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Post by MarshalBraginsky on Apr 21, 2018 5:41:12 GMT
So this is the TL that I had constantly tried to remake from "To Tame a Chaotic World" and turned into a map TL, but after deliberating, I have decided to post this. Welcome to "To Rebuild a Shattered World".
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Case Study #1: Iberia, France and England
Excerpts from “The Rise of the Aviz Dynasty” Cartagena Printing Press, 2014
It is said that major historical shakeups can start with a tiny act of impulse on a part of an obscure figure, which can have major consequences. Other observers may say that births and deaths also play a decisive role, but a few oddballs may say that it isn't one human figure that can move history to a different direction. In this instance, this kind of impulsive action on the part of the young Prince Afonso of Portugal will have far reaching effects beyond his control, shaping not only his beloved Portugal, but that of its neighbors, its potential allies and enemies, and wholesome peoples of other continents.
What was that impulsive action that changed the course of history, you may ask? It all started when the royal family, the ruling Aviz dynasty of Portugal, spent the day relaxing on the River Tagus. The reigning king, John II de Aviz, extended his invitation to his son, Afonso, to come and spend some quality time with him. At first the prince was reluctant, as he was scheduled to spar with a couple of knights in preparation for the inevitable war against the Muslims of the declining Emirate of Granada and their final push. However, the king was insistent on spending time with his son and even wanted to learn from him the plans he has for the final push in the long, brutal Reconquista.
Thus the prince reluctantly decided to join his father for relaxation in the River Tagus, although the horse he almost took for a ride was unpredictable. It had already injured one horse handler and one of the guards who went along with Prince Afonso was his namesake, one Afonso de Alberquerque, who went on to become one of the most important military figures in the Triune Monarchy's expedition against the Moroccan Sultanate. Afonso de Alberquerque was a good friend of the current king, and it was he who, upon the advice of John II de Aviz, agreed to take Prince Afonso as his apprentice on his education. The connection between the two Afonsos would also become useful in the political maneuvering that would later bring in the other two Iberian kingdoms of Castille and Aragon together to form a united Spain.
The trip to the Tagus was uneventful, thanks to Prince Afonso taking a different horse that behaved better than the horse which nearly killed the horse handler. The king and his son observed the ladies in waiting as the knights made an attempt to impress them, only to fail in the end. Though not yet of age, the Prince already showed promise of a future and stable succession should the king die of old age. At the same time however, the prince's fiance, the famous Princess Isabella of Asturias, also attracted attention by the Portuguese people for her well mannered behavior, though there were some controversies surrounding her and the Sephardic Jewish community.
Though intially hostile to the presence of the Jews in most of the Iberian Peninsula, both Afonso and Isabella were unaware of events across the western Mediterrenaean when a young, aspiring friar was making noises alongside such progressive leaders of Florence. Although it was only a couple years before the Savonarolan Heresy would plague not only the Roman Catholic Church, but even the schismatic Eastern Orthodox Church where a like minded individual would warn his people and the clergy he worked with on the dangers of unchecked privilege regarding church ownership of private property, the two future rulers of the Iberian Union were not naive on the dangers of the heresy that threatens the grip of power the current Pope has.
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Excerpts from “A Reformation Attempted: The Savonarolan Revolution” De Coligny Printing Press, 2015
Florence was fast becoming a city gripped with fresh new ideas on what to do with the Catholic Church. The sales of indulgences was not the only issue that irritated the more pious of the Catholic public, but Papal corruption and indecisiveness in the face of the Turkish threat had forced one revolutionary to preach the ideas of piety and charity. You see, Girolamo Savonarola to some, was a visionary who saw the injustices committed against the poor. To others, the name 'Savonarola' echoes such radical ideas too dangerous for the ultra-conservative Papacy to even entertain. For whatever reason, Savonarola has inspired his followers to commit to the actions that he has advocated, namely charity and piety for the poor.
Though some of Savonarola's supporters had connections to other heretical movements, very few of his followers would go on to spread the ideas that will later be enshrined in the “Savonarolan Creed” emerged in 1503, at the height of Savonarola's power and influence during his exile in France. The anti-Savonarolan coalition of several Italian states, the Iberian Kingdoms of Castile, Portugal and Aragon, even the Holy Roman Empire itself and later on, the Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania (later Poland-Lithuania) would band together to crush any Savonarolan revolt.
Fearing for the fate of his growing movement, Savonarola then traveled to the court of King Charles VIII along with two hundred of his followers. The Valois King grew more interested in what Savonarola was preaching, and combined with his growing ambition to become the arbiter of the Italian states, particularly with his intention to add the Kingdom of Naples to his domain, he hired Savonarola to become his advisor. Savonarola now had the perfect opportunity to make his ideas become a reality. It is also said that Savonarola himself had a huge influence on the development of the Gallican Church, which was in itself the model Savonarolan church that Savonarola craved for. What he could not achieve in Florence, he might as well try to do it in France.
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Excerpts from King Charles VIII's Letter to King Henry VII of England, December 30, 1490
“To His Excellency, King Henry VII of England:
I have constantly paid attention to the affairs of my neighbors and seeing as how my ambitions for the Italian States are not exactly what you would call a secret goal, I have decided to put it on hold for now. I have just come across this individual who has appeared in my court, and his words of piety and charity have struck a chord within me. He came from Florence, the stronghold of the Medici family, where some of his followers also lived. A hundred of them came to my kingdom along with him. Should you have a rare opportunity to listen to the words of Girolamo Savonarola, I'm sure you'll learn in time as to why the Catholic Church needs to start reforming or there shall be more heresies arising.
On the main topic at hand, I am in a quandry with regards to the bride I desire. At first I preferred Anne de Bretagne as a suitable bride, but after the debacle surrounding the Hapsburg match and the insufferable Maximillian's desire to acquire the Hungarian throne, I am not keen on having Hapsburg rulers as my neighbors. I am also not keen on being at peace with the Aviz rulers who have the potential to unite the three Iberian kingdoms, and how it may also affect your domain's relationship with Portugal. Could you, in your great wisdom, be able to help me with the search for a suitable bride from among the English royalty?
Sincerely, His Majesty, King Charles VIII of France”
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Excerpts from King Henry VII of England's Letter to King Charles VIII of France, February 18, 1491
“To His Excellency, King Charles VIII of France:
I have read your letter with such distress, and while I too would have preferred to see you sweat in fear of having Hapsburg rulers surround your pathetic domains, my finances prevent me from waging wars with you. As for your dilemma with your bride, while I may feel sorry for whoever ends up with such a prestigious princess, even I can't do much anything about it. However, this doesn't mean that I won't help you though. I too, am interested in seeing such animosity between our two kingdoms come to an end in the face of a potential hegemon led by the Hapsburgs and supported by the Roman pope.
As it stands, there is a suitable bride that may be of your interest: the sixth daughter of the late King Edward IV, Catherine of York, has not been matched to any man that I knew, although I thought of arranging her marriage to Sir William Courtenay, but I might have to find another bride for him, now that your lineage may be more valuable than that of a mere knight. As for Anne of Brittany, I suppose I could throw Brittany a bone with either the 17th Earl of Warwick or perhaps even the Duke of Ross would be interested.
However, if said bride doesn't express her interest in marrying you, then I suppose you might not have a choice in the matter. Either you marry the Princess of Brittany or you allow yourself to be surrounded by enemies on all sides. Even as I am writing this letter, I am unsure of what to do with the surviving Yorkists who continue to threaten my legitimacy on the throne of England. Not to mention that the trouble with the Scots in the northern border have always remained troublesome. In all aspects, maybe a Scottish noblewoman or even an Irish noblewoman might make a better match.
On the topic of this Savonarola fellow, while I am still bound by my oath to the Catholic Church, it would be interesting to see how your little experiment with his ideas could go. The Yorkists are far more loyal than my clan, but the common people have also possessed some sort of resentment not seen since the Peasants' Revolt. I wasn't taught the reasons why the common English peasant had chosen to revolt against his lord and liege, but I suspect that they have been incited somehow. Bring this Savonarola fellow to my court and I shall hear him out.
In Salutation,
His Majesty King Henry VII of England”
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Post by steve59 on Apr 21, 2018 11:01:26 GMT
Interesting. I find that a distinctly undiplomatic letter in reply from Henry VII. Was he like that in real life?
Taking it that using the wilder horse OTL Prince Afonso took a fatal fall or some similar occurrence? A stable Portugal with a more tolerant regime towards Jews and possibly other groups could have a dramatic impact, although its likely to have a fairly rocky relationship with the new unified Spain, which was notoriously less tolerance. Could be a hell of a lot of butterflies developing here.
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Post by MarshalBraginsky on Apr 21, 2018 17:25:24 GMT
Interesting. I find that a distinctly undiplomatic letter in reply from Henry VII. Was he like that in real life? Taking it that using the wilder horse OTL Prince Afonso took a fatal fall or some similar occurrence? A stable Portugal with a more tolerant regime towards Jews and possibly other groups could have a dramatic impact, although its likely to have a fairly rocky relationship with the new unified Spain, which was notoriously less tolerance. Could be a hell of a lot of butterflies developing here. Unsure, but given that England and France still have hostile tensions with each other, Henry VII's attempt at civility is really difficult to achieve. The PoD is that Afonso takes a different horse than the one that killed him IOTL. However, the union between Afonso and Isabella of Aragon might also open up the possibility of a union between Portugal, Castille AND Aragon. Also, keep an eye out on the possible developments in England as well.
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Post by MarshalBraginsky on Apr 23, 2018 3:06:10 GMT
Case Study #2: Hungary, Poland and Lithuania
Excerpts from “The Life of Matthias Corvinus” by: Mirko Frankopan Frankopan Family Press, published 2012
Chapter Thirteen: Succession Crisis
No one was sure whether or not Matthias Corvinus had established a clear succession upon his death, but his decision not to eat the rotten fig that could have killed him didn't make any difference to his growing problem of the gout he had. At the same time, he also had to find a good use for his illegitimate son, John, who had no legal claim on the Hungarian throne and was often mentioned by his father as a potential candidate for the restoration of the Croatian crown. His offer to the Holy Roman Empire of a withdrawal from Hungarian-occupied Austria in exchange for giving the crown to the Hapsburgs not only gave them an incentive to push their claim on the Hungarian crown, but also to allow Maximillian to boldly lay his claim.
The Jagiellons on the other hand, also staked their claims on the grounds of royal connections. Ladislaus the Posthumous's sister married Casimir IV of Poland, thus confirming their connections as well. However, John Albert was also proposed as another potential claimant, giving rise to a possible conflict within the Jagiellon clan. For the weakened King of Hungary, the competition for his crown soon became deadly, and the War of Hungarian Succession was erupted upon his death in March of 1492, of which proved to be far brutal and crippling to the Hungarian nation. The brutal conflict also gave the Ottoman Empire an opportunity to stage raids into southern Hungary, even menacing the Hungarian held cities of Beograd (now the capital of the restored Despotate of Serbia), Srem and Zemun.
Maximillian von Hapsburg struck the first blow by offering to marry the widowed Beatrice of Naples, in an attempt to win support from the Black Army that her late husband had built for Hungary's conquests and defenses. In the fall of 1492, the wedding between Beatrice and Maximillian became official, but by marrying Beatrice, he had unintentionally renounced his plans to marry Anne of Brittany (Beatrice being far more valuable as a wife of a future Holy Roman Emperor or Hapsburg prince, compared to the minor princess), who eventually married Charles VIII of France. John Corvinus, who feared the Hapsburgs far more than the Jagiellons, reluctantly agreed to drop his claim on the Hungarian throne in exchange for Maximillian's support of his claim on the Croatian crown.
The consequences of the War of Hungarian Succession went far beyond Hungary's borders, as the fight for the Hungarian crown lasted almost six years, by which the Ottomans had plenty to prepare for the possible defense of their conquered lands. Smederevo, Vidin, Veliko Tarnovo and even Burgas experienced the increase in the construction of Ottoman style fortresses, while the hinterlands of Bosnia continued to see Ottoman recruitment of young Bosnian boys and girls for service in the Sultanate. At the same time, the Ottomans also drew up plans for potential conquests of the Ragusan Republic and even plotted to wage a future war with the Venetian Republic. At the same time, Vladislaus Jagiellon's claims on the Hungarian crown received a fatal blow when he led a Polish Army to besiege Debrecen in March of 1493, only to be struck by an arrow while leading the charge against the Hungarian defenders of Debrecen's fortress.
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Excerpts from “Hapsburg Mitteleuropa: From the Baltic to the Adriatic” by: Johann Schwartz Krakow State University Printing Press, 2011
Chapter Seven: Hapsburg Plans for Poland-Lithuania
The unexpected death of Vladislaus Jagiellon in Debrecen had opened up an equally unexpected gift to the Hapsburg dynasty. With the death of the notoriously anti-Hapsburg Polish prince, Maximillian pressed further than simply claiming the Hungarian crown: he thought of having his son, Prince Philip the Fair, married off to one of the Jagiellon princesses (Barbara or Elizabeth), while at the same time making additional plans to ensure a smooth transition to a Hapsburg succession in the Polish-Lithuanian Empire. There was one problem with this plan though: Philip the Fair was engaged to the notorious Joanna the Heretic [1], but her chronic problem of her lack of faith in Christ came back to haunt her when the Inquisition punished the wayward princess. For unknown reasons, the punishment and torture went far beyond the limits of their authority and by accident the Inquisition had resulted in the accidental death of Joanna in 1496.
One of the reasons why the Hapsburg dynasty was vying for the Polish crown was the sudden growth of the Savonarolan heresy. Though it managed to spread into France and some parts of northern Italy, even England was not immune to the heresy, for several sectors of the English society became infiltrated with Savonarolists whose message of charity and piety rang true, in light of several minor peasant revolts over taxes. However, the brief warming of relations between England and France suddenly became cold once again, as Henry VII's newly formed alliance with the Iberian kingdoms of Portugal, Castile and Aragon had allowed its rulers to launch a minor expedition to Brittany, despite the English king's initial promise not to fight the French [2]. However, the absence of a conflict in the Italian states had prompted Charles VIII to not only invade Brittany in return, but to inflict a massive casualty upon an invading English force in the costly Siege of Cherbourg of January of 1493.
The ruthless actions that Charles VIII had undertaken did little to dampen the Hapsburg ambitions to unite most of Europe under their banner. Maximillian, with the support of the Black Army, drove most of the soldiers fighting for John Albert Jagiellon out of northern Hungary by the beginning of 1495. In fact, Maximillian was so confident of his victory that he personally took the Crown of St. Stephen from the guards who worked for the late Matthias Corvinus and had an elaborate ceremony where he was officially crowned King of Hungary. During his coronation, he also ceded the Croatian lands to John Corvinus, a decision that eventually turned out to be a fatal mistake, for John Corvinus proved to be not only inept, but unsuccessful in the face of a hostile Croatian nobility who preferred a legitimate prince instead of an illegitimate one.
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Excerpts from "King Charles VIII's Letter to Louis II de la Tremoille", July 16, 1492
"To My Capable General:
Now that Brittany has been secured, there is something else that we must attend to. The agreement we had with the English where we promised not to back any pretenders to the throne: we're no longer bound by it. As punishment for their tiny expedition against us, we need to start thinking about backing one of the rival claimants on the English throne. It is intolerable of us to even put up with the idiotic excuses that King Henry VII may put up. The fact that the Tudor dynasty has allied itself to our enemies to the south makes me uncomfortable, and even our Auld Alliance with Scotland might not be enough if England actually tries to make a peace treaty with the Scots. Therefore, it is necessary for us to not only pry off England from the influence of the Hapsburgs, and to a lesser extent, the Roman Papacy, but to actually convince this rival claimant whom I would not name for secrecy reasons, that an alliance based on mutual opposition to the Roman Papacy and Hapsburg hegemony will be in our best interests. This doesn't mean that we will turn England into our puppet. Rather, we will have the old Plantagenet dynasty become the dominant ruling dynasty once again, and not the newcomer Tudors.
Sincerely,
King Charles VIII"
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[1] The alternate name for Joanna the Mad ITTL. IOTL she had a reputation as a some sort of a religious skeptic, not eager to be faithful to her mother's religion.
[2] References the letters exchanged between Henry VII of England and Charles VIII of France.
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Post by steve59 on Apr 23, 2018 16:00:27 GMT
Well there's some interesting impacts there. The Hapsburg's not getting Spain and France not going for Naples, as well as the Savonarolists success in France and the bloody and destructive war in Hungary. Not to mention Henery VII, who generally seems to have appeared as a cautious character may have made a fatal error, for both him and his dynasty.
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Post by MarshalBraginsky on Apr 24, 2018 2:04:36 GMT
Well there's some interesting impacts there. The Hapsburg's not getting Spain and France not going for Naples, as well as the Savonarolists success in France and the bloody and destructive war in Hungary. Not to mention Henery VII, who generally seems to have appeared as a cautious character may have made a fatal error, for both him and his dynasty. The absence of the Italian Wars was a huge game changer, but it also posed a potential threat to Savonarola, as we shall see in the next update. We will also see the ramifications of Savonarola's exile to France as well, but before we go back to the French, we will also have a possible update on how the Ottomans are faring.
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Post by MarshalBraginsky on Apr 27, 2018 4:17:47 GMT
Case Study #3: Ottoman Empire
Within the Islamic world, there were currently two great powers that are fighting for total dominance of the Middle East. While the Mamluk Sultanate still reigned, their decline was noticeable to only a few reliable outside sources. In contrast, the Ottoman Empire has continued to grow stronger, prompting fears of a possible Turkish invasion of southern Europe. Moreover, its reigning sultan, Bayezid II, had faced internal turmoil as a result of intrigues surrounding his brother Cem, who languished in a Neapolitan prison. However, Bayezid II's fortunes changed unexpectedly when its nemesis, the Kingdom of Hungary, had fallen into civil war by 1492, owing to the slower but more agonizing death of Matthias Corvinus. The Ottoman Pashas watched the civil war in Hungary with interest, hoping to see how Hungary will weaken herself long enough to be conquered by the might of the Ottoman Army.
Unfortunately, while the Sultan was pleased that Hungary was tearing herself apart, he was unhappy when he learned of Maximillian's ascension into the Hungarian throne. Because of his support from the Black Army and the upper classes of Hungarian society, the Ottomans now had to contemplate on whether or not they can build another kind of army besides the Janissaries: one that consisted entirely of loyal ethnic Turks, Ottoman Arabs, and Kurds. Fortunately for Bayezid II, Maximillian had entrusted the safety of the Croatian borderlands to an inept, illegitimate bastard in John Corvinus. As it turns out, the self-styled King of Croatia and Prince of Bosnia (John was also encouraged by Maximillian to seek out the Bosnian crown in order to bolster his own legitimacy) was not only indecisive, but he faced a sea of hostile Croatian nobles who aren't interested in being ruled by a bastard. It was his unlucky situation that Bayezid would exploit to his full ability. Thus he authorized a series of raids on the borderlands between Ottoman Bosnia and Slavonia by the beginning of October of 1493 in hopes of provoking the illegitimate King of Croatia into waging war against him, which he predictably did with the declaration of war made on the Ottomans by October 10.
The Ottomans launched the first attack by November 3, against the advises of the Pashas who cautioned Bayezid II on campaigning while winter was approaching, to which the Sultan has said: “seasons come and go, but an opportunity to take advantage of an inept enemy comes once in a blue moon”. Though he didn't join the campaign personally, he appointed Sehzade Ahmet to lead the Croatian campaign, while he sent his youngest son, Sehzade Selim, to guard the Ottoman frontier with the Mamluk Sultanate. Sehzade Ahmet's decision to obey his father's wishes didn't come with complaints: one of his complaints was that he needed light cavalry units that can attack the Croatians whenever they wanted it. Currently, there were the akinci light raiders who lived off the booty they captured from civilians, but most of these raiders were sent to Sehzade Selim. Nevertheless, the Ottoman sipahi heavy cavalry and a few Crimean Tatar cavalry squads were enough for Sehzade Ahmet to throw at the Croatians.
--- Excerpts from “Croatia Under the Ottomans: The Yoke of the Turks” by: Bruno Olujic Dubrovnik Petrovci Printing Press, 2014
Chapter Five: The Spearhead Pierces Srem
The unfortunate tragedy that befell the late Ivanis Korvin after he ascended to the throne of Croatia was something that future historians had warned the general public on the dangers of choosing an illegitimate child as king of a minor nation. From the moment he took the Croatian crown, most of the Croatian nobility outright refused to recognized his authority. Therefore, the shaky years when Croatia tasted its independence from the Kingdom of Hungary was brutally cut short with the Ottoman invasion of the unrecognized Kingdom of Croatia (though most of Christian Europe recognized it as an autonomous region of Hungary that is set to become independent) in 1493. Vinkovci was among the first cities in eastern Croatia to be targeted by Turkish cannons, while its main force was led by Prince Ahmet, accompanying the cannons. Another Ottoman army struck at western Croatia, this time at the Lika region, led by Hadim Yakup Pasha and 8,000 of his light cavalry irregulars, or akinci. The timing was bad for raids on the Ottomans' part, but to their surprise, they found the country in a middle of a turmoil as the House of Frankopan and Emerik Derencin formed a truce in opposition to Ivanis Korvin.
Unbeknownst to the Croatians, the attack on the Lika region served as a diversion intended to draw the main Croatian force from Zagreb, making it vulnerable to an Ottoman conquest. However, it also served as another diversion for Prince Ahmet, who would then take advantage of the diversion to capture his true target: Vukovar.
Surprisingly, the Ottomans failed each time to breach the defenses of Vinkovci, and as the winter season had set in, the Ottoman forces' morale plummeted. Yet Prince Ahmet was determined to capture Vinkovci before moving towards Vukovar. Thus he sent another trusted commander, Gazi Husrev Beg to capture the nearby town and stronghold of Djakovo in order to cut off the supply route between Zagreb and Vukovar. As the weeks went, on, even the Crown Prince of the Ottoman Empire contemplated on retreating from Vinkovci until reinforcements will arrive, but a letter from Bayezid II had explicitly forbade him from doing so, promising him additional cavalry and Janissaries should he hold the line. To bolster the morale of the Ottoman forces, the sultan would appoint Prince Korkut to lead the relief force intended to reinforce Prince Ahmet's position. On the Croatian side, a spirited defense of Knin led by Franjo Berislavic had successfully dented the Ottoman offensive, but Gazi Husrev Beg responded by attacking the only remaining territory of Bosnia that hasn't fallen to the Turks yet.
By the time spring had arrived, Prince Korkut and his forces had finally joined up with Prince Ahmet and was instrumental in the capture of Vinkovci on April 14, 1494. The fall of Djakovo was best described by fear and terror as the Ottoman forces proceeded to capture any children that were unfortunate enough to be left behind by their parents who fled northwards into the rest of Hungary. Any unfortunate adults who fell under Ottoman captivity were then sold into slavery, and in many cases, the maidens of Djakovo were sent to Topkapi as potential slave girls of the Sultan. With Djakovo under Ottoman control, Prince Ahmet and Prince Korkut launched a two pronged attack on Vinkovci, intending to complete the siege once and for all. The news of Djakovo's fall to the Ottomans sapped morale from the Croatian defenders of the city, who decided to retreat to Vukovar where they made their last stand.
Vukovar's fall to the Turks took a lot longer than Vinkovci's fall mainly because of the secure supply lines the Croatians had enjoyed while being reinforced by Hungarian soldiers seeking to prevent Ottoman troops from descending into Belgrade. This time, both Ottoman princes decided to launch a two pronged attack on the stronghold in order to reduce it, allowing them to capture it. However, the Hungarians chose not to take any chances with the Ottomans and Maximillian immediately sent an additional 9,000 troops commanded by Gyorgy Dozsa to relieve the Croatian defenders at Vukovar. Yet Ottoman cannons continued to pound at the walls around the city while Gazi Husrev Beg moved from occupied Djakovo towards Osijek, using his akinci raiders to destroy any food supplies that the Croatians haven't secured yet. By the time Gazi Husrev Beg's army reached Vukovar, Prince Ahmet tasked him with intercepting any enemy reinforcements that might strengthen the defenders' resolve.
The Hungarian reinforcements reached Osijek, only to find it besieged by the Ottomans as Gyorgy Dozsa's troops met the enemy with an equal determination to stop the Ottoman forces from overruning the city. Not only did he fail to stem the Turkish tide, but three quarters of the Hungarian reinforcements perished in the Hungarian defeat at Osijek. Military theorists often debated at how the Hungarians had failed spectacularly at what was supposed to be a minor or even major victory for them. Those who proposed that Hungary had a chance to win at Osijek pointed out that Gazi Husrev Beg's army was running low on food and ammunition while the reinforcements sent by Maximillian had plenty of those things. However, there were the defeatists who pointed out that as Hungary was rebuilding after a brutal succession war was in no shape to come to the aid of its Croatian subjects and needed to rebuild its army. Furthermore, the growing tensions between the Hungarian nobility and peasantry widened as their share of taxes grew much larger in order to finance and maintain the fighting quality of the Black Army, which Maximillian chose to keep, in part because they were the ones who gave him the support needed to secure the Hungarian crown. One particularly disturbing rumor arose that Dozsa entertained the idea of surrendering and defecting to the Ottoman side in exchange for clemency and a future opportunity to rise within the ranks of the Ottoman hierarchy through conversion to Islam. Whatever rumors were countered, there was a common denominator in most of these arguments that popped up: Dozsa's army consisted of peasant conscripts who were badly trained and hastily equipped while the best weapons and armor went to the knights who served the nobility and the Black Army as well.
By July 15, Vukovar's fall seemed imminent: the city was reduced to ruins and the defenders were running low on ammunition, even as they stood their ground. A breach in the walls of the ruined city gave the Ottomans an opportunity it was waiting for: a major push into the city's interior with the cavalry attacking the demoralized defenders while the Janissaries took out any incoming enemy reinforcements. The inhabitants of Vukovar grew fearful for their lives as the Ottoman princes paraded into the streets of their city and the Croatian soldiers who chose to surrender had dropped their weapons. The fall of Vukovar, Vinkovci and Djakovo had given the Ottomans s valuable position in which they can launch their next target: Belgrade.
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VUKOVAR, KINGDOM OF CROATIA JULY 16, 1494
The smoke emitting from the burning buildings of the fallen city had intoxicated Sehzade Ahmet greatly, though he had to admit that the Croatian defenders of this strategically important city had put up a much more spirited resistance than he expected. With Sehzade Korkut and Gazi Husrev Bey's help, he had fulfilled the Padishah's order of capturing the three cities that can serve as a spearhead for the next campaign against the Hungarians: the capture of Belgrade. The conquest of the city straddling the Danube and Sava Rivers had eluded even the mighty Sultan Mehmet II, and the Hungarians had invested a lot in its fortifications. Now he had an opportunity to plan for the conquest of Belgrade, and it was all going to be his campaign that will allow his father, Sultan Bayezid II, to allow a smooth transition to power when he dies. Unfortunately, there was Sehzade Selim who still posed a direct challenge: he had an army stationed in the Levant.
One of the pashas who accompanied the Crown Prince winced at the sight of the rotting corpses and threw up on the ground, much to the amusement of the Janissaries and the other pashas who chuckled at the weak hearted nature of their sickened colleague.
“Pasha, even a Gazi cannot steel his resolve at the sight of millions of corpses,” said Ahmet to the second pasha to laughed at the pasha who vomited. “I for one, felt a bit queasy when I had my first campaign.”
“Sehzadem, I only laugh because Yusuf Pasha hasn't gotten used to the stench of death,” the pasha replied back. He pointed at the starving citizens of Vukovar. “If anything, we need to feel pity to the inhabitants that came under our control.”
Sehzade Ahmet nodded. “While I may excuse your conduct, Zehir Pasha, any other prince would have simply taken their anger out on you for even less. Never forget my hotheaded brother who will make a pasha quiver in fear.”
“Sehzadem!” Ahmet turned around to see Gazi Husrev Bey and three Janissaries approaching him. “We have a guest.” Sehzade Ahmet spotted a captured Hungarian soldier whose hands were bound. “This infidel here wanted to say something.”
“Sire, I'm just an envoy from Sir Gyorgy Dozsa's army, but my lord has grown rather angry and disillusioned,” the Hungarian captive explained. The Ottomans' curiosity peaked as they gathered around to listen to the captive. “I'm also a lowly peasant who joined simply because we had no food for our families. Hungary is going to explode with the anger of the peasants who are overtaxed and overworked.”
Gazi Husrev Bey smirked at the captive. “A peasant who joined his lord's army just to eat? What a coward!”
“Husrev Bey!” Ahmet snapped. “Silence your tongue! The cowardly captive, as you called him, has a good reason to fear for his life. A Christian soldier has a different military tradition to the Muslim Gazis who fought for Allah's cause. Do you not forget that the infidels who control the Holy Roman Empire now controls the Hungarian lands? How will we triumph if we have pashas and sanjak beys who cannot think with their brains and uses emotions instead!?”
The shocked bey bowed his head in shame. “I apologize, Sehzadem.”
“You may continue.” Ahmet gestured to the captive.
“I don't know when it will occur, but a peasant revolt in my homeland would surely provoke a war between your empire and that of Maximillian's. I'm frustrated that the food that we've grown are now being confiscated-” Ahmet raised his hand to silence the captive.
“Your complaints are heard. I will relay your concerns to my father, the Padishah himself. His Majesty Sultan Bayezid Khan about it.” The Ottomans gestured for the Hungarian captive to leave.
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Post by steve59 on Apr 27, 2018 10:31:55 GMT
That sounds rather ominous for Christian control of Hungary. Could fall even earlier and more completely than OTL.
Also sounds like Maximilian made a real hash of picking John Corvinus as his ruler of Croatia due to the local reaction. Given the fight they put up when divided it could have been a bloody defeat if united under a ruler they respected.
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Post by MarshalBraginsky on Apr 27, 2018 14:49:12 GMT
That sounds rather ominous for Christian control of Hungary. Could fall even earlier and more completely than OTL. Also sounds like Maximilian made a real hash of picking John Corvinus as his ruler of Croatia due to the local reaction. Given the fight they put up when divided it could have been a bloody defeat if united under a ruler they respected. IOTL John Corvinus was persuaded to give up his claims on the Hungarian crown in exchange for being allowed to take the Croatian crown. It very well could have been a major defeat for the Ottomans if someone else was picked as King of Croatia or if Maximillian had decided to keep the Croatian lands to the Hungarian state. That being said, with Srem under Ottoman control, we may even see an earlier fall of Belgrade in a couple of months to a couple of years, and this is still under the reign of Bayezid II. At the same time though, the conquest of Srem happened at a time when Cem Sultan was in his last days and will probably die on schedule. On the other hand, we might also see an earlier version of the Battle of Mohacs as well, but it may have a totally different outcome due to the existence of the Black Army. With Srem/Syrmia under Ottoman control, not only would Belgrade be certainly targeted, but most of Croatia-Slavonia would possibly fall to the Ottomans. That would make the alt-Siege of Vienna radically different too, as the Ottomans now have a base within striking range of the Austrian capital. If Maximillian also dies earlier, we may also have Philip the Handsome become Holy Roman Emperor too, though the earlier update alludes to him possibly taking the Polish crown should the Jagiellons die out.
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Post by MarshalBraginsky on Apr 30, 2018 14:35:52 GMT
Case Study #4: Eastern Europe
When Maximillian had won the Hungarian crown through the War of Hungarian Succession in 1492-1494, he had no idea that the struggle between the Hapsburgs and the Jagiellon dynasty of Poland-Lithuania had turned from a mere dynastic rivalry into a fully fledged feud of geopolitical proportions. Although he was still heir to the throne of the Holy Roman Empire, the possession of the Hungarian Kingdom now meant that should he ascend into the throne as Frederick III's successor, he would have expanded the borders of the Holy Roman Empire right up to the Danube, and consequently, the Holy Roman Empire will now have a common border with the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans. To ensure the stability of his new Hungarian domain, he engineered a series of diplomatic treaties with the Kalmar Union (of which Denmark was the dominant power), the Grand Duchy of Muscovy (Maximillian and Ivan III had a common enemy in the Polish-Lithuanian dual state) and the three Iberian Kingdoms of Castile, Aragon and Portugal.
Unfortunately, his expansion came at the cost of the loss of Croatia to the inept John Corvinus, who was engaged in a war with the Ottomans in an attempt to boost his legitimacy and reputation, but all it did was worsen his reputation and made a potential coup against him even bigger. To make matters worse, the Ottoman conquest of Syrmia (Srem) had allowed Sultan Bayezid II to position his armies for the inevitable Siege of Belgrade, which didn't kick off until 1499 when he gave the task of subduing the rest of Croatia to Sehzade Ahmet. In addition, he appointed Sehzade Korkut as commander of the Ottoman forces currently stationed in Vukovar to besiege Belgrade, but preparations were long and tenuous. New cannon foundries were being built (Bayezid II was advised by Grand Vizier Koca Davud Pasha to build new arms factories within Rumelia to ease up on logistics) while Ottoman sipahis were encouraged to build new horse ranches in Anatolia and southern Macedonia to supply the Ottoman Army with horses for the cavalry.
From Vukovar, Sehzade Korkut and Gazi Husrev Beg moved westward, taking various Croatian towns and villages, along with an additional 10,000 captives to be sent to Constantinople. Their fortunes were bolstered by small scale mutinies among the Croatian soldiers (certainly egged on by minor nobles who refused to obey orders from an 'illegitimate' king) but defections to the Ottomans were certainly not reported. In fact, individual soldiers had defected to the Ottomans, not out of anger and outrage, but by sheer opportunism.
--- “Pashalarim, we have approached the bastions of the infidels who continue to oppose us. The Golden Apple is within striking range, but we cannot sustain a war with them as long as we don't have the logistics to do so. Unfortunately, Allah does not give us the luxury of preparing for a long war, for we have enemies on all sides. Thus we must muster the strength to subjugate the Croatian lands before we move to strike the Hungarians, the Austrians and even the Poles. Let us not forget that we have an additional task of bringing order to Mesopotamia, the Levant, Kurdistan, Trabzon, the Caucasus, the Arabian Peninsula and even the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. An order that can only be accomplished under our power.” Sultan Bayezid II, addressing the Divan in Istanbul, August of 1494.
--- Excerpts from “The Hapsburgs's Unholy Alliance” by: Valdemar Svensson University of Stockholm Printing Press, 2013
Chapter Five: Hapsburg-Muscovite Diplomatic Overture
In the midst of the dynastic struggle between the Hapsburgs and the Jagiellons, Maximillian realized that even with the Lithuanian resources at Polish disposal, he could not triumph over his enemies alone. Thus he began to make diplomatic overtures to Poland's neighbors, namely the Teutonic Knights, the Kalmar Union, and most controversially, the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Why it was considered controversial for the next heir to the throne of the Holy Roman Empire to make overtures to the people the Vatican considered as heretics and schismatics was because of their fanatical anti-Catholic bigotry. At the same time, the Muscovites were also locked in a struggle with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania over the rest of the East Slavic lands that comprised of the former Kievan Rus' (or Kyivan Rus' in Ruthenian and Belarusian) that are under Lithuanian control. Lithuanian influence had allowed the Ruthenian lands to experience a degree of Western influence while the Muscovites had remained influenced by Oriental thinking, as well as the Byzantine legacy that lingered, thanks to Sophia Palaiologina's marriage to Ivan III.
Although Maximillian had also expressed disappointment in the Muscovite path to Orthodox Christianity, he viewed them as potential allies against Polish hegemony over Eastern Europe and sought to cultivate his new diplomatic standing with the Muscovite domain. He was not alone in that matter: the Kalmar Union too, had also sought to make a diplomatic overture to Muscovy and under King John of Denmark, he had beaten Maximillian to the punch by being the first European monarch to establish a formal diplomatic relationship with Muscovy. Undeterred, Maximillian would also go on to form a diplomatic relationship with the Kalmar Union, a decision that led to Poland-Lithuania's decision to support the independence of the Swedish lands and possibly integrate Sweden into the Polish sphere of influence in the future.
The top envoys of the Holy Roman Empire, the Kalmar Union and Muscovy met for the first time in July of 1494 in the Hungarian capital of Budapest. Though the interactions between the three envoys were friendly, the monarchs in question were nervous at what was to become the Concert of Budapest. Unbeknownst to the three monarchs who sent their envoys to Budapest, two rival Catholic factions had began to work on a project of rapprochement of the two Christian churches. The Papists sought to subjugate the schismatic Orthodox into Papal authority, while the Savonarolists sought to build a truly reunited Christian church that will combine the best aspects of Roman Catholicism, Greek Orthodoxy and in the future, Armenian Apostolicism. It was said that the Savonarolists had gained a much bigger influence among the French Catholics due to Savonarola's residence in France while their counterparts in Eastern Europe weren't in a position to influence the reformation movement.
In the Concert of Budapest, Maximillian agreed to recognize the sovereignty of Muscovy while Ivan III through his envoy, acknowledged the sovereignty of the Holy Roman Empire. Though the religions issues were consigned to an afterthought, they came to an agreement on certain key issues:
- Practical military aid to Muscovy in exchange for Muscovite guarantees of religious freedom. - Muscovite participation in a future war against Poland-Lithuania alongside the Holy Roman Empire. - Muscovite participation in a future war against Sweden alongside Denmark. - Establishments of education centers on Muscovite territory under Danish supervision, of which the adoption of the Magdeburg laws would become a top priority. - Danish and Imperial participation in a future war against the Ottoman Empire alongside Muscovy.
Although those key issues were hotly discussed among the Muscovite envoys, there was not yet a formal treaty that would have made all the parties involved in fulfilling these obligations. For instance, Ivan III's envoys were not comfortable with Catholic missionaries walking around Orthodox territory and Imperial envoys did not like the idea of an alliance with a schismatic nation like Muscovy. Ultimately, the three nations involved in the Concert of Budapest came to a realization that Poland-Lithuania remained a dangerous threat to their ambitions. For Maximillian himself, the growing relations with Muscovy was being reinforced upon an earlier attempt at a Hapsburg-Muscovite diplomatic rapprochement. It was for this reason that Ivan III instructed his envoys to make a declaration that under no circumstances should any of his sons or daughters be allowed to marry any Jagiellon offspring, even if it was meant to hold any peace between Lithuania and Muscovy.
--- Excerpts from “From Kievan Rus' to the Russian Imperial Federation: A Detailed History” by: Sergei Simeonov Chorny Medved Printing Press, published 2015
Chapter Eight: A Smooth Transition
The 1490s marked a turbulent time within the Grand Duchy of Moscow, as the current Grand Duke, Ivan III, had continued to gather up the Russian lands. Tragedy also struck the Rurikid dynasty, as the youngest son, Andrey Ivanovich, had died from an infected eardrum. The first attempts at building a workable relationship between Muscovy and the states of Central and Western Europe was best described as a 'cautious step fraught with potential mistakes', as demonstrated by the Concert of Budapest of 1494. Although there was no agreement made, the Concert of Budapest was the first step in coaxing Muscovy towards European civilization, but it proved to be short lived. The antagonism between Catholicism and Orthodoxy made the diplomatic overtures difficult, and Ivan III's own anti-Catholic fanaticism (encouraged by his wife, Sophia Palaiologina, who was herself a devout Orthodox Christian) had all but killed the possibility of a united front against the Ottoman menace in the Balkans.
However, the friendliness emitted during the Concert of Budapest would be short lived. In 1495, Maximillian decided to abandon his earlier diplomatic overtures to Muscovy, though the Kalmar Union would continue their alliance with the Muscovites. Moreover, Ivan III now felt unsure of where his domain needed to be, as the border wars between Muscovy and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania resulted in a few minor territorial gains for the former. As he didn't want to completely push Lithuania back into Poland's arms, he decided to show a bit of restraint on dealing with the Lithuanian state, and in extension, Poland. Playing on the Jagiellon dynasty's fear of the loss of influence on the European stage, Ivan III had to cede back the lands that he previously took during the border wars in exchange for one lucrative deal: a marriage match between Vasily III and any remaining Jagiellon princesses who weren't taken yet, thus breaching the obligations made at the Concert of Budapest (though the key issues became dead by now). Additionally, the Poles were not amused at the idea of their own princesses marrying an Orthodox prince, but John I Albert realized the advantages he can take from driving a wedge between the Hapsburgs and the Muscovites. Thus he reluctantly agreed to give his younger sister Elizabeth's hand in marriage to Prince Vasily III instead of marrying his daughter Helena off to his surviving brother, Alexander Jagiellon. Moreover, an agreement was made where Princess Elizabeth would be allowed to keep her faith, but her children would be required to be baptized into the Orthodox Christian Church, effectively preventing her from becoming Grand Duchess of Muscovy, but instead be declared the Duchess Consort.
The wedding took place in the Saint Sophia Cathedral Church in Minsk, amidst a crowd of Belorussian onlookers who were curious at the presence of a Polish princess holding the hand of a Muscovite prince. From the beginning, Vasily III and Elizabeth Jagiellon's marriage went off on a smooth start, and just as his mother Sophia had influenced his father's political mindset (ie: the adoption of Byzantine traditions to the Muscovite court), Elizabeth would go on to influence Vasily III by introducing him to the various innovations and ideas that are currently popular in Poland, Lithuania and Central Europe. It was under her guidance and influence that Vasily III would champion and adopt certain reforms inspired by the Magdeburg Laws on urban development and the re-codification of Muscovite law on the Byzantine and Polish model. In essence, Vasily III wouldn't remake Muscovy into a cheap imitation of Poland-Lithuania, but to adopt the best practices of Poland, the Holy Roman Empire and later on, to everyone's shock, the Ottoman Empire.
Muscovite society was still considered backwards by most of Europe, as the first steps towards serfdom was being taken, even as Western Europe is slowly moving out of feudalism. Hence the adoption of certain aspects of the Magdeburg Laws was deemed to be necessary in the development of various Muscovite and later Russian urban towns and cities, for it also determined the economic activity there, contributing to the growing trade links between the later Tsardom of Russia, Eastern Europe and the gunpowder empires of the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. It was left to both the Jagiellons of Poland and Lithuania and reluctantly, the Kalmar Union, to help guide the Muscovite state through the murky waters of Western influence. However, within Lithuania itself there were various nobles who were divided into three camps: the mainly Polonized pro-Catholic faction that seeks to reinstate the union between Poland and Lithuania, the fiercely pro-independent sovereignty faction that seeks to upgrade Lithuania's status into an actual Kingdom, and the Orthodox Christian pro-Moscow faction that wanted to break away from Lithuania and join the growing Muscovite domain. While the pro-Muscovy faction remained strong in the borderlands of Muscovy and the Belorussian lands, the pro-Catholic faction held their ground in western Belorussia and the borderlands between Poland and the Ruthenian lands. It was this fierce divide that Vasily III had to navigate through with the help of his wife, who functioned more as his unofficial advisor. The political division of the Lithuanian nobility was further exasperated by Alexander Jagiellon's rewarding of important posts to his fellow ethnic Lithuanians, neglecting the aspirations of his Belorussian and Ruthenian subjects. Finally, the newly emerging separatist domains had its own ideas on where they belong, as it was the case with the Ruthenian lands of Zaporozhye, Chernigov, Kiev and Pereyaslavl, which chose to become independent from both Lithuania and Muscovy.
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Post by MarshalBraginsky on May 5, 2018 20:13:55 GMT
Case Study #5: Iberia and North Africa
The long awaited campaign made by the Kingdoms of Aragon and Castille against the Emirate of Granada was further bolstered by the entry of the Kingdom of Portugal into this war. From 1490 until the beginning of 1492 the Portuguese provided additional manpower and resources to the Castilian and Aragonese war effort. Unfortunately, a jousting accident had occurred in June 18, 1492 when Isabella of Aragon's younger brother Prince John of Asturias was knocked off his horse. A lance had collided with his shield, throwing him off his horse and snapping his neck. His questionable health became a huge factor as he was unable to regain consciousness, contributing to his death. With his death, it became clear that the crowns of Castile and Aragon would pass on to the House of Aviz. This meant that Ferdinand II of Aragon would have to recognize Prince Afonso as his new heir. Some of the Castilian and Aragonese nobles balked at the idea of their domains being passed into the hands of the Portuguese domain, but a few number of nobles had realized the geopolitical implications of uniting the crowns of Castile, Aragon and Portugal: it would create a truly unified kingdom on the Iberian Peninsula. It was not until 1516 when Ferdinand II of Aragon had died that the parliaments of the three Iberian kingdoms would pass the famous “Seville Decree”, in which the formation of the United Kingdom of Gran Hispania was declared, or informally speaking, the three Iberian kingdoms became the unified Spanish kingdom.
Portugal's involvement in the offensive against the Emirate of Granada had provoked a panic in the nearby Kingdom of Morocco. The Portuguese possession of the Graciosa fortress had not only allowed them to expand their mercantile trade, but it was also used as a naval base from which they can menace the Moroccan state. With Portugal now becoming more integrated with Castile and Aragon, the Portuguese gave permission for Castilian and Aragonese warships to use the Portuguese occupied port of Asilah to resupply their warships for further raids into North Africa. As a result, the three combined navies were able to initiate a naval blockade on Moroccan ports, preventing them from sending supplies to the besieged Granadan defenders who were worn down by decades of warfare with their Christian foes. It was from Asilah that the Granadan War had turned into a wider conflict, with Morocco being dragged into the Granadan conflict. Although the Moroccans wanted to aid their Granada allies, they also saw greater profit in selling their agricultural products to the Christian powers and didn't want to destroy their source of income. However, Morocco's inaction would eventually arise a desire for greater conflict with the three Iberian kingdoms from an unexpected source: the Kingdom of Tlemcen.
The Kingdom of Tlemcen was no stranger to foreign occupation: it normally functioned as a vassal of the Moroccans, the Ifiriqiya state and the Aragonese. However, the Sultanate of Tunis also competed with Tlemcen for control of the southern Mediterranean region, and was the richer of the two North African kingdoms. Yet the most powerful state in North Africa definitely went to the Mamluk Sultanate. The Mamluks were different from their neighbors in that most of their soldiers were of Circassian origin who converted to Islam. Yet their possession of two of Islam's holy cities, Mecca and Medina, made them an important player in the Islamic world, something that made the Ottomans uneasy, for they are also aiming to add the legitimacy of the Islamic world to their cultural collection. Thus the Sultanate of Tunis under the Hafsid dynasty took advantage of Tlemcen's weakening position by offering its support to the besieged Granadans against the Christian powers of the Iberian peninsula.
Starting in August of 1492, the three Iberian fleets bombarded the coastal cities of Almeria and Marbella. Once the naval bombardments commenced, their land counterparts began marching towards Purchena. Portuguese troops led by Prince Afonso landed in Motril by August 18 and proceeded to occupy the rest of southern Granada while Castilian and Aragonese ground forces led by King Ferdinand II moved towards Iznajar and Moclin. Once those cities fell under the joint Castilian-Aragonese control, the King proceeded to make his final push towards Granada while waiting for his son-in-law to meet up with him. In August 25, Prince Afonso's troops took the city of Orgiva after a week long siege in which Portuguese troops had conducted themselves in such a brutal manner that the surviving refugees of the fallen city moved in droves towards Berja, complicating the movements of the Granadan army. News of the Portuguese capture of Orgiva also caused panic within the inhabitants of the city of Granada itself as some of the survivors of the carnage of Orgiva joined the defenders in resisting the Christian advance. Such a surge in the number of defenders would play a pivotal role in the costly conquest of Granada, leading to a much bigger retaliation from traumatized soldiers who took their anger out on civilians who surrendered.
Although Boabdil, the ruler of the Granadan state, was prepared to surrender to the triumphant Christian forces, news of their conduct in Orgiva, along with Orgiva's surviving refugees who were furious at their leader's defeatist attitude, forced him to reconsider his position and prepared Granada for a long siege. Thus to the surprise and shock of King Ferdinand's forces, the city of Granada became an armed camp, with the Orgiva survivors among the men who took up arms and stood at the city walls. Luckily, the combined Castilian-Aragonese forces brought enough cannons to knock down the city walls, but King Ferdinand was confident enough that the approaching Portuguese army under Prince Afonso's leadership will arrive to relieve him of the enormous burden of capturing the walled city. To encourage the defenders of Granada's walls, Boabadil personally took command of the armies inside, while sending emisarries to Tlemcen and Tunis for help. His charisma and courage earned the respect of Granada's defenders to the point where he promised them that should they face defeat, they will face it together and perish together. That promise was tragically kept, for three weeks after the Siege of Granada had begun, Prince Afonso's troops managed to reach its outskirts by October of 1492 (the Siege of Granada began in the beginning of September) and attacked from the south. News of Prince Afonso's arrival had also raised the morale of the Castilian-Aragonese forces who grabbed enough courage to launch an assault on the city walls. Another week of furious bombardment had finally reduced Granada's walls to rubble, while Prince Afonso's artillery units also struck at the weak points in the southern wall. Both King Ferdinand's army and that of Prince Afonso surged into the city, though many of their troops were killed in the process as revenge for the atrocities committed in Orgiva. Seeing most of their comrades killed, the battle hardened troops of the two commanders spared no chances when encountering surrendering enemy soldiers, who were promptly killed. When Boabadil himself led the final charge towards the advancing Castilian-Aragonese forces, it was Prince Afonso who faced him in close quarters combat. After just an hour of fighting up close, Boabadil chose to commit suicide rather than allow himself to be paraded as a prisoner of war.
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The Sultanate of Tunis and the Kingdom of Tlemcen received news of Boabdil's death in Granada with great mourning when additional news of Granada's fall to the Christian armies also reached the two kingdoms. Fear ran through the minds of the public, who were more concerned with the three Iberian kingdoms' next potential target: their own homelands. For Morocco, the Portuguese occupation of its lands was further pronounced by the construction of its forts, and with Castile and Aragon allowed to use Portuguese ports, it was only a matter of time before Morocco was the next target of the Reconquista. Although Tlemcen and Tunis would also try to find Christian allies that have a grudge against the three Iberian kingdoms (and later on, the unified Spanish kingdom), the anti-Muslim animosity of the European states had forced them into the arms of the Mamluk Sultanate, though the Ottomans will also try to court them as well.
The weaknesses of the two North African kingdoms lay in the declining trade with the Italian states that relied on North African trade due to Aragon's increasing control over the Kingdom of Naples and the Kingdom of Sicily. Moreover, even with the cross-Sahara trade strengthening the economic ties between Tlemcen and Tunis, piracy also presented another problem. It was for this reason that the Ottomans under Bayezid II and his successors had made plans to bring most of North Africa under their control, not through conquest, but through vassalage. By the time the three Iberian kingdoms' respective parliaments had voted in favor of proclaiming the United Kingdom of Spain, their next target had shifted to Morocco. However, naval blockades plus raids and expeditions beyond Ceuta had also made the Moroccan ruling dynasty more uncomfortable with having the three victors of the Reconquista so close to its capital city, Fez. Starting in the beginning of July of 1495, the Wattasid dynasty began to improve the defenses and expanded the city of Tagmadart in an effort to stymie the later Spanish conquest of Morocco, if it ever happened. It was logical, to the minds of the Wattasid dynasty, that from Ceuta, the future Spanish conquest of Morocco will aim at capturing Fez, hence the relocation of the capital to Tagmadart in 1503.
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Granada's reconstruction after it was taken over by the Kingdom of Castile was long and extensive: the naval bombardments of the port cities that the Portuguese army had occupied resulted in major damages to the harbours, resulting in the rise of demand for shipyard workers to be hired by the eagerly opportunistic Castilian merchants. With the former Granadan state's position as the 'barricade' between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, its reconstruction became the top priority of King Ferdinand II. Thus with the additional 40,000 soldiers stationed throughout the former Granadan state, Castilian, Aragonese and Portuguese settlers moved in to claim the properties of the previous owners who fled south to Morocco. Upon the recommendation of King Joao II of Portugal, Prince Afonso became the provisional viceroy of the newly formed 'Duchy of Granada' in 1496. It also explained the future titles that Prince Afonso acquired upon succeeding his father-in-law: “King of Gran Hispania and Grand Duke of Granada”. Some of his policies that later benefited most of the Spanish Empire had its origins in his tenure as Grand Duke of Granada: the religious tolerance policy he formed was progressive in his time, though small scale discrimination against Jews and Muslims persisted.
Prince Afonso also spearheaded the construction of new shipyards throughout his Granadan duchy, particularly designed to build new galleon ships suited for long range explorations. Yet despite Prince Afonso's development of the shipbuilding industry in Granada, Ferdinand II was also desperate to search for a new route to Asia and had sent envoys to the Italian states to locate and recruit potential explorers. To his surprise, one of the envoys who went to Genoa had struck up a friendship with two of Domenico Solumbus's sons, Christopher and Bartholomew. Additionally, the two brothers' had constantly lobbied for years with various European monarchs who were skeptical about their harebrained ideas of locating a western route to Asia, but when they were summoned to the court of Ferdinand II, he gave them his approval only after listening to the debates that the two brothers had made with regards to their project.
As for King Joao II of Portugal, while his Aragonese counterpart had bought into the Columbus brothers' scheme, he was a bit hesitant on backing such a project, owing to the available knowledge of the entire planet at that time. Yet he didn't want to see himself as someone who was beaten to the punch by his brother-in-law in the race to locate the western route to Asia. Therefore, he had appointed an experienced Portuguese explorer by the name of Joao Alvares Fagundes to join in the expedition as well, but for the purpose of locating a different western route through a more northern approach. The competition over the search for a western route to Asia and the possible territorial disputes that might arose would later be settled by the 1500 Treaty of Alhambra, where each Crown (Castile, Aragon and Portugal) would be allowed to lay claim on which territory they wanted to acquire. Within the Treaty of Alhambra, the colonies that were established under the three Iberian Kingdoms were: the Viceroyalty of Nueva Alhambra (under Castilian control), Nueva Lusitania (under Portuguese control) and Nueva Majorca (under Aragonese control). Though there was no restriction on whose country's settlers were allowed to settle in, there were many cultural preferences for certain types of settlers. For instance, the Viceroyalty of Nueva Alhambra only wanted Castilian and Basque peasants, while Nueva Lusitania mainly attracted Portuguese settlers and Nueva Majorca opened its doors to Catalan, Aragonese, Jewish and Italian settlers. In addition, a special Autonomous Captaincy General of Nueva Sidonia was created for Sephardic Jews who wanted to create a new life in the New World, but it was built under the supervision of the Aragonese crown.
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Post by steve59 on May 6, 2018 11:14:12 GMT
Interesting. Prince Afonso seems to be more religiously tolerant but his army is involved in massacres at Orgiva which in turn makes the conquest of Granada much bloodier and more destructive for both sides.
I wonder under the circumstances where Ferdinard would be less likely to support Columbus's mission. Both because the informed knowledge, with a clearer idea of the true size of the world would make it sound suicidal and because the war has been costlier and the kingdoms are possibly more focused on operations against Morrocco and other Muslims states in the Med.
It does sound however like there's going to be even greater competition over the America's in TTL. Especially if Portugal tries for most of N America. Not sure if there's a viable route, with currents and the technology of the time other than one that pretty much goes for Newfoundland and towards OTL New England so that would be some way off.
Does this mean that Portugal isn't looking east instead? Going to be awkward for them to do both and in the shorter term at least the eastern route is more rewarding.
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Post by MarshalBraginsky on May 6, 2018 15:06:17 GMT
Interesting. Prince Afonso seems to be more religiously tolerant but his army is involved in massacres at Orgiva which in turn makes the conquest of Granada much bloodier and more destructive for both sides. I wonder under the circumstances where Ferdinard would be less likely to support Columbus's mission. Both because the informed knowledge, with a clearer idea of the true size of the world would make it sound suicidal and because the war has been costlier and the kingdoms are possibly more focused on operations against Morrocco and other Muslims states in the Med. It does sound however like there's going to be even greater competition over the America's in TTL. Especially if Portugal tries for most of N America. Not sure if there's a viable route, with currents and the technology of the time other than one that pretty much goes for Newfoundland and towards OTL New England so that would be some way off. Does this mean that Portugal isn't looking east instead? Going to be awkward for them to do both and in the shorter term at least the eastern route is more rewarding. The war was far bloodier and expensive, but at the same time the reconstruction of Granada is going to be the main focus of Prince Afonso's project. Portugal has IOTL also explored the New World, with the colonization of the lands that became OTL Brazil. It is the Crown of Castile that is footing the bill in Granada's reconstruction, though the Crowns of Portugal and Aragon are also helping with Castile's financial problems. As such, when the New World eventually gets discovered much later on, they may find themselves facing competition from France, England, and even the Kalmar Union (Denmark and Sweden might even join in as well), as well as the Holy Roman Empire (there is a good map on Deviantart called the Royal Dominion of New Austria, so I might take a page out of that map and create something similar). On the other hand, it might be the Crown of Aragon that actually does the colonization of the Americas, but their interests in the Med might also complicate things a bit. Going back to the Reconstruction of Granada, while in the short term it will almost bankrupt the Crown of Castile, in the long term it will provide a lot of economic benefits to the western Med, especially if the ship industry becomes a lot stronger for the unified Spanish state. At most, it won't be all of North Africa that the Spaniards will conquer. It might just be the coastal cities that they are going to settle for, mainly because the rest of North Africa is a lot of sand. The next update is going back to France and England, and I've also posted this TL on Sufficient Velocity as well. Maybe later on I will also post this TL on alternate timelines too. so everyone there can read it.
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Post by steve59 on May 7, 2018 13:38:05 GMT
Interesting. Prince Afonso seems to be more religiously tolerant but his army is involved in massacres at Orgiva which in turn makes the conquest of Granada much bloodier and more destructive for both sides. I wonder under the circumstances where Ferdinard would be less likely to support Columbus's mission. Both because the informed knowledge, with a clearer idea of the true size of the world would make it sound suicidal and because the war has been costlier and the kingdoms are possibly more focused on operations against Morrocco and other Muslims states in the Med. It does sound however like there's going to be even greater competition over the America's in TTL. Especially if Portugal tries for most of N America. Not sure if there's a viable route, with currents and the technology of the time other than one that pretty much goes for Newfoundland and towards OTL New England so that would be some way off. Does this mean that Portugal isn't looking east instead? Going to be awkward for them to do both and in the shorter term at least the eastern route is more rewarding. The war was far bloodier and expensive, but at the same time the reconstruction of Granada is going to be the main focus of Prince Afonso's project. Portugal has IOTL also explored the New World, with the colonization of the lands that became OTL Brazil. It is the Crown of Castile that is footing the bill in Granada's reconstruction, though the Crowns of Portugal and Aragon are also helping with Castile's financial problems. As such, when the New World eventually gets discovered much later on, they may find themselves facing competition from France, England, and even the Kalmar Union (Denmark and Sweden might even join in as well), as well as the Holy Roman Empire (there is a good map on Deviantart called the Royal Dominion of New Austria, so I might take a page out of that map and create something similar). On the other hand, it might be the Crown of Aragon that actually does the colonization of the Americas, but their interests in the Med might also complicate things a bit. Going back to the Reconstruction of Granada, while in the short term it will almost bankrupt the Crown of Castile, in the long term it will provide a lot of economic benefits to the western Med, especially if the ship industry becomes a lot stronger for the unified Spanish state. At most, it won't be all of North Africa that the Spaniards will conquer. It might just be the coastal cities that they are going to settle for, mainly because the rest of North Africa is a lot of sand. The next update is going back to France and England, and I've also posted this TL on Sufficient Velocity as well. Maybe later on I will also post this TL on alternate timelines too. so everyone there can read it. OK thanks for clarifying. It was sounding like the exploration of the Americas was going to happen a bit sooner or at least faster but possibly makes sense if its delayed a bit.
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Post by MarshalBraginsky on May 7, 2018 14:45:41 GMT
It might be, but it would turn out completely different in this case.
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Post by MarshalBraginsky on May 8, 2018 3:42:44 GMT
You know this was coming, another update.
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Case Study #6: England, Scotland and France
In the aftermath of the French conquest of Brittany and its subsequent annexation, King Charles VIII started to reconsider his friendship with Henry VII of England and had begun to create plans to instigate another War of Succession inside English soil, this time with the full intention of installing a pro-French ally who would be a useful tool in France's struggles against both the Spanish and the Hapsburgs. In the midst of the growing French ambition plus the intrigues of Savonarola and his followers, it was Edward Plantagenet, the younger brother of the Countess of Salisbury, who would be thrusted into this deadly power struggle. It seems that the old Yorkist-Lancastrian power struggle was about to become erupted in a Second War of the Roses, although this time it would be the French who will become the main benefactors of this conflict.
Fate had smiled upon the House of Valois, and especially Charles VIII: his wife Anne of Brittany had given birth to a healthy young daughter back in December 10, 1492. Acting upon the medical advice from several healers connected to the Savonarolists, Anne of Brittany stayed in the Chateau d'Amboise residence for the majority of her pregnancy. It was a practice that she eventually adopted when she became pregnant with five more children. The new daughter was christened as Princess Margaret de Valois, and she was the first surviving daughter to survive into adulthood. Four years later, Anne would give birth to another daughter, Princess Beatrice de Valois in May 12, 1496, and Charles VIII's firstborn son soon followed in July 19, 1499, named Henri de Valois. Unfortunately, an unnamed stillborn daughter followed in 1502, but Anne and Charles VIII were lucky to have another son by 1507, who was subsequently christened as Prince Alexander de Valois. Furthermore, most of Charles's children were tutored by Savonarola himself, whose knowledge of logic, ethics, philosophy and government became influential in the later development of the Savonarolist Rite of the French Church. While the happy couple were present in the rearing of their children, Charles VIII kept in contact with both the 17th Earl of Warwick and his sister Margaret Pole, whose marriage to Richard Pole had cemented the Tudor family's ties to that of the York and Lancaster branches of the Plantagenet dynasty. To Henry VII however, the growing interference of the French in English internal affairs had become troublesome, and disgruntled by Charles VIII's blatant annexation of Brittany in which he sent troops to prevent the personal union of Brittany and France from becoming a reality, he began to launch a witch hunt for secret supporters of the 17th Earl of Warwick.
One additional fallout from the English military intervention in Brittany was Charles VIII's repudiation of the promise he made to Henry VII not to shelter rebels fighting against his authority. Among the persons who benefited from the falling out between Henry VII and Charles VIII of France was a renegade Yorkist supporter by the name of Perkin Warbeck. Though he was mistaken for Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, he entertained the idea of claiming the English throne for himself before a chance meeting with Edward Plantagenet, 17th Duke of Warwick in April of 1494 had forced himself to reconsider his target of the English throne. When Warbeck and the 17th Duke of Warwick had met for the first time over a dueling tournament in Cornwall, the former was impressed with the royal pedigree that the latter possessed. Moreover, the two became close friends as Edward became interested in the affairs happening in Continental Europe. It was also through Warbeck that Edward had met the Stafford family, and a soiree in the winter of 1495 had allowed him to meet for the first time the eldest daughter of Henry Stafford, Elizabeth. The courtship between Edward and Elizabeth was maintained in secret, particularly because Henry VII was eager to win over more dukes and duchesses to his cause and to prevent a Yorkist restoration. By 1496, the couple fell in love and planned to marry, but the Stafford family faced increasing pressure from the king to stop Edward's courtship with Elizabeth.
The history of the Savonarolists in England was rather different than the Savonarolists of France. Unlike France, England had a strong reformist movement prior to Savonarola's appearance on the international stage called the Lollards, which advocated for the reformation of Western Christianity. Fearing the royal authorities and that of the Catholic Church in England, the surviving Lollards were smuggled to France by their French Savonarolist friends. Among the smuggled Lollards was Thomas Harding, whose religious dissidence had already landed him in trouble twice in his lifetime. The Amersham Lollards, as the heretics were known, were in grave danger if their true faith was discovered, and as France was fast becoming a hotspot for Christian reformists, the Lollards soon found refuge in the French domain. It also helped that the English control of Calais became a departure point for English Lollards who were attracted by the growing reputation of the Savonarolists. Eventually even the 17th Earl of Warwick himself joined the Lollard crowd through the efforts of his friend, Perkin Warbeck. His departure from England by September of 1496 with Elizabeth Stafford in secrecy had allowed them to reside in the court of Charles VIII. By the time Henry VII had learned of Edward`s departure, he grew outraged and searched for the incompetent spies who allowed the Yorkist pretender to escape from England.
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Excerpts from “A Reformation Attempted: The Savonarolan Revolution” by: Jean-Claude de Olympe De Coligny Printing Press, published 2015
Chapter Eight: The Savonarolan-Lollard Alliance
When Savonarola settled in France as the religious advisor to King Charles VIII, he had several hundreds of followers who accompanied him on his journey. Between 1494 and 1499, five thousand Savonarolists had settled in Avignon, once the center of the Avignon Papacy. Although the Savonarolists acquired significant influence within the French political, religious and economic circles, their presence was ignored by the religious authorities until 1496 when another group of religious reformists from England arrived in France. The Lollards, led by the Amersham leadership around Thomas Harding, were far more radical than some of the Savonarolists and in addition to their grievances against the Catholic Church, their biggest criticism was the constant insistence of having the Mass conducted in Latin rather than the language of the people who attended the church services (in this case, English). As no one had understood the Latin tongue, the Lollard criticism of the language used in the Catholic mass was significant.
The subsequent collaboration between the Savonarolists and the Lollards had caused an alarm in the rest of Europe, especially within the Holy Roman Empire, Castile, Aragon and Portugal. As the Iberian peninsula became the bastion of Roman Catholicism in Western Europe, they were fearful of the potential spread of the heresies that are originating in France. It was because of France's tolerance of heretics that diplomatic relations between the Holy Roman Empire and the three Iberian kingdoms were established. Though there was no talk of a marriage match between the Houses of Aviz, Transtamara and Hapsburg, they did form a military alliance called the Pact of Ravenna (made in early 1501). The Pact of Ravenna, or also known as the League of Ravenna, was a coalition of pro-Papal Catholic nations of the Holy Roman Empire, Castile, Aragon and Portugal, although the 1516 Seville Decree would later revise the terms of the Pact of Ravenna to include Gran Hispania/Spain. In 1498, the Kingdom of Hungary under Maximillian I would join, though Poland-Lithuania was at the fence, due to the intrigues of Maximillian in wanting to install his son Philip the Handsome as King of Poland. Because Barbara Jagiellon was already arranged to marry Duke Georg of Saxony, Philip the Handsome was instead married off to Duchess Sophie of Brandenburg-Ansbach. Though no one had picked up this significant match, it was the beginning of a familial alliance between the Houses of Hapsburg and the House of Hohenzollern that controlled the Margraviate of Brandenburg. Subsequently, Brandenburg would also play a vital role in retaining the dominant influence of Catholicism in eastern Germany.
The consequences of the Pact of Ravenna's existence had greatly worried Charles VIII, who also feared that Henry VII was going to join the pact as well. His fears were proven correct when the English envoys were sent to Castile on Henry VII's orders for a suitable match between the youngest daughter of Ferdinand II of Aragon, Catherine, and Prince Arthur Tudor in October of 1498, although their arranged marriage had existed prior to the existence of the Pact of Ravenna by virtue of proxy marriage way before that. The match also worried the self-exiled 17th Earl of Warwick, who feared that his chances of acquiring the English throne and restoring the Yorkist Dynasty was slipping. Thus in the same month as the match that happened, Edward Plantagenet and Elizabeth Stafford were officially married by October 31, 1498. The marriage was celebrated within Chateau d'Amboise, and both Charles VIII and Anne of Brittany attended the wedding as honored guests.
In the first few days of Edward's married life, he and his new wife undertook a tour of the French countryside, accompanied by twenty pro-Yorkist English knights and thirty French knights who acted as bodyguards. Traveling with them was Savonarola's fellow accomplice, Silvestro Maruffi, who had embraced his friend's ideas. Within the French countryside, Savonarolists had constructed several few villages where Savonarola's ideas were put into practice. Dubbed the Savonarola villages, they acted as the catalyst for one of France's earliest attempts at agrarian reforms at a scale never seen before. The Savonarola Villages consisted of one town hall, several houses where the peasants lived and two manors owned by the local landlord. The landlord was required to keep a certain amount of money for charity in case the peasants under his control are unable to contribute. Charging interests for loans in the Savonarola Village was outlawed, a crude judicial system was established to punish offenders who deviated from Savonarola's laws and encouraged a small scale industry to flourish, mainly dominated by desperate trade guilds seeking to build their business. A school was also built to educate the young children residing within these villages and a church was also erected, often staffed with Savonarolan priests who conducted the services. For payments to the landlord in a Savonarola Village, the peasant has to agree to put up some of his possessions as collateral in case he was unable to make the payment. The money lenders who existed within these villages were forbidden from practicing usury and also encouraged peasants who can't make payments in money to barter their crops for profit. In addition, if there were peasants who don't have any land to work on, they were sent to the trade guilds where the tradesmen taught them the basic skills in metalsmith, woodwork and light scale manufacturing. It was said that Charles VIII's successors had admired the Savonarola Village's socio-economic experiment that they eventually extended that practice to the entire country.
The presence of the Savonarola Village had clearly impressed the newly married English couple, because upon the outbreak of the War of the English Succession in February of 1502 over the premature death of Henry VII from the infamous sweating sickness, the 17th Earl of Warwick along with various troops of the English Army who defected to his side, as well as Irish mercenaries recruited by Perkin Warbeck, had launched an invasion of Cornwall, backed by the French fleet that accompanied them. Once they landed in Cornwall and occupied the village of Falmouth, Edward began to reorganize Falmouth and the nearby village of Penryn into Savonarola Villages. An ambitious land reform was promised by the Yorkist faction, while Cornish peasants who were attracted to the idea of changing their lives for the better, became ardent supporters of the 17th Earl of Warwick. In addition, the Lollards who also joined Edward and his army took over the administrative positions of every Cornish town and village, confiscating Church lands and interrupting Catholic services by preaching in front of the Church doors. While Charles VIII officially entered the War of the English Succession on Edward's side, Aragonese volunteers from the Crown of Aragon joined the army of the young King Arthur I Tudor. The War of the English Succession became the first proxy war in the deadly struggle between the Catholic Church and the growing Reformist movement consisting of Savonarolists and Lollards. In addition, the Kingdom of Scotland (a French ally) also took interest in their neighbor's succession crisis and openly joined their French ally in backing Edward over Arthur I. Upon Edward's recommendation, Perkin Warbeck and 5,000 Irish volunteers would depart from Falmouth and journey by sea to Ayr, landing in the Scottish port by August of 1502. There, they were later joined by Scottish troops commanded by the 1st Earl of Bothwell while making preparations for the invasion of northern England. As the young Arthur constantly battled his own illness and the Yorkist faction, the momentum picked up for Edward as he marched his army eastwards, towards London. At the same time, the Scottish and English border reivers who constantly fought each other, cooperated for the first time when Warbeck's forces besieged Carlisle by October of 1502. Although the Siege of Carlisle was just as brutal as the Siege of Orgiva, there were far less amount of atrocities there, as Warbeck was focused on winning the hearts and minds of the people inside.
The Lollard-Savonarolist cause received a massive boost in morale when on October 16, 1502, Arthur fell gravely ill while resting inside Ludlow Castle. Even despite the constant surveillance of the young king by his healers, he succumbed to his illness and died. The death of Arthur would have allowed the young Prince Henry to become kind, with Elizabeth of York acting as regent, if it wasn't for Richard Pole's offensive into Kent (Richard Pole sided with his brother-in-law when the War of the English Succession started), resulting in the capture of young Prince Henry and his mother.
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Excerpts from Perkin Warbeck's Letter to King James IV of Scotland, December 5, 1502
“To His Excellency:
I am pleased to hear of your decision to support the rightful candidate for the English throne, and as you have requested, I will relay your wishes to His Majesty, King Edward V Plantagenet, King of England of the House of York. Although we have significant trouble with the Tudor loyalists in the north, the news of the short lived Tudor monarch has decreased their morale and their leaders are parlaying with us in exchange for their lives. I am not sure if you will be comfortable with this idea, but apparently your French ally has hosted a rather interesting individual. A fellow who has lived in Florence has managed to come up with such radical ideas on how we as Christians should live. His ideas of charity, piety and humility has really placed an enormous pressure on the Papists who fear the unknown, and with God's grace, the Tudor alliance with the Iberian kingdoms has collapsed. Little Prince Henry is far too young to rule, but I would have preferred not to spare the little bastard.
While I continue to write this letter, the legitimate King of England has started to gather up more soldiers and supporters, through his ambitious promises of land reform. You may or may not be aware that England had a peasants' revolt almost a hundred years ago, and we're eager to prevent that from happening again. The grievances of our peasantry has to be something that a wise king would listen to, for they've always vented their anger at the upper classes who are far better off.
Your Servant in Service, Perkin Warbeck”
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Excerpts from King James IV of Scotland's Letter to Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick and King of England, December 19, 1502
“To His Majesty, King Edward V of the House of York:
I've written this letter to congratulate you on your ascension into the throne as King of England, although the method you've chosen to take has rather made me uncomfortable. However, given that King Charles VIII of France is a good friend of the Stewart clan and the Scottish state, I have decided to reserve my judgment towards you until you can deliver the promises that you've declared, as Sir Warbeck has mentioned in his letter to me. With your cooperation, we can look past our grievances and improve the Auld Alliance, or rather, replace it with a new kind of alliance. One that aimed at the Papal-backed kingdoms in the Continent. The Scandinavians are also quite friendly with my domain, but the wily Swedes in the east clamour about breaking the Kalmar Union apart. I have not heard of the fellow that Sir Warbeck has talked about, but when I heard that the Lollards have formed an alliance with these followers of the Florentine firebrand preacher, I can only hope that they will bring the needed changes that our Western Catholic Church needs. His Holiness the Pope Alexander VI remains corrupt, and I for one, do not want to serve such a buffoon.
Once you've taken your throne, then we shall discuss any past grievances that our predecessors have and we'll settle it once and for all. The fate and future of these isles will remain shrouded unless we take active steps to address them. Only when our grievances are truly settled, then we can start planning for the long struggle against the Papacy.
In Salutation,
King James IV of Scotland”
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Post by steve59 on May 8, 2018 10:21:35 GMT
Well that was dramatic. England is effectively a French ally and also now a supporter of a reformed church. Which James IV seems to have some doubts about. Not sure how such a stance gained support from Ireland, given how Catholic it traditionally has been. However seems like Catholicism is more firmly secured in Germany with hints about a long term Hapsburg-Hohenzollern alliance and eastern Germany staying Catholic - which is not a good sign for Saxony at the least. [Even if it doesn't become a support of reformation as OTL its going to be squeezed between two neighbours.
The other question is what are James's demands for removing his forces from northern England as I suspect there will be a heavy price to pay. Whether the new Edward V will be able and willing to pay could be an issue.
It also sounds like, thanks to Maximillian's attempts to control Poland it may join the reformists, or at least stay on the side-line but pretty clear a big conflict is coming between the French and the main centres of Catholic power. Wondering what the situation of Burgundy is currently, given its strategic location and wealth.
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Post by MarshalBraginsky on May 8, 2018 14:54:59 GMT
Well that was dramatic. England is effectively a French ally and also now a supporter of a reformed church. Which James IV seems to have some doubts about. Not sure how such a stance gained support from Ireland, given how Catholic it traditionally has been. However seems like Catholicism is more firmly secured in Germany with hints about a long term Hapsburg-Hohenzollern alliance and eastern Germany staying Catholic - which is not a good sign for Saxony at the least. [Even if it doesn't become a support of reformation as OTL its going to be squeezed between two neighbours. The other question is what are James's demands for removing his forces from northern England as I suspect there will be a heavy price to pay. Whether the new Edward V will be able and willing to pay could be an issue. It also sounds like, thanks to Maximillian's attempts to control Poland it may join the reformists, or at least stay on the side-line but pretty clear a big conflict is coming between the French and the main centres of Catholic power. Wondering what the situation of Burgundy is currently, given its strategic location and wealth. For James's demands, I would suspect that the fortresses on both sides of the border would have to go, but the real question is, is Edward V willing to do it? We will cover Ireland and Burgundy in another update, just before we turn towards Asia, which I haven't covered yet. Needless to say, the Ming will receive a lot of attention in the next few updates.
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Post by MarshalBraginsky on May 9, 2018 19:10:35 GMT
Case Study #7: Ireland
In the midst of the political upheaval in England, France and the rest of the European continent, no one had predicted that out of all nations, Ireland would be mostly affected. While the rest of Ireland were under the control of various Irish clans, a few territories had been under the control of the Hiberno-Norman ruling classes, of which the FitzGerald clan was the most famous. At the same time, the enemy of the FitzGerald dynasty, the MacCarthy clan that ruled the Kingdom of Desmond, had been an English ally until the Yorkist restoration when France openly backed the new candidate for the English throne, Edward V Plantagenet, formerly known as the 17th Earl of Warwick. The War of the English Succession didn't end until 1505 when the last pro-Tudor stronghold, Cardiff, fell under the control of the Yorkists. Unlike the English and their puppets in the Pale who began to embrace the words and ideas of the Italian religious reformer, Girolamo Savonarola, the Irish remained steadfast in their Catholic faith. It was because of their desire to resist English conquest and colonization that the current head of the MacCarthy family, Finghin MacCarthy Reagh, had personally traveled to the Castilian court in 1502, under personal peril, to seek an audience with Ferdinand II of Aragon and his wife, Isabella of Castile.
In Toledo, the passionate Irish nobleman had pleaded with the Spanish authorities to aid them in the cause of overthrowing English control of the Pale. Furthermore, he also revealed the death of Arthur Tudor and the capture of the 10 year old Prince Henry and his mother, Elizabeth of York. He also added that the potential fear for the execution of the last Tudor heir was real, and that the Spanish should intervene in restoring the rightful ruler of England. Ferdinand II didn't need any more persuasion, as he learned of the Savonarolan heresies that have affected England, and that he knew who the real culprit was responsible. Unfortunately, he told the Irish nobleman who asked for help that no such thing would be coming, due to the recent Reconstruction after the fall of Granada. However, he advised him to make his case known in the Vatican, the Holy Roman Empire and even Hungary. Between 1502 and 1504, Finghin MacCarthy's journey throughout continental Europe had reaped only a few benefits in that he was being backed by Maximillian for the potential role as the King of a united Ireland in the future. Furthermore, the MacCarthy Reagh's allegiance to the Vatican would allow Pope Pius III to call for a crusade against the heretics in France and England.
Unfortunately, the campaign against the English in Ireland received an unexpected blow when Finghin himself was assassinated by pro-English Irish collaborators hired by Perkin Warbeck while staying in Calais. Apparently Edward V Plantagenet had gotten wind of what the Irish were up to and decided to kill the source of the problem. Even worse, the death of Finghin MacCarthy allowed Donal MacCarthy to succeed him and to call for a general Irish rebellion against English rule. The Irish War of Resistance of 1504-1506 was the first case of a proxy war between France and the Pact of Ravenna in which large volunteers from all over Europe joined in the fight. Even Scotland had joined in the fight in Ireland, although it was limited to sending supplies to back the Irish clans seeking a closer relationship with the Scots. Fearing the loss of Ireland, Edward V Plantagenet immediately became more involved in suppressing the Irish rebels, but his method of suppression was rather harsh and often atrocious. Captured Irish lords who are under English control were summarily executed, while the peasants who were under the control of their lords were either enslaved or executed. The ones who were enslaved were in reality forced into serfdom under English landlords, laboring on their lands in the Pale. Even the Catholic churches were attacked by Edward's troops, citing the Vatican's influence in keeping Ireland under their control, though this vicious attack only served the Vatican in propagating anti-English and anti-French propaganda.
The brutal conduct of the English in Ireland played into the hands of King James IV of Scotland, who started to doubt his country's diplomatic friendship with England. By depicting the English as barbarians who disrespected the cultures of the peoples under their control, he hoped to incite more Irish anger at the English and even began to style himself as King of Scotland and Prince of Ireland (although he hasn't entertained the idea of elevating Ireland to a fully fledged status of a Kingdom). In 1506, Scottish troops began to land in Carrickfergus to reinforce the King of Scotland's Ulsterian allies. Within a few weeks, all of northeastern Ireland came under Scottish control. It was in Carrickfergus that King James IV (who later joined his troops in September of 1506) issued a proclamation that made the peoples of Ulster the subjects of the Kingdom of Scotland. James IV, in a move that would set Scotland and England on a collision course and forever break the Auld Alliance permanently, also claimed the title “Prince of Ireland”, and set out to win over more Irish inhabitants to his cause.
At the beginning of December of 1506, the Scottish army began to move towards Dublin in an effort to conquer the strategically important city from the English. Accompanying the Scottish forces were twenty Scottish warships, each of them armed with cannons as well. The siege began on December 3rd, when James IV gave orders to bombard the city with cannon fire. Right away, the English sensed the danger that the Scots had posed to Dublin and began to send their warships to distract the Scottish fleet, effectively diverting the Scottish fleet's attention away from the city and towards the incoming English fleet. Out of the 35 English warships that were sent to distract the Scottish ships, only 7 ships were sunk. The Scottish fleet lost half of their warships, but James IV's troops continued to pound away at Dublin. To distract the English from their attempts at rescuing Dublin, James IV sent a letter to his youngest brother, Prince John Stewart, to mount an invasion of northern England on December 13th. Prince John's attack on northern England had resulted in the devastation of farmlands, houses and several fortresses. Eventually on December 16th, Edward V called for an armistice with James IV in Cardiff to discuss the peace terms. Although both sides would gain from the Treaty of Cardiff of 1506, it was Edward V who eventually lost more in the long run, as James IV demanded the transfer of the Pale from English control to Scottish control in exchange for guarantees that the Scots won't annex any English territory. Reluctantly, Edward V had to agree, because the English Army was close to exhaustion and fears of a Spanish invasion of Ireland had prompted him and King Charles VIII of France to settle things now.
The consequences of the Scottish expedition to Ireland under James IV was that while England had lost its foothold in Ireland, the humiliation of Edward V at the hands of James IV made him a bit more dependent on the French for survival. At the same time, Charles VIII of France could not continue to treat his new English ally like a puppet and strives to make sure that his new alliance with England was of an equal footing. However, the new friendship with England came at a heavy price: the Auld Alliance between France, Scotland and Norway was effectively broken. Scotland would later gravitate towards the Scandinavian countries, especially the newly independent Swedish state, while Ireland would go through a few more civil wars before Edward V's fears of a Spanish invasion would become a reality in 1559. Meanwhile, Scotland's control of the former English Pale became the center of a pro-Scottish client state called the Principality of Dublin, which formed the core of the future Irish principality that entered a dynastic union with the Kingdom of Scotland, although future Scottish rulers would give their Irish brethren more autonomy. As for England, the loss of the Pale was one of the few reasons for their desire for an expansion into continental Europe and the aggressive push in the Age of Exploration. --- Sorry for the very short update, but as I know a little about Irish history, forgive me Irish readers for butchering up your history in this update. It is indeed quite short, and the issue facing Burgundy will be covered in a future update, but for the next update we'll go back to the Ottomans and what is happening in the rest of the Middle East.
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Post by MarshalBraginsky on May 13, 2018 6:04:24 GMT
Case Study #8: Ottoman Empire, the Caucasus and Persia
With the Ottoman control of Syrmia and the positioning of its armies closer to the city of Belgrade (currently under Hungarian control), Bayezid II was closer to achieving what his father, the famous Fetih Mehmet II, was unable to do. However a more direct issue arose when Gazi Husrev Bey was ordered by Sehzade Ahmet to continue the push towards the Croatian capital of Zagreb and even sent his brother Sehzade Korkut to back him up. While Sehzade Ahmet consolidated control of Vukovar, he was at a loss as to what to do with the region that now fell under Turkish control. Though he wrote to his father about this kind of dilemma, the Sultan responded by advising him to worry about politics later: the conquest of Belgrade must come first.
At the same time, there were small towns and villages throughout Croatia that fell under control of the opposition forces hostile to the illegitimate king where peasants helped their landlords resist royal authority. Such a massive division between the king and his subjects made it much easier for the Ottomans to exploit the situation, even bribing various minor noble lords to restore order under Ottoman supervision. One such noble family that defected to the Ottoman camp was an obscure nobleman by the name of Mirko Kasun (1471-1542)[1], who owned a large amount of land around the village of Komora. Of Catholic origin, Kasun, like many other Croatian nobles, detested John Corvinus and had been one of the few opposition figures to publicly call for Maximillian to take over Croatia directly. While he and his army were patrolling the road between Komora and the border with Ottoman Bosnia, an Ottoman raiding party had caught them in an ambush. With all of his men dead, Kasun had the option to commit suicide, but in a flash of fear, he surrendered to the Ottoman raiding party led by a minor commander, a certain Yusuf Aga. When Kasun was led to the Ottoman military base in Prijedor in the fall of 1494, another Ottoman commander interrogated him about the military positions around Croatia. It was then that Koar told them of the chaos and instability that his country faced and that he wanted Maximillian to restore order.
What changed Kasun's mind on his allegiance was an encounter with a Bosnian daughter of the Pasha in command of the garrison around Prijedor. Converted to Islam and adopted the name of Almira, her father had noticed the look on Kasun's face and had offered him his daughter's hand in marriage on the condition that he convert to Islam. Though he was a bit hesitant on changing sides, his position as a prisoner of the Ottomans allowed him to observe a rather different world from the one he was used to. He even saw at one point the parading of small boys who were recruited through the devsirme system and presumably sent to Istanbul to begin their lives as devout Muslims. What also surprised the young Croatian prisoner was that Almira's father, the prominent Tuzloglu Nusret Pasha (Tuzlogu meaning of Tuzla, a Bosnian town), was recruited in the same manner as the boys Kasun witnessed earlier. His own family came from a long line of miners and landless peasants who worked for their landlords before the Ottoman soldiers came to their town. The wonders of meritocracy was lost on Kasun, but his curiosity continued to grow until a Hungarian raiding party belonging to Maximillian's Black Army staged a raid into Ottoman Bosnia on October of 1494. While searching for an escape route, Kasun spotted a Hungarian soldier attempting to kill Almira with a spear. It was then that he grabbed an Ottoman saber and plunged it into the stomach of the unlucky Hungarian soldier. Kasun and Nusret Pasha worked together to expel the Hungarians from Prijedor throughout the night, and when the battle was over, Kasun agreed to convert to Islam and adopted the name Azad, meaning free. Mirko Kasun or rather, his new Muslim identity, Azad Kasun (later changed to Komoroglu), married Almira a few days later on November 1st in a Muslim ceremony. The Komoroglu eventually became a fifth clan of akincis that would serve the Ottoman Empire as frontier raiders, and many of their descendants would marry into other Ottoman families of diverse origins, with the Malkocoglu family being one of them.
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While the Ottomans were busy trying to consolidate control over the Balkans, another clan was making a power play over the Caucasus region, in particular the region of Azerbaijan. Before the rise of the Safavid dynasty in Persia, the region was controlled by the Aq Qoyunlu confederation, a Sunni Oghuz tribe. The Aq Qoyunlu had conquered much of Persian territory from their rivals, the former Qara Qoyunlu confederation that collapsed in 1468. Within the Aq Qoyunlu, there was the Safaviyya Order that didn't play much role until 1494 when in an attempt to strike a blow against their overlords, Ali Mirza Safavi started to gather enough Qizilbash troops along with Dagestani mercenaries who were recruited for their mountain warfare abilities. The moment Ali Mirza Safavi began to gather supporters and soldiers, the Aq Qoyunlu acted right away. They launched a pre-emptive strike against the Safavi stronghold in Ardabil in July of 1494, in an attempt to catch the Safavids off guard. The plan to defeat Ali Mirza Safavi had gone horribly wrong for the Aq Qoyunlu: their other vassal, the Shirvanshah, had been involved in another civil war that saw the dethronement of Farrukh Yassar and the rise of Gazi Beg as the new Shah of Shirvan. Gazi Beg immediately declared Shirvan's independence from the Aq Qoyunlu and immediately sided with Ali Mirza, contributing 3,000 of his own troops to defend Ardabil against the Aq Qoyunlu. The result of the sudden loss of its remaining vassal in the Caucasus accelerated the decline of the Aq Qoyunlu.
The alliance between the Shirvanshah and the Safavids was overshadowed by their neighbors to the north. The lands west of Shirvanshah had consisted of several Georgian statelets that fractured due to internal turmoil as a result of ambitious rivals seeking power for themselves. The three dominant kings of the Georgian states were in a state of alliance with each other, but their bonds were extremely fragile. For it was King Alexander I of Kakheti, King Constantine II of Kartli and King Alexander II of Imereti, along with Atabeg Kaikhosro I Jaqeli of the Principality of Samtskhe who endured the worst of the raids conducted by the Aq Qoyunlu. Unfortunately it was the Principality of Samtskhe that was to fall under Ottoman rule during the early 1500s when Bayezid II would send another son, Sehzade Selim Yavuz (Selim the Grim) to subdue Samtskhe. The three Georgian statelets of Imereti, Kartli and Kakheti were almost a mirror version of their Western European Iberian counterparts of Castile, Aragon and Portugal, with only one glaring difference being that the former were dominated by the same Bagrationi dynasty (though several branches emerged through the sons of previous Georgian kings) while the latter had two ruling dynasties at that time: Castile-Aragon with the Transtamaras and Portugal with the Aviz. In 1497 Ali Reza Safavi approached the Georgian statelets for support in his war against the Aq Qoyunlu, promising to respect their independence in exchange for their help. Though the three Georgian kings were suspicious of Ali Reza, their countries' experiences with the Aq Qoyunlu raids had made them embittered. Fearing the worst of the Aq Qoyunlu's potential reprisal against them, they reluctantly agreed to Ali Reza's request.
In what became known as the Ardabil War of 1497-1499, the campaign for the fate of not just the Caucasus, but all of the territories that were dominated by Persian culture, was hard and brutal. Though both sides were technologically inferior to the Ottoman Empire in the west, they made up for it with battle experience. For the Aq Qoyunlu, their experience mainly came from raiding Georgian statelets. For the Safavids and the Georgian statelets, it was fighting off the raids that came from the Aq Qoyunlu. For the most part, the Safavid military consisted of Qizilbash cavalry, Georgian heavy infantry and Dagestani light infantry. In comparison, the Aq Qoyunlu military mostly consisted of light cavalry suited for raids and steppe warfare. Both sides didn't have firearms, but the Ottomans were not interested in what's happening in the east due to their attention being set on resolving the Croatian conflict.
Between March of 1497 and September 1497 the Aq Qoyunlu launched a series of devastating raids throughout Ardabil in an attempt to starve out the Safavids. Ali Reza became more dependent on the Georgian statelets for food and other supplies, in which they reluctantly shared, much to their irritation as they had their own soldiers to feed. The Shirvanshah also faced raids from the Aq Qoyunlu, but not as much as their Ardabil neighbors to the south. This allowed Gazi Beg to gather up to 20,000 troops in his own army while building several forts in areas most likely to be targeted by the Aq Qoyunlu. Meanwhile, the Georgian statelets had sent their envoys to the rest of the other Georgian territories like the Abkhaz kingdom, the small province of Mingreli, and even Svaneti, each with a message of request for troops in the fight against the Aq Qoyunlu. Of these, Mingreli responded positively to the request, partly because they were the vassals of the Kingdom of Kartli. To ensure of Mingrelo or Samegrelo's loyalty to Kartli, Duke Liparit II Dadiani had personally accompanied 2,000 of his soldiers to join the fight against the Aq Qoyunlu. Though their role was restricted to reconnaissance, they did take part in minor raids against isolated outposts controlled by Aq Qoyunlu troops.
The succession problems within the Aq Qoyunlu also persisted within that tribal confederation, as the civil wars in the 1490s had caused a major crisis on who would succeed who. As the veterans of these civil wars were still alive by the time Ali Reza and Gazi Beg had launched their rebellion, fears of the death of the current Aq Qoyunlu ruler would have resulted in another civil war. It was this crisis that Ali Reza was determined to take advantage of, and both Ardabil and Shirvan plotted for a major offensive. It was not until December of 1497 that Ali Reza had secured another potential ally in the fight against the Aq Qoyunlu: within the mountains of what was then the former Artsakh province of ancient Armenia, there existed the five Melikdoms of Karabagh, each of them under a ruling Melik family. Of these Melikdoms, the Principality of Khatchen under the powerful Hasan-Jalalyan dynasty was the dominant power in the region. When Ali Reza went to Khatchen, he offered the Armenians of Artsakh the same deal he gave their Georgian neighbors: aid in fighting the Aq Qoyunlu in exchange for securing their independence. The current head of the House of Hasan-Jalalyan graciously offered his assistance, though he also demanded that the rest of the Armenian lands be ceded to the Melikdoms in order to resurrect the Armenian state. Though the Armenians have started to work on the long awaited dream of regaining their sovereignty, their struggle against the Aq Qoyunlu would be marred with tragedy: between January 23 to 28, 1498, the Aq Qoyunlu launched an attack on Karabagh with the intention of pre-empting a potential Armenian attack on Tabriz. Though the five Melikdoms had put up a heroic resistance, the Aq Qoyunlu had by stroke of luck, captured all five Meliks of Karabagh and summarily executed them. In what was to become the wound festering on the heart of the future Armenian nation, the Slaughter of the Meliks had occurred within those five days, as a record of 12,000 Armenian civilians were killed by troops of the Aq Qoyunlu, and an additional 24,000 of them were enslaved and shipped in multiple directions: Central Asia, the Ottoman Empire and the Indian subcontinent.
News of the fall of Karabagh had spurred the Georgian forces and Ali Reza's army to take the offensive on March of 1498. In the stronghold of Kapan, Ali Reza and Gazi Beg, together with 15,000 Georgian troops and 2,100 surviving Armenian troops that managed to flee from Karabagh launched an attack on the Aq Qoyunlu stronghold. Though the siege was rather long, due to the natural geography favoring the defenders, the anguish of Karabagh had only encouraged the Armenians to fight even harder than ever before. The Georgians likewise, were motivated by avenging past Aq Qoyunlu raids with a chance to settle the score with their enemies. Finally, Ali Reza and Gazi Beg had made a secret pact where should either of them die, the other will inherit each other's kingdoms. The Aq Qoyunlu fought back ferociously, even inflicting massive casualties on the attacking forces. In the midst of the battle, Gazi Beg led a cavalry detachment to face off an incoming enemy reinforcement. While slashing an enemy soldier with his sword, he didn't notice a lancer rushing forward until it was too late. The lancer impaled him in the lung with the lance, causing him to die instantly. Ali Reza, who saw what happened to his comrade, managed to rally the remaining soldiers and on March 22nd, Kapan finally fell to his army. The Aq Qoyunlu forces were compelled to retreat, giving the victory to Ali Reza. It was not until March 24th that another news had reached Ali Reza, which was relayed to the Georgians: Alexander I of Kakheti, who also led an army against the Aq Qoyunlu, was killed during an attempt to stop another Aq Qoyunlu attack on Shusha a day after Kapan fell. The Kingdom of Kakheti now came under the rulership of his infamous son, George II the Kinslayer. Fearing the worst, David X of Kartli immediately marched back to his domain to prepare for an inevitable civil war. It was the War of the Kartlian Succession of 1498 that will eventually set the stage for the rise of Prince Bagrat, the youngest son of Constantine II of Georgia and the founder of the House of Mukhrani, a dynasty that was to play a vital role in securing the independence and reunification of the Georgian kingdoms and the resurrection of a new Armenian kingdom.
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[1] Mirko Kasun is a fictional character here, but he is an expy of both Pargali Ibrahim Pasha and Rustem Pasha, as well as a mirror image of Malkoc Bey, the founder of the Malkocoglu family.
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