9. Second Great Expansion of the Realm
In March 1490, king Ladislav passes away due to a sudden illness. Having ruled for 24 glorious years, he has relentlessly lead the country through internal struggle and several demanding wars. Blending the visions of Podebrad, who had died too early, with his own, he took the country on a road which has made it powerful to a degree it has not been since the reign of Karel IV. This is doubly true since he managed to secure the support of the estates and establish his son as heir to the throne.
Apart from becoming king of Bohemia, Ferdinand also changes from a mere governor to the legitimate duke of Modena. Luckily, the other main claimant to the latter title had died recently, simplifying the situation.
Hm, I did not know the 'The Union has been broken' event from earlier doesn't necessarily result in a breakoff. Learned something new.
During his last days, knowing he would not see the end of the Polish war in his life, Ladislav included, addressed to his successor, instructions concerning the remainder of the war and the peace negotiations in his will. Ferdinand follows these dutifully, leaving most of the strategic and other specific military decisions to the capable generals now at his disposal. Not perceiving himself as a great war leader, he seldom appears before the soldiers in person and instead focuses on establishing himself in Bohemia.
It takes only a few months, until June, for him to get a grip on the country's administration and even implement some ideas to improve the efficiency of the various bureaucratic organs.
Concerning Bohemia's claims to Leipzig, it is decided to try not to stir up further animosity by keeping the 'evidence' presented in additional to the initial forgery modest.
While the war is still in progress, Ferdinand begins to take steps to curb the power of the Catholic church in Bohemia. The monarchs of several other countries in and around the empire, among them also the Habsburg king of Hungary, have already introduced laws granting them the right to appoint bishops, to override any order given by the pope concerning their respective country's church and to direct part or all of the ecclesiastical revenues to the state. While the pope condemns these upheavals, this condemnation amounts to little because of his exceedingly weak position and the corrupt and disorganized state of the church. Not a single excommunication was issued. Taking into account Bohemia's long-standing religious traditions, Ferdinand considers the risk of serious internal turmoil in response to such changes to be minimal as well. The opportunity seems to good to pass up and prospect of tapping into the finances of the church, to bring the money to better uses than the pope would ever do, is too tempting. Thus, the restructuring of the church of Bohemia begins.
In December, news arrive that all of the lands belonging to the Polish crown, except for Podolia, are now under Bohemian occupation. This province has already been captured by Russian armies coming from Moldavia. The situation is so that only a total occupation of the Polish lands will enable enforcing the desired peace demands. Fortunately, the Russians don't prolong their campaign and are content with claiming two of their cores. (Vyazma and Bryansk)
Russian involvement and gains
Again, Russia offers an alliance, and again I refuse for fear of being dragged into needless wars. Their help against Poland or Lithuania won't be needed for a long time, if at all, anyway.
In March 1491, all of Poland is finally occupied, granting a warscore of 100%. However, the day of victory is clouded somewhat by the death of one of the generals.
My war exhaustion is at 6.0, stability at +2, badboy 5.9
Naturally, I keep all the Shtetls in Poland. Also, the tax rate in the newly conquered provinces is adjusted to Bohemia's very high one.
On the diplomatic front, royal marriages with Russia and Austria are celebrated. I like royal marriages; they are a great way to secure one's borders (since AI, as the human player would, seldom attacks a country it has a royal marriage with - even if the relations have since deteriorated). The drawback of course is the possibility to be drawn into a war of succession or become lesser partner in a PU, but that is a (small) risk I am willing to take.
I don't yet have a border with Russia, but when the time comes, I still want to have cordial relations with them - a war against Russia surely wouldn't be much fun, although it might become inevitable at some point in the future.
In the case of Austria deterioration comes faster than expected as they break our alliance in June. Maybe they are alerted by Bohemia's conquests, but shouldn't they be glad their ally got a power-up?
Unintimidated, I (or rather Ferdinand with his nice 8 DIP) begin to court Bavaria instead, succeeding to establish a royal marriage and finally an alliance.
In September, government technology 12 is reached, which comes with a new NI slot.
As hinted at earlier, my choice is Patron of the Arts with its nice effect on prestige.
use art to conquer Europe?
One of the 'applications' of prestige in MMP2 is the hiring fair mechanism, as it requires +25 prestige to use at all and usually consumes quite a lot while running. Since I have only one good advisor remaining (a four star Master of Mint who has been working for 55 years), a government focused fair is started once my prestige is just above +25 in January 1492. The cost for this is 75 ducats, by the way.
January is also when the king of Castille finally makes a decree to completely expel the Jews from the country. Because of the pogrom in Prague in the early 60s I am not sure if Bohemia is already eligible to receive Jews again, but of course that would be nice. Castille, by the way, also claims the title of 'defender of the faith'.
Before that, in November, there were some bad news: The attempt to forge a core on Leipzig failed. It is not very surprising, because a high amount of BB will significantly increase the chance of that happening, but still a bit disappointing. After so much land was claimed for the Bohemian crown recently, the other European princes quite understandably want to hear nothing more of further purported claims.
In May, I get lucky and receive a 4 star diplomat via the hiring fair. Before that, a spymaster, a high-judge, a fortification expert, another spymaster, a collector, an inquisitor and a statesman had to be turned down, altogether resulting in a loss of about 12 prestige. (the advisors are presented one at a time and turning down an advisor gives a prestige hit equal to the number of stars of that advisor; a well-balanced and exciting feature).
Left: The badboy rating is melting quickly now. Right: Current effects on prestige will result in relatively strong increase in the next time. The 'Whisper of Weakness' effect is from the hiring fair and will be active for 5 years.
In April and August, the support of another two cardinals is secured. There are now 4 cardinals sponsored by Bohemia.
Bavaria meanwhile experiences some bad luck. The duke of Bavaria, who had aspired to become emperor of the Romans some day, suddenly dies, leaving only a child as heir. Since the duke had many supporters among the electors, there is some confusion about who to support against Habsburg for a while.
If the emperor was to die now, the crown would stay with the Habsburgs. This situation is likely to continue until a strong rival will appear again. The Burgundian count of the Palatinate is a special case.
Sadly, my old master of mint dies in December. As a temporary replacement, a one-star banker is hired. As if to make up for this, the game presents me with a 'Gift to the State' event a few days later.
A remarkable occurrence is the war of Riga against the Livonian Order and their Polish masters, started by the former. After capturing the city of Mitau, the archbishop was able to negotiate a peace treaty which will end Poland's suzerainty over Livonia.
In 1493, two of my cardinals die and attempts to win over some of the others fail (although chances of success are fairly good, between 25% and 30%). Bohemia still controls more cardinals than the other nations, but only barely.
Early 1494 sees the enthronement of a new king of Poland and Lithuania, Henryk II. It is good news that Lithuania didn't get inherited by Poland yet, as getting 100% warscore against Poland in its current state would be much easier in a possible future war.
Later that year, I finally lose my grip on the curia to Burgundy; not that it was ever strong. Only one cardinal remains loyal to me.
Also, an alliance offer from Naples arrives. It seems like a sensible suggestion, but I think they just want to attack Urbino, so no.
Then this interesting event happens:
It might be out of character at this point and Jan Hus would probably roll over in his grave, but I do take the money.
Another of my generals and the last remaining cardinal both die in February 1495. Unfortunately, the pope dies in the same month and there is little hope the next one will look favourably on Bohemia. Sure enough, Burgundy's candidate gets elected a few months later, although I manage to wrest at least one cardinal off Castille.
Denmark inherits Norway; interesting, but of little immediate consequences.
Having invested in stability for a few years now, level +3 is reached in November. Also, war exhaustion has faded. Badboy has been reduced to 2.21 and my reputation is considered 'respectable' again.
Here is an overview of technology and the economy:
I should have placed a few merchants in Danzig by now (since my reputation no longer results in very low compete chances), but forgot about it.
Most of the yearly income was spent on province improvements (chartered markets) and cardinals.
It may be wise to enlarge the army now that Bohemia's forcelimit (which is 51) and manpower (which is 32k) could easily support it. Even now, the country's military prowess is obviously considerable, especially if you factor in Silesia, Modena and Mantua, and in a conflict against Poland, the TO, one of the Italian states etc. there would be little to no problems. However, a war against Habsburg, Russia or Burgundy plus allies still would require a larger army to win comfortably. As would a war to dissolve the HRE. On the other hand, none of these situations are likely to occur very soon.
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International and Minor Notes
Portugal has started the event sequence to discover Brazil and England has taken the 'Middle Point' one. Castille seems to be merrily colonizing already and have recently started going for Mexico.
Lübeck seems to be the first country to build a manufactory, a Naval Equipment manufactory.
Georgia won a war against Shirvan, gaining the province Shirvan.
I got the 'Tentative Acquiescence' event in all newly conquered provinces except for Sieradz, in which case Poland was more successful in asserting their position.
Each newly conquered province in MM either gets the event on the left or an event similar to the one on the right, which mostly means that one will get another BB point. Which of the events it will be is random, but depends partly on the current BB value and the ruler's DIP. Another reason against conquering a lot of land at the same time, and it also adds some unpredictability to the BB mechanic.
England annexed Desmond.
Jewish refugees from Spain have arrived and settled in Morocco, Hungary, Qara Koyunlu, Silesia, Hedjaz, Lorraine, Frankfurt, Tripoli, Tunisia, the Ottoman Empire and Cyprus. (Why not in Bohemia? I am guessing it is because of that pogrom.)
France annexed Bourbonnais.
Württemberg declared war on Baden. Naturally, the war didn't go well for them and they had to cede their province Konstanz to Austria. A few months later, the province was given back to them by the HRE.
The next stage of the coring process (reticent acceptance) has started in Torun.
Russia has formed an alliance with Austria. However, when Maria Theresia started another war against Serbia, Russia did not honour the alliance. Maybe I should ally with Russia after all, to prevent such a dangerous combination.
The Mamluks, on the other hand, joined Austria in the war.
Later, Serbia was annexed and Wallachia was made a vassal and had to cede a province (Oltenia).
The plague has broken out in Castille.
With government tech level 10, the 'land enclosure' provincial decisions became available for me. I enacted them in Danzig, Krakow and Wroclaw. The effect is not great and the decision comes with serious disadvantages, but I think that in provinces with a very high tax income it is still worth taking.
The Ottomans got the 'Knights of Rhodes' event and chose to try and take the island (declaring war on the Knights).
Small map of Europe, North Africa and parts of the Middle East (1496):
