A Throne of Blood and Iron: A Throne of Lorraine AAR

[goldbugbite]

- A Throne of Blood and Iron -

​

This is A Throne of Blood and Iron, a Throne of Lorraine AAR, my second after-action report after a canned Heirs to Aquitania run. Playing as the titular Lorraine, I will be able to form a Germany that has cores on half of France, parts of Italy and the low countries. Needless to say, if you can succeed in forming the Holy Roman Empire, you’ll be incredibly overpowered. This AAR will be narrative heavy and will focus on imagining the absolute nightmare of a Western superstate dominating 19th century Europe. Now, Throne of Lorraine doesn't have a whole ton of lore compared to some of the more famous alternate history mods out there, but there is plenty of flavor to a lot of countries and most ideas are pretty straightforward...except for whatever the hell is going with Ethiopia. Occasionally, I will also write in-fiction short stories for this one, but they might take longer so bear with me. Join me in claiming the throne of Lorraine and recreating Charlamagne’s dream! Lebe der Kaiser, Vive l’Empereur!

Goals:

Unite the French and the Germans as the Holy Roman Empire.

Unite Italy under us as a puppet or own half of Italy, puppet the rest.

Unite the Iberian Peninsula as our puppet.

Have a sizable colonial empire but this is secondary to my goals in Europe.

Contents:
Chapter One: Lorraine in the 19th Century
Chapter Two: The Starting Rumble

Vignettes:
Vignette I: The Painter

Map of Europe in 1836:

 

[goldbugbite]

The Throne of Lorraine
Lorraine, a region of Europe that carries the weight of centuries of history. Its zenith, its role in the formation of Europe's greatest empire in the modern era, but the origins of Lorraine lay in the decline of Charlemagne's great medieval empire, when he ruled as Roman Emperor over a significant portion of the continent. Sometimes referred to as the Carolingian Empire, named after its ruling dynasty, this Frankish creation would soon be crushed by Charlemagne's ambitious descendants, brother against brother and son against father being its most lasting Frankish tradition. Out of its ashes, lay the kingdom founded by Lothair I, one of the Frankish Emperors and first of the kings of Middle Francia, later known as Lotharingia under his son Lothair II. This vast kingdom lay between West and East Francia, from the lowlands to the north, to the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea in the south.

Lotharingia too, would see decline, as the rise of France and Germany, the latter of which took up the mantle of Roman Empire, would see Lotharingia as a battleground. Its ethnic and geographic composition certainly did not help halt its fall, to be reduced by a small duchy that honored Lothair's legacy. Over the centuries, Lorraine would survive, embracing its role as a bridge between cultures, balancing the ambitions of neighboring dukes and the mighty iron fist of the Kaiser. By the latter half of the Renaissance, Lorraine would earn respect as a powerful duchy, and most importantly, a strategic buffer between France and the Holy Roman Empire. While it had been forced to form part of the Kaiser's realm in the high Middle Ages, and occasionally participate in his wars, Lorraine benefited from economic ties and military protection.

This highly important strategic position would see Lorraine prosper. The scholars and artists of Lorraine brought prestige to the court, the French hired Lorrainian engineers to design their star forts due to their skill as Europe's bulwark, commerce flowed through it from France and Germany, and Lorrainians would fight in various German conflicts either as troops of the duke or as rapacious mercenaries. In the 16th and 17th centuries, while Germany was embroiled in its religious wars, Lorraine allowed refugee protestants into its borders, to the chagrin of the Wittelsbach emperors, maintaining stability amidst a sea of violence. By the 1700's, Lorraine had embraced some of the mercantilist ideas that had dominated Dutch and Scottish economics, becoming a manufacturing hub, ridding itself of feudalism, and becoming one of the first nations to embrace the industrial revolution.

The cavalry troops of Lorraine across the ages.​

Life for the average citizen of Lorraine had improved substantially in the late 1700's to early 1800's. While peonage was still in place, serfdom had dissipated with the rise of the manufactories, to be completely abolished in 1791. The field of medicine had improved, and the agricultural revolution made sure that food shortages were rare, raising the standard of living. While the middle class of Lorraine was smaller than that of Scotland and the Netherlands, with their wealthy colonial empires, there was a steady increase of education and wealth amongst the commoners. Democracy was limited, but the power of the Duke was checked by a parliament, the Landtag, which held elections for new members and Chancellors. The average Lorrainian was bilingual, usually speaking both German and Burgundian French, but some provinces still had high levels of monolingualism. Baden for example was almost entirely German, with the exception of Ashkenazi Jews, which at the time had no citizenship. In the Lorranian Savoy, the Arpitan minority could communicate with Burgundians but not German bureaucrats. Instutionally, only German was recognized as the official language of Lorraine. Those who did not know German were barred from public office, and only German could be spoken in the Landtag. French was common and embraced by many, but in the conciousness of the Lorrainian elite, Lorraine was nominally part of the Holy Roman Empire, a mostly German nation, and so tied with ideas of order and prestige. French was spoken in the ducal court but not even the Duke could speak it in parliament. These perceptions would dissipate over time, as German pan-nationalism would extend beyond the traditionally defined German lands.

Eduard II, the annexation of the Saarland, and the Dutch-Lorranian War.

One of the most important figures in Lorrainian history, Duke Edouard II of House Lorraine, ascended the throne in 1831. As a dashing 28-year-old, the young Duke belonged to a new generation of European elites that had embraced the Enlightenment idea of nationalism, though it is important to note that the Lorrainian intelligentsia had been glorifying the old age of the Karlings for centuries, the recent surge of Romanticism as a literary genre had revitalized the image of the Middle Ages and its tales of chivalry and honor.

Inheriting a stable duchy with a prospering economy, a respected military, a higher-than-average literacy, and the decline of both Holy Roman and French imperial authorities, set him on a course some consider to be inevitable. His early reign was relatively unremarkable, he was well liked by his people and while liberalism was always on the rise among the bourgeoise, things seemed bright for the average Lorrainian. Early Edouardian Lorraine would be awakened from its slumber when the disturbing news of a Luxembourger invasion of the neighboring Principality of Saarbrucken in 1836 had reached the court of the Duke. The whole of the Saarland region had been claimed by Lorraine for some time now, and while they had conquered the city of Saarbrucken in a past war, there was hope that the mercy of not fulling annexing the Principality would see them annexed peacefully over time through marriage. In a decisive move, the Duke pressed his claim on the region and invaded the small principality himself before the Luxembourgers got there. Affronted, the Grand Duchess of Luxemburg Mathilde I, sent a letter of protestation to the Lorrainian embassy. Falling on deaf ears, the Luxembourgers asked their Dutch allies for help.

Most of mid-1836 was tense, as the Ducal Guard was on full alert, Lorraine made some alliances, and the administration was ready to conscript thousands to assist in the inevitable conflict. Finally, a declaration of war was received on late 1936. Hoping to catch the Lorrainians by surprise by attacking during winter, Luxembourger forces, number roughly 21,000 men, marched on Metz. Close to the capital of Nanzig, Luxemburg hoped that focusing on the snake's head first and letting the Dutch finish the rest would lead to an early victory. This was a devastating mistake, the 30,000 men of the Ducal Guard, evenly distributed still by infantry, cavalry and artillery until conscripts could reinforce the regulars, pounced on the Luxembourgers while the Dutch were just entering the northern border of Luxemburg. The First Battle of Metz killed most of the enemy's professional army, while at Wirten, the rest were captured. These two battles would leave heavy losses on the Lorrainian side as well, so rather than pursue the occupation of Luxemburg's land, Lorrainian high command decided to reinforce their main army with mobilized troops and fight the enemy on friendly territory. This was the wisest choice they could take, as scouts and spies revealed that, not counting mobilized Luxembourger peasants, the Dutch relief army numbered 70,000 troops. Eduard was dismayed at this news, but he made it clear to his generals and the Chancellor, Jean-Emille Archambeault, that surrendering now would destroy any chance Lorraine would have to maintain its position in the region.

With 50,000 men in total, the Lorrainian army fought tooth and nail against the invading force. Using their knowledge of the terrain, preventing the concentration of Dutch forces, and the use of defensive tactics, Lorraine had achieved stunning victories against Luxo-Dutch forces. Thanks to the few German allies on Lorraine's side, the enemy occupations were liberated while the Lorrainians fought the most decisive battle of the war, the Second Battle of Metz. A roughly 30,000-man Dutch army was attacked by an army of 38,000 Lorrainian troops. The result was a complete rout of enemy forces from the homeland. With the war clearly over, other than occupying Luxemburg, Lorraine made its demands, the annexation of Luxembourger Wallonia. On April 4, 1837, with allied troops on Dutch territory, the King of the Netherlands sued for peace. The total victory of the allied forces against overwhelming odds, led to jubilation across the country. Duke Edouard II had solidified his fame in Lorrainian history, an obsession of his going forwards. It seemed as if Lorraine was a shining beacon in Europe, sharing in the glory of Hungary's independence from Poland, while the Netherlands were still licking their wounds, England suffered the effects of civil war, and France was embroiled under the tyrannic French Terror. Lorraine's expansion into Luxemburg and the annexation of the Saarland set a precedent. No longer, would Lorraine be in the sidelines, carefully balancing the ambitions of greater powers. Lorraine would not only set a policy towards reclaiming the throne of Lotharingia, but embrace German pan-nationalism as well. The German Wars of Unification had begun.

(left) While liberalism was a danger to the ancien regimes of Europe, many condemned the harsh crackdowns of the French Terror. (right) Duke Edouard II after the victory of the Dutch-Lorranian War. Lorraine's role in the war and the martial prowess promoted by the state was one of the catalysts of the German Wars of Unification.

 

[HistoryDude]

It's always nice to see new AARs, and I'm always interested in ones that feature AH mods. I'll subscribe!

Germany looks divided, but France will be difficult to defeat...

Do you plan on conquering the Low Countries and Italy as well as France and Germany?

 

[Rensslaer]

@goldbugbite you've set ambitious goals inside a really interesting scenario!

Good background and well told.

Looking forward to seeing what Edouard can do!

Rensslaer

 

[goldbugbite]

It's always nice to see new AARs, and I'm always interested in ones that feature AH mods. I'll subscribe!

Germany looks divided, but France will be difficult to defeat...

Do you plan on conquering the Low Countries and Italy as well as France and Germany?

Having played this mod before, it might actually be easier to fight the French than the Germans, ironically enough. As the game progresses, it's not uncommon to see three German great powers at once! France on the hand, might find it difficult to recover from its initial instability.

As for the Dutch and Italians, they're part of the formable nations for this country, but everything south of Rome I would not have cores on, so we'll see.

 

[HIMDogson]

Very excited to see where this goes- the Frankish empire as a basis for a pan-west European superstate has always intrigued me

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

The presentation for this AAR is incredible. Instantly subbed

 

[jak7139]

A very well written introduction! Let's hope Edouard can capitalize on his Dutch victory.

 

[DukeOfNorfolk]

A very well written and interesting introduction to a game (and time period) that I know nothing about. I loved reading about Duke Edouard and decided to name him Character of the Week! Congratulations!

 

[goldbugbite]

The Alsatian countryside


Somewhere in the Rhien River plane of Alsace, a noble sat upon a beautiful white steed, wearing the uniform of the Ducal Guard's cuirassiers. Most of the Lorrainian cavalry consisted of hussars, with only two hundred heavy cavalries existing in the army, but the allusion to a knight in shining armor was a concept that could not be passed. He had brought his favorite painter, and former university friend, Pierre Dujardin with him to a retreat his father had purchased ten years ago. Some quiet away from the court in Nanzig for three weeks would do him and his family nicely.

“Gaudy.”

“What was that?”

“You’re gaudy’s what you are, bringing your damn horse, uniformed for battle…couldn’t we do this in a field out in Nancy?”

Him and Pierre went back many years, he was the son of a poor noble family, but his grandfather the Count of Nevers had left him a small fortune to study in the capital. A spoiled young prince and the most minor of minor aristocrats would usually never interact, but Edouard discovered a talented and underappreciated artist in him, as well as the life of his old drinking parties. In private, neither man changed much from the rapscallions that haunted the University of Lorraine. The break from aristocratic formality took him by surprise, he was thinking of an awkward meeting he had with the Chancellor last week when an alcoholic painter had just insulted his duke in the Burgundian patois.

“Beloved Pierre, as an artist, you should know an image can say more than a thousand words. As for your question, I’d have posed for this painting anywhere but Nanzig. I need peace to think, we are in an unimaginably difficult situation right now.”

“Difficult? The war’s over, we won!”

“It’s more complicated than that Pierre, it’s exactly because we won that worries me. Yet, something good can come from this recent chaos. Lorraine has bested a stronger foe, meaning that Lorraine now stands among the strongest, but to keep in this path also invites danger.”

“Like the French?”

“They’re too busy hanging professors and poets for that, there are many other enemies we’ve made by asserting ourselves like we did.”

“We? I thought taking Saarbrucken was your idea?”

There was a brief pause, Edouard gave him a short and meaningful glance.

“The Chancelor and the Landtag were discussing Grand Duchess Mathilde’s intentions way before I made that choice. Without me, they would have made the same decision.”

"...and yet you took it.”

If Pierre had not said it in such causal laconism, and had he not been an old friend, he would have gotten off his horse and slapped him right there. But Pierre did not seem to give the impression of wanting to pick up a fight with the most powerful man in his country, he simply continued to work on the painting with a calmness. This was Pierre’s language of camaraderie; he was never one to guise his intentions or reserve his criticisms. In truth, he confessed, this is why he had chosen Pierre to paint his portrait, he needed someone brash and honest to spend time with in private, to measure his decisions.

“Pierre, you are a painter, not a statesman, but do you think my path is right?”

“Edouard...”

The painter paused his work to think. After deliberation:

“You know of my dispositions.... I am like those professors and poets being hanged in Paris, I do not believe in your divine right to rule or the spilling of blood. I know at least ten women in my life whose husbands, brothers or sons have not returned from the war. Yet, before me I see the same man I met in the University of Lorraine, impassioned by troubadours and kings of old, of Karlings and Capets. Your spirit is noble, but it is also still young and very brash, and as you said, to keep your path also invites danger. Was Saarbrucken so important to Lorraine to spill the blood men?”

“It was of paramount importance; we could not sit behind as our hono-“

“There it is, the unrelenting passion, the need to excel, to attain victory. We live in an age of reason Edouard; we are not slaying beasts but men! Do you think the Dutch would have come for us if they had no reason to invade? You felt slighted, you acted, then they felt slighted. Now there will be children in those enemy nations who will resent the killers of their fathers, the Lorrainians. It is an unending cycle of carnage!”

There was an uncomfortable silence between the two. Only after the Duke’s retreat was over did they talk to bade each other their farewells. Nobody would ever know the reason for the Duke’s sudden falling with his court painter, but his unveiling of Edouard's Equestrian Portrait in Alsace would be his last time in the Palais de Nancy.

 

[goldbugbite]

Hi everyone, still writing the next chapter for this AAR, things almost crashed and burned because my save was lost. Since I was just starting to play the game, I've decided to just start a new campaign and retrace my steps. Thankfully nothing has contradicted what I've written so far. In the meantime, I've written a little vignette into Edouard's life.

 

[HistoryDude]

Pierre has a point. A cycle of revenge would be... not ideal.

How bad is the French terror? Who are they executing? Everyone who might be construed as criticizing the regime?

 

[jak7139]

It's a shame that Edouard and Pierre's friendship has ended. I have a feeling the Duke will need his advice soon.

 

[Chac1]

This is an interesting beginning. Looking forward to how Duke Edouard truly develops as a character.

It's a shame that Edouard and Pierre's friendship has ended. I have a feeling the Duke will need his advice soon.

Have to agree with @jak7139 here. Without Pierre, who will banter with the duke? Indeed, it will be interesting to see what other characters develop in this AAR.

Have to thank @DukeOfNorfolk for nominating you and guiding us here. This AAR has great potential from the start.

Finally, this truly is a beautiful part of the world and so glad to see some art featured in the AAR (along with a painter!). Is that actual art from the region or AI?

Thanks so much for sharing this work.

 

[goldbugbite]

A Rising Power

After the end of the Dutch-Lorrainian war, Lorraine was considered an ascending power by the European community. It had bested a more powerful foe, one of the great powers, in open combat, making herself known as a capable military adversary. During and soon after the war’s conclusion, various military reforms would improve the Lorrainian military, adopting new doctrines and modern arms. For the first time ever, a permanent corps of 3,000 engineers were recruited for the sieging of fortifications and the adaptation of the army to different terrains. While the Lorrainian military still lacked a large pool of manpower, the state provided high wages and constant supply to provide a battle-ready army that could be deployed at any moment and to attract new recruitable soldiers. To further alleviate the manpower issue, the duke and the rightist parties collaborated to change Lorraine’s volunteer-only policy to issue a one-year draft for the conscription of able-bodied adult men. While Lorraine hadn’t quite acquired the fearsome military reputation of the empire it would become, these reforms made it so it would stand on a better footing in the conflicts to come.

(Left) Hussars, engineers and infantrymen of the Ducal Guard from 1837-1845. (Right) Factories by the river Meurthe, in Nanzig's industrial district.

On the economic side, Lorraine had acquired coal-rich counties in the new province of Lorrainian Wallonia, as well as new factories there. With the industrial revolution taking shape in Lorraine, the income was used to fully fund the administration, education, and the army. Rudimentary steam engines would transport goods to some urban centers, mines, and agricultural regions, but the laying of Lorrainian railroads would be much slower than places like Scotland. Bureaucrats flocked to an administration whose feudal past was quickly disappearing, as the power of the bourgeoisie was beginning to rival that of the traditional aristocracy. That did not mean that factory owners were replacing the nobility, as Lorraine also saw its nation entrenched by a powerful landed elite nicknamed “junkers”, after the eastern German nobles of the Teutonic Order. This caste would sometimes also dip into capitalist economics, as was the trend with most nations at the time, but Germany would see a certain traditionalist perspective to the concept of the nobility. This term would be popularized in the upcoming years, as liberals criticized the “reactionary” elements that still existed in the German socio-economic ideology. Still, with rising class tensions, the standard of living saw a steady increase. The field of medicine had improved too, and Lorraine would see hundreds of thousands vaccinated from common diseases, and while hospitals were still quite far from the regular sight and necessity they would become, doctors would be able to treat previously deadly afflictions as the Scientific Revolution was taking place in Europe. Pedagogy was becoming a serious field in Lorraine, though a basic government school system had not yet existed, state funding assisted philanthropic educational institutions like Catholic schools. The University of Lorraine in Nanzig would also see increased funding, with expansions being added to the campus to promote higher enrollment.

The foundations for the upcoming Lothringian power were taking shape in the late 1830’s and the whole decade of the 1840’s. While some factors like a lack of access to the sea still affected the Lorrainian economy, it was prosperous time for those who could afford it. With economic change and a higher access to education among a rising middle class, so too the desire for political change. Chartist rallies were not uncommon in large urban centers, as disgruntled proletarians and rowdy intellectuals agitated a sleepy, ancient social order. Lorraine would see another rude awakening in the Springtime of Nations.

The Springtime of Nations

In the 1940’s, the effects of centuries of feudal stagnation and the exciting ideals of the Enlightenment stormed Europe, the New World, and the Near East with revolutionary fire. The pirate revolt in the Genoan Caribbean colonies led not only to the loss of their colonial holdings there to the world’s first Pirate Republic, but the independence wars of Sardinia, Sicily, and Corsica. Genoa’s old order as a colonial merchant republic would be replaced by a fiery insurrection against the old oligarchic regime, as the Terranean Republic would be proclaimed, and the voting franchise expanded to the commoners. The other international affair in Italy was the Occitan Revolution. In the Duchy of Provence, Occitan separatists proclaimed the birth of a Republic of Occitania, raising tensions between the Pan-Italian Venice and France. Italian pan-nationalists considered the natural borders of Italy to stretch from Dalmatia to “La Provenza”, and while the Occitans were weary of annexation and the erasure of their culture by Italians, they would stand no chance to liberate their brothers in the Midi without Venetian assistance. To prevent a war, French and Venetian diplomats met in Rome, with the Pope as intermediary. The Occitan republic would be tolerated but not recognized by the French, while Provence would continue to live on as the municipality of Marseilles and the region of Piedmont, a people split in two. This satisfied neither royalist Provençal’s or republican Occitans, but for the moment, peace was maintained between France and Venice.

(Left) The Terranean Revolution and the collapse of Genoa shook the European status quo. (Right) Occitan republicans combating Provençal troops. While successful, the revolution raised even more problems for all parties involved.

France herself had become extremely paranoid of its population, though this was the case since the bread riots of the late 1700’s. The French Empire was ruled by the traditionalist Bourbon dynasty, who shared power with a decentralized feudal order. It’s failure to centralize like other absolutist states had done, had granted temporary stability against the nobility, but the middle class had roused the peasantry in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s as it wanted to escape the grip of the feudal caste system. Aided by the Catholic church, the king Phillipe IV implemented crackdowns against republican forces and performed public executions against anyone advocating for the regime’s abolishment. This political prosecution was called the French Terror, as “white’ forces increased tensions between commoners and the second and first estates. Thousands flocked to the New World as liberal republics guaranteed suffrage. Those who stayed harassed government and church institutions. With the Occitan Revolution, so too came cultural tensions, as Picards, Bretons and the peoples of the Midi found national consciousness amidst the tyranny.

In Eastern Europe, the Hungarian Revolution had ousted the Poles and broken the personal union between the two nations. In its place came the Hungarian Republic, a nation that awkwardly still based its national borders on that of the crown of St. Stefan but governed them as a democratic republic. It's many ethnicities would remain an issue in this newly independent nation, as the Hungarian majority population would behave imperiously against the Slavs, Germans and Romanians in its borders, but an eventual recognition of some their languages would ease tensions with its ethnic minorities over the decades. To the south, pro-western forces in the Ottoman Empire envisioned a nation without a sultan, in which the Turks would be the dominant and principal ethnicity of a republic of Muslims. Inspired by the revolutions in western Europe and the New World, students and westernized officers would incite a mutiny in the Ottoman army that had served in the Bulgarian war for independence. While the Bulgarians lost that war, and Ottoman hegemony over its Balkan demesnes was strengthened, some felt that the Ottoman system was weak, and if the state ever encountered a mass uprising again, or even a worse, an invasion by the westerners, the Ottoman Empire would be carved up like the Europeans were doing in the rest of the world. The Sultan himself was not against reforming the state, but his progress was slow, fearing the going against the power of the nobility or the clergy to rapidly would see him ousted. This reality was very clear to the young Turks of Constantinople's academies, including officers educated in the west, so when a riot was incited in the capital city, instead of mobilizing against the rebel threat, the army joined them. Riot would become insurrection, and insurrection would become siege, as the Sultan and his court were trapped in the Topkapi Palace with his Janissaries fighting off the revolt. Ottoman armies elsewhere were either fighting ethnic revolts in the near east or had refused to join the fighting, thinking it coup to establish another Sultan. Instead, when the revolutionaries stormed the palace, the Sultan and the most powerful members of his family were executed. This also meant the end of the janissary system, as these pretorians would also be hunted down by the republican government. The new constitution sought to provide religious rights to its minorities but only recognized Turkish as the official language of the Republic of Turkey. A new Turkish identity was promoted throughout the republic, favoring westernization. During this same period, Wallachia would cut ties against Constantinople, forming an independent Romanian kingdom.

(Left) Turkish mural depicting the "liberation of Turkey" by the new President and the westernized officers. The fez would be promoted during its Turkification campaign. (Right) The Republic of Turkey would enter a war against neighboring Serbia, hoping they could defeat the Sublime Porte in a period of instability.

In Germany, liberalism was influenced by the more moderate German-speaking republics of Frieland and the Akino League, former colonies of the Hanseatic League that had declared independence in the late 1700’s. Though heavily based on liberal thought, these wars did not actively seek to replace the nobility and were less radical in nature. Their primary material goal was the political separation from the merchants and princes that ruled over them far across the sea. This meant that German liberalism did not overwhelmingly favor the abolition of monarchy, but rather sought the establishment of constitutional monarchies and the abolition of serfdom, following the Scottish model. A nation ruled by commoners, rather than the nobility, was not even an alien concept to the Germans, as Wurttemberg was a “peasant’s republic” inside the decentralized Holy Roman Empire itself. However, with the increased desperation of the French reformists, the rise of the Italian democracies, and the Hungarian Republic’s foundation since it’s separation from the Polish crown, things began to change.
Shortly after the Duchy of Nassau’s participation in the Dutch-Lorrainian War, radicalized students from the University of Nassau and disgruntled veterans from the past war, felt that their Duke Wilhelm I’s unchanging, absolutist rule was a betrayal of their people’s sacrifice and loyalty. What was at the beginning a peaceful protest calling for the establishment of a constitution, erupted into violence, as the duke’s gendarmes were ordered to disperse the crowd assembled at the capital. Refusing to leave, the crowd became a mob, as thousands entered open confrontation against government forces and stormed the ducal palace. The duke and his family were placed under arrest and were forced to abdicate, their estate ransacked. The Republic of Nassau was proclaimed later that day at the city’s town hall, to the alarm of the neighboring princes.

These revolutions, so close to Lorraine, sparked outrage in Nanzig. The Landtag heavily debated the next steps taken. Already some rallies in solidarity to the revolutionaries were organized in three Lorrainian cities. An invasion on neighboring Occitania was unthinkable, as it could risk open conflict with the Venetians, and at the time, Lorraine had not intentions to intervene in “Italian affairs”. Not to mention, that restoring the monarchy in those lands in the name of the Duke of Provence would be seen as intervening in the French sphere of influence. Nassau was another story; it was a neighboring country and one of Lorraine’s allies. The problem here was that invading the young republic to reestablish the Duke of Nassau was impractical. The duke had already signed his abdication, as well as his whole family, and while the international community would agree that it was forced on gunpoint by a mob, this would not be seen the same way by the Nassauer people. If Lorraine invaded and restored the ancient regime, there would be no guarantee for the House of Nassau’s safety. However, a permanent Lorrainian presence in Nassau would prevent such a fledgling government from being overthrown once more. Obviously, such a move would invite criticism from other nations of Lorraine's true intentions in invading Nassau. At the end, thanks to a coalition of conservatives and absolutists, this was decided in the Landtag with overwhelming favor: Lorraine would invade and annex Nassau to restore the old ducal family under their protection.

Another problem presented itself in the Archbishopric of Mainz and Hesse-Darmstadt. These two states stood in the way of a physical entry into Nassauer lands and neither of them allowed open borders to what the Archbishop of Mainz called “an army brutish Goths”. With Hesse-Darmstadt allied to Bavaria, and Mainz being the weaker of the two, the Lorrainians saw the imperial free city as the clear target. What was originally supposed to be an intimidation to force the free passage of troops become a border conflict, as two Lorrainian troops were shot as they crossed the outskirts of Mainz. This incident, called the Archbishop’s Affair, would drive the Lorrainian government to accuse Mainz of “protecting a rabble of bloodthirsty revolutionaries”, and no longer recognized the imperial free city as such. What was once one of the Holy Roman Empire’s electors, would be reduced to a municipality in the province of Alsace, as Lorrainian troops attacked the paltry force the city could afford, and occupied it. The annexation of Mainz now led to a clear road against the republicans of Nassau. Before the Lorrainian troops crossed the Rhine, an ultimatum was sent to the revolutionary committee ruling the former duchy. Nanzig demanded the restoration of the House of Nassau and the arrest of all members of the Revolutionäres Komitee. This was obviously rejected, and in return Lorraine issued a declaration of war on January 12, 1843.

The republic assembled an army of regulars and volunteers to fight the invader, departing Nassau city on January 16, confident that half of the Lorrainian army would defect and join the revolution before the eventual clash between the armies started. Reality could not be further from the truth. On the 17th, Lorrainian and Nassauer forces would engage in the Battle of Aarbergen, a village on the way to Nassau, where the outnumbered and outclassed republicans would be swept from the map in quick fashion. This military disaster would see the Komitee panic, the urged the Nassauers to resist wherever Lorrainians came. It would not take long to crush any resistance in the small duchy, but one problem presented itself in Nassau’s complex borders. The city of Essen existed as an enclave that belonged to the House of Nassau. The Archbishopric of Dortmund surrounded the commune with its borders, one of the frustrating intricacies of the Holy Roman Empire’s “borders”, and as revolution came to Nassau, they decided to respect the borders of the young republic. Perhaps because of Mainz’s fate or a genuine concern for revolutionary ideas (neighboring Cologne was facing mass protests), Dortmund was fully cooperative with Lorraine. Its army was allowed to cross the border and deal with the Komitee members that had fled to Essen. There, an attempt at a final stand was setup by the revolutionaries, but the population of Essen was less than thrilled to die for a failed revolution. The Komitee members were arrested by the local authorities on behalf of the city’s rulers. The flag of Ducal Nassau was raised on Essen cathedral and Lorrainian troops met not resistance when they entered the city. The restoration of the House of Nassau was over. As had been proclaimed in the Landtag, the lands of the former republic would be annexed into the Duchy of Lorraine, with the justification of protecting the old order within the city. The House of Nassau was restored in name into their old demesnes, but this merely a formality, as these lands were ruled by a military governor and Lorraine’s laws were brought into the small duchy. By law, the Duke of Nassau was now a vassal of Lorraine, in exchange for the continuity of Nassau’s aristocracy, and there was now a permanent Lorrainian administration over the region. The ashes of the revolution still lingered on the Nassauer people’s minds, but for now stability had been restored in the southern regions of the Rhein. On neighboring Cologne however, just as Essen had surrendered, radicals deposed the ruling archbishop and proclaimed the Republic of Cologne. Repeating the same process as with Nassau was unthinkable, as Lorraine would overstretch it's goodwill with the neighboring nations and the Netherlands were quick to reassert Cologne as an ally under it's sphere of influence.

(left to right) The Lorranian ultimatum is presented to the Revolutionäres Komitee; the republican army marching out of Nassau to face the monarchists; the Battle of Aarbergen from the Nassauer perspective, many of them would be poorly armed and trained.


Building Lotharingia

From 1836 to 1843, Lorraine had acquired three new regions, and the cultural and political machines were quick to give reasons for this sudden change, beyond the much more cynical view of them as spoils of war. As stated previously, the romantic movement had entered the Lorrainian intelligentsia by storm, a movement fully embraced by passionate young nobles. It would be a mistake to view this as a purely reactionary movement however, as romanticism itself was not explicitly or at least universally in support of Europe’s ancien regimes. Many of the writers and poets of the romantic period were rapscallions and dreamers, some even considered deviants by the people of the day. Romanticism instead is mostly considered a cultural reaction to the age of rationalism, the scientific revolution, and most importantly the industrial revolution. It was built off a desire for belonging, a connection with nature and a desire to preserve it, a nostalgia for glorious heroes and great empires, and a curiosity for exotic lands beyond Europe, where fantastic ideas of the lives of the Orient or the tribes of the Americas stood in contrast with their perception of an increasingly cold European way. Here enters Medievalism, rising across Europe, as a sudden fascination with the Middle Ages led not only to a reevaluation of the period but an attempt to emulate aspects of it through personal acts of chivalry or homages to the cultural markers of the period. No nation would embrace this movement more than Lorraine herself. Lorrainians viewed the Carolingian Empire, old Lotharingia and the Franks with nostalgic lament. Painters like Alphonse Delplanque (1793-1846) and poets like Hans Kraus (1801-1828) gave way to a tradition of medievalist artistes that gave form to this nostalgia. The rise of early archaeology and the translation of certain medieval classics into common languages would see further interest in an age often previously frowned upon by Europe in the renaissance..

Romantic medieval art often glorified chivalry and the conquest of love. Paintings like these fascinated the Lorrainian imagination.​

The Duke Edouard II himself belonged to this same school of romanticists, he had befriended many of the medievalists of his day, even providing patronage to some of them. He would often visit a beautiful retreat in the province of Alsace, a medieval castle renovated many times across the ages and ultimately sold to his father Josef II. Edouard and many of his generation felt alienated by rationalism and liberalism, though not completely against their ideas. Some of these romanticists were liberals themselves, and Edouard II would cooperate much with the constitutionalists of his country. Where the medievalist romanticists influenced policy was when it came to German pan-nationalism. Lorrainian dreams of reclaiming the throne of Lotharingia and the unity of the German people came hand in hand, as they saw Lorraine, united with the ancestral Lotharingian lands, as the best contender to carry the torch of German unification. It was also not difficult to imagine the unification of the Holy Roman Empire, as now it stood as a loose and dissipating realm, with most of the fledgling German nations only respecting it in name only, but united could be invincable. These perceptions stood in contrast to the Hanseatic League, which was formerly a loose confederation of principalities and mercantile cities. After the loss of its great New World colonies, it had federalized into a merchant republic, centering it’s focus on building a federation of German states that viewed profit, innovation and industrialization as paramount to its identity. This stood as an opposite ideological drive to German unification that would see Lorraine and the Hanseatic League as rivals in the future. Another dividing factor among the powerful German nations was the extent of the possible German state. The concept of Großdeutschland, or greater Germany, would change depending on which German you asked. To a Lorrainian, the greatest extent of Germany included the lands of Lotharingia; to a Bavarian, they included a cultural union with Bohemia. Some would consider the Dutch as a branch of German culture, a concept that even some Dutchmen would agree with, as long as the Netherlands got to lead Germany themselves. However people defined the hypothetical German nation, some Lorranians would start to see an even greater picture. If Lorraine obtained the lands of Lotharingia, this would include the Netherlands and Provence, maybe even French lands. If they were to take these territories anyway, why not think bigger? So came the genesis of an even greater idea, a movement still in its nascent stages that would only start to take steam after the formation of Lotharingia, the unification of Europe under a pan-continental empire, the likes only seen since the age of Charlamagne or that of Augustus Ceasar. For now, much would have to done by the still Duchy of Lorraine, but for a people that dreamed of slaying dragons and restoring fallen kingdoms, anything was possible.

 

[goldbugbite]

Pierre has a point. A cycle of revenge would be... not ideal.

How bad is the French terror? Who are they executing? Everyone who might be construed as criticizing the regime?

From what I can deduce, since this mod has vague lore, the French revolution didn't happen but was instead prevented through acts of "white terror." Anyone critical of the regime are subject to censor and the most vocal are outright executed.

 

[Chac1]

Another interesting chapter. Definitely like what you did in the final part to discuss culture and the impact those cultural interests have on forthcoming strategic policy.

Again, enjoying the art you are finding (?) or making (?) for this AAR.

 

[HistoryDude]

How long will the fragile peace between France and Venice last? And can Lorraine take advantage when it breaks?

Will Lorraine seek (probably temporary) allies within Germany?

How large would this hypothetical Europe that some Lorrainians want to make be? Would it stretch from the Atlantic to the Baltic and from Britain to Sicily?

Are some German nationalists alienated by Lorraine's suppression of this republic? Some of them have to be constitutionalists, and I can't imagine that they're happy. For that matter, what's the opinion of Lorraine's constitutionalists on this affair?

 

[jak7139]

This was a very interesting chapter highlighting Lorraine's culture, economy, and wider diplomatic focus during this time period. I especially liked the mention that "Germany" would have different "historical borders" depending on who you ask: is it the HRE? Is it Charlegmagne? Is it something else?

 

[goldbugbite]

How long will the fragile peace between France and Venice last? And can Lorraine take advantage when it breaks?

Will Lorraine seek (probably temporary) allies within Germany?

How large would this hypothetical Europe that some Lorrainians want to make be? Would it stretch from the Atlantic to the Baltic and from Britain to Sicily?

Are some German nationalists alienated by Lorraine's suppression of this republic? Some of them have to be constitutionalists, and I can't imagine that they're happy. For that matter, what's the opinion of Lorraine's constitutionalists on this affair?

Currently, Lorraine's allies are neighboring German minors like Wurttemberg and Dortmund. Lorraine wants to avoid too many entanglements that might prove costly.

As for the pan-European project, well we'll see >

This is a topic I would like to discuss in the next chapter, since there are some events that relate to this very issue. Liberalism will briefly haunt Lorraine in the 1840's.