Don't expect too much, this is my first timeline.
I HAVE DONE A COMPLETE REVISION. Please tell me if you consider this an improvement(and more realistic) than what had previously been up. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure on the population statistics of Constantinople, but I believe I read somewhere that it was the population at the time.
POD:POD: Martin V’s life is filled with encounters with Jews being generous, positive, friendly, and while the Pope keeps his fondness and friendship with Jews for the most part quiet, he does speak out for tolerance towards Jews, referring to them as the brothers who have yet to see Christ’s glory, but that one day will(his pretext for religious tolerance and equality for Jews without getting lynched himself). Pope Martin V also has a deep dislike for Muslims, due to the influence of his Jewish friends and acquaintances having had some bad experiences with Muslims(yet also some good but for our purpose they only really bother to tell him the bad side) and his strong anti-Muslim views in the end helped him balance his pro-Jew views, allowing him to be elected as Pope by the cardinals, with one or two swapping sides based on this Martin V.
Since becoming Pope, Martin V secretly began to amass funds for the Byzantines, using his wealthy Jewish contacts to help. He met with several wealthy Jews shortly after becoming Pope and proposed to strengthen his pro-Jewish attitude and officially make the church discourage discrimination against Jews, should they give large funds to the Papacy. Seeing the possibility of getting rid of racism in the long term, less racism meaning more chances to trade farther north and in the far east, they quickly accepted and provided even more funds. Pope Martin V contacted Emperor Manuel II and Co-Emperor John VIII about the possibility of mass funding, should they agree to several terms demanded by the Pope. Two weeks earlier, the Roman-Byzantine city of Thessalonica had come under attack by the Ottoman Empire.
By this time, the Byzantine state was a shadow of it’s former glory. It was a poor city with a population of 50,000 people, not the great metropolis of the early Roman era. At this point, naturally, Emperor Manuel II was desperate, so he was happy to hear the Pope out. At the moment, the Hungarians, Serbians, and Albanians where making a desperate bid against the Ottomans, knowing it was win, or become the subjects of the Turks. The Pope, a strong Islamophobe, knew that the Balkans where at the point of no return. So, he proposed the following. A) The patriarch of Constantinople would preach that the Pope was THE closest thing to god on this earth(this would by effect make Orthodox Christians Eastern Catholic(in name but actually uniates in that they accept the Pope, period, nothing else, everything else is Orthodox)). B) Byzantine Empire pledged to defend Europe from Islam for the next 50 years, which included liberating Bulgaria and Greece, C) The Byzantines will evacuate all Muslims from any territory they control, and D) The supreme general of the Byzantine state will be appointed by the Pope until the Ottoman Empire is out of Europe.
Manuel II accepted, knowing that, either the Byzantines won outright, or they would disappear of the map, and even if they managed to establish a stable border, the Turks would be back. After accepting, the Papal messenger was sneaked out of Constantinople on a Genoese ship and reported back to the Pope, to tell him of Manuel’s answer. The Pope was satisfied. He had truly been prepared to accept the responsibility of funding the Byzantines regardless. He had plans for the next day.
The Pope was ready to make his stand. He gathered the cardinals and announced that he had a speech. He gulped, then started speaking. For twenty minutes he discussed a brief history of his views on Islam and how they barbarically expanded into once European North Africa and Islamicized it into the land of pirates. He talked about the brutality of Muhammad. Obviously, he pulled it all out of his rabid Islamophobia and exaggerated nearly everything, but he hit a tone. Europe proper was next. He then talked about the situation in the Balkans, and how Serbia, Albania, and Hungary fought for their independence and their religion while the Greeks and Bulgarians had already been defeated. He then pointed out that should Constantinople fall, it would deal a major blow to Christianity and guarantee the fall of Serbia and Albania, with the possibility of Caucasian and Kievian expansion opening as well, from the tremendous moral blow that the fall of Constantinople could deal.
This quickly convinced the cardinals to support the Pope’s goals. The Pope quickly purchased several cannons and hired the Venetians and Genoese sail them to Constantinople along with hand cannons to arm the Byzantine soldiers properly. Should the Ottomans possibly capture their ships, they where ordered to destroy all their equipment. Only one ship was captured by the Ottomans, all others safely reaching Constantinople or being sunk before it could be looted. As though by faith, the captured ship was full of munitions to weapons the Ottomans did not have access to, much to their frustration. While the Byzantines remained outnumbered and outperformed by the Ottomans, technology was on their side, and so where several other Christian states. The Papacy had sent hand cannons to the Serbs, cannons to the Albanians, and cannons and handguns to the Hungarians. They where hoping to allow Albania to hold it’s position while the Serbs advanced on the Ottomans with the Hungarians protecting Wallachia, their puppet, using cannons and performing their own advances into Bulgaria using their hand cannons to their advantages. With small progress being made and the Ottomans falling back from Macedonia and Bulgaria, the Byzantines received a minor boost in morale, however, they realized that at this rate, the Ottomans would eventually catch up in technology.
The Papacy had sent several men to train the Byzantine army into a military force who’s main goals where to make Constantinople impregnable. The walls where reinforced once again, cannon slots where added all over the walls, an organized system of night watchmen was set up, the principle entrance which the Ottomans where attempting to break in through was set with traps then sealed on the other side, and men where trained to shoot accurately. Constantinople was now a king among fortresses. Meanwhile, the Papacy had also been busy funding rebellion. The papacy had funded many men to travel into Greece and Bulgaria and to tell tales of the Ottoman system, the horrors they did to anyone who disobeyed, that they planned to Islamicize them, and that should you not agree, painful torture would be done until you accepted or died. Naturally, major riots occurred. Ottoman supply lines where constantly under attack by angry peasants with crude weapons, and this was quickly being shown in the Ottoman performance. The constant attacks on Constantinople grew weaker, there where less men attacking, less motivation, and many felt miserable away from their families.
The Papacy and Byzantines where quick to take advantage of the thorn in the Ottomans’ side and proposed to the Venetians and Genoese to join their war effort in exchange for trading rights in certain areas of Bulgaria, Wallachia, Greece, and Serbia and more small trading colonies in Greece should they accept, in addition to their current trading colonies. Seeing even greater control of the spice trade, they accepted. Their main obligation to the war under the terms agreed was to send troops and people to Constantinople to help launch a counterattack. However, over sending their own countrymen, the Genoese and Venetians sent men from Naples, Sicily, and Southern Greece into Constantinople. The size of the population quickly grew, and they where quickly sent to do one of the major reasons the Byzantines wanted more people in a city that needed supplies from other nations to keep 50,000 people afloat. Farm laborers. Many of these men had come from farms owned by the nobility and had worked as peasants, and with their experience in farming, Constantinople’s population grew to 100,000 people by 1428 and roughly ½ of all men had received some form of military training, and 1/4th where well trained in warfare. Women where encouraged to have many children. Constantinople was a highly militarized society by this point, but one much better off than it would have been without it’s Papal alliance. The general(That had been kept undisclosed by the Byzantines until the 1700s to not take from their glory) that was to lead the first offense of the War of Thessalonica by the Byzantine military and the first truly successful campaign to make any significant progress.
END OF PART 1/TEASER
Post your opinions! More to come!
POD:POD: Martin V’s life is filled with encounters with Jews being generous, positive, friendly, and while the Pope keeps his fondness and friendship with Jews for the most part quiet, he does speak out for tolerance towards Jews, referring to them as the brothers who have yet to see Christ’s glory, but that one day will(his pretext for religious tolerance and equality for Jews without getting lynched himself). Pope Martin V also has a deep dislike for Muslims, due to the influence of his Jewish friends and acquaintances having had some bad experiences with Muslims(yet also some good but for our purpose they only really bother to tell him the bad side) and his strong anti-Muslim views in the end helped him balance his pro-Jew views, allowing him to be elected as Pope by the cardinals, with one or two swapping sides based on this Martin V.
Since becoming Pope, Martin V secretly began to amass funds for the Byzantines, using his wealthy Jewish contacts to help. He met with several wealthy Jews shortly after becoming Pope and proposed to strengthen his pro-Jewish attitude and officially make the church discourage discrimination against Jews, should they give large funds to the Papacy. Seeing the possibility of getting rid of racism in the long term, less racism meaning more chances to trade farther north and in the far east, they quickly accepted and provided even more funds. Pope Martin V contacted Emperor Manuel II and Co-Emperor John VIII about the possibility of mass funding, should they agree to several terms demanded by the Pope. Two weeks earlier, the Roman-Byzantine city of Thessalonica had come under attack by the Ottoman Empire.
By this time, the Byzantine state was a shadow of it’s former glory. It was a poor city with a population of 50,000 people, not the great metropolis of the early Roman era. At this point, naturally, Emperor Manuel II was desperate, so he was happy to hear the Pope out. At the moment, the Hungarians, Serbians, and Albanians where making a desperate bid against the Ottomans, knowing it was win, or become the subjects of the Turks. The Pope, a strong Islamophobe, knew that the Balkans where at the point of no return. So, he proposed the following. A) The patriarch of Constantinople would preach that the Pope was THE closest thing to god on this earth(this would by effect make Orthodox Christians Eastern Catholic(in name but actually uniates in that they accept the Pope, period, nothing else, everything else is Orthodox)). B) Byzantine Empire pledged to defend Europe from Islam for the next 50 years, which included liberating Bulgaria and Greece, C) The Byzantines will evacuate all Muslims from any territory they control, and D) The supreme general of the Byzantine state will be appointed by the Pope until the Ottoman Empire is out of Europe.
Manuel II accepted, knowing that, either the Byzantines won outright, or they would disappear of the map, and even if they managed to establish a stable border, the Turks would be back. After accepting, the Papal messenger was sneaked out of Constantinople on a Genoese ship and reported back to the Pope, to tell him of Manuel’s answer. The Pope was satisfied. He had truly been prepared to accept the responsibility of funding the Byzantines regardless. He had plans for the next day.
The Pope was ready to make his stand. He gathered the cardinals and announced that he had a speech. He gulped, then started speaking. For twenty minutes he discussed a brief history of his views on Islam and how they barbarically expanded into once European North Africa and Islamicized it into the land of pirates. He talked about the brutality of Muhammad. Obviously, he pulled it all out of his rabid Islamophobia and exaggerated nearly everything, but he hit a tone. Europe proper was next. He then talked about the situation in the Balkans, and how Serbia, Albania, and Hungary fought for their independence and their religion while the Greeks and Bulgarians had already been defeated. He then pointed out that should Constantinople fall, it would deal a major blow to Christianity and guarantee the fall of Serbia and Albania, with the possibility of Caucasian and Kievian expansion opening as well, from the tremendous moral blow that the fall of Constantinople could deal.
This quickly convinced the cardinals to support the Pope’s goals. The Pope quickly purchased several cannons and hired the Venetians and Genoese sail them to Constantinople along with hand cannons to arm the Byzantine soldiers properly. Should the Ottomans possibly capture their ships, they where ordered to destroy all their equipment. Only one ship was captured by the Ottomans, all others safely reaching Constantinople or being sunk before it could be looted. As though by faith, the captured ship was full of munitions to weapons the Ottomans did not have access to, much to their frustration. While the Byzantines remained outnumbered and outperformed by the Ottomans, technology was on their side, and so where several other Christian states. The Papacy had sent hand cannons to the Serbs, cannons to the Albanians, and cannons and handguns to the Hungarians. They where hoping to allow Albania to hold it’s position while the Serbs advanced on the Ottomans with the Hungarians protecting Wallachia, their puppet, using cannons and performing their own advances into Bulgaria using their hand cannons to their advantages. With small progress being made and the Ottomans falling back from Macedonia and Bulgaria, the Byzantines received a minor boost in morale, however, they realized that at this rate, the Ottomans would eventually catch up in technology.
The Papacy had sent several men to train the Byzantine army into a military force who’s main goals where to make Constantinople impregnable. The walls where reinforced once again, cannon slots where added all over the walls, an organized system of night watchmen was set up, the principle entrance which the Ottomans where attempting to break in through was set with traps then sealed on the other side, and men where trained to shoot accurately. Constantinople was now a king among fortresses. Meanwhile, the Papacy had also been busy funding rebellion. The papacy had funded many men to travel into Greece and Bulgaria and to tell tales of the Ottoman system, the horrors they did to anyone who disobeyed, that they planned to Islamicize them, and that should you not agree, painful torture would be done until you accepted or died. Naturally, major riots occurred. Ottoman supply lines where constantly under attack by angry peasants with crude weapons, and this was quickly being shown in the Ottoman performance. The constant attacks on Constantinople grew weaker, there where less men attacking, less motivation, and many felt miserable away from their families.
The Papacy and Byzantines where quick to take advantage of the thorn in the Ottomans’ side and proposed to the Venetians and Genoese to join their war effort in exchange for trading rights in certain areas of Bulgaria, Wallachia, Greece, and Serbia and more small trading colonies in Greece should they accept, in addition to their current trading colonies. Seeing even greater control of the spice trade, they accepted. Their main obligation to the war under the terms agreed was to send troops and people to Constantinople to help launch a counterattack. However, over sending their own countrymen, the Genoese and Venetians sent men from Naples, Sicily, and Southern Greece into Constantinople. The size of the population quickly grew, and they where quickly sent to do one of the major reasons the Byzantines wanted more people in a city that needed supplies from other nations to keep 50,000 people afloat. Farm laborers. Many of these men had come from farms owned by the nobility and had worked as peasants, and with their experience in farming, Constantinople’s population grew to 100,000 people by 1428 and roughly ½ of all men had received some form of military training, and 1/4th where well trained in warfare. Women where encouraged to have many children. Constantinople was a highly militarized society by this point, but one much better off than it would have been without it’s Papal alliance. The general(That had been kept undisclosed by the Byzantines until the 1700s to not take from their glory) that was to lead the first offense of the War of Thessalonica by the Byzantine military and the first truly successful campaign to make any significant progress.
END OF PART 1/TEASER
Post your opinions! More to come!
Last edited: