The Legacy of the White Knight
A Historical Hungary AAR
Cap. VII - King Albert, successes and failures.
King Albert II Hunyadi of Hungary, Sword of Christendom.
Before the war for Wallachia, some things happened in Hungary which would influence that in a more direct way. One of them influence the army, the other, the crown. Together, the crown and the army are the primary sources of a country in a war, so those events were important enough to be noted. The first started around 1500, when a chess tournament took place in Academia Istropolitana. Only notorious people, mostly from Hungary, but from Italy and Germany as well, were allowed to participate or even see. In the event, no less than the Prince Albert Hunyadi was present, as he liked mental games. He didn’t participate, but the final match would take place in front of a throne put in the big room especially from him.Cap. VII - King Albert, successes and failures.
King Albert II Hunyadi of Hungary, Sword of Christendom.
But not only notorious people were, in fact, allowed. A mass of servants was there to serve all this important people, bringing water, food, wine and other delicacies, as well cleaning the place. It was a full day event, after all. All of them were unnoted by the notorious people, with a little exception. In one of the matches, a noble against a university student was taking place. The match was even and tense, as any mistake would spark a chain of reactions that could end the game. A fake mistake could do the same, so both sides took many time in every step, checking, rechecking all the possibilities their minds could find. But a little accident happened. The student, which forgot to eat, so focused in the game, passed out. After the surprise, he was moved to the nursery. The game was still in place and the noble would move be declared winner, when a child, around ten years old, passed close to the table and moved one piece. Some men, which were around looking the match, took him to hand him over the local authority, but the noble intervened.
The boy moved a student’s piece, making an unexpected move which put the noble side in a bad position. The men were waiting for him, but he was looking only to the table, perplexed, ignoring the world around him. His feeling was visible through his face and the men started to ask what happened. The noble hit the table four times in a fast succession with his forefinger of his right hand, then knockdown his king. Everyone was suddenly taken by surprise, but the man took no time. Ordered the boy to sit in front of him to start another match. A movement like that wasn’t a mere accident, but he needed to prove it to himself. During the match, he asked to the boy many things, including how he knew how to play such advanced game and his name. His father was an artisan which did chess pieces from raw materials, nothing noble or expensive like the ones in front of him, and his name was Oszkár. The noble used his influence to put the boy on his place in the tournament. Oszkár quickly became a phenomenon, as all people wanted to see his matches. “The Chess Boy” was his nickname, and such attention bring the prince’s attention, which had the opportunity to see two of his games. Oszkár lost in a quarter final, but his achievement would open many doors to him. The noble would adopt him, but the prince was insistent he wanted Oszkár presence. As only child of Mátyás and future King of Hungary, his desire became true. Enjoying the Hunyadi patronage and being close friend of the king, Oszkár entered in the Military Academy. His intelligence helped him to climb the ranks quickly and became nothing less than the general, named by Albert himself, to leader the Hungarians in the War for Wallachia.
Adopted brother of Albert II of Hungary
The second of those events, related to the Crown, was like another one, still fresh in the mind of the Queen Mother. Helena, tired of what she saw as an apathy of his husband, had many affairs with more...strong man. Albert prefered to be among men than between her wife’s legs, talking about philosophy, strategy, diplomacy or whatever it be, to her, it didn’t matter. After know about that, Albert quickly investigate and imprisoned many of her affairs, but not before imprison herself in a room. He also asked his Archbishop how to proceed to ask for a divorce. The holy man was afraid of the consequences, but, pressed by Albert, went to Rome, many times through the next years, asking for a divorce to his king and the wretched and unfaithful women he had married. For that reason Albert didn’t leadered his army, as he was focused on take care of it as soon as possible, sending Oszkár in his place, fearing no treason as he was his friend since childhood, being even called as Hunyadi for that.
Queen-Consort Helena Habsburg, wife of Albert II of Hungary.
The War for Wallachia
The Hungarians were nothing but ill prepared to the battles. Right after the declaration, the Battle of Tírgoviste took place in 19 February 1515, 20 thousand Hungarians against 9 thousand Wallachians. Oszkár encircled the army, abandoning, at least for this battle, the defensive strategy. The entire Wallachian army surrendered after being flanked during the skirmish phase. The Wallachian commander wasn’t prepared to fight against so many cavalry. The Prince didn’t accept the defeat and prepared the city to the siege which started right after. To hasten this, Oszkár ordered the construction of two Bronze Mortar batteries in Transylvania, to be used in the siege as soon as possible, but those would reach the field just in September. Half of the army was besieging the city and the other half prepared to reinforce them in case of a Turkish attack, but they were pretty busy fighting in the Levant in a brothers bloodshed.
After two years of negotiation, the pope finally conceded Albert his divorce, enraging the Emperor Leopold, which immediately broke his alliance with Hungary and threatened a war. But Albert took care of it. Predicting this reaction, sent letters to many courts of Europe, announcing his war against the Ottomans as a Crusade, blessed by the Pope himself, telling that an attack on Hungary in this moment would be a treason to the Christendom and Excommunication would fall on the head of those that did it. This diplomatic move made Leopold threats be exactly, and no more, than that.
Back in the East, the Turks sent just a token force of 13,000 men to siege Albania. Oszkár sent the free half of his army to engage them, but just before they reach Nis, in Serbia, the Turks retreated. This half of Hungarian army would now seat on the Fortress of Kosovo, close enough to cross the Danube and help in Wallachia and close enough to attack an sieging force in Albania. Their mere presence put many garrisons in Macedonia in check. After almost an year of siege, the Wallachian capital fall after the flight of the prince to Bulgaria and then Constantinople. In one year of campaign, all Wallachian was under Hungarian occupation. Albert diplomacy took place, as he started to negotiate with the local nobles to accept his leadership. Some of them sided with Albert, but the majority prefered to see who would win the conflict. The rest of the year had just two important events, the coronation of Karl Joseph I of Austria as Emperor after the death of his father, Leopold VIII, and the start of the siege of Selanik, an important fortification that would cut the connection of the Turks with Greece. Over land, at least. Joseph continued the hostile policy of his father, claiming the province of Sopron was, in fact, Austrian, but didn’t dare to attack while the Crusade was rolling.
He hadn’t other opportunity, as in April of 1517, he died, letting his wife, Maximiliane von Liebschau, as Empress-Regent of the Holy Roman Empire. Maximiliane, a very devout and faithful woman, was a great admirer of John Hunyadi and his feats against the infidel threat. She took the opportunity to help one of his descendants, offering 20 thousand Austrian troops which would operate under Albert’s leadership, as well an alliance and protection in case of any Christian attack. The offer took Albert by surprise and he happily accepted all this gifts. The troops were immediately sent to Bulgaria, to respond to Oszkár. Even after the fall of Selanik, no Turkish troops were seen. They did show their faces on Europe, but the ascension of Mehmet III to the throne and his obsession over the holy city of Jerusalem made him sent all his forces to fight the Mamluks, to come back home only if the capital itself be under threat.
Without this important information, the cautious Oszkár didn’t dare to march to Constantinople, fearing a counterattack coming from some disembarked army in Greece. Instead, he marched to siege Epirus in March 1517, sitting half of his army in the hills of Macedonia close to it. His cautious were paid when an Turkish army disembarked in Greece. Not too much, but this 14 thousand men flanking a siege in Constantinople would erase the Hungarian army from the map. To his surprise, this auxiliary force attacked the siege of Epirus, being easily beaten by the Hungarians, taking doubled losses.
The siege proceeded and the Turkish garrison finally surrendered in January, opening the way to the Peloponnese and his fortress on Morea. The lack of Turkish resistance was disturbing. Albert declared the war expecting to receive at least half of the Ottoman force and judged to be stronger than that, but the Ottomans left their cities and forts completely undefended until now. Not even an army to slow down the Hungarian advance. He didn’t note it was slowed down, as the lack of a Turkish army sparked so many suspicious that the Hungarians advanced one step at time. One fort, one city, one village. The costs of pay for a big army, most of them unused, made the treasure goes from almost 1,000 ducats to a little more than 500 in three years. The Austrian presence made the costs go even higher, as their maintenance was being paid by the Hungarian Crown. All that expecting a fight that never came.
Albert went himself to Ragusa to get informations of what was happening. More exactly, get informations with Venetian merchants in Ragusa. The Venetians had a special treatment in the Ottoman Empire. They were exempt of taxations and had monopoly of trade of certain goods, but more important, the monopoly of spices trade. While most of the Christian nations couldn’t even trade with them, the Venetian were the only gate to the Ottoman riches. It is not surprised they became so rich. Having so much access, they also had information, the one which Albert wanted. Asking, and paying, some merchants which came back from Levant, he received an important information: the Mamluks were resisting. Different of the last war, which was an onslaught, the Mamluks were resisting by some miracle in the city of Jerusalem, receiving food via Red Sea and the mountains behind the city. The Ottomans used Damascus as their base, but couldn’t break the defenders morale. This information, however, came too late. Just before Albert send the orders to siege, at same time, Morea, Edirne and Constantinople, the Ottomans and the Mamluks signed a deal in October 1518, ending the war.
Two months later, Austrian troops were called back, as another war in the west involving France, Aragon, England, Castile and Austria had began. This worried both, Albert and Oszkár. They would now face the veterans of the Ottoman army, without help and almost without money. Albert took some from the Burghers creating a war tax, but it wouldn’t be enough if the conflict last for much longer. A legendary Ottoman general, Bayzid Veli, was in front of them. Incompetent in sieges, his reputation was in the battlefield. The Hungarian were exhausted of sieges and occupation in a hostile land. Despite be welcome in the beginning, the forced presence of armies for so long in provinces made the general population dislike them. The siege of Morea finished in January 1519 and the Hungarians marched to Macedonia again. The Turks crossed the Marmara in the next month. 53,000 thousand troops, among levies, janissaries, spahis and mortars. The Hungarian troops counted 42k, almost half were cavalry.
Oszkár retreated to analyse the situation. The Ottomans started to siege back Selanik, but most of their armies were free to reinforce them or attack the Hungarians if needed, which for now had retreated for Serbia. In a movement to take the forested area of Sofya, Bayzid sent an auxiliary army to them. Aware that could take place there earlier than the Ottomans, the Hungarians marched with full force to the province, half of the army reached earlier, building the usual fort wagon fortification in a better terrain, just to be abandoned. As the battle started, the Turkish captain ordered his army to stop in a safe position and the cannons to fire at will. The cannons hit the wagons, the men and the horses, killing many in the process. They stayed, waiting for the Ottomans be out of ammo, but they never didn’t. The Ottoman supply system had been one of the focus of the Empire since their rise and one of its main forces.
When Oszkár entered in the field, he ordered at full attack on the Ottomans using their local superiority. His order won the day, as the Ottomans took much more losses that day than his cannons did. The results, however, didn’t change Albert’s mind. Stuck to the same tactics of half century ago, the Ottomans clearly had the answer to these tactics, different of the Christians. With more men on the other side, a legendary general, better tactics and coffers almost empty, Albert took the decision which was saw as a weakness to many people, not only in Hungary and Balkans, but through all Europe. His emissaries accepted a peace offer from the Ottomans, in which the Sultan gave only the province of Vidin, in Bulgaria, and recognized the King of Hungary as overlord of Wallachia. The Black Army came back to home disgusted after many long sieges through all Balkans to gain so little. Few died, but these days were long, painful and hard to forget. The peace deal created an resentment among Greeks and Hungarians, as the first saw the later abandon them. This created a movement among the prominent locals to be ruled by themselves instead of wait for other christians.
Despite the setbacks, Albert used his mother to convince the Albanian nobles to accept him as direct overlord. The inept Albanian ruler was the main reason for their acceptance, as well Albert offered a lower tax than he was practicing. Through the next years, a general apathy took place over the army, generals and the king, which tried to think in another tactics, but the fort wagon was so deep in the mind of them that this task became impossible. During this time, the Margrave of Brandenburg declared war on Bohemia, calling all the Polish might to his side. The Austrians didn’t anything, as still were exhausted from lose another war on the West. Albert then changed his focus.
Recognizing his incompetence on military field, the king left his generals create a new tactic and went to his expertise, the diplomatic field. Seeing the war on his north as an opportunity, he sent his emissaries to talk with Bohemian nobles, which had adopted a guerrilla tactic against the overwhelming forces they were facing, to change to his side. Albert offered protection and nothing more. The negotiation continued for the next two years, as well the war. Albert managed to convince them the King of Bohemia was weak and Austria didn’t had the power he had to protect them. But the King of Bohemia didn’t recognize that, so in the first day of December 1522, Albert declared war on Bohemia and the Black Army crossed the borders. Hungarian flags were hoisted in most of Silesia and Moravia and the Black Army occupied this provinces to prevent a Polish presence.
Instead of send his men to another siege, “let others wage war” said Albert, quoting Austria moto, waited Praga to fall to the Poles. In December of the next year, Brandenburg gained three provinces in the north of Bohemia, two saxons, previously held by Brandenburg two centuries ago, and the north of Silesia. After be attacked by two bigger nations and abandoned by the Emperor, the King Karel VI of Bohemia became mad. Being the controller of Praga more one time, King Karel VI didn’t surrender to Albert the provinces he asked and prepared the city to resist again. He also sent letters to Austria, but found deaf ears to his asks for help. After many refuses, Albert finally sent the Black Army to siege Praga, as well to many men say loud and clear the city was suffering due to Karel’s behavior and, if the city surrendered, the city and its residents wouldn’t suffer anymore. He would regret to give so much time to Karel, as he had a tight control of the city, which resisted nine months. Just in April 1525 the city fell and Karel assigned peace, giving control of the rest of Silesia and Moravia he still had.
Albert passed the next two years investing and planning, improving the economy, integrating the new goods from America and spying other countries, trying to find a way to improve his army to match the Turks in this new phase of warfare. As his father said, the wagons would die and, if the Black Army didn’t abandon them, would die together. Muscovy had succeeded in unify most of Russian Principalities under the Tsar and made constant advances over the hordes which for so long time raid them. But the hordes were a cavalry force, even outdated for now after so much time of dominance. The Poles, Lithuanians hadn’t fought any decent enemy for many times, too much focused on their own internal disputes which put these juggernauts in chains. For all the rest of Europe, gunpowder weapons were much more scarce than in Hungary, which adapted to fight against the Turks. The Hungarian cavalry already beaten the Turkish spahis, but what about the infantry? The answer came from a Bulgarian noble, Michael Balina, a former Sultan’s captain, which gained the rule of the province of Vidin for his services. Albert had all he needed to, this time directly, fight against the Ottomans.
Position of Hungary and allied troops at moment of the declaration of Albert's War.
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