Post by callmedelta on Oct 23, 2020 19:25:10 GMT -5
Prehistoric Franerre (26,000-3,200 IC)
The first humans arrived in modern-day Franerre in approximately 26,000 IC, with the first archaeological records of small coastal fishing settlements being dated to around this time period. Waves of settlement further into the west of Franerre would continue for the next ten thousand years, gradually settling near lakes and rivers as farmers, and as hunter-gatherers where water for farming was not readily available. The largest form of government at this period would have been clans and families, only holding sway over a few settlements at most.
The Randioch Kingdom (3200-500 IC)
The first large-scale civilization in modern-day Franerre would not spring from the coast, but rather what is now the Barony of Bordemer. Master metalsmiths, the forerunners of what would become known as the Randioch Kingdom was based west of the modern-day city of Rombille. The Kingdom of Randioch, believed to be founded in approximately 3042 IC, would focus most of it's energy on expanding across the Yasuhiro and Hideaki Mountain ranges to access more bronze, expanding into modern-day Eleria and Elenria. The Kingdom of Randioch would, through corruption, and stagnation, collapse back into a series of warring city-states in 2754 IC, leading to the formation of several smaller successor kingdoms, the last of which shattered for the final time in 548 IC.
The Kingdom of Saglada (1500-900 IC)
The foundations of the modern Franch state would come from the Kingdom of Saglada, founded in approximately 1481 IC on the border of the Metropole and Bromsole provinces. The Saglada traded with the Randian successor states for access to bronze weaponry, which they used to subjegate the entirety of the Metropole province, founding the city of Pareau, and the northern coastline of Bromsole, reaching as far as modern Elenerre before being beaten back by an Elenrian army. The death of the Kingdom of Saglada would come in 892 IC after another failed invasion of Elenria in 904 IC bankrupted the Saglada treasury and one of the worst storms in Franerre's history, known as the Great Catastrophe due to the destruction of many historical records, flooded many of Saglada's richest cities on the Bromsole Bay coastline. One notable exception to the flooding would be the city of Pareau, due to investing heavily in flood protection after a series of smaller floods occurring throughout the city's early history, though the city did still receive minor damage.
The Kingdom of Setange (200-500 PI)
The Kingdom of Setange was founded from one of the many tribes that lived in the areas between the Randians and Saglada. The early history of the Setangen is largely a mystery, but from Randian and Saglada records it is likely they raided trade caravans between the two nations, using the experience gained and bronze weapons stolen to become quite the formidable and quick fighting force. The first written records from the Setange themselves would only appear after they had already conquered the post-Randioch states in 223 PI, but most estimates place the final subjugation of the Randians in 209 PI. The Setangen would declare themselves the legitimate successor state to the Randioch, despite the lack of a historical basis for their claim, and would have aspirations to reconquer all of the territory of the first Kingdom of Randioch, but these would never be realized.
The Estule Kingdom (700 IC-500 PI)
The Estule Kingdom was formed in 705 IC as a semi-democratic confederation of three large tribes along the coat of the Hinbury Strait, which each tribe's chief getting one vote. The largest of these tribes, the Estule, would go on to secure complete domination of the confederacy after the heads of the other two tribes died under unclear circumstances, which some historians believe to be assassination. Regardless, the Estule reformed the confederacy into a monarchy, with the head of the Estule tribe becoming it's king. The Estuleon would go on to be the longest reigning pre-unification Kingdom in Franerre's history, ruling over 1,200 years with only one civil war after the reigning Estule king died without an heir in 263 PI, leaving the other two tribes, who's names have been lost to history, to fight over who would claim the throne. Unlike the Randians and Saglada before them, the Estuleon did little conquering, hardly expanding past the historic homeland of the three tribes who founded it. What the Estuleon did was trade, both with other Franch kingdoms and tribes and with the outside world, leading the Estuleon to build many of the lighthouses that now dot the shoreline of Estierre.
The Pareau Duljdom (900 IC-350 PI)
The Pareau Duljdom was the remains of the Saglada administration based in and around Pareau that seized control after the Great Catastrophe of 892 IC. The Pareau Duljdom was a hereditary system ruled by a Dulj, a word that etymologists believe came from the Saglada words for "city" and "ruler," who held absolute authority within the city of Pareau itself and the surrounding area for a short time after the Great Catastrophe, but soon yielded power outside the city to a council of merchants from Pareau and landowning lords from the surrounding territories. There were almost no Saglada military units stationed in Pareau when the Catastrophe occurred, and as such the early military of Pareau was ad-hoc citizen's militias, eventually giving way to professional mercenary corps, known as Condottieri, hired by the city of Pareau, and as such under the command of the Dulj.
The economy of the Duljdom was largely based around trade in the Bromsole and Peaceful Marsh Bays, as opposed to the Estuleon who traded on the Hinbury Strait and beyond. At first, the relationship between the two states was a mutual partnership, with Pareau using their lighter ships to better trade Estule's goods across the bays while Estuleon's heavier ships exported Pareausian-made products into the harsh seas beyond. Eventually, however, both sides would see each other more as rivals then as trading partners, leading to a naval arms race as both factions feared losing dominance of the sea to one another.
For the majority of Pareau's history it did very little expansion, as by the time the Duljdom was able to think about expansion, most former Saglada cities on the Entrias Peninsula able to make such an effort too costly to be worth it. Pareau did a small bit of expansion via trade outposts along the coastline of the Bromsole Bay, though military actions were few and far between, most settlements able to be bargained with, pressured, or simply bought out by the Dulj.
The death of the Duljdom came in 346 PI, when the nearby city-state of Milaneo declared war on Pareau and lost. The ruling Dulj, Enrico Garabaldi, attempted to assert control over the city of Milaneo, arguing that, as Dulj, he had the right to control over any city the Duljdom controlled, not just Pareau. The merchants and nobles of the council were horrified of the prospect, and a power struggle ensued, resulting in the execution of the most prominent merchant and noble dissenters. Enrico then declared himself King of Pareau and dissolved the council, creating the Kingdom of Pareau.
The Kingdom of Pareau (350-500 PI)
Enrico Garabaldi had two children, an elder son named Phillipe Garabaldi and a younger daughter named Helena, before dying in 373 PI, leaving the throne to Phillipe, who was 20 at his ascension. Under Enrico's 45-year reign, his control over Milaneo would be solidified, as well as the annexation of a smaller city-state named Piednon, but most importantly, Helena would be married to the Dulj of Elenerre. The Dulj of Elenerre, Louis Dregrand, was the eldest son of the previous Dulj, and when he died in 399 PI without naming an heir, King Phillipe pounced, the combination of several bribes to Elenerre's most influential merchants and Pareau's fleet anchored outside of the port of Elenerre able to convince Dregrand's other two brothers to renounce their claims, resulting Helena declared Duljaressa. Elenerre would serve as the springboard for Phillipe's grand ambition: the reconquest of all of the territory of the former Kingdom of Saglada. Promising the merchants of Elenerre and Pareau government positions in turn for the hiring of the Condottieri, Phillipe's army had assembled.
First on the King's agenda was the conquering of the many small city-states on the Bromsole coast south of Elenerre. Here, the Condottieri waged a lightning campaign, conquering city after city until they reached the Entrias Peninsula, where the cities had modern walls, as opposed to the Bromsole city states, who's walls were still from the Kingdom of Saglada and fell easily to Pareau's technological advantage. The only Entrias Duljdom to fall to Franerre was because of Milaneo's tactical errors, and the normally squbbling city states had united in the face of Pareau's aggression, many any invasion that much more difficult. Instead of invading and seiging the cities down, Phillipe made the decision to blockade the cities in 404 PI, and send home the Condottieri, who by now were bleeding the Kingdom dry. Pareau would not sit idle during this period, however, reinvesting the now free money into the conquered territories. In addition, the forerunner of the Franch Royal Gendarmerie, the Peninsular Operations Division, would keep a large network of spies throughout the many Duljdoms, looking for any opportunity to strike. That opportunity would come in 423 PI, when a feud between the two largest city states, Napeals and Romoe, cause the fragile alliance to fall apart, leading Napeals and several smaller Duljdoms to ally with Pareau. The aging King Phillipe now recalled the Condottieri, and crushed Romoe and it's allies, completing Phillipe's grand vision.
Phillipe would not live past his vision, dying peacefully in his sleep in 424 PI. Never having taken a wife, leading some historians to speculate he was homosexual, the Duljdom passed to Helena's song Jacob, who was 34 at the age of his ascension. Jacob was a bright man, educated in diplomacy, trade, and most importantly, warfare, and his genius was only matched by his ambition. Whereas his uncle has reunited Saglada, Jacob was determined to go further. Before any of that could be accomplished, however, Jacob would first need to solidify his uncle's domain. This task would take King Jacob into his late forties. While subduing the unruly Entrias Duljdoms, preparations were being made for King Jacob's ambition. A new fleet, consisting of both smaller ships designed for the Bays' waters and larger ships better fitted from the wider world. In addition, large contingents of mercenaries from what would become Franerre and beyond were being recruited. These preparations wouldn't go unnoticed, however, and soon the Estule Kingdom and the various minor kingdoms along the Marias coast, in a pact called the Estule Alliance, began to raise armies of their own to prepare for Pareau's assault.
The Unification War (445-451 PI)
King Jacob's preparations would be completed in Foa of 445, but instead of attacking immediately, he chose to bide his time. Most of the Estule alliance's troops were peasant levies, supported by a small force of professional soldiers. These levies could only be called on for a limited amount of time, as the peasants needed to work the fields if the alliance wished to have any food to sustain such a large army. And so, the commanders of the Estule Alliance decided to send most of their troops home, leaving the force to be made up of the small amount of professional soldiers, as well as a small amount of more local levies that could be rapidly called up if need be. Pareau's army, meanwhile, was made up of largely mercenaries, though they were supported by peasant levies. So, when King Jacob began his assault on the 3rd of Vaylien, 445, beginning what is now known as the War of Franch unification, Pareau's mercenary army clashed with the outnumbered professionals and ill-trained levies, resulting in a defeat for the Estule alliance at the Battle of Petitree, located near the Marias village of the same name. The Estule forces were only saved from a total rout thanks to the defenses they had already prepared during the months leading up to the invasion.
The remaining troops would retreat to the city of Alcasse as the levies that were sent home were hastily recalled. Pareau's fleet would anchor itself outside the city, blocking any resupply attempts from sea, while the army would leave behind a small force of mercenaries to be reinforced by Pareau's own levies as the bulk of the army, taking the small amount of levies that had been called up, continued it's march through Marias. King Jacob would march through the rest of Marias, mopping up small forces of peasant levies that were called up by the Marias kingdoms until reaching the kingdoms near the Estule border. There, his army would be met by a large force of Estule troops, 9,000 fresh Estule compared to King Jacob's tired 7,000 Paresian troops. The King sent riders ahead, sending an order for more troops from the Siege of Alcasse while the army made a retreat. Several small skirmishes would take place across the retreat, most ending in Estule victories, while the bulk of the Paresian army was continually harassed by Estule cavalry all of the way to Alcasse.
While the Paresian army was making a retreat, the Estule navy was sent to attempt to lift the siege of Alcasse and allow naval resupply of the city. Catching wind of this, the Admiral of the Paresian fleet chose to set sail to meet the Estule, taking the bulk of Pareau's lighter ships, made for the bays, and leaving the newer, heavier ocean made ships for the siege. The faster speed of the Pareausian ships, as well as a storm delaying the Estule fleet, led to the naval battle taking place at the convergences of the Peaceful Marsh and Bromsole Bays, resulting in the Battle of the Two Bays, the largest naval battle in Franch history. Due to a combination of Pareau's fleet's greater agility, greater experience in the bays, and the last vestiges of the other two Estule tribes commandeering some of the Estule fleet and joining Pareau, the vast majority of Estule's fleet was sunk, only leaving five ships to retreat. After the fleet's victorious return to Alcasse, the city's besieged defenders surrendered.
The news of the Alcassian surrender forced the Estule army to increase their pursuit beyond mere skirmishes and cavalry harassment, lest the retreating Paresian army link up with reinforcements. Driving their forces throughout the night, the tired Estule army would attack Pareau's army at the first light of dawn in the Battle of Difesa Hill in Achsen of 445. King Jacob's army was camped atop Difesa hill, outside modern day city of Vittoire. The Estule Army, with the rising sun at their backs partially blinding the Paresian sentries, were able to begin climbing the large hill before being spotted. Pareau's army was scrambled, the camp sentries hastily throwing out a few volleys of arrows before the battle turned into a melee. Estule's assault was spearheaded by their corps of professional soldiers who, though tired, were able to smash through Pareau's ad-hoc lines and breach their camp. King Jacob's army, and in fact the King himself, was only saved from defeat when a group of mercenaries were able to reform the Paresian lines and threatened to cut off the professional Estule forces from the rest of the army, forcing them to retreat back to Estule's lines, at great cost to the mercenaries. The lines of battle now stabilized, the Battle of Difesa Hill went from the quick rout the Estule commanders hoped into a long, drawn out battle. Both armies' moral was at an extreme low, the beleaguered Paresians against the exhausted Estule. Eventually, as the battle dragged on to the midmorning, King Jacob called for a retreat, leaving behind a majority of the army's supplies. The victory was a pyrrhic one, however, as it let King Jacob and the remnants of his mercenary army to link up with the forces from Alcasse. In addition, the casualties on both sides are estimated to be near-equal, 3,250 Paresians and 2,750 Estule killed, though the majority of Estule's cavalry was lost in the battle, severely limiting Estule's ability to give chase.
In the days following the Battle of Difesa Hill, reinforcements from Alcasse would link up with King Jacob and Estule's army would return to Estule and their forts, known as the Meritas Line, allowing the King to retake most of the land lost during the retreat. Even with the reinforcements, the Paresian Army was unable to assault the Estule forts, lest they squander their newly gained manpower advantage. At this point, with the loss of supplies at the Battle of Difesa Hill greatly inhibiting King Jacob's army's ability to assault the forts and the cost of hiring so many mercenaries straining the Paresian treasury's ability to replace those supplies, a siege was deemed the only viable way to take the forts. These well-stocked forts would take several years to siege, requiring the bulk of the Paresian army to make sure no supplies were smuggled in, with only light cavalry forces sent to harass any relieving Estule forces before they encountered the rest of the army. It was during the last days of the Siege of the Meritas Line that the Paresian treasury finally broke under the strain of paying for such a war. Once word of this reached the mercenary forces, the mix of mercenaries threatened to simply abandon the siege, taking with them the bulk of Pareau's experienced forces. The Siege of the Meritas Line was only saved when King Jacob came to the mercenaries with an offer: any mercenary who accepted would no longer receive pay, instead being granted tracts of land and a minor lordship. The majority of the mercenaries would accept this deal, becoming the Chevottieri, or Knight-Mercenary.
The beleaguered Estules would surrender one month later in Bellien 450, the last of the stockpiled supplies finally gone. The Paresian army would have to wait for the winter to end to begin their final assault on the Kingdom of Estule. During this time, the Estule would attempt to raise another army of peasant levies, only for the peasants to refuse and begin revolting, leaving the Estule with only a small corp of professional soldiers who didn't hold the Meritas Line to defend their Kingdom while the revolting peasents ran unchecked across the country. Once the spring had begun, King Jacob's army marched towards the Estule capitol of Deastercue, now Desterque. Due to the King's desire for an end to the five-year long war, and the small number of troops in Desterque, he decided no siege would be in order. The Franch Chevottieri would storm the city on the night of the 6th of Esrellia, smashing through the demoralized Estule troops with comparatively little losses considering the difficulty of assaulting a city. The Battle of Desterque would rage for three days, but by the 9th, the fighting in the city had ceased, and King Jacob Garabaldi sat on the Estule throne.
Post-Unification Franerre and the Treaty of Setange (451-506 PI)
The Chevottieri's work would not be finished with the taking of Desterque. The peasant revolts that occured still needed to be put down, and after a campaign lasting two years, they were finally wiped out in 453 PI. Then, the work began on cementing the King's rule in Estule and Marais. The Chevottieri would be payed for their work, granted tracts of land in the Estule and Marais, becoming a class above the local Estule lords, though little practically changed. The Chevottieri, unfit to run any lands they were given as just mercenaries with titles, simply left the operation of the land to the Estule lords, while imposing higher taxes to enrich themselves. King Jacob would also finance the construction of several new Deauxmar shrines, building some goodwill with the newly conquered people.
Unification of Franerre happened in 506 PI
1770 was when colonization happened
1860 was decolonization
[WIP]
The first humans arrived in modern-day Franerre in approximately 26,000 IC, with the first archaeological records of small coastal fishing settlements being dated to around this time period. Waves of settlement further into the west of Franerre would continue for the next ten thousand years, gradually settling near lakes and rivers as farmers, and as hunter-gatherers where water for farming was not readily available. The largest form of government at this period would have been clans and families, only holding sway over a few settlements at most.
The Randioch Kingdom (3200-500 IC)
The first large-scale civilization in modern-day Franerre would not spring from the coast, but rather what is now the Barony of Bordemer. Master metalsmiths, the forerunners of what would become known as the Randioch Kingdom was based west of the modern-day city of Rombille. The Kingdom of Randioch, believed to be founded in approximately 3042 IC, would focus most of it's energy on expanding across the Yasuhiro and Hideaki Mountain ranges to access more bronze, expanding into modern-day Eleria and Elenria. The Kingdom of Randioch would, through corruption, and stagnation, collapse back into a series of warring city-states in 2754 IC, leading to the formation of several smaller successor kingdoms, the last of which shattered for the final time in 548 IC.
The Kingdom of Saglada (1500-900 IC)
The foundations of the modern Franch state would come from the Kingdom of Saglada, founded in approximately 1481 IC on the border of the Metropole and Bromsole provinces. The Saglada traded with the Randian successor states for access to bronze weaponry, which they used to subjegate the entirety of the Metropole province, founding the city of Pareau, and the northern coastline of Bromsole, reaching as far as modern Elenerre before being beaten back by an Elenrian army. The death of the Kingdom of Saglada would come in 892 IC after another failed invasion of Elenria in 904 IC bankrupted the Saglada treasury and one of the worst storms in Franerre's history, known as the Great Catastrophe due to the destruction of many historical records, flooded many of Saglada's richest cities on the Bromsole Bay coastline. One notable exception to the flooding would be the city of Pareau, due to investing heavily in flood protection after a series of smaller floods occurring throughout the city's early history, though the city did still receive minor damage.
The Kingdom of Setange (200-500 PI)
The Kingdom of Setange was founded from one of the many tribes that lived in the areas between the Randians and Saglada. The early history of the Setangen is largely a mystery, but from Randian and Saglada records it is likely they raided trade caravans between the two nations, using the experience gained and bronze weapons stolen to become quite the formidable and quick fighting force. The first written records from the Setange themselves would only appear after they had already conquered the post-Randioch states in 223 PI, but most estimates place the final subjugation of the Randians in 209 PI. The Setangen would declare themselves the legitimate successor state to the Randioch, despite the lack of a historical basis for their claim, and would have aspirations to reconquer all of the territory of the first Kingdom of Randioch, but these would never be realized.
The Estule Kingdom (700 IC-500 PI)
The Estule Kingdom was formed in 705 IC as a semi-democratic confederation of three large tribes along the coat of the Hinbury Strait, which each tribe's chief getting one vote. The largest of these tribes, the Estule, would go on to secure complete domination of the confederacy after the heads of the other two tribes died under unclear circumstances, which some historians believe to be assassination. Regardless, the Estule reformed the confederacy into a monarchy, with the head of the Estule tribe becoming it's king. The Estuleon would go on to be the longest reigning pre-unification Kingdom in Franerre's history, ruling over 1,200 years with only one civil war after the reigning Estule king died without an heir in 263 PI, leaving the other two tribes, who's names have been lost to history, to fight over who would claim the throne. Unlike the Randians and Saglada before them, the Estuleon did little conquering, hardly expanding past the historic homeland of the three tribes who founded it. What the Estuleon did was trade, both with other Franch kingdoms and tribes and with the outside world, leading the Estuleon to build many of the lighthouses that now dot the shoreline of Estierre.
The Pareau Duljdom (900 IC-350 PI)
The Pareau Duljdom was the remains of the Saglada administration based in and around Pareau that seized control after the Great Catastrophe of 892 IC. The Pareau Duljdom was a hereditary system ruled by a Dulj, a word that etymologists believe came from the Saglada words for "city" and "ruler," who held absolute authority within the city of Pareau itself and the surrounding area for a short time after the Great Catastrophe, but soon yielded power outside the city to a council of merchants from Pareau and landowning lords from the surrounding territories. There were almost no Saglada military units stationed in Pareau when the Catastrophe occurred, and as such the early military of Pareau was ad-hoc citizen's militias, eventually giving way to professional mercenary corps, known as Condottieri, hired by the city of Pareau, and as such under the command of the Dulj.
The economy of the Duljdom was largely based around trade in the Bromsole and Peaceful Marsh Bays, as opposed to the Estuleon who traded on the Hinbury Strait and beyond. At first, the relationship between the two states was a mutual partnership, with Pareau using their lighter ships to better trade Estule's goods across the bays while Estuleon's heavier ships exported Pareausian-made products into the harsh seas beyond. Eventually, however, both sides would see each other more as rivals then as trading partners, leading to a naval arms race as both factions feared losing dominance of the sea to one another.
For the majority of Pareau's history it did very little expansion, as by the time the Duljdom was able to think about expansion, most former Saglada cities on the Entrias Peninsula able to make such an effort too costly to be worth it. Pareau did a small bit of expansion via trade outposts along the coastline of the Bromsole Bay, though military actions were few and far between, most settlements able to be bargained with, pressured, or simply bought out by the Dulj.
The death of the Duljdom came in 346 PI, when the nearby city-state of Milaneo declared war on Pareau and lost. The ruling Dulj, Enrico Garabaldi, attempted to assert control over the city of Milaneo, arguing that, as Dulj, he had the right to control over any city the Duljdom controlled, not just Pareau. The merchants and nobles of the council were horrified of the prospect, and a power struggle ensued, resulting in the execution of the most prominent merchant and noble dissenters. Enrico then declared himself King of Pareau and dissolved the council, creating the Kingdom of Pareau.
The Kingdom of Pareau (350-500 PI)
Enrico Garabaldi had two children, an elder son named Phillipe Garabaldi and a younger daughter named Helena, before dying in 373 PI, leaving the throne to Phillipe, who was 20 at his ascension. Under Enrico's 45-year reign, his control over Milaneo would be solidified, as well as the annexation of a smaller city-state named Piednon, but most importantly, Helena would be married to the Dulj of Elenerre. The Dulj of Elenerre, Louis Dregrand, was the eldest son of the previous Dulj, and when he died in 399 PI without naming an heir, King Phillipe pounced, the combination of several bribes to Elenerre's most influential merchants and Pareau's fleet anchored outside of the port of Elenerre able to convince Dregrand's other two brothers to renounce their claims, resulting Helena declared Duljaressa. Elenerre would serve as the springboard for Phillipe's grand ambition: the reconquest of all of the territory of the former Kingdom of Saglada. Promising the merchants of Elenerre and Pareau government positions in turn for the hiring of the Condottieri, Phillipe's army had assembled.
First on the King's agenda was the conquering of the many small city-states on the Bromsole coast south of Elenerre. Here, the Condottieri waged a lightning campaign, conquering city after city until they reached the Entrias Peninsula, where the cities had modern walls, as opposed to the Bromsole city states, who's walls were still from the Kingdom of Saglada and fell easily to Pareau's technological advantage. The only Entrias Duljdom to fall to Franerre was because of Milaneo's tactical errors, and the normally squbbling city states had united in the face of Pareau's aggression, many any invasion that much more difficult. Instead of invading and seiging the cities down, Phillipe made the decision to blockade the cities in 404 PI, and send home the Condottieri, who by now were bleeding the Kingdom dry. Pareau would not sit idle during this period, however, reinvesting the now free money into the conquered territories. In addition, the forerunner of the Franch Royal Gendarmerie, the Peninsular Operations Division, would keep a large network of spies throughout the many Duljdoms, looking for any opportunity to strike. That opportunity would come in 423 PI, when a feud between the two largest city states, Napeals and Romoe, cause the fragile alliance to fall apart, leading Napeals and several smaller Duljdoms to ally with Pareau. The aging King Phillipe now recalled the Condottieri, and crushed Romoe and it's allies, completing Phillipe's grand vision.
Phillipe would not live past his vision, dying peacefully in his sleep in 424 PI. Never having taken a wife, leading some historians to speculate he was homosexual, the Duljdom passed to Helena's song Jacob, who was 34 at the age of his ascension. Jacob was a bright man, educated in diplomacy, trade, and most importantly, warfare, and his genius was only matched by his ambition. Whereas his uncle has reunited Saglada, Jacob was determined to go further. Before any of that could be accomplished, however, Jacob would first need to solidify his uncle's domain. This task would take King Jacob into his late forties. While subduing the unruly Entrias Duljdoms, preparations were being made for King Jacob's ambition. A new fleet, consisting of both smaller ships designed for the Bays' waters and larger ships better fitted from the wider world. In addition, large contingents of mercenaries from what would become Franerre and beyond were being recruited. These preparations wouldn't go unnoticed, however, and soon the Estule Kingdom and the various minor kingdoms along the Marias coast, in a pact called the Estule Alliance, began to raise armies of their own to prepare for Pareau's assault.
The Unification War (445-451 PI)
King Jacob's preparations would be completed in Foa of 445, but instead of attacking immediately, he chose to bide his time. Most of the Estule alliance's troops were peasant levies, supported by a small force of professional soldiers. These levies could only be called on for a limited amount of time, as the peasants needed to work the fields if the alliance wished to have any food to sustain such a large army. And so, the commanders of the Estule Alliance decided to send most of their troops home, leaving the force to be made up of the small amount of professional soldiers, as well as a small amount of more local levies that could be rapidly called up if need be. Pareau's army, meanwhile, was made up of largely mercenaries, though they were supported by peasant levies. So, when King Jacob began his assault on the 3rd of Vaylien, 445, beginning what is now known as the War of Franch unification, Pareau's mercenary army clashed with the outnumbered professionals and ill-trained levies, resulting in a defeat for the Estule alliance at the Battle of Petitree, located near the Marias village of the same name. The Estule forces were only saved from a total rout thanks to the defenses they had already prepared during the months leading up to the invasion.
The remaining troops would retreat to the city of Alcasse as the levies that were sent home were hastily recalled. Pareau's fleet would anchor itself outside the city, blocking any resupply attempts from sea, while the army would leave behind a small force of mercenaries to be reinforced by Pareau's own levies as the bulk of the army, taking the small amount of levies that had been called up, continued it's march through Marias. King Jacob would march through the rest of Marias, mopping up small forces of peasant levies that were called up by the Marias kingdoms until reaching the kingdoms near the Estule border. There, his army would be met by a large force of Estule troops, 9,000 fresh Estule compared to King Jacob's tired 7,000 Paresian troops. The King sent riders ahead, sending an order for more troops from the Siege of Alcasse while the army made a retreat. Several small skirmishes would take place across the retreat, most ending in Estule victories, while the bulk of the Paresian army was continually harassed by Estule cavalry all of the way to Alcasse.
While the Paresian army was making a retreat, the Estule navy was sent to attempt to lift the siege of Alcasse and allow naval resupply of the city. Catching wind of this, the Admiral of the Paresian fleet chose to set sail to meet the Estule, taking the bulk of Pareau's lighter ships, made for the bays, and leaving the newer, heavier ocean made ships for the siege. The faster speed of the Pareausian ships, as well as a storm delaying the Estule fleet, led to the naval battle taking place at the convergences of the Peaceful Marsh and Bromsole Bays, resulting in the Battle of the Two Bays, the largest naval battle in Franch history. Due to a combination of Pareau's fleet's greater agility, greater experience in the bays, and the last vestiges of the other two Estule tribes commandeering some of the Estule fleet and joining Pareau, the vast majority of Estule's fleet was sunk, only leaving five ships to retreat. After the fleet's victorious return to Alcasse, the city's besieged defenders surrendered.
The news of the Alcassian surrender forced the Estule army to increase their pursuit beyond mere skirmishes and cavalry harassment, lest the retreating Paresian army link up with reinforcements. Driving their forces throughout the night, the tired Estule army would attack Pareau's army at the first light of dawn in the Battle of Difesa Hill in Achsen of 445. King Jacob's army was camped atop Difesa hill, outside modern day city of Vittoire. The Estule Army, with the rising sun at their backs partially blinding the Paresian sentries, were able to begin climbing the large hill before being spotted. Pareau's army was scrambled, the camp sentries hastily throwing out a few volleys of arrows before the battle turned into a melee. Estule's assault was spearheaded by their corps of professional soldiers who, though tired, were able to smash through Pareau's ad-hoc lines and breach their camp. King Jacob's army, and in fact the King himself, was only saved from defeat when a group of mercenaries were able to reform the Paresian lines and threatened to cut off the professional Estule forces from the rest of the army, forcing them to retreat back to Estule's lines, at great cost to the mercenaries. The lines of battle now stabilized, the Battle of Difesa Hill went from the quick rout the Estule commanders hoped into a long, drawn out battle. Both armies' moral was at an extreme low, the beleaguered Paresians against the exhausted Estule. Eventually, as the battle dragged on to the midmorning, King Jacob called for a retreat, leaving behind a majority of the army's supplies. The victory was a pyrrhic one, however, as it let King Jacob and the remnants of his mercenary army to link up with the forces from Alcasse. In addition, the casualties on both sides are estimated to be near-equal, 3,250 Paresians and 2,750 Estule killed, though the majority of Estule's cavalry was lost in the battle, severely limiting Estule's ability to give chase.
In the days following the Battle of Difesa Hill, reinforcements from Alcasse would link up with King Jacob and Estule's army would return to Estule and their forts, known as the Meritas Line, allowing the King to retake most of the land lost during the retreat. Even with the reinforcements, the Paresian Army was unable to assault the Estule forts, lest they squander their newly gained manpower advantage. At this point, with the loss of supplies at the Battle of Difesa Hill greatly inhibiting King Jacob's army's ability to assault the forts and the cost of hiring so many mercenaries straining the Paresian treasury's ability to replace those supplies, a siege was deemed the only viable way to take the forts. These well-stocked forts would take several years to siege, requiring the bulk of the Paresian army to make sure no supplies were smuggled in, with only light cavalry forces sent to harass any relieving Estule forces before they encountered the rest of the army. It was during the last days of the Siege of the Meritas Line that the Paresian treasury finally broke under the strain of paying for such a war. Once word of this reached the mercenary forces, the mix of mercenaries threatened to simply abandon the siege, taking with them the bulk of Pareau's experienced forces. The Siege of the Meritas Line was only saved when King Jacob came to the mercenaries with an offer: any mercenary who accepted would no longer receive pay, instead being granted tracts of land and a minor lordship. The majority of the mercenaries would accept this deal, becoming the Chevottieri, or Knight-Mercenary.
The beleaguered Estules would surrender one month later in Bellien 450, the last of the stockpiled supplies finally gone. The Paresian army would have to wait for the winter to end to begin their final assault on the Kingdom of Estule. During this time, the Estule would attempt to raise another army of peasant levies, only for the peasants to refuse and begin revolting, leaving the Estule with only a small corp of professional soldiers who didn't hold the Meritas Line to defend their Kingdom while the revolting peasents ran unchecked across the country. Once the spring had begun, King Jacob's army marched towards the Estule capitol of Deastercue, now Desterque. Due to the King's desire for an end to the five-year long war, and the small number of troops in Desterque, he decided no siege would be in order. The Franch Chevottieri would storm the city on the night of the 6th of Esrellia, smashing through the demoralized Estule troops with comparatively little losses considering the difficulty of assaulting a city. The Battle of Desterque would rage for three days, but by the 9th, the fighting in the city had ceased, and King Jacob Garabaldi sat on the Estule throne.
Post-Unification Franerre and the Treaty of Setange (451-506 PI)
The Chevottieri's work would not be finished with the taking of Desterque. The peasant revolts that occured still needed to be put down, and after a campaign lasting two years, they were finally wiped out in 453 PI. Then, the work began on cementing the King's rule in Estule and Marais. The Chevottieri would be payed for their work, granted tracts of land in the Estule and Marais, becoming a class above the local Estule lords, though little practically changed. The Chevottieri, unfit to run any lands they were given as just mercenaries with titles, simply left the operation of the land to the Estule lords, while imposing higher taxes to enrich themselves. King Jacob would also finance the construction of several new Deauxmar shrines, building some goodwill with the newly conquered people.
Unification of Franerre happened in 506 PI
1770 was when colonization happened
1860 was decolonization
[WIP]