Chapter 9: The War of Spanish Succession
After Salvador’s close victory over trespassing Leonese troops began the War with León, Prince Fernao also managed a difficult victory over a small Leonese army the same year. King Alexandre immediately ordered the army re-expanded after the short-lived contraction of the years prior. Salvador’s son Gil Bandeira comes of age the following year. While Gil is the spitting image of his father, he abhors drink, no doubt due to his father’s overreliance on it.
The rest of the royal family has grown tremendously, as there are seven generals from the new generation, as well as several princesses and a few younger children not of age yet.
[This is not a fully updated family tree, as the full one takes a lot of editing, which I will reserve for when a new king takes over. But I thought it would be interesting to see how much things have changed.]
Once war began with León, Portugal’s former allies began moving troops into position to attack Oporto and Salamanca, as well as potentially Seville.
At war with both France and León, and with relations deteriorating with Aragon, King Alexandre feels compelled to finally accept the Moors’ offer of trading rights. For years, the King rejected repeated ceasefires until 1169, and he has rejected their repeated offers to trade for the past 8 years. Now, King Alexandre has little choice if he wants to revive the sluggish Portuguese economy.
Meanwhile, a Leonese army has moved down from Murcia to besiege Granada. Salvador and his remaining veterans rush to the beleaguered mountain fortress, attacking the same year. Alberto de Castelo sallies with his garrison. While the numbers favor Portugal, Leon’s troops are better trained and on the defense.
Salvador’s army is forced to climb a steep hill to get at the enemy, and they reach León’s army just as Alberto’s army is attacking their flank. Trapping the enemy between them, the Portuguese armies grind down the Leonese troops and win a hard-fought victory.
Salvador’s army is depleted, but with Granada momentarily free from attack, Alberto can afford to send many of his men with the Portuguese hero. As Salvador move north, his son Gil Bandeira travels from Cordoba to Lisbon to study mathematics and the skills needed to govern. Gil’s cousin, and the presumed heir, Guilherme, moves from Lisbon to Seville to join the fight against Portugal’s Christian neighbors.
That same year, Leon’s King Pacheco threatens the northeastern Portuguese city of Salamanca. Fernao’s son Filipe takes an army from Salamanca and attacks.
With four large catapults and two ballistae, Filipe takes advantage of his position on a small hill to rain down rocks and arrows upon the Leonese King and his army.
The siege engines do moderate damage, and Leon’s army begins to climb the hill to get at its tormentors. Cresting the hill, the Leonese smash into the Portuguese troops. Though Portugal’s spear militia initially hold, King Pacheco is a renowned warrior and well feared by all throughout Iberia. As the Portuguese militia begin to rout, Filipe urges his cavalry onward, charging the enemy King.
The Leonese King’s cavalry are veteran fighters, and are not easily beaten. They fight back against Filipe’s cavalry, slowly pushing the Portuguese general back. Meanwhile, the entire Portuguese army has routed.
Unwilling to flee, Filipe fights to the bitter end, cut down by the enemy King himself at the young age of 22.
When a messenger arrives to Seville to inform Fernao of the grim news, the Portuguese general becomes enraged. Furious at the death of his son, Fernao gathers all of Seville’s garrison, hires several bands of mercenaries, and storms out of the castle. “I will kill that dog Pacheco and have his body rent in two!”
As Fernao heads north, King Pacheco and his 300 soldiers easily cut through the remaining 270 soldiers from the late Filipe’s army.
Fernao and his army of nearly 1000 come upon an army of León that is heading north to link up with Pacheco’s veterans, who have begun the siege of Salamanca. Still blinded by rage, Fernao orders an immediate attack.
Outnumbering the Leonese army nearly 2 to 1, Fernao orders a straightforward assault, charging his infantry and flanking with his cavalry. The Leonese army is decimated, the remaining soldiers fleeing back to their own kingdom.
Later that year, Fernao’s army arrives and attacks the Leonese King. Alberto de Castelo’s son Diogo leads the garrison out to aid Fernao, but the Portuguese general orders them back. Pacheco’s army would easily destroy Diogo’s, and besides, Fernao wants the king for himself.
Fernao’s army vastly outnumbers the Leonese King’s. Fernao orders his army forward, his archers and javelinmen slowly defeating Pacheco’s jinettes. Fernao himself charges straight for the enemy king, trapping Pacheco between a unit of light men-at-arms and his own elite cavalry.
Seeing his army routed, Pacheco tries to extricate himself from the surrounding Portuguese army. The rest of his cavalry killed, King Pacheco begins to flee.
Fernao and his cavalry give chase, determined to kill the dastardly king. Fernao’s horsemen are fresher, and catch the king as he runs. One of Fernao’s men knocks the enemy king from his horse. Defeated, his army destroyed, Pacheco pleads with Fernao for mercy. The pious Salvador may have granted it. The cunning Alexandre may have granted it.
Fernao brought Pacheco back to Seville in a wagon.
The other half he left on the ground outside Salamanca.
One of Fernao’s two remaining sons is besieged by a separate Leonese army that same year. Hearing the news that Marcio is outnumbered and trapped in Oporto, Fernao cannot hope to reach the castle in time.
The inexperienced Marcio and his men wait anxiously behind the castle gate as the Leonese army approaches.
Marcio’s archers shower the incoming enemy with arrows, killing dozens. Nearly 200 Lusitanian javelinmen do the same with their javelins, killing dozens more. Still, the enemy comes.
Marcio’s light men-at-arms first hold off, and then destroy, Leonese troops that climb the walls with ladders. Lusitanian javelinmen do the same to the Leonese infantry that reach the wall with a siege tower.
Leonese troops break through the gate and race into the castle. Marcio’s men await them, determined to make a stand.
The men-at-arms come down from the walls to help in the fight, and Portuguese archers and javelinmen shower the enemy from above.
After hours of fighting, Marcio and his men stand victorious, having utterly destroyed Leon’s army.
It is a heroic victory in more ways than one. Marcio has proven himself an excellent commander by holding the castle against a larger force, suffering minimal casualties. He has kept the Portuguese capital out of Leonese hands. He has also freed his father and his uncle, Salvador, to concentrate on the eastern half of the kingdom.
In 1179, the aging Pope calls another Crusade against Frankfurt and the Holy Roman Empire. King Alexandre declines to send troops at first (and keeping a close eye on Salvador), deciding to wait to see Leon’s decision first. If Leon’s new King chooses not to send troops, then Alexandre won’t be able to afford to, either. But if Leon does send troops, Alexandre may be forced to do so as well in order to retain the Pope’s acquiescence for the war against León.
That year, Salvador’s army attacks a slightly smaller Leonese army skulking about near Cordoba.
Salvador’s mangonels rain down fire and ash upon the Leonese army, causing chaos and death.
Salvador and his mostly professional army are able to make short work of the enemy, sending the survivors fleeing back to Leon. Since returning from the first aborted Frankfurt Crusade, Salvador has always offered to ransom Christian prisoners, and León accepts. Oftentimes, Salvador will just outright release them, which always angers King Alexandre, who knows they will simply return to fight later.
Alexandre’s son and the presumptive heir, Guilherme de Portugal, is already an excellent general. Having learned from his father and expert soldiers in Seville, Guilherme crosses into Leonese territory, gaining distinction as the first Portuguese general to do so. He easily defeats a slightly smaller Leonese army in 1179.
The following year, a Portuguese cardinal is elected Pope, thus ending the Second Crusade against Frankfurt. King Alexandre signs a quick ceasefire with France (after Rute seduces and steals away the 24-year-old French royal family member Pepin Capet), and it becomes clear that Pope Ioannes XV favors Portugal over León. Still only 50, the Portuguese Pope may have a long time to rule the Church. It may provide the opportunity Portugal needs to take the fight to León in its own lands.
Later that year, Miguel de Castelo moves out from Granada with an army, leaving his father behind. His goal is to attack the eastern Leonese coastal city of Murcia. Marcio takes most of Oporto’s garrison and heads toward the enemy’s previous capital city, León, and Salvador takes up a position defending the eastern road to Cordoba.
Leonese and Aragonese armies are both defeated by the Moors in northern Africa, forced to flee homeward to the east. King Alexandre hopes the Moors are not inclined to follow, as a two-front war would be nearly impossible to manage.
The King receives a message from Alberto’s son Diogo that he would like to marry Alexandre’s daughter, Angelina (as would everyone else in Iberia). With little interest in securing alliances with any other Christian nations, the King consents. Angelina, currently in France, slowly makes her way back to Portugal.
That year, an Aragonese army crosses into Portuguese territory, unannounced and unwelcome. King Alexandre’s inclination is to send an army to attack them, war with Aragon be damned. He is about to do just that, when scouts report on the Aragonese army; there are more than 200 Crusading nobles who had just joined to Crusade against Frankfurt. With the Crusade ended, the Aragonese general has decided upon a new target for his elite fighters: Cordoba.
None of the Portuguese armies have the kind of professional troops or knights necessary to defeat Aragon’s Crusaders. But Aragon’s transgressions cannot be allowed to stand. As dawn breaks on a warm summer day in 1181, King Alexandre sends word to Salvador to make war upon the Crusading Aragonese army. Thus begins the three-way War of Spanish Succession.
Re: [SS 6.3 AAR] The Rise of Portugal (Updated 9/26: Chapter 8)
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Originally Posted by TheBard
But I agree, if you see Feudal Knights, try to be in a position where they cannot charge you effectively, top of a hill would be best. If there is no such hills, then spears is your best bet.
