Naples
Embedded Files
Join the discord here!
Stats
Area
Government
Religion
Mission Tree
Playstyle
Italy
Kingdom
Catholic
Diplomatic, Trade, Navy
Requirement
Difficulty (RP)
Difficulty (Start)
Importance
Special Rules
None
Easy
Easy
Low
None
Naples & Sicily - Ruled by foreigners since the Roman times
The history of Southern Italy is one of the most complicated in Europe. Since its colonization of Greek settlers and time in the Roman Empire, it has probably seen one of the most colorful histories in Europe. Its central and strategic position with rich and fertile lands as been the battleground of over a thousand years of foreign powers doing their utmost to control it. History has to begin somewhere, so lets start around year 500, when the Western Roman Empire had collapsed and all of Italy was controlled by the Ostrogothic Kingdom, that only lasted for 50 years until it broke down. In 535 it was invaded by the Byzantine Empire and Southern Italy was now back in Roman hands.
Ruled by foreigners and Center of Conflict
In the year of 610, Prophet Muhammad receives divine revelations and he dies 22 years later. The new religion takes the world by storm and its followers expand aggressively.
Muslim forces from Ifriqiya began to raid the wealthy coastal towns of Southern Italy in the year of 652. A series of conflicts between the Emperor and the Caliphate led to instability and unrest in Sicily. In the year of 902 most of the island of Sicily were conquered by Muslim raiders, establishing the Emirate of Sicily loyal to the Aghlabid Caliphate. A cultural and religious confrontation began between the Italian and Greek Christians and the Arabic Muslims.
Christian Rule under French Crusaders
The year is 1063 and the Norman conquest of Sicily is at its peak. Roger of Normandy wins the deceive victory at the Battle of Cerami and turns the tide of Sicily to the Christian side. Pope Nicholas II granted the island of Sicily to Robert Guiscard, also a Norman crusader, but he granted the dukedom to his brother Roger I of Sicily under the noble line of Hauteville.
The crusaders continue their reconquest of Christian land and populations controlled by the Islamic occupiers, and by year 1130 all of south Italy is reconquered by the Norman crusaders. Roger II of Sicily receives a royal investiture from Antipope Anacletus II in 1130 and recognintion from Pope Innocent II in 1139. The Kingdom of Sicily is now born and its holdings are not just the island of Sicily, but also the region of Naples and the island of Malta.
The Crusaders and the Tyrant King
William II is King of Sicily and spend most of his time in the third crusade together with several European kings, giving the crusade the name of the King's Crusade. He dies in 1189 with no children. The line of succession is clear, Constance, the daughter of Williams grandfather, Roger II, is the true heir.
Even through he had sworn fealty to Constance, as soon as the king died, Tancred, an illegitimate son of the Duke of Apulia, rebelled and seized control of the Island of Sicily. Tancred executes all other pretenders and controls Sicily with an iron fist. Persuaded by several influential nobles and diplomats, Pope Clement III supports the tyrannical Tancred, as the stability of Sicily is paramount for the ongoing crusades.
Just a year later in 1190, King Richard I of England arrives in Sicily and shortly after King Phillip II of France. This sparks immense unrest as King Richards sister Joan sits in a Sicilian prison as she was married to King William II of Sicily. As events unfolds, the crusaders burn and loot the city of Messina, Joan is released and both King Richard and Phillip recognizes Tancred's shady rule as legitimate.
Imperial and German Rule
The real successor of William II was Constance, the daughter of Roger II. She married the son of Frederick I Barbarossa, Henry, in 1186.
In the year of 1190 things changed dramatically for the Kingdom of Sicily. Frederick I famously drowned in a river during the crusades and the newly crowned Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI, saw his wife's titles in Sicily as rightfully hers, ignoring the treaties the English and French kings had made previously.
After a three year long campaign full of interesting events, the Kingdom of Sicily were in the hands of the Holy Roman Empire. Attempts were made to integrate the Kingdom into the Empire, but failed due to the opposition in the Papacy.
The Papal States got their independence from the Empire in the year of 1177 in the treaty of Venice, but administratively they first got their real independence in the year of 1300. Sicily were in the hands of the Emperors until year 1250, making this period the largest the Holy Roman Empire had ever been.
Kingdom of Jerusalem and Sicily
Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI and Empress Constance had one child, Frederick, a man with ambitions beyond anyone in Europe at the time. He became Emperor in 1220 and ruled the Empire at its peak of power and used it to full extend.
In the year of 1223, the 29 year old emperor was invited to a meeting with Pope Honorius III and John of Brienne, King of Jerusalem and The Latin Empire. The two others hoped to see the emperor support them in the sixth crusade and they had a deal no ambitious man could decline, the marriage of the emperor with John's daughter Isabella and the throne of Jerusalem.
Frederick was married a total of four times and had a small army of both legitimate and illegitimate, secret and unknown children.
His ambitions were unlimited, his greed and lust for power unmatched. The most unstable region in his gigantic empire was the Italian borders, being both King of Italy and Sicily with the Papal States caught in the middle, the borders let to many disputes and wars with the Papacy. He was excummunicated three times and Pope Gregory IX announced him as the Antichrist.
Independence from the Empire
Emperor Frederick II had many children, but only one with the Queen Isabella of Jerusalem. They lost their first child before birth and the second birth was terrible, as Isabella sacrificed her own safety and health, giving the gift of life to their son Conrad, but she was never able to recover and died shortly after.
When Emperor Frederick II was deposed and died in 1250, the imperial lands went away from the House of Hohenstaufen to Henry VII from the House of Luxembourg. All of Frederick's holdings that did not belong to the empire were now free from imperial rule.
Conrad inherited the title of King of Jerusalem from his mother, appointed Duke of Swabia in 1235 and now in 1250, the King of Sicily. Sicily is now free from imperial rule, but ruled by the king of Jerusalem, from the German House of Hohenstaufen, born from a German father and a French mother.
Brothers fight over Sicily
King Conrad of Jerusalem was elected King of Germany by his father in 1235 when he is 7 years old, he marriages Elisabeth of Bavaria in 1246 and spends his time fighting William of Holland, a pretender to the King of Germany title. William's claim comes from Conrad's title being invalid as his father Frederick II was excommunicated. In 1252 Conrad and Elisabeth has a son, Conradin in Bavaria, Landshut.
While Conrad fights in Germany his brother, an illegitimate son of Emperor Frederick, Manfred rules Sicily as regent and is only 18 years old when the Emperor dies in 1250. Conrad and Manfred fights over their dead father's rich land in Sicily. Conrad is the legitimate heir, but Manfred won on the battlefield and Conrad died in 1254, as Sicily now is ruled by an illegitimate pretender, the Papacy claims The Kingdom of Sicily as a papal possession.
Conradin is left without a father at the age of 2 and stays in his Duchy of Swabia.
The Tyrant and Last German Ruler
Pope Alexander IV offers the crown of Sicily to Edmund, son of Henry III of England in 1254 and calls for a crusade against the false and illegitimate ruler Manfred. The English opposes the war, which leads to the Papal States fighting the crusade alone, but unsuccessful against Manfred and his Saracen allies, he rules Sicily with an iron fist as a tyrant. He spreads the lie that Conradin is dead, he crowns himself the King of Sicily in 1258. In fact, Conradin is just 6 years old and is being raised in his Duchy of Swabia by his mothers family.
Conradin receives and invitation to Italy in 1262 from Florentine Guelphs, who asks him to take up arms against the unending menace in Sicily. The same year Pope Urban VI offers the Kingdom of Sicily to Charles of Anjou, the brother of King Louis IX of France and uncle of Conradin.
The French King supports his brother and in the year of 1266, Charles of Anjou arrieves in Rome with 20,000 foot soldiers and 6000 fully equipped mounted warriors, many of them noble knights and veterans of the Seventh Crusade.
Memorial of Conradin by Danish sculptor Thorvaldsen
Charles I of Anjou - King of Sicily
Charles of Anjou is crowned King of Sicily in Rome on the 5th of January 1266. Shortly after he invades Southern Italy and marches towards Napoli. Learning that Manfred is mustering his troops in Capua, Charles marches through the mountains of Apennines towards Benevento. Manfred's army compromised of German and Italian mercenaries and Saracen allies secures the city of Benevento before Charles can arrive. On the 26th of February, Charles forces annihilated the mercenaries and Saracens and slaughtered Manfred on the battlefield.
Conradin were moved like a chess piece by greater lords, primarily influential lords in the Holy Roman Empire, Northern Italy and the King of Castile, all seeking to diminish the growing power of the Kingdom of France.
In the year of 1268, Conradin at the age of 16th led an army compromised of Italian, Spanish, Roman, Arab and German soldiers to the Battle of Tagliacozzo. The two armies of almost equal size and strength butchered each other into almost complete annihilation with almost total losses on both sides. Conradin fled the battlefield near its end and fled to Rome, were he was found by French supporters that arrested him and sent him to Napoli. Shortly after he was executed by Charles I of Anjou, The King of Sicily.
Sicilian Revolt
The year is 1282 and Charles I of Anjou, the count of Provence and son of french King Louis VIII has ruled as King of Sicily for 16 years. At this time the Kingdom of Sicily were both the region of Naples and the islands that we know as Sicily.
The french born ruler's policies were deeply unpopular and the Sicilians felt like puppets ruled by the influential french nobility. During an Easter prayer at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Palermo, a Frenchman harassed a Sicilian woman. The event led to angered Sicilians and it turned into a riot. The French forces tried to suppress the revolt, but in vain, as this harsh treatment lad to an upright revolt.
The movement of French Crusaders into Catalonia
War of the Sicilian Vespers and Aragonese Crusade
The riots at Easter in 1282 turned into a revolt. Over the next six weeks had the Sicilians retaken most of the large cities and around 4000 French were massacred.
King Charles of Anjou called for aid and was supported by The King of France. This led to several outside powers siding with both the Sicilians and The French.
This event led to a 20 year long conflict known as 'The War of the Sicilian Vespers'. Lots things happens, but to sum them up short.
In the year of 1284, The Kingdom of Aragon goes full in militarily against France and as an extension of The War of the Sicilian Vespers. France, supported by the Kingdom of Majorca, Navarre and The Republic of Genoa, France leads a military campaign into Catalonia, which Pope Martin IV called the "Aragonese Crusade" (Yes, Catholics can crusade Catholics). The French led armies consisted of over 135.000 soldiers that went down into
2 years and a long story short, Aragon wins and annexes Majorca.
War over Sicily continues
The War of the Sicilian Vespers is still in full onslaught. The French regime in Sicily gets full support of Papal States, Genoa, Navarre and France. The Sicilians have full support of the Kingdom of Aragon and now also the Byzantine Empire and Venice.
To sum up the 20 year conflict in points, what happens is:
The Sicilian asks for Aragonese support against France and its regime
Peter of Aragon has a claim to Sicily through his wife, Constance, the daughter of Manfred of Sicily.
Aragon fortifies the rebel controlled Sicily Island and conquers most of Calabria in mainland Naples in 1283
Aragonese admiral Roger of Lauria defeats a larger french navy outside of Malta and takes the island.
Roger of Lauria defeats another major navy in the Battle of Gulf of Naples and captures Charles of Salerno, the son of Charles of Anjou.
France gathers all its might and crusades into Catalonia, but Aragon defeats them in 1285.
Aragonese Victory and The Kingdom of Sicily breaks into two
Lots of events occurs after the Aragonese military victories, several kings and rulers in the war die, but what is important is the Treaty of Anagni in 1295, as it led to peace by the selling the Crown of Sicily to the Papacy and the marriage between the daughter of Charles II of Anjou, Blanche of Anjou with King James II of Aragon.
Pope Boniface VIII was sure this meant the final peace, as he gave the Crown of Sicily to Charles II of Anjou, who only held Naples and began to prepare an invasion of Sicily. The Sicilians saw the Treaty as invalid and crowned King James II of Aragon's younger brother Frederick as King of Sicily in 1296, who began to prepare the defenses of the island.
The Pope demanded that King James supported Charles war against his younger brother as the treaty would support it, but James denied it, he negotiated that he would support the war against Sicily in exchange of money and papal sanction to annex Sardinia and Corsica, which was granted.
In the year of 1296, Frederick defeated Charles and by year 1302, none of the enemies of Frederick desired more war, the Peace of Caltabellotta was signed. Frederick was King of Sicily and Charles King of Naples. The Pope ratified the treaty and King Frederick married King Charles daughter, Eleanor. On Fredericks death, the throne of Sicily would go to the House of Anjou. The Kingdom of Sicily has now broken into two kingdoms with each their own dynasty.
The treaty was never upheld as the Crown of Sicily was kept in Aragonese hands under the House of Barcelona. Naples stayed in the hands of House of Anjou. A hundred years pass and the final events of Naples history until our timeline occurs.
House of Trastámara
The year is 1421 and Alfonso V of Aragon of House Trastámara is powerful, as he holds the Kingdom of Aragon, Valencia, Catalonia, Marjoca and Sicily, the Duchy of Sardinia and the Island of Malta. His ambitions trickle as childless Queen Joanna II of Naples adopts Alfonso as the heir to Naples. Louis III, Duke of Anjou rivals the claim and a war between them begins, Louis is supported by Pope Martin V and Alfonso by the Aragonese antipope Benedict XIII.
The war is very interested with many events occurring, however the House of Anjou wins. In the year of 1435, the King of Naples is René I, the Duke of Anjou and count of Provence. The conflict with Alfonso continues and in November of 1441, the Aragonese army lays siege of Napoli and René flees to Provence.
King Alfonso V of Aragon now holds the Kingdom of Naples in a personal union and calls himself the unifier of Sicily with the Latin title of 'Rex Utriusque Siciliae'. France and its nobles are all thrown out of Italy and the Papacy fears for the growing influence of Spanish nobility in Italy, as their tradition of supporting antipopes to further their own agenda is famous.
The future of Naples is secured by the powerful House of Trastámara. The Sicilians and Neapolitans are well treated by their overlord, as Alfonso constructed the first university in Sicily 'Siciliae Studium Generale', improved the infrastructure by rebuilding aqueducts, drained marshes and paved streets. Finance, administration and artistic improvements flourish in the Kingdom of Naples.
The year is 1444 and Alfonso is almost turning 50 years old. While Naples prospers greatly, there is those who speaks in secret and whispers of independence once more.
Neapolitan Ideas
Traditions
+10% Trade efficiency
+10% Institution Spread
Ambitions
+20% National Manpower modifier
Ideas
Consolidate the Royal Domain
+10% Goods produced modifier
Academia Pontaniana
-5% Technology cost
Encourage City Living
-10% Development cost
Crush the Power of the Barons
+10% Morale of Armies
Expand the Arsenale
-10% Ship cost
City of Artists
+1 Yearly prestige
The Lazzaroni and the Monarchy
+1 Yearly legitimacy
Historical Mod
Traditions
+15% National Manpower Modifier
+10% Infantry Combat Ability
Ambitions
+15% Land Forcelimit Modifier
Ideas
Sicilian Kingship
+1 Diplomatic reputation
+1 Yearly legitimacy
Repubblica Di Salerno
-15% Ship cost
+10% Ship trade power
Liber Augustalis
-10% Development cost
Università Federico II
-10% Technology cost
Conquista Di Ladislao
-15% Province Warscore Cost
Transumanza
+10% Goods produced
La Castella
+20% Fort Defense
The Metropolis of Napoli
Napoli is not just one of the worlds largest and most populous cities, but one of the oldest in Europe. Below the busy streets lies a network of unmapped ancient catacombs, hidden crypts and forgotten paths. Napoli is in a unique position to expand even more, the hills are fertile, the waters teeming with fish and the location in the heart of the Mediterranean makes the foundation of our future.
Inquisition and Papal Neighbor
The Spanish Inquisition was established in 1478 and famous, we all know it. As Naples were a part of Spanish rule, the inquisition also made a presence here, but different. The Inquisition in Napoli is famous for taking part in the active politics of the region, both in regards to local nobles (the barons), the merchant class and the incredibly powerful Catholic Church, with the Pope just living a small trip away.
The history of the Neapolitan Inquisition is a great study, as the practices were greatly inspired by the Spanish but performed on an Italian culture.
Should you ever visit the raw city of the modern Mafia, the original Pizza place and the scammer filled Spaccanapoli, then it is suggested to visit the less famous but notorious and incredibly interesting Museum of Torture / Museo delle Torture. The original torture tools will for sure inspire you down an interesting path of RP to share with us!
RP Outlook And Priorities
RP Outlook And Priorities
Naples is one of the nations with the richest mission tree, decisions and events that really shines in RP.
Your position is incredibly stable with no outside enemies able to threaten you.
You begin in a union under the Trastramara king of Aragon. Do you wish to continue this path or declare your independence?
Aragon holds Sicily, lands that rightfully belongs to the ruler of Naples.
The paths are open to you, you are in a position to put your diplomatic power to shine and pick and choose between friends and enemies.
A united Italy? Continue where the 8th Crusade ended and take up swords against the Tunisian pirates? Marry into the noble houses of mainland Europe and spread the South Italian name? Conquer the divided and unstable Balkans? Or follow up on the rumors of a new world to India and set sail, the markets of Napoli would greatly benefit from the exotic goods.
- Advice from former Naples Players -
Johnnyboy - Global Campaign Season 4:
Try to get your Sicilian cores back early, the missions you complete give you a crap ton of mana, and your mt really opens up once you recover your cores. Other than that the world is kinda your oyster. You can go north and form Italy, or go south and conquer Africa. I think even going colonial could be possible, they are really strong because they have good ideas and they receive a big mana lead early which can rapidly snowball if you play your cards right. Also they got a ton of fun flavor events that give you really cool bonuses
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse