Chapter 7 - Conclusion of the Reformation, The Shortest Coalition War Ever and The Rise of an Empire
Followed the defeat of the Ottomans, the Sultan himself would never be seen again. Many myths came of it, a journey to Mecca and Medina to live out his life, betrayed by his men. With the Empire split in two, it became apparent who was the dominant power in Europe now.
Kalman was ordered by the Hungarian King to station half the army in Anatolia was everyone knew there would be a rebellion sooner rather than later. Indeed, within just a few months time, thousands upon thousands of Ottoman separatists rose up and fought what they saw as an invader. Eventually, Kalman rooted out the swine and slew their leader himself.
As the fires of rebellion were simmering down, news reached the Hungarian counts that the Holy Roman Empire had showed its age by having the Emperor not only loss to the princes, but also result in one of the only reforms being retracted. This sent shockwaves to the bordering nations as it meant the Empire was weaker than they thought.
Over the next four years, peace would come to Hungary but in early 1614, a tale too mad to be true rose up that the Hunyadi family could not ignore. Elizabeth Bathory was the niece of Stephen Bathory, someone who had close ties to the Hunyadi dynasty. Her actions, however, were what got Andras attention. Dubbed the Hungarian Vampire, she slaughters upwards of up to 600 virgin women as an attempt to renew her age.
Andras was all too aware of a certain Hunyadi's past and easily connected the dots. Whatever Zsigmond Hunyadi found in Hungarian Romania, this Elizabeth must have and drove her to these Hassen acts. Ordering an elite detachment of his army from Anatolia, he gave them one order; find this girl and by any means necessary, make her tell where his power is from. Afterwards, destroy it.
Andras knew that such power could get to the wielder's head and he could not allow such a thing to exist. Thirty men were sent out and only five would return to Pest with news the demonic construction was destroyed and would never be used again. When Andras questioned the drastic loss of men, the captain of this group said that a portion of their men grew power hungry and wanted it for themselves.
With the scourge of Zsigmond out of his life, Andras turned his attention to his prize, Bohemia. At this point, Bohemia was still Emperor but this would quickly change as while the Hungarian army easily crushed the Bohemians and their allies, the King was all too happy to send these newly Protestant believers to their lord.
Mind you, Catholicism was the official religion of the Empire... Suffice it to say, Austria finally reclaimed the title of Emperor. With the lose of the Emperorship, the rest of the country would quickly fall to Hungary and the Protestants who rose up and thought they would start to see a rebirth of Bohemia quickly found the Hungarian boot on their throat.
With the previous Emperor finally occupied and defeated utterly, Andras who was growing older by then, decided to allow his son, Ulaszlo the Second to take the throne of a stronger Hungary. Ulaszlo knew that taking the Bohemian lands would lead to nothing a full-on invasion by neighboring nations so the newly crowned King offered an alliance with the strongest Italian state, The Papal State.
Although they fought many times, it was in the name of alliances and Ulaszlo was able to keep the Pope happy while keeping his enemies in check. One thing the Ulaszlo did not expect was for the Mamluks, who recently just rivaled him, to join with the Ottomans and provide a dangerous southern border.
As April commenced, Lubeck, one of the nations in the Anti Hungary Coalition, declared war on Hungary and her allies. Unlike last time, all of Ulaszlo's allies answered which sum up who would cover which theater of the war. Hungary and Byzantium would handle the Ottoman-Mamluk detachment in the South. Russia and Galicia-Volhynia would contend with Poland and Riga while Austria and The Teutonic Order dealt with the German princes. The Papal States acted as a reserve force, aiding where they were needed.
Within months, the Islamic forces attacked the Hungarian Anatolia which quickly followed a very quick and decisive defeat with Hungary and Syria routing the Ottoman army and destroying the Mamlukian forces. Syria quickly started with the occupation of Eastern Anatolia while Hungary obliterated the capital city within weeks.
In the East, the campaign there could be summed up as Russia doing what they do best, destroy and conquer everything. Within months of the war, Riga was out, Poland was facing near rebellion and self-destruction. Austria kept the princes under its thumb and Lubeck quickly found their allies down and out.
Understandably, within one year of the war starting, Lubeck accepted a peace with Hungary and its allies. Crimea went to Hungary, Adana was given to Hungary and Yanya was returned to Byzantium. Many would worry about the ever more expansion of Hungary but Ulaszlo did not listen to their cries. He had a target in mind and they were the Polish...
Hungary looked at their weakening land of Poland and two years after the shortest coalition war ever, Hungary would go in and occupy Poland, Saxony and mighty Ulm which no one with any power would care what so ever. Money was taken from the two German princes while Poland got the short end of the stick and lost their financial core of Southern Poland.
With Poland reminded of their place in Eastern Europe, Ulaszlo looked inward and saw a people who were growing more and more militant as the wars continued on and on. Not one to back down from a fight, he was happy to comply with his people's wills and portrayed Hungary in a weak and vulnerable state.
Alongside the Ottoman desire to reclaim every bit of conquered lands and knowing the Byzantine Empire could not stand toe to toe with them without any aid. With the treaty being shorter with Byzantium than Hungary due to Hungary taking a more prosperous land, the Ottomans assaulted Byzantium when their truces were up but Hungary knew this would happen and sent an army of twenty thousand mercenaries which held Constantinople.
Hungary, their truce finally ended, declared their own war on the Ottomans and once more found their lands ruined and occupied with the Hungarians demand the release and vassalization of Syria which contended of what was the South of the Ottoman realm.
Byzantium did lose their army in the process but with the Hungarian aid, the war ended in a white peace which left another bitter taste in the Ottoman mouth. As the years went on, Galicia-Volhynia was struck with a plague which devastated the population so much that Ulaszlo decided to incorporate the realm as they could not stop the Hungarians from doing this.
With their vassal incorporated into the realm, word had reached the Kingdom in 1641 about the Ottomans finally losing their title of Great Power. Still made several people across the lands delighted but some have begun to murmur about the objective of the Kingdom of Hungary. Over the years, Hungary has done nothing but declare war after war on those who had done an injustice to it.
Almost everyone who had a keen interest in Hungarian politics knew that Poland was the next target of the newly crowned Queen's interest. Anna the First Hunyadi may not have had an interest in military skill, but she was very, very aggressive in the making the glory of Hungary known. Anna had grown a reputation as Anna the Conqueror which she took great joy in hearing.
However, it would not be Poland that Anna would declare war on, it would be Lithuania. The Duchy on Lithuania was in a very cautious spot and Anna knew this. While Russia was busy dealing with the hordes of its every expanding realm, Anna knew that two nations once existed and used this claim of independence as her justification for war.
However, before the war was declared, Anna saw fit to raise herself to a position that few nations had the level of prestige and wealth to back it up. On December 13th, 1641, Anna declared that the Kingdom of Hungary would be reborn as the Empire of Hungary, much to the fanfare by the nobles. This wasn't as well received by the other nations around Europe but Anna did not care as her eyes were sent on her prize.
With the trio of Austria, Teutonic Order and Byzantium, Anna declared war on Lithuania and immediately marching into Polish lands even before they were able to give a response back. As Poland declared their support to Lithuania, Hungary was not having it and destroyed the Polish army in mere weeks before moving into the hellish lands of Lithuania. The Teutonic Order was ordered to siege up the Polish lands and then move on to help Hungary.
In the South, the Byzantine military marched into Anatolia but received a very brutal lesson in the art of war and sent Second Rome back over the sea to their capital before going after their Anatolian lands. Syria, feeling safe behind the walls of Hungarian forts, went on the offensive and began occupying Eastern and Central Anatolia.
Oh, and Austria just beat up some Germanys. Who cares.
A few years passed and Poland was fully occupied and was forced to surrender the previous lands of Mazovia. Within months of the fall of Poland, the Ottomans decided to cut their losses and give up the two provinces of Marash and Urfa to the loyal subject of Syria. However, a very confused diplomat returned to Anna with a justification of war on the grounds of colonization.
Back in Lithuania, the capital fell within months and time after time, the Lithuanian army which did outnumber the Hungarians, lost. Finally, Seeing victory slip out of their reach once and for all, the King signed what many people around Europe would be the most decisive war the Empire had seen in a long time. The deceased duchies of Polotsk and Kiev were restored and under the influence of the Empire of Hungary.
May I remind you, these two nations were in the culture group of Russia and saw these people as rightful Russians...
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Sorry for the delay on this one. I wasn't really satisfied with the first draft. When you get to the point of just blobbing out of control like we are starting to do, the interest of the story begins to diminish. I much prefer how people play from the start and survive until they each equal status. Next story might be a Play Tall style instead of Blob Style. I'm open to suggestions on nations for the second AAR