The Ottonian Wars
The History of the Kingdom of Germany during the Reign of:
Ursula I "The Conqueror", Daughter of Otto IV Ludolfinger.
Reigned c. February 15th. 1265 – February 27th. 1308
The reign of Otto IV was over. Through desperate attempts to change succession laws in the acquired kingdoms of Bavaria and Hungary, the King had led his realm into an age of stagnation. For twenty years the embattled warrior had led his kingdom against powerful rebellious elements within his own borders and had succeeded in doing nothing, save wasting the strength of the Kingdom's men at arms.
The Ludolfinger line had died out in Bohemia leaving no heir fit to claim the crown. The economic and military might of the German state was in a state of growth, but through constant intrigues and grabs for power, the Kingdom had been unable to expand.. and in 1265, it shattered finally.
With the death of the noble king Otto and the ascension of his daughter, a legality had allowed the King's brothers to seize power in Hungary and Bavaria. Ursula succeeded her father in the North taking control of the the de jure lands of Germany. In the south, Karl III takes power in Bavaria, and in the East Thietmar I seizes the throne of Hungary.
The Ludolfinger dynasty no longer had a leader as the three successors of Otto IV all looked to claim the right to rule in central Europe. Thietmar in Hungary had a secure powerbase in the Carpathian Basin. Through decades of persecution and ruthless title revocation, German nobles had seized nearly half of the ducal titles in lawful Hungary. It goes without saying then, that Thietmar had a very loyal following in his newly acquired kingdom.
Karl III of Bavaria was even more secure in his realm. With the nobles of Bavaria having for years attempted to separate their realm from the North, the vassals rejoiced at the new independence of the South German kingdom. Bavaria stood on its own, free of the yoke of Germany, for the first time in centuries. That it was still led by a member of the Ludolfinger dynasty was an easy thing to overlook, for he was a man who stood against his family. He embraced Bavaria and swore to fight for her above all else..
Ursula I, Daughter of Otto IV, was left with Germany and the traditional lands of the Ludolfinger dynasty and the Ottonian legacy. Crowned Queen of Germany in 1265 in the castle at Luneburg, her lands were the most heavily fortified of all the three successors combined. Many chronicles claim Germany a Kingdom of Steel and Iron, but in reality, twas a kingdom of Stone. Great fortresses dotted the land, castles whose walls had been besieged by numerous enemies, all of whom had been denied their prizes. The Norse. The Swedes. The English. The French. The Bavarians. The Polish... Germany was not a stranger to foreign invader, and to look upon the towering walls of its fortifications, you would know how they were to be met.
It was this land that Ursula had known, in the shadow of the statue depicting the Lion of Arsuf, the young girl had been tutored in the art of diplomacy, the art of statesmanship. The very art and nature of law. Yet upon her father's death, she had witnessed that Law twisted into a weapon and used to nearly destroy the legacy of the greatest German monarch to ever reign. Serhilda the Great..
The first ruler of a united Germany. The first Queen since Ida the Kinslayer, and the last woman to ever call herself ruler of Central Europe. It was in Serhilda that Ursula saw herself. She styled herself along the same lines, and it is said, went to great lengths to organize her court in the very same way that Serhilda had done. Stately feasts and regular fairs were once more held, as had been done under Serhilda's reign, and through all, diplomacy was valued as the true way forward for Germany...
But for all her reverence for the Queen of Hearts, Ursula did not have her idol's poise. Early attempts at negotiations with Bavaria over the right to rule in numerous border counties broke down before they even begun due to the Queen's insistence on never giving an inch. Her demands for the return of a number of lawfully German lands, for example, lead her into direct conflict with her uncle in the south. Bavaria had laid claimed to counties that rightfully belonged to Germany, but due to ducal law, Bavaria had kept dominion over them in the transition... when talks broke down, Ursula declared war.
The Ottonian Wars had begun.
Chroniclers have claimed that The Ludolfinger dynasty, also known through history as the Ottonian dynasty, named for its founder Otto I of Saxony, were the successor of the Karlings in central Europe. If such is the case, than the Ottonian War period is without a doubt the last bit of evidence one would need to make the correlation. With their strength divided, the heirs of Otto IV turn against one another, and the ignition of the first fire is the invasion of Plauen by Ursula of Germany.
Denied at the negotiation table, Ursula declares war for control of the county, citing ducal claims for the Duchy of Thuringia. Karl III is said to be astonished that his niece would so brazenly attack him. Nevertheless he confidently rallies his troops near Ulm and waits for the coming invasion, abandoning the outer reaches to the encroaching armies of Germany, though he has reason to be confident.
Bavaria's forces outnumbers that of Northern Germany by at least ten thousand men! While Germany in the North may claim to be a more militaristic and fortified area, Bavaria is a prosperous kingdom now that it doesn't need to support the iron war machine of Germany. A tide of gold funds a horde of mercenary troops, itching to lend their swords to the embattled King Karl III.
Yet, it is not a fact that has gone unnoticed by Ursula...
For though she is not the Queen of Hearts, she is nonetheless a shrewd diplomat. An alliance is sealed with the King of France, who gladly lends his aid to the coming campaign. A combined force of French and German troops, numbering almost 40,000, descend upon Ulm and annihilate the Bavarian Defenders.
It is the beginning of a bloody chapter of conquest and reconquest, skirmish and border raids, attack and retaliation for the successors of Otto IV. With the destruction of his standing army, Karl III surrenders Plauen, but swears vengeance against the north. With little choice, Karl signs a protection agreement with his brother, Thietmar I of Hungary.
Ursula dismisses the news, uninterested in the goings on beyond her southern border. With Bavaria crushed at the battle of Ulm and her alliance seemingly stronger than ever with her French allies, the Queen of the North has good reason to feel secured. While the truce remains with her uncle in the south, she opts to move her attention elsewhere: Lotharingia.
Over two centuries ago Germany was driven out by the Frankish lords of Lotharignia. And after two centuries of infighting and french incursion, the lands of the once mighty kingdom were reduced to almost nothing. With little in the way of allies to protect them, they had served a convenient buffer against the ambitions of the French Kings, but with their power fading further, how long would it be until France completely absorbed the fledgling realm? History had taught Germany well: Today's friends are tomorrow's enemies.
10,000 troops march against the weakened Kingdom, reducing their defenses to dust in a grinding campaign that lasts for two long years. The Frankish vassals prove their usual difficult selves, resisting the German invasion unto their dying breaths, but it is all for naught. By 1268, Trier is once more back in Germany's hands.
With the fall of Trier, Ursula consolidates her rule in Luneburg with a great feast, inviting all vassals of the realm to join in her victory! If any had doubted the woman's right to rule, her crushing victory against Bavaria in the south and the quick strike on Lotharingia had silenced them. Perhaps this was the woman to restore the legacy? Perhaps in the deck of fate, Germany had drawn a Queen of Diamonds..?
For four years, Ursula reigns in peace, but it is not a restful one. Each day the call is met by the militia, and each day, the knights take to the jousting fields to hone their craft. The war machine labors, the drums of war beat. Ursula may style herself as a diplomat as the first Great Queen of Germany in centuries, but there is no mistaking it: she is a warlord.
She intends to build a new glory upon the ashes of Bavaria and Hungary. She is a woman of an age gone by, a type of ruler the world was already trying to forget as the year 1300 was fast approaching.
But the preparations for war against the other successors would have to wait, for in 1272, the fears of the council and sovereign are made manifest by the declaration of war. The French King, terrified of this growing power on his eastern border, invades the Kingdom of Germany. He hopes to throw out the Queen and install his own claimant! One man, attempting to end over 400 years of Ludolfinger rule? Arrogance! Usurpers!
Ursula gathers her forces and prepares for the coming storm. The call is sent for all mercenaries able to join the ranks, but even swelled by their numbers, Ursula is outnumbered. Only by catching the french divided and on the march can she hope to win.. or perhaps.. other means.
As the French troops push headlong toward Luneberg they suddenly stop. Their marshal has received the news, their claimant is dead. Dead! Just as they were in sight of the fortresses of Ursula, the fabled walls that even the Norsemen could not storm.. they must turn back. The war has no meaning. It is a fortuitous turn of events for the Queen! But.. could it be simple fate fortune that the claimant to Germany should die, choking on his own blood in his sleep? It is one of histories greatest mysteries, and one historians love to debate to this day..
With the alliance with France formally broken and dissolved by the treacherous acts of the French King, Ursula is forced to go ahead with her plans without aid from the West. In 1274, the second chapter of the Ottonian Wars is written: The invasion of Bavaria.
Permission granted by the Pope puts Ursula in a position to formally contest the southern throne. Ever since Karl II's defeat at Ulm, Bavaria had struggled in a spiraling grip of civil war, unable to climb out of deeper instability. Ursula used this as a pretense for invasion. Without its rightful ruler to lead it, stolen by an ambitions uncle, Bavaria had faltered. Only Germany could set it right.
October of 1274. 26,000 German troops cross the border and lay siege to the outlying defenses of the Bavarian forces. Caught unprepared in the wake of the invasion, a force of 13,000 is cornered at Lorsch by the invading northern force. The battle is a massacre, and is the bloodiest on record between the two kingdoms. Although heavily outnumbered, Bavarian troops fight with a unrelenting zeal in their attempt to defend their independence. So long did the nobles of the south fight for it, they would not see it ripped away so easily! But even the bravest, strongest soldier can fall when the odds are stacked high, and two to one, outnumbered, the Southern forces are eventually ground down through simple attrition.
The battle sees the death of almost the entire Southern force, with most of the Bavarian troops reduced to fleeing the field.. Ursula had once more broken her dynastic obligation and invaded an ally. Even with the Pope's blessing, it does not sit well with the Ludolfinger family, who view the act as one of a tyrant. Facing a brutal assault and unable to fully mobilize in time, Otto III, successor to Karl III, calls for aid from his Uncle, Thietmar I in Hungary, but it is aid which will not arrive in time. Thietmar is busy fending off a border raid from the Mongols.. and by the time he has turned his forces around to deal with the war in the west...
It's already over. Ursula has broken Otto III's forces and proclaimed herself Queen of Bavaria. What's more, Karl III had changed the succession laws before he passed, thus ensuring an agnatic-cognatic succession for the Queen's children.
In recognition of the Pope's support, the Bishipric of Lorsch is surrendered to the Papal States. It is only fitting that the greatest, bloodiest battle of the war should be under the care of the Pope and his cardinals.
Ursula is hailed as 'the Conqueror' and savior of the realm! It is an honor she shares with the woman she idolized, her ancestor Serhilda the Great. But even though both women used the same method to lay claim to Bavaria, their methods of rule are shockingly different. Ursula's harsh and cruel nature, as well as her tendency to resort to violence in her punishments and foreign relations, earns her a different moniker that history will know her by. Queen of Steel.
Thietmar is able to stave off a total victory for Ursula when he petitions the pope for the right to rule numerous duchies in the south of Bavaria. These are lands, by right of succession, to be his after all! Despite the goodwill that the Queen of Germany has built with the Pope through gifts and fiefs, Papal authorities side with Thietmar and the side of law. Hungary shall rule in select districts of Bavaria, and Germany shall respect her borders.
But it is a truce unenforceable, as local rebellions soon spring up, fighting for the right to be ruled by the true, lawful ruler of Bavaria, not the lawful Ducal ruler. History is sketchy on the connection between Germany and these revolts, but it is quite convenient that after their break away from Hungary, each and every one of the revolting factions swears allegiance to their "true" ruler. Thietmar is said to have been furious. It is the death of any hope of a peaceful compromise between the two branches of the Ludolfinger family. There can be only one Monarch of the Germans...
A powerful faction of vassals within Germany act just two years later. 1276. The Second Ottonian Civil War breaks Germany into pieces as coastal vassals along the Baltic and North Seas rise up in support of Thietmar as the true ruler of Germany. Ursula rallies her troops near Luneberg in preparation for a desperate defense as the rebel forces close in, just as news from the south reaches her. Thietmar has crossed into Bavaria, and at his back he commands 17,000 men loyal to his cause...
The conspiracy sets Germany flame for the next 8 and a half years of civil war as the conquering queen is besieged in her strongholds at Luneberg. Loyalist forces strike out hard against the revolt in a string of terribly bloody clashes all across the North of Germany, yet each engagement proves even more devastating than the last.
..and despite the growing victories in the north, news of the terrible toll that Thietmar is visiting upon the south cannot be ignored. For each victory won against the revolt in Germany, Thietmar visits destruction upon the Bavarian vassals.. For some, it is far too much, and rather than fall victim to the sword of an invader, many peasants choose to serve him instead! With his army swelled by conquests and new recruits, Thietmar camps in a pillaged Austria.
It isn't until two full years into campaign, and countless thousands of casualties, that Loyalist forces are able to advance upon Thietmar's position. Having suffered a terrible toll in their fight in the north, nearly 1/3 of the loyalist troop is estimated to be foreign mercenaries under contract to the Queen of Germany, and when they meet Thietmar at the battle of Steyr on October 2, 1277, many more thousands are left on the field...
But all is worth it in the name of the High Queen. Thietmar's forces are thrown back. His attack destroyed and his claim on the throne weakened by his inability to win glory in the south. The Northern vassals are rounded up and executed, one by one, for their treachery.. yet it is not enough to secure a peace. It isn't until 1280 that, finally, the wars of the Ottonion successors reach a climactic stalemate at the Battle of Fulda. There, two hosts of 15,000 men each lay waste to one another. Thietmar presses his advantage again trying to break through into the north, but the Loyalist forces of Germany hold their ground, just barely, and are able to defeat the ambitious King of Hungary.
1282. Ursula the Conqueror is Ursula the besieged. Ursula the Tired. She has fought without rest since her ascension to the throne in order to secure the legitimacy of her claim. It is her right, not that of her uncles, which should carry the dynasty forward.. and at long last, she has succeeded. Thietmar's claims on Germany are declared null after the final truce has been signed, and for the first time in nearly two decades, there is peace in the Ottonian dynasty. The Ludolfingers, following the Karlings down the same path of infighting, have put central europe to the torch in their struggles. For the first time, peasants had joined the cause of a foreign king in a revolt.. Ursula could not deny that in her bid for power and the unification of the three realms of her father, she had alienated the serfs.. and it had nearly cost her everything.
Even with her legitimacy secured, she was on rocky ground.. for the next twenty years the Queen enjoys her hard won peace, ruling over Bavaria and Germany with an iron fist and grinding down further dissent against her rule. In the east, even more shocking news would come..
The Horde had converted. The Great Khan now ruled an Orthodox court and claimed himself the continuation of Rome. Why he and not the Ilkhanate? Simple: The Ilkhanate had fallen... Asia Minor was ruled by disparate Greek Kings now, all vying for power. And in the chaos of Asia Minor, a member of the Ludolfinger dynasty had made his way to the throne of Kingship.
Germany had survived a trying moment in its history, but its power was severely weakened from the days of Otto III. Even as Europe tried to claw its way passed the middle-ages, the wars and ambitions of powerful kings and queens continually dragged the continent back into the darkness. Ursula The Conquerer, Ursula the Warlord had seen that work done. Her legacy was of war and power. A lesson learned well through the centuries as Germany struggled for the right to rule her own destiny.
The answers to last time's questions:
Almost.
No.
No.
I am trying!
Apologies for the late update guys. The holidays threw me off way more than I thought they would. I have a new roommate so that has taken a lot of adjusting to, so things got a bit lost. This reign was concluded about two weeks ago, I just couldn't get the time to write On the bright side if i take long enough I'll be able to convert my save into EUIV just in time for the new expansion
Some notes:
Byzantium and their successor the Ilkhanate are effectivel gone. Asia Minor and Greece are ruled by a number of Greek Kingdoms.
Iconia actually has one of my dynasty set to inherit. Somehow one of my landless kin ended up in Greece about a century ago and his decendant is now sitting on the throne married to the Queen. The Ludolfinger line is set to inherit.
The Reconquest of Spain stalled about 50 years ago and my kin in Aragon have been losing ground, slowly. Asturias and Navara are too busy fighting each other to unite against the south.
Mercenaries still control a loose alliance of counties and cities in northern Italy. The Kingdom of Sicily is on the rise, and Europe is becoming more and more static as the years go on. Powers are consolidating and alliances are shifting. about 140 years left to the convert date.
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