First Navo-Lhaeraidh War
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| First Navo-Lhaeraidh War | |||||||
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| Part of The Lhedwinnic Wars of Unification | |||||||
 A Messenger informs O'Brian of Nuallán's defeat, by Alexander Carbrey. | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
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Kingdom of Navack  Kingdom of Navack |
Teyrnas tir Lhaeraidd
Template:Country data tir Lhaeraidd  Crylantean Loyalists | ||||||
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Template:Country data tir Lhaeraidd Rí-Fórsaí Armtha
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| Strength | |||||||
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35,000 |
Template:Country data tir Lhaeraidd 50,000 5,000 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
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: 12,500 (1764 est.) |
Template:Country data tir Lhaeraidd: 8,250 (1764 est.) : 3,100 (1764 est.) | ||||||
| Casualty estimates based upon the 1764 historic work by Lhaeraidh historian Domhnall Réamann. | |||||||
The First Navo-Lhaeraidh War also referred to as the War of Crylantean Succession was a conflict fought primarily between the forces of Navack and tir Lhaeraidd between 1559 and 1561. A relatively minor conflict in the context of Asura during the 16th century, the war was confined to modern day Crylante and Navack and was mostly fought during the spring and summer months of 1559, 1560, and 1561 with little action occurring during the winter due the difficult terrain and climate.
Precipitated by the Lhaeraidh annexation of Crylante in 1557 the war began in 1559 when Navish armies crossed the border into Crylante, overwhelming local Crylantean militia and border forces, but would not see the heaviest of the fighting until 1560 when Lhaeraidh forces from the mainland counterattacked causing the Navish armies to retreat, surrendering the vast majority of the territory they had occupied at the beginning of the war. The casus belli was the Lhaeraidh annexation of Crylante following a disputed succession in which the Teyrn of tir Lhaeraidd claimed the throne based upon a tenuous historic claim; this caused the Navish crown some consternation due to its own solid claim and the geographic and cultural proximity of Crylante to their nation. Ultimately the Navish government would cite this, and tir Lhaeraidh's apparent designs of dominance over the Lhedwinnic subcontinent, as the reason for the war.
The initial stages of the war saw heavy casualties inflicted upon the Crylantean Army, which had been left disorganised and demoralised by the Lhaeraidh annexation two years prior. However the damage to Crylante's infrastructure and civilian population in the north was relatively minor due to the Navish belief that they were fighting to liberate the nation; nonetheless persecution of local Lhaeraidh settlers and collaborators did take place. The early defeats suffered by the Crylantean army forced them to withdraw into the interior and rendered them a secondary force for the remainder of the war. As the 1560 campaigning season began the Lhaeraidh counterattacked in force, having landed some fifty thousand soldiers in the south of the country during the winter; from March 1560 the war was decidedly one sided with a strong Lhaeraidh advance that forced the Navish back across the border.
It was not until the ending months of the war in 1561 that the majority of the war's casualties and devastation were inflicted. The Lhaeraidh advance into Navack was swift and brutal, but with a highly motivated foe in the Navish army every battle was hard fought and horrific casualties were inflicted on both sides. As they advanced and occupied areas of Navack the less disciplined elements of the Lhaeraidd army, in the form of the Fianna committed some of the worst atrocities of the war by burning and sacking dozens of smaller settlements in the southern regions of Navack. Looking at the conflict in the context of those in mainland Asura at the time however the casualties and damage inflicted was minor and in spite of the atrocities of the Fianna the conduct of the war is seen as a prime example of the waning military doctrine of chivalry.
The war concluded in 1561 with the Treaty of Sønderburg, in which the Navish conceded defeat and agreed to a territorial status quo antebellum, renouncing its claims to Crylante and to Vrnallia and paying reparations to the victor. However the Treaty also stipulated that the Lhaeraidh crown was to forego any further expansion, either territorial or in influence, in Lhedwin; a difference in opinion as to which areas were and were not a part of Lhedwin as per the Treaty of Sønderburg would ultimately precipitate the later Second Navo-Lhaeraidh War in 1598.
Origins of the War
The Origins of the First Navo-Lhaeraidh War date to 1543 when Magnus VII ascended to the throne of the ailing Crylantean Empire. Magnus VII is a relatively minor historic figure except in that he passed away without an heir; with numerous claimants to the throne in 1557 it was clear that a foreign aristocrat or monarch would likely take the throne. Upon hearing of the death of Magnus VII the Teyrn of tir Lhaeraidd, Llewellyn III/I immediately staked his claim and then enforced it. As the most powerful of the claimants to the Crylantean throne, and the first to enforce it in practical terms through the deployment of military forces, Llewellyn III/I was successful in taking the throne and adding Crylante as a feudal realm of tir Lhaeraidd. However another claimant to the throne, King Navish King, of Navack took exception to the Lhaeraidh claim; Llewellyn was only a distance cousin of Magnus VII and was from the Asuran mainland, rather than a Lhedwinnic nation - urged on by his ministers and retainers the King initially demanded that he be recognised as Crylante's rightful ruler and maintained his claim to the throne. However when no foreign powers stepped forward to support his claim, and the Lhaeraidh Teyrn rejected it out of hand a declaration of war was made and Navish Armies crossed the border.
Llewellyn's claim to the throne of Crylante was a tenuous one at best; although he was a cousin of the late Magnus VII, it was only through his mother's line and the Navish King was related through the male line. Historian Andrew Forsiadh (1998) wrote "...(E)ven at the time the Lhaeraidh claim on Crylante was seen as weak, and that Llewellyn was, to use our modern vernacular, 'pushing it a bit' in claiming the throne was rightfully his. It was only through his own personal gall and willingness to exercise military strength that the throne was taken so easily. For their part the Crylantean military and establishment were little concerned, Llewellyn posed little threat to them after all, and the majority of Magnus' troops simply stood by as Lhaeraidh forces landed." The rapid acquiescence of Crylantean military saw to the local legitimacy of Llewellyn's rule; there was no organised attempt among Crylanteans at the time to prevent his ascension and since the establishment accepted his rule Llewellyn suddenly found he had an entire native army in place to shore up her reign.
The local sentiment, and the support of Magnus' troops meant little to the Navish elite however. From the Navish perspective Llewellyn was a foreign ruler with a "...(G)irlish name, and a heathen religion." who was seeking to stamp his boot on Lhedwin's neck. So for the Navish crown there were two major reasons to go to war; first the establishment in Navack felt, perhaps rightly, that the King had the more powerful claim having been more closely related to the deceased Magnus VII. The second major reason was that the Lhaeraidh nation was seen as a foreign invader, seeking to expand its influence over Lhedwin by force; the Teyrn had after all enforced his claim through the swift use of military force, and was maintaining it through control of the Crylantean army.
Of course once the Lhaeraidh crown had command of Crylante's armies their rule seemed to them to be secure; while Navack continued to demand that they have their claim recognised the Teyrn never seems to have seriously considered them a threat to his power, hence the lack of a military buildup in Crylante before the war. Thanks to the confusing situation in Crylante much of its soldiery were left poorly supplied, poorly paid, and greatly demoralised. Since his ascension Llewellyn III/I had been primarily concerned with the resettlement of Lhaeraidh gentry to Crylante, and the diplomatic front in winning over the Crylantean establishment, the Crylantean military had fallen by the wayside, uncertain of where they stood.
The Campaigns of 1559
The war began in 1559 with the initial Navish campaign into northern Crylante. These early advances were opposed by a mixture of local Crylantean militia forces, and the Crylantean army, however both proved to be ill equipped and too few in number to hold back the professional Navish armies. At the Battle of Edrinal the two thousand strong Crylantean force, made up mostly of militia units surrounding a core of around two hundred professional soldiers, were defeated by a Navish force of just fifteen hundred men. Further defeats at Holshavn, Callistead, and Drina set the pattern of defeat and retreat which would continue for the Crylantean army throughout 1559. The early Navish campaigns of 1559 were marked by rapid advances and the use of overwhelming firepower against the beleaguered Crylantean defenders and despite the heroic leadership of Janus Olliger, the head of the Crylantean Army, they were unable to decisively defeat the Navish forces or check their advance. As winter began to set in in earnest in September the Crylanteans began to prepare fortified encampments and await reinforcements; Olliger had managed to hold together his ragged and under supported forces in spite of heavy losses, and through his charisma he convinced them to hold through the winter to give the Lhaeraidh forces time to arrive and support them.
As October began Teyrn Llewellyn made good on his promise to Olliger that his forces would be relieved and supported. Sending a force under the command of Sir Áedh O'Brian, 3rd Iarla of Hlandennig north, the Teyrn hoped to secure a decisive victory to reinforce Crylantean morale and loyalty. Facing treacherous weather and poor road conditions O'Brian led his force north into Navish held territory and engaged a force of five thousand Navish troops at the Battle of Five Streams. The Battle proved to be exactly the decisive victory the Teyrn had hoped for, and with the involvement of five hundred Crylantean conscripts it secured Crylantean confidence in the Lhaeraidh governance of the country. The victory at Five Streams signalled the end of Navish military dominance within the war and set the pace for the conflict to come and proved the tactical superiority of the Seiceálaí and Fianna formations employed by Rí-Airm, and also served to seal the reputation of the Lhaeraidh infantry (and the Highlanders in particular) as some of the greatest fighters of the era.
Five Streams was the final battle of the 1559 Campaigning Season. Even as it was being fought the winter conditions made the transportation of large numbers of men impractical and even the Navish military which was used to such conditions found itself unable to effectively prosecute an effective campaign. The Lhaeraidh and Crylantean forces were now well entrenched and under O'Brian's command they remained a disciplined force on a defensive posture.
The naval efforts of 1559 were divided into two theatres, one covering the east coast of Navack and the other the west. The eastern theatre was characterised by Lhaeraidh victory at sea in spite of naval blunders and mismanagement by Admiral Sir Diarmaid O'Braden 1st Baróinéad Wallachta, while the western theatre was in complete contrast showing tactical excellence on the part of Vice Admiral Sir Odran O'Leary.
In the eastern naval theatre O'Braden relied heavily on sheer numbers to overwhelm the Navish forces, a strategy which resulted in significant and disproportionate losses in ships and manpower. By contrast the Navish naval commanders showed strategic brilliance, only being defeated due to the greater availability of Lhaeraidh ships. This factored heavily into the high rate of attrition for Lhaeraidh vessels throughout the winter of 1559 in the eastern theatre and would ultimately result in O'Braden's removal from command in March 1560. Despite this strategic mismanagement O'Braden was broadly successful in suppressing Navish naval activity; the fact was that tir Lhaeraidh had a significant advantage in numbers at sea as well as a greater capacity to replenish losses in ships and manpower that even the comparative brilliance of the Navish naval command could not counter. Historians Tobias Cruacht (1994) and Andrew Forsiadh (1998) both concluded that the Navish naval commanders in the east at this time far outstripped the abilities of O'Braden, and were ultimately successful in their objectives; according to Cruacht in particular, the Navish commanders realised that a straight victory was not possible and instead aimed to damage as much of the Lhaeraidh fleet as possible rather than destroy it outright.
The western naval theatre only saw minor skirmishes throughout 1559, however the outcomes of these skirmishes were decidedly in the favour of the Lhaeraidh commander, Sir Odran O'Leary. O'Leary was a seasoned veteran and was used to having only a small number of vessels under his command, as such as strategic inclination was to rely upon the agility of his ships to outmanoeuvre his opponents. The Navish fleet in the west was smaller than its Lhaeraidh counterpart, meaning that O'Leary could afford to engage in small skirmishes and hit and run attacks so long as he maintained proximity to his main fleet; the result was that on more than one occasion O'Leary's ships would lure Navish squadrons into the main force resulting in total destruction or the capture of the Navish vessels. Finding that their own desired strategy of agile hit and run warfare was being used against them Navish commanders in the west withdrew northwards to wait out the winter.
The Campaigns of 1560
When the land war continued in February 1560 O'Brian, now promoted thanks to his victory at Five Streams, led a large force against the Navish forces holding northern Crylante and steadily pushed back the front. Though his ability to chase down and harass retreating Navish forces was hampered by the Lhaeraidh lack of cavalry he was able to use his Fianna and Crylantean irregulars to harass his enemies whenever they stopped to encamp. The campaigning season of 1560 was characterised by the slow but steady removal of Navish forces from northern Crylante and high rates of attrition in the Navish armies. Thanks to the military reforms that had seen the formation of Rí-Airm the Lhaeraidh had a doctrinal, logistical, and tactical advantage to back up their numerical superiority and time and time again the organised Seiceálaí formations confirmed Lhaeraidh infantry dominance on the battlefield. However while O'Brian was as yet undefeated his subordinates were not all so successful. Sir Breandán Nuallán, one of O'Brian's principle subordinates, led the bulk of the Lhaeraidh forces' limited cavalry; Lhaeraidh cavalry doctrine was still relatively primitive and for the most part they were used only as scouts and light cavalry. Nuallán had received orders to move five hundred men north west towards the Navish border as a feint to try and draw Navish forces away from the planned attack on a Navish encampment at the village of Haustven; however seeing a chance at glory and to boost the reputation of the cavalry to match that of the infantry Nuallán ordered an all out assault on what he believed to be an unsuspecting Navish unit holding a large farm and country house called Sailla. In the resulting clash more than three quarters of Nuallán's forces, half of all the Lhaeraidh cavalry in the entire theatre, were wiped out by an organised Navish defence.
The massacre at Sailla served as a rallying cry among the Navish forces and bolstered their morale; though they had defeated the Crylantean forces with almost contemptuous ease in 1559 they had yet to defeat the Lhaeraidh forces in any significant engagement. By disobeying his orders and attacking Sailla without proper infantry support Nuallán had not only destroyed the bulk of the Lhaeraidh's cavalry, but he had solidified the doctrinal view that cavalry were little more than a glorified a sideshow. Though the Navish forces were on the retreat throughout 1560 it is widely believed that the war could have been brought to a close and their armies broken by the end of 1560 had the Lhaeraidh forces made more effective use of their limited complement of cavalry. The fact that they had to rely upon their skirmish infantry to harass the enemy slowed down the process of advance and consolidation. In short Rí-Airm could decisively defeat and break the enemy on the battlefield, but once the enemy retreated, whether in an orderly manner or not, they had only a limited ability to press their victories. This meant that Navish forces could regroup far more quickly after a defeat, and also helped them to weather the inevitable dip in morale caused by their defeats.
March 1560 saw the replacement of O'Braden who returned to tir Lhaeraidd in disgrace; his callous tactics and willingness to engage in a meatgrinder war of attrition at sea saw him labelled 'Butcher O'Braden' upon his return and he was subsequently relieved of his post. Upon the arrival of his replacement, Admiral Sir Medraut Naoise, morale in the eastern naval theatre improved significantly. Naoise had watched the reports of O'Leary's victories with interest and had taken on board the lesson of superior movement as a key to victory; by June he had completely turned around the naval situation in the east and had managed to inflict greater and greater losses against the Navish navy. However the Navish commander in the eastern naval theatre remained strategically superior to Naoise; the losses suffered by the Lhaeraidh were not as high as they had been under O'Braden, but at least under Naoise the losses suffered were seen as unavoidable rather than a result of a butcher's whim.
The 1560 Campaigning Season ultimately saw significant Lhaeraidh successes, driving the Navish forces out of all but a few small Crylantean border settlements. In the western naval theatre Vice-Admiral Sir Odran O'Leary managed to secure naval dominance with greater success than O'Braden in the east, however he was unable to fully blockade the key ports of Gardrag or Heide meaning that merchant shipping and Navish naval forces alike were still able to move freely to the north. In the east the Lhaeraidh ruled the waves, but at incredible cost in ships and manpower and O'Braden's replacement, Admiral Sir Medraut Naoise, had succeeded in blockading the major ports along the eastern coast of Navack.
The Campaigns of 1561
1561 began early with Lhaeraidh forces, now bolstered by reformed and reorganised Crylantean regiments, advancing along a broad front, pushing the Navish out of Crylante altogether. By March O'Brian had entered Anvobar and occupied Kalgnat and Elstrand putting more than fifteen thousand Lhaero-Crylantean troops on the capital city of Berke's doorstep. Further north O'Brian's subordinate Nuallán salvaged his reputation by successfully taking Haarby and laying siege to Elborg; while along the centre of the line Lhaeraidh forces under Crylantean officer Janus Olleger marched towards Nexo. When O'Brian turned his own forces towards Berke in order to besiege the city he was halted by a large force of elite Navish Guard units at the First Battle of Berke, and then again three miles north at the Second Battle of Berke; it would take O'Brian and his army four months to reach the city proper and lay siege with the Navish fighting bitterly all the way and repeatedly repelling flanking advances or attempts to break their lines. Finally in October 1561 as the campaigning season drew to a close O'Brian's forces sat outside Berke and Navish officials were invited to meet in the Crylantean city of Sønderburg.
The early stages of the 1561 Campaign began in January. An unusually warm winter meant that Lhaeraidh troops were able to take the initiative and start the attack far earlier than Navish commanders anticipated. Through January and February a series of border skirmishes where fought along the western section of the front in which the last Navish troops in Crylante were pushed over the border; at this point O'Brian left the western advance under the command of Nuallán who had promised not to repeat Sailla. Moving east with the core of his elite troops O'Brian struck at eastern Navack, crushing a Navish army outside Besborg and occupying the city before storming north and taking Anvobar; in both cases he forbade the sacking of the cities, however his less disciplined Fianna skirmish units ignored these directives and put several villages and farms to the torch. The fact that in a mere three months the Lhaeraidh forces had pushed almost to the doorstep of the Navish capital caused a widespread breakdown of morale in the western and central areas of Navack. Nuallán and the Crylantean commander of the Central Army, Sir Janus Olliger took advantage of the situation and rapidly advanced north.
Nuallán redeemed himself and regained some of his lost reputation in April when he took Haarby without bloodshed by forcing the Navish forces to retreat in disarray. He then ordered his forces to encircle Elborg, cutting off the lines of retreat and trapping the remaining Navish forces in western Navack within the city walls. The siege would last until the end of the war in December; in his memoirs Nuallán claimed "I could have stormed that city and taken it at almost any time after April of 1561, the forces defending it had abandoned most of their horses and cannon on the retreat from Haarby, and I knew that they would not put up much of a fight before surrendering. However the General (O'Brian) had sent orders that Elborg was not to be taken, that the continued siege there would make a fine negotiating point when the Navish king finally came to the table."
Olliger meanwhile restored the Crylantean army's battered pride by leading two thousand men, the smallest of the three advancing armies, north towards Nexo. He would fight and win four key engagements against numerically superior Navish forces over the course of April and May, though his advance would halt once Nexo fell in June due to a lack of supplies and reinforcements. By the time Olliger's forces had captured Nexo they had lost some five hundred men, a quarter of his entire force, and with a larger Navish force of some six thousand soldiers holding directly north of his position he felt that he was unable to advance further. Cruacht (1994) would write of Olliger's advance:"It was only for lack of shot and supply that Janus Olliger did not do more, and attain the same plaudits as O'Brian and Nuallán. At the time his capture of Nexo was applauded but his decision not to march further north was seen as a mark of over-caution. In retrospect we can clearly see that he was no fool and knew that to assault six thousand Navish troops without supplies or reinforcements would be suicidal. In Nexo he could rebuff a counterattack, if he were to advance north he would undoubtedly have been pushed back and expose the flanks of the main Lhaeraidh forces."
The naval victories of 1560 set the stage of 1561, other than a consolidation of the blockade in the east and continue harassment and destruction of Navish ships in the west little of note changed. Tir Lhaeraidd now had Navack in an economic and naval stranglehold from which there was little chance of escaping. Vice-Admiral O'Leary was content with periodically bombarding the major ports of the east and sinking any attempt at a Navish breakout.
The eventual march on Berke was a disaster for Navack; although the Navish forces fought fiercely and far more successfully than their counterparts in the west O'Brian simply marched his force forward in spite of defeat. His force of fifteen thousand far outnumbered the remaining five thousand Navish troops in the field between him and the Navish capital, but these five thousand men knew that their capital city and the honour of their nation was at stake. On numerous occasions the vanguard of O'Brian's army was halted by a stalwart defence, but he continued to advance in spite of defeats and setbacks. The fact was that by this stage O'Brian had the numbers, the firepower, and the reinforcements to keep advancing and the Navish lacked the wherewithal to stop him. Finally in August 1561 O'Brian reached Berke; his progress from here was slow as his forces set about occupying the outlying hamlets and villages but by October he had completely encircled the city and reinforced his siege lines to the point that there was little chance of a Navish breakout.
The Treaty of Sønderburg
In early October 1561, as Berke was under siege by O'Brian's forces in the east, and Elborg was assailed by Nuallán's forces in the west, the Teyrn of tir Lhaeraidd, Llewellyn III/I sent a diplomatic mission to the Navish King who had retreated to his estate near Houlding. The diplomatic mission was led by Lhaeraidh Prionsa and younger brother of the Teyrn, Teige mab Llewellyn, who formally invited the King of Navack, Navish King, to talks under a flag of peace, in the Crylantian city of Sønderburg. The King and his escort were personally accompanied to the talks by Teige Prionsa mab Llewellyn and arrived safely on 19th October 1561. The Navish delegation were received as honoured guests by the Lhaeraidh hosts and the King was personally greeted by the Teyrn, beyond this little is recorded of the events during the talks themselves, although the original document which was signed and sealed by the two monarchs on 8th December 1561 still exists and is held in Rí-Cartlann in Neuaddduwiau with another copy held in the National Archives in Berke, Navack.
Both the Teyrn of tir Lhaeraidd, Llewellyn III/I, and the King of Navack, King Navish King, affixed their seals to the treaty in person. Under the terms of the treaty tir Lhaeraidd and Navack agreed to end hostilities under the stipulation that tir Lhaeraidd would not attempt to expand further into Lhedwinnic territories, however the tir Lhaeraidd is seen as having achieved the upper hand from the treaty in that it forced Navack to renounce any claims to Crylante and Vrnallia, and required the Navish government to pay for the Lhaeraidh costs in the war which had been considerable. In terms of territory the treaty maintained the status quo antebellum albeit with Lhaeraidh occupation of Kalgnat and Elstrand until the reparations had been paid in full. Ultimately the Treaty of Sønderburg would remain in force until 1598 when tir Lhaeraidd annexed Vrnallia, by this time however the reparations had been paid in full and Lhaeraidd troops had not occupied Navish territory since 1565. There seems to be a curious discrepancy in how each side viewed the treaty and its terms which would later precipitate the Second Navo-Lhaeraidh War in 1598; the Lhaeraidh monarch took the view that Vrnallia was not a part of Lhedwin, and saw this view as having been accepted by the Navish when they had renounced their claims as part of the treaty. However the Navish took the view that although they had renounced their own claims to Crylante and Vrnallia these two nations remained a part of the Lhedwinnic subcontinent.