Battle of Helderny
| Battle of Helderny | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Riverlandian Conquest of Grythshead King Malcom's War | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Kingdom of the Riverland |
 Kingdom of Grythshead | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Earl of Tarringway |
Sir Eustace Salter † | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 33,000 | 22,000 | ||||||
The Battle of Helderny was an engagement of King Malcom's War fought in 1750. A surprise victory for the outmatched Riverlanders of the Earl of Tarringway's army, it marked the opening of the campaign that came to be known as the Riverlandian Conquest of Grythshead. The Grythsheader army of Sir Eustace Salter, the King's secretary, was outmaneuvered and defeated in detail. Despite being outnumbered 3:2, the wide expectation that the Grythsheaders, battle-hardened and entrenched on their own soil, was confounded and the Riverlander victory paved the way to the eventual defeat and annexation of Grythshead.
Background
Following the intense campaigning season of 1749 in Harroway and Ballaeter, the armies of the South Vionna theatre of war settled down into winter quarters in the middle of November. Many left garrisons in the lands they had occupied and returned to friendly towns to wait out the cold season in comfort. A large portion of the Grythsheader Western Army, which had been engaged in Ballaeter for most of the war, fell back on the town of Helderny in north-east Grythshead to spend the winter there. Under the organisation of Sir Eustace Salter, who replaced the unwell General Byng as commander of that army, the Grythsheaders used the cold season as an opportunity to reinforce their depleted army and prepare for a grand offensive into Ballaeter when the campaigning season began again.
Spies brought this intelligence soon reached the Earl of Tarringway, commander of the Riverlander Army of Ballaeter, who decided to capitalise on a mild winter to disrupt the Grythsheader plans to concentrate their forces. Despite recieving no reinforcement from his Ballaetan allies and conscious of his inexperienced troops, Tarringway determined to march on Helderny and engage Salter's main force before it could be bought up to strength. Though advised against this course of action by his staff, he could not be dissuaded and crossed the River Lochen with 33,000 men and 40 guns on New Years' Day, 1750.