Saarties Oorlog

Buildup

When Hertog Alexander von Saartie I founded De Hertogrijk he was already in a struggle for power over the Order of Saartie, the Dukes Sanders, Albrecht, Kediz and Ostend each seeked power over the magnificent order of Knights, in an attempt to remedy the situation Alexander gave each of the nobles thier own land and serfs in this new continent, it was needed.

4 generations later De Hertogland van Saartiestad faced a problem, it had ran almost out funding and its respect in the provinces of dukes due to a failed crusade into a heavily fortified province under the rule of Mad Duke Alexander van Saartie III, Saartie IV came up with a solution to both the problems he faced and that of Alexander I.

Sacking of Kediz

Kediz was a province to the East bordering Saartiestad and Ostend, it was small but very wealthy, Ostend was currently away on duty in Flanders and the winter had just ended so food reserves would be at their lowest, Alexander saw this opportunity and struck, the men at Kediz saw the Duchal banner and instead of preparing the defences they opened the gates and got ready for a visit from Alexander who had recently been corinated.

The Knights of Saartie had been expecting a long hardy siege and so were pleasantly shocked to find that they were able to march into the capitol and sack the riches of the nobles before leaving a burning husk of a city, the Duke Kediz was believed to have died in this attack, this action was followed quickly by several others, Albrecht got ready for an invasion, Sanders sent an ultimatum to withdraw forces or expect retaliation, but Ostend was still without a leader, in his Dukes absence a young Noble by the name of Herold took command of forces and sent out an army of Knights to return Kediz to the people.

Battle of Kanigsdorf

In seeing the Knights of Herold march towards Kediz Saartie sent of his best men to head them off at Kanigsdorf in the east, at this point a small village in the forest at the base of a hill, Herold had the General Doster take command of his forces whilst Saartie led the attack himself hoping that his position on the battlefield may swing the decision, but geographically Saartie was bound to lose.

Herolds Knights had decided to seperate themselves across the forest forcing the enemy to break off to find each soldier, Herolds men were also given crossbows, had the higher ground and outnumbered the Knights of Saartie 2 to 1, Saartie saw that he would have to break up forces or choose another direction, so he ordered his knights to set fire to the forest, the locals took unkindly to this decision and attacked, seeing the one-sided and un-knightly battle going on Doster saw no choice but to call the charge into the exposed rear of the Saarian knights.

The battle from that point got bloody as the angry melee erupted, for a moment Saarties forces looked to be winning, the Kediz citizens had been all but slaughtered and work had begun on the unmounted Knights of Herold, the battle turned when Loyalist mounted Knights of Kediz charged in from the higher ground and bolstered the support of the Heroldic Knights, eventually Saartie called a retreat and fled back to Kediz.

Ostends Return

Ostend returned with his messenger and found what he had been told to be true, Saartie had invaded and during all this a young upstart had taken Ostends throne, Ostend was famed for his temper and the overcompensated acts of anger, he had Herold thrown from the highest tower of Ostend Castle and immediatly took his throne back, this began a series of events which many agree led to overall Saartian victory.

In his brief reign Herold had won a victory and made life easier for the people, during his return Ostend had ordered the Knights in Kanigsdorf, who were tired from battle, to march onto Kediz, a battle they were nowhere near ready for, he also attempted to control Kediz Knights who bluntly refused his orders and followed under whichever Noble claimed the throne of Kediz next, without support the Kanigsdorf Knights were slaughtered piecemeal, Dostor was ransomed back but Ostend refused to pay for a general he deemed to be poor in combat.

That was the end, the people had had enough and rebelled against Ostend, they were supported by the Saartie who promised them independence but actually planned to take them over, with the support of the populace Alexanders Knights managed to place Ostend City in a siege which lasted 4 months, when the doors were smashed open and Ostend was found it was reported that he was feasting on the corpse of Herold pleading for god to forgive him.

The Month of Knives

With Ostends power fading the eyes of Saartie was faced West, onto Albrecht and Sanders, Saartie knew they had signed a pact of assistence together and that in facing one he would face the other but he also knew that he would have to take them out before taking on the people of Ostend, it was decided that one of the Alliance would need to be bought, whilst the coffers were raised a most unexpected thing happened, the Peoples rebellion in Ostend started up in Albrecht, Alexander now had a reason.

Alex waited for the right time, when a large portion of Albrecht had been taken by the rebellion, then he offered assistence, Albrecht was a fool of a man, he took up the offer of power, land and gold if he helped in Saarties war and quickly betrayed Sanders by alligning with Saartie and invading the peoples rebellion, victory was assured as Sanders daren't attack Saartie and Albrecht alone, this motnh was deemed as the month of knives from then on as many had drawn knives to stab their allies in the back.

Fall of Sanders

With all but one province taken Saartie felt that victory was assured, he had already proclaimed himself King of Saartie and had Duke Albrecht taken away to be executed, all that was left was the destruction of Sanders, a gloriously wealthy nation who had a proud military and a vast wealth, and 20 years worth of hatred towards the nation of Saartie, the invasion began slowly at first, a few outlying towns and villages were siezed, but it was Sanders who struck the first blow, angry at the agonizingly long attack plans they drew up an army of 10,000 soldiers and marched them into combat with the grossly outnumbered Saartian forces.

This battle, also known as "The Last Battle of Sanders", marked the end of Sanders, though it went down in a bloody storm, the Saartian knights suffered greatly in the first day of battle, over half the forces dead and another quarter running, on the second day they spent thier time fleeing back to Saartie fearing the end of the battle, on the third day they realised that they were no longer being followed and decided to set-up a foritification, the next day they met on the battlefield again, this time the Sanders knights were weak and barely put up a fight, as it turned out, on the second knight the forces had run out of food and decided that the only thing to eat would be the corpses of those perished in the earlier battle, ripe with disease the corpses caused a plague which swept through the Sanders Knights who lived in close contact due to the size of the forces, on the fourth day they had almost all died or were too unwell to fight.

Outcomes

With Sanders defeated and the position of the King secure Saartie proclaimed the land to be known as De Koninkrijk van Saartie, econimically the people were opressed as Saartie attemptd to restore the deficit of his predecessor and of the recent war, mixed in with this was the start of De Laatste Vloek van Sanders, a plague which struck down the veterens of the battle with Sanders and which spread quickly through the now weakened Sanders whos borders shrunk in order to quarentine the plague.

Overall Alexander was viewed as a bad King for the people of Saartie, those who had lived under the Duchal system failed to get used to the King, the power of the King would not be tested until King Alfonso van Saartie I would come into power in 1349 PDU.