The Reign of King Björn
And with 32 votes King Björn of Ångermanland. All hail King Björn! He walked up to the dining table not looking happy like the other elected kings had, but serious and almost angry. The jarls cheered regardless of Björn's mood. He got on top of the table and shouted, Quiet! Quiet! This is no time for celebration. The room died down almost immediately. As of now we are at war! We are at war with the Carolingians and any others who dare dwell in Francia. Their king, this 'Charlemagne' is moving his soldiers toward Denmark. We cannot stand for this! We attacked their ancestors, sent them fleeing from their homes. And now they seek revenge, but they seem to have forgotten that they are no match for us. We are going to have to remind them. We are going to have to hit the French again, but this time; silence them forever. We must take Paris this time. You see, my father prepared his entire life for this war and even died doing it. I am lucky to have inherited his great army, and now I will carry out what he always wanted. But my father, above anything else, was a farmer; and he raised me a farmer too. Being a man of the land, he knew that where we live is not the greatest place to farm, not the greatest place to grow and definitely not the greatest place for a man to find his peace. But this place, our home, is the greatest place to make the strongest, fiercest, and most fearless men. And we will use this to our advantage. When we attack Paris this time, we will keep all to ourselves, that means their land too. This attack will not be a raid, but an invasion. We can better our people by taking the Carolingian lands. We can bring in better harvests, grow our families larger and make the union even stronger. Who knows? From there we may be able to expand even further; into Saxony, Italy or Castile. Another thing my father would want me to do is take care of my younger brothers. They will accompany me to Francia and be my second in commands. The rest of you may come along if that is what you wish, but do not seek any special positions in my army. When the invasion of Francia is finished and wounds have healed, we will then load up the ships once again and make sail for the isles. I hope to still be with you when that day comes, but more importantly, I hope to see you all in the halls of Valhalla one day. You and all the other men waiting to load up on those ships in the harbor. We set sail in spring! The hall erupted in cheers, and finally a big grin crept across Björn's face. As soon as the cheering broke out, ten barrels of mead were brought in by servants and not even Björn could resist the urge to celebrate.
Once the last of the siege equipment was loaded onto the ships, they set sail for Francia. In total, the armada carried ten thousand men as well as two hundred catapults. A second force led by King Gudfred's son, Hemming, left Denmark and moved south toward the eastern frontier of the Carolingian Empire.
Meanwhile, King Alfred of Wessex united the other kingdoms of England under his rule. An invasion of the isles will be much more difficult now that the armies of England are now united and not squabbling amongst each other.
The main army reached the outlet of the Seine River and turned to row upriver toward Paris. The Carolingians were much stronger than their Merovingian predecessors and the army was forced to make camp farther downriver than Ingvar had many years ago.
Unlike Ingvar, Björn did not bother trying to make peace with the Parisians for he wanted more than just their gold and a few slaves. He began the assault by using the catapults to damage and destroy the light Parisian fortifications. During the initial attack, half of the siege equipment was lost, but the Parisian defenses were destroyed and their forces damaged. Once scouts reported back to camp that the Carolingian archers were trapped in the open, the main attack began. The soldiers packed onto longboats and made their way upriver. Just out of arrowshot, six thousand berserkers disembarked from their boats and charged the city with Björn leading from the front. The first line of the Parisian defense was an army of four thousand longbowmen stationed just outside the city to meet the charging army. These soldiers had heard the stories of the men before them who were obliterated by raiders who set their city ablaze. These stories caused the men to fight harder and they were able to bring down almost a thousand of the Norsemen before their lines broke and then retreated into the city. Seeing their enemies in a full retreat, Björn halted his army and cried out, It seems our enemies have once again given up before we even reached their city. Remember men, loot, but do not burn! The soldiers let out a roar of triumph and flooded the city. Björn was right that they had won the battle and taken the city, but the battle was not over yet. The remaining Carolingian soldiers as well as many of the Parisian villagers mounted a second defense of the city in the streets. Björn's men did not expect to see such resistance and were initially slaughtered by a rain of arrows. Still, the attackers pushed on and were able to beat back the remaining Parisian forces and capture the city. After hours of urban fighting, a grand total of five thousand soldiers on each side were killed or badly wounded. Another thousand Carolingians were taken as slaves, but in the end all that mattered was that Paris now belonged to the union.
Meanwhile, the Saxon clans unified into one city state called Hamburg. Although the city showed no aggression toward Denmark or any of the other kingdoms, a close eye is being kept on their actions and troop movements.
During the Second Battle of Paris, King Charlemagne was traveling to Paris from the east. Upon hearing the news of his fallen capital, he took refuge in the town of Aux-la-Chapelle. Norse scouts spotted the royal baggage train and reported back to the king in Paris. Björn decided to take his army east and finally kill this Charlemagne. As what the Christians called, the 'Great Heathen Army' approached Aux-la-Chapelle, Charlemagne personally took command of the town's defending forces. Björn again began the attack with a catapult barrage that wiped out the defenses as well as few defenders. Following right behind was Björn and the Great Heathen Army charging at full speed. Under Charlemagne's direct command, the Carolingian forces held much stronger than they had at Paris. In the fields outside of the town, the small Carolingian army inflicted another thousand casualties on the attackers, including King Björn. During the charge, the Swedish king was hit in the thigh with an arrow. Normally, King Björn would get right back and continue the charge; but when he fell, he landed on a rock and broke his jaw. Even without their king, the attackers broke the Carolingian lines and sent them running back into the town. The Norse army hesitated to pursue as they feared another onslaught in the streets as in Paris. Björn's brother, Ivar, collected the men and instead ordered them to surround the town and burn it. The soldiers did so and threw torches at the buildings. In a few hours, the town became a giant fireball in the dark of night. People trying to flee the inferno were taken prisoner and enslaved. In the end, one thousand Norse and two thousand Carolingian soldiers died that day at Aux-la-Chapelle. The next morning, the men picked through the still smoldering ashes for gold, silver and anything else that did not burn. Ivar himself found Charlemagne's crown as well as his rings among the ashes and brought them back to his brother at camp, who was being treated for his wounds. The king announced victory to his men through his brother as could not yet talk again. Björn's jaw would heal, but the arrow wound in his leg would become infected, eventually forcing him to amputate. King Björn could no longer fight, so he delegated the power of commander of the Great Heathen army to his brother Ivar.
While many soldiers stayed to lick their wounds, some marched north to Picardy and Frisia where they enslaved thousands more in the countryside. They returned just in time to march west with the rest of the army to the remaining Carolingian stronghold in Bretagne.
During the march, scouting expeditions came across a people known as the Abbasid. They were the people that the Byzantines had been fighting for centuries, but now the wars had apparently ceased. The Abbasids follow a religion they call Islam, in which they believe in only one god like the European Christians. Meanwhile, a split occurred among the Christians, those in the west began calling themselves 'Catholics' and the Byzantines called themselves 'Orthodox.' The split also caused the Christian kingdoms in Germany to unite under one crown. Although believing in the Aryan gods, the Saxons in Hamburg joined what was being called the Holy Roman Empire.
Reinforcements from Sweden arrived in Normandy to aid in the final assault on the Carolingians. Over half of the original Norse army had been defeated at the Battles of Paris and Aux-la-Chapelle, so the sight of fresh troops were an assurance for Ivar and his men.
King Björn would never see his homeland of Sweden ever again. If took him almost two years to recover from his wounds he received at Aux-la-Chapelle. Even after recovering, his missing leg prevented him from returning to combat and he did not follow the army to Brest. Instead he stayed behind in Paris to oversee the reconstruction of the city and establish new kingdoms in Francia. One cold winter during his stay, the flu spread throughout Francia like a flood and not even the king was immune. Two hundred soldiers in the Great Heathen Army died that winter as well as another five hundred in the city of Paris alone. King Björn was one of the first to succumb to the flu in Paris. He was the first king of the union to have his funeral held outside of Scandinavia. Although the funeral was held in Paris, seven days afterward the jarls held a sjaund for their dead king in Stockholm. The day after the party, the nominees for the next king were chosen and the election was held. Only twenty-two of the jarls were able to be present during the election of the new king as most were in Francia fighting in the Great Heathen Army.
