1493, the Second Year of the Columbian Crusade
February - Pope Innocent VIII dies. The Papal Conclave of 1493 is ridiculed for its near blatant use of simony. Roderic de Borja literally buys the election by paying off cardinals to make him the next Pope. He chooses the name Alexander VI, and while he won’t be as passionate for the Crusade as his predecessor, he will nevertheless support it.
March
– Venetian offensive on Cefalonia, to take the valuable timber there. This is repelled by the Turks. With news of the Ottomans building new ships at Athens the Venetian navy moves towards the area.
– Bayezid II sends the smaller division of his army, consisting of 11,000 infantry and 7,000 cavalry, back to Anatolia to deal with his brother Cem. After promising new territory and sovereignty to the Karamanid Turks and making deals with other fringe groups, Prince Cem has taken under his command a large part of the interior of Anatolia. His military consists 13,000 crusaders under Christopher Columbus along with 20,000 unruly Ramazan Turkish riders and nearly 10,000 Anatolian Turkish volunteers and conscripts. The crusader fleets of Cyprus largely depart to Naples.
April
- Some two-hundred ships of the League of Naples meet nearly two-hundred Ottoman vessels, many of them built during that winter or relocated from the Black Sea, in combat in the Battle of Monemvasia. After a month of clashes the battle ends in an inconclusive tactical Turkish defeat, with the Ottoman fleet retreating to protect Athens. During the battle, some 2,000 Italian and French soldiers are ferried to Modon.
– Prince Cem and his crusader-rebel army meet the forces of his brother Sultan Bayezid II in battle for the first time outside of Eskisehir. The loyalists route Cem’s upstart army and force them to retreat to their more fortified southern position.
May
– The Venetian fleet ferries another 14,000 crusaders to Modon and Coron, in preparation for a general offensive to recapture the Morea. Turkish soldiers and engineers are preparing the general area for a siege of the two cities. The crusaders conduct raids into the countryside to hinder their efforts, pillaging farmers in order to feed themselves.
- In Anatolia, Cem leads a contingent of mostly Turkish cavalry in a counter-attack against Bayezid II’s forces. The counter-attack is successful, and is followed up by bringing in European heavy cavalry to sweep up the remnant forces and drive Bayezid’s army towards Eskisehir. Internal divisions begin to show in Prince Cem’s multicultural army, especially when the European crusaders must be constantly rewarded and doted on in order to keep them from pillaging the countryside.
June
– Another 10,000 crusaders arrive in the Morea, bringing the total to 26,000. Bayezid II begins a general offensive and siege with is own army. He has prepared over the spring and winter by building new roads and stocking the area with munitions and supplies. The non-combatants of the area do not choose to support any one side, as the Ottoman occupation is as bad as the Europeans’ looting of the countryside.
– Prince Cem begins a siege of Iznik, which falls in a few short days. As his forces near the Bosporus, the crusaders are seen as a liability to Cem’s legitimacy as a Turkish leader and not a European puppet, and are sent southwards to Izmir and the Aegean coastline to link up with the Knights of St. John who are eager to join in the conquests.
– The Turks conduct raids into Albania and the Dalmatian coast, which is damaging to Venetian settlements but does not result in territorial gains. French soldiers are used to fortify Venetian ports, which is very effective. However, this forces the Venetian Republic to grant a subsidy to King Charles VIII of France in order to use them this way.
– A conference is held in Leutschau between Brandenburg, Moldavia, Hungary and Poland over the prospects to be earned in an invasion of the Sublime Porte. King Ladislaus II of Hungary is lackluster to join the war but supportive of its neighbors. Elector Johann Cicero of Brandenburg is also supportive but he gives few practical promises. Moldavia is eager to regain recently-lost fortresses from the Ottomans, while King John Albert is genuinely supportive of a campaign to contain the Turks and loot their territory. They each begin to raise an army.
July
- European crusaders pillage the region around of Izmir and generally create havoc, ruthlessly pushing through enemy armies with brute force and ultimately connecting with the coastline where they would join the Knights of St. John and help them annex various coastal territories. The Knights’ chivalrous, disciplined spirit would inspire many common European soldiers and led to a general change of attitude amongst the armies. Nevertheless, most soldiers continued to act as mercenaries. After aiding the Knights in taking various coastal fortresses from Chios to Telmessos, they join forces to begin a siege of Izmir, which would fall within a week.
August
- King René II orders the Neapolitan army of 2,000 moved from Morea to Anatolia, though nearly all of Anatolia except for the general area of the Bosporus and Gallipoli has been already conquered. This is seen as somewhat a betrayal by various powers in the League of Naples, switching from an active combat zone to an in-active one.
- Sultan Bayezid II realizes that the situation in Anatolia with his brother Cem is more out of his control than he believed. He reluctantly withdraws his forces from Morea, having been unable to defeat an opponent with nearly as many men as he and well-defended, well-supplied coastal fortresses, and sends envoys to the League of Naples to request peace, though he believed this would only buy him some time. He would then send 21,000 soldiers to Thrace to be transported to Gallipoli, in order to join with the remnants of his Anatolian division and begin driving Cem back. Defensive forces against Hungary and Turkish raiders in the Balkans are recalled as well. The Janissaries, Bayezid’s most effective fighting force of about 8,000 are extremely angry with how the war has been waged, having faced only loss after loss with no personal rewards. Their loyalty to Bayezid is gone, and the Sultan worries that sending them to Anatolia might result in their defection. Thus, he leaves them to largely live off the land around Thessalonika. Nevertheless, nearly half of the Janissaries desert to join forces with the crusaders in looting the Morea.
- Prince Cem’s forces now control a huge majority of Anatolia, with only coastal fortresses along the Black Sea and the region around the Sea of Mamara and the Bosporus out of his control.
- The leaders of the League of Naples attend a conference in Rome. The war has gone on for more than a year and the unity of motives against the Turks are gone. They are more concerned with convincing their respective populaces that the war is worth the money spent on it. The conference has two effects: the first is a partition of the Balkans. King René II would press the House of Trastamara’s claim to the Despotate of Epirus, which the Pope recognized. The Republic of Venice would receive the Duchy of Athens. King Charles VIII of France had been able to purchase the rights of destitute Andreas Palaiologos to the Despotate of Morea and the Byzantine Empire, and would control the Morea outside of Venetian exclaves (which would include half of the coastline of the Morea). Various other small Italian states would receive much smaller prizes. The second effect of the conference would be the division of the strategic planning of the different kingdoms. Also present in the Rome Conference would be the declaration of the restitution of the Kingdom of Bulgaria, the Kingdom of Thessalonika, and the Latin Empire.
September
– French forces in Anatolia are transported to the Morea, consisting of thousands of ships and a good amount of loot as well. The Neapolitans are the only crusaders remaining in Anatolia.
– Bayezid II’s army begins its first offensive against his brother’s forces. The best Cem will be able to manage from now on are stalemates.
– The French-Venetian navy clashes with the Ottomans outside of Athens with little success.
October
- Venice begins a siege of Cefalonia once more. It will fall to the Venetians within the month, to be annexed into the Republic.
- Bayezid II’s armies begin pushing Prince Cem into southwestern Anatolia, with the eastern frontier out of either’s control. There is still enough European and rebel support to fortify this portion of Anatolia.
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General outlook at the end of 1493:
After nearly a year of controlling all but the northern-northwestern coast of Anatolia, Prince Cem is being pushed south by the full force of the Ottoman army. His soldiers, consisting of peasant conscripts, mercenaries, adventurers, militia and the odd group of idealists and Anatolian Europeans, are routed time and time again. The western coastline is dominated by the Knights of St. John and Neapolitan crusaders, of which they've built very poor relations with the populace. They are well-defended, but not for the long-term. Prince Cem expects the loss of his campaign by the spring of 1494, despite an increase of supplies from Europe. It doesn't help most of the League of Naples have turned towards more immediate gains and relocated all of their crusaders away from the Anatolia.
The Morea (Pelopponessus) has been abandoned and has been pillaged twice over and subjected to French rule, though at the moment the Europeans are having their way with the island. The majority of the Ottoman fleet is protecting Athens, but very few standing forces are defending the city and surrounding area.
The Balkans are quiet. Ports on the Adriatic Sea are left alone. However, the eastern European powers are building for an invasion.