Whitehale Rebellion

For nearly thirty years now Whitehale has been a hotbed of political upheaval in Highdunn. There have been two separate Whitehale Rebellions under two separate Kings, and still the region of Whitehaleburrough remains agitated and tense. Clarence White, Baron of Whitehaleburrough has presided over both serf uprisings, and dearly wants nothing more than to wipe out the last of the rebels hiding in the fenns and bring them to very public justice on the gibbet.

The First Whitehale Rebellion, 1457 HC


The first Whitehale Rebellion came about during a particularly bad years harvest, which meant that Whitehale, with its lack of agricultural land, suffered a major grain shortage. Without this staple diet there was not enough food to go around, and people first became concerned, and then desperate as serfs began to starve. The Baron of Whitehale, then new to his post, contacted Dane Reise in Thairon, asking for help for his starving serfs, but Reise did nothing, merely responding that if there was no grain to be had then there was little he could do, and recommending more fervent prayer, even going so far as to send a contingent of priests back with his reply to aid the people in praying for food.

Whether it was the suggestion that the grain shortage was caused by their lack of piety, or just sheer desperation is unknown, but whatever the case the serfs began plotting at night in secret places around Whitehale, and stockpiling makeshift weapons crafted from knives tied to stakes, iron pins driven through table legs, pots and pans repurposed as armour, and all manner of other armaments. Then they stormed key locations in the city in a violent uprising, including the Baron's manor house and the city garrison, burning buildings and looting stores as they went, then the rebels fled into the fens before any reprisal could be mounted.

This time Dane Reise sent a perfunctory contingent of Kings Own to hunt down the rebels, but in the unfamiliar and dangerous territory of the marshes many of the heavily armoured men simply never emerged, and few even sighted the hiding rebels. Despairing that his King would not help him Baron White brought in a sizable group of mercenaries from the border with Tireste, and instead of going after the rebels in the territory they knew so well he hid the mercenaries in various buildings, and continued to endure raid after raid until the rebels became overconfident and came out in force to take control of the city, he then ordered the mercenaries to reveal themselves, and there was a slaughter.

Still, all knew that there were agents left unfound all through Whitehale, and with the known rebels dead there was little that the Baron could do to expose them. However grain supplies arrived from Sherevon a mere week later and it seemed that the uprising was over. However so many had flaunted the common laws of Highdunn and gone unpunished, and that set a dangerous precedent.

The Second Whitehale Rebellion, 1471 HC


It was a full fifteen years before things would come to a head in Whitehaleburrough again. In 1470 an agitator known as Brant appeared and began hosting secret meetings of like minded people in Whitehale. Brant was evidently a survivor of the first Whitehale Rebellion who had been living hidden in the fens as a vagrant for years after the first rebellion, and had somehow been able to return to Whitehale pretending to be a freeman veteran from the Tresser Veldt. As he told his stories of uprising, and shared his philosophies of a world with no nobles, not king, no classes, no division between the wealthy and poor his words swayed many who remembered the first rebellion, and even more so the young who had heard glorious tales of it. And they were buoyed by the presence of a survivor amongst them, with the blood of many Kings Own on his hands.

And so it was that a party of armed men marched on the Baron's Manor and took control of the city of Whitehale, with Baron White and his family barricaded in his cellars. Unlike his father Eldin Reise took decisive action, and called for forces from Nashby and Roen, under the command of Davin Rotheron himself, to converge with a force of Kings Own on the road to Whitehale. With this huge force the rebels stood no chance against the armies of Highdunn, and while the zealous followers were massacred and taken prisoner en-masse, with almost no casualties on the Highdunn side. However, such a huge army was impossible to disguise, and all of the leaders of the second uprising disappeared into the fenns mere hours ahead of Davin, never to be found.

It seems almost certain that Whitehale has not seen the last of rebellion and unrest.