February 27th, 1067: County of Gemer
A southern European placement meant nothing to Nature, who deigned to calmly and relentlessly overlay the Hungarian province of Gemer with a chilling blanket of snow.
Those inside the fort did not care, for they were merry with celebration. Marshal Tamas Balog, elder brother to Count Ince Balog, had just wed Eufrozyna Wlostowic, a courtier late of the Duchy of Silesia.
Tamas paused from the kissings of his blushing blonde bride to join his brother-liege in a drink before the crackling hearth.
"A fine girl you've found me, Ince! You plan to give her a court position, I hope?"
"Yes" answered fully-bearded Ince as he stared absently into the searing flames, "Her contacts in Poland will be useful for finding out information that we might not otherwise be able to obtain. Hence, she will be in charge of... intelligence gathering."
"Splendid!" Tamas crowed with a delighted grin as he clapped Ince on the shoulder, "You keep making wise decisions like that and we'll surpass those bastard Arpads yet!"
The Count frowned and removed his brother's hand, dropping his voice to a fierce whisper, "Hold your tongue... There are many who are loyal to the King and his family here. I will not have you giving him any reason to remove me from power. I am still young yet and he does not fully trust me, I am sure."
"True, true" replied the cheerful Marshal, "But we'll do it yet. We have one of the richest provinces in Hungary, you know. Only that bastard Laszlo Arpad is much richer than we are.. and of course the King himself."
"Indeed. Let us speak no more of this. Go and enjoy your bride. I must speak with the barons and the clergy to assure them that my recent changes in our realm's laws will not hurt them."
Tamas took this advice and he and Ince went their separate ways as their functions required of them that night.
***
The Balogs were indeed fortunate in Gemer, but they were not satisfied with just that county. Realizing that the time to strike was immediately while certain wealthy provinces he coveted were still weak, Ince claimed the rich but manless Russian county of Peremyshl for his own and declared war in April. The Principality of Kiev, Peremyshl's liege lord, and the King of Hungary joined in on the side of their vassals as expected, but the real surprise and turning point came when the King of Poland, manipulated by Eufrozyna's planted spies, declared war on Kiev as well.
Unfortunately, the King's regency council decided that a war, even one extremely winnable and indeed one that was going unquestionably the way of the Hungary-Poland alliance, would be too damaging and so they made peace with Kiev in July.
This enraged Ince even more and he vowed that as soon as as he had the power, he would break away and declare himself indepedent. Although he'd fought with the Russians, his real enemy was none other than the Arpads.
The happily married Marshal
His very useful and cunning Polish bride
The current hero of the story