Grand Campaign, played NormalNormal with missions off:
1492
Jan
We have been reigning for nearly 7 years now, and we have just handed over the reins of day-to-day government to Lord Recky, who seems to be capable enough of handling our royal orders. We shall see.
Mar
We have directed for our daughter to be given in marriage to the king of Scotland, in the hope that this will improve relations between our 2 nations.
May
We have found more royal cousins for Lord Recky to deal with – he informs us that one has been sent to France (poor girl, we can think of nothing worse) and another to Austria.
1493
Feb
We are not impressed with Lord Recky. He claimed that our best interests would be served if we were to break our eternal alliance with Spain, Milan and Lorraine and join with the Scots. Sadly, the Scots were not interested, despite our Margaret employing all the necessary feminine wiles in an attempt to prevail upon King James the benefits of such a match. We are now alone and isolated, and we hear rumours of disquiet amongst the populace at our decision to 'go it alone'.
May
We heard today from the Privy Council that the Ottomans have gone to war with the Mamelukes. Why the bothered to tell us is bemusing – it is none of our business what goes on in southern climes.
October
Lord Recky brought us good and bad news. On the positive side, we are now allied with the Scots. Our northern border is secure, so we have ordered that the Army of the North should be transferred to London, with its commander, the Earl of Surrey [as the Duke of Norfolk was known at the time] should be sent command in Calais. The bad news revolves around the fact that we are now in debt to some bankers as a result of borrowing money to send to King James to demonstrate our magnificent munificence. We hope that Lord Recky knows what he is doing.
1494
February
We have received a letter from Lord Recky in Germany with the good news that our alliance now consists of ourselves, Scotland, Hannover, Brandenburg and Hessen.
December
War has broken out, and we have Lord Recky to thank that we are not involved. France, Savoy, the Papal States, Poland, Navarre and Algiers have declared their undying animosity for Lorraine, Spain and Milan. We await developments. We have been strengthening our alliance by demonstrating our generosity to our friends.
1495
June
Worrying news comes from our ambassador in Italy. Our old enemy France has annexed Milan. Good news from our man in Lorraine though, as their war effort seems to be somewhat more productive.
Sept
The Lorrainers have bested France! We drank a toast to their efforts when we heard that they have forced King Charles into a humiliating peace, accepting the loss of the Champagne and Nivernais regions. We sent diplomats to Lorraine with our warmest congratulations, and to ensure that our sparkling wine concession would remain in force.
1496
This was a quiet year. We hope this does not presage a French attack on Calais, but we must fear the worst as a result of the large build-up of troops we have witnessed in Picardie. On the diplomatic front, we sent a couple of Yorkist cousins away to a place where they can do us no harm. One now resides in Copenhagen, and the other was married to the daughter of a leading merchant of the Hanseatic League. Married to a merchant…just the drop in social status the idiot deserved!
1497
January
A strange man has arrived at Court. His name is, so he tells us, is John Cabot, and he desired a stipend so he could sail off the edge of the world. We were persuaded by Lord Recky that any measure we could employ to remove lunatics from our soil would be beneficial in the long term, so we sent this Cabot on his way with three ships full of other undesirables. We were, however, slightly bemused by what one of our courtiers heard Lord Recky murmur as he walked away – 'Mmm…Baywatch here we come', apparently.
1498
April
King Charles VIII of France is no more. We were much amused when we heard that his death was caused by him not ducking under a low doorway in Fontainebleau. We sent our greetings to his cousin, Louis XII, together with a gentle reminder that we should, by right of inheritance, be sitting in his chair.
On a related note, we have ordered that all doorways in our royal palaces should be made 2 feet taller.
August
Lord Recky has informed us that our loan was extended because we could not afford to pay it off. We were not amused.
1500
May
We have contracted a royal marriage with Portugal in order to get another potentially troublesome Yorkist off our hands. We have also ordered Lord Recky to ship 10,000 troops from Anglia to Calais to consolidate Lord Surrey's hold there. 53,000 troops should be enough to persuade King Louis not to attack us.
August
Our agents in Munster have told us that Mr. Cabot's fleet has returned to port there, minus Mr. Cabot himself (who died at sea in a place called 'Chesapeake Bay', apparently) but with some interesting information to the effect that there is a land mass on the edge of the world. Lord Recky motioned that we should send two expeditions to colonise this new country. He seems to know something about this area we do not, so we acceded to his request.
1501
Alas, we gather that our expeditions sent West came to grief. Lord Recky claims they were killed by natives, but I am convinced they fell off the edge of the world, as I predicted they would.
1503
Another quiet year, as we have been saving in order to repay our loan to the bankers. This was achieved in August, and we celebrated by appointing bailiffs to obtain more money from our subjects. Lord Recky made the very astute observation that our plantations in Ireland were undefended, so we ordered the raising of a force of some 2,000 infantry in Meath.
Our alliance expired, but we reconstituted it with all previous participants immediately. We are pleased that our largesse did not pass unnoticed.
1492
Jan
We have been reigning for nearly 7 years now, and we have just handed over the reins of day-to-day government to Lord Recky, who seems to be capable enough of handling our royal orders. We shall see.
Mar
We have directed for our daughter to be given in marriage to the king of Scotland, in the hope that this will improve relations between our 2 nations.
May
We have found more royal cousins for Lord Recky to deal with – he informs us that one has been sent to France (poor girl, we can think of nothing worse) and another to Austria.
1493
Feb
We are not impressed with Lord Recky. He claimed that our best interests would be served if we were to break our eternal alliance with Spain, Milan and Lorraine and join with the Scots. Sadly, the Scots were not interested, despite our Margaret employing all the necessary feminine wiles in an attempt to prevail upon King James the benefits of such a match. We are now alone and isolated, and we hear rumours of disquiet amongst the populace at our decision to 'go it alone'.
May
We heard today from the Privy Council that the Ottomans have gone to war with the Mamelukes. Why the bothered to tell us is bemusing – it is none of our business what goes on in southern climes.
October
Lord Recky brought us good and bad news. On the positive side, we are now allied with the Scots. Our northern border is secure, so we have ordered that the Army of the North should be transferred to London, with its commander, the Earl of Surrey [as the Duke of Norfolk was known at the time] should be sent command in Calais. The bad news revolves around the fact that we are now in debt to some bankers as a result of borrowing money to send to King James to demonstrate our magnificent munificence. We hope that Lord Recky knows what he is doing.
1494
February
We have received a letter from Lord Recky in Germany with the good news that our alliance now consists of ourselves, Scotland, Hannover, Brandenburg and Hessen.
December
War has broken out, and we have Lord Recky to thank that we are not involved. France, Savoy, the Papal States, Poland, Navarre and Algiers have declared their undying animosity for Lorraine, Spain and Milan. We await developments. We have been strengthening our alliance by demonstrating our generosity to our friends.
1495
June
Worrying news comes from our ambassador in Italy. Our old enemy France has annexed Milan. Good news from our man in Lorraine though, as their war effort seems to be somewhat more productive.
Sept
The Lorrainers have bested France! We drank a toast to their efforts when we heard that they have forced King Charles into a humiliating peace, accepting the loss of the Champagne and Nivernais regions. We sent diplomats to Lorraine with our warmest congratulations, and to ensure that our sparkling wine concession would remain in force.
1496
This was a quiet year. We hope this does not presage a French attack on Calais, but we must fear the worst as a result of the large build-up of troops we have witnessed in Picardie. On the diplomatic front, we sent a couple of Yorkist cousins away to a place where they can do us no harm. One now resides in Copenhagen, and the other was married to the daughter of a leading merchant of the Hanseatic League. Married to a merchant…just the drop in social status the idiot deserved!
1497
January
A strange man has arrived at Court. His name is, so he tells us, is John Cabot, and he desired a stipend so he could sail off the edge of the world. We were persuaded by Lord Recky that any measure we could employ to remove lunatics from our soil would be beneficial in the long term, so we sent this Cabot on his way with three ships full of other undesirables. We were, however, slightly bemused by what one of our courtiers heard Lord Recky murmur as he walked away – 'Mmm…Baywatch here we come', apparently.
1498
April
King Charles VIII of France is no more. We were much amused when we heard that his death was caused by him not ducking under a low doorway in Fontainebleau. We sent our greetings to his cousin, Louis XII, together with a gentle reminder that we should, by right of inheritance, be sitting in his chair.
On a related note, we have ordered that all doorways in our royal palaces should be made 2 feet taller.
August
Lord Recky has informed us that our loan was extended because we could not afford to pay it off. We were not amused.
1500
May
We have contracted a royal marriage with Portugal in order to get another potentially troublesome Yorkist off our hands. We have also ordered Lord Recky to ship 10,000 troops from Anglia to Calais to consolidate Lord Surrey's hold there. 53,000 troops should be enough to persuade King Louis not to attack us.
August
Our agents in Munster have told us that Mr. Cabot's fleet has returned to port there, minus Mr. Cabot himself (who died at sea in a place called 'Chesapeake Bay', apparently) but with some interesting information to the effect that there is a land mass on the edge of the world. Lord Recky motioned that we should send two expeditions to colonise this new country. He seems to know something about this area we do not, so we acceded to his request.
1501
Alas, we gather that our expeditions sent West came to grief. Lord Recky claims they were killed by natives, but I am convinced they fell off the edge of the world, as I predicted they would.
1503
Another quiet year, as we have been saving in order to repay our loan to the bankers. This was achieved in August, and we celebrated by appointing bailiffs to obtain more money from our subjects. Lord Recky made the very astute observation that our plantations in Ireland were undefended, so we ordered the raising of a force of some 2,000 infantry in Meath.
Our alliance expired, but we reconstituted it with all previous participants immediately. We are pleased that our largesse did not pass unnoticed.