The Kingdom of Aarquitania- Alternate History with DVIP

With the war’s progression, it became ever clearer the price Aquitania’s homeland was paying. Rural villages that once thrummed with life and activity stood silent and sullen, their half full larders promising a hungry winter for the inhabitants. Beggars crowded the streets of the market towns and cities, achingly pleading for the charity very few of the hard pressed merchants could afford to give. The weight of the war pressed upon all of the realm’s inhabitants and the alms giving programs Zavie had ordered instituted made hardly a ripple in the stream of suffering.



Encamped in Jaca, Zavie regarded the tactical situation with his advisors. Bourbon, the last rebel stronghold in the north had been secured with a minimum of effort. The castle’s garrison had easily realized its cause was lost and without Jaume to direct the defense, an accord was struck almost immediately.



In order to show his approval and appreciation of the Duke of Poitou’s handling of the northern revolt, King Zavie had documents drawn up to confer the titles of the defeated Jaume to Poitou. This move quickly elevated Michels de Montesquiou to the most powerful of Aquitania’s lords, only slightly beneath the King himself in power.

There were of course grumblings when the announcement was held, but Zavie had always believed in rewarding those that led his campaigns and the King could think of no man he trusted more. Being so distant from the southern theatre of war, Zavie sent word for the northern armies to depart for their homes with his thanks for their service.



The Kingdom of Brittany, Aquitania’s close ally, had not as of yet given aid in the current conflict. The reason behind this was the reemergence of hostilities between the Emirate of Almeria and the Breton kingdom. Tied down by their commitment to defend their own Iberian possessions, no Breton assistance would be forthcoming.

Still, reports indicated that Aquitania’s friends (black) had done well, occupying the Almerian capital and another province (red). Only one province remained in the Emir’s hands and Breton troops were en route to lay it under siege and force a profitable peace on the Muslim leader.



After a series of unimpressive feints and withdraws from Muslim forces on the borders of Jaca, troubling news reached the King. No doubt realizing that the approach of winter made a bid for Jaca an impossible feat, the Badajozian generals (red) had decided to shift their attack to the exposed province of Viscaya (gold star). The plains of the seaside province would be much more conducive to successful campaigning in the season. Cursing the move, Zavie ordered an immediate council to discuss the options open to them.

After hours of back and forth argument, a course was decided for them. King Zavie would lead an army (black) to meet the Muslim army on the plains of Rioja in order to delay and possibly defeat the threat to Viscaya. The numbers were equal for both parties, but Zavie felt confidant in his ability to deliver a decisive blow and end the war in Aquitania’s favor.



Leaving with the main part of the force holding Jaca, Aquitania’s king descended to the rolling grasslands of Rioja intent on bringing the Badajozian army to battle. A week passed with little contact other than light irregular skirmishing at the edges of the march’s path. It was at the crest of one of the ubiquitous hills that dotted the landscape that Zavie’s scouts first made contact with the Muslim force.



The Badajozian army was nearly twice as large as he and his officers had been led to believe. None knew how they had gotten there; faulty intelligence seemed to be the easiest culprit to blame. Filled with an icy sense of dread and raging inside at the agents that had assured him of their reports accuracy, Zavie at once realized that he stood no chance against the mammoth force displayed before him.

A battle here would achieve nothing, King Zavie thought. He stood with the cream of Aquitania’s military and inglorious retreat was the only option that would not leave a pile of rotting Occitan corpses to cover the fields of Rioja. Luckily a path still lay open to his retreat if he acted quickly, one that led straight into the hills and mountains of Navarre. Frankly, Zavie was sick and tired of the region after having marched and countermarched across its length and breadth seemingly scores of times.

No other option was present however, and Zavie quickly delivered his orders to the army which quickly aligned itself to its distant destination. None of the lords accompanying their King dared to question the command, having reached the same conclusions as to the hopelessness of any battle given the circumstances.



The siege of Viscaya began early in December. Only a portion of the massive army encountered by Zavie led the encirclement, but it was plenty capable of holding the isolated city hostage. The defenses of the citadel were strong, yet it seemed that it would not be long before some weakness betrayed the city into Muslim hands. Such a situation would be untenable for the Aquitanians, with Burgos itself becoming more isolated than ever before.



Still, fodder for the besieging force around Viscaya was a scarce commodity and attrition amongst the gathered army in Rioja was deadly. The Emir could not hope to keep his massive army supplied much longer. Zavie found himself in the same predicament, facing the prospect of starvation amongst the bleak landscape of Navarre.

It was under these circumstances that Zavie chose to execute his plans for securing a cease fire with the Emir. After the fool incident early in the war, relations had slowly thawed between the warring powers. Each realized that a halt to the hostilities could allow for the shoring up of crumbling domestic situations, civil disorder had been inflamed by the war in several Badajozian provinces, and winter was always a difficult season to campaign during even in normally sunny Iberia. Zavie's hope was that the status quo would be maintained until the following spring, when the two powers could clash with more cooperative weather.

Zavie’s diplomatic envoys returned from the Emir’s camp in Rioja only days after being sent out. The Emir had refused outright to recognized Zavie as lord over Jaca, yet the other terms had only taken minor reworking to become acceptable to both parties. No repairs or extentions would be made to Viscaya's walls and no armies stationed in the province while the Emir's troops would also be withdrawn. The cease fire would last until May 3rd, four months from the present date.



Relief flooded Zavie at the news. They would be a busy few months, filled with work and worry over the reemergence of the conflict. Plans would be drawn up, continguincies put in place, interminable meetings over the important matters of running a war even when the killing had stopped for a moment. He would most likely only be able to go back to Bordaeux when the treaty expired to gather his levies, with no time to spend with his wife and children.


But the time would allow his scheme to come to fruition.











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In the weeks following the effective beginning of the cease fire, King Zavie’s life became a whirlwind of preparation. The vast majority of troops gathered in Navarre and Jaca were demobilized and either sent home or put into temporary camps set up in the milder provinces just north of Jaca, waiting for the anticipated offensive in the spring. The logistical organization was a difficult endeavor for even the most able of administrators, especially considering the state of decline that gripped the realm.

Hardship was the norm within the camps, disease and hunger the constant companions of those soldiers that had fought in the defense of Jaca or accompanied the failed strike into Rioja. Facing the teeth of winter with meager rations supplemented by the little scavenging to be had, many began to grow desperate and angry. Several parties of deserters were apprehended with most facing punishment labor details and the leaders encountering a short drop and a quick stop.

Within the relative comfort of a manse appropriated from a Muslim merchant that had fled the initial Aquitanian thrust into Jaca, King Zavie attended to the matters his station thrust upon him. One item of business was disposing the lordship of Jaca over to a worthy candidate. Several options had been brought to his attention in the council meetings he held, often by way of what amounted to bribes. The clear frontrunner was Raolf Duke of Gascony, whose performance in the war had seen the province captured and defended from Badajoz.

Zavie was weary of such a choice, considering that Raolf was already set to inherit the title of Bearn from his aged father. Other courtiers did not have the capacity in his mind to defend what was shaping to be a very dangerous border. Zavie’s final choice again disappointed many of his followers. Isabella de Barcelona Countess of Urgell would be given lordship over the territory. The camp court was full of curses against the Spanish families of Jimenez and de Barcelona that Zavie seemed to favor so well over the vassals that had been loyal followers of both him and his father.



A messenger reached Zavie in the middle of January, reporting on the movements of Jaume de Cadoine, erstwhile Duke of Bourbon. He had finally come put an end to his flight in the court of Orvieto in central Italy. Isolated and weak, Zavie could see no threat from the former vassal and dismissed the attached note from his spymaster wife that an accident could easily befall the man.



Weighing profoundly on King Zavie’s mind was the pseudo-alliance agreement that he had been formulating with the Republic of Genoa. The potent working relationship that Aquitania and Genoa had worked with over the past years served as the catalyst for the concord. Exposed in their possession of Navarre, thankful for its liberation from the Hammadids and eager to gain the favor of powerful Aquitania, Genoese diplomats kept a powerful presence in the court of Zavie.


In the previous year’s war, Genoan assistance had been essential in the maneuverings of the Aquitanian military by allowing free passage through Navarre. Now, Zavie thought, might be an excellent time to have them take a more active role in the conflict. Having kept in regular correspondence with the magistrate of the powerful merchant state, King Zavie had the support he needed to greatly increase his chances for victory in the coming campaign.

It was on January 29th of 1113 that the efforts of the past months came to pass. Earlier that week, a Genoan representative party from Navarre delivered to the Sheik of Rioja a demand for that ruler to cede several roads along the border of the two provinces. Upon the Sheik’s refusal to cave in to the impertinent demands, the Genoan’s declared war precisely as planned by Zavie. This of course prompted an immediate announcement of war from the encamped Emir the same day.



Ships, soldiers and supplies had already been laid in for the moment of striking. It would still be weeks before the Genoans were in the combat theatre, but the infusion of manpower against the Emir would be more than welcome.



The next part of the plan was underway shortly. Appraising the situation, Zavie knew that Aquitania would need to act fast to take advantage. Navarre (green) represented the thinnest of lifelines to the Spanish provinces and was an essential piece of the tactical puzzle when conducting operations between them and Aquitania proper. The Emir’s armies (red) outweighed the force defending Navarre on a scale of something like fifteen to one. No terrain or weather would prove effective security against those odds.



Indeed, the winter was proving to be a paper lion. After the initially worrying snowfalls in late November and into December, a very mild season was reaching across all of Europe. All the better for my purposes, Zavie thought. Calling his councilors to meet, the Aquitanian King announced how the overtly aggressive and disturbing behavior of the Badajozian Emir left him with no choice but to consider the cease fire null. Aquitania would be little refreshed for this fight, but the emergence of an ally had tipped the scales in the kingdom’s favor decisively.

In all, his reports told him, thirty thousand Aquitanians could be raised across the realm while the entire Badajoz force of eighteen thousand was already in the field with little or no reserves in their homelands. It would take only one push then, to break their army and establish a more lasting and profitable peace.



A bevy of orders were dispatched to the lords of the land, informing them of the events and rushing them to assemble for the campaign. Little fervor could be managed in the camps for these new developments, but time was again of the essence. Zavie himself (black) would ride hard with limited entourage to meet with newly raised levies in the southwest part of the country. He would also gather the armies raised from Burgos and Viscaya in Navarre (green) and bolster that region’s chances to resist the inevitable Muslim attack (red).



Along the Jaca border, a greater host was gathering under the leadership of Gilbert de Milhaud, Duke of Auvergne. Tasked with striking into Rioja as soon as it was assembled, its goal was to interrupt and destroy any lingering Muslim forces in that province and seize it. Such a move would finally put a land connection between Burgos and the rest of the realm under direct Aquitanian control. Attaining this objective would signal victory for the campaign.



Nearly breathless from his hasty ride to meet his army in Labourd, Zavie could see only a bright future ahead for Aquitania.
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The lead elements of King Zavie’s army arrived mere days before the Badajozian strike. With little time to prepare and their liege still leading a sizeable portion of the troops up from the lowlands, the Aquitanian noblemen charged with the province’s defense did their best to prepare for the expected attack. Scouts reported on the advance of the Muslim army and it was soon clear that the force led by the King would not be able to reach them in time. Battle was joined with the Aquitanian’s significantly outnumbered.



The Aquitanian monarch urged his men forward, eager to strengthen the defenders. A harried messenger from the embattled divisions arrived at the head of Zavie’s column to deliver news of the fight. The first few days of skirmishing had been ineffectual, but the weight of numbers on the Muslims side and the lack of prepared defenses seemed to be giving the invaders an advantage.

Only a few hours away from the central engagement point, Zavie called a rushed council to decide what how the detachment would advance. Looking at the maps spread over a large flat rock, one of the Genoan guides from a settlement further down the mountain quickly pointed to an isolated ridge over what the messenger had reported to be the main field of battle. The slope there, the guide said, was not to steep for cavalry and would easily allow for a quick turning of the Muslim flank. Thanking the man for his help, Zavie ordered the cavalry part of his force to form up for a quick gallop to the ridge while the infantry would continue to meet up with the sorely pressed defenders.

Arriving at the ridge with sore muscles but a clear mind, King Zavie immediately saw the advantage of his position. The Badajozian army was arrayed to strike once more at the Aquitanians but had seemingly not counted on any attack from the ridgeline. The Muslim force quickly tried to reconfigure its formation, but it was clear Zavie’s arrival had upset the balance of the fight. Taking heart at their compatriots arrival, the defenders surged forward as Zavie led his cavalry down the slope and crashing into the invaders. Victory was securely in hand within minutes.





Even before the camp followers were finished picking over the corpses from the battle, Zavie (red) was informed of how the campaign was proceeding in other parts of the realm. The assembled main striking force (black) was en route to Jaca (gold star) and was now under the capable command of Doumenge de Caumont, Duke of Aquitaine. A veteran of nearly every conflict Zavie had embroiled himself in, Doumenge had been given the command for his steadfast loyalty and the personal friendship engendered between the man and his liege.



The powerful Aquitanian army was poised to strike directly at Rioja, a move that would securely link Burgos and the rest of the realm solidly enough to forever end worries over that district’s isolation. Encamped within the province was the united strength of Badajoz (green), seemingly unaware of the threat posed by Doumenge’s army and focused entirely on the capture of Navarre. Zavie’s reports indicated that a massive portion of this army, nearly ten thousand strong, would soon be climbing into Navarre.



Preparing for the strike took up almost all of Zavie’s time during the following days. Planning lines of defense, ambush points and the other minutiae of war were draining on his body and mind. The monarch realized even holding the advantage of terrain would do little to improve his army’s chances of a significant victory, the best course they might follow being a delay action designed to tie up the approaching Muslim army to allow for an easier battle for Doumenge in Rioja. Constant outrider patrols told him that the Badajozians were now only a day’s march away.



The second Battle of Navarre had its outcome determined before it began. The Aquitanians and Genoans stood no chance against the Muslims in the open field and the invaders were moving past the chokepoints and ambuscades quicker than Zavie had anticipated. Only scattered success could be found, the annihilation of a sizeable light cavalry reconnaissance force being the highlight of the numerous skirmishes. No quarter was given by the Muslims as they rounded up the passes, capturing and executing whole ambush parties when they were cornered.

Pushed beyond all hope of recovery, the Genoans and Aquitanians were forced to retreat in relative good order. The battle had not been a disaster by any means, but King Zavie was once again forced down the mountains and into the lowlands. Navarre’s citadel was strong, but no castle would be able to withstand the invaders forever. Victory in the campaign would have to be secured elseware.



The Duke of Aquitaine was driving his own army over the Pyrenees and down into the hills of Rioja. Muslim agents or scouts had finally noticed his advance, but their forces in the area had been left woefully underpowered to facilitate the attack on Navarre. Now facing an army half as powerful as his own and confidant in his ability to lead, Doumenge could sense victory was within grasp. Battle was joined near a small market village, lines of families eager not to be caught up in the battle snaking out of the houses and into the woods nearby.



Ordering a frontal charge, Doumenge led his retinue to battle. The Aquitanian line threatened swamp the smaller Muslim force, stretched thin to prevent encirclement. Vicious fighting broke out along the line of engagement, hundreds of men clawing at one another with iron and flesh. Facing the overwhelming Aquitanian attack, Badajozian forces gave ground first in small steps, then in great leaps. A final push was all that was required to send the Muslims fleeing.



After collecting the wounded and taking what stocks he could find from the nearly abandoned town, Doumenge reveled in his victory. Extra rations were distributed and a fire made from a hastily torn down barn allowed for festivities into the night. The celebratory air still hung over the army as it advanced to the main strongpoint of the region, a basically constructed hill fort that stood no chance at all against the overwhelming power of his force.



The defenders could see they were massively outnumbered and in no condition to resist. A flag of surrender flew as soon as the first assault seemed to be forming up. The sheik of the territory meekly asked only for a horse and cart to take his family to neighboring Zaragoza during the obligatory negotiations. Doumenge scrawled his report to King Zavie excitedly, knowing that his friend and lord would be well pleased by developments.



Setting his court in a familiar setting, the foothills of Labourd, Zavie eagerly received the incoming message from Doumenge. Happiness over the victory and his fiend’s easily identifiable enthusiasm, the monarch passed the news along to his underlings to be filtered through the camp. Earlier that week, news had came that stronghold of Navarre had fallen to the Muslims. Hardly surprising given the circumstances, Zavie thought. He turned his mind to the situation as it stood now.

Genoan forces (black) from their homeland in Italy were in the process of conducting probing attacks against their newly lost province. Zavie questioned the wisdom of such actions, seeing as the attacks only seemed to amount to quick marches up and down the slopes. King Zavie’s own army (also black) was regaining its composure and strength, waiting for the earliest opportunity to coordinate a strong attack with the Genoans against Navarre.

Doumenge’s army (red) stood ready to repel any attacks directed at the newly won Rioja. Muslim forces (blue) were scattered and seemingly heedless of a common goal. The sudden appearance of Doumenge’s army coupled with the loss of Rioja had shocked their system to a point where confusion and disorder were common. Driving into Jaca was another army(green) gathered from the regiments that had not managed to meet with Doumenge. They would act as a stopgap measure, going to wherever they were needed.



Glancing over a map marked with the new addition of Rioja and the strong Iberian connection it represented, Zavie’s weather-beaten and increasingly wrinkled face turned to a smile.


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To the south of Aquitania’s theatre of war, their allies in the Kingdom of Brittany were making solid progress on their own campaign. The Emirate of Almeria, their lands occupied and their armies dispersed, acceded to the complete surrender of their lands after months of brutal fighting. King Marc of Brittany now possessed a very powerful presence along the Mediterranean coast of Iberia (red).



Happy to hear of his ally’s success, King Zavie sent a congratulatory message to the Breton King’s court along with a personal letter to his daughter Dolca consoling her over the loss of her first child to a post birth fever. Zavie himself had lost several of his sons by his first wife the same way and he knew all to well the pain his daughter would be suffering.

Still encamped at Labourd, waiting for the incessant rain storms to let up enough for a trek into the mountains of Navarre, Aquitania’s monarch received his chancellor in a closed meeting. Apparently, a Badajozian messenger had been taken prisoner while trying to cross the border from Navarre to Labourd. He had been carrying a communication addressed to Zavie himself, one that hinted at a way to end the war as it stood.



Several disconsolate vassal Sheiks of the Badajozian Emir attached their promise to call off the campaign if King Zavie would make no further advance into their territories. The Emir himself had not been informed of these side negotiations, but the Sheiks were positive that they would be able to convince him of the wisdom of the peaceful course. Discussing the import of the letter with his chancellor and aids, Zavie reached the decision that the war would continue, seeing as all factors pointed to Aquitania’s continued success. His politely worded refusal was handed to the freshly released Muslim rider the same day.

Indeed the war did seem to have shifted decisively in Aquitania’s favor. The large Badajozian force in Navarre was starving after its supply through Rioja was suddenly shut off. Reports from Genoan scouts and the few civilians that had managed to trek down the mountains had stated that the occupying Muslims were suffering from camp diseases and many had taken to the rocky countryside to desperately search for provender.

With the main army under Doumenge Duke of Aquitaine (red) still holding Rioja and no significant Muslim (blue) threat appearing other than the slowly withering Navarre garrison, Zavie could see an interesting target of opportunity. The Sheikdom of Zaragoza (gold star), vassal to Badajoz, stood isolated after the efficient takeover of Rioja by the Duke of Aquitaine. With the military power of the region part of the garrison at Navarre, the province was hopeless to resist any attack.

Zavie detailed the relief force led by the Duke of Poitou (green) still marching through Jaca to occupy the undefended territory as soon as was possible. Adding it to the realm would only give the Iberian border more security and the Christian minority of the city would no doubt revel in their liberation.



Riding at the head of his army through the landscape of Zaragoza a week later, Michels de Montesquiou could barely make out the city and its castle as he crested one of the low hills that dotted the province. No organized resistance had been encountered and most of the steady stream of casualties his army continued to take were the product of the worst killer of war, disease. Still, he had more than enough effective men to take the fortification guarding the city.

Most of the villages the Duke had passed so far seemed to be populated by Muslims, this seemed to be the furthest point north that religion had managed to reach the majority of the population. His own personal morals as well as the orders he had been given from his liege necessitated that his force maintain itself somewhat professionally given that they would be annexing this province and organized religious resistance would be a hassle.

So far things seemed harmonious, some Christians had come out to shout encouragement at the army and the Muslim civilians looked only like they wanted to be left alone. One town the Duke passed through had its Muslim headman strung up in the branches of a tree, but inquiries into the matter determined that it was punishment for stealing taxes and not religiously motivated. Michels prayed that governing the territory would be a simple matter once conquered.



With the weather finally clear and a significant Genoan force prepared to support his efforts, Zavie ordered his army in Labourd to decamp and begin to ascend the heights of Navarre. If the reports he had been handed were to be believed, the steady attrition and probing attacks by the Genoans had reduced the garrison to a level of disorganization and weakness that he felt comfortable in risking an attack. It would not be long before he found out first hand.

Mild skirmishing lasted nearly the full time of the ascent, but it was clear that the defenders hearts were not fully into their work. Often it would take only a small volley of arrows to drive entrenched Muslims from their redoubts in the rocks and progress continued at a fast rate given the terrain. Finally reaching one of the few flat pieces of land near the city, Zavie met a significant Muslim force in a battle reminiscent of the encounters along the pathway. Only token resistance was offered and the field quickly given over to the Aquitanians. In another part of the province, the main Genoan army won a similar victory, signaling the end of the Badajozian hopes to hold the province.

In his tent after the victory, Zavie was delivered another message containing the details of Zaragoza’s liberation. The siege had proceeded without difficulty and an overwhelming attack along multiple wall segments had seen the fortress captured. The Duke of Poitou was sending detachments to secure other parts of the province, but the territory was for all intents and purposes Aquitania’s.





The campaign had been a total success, seeing the completion of a land connection through Rioja to Burgos and Viscaya along with the added buffer zone of Zaragoza. Both provinces were relatively rich as well, generally spared from looting despite the sheer numbers of troops each had been forced to play host to. New administrators were already dispatched from Bordeaux to oversee the local governments. King Zavie’s public image as a just and wise ruler kept refugees fleeing the provinces to a minimum.

With the destruction of his armies in Navarre and Rioja, the Emir of Badajoz stood no chance at all of wresting the newly won provinces from the Aquitanian occupiers. Generally heedless of any regional strategy, small fractions of regiments were still in the field, but the war making capacity of the Emirate was substantially crushed. The peace offer sent by Zavie to the Emir was simple enough, asking only for recognition of his prize fiefs. He wouldn’t even require the Emir to dress in orange motley.



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