The First Holy Crusade

This conflict was the very first military campaign of a 70 years long era now commonly referred to as the era of the Holy Crusades. It was the most impressive display of military tactics by a Bohemian king - Ambrosius the Ironhand - which set a precedence for years to come.
Before we get to the faithful event of the evening that started it all in 1437, we need to backtrack a little. Kingdom of Bohemia was a tiny little bit of land nested in the middle of some mountains, full of hills and people ready to die on them should you ever come near. However, the ideal scenario is still keeping the dying to a minimum, so people can have some time to themselves. The hills were pretty, but the dying was getting exhaustive and after years and years and years of little wars here and there and skirmishes and sieges and such, the rulers of Bohemia started to lean on other - and most importantly bigger - countries surrounding them. One such country was the empire of Almandia which soon grew to be their biggest ally, at least on the surface. Almandians however were quite known for regarding Bohemia as a vassal and backwards state more than a friend and animosities started to grow over the decades. This started to make the various noblemen living on the hills in their nice little castles a bit nervous.
To clear the atmosphere, a series of diplomatic missions was launched both in Bohemia and over in Almandia and after about 6 years, the crisis seemed to dim down and it looked like it might just pass over without any grave consequences, maybe there's gonna be a marriage or two to seal the deal.
The first problem was that the leadership of Almandia changed and among the intrigues of their royal court, caring about some little country over there, seemed insignificant. The diplomats once again did not even bother to hide their contempt and started to get a little snarky. And the king Ambrosius started to lose his patience once more. And then the snails tipped him over the edge. Specifically, tipped one of his knights, sir Quintinus Mercier, over the table, dead on the spot. Choked on one of these slimy but to Almandians delicious little things. And when one of your most capable knights gets all of a sudden dead during a dinner to which the diplomats insisted on bringing over their own food, you start getting suspicious about your own plate. Kind Ambrosius started yelling.
Pale with anger and tired of the silly demands Almandians started to impose on a noblemen who was supposed to be their equal, he just decided to show them once and for all, what are the consequences of dishonouring the sanctity of Bohemian royal court. He ordered that the entire delegation shall be immediately executed for daring to try to assassinate him - which in turn did not really please the big Almandian empire.
The war was on, marriages be damned and it would not stop until Bohemia was able to win back its honour it lost during all these year where it tried to appease its high and mighty neighbours. This first crusade lasted 14 and involved around as many famous battles the Bohemians every fought in, which proved to the world one thing, even though the borders of these two states didn't really changed that much - Bohemian kingdom is not to be ridiculed and you better follow their traditions, especially if you want to dine with kings.

Conflict Type

War