Recaps

Captain Cohen recruited dyers in Italy, then visited Albania and brought back Skanderbeg’s proposal for a defensive alliance with Vitus. Vitus set the treaty aside for his family in Constantinople to consider and decided to pursue another arms deal with Charles VII.

• Captain Cohen discreetly recruited the Genoese dyer Joey, who hid two booklets in his clothes before fleeing to the Scala, and the ship also recruited two dyers in Florence.
• Captain Cohen sailed to Durrës, where Skanderbeg received him and gave him a letter for Vitus Palaiologos.
• Captain Cohen bought two thousand hides in Albania and returned to Andravida in January 1431 to report that Skanderbeg commanded about two thousand troops and the alliance’s nobles had five to eight thousand.
• Vitus read Skanderbeg’s request to buy firearms and form a defensive alliance, then decided to refer the treaty to Constantinople.
• Vitus reviewed the Scala’s profitable arms trade and considered making another deal with Charles VII, expecting France to recover its territories soon.

Vitus formed the Attica Legion to prepare for a possible Ottoman attack while John VIII traveled to Rome to seek church union and papal aid. Damien began recruiting in the Peloponnese and enlisted the legion’s first eight men.

• John VIII set out for Rome with five hundred Orthodox clergymen to negotiate the union of the Eastern and Western Churches in exchange for aid from the Pope.
• Vitus concluded that he could not rely on the Crusaders and formed the five-thousand-man Attica Legion, appointing Damien deputy commander and Renaf military tribune.
• Vitus sent Attica Legion officers across the regions to recruit troops, and Damien traveled to Tripoli to address a village of 320 people.
• Damien announced the legion’s pay, benefits, and opportunities for promotion, then had a soldier demonstrate a Matchlock.
• Eight young men enlisted in the Attica Legion, and Damien sent them to town for basic training.

Vitus faced rising expenses as the territory trained 5,200 new recruits, while Agnes complained about competition for her dyed silk. In France, Phil witnessed Joan of Arc’s army crush the English with artillery and muskets, bringing the long war closer to its end.

• Damien recruited 730 soldiers in the mountain regions, and Vitus refused the mayor’s proposal to dismiss 130 of them.
• By mid-April, 5,200 recruits assembled at Andravida for basic training, and the quartermaster warned Vitus that food and construction costs had exceeded their budgets.
• Agnes complained that Venetian dyed silk was undercutting her workshop, while Vitus considered whether his territory could afford its growing army.
• Agnes asked whether Joan of Arc might fight the Ottomans after defeating the Hussites, and Vitus noted that Prokop the Great’s disciplined forces would be difficult to overcome.
• Phil Di Maggio surveyed the French victory over more than ten thousand English soldiers, describing how Joan’s artillery and musketeers overcame the longbowmen.
• Phil watched Joan’s banner over the battlefield and concluded that the Hundred Years’ War was nearing its end, allowing Charles VII to repay his debts.

After the war with England ended, Phil Di Maggio helped the Italian merchants secure commercial privileges from Charles VII before setting out for Nuremberg. There he reunited with Jeanne d'Arc, whose proposal to join the crusade against the Hussites was rejected by the princes and Cardinal Cesarini.

• England proposed peace talks, and after half a month of negotiations, the two sides signed an agreement that restored most of the lost territory to Charles VII.
• At a royal audience, Jacques Coeur offered Italian merchants commercial privileges instead of cash repayment, and Phil selected five vineyards and thirty years of copper-mining rights.
• Cosimo de' Medici explained why Jeanne had refused a noble title and warned that she would face opposition from nobles, the Church, and commoners; Phil argued that she simply wanted to save France.
• After completing his family's business, Phil was ordered home for his wedding but instead traveled to Nuremberg, where the German princes were preparing a crusade against the Hussites.
• Phil used his status to help Jeanne and her followers enter the inner camp, but Cesarini and the princes rejected her proposal and told her not to disrupt their war council.

Phil Di Maggio watched the disorganized Allied army collapse when its commander fled before the Hussites appeared, then escaped Bohemia with a papal bull and other belongings. After returning them to Cesarini in Munich, he encountered Jeanne arguing for the Church’s support but left without getting involved.

• Phil Di Maggio saw the hundred-thousand-strong Allied army march into Bohemia in a chaotic formation and capture Tachov.
• The Allies changed their route toward Domažlice, where Phil urged them to prepare for the approaching Hussites, but Frederick fled and the army disintegrated.
• Phil and his guards escaped through the mountain paths with bronze chests and a papal bull he found abandoned near the battlefield.
• Phil reached Munich, located Cesarini, and personally returned the bull and the cardinal’s belongings.
• Phil saw Jeanne arguing with an abbot for Church recognition to lead a campaign against the Hussites, then left the monastery and headed home.

In September 1431, Vitus inspected a secret purple-dyeing operation and tested the Attica Legion in a large-scale field exercise, which it passed. He then met the Serbian envoy Otto Dragases, who sought an alliance against the Ottomans and left needing to negotiate with John VIII in Rome.

• Agnes took Vitus to Joey's workshop, where Joey explained how indigo and madder could be combined to produce purple cloth and kept the process secret from apprentices.
• Vitus led the Attica Legion through a field exercise testing its marching, artillery, firearms, and infantry charge, and the legion met every standard.
• Vitus ordered the Attica Legion to rest for a week before taking over the Tuna Legion's infrastructure-building duties.
• Otto Dragases arrived from Serbia and asked Vitus to join Serbia to the alliance with Skanderbeg, warning that Murad II was preparing a major war for the following year.
• Vitus told Otto that he lacked authority to negotiate the multinational alliance and directed him to speak with John VIII in Rome.

After Sigismund’s defeats against the Hussites left Hungary vulnerable to unrest, Jeanne d’Arc asked him to support a new campaign against Bohemia. Sigismund entrusted her with a firearm force and offered her Kuttenberg, while Jeanne refused any reward.

• Sigismund blamed Hungary’s nobles for worsening peasant unrest and feared that the Hussites would bring an army from Bohemia.
• Jeanne d’Arc arrived in Hungary and asked Sigismund to help attack Bohemia and crush the Hussite rebellion.
• After questioning Jeanne about her battles, Sigismund judged her a commander as capable as John Hunyadi.
• Sigismund promised to raise a specialized firearm force for Jeanne to train and command, and offered her Kuttenberg as a fief.
• Jeanne said she sought neither land nor title, but Sigismund told her she could do whatever she wished with Kuttenberg.

Murad II prepared the Ottoman army for war and chose Serbia as its target, while Vitus Palaiologos and the Balkan rulers braced for an invasion. As Ottoman forces broke through Serbia’s border defenses, Sigismund rallied allies and weighed whether to confront them directly or delay their advance.

• Murad II inspected Janissary firearms training, reviewed military reforms, and decided Serbia was the most suitable target for attack.
• Vitus Palaiologos learned that the church council would not reach an agreement for two years, so he stockpiled supplies and warned Skanderbeg and Hunyadi to prepare for war.
• In April 1432, Murad II led an Ottoman army of up to eighty thousand men into Serbia, where the reformed Janissaries broke through the border defenses.
• Hunyadi warned Sigismund that Serbia could fall within three months and explained how its defeat would leave Albania vulnerable to attacks from several directions.
• Sigismund assembled allies and considered meeting the Ottomans head-on if he could gather enough troops, or otherwise delaying them with a defensive strategy led by Hunyadi and Jeanne d'Arc.

Vitus abandoned his plan to attack central Greece and sailed with his field legions to Albania to join Skanderbeg against the Ottomans. As the southern allied army advanced through Serbia, Murad II turned his main force away from Belgrade to confront it, believing it was outnumbered.

• After reading Sigismund's letter, Vitus changed his plans, left Psilos in charge of the northwestern border, and ordered him to hold the mountain defenses.
• Vitus assembled a fleet at Kyllini, bade farewell to Agnes and Romanus, and sailed with his troops for Durrës.
• Vitus met Skanderbeg at Durrës, where they reviewed their forces and learned that Murad II was advancing toward Belgrade through Serbia.
• On June 1, Vitus's two field legions completed their assembly, and he and Skanderbeg set out through southwestern Serbia, routing several Ottoman forces along the way.
• After learning of the southern allied army's advance, Murad II left part of his troops near Belgrade and marched south to confront it, estimating the enemy had no more than twenty thousand men.

Vitus and Skanderbeg sensed danger and halted their march, but Murad II’s army soon encountered the Eastern Roman force in the mountain fog. The two armies exchanged artillery and musket fire as the decisive battle began.

• Vitus and Skanderbeg both felt an unexplained threat, halted their march, and sent out more scouts.
• The Sultan learned that the enemy had stopped, gathered his commanders, and sent a force south to block their retreat.
• On June 15, Murad II’s army broke camp and advanced through the fog, with the Janissaries assembling before the rest of the troops.
• Ottoman soldiers heard chanting and saw the Eastern Roman army advancing under the red β flag and gray banners.
• The Eastern Roman army opened fire with cannons, the Ottomans returned fire, and the Eastern musketeers began shooting at close range.

Vitus and Skanderbeg led a coordinated assault that overwhelmed Ottoman forces despite their numerical advantage. After Skanderbeg’s troops broke through to the central banner, its fall sparked a general Ottoman rout.

• The Ottoman army struggled to form up as Greek musketeers attacked across the battlefield, and Murad II sent Janissaries to reinforce the front.
• Vitus concentrated his strongest infantry and artillery on the western flank, where Greek troops drove back the Sipahi cavalry and killed their supreme commander with grapeshot.
• Three thousand Janissaries stabilized the western line, but Murad II learned that thirty-five thousand Ottoman soldiers had been pinned down by fourteen thousand Greeks.
• Skanderbeg’s mountain infantry emerged from the eastern woods, defeated the Ottoman defenders, and divided its forces to attack the artillery and approach the central banner.
• Skanderbeg led four thousand infantry toward Murad II’s position, forcing the Sultan to retreat as his guards pulled him off the raised platform.
• Skanderbeg’s soldiers cut down the Ottoman central banner, and rumors that Murad II was dead spread until the Ottoman line collapsed.

After Vitus and Skanderbeg defeated the Ottoman main force, they joined Sigismund’s allied army at Niš. The allied leaders chose a southern campaign toward Thessaloniki and the straits to cut off the Ottomans’ retreat and force Murad II into a decisive battle.

• Vitus sent cavalry after the retreating Ottoman soldiers, then moved his exhausted troops and prisoners to an abandoned castle and sent a report to the Northern Front Allied Army.
• After verifying Vitus’s report, Sigismund led the Northern Front Allied Army to Niš, where the Ottoman auxiliary soldiers surrendered and Vitus and Skanderbeg joined the allies.
• Otto Dragases introduced Vitus to Sigismund, Cardinal Julian Cesarini, four monarchs, John Hunyadi, Jeanne d'Arc, and Zawisza.
• At the war council, Sigismund proposed advancing toward Sofia and Edirne, while the King of Poland suggested a route along the lower Danube and Cardinal Cesarini proposed marching to Thessaloniki.
• Vitus supported Cesarini’s route, arguing that the allies could receive supplies by sea, seize the western sides of the straits, and force Murad II to fight on their terms; Hunyadi and Jeanne d'Arc also backed the plan.
• Sigismund agreed to the southern route, and the council reviewed the allied forces, which included thirty-four thousand soldiers in the Northern Front Allied Army.

Vitus planned the allied army’s march toward Sofia and designed a personal banner marked with his past victories. At the next war council, he presented his detailed battle plan and announced that the army would set out the following day.

• Vitus mapped out a route through the Balkans while Hunyadi suggested taking Sofia as a base, then attended Sigismund’s lavish banquet.
• Hunyadi explained how Sigismund financed his court through loans, mortgages, and the sale of titles and territories.
• Vitus returned to his separate field camp, briefed his officers, and told them the army was expected to march in two days.
• Damien urged Vitus to create a distinctive personal banner, and Vitus designed one with symbols commemorating his victories.
• The next morning, Vitus arrived at the city hall for the war council and presented his plan to march on Sofia the following day.

After Vitus’s plan led the allied army to capture Sofia, Zawisza was wounded by a hand cannon during the assault. Vitus persuaded Jagiełło to let Eastern Roman physicians treat him, and news of the city’s capture was followed by a dispute over plunder.

• Sigismund approved Vitus’s battle plan, and the allied army left Niš for Sofia on July 8.
• After siege guns breached Sofia’s walls, Zawisza led the assault into the city and was shot in the abdomen by a soldier hiding in a window.
• Vitus convinced Jagiełło to reject boiling oil and cauterization, and Eastern Roman physicians removed the lead ball and stitched Zawisza’s wound.
• The allied army retook Sofia, while Hunyadi’s light cavalry pursued the fleeing enemy soldiers.
• Sigismund learned that soldiers had clashed over valuables, while Vitus noted that his troops had not entered the city and had already received their share of earlier spoils.

The allied army defeated an Ottoman ambush force as it advanced toward Thessaloniki, while Turahan marched to join Murad II. After Venice yielded the city to the allies, Vitus and Cesarini arranged supplies and naval support, leaving the campaign poised to continue.

• Cesarini rebuked the allied commanders, and Sigismund ordered the army to march toward Thessaloniki with Skanderbeg leading the vanguard and Vitus coordinating the forces.
• Vitus sent Renaf with reinforcements to support Skanderbeg, who outmaneuvered and defeated the Ottoman ambushers, capturing thousands of prisoners.
• Renaf besieged the remaining Ottoman troops in their camp, and they surrendered after his artillery and musketeers attacked.
• Turahan learned the Ottomans had been defeated and led eight thousand troops east to reinforce Murad II.
• Skanderbeg arrived at Thessaloniki, but Venice’s garrison initially refused entry until Cesarini threatened the city with an allied assault and Church expulsion.
• Venice’s governor opened Thessaloniki’s gates, and Vitus sent for supplies from the Peloponnese while Cesarini ordered the Knights Hospitaller to attack enemy ships in the Aegean Sea.

Vitus and the allied commanders advanced into eastern Thrace to confront Murad II’s larger Ottoman army. As the decisive battle approached, Vitus proposed the allied deployment and urged Sigismund to keep the central force defensive behind wagon forts.

• After learning that only seven thousand reinforcements had arrived and the fleet could not force the straits, Vitus ordered hundreds of washing barrels built to improve the army’s sanitation.
• On August 30, Cesarini drove away Murad II’s negotiating envoys, and the allied commanders agreed to march east from Thessaloniki.
• Vitus and Skanderbeg routed an Ottoman garrison in the northern mountains, but the Ottoman troops withdrew while fighting to delay the allies until they crossed the Maritsa River on September 20.
• With Murad II commanding fifty-eight thousand troops against the allies’ forty-six thousand, Vitus proposed taking the southern hill and attacking the Ottoman flank while Hunyadi and Skanderbeg commanded the northern forces.
• Sigismund took the center, and Vitus advised him to build wagon forts and keep the heavy cavalry on the defensive until Jeanne d'Arc advised the right moment to attack.

On September 21, 1432, Vitus's legions attacked the Ottoman forces holding a low hill, driving the Janissaries from its summit and establishing an artillery position. The battle continued across the wider front as both sides exchanged cannon fire and Jeanne's forces remained locked in a stalemate.

• Vitus recognized Turahan among the Ottoman commanders defending the hill and advanced with his two legions.
• Vitus's artillery suppressed the Ottoman guns while the Tuna Legion spread around the hill and drove back its flanking auxiliaries and light cavalry.
• Marcus committed six infantry battalions to attack from three directions, and Eastern Roman matchlockmen and pikemen routed the Janissary defenders in close combat.
• Marcus secured the summit and set up defenses as Turahan's remaining troops failed to counterattack.
• The Sultan sent more Ottoman artillery south, and both sides began a prolonged artillery duel over the hill.
• Vitus observed Jeanne's forces holding a stalemate in the center and trusted Skanderbeg and Hunyadi to prevail in the northern sector.

The Eastern Roman army repelled Ottoman attacks and began a second offensive, while Vitus waited for the enemy line to weaken before committing the heavy cavalry. When monarchs in the central army charged without orders, the southern cavalry threatened to follow, forcing Vitus to direct their charge toward the junction of Turahan's forces and the Sultan's main force.

• The Eastern Roman artillery destroyed most of the Ottoman cannons, and the Tuna Legion held off repeated cavalry and infantry charges.
• Turahan's artillery commander blamed the Ottoman blacksmiths for the defeat and ordered their arrest as the remaining Ottoman forces retreated.
• Vitus reported his success and requested two thousand cavalrymen from Sigismund, while the heavy cavalry waited for orders.
• The Attica Legion led a second offensive, and Vitus planned to wait until Turahan's left wing separated from the Sultan's army before sending in the cavalry.
• Vitus saw the Polish, Austrian, Wallachian, and other cavalry banners advance while Jeanne's, Sigismund's, and Cesarini's banners remained still, realizing the monarchs had charged on their own.
• As the southern heavy cavalry began to lose control, Vitus ordered them to charge the junction between Turahan's troops and the Sultan's main force; the knights struck the enemy formation.

The coalition armies launched a final assault that routed the Ottoman forces, and the Sultan fled as his banner fell. After returning to camp, Vitus ordered casualty counts and began arranging reinforcements and supplies to secure the territories.

• Vitus committed his remaining forces as the southern armies launched their general assault, while Hunyadi led light cavalry toward the Sultan's banner.
• Hunyadi broke through Ottoman auxiliary troops but could not reach Murad, then retreated after disrupting the Ottoman central army.
• The Tuna Legion crushed the remaining Janissaries, and Marcus called for heavier artillery to bombard the Sultan's position.
• Vitus brought more artillery to the front, and allied heavy cavalry broke through the Ottoman defenses, causing the auxiliary troops and tribal levies to rout.
• The Sultan withdrew under Janissary and Sipahi escort, while Sigismund sent the captured banner and regalia to Rome.
• Vitus returned to camp, ordered casualty counts, and wrote to southern Greece for militia and supplies to secure the territories.

After Murad II retreated to Anatolia, the coalition captured Edirne and began dividing the spoils and preparing to claim Ottoman territory. Vitus anticipated a struggle among the victors, while Agnes ordered a large militia levy to strengthen the Eastern Roman Empire’s position.

• Murad II considered abandoning the Balkans and retreating to Anatolia, though he struggled to accept giving up Ottoman territory in Europe.
• The coalition marched on Edirne, where the defenders surrendered after brief resistance, and the allies rested while taking control of the city.
• After news of victory reached Andravida, Agnes consulted Savard and ordered the recruitment of ten thousand militiamen despite concerns about disrupting winter sowing.
• Vitus supervised Edirne’s security, promoted eight hundred soldiers, and began training six hundred of them as militia officers.
• The Prince of Moldavia invaded Ottoman-held territory, while Serbia and Wallachia prepared to claim land and Albanian cavalry left to alert the League of Durrës.
• Vitus recognized that the coalition was fracturing and prepared to defend Greece, Macedonia, and Thrace, expecting reinforcements from southern Greece.

Demetrius Palaiologos delivered the emperor’s decree to Vitus, who learned that the coalition army was nearing collapse and promised to recover and expand the Empire’s lands. In Rome, John prepared to return home while struggling with the conflict between the Church union and the Empire’s local clergy and people.

• Demetrius Palaiologos arrived at the Tuna Legion’s camp and observed the soldiers maintaining their weapons and armor before meeting Vitus.
• Vitus explained why he wore plain armor, then read the emperor’s decree about the coalition’s likely collapse and a future border conference.
• Vitus replied that he would strive to recover Greece’s central and southern regions, Macedonia, and the Thracian Plain, while seeking further territory.
• John attended a ceremony in Rome, decided to return home, and agreed to take a hundred clergymen and scholars with him.
• John reaffirmed his promise to the Pope to remain loyal to his allies, then worried that pressure over Church union could provoke civil war in the Empire.

Vitus secured support from Sigismund, Cesarini, and Władysław II Jagiełło for the Eastern Roman Empire’s territorial claims by agreeing to their conditions. At the conference in Edirne, Sigismund expelled the envoys from Epirus and Bulgaria, leaving the main negotiations to proceed without them.

• Vitus learned that an envoy from Epirus had arrived and privately sought Sigismund’s support for the Eastern Roman Empire’s claims.
• Sigismund agreed to support the Empire’s basic demands after Vitus argued for territory to strengthen the Balkans’ defenses.
• Cesarini backed Vitus’s proposal after securing promises about church union and the Palaiologos family’s policies toward Aragon and Italy.
• Władysław II Jagiełło agreed to support Vitus in exchange for five thousand troops if he attacked Moldavia.
• At the conference, Sigismund denounced the Epirus envoy and four Bulgarian nobles as Ottoman collaborators and ordered them out of the hall.

Vitus and the Balkan rulers settled their territorial claims, after which Eastern Roman forces began securing the straits and recovering lands from Ottoman control. John VIII arrived and warned Constantine that Venice might secretly be aiding the Ottomans to protect its holdings and trade privileges.

• Vitus and the rulers of Serbia, Wallachia, and Albania argued over borders until Sigismund and Cesarini brokered an agreement granting Eastern Rome Greece, Macedonia, Thrace, and Northern Thrace.
• On October 15, the allied army dissolved, and Vitus stayed in Adrianople to train militia before assigning Constantine the defense of the Thracian Plain and the western shores of the straits.
• Constantine captured two fortresses, secured the surrender of defenders at five others, and used cannons from the fleet to strengthen the strait's strongholds.
• John VIII arrived by merchant ship, learned that Eastern Rome had recovered territory in name but lacked troops to hold most of it, and was advised to travel to Constantinople by land.
• After three Venetian merchant ships appeared, John suspected Venice had made a secret pact with the Ottomans to preserve its islands and commercial privileges.

Constantine discovered that Venetian ships were likely helping the Ottomans and warned them off while reporting the incident to the emperor. Vitus invaded Epirus, captured Ioannina with little resistance, and pursued the fleeing duke’s nobles to the coast, where he learned Venice had helped them escape.

• Constantine positioned ten guns at the narrowest part of the Bosphorus Strait and fired warning shots at two Venetian ships before sending a report to Blachernae Palace.
• Vitus praised Psilos for obeying his orders and appointed him temporary garrison commander of Thessaly.
• Vitus marched west across the Pindus Mountains, where the Epirus watchtower guards surrendered and let the Eastern Roman army pass.
• Marcus led the attack that captured Ioannina, and Vitus ordered soldiers to search the city for valuable records.
• Vitus left three hundred soldiers in Ioannina and pursued the fleeing Epirus nobles to the coast, where he learned they had escaped on Venetian ships.
• Vitus ordered troops to occupy Epirus and strengthen the northern border fortresses near Albania.

After returning from Epirus, Vitus arranged military training and civil administration, then reviewed how to distribute newly registered estates and assessed his forces. He left Macedonia preparing to revive public bathhouses by using prisoners of war to mine cheap coal.

• Vitus ordered officers and veterans to take turns visiting their families, kept recruits in training, and planned to petition Constantinople for land rewards after the records were complete.
• Vitus agreed to supply Constantinople with forty naval cannons and suggested fitting galleys with small swivel guns, while setting aside Florence’s loan offer rather than borrowing in his own name.
• Savard brought the completed land records, and Vitus proposed granting soldiers and sailors a share of the estates while reserving the rest for the Church, nobles, tenant farmers, and the Palaiologos family.
• Vitus held a military exercise on February 10, reviewed the reorganized legions, and ordered them to set out the following Friday.
• Vitus inspected Macedonia’s coal mines and, despite Renaf’s doubts about coal’s profitability, proposed using prisoners of war to mine coal cheaply for public bathhouses in Bitola and other towns.