Swabian Civil War

The Swabian Civil War is an internal conflict in the play-by-email King of the Romans.

Overview

The Swabian Civil War had its roots in the leadup to the Imperial Cataclysm. In the early 1300s, as central authority was slipping, several nobles were dissatisfied over the Duchy's leadership, especially after the universally-renowned Duke Friedrich Scherer died and was replaced by the more controversial Hans. This dissatisfaction gradually turned into open rebellion as the situation across the Reich was continuing to fall apart.

Ultimately there were three factions vying for power: Hans's loyalists, Wolfgang Hummel's Principality, and Dietrich von Dassel's Army of Light. The Civil War would bring about massive casualties, help kick-start the destructive War of Reformation, and bring about the deadliest battle in the Holy Roman Empire's history: The Battle of Bern. Swabia would be gutted and not totally recover from the effects until the 1370s.

The Factions

The Loyalists

The Loyalists, consisting of Hans, Athalwolf von Salza, and Ehrhart Ruppel, among others, were loyal to Duke Hans and desired to see the leadership of Swabia stay unchanged. They had the advantage in resources but had to fight off numerous factions at once.

Duke Hans of Swabia

Duke Hans, the old leader of Swabia, the greatest general in the Reich, the former Chancellor, the possessor of the Holy Grail, the eldest grandson of Kaiser Heinrich, etc. was the commander of the Loyalist forces up to his death in 1330.

When Wolfgang Hummel first declared rebellion in 1314, Hans was off on the east side of the Adriatic Sea, chasing Dietrich von Dassel and Peter von Kastilien in an attempt to prevent them from sacking Papal Durazzo and Byzantine Constantinople, respectively. After Dietrich accomplished his goal and Edmund Becker captured von Kastilien, he began his return to Swabia, which was by that point in anarchy due to his proxy Athalwolf von Salza's failures at putting down Wolfgang's rebellion, the other independent rebellions, and the French incursions.

He began his task by reclaiming the independent territories, including Metz with, ironically, Peter von Kastilien at his side. Eventually he turned his attention to Bern where his old enemy Dietrich von Dassel lurked with Alexander Luther and an army with the sole purpose of deposing him.

In 1330, reinforced by Jan von Hamburg, he assaulted the city. Trapped between the Lutheran relief army under Hugo Merode and Dietrich's sallying force, his army was obliterated but not before he destroyed Merode's army and inflicted grievous losses on Dietrich's. In an unexpected move of desperation, Dietrich's escort personally charged his and, caught by surprise, he was knocked unconscious and taken prisoner. With Jan von Hamburg's cavalry bearing down upon the remnants of Dietrich's army, he was unceremoniously beheaded, dying shortly after his friend Jan and before his enemy Dietrich.

Athalwolf von Salza

At the start of the Swabian Civil War, when Wolfgang Hummel declared his seperate Principality, and when Duke Hans was still coming back from Austria, Athalwolf was in a perfect position to make one side win. He joined the Duke Hans, and were then known as Loyalists. Athalwolf rode out to attack Wolfgang Hummel, and the two sides met at Normandy in 1318. Hans arrived, but the battle began. It was a draw (See the Battle of Normandy for more info) Athalwolf went back to Rheims for several months waiting the arrival of Duke Hans. He then advanced north to Bruges in 1328 but was attcked by Wolfgang Hummel. It was the Battle of the Flemish Crossroads, and Athalwolf was almost entirely destroyed after a plot of Wolfgang's worked. He retreated to Rheims, then retreated to Staufen after Rheims was taken by French hordes. These battles in the North were overshadowed by the massive Battle of Bern which the world watched with bated breath. With the outcome, and the death of Duke Hans, Athalwolf was named Duke of Swabia. Peter, Duke of Franconia and recently named Prinz of the Reich, offered a deal to Wolfgang. You shall re name your side to Duchy of Flanders and will be recognised as a fifth Duchy if you apologise to Duke von Salza at Metz. Duke von Salza went to pacify Staufen, and was overly suprised when Wolfgang backstabbed them and took Staufen itself, Capital of Swabia. The war had some new players with Rebels Jan and Ludwig and Loyalist Erhart. The war then went on and Duke von Salza headed to Staufen. It was there where Wolfgang died and Swabia was reunited, leaving it free for Athalwolf to lead with even more new Swabians.

Ehrhart Ruppel

Ehrhart Ruppel, although a noble who had combat experience, mostly stayed in Staufen supervising the recruitment of new Loyalist units. After Duke Hans was killed in Bern he departed the city, leaving it undefended and took command of what was left of the forces there. After pacifying the area, he moved back to the capital to besiege it after Wolfgang Hummel had taken it in a daring move.

After some time of besiegement, Ruppel took the calculated gamble of departing his army to pick up the remainder of the troops from Bern. Wolfgang realized what was going on and attacked the besiegers with Ruppel still away, but lucky for him Hummel died in the battle. He survived the war, one of only two credible Loyalist commanders to do so.

The "Principality of Swabia"

After Wolfgang Hummel was forced to assault the beplagued city of Bruges in the early 1300s, he threw off Hans's rule and declared parts of Swabia to become an independent Principality. Making gains in the northern parts of Swabia, he managed to expand his rule to where all of Flanders was under his control. However, the main source of his troops, Caen, was lost to the French and it remained unclear whether the Principality could sustain operations. In a brilliant move, Wolfgang seized Staufen but perished in a sally attempt against Ehrhart Ruppel's leaderless army.

"Prinz" Wolfgang Hummel

The Hummel family is one with a long history of rebellions. Wolfgang's father Ulrich went rogue with a Swabian Household Army in the late 1100s before finally being brought back to Swabian rule. Many years later, Wolfgang, at the time in Outremer, rebelled against the decision of Siegfried von Kastilien being made Kaiser over Hans. Ironically, it would be Hans himself whom Wolfgang would later rebel against, setting off the Swabian Civil War. Hummel was a cagey veteran, having fought both European and Asian enemies as well as a nasty case of the Plague. His military mastery was demonstrated in the Battle of the Flemish Crossroads where he defeated Athalwolf von Salza. His rebellion lasted far longer than anyone had expected and, had he survived the Battle of Staufen, he was on the verge of completing his dream.

Jan von der Pfalz

Jan von der Pfalz was a minor Swabian who served several seasons as a military trainer in Staufen under Duke Hans. For reasons concerning the direction the Reich was heading, he became discontent and decided to join Wolfgang Hummel to make a better future. He fled Staufen with the men he trained, and headed to Antwerp, where he was appointed Count.

Jan spent the next years trying to gather an army to take back Bruges for the Principality. In 1338 he managed to convince religious figure Alexander Luther to help him raise men. That same year, an allied English army, consisting mostly of dismounted knights, besieged Bruges. After joining Count Fritz von Kastilien in making a call for all Electors to focus on their foreign enemies, Jan joined the English army in the assault of Bruges. He succeeded in taking the city, but died at the very end of the battle.

Ludwig von Böhmen

A minor Bohemian noble who, disillusioned after the death of his family due to the instability of the Empire, saw his one chance in an offer to become the Count of Bruges, received from Wolfgang Hummel. Has found himself needing to either relieve the city from the French, or retake it once he has gathered more of an army. Having not participated in hostilities against the loyalists, he was the sole rebel commander to survive the war, and is now a Count under Duke von Salza.

The Army of Light

In 1324 a third party entered the Swabian Civil War in the form of Hans's longtime enemy Dietrich von Dassel. Dassel, having escaped punishment at Ragusa and Durazzo, landed in Italy with the remnants of his army and managed to help fight off the Byzantines in the area. Eventually he retreated to Innbruck with Duke Lothar Steffen of Bavaria, who promptly gave him a large Household Army. Dubbing it the Army of Light, Dietrich took it to Bern with the sole purpose of unseating Hans and claiming the Duchy for himself.

Dietrich von Dassel

Dietrich's animosity with Hans probably began with the death of his friend Jens Hummel in 1282 under Hans's watch in a battle that should not have been fought, but it did not become clear until the Diet Session of 1300. Angered at Hans for not backing his bid for Chancellor, he ignored his Duke's warnings and repeatedly insulted Ansehelm von Kastilien of Franconia, thus breaking the Swabian/Franconian alliance and angering Hans. Dietrich, who had won a series of military victories in the previous term and was expecting a County for his service, was denied this in punishment and exiled to the Austrian Citadel of Ragusa, where he began to plot his revenge.

It came in the form of an attack on the pro-reunification Pope Abbate at Durazzo, which Hans had seen coming and came close to stopping. With relations between the two men at an all-time low, Dietrich slipped to Italy and Hans returned to Swabia to fight off both the French and Wolfgang Hummel. Eventually, after Dietrich (with Alexander Luther) was pacifying Bern, Hans turned to besiege him. He, Jan von Hamburg, Dietrich, and Hugo Merode all perished in the catastrophic Battle of Bern in 1330, and while the Loyalists were removed of one threat they lost their leader as well as a lot of manpower.

Other Key Characters

Kaiser Elberhard

Kaiser Elberhard, acting in the interests of unity, Catholicism, and his brother's well-being, provided financial support to Hans and the Loyalists throughout the war, allowing them to mount significant challenges to all who would seek to depose them. He effectively ordered Outremer abandoned to see the Loyalist Cause through, first dispatching Jan von Hamburg and later himself and Dieter von Kassel back to Europe to right things. It is rumored that, had the war still been brewing when the Kaiser landed in 1338, he would have personally intervened.

Lothar Steffen

Duke Lothar Steffen, anxious to further extend Bavarian influence, was the financial backer for much of the Rebels. After Dietrich von Dassel assisted him in blunting the Byzantine invasion of Italy, the two men retired to Innsbruck, where Lothar supplied Dietrich with an entire Household Army and his blessings.

After von Dassel was killed and the army annihilated at Bern, Lothar, still licking his wounds, decided to up the ante by this time providing monetary support to the remaining Rebel faction, Wolfgang Hummel's Principality of Swabia. Sensing the Principality was on the verge of victory, he ordered Ehrhart Ruppel of the Loyalists to surrender to Wolfgang, but the "Prinz" was killed in the twilight of the Battle of Staufen, his cause dying with him.

Faced with a victorious and extremely angered Loyalist faction, Lothar returned to the Imperial Diet in 1340 with his reputation severely diminished.

Jan von Hamburg

Jan von Hamburg, the King of Outremer, departed his land after Dietrich von Dassel and the Lutheran Army of Light seized Bern. Calling for the religion to be eradicated, he landed in Europe in 1328, calling for a Catholic Crusader Army against Bern and sparking the War of Reformation in the process.

Jan died in the Bern center square in 1330, his army being the only usable force after the battle.

Hugo Merode

When the War of Reformation began in the mid-1300s, many people rose to their best. One of these people were Hugo Merode. Before the war he was a simple boy deeply involved in the Luthrean religion. As soon as the war started, he jumped ahead of the others and begged for the opputunity to help. He was given command of a Luthrean Army which served alongside Dietrich von Dassel's Army of Light. When Dietrich was bieseged in Bern by Duke Hans's Catholic Army, Hugo Merode hurried to Bern with his Luthrean Army, racing Jan von Hamburg's reinforcing Catholic Crusaders. Due to positioning, Hugo arrived first, which probably spelled doom for his army. When all players were on the field the battle started. Almost straight away, Hugo was killed in battle before Bern, the first of many to die that day.

Péter von Kastilien

Peter von Kastilien was politically opposed to Duke Hans, had cast his lot with Dietrich and Wolfgang as a Lutheran, and was expected by all to join the war on the side of the Army of Light or the Principality of Swabia.

Hans was besieging Metz and Peter had the perfect opportunity to decisively swing the war in the rebels' favor by attacking him from behind and having the Metz rebels join him to envelop Hans's forces, but instead he joined Hans in the assault of Metz, surprising the Army of Light and Lothar Steffen, and perhaps changing the outcome of the Swabian Civil War completely.

Battles

Battle of Normandy

The first conflict in the war took place in 1318 between Wolfgang Hummel for the Principality and Athalwolf von Salza for the Loyalists. It was a tactically inconclusive encounter as both sides established firm defensive positions and neither was willing to give it up to make an attempt on the other's. Eventually the opposing forces withdrew in good order to their respective bases to continue to build up.

Battle of Flemish Crossroads

The Battle of the Flemish Crossroads took place in the year 1328, in Flanders, fought between Wolfgang Hummel's Army of the Prinz and Athalwolf von Salza's Swabian Defense Force. The two Armies met during early morning, where they deployed behind a number of hills and forests. Wolfgang moved his army across the plains, while some of his men were sent through the forests, where Loyalist Infantry waited and rested.

Some Imperial Knights of Wolfgang charged Athalwolf's flank, but were all killed opposed to only one unit of Dismounted Imperial Knights, who also were sluaghtered. Wolfgang's Army met Athalwolf's head on, and after some intense fighting Athalwolf retreated to a more favourable position of a sqaure formation.

It was when the Loyalists were waiting, and Wolfgang coming that an arranged trick happened. One regiment of supposed Loyalist Infantry revealed its true colors and attacked Athalwolf's army from within while they were besieged from outside. Athalwolf retreated from the battlefield with most of his infantry gone, and went to Staufen with his remains of a army.

From there Wolfgang took his force to Antwerp and defeated a Danish army in a costly encounter.

Battle of Bern

The Siege of Bern began when Rebel Lutheran Dietrich von Dassel was trapped in the city by the besieging army of Loyalist and Catholic Duke Hans. Jan von Hamburg, having given up his title of King of Outremer, arrived in Swabia and called for a crusading army to join Hans in his assault. At the same time Lutheran religious leader Alexander Luther called upon pious Lutherans to provide an army to relieve the siege. Both succeeded, and converged upon the city within hours of Hans beginning his assault on Bern in 1330. Sir Jan arrived with his crusader army from the south while Lutheran general Hugo Merode brought his troops from the north.

Hans, camped outside the North Gate, turned away from the city to destroy the Lutheran advance guard. Dietrich sallied forth with a large part of his army to help his ally, seeming to catch Hans's army in a deadly pincer maneuver between his and Hugo's forces. However, the timing was off, with Dietrich's cavalry failing to advance when it should have. Hans's army managed to destroy the bulk of both Lutheran armies and kill Hugo Merode. Eventually, however, numbers took over and his army was shattered by the remnants of Dietrich's men. He was captured by Dietrich von Dassel, who beheaded him in revenge for the untimely death of Jens Hummel many years ago.

Meanwhile, Jan von Hamburg was facing a relatively minor yet still ferocious defense of the city's southern walls. While the bulk of Dietrich's army was off fighting Hans north of the city, Jan sent his entire army, minus his cavalry, into the city where Dietrich's feudal knights and stationary cavalry were overwhelmed. The assault did not come without a price for the Crusaders, however, as Jan von Hamburg himself fell in the city square against the enemy Gothic Knights.

For the moment, it looked like, even though Bern was taken, the Rebels could eke out a victory with the death of both Loyalist commanders. However, at the twilight of the battle Dietrich saw the Catholic Crusader cavalry bearing down on his outnumbered escort. He tried to flee, but his efforts were in vain. Thinking his best hope was the mercy of the now-dead von Hamburg, he surrendered, but the attempt was ignored and he was cut down in revenge for Hans's execution. The only person of note on the Rebel side to survive the battle was Alexander Luther, who managed to flee and disappear after the failed surrender attempt.

Although the loyalists won, the Battle of Bern is regarded as a tragic event. Nearly all of Swabia's leadership died in a single battle, leaving only rebel Wolfgang Hummel and official heir to the dukeship Athalwolf von Salza as credible leaders in the Duchy. The remainder of the house consisted of young generals who have not yet attained much authority.

Battle of Staufen

The Battle of Staufen, starting and ending in 1336, was the last battle in the Swabian Civil War.

In late 1334 Wolfgang Hummel, Leader of the Principality of Swabia, marched into an undefended Staufen and took control of the Loyalist Capital. Duke von Salza, who was nearby with a very small army, was forced to retreat to Metz. Erhart Ruppel meanwhile was heading to Staufen from Bern, where he had been collecting the army of late Duke Hans.

Erhart sieged Staufen, and proceeded to block it off. Somehow though, Ludwig von Bohmen got past the defences with Wolfgang's treasury, and an envoy from the Bavarian Duke Lothar sent some money as well. Erhart Ruppel then left the battleground to recruit more soldiers, but left his army there under a disguise looking like him.

He recruited men, and Duke von Salza met with him. Too late it seemed, Wolfgang Hummel realized what was happening and sallied forth. He attacked and after some time the whole Loyallist army was running as fast as it could to Metz. As this glorious victory was happening Wolfgang Hummel got in the way of a particualary vicous retreating Loyallist brigade. None know what happened, but it seems a stray arrow caught the rebel commander and on the fields of battle, he died before his army.

If he had've survived that battle most of North Swabia would've been his and the Loyallists would've had to retreat to Bern. But with his death, Swabia was re united for the first time in over 20 years.

Outcome

Elberhard's Decree

After the deadly Battle of Bern, Kaiser Elberhard, still in Outremer and desperate for an end to the conflict, issued a general ceasefire order against all parties, promising grave consequences for those who did not obey. Benefitting Elberhard's laughable influence, this order was ignored by all sides and the conflict continued.

Péter's Offer

After being declared Prinz and "temporary Kaiser" by Kaiser Elberhard, Peter made an offer to the Principality of Swabia - if they abstain from attacking any Germans, they will be reincorporated into the Reich as the Duchy of Flanders. If Wolfgang apologizes to Duke Athalwolf von Salza of Swabia, he will be its Duke. Otherwise, either Jan von der Pfalz or Ludwig von Bohmen shall have that honor.

This action is more far-reaching than it seems at a first glance - it may give more executive power to the Prinz, or especially the Kaiser, to decree laws or dispense justice.

Escalation

With the involvement of Bavaria, the assistance of Bavaria by Bohemia, and Duke Arnold's condemnation of Athalwolf's recognition of Bohemia, it seems possible the war will escalate into a Reich-wide conflict. Wolfgang flouted the decrees of Peter and Elberhard and seized Staufen, capital of Swabia, and thus the conflict was not resolved.

However, in the Battle of Staufen between Wolfgang Hummel and the uncommanded forces of Ehrhart Ruppel, Wolfgang lost his life as his army smashed their foes. This battle ended the war as the rebel army departed from the field, having nothing more to fight for. Ludwig von Bohmen, the remaining Swabian general, bent knee to Duke Athalwolf von Salza in exchange for the County Bruges.