King Malcom's War
King Malcom's War was a conflict fought in the mid-18th century with the Vionna-Frankenlischian Question and Vionnan Unification at its heart. It lasted from 1746 to 1755 and set the stage for Vionnan unification under the Kingdom of the Riverland, which annexed the Kingdom of Grythshead and Saxondale midway through the war. It also ensured Frankenlischian colonial domination beyond the continent and ended the colonial ambitions of the Wolfswood Empire. Related conflicts included the Frankenlisch-Cassadia War, the War of Oxbridge Succession, the First Assurian War and the Second Frontier War in Balion.
The war was triggered over a miriad of causes. Land disputes along the Gestorian frontier and competing influence in the independent marches of Westonland, Richmond, Hackett, and Middlebrooke, had long been the cause of tension between the Kingdom of Frankenlisch and the Kingdom of the Riverland and, to a lesser extent, Wolfswood. The call for Vionnan unification was also a serious source of trouble, Vionnan nationalist agitators caused trouble in all the major Vionnan kingdoms and the question of unification had began to seem more like when rather than if. The major nations of Vionna entered a kind of arms race, each hoping to be the one that would lead unification. On the continent, the war was caused outright by the disputes between Frankenlisch and The Riverland, which King Malcom of Frankenlisch had decided to resolve by force of arms.
Away from Vionna-Frankenlisch, the conflict was carried to faraway shores. In Mount Zeon Colony, the Frankenlisch-Cassadia War had already begun in 1744, and this conflict intertwined with the wider war. The Second Frontier War had already begun in 1745 in Balion between Frankenlischian and Wolfswood colonial possessions and that war also balooned as the war on the continent escalated. The Kingdom of Gallandia even became involved, albeit restrictedly, as fighting between Frankenlisch and Wolfswood threatened their Prodavan possessions. The War of Oxbridge Succession was also fought from 1747 until 1755, as the death of King John II of Oxbridge without a clear heir left the throne open to two related houses, those of Cerly and O'Mersey. As the Cerlys sat the throne of the Riverland and The O'Mersey, James, was King of Erin, the war extended into Central Vionna, with much of the fighting of that war taking place in Erin. The four major theatres of the war thus developed: South Vionna, Frankenlisch and the Marches, Erin, and Balion.