Invasion of Brunant (1807)

The 1807 invasion was a failed attempt by Queen Hélène II of Cettatie to take over Brunant as she thought she was the rightful Queen of Brunant.

Background
Hélène of Cettatie (1740-1808) was a daughter of King Jean I of Cettatie and Serafina de Murais. She was a granddaughter of Prince Karl of Brunant in the male line and a second cousin of Princess Brigitta. Her father died in 1779 and she became Queen of Cettatie. As great-granddaughter in the male line, she held a stronger dynastic claim over King Adrian II. After Brigitta's death, most Petrists supported the Cetatian queen in her claim to the throne of Brunant. Hélène was also the only one who made an actual claim to the throne. Many Petrists recognized Hélène's claim as she was the only other surviving male-line descendant of Karl Van Draak.

Some Petrists haled Count Daniel of Leiningen-Dagsburg as the rightful King of Brunant. Princess Brigitta named him as her successor in 1795 testament as she did not want to pass on her claim to Adrian II or the Cetatian royal family.

The Brunanter nobility, however, feared a foreign ruler. Some Petrists also announced their support for Adrian II as they preferred a Brunanter-born de facto king over a foreign French-speaking queen.

1807 invasion
On 2 September 1807, Hélène sent 500 soldiers under Captain Jean-Marie de Lassy to Sint-Hendrikstad, where they took over the town in a brief skirmish. Support for Adrian there was lower and her troops initially were bolstered by townspeople, but dysentery spread through the their ranks and they turned back to Cettatie before they could engage the king's forces.

Returning to Cettatie, the queen and her foreign minister, le comte d'Esquerre, entered into negotiations with Jean-Baptiste de Nompère de Champagny and Napoleon to firstly secure a treaty, support for him in Europe with the explicit support for her claims in Brunant.

1808
In 1808, an army of 600 soldiers was prepared to sail to Brunant aboard French ships, with further troops being readied for a second landing.

Hélène, by then 68, suddenly fell ill and died. Her eldest son and heir, Martin (1775-1821), immediately called an end to the invasion plans and repudiated the treaty with Napoleon, which led to a French invasion and deposition.

Napoleon apparently had no plans for Brunant until he could deal with the pressing issues in Spain, and the general outbreak of conflict again in 1809 shelved any plans.