The Grand History of Croatia - A Mega Campaign AAR

[IamWhoa]

Man, that is Crusader Kings alright.

Giving London to England is pretty modest given that they are being swamped by Muslim invaders. Go for it, I say.

[phargle]

I think we can all agree that a Muslim England is much more interesting. If you disagree, at least pick a country you think would be funny to see go Muslim, and give London to them.

[CountArach]

@ asd - Yep, things have certainly splintered a great deal there. Even Apulia aren't doing much.

@ IamWhoa - I think I will, thanks.

@ phargle - Muslim England? That would be totally gavelkind...

[CountArach]

Chapter 2 – 1151 to 1154

Having now conquered some territory and shown himself to be a contender in the Balkans, King Tomislav now set about consolidating his rule and expanding the economic ability of his Kingdom. Unfortunately, since the beginning of the rule of King Trpimir decentralisation had become commonplace and as such King Tomislav could only have a small effect on the economy. For this reason King Tomislav was forced to be creative. Granting his subjects large sums of money, he insisted that this money be spent on public works. Of course, much of it was not used for this purpose, but some of it was. This diffusion of funds occurred throughout much of 1151.

July 26th, 1151 saw the birth of the King’s second son, Ljutomisl. This boy would also be raised mostly by his father, which was strange for Kings of the time and undoubtedly attracted some raised eyebrows from the nobility. Of course, King Tomislav was not the best father all the time. He would often give his children toys whenever they demanded them, using public money to purchase these.


July 26th, 1151 – King Tomislav has a second son.

During 1152, King Tromislav was forced to make a similar choice to that of his father. The burghers had expected that some of the laws regarding management of the cities that King Tomislav’s predecessor had created would be reversed. When no such moves were made or indicated, there were murmurs of revolt. Instead of simply petitioning the King, as they did in the past, this time open revolt broke out and for the third time in two decades Senj was militarised. King Tomislav was not destined to be a friend of the Burghers. However, this revolt was beaten down much faster than the previous two and no major stoppages occurred.


1152 – The Burghers threaten to revolt again.

The old King of France died on August 11th of 1154, and the new King Philippe offered a renewal of the former alliance. This was instantly accepted by King Tomislav – he was not willing to stop the Kingdom’s history of close alliances with the Kingdom of France.


[i]August 1154 – The alliance with France is renewed.[/]

During late 1154 the church issued proclamations whereupon they called the Kings of Christendom to grant more money to the church in order to “better alleviate the ills that afflict society, such as the most crippling poverty which leads to pauperism.” King Tomislav complied with this and indeed it is likely that he actually felt that it was his duty as a King to look out for all of his subjects (excluding the Burghers).


Late 1154 – King Tomislav gives alms to the poor.

The next chapter shall examine up until the end of 1158, when King Tomislav fights a major war and makes many decisions about his children’s future.

[Enewald]

Bad father, giving stuff allways when asked, excluding burghers.

[Capibara]

Good to see alliance with France renewed, what will the next step be?

[phargle]

Tromislav. A mortal enemy if ever there was one. And his son has a name worthy of being his own mortal enemy. I hope Tommy-slov's decision regarding his son is to send him into exile.

By the way - screw the burghers. They don't know what's good for them.

[stnylan]

Ohh, a major war is on the horizon - excellent

[asd21593]

Major war?!

Is this the conquest of Italy I've been craving so much?...



asd

[demokratickid]

I just finished reading the entire thing, and I must say it is very well done. I like your style very much. I hope, to echo asd21593, that Italy is the next step...

[Snugglie]

Originally Posted by CountArach

@ asdnumbers - Thanks, I got it from the new AARlander. A great tutorial in there.

Just peeping in and looking around a little, and noticed this comment from you, plus your maps. Heart-warming to see that someone is using them!

[asd21593]

Originally Posted by Snugglie

Just peeping in and looking around a little, and noticed this comment from you, plus your maps. Heart-warming to see that someone is using them!

For God's sake, just call me "asd"!

I really hate my username and I've tried to get it changed.

Unfortunately, they don't do that anymore...



asd

[CountArach]

@ Enewald - I have a feeling the Burghers are just gonna have to learn to deal with it

@ Capibara - We shall see in the next chapter

@ phargle - I like the subtle way you point out the typo

@ stnylan - Croatia is always on the verge of major war.

@ asd - Again, we shall see. Also, the numbering comes from copying/pasting people's names.

@ demokratickid - Welcome aboard! I am glad to hear you enjoyed it.

@ Snugglie - You are welcome. Thanks for writing the tutorial.

[CountArach]

I would normally have an update for you, but I have come down with a really nasty cold and as such you will have to wait for a bit.

So yah, sorry I guess.

Also thanks for all of those who voted for me in the ACAs. Somehow I got votes in the Gameplay AAR segment as well as the History Book segment . Congratulations to all the winners!

[CountArach]

Chapter 3 – 1155 to 1158

As will be remembered, King Tomislav had renewed the nation’s alliance with France late in the last chapter. King Philippe Capet was keen to see just how serious the new Croatian leader was about this alliance. Another war between France and Germany had been brewing for a number of years and this finally boiled over. On January 9th 1155, war was declared and a request was sent to King Tomislav. The King realised that this was a great opportunity for him to make some territorial gains, and as such he joined the war.


January 9th 1155 – War begins once again with Germany.

The targets available to King Tomislav were not numerous. Much of Northern Italy had revolted and the King of Bohemia had conquered most of Eastern Germany. The only County still loyal to the Holy Roman Emperor was the small County of Urbino, which conveniently bordered on Croatia’s Italian foothold in Ancona. The County was not large, and as such not many soldiers were mobilised (Only the Counties of Ancona and Istria were, due to their geographic location). Altogether 5000 soldiers were deemed to be the necessary amount, and these stood against the 1200 men of Count Otto of Urbino. However, the soldiers from Istria would have to travel by ship and as such the 2000 men from Ancona would fight in the first battle.


February 28th – The campaign in Urbino.

Unfortunately for the Croatians, Count Otto was one of the greatest generals of the time. He had won numerous victories during the later days of the Northern Italian rebellions and he was a master of fighting a campaign where he was outnumbered. Count Otto used his archers as skirmishers in the woodlands, having them dart out to fire upon these horsemen, before fading back into the forest. Eventually the cavalry commanders became annoyed and they led several charges into the woods themselves. This led to mass disorganisation and the light infantry who were hidden throughout the woods were capable of butchering many of the horses, thus breaking the nerve of the men who rode atop them.

Eventually Count Balazs of Ancona was able to force a general battle on March 22nd. The lack of horsemen meant that he lost the fight on the flanks, but when the battle in the centre of the line came about the weight of numbers started to tell on the line of the Italian soldiers. They were slowly pushed back and a general rout would have occurred if the horsemen had not been able to swing around and hit the rear of the Croatian line. This broke the Croatian nerve, thus causing a general withdrawal. However, the withdrawal occurred in good order and few men were killed in the rout. The first campaign of the war had been won by the greatly outnumbered Italians.


March 22nd – The first campaign in Urbino comes to an end.

The Italians were now in a position where they were facing off against a fresh army. In the month since the campaign had begun, the soldiers from Istria had arrived in Ravenna and were marching south to attack Urbino. Seeing no other choice, Count Otto marched north to fight them. No doubt he realised he was marching to his death and taking most of his men with him. This time the Croatians had knights at their disposal (indeed the number of knights outnumbered the entire Italian army), as well as incredibly large numbers of peasants. They were, however, deprived of heavy infantry. Most importantly though, the Croatians had 3000 men whilst the Italians could only muster just under 600 men.


March 23rd – The second campaign of the war begins in Ravenna.

The tactics of Count Otto would not work this time, in fact there was nothing he could do except fight a delaying action and pray that reinforcements would arrive. Given that the closest possible reinforcements would be weeks away would have loomed heavily on the Count’s mind. As it happens, these soldiers were already on the march – though they were heading west to fight the French. When battle finally arrived, the knights proved to be a strong enough hammer to break the army of the Italians for good, with the light cavalry proving able to run down the entire force, with the exception of Count Otto and his bodyguard.


April 7th – The campaign in Ravenna is won by the Croatians.

The siege of Urbino was over very quickly, as most of the defenders had been died on the fields of battle during the preceding months. On June 4th 1155 Urbino was completely under Croatian control and negotiations began. Naturally, they were heavily slanted in favour of the Croatians and ultimately Count Otto was forced to recognise King Tomislav as the Count of Urbino. A peace envoy was also sent to King Ingbrand of Germany with an offer of peace. Stubbornly, the offer was refused and as such negotiations would continue for more than a year.

In the meantime King Tomislav was petitioned by some in the clergy of Vas to ban the practice of trade in Church Squares. This was something that King Trpimir had ignored quite vehemently, even going so far as to provide armed guards for the Burghers who wished to practice their trades in these areas. King Tomislav, having already set himself up as a friend of the Church, decided that it was better to force the Burghers to practice their trade elsewhere. This was just one of many smaller reforms that would be carried out in the next few years to further increase the power of the clergy.


King Tomislav continues to favour the church’s wants over those of the Burghers

By the time the New Year 1156 rolled around King Tomislav believed himself to be in a position where he could safely create a new Duchy in Central Italy. He declared himself the holder of an old, somewhat archaic title – that of the Duke of Urbino. He then granted this title and the County of Urbino to be the purview of Balazs, now raised to Duke. This is strange when you consider the inept performance of the Count during the preceding war. The local Italians were used to this man though, and as such it was most probably simply smart politics.


The new Duchy of Urbino.

On March 7th 1156, the King’s 4th child was born, a son named Luka. Unfortunately, throughout his life he would exhibit many sign of inbreeding. This was because King Tomislav and his wife Julia were indeed second cousins. Perhaps because this relationship was relatively distant the first two children of the marriage would not exhibit these signs of inbreeding. King Tomislav sent Luka off to the monks to have them raise him by way of attempting to atone for the sin he had committed.

1157 passed without too many troubles. The war with Germany dragged on throughout the year, though neither Kingdom actively pursued any attempts to attack each other. Much of King Tomislav’s time was spent teaching his children. He cultivated some ideas in the head of the younger Tomislav that some would consider undesirable. He made his son believe that they were born to rule and that they should be proud to the point of arrogance about this. He raised Ljutsomisl to be somewhat more temperate, fully expecting his second son to do much of the governing while the eldest son was Ruling.

Finally January 1158 came about with a peace treaty with the Holy Roman Emperor. The Croatians would not receive any compensation, though nor did they actually seek out any. Similarly the Holy Roman Emperor had shown face in front of his often-capricious nobility. Thus, both sides believed they had come off as winners.


January 27th 1158 – Peace with the Holy Roman Empire.

One of the few times that King Tomislav set himself up against the church would come about in March of 1158. The nobility asked permission to hunt on church lands in the north, which had grown considerably while King Tomislav resided in Senj. King Tomislav accepted the demands; after all he needed these nobles to serve in his armies. Further, as the King would write in his diaries, “Whilst these men are about hunting for a multitude of rabbits, they are not hunting for my singular place atop the throne.” This is a bizarre statement that is more typical of what we expect of the later King Tomislav and is one of the signs of a paranoia creeping in.

The year 1158 would end in peace, with King Tomislav spending gradually more and more time with his children, allowing the Kingdom to run itself. These children were one of the few people that King Tomislav believed he could trust (In fact most of his court was very loyal to him). The next chapter shall take us up to 1162, when Croatia comes to be eclipsed by a new regional power.

[Enewald]

Eww, inbreeding.

Go hroats!

[phargle]

Originally Posted by CountArach

Crashing through the sky comes the fearful cry:
Cobra! (Cobra!) Cobra! (Cobra!)

[CountArach]

@ Enewald - Yeah, not good. To be honest I didn't even look at the last name of the one I was marrying...

@ phargle - I didn't even see that...

[stnylan]

Well done in seeing off the German onslaught. Adn the ducal appointment sounds like very good politics indeed.

[CountArach]

Chapter 4 – 1159 to 1162

The seeds of many future wars would be sown through 1159 to 1162. King Tomislav had proven himself adept at war and by now Croatia had a large pool of manpower to draw from. In fact, they were capable of bringing over 60000 men under arms by some estimates. King Tomislav had also shown himself to be willing to fight in the traditional area of Croatian wars – Serbia, as well as in the Italian Counties.

Perhaps it was a combination of seizing Hum some years earlier and besting the Holy Roman Empire in a war in the more recent years that caused King Tomislav to declare that he was the rightful Count of Zeta. The declaration was made in the Bishophric of Split on October 23rd 1159. This was a statement that the old Croatia was in some ways returning. The Byzantine Empire had only grown in power since they had last fought the Croatians and as such King Tomislav was throwing caution to the wind, praying that there would not be an immediate reaction. This may seem like a strange thing to write, yet King Tomislav was at heart, a coward. This cowardice was why there was no immediate war to show that he was serious about this claim.

The years of peace that had come about upon the conclusion of the war with the Holy Roman Empire had a strange effect on the Kingdom. The nobles in the North and East started to adopt the practices of the Croatian nobility, and within two decades many of the Counts had taken Croatian brides, or had married their sons and daughters off to Croatians. This ‘Croatianising’ was a much longer-term continuation of the later days of King Petar’s reign and would later lead to a real unity within the nobility.


Throughout the 1160s there was a ‘Croatianising’ of the nobility throughout the Kingdom.

The northern minor nobles were not the only ones who were pleased with King Tomislav’s rule. The uppermost ranks of the nobility always seemed to be pleased with his reign – he had brought a great deal of peace and prosperity to the north, as well as curtailing the power of the rising Burgher class. The King always insisted on holding a fair trial when two nobles had grievances with each other (Though when a peasant had a grievance with a noble this rule was ignored).


King Tomislav’s rule at this point was fair and just.

Unfortunately for King Tomislav a severe flu ran through his court for several winters in a row, killing many young family members who were showing a great deal of promise. The constant funerals may have affected King Tomislav in a strange way. His dairies make many short references to death “lurking behind every corner… always waiting for me to turn and stare it in the face.” Again we see the very beginning of a great deal of mental problems that would grow more serious as King Tomislav got older.

As a continuation of the aforementioned policy of shifting Croatia’s focus back to the Serbian region, on October 8th King Tomislav declared himself the rightful Count of Ragusa, citing the precedent of King Petar ‘liberating’ it, allegedly for its own protection. This new claim meant that the Croatian King would now have a claim on Ragusa, Zeta and of course Rashka, one of the claims that King Tomislav inherited from his father. Again, King Tomislav made no immediate efforts to back up these claims, much to the annoyance of some of the southern vassals who believed that they would stand to gain much territory from any expansion into Serbia.


The claims in Serbia.

One of the most important fair trials that was alluded to earlier occurred on November 4th, 1161. The clergy accused Iljko Trpimirovic, one of the many cousins of King Tomislav as well as Chancellor to the King, of using Black Magic. King Tomislav reacted in a way that disappointed both the clergy, in addition to some of those in his own family. He insisted on a fair trial, the result of which was that Chancellor Iljko was found innocent, but was forced to pay compensation to the Church as penance for some alleged misdeeds that were uncovered. These misdeeds have never been made clear and have led some scholars (Henderson: 2007 and Szetzki: 1989) to believe that King Tomislav arranged to have his cousin kept alive in exchange for massive bribery. Such a theory has never been proven and indeed ignores a fundamental aspect of King Tomislav’s personality.


A fair trial is held for Chancellor Iljko and he is found innocent.

Eventually 1162 came about, with little of consequence occurring until September 16th, when the face of Eastern Europe was changed in a way that would have ramifications for Centuries to come. This event is known as the Piast Inheritance.

The Kingdoms of Poland and Hungary had been at peace for 14 year at this point, but prior to that they had two decades of warfare. During the final war of this period, two important events occurred. The first was the death of all of the King’s sons in three separate battles. This meant that the entirety of the inheritance fell upon the King’s only daughter, Julia, who at this point was not of marriageable age. The war’s conclusion saw the Polish come out as absolute victors and as part of the peace settlement Julia was to marry the Piast King of Poland. That marriage had spawned a child, a child who was destined to inherit both the throne of Hungary and the throne of Poland. His name was Fulop Piast.

On September 16th, 1162, King Fulop was raised to the throne upon the death of his father. He was only 14 years old at the time, but already he was in charge of one of the most powerful Kingdoms in the known world. Stretching from the Baltic Sea in the North to the Black Sea in the South, the Kingdom of Poland-Hungary was now capable of destroying anyone who could even come close to threatening its power. One of those potential threats was Croatia.


September 16th 1162 – The Kingdoms of Poland and Hungary are joined


The claims of the new Polish-Hungarian King.

Given King Fulop’s young age, he was not the most security-conscious person. This unfortunate fact meant that a wave of assassinations followed within weeks of his coronation. He would not live to be 15. The next decade saw a quick succession of Polish Kings, most of them too young to govern effectively. There would also be numerous minor revolts as Duchies began to carve out their own power-blocs within this joint Kingdom. Croatia would have to find a way to benefit from this.

In the next chapter we shall observe the occurrences up until the end of 1164, as events quickly escalate and another war is fought.