Syracuse, September 1360
"A girl, your serenity!" the midwife announced as she brought the newborn. Alexandros smiled at his new daughter and wondered what she should be named. Adrienne, Ioanna, Anna, Maria. Irene after his maternal grandmother sounded right. As for a son, he and Agnes had at least a decade ahead to keep trying...
Bologna, September 1360
A Hungarian army of 7,000 men had been sent to Italy ostensibly to support papal forces against Bernabo Visconti. Instead they had attacked their Neapolitan rivals thought the spring and the summer, capturing several castles before finally showing under the walls of Bologna. The Hungarians would raid and loot the surrounding areas but fail to make any permanent gains against the Milanese.
Epirus, March 1361
The war between Radoslav Hlapen and Simeon Uros Palaiologos entered its second year. The two rulers domains were roughly comparable in population, with Hlapen having the slight advantage in numbers. Stefan Uros V the new emperor of Serbia was both weak and not particularly interested in reining over his two vassals, after all Simeon was the emperor's uncle and a rival for the Serbian throne.
San Ruffillo, Italy, July 1361
A joinn Papal-Hungarian-German army under Galeotto I Malatesta severely defeated the Milanese army. With Visconti defeated the Hungarians would turn again south in the continuing war on the regno...
Thessaloniki, August 1361
Alexandros Philanthropenos, archon of Thessaloniki read once more the reports of the skirmishing on the borders between the commune and the Serb held territories. Thessaloniki was directly bordering with Hlapen to the west and with dowager empress Helena to the east. With Dusan dead neither cared much about strictly adhering to the peace treaty which was frustrating to say the least. Alexandros was quite tempted to take more drastic measures with either Hlapen or Helena if not both but he recognized that at the moment Thessaloniki was an island surrounded by Serb lands and taking on either of the two Serb magnates would require mobilizing the rest of Greece thus effectively restarting the war with Serbia. That was a decision for his cousin to take...
Attaleia (Antalya), August 1361
A Cypriot fleet of 120 ships after king Peter I descended upon the city seizing it from Mehmed bey of Teke. The Cypriot king would place a garrison on the city and make arrangement to receive tribute from the bey before returning to Cyprus. But his offer to grand master Roger de Pins for the Hospitallers to take over the city was refused. The grand master had no interest in getting the order into an endless war in Anatolia. Instead he kept his eyes focused on regaining Rhodes from the Sicilians.
Bursa, March 1362
Orhan, second sultan of the Ottoman empire died after a reign of thirty years. His eldest son Suleiman bey would normally become the new sultan. But as soon as their father, his younger brother Murad the governor of Bursa would rise up claiming the throne. Murad taking advantage of his position in the capital would quickly execute Ibrahim bey the second eldest son, then governor of Eskisehir, the Greek Dorylaion, and Halil bey, the youngest brother and son of Theodora Kantakouzenos. Suleiman would prove a tougher opponent though and gathering his army in Adrianople would march south to settle the succesion on the battlefield. But Lala Sahin pasha the beylerbey of Rumeli would rise behind him in support of Murad. Caught between Murad who had landed with an army of his own in Gallipoli and Lala Sahin pasha in his rear Suleimam would be quickly defeated and killed as well leaving Murad as the undisputed sultan. The same year Murad would lead his army against the Karamanids and the beys of Ankara.
Naples, May 1362
Louis of Taranto, king of Sicily lay dead. Not much remained of the kingdom under the control of his widow. Successive Hungarian campaigns in 1257, 1358, 1360, and 1361 had crushed what little recovery had been made in the aftermath of the peace treaty with Sicily. If Joanna could not had counted on her Provencal incomes Neapolitan resistance would had already collapsed. But even with French mercenaries Joanna barely controlled Terra di Lavoro and the Hungarians were already making inroads there endangering Naples...
Zagreb, June 1362
With war with Serbia over king Louis of Hungary had begun preparing for war with Venice. But his plans were derailed after a serious diplomatic incident erupted between Louis and emperor Charles IV after Charles IV and Rudolf IV of Austria had allied the previous year against the patriarch of Aquileia, a Hungarian ally and then Charles IV had insulted Louis mother in front of Hungarian envoys. Thus Louis preparations had instead turned against Bohemia with the Hungarian king concentrating his army in Slovakia. The mediation of king Casimir III of Poland would stop the eruption of the war but it would take several months for the crisis to end.
Syracuse, July 1362
The sixth daughter of Alexandros II and Agnes, Margaret was born...
Bosnia, May 1363
With the crisis with Bohemia resolved, Louis turned his attention to Bosnia were ban Tvrtko was showing dangerous signs of independence invading it. The campaign would have mixed results with Louis returning to Hungary in August.
Crete, August 1363
Venice was not blind to the Hungarian threat and was promptly taking measures to meet it. But the measures would violently backfire when additional taxation in Crete would lead to revolt of not just the Greek Cretans under Ioannis Kallergis but also the Venetian colonists under Marco Gradenigo who would proclaim the island the independent republic of Saint Titus...
