Paris ne vaut pas une messe! - A Huguenot IN AAR

[Milites]

@ Lord Valentine

I'm glad you think so, there's more to come

@ Enewald & Gruby

Yes, he's very handy (and sort of the protagonist ), and will prove much useful later on...

@ Dem

Well that would be pretty much against the spirit of the king. His early participation in the Wars of Religion and the horrors he saw there as Condé's troops slaughtered Catholics shaped him into a very noble man when it came to deal with his enemies.

[Milites]

Chapter IV War of the Grand Alliances


***
Igniting the Torch
***

Henri IV had more than survived the League’s attempt on his throne, sceptre and crown. Matter of fact, the League had been absolutely crushed. Its armies had suffered defeat upon defeat; its most talented leaders had either fled for the safety of Lorraine and Spain or died on the fields of battle.
This utter defeat and it was truly devastating - the League had suffered a colossal loss of prestige both in France and abroad, had two side effects; the first was one good, the other bad. First of all, Henri IV was strengthened. No one inside France had the strength to challenge him and win, even with foreign support and intervention. Thus, he sat strong on the French throne and received the Catholic hardliners who bowed before him and sought his mercy. However, it also had a nasty side effect. Habsburg Spain and Austria, alongside their lesser allies and vassals, now saw that supporting the Catholic League of France wasn’t enough; Henri would only fall if they brought their armies to his very doorstep.

Europe, January 1594[1]

All they needed was a Casus Belli. Ironically, the city that symbolized the Dutch-Spaniard peace of 1590 would also be the place that ignited the flame of war once again. In Breda, the Spanish members of the city’s council [2] were informed by the Spanish ambassador to provoke their Dutch colleagues at every turn. Sadly for the Spanish there came no reaction from the Dutch Statholders besides polite remarks. Frustrated, Philip of Spain turned to the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire who, conveniently, was his ally for help. The pair of them drafted a cunning plan to gain the pretext for the war they needed with the Grand Alliance. The Austrian emperor demanded that the Dutch surrender half of their delegation to men from his party, thus giving the Catholic groupings majority in the city’s council and thus complete control of Breda to the Catholic faction. This was of course anathema to the Dutch, who refused the proposal very strongly. With affected sadness, the Emperor announced his regret at the failure of the voice of reason, the catholic diplomacy, and that he had to declare war on the United Provinces in order to guarantee the continuing freedom of the small Flemish polis. The shocked Dutch sent letters to their reformed allies with pleas for help. Henri IV responded immediately, and led his royal army of 15,000 men, cavalry and artillery into the Spanish Netherlands while Elizabeth marshalled her navy.

The Austrian declaration of war, scared?

The Spanish were by then already marching on the Dutch Republic after having secured Breda as their stronghold. Middenburg in Zeeland came under siege from a large Spanish force. The papacy sent strong letters of applause to both the Spanish and Austrian courts and urged them to “put some Catholic order back into their wayward brother France.”

***
Allies and Enemies in the Feuds of the Reformation
****

The war that began in early 1594 would be fought across all of Continental Western Europe. It was a forerunner for what was to come in the later great wars of religion. Mercy was rarely granted the vanquished and entire communities razed by armies searching for food. The two Great Alliances consisted of the following allies:

The Grand Reformed Alliance consisted of France, assuming the leadership of the alliance, England and the Dutch Republic. Besides the formal alliance, the troika could also count on military access and support in form of mercenaries from the Swiss Confederation, Lutheran Bund[3] and the Scandinavian kingdom of Denmark-Norway. The latter of these proxy allies lend sizeable sums of money to the Dutch rebels and allowed their ships to seek refuge in Danish and Norwegian ports. The Danish king Christian IV mainly did so to annoy Sweden who was a reluctant member of the Catholic Alliance.

Spanish tercios marching through the United Provinces

The Catholic Alliance was a Habsburg dominated assembly of nations, wishing to destroy the reformed countries in Western Europe. Led by the Holy Roman Emperor from Austria, the alliance encompassed, Spain, the principality of Silesia, Württemberg, Russia and Sweden (who had only joined in order to keep her former master Denmark at bay). The alliance could on top of that count on the support from Lorraine, Savoy and the Papacy.

***
Opening Shots
***

French and Spanish movement in the Netherlands, 1594

The French had immediately sent the main army into the Spanish Netherlands, Artois and Vlaandern both came under siege by the Huguenots. Henri himself was in the trenches outside Brugge directing the artillery and rousing his men against, what he perceived to be the Catholic aggressors. While the Huguenots were busy bombarding the defences of the Southern Dutch cities, the Spaniards were making incursions across the southern border into France itself. They were all beaten back by the king’s commander, Francois de Bonne, who inflicted heavy casualties upon the Spanish tercios, by utilizing the mobility of his cavaliers and cuirassiers in combination with the firepower of his musketeers, de Bonne succeeded in keeping the Béarn and all of southern France safe, despite being severely outnumbered. Yet he, and Henri IV, knew that it would be a matter of time before the Spaniards came in so great numbers that de Bonne would have to retreat..

Francois de Bonne repels another Catholic attack

[1]That burgundy coloured nation besides Switzerland is Burgundy. The province revolted after the defeat of the League, thanks to my spy actions.
[2]Refer to the Dutch-Spanish peace in chapter I
[3]An alliance of Protestant "major minors" in Northern Germany, consists of Brandenburg, Brunschwig, Saxony, Pommerania and Mecklenburg.

[Lord Valentine]

The big war has arrived! You'll have to knock out Spain quickly if you don't want to be overwhelmed by the Habsburg juggernaut. How much can England contribute to the war effort?

~Lord Valentine~

[Grubnessul]

That's gonna be quite a slaughterfest... ohwell, can't spell slaughter without laughter, now can you?

[dem61s]

This will certainly be a test for king Henry. The Spanish by themselves look really scary. With the help of the Emperor, well... This war is bound to be epic.

[Enewald]

Aaah, beat the Habsburgs!

Better now than later!

[Grubnessul]

The only good Habsburger is a dead Habsburger

[Milites]

@ Lord Valentine

Well the war will be no walk in the park that's for sure! Henri wants to destroy the Spanish in the Netherlands before turning south.

@ dem61s

I've already spotted two Habsburg armies consisting of more than 20,000 man

@ Grubnessul

Yes and Yes

@ Enewald

My sentiment exactly

[dem61s]

Aaah, beat the Habsburgs!

Better now than later!

My sentiment exactly

I've already spotted two Habsburg armies consisting of more than 20,000 man

Good luck with that!

[Milites]

Chapter V – North and South
1594 – 1595


***
Northern Front
***

Action in the Netherlands, June and July 1594

The Spanish army of the Netherlands stayed awfully quiet for most of 1594. While the Huguenots under Henri were busy in the trenches outside the walls of Brugge. The Spaniards dug in outside Rotterdam and prepared for a lengthy siege. The commander present with the Spanish troops had obviously not understood that besieging a port city would only work if the besieger held the high seas. Needless to say the citizens of Rotterdam weren’t worried. So while the Spanish tercios rotted outside Rotterdam, Henri had already captured the provinces of Vlaandern and Artois. King Philip was outraged by the sheer idiocy shown by his commander, but as Franche-Comte had rebelled the year before and refused passage to his troops and the Protestant navies controlled the waters, neither reinforcements nor replacements for the command would be able to reach the Spanish forces in the Netherlands. On top of the successful fighting, Henri could note with satisfaction that the sentiment towards the Huguenots was becoming better, as Picardie embraced the true religion.

Conversion, summer 1594

***
Bitter Friendship
***

The war, however, was not so good to the two other members of the Reformed Alliance. England was plagued with rebellious Irishmen in all of its Irish possessions (who were greatly funded with the Spanish gold that before had gone into the pockets of the League) and the Netherlands had a large enemy army ravaging its lands. Even though the French royal army of 20,000 men was only a very short march from the United Provinces, Maurice was worried that the Huguenots were only exploiting the suffering of his people in order to seize all of the Spanish Netherlands for themselves. The two weary combatants were therefore relived when Habsburg diplomats enquired about the possibilities for a separate peace with the two sea powers. The English and Dutch were delighted, Henri, not so much. The Habsburg emperor also approached Henri with offers of a white peace, but the king let the messengers know that he, unlike his “gracious” allies, had a score to settle with Spain and that he would keep on this heavenly-blessed war until Spain would agree to satisfaction.

England and the Dutch Republic sign peace. Cowards

On the other hand, both Sweden and Russia presented terms for a status quo peace between them and France. Henri happily agreed. Both the Northern powers had had their trade destroyed by Dano-Norwegian and English privateers and were very eager to get out of this, to them meaningless fight.
Peace was signed in Amsterdam in late 1594. The war would go on, but the main theatre of operations would be moved south as 1595 began.

Allies leave the Habsburgs

***
Southern Front
***

Defence of Southern France, summer 1595 – de Bonne’s campaign

Francois de Bonne defended southern France amiably. With fewer men he succeeded in keeping the Spanish army of the South in check until reinforcements from the North arrived. The Spanish army had crossed the Pyrenees in early June 1595 and immediately started its siege of the various smaller castles that dotted the countryside of King Henri’s birthplace. As said before, de Bonne only had few men while the invaders commanded a large force. Through tactical innovation, he used an increasingly large amount of dragoons in his army, who would surprise the enemy in the evening and do as much damage as possible before withdrawing. In the morning his infantry would appear to deliver the final blow.

On the first of July 1595, Francois de Bonne led his army consisting of veteran Huguenots towards the Spaniards roaming through countryside of Toulouse. Under the command of Pedro Falafox, the Spanish army numbered some 20,000 men while de Bonne only had 13,000 men and no artillery. The invaders had been roaming throughout the province for a month and didn’t have the time to organize a proper defence as the dragoons and cavaliers of de Bonne swept down upon them. The battle ended in a French victory, but the fighting had only inflicted minimal loses upon the Spaniards and they retreated into the Béarn.

First of three battles of de Bonne's campaign.

Falafox had no intentions of losing another battle to the Huguenots so he issued strict orders to keep his men in line to avoid a repetition of the battle of Toulouse. Pedro Falafox had done one correct thing, he had learnt from his mistake. Sadly he made another one in Béarn. The French fell upon him once again and having concentrated all his men preventing this from happening, Falafox had neglected keeping his flanks in check. When the French reinforcements finally arrived under Denis de Touqeville they threatened his entire army. Once again the Spaniards withdrew, leaving a couple of thousands dead behind. The true danger to the Spaniards at that point was not the French steel and shot, but rather the demoralizing effect of having to withdraw time upon time in the face of a numerical inferior enemy.

The Spaniards withdraw once again.

One success befell Falafox before the battle of Armagnac. Francois de Bonne had been seriously wounded during fighting in the Béarn and command of the now strengthened French force fell to the young and inexperienced Denis de Tocqueville [1]. Despite being the lesser of the two generals, de Tocqueville had all the advantages. He commanded a smooth military machine, which had won battle upon battle against the Catholic League and the Spaniards, he had loads of experienced and loyal sub commanders and he fought on friendly territory. Needles to say Denis de Tocqueville inflicted a tremendous defeat upon the Spaniards under Falafox, owed in no small part to the frightening resolve of his superior cavalry. The surviving Spaniards fled through the Pyrenees, but de Tocqueville did not pursue them. Instead he awaited the return of Francois de Bonne, whom he acknowledged had won him his first victory.

The Spaniards are finally driven out of Southern France.

[1]Actually Francois de Bonne did participate in the battle, but for some reason the game decided to give de Tocqueville a shot at it….

[Lord Valentine]

Wow you're realy showing them Habsburgs how's the boss! Now that their allies have deserted them victory seems a possibility. What are your aims for a possible peace settlement? A expansion into the prosperous Spanish Netherlands or perhaps throw the Spanish frontier back behind the Pyrenees?

~Lord Valentine~

[dem61s]

Going well. Going well.
I hope Austria gives you enough time to defeat the Spanish. King Henry seems able to deal with the current situation but it would certainly be much more tricky if another front opens.
By the way, I really like your style. It makes a very nice read. Please go on.

[Enewald]

Oooh, everyone leaves the sinking ship which stinks of Habsburg!

[Milites]

@ Lord Valentine There's still quite some power left Austria, Spain.. not so much wait until next chapter to see why

@ dem61s Tanks! It's always nice to feel that one's work is appreciated!

@ Enewald I wish Spain would follow too ^^

[Milites]

Chapter VI – A French Lion in Flanders

The Dutch Lion

***
Advance of the Army of Flanders
***

It had taken two years before all the Spanish reinforcements and replacements had been smuggled into the Spanish Netherlands. But by then the force with which the Catholics hoped to break the back of the French Reformation reached unheard levels. 12,000 cavalry, 12,000 infantry and 5,000 artillerists from all of the Spanish dominions marched from their quarters throughout the provinces. Walloons, Italians, Germans and Spaniards convened under the Habsburg banner in Breda. Commanding this enormous host was the general Tomás de Aragón. He had already cost the Habsburgs the control of Vlaandern and Artois thanks to his senseless campaign in the Dutch Republic. Yet the high command had no better alternative of noble blood, so de Aragón kept his command. Storm clouds were gathering as the Spanish Invincible Army descended upon the Huguenots of Henri IV, holding the province of Vlaandern.

Spanish forces leave for Vlaandern

De Aragón led his army south and arranged his huge host in the classical formation with tercios in the centre and cavalry and artillery on the flanks outside Brugge. Henri IV is said to have looked down upon the Spaniard army with a curious smile on his lips. Later, Sully is said to have remarked that the fate of the Spanish Invincible Army had already been decided when Henri first gazed upon it. Spaniard messengers carrying surrender conditions were sent back with an equivalent French message. What then began was the greatest battle in the young history of Reformed France. Around 30,000 Catholics faced ca 21,000 French Huguenots. The battle, or rather the campaign, would last five months before the last drop of blood had been spilled over the fields of Flanders.

The Brugge-Mons Campaign



***

Tomás de Aragón gave his artillery the order to fire when the French rejected his, to him honourable, conditions and spat in his face when they in turn demanded him to put down his arms and go into captivity. Filled with the security of having the superiority in numbers, the Spaniard cavalry dashed forward under the shelter of a heavy barrage from their artillery. They were met by the assembled might of the French cavaliers and dragoons. In times past, it was said that the glory of all of France was her knights in shining armour, but in times to come it would be the chivalry and courage displayed by the battle hardened cavalry of the French army that set an example for the coming generations of generals. The French were led by a young and fierce Maximilien de Béthune (future duc de Sully) and he absolutely thrashed the Spaniard cavalry, despite taking heavy losses from the pounding enemy batteries. The Spaniard cavalry withdrew, but Sully followed them and drove them off the field in shame. The Huguenot infantry now came forth and thanks to the dismounting dragoons they hammered the Spanish tercios, who were now without support as the cavalry and artillery had withdrawn, until they too managed to fall back to Hainut.
The disgraced commander of the Spanish army fell with a group of his men as they tried to escape east. His body was found later covered under several Spaniard flags and King Henri gave him a worthy funeral.

1st Battle of Vlaandern, the Huguenots hold the line

De Aragón died in the first encounter outside Brugge and the staff of command passed to the talented, but common, Pedro Enríquez de Acevedo. His predessor had done a terrible job, but de Acevedo did his best not to remake the mistakes of the late commander. He didn’t have much room to manoeuvre in. As soon as his army had gathered together around Mons, the Huguenot pursuers arrived. The Huguenot heavy cavalry smashed down upon the fatigued Habsburgs who desperately tried to hold their ground. The hostile cavalry was driven off and the Huguenots burned much of the Habsburg Army’s provisions. Low on food and morale, the Spaniards were driven away once again.

The situation in the Netherlands worsen for the Catholics

Throughout the summer of 1596, Henri mercilessly hammered on the Spanish “Invincible” army, because as he said “If Elizabeth can sink the Spanish Navy, then I can crush the Spaniard Army.”
And indeed his forces soon brought the Habsburg army to its knees.

***

More bad news for the Catholics

Having been shocked at the results of the Huguenots, Philip of Spain ordered his commander of the Northern Spanish frontier, Pedro Pelafox, to the Low Countries. Pelafox had eagerly lobbied for a chance to redeem himself after the disastrous incursion into Southern France, but the command of a demoralized army facing victorious enemies didn’t appeal the slightest to him.
Unluckily for him, he only arrived in time to command the last two engagements of the campaign. But his name would live on in history as a synonym for those fighting a lost cause.

Last battles of the campaign

Thanks to his steadfastness and military innovation [1] Henri IV had completely destroyed the Spanish army of the Netherlands. The Dutch Lion now had company. The French Lion had entered and solidly planted the banner of the fleur de lys on the green fields of Flanders. The Spaniards seemed broken; the Austrians had withdrawn from the French border to fight the Ottoman Empire and more Huguenot forces were amassing under Francois de Bonne in Southern France. The war seemed in Henri’s favour, but could such success last?


[1]To be covered later on

[Lord Valentine]

A truly impressive number of victories! But if you can not turn them into a advantageous peace settlement they will be useless. If Austria is in a major war somewhere else you might be able to knock them out of the enemy coalition with the offer of a white peace. Or are they the leaders of the enemy alliance?

~Lord Valentine~

[Grubnessul]

Hmm impressive!

But this succes may make your allies weary of you... I forsee conflict with the Dutch.

Nice amount of battle pictures btw

[dem61s]

It looks like the Spanish will not be able to offer much of a resistance from now on. Vive le roi!
Any chance you can get Vlaanderen out of the peace deal? That would most definitely make this war worth it (money wise).
And are you willing to ease the tensions with the Emperor or do you plan on getting getting some land from Austria as well?

[Enewald]

The army of spanish netherlands is crushed!

wooot!

[Milites]

Response time!


@ Lord Valentine: Austria is the leader of the coalition, but they're pretty much tied down with the Ottomans right now. But Spain is definitely going to pay for this party that's for sure

@ Grubnessul: The Dutch question is going to take a interesting turn..

@ mandead: Thank you very much! Delighted to hear ^^

@ dem61s: Vlaandern is worth too much I'm afraid, but I won't let Spain keep it for long

@ Enewald: Only good Spaniard is a dead Spaniard..