Spittin' Polish
Excerpts from “Anguished Ascendance: the Rise of the Kingdom of Austria”, by Ingtol Blaeuw
It was June of 1463 and Europe had gone mad. Combat raged across the Germanies and France, and smooth diplomatic language of courtiers had been replaced by the clang and groan of iron. [1]
From this distance of time the causes of such widespread conflict are hard to gauge. Most historians simply give up and say "it was a fighting time". Careful analysis however, leads this writer to believe that the true cause of the conflagration -- or at least its scope -- was the ill-starred Austrian policy of spreading military access to the winds. Once Austria started giving access to all requesters, others followed course, and the traditional system of buffer states broke down. How else could Mecklenburg and Pommerania invade Switzerland? And how could Milan lunge for Brandenburg if not through Austria and Wurrtemburg? Certainly there were the wars one might expect in that period: Scotland, and a coalition of French states against Lorraine and Burgundy fighting to determine whether Lothair's legacy would endure; Castille and England against Portugal fighting over fishing rights off Galicia. But even contemporaries marvelled at how Austria seemed almost to disappear from the international scene, and became merely a highway for the wrathful legions of nations heretofore at peace simply because they could not reach one another.
The defining image of this period has to be the Lausitz painting "Escorts", which depicts a column of Badenite soldiers marching through Austria, under the watchful cold eyes of an Austrian cavalry escort. The Austrian captain wears a hard, terse smile, as if to reflect on the irony of "protecting" Badenite soldiery on the way to far Hungary. An observer has to wonder if he is glad that Austria's old foes will now be shedding one another's blood, and will soon lie prostrate before an untouched Habsburg empire.
Whether this was a conscious policy on Austria's part, or an unfortunate side-effect of their policy of neutrality in Germany, history has no answer. For events would soon pull the East-Kingdom out of it's repose.
Shortly after the triumphant war with the Ottoman Empire, Karl Joseph died heirless, and his cousin Ferdinand became King of Austria. Ferdinand was a "man's man", given to hunting and carousing and jesting, quite the foil to his dour predecessor [2]. But he was just as dedicated to the Crusade, and looked with alarm at the massive buildup of Turks near the new Serbian border. Faced with a lack of allies -- the German and Italian states were already wracked by fighting -- the Austrians were forced to turn to the aggressive Poles for an alliance in December of 1463.
Once again the military access issue came to the fore, as the Poles, ever eager to expand their military base against possible threats from the East, almost immediately turned South and declared against the alliance of Transylvania and Hungary. Austria, though not desirous of seeing more Polish advances in the Balkans, was dragged into the conflict, lest they draw the wrath of Poland down on themselves -- after all, this was what the alliance was designed to counter.
Moving with furious speed, Austrian cavalry overwhelmed both small states before the Poles could fully mobilize their far-flung armies. Transylvania was vassalized to Austria, and Hungary forced to pay an indemnity. The Poles were furious when they arrived to see that peace had already been made, but they had no choice but to go along.
In mid-1466 Poland again went to war, this time against Pommerania and Brandenburg. Again the feared Austrian cavalry savagely suppressed the foe, but forced the Poles to let them off with small payments. It was becoming clear to the Poland that Austria's purpose in the alliance was actually to contain Poland. Some few pages of King Zbignew II's diaries exist, and the entries for that period show mounting rage against "those dog-swine Germans" and vowing eventual revenge.
That chance would come sooner than anyone thought.
Next up: 'Gunds, Germans, and Castille.
= = =
Footnotes are mine, not Ingtol's
[1] The phrase "clang and groan of iron" I nicked from an author I can't now remember, who was describing how the language of the proto-Franks was as much German as French, but it's such an evocative phrase that I just had to use it.
[2] As we shall see, the Kings of Austria don't wear well, and tend to have short reigns.
Excerpts from “Anguished Ascendance: the Rise of the Kingdom of Austria”, by Ingtol Blaeuw
It was June of 1463 and Europe had gone mad. Combat raged across the Germanies and France, and smooth diplomatic language of courtiers had been replaced by the clang and groan of iron. [1]
From this distance of time the causes of such widespread conflict are hard to gauge. Most historians simply give up and say "it was a fighting time". Careful analysis however, leads this writer to believe that the true cause of the conflagration -- or at least its scope -- was the ill-starred Austrian policy of spreading military access to the winds. Once Austria started giving access to all requesters, others followed course, and the traditional system of buffer states broke down. How else could Mecklenburg and Pommerania invade Switzerland? And how could Milan lunge for Brandenburg if not through Austria and Wurrtemburg? Certainly there were the wars one might expect in that period: Scotland, and a coalition of French states against Lorraine and Burgundy fighting to determine whether Lothair's legacy would endure; Castille and England against Portugal fighting over fishing rights off Galicia. But even contemporaries marvelled at how Austria seemed almost to disappear from the international scene, and became merely a highway for the wrathful legions of nations heretofore at peace simply because they could not reach one another.
The defining image of this period has to be the Lausitz painting "Escorts", which depicts a column of Badenite soldiers marching through Austria, under the watchful cold eyes of an Austrian cavalry escort. The Austrian captain wears a hard, terse smile, as if to reflect on the irony of "protecting" Badenite soldiery on the way to far Hungary. An observer has to wonder if he is glad that Austria's old foes will now be shedding one another's blood, and will soon lie prostrate before an untouched Habsburg empire.
Whether this was a conscious policy on Austria's part, or an unfortunate side-effect of their policy of neutrality in Germany, history has no answer. For events would soon pull the East-Kingdom out of it's repose.
Shortly after the triumphant war with the Ottoman Empire, Karl Joseph died heirless, and his cousin Ferdinand became King of Austria. Ferdinand was a "man's man", given to hunting and carousing and jesting, quite the foil to his dour predecessor [2]. But he was just as dedicated to the Crusade, and looked with alarm at the massive buildup of Turks near the new Serbian border. Faced with a lack of allies -- the German and Italian states were already wracked by fighting -- the Austrians were forced to turn to the aggressive Poles for an alliance in December of 1463.
Once again the military access issue came to the fore, as the Poles, ever eager to expand their military base against possible threats from the East, almost immediately turned South and declared against the alliance of Transylvania and Hungary. Austria, though not desirous of seeing more Polish advances in the Balkans, was dragged into the conflict, lest they draw the wrath of Poland down on themselves -- after all, this was what the alliance was designed to counter.
Moving with furious speed, Austrian cavalry overwhelmed both small states before the Poles could fully mobilize their far-flung armies. Transylvania was vassalized to Austria, and Hungary forced to pay an indemnity. The Poles were furious when they arrived to see that peace had already been made, but they had no choice but to go along.
In mid-1466 Poland again went to war, this time against Pommerania and Brandenburg. Again the feared Austrian cavalry savagely suppressed the foe, but forced the Poles to let them off with small payments. It was becoming clear to the Poland that Austria's purpose in the alliance was actually to contain Poland. Some few pages of King Zbignew II's diaries exist, and the entries for that period show mounting rage against "those dog-swine Germans" and vowing eventual revenge.
That chance would come sooner than anyone thought.
Next up: 'Gunds, Germans, and Castille.
= = =
Footnotes are mine, not Ingtol's
[1] The phrase "clang and groan of iron" I nicked from an author I can't now remember, who was describing how the language of the proto-Franks was as much German as French, but it's such an evocative phrase that I just had to use it.
[2] As we shall see, the Kings of Austria don't wear well, and tend to have short reigns.