Author Topic: War Reparations in Medieval Times  (Read 9952 times)

Scarlett

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Re: War Reparations in Medieval Times
« Topic Start: June 11, 2013, 06:36:00 PM »
One thing to keep in mind is that medieval peace treaties were very articulate, very flowery, and very worthless. The number of times one realm promised 'everlasting peace and friendship' or something to that effect is such that you'd think there was no other kind of peace to be had.

Another thing is that, unlike Rome and Carthage, many medieval entities were not functionally 'countries' in the sense that they felt somehow obligated to international agreements.  You also didn't see a heck of a lot of 'four Kingdoms fighting four other Kingdoms' in the middle ages, maybe with the exception of Spain where you had smaller Kingdoms like Navarre and Aragon.

One reason for the proliferation of 'claims' in the middle ages is that a lot of land that changed hands did not do so as the result of some formal treaty - it did so because somebody with a bigger axe moved in and parked there.

You might try to humble your opponent in peace talks, but the very fact that you're having peace talks means that both sides presumably would like to be done fighting. You could demand huge payments but unless you were willing to go right back to war if they didn't materialize, making demands like that just opens you up to being in the awkward position of 'previous winner who can't even enforce a tribute payment.' Relinquishing claims and getting land were more permanent.

The Hundred Years' War did not even end with a treaty. It ended with the Battle of Castillon as the last significant action in the conflict, but the war technically continued for another 20 years even though not much else happened. BM is a difficult analogue here because medieval 'realms' were largely culture-based rather than nation-based -- you would not dream, for example, of 'destroying the realm of France' because even if you killed off every last person in the King's army, all the nobility there were still French and 'France' would just reoccur under whomever the next King was. You had to have nobles willing to go and settle in a foreign place, and outside of the First Crusade and William the Conquerer, that was tough to do.

In the FEI you could take your Zonasan noble and march up to Coralynth and outside of an initial round of poking and prodding, you could assimilate pretty quickly. There is not much 'culture' to speak of in BM.
« Last Edit: June 11, 2013, 06:37:37 PM by Scarlett »