Third Reform War

The Third Reform War, also known in some circles as the Holy Mother's War, was fought between 1760 and 1771 between a loose alliance of the Savamese states – by this point all espousing the revised model of Cairony known as the Cairan Reformation – against a coalition of Orthodoxist states led by Elland and the Ceresoran Empire, allied to Odann, Cantaire, Brex, Brolangouan, and a number of smaller states in Estologne. While not the final conflict to be given the name, the Third Reform War effectively set in stone the schism between the two Cairan interpretations which persists to the present day. It also marked the first time that all the Savamese realms fought together against a common enemy, setting in motion the process that would eventually led to their unification.

Third Reform War
Part of the Reform Wars
Date 1760-1771 Location Savamese realms, Transvechia Result Blessed Conciliation
Belligerents
Reformer clergy Supported by: Benovia Brocquie Dordanie Quenie Valdenois	Orthodoxist clergy Supported by: Elland Ceresora Odann Cantaire Brex Brolangouan Small states in Estologne Transvechian rebels

Preliminary issues

The growing influence of the Cairan Reformation had already prompted two extended wars between the new Reformists and the old Orthodoxy, and the shift of Valdenois to the new interpretation in 1755 in the wake of the brief Valdenian Civil War completed the realignment of all of the Savamese states to the Reform camp (de jure Quènie remained orthodoxist until after the beginning of the war but the 1736 law ending the Argan's exclusivity had made it a de facto reformer state). Etamps-La-Sainte, Cairony's holy city and the focal point of the Orthodoxy, remained resolute in the old ways even as a sea of defiance lapped around its gates, in open defiance of the Archprince of Brocquie, who nominally controlled most of the surrounding region of Sarre (although technically the Holy City remained within the land owned by the diminished Principality of Sarre). The Holy Mother of the Savamese Argan, Téodora de Beldopoule (a Ceresoran native – Ceresora was still under the Savamese Argan at that time), had been propped up by the occupation of most of Sarre by Orthodoxist (mostly Ellish) forces, but this support had weakened after 1752 and the death of Henry II of Elland, leading to a partial Ellish withdrawal, and further after 1755 and the Valdenian coup.

The tense situation finally erupted in 1759. In Dominy of that year the Brocquian and Valdenian governments, both now controlled by radical reformers, formed an official anti-orthodoxist alliance. The primary objective of this alliance was to depose the Orthodoxist clergy from Etamps and install a new argan over the Savamese realms. Some consider this the first formal act toward imperial unification as well. The new allies planned in secret a coup against the Holy City, which came to fruition in Sation. In the first days of the month a joint army led by radical Reformer general Lucien de la Malforest marched on Etamps-La-Sainte from Valdenois, laying siege to the holy city unopposed on 17 Sation. The city was defended by an Ellish contingent and the Cathedral Guard; unlike previous (and future) instances of Cairans refraining from attacking the city, the Brocquo-Valdenian radicals had no qualms about using violence to force their way into the city. After heavy bombardment, the main wall was sapped on 23 Nollonger, and the city surrendered when it became obvious that it could no longer defend itself. This event entered posterity as the Infame Raid (in orthodoxist countries; in a reformer context it is known as the Saving Raid).

On 6 Conservene a delegation of reformer high clergywomen arrived in the holy city with Archprince Sébastien II of Brocquie. The following day, they acclaimed the Archmatron of Bar, Édith-Virginie d'Omeros, as Holy Mother of a new Reformed Argan, which continues today as the Argan of Savam.

Beldopoule, who had refused to flee the city when possible, was placed under house arrest in the Domus Catholicae by Malforest and remained in captivity in the Holy City. Here she wrote over the next year her famous pamphlet De Fragilitatis Facies Corporis, a brutal excoriation of the reformer position as misguided to the point of being actively heretical. Perhaps more importantly from a more worldly viewpoint, Beldopoule made plain her position that the man who could purge this stain from the Cairan communion would justifiably be able to call himself the heir to the throne of a Cairan Empire – something which had not existed in any real form since before the Secote conquest in the ninth century, but which remained the long-standing dream of Catholics throughout the Cairan communion. Through this tract Beldopoule hoped to stiffen spines among the drivers of state apparatus across the Cairan theosphere – a genuine concern in some quarters, notably in Odann, where tensions between the country's noble houses and the Argan of Odann had prompted a degree of sympathy to the reformer position and arguably threatened any support in the event of war. The pamphlet was smuggled out of the reformer-occupied Holy City at night, copied and printed to be distributed en masse. Passions were roused in most countries, and quickly the sovereigns of Elland, Odann, and Ceresora formed a large alliance and declared war on the Savamese realms.

It was hardly the work of genius to identify Henry III of Elland, then 32 years old, as the most likely candidate among the orthodoxist monarchs to meet Beldopoule's challenge – something that Henry himself was not slow to make known. Elland was perhaps at the pinnacle of its military power at this time, and Henry's only realistic challengers would be his brother kings in Ceresora and Odann. However, Alessandro VI of Ceresora was too aged and infirm to take to the battlefield, while Liam VIII of Odann was barely into his majority (a regency by his uncle Diarmait ua Tuathail having ended only in 1757) and then untried as a combatant – although he would lead forces in the field at several points in the war, and would earn the nickname an Scian, “the knife”, for his ferocity.

The war begins

As copies of Beldopoule’s tract circulated across the Cairan world, Henry became a totem for those in both the religious and secular communities who now agitated for action against those who would hinder the holy mission of Restoration. This was a status which he was more than happy to accept; while not greatly known for his piety, Henry considered that he had unfinished business in Valdenois, in particular, and there is some evidence to suggest that he had made some battle plans against his eastern neighbours at least as early as 1754. With the support of the argans behind him – even if not clearly spoken – Henry began to canvass support for action, with a flurry of diplomatic activity taking place during the winter of 1760-61 before he sent his forces into the fray, with an assault down the Gaste valley towards Lake Carles in the spring of 1761. The first major engagement was the Battle of Saint-Valentin-du-Lèb in Floridy against Valdenian forces. Troarn fell to Ellish troops in Empery of that year, while Odannach forces broke through the difficult terrain of the Rindarian Range to the north.

As so many times in the past at Ellish hands, Valdenois became a battleground; conflict spilled back and forth across the archprincipality for three years before Liam led a decisive breakthrough at Souosbouais in Fabricad 1764; with the Valdenian collapse, a clear path was opened towards Pontaliens, which was taken by a combined Ellish and Odannach force in Empery. The entry of the Defender to the city astride his charger Taistealaí became the subject of a celebrated (and highly romanticised) painting by the Odannach court artist Rúan an Riach in 1780.

• first years action in the east?

Henry left the lakeside city in Odannach hands as he pushed onwards; he began an attack on Etamps in the spring of 1765, with one army under the Earl of Biden pushing through southern Bas-Valdenois and into Sarre, and laying siege to the Holy City. Etamps surrendered in Fabricad, with the city’s Métropolitaine, Lillian Cheney – herself an Ellishwoman, but resident in Etamps for fifteen years at that time – symbolically yielding the keys to the city to Henry and Biden outside the Focarium, the site of the city’s Eternal Flame.

The imperial gambit

At this point the advance halted, with the army needing to regroup and reprovision before moving on; Henry proposed to move eastward towards Middle Gaste, with the intention of linking up with Ceresoran forces under Nonce di Retello in central Dordanie, where Sévinne had already fallen. However, before he could act on the plan, he had unfinished business to resolve; Beldopoule, freed from her captivity, was brought to the king, who reminded her forcibly of the pledge of an imperial throne which she had made in De Fragilitatis. The Holy Mother had, perhaps, not anticipated that she would have to make good on that promise; however, she convened a meeting of the arganic sorority within the week.

After some significant argument between the sisters – with Catholics in the sorority claiming that the Savamese argan could not force such a decision on the communion as a whole – an agreement was reached in Dominy under which Henry would be recognised as emperor; plans were put in train for a formal coronation later in the year, and the prominent Pontaliens goldsmith Gayen Bielaimé was contracted to create a crown worthy of the occasion. Henry accepted the decision before departing Etamps the following month to begin further campaigning in Adaque. The assault on Dordanie continued during that year, with the Orthodoxist forces advancing even as far as Quesailles, which came under siege by Ceresoran forces under Retello during 1765.

The coronation took place, with all the pomp and ceremony which could be mustered, in the Grand Temple de la Bonne Mère in Etamps on the symbolically important date of 21 Conservene 1765, the day of the winter solstice and, as the Feast of the Good Mother, a traditional Cairan high holiday; and Henry was formally proclaimed emperor, with Bielaimé’s magnificent gold-and-silver laurel wreath – a traditional Sabamic symbol of power and victory dating back to the First Sabāmani Empire – placed on his head by Beldopoule herself. Many of the great and good of the contemporary Orthodoxy attended, including the young Defender Liam (Alessandro of Ceresora stayed away, citing the risks of travel at his advanced age). However, while Henry took the style “Emperor of the Cairans” (empereur des cairiens), the Savamese argan used only the title “Emperor of the Savamese” (empereur des savamais), which did not require the assent of the other Orthodox argans.

The tide turns

However, even at this moment of apparent triumph, the first intimations of Henry’s ultimate defeat were already in the wind. At the time, the Orthodoxist armies were still taking severe punishment – only Quènie was spared invasion during the wars, and even then it required stern efforts to beat back Odannach assaults through the Sillon de Velcour and the Col aux Corbeaux in the winter of 1765-66. However, fighting largely on their own territory as they had been, they had been able to withstand the beatings, fall back and regroup. Already Retello’s siege of Quesailles had been broken late in 1765, forcing the Ceresorans to fall back towards Sévinne; and during 1766 the Orthodoxists found the strength to advance and take the offensive in the war, although this would be to their detriment in other areas – most notably in the push to break Dordanian influence in Transvechia, which saw the Transvechian states achieve a de facto independence during 1769 (Beldopoule, alert to the possibility of seeding discord among the enemy’s ranks, was quick to extend the recognition of the Orthodox Savamese argan to the nascent Union of Transvechia).

Nonetheless, their steady push west saw its apex at the Battle of Lapetrelle – sometimes known as the “Battle of the Five Armies” – in Metrial 1769. Lapetrelle was probably the longest battle, and undoubtedly the most brutal, to take place anywhere in Messenia during the 18th century; it resulted in the Savamese driving a four-nation coalition force (Elland, Odann, Ceresora and Cantaire) from the field in disorder, including the death of the Cantairean general Prince Pedro da Teixeira, nephew and heir-apparent to king Felipe I. In many important respects the defeat at Lapetrelle can be seen as the fatal breach of Orthodoxist confidence in the face of renewed Reformer élan, with Etamps falling to the Reformer forces soon afterwards; Beldopoule, accompanied by a group of retainers and several members of the sorority, fled the city before its loss, but were picked up by a routine Brocquian picket at Boutoul, with the Imperial Laurels later discovered in her baggage train – a signal loss which embarrassed and humiliated the “emperor” as news of the affair spread across the Cairan lands.

• Despite their low point, the Reformers managed to break the siege of Quesailles and organise counter-attacks from Quènie, which had become a major stronghold. Three times in 1765 and 1766 the Orthodoxists tried to cross the Sillon de Velcour, each time to be soundly defeated by Quènian defences. Furthermore, abile diplomacy by Dordanian Chancellor Jules-Amour Estong bought the support of the [spanish] nobility and Elmiesians against the Bragonis, forcing them to divert some of their resources. In the south, the Savamese managed to buy the support of Zepnish privateers to disturb the allies' supplies routes. The colonial element of the Third Reform War was relatively minor, but nonetheless claimed many lives.

Peace

The four main reformer Savamese states following the Blessed Conciliation

The war finally came to a lumbering end in 1771 with a ragged cease-fire and six months of negotiation towards the peace settlement known today as the Blessed Conciliation, in which both sides settled on something resembling a modus vivendi – albeit one in which Cairony was, to all appearances, permanently riven into a Reform and an Orthodox communion. Formalised on the symbolic dates of 23 Sation 1771, the Descending Harmonious Day, the Conciliation addressed both religious and secular matters.

In the religious space, the Conciliation officially recognised the new reformer Argan of Savam and its control over the Holy City. It provided facilites for Sabamic countries to freely choose to associate with any interpretation (note, only Sabamic, not Cairans overall, so as to protect the Orthodoxy's control over non-Sabamic realms). Both sides pledged to allow freedom of religion within their borders, but this measure ended being scarcely applied; indeed, the religious liberty laws enacted in Quènie and Dordanie were mostly used as pretexts for "soft" conversion to the reformer interpretation. Orthodoxists would not become full citizens of the Savamese Empire until the Naturalisation Act of 1836.

For secular matters, the Conciliation formalised the new political reality on the ground. It redrew borders in both the west and east, favourably for the Savamese in the former, unfavourably so in the latter. Around Lake Carles and in the Upper Gaste the Savamese made large gains. Sarre was formally annexed in its entirety by Brocquie, including the Holy City. As a result the ruler of Brocquie became the urbis defensor and was elevated from Archprince to King. The western border between Elland and Valdenois in modern Emilia, a hotly contested region, was rationalised at the advantage of the Valdenian side; however, the fortified city of Gannsford remained in Ellish hands (it would eventually become Savamese in 1808 following the Savamese-Ellish War and the Treaty of Sainte-Patience).

In the east, on the other hand, the Savamese had to concede large losses. The de facto result of the Transvechian Uprising War was made de jure with the recognition of the independence of the Orthodoxist-aligned Union of Transvechia, ending the 250-years-old Dordanian overlordship over most of the Great North. Although the border between Dordanie and the Ceresoran Empire did not change, the Ceresorans still made gains: the Archprincipality of Benovia lost the mainly Orthodoxist Novigrad, which was transferred to Ceresoran control. The provisions of the Treaty of Guestel (1728) making Benovia a vassal of the Dordanian throne were also annulled, and Benovia returned to official neutrality.

Dordanian hegemony over New Elmiesia was not officially affected by the Conciliation, but losing control of Benovia-Novigrad weakened it, allowing Ceresoran influence to slip through. In the Transvechian Far East the Kérates, who had settled along the caravan-forts of the Grand North Way and were a staunch reformer population, lost their direct connection to their Dordanian suzerain. They formed a self-defence league (a de facto independent state) and continued to be loyal to the Dordanians (and later the Empire), who could reach them through a (less convenient) southern branch of the Grand North Way. The direct connection between Quesailles and the Kérates was only re-established in 1867 after Savamese triumph in the Great Verborian War; in the mean time, the Grand North Way was placed under heavy tariffs by the Transvechians (those tariffs were almost lifted in the 1840s but the coup de force by Captain-General Ricardo di Fulmine prevented this).

Finally, the Conciliation glaringly said nothing on the matter of the Ellish Imperial Claim other than its formal rejection by the reformer party. The Orthodoxist side had remained silent on this specific issue in the Concilliation, but entered frantic debate about it later. Hoping to legitimise his claim to the title of Emperor of the Cairans, Henry III hosted the now "homeless" Ecumenical Sorority at the Sanctuary of Saint Viola in Barchester in late 1771. The Ellish monarch canvassed several Cairan prelates with the idea that he would be recognised as having some kind of supraordinate status over and above secular monarchs (in effect attempting to form a secular empire very similar in form to the later Savamese Empire).

The Sorority, which was struggling with internal wrangling as matters stood, was never likely to be in a position to take such a claim seriously, much less debate it; and Niamh ní Shé, the Holy Mother of Odann and a leading Catholic voice in council, seized control of the gathering to rebuke Beldopoule for acting beyond her authority in elevating Henry to imperial rank in 1765. Beldopoule, supported only by her Ellish counterpart Geraldine Granger, was forced into a humiliating climbdown; the gathering broke up in Animare 1772 with Henry’s imperial claims left in a state of limbo, and the king himself now an "emperor" without an empire.

Aftermath

The war did not confirm the disunity of Cairony – two further conflicts, the Savamese–Ellish War (1804-07) and the Fourth Reform War (1818-23) sought at some level to reopen and settle the question – but for most practical purposes the schism became permanent after this point. The war also effectively killed off any Catholic hopes of a renewed Cairan Empire, with the formation of a unified Savam in 1798 being largely conceived in secular, rather than religious terms; Catholicism as a theological position began a long retreat to the rearguard of contemporary thought within Cairony.

Impact on warfare

The period of the Third Reform War, or the late Reform Wars more generally, marked another transition period in military warfare, moving away from the style of combat that had became fairly established during the late 17^th Century and the era of the Fifteen Years War. In some ways it mimicked the developments that had already been taking place for a while in Outer Joriscia, in particular in Lacre, under the influence of the Radiance; there is little evidence to suggest that there was any Joriscian influence on those changes in Savam.

• Knights (sword-nobles) present only as officiers
  • No more gensdarmes or demi-lancers
• Cavalry still important but not central to warfare anymore
  • Increased prevalence of more lightly-armoured harquebusiers & cuirassiers compared to before
  • Dragoons are a new thing (mounted to move but fight on foot)
  • Chevau-légers with spears (Uhlans) also far more prevalent
• Beginning of use of modern line infantry tactics (not to the extent of contemporaneous Lacrean innovations though)
• Quick improvements of artillery