History of Urcea (1402-1575)

The History of Urcea from 1402-1575, sometimes also called the Reformation Period, consists of period of time from the establishment of House de Weluta on the throne of Urcea to the end of the Great Confessional War. Though the period began with efforts at reconstruction and a sense of unity reestablished throughout the realm, including peripheral areas of Canaery and the Cape, it soon became consumed by religious discord throughout the Kingdom and renewed dynastic struggle. The end of the period was characterized by war between the de Welutas and the Julio-Angloise against the backdrop of the and The Anarchy, socio-political events which resulted Great Confessional War and entrenchment of the Catholic Church within Urcea. The end of this period saw significant reforms take place, most notably including significant changes to the social class system in Urcea.

de Welutas established
Most of the reign of Lucás II, the "barracks King" (reigned 1402-1431), and his successors was spent rebuilding the nation after decades of destructive civil war.

King Lucás II inherited a country torn by decades of division and armed conflict and the inattention clearly showed: the great plains to the east of Urceopolis that once served as the breadbasket of the continent were wastelands and the site of frequent battle, Urcean ports were treated with scorn by traders globally due to the prevalence of conflict-based piracy, and the once mighty road system built by Great Levantia found itself largely destroyed from years of overuse and neglect. Lucás, called the "barracks King" both for his popularity among soldiers but also for his humble roots (relative for a King) prior to taking the Throne, spent a considerable part of his 29-year reign attempting to rebuild the country figuratively and literally. New aqueducts were constructed for the first time in nearly a millennia to irrigate the abandoned fields and support the cities and the King invited great scholars from across Christendom to engage in discussion about what might today be considered a kind of very primitive proto-economics. As part of this effort to solicit advice on how to reconstruct the nation's wartorn economy, the King convened a council of all of the guilds of Urcea, the Gildertach, for the first time in 1407. Serving initially as an advisory board on trade and trade conditions, it has continued to meet intermittently through the present. While contemplating changes to the Kingdom's economy, Lucás II implemented sweeping legal reforms that, among other changes, formally brought about the end of the Great Landsmeet, which had not met since 1243. The King's legal reforms also included streamlining local succession laws, uniting the laws by which the succession of the Archduchy of Urceopolis and Grand Duchy of Yustona functioned, thereby preventing a future occurrence of what occurred during the earlier Great Interregnum. Among the series of economic reforms implemented, King Lucás II most famously intentionally debased the currency to help farmers and merchants cancel debts from the war they couldn't repay. Despite the considerable gamble, records seem to indicate the move worked and the Urcean economy was in considerably better state upon Lucás's death in 1431 than it was when he came to the throne some 29 years earlier.

House de Weluta maintained a fairly robust succession in the 15th century and enjoyed considerable support from the landed gentry, the peasantry, and the clergy as they enthusiastically attempted to mend the wounds of the Saint's War with positive result. By the first year of the reign of King Niall IV (1456-1482), the country's population had recovered to its pre-war levels, and a robust building program began that would continue under the next three de Weluta Kings that would include a new system of roads, cleared trade routes, and a modernized series of defenses and fortresses. King Niall kept the Kingdom mostly out of foreign entanglements in order to facilitate the construction of the wartorn Kingdom, but he did involve himself in the political affairs of the Holy Levantine Empire, the first Apostolic King of Urcea to do so in a meaningful sense since the election of Emperor Niall I in the 13th century. Additionally, King Niall IV inherited the Principality of Halfway after the island's Crusader Princes died out. This was an important step in Urcea's "step into the Odoneru Ocean" that had begun with the conquest of North Crotona in the latter part of the 13th century by King Donnchad I.

The Renaissance would also make its way to Urcea in this time, inaugurating what scholars have called the golden age of Urcean culture, beginning in the 15th century and continuing on through the Baroque period. Niall IV's reign also saw considerable re-involvement in the affairs of the Empire and Urcea's other neighbors, including securing an alliance with the Kings of Angla with the marriage of one of his son's, Julius, to a daughter of the King of Angla, himself a distant Cónn descendant. This alliance would form the cadet branch of Julio-Angloise that would later rise to considerable prominence in Urcea and play a critical role in the history of Urcea and the Holy Levantine Empire.

Despite Niall IV's considerable progeny, his descendants would have problems with inheritance. His successor, Constantine II, died after less than a year on the Throne, passing it to his brother Leo I. Leo would manage just two sons, the eventual King James III and his sickly and weak brother Aedanicus who many scholars believe had considerable developmental disorders but nonetheless was able to reproduce, while James had considerable difficulty doing so.

James III ruled during the initial outbreak of the Protestant Reformation in 1517 and, although he initially expressed interest and toleration, eventually decided to enforce religious unity and ban Protestant proselytism after the Pope promulgated Exsurge Domine in 1520. The Reformation created a relatively small Protestant minority mostly in the peripheries of the country. King James spent the latter twenty years of his long reign (1492-1546) feuding with local lords and the country's neighbors, while breaking the country's alliance with the King of Angla as the latter became Protestant and the subject of an Imperial invasion. James died in April of 1546 without an heir starting a minor interregnum. There was considerable dispute whether or not Aedanicus would or could ascend to the Throne or whether or not some other claimant, like a Catholic descendant of Niall IV or even the Protestant Riordan Julio-Angloise should take his place. Considerable fighting between local factions broke out until Riordan himself seized Urceopolis and the Throne in October of 1546.

Julio-Angloise and War of Religion
Further Information: Great Confessional War, The Anarchy

The Protestant Donnchad III (1557-1565) was noted for his considerable martial prowess. Though Riordan V (1546-1557), first King of the House of Julio-Angloise and a Protestant, initially pledged that he would issue an edict of toleration, the Crown soon began to interfere in the functions of the Church and attempted to repossess the monastic lands in the Archduchy of Urceopolis. The Pope fled Urceopolis for Corcra and the persecution of the Church began in 1548, and in response Emperor Conchobar III granted Imperial immediacy to all vassals directly outside the crown lands of Urcea, bringing the so-called Imperial Kingdom to its functional dissolution. Taking this as a sign of approval from the Emperor, a large coalition of Catholic landed optimates rallied together to form the Catholic League and declared their intention to overthrow King Riordan V in favor of Prince Aedanicus, who remained at Castle Welute north of Urceopolis. Although the conflict initially took form as a dynastic dispute, soon sectarian fighting began and each side began wanton atrocities. Many villages and towns founded during the reign of Great Levantia were destroyed and not resettled, providing evidence to archaeologists how the typical Urcean of this time lived. The rebellion grew into the Urcean War of Religion with the Protestant, Royalist forces controlling the Urce River Valley and the Catholic rebels controlling the countryside. Riordan spent most of his reign prosecuting the war, and the Royalist forces experienced a considerable setback at the Battle of Clada in 1554, forcing the King to look to Protestant neighbors and allies such as the Kingdom of Gassavelia for assistance, drawing Urcea into forming the Protestant Union. With the destruction of the Kingdom of Angla earlier that year in the Nordmontaine War, the Union planned to march on Corcra and establish Protestantism as a legal religion in the Empire alongside Catholicism. The Great Confessional War between the Catholic Holy League and the Protestant Union, and the Urcean War of Religion was largely subsumed into the greater conflict.

Urcea within the Holy Levantine Empire in 1545; not colored is the Electorate of Canaery, also a crown possession of Urcea.

Riordan V died in 1557 and was succeeded by his Protestant son Donnchad III, who was considered to be an exceptionally more talented commander than his father. Donnchad managed to break a Catholic siege of Urceopolis and maneuvered north to Castle Welute. Rather than besiege the Catholic stronghold, Donnchad raided the fortress and took Prince Aedanicus, the Catholic heir and son of King Leo I, and brought him back to Urceopolis. There, in 1560, he was drawn and quartered and his head was mounted high in the Pale for the city to see, with the remaining parts sent to various rebel leaders; this act was viewed as a severe atrocity by contemporaries and far beyond the honorable conduct of war, leading many moderate optimates in the countryside to abandon the Protestant cause. Next, Donnchad launched a campaign to the southwest to break out of the Urce valley and link up with Protestant forces from the Kingdom of Gassavelia, which he did successfully. By 1562 Donnchad defeated the Holy League at numerous battles in southern Urcea and Gassavelia and the combined forces began to besiege the city of Cana.

Leo de Weluta, eldest son of Prince Aedanicus who had escaped to Corcra in 1560, leading a small force comprised mostly of Catholic troops from Ultmar given to him by the Emperor, launched a surprise attack on the city of Roekdorse in modern North Ionia and took the mostly-Catholic city, overcoming the small Royalist garrison. Soon, Leo began to call upon the avowedly Catholic Ionian Highlanders, who viewed "Auld Royal Leo" as their King, to flock to his banner, which they did. With the victory, the Pope proclaimed in 1563 that Leo was rightful heir to the Kingdom and gave him a Papal grant of the Kingdom stating as much, making Leo the de facto leader of Catholic Urcean forces. Reorganizing the shattered rebel forces and consolidating the Imperial-given forces, the Ionians, and the rebels into a new army, Leo began a march southwest to Urceopolis, besieging Protestant-aligned cities as he made his way down the river valley. The Protestant King Donnchad and his Gassavelian allies had to abandon the siege of Cana and march the two armies northeast. Leo and Donnchad's armies met for the first time in the northeastern plateau and engaged in a series of skirmishes for a year. Donnchad was continuously assured that a Protestant offensive from the Electorates of Lucarnia and Hollona would relieve him and attack the Imperial army from the rear, and continued to draw back his army in a series of bloody retreats in order to draw the Catholic forces in for a fight in which the allied armies would be able to strategically entrap the Imperial army. No reinforcements came, and Donnchad made the decision to continue the retreat on to Urceopolis in an attempt to draw the Catholic army into a siege of the well-defended city and potentially destroy them by sallying the Protestant forces forth. Leo managed to flank Donnchad with a detachment mostly comprised of cavalry and light infantry, positioning troops between Donnchad and Urceopolis, forcing the Protestant armies to stand and fight near Drumfree. At the Battle of Drumfree, which occurred on April 9th, 1565, both sides seemed deadlocked for nearly eight hours of fighting before Donnchad was mortally wounded by a primitive form of grapeshot, leading to the Protestant forces fleeing. Donnchad, abandoned by his troops, was then speared hundreds of times and his mangled corpse thrown into a ditch.

Using his cavalry, Leo trapped and annihilated the Protestant armies the next day, clearing the way for him to Urceopolis. Marching towards the city and then establishing camp outside the city, he felt himself unworthy to enter first, and sent for the Pope. The Pope and Leo entered the city on May 14th, 1565 at which point the Pope crowned Leo as King Leo II, ending the War of Religion and sending the Great Confessional War into its second phase as well as restoring the House de Weluta to the Throne. Following his coronation, the new King sent for the remains of his father and interred them at the royal crypt.

Having defeated the Julio-Angloise and with only a few Protestant partisans left in Urcea, King Leo II now had relatively free reign to prosecute the Great Confessional War on behalf of the Holy League, squarely putting the Protestant Union on the defensive. After defeating a small band of Julio-Angloise rebels south of Cálfeld, Leo marched the Imperial Army south and besieged Rexha by the end of 1565. The well-fortified city held out until 1567 when the Imperial Army successfully breached the walls after an extended cannon barrage. The Kingdom of Gassavelia soon suffered total collapse and Imperial occupation, ending the Southern Levantine theater of the war, with the remaining campaigns being largely siege-based against Protestant cities in northern Dericania and Ultmar. King Leo II spent 1568-1570 in Urcea restoring the position of the Church, rebuilding monasteries, restoring icons, and preparing the army for another campaign, which he launched into Dericania in 1571. Upon death of the Emperor in 1572, the Electors met and chose Leo as Emperor, putting the entire Holy League army under his command. He spent the next three years prosecuting the war until the Holy League's final victory in 1575, after twenty years of fighting. Leo showed no mercy and expelled all Protestant landholders from the Empire, enforced the legal status of the Catholic Church, enforced several of the doctrines of the Counter-Reformation, redistributed former Protestant lands, and strengthened the Inquisition in Levantia. Urcea, from the conflict, gained considerably; the Kingdom of Gassavelia was partitioned, with the western half of the Kingdom (and its colony of Antilles) being given to Urcea and the remainder becoming part of Faramount. Additionally, Urcea acquired former lands of the Kingdom of Angla which had been assigned to it after the Nordmontaine War but the Julio-Angloise royals refused to accept. Finally, Emperor Leo deprived the formerly Protestant controlled Philaridon Republic of much of its territory and traditional rights. The Republic's existence continued for more than a century, but following the reign of Emperor Leo it was reduced to little more than a city-state client of Urcea. Emperor Leo brought the results of the Great Confessional War to their natural conclusion, prosecuting the Dragonnades which largely left the Holy Levantine Empire uniformly Catholic and left many of the Estates of Urcea in disarray, as more than half of the Custóirs appointed by his predecessor were removed. The Dragonnades helped dramatically increase Royal authority in the realm as huge Protestant landed estates were seized by the Crown. Following the Great Confessional War, the power and expansive lands of the nobility in relation to the King went into terminal decline and by the time of the Red Interregnum, any of the remaining feudal estates were completely wiped away, though their influence and power was only nominal by that point.