Ingbal the Terrible

Ingbal the Terrible
Queen of Sandsvaer
Enlargement a miniature of Ingbal, painted in 1410 in Angpern
Reign	1103 - 1134
Successor	Henry of Sandsvaer
House	Hylia

Ingbal I, also known as Ingbal the Terrible, was the ruler and founder of Sandsvaer during the Solstianan Greindrifa from 1003 to 1034. Her progeny, which ruled over Sandsvaer until 1154, was known as the Hylian Dynasty, after her estate near the town of Hylia.

Ingbal was directly responsible for the decline and fall of Valderik, from the engagements between their forces she earned the name "Terrible". Later in her life, she also secured the independence of Dramland and conquered the city of Angpern. Her husband, Svein Ironheart, was legendarily killed by King Cerdicus of Valderik, sparking her rivalry with that kingdom.

Early Life

Ingbal was born sometime between 964 and 966 to a family of landowners in modern Hjarnmark, directly west of Hylia. Her parents secured a marriage to a son of a prestigious family in Hylia, part of the Himmerling clan, which held most of the territory between Josmyrn and Hylia in fief for the Valderik kings of Connheim.

'Twas the earliest of times   when Ingbal lived ;
then was state nor seat   nor restive crown,
nor was Kirke found then,   nor Heaven on high,
there was Yawning of Deeps   and nowhere haven :

— "Valderiksbrudd", Edda 3

According to some sources, Ingbal was an extremely effective administrator who organized the construction of the Himmerling fortress at Hylia, greatly expanded their lands, and even managed their horse breeding. It is difficult to confirm any of these accounts, but it is evident that the Himmerlings were rapidly enriching themselves.

The growth of the Himmerling land and power drew the attention of the King, who suspected that this wealth came from withholding tribute. Svein, who became the most prominent figure in the Himmerling clan after his father suffered a stroke, was summoned to Connheim. At Connheim, Svein was betrayed and killed, supposedly in an epic duel with King Cerdicus, though the accounts are mostly legendary.

Rebellion of 1001

King Cerdicus crippled the Himmerlings by killing their most prominent dynast and the clan seemed poised to divide their lands among some of the senior members to avoid further confrontation with Connheim. Ingbal, acting on behalf of her father-in-law, prevented this by rallying the clan and many of the families in their territory against Connheim.

From 994 to 1003, Ingbal acted as regent for the Himmerlings and organized an offensive against Cerdicus's nephew's fortress at Angpern. Cerdicus learned of this assault, which was planned long in advance and gathered a force of ships from Connheim and sailed around the coast to land at Filsbeinborg, where he camped for the winter of 999, waiting for Ingbal's forces at Losvann, near modern Josmyrn, to make an advance. Ingbal split her force into a main body, which fortified Losvann for the winter, and a large contingent which moved into the Vingfold Forest to raid and supply the main body with forage.

In the Spring of 1001 Ingbal refused to move and, eventually, Cerdicus approached her camp with his nephew--Seder Jorfot--reinforcing him from the rear. Expecting to seize the initiative as well as having the larger force, Cerdicus was impatient to begin the battle and ordered Seder to move around Losvann to attack their north flank and encircle Losvann instead of reinforcing the main attack. Seder's forces were almost immediately intercepted by Ingbal's foragers, who harassed Seder and slowed his advance until he reached the village of Gulfjøs. Gulfjøs had been abandoned because of Ingbal's raids, but Seder attempted to fortify his position and wait for an attack from the raiders.

Ingbal's raiders, however, quickly left Seder's forces and moved to outflank Cerdicus, who was already engaged with Losvann's defenses. Although Cerdicus alone had a superior force to Ingbal, when the raiders engaged them from the rear, they were pressed against the palisade around Losvann and rapidly lost their strength. Eventually, after trying to wait for Seder's arrival for a few hours, Cerdicus surrendered to Ingbal and agreed to forgive Svein's debts along with granting Ingbal additional territory and privileges.

When Seder arrived with his force, Cerdicus had already accepted an agreement. One element of the agreement was for Cerdicus and Seder to give Ingbal the horses in their armies so that Cerdicus would be forced to walk back to Connheim. An impromptu celebration was organized, which all parties attended to consecrate the new peace. On the morning of April 16th, Cerdicus and Seder again parted, Seder returning to Angpern and Cerdicus moving south along the river towards his ships at Filsbeinborg. As soon as both forces were out of sight, Ingbal dispatched contingent of cavalry, which quickly caught up with and scattered Cerdicus's army, killing many. Cerdicus himself was captured and returned to Losvann, where he was tortured to death. His dismembered remains were entombed in a cairn, which has since been archaeologically confirmed to be Cerdicus.

Seder's army learned of the betrayal of Ingbal within weeks as members of Cerdicus's army coalesced around Angpern. He immediately set out back towards Losvann, hoping to secure his uncle's release, and was reinforced by small groups of Cerdicus's men. Following the road back through Gulfjøs, however, his army was ambushed a destroyed. Seder himself was killed after the battle when he tried to surrender.

Regency

From the death of Cerdicus in 1001 to the death of Ingbal's father-in-law in 1003, Ingbal served as the regent of an independent, but largely disorganized territory of Himmerlings. She attempted, at various times, to organize the territory into a kingdom under her father-in-law, but was stymied by his degenerated mental state. Several prominent Himmerling lords acted essentially independently, although those who lived in the eastern region adjacent to Valderik were more supportive of Ingbal. Ingbal's family land was centrally located in the west and she maintained only a small number of soldiers on the eastern border.

In late winter 1003, Ingbal's father-in-law died and the fledgling state was immediately cast into question as lords began to compete for independence or supremacy. Fearing that the territory would again fall under the authority of Valderik or perhaps Hrodmir, Ingbal ordered her men on the eastern border to antagonize Thorod Hjorsson, who had become lord of Angpern. At the same time, she informed Kaetilfast Himmerling, a powerful landowner located at Hroarborg, that Valderik was planning an invasion. Ingbal promised Kaetilfast, one of the chief claimants to power after the death of Svein and his father, her loyalty if he would march with her to fortify her old fortress at Losvann. Kaetilfast agreed readily and set out to take command of Losvann before Ingbal could arrive, though he ensured Ingbal's forces were following.

The traditional site associated with the formation of Sandsvaer

Kaetilfast arrived first at Losvann and began to set up a camp there, waiting for Ingbal to plan their defenses, expecting a period of weeks before they would face any forces from Valderik. Thorod Hjorsson's forces, however, arrived within hours of their bivouac, pursuing a small group of raiders. Ingbal's raiders ran directly to and through Kaetilfast's camp in late evening, leading Thorod directly to them. Thorod took advantage of the Himmerling's momentary weakness and began slaughtering as many of the unarmed men as possible. Kaetilfast's army was immediately routed and fled in every direction. Ingbal halted her march when the raiders reached and reported to her, waiting until the following early morning to counter-attack Thorod's forces who camped on the opposite side of the river. Kaetilfast was not found and was assumed dead.

Ingbal camped at Losvann and waited for several weeks as news spread through the Himmerling territory of Kaetilfast's defeat and her own triumph. After she waited long enough for her victory to become common knowledge, she summoned the remaining great lords of the Himmerlings to Losvann to offer her their fealty. It is unclear if it was generally known that Ingbal had orchestrated this series of events, but regardless of her role, the Himmerlings at large believed that she alone was capable of resisting Valderik. The compact that elevated Ingbal to queenship was called "sandshverfi aftala" or "district of sand agreement", named for the sandy river beach at which the Himmerling lords offered Ingbal their fealty. It is from this agreement that Ingbal became known as the queen of "Sandsvaer", a title which she passed on to her children.

Reign

After becoming Queen, Ingbal's primary objective was to subjugate the peripheral Himmerling territories and to punish the lords who had resisted her rise to power. From 1003 to 1011, Ingbal was involved in a series of military campaigns, primarily in the form of short sieges, to assert control over contested territories. At the same time, however, she pursued land reform in her own estates, eliminating freeholders and smallholders and replacing them with bonded serfs. She passed laws restricting the ownership of land to the point that all land owners had to have special dispensation from the monarch. Several lords resisted this assertion of control over their internal affairs, which protracted Ingbal's military engagements.

When lords resisted her efforts, she would often set aside a large amount of land as a reward for soldiers who served in her army, which quickly swelled her ranks and encouraged any freeholders--some of which the lords were trying to protect from Ingbal--to defect. Having conquered such a territory, land was distributed to the oldest members of the army first, keeping their lifelong tenures relatively short and allowing Ingbal to reclaim the land for serfs quickly.

Drammish War

After reigning for nearly thirty years, Ingbal was faced with great dissatisfaction with her rule from the nobility. Notably the Lord of Raehr, a Valderik prince, and her own subject, Lord Iogaeir of Torrad, became allied through marriage. While this worried some of the Himmerling lords, they were more opposed to the continuation of Ingbal's policy of consolidation than to an alliance with Valderik. Iogaeir attracted many allies and reached an approximate parity with Ingbal's own forces in 1032.

Rather than facing this growing threat, Ingbal turned again to her life-long nemesis, Valderik, and began agitating for war. Her principal commander, Captain Thiodolf, took command of her forces in the field. Most of Sandsvaer's forces were stationed at fortresses along the border with Valderik and they were active in the area, attacking villages and raiding farms, to draw an attack from Valderik. The King of Valderik, Arnvid, wanted to avoid a direct conflict with Ingbal's forces, but needed to retaliate. He organized a fleet of ships in Orlafen and sailed around to Gallivare, which Thiodolf had left largely undefended. This was in part because the lord of Gallivare, being an ally of Iogaeir, had not participated in Ingbal's war council. Arnvid was able to burn much of Gallivare and retreat without suffering casualties or engage with Thiodolf.

Ruins of Kvalborg's main house.

The destruction of Gallivare turned the support of the nobility back to Ingbal and many of them volunteered their forces to support her efforts. Invigorated with a much larger army, Thiodolf gathering his forces together and advanced into Valderik. He moved towards Angpern, where Arnvid had already invested a large body of soldiers and which would take weeks to take by siege. Thiodolf split his forces into two columns and moved around the north and south to prevent any movement from the forces within the fort, but rather than encircling the fortress, Thiodolf feigned a siege and then advanced on towards Kvalborg, which had only a minor defense force. The commander of Kvalborg was forced to surrender and Thiodolf occupied the castle. While Thiodolf was invading Valderik, Ingbal travelled with a small retinue north to Raehr. At Raehr, she made an agreement with the Lord of Raehr, his son, and daughter in law (princess of Torrad). In exchange for Lord Raehr's support against Valderik, Ingbal promised independence for Raehr and the Drammish, along with a substantial gift of gold and horses for the young couple.

When Arnvid learned that Kvalborg had been taken, he organized his own army in Grauthus along with orders to the army at Angpern and Lord Raehr's army to converge on Kvalborg. Arnvid was suspicious of Ingbal, who had defeated his grandfather and his vassals several times before, and wanted to ensure that he arrived with an overwhelming force. The three armies moved slowly, carefully scouting for ambushes or other surprises. Arnvid arrived first, however, and surrounded the eastern side of the fortress, leaving the western side open for Thiodolf to retreat until Angpern's forces arrived. Thiodolf did not move and, a few days later, the rest of Valderik's forces arrived and besieged the city. Thiodolf's defenses were very weak; he had failed to reinforce the walls partially destroyed in his own assault and Arnvid sought to take advantage of the weakness. All of Valderik's forces moved to attack and began to take the fortress, when Lord Raehr attacked Arnvid from behind. Pressed between Thiodolf's men in the fortress and Lord Raehr, Arnvid quickly surrendered.

Arnvid was spared, unlike previous Valderik princes, but only after he ceded Angpern to Ingbal and the north of Brachland to Raehr.

Legacy

After securing this last, great victory against Valderik, Ingbal contracted a fever on the return journey from which she never fully recovered. She and her descendants did continue to protect Dramland's independence.