The months following the Duke of Poitou’s execution saw the Kingdom in the most dreadfully precarious situation that Zavie could recall. Harrowing emergency councils of state focused on how to keep the rest of the Kingdom’s vassals in line following the political catastrophe of Michels’ affair and subsequent termination. If the reports from the outer edges of the realm were to be believed, most of the great peers of the realm were shocked and appalled by the Duke’s action but that was little guarantee against a concentrated rising to take advantage of the King’s strategic weakness of the moment.
During those times, Zavie looked back to his visit with Michels in the dungeon of Bordeaux. The man had looked so different from the friend he knew before, the companion of so many campaigns. The light in his eyes was different, duller and with a distant look that saw beyond the confines of his prison. The King had come to ask the simple question of why. Why had the Duke thrown away everything his position, his family and his life meant? Michels hadn’t given a straight answer, vaguely condemning the weakness of the flesh and the temptation of Eve, before starting in on his own questions.
The two had spent hours working, figuring and planning for what must happen. Michels seemed unafraid at the prospect death and would only be bothered by matters pertaining to his family after his demise. King Zavie gave his word to the terms they agreed to and so far he had kept to them by the letter, the Duke’s family would be spared retribution for Michels’ treachery.
Now both Michels’ and Azalais were gone, albeit in differing fashions. Zavie could not bring himself to worry overmuch as to his daughter’s fate; she had caused more harm and disruption to the realm over the years than ten thousand Muslim soldiers. Both her and her ill begotten progeny would never be in a position to threaten the security of Aquitania again.
Rosa, the King’s wife and chancellor, was at the forefront of repairing the damage. She drafted innumerable letters and missives to the various powers of the realm exhaustively detailing the just and righteous execution of Duke Michels. Praising Zavie for his virtuously forthright and honorable sentencing, the propaganda circulated the minor courts of the land, many of which ceased their grumbling malcontent. Strategically selecting the information she released, Rosa was able to stabilize the dramatic downfall that had affected the King’s stature in the chaotic times after the execution.
As the season turned to summer in 1120, the situation was effectively under control. Like clockwork, an opportunity for even further consolidation of authority presented itself immediately. The Kingdom of Brittany had sent a call to arms to the Aquitanian court seeking aid in a war against the contemptible Emirate of Sevilla, pirates under that states employ had been captured while attacking Breton shipping. Noting that the Breton’s could likely handle the underpowered Muslim state on their own, Zavie was reminded by his councilors that a short, victorious war would do much to unite the realm firmly behind his authority once again. Several Sevillan territories bordered Aquitania along the north Iberian coastline, perfect targets for such an adventure.
War preparations were complete mere weeks after the call was received from Brittany. A large force of men gathered generally from the Spanish provinces merged together in Viscaya, preparing to strike at the neighboring province of Asturias de Santillana. With the King in command, the march through hostile territory began. The principal fortress of the region, a solid construction well manned and supplied, soon loomed over the Aquitanian host and the siege began.
Resistance had not been encountered along the march and Zavie’s scouts reported no significant enemy troop numbers anywhere at all along the northern coast of Spain. This was explained by several townspersons from villages near the siege site saying that the principal levies from the provinces had been loaded on ships (red) bound for the south in order to strengthen the Sevillan homeland from the Breton host advancing there. It would seem that the Aquitanians (black) would not be facing organized confrontation at all if they kept to this restricted area of operations.
One troubling aspect that emerged in the camp as the siege progressed was Marshal Girad’s descent into severe melancholy. Zavie would often find him listlessly arranging the ongoing encirclement, many of the plans showing easily identified weaknesses and tactical mistakes. He slept late and was often nowhere to be found when his duties as nominal chief military advisor required him. When asked about his condition, the man simply retorted that the job was too big for one man, that it weighed on him like a pile of bricks but that he would work through the difficulty.
It was but a matter of time before the citadel of Santillana fell before the mighty Aquitanian army. The well within the castle, normally enough to see the garrison through months of siege, had become contaminated by a poor drainage from the latrines and the defenders forced to capitulate in the face of dehydration. Casualties among the besiegers were heavy from the normal camp diseases but they were soon on their way west to enter Asturias de Oviedo, the next province occupied by the Emirate.
Again, no obstacle manifested between the advancing Aquitanians and their target. No crowds appeared either, the peasants and townspeople sticking to their own homes and hoping to be overlooked pieces in the greater game of war making. Oviedo castle, another firm construction that would take time and effort to overcome, soon came into view and the invaders settled themselves around the fortress with practiced efficiency.
To the south, word came that Breton forces had won a series of battles against the armies gathered in defense of the Emirate’s capital while one of the outlying provinces had fallen already. Sevillan and Breton reinforcements were still arriving and it looked as if the balance of power might swing either way depending on how luck favored either side.
In Oviedo, a series of setbacks plagued the besiegers. A surprise nighttime assault on the walls planned by Marshal Girad was repulsed bloodily when the defenders received ample warning of the approaching troops. He seemed to take every failure as a reflection on his own worth by becoming even more unbalanced and sinking ever deeper into a miasma of self doubt and depression. Zavie’s attempt to open the man up to conversation and offering constructive criticism did nothing to improve the man’s mood. Meanwhile, disease and heatstroke spread through the camp as the siege continued through the monotonous days and weeks of summer.
It was nearly two months after the initial laying in of the siege that victory was secured. Another costly assault, driving by the need to end the siege quickly, had managed to gain control of an auxiliary gate which was quickly propped open to allow the entire invading host inside. The defenders were entirely outmatched and most laid down their weapons upon seeing their chances of holding out evaporate.
A draft peace agreement was pieced together by Zavie and his encamped diplomatic advisors where the province of Santillana would be gained as a fruit of the short conflict. Some of the counselors had encouraged their King to continue the campaign so successful till now but Zavie was insistent that the war be brought to a quick close and the soldiers relieved to go back to their peacetime labors. Embattled to the south and with no means to resist the Aquitanian host to the north, the Emir bitterly accepted the proposal in early September of 1120.
Fought to a standstill in his campaign to the south and pushed to the limits of his realm’s manpower, the Breton King Marc Kerne signed his own peace soon after Zavie for a paltry payment of ducats and the maintenance of the status quo.