OOC: too late Sharur.
(and thanks...it seems many are reading but few commenting...
) Thanks too, LD...nice to know you're following along as well. I was beginning to feel vaguely like a MacBeth soliloquy...
1428
The messenger dutifully delivered the king’s message on December 25th, 1427:
To: His Grace Charles II, Duke of Lorraine
Our dear friend,
As you will know through our past dealings we hold you in the greatest of respect, and it has only been through your continued refusal to set aside your independence and swear fealty to our crown that we have come to this impasse. Lorraine lays claim to lands that are rightfully our property; lands which your grace has refused to surrender through diplomatic means.
Therefore, be it known that on this day, the twenty fifth of December, 1427, we do formally declare war upon your duchy and all the lands within it. We will send our armies to effect the rapid and humane consolidation of your lands with ours. Should you choose to refuse their demands for your peaceful surrender, they have been fully authorized to prosecute this war in whatever means are necessary to bring it to its necessary conclusion.
Yours truly,
Charles VII
Roi de France
On the same day, I instructed the bailiffs that taxes would necessarily be doubled for the next six months and that every man must be prepared to join the army, if necessary and if called to duty. I also spent a rather large sum from the treasury to recruit 24,000 foot and 8,000 horse in Champagne, and I instructed both Dunois and Richemont – who had quietly moved their respective armies into position in the preceding months – to converge rapidly on Lorraine with the combined might of their forces.
As expected, the Duke of Lorraine immediately called to his allies for their assistance. Over the course of the next day or two, messengers streamed through the gates of Paris to discharge their duties:
...this most foul and heinous act of aggression...King of Hessen
...treasonous attack...Regent of Cologne
...despicable...Mainz
...barbarism...The Palatinat
On January 13th, Richemont and Dunois slammed simultaneously into the ill-prepared Lorraine army. While the enemy had a standing army of only some 9,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry, the combined French armies fielded more than 11,000 knights at the head of slightly more than 25,000 foot. More than half of the Lorraine army was wiped out in the first two days of fighting, saved only – temporarily mind you - by the timely arrival of the Palatinat’s entire military might of another 6,000 infantry and 4,000 knights. By this point, however, nothing could prevent the bloodbath. Within a week most were all put to the sword, while each of my (I thought of them as mine in this war) commanders reported that their forces had sustained only light casualties.
While Dunois was left in charge of the siege of Lorraine, Richemont pressed onward with his half of the forces to attack Pfalz and engage the few survivors of the battle. Upon arriving on the 10th of February, he faced a combined army that numbered fewer than 5,000 and was sadly demoralized. Within three days he had dispatched them and invested the city. Spies reported that a large infantry recruitment project was underway in the province and Richemont advised his scouts to be on their guard.
Perhaps it was by virtue of such a decisive early victory, a fear of experiencing the glorious French army first-hand, or maybe it had been the gentle communications that Charles had been sending their way for months; but whatever the reason, the rebellious factions who held control of Artois decided that declaring allegiance to the French Crown would be in their best interests. Charles welcomed them into the fold on February 1st, even as Richemont was still marching on the Palatinat. There was a modest risk of further rebellion, but I resolved to ensure that they neither would – or could – come to regret their decision.
The rumours of the recruitment project in Pfalz turned out to be well-founded and Richemont was forced to combat their half-hearted attempt to break his siege on the 26th of February. While the new enemy corps was large – numbering some 10,000 foot – their training was incomplete and their morale was low. Richemont reported losing fewer than 500 men while destroying half the enemy in only two days of fighting.
On March 29th, Dunois had to fend off enemy recruits in Lorraine as well, as some 5,000 ill-prepared cavalry attacked his outriders and were expertly drawn into his trap. Within two days he had soundly defeated them and sent them into full flight. I ordered him immediately to leave only the barest of covering forces in Lorraine as I had spotted a very large army of forces from both Mainz and Cologne bearing down on Richemont – at first guess, something in the order of 25,000 men. My own recruits, however, seemed ready for action and were sent from Champagne to resume the siege.
I opened up the king’s coffers again in mid April to enlist yet another 10,000 foot in Champagne, just as the first batch of recruits arrived in Lorraine and set about their business. I instructed them to leave only the minimum possible numbers to effect the siege and to march with all haste in support of Richemont in Pfalz.
Aware that the enemy was fast approaching, Richemont and Dunois assembled their armies in the forests of the near bank of the Rhine and awaited the onslaught. They were not to be disappointed as on April 28th the first attempts to dislodge them were begun. While by this point the combined Armée du Roi and Armée Royale numbered some 17,845 pikemen and 9479 horse, the enemy had committed a nearly equivalent army of men to the assault, being perhaps inferior to ours by only some 2,800 foot while fielding a handful more knights than we had.
During the first few days of battle Richemont’s line held and inflicted terrible casualties on the enemy footmen trying to cross the river at one of only two bridges that were suitable for passage. Reinforcements were on their way on both sides of the river, though, and by May 4th the conflict had escalated to involve nearly 70,000 men all told. The weight of the enemy soldiers was great, but Richemont had both a field advantage and a tactical advantage over the combined enemy commanders. I don’t recall even once instance where he felt that his army was in danger of being overpowered.
By May 8th, the enemy had had enough and withdrew back into Hessen. Richemont, sensing that their morale was shattered by the bloodshed of the past few days, left Dunois in charge of a minimal siege force in Pfalz and quickly marched the army after the retreating backs of the enemy army. Less than a month later he was to engage them once again as they turned to face him in Hessen. Because of the siege force left behind, Richemont was at rough parity with his foes, but the spirit and drive of the Armée du Roi could not be equalled – particularly by the recently defeated Mainz and Cologne soldiers.
By June 5th the enemy was in full retreat once again, their numbers now having diminished to a mere 8,000 from the more than 18,000 that had taken the field against him – not to mention that the entire force had consisted of some 35,000 men only 45 days earlier. Richemont, by way of comparison, held his force nearly intact with more than 8,000 infantry and 8,500 knights and light cavalry.
On June 11, a messenger arrived in Paris claiming to be a representative of the Prince of Mantua. Rather curious, Charles admitted him to the throne room.
“My dread lord,” began the diplomat. “This current state of war between our two great countries can do nothing to further either of our two int...”
“War?” interrupted the King. “I was not aware that we were at war.”
“Ah. Well. You see we were unwittingly invited into the Lorraine alliance, and not realizing th...”
“Oh. I see. They tried to sucker you, did they? Well it worked.”
“My Prince was wondering if perhaps you might be able to see your way clear to forgetting about this most unfortunate accident and would agree to return to a “status quo,” so to speak.
“A white peace, you say. Very well. Tell him that the ‘sins of the father will not be visited upon son’...this time. Something he would do well to remember.”
“Thank you, your majesty. Tha...”
“You are dismissed.”
And so ended the part of the war that none of us ever even knew existed.
By June 15th the 10,000 new recruits were organized and ready to march from Champagne. I ordered them to join Dunois in Pfatz where they would receive further orders. Though it might have been stretching the population’s limits, I ordered another 3,000 pike to be raised in that province.
Meanwhile, desperation was setting in amongst our enemies. Several small detachments engaged Richemont’s forces beginning in July. He successfully repelled them all, in most cases annihilating the aggressors. On July 2nd it was 521 Hessen infantry and 1705 cavalry; on July 14th, a band of some 2275 knights – also from Hessen; August 1st saw another 660 foolhardy infantry from the Palatinat…
Mid-August, though, revealed a rather large contingent of forces marching from both Köln and Mainz on Dunois’ position. By this time, though, he had received the 10,000 infantry reinforcements and I had no fears that he could handle them so I ordered Richemont to leave only a small siege force in Hessen and march into the enemy rear and attack Mainz.
Battle was first joined on August 27th, with Dunois taking to the field with about 16,500 men – though only 2,200 of these were knights – against a Mainz contingent of about 8,200, split roughly evenly between foot and horse. Only three or four days later, the Cologne forces arrived to support the failing Mainz soldiers, increasing their numbers significantly to more than 8,000 infantry and almost 11,500 cavalry. True to his training, though, Dunois remained unconcerned as he knew that help of his own was on its way.
September 5th dawned dark and overcast, with a heavy fog rolling across the field. Dunois had compressed his lines and held back a rather larger-than-normal reserve in order to fool the enemy as to his remaining numbers. In a moment of inspiration, he sent the reserve in a very wide march around a small forest with the goal of attacking the enemy from behind when their forces were fully engaged. With luck, the enemy would seek to press their supposed advantage and would commit everything to an all-out assault. True to form, they did – committing their entire force to one last great push to roll over the French defence.
They were rather surprised, therefore, to find that the blue-coats were in high spirits and showed no sign of “give” in the morning’s first engagement. Just as the Cologne commander was preparing to blow the horn to sound a temporary halt to the action and a regrouping of their lines, the reserve crested the horizon
directly behind the enemy lines. The battle quickly turned into a rout, as the fresh reserve drove into their rear. By day’s end the remains of the alliance’s armies were in full, desperate retreat. Upon conducting a roll-call that night, Dunois was shocked to discover that other than the initial, minor casualties suffered in first day of combat, he had not lost a single man since September 1st!
By September 13th, Richemont had entered Mainz and engaged a small force of only 220 infantry – likely the remnants of an earlier battle – and, leaving a small siege force, was moving on to Köln. While still on the march, he was greeted by the tattered remains of the army retreating from Dunois’ earlier battle – a mere 1,900 infantry and 4,000 cavalry. After a rapid victory, he elected to remain in Mainz as he lacked the necessary numbers to fully invest Köln.
I authorized another 4,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry to be recruited in Champagne in late October and then settled in to watch the progress of the various and sundry sieges.
The first city to fall was Pfalz, on December 21st, 1428. Effectively this placed the Palatinat completely under French control and Charles immediately went to work in securing an agreement with their ruler. His terms were very straightforward: the Palatinat would become vassals of the Crown of France and would agree to allow military access to France’s forces. Seeing little by way of alternative, the Palatinat agreed to the king’s demands.
There are three things that remain to mention about this period of the history of France. The first is that the third graduate of the
Academie received his laurels on January 1st, 1429. He was yet another of the veterans of the English war, Gilles de Rais by name, who was a highly rounded individual with excellent skills and a penchant for siegecraft as well (
4/4/4/1). Gilles was immediately assigned to command the Armée de Canada (not that there was a Canada yet, but who knows where such names come from?) and would oversee the siege of Hessen.
The second will be the subject of our next conversation...
The third is that Charles, on my recommendation, further adjusted his overall governing policies to hold innovativeness over the rather narrow-minded preaching of the clergy. While this would result in some temporary disruption within the populous on the whole, the resulting benefits to both production and the various fields of research being undertaken by the
Academie and the
Université would more than offset these losses.
And meanwhile the sieges continued...
