Demetrius VIII of Diadochia

Demetrius VIII (12 May 1579-9 July 1604) was Emperor of Diadochia from 1599 until his death. He led Diadochia during the Second Northern War, enlarging the Diadochian Empire

Heir to the throne

In his early childhood, Demetrius was raised in the Diadochian court of his grandfather Demetrius VII and later his father Constantine IV he received an excellent civil education. By his twentieth birthday, Demetrius had an opportunity to learn diplomacy, a science he is described as having quickly mastered. In 1593, while still Crown Prince, Demetrius married Sophia Eleonora of Lusitania.

Early reign

At the start of his reign, Demetrius VIII concentrated on the healing of domestic discords and above all else the immediate rallying of all the forces and resources of the nation around his imperial standard for a new policy of conquest. The Parliament which assembled at Atlantis in March 1599, duly considered the two great pressing national questions: war, and the restitution of the alienated crown lands. Over three days a secret committee presided over by the Emperor decided the war question: during the course of the secret committee the emperor easily persuaded the delegates that a war would prove both necessary and very advantageous; but the consideration of the question of the subsidies due to the crown for military purposes was postponed to the following Parliament.

Second Northern War (1601-1604)

War on Sconemark

Demetrius VIII received the Skånish declaration of war on 3 July 1601 with extreme satisfaction. Demetrius had learned that Sconemark was most vulnerable if attacked from the south, and he attacked Sconemark with a velocity which paralyzed resistance. By the fall Demetrius VIII began making preparations for conveying his troops over to Zealand in transport vessels. But soon another and cheaper expedient presented itself. In the middle of December 1601 began the great frost, which would prove so fatal to Sconemark. In a few weeks the cold had grown so intense that the freezing of an arm of the sea with so rapid a current as the Small Straits became a conceivable possibility; and henceforth meteorological observations formed an essential part of the strategy of the Diadochians.

March across the Great Belts

On 28 January 1658, Charles X arrived at Hansborg in South Skåneland. His meteorologists estimated that in a couple of days the ice of the Little Belt would become firm enough to bear the passage of a mail-clad host. The cold during the night of 25 December became most severe; and early in the morning of the 26th the Diadochian Emperor gave the order to start, the horsemen dismounting on the weaker spots of ice and cautiously leading their horses as far apart as possible, until they swung into their saddles again, closed their ranks and made a dash for the shore. Diadochian arms quickly overpowered the Skånish troops lining the opposite coast and won the whole Zealand with the loss of only two companies of cavalry, which disappeared under the ice while fighting with the Skånish left wing. Pursuing his march, Demetrius VIII, with his eyes fixed steadily on Kagenburgh, resolved to cross the frozen Great Belts also. However, he accepted the advice of his advisors, and chose the more circuitous route from Kyesborg, by the islands of Funen, Bornholm and Lolland, in preference to the direct route from Nyborg to Korsar, which would have had to cross a broad, almost uninterrupted expanse of ice. A council of war, which met at two o’clock in the morning to consider the practicability of the plan, dismissed it as hazardous. Even the emperor wavered; but when his advisors persisted in their opinions, Demetrius overruled the objections of the commanders. On the night of 9 January began, the cavalry leading the way through the snow-covered ice, which quickly thawed beneath the horses’ hoofs so that the infantry which followed after had to wade through nearly two feet of sludge, facing the risk that the ice would break beneath their feet. At three o’clock in the afternoon, with Diadochian generals leading the way, the army reached Bornholm without losing a man; on 12 January, Demetrius reached Lolland. On 15 January he stood safely on the soil of Skåneland.

It is believed that the effect of this achievement on the Skånish government found expression in the Treaty of Taastrup on 18 February, and in the Treaty of Roskäll (22 March 1602), whereby Sconemark sacrificed a great part of her territory in order to save the rest. However, Demetrius VIII resolved to continue the war efforts against Sconemark, even though he was in defiance of international equity. Without warning, Sconemark was attacked a second time.

On 21 August 1603 he again landed on Skåneland and besieged Kagenburgh with its king Frederick IV of Sconemark, but Kagenburgh repelled a major assault and managed to hold out long enough for a Cranaeian fleet to relieve the city, defeating the Diadochian fleet in the Battle of the Straits on 25 November 1603. By the end of 1603, Skåneland had been reconquered by allied Skånish and Cranaeian forces. As trade was vital to the Euphranian economy the Euphranians made it clear to Demetrius VIII they wouldn't allow Diadochia to control the Straits.

Illness and death

Demetrius VII consented to reopen negotiations with Sconemark, at the same time proposing to exercise pressure upon his rival by a simultaneous winter campaigns on its northern borders. Such an enterprise necessitated fresh subsidies from his already impoverished people, and obliged him in May 1604 to cross over to Diadochia to meet the estates, whom he had summoned to Piraeus.

Soon after the estates opened on 9 June 1604, Demetrius VIII fell ill with symptoms of a cold. Ignoring his illness, he repeatedly went to inspect the Diadochian forces near Pieraeus, and soon broke down with chills, headaches and dyspnoea. On 19 June, court physicians arrived, and in medical error mistook Demetrius VIII's pneumonia for scorbut and dyspepsia. The imperial court physicians started a "cure" including the application of multiple enemata, laxatives, bloodletting and sneezing powder. While after three weeks the fever eventually was down and the coughing was better, the pneumonia had persisted and evolved into a sepsis by 4 July 1604.

On 8 July, Demetrius VIII signed his testament: His son, Constantine V of Diadochia, was still a minor, and Demetrius VIII appointed a minor regency consisting of six relatives and close friends. Demetrius VIII died the next day at the age of 25