AHC: A king declares war on himself and loses

From Wikipedia:

One day, almost 30 years ago, Cariadoc of the Bow, the King of the Middle, got bored with peace and declared war upon the East, loser to take Pittsburgh. The King of the East read the declaration of war, filed it away and forgot about it. Time passed. Cariadoc moved to New York and subsequently became King of the East, whereupon he retrieved the declaration from the file cabinet and said, "Let’s fight." The Middle won, and Cariadoc has the distinction of being the only king who declared war upon himself and lost.

Now this is just about the Society for Creative Anachronism, which for those of you who don't know is a club for people who like to dress up and do historical-themed things, but it got me wondering -- is there a way for something like this to happen with actual countries?
 
Something involving Alcibiades, I'd bet. Just the right blend of disloyalty and fuckups to make this happen somehow.
 

Kaze

Banned
How about William of Orange? Before the Glorious Revolution there were English troops fighting him, it was not until a month after he was crowned that the English troops in Holland put down their arms.
 
The only way that I can think of is that the countries' governments* declare war on each other, but still maintain the same monarch.
I think we can do better than that. What I see as being possible is some kind of self-coup situation, where the king is somehow restricted in power by, say, a cabal of barons or something and, chafing under these restrictions, attempts to depose them through force of arms. This doesn't go so smoothly and degenerates into a civil war where the king is technically rebelling against his own government, which he then loses to the restrictionists.
 
I think we can do better than that. What I see as being possible is some kind of self-coup situation, where the king is somehow restricted in power by, say, a cabal of barons or something and, chafing under these restrictions, attempts to depose them through force of arms. This doesn't go so smoothly and degenerates into a civil war where the king is technically rebelling against his own government, which he then loses to the restrictionists.

Go-Daigo's rebellion kinda resembles this. A medieval Japanese emperor rebelled against the Shogunate and the state apparatus in an attempt to become something more than a figurehead. Doesn't quite fit the scenario cuz he initially succeeded, with the Shogunate only later being restored.
 
The only way that I can think of is that the countries' governments* declare war on each other, but still maintain the same monarch. The last time this happened IOTL was the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947-8, in which King George VI was at war against himself.



*This includes separatist governments.
You forget Grenada. Where the forces of Elizabeth II, Queen of Jamaica, for example, were hostile to those of Elizabeth II, Queen of Grenada.
 
Actually, now that I think about it, I think we could even do better than my previous scenario to produce one very nearly analogous to the SCA silliness that kicked off the thread. Let's suppose that a country--call it, I dunno, Francia--is divided between two siblings, Carl and Louis, into two countries, perhaps named France and Germany respectively. Carl and Louis obviously have reasonable claims on each other's thrones, and sooner or later one of them--suppose for the sake of argument it's Carl--declares war on the other, but both of them decide to push their claims when it comes down to it. In the fighting, Louis manages to conquer France but loses Germany in the process, so that now Carl is functionally King of Germany and Louis King of France. After more fighting, though, Carl ends up losing.

Ergo, a king declares war on his (future) self and loses when he fights his (future) replacement, just like in the SCA scenario.
 
Actually, now that I think about it, I think we could even do better than my previous scenario to produce one very nearly analogous to the SCA silliness that kicked off the thread. Let's suppose that a country--call it, I dunno, Francia--is divided between two siblings, Carl and Louis, into two countries, perhaps named France and Germany respectively. Carl and Louis obviously have reasonable claims on each other's thrones, and sooner or later one of them--suppose for the sake of argument it's Carl--declares war on the other, but both of them decide to push their claims when it comes down to it. In the fighting, Louis manages to conquer France but loses Germany in the process, so that now Carl is functionally King of Germany and Louis King of France. After more fighting, though, Carl ends up losing.

Ergo, a king declares war on his (future) self and loses when he fights his (future) replacement, just like in the SCA scenario.

It's hard to imagine people swapping, better to imagine he declares war on the King of France, as he wins this war (perhaps he can even be landless for a time), his son rebels and claims the throne of Germany. His son then continues his fathers war against the King of France (who is now his father) and wins.

Then it happens again...
 
The Bougainville Civil War would count, or nearly did. The rebels (fighting against the Commonwealth Realm of Papua New Guinea) wanted to join the Commonwealth Realm of the Solomon Islands (which supported them in an unofficial capacity).

Shouldn't be too too hard to get a declaration of war from one to the other.
 
The Bougainville Civil War would count, or nearly did. The rebels (fighting against the Commonwealth Realm of Papua New Guinea) wanted to join the Commonwealth Realm of the Solomon Islands (which supported them in an unofficial capacity).

Shouldn't be too too hard to get a declaration of war from one to the other.

And Australia, another Commonwealth Realm, supported Papua New Guinea.
 
As a medieval version, maybe a minister in charge of a king's feudal demesne rebels against the king, so the king has to side with his vassals against his own royal demesne. Might be possible in 14th century France.
 
Here's an idea for a scenario.

The Frankish king dies -- any king will do, but let's say Louis the Pious -- and leaves two sons (or more, but two is simpler) who divide the realm between themselves into East and West Francia. Charles gets West Francia and ends up declaring war on Lothair in East Francia. Charles ends up getting deposed and seeks refuge in the court of Lothair. Lothair subsequently dies without issue, and Charles becomes king of East Francia. The war with West Francia is still going on, and Charles does a bit of fighting, but is unsuccessful and eventually has to sue for peace. The end.
 
Perhaps something involving a usurper assuming the identity of a pretender to whom they have no blood relation? Something like the False Dmitry?
 
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