#692 The Heralds of Doom
Fun Fact #691
The “Heralds of Doom”
In 1375, Eastern Europe sat on the brink of war. The chief problem was that the Bosnian King (Tvrtko the 1st) refused to acknowledge the daughter of King Louis the 1st (of Hungry, Poland, and Croatia) as the next in line to hold the Polish crown, insisting it should go to the family with a remaining male heir and claim. Issues only worsened when the new (Exiled) Bishop of Bosnia, Peter Siklósi sided with King Louis –leading to a failed attempt on the bishop's life by King Tvrkto. Seeking to avoid war, and possibly his own death, Peter continued to look for a way to smooth things over when he found it in the most unlikely of places.
While walking in Zaostrog, Dalmatia (Part of modern Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast) he stumbled across a hitherto unrecorded (Dog) breed of Pointers who were bred to be fast enough to run ahead of horses, and brave enough to keep the horses calm. He sent some of the dogs to King Tvrkto as an apology. This surprised and helped the King greatly with the training of cavalry in time to repel the invading Magyar horde to his east, and soon both Kings reconciled with Bishop Peter even officiating King Tvrkto’s wedding in late 1376.
Afterwards Through the Kingdoms’interactions with the rest of Europe, this new breed of Dogs spread fast, and was quickly integrated into militaries across the continent. Today King Louis is fondly remembered by Hungary and Croatia as “The King of 3 Shores” and among the greatest Kings in Hungarian History (he’s hated in Poland though). As for King Tvrkto, under his rule Bosnia grew to its greatest extent in history and is remembered today as one of their greatest rulers, but he failed to prevent the throne from passing to his illegitimate brother Dabisa instead of his own son.
To attain power Dabisa had to give most of the King’s authority to the Magnates of Bosnia who prevented him from forming a proper military. This eventually led to Dabisa’s surrender in the town of Omis, Dalmatia and his agreement to become an Ispan (count) of Hungry, in return for Hungry defending their borders. As such Dalmatians were viewed poorly in Bosnia since Omis was a major city known for breeding the dogs, and Dalmations referred to for a time as “Heralds of Doom” – which was fitting since they continued to be used as military assets to train/accompany horses for the next 540 years (this largely ended in WW1).
The picture above is a photograph taken for newspapers for The US Military’s Training Dog Program in WW2 –specifically at Camp Rimini. These dogs acted as Sentrys and Messenger dogs during the war, and by the end of WW2 Dalmatians were completely phased out of military service for the Belgian Malioni.
