Euskadi: A Navaresse AAR

[XhePablo]

Euskadi
A Papal States AARA Navaresse AAR


There is an Oak tree in Biscay
As Old, strong and loyal
As the laws that it represents
'Over the Oak we have the Holy cross'
Always our motto"
~ Gora ta Gora Euskadi, Anthem of the Basque Country​

This AAR will focus on one of my favorite corners of the Earth, the Kingdom of Navarre, beginning in 1454. If you'd like to see my writing style, find my Unam Sanctam AAR, which in turn is influenced by RossN's AAR writing style in Strange Shores. I hope you enjoy my second attempt at an AAR and this time I hope I can complete it without problems!


Specs on my EUIII for this AAR:
EUIII v1.2
New National Ideas Mod v1.1

 

[Rensslaer]

Looking forward to this!

In my game, Navarre proved amazingly resilient. In fact, some of my readers have asserted that Navarre could have been saved for decades more if I had not had other priorities.

Rensslaer

 

[canonized]

I always thought Navarra had a nice name XD although being a mostly Spanish player it was always hard for me to stomach a free basque country . Either way , however , I hope you bring honour to the Cross with your endeavors !

 

[oddman]

I've tried playing Navarre, I find it a very charming country as being small and with amazing sliders
but I always managed to get annexed within a handful of years.

You need more to become a proper trading power.

 

[XhePablo]

The Reign of Catalina I

Her Royal Highness Catalina I "the Catholic", Queen of Navarre​

1) Catalina I (1433-1474)

Catalina, first child of Juan II, had lived mostly a pious life, in her younger days dreaming of running away and becoming a nun, spending her days serving Christ. However, as time progressed, it became clear to her that there was no escaping her future as the Queen of Navarre and she began to call upon the finest tutors to educate herself in anticipation of the crown, much to the joy of her father and much to the relief of the nobles, who feared that she would not take her throne seriously and thereby forcing the kingdom to endure a Regency Council or even worse, foreign rulers. Upon the death of King Juan II in 1453 due to illness, Catalina was more than ready to lead Navarre and as such, was crowned just a few days after her father's death in the royal capital of Pamplona. Young, capable, educated and respected, many expected the reign of Queen Catalina to change Navarre for the better and hopefully restore its former glory.


The Portuguese Wars (1454-1456, 1471-1473)

Before his death, Juan II was able to secure an alliance with the Kingdom of Castille, which many Navaresse nobles saw as the ultimate deterrent against Aragonese aggression and what future historians would see as a crucial turning point in the history of Navarre. However, just a few months after Catalina's coronation, Portugal invaded Castille over some minor boundary dispute and Navarre was called upon to help defend Castille against the Portuguese aggressors and their English allies. General Gaston de Zarate was appointed to command Navarre's army in the war and produced many victories against the Portuguese forces, the most famous being the joint Navaresse-Castillian assault on Alentejo, which resulted in the province being secured under Castillian control. The Castillian navy was successfully able to keep the English forces from landing in Iberia and as such, eliminated them as a threat for the duration of the war. After the capture of Algarve by Navarre, it had been decided that Portugal had been humiliated enough and a ceasefire of sorts was agreed upon, returning to the previous boundaries and returning all provinces captured back to their respective owners.

The Battle of Alentejo​

The ceasefire was not meant to last and after the wars against the Moors (see below), Castille had decided to retaliate after a Portuguese espionage ring was discovered in the Castillian Royal Court. Whether the spy ring was indeed real or simply an excuse for war, Navarre was once more on the warpath, faithfully at the side of their Castillian allies. Queen Catalina, upon hearing of discovery of the spies in Castille, reportedly stated that "it seems that the Portuguese want nothing but war, so they shall have it". General de Zarate having died a few months before the return to war, the task of achieving victory was this time left in the hands of General Pedro de Heredia. De Heredia was known throughout Navarre as a martial prodigy, trained by De Zarate himself since the young age of 8. Now, he was to show what he was capable of as Navaresse forces were ready to do battle with the Portuguese once more. The much smaller Navaresse force (compared to both Portugal and Castille) quickly stormed through Portugal as siege after siege was won under General de Heredia's superior command, capturing the provinces of Braganca and Algarve. Outside of the royal Portuguese capital of Lisboa in November 1472, Navaresse forces were faced with a force two times larger than their own and led by King Afonso V, whose majesty on the battlefield was rumored to be superior to any living Iberian ruler. However, after a long and arduous battle, General de Heredia achieved the greatest victory of his lifetime, losing only 12 men and utterly devastating the Portuguese army, reducing it to only a couple of hundred men who were very demoralized. At the signing of the Peace of Algarve in which Castille gained the provinces of Alentejo and Beira, King Afonso V famously said "My two greatest mistakes were leaving the walls of Lisboa and underestimating the Navaresse". General de Heredia marched into Pamplona a hero, being named a in a grand ceremony Champion of Navarre by Queen Catalina. It was rumored in the royal court that Catalina was involved in a secretive romance with De Heredia, but they remain only rumors, with no proper evidence or first hand accounts presented to this day.


Domestic Policies

A problem during the reign of Juan II was the fact that the Crown was very lax when it came to collecting taxes and imposing its rule on nobility and commonfolk alike. However, Queen Catalina's early edicts furthered the centralization of power in the hands of the Navaresse monarch and brought about the Kingdom of Navarre's first efficient bureaucratic system, with tax laws fully enforced. Of course, this caused some grumbling from the peasants and some of the more "financially reserved" nobles, but luckily it did not escalate farther than that and it took only a few years to see the benefits of the system. This new sense of unification brought peace to some of the more troubled areas of Navarre and brought the most troublesome of nobles under control. It also helped, as the once-rebellious Count of Lerin once said, that "Queen Catalina is more respected by the nobles than the crown she wears". However, after the trading ventures in Andalusia failed, the Crown income plummeted and loans had to be taken from local moneylenders until the economy was stable once more in 1470.

Naval expenditures were decreased as the size of the army grew, a slight bit more than doubled under the reign of Queen Catalina. Morale was also high among the soldiers as able and loved generals were placed at the command and training became more suited to more regular combat instead of the mountainous fighting the Navaresse Royal Army was well accustomed to. Once the wars with Granada had been won (see below), a large number of the cavalrymen in the Navaresse Royal Army were made up of Moors, both Morisco and Muslim, due mostly in part to the liberal policies of Queen Catalina towards her new territories concerning religion. This caused some tension between the Navaresse and Moorish soldiers, but all doubts of this new order were quickly put to rest when the Muslim rebels in Almeria were crushed solely by Moorish cavalry. Having finally shown their loyalty, General de Heredia commented that "there is nothing deadlier than a Moor in the service of the Navaresse Crown".

A Moorish cavalryman leading an assault on Muslim rebels​

Foreign Policies

It was indisputable that Castille was the Kingdom of Navarre's most important ally. Due mostly to Juan II's shrewd diplomacy and the marriage of one of his nephews to a Castillian princess, the Castillian-Navaresse alliance not only increased the size of Navarre's territorial holdings, but also included a trade pact between the two kingdoms and rights of military passage through both of their respective lands. Queen Catalina made sure to keep these strong ties to Castille and as a result, most of the wars Navarre was involved in during the reign of Queen Catalina were the result of Castille either being attacked or attacking. The Navaresse nobles did not complain at having what some termed an "elder brother", as it kept the Aragonese from interfering in Navarre and its interests. Surprisingly, however, the alliance with Castille actually helped better relations with Aragon and to an extent, France, who appreciated the Castillian naval attacks on English ships and the Navaresse assaults on Portugal, a crucial ally and trading partner of England.

Jacqueline de Richemont, daughter of Arthur de Richemont, Duke of Britanny, had been courted by Catalina's son, Prince Andres Febo, the product of a marriage between Queen Catalina and Fernando Belasco, Baron of Villafranca. This brought much delight to both noble households, especially when Jacqueline accepted Andres' marriage proposal, making her a Princess of Navarre, the future queen, and as some nobles in both lands would say, "a living treaty." The marriage ceremony was lavish, with many nobles from both Britanny and Navarre present at the marriage ceremony in the Cathedral of Pamplona and of course, the three day celebrations that followed. An alliance was signed just in case the marriage produced no heirs, but it was an unnecessary precaution, as Jacqueline was heavy with child by the time Queen Catalina passed away.


The End of the Reconquista

Though at the time many believed that Castille would be the one to end the Reconquista, it would actually be the Kingdom of Navarre who would finally reclaim the rest of Iberia for Christendom. After the first war against Portugal, Queen Catalina was visited by Enrique IV, who was on his pilgramage to Santiago de Compostella. They discussed the fact that Muley Abul Hassan, the Nasrid King of Granada, had refused to pay regular tribute to the Castillian Crown and had broken all ties with Christian Iberia, seeking instead the aid of the Kingdom of Morroco in case of a Castillian retaliation and recruiting African mercenaries. King Enrique, regarded as a weak yet pious king, had decided that instead of eradicating the threat to his south, a pilgrimage was in order to give him time to think and pray. Catalina, remembering how close she was from making her vows to the Holy Mother Church, decided it was time to end the struggle in Iberia and as soon as King Enrique continued on his pilgramage, Queen Catalina called together her council and declared war on the Kingdom of Granada.

Once again, General Pedro de Heredia was placed in charge of the Navaresse Royal Army and they began the long march through Castille towards Granada, which they reached in April 1459, arriving at Almeria and laying siege immediately. Luckily, Castillian nobles sympathetic to the Navaresse "crusade" were able to capture Gibraltar and divert the attention of the Granadian army away from the Navaresse Siege of Almeria, which was won in June 1459. King Muley Abul Hassan, not wishing for his kingdom to be eradicated from Iberia, cut all ties with Morroco (which was unable to intervene due to the Castillian navy's blockade of Moroccan ports), ceded Almeria to Navarre, and paid a large sum of tribute, this time to Navaresse Monarchs instead of Castillian ones, much to the chagrin of some Castillian nobles, but most did not complain to see the Moors driven from Iberia. However, it was a false peace, for as soon as news reached Queen Catalina of the so-called "Peace of Almeria", General de Heredia was ordered to march on Granada proper, where a short siege took place before Muley Abul Hassan asked to meet with Queen Catalina personally outside of Granada. Upon meeting on the fields outside of the last Muslim stronghold in Iberia, Muley Abul Hassan surrendered his crown ceremoniously to Catalina and proceeded to flee to Morocco, where he was presented with some minor title in an obscure desert province.

The last King of Granada surrendering his crown to Queen Catalina I​

The march back to Navarre was more of a celebration than a martial recall, as news had spread that the Reconquista was finally over and the Navaresse soldiers, with Queen Catalina and General de Heredia at their head, passed through Castille and in each town, regarded as the greatest heroes of the era. Clergymen bestowed their blessings, nobles presented lavish gifts and the peasants were keen on presenting their daughters and wheat. News had even reached Rome and upon hearing the delightful events, Catalina was granted by His Holiness the title of "The Catholic" and the Pope is reported to have wept with joy at the end of the Reconquista.


The Death of the Catholic Queen

It was not long after the second war with Portugal that Queen Catalina fell ill, many believed she had been stricken with the plague but modern historians believe instead it was some minor disease, as the records of Abiathar Crescas, her Jewish doctor, show that she had been a sickly woman most of her life, but decided not to let it be known throughout her kingdom. Bedridden for almost a year, Queen Catalina asked her son to read to her nightly stories of the saints and of the crusades, loving to imagine herself as one in a long line of crusader monarchs, fighting for Christendom and for glory. The Navaresse Cortes had decided in December 1473 to side with Britanny in their war against England, seeing an excellent opportunity to march against Portugal once more without Castillian leadership of the war. Catalina gave her approval, her final one in fact, as the next month her body gave way after receiving Viaticum and her soul ascended to peace with God, while her body was buried in a somber but lavish ceremony at the Cathedral of Pamplona. Queen Catalina the Catholic had not only tripled the size of the Navarre, but had also borught unity to a troubled kingdom, respect for an ancient crown, and the legacy she would be remembered for, ended the Reconquista. Her son, Prince Andres Febo, about to be crowned King of Navarre, famously told the Cortes when he announced his mother's death that "no greater queen has ever graced Iberia, no greater mother has graced Navarre".

A 1469 map showing territories gained by Queen Catalina the Catholic of Navarre​

 

[XhePablo]

Rensslaer: That's peculiar, since in my games it never lasts past the second year. :rofl:

canonized: Ended the Reconquista, that should please any good Christian. Oh, and I'm part Basque, but at the same time, part Spanish, so my loyalties are a bit confused lol :wacko:

oddman: Tried trading at first, but somehow it failed horribly later on (lack of funds). And yes, the sliders are quite amazing I'd say.

 

[unmerged(67452)]

Rensslaer, same here -- not only did Navarre last until after 1520, so did Mazovia (yeah, who? It's the province that gets swallowed up by Poland almost immediately). Mazovia even became the HRE...until the Teutonic Order annexed them around 1525. (which was nice, because I became the HRE).
--
I'll be interested to see how you develop your economy.

 

[stnylan]

That's rather cocky of plucky little Navarre. They have Castille surrounded!

 

[germanpeon]

I give you no more than ten years (I am being generous) before you are invaded by Castille. Best of luck nonetheless!