La Strada dei Re Volume Two by Federico Zabini

As Orlando the First took the throne of Magical Italy, he came to power at the head of a strong, reasonably unified, and wealthy Kingdom. That was something that almost no other Magical State in the Italian Peninsula could claim. By fifteen-fifty-eight, the Roman Inquisition had forced the Wizards and Witches of the Papal States into a much harsher version of the Compromise of Lipari. The so-called Cospirazione del Silenzio, or Conspiracy of Silence, had been undertaken as a survival mechanism instead of as a negotiated compromise with Muggle Authorities.

The so-called Black Nobility, as the Wizarding Population of the Lazio Republic, as the Wizards of the Papal States would become known had required such a tactic to avoid the midnight ambushes and sudden slaughters of the Inquisition. It hadn't helped that much of the Wizarding Nobility of the Papal States had, at least initially, if not sided with the Church, then at least stood by while their fellows had been slaughtered. Indeed, the knowledge that most Witches and Wizards could not put up much of a fight without their wand had been spread to the Inquisition by Squibs, who had themselves been victims of discrimination by their wizarding relatives and used to great effect against the Wizarding population of the Papal States.

(Translator's Note: The word Black in the term Black Nobility in this case is more of a descriptor of the state of these wizards as hiding in the shadows rather than any descriptor of Darkness of Magic. Indeed, many of those who would partake in the Conspiracy of Silence did so thanks to being identified by superstitious muggles as local Wizarding Healers.)

The Roman Inquisition, mind you did not stop at attacking the Wizarding Population, mind you. Many muggles also would be caught up in the inquisition for crimes no more serious than knowing an herbal remedy for the cough. This further muddied the waters and provided incentive even for Wizards to accuse their rivals. The thinking was that if no one was safe, then it would be best to try and trick the Inquisition into thinking that you were an upstanding member of the muggle community. What better way to do that than by accusing someone else? And if you were going to accuse someone else, why not have that someone be a rival? You would kill two birds with a single stone that way, after all.

It was due to this attack from both within and without that the Wizarding Population of Central Italy dropped by as many as a quarter from its pre-inquisition numbers. This meant that the relatively untouched Magical Kingdom of Italy could begin expanding northwards against the Black Nobility and their common-born retainers with no real opposition. Orlando the First himself led an invasion and captured the Principality of Campagna, ruled by the Magical Principe della Campagna, Marco Astolfi. Not only that but his Commanders in the Magical March of Ancona, his heir Enrico and Ercole Zabini, this author's humble ancestor whose sister Fausta was married to Enrico, pushed up the eastern Papal Coast, conquering territory as far north as Ancona. Ercole and Enrico made clever use of the Mind Arts and Illusions to misdirect the more numerous forces of the Magical Marchese d'Ancona, Salvatore Vecchio, and bring them to battle at the Misa River east of Montenovo in a masterful gambit.

At the battle of the Misa River, Salvatore Vecchio was tricked into attempting to cross the river via the use of the Glacius Charm to freeze the river, convinced that Enrico and Ercole were still encamped south of San Martello. As their troops attempted to cross, Enrcio and Ercole's troops, hidden via disillusionment and Ercole's Mind Arts, sprung their trap. Ercole's alchemy and Enrico's battle magic hit the crossing Wizards with alchemical acid and conjured Fiendfyre. Many of those Wizards who weren't killed in the attack were swept away by the suddenly no longer frozen water of the river, and Vecchio managed to apparate away with only a mere fraction of his troops remaining. The Victory was so great that it earned its victors the epithets Il Vulpe, or the Fox for Ercole, and Il Piromante, or the Pyromancer for Enrico.

This, combined with Orlando advancing into Lazio itself the following year, forced the Black Nobility, negotiating under the auspices of the Magical Duca dell'Umbria, to cede the Magical March of Ancona and the Magical Principality of Campagna to the Magical Kingdom of Italy. The Treaty of Urbino in fifteen-sixty effectively turned the Lazio Republic into a rump state that had only Lazio and the Duchy of Umbria to its name. This alarmed many of the Rulers of Magical Italy, to say the least, especially the Shadow Republic of Venice, who sought to formalize its own borders and advance its position in case of assault by the ever-increasing power of the Kings of Magical Italy.

For the remaining Black Nobility of the Republic of Lazio, however, it seemingly bought them time to consolidate themselves against the Inquisition and provide a path of expansion for Magical Italy that bypassed their domains. This, it would turn out, served them ably, as the rump Lazio Republic outlasted the Inquisition and even outlasted many of the other states of Magical Italy, becoming the second to last Magical State to become part of Magical Italy, with only the Magical Principality of Savoy-Piedmont lasting longer, and even then, only largely thanks to the wars of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries postponing Savoy's final defeat.

Back to the topic at hand, however. The Venetians had, over the course of the last twenty years slowly instituted the Decreto di Separazione, or Decree of Separation whereby they established a Shadow Republic for the Magical Population of the Republic of Venice under the rule of the Consiglio dei Magistrati. The head of the Council was to be the Doge dell'Ombra, or Shadow Doge, elected by the Council and serving for life. The Shadow Doge would exercise executive power, while legislative power would lie solely in the hands of the Council.

(Translator's Note: While at first blush, this might seem similar enough to our Modern, British, Ministerial system, there are many differences that make the Venetian System not truly comparable. First is the electorate. While today, any citizen of Wizarding Britain may vote for Minister for Magic, not only was the Doge elected solely by the Council of Magisters, but the Council itself was made up of two different tiers, only one of which was elected and even then you had to have a certain level of verifiable wealth to be allowed to vote for the Council. The other tier of the Council was not appointed based on bloodline but on wealth and power. In theory, a muggleborn may sit on the appointed Council, provided he was rich enough or had enough power. Such a system could be seen as quite meritocratic but would be considered radical by many even in modern Wizarding Britain. There are other differences, such as Judicial Power lying via the executive, but I add this only for clarification.)

Magical Venice had, after instituting their Shadow Republic, looked outside their borders and was aghast to discover that the Lazio Republic had seemingly been turned into a rump state by an expansionist kingdom. Furthermore, the Kingdom in question was a Southern Italian one. That could not be borne, as it was unlikely that such a Kingdom would be content solely with gains in the March of Ancona and Principality of Campania. Indeed, were not their Old Rival in Genoa having increasing difficulty in exercising their will over Corsica thanks to the Southerners? No, it was time to look toward their newborn Shadow Republic's defense against such vulgar conquest. They looked south of them for anything that might aid them and the Council's gaze fell upon the Magical Duchies of Bologna, Parma, and Ferrara along with the Magical Marquisates of Modena and Mantua. Such territories would allow them to extend their borders further and grant them strategic depth should the Southerners move against them.

(Translator's Note: It has to be said that while used here mockingly, the North of Magical Italy does tend to hold certain stereotypes of the South, even today, after more than a century of Unification under a Southern Dynasty. The Stereotype of a Southern Italian amongst the North of Italy tends to be that of a vulgar collection of rural farmers possessed of low cunning along with natural martial skill which has allowed them to triumph over the more intellectually refined, cosmopolitan, and naturally wealthy North. It is curious to note that whenever Magical Italy goes to war that tune tends to swiftly change as the Northerners look to the Southern Population to fight while they continue to run the economy on the home front. That is neither here nor there, however.)

The Shadow Doge of the time was a man named Nicodemo Trivisan, and his nephews Bartolomeo and Alessandro were the Capitano della Mare and Capitano della Terra, or the Commanders of the Shadow Republic's Navy and Army respectively. Traditionally, Bartolomeo, as the Commander of the Navy would have seniority, but Allesandro pressed for the overall command to be given to him should the Council of Magisters and the Shadow Doge decide on war. This was, Allesandro stated, a logical move given how the bulk of the fighting would take place on land. After all, only the Magical Duchy of Ferrara even had a coastline. Nicodemo assented to Allesandro's request, with the understanding that Bartolomeo would have overall command against Ferrara.

This would turn out to be a mistake. Bartolomeo was notoriously hot-tempered and impulsive, achieving command of the Naval Forces of the Shadow Republic more out of nepotism as Nicodemo's favored nephew than any true strategic intellect. As it would transpire during the Magisters' War, this impulsiveness and lack of any real strategic ability would make a mockery out of the Shadow Republic's assault on Magical Ferrara and lead to Bartolomeo Trivisan earning the epithet of Bartolomeo Il Pazzo, or Bartolomeo the Fool.

On Paper, the Shadow Republic's expansion should have been a foregone conclusion, and in Parma, Modena, Bologna, and Mantua it was. Alessandro took three-quarters of the troops of the Shadow Republic, some two thousand witches and wizards in total, into the Duchies of Magical Parma and Magical Modena, as well as the Marquisates of Magical Mantua and Modena, and still had a slight numbers advantage against his opponents. By the end of fifteen-sixty-three, all three of those territories would be occupied by the Shadow Republic. The case in Ferrara was quite different. With a fleet of one hundred ships and a force of one thousand troops, Bartolomeo should have done likewise to Magical Ferrara. Magical Ferrara had half the number of troops available to fight and a quarter of the amount of ships.

Unfortunately for Bartolomeo, the heir of the Magical Duca di Ferrara, a wizard named Emiliano Dicanossa was talented in weather magic and in how to call and control magical creatures. He called up a storm that bedeviled and wrecked much of the Shadow Republic's Navy as, unwilling to lose time and sail around it, Bartolomeo ordered his fleet to sail through it, claiming it to be no match for determined wizards. As the Shadow Republic's fleet soon found out, that was not the case. Lightning that seemed to strike as if guided by an intelligence struck out at loan ships, setting masts ablaze and forcing crews that should have been attempting to leave the storm to fight fires. Waves scattered any ships that managed to link up with each other, capsizing ships and sending wizards overboard where they found themselves assailed by Monsterous Dogfish, Sea Serpents, and other dangerous Magical Beasts.

(Translator's Note: Some of you may not be familiar with Monstrous Dogfish. Indeed, they are not taught in Hogwarts either in Combat Magic or Care of Magical Creatures. This is for a simple reason. They are an extinct species. They only existed in the Adriatic, and the last of them was believed to have been slain twenty years ago now. This after a prolonged effort on the part of the Magical Italian Government to hunt them down as dangers to seaborne trade. Indeed, there were very few potions that Monstrous Dogfish could be used to make in any capacity, and they have all long since had substitutions added to their formulae that are less hazardous to acquire and thus more easily managed for industrial-scale potion brewing. By the time of the death of the last Monstrous Dogfish, only a few Potions Masters still used their bile or blood in potions, and then only upon request. As Monstrous Dogfish sometimes attacked trade ships going from Greece or Albania to Italy, and even sometimes even attacked muggle shipping, requiring the Oblivation of any survivors, you can see why the effort to wipe them out was made.)

The fleet was thrown completely into disarray and barely a third survived to make it out of the storm. Bartolomeo himself was wounded fighting a Sea Serpent that had assailed his Flagship, and though he managed to make it out of the storm, his wounds were too severe. He was forced to return to Venice in shame to have his arm and leg regrown. The battle became known as La Battaglia della Tempesta, or the Battle of the Storm. It was a horrific defeat, and the problems for the Shadow Republic did not end there. The Army of Magical Ferrara, screened by a dense fog that had been conjured up by Emiliano the night before, counterattacked the now-leaderless Army of the Shadow Republic a few days after the naval defeat in the Battle of the Storm, killing a quarter of the Shadow Republic's army and inflicting yet another stunning loss on the Shadow Republic.

With Bartolomeo so humbled and their forces in Ferrara in disarray, the Shadow Doge reached out to the Duke of Magical Ferrara and offered a peace treaty. The Shadow Republic would withdraw their ships and troops and pay a sum of one-hundred-sixty thousand Ducats in indemnities. This sum was almost equivalent to forty percent of the Duchy of Magical Ferrara's entire revenue for that year so the Magical di Ferrara accepted. This angered Emiliano, as he believed that the eagerness of the Shadow Doge to pay such indemnities meant that they were weakened enough that an attack on the territory of the Shadow Republic would have gotten them even more out of any potential peace. In this, he was correct, for the Shadow Republic's Armies were only a third of the way through conquering Magical Mantua, Bologna, Modena, and Parma and would have had to abandon their conquests to defend their home territory. This would cause a rift between father and son that would not end until the death of the Duca di Ferrara in fifteen-seventy-five to a bout of Sweating Sickness which swept through Ferrara that year.

(Translators' Notes: Sweating Sickness is now known to be caused by bites from Snidget Mites, a discovery that prompted the worldwide ban on Snidgets in Quidditch and their replacement with the Golden Snitch we all know today. However, this was not widely known until the discovery of the cause in the eighteen-fifties. While these volumes are not that old, the Magical Duca di Ferrara, living in the sixteenth century, would have no way of knowing how to avoid such a disease.)

Regardless of the intentions of the Duca di Ferrara and his disagreement with Emiliano, the Magical Duchy of Ferrara clearly had won a great victory. Such a victory had earned Emiliano the Epithet of Il Tempesta, or the Storm. Such triumphs were not to be shared by Magical Modena, Mantua, Parma, and Bologna. Of them, Mantua fell the quickest. It was closest to the Shadow Republic and had the smallest army. It fell in three months before its forces could even combine with those of its allies in Parma, Bologna, and Modena. With the remnants of Bartolomeo's Army being withdrawn from Berra just inside the Border of Magical Ferrara, where they had retreated to after the Battaglia della Nebbia or Battle of the Fog. Those troops were then put into the field against Modena. The two-thousand-seven-hundred-fifty Wizards of the Shadow Republic's army met the combined forces of Magical Parma, Modena, and Bologna west of Soliera at the then comparatively small Wizarding Village of Piccola Torre. The battle made heavy use of elemental magics, earning the battlefield the epithet of Il Campo del Fuoco e del Tuono, or the Field of Fire and Thunder. The winner of the battle was undoubtedly the Shadow Republic, though the Army of Magical Parma managed to disengage in good order, the Armies of Magical Modena and Magical Bologna did not.

Indeed, Alessandro managed to follow the retreating army of Magical Bologna and turn their retreat into a panicked rout. Killing the Magical Duca di Bologna with a Thunderbolt Spell in a duel as the Duke desperately tried to buy time for his routing forces to withdraw to the safety of the Hidden Citadel of Magical Bologna. It was a brave attempt, but it was all for naught. The Duke had no legitimate heirs, and it was his bastard son Primo who the Duke had sired by his second mistress, Madame Vulpi, who approached Allesandro with a deal. Help the Vulpi Family gain control of Magical Bologna and they would swear fealty to the Shadow Republic. This was not something that Allesandro could pass up, and indeed he agreed readily. This culminated in the surprise attack known as the Bolognese Vespers, where Primo Vulpi let the forces of the Shadow Republic into the Hidden Citadel of Magical Bologna during evening prayers, while his half brothers and their retainers were praying in the chapel for victory.

(Translator's Note: The Hidden Citadel of Magical Bologna was not some unplottable fortress out in the countryside as the name might suggest, rather it was quite a public building on the Piazza della Magica, the Duchy of Magical Bologna's version of Diagon Alley. The term hidden, in this case, refers more to its status as hidden away from muggles than anything else. Think of it as a rough equivalent to the Ministry Building below Whitehall where the Duke's court and government ruled the Duchy from more than any secret castle in the countryside and you'll be in the right area.)

The Venetians murdered the Bolognese in the chapel and that left Primo Vulpi the sole claimant to the Duchy of Magical Bologna. He claimed the throne and as soon as the Ducal Coronet was placed on his head, he immediately swore fealty to Allesandro Trivisan and the Shadow Republic of Venice. This freed Allesandro to turn west to attack Magical Modena, smashing the remnant of the Magical Army of Modena at the Fork of the Panaro River east of the City of Modena itself, forcing the Marchese di Modena to swear fealty to the Shadow Republic there in the field at wandpoint.

That left Magical Parma as the only lingering opponent facing Allesandro. As Allesandro moved into the territory of Magical Parma in the spring of fifteen-sixty-three, the Magical Duca di Parma, had a tough decision to make. Realizing that he did not have the forces to face the Shadow Republic's Army alone, decided that discretion was the better part of valor and knelt, swearing fealty to the Shadow Republic, though notably, he swore his oath to the Council of Magisters instead of Allesandro, traveling to Magical Venice to do so in person. With that, the Shadow Republic had secured its southern border against any aggression by the Kingdom of Magical Italy with aggression of its own. It had gained strategic depth to the south, and where it had not, it had carved out a buffer state in Magical Ferrara.

Allesandro Trivisan would, for his victories, gain the Epithet of Allesandro Il Leone, or Allesandro the Lion. He was rewarded with complete command over all Army and Navy Forces in the Shadow Republic, making him the Capitano-Generale della Repubblica, an office that merged both the offices of the Capitano della Mare and Capitano della Terra into one, overall, command.

Mind you, while this was ongoing, the other states of Magical Italy had not been idle. By fifteen-eighty, there would not be a state in Magical Italy that did not institute some form of the Compromise of Lipari, many having seen the chaos in the Papal States that had allowed the Kingdom of Magical Italy their swift conquests in the fifteen-sixty treaty were resolved not to wait until the Inquisition turned its eye outside of Papal Borders. As had been proven by Ferrara, it was possible to defeat a much more powerful foe, but only if you were not also facing threats from Muggle Inquisitors and betrayals from Squibs and your Wizarding Rivals at the same time.

This line of thought had more or less also spread beyond Italy as well, though not as far as it should have, as the tragedy of the German States would soon show. Henri the Seconf of France had declared the crowning of a Magical Dynasty, investing his sixteen-year-old, Magical, Illegitimate son Philippe, the title of Duc de Magie, and telling him to do what had been done in Spain recently. This happened shortly before Henri's death in fifteen-fifty-nine and by the time that the Peace of Venice settled in Northern Italy in Fifteen-sixty-three, had been a settled state of affairs for half a decade.

Spain had itself imported the terms of the Compromise of Lipari in fifteen forty, this time as the Edict of Toledo, placing the magical half-brother of Felipe the Second, Don Carlos in charge as the Rey de los Magos and charging him to sever the Wizarding community of Spain and Portugal, what was left of it, from Muggle Spain and Portugal. Likewise, Magical Austria borrowed the practice from their Spanish Cousins, issuing the Sanktion der Trennung, or Sanction of Separation in sixteen hundred, though by that time, many Wizards had already been killed in Austria proper and would be killed in the future in the rest of the Holy Roman Empire before the German States managed to enact their Hexenkompakt.

(Translator's Note: As Don Carlos of Spain was the son of Carlos the First of Spain and the Squib Maria Luisa de Almeida, that presented something of an awkward position when the Restoration War in Portugal Broke out amongst the muggles. The Almeida Family were the chief proponents of the Restoration and their Magical Cadet Branch was no different, however, it had an option in the person of Don Carlos that the Muggles did not have. This is why even to this day, Magical Portugal is ruled by a Magical cadet branch of the House of Hapsburg, even while no other country in the world still is after the recent armistice, muggle or magical.)

What's more, several states moved to swiftly consolidate against regional rivals the same as the Shadow Republic did. The Grand Magister's Council of Magical Florence, for example, forced the Mystic Republic of Siena, which had itself outlived the Muggle Republic by eight years at this point, to accede to annexation with a brief campaign that saw Siena's largely mercenary force of Condottieri Magie to rout in a series of sharp engagements, leaving Siena largely defenseless after only a short time. Likewise, the Magical Republic of Venice and the Magical Principality of Savoy-Piedmont engaged in a series of conflicts that were often inconclusive, but ruinously expensive.

Of course, the Kingdom of Magical Italy had also not been idle during the Wars. Chiefly, it was Decimo, the titular Prince of Corsica and Sardinia, and Cosima, the Titular Duchess of Tuscany who were making moves to contest Corsica against the Genoese and to begin stealthily taking control of the Mystic Republic of Lucca. Hoping to get just that much closer to the goals laid out for them by their father, Enrico the First.

For Decimo, it was slow and subtle, through marriages and economics, marrying retainers and family members to important Magical Nobles on Corsica, the Ramolinos, the Casanovas, and the Buonapartes chiefly. He also bought out Olive, Chestnut, Cork, and Fig Groves along with Vineyards and Gillyweed Pools. He always made certain that his name was never on any documents proving ownership, working through allies and proxies, but by fifteen-seventy, he owned an estimated forty percent of the Island's Olive, Chestnut, Cork, and Fig production, along with an estimated quarter of its vineyards and a full half of its Gillyweed Pools.

(Translator's Note: Those of you familiar with Muggle History may have heard the name Buonaparte before. It is not widely known, but Napoleon Bonaparte, the muggle Emperor of France, was descended from a Squib branch of the Magical Buonaparte Family. The knowledge was covered up by the restoration at the behest of the First Minister of the French Duc de Magie, fearing unrest would break out among the population of the Kingdom of Magical France. It is, however, an established fact in Historical Academia, not that anyone who may have slept through History of Magic would know. After all, I have heard that the ghost they have teaching the position for the past twenty-five years tends to have that effect on students.)

This number grew to a full sixty percent of the Island's economic activity by fifteen-eighty-five. By the time of Decimo's hundredth birthday in sixteen-oh-three, the Magical Republic of Genoa had been onto Decimo's game for some time, but, due to conflicts with the Magical Princes of Savoy-Piedmont, were unable to do much about it. In fact, by sixteen-oh-three, the Magical Genoese had lost a war with the Magical Princes of Savoy-Piedmont and had been forced to relinquish control of all territory from Finale Liguria west to the border with Magical Monaco. This effectively broke their maritime monopoly on the Ligurian Sea Trade, allowing Savoy-Piedmont to begin trading overseas and reaping the rich bounty of Gillyweed, Pearl Dust, Octopus Powder, and half a hundred other potions ingredients that can only be found at sea.

In effect, the Genoese were strapped for cash and it was as Decimo's Hundredth Birthday closed in that the Magical Doge of Genoa made an offer. They would sell Decimo the island of Corsica if he would pay a sum of one hundred thousand Ducats to The Magical Republic of Genoa. Decimo agreed readily, as he was making at least that much from monopolizing the majority of Corsica's economic output as it was. Thus, Decimo, on the eve of his hundredth year of life became the first to fulfill the goals that Enrico the First set out before his heirs.

At the same time, however, Cosima was making moves as well. For twenty years, she had been laying the groundwork to annex the Mystic Republic of Lucca. She did this largely by first buying up the debts of various Magistrati of the Consiglio dei Supremi Magistrati della Magia, or Council of Supreme Magistrates of Magic. It was these magistrates who elected the Capitano di Populo, or Captain of the People and it was Cosima's hope that with enough of the council in her purse, she would be able to arrange for her son Onorio to be elected Capitano di Populo, and thus allow him to turn Lucca into yet another Lordship he could control as hereditary Lord, similar to how he would control Monaco once she and her husband, Adrian Grimaldi, Magical Lord of Monaco passed. When there proved to not be enough debts to facilitate her scheme, Cosima settled for bribery. If bribery would not suffice, then assassination would.

(Translator's Note: As with the title of Gonfalonieri from the previous volume, Capitano di Populo was a specific title denoting a Magisterial Position. In this case, executive power over the Mystic Republic of Lucca. As with other republics in Italy at this time, it was unlike our concept of a Modern Ministry in many of the same ways that the Shadow Republic of Venice was.)

Cosima was single-minded in her determination to see Onorio gain Lucca for himself. It would earn her the epithet of La Imperterrita, or the Undeterred, for every time she faced a setback in her schemes, her focus redoubled. Eventually, however, as Cosima reached ninety-five years of age by sixteen-oh-two, she had finally consolidated enough of the Council for her scheme to work. Thus, by April of Sixteen-oh-two, Onorio Grimaldi was elected Capitano di Populo. By sixteen-oh-five, the Mystic Republic of Lucca had been dissolved and replaced by the Signoria of Magical Lucca as yet another appenage of the Kingdom of Magical Italy.

Mind you, by this time, each of the children of Enrico the First were themselves in their last years. Their minds naturally turned, as their fathers' had, toward the succession. Thankfully, there was plenty for them to be optimistic about. Orlando was the only male heir of Cosima and with the title of Magical Lord of Monaco having been passed from his uncle to his father and thus to him, and his takeover of Lucca secure, his position was stronger than it had any right to be for someone who, at his birth, only had the Magical Principality of Piombino to look forward to.

Decimo, meanwhile had one son and one daughter, making his son, Massimo the sole claimant to the Magical Principality of Sardinia and Corsica. Massimo, however, had two sons of his own, Giancarlo who was the elder and married to Yasmin Ali, the magical daughter of Kilic Ali Pasha, former Beylerbey of Algiers. Kilic Ali Pasha had been born in Calabria and captured by Barbary Corsairs at sea where he had converted to Islam and risen up the ranks of the Ottoman Navy, eventually marrying the daughter of a local Algerian Magical Hamidou family, as much of North Africa had yet to enforce any equivalent to the Compromise of Lipari. Yasmin had converted back to Catholicism as a condition of the marriage. While this gave Giancarlo a claim on Algiers by Italian Standards, the Ottomans did things quite differently and still do to this day. If Massimo wanted his elder son to gain Algiers, it would need to be at the end of a wand. In the meantime, his second son, Luigi, was married to another Corsican Noblewoman, Leonora Paoli. Of the two, only Giancarlo had a son, Ambrogio, while Luigi only had a daughter, Daniela.

(Translator's note: Indeed, the standard practice for the Ottomans up until the very end of the recent Great War was to appoint governors whose titles were dependent on the Sultan. The system of Pashas, Beylerbeys, and Beyliks seems contradictory to stable governance but began as a practical effort to ensure the Primacy of the Sultan. In any event, it matters little to the story save to add context as to why Giancarlo of Sardinia and Corsica would have to fight for Algiers if he was married to, and had a claim through, the daughter of the previous Beylerbey.)

Meanwhile, Orlando the First's heir Enrico the Second had a son and a daughter by Fausta Zabini, Marco the future Marco the Cunning, would be Enrico's heir, while his daughter Gisella had been married to Emiliano the Storm of Magical Ferrara. Enrico would also bring Ragusa into the Kingdom by dint of Inheritance, which was something that could not be said for his brother, Dante, whose wife, Danica Pamalioti's family already owed homage to the Shadow Republic of Venice, and thus would not bring any new territory to the kingdom without a fight. Their son, however, Nikola, named after Danica's grandfather, would be keen to give the Venetians that fight. He would, in the future, raise a rebellion in Venetian Dalmatia in the hopes of prizing loose the territory around the Bay of Kotor from Venetian Control. His efforts would earn him the epithet of Il Torcia, or the Torch.

Nikola had his own wife, a Croatian Witch, Renate Hrvatinić, a distant descendant of the magical branch of the House of Hrvatinić, which had been Grand Dukes of Bosnia in the fifteenth century and had limped along as minor nobility afterward, paying homage to the Ottomans, the Venetians, and the Austrians by turn. The Magical Branch, meanwhile, owed fealty to the Shadow Republic of Venice. Through this marriage, Nikola hoped to be able to flip more of Dalmatia to his side in any revolt. Nikola and Renata had one son Kazimir Angelo and an infant daughter, Tatjana Nicoletta. Meanwhile, Nikola's sister, Sabrina, was married to the Magical Count of Foix. Francois d'Albret a cousin, albeit very distantly related, to the French Duc de Magie.

What this effectively meant was that there were three distinct areas of interest forming within the House of Enrici, the main Branch, which held the Kingship, was primarily focused on affairs on the Italian Peninsula, uniting the other states of Magical Italy with the crown. This also held true for the Cadet Branch of Enrici-Grimaldi, though generally to a lesser degree, focused as they were on Tuscany. Meanwhile, the Cadet Branch of Enrici-Sardinia Under Decimo's son Massimo, was focused on expansion into Algiers and possibly Tripoli as well if that went well. Those attempts would be decidedly mixed, but it set the tone for the Enrici-Sardinian Branch to focus more on overseas expansion and colonization going forward. Finally, there was the Cadet Branch of Enrici-Kotor, which was focused on expansion in Dalmatia and the Balkans.

These priorities and branches would largely be set, when, in sixteen fifteen, Orlando the First passed away at the ripe old age of one-hundred-twenty-two, and Enrico the Second came to the throne. His death would be followed shortly after by that of Cosima in a flying accident the following year. The last of the children of Enrico the Second, Decimo of Sardinia and Corsica, would pass away three years later at the age of One-Hundred-Nineteen.

They would leave a Kingdom and dynasty in good hands, though the challenges faced by their heirs would not be as easy as the ones they faced. . .

(Translator's note: As the first volume of this set sold reasonably well, at least enough to merit interest and keep my father from hounding me over wasting my time, it has provided a decent enough incentive to finish this translation of the second volume. I hope to have the third volume translated and ready to be printed by this time next year.

Mind you, I have been hearing some rumblings from certain quarters wondering if we should even bother with the history of the Continent. After all, was it not the Wizards of the Continent in the Freiburg Circle that attempted to utilize the Muggle's Great War to produce Inferi in large enough numbers to overwhelm the Duc de Magie's Government, sparking the Necromancer War of Nineteen-fifteen to Nineteen-eighteen? Did not the Duc de Magie's Royal Army almost fail to stem the tide? Would they not have failed without our aid?

Surely, these people say, there is nothing to be gained from learning the History of the Continent. Not when such degenerates as Aloysius Kemmler of the Freiburg Circle in the Magical Rhinebund, Frederich Schenk of the Knights of the Black Mountain in Magical Austria, and Murad Sisli and his Dark Janissaries in the Hidden Porte were the result?

To those, I say that it is if anything more imperative that we learn the history and cultures that came to produce such menaces. If we do not know the conditions from which such wizards can spawn, how can we hope to keep such men from cropping up again in twenty years, this time with even more followers thanks to the harsh restrictions imposed on the defeated? Heaven forbid we try to learn something that might even make such men cropping up here in Britain impossible.

Once again, the short-sightedness of many of my fellow British Wizards, some of which my own family astounds me. I can only hope that such things do not become the overwhelming norm. For my part, I intend to translate the rest of these volumes, and a few other series as well, such as the Rheinvolkleid of the Rheinbund and the Geschichte vom Schwarzenberg of Austria. If there is time, I shall also endeavor to translate the Osmanli Hikayesi of the Former Ottoman Empire, though I must warn you, my Turkish is not as up to par as my Italian or German is.

As always, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. I can only hope my efforts aid in the learning.

Honorius Basilikos Black, translated on the sixth of April, Nineteen-Twenty)