All right ladies and gentlemen after a long period of wait, I bring to you my revived tl. I hope you will continue to read it. After a while I have decided to come back and post on AH.com
The Great Roman wars with Hungary, Italians, and Poles
The year is 1446 and the Empire of Trebizond has become a major power once more.
On 1446 of July David proclaimed himself the new Emperor of the Romans. The Patriarch in the Hagia Sophia then crowned him. The Roman Empire that had once been driven to extinction had resurged once more.
Meanwhile the Sultan Mehmet would enjoy great prestige and influence over the Turkish parts of the empire.
Unfortunately in this period a great crisis overtook Trebizond. The Pope of Rome had always wanted a union between the two churches. The Paleologans accepted the deal and were going to embrace Roman Catholicism but now with David on the throne all bets were called off. The Patriarch George who was a supporter of the union was sacked and instead replaced with the Archbishop of Trebizond Photias who became Photias II the Patriarch of Constantinople. With this act David won the loyalty of his orthodox citizens who vehemently opposed the union from the beginning. Photias despised union beetween the two churches and so the populace favored the man for he supported independence from the evil and devil he called the pope. In 1447 David sent apologies to the Russian principalities informing them of the grave mistake the Paleologans made Under the Komenians he hoped relations would be restored. The Romans as he proclaimed would remain Orthodox and as felow followers of faith in troubled times both should help one another. He also began secret talks with the Russian duke of Moskow of a joint attack on the Crimean Khanate as well as the Khazars and the golden horde remnants. He hoped that in return for aiding the Rus the Rus would watch his back against the Poles and Hungarians. When the news reached the Russian principality that the Byzantines were once more orthodox relation re-assumed between the princes and Constantinople. Once more relations between the Rus and Romans boomed.
In Rome the pope was stunned at this revelation. It was said he seethed with rage. He had come so close to having the union achieved only to have it unraveled by those goddamm Trebizondians. He utterly and completely despised them and vowed to exact his revenge on those accursed schematics. Indeed for you see by the open acceptance of the Orthodox faith David may have won the support of the Rus principalities but he also incurred the wrath of Hungary which had grown powerful by this point. In 1449 the Hungarians and poles crossed the Danube inorder to reinstate a certain John Paleologos on the throne. For although most of the Paleologans accepted Komnenian suzerainty a branch had gone into asylum in Hungary.. Meanwhile at sea Venice and Genoa soon raided the Roman coastal cities provoking war joining the Hungarians for you see to them the Greeks had gotten too powerful and needed to be taken a step down to protect their interests in the med sea.. David was stunned the Hungarians had invaded the Balkans with the blessings of the Pope of Rome who had sent a note to the King of Hungary praising him to be the most pious and just man in Christendom!!! This justified to David that all hope for reconciliation with Rome had ended. Never again would both sides discuss an ecunimical meeting of union.
Maybe a couple decades ago the Empire would have lost but now with Anatolia and the Balkans under his control. Michael soon mobilized his troops in the Balkans and with an army of some 12000 marched to halt the Hungaro-polis-Italian alliance. In this turmoil Napoli also declared war upon Trebizond eager to sack the Balkan provinces. David now faced a multi fronted war against many enemies who enjoyed naval and land superiority over his men. The odds were completely stacked against the Romans. However David had one advantage over the other kings. He had competent generals and a disciplined and powerful army.
In 1450 Michaels army won a decisive victory against the Hungaro Polish force of some 20000. At the battle in a little town a few miles from Sophia, Michael utterly and completely crushed the enemy’s armies. The Kings of Hungary Poland, and countless Hungarian and Polish nobility lost their lives. The blow stunned Hungary and with the loss of its king soon sued for peace.
By this point the Genoese colony across from Constantinople had fallen and was looted by David. In fact because the Italians declared war David ordered the immediate seizure of all property owned by the latin merchants and said property would be given to the crown. The Genoese colony across the horn was looted and sacked. Likewise hundreds of merchants lost their jobs and livelihood. In outrage the Venezians enacted an embargo upon the Greek state. But at the encouragement of David many in the empire started to produce their own clothes, food, water, and extract resources for themselves they also relied more heavily upon the silk road and so by trading with eastern merchants the Roman economy was saved.
[FONT="]David next did the unthinkable. He prevented foreign merchants from crossing Anatolia. In fact the foreign merchants instead sold the good to Trebizond and the empire and everyone else but encouraged them not to continue onto Europe This would be a terrible blow to the Italian city states who depended upon trade. Cut off from the Silk Road Venice watched helplessly as her economy went down the drain. Likewise Genoa’s economy also fell. It was a complete and utter disaster. Also by this point Athens had fallen to David. The last latin state was crushed. Only the islands remained outside Roman control. Anger from many European states also convinced the Italians to sue for peace for the embargo not only hurt the Italians but the rest of Europe as well. The Venezians sued for peace and in the treaty of Constantinople signed in 1450. Venice annulled all previous trade treaties with the Roman Empire. Likewise the Genoese too had to face the same conditions. With peace restored the Silk trade once more was allowed to pass into Europe.[/FONT]