Ignore any text errors in the pictures; I was fiddling around with the localisation files. The problem was fixed half-way through the update.
Chapter Nine: Burgundy’s Last Chance
Ernst I was not like his uncle, or the other previous Kings of Friesland. Instead of being raised in a time when Friesland was an insignificant piece of the Empire and Burgundy loomed seemingly indomitably over them, he had been brought up in stability and luxury. By dismantling the Hanseatic League and distributing the merchant’s wealth to the true ruling class, his homeland of Luneburg had become incredibly wealthy. Wallowing in opulence he had neglected to concern himself with the affairs of the people and the army, although he spent much time in the court dealing with other nobility so he had a keen ear for negotiations.
As such the first thing he did was to organise a cease-fire with Milan, who had remained at war even after Hesse had surrendered.
He also spent much time with the Duke of Brabant, eventually convincing him to have his duchy completely absorbed by Friesland.
With that the Dutch people were united under the Frisian banner, although Ernst I wasn’t concerned with that. He was more interested in the extra money flowing into the kingdom’s coffers.
He might not have been a military man, but Ernst was smart enough to know that Burgundy was still a threat, despite his uncle’s success in pushing them out of Flanders. He also intended to boost Friesland to stand with the greatest powers of Europe, so he ordered a massive expansion of the military.
A whole new twelve-thousand man army was drafted and construction began on a number of carracks to boost Friesland’s navy to par with everyone else in Europe, with the exception England and the Iberians.
During the recruitment, tragedy struck as the aging General Halbertsma fell from his horse while marching with a group knights.
The hero of wars with Burgundy, Hesse and the Emperor himself was given a state funeral equal to those of kings.
Ernst was pleased when his new armies got a chance to prove themselves in battle. Holstein was vulnerable, and his older brother took advantage of that. Despite much protest from his advisors, he went ahead with support for the war.
Holstein fell quickly and was absorbed by Luneburg, while Frisian armies moved to attack their ally the Palatinate.
This would be the moment a certain other nation had been waiting for. While Friesland’s armies were busy in Germany and public support for that war was dropping their time to strike had finally come. It was an all or nothing charge to take back what was rightfully theirs from those irritating Dutch upstarts.
Almost as horrible as the invasion, to Ernst, was his own brother refusing to aid him in the war and backing out of their alliance. He gave the excuse of being too caught up in his present war, but with the Palatinate’s armies beaten that was a foregone conclusion anyway. Ernst vowed to never forget that betrayal and ordered his armies to return home even when they were on the doorstep of the Palatine capital.
Friesland’s armies were badly out of position, with only one force ready to take on the Burgundians. The other two were recovering after suffering heavy casualties in the previous war and returning home respectively.
Luckily, Burgundy was also quite badly positioned but they still had forces to mount an invasion by slipping by the single defending army.
Eventually, the returning army was able to link up with the defending forces and mount a counterattack against the invaders. Leading the combined force was a newly recruited commander, General Eelsma.
He proved that he was more than capable of fighting on the level of Halbertsma as he crushed a large Burgundian army and started mopping up the smaller groups attempting to sneak by.
While the smaller enemy armies were no match, there was still the main force led by the skilled knight Marc de Villaines. He had easily swept through Friesland’s smaller allies’ forces and invaded the small kingdom of Münster
The Frisians could only watch as their allies were annexed, and it took all that Ernst’s advisors had to keep him from ordering the armies forward to engage such a powerful enemy.
After calming him down, they proposed a different strategy. If they could lure the Burgundians into Friesland itself then they could starve them by burning the crops as they retreated. With his forces depleted the enemy general would be easily beaten. It took some cajoling, but they were able to convince the king to leave it to his generals.
The plan went ahead and culminated in an ambush near Gelre, ironically close to the site of another major Frisian defeat of Burgundians, where the Burgundian force was decisively beaten. It was then pursued back into its territory and systematically routed until there was nothing left.
Even though Ernst couldn’t much for the war directly, he spent his time communicating with emissaries and agents abroad and learned some interesting information to affect it.
The Burgundian army was in a state of collapse. Apparently they had been hinging everything on General de Villaines, so with that army lost there was hardly anything guarding the sprawling kingdom. It was very lucky for Burgundy that the likes of France, England and Milan chose not to attack as they were busy with their own problems.
With the enemy army crushed, Frisian troops and their allies rushed forward to enact their revenge. For the first time an all-out invasion of Burgundy was feasible and nothing was going to stop them taking advantage of it.
In under a year Frisian soldiers and their allies had conquered the Wallonian and German regions and were beginning to push into the Lorraine. The only thing that stopped them in the end was Ernst himself.
He didn’t want to overextend his country by conquering too much of Burgundy. He ordered his men back, and began negotiating a peace that, while not offering much immediate gain to Friesland, would get Burgundy out of their hair for good. He personally marched a regiment of soldiers to Bourgogne to confront the Burgundian king in person and bring his best skill to the fore.
With his lands in turmoil, his army crushed and Frisians threatening to swarm into the heart of Burgundy, the enemy surrendered. He was forced to release some of the Imperial states he and his predecessors had wrongfully annexed, as well as renounce all claims his kingdom had on the Flemish and Dutch peoples. The last chance for Burgundy to retake what it had once owned had been and gone.
It was quite ironic that in the end, the one to finish removing Burgundian influence from the Lowlands was the king that didn’t really care about grand designs for his nation rather than a mighty leader like Hendrik I or Johan I. However his only real weapon, his sharp tongue, was the decisive factor so it could be said that the Kings of Friesland brought the right skills to the table at the right time for them to reach the point they were at. Achieving victory and ensuring their place amongst the great powers of Europe is not the end of the story however...
Reports were slowly trickling into Europe of Portuguese explorers uncovering a whole new continent filled with savages and resources to exploit. The promises of even more wealth flowing into Frisian coffers was music to Ernst I’s ears.
To be continued...