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Thread: European Heroes

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    Default European Heroes

    I wanted to start this thread as a place where people can post some of the brave men and women of every European ethnicity who dedicated their lives to making Europe a better place.

    I'll start

    Jan Sobieski III, King of Poland, who broke the Siege of Vienna and drove back the 150,000 strong Saracen army with only 86,000 Men.

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    Vlad Tepes


    Theodor Eicke

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    Basil II



    Basil II (Greek: Βασίλειος Β΄, Basileios II; 958 – December 15, 1025), known in his time as Basil the Porphyrogenitus and Basil the Young to distinguish him from his ancestor Basil I the Macedonian, was a Byzantine emperor from the Macedonian dynasty who reigned from 10 January 976 to 15 December 1025.

    The first part of his long reign was dominated by civil war against powerful generals from the Anatolian aristocracy. Following their submission, Basil oversaw the stabilization and expansion of the Byzantine Empire's eastern frontier, and above all, the final and complete subjugation of Bulgaria, the Empire's foremost European foe, after a prolonged struggle. For this he was nicknamed by later authors as "the Bulgar-slayer" (Greek: Βουλγαροκτόνος, Boulgaroktonos), by which he is popularly known. At his death, the Empire stretched from Southern Italy to the Caucasus and from the Danube to the borders of Palestine, its greatest territorial extent since the Muslim conquests, four centuries earlier.

    Despite near-constant warfare, Basil also showed himself a capable administrator, reducing the power of the great land-owning families who dominated the Empire's administration and military, and filling the Empire's treasury. Of far-reaching importance was Basil's decision to offer the hand of his sister Anna to Vladimir I of Kiev[1] in exchange for military support, which led to the Christianization of the Kievan Rus', and the incorporation of Russia within the Byzantine cultural sphere.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basil_II

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    Quote Originally Posted by Saturni View Post
    Vlad Tepes
    Tepes was less a hero than a sadistic madman and even his admittedly impressive military victories were only temporary.

    In my opinion.

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    I'll go with Hunyadi, who was in the same period as Tepes, did what Tepes did right better, and was a far nobler figure.



    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hunyadi

    His most glorious triumph:

    Meanwhile, the Ottoman issue had again become acute, and, after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, it seemed natural that Sultan Mehmed II was rallying his resources in order to subjugate Hungary. His immediate objective was Nándorfehérvár (today Belgrade). Nándorfehérvár was a major castle-fortress, and a gate keeper of south Hungary. The fall of this stronghold would have opened a clear way to the heart of Central Europe. Hunyadi arrived at the siege of Nándorfehérvár at the end of 1455, after settling differences with his domestic enemies. At his own expense, he restocked the supplies and arms of the fortress, leaving in it a strong garrison under the command of his brother-in-law Mihály Szilágyi and his own eldest son László Hunyadi. He proceeded to form a relief army, and assembled a fleet of two hundred ships. His main ally was the Franciscan friar, Giovanni da Capistrano (known today as St. John of Capistrano), whose fiery oratory drew a large crusade made up mostly of peasants. Although relatively ill-armed (most were armed with farm equipment, such as scythes and pitchforks) they flocked to Hunyadi and his small corps of seasoned mercenaries and cavalry.

    On 14 July 1456 the flotilla assembled by Hunyadi destroyed the Ottoman fleet. On 21 July, Szilágyi's forces in the fortress repulsed a fierce assault by the Rumelian army, and Hunyadi pursued the retreating Ottoman forces into their camp, taking advantage of the Turkish army's confused flight from the city. After fierce but brief fighting, the camp was captured, and Mehmet lifted the siege and returned to Istanbul. A 70 year period of relative peace on Hungary's southeastern border began with his flight. However, plague broke out in Hunyadi's camp three weeks after the lifting of the siege, and he died August 11. On his deathbed Hunyadi said Defend, my friends, Christendom and Hungary from all enemies... Do not quarrel among yourselves. If you should waste your energies in altercations, you will seal your own fate as well as dig the grave of our country..[62] He is buried in the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Gyulafehérvár (now: Alba Iulia) next to his younger brother, John. Sultan Mehmet II paid him tribute:"Although he was my enemy I feel grief over his death, because the world has never seen such a man."

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    I prefer Vlad's tough stance on crime.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Saturni View Post


    I prefer Vlad's tough stance on crime.
    Yeah, including to German merchants. The guy simply killed off his business class.

    And what's interesting is that while both Attila the Hun and Vlad employed impalement as execution, Attila at least only did it against a couple of royal traitors.

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    And the Forest of the Impaled was enough to send the Turks home in fear.

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    I must be drunk.. I read this thread title as "European Herpes"

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    Default The Lord Protector



    Over a career involving many dozens of battles, sieges, and skirmishes, Cromwell was beaten once: at Clonmel in May 1650, when he walked into a trap laid by Hugh O'Neill. The blunder cost him 1, 500 men. His masterpiece was Dunbar. There, in September 1650, he faced a well-equipped and trained Anglo-Scots force of 20, 000 under David Leslie. His own army of 16, 000 had been reduced by sickness and desertion to 11, 000 within a matter of weeks. Encamped with their back to the sea, it seemed that they were about to be rolled over by the Scots, who from their commanding position on Doon Hill controlled the road back to England. On the morning of 2 September Leslie confidently moved his army down the hill, preparatory to an attack on what he believed to be a demoralized English army.

    But Cromwell had perceived a weakness in the Scots position. He saw how their left wing was crowded against the steep slope of Spott Burn Glen, thus unlikely to be able to deploy, and that the two wings of Leslie's army would not be able to support each other. He also saw a slight depression across the front of the enemy and under the cover of driving rain and darkness marched the bulk of his army along it, literally under Leslie's nose. As he launched the assault at daybreak, he shouted the words of the psalmist, ‘Now let God arise, and his enemies shall be scattered.’ Isolated from their comrades, the Scots right wing crumpled and the battle was over in barely an hour. Three thousand Scots were slaughtered and 10, 000 taken prisoner. Cromwell lost only twenty of his own men.

    He was a courageous and charismatic leader, and the only English commoner ever to seize power in a coup d'état, which he did by expelling the unrepresentative Rump of the Long Parliament in 1653. He accepted the title of Lord Protector (some wanted him to become king) but was not able to establish a settlement which long survived his death. He was superbly successful in animating his men with his own burning conviction that they would accomplish great things as instruments of the Almighty. He was also a shrewd judge of men who chose good subordinates and trusted them to do their job well. He was a good battlefield tactician who could visualize the possibilities inherent in a piece of terrain and exploit them to devastating effect. Not least of all, he cared for his men, and was thrifty with their lives. He had the political ability to fight for and obtain the money and supplies he needed, often refusing to move forward until they were in place. Because his soldiers knew they were safe in his hands, they rewarded him with intense loyalty. He is among the greatest generals Britain has produced.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    As lord protector, Cromwell raised his country's status once more to that of a leading European power and concluded the Anglo-Dutch War. Though a devout Calvinist, he pursued policies of religious toleration. He refused the title of king offered to him by Parliament in 1657.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The execution of the King settled nothing. Legally, the House of Commons, purged to such an extent that it was called the Rump, ruled. But the army, Scotland, and Ireland were soon in rebellion. The Scottish Presbyterians proclaimed Charles II (Charles I's son) their lawful monarch, and the Irish Catholics did likewise. In England the radicals were a rampant minority, the royalists a stunned majority, but neither had any respect for the Rump.

    Cromwell suppressed the Levellers by force and then set about subduing first Ireland and then Scotland. In the former Cromwell fought a tough, bloody campaign in which the butchery of thousands of soldiers at Drogheda (Sept. 11, 1649) and hundreds of civilians at Wexford (Oct. 11) caused his name to be execrated in Ireland for centuries.

    On June 26, 1650, Cromwell finally became commander in chief of the parliamentary armies. He moved against the Scots and got into grievous difficulties. At Dunbar in August 1650 he was pressed between the hills and the sea and was surrounded by an army of 20,000 men. But the folly of the Scottish commander, Leslie, enabled Cromwell to snatch a victory, he thought by divine help, on September 3. The next year Charles II and his Scottish army made a spirited dash into England, but Cromwell smashed them at Worcester on Sept. 3, 1651. At long last the war was over and Cromwell realized that God's humble instrument had been given, for better or worse, supreme power.

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