Chapter Summaries

In July, Phil sought to strengthen Florence’s resistance to France by securing renewed support for the Pact of Padua, while Vitus weighed the Eastern Roman Empire’s preparations for a possible war in Italy. The chapter left Vitus ordering a new Mountain Brigade as the Triple-Deck Warship project stalled again.

• After finding a wall painting depicting Medici attacking Pauli and Phil, Phil warned Pauli that Florence might surrender when France invaded and decided to seek the Pope’s support for the Pact of Padua.
• In Rome, Phil received Nicholas V’s promise to call on the Italian powers to honor the pact, and the Pope suggested that Phil speak with Fernando of Aragon.
• Phil inferred that Nicholas V wanted Aragon and the Italian powers to defeat France without Eastern Roman troops, doubted they could do so, and decided to write Vitus a long letter.
• At Blachernae Palace, Romanus reminded Vitus that the Chancellors were worried about his absence from Cabinet meetings, and Vitus explained that he had reduced meetings because the government was running smoothly.
• After considering possible battlefields, Vitus ordered an edict provisionally establishing a new Mountain Brigade and questioned whether the Triple-Deck Warship project could ever succeed.

Vitus inspected the Eastern Thrace Shipyard and approved a more stable sixty-eight-gun battleship after the triple-deck project repeatedly failed. Renaf retired and secured his son Simon a position as a court attendant; after half a month of tedious service, Simon finally saw the emperor arrive at Alexius Hall.

• Vitus inspected the Eastern Thrace Shipyard, heard why the Triple-Deck Warship had failed, and approved the shipyard's alternative sixty-eight-gun battleship.
• Renaf met with Vitus after retiring and asked him to find a position for his son Simon, who Vitus appointed as a court attendant.
• Renaf told Simon that their family had lost its influence and urged him to build a career, so Simon reported to Constantinople and completed his appointment procedures.
• Kanaus introduced Simon to the Attendants' Court and explained that attendants served the emperor and had to remain ready to carry out his orders.
• After half a month of routine service, Simon saw Vitus arrive at Alexius Hall for the first time and was told to enter the hall.

Simon served as a court attendant, reviewed historical reports for the Historical Records Compilation Group, and joined the emperor’s Autumn Hunt. After the emperor killed a stag, Simon was ordered to help carry its whole carcass out of the forest.

• Simon watched Tucha argue with the Army Minister during the emperor’s long audience, then hurried to eat after the session ended.
• Kanaus assigned Simon to help review reports for the Historical Records Compilation Group, where Simon marked errors in the third team’s account of Alexios I.
• Simon met Antimos, who explained that the third team had copied historical sources without checking them, and the scholars revised the report before its deadline.
• Kanaus told Simon to attend the Autumn Hunt, and Simon followed the emperor’s party into the forest without a weapon.
• The emperor wounded and killed a stag with arrows and a spear, then a eunuch ordered Simon and three others to carry the carcass out whole.

Simon helped prepare the emperor’s hunting feast while Agricultural Minister Tucha reflected on his work, rising grain prices, and the empire’s military preparations. William Palaiologos warned Vitus that Charles VII was threatening Montferrat, and Vitus concluded that war was inevitable.

• Simon dressed a stag for the emperor’s hunting feast and spoke with Agricultural Minister Tucha about their families and retirement.
• Tucha joined the emperor’s hunt, brought home a deer leg, and grew despondent as he recalled his youth and felt his age.
• Tucha reviewed his department’s summer report and worried that wartime grain buying would raise prices, while imported niter supported the empire’s stockpiles.
• Tucha met William Palaiologos at the palace, where William sought an audience with Vitus over a family matter.
• William told Vitus that Charles VII had demanded military access through Montferrat and threatened to annex it; Vitus reassured him and concluded that war with France was inevitable.

Samuel delivered supplies and heavy guns to Socotra, then learned that rulers in Abyssinia and Serbia were raising taxes to fund firearm-equipped armies. In Serbia, Grgur faced opposition to his tax policies while weighing his mother’s wish for an alliance with the Jagiellon Dynasty against his own plans to preserve Serbia’s independence and expand westward.

• Samuel sailed the Talos to Suq Harbor, where Michael received supplies, four Twenty-Four-Pounders, and an artillery instructor for the fortress militia.
• Samuel learned that Socotra’s whaling operations had accumulated six hundred barrels of whale oil, then visited Demetrius and delivered books and newspapers to the island’s finance officer and priest.
• At Massawa, Samuel saw nobles executed and learned from the governor that Abyssinia’s king was targeting the nobility to raise revenue for military spending.
• In Smederevo, Grgur rejected a noble’s demand to abolish new taxes and threatened to send his expanded army against nobles who resisted.
• Grgur faced complaints from merchants about new customs posts and privately considered how to protect Serbia without becoming a northern puppet, while hoping to expand westward and eventually take Bosnia.

Uroš resisted Grgur’s new taxes, staged a humiliation of a court official, and rallied southern nobles against the Despot. At a banquet, palace forces ambushed the nobles; Uroš escaped the castle but was shot and killed while fleeing toward the forest.

• Uroš had refugees harass a court official collecting taxes, prompting villagers to drive the official away, and then spread rumors against Grgur.
• Uroš attended a northern neighbor’s banquet and urged the assembled nobles to refuse Grgur’s new tax.
• The castle’s owner betrayed the guests, and palace soldiers attacked and captured or killed the nobles at the banquet.
• Uroš fought his way through the soldiers, escaped over the castle wall, and fled east toward the forest.
• Palace soldiers shot Uroš as he fled, then stripped his body of its valuables.

After Grgur killed Uroš in a banquet massacre, Vitus learned that his cousin was dead and redirected the Eastern Roman Empire’s war plans from Italy toward the Jagiellon Dynasty. The chapter ended with Vitus approving a spring invasion plan and arranging the funding and government preparations for war.

• Grgur discovered that Uroš was absent from the prisoners, then learned that soldiers had shot him while he fled the castle.
• Hunyadi heard of the massacre, clashed with Ulrich and Istvan over whether to negotiate or make war, and the nobles agreed to summon the king from Warsaw.
• Romanus told Vitus that the election of the Patriarch of Alexandria was troubled, and Vitus decided to send officials and clergy to mediate.
• After receiving news of Uroš's death, Vitus summoned his ministers and ordered them to prepare for conflict with the Jagiellon Dynasty.
• The Privy Council planned to assemble the main force at Thessaloniki and advance through Serbia into Hungary after winter, while the navy prepared to blockade the Adriatic Sea.
• Vitus approved the military plan and discussed war funding, with the Finance Minister estimating that the treasury held nearly five hundred thousand Florins.

Skanderbeg and Grgur weighed their positions as Hunyadi prepared Serbia’s defenses, while Vitus launched a winter surprise attack through the mountains. Vitus’s forces captured Paraćin, giving them a foothold and a store of grain for the campaign.

• Skanderbeg considered Hunyadi’s generous offer but hesitated because Albania’s nobles were divided over whether to side with Hungary or the Eastern Roman Empire.
• Grgur received Hunyadi’s advice and Hungarian officers, then deployed troops near Niš and stationed his main force in Priština.
• Urban brought his rapid-firing breech-loading cannon to Constantinople but learned that the emperor was absent, prompting palace officials to suspect Vitus had gone to war.
• Vitus ignored Constantine’s warning and led the Varangian Legion into the mountains as part of a surprise advance into Serbia.
• Orlando’s Hermes Brigade reached Paraćin, captured the town after a brief fight, and found enough grain to provision the brigade for more than half a year.

Vitus faced Hunyadi’s Black Army in the north while sending the two Mountain Brigades south to trap Grgur’s army at Priština. Despite falling ill, he recovered enough to oversee a northern stalemate as Roman forces gained the advantage in the south.

• Vitus ordered Orlando and the Mountain Infantry to seize the western bank at Ćuprija, then prepared defenses as Hunyadi’s Black Army arrived near Jagodina.
• Vitus divided his forces, keeping the Varangian Legion in the north and sending the two Mountain Brigades south to cut off Priština and attack Grgur’s army.
• Vitus caught a cold and ordered his officers and Simon to conceal his illness while he rested under the army physician’s care.
• Hungarian troops launched a failed surprise attack, while Vitus’s soldiers fortified their camps and awaited reinforcements through the snowbound mountain roads.
• By December 11, the First Legion had surrounded Niš and the Mountain Brigades had cut off Priština; Vitus rejected a peace overture from the Serbia Envoy.
• Hunyadi remained stalled at Jagodina and doubted that Skanderbeg could muster enough troops in time to rescue Grgur.

Damien’s forces besieged and captured Priština, defeating Grgur’s New Army despite fierce urban resistance. Three days later, Vitus reviewed the southern army’s losses and victories, then ordered troops to protect Otto, the last heir of the Dragases bloodline.

• Siege Cannons blasted four breaches in Priština’s walls while Damien rejected Grgur’s demand to let the defenders leave with their weapons and possessions.
• Damien ordered the assault on December 17, and his troops captured the walls before advancing through the city under heavy fire.
• Roman soldiers overcame the defenders’ barricades and ambushes, captured Grgur, and gave him medical care instead of killing him.
• Damien reported that the southern army had captured Priština and nearly annihilated Grgur’s New Army, while the expected reinforcements never arrived.
• Vitus read the report and a noble’s letter about Otto, then ordered troops to protect the boy, the last of the Dragases bloodline.

Vitus secured southeastern Serbia, planned its defenses, and considered using the region’s mines to expand imperial currency production. Meanwhile, Charles VII’s Italian campaign began, but the Neapolitan army was diverted by a fortress and ended up waiting near Livorno for naval support.

• Vitus received reports at Niš, assigned defensive sectors, and planned to choose a spring target after observing Jagiellon’s deployments.
• Vitus discussed Uroš and the Dragases family with Constantine, then decided he might legitimize one of Uroš’s illegitimate sons if Otto remained missing.
• Vitus inspected western Serbian mines and privately resolved to bring them under imperial ownership after the war to increase precious-metal production.
• Charles VII ordered an attack on Italy, and Crown Prince Jean de Anjou led five thousand Neapolitan soldiers north to support the campaign against Florence.
• Jean’s army failed to breach a Florentine fortress, abandoned its heavy equipment to bypass it, and followed the Arno west toward the coast.
• Unable to capture Livorno, Jean’s army camped in a nearby fishing village and waited for reinforcements from a friendly fleet.

As the French Army closed in on Florence, Pauli Di Maggio fled east with his family while the city collapsed into looting and disorder. Florence fell to Cosimo Medici and the allies, who demanded an emergency tax to pay the army, while Pauli reached Rimini and found himself unable to secure an immediate escape by sea.

• Phil urged Pauli to flee Florence, but Pauli refused until news arrived that Lucca had surrendered to the French Army.
• Jean de Anjou met Rimon in Pisa, secured a promise of naval support for the campaign against Sicily, and heard that Jeanne d'Arc had retired.
• After an attack on his carriage, Pauli fled Florence with his family, but an angry crowd looted Di Maggio properties and failed to catch them.
• Cosimo Medici returned to a devastated Florence, where Rimon demanded 150,000 Florins from the city's powerful families to keep the army under control.
• Pauli reached Rimini and found no ship bound for the Eastern Roman Empire, while Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta chose not to intervene in his family's plight.

Pauli and his family reached Constantinople after fleeing Florence, while Romanus managed wartime shortages and received a delaying message from Charles VII. Pauli explored the city and reunited with Florentine acquaintances, and Phil inspected the canned-food trade before deciding it offered too little profit.

• Pauli brought his family from Rimini to Constantinople, where Agnes welcomed them and learned their residence in Florence had been looted.
• Romanus prioritized grain supplies for the Balkan front, ordered an investigation into niter smuggling, and reviewed reports from the Historical Records Compilation Group.
• Romanus received Charles VII's envoy and said he would pass the French king's proposal to his father, while privately preparing to drive French forces from southern Italy after the Balkan war.
• Pauli met Matteo Goropazzi in Constantinople's Latin Quarter and heard about the city's merchants, universities, and new canned-food industry.
• Pauli watched a Florentine swordsman win three bouts at the Hippodrome, then returned home convinced that Florence would struggle to regain its former prosperity.
• Phil sampled several kinds of canned meat with his family and, after examining the cannery's limited profits and customer base, decided against investing.

Vitus’s army advanced north toward the Danube and attacked Lapovo, where the Attica Legion fought a chaotic battle in the woods while siege guns battered the town’s defenses. The defenders surrendered, and Boranov’s forces took Lapovo as the coalition army withdrew from the surrounding battlefield.

• Hunyadi learned from László that Vitus’s forces had begun advancing with at least fifty thousand men and were approaching Lapovo.
• Boranov arranged an attack on Lapovo, while Orlando led the Mountain Brigade into the linden forest to fight the Black Army.
• The fighting in the forest descended into confusion, and Orlando rallied his men, routed an enemy group, and waited for further orders.
• Ten Siege Cannons breached Lapovo’s wall, and the Serbian defenders surrendered under Boranov’s terms.
• The Hermes Brigade drove the Black Army from the linden forest, and the surviving enemy troops withdrew under Hungarian cavalry cover.
• Boranov reported the victory and quartered his forces around Lapovo, while Orlando returned to Brigade Headquarters after inspecting the camp.

Vitus’s Roman army broke through Hunyadi’s defenses at Velika Plana, while rockets set fire to the Hungarian fodder depot and threw the retreating Black Army into disorder. Hunyadi withdrew to Smederevo and then planned to move his main force to Belgrade, but Irene Kantakouzenos refused to abandon the city.

• Vitus prepared for an uncertain enemy force approaching from the southwest while the Roman army marched toward Velika Plana.
• Boranov refused a village priest’s requests for draft horses and grain, and scouts reported that Hunyadi’s troops were defending the stream and burning Velika Plana.
• Roman legions advanced across the stream under artillery cover, and Boranov’s rocket crews fired two thousand rockets, setting the enemy fodder depot ablaze and disrupting the Black Army’s retreat.
• Hunyadi’s battered forces withdrew safely to Smederevo, where he advised Irene Kantakouzenos to retreat across the Danube; Irene rejected his advice and proposed several impractical schemes.
• Hunyadi decided to move his main force to Belgrade, leave four thousand soldiers in Smederevo under Thomas Kantakouzenos, and have László coordinate the fleet and ensure Irene and the prince could escape if needed.

Vitus’s forces besieged Smederevo while preparing to isolate Hunyadi’s army in Belgrade, and Hunyadi faced mounting shortages of niter despite reinforcements arriving. The chapter ended with Vitus’s commanders considering the limits of using the lower Danube fleet as they prepared for the next stage of the campaign.

• Vitus assigned Damien to command the siege of Smederevo and sent Constantine to capture territory east of the Great Morava River, including Golubac Fortress.
• Roman shore guns damaged two Hungarian warships, while Vitus corrected faulty maps, strengthened his defenses, and learned that Maximus’s troops had routed a disguised enemy force.
• After Roman bombardment breached Smederevo’s inner wall, Irene fled across the Danube, and Damien proposed using auxiliary troops and a blockade rather than a costly direct assault.
• Hunyadi received Polish and domestic reinforcements but discovered that his niter supplies could support only one major battle.
• Vitus gathered his commanders and planned to surround Belgrade, cut its supply routes through Šumadija, and force Hunyadi either to withdraw or fight.
• Constantine noted that the lower Danube fleet could not safely reach the middle river through the Iron Gate Gorge.

After Hunyadi realized Vitus was isolating Belgrade rather than entering the Šumadija Hills, Vitus sent Boranov’s forces to seize western Serbian strongholds. Boranov captured Rakova Fortress and took another castle by force, while the chapter ends with Sanggebu watching a large enemy army cross the Sava River into Serbia.

• Hunyadi learned that Vitus had blocked the routes through the Šumadija Hills and ordered his ambush forces to withdraw, concluding that Vitus would focus on western Serbia.
• Vitus assigned Boranov targets in western Serbia, and Boranov marched southwest with troops and grain wagons as reports emerged of raided villages and a burned manor.
• Boranov persuaded Borupa to surrender Rakova Fortress after the garrison heard that Smederevo had fallen and cannon fire began.
• Boranov captured a second castle after a costly siege, then left a detachment to guard it and its prisoners.
• Sanggebu hurried to the Sava River after enemy troops began crossing, but watched their pontoon bridge near completion as thousands of soldiers entered the south bank.

Vitus held his main force south of Šumadija and refused to take Hunyadi’s bait, while his troops harried the Hungarian advance and later drove enemy forces north of the Sava River. The allied army’s failed operation, unpaid soldiers, and empty treasuries left Hunyadi arguing that peace was their only option.

• Vitus judged that Hunyadi might be using the Sava crossing as a feint, kept his main force south of Šumadija, and sent troops west to delay the enemy.
• Hungarian cavalry pursued the Dragoons but was slowed by caltrops, then fought Tatar cavalry and captured eight cannons at a stream crossing.
• Hunyadi concluded that Vitus had refused to move his main force and called off his plan to lure the Roman army out; László relayed the failure signal to Belgrade.
• Władysław rejected the commanders’ advice, and after an allied probing attack failed, he challenged Vitus to a duel, which Vitus ignored.
• After reinforcements raised the Eastern Roman army in Serbia to eighty-three thousand, Vitus drove more than ten thousand enemy troops north of the Sava and his forces pacified the surrounding regions.
• As Hungarian and Polish troops demanded overdue pay, Hunyadi told Władysław that neither kingdom could afford to continue the war and that they needed to negotiate peace.

Vitus rejected Hungary’s proposed ceasefire until the two sides negotiated a settlement over Belgrade, Ragusa, and the Kantakouzenos family. They signed a ceasefire in late July, and Vitus began organizing the conquered Serbian territories while Constantine arrived at Belgrade.

• Vitus rejected the Jagiellon envoy’s offer to keep the existing lines of control and demanded Belgrade as the Roman army intensified its offensive in Šumadija.
• Orlando’s brigade captured woodland, and the Tuna Legion drove the Polish troops from the farmland before the enemy retreated to a northern hill.
• László negotiated with Vitus, who demanded suzerainty over Ragusa and the Kantakouzenos family; the talks failed when László refused to hand over the family.
• Władysław told László to negotiate once more, saying the Kantakouzenos family could leave Hungary by their own choice but would not be surrendered.
• Vitus signed a ceasefire in late July, and both sides withdrew their troops; the allied army’s departure from Belgrade took a month.
• Constantine arrived at Belgrade on September 1, while Vitus divided the conquered lands into two planned provinces and assigned new lands and duties to nobles and the Dragases heir.

Vitus returned south, avoided a costly campaign in Albania, and observed the recovery of agriculture and livestock trade in Northern Thrace. Back in Constantinople, Phil expanded his business in livestock before deciding that he would settle in the Eastern Roman Empire and invest in textiles.

• Vitus waived Ragusa's taxes for two years, set its future annual tax at twenty-five percent, and reinforced the Albanian border with seven thousand troops instead of launching a campaign.
• Vitus traveled through Trajan's Gate and Northern Thrace, where he saw restored irrigation systems, rice harvests, and rising livestock prices.
• Vitus returned to Constantinople with Otto, while Pauli and Phil argued over whether Vitus owed them help reclaiming Florence.
• Phil went to Burgas to receive livestock shipped from Chersonesus and ordered the weakened animals fed before they were sold.
• Phil weighed the costs of his livestock venture, decided to sell his pasture and invest in a textile workshop, and resolved to live in the Eastern Roman Empire.