Visconti Victorious: Medieval Italian Unification
- Thread starter The Undead Martyr
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Regicide and Rebellion
Regicide and Rebellion
Gian Galeazzo's death did not immediately destabilize Italy. His prudent governance ensured an ample treasury and a loyal populace, and Gian Maria, still fresh from his victory in France, stood at the peak of his popularity; and in any event no man was foolish enough to revolt against the Iron Serpent, not with the realm at peace and the markets flourishing.
Emperor Sigismund of Germany
Germany had not intervened in Italy since the abortive expedition of King Rupert in 1404, and the ongoing civil war had prevented Sigismund from interceding in the Anjou-Visconti war. Now, however, he had secured the throne and dispossessed the rebellious Wenceslaus and Jobst of Bohemia and Moravia. King Sigismund of Hungary and Bohemia was thus crowned King of the Romans in Fritzlar on March 15th 1412, and immediately turned his sights to Italy. To become Emperor in full required a papal coronation, undertaken in 1414 with Visconti's blessing, but now that the great duke was dead Sigismund decided to test the waters once more.
Deft diplomacy might have forestalled a war, but Gian Maria was not his father. When Sigismund demanded that “Duke Gian Maria Visconti” appear before him the king flew into a rage, calling the Bohemian “A barbarian, a pygmy, a son of a harlot, not worthy of shoveling the stool of an illiterate German, and neither Roman nor Emperor nor king of Italy.” and summoned his army for war.
The fifty year old Sigismund was no fool. His body might be weakening but his mind was as sharp as ever- he had met Gian Maria in Milan during his 1414 procession, and readily noted the character and reputation of the Lombard heir. The insult given by his envoy was a very deliberate provocation, and before Gian Maria could muster his armies Sigismund swept through the Brenner Pass and into Italy itself. Gian Maria was forced to meet the Emperor's advance with whatever men he had near to hand.
Hungarian Cavalry
The two armies met outside the small town of Lodi on June 28th, 1418. Gian Maria was a brilliant and experienced commander, and his men were confident and in good order, but the Hungarians were veterans of the endemic border warfare with the Turks. In a classic steppe tactic, the Magyar cavalry feigned retreat, and Gian Maria took the bait. The Hungarians promptly wheeled and routed the Italians, only the latter's good order “and the ferocious discipline of the Swiss” preventing a complete collapse of Gian Maria's army. Among the dead was the young Francesco Sforza, son of Muzio Sforza and himself a condotierri.[A]
Sigismund's soldiers, believing the battle won, promptly fell upon the Italian camp and spread out to loot the countryside. This proved a costly mistake: Gian Maria rallied his remaining soldiers and returned to the field, catching the disorganized Imperials off guard and routing them in turn. His own men, in a remarkable display of discipline, did not immediately loot the Hungarian camp as their enemies had; Gian Maria was a harsh disciplinarian, and maintained order among his men long enough to ensure the Imperials had truly fled. Only once he felt secure in his position did he turn to the loot, evenly and methodically dividing the spoils among his army and trusting his cavalry to guard the camp in the unlikely event that the Germans returned. Sigismund fell back to Verona in good order, but whatever plans he made for a further attack were immediately discarded when he received news of the revolt of the Bohemians, who on July 20th 1419 hurled King Sigismund's magistrates from the windows of the royal palace in Prague, thus beginning the Hussite Wars.
Hussites in battle
The death of Jan Hus three years prior was merely the latest in a long series of grievances against the Emperor. The Hussites- followers of Jan Hus- resented the emperor's high handed taxation; they resented also having their king, Wenceslaus, deposed, and the kingdom simply passed into the Emperor's hands with no respect for the traditional rights of the Bohemians to elect their own king. Sigismund had kept his boot firmly on the Bohemians' throats, but he erred in taking their silence for obedience and upon his departure across the Alps tensions finally boiled over. Hus' martyrdom and the Council of Bologna radicalized the Bohemians even as it polarized the Hussites themselves.
From the outset the Hussites had been divided from the more moderate Ultraquists or Calixtines, and the militant Taborites, so named for their home city. The moderate Ultraquists, although equally harsh in denouncing Hus' murder, insisted that “with his martyrdom he won the Church her salvation” and claimed that he had been murdered not by the Pope but by either Emperor Sigismund or “the Serpent of Milan” depending on their politics; the radical Taborites on the other hand rejected the Council of Bologna almost entirely as “stained with martyr's blood” and insisted in the complete abolition of the Catholic Church of Bohemia. The major doctrinal heresy of the Ultraquists was their insistence that both bread and wine be served to the laity; at the time it was customary among Catholics for only the priests to drink the Eucharist wine. More generally they advocated church reform to eliminate secular corruption from the Church administration, and the Council of Bologna itself was very well received among them.
In contrast to the Ultraquists the radical Taborites called for “no more lords and servants”, an end to all taxation and the collectivization of all private property (especially land), and a return to the “pure and innocent” state of the early church. Empowered by the gold mines of Tabor- their stronghold- the Taborites created a communal, egalitarian society of peasants, preachers, and citizens. They abided by a puritanical discipline, and elected the formidable Jan Zizka as one of their leaders.
Statue of Jan Zizka, Prague
Jan Zizka's innovative and unconventional tactics and skilled use of terrain mark him as the greatest military commander of his era. “The One Eyed Dragon of Bohemia” drilled his soldiers in powerful infantry tactics, utilizing the Hussites' famous wagon forts and Europe's first widespread use of field artillery and massed musket fire to overcome the much more numerous Imperial armies opposing him. Hussite War wagons typically had around twenty soldiers, split evenly between gunners and crossbowmen on the one hand and men armed with pikes and maces on the other. The typical tactic was to deploy defensively, goad the enemy into attacking via artillery bombardment, and then counterattack after beating off the assault. The Hussites' guns proved especially devastating at close range, and slaughtered hundreds of German and Hungarian knights.
A Hussite Camp
On the 22nd of December 1421 Jan Sizka and roughly ten thousand followers were encircled and besieged an Imperial army eight times their size at the Battle of Kutna Hora. Although Hussite artillery blunted the Imperial attacks Sigismund felt confident in his eventual victory. Zizka, however, proved Sigismund's overconfidence when he ordered a general attack. The Hussites grouped into armored columns, and under heavy artillery support Zizka punched a hole in the Imperial lines and escaped with his forces into the Bohemian countryside.
the Battle of Kutna Hora
Gian Maria did not wait idly for Sigismund's return. In Milan he raised fresh forces, and in the winter of 1421 his envoy arrived in the Palazzo Ducale in the Republic of Venice proposing a joint offensive against the Empire.
The Republic of St Mark needed little encouragement. Venice had a centuries-running conflict with Hungary over Dalmatia, and Sigismund had additionally supported the cities of Friuli against the Republic. Doge Tomasso Mosenigo was offered not only the Patriarchate of Aquileia but “all the cities and lands [belonging to Sigismund] along the Adriatic Coast.”
The Brenner Pass
The Republic readily agreed and launched an invasion of Aquileia. The cities of Friuli despised the rule of the Patriarch and readily submitted to the Republic's rule, and by March 9th the Venetians were across the Izonso. Trieste was besieged by land and sea on March 14th, and after defeating a Habsburg relief army on April 24th the city finally fell on June 1st, 1422, the banner of St Mark raised above its walls by the victorious Venetians.
The sheer effrontery of the Italian invasion and the lingering menace of a Polish intervention finally convinced Sigismund to negotiate with the rebels. On July 22nd, 1422 he met with the moderate Ultraquists to discuss terms. The Hussites reiterated the demands made in the Four Articles of Prague- freedom of worship, acceptance of a dual communion, expropriation of all church property, and punishment for mortal sins, especially prostitutes which were singled out.
The Papal Legate present in Sigismund's camp steadfastly opposed any reconciliation with the heretics whatsoever and threatened excommunication for attempting to do so, but Sigismund by now viewed the Church as a mere instrument of the Italians, and largely ignored the Pope's threats. By the Peace of 1422 the Four Articles of Prague were largely accepted, in modified form:[b*]
the right of the Hussites to use communion “in both kinds” ie with wine and bread;
general tolerance of the Ultraquist Church, on condition of a personal oath of loyalty of all its members to King Sigismund himself;
Royal veto power over the appointment of Bohemian clergy;
the subordination of the clergy and their courts to the king and his magistrates;
the reduction (but not elimination) of existing Church estates and an end to their tax privileges;
The Bohemian revolt thereafter rapidly drew to a close. Tabor itself was besieged and taken by a combined Ultraquist-Imperial army, and Jan Ziska and what remained of his followers forced to flee to Poland. With Bohemia pacified Sigismund departed for Italy with the bulk of his army, leaving behind his lieutenants to finish sweeping up the remnants of the rebels.
Gian Maria anticipated Sigismund's return, however, and as the Germans were crossing through the Brenner Pass they were assailed “by a great force of fierce Italians.” The Germans were routed, and in the chaos Emperor Sigismund himself was wounded and taken prisoner.
What followed next is disputed. German sources claim that Gian Maria struck down the Emperor “in a rabid rage.” Italian sources give a different end to the Emperor: upon being brought before him, Gian Maria exclaimed, “You call yourself King of the Romans, but the Romans deposed their tyrants and destroyed them,” before beheading Sigismund “with a single stroke of his sword” and vowing to mount the corpse above the gates of the royal palace of Fritzlar.
If there is any truth to the Italian account then there was method to Gian Maria's madness: with Sigismund died the House of Luxemburg, which had ruled Germany for almost seven decades. Bohemia already smoldering in rebelliousness against the Empire; Gian Maria may have perceived that, with a single (literal) stroke, he might destroy Germany's fragile peace and plunge his northern neighbor into the same sort of internecine squabbling that he had so ruthlessly exploited in France. He was not alone on his designs on Imperial territory- to the west, the powerful duke John of Burgundy desired the rich lands of Alsace, Luxemburg, and Metz, while to the east Poland rallied once more to the aid of the Hussites.
In 1410 the Wolf of Lombardy taught the French to fear his name. Now, more than a decade later, he intended to give the same lesson to Germany.
[A]For those who don't know, the 1444 Peace of Lodi OTL was a masterpiece of diplomacy by none other than Francesco Sforza, the condotierri captain who married Filippo Maria's bastard daughter and claimed his duchy after the Visconti's extinction and among the general chaos of the Ambrosian Republic. Killing him at Lodi was a trans-timeline irony I simply couldn't resist.
[B*]This is a major divergence over OTL, where Sigismund refused to compromise at the behest of the Papacy. TTL, however, the Hussites (and reform in general) received a veneer of respectability from Bologna, and the subordination of Rome means Sigismund doesn't trust the Pope to have his best interests in mind, not when Gian Maria is ravaging the Austrian countryside.
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Gian Maria Visconti, Bane of crowned heads.
I *demand* a Crusade and beheading the Sultan!
I *demand* a Crusade and beheading the Sultan!
Tell us, will Venice be brought into the Italian fold under the Wolf? I could see the crown Prince of Italy being the "Prince of Venice."
I do indeed plan a Crusade, and very soon. It's the next war, in fact.
Germany comes first though as not even Gian Maria is reckless enough to invade Germany and the Balkans at the same time. Also I should probably get back to France, which is about to be put out of its misery by TTL's Treaty of Troyes...Venice will remain independent for the immediate future, though it is increasingly tied to the fortunes of the Visconti state. The Visconti are primarily focused on the western Mediterranean, although they will end up going east eventually, and are largely content to let the Republic handle the Orient.
Another very good update, and Gian Maria seems unstoppable.
I suppose that the willingness of Sigismund to come to pacts with the heretic Hussite will be exploited by Viscontean propaganda: "Sigismund betrayed Mother Church, and God punished him for his sins".
I think that the victor of Lodi and the Brenner Pass deserves a token of esteem:
This is The Wheel of Fortune, from the Visconti-Sforza Tarot deck (ca. 1450), allegedly painted by Pietro Bembo.
I might tell you that the old bearded man in the bottom is Gian Galeazzo Visconti, while the three boys on whom Fortune smiles are his sons, but that would be just my wild and completely unsupported guess
I suppose that the willingness of Sigismund to come to pacts with the heretic Hussite will be exploited by Viscontean propaganda: "Sigismund betrayed Mother Church, and God punished him for his sins".
I think that the victor of Lodi and the Brenner Pass deserves a token of esteem:
This is The Wheel of Fortune, from the Visconti-Sforza Tarot deck (ca. 1450), allegedly painted by Pietro Bembo.
I might tell you that the old bearded man in the bottom is Gian Galeazzo Visconti, while the three boys on whom Fortune smiles are his sons, but that would be just my wild and completely unsupported guess
I hope not: maybe they could develop a sort of symbiotic relationship like Germany and The Netherlands.
Another very good update, and Gian Maria seems unstoppable.
I suppose that the willingness of Sigismund to come to pacts with the heretic Hussite will be exploited by Viscontean propaganda: "Sigismund betrayed Mother Church, and God punished him for his sins".
I think that the victor of Lodi and the Brenner Pass deserves a token of esteem:
*snip*
This is The Wheel of Fortune, from the Visconti-Sforza Tarot deck (ca. 1450), allegedly painted by Pietro Bembo.
I might tell you that the old bearded man in the bottom is Gian Galeazzo Visconti, while the three boys on whom Fortune smiles are his sons, but that would be just my wild and completely unsupported guess
Oooo, shiny! I was actually going to name an update (not this one, or the next one, or the one after, or the one after that... maybe four or five updates from now?) Rota Fortunae. I'll use it then for sure. (or I could apply it retroactively... nah.)
A stronger Italy has got me wondering what you have in mind for Rhodes and the knights, as well as Cypress.
Clientage and eventual annexation by Venice, probably. But what do I know?
I'm going to make a promise. THis is the last update for at least a week, and before I post another one I'll finally make a f***ing map. It'll be the best map,
and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me --and I'll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words
Dogs of War
Dogs of War
News of the Italian advance arrived as swiftly as that of Sigismund's death. Gian Maria deliberately spared some remnant of the villages razed by his army, letting the terrified populace send word of his arrival northwards.
The German electors- minus Bohemia, which lacked a king and was once more in open revolt- hastily assembled at Augsburg and elevated Duke Albert the Magnanimous- the King of Hungary following Ladislaus' demise and additionally claimant to Bohemia- as their new emperor. In the span of a single afternoon the king was acclaimed, anointed, and marched from the city at the head of a German army. Five days from Augsburg he received two messengers from the Italians- from a terrified burgher, who dreadfully informed the Kaiser that “the Iron Serpent as done to Innsbruck what he did to Toulouse,” and the second from the Wolf of Lombardy himself. Gian Maria's message was simple: if you are king of Italy, then come and take it from me.
Albert the Magnanimous, King of the Romans, Hungary, and Bohemia
King Albert obliged, and on October 7th 1422 the Austrians met the Italians along the banks of the Inn. As in France Gian Maria entrenched himself on foreign lands and dared the enemy to dislodge him; dug in on the banks of the Inn and in firm control of the rocky terrain, a battle would be a dicey proposition. King Albert opted wisely to negotiate. By the Treaty of Innsbruck the Italians gained all of Tirol, whilst Venice gained Friuli, Istria, and Carniola. Tirol- controlling the vital Brenner Pass, and the rich silver mines of Innsbruck- proved to be both the most enduring and most immediately beneficial of Gian Maria's conquests. Europe at this time was thoroughly obsessed with commodity currency; fiat currency, such as the paper money issued by the Yuan Dynasty, was unthinkable. As the Italian economy flourished the money inevitably supply contracted, and the first signs of an economic crash were already noticeable to sharp eyed merchants tracking prices across Lombardy. In conquering Tirol, Duke Gian Maria inadvertently forestalled the looming deflationary crisis by injecting a new burst of liquidity. Italy continued to prosper, blithely unaware of the peril unknowingly thwarted by its warlike king.
The loss of significant family territory was a major loss of face for Albert, but with the Poles invading Bohemia he felt peace was the better option. Dynastic squabbling may also have played a role in his acquiescence- the lands in question were under the rival Leopoldine branch of the Habsburg family, and Emperor Albert was of the Albertinian Lin of Austria Proper. Faced with a choice of defending his cousin's territory and pursuing his own claim to Bohemia- and its priceless electoral vote- Albert chose the latter. Predictably, Duke Ernst of Austria was enraged, and rose in revolt against his cousin, but Albert had been expecting this and crushed him at the Battle of Salzburg. Ernst was tonsured and stripped of his lands, and the duke's three year old son and heir Frederick V fell under the control of Emperor Albert, who now turned his undivided attention against the Hussite rebels. The Hussites, however, had invited the mighty King Wladislaw II Jagello of Poland and Lithuania to take up the crown of Bohemia.
King Wladyslaw of Poland
The last pagan king of Lithuania, Grand Duke Jogaila Gediminid converted to Christianity and married the formidable King Jadwiga of Poland[1], uniting the two realms. This alliance was largely aimed at the Teutonic Order, which posssesed the entirety of the Prussian coast as well as the Baltic states of Livonia and Estonia.
The Teutonic Order's Expansion, prior to the Battle of Grunwald
In the 11th century Poland claimed dominion over Pomeralia- essentially all of Pomerania east of the Oder- and Silesia, but the fragmentation of the kingdom following its dynastic partition and the Mongol invasions allowed first the Danes and then the Germans and Bohemians to gradually take control those lands for themselves. The Teutonic Order was nominally a Polish fief- they had been invited by the Polish king to settle in Prussia following their eviction from Hungary- but Poland's infirmity allowed them to become independent, and even expand into Poland itself with the annexation of Chelmno. Thus the Poles naturally drew closer to the Lithuanians, who despite their pagan religion shared a common enemy in the Teutonic Order, and with Jogaila's conversion and marriage the alliance between them was formalized. Her death undermined his claim but Wladislaw skillfully defused tensions by marrying Anna of Celje in 1402, the grandaughter of King Casimir III of Poland. Wladyslaw had been forced to grant Lithuania as a fief to his cousin Vytauas after a revolt in 1392; the Union of Vilnius and Radom reaffirmed Lithuania as a Polish vassal and stipulated that once Vytauas died the Grand Duchy would return to Wladyslaw, and if Wladyslaw were to die without heirs the lords of Lithuania would elect their own ruler. The treaty additionally granted the Lithuanian nobility many of the same concessions enjoyed by the Polish aristocracy, which combined with the ongoing defensive alliance strengthened Wladyslaw's support in Lithuania and ties between the two states. Lithuania then undertook a war against the Teutonic order with tacit Polish support, a war which went against them, and peace was signed in 1404.
In that same year Wladyslaw engaged in negotiations with King Wenceslaus of Bohemia, who offered to return Silesia to him if Poland would support his struggle against Ladislaus of Hungary. Although intrigued Wladyslaw declined, unwilling to open a new front while the Order yet remained an inveterate enemy. In 1408, the King conspired to provoke a Samigotian uprising among the pagans in that recently conquered territory of the knights; the uprising began in May 1409 and when the Teutonic Knights uncovered Polish involvement they attempted to undermine Wladyslaw's support by courting his nobles, but Wladyslaw himself threatened the knights with war if they suppressed the revolt. On August 6th 1409 the Teutonic Order correspondingly signed a formal declaration of war against Poland. Both the knights and the Polish king looked abroad for allies.
Much as Gian Galeazzo had done in Italy the monastic state vacillated opportunistically between Pope and Emperor, and called upon both to support them. They claimed that Wladyslaw's conversion was a sham; Wladyslaw accused them of “wanting to conquer the world.” Both looked abroad for allies- and here does the Polish-Teutonic feud intersect with the broader Italian-Imperial conflict. In 1410 Gian Galeazzo, recognizing Poland could serve as a useful counterweight to Hungary-Bohemia, received their entreaties warmly, and the Pope subsequently denounced the Order and their “false Crusade” and formally invested King Wladyslaw as “Prince of Prussia and Pomeralia.” As for Poland, Wladyslaw supported Wenceslaus, perceiving him to be a more amiable neighbor than the formidable Ladislaus of Hungary. In response Ladislaus entered into alliance with the Teutonic Order and declared war on Poland, although the Hungarian nobility refused to offer more than token support for the venture. Following the Polish-Lithuanian victory at the Battle of Grunwald on 15th July 1410. In the wake of the battle Wladyslaw pressed the attack, and by the following year he had forced the Teutonic Order to submit; the new grandmaster Kuchmeister von Sternberg secularized the Order, which was partitioned between “Royal Prussia” in the west and “Ducal Prussia” in the east, the latter held by the former Grandmaster as a Polish vassal.[A] Wladislaw followed up his victory with an invasion of Silesia in support of his ally Wenceslaus, but Ladislaus defeated the Poles in 1412 and forced them to withdraw. Ladislaus subsequently invaded Poland in 1415 and forced them to surrender the territory of Neumark and Posen[B*] but was forced to accept the loss of the Teutonic Order via Papal intervention, and in 1416 he pawned the captured territories to Margrave Frederick I of Brandenburg.
Ladislaus' death proved a golden opportunity for Wladyslaw to take his revenge. After securing his flank by marrying his daughter and heiress Jadwiga of Poland[C] to Margrave Frederick's younger son Frederick II in 1422 he invaded Bohemia at the side of Jan Zizka and the Hussites. Albert attempted to use this to smear Wladylsaw as a heretic, but the Pope- under Italian pressure- refused to oblige him, reminding the Germans that Ladislaus himself had consorted with heretics. The invasion was too much for Albert to handle and he was forced to surrender Bohemia in its entirety to Poland. Wladyslaw jubilantly entered into Prague to the adulations of the crowd; Wladyslaw of Poland, now also Wladyslaw II of Bohemia, entered through the Golden Gate of St Vitus Cathedral on January 1st 1423 and acclaimed king by the princes of the realm.
St Vitus Cathedral. The cathedral was not yet completed for Wladyslaw's coronation, and its construction was a major project of the new king
Jacqueline of Hainaut, Duchess of Holland
The English advanced quickly, and in the Battle of Ghent the Burgundians met with disaster. Duke John in the middle of a battle was struck in the face by a musket round. He survived the initial injury and retreated with his army, but the wound festered and John the Fearless died in great agony on June 14th 1424.
John's death ended any Burgundian designs on Holland. His sons immediately took to quarreling amongst themselves- Philip, as the primary heir, claimed Champagne for himself, but his brother John of Lorraine viewed it as his natural inheritance, as under Salic law sons were supposed to divide their father's inheritance evenly between them. The new king Louis XI of France used the opportunity to drive the Burgundians from Reims and launch an assault on the Duchy of Bar. He erred in attacking territory held by both branches of the Burgundians, however, and in response to the king's aggression the Burgundians promptly reconciled, agreeing to partition Champagne between them, joined forced to attack the king. In response Louis summoned what remained of the Armagnac, officially legitimizing the House of Orleans in contravention of the Pope's decree. This predictably roused the ire of the Papacy, but Gian Maria was neither willing nor able to push Benedict to censure France.
Whilst on campaign in Lorraine King Louis XI witnessed a twelve year old peasant girl strike one of his soldiers. The man attempted to retaliate but the king interceded on her behalf, demanding she explain herself. The girl revealed herself as Jeanne, and “bold as a man” accused the soldier of stealing food from her family. Impressed, the king offered to “give her any husband it is in my power to grant.” Jeanne refused, however, proclaiming that she “had no masters but God and Your Majesty and would serve no other.” Jean ultimately became a member of the royal household; Louis seemed to have entertained the girl's “unwomanly” notions on a royal whim, whether out of amusement or affection, and she soon was training at arms with soldiers in the king's employ.
Louis met Duke Philip in battle just north of Nevers. The young king quickly proved his potential as a general when he routed first the elder duke and then three days later destroyed Duke John's army in the Battle of Nancy; Duke John was captured by an Orleanaise knight. Unfortunately for John, Duke Charles of Orleans valued vengeance for his father over a ransom or political leverage and rashly executed the unfortunate captive. This predictably enraged King Louis, who naturally had no patience for independent minded dukes scuppering his plans, and he promptly arrested Duke Charles and reneged on his earlier decree, stripping the Orleans of all rank and privilege and confiscating their estates for the Crown.
King Louis made peace with Duke Philip on October 3rd 1424. The Duke surrendered all pretensions to Champagne, ceded Nevers and Artois to the King and yield the regency of his nephew Charles of Lorraine to his mother, the Duchess Isabella of Lorraine. He was additionally obliged to pay an indemnity for “the damages done by his negligence to the realm.”
Drawing upon over a decade of experience, the near catastrophe at Lodi, the ready availability of Swiss mercenaries, and the example both of the ancient legions and the Ottoman Janissaries on July 15th 1425 King Gian Maria Visconti created Europe's first standing army since the fall of the Roman Empire with the Ordinance of Arms. Comprised of a permanent garrison of two thousand “Swiss Guard” and a larger contingent of semi-professional urban militia the Black Legions of Italy were quickly dubbed “the Serpent's dogs” by hostile commentators, this name quickly became a source of pride for the legion, who were armed, trained, and equipped all at the King's expense, the vast arms industry of Milan put to the use of the state.
[1]So called because she reigned in her own right- a queen regnant- rather than as a consort; as “co kings” the couple ruled Poland until Jadwiga's death by childbirth in 1399
[A]OTL Wladyslaw didn't press the advantage, TTL with Papal backing and the imperial civil war ongoing he does. The peace treaty's terms are basically equivalent to the Order's submission
[B*]I'm using the German names primarily because they are at this point in German hands
[C]So it turns out not only did "Jadwiga" exist but she was actually her father's heir until 1424 and betrothed to Frederick II von Hohenzollern as OTL and Frederick II was slated to be the king of Poland Lithuania and he inherited Brandenburg because his elder brother was obsessed with Alchemy and got shunted off to Bayreuth. Jadwiga died in 1427, supposedly poisoned by her stepmother, and her younger brother Wladyslaw III inherited the throne and went off to die at Varna. Basically: we came very close to having Brandenburg-Poland-Lithuania in OTL. All I need to do is stop Wladyslaw from having any surviving kids and keep Jadwiga alive.
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Maybe, maybe not. I'm not fully decided on it yet; but France will be noticeably smaller than OTL no matter what, she certainly isn't getting Provence back and will probably lose Toulouse as well. That said she has a better shot of getting some lands she didn't otl, such as Flanders or even Brabant which is still in Burgundian hands (though Duke Humphrey of Holland and Hainaut and his wife are probably going to try and take it too). Actually they might well have taken it in their current campaign now that I think about it, given how weak the Empire, France and the Burgundians all are. Lorraine also will probably pass into French hands much earlier than OTL given that the Empire is weak and the ruler is a French noble. They might also luck out with dynastic inheritances elsewhere- Castille, Portugal, Kleves, Denmark etc- that they didn't OTL.
In general the major powers of TTL's early modern period, from strongest to weakest are likely to be:
Italy
England
Poland
Hungary
spoiler
*Russia
France (weakest of the great powers, usually; comparable to Italy prior to WWI or WWII depending)
Denmark (as a major secondary power and balance-shifter)
Italy-England-Poland fluctuates a lot depending on circumstance, as does Hungary-Spoiler-*Russia.
After some thought I think I'm going to retcon Gian Maria's family so that he has a son Amadeus born in 1415 or so in place of the daughter. The boy's age is important, though not necessarily for the obvious reason you would imagine, and I want him to have a teenage son as well as an eligible daughter in the next few updates for marriages and stuff. In general I need to sit down and put down all the dates on a timeline to keep things straight, as up until now I've been improvising rather than monitoring time's passage.
The XV century saw huge changes in the art of war, mostly linked to the fast development of the gunpowder technology, but we're still in the first quarter of the century (although the Hussite war was a good bell ring, the arquebuse was not developed until mid 15th century and it is quite likely that the Hussites used "handguns" or "scoppietti" in Italian, a gunpowder weapon which started to appear in the second half of the 14th century). I suppose that the arquebuse ITTL will be developed in the Milanese, rather than in Flanders like IOTL, but an extensive use will have to wait some years. IOTL the first massive use of pike-and-shot formation is attributed to Mathias Corvinus in the 1450s, with 25% arquebusiers). I would expect that cannons and bombards will be the first weapons to be developed and will be cast in bronze: Venice used bombards (including a very large one named La Trevigiana) carried on barges during the siege of Chioggia in 1375. The heavy cavalry was still the queen of battles, although Gian Maria should have learnt a lesson from the battle of Lodi: good light cavalry can be a big asset.
What is certain is that with the development of Humanism there was a great attention to the military traditions of ancient Rome, and the De Re Militari of Vegetius became a must-read book for all condottieri and wannabe war-lords. Given the dominance of the Visconti court ITTL, it is reasonable that Humanism will merge into Renaissance even earlier. The main interests in the De Re Militari were about cartography, logistics, discipline, organization: what differentiated the Roman legions from a mercenary company led by a condottiere. With the development of handguns/arquebuses mathematics entered the field of war, and by the end of XV century there were plenty of printed handbooks giving examples of how to arrange the pike-and-shot formation, depending on how many men were available, which was the percentage of arquebusers, how to develop from column into square and so on.
I do certainly applaud Gian Maria's idea of a standing army, but he got his mix a bit wrong. A large square of Swiss pike-men is good but it would make sense to raise also a similar number of them from the Visconti domains too: there are plenty of areas where the agriculture is not a great prospect but there are young hard men who could be trained (and would not be mercenaries). The cities are good to provide gunners, combat engineers, crossbowmen as well as men-at-arms and even knights from the patriciate and the richest merchant families, and also should be good for city militias tasked with the defense of the cities but who are not supposed to fight in open field. Light cavalry can always be found in the Balkans (Croats, Serbs and Albanians trained by irregular warfare against the Turks) as Venice did for a very long time. It would be even better if the crossbowmen can be trained as dragoons but it would be asking too much
I'm slightly confused as to the kings of France: Charles VII or Louis XI.
Or are they rival Kings each claiming all France?
Or are they rival Kings each claiming all France?
I specifically mentioned the Swiss in homage to the famous Swiss Guard and because they form the backbone of the initial infantry force, but the army itself is absolutely an army and not just a bunch of pikemen- there are Genoese crossbowmen, locally trained handgunners, and even field artillery, along with siege engineers and cavalry from the Balkans. Jan Zizka (and Poland's) dramatic victory over Emperor Albert was readily noted across Europe and gunpowder weapons and their associated tactics will emerge TTL much sooner as a consequence (might actually give France a bone and have Louis be the next one to do it- he's got the absolutist drive a la the Great Elector, and I've already established him as clever ruler and a capable general). Dragoons are probably a bit too much for the initial setup, but once Gian Maria gets a taste of warfare in the east he might get inspired to establish a mounted infantry contingent or at least integrate the cavalry arm more fully. IIRC the Italians and English both made extensive use of mounted archers as basically pre-gundpowder dragoons, and both forces were on display for him in his wars. My reasoning is that Gian Maria is inspired primarily from a fifty-fifty mix of the Janissaries and the Roman Legions and thus focused primarily on the infantry (and also sieges, because he has plenty of experienced engineers on hand and recognizes from both Classical sources and his own experience how important that is) and his primary goal (aside from the prestige) is to have a force loyal to him on command at all times, to prevent something like Sigismund's invasion where he was left scrambling for an army. Eventually it will be expanded upon by him and his successors into a permanent Tercio style setup but that's still a ways away.
Sorry, let me check, might have put down the wrong king again....
Charles VII ("the Victorious") was the OTL king, whilst his father Charles VI (the Mad king of OTL) was the king at the start of the TL. I didn't fully settle on his elder brother Louis surviving and becoming TTL's Louis XI (in place of his nephew the OTL Louis XI, named the Universal Spider because with such unoriginal proper names kings have to resort to cool nicknames to set themselves apart) until relatively recently so if I mixed it up somewhere I wouldn't be surprised.