Calormene Army's Imminent Invasion of Archenland

The Calormene Army's Imminent Invasion of Archenland is Rabadash's attempt to take Anvard by surprise with two hundred horsemen and turn the captured castle into a base for extending Calormene power into Narnia. Its secrecy and speed are central to the plan, but its dependence on a desert route and the defenders' ability to respond make the invasion vulnerable. Shasta's warning gives Archenland time to prepare, and the attack ends in defeat rather than the conquest Rabadash intended.

Background and Strategic Aim

Rabadash proposes the expedition to his father, the Tisroc, as a way to strike at Narnia while avoiding an openly declared war. He argues that Narnia is a small, supposedly disorderly country that could be conquered quickly, but his immediate objective is more specific: reach Anvard, the castle of King Lune in Archenland, and seize it before its inhabitants are ready. The attack on Archenland is therefore both a separate assault on a kingdom at peace with Calormen and the opening move in a larger plan against Narnia.

The Tisroc's response exposes the political calculation behind the venture. He is willing to authorize it but refuses to promise support or rescue. Rabadash is to receive no aid if he is killed or captured, and the Tisroc warns that excessive Narnian casualties could provoke open war and cost Rabadash his place in the succession. The expedition is thus approved as a deniable, limited venture, with responsibility for its risks placed on the prince.

Route, Timing, and Surprise

Rabadash intends to depart secretly at night with only two hundred horsemen, reach Anvard on the second morning, and capture it before its defenders can prepare. From there, he plans to pass through the route above Anvard and ride on through Narnia toward Cair Paravel. He expects the High King to be away and hopes to encounter little resistance before he can return to Anvard with Queen Susan. His account makes Anvard the essential prize: holding it would put a Calormene garrison at what he describes as the very gate of Narnia, where it could be enlarged gradually.

The desert makes that timetable possible only if the force finds a viable crossing. In a council remembered by Shasta, the Raven Sallowpad explains that the Great Oasis cannot supply water for a large army and its animals. He identifies another route: riders must start from the Tombs of the Ancient Kings, keep the double peak of Mount Pire ahead of them, and find a narrow stony valley leading down to a river and into Archenland. This distinction between an impassable supply route and a concealed watercourse clarifies how a mounted force might cross the desert, while also showing how much the march depends on knowing the terrain.

The two hundred riders are not an army capable of occupying all the lands named in Rabadash's ambitions at once. The plan relies instead on speed, surprise, and a captured stronghold. Rabadash says the force will pass through Narnia like an arrow and that possession of Anvard will allow Calormen to increase its garrison over time. His strategy therefore joins a rapid raid to a longer project of consolidation: taking the castle is meant to convert a brief incursion into a durable position.

Shasta's Warning and the Assault

The secrecy fails because Shasta sees the approaching force and rides ahead to warn King Lune. He reports that Rabadash and two hundred horsemen are coming, and says that he has seen them himself and raced them from Tashbaan. The warning turns the invasion from an unexpected assault into a known danger. It gives the defenders and their allies the chance to meet the attackers rather than leaving the castle's fate to Rabadash's hoped-for surprise.

At the castle, the attack begins with a battering ram: about fifty Calormenes on foot swing a tree trunk against the gate. The main body is also on foot, ready to assault it, until Rabadash sees the Narnians coming down a ridge. The trained attackers quickly remount and turn to face them. Their response shows that the force is prepared for battle, but it also shifts the encounter from a siege against a closed gate to a direct clash with the relief force.

Before the assault, Rabadash distinguishes between his orders for Archenland and his future intentions toward Narnia. He tells his men that, once in Narnia, they are to kill as little as possible during this venture, treating Narnian lives as more valuable than their own. In Archenland, by contrast, he demands speed above all and offers the attackers the castle's spoils, ordering them to kill its male inhabitants. This difference makes the intended restraint in Narnia a tactical limit rather than a general rejection of violence: the attack on King Lune's castle is to be conducted with uncompromising force.

Defeat and Significance

The battle does not deliver Anvard to Rabadash. The Hermit observes its progress from a distance and reports that the attackers are forced back as the defenders emerge from the castle, with King Lune leading a sortie. The Great Cats attack the men operating the battering ram, which is brought down, and the castle gates open from within. King Edmund fights in the battle, while the Giants and Cats press the Calormene force from different sides. As the line breaks, some Calormenes surrender or flee; the remaining group is surrounded and defeated. Shasta survives his fall from his horse, and the castle is left in the hands of its defenders.

The failed assault overturns the central assumption of Rabadash's plan: that Anvard can be taken before its defenders have time to act. His force reaches the castle and begins to batter its gate, but Shasta's warning and the defenders' counterattack prevent the capture on which the proposed occupation of Narnia depends. The episode links military logistics and intelligence to political consequence: the route and the rapid march bring the attackers to their target, but neither can substitute for surprise once the warning has reached King Lune. Anvard remains unconquered, and Rabadash's intended foothold in Archenland is lost.