Roumelese Wars

The Roumelese Wars (1224-1225, 1260-1265) were a series of battles and armed conflicts between prominent royal houses in the east of Cattala that occurred in the Strait of Roumeli and the Ionian Sea between 1224 and 1265, during the reigns of King Francis II and King Francis III. The wars were fuelled by the expansionist agendas of House Tyrheni and of House Maietta, the ruling house in the Hellenic Principality and the dominant naval power at the time. The Wars ended with the destruction of much of Roumeli and the emergence of House Celestine as the sole naval power within the Ionian Sea.

Background
Following the creation of the feudal Seven Principalities system of governance in 1062, eastern Cattala was ruled by three individual houses, who had pledged fealty to the Crown and the House of Celestine in the west. House Maietta controlled the Principality of Hellas and its extensive naval fleet, House Scavallo controlled Ontano and much of modern-day Lessito province with its bountiful harvests, House Kadra dominated Roumeli. To the west, House Tyrheni held extensive lands and a large standing army.

Damego War and Eastern Strife
In 1218, House Tyrheni of Jennai signed a peace treaty with the Crown, ending a brutal three-year war of independence that had bled the Tyrheni army and its financial reserves dry. Jennai was forced to pledge fealty to House Celestine again, but Prince Tywin the VI turned his eyes eastwards, where he believed war would be easier and the expansion of his realm could allow him or his heirs to eventually grow powerful enough to crush House Celestine entirely.

The Tyrheni's weren't the only house looking to expand though. House Maietta's naval strength had outgrown its meagre northern islands and its Prince, John, was under pressure to bring more wealth and food security to his principality. Roumeli, ruled by the Kadra dynasty, was an important trading post with plentiful fields and would be an effective launching pad for an invasion of the food-rich Scavallo lands.

War of Roumeli
In 1224, the Roumelese heir, Prince Kadra, refused to marry the daughter of Prince Tywin VI. The Tyrheni launched a naval attack on Roumeli and pillaged the key towns of Hyriea, Lassinia and Porphyr within two days as revenge for this snub. The pillaging caused outrage across the kingdom and angered the young King Francis II, but he did not condemn Tywin, who had been an adversary of his father, King Augustus.

House Kadra ordered its southern battalions onto the field and met the Tyrheni soldiers south of Thermopylae, the capital. They were quickly overwhelmed and outflanked by the more experienced Jennaian troops, who forced the Kadran army into retreat. Prince Kadra surrendered village after village to the opposition's vanguard and abandoned most of his injured forces en route to the city walls, where his remaining army fled to and began preparing to hold the city against a siege. As winter closed in, the Tyrheni had secured their control over all of the country except the port capital, where food supplies were beginning to dwindle.

The Principality of Hellas, noticing the turmoil that had engulfed the southern seas, declared war on Jennai and launched a counter attack in northern Roumeli, claiming to support the House of Kadra and its reign. Their naval bombardment of Guila and Porphyr forced the Jennaian ships out of port and their troops were caught unaware, suffering heavy casualties outside Thermopylae. Those who did escape the onslaught became stranded in the hills of Lassinia. They were then pushed back by an invasion force to the ruined town of Porphyr in the far south of Roumeli, and capitulated by February, when they were finally rescued and evacuated. It was the second major defeat for the Tyrheni in six years and humiliation in a conflict that was supposed to be easier than the one they had fought in the west.

The Kadran army had been massively weakened by the battle in Thermopylae, and had lost control of most of their territory to the liberating Maiettan army. Prince John then pronounced himself Prince of Roumeli and his troops took over all of Roumeli by force, and executed Kadran soldiers within Thermopylae. Prince Kadra fled to Celestine and was deposed as the Hellenic Principality annexed Roumeli.

Interwar Period
Main Article: War of the Vine

In the years following the Southern War, Roumeli remained occupied by Maiettan forces, despite the growing fragility of that house and its control at home, let alone in Roumeli. Unrest in both principalities strengthened the resolve of local barons and lords in Roumeli to try and claim back their island for themselves. Led by House Kadra, the deposed Prince of Roumeli, the island of Roumeli rose up in rebellion against House Maietta and began a civil war that would draw in forces from across the Seven Principalities, and seal the fate of two royal houses forever.

Roumelese Civil War
In the early summer of 1260 the fragile peace in Roumeli was broken when the former royal house, House Kadra, joined forces with House Vaas and sacked a garrison of Maiettan troops in the north of the island. House Maietta began a ten-month naval conflict with the rebel houses, who united with numerous smaller cities and towns across Roumeli in opposing the foreign rule. Trade in the Roumeli Strait and Ionian Sea was massively disrupted for most of 1260, with starvation and poverty becoming commonplace in Ionia and Thermopylae for the second time in two decades. As spring approached the next year, a Royal Galley from Celestine was sunk by rebel forces, leading to an angry response from the Crown. House Kadra was stripped of its (Maiettan-controlled) status as Princes of Roumeli and a flotilla of Celestinian warships swept around southern Roumeli and blockaded the stronghold of House Vaas, Porphyr, to weaken the rebel leadership. Lord Willem Vaas was forced to withdraw from the war and pledged fealty to the Crown of Cattala once more.

Battle of Porphyr
As the war continued into a second summer, House Maietta launched a counter attack in southern Roumeli and breached the lands of House Vaas. Porphyr's defences were overwhelmed and a large battle occurred between the Roumelese and Maiettan armies north of the city. The battle lasted for two months and led to the pillaging and devastation of large amounts of House Vaas' territory as successive scuffles and battles broke out all around Porphyr. The Crown received a plea from House Vaas for intervention as winter approached, and King Francis III ordered his military to join the war. An army twice the size of both the rebel and occupying forces was landed in Porphyr's harbour and stormed the battlefield, destroying both Maiettan and Kadran camps within three days. The army moved north and launched a surprise attack on further groups of Kadran and Maiettan soldiers in the name of the rightful King.

Battle of Thermopylae
House Maietta surrendered outside Thermopylae less than a month after House Celestine joined the war in December 1262. The Celestinian army, buoyant after crushing the Maiettan forces outside, stormed Thermopylae and razed most of the city to the ground. All heirs to House Kadra were slaughtered and the rebel Lord of Roumeli, who had spent two decades in Celestine with the King, had his head hung on a spike above the ruined city. The destruction of Thermopylae was a major victory for the Celestinian forces, and paintings of the devastations were made and sent to all other lords and cities in the country to remind them of their fealty to the Crown.

Aftermath of the Civil War
The brutal tactics of the Crown's infantry stunned the Roumelese nobility, who had expected the royal forces to support their battle against the Maiettan occupation. Instead, King Francis had instructed them to wipe out all opposition to his crown, including the Free Roumelese State armies controlled by the Kadrans.

House Vaas was elevated to Princes of Roumeli following the elimination of House Kadra. House Maietta's dominance of the kingdom's waters was over as its nobility collapsed, sparking the Hellenic War, and House Celestine had cemented its position as the ruthless and unrivalled rulers of Cattala. This would be the last major war in southern Cattala until the 16th century, when the Golden Revolution threatened House Celestine's control over the kingdom.