WI: Mehmed Impaled

Here's hoping it lives up to expectations.



There lies the question. "Vlad is a welcome ally" is easier to make work than "Vlad is a welcome ruler".

Either as Emperor of the Bulgarians and Wallachians and Romans and whatever, or otherwise.
Got the book, so here's hoping it has dome decent answers.

Looking at the Hungarians, I don't think that they really had any pretenders to the Bulgarian throne in their posession, and to be honest I think that Vlad was kinda serving in that role anyways, given that he was fairly dependant on Hungarian favor. To the best of my knowledge the Asen dynasty was effectively dead, with any surviving members having submitted to the Ottomans not unlike many of the Palaiologoi. The Shishmans might have still been a force, though I'm not entirely sure of that, since the last mention of Fruzhin Shishman is in 1444, so he may well have been dead by 1462.
 
Got the book, so here's hoping it has dome decent answers.

Looking at the Hungarians, I don't think that they really had any pretenders to the Bulgarian throne in their posession, and to be honest I think that Vlad was kinda serving in that role anyways, given that he was fairly dependant on Hungarian favor. To the best of my knowledge the Asen dynasty was effectively dead, with any surviving members having submitted to the Ottomans not unlike many of the Palaiologoi. The Shishmans might have still been a force, though I'm not entirely sure of that, since the last mention of Fruzhin Shishman is in 1444, so he may well have been dead by 1462.
I doubt the Bulgarians would accept Vlad as a ruler, and I doubt he would take the job if he was offered it. He had enough on his plate back in Wallachia.

In any case, I don't think he would try to drive the Turks out of Europe, at least not without help. He was a psychopath, but he wasn't an idiot. Even with its Sultan recently dead, trying to invade the Ottoman Empire would be biting off more than he could chew.
 
Are you confusing Charles the Bold with Charles the Bald several centuries earlier?
No he isn't. Charles the bold conspired to go on crusade against the Ottomans on several occasions, but it seems as though he may have been bluffing, since none of those campaigns ever got beyond the planning stages. Theoretically Charles could indeed have led a crusading army, and the forces he could call upon would be no laughing matter, but in practice it seems quite unlikely that he would leave. His position at home is too precarious to reasonably justify going on crusade.
 
There was another Charles the bold during the time. The name is quiet common plus the nickname could be gained by doing a lot of thing like jumping off a cliff and surviving. :p

Who is this other Charles the Bold you have in mind, if not the ("to be" as of 1462) Duke of Burgundy?
 
I doubt the Bulgarians would accept Vlad as a ruler, and I doubt he would take the job if he was offered it. He had enough on his plate back in Wallachia.

In any case, I don't think he would try to drive the Turks out of Europe, at least not without help. He was a psychopath, but he wasn't an idiot. Even with its Sultan recently dead, trying to invade the Ottoman Empire would be biting off more than he could chew.
As I said, I'm attempting to look into the Bulgarians' willingness to accept Vlad, but if you think Vlad would turn down the offer if Bulgaria was handed to him then you're crazy. He wasn't having difficulty holding Wallachia because of rebellions and the like, he was having trouble holding it because of Hungarian meddling. Moving his base of power to Tarnovo would put distance between him and Hungary and give him strength to better resist Hungarian intervention, to say nothing of the imperial title that comes with Bulgaria. If Vlad was handed Bulgaria, and the Bulgarian people were willing to accept him, I have absolutely no doubt that he would take the position. To do otherwise simply doesn't make sense.

That said, I never said he would drive the Ottomans out of Europe. Bulgaria is an optimistic scenario, extending into Thrace would be a wank, and taking Constantinople would be very nearly ASB. That said, I think optimistic scenarios are still fun to explore, so long as it doesn't go too far.
 
As I said, I'm attempting to look into the Bulgarians' willingness to accept Vlad, but if you think Vlad would turn down the offer if Bulgaria was handed to him then you're crazy. He wasn't having difficulty holding Wallachia because of rebellions and the like, he was having trouble holding it because of Hungarian meddling. Moving his base of power to Tarnovo would put distance between him and Hungary and give him strength to better resist Hungarian intervention, to say nothing of the imperial title that comes with Bulgaria. If Vlad was handed Bulgaria, and the Bulgarian people were willing to accept him, I have absolutely no doubt that he would take the position. To do otherwise simply doesn't make sense.
I knew Vlad had serious problems with Hungary, but I always figured Wallachia's major problems were internal in nature, at least the way Vlad saw it. Plus, I don't think the Impaler would be so eager to abandon his homeland. Then again, maybe I'm wrong.

However, this raises another question. If Vlad becomes the Bulgarian Khan, would he alienate his new subjects?
 
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