Saint George for Merry Old England! (For Chivalry TW)
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This is an after action report for Rome: Total War, written by Garnier. This can also be found here.
[edit] Chapter The First: Of Prosperity and the Dutch
The years of 1070 - 1080 proved the saying wrong, that "The sun never shines on England." The English farmers and peasants toiled peacefully under the summer suns, and it seemed as though the quiet existance of England could be quite forgotten by the quarrelsome Europeans. The Danish longboats had long since ceased their constant raids of the English shores. In the year of our Lord 1078, the 39 year old vassal of King William,
Sir Walter Beckett, sailed for Denmark. At Copenhagen, a treaty was signed between the English and the Danes, ceasing all hostilities.
In 1081, Becket was again called forth. He was sent to the netherlands to inquire as to the dutch army's political standing. Together with his companion translator whom he had aquired in Denmark, and more than a king's ransom, he was able to persuade the dutch army to swear allegiance to the crown. Soon, the town of Ghent was under the shadow of the lion. William and his son sailed for the netherlands, and soon the army was under their command. With this army of two thousand men, he moved north. He reached the Rhine, to find an army of 1800 flemings waiting for him at the bridge. With his renowned strategic genius, he marched west, and took the army by boat around the mouth of the Rhine. Thus he was able to position himself behind the flemish army, and lay siege to their castle. They accordingly marched back, and attacked. The battle raged for over an hour, but in the end, the English knights of King William and their Dutch counterparts were supreme. In tThe campaign map image of 1085, William with the army is invading Wales. Walter has again dissuaded the Welsh from resisting, and then they were dispersed as English citizens in Mercia.he bitter struggle, more than half of Williams army was cut down.
William would soon return to England to establish an army there and then Invade either Scotland or Wales.
The situation in 1083:
The campaign map image of 1085, William with the army is invading Wales. Walter has again dissuaded the Welsh from resisting, and then they were dispersed as English citizens in Mercia.
[edit] Chapter two: The Battle of Ive's Glen
In 1088, William's army, with some 700 reinforcements from York, crossed the border of Scotland. Soon after, a large collected army of four thousand Scottish had him partially surrounded, but he hastily withdrew to the coast. Only half of the Scottish army followed, and William knew that his army of 2,500 men could match 2,000 Scottish peasants:
He waited for the impatient highlanders to attack, and situated his army in a clearing of the forest near Ive's Glen:
The Scottish were mostly on foot, and they came swarming out of the woods soon after eleven o'clock. The English archers drew their strings and let fly the first volley of cloth-yard arrows, bringing many of the unarmoured scots to the ground. The English line held firm in every point, and only half an hour later, the scottish were running at full speed through the forest, closely pursued by nearly two hundred English horsemen. It was a glorious day in the history of old England:
[edit] Chapter 3: The Battle of York
After the previous battle, William's victorious army pressed north toward Stirling, but was ambushed by the remaining portion of the original 4,000 scottish. The English army was defeated utterly, losing 1200 of its 2200 men, and the remaining force fled back to London. While the army was being refitted, some 1200 scottish invaded England, and captured York. William marched north to do battle once again, with a force of 2800 troops in all, including four trebuchets. He assaulted York immediately.
The battle was a decisive victory for the English. First, the trebuchets bombarded the wall, and effected two breaches (pictures 1-3). Once this was done, a party of fifty knights rushed forward to secure a footing in the town (4-5). The trebuchets opened fire again, this time with flaming missiles, while the four hundred archers kept up such a hail of arrows, that the Scottish infantry stood no chance whatsoever, even of inflicting a sizeable portion of casualties upon the English (6-8). The battle raged for some time, and the Scottish were driven back to the town square, where William himself and the 220 knights in the English army poured through the breaches and finished the battle (9).
[edit] Chapter 4: The settling of Scotland
It is now 1093. The events surrounding the late conquest of scotland are as follows: William's army retakes York, then proceeds North and takes Edinburgh and Stirling with very slight resistance.
Walter Becket strategically dissolves the remaining scottish army, and William's army moves to Iona, which was lightly defended. However, in the ensuing battle, he loses seven hundred of his two thousand men, and now is going to return home from scotland by boat. The king is getting old, he is now sixty-five in years, and his reign may end at any time.
[edit] Chapter 5: War with France
William's army returned to London, where he died in 1095. That same year, the French moved up and invaded the Netherlands and Normandy. The new King, with an army of 2600 men in all, crossed the channel during the year of 1097. The french were thrown back to Paris and Rheims, and the English army assembled. The first army are reinforcements on the shore of Normandy, bound for Paris, while the other is the army besieging paris.
Also during this time, there was an insurrection in scotland, and some four hundred scots assembled and besieged Stirling. Eight hundred loyal scots were sent to stop them, but were completely crushed, losing three quarters of their number. The situation in the north is certainly grim.
Soon after, paris fell to the English troops. However, the new King was not entirely foolish. He knew of France's might to the south, and settled the war by sending Walter Gasciogne to Rheims where a treaty was signed, ceasing hostilities and returning Paris to the French crown. The English army set out to take Fougeres.
[edit] Chapter 6: Irish blood
Fougeres was easily taken, the main army must have already been slain by the french. From there, the English army sailed north to Ireland. The English coffers were full, over 250,000 florins, and nothing was to stop the new king William Burnell from further conquests. The army landed in Ireland, and fought the first battle in 1102:
From there, they made a sweep of the Irish towns, and now are on their way southwest to take the last one. However, the treacherous french have declared war on us again, eight years since the treaty. Burnell determines to finish Ireland and sail to fougeres immediately afterward, to avenge this act. It is now 1106.
[edit] Chapter 7: A "small victorious war"
As stated in the above chapter, the French attacked and took fougeres while I was in Ireland. This war had only one battle, and that was a small one outside Rouen. Through a show of military might, we convinced the French to start a tribute to us, on the threat of attacking, and also to return Fougeres to us.
In Ireland, there was one more major battle, and now Ireland is completely taken over. The army did as the king had planned in the previous chapter, and landed at fougeres. It is now 1109. The king is now discussing the possibility of a crusade.
Also I made a new rule for myself on the year 1100: No retraining units with experience(this is sort of a game exploit).
I am loving this campaign, bursting with medieval flavour!
[edit] Chapter 7 continued:
Burnell had thought that the french were stopped by this blow, but it was not to be. They had allied the Germans, and soon arrived at poitiers with a large army. The English king fought bravely, but was thrown back, and his small veteran army returned to Angers. Reinforcements arrived from london in 1116, but the germans attacked Gent and Utrecht, and took them quickly. English ships blockaded these ports, but we will probably never have dutch money pouring into london's coffers for a very long time. The reinforced english army, with Scots, normans, saxons, welsh, and some french mercenaries is now marching to poitiers once again.
Word reached Ireland as well, that reinforcements were needed to fight France, and 400 Irish troops are now on ship for normandy.
[edit] Chapter 8: French folly
The foolish King of France attacked again, while the army was at rest in England, in 1110-1111. King Burnell Immediately sailed for france, broke the french siege of Fougeres, and pushed south, taking Angers, and then besieging Poitiers. The French sent an ill-trained army to break the siege, but they were completely destroyed by the English, at the battle of poitiers:
Here is the campaign, ending in the capture of Poitou. The French power is stemmed, for now:
This unending war
The war with france continues, unabated. Troops have been poured in from normandy, wales, england, scotland, and ireland. King William the Second is ruling, but his age is getting on, and in another ten or twenty years, another monarch will rule England.
He has made a sweep of southern France, retaking Poitiers:
And then proceeded on, taking Bordeaux, and then Toulouse:
Finally, William II captured Clermont, a city with more population than London itself:
English coffers are flowing with gold, but who knows that it might not be spent in war with France and Germany, if they persist?
[edit] Chapter 9: Crusade Proclaimed
The Pope has proclaimed a crusade, to retake palestine from the infidels. Turmoil in France and Germany has left England the only willing nation. King Burnell Sailed with two thousand men to malta, to establish a small kingdom there, as a jumping off point to go to palestine:
It is now 1135, and France must die, as the population of English-held france is dwindling due to the ongoing war. Rouen has only three hundred eligible citizens, the rest are buried thickly around the town.
Chapter 10: The battle of Fougeres
The French and Germans are constantly invading our domains in france. Thousands of brave men have died, due to this stalemate. Battles rage from Normandy to Provence, along with an occasional incursion from the moors across the pyrennes. In 1137, a combined french and german army marched for fougeres. They were intercepted by a reinforcement army from England led by Sir Richard Berkely. Berkely attacked quickly. The German army was speedily routed, with some three hundred losses to the English, while the allies lost four times that ammount. This battle will hopefully lead to the fall of paris, but the situation is still grim. French and German armies are everywhere ravaging our land. The crusade has been postponed until our differences are settled once and for all.
Chapter 11: The fall of Paris
In the years of 1140-1143, three attempts were made to capture paris. The first and second resulted in the complete destruction of the English. Some two thousand soldiers died in this campaign.
A brief ceasefire was established with the Germans, on their suggestion, but they attacked us anyway immediately following the signing of it.
In 1143, the third attempt was begun. Eight trebuchets were assembled in Reims, and the army of 1200 men marched for Paris. They had to fight two battles along the way, both of which they easily won.
When they reached Paris, Howard Burnell, the King's son, immediately began a bombardment of the Castle wall. When it was destroyed, his army poured through the breach and fough for fifteen minutes in a brutal hand to hand battle with the defenders. Luck was with the English, however, as both leaders of the French army had been killed in the bombardment.
Richard Berkeley, victor of Fougeres, and many other brave warriors were slain in the struggle at Paris.
[edit] Chapter 12: Germans and Crusaders
It is now 1155 The French were wiped out when we took Paris. The war with Germany however, continues on, as it has been for the past fifty years. Enough money has now been saved up (700,000 florins) and enough people in Malta (6,500) that it is time to start our crusade. The pope is quite unhappy that nothing has been done yet... Half the people in malta are now gatherd on the shore, boarding their ships bound for palestine. It is a grand array, nothing less.
The moors have continued their raids, and are a constant thorn in the back of france.
[edit] Chapter 13: Slaying the infidel
The crusader's voyage to palestine was uneventful. When finally they reached the shores of the Holy Land, the saracens were waiting for them. Two battles occured immediately before the taking of Jerusalem.
The Knights Templar were mostly massacred, and by the time the Holy Sepulchre was in Christian hands, they had lost two thirds of their number. Overall, a third of the crusaders lay dead on the sands of palestine. And their work had just begun. The saracens were loathe to give Jerusalem up so easily.
[edit] Chapter 13 continued:
Jerusalem is back in the hands of the saracens.
From the records of Hugh Gasciogne: "After our initial successes, the moslems surrounded Jerusalem, and killed off every attempt to save it. By 1165, there were only 600 crusaders left inside the city. We agreed to end the fighting and withdraw from the city, and as soon as the gates closed behind us, they swarmed from all sides and slaughtered two thirds of our number. From there, we made it to the ships and sailed for Cyprus. "
It is now 1166, the treasury has dwindled due to the ongoing war with Germany, as well as some 50,000 florins lost during the crusade business. The pope realised the mistake it was, and regretted sending four thousand brave christians to their deaths in Palestine.
The war with Germany is taking a bad turn. Some four thousand English and Irish troops landed in flanders in 1165. Their campaign was a short one however. There were plenty of germans to go around, and soon only five hundred were left. The turn of events in the past fifteen years has in general been bad for England.
[edit] Chapter 14: On the Offensive
The Crusaders have resorted to raiding the Turkish coast, burning, pillaging and slaying all they encounter. It has been long since they have had word from the English Kingdom in the west, and are driven only by thoughts of revenge on the saracens.
The war with Germany as always continues, but now there is hope, as the English army reaps a harvest of victories against the Germans:
The English in the south have also invaded the moors, and are protecting the kingdom of Aragon against the moslems. It may be said of England in the words of Roland: "Nor was there town nor bulwark, unshaken by his might; save only saragossa, that standeth on the height."
It is now 1170:
