Boris: Sadly not for long.
blsteen: Indeed! Stay tuned for the next part.
Kapt: They are! But the Byz ones are better. Still, the Ottomans have awesome powers.
Dewi: Yes, like so many rulers, he is beginning to feel that he truly is immortal and everlasting. Of course...as we shall see, he's wrong.
Razgriz: Sadly not for a long time. But one day...one day it'll happen, I promise.
morningSIDEr: Thanks for reading! Your AAR is great as well, and I'm very happy and pleased about all the readers who are happy with this.
Zitanier: This will soon be remedied as you shall see!
Thank you all for your kind words and advice!
BAYZID II PART 3
XXX
16/1/1439
To say that the Padishah was angry would not do his temper justice. He was enraged. He could even be described as ‘incandescent with fury’. For a man who was as dangerous to his friends as well as his enemies, and had a formidable temper, it was not a pleasant experience.
Talena could hear him even in the stables beneath the palace. There was one small bright spot though, her name was now known among the guards of the palace, and they had evidently heard of her defence of Constantinople, and her apparent ability to survive any wounds. So, mostly, they left her alone. The downside was that they left her in the cursed cage which know amount of fiddling would open. They simply passed things through to her, and took them back the same way. One night, in frustration Talena had hammered on one of the iron bars for an hour, cutting her hands open only for them to heal. It had done exactly nothing except make her more angry.
It was as she looked out through the stable to the night sky that she saw something beautiful. It had to be a shooting star, maybe even a comet. Back in the old days she had cherished the moment when her transport had come within a mere hundred miles of a comet and she had seen the celestial beauty.
It seemed that the appreciation of beauty was not shared by the Turks – there was a murmur of voices and many pointing fingers at the sky.
This muttering was cut off by the Padishah’s angry shout, and a long rant. Then, in case any Greeks were listening, he repeated it in that language.
“It is a sign from God that we, the true followers of Allah, will prevail over these usurpers! Tomorrow, we go to war!”
XXX
The ‘Roman Empire’ in the Crimea constituted only a small area around the city of Kaffa, Sudak and Theodosia. However, it did contain the genuine heir to the Imperial Throne – the young Theodorus, and General Romanos, his father, as regent.
The appeal of such a government in exile was dangerous to the Ottomans, and so the Padishah declared war, aiming to conquer and destroy these usurpers.
What followed was a longer campaign than anticipated, as the Ottoman armies advanced by land and sea on Kaffa. Despite an energetic defence, and the assistance of the Despotate of Trebizond, the Ottoman victory was never in doubt. A mere five thousand defenders stood to oppose the Padishah’s mighty army, and in battle it was soon crushed. General Romanos himself fell, cut off from his troops and slain in the melee.
By August 1439 it was over. The city submitted, and the ‘Heir’ Theodorus vanished, presumably murdered by the ruthless Padishah. In November 1440 Trebizond finally submitted and was also annexed.
And so the Ottoman Empire ruled with power in Anatolia unseen since the reign of Basil II ended in 1025. He now ruled all Georgia, Anatolia, Greece and Bulgaria. However, the Padishah was ill. The attempted assassination had never healed properly, and the long campaigns through winter and summer had made him sick. Bayezid stopped at the Sümela Monastery in December 1440, planning to wait for winter to pass before returning to Istanbul. It was there he made his greatest mistake...and paid for it with his life.
blsteen: Indeed! Stay tuned for the next part.
Kapt: They are! But the Byz ones are better. Still, the Ottomans have awesome powers.
Dewi: Yes, like so many rulers, he is beginning to feel that he truly is immortal and everlasting. Of course...as we shall see, he's wrong.
Razgriz: Sadly not for a long time. But one day...one day it'll happen, I promise.
morningSIDEr: Thanks for reading! Your AAR is great as well, and I'm very happy and pleased about all the readers who are happy with this.
Zitanier: This will soon be remedied as you shall see!
Thank you all for your kind words and advice!
BAYZID II PART 3
XXX
16/1/1439
To say that the Padishah was angry would not do his temper justice. He was enraged. He could even be described as ‘incandescent with fury’. For a man who was as dangerous to his friends as well as his enemies, and had a formidable temper, it was not a pleasant experience.
Talena could hear him even in the stables beneath the palace. There was one small bright spot though, her name was now known among the guards of the palace, and they had evidently heard of her defence of Constantinople, and her apparent ability to survive any wounds. So, mostly, they left her alone. The downside was that they left her in the cursed cage which know amount of fiddling would open. They simply passed things through to her, and took them back the same way. One night, in frustration Talena had hammered on one of the iron bars for an hour, cutting her hands open only for them to heal. It had done exactly nothing except make her more angry.
It was as she looked out through the stable to the night sky that she saw something beautiful. It had to be a shooting star, maybe even a comet. Back in the old days she had cherished the moment when her transport had come within a mere hundred miles of a comet and she had seen the celestial beauty.
It seemed that the appreciation of beauty was not shared by the Turks – there was a murmur of voices and many pointing fingers at the sky.
This muttering was cut off by the Padishah’s angry shout, and a long rant. Then, in case any Greeks were listening, he repeated it in that language.
“It is a sign from God that we, the true followers of Allah, will prevail over these usurpers! Tomorrow, we go to war!”
XXX
The ‘Roman Empire’ in the Crimea constituted only a small area around the city of Kaffa, Sudak and Theodosia. However, it did contain the genuine heir to the Imperial Throne – the young Theodorus, and General Romanos, his father, as regent.
The appeal of such a government in exile was dangerous to the Ottomans, and so the Padishah declared war, aiming to conquer and destroy these usurpers.
What followed was a longer campaign than anticipated, as the Ottoman armies advanced by land and sea on Kaffa. Despite an energetic defence, and the assistance of the Despotate of Trebizond, the Ottoman victory was never in doubt. A mere five thousand defenders stood to oppose the Padishah’s mighty army, and in battle it was soon crushed. General Romanos himself fell, cut off from his troops and slain in the melee.
By August 1439 it was over. The city submitted, and the ‘Heir’ Theodorus vanished, presumably murdered by the ruthless Padishah. In November 1440 Trebizond finally submitted and was also annexed.
And so the Ottoman Empire ruled with power in Anatolia unseen since the reign of Basil II ended in 1025. He now ruled all Georgia, Anatolia, Greece and Bulgaria. However, the Padishah was ill. The attempted assassination had never healed properly, and the long campaigns through winter and summer had made him sick. Bayezid stopped at the Sümela Monastery in December 1440, planning to wait for winter to pass before returning to Istanbul. It was there he made his greatest mistake...and paid for it with his life.