Part 2 – Chapter 4 – Beating back the Beasts
The country was still reeling from the shock of Mihály’s brutal purge, but the world would not halt while Transylvania gathered its breath and counted heads. Europe forged on, and it forged on with a single purpose during this time: to drive the heathens out of Europe, to claim the entire continent as Christendom’s. In September the call to arms was raised from Austria, and Transylvania was ready for war, as it always was. It would be another crusade by the increasingly inseparable pair of Habsburg and Plater, called against the Turks once more; but this time they would bring another friend to the party.
Transylvania is called to war once more, September 30th, 1460
Beating back the Beasts – The Second Great Crusade, September 1460
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If anyone is curious as to how Austria got a holy war casus belli on the Ottos, it’s because the Turks had taken Venezia earlier…don’t ask)
I.
The forces of Transylvania assemble for the Crusade, November, 1460
King Mihály was concerned at first, as he lacked the forces to guard the border against both the Ottomans and the Golden Horde, but his fears were ungrounded as spies returned from the Tartar lands, bringing excellent news to the King. The Horde was not only held in the death grip of a succession crisis, with usurpers and rebels alike rampaging across their lands, but they were also concentrating most of their forces on their north western border after they had lost an entire army to the swift moving forces of Sweden at the Battle of Olonets. With his northern flank secured, Mihály turned his attention to the Turkish allies of Bosnia and Serbia, hoping to crush them and force them out of the war early on so that Transylvania and Austria’s full might could be brought to bear against the Turks.
Tartar and Swedish forces battle at the shoreline near Kroshnozero in the Battle of Olonets, December, 1460
The war progressed relatively smoothly for Transylvania. Serbia’s army was routed near its capital city, and the same was true for Bosnia. However the Austrians had bogged down in trying to capture Venezia, as the superior Ottoman navy repeatedly blocked their approach to the island city. The Ottomans, seeing clear the possibility of knocking Transylvania out of the war and thus forcing Austria into a drawn out war of attrition, surged across the Bosphorous and into Transylvania’s Bulgarian territories. The scene was very reminiscent of the first crusade, except instead of Romanian cities burning as the soldiers of Transylvania withdrew, it was Bulgarian cities this time. The Turks were undeterred, and as the Transylvanian Army de Stiboricz withdrew to deal with rebels on the northern borders, the Turkish forces assaulted the cities and fortresses all across the provinces of Edrine and Burgas, which fell under Ottoman control in June of 1461.
Things were faring better for the Horde as well, as Lithuania and Castille both signed peace with the Tartars, with both sides agreeing upon a draw. The first Tartar forces were seen on the border between Transylvania and the Golden Horde, and a small detachment from the Army de Stiboricz, now heading south to deal with the Turks, was sent to Budjak, with orders to burn the crops and retreat if the enemy advanced; but they did not, withdrawing back to their heartland shortly afterwards. The Swedes were making good progress against the Tartars, and as Swedish armies advanced, they found themselves showered with food and supplies from Russian villages, from Russian peasants and nobles alike who were tired of living under the oppressive and backwards Muslim state.
The Transylvanians rushed back to the fight faster than the Ottomans expected, and caught a forward force of the Turkish army in the province of Burgas, annihilating it entirely. The army did not stop to celebrate however, and moved towards Bulgaria, where the main Ottoman army, as well as the remains of the Serbian army, was besieging the city of Sredec. The Ottomans had already taken horrendous losses due to lack of proper supplies, caused largely by Mihály’s decision to burn the grain depots of less defensible cities and fortresses. What the Transylvanian army met wasn’t a large force, but it was hardly a weak one.
The Ottoman army, numbering just over 13,000 men regrouped to face this new threat, brandishing an impressive array of crescent-mooned flags punctuated by the odd eagle denoting Serbian units. Mihály concentrated most of the weight of his attack on those eagle standards as they were held by units that had already been devastated by Transylvania’s army, and who knew that their homeland was currently under assault, and so were much more likely to flee the field to return home to defend their families. The Turkish forces put up a good fight, but the Serbs broke after Mihály ordered 2,000 heavily armoured Szekely cavalry to ride around and hit the line from behind. The lighter Ottoman Sipahi cavalry were unable to prevent the maneuver, and when the cavalry charge hit home the Serbian forces routed, opening wide gaps in the Ottoman’s battle line through which the veteran troops of Transylvania, who had honed their killing skill through decades of bitter conquest, poured in. With their line's organization lost and Transylvanian troops hacking at the Turkish formation's flanks and rear, the Turks broke as well. Transylvanian hussars set about the work of running down the enemy army; wolves set upon a wounded calf who fled in sheer terror from the hunters. The battle was a total victory, and the door was now open wide for Transylvania to push into the Turkish heartland.
Butchers bill for the Battle of Sredec (Bulgaria), November, 1461
II.
Painting of Count Leustachius leading the Szekely cavalry charge at the Battle of Sredec, November, 1461
Common support for the war in Turkey had been lost, and when the Austrians proposed a deal for the Turkish Sultan to cede Venezia and pay a tiny pittance, the Sultan jumped at the opportunity, rather than see his lands ravaged by the bloodthirsty Transylvanians. Peace was signed on the 17th of November, just days after the Battle of Sredec. Transylvania was still at war with the Horde, Bulgaria, and Serbia, however; but the uncertainty of victory was long gone. Transylvanian and Austrian forces made short work of the small Orthodox kingdoms; Bosnia accepted peace on January of 1461, and Serbia in April of the same year.
The Treaties of Venezia, Hum, and Kosovo, respectively – 1460-1461
All eyes in Europe now turned to the Horde, the Beast of the East that had stood as a threatening menace to all of Christendom, poised on the edge of cutting deep into the ‘civilized’ world. Sweden’s initial gains against the Horde had been lost, and both sides settled in for a long conflict. Transylvania was forced to bow out of the war however. Rebellions wracked the country, both from the hardships imposed by the war and from King Mihály’s tyrannical policies and actions. The war would last for another year three years, but as Sweden signed peace with the Tartars gaining a number of Russia’s former territories, Austria was forced to sign peace with the Beast, as they faced an excommunication by the pope and troop movements along the Bohemian border were far too frequent for the Habsburg king to have most of his army in eastern Europe. There was good news to offset this peace of circumstance, as according to the census, the majority of Oltenia’s population was now Hungarian in culture.
The Treaty of Olonets, December, 1463
The Treaty of Budjak, July, 1464
Oltenia becomes Hungarian in culture
The Golden Horde was hardly in a position of security after the peace though; allowed to recover from the thrashing it had taken. It was still stuck in its succession crisis, but now the population was outraged at their leaders, for the deaths the war had caused and the devastation it had wrecked. The Horde’s future was bleak indeed, and all of Europe rejoiced.
I.
Painting of Richard the Lionheart observing the assembled men for the First Crusade (cover art for the book ‘The Talisman: A Tale of the Crusaders by Sir Walter Scott) More information can be found here.
II.
Painting of Władysław Warneńczyk at the Battle of Varna More information can be found here.