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Freedom is a noble thing - A Scottish Megacampaign, Part Two

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horngeek said:
Speak for yourself. Plus, this means a significant chance of it becoming a Protestant or Reformed Roman Empire! ;)
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That IS heresy! Romans must be the defenders of the Catholic faith! :mad:

:p
 
Nifn45 said:
I don't mean to be rude or anything, but could we maybe get an ETA on the next part?
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Sorry, campaigning for the referendum has been taking up most of my free time recently, so probably no update until the weekend once I've recovered from the joy/ crushing disappointment of the result.
 
Well on the bright side, if YES won then Scotland would've had to choose between having the UK control their currency or try to join the EU(if you join the EU now it's mandatory to use the Euro) and possibly be veto'd by Spain and Belgium. If you got past the vetos then you'd be brought right into another union which is in economic ruination and has a few of its members wanting out. Not to mention that Salmond wanted to increase immigration which would in a few decades lead to immigrants outnumbering the Scots due to the Scots having low birth rates(I'm not saying this is necessarily a bad thing but having the majority of the population not being Scottish would put a damper on the whole "finally free!" thing)
 
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Ranald MacGiric
Lived: 1405-1471
Head of House MacGiric: 1425-1471
King of Scotland: 1425-1471
Holy Roman Emperor: 1447-1471​

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When Ranald MacGiric rose to the Scottish throne, the Kingdom was in the midst of the worst epidemic of disease in world history. The Black Death had already claimed Gilbert, the Liberator and founder of the new regime in Scotland, and by the time the first wave of the plague had left the country as much as 1/3 of the population had fallen. During Ranald’s lengthy reign, the Kingdom would slowly rebuild whilst attempting to exert itself internationally.

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During the tumultuous years of the mid-15th century the Plague brought about a substantial shift within Scottish society, and the balance of power within the Kingdom. The area hit, by far, the hardest by the epidemic was the densely populated core of the Kingdom between the Humber and Tay. Here, not only was the area economically devastated with both cities and countryside being badly depopulated, the changed demographics brought about a rapid shift in the region’s class structure. Serfdom in the Lowland core of the Kingdom had been on the wane for decades before the Black Death, the sudden collapse in the labour supply in a region in with such bountiful resources that demand inevitably remained high sounded its death knell. Practises of serfdom rapidly collapsed as the vast majority of the common folk of the region became freemen, renting land from the nobility without any feudal obligations. This an important impact on the power structure within the Kingdom as it greatly enhanced the relative military strength of the Clans in the Scottish, and to a lesser extent Welsh, Highlands where the elites remained all powerful, depopulation had not been so severe, and the majority of men were obliged to enter military service when called upon by their Chiefs. In 1437 the Douglas Clan led a major Highland rebellion – marching South they defeated a weak royal army and besieged Edinburgh – forcing the King and the Lowlander dominated Parliament to grant the Clans almost total autonomy from the central government in exchange for the promise that they would provide the military manpower necessary to protect the Kingdom. The power of the mountain folk would leave a shadow over Scottish history for decades.

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Internationally, during the mid-1440s the balance of power in Europe began to shift in a spectacular fashion. Old King Henri of France was rapidly approaching his death, and his direct heir was King Eichechan of Ireland. A union of these two Kingdoms had the potential to be a powerful force, something fervently opposed by the English and the mighty Kingdom of Bavaria and Bohemia. At the start of the decade it was unclear which side the Scots would come down upon, supporting the Irish risked creating a regional power in North-West Europe capable of rivalling or even surpassing the, but opposing the union could leave Scotland without a credible ally on the continent. In the end, Ranald agreed an alliance with the Irish in 1444, within months Henri was dead and the War of the French Succession had begun.

The Scots played an important role in the conflict, an army of Highlanders descending from the North to ravage England whilst Scottish ships defeated both the English and Bavarian navies. Across the sea, Franco-Irish armies slugged it out with the mighty Bavarians – both sides suffering significant losses. Whilst the battles themselves were relatively inconclusive, the location of the majority of the fighting was not. In order to send their armies to fight in France, the Bavarians had send thousands marching across the Holy Roman Empire – causing great anger amongst the powerless German Princes. It was with this sense of powerlessness in mind that they, dramatically, chose to elect Ranald MacGiric as Emperor in 1447 – with the clear desire to seek an Emperor who could protect the Rhenish realms from the overbearing power of the Bavarians.

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The war of the French Succession was over within a year of Ranald’ ascension in Germany, the Irish and French crowns both coming under Eichechan’s control, but in the Empire events were already moving rapidly. Ranald claimed that the Empire could never hope to properly defend itself without the restoration of formal structures that could give the Emperor the power to pool together the entire realm’s military strength. Ranald’s calls for ‘Reichsreform’ reached their zenith following a major military victory over the Burgundians in 1449-1450. As the Burgundians attempted to annex Valais, an Imperial Elector, the Scots swooped in to crush the invaders and greatly enhance their position. After the victory over Burgundy, reform began to take serious steps forward. Then, in 1455 Ranald made a fatal error. Flush from his popularity in Germany, Ranald took demanded that the King of Lotharingia submit to Imperial power, and re-join the Empire. The Scottish King’s demands were rebuked and war broke out. Humiliatingly, the Lotharingians destroyed the Scottish army near Cologne – forcing Ranald to eventually surrender in 1457 and abandon all hopes of reforming the Empire.

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In Scotland itself, Ranald’s adventures in Germany had left him distracted from Scotland’s internal politics where the Douglases’ fearsome Highland powerbase loomed over the Kingdom – much to the chagrin of the Lowland elites who were starting to recover from the Plague, and even seeing a degree monetary benefit gained from moving away from a feudal system to a rent based system of landownership. By the late 1450s, with the hopes of glory in Germany gone and the antagonism between the Highland and Lowland elites accelerating, Ranald was forced to act. He chose to strike and strike hard against the Douglases – forcing a five year Civil War euphemistically known as the ‘Breaking of the Douglases’ in history books. Deploying a large army, most consisting of mercenaries from both within and outside of Scotland, Ranald crushed the power of the Highland Clans – sweeping away their briefly held autonomy and even confiscated lands from those nobles most associated with the Douglases. By the early 1460s, the Lowland elite were back, firmly in control of the Kingdom.

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Later that decade, in 1465-66, a border dispute in Lincolnshire escalated into all out warfare, the Scots preying upon the weakness of the English to advance their borders further South, claiming yet more of the ethnically confused English Midland Marches. The brief conflict would establish a border between Scotland and England that would endure for centuries.

Ranald died in 1471 at the age of 66 after almost half a century as King of Scotland. He was the last Scot to rule as Holy Roman Emperor, and the first monarch of a new era in Scottish and European history.
 
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