Our armies were always mobilized, we were busy purging hordes - same as everyone else. We just happened to be in the same area doing so when Barca arrived. To be fair, we also knew about it some time beforehand. D'Hara is rife with silent nobility providing that information.
I really hate this kind of behavior. This is the kind of thing that gets people to mistrust their peers, and limit trust, cooperation, and sharing. Many things that used to be discussed openly and had everyone invited to contribute shift towards secrecy, with smaller discussion groups and many actions taken without consulting anyone at all. And who pays for it? In the end, it's the newbies in particular, but everyone in general. It promotes silence and stagnation.
Just another symptom of the realm-as-a-team spirit being gone and replaced with an utterly destructive self-serving mentality. I don't recall spies ever being a significant concern when I joined the game, but now it's safe to assume that every realm and religion probably has at least 10% of its nobles that are just there to see it fail.
