It began in 1183 with the death of King Andrei I of the Rus...
Newly crowned only two years prior he was a strong, charismatic and economy minded individual who had plans to further centralize the Rus kingdom even further than it already had been under his father. Unbeknownst to him, the increasing taxes levied upon the fuedal lords as well as the expenential growth of the army had built a powerful tension between the throne and it's vassals. The three greatest dukes of the Rus hatched a devious plot to remove the state's strongest figurehead and tear down the oppresive shackles the kingdom had erected. In 1183 their assassin slipped into the palace and ended the life of the king. No proof could ever be placed linking the death to anything other than natural causes...
The King's heir was the newborn Julia II, named after the founder of the dynasty, she was too young to rule so the state passed to a regent. Weak and hardly cut out for true rule, the regent was ill-equiped to meet the requirements of ruling such a vast kingdom. Reports slipped through the cracks, spies were able to be planted close to the royal family. And that's when the plot struck. With little in the way stopping them and power unable to be wielded effectively by the central government due to the regency, the dukes of Yaroslavl, Chernigov and Vladimir launched an attempted coup to severely weaken the crown authority of the realm.
Their plot was a failure, but when intrigue fails most men turn to the sword. The three men may not have held much land in comparison to the combined vassals of the rest of the kingdom, but they were wealthy. Each duke could levy several thousand troops on his own, their rebellion split the realm's forces almost in two.. taking a third of the standing army with them in their coup attempt. Initial fighting around Moscow, the newly decreed capitol county of the kingdom some ten years prior, went in favor of loyalist forces. However fighting in the east in the duchy of Bulgar went handily to the rebels who crushed an army of some 3,000 men under Prince Konstantin.
Both sides were dead even when it came down to numbers and tactical ability. Old warhorses, the dukes of Vladimir and Chernigov were both veterans of the Hungarian and Byzantine campaigns that took place only a decade before, wherein the Kingdom of Rus exerted its immense military power to ensure the continued stability of the Byzantine Empire. Loyalist and Rebel forces campaigned and attempted to out maneuver one another for another eight months when the news spread. Norway and Sweden had entered a military pact and declared war against the Rus. Their goal was to install a pretender to the Russian throne, a forgotten son of the Alexandrov dynasty had married into the Norwegian royal family, and produced a son who had a "legitimate" claim to the Rus Kingdom. A combined army of 30,000 Scandinavian troops crossed the borders and laid seige to Novgorod.
The Kingddom of Rus was in the state of a civil war, and now foreign troops had landed on Russian soil. It was the best time an adversary could have picked to invade, and that's just what the King of Poland did. Fifty years ago the Rus had seized many counties that were considered de jure polish and had granted them to Russian counts to rule, no doubt in an attempt to spread Orthodoxy further into Europe, or so the king thought. Barely two months after the Scandinavian alliance laid seige to Novgorod, the Polish king crossed the southern border with 15,000 men. The Rus were now in dire straights...
After three months of continued fighting in the heart of the motherland, both sides of the civil war met near the capitol and agreed to a white peace. While they both fought here in the heart of their territory, everyone could agree on one thing. Russians were being slaughtered uncerenomiously by foreign invaders led by not one, not even two, but three kings. Until the Rus were free of foreign aggression it was decided: they would stand together. A bear is most dangerous when cornered in it's den.. but the great bear of the Rus was already gravely wounded. The fighting of the civil war had been fierce, and many counties were pillaged and burned as both sides fought for dominance. Many thousands of troops had given their lives, both in defense of the state, and in the ideal of a new image of said state... Still. They pulled together beneath the banner of Prince Konstantin, commander of the loyalist forces and made their march.
Although initial victories swelled the newly reunited Russian force's morale, the northern campaigns were smashed as they tried to press into Norwegian controlled Finland. The southern campaigns met with little success as well. Although no defeat suffered in the south was as great as the ones in the north, fighting bogged down into a bloody stalemate with each side picking and prodding at one another. Neither the Polish or the Russians were willing to commit, instead skirmishing for months on end. When the two sides finally clashed it was again, the Russians who found themselves on the losing side. Now faced with fighting two separate wars on two fronts, the administration knew it was doomed unless it allowed something to give. That something was the war in the south...
The Regent who resided over the Russian Kingdom's first major military defeat signed the treaty in 1186 that returned de jure territories to the Kingdom of Poland. Military morale was at an all time low as Russian forces regrouped in Moscow during that winter. They now had to prepare for a march north and to face the Scandinavian forces dug in near Novgorod, which had fallen the previous spring. However.. a light at the end of the tunnel shone through the darkness. The Sweedish queen died..
The Kingdom of Sweden fell into a succession crisis as two brothers fought for control of the crown. Now under the thread of complete collapse Swedish forces pulled out of Russian territory to fight their own war in their homeland. With the garrisons around Novgorod weakened the Rus launched a vicious counter attack and managed to throw back the Norwegien invaders in a great battle on the outskirts of city. Even though the defender's force was weakened after the withdrawal of the Swedes, it's estimated a total of 30,000 men from the two sides combined took part in the melee. The Russian attack was so vicious the old King of Norway was killed, his body found amidst that of his troops, and a number of his vassals were captured. The Battle of Novgorod turned the tide in the favor of the Russian forces. It was the first great victory the state had won in many years, and it sent morale soaring. Norway's resistance collapsed when in the summer of 1187 the Russians crossed the border into Norwegian territory for only the second time since hostilities broke out.
With the Norwegien king dead his successor, the excomunicated Oystein the Fat, came to power in Norway and immediately found himself beset on all sides by enemies. As the Russians campaigned in Finland from 1187-1190, the Kingdom of England, allied with the Holy Roman Empire attacked the Kingdom of Norway in the Anglo-Norse Excommunication war. Fighting outside his very own palace, the Norwegien king's grip on his territories began to slip, duchies that had long been loyal to him began to rebel realizing as the central state was collapsing they had to fend for themselves. By 1190 the war on the northern front had come to an end.. Oystein renounced all claims his dynasty had to the throne of the Rus and the weary Russian troops returned home.
The death of one man had sparked a civil war, which three kings used as their chance to attack the mighty Kingdom of Rus. One war had ended with a white peace. The one was a defeat, and one was a victory, but there was still one final war to be had before the time of troubles could be considered at an end. The Duke of Vladimir along with his brother, the Duke of Yaroslalv were the only two men of the original conspiracy to survive the two great wars. Once more they have rebelled against their leige, the child-queen Julia II and her regent. They now find themselves locked in a bitter struggle with their old enemy, the Alexandrov dynasty, but this time there will be no peaceful settlement in the face of outside aggression.
The Kingdom of Rus struggles to maintain its power.
But a storm is coming...
Re: Crusader Kings II
Originally Posted by Ishmael
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