13,721
edits
Halfway: Difference between revisions
m
→Crusader state
m (→Crusader state) |
m (→Crusader state) |
||
| Line 56: | Line 56: | ||
The establishment of the Principality only presaged greater troubles on Halfway related to the First Crusade. The larger crusader force led personally by the Emperor began to arrive in Halfway's different ports beginning in late November [[1085]]. By the spring of [[1086]], more than 120,000 crusaders were on the island, causing significant hardship for both the army and the locals. Prince Guy I was forced to balance the interests of the army and local prominent families, distancing the Prince from the Emperor but creating goodwill among local leaders. The crusading army began to rob and pillage the countryside looking for food and supplies, forcing Guy to push them further into the Pinefor jungle where many crusaders perished from malaria. After constant negotiating, Guy managed to get the crusaders off the island by the end of summer 1086 as they moved onto [[Thessia]]. The Principality gained a negative reputation among crusaders and Levantine nobility, and Guy was viewed negatively in Levantia for decades afterwards. | The establishment of the Principality only presaged greater troubles on Halfway related to the First Crusade. The larger crusader force led personally by the Emperor began to arrive in Halfway's different ports beginning in late November [[1085]]. By the spring of [[1086]], more than 120,000 crusaders were on the island, causing significant hardship for both the army and the locals. Prince Guy I was forced to balance the interests of the army and local prominent families, distancing the Prince from the Emperor but creating goodwill among local leaders. The crusading army began to rob and pillage the countryside looking for food and supplies, forcing Guy to push them further into the Pinefor jungle where many crusaders perished from malaria. After constant negotiating, Guy managed to get the crusaders off the island by the end of summer 1086 as they moved onto [[Thessia]]. The Principality gained a negative reputation among crusaders and Levantine nobility, and Guy was viewed negatively in Levantia for decades afterwards. | ||
After the crusading army crisis had passed, Guy began to build the island's administration and reform society along Levantine lines. Guy divided the island into six counties with each including a major city, with borders roughly shaped as wedges running through to peak of Mount Pinefor, with the County of Koureiros remaining with the Prince. Additionally, the land in the island's interior were divided into nominal estates for farming according to the Levantine model. The unsuitability of the interior for agriculture, however, meant that many of the new nobility were immediately destitute. Manor lords became nominal titles by the end of Guy's reign, with Levantine transplants selling their "manors" and "estates" to prominent native merchants for a small figure and returning to Levantia. From this period on, "Pinefor Manors" became the common means of social mobility within Halfway society, as any individual with enough money could buy their way into titular nobility. A few industrious merchants attempted to make use of the land they held in the interior, with few success stories, though the enclosure of the island did contribute to the reduction of jungle by 15% between [[1050]] and [[1750]]. In order to ensure the Principality's longterm success, Guy brought in several other of his [[Bergendii]] countrymen to rebuild and operate the Principality's fleet. For the next four centuries, the Principality's military fleet would be unusually professional and take on a distinctly Bergendii character that established it as above its similarly sized peers, ensuring the Principality's independence. | After the crusading army crisis had passed, Guy began to build the island's administration and reform society along Levantine lines. Guy divided the island into six counties with each including a major city, with borders roughly shaped as wedges running through to peak of Mount Pinefor, with the County of Koureiros remaining with the Prince. Additionally, the land in the island's interior were divided into nominal estates for farming according to the Levantine model. The unsuitability of the interior for agriculture, however, meant that many of the new nobility were immediately destitute. Manor lords became nominal titles by the end of Guy's reign, with Levantine transplants selling their "manors" and "estates" to prominent native merchants for a small figure and returning to Levantia. From this period on, "Pinefor Manors" became the common means of social mobility within Halfway society, as any individual with enough money could buy their way into titular nobility. A few industrious merchants attempted to make use of the land they held in the interior, with few success stories, though the enclosure of the island did contribute to the reduction of jungle by 15% between [[1050]] and [[1750]]. In order to ensure the Principality's longterm success, Guy brought in several other of his [[Bergendii]] countrymen to rebuild and operate the Principality's fleet. For the next four centuries, the Principality's military fleet would be unusually professional and take on a distinctly Bergendii character that established it as above its similarly sized peers, ensuring the Principality's independence. The longest lasting of Guy's reforms was the institution of the Great Court, an advisory body of the new lords of the realm that would assist him in governing the island. The Great Court, in this form, was comprised of a small clique of senior knights and prominent mercantile officials (lords of the Pinefor Manors) that provided feedback and suggestions to Guy as he solidifed rule over the island. The Great Court would survive Guy I's death in [[1112]] and would serve as an important source of advice to subsequent Princes of Halfway. The institution would receive formal rules and recognition in [[1231]] and would be reformed several times to eventually include democratic representation and two chambers; today it serves as the Provincial legislature. | ||
The | The Principality would long outlive the lifetime of Guy I. Following its establishment in [[1085]], it would follow in the line of long-lived Halfway regimes (excluding the Emirate), surviving in some form for another six centuries. The line of Guy I of Idalè finally died out in [[1474]]. The final count, Hughes VI, secured a marriage alliance with [[Urcea]] and [[Canaery]] by arranging a marriage between his sister and the [[Apostolic King of Urcea]] Donnchad II. Hughes VI's only child, his son Guy, died as his ship sank in a storm in [[1463]]. His younger brothers Carles died from a resurgence of plague on the island in [[1470]]. With the death of Hughes VI, the principality went to his nephew Niall IV, the Urcean king of [[House de Weluta]]. From then on, Halfway would be ruled by the [[Julian dynasty]]. Though the island would be governed from [[Urceopolis (City)|Urceopolis]] instead of Koureiros, most of the institutions of the principality would remain the same for the next two centuries as the island retained legally distinct from Urcea, effectively being governed as a {{wp|personal union}}. | ||
=== Urcean incorporation === | === Urcean incorporation === | ||