Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 514 The story of Cyprus’ explosive gold coins

The issue of integrating the church has been discussed within the Purple Horde Khanate. It’s just that there is no conclusion yet as to how this should be done.

Tuo Huan thought about it and felt that what these people said was not unreasonable. Lama Wang has indeed always been interested in Guo Kang over the years, and told them more than once that if the Guo family was willing, he would train Guo Kang as his successor.

However, the Guo family has never let him go, so it has been delayed until now. But the church did not find a more suitable young man, so Lama Wang is still talking about it until now.

Before he could explain, Guo Ponu said: "You admire him so much, and I, as a sister, am also very happy. However, he is the only male in my family, and I still expect him to inherit the tradition. So. , I’m afraid I can’t let him be a full-time clergyman as you wish.”

"Huh? Didn't it mean that some clergymen can also get married? There is no conflict, right?" Captain Vasily was a little unwilling.

"It's OK to have a white divine grade, but you can't be as high as a patriarch with a white divine grade." Father Vladimir told him: "Patriarch Wang and Father Peter are both black divine graders who cannot get married. Miss Guo also said that. It makes sense.”

"Can't we add one?" Vasily suggested: "Just add a gray patriarch who is neither white nor black, and then give it to him specifically."

"How can you come here so casually..."

"yes……"

Others started talking.

Tuo Huan felt that it was better to get rid of these people who like to have fantastic ideas and come up with weird ideas first, so he said: "We can't discuss this kind of thing, so we should wait for what the church has to say. As for me I also have no control over the affairs of my sister and him, I can only look at them themselves."

"Is it Princess Theodora?" Everyone was quite curious and asked: "Are they sure they want to get married?"

"Probably so. They have played together since they were young, and everyone on both sides of the family has agreed." Tuohuan said about her family life: "My family has made preparations a few years ago, and plans to use the cane sugar estate in Cyprus as her dowry. It's just that In the past two years, for some reason, neither of them has been in a hurry to express their stance. My father, Khan, and Guo Shibo have also been busy with the war every day and have no time to take care of it. As a result, it has been postponed until now."

"Oh...but what is Cyprus?" Captain Vasily seemed to have never heard of this place name.

"What is sucrose?" Igor was also curious.

"Oh, you are worthy of being a member of the royal family, and you can afford a dowry!" Vladimir's father looked in a different direction and began to envy him.

"..."

Facing the overly energetic crowd, Tuohuan could only reply simply: "Cyprus is an island in the south. When my grandfather intervened in the Italian war, with the help of Venice, he sent my father to lead people to recover it and expel it. deposed the Latin kings of the island, and abolished the presumptuous titles of the two kingdoms of Cyprus and Jerusalem.”

"That island is very productive and is one of the few places here that can grow sugar cane. My father managed to recruit some craftsmen and reorganized the manor that had been destroyed by pirates and Latins, and soon restored prosperity there. After the whole war, the Roman Khuriltai decided to allocate those sugar estates to the Khan House as exclusive property, and my parents later gave them to Theodora as a dowry. The whole thing That’s how it came about.”

"That's it..." In fact, everyone still didn't understand a few words, but they couldn't let Tai Ji speak in vain, so they nodded quickly to show that they understood.

In fact, the shock caused by this incident at the time was much greater than this.

Compared to its small size, Cyprus has a much more complicated history. The destroyed kingdom of Cyprus was actually a remnant of the Crusader state. The previous royal family of Cyprus was the Lusignan family from France.

In the beginning, they were just a small lord in the Aquitaine region. The family's most famous craft was not fighting but building houses - because his castle was beautifully built, the locals even said that the building was a snake-shaped water elf plum. Lucina helped build it.

The real rise of this family was during the Crusade Era, when several ruthless people appeared. The most famous of them is the Crusader legend Guy de Lusignan.

As the sixth eldest son of seven brothers in his family, Guy also faced common problems among young European nobility at that time. The family's territory is simply not enough for the brothers. Except for the eldest brother who has the right to inherit, the others can often only get a knight title and then be kicked out by the family. How you fare later is entirely up to you.

And Guy also chose a common response idea among knights back then: find a noble lady, rob her, and make the rich woman burst into gold coins.

Compared with male nobles, female nobles often have a natural disadvantage in terms of force, so they are easier to rob. They are often targeted by the fallen knights, who get the first bucket of gold coins for young people. The same is naturally true for the young knights of the Lusignan family.

Of course, as a legendary knight, an ordinary rich woman cannot satisfy Guy. Soon, he set his sights on Eleanor of Aquitaine, who was probably the richest woman in Europe at the time and his theoretical immediate boss. With the help of several other brothers in the family, Guy formulated an attack plan, intending to kidnap Eleanor and then extort a ransom and a heavy burst of gold coins.

As the saying goes, those who are skilled in art are bold. Under the leadership of Guy, the heroes of Lusignan successfully cut the path that Eleanor must pass. The local governor was killed in the attack, and some people were captured by knights or bandits. This even included another later legendary knight, William Marshall of England, who made Guy and others a fortune.

However, the most important target of the entire operation was not captured. I don’t know whether it was because they were not in this team or because the guards were too strict. In short, they did not successfully capture Eleanor as planned.

Moreover, this attack also angered the biggest local snake, Prince Richard of England, who actually took charge of the Principality of Aquitaine. Richard was obviously not very happy to learn that someone was going to explode his own mother's gold coins. Richard's men were strong, and the Lusignan brothers could not defeat him at all, and they were quickly driven out of the territory by him. At this time, the brothers were completely unable to survive in their hometown, so they had no choice but to join the Crusaders and go to the East to gamble their luck.

However, in the Holy Land, the ruthless Guy is still thriving. Here he fell in love with another wealthy woman, Sibylla, the sister of Baldwin IV, the "Leper King". After Baldwin's death, Guy thus obtained the throne of King of Jerusalem.

However, Guy suffered successive defeats after that. They were first defeated by Saladin at the Horns of Hardin, basically losing all the kingdom's military backbone, and then even lost Jerusalem.

After losing the Holy Land, the nobles of the Crusader countries still did not quickly unite, but were eager to fight each other. During the civil strife, Guy was kicked out and was forced to run out alone again to grab territory and try to build a new nest. During the long war, the Crusaders suffered heavy losses, and Sibylla and her children also died. However, Guy's fortune turned around and he managed to get the support of his old acquaintance Richard.

During the Comnenus dynasty, Cyprus was an Eastern Roman territory. After the death of Manuel, the last powerful emperor, the nobles across the country began an exciting chaos again. The governor of Cyprus, Isaac Komnenos, took the opportunity to declare independence and proclaimed himself emperor. He mixed with pirates in Italy, the Eastern Mediterranean and other places, and with the abundant financial resources of Cyprus, he recruited a maritime force, repelled the Central Army that came to attack, and maintained his independent status.

Since then, "Emperor" Isaac has become a pirate leader, leading a group of heroes to gather in Cyprus, robbing ships everywhere, kidnapping wealthy businessmen, and starting a business without capital. The Egyptians, who had weak maritime power, hit it off with him and hired him to rob Crusader ships, making him actually a privateering contractor.

But soon, Isaac hit a wall. Richard had become the king of England and was heading to the Holy Land with a large number of troops and entourage, including his fiancée, sister and others. On the way, the English fleet encountered a storm and several ships were lost, including the ship carrying the families of the Crusader nobles.

However, Isaac, who had a hard-to-change thief nature, found that there were rich women to rob, so he immediately robbed these ships, and in this way, Richard's fiancée and sister were also robbed.

The female members of the family were exposed to gold coins again, which made Richard very angry and immediately turned to attack Cyprus. Although they were able to defeat the central army before, Isaac's Greek army and pirate brothers were still far from being a match for the regular English army under the "Lionheart King". They were quickly defeated, and he was captured and died soon after.

Although Richard occupied this place, he found that this place was not easy to manage after all. After changing hands several times, under his introduction, Guy finally obtained the island of Cyprus and continued to call himself King of Jerusalem on the island.

After Guy's death, the Lusignan family continued to control the island. Not only did they continue to maintain the title of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, they also received the title of King of Cyprus from the Holy Roman Empire. Both of these continued until the last two decades. A hundred years later.

However, the successors of the kingdom only inherited their ancestors' cruelty and despicability, but did not have their cunning and strength. They also did not learn the culture and production technology of the Greeks on the island, but just like the Greeks, they continued to fight among themselves all day long.

This situation naturally allows other forces to take advantage of the situation. Genoese merchants gained many privileges during the conflict and even owned a colony independent of the Kingdom of Cyprus. The resistance on the island was no match for Genoa, and the king's heir simply stayed hostage in Genoa for a long time.

This situation naturally caused strong dissatisfaction in Venice.

During the late reign of Basil III, when Italy and Dalmatia were both at war, Venice signed a series of agreements with the Purple Horde in order to save the situation. Among them is the issue of Cyprus.

At that time, the French nobles who dominated the island were in civil strife. Some nobles supported the daughter of the late king, while others supported the younger brother of the late king. One of them claimed to be the Queen of Jerusalem, and the other claimed to be the King of Cyprus. They fought fiercely on half of the small island - the other half of the island belonged to Genoa, and neither of them dared to offend them.

So Basil sent his newly married son John and others to lead an army to attack there. With the support of the Venetian fleet, the coalition forces easily drove away the Genoese, defeated the two childish forces, and occupied the entire island. Both His Majesties were also captured and exiled to Novgorod.

John, under the banner of Rome, and his Greek wife were warmly welcomed by the Greeks on the island. Some Italian businessmen who did not like the Genoese also strongly supported this. Some people suggested that the title King of Jerusalem has great symbolic meaning and should be considered to be retained.

But Basil believed that the Roman head of state did not need and should not hold any other title at the same time, whether it was a lord and nobleman of a certain place, or the leader and king of a certain ethnic group. Because Rome, like Heavenly Father, is both unique and supreme. Any local area, any tribe or nation is a concept that lives under Rome. Therefore, other titles also have no meaning.

Patriarch Yin also specifically discussed the issue of holy places. He believed that the pursuit of Jerusalem was unnecessary. Brother Tian does not become holy just because he is in Jerusalem, nor vice versa. As a human being, the key to his identity lies in the Romans, not the city of Jerusalem; as a god, his holiness is also bound to the concept of Rome, not to some artificially determined holy places.

Therefore, it can be said that wherever the Romans and Roman power are, there is Rome and there is the Holy Land. Other than that, everything else is just a gimmick. The church won't care if you go to worship, but issues of doctrinal principles and high-level etiquette system requirements cannot be relaxed.

Moreover, this king of Jerusalem was made up by the collusion between King Alemannic and the Bishop of Rome. And these, of course, were not approved by Rome and did not go through proper procedures. So, it's actually irrelevant.

Therefore, the Purple Horde finally directly announced that the title of king of Cyprus and Jerusalem would be banned. Not only the clan cannot accept these titles, but officials of all sizes must also pay attention. This habit has been maintained to this day.

The island itself is also very meaningful. On the one hand, it was a springboard for the Purple Horde to move further into the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. On the other hand, it was also very wealthy. Although the area is small, wheat, olives, cheese have been produced here since classical times, and there are also copper mines on the island that can be mined.

Because this island is located on the Red Sea-Mediterranean route, and these days, as long as it is related to Eastern commodities, there is no place that is not rich. Just by collecting taxes on re-exported goods and transshipping imported goods such as silk and spices from the East, this place has become one of the richest places in the entire region.

By the end of the 12th century, when the Eastern Roman Empire was in complete decline, the two islands of Cyprus and Crete could actually provide half of the central government's annual revenue, which shows how vast the financial resources here were.

And now, after several changes, the wealth here has once again been concentrated in the hands of the rich woman. Let’s see how it develops this time.

　It’s a new month, please vote.

　　

　

(End of this chapter)