1485 – 1494
1486 passes quietly. The beginning of 1487 doesn’t bode well. Soon piracy in Danzig is no longer tightly controlled. And I lose content commercials; they’re only neutral. Lűneburg and Bishopric of Bremen got some sort of anti-Hansa events; this might weaken Hansa. But the worst is this:
You can also see my merchants' activities. 1488 starts with 100d investment into Local Port in Danzig. Imperial prestige finally rises to 20, strangely enough, at the time when Maria Theresia is fighting pretender rebels, and our City becomes part of the Empire; thus it gets protected by the Empress. Gamey, i know; but if it's there why shouldn't I take it? Interestingly, Austria guarantees my independence also as the Duchy of Austria.
But bad news comes too. Pirates. I hesitated with uncontrolled, but when it deteriorated to rampant I decided to hunt them!
1489 brings a big change in the Empire. Austria in a civil war (I think), fighting pretenders (i guess, i wasn't paying attention) loses the HRE crown to Bohemia. I reckon this is good news, now three land HRE powers protect me: ally - Brandenburg, guarantor - Austria and Emperor - Bohemia; add to this England and Poland and I feel quite safe. So safe actually that I guarantee other Hansa cities: Bremen and Hamburg (I leave out Riga as, unlike the others, it isn’t protected by a host of German states
AND England). In due time, it took Rigchtstag a while to understand that Danzig holds Danzig lawfully, my rights to Danzig got recognised.
Also, I decide to change the form of government to a merchant republic since it seems much more suited to my goals: +1 yearly merchants and -10% merchant cost. It’s better administrative-efficiency-wise too. And indeed a few months later our government is no longer ‘competent’, it’s ‘good’ instead. As in merchant republics ‘rulers reign until death’ I wish my brilliant consul (no longer mere burgomaster), Ferdinand Feber, a very long life! I also hope he will help regain stability fast. I am too (fully, actually) decentralised though, so I’ll have to do something about it. Luckily, ‘Nobles excluded from power’: +5 rr and -10% Direct Tax, the modifier I got with the change of government, doesn’t hit Danzig, my only (potentially) rich and important prov, but the new holdings instead. Actually, even with this modifier Connacht is my richest prov tax-wise earning me a whooping 0.21-!- in tax, (Danzig due to rampant piracy is at 0).
Ősel, it seems, is slowly coming to terms with Danzig’s overlordship to finally core in 1494. That will not change much. It is still very poor and wrong-culture; the culture won’t get accepted as the province is so sparsely populated. Hopefully, the core will reduce the time to regain stability.
Meanwhile I see Bohemia embraces secular humanism and pushes for the reform of the Empire. I say ‘yes!’ This improves my relations with the HRE.
The time passes peacefully. The money is rolling so I can spend it on some improvements: Urban Workshops. Poland becomes the Defender of the Faith; hmm… I take advantage of ‘Peace and prosperity’ event giving me +5 prestige to cancel the ‘Protect against Pommerania’ mission and get a much nicer and more doable one. Dunno if it is thanks to peace and prosperity but piracy in Danzig decreases to uncontrolled.
In December my genius consul dies and, no election in merchant republics, I get a new one. A much more mediocre one.
Internationally:
1486
Novgorod dows Pskov; again, sigh…
The Papal States pay Naples 30d for peace.
Venice annexes Mantua (without Austrian intervention Venice actually has a chance)
Morea dows Naxos thus attracting OE, Naxos’ protector; AI has to be taught to take guarantees into consideration. This war is very short; Morea has to part with Athens, Achea and pay a few quid.
1487
The Papal States cedes Romagna to Venice. End of conflict.
The New World gets divided between Portugal and Castile
1488
Denmark – Austria: white peace. This leaves Denmark still in war with German minors. Sweden is no longer in PU with Denmark and separately peaces out with Trier (the alliance leader). Denmark pays 59d later in the year.
Novgorod – Pskov: white peace.
Tver accepts 20d from Novgorod for peace and momentarily Muscovy dows Tver. (It's a common thing AI as soon as it finishes a war jumps into a new one)
1489
Tver cedes Yaroslavl and some gold. Muscovy didn’t vassalise it, which means one more war pbly.
1490
France concludes its wars. Immediately, what is left of Brittany becomes Aragon’s vassal.
1492
France annexes Auvergne
1494
Kazan forces Muscovy to release Ryazan. How weird is that a Muslim khanate frees an orthodox prinxipality?
I watch Castile, which managed to hold on to controlling the Pope. I’m not sure of the effects of the events Castile gets; some are related to religion, some to colonisation.
And as we’re on the topic of religion; as much as I like Dharper’s religious minorities I believe some balance is needed here. Look at this religious map of Lithuania. This is very common, it happens in most of my games. One might think that with Ecumenism and Bill of Rights Lithuania won’t attempt converting; enjoying happy, tolerated minorities instead. As you see this is not so. If you say it’s only three provinces, well they’re orthodox till this day despite their turbulent past (and being for decades part of catholic Commonwealth). Do you really think Kiev could be converted that quickly? I fear this trend will continue. I don’t know whether Lithuania sends missionaries or uses province/national decisions; their choice of advisors probably helps them here. Is it still the same in MMU?