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The Great Irish War (pt.1)
Charles weighed his options. He could abandon Ireland now, set it to blockade and reorganize his army, then once Ireland had been starved for a year he would descend on it and conquer it. But he knew a protracted war would make Parliament even more unhinged than before, so Charles looked at his other option. He would hold forward positions in Ulster, attacking the Spanish when he could and bringing a large army forward to beat the Irish rebels. The army to the south, Charles figured, was of less importance, but he bargained the capture of Dublin could regain the situation for him, and give himself much more legitimacy. Charles assembled a marine force of 10,000 to take the city and awaited Scottish reinforcements as he made entrenchments in Enniskillen, deciding to funnel Thomas's army into a marshy chokepoint where he could destroy them.
The Royal Navy had finally gotten into the action. Its massive galleons moved to place Ireland under blockade and fought a hard battle against the Spanish at the battle of Muir Chelteach to defeat the Spanish, and established a blockade. France and Spain would have to find a way to break the blockade if they wanted to send support to the Irish.
Thomas's army had marched North, but he had caught himself in his own trap. The winter had waned his own supplies, and the new spring left marshy flatbeds of the Western Irish plains he had marched through, and the blockade rendered the idea of going back to port to resupply null and void. Thomas decided he had to figure out a plan to push Charles out of his newfound positions but knew an attack would be devastating. Public support had dwindled for Thomas, and he feared his position might come unhinged if he didn't take action. Thomas thought of attempts at marching north, but the mountainous terrain above the Lower Lough Earn would cause more hassle than it was worth, and marching south meant entering Donough's territory, which he believed would only pull from the real threat, which was England. Thomas thus decided to take Charles's bait, fearing the worst.
The two armies reached each other in April. Thomas's army as surrounded by nearly all sides on marshlands and Charles had elevated positions for his artillery. Thomas saw his defeat but knew he had to dislodge Charles's position before summer came, and the English reinforcements arrived with a dried up ground for Charles to march across Western Ireland. Thomas engaged Charles with daring flanking maneuvers, causing close quarters fighting in wetlands. Thomas's army he had, with his 41,000 against Charles's 36,000. Thomas knew the entirety of Charles's army wasn't here, either patrolling the North or lakebeds. Thomas also bargained that Charles's forces were demoralized, so he hoped the Tercios could dislodge Charles's entrenchments. Thomas decided to launch an infantry charge, but his forces were overpowered by an artillery barrage. Thomas withdrew and reorganized, thinking of ways to capture his artillery. The marshlands to the flanks rendered his cavalry advantage useless, so he decided to send a cavalry attack in the center.
The attack, known as Thomas’s Charge, names so because he himself lead the attack, ended in a bloodbath. Thomas’s attack had managed to push the initial English line back, but English pikemen and curaisser counterassaults had forced the charge into a broken assault. Charles fired artillery into the cavalry’s rear, trapping Thomas. Realizing his forces were going to be doomed unless drastic action was taken, he signaled the infantry to charge. The Spanish would attack, stopping Charles’s envelopment move with his curaissers, and letting Thomas escape, but he took a blade to his eye and would lose vision in that eye. Thomas rode off as his cavalry corps were slaughtered, and only the arrival of the Tercios kept a complete rout from happening. Thomas reassembled his lines, after that disastrous charge, Charles followed with Curaisser harassing raids on the methodically retreating Tercios, and only the pounding of artillery broke their solid stance. The Tercios fell back, and Thomas had no idea what to do.
Charles would hold his position. He knew that until the Spring mud dried, he could indefinitely hold his position and force Thomas into their doom. Thomas decided to withdraw. His wound had bled profusely, and he went in and out of consciousness. During his withdrawal, he made his way to Sligo, looking to reshoot his forces in the defensive city. The retreat was a crushing blow to the once giddy Spanish and lambasted the Habsburg position in Ireland.
Once May arrived, Charles gave the green light for an invasion of Dublin. The marines landed and encountered Donough’s army.
Donough himself had been able to redevelop his army throughout the winter and doubled his forces. Deciding that his army was battle-ready, he sent an army of 6,000 to protect Dublin.
The invasion was accompanied by the sound of galleon fire, as Donough’s entrenched forces launched artillery barrages and cavalry raids to push the Royal Marines back into the sea. The fighting lasted for hours, and England got a successful beachhead. Donough’s forces had run out of ammo, and ship fire made his army in Dublin brittle. But the English took heavy casualties, and Donough rose with 5,000 more forces to protect Dublin. The battle practically destroyed the town, and many civilians had failed to evacuate in time, their homes burned and injuries rampant, the battle would be close, but the British withdrew. Donough has achieved victory and showed his willingness to hold, but the losses and damage to the city had given the English newfound morale. Charles passed the invasion as a raid in front of Parliament and believed the Irish cause to be broken.
The blockade was beginning to take its toll. Summer arrived, and trade suffered. Periodic bombardments of coastal towns killed hundreds and damaged infrastructure. But all was not well for the Royal Navy.
Louis observed his fleet at Calais. It was a mighty fleet, and Louis had confidence in the French navy. Richelieu wanted a quick war and drew up plans for a decisive invasion at Portsmouth, where they would occupy the Isle of Wight and use that as a stepping stone to landing an army in England. Louis feared Richelieu may be going too far, but Richelieu promised that the invasion would not be a wild fantasy to conquer England, but simply a raid, hugging the coast, just to tell England that France could do it. That England would no longer hold sole naval supremacy and would sue for peace. The French decided to agree, but would wait until an Anglo-Spanish naval engagement before daring to test the English at sea.
Fernando of Tuscany was quickly losing ground. His raid on Lombardy had ended in failure, and he struggled to hold against the Napoli army, which threatened to cripple his south. His army was beaten back, and Florence was put to siege. Fernando assembled a defense at Pisa, but without French help he knew he was doomed.
While Louis anxiously waited an oppurtune moment for an invasion of England, he decided that his levies he could pull on, the 100,000 originally set to invade Italy, could be used in an invasion of Iberia. Catalonia provides an open spot for his forces to invade, so Louis raised his banners and marched south toward Barcelona. He believed if he was successful in Catalonia he could relieve pressure off of Fernando, or even convince Spain to drop out of the war.
Anne was infuriated with this decision, to the point of reaching infatuation with the king. Sending letters through covenants to Phillip IV, in order to warn him about the incoming French invasion.
Developments in Central Europe were also taking shape. The Habsburgs saw the conflict in Italy at one of concern, and decided to employ a strategy. Ferdinand believed Venice was weak and open, and within easy striking distance. After consulting the pope, and staging incidents along the Venetian-Austrian border, while also bribing Venetian bishops to commit acts that violated agreements set in the council of Trent. The pope, after a moderate amount of Habsburg bribery, excommunicated Venice. The Urbino pact was formed between Austria and the Papal States, and Ferdinand charged at Venice, which by this point Doge Francesco Erizzo was trying desperately to stop the Habsburg political snowball that was Ferdinand II and his goals of restoration of Austrian prestige.
Ferdinand himself would pass away just before riding off to war, leaving Archduke Ferdinand III to be crowned Holy Roman Emperor and inheritor of the war with Venice. The Papal fleets moves to lock down the Adriatic as Ferdinand III placed Franz von Mercy in charge of the war against Venice, raising an army of 80,000. An army that would see the great city of Venetia burned to the ground.