Third Italian War

The Third Italian War was a conflict which took place during Episode XV of Varna, fought in all territories controlled by the Italic Union. This war is sometimes also known as the Italic Succession War or less commonly, the Italic Civil War.
== Background ==
August 1533 ended with shocking news for all of Italy: King Ferrante of the Italic Union had died from a heart attack. Now there were two claimants to the Italic throne, and war broke out across the Italic Union as the armies declared their allegiance to either side. On one side was Ferrante's illegitimate son Giuseppe di Sancarlo, who inherited his father's resolve, and maintained the support of Italia's closest ally, Sardinia. On the other side was Ferrante's nephew, Danilo von Habsburg, who received support from the Austrians who had already occupied most of the northern Italic region of Veneto.
For the past three years, Italia had been fighting in northern Italy, and their enemies had surrounded the city of Venezia. The Sancarlist government met these enemies (Lombardy, Brescia, Prato and Pisa) in the city to sign a treaty in October.
The Second Italian War was over, and the Third Italian War had begun.
== In Defence of Napoli ==
As of October 1533, the Habsburgs had established their capital in the city of Bari. They controlled the regions of Apulia, Romagna, Veneto, Calabria and Sicily. Outside of Italy they held Albania, Kosovo, Crete, and the entirety of Italic North Africa. The Italic forces in the Cypriot Condominium had also declared allegiance to the Habsburgs. The Sancarlists controlled the rest of the heartland, Dalmatia, Crimea, and the other Aegean islands north of Crete.
The first two major battles took place at Melfi, Basilicata (November 9th) and Treviso, Veneto (December 25th), and both of them were clear Habsburg victories. By April 1534, the Habsburgs had even reached Benevento, less than 40 miles from Napoli itself. If that wasn't enough, Anatolia intervened in the war to seize the Sancarlist-controlled Aegean islands, as well as Crimea. This was such a massive and frightening distraction, that it allowed the Habsburgs to reach the outskirts of Napoli and besiege the city. King Giuseppe then fell victim to nightmares and hallucinations throughout the remainder of 1534, until he received a Christmas gift in the form of Sardinian reinforcements which had landed in the city. Giuseppe welcomed the new year by pushing the Habsburgs away from Napoli. Two months later, in March 1535, the pro-Habsburg army in Ravenna surrendered to the Sancarlists, ending all resistance in Romagna.
== Provence's Departure ==
On July 18th, 1535, Provence declared their full independence from the Italic Union, and signed an alliance with France a few days later. Giuseppe was not willing to let go of Provence so easily, so he declared war on both Provence and France at the end of the month. Opening a new front was especially dangerous for the Sancarlists, not to mention costly, as Sancarlist-Sardinian forces only occupied the city of Provence for about a month before it was liberated by French troops. Then in early December, French troops landed on Corsica. Frightened once again, Giuseppe sailed out of Napoli to Valencia, where they met the king of Spain. Spain then began a short war against France which forced them to sign a white peace. Provence was now alone, but they had one trump card: pages and pages of information regarding the shady dealings of the Sancarlists, particularly surrounding the demise of the Venetian Republic. Sardinia was not aware of this, so they were poised to attack Provence in April 1536 when Giuseppe discouraged the move. And with that, Provence was allowed to leave the war, a free nation.
== An Italian Crusade ==
Back in 1527, Ferrante had sacked the city of Rome, forcing Pope Clement VII to escape to Florence. For the past decade the Catholic Church had been under the control of Pope Gennarus I, but now, in April 1536, the Lombard government expressed their desire to reinstate Clement. Two years later, the Lombards made their move, beginning the Italian Schism in April 1538. Giuseppe immediately declared his support for Gennarus' Papacy, and prepared to defend his Tuscan vassals of Arezzo and Grosseto. However, instead of the west Tuscan coast, the northern Italian allies attacked from Siena, surprising the Italics and reaching the cities of Arezzo and Grosseto in barely more than a month. With that, Italia now possessed no vassals, as the Tuscan Federation was formed in July. By the end of the year, Rome was lost, and Giuseppe was forced to travel to the city for another treaty in January 1539.
== Northern Advances ==
Having lost control of the Church, Giuseppe wasted no time in returning to the frontline against the Habsburgs. With the southern front in a deadlocked stalemate, the king joined his armies in the north, pushing the Habsburgs back towards the Alps and Austria, even liberating Treviso after the disastrous battle 4 years earlier. After this victory, however, even the northern front came to a stalemate. The next two years were spent pushing Habsburg forces out of the external territories, such as in Albania, Alexandria in North Africa, and Messina in Sicily.
The northern stalemate was broken in late April 1541, when Austrian support to the Italic Habsburgs stopped suddenly and completely. Austria had been humiliated in a treaty that resulted from a series of disputes across western Europe over the previous two months. Giuseppe wasted no time in advancing further north, and spent the entirety of 1542 reconquering Veneto. The city of Venezia surrendered in March, followed by the remaining Habsburgs in Veneto in the city of Udine in early December.
== Back to Bari ==
For nearly a decade the southern front had been in a stalemate, with most of the fighting concentrated around the city of Melfi. Giuseppe then joined his southern armies in late February 1544 as they began reconquering Apulia and Calabria. In October, the Sancarlists captured Reggio di Calabria, resulting in the surrender of the Habsburg forces in the Calabrian region. Then they landed troops in the Salento peninsula, to close in on Bari from the east. Through 1545 and 1546, the Habsburgs fought relentlessly, successfully slowing down the Sancarlist advance on Bari as much as possible. However, the city was surrounded in February 1547, and the Habsburgs finally surrendered.