History of Urcea (1098-1214)

The History of Urcea from 1098-1214, sometimes also called the Early Kingdom Period, consists of period of time proclamation of the Golden Bull of 1098 to the rise of the House of Cónn in 1214. This period saw the new Kingdom establish itself as a major power in the southern Levantine Empire, expanding its holdings and acquiring a coveted vote in the Collegial Electorate. Characterized by the relative peace and stability under the House of Yustona, the fall of the house ushered in dynastic uncertainty that would lead to generations of conflict after the ascension of the House of Cónn in 1214. The period also saw the reign of King Niall I, who some historians call Urcea's "first excellent ruler", who instituted expansion and legal reforms which make up key parts of the modern Constitution of Urcea.

Much of the period is characterized by the rule of the Julio-Yustona Dynasty - Urcea's first dynasty - which was notable among contemporaries for their progeny; Riordan II had fourteen children, and his son, Niall I, managed six. The realm remained stable during the reign of these early Kings, providing an important source of manpower for the Emperor and an equally important "check" on Imperial power, contributing to emerging political precedent for a limited role of the Emperor in the individual affairs of the Princes of the Empire. The borders of the Kingdom remained stable under this period as well; the Kings valued the then-status quo position of the realm within the Empire, though some small gains were made - most notably extending the realm south to the Callan River, acquiring what is today known as the province of Callan. The Kingdom's aggressive posture with regards to its southern boundaries began to put it directly in conflict with the Duke-Elector of Canaery, which it eventually incorporated. Urcea also looked westward towards the Creagmer republics, which came increasingly under its sway.

The grant given under the Golden Bull of 1098 should not be understood to constitute a cohesive political entity; it elevated the Archduke Riordan and his heirs to the level of Kings and consequently made their lands Royal domains, but it did not give them wide-reaching powers over the other Imperial vassals of the former Southern Kingdom of the Levantines. The distinction between the King as ruling over a cohesive territory called Urcea and over a Kingdom within the Holy Levantine Empire called Urcea caused a great deal of confusion during the early periods of Urcean historiography. Consequently, historians developed the term Imperial Kingdom of Urcea to describe the entity in which the vassals of the area did the Apostolic King of Urcea homage as part of their legal obligations to the Holy Levantine Empire.

Julio-Yustona dynasty
King Riordan I (19th century depiction) and his immediate successors oversaw a period of expansion for the newfound Kingdom.

Riordan I, crowned Apostolic King of Urcea following his participation in the northern uprising, did not have long to reign as King and died roughly two and a half years later in August of 1100. His eldest son, Aedanicus, was and also had extreme physical limitations, although scholars have debated the extent of these limitations as they are not clearly defined in the sources. A small consensus indicate that Aedanicus may have been. Aedanicus died after an uneventful two years on the throne and was succeeded by his brother Riordan II.

During this time, the great numbers of possible male heirs (both close and distant) lead to dynastic instability in Urcea that would eventually go on to become an existential problem in later centuries. The relatively successful reign of Riordan II ended in 1118 following sixteen years spent mostly establishing Urcea's royal dignity among the princes of the Holy Levantine Empire. Riordan was succeeded by his son, Aedanicus II. Aedanicus II's reign was greatly consumed by the issue of succession as he managed eight daughters but no sons. The lack of a male heir lead to a decreasing state of mental stability for the King according to contemporary and modern historians. In late 1130 Aedanicus attempted to legitimize his bastard son Donnchad, a decision which served as the "last straw" and lead to the creation of a powerful palace faction. With tacit approval from the Church, the faction moved quickly, and Aedanicus was murdered in a supposed hunting accident on 19 January 1131. His brother, Niall, was never directly implicated but was assumed by both contemporary and modern historians to be the leader of the palace faction and its prime architect. The same day his brother was murdered, Niall became Apostolic King of Urcea. His nephew, Aedanicus's bastard son Donnchad, was quickly imprisoned for supposedly plotting against the new King and disappears from the historical record following his imprisonment in February 1131.

The Republics and river
The Julian dynasty had long sought to secure control of both banks of the Urce River and the land between it and the coast, even before the establishment of the Kingdom in 1098. This land had been part of Latin League polities prior to the establishment of the Holy Levantine Empire and now comprised of the Creagmer republics - a series of s occupying the land on what is today Urcea's western shore. These lands were considerably wealthy from their strong position in the Odoneru trade market, with contacts and clients as far abroad as Kiravia. Although King Niall I was the first King to truly focus on Urcea's access to the sea and control of these wealthy cities, his predecessors has also made attempts to bring them within Urcea's direct orbit with varying degrees of success. Efforts were made during the 1110s and 1120s to emphasize the Apostolic King's right to tax these cities as their legal liege, but these efforts were largely rebuffed. By the reign of Niall I, the Philaridon Republic had emerged as the most powerful of the republics and served both as its protector and as its chief advocate to the Emperor of the Levantines. Attempted legal encroachments during the early 12th century precipitated efforts by the republics to secure during successive sessions of the Imperial Diet. One such effort lead to the Philaridon Republic being successfully granted immediacy in 1139, precipitating a military response. Under the earlier pretext of the de jure legal overlordships of the Republic, Niall marched an army into the merchant republic of Cauca in June 1139 over the political and legal objections of all of the merchant republics. The Philaridon Republic sent a mercenary army which Niall defeated on 18 September 1139 before setting into a siege of Cauca during the winter. As the winter passed, the defenders of Cauca grew more desperate and sallied forth in February, taking grievous casualties. Niall ordered the city stormed at the end of March 1140 and the city was sacked. Many of the prominent merchant families were killed, including leading men of the city. Niall declared the areas under Cauca's influence would be immediately added to his own realms, while the spoils of the city would prove valuable for the rest of his reign. The Emperor of the Levantines did not intervene, and Niall marched from republic to republic extracting agreements of tribute from each except Philaridon.

Southern orientation
The reign of King Niall I and its focus on coastal access was not exclusive to its relationship with the Creagmer republics. To the south of the Duchy of Yustona sat the Duchy of Callan, a marshy and lightly populated area which marked the traditional demarcation area between Urceans and Caens. Upon its creation by Emperor Conchobar I, the Duchy was intended to separate the lands of the Julian dynasty from the Caenish realms, which were themselves intended to be a powerful check on Hištanšahr along with marches to the south of Yustona. Politically, Callan was intended to be a realm largely dependent on Royal authority and was a key ally of the Southern King of the Levantines during the existence of the Southern Kingdom. Since the establishment of the Imperial Kingdom of Urcea, Callan had become increasingly politically isolated. With the unexpected death of the Duke in 1136, Niall I claimed an abstract right to the Duchy citing the authority of the Southern Kingdom and invaded the Duchy in the same year. Although the invasion was resisted by local magnates, Niall overcame them and incorporated the Duchy as a personal holding in 1137. The invasion received some condemnation by both the Catholic Church and from other rulers within the Holy Levantine Empire, but the incorporation became permanent. Although Urcea had acquired its first coastal territory, Callan did not have any port cities and the King began to invest significant attention and resources into the coastal fishing village of Sangran. While it would not become a major port city for some time, the initial investments expanded the small fishing village into a walled city of about five thousand by the end of the 1150s.

During this period of "southern orientation", the Duchy of Yustona was elevated by the King of Urcea to a Grand Duchy in 1138, incorporating many of the bordering es with Gassavelia into a more direct political arrangement.

Not unlike the revolt in 1098, the Emperor of the Levantines called on the Apostolic King of Urcea once again in 1143, as the so-called "Caenish League" was formed in revolt under the leadership of the Elector of Canaery in an effort to expand the Collegial Electorate to a greater number of Princes within the Empire. The rationale for the Elector siding with the league are not well understood, given that it would reduce Canaery's influence, but it is thought by a consensus of historians that many of the league members - those who would stand to benefit - were viewed by the Elector as marriage prospects for his many daughters, thus potentially increasing his power. Whatever the case may be, again like in 1098, the Emperor decided to incentivize participation in the conflict by offering the Apostolic King a prize for his participation in the revolt; the prize the Julio-Yustonas had been seeking for decades, the Electorate of Canaery, was offered as spoils for King Niall I's participation in the war. The reign of Niall I proved to be the high water mark for the dynasty; his predecessors had successfully maneuvered for Niall to have a relatively strong claim on the Electorate of Canaery, so his ascension in the Electorate was viewed with additional legitimacy once the Emperor granted it to him in 1144 upon the conclusion of the war. Niall was the first King-Elector of Urcea, though for the next several hundred years, the Kingdom and the Electorate would be administered as separate realms with a common ruler. After the war, in 1146, the King and Great Landsmeet were at an impasse over expenses incurred as a result of the conflict. King Niall desired to levy a tax to pay back what he owed for large army of mercenaries called upon during the war. As part of the disagreement, the King and Great Landsmeet eventually decided to convene a new body which would be comprised entirely of privilegiata and freemen, known as the "Common Council" - the Concilium Daoni in its earliest form. The Common Council was convened to create independent compromises between the King and Great Landsmeet as a kind of impartial arbitrator between the two, and was comprised of designees from each Estate of the freemen and privilegiata rank. In its earliest form, the total number of representatives from each Estate was inconsistent, ranging from fifteen to forty. The King designated his Royal Treasurer as responsible for organizing meetings of the Common Council, creating the role of "President of the Common Council" that the Procurator still nominally holds today. The new Common Council - the Concilium Daoni - ruled in the King's favor, and the Great Landsmeet begrudgingly agreed to the tax.

End of the House of Yustona
Niall's two sons that survived infancy both inherited the Kingdom; the 14-year old Riordan III reigned for a period slightly longer than three months before taking ill and dying, passing the throne to his ten year brother, who was crowned Niall II in 1147. Niall reigned for five and a half years before falling from his horse during training and dying soon after. Niall II's death sparked a succession crisis that resulted in a three year interregnum and succession crisis within the Kingdom, beginning in 1153. During this period, there were several claimants to the Throne, most distant male descendants of King Aedanicus II or female line claimants descended from Niall II, though his daughters were barred from inheritance by Imperial law. Near the end of the Interregnum, Seán Aleckán, one of the most distinguished military leaders in Urcea and in the Empire, announced his claim, having descended directly from St. Julius I in the female line, thus sharing no direct relation with any previous King. The claim was justified partially by the text of the Golden Bull of 1098, in which the Kingdom was entrusted to the "relational descendants of the great Saint, Julius, the Archduke", which the Aleckán faction claimed gave them a better claim as "descendant". Seán Aleckán subsequently received the support of the Emperor, defeating the other claimants, and was crowned King Seán I on January 1st, 1156, beginning the Julio-Aleckán dynasty, which would seat several Kings in the Julian Palace in the next two centuries.

Seán's reign primarily involved solidifying his own position on the Throne, particularly isolating or exiling other potential claimants as well as putting down a revolt of local nobles in the newly acquired Electorate of Canaery, which had been in open revolt during the Interregnum of 1153. His son, Seán II, began Urcea's first forays in non-Levantine foreign affairs, sending small armies to Sarpedon to aid in the conflicts of various Catholic powers in the Crusades. Seán II's reign also involved complex long-distance trade missions to Crona, beginning in 1201 and continued by his successors. Seán II's successor Niall III took the Throne in 1202 and was the first of the Kings of Urcea to be elected as Emperor of the Levantines, though Archduke Adrian was elected in 1002 to that position. Niall, who reigned as Emperor Niall I, oversaw a successful campaign to restore the integrity of the Empire, fully utilizing the strength of the Kingdom to disinherit and imprison seditious Imperial vassals, some lands of which were then appropriated to the Kingdom. Emperor Niall I also issued the Golden Bull of 1207, which expanded the Electorate from 9 to 18, adding 9 Bishop-Electors, as a show of magnanimity to the Church. Niall often feuded with the local magnates in the Kingdom and was unpopular among several of the vassals of the Empire, but despite this, the Collegial Electorate announced its intention to elect his son Donnchad to succeed him, recognizing the stabilizing effect Emperor Niall had on the Empire. Upon Niall's death in 1214, his son Donnchad was passed over in favor of a distant descendant of the Julio-Yustona King Aedanicus II (through one of his daughters) named Cónn of Holmfilth, a powerful Count Palatine from the northern heartlands of the Kingdom in the modern province of Westglen. Crowned King Constantine I later in 1214, this succession became the opening events of the multi-generational dynastic Saint's War, which would last nearly 200 years.