Timeline 1280-1290 (Interference)

1286

Northern Europe: The Geats of Gothia defeat the Danes at Lund and oust them from most of Scania.

British isles: When Rhodri II Saesnig passes out leaving two sons to rule a divided and vassalized Wales, king Amalric III of England frees from prisony also Dafydd III's heirs, both males and females, granting them lands taken from the “legitimate” rulers. Wales in thus divided in no less than seven weak principalities under strict English tutelage, and rival to each other.

Southern Europe, Central-Eastern Europe: Meinhard IV of Gurizberg (*OTL Gorizia), Tyrol, Styria and Carinthia officially assumes the title of prince of Lurngau, from his ancestors' first possession, a valley fief in Carinthia, adding furthermore to his already long style the title of Lord Protector of the Patria of Friul.

Byzantine Empire: The Kirikkale Batiturks led by sultan Nasreddin Mawdud Khusrau conquer Kotiaion (Cotyaeum, *OTL Kütahya) (western Anatolia), a major Byzantine stronghold.

Byzantium indirectly recognizes Ivailo as Czar of Bulgaria giving him a lesser noblewoman as “legitimate” bride. In an attempt to bridge the gap between the Jeremite and Stemmarioi factions in the Orthodox Church, basileus Arsenius I Constantine insists however that the Bulgarian Church must remain under Constantinople as jurisdiction.

Middle East: The Myriamites of Palestine seize Tyre. The last remaining Christian strongholds in the southern Levant are now Acre (under the Knights Hospitaller of St.John), Jaffa and nearby Atlit (Western imperial possessions) and Byblos/Jubayl (Genoese); in the north the Templars, solidly tied to Armenia Minor despite the confessional differences, still valiantly hold Antioch and a thriving hinterland in coastal and inner Syria.

Far East: A second Mongol-Korean army led by Temür Öljeytü, Kublai's favorite grandson and likely successor, invades Honshu. As a smaller decoy force lands on Shikoku and devastates the island, the main invading army does not attack straight from Kyushu, as expected by the Japanese, but lands instead in Wakasa province, on the western coast, to march directly against Kyoto and seize the imperial capital. After annihilating early opposition at Obama, the main Mongol army advances to storm and burn Kyoto, as the imperial family takes refuge north in Kamakura. The Japanese however don't panic: Taira Yoritsuna recalls his huge army back from the Chūgoku (SW Honshu). The decisive clash happens at Nagaoka and, despite Mongol-Korean superiority in both cavalry and artillery, the Japanese samurais are helped by the difficult terrain and are victorious when Temür Öljeytü is wounded and the invaders panic, to be slaughtered in droves around lake Biwa during their flight to the ships. Of some 80,000 men sent to crush Japan, no more than 30,000, mostly Mongols, come back alive along with their appointed future ruler.

SE Asia: The Lao kingdom of Muang Sua (*Luang Prabang) along the middle Mekong accepts Yuan (Mongol) suzerainty.

1287 British Isles: King Peter I of Northumbria dies; his brother Amalric III of England swiftly enthrones in Yorwich (*OTL York) his own first son and heir, Edwin, instead of Peter's infant son Simon, who is brought at court in London and will later be made duke of Cornwall. The Sussex port of Old Winchelsea, one of the most important of England, is devastated by a storm and submerged by rising tides.

Northern Europe: A devastating ocean surge during a major storm (popularly known as “Nogai's wrath”) kills at least 50,000, breaching the dikes and creating the Zuiderzee from the shallow lakes and marshes dividing Holland proper from Frisia. The disaster, of a monstruous scale, is attributed by commoners and clergy alike to Nogai Khan calling the devil to punish the untamed Frisians and Dutch.

Southern Europe: In Venice the fabrication of spectacles (eyeglasses) is recorded for the first time. Trieste rises against Venetian domination, which was ruining the town trade; this reignites conflicts and rebellions throughout Istria and Friul.

Black Africa: Solomon Massanjaay, son of a Maurian Zenete commander and a Wolof Christian princess, founds the kingdom of Waalo with capital at Njaréem (*OTL Diurbel), on the north bank of the Senegal river.

Central-Eastern Europe: Alberico/Erberek I Attila of Hungary dies, to be succeeded by Nogai's favorite among his sons, Stephen VI; his brothers are beheaded at the Berestian court to ensure no infighting for the vassal kingdom – except one, Géza, kept alive to ensure a cautious loyalty from the new ruler. Töle Buqa/Telabuga, young great-grandson of Batu Khan and the newly elected khan of the Blue Horde, the western wing of the Golden Horde, invades Berestia with a strong army, torching White Ruthenia, Galicia and the heart of Poland; only Lviv/Lemberg, Brasta/Berestye (*Brest-Litovsk) and Cracow resist his armies. When Hungarian, Bohemian and Lithuanian reinforcements come to the rescue, Nogai is eventually able to repel the invasion. Genoa buys the port and fortress of Soldaia/Sudak (Taurida [*OTL Crimea]) from the non-seafaring Golden Horde Mongols.

Southern Europe, Byzantine Empire: A Venetian fleet suffers a bad defeat off Leuca (Apulia) against a rival armada of Genoese, Barese and Byzantine vessels; the Byzantine Greek Fire still proves a dreadful weapon after centuries. The remaining Venetian fortresses on Crete are forced into yielding and become a Byzantine-Genoese condominium. Byzantine Empire: William I of Athens tries to regain Morea/Peloponnesus from the local Batiturk marauders, but he's routed in battle at St. Basil (Agios Vasileios) and narrowly saves his own skin.

Caucasus: King Velizari I of (eastern) Iberia/Georgia, who had turned to the Yalikid Kurds and the Golden Horde for alliance, smashes an Ilkhanid force at the battle of Tsintskaro, freeing the country and gaining an aura of sainthood in the eyes of his countrymen.

SE Asia: When Thihathu, a prince of Pagan, murders his father Narathihapate who had humiliated the country by repeatedly losing in war, fleeing from the Mongols and offering submission, Kublai Khan's armies, again led by Temür Öljeytü, conquer and sack the Burmese capital. This costly victory de facto overthrows the Burmese kingdom, already worn out by Shan pressure. The Mongol puppet Kyawswa, one of Thihathu's many step-brothers, won't be able to exert much authority, as his domain splinters in successor states tributary to the Great Khan, among them a reborn Mon kingdom at Martaban and Pegu. The two great kings of the Thai people, Mengrai of Lanna and Ramkhamaeng of Sukhothai, strike a peace deal, defining the boundaries of their respective domains.

1287-1288

North Africa: Ursinus Felix, a prince of the imperial Ghiffiotto house of Sicily (“Western Rome”), leads what counts as the Eighth Crusade – considering, as it was customary, as a Crusade the expedition to Lombardy against the Mongols. The imperial fleet recaptures Alexandria from Venice without a fight, then 25,000 men swarm to defend the castles of the Delta against the double onslaught of both the Muslim Mameluks from the sultanate of Marisia and the Myriamites of Palestine. The Crusader forces, too dispersed, is smashed separately in battle by the Myriamites at the battle of Aggiaggia (al-Hajjajiyah) and by the Mameluks near Tanta, where Ursinus falls on the battlefield. The Delta falls to the invaders, and if Alexandria, Rosetta, Damietta and some other isolated castles, usually defendend by Templars, still hold, is only because of infighting between Mameluks and Myriamites.

Byzantine Empire: Melitene (*OTL Malatya), a major stronghold of the Akrite Order, falls to a siege from the Yalikid Kurds and Turks. The humiliated knights have to cede the fortress and pay tribute.

SE Asia: A huge Mongol army invades and devastates Dai Viet (*OTL northern Vietnam), but proves unable to conquer and hold it, being harassed by guerrilla to the point of having to abandon the country after suffering a disastrous defeat at the Bach Dang river against the forces of the genial Trần Hưng Đạo, a member of the royal Trân clan.

1287-1291

Far East: The Japanese, at a very high price, manage to exterminate or expel the Mongol-Korean forces still controlling Shikoku and Kyushu. Their navy, unsuited to high seas but invincible in the waters of the Inland Sea, gains a stunning victory over a powerful Korean relief fleet off Shono Point, ensuring the final success.

1287-1292

Northern Hesperia (*OTL America): Chased south by the Hesperian Norsemen and their native allies, the feudal knights came from Europe open their way in fierce struggles against local Hesperian tribes (Bennevaskat [*OTL Penobscot], Massakjaset [*OTL Massachusett], Bennekök [*OTL Pennacook or Pawtucket], Vabenag [*OTL Wampanoag]), who are mostly subdued in serfdom. They manage to establish the county of New Palestine (*OTL coastal areas of Massachussets, New Hampshire and Maine), choosing as their elected leader the Anglo-Norman Cassian FitzRobert Martel, by mother's side a descendant of William the Conqueror. 1287-1296

Southern Europe: Paganello da Sassoleone, a mountain lord in the Apennines, tries his bid for supremacy in central Emilia, intermittently getting the lordship of equivalent high charges at Bologna, Imola, Faenza and Forlì against rival families, beofre ending up murdered.

1288 British Isles: Guy the Reckless, a brother of king Amalric III of England, tries his fortune in Ireland. After early successes he manages to be recognized as overlord of the Siennories (southern Ireland), but when he tries to subdue the entire island with an insufficient army he is confronted by an alliance between the Maddox earls of Dublin and the native Irish and Irish-Norman chieftains. Betrayed even by most of the Siennories lords, Guy is eventually slain in battle along the Shannon river.

Northern Europe: A four-sided conflict for the control of the rich trade emporium of Visby on Gotland explodes between the Hanseatic towns, the rival crowns of Sweden and Gothia (kingdom of the Geats) and the Teutonic Order. The Hansa traders prevail by force of arms for the control of the town and port, but the Teutonic pirates hold much of the island, making the Baltic highly hazardous for trade vessels.

Northern Europe, Western Europe: King Louis III of Lower Lorraine, after years spent in the vain attempt of dislodging the Ograinese from Champagne, where they form a seminomad aristocracy still loyal to Nogai Khan of Berestia, turns to the east. He wrests from the remains of what was Luxemburg the lands of Limburg before they could be entrusted to count Frederick I of Guelders/Gelderland.

Southern Europe: Pisa stages a coup in the Sardinian judicate of Gallura to overthrow young judge (king) Giovanni, a Montferrat scion. A few weeks later, Genoa inflicts a crushing, decisive naval defeat upon her Pisan archenemies in the naval Battle of Bastia, recaptures Bastia and Bonifacio, reaffirms its overlordship in Corsica and imposes a dominating influence over western Sardinia. Pisa, deprived of much of her previous trade, is now increasingly under pressure also on the land front, harassed by nearby Lucca and Siena.

Central-Eastern Europe: Lorànd Borsa is crowned by his rebel army, already victorious against the Mongols, as the independent voivod of Erdelia/Transylvania.

Southern Europe, Byzantine Empire: Dragomir I Tigomiritzes, the ruler of Mikrovlakia (*OTL Slavic Macedonia), allies with Czar Ivailo of Bulgaria against the resurgent Serbians who attacked his domains. Prince Mihailo, son of king Stefan Vladislav II of Albania, defeats a Byzantine-Turcopolian army at Berat, ensuring the independence of the country.

East Africa: Solomon Yagbe'u Seyon, the Coptic Christian emperor of Ethiopia, to avenge the forced circumcision of one of his bishops, attacks the sultanate of Adal and conquers its capital, the port of Zeila/Saylac, making it its easternmost province.

1289 

Western Europe: Queen Lucie of Aquitaine/Occitania flees Limoges heading for the Pyrenaic fortresses of her husband Peyre Berenger of Fois (*OTL Foix) as the city falls to the forces of the League of St.-Arnaud. What remains of Aquitaine is carved up between local powers, foremost the sea-trading republic of Bordeaux, friendly to the Arnaldists but independent, and the duchy of Gascony.

The Ograinese (Kipchak raiders dwelling in Lorraine and Champagne) exterminate the rebellious inhabitants of Montbéliard; the town is soon taken over by Rudolph I of Habsburg-Alamannia and resettled by German-speaking colonists as Mömpelgard.

Southern Europe: Margrave Obizzo II of Este, already lord of Ferrara and one of the few titulated “rectors” of the Lombard kingdom, is recognized as lord of the rich city of Modena (Emilia). Margrave Giovanni I of Montferrat enforces his lordship over Vercelli. Lodi falls instead under the lordship of Manfredo Pallavicino, already master of Piacenza, Cremona, Tortona, and a much diminished Pavia. The Venetian siege of Trieste is broken when Meinhard IV of Lurngau intervenes with Vlach and Cuman mercenaries and a rebel fleet of Histrians and Croatian pirates.

Central Asia: Turan Shah Ötmish, puppet khan of the Chagatai Khanate for the Moghulistani rulers, is killed and replaced by co-ruling brothers Qara Temüjin Anushirvan and Mirza Sasan Qutlugh, the sons of the late Bahram Shah, propped up by pro-Ilkhanid forces. SE Asia: The so called “three Shan brothers” Athinhkaya, Yazathinkyan and Thihathu, half-brothers of the Mongol puppet Kyawswa of Pagan, establish amidst the ruins of the once powerful Burmese empire the new kingdom of Pinya (central Burma).

1289-1292

Central-Eastern Europe: Nogai Khan appoints a half-Mongol Jewish knight from his personal guard, Elias Gershom, as duke of Sandomir/Sandomierz after the last local mixed-blood Piast dynast died. This angers one of Nogai's sons, Temur Bayan, who thought the duchy was his by right. Temur Bayan and hundreds of followers therefore defect in anger to the Blue Horde. A new phase of war soon begins over the Russian lands; Nogai exacts his long-sought revenge over Töle Buqa/Telabuga of the Blue Horde by having him overthrown and killed by his rival cousin Toqta. This last ruler, however, soon turns against Nogai too, supporting Temur Bayan in his bid for khanship. 1289-1294

Southern Europe: In a daring raid, the Cuman Guard from western Friul (Comagne) “frees” the Patriarch of Aquileia, the Milanese Gregorio Castiglioni, from his “house arrest” at Zividal tal Friul (*OTL Cividale del Friuli) under Lurngau tutelage, extorting as much money as possible from Venice and the Catholic Church under the pretense of restoring the Patriarchal lands. In the end an accord is made, upon which Meinhard grants back the Aquileian Church extensive and exclusive rights over about a half of its former possessions, under his “protection”; to have his longstanding excommunication cancelled by the Papacy, Meinhard also restores the full independence of the count-bishopric of Trient (*OTL Trento). The Cuman Guard, after losing its leader Peter Carmacius killed by treason by the Trevisans, eventually enters the service of the Lurngau dynasts, vowing to renounce its old sacking habits.

1290

Northern Europe: Magnus III Ladulås of Sweden dies, leaving the throne to a young boy, his son Birger I. The young king of Sweden will “reign” under a regency led by his maternal uncle Fredrik Eriksson, a member of the Danish royal family. Fredrik soon has to repel an attempt to recapture the Swedish crown by Valdemar I of Gothia, brother of Magnus and himself an uncle of Birger's. Duke Frederick I of Guelders/Gelderland, who after his unsuccesful boundary disputes with Lower Lorraine had vainly requested support from Nogai Khan, changes side and launches a major revolt against Berestian suzerainty, gaining the immediate allegiance of the Dutch polities, the Frisians, the Hansa and Denmark, plus... his former enemy Philip I of Lower Lorraine. This coalition founds an unexpected ally in the Zehnjahrer, a millenaristic movement, offshoot of Joachimism, which stirs revolt among the German peasantry, announcing the return of Christ and the destruction of the Tartar Antichrist for the year 1300. Nogai, his forces fully committed in Russia against Toqta's Blue Horde, can't fight back as Germany falls into open revolt.

Southern Europe: Siena's militias fare badly in the siege of Florence, losing their bid for regional supremacy. Central-Eastern Europe: King Stephen VI of Hungary finds himself in a most dangerous situation when Nogai Khan of Berestia orders him to quench once and for all the rebellion of Erdelia/Transylvania, and the rebels answer that they would duly obey the king of Hungary, but never the Tartar tyrant. Stephen graciously accepts tribute from the voivodship, but funnels it over to the Mongol khan, in fear of his reaction. The see of the Metropolitan of all Rus of the Orthodox Church is moved from Kiev to the city of Vladimir.

Byzantine Empire: A Byzantine force attempts to regain Thessaly but has to quickly withdraw as the local lords oppose stiff resistance. The Kirikkale Batiturks led their general Osman crush a Byzantine force near Angora, take the strategic fortress and ravage western Asia Minor, causing great shock in Byzantium.

North Africa, Middle East: After taking out in a bloodbath Damietta and Rosetta, the Mameluks of sultan Abdurrahman I the One-Eyed led by his faithful general Bilal Qunduz, with their “black armies” (African levies) and allied Bedouin tribes defeat the Myriamites at the Pelousion branch of the Nile, expelling them from Egypt. In the meantime the renegade Muslims converted to Catholicism have either fled by sea to Armenia Minor, Cyprus or distant Ifrigia (*Later Punia, OTL Tunisia), or have been lynched. The Copts (some 30% of the population), quite glad to see the despised Crusaders ousted, collaborate with the new power and are mostly spared, if heavily taxed.

India: Jaichandra III of Varanasi (Benares) manages to have the role of the Gahadavalas as rulers of Awadh recognized by both the Dharma empire and the Hindustani khanate. He pays tribute to both, as a buffer to avoid further useless conflicts, since the two Indian giants had long proved too much of a fight for each other.

ca. 1290

North Africa: The Judeo-Christian Kel Keris “sand empire” (centered around the Ahaggar mountains) exacts tribute from Kharijite Muslim Fezzan, a former vassal of Kanem.

Caucasus: Mingrelia (SW Iberia/Georgia) becomes an independent principality under George I Dadiani, one of the most powerful lords in the western Caucasus.