Methodius I
Part One 1510-1511
Part One 1510-1511
~In which views collide~
Methodius Marian Presovksy was born March 21, 1490, the first child and eldest son of King Vladjo IV. As a child, he was tall, thin and sickly. Doctors from across Europe were brought in to preserve the boys life and it was only when he was five that he was able to walk and talk on his own. His mind, tortured by his early expierences, always seemed to drift. During his education at the Monastery of St. Gabriel, he was more than once beaten for not paying attention. When Slovakia converted to Protestant Hussitism in December of 1498, little Methodius made the conversion with his father. However, his longstanding hatred of the catholic clergy for his whippings increased his devotion to Protestantism. St. Gabriel, one of thirteen monasteries in Slovakia not affiliated with the order of St. Methodius, was closed and Methodius was sent to Charles University in Prague to finish his studies. The last Slovak King to do so was Vladjo I many years before.
Vladjo graduated at age 15 in 1505 and from there was made Duke and governor of the Bohemian province. Though initially thought of as a poor decision, it was quickly realized that Methodius was a brilliant administrator and within a few years Bohemia was yielding almost double tax returns. Methodius, however, was not without his disabilities. His early childhood experiences and beatings at the hands of Catholic Priests made him fervently Anti-Catholic and paranoid of most everything around him. In late 1509 he was married to the 16 year-old Olga v. Habsburg, a second cousin of the current Habsburg ruler. Unfortunately, Olga died shortly thereafter for one day while riding in the forest outside of Bratislava, her horse was spooked and threw her. She died within a week of massive blood loss and 'genyrale carnage' as the doctor stated. Five days later, King Vladjo IV died in his sleep on August 30, 1510. Stricken by massive loss, Methodius refused to be crowned as a Vladjo, and instead was crowned as Methodius I on November 14, 1510. Offers of marraige poured in from several nations, though Methodius rejected them all. He was not interested in marriage after loosing his beloved Olga.
The tragedies which had been building up pressure inside Methodius came to an abrupt explosion on New Year's Day 1511. That day, the "Revocation Committee", a group of fiercely Catholic barons and nobles mainly from Silesia, Moravia and Eastern Slovakia came to Bratislava to demand the end of the Hussite Church and a return to the Catholic Church. None of the nobles knew Methodius personally or else they would have never came. Methodius executed all 17 of them, seized their lands and titles and declared that any noble who thought the same would receive the same treatment. This shocking incident pushed all moderates to one side, and even pushed some Protestants into the Catholic camp. In other words, civil war was brewing in Slovakia over matters of faith. Fortunately, it came at a good time politically. Hungary was busy putting down revolts from Protestant Croatians and Poland was busy fighting Lithuania again.
The two sides, called Methodists (supporters of King Methodius and Protestantism) and Legitimists (supporters of the legitimate church) began to have small show downs in market squares and tavern across Slovakia. However, the Legitimists had no champion to call their own. That is, until Methodius's cousin Stefko, Count of Saris converted to Catholicism in April of 1511 and declared himself to be the legitimate ruler of Slovakia. Though Slovakia was technically a state of Semi-primogeniture, no one had ever ruled that descended from a woman of the Presovksy line. However, despite questions of legitimacy, the 'legitimists' ironically scrambled to Stefko's side. Nobles from Bohemia and West Slovakia and the newer parts of Hungary signed up on the side of the Methodist faction in equally as zealous a force as the Catholics joined Count Stefko's side.
The stage being set for conflict, the powderkeg finally blew in early Autumn. Quite literally. Some legitimists had tried to capture a culverin from the Royal Armory in Prague, but where blown to bits when the powder was *somehow* set alight. Both sides blamed the other and armies began to march.
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