Holy Audonian Empire

Holy Audonian Empire Saint-Empire Audonais
1068–1816
Flag
Status	Dissolved
Common languages	Audonian, Latin, Gariman
Government	Confederal feudal absolute monarchy (1068-1404) Confederal feudal elective absolute monarchy (1404-1816)
Emperor
• 1068 - 1111	Robert I
• 1111 - 1138	Lothair I
• 1766 - 1799	Charles V
• 1799 - 1816	Joseph
Legislature	Imperial Diet
Historical era	Middle Ages to Early modern period
• Established	17 November 1068
• Robert, Duke of Burgoy crowned Emperor	17 November 1068
• Electoral college introduce and end of hereditary monarchy	9 May 1404
• Territorial loss of Garima	9 May 1603
• Abdication of Emperor Joseph I	1 January 1816
• Dissolved	1 January 1816
Today part of	Lyncanestria West Merovia East Merovia Garima

The Holy Audonian Empire (Audonic: Saint-Empire Audonais) was a large confederation of kingdoms and states which spanned across Belisaria from the 11th century CE to the early 19th century. The Empire’s founder, Robert the Great, liberated the Kingdom of Audonia from Latin rule and was coronated by the Pope in 1068 CE. Each emperor was invested with temporal authority by the Fabrian Catholic Church.

Over several centuries, the form and function of the Empire evolved, including the abolition of the traditional line of descent of the Audonian kings for a system of electorates. The Empire was also embroiled in conflict with pagans, on crusades, and in civil war after the Protestant Reformation in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The Holy Audonian Empire was ultimately dissolved in 1816 shortly following the departure of Protestant Lyncanestria from the Empire and a number of subsequent controversies which led the Pope to resolve to not crown another emperor. The constituent states largely staked their own claims of sovereignty without the mantle of the Holy Audonian Emperor and gained independence.

History

Pre-empire context and founding

In the 10th and 11th centuries CE, the Latin Empire's central authority in Belisaria was weakening. This may be attributable to a number of factors: Firstly, the loss of holdings around the Periclean to the Almurid and Halimid Caliphates weakened the soft power and economic reach of the Empire. Further, Imperial Legions were more frequently deployed to the hinterlands and border regions to combat external threats leading to a lessened military presence within Belisaria. Finally, the Empire began to increasingly devolve authority to local magistrate roles which gradually became consolidated within individual families, often becoming de facto hereditary.

Among the latter in the mid-11th century was Robert, a noble of the Comes rank who succeeded his father as Lord Palatine of Audonia Superior, what is modern-day Burgoy. Robert's background granted him great privilege among his peers, in part due to the fact that his mother was a Latin princess and that his grandmother was the esteemed Empress Maria I Claudia. He was raised as a hostage to the Claudii in Castellum ab Alba. He received a military education and maintained a strict focus on martial matters after being made Lord Palatine.

In 1050, the Latin heartland erupted into civil war after the death of Empress Maria. Lord Robert took up the cause of Audonian independence from the Latin Empire against the competing Adrianople and Ostian claimants who contested the succession of the Latin heartlands. Robert conquered most of the area of modern Lyncanestria over the next several years. In early 1068, the Pope in Fabria intervened in the civil war, offering to crown Robert emperor, despite the tight grip that the Latin Dukes held in the west. On November 17, Robert was crowned Holy Audonian Emperor. The coronation of a new legitimate, Fabrian Audonian ruler initiated uprisings and rebellions in many other parts of Audonian-speaking Latium, including the counties of Merovia which had been simmering in revolt against the Latins for the better part of a decade. The Merovians finally pushed the Latins from the south and joined the Holy Audonian Empire in 1070.

Early-high empire period

Robert I's Hauteville dynasty were generally efficient rulers who during their reigns in the 11th and 12th centuries attempted to reorganize the new empire to mirror the centralization of Latin imperial administration. The expansion of imperial central power was met with intense opposition by the regional nobility, particularly in the recently integrated eastern regions of Merovia and Garima. A governate system to replace feudal structure was attempted by Lothair I in 1117 and again in 1129, both quickly undone by demands of rebellious nobles. The dynasty's rule ended in 1165 when Robert II died without legitimate issue, and while both his nephew and cousin claimed the imperial throne, his stepson — son of his widow Gisela the Haughty — eventually usurped the throne as Charles I despite no blood relation. Charles was of the House of Valmeuse, raised in the court of his grandfather, Count Henri-Étienne of Jugny, a powerful lord in Burgoy.

A proponent of traditional feudalism and decentralized ruling, administrative reform was reverted, with the imperial throne beginning a period much heavier reliance on the cooperation of regional lords. As these new policies generally appeased local rulers, more neighboring minor princes subdued willingly, and internally the empire enjoyed newfound stability and prosperity. The empire's borders were expanded slowly along the frontiers, particularly in the northern mountain regions and eastern territories. It is also during this period that hostilities were renewed against the Latin Empire, forming the beginnings of the Audonian-Gelonian alliance which would remain generally intact until the empire's dissolution.

It was Charles I who would petition Pope XXX to call for a holy war in northern Scipia. Most of the first crusader force was made of Audonian and Latin recruits, many Audonian nobles would be crusader leaders who would establish themselves in new Fabrian princely states in modern Sydalon and Ascalzar. The early empire period is generally considered to end with the death of Emperor Louis III as it brought forth the subsequent Tumultuous Decade, a ten-year civil war between Empress Margaret and rival claimant Henry IV of Burgoy.