A Greater Netherlands - IN Brabant AAR

The reign of Grand Duchess Jeanne was marked by significant domestic improvements to the duchy. She increased the privileges granted to cities within the duchy, allowing citizens to own and operate private printing presses and giving them say on local councils. The policy sparked a flourishing printing business to emerge in Amsterdam and Antwerp, supplying printed books across northern Europe.

In order to increase the government’s revenue, her administration began regulating the trade and sale of key goods within the duchy, and charging tariffs on traffic along its canal system. The most important of these ordinances was the Liquor Act, which instituted a licensing fee for traders of alcohol products. While the policy was unpopular with the merchant community, it significantly boosted the tax revenues collected.


As more people left the countryside for Brabant’s growing cities, landowners began enclosing their estates to improve crop production. With the Edict of Louvain the Grand Duchess formally approved of the practice, and it began to be used extensively in the central regions of the country.


With the extra revenue gathered, Jeanne began several major public works projects, improving the duchy’s road and canal network. The improvements helped to stimulate trade between the major cities, and a number of guilds opened new workshops to take advantage of the new opportunities.

Since 1337 the rival dynasties of Valois and Plantagenet struggled for the throne of France. Two wars since 1400 had ended in stalemate, with Plantagenet England retaining their hold on Calais and Gascony, while the Valois remained on the French throne. The constant fighting had weakened both sides, draining both their treasuries and manpower. Now they came together one last time to settle the issue. King Louis XII of France, eager to finally drive the English from the Continent, declared war.

As King Thomas of England readied his armies for war, he sent out a call to his allies for assistance. Among them was the Grand Duchy of Brabant, which had allied itself with England in 1433 to help counter the threat of Burgundy. However, despite her experience fighting Utrecht and Burgundy, Duchess Jeanne was no military leader. Despite the buildup of Brabant’s military during and after the Lotharingian War, it was still a nation of merchants and tradesmen. On the advice of her cabinet, Jeanne reluctantly refused the call to arms. In a show of solidarity, however, she renounced her family’s ties to the Valois line, and ended the rights of military passage she had granted the French throne during their conflict with Burgundy. She also continued to allow English warships to use Brabant’s ports for resupply.


Jeanne’s decision was probably the right one, for France’s armies quickly dominated the battlefield. While the combined efforts of England and Portugal managed to drive Castile to a peace treaty, the French overwhelmed Aragon’s forces and occupied the country. Its armies then marched across Iberia and began to besiege Portugal’s cities.

As the war dragged on, the costs began to mount for France, and it resorted to drastic measures to finance its campaigns. The occupied territories of Aragon were heavily taxed, and after protests by the Aragonese aristocracy the city of Saragosa was put to the torch. Elsewhere in France the peasantry was forcibly conscripted to serve in the King’s Portuguese campaign. Word of French brutality spread across Europe, until the Pope himself excommunicated King Louis.


The unrest grew until several revolts broke out across the country. Until recently much of France had been independent territories, and their people still identified themselves with their ancestral regions rather than with the King in Paris. In addition, a number of religious sects had appeared, spurred by the writings of the Devotio Moderna movement. They had new ideas on how the Communal Host should be delivered to the laity, as well as whether divine revelation could be received by the common faithful. These movements became entwined with local resistance to the dominance of Paris in the French Church, until things came to a head in 1463. Groups of nationalists and Church separatists took up arms in Armagnac and along the Meuse and Rhine, forcing King Louis to dispatch troops back to France. The revolts quickly spread, with Armagnac forces seizing the major passes through the Pyrenees.


The situation reached a head in 1466 when an army under Leopold of Luxembourg managed to capture Paris. Despite the fact that his armies had defeated the English alliance at every turn, the loss of his capital forced Louis to come to the negotiation table.


With the Treaty of Algarve the Hundred Years War was finally put to rest. England would renounce its claims to the French throne, and the territory of Gascony would be an independent fiefdom administered by the King of Castile. Aragon would be stripped of much of its land, with its northern provinces going to France and it’s central to Castile. Calais would remain England’s only possession on the Continent. Leopold of Luxembourg would be granted the territory of Artois in northern France in exchange for releasing Paris unharmed. French territories east of the Rhine were quietly returned to the Holy Roman Empire. King Louis had his victory, but at great cost.

As a note, I tried coming to England's aid five times, and each time the French would inevitably win, despite heavy losses. The AI has gotten very good at identifying your major army, pursuing it, and then chasing the remnants until they're completely eliminated. However, I won't be backing down in the future now that they've been blooded

With most of western Europe embroiled in war and revolt, the Grand Duchy became an island of peace. Merchants and tradesmen flocked to its cities, and soon Amsterdam, Antwerp and Rotterdam became centers of trade for the Atlantic seaboard. The newly rebuilt Brabantine Navy patrolled the coastline, keeping merchant shipping safe from raiders. With Brabant’s new place in Europe’s economy, the Grand Duchess began to look for ways to expand the country’s trade.

In the early 1400s the Iberian kingdoms had scored a number of triumphs against the Muslim hordes in the Mediterranean, with Castile conquering Granada and Portugal subjugating the al-Maghrib of North Africa. With the Strait of Gibraltar firmly in Christian hands, merchant ships could now sail freely from northern Europe to the rich states of Italy and the Mediterranean. There were also rumors of riches to be found further south along the African coast past the forbidding Cape Bojador, perhaps even the legendary kingdom of Prester John.

Jeanne decided that Brabant would take part in this lucrative new trade route, and commissioned a fleet to map it out. In March 1458 the Zeeland Expedition, financed by the Duchess and several Antwerp trade guilds, set out from Rotterdam and sailed southwards. Commanded by Captain-General Guillaume de Houtman, the fleet comprised of the venerable Zenne, veteran of the Lotharingian War, and her new sister ship the Hendrik.


They traveled south past Portugal before setting out for Portuguese Morocco, intent on surveying the harbors available there. Along the way they were blown off course in a storm, and found themselves arriving at an undiscovered island chain. The islands showed evidence of being visited by Portuguese and Muslim fishermen, but the inhabitants were barely civilized barbarians ruled by tribal kings. Houtman spent the summer repairing his two ships, as well as building a small fort on the largest island. With a gift of 100 gold pieces he signed a treaty with the island’s inhabitants, swearing allegiance to the Grand Duchess. He then set sail for home to inform Jeanne of his success.


Within 15 years the islands were settled by Dutch colonists, establishing the port of Nieuwhaven. The Dutch Canaries became Brabant’s forward base on the edge of the world, providing a safe refuge for ships traveling the Gibraltar route as well as heading southward around the bulge of Africa.


As Brabant was securing their new holdings on the African coast, word began to circulate that the Castilians had discovered a new land far across the sea, populated by heathen savages. In typical hidalgo fashion, they had conquered these “Indians” for their own well being and the salvation of their immortal souls.

On April 1, 1483 the Grand Duchess Jeanne of Brabant and Lothier, Countess of Holland and Flanders, and Lady of Frisia, passed away in her sleep. She had ruled the duchy for 50 years, since the chaotic days following the war with Burgundy in 1433. Under her administration the duchy had grown to a center of European trade, with holdings as far away as North Africa.


Her will stated that she be succeeded by her only child, her daughter Jeanne, despite the protests of some of the nobility. An ambitious, intelligent woman, Jeanne II had great plans for her inheritance. With the assistance of the new Archbishop of Utrecht, Cardinal Johannes Richter, she crowned herself Queen of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. Invoking the tradition of her mother and great-grandmother, she refused to relinquish power to a husband, an instead bestowed the title Prince Consort to her eventual spouse.


In the same year, another queen would rise to the throne. Queen Elizabeth, daughter of King Thomas, rose to the throne of England due to the lack of suitable male heirs. With her inheritance of England, Wales, Scotland and the holdings of Ireland and Iceland, she declared herself head of the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Seeing a kindred soul in Queen Jeanne, she signed a new treaty of alliance between the two United Kingdoms. The two monarchs now looked towards the dawning 16th Century, and the opportunities that await.

And...I'm done for a while. Getting those last chapters out was an effort, but it was worth it. I'm now roughly caught up to game time (currently holding at 1510). I'll get the State of the World out tonight or tomorrow, and then probably won't start on Part III until next week.

An I swear it was the greatest coincidence in history that the Grand Duchess died a month before I gained a core on Utrecht and could make the Netherlands, and *at the same time* Queen Elizabeth of all people comes to the throne of England, gains a core on Lothien and creates the United Kingdom. It certainly improves the narrative .

Coming up, adventures in the New World and that fashionable new trend, Protestantism!

We've had Duke Jean and his war against the Burgundian aggressors. We've had the Grand Duchess build her nation's economy into a dominant force in Europe. We've even had the beginnings of a colonial empire with the settlement of the Dutch Canaries. But now Queen Jeanne sits upon the throne, with the world at her fingertips. With the United Kingdom's new position as a major power, the state of the rest of the world is suddenly a more pressing matter. So, lets take a look at what's happened in the last 30 years...



The Hundred Years War is finally over, and while France emerged victorious it was not without cost. Revolts have forced it to accept peace treaties that it would not normally consider - Gascony, the coveted English possession, ended up a Castilian vassal. And during the War of Milanese Succession, France was forced to release Champagne as a separate fiefdom by Austria. The French King has been gathering his strength however, and he has a long memory for grudges...

Nothing can stop the Ottomans it seems. They reached the gates of Venice and Buda, only to lose interest in the European infidels and instead turn on their Muslim rivals, the Timurids and Mamluks. They now control a swath stretching from the Nile Delta to Mecca itself, as well as the port of Basra on the Persian Gulf.

Bohemia, having regained the title of Holy Roman Emperor, have been pursuing ambitions of an eastern empire, conquering Belarus and seizing territory from Poland. They are encroaching into the sphere of the Swedish/Muscovy alliance, however, and they will not take kindly to the competition. Austria as well has ambitions for the Imperial crown.


What's this? The New World? Now that the United Kingdom has colonial ambitions, we need to see what the situation is like on the other side of the pond. Portugal has started a number of small trading posts in the Caribbean, but is having a hard time keeping them staffed what with malaria and angry natives. They're finding more success on the mainland, where they've established settlements between the Chesapeake and Manhattan.

The Castilians, true to form, see the New World not as an economic opportunity but a chance to crush pagans and unbelievers. The Conquista started almost as soon as they landed, with the southern tribal nations of the Cherokee falling to the sword. Additional Castilian colonies are being founded in Nova Scotia and the Brazilian coast to extend their reach in this hemisphere. The Netherlands will have to deal with both countries if it is to carve out a niche for itself.