Alexios Angelos deposes his brother and crowns himself as Alexios III in March 1195, beginning a string of events that would change the face of Europe dramatically.
 * 29) Ninac Vukosalić, a minor Serbian noble, arrives at the court of Aleksandar I in Split, fleeing Empreror Alexios III, since he vocalised his dissatisfication with the recent coup. He soon becomes a confidant of the young King.
 * 30) Lotario dei Conti di Segni ascends to the Papacy as Pope Innocent III n January 1198, immediately issuing the Papal bull Post Miserabile, calling for a fourth Crusade to drive the Muslims out of the Holy Land. Aleksandar I immediatley responds by promising to go on Crusade personally.
 * 31) Aleksandar marries Beatrice, daughter of Boniface I of Montferrat in 1199.

The Fourth Crusade

 * 1) Aleksandar's first son Grgur is born in July, 1200.
 * 2) Sometime in 1200 Dobromir, called Chrysos by the Greeks, a noble of mixed Bulgarian-Vlach origin, rulling over Prosek, marries Theodora Angelina, granddaughter of Alexios III.
 * 3) Two Pisan merchants are hired by the Germans and they manage to secretly break Alexios Angelos, son of the deposed Isaac, from Constantinople and bring him to the HRE, to the court of his cousin Philip of Swabia, King of Germany. Aleksandar I starts to plot plans to take advantage of the Crusades to expand upon Byzantine territory, under the pretext of restoring Isaac to the throne.
 * 4) Aleksandar learns of the Venetian plan to use the Crusade (since they struck a deal with the Pope to transport the Crusaders to Palestine) to counqer parts of his domain on the Adriatic, which obviously interfires with his own plans to use the Crusades. He decides to negotiate and in 1202 invites the leaders of the Crusaders, namley his father-in-law Bonafice, Count Baldwin of Flanders and the Venetian Doge Enrico Dandolo, Papal emmisaries, Hungarian King Constantine II (son of Constantine I and grandson of Boris), as well as Alexios Angelos, to the city of Zadar, to attempt to find a mutually agreeable solution to the progress of the Crusade, as it was obvious that  the Crusade did not have enough men to reach, let alone retake the Holy Land and that it was in danger of ending before it even begane, since the two main Catholic realms directly participating - Croatia and Venice, were at odds with each other.
 * 5) In Zadar the Catholics agree to restore Isaac to the throne, but under the condition that the Empire stands at full disposal to the Crusade in the quest to retake the Holy Land, and that Croatia may take the lands north of the Ohrid Lake, that Hungary may take Bulgaria, Wallachia and Moldavia, that Venice is to receive all the Aegean Islands and the lion's share of the Empire's Anatolian lands and that Alexios and his father may continue to reign in Greece and Thrace, but they must accept the supreme authority of Rome over the Greek Orthodox Church, or in other words reverse the effects of the Great Schism of 1054.  A desperate young Alexios agrees, despite the abysmal anti-Byzantine conditions of the deal. Boniface is elected as the primus inter pares of the Crusade leaders.
 * 6) The Pope approves of the plan, but demands that the leaders of the Crusade make an oath to sail directly on the Ayyubid capital Cairo, after the Byzantine Empire is put under Latin control, which they agree to.
 * 7) On October 23 the majority of the Crusading forces (20,000 - 25,000) set sail from Venice toward Greece, led by Doge Enrico Dandolo, who, despite being in his nineties and blind, joins the Crusade personally.
 * 8) Constantine II assembles a large force of almost 15,000 men and on December 4 marches south toward Belgrade, besieging the city on the 25th. Another Hungarian army crosses the Carpathians into Wallachia some weeks later.
 * 9) King Aleksandar I assembles a 7000 men-strong army and besieges Ras on January 9, 1203. Meanwhile another, smaller Croatian army, led by Count Grgur Šubić of Bribir, besieges Shkoder from the south.
 * 10) Alexios III marches ahead of 10,000 men toward Belgrade to face the Hungarians, while ordering his son-in-law Theodore Laskaris to organise the defence of the capital, Andrianople, Nicaea and Thessaloniki.
 * 11) On March 3 the Crusading fleet blocks the port of Durres and occupies the city in a matter of days, since its defences were in bad condition. Some 200 Venetian soldiers are left to garrison the city and to take control of the surrounding coast and countryside, while the rest of the fleet continued moving south, determent to reach Constantinople by summer. The army of Grgur Šubić counqers Shkoder on the 5th.
 * 12) Theodore Laskaris sends word to the Bulgarian aristocrats that the emperor had ordered a full mobilisation, but receives no response.
 * 13) The Byznatine forces pull out of Moldavia, due to large-scale raids by Cuman warbands, who attempt to take advantage of the Catholic agression to restore their rule over the Romanian lands.
 * 14) Alexios III arrives at Belgrade on the 10th of March and battle is joined. At first the Byzantine light cavalry (comprised mostly of Christianised or mercenary Turkmen) deals heavy blows to the Hungarian infantry, with a arrow narrowly missing Constantine II. The small Byzantine garrison of Belgrade attempts to sally out, but is utterly crushed by the Hungarian vanguard. Next the Hungarian heavy infantry spearmen and dismounted knights push foward to the Byzantine lines, dealing punishing blows, which compels the Emperor to ride out with his Cataphracts to disrupt the lines of the Hungarian infantry. This proves to be a fatal mistake. The Hungarian knights, still disengaged from the battle, ride forth and encircle the Imperial cavalry. In the subsequent fray the Byzantine Emperor is struck in the face by a lance and killed on the spot. The Hungarian knights mount his head on top of a spear and seeing this the Byzantine army starts to flee in a panicked rout. At the end of the day, most of the Byzantine force is either killed, captured or has fled and a victorious Constantine II marches into Belgrade, mounting the head of Alexios III atop its main gate. Two days later Ras falls and Aleksandar marches forth toward his next target, Niš, where Constantine also send word to meet him. The city surrenders without bloodshed to the two kings as soon as their armies arrive before its walls.
 * 15) News of the Emperor's death spreads like wild-fire and the Byzantine Empire falls into a state of chaotic disintegration. Theodore Laskaris hastly has the Patriarch John X Kamateros crown him as Emperor, but it is too late. The Crusaders reach Constantinople on June 11, 1203. The Byzantine fleet, which had due to Alexios III's mistreatment, dwindeled to a miserable 20 ships is soundly defeated and the city is put under siege. Theodore Laskaris attempts to stand his ground against an army twice the size of his own. The Hungarian army in Wallachia takes the last Byzantine forts by early July and marches northeast, toward Cuman-ravaged Moldavia. The Hungarian king leaves his Croatian counterpart in Niš and hurries northward to join his men.
 * 16) Aleksandar I spends most of June in Niš, awaiting the forces of Count Šubić and Lord Ninac Vukosalić. After they arrive, the Croatian army, now at its full strength of about 10,000 men, marches toward Skopje, entering Macedonia around the end of July.
 * 17) On the 30th of July the Crusaders manage to breach the Theodosian walls on the south side and in a couple of hours that part of the city is so firmly under their control that the old Doge Dandolo feels safe enough to ride inside, holding the Venetian flag.
 * 18) That night Theodore Laskaris, his family, Patriarch John X and most of the Varangian Guard flee the city in boats to the Asian side of the Bosporus and escape toward Nicaea, to attempt to organise resistance there.
 * 19) The next day the blinded Isaac II is released from prison and restored to his throne and his young son Alexios is crowned as his co-emperor Alexios IV. Also a pro-Isaac supporter Alexios Doukas Mourtzouphlos is released from prison and proclaimed their imperial chamberlain. The Russian city of Tmutarakan, a client of the Byzantines, breaks off from the Empire's nominal supremacy sometime during the summer.
 * 20) As soon as the news of Isaac's restoration reaches Bulgaria, Dobromir Chrysos, the brothers Ivan and Theodore Asen and most of the Bulgarian nobility meet in Tarnovo and on the 25th of August, they crown Dobromir as the Emperor of the restored Bulgarian Empire, under the name Petar-Dobromir II. Five days later the Croatian army occupies Skopje.
 * 21) The Crusaders started to negotiate the operational terms of the fufillment of the Treaty of Zadar. However, by the end of August riots broke out in the city, which lasted for months. Even worse, most of the reminder of the Byzantine territory in Europe refused to recognise the Latin occupation and either sweared loyality to the Laskaris regime in Nicaea or discarded the last few decades as being usurpatory and sweared by the young Alexios Megas Komnenos, grandson of the long deposed Emperor Andrionikos Komnenos, who was living in exile in Georgia.
 * 22) The Croatian army occupied Petar-Dobromir's castle of Prosek in mid-November, since the fledgling Bulgarian state was too weak to respond and had to consolidate itself.
 * 23) On December 12, Constantine II of Hungary faced a large Cuman army near what is today Balti, on the Raut River. The contemporary accounts of the battle are scarce, but it was a decisive Hungarian victory and Constantine II chased the crushed Cuman army all the way to the Souther Buh River, which he established as the new eastern border of the Kingdom of Hungary. This defeat marked the definitive end of the Cuman power in Eastern Europe. With the lands west of Buh counqered, this saw the restoration of Hungarian rule in a large part of the Etelkoz, the Magyar homeland before their migration over the Carpathians, centuries ago.
 * 24) Aleksandar rewards his servant Ninac Vukosalić, who had converted to Catholicism years ago, with the hereditary title of Ban of Serbia and grants him Niš as his seat.
 * 25) The anti-Catholic riots in Constantinople reach their zenith in the January of 1204 and Alexios Doukas Mourtzouphlos takes advantage of the unpopularity of the two Emperors and imprisons them in the Imperial palace. Emperor Isaac II dies of shock on January 25 and Alexios IV is strangled a few day later and Alexios Dukas proclaims himself as Emperor Alexios V on 5 February. As a consequence the Crusaders declare war and withdraw to their camp and fleet outside the city, deciding to take Constantinople outright. Learning of this new development both Hungary and Croatia send several thousand of their men by boat, via the newly acquired Hungarian Black Sea coast, to aid their fellow Crusaders in taking the city.
 * 26) A Hungarian army besieges Tarnovo on February 2, 1204. While this siege is lifted several weeks later, a larger Hungarian force manages to defeat the Bulgarian army at the Danube Delta, on March 15 and in a matter of days occupy the mayjority of the modern-day Dobruja region, securing a, for Hungary vital, larger Black Sea coast. Aftherwards, Kings Aleksandar and Constantine meet in Pecs to disscus the Bulgarian issue.
 * 27) The Knights Templar organise a several thousand strong force in Germany, that begins to march toward the Greek war-zone in mid-March, determined to continue the Crusade further east against the Muslims after Byzantium is taken care of.
 * 28) With the Hungarian fleet (mostly composed of mercenary Rus' ships from Tmutarakan) approaching the city in early April, Enrico Dandolo orders massive attacks on the Theodosian walls on the 8th of April, which intensify the following day as the Hungarians and Croatians land on shore, led by Slavogost Vinihić, the Master of the Hunt of the Croatian court and Budur Perneszy, a Hungarian noble. Alexios V attempts to negotiate with the Doge, but this falls on deaf ears.
 * 29) On April 12 the Crusading armies launch a massive attack on the northwest segment of the walls, breaching them and capturing the Belchernae district. Alexios V attempts to flee from the city, but is captured by Hungarian soldiers and promptly executed. Thus Constantinople, the Queen of Cities, comes under Catholic control.
 * 30) A brutal pillage of the city occurs, with murders and rapes being rampant. Doge Enrico Dandolo orders that the four bronze statues of horses from the Hippodrome be taken to Venice and displayed before the Basilica of Saint Mark, wich became one of the symbollic reminders of the Fourth Crusade.
 * 31) Word of the fall of Constantinople spreads like wildfire. Several days after the siege, Alexios Komnenos captures the Black Coast city of Trebizond and it's surrounding area, with troops provided by his relative, Queen Tamar of Georgia, where he immediatley proclaims himself as the Emperor. Pope Innocent III makes his way to Constantinople, to oversee the division of the Byzantine Empire and the establishment of ecclesiastical control over the Eastern Church.
 * 32) Kings Aleksandar and Constantine launch a massive attack on Bulgaria by the end of April, determined to split the relam bettwen themselves. Eventough the Bulgarians manage to win several small victories, by early June the two kings are at the gates of Tarnovo, putting the city under siege once more. Howeaver the city is well defended, with both the Emperor and the Asen brothers, his strongest vassals, within it's walls, togeather with the bulk of their armies. Supply rutes for the attackers are also insecure.
 * 33) Boniface I aims at becoming Emperor, but the Venetians are unsupportive of this, since they feared he would have too much power, preffering the Crusade's second leader Balduin of Flanders. Since Boniface is supported by the Croatians (being the father-in-law of Aleksandar), the situation in the city bettwen the various Crusaders becomes rather tense, making the Pope's early arrival paramount.
 * 34) The Pope arrives in Constantinople and by early September the Partitio terrarum imperii Romaniae is signed, by the Pope, Doge Enrico Dandolo, Balduin of Flanders, Boniface of Montferrat and Slavogost Vinihić and Budur Perneszy representing the Croatian and Hungarian crowns, respectivley. The treaty partitions the Eastern Roman Empire amongst the Crusaders so that Balduin is crowned as the Emperor of the new Latin Roman Empire, with Boniface recieving the title of the King of Thesallonica, as a vassal of Balduin, with the new Imperial borders being most of Greece, except the south of Morea and northern Epirus, as well as the northern half of the Anatolian part of the Empire, currently ruled by Theodore Laskaris, Venice recieves Crete, two-thirds of the Ionian island, Durres, the southern part of Morea and the souther half of the Anatolian territories of the Empire, wich would in both of the above cases need to be taken from the Laskaris regime in Nicaea, while Croatia and Hungary recieve that wich tey managed to counqer during the war, meaning that Croatia recieves Serbia, norther Epirus, most of western and northern Macedonia, while Hungary recieves the Romanian lands and Dobruja. Bulgaria is not mentioned in the treaty, as it is left to Croatia and Hungary to be split. A Venetian sub-deacon Tommaso Morosini is proclaimed as the first Latin Patriarch of Constantinople and he begins to work to assert control over the Greek clergy. The signatories agree to immediatley continue the war to destroy the Laskaris regime. Some days later the Templar-led German force enters Constantinople and joins in the preparations to march upon Nicaea.
 * 35) The siege of Tarnovo lasts well into October and without adequate supplies the Croatians and Hungarians decide to start negotiating with Petar-Dobromir. Since the Latin Empire already took some portions of souther Bulgaria in September, the Bulgarian Emperor sees no other option but to parlay. The Treaty of Tarnovo is singed on November 3. In the treaty Petar-Dobromir agrees to recognise the new political reality, as presented in the Partitio terrarum and, most importantly, convert his relam to Catholicism, wich is agreed upon by the Bulgarian aristocracy and clergy. Bulgaria also agrees to pay a heafty sum each year to both Hungary and Croatia, as tribute. In return, Petar-Dobromir keeps his throne as a independant ruler. A French priest by the name of Stephen Archambault becomes the first Archbishop of Tarnovo and all of Bulgaria. Eventough the treaty (and Western European diplomacy from then on) reffers to Petar-Dobromir as king, he and his succesors never cease to call themselves Emperors.
 * 36) King Bonface of Thessalonica his son-in-law King Aleksandar begin taking control of the parts of Greece promised to them by the Partitio terrarum. Their effort is hardened by the rebellion of Michael Komennos Doukas, a distand descendant of the Byzantine emperors, who had previously been in Boniface's service. Michael had himself proclaimed the Despot of Epirus and had developed a notorious reputation in the few months of his rebellion, most notably by crucifying Catholic prisoners. Howeaver after some minor battles, the Croatian and Thessalonican armies arrive at Michael's capital Arta and in a subsequent shorth siege the fortress is captured and Michael is executed. The reminder of the Greek rebels are defeated by the end of summer 1205.
 * 37) Meanwhile preparations for the attack on Nicaea are being too slow. Emperor Balduin is fearfull for his throne, since on one hand he is crucially supported by the Venetians and has a semi-independent vassal in Boniface, but is unwilling to empower either side too much. The Templar forces, eager to secure their own interest in the new Latin Empire, are also putting a great deal of pressure on the Emperor to strike as soon as possible. On the other hand, Theodore Laskaris is on uneasy grounds, as the Seljuk Sultan Kaykhusraw managed to depose his brother (who had previously deposed him) and return to the thorne in Konya, as well as the fact that he had a rival claimant to the Imperial throne in Trebizond, as well as the fact that the newly restored Sultan gave Manuel Maurozomes, a former Caesar of the Byzantine court, lands in Phrygia, so Laskaris begane secret negotiations with Manuel.
 * 38) Balduin proclaims Thierry de Loos as the Duke of Nicomedia and orders him to start to organise the front against the Nicaean Empire, sometime in late 1205/early 1206.
 * 39) Temujin defeats his rivals and unites all of the Mongol clans into a single polity and is thus proclaimed as Genghis Khan in 1206 and the vast hordes of the Mongolian steppes stand poised to ravage Asia and Europe, the first victim being the Western Xia Empire.