He can buy a nice slice of pizze for those two ducats, maybe with anchovies and peppers - gotta look on the bright side. 
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or maybe with those two ducats you could buy 1 whole pizza with lots of anchovies and pepers......
As for not being able to annex Brittany:
I have had at least one occasion (in my Siena AAR, in fact) where a 1-province nation rejected force annexation after their capital fell to me. Apparently this is possible, but rare. In your case it sounds like Charles took advantage of your bad luck and gave you the shaft. Almost like a French-Breton conspiracy, which actually sounds pretty realistic. See, it's easy for me to take a dispassionate view of your troubles.
Back to the AAR, you are at your now customary level of excellence. Are you ready for the Hall of Fame?
I have had at least one occasion (in my Siena AAR, in fact) where a 1-province nation rejected force annexation after their capital fell to me. Apparently this is possible, but rare. In your case it sounds like Charles took advantage of your bad luck and gave you the shaft. Almost like a French-Breton conspiracy, which actually sounds pretty realistic. See, it's easy for me to take a dispassionate view of your troubles.
Back to the AAR, you are at your now customary level of excellence. Are you ready for the Hall of Fame?
The AI can refuse forced annexation if it's allies are still powerful and able to fight back. The player is deprived of this option.
Those damn Bretons must pay. Here's to another great AAR!
Oh, and have fun back over here, Farquharson!
Those damn Bretons must pay. Here's to another great AAR!
Oh, and have fun back over here, Farquharson!
No land connection to Capital (through owned provinces) gives a -10% penalty to income (tax I think, but maybe production. Or maybe both; I'm not exactly sure).
Things like that are the reason that allies are a risky proposition. It's bad enough that an enemy can hope for their allies to rescue them. They can even refuse annexation in hopes of your allies rescuing them.
BTW Farq, Alfons has plans to unify Italy before René gets the chance. Seems he's been sold on this whole pizza thing and wants them all for himself.
BTW Farq, Alfons has plans to unify Italy before René gets the chance. Seems he's been sold on this whole pizza thing and wants them all for himself.
I just love this whole medieval "war is an extension of (family-)diplomacy"-thing. :rofl:
Good luck in Scotland, whatever you'll be doing there...
Good luck in Scotland, whatever you'll be doing there...
I only got through the first page today, but I'm just stopping by to say i'll be back later to catch up. (subscribe)
Just the other day I was playing a game as Byzantium, captured Hellas, which is just one province, and they refused my annexation not once, not twice but three times! Just as Zan Thrax said, Hellas had 3 allies in Italy and was hoping for help. Much to my credit I figured it out on the spot and got a peace treaty with one of them and then Hellas agreed to annex. Now I have a question about the Naples ascension, I've only seen Aragon inherit is there choice when this event fires? Anyway keep up the good work!
It's been a while since there's been an update. I had to go back and read the last entry to stop the shakes (withdrawal you see).
I'll mark March 7th down on my calendar
I'll mark March 7th down on my calendar
Well, here we are back from the annual family pilgrimage to the Old Country. While the French spent two weeks breaking their limbs on the ski-slopes of Chamonix, etc, we were catching up with friends and relations in sunny Scotland. Sunny it was, but a wee bit cold for our thinned Mediterranean blood - and hardly a snowflake in sight - bah! Anyway, answers to some two-week-old questions and comments coming up...
coz1 and Van Engel, you're forgetting about inflation - 2 ducats was a lot of money in those days, and René was able to build himself a whole new palace:
Thanks to all those who commented on my failure to annex Brittany - some of us have learned something new, anyway!
Zan Thrax - thanks for the hint about no land connection penalty. I was wondering why I wasn't a bit richer...
And no offence, but I'm afraid Alfonse is not doing so well in his pizza-grabbing bid, in this version anyway Klink - regarding Provence inheriting Naples, yes, Naples gets a choice I think, between Alfonse and Louis as their next king and presumably chooses on the basis of who they're friendlier with or something. I was careful to cosy up to them just before the event - some might call that cheating, but I just call it forward-thinking
And Troggle, and all others who've waited patiently or impatiently, here's the next bit...
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Chapter 7: 1449 - 1462
Farewell to Brittany Spears, and a Problem of Stripes
Farewell to Brittany Spears, and a Problem of Stripes
At the end of the last chapter we left René le Bon, duc d’Anjou, comte de Provence and King of Naples and Sicily in something of a tizzy, having failed in the course of two successive wars to expand the territories of the House of Anjou by so much as a square centimetre. The blame for this René laid fairly and squarely at the door of his supposed ally, Charles VII of France, who twice now had snatched away his dearly bought chances of territorial gain in northern France for no apparent reason.
René therefore turned, in 1450, to the possibility of diplomatic expansion closer to his Provençal homelands, and began once more to try to win over Milan, by sweet-talk, persuasive arguments, and a great deal of pizza. Since 1447 the Milanese had been experimenting with something called the Ambrosian Republic, a form of government which was more easily swayed by gifts of rice pudding than pizza, and since René was woefully ignorant of this delicacy, he failed to convince them to become his vassals. Shortly after this snub, however, the Ambrosian Republic foundered and Francesco Sforza declared himself the new Duke of Milan. The following year René tried again, but alas, Francesco seemed no more inclined to vassalization than the Ambrosians.
The gift that would have hit the spot
Meanwhile, the unruly Celts of Brittany were always ready to take up arms, bagpipes, etc against their new Angevin rulers at the drop of a hat and René had to deal with peasant revolts in Armor and Bretagne during 1451 and 1452. Convinced that these rebel movements were being supported from Nantes, René approached Charles VII with a proposal:
Charles VII, King of France: René, how nice to see you! How are things?
René le Bon, duc d’Anjou, etc: Not so bad, Your Majesty.
Charles VII: I must say you’re not looking your usual cheery self these days though, René. Anything the matter?
René: Well, there is the little matter of territorial expansion.
Charles VII: Territorial expansion, yes! I’m all for it!
René: Actually, we in the House of Anjou haven’t been enjoying much of it recently.
Charles VII: Hmm, that’s too bad. But why on earth not, René? You’ve been in plenty of wars!
René: Beats me, Your Majesty – somehow we just never managed to pull it off…
Charles VII: To tell you the truth, René, I think you could do with a few lessons in basic diplomacy. So what do you suggest? Another war maybe? Our truce with Brittany ends pretty soon – April 1453 to be precise. You want to go to war with Brittany?
René: Only if I get to annex them.
Charles VII: Hey, of course you can annex them, René! That would be the whole point!
René: Really? It’s just that last time…
Charles VII: Last time – er… maybe we made a slight mistake, René. You were kind of tactless in the peace negotiations if I remember. This time I’ll make sure you do better.
René: Then there was Normandie.
Charles VII: Normandie, hmm – now, I’m not sure I remember too much about that. I don’t think I was myself then…
René: So this time I really get to annex Brittany?
Charles VII: Sure, René! Go for it!
Thus began the Second Breton War, when Charles VII declared war on Brittany in June of 1453. As usual, the first stage of the war involved Maine being overrun by the detestable English, who succeeded in capturing Le Mans once again by April 1454. Meanwhile René had to first deal with a Breton resistance movement in Armor before invading Morbihan, annihilating the Breton Army and laying siege to Nantes. In August 1454 the English, who were struggling to hold their own against the French, offered Maine back to René for 5 ducats. René agreed. Thus when Nantes fell to the Provençal Army in November 1454 and René, with Charles’s support, forced this last Breton stronghold to bow to his lordship and become part of the growing territories of Anjou, the war in the north was over as far as René was concerned.
Unfortunately we have not yet mentioned the situation in the south. Just four days before Charles’ declaration of war, Castile had joined the English Alliance and was using the war as an opportunity to try to relieve René of his Neapolitan domains. The comte de Laval, commander of the small Provençal Army of Naples, succeeded in driving off a small Castilian raiding force in Napoli in December 1453, but was then soundly defeated by a much larger English force in July 1454. Once the English made peace in August, Castile’s new King Enrique IV sent large Castilian forces to besiege both Naples and Taranto. The Army of Naples was wiped out and Naples fell to the Castilians in March 1455.
It was time for René to act. Marching south from Brittany he reached Marseille by May 1455, while the newly acquired Breton Fleet set sail from Nantes heading for the Mediterranean. Defeated by a Castilian fleet off Portugal, the Breton Fleet escaped and even managed to inflict a defeat on another Castilian fleet in the Gulf of Almeria before joining up with the main Provençal Fleet. Meanwhile René had sailed with 3000 men to Napoli to prepare to recapture Naples. At this point, however, a large Castilian fleet blockaded Marseille, preventing more reinforcements from reaching Naples, and when the Castilian Army captured Taranto in February 1456, they marched back to Naples and defeated René’s tiny army who retreated to Apulia. Fortunately only a small Castilian force had remained there and René drove them out, enabling reinforcements who had by now slipped out of Marseille to join him there to besiege Taranto.
Taranto Castle
All might have gone well from this point on if the Aragonese had not chosen this moment to declare war on Provence. There were two good things about this war. One was that Aragon’s ally Savoy broke off their royal marriage with France and joined the war. The second was that it was very short. After a small Aragonese raiding force had been decisively defeated in Provence in September 1456 the Aragonese accepted the sum of 6 ducats from René for peace. The bad thing about it was what happened to René.
By June 1456 the main Castilian force had caught up with René in Apulia, defeating him once more and he fled back to Naples, where a popular uprising against the Aragonese was by now in progress. Tragically failing to recognize their rightful king the Neapolitans chased him north towards Rome, and the lands of the Papal States, allies of Aragon with whom René was now at war. Faced with a large Papal army René fled back to Naples, where once again his loyal subjects failed to realize who he was, this time driving him into Marche. Finally, on the 12 August 1456, René’s heroic little army were wiped out there and René escaped with dreadful injuries being carried to Naples where he arrived at the rebel camp on a stretcher:
Neapolitan rebel guard: Halt! Who goes there?
René le Bon, King of Naples and Sicily: René le Bon, King of Naples and Sicily!
Guard: Oh yeah? Pull the other one!
René: No really guys, it’s me! Your dearly beloved leader!
Guard, peering closely at the prone figure: Oh my gosh – guys, I think it really is the King, our dearly beloved leader! But – what on earth has happened to you, Your Majesty? You look terrible!
René: Oh, it’s nothing really. We were in a bit of a scrape up north with some Papal armies.
Guard: Hey, I’m sorry to hear that, Your Majesty. But you know you should really have asked us for help. I mean you can’t go trying to fight those huge Papal armies with – what… * counts René’s companions * five men!
René: Yes, well there were a few more of us when we started.
Guard: All the same, we’d have helped you if you’d asked. Mind you we’ve been having some trouble ourselves with those pesky Aragonese. A bunch of them passed through here twice in the last couple of months. We soon showed them, though. I don’t think they’ll be back again!
René, unfolding a tattered banner: Er… Did they have flags like this?
Guard: Red and yellow stripes, yeah – filthy Spaniards!
René: Actually, this is our flag – red and yellow vertical stripes. Aragonese are horizontal.
Guard: My gosh! So those filthy Aragonese were trying to pretend to be our friends? Didn’t fool us though – hah!
René: Er, no… Actually those filthy Aragonese were us.
Guard, after a moment of troubled thought: Oh…
René: You chased us away to Rome.
Guard: Oh dear…
René: Then to Marche.
Guard: Gosh – what can I say…
René: Where my army was annihilated.
Guard: Gee, I’m so sorry Your Majesty.
René: Luckily I survived, with nothing but a few near-fatal wounds.
Guard: Well, er… that’s something, I guess…
René: Perhaps if there’s a surgeon somewhere he could saw off this gangrenous leg before it kills me.
Guard: A surgeon – er, right… I’ll just go and see about that, Your Majesty! Right away, Your Majesty!
He hurries off in terrified embarrassment.
René: And tomorrow I think we’ll get everyone together for some basic lessons in how to tell vertical stripes from horizontal stripes…
The offending Aragonese flag
Within weeks René had been nursed back to health on a diet of pizza and ice-cream, mainly at the hands of Jeanne de Laval, daughter of the comte de Laval, whom he decided to marry, since his last wife, Isabella of Lorraine, had died three years earlier. He then began directing the Neapolitan resistance movement from his bed, but it was clear that he would never ride into battle again. By now Naples and Taranto were both in revolt against the Castilians, although the rebels fought off a Provençal force which tried to land in Apulia in March 1457, presumably mistaking them for Castilians. By August, under René’s capable direction, the rebels had recaptured Naples and Taranto. Reinforcements were then transported from Marseille to Naples to guard against future Castilian raids.
René’s task now was to make peace with the Castilians since his subjects were rapidly tiring of this long and senseless war. Since Enrique IV seemed uninterested in the sort of monetary offer René was able to make, the Provençal Fleet set sail in search of small Castilian naval forces to sink in order to persuade him otherwise. Finding a relatively large force in the Gulf of Almeria in October 1458, they began a long drawn out engagement lasting six weeks, which finally ended in a Provençal victory. After this Enrique IV agreed to peace in exchange for 10 ducats in indemnities.
René unfortunately was in no position to enjoy a well-earned rest at this point, having just been driven out of Naples by a separatist rebel faction demanding independence for Naples and Sicily. By July 1459 this rebel movement had seized control of Naples and were advancing on the small Provençal army in Apulia. In September they defeated this army and laid seige to Taranto. Realizing that the situation was desperate, René took a loan in order to raise more troops. The only problem was how to get them to Naples. The Papal States were not of course inclined to grant military access, so it had to be done by sea.
In February 1460 the Bretons were again revolting, and the Neapolitan separatist movement spread in Apulia. It took two attempts to quell the trouble in Bretagne, while the first troops were shipped to Napoli by August 1460. In December Taranto fell into separatist hands, whereupon their by now sizeable army crossed the Straits of Messina to begin liberating Sicily from the Aragonese, news which René welcomed with relief. Naples was finally recaptured in February 1462 and Taranto six months later in August. At long last the territories of Anjou were at peace once more.
Naples is now well-defended while the separatist movement makes progress in Sicily
Meanwhile important events had been unfolding in France. Back in 1452 René had named his eldest son Jean, now 25 years old, the new duc de Lorraine, which meant that he himself could concentrate on his other domains. Jean however proved to be an inept ruler, causing a scandal in 1454 when he made some unflattering remarks about Charles VII of France, whose vassal he was. Over the next few years Charles put increasing pressure on Jean and his father René, and finally annexed the Duchy of Lorraine into France in May 1459. Then in July 1461 Charles VII died, leaving his son Louis XI on the throne of France. One of the first things Louis did was to acquire Roussillon from Aragon in August 1462.
Burgundy was in decline in France, having lost Franche-Comté to Tyrol in 1461, so the main contenders for French territory remained France herself, her ally Provence, and of course England, who still held Gascony and three northern provinces.
France in 1462
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Hah! Silly rebels, if that had been an Aragonese army, they'd have been able to tell by virtue of being dead. I mean, if you're an italian rebel, your first clue that you're fighting frenchmen, not spaniards, is that you're winning.
I'm happy to see you're having as much fun in Italy as I am Farq.
I'm happy to see you're having as much fun in Italy as I am Farq.
Glad to have you back from vacation, Farquharson. This update was well up to your standards, or even beyond them. The negotiations between Rene and Charles were very funny, as was the account of the rebels in Italy. Looks like you really dodged a bullet in that Castilian war. Hope you're on more solid ground next time.
Yes, it looks as though rebels are actually your best friends. Shame you weren't able to get more from those wars, but at keast you have taken Btittany. I get the feeling relations are about to sour with France.