First Bourgogne Rebellion

Commanders| * Monsieur Bernard de Bourgogne †
* Monsieur Clarence de Clérisseau †
* Monsieur Raymond de Bissonnette
* Marquis Louis de Baie
* Comte d'Antinin
* Comte de la Belnin †

The **First Bourgogne Rebellion** was a war fought between the Royalist's of House Poullain and the rebel's of House Bourgogne.

## Prelude

#### Queen Joiha de Chinon and King Felix II de Poullain

King Felix "the fat" II de Poullain became king at age 10 after the death of his father King Stuar III de Poullain in 119 NE. Felix's mother Queen Joiha de Chinon took up the regency for her young son, during which Felix at age 19 impregnated one of the palace maids who gave birth to his son Xavier in 128 NE.

Felix would continue an affair with multiple different women including, Olive de Arrogant, Lisette de Heilly and Axelle de Karembeu, until his marriage to Madame Muriella de Leavitt in 137 NE. By the end of Felix's affair's he had ten bastard children Xavier, Bernard, Lucas, Marguerite, Juliette, Capucine, Corin who died in infancy, Gustave, Ella and Marcel and acknowledged them all as his own. Felix would go on to be one of the worst and most tyrannical kings Clercon would ever see, marrying eleven times and executing three of his wives.

Nearing the end of Felix's reign in 159 NE Felix planned to grant his eldest bastard son Xavier the title of Baron de Bourgogne but he died later that year so Felix granted the title to his second eldest son and bastard Bernard he also granted the titles of Monsieur de Bourgogne and Madame de Bourgogne to his other bastards Lucas and Marguerite.

#### King Boen I de Poullain

in 164 NE Felix died and his eldest true born son King Boen I de Poullain ascended to the throne much to the dismay of Bernard who believed he was the rightful heir since he was eight years Boen's senior, despite this Bernard and his family rode to the capital to pledge their allegiance to the new king.

Boen having three legitimized bastard siblings with strong claims to the throne tried his best to keep them close, he married Barnard to Madame Émeline de Clérisseau the daughter of a royal advisor in 162 NE and Lucas to Madame Adèle de Neri. Boen spent a majority of his reign dealing with the corruption that had occurred in his fathers reign and dealing with the angered noble families who's daughters had been killed or disgraced by the king. Boen had been married twice first to Madame Roheis de Le Palais in 156 NE who was poisoned by her sister later that same year, and second to Madame Legarda de Sene the daughter of a royal advisor, the match was unpopular with most as Legarda's father was disliked at court and by the common people for his heavy taxation and lavish spending.

Meanwhile Bernard was gaining evermore popularity and had become a great warrior, trained by Monsieur Raymond de Bissonnette, he had gained the support of many noble families over his worrisome and incompetent half-brother. Married to Madame Émeline de Clérisseau in 162 NE Bernard's son Loys would be born later that same year, followed by another son Jérémie in 165 NE and a daughter Océane in 167 NE. After the birth of his daughter Bernard began rallying supporters for his rebellion, he hosted a tourney and invited many prominent nobles who disliked the king and gained their support.

Back in the capital Boen descended into madness and paranoid that his half-brother was planning a rebellion and sent word to Comte d'Antinin and the Comte de la Belnin, who were the liege's of the Baron de Bourgogne, and imprisoned his other half-brother Lucas and his wife Adèle in the Palace. Hearing the news of Lucas and his wife's imprisonment Bernard's councillors urged him to rebel and state his claim on the throne and to release his brother and his wife from their imprisonment. Instead Bernard opted for the more peaceful route and sent envoys to the capital to negotiate peace terms and obtain the release of Lucas and Adèle. Boen instead of having an audience with the envoys decided to imprison them in the Palace also and sent his own envoys to Bernard to exile him and his family to Alossos, once the envoys arrived at the gates of Bernard's château he too imprisoned them in his dungeons and after years of despising his half-brother Bernard finally declared his claim to the throne.

## War

#### Open rebellion

The first Bourgogne Rebellion broke out in Late 167 NE, it lasted until 168 NE and divided the kingdom, mainly the Domaine Royal where the bulk of the rebellion took place and had little to no effect on the rest of the kingdom with all the Duc's deciding to remain neutral due to most disliking the king, but not siding with the rebels either wanting to preserve their lands and titles in the event that the royals were victorious.

In response to the rebellion King Boen had Lucas and the two imprisoned envoys executed on the Palace hill in sight of the entire city and had Madame Adèle whipped naked through the streets and banished from the city leaving her naked and unguarded on the roads outside the city gates. After hearing the news of his brothers execution and the disgrace of Madame Adèle, Bernard responded by burning and ravaging royalist lands causing the death's of 3000 commoners. Bernard sent his father-in-law Monsieur Clarence de Clérisseau with a small garrison to go and find Madame Adèle and return her to the Château Bourgogne.

Meanwhile Bernard and his army, numbering around 5000, arrived at the town of Montaulieu the seat of House Rose who were royalist supporters, Bernard began a small siege at the towns gates for a fortnight until the army of House Pompey arrived under the command of the Marquis de Baie himself and the battle of Montaulieu began.

#### The Battle of Montaulieu

The Battle began when Marquis Louis de Pomey charged into the smaller siege on the left gate completely crushing the rebels and killing their commander Baron Ronnel de Alencon. After gaining control of the left gate of the town the Comte de Montaulieu managed to rally a small force and join the Marquis.

Bernard set up his troops on the top of the Ysserux Hill into four troops with the three in front being commanded by Bernard's loyal supporters the Baron de Bissonnette and the Baron de Clérisseau, his father-in-law, and the final made up of 1000 spearmen was commanded by his steward Jean. With Bernard's own troop being left in the rear as reserves. While Louis had his army arranged to easily break through the rebels defences with heavy cavalry in the front with spearmen and longbow men behind. Louis commanded his army to charge at the opposing force and aim for the centre to break their barricade while having the Comte de Montaulieu take the rear and attack from the side. Bernard commanded his men to form a shield wall, while having his own longbow men fire on the incoming force. Louis cavalry was completely taken out by the continued raining arrows and were forced to retreat while the Comte de Montaulieu's forces managed to inflict some damage to the right flank but were taken out and the Comte was killed while trying to flee.

Seeing that his men had almost certainly won the battle Bernard had his men charge toward Louis regrouped men and a clash began Bernard's men outnumbered Louis' 3-1 but the Comtesse de Montaulieu charged out of the towns gates with a relief force of 1000 cavalry men and mounted warrior's and forced Bernard's forces to retreat towards their hilltop location and flee the battlefield .

#### Aftermath of The Battle of Montaulieu

After retreating back to his Château Bernard was received by his wife and the remainder of his staff and household, Where he found out that the King had arrived and plundered his Château taking everything and killing many of his staff and guards, and taking any nobles he found prisoner.

Bernard sent for his ally in the Baron de Clérisseau who escaped the battle of Montaulieu. His other allies the Baron de Bissonnette and his new ally Monsieur Robert de Voulte-sur-Rhone, the Baron de Voulte-sur-Rhone through the marriage of him and Bernard's sister Marguerite arrived at the Château after nightfall where they were sent word that the king was moving his troops through the Tête de mouton Hills.

#### The Battle of Tête de mouton Hills

The final conflict of the First Bourgogne Rebellion was The Battle of Tête de mouton Hills in mid 168 NE. The king had set up camp on top of one of the tallest hills giving him a key vantage point for any incoming armies, eventually the kings scouts had spotted the Bourgogne army heading towards their camp, the king set up key positions on the hill making a large shield wall defending his longbow men behind, the kings mighty host consisted of over 15000 troops with 7000 infantry, 3000 cavalry and 5000 longbow men, divided into four quadrants the left two commanded by the Comte d'Antinin and de la Belnin, the centre commanded by the king himself and his right by Marquis Louis.

Bernard arrived with only 3000 men commanded in uneven troops by his supporters Clérisseau and Voulte-sur-Rhone, as he left Bissonnette behind to defend his wife and family, as his other ally in the Baron de Neri was unable to reach the battle field in time. As Bernard arrived at the battle he commanded his host to charge at the shield wall set up by the king, as arrows rained down upon them hundreds of men were slain including Monsieur Clarence, when his men reached the shield wall they managed to cut through and cut down hundreds of the kings men, after that a bloodbath occurred causing many men to flee the battle.

Robert managed to make his way through cutting down many nobles and reaching the Comte de la Belnin where a famous duel began during which their swords were said to be heard all across the kingdom by the end of the duel both men were dead.

After his two strongest allies were cut down Bernard charged through the battle to reach King Boen himself cutting down the kings royal guards alone Bernard and Boen clashed and Boen himself wasn't the swordsman Bernard was and was killed in the bloody duel. After hearing that the king was dead many of his supporters fled the battle but not before an unknown man killed Bernard ending the Bourgogne Rebellion.

#### Aftermath

Over ten thousand men were killed during the Battle of Tête de mouton Hills including many prominent nobles and the king himself.

As the new King Stuar IV was only 10 his mother Queen Legarda took on the regency and the punishment's of the rebels. Renowned for her cruelty Queen Legarda showed no mercy to those involved in the rebellion, she executed many of Bernards loyal supporters who were still alive executing the Baron de Bissonnette, and many others who supported him, others had their lands, titles or wealth stripped away aswell as being forced to hand over hostages, Baron Eugène de Chappuis lost most of his land and wealth and Vicomte Gaspard de Duverger who lost his only son during the Battle of Tête de mouton Hills lost most of his land to House Gueux and had to hand over his two daughters Violette and Alice as hostages.