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Chapter VII - War! Huh! What Is It Good For?


It is Christmas, 1445, and Duke Philippe decided to do something very special to mark the occasion by announcing the creation of a new knightly order of chivalry, the Order of the Golden Fleece, to be awarded only to the best and brightest in Burgundy. He pledges to award it to his son (now almost ten years old) upon the boy's official introduction to the Dijon court.

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A protracted period of bloodshed and uncertainty began in western Europe as a series of wars wrack the Holy Roman Empire and of course Burgundy became involved, as if a moth drawn to a flame. The first of these is the war between Sweden and Pommerania.

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1466 was marked by multiple naval successes against the Swedish fleet, if with occasional assistance from Burgundy's partners in the war.

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The war with Sweden ended after two years, with their key concession being the loss of the strategic port of Riga, giving Burgundy a port (albeit an isolated one) on the Baltic Sea.

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Nineteen months later, Philippe was encouraged by the Reichstag to reclaim lost land for the Empire and on 2nd October, 1449, he declared war on Nikifor Koninsky, current leader of the merchant rulers of Novogorod, with the stated aim to regain the province of Livland. In un-related but no less significant news, a month later, a Burgundian merchant visited the ancient city of Kyoto in the mist-shrouded lands of Japan. Maps of the Far East were not yet forthcoming however.

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A year later, as Novgorod conceded Livland to the Empire and released other territories under the control of a pretender to the old Muscovite throne, Louis XI, the new King of France after the death of his brother Charles VII, declared war on Burgundy to reclaim the county of Cambray. Two weeks later, Alfred de Montbéliard, the Duke of Bar, also declared war in support of the French throne.

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Bar's contribution to France's war efforts was short-lived, as the Duke was forced to pay homage to Philippe as a Burgundian vassal a mere five months later. Nine weeks later, Alfred died of shame over the abrupt loss of his family's honour and his brother Nicolas, a year younger, came to Dijon to renew Bar's new oath of fealty.

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France's war ended almost as badly, as King Louis was forced to cede his remaining claims on his cousin's lands and exclude the Champagne region from the French throne. Etienne de Dreux, a scion of the Breton royal family, was crowned as Etienne III, Count of Champagne and Nemours.

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Philippe's military prowess was beginning to make waves in Europe and over the years, many army and navy officers came to prominence within the Burgundian military. Breda and Calais were two such locations of military excellence.

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During Easter 1452, Philippe's plans for a grand new palace were at last completed, the new edifice befitting his positions as a rich and powerful duke, a successful general and a popular emperor. The Palais de Ducs de Bourgogne in Dijon was greatly extended and filled with the most exquisite and fashionable expressions of high art in late mediaeval Europe. A new training ground, tilting field and archery range were also all added to his seat of power to keep himself, his family and his household knights in the best physical condition possible.

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That summer, overawed by the explosion of wealth, culture and military dominance of his Imperial neighbour, Etienne de Dreux swore fealty to the Duke of Burgundy in return for protection from future French reprisal. With Bar and Champagne envassalled and Lorraine controlled outright, Burgundy was no longer split into two halves and could present a cohesive whole to its neighbours in Europe.

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Internal matters were not nearly as rosy as Burgundian propaganda would have one believe, as by that autumn, only the people of Dijon itself could be said to be happy with the Duke's administration at present.

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The next summer, in July 1453, whilst Philippe was touring Lüneburg as part of his duties as Emperor, a new diet was held at Bremervörde reforming the often-ineffectual Hofgericht and investing the Emperor as the supreme arbitrator and ultimate legal authority within the Empire. Philippe duly accepted this august privilege and promptly delegated these powers to a new Imperial chancellor to act as chairman and leader of the Reichstag.

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Philippe's successful tour of the northern Empire concluded in Utrecht on 7th Aug 1453, with Prince-Bishop Rudolf the Wise surrendering the keys of the city and his temporal authority over the province to the Duke in perpetuity.

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Philippe's power and prestige reach their height with the Burgundian court recruiting a new magistrate every month!

Just prior to his son's eighteenth birthday, Philippe kept his promise and in a grand ceremony before all the nobles of Burgundy, Philippe the Lesser (as he is known) was formally invested as fourth Count of Charolais and made a Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece.

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In the spring of 1454, Duchess Jacqueline became gravely ill and Philippe's increasingly erratic behaviour in private (later attributed to grief and stress) soon became public knowledge as he attempted to stage a live game of chess in the palace gardens, with men-at-arms for pawns, cavalrymen (and their horses) for knights etc. General Henri-Jules de Châlon-Arlay and Admiral Denis Pot de la Roche acted swiftly to forestall any further embarrassment to the Duke by taking supreme control of the Burgundian armed forces and insisting that all administrative and diplomatic activity be brought to Count Philippe instead.

Unfortunately, Jacqueline did not get recover and later died of consumption at the respectable age of fifty. As the Duke was not informed until much later for fear of upsetting his fragile mental state, she had only a modest funeral, though mourners and grateful peasantfolk lined the roads during the procession of her coffin from Dijon to Le Quesnoy in Hainault, the town of her birth.

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After a few weeks of complete isolation from all the stresses of Ducal and Imperial life, Philippe's mental balance re-stabilised and he took back control of his duchy and its affairs. In penance for his lack of mourning over his wife's death, Philippe commissioned a series of memorial crosses, later known as the Jacoban Crosses, in every town her funeral cortège passed through to commemorate her life and allow her people to remember her fondly. This project was completed over a five-year period and its conclusion was marked by the passing of the Suffragan Bishop Act to improve religious administration and allow royal religious ceremonies without needing explicit royal permission. This five-year period also marked the longest protracted period of peace in Burgundy since the regency council.

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ArmsofBurgundy1430.png


Philippe the Good
Anno Domini 1459

III Duke of Burgundy, II Duke of Brabant & Lothier, II Duke of Limburg
I Duke of Lorraine, V Count Palatine of Burgundy, V Count of Artois
III Count of Flanders, II Count of Charolais, Lord of Utrecht
I Count of Hainaut, I Count of Holland and Zeeland
Jure bellum: I Duke of Luxembourg
Jure suffragium: Philipp I, Holy Roman Emperor​
 
Fantastic progress! You're certainly using your position as Emperor to the upmost! Well done!

Philip is certainly going to go down as a great ruler.
 
Sorry to hear that Jacqueline died :(

Looks like things are shaping up quite nicely. I'd imagine that there's few powers who could challenge you at this point. Maybe France or Austria?

What's the plan for losing the HRE crown? Unless Austria or Bohemia start vassalizing electors, its hard to see how you could ever form Lotharingia...
 
Well, I have formed Lotharingia at this point, but it was rather gamey and involved making myself the less favourable candidate in a couple of notable ways. If only I'd thought of it earlier, I'd have modified the formation decision to include the option to spend 100 Imperial Authority instead though!
 
The description of Philippe's descent indo grief striken madness was wonderfully worded. A pity that he is suffering after so great a reign. Are there many able to challenge Burgundy's, or I now read from your comment Lotharingia, armed forces now?
 
Philippe's not King of Lotharingia - I meant at this time, not 1459. :) Austria is a swelling power, Iberia is still a monster and France is swiftly rebuilding, whilst England isn't doing badly at all either. (Then again, those are the four main powers of Europe, after all!)
 
I realise that I've been a dreadful person and not updated in ages! :( I'll will endeavour to do much better in future!
 
I love this AAR, and especially love updates, but we can wait. After all, expectation makes the nose grow longer!

...Or something.
 
Chapter VIII - Only the Good Die Old


The 1460s were riven with wars - the first and second Austrian wars for Brescia, Austria's war of aggression with Poland and the Polish war of aggression with Silesia, which drew Philippe's attention as the current Emperor of the Romans. The middle of the decade would even see such improbable wars as the brief armed conflict between Naples and Pope Clemens VII!

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At Easter 1462 the court of Dijon was troubled by Gervaise le Doux, a scholar noted for his smooth skin and eccentric ideas, when he released a pamphlet calling on Philippe to abdicate in favour of his son Philippe the Lesser, now 26 years old and married to Isabella, elder sister to Alfonso XIII, the nine-year-old King of Iberia. Philippe the Elder was in no mood to even entertain such seditious thoughts and promptly had the man arrested and thrown into his dungeons, the better to dissuade anyone else from continuing the scholar's ideas.

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On 2nd Nov, 1463, Philippe (now aged 61) contracted his third marriage to Anna, daughter of and heiress to Rene III, Duke of Bar, despite the fact that, at a mere 22 years old, she was a third of his age and younger than Philippe the Lesser! The next day, Rene III abdicated his titles and responsibilities and retired from public life, content that his daughter had married one of the most powerful men in all of Europe. Thus, by right of his wife, Philippe was now Duke of Bar.

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The next summer, news came that King Gustavus Adolfus of Sweden (of the Dutch-Austrian House of Leijonhufvud) was swiftly on his way towards unifying all of Scandinavia. Olav V Haraldsson, the teenage King of Norway, had been forced to grant independence to Magnus Kane, Count of Iceland, and was now confined to the Skagerrak coast and the Northern Isles, and whilst Frederick of Burgundy was still King of Denmark, his lands had not expanded for fear of Swedish reprisal.

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Over the next few years, most advisers and commanders would flock to the glorious Burgundian court, eager to serve Europe's most prestigious and cultured realm. The skilled artist Hans Memling and military prodigy Gui de Ferette were amongst the latest in a long stream of new arrivals in Dijon.

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Eastertide, 1466, brought a fresh bout of mental instability for the rapidly ageing Duke and General de Châlon-Arlay and Admiral de la Roche were quick to form another advisory council and arrange for the delegation of all non-military duties to Duchess Anna and Count Philippe. Philippe's fragile health became increasingly difficult to conceal from his people and he became popularly known as Philippe the Old, as well as the Elder and the Good.

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With Philippe incapacitated, Anton the Fierce, Archduke of Austria, concluded three wars over the summer, none of them at a disadvantage to Austria. It was clear to all that Austria would remain a serious rival of Burgundy for a long time to come.

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After Philippe's recovery from his illness, shortly after Epiphany, 1467, he began to plan the construction of a new set of fortifications in Riga, the Imperial free city on the Baltic coast and otherwise surrounded by the lands of the Teutonic Order. These new walls and watchtowers would be accompanied by a new comital palace in Riga and the establishment of a local civil service, all the better to reduce continual dependence on Dijon for every decision.

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Three years later, after a mostly peaceful and uneventful period of time, Burgundian scholars and financiers implemented one of Europe's first national banks, a bold new way to centralise monetary control, increase revenues and reduce the reliance upon foreign merchant houses. As recompense for his part in this great endeavour and for over 30 years of service, Philippe rewarded Denis de Toulonjon with a handsome pension, a fine house and created for him the title of Baron de Chenôve.

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Seven months later, however, Denis de Toulonjon died and was buried with all honours in the graveyard at St Benigne. Although the emotional scars of seeing his oldest friends and most loyal advisers dying all around him were not soon to heal, the gap in administration was well filled with the appointment of Eugène Nagu, a brilliant philosopher from the province of Varennes and the son of a military captain who was a veteran of previous Burgundian wars. Such dynastic loyalty warmed Philippe's heart and he was happy to reward Eugène's competence with the title of Comte de Varennes and enough land on which to build a grand new home.

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It was in the spring of 1471 that Brittany began a curious policy of engaging in wars with distant powers for little or no discernible benefit, but as Brittany's ally, Philippe felt compelled to aid Duke Henri in his curious foreign policy. After several bloody battles throughout Morocco, the Breton Duke made peace with the Emir of Morocco the next February and the troops came home, with barely anything to show for it.

In June 1471, Count Philippe's first son, Charles, was born to much celebration and merriment. Philippe the Elder now had a grandson and could now spend his last years with his extended family, happy in the knowledge that the succession was secure.

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Another of Gervais le Doux's pamphlets was published, this one written entirely behind bars, focussing on the concepts of wealth, nobility and pride and how these three often come together in men. His occasional friend, the court philosopher Eugène Nagu, Comte de Varennes, suggested to the Duke that perhaps he might wish to raise capital by providing minor titles of nobility to those who 'gifted' the treasury with significant amounts of gold. Although noted for raising several untitled men to positions of power and nobility, the Duke was reportedly far from amused and banned all of Gervais's writings from court.

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Sir Gui de Ferette, Knight-Commander of the Royal Guard and long-time student of all things military, takes advantage of new concepts in military strategy and implements the ideas that will soon lead to the widespread adoption of the Galloglaigh regiments, so named after the fearsome Irish mercenary armies from whom Gui de Ferette took many ideas.

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In November 1469, the Palatinate had attacked Bohemia whilst King Vladislav III was excommunicated, dragging in half a dozen other combatants, including Russia, Poland and even little Alsace. In May 1472, after Bohemia had withdrawn from the fierce fighting, Philippe was called to defend Silesia and Saxe-Lauenburg, who remained at war with the Palatinate. Eventually, in February 1473, three and a half years after fighting first began, the Palatinate granted Alsace its freedom and Mainz its independence and was forced to pay extensive indemnities for consuming the Emperor's valuable time and resources.

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After the essential failure of the Crusades and the fall of the last of the Christian Levantine cities some two centuries before, Pope Gregorius XII called for another crusade to reclaim the Holy Land. On 19th February 1474, Count Philippe set out at the head of 24,000 men to make the Tenth Crusade a lasting success. In his absence, he would miss the birth of his second son, Jean, in September 1474 and he would never see his father alive again.

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In Oct 1474, Charles VIII of France (son of Louis XI) went to war with Provence again and, in November, Burgundy was once again called to protect an Imperial state. That same month, the Archduke of Austria proved that he was as dab a hand at the negotiating table as he was on the battlefield by inheriting the Landgraviate of Hesse to go with his family's already extensive titles. Anton Leijonhufvud was one of the last great monarchs of the Middle Ages and he died shortly thereafter, to be succeeded by his brother Franz II, Erzherzog von Österreich und Landgraf von Hesse.

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Finally, on the morning of Saturday, 30th June 1475, Philippe de Valois, Duke of Burgundy et al, was discovered to have died peacefully in his sleep. He was 72 years old and had been Duke of Burgundy for the last seventy years, 58 of them in his own right. No one in Burgundy could even remember his father's reign, let alone that of his grandfather, the first of the House of Valois-Burgundy, and there were only a few who could even remember when Philippe had been a young man. So passed a good man and a great duke and, with him, so too did the last vestiges of the Middle Ages. The Renaissance was coming.

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ArmsofBurgundy1430.png


Philippe the Good
(b. 31.07.1402, c. 22.04.1405, r. 11.04.1417 - 30.06.1475)

III Duke of Burgundy, II Duke of Brabant & Lothier
II Duke of Limburg, I Duke of Luxembourg, I Duke of Lorraine
V Count Palatine of Burgundy, V Count of Artois, III Count of Flanders
I Count of Hainaut, I Count of Holland and Zeeland
II Count of Charolais, IV Margrave of Namur, Lord of Utrecht
Jure uxoris: I Duke of Bar
Jure suffragium: Philipp I, Holy Roman Emperor​
 
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58 years is a long rule!

Great update. Very well written. Worth the wait of course!
 
Great update and nice to see this AAR continue :).

One question though, Lotharingia or Erbkaisertum (hereditary emperor of the HRE) or both ;) (or do I have my mods mixed up)?
 
Intermission - State of the Realm
The Thirtieth of June, in the Year of our Lord, Fourteen Hundred and Seventy-Five

"Welcome to my chamber, traveller! It is good of you to come and visit me, as that ungrateful sod de Varennes only visits occasionally. I taught him everything he knows! Sit down, sit down - I trust the doorman did not give you any grief? Don't be alarmed by that barred window - it stops me falling out and I have a terrible fear of heights. I might even try to seek lower ground if the man outside would let me leave, but they bring me my food and pass on the odd letter, so I can't complain too much.

"And there I am prattling away without introducing myself, though no doubt you already know who I am. (Silly fool! They're here to visit you!) I am the eminent scholar Gervaise of Anjou, called le Doux on account of my youthful good looks, not because of my hairy lip! (Honestly - where do people get these ideas?)

"So, you want to know about the inner workings of our fine duchy? Well, of course you do! Who wouldn't want to learn from so fine a mind as mine? If you could pass me that book from the shelf? If there was more room in the castle, I could keep more books, but apparently there's not much room in the castle and I do get an excellent view from this altitude, completely free from rent too, so I shouldn't complain. Saints bless you for your kindness!

"Now, where was I? I can never find anything I've written down before in a hurry, more's the pity. Ahh, yes, the state of our fine realm. Listen very carefully: I shall say this only once..."


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The official court portrait of Philippe le Bon, wearing the insignia of the Order of the Golden Fleece.

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Europe at the death of Philip the Good. Burgundy has yet many rivals.

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Orthodox Christianity is on the wane and Catholicism has taken hold in North Africa.

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I am pleased to note that Burgundy is one of the most advanced nations in Europe!

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The Holy Roman Empire at Duke Philippe's death. Austria has claimed much land for the Empire.

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Our people are relatively happy, though there are some dissenters, no doubt supporting the rebellious dog.

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With all our armies away from home, the scurrilous pretender has well-chosen his moment to strike.

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The Tenth Crusade is proceeding well and Count Philippe is confident of success.

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The greatest minds in Europe flock to Dijon to experience the culture and majesty of Burgundy.

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Our economy is excellent and the duchy has been well ruled for many years, God rest the Duke's soul.

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Without a doubt, our soldiers are the best trained and best equipped fighting men in all the world!

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Burgundy's Flemish and Burgundian citizens are not nearly so numerous as 60 years ago and the Wallonian population has increased sharply.

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Burgundy has almost 100,000 soldiers, but attrition and other ills leave our armies struggling to compete with our greatest rivals.

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One quarter of Burgundy's soldiers and all of her ships are on crusade in the Holy Land.

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Production and trade provide much of Burgundy's wealth, though the ongoing wars sap our coffers with alarming regularity.

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Our merchants are flourishing, even though they must travel frequently and for great distances to make their coin.


Finally, we have over 160,000 reserves available and our stability is superb, yet our legitimacy is merely acceptable.
 
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Excellent summary! Very useful for the reader. :)
 
Looking good! Enjoyed the summary. Especially looking forward to seeing how you manage to lose the Imperial throne.
 
your doing great, looks like smoothsailingfrom here. Also I see your using the Sprite packs, do they work when running mods aswell?
 
If you can see that I'm using them, then the answer is obviously 'yes'. :)

I did that through the simple expedient of installing each pack twice - once to the main EU3 directory and then to the D&T mod directory.
 
Such a genuinely well-played game through and through so far. Usually when I play I either focus on one thing or another (like madman-expansion / wh*ring about to inherit / trade like the 1%) but this is just genuinely great :3

Thanks for the summary in the end, makes it much easier to catch up! :3
 
Why thank you, kind sir. The early exploits of Philip IV will be up soon. :)