Lemesos, Cyprus, March 21st, 1373
With Rhodes back under Sicilian control the army that had forced the Hospitallers into surrender had split. Three thousand men under Buas had sailed back to Epirus. The rest along with twenty-eight galleys under Maniakes and Kallergis had instead sailed east against Cyprus, investing the castle of Lemesos. John of Lusignan, the regent of the kingdom would start assembling an army to deal with the invaders, but would also prudently seek terms. Maniakes would refuse outright...
Syracuse, March 1373
Constant campaigning, had not helped Adrienne and Ioannis Maniakes in having children, even or perhaps due to the young princess following her husband on campaign. But finally the couple had had a son in June 1372. Unsurprisingly he would now be baptized Alexandros after his grandfather.
Ioannina, April 1373
Five thousand men under Ioannis Buas marched west to the Metsovon pass and from there into the Hlapen domains from the west. Ten thousand men under Alexandros Philanthropenos were already invading Hlapen's lands from the east.
Constantinople, May 1373
Co-emperor Andronikos IV had been anything but happy at his father being forced into vassalage by sultan Murad. His solution had been to organize a coup to overthrow him... in conjunction with Murad's son Savci bey launching a coup against his own father. Both coups would fail with Murad executing his son and forcing ioannis V to bind Andronikos. Ioannis would only partially do so but come September would make his second son Manuel co-emperor.
Germasogeia, June 1373
John of Lusignan had hoped to avoid battle. His knights and barons were of a different mind, with Lemesos on the bring of surrender and Greek light cavalry burning down their estates and letting the serfs run away and join them. That Maniakes and Kallergis had no knights of their own had just made the calls for battle all the more louder. And John had a thousand knights and three thousand infantry into battle against a Sicilian army twice as large under his two namesakes. He would be proven right in not wanting to give battle, as the Sicilians would inflict on him 1,500 casualties on him for just a third as many casualties. Lemesos would surrender in the end of the month with the Sicilian army moving then west to invest Paphos.
North Italy, September 1373
Francesco Carrara, lord of Padua, had start his second war against Venice with high hopes given the Venetian defeats at Sicilian hands and the Hungarians and Austrians coming to his aid. But the Venetians after accepting peace with Sicily had proven of sterner stuff, defeating the Hungarian invading army at Treviso and taking their commander Nicola Lackfi prisoner, capturing the fortress of Borgoforte from the Paduans and funding a plot by his half-brothers against him. With Louis I of Hungary more interested in securing his succession to the Polish throne, he had accepted peace with Venice and so had Carrara despite the harsh Venetians terms.
Cyprus, November 1373
Paphos surrendered to the Greeks. Over a third of the island had fallen to the Sicilians so far.
Thessaloniki, December 1373
Agnes took a mental note that the Greeks were thinking differently. Even after several decades in Sicily and the Greek mainland she sometimes had to remind herself of that. Take Philanthropenos. His wife Maria was the daughter of a notary and militia commander here in Thessaloniki, who had a fair bit of influence with the Zealots. Which by Frankish standards made her not just a commoner but the daughter of a rebel as well. The Greeks just did not care that way. Neither did she anymore, truth to tell. Otherwise Ioanna wouldn't be getting married in Saint Demetrios cathedral with their son Michael.
Bursa, February 1374
Sultan Murad I looked thoughtfully at the Serb emissaries before him. Radoslav Hlapen had survived the campaign against him the previous year. Short off. The Greeks had driven him out of Veroia, Pieria and Grevena. His fellow Serb lords were not coming to his aid between their disputed and fearing the Greeks. And thus Hlapen had come begging for his aid. Murad was tempted. After all sooner or later war with the Sicilians was inevitable. But not just yet. The huge gains made the past few years had to be absorbed first. After all Sicily was going to be a far tougher nut to crack than the other Christians had proven so far.
Avignon, April 1374
Pope Gregory XI had received the Sicilian envoys well. But the negotiations to lift the ban on Sicily would fail as the Sicilians would refuse to stop the war on Cyprus or to return Rhodes to the Hospitallers. But common ground nevertheless existed and Gregory worried about Muslim expansion in the Balkans. The split would remain but both sides would continue negotiating.
Cagliari, July 1374
The Genoese fleet that had come to the aid of Martinus IV retreated having failed to bring down the Aragonese defenses. But despite the failure nearly the entirety of Sardinia remained under the control of Martinus Sardinians. Only Cagliari, Alghero and Sassari remained under Aragonese control.
Syracuse, December 1374
Adrienne Lascaris Doukas Palaiologos died at age 79. She would be interred together with Theodore I in the imperial crypt at Syracuse....
Cyprus, January 1375
Famagusta surrendered to Ioannis Maniakes. The Lusignans still held Nicosia in the center of the island and its surrounding areas but all the coastal towns were by now under Lascarid control.
Ohrid, February 1375
Radoslav Hlapen had escaped to his son in law prince Marko, after the last of his strongholds in Macedonia had fallen to the army of Philanthropenos. Marko had given him asylum but at the same time had sent envoys to Thessaloniki to find out the Sicilians intentions. The Sicilians had proven without doubt that they were not to be triffled with. If they invaded his own holding Marko would fight back. But otherwise he was not going to bring a war with them on his head...
Cilicia April 1375
The last Armenian king went into Mameluke captivity, as the Mamelukes destroyed the remnants of the kingdom of Lesser Armenia.
Spain, June 1375
Crown prince John of Castille was married to Eleanor of Aragon, finally bringing to an end the war of the two Peters.
Tuscany, July 1375
Florence signed an alliance with Milan. It would be followed by Florentine agents trying to incite revolts in forty towns within the Papal states and paying John Hawkwood, the leading condottiere in Papal service 130,000 florins to refrain from fighting against them. The war of the eight saints between Florence and the Papacy had begun...
Milan, October 1375
Cypriot envoys had tried to secure a marriage between the infant Peter II and Valentina Visconti. Her father Bernabo, the lord of Milan had been to cunning to enter a marriage alliance with Cyprus that would bring him in conflict with Syracuse. Instead he had start negotiations with the Sicilians for a marriage alliance. And thus Rodolfo Visconti the third legitimate son of Bernabo would be married with Maria Lascaris Vatatzes the fourth daughter of the late Alexandros II. Further to the marriage, negotiations would be opened for the betrothal of Theodore with Lucia Visconti....
Nicosia, November 1375
The city and Peter II of Lusignan surrendered to the soldiers of Ioannis Kallergis. The Cretan warlord would be amply rewarded for his success and loyalty to Syracuse. Not least by Anna Lascaris Vatatzes the third sister of Theodore II being married to Ioannis son Leon.
