Chapter 156: Cœur de Lion (January 1015 to June 1017)
Previously, on Blut und Schlacht … The expansion of Germanicism and its growing dominance in France prompted Pope Stephanus V to call a Crusade for France on 21 June 1014; Fylkir Helgi was embroiled in an invasion of Perm by a large host under the adventurer Uzluk when this blow fell in the west; countries rallied to both sides of the Crusade and by the end of 1014 the first battles had been fought in France; Uzluk was dealt a heavy blow at the Battle of Ural in October 1014 and chased from Perm, but his host was on the run and not yet destroyed.
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1. January-March 1015: Crusade and Holy War
Alongside the Crusade, Jarl Bertil of Brabant had been fighting a Holy War for Luxembourg and by January 1015 it had been won. Duke Jean lost most (but not all) of his lands and the Empire expanded further from Flanders into western Germany. Fittingly, Bertil gained the nickname ‘Sword of the Thunderer’ from this latest exploit.
After a leaderless defeat at the Battle of St. Dizier in Bar on 22 December 1014, the Russian army in western France had been reinforced and was now properly commanded by the trusty Chief Nuyaksha when it met the same Crusaders less than a month later at the Battle of Chaumont in Troyes on 16 January 1015. A crushing revenge was duly administered.
Back in Russia, Hemming loaded a force of over 8,800 men onto the Great Fleet in the Gulf of Finland on 24 January, beginning the voyage to France. At the same time, two more Imperial retinue companies were raised in Holmgarðr (one skirmish and one cavalry) for ‘home duties’, as the pursuit of Uzluk into eastern Russia continued.
The Crusader ranks were swelled in early February by the entry of the hated old adversary the Teutonic Order and Gelre.
And back in Russia, Crusader contingents under Serene Doge Adelmio III of Venice totalling about 1,800 men land in Narva and Ingria on 7 February, just a few weeks after Hemiing’s army had departed, no doubt intent on doing a bit of mischief in Father Russia. But some forces were on their way back from the east by then, even if they would take a bit of time to get there.
Back in France, Nuyaksha followed up his earlier victory with another in Saintois on 14 February when a small Crusader company of about 150 men was wiped out for no loss at Vaudemont in just three days. But Mâcon fell to the Crusaders on 22 February: their main strength (almost 12,500 men in two armies) was at that time concentrated in the south.
The next day, Nuyaksha engaged another isolated Crusader army in Lorraine, losing just seven men and killing 559 of the 946 enemy troops engaged by 7 March. The Russians then continued north to Pfalz, where a larger Crusader army was preventing the sizeable Swedish levy from being mustered.
To balance this, the Crusaders were making gains in the south, assaulting Cluny (3 march, 414 Crusaders killed) and Beaujeu (7 March, 208 Crusaders killed) in Mâcon
(warscore to -16%). But more help was at hand for the Russians, with Jarl Hemming’s army arriving in port at Boulogne on 28 March. They would regain organisation on the march as they headed inland to Artois, with smaller Crusader armies converging from the south (Amiens) and the north (Gent).
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2. April-August 1015: The Pursuit of Uzluk
Uzluk’s army, still numbering 4,800 men, rode quickly through Cheremisa and arrived to besiege Nizhny Novgorod on 7 April 1015. The chasing Russian army (not quite twice its size) was still approaching the eastern border of Cheremisa.
Nizhny Novogorod fell on 27 May, just as the Russians, commanded by Jarl Hemming (who had taken a fast ship back from Boulogne by that time) was crossing the Volga to its south. He reached Nizhny Novgorod on 6 July and quickly assaulted it for minimal loss before chasing Uzluk north, back across the Volga as it bent to the west.
Uzluk was confronted for the second and last time at the Battle of Yoshkar-Ola in Mari on 12 August. A tough but decisive victory was won by 8 September, final ending the invasion and seeing ‘the Tormentor’ jailed.
3. April-September 1015: From Pfalz to Chartres
Chief Nuyaksha struck a Crusader army under Count Walram of Bamberg in Pfalz at the Battle of Hagenau from 2-16 April 1015. Walram was captured during the one-sided fighting (Russia 16/6,530; Crusaders 677/1,286 killed).
There was excellent diplomatic news just after that battle had begun: for some reason, King Hrafn of England’s truce with the Pope had lapsed well ahead of time As a sworn ally, on 3 April Helgi asked him to reciprocate the earlier assistance provided him in England and on the 18th Hrafn pledged his sword (and army of over 4,300 men) to the Germanic cause.
In something that would be repeated frequently during the war, a small Crusader contingent (42 Teutonic Knights) was ambushed and killed in Oldenburg on 23 April by an approaching Russian contingent of just under a thousand men. A larger company (369 Crusaders) was similarly dealt with by Nuyaksha in Trier on 2 May, with only one unlucky Russian soldier killed.
Sigurðr now commanded the army that had landed in Boulogne and on 18 May and, reinforced by one of the allied Germanic contingents, they met a smaller army of Crusaders from Gelre, under their Count Antoon. The victory was won by early May (Germanic 382/9,793, Crusaders 1,297/2,205 killed).
Back in Russia, the Venetian army had fled south from Ingria to Vilnius by 11 may, not doing any appreciable damage along the way. Helgi just let them go, as Uzluk’s invasion was being wrapped up further to the east.
By 18 May, northern France was clear of the Crusader scourge and the Russians looked to concentrate their army at Hainaut under leading commander Snorri before their planned venture south the confront the main Crusader threat. This was completed by 11 June, but by then a Crusader army had incautiously appeared in Amiens.
With Mâcon fully occupied, the Crusaders took the castle of Charolles in Chartres on 16 June
(warscore to -19%). But before this could be remedied, the Crusader army that had made it to Artois by then had to dealt with. It was their misfortune to be completely destroyed (1,022 killed for only five Russian casualties) by 6 July at the hands of a Germanic Grand Army of 16,700 men.
A few days later, the main Norwegian contingent of around 950 men was in Gent and making its way south to join the Grand Army. The Crusaders meanwhile took Semur-en-Brionnais in Chartres on 24 July (no loss,
warscore -25%).
Although the English alliance was dissolved at the start of August, they had already committed to the defence against the Crusade, which now saw much of western Europe at war. Though interestingly, not King Valeran of France in whose name it was in effect being waged – he remained aloof. And at some point in the last few months, it seemed Pope Stephanus V had been replaced by a successor, Hadrianus II but the crusade continued unaffected.
In mid-August, the twisted tale of Swedish succession took another sudden turn when the former boy-king Prince Snorri Rurikid won a 2nd Revolt War and was reinstated 28 years after having been deposed. Ironically, he was known as ‘the Usurper’. And so much for the marriage ties that Helgi had recently forged with the recent former king (now Prince) Þorolfr.
Though less than two weeks after the usurpation, Þorolfr had already founded his own faction to reclaim the throne of Sviþjod! And ‘Bonny Prince Snorri’ was no longer very bonny: he was a man of mediocre skills and bad habits, reputedly either mad and/or possessed by demons! His dreams of a position on the Imperial Council were unlikely to be fulfilled – if he could even keep his throne more than a few years.
More Crusader forces had mobilised and arrived in Brabant by 19 August, with Doge Gelasion of Venice leading a force of Venetian, Teutonic and Gelrean numbering over 5,100 men to besiege Gent. The Grand Army was half-way down to its confrontation with the main Papal army in southern France. Other Russian, English, Danish and Norwegian forces numbering about 8,000 were at that time still distributed around northern Germany, though they would be aiming to coalesce in the Teutonic stronghold of Oldenburg in coming weeks.
The decisive battle of the French Crusade began at Semur-en-Brionnais in Chartres on 8 September 1015. Snorri attacked with a well balanced force, though had lost his right-flank commander along the way and faced a larger Crusader central division than his own. But this seemed not to matter greatly as by the 24th both the right and centre enemy divisions had broken, with one being pursued from the field while Snorri turned his centre division to crush the flank of the enemy’s right.
When the pursuit finished on 9 October, the Germanic Grand Army had received over 1,200 reinforcements from the north and won a crushing victory over their Crusader counterparts.
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4. September 1015 to January 1016: Home and Away
The Knights Hospitaller joined the Crusade on 19 September, but it was unclear how many troops Grandmaster Bassiano would be able to muster. Down in southern Russia, the small peasant revolt in Lukomorie had finally received Imperial attention after Zaporzhye had fallen at the end of July. The decisive battle was concluded easily on 23 September and Lukomorie was soon cleared of rebel occupation after their leader was imprisoned.
The small Kingdom of Breizh joined the Crusade on 1 October and a small army was mustered as two other more sizeable Crusader armies roved the French interior, as the Battle of Semur-en-Brionnais reached its final phase. With the battle won, the Grand Army began to assault the lost holdings in Chartres (Charolles and Semur-en-Brionnais) from 14-16 October (53 troops lost), then over in Mâcon (Mâcon, Cluny and Beaujeu) from 26-30 October (125 men lost –
warscore to +7%).
At the Imperial Court, a whispering campaign against the Seer, the ultra-loyal Godi Steinn ‘the Holy’ began in December 1015, Arnbjörn of Connacht accusing him of slandering his Fylkir. With no firm evidence to hand, Helgi discounted these seemingly baseless accusations. And again in April the following year when Jarl Bo of Vladimir made the same accusation, Helgi deeming it a baseless rumour started by jealous rivals of the good Seer.
While the Grand Army was distracted in the south, another head of the Papal Hydra managed to snap up Oudenaarde in Gent on 29 December. Five armies of varying size (from 470 to 5,000 in strength) were loose in Paris and to its north. A day later, Genoa was the next realm to join the Crusade.
Then on 1 January 1016, a poorly timed rebellion kicked off in Vyazma to mark 149 years of the Rurikid dynasty. Þorgil was passing to the north with the army that had recently defeated Uzluk. They would turn south after they reached Toropets.
The Grand Army had headed down to besiege Lyon, mistakenly (as it happens) thinking to help knock out one of the contributing Crusader realms. On 11 January a new Papal army of 6,400 men appeared unexpectedly in Mâcon, assaulting and taking the barely defended castle. Cluny followed the next day, as Snorri assaulted Pusignan for the loss of 465 men the same day.
[Only for me to find it had no impact at all on the warscore.]
Wiki the Red was consulted, revealing that apart from field battles, retention of
de jure French territory and taking the Pope’s own counties were the only thing that would actually gain Germanic bargaining power
(ie warscore) in the Crusade.
The now very minor Duke Jean of Luxembourg (thanks to Bertil’s earlier effort) joined the Pope on 20 January, as Snorri marched north for another go at the invading Crusaders. The Battle of Beaujeu was fought from 20 January to 12 February, with Pope Hadrianus himself commanding their right flank and the Norwegian contingent taking overall battlefield command of the Germanic Grand Army. The enemy were routed in two weeks with considerable losses, though unfortunately the Pope evaded capture during the subsequent pursuit. To the north, Paris was again under siege.
In Vyazma, Jarl Bo had taken the initiative to attack the peasant rebels on 20 January and a week later, the main Russian army arrived to reinforce Bo and administer the
coup de grace to the short-lived rebellion, wiping out their entire force at the Battle (slaughter) of Dukhov.
Back in the West, a mainly allied army of over 7,500 men had gathered in the Teutonic fort of Lüneburg. Having recently discovered it would do little good for the overall war effort, it was nonetheless seen out. Once the castle fell on 27 January, this army led by a newly recruited commander, Sumarliði (23 Martial) set off for Flanders.
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5. February to September 1016: A Change of Focus
On the political front, Chancellor Haukr’s general influencing campaign did some good work in early February, improving relations with the recently restored King Snorri.
Before heading back north to eject the interlopers from Paris and northern France, Snorri quickly assaulted Mâcon (14 February, 10 men lost) and Cluny (16 February, no casualties). It was not a moment too soon, as between 21 February and 16 march, three important castles were lost to the Crusaders. By then, Snorri was approaching Orléans, while Sumarliði was in Sticht and heading to relieve Gent.
First stop on the return north was Paris, where a large Crusader army was nevertheless outnumbered three-to-one and duly routed by the Germanic Grand Army at St. Denis on 23 April. Melun was quickly assaulted and retaken, as Sumarliði closed in on the Teutonic Knights in Gent.
While the numbers were closer in the Battle of Kortrijk in Gent on 4 April, some late reinforcements contributed to another convincing win by 1 May. As that battle was ending, Snorri had finished his work in Paris and the Grand Army was split in two. Half under Nuyaksha would head north to help round up the remaining Crusader army and liberate Artois. Snorri would head back south to Mâcon, to confront the latest Papal incursion.
Another delay in Gent meant the assault on Oudenaarde did not take place until 14 May, costing the lives of over 400 Germanic troops to subdue the garrison. Gent itself fell more quickly and cheaply. With that, the balance of the war had shifted more firmly back in the Fylkir’s favour.
A host of over a thousand raiding warriors arrived in Livland, on the Baltic Coast, on 5 May. This was another case of very poor timing, as the last of the major Russian armies returning from the war against Uzluk arrived there from the east just five days later. By 18 May the raiders had been bloodily defeated for just two dozen Russian casualties. Those troops were aboard the waiting Great Fleet by 30 May, heading to the Gulf of Danzig where they would pick up another 2,150 men returned from the Lukomorie rebellion earlier in the year.
In France, Chief Nuyaksha defeated another Crusader army in Artois at the Battle of Terwaan from 19 May to 1 June (Russia 32/7,596; Crusaders 595/1,308 killed). After a couple of days, Artois Tribe was assaulted and taken for only a handful of Russian casualties on 4 June.
Meanwhile, a Crusader company of just a hundred men managed to take Melun while passing through on 31 May, as there was no-one to man the walls there yet. Nuyaksha was soon doubling back to put this right.
And by 6 June, Snorri had over 11,000 men closing in on the Crusaders in Mâcon: 7,678 were Russian with 2,107 from Kemi and 1,284 Norwegians. The ensuing Battle of Cluny ended in another clear win by 1 July (Russia 60/11,066, Crusaders 1,448/3,181 killed).
Up in Éire, a Templar Knight army took Ath Cliath in Dyflinn on 16 June. But the Pereyeslavian invasion had since conquered most of its target’s territory. And in Liege, Sumarliði caught another Crusader army at Namur on 22 June, defeating them by 4 July (Russia 40/6,623, Crusaders 781/1,459 killed) and capturing Turo, a Suomenusko mercenary commander in the employ of the Pope.
By 26 June, Helgi stayed just ahead in the progress of the war in terms of territorial possession, even if on the battlefield army after army of Crusading invaders had been heavily defeated or often completely destroyed.
Nuyaksha assaulted and retook Melun a day after he reached Paris on 27 June. The same day, the reinforcements had been picked up in the Gulf of Danzig and a large Russian army was headed to strike at Rome itself by the shortest available route: the inland river system through Constantinople and the eastern Mediterranean. Wiki the Red had advised that the best way to hasten the end of the crusade was to hit the Pope where it hurt the most: his own backyard.
Away from all the action, the Emperor’s uncle and namesake, once one of those troublesome brothers during his father’s reign, died quietly at his home in Rostov-na-Donu on 9 July.
Five days later, Turo’s Captain refused to ransom him. With the dungeons already crowded, the man was sent to the scaffold. Because, reasons. Perhaps it was Grandpa Eilif’s voice whispering in his ear …
In France, with all large Crusader armies in disarray, the Russian armies there were broken up further with one larger force each in the north, east and south, plus a smaller garrison of around 2,000 men left in Paris to repel any more random Crusaders trying their luck there.
In July and August a series of four battles were fought and won in Vermandois (Nuyaksha, 26 July-16 August, 138 Russians and 1,040 Crusaders killed), Blois (Bagge, 2-12 August, 2 Russians and all 104 Crusaders killed), Breda (Sumarliði, 6-15 August, six Russians and all 593 Crusaders killed) and in Breda again on the defence (16-30 August, eight Russians and all 895 Crusaders killed). By mid-August, the Great Fleet was passing into the Black Sea.
In September, another strong victory was won by Nuyaksha in Gent at the Battle of Doornik against Hochmeister Amalrich of the Teutonic Order (5-26 September, 48/5,595, 1,043/1,530 Teutons killed). A smaller skirmish was fought at reims by Bagge’s Paris garrison from 11-23 September (Russia nine, Crusaders 176 killed).
At home, during this period of wartime solidarity, only two small single-member factions remained: King Snorri of Sviþjod for gavelkind succession in Garðariki (10.8%) and Helgi’s brother Gunnarr advocating elective succession for Russia (3.3%). This caused no loss of sleep for the Emperor.
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6. October 1016 to June 1017: Closing In
With France now temporarily quiet after a flurry of battles (putting out the spot-fires, as it were), the Great fleet arrived off Rome in mid-October and were ashore by the end of the month. For now anyway, the siege was entrusted to the ‘third string’ Jomsviking commanders that remained with the troops that made up the bulk of this army – the only that had completed the victory against Uzluk. They settled in for a siege and saw little in the known enemy dispositions in Italy to worry them.
Back home, Helgi’s continued focus on family life was rewarded by the development of a friendship between his two young sons. He hoped this might one day spare them both some trouble when it came Hroðulfr’s time to inherit the Imperial Crown.
Another platoon of 42 Crusaders was destroyed in Chartres on 23 October when they unwisely crossed into the path of Bagge’s 2,000-man force. A larger battle was fought by Sumarliði at Stahleck in Pfalz from 27 October to 13 November, ending in another expensive loss Count Antoon of Gelre for the increasingly ineffectual Crusaders (Russia 21/6,696, Gelre 595/1,146 killed).
But the news kept getting better for Helgi, with news in early November that one of his concubines was now pregnant – it would be his fourth child.
With the loss of Ath Cliath still rankling the Emperor, a detachment of ships was sent around to France in mid-November 1016, while the rest remained off Rome, just in case an emergency evacuation should become necessary.
A small battle at Dreux in Cartres from 13-30 December would have been entirely unremarkable, if it hadn’t featured Bagge’s garrison encountering a Papal army featuring Pope Hadrianus, his Marshal Uargal and Papal Chancellor Andrea. They were of course soundly thrashed, but again Hadrianus escaped (Russia 2/2,033, Papacy 191/293 killed).
Overlapping with this skirmish was a larger battle at Melun in Paris, where Nuyaksha beat the latest Crusader army to attempt an end run (23 December-13 January, Russia 30/8,791, Crusaders 884/1,386 killed).
And Rome fell on 30 December
(warscore +15.09% to 43%): these three victories was a fitting way to usher in the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Rurikid dynasty on 1 January 867.
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January to mid-February 1017 saw another series of battles fought across France as the Russians ensured they kept full control of France while the sieges in Rome stayed their course. Mâcon (Snorri, 3-11 January, Russia 0/11,135, Crusaders all 464 killed), Breda (Nukaksha, 3-14 January, Russia 8/6,708, Crusaders all 928 killed), Chartres (Bagge, 22-28 January, Russia one casualty, all 111 Crusaders killed) saw Germanic victories.
By 12 February Bagge was in Evreux and boarding the fleet that arrived that day to ferry him to Dyflinn. The next day, Sumarliði was at work again, this time Artois (13-28 February, Russia 28, Crusaders all 849 killed).
As that battle played out, King Valeran, such a fixture of Russian endeavours for many years, died of an infected wound on 16 February 1017. His son Enguerrand succeeded him – and still remained out of the Crusade being fought for his patrimony.
And even though the Catholic cause seemed to be failing
(48% warscore), the Duke of Normandy joined the Crusade on 28 February.
Bagge’s army landed in Dyflinn on 12 March, keeping an eye on the two Templar armies, admiring the work Pereyeslavl was doing on the Irish and beginning a siege to reclaim Ath Cliath from the crusaders.
Then on 30 March, Sumarliði intercepted an approaching Crusader army in Verdun at the Battle of Grandpré, emerging victorious on 14 April (Russia 151/6,726, Crusaders 1,029/2,498 killed). The hydra had many heads that needed to be cut off: another was severed by Snorri at Chartres from 6-17 April (Russia 18/11,302, Crusaders all 1,254 killed). It seemed there were still plenty of them willing to be killed uselessly for their God, as Sardinia and Corsica joined the Crusade on 13 April.
It was one of Chancellor Haukr’s officials that on 25 April alerted Helgi to some new usurpation options that had recently become available: the Kingdom of France and Duchies of Orleans and Burgundy. Perhaps it had been the recent death of King Valeran that had opened these up. In any case, it was an opportunity too good to pass up, in the middle of the Catholic Crusade for France. That day, Helgi had the writs issued: the Kingdom of France was now added to his Imperial titles.
Enguerrand became simply the Count of Vienne, albeit still a Prince by title. It would take ten years for him to change the succession laws from their current agnatic gavelkind to the preferred primogeniture form, so until then Helgi’s second son Hakon would be heir to the French throne.
Freed as an independent ruler, Duke Bourchard III of Orléans joined the doomed cause of the Crusade just four days later, followed by Enguerrand on 1 May. It would matter little now: the Crusaders simply could no longer muster the numbers needed to defeat the Germanic cause.
Duke Bourchard personally commanded the his men that were attacked by Chief Nuyaksha in Tours on 23 May – and like their fellows before them, were badly defeated for little Germanic loss (Germanic 12/6,848, Crusaders 600/1,308 killed). Despite these setbacks, Duke Bernard III of Burgundy joined the Pope on the 31st.
On 4 June, Ath Cliath was reclaimed from the Templars for no Russian loss
(warscore 73%). Then came the final blow on 6 June with the fall of Viterbo in Rome. The Pope could take no more and agreed to terms that day. The reverberations would affect the moral authority of the Catholic Church for the next two decades and boost that of Germanicism for the same time.
The Crusaders had only won one pitched battle (though many sieges) over the entire campaign that had lasted just under three bloody years. Pathetic, indeed!
For his overall efforts leading the defence of the Crusade, Helgi became known as ‘the Lionheart’: which, for someone who was actually somewhat craven and had refused (also by recent Imperial Rurikid tradition) to personally troops in battle, was a simultaneously welcome and ironic nickname. Meanwhile, the defeated Pope was left to his own madness.
And with this great triumph over the Catholics, Helgi’s thoughts turned to that ‘sore thumb’ of the Germanic world: the Holy site at Paderborn. It had remained in Christian hands for way too long. And was now in the hands of a bishop ruled by a single independent Count. The Christian pact remained comprehensive and the Russian threat may see others join against him if he tried to conquer it. But whether now or later, Russian eyes were now firmly fixed on ‘completing the set’.
The last couple of years had again seen the expansion of Germanicism within the lands of the Empire; in England, recently conquered Luxembourg and on the Black Sea.
The Empire itself had also grown that little bit more, especially with the conquest of the Jarldom of Luxembourg by Bertil of Brabant.
There were also some opportunities for expansion in France, with a few of the recently independent former French duchies not yet signatories of the Christian defensive pact and a revolt in Aquitaine.
But Helgi would not move against any of his Norse allies (formal or not) who had aided Russia in the recent Crusade: their assistance would be repaid with loyalty in return, whether required by law or not. Though they would always be encouraged to voluntarily join the Empire as sworn vassals, if they could be encouraged to do so.
After 150 years of the Rurikid dynasty, Emperor of Russia and Germanic Fylkir Helgi 'the Lionheart' gazed out and saw the world before him. Where to next? And what could possibly go wrong?
even with the state of Catholicism in this timeline, it's still scary. And AI has great timing with Uzluk in the east, or is just plain lucky. Either way, good challenge!
