The year is 1087. The kingdom of Sicily welcomes a new king, King Adam I.

Fanfare abound through out the streets and cheering to be heard everywhere as the king is very popular with the people. Even when he was a prince, he has proven his mettle on the battle field as was reputed to be an skilled attacker.

He was also quite intelligent and is an capable administrator. He is destined to take the kingdom to greatness as many have hoped. He was also a reasonably religious man, willing to conquer new territories for the church.

Due to overseeing construction upon new defensive structures in the territory of Malta, the Prince unfortunately could not get back at Sicily in time for his father's death.

Thus, one of the two barques that came with our Norman ancestors was sent to the malta channel to retrieve him.

The princess and an emissary traveled to Venice to hold consul with our catholic brothers the Italians.

The next year, 1088 saw King adam back on his beloved island of Sicily. He arrived with a unit of spearmen and together with the spearmen on sicily and an urban militia unit recently levied, there was adequate force to protect the island from the possible aggression of the infidel Byzantines from the north.

In addition, watch towers have now been constructed in both Sicily and Malta and now the populace is far happier due to extra security. Those working the guard duty in Sicily report an unit of swordsmen in Naples equipped in the fashion of the legions of Rome that the Byz considered themselves the successors of. Also, there was a curious group of little men practicing with throwing little pots that explode and causes a frightful noise.

Seeing the weakness in the Byz forces, King Adam decided that the next year, we shall strike and drive those infidels from Italy and restore our glorious empire of the two Sicilies so that our brethren on the other side of the channel can also
live under the Sicilian flag.

Now, there is unfortunate news from Italy as our princess and emissary were both turned down by the Italians What insolence they also dared to send a galley into the straits of Sicily.

Convinced that the Italians are up to no good, King Adam decided to war with them after he finished warring with the Byz.

He ordered the princess to seek a marriage and alliance with the Hungarian king and the emissary to seek one with the HRE emperor to isolate Italy and thus enable us to crush them between our forces and those of our allies.

He also ordered the barque that returned from malta to join with another already in the channel to destroy the italian galley.

He simultaneously invaded Naples with all his forces and commissioned one more unit of militia in anticipation of need to pacify the Naples populace after conquest and ordered several dromons to be built afterwards in anticipation of severe naval war with the Italians.

In 1089, the Kingdom of Naples was taken with 52 losses to us and 72 killed and rest captured for the Byz forces.
The King's Royal Knights gallantly charged those funny men throwing pots and managed to avoid their strange but deadly attacks and mowed them down.

The successor of the legions though, proved to be true to their legacy and caused all the casualties of the battle. The two units of spearmen pinned them down though taking heavy losses while our militia flanked them. Despite this, they still put up a very good fight and didn't break until the king's victorious knights returned and delievered two withering charges into their rear.

With nowhere to run, we gained some 500 florins for the return of the Byz prisoners.

At sea, we were similarly successful. The Italian galley never stood a chance.

The King ordered the fleet to the Ionian where a year later were we failed to intercept a galley which cause King Adam endless vexation.

Construction was also done on an inn in Sicily to provide a place of respite for soldier and possibly attract some mercernaries for the fight against the Italians.

Year 1090 rolled by and while the Naples population was pacified, wedding bells tolled thorughout the empire as our beloved princess married the Hungarian crown prince.

The next year saw the making of another alliance, this time with the HRE.

Now the Italian navy dare not come out of the Adriatic

Thus, a barque left and sailed for the other side of the penisula where we hope to attack Tuscany after destroying that troublesome galley and then move up, sandwiching the Italians between us and out allies.

A newly comissioned dromon also set sail.

Some further building occurred and everything was rather uneventful until 1093 when still in Naples visiting his new subjects, our crown prince Adam won his first pair of spurs and joined his father. He was a great warrior and capble of mighty feats in personal combat and serves as his father's pride.

In 1094, our lord admiral albergati was ordered into the adriatic to destroy the remnants of the Italian fleet.

In 1095, we had many naval victories. Our dromon and barque each sank an Italian galley in the Straits of Sicily and the Tyrennian seas respectively.

Most spectacular though, was the triump by Lord Albergati's lone barque over two Italian galleys in the Adriatic which came as a surprise since one of them was newly comissioned. However, Lord Albergati performed brilliantly and earned his second star.

Now, time was ripe for the invasion of Italy Our forces landed in Tuscany with a company of mercenaries under King Adam in 1096.

In 1097, King Adam moved onto Venice where the Italians abandoned the province without a fight and did not even dare to take refuge in the castle but fled to Milan.
Prince Adam moved with newly built Sicilian spearmen to keep up the siege in Tuscany.

In a series of battles, we took first Genoa and then Milan, killing the Italian Doge during the castle assault at Milan and two of their princes along with him were captured. However, they refused to ransom them much to our vexation as they already ransomed back a prince who was captured in the fighting at Genoa.

Thus, we took all Italian territories except for the islands by 1102.

After this, King Adam decided that the mercenaries were no longer necessary and hence disbanded all of them and kept the peace using our native spearmen forces.

Our coffers were nearly empty though as we only had some 1300 florins.

1106, another warship comissioned. archers introduced into our armies.

1110, we are finally out of financial straits as our bank increased to 8k after one ship moving into the Ligurian sea and the HRE creating a port in Provence where we could export our goods to.

In 1111, the French King sent an emissary and we accepted despite this meaning an end to our relations to Germany as their large border forces in Burgundy, Provence, and Austria may mean designs on our rich lands of Genoa, Milan, and the crown jewel Venice which we treasure only next to our beloved homeland of Sicily.

The last few years of the king's life was spent in relative peace as he set aside his spurs and instead chose to mingle with the populace in newly acquired Italian territories and manage finances of the empire. He emphasized farming and trade and created a stable economic base from which his successors could work and comissioned numerous building projects, making him a magnificent builder and great steward. Ships were being built in Venice and Sicily and we even opened a trade route to North Africa

Alas, King Adam is unable to see his goal of a crusade to reclaiming Palestine for Christianity but only witnessed the completion of a church in Sicily.

His crown Prince who is named after him now takes the throne and may he have a long and prosperous reign His brothers are all good commanders and pledged to serve him till death.