Within the city of Florence, the Doges of Venice and Genoa were kneeling before the Holy Roman Emperor. Emperor Balsamo Corsini was beyond livid after the pre-emptive strike Berengar had engaged in on his two most powerful vassals.
The destruction of the majority of the Genoan and Venetian navies was a massive blow to Imperial power, not just in the war against Austria but across the Mediterranean as a whole. Besides this, Berengar had openly licensed pirates, or privateers as he referred to them to attack what little shipping remained of Empire.
With this in mind, the Emperor had called his two subordinates to the current capital of the Empire with the intent of seeing how this crisis they were suffering could be salvaged. The Venetian Doge was the first to speak his mind.
