Recaps

Ilya and Romanus reviewed a murder report involving Boranov and left the final decision to the emperor, while Leo visited Galata to order fishing boats and shop for supplies. The chapter ended with Leo nearly out of money, planning to spend another fortnight enjoying himself before asking his mother for more.

• Ilya and an Inner Palace Directorate eunuch read Boranov's report during night duty and deferred it until morning.
• Romanus reviewed the murder case in the Cabinet, ordered officials to restore order, and left Boranov's future post for the emperor to decide.
• Leo visited Romanus's residence, then crossed the Golden Horn to Galata to buy supplies and gifts.
• Leo ordered fifteen fishing boats, including three large vessels, and purchased materials for smaller boats to be assembled in Tripoli.
• Leo toured Galata and climbed the Tower of Christ, where he viewed Constantinople from above.
• After two days of shopping, Leo ran low on money and decided to enjoy himself for another fortnight before asking his mother for funds.

Simon delivered Vitus’s replies to the Cabinet, while Vitus toured the Sakarya countryside and considered rural land, taxation, and local water disputes. The chapter ended with Vitus accepting that village conflicts would largely have to be handled by priests and local officials.

• Simon brought Vitus’s sealed instructions from the summer palace, and Tucha and the eunuch recorded the emperor’s replies for the crown prince.
• Vitus showed Agnes the Sakarya battlefield, where she considered selling her workshops to buy estates for Leo.
• Vitus explained the empire’s landholding limits, rural taxes, and military obligations as Agnes weighed her inheritance plans.
• Vitus inspected a veteran-settled village and its shared dam, where drought had reduced the water supply and villagers guarded their water rights.
• Vitus recalled that disputes over a new dam in Galatia had killed two people and implicated Chiron, then concluded that local officials and priests would have to mediate such conflicts.

Thomas witnessed a deadly trial by combat that deepened tensions between the allied army and local nobles, while Frederick pushed for peace and offered to support Vitus’s demands. Rodrigo Borgia then brought word that the Pope had accepted those demands, leaving Vitus to consider a truce with Charles VII and action in Italy.

• Thomas attended a trial by combat in which Miłowit killed Baron Jacob de Stemore, and Frederick declared Miłowit innocent.
• Tensions between the allied army and local residents worsened as soldiers’ misconduct and the duel angered local nobles.
• Frederick offered to support Vitus’s demands for Sicily, Corsica, and Di Maggio’s return to Florence, and pressured Władysław to accept them.
• After unrest broke out in central Italian cities, Vitus held off on launching an invasion until the Holy See and the allies accepted his terms.
• Rodrigo Borgia arrived in Ragusa and told Vitus that the Pope had agreed to his demands; Vitus responded that he would otherwise make a truce with Charles VII.

Vitus brought an Eastern Roman force to Ancona, where a revolt had driven out the French garrison, and secured the city’s support for the campaign. After Rodrigo negotiated passage through Urbino, Orlando led troops west to scout the Apennines and found that deteriorated roads would limit the artillery they could move.

• Vitus’s fleet reached Ancona, where the citizens had expelled the French garrison after a deadly uprising, and he promised the provisional council that the Eastern Roman Empire would not occupy the city.
• Vitus secured Ancona’s cooperation and a tax exemption through Rodrigo Borgia’s agreement with the Holy See, then chose Urbino as his first objective in central Italy.
• Rodrigo persuaded Federico of Urbino to grant the army passage in exchange for the Holy See’s promise to invest him as duke, and Federico handed over a French nobleman and attendants.
• Orlando continued west with two mountain battalions to scout the Apennines and seek a route to the west coast.
• Orlando found that the Via Flaminia had deteriorated into rough tracks, making it difficult to move heavy guns and baggage wagons, and learned that local languages varied widely across Italy.

Orlando’s two battalions advanced through war-ravaged territory and ambushed a mercenary cavalry force on a mountain road. After Orlando reported the victory and learned that enemy troops planned to attack the east coast, Vitus marched inland from Ancona with ten thousand soldiers ahead of the second echelon.

• Orlando’s reconnaissance squad killed twenty brigands and captured fifteen near a burned village, and Orlando ordered the contaminated well sealed.
• Orlando received word that several hundred enemy cavalry were approaching and ordered the First Battalion to block the pass while the Second Battalion circled behind them.
• Orlando led troops through the woods and launched an ambush, trapping most of the cavalry on the mountain road until they surrendered.
• The Second Battalion commander reported seventy enemy dead, two hundred captured, and three hundred horses seized, while Orlando sent a coded battle report to Ancona.
• Vitus learned that enemy forces planned to suppress the rebellion and then attack the east coast, so he led ten thousand soldiers inland ahead of the second echelon.

Vitus led the Eastern Roman Empire's army through Perugia after forcing the city to provide supplies and prominent families’ young members as companions. After the French Army withdrew toward Florence, Vitus advanced through Siena and into the Republic of Florence, where the army reached the Arno River and found its crossing dismantled.

• Vitus crossed the Tiber River, compelled Perugia to quarter and supply his army, and demanded that prominent families send young members along as safeguards.
• Vitus learned that French forces had gathered near Siena, then received reports that they were retreating after Siena’s walls had been breached.
• Vitus sent troops north to occupy towns and continued his advance after the second echelon raised his field strength to twenty-four thousand.
• Vitus passed through the ruined, unsupplied city of Siena and entered the Republic of Florence, where Paoli Di Maggio said he had finally returned home.
• Martin Di Maggio reported that a town ahead had surrendered, and Vitus’s army reached the Arno River, whose bridge and nearby boats had been removed.

Vitus’s forces secured a coastal landing point and brought heavy artillery ashore while he prepared for a French advance from both north and south. He divided his army to hold Florence’s troops back and lead the main force south against Richmond.

• Boranov blockaded Livorno and built a temporary harbor near Antignano so the navy could bring siege artillery ashore.
• An Eastern Roman Cruiser located Boranov’s force, and Boranov requested heavy guns from Corsica; on October 3, the navy delivered twenty Siege Cannons and other artillery.
• Vitus learned that Richmond was marching north from Naples with thirty to forty thousand French troops, threatening to trap the Greek army between two advancing forces.
• Vitus asked Rodrigo to have Rome’s garrison hold key areas and harass French supply lines while allied Austrian and Polish forces traveled from Slovenia.
• Vitus surveyed Florence’s defenses and decided not to storm the city, assigning Xerxes the Tuna Legion and supporting troops to stop Florence’s forces from crossing the river.
• Vitus ordered the main force south to confront Richmond quickly, while noting that too few of his two hundred thousand standing troops could join the decisive battle.

Vitus arrived in Rome and assigned its mercenaries to delay the advancing French Army along the roads south. Muzio’s Grey Pigeon Mercenary Corps damaged the Via Latina and fought off French advance troops, then prepared to withdraw and join the Vulture Mercenary Corps.

• Vitus surveyed Rome, bypassed the elaborate papal entry ceremony, and demanded troops to help slow the French advance.
• Vitus divided five mercenary corps between the Via Latina and the Appian Way, ordering them to damage roads and bridges and remain until the enemy outnumbered them by at least two to one.
• Muzio led five companies of the Grey Pigeon Mercenary Corps out of Rome and, with a Greek cavalry deputy commander, tore up the Via Latina and blocked its drainage ditches.
• After rain flooded the damaged road, Muzio’s men dug trenches and drove off a small French cavalry force with help from Greek and mercenary cavalry.
• Muzio urged the deputy commander to retreat as more French cavalry gathered, and they agreed to move that night to the village where the Vulture Mercenary Corps was stationed.

Władysław arrived at Ancona with Polish reinforcements while Xerxes struggled to hold the Arno River against French crossings. In the south, Polish cavalry helped Vitus defeat the French and their allies, but Władysław was wounded after charging a large French force, leaving Vitus to decide how to continue the pursuit.

• On October 11, Władysław landed at Ancona and decided to march south to reinforce Rome, despite Thomas urging him to remain in the north.
• Xerxes repelled one French river crossing, but another force established a beachhead and began building a pontoon bridge; he used Rockets and artillery against it before preparing to fall back.
• Richmond's French army found Rome poorly defended, then fought Vitus's forces as they withdrew; on October 19, Richmond ordered a retreat after failing to locate Vitus's main force.
• Three thousand Polish cavalry attacked the French allies from the east while Vitus counterattacked in the northwest, helping rout the Thyme Mercenary Regiment and close the encirclement.
• Władysław led two hundred men in a charge against a large French force and was shot in the shoulder; his attendant told Vitus that the king asked about plans for the continued pursuit.

Vitus helped the coalition drive the French from Florence, then turned toward negotiating peace and resettling Italian refugees in Anatolia. The chapter left Simon overseeing refugee recruitment at Ostia as delegations arrived in Rome to discuss an armistice.

• Vitus ordered Xerxes to feign defeat and lure the French south, but Orlando routed the Medici army before the orders arrived, so Xerxes told him to withdraw.
• Vitus concentrated the coalition near Siena, and the French avoided encirclement before retreating north of the Arno River.
• The French evacuated Florence in late November, and Vitus returned the city to Paoli Di Maggio before wintering his forces across the region.
• Vitus arranged refugee recruitment at eight ports and sent ships to carry Italian refugees from Ostia to Anatolia.
• Simon registered refugees at Ostia, and on January 5, 1458, he sent more than six hundred aboard ships.
• Simon learned that Charles VII's delegation had arrived to negotiate an armistice, with envoys from the other belligerents expected in Rome.

Thomas negotiated the settlement over Corsica and Naples while the tournament entertained Rome’s envoys, and Vitus later arrived for the peace conference. The parties signed an agreement ending the war, though the Pope could only hope the peace would last.

• Thomas argued with Jean II de Bourbon over Corsica, and the Duke of Bourbon eventually accepted its occupation in exchange for France retaining Montferrat.
• Władysław announced a tournament, while the envoys debated Naples and agreed that its crown would remain vacant under a council of nobles.
• Jan Zawisza won the tournament final, and Thomas ordered his injured opponent taken away for treatment.
• Vitus received Thomas’s report and accepted the settlement on Naples and the Po Valley before traveling to Rome.
• Vitus attended the peace conference, where the parties signed an agreement declaring the war a misunderstanding and pledging to end it.