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A remAARkable one

no no no, bad me! no more spam!
 


HISTORY OF THE WHITE EAGLE

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Europe Anno Domini 1475



Balkans




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History of Hungary started in late IXth century, when seven nomadic Magyar tribes led by Arpad conquered Carpathian Basin. For next 50 years Magyars raided and plundered neighboring Franks, Byzantines and Slavs, until battle of Lechfeld in year 955, where they were defeated by Holy Roman Emperor Otto I. Battle marked the end of traditional tribal structure of Principality, and during reigns of Geza (970-997) and Stephen (997-1038) Magyars adopted Christian faith as well as feudal society.

During second half of XIth century Arpad dynasty tried to expand at the expense of their weaker neighbors. They attacked Poland while king Przecław I gone to liberate Rome during crusade, but bloody conflict ended with status quo. They also tried to conquer weakening Kiev, but were forestalled by pagan Balts. However, they managed to utterly defeat Pachenegs to the east, annexing all their lands.

In XIIth century kings of Hungary, neighboring powerful Poland-Lithuania-Bohemia to the north and Holy Roman Empire to the west, turned their attention south. In years 1130-1138 they conquered parts of Croatia and Bosnia. Unfortunately, those successes were halted when Seljuk Turks entered Balkan peninsula once they swept through weak Byzantine Empire. Muslim invaders slowly but steadily expanded to the north and west, conquering Wallachia, Moldavia, Serbia, and Transylvania. Finally, Hungary was saved by combined crusade of Polish king Sambor I and Holy Roman Emperor Heinrich II, and Seljuks started to withdraw back to Asia Minor.

Thanks to series of competent monarchs, Hungary managed to subjugate small states that emerged after the Seljuks were gone. Arpads acquired Moldavia, Serbia, Dalmatia and even Duchy of Austria, when it departed from the Empire during civil war. At the beginning of XIVth century kingdom of Hungary became regional power once again. Arpads conquered whole Balkans, except of Greece, Bulgaria, and Naplese Croatia. Final war, that established their power in central Europe was the alliance with Golden Horde, that not only allowed them to evade disastrous Mongol invasion, but also to conquer parts of south-eastern Poland. Unfortunately, next kings made huge concessions to regional feudal lords, that eventually turned against them.

Starting from year 1375, Hungary received series of blows from every direction, waging war almost continuously for 100 years. At first they lost war with rebel Babenbergs of Austria, then also with Poland, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Greek-Bulgarian alliance. Till the 1475 Hungary lost it`s western and southern lands, and status of regional power.

In year 1475 Magyars were surrounded by enemies. Strong kingdom of Poland had claims on Hungarian Podolia, and Duchy of Moldavia on Bessarabia. Relations with orthodox Tsardom of Bulgaria to the south were still hostile. But the biggest enemy was Archduchy of Austria, that possessed large portion of Pannonian plain. To survive, kings of Hungary would have to work hard to improve their relations with neighbors. Because both Austria and Poland were enemies of von Frankens, Arpads were strengthening their efforts to create strong alliance with Germany...



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Origin of Bulgaria was quite similar to that of Hungary. Some tribes of nomadic Bulgars, that migrated into Black Sea steppes in IIIrd century, crossed Danube river and conquered land between Thrace, Danube and Macedonia in VIIth century. Years between VIIIth and Xth centuries saw creation of First Bulgarian Empire, that accepted orthodox faith (864) and became one of the major European powers. Bulgaria fell to Byzantine Empire in year 1018 after series of disastrous wars, including Bosnian and Serbian rebellions, invasion of Magyars, and conflicts with Rus`.

Byzantium ruled Bulgaria from 1018 to 1198, when they were destroyed by Seljuk Turks and their allies. Even though muslim invaders were repelled by Polish-German Crusade, they stayed south of Danube river for much longer. Finally Bulgarians under leadership of prominent noble - Asen, regained independence after successful uprising in year 1280. Thus started Second Bulgarian Empire - Asen styled himself 'Emperor (Tsar) of Bulgars, Greeks and Vlachs'. However, despite his ambitions Bulgaria was in fact very weak and small country, and an 'Empire' only from name.

In years 1320-1322 tsar Boril I conquered Wallachia, after bloody war, but had to give it back to the Hungarians after their invasion two years later. To defend against such powerful neighbor, tsar created an alliance with young kingdom of Greece. Two orthodox countries coexisted in cordial relations, and Bulgarian armies helped Greeks to repel Muslims from the Peloponnese on several occasions.

When mighty Hungary began to fall apart at the turn of XIVth and XVth century, Asenes waged two successful wars against Arpads, that resulted with release Wallachia as a independent principality (1440), and it`s annexation by Bulgaria (1458).

In year 1475, Tsardom of Bulgaria was strongly centralized country ruled by an iron fist of Tsar supported by Orthodox clergy. Long alliance with Greece seemed strong, given the fact that both countries were surrounded by Catholics. However, some Greek nobles supported an idea to liberate Constantinople from kingdom of Naples, and reestablish Eastern Roman Empire. In such case, friendship between two Orthodox countries could be seriously undermined..


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Rulers of Moldavia, inhabited by Slavs and descendants of Dacians speaking unique Romance language, shifted several times in history. Till the beginning of second millennium they were under rule of Avars, Bulgars, Magyars and Pachenegs. From 1089 to 1180 Moldavia, Bessarabia and Cherson were part of Hungary that introduced Catholic faith to local population. Later they were replaced by Sultanate of Seljuk Turks (1180-1191), and Poland (1191-1250, 1280-1322). From year 1322 Duchy became theoretically independent, but in fact it acted as kind of buffer state between Hungary and Golden Horde. Due agreement between Sartaq Chan and Lajos II, Moldavia had to remain independent, as a guarantee of peace between two powers. Thus, small duchy happened to be an area of 'Cold War' between Mongols and Arpads, where each of them wanted to gain more influence. Agreement was broken by Hungary in year 1365, when it annexed Moldavia together with Ruthenian vassal. Moldavia appeared as independent state after uprising of year 1430, but was struggling to survive.

Slavic, Catholic kingdoms of Croatia and Serbia, as well as duchy of Bosnia, and City-Republic of Ragusa, appeared as sovereign states after collapse of Hungary in years 1375-1450. Up to year 1475 they were united by common, Hungarian foe, but once foe is gone, they would seek a way to extend their power even at the expense of former allies...


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Balkans in years 1066-1475



 
RGB, Fijj, EvilSanta, Ahura Mazda, VILenin, Emperor_krk, Congo, Elecwaves - thank you :)

Rensslaer - Thank you sir - well, readers should decide :D


OK. An update - I`ve added frames (thx ComradeOm for idea), so that images looks IMO better, and I experimented further on map, so that it looks more like 'old map'. :)

I only hope that what I`ve written makes some sense, is not too much boring, and there`s not many grammar mistakes. :rolleyes:
 
So - okay - interesting.

The Evil Traitor Hungarians (forever hated in Poland no doubt) are in dire straits now, seemingly.

Also, Catholics everywhere! Even in Serbia! Well, figures, after the Hungarian occupation and whatnot.

And Hungary was never invaded by the Mongols, was it? Must have most of its stuff still largely intact.

The Bulgarians and the Greeks will definitely quarrel over Constantinople should it be recovered, but what are the Neapolitans doing there in the first place?


Your maps are just so neat! I don't know how much time you spend, but you've got the neat borders and the colour scales and everything so well-laid-out.
 
Yep, Serbia converted quite fast in the game, somewhere around 1250, as you can see here .
Yes indeed, Hungary was spared by Mongols, thus they had higher population at start of EUIII, but that didn`t help them much. :)

Hauntevilles conquered Constantinople, along with Crete and Cyprus somewhere around 1300, when Seljuks were collapsing into all those smallish sheikdoms/beydoms.

Well, map didn`t take so much times, it`s all thanks to getting more experience in using Photoshop, layers, filters etc.
 
The idea of the lack of Orthodoxy in the Balkans irritates me. Just as much as the lack of a Byzantine Empire :p. But that's just me, right? THe Hungarians were lucky, being able to ally the Mongols. I thought this wasn't at all possible in CK.
Love it. Descriptive as usual, easy to understand... And the frames in the pictures look really great - adding to the 'atmosphere' of it in some way ;).

For some reason, I love the image of the tsar you put above the description of Bulgaria. Would you be so kind as to give me the name of the authro of the picture, or perhaps the source of the image?
 
Emperor_krk said:
THe Hungarians were lucky, being able to ally the Mongols. I thought this wasn't at all possible in CK.

It's possible, I've done it several times myself (in fact rather repeatedly) in CK; of course making them same religion as you also helps with the alliance offers, but I managed even before I made them Orthodox. Granted I played a long time ago, I don't know how the latest game versions work.

For some reason, I love the image of the tsar you put above the description of Bulgaria. Would you be so kind as to give me the name of the authro of the picture, or perhaps the source of the image?

It's by Dimitr Gudjenov (called Tsar Simeon). HERE is one source for the image.
 
thrashing mad said:
RGB, Fijj, EvilSanta, Ahura Mazda, VILenin, Emperor_krk, Congo, Elecwaves - thank you :)

Rensslaer - Thank you sir - well, readers should decide :D


OK. An update - I`ve added frames (thx ComradeOm for idea), so that images looks IMO better, and I experimented further on map, so that it looks more like 'old map'. :)

I only hope that what I`ve written makes some sense, is not too much boring, and there`s not many grammar mistakes. :rolleyes:


No thrashing mad, thank you
 
good stuff, your map is as beautiful as always
 
So, stage is almost set?

As much as I love your background updates, I would love to hear some new stories about glorious kings of Poland. Personally, I liked Henryk III Gruby the most. And of course Henryk I Heretyk from CK part. How come all the best kings in this AAR are Henryk's? :)
 
Emperor_krk - Thanks. Yes, I`m also not very happy with 'catholicized' Balkans, but this is how the game went - but there will be spread of reformation in 50 years or so, that would add to the diversity.

As for Mongol-Hungarian alliance. Well, there was no formal aliance (at least I didn`t notice it), but they weren`t fighting each other, while conquering Poland together. Aliance is just my interpretation.

Yeah that`s very nice picture - I see that RGB already gave link to it. It was really hard to find some pictures related to Bulgaria - image on the left is in fact showing Hungarian noble-knight and Byzantine official. :)

Judas Maccabeus - Yes Indeed. :D

Manziel, Fijj, EvilSanta, Grubnessul - Thank you guys. Like EvilSanta guessed - Greece/Asia Minor next. :) Then update Middle East, small update with few maps showing Europe as a whole (economy, religion), and finally I`ll get back to actual playing. I also planned to post video summary of Poland, but it`ll took me some time to finish (whole thing could be even 1h long :wacko: ).

Alojzy - Yes it`s almost done. Yeah, I also enjoyed writing about Henryk`s most, especially rise to power of devious Henryk the Stern. :D I guess that it`s just coincidence with their names, as they are randomly generated. :)