Carolingian Decline
The Problem with Succession
Before Charlemagne's sickness, he and his daughter, Louise I, discussed succession options for her junior position of the Diarchy, the Caesar, as it was generally accepted she would elevate to the senior title, Augustus, upon his death. Louise’s first born Peipina, later Pepina II, was the logical choice, though only two years old at the time. To secure stability, once Charlemagne took ill in early 1577 AUC, the family announced their plans to the greater kingdoms. Pepina II would be crowned Caesar before the summer was out, with her grandmother, Charlemagne’s wife Irene, serving as regent until the child came of age. As a consequence, even Charlemagne’s death in late 1577 AUC, though massively significant, did not cause the instability many believed, a tribute to his years of careful planning and Louise I’s steady and proved ability to navigate the growing empire’s complexities. Irene would take the young Caesar to Constantinople and rear Pepina in her court, hoping to ensure the eastern half of the empire's influence on the west, strengthening their multicultural bonds.
Security Through Bloodlines
The Carolingian Renaissance slowed but did not recede during the interim years of Pepina II’s minority. Irene, a talented and astute court politician, did her best to both administer the east while also forming and molding the young monarch. In the West, Louise would have two more children with her husband Jude, Count of Bavaria. But an uprising by his baron’s and his subsequent attempt to quell them with grants of royal lands would tear their relationship asunder, resulting in his eventual execution in 1580 AUC. Louise would marry again, this time to Emil, Count of Upper Belgium. They would have two children though only one would live past childhood, Laure. Pepina’s minority ended in 1591 AUC, and with her official laurel leaf crowning as Caesar, the empire seemed exceedingly secure, with no less than four direct heirs to ensure generational stability.On Strong Women and Civil War
This would all change on a late summer afternoon in 1600 AUC. While out riding in the countryside shortly after her 25th birthday, Peipina was thrown from her horse and accidentally trampled by her house guards. Days later she would be dead, the empire’s future suddenly embroiled in controversy. Grief stricken, Louise I did not immediately appoint Pepina’s successor for over a month. Given Pepina’s distance as the ruler of the Eastern Roman Empire, her sisters felt little kinship towrds her, and each positioned themselves for succession, reading for war.
Before long, and due in no small part to desires of power within their courts, the women organized their own armies and marched on each other and their mother to secure the title of Caesar.
Righteous Queens Rebellion
Five years of bloodshed followed, as Louise I navigated the treacherous and violent political tides left in the wake of her daughter’s death. Though Louise II, her next oldest child, had the strongest title claim, the two were known to detest one another. Of her remaining children, perhaps most ambitious of all was Charlotte Raven Hair, headstrong as Louise I was righteous. Charlotte’s army grew faster and more lethal than her siblings, thanks to her alignment with the northern clans. This partnership evolved over many years, eventually breaking down when the Ostmen returned to claim land grants and rewards long ago promised through this initial alliance. Lastly, Laure, Louise I’s only surviving child of her second marriage, was her most dear. And despite Laure’s position as the youngest, and only half-sister to her older siblings, she gained the full support of her mother in the later portion of the rebellion. Their alliance brought the full weight of the western empire into the fray, ensuring the ferocious civil war would not know peace for half a decade.
Official Partitions of the Treaty of Verdun, 1606 AUC
West Francia
Ruler: Charlotte Raven Hair
Brief History:
Charlotte’s ambitious campaigning and deft diplomacy enabled her armies to secure large swaths of the western empire. While her mother and sisters warred in the heartlands, her forces successfully carved out western provences. Her alliances with northmen, predecessors to the Ostmen, while key to her eventual success and establishment of her kingdom, came at a price. Her successors were left to untangle treaties and shifting alliances with aggressive polytheistic tribes, leading directly to the establishment of the Ostment Territories and later complications with the Brittanian Isles.
More Reading: Early Francian History
Middle Francia & Burgundy
Ruler: Laure
Brief History:
With the help of her mother, Laure and her armies carved out the lands between West Francia and the remaining western empire. As her mother’s favored child, and only daughter of her second marriage, Louise I ensured Laure’s kingdom included the rich northern lands of her husband’s Barony, Upper Belgium, and the fruitful border farms which would later become the basis of the Burgundian Duchy. Laure’s early death destabliazed the nacent kingdom, dooming it to be aborbed by its sister kingdoms to the east and west, along with sowing the seeds of future dissention between the Dukes of Burgundy and the Francian Crowns.
More Reading: Early Burgundian History
Holy Roman Empire
Ruler: Louise II
Brief History:
With the strongest claim and most organized army, Louise II dictated the pace of the Righteous Queens Rebellion, winning nearly every major battle, and making massive profits off of ransoms. Only her mother’s intervention on Laure’s behalf stemmed her wins, and even then, only slowed the inevitable tide. After the Treaty of Verdun, Louise II would assume the title of Caesar, and go on to replace her mother as Augustus only a few years later. Though the western empire shrunk, she ensured tight bonds with the east, and codified the Diarchy after her son’s birth.
More Reading: Early Holy Roman Empire History
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Author's Notes
All art on this page was created by the author, J.J. Sinisi, using their original artwork, or modified artwork created using photoshop, Real Illusion Character Creator and/or Pro Fantasy, all on license free content. Horse image on this page used modfied Unsplash image (for courtesy only): Photo by Tommaso Curre on Unsplash