For several decades, events are similar or identical to those in the Time Patrol timeline:
the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI acquires Sicily by his marriage to King Roger II's daughter, Constance;
in 1194, he enforces this claim militarily and his son and heir, Frederick II, is born;
in 1198, Innocent III becomes Pope;
in 1211, Innocent arranges for Frederick to become "supreme king" (The Shield Of Time, p. 400) in Germany;
during Innocent's reign, the Fourth Crusade captures not Muslim-held Jerusalem but the Christian city of Constantinople (!), the Albigensian Crusade destroys a brilliant Provencal culture and there is church-state conflict between him and Frederick II;
in 1216, Honorius III succeeds Innocent;
in 1220, Honorius consecrates Frederick Holy Roman Emperor;
in 1225, Frederick marries the daughter of the King of Jerusalem;
in 1227, Honorius is succeeded not by Gregory IX, founder of the Inquisition, as in the Time Patrol timeline but by the weak Celestine so that Frederick triumphs, making the next Pope his puppet.
Frederick went on Crusade, regained Jerusalem, was anointed its king, suppressed and replaced enemy rulers, made agreements with Muslim rulers, dominated the Byzantines, defeated rebellion in Germany, married (having been widowed) a daughter of the Aragonese royal house, conquered Lombardy, seized Sardinia, ignored excommunication by Celestine, overran central Italy, defeated the invading Mongols in 1241, annexed parts of Poland, got his puppet Pope Lucius IV elected, conquered Lithuania through the Teutonic Knights and began to negotiate a dynastic marriage in Hungary.
Over seven centuries, the expanding Empire embraces Europe, possibly with an Anglo-Imperial alliance partitioning France and leading to the incorporation of Britain, Ireland, Iberia and territory as far as, or encroaching into, Russia. With no Renaissance or scientific revolution, the Empire reaches North America later than 1492 and spreads westward. The unreformed Church is an instrument of the state, which finally declines.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
It's only fair to say of Pope Innocent III that the diversion of the Fourth Crusade from campaigning in the Holy Land to the disgraceful Sack of Constantinople in 1206 was not desired by him. In large part the Fourth Crusade was diverted because of the Venetians--who used the indebtedness of the Crusaders to them to get them to attack the Eastern Empire. Innocent III was so outraged by this that he excommunicated the Doge of Venice for his role in this.
To show how complicated history is, even the Venetians had some cause for hating the Byzantines. More than 20 years before the Sack there was an appalling massacre of Venetians resident in the Eastern Empire--giving them an excuse for nursing a desire for revenge on the Byzantines. Which does NOT, of course, justify the Venetians and Fourth Crusaders sacking Constantinople.
Sean
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