Phew, that took longer than I thought to write. I'll proof read and add a tactical map tomorrow.
Part Two: The Main War
Chapter 1: Attica
On September 21 1460, the Ottoman Empire declared war on Byzantium. Byzantium was a vassal of the Knights of St John but unfortunately for them not allies. It would be up to the Knights to decided whether or not to come to their aid, uncompelled. Of course this non-compulsion was only de jure. The de facto case was that the Knights were the defenders of Byzantium and also Greece; any attack made against either of them would feel the full wraith of the Knights. Unfortunately the timing of the declaration was far from perfect for the Knights. At the time they were led by Jaques de Milly, a grandmaster who personified the term mediocrity. His reign had been plagued by outbreaks of heresy and rebellion. In 1458 a group of heretics in Achaea threatened the control of the province and six months to crush. Later in the same year a rebellion sparked in Capitanata. This mishandling of this rebellion would underline the grandmaster’s incompetence. A regiment of the Knights finest were shipped in from Modena to join the Apulia Guard to deal with them. Two years later and the rebellion still stood after six successive victories over the Knights’ forces. To add the De Milly’s problems a Wave of Obscurantism erupted across the realm in 1459.
In May 1460 Byzantium had lost faith in the Catholics. Since the Council of Florence in 1439 it had chosen to revoke Orthodoxy in exchange for protection by the Catholics against the Turks. However Venice’s failures, Naples’ weakness, the Pope’s change of priorities and now the internal strife of the Knights had shown the Catholics incompetence. So they abandoned the Union of Churches and returned to Orthodoxy. Some thought that this event would stretch ties between the Knights and Byzantium and it did but luckily for Byzantium, and the Knights, Jaques de Milly fell sick and would be dead by the end of the year.
The new grandmaster was Peter Raimund Zacosta, not a brilliant man but a man with a clean slate. Instantly the hostility between the Knights and Byzantines disappeared as well as the incessant rioting and misbehaviour around the realm. Zacosta decided in February 1461 to activate the forces and come to Byzantium’s aid, declaring war on the Ottoman Empire a full five months late; Byzantium was already under siege. The Knights entered the war with no allies and it would be risky to attack the Ottomans with no support. Their armed forces were some of the strongest ever seen and they were leader by the greatest military commander of the time Mehmed II. The Ottoman forces amassed to the number of 101,700 of which nearly 20,000 infantry and 2,500 cavalry were stationed in Albania under Mehmed and General Gedik Ahmed. There was also an army of 16,000 infantry and over 6000 cavalry in Thrace as well as smaller garrisons in every province and more armies of unknown size across in Anatolia.
Political Map in 1461, outbreak of the war.
The Knights were no slouch in the armed forces department either. In Attica they had the Army of St Uriel under Master Bernouville consisting of over 13,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry. Unfortunately this was the only army near the conflict zone at the outbreak of war but in total the Knights forces mounted up to 64,000 which included two other armies, the Army of St John in Maine of about 26,000 and the Army of St Barachiel in Capitanata of about 15,000. Furthermore the Knights had a reasonable navy whilst the Ottomans were lacking. The Fleet of St John was in the Aegean and consisted of 26 galleys under the command of Seamaster Pierre d’Aubusson. The Ottomans had 3 warships, 7 galleys and a transport ship somewhere in the Black Sea.
Straight off the bat the Knights went on the offensive. In March, Bernouville led his Army of St Uriel into Thessalia. There they expected to come up against the 5000 strong Turkish garrison in Larisa but were soon met by Mehmed’s army that arrived at the same time from Albania. Against 27,500 of the best warriors in the world Bernouville could only hope for a miracle. It didn’t come and the Army of St Uriel wisely retreated back to Athens and prepared defences for the inevitable assault by Mehmed. The Army of St Uriel secured the Acropolis and waited. On April 7th Mehmed arrived but this time the Knights had a marvellous defensive position. The two armies were evenly numbered and the fighting was furious as the battle over Athens dragged out for 13 days before Mehmed’s supply lines became overstretched and he was forced into retreat. It was a remarkable achievement for Bernouville and one that normally would’ve earned him much praise and reward but most believed including himself that this would be just the first of many attack that Mehmed would throw at him.
Indeed just a month later and Mehmed was back, but once again the Army of St Uriel would fend off the superior forces. This time however the Turks succeeded in killing a significant number of Knights. Bernouville became fearful that if such attacks would continue his men would surely run out before the Turks who just seemed invincible. He sent a plea to the Grandmaster requesting more forces and the Grandmaster, conceding the failure of the opening salvo, granted the request as he arranged for the Army of St Barachiel to be shipped across from Italy. Concurrently, a batch of 1,000 new recruits would be trained in Attica.
In June the indefatigable Mehmed returned for a third time to Athens. His army seemingly unscathed and confident as ever stormed the Knights defences and this Bernouville had no answer. The Knights lost the battle on June 24th and forced to retreat to Patras. Mehmed now began to siege the Acropolis and with his siege skills Bernouville knew he didn’t have long to regroup, he wondered how long the reinforcements would take to arrive. It turned out that the navy was having its own battles to contend with. The Ottoman navy was trying to break through into the Aegean but there was no way they could get past the might of Aubusson and his galleys. In July the Ottomans suffered a major defeat in the Aegean and the navy then proceeded to travel to Italy. In the meantime the reinforcements in Attica were completed but soon found themselves surrounded by 25,000 Turks and wisely retreated with as few losses as possible to Patras.
On August 10th the Army of St Barachiel landed in Epirus and laid siege, not the position that Bernouville had hoped which proved to him his standing within the Knights military, he was only a Master not a Fieldmaster and had no control over troops outside of his direct command. Nonetheless Bernouville’s confidence was reassured days later when the Grandmaster’s plan was revealed. Both the Army of St Uriel and Army of St Barachiel would converge on Athens from either side. If this combined assault could not lift the siege then the Knights would be in dire straits. Both armies arrived on September 11 in Athens and after a week of fighting were able to overcome Mehmed’s force. Mehmed has reinforcements sent to assist him but they got bogged down and arrived a week later and were easily routed as well. By October 1 Athens was clear and Grandmaster Zacosta ordered the two armies to be merged. Bernouville would maintain leadership of the expanded Army of St Uriel and plans began on a new offensive.
Mehmed was resilient in his plans, he wanted Attica and no defeat would deter him. In mid October he launched another attack but his army was weakened whilst the Knights were combined in confidence. Bernouville took this as his chance to attack; he could follow Mehmed’s army back to Larisa and hopefully keep pushing him back. Mehmed’s army was defeated but the attacks kept coming, the same two reinforcing armies from before tried to batter the Army of St Uriel once more. They were futile attempts to breach into Attica but the attacks did succeed in weakening Bernouville’s men. By the time they reached Larisa they were weakened and unable to follow up with a victory over Mehmed again. This created a problem as once again Mehmed was now free to walk into Attica. In the closing days of December the Army of St Uriel arrived back in Athens but were being chased and were successfully chased right out of town by Mehmed’s men. Once again Mehmed laid a siege on Athens and Bernouville retreated to Patras.
At the start of 1462 Bernouville sent a request to the Grandmaster that had him seeing deja vous. Once again the Knights would need reinforcements from Italy to fight the fight in Greece. Grandmaster Zacosta was unimpressed but such requests were forecast. However this time there was no army sitting there, they would have to be trained. In January and in March Bernouville attempted to lift the siege on Athens but knew he wouldn’t succeed without more men, he was just trying to keep the Ottomans honest. 4000 men from Capitanata and 3000 from Apulia were shipped across, to confuse the turks the Apulian regiment landed in Ioannina whilst the Capitanatan regiment landed in Patras and joined Bernouville’s army. Once again they together launched a two pronged attack on Mehmed and once again they succeeded. This time though Mehmed has no supporting forces which allowed Bernouville to follow up his victory by marching on Larisa. On July 10 he defeated Mehmed again and laid a siege on the city and things were looking good.
Mehmed had taken quite a battering and Bernouville fancied himself and the weakness of the Ottomans. He decided to split his forces and lay concurrent sieges on Larisa and Ioannina. It would prove to be a mistake as in September his siege on Thessalia was defeated and once again Mehmed was steaming towards Athens. The siege in Epirus was left with a skeleton force as the rest of the men tried to lift the siege on Athens. It failed but allowed Bernouville's army to reunite in Patras. Finally a bit of luck went the Knights way as Mehmed abandoned his siege to liberate Ioannina. On November 28 Mehmed lifted the siege on Ioannina but that was alright as it allowed Bernouville to regroup and provide defence for Attica.
It had been a messy start of the war for the Knights; no land had been exchanged as the Knights struggled to maintain control of their little corner of Greece. It many ways they had been lucky not to lose control of Attica but Bernouville’s offensive were not up to scratch even if against the greatest general of the time. A new leader was coming though, a leader that would be a worthy nemesis for the might of Mehmed.
Tactical Map, Feb 1461 - Dec 1462
(Turks = green, Knights = Red, Venice = Mustard, Naples = Blue)
