1507-1513 - Unification
The start of 1507 began with an act of destruction. Forts across Aragon, ones that had been draining the treasury for years, were dismantled. Most leftover material that was still usable was shipped up to Navarra where a new fort was planned, although the funds necessary had not been obtained yet. In total four forts were dismantled and the treasury was grateful for it. Their destruction would save the treasury anywhere from two to four ducats a month.
The establishment of the Trans-Pyrenean Trading Company created a monopoly on goods traded between France and Aragon. The French seemed unconcerned with the new trading company, while King Ferran II made sure that such an agreement was in his favour. An agreement was struck that the Trans-Pyrenean Trading Company would give a portion of its income to the Crown for the next ten years in exchange for its trade monopoly. Both sides benefited from it, so it did not take long to settle things.
Speaking of trade, the protectionist policies that had been gaining favour were ramped up as arrangements were made with Byzantium to embargo Castile, Venice, and Genoa. All merchants from these nations were banned from trading in Aragonese ports, while Aragonese merchants were discouraged from trading with them in turn.
Talk of exploring the waters to the west had been going on for years, but the King was uncertain of such a thing. He felt that Aragon was not ready, for surely there was some secret for travelling the treacherous Atlantic Ocean that they did not know of. Talks with the Portuguese were ongoing, but they were keeping what knowledge they had to themselves. Instead the King decided that Aragon would focus closer to home. A colonial venture, funded by the Crown, was established in Beafada, which bordered the Portuguese colony of Sierra Leone and the African nation of Mali. It was the only province that could be effectively supplied that wasn’t already claimed. Still, it was a good starting point for Aragon’s first colonial venture.
April brought an end to the war between Morocco and Tlemcen. The latter suffered greatly with Morocco becoming a more formidable regional power. Aragon would have to keep an eye on its neighbour and perhaps consider knocking them down a notch. Apparently the feeling was mutual as Morocco declared Aragon a rival.
Diplomat Llorenç Alfons María de Agramunt was given a mission of great importance. He would be tasked with spending the next few years strengthening King Ferran’s claim to Castile. While directly contesting the Castilian king’s right to rule was unwise, it didn’t hurt to try to convince the people that they’d be better off under Aragonese rule. The first target of such a plan was Soria and more provinces would follow. ((This is the start of a claim-spam on all available Castilian provinces.))
In August, Edirne was finally liberated, ending the Greek’s rebel problem, at least for now. The army was returned to Athens, although the accompanying mercenaries were given an assignment to protect the new colony in Africa.
The Pope’s war with Provence ended badly for him as Provence had the audacity to take Avignon and force Urbino free. This made the earlier “gift” demanded from the Pope look like charity. Provence’s defiance was already hurting them as heretics rose up in Brittany. Clearly Provence was a place rife with heresy.
Aragon’s expansion into West Africa was not appreciated by the locals. Before the mercenary army could arrive, 4k men rose up in revolt. The savages ravaged the colony, destroying all effort to colonize the region. King Ferran was not undeterred by this. In fact, he was quite enraged. A colonial party was sent back to the region, and this time the army would be there to maintain order.
Despite attempts to keep the Pope somewhat happy, another Papal spy was caught, this time in Cagliari. King Ferran fumed in silence, knowing that to strike back at the Pope would risk excommunication.
Castile decided to further its colonial gains in Africa by targeting Jolof. King Ferran wasn’t too please with Castile’s land-grab. He would have preferred if they had lain down and died. He had a mutual feeling towards Provence. When the nation sought military access through Aragon, they were quickly denied. Ferran wasn’t even sure why they needed it, since they weren’t at war. If their intention was to deal with the rebels in Brittany, military access through France was what they needed. Clearly the people of Provence lacked a basic knowledge of geography.
In May of 1508, it was decided that the native threat in Beafada be handled immediately before another uprising occurred. The 5k mercenary army in the region was ordered to drive the savages from the province. The natives resisted, as expected, and were slaughtered as a result. At least they would no longer threaten Aragon’s first colony.
During the summer, King Ferran made a few controversial decisions. His first was to increase ties with local mercenary companies. Mercenaries were often seen as unscrupulous men who served solely for profit. Their loyalty was often in question. Ferran intended to rectify this by influencing the leadership of these groups. An arrangement was made where the sons of Aragonese nobles who joined these companies would find themselves subject to promotions more often than the average mercenary, often assuming leadership roles. Prince Alfons, at the insistence of King Ferran, was placed in charge of his own mercenary regiment. The Prince protested, but the King insisted that it would be good for him.
The second controversial decision was to weaken ties between the Church and the Inquisition. From now on the Inquisition would take orders from the Crown, not the Church. The Church could still dictate religious doctrine taught by the Inquisition, but it was the Crown that would decide where the Inquisition should focus its efforts. The Crown also took more interest in missionary efforts, funding new missionary schools under the control of the Inquisition that trained men of the cloth to convert people to the true faith in more troublesome provinces. It benefited the Crown to see people following the same faith. This new training program would be put to the test as its first student was sent to Fez to convert the stubborn Sunnis. To prevent potential problems, the local administration was given more leeway to handle problems directly.
The continual conflict between Denmark and Sweden continued to work in Sweden’s favour. The Scandinavian nation was dominating the region and was surely making its neighbours nervous.
Conflict with the lesser nobles was almost constant. Despite efforts to increase communication with the King through the Cortz, many still felt they were denied privileges they deserved, especially in more far-off provinces. A group of Athenian nobles rose up in revolt, but the King had been tipped off beforehand. An army of 10k men was sent from Aragon proper under General Stefano von Thun to help the smaller army in Athens crush the rebellion. The army was crushed, as expected, but it set back the King’s plan to build up reserves for the army yet again. The King certainly was not pleased with the nobles’ behaviour.
Genoa’s hold on its land in the east was slipping. After annexing Crimea through peaceful methods, the nation decided it had changed its mind. The Crimeans broke free from Genoa’s grasp, much to King Ferran’s delight. A weaker Genoa was a good thing.
What wasn’t good was stronger rivals. Venice decided that it was time to focus back on the Balkans by targeting Serbia. If Venice continued to encroach in the area, perhaps Aragon would have to do something about it. As for Castile, they were on their way to recovery as they grabbed land in West Africa. At least England had decided to start normalizing relations by ending the rivalry.
With manpower reserves low, King Ferran started yet another campaign to improve recruitment efforts throughout the kingdom. Several provinces previously neglected received attention, including Pirineo, Navarra, the Baleares, Palermo, Malta, Athens, and Melilla. The funds were also finally available to build the fort in Navarra. No longer would enemy armies march through northwest Aragon without interference.
The construction of two new barques was ordered in June of 1510 in Palermo to add to the trade fleet operating out of Sevilla.
The Castilian king attempted to insult King Ferran again, this time by claiming that his family was filled with whores and bastards. Ferran kindly pointed out that King Enrique of Castile was also a Trastámara and thus the same claim could be applied to him. That shut the man up and gained the further respect of Aragon’s neighbours. ((
King Ferran after King Enrique got served.))
Things looked grim in the east as Venice took Serbia’s coastline and most of their treasury. If Serbia continued to be victimized by Venice, perhaps Aragon would have to intervene.
The colony in Beafada was meeting much greater success with the natives pacified. The area was filled with large animals called elephants that had tusks of ivory that were highly valued at home. King Ferran could already imagine the wealth this colony would bring in.
In August of 1511, a temple was built in Athens to recognize the province’s conversion to the true faith. Now all the archbishoprics in Aragon had one.
August also brought another attempt at Jolof, this time by Portugal. A week later, Portugal called on Aragon for assistance. Seeing as Jolof was without allies and possessed an inferior army, the King decided to answer the call. Some speculated that he hoped to use the war to further Aragon’s colonial gains.
The mercenary army was sent back to Beafada, since it had been stationed in Aragon awhile back. In retrospect this turned out to have been a bad decision, since Jolof went after Aragon’s sole colony first. Jolof captured the province just as the Aragonese fleet arrived. The mercenary army landed in Portuguese Sierra Leone instead, and just in time too. They arrived right before Jolof did, giving them the opportunity to launch a surprise attack. Jolof’s army was wiped out, much like Milan by Switzerland. With a little over a month, Beafada was back under Aragon’s control.
Once the colony was reclaimed, the mercenary army marched up to Siine and captured it in February. Unfortunately an enemy regiment snuck through unexplored territory in Mali and retook Bealada. The enemy was engaged again and destroyed. It took until April to take back the colony, but by then a Neapolitan army had arrived in Siine to aid the war effort.
Back in Europe, poor Serbia found itself further threatened as Hungary diploannexed Bosnia, leaving it with a much larger neighbour holding land right inside theirs.
Aragon was truly prospering under King Ferran’s rule. The economy was flourishing and all kinds of elaborate buildings were being constructed to show off the wealth flowing through the kingdom. Many intellectuals were also coming to the country and presenting their ideas at court. While architecture was fine and all, King Ferran was more interested in ways to boost the production of goods to keep Aragon competitive. He supported several ideas of intellectuals living in Almeria and provided them with the funds to put their ideas into action. Funding these projects was fairly easy too, since a wealthy Aragonese merchant had recently passed away and left his entire fortune to the Crown.
The mercenary army was moved to Jolof’s capital of Wolof to take the fort and bring Jolof to its knees. Portugal finally arrived in August, landing in Trarza. Victory seemed a forgone conclusion by this point.
Despite tension with the Pope, that did not prevent King Ferran from allowing cardinals to have positions within his government. Two cardinals served on his Council, with Cardinal Manuel de Vivar y Sastre having been Treasurer for many years now. This was a good step to keeping people confident with the state despite conflict with the Papacy.
September of 1512 brought news of the worst kind. Prince Alfons had been leading a mercenary company in Jolof. The assignment was considered a simple one, since the enemy army had been eliminated by now. Despite this, there were still those who fought back through more covert means. A group of Jolof guerrillas snuck into the Aragonese camp at night and killed the generals in their sleep. Prince Alfons was one of them. When King Ferran received the news, he was quite shocked. For days he kept muttering to himself that the Prince’s death was his fault before he finally locked himself in his room and refused to see anyone. He only resurfaced when Alfons’s body was returned to Valencia for the funeral. Once the body was buried in the family tomb next to Alfons V, the King confined himself to his quarters again. Prince Ferran took up the daily affairs of state.
By January of 1513, the efforts to integrate Naples fully into the kingdom of Aragon were finally complete. King Ferran refused to attend the ceremony celebrating the union of the two into one kingdom, so Prince Ferran took his place.
The integration of Naples presented new problems and opportunities. Aragon’s army was now larger than it had ever been, far too big to support as is. The added ships also further put stress on the navy. In total, Naples added 16 ships (0/4/5/7) to the navy. It brought in even more troops with roughly 17 regiments added (12/3/2), with another cavalry regiment on its way.
In regards to the war, it was all but won. Jolof had only a single regiment left and they’d lost at least three provinces already. With the King grieving, perhaps the court would have to decide how to handle the conclusion of the war.
((I’ll upload the spam later tonight. I’m missing the military screenshot for some reason.))
Presenting His Royal Highness, Ferran de Trastámara, Prince of Aragon.
I am sorry that my father could not attend to his court today, but I’m afraid he still grieves for my brother. For the moment I shall be assuming his duties. I apologize if this inconveniences the court.
Although the passing of my brother is indeed tragic, we do have reason to celebrate. After decades of union, Naples has formally been integrated into the kingdom of Aragon. This is a tremendous moment for us. The Neapolitan people have long served us and now they shall receive their due recognition as equal subjects.
As for this war with Jolof, Father has not instructed me on how he wishes to proceed. We can either just help the Portuguese, or we can consider taking a piece for ourselves. The benefits to any future colonial ventures may be worth it, and of course to make sure my brother’s death was not in vain. We should spread the true faith to the region if we can. We shall discuss this all later.
((Ministers will have until
Friday at 9am PST to present their plans. I should have the spam screenshot up in a few hours. I recommend that our Marshal,
@SirAlucard, take a good look at what forces we have now that Naples has integrated and consider what to keep and what to disband, otherwise I will make the decision. I just need a general number to aim for regarding each regiment type (ex. 20/10/10), and I’ll disband the necessary regiments to match it. Make sure to take a good look at the military screen once the spam screenshot is up to see our force limit.
Pension collection times! Here are our (un)lucky pensioners:
@Riccardo93
As for those who are now 100+, you have until the next update to kill off your characters or I will.
@VenetianRyan
@LatinKaiser
@TJDS
Hopefully I didn’t miss anything else.))
If you'd prefer to be a colonist, I'll just delete my last post and you can do that instead of being Grand Admiral.))
