Records: the Edwardian Luxembourg Tour

## **After the Action of Amiens**

The House Valois had made its stand at Amiens – *and failed*.

For an area still reeling from the devastation of the Battle of Calais, much less the morale of three decisive, blink-fast battles as St. George recently moved through Normandy, the French Crown was reeling. It felt like an English apocalypse in slow motion as the armies slowly circled in.

This stopped the Edwardian front, too, especially as they realized they had breathing room... *and other scores to settle*. The attack on Calais had come from the direction of, and with the support of, Burgundy on both the French and Empire halves, as well the Royal House that Charles IV (HRE) had hailed from: the House of Luxembourg .

Beyond the warriors more philosophically motivated, Charles IV had pressed his own resources into action supporting his nephew Charles V. Charles IV was alredy well known for "promoting" his connection to the two saints in his own lineage and when it came to holier-than-thou arguments, the Holy Roman Emperor definitely went *there*.

For King Edward, allowing the attack to go unanswered might be the Christian thing to do, but as affairs of state, it simply would not stand. The Duchy of Luxembourg would pay for its attack on Calais.

## **Edwardian reach into Luxembourg**

Both the armies of Luxembourg and Burgundy were effectively destroyed by Aquitaine. In fact, there had been contributors from around the area: that was nature of the call that the Crown of France had put forth. In the aftermath, Aquitaine knew *exactly* who had died on the battlefield, and it knew *exactly* who it had processed out as brief Prisoners of War. England now possesed that account sheet.

It had barely been three months since that fateful Calais meeting, so survivors were now home, stories were told and rumors were spread. This rolled together into the English-printed, every-language Vernacular Bibles now spreading through the area, helping to fuel an early version of the Bundschuh movement. There had already been a series of individual uprisings around the areas of the middle and upper Rhine. Part of it fell in the west-northwestern HRE, including the Burgundian stretch towards Luxembourg.

The rebels were peasants and city dwellers seeking relief from oppressive taxes, arbitrary justice systems, high debts, costly ecclesiastic privileges, serfdom, prohibitions on hunting and fishing, and the like. There were both secular and non-secular complaints in the movement, and half of these uprisings had already been defeated. The individual leaders had largely been executed, but that only served to enflame the sentiment.

By the time the Edwardian Armies arrived, they were mythic forces, bearing the no-kidding Excalibur and even more firepower in their growing legend than their now-80 cannon rolling army.

### **The Duchy of Luxembourg**

The massive lower neighbor of Flanders and related to Louis II via in-laws, the Duchy was ruled by Wenceslaus I, as Duke of Luxembourg, the House of Luxembourg. An uncle to Wenceslaus, who had perished at the Battle of Calais, Wenceslaus *of Lxembourg* was himself in declining health (suffering leprosy).

He had a history of ambitions and poor judgment pursuing them. In fact, he’d even fought against his brother-in-law Louis II of Flanders nearly 20 years prior, but at this point, that was water far under the bridge.

Luxembourg remained an independent fief (county) of the Holy Roman Empire, when in 1354 Emperor Charles IV elevated it to the status of a duchy for his brother Wenceslaus. The ducal lands had been formed in 1353 by integration of the old County of Luxembourg, the marquisat of Arlon, the Counties of Durbuy and Laroche as well as the districts of Thionville, Bitburg and Marville. The county of Vianden can also be included as it had been a vassal of the counts and dukes of Luxembourg since about 31 July 1264.

Wenceslaus I wasn’t in much of a mood to support any military action, but his health was dire. In this case, Charles IV had promised that fighting the English demonspawn would cure his ails. By the time the English army showed up at his doorstep, he surrendered without a fight.

### **Bio-Psychological Warfare**

Wenceslaus I was relieved of his temporal possessions (his titles and land), but he was given something in return: *health*. Cured of his leprosy (and a few other things), he was sent to Rupert's Court in Heidelberg as herald of the retribution.

The message was sent that England was taking France, and the territory of every Luxembourgian ally that attacked Calais. That started with Luxembourg itself and the surrounding counties and bishoprics. The Edwards would "visit" every single Imperial City on the way to Frankfurt if there was anything less than a treaty and recognition of territorial migration.

That word spread through the Empire like a meteor impact – including making its way back to Valois court in Paris. France itself had just gone from the premiere power of Europe to *extremely unpopular* as German towns now faced the possibility of facing English cannons because of the idiocy of their lords.

## **The Northeastern Reach Into the Empire**

There had been wiggle room for smaller jurisdiction to slip out of the commands of Charles IV, but once Flanders and Luxembourg signed on to attacking Calais, regional partners were obligated and five of them flew flags at Calais.

The northern partners were tied in by trade and defense agreements, with mixed emotions for and against the English magic – for and against Lollardy – definitely for English trade. No matter at this point, once the big two signed on, the others were obligated to follow (in case they won), and could plead their hands were tied if they lost.

The Prince-Bishopric of Liège was no fan of the Papal command of temporal divestment, nor a fan at all of the Lollardy, Jesuit movement or the Kingdom that supported it. That said, they weren't about to march off alone to face the magically-armed English, so they did their part to twist arms in the region on behalf of Charles IV.

Four more jurisdictions went quietly when the regiments rolled in:

* The Duchy of Brabant
* The County of Hainaut
* The Marquisate of Namur
* The Duchy of Limburg

There were half a dozen plans for these lands, all looking at long-term defense, development and taxation. One possibility was to roll these five into an expanded Kingdom of France. There was another possibility of making an expanded Kingdom of Luxembourg.

As political strategists went to work in London (and, at this point, Angers), there was also acknowledgement that part of these decisions would be affected by how the rest of the eastern neighbors responded. If the HRE was hostile, it would sway them one direction, if they were friendly, it would influence the other way.

### **Looking Back at France**

Now a month out of France, King Edward wanted to put the heat back on Paris. As the regiments turned west at the end of the month, they were on the verge of entering Champagne.

There was already plenty of psychological pressure, if anything from Wenceslaus of Luxembourg's message to the HRE now echoing back to the Valois. England was taking on both, at the same time, *and winning*.

The war ride happened so fast that rumors mostly only carried the headline of "So-and-so has fallen..." That brought a fearsome reputation that few realized was done largely bloodlessly. Those same fearsome rumors made it back across the channel, to the ears of the probably-a-secret-Jesuit Prince Rick...