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Royal Navy (Urcea): Difference between revisions
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The [[Golden Bull of 1098]], which elevated [[Urcea]] to the level of a Kingdom, authorized the new Crown to organize whatever military forces necessary for the preservation of the patrimony of the [[Julian dynasty]]. Unlike the [[Royal and Imperial Army (Urcea)|Royal Army]] of the time, Urcea had no major need for naval traditions given the location of its major rivals on mainland [[Levantia]] and lack of significant coastline. Many of the earliest engagements the nation took part in on the sea were against pirates from [[Crotona]] in the late 1100s and early 1200s in order to protect the coastlines of [[Callan]] and [[Canaery]]. During the [[Saint's War]], any pretense of naval effort was largely abandoned as the Kingdom was engulfed in generations-long dynastic conflict, though a small Caenish naval force was employed in the 1250s to establish a foothold on Crotona. At the end of the war, [[House de Weluta]] emerged in control of the Apostolic Kingdom in the early 1400s, and this new ruling dynasty had an interest in solidifying its control of the south Levantine coast and expanding its lands in [[Crotona]], necessitating the beginnings of a navy. This period mostly saw the [[Apostolic King of Urcea]]'s personally owned vessels forming the nucleus of a force supplanted by conscripted merchant vessels facing similarly conscripted forces from the mercantile city-states of Crotona, as both fleets would be disbanded immediately following the war. The acquisition of the [[Principality of Halfway]] in 1474 necessitated an expansion of the King's personal fleet, but it also gave access to a much larger network of mercantile ships to enlist in times of war. | The [[Golden Bull of 1098]], which elevated [[Urcea]] to the level of a Kingdom, authorized the new Crown to organize whatever military forces necessary for the preservation of the patrimony of the [[Julian dynasty]]. Unlike the [[Royal and Imperial Army (Urcea)|Royal Army]] of the time, Urcea had no major need for naval traditions given the location of its major rivals on mainland [[Levantia]] and lack of significant coastline. Many of the earliest engagements the nation took part in on the sea were against pirates from [[Crotona]] in the late 1100s and early 1200s in order to protect the coastlines of [[Callan]] and [[Canaery]]. During the [[Saint's War]], any pretense of naval effort was largely abandoned as the Kingdom was engulfed in generations-long dynastic conflict, though a small Caenish naval force was employed in the 1250s to establish a foothold on Crotona. At the end of the war, [[House de Weluta]] emerged in control of the Apostolic Kingdom in the early 1400s, and this new ruling dynasty had an interest in solidifying its control of the south Levantine coast and expanding its lands in [[Crotona]], necessitating the beginnings of a navy. This period mostly saw the [[Apostolic King of Urcea]]'s personally owned vessels forming the nucleus of a force supplanted by conscripted merchant vessels facing similarly conscripted forces from the mercantile city-states of Crotona, as both fleets would be disbanded immediately following the war. The acquisition of the [[Principality of Halfway]] in 1474 necessitated an expansion of the King's personal fleet, but it also gave access to a much larger network of mercantile ships to enlist in times of war. | ||
Although the [[Great Confessional War]] was primarily fought on land, Protestant-aligned privateers continually harassed Urcean merchants across the entire Sea of Canete in raids that the King's personal fleet could not properly counter given the small size of the King's personal fleet and the unavailability of additional merchant vessels to supplement the navy. [[Emperor Leo III of the Holy Levantine Empire|King Leo's]] experiences during the conflict | Although the [[Great Confessional War]] was primarily fought on land, Protestant-aligned privateers continually harassed Urcean merchants across the entire Sea of Canete in raids that the King's personal fleet could not properly counter given the small size of the King's personal fleet and the unavailability of additional merchant vessels to supplement the navy. [[Emperor Leo III of the Holy Levantine Empire|King Leo's]] experiences during the conflict led to his adoption of the Naval Quartering Act in 1591, which created dedicated navy dockyards, purpose-built warships, and a basic military administrative apparatus. The King's personal fleet was incorporated as the first ships of the reformed navy, soon to be joined by dozens of others. This new navy was strong enough to help defeat [[Caphiria]] in the War of Urlazio in the 1620s and 30s and played a critical role in completing the conquests of the islands of [[Kingdom of Crotona|Crotona]] and [[Tromarine]] in the 1660s and 1670s. By the time of the [[War of the Caroline Succession]] some 150-years later, Urcea's navy was capable and competent if not especially large. It remained respectable until the [[Second Caroline War]], in which it was proven unable to interdict troop movements on the ocean. It was defeated by naval forces of [[Burgundie|South Dericania]] several times. Although the [[Royal and Imperial Army (Urcea)|Royal Army]] would be rebuilt and made into an extremely potent fighting force in the coming decades under the rule of King Niall V and [[King Aedanicus VIII]], the navy would remain a secondary concern and fell into irrelevance by the 1860s. | ||
As part of the overall national revitalization of the 1850s and 1860s - along with a growing understanding of the influence of sea power on history - [[King Aedanicus VIII]] instigated a massive naval reconstruction effort beginning in the late 1850s and ending in the 1870s. Urcea began the construction of pioneering armored cruisers, having constructed an all-ironclad navy by 1876. During this period, Urcea expanded its naval reach abroad, acquiring [[Rapa Rapa]] and [[Huadao]] and building coaling stations and naval bases there. While Aedanicus intended for Urcea to have a navy large enough to project power globally, budgetary problems and political instability in the late 1870s and 1880s | As part of the overall national revitalization of the 1850s and 1860s - along with a growing understanding of the influence of sea power on history - [[King Aedanicus VIII]] instigated a massive naval reconstruction effort beginning in the late 1850s and ending in the 1870s. Urcea began the construction of pioneering armored cruisers, having constructed an all-ironclad navy by 1876. During this period, Urcea expanded its naval reach abroad, acquiring [[Rapa Rapa]] and [[Huadao]] and building coaling stations and naval bases there. While Aedanicus intended for Urcea to have a navy large enough to project power globally, budgetary problems and political instability in the late 1870s and 1880s led to the cancellation of much of the fleet. A handful of protected cruisers were added in the late 1880s just prior to the King's death. With the King's death, the regency of [[Gréagóir FitzRex]] began. FitzRex believed Urcea's primary power projection should be in [[Levantia]], and consequently his government believed Aedanicus's naval expansion to be a costly vanity project and canceled all remaining development. The [[Red Interregnum]] would not be kind to the Regal Navy, as a majority of its ships were more than 20 years old facing newer and better armed ships of [[Burgundie]]. The Regal Navy would be rendered functionally a non-entity in small skirmishes even before the Battle of Abylf Steppe, requiring the [[Imperial Naval Fleet]] to assume primary duties on the sea. The failure of a well-maintained Regal Navy to interdict the Legitimists - whose control of the sea allowed for the [[Fall of Cana]] and subsequent victorious campaigns - shaped the thinking of many Urcean leaders, including the new [[King Patrick III]] who assumed the [[Julian Throne]] after the war. Under the newly-restored King's leadership, Urcea began a major effort to rearm on the seas, and Patrick's reign saw an infusion of radical naval thinkers from [[Burgundie]]. Within a decade of his restoration, the Royal Navy would see the launching of the [[Coria-class cruiser]] and [[Archduchy-class battleship]] among many others, with the latter ship being the first class of dreadnoughts in [[Levantia]]. For these efforts, King Patrick III is considered by many to be the father of the modern Royal Navy. His reforms saw the beginning of the "big gun" era for the Royal Navy, which would change its reputation from a coastal and trade defense force into a truly powerful navy considered by most contemporaries to be among the world's best. It projected power globally during the [[Second Great War]], managing to functionally eliminate [[Caphiria]]'s [[Imperial Naval Fleet]] in the process. During the war, the Navy began to transition away from the large-gun battleships towards aircraft carriers, a transition that began during the critical [[Battle of the Adonáire Strait]], though it retains gunned cruisers through today. During the [[Second Great War]] and following the battle, the Navy began to convert large numbers of outdated battleships and cruisers - as well as incomplete cruiser hulls - to aircraft carriers, making the Royal Navy the world's most wide user of aircraft carriers, a tradition that continued long after the war. | ||
== Organization == | == Organization == | ||