Alternate History Thread II...
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Swissempire
Poet Jester
You can take it. I'll make my NES and release it this fall. I'll probably do a Fresh-Start for the summer to get some experienceDachspmg said:But...I was writing a ruleset for a 1680s one...
All right, since Swiss posted. Does anyone want me to...change something first, tho?
Swissempire
Poet Jester
Of Course i didn't mean ONLY for the summer. Ha, don't make me laugh. I just meant that I will start my first NES, a fresh start, this summer, in like a week.
Harleqin
Hippo Power
Ok, I have a slight request for you masters. I'm considering some optins myself and I know what I'd like to achieve... but I'd like to hear what you think the result would be.
So, the year is 1812. Napoleon is retreating from Moscow. At the end of October the French and Russian forces meet at Maloyaroslavets. General Dokhturov fails to detect that it is the entire Grande Arme and not just a foraging party. As a result the battle ends with a complete French victory. Dokhturov himself is slain along with most of his army. As a result the French do not not take the northern road through Smolensk.
The Grande Armee makes it to Poland. Far from intact, but with a strenght of around 100,000 men compared to the 22,000 he had in OTL.
Now.. what will happen?
My initial ideas are to let the war run on and end in a bloody stalemate. We still get something like the Congress of Vienna, but results are slightly different. Some of the French "lands" such as Spain get their complete independency and there will be changes in Italy. I imagine some shaky union made in the German principalities as well. Denmark will not be forced to cede Norway.
I'll post my list of events following this later.
But... what do you masters (
) think would be "realistic?
So, the year is 1812. Napoleon is retreating from Moscow. At the end of October the French and Russian forces meet at Maloyaroslavets. General Dokhturov fails to detect that it is the entire Grande Arme and not just a foraging party. As a result the battle ends with a complete French victory. Dokhturov himself is slain along with most of his army. As a result the French do not not take the northern road through Smolensk.
The Grande Armee makes it to Poland. Far from intact, but with a strenght of around 100,000 men compared to the 22,000 he had in OTL.
Now.. what will happen?
My initial ideas are to let the war run on and end in a bloody stalemate. We still get something like the Congress of Vienna, but results are slightly different. Some of the French "lands" such as Spain get their complete independency and there will be changes in Italy. I imagine some shaky union made in the German principalities as well. Denmark will not be forced to cede Norway.
I'll post my list of events following this later.
But... what do you masters (
) think would be "realistic?
das
Regeneration In Process
Nah. The forces arranged against Napoleon were too great, no long-term compromise was possible from the moment he started the Continental Blockade. The best he could hope for is to go out with as big a boom as possible, which he to a certain extent achieved. Well, technically there's also the "defeat all continental enemies and spend the rest of his life chasing rebels and cursing the British that will inevitably keep annoying him with landings all over the place, and then have his empire fall apart upon his death due to general instability and economy crippled by the blockades" option, which, in combination with the dramatic weakening of USA, I already did once. But IMHO the PoD is too late.
das
Regeneration In Process
OOC: This is a very war-oriented post, and it covers slightly over a half of the 16th century; in the next post, I will cover the rest of it, paying more attention to other developments - meaning, both in other parts of the world and in other layers of history.
IC:
It is said that all empires rise and fall; that all of them have their periods of greatness, of decline and of downfall. But that is hardly so, for no empire was ever solely on the rise or on the decline. The example of the 15th century showed it quite well, with the failure of historians to reach a consensus as to what empire exactly ruled the day. The Plantagenets? They were at their strongest militarily and economically, but their empire was also perhaps too vast and ever more unstable, and diplomatically it was much worse off at the end of the century than in its beginning. Iberia's days of greatness were only beginning - the great profits of the Indian Ocean trade were only starting to roll in. Aragon was on the ascendant in the Mediterranean, but was also somewhat stagnant and frustrated in its ambitions back in the Pyrenean peninsula. The Habsburgs? They expanded and strenghthened dramatically during that century, but lost ground in Hungary and were embroiled in a "cold war" with their German vassals. Not all of their great plans had bore fruit yet, too. Poland-Lithuania was, at one point, the largest state in Europe, but an increasingly unstable one, and the ruling Jagiellon dynasty similarily lost influence in Bohemia and Hungary. Hungary, at the expense of unpopular government actions and alienation of its old allies abroad, had revived its military fortunes and gained territory, but was, by the century's end, once more beginning to stagnate as the new corrupt buerocrats proved little better than the old feud-mongering noblemen and power-hungry magnates. The Ottoman Empire? It also made most dramatic progress, but on the other hand the 15th century saw numerous defeats and reversals for them all through - the Timurids had crippled their power in Anatolia for several decades with their victory at Ankara in 1402, and later Mehmed II's defeat in Italy briefly brought it, how ever briefly, on the edge of collapse and caused it to lose ground in the Balkans.
The 15th century not only was a mixed one for all the European powers, it also was a horribly indecisive one. Only the Plantagenet struggle with the Armagnacs had a decisive result - all the other struggles between great powers, new and old alike, though started and advanced were not yet firmly decided. Since the end of the Hundred Years War and of Mehmed's war with Christendom, Europe was in a state of comparative peace when all the sides involved or non-involved in the conflicts prepared for the next round, hoping for it to be decisive. New armies were raised, with new tactics, new weapons and new generals, and new plans were drawn up for the new wars and the old struggles, and as the 15th century closed all the many sides were waiting for one or another to make the first move, starting that aforementioned next round and allowing them all to gradually join the fray as the initial crisis would expand, as they always do.
In the end, however, Nature itself made the first move, through a wild boar who, in 1502, killed the young Grand Duke of Burgundy, Jean II. Problematically, he did not have any children. After furious debate, it was decided by the Burgundian magnates to hold a council and elect a new Grand Duke. There was a representative of a cadet branch of the Valois, Prince Henry (King Charles II's brother) of the Plantagenets and... the Holy Roman Emperor Maximillian II. He was not too far up the conventional succession order, had Burgundy had any such a thing; furthermore, he was not too healthy, and had a bout of madness back in 1500. In truth, the supposed "weakness" of this ruler was probably one of the reasons the Burgundians had elected him their Grand Duke - under him, the magnates had hoped to retain their independence, in part also because he also had to pay attention to the developments in the other Habsburg realms. Another reason he was chosen were the long-standing alliance with the Habsburgs.
But not all the magnates were happy with this. Some of the Flemish ones, and the ones in West Burgundy, instead had growing economic and cultural ties with the Plantagenet Empire, and instead supported Prince Henry. Knowing that they were outnumbered, they made sure to stall the elections for as long as possible... while Prince Henry, with his English companions and local supporters, prepared a coup. Charles II, often called "the last knight of Europe", was, though chivalrous and naive, not at all dumb - the Habsburg powerhouse that was forming around Maximillian was, at best, a threat to English commercial interests (as the more warlike of his merchants never tired of pointing out), and, at worst, and as Charles himself seemed to believe, a threat to the Plantagenet Empire's very existance. So Charles, while unappreciative of his brother's methods, agreed to support him. While as per the advise of Lord Richmond, the gray eminence at King Charles II's court, the English armies were being prepared for an invasion of Flanders, should Henry fail (and Lord Richemond had persuaded Charles II that Henry's perspectives were not all that bright after all).
When on June 12th 1503, encouraged by the Emperor's personal arrival, the magnates in Dijon officially declared Maximillian Grand Duke of Burgundy, Henry struck out. His supporters protested the decision, while he and his armed retainers assaulted Dijon's city hall. However, most of the magantes already left it for the palace, near which joint Burgundian, Imperial and local militia forces rallied and soon surrounded Henry, forcing his surrender and imprisoning him. His remaining supporters either gave up or fled for Paris; one of the latter, a Louis Gerlache, had been granted audience with King Charles II. It is not completely clear as to what they have talked about; but Charles II became even firmly convinced for the need of armed intervention, whereas Gerlache himself joined his court and assisted him in his dealings with the Burgundian and Flemish population during the war. His connections also were of some assistance to Charles II financially.
So pledging to liberate his brother and to avenge this offense against the honour of the Plantagenets, Charles II started the War of Burgundian Succession in 1503 and struck out towards Dijon with a large Anglo-French force, whereas Henry de la Pole led another English army gathered at Calais into Flanders. Against Gerlache's advice, this latter army was both weaker and commanded by a brilliant military leader who had a single, but crucial flaw - he was not the King. Instead of going for the key, and prosperous, territories of the Flanders, where England would hava had both more local support and easier supply routes, Charles had decided to strike towards Burgundy's formal capital, and also for Emperor Maximillian. That latter consideration, along with the fact that valuable time could have been lost during the re-deployment had Charles II listened to Gerlache, makes his decision seem less foolish - but that does not matter, as it still did greatly hamper England's early war effort.
For while de la Pole, despite being almost outnumbered by the militias raised by the Flemish cities and the Burgundian forces deployed there, secured Brugges and surrounding areas through a combination of cunning local-scale diplomacy and well-planned maneuvers, feints and assaults, Charles II himself had clashed with a joint Habsburg force. After a few skirmishes where the English king came out "victorious" but lost many men, a decisive battle came at Sombernon. The Imperials and Burgundians were commanded by the Emperor himself. Neither commander was particularily competent; Charles II was more charismatic, brave and foolhardy, whereas Maximillian II was fairly unhealthy and quite indecisive. But once more, his seemingly "negative" traits have greatly assisted the Emperor. Firstly, while he hesitated, Charles II, having failed to break the ranks of Imperial Swiss pikemen with a decisive charge that bogged down and turned into a bloody never-ending slaughter despite the superior (hilly) English position, begun commiting more and more reserves to it, himself leading a second charge. For a moment, under the English pressure, the Imperial forces stumbled and seemed to be beginning to rout; but as Maximillian finally made up his mind and agreed to send more troops to the battlefield, they were reinvigorated and, having lost but a few inches of earth, once more formed as tight a rank as they could manage and continued the fight.
Secondly, Maximillian II proved to be influenced easily enough, and Robert de Brimeu, a Burgundian knight and a promising young officer who has somehow ended up with Maximillian on a hill overlooking the battlefield, has persuaded him that there would be no better time than this for more of the reseves to be brought in. More importantly, he requested to be given a command of a few dozen horsemen for a flanking charge. Impressed by his confidence, the Emperor agreed, and de Brimeu went on to charge at the enemy flank in just the right moment, causing the left wing of the Plantagenet forces to break and run as more Imperial troops begun arriving into the fray. Yes, you guessed it, this was overexaggerated by future playwrights. Elsewhere, the Plantagenet situation was not as desperate, but detiriorating. Coming to his senses, Charles II decided to try and salvage at least a part of his army, and begun gradually withdrawing his troops from the fight. But soon, the attempts to conduct an orderly retreat in the middle of a battlefield turned into a rout, and Charles II escaped from Burgundy with less than a tenth of his total force.
Although the exact decisions taken by commanders have been quite influential, as were such factors as morale, terrain and weather, the true reason behind the Habsburg victory was the same as the one behind Henry the Great's victory at Agincourt. Back then, the English army was more progressive - in weapons, in doctrine, in tactics, in organization. But after Henry V's victory, the English have failed to make any fundamental improvements in their way of war, whereas the Burgundians, their long-time opponents, have had to change their army as to be capable of combatting the English, their main and strongest enemy. The Burgundian Grand Dukes have consistantly worked to create a more efficient professional (or semiprofessional) army, by hiring mercenaries and training Flemish crossbowmen and Swiss Pikemen. The Habsburgs had also contributed to this mix well; in the skirmishes preceding the Battle at Sombernon the cuirassiers - the first organized gunpowder cavalry in Europe - have made their debut, inflicting many demoralizing losses upon the Plantagenet forces before the battle itself came.
Anyway, the Imperials have failed to exploit this victory properly as Maximillian still had to consolidate his control over Burgundy and wait for more reinforcements to come in from the Empire; he also needed to deal with de la Pole, who, as of late 1504, had already foguht back a Burgundian counter-offensive at Izegem and besieged Lille. To make things worse, Gerlache had used his connections to incite anti-Habsburg dissent in Flanders, culminating with the defection of Ypres (which has been cut off from the rest of Burgundy by de la Pole). In the [north-]eastern Low Countries, however, his efforts had backfired due to the traditional antagonism between the two parts of Flanders. As 1505 came and advanced, both Maximillian and Charles II once more have separately decided to concentrate on the same theatre of war - the Flanders, ofcourse. Not that they had much of a real choice, as that region was crucial and as offensives in other theatres would have been alittle difficult at the least, from the logistical viewpoint. The rebuilt Imperial forces, fresh with reinforcements, were amassing at the burgeoning (in part due to the refugees from Brugges) city of Brussels; while de la Pole's force, a fourth of which consisted practically entirely of allied Flemish militias (these proportions were such both due to the various casualties inflicted upon de la Pole's army, despite the reinforcements, and due to Gerlache's efforts) and Charles II's rebuilt Anglo-French army boosted by Savoyard mercenaries met up at Deinze, near the pro-Habsburg-but-wavering Ghent. Both armies were quite large, consisting of, in sum, nearly 70,000 soldiers. The movement of such vast forces, and the other campaign preparations took much time; and as campaigning in the winter was against the rules (quite reasonably so), despite de la Pole's and Robert de Brimeu's urgings both sides had procrastrinated and commited themselves to nothing more than minor skirmishes and raids 'till 1506. But when they did move out, Earth shook, and when they did clash in the Battle at Kalken, the nearby Shelde River ran red with blood and for months from there stank of corpses.
Back during the winter, English soldiers and commanders alike had come to hate de la Pole for persuading the king (not single-handedly, ofcourse, but he was the most obvious scapegoat) to set up a camp at Deinze, where the Plantagenet army was all too exposed to the harsh attrition. But now that the campaigning resumed, they couldn't but admit that his decision was a wise one. The Habsburg forces, though well-rested in Brussels, now had to march over 30 miles towards Ghent, whereas the very bitter, very angry - and thus particularily inspired to vent out all that anger and bitterness on the Habsburgs - Plantagenet soldiers scarcely had to go one-third of that distance to surround and besiege Ghent, the last great West Flemish city still out of their hands. Charles II's troops cut off all supply routes and settled down for a siege. The Battle at Kalken came when the Habsburgs, having forced-march their way to Ghent, tried to relieve it but were stopped east of the town of Kalken, where the English had confronted them. But not only were the Imperials the ones tired out by a long march now, and not only were they attacking a well-prepared position; the English have learned well from their past encounter, and thus made good use of the Flemish forces and mercenaries available to them. The Savoyard pikemen were no match for their Swiss equivalent, but they held a superior position and were backed up by longbowmen and the primitive arquebusiers. The Habsburgs had also attempted a flank attack with their right wing, but it was foiled by timely introduction of Plantagenet reserves. A large counter-attack at the weakened Habsburg right flank had forced the Habsburgs to fall back towards the Shelde, where they were pinned down as the nearby bridge was captured by a small, but well-prepared group of English soldiers. A furious battle took place then, Robert de Brimeu being but one of the many casualties, but finally the battered Habsburgs managed to fight their way south and pull back in badly damaged, but undestroyed order. They later regroupped and rested at Aalst, and soon were once more able to campaign, especially as more reinforcements arrived. But Ghent, by then, was firmly in the English jaws, as fortifications were erected around it and as the defiant city itself was shelled by King Charles II's finest artillery. Eventually, the city surrendered, but that triumphant moment only came in mid-1507, after many more mutually-grinding skirmishes between the besieged, the besiegers and the other Imperial forces.
In the meantime, the war elsewhere in France remained quiet save for some raids. Habsburg attempts to incite risings in southern France were unsuccesful, as were the Plantagenet efforts to raise rebellions in Holland. The latter, however, were in more luck further behind the enemy lines. Admittedly, the actual Plantagenet efforts to destabilize the Holy Roman Empire hardly brought any results by themselves - it is just that the Habsburgs, from their strenghthened (despite the war with England and the temporary loss of the richest parts of Flanders) positions, once mroe begun pushing for Imperial Reform and centralization. The German princes disliked this and begun rallying around elector Ernest I of Saxony - in secret, ofcourse, as neither side was particularily keen for war. But here, the English envoys came in, offering to Ernest a secret anti-Habsburg alliance, arguing that if the Habsburgs defeated the Plantagenets, they would then be free to turn their seasoned forces around and destroy the freedoms and priveleges of the princes. But if the German princes and the English strike out at once, the Habsburgs could be completely broken, and Charles II would make sure to give Ernest (or his son Friedrich) all the support that he might need in the bid for the Imperial crown. As Maximillian II demanded that the princes and their soldiers join him in his campaigns - in part to reinforce his army, in part to keep a closer eye on them - the German princes met together in Zwickau and made a list of demands, most notably the reversal of the financial (more taxes) and centralization-aimed reforms of Maximillian and his immediate two predecessors; if Maximillian II accepted them, they said, he will get all the troops they could send him, which, as Maximillian ofcourse had realized, probably wouldn't be much anyway. So he simply rejected this "Zwickau Petition". In response, the majority of electors, still in Zwickau, formally deposed him and elected Ernest Emperor, despite Papal protestations. The Holy Roman Empire entered a civil war.
That was the cue for diplomatic activity to intensify even further. Vengeful, the Imperials have finally succeeded in raising rebellions against the Plantagenets, albeit not in France; Alexander IV, the vassal king of Scotland, used the Plantagenet distraction to declare full independence and quickly retake the border territories lost to Henry VI. Not without both Scottish and Imperial prodding, the Irish feudals also rose up and elected a king from amongst their midst, Brian II, though he has failed to defeat the English garrison of Dublin. Both sides had their big disappointments on the diplomatic front in 1508. On that year, the Aragonese king Juan III invaded and occupied the small mountain kingdom of Navarre, but, confronted by a sudden alliance of the Plantagenets and the Iberians, had to back down and wisely decided to stay out of the War of Burgundian Succession, instead concentrating on the war with the Berbers (more on that later). Meanwhile, Janos II of Hungary, whom the Plantagenets have been encouraging to attack the Habsburgs from the start of this war, did exactly the opposite, aware that they needed good allies. Andras Zapolya was dispatched with an expeditionary corps to help "pacify" the Holy Roman Empire; his hussars quite experienced in putting down rebellions, Andras Zapolya soon gained a reputation for cruelty and ruthless efficiency, and despite the Papal blessing for it Maximillian's decision to "unleash savage Magyars" upon his fellow Germans was oft-criticized both in his own time and after it. But anyway, the joint Habsburg-Hungarian forces soon defeated the badly-led princely army at Aussig in Bohemia and from there invaded Saxony, while forcing the heretofore undecided Bavaria to declare firm support for Maximillian.
Despite this partial reversal, Ernest remained, at the very least, a most persistant distraction for the Habsburgs. Plans for a new general battle in Flanders were abandoned, as the local Habsburg and pro-Habsburg Flemish forces remained on the defensive while the Emperor himself, with a large part of the army, moved east to deal with the rebels. Charles II himself, however, did not use this as to break the Habsburgs in Flanders, having been persuaded that it would be not cost effective due to the fortifications prepared by the enemy there. Instead, he struck at the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, while de la Pole yet again distracted enemy attention in Flanders. Somewhat surprised, the Habsburg forces there were unable to put up good enough a resistance, and with the help of a traitor the English broke into the city at night. The local militias, however, were almost immediately raised by the alarm, and blood ran free in the paved streets. In the end, ofcourse, the Plantagenets came out victorious, but Charles II died in the process and thus was unable to enjoy the fruits of this victory.
The significance of the aforementioned victory was twofold: firstly, it split up Burgundy and cut the communication lines, not to mention that it provided the Plantagenets with a good forward position from which to once more strike out for Dijon, though as of late that city became ever more insignificant; secondly, and perhaps more importantly, a certain prisoner who was carelessly left in Luxembourg Castle was now liberated. He was Henry Plantagenet, according to his supporters - the Grand Duke of Burgundy. Meanwhile, in Paris, his nine-year-old nephew John was crowned King John II (and III). And though as a condition for his election as Grand Duke of Burgundy Henry had renounced all rights to the thrones of England and France, he nonetheless was entitled to an important position in the Council of Regents now being assembled. To ensure that his position in Paris was strong, Henry refused to take command of the English army at Luxembourg, instead leaving for Paris with a light escort, abandoning the army to the unprepared leadership of Rene du Bellay. This rapid flight soon proved to be a most ominous sign, as the Council of Regents became filled with intrigues, power struggles and old grudges, which was hardly good news for an empire at war, especially if the empire in question was beginning to lose the said war again as of 1509-10. Imperial forces struck out and retook Luxembourg, while the Scotts begun raiding as far south as Middlesborough and a cadet branch of the Plantagenet dynasty, headed by the Duke of York John I and supported by many prominent members of the London court, started an English proto-nationalist rebellion, rapidly seizing all of England (and Wales, thanks to the alliance with the local Tudor noble family that provided the Duke of York with his best commander, Morgan Tudor) save for Wessex and Kent as the old homeland became increasingly neglected.
Yet the Imperials were unable to exploit this instability save for the re-capture of Luxembourg. They still needed to deal with their own rebels. After the Rape of Dresden in late 1509 by Andras Zapolya and his hussars, the would-be Holy Roman Emperor Ernest fled north. Surviving alternating attempts to kill, capture or betray him, the elusive Saxon fled for Brunswick with the remnants of his army, and died of old age there. But he had secured the support of the local Duke who had lots to lose from a centralized Imperial authority, and his son Friedrich has managed then to rebuild his father's army, also hiring mercenaries with the funds kindly provided by the city of Bremen, which was not particularily interested in seeing the Habsburgs conquer all of the HRE neither. The Imperials pursuing Ernest and his retainers had learned of this too late, so in 1510 he defeated two smaller Imperial armies before they could link up in the consecutive battles at Bad Harzburg, Seesen and Northeim. Grumbling, Maximillian had to introduce more taxes to fund his ongoing war effort, which underminded his popularity even further. Thankfully, he was quite aware that he hadn't much to lose in the terms of popularity, and raised taxes anyway, and then started the final campaign of this Imperial civil war. 1511 saw a hard-fought, but indecisive battle at the key city of Hannoversche Munden... and Andras Zapolya's brilliant capture of the city of Brunswick itself with joint Imperial, Hungarian and Brandenburger (the Hohenzollerns had by then reconciliated with the Emperor as well, in exchange for Wittenberg and some other northern Saxon lands) forces. The Duke of Brunswick was forced to abdicate in the favour of his son, who, for his part, had to immediately recognize Maximillian as the Holy Roman Emperor and to provide him with assistance against Friedrich. By now, what started out as a battle for the crown had turned, for Friedrich, first into a familial vendetta and now into a desperate effort to survive. He was not a cornered rat, and he used it as well as he could, evading pursuit for months, but finally was tracked down by a hussar raiding party and delivered to Maximillian II, who had him locked in a distant fortress and tortured, as it turned out, to death (the torturers were soon killed as well for this incompetence - the Emperor merely wanted Friedrich to abdicate, and to live out the rest of his life somewhere where he cannot hurt him). Soon after, Maximillian died, but not before doing two more things - moving out with the core of his army, still followed by Zapolya and his Hungarians, to finish the war in Flanders, and signing the Treaty of Worms which is considered by many to be the true beginning of the modern Holy Roman Empire. The treaty made the position of Holy Roman Emperor hereditary, but allowed the electors to choose the emperor in the event of a contested succession or the primary line of the present dynasty dying out. They also formed, alongside with lesser rulers and free cities, the Imperial Diet that became much more regular and organized, assembling in Worms which de facto became the capital of the Holy Roman Empire now; said Imperial Diet evolved into a central court and a consultative, representative assembly. Not that it had as much power as it seemed to at the first glance; its importance stemmed mostly from the remaining strenght of the electors themselves and the Emperor's need for funds and troops. The Holy Roman Empire itself remained quite decentralized, though the reform of the Imperial Diet was a two-edged sword, giving the Emperor more influence over what happened in those principalities not under direct Habsburg control.
Maximillian's death was followed by the ascension of the first hereditary Holy Roman Emperor - Albrecht IV. Albrecht the Great, as you will learn later on, but as of yet this did not become too apparent. The army itself came under command of Hans von Sickingen, who, however, arrived in Flanders when it was too late - that is, in 1513. By then, Henry and Lord Chancellor John More had come out victorious in the Council of Regents, their main opponent, Lord Richmond, having been locked up back in the Tower, in the city of London retaken in 1511 by Henry de la Pole after one of his greatest victories at Maidstone. By then, though Ireland and Scotland were still beyond Plantagenet reach, both England and Wales have been retaken, Morgan Tudor fleeing for the Kalmar Union and later for the Holy Roman Empire. By then, the Plantagenets were ready to fight tooth and nail for Flanders, wherein they have constructed formidable fortifications.
Hans von Sickingen, after a few unsuccesful probes, has made it clear to the young Emperor back in Worms that victory was unattainable. If anything, the internal situation was getting worse - with the death of Maximillian and economical hardship caused by the loss of West Flanders, the Burgundian leaders were increasingly being swayed to the opinion that perhaps Henry would not be such a bad ruler after all, even though his dismissal of Louis Gerlache, a political opponent, had alienated the latter's supporters from him. And the Empire itself, too, needed to rebuild and settle down after the last disturbance. So did the Plantagenets, ofcourse, who still had on their hands a war with Scotland. Peace was signed in 1513, at Dijon where it all had begun. Henry agreed to give up his claims on Burgundy (and thus was freed from his surrender of claims to the English and French thrones, ofcourse, though it was not officially stated), in exchange for annexation of West Flanders (meaning the regions captured by the English thus far - which included Picardy, Artois, Cambrais, West Hainaut, Brugges, Ghent, Ypres, Lille and lands around them; so Middelburg and Brussels, along with the rest of Burgundian Netherlands, remained Habsburg) into the "Kingdom of France", more specifically to come under Henry's personal feudal ownership. The Habsburgs got most of what they wanted, though they still looked greedily at the rapidly-recovering West Flanders, whereas the Plantagenets, in their shaken state, were quite satisfied by their gains as well for the moment. The only ones who lost were the Burgundians, but since when do they matter? Still, this peace was obviously not perpetual; as a matter of fact, it was but the beginning of a long-standing rivalry between the Plantagenets and the Habsburgs over Flanders and Burgundy. Both sides for now needed to deal with other matters, at home and abroad alike, and to rebuild their armies for the next, hopefully-decisive clash.
IC:
It is said that all empires rise and fall; that all of them have their periods of greatness, of decline and of downfall. But that is hardly so, for no empire was ever solely on the rise or on the decline. The example of the 15th century showed it quite well, with the failure of historians to reach a consensus as to what empire exactly ruled the day. The Plantagenets? They were at their strongest militarily and economically, but their empire was also perhaps too vast and ever more unstable, and diplomatically it was much worse off at the end of the century than in its beginning. Iberia's days of greatness were only beginning - the great profits of the Indian Ocean trade were only starting to roll in. Aragon was on the ascendant in the Mediterranean, but was also somewhat stagnant and frustrated in its ambitions back in the Pyrenean peninsula. The Habsburgs? They expanded and strenghthened dramatically during that century, but lost ground in Hungary and were embroiled in a "cold war" with their German vassals. Not all of their great plans had bore fruit yet, too. Poland-Lithuania was, at one point, the largest state in Europe, but an increasingly unstable one, and the ruling Jagiellon dynasty similarily lost influence in Bohemia and Hungary. Hungary, at the expense of unpopular government actions and alienation of its old allies abroad, had revived its military fortunes and gained territory, but was, by the century's end, once more beginning to stagnate as the new corrupt buerocrats proved little better than the old feud-mongering noblemen and power-hungry magnates. The Ottoman Empire? It also made most dramatic progress, but on the other hand the 15th century saw numerous defeats and reversals for them all through - the Timurids had crippled their power in Anatolia for several decades with their victory at Ankara in 1402, and later Mehmed II's defeat in Italy briefly brought it, how ever briefly, on the edge of collapse and caused it to lose ground in the Balkans.
The 15th century not only was a mixed one for all the European powers, it also was a horribly indecisive one. Only the Plantagenet struggle with the Armagnacs had a decisive result - all the other struggles between great powers, new and old alike, though started and advanced were not yet firmly decided. Since the end of the Hundred Years War and of Mehmed's war with Christendom, Europe was in a state of comparative peace when all the sides involved or non-involved in the conflicts prepared for the next round, hoping for it to be decisive. New armies were raised, with new tactics, new weapons and new generals, and new plans were drawn up for the new wars and the old struggles, and as the 15th century closed all the many sides were waiting for one or another to make the first move, starting that aforementioned next round and allowing them all to gradually join the fray as the initial crisis would expand, as they always do.
In the end, however, Nature itself made the first move, through a wild boar who, in 1502, killed the young Grand Duke of Burgundy, Jean II. Problematically, he did not have any children. After furious debate, it was decided by the Burgundian magnates to hold a council and elect a new Grand Duke. There was a representative of a cadet branch of the Valois, Prince Henry (King Charles II's brother) of the Plantagenets and... the Holy Roman Emperor Maximillian II. He was not too far up the conventional succession order, had Burgundy had any such a thing; furthermore, he was not too healthy, and had a bout of madness back in 1500. In truth, the supposed "weakness" of this ruler was probably one of the reasons the Burgundians had elected him their Grand Duke - under him, the magnates had hoped to retain their independence, in part also because he also had to pay attention to the developments in the other Habsburg realms. Another reason he was chosen were the long-standing alliance with the Habsburgs.
But not all the magnates were happy with this. Some of the Flemish ones, and the ones in West Burgundy, instead had growing economic and cultural ties with the Plantagenet Empire, and instead supported Prince Henry. Knowing that they were outnumbered, they made sure to stall the elections for as long as possible... while Prince Henry, with his English companions and local supporters, prepared a coup. Charles II, often called "the last knight of Europe", was, though chivalrous and naive, not at all dumb - the Habsburg powerhouse that was forming around Maximillian was, at best, a threat to English commercial interests (as the more warlike of his merchants never tired of pointing out), and, at worst, and as Charles himself seemed to believe, a threat to the Plantagenet Empire's very existance. So Charles, while unappreciative of his brother's methods, agreed to support him. While as per the advise of Lord Richmond, the gray eminence at King Charles II's court, the English armies were being prepared for an invasion of Flanders, should Henry fail (and Lord Richemond had persuaded Charles II that Henry's perspectives were not all that bright after all).
When on June 12th 1503, encouraged by the Emperor's personal arrival, the magnates in Dijon officially declared Maximillian Grand Duke of Burgundy, Henry struck out. His supporters protested the decision, while he and his armed retainers assaulted Dijon's city hall. However, most of the magantes already left it for the palace, near which joint Burgundian, Imperial and local militia forces rallied and soon surrounded Henry, forcing his surrender and imprisoning him. His remaining supporters either gave up or fled for Paris; one of the latter, a Louis Gerlache, had been granted audience with King Charles II. It is not completely clear as to what they have talked about; but Charles II became even firmly convinced for the need of armed intervention, whereas Gerlache himself joined his court and assisted him in his dealings with the Burgundian and Flemish population during the war. His connections also were of some assistance to Charles II financially.
So pledging to liberate his brother and to avenge this offense against the honour of the Plantagenets, Charles II started the War of Burgundian Succession in 1503 and struck out towards Dijon with a large Anglo-French force, whereas Henry de la Pole led another English army gathered at Calais into Flanders. Against Gerlache's advice, this latter army was both weaker and commanded by a brilliant military leader who had a single, but crucial flaw - he was not the King. Instead of going for the key, and prosperous, territories of the Flanders, where England would hava had both more local support and easier supply routes, Charles had decided to strike towards Burgundy's formal capital, and also for Emperor Maximillian. That latter consideration, along with the fact that valuable time could have been lost during the re-deployment had Charles II listened to Gerlache, makes his decision seem less foolish - but that does not matter, as it still did greatly hamper England's early war effort.
For while de la Pole, despite being almost outnumbered by the militias raised by the Flemish cities and the Burgundian forces deployed there, secured Brugges and surrounding areas through a combination of cunning local-scale diplomacy and well-planned maneuvers, feints and assaults, Charles II himself had clashed with a joint Habsburg force. After a few skirmishes where the English king came out "victorious" but lost many men, a decisive battle came at Sombernon. The Imperials and Burgundians were commanded by the Emperor himself. Neither commander was particularily competent; Charles II was more charismatic, brave and foolhardy, whereas Maximillian II was fairly unhealthy and quite indecisive. But once more, his seemingly "negative" traits have greatly assisted the Emperor. Firstly, while he hesitated, Charles II, having failed to break the ranks of Imperial Swiss pikemen with a decisive charge that bogged down and turned into a bloody never-ending slaughter despite the superior (hilly) English position, begun commiting more and more reserves to it, himself leading a second charge. For a moment, under the English pressure, the Imperial forces stumbled and seemed to be beginning to rout; but as Maximillian finally made up his mind and agreed to send more troops to the battlefield, they were reinvigorated and, having lost but a few inches of earth, once more formed as tight a rank as they could manage and continued the fight.
Secondly, Maximillian II proved to be influenced easily enough, and Robert de Brimeu, a Burgundian knight and a promising young officer who has somehow ended up with Maximillian on a hill overlooking the battlefield, has persuaded him that there would be no better time than this for more of the reseves to be brought in. More importantly, he requested to be given a command of a few dozen horsemen for a flanking charge. Impressed by his confidence, the Emperor agreed, and de Brimeu went on to charge at the enemy flank in just the right moment, causing the left wing of the Plantagenet forces to break and run as more Imperial troops begun arriving into the fray. Yes, you guessed it, this was overexaggerated by future playwrights. Elsewhere, the Plantagenet situation was not as desperate, but detiriorating. Coming to his senses, Charles II decided to try and salvage at least a part of his army, and begun gradually withdrawing his troops from the fight. But soon, the attempts to conduct an orderly retreat in the middle of a battlefield turned into a rout, and Charles II escaped from Burgundy with less than a tenth of his total force.
Although the exact decisions taken by commanders have been quite influential, as were such factors as morale, terrain and weather, the true reason behind the Habsburg victory was the same as the one behind Henry the Great's victory at Agincourt. Back then, the English army was more progressive - in weapons, in doctrine, in tactics, in organization. But after Henry V's victory, the English have failed to make any fundamental improvements in their way of war, whereas the Burgundians, their long-time opponents, have had to change their army as to be capable of combatting the English, their main and strongest enemy. The Burgundian Grand Dukes have consistantly worked to create a more efficient professional (or semiprofessional) army, by hiring mercenaries and training Flemish crossbowmen and Swiss Pikemen. The Habsburgs had also contributed to this mix well; in the skirmishes preceding the Battle at Sombernon the cuirassiers - the first organized gunpowder cavalry in Europe - have made their debut, inflicting many demoralizing losses upon the Plantagenet forces before the battle itself came.
Anyway, the Imperials have failed to exploit this victory properly as Maximillian still had to consolidate his control over Burgundy and wait for more reinforcements to come in from the Empire; he also needed to deal with de la Pole, who, as of late 1504, had already foguht back a Burgundian counter-offensive at Izegem and besieged Lille. To make things worse, Gerlache had used his connections to incite anti-Habsburg dissent in Flanders, culminating with the defection of Ypres (which has been cut off from the rest of Burgundy by de la Pole). In the [north-]eastern Low Countries, however, his efforts had backfired due to the traditional antagonism between the two parts of Flanders. As 1505 came and advanced, both Maximillian and Charles II once more have separately decided to concentrate on the same theatre of war - the Flanders, ofcourse. Not that they had much of a real choice, as that region was crucial and as offensives in other theatres would have been alittle difficult at the least, from the logistical viewpoint. The rebuilt Imperial forces, fresh with reinforcements, were amassing at the burgeoning (in part due to the refugees from Brugges) city of Brussels; while de la Pole's force, a fourth of which consisted practically entirely of allied Flemish militias (these proportions were such both due to the various casualties inflicted upon de la Pole's army, despite the reinforcements, and due to Gerlache's efforts) and Charles II's rebuilt Anglo-French army boosted by Savoyard mercenaries met up at Deinze, near the pro-Habsburg-but-wavering Ghent. Both armies were quite large, consisting of, in sum, nearly 70,000 soldiers. The movement of such vast forces, and the other campaign preparations took much time; and as campaigning in the winter was against the rules (quite reasonably so), despite de la Pole's and Robert de Brimeu's urgings both sides had procrastrinated and commited themselves to nothing more than minor skirmishes and raids 'till 1506. But when they did move out, Earth shook, and when they did clash in the Battle at Kalken, the nearby Shelde River ran red with blood and for months from there stank of corpses.
Back during the winter, English soldiers and commanders alike had come to hate de la Pole for persuading the king (not single-handedly, ofcourse, but he was the most obvious scapegoat) to set up a camp at Deinze, where the Plantagenet army was all too exposed to the harsh attrition. But now that the campaigning resumed, they couldn't but admit that his decision was a wise one. The Habsburg forces, though well-rested in Brussels, now had to march over 30 miles towards Ghent, whereas the very bitter, very angry - and thus particularily inspired to vent out all that anger and bitterness on the Habsburgs - Plantagenet soldiers scarcely had to go one-third of that distance to surround and besiege Ghent, the last great West Flemish city still out of their hands. Charles II's troops cut off all supply routes and settled down for a siege. The Battle at Kalken came when the Habsburgs, having forced-march their way to Ghent, tried to relieve it but were stopped east of the town of Kalken, where the English had confronted them. But not only were the Imperials the ones tired out by a long march now, and not only were they attacking a well-prepared position; the English have learned well from their past encounter, and thus made good use of the Flemish forces and mercenaries available to them. The Savoyard pikemen were no match for their Swiss equivalent, but they held a superior position and were backed up by longbowmen and the primitive arquebusiers. The Habsburgs had also attempted a flank attack with their right wing, but it was foiled by timely introduction of Plantagenet reserves. A large counter-attack at the weakened Habsburg right flank had forced the Habsburgs to fall back towards the Shelde, where they were pinned down as the nearby bridge was captured by a small, but well-prepared group of English soldiers. A furious battle took place then, Robert de Brimeu being but one of the many casualties, but finally the battered Habsburgs managed to fight their way south and pull back in badly damaged, but undestroyed order. They later regroupped and rested at Aalst, and soon were once more able to campaign, especially as more reinforcements arrived. But Ghent, by then, was firmly in the English jaws, as fortifications were erected around it and as the defiant city itself was shelled by King Charles II's finest artillery. Eventually, the city surrendered, but that triumphant moment only came in mid-1507, after many more mutually-grinding skirmishes between the besieged, the besiegers and the other Imperial forces.
In the meantime, the war elsewhere in France remained quiet save for some raids. Habsburg attempts to incite risings in southern France were unsuccesful, as were the Plantagenet efforts to raise rebellions in Holland. The latter, however, were in more luck further behind the enemy lines. Admittedly, the actual Plantagenet efforts to destabilize the Holy Roman Empire hardly brought any results by themselves - it is just that the Habsburgs, from their strenghthened (despite the war with England and the temporary loss of the richest parts of Flanders) positions, once mroe begun pushing for Imperial Reform and centralization. The German princes disliked this and begun rallying around elector Ernest I of Saxony - in secret, ofcourse, as neither side was particularily keen for war. But here, the English envoys came in, offering to Ernest a secret anti-Habsburg alliance, arguing that if the Habsburgs defeated the Plantagenets, they would then be free to turn their seasoned forces around and destroy the freedoms and priveleges of the princes. But if the German princes and the English strike out at once, the Habsburgs could be completely broken, and Charles II would make sure to give Ernest (or his son Friedrich) all the support that he might need in the bid for the Imperial crown. As Maximillian II demanded that the princes and their soldiers join him in his campaigns - in part to reinforce his army, in part to keep a closer eye on them - the German princes met together in Zwickau and made a list of demands, most notably the reversal of the financial (more taxes) and centralization-aimed reforms of Maximillian and his immediate two predecessors; if Maximillian II accepted them, they said, he will get all the troops they could send him, which, as Maximillian ofcourse had realized, probably wouldn't be much anyway. So he simply rejected this "Zwickau Petition". In response, the majority of electors, still in Zwickau, formally deposed him and elected Ernest Emperor, despite Papal protestations. The Holy Roman Empire entered a civil war.
That was the cue for diplomatic activity to intensify even further. Vengeful, the Imperials have finally succeeded in raising rebellions against the Plantagenets, albeit not in France; Alexander IV, the vassal king of Scotland, used the Plantagenet distraction to declare full independence and quickly retake the border territories lost to Henry VI. Not without both Scottish and Imperial prodding, the Irish feudals also rose up and elected a king from amongst their midst, Brian II, though he has failed to defeat the English garrison of Dublin. Both sides had their big disappointments on the diplomatic front in 1508. On that year, the Aragonese king Juan III invaded and occupied the small mountain kingdom of Navarre, but, confronted by a sudden alliance of the Plantagenets and the Iberians, had to back down and wisely decided to stay out of the War of Burgundian Succession, instead concentrating on the war with the Berbers (more on that later). Meanwhile, Janos II of Hungary, whom the Plantagenets have been encouraging to attack the Habsburgs from the start of this war, did exactly the opposite, aware that they needed good allies. Andras Zapolya was dispatched with an expeditionary corps to help "pacify" the Holy Roman Empire; his hussars quite experienced in putting down rebellions, Andras Zapolya soon gained a reputation for cruelty and ruthless efficiency, and despite the Papal blessing for it Maximillian's decision to "unleash savage Magyars" upon his fellow Germans was oft-criticized both in his own time and after it. But anyway, the joint Habsburg-Hungarian forces soon defeated the badly-led princely army at Aussig in Bohemia and from there invaded Saxony, while forcing the heretofore undecided Bavaria to declare firm support for Maximillian.
Despite this partial reversal, Ernest remained, at the very least, a most persistant distraction for the Habsburgs. Plans for a new general battle in Flanders were abandoned, as the local Habsburg and pro-Habsburg Flemish forces remained on the defensive while the Emperor himself, with a large part of the army, moved east to deal with the rebels. Charles II himself, however, did not use this as to break the Habsburgs in Flanders, having been persuaded that it would be not cost effective due to the fortifications prepared by the enemy there. Instead, he struck at the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, while de la Pole yet again distracted enemy attention in Flanders. Somewhat surprised, the Habsburg forces there were unable to put up good enough a resistance, and with the help of a traitor the English broke into the city at night. The local militias, however, were almost immediately raised by the alarm, and blood ran free in the paved streets. In the end, ofcourse, the Plantagenets came out victorious, but Charles II died in the process and thus was unable to enjoy the fruits of this victory.
The significance of the aforementioned victory was twofold: firstly, it split up Burgundy and cut the communication lines, not to mention that it provided the Plantagenets with a good forward position from which to once more strike out for Dijon, though as of late that city became ever more insignificant; secondly, and perhaps more importantly, a certain prisoner who was carelessly left in Luxembourg Castle was now liberated. He was Henry Plantagenet, according to his supporters - the Grand Duke of Burgundy. Meanwhile, in Paris, his nine-year-old nephew John was crowned King John II (and III). And though as a condition for his election as Grand Duke of Burgundy Henry had renounced all rights to the thrones of England and France, he nonetheless was entitled to an important position in the Council of Regents now being assembled. To ensure that his position in Paris was strong, Henry refused to take command of the English army at Luxembourg, instead leaving for Paris with a light escort, abandoning the army to the unprepared leadership of Rene du Bellay. This rapid flight soon proved to be a most ominous sign, as the Council of Regents became filled with intrigues, power struggles and old grudges, which was hardly good news for an empire at war, especially if the empire in question was beginning to lose the said war again as of 1509-10. Imperial forces struck out and retook Luxembourg, while the Scotts begun raiding as far south as Middlesborough and a cadet branch of the Plantagenet dynasty, headed by the Duke of York John I and supported by many prominent members of the London court, started an English proto-nationalist rebellion, rapidly seizing all of England (and Wales, thanks to the alliance with the local Tudor noble family that provided the Duke of York with his best commander, Morgan Tudor) save for Wessex and Kent as the old homeland became increasingly neglected.
Yet the Imperials were unable to exploit this instability save for the re-capture of Luxembourg. They still needed to deal with their own rebels. After the Rape of Dresden in late 1509 by Andras Zapolya and his hussars, the would-be Holy Roman Emperor Ernest fled north. Surviving alternating attempts to kill, capture or betray him, the elusive Saxon fled for Brunswick with the remnants of his army, and died of old age there. But he had secured the support of the local Duke who had lots to lose from a centralized Imperial authority, and his son Friedrich has managed then to rebuild his father's army, also hiring mercenaries with the funds kindly provided by the city of Bremen, which was not particularily interested in seeing the Habsburgs conquer all of the HRE neither. The Imperials pursuing Ernest and his retainers had learned of this too late, so in 1510 he defeated two smaller Imperial armies before they could link up in the consecutive battles at Bad Harzburg, Seesen and Northeim. Grumbling, Maximillian had to introduce more taxes to fund his ongoing war effort, which underminded his popularity even further. Thankfully, he was quite aware that he hadn't much to lose in the terms of popularity, and raised taxes anyway, and then started the final campaign of this Imperial civil war. 1511 saw a hard-fought, but indecisive battle at the key city of Hannoversche Munden... and Andras Zapolya's brilliant capture of the city of Brunswick itself with joint Imperial, Hungarian and Brandenburger (the Hohenzollerns had by then reconciliated with the Emperor as well, in exchange for Wittenberg and some other northern Saxon lands) forces. The Duke of Brunswick was forced to abdicate in the favour of his son, who, for his part, had to immediately recognize Maximillian as the Holy Roman Emperor and to provide him with assistance against Friedrich. By now, what started out as a battle for the crown had turned, for Friedrich, first into a familial vendetta and now into a desperate effort to survive. He was not a cornered rat, and he used it as well as he could, evading pursuit for months, but finally was tracked down by a hussar raiding party and delivered to Maximillian II, who had him locked in a distant fortress and tortured, as it turned out, to death (the torturers were soon killed as well for this incompetence - the Emperor merely wanted Friedrich to abdicate, and to live out the rest of his life somewhere where he cannot hurt him). Soon after, Maximillian died, but not before doing two more things - moving out with the core of his army, still followed by Zapolya and his Hungarians, to finish the war in Flanders, and signing the Treaty of Worms which is considered by many to be the true beginning of the modern Holy Roman Empire. The treaty made the position of Holy Roman Emperor hereditary, but allowed the electors to choose the emperor in the event of a contested succession or the primary line of the present dynasty dying out. They also formed, alongside with lesser rulers and free cities, the Imperial Diet that became much more regular and organized, assembling in Worms which de facto became the capital of the Holy Roman Empire now; said Imperial Diet evolved into a central court and a consultative, representative assembly. Not that it had as much power as it seemed to at the first glance; its importance stemmed mostly from the remaining strenght of the electors themselves and the Emperor's need for funds and troops. The Holy Roman Empire itself remained quite decentralized, though the reform of the Imperial Diet was a two-edged sword, giving the Emperor more influence over what happened in those principalities not under direct Habsburg control.
Maximillian's death was followed by the ascension of the first hereditary Holy Roman Emperor - Albrecht IV. Albrecht the Great, as you will learn later on, but as of yet this did not become too apparent. The army itself came under command of Hans von Sickingen, who, however, arrived in Flanders when it was too late - that is, in 1513. By then, Henry and Lord Chancellor John More had come out victorious in the Council of Regents, their main opponent, Lord Richmond, having been locked up back in the Tower, in the city of London retaken in 1511 by Henry de la Pole after one of his greatest victories at Maidstone. By then, though Ireland and Scotland were still beyond Plantagenet reach, both England and Wales have been retaken, Morgan Tudor fleeing for the Kalmar Union and later for the Holy Roman Empire. By then, the Plantagenets were ready to fight tooth and nail for Flanders, wherein they have constructed formidable fortifications.
Hans von Sickingen, after a few unsuccesful probes, has made it clear to the young Emperor back in Worms that victory was unattainable. If anything, the internal situation was getting worse - with the death of Maximillian and economical hardship caused by the loss of West Flanders, the Burgundian leaders were increasingly being swayed to the opinion that perhaps Henry would not be such a bad ruler after all, even though his dismissal of Louis Gerlache, a political opponent, had alienated the latter's supporters from him. And the Empire itself, too, needed to rebuild and settle down after the last disturbance. So did the Plantagenets, ofcourse, who still had on their hands a war with Scotland. Peace was signed in 1513, at Dijon where it all had begun. Henry agreed to give up his claims on Burgundy (and thus was freed from his surrender of claims to the English and French thrones, ofcourse, though it was not officially stated), in exchange for annexation of West Flanders (meaning the regions captured by the English thus far - which included Picardy, Artois, Cambrais, West Hainaut, Brugges, Ghent, Ypres, Lille and lands around them; so Middelburg and Brussels, along with the rest of Burgundian Netherlands, remained Habsburg) into the "Kingdom of France", more specifically to come under Henry's personal feudal ownership. The Habsburgs got most of what they wanted, though they still looked greedily at the rapidly-recovering West Flanders, whereas the Plantagenets, in their shaken state, were quite satisfied by their gains as well for the moment. The only ones who lost were the Burgundians, but since when do they matter? Still, this peace was obviously not perpetual; as a matter of fact, it was but the beginning of a long-standing rivalry between the Plantagenets and the Habsburgs over Flanders and Burgundy. Both sides for now needed to deal with other matters, at home and abroad alike, and to rebuild their armies for the next, hopefully-decisive clash.
das
Regeneration In Process
In the meantime, all the way across Europe and outside of it as well, another struggle was going on, and on, and on. During the second, 16th century part of Mehmed III's reign, the Ottomans had continued to consolidate their gains and to put down rebellions, most notably the Azeri-Kurdish rising in 1507-1509. Campaigns were undertaken, to punish Persian warlords and to take over Arabia and North Africa, though in both cases the coastal rulers unanimously surrendered without a fight (on the condition of retaining much internal autonomy, more-or-less on the same level as the Crimean Khanate for now, de jure at least, though de facto the Ottoman control in the newly-gained lands was much stronger than that), the only really problems coming from the Bedouins. Persia was no real threat - it still was filled with warlords in strife, Khorasan was already under the rule of the Shaybanid Uzbeks who were in control of much of southern Central Asia, while Baluchistan was firmly held by the nascent Mughal Empire, and, after its downfall, attained independence under local rulers. Georgian principalities were subjugated by the Ottomans after a quick invasion and the capitulation of most of the local rulers in 1508, followed up by a grueling mountain war against the highlander clans and the prince of Imeretia that was only captured and executed in 1516, marking the final subjugation of Georgia, if through local rulers rather than through direct Ottoman administration. In the meantime, Turkey's Muscovite allies were also busy. Under Ivan IV (OOC: OTL Ivan the Young, NOT Ivan the Terrible; the Rurikovich geneology was changed by the lack of a Zoe), Kazan' was consolidated and integrated, whereas the Khanate of Saratov and the remnants of the Golden Horde became Muscovite vassals after some campaigning and coup d'etats. As Crimea was already a Turkish vassal, only Astrakhan and the Siberian khanates remained independent out of all the Tartar states that apepared since the breakup of the Golden Horde. Novgorod was finished off after a series of wars, and the city's leadership was slaughtered to discourage everybody else. With the adoptation of firearms, a new military caste of the streltsy - "shooters" - has emerged, in some part inspired by the Ottoman janissaries. Better artillery was also designed, with the help of the Genoese diaspora. In both countries, the rumours of war in the west were listened to carefully, and some even suggested that this distraction, coupled with the continued struggle between the king and the magnates/nobles in Poland-Lithuania, should be used for a new war. But though a low-level war was in place anyway (Lithuanians and Muscovites exchanged border raids and skirmishes, and the Ottomans were fighting a naval war with Venice, capturing Cyprus in 1507, Crete in 1512 and again in 1520 after the Venetians retook it a year earlier), neither Mehmed III nor Ivan IV wanted it to escalate further, being comparatively peaceful, unambitious rulers as far as the land gains against European powers went. But in 1515, Ivan IV died, and his some Dmitriy II inherited. In 1516, he had gathered numerous powerful boyars, such as Ivan Beklemishev and his allies from the Shuisky noble family, who had tried to manipulate him, and had them torn into pieces by his loyal streltsy, led by his most loyal retainer, knyaz Vasiliy Dolgorukiy. This marked the beginning of a new, final, bloody stage of Russian centralization. The Tartar vassal states of Muscovy were put under firm control, and local rulers were now completely reduced to figureheads. As Ottoman power in the Caspian grew with the conquest of Aizerbadjan, Astrakhan was left alone for better times, but other territories were consolidated. Fur trade with the Plantagenets grew after a favourable settlement was reached with the war-torn Kalmar Union, which the Muscovites had helped against Swedish rebels in exchange for neutrality in the lands of the Teutonic Order and Lithuania. Dmitriy from the start intended to capture these lands and build a great empire, and prepared for just that. But he wanted to coordinate his efforts with the Ottomans, whereas Mehmed III was, as said before, not particularily expansionistic in Europe, and disliked the opportunism of Dmitriy and his own namesake and predecessor. In 1523, though, he had died, and Orhan III came to power. His advisors have persuaded him that the time was almost ripe to strike out and to destroy Hungary and Poland-Lithuania. Elated by Orhan's hints of a coming war, Dmitriy sped up his military build-up.
While Muscovy and Turkey were strenghthening, their nearest land enemies in Christian Europe were getting weaker and weaker. Teutonic Order, crippled by a final defeat at Polish hands, was disintegrating into civil war amongst native rebellions against the knights who were no longer able to properly subdue them. Courland and East Prussia supported the Grand Master, who, in turn, was now a Polish vassal, while in Livonia and Estonia, while not openly defying neither Riga nor Warsaw, the local knights grabbed de facto independence. Zygmunt I of Poland-Lithuania spent all the time during which he was not campaigning against the Teutons and the Hungarians - both of whom would soon turn out to be vital allies for Poland-Lithuania that were covering its flanks all along, by the way - on querreling with the Polish Diet and the ever-more-separatist Lithuanian leaders. Hungary, under Laszlo IV, fell back into diplomatic isolation, briefly conquering Galicia from the Poles but later suffering an awful defeat at Przemysl and losing not only Galicia but also Moldavia and Wallachia. Andras Zapolya had already perished by then, and his king was quite an incompetent commander as well; the army, but for the hussars, was in a general state of decline. The sad, sorry state of the Teutonic Order as a whole was compounded by its troops being utterly obsolete as well; as for Poland-Lithuania, it had a strong military, true, but it could not defend for three.
And so it didn't, perhaps quite reasonably as the Jagiellons were risking the loss of Lithuania, a good 2/3s of their empire. In 1525, after some skirmishes, Hungarian Serbia and Bosnia were invaded and overran by Ottoman hordes but for Belgrade, which was besieged. Heavy artillery was dragged up to the city, and shelling tore its mighty walls down, making the final demonstration of the obsolition of old fortifications in the Age of Gunpowder. After that, the Ottomans did not stop, did not give the Hungarians the time they needed to gather their forces, and instead penetrated Hungary itself, along the way outflanking Polish Wallachia which was then invaded from the south and the east as well as from the north, and, as most local boyars surrendered without a fight, the Ottomans were soon in the control over much of the Danube. Further north, Crimean Tartars raided Podolia and the Ukraine indiscriminantly. And finally, Muscovites attacked. Their attack was much stronger than expected. Estonia and much of Livonia were overran, with scarcely anybody capable of resistance still there; the Kalmarese, meanwhile, grabbed Osel and Dago islands off Estonia coast, an action that the Muscovites ignored for now; the independent city-state of Pskov was annexed by Muscovy along the way, ofcourse. The Lithuanian forepost of Smolensk was besieged and taken in a quick assault supported by the local Orthodox population. From Ryazan and Tula, Muscovite forces struck like a dagger southwards, also with local population support as the neo-Orthodox peasants slaughtered the "Florentinist popes" and conventional Catholic missionaries alike. As of 1527, both banks of Dnieper was still in Polish-Lithuanian hands, but the Muscovite forces were drawing near. Meanwhile, Hungarians were routed at Szeged, and the Ottomans were already besieging Pest and the key Polish Moldavian city of Jassy.
By 1528, the first line of Catholic Europe's defense was clearly cracking, despite a Polish victory at Orsha. Beyond that line, there was scarcely anybody ready to fight the Turko-Muscovite unholy alliance. The Kalmarese were still busy putting down the remaining Swedish rebels, the Plantagenets were methodically subjugating Scotland and Ireland, the Habsburgs were consolidating gains and fighting a large-scale peasant rising, the Aragonese were fighting a war with Iberia over Navarre which the former had once more occupied using the Plantagenet troubles. Iberians, apart from fighting the Aragonese, mostly concentrated on their fledgling colonial empire. Princes querreled in Italy; Venice was at the knives with Milan, Florence and the Papal States were fighting everybody in between. Ofcourse, Venice and Aragon continued their war effort against the Ottomans on the sea; in 1529 they even defeated an Ottoman naval detachment at Cerigo and invaded Morea and Crete, securing both but failing to become more than a minor nuisance, especially after a reversal at sea in 1532 in the Battle at Cyclades. But that was all, for now.
Hungary continued to crumble. In 1529 (a year of setback for the Ottomans), it won a brief respite after the Battle at Pest where the Ottomans had to fall back towards Szeged from near the gates of the Hungarian capital. Yet this respite was, indeed, quite brief - the Hungarian attempt to exploit the victory and destroy the retreating Ottoman army ended in disaster as Orhan III himself had arrived with the main army, linking up with the retreating forces and rallying them, and annihilated the overeager Hungarians at Monor. Soon after, the regroupped Ottoman armies were ready to finish Hungary off, and as Laszlo IV's last desperate efforts to secure Imperial or Polish help failed (the former still bitter at his earlier attempts to steal Bohemia and generally unsympathetic to the Hunyadis save Laszlo's dead father, the latter being on one hand too busy and on the other hand feeling quite secure behind the new Galician fortresses covering the Carpathian passes), the king himself soon enough fell in battle with much of his army, as the Ottomans crossed the Danube, captured Buda and then besieged Pest properly.
By then, despite not answering Laszlo's pleas for help, Albrecht the Great was already preparing for a war with the Ottomans. He had no illusions about the quality of the largely-feudal (sans Burgundians) Imperial army, so he had begun forming a personal permanent professional army (since 1525), combining the Burgundians and the newly-recruited Austrians. He also hired mercenaries, led by the Yorkist general-refugee Morgan Tudor. Now that this sword was forged, it needed to be tested, and the Ottomans were the best target Albrecht could get, if only because, though he too did not think them capable of actually threatening his lands - quite reasonably, as even in Hungary the Ottomans had overstrained supply lines - there were many opportunities in Hungary that just begged to be exploited. With the death of Laszlo IV and the disapperence of his young son Janos, the remnants of the Hungarian nobility in the west of the country have eagerly supported Albrecht when he revived old Habsburg claims on Hungary; in the north, most notably in Poszony, the Jagiellon Zygmunt I was proclaimed king instead, but this king's didn't even bother to officially take power yet, as he was currently busy campaigning in the lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. There warfare remained quite indecisive. While in the north, Muscovites and Poles skirmished and occasionally exchanged invasions towards Minsk (for the Muscovites) or Smolensk (for the Poles), in the south confusion reigned. Crimean Tartars assisted the Muscovites, while the Jagiellons found allies amongst the Cossack tribes in the Ukraine; the peasantry was up in arms in the support of Muscovy, but the local elite was uncompromisingly pro-Jagiellon. The urban population was divided. Dmitriy II had personally commanded his army in the 1527-30 campaign, which at first resulted in the capture of Chernigov by the Muscovites but ended with a failed siege of Kiev and a disastrous retreat across the Dnieper. Not even Dmitriy's near-capture during the retreat diminish his spirits; if anything, he was now even more hell-bent on avenging his defeat and the humiliation of his flight. New armies and taxes were raised; those who protested died in a gruesome manner, once more showing Dmitriy specifically and the Muscovites generally to be good learners and faithful pupils of their Turkish allies. The streltsy, who showed themselves not too well during the campaign, were "cleansed", reformed and regroupped. In 1532, the Muscovites had once more captured Chernigov and Gomel, and crossed the Dnieper and the Pripet at Mozyr', having forced their way through the southern Pripet Marshes. Logistically the large Muscovite army was quite challenged, and losses to attrition and disease were numerous. At one point the army seemed to be about to fall apart without a fight, as the morale plummeted during this swamp-trek. But Dmitriy II's presence, his constant emission of elaborate and frightening curses and efforts to keep the spirits saved the army, and this invasion, much like Hannibal's invasion of Italy, had an overwhelming surprise effect, especially as knyaz Vasiliy Dolgorukiy led a smaller army in a more conventional attack towards Kiev. It was defeated, but the Poles were further distracted. The Velikiy Knyaz of Moscow has defeated the Poles on the Irpin River and again at the walls of Kiev. Finally, within Kiev itself, a rising of the more zealous elements of the neo-Orthodox population enabled Dmitriy to assault it on the move. His tired, weakened army suffered many casualties, but the Polish garrison was overwhelmed. Kiev, the Mother of the Russian Cities, was taken. The Muscovite army was now utterly exhausted, though, and even with reinforcements was unable to advance further, a fact that Dmitriy had reluctantly recognized. The war in Lithuania once more quieted down, being limited to raids and skirmishes.
But back to herr Hapsburg and the Hungarian theatre, which definitely was not quiet. As of 1532, the Poles, who finally decided that Poszony and the lands of the "Mountain Hungarians" (Slovakians) made for good insurance of their security (forces there could hold up any Ottoman invasion) and beside that was an useful bargaining card, secured this uncontested region. Imperials held the westernmost Hungarian lands, most notably the city of Zagreb. The rest of Hungary was in Ottoman hands; the lands there were partitioned amongst the soldiers, and a brutal campaign was waged to stomp out resistance, particularily in the form of the haiduks - rebels-bandits. Such a division was as much a result of limited logistical capabilities as it was that of numerous small battles and skirmishes, and the Battle at Szombathely, where the Imperials succesfully defeated first the Ottoman vanguard and then, after taking Szombathely with the help of the local population and a well-planned flanking maneuver, a large Ottoman army that was delayed by haiduks and Albrecht's rather pragmatic use of "cannon fodder" troops from subservient principalities to delay the Ottoman advance. That battle secured western Hungary for the Imperials; but as they begun querreling with the Poles and as the Ottomans consolidated their gains with much success, Albrecht decided, quite wisely, to not advance further and instead to consolidate his gains as well. Eventually, a pragmatical peace treaty was negotiated in Budapest, partitioning Hungary along the de facto existing orders and recognizing Wallachia and Moldavia as Ottoman territories as well; the Pope had protested it ofcourse, but he knew better than to break with the newly-strong Holy Roman Empire.
In 1534, the last battles of this war were fought as the Poles tried to besiege Kiev, but were succesfully held at gate and forced to fall back, while an effort to retake Smolensk was also defeated. In a peace agreement that was, ofcourse, temporary, the situation here, too, was left as it de facto was, Poland-Lithuania recognizing Muscovy's extensive gains, most notably, ofcourse, including the great cities of Smolensk and Kiev (the only Muscovite territory west of the Dnieper, which, aside from that point, became the new border in the south). The lands of the Teutonic Order were divided - Livonia north of Daugava minus the city of Riga became Muscovite (but retained some internal political and religious autonomy), Kalmarese gains were also recognized, whereas East Prussia and Courland became direct possessions of the Polish king. The new king, Casimir V (Zygmunt died in 1533), had ofcourse noticed the other benefits of this treaty, as it weakened the Lithuanian magnates much more than it did him.
Throughout the rest of 1530s and the 1540s, Europe was in a state of unprecedented peacefulness. The Plantagenets, ruled by Henry VII - formerly the unrecognized Grand Duke of Burgundy, then a regent, and then, with King John II's accidental death in 1523 (until which even since the end of the Regency Henry VII and his ally Lord Chancellor John More had had much influence on the young king), the king. As a king, Henry VII showed himself to be rather average, but his skills at intrigue allowed him to further centralize the kingdom. By 1540, he had also crushed all Irish and Lowlander resistance, though those stubborn Scotts kept fighting from the Highlands. Aside from that, the Plantagenet Empire rested. Flanders were integrated into the English economic system, Paris grew and grew in importance and beauty alike as the neglected London declined. Meanwhile in Iberia, the Navarrese War had ended with an Iberian tactical defeat at Logrono and on the Jucar putting the south of the country under threat. The Iberians had signed peace, paying out a small reparation and recognizing Navarre an Aragonese holding. From thereon, both countries were in peace with each other: Iberia, annoyed by Plantagenet neutrality in this war becoming increasingly isolationist and neutral within Europe, concentrating on its overseas ventures, while Aragon concentrated on the struggle for the Mediterranean against the Ottomans and their Berber allies, eventually capturing numerous key coastal cities such as Oran, Algiers and Tunis. Italy was in peace and stagnation. Christian II of the Kalmar Union had finally pacified Sweden, defeating the rebel armies in battle after battle and granting more autonomy and local power to the Swedish nobles in exchange for their support. Kalmarese traders dominated the Baltic Sea, though the Imperials and the Muscovites were beginning to catch up.
Albrecht IV in the Holy Roman Empire was quite satisfied with his new army's performance, and expanded its ranks while using the usual "wartime decimation of the knights" (though not as severe as it was in Burgundy) to increase his power. Through dynastic pacts and special agreements, several strategic spots throughout the Holy Roman Empire were secured by the Habsburgs. Holdings in the Netherlands were expanded through an union with Friesland and some lesser regional principalities. In foreign politics, the most emphasis was put on improving relations with Poland-Lithuania, especially with the Polish nobles and magnates that were not exactly pleaed with their king's assertions of power, but at the same time with the king himself. And, ofcourse, all the three interested sides were particularily interested in stemming the Turko-Muscovite tide.
Said tide was once more gathering. As the gains were being consolidated, the new Sultan - Suleiman I - once more defeated a Venetian-Aragonese fleet in 1544, and captured Crete and Morea, building powerful forts and naval bases at Khandaq (Candia/Iraklion) and at Patras. Similar fortresses were constructed in Albania, most notably the fort of Tirane. These forts were of a new kind, utilizing such innovations as earthen ramparts, and the Venetian attempt to seize Tirane in 1547 ended in disaster despite the Venetian use of sophisticated gunpowder siege artillery. Yet this Mediterranean theatre, much like the one in the Indian Ocean about which I will talk in more detail later, was not of utmost importance for Suleiman. Of utmost importance was the conquest of the remainders of Hungary, and also of the Polish province of Podolia which threatened the Ottoman domination of the Black Sea. After that, there was Galicia, Moravia and Austria to conquer. And then... lots of other lands, perhaps Suleiman even entertained hopes of universal conquest or, at least, hegemony, as some have claimed. In truth, though, his plans did not matter one bit - history moved as it pleased, wrecking to one extent or another all the plans that got in its way.
The plans of Dmitriy II were not hurt too much in this new war that has commenced in the year 1550; though the Muscovites had been beaten back from Riga, not too far from to the south-east from it the cities of Vitebsk and Orsha were captured, and in the Battle at Tolochin the Polish underestimation of the streltsy and failure to raise a Burgundian-style professional army has alleviated the supply problems of the Muscovites; a rather foolhardy and senseless Polish cavalry charge (yes, you've guessed it, it would be doubleplusoverexaggerated by future playwrights) resulted in an awful slaughtering of the most mobile part of the Polish army, and the Muscovites, despite their lack of such good horsemen, succeeded in quickly capturing hilly positions and decimating the remaining Polish forces with gunpowder fire. Casimir V himself was badly injured in the battle, and was almost dead by the time he got to Minsk having caught a fever and lost his mind during the chaotic retreat. And so Muscovites were able to lay siege to Minsk. Their plans for the south were less ambitious and, apart from the defeat of boyar Saltykov's siege of Zhitomir (again owing to bad logistics, made worse by the activities of the Cossacks), were succesful - the western bank of the Dnieper was mostly secured, towns of Cherkassy and Mazyr' were also captured and new fortifications were constructed. Strict measures were taken against the Cosssacks; Dmitriy II invited their leaders for negotiations and had them all seized by his streltsy, though the suspicious Cossacks had secretly brought weapons and tried to kill the Velikiy Knyaz himself. In this they failed, being pre-empted by the arrests, but in any case were able to resist well, taking a few Muscovite lives. Furthermore, they also appointed successors in the event things go wrong; one of them, Hryhor Bulba, managed to unite the various Cossack tribes around himself and waged a bitter "scythic" (OOC: the term used in this world instead of "guerrila", stemming, ofcourse, from the Scythian victory against the ancient Persian invaders) war, which enraged Dmitriy. A brutal campaign of reprisals distracted Muscovite resources, but thankfully the Poles had other concerns and were unable to take advantage of the Muscovite struggle with the Cossacks. Finally, in 1554, as the reprisals ran out of good targets due to Cossacks growing more and more skilled at evading pursuit and no longer binding themselves to any sort of permanent settlements, Dmitriy utilized "gulay-gorod"s, mirroring the "wagenbergs" of the Hussites, to defend his supply routes from enemy horsbeack raids. It worked quite well, and though the Cossacks remained a nuisance, the Muscovites were able to advance towards Zhitomir almost unhindered. By then, ofcourse, Minsk fell, and the neo-Orthodox peasants once more rose up in support of Dmitriy as the Lithuanian power in the Russian lands was crippled. Soon, it was washed away altogether by the waves of Muscovites and rebels...
While Muscovy and Turkey were strenghthening, their nearest land enemies in Christian Europe were getting weaker and weaker. Teutonic Order, crippled by a final defeat at Polish hands, was disintegrating into civil war amongst native rebellions against the knights who were no longer able to properly subdue them. Courland and East Prussia supported the Grand Master, who, in turn, was now a Polish vassal, while in Livonia and Estonia, while not openly defying neither Riga nor Warsaw, the local knights grabbed de facto independence. Zygmunt I of Poland-Lithuania spent all the time during which he was not campaigning against the Teutons and the Hungarians - both of whom would soon turn out to be vital allies for Poland-Lithuania that were covering its flanks all along, by the way - on querreling with the Polish Diet and the ever-more-separatist Lithuanian leaders. Hungary, under Laszlo IV, fell back into diplomatic isolation, briefly conquering Galicia from the Poles but later suffering an awful defeat at Przemysl and losing not only Galicia but also Moldavia and Wallachia. Andras Zapolya had already perished by then, and his king was quite an incompetent commander as well; the army, but for the hussars, was in a general state of decline. The sad, sorry state of the Teutonic Order as a whole was compounded by its troops being utterly obsolete as well; as for Poland-Lithuania, it had a strong military, true, but it could not defend for three.
And so it didn't, perhaps quite reasonably as the Jagiellons were risking the loss of Lithuania, a good 2/3s of their empire. In 1525, after some skirmishes, Hungarian Serbia and Bosnia were invaded and overran by Ottoman hordes but for Belgrade, which was besieged. Heavy artillery was dragged up to the city, and shelling tore its mighty walls down, making the final demonstration of the obsolition of old fortifications in the Age of Gunpowder. After that, the Ottomans did not stop, did not give the Hungarians the time they needed to gather their forces, and instead penetrated Hungary itself, along the way outflanking Polish Wallachia which was then invaded from the south and the east as well as from the north, and, as most local boyars surrendered without a fight, the Ottomans were soon in the control over much of the Danube. Further north, Crimean Tartars raided Podolia and the Ukraine indiscriminantly. And finally, Muscovites attacked. Their attack was much stronger than expected. Estonia and much of Livonia were overran, with scarcely anybody capable of resistance still there; the Kalmarese, meanwhile, grabbed Osel and Dago islands off Estonia coast, an action that the Muscovites ignored for now; the independent city-state of Pskov was annexed by Muscovy along the way, ofcourse. The Lithuanian forepost of Smolensk was besieged and taken in a quick assault supported by the local Orthodox population. From Ryazan and Tula, Muscovite forces struck like a dagger southwards, also with local population support as the neo-Orthodox peasants slaughtered the "Florentinist popes" and conventional Catholic missionaries alike. As of 1527, both banks of Dnieper was still in Polish-Lithuanian hands, but the Muscovite forces were drawing near. Meanwhile, Hungarians were routed at Szeged, and the Ottomans were already besieging Pest and the key Polish Moldavian city of Jassy.
By 1528, the first line of Catholic Europe's defense was clearly cracking, despite a Polish victory at Orsha. Beyond that line, there was scarcely anybody ready to fight the Turko-Muscovite unholy alliance. The Kalmarese were still busy putting down the remaining Swedish rebels, the Plantagenets were methodically subjugating Scotland and Ireland, the Habsburgs were consolidating gains and fighting a large-scale peasant rising, the Aragonese were fighting a war with Iberia over Navarre which the former had once more occupied using the Plantagenet troubles. Iberians, apart from fighting the Aragonese, mostly concentrated on their fledgling colonial empire. Princes querreled in Italy; Venice was at the knives with Milan, Florence and the Papal States were fighting everybody in between. Ofcourse, Venice and Aragon continued their war effort against the Ottomans on the sea; in 1529 they even defeated an Ottoman naval detachment at Cerigo and invaded Morea and Crete, securing both but failing to become more than a minor nuisance, especially after a reversal at sea in 1532 in the Battle at Cyclades. But that was all, for now.
Hungary continued to crumble. In 1529 (a year of setback for the Ottomans), it won a brief respite after the Battle at Pest where the Ottomans had to fall back towards Szeged from near the gates of the Hungarian capital. Yet this respite was, indeed, quite brief - the Hungarian attempt to exploit the victory and destroy the retreating Ottoman army ended in disaster as Orhan III himself had arrived with the main army, linking up with the retreating forces and rallying them, and annihilated the overeager Hungarians at Monor. Soon after, the regroupped Ottoman armies were ready to finish Hungary off, and as Laszlo IV's last desperate efforts to secure Imperial or Polish help failed (the former still bitter at his earlier attempts to steal Bohemia and generally unsympathetic to the Hunyadis save Laszlo's dead father, the latter being on one hand too busy and on the other hand feeling quite secure behind the new Galician fortresses covering the Carpathian passes), the king himself soon enough fell in battle with much of his army, as the Ottomans crossed the Danube, captured Buda and then besieged Pest properly.
By then, despite not answering Laszlo's pleas for help, Albrecht the Great was already preparing for a war with the Ottomans. He had no illusions about the quality of the largely-feudal (sans Burgundians) Imperial army, so he had begun forming a personal permanent professional army (since 1525), combining the Burgundians and the newly-recruited Austrians. He also hired mercenaries, led by the Yorkist general-refugee Morgan Tudor. Now that this sword was forged, it needed to be tested, and the Ottomans were the best target Albrecht could get, if only because, though he too did not think them capable of actually threatening his lands - quite reasonably, as even in Hungary the Ottomans had overstrained supply lines - there were many opportunities in Hungary that just begged to be exploited. With the death of Laszlo IV and the disapperence of his young son Janos, the remnants of the Hungarian nobility in the west of the country have eagerly supported Albrecht when he revived old Habsburg claims on Hungary; in the north, most notably in Poszony, the Jagiellon Zygmunt I was proclaimed king instead, but this king's didn't even bother to officially take power yet, as he was currently busy campaigning in the lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. There warfare remained quite indecisive. While in the north, Muscovites and Poles skirmished and occasionally exchanged invasions towards Minsk (for the Muscovites) or Smolensk (for the Poles), in the south confusion reigned. Crimean Tartars assisted the Muscovites, while the Jagiellons found allies amongst the Cossack tribes in the Ukraine; the peasantry was up in arms in the support of Muscovy, but the local elite was uncompromisingly pro-Jagiellon. The urban population was divided. Dmitriy II had personally commanded his army in the 1527-30 campaign, which at first resulted in the capture of Chernigov by the Muscovites but ended with a failed siege of Kiev and a disastrous retreat across the Dnieper. Not even Dmitriy's near-capture during the retreat diminish his spirits; if anything, he was now even more hell-bent on avenging his defeat and the humiliation of his flight. New armies and taxes were raised; those who protested died in a gruesome manner, once more showing Dmitriy specifically and the Muscovites generally to be good learners and faithful pupils of their Turkish allies. The streltsy, who showed themselves not too well during the campaign, were "cleansed", reformed and regroupped. In 1532, the Muscovites had once more captured Chernigov and Gomel, and crossed the Dnieper and the Pripet at Mozyr', having forced their way through the southern Pripet Marshes. Logistically the large Muscovite army was quite challenged, and losses to attrition and disease were numerous. At one point the army seemed to be about to fall apart without a fight, as the morale plummeted during this swamp-trek. But Dmitriy II's presence, his constant emission of elaborate and frightening curses and efforts to keep the spirits saved the army, and this invasion, much like Hannibal's invasion of Italy, had an overwhelming surprise effect, especially as knyaz Vasiliy Dolgorukiy led a smaller army in a more conventional attack towards Kiev. It was defeated, but the Poles were further distracted. The Velikiy Knyaz of Moscow has defeated the Poles on the Irpin River and again at the walls of Kiev. Finally, within Kiev itself, a rising of the more zealous elements of the neo-Orthodox population enabled Dmitriy to assault it on the move. His tired, weakened army suffered many casualties, but the Polish garrison was overwhelmed. Kiev, the Mother of the Russian Cities, was taken. The Muscovite army was now utterly exhausted, though, and even with reinforcements was unable to advance further, a fact that Dmitriy had reluctantly recognized. The war in Lithuania once more quieted down, being limited to raids and skirmishes.
But back to herr Hapsburg and the Hungarian theatre, which definitely was not quiet. As of 1532, the Poles, who finally decided that Poszony and the lands of the "Mountain Hungarians" (Slovakians) made for good insurance of their security (forces there could hold up any Ottoman invasion) and beside that was an useful bargaining card, secured this uncontested region. Imperials held the westernmost Hungarian lands, most notably the city of Zagreb. The rest of Hungary was in Ottoman hands; the lands there were partitioned amongst the soldiers, and a brutal campaign was waged to stomp out resistance, particularily in the form of the haiduks - rebels-bandits. Such a division was as much a result of limited logistical capabilities as it was that of numerous small battles and skirmishes, and the Battle at Szombathely, where the Imperials succesfully defeated first the Ottoman vanguard and then, after taking Szombathely with the help of the local population and a well-planned flanking maneuver, a large Ottoman army that was delayed by haiduks and Albrecht's rather pragmatic use of "cannon fodder" troops from subservient principalities to delay the Ottoman advance. That battle secured western Hungary for the Imperials; but as they begun querreling with the Poles and as the Ottomans consolidated their gains with much success, Albrecht decided, quite wisely, to not advance further and instead to consolidate his gains as well. Eventually, a pragmatical peace treaty was negotiated in Budapest, partitioning Hungary along the de facto existing orders and recognizing Wallachia and Moldavia as Ottoman territories as well; the Pope had protested it ofcourse, but he knew better than to break with the newly-strong Holy Roman Empire.
In 1534, the last battles of this war were fought as the Poles tried to besiege Kiev, but were succesfully held at gate and forced to fall back, while an effort to retake Smolensk was also defeated. In a peace agreement that was, ofcourse, temporary, the situation here, too, was left as it de facto was, Poland-Lithuania recognizing Muscovy's extensive gains, most notably, ofcourse, including the great cities of Smolensk and Kiev (the only Muscovite territory west of the Dnieper, which, aside from that point, became the new border in the south). The lands of the Teutonic Order were divided - Livonia north of Daugava minus the city of Riga became Muscovite (but retained some internal political and religious autonomy), Kalmarese gains were also recognized, whereas East Prussia and Courland became direct possessions of the Polish king. The new king, Casimir V (Zygmunt died in 1533), had ofcourse noticed the other benefits of this treaty, as it weakened the Lithuanian magnates much more than it did him.
Throughout the rest of 1530s and the 1540s, Europe was in a state of unprecedented peacefulness. The Plantagenets, ruled by Henry VII - formerly the unrecognized Grand Duke of Burgundy, then a regent, and then, with King John II's accidental death in 1523 (until which even since the end of the Regency Henry VII and his ally Lord Chancellor John More had had much influence on the young king), the king. As a king, Henry VII showed himself to be rather average, but his skills at intrigue allowed him to further centralize the kingdom. By 1540, he had also crushed all Irish and Lowlander resistance, though those stubborn Scotts kept fighting from the Highlands. Aside from that, the Plantagenet Empire rested. Flanders were integrated into the English economic system, Paris grew and grew in importance and beauty alike as the neglected London declined. Meanwhile in Iberia, the Navarrese War had ended with an Iberian tactical defeat at Logrono and on the Jucar putting the south of the country under threat. The Iberians had signed peace, paying out a small reparation and recognizing Navarre an Aragonese holding. From thereon, both countries were in peace with each other: Iberia, annoyed by Plantagenet neutrality in this war becoming increasingly isolationist and neutral within Europe, concentrating on its overseas ventures, while Aragon concentrated on the struggle for the Mediterranean against the Ottomans and their Berber allies, eventually capturing numerous key coastal cities such as Oran, Algiers and Tunis. Italy was in peace and stagnation. Christian II of the Kalmar Union had finally pacified Sweden, defeating the rebel armies in battle after battle and granting more autonomy and local power to the Swedish nobles in exchange for their support. Kalmarese traders dominated the Baltic Sea, though the Imperials and the Muscovites were beginning to catch up.
Albrecht IV in the Holy Roman Empire was quite satisfied with his new army's performance, and expanded its ranks while using the usual "wartime decimation of the knights" (though not as severe as it was in Burgundy) to increase his power. Through dynastic pacts and special agreements, several strategic spots throughout the Holy Roman Empire were secured by the Habsburgs. Holdings in the Netherlands were expanded through an union with Friesland and some lesser regional principalities. In foreign politics, the most emphasis was put on improving relations with Poland-Lithuania, especially with the Polish nobles and magnates that were not exactly pleaed with their king's assertions of power, but at the same time with the king himself. And, ofcourse, all the three interested sides were particularily interested in stemming the Turko-Muscovite tide.
Said tide was once more gathering. As the gains were being consolidated, the new Sultan - Suleiman I - once more defeated a Venetian-Aragonese fleet in 1544, and captured Crete and Morea, building powerful forts and naval bases at Khandaq (Candia/Iraklion) and at Patras. Similar fortresses were constructed in Albania, most notably the fort of Tirane. These forts were of a new kind, utilizing such innovations as earthen ramparts, and the Venetian attempt to seize Tirane in 1547 ended in disaster despite the Venetian use of sophisticated gunpowder siege artillery. Yet this Mediterranean theatre, much like the one in the Indian Ocean about which I will talk in more detail later, was not of utmost importance for Suleiman. Of utmost importance was the conquest of the remainders of Hungary, and also of the Polish province of Podolia which threatened the Ottoman domination of the Black Sea. After that, there was Galicia, Moravia and Austria to conquer. And then... lots of other lands, perhaps Suleiman even entertained hopes of universal conquest or, at least, hegemony, as some have claimed. In truth, though, his plans did not matter one bit - history moved as it pleased, wrecking to one extent or another all the plans that got in its way.
The plans of Dmitriy II were not hurt too much in this new war that has commenced in the year 1550; though the Muscovites had been beaten back from Riga, not too far from to the south-east from it the cities of Vitebsk and Orsha were captured, and in the Battle at Tolochin the Polish underestimation of the streltsy and failure to raise a Burgundian-style professional army has alleviated the supply problems of the Muscovites; a rather foolhardy and senseless Polish cavalry charge (yes, you've guessed it, it would be doubleplusoverexaggerated by future playwrights) resulted in an awful slaughtering of the most mobile part of the Polish army, and the Muscovites, despite their lack of such good horsemen, succeeded in quickly capturing hilly positions and decimating the remaining Polish forces with gunpowder fire. Casimir V himself was badly injured in the battle, and was almost dead by the time he got to Minsk having caught a fever and lost his mind during the chaotic retreat. And so Muscovites were able to lay siege to Minsk. Their plans for the south were less ambitious and, apart from the defeat of boyar Saltykov's siege of Zhitomir (again owing to bad logistics, made worse by the activities of the Cossacks), were succesful - the western bank of the Dnieper was mostly secured, towns of Cherkassy and Mazyr' were also captured and new fortifications were constructed. Strict measures were taken against the Cosssacks; Dmitriy II invited their leaders for negotiations and had them all seized by his streltsy, though the suspicious Cossacks had secretly brought weapons and tried to kill the Velikiy Knyaz himself. In this they failed, being pre-empted by the arrests, but in any case were able to resist well, taking a few Muscovite lives. Furthermore, they also appointed successors in the event things go wrong; one of them, Hryhor Bulba, managed to unite the various Cossack tribes around himself and waged a bitter "scythic" (OOC: the term used in this world instead of "guerrila", stemming, ofcourse, from the Scythian victory against the ancient Persian invaders) war, which enraged Dmitriy. A brutal campaign of reprisals distracted Muscovite resources, but thankfully the Poles had other concerns and were unable to take advantage of the Muscovite struggle with the Cossacks. Finally, in 1554, as the reprisals ran out of good targets due to Cossacks growing more and more skilled at evading pursuit and no longer binding themselves to any sort of permanent settlements, Dmitriy utilized "gulay-gorod"s, mirroring the "wagenbergs" of the Hussites, to defend his supply routes from enemy horsbeack raids. It worked quite well, and though the Cossacks remained a nuisance, the Muscovites were able to advance towards Zhitomir almost unhindered. By then, ofcourse, Minsk fell, and the neo-Orthodox peasants once more rose up in support of Dmitriy as the Lithuanian power in the Russian lands was crippled. Soon, it was washed away altogether by the waves of Muscovites and rebels...
das
Regeneration In Process
The plans of Suleiman I at first also seemed to be working. The Poles were quickly expelled from their part of Hungary; as for the Imperials, Hoseyn Pasha, with superior numbers and a good use of sipahis and janissaries alike, has dealt them a defeat at Bacsa and captured the vital city of Gyor, from there advancing to once more defeat the Imperial forces at Mosonmagyarovar. From that little village, the Ottomans needed to go less than 9 miles to reach the Austrian border. In 1551, they crossed that border, for the first time entering the lands of the Holy Roman Empire. It was a three-pronged invasion; the prong of Hoseyn Pasha was but one of them. Suleiman I himself advanced from Poszony. Selim Vefik Pasha advanced from Zagreb. Or WOULD have advanced from Zagreb had he not ran into Albrecht IV's main army there and had he not, with much of his army, died at Sesvete just outside of the Imperial Hungarian city. The messangers that were sent to warn the Ottomans were chased down and killed, save one who was captured and killed by the haiduks. The news of the defeat in the south reached Suleiman too late, but even had they reached him on time, it is unlikely that he would have ordered a retreat now that the decisive battle was drawing near. Already, the Imperial army was defeated at Bruck an del Leitha; already, Ternitz and Kienegg were captured, and with them - superior positions from where any enemy reinforcements going through the Austrian Alps could be decimated by gunpowder fire. Yes, indeed, already the Ottomans were encircling and investing Vienna, the capital of Autria and the center of Habsburg power therein. Zagreb-Shmagreb, if Vienna fell all those defeats would be completely avenged!
And again, like in other cities the Ottomans have taken, artillery pounded away at the city, and Ottoman soldiers restlessly awaited the orders for an assault, while the Sultan studied the steady stream of messages with an awkward expression on his face. He couldn't understand it. Here they were, at Vienna itself, but the Imperials paid them no heed at all. Even when a final assault came and Vienna was captured and ransacked, the Imperials kept advancing southwards for the useless province of Albania, needlessly overstretching their supply routes... Albrecht was as mad as his father, certainly! And only when the more accurate reports came of the Imperial army splitting up into three parts as it went and launching a joint strike towards Budapest, also three-pronged as if to mock Suleiman, did the Sultan understand their devilry. Cursing, he had no choice but to retreat. At first the Sultan intended to break through Austria and secured Zagreb on his way out, but his supply routes were overstrained as it is, and clearly more Imperials were coming, though their morale was not at all good after they came under fire near Ternitz and had to fall back after a disastrous charge. And so he retreated for Sopron, and from there - to Gyor, and then - marched to Budapest having only barely restored his forces. Fortunately more troops were coming from the south. Unfortunately, they came too late - in late 1553, the main Ottoman forces have reached Budapest and engaged the Imperial forces. Their enemies employed gunpowder just as well if not bettter; their field artillery tore gaping holes in the ranks of the janissaries; and their professional infantry proved capable of withstanding even the most fierce assults, while the cuirassiers guarded their flanks. The Imperials, who have, by the way, already taken the city itself (AND retaken Vienna), were able to counter-attack then as to break the Ottoman ranks, though they too have suffered many casualties at thisstage. The Ottoman army survived, but was battered very badly and had to retreat. Meanwhile, the haiduks, relieved by the news of the Ottoman panic (that they received from the last Turkish messanger from Sesvete earlier) and encouraged by their defeat, rose up once more, harassing the retreating Ottoman army. Perhaps at this point, the Ottomans could have lost all their hard-won gains...
...but the same history that has doomed Suleiman's plans went on, the Ottomans no longer impeding it and thus no longer suffering its wrath. A new peasant rising, under the banners of the Conradine Heresy and secretly backed by the post-Hanseatic cities of North Germany, demanded Albrecht the Great's attention, as did other events; and indeed, the reconquest of the entire Hungary was not an intention of Albrecht in the first place - he needed the Ottoman threat to scare the Hungarians into loyalty. His plan for Hungary was firmly achieved with the reconquest of its north-western half, while Transylvania, as far west as Szeged and Debrecen, could remain Turkish for all he cared. Albrecht IV was more interested in a different country. In 1555, the Polish king, Casimir V, officially surrendered his Hungarian claims to the Holy Roman Emperor - in exchange for that, said Emperor signed an official alliance with Poland-Lithuania, and sent troops to assist the Poles. The initial forces were hardly sufficient, but they did allow for a minor Polish victory at Tarnopol. As Casimir V was near death, more and more Imperial reinforcements arrived, reinforcing all Polish garrisons and assisting Polish defenses. Nonetheless, Muscovite forces pressed on; they captured Riga and Kaunas, and were threatening Vilnius. The still largely pagan population of Lithuania Proper was not particularily supportive of either side, often enough the Lithuanian peasants were fighting everybody who happened to come nearby.
The final battle for Lithuania took place, predictably, at Vilnius. Dmitriy II had huge cannons constructed and dragged to the city by serfs and prisoners. The city held out heroically, its people realizing that there would be no mercy, but the Muscovites were not about to fall back neither, even after a month of inconclusive siege, assault and skirmish. Finally, however, a Polono-Imperial relief attempt was beaten back and a decisive assault took place. It was a very fierce fight. All the remaining population (many fled before the Muscovites came or died from the various epidemics that broke out in the city or in battle) was slaughtered or enslaved. Not to say anything about the real garrison. Muscovite casualties were great, also stemming both from the epidemics during the siege and the actual fighting. Yet the flag of Georgiy the Dragon-Slayer was flown over the ruined city on February 9th 1556. Lithuania has fallen.
And so has the Jagiellon dynasty in Poland. Casimir's son was politely persuaded to remove his claim to the throne after his father died in late 1555. The Sejm has assembled, wary of the large - and enlarging - Imperial military presence in Poland. Even had the Polish szlacht had a choice in this, it probably would have chosen Albrecht IV as the new Polish king, for just as the Ottomans frightened the Hungarians, the Muscovites frightened the Poles. With Poland a part of the Habsburg empire, Albrecht felt his personal and familial victory to be assured. The troublesome vassals in the Holy Roman Empire were surrounded - trapped between Austria, Poland and Burgundy. The Kalmar Union was separate, ofcourse, but it was too weak and immersed in its own problems to try and threaten the Holy Roman Empire. And as in 1556-7 the Imperial armies defeated a series of Muscovite and Ottoman incursions into new Habsburg territories... oh yes, if any empire ever had a golden age, this was the beginning of that age for the Holy Roman Empire, as it vastly expanded its territory in Europe, centralized itself at home, built up a powerful army and thrived both economically and culturally as the Catholic Renaissance entered its second - northern - phase. In 1558, peace was signed with Muscovy, recognizing its conquest of Lithuania, Livonia and Courland, though the latter two were to be allowed a certain degree of autonomy, as was already in place, and were to be governed for the Knyaz by the previous (Teutonic) rulers, much as they have been governed in the past for the Poles. Meanwhile, the Imperials got Poland and East Prussia; they also got the north-western half of Hungary, the rest, however, being consolidated by the Ottomans who brutally slaughtered Hungarian villages suspected of assisting the haiduks, ruining their newly-conquered lands but enforcing peace there. Aragon, having defeated the Berber captain 'Aruj, has also come out victorious in this war with the Muslim powers. It has taken over Algeria and Tunisia, and though inland their authority was still quite nominal, it were the coastal territories that trully mattered to the Aragonese in their bid for domination in the Western Mediterranean.
Another empire - though officially only a kingdom - was undergoing a golden age at this time. Since the days of Henrique the Navigator in the 15th century, Portugal - and thus later, Iberia - has embarked on a trully unprecedented venture, exploring the coasts of Africa, reaching, in 1498, India. But the new kingdom of Iberia did not stop at that, though a sea route with India was its primary goal. Instead, the daring Iberian exploradores circumnavigated the coasts of Arabia and India, and infiltrated South-East Asia, and reached even China and Japan. And after the carracks of these great discoverers of the likes of Cabral, Faleiro, Duarte and de Camoes, came great fleets of merchants... and soldiers.
The first Portuguese overseas conquest was also the longest. In 1415, under the rule of Henrique the Navigator's father, the Moroccan city of Ceuta was captured - Portugal's first colony, the first step to the creation of the first great colonial empire of the modern world. Yet only over 80 years later were Grenada and Morocco fully crushed after the Wattasid bid to unite the two Muslim countries backfired and now-united Iberian forces annihilated the obsolete Moroccan fleet at Gibraltar. Grenada was taken after a lengthy siege, and Morocco itself fell apart after the Iberians captured Tangier, Melilla, Casablance and Marrakesh; the various Moroccan leaders became Iberian vassals, and, in exchange for retaining political and religious autonomy, had to pay out a large tribute.
By then, ofcourse, the Iberians already went further. Pedro Hurtado invaded Mali in 1523 with a small force of slightly over 1,000 soldiers, taking advantage of the poor state of affairs in the once-mighty empire. Its armies, though numerous, were badly equipped and drilled; the outer reaches of its empire already either broke away, either were captured by the rising power of Songhay. Hurtado merely finished Mali off, ransacking its capital, taking its vast treasury and, after some abortive attempts to secure its territory, retreated to the coastal outpost as was ordered by the King anyway - the actual conquest of Mali was not worth the price. Instead, the Iberians established good working (and trading) relations with Songhay, which now became the unchallengeable hegemon power of West Africa. Hurtado then conquered another country, which he got to keep - after the failure of Iberian attempts to convert the rulers of the small, but prosperous Benin to Christianity, it was decided to take over Benin by force, to gain commercial access to the Niger river and to Central Africa. Long story cut short, Hurtado conquered Benin in 1528, and brutally subjugated local nobility, so brutally in fact that this (and his personal enemies back in Lisbon) has resulted in him being recalled and later imprisoned, to be released in 1538 a broken man. Meanwhile, Benin was put under semi-direct Iberian rule, with local puppet kings retaining some power - for now.
Further south, Iberian missionary activity bore fruit in Kongo, rulers thereof having adopted Christianity and opened their ports to Iberian commerce. south from there rulers were less complacent, but still, the Iberians had established trade posts and forts to control the situation here and gain at least some access to the nascent trade networks of South Africa. The Swahili city-states of East Africa immediately became bitter enemies of Iberia, and the Iberians over time ransacked several of the said cities, though not yet attempting to solve the Swahili question once and for all. North of there, Iberians have made contact with their Abyssinian brethren in Christ (if mighty queer ones), and soon came into conflict with the Ottomans over southern Arabia and the Horn of Africa, though as of the 1530s it was scarcely important.
In Asia itself, aside from Arabia, the Iberians despite some initial opposition and complications started trading with China and Japan, also sending missionaries there that were oft-patronized in China by the local elite which, in its mass, was only vaguely interested (or even amused) by the teachings of these newcomers. In South-East Asia, Iberian impact was much stronger; while the Iberians kowtowed to the Ming Chinese, things certainly were quite the opposite in Malacca, at least after the Iberians were done with it, turning it into their primary local base. Elsewhere in South-East Asia, things were not taken to such an extreme, but the Iberians established a presence there.
But, ofcourse, the most important region for Iberian ventures in Asia was the spice-rich Indian sub-continent. The early 15th century saw a particularily severe outbreak of "interesting times" in India; and the Iberian arrival made things even more interesting, ofcourse. They first arrived into South and Central India, rather than in the less trade-oriented (and more interesting) north, but in the south the Iberians quickly livened things up by capturing Calicut and fighting the western city-states; on the other hand, they immediately became allies and trade partners of the powerful Vijayanagara Empire of Krishnadevaraya. A heavy presence was established on Ceylon, with the initial consent of local rulers.
Further north, as I had already said, things were bitterly, uncompromisingly interesting. Ever since 1519, Babur - the ruler of a post-Timurid Turkic empire based in Afghanistan - having suffered a decisive defeat in the north at the hands of the Shaybanids has instead decided to try his luck in India, where the rump Lodi Sultanate of Delhi was dying. However, it was dying quite hardly - Babur's forces, in part due to logistical problems, failed to make any permanent gains from their attacks. In 1525, though, having equipped Turkish artillery and other modern weapons, Babur's Mughals have eliminated a far superior Delhian army at Panipat, using both its backwardness in technology and doctrine and the low morale in the bitterly-divided Sultanate. From there on, things worked like a charm, and soon the Mughals have captured Delhi and Agra. Babur prevented his troops from turning this into yet another, if highly succesful, raid, and, after sweet-talking, threatening, appeasing and whipping them into staying in India, he made it explicitly clear to everybody else that he was here to stay by routing a powerful Rajput army of Rana Sanga at Khanua, in 1527. He then proceeded to fight and defeat numerous other enemies - Afghan rebels, remaining Delhians under the brother of the late Sultan and the now-divided, but still formidable Rajputs.
Then in 1530, he died, and all the hell broke loose as often happens in the empires built in one leap, particularily in Asia. His son Humayun inherited a rather unstable, unconsolidated empire that immediately was struck by rebellions and foreign invasions. Particularily strong an enemy was Bahadur Shah, Sultan of Gujarat, who had wisely avoided confronting Babur, instead waiting for a moment of weakness. His father having already become an enemy of the Iberians (denying them their much-craved port at Diu and fighting back their first attempt to seize with some Ottoman and Omani assistance), Bahadur was by definition a friend of the Ottomans, whereas the Mughals were friends of dubious quality, both due to their instability and, should they survive it, due to their great potential strenght. Ottomans sent some troops to help train the Gujarati army, and though Bahadur still managed to lose to Humayun's equally-modern army, Humayun's subsequent invasion of Gujarat has failed due to strong fortifications and more and more chaos spreading back in the Mughal Empire. In the end, it was destroyed altogether by an Afghan military adventurer, Sher Shah, who forged a North Indian empire of his own, which, too, collapsed upon his death in 1543. North India and the Gangetic Plains were in utter chaos after all this. Only in its southwestern portion did a strong state arise - the Sultanate of Gujarat, which, naturally, became a key part of the Ottoman policy in the Indian Ocean.
By 1545, as you probably already have realized, one of the most large-scale naval wars seen by history thus far, was already on - the Ottomans and the Iberians were fighting for the Indian Ocean. Naturally, there was little direct fighting between the two at first, wars being mostly fought by proxy, with success leaning to the Ottomans. The Iberians, in their bid for a great colonial and commercial empire, have simply overstretched themselves, whereas the Ottomans, though more preoccupied in Europe, could allow themselves to commit resources to the struggles of Indian Ocean. As already mentioned, Mehmed III had turned Oman and Yemen into Ottoman vassal states, and Orhan III fought back an Iberian attempt to capture them. From the bases thusly gained, the Ottomans operated quite well. The battle for the Horn of Africa went quite well, for the Sultanate of Adal there was ruled by Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi, a fanatical, strong ruler of much military skill; it was opposed by Abyssinia, which at the time was weakened by feudal strife and, indeed, Adalan raids. Both Ottomans and Iberians sent specialists and indeed troops to assist their respective allies, but the Ottomans were simply in a better position than the Iberians, and also did their best to intercept or hinder Iberian reinforcements. Adalo-Ottoman armies routed the Abyssinians at Nazret with superior firepower, and proceeded to devastate the Abyssinian countryside, while systematically reducing Abyssinian defenses. It was a lenghty process due to the difficulty of operating bulky artillery in the Ethiopian Highlands and due to the Abyssinian scythic warfare, but in the end the Abyssinians were crushed even though the Iberians have in 1543 won the naval battle at Caluula (on the very tip of the Horn), allowing themselves to, in theory, easily supply their allies. It came too late. Islam has triumphed there, for now anyway, as the Sultanate of Adal entered its very own little golden age despite the occasional Christian peasant rising.
In the meantime, the Iberians have intensified their campagins against the Swahili city-states, aware of their ties to Oman and thus to Turkey. Already in 1509, the Iberians have captured the Arabic town of Mozambique. In 1532, a joint Swahili fleet was devastated at Zanzibar, and the island itself was captured, becoming an important base of Iberian operations in East Africa. From there they raided other cities, eventually capturing Kilwa, Dar-es-Salaam and Mombassa. Mogadishu, however, survived, coming under Ottoman protection and fighting back an Iberian attack.
As for India, it was hard to fight proxy wars there. The Iberians tried to encourage Rajput raids against Gujarat, but found the process to be rather hard, the Rajputs - more interested in their own feuds and the Gujaratis too strong militarily, especially with Ottoman help and the construction of new forts. So the Iberians had to go there themselves, seeking once more to secure Diu, which was one of the vital strategic ports in this war, alongside Muscat, Zanzibar, Goa and Hadiboh (on Soccotra). That latter port came under Iberian attack in 1549 and, to the surprise of the Iberians themselves, was captured (and burned down, as the Iberians had no illusions about holding on to Soccotra). Borrowing an idea from the Ottomans themselves, the Iberians pressed on towards Muscat, where a large Ottoman fleet was being based. Much like the Ottomans had, during Mehmed II's Italian Campaign, attacked Venice itself in a suicide raid that grabbed all the Venetian attention while the main Ottoman forces safely crossed the Strait of Otranto, the Iberians attacked the gathering fleet, and, though eventually overwhelmed, badly damaged it due to the element of surprise and generally better ship design. Thusly distracted, the Ottomans failed to react to the large-scale Iberian naval bombardment and assault of Diu, commanded by Augusto Magalhaes, a charismatic and ruthless leader, "the Ideal Conquistador" oft-exaggerated by chroniclers and future biographers (especially the Imperial ones for some weird reason), who went on to become one of the greatest Iberian Viceroys of Goa (which by then became the main Iberian base in India). Um, anyway, he took Diu, slaughtered all who resisted as by then became customary and fought back numerous land and naval counter-attacks, later - in 1554 - also leading an expedition that captured Soccotra once more, this time keeping it for good. The Ottoman reversal, however, was probably also influenced by their distraction and defeats in Europe itself.
And so in 1558, they were ready to commit more fully to the Indian Ocean, as the One True Faith struck back. The Iberian empire was at its zenith, and after the zenith, inevitably begins nadir. The good part about the nadir is, ofcourse, that after it usually a new ascendance begins. And so on, and so on, and so on...
And again, like in other cities the Ottomans have taken, artillery pounded away at the city, and Ottoman soldiers restlessly awaited the orders for an assault, while the Sultan studied the steady stream of messages with an awkward expression on his face. He couldn't understand it. Here they were, at Vienna itself, but the Imperials paid them no heed at all. Even when a final assault came and Vienna was captured and ransacked, the Imperials kept advancing southwards for the useless province of Albania, needlessly overstretching their supply routes... Albrecht was as mad as his father, certainly! And only when the more accurate reports came of the Imperial army splitting up into three parts as it went and launching a joint strike towards Budapest, also three-pronged as if to mock Suleiman, did the Sultan understand their devilry. Cursing, he had no choice but to retreat. At first the Sultan intended to break through Austria and secured Zagreb on his way out, but his supply routes were overstrained as it is, and clearly more Imperials were coming, though their morale was not at all good after they came under fire near Ternitz and had to fall back after a disastrous charge. And so he retreated for Sopron, and from there - to Gyor, and then - marched to Budapest having only barely restored his forces. Fortunately more troops were coming from the south. Unfortunately, they came too late - in late 1553, the main Ottoman forces have reached Budapest and engaged the Imperial forces. Their enemies employed gunpowder just as well if not bettter; their field artillery tore gaping holes in the ranks of the janissaries; and their professional infantry proved capable of withstanding even the most fierce assults, while the cuirassiers guarded their flanks. The Imperials, who have, by the way, already taken the city itself (AND retaken Vienna), were able to counter-attack then as to break the Ottoman ranks, though they too have suffered many casualties at thisstage. The Ottoman army survived, but was battered very badly and had to retreat. Meanwhile, the haiduks, relieved by the news of the Ottoman panic (that they received from the last Turkish messanger from Sesvete earlier) and encouraged by their defeat, rose up once more, harassing the retreating Ottoman army. Perhaps at this point, the Ottomans could have lost all their hard-won gains...
...but the same history that has doomed Suleiman's plans went on, the Ottomans no longer impeding it and thus no longer suffering its wrath. A new peasant rising, under the banners of the Conradine Heresy and secretly backed by the post-Hanseatic cities of North Germany, demanded Albrecht the Great's attention, as did other events; and indeed, the reconquest of the entire Hungary was not an intention of Albrecht in the first place - he needed the Ottoman threat to scare the Hungarians into loyalty. His plan for Hungary was firmly achieved with the reconquest of its north-western half, while Transylvania, as far west as Szeged and Debrecen, could remain Turkish for all he cared. Albrecht IV was more interested in a different country. In 1555, the Polish king, Casimir V, officially surrendered his Hungarian claims to the Holy Roman Emperor - in exchange for that, said Emperor signed an official alliance with Poland-Lithuania, and sent troops to assist the Poles. The initial forces were hardly sufficient, but they did allow for a minor Polish victory at Tarnopol. As Casimir V was near death, more and more Imperial reinforcements arrived, reinforcing all Polish garrisons and assisting Polish defenses. Nonetheless, Muscovite forces pressed on; they captured Riga and Kaunas, and were threatening Vilnius. The still largely pagan population of Lithuania Proper was not particularily supportive of either side, often enough the Lithuanian peasants were fighting everybody who happened to come nearby.
The final battle for Lithuania took place, predictably, at Vilnius. Dmitriy II had huge cannons constructed and dragged to the city by serfs and prisoners. The city held out heroically, its people realizing that there would be no mercy, but the Muscovites were not about to fall back neither, even after a month of inconclusive siege, assault and skirmish. Finally, however, a Polono-Imperial relief attempt was beaten back and a decisive assault took place. It was a very fierce fight. All the remaining population (many fled before the Muscovites came or died from the various epidemics that broke out in the city or in battle) was slaughtered or enslaved. Not to say anything about the real garrison. Muscovite casualties were great, also stemming both from the epidemics during the siege and the actual fighting. Yet the flag of Georgiy the Dragon-Slayer was flown over the ruined city on February 9th 1556. Lithuania has fallen.
And so has the Jagiellon dynasty in Poland. Casimir's son was politely persuaded to remove his claim to the throne after his father died in late 1555. The Sejm has assembled, wary of the large - and enlarging - Imperial military presence in Poland. Even had the Polish szlacht had a choice in this, it probably would have chosen Albrecht IV as the new Polish king, for just as the Ottomans frightened the Hungarians, the Muscovites frightened the Poles. With Poland a part of the Habsburg empire, Albrecht felt his personal and familial victory to be assured. The troublesome vassals in the Holy Roman Empire were surrounded - trapped between Austria, Poland and Burgundy. The Kalmar Union was separate, ofcourse, but it was too weak and immersed in its own problems to try and threaten the Holy Roman Empire. And as in 1556-7 the Imperial armies defeated a series of Muscovite and Ottoman incursions into new Habsburg territories... oh yes, if any empire ever had a golden age, this was the beginning of that age for the Holy Roman Empire, as it vastly expanded its territory in Europe, centralized itself at home, built up a powerful army and thrived both economically and culturally as the Catholic Renaissance entered its second - northern - phase. In 1558, peace was signed with Muscovy, recognizing its conquest of Lithuania, Livonia and Courland, though the latter two were to be allowed a certain degree of autonomy, as was already in place, and were to be governed for the Knyaz by the previous (Teutonic) rulers, much as they have been governed in the past for the Poles. Meanwhile, the Imperials got Poland and East Prussia; they also got the north-western half of Hungary, the rest, however, being consolidated by the Ottomans who brutally slaughtered Hungarian villages suspected of assisting the haiduks, ruining their newly-conquered lands but enforcing peace there. Aragon, having defeated the Berber captain 'Aruj, has also come out victorious in this war with the Muslim powers. It has taken over Algeria and Tunisia, and though inland their authority was still quite nominal, it were the coastal territories that trully mattered to the Aragonese in their bid for domination in the Western Mediterranean.
Another empire - though officially only a kingdom - was undergoing a golden age at this time. Since the days of Henrique the Navigator in the 15th century, Portugal - and thus later, Iberia - has embarked on a trully unprecedented venture, exploring the coasts of Africa, reaching, in 1498, India. But the new kingdom of Iberia did not stop at that, though a sea route with India was its primary goal. Instead, the daring Iberian exploradores circumnavigated the coasts of Arabia and India, and infiltrated South-East Asia, and reached even China and Japan. And after the carracks of these great discoverers of the likes of Cabral, Faleiro, Duarte and de Camoes, came great fleets of merchants... and soldiers.
The first Portuguese overseas conquest was also the longest. In 1415, under the rule of Henrique the Navigator's father, the Moroccan city of Ceuta was captured - Portugal's first colony, the first step to the creation of the first great colonial empire of the modern world. Yet only over 80 years later were Grenada and Morocco fully crushed after the Wattasid bid to unite the two Muslim countries backfired and now-united Iberian forces annihilated the obsolete Moroccan fleet at Gibraltar. Grenada was taken after a lengthy siege, and Morocco itself fell apart after the Iberians captured Tangier, Melilla, Casablance and Marrakesh; the various Moroccan leaders became Iberian vassals, and, in exchange for retaining political and religious autonomy, had to pay out a large tribute.
By then, ofcourse, the Iberians already went further. Pedro Hurtado invaded Mali in 1523 with a small force of slightly over 1,000 soldiers, taking advantage of the poor state of affairs in the once-mighty empire. Its armies, though numerous, were badly equipped and drilled; the outer reaches of its empire already either broke away, either were captured by the rising power of Songhay. Hurtado merely finished Mali off, ransacking its capital, taking its vast treasury and, after some abortive attempts to secure its territory, retreated to the coastal outpost as was ordered by the King anyway - the actual conquest of Mali was not worth the price. Instead, the Iberians established good working (and trading) relations with Songhay, which now became the unchallengeable hegemon power of West Africa. Hurtado then conquered another country, which he got to keep - after the failure of Iberian attempts to convert the rulers of the small, but prosperous Benin to Christianity, it was decided to take over Benin by force, to gain commercial access to the Niger river and to Central Africa. Long story cut short, Hurtado conquered Benin in 1528, and brutally subjugated local nobility, so brutally in fact that this (and his personal enemies back in Lisbon) has resulted in him being recalled and later imprisoned, to be released in 1538 a broken man. Meanwhile, Benin was put under semi-direct Iberian rule, with local puppet kings retaining some power - for now.
Further south, Iberian missionary activity bore fruit in Kongo, rulers thereof having adopted Christianity and opened their ports to Iberian commerce. south from there rulers were less complacent, but still, the Iberians had established trade posts and forts to control the situation here and gain at least some access to the nascent trade networks of South Africa. The Swahili city-states of East Africa immediately became bitter enemies of Iberia, and the Iberians over time ransacked several of the said cities, though not yet attempting to solve the Swahili question once and for all. North of there, Iberians have made contact with their Abyssinian brethren in Christ (if mighty queer ones), and soon came into conflict with the Ottomans over southern Arabia and the Horn of Africa, though as of the 1530s it was scarcely important.
In Asia itself, aside from Arabia, the Iberians despite some initial opposition and complications started trading with China and Japan, also sending missionaries there that were oft-patronized in China by the local elite which, in its mass, was only vaguely interested (or even amused) by the teachings of these newcomers. In South-East Asia, Iberian impact was much stronger; while the Iberians kowtowed to the Ming Chinese, things certainly were quite the opposite in Malacca, at least after the Iberians were done with it, turning it into their primary local base. Elsewhere in South-East Asia, things were not taken to such an extreme, but the Iberians established a presence there.
But, ofcourse, the most important region for Iberian ventures in Asia was the spice-rich Indian sub-continent. The early 15th century saw a particularily severe outbreak of "interesting times" in India; and the Iberian arrival made things even more interesting, ofcourse. They first arrived into South and Central India, rather than in the less trade-oriented (and more interesting) north, but in the south the Iberians quickly livened things up by capturing Calicut and fighting the western city-states; on the other hand, they immediately became allies and trade partners of the powerful Vijayanagara Empire of Krishnadevaraya. A heavy presence was established on Ceylon, with the initial consent of local rulers.
Further north, as I had already said, things were bitterly, uncompromisingly interesting. Ever since 1519, Babur - the ruler of a post-Timurid Turkic empire based in Afghanistan - having suffered a decisive defeat in the north at the hands of the Shaybanids has instead decided to try his luck in India, where the rump Lodi Sultanate of Delhi was dying. However, it was dying quite hardly - Babur's forces, in part due to logistical problems, failed to make any permanent gains from their attacks. In 1525, though, having equipped Turkish artillery and other modern weapons, Babur's Mughals have eliminated a far superior Delhian army at Panipat, using both its backwardness in technology and doctrine and the low morale in the bitterly-divided Sultanate. From there on, things worked like a charm, and soon the Mughals have captured Delhi and Agra. Babur prevented his troops from turning this into yet another, if highly succesful, raid, and, after sweet-talking, threatening, appeasing and whipping them into staying in India, he made it explicitly clear to everybody else that he was here to stay by routing a powerful Rajput army of Rana Sanga at Khanua, in 1527. He then proceeded to fight and defeat numerous other enemies - Afghan rebels, remaining Delhians under the brother of the late Sultan and the now-divided, but still formidable Rajputs.
Then in 1530, he died, and all the hell broke loose as often happens in the empires built in one leap, particularily in Asia. His son Humayun inherited a rather unstable, unconsolidated empire that immediately was struck by rebellions and foreign invasions. Particularily strong an enemy was Bahadur Shah, Sultan of Gujarat, who had wisely avoided confronting Babur, instead waiting for a moment of weakness. His father having already become an enemy of the Iberians (denying them their much-craved port at Diu and fighting back their first attempt to seize with some Ottoman and Omani assistance), Bahadur was by definition a friend of the Ottomans, whereas the Mughals were friends of dubious quality, both due to their instability and, should they survive it, due to their great potential strenght. Ottomans sent some troops to help train the Gujarati army, and though Bahadur still managed to lose to Humayun's equally-modern army, Humayun's subsequent invasion of Gujarat has failed due to strong fortifications and more and more chaos spreading back in the Mughal Empire. In the end, it was destroyed altogether by an Afghan military adventurer, Sher Shah, who forged a North Indian empire of his own, which, too, collapsed upon his death in 1543. North India and the Gangetic Plains were in utter chaos after all this. Only in its southwestern portion did a strong state arise - the Sultanate of Gujarat, which, naturally, became a key part of the Ottoman policy in the Indian Ocean.
By 1545, as you probably already have realized, one of the most large-scale naval wars seen by history thus far, was already on - the Ottomans and the Iberians were fighting for the Indian Ocean. Naturally, there was little direct fighting between the two at first, wars being mostly fought by proxy, with success leaning to the Ottomans. The Iberians, in their bid for a great colonial and commercial empire, have simply overstretched themselves, whereas the Ottomans, though more preoccupied in Europe, could allow themselves to commit resources to the struggles of Indian Ocean. As already mentioned, Mehmed III had turned Oman and Yemen into Ottoman vassal states, and Orhan III fought back an Iberian attempt to capture them. From the bases thusly gained, the Ottomans operated quite well. The battle for the Horn of Africa went quite well, for the Sultanate of Adal there was ruled by Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi, a fanatical, strong ruler of much military skill; it was opposed by Abyssinia, which at the time was weakened by feudal strife and, indeed, Adalan raids. Both Ottomans and Iberians sent specialists and indeed troops to assist their respective allies, but the Ottomans were simply in a better position than the Iberians, and also did their best to intercept or hinder Iberian reinforcements. Adalo-Ottoman armies routed the Abyssinians at Nazret with superior firepower, and proceeded to devastate the Abyssinian countryside, while systematically reducing Abyssinian defenses. It was a lenghty process due to the difficulty of operating bulky artillery in the Ethiopian Highlands and due to the Abyssinian scythic warfare, but in the end the Abyssinians were crushed even though the Iberians have in 1543 won the naval battle at Caluula (on the very tip of the Horn), allowing themselves to, in theory, easily supply their allies. It came too late. Islam has triumphed there, for now anyway, as the Sultanate of Adal entered its very own little golden age despite the occasional Christian peasant rising.
In the meantime, the Iberians have intensified their campagins against the Swahili city-states, aware of their ties to Oman and thus to Turkey. Already in 1509, the Iberians have captured the Arabic town of Mozambique. In 1532, a joint Swahili fleet was devastated at Zanzibar, and the island itself was captured, becoming an important base of Iberian operations in East Africa. From there they raided other cities, eventually capturing Kilwa, Dar-es-Salaam and Mombassa. Mogadishu, however, survived, coming under Ottoman protection and fighting back an Iberian attack.
As for India, it was hard to fight proxy wars there. The Iberians tried to encourage Rajput raids against Gujarat, but found the process to be rather hard, the Rajputs - more interested in their own feuds and the Gujaratis too strong militarily, especially with Ottoman help and the construction of new forts. So the Iberians had to go there themselves, seeking once more to secure Diu, which was one of the vital strategic ports in this war, alongside Muscat, Zanzibar, Goa and Hadiboh (on Soccotra). That latter port came under Iberian attack in 1549 and, to the surprise of the Iberians themselves, was captured (and burned down, as the Iberians had no illusions about holding on to Soccotra). Borrowing an idea from the Ottomans themselves, the Iberians pressed on towards Muscat, where a large Ottoman fleet was being based. Much like the Ottomans had, during Mehmed II's Italian Campaign, attacked Venice itself in a suicide raid that grabbed all the Venetian attention while the main Ottoman forces safely crossed the Strait of Otranto, the Iberians attacked the gathering fleet, and, though eventually overwhelmed, badly damaged it due to the element of surprise and generally better ship design. Thusly distracted, the Ottomans failed to react to the large-scale Iberian naval bombardment and assault of Diu, commanded by Augusto Magalhaes, a charismatic and ruthless leader, "the Ideal Conquistador" oft-exaggerated by chroniclers and future biographers (especially the Imperial ones for some weird reason), who went on to become one of the greatest Iberian Viceroys of Goa (which by then became the main Iberian base in India). Um, anyway, he took Diu, slaughtered all who resisted as by then became customary and fought back numerous land and naval counter-attacks, later - in 1554 - also leading an expedition that captured Soccotra once more, this time keeping it for good. The Ottoman reversal, however, was probably also influenced by their distraction and defeats in Europe itself.
And so in 1558, they were ready to commit more fully to the Indian Ocean, as the One True Faith struck back. The Iberian empire was at its zenith, and after the zenith, inevitably begins nadir. The good part about the nadir is, ofcourse, that after it usually a new ascendance begins. And so on, and so on, and so on...
das
Regeneration In Process
Phew. I'm almost afraid to think of how many posts it would have taken had I went into more detail and also extended this all the way to 1600...
North King
blech
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2004
- Messages
- 18,165
He's dead, remember?
das
Regeneration In Process
Precisely. Its abit dull lying around in the grave all the time waiting for some necromancer to pass by, so to kill time I'm writing unreadably long alternate histories.
Harleqin
Hippo Power
Well, what are you waiting for?
Hmm... I'll have a look for something more suitable. The Peninsula War will most likely stay much as it is.... but how to make it end in a stalemate..? I know the result I want, but getting there is more tricky.
Possibly start something around 1801... Possibly make Nelson obey Hyde Parker at the Battle of Copenhagen or have the Swedish fleet actually show up. That will weaken England somewhat, but it's doubtful that it'll be enough to alter the outcome of the war.
Perhaps do something earlier to avoid the conflict with Russia thus leaving France stronger... but that might turn into a French victory instead then.
Argh! This is frustrating.
Hmm... I'll have a look for something more suitable. The Peninsula War will most likely stay much as it is.... but how to make it end in a stalemate..? I know the result I want, but getting there is more tricky.
Possibly start something around 1801... Possibly make Nelson obey Hyde Parker at the Battle of Copenhagen or have the Swedish fleet actually show up. That will weaken England somewhat, but it's doubtful that it'll be enough to alter the outcome of the war.
Perhaps do something earlier to avoid the conflict with Russia thus leaving France stronger... but that might turn into a French victory instead then.
Argh! This is frustrating.
North King
blech
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2004
- Messages
- 18,165
Harleqin said:
Unless you put a single, competant marshall in control of that campaign instead of letting all the individuals running rampant. I'd suggest putting Suchet in charge; that would probably yield a French victory in that theater, and thus close the Spanish Ulcer.
Harleqin
Hippo Power
Hmm... perhaps... if the battle at Wagram ends with Austrian vicyory... but then I doubt I'll have that Grand Duchy of Warsaw that I want to spice up Europe a bit.
Ok, I'm open to suggestions. How do we get it to end in a draw? I think the invasion of Spain is a necessity to bleed Napoleon enough.
I'm back to the drawing board here.
Ok, I'm open to suggestions. How do we get it to end in a draw? I think the invasion of Spain is a necessity to bleed Napoleon enough.
I'm back to the drawing board here.
Thlayli
Le Pétit Prince
Wow. That was great.
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