Battle of Miraz's Castle



The Battle of Miraz's Castle or the Castle Raid was a surprise attack of Old Narnians on the Telmarine-Narnian royal castle during the Narnian Revolution.

Because the main Telmarine army was preparing for war on Aslan's How, and not guarding their castle, High King Peter decided to attack the castle. Although Caspian X was against it at first, he was eventually pressured into agreeing.

Weapon Raid
The attack was strategically preceded by a raid against the main Telmarine force led by Reepicheep the mouse in order to attain sufficient weaponry for the castle attack. During the night, Reepicheep and his mice stole weapons from four wagons in a Telmarine camp, near to where the bridge across the Fords of Beruna was being built. The Centaur Glenstorm and the Minotaurs seemed to have taken part in the raid as well, as when the Pevensies first meet Caspian and the Old Narnians they were seen carrying several weapons on their backs. They also left a message from Caspian X on one of the wagons saying "You were right to fear the woods -X". Later on when Miraz confonted Glozelle about the raid, Glozelle originally said he had lost no men in the raid. However Miraz told him that three men had died. Those three men were then presumably slain by Glozelle: presumably to say these were slain by Reepicheep.

The Battle
The raid on the castle occurred before dawn with a Gryphon lowering Edmund onto one of the castles towers, exchanging him for an unsuspecting Telmarine tower guard who was dispatched silently. Then, using his electric torch from Earth, Edmund signaled to Susan, Peter and Prince Caspian that it was clear for them to be flown in. The three of them landed on the Telmarine castle wall and slew the guards on watch before they could raise the alarm. While this was going on, Reepicheep and two of his mice had climbed into the gatehouse from the outside and with the help of Trumpkin had killed the few Telmarine guards and secured it so they could lower the draw-bridge for the Narnian raiders. The leaders of the Narnian troops, Glenstorm and Asterius, were waiting outside the castle for Edmund to signal with his flashlight when it was time for them to attack. However, in his boredom Edmund had been lazily tossing his torch in one hand, and accidentally dropped it over the parapet where a Telmarine sentry picked it up. In trying to figure out what the light was the sentry accidentally turned the torch on, consequentially sending confusing signals to the Narnians outside. Since the torch was essential to the assault, Edmund had no choice but to leap down and try to get the light from the guard without awakening the entire castle.

At about this time Caspian learned that his tutor, Doctor Cornelius, had been imprisoned in the dungeon, and Caspian promptly left to rescue him, leaving Susan and Peter to find Miraz. Upon finding Cornelius, Caspian was told the truth about his father's death (that his father had been murdered by Miraz) and, in an outburst of rage, Caspian diverged from the original plan and ran to his uncle's bedroom to confront him and try to force him to confess to the murder of Caspian IX. Caspian found Miraz and his wife, Prunaprismia, asleep in bed, and he threatingly put the blade of his sword at Miraz's throat, awaking the two sleepers. While Miraz distracted Caspian with scornful talk, Prunaprismia drew a crossbow from behind the bed's headboard, aiming at Caspian. Peter and Susan abruptly burst into the room, creating a deadly standoff. After some more heated discussion, Prunaprismia suddenly fired at Caspian, hitting him in the arm and in the brief confusion Miraz escaped through a hidden door and aroused the castle guard. The Old Narnians' cover had been blown due to Caspian's hotheadedness.

Edmund, meanwhile, had been able to retrieve his torch, but found that in the struggle it had been damaged. Finally, it started and Edmund signaled the army waiting outside to start charging toward the castle. Peter, Susan and Caspian X were able to escape Miraz's chambers and were opening the gate. The Narnians, meanwhile, were close to the castle and Asterius got ahead and killed one of two Telmarine soldiers guarding the drawbridge, while Glenstorm took out the second soldier. And luckily the gate was opened in time and the Narnians were locked in battle with the Telmarines, with the Narnians gradually winning. Tyrus climbed the balcony and attempted to kill King Miraz only for General Glozelle to shoot him with an arrow. Miraz saw the chance and pushed Tyrus off the balcony to his death. Miraz ordered his men to close the gate.

Then Telmarine archers armed with crossbows assembled quietly on a balcony, to shoot as many Narnians as possible (even though some of the Telmarine soldiers were down there at the time). Edmund (who was watching the battle from above) noticed an archer aiming at Peter, and jumped down and kicked the archer off the balcony, killing him. But unlucklily for Edmund, the other archers saw him, and began shooting at him. Edmund managed to escape, but was being followed by two of the archers. He opened a door and jammed his flashlight in the door, so the archers would be unable to open it. But his plan was foiled when he noticed he was standing on top of a tower, and the only escape was jumping down to his death. As the archers broke down the door and faced him with drawn rapiers, Edmund dove off the tower in order to avoid capture, though he safely landed on the back of a gryphon and they flew away unharmed.

The Telmarine soldiers knocked Trumpkin (who managed to shoot one of them) out of the gatehouse and cut the chains holding the portcullis. The portcullis started to fall to trap the Narnians in the main hall, but Asterius rushed beneath it and mightily held it open. Peter called for his forces to retreat allowing most Narnians to retreat out of the castle. Glenstorm grabs Susan as Peter keeps telling the Narnians to get out. Caspian emerges from the stables with Doctor Cornelius and three horses. Peter mounts one of them as he continues to issue the retreat. When Miraz orders Glozelle to give the order to the archers, Glozelle objects stating that his men are still down there. Grabbing Glozelle's crossbow, Miraz gave the order and shot Asterius while the other archers shot some of the fleeing Narnians and some Telmarine soldiers. When Asterius succumbed to his injuries, the portcullis came down with a little bit held up by Asterius's dead body enough for Reepicheep and his mice to get through. Prince Caspian, Peter, Susan, Cornelius and half of the Narnian troops escaped the castle. But the rest were trapped inside the castle courtyard (including Glenstorm's son Rainstorm) who encouraged those who escaped to keep running and to save themselves. Those who remained trapped inside were probably slaughtered by the archers. Edmund rode a gryphon over the courtyard and saw the dead bodies.

Peter, Susan, Caspian, Edmund, Trumpkin, Nikabrik, Reepicheep, two other mice, a panther, two wolves, Glenstrom, a tiger, five gryphons, three dwarves, two dogs, a small group of leopards, fauns, and satyrs, Ironhoof and Suncloud, five minotaurs, and Cornelius survived the battle.

Sadly Tyrus, Asterius, Rainstorm, a centaur, two tigers, a leopard, a wolf, and the other minotaurs, satyrs, and fauns were killed.

It was unknown how many Telmarine soldiers were killed. The number of Telmarine casualties were probably as many as two hundred dead or wounded, but the film does not show how many Telmarine lives were lost in the battle.

Video Game Adaption
In the Prince Caspian video game, the Infiltration and Battle of Miraz's Castle was featured as a level. When the battle part begins, Tyrus and Asterius fight the Telmarines until Glenstorm comes to their aide. Asterius ran off to get reinforcements while Tyrus and Glenstorm continued to fight the Telmarines. Wimbleweather arrived and was piloted by Tyrus when partnered with Glenstorm. Then Tyrus helps Peter into getting to Miraz which leads to the cutscene where Tyrus is killed. After the cutscene where Miraz tells his men to get the gate closed, Caspian and Glenstorm pursue the Telmarines that grabbed Doctor Cornelius and dragged him into the stables. After Glenstorm leaves following Doctor Cornelius' rescue, Caspian and Doctor Cornelius secure some horses and escape with the fleeing Narnians as shown in the cutscene.

Trivia

 * This battle was created alone for the Disney movie Prince Caspian.


 * In the NDS version of the game, Ironhoof was killed instead of Rainstorm.
 * The Raid of Miraz's Castle was based on the first battle of Aslan's How, when Caspian and a small force of dwarfs, centaurs, some fierce Talking Beasts, and Giant Wimbleweather attacked Miraz's camp at daybreak.