THE WINTER CROWS: Volume XV; Andrik III - The Great (II)

[Nectorist 12869]

 

THE WINTER CROWS: Volume XV; Andrik III - The Great (II)

Written by Demetrius Barrow

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Andrik III - The Great (II)

 

“A devoted Imperial, a staunch regionalist, a boorish barbarian, and a cunning manipulator walk into a tavern. Everyone bows to the King of Haense.” - A Kaedreni joke about Andrik III, c. 1738

 

If maturity had not yet reached Andrik III in his relationship with his wife, or the handling of his sister’s marriage, it had come to him in his oversight of the realm. While he would not be the same conscientious administrator of his realm that Robert I had been, by 1728 he had begun to demonstrate an interest in matters beyond the army. 

 

The king would rise early, before breakfast, to hear the issues of the day from his secretaries, then, after his morning meal with his family, where he would begin the day’s drinking with a glass of wine, he would meet with the Aulic Council for several hours. Where before he had been content to let the Lord Palatine guide discussions and counsel (i.e., direct) what action to take for matters but those that concerned the Brotherhood of St. Karl, he now set the daily agenda and took an active role in directing his councilors. Wisely, he still fielded open, plainly-stated advice from his experienced officials, and still gave them the liberty to handle the minutiae of government, but he was no longer playing at king.

 

One major initiative that King Andrik took in 1728 was to establish the Office of the Royal Treasury and Bursary of the Crown, better-known as the Royal Treasury. Where before, the matter of state finances had been the purview of the Lord Palatine, and the revenues of the Crown had been the High Seneschal’s prerogative, the new, joined office merged the two and placed them under the oversight of the Lord Treasurer. Haense was a vastly-growing and modernizing realm, and while finances and commerce could be managed by the Lord Palatine’s staff, his duties had only grown since the reign of Robert I. A royal bureaucracy, professionalized army, intricate foreign relations, powerful Duma, and growing burgher class, brought challenges to the feudal system and the methods of government that had driven it previously. Taxes, tariffs, fees, and Royal Crown land incomes needed to be collected and appropriately-spent by seasoned bursars if the state was to function at all. For this task, King Andrik drew from the commerce-oriented burghers and appointed Richard Steinkachel as the inaugural Treasurer of Haense.

 

Another matter that required his intervention was the infamous duel between the Duke of Vidaus, Viktor var Ruthern, and his twin brother, Tuvya. The fortunes of House Ruthern had fallen significantly since the reign of Robert I, surpassed by the likes of House Barclay and House Kortrevich, something that repulsed many of the ‘old nobility’. Fighting over the future of House Ruthern, the two brothers accidentally slew themselves, leaving the future of their family to the duke’s four year old son. The embarrassing incident enraged King Andrik, who, while always a champion of the martial spirit, viewed duels to the death as unnecessarily destabilizing. House Ruthern was stripped of the Duchy of Vidaus, which only furthered their decline.

 

That same year, Prince Otto Alimar resigned as Lord Marshal of the Brotherhood of St. Karl on account of poor health and accepted a more comfortable position in the Office of the Treasury. In the four short years that he had led the army, the prince had successfully rebuilt it into a force that could stand against any other within the Empire. Prince Otto’s replacement, Ser Wilheim Barclay, the Baron of Freising, promised more of the same. His talents as a drillmaster and routine manager of the army perfectly complemented King Andrik’s preference for wartime command, and his many kinsmen made a strong officer core. Ser Wilheim was to be the first of six Lord Marshals from House Barclay, beginning a tradition that would see one family consolidate the military might of the realm into an army that they effectively controlled.

 

It was this army that King Andrik had marched with into the Crownlands in 1729, at a time when the Empire lacked capable guarantors of its own preservation. Emperor Alexander II, though bright and well-meaning, lacked the resources or the conviction to enforce his order. Duke Adrian de Sarkozy of Adria, Duke Leufroy d’Amaury of Lorraine, King Adrian Helvets of Kaedrin, and Prince Vladrick Alimar of Rubern had all advanced their interests, and done so effectively, yet threatened a return to the anarchy of 1724-1725 in the process. The justification of Alexander II’s reign was at dangerous risk of evaporating. “His Imperial Majesty’s dictates cannot enforce a compromise between those without the impulse to heed it,” wrote the growingly-astute Andrik III that year, in a rare letter to his wife, Queen Milena. “If order is not to be maintained, it must be reconstituted.”

 

At first, it appeared that the localized feud would evolve into a wider civil war. In the autumn of 1729, while on the road to Rubern, two of King Andrik’s vassals, Erich Stafyr, Count of Nenzing, and Sigmar Baruch, Count of Ayr, were ambushed by a party of Kaedreni soldiers patrolling the border region. Both men and their companions escaped with their lives, and returned back to Reza to inform their liege of what had occurred.  Incensed by the assault upon his vassals, King Andrik ordered the Brotherhood of St. Karl to undertake preparations for war, and requested support from his allies in Adria and Rubern. Duke Adrian and Prince Vladrick heeded his call, and on the 15th of Horen’s Calling, the three men, leading a combined host of around 4,000, marched to Ves, intent on extracting answers from the King of Kaedrin.

 

Upon their arrival three weeks later, King Andrik ordered the Lord Vyronov to parlay with King Adrian, while he made a show of preparing for a siege. Whether he truly intended to besiege Ves is debated, but it is the opinions of the author that he did not. His own forces were insufficient to surround Ves, and the bulk of his army was still in Haense, left there under Prince Otto’s oversight with orders to stay put. The Baron of Freising himself would admit that, with winter approaching and without the proper siege weaponry, any investment of the city would take upwards of half a year. Most importantly, King Andrik viewed the Empire’s stability as paramount - he would not be the one to bring its collapse.

 

The ruse worked as intended. Within days, the King of Kaedrin acquiesced and agreed to hand over those who had attacked the lords Stafyr and Baruch. The ringleaders, a radical cabal of former Caer Bann officers, admitted to having orchestrated the attacks to draw Kaedrin into a war against Haense, Rubern, and Adria, with the hopes of aiding Lorraine and dismantling the Karovic influence within the realm. King Adrian claimed that he had no part in their schemes (an allegation that has been historically verified, despite some suspicions from within the Haeseni camp), and gave his permission to have them executed. Nineteen in all were deemed guilty of assault and attempted insurrection, and were hanged in front of the walls of Ves by King Andrik’s orders. The next morning he withdrew with his army, leaving the Kaedreni chastened by his show of might.

 

As the episode demonstrated, the powers keeping the realm together came not from its core, but those from the periphery. Mere months after King Andrik had acted decisively to prevent a civil war, Alexander II and his clerical advisors’ showed their inability to maintain the compromise between Adria and Lorraine. In 1730, the Emperor attempted to summon Duke Leufroy to stand trial in the capital for his cooperation with the Kaedreni rebels, but the weight of the Imperial command was light enough to be met with silence. Taking advantage of his foe’s disobedience, Duke Adrian, in his capacity as Field Marshal of the Empire, ordered the Imperial Army and the Emperor’s personal guard, the Nauzica Brigade, to supplement his own levied soldiers in a renewed assault against Lorraine. Duke Leufroy, perceiving the participation of the Emperor’s sworn forces to be an indication of the court’s sentiments, rather than the unilateral action of a man acting on his own, declared open rebellion against the Empire. 

 

Andrik III’s experience navigating the politics of the Time of Troubles had taught him a valuable lesson in showing discretion where aggressive conduct was involved, but he had the war he wanted. 

 

Initially, it seemed that the Lorrainian Revolt would end before the Brotherhood of St. Karl could even muster. With three armies at his command, Duke Adrian swept through Lorraine in a fortnight, bringing it under the banner of the Empire, lofted just slightly higher than his own. Duke Leufroy and his followers were forced to flee before they could give battle, and by the end of Sun’s Smile, it appeared the brief rebellion had been entirely crushed.

 

However, Duke Leufroy and his army, about 1,000 in all, managed to evade Imperial patrols as they retreated eastward, towards (ostensibly) friendlier lands in Kaedrin, where they still remained connected to much of the anti-Karovic nobility. An open alliance was off the table- King Adrian was loyal to the Empire- but, aided by a handful of allies, the Lorrainians were able to storm Castle Guise, the small, poorly-manned keep that stood at the center of the contested Haeseni-Kaedreni border, and raise their banner once again. Now, finally, the twenty year old King Andrik could don his armor, raise his steel, and commit his mind, body, and soul to battle.

 

Emperor Alexander, known to be frail and sickly, was of too poor health to join his armies, so he entrusted the recapture of Guise to Duke Adrian, Prince Vladrick, and King Andrik. The Duke of Adria was preoccupied with the occupation of Lorraine, but he was able to send a strong contingent to join the siege. Overall command was delegated to King Andrik, who was to lead 3,000 soldiers- evenly split among Adria, Rubern, and Haense- and end Duke Leufroy’s rebellion. The Siege of Guise, which would last for six months, was to be the young king’s first true test of his ability at waging war.

 

Beginning on the 7th of Horen’s Calling, Guise was invested by an advance host led by the Baron of Freising. Over the following days, the rest of banners of Haense, Adria, Rubern, and the Empire, found their place within the growing siege camps. At the center of it all was King Andrik’s pavilion, where officers and letter-runners fluttered in and out by the minute. Supply lines from Reza and Kaedrin (King Adrian, sitting atop the breadbasket of the Empire, contributed the bulk of the camp rations, even if he did not send an army himself) constantly brought supplies, letters, and materials. Wood from the Koengswald fed fires and forges, while wool from Koravia and Kvasz kept the tents warm as the winter months approached.

 

The well-oiled war machine that was the Brotherhood of St. Karl was not of King Andrik’s making, but he used it to its fullest potential. With a cadre of well-educated engineers at his disposal, he was able to construct three trebuchets within a month’s time. The next month was spent reducing the walls of the small keep, which buckled beneath the thunderous might of his engines. With a flagon of Carrion Black in hand, King Andrik stood atop the ramparts of his siege camp as he personally directed the artillery to strike the weak points of the crumbling keep. By the time that the army broke into its winter camps, and the constant barrage of the trebuchets slowed, what remained of Guise was, in the assessment of the Lord Marshal “a pile of rubble, beneath which is trapped some eight-hundred souls, led by a man as dead as them.”

 

A depiction of the outer courtyards of Guise, with the walls reduced significantly. King Andrik, though never pious, strictly maintained that the chapel of the castle was not to be touched. A perfectionist in war, he demanded precision from his artillery officers. When one trebuchet struck the base of Guise’s chapel after a misfire, he had the entire crew swim laps in the River Rubern.

 

The next spring, the Duke of Adria arrived with an additional 500 soldiers and tasked King Andrik with storming the ruined castle. Although the king wished to lead the first assault in person, his advisors encouraged him to send a probing force under Ser Nikolaus Kortrevich and a few dozen knights of the Marian Retinue, a plan that he only relented to after a day of bitter argument. The attack was made on the 14th of Harren’s Folly, and though it was repulsed after an hour, the minimal Haeseni casualties and relative success of the Knight-Paramount’s men were encouraging signs. It was determined that one last push, intended to take place the next week, would topple the rebellion.

 

The plans for a final assault were briefly suspended when, during a quiet morning on the 17th, Duke Leufroy sallied out with his beleaguered soldiers and struck the Haeseni camps by surprise, intent on burning its trebuchets. King Andrik, who was either with his mistress at the time (according to popular legend), shaving (according to himself), or reviewing the Lord Marshal’s reports from the previous day (according to his chief-of-staff, the Count of Nenzing), was forced to rally his soldiers and mount a quick, hastily-assembled defense. With sword in hand and only his breeches upon his skin, the King of Haense fought at the head of his army, felling two Lorrainian soldiers on his own. The spirited defense he led kept the surging Lorrainians at bay for half an hour, buying enough time for the Prince of Rubern to arrive with his own contingent and drive the rebel sally back to Guise. Duke Leufroy survived by the skin of his teeth, but his gamble had been costly and achieved little: 300 of his own had died, thrice that of the Haeseni, and only one trebuchet had been lightly singed.

 

On the 23rd of Harren’s Folly, 1730, the final assault against Guise commenced. Three columns, led by the King of Haense, the Duke of Adria, and the Prince of Rubern, respectively, threw themselves into the castle ruins, intent on snuffing out the final flames of resistance. First over the collapsed walls, King Andrik (now armored- much more to his liking) plunged into the mass of huddled Lorrainians, his Marian Retinue racing just behind him. Despite facing certain death, the circumstances of imminent demise did not inspire the rebels to fight with a renewed will to survive, and within an hour most were killed. Duke Leufroy, one of the few to muster a last stand, was killed by King Andrik personally as the siege came to a close. While some accounts depict the encounter between them to be a brilliant duel in the thick of heavy fighting, it is more likely that the king’s blade was the first of five to bury itself into the Duke of Lorraine. 

 

The Lorraine Revolt had been the product of petty Adrian and Lorrainian squabbles, but it had been Haeseni steel that ended it. After the final storming of Guise, King Andrik treated his fellow Imperial vassals to a feast in his pavilion, where the bounty of Haense’s springtime hunts were made available, and toasts from cups of Vanir wine were hailed to the Karovic alliance, which had broken the Lorrainians, cowed the Kaedreni, and spared the Crownlanders from the destruction of their Empire. The three great vassals of the Empire returned home as heroes, first among them Andrik III, whose bravery and prowess had been proven, and whose leadership had helped bring a quick end to the rebellion.

 

The alliance between the Karovic dynasties continued through the year. Alexander II and his councilors, in an act of misjudgement as to what the squashing of the revolt truly represented, attempted to issue a series of centralizing reforms that would standardize law and taxation. None within the Empire wishes to heed the command of an Emperor deemed too weak to even defend his own realm, much less advance his interests. The trio issued a strong rebuke of the new laws, and the Imperial Chancellery, without the leverage to enforce them, could only retract them in the face of overwhelming pressure. 

 

A few months later, this dynamic was entirely shattered.

 

While Andrik III was content with Haense’s place within the Empire, as a loyal but autonomous vassal, the same could not be said for his allies. Whether it was naivete that allowed his trust to root (he seems to have ignored Queen Milena’s warnings of Adrian de Sarkozy’s ambitions), or whether it was simply a miscalculation about the tenability of a Karovic alliance between three strong personalities, all with different aspirations, King Andrik was left wholly unprepared for the events of 1731. All that he had built over the past five years would be turned over yet again, and the clouds that had just been lifted from the bright future in the Empire’s horizons would settle once more.

 

On the 3rd of Sun’s Smile, Emperor Alexander II, unwed and without a son, died within his chambers. The notice of his death was read aloud to the court of the Anpalais Palace by the Duke of Adria himself, whose speech soon turned from elegy to self-elevation. The brothers of Alexander II were too young, the Empire was too fragile, and it was only reasonable that the Fieldmarshal, father of the soldiers, of which there were two for every courtier in the hall, take charge of the Empire. Duke Adrian did not go so far as to name himself Emperor, only restoring the office of Lord Protector, but it was understood that the decision was only to mollify any rebellious sentiments from within the Empire.

 

For his all of his frailty and timidity, which belied the grand aspirations of a talented administration, Alexander II had been an eminently reasonable man despite his youth, one whom, even at his most powerless, was understood to be a vehicle for the implementation of the liberal policies of Daniel VI, Simon Basrid, and the Cardinal St.-John. In his dealings with his subjects, he had been fair and even-handed, perhaps a condition of their necessity in preserving his rule, but also due to his temperament. Although the two knew each other little, Andrik III held a fondness towards his peaceable liege, and was more than happy to serve him, for he knew that agreements would be honored, his privileges would be maintained, and the Emperor could not possibly hope to violate them.

 

Adrian de Sarkozy, nakedly ambitious, ruthless in his dealings, and foul-mannered, was despised by most outside of the Crownlands. Immediately after his ascension, the Prince of Rubern began gathering his armies, threatening to march on Helena. The King of Kaedrin accused the Lord Protector of having had a hand in Emperor Alexander’s demise and ordered three more fortifications to be built near his western border. The King of Curon concurred with his Kaedreni counterpart and called for an intervention to restore House de Joannes. The King of Haense, the one man everyone turned to at this juncture, remained silent.

 

Andrik III had little love for Adrian de Sarkozy, but he saw in him a ruler who could be amenable to permitting Haense to continue in its unspoken agreement to the Empire. As Duke of Adria, he had supported efforts to curb Imperial influence over its territories outside of the Crownlands. He had been a committed member of the Karovic alliance and benefitted from its assistance in the Lorrainian Revolt. Additionally, Princess Mariya, his wife, was beloved by many within Haense, despite not having stepped foot in the kingdom in years, and was fond of her younger brother, the king. She could stand for Haense’s interests while in Helena and halt any possible overreach of the central government. As the rest of the Aulic Council broadly agreed, King Andrik sent word to his fellow vassals of the Empire, imploring them to stand down. “The Lord Protector may be controlled,” he assured them. 

 

He would be proven wrong almost immediately.

 

While Adrian de Sarkozy had been entirely in favor of expanded privileges among the high subjects of the Emperor while he was Duke of Adria, the Lord Protector of the Empire was more than willing to abandon his earlier principles. Inheriting the same Council of State that had advised Alexander II, he immediately subscribed to their centralist ideals, and began to use the resources he had to develop the power of the state. Adria and Rodenburg turned from thriving cultural and economic centers into tax farms to spur Helena’s reconstruction. The Imperial Army, once drained of funds and manpower to fuel the Duke of Adria’s own levies, was reinvigorated when both the Nauzica Brigade and most of Adria’s soldiers were folded into it. The recently-conquered lands of Lorraine were plundered, then brutally taxed, to cushion the Imperial finances. The Time of Troubles took a new face as the gentle, if passive, manner of Alexander II’s rule had been killed (literally, if the King of Kaedrin was to be believed), by a warlord intent on bringing the Empire beneath his heel.

 

Even Princess Mariya seemed enthralled by the opportunities that power could give her. Setting aside her familial loyalties, she became a supporter of her husband’s centralization programme, and often pleaded with her brother to accept them. Haense would have an Empress soon, if the Lord Protector’s base of support could be assured. Was it not enough that Andrik III would be uncle to the future Emperor? What her soft words hid were her husband’s threats of violence. The Count of Nenzing’s spies in the capital frequently reported back that the Lord Protector fantasized marching on Haense, which he deemed to be the only threat to his mastery of humanity.

 

Elsewhere, Haense’s allies had fallen out of its favor, while its enemies remained mostly the same. Prince Vladrick, who just a year earlier had been an erstwhile friend of Haense, and a cooperative member of a Karovic alliance, had begun courting the Norlanders to the far north. Duke Godric Ruric of Morsgrad, an eminently capable ruler who had seen the blossoming of his realm over the past half-decade, remained the most powerful man not yet under the umbrella of the Empire. As the Prince of Rubern shirked his Haeseni kin for an alliance with the Duke of Morsgrad, he returned to a state of cold isolation, taking no audience, attending to no jousts, courts, or feasts, and devoting his treasury to the build-up of his armies.

 

King Adrian of Kaedrin proved to be the most vocal opponent of the Lord Protector, but his bluster did not spare King Andrik from what he deemed to be a critical role in enabling the Duke of Adria’s rise. There would be no mending of relations between the two. 

 

In light of the changing political developments across Arcas, Andrik III had to bring new men into his government, those who would help him carefully navigate the tenuous political scene that had seemed to be entirely under his thumb just months before.

 

The first opportunity for change came with the retirement of the loyal Lerald Vyronov, who had guided the realm during King Andrik’s minority, and been a steadfast advisor and friend for his majority. The old Lord Vyronov (though he was called this, he was only fifty one), had been dogged by illness and conspiracies in the final years of his time as Lord Palatine, the latter exacerbating the former. The ‘Vyronov Conspiracy’, peddled by his enemies at court, placed him squarely at the center of the disasters of the end of the War of Two Emperors. Although these accusations were wholly baseless, it is in the interest of these authors to present the finer points of the case here:

 

I) When the regent of Haense, Prince Georg Alimar, and his brother, Prince Godfric, were captured after the Battle of the Koengswald, it was in a tavern in Rytsburg, the lands of House Vyronov. Many believe that Ser Ulfric Vyronov, Lerald’s brother and castellan, had tipped off Renatian patrols to alert them of the regent’s habitation, which would allow his brother to ascend as regent.

 

II) One of the first things that Lerald Vyronov, then the petty Baron of Rytsburg, did after becoming regent was to grant himself the County of Graiswald. To supporters of the conspiracy, this demonstrated his desire to pilfer from the many dead landowners and aristocrats of the realm to enrich himself as the kingdom burned. That he made peace with Renatus soon after is seen by these believers as another strike against his innocence.

 

III) As regent, he had tried to secure his daughter’s betrothal to King Andrik, and though the plan fell through, it proved that he wished to continue his influence over the monarchy, even after his retirement. By being father-in-law of the king, and grandfather to his heir, he could exert control from a distance.

 

IV) In 1728, Count Lerald was granted the Duchy of Carnatia, which contained some of the wealthiest and most fertile lands in all of Haense. Once again, he was shown to prioritize his own advancement within the kingdom over other matters (never mind that this was Andrik III’s own decision).

 

V) He had put one of his allies, Ser Konrad Stafyr, at the head of the Duma, which would ensure that its power grew during Andrik III’s minority, and eventually become an ally to the Lord Palatine and an obstacle in the king’s attempt to rule in his own right (never mind that this did not happen).

 

Despite the conspiracy being thoroughly unconvincing, the Lord Palatine was still struck by the swirling rumors and accusations. However, more importantly, his time in office had come to a natural end. The Haense that he had come to effectively rule during his regency was far removed from the Haense he lived in now. His talents had been used to outfox an Imperial government whose strength lay in its bluffing, but now humanity was a scattered collection of competing power centers, barely held together under the formal apparatus of an Empire. While King Andrik had shown himself to be an adept political maneuverer, it had always come with the tempering of his council, which curbed his most outlandish ideas (most of them involving open war). Someone new would have to rise to the occasion, and in early 1732, the Duke of Carnatia would resign his office, announce his retirement, and hug his king one final time as he left for home. He would die of his illnesses just months later.

 

Most figured that the replacement would be Ser Konrad, Lerald Vyronov’s disciple, a close friend of the king, and the master of the Duma, but the king shocked his court, and the Aulic Council, by instead choosing Terrence May, a commoner, though a particularly well-educated one, who was serving as Auditor-General of Oren at the time. The selection was not entirely baseless- May had served as one of the Lord Palatine’s deputies, and he had sat in the Duma and been privy to its growing factionalist- a new fleche in Haeseni politics that the Lord Palatine would have to navigate. As surprised as the realm was at his appointment, May made no delay in resigning from his post in Helena and racing back to Haense to guide the realm.

 

However, the bright, experienced Terrence May could not survive the growing factionalism within the Duma. As its prominence had expanded over the years, likeminded nobles and their representatives had formed two camps, the Centralists and the Feudalists, mirroring the growing debate within the wider Empire. The first, the Centralists, wished to continue many of the practices that had been initiated under Robert I and continued through Andrik III: expanding the royal bureaucracy, limiting vassal levies in favor of strengthening the Brotherhood of St. Karl, and raising new taxes to support government initiatives and the reconstruction of the capital. The Feudalists wished to uphold the old rights and privileges of the nobility, which meant few taxes, strong levies, and the Royal Treasury to focus on improvements outside of the capital, rather than within it.

 

More aligned with the Feudalists himself, the new Palatine had an ambitious plan to pass the largest spending package in Haeseni history. The ‘WTB Plan’ (what the acronym stands for is lost to time), would invest massively in the Haeseni hinterlands and exterior provinces, improving the old, sometimes primitive, infrastructure, expanding education outside of Reza and the other major cities, and developing a system of canals to connect Haense with the Heartlands, allowing for increased shipping which would accelerate the speed and volume of trade and bring economic benefits for some of the more remote regions within the realm. It was, in the assessment of Rhegal Barclay, the High Seneschal, “a well-devised economic programme, one that would spur revitalization outside of the capital, in long-neglected areas, though in the process limit our rebuilding of the capital, which has been deemed sorely-needed.”

 

In attempting to gather support for his economic plans, Terrence May invested heavily in artistic idealizations of the canals that the ‘WTB Plan’ offered. Although the dimensions of the bodies of water were painted far larger than they were planned to be (or would eventually be), the striking image of a serene, yet economically lucrative Haeseni frontier inspired a generation of artists to travel north to depict scenes of the rustic, but not backwards, countryside. While May’s vision would be politically defeated, he had rooted something powerful in the national conscience.

 

Unfortunately for Palatine May, the Centralist majority that he stood against adamantly opposed his plan, citing its high cost and favoritism towards many of the smaller, poorer vassals of the kingdom. More an intellectual than a political savant, May was unable to navigate the politics of the Duma effectively. Even the support of Ser Konrad was not enough, as the Lord Speaker was reluctant to try and force through the agenda and antagonize the Duma towards any other action, especially as foreign matters were occupying the forefront of the Haeseni conscience more than domestic revitalization. Defeated in his signature legislative proposal, May resigned in early 1733, though his political retirement would not be for long. Ser Konrad Stafyr, the one man who could bend the Duma to his will, was finally named Lord Palatine.

 

The working relationship between King Andrik and Ser Konrad was critical to the success of Haense during the period. A mild-mannered, yet crafty statesman, the diligent and virtuous Lord Palatine was near the mirror-opposite of a king who, while hardworking at times, could be controlled by his vices. Ser Konrad tempered the worst of his liege’s impulses, cautioning against rash action and managing the Aulic Council when the king was away hunting, on campaign, or engaging in any other pursuit that kept him indisposed. In turn, King Andrik provided a strong vision for his palatine, always articulating his desires from his government, and his foreign policy, in clear, direct terms. While favoring delegation of day-to-day matters over personal involvement in the operation of the state, he was always ready to personally intervene when he thought necessary. 

 

A critical reason behind the Duma’s unwillingness to fund the WTB Plan was the unexpected resumption of war in the midst of his attempted rural reform. The orcish tribe of Mokh-Uruk had launched a surprise raid against the Duchy of Vintas, a periphery vassal of the Empire, in the waning months of 1732, defeating the Imperial border garrison at the the Battle of the Lowveld, capturing the Duke of Vintas, and sacking his seat. After the battle was over, the Duke of Vintas was forced to suck the toe of the orcish Rex before he was released. The debacle was an embarrassment to the Lord Protector’s government, and, in a fury, he called for a full mobilization of the Empire’s might, intent on excising brutal retaliation against the orcish tribes. The allies of Mokh-Uruk, the Fennic and Irrinorian elven tribes to the east, soon joined against the Empire, expanding the war to two fronts.

 

Caught in the center of this widening war, named the Toe War, Haense would play a critical role in shoring up the Empire’s eastern flank against elven raids, while supporting the larger campaign against Mokh-Uruk in the west. Excited for the prospect of war again, Andrik III threw himself into war preparations during 1733, delegating nearly every other authority to Ser Konrad. Adrian de Sarkozy’s standing within the Empire may not have been popular, and the King of Haense was certainly aware that a victory over the orcs would help to consolidate the power of the protectorate, but the Empire ultimately faced a foreign threat to humanity, and even the wily king was willing to displace politics for the occasion.

 

To the east, the Knight-Paramount, Ser Nikolaus Kortrevich, would, with 2,000 soldiers, defend the Empire’s borders against the elven chiefs and, in a limited capacity, strike when he thought the moment was opportune. King Andrik and the Baron of Freising would go west with 4,000, joining the Imperial banners in a march on San’Strohk, the citadel of the Mokh-Uruk. Given the arid, rugged terrain of the orclands, the Lord Protector would lead an army of only 10,000 during the autumn months. The Baron of Freising, who had proven his logistical capabilities, was put in charge of provisioning the besieging army, protecting the supply lines from orcish raids, and maintaining lines of communication from Helena and the eastern front of the war. 

 

Beginning the march to San’Strohk in the month of Horen’s Calling, 1733, King Andrik and his contingent formed the vanguard of the Imperial host. Riding with his Marian knights, the king personally participated in several early skirmishes, brushing aside the orcish resistance with ease and overseeing the surrounding of the barbed fortress within a month’s time. As soldiers from the Crownlands, Kaedrin, Curonia, and Rubern joined them, and the Lord Protector ordered the construction of a thorough array of siege towers, trebuchets, and battering rams, and ladders, the men and women of the Brotherhood of St. Karl diligently guarded the extensive supply lines and warded off raids from the orcs. Ever-willing to experience the brunt of war with the rank-and-file, the king took charge of several patrols himself, even killing a petty orcish chief in one.

 

The Siege of San’Strohk would occupy the better part of 1734, as the orcish tribe, better-accustomed and better-prepared for siege warfare than the Lorrainians had been, provided a stiff resistance. The impatient Lord Protector constantly flitted between ordering a full assault- which would come with dire cost- or seeking a negotiated settlement. In a war council held on the 11th of Sigismund’s End, 1734, King Andrik implored his liege to hold firm in the siege. News from the east was only positive. The Duke of Morsgrad and the Sohaer of Haelun’or had both joined the war on the side of the Empire and had bottled up the Fennites and Irrinorians within their cities. Ser Nikolaus Kortrevich had slain a wood elven general during an attack on their forests. With no pressure from the other front of the war, the Imperial army had all the time it needed to wipe out the Mokh-Uruk.

 

On the 10th of Horen’s Calling, 1734, after a year of artillery barrages, probing attacks, and sapping the walls, the Lord Protector deemed the citadel weakened enough for an assault, which was planned for the 15th. As he had done at Guise, King Andrik was entrusted with leading his Haeseni soldiers first over the walls, where a bridgehead would be established for the rest of the Imperial army. The night before the final attack, King Andrik sought prayerful communion with icons of Petyr I and his namesake, Andrik II. Although he was not a particularly religious man, his confessor, Father Janusz Kus, reported that “given to history, he noted thrice to me the parallels of a King of Haense being the first over the walls against an orcish scourge.”

 

Unfortunately for Andrik III, he was only second over the walls on the morning of the 15th. The Baron of Koravia and former Lord Marshal, Otto Kortrevich, is recorded as having taken the first step into the breach of the citadel’s walls from atop the royal siege tower. 

 

According to his brother-in-law, Kazimar Alimar, the Red Prince of Muldav, the king fought no less brilliantly than he had at Guise: “Although he was repulsed at the first charge, then the second, just a cry of ‘WE SHALL NOT FALTER’, roaring above the sound of battle- that clash of steel, that scrape of cutting skin, any waver within the hearts of the Brotherhood abated, and all scrambled forward to aid their king.” 

 

Within two hours of beginning his assault, King Andrik and his host had penetrated deep within the keep, buying plenty of space for the rest of the Imperial army. By the time the Lord Protector and the bulk of his host had entered San’Strohk, the battle was nearing its conclusion. The chieftain of the Mokh-Uruk, trapped within his bedroom with just his personal guard, was eventually cut down by a spearman under the command of Ser Gerard Stafyr. The bloodlust of the orcs, which caused them to fight on until the last, was not lessened by the death of their leader, but it broke cohesion among their ranks. Until noon, small groups of orcs made individualized final stands, of which Andrik III is said to have personally ended two, but as the sun reached its peak, the sound of battle came to an end.

 

Once again, King Andrik and his soldiers had demonstrated bravery and skill to the highest degree, but there would be no time to allow this victory to linger. After a week of rest, the Lord Protector and the bulk of the army rode east, to strike against the elven alliance there. The king, who wished to see home again, left the Baron of Freising with a small garrison to oversee mop-up operations, while he and most of the Brotherhood rode back to Reza. Only there, back in the capital, did they finally have their heroic acclaim, and the king and his army rode through the streets in triumph. Three days of feasting, arranged and prepared by Princess Sofiya, was held to celebrate the successful campaign, which saw only 400 Haeseni perish of the 3,000 that went.

 

The report that the Lord Palatine and the Aulic Council gave Andrik III was similarly positive. The development of a new capital, spurred by difficulties in renovating Reza, which still showed the scars of the damage it had suffered during the War of Two Emperors, was progressing well. In addition, an unexpectedly bountiful harvest, along with booty earned from plundering the lands of the elves and the Mokh-Uruk, had brought a surge of revenue to the Royal Treasury. The Lord Treasurer, Richard Steinkachel, had worked with the Lord Speaker, Count Sigmar of Ayr, to amend Terrence May’s ‘WTB Plan’ to fit the budget surplus. With a Duma more amenable to spending, and critical support from the well-regarded Martin Kortrevich, the spending package had narrowly passed. The much-needed relief to the Haeseni countryside would come alongside the development of a new capital.

 

Good news abound, King Andrik took the next year to rest and tend to the duties of his family, which had been long-neglected during this tumultuous time. He had seemingly wanted to ride east to join the Lord Protector and Ser Nikolaus Kortrevich in the second phase of the war, but he was convinced against it by his wife. Queen Milena, though rarely one to intrude on politics, had plenty of contacts within the court in Helena. She was aware that as the Lord Protector was out of the capital, making war against the enemies of the Empire, his advisors, led by Simon Basrid and John d’Arkent, the Duke of Sunholdt, had begun to implement more centralizing reforms, though ones far more subtle than what their liege aspired to force through. “The Duke of Adria is a wild beast,” Queen Milena allegedly said to Ser Konrad Stafyr, “but he is no threat when put against the craft of his council, who clean the breakage he leaves, and reforges it in their image.”

 

Despite her willingness to dispense some insights, Queen Milena’s place within her husband’s circle of confidence, which extended to a few of his ministers, had not changed. The pair’s relationship was marred by a string of infidelities on both sides (though the king’s were more frequent by far) as well as bitter, screaming arguments. The queen found solace in her management of the courts and her care for the downtrodden. Some of her personal estates, which she had received after her wedding, were reorganized as plantations, rather than palaces, with shelter and food given freely to the wandering poor. The Tuvyic wealth that she had inherited, when not spent on her own luxurious household, was also spent on charitable causes.

 

Even though the relationship between king and queen was frigid, they had sired a number of children. The first was Andrik Petyr, born in 1729. Although the king had been overjoyed when he received a son and heir, he was disappointed to find that his child was not made in his image, nor that of his grandfather. While tall, he was sickly and frail, and dealt with several bouts of illnesses in his childhood. One accident in 1731 nearly claimed his life, which caused such fear in the heart of the queen that she rarely allowed him to leave the palace walls. Thus the heir to Haense developed to become a quiet, timid boy, raised in the shadow of his father by tutors, not parents.

 

King Andrik commissioned few paintings of himself throughout his life, generally disregarding art, but when he did, he preferred scenes from mythology, with himself depicted in the garb of a Pertinaxi legionary. The warlike associations that his fictional outfit provided bolstered his self-image as a soldier first, and the mythological figures surrounding him were taken from a collection of Haeseni folk tales, religious apocrypha, and stories from his childhood, all of which he sought to preserve. 

 

Antonia Frederika (1731), Otto Rupert (1738), and Aleksandriya Cecilya (1738), were similarly born and raised in quiet obscurity within the royal household. Of his children, the youngest, Princess Aleksandriya, was by far the king’s favorite. A bright, happy, healthy girl, even at a young age, was said to be the spitting image of her father, both in appearance and in mannerisms. For a man who rarely saw his children, King Andrik took particular care to visit his daughter when able, and delighted in playing with her throughout the halls of the Ekaterinberg Palace. “Family is little joy to His Majesty,” wrote Father Janusz Kus, “save for his daughter.”

 

The lack of time that King Andrik had had to pursue his interests meant that when he finally had a moment to indulge in them, he did so with a zeal thought impossible. Each week he hunted, each day he drank, and each night he wenched. The king’s frame, tall and muscular, began to give way to fat and bloat as a diet of mead and red meat took its toll. Only his physical activity kept his weight from tipping into obesity. It was around this time where he also allowed himself to grow a long, thick beard, where before he had preferred to be clean-shaven. The king took well to the more leisurely life, but it would only be a handful of months before the ever-changing Empire called his name once again.

 

In the late months of 1734, the Lord Palatine held an audience with envoys from Curonia and the tribes of Suffonia, a confederation of nomads who had gathered to the north and sworn under the Empire. The Lord Protector’s leadership during the Toe War had proven to be decisive, as shown in his ability to rally the forces of the realm, which was no sure thing from the outside. With the campaign against the elves in the east losing its early intensity, it was only a matter of time before Adrian de Sarkozy returned to Helena as not just a war hero but an Emperor. Any potential opposition to his consolidation of power could not be divided, these envoys reasoned, making cooperation immediately necessary. Ser Konrad Stafyr agreed, though cautioned against any overt measure against the protectorate.

 

King Andrik, from his summer palace in the south of the kingdom, delegated the handling of this matter to his palatine. Over the next five months, Ser Konrad worked hand-in-hand with his kinsman, the Count of Nenzing, to develop a comprehensive agreement between the three polities in order to ensure comprehensive security against the schemes of the Lord Protector, and lay the groundwork for what could be a wider, regionalist organization throughout the Empire, intent on stopping any centralization. The alliance was formalized on the 3rd of Horen’s Calling, 1735, though its name- The Northern Association for Free Trade and Administration- implied a more benign purpose. The Lord Protector and his council were not fooled, but, needing to finalize peace negotiations in the east, he could not afford to retaliate.

 

The next year saw the completion of the new capital of New Reza, twenty leagues east of Old Reza, as well as the Ekaterinberg Palace. A destructive fire in the former capital had prompted the premature conclusion of the construction, as well as the sudden relocation of the court, but the move was inevitable. Old Reza was simply ill-fit for the new era of Haense, and while its husk would continue to be inhabited, the center of government, culture, and commerce in Haense joined their king in the new capital. Queen Milena despaired at the hastily-built capital, calling it a “grey waste, fit to be an outhouse,” but it proved well-located, in the center of Haense, still near the vital road links to the Heartlands, and well-suited to be the seat of Haeseni government and House Barbanov.

 

At the end of 1736, it seemed that Andrik III had become accustomed to the world as it was, a world that demanded he be the bulwark against Imperial overreach, yet also a guardian of the collective humanity. It was a world that would soon see the Lord Protector, Adrian de Sarkozy, culminate his meteoric rise by having the Imperial crown placed atop his head. It was a world with tensions, where Rubern was an enigma, Kaedrin a rival, and Morsgrad an old enemy, but none that would boil over into civil war. It was a world that King Andrik had played an active role in shaping, and would, for the rest of his life, ensure that it remained as he had made it. Haense would be a cautious, autonomous, yet reliable cornerstone of a united humanity.

 

On the 16th of Harren’s Folly, 1737, a lone courier from the east arrived at the Ekaterinberg Palace, catching the king and the Lord Palatine just as they were preparing to depart for a hunt. For four days he had ridden, sleeping only twice, but it was nothing short of necessary. Four days prior, while encamped with his soldiers outside of Irrinor, the Lord Protector had succumbed to a sudden fever that had afflicted him just that morning. In the aftermath of his unexpected death, the Imperial camps had fallen into chaos. Only Ser Nikolaus Kortrevich’s intervention had prevented a brawl, or possibly a play by an ambitious general to claim the protectorate for themselves. Duke Godric of Morsgrad departed with his men the next morning, and his Haelun’orian allies soon followed. After a brief deliberation, the Lord Protector’s subordinates agreed to march the army back to the Crownlands, so that order could be maintained as the most pressing question that faced the Empire was being answered: just who would succeed Adrian de Sarkozy?

 

For the first and only time in his life, King Andrik wavered. Some, especially his allies in NAFTA, wished for him to march on Helena and seat himself as the next Lord Protector, for he was indisputably the most powerful man in the Empire. The king himself balked at the idea, believing that it would put him in the sights of others who aspired to the station, and thus complicate Haense’s political position. Others, mostly Adrians and other Crownlands houses, wished to see the infant, Joseph Clement, son of Adrian de Sarkozy, crowned as Emperor. Over a dozen possible alternatives, be they claimants, candidates for the protectorate, or various councils, were proposed in the courts around the Empire, but only one faction acted decisively. 

 

As sudden as the death of the Lord Protector was, it could not be said that he, or at least, the Council of State, were unprepared. As soon as word reached Helena of the Duke of Adria’s demise, his premier councilors, chief among them Simon Basrid, procured a will, devised as an instrument of succession, authored by their late liege. Within it lay the keys to the Empire, given to a man from Ves, as they had been just twelve years before. Peter Sigismund Helane, perhaps better-known as the eldest son of Emperor Antonius, was to be named Holy Orenian Emperor. Hastily brought to Helena with an entourage of Kaedreni soldiers, the son and heir of the Pertinaxi, raised in the most liberal city the world had seen, was crowned within the Basilica of Final Revelation on the 2nd of Sigismund’s End, 1737.

 

The very name ‘Peter Helane’, more for his parentage than anything, greatly concerned those outside of the Heartlands, though none more than the constituent members of NAFTA. No matter how one looked at this obscure figure, even with the most generous interpretation, he would be no friend of those who wished to devolve the powers of the Imperial Crown. By nature, he was the son of the most tyrannical Emperor the world had seen, one who had plunged his realm, and his dynasty, into a ruinous civil war in a vain attempt to tighten his loosening grip over his subjects. By nurture, he had, much like Alexander II, been raised in an environment cultivated by men such as the High Pontiff Daniel VI, Simon Basrid, and the Cardinal St.-John. However, unlike Alexander II, Emperor Peter III was thirty three, well of age to have his own convictions and rule as he saw fit.

 

Almost immediately, Haense’s allies in Curonia and Suffonia pressed Andrik III to rise in rebellion. In their assessment, Peter III would be no friend of theirs, and if he could operate with more tact than the Lord Protector had- no difficult task- his control and influence would soon come to dominate the great vassals of the Empire. For two weeks, envoys from NAFTA lingered in the courts of the Ekaterinburg, urging the Lord Palatine to advise his liege to rise against the new Emperor. Gifts were presented, favorable trade rights were offered, and even the Imperial Throne was suggested as a prize for the King of Haense. However, by the fortnight’s end, the envoys would return home empty-handed.

 

Andrik III would be no petty rebel. Even if safeguarding his rights and privileges had been the animus of his foreign policy, many, be they allies or foes, mistook him for a secessionist. In a sling of curses thrown at the Curonian and Suffonian diplomats, the king said, in no uncertain terms, that he would not tear the Empire apart. He had lived through the destruction of one in his youth; subjecting his people to another was out of the question. Instead, he would send Ser Konrad to Helena to meet with the Emperor and his council, in an attempt to understand their own guiding policy moving forward, and where an autonomous Haense might be preserved within that vision. The Curonians accepted the rejection soberly, and departed for Avalain without a word. The Suffonians, far prouder, and stupider, tossed a knife at the boots of the king before leaving in kind.

 

Though his guards rose in anger, ready to strike down the envoys, whose insult warranted death under Haeseni law, King Andrik merely laughed and permitted them to leave with their lives. While the king was a merciful man, he was not one to take a threat lightly. His guards, confused, and comfortable enough to question their liege, asked him why he had not responded in anger, or at least cold authority. The king laughed again for a time, before rising from his chair. Covered from above the heel by the base of his desk, his boots did not move.

 

“I’ve had my shoes off this whole time!”

 

 

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O Ágioi Kristoff, Jude kai Pius. Dóste mas gnósi ópos sas ékane o Theós. Poté min afísoume na doúme to skotádi, allá as doúme móno to fos tis sofías kai tis alítheias. O Theós na se evlogeí.

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The final chapter of the reign of Andrik III shall be covered in the next volume of The Winter Crows.