the dark years: 1490-1503
The trouble began a month later, when Lithuania and its allies declared war on Hungary on February 16, 1490. A Polish army immediately moved into Hungarian territory and laid siege to Grün in Moravia in March. Hungary just wrapped up the war with the Ottoman Empire, Hungary was ill-prepared for another war so soon. Their response to the Polish-Lithuanian attack was delayed further when King Matty died on April 7, 1490. There was no time for a proper ceremony due to the war, so he was hastily buried, and his son, Ulászló II was crowned king (D:4, A:2, M:3). Though he was a capable diplomat, Laz was not much of a warrior or an administrator, so he left the military decisions to his generals and spent most of his days in the palace entertaining guests, and making the occasional administrative decision. His diplomacy skills immediately paid off when he impressed a visiting dignitary from Saxony (random event: diplomatic move. Relations with Saxony +25 and diplomats +1). But no military aid would come of this, and aid was what Hungary needed most, and soon.
But no aid would be coming, now or in the future. A Lithuanian army moved into Ruthenia and sieged the province on May 10, and on May 28, another declaration of war arrived at the capital, this one from Hungary's old enemy Venice. That same day, a hastily-assembled and force-marched Hungarian army was defeated by the Polish outside their capital Krakow. A second Hungarian army moved south, to Istria, and began a desperate siege of the province in July 1490. A second Hungarian attack was defeated by Poland in August, and the following month, Poland and Lithuania captured Moravia. A white peace was signed with Courland, but it would be meaningless, as Hungary agreed to cede the province of Moravia to Poland on September 27, 1490. Poland was now out of the war, but Lithuania remained, and the remnants of the battered northern army moved to Moldova to begin a siege there.
In 1491, the revolts began. The first was in Bulgaria in February. But many more would follow, as a series of events unfolded that would plunge Hungary into the worst disorder in centuries. A noble was assasinated in April (random event), further destabilizing an already-tense situation. The war with Lithuania went well at first, as the Hungarian army eventually captured Moldova and moved onto Jedisan in September. The garrison army was defeated and the provinced was sieged. But they had only been besieging for a few days when a large army from Suzdal attacked. Faced with a seemingly innumerable horde of mad Slavic warriors, the Hungarians retreated. Peace was signed with Lithuania for 50,000 ducats in January 1492. A fortress enlargement was commissioned in Ruthenia to help protect the province from any further attack. Another revolt broke out in Kosovo on March 1.
And then it happened again. Just as they had with Ulászló's father before him, the nobles now challenged the right of his son to rule the kingdom as well (note: this was the second time i got this event, and again i went with the "execute the traitors!" option. In retrospect, maybe I should have stepped down, but in the end it probably wouldn't have mattered anyway, as you will later see). Just as his father did before him, Laz had the nobles executed, plunging the country into further disarray (stability -5, revolt risk +3 for 36 months). As rebels were now a certainty, Hungary sought a quick end to the war with Venice. Istria was taken on June 20 and a peace was signed with Venice for 50,000 ducats, but another declaration of war had already come, this time from Prussia and her allies (Denmark, Brandenburg, and Magdeburg). Revolts broke out in Croatia, Kosovo, and Dalmatia, and more declarations of war came, from Spain and Portugal, and from Naples and her alliance of Italian kingdoms. Now war exhaustion would become an almost certainty, and with the low stability and increased revolt risk, things looked extremely grim.
But it would get worse before it got any better. More revolts broke out in January and February 1493, in Kosovo again, in Ruthenia and Magyar in February. These would be put down, but more followed, in Banat and Croatia in September. A peace offer to Naples of the province of Dalmatia ended their war, but two more still remained, against Spain (who refused all offers of peace. I saved all my gold to offer them more and more but they kept refusing. I was offering them 250 ducats at one point) and against the German states.
So many revolts would happen over the next few years that it is impossible to list them all. Every province of the Empire revolted, and more declarations of war kept coming in. Just when one war would appear to be over, someone else would declare war. Holstein, Poland again, Naples, the Ottoman Empire, and even Austria would join the fray (in January 1500). And all this time, the rebels kept appearing, endless hordes of angry peasants crying out for the blood of the king and the nobles who had led them down this dark path. In an attempt to alleviate the problem, the king decided to release some of Hungary's former conquests as vassals in 1498. Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia, and Ragusa were all created as vassal states of Hungary, and a military alliance was hastily assembled, though little good it would do. The Hungarian amry fought bravely against both the invaders and the rebels, but could not replace their losses fast enough, as the treasury was being drained in peace offers. But sensing the end of Hungary, the enemies kept coming without mercy. Poland took Carpathia in a peace offer in July 1501, and Austria was bought off for 25,000 ducats.
Just when stability had been more or less restored (save the war exhaustion which had by now set in), the peasants approached the king with a petition for redress. The king, faced with the real possibility of a government collapse, had no choice but to accept it. The nobility and clergy of course did not like this (stablity -3 back to 0), and many of the army officers deserted, taking many of their troops with them. With not even enough troops left to repel the rebels and invaders, the king could do nothing but sit helplessly and pray that the rebels and invading armies would destroy each other in their mad rampages across the Hungarian countryside.
The end would come in 1503. Brandenburg declared war, and Hungary's new Balkan allies abandoned her. Siebenbergen took advantage of the opportunity and broke away from her master, declaring independence in January. The Ottoman Empire annexed Bulgaria and was marching on the capital. Rebel armies controlled most of the countryside. The Hungarian army was in disarray, and the treasury was emptied from the many peace offers. With her enemies closing and in rebels looting all of the cities, the government of Hungary finally collapsed on June 1, 1503. Terms for peace for made with their enemies, and the rebels were appeased, and the invading armies returned home. The king would be allowed to keep his throne, but from now on, all of his policy decisions would be regulated by a council of nobles and clergy (monarch ratings dropped to 2/2/2). All declarations of war would now be voted on by the council, which could at any time declare the king unfit to rule and have him deposed. Stripped of most of his royal powers, Ulászló II would spend the remainder of his days in his palace in shame, never recovering from the dark years of 1490-1503.
the dark years, part 1
the dark years, part 2
rebels rebels everywhere
after the madness
