With the sun rising over the magnificent Canterbury Cathedral, Bishop Thomas of Devon was already hard at work. Minor construction was being done to the choir, which meant the Cathedral was currently not available for services. This gave him the time needed to continue on his greatest work, The Final Bastion of Christendom.
For years he had toiled with the idea of writing such a book, but never had enough data, time, or a million other things. Now he believed he had all of these things. So for the past two weeks he worked like a mad man. Nearly every waking hour was spent in this room cramped over his writing desk.
He drew the story of the fall of Christian Europe without a care for anything else in the world. All meaningless things he ignored. There was only his book that mattered. When he grew tired, he would sleep for but a few hours. When the sun went down, he lit a candle. When it rose, he blew it out. When his stomach roared for nourishment, he ignored it. That is unless his sister visited and forced him to eat and drink. Recently she seemed to visit at least twice a day. Like he was unable to care for himself.
None of the things which had once seemed so important no longer mattered. All that was important was this book. God had given him clarity and purpose like he had never felt before. He knew that others may think him mad, but he was doing His work and nothing would stop him from completing it.
As he leafed through the pages it was hard to believe that he was so close to being finished. He had been at it for so long, and in some ways only just begun. It was hard to believe that in the next few days it would be complete. The history and story of the collapse of Christian Europe would be completed. Like Christendom only a little remained of his book.
Each page his hand stopped at Thomas had a vision of the events that were chronicled. The Great Dutch Purge of 1656, Frederick William von Hohenzollern’s valiant campaign, the Destruction of Rome, the Twelve Year War, the Great Storm of 1481, and so many others. The most important of these stories was by far the opening chapter, the Siege of Nandorfehervar.
It was here that John Hunyadi failed to keep the Ottoman Turks under Sultan Mehmed II from marching into Europe. Some considered Hunyadi a military genius for his “Long Campaign” of 1443-44, but he proved at Nandorfehervar what he showed at both Varna in 1444 and Kosovo in 1448, that he was more fanatical then skilled.
Hunyadi fought with the best of his abilities, but this seemed nothing except for the command of the ‘charge’. At Nandorfehervar he had command of a decent sized army behind one of the greatest castles of all Europe. He could have waited out the Ottomans and won, but instead in his great foolishness for glory on the 22nd of July 1456, he and his men charged out to ‘destroy’ the Ottoman army.
Instead of destroying them he led his numerically smaller, poorly equipped army to slaughter on Turkish blades. If Hunyadi had survived that charge nearly any man, woman, or child of Europe would have killed him for what he had done. In one foolish act Hunyadi had given Sultan Mehmed II the keys to all of Eastern Europe.
He started small with the subjugation of the Hungarian King, Ladislaus Posthumous, who was also King of Bohemia. Following Ladislaus’ death the following year, Mehmed II was able to use this opportunity to claim both Hungary and Bohemia as his own lands. The Bohemians however, chose to elect their own King, a local noble named George of Podebrady.
King George attempted to hold back a Turkish invasion of nearly two hundred thousand men with a combined Bohemian and Polish army of only half their opponents size. He was unsuccessful as at the Battle of Mollwitz his men were surrounded and crushed nearly to the man. This allowed Mehmed the Conqueror to claim both Bohemia and Poland in his armies mad dash across Eastern Europe.
At last Mehmed II would meet defeat in November of 1462. He had planned a Spring invasion in 1463 of the Holy Roman Empire, but once they heard word of this the Emperor Frederick II von Habsburg led an army in a winter campaign against the Turks. It was at Mohacs these two great armies faced each other. Though the Empire won the battle, they were unsuccessful in forcing the Turks out of Eastern Europe. They did however keep the Turks from invading them for over a hundred years.
It’s hard to believe that all of Eastern Europe fell because of one failed battle. Even worse these victories inspired the other Islamic nations. They had been losing ground over the previous century, but now they were inspired. They would reclaim the lands they had lost and much, much more.
Leafing forward into the next section of the book, Bishop Thomas had not even noticed that there was another person in the room with him. His younger sister had come with a plate of food and a warm cup of cider. Neither of which Thomas touched or for that matter noticed. Instead his mind was on the lands of Iberia where it was first Sultan Abu I-Hasan Ali of Granada who moved against the Christian Kings following the Turks defeat at Mohacs.
The Granada Sultans had been paying tribute to the Kings of Castile for many years. This would end with the reign of Sultan Abu I-Hasan Ali. His first act he led a winter assault on Gibraltar which had been lost two years earlier to Castile just before the Battle of Mohacs. The next summer he would have been crushed by the much larger Castile army, but King John II of Aragon led an attack on Castile. This diverted the Castile army and the Sultan was able to move west reclaiming Algarve from Portugal.
It wasn’t any great victory, but it was enough to put fire back into their souls. This fire was nearly extinguished when the three Christian Kings of Aragon, Castile and Portugal put aside their differences to lead a joint invasion into Granada. All seemed lost for the Moors of Granada.
They should have lost too. In the end they were saved thanks to the distrust between the three Christian Kings. They had a far superior force but they failed to work together. This allowed Sultan Abu I-Hasan Ali to destroy each of these smaller forces one at a time. At one point the Castilian and Aragonese forces had launched themselves into a pitched battle amongst themselves.
Coming to peace after the rather short war, Granada was able to regain all the lands from Cordoba west, east, and south. They had more then doubled their size in only three years. Yet they were still only half the size of when the Moors ruled Al-Andalus. The important thing was that the Moors were winning, they had reclaimed their lost capital Cordoba, and they were led by a strong Sultan.
That is until the follow year. Sultan Abu I-Hasan Ali, who had reclaimed the lost title of Caliph of the Cordoba Caliphate, passed away. His son would end the Islamic expansion during his reign. The peace was short, but it was not enough to end the Islamic tide that was pushing against Europe. No, this great wave was only building in momentum.
Suddenly Thomas was shaken from his thoughts. Literally shaken as his head flopped around. When the turbulence was over he at last noticed his sister in the room who had hold of either of his shoulders. She kept speaking but he ignored what she said. Thomas did however notice the plate of food she kept motioning to and gladly took a bite of the warm crisp bacon that made his mouth water from the smell alone.
This action seemed to have pleased his sister who at last released him from her grip. She still mumbled about something, but by this time Thomas was now in the next section of his book. Here the final member of what became the Islamic League left its lands in Tunisia. The Hasfid dynasty made its move on Sicily, but this action was not spurred by a strong leader like the Moors and Turks, rather it was born from opportunity.
The opportunity came in two fold. Firstly, the peace in Iberia broke down as Castile and Aragon fought over claim of the minor Kingdom of Navarra which bordered both of them. This war had been going on since 1476. The other was the invasion of northern Italy by the Turks. They sought the complete subjugation of Venice for their recent involvement in trying to convince the Greek states to rise up against Ottoman rule.
With Aragon focused on their affairs in Iberia and the Italian states focused to the north, the Hasfids launched an attack on the Aragon controlled island of Sicily in May of 1480. Caliph Uthman received no opposition from anybody as he easily took control of the island. The following year however, saw the death of Sultan Mehmed II which the Turks took as a sign to return to their lands. At the same time Aragon made peace with Castile giving a minor Castile noble control of Navarra and set sail east to recapture their lost lands.
When word came that the Aragon fleet had set sail, Caliph Abu Abd Allah Muhammed az-Zaghell, brother of Caliph Abu I-Hasan Ali, and Queen Isabella of Castile led a joint invasion of Aragon. Completely overwhelmed Aragon fell and was split equally between the two powers. As Aragon was ravaged their fleet was as well. Their enemy was the weather where a great storm swept upon them sending thousands upon thousands of men to their watery doom.
No longer in fear of Aragon’s retribution, Caliph Uthman continued his assault into southern Italy in 1483. At this time the Kingdom of Naples was distracted in a war in the north between Venice and Ferrara. Making use of this distraction, Caliph Uthman hoped to reclaim more of his family’s lost lands. Shortly after landing near Punta Pezzo his army was quickly set upon by the Neapolitan King.
It was a hard fought battle that saw the complete destruction of the Hasfid army including its Caliph, as they were unable to make it back to their ships. Along with Caliph Uthman, the Neapolitan King died as well. His death left his Kingdom in a Civil War between the Neapolitan loyalists and the Aragonese loyalists, who wished to see one of the surviving sons of the late Aragon King made the ruler of Naples. This prevented them from taking the isle of Sicily away from the Hasfids.
Thomas suddenly felt loss as he had his had out before him. He had reached out for a piece of bacon, but there was nothing there, including the plate. He could only assume he had eaten it all as his sister was carrying the tray of empty dishes out the door. Food no longer seemed to matter to him, but right now all he wanted was another piece of that crispy, juicy bacon. His world was consumed by this need. At least it was until the door was shut. With the door went all thoughts except for his book again.
In the year 1487, Queen Isabella passed away leaving behind four infant daughters and many powerful nobles. Seeking power for themselves, the four daughter of Isabella were made hostage to the most powerful of Castile’s nobles. Each of these men claimed that it was their child they controlled who was now Queen, no matter the age of the girl or the fact that Isabella also had a son who had been smuggled away.
Within a month these nobles split the lands of Castile into four separate Kingdoms for each of them. The eldest, Queen Isabella II, kept Castile and much of central Iberia, Joanna was named Queen of Navarra which comprised of most of the lands they had taken from Aragon, Maria became Queen of Leon, and finally Catherine the youngest who was only two years old was named Queen of Galicia in the northwest.
No longer having a powerful Castile to fear and keep them in check, the Caliph of Cordoba was able to invade and conquer Portugal in the year 1487 as the nobles bickered amongst themselves. By 1490, Navarra had fallen to Castile and Galicia to Cordoba. This set the stage for the third bloodiest war of the Rise of Islam, the Twelve Year War.
1493 the lands of Cordoba, Leon, and Castile were at each others throats. Each one of them wanted to be the sole master of Iberia. It was this greed that led to the Twelve Year War. Cordoba controlled the most land, but they were weakened by the fact that large parts of their lands were newly conquered as well as their weakened army from the campaigns in 1487 and 1489 to take these lands. This put all three countries on near equal footing.
The war went back and forth with lands won and lost, armies destroyed, and still no clear winner for Iberia. Seeking an end to one of their enemies, the Caliph and Queen Isabella II formed an alliance against Queen Maria as it was her armies that were performing the best in the field under General Gonzalo Fernandez de Leon. At the same time the Caliph formed an alliance with the Queen Maria against Queen Isabella II. In the end he upheld neither treaty and allowed Leon and Castile to fight amongst each other, promising to send aid to both all the while.
At last the Caliph moved in late 1496 where his armies rushed across the lightly guarded borders of both countries. Leon and Barcelona, the new capital of Castile, fell in no time. The war should have ended there with the loss of both capitals and even the death of Queen Isabella II. Both armies were weakened by their fighting but Queen Maria had escaped Leon and fled to Burgos, Castile’s former capital. It was here that the Castilian army swore fealty to Queen Maria and the war went on.
With additional soldiers and a taste for revenge the new Castile-Leon armies under General Gonzalo de Leon were able to regain both Leon and Barcelona from Cordoba. The war had returned to a time of general peace after this. Both armies regrouped and waited for the other to make a mistake. Only minor skirmishes went for the next few years. Then in 1502 the war set off again.
Thousands died on the battlefield and tens of thousand more died in their homes. Raiding parties were conducted across the borders by both sides attempting to strangle their enemies of supplies, trade, and reinforcements. Whole villages were put to the torch, wells and rivers poisoned, but worst of all was the massacre of the infants and women. Only the young boys would live as they were conscripted into one army or the other.
Never had there been a worse time to live then during the Twelve Year War in Iberia. Not before, not since. The war went on and on without a clear winner and neither side was willing to give up on their ambition to be master of Iberia. Over ten million people died for two people’s greed. It would have lasted longer if not for the death of General Gonzalo. A stray round from a Moors’ harquebus struck the General in the eye killing him immediately. With the death of their General the Castile-Leon forces scattered not just at this one battle but all across the country. The Twelve Year War had come to an end with the death of one man. This made the Caliph of Cordoba the new Caliph of Iberia.
Eastern Europe and Iberia were now controlled by the Islamic nations. Next to make their move was the Hasfids. After forty years of peace they had finally…Ripping his eyes from the pages of his book, Bishop Thomas starred at his door. He could have sworn he heard something.
Then it called out again. A shrill screech that echoed throughout the great Cathedral. It was a frightening sound that in some ways sounded familiar. The noise was not like he had ever heard before, but if he had to describe it as something it would almost be the sound of a girl screaming. That was foolish though. There were no women in the church at this time. Only himself and his book.
His book!!! He had forgotten about his wonderful book. That foolish noise had distracted him from the only thing that really mattered. Why had he allowed something so small and insignificant take his attention away. He was just getting to the end now.
Forty years of peace had settled between the Hasfids and the Kingdom of Naples. Not since the failed invasion of 1483 that resulted in the death of Caliph Uthman had the two dared meet each other in the field. It was an uneasy peace, but it was still peace. One that the Hasfids used to build up their army and even introduced the musket for the first time in Europe.
With their armies ready, the Caliph ordered the invasion of southern Italy in 1523. The war went well at first with the Hasfids gaining ground, but they did not rush. They captured an area and made sure they had full control before pushing further north. It was a slow process that would lead to one of the longest wars in history. The war began with a simple campaign for southern Italy between the Hasfids and Naples. By 1526, the Ottomans joined in with a two pronged invasion of Venice and Otranto. 1530 saw all the states of Italy trying to hold back the tide of Islamic invaders.
Where the Hasfids were slow and steady in their invasion, the Turks rushed. They were able to take Venice easily enough, but following that they splintered their army into many minor forces in an attempt to blanket invade all of northern Italy. All this did was allow the minor coalition states of Mantua, Florence, Tuscany, and Milan to crush each of these forces one after another. Together the Turks would have greatly outnumbered this alliance, but separated like they were they did not have the same number of men on the battlefield until 1543. Even then the alliance was able to push the Turks from the lands in the north. All the way to Verona.
By this time in the south the Hasfids had only just captured Naples. Twenty years it took the Hasfids to finally bring an end to the Kingdom of Naples. The important thing was that they never lost any of the lands which they captured. A battle here and there was lost, but never a castle, city, or any other lands.
This slow process ensure that Italy was not only being conquered but also unified under their new masters. Something they learned was important by their Moor brothers in Iberia. Since the end of the Twelve Year War the Caliph of Iberia had to deal with over a hundred failed rebellions in their lands. They were one country but they were not unified. The Hasfids would not have to deal with such issues as that.
Their main enemy was defeated but the war was not over. The northern states were still in a frenzy and some went so far as to attack and raid into Hasfid lands. So once Naples was pacified they continued their march north. Twice they had attempted a siege on the great city of Rome in 1547 and again in 1552. Both ended in great defeats as their supplies were continually being interrupted by amphibious assaults by Genoa.
With a smaller force a tiny ‘city’ was built just outside of Rome in 1557. This city was filled with supplies and provisions enough to last ten years. There were multiple attempts to burn the city down, but all had failed. Six years later, the seat of the Pope had at last fallen. Every brick of its walls torn down, every house and building destroyed, the ground was burned and then salted so that nothing would ever grow there again. Rome, the heart of the Catholic Church, was no more. It was a dead city.
Thankfully, His Holiness Pope Pius IV had been smuggled out of the city only four days before it had fallen. He was taken first to Vienna and the Holy Roman Empire in hopes that they would some day march south and retake the lost city. This had never happened, but it was still a goal of the Popes today who now live in the city of York.
Pincered between a more aggressive Hasfid and the Ottomans the northern alliance, which had been joined by all other lands of Italy, was at last losing. It still took them another twelve years but eventually all of Italy had fallen to Islam in 1575. The Italian War of Dominance or better known as simply the Fifty Year War had come to an end.
These newly conquered lands were split between the Ottomans and the Hasfids. Surprisingly the Ottomans only took the lands east of the Adige river, this included both Venice and Verona. Even though they were the stronger the Ottomans new they would not be able to keep proper control over northern Italy and so allowed the Hasfids to deal with them instead.
The very next Spring, Pope Pius IV had convinced both the Holy Roman Empire and France to lead a join invasion into Italy. Before either army even made it into Italy they had been called back. At last the Caliph of Iberia had pacified his lands and with the French troops marching over the Alps his Moors flooded over the Pyrenees. All of France south of the Loire had fallen to the Caliph. France and the Caliph had not even met on the battlefield, but with no army between Orleans and Pairs the French King was more then happy to come to terms. All lands south of Orleans was now in control of the Caliph of Iberia.
Once more Thomas’ eyes were drawn towards the door. The shrill scream had not come again, but there were other noises that creped into his work place. Muffled groans, crashes, clangs, and a whole lot of hullabaloo. He didn’t know why this noise was going on, he could only assume the workers were hard at their task.
When his door opened Thomas though of yelling at whoever entered but stopped with mouth open. In the doorway stood a woman with auburn hair like his own. Across her chest her dress was torn and sap ran out of her body. He had never seen a person ooze sap before. All very interesting.
She had this sad look her face as she stumbled into the room. With each step it looked as if she was trying to say something. All that came out was more and more sap. What an odd woman. Maybe she was a Dryad. Why else would she be leaking sap?
As she came closer Thomas suddenly had a great fear the sap would fall on his book. Ruining his life’s work and destroying His words. Pulling the book closer to protect it, he watched as the Dryad dropped to her knees and planted her face on the ground. He had sent even the mythical creatures of the world to pay homage to the book Thomas had written.
No longer in fear for his book Thomas flipped to the next section. This section and the last he had written was by far his favorite. For it is here that a land is finally able to truly stand against Islam.
Since 1462 and the defeat at the Battle of Mohacs not a single Turkish soldier dared move against the Holy Roman Empire. Now with its lands bordered on many fronts by Islamic nations the Ottomans at last attempted another invasion in 1580. This hundred thousand man army met the twenty thousand men of Bavaria at Innsbruck. Outnumbered five to one it appeared foolish for the Bavarians to fight this battle. Their leader, William of Orange, refused to leave without a fight. In a surprising upset William won and the Turks were forced from the Empire’s lands again.
Shortly after in 1584 Iberia and France fell into another war. When it was obvious the French were losing in 1590 the Holy Roman Empire sent an army to aid them. This only slowed the Iberians down before the Empire’s army was recalled to deal with the Hasfid invasion of 1592. The Hasfids like the Turks failed to gain any ground into the Empire.
The war over France finally came to an end in 1611 with the capture of Paris. Now completely surrounded on three sides by Islamic nations things looked bleak for the Holy Roman Empire. Somehow they were able to keep together and not only hold back attacks but even reclaim small bits of land after the invasions of 1614, 1618, 1629, and 1630 by different nations. This was thanks to these nations never working together or coordinating invasions.
The Iberians had failed their invasion of the Holy Roman Empire in 1618 and so set their eyes on a different target, England. For sixteen years they built up a fleet that could not be matched in size anywhere else in the world before or since. Launching this vast armada in 1634 they moved to capture the last of what many consider western Europe.
At the same time the English fleet set sail to meet this armada which outnumbered them nearly twenty to one. The English had two weapons that the Iberians had not accounted for; their Admiral Francis Drake and their new type of ship, a three-decker. These ships had tougher hulls and a hundred and forty guns a side. This was nearly three times that of an entire Iberian ship. On the 29th of June 1634 the Iberian fleet was nearly completely destroyed at the Battle of the Straights.
In 1642 the three great Islamic nations of Iberia, Hasfid, and the Ottomans met to form a pact. Unable to invade either England or the Holy Roman Empire they had begun to raid each other. This only weakened them and made their goals of conquering Europe even less likely to occur. So in 1642 the three leaders, Caliph of the Hasfids, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, and the Caliph of Iberia, who was beginning to call himself the Emperor of the West, met in Mecca to make peace. These talks formed the Islamic League.
Upon word reaching Vienna of the formation of the League, Pope Urban VIII fled the city and took refuge on the isle of Britain. This came just in time as a mass invasion occurred all along the Holy Roman Empire. These men swept across southern and western parts of the Empire’s lands. Even the von Habsburg Emperor fell during this attack.
The only area that did not fall was the lands of Brandenburg which protected the northeast. From the border of Denmark to Brandenburg, Frederick William von Hohenzollern marched his men and kept it safe of the Islamic invasion. Following the collapse of the south and his victory at Berlin, Frederick William named himself Emperor of the severely depleted Holy Roman Empire.
For four years the Islamic League attempted to take the last of the Holy Roman Empire. Never once in that time did they take another city or for that matter win another battle. None of their troops could match the ferocity of these Brandenburgs.
As they began to lose to many people, England would send more and more reinforcements to continue the fight. By 1647 the Holy Roman Army had only one native to every five soldiers yet still they went on winning battle after battle.
All of Christendom prayed in those days for Frederick William to hold back the tide of Islam, and it appeared their prayers were being answered. Some went so far as to say that he was the Second Coming. And much like Jesus, Frederick William was betrayed by those he trusted when Denmark and the Scandinavian countries of Norway and Sweden converted to Islam.
These countries neither had soldiers in the Holy Roman Army or helped invade, but they did keep England from sending any additional troops, save for a few lucky ships that made it through the blockade. Yet still Frederick William was able to hold out for over a year until he and his men were at last slaughtered at the Second Battle of Berlin, the only defeat he ever suffered.
With that defeat all of mainland Europe had fallen to the sway of Islam. All that remained was the isle of England. All that protected them was their superior navy. Which once again proved its worth when it crushed a combined invasion in both 1650 and 1652. In response to these losses the League ordered a great fleet of Denmark’s greatest ships to be constructed.
With the resources and manpower of all of Europe, Denmark was able to nearly complete the entire fleet by 1656. In a daring move the British Admiral Richard Badiley took a great fleet of fire ships around Denmark. Then in the middle of the night on 13 November 1656 he and his fleet sailed their ships into the anchored fleet.
All sailors including Admiral Badiley lost their lives in this gambit, but the Great Dutch Purge had been a success. Since then there had no longer been any fear of an Islamic invasion. Over the years they had made many attempts but none were successful or even slightly successful. Islam may have control of Europe, but Christians ruled the waves.
Pleased with himself Thomas rested his hand on the last pages that still needed to be written. There had been word of another invasion to the north by the Norwegians and so Admiral George Rooke took his fleet to deal with them. It would be this last victory that ended this book.
Running his hand softly along the spine Thomas could not wait to finish these last few pages. Looking down at the Dryad he was pleased to see that she was still praising His book. Even if she had got sap all over the floor. In the doorway another had come to pay homage to His words. This man was dressed oddly in a red robe and belt. He had in his hands a great metal staff which was pointed towards him.
Such an odd man who only said, “Allahu Akbar.”
For years he had toiled with the idea of writing such a book, but never had enough data, time, or a million other things. Now he believed he had all of these things. So for the past two weeks he worked like a mad man. Nearly every waking hour was spent in this room cramped over his writing desk.
He drew the story of the fall of Christian Europe without a care for anything else in the world. All meaningless things he ignored. There was only his book that mattered. When he grew tired, he would sleep for but a few hours. When the sun went down, he lit a candle. When it rose, he blew it out. When his stomach roared for nourishment, he ignored it. That is unless his sister visited and forced him to eat and drink. Recently she seemed to visit at least twice a day. Like he was unable to care for himself.
None of the things which had once seemed so important no longer mattered. All that was important was this book. God had given him clarity and purpose like he had never felt before. He knew that others may think him mad, but he was doing His work and nothing would stop him from completing it.
As he leafed through the pages it was hard to believe that he was so close to being finished. He had been at it for so long, and in some ways only just begun. It was hard to believe that in the next few days it would be complete. The history and story of the collapse of Christian Europe would be completed. Like Christendom only a little remained of his book.
Each page his hand stopped at Thomas had a vision of the events that were chronicled. The Great Dutch Purge of 1656, Frederick William von Hohenzollern’s valiant campaign, the Destruction of Rome, the Twelve Year War, the Great Storm of 1481, and so many others. The most important of these stories was by far the opening chapter, the Siege of Nandorfehervar.
It was here that John Hunyadi failed to keep the Ottoman Turks under Sultan Mehmed II from marching into Europe. Some considered Hunyadi a military genius for his “Long Campaign” of 1443-44, but he proved at Nandorfehervar what he showed at both Varna in 1444 and Kosovo in 1448, that he was more fanatical then skilled.
Hunyadi fought with the best of his abilities, but this seemed nothing except for the command of the ‘charge’. At Nandorfehervar he had command of a decent sized army behind one of the greatest castles of all Europe. He could have waited out the Ottomans and won, but instead in his great foolishness for glory on the 22nd of July 1456, he and his men charged out to ‘destroy’ the Ottoman army.
Instead of destroying them he led his numerically smaller, poorly equipped army to slaughter on Turkish blades. If Hunyadi had survived that charge nearly any man, woman, or child of Europe would have killed him for what he had done. In one foolish act Hunyadi had given Sultan Mehmed II the keys to all of Eastern Europe.
He started small with the subjugation of the Hungarian King, Ladislaus Posthumous, who was also King of Bohemia. Following Ladislaus’ death the following year, Mehmed II was able to use this opportunity to claim both Hungary and Bohemia as his own lands. The Bohemians however, chose to elect their own King, a local noble named George of Podebrady.
King George attempted to hold back a Turkish invasion of nearly two hundred thousand men with a combined Bohemian and Polish army of only half their opponents size. He was unsuccessful as at the Battle of Mollwitz his men were surrounded and crushed nearly to the man. This allowed Mehmed the Conqueror to claim both Bohemia and Poland in his armies mad dash across Eastern Europe.
At last Mehmed II would meet defeat in November of 1462. He had planned a Spring invasion in 1463 of the Holy Roman Empire, but once they heard word of this the Emperor Frederick II von Habsburg led an army in a winter campaign against the Turks. It was at Mohacs these two great armies faced each other. Though the Empire won the battle, they were unsuccessful in forcing the Turks out of Eastern Europe. They did however keep the Turks from invading them for over a hundred years.
It’s hard to believe that all of Eastern Europe fell because of one failed battle. Even worse these victories inspired the other Islamic nations. They had been losing ground over the previous century, but now they were inspired. They would reclaim the lands they had lost and much, much more.
Leafing forward into the next section of the book, Bishop Thomas had not even noticed that there was another person in the room with him. His younger sister had come with a plate of food and a warm cup of cider. Neither of which Thomas touched or for that matter noticed. Instead his mind was on the lands of Iberia where it was first Sultan Abu I-Hasan Ali of Granada who moved against the Christian Kings following the Turks defeat at Mohacs.
The Granada Sultans had been paying tribute to the Kings of Castile for many years. This would end with the reign of Sultan Abu I-Hasan Ali. His first act he led a winter assault on Gibraltar which had been lost two years earlier to Castile just before the Battle of Mohacs. The next summer he would have been crushed by the much larger Castile army, but King John II of Aragon led an attack on Castile. This diverted the Castile army and the Sultan was able to move west reclaiming Algarve from Portugal.
It wasn’t any great victory, but it was enough to put fire back into their souls. This fire was nearly extinguished when the three Christian Kings of Aragon, Castile and Portugal put aside their differences to lead a joint invasion into Granada. All seemed lost for the Moors of Granada.
They should have lost too. In the end they were saved thanks to the distrust between the three Christian Kings. They had a far superior force but they failed to work together. This allowed Sultan Abu I-Hasan Ali to destroy each of these smaller forces one at a time. At one point the Castilian and Aragonese forces had launched themselves into a pitched battle amongst themselves.
Coming to peace after the rather short war, Granada was able to regain all the lands from Cordoba west, east, and south. They had more then doubled their size in only three years. Yet they were still only half the size of when the Moors ruled Al-Andalus. The important thing was that the Moors were winning, they had reclaimed their lost capital Cordoba, and they were led by a strong Sultan.
That is until the follow year. Sultan Abu I-Hasan Ali, who had reclaimed the lost title of Caliph of the Cordoba Caliphate, passed away. His son would end the Islamic expansion during his reign. The peace was short, but it was not enough to end the Islamic tide that was pushing against Europe. No, this great wave was only building in momentum.
Suddenly Thomas was shaken from his thoughts. Literally shaken as his head flopped around. When the turbulence was over he at last noticed his sister in the room who had hold of either of his shoulders. She kept speaking but he ignored what she said. Thomas did however notice the plate of food she kept motioning to and gladly took a bite of the warm crisp bacon that made his mouth water from the smell alone.
This action seemed to have pleased his sister who at last released him from her grip. She still mumbled about something, but by this time Thomas was now in the next section of his book. Here the final member of what became the Islamic League left its lands in Tunisia. The Hasfid dynasty made its move on Sicily, but this action was not spurred by a strong leader like the Moors and Turks, rather it was born from opportunity.
The opportunity came in two fold. Firstly, the peace in Iberia broke down as Castile and Aragon fought over claim of the minor Kingdom of Navarra which bordered both of them. This war had been going on since 1476. The other was the invasion of northern Italy by the Turks. They sought the complete subjugation of Venice for their recent involvement in trying to convince the Greek states to rise up against Ottoman rule.
With Aragon focused on their affairs in Iberia and the Italian states focused to the north, the Hasfids launched an attack on the Aragon controlled island of Sicily in May of 1480. Caliph Uthman received no opposition from anybody as he easily took control of the island. The following year however, saw the death of Sultan Mehmed II which the Turks took as a sign to return to their lands. At the same time Aragon made peace with Castile giving a minor Castile noble control of Navarra and set sail east to recapture their lost lands.
When word came that the Aragon fleet had set sail, Caliph Abu Abd Allah Muhammed az-Zaghell, brother of Caliph Abu I-Hasan Ali, and Queen Isabella of Castile led a joint invasion of Aragon. Completely overwhelmed Aragon fell and was split equally between the two powers. As Aragon was ravaged their fleet was as well. Their enemy was the weather where a great storm swept upon them sending thousands upon thousands of men to their watery doom.
No longer in fear of Aragon’s retribution, Caliph Uthman continued his assault into southern Italy in 1483. At this time the Kingdom of Naples was distracted in a war in the north between Venice and Ferrara. Making use of this distraction, Caliph Uthman hoped to reclaim more of his family’s lost lands. Shortly after landing near Punta Pezzo his army was quickly set upon by the Neapolitan King.
It was a hard fought battle that saw the complete destruction of the Hasfid army including its Caliph, as they were unable to make it back to their ships. Along with Caliph Uthman, the Neapolitan King died as well. His death left his Kingdom in a Civil War between the Neapolitan loyalists and the Aragonese loyalists, who wished to see one of the surviving sons of the late Aragon King made the ruler of Naples. This prevented them from taking the isle of Sicily away from the Hasfids.
Thomas suddenly felt loss as he had his had out before him. He had reached out for a piece of bacon, but there was nothing there, including the plate. He could only assume he had eaten it all as his sister was carrying the tray of empty dishes out the door. Food no longer seemed to matter to him, but right now all he wanted was another piece of that crispy, juicy bacon. His world was consumed by this need. At least it was until the door was shut. With the door went all thoughts except for his book again.
In the year 1487, Queen Isabella passed away leaving behind four infant daughters and many powerful nobles. Seeking power for themselves, the four daughter of Isabella were made hostage to the most powerful of Castile’s nobles. Each of these men claimed that it was their child they controlled who was now Queen, no matter the age of the girl or the fact that Isabella also had a son who had been smuggled away.
Within a month these nobles split the lands of Castile into four separate Kingdoms for each of them. The eldest, Queen Isabella II, kept Castile and much of central Iberia, Joanna was named Queen of Navarra which comprised of most of the lands they had taken from Aragon, Maria became Queen of Leon, and finally Catherine the youngest who was only two years old was named Queen of Galicia in the northwest.
No longer having a powerful Castile to fear and keep them in check, the Caliph of Cordoba was able to invade and conquer Portugal in the year 1487 as the nobles bickered amongst themselves. By 1490, Navarra had fallen to Castile and Galicia to Cordoba. This set the stage for the third bloodiest war of the Rise of Islam, the Twelve Year War.
1493 the lands of Cordoba, Leon, and Castile were at each others throats. Each one of them wanted to be the sole master of Iberia. It was this greed that led to the Twelve Year War. Cordoba controlled the most land, but they were weakened by the fact that large parts of their lands were newly conquered as well as their weakened army from the campaigns in 1487 and 1489 to take these lands. This put all three countries on near equal footing.
The war went back and forth with lands won and lost, armies destroyed, and still no clear winner for Iberia. Seeking an end to one of their enemies, the Caliph and Queen Isabella II formed an alliance against Queen Maria as it was her armies that were performing the best in the field under General Gonzalo Fernandez de Leon. At the same time the Caliph formed an alliance with the Queen Maria against Queen Isabella II. In the end he upheld neither treaty and allowed Leon and Castile to fight amongst each other, promising to send aid to both all the while.
At last the Caliph moved in late 1496 where his armies rushed across the lightly guarded borders of both countries. Leon and Barcelona, the new capital of Castile, fell in no time. The war should have ended there with the loss of both capitals and even the death of Queen Isabella II. Both armies were weakened by their fighting but Queen Maria had escaped Leon and fled to Burgos, Castile’s former capital. It was here that the Castilian army swore fealty to Queen Maria and the war went on.
With additional soldiers and a taste for revenge the new Castile-Leon armies under General Gonzalo de Leon were able to regain both Leon and Barcelona from Cordoba. The war had returned to a time of general peace after this. Both armies regrouped and waited for the other to make a mistake. Only minor skirmishes went for the next few years. Then in 1502 the war set off again.
Thousands died on the battlefield and tens of thousand more died in their homes. Raiding parties were conducted across the borders by both sides attempting to strangle their enemies of supplies, trade, and reinforcements. Whole villages were put to the torch, wells and rivers poisoned, but worst of all was the massacre of the infants and women. Only the young boys would live as they were conscripted into one army or the other.
Never had there been a worse time to live then during the Twelve Year War in Iberia. Not before, not since. The war went on and on without a clear winner and neither side was willing to give up on their ambition to be master of Iberia. Over ten million people died for two people’s greed. It would have lasted longer if not for the death of General Gonzalo. A stray round from a Moors’ harquebus struck the General in the eye killing him immediately. With the death of their General the Castile-Leon forces scattered not just at this one battle but all across the country. The Twelve Year War had come to an end with the death of one man. This made the Caliph of Cordoba the new Caliph of Iberia.
Eastern Europe and Iberia were now controlled by the Islamic nations. Next to make their move was the Hasfids. After forty years of peace they had finally…Ripping his eyes from the pages of his book, Bishop Thomas starred at his door. He could have sworn he heard something.
Then it called out again. A shrill screech that echoed throughout the great Cathedral. It was a frightening sound that in some ways sounded familiar. The noise was not like he had ever heard before, but if he had to describe it as something it would almost be the sound of a girl screaming. That was foolish though. There were no women in the church at this time. Only himself and his book.
His book!!! He had forgotten about his wonderful book. That foolish noise had distracted him from the only thing that really mattered. Why had he allowed something so small and insignificant take his attention away. He was just getting to the end now.
Forty years of peace had settled between the Hasfids and the Kingdom of Naples. Not since the failed invasion of 1483 that resulted in the death of Caliph Uthman had the two dared meet each other in the field. It was an uneasy peace, but it was still peace. One that the Hasfids used to build up their army and even introduced the musket for the first time in Europe.
With their armies ready, the Caliph ordered the invasion of southern Italy in 1523. The war went well at first with the Hasfids gaining ground, but they did not rush. They captured an area and made sure they had full control before pushing further north. It was a slow process that would lead to one of the longest wars in history. The war began with a simple campaign for southern Italy between the Hasfids and Naples. By 1526, the Ottomans joined in with a two pronged invasion of Venice and Otranto. 1530 saw all the states of Italy trying to hold back the tide of Islamic invaders.
Where the Hasfids were slow and steady in their invasion, the Turks rushed. They were able to take Venice easily enough, but following that they splintered their army into many minor forces in an attempt to blanket invade all of northern Italy. All this did was allow the minor coalition states of Mantua, Florence, Tuscany, and Milan to crush each of these forces one after another. Together the Turks would have greatly outnumbered this alliance, but separated like they were they did not have the same number of men on the battlefield until 1543. Even then the alliance was able to push the Turks from the lands in the north. All the way to Verona.
By this time in the south the Hasfids had only just captured Naples. Twenty years it took the Hasfids to finally bring an end to the Kingdom of Naples. The important thing was that they never lost any of the lands which they captured. A battle here and there was lost, but never a castle, city, or any other lands.
This slow process ensure that Italy was not only being conquered but also unified under their new masters. Something they learned was important by their Moor brothers in Iberia. Since the end of the Twelve Year War the Caliph of Iberia had to deal with over a hundred failed rebellions in their lands. They were one country but they were not unified. The Hasfids would not have to deal with such issues as that.
Their main enemy was defeated but the war was not over. The northern states were still in a frenzy and some went so far as to attack and raid into Hasfid lands. So once Naples was pacified they continued their march north. Twice they had attempted a siege on the great city of Rome in 1547 and again in 1552. Both ended in great defeats as their supplies were continually being interrupted by amphibious assaults by Genoa.
With a smaller force a tiny ‘city’ was built just outside of Rome in 1557. This city was filled with supplies and provisions enough to last ten years. There were multiple attempts to burn the city down, but all had failed. Six years later, the seat of the Pope had at last fallen. Every brick of its walls torn down, every house and building destroyed, the ground was burned and then salted so that nothing would ever grow there again. Rome, the heart of the Catholic Church, was no more. It was a dead city.
Thankfully, His Holiness Pope Pius IV had been smuggled out of the city only four days before it had fallen. He was taken first to Vienna and the Holy Roman Empire in hopes that they would some day march south and retake the lost city. This had never happened, but it was still a goal of the Popes today who now live in the city of York.
Pincered between a more aggressive Hasfid and the Ottomans the northern alliance, which had been joined by all other lands of Italy, was at last losing. It still took them another twelve years but eventually all of Italy had fallen to Islam in 1575. The Italian War of Dominance or better known as simply the Fifty Year War had come to an end.
These newly conquered lands were split between the Ottomans and the Hasfids. Surprisingly the Ottomans only took the lands east of the Adige river, this included both Venice and Verona. Even though they were the stronger the Ottomans new they would not be able to keep proper control over northern Italy and so allowed the Hasfids to deal with them instead.
The very next Spring, Pope Pius IV had convinced both the Holy Roman Empire and France to lead a join invasion into Italy. Before either army even made it into Italy they had been called back. At last the Caliph of Iberia had pacified his lands and with the French troops marching over the Alps his Moors flooded over the Pyrenees. All of France south of the Loire had fallen to the Caliph. France and the Caliph had not even met on the battlefield, but with no army between Orleans and Pairs the French King was more then happy to come to terms. All lands south of Orleans was now in control of the Caliph of Iberia.
Once more Thomas’ eyes were drawn towards the door. The shrill scream had not come again, but there were other noises that creped into his work place. Muffled groans, crashes, clangs, and a whole lot of hullabaloo. He didn’t know why this noise was going on, he could only assume the workers were hard at their task.
When his door opened Thomas though of yelling at whoever entered but stopped with mouth open. In the doorway stood a woman with auburn hair like his own. Across her chest her dress was torn and sap ran out of her body. He had never seen a person ooze sap before. All very interesting.
She had this sad look her face as she stumbled into the room. With each step it looked as if she was trying to say something. All that came out was more and more sap. What an odd woman. Maybe she was a Dryad. Why else would she be leaking sap?
As she came closer Thomas suddenly had a great fear the sap would fall on his book. Ruining his life’s work and destroying His words. Pulling the book closer to protect it, he watched as the Dryad dropped to her knees and planted her face on the ground. He had sent even the mythical creatures of the world to pay homage to the book Thomas had written.
No longer in fear for his book Thomas flipped to the next section. This section and the last he had written was by far his favorite. For it is here that a land is finally able to truly stand against Islam.
Since 1462 and the defeat at the Battle of Mohacs not a single Turkish soldier dared move against the Holy Roman Empire. Now with its lands bordered on many fronts by Islamic nations the Ottomans at last attempted another invasion in 1580. This hundred thousand man army met the twenty thousand men of Bavaria at Innsbruck. Outnumbered five to one it appeared foolish for the Bavarians to fight this battle. Their leader, William of Orange, refused to leave without a fight. In a surprising upset William won and the Turks were forced from the Empire’s lands again.
Shortly after in 1584 Iberia and France fell into another war. When it was obvious the French were losing in 1590 the Holy Roman Empire sent an army to aid them. This only slowed the Iberians down before the Empire’s army was recalled to deal with the Hasfid invasion of 1592. The Hasfids like the Turks failed to gain any ground into the Empire.
The war over France finally came to an end in 1611 with the capture of Paris. Now completely surrounded on three sides by Islamic nations things looked bleak for the Holy Roman Empire. Somehow they were able to keep together and not only hold back attacks but even reclaim small bits of land after the invasions of 1614, 1618, 1629, and 1630 by different nations. This was thanks to these nations never working together or coordinating invasions.
The Iberians had failed their invasion of the Holy Roman Empire in 1618 and so set their eyes on a different target, England. For sixteen years they built up a fleet that could not be matched in size anywhere else in the world before or since. Launching this vast armada in 1634 they moved to capture the last of what many consider western Europe.
At the same time the English fleet set sail to meet this armada which outnumbered them nearly twenty to one. The English had two weapons that the Iberians had not accounted for; their Admiral Francis Drake and their new type of ship, a three-decker. These ships had tougher hulls and a hundred and forty guns a side. This was nearly three times that of an entire Iberian ship. On the 29th of June 1634 the Iberian fleet was nearly completely destroyed at the Battle of the Straights.
In 1642 the three great Islamic nations of Iberia, Hasfid, and the Ottomans met to form a pact. Unable to invade either England or the Holy Roman Empire they had begun to raid each other. This only weakened them and made their goals of conquering Europe even less likely to occur. So in 1642 the three leaders, Caliph of the Hasfids, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, and the Caliph of Iberia, who was beginning to call himself the Emperor of the West, met in Mecca to make peace. These talks formed the Islamic League.
Upon word reaching Vienna of the formation of the League, Pope Urban VIII fled the city and took refuge on the isle of Britain. This came just in time as a mass invasion occurred all along the Holy Roman Empire. These men swept across southern and western parts of the Empire’s lands. Even the von Habsburg Emperor fell during this attack.
The only area that did not fall was the lands of Brandenburg which protected the northeast. From the border of Denmark to Brandenburg, Frederick William von Hohenzollern marched his men and kept it safe of the Islamic invasion. Following the collapse of the south and his victory at Berlin, Frederick William named himself Emperor of the severely depleted Holy Roman Empire.
For four years the Islamic League attempted to take the last of the Holy Roman Empire. Never once in that time did they take another city or for that matter win another battle. None of their troops could match the ferocity of these Brandenburgs.
As they began to lose to many people, England would send more and more reinforcements to continue the fight. By 1647 the Holy Roman Army had only one native to every five soldiers yet still they went on winning battle after battle.
All of Christendom prayed in those days for Frederick William to hold back the tide of Islam, and it appeared their prayers were being answered. Some went so far as to say that he was the Second Coming. And much like Jesus, Frederick William was betrayed by those he trusted when Denmark and the Scandinavian countries of Norway and Sweden converted to Islam.
These countries neither had soldiers in the Holy Roman Army or helped invade, but they did keep England from sending any additional troops, save for a few lucky ships that made it through the blockade. Yet still Frederick William was able to hold out for over a year until he and his men were at last slaughtered at the Second Battle of Berlin, the only defeat he ever suffered.
With that defeat all of mainland Europe had fallen to the sway of Islam. All that remained was the isle of England. All that protected them was their superior navy. Which once again proved its worth when it crushed a combined invasion in both 1650 and 1652. In response to these losses the League ordered a great fleet of Denmark’s greatest ships to be constructed.
With the resources and manpower of all of Europe, Denmark was able to nearly complete the entire fleet by 1656. In a daring move the British Admiral Richard Badiley took a great fleet of fire ships around Denmark. Then in the middle of the night on 13 November 1656 he and his fleet sailed their ships into the anchored fleet.
All sailors including Admiral Badiley lost their lives in this gambit, but the Great Dutch Purge had been a success. Since then there had no longer been any fear of an Islamic invasion. Over the years they had made many attempts but none were successful or even slightly successful. Islam may have control of Europe, but Christians ruled the waves.
Pleased with himself Thomas rested his hand on the last pages that still needed to be written. There had been word of another invasion to the north by the Norwegians and so Admiral George Rooke took his fleet to deal with them. It would be this last victory that ended this book.
Running his hand softly along the spine Thomas could not wait to finish these last few pages. Looking down at the Dryad he was pleased to see that she was still praising His book. Even if she had got sap all over the floor. In the doorway another had come to pay homage to His words. This man was dressed oddly in a red robe and belt. He had in his hands a great metal staff which was pointed towards him.
Such an odd man who only said, “Allahu Akbar.”