History of Urcea (1214-1402)

The History of Urcea from 1214-1402, sometimes also called the Saint's War Period, consists of period of time from the rise of the House of Cónn in 1214 to the end of the Saint's War in 1402 with the rise of House de Weluta. This period saw the Kingdom descend into generations of dynastic civil war between the House of Cónn and House of Aleckán but also saw considerable legal and social reforms take place. The Great Landsmeet, the descendant of the ancient tribal assembly of Great Levantia met for the last time as the Conshilía Daoni rose to prominence. The instability and uncertainty of war led to major demographic changes that weakened the system of feudal contracts and greatly disturbed the existing system of social class in Urcea. The end of the war was characterized by the rapid ascent of House de Weluta, which has intermittently ruled Urcea since.

The Cónnocracy

The ascension of Constantine to the Throne led to the relatively non-noteworthy and peaceful rule of the House of Cónn for nearly forty years, primarily remembered for a series of construction programs to build and fortify trading routes and trail throughout the ever expanding Kingdom, including increased legal conformity of the Electorate of Canaery with the rest of the Kingdom, though full legal integration was not achieved for many centuries.

King Constantine I (1214-31) gave the Conshilía Daoni additional legal powers; he is depicted with them here in a 14th century miniature.

The reign of Constantine I saw the Conshilía Daoni assume the same force of law as decisions of the Great Landsmeet. While this decision was aimed at increasing the flexibility of Royal administration, it had the effect of making the Landsmeet obsolete and decreasing the power of the nobility.

Constantine's son Aedanicus III, called "the mad" in the latter years of his rule due to his increasing senility, assumed the throne in 1231. Aedanicus's reign marked the end of the Great Landsmeet, which met for the last time in 1243, though it would not be formally abolished until the 1400s. His rule came to an end in 1253 after 22 years as Donnchad, the son of the Aleckán King Niall III, returned from exile to claim the Throne.

Aleckán restored

Donnchad outmaneuvered the Cónn loyalists that fought on behalf of Aedanicus III, who was physically and mentally unfit to lead his armies. Prince Donnchad seized Urceopolis on July 1st, 1253, being crowned the same day. In an attempt to end the dynastic feud, Donnchad I allowed the senile Aedanicus III to live unmolested in retirement in a small wing of the Julian Palace, where he died without incident in 1257. Aedanicus III's son, the defeated Prince Adrian, saw the new King's act as one of kindness and pledged loyalty to him and disavowed his claim to the Throne. During this period, Donnchad began the Urcean envelopment of the Latinic city-states of Crotona and Tromarine, a process that would not be completed until the mid 17th century. These rich trading cities would strengthen Urcea considerably and give it an important naval foothold in the Odoneru Ocean. Donnchad spent much of his reign campaigning in Crotona and by the end of his life he had managed to subdue most of what is today the province of North Crotona.

Riordan IV (1266-75) Aleckán is often depicted, as here, in fraternal embrace with Adrian of the House of Cónn, his close confidant; the struggle between the houses briefly abated during his reign.

The peace was not to last, however; Donnchad was succeeded by his quarrelsome son Riordan IV, who befriended Prince Adrian and relied on Cónn support to defeat his domestic rivals among the nobility, including some Aleckán loyalists. Riordan's reign was primarily characterized by his attempts to centralize Royal authority and his alliance with the Cónns gave him great utility in this, though he eventually waged civil war as some of the nobles rose up against him in arms. Besides internal strife, Riordan's reign was also consumed with finishing the work launched by his father with respect to solidifying control over trade along the western coast and southeastern Odoneru. The previous century, King Niall I had managed to position the Creagmer republics as tributaries of Urcea while conquering one of the largest. Like Crotona and Tromarine, these areas were key to Odoneru treade routes, and accordingly Riordan heavily prioritized their further integration. Asserting his rights as the Imperial overlord of the cities, Riordan invaded in 1270 and launched a campaign which alternated between brutality and mercy, destroying the private lands and mansions of the merchant classes who opposed him while sparing and granting lands to merchant who supported him. Following three years of campaigning, the Creagmer republics all swore direct fealty to the Apostolic King of Urcea in exchange for the merchant classes all being granted immediate status as optimates within Urcean society. On his death in 1275 due to battle wounds, Riordan IV controversially named the Prince Adrian as his successor, who took the Throne on April 3rd, 1275. The Aleckán faction - most of whom were already in arms against Riordan - disputed the succession by law, claiming that Adrian was not only ineligible to succeed due to Riordan's brother Niall having a better claim, but also due to his having renounced the Throne during the reign of Donnchad I. Adrian I managed to rally the Royal Army and defeat the Noble forces, who sought a Royal charter of some kind, and managed to secure his place on the Throne for the next 37 years.

Julian instability

Adrian II (1330-1339) assumed the throne by killing and usurping the last Aleckán King, Lucás, at the Battle of Hollyhead in 1330.

Adrian I's reign was mostly consumed by an effort to purge, wherever possible, potential Aleckán claimants and their descendants, though Adrian could not, himself, produce an heir, for which he was the target of both legal alarm and satirical attacks by the Aleckán faction. Adrian's primary accusation by his critics was that he was a closeted atheist anarchist looking to destroy the country by a lack of legal heirs, and that he was potentially a homosexual. Despite a poor reputation among contemporary writers, many modern historians believe that Adrian was generally a better monarch than traditionally given credit for. His 37 years on the throne were the longest of any Urcean monarch until the 15th century, and archaeology suggests that the economy was strong during this period, likely due to 4 decades of relative stability. His length of time on the throne also likely suggests that Adrian was more popular among both nobles and commoners than historians previously believed. Despite these recent reappraisals, most modern historians still rate him relatively lowly due to his single-minded obsession with destroying the House of Aleckán.

Upon Adrian's death without children in 1312, the lead Aleckán heir, Lucás, the nephew of Riordan IV through his father Niall, defeated Cónn forces outside Urceopolis and was crowned King five days later on February 22nd, 1312 before Adrian I's nephew, also named Adrian, could muster enough forces to push his claim by force. Lucás, the last direct Aleckán King, reigned for 18 years between 1312 and 1330, a time which was primarily spent fighting a fierce civil war against Adrian Cónn and his allies. Lucás was eventually killed in single combat by Adrian at the Battle of Hollyhead, allowing the latter to be crowned in Urceopolis on January 22nd, 1330, twenty days after the battle. Like Adrian I, Adrian II spent his reign executing a series of bloody purges against the Aleckán family and their suspected heirs, though he was much more successful than his predecessor. Like his predecessor, however, Adrian II died childless and plunged the Kingdom into the Great Interregnum in 1339, the final phase of the Saint's War.

Great Interregnum

Unlike the inconsistent dynastic feuding that characterized the first 125 years of the conflict, the Great Interregnum brought 63 years of civil war and national division. Not only did the Great Interregnum occur because of the relatively even power bases of the two halves of the Julian dynasty, but also due to succession laws. When there was a crowned Apostolic King of Urcea, the holder of the Julian Crown was legally held to succeed to both the Archduchy of Urceopolis and Grand Duchy of Harren, effectively overriding local succession laws. With the lack of a consensus King and power evenly divided, however, succession defaulted back to local laws which had not been used since before the Golden Bull of 1098. In the Archduchy, the Archducal title, when no clear heir was available, defaulted to whomever held the headship of the Estate of the Julii, but Harren instead employed an absolute primogeniture tie based on kinship. The death of Adrian II inaugurated a civil war within the Cónn family that lasted between his death in August 1339 and December of that year. Accordingly, the Aleckáns, who had held Custóirship of the Estate, took control of the Archduchy, but could not legally claim Harren, which had strong Cónn sympathies even if they could. The civil war between the Cónns resolved in December of 1339 with a man named Caelian Cónn taking Cálfeld. Subsequently, the Cónn anaged to have their line of claimants recognized in Harren without incident,

During the Great Interregnum, the Aleckán faction held the territory of the Archduchy of Urceopolis and other western portions of the Kingdom, though not the city of Urceopolis itself; the burghers and local landed nobility revolted and established the Pope as the temporal ruler of the city and the surrounding areas so as to prevent violence befalling the city as had happened previously during the Saint's War, an arrangement which was said would end upon the final conclusion of the conflict. The resulting rule of the Pope over the city led to the high water mark of political Papal authority and the last resurgence in power of the Duchy of Transurciana. The Cónn faction ruled over the Grand Duchy of Harren and the Electorate of Canaery. The leader of the House of Cónn, Caelian Cónn, took the unusual decision of establishing its court northwest of the Magnag in the southern wilderness region with the newly constructed castle of Ardricampus, which took its name ("King's Fort"), from the conflict. This castle, an impressive structure built atop an oasis in arid shrublands, not only provided protection and resources for the defender but gradually sapped the besiegers of their resources, making it a formidable defensive position. The castle, with its well developed infrastructure exploiting the oasis, grew into a major city with the same name, around which developed the modern province of Ardricampus. The Aleckán faction ruled from several castles near Urceopolis, but did not dare attempt to dislodge the Pope from the city. The Imperial Kingdom of Urcea, tied to the Apostolic King of Urcea, remained vacant, though in practice its duties continued to be exercised by a regent directly appointed by the Emperor of the Levantines. Apart from the Saint's War, the fate of the regency during this period was a source of fierce political disagreement between the Emperor and the Pope over who exercised control over Urcea during a crown vacancy, a question that was not clearly solved with the end of the war in the 15th century.

The 1340s saw the brief reappearance of the Creagmer republics in reduced form. With tacit support from the Philaridon Republic, prominent merchant families in western Urcea overthrew local garrisons, disavowed the agreements made with Riordan IV, and attempted to reassert the independence of the mercantile city-states, especially given the harmful influence the war had on trade in the region. In 1344, the Aleckán Archduke launched a campaign to try and reestablish dominance over the cities, but failed and soon made an agreement to tacitly recognize their independence within the Imperial Kingdom of Urcea in exchange for financing future Aleckán campaigns. This agreement brought the republics into an uneasy alliance with the Aleckán faction, and both factions in the Saint's War internally planned to quickly subjugate the area once they managed to defeat the other party.

In 1341, the sitting Emperor of the Levantines decided to set aside his own regent and invade Urcea, planning to install either himself or a relative - scholars disagree on this point - on the throne of the Imperial Kingdom of Urcea. Imperial forces advanced down the Urce River as far as Castle Welute, but were defeated there by forces loyal to House de Weluta. The de Welutas - also known as the Welutians or the Velucians - originally hailed from the Ionian Plateau and maintained considerable connections there, and as a house they were formed earlier in the century as part of an alliance between King Lucás I and some highland clans. The Emperor signed a treaty pledging non-interference for the remainder of the conflict, a pledge that his successors honored. For their efforts, House de Weluta was rewarded with the daughter of the sitting Aleckán Archduke, beginning the long association between the House and the Julian dynasty.

The Great Interregnum saw a general realignment of the political loyalties of the Estates of Urcea. Through most of the Saint's War, Estates were divided internally for either claimant, especially including the Royal Estate of the Julii. The Aleckán dynasty had acquired the title of Custóir from King Seán I in 1159, and despite many attempts, the House of Cónn could not dislodge them from their headship of the Estate even as the Julian Throne alternated between the two houses. The Custóirship of the Julii was a source of great prestige and authority for the Aleckáns, giving them the loyalty of most of the heads of the Estates even if subsidiary families supported the Cónns. With the beginning of the Interregnum, though, many of the Estates came to blame the Aleckáns for the division of the nation. Specifically, the Gaelic Estates began to support the Cónns, which turned the final phase of the Saint's War into a series of battles between Estates. This, paradoxically, had the effect of strengthening the Aleckán cause, as it led to the slightly more numerous Latinic Estates rallying around the House of Aleckán and contributing manpower and funding not seen up through this point of the conflict.

The minor House de Weluta by 1374 were firmly ingrained members of the Julian dynasty by means of their descent from King Lucás I via the daughter of an Archduke married into the family followed its victory against the Emperor of the Levantines in 1348. In an unlikely series of events, the head of house de Weluta at that time - Donio de Weluta - came into possession of the Duchy of the Cape, a territory to the southwest of the Archduchy of Urceopolis that had been part of the Imperial Kingdom of Urcea but largely remained aloof of the affairs of its neighbors. The last Duke of the Cape died in 1372 without a close relative, leading to two years of struggle between local magnates over who should become Duke. Sensing an opportunity, the Aleckán Archduke of Urceopolis dispatched Donio and his forces to the Cape to try and resolve the dispute and gain an ally during the conflict with the Cónns. Following a four month campaign of restoring order and building local connections, Donio was unexpectedly offered the Duchy by local leaders in June 1374 as a compromise candidate, and he accepted the title. Donio was able to justify accepting the title due to his distant relation to the historic Southern King of the Levantines from the line of his mother, the Aleckán princess. The de Welutas gaining the Cape brought it into Aleckán orbit and elevated the de Welutas into a place of political prominence.

The death of the last direct male Aleckán heir in battle in 1392 seemed to indicate that the Cónn faction was about to emerge victorious. However, the supporters of the Aleckán cause decided to elevate Lucás of House de Weluta - to faction leadership. Lucás de Weluta, elevated to the rank of Archduke of Urceopolis and ruling from Castle Welute, continued the fight against the Cónn faction. Lucás de Weluta rallied the Aleckán faction and raised a large number of highlanders to his banner, rejuvenating the Aleckán cause. In order to strengthen his position, Lucás controversially decided to break the tacit alliance between himself and the Creagmer republics in 1394, invading them and restoring control over the western portion of the Archduchy of Urceopolis. Lucás's campaign despoiled some of the merchant cities, weakening their influence and harming Odoneru area trade while gaining a short term advantage in terms of funding for additional soldiers while also raising some urban levies from the region. Unlike Riordan IV's agreements, which the cities broke, Lucás stripped the local notables of all social rank and worked to dismantle the economic hierarchy which empowered the merchants to influence society. With the exception of the Philaridon Republic, 1394 brought about the final end of the Creagmer republics. Lucás managed to parlay the new gold to hire large mercenary forces from Angla.

With his new gathered forces, Lucás de Weluta marched against the Cónns and, within a decade, eventually issued a final defeat to the Cónn faction at the Battle of Glens Falls in 1401. His forces subsequently besieged of the Castle of Ardricampus in early August 1402. Facing defeat, the Cónn claimant - the Elector Aedanicus of Cónn - threw himself from the walls of the fortress, committing suicide. Rather than slaughter the remaining members of the family, Lucás de Weluta married Aedanicus's only daughter Eileen and sent the rest of the family into exile in Dericania. The de Weluta army then marched on Urceopolis, where a tense standoff occurred between de Weluta forces and those loyal to the Pope. Following a month of what historians have called a "light siege" of the city, the Pope welcomed the de Weluta Archduke into the city. Lucás was crowned personally by the Pope on September 14 1402, ending the Saint's War and Great Interregnum definitively.