Clements Revolt

Clements Revolt (SA 308-310) was a civil war fought in Northern Westreach between the forces of staffmarshal Paxter Clements and the regime of Emperor Julian I. The war was initiated in late SA 308 when Clements led a large continent of the Imperial Army south into the Middefold under the pretext of pacifying the Calamanns and Getea. Instead, however, Clements allied himself with the confederonds and declared his intention to overthrow Saric. Over SA 309, Imperial forces were defeated and Clement's claimed control over most of Northern Westreach. The rebel cause rapidly collapsed, however, with Berskin intervention, and Clement's field army was defeated at the Battle of Anslem.

Background
The Battle of the Burning Trees and the conclusion of the Civil War of SA 300 resulted in a brief period of stability in Westreach as Emperor Julian I was coronated and long-sought reforms were implemented. Under Saric's lieutenant Paxter Clements, a standing Imperial Army was restored in the hopes of reasserting eroded central authority and garrisoning the war-torn frontiers. Due to the Empire's strained finances, this army numbered no more then 50,000 men. However, it was maintained in the field year-round and was well disciplined and trained, with a level of logistical organization and equipment standardization matching the Arloginian army of the previous decades. The bulk of the army was despatched to the Northern March in mid-SA 306 under the command of Clements to subdue the Engerlings, who had been raiding along the frontier.

The political situation in Westreach began to deteriorate in SA 307 when Middefold, which had been briefly stabilized following the settlement of the Berskins and Calamanns, fell into turmoil The Calamanns once again entered open revolt, breaking out of their tribal encampments and occupying both Cainraine in April of SA 307; the Geteans seized Northtown, and the citizenry of Harerok, struck by famine, revolted, driving Saric from the capital.

Course of the War
Even before the completion of his campaigns against the Engerlings, certain elements of Clement's army had begun to demand that he march south against Saric and seize the throne. The Army's centralized structure, which placed loyalty in Clements rather then Saric, favored a military uprising. Clement's resisted this pressure, even as it intensified in the aftermath of his decisive victory at Stockade-upon-Meare. News of the Calamannic capture of Cainraine, however, as well as the Sunday Rising, resulted in a near-mutiny among his men, and, having secured the northern frontier, Clement's felt confident enough to turn against Saric. Throughout the winter of SA 308 he courted a number of Calamann, Deurving, Berskin, and Getean delegations in the hopes of strengthening his grip on the North and securing a stable base from which he could challenge Saric's rule.

The war was opened in April of SA 308 when Clements marched south with the bulk of his army and stormed Sternard, securing the begrudging submission of the March-Lords before advancing into the war-torn Middefold. The Clementian army, initially numbering no more then 14,000 men, slowly marched south, subjugating many local lords and attacking those who continued to resist. Arriving outside of the walls of Haleston in late July, Clements found the city stormed and sacked by his Calamannic ally King Megnovic I. With Julian and the bulk of the Imperial army besieging Harerok, the riverlords were largely alone in facing Clements; nonetheless, an army of 12,000 men marched north under Staffhalse Vincen Duran in early September, crossing the Rotmotte and commencing a daring attack on Maynards Keep. Clements would have been captured in the city if it were not for the arrival of a relief force, which fell on Vincen's rear and routed it. The Imperialists, mauled, retreated behind the Rottmotte while the Clementians quartered in Harerok.

Clements faced the Imperialists in battle for a second time in May of SA 309 along the Rottmotte. Julian, by drawing troops from the frontier, raising Harehald's fyrds and enlisting the Remagude bands that had proliferated across the Hearth, had assembled an army of 25,000 and invested Harerok in January, but news of Clements gains

The Clementians launched a sophisticated, disciplined attack against the Imperial army entrenched along the southern bank, forcing a crossing and then slowly driving the Imperials back. The Imperial army was again broken, though its complete destruction was prevented by Julian's flight at the height of the battle, which prompted his army to withdraw relatively intact. The Emperor was able to escape the disaster with his retinue, fleeing east to the Berskin king Raine I, who, despite a pact with Clement's, granted Saric asylum. The battered remnants of the Imperial army, under the command of Staffhalder Horace Flynn, withdrew behind the walls of Rottgut.

The Clementians, despite their victory, were unable to carry a well-defended Rottgut and instead marched up the river onto Stromkrop. The stronghold was captured in late June and a month later the Clementians entered Harerok, butchering the rebels who had taken control of the capital and beginning negotiations with the Grand Arch for Clement's coronation. A Clementian victory seemed, for the moment, secure.

The tide of the war turned suddenly in SA 310; Calamann King Megnovic I defected and murdered Clement's family in Cainraine, the Imperial army of Horace Flynn began marching on Harerok, and the Berskins struck into the Middefold with a large host. By May, Clement's had abandoned Harerok and re-entered the Middefold. After failing to confront the Imperial forces while they were still seperated, Clement's and his army were trapped at Anslem. The Clementian army was nearly able to break-out of their encirclement, but Imperial weight in numbers as well as the rout of Clement's remaining Northmen auxiliaries resulted in a annihilating defeat. Clement's was killed, his body mutilated, as were the majority of his lieutenants and his entire army.

Though the Battle of Anslem signaled the end of major fighting, the Revolt continued through SA 310 as Saric quelled the last remaining pockets of resistance. The garrison of Clement's domain of Fairmaiden, which had been besieged since SA 309, surrendered in late October under the impression that they would be spared; instead, they were beheaded and the city was razed. The small garrison of Zwellrung, which Clement's had left to guard the frontier, avoided a similar fate by surrendering in December, bringing the Revolt to a complete end.

Aftermath
The War brought an abrupt end to the brief period of recovery which had followed the Regents War. Though the Revolt was crushed, the cream of the Imperial Army, some 20,000 men, had died in Clements failed bid for power, crippling the Westreachian Empire's military capacity and severely restricting Saric's ability to continue projecting his authority across Westreach. Saric's prestige and influence would never recover, and the remainder of his reign would be characterized by turmoil and steadily escalating challenges from both within and outside of his court. The Gailish-Northmen menace, which had subsided in the years previous to the revolt, resumed as kings Logen I and Megnovic I, believed to have been contained, exploited the new power vacuum to extend their own influence, often at the expense of Saric's.

The steady deterioration of central authority which directly proceeded the SA 316 Sack of Harerok began with Clement's Revolt. Deprived of the ability to continue directly projecting military power, Saric empowered the Gailish-Northmen kings as his proxies, a policy which was largely responsible for the degradation of the Imperial order.

The war also had a number of immediate effects. Emboldened by his participance in the conflict, Berskin regent Harris Halmar would formally seize power only three months after the Battle of Anslem, murdering his brother-in-law King Raen and becoming King Harris I of the Berskins. Saric descent into paranoia after the War was exhibited by his actions during the final seven years of his reign, which included the decentralization of the Imperial Army and the employment of a large number of Calamanns as a personal bodyguard, a policy which would end with his murder in SA 317.