Valencouronne Commune

The Valencouronne Commune or the Valencouronne Peasant Republic (*1054-1056*) was a full-scale trader and peasantry rebellion against the ruling nobles within the **Free City of Valencouronne** in the Northern Kingdoms. Originally the peasantry were the first to take action, as the policies implemented during the midsummer city council of 1052 had allowed for gouging taxation against peasant artisans and craftsmen as well the free farmers within and outside the city gates - the requirement sometimes reaching a full 60 percent of all household dividends be they in coin or otherwise. However, without funding and arms, the peasants could do little but protest to deaf ears. Soon enough however the traders, the lower bourgeoise of the city, would too be hit by harsh and liquidly shifting taxation.

Chroniclers claim that the Valencouronne nobility were seeking to expand their weapon stockpile and on-call mercenary army for a war against either the Verdal Duchy itself or The Accord Confederation, these claims are not yet confirmed however. Regardless, due to the taxation place now on both social stratas, the peasants and traders conspired to overthrow the elite of their city, and with resources and planning of the more educated traders as well as some outlier aristocrats they overthrew, captured, imprisoned and then executed nearly all of Valencouronne's ruling elite, much to the dismay of the entirety of the Northern Kingdoms - be they Grand Lords or Dukes alike.

A **Great Royal Council** was held not a month following the successful uprising. Surprisingly enough however, it was decided that the united realm could not intervene in this particular instance, as it would set a dangerous precedent of the Crown overstepping the boundaries of the Free Cities, especially considering the Royal Violation in the Free City of Lunelaire not a decade prior, so instead the Margraviate of Ulrichthorf, under margrave Frederick "the Grim" von Sternwald, was charged with taking care of the peasant uprising and were given 3 years time - this long time was due to the extremely defensible position that Valencouronne is in and the amount of preparations necessary to take it, be it peasants or mercenaries that were defending the walls.

## Mobilization within the Commune

As soon as the revolution was successful, the Commune immediately organized itself. Before the soot of the fires that spawned from the fighting within the city had even reached the ground, a general election was held in the Valen's Crown Hall, where the metallurgy guild master, being of a modest upbringing himself, Josias Morchand was elected as First Lawspeaker of the Valencouronne Peasant Republic. After that, the Valencouronne territories both in the city itself and outside of it were reorganized into new districts, reconstruction efforts for the damaged buildings began, and trade deals were to be reestablished with the Kingdoms. Before the Great Royal Council, Josias Morchand attempted to ally Valencouronne with the Accord Confederation and even propel the Commune into joining the Confederation proper, this was refused on the Accord's side, but trade deals were made and trade would flow freely from Soleil, Averta and Dileir into the Valenshead without previous restrictions. The tax laws that previously had evoked the commonfolk's ire where immensely lessened and a relative sense of normalcy returned to the Free City in its' entirety.

With news of the Great Royal Council reaching the Free City, the population that had originally deposed the elite was once again mobilized, the stockpiled and unused weapons of the old regime were refurbished and distributed. Pleas for negotiation were sent to the Accord Confederation and to the Royal Capital but were ignored. Ignored and seemingly forsaken, the rhetoric of the Peasant Republic then rapidly changed - the Lawspeaker and Commune sent forth word to "***all free people in mind and body alike, of any race and any background***" and called all to action, to defend the "***first ever truly free republic lead by the commonfolk***". With the Valencouronne fleet largely untouched, ships were sent to nearly all the coastal cities of the Western and Southern parts of the Northern Kingdoms to spread the call-to-arms and to freedom - some were arrested as soon as they docked depending on the city, but many were able to spread the message and the following weeks saw the arrival of about 3,700~ peasants, most of them beggars or farmers, but all of them rebellious against monarchical or aristocratic authority. The Free City's population of previously 18,400~ had increased to just over 22 thousand, nearly all of them armed due to the purchases of the previous regime. Delegate to the Common Guilds Moreau Durch exclaimed that the "*Gods have blessed the Valenshead with reserves of food for 5 winters*" - a timetable two years larger than the terms given to margrave Frederick von Sternwald. The dwarven émigré Gustav Rahdclæn was promoted to the position of **People's Marshal** for his military expertise and cunning. Gustav strengthened Valencouronne's walls, began upending the roads connecting the Valencouronne buffer territories to the Margraviate of Ulrichthorf, sanctioned the destruction of the Lorin Bridge and the creation of defences along the remaining roads and the Suthaine river, he also called up his former adventurer contacts, many of which related to previously disbanded groups, such as the "*Nametakers*", "*The Judge*" and the "*Downers*".

The Commune additionally saw fit to begin preparations to use greypowder to blow up the ancient Van Arches - the twenty-four massive stone archways that connect Valencouronne to the rest of the Northern Kingdoms via land, but this plan was never realised as the City lacked the greypowder necessary to, with certainty, be able to blow the arches into the waves below.