Sworpdpoint_Charlemagne.pdf

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This Sworclpoint
campaign
supplement
focuses on
the armies and
enemies
of
the Frankish
Emperor
Charlemagne. Swordpoint
supplements
are
intended to provide
you
with
any
necessary
historical
background to the
subject
matter,
together with new and/ or expanded
army
lists
and
a series of
scenarios
for play. These may
be
linked into
a campaign or
may
stand
alone,
depending
on
the
style
of
the individual
supplement.
All the
scenarios can
be
adapted
and
played with any other armies
you
may
choose.
All the
army
lists
are
fully
compatible with
those in the
relevant army
list
book,
so
those in
this supplement,
for
example,
can
be used
against any
in the Dark Age
Army
Book. You
should
also
be allowed to
use
them in a
D
ark
Age tournament,
should you
wish to
do
so.
The
army
lists
are
intended for
wider
use beyond the
scenarios
in
this
supplement.
Please
note that
Charlemagne
may not use the
Stratagem
rule
when
you arc
playing
the
scenarios
in this
book.
CREDITS
Written by
Martin Gibbins.
Proofreading
Duncan Macfarlane.
Photography
Wargames Illustrated.
Graphic
Design
Wargames Illustrated
and
Andrew Sherwell.
Cover
Artwork
Peter
Dennis.
Miniatures
All the models
shown
in this book are
manufactured
by
G
ripping
Beast Ltd.
They are
painted by
Wyn Rogers, Neil
"Swordmaster"
Bitten,
Darren Linington
and
Adie Burt.
HISTORICAL
BACKGROUND
In
700
the majority
of
modern
France and
Germany
was controlled
by the Merovingian D
ynasty
of the Franks, though by this time power
lay
with
the
Mayors of
the Palace rather than the King.
Brittany, Aquitaine
and
Frisia
lay
outside
the Kingdom. Spain
and a
sm all
part
of South-West
France
were
ruled by the Visigoths. Francia
was
divided into the regions
of Neustria
and
Austrasia
and
each
had its
own
monarch
and
Mayor; by
718 after
civil strife,
the
Austrasian Mayor Charles
Martel had
succeeded
in uniting the Franks
under
a single
King,
who
he
controlled.
O
ver
the
previous
forty
years,
the Umayyad Caliphate
had
conquered
most
of
the Byzantine
and
Sassanid Empires,
and
spread across
North Africa. The
new Islamic
converts
at
the
edges
of these
areas
enthusiastically embraced
the
concept
of Holy War,
expanding
the
Caliphate
further in their
turn.
In
71
1,
the Moors invaded Spain. The
civilised
Visigothic Kingdom
collapsed with
indecent
haste;
an
internecine
conflict
left
the
army
unreliable
and
King Roderick
was
killed in
the first
engagement.
The
Moors overran virtually
the
whole
peninsula by
714.
O
ver
the next
few
years,
the Moors expanded
over the Pyrenees
and took
Narbonne, which
made
a
convenient
base for
raids and
further
expansion across
France.
Resistance to this
encroachment
was
led
by Duke Odo
of Aquitaine,
who was able
to deal the invaders
a
bloody
nose
in
721 when
he
relieved the
siege
of Toulouse
by
surprising
them
in their
siege
lines.
Moslem
pressure did
not
let
up,
and
in
732 they
sacked
Bordeaux
and
smashed
Odo
's
army at
the
river
Garonne. Odo
was
forced to
beg for help
from the
Franks.
Charles
M
artel agreed
to
assist,
providing Odo
swore
fealty to Francia,
which
he did. The Frankish
army
met the
Moors
at
Tours;
a
glance
at a map
shows
just
how
far
into
France
the Moslem
armies
now
reached.
The Frankish
army
consisted almost
entirely of
heavy infantry,
and
the battle
was
similar
to
that
of
Hastings,
except
that the Franks
were
fresh
and at
full
strength,
and
trained
well
enough
to
avoid
breaking the
shieldwall
to pursue
an apparently
fleeing
enemy.
Eventually
the
exhausted
Moors
retired and their
general was
killed
in
the
confusion.
Tours
was
hailed
as
the
great
turning point, the moment
when
the
force
of
the
Moslem
advance
was
broken
and
Europe
saved
for
Christendom.
However
Charles
had
to
defeat
another
invasion in
736
and the
Franks
were occupied
in
recovering lost territory for two decades, not finally taking
Narbonne
until
759.
It
can
be
argued that
it
was
the fall
in
750
of the
Umayyad Caliphate, with
its
doctrine
of
Holy War and
relentless
expansion,
which really
saved
Europe.
The
Frankish
military
learned
from
its
fearsome opponents,
and
from this
time the
importance
of
cavalry
in
the
Frankish
army
increased
rapidly.
When the Merovingian King died in
737
Charles
took no
steps
to appoint
another,
ruling
as
Mayor until
his
death in
74
1
and
dividing the kingdom
between
his
sons as
if it
were
his to dispose
of
-
which
of
course
it
was.
Initially Pepin
and
Carloman
did not
feel their
positions to be
so
strong,
and so appointed another
M
erovingian
King. Carloman
retired from public
life in
747
to become
a
monk,
leaving
Pepin
in
sole charge.
Pepin
asked the
Pope
to
resolve
the
regal
conundrum
-
is the ruler the
one
with
the title or the
one
with
the
power? Reliant
on
the
Franks to
offset
the might of
the
Lombards
and
the Byzantines, the Pope declared Pepin the
ruler. The nobility then elected him King.
In
response to the
Pope's
assistance,
Pepin
attacked
and defeated
the
Lombards,
seizing
territory
in
northern
Italy
from
them
and donating
it
to the
Papacy.
This
created
the
"Papal
States" giving
the
Papacy
temporal
authority.
After this
he
turned
his
attention to the
Moslems until
Narbonne
was
recovered.
In
760 Pepin took up
a
rms
against Aquitaine, possibly on
the
pretext
that
Duke Waifer
had
confiscated
church
lands.
The
war was
long
and
bitter
and
lasted
until
768, when
Aquitaine
was
integrated
into
Francia.
Later that
year,
Pepin
died
and in accordance with
Salic
law, the realm
was
cli\'icled bet.
.veen
his
sons Charles and Carloman. Their
relationship
was
fractious
and was
on the
p
oint of
deteriorating
into outright
war when
Carloman died
in
771,
leaving
Charles as
sole ruler.
Over the next thirty
years Charles
prosecuted a vigorous
policy
of
expansion
,
subjugating
the
Lombards,
Saxons,
Avars,
Frisians
and
Slavs
across
the river
Elbe.
H
e also
created a
buffer
zone
across
the Pyrenees
as a watch
on the Moslems.
In
800
Pope
Leo III
sought
his
assistance against
a
revolt
in
Rome;
Charles
marched
his
army
clown to reinstate
him
and a grateful
Leo
crowned
him Emperor
of the
Romans.
This
created
tension with
the Byzantines,
and a
short
war
followed
over
the
parts
of
Italy in
Byzantine hands.
In
810
Charle's
status
was
recognised by
the
Byzantine Emperor
M~chael.
Charles died
in
8
14,
at the
age
of 72.
He
was
succeeded
by Louis,
his only
surviving son.
Charlemagne
had
vastly expanded
the Frankish realm,
and
led
a
military,
legal and cultural renaissance.
H
e continued
to
emphasise
the importance
of
Lhe horse in
the Frankish
army,
both by
extending
the
cavalry arm
and by its
general
use
for
long-range
movement. Many
of his
successes were
d
ue to
the
excellent
organisation and training
of
his
forces,
his
logistic
capability
allowing
him
to maintain
extensive forces in the field for
long
periods.
Franlush
Terntory
in
768
Conquests of Charlemagne
768-814
Dependent
ternloines
A~rar
Peoples
lnbulary lo Charlemagne
Boundanes of the
empire in 81
4
•-
-
..
AQUITAINE
I07

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