Timeline 1290-1300 (Interference)

1291

Western Europe: When Lucie, titular queen of Aquitania/Occitania and last of the Poitou house, dies in exile at the Fois (*OTL Foix) court, her recently widowed brother-in-law Sancho VI of Navarra formally claims the Aquitanian crown by rights of marriage. A Navarrese army reconquers Navarra north of the Pyrenees; duke Lop Guilhem IV of Gascony pays feudal homage to the Navarrese ruler. As Lucie's widowed husband Peyre Berenger, brother of count Bernat V of Fois (*OTL Foix), now claims the crown too, Navarrese forces retake Saragossa, starting the long War of Aquitanian Succession, or Twenty Years' War, that in several bouts of fighting will take place on both sides of the Pyrenees.

Northern Europe, Southern Europe: When Rudolph I of Habsburg-Alamannia dies, Albert I inherits Alamannia and Rudolph II inherits Swabia, both with ducal title. While Rudolph II remains nominally loyal to Nogai Khan, Albert soon joins the anti-Mongol rebels.

Southern Europe: Count-Archbishop Mattia Della Torre is ousted from Milan by the partisans of his rival Ugo Castiglioni, brother of the Patriarch of Aquileia, Gregorio. It is by this event that the counts of Seprio's indirect control over Milan is first imposed. Mattia and his extended clan flee south to Lodi, under Pallavicino lordship, and will keep on claiming authority over the Milanese church and estates still for some time. Southern Europe, North Africa: Pope John XIX dies in Bardapolis (*OTL Tunis) after a tenure during which the Papacy fell in wide discredit. His successor, appointed by Western imperial will more than by the Cardinals, is bishop Reynard Peyre of Marseille, who takes the name of Francis I to honor the Franciscan monks that took care of him as an orphan. In fear an Ifrigian independence movement could exploit the Papal presence, the aged and sick Western emperor Olympius I has the Papal see trasferred in Palermo, right in sight of the imperial palace.

North Africa, Middle East: In compliance of their Caliphist creed, and after finding an “appropriate” line of descent from the Prophet's family, the Mameluks of Egypt-Marisia appoint their sultan Abdurrahman I the One-Eyed as Caliph, a title that will be recognized by Caliphists throughout the Dar al-Islam. The Caliph maintains its capital in Burj al-Maris in upper Egypt.

Middle East, Central Asia: The Jews are “purged” from state offices in Ilkhanid Persia/Iran, after pressures from the rival Zoroastrian clergy. In later years they will be persecuted and exiled, finding refuge in the tens of thousands in Yalikid Kurdistan and Hindustan.

India: Veera Ballala III ascends the throne of the Hoysala empire, ruling most of SW India.

1292 British isles: King Tristan XV the Red of Alba and Scotland dies, leaving the double crown upon his eldest son Malcolm III. The new king is soon challenged by his powerful brothers, supported by several of the main feudatories (in turn, mostly relatives from cadet branches of the Crovan dynasty), in a burst of anarchy.

Western Europe: William I Coeur de Lion, duke of Anjou, defeats the Bretons at the battle of Blain and conquers Nantes. The Navarrese try an attack towards Bordèu (*OTL Bordeaux) but suffer a resounding naval defeat at Biarritz and have to renounce, since the republic is now supplied from the sea with English goods and mercenaries. Barthou Juic becomes the first Jewish marquis of Septimania, appointed directly by king Raymond VII Trencavel of Gadary/Languedoc, whose life he had saved in a hunting accident. The king states that from now on the marquis of Septimania will always be from the Jewish community; this costs him an excommunication from the Papacy.

Southern Europe: The Western Roman Emperor Olympius I dies in Palermo, succeeded by a grandson bearing the same name, Olympius II the Young. Sicily has by now touched its apex of power, and begins a slow decline.

Central-Eastern Europe: After back-and-forth raids, with Nogai's armies reaching almost as far as Saray, the Golden Horde's capital on the lower Volga, a huge battle is fought for the control of western Russia near Staritsa. Maimudas Blackbeard falls on the battlefield leading his Lithuanians to ensure victory for Nogai's forces; Temur Bayan, Nogai's rebel son, commits suicide to avoid capture. For now, the defeated Toqta Khan of the Blue Horde accepts to pay tribute and cedes control over most of the Russian towns, including Tver'.

India: Duwa Khan of Hindustan vassalizes the Hindu Seuna/Yadava kingdom after plundering its capital, Devagiri (in OTL Maharashtra).

SE Asia: King Mengrai of Lanna annexes the former kingdom of Haripunjaya (Haripunchai): northern Siam is now firmly in Thai hands.

1292-1293

Northern Europe: Ivan Andreasson, son of the exiled Rurikid prince Andrey II Yaroslavich of Vladimir and nephew of the late Alexander Nevskij, is sent to Estonia by the regent (riksfader) of Sweden, the Danish Fredrik Eriksson, with a double task - to consolidate Danish domination there and try to capture as much as possibile of Livonia for the Swedish crown as well. Ivan completes his job with remarkable ferocity and success – and when his maternal cousin, prince Erik Stenhuvd, dies in Riga, the Russo-Swede enthrones himself there, dispatching or putting to flight Erik's sons. Thenceon he effectively rules over the whole Baltic area, be it nominally Danish or Swedish.

Central-Eastern Europe, Southern Europe: When Ivailo dies, Jagatariu, son of prince Eltimir of Cumania (*OTL Moldavia), invades Bulgaria and for a brief time manages to assert himself in Tarnovo, only to be quickly expelled by Ivan I Slaven, Ivailo's nephew and the next Czar.

Caucasus: Velizari I reunifies almost all of Iberia/Georgia under his sceptre, vassalizing his cousins in the western lands of Imereti.

SE Asia: A Mongol fleet on a punitive expedition reaches Java to get revenge upon king Kertanegara of Singhasari, who had refused paying tributes and slashed the faces of Kublai Khan's ambassadors before sending them back. The Mongol invaders find Singhasari in chaos after the recent assassination of the king by his vassal Jayakatwang of Kediri. Kertanegara's son-in-law, Raden Wijaya/Kertarajasa Jayawardhana of Sunda Galuh, allies with the Yuan invaders to crush the usurper, then suddenly attacks and expels the Mongols for good. The new kingdom of Majapahit is thus established.

1292-1297

Northern Europe, Central-Eastern Europe: Lithuania is torn asunder by a civil war between Maimudas I's teenage heirs, the remaining pagan tribes and a Jewish-converted pretender, the Sudovian chieftain Saros, discreetly supported by Nogai. In the end Guseinas Maimudonis prevails by liquidating or exiling his opponents; his descendants, the Waliist Muslim Guseinaitis, will be the Lithuanian reigning dynasty.

North Africa, Middle East, Arabia: Caliph of Marisia (Egypt and Nubia) Abdurrahman I the One-Eyed tries to attack Mecca through the Red Sea and crush the Waliate (*Sunni “Papacy”) once and for all – even more since hajj (pilgrimage) for Caliphists (*the Sunni faction rejecting the Walis of Mecca as supreme religious authority) had been forbidden, forcing pilgrims of that confession to either (falsely) abjure or renounce to one of the pillars of the faith, now characterized by the ritual weeping on the spot of the destroyed Ka'aba. The Waliate and its Hashemite wardens, after narrowly repulsing the sea-born invasion thanks to the help of the turbulent Bedouin tribes of the Arabian interior, strike a “blasphemous” alliance with the infidel Myriamites of Palestine to keep the Egyptians at bay (and assure Waliist Muslims unhindered pilgrimage to Jerusalem).

1293

Northern Europe: Nogai Khan sends his sons and allied Bohemian, Polish and Ograinese forces to ravage rebellious Germany. Despite brutal massacres and plunders (the town of Worms is famously spared thanks to the intercession of Nogai's most trusted religious advisor, the Worms-born Rabbi Yehuda Rosen), the khan's forces are divided and incapable of gaining significant successes against the major feudatories - furthermore, the European feudal levies show a tendency to desert and sympathize with the rebels.

Western Europe: After several sieges and countersieges of Saragossa, the Navarrese defeat the Fois (*OTL Foix) and their allies at the battle of Sobradiel, expelling them from most of Aragon. Lop Guilhem IV of Gascony rejects his allegiance to Navarra and claims himself by force of arms the Aquitanian/Occitanian crown, staging a coronation in Agen – this, in turn, involves in the war Gadary/Languedoc and Bordèu (*OTL Bordeaux), who ally against him.

Southern Europe: Genoa and Nice sign a comprehensive peace treaty, according to which the town of Ventimiglia is recognized as an ally (de facto vassal) of Nice and the Genoese-friendly county of Tenda has its strategic Alpine holdings confirmed. Bernardo I da Canossa nicknamed il Vecchio (the Old) ousts the Este militias from Reggio Emilia, forcing the Communal authorities to recognize him as lord of the town.

Byzantine Empire: The Byzantines gain time by bribing Osman, the most brilliant of the Kirikkale Batiturk generals. Osman revolts against his master, sultan Nasreddin Mawdud Khusrau, who dies some weeks after leaving his quarrelling sons in charge. The rebel founds an own emirate in Kotiaion (Cotyaeum, *OTL Kütahya), but despite the gold obtained from the Byzantines he soon begins to expand his domain.

Caucasus: The Alans, now mostly Christianized in the Jacobite/Nestorian creed, free themselves from the yoke of the Golden Horde with Iberian/Georgian help.

Middle East: The Sungurid Turks take out the Hospitaller fortress of Margat, Syria, after a long siege.

Far East: In the so-called Heizen Gate incident Hōjō Sadatoki liquidates Taira Yoritsuna the Mongol-Slayer, his all-powerful patron and guardian, and his followers, asserting his own power as shikken (regent).

1294 Southern Europe: The Peace of Treviso sees Venice regain its possessions in western Histria; Trieste becomes a free city, but has to pay an annual tribute to the Venetians. The founder of the Apostolic brethren, Gherardo Segarelli, is jailed for life at Parma by local Church authorities after breaking its ban from the town; four of his followers are burnt at the stake. Vilfredo, heir of Guglielmo II, count-margrave of Seprio and Pombia, defeats at Pontesesto the Della Torre militia and their Pallavicino patrons who were trying to reenter Milan.

Central-Eastern Europe: Nogai Khan adds Pomerelia (eastern Pomerania, with Danzig) to the royal domain of the Berestian khanate after the extinction of the local ruling house. By now the Teutonic Order in nearby Prussia has become something very different from its former self – full of Poles and Baltic Prussians:eek:, it's a duchy like any other, except for its elective character, its Christian profession (despite Papal excommunication as Mongol vassals!) and its feared raiding navy contending the Baltic to the Hansa.

Central-Eastern Europe, Southern Europe: Prince Jagatariu of Cumania (*OTL Moldavia) launches a last great invasion of Bulgaria with Mongol reinforcements but is surrounded and trounced in battle at the Samovodene gorge by Czar Ivan I Slaven, narrowly escaping subsequent ambushes as he crosses Wallachia on his way back with the survivors.

Byzantine Empire: Albanian forces subdue most of Epirus; the Thessalian lordships, raided by Albanian bands, eventually ask for Byzantine protection accepting back the basileus' authority. A Venetian fleet ousts the Batiturk pirates from Kefalonia.

Middle East, Central Asia:
 * Arghun Khan dies during a campaign against the Yalikids in the Jezira region: the Ilkhanate crown is swiftly taken by his step-brother Elchiney Bekburj. A traditional Tengriist, the new ruler again favors Buddhists, Christians (he will welcome even Catholic missionaries) and most of all Zoroastrians over Muslims, who still are a majority in Persia/Iran.

Far East: Kublai Khan dies a natural death, leaving the Yuan throne of Mongol China to his grandson Temür Öljeytü Khan. Yehe Baghatur of Moghulistan marches on Karakorum and proclaims himself Great Khan of the Mongols there; Kublai's discredited heir, betrayed by several generals and tribes who pass to the rival ruler and by some relatives who stage a brief civil war, loses control over most of Mongolia proper. The new Yuan ruler will quickly reassert his own power in Khanbaliq/Dadu but from now on Yuan China will be essentially a Chinese state with a Mongol-descended military caste, with growing inner problems. A Japanese fleet mainly composed by Wokou pirates from Tsushima and the southern lands conquers Jeju island from the Mongols, making it a nest of piracy and basically negating Yuan and Goryeo control of sea.

SE Asia: In the flux of disintegrating Burma Sao Hsam Long Hpa, brother of king Sao Hso Hkan Hpa of Mong Mao, a Shan kingdom (*located at OTL China-Burma borders), is able to plunder all the way to northern Arakan and the Bengal Sea coast. 1294-1296

Southern Europe: The Ograinese led by Kunya Khan repeatedly raid and sack Alamannia but are eventually repulsed by duke Albert I of Habsburg.

Black Africa: In an attempt to counter the effect of the loss of Egypt for Christianity (spice prices have risen and foster inflation) the Genoese privateer Guglielmo Grimaldi sails with two carracks trying a circumnavigation of Africa to India. After stops in the Balearic islands, Mauretania/Mornavia (*OTL Morocco) and the Canary islands, and leaving his Maurian escort vessels bound for trade with the Wolofs of Senegal, the explorer heads south and then east along the coast for some months, reaching the Jeliba (*OTL Niger) delta before succumbing to a tropical disease. A handful of survivors, led by the Balearic seaman Liberio Gorta, will make it back later to the Canaries and Genoa to retell their adventure and make a fortune with the spices, gold and ivory taken down there.

1294-1297

Far East, SE Asia, India, North Africa, Western Europe: Jean le Normande (Nu'er Mang Zhang) is retired as chief minister of the Mongol Yuan Empire by Temür Öljeytü Khan. The new ruler grants the former slave lavish gifts and its freedom, with the right to go back to his infancy's homeland as ambassador. After a three years voyage, mostly by sea, dotted with diplomatic duties, Jean comes back to his native Normandy. His “Tales of Grand Tartaria and Cathay” will become a cornerstone of Norman French literature and provide huge influence.

1294-1299

East Africa: The sons of the Ethiopian emperor Solomon Yagbe'u Seyon fight for the throne after their father's demise till they're ousted from power by their uncle Wedem Arad.

1295 British isles: Malcolm III of Alba and Scotland is murdered and replaced by his brother Brian III, in turn caught in a quarrel with his remaining siblings – the twin kingdoms are in flux.

Western Europe: The would-be king of Aquitaine/Occitania, duke Lop Guilhem IV of Gascony, after being cornered in Agen by an army from Gadary/Languedoc, is murdered by his rival cousin Ursel the Fat who renounces the claim to the Aquitanian crown renewing allegiance to Navarra in exchange for help. Navarrese support arrives too late to stop the Gadarians from taking the town and slaying the new duke.

Western Europe, Southern Europe: Aimes II de Claret, duke of Lesser (or eastern) Occitania, trying to expand his domains gets killed in the battle of Vauclusa by Guilhem II the Trobadour of Balz-Arenjo (*Baux-Orange), whose forces are however unable to subdue the territory left to the young Simon Peyre, the Claret heir.

Southern Europe: Prince Meinhard IV of Lurngau dies, dividing his extensive holdings between his eldest sons Henry and Otto – the former receiving the princely title, Styria, Carinthia and Tyrol, the latter Gurizberg (*OTL Gorizia) as count and Friul as Lord Protector, with two younger brothers and two sisters taking the spoils as vassals.

Byzantine Empire: The Byzantine stronghold of Kastamon (Paphlagonia), whence the Megas Branas dynasty started its incredible reconquest of the empire, is taken by the Muslim Batiturks of the Kirikkale sultanate. The Byzantine navy reconquers parts of Euboea from Venice and local Latin (Catholic) lords.

SE Asia: Sri Indravarman III deposes his long-reigning father-in-law Jayavarman VIII to rule over the Khmer empire, strictly adopting Theravada Buddhism in place of the earlier mix of Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhism.

1295-1299

Northern Europe: The Rurikid Ivan Andreasson begins to exert his never forgotten rights over Russia by attacking his cousin Birger Wolksson/Fyodor Volkov, the popular knyaz (prince) of Pskov. After the natural death of Birger/Fyodor the city falls to Ivan: the deceased ruler's heirs find refuge in Novgorod, establishing there in time the Volkov clan as a paramount influence in the local republic's affairs.

1296

Northern Europe: Magnus III the Red of Norway dies. His brother Sverre II the Wolf usurps the throne slaying Magnus' young sons Magnus and Haakon. When Sverre himself is later murdered, the crown is bestowed by nobility and Church upon his only son, 7-year old Arne I.

British Isles, Northern Hesperia (*OTL America): A hundred-men strong English expedition to New Palestine (*OTL Massachussets, New Hampshire and Maine) ventures into the Atlantic trying a direct (non-Icelandic) route. Only a single ship with 13 men under the leadership of Piers LaVerne survives the terrible oceanic gales to reach Vinlandria (*OTL Newfoundland). They are the first officially recorded crew to complete a straight crossing of the Atlantic, though the feat had actually been accomplished several times in in the last century by unnamed Coghound vessels from the Canaries and the Atlantides (*OTL Azores). The survivors won't try the way back to Europe, though, for a long time. LaVerne will reach back England as a captain only in 1310, and by the usual Greenland-Iceland route, eventually dying in his home country.

Western Europe: Peyre Berenger, the Fois (*OTL Foix) claimant to the Aquitanian crown, is enthroned with Gadarian benediction. In exchange, both Fois (*OTL Foix) and (much reduced) Aquitaine have to acknowledge the formal suzerainty of Gadary/Languedoc. Bordèu (*OTL Bordeaux) takes note and prepares to switch side if need arises, negotiating with the Navarrese.

Byzantine Empire: Basileus Arsenius I Constantine dies leaving no male heirs of his own. A civil war erupts between the Jeremite and Stemmarioi factions, supporting respectively Arsenius' son-in-law, general Theodore Navilas (ironically a Batiturk by origin) and the deceased basileus' nephew by maternal side, Belisarius Leontinus, a very distant relative of the Sicilian emperors of the West and direct descendant of Conrad Vilphiotis. Thanks to the steady support of megastratopedarch Alexander Philantropene and the decisive aid given by Alan contingents, courtesy of king Velizari I of Iberia/Georgia, Belisarius is able to prevail and slay the rival at the battle of Rhodostos. His enthronement as Belisarius VI Constantine sees the confirmation of the new Byzantine style of assuming Constantine as second name for the basileus thenceon. The new dynasty, considered a legitimate successor of the Megas Branas (whose surviving branches will keep on assuming important titles and offices, including several Patriarchs), will be known as the Leontinids.

Middle East: Simeonica (*OTL Laodicea/Latakia), the main Templar port in the Levant, falls to the Sungurid Turks.

1296-1297

Western Europe: An English army invades lower Normandy to carry on the war against Eudes IV of Brittany by joining forces with the duke of Anjou, William I Coeur de Lion. Leading the Englishmen is young duke Simon of Cornwall, nephew of king Amalric III of England, who is officially engaged to William's daughter, Laetitia. The joined English-Anjou force ravages Brittany, but the Englishmen have to withdraw back home when the Norman cities and fiefdoms find the resolve and unity to attack them in their rear.

1297 Northern Europe: After brutally torching Hamburg, Nogai Khan of Berestia is trapped with his army in the Lüneburger Heide by an allied force made up from the royal Danish army, Hansa militias and insurgent peasants, coordinated by king Valdemar III of Denmark. The Mongols (actually, mostly Kipchaks) and their Baltic, Polish and Bohemian allies are then pressed in the surrounding forests and slain in great numbers. Nogai himself falls, his head paraded around on a pike to be later mummified and conserved in the Cathedral of Roskilde (Denmark); his appointed heir, Burilgi Qaratai, flees to safety with a few thousand survivors, reaching Poland and Brasta/Berestye (*Brest-Litovsk) to be hailed as the new Khan by the remaining Mongol nobility. The resounding victory echoes throughout Christian Europe and the Mediterranean, giving immense prestige and eternal glory to the winners of the day. One of the most beatiful Churches of Christianity, the Lüneburger Chapel (actually an imposing cathedral in the Norman [*OTL Gothic] style), will be built in later decades to celerate the feat.

British Isles: Brian III of Alba and Scotland kills his rebel brother Nechtan; the last of his siblings claiming the crown, Donald of Inverair (*OTL Ayr), takes refuge with his followers in Northumbria.

Western Europe, Southern Europe: The count of Provence, Guilhem II the Trobadour of Balz-Arenjo (*Baux-Orange), is invited as lord of Marseille after infighting between the main local families brings down the republic.

Southern Europe: The town of Cuneo, in recent times a recalcitrant possession of marquis Manfredo IV of Saluzzo, opens its gates to count Pietro Guglielmo II of Tenda. Giovanni Montagna da Gradara imposes himself as lord of Rimini, founding a dynasty. Extinction of the Norman dynasty of Judges (kings) of Torres (NW Sardinia) with the death of Alix II, the last queen. Torres is carved between Genoa, Pisa and nearby Arborea (Western imperial vassal); the town of Tathari/Sassari becomes a tiny if prosperous free Comune, also aligned with Sicily.

Byzantine Empire: The Batiturk emir of Patras, Nuraddinos, crushes the last remaining Slavic tribes of Morea/Peloponnesus at the battle of the Arcadian Fields. Only some ports heavily defended by Venice and the Athenian lordship resist the Batiturks.

Middle East: The Knights Hospitaller of St.John are ousted from Palestine with the fall of Acre to the Myriamites; the survivors relocate to Cyprus, where they're tasked with policing local conflicts on behalf of the Rota Consularis, the condominium holding ultimate authority over the island. Caucasus: Abdullah Yalik the “Hammer of the Mongols” dies in his capital at Van, promptly renamed Saray e-Yalik (whence the later name, Saralik) by his son and heir Shirvan Mehmet Dhul-Qarnayn Shah.

1297-1299

Northern Europe: After Nogai's defeat and the ousting of Mongol power from Germany, duke Frederick I of Guelders/Gelderland claims the German crown by an act of force in Cologne, a free town since the Mongols ousted the prince-archbishops, but from Palermo Pope Francis I declares his coronation null and void, and in the end the claimant dies repressing the Zenjahrer peasant movement (now calling for the common ownership of land). In the meantime Denmark and Lower Lorraine combine a dynastic marriage to give Germany a king of their liking.

Western Europe: Fois (*OTL Foix)-Gadarian forces bring the war to southern side of Pyrenees, but after several inconclusive battles they can't secure more than a two-year truce and a precarious foothold in upper Aragon.

Central-Eastern Europe: Toqta, Khan of the Blue Horde, part of the Golden Horde, resumes war against the Berestian khanate, gaining the support of Michael, grand prince of Tver', and retaking control of central Russia. Tver' itself gains considerable autonomy under the Horde.

Byzantine Empire: Basileus Belisarius VI Constantine and his trusted general Alexander Philantropene intervene against the marauding bands of Osman of Kotiaion. The Alan contingent again proves decisive: the siege of Prusa (Bithynia) is relieved and the Turk marauders smashed and slain in the thousands. Osman himself finds refuge in his capital, waging guerrilla war from there before being murdered by the agents of sultan Ula Suleiman of Kirikkale.

1297-1301

SE Asia: A Lao invasion led by prince Panya Khamphong of Muang Sua (*Luang Prabang) and supported by the obstinate Yuan Mongols of China threatens Dai Viet but is eventually repulsed. 1298 Northern Europe, Southern Europe: Duke Albert I of Habsburg-Alamannia attacks and kills his brother Rudolph II of Swabia, reunifying by force the family holdings.

Southern Europe: Cremona rebels against the Pallavicino lordship and breaks “free” under the marquis of Viadana Roberto Cavalcabò, scion of a minor Obertenghi branch.

Central-Eastern Europe: In Bohemia and its subject land the lesser Bohemian and German nobles, led by Jan Pavlìček, rebel against Ottokar/Otakar III, the “Tartar” king (son of a Mongol general and of Beatrix, the last Premyslid), but are crushed. Once its voivod Loránd Borsa is dead, Transylvania quietly slips back to Hungarian suzerainty, though with special autonomy: the king's appointee as voivod must be accepted and recognized by the local assembly of magnates to exercise his powers.

Far East: Wáng Zhēn, a Chinese Yuan official, invents the first practical wooden movable type printing. The Koreans already knew how to employ metal for the same end; in both case the practicality of the system is reduced by the complex Chinese ideogram writing.

1298-1300

British isles: King Edwin Montfort of Northumbria invades Scotland in support of the claimant Donald of Inverair (*OTL Ayr). King Brian III of Alba and Scotland, deserted by several noblemen, is overrun at the battle of DunBrython (*OTL Dumbarton) but manages to find refuge among loyalist Pictish clans. After having waged successful guerrilla for two years, Brian is able to defeat and kill his usurping brother at Cormiston, ousting the Anglo-Northumbrians. Hundreds of rebel nobles, mostly Scots, take refuge beyond the border.

Western Europe: The Harrowing of Normandy, waged in revenge by English armies led by the young and merciless Simon of Cornwall, gives the coup de grace to this formerly dominant land, which will need decades to recover from destructions even worse than those wrought by the very Mongols. Only the major urban centres manage to avoid pillage and massacre, but the Englishmen are unable to gain more than a few coastal fortresses.

1299

Northern Europe: Erik Porpyrogenitus is the firstborn from the marriage between Erik, second son of king Valdemar III of Denmark, and Hedwige, daughter of king Philip I of Lower Lorraine (*“Belgium”). The infant is hailed as the new titular king of Germany as Henry V by a hastily convened assembly of (northern) German nobles.

Western Europe: The War of Aquitanian Succession restarts with Gadary/Languedoc, Fois (*OTL Foix) and puppet Aquitaine surrounded by enemies: the republic of Bordèu (*OTL Bordeaux), where the Bertrades family has acquired supremacy, has turned against it, and also Provence gets involved after longstanding issues about Uzès and its duchy, historically tied to the former Burgundian kingdom but now vassal to Gadary. In the meantime the Navarrese eye Gadarian Catalonia. The anti-Gadarian coalition enjoys Papal benediction, for what it means.

Southern Europe: The Bohemians relocate some thousands of the rebellious Sorbs of Lusatia to upper Austria, founding the city of Sorpst on the site of Chremis (OTL *Krems an der Donau), in time to become the main center of the region. Vitale the Old becomes lord of Treviso after harsh factional struggles, establishing the San Fior as the local paramount family.

Byzantine Empire: Venice counterattacks on sea, reconquering large part of Crete from Genoa and the Byzantines and starting a long low-intensity struggle.

Arabia: An Ilkhanid seaborne invasion devastates Bahrain, whose Ismaili pirates had become the terror of the Persian Gulf. A colony of Zoroastrian Persians from the Caspian Sea is settled in the island.

India: Hindustan is invaded by an Ilkhanid horde from Afghanistan, bolstered by Central Asian reinforcements led by the Chagataiid Khan Mirza Sasan Qutlugh. The invasion is narrowly beaten back by the new Hindustani ruler Sukhedei Vajra Sanjay (actually a half-blood Mongol, son of a Rajput princess of the Gehlots from Mewar), succeeded to his half-brother Duwa Khan after his death in battle and the sack of the capital, Suvarnapura (*OTL Jhang). In the following years Hindustan will suffer repeated raids and invasions from Ilkhanid forces.

SE Asia: Temür Öljeytü, the Yuan Khan of China and claimant Great Khan, invades Burma with a powerful army, wreaking havoc and extorting tribute from the various Shan polities and the Pinya kingdom. His army then proceeds to raid Arakan, making it a tributary kingdom. Stable diplomatic relations are then established by the Yuan with the Dharma empire of eastern India.

1299-1301

North Africa, Middle East: Historical pilgrimage by Mansa (emperor) Sakura of the Mali Empire to Jerusalem. The African ruler, follower of the Jewish faith, won't find Myriamite rule there very palatable: his arrogant and disdainful behavior, despite the riches in gold sowed along his path, will earn him a “kick in the ass” goodbye. On his return to Mali Sakura, a former slave unrelated to the line of Sundiata, is toppled and replaced by Gao, one of Sundiata's maternal nephews.

1299-1312

Southern Europe: Acting cunningly between the rival pretenses of Hungary, Bosnia, Genoa and Venice, Pavao I Breber, the Croatian lord of Bribir/Varvaria, becomes the true master of Dalmatia, eventually managing to wrest Zara/Zadar from Venice and put his kinsmen in charge of most coastal towns. Venetian influence is significantly reduced. The Breber clan also attempts to expand its power into Bogomil Bosnia, but in a less successful way, since the local ban, Ninoslav II, proves a capable and respected leader.

1299-1320s

Northern Europe: The *Reichswiederaufbau brings about the rebirth of a smaller kingdom of Germany after years of petty wars against noble holdings and careful diplomacy with free cities and leagues. The country lies in ruins after the war of liberation, and is still subject to sudden devastating raids from the Berestian Mongols. Furthermore, it is torn by peasant unrest and by the “redde rationem” against those who collaborated with the Eastern invaders. Vast sections of it (Bavaria, Austria, Thuringia, Meissen/Misnia...) are under Bohemian or Habsburg control, and the Habsburgs in particular will show no sign of accepting the idea of a reborn kingdom of Germany.

XIVth century

Northern Hemisphere: The so-called Medieval warm period recedes, giving gradually way to a colder, damper climate all around the north Atlantic. This, in time, hampers the already difficult contacts between Europe and the Hesperian (*OTL American) colonies.

Central-Eastern Europe: Yiddish (Judeo-German) becomes the language par excellence among the growing Jewish population in Berestia, favored by the khan's court and bolstered by refugees from anti-Semite Germany and the last Khazar Jews ousted from the Pontic steppes by the Golden Horde. Vlach shepherds migrate in considerable numbers up the Carpathian range, reaching up to Moravia, forming ethnic communities to be slowly integrated with the surrounding Slavs but preserving own traditions and, partly, language. Mersk (*OTL Galich, Kostroma Oblast, Russia) emerges as Novgorod's rival number one for the control of commerce in Northern Russia.

Middle East: Overall decline of Waliism, the branch of Sunnism affirming the necessity of a Wali as supreme religious (but not temporal) authority in place of a Caliph. Waliism disintegrates slowly in favor of Shiism or Caliphism (its secular archrival, closer to OTL standard doctrine) in the core Islamic areas, whereas it consolidates in a changing form in a northern strip of Islamicized lands, from Lithuania to Central Asia, giving rise to what will be later dubbed as “Northern Islam”.

The Muwahiddin (*OTL Druzes) of Lebanon are converted to Myriamism, as most of the local Muslims. Myriamism, still persecuted in Syria by the Muslim Sungurids, soon penetrates strongly into northern Syria and central-eastern Anatolia, where the Yalikids prove to be tolerant rulers in matters of religion.

East Africa: A third and last wave of Indonesian immigrants, mainly sea traders, reach *Madagascar, together with populations from the Moon islands (*OTL Comoros).

SE Asia: Hindu influence in Indochina weakens considerably, replaced in the south by the slow infiltration of Islam and in the north by a mighty affirmation of Buddhism, thanks also to Dharma empire “missionaries”, among the local cultures.

Northern Hesperia (*OTL America): Diffusion of the nomadic culture in the Hesperian (*American) Great Plains due to the progressive introduction and domestication of horses.

Central Hesperia (*OTL America): The Mixtecs overshadow their rivals in the Oaxaca region, the Zapotecs.

1300 Northern Europe: Cologne joins the Hansa, confirming the power of the League and its almost absolute control of trade over the waterways, now also well inside the mainland.

Western Europe: Champagne, Lorraine and OTL Franche-Comté, now heavily dotted with German settlements, partly Germanized and still under the “protection” of Kunya Khan's Ograinese or the iron fist of Albert I of Habsburg, begin to be known collectively with the ancient name of Neustria, used in Merovingian times to indicate France proper.

Southern Europe: Gherardo Segarelli, founder of the Apostolic Brethren movement, bent on evangelical poverty, is burnt at the stake at Parma by the Papal inquisition. The event, and further persecutions from ecclesiastical and lay courts, will precipitate a radicalization of the movement. Genoa ousts Pisa from Gallura, “offering” it to the Western imperial crown of Sicily and de facto consolidating its own supremacy in Sardinia. On land Pisa tries to attack Genoese vassals and allies in the eastern (Levante) Riviera in conjunction with the Malaspina mountain lords, another of the Obertenghi branches, but without success; Pisa itself is briefly besieged by Lucca, its rival neighbour, ready to ally with Genoa, who in the meantime burns and blocks Porto Pisano. Pisa, in turn, calls for help Bernardo il Vecchio of Canossa, lord of Reggio Emilia, whose troops plunder Garfagnana, Lucca's “backyard”. That's life in merry Lombardy!

Central-Eastern Europe: The Golden Horde, helped by the handful of Venetian ships capable of breaking the Genoese-Byzantine blockade of the Dardanelles and Bosphorus, attacks the Genoese possessions in the Taurida (*OTL Crimea), seizing several ports and fortresses. Prince Jagatariu of Cumania (*OTL Moldavia) is defeated and killed in battle on the Prut by Toq-Timur, a brother of Toqta Khan of the Blue Horde who had gone west with his retinue. The Mongol lord proclaims himself khan of Cumania and voivod of Wallachia. The latter land, fallen into near anarchy in recent years, is however soon grabbed by the Bulgarians east of the Olt river, and by Hungary west of the river.

ca. 1300

Northern Europe: Jews get massacred in great numbers in Germany, where they're associated with Mongol power, and quickly flee to the Jewish-friendly Khanate of Berestia.

Southern Europe: The scholars at the university of Palermo christen the new lands beyond the Atlantic Ocean as Hesperia, from the ancient Greek myth of the extreme western lands. The name will stick, to be soon adopted (in Europe only, for now).

Southern Europe, Western Europe, Byzantine Empire: An embryonal monetary system develops for international trade. Genoese coins are favored in Lombardy, in the Occitanic lands and the Iberic peninsula; Sicilian (West Imperial) “augustales” dominate in southern Italy and Christian North Africa, while Venetian “zecchini” are warmly accepted throughout the eastern Med, in rivalry with the neo-standard Byzantine hyperpyra, “the” coin for the Sklaviniai (*OTL Balkans). Florentine money gains instead wide circulation in France ad Germany, together with English royal livres.

Byzantine Empire, Middle East: In Cyprus the so-called Gyptofrangoi, the descendants of the Egyptian convert-exiles, gain paramount influence in local politics and economics, acting a middlemen for the condominium of Italian and Lombard sea-trading republics and local lords ruling the island.

North Africa, Black Africa: Agadez becomes the capital of the Ayr Sultanate, a Kharijite Muslim state led by Islamicized Tuareg in bitter rivalry with the Judeo-Christian Kel Keris Zenetes of the Ahaggar for the control of the salt and slave trade routes. Kharijite Fezzan is made a vassal of the Caliphate of Marisia (Egypt/Nubia), not without bloodshed.

Black Africa: Solomon Massanjaay unifies most of Senegal into the Jolof Empire, wresting also Mauretania Ultima (*OTL Mauritania) from Mornavia/Mauretania (*OTL Morocco) troubled by succession issues and weakened by Idrasian (*Kabyle) meddling. Solomon holds sway up to OTL *Guinea and the sources of the Jeliba (*OTL Niger). The new Christian (albeit in a quite unique African way) power soon enters into conflict with Mali, where mass diffusion of a local version of Judaism is ongoing thanks to the efforts of the Mansas (emperors).

Northern Hesperia (*OTL America): In the southwestern parts of northern Hesperia (*OTL America) the Diné (*OTL Navajo and Apache) people form a powerful confederation, bent on conquest, subduing their agriculturalist neighbours.