Northumbria

Hello anyone who may be interested;

Just wanted to say I haven't abandonned the AAR, I just started a job a couple of weeks ago and getting used to working 8 and 12 hour shifts after 18 months on the dole took a lot out of me so I put it to one side for a while. Having done my last set of shifts before the holidays I'll be returning to it very soon.

Chapter 3: Bringing Down the Hansa

So, its been a week since I said this'd be continuing very soon, sorry. In my defense however, Christmas. Anyway, here we go;



Edmund had very little time to admire or oversee his Kingdom’s new additions as the herald from the ambitious young King of Connacht, younger by almost a year in fact than Prince Samuel, arrived in under a month from the end of the war for Lothian. Tadhg V had grown quickly exasperated with his southern neighbour in Munster and declared that he would have satisfaction by the sword, the ‘crimes’ of the Ard Righ of Munster however were minor if not non-existant but Tadhg would have none of such advice. Edmund was not especially keen to get involved but decided it would not be good to be seen to abandon an ally, especially over such a relatively small issue as the disputes between minor Irish holdings, plus the Irish kings had chafed somewhat against their nominal overlord the King of England, a more united Ireland would have a better chance at successful resistance against English hegemony and reducing the power of England was in the best interests of Northumbria.


The Duke of Brittany had given guarantees to the Irish Kings, seeing them as cultural cousins, but with the guarantees in conflict and Edmund bringing Northumbria to the war, he decided to stay out of it for which Edmund was grateful for it lessened the prospect of a protracted war greatly. In fact the war was over before the end of the year, Tadhg V had utilised his competency in military matters to force Munster into a decisive battle where he routed and destroyed the opposing host such that when Edmund and his army arrived there was no fight to be had, they simply reinforced the siege at Cork. Conchobhar of Munster, on seeing his enemies multiply seven-fold, still did not surrender however, pinning his hopes on the Duke of Brittany deciding to come to his aid or perhaps even for England to intervene, but no such event came to pass or was even likely. Tadhg, growing impatient, finally ordered an assault at which point the defending troops surrendered rather quickly, allowing the young King to complete his objective. On November the 29th Tadhg V declared the Kingdom of Munster to be at an end and it’s land incorporated into that of Connacht and King Edmund and the Northumbrians went home.


True peace finally came to the Kingdom for the first time since 1429, and though it did not last a whole year King Edmund still managed to make some good use of it. Having become quite fond of the city of Edinburgh, now rivalling York for the largest settlement in the Kingdom, from his earlier campaigns he temporarily moved his court there both for his own pleasure and to ease the incorporation of the area. After Prince Samuel’s 17th birthday the city hosted the celebrations, not just of the Prince’s birthday, but recognition of his coming of age full assumption of his role as heir apparent, delayed by the wars. As a gift the King created the title Duke of Edinburgh and bestowed it on his son in the same vein as the title Prince of Wales that exists in England and commissioned a new warship in his honour, the first new warship to enter Northumbrian service since the mutiny of the English North Sea squadron. The incorporation of Lothian into the kingdom went extremely smoothly, most likely aided greatly by the attention paid to the area by the King and his court, welcoming the people not so much as newly conquered tax generators but as long lost brothers integral to the realm, in fact within only a few years the many of the people of Lothian seemed not just content to pay taxes to the King of Northumbria, but also to call themselves Northumbrians.


As mentioned before, the King’s peace did not last very long, in August 1433 Edmund was called to war by his ally King Frederik of Denmark, Sweden and Norway who had finally taken advantage of the excommunication of the Hanseatic league to bring about the end of it’s influence over Danish trade. Unfortunately the wealth of the league and labyrinthine relations and guarantees of the Holy Roman Empire meant a number of realms came to it’s defence, including the Holy Roman Emperor himself, despite the Pope’s decree, and forced Frederik to also bring in his allies. Edmund reasoned that Northumbria still could not afford to abandon any ally especially one as reasonably powerful as the Kalmar King and that Northumbria’s position on the British Isles, away from the conflict which would center around northern Germany should be sufficient to protect the country from the conflict returning home and so he accepted the call and gathered his army, including new regiments raised from Lothian. Crown Prince Samuel, instead of attending the council ruling the Realm in the King’s absence was now trusted to lead it and continued to rule from Edinburgh and would do so until the King returned at the conclusion of the war. Extra taxes, known as war taxes were raised temporarily as this would be largest conflict the country had been involved in so far and with all preparations made Edmund set sail for Germany, landing in the Hanseatic ally of Oldenburg in October.


The Count of Oldenburg’s army was outnumbered 4 to 1 by King Edmund’s and was quickly swept away and the county seat was under siege within the week and the army settled in over the winter. At the same time about fifteen thousand Danes had crossed the southern Danish border at Holstein, that duchy having been incorporated fully into the Kingdom by Frederik’s father, and were being followed by ten thousand Swedes and Norweigans. They’d swept away the Hansa merchant’s mercanaries and were halting the the Bohemian advance, although the bulk of the Emperor’s army had yet to arrive and had brought the the Hansa cities of Lubeck and Hamburg under siege. Seeing an opportunity the Duke of Brunswick, the instigator of the Hansa’s excommunication also declared war on the league and invaded Bremen, hoping to avenge himself on the league and also gain a route to the sea, the province was undefended, its troops having been deployed to Hamburg and lost at the hands of the Danes and quickly fell after a series of quick and bloody assaults. Munster and Saxe-Lauenburg soon followed suit and also declared war on the ailing league, calling in their own allies and forcing the Holy Roman Empire into an almost civil war.


With many of the Holy Roman nations, all of Scandinavia and some of the Dutch and French realms now at war with the League it lost more than a third of it’s members very quickly. Northumbria was expelled within weeks of it’s joining the war and Samuel responded by declaring an embargo and expelling any Hansa merchants in the country, and with similar measures being taken across the continent the wealth of the Hanseatic league dried up almost overnight, and soon after many of the remaining members who were not part of the wars saw little point in remaining and left voluntarily. Effectively the Hanseatic league had now been destroyed, it would never again attain anything like the influence and wealth it had previously enjoyed and the Venetians were only too happy to capitalise on it’s downfall returning to their position as the capital of European wealth.


As spring came to 1434 Oldenburg surrendered to King Edmund and Frederik, as war leader, extracted compensations from them and had them break all the agreements and treaties that brought them into the war. Unfortunately for the Count, that brought him out of one war, but he was still at war with Munster and Saxe-Lauenburg and their allies. With winter over the bulk of the Bohemian army was now on the move and Edmund took his eight thousand strong army to reinforce the siege of Lubeck, ariving just before the end of March. The besiegers then number almost twenty thousand in total siege engines began in earnest to force a breach, in june after a long series of raids one had finally been made in the expensive fortifications and then the assaults began. Reluctant to damage his and his allies armies with the Bohemians still in the theatre Frederik did not let the assaults prolong, sounding the horns when it was obvious the defence would not collapse or surrender and such the city was not taken until the 15th of July, the vast part of a year since the siege had began. Soon after the Hanseatic league itself came to terms. Their presence in Hamburg was disbanded leaving the city independent though closely reliant on Denmark, the King received more than a hundred thousand ducats in ransoms and compensation and somewhat oddly, the league was forced to break off it’s relations with the theocratic city-state of Riga on the Baltic coast. It seemed at first that the war was over with the Hansa having surrendered, however the Holy Roman Emperor had still largely not taken part in the war and was not about to leave Frederik and his Kingdoms alone for interfering in his domain without somewhat of a fight.

Its still Antwerp. I'm not sure why the colours changed as I haven't noticed any new CoTs, perhaps one opened up in the TI somewhere.

Chapter 4: A Scandal in Bohemia

During writing this I took a few breaks for New Years celebrations, so it might be a bit weird and rushed in places. Also, happy new year!


The expulsion of the Hansa merchants from the Imperial City of Hamburg was not the end of the league’s war troubles, with the surrender to the Scandinavian King out of the way, the Duke of Brunswick wasted little time in pressing his own demands. Forcing the city of Bremen and surrounding land from their grasp and into his own, leaving the Hansa with only Lubeck under their control and no sooner had they repaired the gates did Saxe-Lauenburg’s army turn up and take up the positions and works left behind by Frederik and his allies in their siege. King Frederik himself took his army south to meet Emperor Ladislav and his forces marching north, Edmund followed hoping the Danish numbers and Northumbrian mettle would bloody their enemies enough to force a peace and see an end to the fighting.


Their forces met in the countryside near Luneburg, just under thirteen thousand men and six thousand horse turned out under Frederik’s banner whereas only elven thousand men and two thousand horse were on the field for Ladislav. The Emperor was no fool however, seeing he was outnumbered he did his best to prevent his army being drawn into a decisive battle and broke off without causing a route quite quickly, Edmund and Frederik of course were not fools either and worked to prevent the Emperor from escaping and for several weeks forced the Emperor into skirmish after skirmish, if not quite into battle. However this delaying had given the chance for more Bohemian levies to arrive, thousands more, and reinforce their King, thus by October it was the Emperor seeking battle and Frederik delaying. The Danish King did not quite have the patience of his opposite number however and after several more skirmishes had somewhat evened out the numbers took a stand in a good defensive position by a river and let the Emperor come on the 8th of November.



The strong Northumbrian cavalry took up the flanks, covered by the longbow units, in the centre Frederik kept his Danish knights with him and Edmund reinforced with himself and his bodyguard, keeping close to advise his ally and get the best view of the field, more units of long bowmen took up positions in the centre so as to take on the enemy attempting to ford the river, and were reinforced by Danish men at arms. The plan was strong and worked well, the bowmen exacted a terrible toll on the Bohemians crossing the river, sending thousands to their graves in hours, and any that survived the crossing were quickly swept away by the Danish knights and King Frederick(Edmund elected not to lead any such charges and instead to remain at their position monitoring the field, so as to be able to issue runners and new orders if ever the situation changed). Emperor Ladislav seeing that he would not be able to defeat his enemies if they stayed across the river attempted to draw them out with a feint, withdrawing slightly in the hope of causing Frederick to falsely believe he had been routed and recklessly pursue, though Edmund was not fooled and bade the army stay put. His plan foiled Ladislav threw some of his reserve into the fight hoping to cause breach somewhere and fold up the Danes, however once again the river and Northumbrian arrows put paid to his men and soon some of them withdrew of their own volition as bloodied and terrified soldiers will when their morale collapses. Seeing their fellows retreat others began too as well, spreading a rout throughout the Emperor’s lines that he could not stop and so he withdrew, leaving several thousand dead behind.


The Battle of Luneburg hurt the Emperor’s pride severely and dealt a nasty blow to his strength, if not a deadly one, but he at least could console himself with having successfully gotten away thanks to his successful evasion of Frederik’s pursuit, who broke off for smaller targets. Edmund and the Northumbrians moved north into friendly Danish territory to rest and recover and pass the winter, having lost nearly one in five men to injury and death over the campaign and battle in Luneburg. It was while here that the courts of Christendom learned the news of the shocking death of Henry V of England, far exceeding news of the clearing of the Kingdoms debts from the war for Lothian. Henry’s campaign in France had been proceeding exceptionally well, his skills seeing the destruction of French armies and the overrun of many of their provinces and forced the concession from them of the rest of old Aquitaine. It was while Henry was staying in Bordeaux before returning to England that a fire broke out, the blaze not only consumed several servants and guards but King Henry, his wife and his three children, including the Crown Prince Henry. With the royal family dead the crown of England passed to Henry V’s nephew, another Edmund, aged 20 who was unfortunately for England, woefully inadequate and unprepared for his new role.


In the new year, another wound was given to the Holy Roman Emperor when his ally Luneburg was annexed by Saxe-Lauenburg, who’d moved in taking advantage of the battle there, the news of which stirred the Northumbrians back onto campaign. Edmund planned to avoid the Emperor and his main armies unless he could link up with Frederik again and in the meantime concentrate on knocking out the minor powers still in the war and allied against him and thus marched to Altmark, reaching it in late february and setting up for a siege. Unfortunately for the Northumbrians however the Emperor’s army was marching north towards him and managed to capture the outlying scouts for Edmund’s army meaning news of his arrival in the area was delayed enough to cross out the possibility of the Northumbrians making a clean get away. Relying on his old skills from the great rebellion Edmund’s forces melted away as much as a ‘professional’ medieval army can, refusing pitched battle at every point, setting up hit and run attacks and ambushes. After a couple of days of such activities the army did manage to outmaneuver the Emperor and retreated in good order to safety having given much better than they got.


By this time a host of Swedes had entered Germany and were encamped in now Saxe-Lauenburgian Luneburg, Edmund joined them bringing their combined numbers to twelve thousand, the memory of the last battle must have came to Ladislav for the Emperor was deterred from pursuing and so the army took another opportunity to recover again. After several weeks, at the height of summer, word spread throughout Germany that the emperor had been severely injured and while alive was unable to take the field. Encouraged by the news Edmund and his rejuvenated forces eventually returned to Altmark in October to take on forces left there by the Emperor to garrison his ally, undeterred by the superior numbers now they were leaderless. The King’s confidence proved well founded as even when reinforced the Bohemian army was easily decimated and routed by the well drilled men he commanded. Seeing the way clear the Swedes joined the Northumbrians in besieging Altmark, which surrendered after one hundred and fourteen days, in February of 1436.


Prince Samuel, attending to the realm while his father campaigned, had not been idle through the previous year, he became a parent after the birth of his daughter the Princess Jacqueline and had been overseeing particularly the reinforcement being sent to the war. Having read extensively his father’s letters and theories he had taken the initiative to increase the recruit and training standards even further, this had the effect of significantly reducing the number of men heading to Germany but Samuel was confident each of those going were worth three or four of those from any other country. Edmund was grateful for the the better quality of his soldiers, but the lower numbers did cause him some slight concern. Thinking of this issue lead the King to hatch a cunning plan once the siege of Altmark was completed. With the county under his full control it could pose no threat and the army could leave it, at which point the Bohemians would no doubt attempt to relieve their ally and in so doing would have to start their own siege and suffer attrition, then the Northumbrian army could about face and spring a trap against the Bohemian relievers.


Sharing the plan with the swedes, whose numbers appeared to grow by the day, Edmund set about his business, moving north and waiting. In march the Bohemians appeared, ten thousand men and two thousand horse. After six weeks and a failed assault they were in a good way for an attack, but if the whole host moved they would likely retreat and escape. Instead Edmund took only the Northumbrians, the smaller numbers and better discipline allowed much better speed and also tempted the Bohemians into battle, pinning them long enough for the Swedes to arrive which would make the battles go much easier. For three days Edmund feared they would not come and his men would have to fight alone and while almost certainly they would win, they would suffer somewhat for it, but the Swedes did come and their numbers were such the Bohemians could be surrounded and the entire army was killed, injured or captured.


That was the last battle the Northumbrians took part in for it was the last of the Emperor’s forces in northern Germany. The rest were either busy elsewhere in the empire dealing with the other Hansa wars or trying to prevent Frederik reaching Prague so Edmund set up camp in Holstein and waited. He ended up waiting until January 1437, during which King Alexander of Scotland drowned and was succeeded by his brother and the count of Saxe-Lauenburg forced the Hanseatic league to swear fealty to him. When January arrived the Holy Roman Emperor Ladislav had finally had enough of King Frederik and his allies and desperately needed to restore his authority over the empire and so conceded defeat.


Edmund gratefully returned home after his years on campaign, looking forward to seeing his family and particularly his little granddaughter. The courts of Europe looked on with mild surprise, Northumbria had not only taken on the well established Kingdom of Scotland, but the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire(even if with the Danish, Swedish and Norweigans) and had not only survived, but came out victorious.