Extract from The Art of the Three Crowns, Ch. VII
The Last King, Pt. III
By the twenty-seventh and last year of the reign of Svend the Fourth, a succession war seemed more than likely. The king had seen the continuation of his father’s expansionist policies, waging and winning wars against the Alber across the pond and the Ameriker across the sea. But he was already senile and ailing. His sons were feeble and their sons were close to useless. His generals were conflicting and the court was in strife. The occasion looked dire and the Estridsens sought to salvage what they could, inviting their close ally, the Liechtensteins, to gather on their southern border in case of rebellion and invasion by the scheming Sueker and Norwezher who both had long waited for an opportunity to take the throne of the Three Crowns. Just as he had feared, upon Svend’s death, his eldest son, Harald the Fourth was crowned king and the union fractured. Harald was a typical Danner in behavior and fashion. He was paranoid of the Liechtensteins who had gathered in the south in answer to his father’s call to arms and dismissed them. The withdrawal of the Zhermanner lit the court alight with instant treachery. Powerful factions formed under the dukes and margraves and the nation was thrown into civil war. The kings of Sueken and Norwezhen sat back, convinced that the Danner would ruin themselves, before they ought to march for Haven, but they had miscalculated an anomaly that should never have been there.
Hannes-Frederik, former Grand Marshal of the Three Crowns, had long been loyal to the Estridsens but ever since his victory over the Alber two years prior, he was a retired man. Sixty-one years of age, none had expected him to return to service, but his neighbors, his people, and his son urged him to take up arms and reunify this nation for the sake of peace and prosperity. Thirty thousand soldiers and peasants joined him in his campaign and together, they sailed across the strait under the protection of a squadron led by a young Franz Jarlsberg. The nobles who had gathered in the city of Rovongen were stunned when the retired marshal landed on their shores. A fierce battle ensued but the nobles’ army was crushed. Having lifted Haven from its siege, Hannes-Frederik was welcomed into the royal capital with open arms, but distraught by the marshal’s popularity, King Harald ordered that he be imprisoned until order was restored. Instead, Harald became the one who was driven out of his city and sought refuge with the Sueker and Norwezher. Fearing the consolidation of Hannes-Frederik’s power, the three kings marched on Haven but its walls withstood every attempted attack. When the coalition launched their fourth attack, the marshal sallied out and the kings’ armies were slaughtered.
The three houses and their three crowns had been usurped by a retired soldier in under a year and the union was dismantled. Hannes-Frederik was crowned, with popular support, King of the Three Crowns in the year four hundred and seventy-four and he was one nation.
— Valdemar Lorentzen14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8v9RyiGajJ
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