Flower of the Lilly
A Comprehensive look at the Creation of Modern France
The Union Flag, flown over the Empire
Chapter Fifteen
The Age of Emperors and the end of the Holy Roman Empire
Emperor Henri V ve Kalkenbourg was raised as an only child. Historians argue over who is to blame, but many assume it was his mother who had had two miscarriages. Like his name-sake, Henri III, Henri V suffered from porphyria. His pale face and confinement to Kalkenbourg made him unpopular with diplomats. The danger of being outside kept him from serving in the military. Instead, it created the first intellectual Emperor. A brilliant administrator and a well read fan of the literary arts. He was a poet, author, teacher, inventor, engineer, musician, and a believer in the Enlightenment. He said, “People seem amused at my interest in the real world as if I am not part of it.” The Emperor was famous for teaching history at the Military University at Köln, but only after sunset. A firm believer that the Empire could not survive under the rule of even one bad Emperor, and fearing he might be that Emperor, he moved away from the deity-like status many Emperors touted around.
In 1716 he sat down with the Electors as well as advisors and even several merchants from Köln. “The Empire is dead.” He started the year-long meeting with those words in which he disbanded the Holy Roman Empire. The new Colognish Empire (Kölle Rik) stood as a direct successor to the Roman Empire and to the Holy Roman Empire. Sometimes referred to as the Empire of the Rheine, Henri V brought forth that repressed ideal, democracy. The new Empire was the first Constitutional Monarchy. When Emperor Henri V disbanded the Electorate system, he replaced it with the Landsraat, where representatives from the Communes, the different states and regions of the Empire. The representatives would vote on legal matters within the Empire, though international affairs still resided with the Monarchy. Soon people, especially in the merchant class, realized the power they had in this new government. Emperor Henri V was hailed as a liberator, a visionary, a man of the people and was one of the most well-liked Emperors of all time. His reign constituted the Age of Peace, a two-year period that saw no uprisings, no rebellions, just peaceful growth. The Empire had been unified under Emperor Henri V. The dream of Emperor Henri III had been completed.
Emperor Henri V ve Kalkenbourg died in August of 1719. Exposure to sun was the culprit. He died a virgin, unwed and heirless. On his death, his uncle Louis took the throne, and would continue his work.
Emperor Henri V ve Kalkenbourg
The Reign of Emperor Louis XVI
Democracy in the Americas and Naval Reform.
The colonies of Cologne were prospering. In Orissa, thousands flocked to the Gallican faith. Cuttack soon had the first Christian Cathedral on continental Asia. Emperor Louis XVI ve Kalkenbourg was a very benign ruler. Since he was older, many viewed Henri V as the father of his country, while Louis XVI was the grandfather. His face was friendly and he was known to walk around Köln with only a few guards. Meanwhile, in England, Parliament continued a harsh rule over the English colonies. Constant wars with Castile over Algeria, Canada and America left thousands dead and tens more natives displaced.
Especially in Peru, the English Incan Colony, times were rough. Forced conversions and the use of lower-class Peruvians as slaves left many wanting to taste freedom. In 1721 the Incans revolted alongside their Peruvian counterparts. The Incan-Peruvian Republic was declared to great fan-fare amongst the population. There was a hope that after the initial Republic was founded, that the rest of Peru would join the nation. But two main issues still stood in the way. First, England refused to recognize the nation; and no other European nation would out of fear of losing its colonies. Next was neighboring Bolivia. Bolivia was a commonwealth of the Colognish Empire, mostly made up of Imperial immigrants and converted Incans. There was no chance that Bolivia would succeed from the Empire, and Imperial territories were largely an issue to the new republic.
In 1722 England declared war on the Republic. President George Macpherson pleaded to the Colognish Empire to remain neutral, but as Emperor Louis XVI pointed out, treason to England is treason to him as King of England. Within a year, the Bolivian Army had invaded and occupied Peru. Emperor Louis XVI declared that the entirety of Imperial occupied Peru was to be annexed to Cologne, but Parliament issued an official complaint. Emperor Louis XVI conceded the debate, and Parliament and the Landsraat worked together in adjusting the border. When the peace was worked out, Cologne annexed the territories bordering Brazil and the rest of Peru was returned to England.
In 1727, Emperor Louis XVI began an extensive overhaul of the aging Imperial Fleet. The program would last until several years after the Emperor’s death, disbanding old ships and building new ones. The project put many people to work and helped to remind Europe of France’s position as masters of the sea. Even so, only two fleets were actually updated by the program, leaving large portions of the Imperial fleet with old Galleons and Two-Deckers.
Already aging when he took the throne, Emperor Louis XVI died in 1729, ten years after taking the throne. He left behind an Empire that was greatly prospering and set the stage for his only child to become a behemoth in European politics and Imperial history.
Emperor Louis XVI ve Kalkenbourg
On the left Peru in relationship to England and Cologne. In the center the Incan (Green) and Peruvian (Blue) halves of Peru. Darkened areas show regions that did not revolt. On the right the final borders of English Peru and Colognish Brazil and Bolivia.
On the left, a two-decker. On the right a three-decker.
The Child Emperor
Three Year’s Reign
Emperor Louis XVII ve Kalkenbourg was four years old when he took the throne. Since there was another governing body, people did not feel it necessary to appoint an official regent. Instead his mother, Lady Isabella, operated as an unofficial regent and looked out for her son during his reign.
The only thing of major note during the short reign of Louis XVII was the first Chilean Revolution. The Peruvian Revolution sparked revolts in Castilian Chile. Chilean rebels quickly occupied the entire county but quickly civil war set in. Spanish Gallicans seceded from the new republic and joined the Empire. The new regions were attached to Plateau colony but would remain unstable for some time. Within two years Castile had re-annexed the remainder of Chile.
In 1732, only weeks after Southern Chile joined the Empire, Emperor Louis XVII died at the age of seven after falling off of a horse. There was a great mourning in the Empire at the death of such a young and promising Emperor. He was succeeded by his uncle, the younger brother of both Emperor Nicolas I and Emperor Louis XVI, Joachim I.
Emperor Louis XVII ve Kalkenbourg and the Lady Isabella
The Youngest Brother
The Emperor who did not wish to be Emperor.
Emperor Joachim I ve Kalkenbourg was the remaining brother of Nicolas I and Louis XVI. Until his ascension to the throne, he was mostly forgotten, holding no titles of authority and only obscure titles of nobility. He was notably a distressed man, often staying far from the public eye with his family. He was born Georg ve Kalkenbourg in Köln. While his eldest brother reigned as Emperor, Georg traveled around Europe. He was described as being detached, unfriendly and nervous. He was known to talk to himself more often then he would his wife or children. His wife was the Lady Jessica Trastámara-Albret, a Castilian Princess. The two had a very strained relationship. At the time, divorce was illegal in the Empire, so the two was tied to each other. Together they had four children: Luis, Klaus, Georg, and Katrina. The elder Georg never expected much from his family, assuming that they would slowly fade out of public life and eventually into complete obscurity. For a while he signed papers Georg di Milano, the city he took residence in.
In 1732 his nephew died a few days after falling off the back of a galloping horse. Georg did not hear about it for another two months as Imperial Agents from Imperial Dauphin Society attempted to track down the new Emperor. They finally found him in a small hamlet outside of Milan. He had a modest estate with only a handful of servant. Local people tilled the fields for a modest earning. Over the gate was the personal coat of arms of the owner, a black lion and in the canton a red star. It was the mark of the third child of the Imperial house, a symbol that the local peasants never understood to begin with.
Georg di Milano was told of his nephew’s fate he sat there silently. His wife and children gathered around him to see what the matter was, and he simply said, “We are moving to Köln.” He took the moniker Joachim, a name that had not been used before, and re-adopted the Imperial name. Emperor Joachim I ve Kalkenbourg: the Emperor who did not wish to be Emperor.
Emperor Joachim I ve Kalkenbourg and the Lady Jessica.
King of the Aegean
Tension between Cologne and the Morean Empire
The original Catholic principality of Naxos had been annexed by Egypt during Egypt’s short gamble to expand into Anatolia and the Balkans. The island revolted within two decades of being annexed. The Landsraat and Emperor Joachim I watched the rebellion with envious eyes, hoping that a catholic would come to power and thus allow the Empire to pressure the small state to join the Empire. However, like Cyprus, the Greek majority of Naxos installed an Orthodox ruler and began to better ties with the Morean Empire. Since the Cyprus Incident, relations between Cologne and Morea had decreased dramatically. Former allies now stood in direct opposition to one another. The battles were not fought directly between the two nations, rather in proxy wars. The Landsraat and Emperor Joachim I wanted to push Morea over the edge, and convince the “tiny Emperor,” as Landszog (Prime Minister) Klaus von Karlsburg put it, to declare war on Cologne.
In 1733 Imperial spies and members of the Imperial Heraldry Institution searched through records to create a strong backing to an Imperial claim to Naxos. Emperor Joachim I ve Kalkenbourg was declared King of the Aegean in an overly obvious push for the claim of the island. The Empire of Morea simply refused to recognize the title and recognized the independence of Naxos. The Landsraat concluded that the invasion of the island was the necessary action in order to protect the interests of Cologne and the citizens of Naxos.
In 1734 the Imperial Navy transported 10,000 troops into the Aegean Sea, and quickly blockaded Naxos from any and all assistance from Morea. The island was given an ultimatum to surrender to the Empire within a month or suffer invasion. Naxos held out, expecting Morea and maybe even Egyptian interference with Imperial plans. But support did not come. The Emperor in Morea sat in a cold sweat while the Imperial navy sat just off his shores, and the Sultan of Egypt had died earlier leaving only the Khan of the Black Sheep as his heir. After a month the Imperial navy began their bombardment of the island, then 10,000 Imperial troops descended onto the island to confront 1,000 professional soldiers and 2,500 militia soldiers. The battle was brief, and it crushed all resistance to the Empire in Naxos. The Emperor of Morea said he was finally able to breathe when he could no longer see the Imperial navy outside of his window each morning.
Hudson Bay War
The return of the Livonian Order
The Hudson Bay War was a brief war that had begun as a boarder issue between the displaced Livonian Order and the Empire of Castile. At its extent it included the Colgnish Empire and the Empire of Poland. The war between Cologne and Castile against Livonia was brief, lasting only two years with the Colognish Empire joining a year before the end and annexing the small colony. The second phase was a long and drawn-out satellite war fought between Castile and Poland, resulting in a white peace after several years. It stood to reemphasize the tensions between East and West. The Empire nearly joined the war on the side of Castile against its massive neighbor. The war marked the switching point from good Imperial/Polish relations to poor.
The war did not; however, end the Livonian Order did not disappear. The Order moved back to Europe as a territorial-less organization within Poland. The idea of theocratic governments was dying out. In the western world only the Knights of Rhodes and the Papal State remained. Meanwhile the difference between the pious East and the progressive West became highlighted. Nations like the Union of Stockholm, Poland, Morea, Russia and the Islamic nations began lagging behind in technology, but their autocrats maintained a heavy-handed rule. Their nations were often far more stable than Western nations. In the West technology pushed production and the comfort of life into new realms. Plus the progressive governments of the West weren’t as stable as those in the East, but their people were far less likely to be forced to revolt.
The issue with the people came to two main factors. In the west, if people wanted something changed they protested and complained to the Communes. There was no one man to blame for any issue. Without constant government monitoring, people were able to solve local problems quickly and to their liking. They also controlled their own crop sales, preventing mass starvations. In the East, small revolts and protests were unheard of. Instead, for the people to actually begin to revolt, and large number of people had to be highly dedicated and heavily armed. Revolts in the East would cost thousands of lives and would impoverish the nation unlucky enough to have such a revolt.
The Jutish Revolt
Jutland revolts against Stockholm
This kind of devastating revolt became apparent in a series of revolts and civil wars fought in Denmark between Danish rebels and the Union of Stockholm. At first Denmark was able to secede from the Union, forming a brief republic. This republic was annexed again after a three year long campaign on the part of the Union. As soon as Union troops had left Denmark, the revolts began anew, fueled by the brutality of the Union soldiers. This second wave of revolts was most successful in Jutland, or mainland Denmark. There citizens successfully overthrew the Union military as well as the local governments and installed a weak and disorganized Republic of Jylland. The short lived Republic voted a month later to install Emperor Joachim I as King of Jylland. In 1738 Jylland was annexed to the Empire, prompting conflict between Cologne and the Union.
Emperor Joachim I ve Kalkenbourg would live six more years after the annexing of Jylland, but it was a quiet period in Imperial history, reflecting a stable growth. During the six years Emperor Joachim I bettered ties between Cologne and England as well as between Cologne and the Irish Free States. His eldest son, Luis would become one of the most powerful Emperors ever: Emperor Louis XVIII ve Kalkenbourg was the first Emperor of a United Cologne-England.