In 1492 our Spanish brethren ended their 500 year struggle, with the fall of Granada. The Mohomadans who once ruled it over God fearing Spaniards were shown a punishment long overdue, while the misguided subjects who had so long worshiped a false god were either fast to convert or dealt with swiftly.
But the struggle was not going so well in the east. Sitting in his lair, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire who had taken great care to befriend the nations of Europe, consulted with the devil. With the support of the evil one, the Turk made plans for a vicious attack on our lands, the Hapsburg Archduchy of Austria.
We were the only ones to not be fooled by the Turkish facade. For years my forefathers watched as the Ottomans conquered, one after another, the Christian realms standing in their way. Even mighty constantinople, which left us only too aware of our danger.
And thus we remained vigilant, for we would not allow the same fate to befall Austria. We were prepared to deflect an onslaught from the Turks. But not what happened.
When the inevitable invasion came, and Sultan Bayazid with the devil at his side stepped on Austrian soil, we let them approach, drawing them into the trap that waited. They died by the thousands, not by sword by by hunger, a far more deadly enemy.
If it had only been the Turks, our army might now have taken the field against them, and pushed the armies of hell back to the coast. However, they were needed elsewhere. Fooled by greed, the Venetians and French invaded Tirol and the Low Countries. 70k that could've gone east had to stay to hold Belgium.
Only by the quick marching of Spanish forces into southern France saved us from total destruction. In the end, the Sultan, along with his Venetian vassals(something we learned after the war) offered a compromised peace of only two provinces to Venice in order to escape the fate of Granada which it appeared Spain was about to bring.
On the contrary though, the Spanish were busy plundering city after city in southern France rather than engaging its armies. This was the reason why WE agreed to the compromise. If the Spanish had listened to us, and marched north quickly to engage and destroy France's armies rather than bleed away troops to attrition and losses from assaults in southern France, then it would've indeed been possible to completely defeat all our enemies.
By the time they finally did march north, Austrian dissillusionment had brought the OE-Ven portion of the war to an end. Spanish forces were also greatly diminished. And this allowed the French to defeat El Gran Capitan.
What was the value of conquering all those southern provs? Spain couldn't stabhit for them without leaving us alone to die. Did Spain intend to stabhit for them and leave us alone? Well, we advised them to march north for this reason, and were ignored. So one could wonder. That's eventually what they did, leave us to fight France alone.
Luckily for us, the regent of France was deposed soon after, and the true monarch had not the will to fight on. Otherwise things might have been far worse.
After this we tried to recover. Von Frunsburg took command of the army in 99, at the end of the French war, and submitted plans for an invasion of Venice. They were the ones who enherited the spoils from the war. Yet they were not thoughtful enough to invest in LT. This couldn't be bad planning? It was too tempting to ignore, anyway.
Therefore von Frunsburg invaded when the truce expired, and swept through the lands. Once we began stabhitting, the OE and France joined.
The OE's entrance into the war was expected. When the French talked about entering, well, we hoped Spain would do something. It turned out all they were interested in was their beloved economy. So we fought the French, Venetians(well, not really. They peaced before much action with the others anyway), and the OE again. I think we put up a better fight than before, but Frunsburg couldn't quite pull it together. Took two provs from Venice, but ended up losing one to the OE and one to France, a net of -1.
Our enemies fought quite well, but I think main credit for the defeat goes to Spain. The betrayal of a friend as close as the Spanish is far worse than the opposition of a known enemy. They clearly felt some gilt, as they sent 100D gifts now and then, and maybe that has helped ease the consciences of Fernando and Isabella, but it has not helped much in the house of Hapsburg.
They started their reign as champions of Christendom. But now what have they become?
