Causæ ad Bellum

Actual Photo

We have a system for getting little wars churning in the background. Now we need to determine the causes of war. I'll also touch briefly on defining the belligerents but we will cover full generation of horrible Barons in a future post. This one is already long enough!

Causus Belli

Usually war is sought between nations for the same reasons people would seek conflict - pride, fear, greed, or the necessity of acquisition for personal (national) preservation. But "usually" isn't "always" and there were a lot of asinine reasons to send your people off to die.

1) Polities go to war for administrative reasons. They may need to maintain the status quo inside the borders or they may wish to enrich themselves through pillage. These are Practical Matters.

Practical Matters

• Succession – to the Crown or other rank in the Second Estate
• Revolt – putting down peasants
• Treason – putting down a breakaway noble
• Allurement – high banditry for fun and profit

High Banditry is a term I invented. It refers to a Company (gang) of knights from allied households or Outlaws who form up under one banner (gang colors) for the purposes of pillage and looting a neighboring territory (gang business.) Short excursions against the First and Third Estates were commonplace, good practice, and profitable. Unfortunately, there was always a risk of meeting up with a Company under a different banner and having to actually fight someone your own size.

2) Polities go to war whenever there is a conflict over a resource. Necessary Resources are constantly appearing (or in danger of disappearing) and therefore war is inevitable. Sometimes these resources are people, places or things and sometimes they are less concrete, such as strategic alliance. These are called Vices. They are split into two categories as shown below.

Vices of Guardianship

• Nationalism – war to protect the borders
• Preservation - war to preserve an inherent quality of a people like religion, race culture or species 
• Consolidation – war to annex a key resource or location
• Expansion – war to bring territory, people and wealth under control
• Preemptive-Defensive – war to stave off invasion

Vice of Confederacy

• Confederacy – aiding an ally, serving a Lord, preserving a vassal state, or fulfilling a treaty

3) Polities may also go to war for personal reasons, or for the same reasons that people would quarrel. These are called Sins. Many wars were caused by one or more of the sins of the belligerents, and then justified by a practical matter or vice.  For instance, a young King John II of England was invaded by an Irish King who had initially come to swear fealty. Little John’s affront? He’d yanked the beard of the older man!

Sins of Acquisition

• Gluttony – succumbing to hasty acquisition
• Lust – succumbing to acquisition of a particular person place or thing
• Greed – succumbing to acquisition through evil acts

Sins of Self-Regard

• Pride – self-overestimation
• Vanity - the regard for self and disregard for others
• Envy – covetousness toward the possession of someone else

Sins of Licentiousness

• Sloth – allowing evil to prosper
• Despair – sowing discord
• Mendacity – demanding unnecessary assistance

Sins of Bellicosity

• Vengeance – shedding blood in retaliation
• Vainglory – devising wicked acts
• Wrath – shedding innocent blood

Note well that I did not assign these causus ad bellum to a chart or table. It’s up to each player or Referee to establish his own reason for going to war.

Source

On the Nature of Rulers

The third grouping, the Sins, is potentially useful in giving each Baron adjacent to your own Realm a basis for his personality. As we have discussed before, all Barons were horrible. By assigning each of the Barons one of these sins as the basis for his personality, you can get a good handle on how he acts and what might set him off onto the course of war.

Causus Pacem

However, sometimes there is peace. This is usually due to the hard work of a very few people. Usually peace is sought because there is a greater threat coming, or that threat is present. (e.g. Country A and B set aside differences to oppose countries C and D.) When those people die, retire, or are removed, then war comes again.