“It is better to cure a sick man than to kill him.” A Northumbrian Survival Timeline
- Thread starter clem attlee
- Start date
I'm also trying to complete my ninth and last encyclopaedia article of the current batch. Thanks for the understanding.
Ultra recusancy in Anglia
Anglia: The Council of Armagh brought Hibernia in line with Anglia, Scotia and Wales in its practice of Reformed Catholicism. Now all of the British Isles professed this new creed. There was no physical persecution of dissenters, but the Friars of St Ethelred were unremitting in their efforts to bring spiritual unity to the islands. Their success in countering foreign evangelists was considerable. Erasmus even presided over a growing community of Frisian Catholic exiles in Dunwich. But there remained tracts of these lands which supported the Ultras, some from dogged conservatism and tradition, others genuinely fearing a peril to their souls. Fr Gundobad in Coventry took ship in May to arrive on Man. The island was ruled by several raiding lords subject to no king. There Gundobad set up his centre of Ultra recusancy and preached powerfully for a return to traditional values and allegiances. For surely, God was angry with mankind for its sin and was punishing men for their disobedience. The only answer was to cleave to the old ways and be obedient in all things to His Vicar on earth in Rome.
A Tyrolean Interlude
German Empire: Archduke von Frundsberg lay in his bed within the tent grimly contemplating the carnage of the last several years. He knew his duty to the Kaiser but was heart-sick of slaughter and war. His scarred and battered middle-aged body felt worn down by exhaustion as the long hours of wakeful nocturnal vigils took their toll. Colonel Ulrich von Hütten walked in quietly and took off his cloak. Beneath he was naked. His lithe muscularity and fresh beauty took his commander’s breath away. He approached and whispered “I have dismissed the sentries, my lord. We are quite alone.” Neither man left the tent for the next two days nor was any allowed to approach.
The cook, Edvard, freed from his duties was stood by a stream looking at the growth of wild asparagus and contemplating its cooking. He smiled as he watched a gaggle of local maidens approached with buckets for water, happily singing tra-la-la. Young Veronika broke off and smiled at him, as she had the previous day. Pointing at the asparagus she cried “Spring is here!” The sun shone, warmth crept back into the air even in these Alpine meadows. Here at least life continued and there was a respite from war. Veronika coquettishly filled her bucket and straightened once again. Edvard smiled.
The cook, Edvard, freed from his duties was stood by a stream looking at the growth of wild asparagus and contemplating its cooking. He smiled as he watched a gaggle of local maidens approached with buckets for water, happily singing tra-la-la. Young Veronika broke off and smiled at him, as she had the previous day. Pointing at the asparagus she cried “Spring is here!” The sun shone, warmth crept back into the air even in these Alpine meadows. Here at least life continued and there was a respite from war. Veronika coquettishly filled her bucket and straightened once again. Edvard smiled.
Last edited:
OK. So, I'm being a bit mischievous with Edvard. There is a joking tribute in this scene. Anyone recognise it?
RodentRevolution
Banned
Nah I got nothing but keep it under wraps a little longer in case someone else twigs the connection.
Alas, the other readers seem to be rather shy.Still would not do myself any good but it might aid another reader
RodentRevolution
Banned
Well no matter. I am sure you will reveal all in good time, meanwhile I continue to find this interesting and I am sure others do.
OK, so the song is Veronika, Der Lenz ist da (Veronika, the Spring is here) sung by the Comedian Harmonists of Berlin in the early 30s. You can find it readily by googling Der Lenz ist da. Great - and slighty fruity - comic song.
The German Counter-offensive
Archduke von Frundsberg spurred his horse forward to the top of the knoll. There in the distance lay Vienna, now occupied by the Magyar and Bohemian army. His army has been harried by skirmishers, but no more than that. It didn’t look as though they intended to issue forth from the city to fight. He led his army on to surround the capital to which he laid claim. Before long, Vienna was invested and his cannon began to roar. The siege lasted throughout the Spring.
Karl IV gathered his army once again and summoned his cousin Joachim of Swabia to contribute his troops. The Duke had little option but to comply though he was not happy to leave his recently acquired domain. Still Swabia seemed quiet. The Reich was almost reclaimed in the West. Karl was determined to drive the French out of Elsass-Lohringen. He was equally disturbed by the fanatical dissenter Jean Calvin too. Calvin now ruled Strassburg as an independent theocracy. Luther was furious at this challenge to his own and the Emperor’s authority and inveighed increasingly violently against the prophet in his sermons. The Kaiser simply continued his extensive preparations meticulously. His sense of duty and purpose overruled his age and fatigue, but he could feel his constraints growing. He prayed that God spare him to complete his life’s work of uniting and strengthening Germany against foreign interference and intervention.
Karl IV gathered his army once again and summoned his cousin Joachim of Swabia to contribute his troops. The Duke had little option but to comply though he was not happy to leave his recently acquired domain. Still Swabia seemed quiet. The Reich was almost reclaimed in the West. Karl was determined to drive the French out of Elsass-Lohringen. He was equally disturbed by the fanatical dissenter Jean Calvin too. Calvin now ruled Strassburg as an independent theocracy. Luther was furious at this challenge to his own and the Emperor’s authority and inveighed increasingly violently against the prophet in his sermons. The Kaiser simply continued his extensive preparations meticulously. His sense of duty and purpose overruled his age and fatigue, but he could feel his constraints growing. He prayed that God spare him to complete his life’s work of uniting and strengthening Germany against foreign interference and intervention.
Last edited:
A Polish Spring
Poland: Large forces from throughout the country converged on the Lutheran enclaves of the North and West. They greatly outnumbered the forces available to the Princes. Nonetheless, they made the decision to strike swiftly at the columns with all their forces lest they be overwhelmed by the Catholic armies. Prince Radziwill commanded the small, but seasoned Protestant army while Stefan Piast led the cavalry. The Prince led his forces just beyond the Lutheran redoubts and arranged his troops along a ridge blocking the road. The first Catholic army under Count Gielgudas stormed up the ridge. The Lutheran artillery, shielded by earthworks blasted the oncoming forces and blunted their momentum. Fire from arqubusiers raked their ranks. The Catholics reached the strong line of pike and swordsmen in scattered knots. They fought bravely, but ineffectually. The first wave dissolved against Radziwill’s defences. Count Gielgudas led the rest of the army forward in a headlong attack. Although casualties were heavy, the greater numbers allowed for more to reach the entrenched lines. The Count himself, a tall man with hawkish features fought his way through the line with his bodyguard and attacked Prince Radziwill. As the two entourages dueled, the Lutheran veterans refused their line and Prince Piast led his cavalry around the left flank of the Catholics driving deep into their ranks. Count Ioannas struck down the Lutheran commander with a grievous wound, but his knights had been assailed from all sides. They were few in number now and unable to keep the pike reserves off. All died impaled excruciatingly on the pikes. Prince Stefan soon routed the enemy troops and drove them headlong down the slope. Most of the infantry was ridden down while some badly damaged cavalry regiments escaped back to Lithuania. By the time Piast had returned to camp, his commander’s wounds had been dressed. He would be out of action for the rest of the campaigning year but was not permanently maimed or mortally stricken. Piast then took command of the army. The victory at Koronowo destroyed an army double the size of the Lutheran forces for quite slight casualties.
A Polish Spring II
Three days later, Prince Stefan Piast took up positions blocking a second army from crossing a ford. There was significant foliage on the river-banks in which he hid his cannon and arquebusiers. The blocking force consisted of pike-men behind a temporary earthwork. Duke Stanislaus Jagiellon, the Catholic commander, decided to force the ford, using his vastly superior forces to smash through this unsupported local regiment. He thought of his youthful son, Casimir, so foully struck down in the Mazovia massacre, and his sight grew dim with wrath. He longed to slaughter the heartless peasants who had murdered his boy and mangled his body. Against the advice of his subordinates, he refused to use artillery first, but sent his swordsmen across, closely supported by cavalry in a second wave. The swordsmen found the footing of the ford very uneven where the Lutherans had undermined it. When the whole regiment was in the river, the Lutheran cannon and arquebusiers raked them with devastating fire. Men fell in the river and were swept away by the strong current. Others stumbled on to be struck down at the rampart. Over half of the regiment died in the assault before withdrawing into the cavalry. Then the Lutherans fired again devastating both units and causing panic among the infantry. They fled willy-nilly while the cavalry milled around in the ford trying to gain their footing and control over their panicked mounts. A third volley and a fourth choked the ford with dead and dying while the brave survivors perished against the rampart. Duke Stanislaus wept in fury and ordered more men forward, but they would not advance into that hail of death. He rode into the mutinying troops striking left and right with his sword against these traitors. A dozen fell dead or wounded before a maddened peasant struck at him from behind with a pike causing his horse to rear in agony. In its pain, it threw him and then fell atop him. The peasant, scion of a long line of brutalised and exploited serfs, thrust his pike through the Duke’s hateful Patrician throat, cutting off its curses. Leaderless, the second army retreated in confusion even as Piast’s cannon continued to fire.
A Polish Spring III
The Jagiellon army simply dissolved after its bloody nose. The peasant levies attacked their officers killing many and then walked home to start a rebellion in Lithuania. This revolt was as unsuccessful as so many others before it but raged for the rest of the year. No more forces issued forth from Lithuania against the Lutherans. The third and last Catholic army advanced much more slowly and cautiously. Its commander, the Count of Częstochowa, had made a vow before the Black Madonna to drive the heretics out of Poland. But Count Henryk was a capable soldier. He sent outflanking forces to force Prince Piast back from the ford and brought him to battle in an open plain nearby. The Count was victorious, but Piast was able to keep his army intact in a fighting retreat. Both sides lost three thousand men. Piast could afford the loss less and retreated to the nearest Lutheran village where he dug his men in and awaited a siege. The Count followed and the Spring rose into Summer amidst sorties and feints.
Well, it has been a bloody busy twelve days, but my last encyclopaedia article is finished and submitted and I'm back to writing the monograph. Now racing to complete it by the Summer. I'll update this as I can. I'm hoping to use this writing as light relief.
RodentRevolution
Banned
When writing an account of a vicious set of interconnected religious wars is light relief
Well, that elicited a serious belly laugh. I hadn't quite thought of it that way. Well, the characterisation is fun for me and Anglia is still a relative haven of peace.
Last edited:
I'm assembling a series of big updates for 1532. This will be a decisive year. Any predictions? I won't post them until to-night or to-morrow.