History of Urcea (800-1098)

The History of Urcea from 800 to 1098, sometimes also called the Archducal Period, consists of period of time from the death of Saint Julius I in 800 AD to the proclamation of the Golden Bull of 1098. This period saw the rise of the Julian dynasty within the newly established realms of the Archduchy of Urceopolis and the Duchy of Yustona, and additionally saw the growing power of the Julian dynasty within the Southern Kingdom of the Levantines. During this period, the Levantine Empire disintegrated and was partially reunited. The two Julian realms were united in 922, forming a powerful constituent part of the rapidly weakening Southern Kingdom of the Levantines. This period saw the first Emperor of the Levantines of the Julian dynasty, confirming their rapid ascent. In the midst of a civil war that threatened the existence of the Levantine Empire, Emperor Saint Charles II offered the Royal dignity to the Julians in exchange for their support. In 1098, the two Julian realms were united and the descendants of Saint Julius I assumed the Kingship of Urcea that year, marking the formal foundation of the country.

Urceopolis and the Empire
Though the Conine Dynasty established the Imperial capital in the city of Corcra, Urceopolis remained the largest city in the Empire and the most powerful vassal the Emperor could call on. This would occasionally lead to friction between the Archdukes and the Emperor; the Julii dynasty was briefly deposed following a failed rebellion and the death of Archduke Conchobar in 865, leading to a local noble elected by the the city’s leading families upon the request of the Emperor that year. The noble, Aedanicus, was soon deposed by the Julian dynasty and the Emperor, on whose support Aedanicus relied upon to remain on the Throne, did nothing. No other direct conflict between the Archdukes and the Emperor would occur, as a more friendly and symbiotic relationship between Urceopolis and Corcra became established.

The relationship between the Southern King of the Levantines, also known as Carolina, and Archdukes of Urceopolis, unlike that of Urceopolis and the Empire, was fraught with hostility. While the greatest extent of this would come during the Yustonese Succession, the Kings of Carolina often worked to pit the Archduke against the Pope to weaken both and politically fragment the most populous region of the Kingdom. In 915, the new Duchy of Transurciana was split from the Archduchy comprised of most of the Archducal lands southeast of the Urce River, comprised of a number of Gael-descended counties settled by the conquest of Conchobar I, Emperor of the Levantines. While the Duchy was given back to the Archduke, the King gave special privileges and right of appeal to the Pope to the counts within the Duchy, creating what amounted to a Papal zone of control extending southeast of Urceopolis itself. Control of this territory would remain a difficult issue for the Julian dynasty for the next several centuries.

The Archduchy of Urceopolis within the Southern Kingdom of the Levantines; the Grand Duchy of Yustona can be seen to its east.

917 AD was a momentous year, both for the Archduchy of Urceopolis and the Holy Levantine Empire. The Tribal Assembly of Urceopolis, which was an ancient institution dating back to antiquity and was a critical institution in the middle period of Great Levantia, met for the last time. This momentous occasion is perhaps only notable in hindsight, as the Assembly was never formally dissolved and instead faded into obscurity as the eligible voters were spread further and further from Urceopolis, making meetings of what was once a "popular urban assembly" impossible. For the Holy Levantine Empire, the Empire was divided among the sons of Emperor Brian III according to the traditional practice of inheritance dating back to Gallawa. This division - and the subsequent inability to decide which son of Brian III would become Emperor - lead to the functional disintegration of the Empire. This left the Archdukes owing their allegiance to the Southern Kingdom of the Levantines, also known as Carolingia or Carolina due to the name of its first king, Charles. Within this Southern Kingdom, the Archdukes found themselves to be nearly on par with the King in terms of wealth and manpower, leading to a troubled relationship between the two lines of rulers for the entirety of the Kingdom’s existence.

Yustonese Succession
In 922, the last male-line heir of St. Julius in the Archduchy of Urceopolis, Cumhachtabilis, died without issue. The closest heir was Grand Duke Seán, of the Duchy of Yustona, direct descendant of Saint Julius I's brother who had been placed there as Grand Duke in the 8th century. The King of Carolina viewed this to be unacceptable, as the combination of the so-called "Julian Realms' would render him impotent. The King of Carolina attempted to take the Archduchy for himself as a new center for his Kingdom, sparking what historians would refer to as the War of the Urceopolitan Succession between the House Yustona (including loyalists in the vacant Archduchy) and the King. In the end, Grand Duke Seán triumphed and was crowned Archduke of Urceopolis and also Mayor of the Palace (of the Southern Kingdom of the Levantines), elevating House Yustona to the true power in the Kingdom. Seán would marry his eldest son to a bride from the direct descent line of Saint Julius I, which would eventually bear Niall of House "Julio-Yustona". Seán died in 930; he was succeeded by his son Seán II, who was deathly ill at the time of his assent. Upon the death of Seán II, Niall, brother of Seán I, seized the Throne, on the basis that the younger Niall (son of Seán I) was too weak to rule. The King, however, would intervene and the elder Niall was killed on the battlefield, allowing the 7-year old Niall of House Julio-Yustona to become Archduke and Grand Duke. The King believed that a young heir would allow the Conine dynasty to reclaim power within the Kingdom, though his death and succession of his own young son meant that they could not consolidate power in time.

Restoration of the Empire
In 965, the Eastern King of the Levantines, a man named Leo, a Derian noble, deposed the Conine King in the Southern Kingdom with the considerable assistance of the Archduke of Urceopolis, who invited his invasion. The Pope crowned Leo as Emperor in 972, reforming the Levantine Empire, though permanently without the Western Kingdom of the Levantines. The Leonine Dynasty proved short lived, and its failure to produce an heir lead to near-open revolt. The Archduke of Urceopolis at the time, Julius III, joined the rebelling factions, eventually winning and securing that the Emperor would be elected by the most powerful or worthy vassals of the Empire via the Collegial Electorate. Julius Secures the Imperial Liberties, a romantic painting of the Archduke forcing the Imperial regent to sign a charter (the Pragmatic Sanction of 997) following the regent’s defeat on the field, became an iconic rallying symbol for Urcean national identity within the Empire in the 19th century. Archduke Julius III’s son, Adrian IV, became Archduke and Grand Duke in 1002, and he himself was elected Emperor in 1014, becoming Emperor Adrian II, the first of several of the family of St. Julius to become Emperor. During his reign, Emperor Adrian convened the first Great Landsmeet in 1022. This Landsmeet was envisioned by the Emperor as a meeting of all of the Custóirs of the Estates of Urcea as a system to resolve disputes within the Archduchy-Yustona between the various optimate families, whose feuding undermined the realm. The Great Landsmeet was also devised as a system to help assist in administration of the realm by way of consensus, an early example of the foundation of the Constitution of Urcea. The Great Landsmeet would meet only upon the call of the Archduke, and during its existence it met dozens of times in its centuries of existence. It replaced the earlier Tribal Assembly, which had not met since 917, and given that only the heads of the 50 estates were required to participate, it was considerably easier to gather enough Custóirs to have a working meeting. The Great Landsmeet would remain a permanent institution for centuries. Adrian, reformer and the "First Urcean Emperor", died in 1036.

Late Archducal period
By the late 11th century, the Holy Levantine Empire had already approached something resembling its territorial peak; the Luciusian Dynasty had conquered the area of modern northern Fiannria, an area that had eluded central authority for nearly a millenia. This area was, at that time, part of a larger region commonly known as Ultramurus, that is, “beyond the wall”, referring to the walls constructed by Great Levantia to signify their northern borders, which today is referred to as Ultmar. Within the Empire, the position of the Archduchy-Duchy continued to grow, acquiring several lands and titles outside the traditional geographic boundaries of Urceopolis-Yustona, particularly over Cape Aedan and down into the modern province of Callan but also as far north as the city of Killea. These lands were all established under the Kingdom of Dericania in 1043, which encompassed, for the most part, the southern half of the Empire; the Kingdom of Culfra encompassed the north. Additionally, the Golden Bull of 1043 also set the amount of electors at 9; neither Yustona nor Urceopolis were granted the electoral dignity as it was thought to be a way to balance its power relative to the rest of the Empire. This lead to a 100-year quest on the part of the Julio-Yustona Dynasty to acquire a vote for Emperor, either by a chance to the law or by inheritance.

During this period, Urcean nobles began their participation in the Crusades as part of a general effort by the Holy Levantine Empire to turn back the influence of the Oduniyyad Caliphate in Sarpedon and elsewhere. Beginning in 1095 with Pope Urban II's call for a restoration of Christendom in Sarpedon, the Archduke-Grand Duke of Urceopolis, Riordan II, fought in several campaigns before returning to Levantia in 1097, accumulating a great deal of prestige for himself and his dynasty following several successful reconquests in southern Sarpedon. Simultaneously, the Kingdom of Culfra began to openly discuss separating from the Empire altogether or deposing the Collegial Electorate in favor of a hereditary northern King, and by 1096 began to march for Corcra. Freshly off campaign and with his resources having been spent for the crusade, Riordan II pledged neutrality, which would have weakened the Imperial cause to the point in which a dissolution of the Empire could have plausibly occurred. The Emperor Charles II Luciusian began to seek ways of winning the Urceopolitan monarch back to his side, and settled on an offer of Kingship and consolidation. Citing the recent canonization of St. Julius I, the pious prestige accrued during the recent Crusade, and the considerable lands and titles his successors had acquired, the Emperor offered Riordan a Kingship formed out of all of western Dericania to be nominally part of a new Kingdom of Urcea. Riordan accepted, and Emperor Carles II issued the Golden Bull of 1098, which created the Kingdom and consolidated all of Riordan’s holdings under him and compelling the other vassals in the region to be nominally subservient to him. With the support of the new Julian Crown, the Imperial faction won the war. Riordan I (adopting new regnal numbering) styled himself Apostolic King in light of his holy ancestor, and the title remained from that point onward.