The Elector Princes, Glory of the Palatinate

The Council of Nobles

Their were not many nobles of many resources in the Palatinate, Count Ludwig as the Elector the foremost among them. Once a year though all those men who owned a piece of land and could call themselves noble were invited to the fortress in Heidelberg, to put in their lot for the future of the Palatinate, their liege lord, their people, and of course themeselves. Feeling a bit lazy as the snow amassed outside his windows Count Ludwig allowed Martin to greet all his noble guests and arrange for their care during their stay, maybe not the best treatment he thought to himself, but they would get over it quickly enough. Salivating over the glory and spoils of war would be more than adequate to do the trick. Finally, well into the evening Martin came to his lord's chambers to inform him that all but a few of the most minor nobles of the county were now present, and a bit anxious in the castles great hall.

" Ahh very well Martin, help me with my robe if you would, I feel I've kept them long enough...I trust my dear friend Adolf is here?"

" Yes m' lord, Baron Oberstein is here, a bit sickly it may seem though...he would be the one to lead us in battle, yes?"

Ludwig chuckled, " I didn't know we were going to battle..."

"But yes m'lord," Martin quipped," you have been staring across that river solely to enjoy the cold winter landscape of Mainz then I presume..."

"Ahh, at times I forget just how much you know about me Martin," the count uttered with a sigh.

He was a simple man, and as such Ludwig made no grand entrances and enterred the grand hall as an equal amongst his subjects, who all rose out of respect, and a few of the younger nobles out of fear, as he surveyed the nobles one of those younger faces stood out at him, this boy was different he thought. Making his way to the end of his table and standing before his seat, raised just a few inches above all the others, Ludwig bowed his head and entered into a solemn prayer. The formality of prayer done with the Counts servants enterred and poured for the men the finest of the counties wines. The discussion started on usual topics, grain stores for the winter, the religious health of the peasantry, news and reactions from abroad, and the status of the pooled strength of the counties nobles. It appeared, to the Palatinate's advantage that they harnessed a force of some fifteen thousand fighting men, more than any of their neighbors. As the discussion turned towards these military aspects Ludwig decided it was now time to present his ideas for the invasion of Mainz. However before he could, the young face that had caught his eye rose to his feet,

"If I could my noble lords," the young man asked looking towards the count. The count nodded, looking back at the child, he couldn't be more than sixteen affirmingly,

" I am Karl, Earl of Ostenburg, I know many of you knew my father, God bless his soul, I have as his eldest son returned from my monastic studies in Lombardia, to take up his lands and care for my mother," the nobles whispered amongst themselves a bit before returning their attention, " Though I hold not the dignity nor piety of a man such as Baron Von Oberstein, the noble commander of our armies, I would propose that we invade our rightful lands of Mainz with the purpose of adding them to our Electorate. Along these lines I would request, must humblely to be allowed to serve as Lieutenient to Lord Oberstein."

The nobility of course loved the idea, but coming from such a "boy" few would vocally stand up for it, until of course the Count himself stood up to commend Ostenburg for his idea, and move that it be put into motion immediately. As such it was decided that the Palatinate would indeed go to war with the breaking of the Spring. Until then Lord Oberstein and his young acomplice would have to organize and train the armies of the County in preparation for the battles ahead.(land +1)

doh!

whoops lol...knew I'd forget something major in my first AAR, yup i'ts 1419, I shall fix that in the next installment tonight I suppose hwen stuff actually happens

and thanks about the line

Aprils Showers: Of Blood

It was now March, 1419, and the armies of the Palatinate were more readied for their attack, the morning of March 8th Lord Oberstein and his lieutenient, the Earl of Ostenburg came before Count Ludwig in his chambers.

" My Lord," Oberstein adressed the Count, dropping to a knee, " I bring you tidings that our armies are ready to march within the day. As well I wish you to know how handy an assistant the young Earl has been, I feel his career shall be one to watch, I of course shall watch it from above, as far along in years as I am."

" Ah old friend, the County mourns the day that we lose your service, let us drink now to our victory!"

The men passed the night in merriment, Lord Oberstein and Ludwig reminiscing of days of old, when Ludwig was just a boy and the old Baron fought with his father in the Holy Land. Ostenburg looked on, envious of the mens comradery, he had none of that studying, at his fathers demand to become a monk. His years of study though had made him wise beyond his years and as able as any. The night dragged on into the early morning hours, a common occurrence when Ludwig rejoined his old family friend, and before finally nodding off Ludwig called on Martin to see to the delivery of the Declaration of War against Mainz.

The ninth day of March was spent in preparing the armies large baggage train and arranging for a forward detachment of one thousand cavalry, light cavalry of course, (though the army of the Palatinate consisted of 5000 men on horse only about 800 of them were fully armored, those being the few people in the realm that could afford such expensive protection, the rest would generally fight on foot for the main part of any battle, using their horses only for pursuit or against any mass of archers) to secure the main bridge across the Rhine so the army could cross easily. The next morning the army marched, it could be assumed that the rider had reached Mainz and that Johan, Duke of Mainz was already preparing to cut them off on the banks of the river.

The army moved slowly, not much slower than any other army of the day, but the inexperience of the majority of the armies infantry made for a slower march. Finally on the morning of June 5th the armies arrived on the banks of the Rhine, the black and gold standard of the Counts Cavalry surrounding the perimeter of the bridge. As the army settled on the western side of the river Lord Oberstein and Ostenburg approached the commander of the forward cavalry. As they approached he come at them at half a gallop, quickly reaching them he exclaimed,

" M' lords, if only you were quicker in arriving, the armies of Mainz are but a few hours march, heading directly for us, we are glad at least to have you here now, on my fathers honor we had planned to hold this bridge at the cost of all of our lives."

" Damn that Johan," Oberstein exclaimed, " How many are they?"

" They number more than half our size lord, but not too much more."

Thinking for a split second Oberstein turned to his young Earl, " Order the men across the bridge immediately, we shall have time to arrange ourselves and advance on to the hill ahead, if our numbers do not scare them off we will do the deed with clash of arms."

" But My Lord," Ostenburg interjected, " I fear we haven't the ability to execute so risky a move...I pray that we would stay hear, and draw them into battle to our own advantage, with far less risk."

Laughing the old warrior patted his lieutenient on the shoulder, " you have much to learn my Earl, they will be in no hurry to engage us on either side of the Rhine we shall have our hill, and our glorious victory in no time."

With that the decision was made and the time consuming deed of marching the armies across the bridge was begun. The noontime sun was overhead and still only half of the army had arrived at the other side, all of the lighter troops, archers engineers, etc... still resting lazily on the riverbanks. Just then as Ostenburg was arranging the next contingent, the men of Viscount Friedrich von Heidle the sound of hooves resounded from over the hill to the east. Peering up he recognized the banner of the Duke of Mainz, frantically the young earl ushered the men into a forward line and spurring his horse charged off towards Lord Oberstein,

" MY LORD," he exclaimed, as he approached, " they come!"

" settle down, my lieutenient," Oberstein barked, " 'tis but a forward cavalry scout, either way they would not charge us now, our numbers are too great."

Numbers!!!! Ostenburg thought to himself we have an unorganized army of 800 heavy cavalry and 9000 some other unarmored men lunching on a field, the rest of their comrades setting helpless across a damned river not to mention all of our ranged troops. Before he could voice this opinion to his commander though he was distracted by a scream from a nearby cavarlyman.

" LORDS!!!!!!! On the hill 'tis the whole of their army!" Looking back where minutes ago was just a sorty of cavalry now appeared a line of men 200 feet wide, and growing.

" They wouldn't dare charge," Oberstein muttered, sounding a fraction as convinced as he did seconds ago, almost instantaneously the sound of horns pierced the lazy noon sky and with cries of victory and glory the armies of Mainz, spearheaded by a thousand heavy horse began a to make their way down the hill...

Clash of Arms

" This is highly unconventional, " Lord Oberstein muttered nervously, struggling with his helmet. Ostenburg nodded laughing to himself, ' I trust he will better heed my judgement next go round' he thought as he rode off to try to restore some order to the line in the face of the approaching army, which was now only a few hundred yards away the cavalry at a half gallop out in front. On their flanks the lighter cavalry began to pick up its pace and head on an angle towards the corner of the front line of the Army of the Palatinate. Apparently they planned to encircle the bewildered army with the charge of cavalry. As the horsemen of Mainz neared Lord Obersten had rallied the heavy cavalry on the East of the Rhine and charge off to great the more lightly armored horses approachin the armies position from the north east. Ostenburg watched Oberstein and his men as they repelled and chased off the enemy cavalry as he braced for the impact of the advancing knights. Dismounted and standing front and center of the line the young earl urged the armies forward, pikes raised to absorb the cavalry charge.

The line was first hit on the right where it quickly folded many men fleeing before hand back across the river, the line was just too lose, too unorganized the cavalry was riging right through the cracks cutting the men down helplessly. Looking back ahead Ostenburg was greeted clang of metal as the man next to him was struck through the helmet with a crossbow bolt and fell to his knees, dead on impact. He had only a second more to think and then the horse were upon them, they crashed through the line easily, causing the majority of the infantry to flee either over the bridge or foolishly into the river. The fraction of the men that did stay to fight the cavalry, maybe 2000 men, fought bravely, taking down about 500 of their horse, for the loss of about half our numbers. Having just pulled a rather plump knight off of his mount and running his blade through the helpless knights neck Ostenburg mounted the fallen knights horse to get a view of the field. He saw Oberstein returning finally, and waved to him to retreat, unfortunately as the thousand or so men of the Palatinate remaing on the field were clogging the bridge he would have to ride a few hours down to use the next one near the village of Murgsburg.

It was obvious now that the battle was lost, with a heavy heart Ostenburg urged the men back west across the bridge in retreat, luckily during the battle the hapless remainder of the army on the opposite bank of the river had organized the archery corp and a heavy volley of arrows and bolts kept the approaching enemies from getting across the bridge in force, unfortunatelyto save themselves from total defeat the Earl ordered the bridge to be set ablaze. The invasion of Mainz would not be so easy. The fiery bridge flickered against the darkening sky and the armies of Mainz, victory assured marched back towards their city.

Aftermath: A battle lost

The next mornign Lord Oberstein finally made it back to the camp. Ostenburg had already orderred men out to the forests to gather lumber and consulted with the few siege engineers the army had about constructing a bridge strong enough, but quickly enough to press back into Mainz before the cold of fall set in. Luckily Duke Johan thought too much of his victory and the few cavalry scouts that could get across the Rhine reported back that the army of Mainz appeared to be heading straight away for home. They would pay for this foolishness Ostenburg thought. The bridge was planned to be completed in late August, which left the commanders plenty of time to organize a plan, or so Ostenburg hoped, he was beginning to think maybe the old Lord Oberstein was a bit to aged for war, the conventions of the past were dying fast. He had heard tell of the enlgish using some sort of metal artillery in France, some sort of small tube that could fire a rock more visciosly than the grandest of trebuchets. Tearing himself away from philosophizing the Earl rode off to meet his commander and discuss the situation.

Back in Heidelburg the news of the lost battle arrived on June 14th.

" Damnit Martin," Ludwig cursed, " he is a dear friend but I fear I trusted Lord Oberstein a bit much with this invasion, he is old and i fear for not only our sucess, but his welfare...I pray the young earl can save us here."

Presenting Ludwig with some other papers Martin smiled and nodded to his lord, the old servant truelly loved his Lord, but had not much concern for matters of war.

" I think that the first document there will be of concern to you master, it appears that our friend Count Adolf, of Kleves wish you to meet with him, and Dietrich of Koln. As well he wishes that you would bring your darling daughter, as his son has come of age."

" Very well, this wedding has been planned for years after all, I hope the presence of Dietrich means that our invasion has assured them that alliance with us would be most wise, we shall need them if our war is not well liked by the rest of Christendom."

The war being for the most part paused, save a few cavalry skirmished in the country side on the Rhine, Ludwig left his capital of Heidelburg in late July to oversee the wedding of his eldest daughter to the son of Adolf of Kleves, as the two nations were joined through marriage as well, The Palatinate was invited into a grand alliance with Kleves and Koln providing a strong base of power along the Rhine. It was September 2nd when Ludwig finally did make it back to Heidelburg, awaiting him there was a letter from Lord Oberstein.

" My noblest Count, and Elector,

The ignobility of my past failure behind us we are now prepared to engage our enemies again, on the morrow we shall cross the Rhine again, this time under no hurry and we plan to bring the armies of Mainz to battle to our own advantage. Your young Earl has proven truelly helpful, if not a bit young and naive, and I feel he shall help us in the glorious victory ahead. Best wishes and God speed in our other affairs,

Adolf, Baron of Oberstein, August 31, The year of our Lord 1419

hmm..

anyone reading...if it sucks tell me LOL...it's my first AAR some criticism is more than welcome

thx for the compliments I shall resume tonight hopefully...I"m having a lot of fun actually playing the game right now and yes the pace will pick up with peacetime, my notes get quite a bit thinner at those times...

Mainz is Ours!

The morning of September 9th the army arrived at the village of Wietzburg. Scouts had reported to Earl Ostenburg that the army of Mainz was half a days march to the east, apparently advancing on their position. Plenty of time to spare, Oberstein departed with a small contingent of cavalry to scavenge the country side. In the meantime Ostenburg rode out with his squire to get a lay of the land. They rode off to the north east of the village to inspect a small hill over there.

" the angle of this hill squire, If we were to place the majority of our light cavalry just below the crest here, I feel they would not detect them, until of course they had crashed their side."

"My lord," the squire answered, " a most ingenius plan." Satisfied that this plan would be all the strategy needed Ostenburg returned to camp, to ready the lines awaiting their enemies.

It was nigh on 5 in the evening, the sun more than half set, when the enemy formed up across the field. As soon as they arrived their Duke Johan II rode out with a few of his aides, to parlay. Lord Oberstein, having just returned from his scavenging party, motioned for the young Earl to follow and rode out to meet their worthy adversary. Reaching the center of the field, the men reigned up their horses, as the Duke's aide announced him,

" Gentleman, Johan II, Duke of Mainz and Protector of the Rhine,"

God, Ostenburg thought, he does think highly of himself, I see now why Ludwig feels so about him...

" Greetings Duke, I am Adolf, Baron of Oberstein, and this is my lieutenient, Karl, Earl of Ostenburg, we apologize for Ludwigs absence this fine day, I fear he felt your armies inconsequential to deserve his efforts, as he is much concerned with the health of his fall flowers."

Scoffing, the duke replied " Yes, noble baron, how inconsequential we were when we pushed your men back into the Rhine, disregarding your impetulence, I shall offer you these terms. Forfeit your armies and march them back to Pfalz in peace, in exchange I shall grant the both of you estates, here in Mainz along the rhine, in exchange as well for a kind word from the both of you to Ludwig that I am not to be trifled with."

The Earl having heard enough reigned up his horse and drew his sword, causing the Duke and his aides to draw back quickly.

" You are a knave, "noble" duke, your bribery is wasted on our ears, ready your men for battle!"

Insulted, the Duke stormed off to prepare his armies. With a laugh Oberstein turned towards the Earl, " ha ha, you are young boy, your lack of etiquette gave the old Duke quite a scare I'd say, lets go finish the job eh?" With a pat on the back Duke Oberstein charged off back to the lines. Sword in hand Ostenburg followed behind.

With a quick exchange of words Ostenburg and Oberstein seperated, the Earl riding off undetected to meet up with his force of cavalry on the other side of the hill, Oberstein stayed to command the heavy cavalry, which he massed on the right of the foot. The battle started quickly, as light was failing fast and armies of the Palatinate advanced, the Duke commanding his men across field to do the same. At about 100 yards seperation the foot soldiers of hte Palatinate stopped, while the Barons cavalry charged on ahead of them, noticing this change in pace the Duke rallied his own horse forward and met Obersteins force head on, both railing diagonally across the battlefield towards one another, the speed prevented a real impact and the forces basically passed right through eachother, a few men on each side dropping to the ground dead or wounded. Quickly the Duke regrouped and formeup to charge back at his adversary who has a bit disorganized spread across the main of the field. Oberstein signalled for his infantry to advance and in a gloriously disorganized fashion drove his cavarly into the ranks of the Mainz infantry. Not making much ground agains the solid lines of Mainz armies Oberstein was bolstered a few seconds later when his men crashed into the fray, knocking them back a bit.

The battle on the field was deadlocked for some time when on summit off to the north Ostenburg and his cavalry appeared, wasting no time he charge the force some 2000 horse strong down the hill, crashing hard into the Dukes right flank, the enemy broke almost instantaneously and in the chase that followed some 5,000 soldiers of Mainz were laid waste, at the cost of 1,000 of Pfalzian stock.

From there the armies moved on and set siege to the city of Mainz, the long and gruelling art of siege had begun, and the few engineers of the army began the preparation of an array of rams and trebuchets.

hmm...

going to vegas for 6 days I shall continue this upon my return...and which point our glory shall be manifest and then peace shall ensue greatly arousing our pace

yay!

well I"m back I shall add more tonight I hope, thanks for the kinds words and advice.