An account of Aragon's first Italian War
As recounted by Luis Balboa in the fall of the year of our lord 1423 Anno Domini.
Once our fleet crossed the Mediterranean, it became obvious why Genoa was willing to submit to Milan, if not why Milan was willing to let them off so easily: Genoa was nearly defenceless. She had no armies in Liguria or on Corsica, and her home navy consisted solely of two ancient hulks barely floating in the city’s bay. King Alfons was overjoyed at this discovery, and suggestions that it would be unsporting to attack the helpless Genoese went unheeded, as did the fact that it would be necessary to take both Liguria and Corsica in order to force the Italian traders to accept Aragonese ownership of the island. His Highness Alfons had decided he wanted something, and by God, it would be his; that it appeared easy to take just made him more determined that he deserved the spoils of the ensuing war.
With his supply of useful messengers exhausted, Alfons was unable to seek allies before declaring war. Which suited Alfons fine, since his Highness was loath to share the bounty of his aggression anyhow. Thus, on December 20, 1420, Genoa received a declaration of war delivered by a page in a rowboat. On January 19, 1421, di Monteone and King Alfons landed on Corsica while the Miquelets arrived in Liguria. So began the campaign now known as the Ambition of King Alfons V of Aragon.
While Genoa was weak in the west, di Monteone had to assume that she had more substantial fleets and armies protecting her Crimean holdings in the Black Sea, and that they would be brought home given time. As well as that nebulous threat, Milan, Hungary, and Luxembourg had all honoured their alliance, much to Aragon’s surprise. Luxembourg was of little importance, but Hungary had large supplies of manpower should she take interest in the plight of her Italian friends.
Milan, unlike Genoa, was prepared for war and possessed sufficient wealth to reinforce and resupply indefinitely. When di Monteone presented his concerns over the potential scope of this new war, King Alfons declared that he would leave the siege of Corsica to the General and lay siege to Parma “since the fleet’s blockading the port anyhow. After all, I always wanted a piece of Italy to rule. René was just telling me about this new pizza thing they’ve got there. Besides, Milan ought to be punished for breaking our agreement.”
Authors Note: While I’ve made my opinion of my King as clear as I dare, I wonder if this “War of Retribution”, as Alfons named it at the time will be remembered as anything other simply a small part of the larger of chaos of the day.
As Aragonese troops marched through France and Savoy, they had to go around English armies as they fought the Dauphin and the Duc. The Aragonese fleet calmly blockaded three ports at once while His Holiness’ ships chased Siena’s around the Ligurian Sea. Milan and Hungary were too busy crushing the Venetian main to send a sizable force across the Pô, allowing Alfons all the time he needed to steal Emilia from them. I would call him brilliant had he not simply relied on blind luck and arrogance to carry the day.
The world burned around us, and my King laughingly hosted feasts on the field outside Parma. Perhaps his indifference was not so unusual though; Henry V of England simultaneously fought both France and the Dauphin to a standstill. Poland and Lithuania decimated both the Teutonic and the Livonian Knights for no real reason other than the ability to do so. Muscovy ate most of Novgorod while the Danes and their lackeys tried to take the entire Baltic coast. The descendants of Osman finished off Rome once and for all. With such bloody ambition commonplace in the world of 1421, will anyone remember the greed of one Spanish King over all the other atrocities of the time?
Corsica fell to General di Monteone on October 16, 1422, with not a single Aragonese soldier lost to the long siege. Initially planning to immediately move his forces to the mainland, the arrival of a Genoese fleet forced him to waste the entire season setting up the occupation’s command structure. Even as his highest General languished on Corsica, King Alfons took Parma, and decided to move on to Lombardia and “show Milan what it meant to betray a King”.
Alfons knew better than to waste men crossing a forcing of the river. Time, unlike men, Alfons could spare, and so he wisely began the long march back to Piemont, so that he could attack Lombardia from the west, negating the defensive value of the Pô.[anchorlink=foot1][size=-2]1[/size][/anchorlink]
Either Alfons V was the luckiest King alive, or Ferdinand IV was as large an opportunist as Aragon’s own sovereign. Even as our armies were pulling out of Emilia, Tyrol declared war on Milan, splitting their defensive efforts even farther.
The year of our lord, 1423 began with a surprise development; the Genoese army, which Aragon’s leaders had long wondered about, revealed itself. They had landed in Rousillon in the dark on New Year’s Eve. Despite the initial alarm, no troops were sent home to lift the siege, for Aragon seems to be developing a new tradition: raising troops on the first day of January each year. The new Exèrcit de les Illes put an end to the Genoese siege in June.
General di Monteone managed to move his troops to Piemonte in January, at which point he chose the best thousand men of his command to follow him to Genoa, ordering the remainder to join the King’s efforts against Milan. Our force arrived at walls of Genoa in late January, and it became clear that the General had chosen the most difficult task for himself.
Genoa’s walls were high and thick, and the city was still well stocked, even though our forces had cut the city off for nearly a full year already. Winning this siege would take skill and intellect, not aggression and an over inflated sense of entitlement.
While having Milan distracted by the Austrian alliance was a boon to Aragon’s efforts, having their armies move into Liguria was not. With the Germanic horde eating most of the pizza in Liguria, Alfons was forced to send his entire army, except for his personal guard and the translators that allowed him to retain command of the siege, forward to Mantua.
The army arrived in mid April and reorganized themselves into a single cohesive unit just in time to begin fighting off the remnants of Milan’s armies, who had retreated yet again from their attempts to dislodge the siege in Lombardia.
Liguria fell in May, allowing Alfons to rejoin his army in Mantua and lead them against the Hungarians who had finally decided to make a show of assisting Genoa and Milan. Since they retreated from their only engagement after only a single day, a show is likely all that Hungary had in mind when they marched into Italy in the first place.
On June 16, General di Monteone, standing on the smashed remnants of Genoa’s main gate, forced the Genoese to sign over Corsica in exchange for peace, quite literally at sword point. With the original goal of the war now obtained, the men of the army expected to return home. The officers and the General however, or at least those who had spoken to our King, realized that peace would not come so swiftly.
The war did not finally end until November 16, when Mantua fell to King Alfons. Having no enemies left within reach, King Alfons, generously restrained himself to everything he could get away with in the peace negotiations with Milan. Luxembourg and Hungary, never really involved in the war in the first place, accepted white peace without comment or concern. The Ambition of King Alfons V of Aragon was sated.
For the moment.
[anchor=foot1][size=-2]1 [/size][size=-1]Taken from the battlefield notes of Brother Pedro of Huesca[/size][/anchor]
