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unmerged(83622)

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Sep 7, 2007
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Dear forum,

This is my first AAR in any way, and I must thereby warn that I do not know exactly how to do it in a good way, and neither can I guarantee how often it will be updated nor how good it will be, but I will give it an honest try.

Thus, we start in the newly-born nation of Scania that's broken free from the cuffs of Denmark and the Union of Kalmar, and sets out on its own in the big world of diplomacy, trade and epic empire-building.

Kingdom of Scania
The tale of an outbreak​

In the year of the Lord 1452 there was turmoil in the Union of Kalmar. The murder of the Danish regent Christian I in Roskilde by hired mercenaries made the line of succession in Denmark, Sweden and Norway unclear. In Sweden King Karl Knutsson Bonde was driven out of the country and within Denmark’s own borders stability was falling rapidly. Especially in Terra Scania by the other side of the Sound where, a bright spring day 1452, a banished son of Denmark again sat his foot in the land of his birth in company with a brother-in-arms and 500 Lübeckian soldiers.



Table of contents
Prologue (can be found further down in this post)
Chapter I: Awakening and Assembling
Chapter 2: Ota and occupation


Prologue
Magnus Johannes Thott was born in 1415 outside the town of Wä, as the son of a local noble. At young age he saw his father executed after having joined in a coup against the king, and together with his family he escaped the country and settled in Northern Germany.

By the age of 16 he had enlisted as a soldier in Lübeck, to join one of the many mercenary corps that resided in the Hanseatic cities of Germany at this time. In this band of soldiers he met Lothar Kán, a Hungarian equal in both noble heritage and tamished reputation in his home country. The two would remain friends for the rest of their lives, but before these were to end much would happen for the two men.

April 14 in the year 1452 a cog with Thott, Kán and 500 hired men disembarked on the Western shore of Scania. The news of the murder of King Christian had reached their headquarters in Rostock rapidly with the news that always arrive in trading cities with every new cog, and thus Magnus Johannes saw his chance. Ever since his childhood he had wanted to return to Denmark and the status he should have held, but he had considered it dreams of a child. To come on a white mount in shimmering clothes and regain respect and riches seemed impossible.

But now he finally had an opportunity.

He acted fast, and together with Lothar he started planning. By taking loans that shouldn’t be possible to acquire for a private person, but that he won because of his reputation as warrior, they managed to recruit 500 soldiers from the surroundings, many with whom they were familiar from before.

To win the crown of Denmark was a ridiculous thought, and that was both of their opinion. But Denmark was falling apart in a civil war in between barons all over the country and it was vital to be swift in order to take one of the shards for oneself.

Jutland was sacked and small battles stood monthly across the province, and in Sjælland the result of the battles seemed to be on the way. In their eagerness to take over the country many of the lords of Scania had taken their troops over the Sound, thus leaving a relatively peaceful Scania behind.

After disembarking Thott and Kán manoeuvred their troops to Lund, crushing all resistance on the way there. They took the city without any violence due to the surrender of the little garrison guarding the city, and there established a base for small operations all over the countryside.

In September an army was sighted in the vicinity of Wä, and it was understood that the battle of Scania was about to reach a decisive point. An army of 700 soldiers marched from Lund to meet the enemy that had a slight advantage in manpower. The core of Thott’s army, the seasoned Lübeckian soldiers, overpowered the enemy easily and the battle was won in half a day. The commanders of the other army resigned and, under the supervision of the army of their conqueror, they were the first ones to swear loyalty to Thott.

When back in Lund, Magnus Johannes Thott was crowned king over Terra Scania, Skåneland, and the nation proclaimed itself independent.

A new era for all of Scandinavia had begun.
 
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Very interesting. Not sure if I have ever seen one for Scania before, at least not in EUIII. Good luck and welcome to AAR writing!

P.S. - I deleted the duplicate thread assuming this is the one you wanted to use. Hope that was right. :)
 
Welcome to AARland ! A new AAR , that's great ! Good luck with it . Since I too am not too familiar with that northern area , I'm excited to see how this one will turn out XD
 
coz1 said:
Very interesting. Not sure if I have ever seen one for Scania before, at least not in EUIII. Good luck and welcome to AAR writing!

P.S. - I deleted the duplicate thread assuming this is the one you wanted to use. Hope that was right. :)
Since I've just created the nation myself, I'd be utterly surprised if you had :)

There was a duplicate thread? Oh, I didn't notice that. But then yes, this's the one and only thread.:)
 
Chapter I - Awakening and assembling

Chapter I
Awakening and assembling

Barely had the nation of Scania been set up before diplomats started making their way to the residence of the Scanian king, Magnus Johannes. Interestingly enough both Sweden and Denmark were very keen on keeping good relations with their new, and in comparison extremely small neighbour of only two provinces.

This was since the Union of Kalmar, even if not officially dissolved, had fallen apart. A nobleman from Copenhagen, Johann Witmar, had by this time started calling himself king of Denmark and competitors of his started disappearing or dying suddenly by falling of a wall, getting run over by a horse carriage or being found dead and stripped of both clothes and everything of value. The new king of Denmark that, at his new post, called himself Johan I was there to stay.

In Sweden a council under the lead of Nils Sture ruled the country until further notice, and the relations between Sweden and Denmark were now, to say the least, strained. Thus, since Scania now had formed a sort of neutral bridge in between the both countries, both were keen on keeping good relations in order to get yet another pawn to sacrifice in the absurd game of chess that all great powers eventually get used to playing.

Magnus Johannes was aware of the uncomfortable position of Scania though, and so to avoid being the pawn and instead jump of the board to be a mere observer of the game he kept good relationships by marrying his youngest sister Margrethe away with Nils Sture’s son Karl. He also signed an alliance with Denmark, knowing that if only one of the countries got the opportunity to declare war upon the feudal monarchy of Scania, the other would follow and the young nation would be torn apart.

euscreen1zf9.png


The first military regiment set up in Scania was an infantry regiment based in the province of Skåne with the name “Første Skånske Infanterii”, thus creating the first puzzle-piece of the Scanian Army, in the local tongue called “Skånska Arméen”. The self-written leader of this army was of course the old brother-in-arm of Magnus Johannes, Lothar Kán, which now became one of the three most powerful men in the country together with king Magnus Johannes and the archbishop Paulinius, born Poul Galen in Kolding.

The rest of the year as well as the following were peaceful but turbulent for the new king. He was a soldier and had so been since the age of 16, and he was a poor write. He weighed this up with a good sense for numbers and a just as good sense of diplomacy. Because academic or not, Magnus Johannes knew how to put his words and he was good at persuading.

What Scania lacked in numbers, with an army at this time consisting of 4000 men only, they made up for in trade. Centres of Trade in Danzig, Lübeck and Vlandeern all learnt of the existence and forthcoming of the new nation faster than many countries in the rest of Europe. In fact, in Italy and Spain it could be regarded a curiosity if someone even knew there were such a thing as a cold, dark and by power struggles strained Scandinavia.

Up until 1458 Scania had only expanded trade wise, which was far from enough to satisfy the King. Research took much money, and in all of Scania lived only 6000 people.

It is said that in late March 1458, just as the ground started getting dotted with green and the sky with blue, taking away the remnants of a cold and grey winter, Magnus Johannes and Lothar Kán, still the two most powerful men in the kingdom due to a few reforms regarding the church, met to contemplate the next move of Scania.

“We’ve reached this far, and we’ve reached a goal that both we and others considered impossible and silly only ten years ago,” Lothar Kán is supposed to have said. “So now the question is what we’ll do next to keep our sovereignty and not become a case like that of Haakon and the Swedish bride.”

King Haakon of Norway had taken a Swedish woman, the sister of the Swedish steward Nils Sture to strengthen the relations between the two countries. However, on the wedding night he ate a stew of foul mushrooms, leaving him with a horrible diarrhoea for many days. And on top of it all, Nils Sture now claimed the throne of Norway for himself, sending an army of 4000 men towards Christiania. Haakon, indifferent to his pitiful state, noticed that his new wife had left and taken off towards the Swedish border and got furious. An army of 3500 Norwegian soldiers gathered near the border and met the Swedes in battle, led by their king that mightily ran in the frontline with many a cloth wrapped around his lower body, and a stench that scared off fmore men than his sword.

The war ended luckily for the Norwegians, but only with some luck. It was with a smile that Magnus Johannes remembered hearing of this event, for it had reached him through merchants in Lübeck. He pitied Haakon, but the thought of a diarrhoeic king leading his troops was overwhelmingly amusing.
“In order to get respected, we must take respect” he said, a smile playing on his lips as he gazed out of the window out over the town of Lund, where he still held his residence. “Sweden is still too strong, and I don’t dare trying to strengthen relations with Norway through marriage as long as Haakon is king.”
Lothar smiled again at the reference to the king’s by diarrhoea marked ex-marriage.
“And I don’t feel tempted taking on Denmark, no” Magnus Johannes continued thoughtfully. “If we are to expand we need cities with many inhabitants and a good capability of producing money and thereby taxes. I think it is time for us to turn our eyes towards our old hunting grounds, old friend.”
“Then where to? Lübeck, Mecklenburg, Hamburg?”
“No, I don’t want to hurt my relations with the Hanseatic League. Pomerania is as close as we can get to our kingdom without either challenging a powerful neighbour or the League: I believe it is time to send word to King Ota that we are mobilizing. Soon his troops will be the first to taste the power of Scanian swords.”
 
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And so we head south and into Germany. I have a feeling it won't be the last time. ;)
 
coz1 said:
And so we head south and into Germany. I have a feeling it won't be the last time. ;)
Oh no, definately not :D
knugen_n1 said:
Ohhhh I just love this idea.

Long live Scania! A funny thing is that i live in Lund too, the town you write about... :D
And a just as funny thing is that I do go to school in Lund as well. ^^
 
Ooh, interesting! Surely you shall try to dominate the whole coast of the Baltic?
 
ah, i see you use the CoA/flag i made, would have been nice doh if you PM me or say it in the request forum, i thought you don't like it :) (i used extra shadows on it and recolored it a tiny bit)


EDIT: here a little extra, maybe you like it:

Scania-Scandinavia
(for the case you unite Denmark-Gotland-Sweden-Norway-Finland and its past AD 1550)

picture3if9.png



EDIT2:

would look something like this:
picture2ap8.png


Good luck Scanian Emperor! ;)
 
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There is a flag for the Skåne region, which is red with a yellow cross. Info from the net, that I cant collaborate with more reliable sources, tracks it back to the 1100 hundreds and seems to have been flag for the Arch Bishopric of Lund.
 
Sweboy said:
There is a flag for the Skåne region, which is red with a yellow cross. Info from the net, that I cant collaborate with more reliable sources, tracks it back to the 1100 hundreds and seems to have been flag for the Arch Bishopric of Lund.
i know, but scandinavia is represented with a red cross on yellow...plus: it looks nicer this way (mainly red birdhead on red background would look terrible)
 
Sweboy said:
Was that the old union flag or are my memory playing tricks on me?
dunno, i only know Scandinavia was always represented in all Paradox games (well, where it can be formed) with a red cross on yellow background




...i wonder if we scared Snugglie away yet :p