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Brian Bóruma

Ard-Rí na hÉireann
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Feb 3, 2004
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Country: Provence
Mod: Praetor's more historical Provence minimod
Start Date: 1/1/1462

Prelude

The Angevin Empire, that is, the territory ruled by the descendants of King Charles I of Sicily was once vast and fearsome. It included Hungary, Poland, both Sicilies, Jerusalem, part of Greece, and part of France.

Now, the lands held by the House of Anjou are limited only to the County of Provence, half of the Duchy of Anjou, the Duchy of Lorraine and the Duchy of Bar. Rene, the patriarch, was until recently the King of Sicily but was driven out of those lands by the late Alfonso V of Aragon who seized Naples for himself. Now, Alfonso's own succession has been left in question and the Catalan nobles in Aragon have called for Rene, whose mother was an Aragonese princess to take their throne. Without hesitation, Rene was more than happy to pour his armies across the French border into Aragon. He ceded the northernmost Aragonese territories to the King of France in exchange for the right to traverse through royal French territory, and continued on with his armies to virtually swallow up the Catalan kingdom. He captured Barcelona and moved on Saragossa, but an army led by his rival Juan, brother of the late Alfonso marched from Valencia to recapture Barcelona. He would have to give up the siege of Saragossa in order to save the capital.

The Story Begins

The Aragonese/Provincal forces under his command would win the battle, but sadly King Rene would not live to see the victory. He was struck down by an enemy blade and succeeded by his son Charles. The death of Rene emboldened Juan de Trastamara and his forces who, upon receiving reinforcements from Palermo, had far larger numbers at his disposal than did Charles. The young king, however, was not the standard tactician like his father. He engaged in fast paced battles and was able to get his forces to march twice as fast as most commanders thought possible. Everywhere Juan's main army went, Charles' entire force would be. After a war of attrition, and dozens of battles, the entire Trastamara army was either routed or captured. Charles, son of Rene the Good signed a treaty with Juan that forced Juan to recognize Charles, and not his own son Fernando as his heir. Juan also paid regular tribute to Charles and had to assist Charles in war.

It was a total victory for the Angevins, but sadly King Rene had not been there to see it. Feeling unsatisfied, Charles felt the urge to right the wrong of two decades before when his father had been removed as King of Sicily and Naples fell to the Aragonese. Now ruled by Ferrante, the bastard son of Alfonso V, Sicily was not subject to the treaty with Aragon, so Charles sent his armies into Naples and with minimal resistance took the southern half for himself, leaving Ferrante with the northern half and a similar condition that he pay tribute and name Charles his successor.

provence10ri.jpg

[Provence and her tributaries after the war with Naples]

Winning the Peace

Things would not go smoothly after the Neapolitan war. Calabrians had grown fond of the bastard son of Alfonso, as he ruled from their lands and spoke their tongue. Charles, on the other hand governed his Italian territories through a viceroy and found the Sicilian language to be barbaric. While there were no rebellions due to his tolerant policies, there was always the possibility for trouble, and he was forced to attempt to compromise with the local nobility that he intended to rule. It was much of the same in Aragon, although he did not hold any lands there directly and traveled under the protection of Juan. While visiting Aragon he received word that his brother, the Duke of Lorraine had died, leaving that duchy to Charles. It would be a sign of what was to come, as shortly thereafter Ferrante would be assassinated ironically by Sicilian radicals who had demanded he break his treaty with Charles, to no avail.

But for Aragon, It would be a full twenty years since his father had initially invaded before he would be crowned King of Aragon. When Juan died, his Castillian cousins invaded and placed his bastard son Enric on the throne. They took Saragossa for themselves and left Enric to his own fate. Within days his government was toppled and the Cortes invited Charles to be crowned their king. He would then have a similar ceremony in Palermo to be crowned as King of Trinacria before he formally reunified the two Sicilies.

provence25xs.jpg

[The Angevin Empire after Charles' inheritance of Aragon]
 
Good start. I will be following this for two reasons. 1. it looks interesting.
2. I have started followind EU AARs to get a feel for the game. I have not played it and am thinking about picking up EUIII. So this will give me a good idea of what I would be getting into.
 
That's some really nice empire building there. Certainly an AAR to follow.

Did the succession deal basically mean that you simply diploannexed them in due time, or is it really possible in the game itself?
 
Thank you all.

das said:
Did the succession deal basically mean that you simply diploannexed them in due time, or is it really possible in the game itself?

It seems there's a whole big random inheritance system, but I diploannexed all three. One thing that I love about EU3 is that it tells you the success chance similar to Victoria and HoI. I waited for the annex chance to switch to "Maybe", and gave it a shot. :)
 
A very intriguing start. Nice expansion and interesting take on the game. Looking forward to where you go with this. Good luck.
 
Do your future plans involve some crusading? North Africa looks like a natural target here, but on the other hand the Angevin legacy calls for you to take back Greece and Jerusalem.
 
Brian Bóruma said:
The Angevin Empire, that is, the territory ruled by the descendants of King Charles I of Sicily was once vast and fearsome. It included Hungary, Poland, both Sicilies, Jerusalem, part of Greece, and part of France.
I don't know when, but when exactly did the Angevins rule Hungary and Poland? I hope you are not giving yourself a bunch of free CBs. Also, there were several families or dynasties that called themselves Angevins, that doesn't mean they were one family, it just meant that they came from Anjou.

Best of luck though.
 
Very nice start, looks like this shall be an interesting story to follow. Looking forward to more.
 
Brian Bóruma said:
Thank you all.



It seems there's a whole big random inheritance system, but I diploannexed all three. One thing that I love about EU3 is that it tells you the success chance similar to Victoria and HoI. I waited for the annex chance to switch to "Maybe", and gave it a shot. :)
This is something else that I found was handy. Or if there's a very good chance that they'll annex to you (aka Orleans with France) I recall getting alerts on that. Of course that was in the demo so....
 
Don't recall Poland neither, but the Angevins who ruled Hungary for the greater part of the 14th century are definitely related to the Neapolitan ones.
 
So that makes the two major halves of the old Empire one. Great start.
 
das said:
Don't recall Poland neither, but the Angevins who ruled Hungary for the greater part of the 14th century are definitely related to the Neapolitan ones.
I went on wiki and it looked like that line was copied right out of there, without any fact finding. As for Naples and Hungary, how does that have anything to do with Anjou and Hungary, especially if the Naples Angevins were upstarts to the Anjou Angevins. Either way that wouldn't give them CBs on Poland or Hungary.
 
SonofWinter said:
I went on wiki and it looked like that line was copied right out of there, without any fact finding. As for Naples and Hungary, how does that have anything to do with Anjou and Hungary, especially if the Naples Angevins were upstarts to the Anjou Angevins. Either way that wouldn't give them CBs on Poland or Hungary.

I assure you I didn't copy+paste from Wikipedia. That's just my style (or lack thereof)

G_Lorraine_1.gif

The arms Rene and his son Jean II used. Notice how they include Hungary. This is because through a series of several adoptions of one Angevin branch dying out and adopting other Angevins as their successors. Rene's adoptive grandfather Charles III, King of Naples reigned as King of Hungary for two years. It's a complicated situation, but trust me, I did my homework. :)
 
das said:
Don't recall Poland neither, but the Angevins who ruled Hungary for the greater part of the 14th century are definitely related to the Neapolitan ones.
I assure you guys that the Angevins (or Andegawens, as we Poles call them :) ) DID rule Poland for some time (1326-1399): the king Louis the Hungarian of Anjou and his daughter Jadwiga.
 
So, basically, he shouldn't have cores on Poland, since in 1453 it was still ruled by a descendant of an Angevin? Not to mention the fact, that if he has cores on all these past Angevin lands, then the rulers of the other lands should have the same claims on his land.
 
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Aside from the lands held by France, I don't have mechanical cores on anything that I do not own. I'm just stating that the Angevins themselves believed they had a right to these lands. Whether I attempt to acquire them remains to be seen.