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You may be looking for the First Battle of Beruna, which occurred during the Winter Revolution.


The Battle of Beruna of the Narnian Revolution, known generally throughout Narnia's history as the Second Battle of Beruna, occured in Narnian-year 2303, and was the last and most major conflict of the civil war.

It ended the reign of King Miraz, replacing him with his nephew Caspian X and restoring the Old Narnians' way of life throughout Narnia.

Pre-Battle: The Duel of Aslan's How

The Battle began at Aslan's How where the Telmarine Army (commanded by Miraz) and the Old Narnian Army (commanded by Caspian) watched a swordfight between the unrightful Narnian king, Miraz, versus the High King of Narnia, Peter the Magnificent.

The Marshal of the Lists for the Telmarines were Glozelle, Sospesian, and Gregoire, who all plotted against Miraz. The marshals for the Old Narnians were Glenstorm, Wimbleweather, and the eldest of the Bulgy Bears.

Armored-Miraz

Miraz at the beginning of duel.

The duel began when Peter and Miraz entered the lists from the opposite ends, after bowing and saying something to each other Peter beat Miraz a whole pace and a half back.

The Crowds began shouting, and Miraz began using his height and weight to his advantage, and sprained Peter’s arm by throwing his weight on Peter’s Shield. They then circled each other, testing each other’s defenses.

It was then that Peter struck first blood when he cut Miraz on the outside of his thigh.

King Miraz

Miraz near the end of the duel.

The two of them then agreed to a small rest, and Peter had his arm tended to, while Miraz went and rested with his own three Marshals.

The two then returned to the duel, this time Peter made good use of his feet, keeping out of range of Miraz’s sword, shifting his ground and making Miraz work.

Miraz then got a blow on Peter’s helmet, making Peter fall to one knee.

Just as Miraz was about to finish Peter off, Peter grabbed Miraz’s arm as it was coming down, forcing Miraz’s blade to glance down his right shoulder.

As Peter and Miraz started fighting hammer and tongs, Miraz slipped on a tussock and fell down. Sospesian came forth, saying that Peter had killed the king while he was down, convincing the Telmarines to charge at the Narnians.

The Battle

After the supposed "illegal move" from Peter during the duel, Lord Gregoire and Sopespian led the Telmarine charge at the Old Narnians. During the stampede and the confusion, Miraz was quietly murdered by General Glozelle (who quoted "and this for that insult this morning"), unnoticed by any others.

During the battle, Reepicheep's tail was cut off by a Telmarine and Peter managed to slay Sopespian. The Telmarine army quickly broke ranks and fled to Beruna as soon as the Dryads awakened. The remaining Telmarines couldn't retreat due to the fact that Bacchus had destroyed the bridge that "trapped" the River God.


Adaptation-based Information
The following information originates only from the Chronicles of Narnia adaptations, meaning it does not exist in the original chronicles.


Disney Adaptation

When Peter defeated Miraz and Caspian spared his life, Sopespian helped him to his feet as Miraz tells him that he will deal with him when it is over. Sopespian quotes "It is over" and secretly stabs Miraz with one of Susan's arrows. Sopespian then declares treachery stating that the archers murdered Miraz and rode off with Glozelle to have the Telmarine soldiers prepare for battle. Gregoire then drew his sword and charged toward Peter.

Caspian battle

Telmarine catapults firing against the How.

After Peter took out Gregoire by beheading him, the Telmarines sent out their cavalry against the Old Narnians and activated their Trebuchets, which fired a continuous shower of boulders at the Narnians.

After ten seconds however, the Giant Wimbleweather, along with a large group of centaurs and minotaurs, who had been charging through recently dug caverns beneath the battle field destroyed the pillars which supported the ground the Telmarine cavalry was charging across, causing the cavalry to fall into a giant sink-hole.

While the archers attacked, Narnian infantry attacked the cavalry while they were disordered. The Narnians that were underground then came back up to ground level through two trap doors between the Telmarine infantry and cavalry and turned back towards Aslan's How, completing the pincer. Two bears took down several Telmarines each while Peter hacks another with his blade and Caspian cuts down another Telmarine horseman, knocking him off his horse. Edmund shoots a Telmarine with an arrow, a tiger leaps at another Telmarine, Trufflehunter pounces on another and Reepicheep stabs a fourth Telmarine in the face.

Seeing the cavalry being overrun, General Glozelle and most of Miraz's officers and captains led several companies of spearmen towards the Narnians. Noticing the Telmarine reinforcements were marching towards them, Peter and Caspian sent in their second attack. A small group of Gryphons carrying Dwarf archers in their claws flew in close to the Telmarines to distract the infantry. The Dwarf archers had managed to shoot down a few Telmarine soldiers, including one of the Telmarine commanders. However, the Telmarines turned out to be prepared for such an event and most of the Gryphons were killed by Heavy Ballistas, forcing the survivors to retreat.

How Battle

Battle at the How.

When Peter and Caspian saw that their second wave of attack had failed, they tried signaling their troops to retreat into the How.

Unfortunatley, the Telmarines concentrated their Trebuchets to fire on the entrance to the How, destroying it and trapping the Narnians outside.

Seeing as there was no escape, the Narnian infantry charged the Telmarines spears, trying to kill as many Telmarines before they themselves died.

0012 083

The Telmarine infantry surrounded the remaining Narnians and began to close in. As the Narnian numbers dwindled, Caspian, who was struggling to fend off two Telmarine soldiers, tripped behind Glozelle, but before the general could finish off the Prince with a spear, a tree root grabed him from behind and knocked him repeatedly against the side of the sink-hole.

The army of Old Narnians then rallied once they had seen that the trees had come to life again. The trees tore through the Telmarine infantry and destroyed most of the war machines, and the Narnian army charged the frightened Telmarines, prompting the surviving Telmarine commanders to order a retreat.

The Telmarines fell back to set up a defensive stand on the far side of the Beruna river. However, after Aslan had awakened the River God, it destroyed a majority of the remaining Telmarine army as it tried to cross the river. After Sopespian was engulfed by the River-God and the bridge was destroyed, the remaining Telmarines surrendered, thus putting an end to the conflict.

Participants

Sadly, one of the awakened trees, a small group of dwarves, satyrs, fauns, minotaurs, and centaurs, and a few Talking Beasts, including a stag, a tiger, a wolf, a dog, and four Gryphons were killed.

The Telmarine casualties were heavier than those of the Narnians. King Miraz, Lord Gregoire, Lord Sopespian, Lord Donnon, five other Telmarine lords, approximately more than four hundred Telmarine horsemen, and over three thousand Telmarine infantrymen were killed. The six Telmarine trebuchets and six ballistas were also destroyed in the battle.

General Glozelle, Lord Scythley, three other Telmarine lords, less than a hundred horsemen, and more than nine hundred infantrymen were the only Telmarine survivors in the battle.

Trivia

  • In the film, Sopespian plays Glozelle's book role, but apparently not in the deleted scene.
  • In the original book, Susan did not fight in Second Battle of Beruna, she only witnessed it from afar with Lucy. While in the film she took important part in the battle as she is seen as one of the commanders along with Peter and Caspian.
  • The Second Battle of Beruna was called the Battle of Aslan's How in the soundtrack of the Disney movie
  • The Telmarines did not have any war machines in their army nor do they send their cavalry out first before they send their infantry. Also, some Narnian creatures, such as dogs, wolves, leopards, minotaurs, and Gryphons are not mentioned to have participated in the battle itself.
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