No, actually - remember, 600 years had passed, even if there were 10 000 Greek immigrants back then, most of them assimilated into the Lithuanians.Small number were there supposed to be any zeroes behind that
@Faeelin, thank you!
The Silver Knight, a Lithuania Timeline
- Thread starter Augenis
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@Faeelin, thank you!
Chapter 10: The Eastern Empire Meets It's Match
Part 10: The Eastern Empire Meets It's Match (1463-1464)
This disparity between the two nations was best seen in the military capacity and organization of both of these "regional powers". The army of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania carried much from the old pagan days of the regime, being mostly composed of wealthy nobles who can afford a horse, a seat of armor and weapons, and maybe a group of armed peasants from his estate each. The Grand Duke himself had little say in whether or not the nobility wanted to serve or not - everything was completely voluntary. Aside for his own royal retinue, of course, and the armies of the Voivodes. Meanwhile, Bohemia-Hungary had adopted the mercenary army format that began to spread across Western Europe - while regular units were still common, the core was made up by hired soldiers who each were paid a wage for their services, like, for example, the famous Black Army. Hiring professional mercenaries was not something Lithuania could afford, especially since the main source of them - Bohemia - was on enemy side.
With this situation in mind, the three-way Polish Succession War began.
Gintaras Sinkevičius provides the military sizes for each of the belligerents in this conflict in his 1996 study on the war. According to him, Lithuania fielded up to 75 000 men, mainly cavalry, throughout the entire war, though a sizable part of this entire force was raiding parties. The Januszite rebels that Teodoras I supported were up to 11 000 men strong. The Polish loyalists under Mikhail Lubomirski only had about 8 000 men in total - yet another fault of the chaos of the Siemowitian Interregnum. The capacity of Bohemia-Poland is up to debate. The Black Army of Hungary was composed of 25 000 mercenaries, and Charles I personally called 35 000 troops from both kingdoms. 11 000 Bohemian mercenaries participated in Charles's side. Nevertheless, even if the Lithuanians had the superior number of troops, that was only a minor advantage in the war.
The war began with B-H troops moving into Polish territory en masse, reaching Krakow along with a number of other border towns and cities within two weeks, where the council of Polish szlachta was still present and getting ready to crown Lubomirski as King Mikhail I. Upon receiving the news of an approaching army, more accurately the Black Army lee by Matthias Corvinus and Charles I himself, the Poles began to scatter in panic, even though the elected King tried to organize a defense of the city. Some of the szlachta fled to the Bohemo-Hungarian camp to swear loyalty to Charles, many fled back to their manors and castles, while about 2000 defenders, many of them local townspeople, prepared for a siege.
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Regent of Poland, later King-Elect of Poland Mikhail Ignacy Lubomirski (1403-1489). Unknown artist
"Viktor of Kiev ordered his troops to spare no one, even sometimes ignoring that the territory the marched on was held by his allies Januszites. He told his men to harvest and burn all of the grain fields to deny the Hungarians any loot, he ordered to burn the roads to deny the Hungarians them, and he told his troops to go wild and loot as much wealth and trophies as they possibly can - be it gold, grain, valuables, produces or even women." - this is how a Polish chronicler described the chaos. The point of the attack was to scare the Bohemo-Hungarians away from Podolia and deny them valuable loot to feed their troops, but Viktoras Kaributaitis went so overboard that the Poles even sent a complaint to the Pope on the brutality of these so-called "Eastern Christians". Even Teodoras I himself was shocked.
Charles I, meanwhile, laid siege on the city of Krakow. Employing over 50 cannons among his ranks, the King was quick to achieve a breach in the famous Wavel Castle, heavily damaging the numerous works of art collected within it. The uncoronated Mikhail I Lubomirski had fled the city five days prior, and the defenders soon surrendered. The capital of Poland was captured by the B-H claimant, and Charles I soon ordered a hasty coronation of him as King of Poland. However, only a minor part of the nation around Krakow answered to him - the rest of Poland was in chaos, torn apart between Lubomirski loyalists, Januszites, other nobles, upstart rebels in Ruthenia, a seceding City of Danzig and bands of bandits and brigands that rose and thrived in the chaos.
Teodoras I, for one, wasn't even planning to accept this as a loss. His army was at the time camping in Mazovia, near Plock, and the news of the fall of Krakow did not even surprise him. However, he was far more than willing to plunge into the heart of Poland himself and end this war on the battlefield. Ordering a forced march to reach Krakow before the B-H forces can organize a planned defense, Teodoras charged across the chaotic nation, crossing Vistula, then moving through Greater Poland.
In Lesser Poland and Podolia, the war had devolved into an array of raiding warfare - instead of trying to attack the enemy directly, both sides moved back and went into harassment tactics, sending small raiding parties to cut off enemy supply lines, disrupt grain and resource requisition from the land and maybe capture a town of two. It turned the war there static, at a great cost for the people actually trying to live there. "Raiding warfare" more often than not meant "release pent up aggression against the local Poles rather than each other". Each raid, even the most minor one, meant dozens, if not hundreds or thousands of people dead, and many more losing the only thing they could feed off on - their harvest.
And when winter was coming, having an empty stomach and an empty warehouse never meant any good. But that is to be left for another time.
On November of 1363, Lithuanian forces under Teodoras I finally reached Lesser Poland, meeting the Bohemo-Hungarian troops led by Matthias Corvinus near Czestoskowa.
Corvinus, a capable general, learning of the Lithuanian advance from spies, prepared for the fight beforehand - most importantly, he ordered his forces to plant mines across the battlefield, and assume a defensive fortified position atop a hill. When Teodoras I reached the designated battle spot, he had already lost.
The Battle of Czestoskowa was the first major battle in the Polish Succession War, and one that set the mood for the rest of the war. It was a cold and rainy morning, and despite the uncomfortable weather, Teodoras I ordered his first move to be... a cavalry charge. To scare the Bohemians and Hungarians away, one might guess. The troops charged, soon followed by archers and javelin throwers... and then suddenly explosions like never heard before started happening. Did they fire cannons? No! The shots somehow came right out of the ground. Matthias Corvinus ordered his troops to shoot at the panicked and confused Lithuanians - and this was their first introduction to the arquebus. A recent development in Westerner technology, it was introduced to the army of the Dual Crown not long before Sigismund of Luxembourg's death. While not as accurate as a bow used by a trained archer, it could be used with much less training needed - perfect for mercenary armies and mass recruitment.
Lithuanians had never even seen such a weapon before. Sure, they were familiar with bombards and cannons, but this?..
Teodoras I, frantically ordering his cavalry to reorganize, ordered his own archers to fire, but it proved to be not as effective to shoot up a hill rather than down from it. In order to even get a hit on them, the troops, protected by infantry, had to get much closer, carefully side-stepping the planted mines, and that is when the B-H foot troops moved to the side to let a surprise cavalry charge from their ranks... Lacking pretty much no protection in the flanks, fired upon by arquebusiers, and unable to move back lest they step back to the minefield, the foot troops of the supposedly invincible Lithuanian army, the one that won in Ilava and Vorskla, were instantly broken and scattered...
In the end, Lithuanians lost almost 50% of their troops and the Bohemo-Hungarian army, smaller in size, lost only 250. In total. Teodoras I, who miraculously survived the fight after almost stepping on a mine - and who knows what could have happened if he did - was forced to flee in shame and move back to Mazovia with the remnants of his army. Corvinus was willing to chase the enemies and destroy them completely, but the upcoming winter, and a very harsh one indeed, called off his plans. Lithuania was able to recover safely this time, and Teodoras still melt his hopes up for a more successful second strike. The rest of Poland soon entered the same raiding warfare period, and this time it was practically necessary - the winter was extremely harsh and snowy, up to -30℃ in some places according to modern estimates, and the only way for these massive standing armies on all three sides to feed themselves was to take the food from those who were unable to defend themselves. So, the local Polish peasants.
Thousands were already dying from hunger and spreading disease in the most heavily affected areas, and the war was only beginning...
Teodoras I swore to himself to finish this war to the very end, and "either I die, or Corvinus does, there is no other way to solve this". No matter how devastating Czestoskowa was to his efforts, he still wanted to fight on, and he even purposefully demanded to not inform the homeland of this defeat in order to keep enthusiasm for war high.
However, something much more threatening to the Jagiellon's rule happened at the very beginning of 1464... The court of King Charles I of Bohemia, Hungary and Poland was visited by a peculiar man, who called himself Mykolas, Grand Duke of Lithuania - it was the same Mykolas Žygimantaitis that fled Lithuania all the way in 1435. Presenting himself as "the true Grand Duke of Lithuania", he asked Charles I help on taking the throne, promising a stirrup in the Lithuanian morale by causing "civil unrest".
Mykolas Žygimantaitis already had 500 supporters following him, and Charles I agreed to this alliance of sorts. What will this hold for Lithuania?
And what will happen in the Polish Succession War? Can the Lithuanians recover from the crushing blow Corvinus and his Black Army dealt them?
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Am I wanking Lithuania right? I feel like I am not wanking it right...
Very cool. Bohemia-Hungary(-Croatia) is going to be a tough, potentially numerically superior and militarily modern adversary. The Ottomans stand by and smile.
Don't worry about communicative style, i love your stuff.
Don't worry about communicative style, i love your stuff.
What a good prediction.
Thanks! I'm trying to keep as many people as I can invested in this TL and reading it (after all, Lithuania needs more love), so I figured that I need to keep at least some sense of contact with the readers to accomplish that.
OK, read it.
You're doing the right thing. Lithuania beating everyone is boring. You need Ups and downs, and you need serious adversaries.
Bohemia-Hungary looks like a good candidate.
You're doing the right thing. Lithuania beating everyone is boring. You need Ups and downs, and you need serious adversaries.
Bohemia-Hungary looks like a good candidate.
That was my thought process behind it.
Besides, if Lithuania just beat everyone, it would have no reason to change or innovate. And we don't want that, do we?
Thank you and welcome! We provide all new readers a cepelinas.
Chapter 11: With Hunger and Disease!
The state of the Polish Succession War in 1464. Yellow and green lines represent Bohemo-Hungarian and Lithuanian occupation respectively. The Battle of Czestochowa is marked on the map.
Part 11: With Hunger and Disease! (1464-1468)
Despite a few clashes with bandits, Bohemo-Hungarian formations and other loyalist units, the siege was successful. Lithuanians under Viktoras Kaributaitis razed quite a few districts of the city, looted the territory of any useful military supplies - be it weapons, grain or else - and established themselves in the smoldering ruins. The scales were being slowly tipped in Podolia, and B-H forces responded with attacking Lvov that same year. Once against the inhabitants suffered,cane even though the defenders in the fort held out against the attackers, the rest of the city was burned and looted. Outside of these two campaigns, though, the "front" in Podolia remained mostly static. There were hundreds of undocumented small raids, be it against the peasants or the enemies, though.
In the North, 1464 marked the beginning of a two-year long Leczyca Campaign. Having suffered a strong defeat in Czestochowa, the Lithuanian forces, now lacking a leader (Teodoras I was in Lithuania, busy with rebuilding his army), were somewhat scattered and disorganized, a situation which Mathias Corvinus and his victorious Black Army used to make a push into Greater Poland. Despite having captured Poznan without a single arquebus shot last year, the Bohemo-Hungarian control of Greater Poland was minor at best. The region was torn apart by hundreds of noble feuds and local clashes. The city of Danzig had declared independence as a free city, asking help from the Teutonic Order, and the Knight intervention was slowly retaking Pomerelia from the Poles. The Leczyca Campaign was ordered to clear out the region and capture it before the Januszites and Lithuanians could retaliate.
As was said, so was done. In October of 1464, the Black Army reached Poznan, slowly pushing eastward. Numerous small skirmishes followed across the region, almost resembling a guerrilla campaign due to how spread out and non-intense it was. In January of 1465, Corvinus reached the outskirts of Leczyca, but something... unexpected forced him to avoid attacking immediately.
This "unexpected" event that echoed across all of Poland was nicely described by the Lithuanian Chronicle:
"When Duke Narimantas, an envoy of the Grand Duke to support the warriors in the war, arrived to Lvov, he was horrified to see what the great war with the Westerners had done to the land. The fields of Poland were littered with corpses, each one resembling a bare skeleton than a human being. Entire villages turned into wastelands, the survivors walked among our soldiers asking for any sort of food, each one looking more like a ghoul than a person. They'd rip off tree bark and eat it, chew on their fellow corpses, crunch on grass and leaves, just to stay alive... In the entire region of Podolia, there was not a single village or city where people weren't dropping like flies. Narimantas was angry, not with the horror, but with the fact that there was no more loot left to feed his men with"
The loss of two harvests to marauding enemy forces, constant pillaging, raiding and looting, and demands of tribute from all sides to sustain the war effort started a massive famine across all of Poland in the winter of 1465. Indeed, all sides reported similar sights - the situation in the nation was critical, and getting even worse every year. Lithuanians blamed it on the Bohemo-Hungarians, but the latter had the initiative - they even invited a Papal legate to observe the horror that "the Schismatics forced onto fellow Christians". Charles I hoped to acquire Papal support in the conflict, and he was successful - the Pope was quick to make an official bull, declaring the Polish Succession War as "a legitimate war against the enemies of Christianity", and provided the King with granted money to keep up the war effort. The prestige of Charles I continued to rise across Western Europe...
The famine across Poland slowed down the war effort. Large-scale army movement was no longer sustainable. 1465 was a calmer year than the last - the Leczyca Campaign continued, it's highlights that year being the Bohemo-Hungarian capture of Gniezno and reaching the Vistula there. In Pomerelia, small-scale clashes between the Black Army and Teutonic-Danzig forces started across the region. A Lithuanian army crossed the Vistula near Plock and attacked B-H positions near Leczyca, with limited success. Podolia remained oddly calm that year.
The horrors of human condition across Poland continued, as the winter of 1465-1466 saw an epidemic of smallpox across the region. Hunger, malnutrition, combined with an unusually cold winter and lack of hygiene due to the war, resulted in the immune systems of most Poles to weaken enough for thousands to drop from this horrible disease. Once again, chronicles from both sides described the event with horror, and, once again, both sides pointed fingers at each other. Both sides suffered hard from the smallpox, too, and this, along with the war lasting over two years with no end, led to a sharp drop in enthusiasm for the war in both belligerents. Not even talking about Poland itself.
In 1466, Bohemia-Hungary achieved another success - the capture of Leczyca. Held by the loyalist Polish forces, this fortress finally gave up in June, leading to the end of the Leczyca Campaign. Charles I's personal forces began pushing from Krakow along the Vistula River, though this time suffering very hard resistance. Despite Lithuanian efforts, Lublin was captured in October of 1466. In response, Viktoras Kaributaitis achieved a solid push in Podolia, often, according to the Chronicle of Lithuania, "having to walk knee deep in famished corpses", but overall, the war seemed to be tipping in Bohemia-Hungary's side! Polish szlachta knew this, and many soon switched their allegiance to obtain the King's favor. But the war was not over yet... In winter of 1466-1467, the newly organized Lithuanian Army under Teodoras I himself, over 30 000 men strong, marched south from Vilnius, towards Mazovia.
Teodoras was now with a blood vengeance. He was determined to end the war here and now, defeat the Bohemo-Hungarians in the battlefield, reconquer Poland and regain what was lost. No matter how many more innocent Poles have to die in his way.
"Theodore the Lithuanian Crosses the Bug River", Mikhail Argiellonszyk, 1826
B-H spies saw the approaching Lithuanians before they even reached Poland, and Corvinus ordered his troops to consolidate and prepare for battle. And a battle happened.
This time near Bydgoszcz.
The Battle of Bydgoszcz was a much closer and tougher endeavor than Czestochowa, partly thanks to Teodoras not being completely insane, but, well... The battle took place near the Vistula, on a flat plain, though with some marshes and forests at the side.
Hoping to learn from his mistakes from last time, Teodoras did not order an immediate cavalry charge. Instead, he opened up with a barrage from his archers and javelin throwers. Unfortunately to him, though, his troops were too scared of an another land mine gambit, and tired out by the constant marching before the battle, and thus they avoided approaching the Bohemo-Hungarian forces, ending up missing pretty much all of their shots. Matthias Corvinus was quick to think of a strategy in this particular scenario. The Black Army moved it's arquebusiers to the back, pulling out the cannons, and using the "barrage" as time to prepare them. Soon, the slowly approaching skirmishers found their lines getting torn to shreds by cannon shots, and started fleeing back. Teodoras unleashed cannons of his own, but they were of poorer quality and not as numerous. Many of them exploded instead of firing, others didn't have the range.
Corvinus already knew that the Lithuanian Grand Duke's temper was building up, and ordered his troops to stand in formation of two lines - pikes in the front, archers and arquebusiers in the back. The Hungarian general was absolutely right to think that, as soon the Lithuanian infantry moved to the side and allowed through a pincer of heavy cavalry to charge forward. They charged, and charged... and then stopped at the likes. Or, their horses stopped. The pikemen then kneeled down, and in one of the earliest known cases of pike-and-shot tactics, gave way to an entire line of fire against the unsuspecting Lithuanians.
Teodoras wasn't completely inept, though. Knowing that his cavalry won't punch through a line of pikes, he ordered his archers, no longer fearful of a possible mine field, to fire upon the enemy infantry, while the knights moved to the flanks. This time, the Lithuanians were successful - the stationary infantry lines proved to be an easy target, Bohemian and Hungarian soldiers falling in droves. Corvinus ordered a tactical retreat from the position, once again ordering his artillery to fire. This sowed chaos into the Lithuanian ranks, enough chaos for him to safely send his own cavalry and infantry to charge. Teodoras tried to bring his own heavy infantry to the front, but it was already too late. The final Bohemo-Hungarian punch broke the Lithuanian lines, and Teodoras had to retreat from the battlefield once more, with both sides suffering heavy losses. Not disgraced and humiliated like in Czestochowa, but still weakened.
But even though the Black Army was kicked down at least a notch, that wasn't all of the Bohemo-Hungarian armies... Retreating east, Teodoras reached the Vistula, hoping to cross it and reorganize in the other side - but while crossing, on a pontoon bridge his forces were suddenly ambushed by the army of Charles I! Burning the bridge and bombarding it with cannon shots, the soldiers of the Dual Crown sent over five thousand Lithuanians to the depths of the Vistula, as well as many of their horses and cannons. Teodoras was once again forced to flee.
After crossing the Vistula, the Black Army clashed with the remnants of the Januszites, abandoned by Teodoras, near Warszawa. The disorganized, untrained rebels, many of them wielding straightened scythes, were easily subdued and defeated, the pretender Janusz Piast was captured, later executed in 1469, and Mazovia fell under Charles I's control.
Teodoras I was well willing to give it a third shot, but something much more horrifying arrived to his camp in Grodno (Gardinas) as news:
The Black Army began to march north! To Lithuania! Through Lithuania! They already crossed the Bug River, and their target was none other than Lithuania Propria itself! And with them marched a small army led by Mykolas Žygimantaitis...
Is this the end? The Lithuanian nobility was already tired of war. Teodoras's forces were weakened, lacking reinforcements and poorly equipped, and, most importantly - tired. Can Lithuania somehow survive in this scenario!
Men, women, anyone who can listen - Corvinus is at the gates!
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Epic.
Corvinus might defeat Teodoras, but he must know that B-h can't hold Lithuania. As a sane man he'll put Mykolas on the throne.
Or he fails.
Either way, that's what a sub-par Monarch can do to an oversized medieval monarchy.
Corvinus might defeat Teodoras, but he must know that B-h can't hold Lithuania. As a sane man he'll put Mykolas on the throne.
Or he fails.
Either way, that's what a sub-par Monarch can do to an oversized medieval monarchy.
Yeah. Teodoras's biggest fault was that he's self-centered and stubborn beyond belief. Sure, it worked when he had just succeeded the throne, but he alienated the Catholics by denying the Union of Florence and failed in Poland by never realizing that he's not going to win it in a single campaign. And not realizing the effectiveness of modern tactics and technology, that too.
He's definitely not one of Lithuania's best rulers, that's for sure.
The current successor is Algirdas, Teodoras's son. While yes, he was indeed unsuccessful in the Polish Succession War, he is still not completely reviled by the nobility because of his overall support towards the nobles as a rising class. His rule saw a large increase in nobility rights and influence across the nation, partly due to his efforts to obtain their favor and thus raise a larger army (the Lithuanian military is still largely voluntary and composed of noble knights).
Not wishing to spoil anything, but Tver' might be up to something...
If somehow, Corvinus falls in battle, or at least beats the Bohemo-Hungarians back, what happens after that?
Who knows? Anything can happen.
Keep in mind, guys, that B-H and Lithuania aren't the only countries in Europe. Some might he more than willing to use this situation.