The Corvian Invasion

The Corvian Invasion of 1240 was a conflict of unprecedented proportions which culminated in the Battle of Wroslow, where the forces of the Principality of Corveaux defeated an alliance of princes and dukes of the fragmented Vichin.

The Corvians invaded the Westerlands with three armies. One of the three was tasked with distracting Vichin, before joining their main effort to invade Magiore. This was a calculated attempt from the Corvian Field Marshal Anton Nagy, to prevent the Vichinians from threatening his flank during the main invasion.

## Prelude

Beela IV succeeded his father in 1235 as King of Magiore, just as the Corvians were sweeping south. The King was informed of the Corvian threat by Fria Julian, a friar who had visited Corveaux and reported of the worrying nationalism growing there. In the next years, Corveaux routed marshes north of the Slatina River.

In 1240, Field Marshal Anton Nagy demanded Beela IV’s surrender without a fight. King Beela refused and ordered his barons to assemble their retinue in his camp at Vorde, where a riot broke out and armies of two barons clashed with one another.

## Invasion

### Invasion of Magiore

The main Corvian army met the Maegar forces in 1240 at the River Sashow, where the Corvians won a decisive victory. Beela IV fled the battlefield to Vichin, where Prince Frederick of Volynia tried to ransom him back to Corveaux.

The Corvians first occupied and thoroughly plundered the Kingdom’s territories and after experiencing immense success in Vichin, crossed the Wrynova River when it froze over in early 1242. Seeing the outcome of the war, Hermann of Nazaire, a travelling Red Priest of the Dancing Flame, recorded that ***“the Kingdom of Magiore, which has existed for 350 years, is destroyed.”***

### Invasion of Vichin

Although the Corvians entered Vichin with the sole intention of distracting the realm, they almost completely annihilated Vichinian forces and scared Metina into bolstering their own borders instead of assisting Magiore. When the Field Marshal heard of their success, he urged them to continue their assault while the invasion of Magiore continued. The Corvians first destroyed Varteck on 13 December 1241, then split. One force under Capitan Ordieu devastated central Vichin while another force ravaged the lands along the Wrynova river, before both turned south towards the capital.

While besieging Kurnow, Corveaux recieved reports that the Metinans were mere days away with a large army, so the Corvians turned from Kurnow to intercept the armies of the Vichinian princes before it could join with Metina. They caught up with the army at Stokengrad on 9 Januare 1242 and won a decisive victory against the Vichin forces. In the chaos of battle, the Corvians allegedly caused mass-confusion in the Vichin ranks by yelling 'Flee!' in Wendish.

### Withdrawal

Corveaux avoided Metina, who were too frightened to advance and assist the meek Maegar forces, defeated on 6 February. But news that the Prince of Corveaux had died the previous year along with disagreements between Capitan Bonne and Capitan Ordieu caused Anton Nagy to order a withdrawal to Corveaux for the grand council which would elect the next prince.

This order likely saved the Vichin lands from being completely annexed by Corveaux and in March of 1242, when crossing through Magiore, the Corvians faced new difficulties, as read in the Chroniques du Chagrin (1256): ***"the spring rain bucketed down, turning the dirt to mud. Many waggons had to be abandoned, the horses too, not used to the soaking conditions of the barbaric land, began to perish en masse and here, we found only hostility.”*** The army never made it across the Slatina.

## Aftermath

With the combined Corvian armies unable to return to their homeland and many nobleman in the field prevented from attending the grand council, the state crumbled into a long-lasting succession crisis. Anton Nagy settled much of his force at Cassow to establish his own regime, which would later become known as the Golden Horde.

Magiore lost a great deal of their northern holdings to the Horde. The invasion and the famine that followed it had catastrophic consequences for the population, at least 15 percent of which died or disappeared.

Vichin reunification was greatly delayed by the invasion as well. All across Central Magnia, trading routes disintegrated, causing massive decline in commerce, which was a heavy loss to the state exchequer of both countries and the welfare of the people. Many small villages were abandoned as peasants moved to larger settlements and destroyed churches and towns were rebuilt with new stone fortifications.