An Croatian AAR--The votes are in and counted.

[Singleton Mosby]

A week ago I asked all readers to vote on which country the liked to see an AAR writen. With overwhelming votes Croatia won. So here it is, my second AAR, the Croatian AAR.

Chapters:

1. The Venetian war
2. The war on Wallachia
3. The Hunagrian/ Serbian war
4. The war on Moldavia
5. The Serbian wars
6. The calm before the storm
7. The first Ottoman war
8. The eroding alliance
9. The second Ottoman war
10. The treacherous Ventians
11. Slavonic freedom
12. The war of Moldavian independence
13. Hrascovic's faulty rule
14. The Hungarians help out the king
15. 1515-> 1575, The Slavonic empire revisited
16. The Aztec oppurtunity
17. The war of Trieste
18. The first Brandenburger war
19. The Slavonic 'golden age'

[Singleton Mosby]

The sound of laughter spread trough the large hall as a jester performed his silly tricks just in front of the King’s table. An all night banquet was held to honour his newborn, second son, dozens of noblemen from all over Croatia where assembled in the medieval hall where nothing represented the new thoughts of the Renaissance. Then there where a few splendid clothed nobles from the Italian kingdoms. Their clothing as revolutionary as their thoughts. Hungary and Austria where also represented. And there even sat an odd looking nobleman from the ‘Roman’ city of Byzantium on the long, wooden table.

Then the king of Croatia stood up, clothed in red and white garments. He raised his glass and spoke.

“I thank you all for coming to this banquet as representatives of your splendid countries. Let me send out thanks and gratitude to your kings for their presents and let us live together in peace for the future. Now, let us celebrate the life of my dear son, Nicolas, let him live long and let him live in peace and prosperity.”

He brought the crystal glass of wine to his red lips and took a large swig. Then he released the crystal again from his lips and put it onto the table.

“Let us feast!”
And the music started playing.

Great dishes of food where brought in from the kitchen and a lovely smell of food filled the hall. All tables where filled with the best spices available and large carafes of wine and other kinds of brew. Then dancers, male and female swept away a large red curtain and entered the room, twirling and swinging trough the room while the music played. In a corner a poet was telling tales of heroes of the ancient times, nobles discussed current political and military affairs throughout the world, especially the faith of Byzantium. In another corner a great brown dancing bear performed his tricks while his master pointed at him with his stick.

The food was eaten and the fluids drunk and an hour of feast passed before the king called for another silence. He waved his hand and a white clothed troubadour played his trumpet. As the sound ebbed away the king stood from his chair and staggered for a moment. He grabbed the table edge and lifted himself full out of his silk-clothed chair. Then he spoke with a slight drunk accent;

“No, before we continue. I like to present to you the subject of this feast, the guest of honour of this party. My two weeks old son, Nicolas.”

One of the large doors of the hall opened and a rather young lady with long dark hair and a long purple dress entered the room. On her left arm she held a white towel out of which a small baby face was visible. The sleeping Nicolas on her arms she walked past the tables and all represent in the room and showed them the king’s second son before leaving them in silence.

As the doors closed the music played again and floated trough the night sky of Zagreb. A party started which would last till late in the night or the early morning.

Three hours had passed and the first attendants had left for their bed when a young troubadour stood up and stuck a snare of his guitar, using the space of a little silence to bring on a song about an ancient empire.

“The continent of Atlantis was an island
which lay before the great flood
in the area we now call the Atlantic Ocean.
So great an area of land, that from her western shores
those beautiful sailors journeyed
to the South and the North Americas with ease,
in their ships with painted sails.

To the East Africa was a neighbour, across a short strait of sea miles.
The great Egyptian age is but a remnant of The Atlantian culture.
The antediluvian kings colonised the world
All the Gods who play in the mythological dramas
In all legends from all lands were from fair Atlantis.
Knowing her fate, Atlantis sent out ships to all corners of the Earth.
On board were the Twelve:
The poet, the physician, the farmer, the scientist,
The magician and the other so-called Gods of our legends.
Though Gods they were -
And as the elders of our time choose to remain blind
Let us rejoice and let us sing and dance and ring in the new
Hail Atlantis!”

When the troubadour silenced after singing his song a Genoese nobleman spoke.
“The song is wise but I do not agree we are blind as the young troubadour states. I have heard of the ancient Geek writer Plato who promised us Atlantis would be found passed the gates of the Mediterranean sea. But we never found it there although numerous journeys have been made. I have been to the Canary islands, a possible candidate for the site where we can find Atlantis and found nothing, to me it is just a myth.”

Then the king bellowed with a drunk tongue; “What a crap, an empire that was entirely lost and never found again. Such a thing could not possibly be. I shall personally lead a quest to find it, if it is there it can be found. And I will find it even if it is the last thing I do.”

All gathered around knew this was only a thing the king spoke out in his drunkenness. Croatia had never been an Atlantic seafaring nation and a lot had to happen before this could be.
A Croatian noblemen spoke towards this subject. “I think we would do a good thing to send out ships to the west as I heard great stories of the Portugal, Argons and Catalonian kingdoms sending out explorers and colonizers to settle the African west coast. They say the inhabitants of the great forests they encounter are black as the darkest night. A thing I find hard to believe but nonetheless we could learn from the story and send our own explorers and settlers. Who knows Croatia will be a large empire once and her name reigns earth.”

“We already rule the earth.” The king bellowed.” All around us shiver to the sound of our name.”

Not paying attention to the drunk king the Byzantine noblemen stepped forward. “Let us pay attention to thing that really maters, the real subjects at hand in stead of talking and dreaming of myths and legends. Let us face east in stead of west. My kingdom is threatened by the Ottoman hordes. Armies of soldiers which will engulf all of us if we do not take care of them, if we do not guard ourselves. Let us face east before we turn to the west.”

And so the talk went on deep into the night and the early morning and some of the king advisors knew the Muslim struggle at hand would need all their attention in the coming time. Meanwhile the king murmured about Atlantis, the dream and myth.

[Anibal]

Nice prologue!

Good luck! And be carefull on those austrian, hungarians and turkish! May Croatia rule them (and the Earth)!

[Sabre Man]

Great start

[Singleton Mosby]

Thanks,

more to come.

[A26]

Good start... liked the bard's poem ... very euh.... sixties

[J. Passepartout]

Ah, Atlantis. I hope to meet with the king if/when he arrives here.

[Languish]

I see pain, much pain coming

[Matija]

Great........

[Singleton Mosby]

liked

the bard's poem ... very euh ....sixties

Well Donovan realy rules but did you know he already sang his songs/tales in the 1420's I did not but discovered it yesterday. Who.. he must be some thing like a vampire!

[Singleton Mosby]

see pain, much pain coming

Well and I feel much pain comming king Postek is a compulsive drinker but the greatest of all kings (or so it looks) he will leadus to victory, death or drunkness.

[Singleton Mosby]

The next morning King Postek awoke to the rays of the sun. It was almost noon and he rose with a headache knowing there would be a hard, tough day ahead.
The first guests had left early this morning and all who had to travel far went the east, trough Hungary and Austria. The western roads had been closed ever since the Venetian war broke out seven months earlier but so far no attack had been made on Croatia. Hungary had joined his vassal in the war and had protected her fighting a series of small battles in the province of Istria.
Postek new this fortunate action could not last. He had no large force to withstand an attack and then there was no money to raise or maintain any.
And so his tactic was to wait out and sue for peace.

[Singleton Mosby]

But peace did not come when on the 27th of February Venetian troops crossed the Croatian border and marched on Gradec (Zagreb), the nations capital. Small skirmishing had taken place from the mountain passes in the west till their arrival on the hills overlooking Gradec. No fighting took place as Postek knew this would be useless at this moment. His army had withdrawn to the region of Krapina and so would he do. The Venetian army marched on a long detour past the capital trough the plains of eastern Croatia in a search for battle with the small Croatian army.
Meanwhile Polteks military commanders had assembled a considerable force amounting to 1.000 trained foot soldiers, 4.000 cavaliers and 2.000 militia.

A clash between the two armies would be inevitable because king Poltec had to defeat his country even when the task was deemed impossible and so he decided to make a stand around the monastery of Lepoglava twenty miles to the east of his current position. The natural power of the valley in which the monastery was situated would give him a place to defend against an overwhelming enemy. And next to this, the monastery walls could be used as to make a defensive stance.
The battle that followed on march the 13 th was short but bloody. The 15.000 Venetians where split in two forces, one smaller holding force which would tie down he Croatian left and another force of 12.000 men that would strike at the Croatian right. The holding battle was indecisive as expected but because of the little pressure the Venetian forces put on this part of the front, the Croatian commander, Hracovec could order 1.500 of his best men out of the small battle and into a reserve force behind the 14th century monastery.

The Venetian right struck the Croatian left and drove it back while outnumbering their foe almost four to one. Withdrawing for a mile the Croatians remained cohesive as their King stood between them and encouraged them to fight on. When they retreated behind the monastery the brown plastered walls and nearby orchard revealed Hracovec's reserve force which was plunged into the Venetian flank. A raging battle was fought for half an hour but severely dispersed in one place and crowded together in another the Venetians moral cracked and they retreated and routed.




Lepoglava monastry on a stamp.

[Singleton Mosby]

Leaving behind 1.500 of their men, death or wounded they raced for the border of Dalmatia while Poltek and Hracovec cased them on in victory. three days after the battle a new detachment of 8.000 troops strengthened the Croatian forces and Poltek ordered his army to chase the Venetians even further into Dalmatia itself. At a small battle near the town of Ulanda he was thrown back without any severe loss except for his will to continue. Poltek ordered his forces to retreat on Gradec and went on to state business himself, leaving Hracovec in full command. He arranged a royal marriage with Siena and thought about entering the alliance of Hungary and Bohemia.

But this all was not to be. On the twentieth of may a Venetian contingent arrived at the Gradec gate and called on the city to surrender. Not wanting to lose his capital King Postek ordered the gates closed and the garrison under arms. He wondered why there had been no warning of the approaching enemy. A thing which he would only find out in October when the siege was lifted. Hracovec had given battle to a second invading force and was defeated with a quarter of his men lost on the field of battle. After this battle of Veldoja ten days of swift and hasty retreat followed into. Another small battle and the loss of 120 more men convinced Hracovec to another retreat and he entered Hungary. With the Venetian army on its trail Gradec, in the meantime was besieged.

[Singleton Mosby]

Most of June saw the two armies facing each other along the river Drava and when the Venetians forded the river the Croatians where awaiting them, a Hungarian army of 7.000 men amongst them. The subsequent battle of Peasaca on the 28th of June and that of Aradesc on the first of July saw the Hungarian-Croatian victorious. The Venetians gave up their Hungarian adventure with a loss of four thousand men and withdrew into Croatia planning to besiege Gradec with their remaining 13.000 men. But Hracovec saw an opportunity in the two Hungarian victories and crossed the Drava two days behind his enemy. Five days later, both armies met in the valley near the small village of Belec.

The Venetian army took up a defensive position a hundred yards behind the small stream running trough the village, their forces centred on the stream. 13.000 Venetians faced 12.000 Croatians who arrived early in the morning of the eight of July. Both armies remained in their positions for the better time of the morning and around noon Hracovec's cavalry force set out on a wide flanking march. The Venetian cavalry countered and barred their way at the little stream, two miles down the valley. A little fight convinced the Croatian cavalry commander to leave his operations and return with half of his force to Hracovec's main force. 500 men where sent out on a detour of another mile. At three o'clock in the afternoon two columns of Croatian infantry advanced on the stream in their front, planning to attack the Venetian force in their centre and left flank. The village in between them.
But at the same hour the 500 Croatian horsemen charged the Venetian right flank and where defeated with severe loss in a very bloody affair while their comrades watched the spectacle, one mile to their left. A hundred of the cavaliers somehow 'crawled' back tot their former positions but the rest remained on the field of death, either death or dying, wounded or captured.


The Belec church.

[Singleton Mosby]

Knowing the battle lost Hracovec ordered his infantry columns to fall back but the commander of the left column of 4.000 men did not received the order or put it down besides him. He advanced and passed the brook under an increasing hail of Venetian arrows and bolts and ordered a charge at 600 yards. Few of his men reached their enemy because of the withering hail of fire, the rest sought refuge in the village and the 13th century church. Then the Venetian forces counter-attacked and a large group of mounted noblemen drove trough the few streets but was soon flushed out of the village not adapted to this kind of fighting. They retreated, dismounted and led an 8.000 men assault on the village.
A tremendous fight erupted around the old village and in the small ruins of an ancient fort. Seven Croatian archers top up a post in the ancient Roman belfry and wreaked havoc on their enemy below them. Knowing his men outnumbered and in some severe danger Hracovec sent in the centre column and twenty minutes later his entire infantry reserve. Meanwhile the Venetian commander ordered more and more troops into the village and its surroundings. Buildings where severely damaged and only the church survived unscathed, although its interior was damaged from a Croatian stand of a dozen soldiers and their fighting. When the sun set the fighting died down and both sides turned towards their starting point, although Hracovec remained in possession of the ruined village and so declared the battle a victory. Both sides suffered losses in excess of 3.000 men and the Croatians could feel their losses in the mounted wing.
But it where those troops who Hracovec the real victory he needed instead of the standoff he had achieved on this day.

[Singleton Mosby]

Both armies marched five miles apart from each other for two days while mounted troops assaulted each others troops and army followers.
At the mountain pass of Ajuco the Croatian cavalry brought victory. One of their knights was from the local area and advised his commander to march a large force swiftly into the pass and block it before the Venetians could cross it. And so a race for the pass ensued which was won by the natives. The small valley was now corked by 3.000 men of cavalry and trough the nature their position was untakable by even the largest army. 10.000 Venetians marched into the bottle made up by mountains on two sides and the remaining 6.000 Croatians where the bottle's bottom.

No fighting ensued immediately and this stand off lasted for long hours. Then the Venetians attempted a break trough on the cavalry force and failed. That evening talks of surrender took place and the Venetian commander agreed to leave Croatia and advice his government on a peace treaty which was signed on the third of November.

Hracovec marched into Gradec with the full glory of his campaign and Postek gave him a barony to thank him. A slow starting war had culminated into a hard fought four month campaign in which the Croats won their war. No ground was gained but they where left alone for now while Hungary continued to wage war before returning to a status quo peace in January 1420.


The old town of Gradec (Zagreb).

[Anibal]

Nice reading, nice writting! And nice survival war!

You have a good writting. Keep it up! And nice photographs also!

[Singleton Mosby]

Thanks for the praise.

Praise of course is always welcome but contstructive criticism is also welcome.

[Singleton Mosby]

In the meantime a war was waged between Ragusa and Serbia on one side and Moldavia and Wallachia on the other. Postek knew he was making a smart move when he ordered his men to march on the Wallachian border. Altough no one in the army knew why they where marching to this point the spirit was high and all walked the Hungarian countryside speculating on the cause and purpose of the march. A year before, during the Venetian war Wallachia had given us a casus belli by leaving us at the mercy of the Venetians and now Postek was determent to rip the fruits of war from this side. Having beaten of the strong Venetian army he planned to smash the weak Walachians into submission. He declared was on the war torn duchy and defeated their war weary troops in three small fights which might not even bear the name battle. A siege was laid soon and on 14 march of the next year the province fell into our hands and was annexed. Croatia gained ground but would it be strong enough to stand against the Ottomans in the future, the enemy our more than able king was so afraid about.