Great Confessional War: Difference between revisions

* [[Urcea]] under the House of Julio-Angloise (to 1565)

* Order of the Obsidian Sparrow

*King Riordan V

*King Donnchad III †

*Rih Cledwyn Wydd-Màrtainn †

*Rih Conan Wydd-Màrtainn

== Urcean War of Religion ==

King Donnchad III reversed the Protestants' fortune in 1557 when he assumed the throne upon Riordan's death, launching a highly successful campaign against the Catholic forces. Donnchad managed to break a Catholic siege of Urceopolis in the summer of 1559 before raiding Castle Welute, where he captured Prince Aedanicus, the Catholic heir and son of King Leo I. Donnchad imprisoned Aedanicus in Urceopolis until 1560, when the Protestant King had the Catholic Prince drawn, quartered, and beheaded. Donnchad mounted the head in a public square, and sent pieces of Aedanicus to various Catholic leaders. Donnchad then launched a campaign through Urcea and Gassavelia, scoring a series of victories in 1561 and 1562, leading to the siege of Cana in 1562. Donnchad's efforts were bolstered when Matthaeus the Turncoat betrayed the Catholic cause, launching an equally successful campaign in 1561 and 1562 to conquer Catholic-loyal Eastern Gassavelia.

Recognizing the need for new leadership amidst the Protestant advances, the Pope in 1563 proclaimed Leo de Welute as the rightful Urcean King. Leo had launched a successful surprise attack Julianum in 1560 using volunteers from Ultmar and the Ionian Highlands, successfully capturing the Protestant-held city in Northern Urcea. Leo organized these volunteers, and the remnant Catholic forces in the region, into a new army, which he marched South, scoring a series of victories against Protestant garrisons and smaller forces. Donnchad had to abandon the siege of Cana in order to move North to confront Leo's forces, leading to a series of skirmishes between Donnchad and Leo in 1564. Donnchad ultimately avoided a full-scale engagement, however, because he had been assured that Protestant forces from the electorates of Lucarnia and Hollona would reinforce him. Donnchad thus repeatedly ceded territory and strategic advantage, often sacrificing units to cover his retreat, in a doomed bid to buy time for support.

Leo took advantage of Donnchad's hesitance by flanking the Protestant leader in 1565, leading to the landmark Battle of Drumfree. Leo's forces ultimately achieved victory in that bloody engagement, killing Donnchad, and definitively routing his forces. Donnchad's troops fled South, still hoping to find the reinforcements that were supposed to have been in route from Lucarnia and Hollana. But in reality, the two electorates had dispatched their forces East months earlier in a bid to stem the advances of Matthaeus the Betrayer, who in early 1565 again switched sides in the conflict, rejoining the Catholic cause. Ironically, amidst Leo's advance, Lucarna and Hollana withdrew those troops from Gassavelia, allowing Matthaeus to continue his advance largely unopposed. Matthaeus' successful campaign laid the groundwork for the establishment of Faramount, the only Protestant state to survive the Great Confessional War.

 

Following the Treaty of TBD on August 10, [[1575]] the remaining Protestants were given an ultimatum to convert or be banished through the coastal cities of the [[Kingdom of Dericania]]. Of the estimated tens of millions of [[Levantia|Levantine]] Protestants in [[1551]], only 530,000 remained alive or unconverted in [[1575]] and of those 493,000 refused to convert and were transported. [[Levantia|Southern Levantia]] became entrenched as a unitary bastion of [[Catholic Church|Catholicism]], the [[Holy Levantine Empire]] covered all of southern and central [[Levantia|Levantia]] with the exception of [[Faneria]], and an [[Burgoignesc Colonial Empire|age of colonialism]] was spurred on by the banishment of the Protestants. The [[Dragonnades]] were prosecuted in an effort to bring the expulsion to its comnpletion. The expulsion of the Protestants lead to the establishment of [[Pharisedom]]s abroad.

The Expulsion of the Protestants also saw the proliferation of Christian missionary work. Many Christian minorities outside of the [[Occidental world]] owe their existence to this single event. It also kick-started the {{wpl|Age of Sail}} as it necessitated innovations in ocean-going navigation and vessel types. It also saw the spread of renaissance ideas and over time became a nexus point that blended eastern and western canon and academics and, for about 150 years many of the leading thinkers in the [[Occidental world]] were actually based in [[Alshar]] and [[Audonia]].