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Finally! A foothold to reclaim lost Viking land!
Those allies in the mainland would prove useful too.
 
Very impressive, you beat France! :eek:
 
In regards to future wars with France. I'll be relying on keeping Flanders + my own combined war capacity over theirs. This means big ships out of the wazoo, and a pinch of salt. If its tight, there may be some inflation hit to get the caravels.

In regards to beating France, I really beat Austria, Scotland, and Sweden (who I've completely annexed to get my Stockholm core). But since France were the war leaders, all the crushed armies added to my war score against France instead. I killed enough of their troops - and put one large army of theirs in the scottish highlands at winter, with scorched earth - to drive their exhaustion through the roof. The 100% blockaded added a chunk more, and tipped my war capacity over theirs (by 3%, at the end), so I pushed the +20% over war score deal. I decided that freeing Flanders would both harm the French economy (they no longer even have a CoT) and have the most fitting geopolitics - Flanders has its back to the empire and a border with another wealthy medium power under similar threat. It also just seemed more plausible than balkanizing her through the duchies.
 
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Well, that war was a resounding success. :) Pretty cool Low Countries now with the newly free relatively strong Flanders and similarly sized Liege.
 
A Few More Years

Following the war, money was flowing through the treasury, and colonists were dispatched in waves across the ocean, whilst the court sent out men to assist the Fins in recovering from their wars under Swedish rule. Without any specific goals in mind, the project quickly led to a resounding success.

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Those Fins and Swedes in Finland, but under Norwegian rule were quickly benefiting from the enlightened administration of the Bildts, and many were raised in to a new, third army. This army was shipped to Scotland to manage the highlanders, before long years of relative peace settled in. Rebels rose up in Scotland and Sweden alike, and were handily disposed of without issue. Meanwhile, the colonization of the new world continued in earnest, with New Finlanders beginning to construct new fortifications, and new viceroyalties being created.

Eventually, the peace was broken - somewhat, by a call to arms from the Flems. Not - as had immediately been dreaded - to fight France. But rather, to participate in a crusade against the Mamluks. The court could not conceive of a way that the Mamluks might harm Norway, and acquiesced. The fleet quickly picked up the army in Denmark, and sailed it to Egypt, where the army - unimpeded - occupied the capital of the already-collapsing mamluk state. A concession of defeat from the fraught sheikhs and emirs there was all that could be extracted, however, as the call from Flanders that had been dreaded all along had arrived. France was attacking her. The court knew they could do little to save Flanders herself - this was to be a war to remind France of Norwegian superiority. The army re-embarked with the fleet, and began to sail for home. A couple of French ships were intercepted on the way, but by the time the fleet reached Flanders, the Flems had all but annihilated the French fleet.

France's Austrian allies had sent their fleet out to the 'kingdom' of Leinster, and was quickly set upon by Leifsson, who captured 2 of their 17 galleys, and 2 of their 4 cogs in a battle with an utterly foregone conclusion - the Austrian Mediterranean fleet utterly incapable of fighting on the edges of the Atlantic. The fleet then returned to Oslo, to bring an army to Leinster to clean up those Austrian troops who had escaped to shore in the battle. The bishopric of Liege was quickly forced to concede the province of Metz for the sake of peace, and Flanders too was overrun. The French continued to make efforts to get what few ships she had remaining to ferry troops to Norwegian possessions, but they simply didn't have the speed to evade the fleet, and her ships were systematically sunk across the North Sea and the Channel. With naval superiority affirmed over the French, the fleet went hunting for that of the Austrians. Predictably, it was found sailing from the gulf of Venice, and in a swift and conclusive battle, the swollen Norwegian fleet sunk every Austrian vessel, before moving for France once more. With Flanders occupied, and the French mainland secure from any possibility of Norwegian invasion, the blockade went underway - all that could be done now was to bleed the French treasury, and wait for peace to come.

Spies were quick to report that France was (again) in uproar over the war, the common man enraged at the trickling down effects of the blockade, and rebellions - quickly suppressed - were cropping up throughout the nation. Flanders and Austria concluded a white peace in this time, which only served to guarantee the unbreakable nature of the Norwegian blockade. She then quickly conceded defeat to the French, turning over near the entire nation to French control.

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When Flanders declined to accept the Bildts' offer of becoming a duchy within the power of Norway, the court saw no reason to pursue the alliance further, and this dissolved it. No doubt impressed by Norway's consistent dominance over France, the kingdom of Spain offered Norway an alliance, which was gladly accepted. Spain was quickly growing a reputation as the center of great wealth within Europe, and seemed a much stronger ally to fight France in the future. With the treasury recovering from this rather less profitable news, more colonists were sent out to the new world once more, steadily expanding the frontier west and south.
 
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Great update, even if it is short. :)
 
Nicely done. At least France is spending this time retaking land instead of expanding elsewhere.
 
Scandinavia, She Comes

Despite the relative safety of Norwegian holdings in the war, it had been made clear that some of the fortifications - particularly those in and north of Scotland, would be more ideal if they were enlarged, renovated, and reinforced with larger garrisons. A war fought in a series of isolated theaters in the future would be much more viable if each of the isles could last as long as conceivably possible before the fleet and army could relieve it. With such strategic principles in mind, the young king and the court commissioned engineering and construction works in a long-term project to expand the castles of Norway.

Very quickly, Norway was at war again - this time summoned by her newly acquired allies in Spain. The war was a scarcely relevant one, however, in which Spain had agreed to protect Transylvania from Bulgarian aggression. A few months passed, and with them came the news that Novgorod - allies of Bulgaria - would lend their aid in the war. The republic had, since Muscowy's ascension in to the kingdom of Russia, lost all her ports, and become a landlocked nation. She did however, border Finland, who were more than willing to give passage to a Norwegian army. The entirety of the republic was quickly surrendered to Norwegian occupation, and Spain thereafter concluded a peace annulling Novgorod's alliances.

Meanwhile, news arrived in Oslo of a religious movement beginning to sweep across the empire. From nobility, through clergy to serfs, men were crying out in anger against the catholic church and the pope, citing innumerable grievances with how the church handled the common man, and many of its practices. Spreading at first from the Duchy of Cleves, soon the empire was embroiled in a bitter dispute over how the church should practice, and entire duchies turned in to what were being known as Protestant states. The court had mixed feelings about this, but felt that this was an issue for the empire. This mentality however, seemed to be an underestimation. Within but a year, many of the protestants on the continent were codifying their philosophies and practices, and one of the most major sects was that of the Reformed Church, which had swept across the Teutonic Order, on the Empire's periphery.

Even this however, underestimated the scale of religious unrest, as news came in from Sweden and Scotland that the peasantry were up in arms against the catholic church, siding themselves with Protestant beliefs. This new religious tension amongst the peasantry started to lead small groups of Swedes to begin seeking freedom for their people once more. In the August of 1504, the king's allies in the empire - the Bishopric of Liege, called for Norway's aid. They were at war with England. Eager to reclaim Scandinavian soil, the court accepted, and the armies immediately began marching. Fyn and Skane both were occupied before the English could land an army in Sjaelland and blockade the straits. Even more fortuitously, Norway's long-standing rivals in France, saw their opportunity to strike at England, and this diverted the fleet away. The English had landed a large army in Sjaelland, but it was felt that it could be overwhelmed with numbers and fortune. Leifsson was unfortunately killed in action sinking an English barque, but a replacement of equal skill was quickly found.

The English had already deployed a large army to the former Danish capital, but it was felt that numbers and fortune could overwhelm. Unfortunately, the initial assault on the English there was beaten back, and it fell to the fleet to intercept English attempts to pursue the army across the straits. After several months of hard negotiations, the Scots agreed to allow the Norwegian army in the highlands through to England. It was now that news arrived that the English fleet was preoccupied not fighting France, but had in fact sailed for the Indies just before the war had begun, and was not likely to return soon. This was extremely good news, as it gave Norway local naval superiority, and possibly even the edge needed to take the last of Scandinavian soil from England. It took 3 individual battles to whittle away the English army in København, but it was eventually overwhelmed. With the Liegians reporting that that the French and they had already defeated 3 separate English armies, and this was a sign that Britain herself might be vulnerable to invasion.

Indeed she was, England had left but one small army to guard her border, and the kingdom of Leinster's troops had already occupied Ireland on Norway's behalf. The English army in Yorkshire was run down in days, whereupon the English quickly agreed to surrender Skane and Fyn to Norwegian rule.

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Awesome, well done! Throwing the English out is very good for your local safety as the only power in Scandinavia.

What's up with the independent Denmark? Rebelled from Pommerania?
 
So close to forming Scandinavia! So close!
 
In regards to the English fleet going away, it actually left after the war started, but from a narrative/logical point of view, I thought it'd make more sense if I suggested it was gone just before it was needed.

In regards to independent Denmark, England took the Pommeranian holdings a while back, and just after the conquest, Danish nationalists got Halland while England was fighting Poland.

And for Scandinavia... Just time, now.