The story of how England intends to buy the world, rather than fight for it, continues
1509
A quiet 12th Night this year, although the King is still fulminating in private about the Pope, the Clergy, and what he thinks of the Church. Most upsetting, especially with the prince taking such notice. Granted, Henry is his father, but still, such criticism of God's representative cannot be good for the King's soul.
Happier news finally breaks the King's ill humours with the announcement that Cabot has discovered Roanoke. He describes it as a pleasant land, but thickly wooded, in which his men kept getting continually lost.
February - In view of the upsets caused by the clergy, we spend considerable sums to ease the turmoil throughout the Kingdom. We also keep up our training of new tax collectors - the money to contradict these villainous priests must come from somewhere.
April - The Hedjaz pay 59 ducats to the Mamelukes for peace. A wonder where they find the monies in the desolate sands of there homeland...
We hear more good news from Cabot; he has discovered a new land he dubs Carolina, the name chosen for one of his sisters, we gather...
May - One of our merchants in Venice vanishes under mysterious circumstances, and we dispatch 3 more to take his place and to expand out Italian trade. Cabot puts into the colony at Delaware to refit and reprovision his ships before undertaking further explorations.
June. A most saddening event. Henry VII, my beloved King, has died. The Kingdom is in mourning for the passing of the man who united the realm again, and indeed also expanded it to include Scotland. On the 26th his son ascends the throne as Henry VIII. I spend much time in prayer that his rule will be as wide and productive for the kingdom as was that of his father. He is a dynamic man, but I do fear somewhat that his youthful exuberance will lead us into more adventures than might perhaps be wise...
The new Kings dynamism has made an impression on the organs of government, which is all to the good. No doubt they are concerned to be making a good impression on the new monarch in the hope of preferment, but still the results are gratifying (+1 stability, 1,000 in Trade and Infrastructure)
August - Iraq pays 9 ducats to Turkey for peace. The Turk would probably have done better to demand his payment in goats. A few days later, we learn that the Mamelukes have ceded Aleppo to Turkey. We hope that this is not a sign of a new infidel insurgence in the East, far away though it all seems.
September - Cabot heads south, reaching the Cape of Canaveral in time for the equinox. He continues south, reaching the Florida straits in November, and finding the island of Havanna. To our surprise and concern, this is apparently a Spanish colony. While we knew the Spaniard had been expanding into the New World, it is still disconcerting to find him here so close to our own missions. We advise our settlers to keep a wary eye out to the south, and to let us know if they spot anyone. While Spain is as yet far too strong for us to take any action against, we need to see what is transpiring in the Americas.
1510
The first new year celebrations of the new King pass peaceably, if rather more drunkenly than was the wont is his fathers day. Indeed, so well were the celebrations made that in the 14th Royal Marriages are made to Portugal, Savoy, Genoa, Helvetia, Lorraine and Beden. I do wonder what the Poles are putting in that Vodka of theirs!
After he sobers up the King agrees to my plans to increase the fortifications in Munster. We need to prepare the kingdom during peace against the future predation of the French and others.
February - Cabot returns to Delaware to refit, discovers Roanoke (again!!) Truly, it seems a hard place in which to find things..<< I have no idea why I was informed he'd discovered it twice!!>>
June - Now summer has come, Cabot has headed north, finding the gulf of St Lawrence, followed by the straits of Labrador and Belle Isle. The King is most interested in these discoveries, and tells me privately that he feels that these new lands will be the key to the future greatness of England. In September Cabot finally reaches Baffin, and decides to head back south to winter in Delaware, which he reaches just in time for Christmas.
1511
We continue the steady policies that are gradually increases the prosperity of our country. In March, the King summons me in some secrecy. I wonder what new event has occurred, but am surprised when he informs me that he is making me a Viscount! Apparently young Hal found the idea of surprising his spymaster somewhat amusing. He is certainly a less serious man than his father, but I do hope that at my advancing years he will only keep startling me with pleasant surprises.
In the spring, we hear rumblings from the peasantry. Apparently the new system of tax collectors, while profitable, has raised there discontent. The King puts the army on alert, noting that Norfolk's troops could no doubt use the exercise of stabbing a few unruly commoners (increased risk of revolt)
1512
Cabot returns to Delaware in the new year, having lost his first ships to the winter storms in the gulf. Sad news - we had come to believe that his skill had made his fleet immune to the vicissitudes of exploration.
The King arranges more Royal Marriages, this time to Bavaria and Saxony. He is heard to mutter about how annoying it is that all the girls he is arranging marriages for seem so much better looking than his own wife. He spends much time avoiding her; at least such time is spent to good purpose in improving the prosperity of the realm.
We also hear that Selim I has ascended to the throne of Turkey.
Norfolk informs us that he has appointed a new Captain to command the Royal troops in Kent, a man by the name of Brandon. We are impressed by the young man, although he still seems inexpert compared to Norfolk. Still, neither Norfolk or myself is getting any younger, and preparations need to be made for the future.
The summer brings sad news - Cabot is dead! Apparently he had been exploring more of the New World, and had gone ashore in an area known to the natives as Washington to refill his water barrels. The place is apparently a filthy miasmic swamp, and the brave explorer succumbed some weeks later to a fever caught there. He will be missed.
1513
Cabot's last 3 ships reach Delaware, and the King orders them to remain there to form the start of our naval presence in the Americas. We have been hearing ominous reports of the Spaniard massacring the helpless natives of the New World, and the King wishes to see our own people better protected. Our trading ventures proceed steadily, and the Chancellor informs me that for the first time the income we receive from them exceeds that from manufacture. To mark this event, the King orders that the walls surrounding the City Of London are to be strengthened.
March - Sweden declares war on Courland. It has been a peaceful period in Europe these last few years... we finally hear in October that Swedish arms have been successful, and that Courland has been annexed into the Kingdom of Sweden.
In December, our armorers inform the King that they have managed to construct metal cannonballs for the guns of the King's ships. This interests henry greatly, indeed he travels to Greenwich for a personal demonstration. Mayhap this long peace is beginning to bore our youthful King?
1514 - 1517
After the brief Swedish excitement, the new few years pass both quickly and quietly. I start to wonder if it might be well for me to retire, things are going such as to make by presence almost unnecessary, it seems.
In 1514 we learn that Spain has declared war on the Aztec peoples in the Americas, but as yet our people there have failed to learn where they might be! We surmise somewhere to the south of our colonies, where we have yet to explore. Such a shame that men such as the Cabots are so few and far between, If only we could find a way of persuading some of the other maritime countries to show us there maps. However as yet my diplomatic efforts (and also thsoe of my spies) have proven fruitless.
The only notable events to break the tranquillity are the ascendance of Francois I to the throne of France and Felipe I to that of Spain. The King attends both events, and at both I am considerably concerned to see him eyeing up some of the young ladies, while ignoring his wife. I learn to my further disquiet that he has been having words with the Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey, about what can be done about a wife one considers superfluous.
At Christmastide in the year 1517 this happy, peaceful period is brought abruptly to an end. New reaches us from our merchants trading in Europe that a churchman named Luther has pinned a set of articles (well, to us they sound more like demands!) to the door of a church there. Apparently the whole country is in an uproar over this, and the King is much interested. Indeed, he demands that a copy of these writings is delivered to him immediately. Such is his interest, that when they arrive he spends much of the holiday period in contemplation of them. I am uneasy. The King has been unhappy with Wolsey's apparent inability to do anything about his marital problems, and the enthusiasm with which he devours these heretical writings fills me with a deep feeling of foreboding. At the end of the year, I receive a summons to a privy council with the King on the next day. I wonder what the New Year will bring...
