The Boar in Burgundy

[Barry Goldwater]

After many months of marching Richard, Duke of Gloucester has finally reached that of his father-in-law Charles, the notoriously warmongering Duke of Burgundy. The army of English & Calaisiens he brings with him are not mere mercenaries (well, except for the handgunners) - they come beneath the Cross of Saint George and the quartered arms of Plantagenet & Valois, as well as Richard's own personal standard of the White Rose of York & a charging white boar on red and blue, to denote their official allegiance to the English Crown, even if the soldiers themselves mostly wear Richard's boar livery badge on their tunics and doublets. At this point in 1475, the Burgundians (supported by a local alliance of German princes & lords) were still laying siege to the town of Neuss in the Holy Roman Empire, which along with the city of Cologne itself had rebelled against the authority of the incumbent Archbishop-Elector of Cologne; one Rupert of the Palatinate of the Rhine, a widely disliked tyrant and pawn of Charles'.

English expeditionary force to Burgundy

Commanders Richard, Duke of Gloucester Age: 23 Equipment:​ Bastard sword (one-and-a-half hand weapon) (+4 Duels, +4 Survival) Partial plate (+20 hp, +4 Duels, +2 Survival) Traits: +2 Duels (total with equipment: +10) +3 Battles +1 Wealth (5%) +6 survival (from equipment) Strength Richard's forces: 10x Heavy Footmen (1,000) 10x Yeoman Archers (1,000) 2x Handgunners (200) 5x Men-at-Arms (500) 3x Knights (300) Total: 3,000 men

----------

Once at the Burgundian camp outside Neuss, Richard immediately seeks an audience with the Duke of Burgundy. The Duke of Gloucester would inform his father-in-law of the good news - that he was now a grandfather - but, even more importantly, he had been entrusted with the mission of redirecting the Burgundians' focus toward France and keeping the notoriously vain & reckless Duke of Burgundy from getting himself killed, if at all possible.

[Oznerol]

Charles wore a golden suit of armor, covered by a tabard emblazoned with his combined arms. He wore no helmet, as he was discussing something with his commanders. The duke wore long beard and hair, somewhat unkept and messy, quite unusual, considering the tent was splendidly covered in rich tapestries and that he was surrounded by all the acustomed riches and pomp. His gaze was deranged, like a mind grasping to the last shreds of sanity. A herald announced Gloucester's arrival:

"His Grace the Duke of Gloucester, Richard of York"

"My sweet and noble son Gloucester, you arrive in a timely fashion, fortunately. That dog, Hermann, refuses to surrender. But I will have him, and my good cousin will be reinstated as archbishop; I will rule these lands, uncontested!"

He said so in French.

[Barry Goldwater]

"Indeed, good-father. My brother has dispatched me to join you in your endeavors. Furthermore, it is my great pleasure to announce that you are now a grandfather: your grandson Lionel was born in Calais last year." Richard stated respectfully. Truthfully, his brother Edward was also Charles' brother-in-law, and the Duke's new son by their sister Margaret was simultaneously his nephew and brother-in-law too while his own son Lionel was Charles' grandson and nephew by marriage; a complicated family picture, to say the least, but Gloucester figured just leaving things at 'my brother' would suffice in describing the King of England. More importantly, underneath all of Burgundy's finery and golden armor he could not help but notice that not only was Charles unusually unkempt but that there was something wild in the Duke's gaze, something unsettling. It was in that moment that Richard decided plainly asking Charles to pack up and go home would surely be unwise: instead, aiding him in bringing a speedy conclusion to the siege might be the better idea, to secure his gratitude and long-term support in France.

"How goes the siege?" Richard finally asked, a little cautiously. As far as he knew, the Neussers had been holding out since last summer and repelled every attempt by the Burgundians to overcome their defenses, aided only by their fellow rebels in Cologne itself. Would their nominal overlord, the famously indolent Holy Roman Emperor Frederick, ever come to their aid?

[Oznerol]

"A grandson! God willing my daughter shall bear many more to make our lines proud, my Lord Gloucester. My wife recently delivered a healthy son, your noble nephew"

And brother-in-law. But such things were common, anyway.

"The siege simply goes. We have been unable to break Hesse's defenses yet, but he will yield and I will send him back to his domains, with the tail between his legs. Then, Cologne shall be humbled. Our siege, however, is strong, and the fortress is circled"

[Barry Goldwater]

"Have you scouted for the approach of an Imperial army, great duke?" Richard queried. The Holy Roman Emperor Frederick may have been a laggard, but surely not even he could pretend this siege of one of the towns under his protection as the Empire's head wasn't happening. "It may be most prudent to bring the siege to a quick end, father, lest Frederick the indolent should finally stir himself against us. How much luck has your cannons had in battering Neuss' walls?"

[Oznerol]

"Frederick will never come, he can remain lingering and festering at Insbruck. He will never dare to lay his craven eyes upon my persona"

Said Charles confidently.

"The defenders are pretty hopeless, my guns are bringing their walls down, and with your reinforcements we may soon see their surrender"

The duke looked determined and almost deranged.

[Barry Goldwater]

"You may be right, my lord," Richard said thoughtfully. Actually, he didn't think that, but thought it imprudent to bring such thoughts up before his father-in-law directly - he could tell from the intensity of his gaze that the Burgundian Duke was hellbent on taking Neuss. But, his own brother still needed him to get Charles away from this German city and onto the battlefields of France, so he had to try something. Instead of a blunt request, a roundabout approach such as an appeal to Charles' infamous vanity may be a better idea, Gloucester reflected. "Still, what glory is there in sitting around this city and simply waiting for the defenders to starve or lose the last of their nerves? Surely we can take it more quickly and gloriously with an assault."

Gloucester glanced at the other Burgundian officers, judging to see how they might respond to any suggestion he raised, before returning his dark blue eyes to match Charles' own manic gaze. "If I may make a suggestion, father...I think there's a way your gunpowder can bring Neuss' defenses down even faster, with a more 'direct' application. Have you considered loading wagons with barrels of the stuff and driving them into the gates? When they go off, they'll surely open the city's gates to this great army, maybe even bring the gatehouses down. From there, the three thousand Englishmen I have brought to join you can help overrun this place's hopeless defenders in a matter of hours if not minutes, and free you to accomplish greater deeds." A quick end to this tiring siege, the glory of a direct and dramatic storming as opposed to months more of camping around the walls, and lots of explosions - Richard dearly hoped that would be a winning combination for a plan in the eyes of Burgundy's proud duke.

[Oznerol]

"They would blow up those carts before they reached the gates. Unless..."

The duke looked outside the tent, towards the fortress.

"We could mount a full assault on the other side. In the meanwhile, we could start battering the gate with our cannons, covering the carts' advance..."

[Barry Goldwater]

"Good thinking, father." Richard nodded, and this time he meant it. For this plan to be anything more than a waste of gunpowder and perfectly serviceable wagons, they had to consider anything and everything within their means to ensure those wagons got into position to detonate and bring down Neuss' gates. "It may also be worthwhile to see whether we can fix protective canopies, akin to those covering more conventional battering rams, over these carts as well. The most important thing is that they reach those gates, come hell or high water."

Gloucester paused before adding, "I would, of course, be willing to go where you command - whether it be overseeing the movement of the exploding carts, or participating in the diversionary assault on the other side of the city." This was the younger duke's first real battle; he had been robbed of the opportunity to participate in one when the Scottish war some years back fizzled out. Thus, beneath his stoic expression and calm tone Richard was feeling considerable anxiety, both at the idea of plunging into the fighting and at the opportunity to prove himself.

[Oznerol]

"The idea was yours. The carts shall be under your direct supervision, noble Gloucester, my men and I shall prepare the diversion against the fortress walls... here and here"

He said, pointing at a map, the furthest points from the main gateway, but, at the same time both were equally distant from each other.

"We will mount our attack tomorrow, prepare for battle, son"

[Gandalfus]

Gloucester's scheme had been hatched; the 'rams' approached the gates under the cover of protective canopies, pushed towards the city of Neuss by squadrons of determined Englishmen - who were not fighting for King and country but instead for a foreign warlord. It seemed the defenders quickly cottoned on to what Gloucester was doing, subjecting those pushing the payload to heavy projectile fire. The attacks were also concentrated in one area, with the assault from both the English and the Burgundians being relatively frontal. With the attack at a standstill, the only option would be either to fall back or try to further distract the defenders by opening another front. Recently, the islands adjacent in the Rhine had been captured by the Burgundians, and perhaps an attack utilising those (and the bridges built upon them) would be the best option - with the ferocity of this attack unexpected, the defenders would be stretched very thin.

[Barry Goldwater]

Noting that the Neussers were concentrating their fire on the explosive not-rams and that his father-in-law's own assault seemed insufficient to distract them, Gloucester had to devise a new plan on the fly, and settled on racing to prepare an attack on a third front, hopefully before those wagons could be defeated. His knights and men-at-arms, 800 of his best men in total, would dismount and accompany him as he led this fresh assault together with a quarter (250) of his footmen: they would cross the pontoon bridges the Burgundians had erected on the river, through the islets already captured by the Burgundians, and storm Neuss' riverside defenses that way. As far as he was concerned, they didn't have to actually take that section of the city walls (though it would be nice), just distract the defenders long enough for his 'rams' to destroy the city gate. Richard further dispatched messengers to inform Charles and his German allies of his new plan, and requested any German or Burgundian troops not currently engaged elsewhere to aid him in this endeavor.

[Gandalfus]

The distraction proved a resounding success; the Neussers, spotting Gloucester's foray towards a relatively unguarded section of the city walls, sent a large portion of troops to thwart the Duke's advance, taking the pressure off of Charles' distraction and the gunpowder rams. As such, the English were able to battle through the steadily decreasing hail of projectiles, the wagons finally reaching the gate - though they had lost a hundred or so soldiers in doing so. Not only was the distraction very effective, but the attack itself was, too. The heaviest of the English troops smashed through the prepared defences, taking significant ground with a relatively small death toll - only 24 had been wounded or slain by their foe. Nonetheless, Gloucester's men were unable to bring their full strength to bear; they were caught in a stop gap by a slightly numerically superior enemy. Gloucester could either slug it out or retreat, honour intact, as his primary objective of securing a distraction had been achieved.

[Barry Goldwater]

Richard growled as he ducked beneath a Neusser halberdier's wild swing, closed the distance between them, and knocked the man flat on his arse by ramming into him with his armor-clad lopsided shoulder, all before cutting the man's life (and frantic German cursing) with a quick thrust to the throat. He had killed for the first time less than half an hour earlier, when the assault began - another Neusser had attempted to spring upon him with knife in hand, and gotten cut down for it. To his own surprise Gloucester felt nothing except a slight numbness, though the slight issue of him being in a leading position in an assault did mean he had virtually no time to engage in philosophical navel-gazing about it, or the other men he killed afterward.

When one Sir Richard Ratcliffe, a member of his command staff, came to report what had happened at the gates - "Your Grace, the gunpowder wagons have reached their mark and are now only awaiting detonation. There is no need for you to remain here." - Richard shook his head at the thought of withdrawal. "I do not intend to fall back until I hear an explosion, Ratcliffe. Or several. Then I can rest easy in the knowledge that we have truly succeeded completely," he panted, not lifting his visor out of worry that that could get him shot - the Neussers were streaming to counter the English at this section now, and it would seem that they were slightly outnumbered. "The men here are the finest I have with me, knights and gentlemen-at-arms clad in armor that renders them nigh-invulnerable to anything short of a giant's warhammer. I am confident we can survive a few more minutes of this!" He turned to gut another Neusser who'd emerged from behind a barricade and was sprinting towards him with a mace in hand.

"Get to Duke Charles. Inform him of these recent developments, and once more, appeal to him and those German princes who have aligned with him to spare any troops not otherwise reserved for his own assault or the one on a fallen gate to support us. And if you find any other runners, tell them to inform my captains at the gates that I want those wagons detonated at once!" Richard gave those instructions out without even turning back to his subordinate, at which point Ratcliffe promptly ran off with only the briefest of salutes.

[Oznerol]

Charles was overseeing the assault on the walls with his entourage, clad in his splendid armor, visor lowered. An exhausted messenger carried over Gloucester's words, he knelt some paces away from the Burgundian duke.

"So be it. Send all troops still not committed to the fray to my son's support, including a detachment of crossbowmen and handgunners to cover his advance"

He said so with commanding voice.

"But, keep some men in reserve to break through the gates as soon those carts are detonated. Order our batteries to keep firing, to overwhelm their defenses"

Charles ordered. The Burgundian assault raged around the city, that seemed quite doomed.

[Gandalfus]

Fortune was with Richard and Charles, for the plan worked without a hitch. The gunpowder exploded, leaving a gaping hole in the defence that was quickly filled by the Burgundian reserves as well as Gloucester's own men. Finding themselves stretched, the forces arrayed against Gloucester himself nonetheless continued to put up a fearsome fight, though the tide firmly began to turn against them with the arrival of reinforcements. Merely a further twenty-seven of Richard's men were slain, with the comparative gain being the opening up of a third front of assault. The way was wide open into the city for Richard himself, with the remaining forces committed to defending the gate itself as well as the nearly overrun walls.

[Barry Goldwater]

"Did you hear that mighty 'boom'? Onward, men!" Richard shouted at the knights and gentry fighting around him, his expression one of utter determination beneath his visor. They must be getting close to victory, he thought: the gates had just been blown sky-high with the rest of his troops and the Burgundian reserve sure to rush in, the Neussers' defense was waning at his section of the walls while reinforcements arrived to sustain his offensive, and the Duke's own assault on the other side was still in progress. Between those three fronts and their mauled defenses, he estimated the Neussers couldn't possibly have that many men left to throw into their path, anyway. Certainly, there could be no turning back now. "Lay on! We need only meet the rest of our friends, who are surely pushing through those freshly opened gates, within these walls, and the city will surely be ours! Forward, we go only forward!"

Gloucester also took the time to pull another messenger closer to him. "Get to Duke Charles - inform him that the gates are down. Just one more good, sharp push on our part should be enough to finally take this blasted city."

[Gandalfus]

The assault proved to be a success - after a few hours of bloodshed, the outlying defences belonged entirely to Charles and his allies. Soon enough, the interior defences had been breaches as well, the exhausted defenders of the city quickly overrun by the onslaught of the English and Burgundian forces amassed against them. The remaining defenders simply surrendered, with very few casualties (5%) inflicted upon the English themselves. If reinforcements were indeed arriving, they were simply too late - Burgundy had control over Neuss now.

[Oznerol]

After a hard fight and months of siege, it was finally over. The duke stood on his stirrups as the rebels' impromptu leader was brought before him. His troops were sacking the city, as it diserved for refusing to yield. The loot would please the mercenaries at his employ.

"You solely have still a head upon your shoulders because your priestly status, Hermann. Be grateful my mercy extends to your miserable persona, for I am victorious and in this glorious day I shall be compasionate. Now, begone, take him away"

The duke turned on the saddle, looking at one of his retainers, Louis de Chalon, Lord of Château-Guyon.

"Send word to our noble cousin the archbishop. With the rebels smashed he can now recognize us as his rightful protector and guardian"

"As you wish, sire"

"Bring forth our noble son Gloucester"

Soon, the whole Alsace would be his, a step closer to finally being able to link Burgundy proper and Flanders.

[Barry Goldwater]

Gloucester came forth as requested, having only removed his helmet to reveal his bloodied, sweat-covered face and matted brown locks beneath. He had finally fought his first battle, and it had gone swimmingly: the city had fallen, and his strategy of using gunpowder-laden wagons had been critical to it, something he could truly take pride in. The resulting sack, and the feelings it left him with, was much less welcome: as Burgundians, their mercenaries and German allies, and his own troops began sacking the city, he found that he wasn't entirely surprised - he had read that when cities refused to surrender immediately and instead fell by storm or starvation, the frustrated besiegers would often plunder it - but nothing he read could have prepared him for what he witnessed as he made his way to his good-father, for the sight of livid and blood-crazed soldiers torching houses for kicks or making off with as much jewelry and other valuables as they could carry after leaving the former owners in pools of their own blood or dragging Neusser women into the alleys. This is wholly unjust, some part of him protested and was in turn answered by another, And yet it is necessary! The Neussers brought it upon themselves. Either way, this is your fault, they'd both echo in his skull.

But, Gloucester would banish all those thoughts when he finally arrived before Duke Charles. His conscience may have a thousand tongues, each bearing several tales and each of those several tales condemning him for a villain, but he decided that this really wasn't the time for him to pay attention to those tales at all. "Duke Charles. The city is yours." He said simply, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. His secretary, Catesby, was not with him - he was back at the English camp, rooting for the letters from Edward IV telling him to get the Burgundians into France.