Chapter 3: The Fall of France
The tale of France is one of promise and then catastrophic collapse. It begins in 1337 when they attempted to claim Gascoyne from the English. The Duke of Armagnac would not accept the French king’s claim and soon found his lands invaded and added to the royal domain. Nobody would dare doubt the French king. The war for Gascoyne continued until 1342 but despite French victories in Gascoyne and Holland the war would end with nothing more than a reimbursement for the French. In 1345 the French vassal of Foix escalated a border dispute with Aragon with brought both sides to war. The French joined their liege but soon discovered the Castile and Portugal were siding with the Aragonese. A year later Flanders made their intentions clear for wanting to claim Calais but when their offers were dismissed by the owners Auvergne they too declared war. This brought France to war once again with England and the rest of the Low Countries and this time with enemies on both sides France did not fare as well. They were forced to practically hand back the funds they had received from the English in the last war in exchange for peace which allowed them to focus on the Pyrenees. Castile had destroyed Foix and occupied Toulouse before the French were able to fight back. By 1348 though the French were on top and the Castillians agreed to cede Toulouse back to the royal domain. Despite some tough wars France had gone nowhere.
Over the next twenty years or so France was allowed to consolidate. She annexed first her vassal of Auvergne and then of Bourbonnais before winning a war against Lorraine which gave Bar to France and vassalised Lorraine. Later in 1365 France was able to annex the rest of Lorraine but lost Brittany as a vassal to the English. By 1373 France had made good relations with Trier and after being involved in a war which saw Trier annex Luxembourgh, France made her move to vassalise Trier. Two years later and France once again went to war with England over Gascoyne, but by this time the French had become a force to be reckoned with and were able to hold off the English challenge. They succeeded in capturing Gascoyne in the treaty of 1375.
Just three more years passed before France tried expanding again, this time invading Berg and Kleves. Neither of these small states could muster resistance towards France and both fell before the end of 1379. France was becoming the Beast of the West again. The invasion of Berg and Kleves was the last straw however as immediately Savoy declared war bringing with it Austria, Milan, Genoa and Armenia Minor. The French found themselves under the pump in this war as Savoy’s men were able to march all over the South East of France. In 1381 they signed a peace with Savoy for a loss of $250 and hoped to recover from this military defeat. Charles VI was now in power and wanted to repair some of the reputation caused by his reckless father. Just two months later however Aragon declared war. France was already weakened by Savoy and could not handle the Iberian alliance once more. And just a few days late Flanders declared war again although this time separate from England. France was unable to cope and in 1382 was forced to cede Toulouse and Languedoc to Aragon.
The news just kept getting worse for France. England declared war in 1383 bringing with them Brittany and Burgundy amongst others which left France with enemies on several fronts. Whilst France did succeed in annexing Flanders, the English succeeded in defeating her and winning back Gascoyne and handing Kleve to Gelre. After that the French stabilised and were able to fight off a few more enemies before things appeared to settle down. France’s power had definitely been held in check. This series of wars culminated in 1389 when the pope of Rome and the pope of Avignon went to war with one another. France sided with Rome and swiftly captured Avignon and killed the antipope. After this France experienced its first reasonable period of peace in a while.
France in 1389
In 1396 France won a war over Cologne and took Elsass and with its subsequent annexation of Trier France reached its height. From there it was all downhill with the end beginning in 1399. Within twelve months of each other England, Gelre, Friesland, Holland-Hainaut, Navarre, Brabant, Switzerland, Aragon, Castile, Portugal, Austria, Rhine Palatinate, Savoy, Armenia Minor, Milano, Venice, Burgundy and Nevers all spontaneously declared war on France and her cagey allies Scotland, the Pope and Orleans. Soon after Liege, Cologne, Hannover, Hessen and Nassau joined the party and France found herself at war with 23 nations. More so than even in the last game.
France, her allies and her enemies in 1399. Later wars would involve still more foes including Norway, Denmark, Mecklemburg, Silesia, Poland and Hungary.
At this point the Knights were still involved in their Sicilian affairs and were not interested in waging war against France but by the time that Sicily was annexed by Aragon the situation in France had escalated. After nearly a decade of constant war with innumerable enemies France was beginning to subside. By 1410 Guyenne had fallen to Castile, Berri to Nevers, Orleans to Burgundy, Flanders to Gelre, Berg and Trier to Nassau and Avignon has declared independence again. Furthermore France’s armies were spent and the invasions were continuing. The Knights realised that the battle for France was now an inevitable success and it was now more of a land-grab than anything else and the Knights wanted more land. So in 1410 the Knights declared war on France.
Initially a little bit of diplomacy was required to even get an army into France. The Knights would have to cross the lands of Milan and Switzerland to reach the front but luckily these two nations were willing to grant the Knights access. The Knights began besieging Lorraine but this plan soon became unstuck when the Duke of Burgundy arrived and commandeered the siege. The Knights immediately moved on in search of lands they could capture freely, all of Eastern France had already been claimed. They attempted a raid on Paris itself but this was a stronghold for the French, the king had given up on most of the provinces and retreated to Paris. To defeat the armies there would be beyond the Knights. They kept marching until they found themselves in Caux in 1411. There they found enough peace to capture the province and then in the next year they moved along to Normandie. By the end of 1413 Normandie was captured and the Knights continued southwards into Maine. After Maine was taken they besieged Anjou, all of this with the littlest of French resistance and luckily without the interference of other invaders. By 1416 the Knights had control of four provinces and were now heading towards Southern France where the French still had some armies. They tried to find more provinces to besiege but discovered the region was dominated by the Burgundians. By 1418 the Knights had realised little more could be gained and so decided to cash in on their land-grab. The French were good negotiators and the Knights were only able to walk away with Normandie and Maine, which was not bad considering the number of nations getting involved. France continued to collapse for another ten years until it held only four provinces before it stabilised but its hatred throughout Europe still made all other nations resent it. The end for France was probably nigh.
France in 1428 (for more screenshots of the devastated France see my post in the
Strange Screenshot thread made over a year ago when i actually played this game)
The Fall of France was quite extreme
Two dozen nations brought down the regime
Over thirty years France decreased
On conquered lands, the foes would feast
Some took nothing, some took a lot
Here’s a list of who took what.
The Knights took Normandie and Maine
Caux was a Venetian gain
Holland claimed lands Artesian
Elsass returned to being Austrian
Holland also picked up Luxembourg
Whilst Nassau gained Trier and Berg
Aragon gained Languedoc and Toulouse
The French, to England, Gascony lose
Armagnac to England too
Whilst Gelre gained Poitou
Add to that the Flemish lands
And also Pas de Calais sands
Berri to Nevers, Guyenne to Castile
Saintonge flew under the Teutonic Seal
Avignon regained liberty
Savoy took Limoges, Poland Picardie
Milan gained the region of Auvergne
But Burgundy reaped the largest return
Orleans and Champagne
Bourbon and Lorraine
All ended up as lands of Burgundy
As well as Lyon, the silk city
And that was how France was split
Not quite dead but close to it.
Meanwhile the Knights were pleased with their new possessions and despite their remoteness from the rest of the realm they were not too difficult to govern as the Knights had had significant connections with the French for centuries and the cultures were not all that different. After the war with France the Knights once again entered a peaceful period in which they improved their relations with their Italian allies. In fact since 1400 the Knights had managed to vassalise each of their vassals; Mantua in 1403 and Firenze and Verona in 1408. By the 1430s ties between all these nations had increased and given the Knights strengthen they were able to annex each of them into their realm. Mantua was swallowed in 1433, Firenze in 1436 and Verona in 1441. Now the Knights were without doubt the largest Italian state and ready to move into bigger and better things.