1 February, 1589
Sulislaw II, a man in his prime, has made himself a reputation as something of a dilettante, hopping between positions and postings throughout his years as heir in order to learn everything there was to know about his future kingdom. Despite this seeming restlessness, though, he also manages to exude an aura of calm confidence, difficult to read and almost off-putting at times. Everyone knows him, yet the laconic young man is still a bit of an enigma.
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Some idiot Prendota Lechowicz decides to stick with tradition and contest his coronation. The whole thing is taken with sighs and eye-rolls, and when Sulislaw rides up with his army and offers a pardon to any soldier or commander who wants to surrender, almost all do. Even Prendota avoids the Wavel dungeon and is merely put under house arrest, under suspicion that he wasn’t in his right mind anyway.
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There’s clearly
something about the incident that will be remembered as a great moral victory for the High King, borderline silly as it was.
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His first official address to the Sejm is a similar success, its core points distributed on (printed!) fliers throughout the capital. The Sejm is still in uproar over the death of his predecessor, but also unsure what Sulislaw’s own policies will be. He puts their minds at ease by vowing to maintain Kazimierz’ stance towards the Sejm and consult it in any matters of national importance. Over the next few months he proves that he stands behind his words, and the loyalist faction seems firmly entrenched.
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Notably, he sponsors the founding of the Parliamentary Press to help the government take care of its growing piles of paperwork and disseminate information across the massive country. Printing presses have been present in Poland for a long time now, of course, but usually small, outdated and not used in any official capacity. The Parliamentary Press on the other hand is like a great manufactory in its own right, and also able to provide equipment for anyone else wanting to found a press in Poland. Over time, the effects will be felt far beyond the bureaucracy, as texts of all kinds become more common and affordable.
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This is even reflected in the colonies, the first official press soon opening in Ledenesz as well. Poland’s New World empire isn’t quite the largest in terms of area – that honor goes to Andalusia with its wilayahs of Narafidia and Salsabil – but as far as the pagans are concerned, it is the brightest star of prosperity on the continent. If Buyania was originally seen as something of an experiment, a silly obsession of the guilds who first went out to look for it, by now it has captured the attention of every Pole in and outside the government.
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The peaceful assimilation of Amaticans is also a great example to the rest of the world, even if on the ground the colonials and natives are already starting to argue about just how much autonomy they should be given, not too different from the ageless debates had in Poland.
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With the basic infrastructure in place, more and more Europeans flock to Amatica chasing promises of free land and lack of traditional authorities. While the colonies obviously benefit, and Poland gets a place to offload some of its excess population – the massive economic boom of the 16th century has caused similarly explosive population growth in some areas – the increasingly outnumbered natives might have some reason to feel concerned after all.
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Although, the same factors driving people to the colonies are also a concern for much of the Polish elite. The nobles are worried about the fleeing peasantry and the erosion of their landholding privileges; the clergy about the lack of church administration and conversion work. Sulislaw can make some compromises, such as establishing the Patriarchy of Buyania, but it soon becomes clear that the root issue is impossible to solve without severely undermining Poland’s colonial ventures. In the eyes of many, this first real “failure” goes to show that the calculating High King might not be so infallible after all, and the issue might go on to haunt the rest of his reign.
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The Sejm is rather disillusioned by the perceived gap between Sulislaw’s promises and actions, and by the start of 1591, the Parliamentary Press has already turned against its founder. Soon it seems like everyone in the country has seen one of the Sejm’s manifestos detailing the High King’s failures and the nobles’ demands. Fortunately, most of them can’t actually
read, but the people who matter
can. While loyalists can also use this as evidence of rebel sentiment and impeach some of the worst offenders, the net effect is still quite worrying for the crown.
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Even the merchants, the one estate quite happy with the situation, have their own problems to worry about. Unglamorous as it sounds, Baltic herring has always been one of Poland’s best known and most lucrative exports, but overfishing caused by economic growth, combined with Buyanian competition, seems to have led to a steep collapse in the region’s once legendary amounts of fish.
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The headaches just keep coming: it’s been almost thirty years since Poland’s last war, much of the military is running on a skeleton crew and several generations of soldiers have never seen battle, but in December 1591, Germany decides to invade the Francian Empire once more. As usual, Poland is only informed afterwards and expected to join anyway, which Sulislaw somewhat grudgingly does. He has no love for the Empire, of course, but also wouldn’t really care to fight it right now. Worse, the Palatinate has maintained its alliance with Rûm after the Heretics’ War, meaning that Poland might have to keep some troops on the eastern front as well. Germany too has managed to find allies in the English duchies, but they might actually become a liability if anything.
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At least Poland’s long period of peace has also allowed it to renew most of its equipment, now going into battle with cutting edge and strictly standardized weaponry and tactics.
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Kent and Lancaster are on the Slavs’ side, while York and East Anglia are with the Palatinate. In a sense, much of this war is just infighting between former Heretic League members. The Marynarka is sent to patrol the English coast and stop any troops from moving to the continent, but other than that, Sulislaw is perfectly happy to let the dukes… well, duke it out amongst themselves.
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He wants to lead one of the armies himself, though, so he makes sure to name a successor before he leaves for the front, just in case.
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The Palatinate and the Teutons soon fall before the Slavic onslaught, and Salzburg won’t last much longer. Out of all the forts in the region, only Heidelberg’s has been fully updated to modern standards, while the others are easy prey for newer guns and engineering. The east seems to be safe for the time being, thanks to the Black Fleet blocking the Sea of Marmara so tightly that not a rowboat can get through.
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The Teutons are driven out of their castles and effectively annexed in December 1592, leaving the Emperor with another elector to replace.
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Salzburg and Dauphine get off easy with monetary reparations, leaving the Slavs free to march into Asturias once more and force the Emperor to admit his defeat. However, the Germans are a little hasty: the King moves his army too far ahead of his Polish allies, thus allowing himself to get caught out of position by the combined Asturian-Palatinate army, which has mostly conserved its strength in wait of such an opportunity. The High King arrives too late to reinforce the Germans, who are forced to retreat, but just in time to descend upon the Christians while they’re still licking their own wounds.
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That being said, he recognizes that he’s now very deep in enemy territory, and waits for his own reinforcements before finally marching on Burgos. Even its defenses have been scarcely upgraded since the last siege decades ago, and while the current Emperor is supposedly another military genius, there’s little he can do against such massive numbers. Instead, he targets a weaker German army in the other direction, successfully forcing the Poles to divert their forces and inflicting decent casualties on them before eventually retreating himself.
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He then leaves that army, quickly rides across the country in a matter of days and takes charge of another force to try and lift the siege on his capital. A clever ploy, and one that comes very close to succeeding. However, Sulislaw has followed Polish doctrine down to the letter and constructed his siege works facing both ways, allowing him to hold off the Emperor long enough that he has no choice but to retreat once again before reinforcements can arrive and pin
him between two armies.
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Credit where it’s due: Sulislaw is forced to summon another army from the homeland as backup. The maneuvers performed by both sides in the difficult Asturian terrain will go down as literal textbook examples for future officers to study. The Emperor fights an intricate war of hit-and-run tactics and minimal losses, giving rise to the word “guerrilla” after the Spanish for
little war, but it’s a losing battle, and by the time that Burgos falls in the spring of 1594, he’s fully aware that the most he can do is slow the Slavs down.
Back in Krakow, however, that slowdown is becoming a real problem, as the Sejm seems to be stuck in a deadlock without the High King’s firm leadership: between the loyalists, the opposition and those who think they should wait for Sulislaw to get back, no motion is able to pass in his absence.
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(Who you calling a Duchy?)
Even after all of Asturias is occupied, the Emperor continues his stealthy raids and encourages the populace to do the same, straining the country to its limits just to be as annoying as humanly possible – and it seems to pay off. In December 1596, after five years, the whole war comes to a rather unsatisfying ending as the King of Germany – sick and tired and actually literally sick – signs what might as well be a white peace, shuffling some English provinces and war reparations and nothing more. At least it comes away with the Teutonic lands it already took, but still. Is this what the wars of the future will look like?
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With the end of the war, the vacated electorate is granted to the Bishopric of Trier, the last nominally Catholic state in the Rhineland.
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Moldavia seems to have found much more success with its own invasion of Thrace, started while the Emperor was too busy to intervene. Quickly overrun, the Duke has little choice but to accept full annexation in exchange for his own safety. The Empire is all but banished from the east, and the strategic Sea of Marmara finally under full Moldavian control. Constantinople itself is finally in Slavic hands, and though its value is largely symbolic at this point, that side isn’t to be underestimated.
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King Dytryk III Lechowicz, a known zealot and sworn enemy of Christianity, wastes no time in rebranding the city as Lechogród and setting off to convert the Cathar church of Hagia Sophia into the world’s grandest temple to Perun.
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Meanwhile in Poland, even if the High King’s war turned rather unpopular towards the end, his return to the capital means that the Sejm can finally get something
done. Apparently the deputies are too incompetent to handle something as simple as routine budgets without someone looking over their shoulder.
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Countless deputies approach Sulislaw with demands and suggestions of all kinds, some of which they’ve been hatching for the past five years, often with additional offers under the table to sweeten the deal. However, despite the temptation to just get the Sejm back on track as quickly as possible, he holds firm and refuses to accept any proposals without due process – even those from his allies. While frustrating to the nobles, it also makes clear that personal cajoling and bribes won’t cut it anymore. Poland will henceforth be ruled by
law and reason, as he himself puts it.
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Unfortunately, refusing to give or accept bribes doesn't actually make you very popular.
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Luckily the colonies don’t really
need the support of the Sejm, or necessarily even the crown. Merchants from Antwerp have banded together with some persecuted-feeling Waldensians and agreed to help them found a new colony south of Buyania, soon attracting more such refugees from Poland and Francia alike. The town of Nowa Antwerpia sits at the mouth of a large river, and who knows, may even come to rival Ledenesz one day.
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Indeed, the importance of either colonial trade or the Low Countries in all of this is not to be forgotten. Cities like Brugge, Antwerp and Amsterdam are not just Poland’s, but in fact all of Europe’s gateway to the wider world, where exotic goods from west, south and even the far east arrive by the shipload every day. Numerous nations have already realized the value of this trade – now it’s down to who can actually exploit it, and Poland is perfectly positioned to just that.
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The race to Asia is on, and at the same time that throngs of people have been settling in Amatica, smaller but no less important outposts have been founded on the western coast of Africa.
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Asturias, its colonial efforts clearly jump-started by its conquest of Andalusian ports and islands, has become the first to settle the Cape of Good Hope at the very south of the continent, around which Polish explorers haven’t really bothered to venture yet.
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As mentioned, most of these African colonies are inhospitable to mass European settlement, and it’s much easier anyway to build a few well-placed fortresses, extract what resources you want and ship them back home, or in fact your other colonies. Most of them are only manned by a small contingent of soldiers and traders, rather than a large civilian population.
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While constant expansion to such distant lands requires a lot of local autonomy, recent events in the Sejm have made it abundantly clear that it’s not ready to be entrusted with really running the Polish government. As such, all of Poland’s territories and colonies will continue to answer to the High King directly.
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That expansion is somewhat interrupted by the start of yet another Slavic-Imperial war near the end of 1600, but Sulislaw frankly doesn’t expect to put a lot of effort into it.
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He doesn’t have much interest in Temes, preferring to focus on matters far beyond Poland’s direct borders.
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This includes the full integration of the Iroquois, and the founding of another colonial voivodeship to accommodate them without placing too much power in Ledenesz.
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That, of all things, turns out to be the last straw. Despite Sulislaw’s best efforts and a promising start, his relationship with the Sejm has quickly gone downhill, as the two sides just can’t seem to reconcile their views about what powers the Sejm
should or
is supposed to have. From the High King’s point of view, the Sejm is pushing its luck and trying to ultimately make him a mere figurehead, while the Sejm thinks that he isn’t keeping his promises and that its seeming empowerment was just a ploy after all.
In early September 1601, clinging onto its preexisting concerns about the colonies, fanned by Sulislaw’s more recent attempts at centralization, the Sejm declares that it considers a Voivodeship a noble title of the same level as a Grand Duchy. Such titles are closely protected and, they claim, require the approval of the Sejm to be created or granted. Sulislaw responds that the Voivodes are simply government officials with short terms in non-inheritary positions, and thus don’t even remotely count as high nobility; in addition, since the nobles themselves hold no land in the colonies, except maybe as private investors, they have no say in what is done over there.
While this alone would be a relatively routine spat, quickly dismissed and replaced by some other more interesting outrage, something is different this time. The Sejm refuses to let go of the issue, instead debating it for several weeks, and said debates get increasingly heated and farther off-track, somehow tying every possible issue into one nonsensical mess. The whole matter gets so incredibly twisted that at some point, the loudest of the opposition end up claiming that the High King is trying to transform all noble titles into temporary offices and thus destroy the nobility altogether. While there’s literally no evidence of such plans – though the idea does sound more appealing by the day – unrest finally reaches its zenith on 27 September 1601. Axe meets skull, one deputy kills another in the middle of the chamber, and all hell breaks loose.
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No one expects it. In retrospect, many will say that the signs were there, but no one actually sees it coming. Nobles and their bodyguards alike suddenly descend into a vicious free-for-all, with confused royal soldiers not even knowing how much they’re allowed to interfere, and soon the Sejmic Palace actually goes up in flames. The High King manages to escape, as do most of the deputies on both sides, but that just means that the fighting spills out into the streets of Krakow, reinforced by levies and mercenaries until there are almost 50,000 Polish rebels wreaking havoc in their own capital. It can well be said that the Kingdom of Poland is, for the first time, in a state of civil war. The Warsaw Uprising and the Westward March are little squabbles compared to this. Garrisons in remote parts of the country, usually left with little attention, are immediately put on high alert to stop any other nobles from gaining a foothold there.
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While previous (much smaller) conflicts between crown and nobility have generally involved some element of the other clans rebelling against the Lechowicz, that’s clearly not the case here: it’s very much a struggle between royalist and parliamentarian forces, both of whom consider it a war of survival. To emphasize their devotion to this “higher cause”, the rebels actually choose to rally behind Lechowicz nobles themselves, proving that this time it
isn’t personal... except maybe against Sulislaw individually.
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The Crown Army doesn’t have many forces sitting in Krakow due to the war in the south, but while this leaves the Sejmics free to take control of the city and lay siege to Wavel Castle, there’s a silver lining: the Crown Army is able to avoid the initial chaos, and instead review the situation before counterattacking. Needless to say, that other war is put on hold. 19-year-old Crown Prince Lechoslaw is among those to have fled the capital, and a few weeks later he leads his troops to victory in the first field battle of the civil war, albeit against the smallest rebel force available.
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Two thirds of the entire Crown Army take up positions around Krakow, trusting in the city’s internal forts to hold off the rebels until they’re finally ready to attack. Royalists give no quarter in cleansing every quarter of anyone who even
looks like a rebel and doesn’t immediately drop their weapon. The survivors of the initial attack quickly disperse into the countryside, with the cavalry in hot pursuit, but it’ll be months before the last suspects are either killed or arrested, and many are never caught at all.
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The High King himself isn’t sitting idle while all this happens, of course, but fighting a third noble uprising in Pomerania. Supported by the Grand Duke himself, these rebels have no trouble throwing out the small crown garrison in Szczecin, but by the time they venture out of the city, they’re quickly chased down and destroyed.
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It looks like the rebellion has been quelled with relatively little trouble – though many of its known or suspected leaders are still unaccounted for – but it’s frankly a bit unclear what it was even about, other than a chaotic situation that got way, way out of hand. For a moment, it seems like the movement might’ve calmed down altogether and the High King might be able to negotiate a peace settlement. In July 1602 the sejmics, now calling themselves “The Confederation”, respond with a long and detailed list of demands that no self-respecting monarch could possibly accept, including Sulislaw himself being put on trial for his “crimes” against the Sejm. If they had their way, the Sejm would get to nominate not only all government officials but even the High King. Looks like the revolution will continue after all.
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The Polish nobles of Frisia stayed out of the conflict at first, but now finally decide to take their chances with the Confederation.
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The Palace Bloodbath really was just the beginning. Almost exactly a year later, the entirety of Poland is aflame with rebels of all colors taking this one-of-a-kind opportunity to resist the unbeatable Crown Army.
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As of September 1602, about 184,000 confederates stand against 144,000 royalists. The royalists, however, are far more mobile, better supplied, better led and able to pick their battles. Although the rest of the Moscow Pact has so far neglected to send any troops, apparently finding it unbelievable that almighty Poland would need such a thing, at least it has diligently stopped the confederates from getting any support through their lands.
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The nobles have managed to gather their forces in some inconvenient areas like central Volhynia and the oddani haven of North Jylland, both of which have seen no real fighting in centuries and are very lightly defended. For the most part, however, they’ve had to make do with what they had, which includes some of the country’s
most fortified places, such as the Carpathians. The royalists group up into larger armies and take their sweet time running around the country, and by February 1603, the civil war seems to be almost over, with only a single rebel force of 41,000 still waiting to be destroyed.
And the nobles just can’t have that, can they? On what looks like the verge of defeat, an incredible 331,000 confederates join the fray all at once. The fact that the ragtag nobility has now mobilized more than four times as many troops as the standing Crown Army is clear evidence that they must have been planning something like this for a long, long time, and definitely with foreign support. They’re either feeding the peasants foul lies or just plain forcing them to fight, and looking at how many Lechowicz scions are suddenly crawling out of the woodwork, they might be coming from the same place as all those doomed pretenders so far. Whatever the case, the war is far from over.
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High King Sulislaw, second of his name, stands unwavering as he always does. His armies, garrisons and loyal subjects are fighting back all across Poland, but he has no way to coordinate them all – especially not when he has his own forces to lead. The Lyakhovich clan, despite being some of the original engineers of the Sejm, are now the only Grand Dukes to remain loyal in this time of peril, and thus the High King stops in Halicz to resupply and deliver a momentous speech to an audience of tens of thousands (most of whom can’t actually hear it, but there’ll be a printed transcript later).
20th of March, 1603. Sulislaw II, 40 years old and lean and mean, already shows a bit of gray in his well-groomed beard, but it does nothing to diminish his presence as he ascends the podium, wearing a full suit of richly decorated red-and-white plate and flanked by hulking bodyguards in similar attire. He clears his throat, and when he begins to speak, his imperious voice, uncharacteristically rough and angry, booms across the temple square.
“Brothers! Sisters! Fathers and mothers and children of Poland! We stand today on the precipice of fate: the fate of the kingdom, and all its people. I have heard many of your concerns, and listened closely to all of them, and what I have learned is that many of you aren’t fully aware of the meaning of all this bloodshed between fellow Slavs. That is to be expected! For this much is certain: there is no sense in it, and our enemy is a devious one. One that fights for no god, king or freedom, but only its selfish gain. The nobles of the so-called Confederation are those who would seek to overthrow the everlasting state of Poland altogether and turn it into a conspiracy of chiefs and barons with only one goal: to enslave the Polish freeman, to fill their bellies with your bread, and to carve up the nation amongst themselves.
However! There are still those chiefs who stand with the High King, who respect the Amber Crown and the eagle banner, who realize that this accursed fratricidal struggle isn’t one of crown against noble: we stand against injustice, tyranny, selfishness and oppression! The High Kings have protected Slavdom ever since the days of Blessed Ancestor Lechoslaw over seven hundred years ago, and now this Confederation would have the lawfully elected ruler ousted just so you can be made into serfs to serve them in perpetuity, like the gods they think themselves to be?
All of Europe knows what is at stake should Poland fall, and you can stand assured that the imperials are already circling above us like the scavengers they are, skittering like rats under the floorboards, hoping for Poland to be brought low by this cancer from within so that they might pick apart its corpse. The Confederation gets its money and men from the Franks, and we can only guess how that debt will be repaid should they succeed in their terrible crusade. All of Slavdom stands to suffer, just so a few men and women can benefit.
We will march out tomorrow, and we will be victorious! The pretenders shall be struck down by Perun, and once their miserable souls are ferried off to Wyraj, their ancestors will see what they have done and give them worse hell than we possibly can… because noble or peasant, our bones are all the same,
and we are all one in death!”
"ONE IN DEATH! ONE IN DEATH!" The crowd erupts into a wild chant that soon spreads across the entire city like fire through gunpowder. Sulislaw raises the Axe of Plusdwa above his head and drives it deep into the podium, cracking it like a piece of firewood.
Suffice to say that the rhetoric on both sides has kind of escalated.
And of course, High King and Crown Prince fighting side by side emerge victorious in battle after battle.
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The royalists no longer have the luxury of biding their time if they want to stop vast tracts of land from falling under confederate control. Even though Poland’s main fortresses are modern and fully manned, able to deny the rebels free movement across the countryside, the ones protecting individual towns are a different story. The brunt of the enemies are focused in the very heart of Poland, seizing control of important cities like Warsaw, Checiny and Nowy Sacz even while Krakow still holds out.
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The war provides ample opportunities for future folk heroes like Trojden Zaluski, ‘Madman of Mazovia’, to forge their reputation, and the crown is more than happy to spread that reputation for enemies to fear and subjects to adore.
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In August 1603, Poland finally gets the first bit of material help from its allies when Moldavia – admittedly a bit busy with its own war – finally sends some help to lift the second siege of Krakow.
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Speaking of which, the Marynarka has been out on patrol, basically not even remembering that it’s also at war, only to suddenly come across the Asturian Armada. In the ensuing battle, the
Radogost and several others manage to corner Asturias’ own flagship
Tarragona and, after extended bombardment, send it to the bottom of the North Sea. Although the Marynarka emerges victorious overall, it loses most of its own battleships as well and retreats all the way to the safety of the Baltic.
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Of course, the crown has little time to spare for such frivolities. Central Poland and Bohemia are liberated with Moldavian aid, and a
lot of men: a total of about 150,000 royalist soldiers have been lost, so statistically speaking the entire army has been replaced in just three years, making this Poland’s bloodiest war ever. On top of that, the thing about civil war is that it doesn’t stop on the battlefield, but every single enemy and often their family too must be chased down, lest they rise up again or just stab you at the bar in a few weeks. Many confederate commanders fought in Asturias, and now they can put the Emperor’s notorious guerrilla tactics to good use… not to mention that with so much propaganda being thrown around on both sides, a lot of the fighting actually happens in the total absence of armies, neighbors simply attacking each other on their own initiative.
Eventually Calais, that very western tip of the realm, is left as the last
known rebel holdout. The commander, one Nadbor Lechowicz, is in every way insignificant, but he was there in Krakow three years ago, and now he’s effectively the leader of the Confederation just by being the only one left. Stuck between a fortress and the brunt of the Crown Army, he tries to plead for mercy.
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Traitors get no such thing. Not at this point. The only “quarter” he gets is to be drawn and quartered in front of his surviving officers, before they too meet the same fate.
And so, on 18 July 1604, the Polish Civil War is over almost as suddenly as it began, but not without leaving a mark.
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