A little side project to provide an overview over the lore surrounding the Imperial Federation in my books 'Saga of the Bridgers'. There will be different chapters covering History, Politics, Armed Forces, etc...basically it's a Wiki page.
A list of all the Heads of the current imperial Dynasty on February 2227.
Anastasia I(circa 1050 – 28 August 1104)
Founder of the dynasty. She was adopted as daughter and heir of Duchess Matilda of Tuscany, who had never been able to carry a child of her own. Despite the fact that the Catholic society mostly excluded women from rule, Anastasia came out as an extremely wily and intelligent individual, capable of conquering the hearts of all the major vassals of the Duchess and even the favor of Pope Alexander II, who recognized her as an extremely pious woman and supported her ascension when Matilda died of tuberculosis on May 1066.
Anastasia even earned the recognition of Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV, who accepted her as a vassal. Anastasia would then marry the second son of William the Conqueror right after the Norman duke had conquered England, establishing the first ties of the dynasty with the island.
During her rule, she would manage to bring most of Northern Italy under her control, convincing Henry IV to recognize her as Vice-queen of Italy and make it a hereditary title.
She would partake personally in the First Crusade, being the only King to actually take part in it, and her army would distinguish not only for playing a major part in the final conquest of Jerusalem, but also because the Queen would be the only crusader to oppose the massacre of civilians, even clashing with the retinue of Godfrey of Bouillon.
In 1101, Anastasia was crowned by Pope Gregory IV after she successfully mediated a new accord between the two clashing powers. The day of her coronation, July 12th, is considered an auspicious day by the members of the Vignoli family.
She died on August 28, 1104. On July 1107 she was officially sanctified by the Catholic Church.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
----------------------------------------
Federico I (1081 – 10 July 1116)
Third-born of Anastasia, Federico had actually been named after the first son of the Queen, who had died shortly before his birth from Rabies.
Differently from his mother, Federico was not happy at all with the status of the Kingdom of Italy inside the Empire, especially recriminating the fact that, despite being by large the biggest member kingdom, and arguably having a larger power base than the Emperor himself, the King of Italy was cut off from the imperial Diet and had not been elevated to be an Elector. He also studied some Classics and the history of the Roman Empire, which stoked in him a primordial sense of Italian nationalism.
In 1108, Federico declared that Italy would leave the Empire for good. Emperor Henry V mustered an army, but this was practically annihilated at the battle of San Martino. On May 10th 1110, the Peace of Graz recognized the independence of Italy.
Almost immediately, Federico launched a conquest of the various duchies of Southern Italy, and in 1112 he arrived at the ancient Hellenic temple of Lentini, in Sicily. Here, he gathered his most important vassals and after much convincing and negotiations, the King proclaimed the creation of Neo-Hellenism in 1114, launching a rapid conquest of Latium.
