With the new culture map being released, a number of people took exception to Breton being included with the French cultures. With the change of focus from language = culture to culture representing similarities between peoples, I think it's justified to look at Breton and the other Celtic cultures to see if it is justified to include Breton within the French culture group and Irish, Welsh and Scottish within the British culture group.
Breton: French influence over Brittany was pretty large, with the Breton nobility abandoning the Breton language by the 12th century. French was made the official written language of Brittany in the 15th century. The majority language of Upper Brittany was not Breton, but rather Gallo, a dialect of French. There were also no major revolts in Brittany against France apart from the Revolt of the papier timbre, which was fiscally motivated rather than a result of Breton regionalism.
Overall, Breton probably fits best within the French culture group as the Bretons were fairly French by game start. If there were to be a Celtic Breton culture, it should be limited to the western provinces while the east should be Gallo.
Irish: England claimed Lordship over Ireland as early as 1177. However, English influence over Ireland weakened with the plague and with the Norman lords intermarrying with native Irish, adopting Irish customs and speaking gaelic becoming the "Old English." English influence over the isles reached a minimum by the end of the 15th century. Henry VIII then decided to invade Ireland and place it under direct control of England. After getting the Kingdom of Ireland declared by the Irish parliament, he went forth to assert dominion over Ireland. This took nearly a century and includes conflicts such as the Desmond Rebellion and Tyrone Rebellion. After conquering Ireland, the English enforced Common Law throughout Ireland, ending the clan system and tannistry in Ireland, replacing it with English primogenture. Later, in the 17th century, the British were looking to Anglicize and convert Ireland and did so with a system known as the Plantations where land confiscated from Gaelic chiefs was granted to (lowlander) Scots and English in order to promote colonization of Ireland.
Overall, Irish most definitely doesn't belong in a culture group with English as Irish was never an "accepted culture" within Great Britain. Ireland suffered one of the only actual culture conversions in Europe within the time period. Irish revolts against England were common and Irish feudal law was considerably different than that in England.
Scottish: Scottish is a bit different since in encompasses both lowlander and highlander culture where the lowlanders are more similar to English culture while the Highlanders are more similar to Irish culture. The lowlanders generally spoke Scots, a dialect of English while the highlanders spoke Scottish-Gaelic, an evolution of the Irish language spoken by the Irish settlers in the 4th century. The lowland Scots created ties with the French and English nobility, with king David I introducing English institutions such as feudal land tenure, replacing Scots with anglo-norman nobility, and court systems similar to those in England in the 12th century. In the highlands however, the clan system dominated. Highlander/Clan rebellions against the Scottish kings weren't uncommon, such as the Battle of Lochaber in 1429, Battle of Harlaw in 1411, and the Rebellion of Domhnall Dubh in the 16th century. This is not to mention the most famous of the rebellions, the Jacobite Uprising in support of the Stuarts after the Glorious Revolution. After the rebellion failed, highland culture was repressed with the banning of tartans and kilts and a number of acts were passed that severely limited the power of the clans. The Highland Clearances were also created which forcibly removed the native highlanders in favor of granting their land to lowlanders to develop.
Overall, if Scottish is to remain one culture, it should remain in the British group to represent the dominance of the lowlander culture over that of the highlanders and lowlander culture is more similar to English. However, I personally feel that Scottish should be split into Lowlander and Highlander cultures with lowlanders remaining in the British culture group and highlanders being in the Celtic group. This shouldn't cause too much of a problem game mechanism wise as the highlands have enough base tax to have their culture accepted in Scotland but if Scotland expands to much or is incorporated into Great Britain, the highlanders will rise (become unaccepted, rebellious, and probably culture converted like what happened. Though it would be nice to be able to pick which accepted culture you wanted to convert a province to so there's not an island of English in the highlands)
Welsh: The last welsh rebellion ended in 1415. Wales was formally incorporated into the Kingdom of England in 1536 whereby Welsh law was replaced with English common law. This law also barred Welsh from being used by the landed gentry. These laws were not unpopular among the welsh gentry as it gave the Welsh people equal rights as the people in England. The laws did not become unpopular until the rise of Welsh nationalism.
Overall Welsh culture could probably be included in the British group though the act banning Welsh could be seen as a type of "cultural conversion" especially if culture in game represents the culture of the ruling elite rather than the populace.
Breton: French influence over Brittany was pretty large, with the Breton nobility abandoning the Breton language by the 12th century. French was made the official written language of Brittany in the 15th century. The majority language of Upper Brittany was not Breton, but rather Gallo, a dialect of French. There were also no major revolts in Brittany against France apart from the Revolt of the papier timbre, which was fiscally motivated rather than a result of Breton regionalism.
Overall, Breton probably fits best within the French culture group as the Bretons were fairly French by game start. If there were to be a Celtic Breton culture, it should be limited to the western provinces while the east should be Gallo.
Irish: England claimed Lordship over Ireland as early as 1177. However, English influence over Ireland weakened with the plague and with the Norman lords intermarrying with native Irish, adopting Irish customs and speaking gaelic becoming the "Old English." English influence over the isles reached a minimum by the end of the 15th century. Henry VIII then decided to invade Ireland and place it under direct control of England. After getting the Kingdom of Ireland declared by the Irish parliament, he went forth to assert dominion over Ireland. This took nearly a century and includes conflicts such as the Desmond Rebellion and Tyrone Rebellion. After conquering Ireland, the English enforced Common Law throughout Ireland, ending the clan system and tannistry in Ireland, replacing it with English primogenture. Later, in the 17th century, the British were looking to Anglicize and convert Ireland and did so with a system known as the Plantations where land confiscated from Gaelic chiefs was granted to (lowlander) Scots and English in order to promote colonization of Ireland.
Overall, Irish most definitely doesn't belong in a culture group with English as Irish was never an "accepted culture" within Great Britain. Ireland suffered one of the only actual culture conversions in Europe within the time period. Irish revolts against England were common and Irish feudal law was considerably different than that in England.
Scottish: Scottish is a bit different since in encompasses both lowlander and highlander culture where the lowlanders are more similar to English culture while the Highlanders are more similar to Irish culture. The lowlanders generally spoke Scots, a dialect of English while the highlanders spoke Scottish-Gaelic, an evolution of the Irish language spoken by the Irish settlers in the 4th century. The lowland Scots created ties with the French and English nobility, with king David I introducing English institutions such as feudal land tenure, replacing Scots with anglo-norman nobility, and court systems similar to those in England in the 12th century. In the highlands however, the clan system dominated. Highlander/Clan rebellions against the Scottish kings weren't uncommon, such as the Battle of Lochaber in 1429, Battle of Harlaw in 1411, and the Rebellion of Domhnall Dubh in the 16th century. This is not to mention the most famous of the rebellions, the Jacobite Uprising in support of the Stuarts after the Glorious Revolution. After the rebellion failed, highland culture was repressed with the banning of tartans and kilts and a number of acts were passed that severely limited the power of the clans. The Highland Clearances were also created which forcibly removed the native highlanders in favor of granting their land to lowlanders to develop.
Overall, if Scottish is to remain one culture, it should remain in the British group to represent the dominance of the lowlander culture over that of the highlanders and lowlander culture is more similar to English. However, I personally feel that Scottish should be split into Lowlander and Highlander cultures with lowlanders remaining in the British culture group and highlanders being in the Celtic group. This shouldn't cause too much of a problem game mechanism wise as the highlands have enough base tax to have their culture accepted in Scotland but if Scotland expands to much or is incorporated into Great Britain, the highlanders will rise (become unaccepted, rebellious, and probably culture converted like what happened. Though it would be nice to be able to pick which accepted culture you wanted to convert a province to so there's not an island of English in the highlands)
Welsh: The last welsh rebellion ended in 1415. Wales was formally incorporated into the Kingdom of England in 1536 whereby Welsh law was replaced with English common law. This law also barred Welsh from being used by the landed gentry. These laws were not unpopular among the welsh gentry as it gave the Welsh people equal rights as the people in England. The laws did not become unpopular until the rise of Welsh nationalism.
Overall Welsh culture could probably be included in the British group though the act banning Welsh could be seen as a type of "cultural conversion" especially if culture in game represents the culture of the ruling elite rather than the populace.
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