The Aragonese War of Succession
1603 - 1610
The D'Arago family ruled over Aragon for over three centuries. The de Avis family ruled over it for several more. Aragon was well acclimated to weather the storm of dynastic change. The de Avis family's two branches, one of Portugal and one of Aragon, died out in quick succession. The de Avis noble family situated in the fair away Iberian peninsula was closely related to the Gryf family of Scandinavia. As the Lorraine, Hesse, and other major royal families of Europe shunned the Scandinavians, the de Avis were one that often found themselves allying with the Scandinavians. Especially in regards to their common rivals in the form of Milan and Burgundy. The events of the early 1600 were unforeseeable. Both dynastic lines were light on Male heirs and heavy on women. The natural consequence of this would me that much of Europe would have ties to the de Avis family, especially France which
was inherited by the de Avis of Aragon just in 1599. The Portuguese line ended with Maria de Avis's succession after the death of Pedro IV. Maria was the wife of Gustav I Adolf Gryf, Emperor of Scandinavia and it was only natural that the two states form a personal union. Gustav I Adolf died two years later giving rise to Olav, their first son, who ruled for just ten months. Their second son, Gustav II, would provide a more stable reign bringing the Portuguese and the Scandinavians closer than ever before. There were legitimate concerns that union with Scandinavia would lead to direct integration as had happened with
Mecklenburg and
Somolensk, but Gustav II made an oath that he would had no desire to integrate the two kingdoms.
The de Avis line in Aragon died out during Olav's reign, this time leaving no clear successor in place. Frederick Gryf was the closest in line to succeed the Aragonese throne, but he was a second cousin. There were many other second cousins and even third cousins that lusted over the throne of Aragon. the Lorraine family of Burgundy in particular coveted the throne of France for itself and demanded their own place on the throne. With British support Frederick made it to Aragon where he was crowned King Ferran II of the Aragonese Empire. This was not a well received action. Many had wished the succession to end similarly to the
succession of Poland which saw Austrian, Bohemian, Turkish, Mongol, and Bavarian claims satisfied leaving only the beaten remnant husk of Poland to the Lombards of Milan. Needless to say the Polish themselves were unhappy and tried unsuccessfully to revolt and the Aragonese were eager to avoid the fate of Poland. In an effort to bolster the security of his throne Ferran sought help from his mother country, help which Scandinavia and Gustav were more than willing to
provide.
Seeing the appointment of a Gryf on the throne without their claims properly discussed and the alliance with the Scandinavians as a threat, there would be a quick succession of declarations of war. Milan, Castille, Burgundy, Bavaria, Hesse, Morocco, and many others each launched their own individual wars. It was obvious that this war would be dangerous for the Scandinavians to take part in, but Gustav II was true to his word and declared war on almost all of Europe. Thankfully the Portuguese and the British were more than willing to provide any aid they could provide. Another small blessing was that the Horde and Ryazan both remained neutral in the conflict, as did the Turks. It is unlikely that Scandinavia could have taken on additional armies. Scandinavia's navy would play a great part in the destruction of the Milanese navy, and the Castillians. Both navies had not yet recovered from the disastrous wars with Great Britain and they were quickly swept aside by the powerful Scandinavians and the mainly maritime forces of Portugal, Aragon, and Great Britain.
While naval battles were decidedly in favor of the Gryfs, land battles were something else entirely. The
Holy Roman Empire, now entirely under the thumb of the
Hessian Regime, remained shockingly silent in the engagement on the Scandinavian front. Not a single Hessian soldier ever violated a piece of the Scandinavian realm, in return not a single Scandinavian soldier set foot into Hessian territory. The only active theater of conflict in the north would be that between the Scandinavian armies of Holstein and Mecklenburg against the forces of Bavaria. The events of this part of the conflict would be romanticized in later generations as the 'Bavarian Dances' in which the superior technology and equipment of the Scandinavian forces fought against the superior numbers and cavalry of the Bavarians. The engagement between the two armies was cut short by the Aragonese peace with the Bavarians, but not before a five year period of warfare where Ludwig X von Welf and Ferdinand Maria von Seckendorf of Bavaria fought constantly against Patrik Daa and Karl Johann Toll of Scandinavia across the former Pomeranian lands. The last major battle was just outside of Oberlausitz, which was a decisive victory for the Scandinavians as it made the whole of Bavaria susceptible to invasion.
The Bavarian dances would be popularized in a number of ways in novels, poems, and artworks. The Bavarian Dances were arranged in terms of the ten most highly popularized and significant of the engagements and their immediate aftermaths. It starts with the
first battle and continues until the
last battle. A famous musical suite would be inspired by the Bavarian Dances based on the aforementioned ten:
FB,
BD,
#2,
#3,
#4,
#5,
#6,
#7,
#8,
Fin.
Aragon and the various powers against them would sign separate peaces after the Gryfs started to gain a decisive advantage over them. Milan recognized the independence of the Kingdoms of Genoa and Parma as well as the royal house of Gryf on the Aragonese throne. Burgundy would see the southern portion of their country consumed by the invaders before agreeing to a peace. Many of their conquests against the French were released as sovereign nations, in addition to the ceding of Dauphaine and the recognition of the house of Gryf. Hesse would agree to a mutual peace, recognizing the rightful reign of Ferran II. Bavaria paid an indemnity for damages sustained in Mecklenburg. The Grand Duchy of Tyrol conceded defeat in the engagement. A number of other minor forces ended their wars with a simple recognition of the other's right to rule their territory. Morocco, a powerful Muslim Empire, had not seriously been engaged with the Aragonese and the Scandinavians, Gustav agreed to a white peace when requested as he had expected that war to be over. Instead the Moroccan army descended upon the Aragonese in West Africa through Taodeni. Ferran was confused by this, as he had only recently finished the conquest of Kanem Bornu, but remained ready for conflict. Gustav was furious at being mislead out of the war effort. Unwilling to break a truce he instead started sending obscene amount of war subsidies to the Kingdom of Aragon in order to dispatch with this threat. Elsewhere the Kingdom of Ryazan was thoroughly crushed by the Golden Horde so decisively that it sent shock waves throughout Europe. It was rapidly becoming apparent that the Christian powers of the world were allowing a tremendous threat to emerge unchecked.*
*I had found a spare copy of this game saved immediately after the first Ryazani war of reconquest. I was happy to have it after I thought this game was gone for good and checked to see if it worked, which it did. Unfortunately when Ryazan was crushed I was curious to see what was going on with the world. The Golden Horde and Morocco were in the Ottoman Tech Group and all Muslims received .05 colonists a year. It wasn't what I wanted at all for this AAR since I had initially spelled out all the changes I had made and this was making more of it. In addition the Golden Horde and Morocco have a coastal port bringing extra colonists which means Morocco is colonizing North Africa while the Golden Horde is colonizing Siberia. They're doing it very slowly, but they're still doing it. Morocco now has a land border with Aragon, which had conquered and colonized much of West Africa and is causing a large amount of trouble there. The Golden Horde has lands in the Baltic all the way to the Persian Gulf and all the way to the doorstep of China and India. They recently defeated the largest AI Persia I have ever seen, only adding to the fear. At the moment I'm conflicted if I should change the Golden Horde back to muslim level, along with Morocco, and remove their colonist making powers. If I do it then we'll probably see a resurgence of the Russian states, we I don't then I'll have one hell of an end game boss. I want to hear what you guys think first though.