Part 1 - Chapter 9 – The Great Crusade
István Kolozsvár was a gambler. He had lost much of his family’s fortune shooting dice with the other upper nobility. He didn’t play for the money; he couldn’t care less about such things. He played for the thrill; the moment of anticipation before the dice fell, hoping and praying for what seemed to be the impossible. When it did, when the dice rolled the perfect number, it was a feeling greater than any other to István, as if he had the luck of God upon him…which was why he was the perfect ruler for this period of Transylvania’s history
The lands that made up Transylvania were poor, hardly suitable to even farming, let alone the production of goods that fuelled empires. There was no gold in Transylvania, like there was in Austria. There was grain, wool, and more grain. Transylvania stood at an impasse. Expansion was needed in order to ensure Transylvania could stand on its own against its adversaries; however the prospects of easy expansion had long since been exhausted. The only kingdom nearby that Transylvania could best on its own was Poland, who sat comfortably with their independence guaranteed by the expanding Holy Roman Emperor, Bohemia. To the west was Austria, Transylvania’s closest ally, and the only thing keeping the heathen hordes from the throat of Transylvania. To the north east lied the narrow strip of land connecting the Golden Horde to Transylvania, undoubtedly one of the most powerful nations of the world at this time; the Horde had crushed the Rus into submission, and stripped them of any feasible dreams of conquest. That left only one route for expansion, the path that had seemed inevitable since Transylvania first gained its independence; the Ottomans.
The Kingdom of Transylvania, 1434
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I accidentally removed Wallachia in the above map)
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Also, if you like, you can now put this track on in the background as you read. It matches up pretty nicely for me, at least.)
The stage was set. The main body of the Transylvanian army was assembled near the capital, while two regiments were sent to the neighbouring provinces of Budjak and Oltenia, with orders to burn the crops and retreat to the capital once the declaration of war was sent to the Ottomans. Transylvania’s future was down to a dice roll; three dice, to be specific. The first to decide whether or not the Austrians joined Transylvania in its crusade against the Turk; if that failed, then it would be a very short war indeed, as the vastly more numerous Ottoman armies would overwhelm the Transylvanian defenders. The second dice, to determine if Austria would even mobilize a sizeable portion of their army to help in the attack; and the third and final die to determine the outcome of the war, favourable or not.
The Call to Arms is answered, July, 1435
A Transylvanian noble bids farewell to his wife as he rides to war
The first die had fallen favourably. The King of Austria answered the call in July of 1435, and began mobilizing their armies. However, King István had over-estimated the speed at which the Austrians would assemble and move their armies in to help, and under-estimated the speed at which the
Ottomans would launch their offensive. As a large force of Ottoman soldiers began crossing the border into Oltenia, the regiment there received additional orders from King István. They were to burn not just the crops, but the cities themselves. Deny the Ottomans any safe haven in Transylvania, and let them starve to death in preparation of a crushing blow from the Transylvanian army.
I.
The city of Caracal burns as Transylvanian forces withdraw across the Danube
The Serbs had crossed over the border as well, into Banat and Ereksujvar; however King István dared not move his forces to engage them, as it would leave the capital unguarded against the Ottomans. Messengers were sent to the Austrians, pleading with them to send some of their forces to deal with the Serbs, and the Austrians obliged, despite being engaged in several pitched battles with Turkish forces in Croatian-held Ragusa. Turkish forces were driven off from Wallachia, with the Transylvanian army having inflicted heavy casualties on them; however King István was unable to pursue the retreating Ottoman army as another fresh one was brought up immediately. The war was devolving into a slugging match, with each side coming out for a round of fighting, and then retreating back to their homeland to lick their wounds. The Ottomans held all the advantages here, though. The Austrians, though they had mobilized a large portion of their army and marched into Bosnia and Serbia, had had their offensive grind to almost a complete halt. Their vast armies were unable to assault the Turkish vassal’s cities, as Ottoman armies sat firmly entrenched in nearby provinces, waiting for the opportunity to pounce on an exhausted Austrian army.
Transylvania, for all intents and purposes, stood alone against the bulk of the Ottoman forces, stuck fighting a guerilla war against a vastly superior army. The war had dragged on for nearly a year now, with neither side making any significant gain. Grumbles about the hardships being put onto the peasantry were beginning to rise, as the people grew tired of the war and the destruction it brought. King István refused to surrender, just as the Ottomans refused to accept peace. It was not entirely ill news during this time for Transylvania however. The Ottomans also were at war with another large alliance, a number of Italian states, headed by the merchant republic of Venice, and holding the support of Castille were making headway into Asia Minor. Castile had made a beachhead in Smyrna, and their troops were rampaging across Anatolia, sacking Turkish cities and bringing their populace to the sword. The war was beginning to turn against the Ottomans, if only Transylvania could hang on, and keep its army intact.
Spanish advance into Anatolia, October, 1436
The disposition of forces was starting to swing in favour of the Transylvanian alliance as well, with the Christian’s fielding a combined force of over 70,000, and the Ottomans and their allies fielding only 35,000. However, roughly 80% of the alliance’s forces were Austrians, who were either waiting around in the Austrian homeland, or tied up fighting against the Serbs and the Turks in Bosnia and Serbia. The Croatian army, after having started off the war strong and taken the Turkish province of Zeta, was destroyed entirely by the Ottomans; Wallachia suffered a similar fate. Public support of the war had dropped to all time lows, with the shouts of defeatists echoing through Transylvania’s cities. A single battle would drown out those shouts with the sound of cheers, and push for a renewed effort against the heathen Turks. It was the Battle of Turda, better known as the Battle of Transylvania, and it was the largest single battle that Transylvania had fought in its history.
The Turkish Sultan, Ali I Osmanli, had grown tired of the attack-withdraw-attack strategy of the Transylvanians, and gave orders to one of his armies camped in Silistria that they were to advance into Transylvania and take the capital. Sultan Ali had hoped that such a move would bring a swift end to the war, so that his forces could concentrate on pushing the Castilians out of Asia Minor. In December of 1436, an Ottoman army comprised of 20 regiments advanced on the Transylvanian capital. King István had no choice but to stand and fight, as deserting the capital would sap the will to fight out of every Transylvanian. Sultan Ali made a grave error in his order though. The Sultan ordered the army to advance, and it was a force that outnumbered the Transylvanian army by a great deal when it first set out, however to get to the Transylvanian capital it had to traverse the desolate landscape between in the heart of winter, which had been slashed and burned beyond recognition by the Christians. The Ottoman army that arrived was on even numbers with the Transylvanians, and what was worse for the Sultan, is that the army arrived without a notable general to lead it, the one that had having perished from disease en route.
The Ottoman army advanced, however. They had an order from their Sultan, and Allah would grand them victory over the infidel Christians. The Christian God had other ideas, it would seem. As the Ottoman army was crossing the Danube river, the Transylvanian forces struck. The outward scouts for the Turkish army had been local foresters, hired for their knowledge of the land. However they were not men loyal to the Turks, and had betrayed them by not notifying them that the Transylvanian army was advancing to meet the Turks.
II.
The Battle of Transylvania, January, 1437
It was an absolute slaughter. The Battle of Transylvania would stand as one of the largest military defeats for the Ottoman Empire for all of eternity. Of the nearly 10,000 men that managed to cross the Danube, the number that returned could be counted on a single hand. It's said that the Danube ran red with Turkish blood for weeks after the battle, with bodies still being found months later, still dressed for war, and some with their swords still held in the iron grip of death.
Casualties of the Battle of Transylvania from the Royal Transylvanian Archives, January, 1437
The Austrians had begun to make headway in Serbia and Bosnia as well. Both country’s armies had been utterly destroyed, and the Austrians were now beginning to assault the city walls. Engagements were still frequent between the Austrians and Ottomans, especially in the Turkish-held province of Ragusa. War subsidies from the Austrians also allowed King István to order spies into the Turkish capital, to determine the whereabouts of the Ottoman armies. They would feed information to the King for the next couple years, greatly influencing the outcome of the war. The Transylvanians began to advance with this knowledge, once it was determined that the bulk of the Ottoman forces were fighting against the Austrians in Croatia. Bulgaria fell to the Transylvanians on January 7th of 1438, and Silistria on May 1st of the same year. The war had been raging for over two years now, and only now was starting to move in favour of the Crusaders. However, the focus of the Ottomans soon went back to Transylvania, and they mobilized a large portion of their national armies to deal with the advancing forces. Bulgaria and Silistria returned to Ottoman control, and the Transylvanians retreated once more, not wanting to be cut off deep in Ottoman territory. The Turks pursued, and crossed the border into Transylvania again in October.
The situation was growing worse on the homefront for Transylvania. Dissent was at an all time high, and a number of Byelorussian nationalist groups rose up in November, hoping that the Transylvanian army would be too distracted with the Ottomans to deal with them. They were wrong, but dealing with the rebels would cost Transylvania dearly. The Ottoman Sultan had decided to renew his offensive, and the Turkish armies pushed forward and arrived near the capital of Turda and in the province of Budjak in June of 1440. The Transylvanian army, just returning from Carpathia, was caught off guard, and took heavy casualties before withdrawing to the province of Parthium. Transylvania had suffered its first crushing defeat of the war. With the prospects of peasant uprisings rising due to the destruction wrought by the war, and the national manpower reserves having long since been drained of suitable recruits, King István had only two choices left. He needed men; trained soldiers. However he lacked the funds to hire mercenaries, and taking out loans would likely cripple the fragile Transylvanian economy in the future.
That left only a single choice. Liberum Veto. The decision would absorb the private armies of the feudal lords into the national army, but the decision would come at great cost. In order to set about declaring Liberum Veto, King István would need to cede a number of his royal powers, and endow the upper nobility with untold power within the state of Transylvania. It was not a decision that could be taken lightly, on a whim. It was a necessary decision, however. Too many lives had been lost, cities sacked, and homes destroyed for the war to end with no gain. The Ottomans needed to be crippled, their expansion into Christendom checked. If not, they would return with a vengeance, seeking revenge against the tiny little nation that dared defied them. And what if Transylvania no longer had an ally such as Austria?
III.
The Proclamation of Liberum Veto, October 16, 1440
The private armies of the feudal lords now came under the control of King István. With 15,000 additional troops, the treasury turned to full bore minting in order to pay the expense. Now would begin the advance of Transylvania. The Austrians had taken complete control of Bosnia and Serbia, and were advancing into Greece. The Croats were once again showing their loyalty, and had raised another army and were advancing with the Austrians as well. Two main Ottoman armies still stood in the path of Transylvania’s conquest of the Ottoman controlled Balkans. King István took control of the army raised by initiating Liberum Veto, and set them to relieve the garrison of Turda, Transylvania’s capital. Unfortunately, they arrived too late, and the capital fell on November 13th, 1440.
The capital falls to the Turks with a relief column just days away, November, 1440
The Transylvanian army arrived just days late to relieve the garrison, but they set upon the Turks with a vengeance. Thousands were slaughtered on both sides, and the Turks were forced to withdraw. No longer fearing the Ottoman armies which have now been worn down and exhausted, King István pursued the fleeing army and destroyed it on the plains of Bulgaria. The Ottomans were far from beaten however, and began to resurge once peace was signed with the Venitians. Asia Minor returned to Turkish control, and the Ottomans began raising a new army.
Knowing full well that Transylvania lacked the manpower to fight punch for punch against the Ottomans, King István took yet another risky gamble. His forces would divide, with small brigades to siege the provinces of Bulgaria, Silistria, and Burgas, while the main body of the Transylvanian army would split evenly and hold the coast of Thrace and Edrine, thus forcing the Ottomans to risk a sea-crossing in order to assault the Transylvanian positions. The gamble paid off as Austria mopped up the remaining Ottoman regiments trapped in the Balkans, and the Ottomans were forced to watch as their capital burned from across the Bosphorus.
The war would drag on for another year and a half, but the outcome had long since been decided. It was an overall victory for the Transylvanian alliance, with the Ottoman armies being crippled and pushed back to their native lands. Rebels began rising up against Turkish rule in the Greek provinces, and still the Ottomans were unable to respond. It was a costly war for the alliance though. Of the 70,000 men that they had started with, only 45,000 remained, many of them replacements. Of the Turkish forces, only 7,000 men still stood,
all of them replacements. At the end of the war, nearly all of the Balkans were under either Austrian or Transylvanian rule, and the Ottomans had no choice but to accept the harsh terms of the Treaty of Constantinople, a name which was likely picked just to add salt to the wounds that the Ottomans had taken; the final die rolled to a halt.
Alliance holdings at the end of the war, August, 1442
The Treaty of Constantinople, August 8th, 1442
Zeta would be given to the Croatians, as a reward for their loyal service during the war, and Albania would be granted its independence. However, it would serve as a vassal of Transylvania.
The Kingdom of Transylvania after the Treaty of Constantinople, August, 1442
I. Painting done by Pierre-Jacques Voltaire. More information can be found here (from the French Wikipedia).
II. Cover art for the book ‘El Cid’ by James Morris. More information can be found here.
III. Painting of the Council of Clermont, which established the First Crusade. More information can be found here and here.
And I'd just like to note that this was probably one of the most epic, nail biting, heart-attack inducing wars I've ever fought in EU3.