The Great Western War, Part Three: The Campaigns of 534
The year 534 opened with the Kings of all the major Western Powers (save Hilderic) in war camps, planning for their campaigns for the summer. Both the Franks and the Gothic Coalition felt that they were going to be able to deliver a knockout blow that year, and spent the off season planning for their offensives. The Franks planned to knock out Carcasum as early as possible that year, freeing up the soldiers from that siege camp and placing the strategic location in their possession. They would follow up the seizure of Carcasum with a holding action in the West, with the purpose of protecting their front. The major offensives would be launched in the East, against the Burgundians and Ostrogoths- the Frankish Kings reasoned that if they could overwhelm Burgundy and begin to descend into Italy, they could force the Ostrogoth contingent near Narbonne to retreat back home, knocking them effectively out of the conflict and driving their enemies to the negotiating table.
The Goths and their allies, on the other hand, planned for major offensives on both fronts. Godomar, King of Burgundy, demanded a stronger response against the Franks occupying some two-thirds of his Kingdom, forcing Athalaric to transfer armies intended for the West to march to the North instead. The allied armies in the West would, still, receive some Ostrogoth reinforcements, but for the most part they would receive just enough to recoup their losses from Zeno’s Farm the previous summer. Vandal soldiers would make up the difference, sailing from North Africa to Narbonne and joining the armies of the two Gothic kingdoms; they would be commanded by the nephew of Hilderic, Hoamer (which would cause some tension with the anti-Roman noblemen commanding troops within the Ostrogoth contingent). When the armies rendezvoused, the troops in the West would launch another attack to break the Franks and break the siege.
As the weather warmed and spring wore on, troops moved across Western Europe. Franks marched south; Ostrogoths marched into Burgundy, while the Vandal fleets gathered in preparation to sail towards Europe. By the end of May, most of the troops were in place, save for the Vandal soldiers. The Vandals had yet to sail, with Hilderic dragging his heels a little bit, worrying about the possibility of a renewal of violence with the Berbers. This worried Athalaric, sitting in his war camp in Gaul- while he had reinforced his army from the losses of the previous year, he was loathe to launch an attack without the Vandal support. He sent letters to Hilderic, pushing him to action, reminding him of his duties and the threat of Imperial attack.
Soon, however, news came to Hilderic that would drive his worries about the Vandals to the back of his mind. His agents near the front line came back to camp at a sprint, screaming that the Franks were assaulting Carcasum and had breached the walls. They were streaming into the fortress as they spoke. Athalaric acted quickly- the armies of the Ostrogoths and Visigoths, Vandals or no Vandals, had to act. They set out from their war camp, which was some two days march from Carcasum, as fast as they could travel.
The Frankish assault, though successful in breaching the outer walls of Carcasum, was now stalled as they fought from block to block and as the Visigoths and Theudis withdrew into the central citadel. Word came to Clotaire and Childebert, as they directed the assault that the Goths had marched from their war camps towards Carcasum. They decided that a delaying action would be necessary to hold the Goths off from reaching the city while the assault was still in progress- a small detachment of Frankish soldiers were sent to hold the road and defend their position till the main force, after overwhelming the fortress, could come to assist.
The Goths marched through the night, however, and surprised the Frankish delaying force while they were still setting up position. The Franks attempted to hold their position, which was assisted by the fact the Goths were dog tired, but even in their exhausted state the Goths were able to break through the Frankish line by the end of the day through their overwhelming numbers. Athalaric, however, was forced to camp for the night, a mere few hour’s march from the walls of Carcasum.
The Franksih assault had driven the surviving Visigoth garrison into the citadel, where Theudis was still managing to fend off their strikes. The Franks continued to attack during the night, trying to force their way in through brute force. But Theudis and his men held, determined to die where they stood- not knowing that a relief was just a few hours away. In the wee hours of the morning, Clotaire, impatient and worried about the Gothic force nearby, headed an assault meant to deliver a killing blow- during the attack, a rock flew down from the citadel and hit the Frankish King on the head, wounding him severely. The assault dissolved as the Franks feared their King had died.
As light erupted, the Franks had more reason to worry as the Gothic army of Athalaric, refreshed as much as a few hours of fitful sleep could give them, arrived on the horizon. Childebert, assuming command of both armies, determined that they could not win a victory that day in their disorganized state; he withdrew the Frankish army in a hasty retreat back towards Frankish territory. This was against the advice of several Frankish commanders; when Clotaire came to a few days later, he raged against his brother, calling him a fool for not facing the Goths in the field.
But history is made up of snap decisions, and Childebert had made one when he ordered the retreat. The Gothic forces entered the sacked city of Carcasum, greeted by the skeleton of a garrison that had survived the siege and intense assault. Theudis, emaciated and haggard looking, embraced Athalaric as the armies cheered their victory; after a short time of recovery, the general would return to Narbonne to confront his terrified master, Amalaric, who was still holed up in his palace, terrified. Theudis’ return would mark an end to Amalaric’s attempts to rule his Kingdom directly- the general reassumed the “stewardship” of the Kingdom, ruling in the name of the King.
Vandal ships arrived a few weeks later, with Hoamer receiving a long lecture from a very angry (yet relieved) Athalaric, who harangued the Vandal for his tardiness. However, Athalaric could not be totally angry, for he was in a better position than he had thought he would be at that point on the summer- he had avoided a major pitched battle, only clashing with a Frankish holding force before retaking Carcasum relatively bloodlessly; this meant that his army was still very much intact, with the Vandal reinforcements placing him in a strong strategic position. This position would not last very long.
The Franks were still strong in numbers, despite the bloody failed attempt to take the Carcasum citadel, and were much closer to home than their opponents. Their losses were recouped quickly, and Clotaire, after venting his spleen on his brother, took steps to unify the command structure of the armies of the two Kingdoms, to prevent future stupid decisions from being made. This would contribute to the victories of the Franks over the Vandal-Gothic armies later that summer; with a sudden burst of confidence, Athalaric would launch an incursion into Frankish territory, to be repelled brutally at the Battle of Castrum Hill. This battle, taking place on the site of an old Roman fort, saw the Vandal-Gothic force surprised by a sudden Frankish attack, which would drive them out of Frankish lands and reestablishing Carcasum as the front line. A second attempt in August by Athalaric to drive the front line into Frankish territory would be beaten back as well.
In the meantime, Frankish agents and Frankish gold began to travel over the Pyrenes into the wild tribal lands to the North of the Visigoth Kingdom. The agents found a ready audience, who hated the Visigoths for their attempts to encroach into their land. The Vascones, Astures, and Cantabri, among others, launched raids deep into the heartland of Hispania; helped by the fact most Visigoth soldiers were in Gaul, the tribes would ravage the countryside, even succeeding in sacking the major settlement of Caesaraugutsa (August, 534). Visigoth peasants fled from the raids into more secure locations, hurting the harvest- many of the fields were burned by the tribes.
This terrified the coalition, who were forced to send troops to help secure Hispania- but these soldiers were few in number, for fear of weakening the front against the Franks. The situation was dire in the West for the coalition; while they could hold of the Frankish armies all the day long, they could not advance against them. Discussions began to trend towards negotiating a peace; but news from the East stopped that talk in its tracks.
In Burgundy, the war had raged brutally over the course of the entire summer. Godomar and Theuderic slugged it out, the front line changing almost weakly as they bled each other in a titanic struggle. Major battles were fought at Genava (June, Burgundian victory); Lugdunum (June, Frankish victory); Valentia (July, Burgundian victory); Aventicum (July, Frankish victory); and at Genava again (August, Frankish victory). Theuderic brought the full strength of his Kingdom to bear, which slowly ground away at the numbers of the Burgundians; local pro-Catholic uprisings also served to assist the Franks as summer wore on. After the victory at the Second Battle of Genava in August, Theuderic had the Burgundians on the ropes…
And then the Thuringians invaded. Always a rival to the Franks, the Thuringians took advantage of the chaos on the Southern border of their neighbor to launch an invasion. They brushed aside the Frankish garrisons deployed on the frontier, and they began to drive into Frankish territory. Theuderic, in a panic, sent more troops to help them, but by that time everything began to fall apart. The Alamanni, under Frankish dominion since their conquest by Clovis in 496, rose up and declared their freedom from their Christian masters; other Germanic tribal confederations, sensing an opening, began to march further West, intending to take a piece of the pie.
Theuderic, who had feared a Germanic invasion from the East for some time, wrote letters to his brothers, demanding their aid. Clotaire and Childebert, who realized that this would be a threat to their own security, knew that they would have to protect against these invasions. They signaled to the coalition in the West their willingness to negotiate, even as they began to transfer soldiers to the East. The exhausted and bloodied Goths, feeling that this was a chance to get the situation in Hispania under control, agreed to hold peace discussions.
The discussions would take place in Carcasum, the city that had been the cause of so much bloodshed, in October of that year…