Chapter 13: Invade England (1491-1500)
Part 3 - Battle for Britain (1497-1500)
The situation in Europe, 15 april 1497.
The war with Guyenne was over, so it was time for the final stage of my plan: invade Great Britain. There were three islands I needed to occupy: Iceland, Ireland and England. On the first two I had provinces of my own, so I could easily build up men there. But on their greatest island, with the largest number of their troops, I didn't have that advantage, so everything had to be brought there by boat. Luckily I had 24 cogs.
From the war with Austria, and thereafter with Guyenne, the war exhaustion of my country was once again very high. But Despite that, I couldn't let Great Britain continue on their current course! They sended so much privateers to my shores, that had to be dealt with. And of course I wanted a monopoly on colonisation, but I didn't say that aloud. I could of course wait for my war exhaustian to return to normal, but that would take quite some years. Now I had an army ready, now was the time to do something about those British.
On 11 july 1497 I declared war on Great Britain. This meant that I also was at war with its alies: Venice, Napels (always Napels...) and... Guyenne. Hello my good old friend! I had still troops along your border, so you won't mind me walking into your territory and occupy you again while you still have no army to speak of?
Again at war with just 4 coutries, although this could be tougher than the last one.
The British troops in Iceland were beaten in one battle. It took me more time to defeat their men in Ireland, but it was inevitable: they couldn't do anything about the wave of soldiers I sended over them. Their army there was destroyed in october.
In the meantime, my ships were ruling the sea. In one battle I sunk half of their carrack fleet without losing any ships of my own. From then on, I went on hunting for their other ships.
The Granadan navy rules the sea
The Venetian army proved to be not too much trouble. They had amassed quite some army, but my cavalery rode over them like they were nothing. So I sended 6,000 men of infantry to lay liege on Venice.
Another battle well fought.
In december I sunk another 4 carracks from Great Britain. Now they had only 4 left. Also in december, Rykjavik fell. Now British Iceland was occupied by me.
The first thing I did in 1498, was asking the Byzantine Empire if I could get military access. They allowed me that, thus opening the way for a good relation between us. We are Islamic brothers.
Furtune was with me: in februari I got a gift of 500 ducats! I could now really invest some money, while the war was raging around me.
On 26 march I accepted a white peace offer from Napels. I really wasn't interested in a war with them, so a way to sneak out of it cheaply, was a very nice to have. I didn't want to spare troops to go over there and be busy occupying that country for months... No, I was busy enough with Venice, Guyenne and Great Britain.
By the end of june I sunk another 5 British carracks without losing any ship. That fleet of 20 carracks was doing absolutely splendid. When they became too beaten up, I went to a coastal area and had them repaired. If Great Britain had amassed their fleet, they would have certainly sunken some of mine too. But now, in these small groups, they were dead meat on the water, sitting ducks for my canons.
On 14 september 1498 I finally occupied Venice, and annexed the country. I thereby got the trade center in my hands.
Then in march 1499 it was time to invade the British homeland itself. I would need a lot of men to defeat their main force in the beginning, before a lot of my men would die by attricion. So I would invade England from the westcoast, from Normandie. Since I only had 24 cogs, I would have to transport them as fast as I could. First I would bring 24,000 infantery to the ships, and unload them as fast as I could. Then two times 20,000 cavalerie, and finally again 24,000 infantery. I hope that will be enough to destroy the British main force.
The invasion started in Cornwall, where I hoped to be close enough to the British capital to draw attention from the main army, but far enough away to sneak most of my men in before the battle would begin.
Inbetween Guyenne fell. On 4 april 1499 I demanded from them:
Cede Othe, Limousin, Toulouse and Poitou. Also, pay 50 ducats.
By doing this, I had split the Guyenne kingdom in four separated parts. And I had created shortcuts between the westcoast and my Swiss territories.
Guyenne has been defeated again, and had to cede four provinces to me.
Meanwhile the invasion continued. I had unloaded the first 68,000 men, and needed to transport just another 24,000. But things were changing: The British were pulling back to Wessex. It wasn't their main force, but just a small legion. So I decided to attack Wessex, and unload the reserve troops there. 92,000 men were supposed to attack there, although some men had already died by attrition, so the real number was lower.
The invasion has begun! Now all my men were in the British homeland.
The first two months more than 20,000 men died. Just by getting my men on the other side of the Channel, they found their deaths. Some drowned, some were overrun, other died during the fights... Well, an invasion surely does cost a lot of manpower. Luckily I had that.
After their small army had been defeated in Wessex, which wasn't so hard to predict, I had to choose. Would I march to London, where Mary III had amassed an army of at least 20,000 soldiers? Or should I continue to Gloucestershire, where the small army had feled to? My men were really dying fast, and that main army in London was not the entire army... it was not even half of the British forces. That meant that she had more small troops spread over the country. If I would now walk towards London, I would not only loose a lot of men due to the attrition, but also to the fight. I might even loose... So I went to Gloucestershire.
Look! Armanac has sended invasion troops too!
After that fight, which I of course also won, I noticed that the forced were beeing pulled away from London, like Mary was fleeing, and that Armanac was sending their invasion fleet too. Of course, that was an order of magnitudes smaller, with in total just 2,000 men, but still it was impressive to see that an ally came to aid me in the offensive.
The forces were beeing pulled back to Wessex again, and after I had won that battle, I decided to split my infantery: I would lay siege on every province I could find, and in the meantime thunder accross the country with my cavalery. That went according to plan: I split up, and laid siege on the provinces far away from Mary's main forces.
While I was budy battling against Britain, I recieved news from far away places in the east.
Spread of Discoveries: This time I learn more about the deep side of Asia.
I looked at the maps they had brought me. I had heared rumours, but never saw the far east by myself. I could now see the countries tehre. How Ming had expanded, but lost territory to the Mughal Khanate. How Manchu expanded in the north, and Korea in the south. How Tibet had lost territory to Ming, but had gained new provinces. And there, in the middel of the Gobi desert, was Kongo. Wait, that doesn;t sound very Asian. and these provinces ain't got a capital. After asking some of the messengers, I learned that Kongo was actually a country in Africa, far south. Maybe I had to send a ship to them, to ask their high chief what he was doing with the provinces in the middle of the Gobi desert.
I can finally see China! but wait... What does Kongo do in the middle of the Gobi desert?
My men spread over the provinces, and with succes. The British were fleeing from my cavalery, without actually fighting them. I pushed them further and further north, and started to occupy provinces. This tactic seemed to work. As long as I didn't face their main army, I could scare them away by just kicking the ass of some small armies. I was glad that this worked, since my men were rapidly dying. From the original 40,000 horses only 10,000 remained. Most of them had died by hunger, not by force.
My men are laying siege on the southern parts of England.
As long as I fight the small armies with my heavily shrunken cavalery, their main armies pull back!
Meanwhile, on the continent, Guyenne was split up by me. But one of their provinces, Cambray, was beeing occupied by rebels, and on 1 april 1500 they declared themselves independant as... France! They were back, but now as a one province minor. Just like Bourgondy.
France is back. But the rebels have turned into the French army, so they immediatley have 13,000 men!
I pushed the British further north, right into the higlands of Scotland. But then it was 1 october 1500. I had occupied more than half their main island, completely controlled Ireland and Iceland was in my pocket. I hadn't completely occupied their country, but they were prepared to act like I had.
I haven't completely occupied England, but I came close. More wasn't needed: They wanted to negotiate already.
I personally went to bloody Mary III, and demanded from her:
Cede Connaught, Munster, Leinster, Ulster, Reykjavok, Gwynedd and Glamorgan.
Seven provinces! With this I gained not only total controll over Ireland and Iceland, but also got a base of operation on the British mainland. Next time I could just gather my army over there, and then march into their territories. A next war will thus be easier. And a next war will certainly come. They can still reach the New World from Cornwall and Gloucestershire, so I needed to conquer them another time. And if they continued to commandeer those pirates, I might be forced to wipe them from the face of the Earth.
My new acquiered territories in Iceland, Ireland and Wales. I've got a base on the British main island!
During the war I took the time to eplore, of course, but also to colonize. I started three colonies:
- In june 1498 I colonised a second island in the far west. The local Carib population of the island called it 'Madinina', and I decided to keep that name. Further
- In june 1499 I colonised Hazrat Malik. The captain gave the island that name to honor his old friend Malik Ibn Umar, the old explorer who had convinced me that I should fund expeditions to the west. A honourable name for a honourable person.
- In july 1500 I colonized Hazrat Ali, named after the great fourth caliph. I guess those Shiites will totally disagree with the choosen name, but well, they ain't there in my Empire. They are more east.
As soon as it is possible, I will colonize more islands over there.
The newly colonized islands. In the future, in 2003, they will be featuring the world hitmovie 'Suicide bombers from the Caribbean'.
As soon as Great Britain signed the peacy treaty, I looked into a matter that had troubled my mind for a few years. I had seen how Mary III had transformed England into Great Britain, to ready it for the 16th century. I was doubting if I should do the same, but when I saw the good central government it could bring to a country, when I marched through the streets of London, I decided to do it with Granada to. So I transformed the country into Spain.
Islamic Spain has formed on 2 october 1500!
Now the new century has begun. I've defeated in this campaign the eastern dangers, I conquered a lot from Guyenne and connected my westcoast to the rest of the country, and I defeated Britain. But once again my people were tired of this fighting. Rebels were spawning all over the country, again. I had to restore order and bring the economy back on track. Another 'peacefull road' lay ahead of me.
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Some sidenotes:
swippy: I've got govtech 16 now. If everything goes right, I can start converting soon.
Mike von Bek: I'll certainly convert them as soon as I can!They have a trade center, and I think that converting those trade centers that I own is one of the top priorities. But I'm not that sure about conquering Europe. Lithuania is a rising power in the east which should be feared.
comagoosie: It certainly is
. But things are getting more strange with the year: Switzerland expaning earlier on, the Byzantine Empire gone muslim and Kongo in the Gobi desert... I wonder what will happen next?
Ahura Mazda: They sure are
.
Enewald: No, it means I have to diplo-annex them both and force everyone to become happy neightbours
. Actually, the Ottoman EMpire has just guarenteed the independance of the Byzantine Empire... How strange can things be!
I really have no clue how Kongo endedup there, in the middel of Asia. These provinces were from the Mughal Khanate during the previous chapter. So somewhere between 1497 and 1499 Kongo acquiered two forvinces from them? How? I'll try to look into it.
'Madinina' was the old Creol name for the island of Martinique, which is to believed to be derived from that name. Or so I have read
.
In the Islam, Hazrat is the term used to honor a great person. Since St. Kitts was named after Christoffel Columbus (says wikipedia), I decided to name the island ingame after one of the great muslim explorers: Malik Ibn Umar. He's dead, but will be remembered by this island.
St. Lucia was named after the christian
Saint Lucy. I really couldn't do that as Islamic nation, so I decided to name it Hazrat Ali, after
Ali ibn Abu Talib, the fourth rightly guided caliph of the Islam.
Yes! Islamic Spain has been formed! Finally. I actually wanted to form it in the 15th century, since I recieved the last needed core a few months before the turn of the century, but I also needed to be at peace. It took me one year extra to manage that, so therefor I formed Spain in 1500, and not in 1499.
