The New Blood
Skill in leadership is not something innate, but something strengthened by experience. This fact is clearly evident when one compares the performance on the field of battle by the nobility and their subordinate officers. When left to their own devices, a subordinate officer is quite capable of winning a battle, but when hampered by the talents of a nobleman, the tide of a skirmish, battle or even war can be forever changed. In this situation, experience is all that matters. Rarely, Allah has blessed a man with skills beyond his experience, and Saladin was just such a man.
Anonymous,
The Will of Saladin
The belligerents in the
First Merchants War (1509-11) were not confined to the Ottomans and Cyprus. The Ottomans had also been threatening Venetian interests in the region as well, so a strange quasi-alliance was formed between Cyprus and her allies and Venice and her own vassal states. A tacit agreement was reached, dividing the two fronts of the war between Venice and Cyprus. Venice would be responsible for the European theatre and Cyprus would take command of the war against the Ottomans Asiatic and African possessions.
The war could have easily been won by the Turks if it was not for the foresight of one man. Bayezid II had known his decision to go after Western shipping was going to have consequences, so he had his armies ready to travel by sea to their next battlefield, and he had Mengli I of Crimea to do the same. Thirty ships, packed with thousands of men were on their way to do battle on the Mediterranean coast of Anatolia.
Salvador Malanipus and his fleet were the only Cyprian forces in the general area, as they were doing convoy work in the Bosporus to prevent other attacks on merchant shipping. But in this time of war, his fleet would play a much more important role in the history of Cyprus. With nearly the entire Crimean and Turkish navy being present in the Black Sea, Malanipus made a decision which will be forever known to be the correct one. His fleet would have to make a stand.
He was faced with a large Turkish-Crimean fleet, and he surmised they carried enough troops to effectively end the war in the Turks' favor. He had twelve ships under his command to the enemy's thirty, and the situation looked grim for the smaller fleet. He ordered his ships to form two short lines, one of seven ships and one of five, and arrange their two lines like a funnel, so that the opposing navy would have to go between the two rows of ships, making them far easier targets. It was an unexpected tactic, but one which was initially successful. However, the Turkish fleet concentrated on the five ships to the south, and took three of Malanipus' ships from the battle.
These few ships, when approached by the enemy, threw barrels of gunpowder onto the decks of their enemy, lit with a long fuse. Amidst the firing of cannons, the barrels seemed innocuous... that is, until they exploded and lit the decks and masts on fire, uncontrollable and making the enemy ships virtual derelicts. These attacks were timed to cause the most delay, forcing the other ships to move around the burning hulls and making them far easier to attack, for any sense of attacking formation was lost in the desperate minutes to avoid the flames.
In the end, the Battle of the Bosporus was successful. The Turkish army was delayed by at least three days, allowing the armies of Cyprus to amass to fight the now much smaller invasionary force. When the Ottomans landed south of Paphos on April 12, 1509 they were quickly repulsed, and given chase northward, where they were soundly defeated and captured April 22. Ottoman attention was then for the most part on Venice, with the belief that if they defeated the Venetians first, they could turn their full armies to the south and take Cyprus.
The fleet Malanipus commanded, battered as it was, was to be from that date forward referred to as the Fleet of God, because it seemed providence was on their side. Though the commander may change, and new ships would be added to it, it was a fleet which was never be disbanded. But this victory was soon tempered by bad news.
In the summer of 1509, Caterina became gravely ill and was once again bedridden. She left the progress of the country in the hands of the Congress, and became much less diligent in following the events which her country was going through. Unlike her previous illness, she worsened over the months, first sleeping as much as 20 hours a day, then going into a delusional state, where she spoke not in tongues, but in Italian in an almost confessional tone, admitting to her sins as if she were praying for absolution. It was in this state of mind where her continuing hatred for Machiavelli, the architect of the Florentine military expansion, was truly documented, as she spoke quite graphically about how he should be dealt with both in his life and afterlife. Within a few days of this state, she lapsed into a coma before finally passing away in the third night of her unconsciousness, July 2, 1510, at age 56.
It was on this very same day that Leo Sapeleto seized Macedonia and relieved the combined armies of Venice and the Knights who were trapped in Kosovo without supplies. With a direct line of supply to the beleaguered army, they were able to resume their attack and keep pressure from the southern front. With Venetian forces in the area, Cyprus began to pull out its forces by sea and looked for another target.
When Caterina died, the Congress of Cyprian Duchies believed they were now the rulers of Cyprus, and they ruled in this capacity for 4 weeks. However, there were still heirs to the throne of Cyprus, mainly the children from the union between Charlotte's daughter Lady Cordelia and Matysek Lomksy. Vadim as their oldest child was the natural heir to that throne, and when he learned of the Coronaro's death, he boarded a ship in Provence to claim the throne for himself.
The Congress was naturally hesitant to part with the power they believed was theirs. What convinced them was his successes in Europe against superior forces, and his bloodline, descended not just from the Lusignans, but also the Palaeogi, the last ruling family of Byzantium, and Risa Lomsky, one of the great heroes of recent Cyprian history. Vadim also represented the first legitimate monarch in almost 50 years.
So after two additional weeks of waiting, the 33-year old monarch was finally crowned on August 15, 1510. Due to the war, travel within Cyprus was dangerous, so the coronation could not be held at St. Ursula's Church in Limasol, but an equally regal site was chosen in its place. Before the Lomsky Mausoleum, where his grandfather was buried 60 years earlier, Vadim was crowned king by the Archbishop of Nicosia.
Almost immediately following his coronation, Vadim led a short campaign across Anatolia, culminating in the siege of Aksehir in February and March 1511. Aksehir was important because it was a chokepoint, and located on one of the few relatively safe roads from east to west in the region, so by holding perhaps the most important town along this route, Cyprus could effectively divide the peninsula in two. The defending force was much smaller, and Vadim was able to soundly defeat them before assaulting the citadel. His army breeched the wall on March 15, and took the city by force. From the west, Leo Sapeleto's forces reached the town a few days later, having just taken Smyrna. The experienced general was pleased to meet his new ruler, showing the same kind of poise and manners his mother had taught him, and Vadim took quite a liking to the Count of Jerusalem. They spent quite a few nights discussing military tactics, and Vadim taught his counterpart the game of chess. However, their combined armies still did not feel secure with the land they occupied.
The Cult of Saladin took the full opportunity of the war, attacking the supply lines of the Cyprian armies whenever they had the chance in the belief that their actions, while detrimental to Cyprus and helping their own cause, would be blamed on the Ottomans. Food and weaponry was diverted to followers in Ak Koyunlu, though in smaller amounts so their origins could not be traced. The attacks also affected the end of the war, making the King fear that these activities were a precursor for the inevitable counterattack.
In his mind, the Turks had a rather large population to draw troops from, so in a war of attrition, Cyprus would eventually lose. Vadim ordered his armies to withdraw to defensible positions in territory they held, and await further orders. Venice, by this time was already beaten, though they had yet to admit it at the peace table, so at any moment, the full force of the remaining Ottoman armies could come and destroy the meager armies of Cyprus. Vadim wanted a fair peace, to prevent the Ottomans from seeking retribution.
When peace was signed on July 16, 1511, only one province changed hands. In Vadim's estimation, Taurus offered the greatest strategic benefit, because of its proximity to Adana, and the two provinces could support each other in case of an Ottoman attack. It also left Cyprus in a position to easily attack Aksehir again, which would be a measure of deterrence in the region.
Vadim was soon discover that his battle experience would not prepare him for the challenges of government.
Cyprus 1512
M
Great update again Bismarck, I'll be sure to keep on reading this thread as you continue to update it.
