The excuse was that you were sending an army south to "visit relatives". That is verbatim the language used (though of course you didn't call it an army).
As for Hammarsett, your shenanigans factored into the decision, even if I didn't cite it as the reason we declared war. In the end I didn't much care about our casus belli - honestly I don't even remember exactly what reason I gave. I had my reasons for going to war that were good enough for me, and that's all that mattered. My allies were behind me, so I didn't really feel that I had to justify myself to everyone else.
Indeed, and after you attacked Coria twice by surprise, without previously declaring War, then we knew we could never trust Hammarsett ever again. At that point, Saeculo wouldn't rest until you were destroyed, which is a shame, as Coria helped to found and support Hammarsett in the early days, and you had a cool culture on our borders. As a player I didn't want it to happen, but obviously as a character I was delighted to see the downfall of Hammarsett.
