First Caledonian Civil War
The First Caledonian Civil War was fought from 309 to 328.
Unlike most "Civil Wars", the First Civil War was largely a battle among nobles and their retainers - although many innocent bystanders became "collateral damage" over the years.
Origins
The origins of the First Civil War started with a battle over a woman - but the squabble between two jilted and aggressive young nobles was a symptom of a much larger illness.
John MacArthur, then a 20 year old student at Saints College at the University of Caledon, began courting Professor Ann Carraigh, a seductively attractive and, history says, calculating 28 year old Gheldaght instructor who was very much seeking an entree to the nobility. She had also previously consorted with the 22 year old Gordon Fitzwilliam - who, feeling jilted, clashed with MacArthur, first on the athletic field, then in numerous personal arguments, and then in a number of fights. As both young men were hereditary leaders of large, powerful clans, they had large groups of retainers; when the two young men fought with words and fists, the retainers fought with clubs and eventually firearms.
While the squabble died down for a few years after both men graduated from Saints, John was not one to forget a grudge; as he moved toward coronation, he sicced his retainers - many of them in positions of power in business, the courts, the military and the bureaucracy - on Fitzwilliam.
Fitzwilliam gathered supporters among many clans who'd been slighted by MacArthur; MacArthur called in markers among its supporting clans. And at the "Battle of Market Street", the feud turned into open warfare, with gangs of retainers from both clans and their supporters opening fire on each other, killing over a dozen combatants and six bystanders.
The feud between the two playboys was, however, the least of the issues; the "First Constitution" had been a big step forward in Caledonian law - but the nobles who'd agreed to it hadn't wanted to hamstring their own power in dealing with other clans. The shortcoming in law was made up in the streets and estates of much of the Principality's rimward half for the next two decades.
The War
William II, aware that his brother "John The Stupid" had launched the war, nonetheless treated the feud as a law and order issue, and eventually as an insurgency. While the Caledonian military was never formally involved in the fighting, members of various combatant clans within the military and intelligence service were implicated in many actions throughout the war.
While the death toll of the "battles" was measured in single and double digits for the most part, it added up; over 19 years, well over 2,000 retainers, and 900 bystanders, were killed over a "war" that most Caledonians couldn't explain or understand.
The Treaty of Loch Connery
In the last decade of the war, and a decade of his brother William's dogged but ineffectual rule, the Prince's younger brother Simon came to the realization that the "Civil War" was a pointless, expensive, and wasteful diversion. Some historians claim he came to this conclusion under the influence of Sheila MacMurrough, a courtesan and distant relative of clansmen on both sides of the squabble.
But whether guided by growing conviction, drawn by feminine wiles, or a combination of both, Simon spent the waning years of his brother's reign (and failing health) negotiating a complex exit from the "Civil War"; when his brother abdicated in 328, Simon signed the Treaty of Loch Connery, which adjudicated a satisfactory settlement to the Fitzwilliam feud, enacted a reconciliation between the clans, and staged a withdrawal from power for both clans. Simon was the last ruler of Clan MacArthur of Cruikshank - but the reforms of the last three decades of his reign extinguished much of the pointless dynastic squabbling that had bedeviled William's reign (and in which John had reveled).
References & Contributors (Sources)
- Author & Contributor: Mitchberg