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Oh man, this had all sorts of general awesomeness about it (except those weird, ahistorical Romanovs that marry away princesses and love the Latins, most unbecoming of Third Rome).
But then you had the Decemberists make a lyrical cameo and you won me over.
Vive le Roi!
But then you had the Decemberists make a lyrical cameo and you won me over.
Vive le Roi!
Chapter XL – Amidst the Fallen Estates
Spring, the Year of our Lord 1639
“Pray tell, Henri… why am I eating dry German breakfast in Ansbach when I should be dining in Eleanor’s favourite mansion in Austrian Vienna? There’s something oddly fishy about this whole situation…”
Turenne turned around from the window and gazed at Nicholas who, while leaning back on his stool, played with an elegant dagger he had found somewhere in the count’s drawers. Outside the castle walls, the unruly mass of French soldiers drilled for what to the comte seemed to have been the hundredth time since dawn. The steady sound of their armoured boots against the wet cobble stones made him yearn after campaigning once again.
“Majesty, wars are not simply matters of marching from one place to another. Sometimes there’s someone in the way… in our case, well we are talking about at least 60,000 angry Austrians all armed and dangerous.” He couldn’t help himself to finish the sentence off with a boyish grin.
Sighing and looking ever so bored, Nicholas stretched himself in the chair while fumbling for his glass of wine on the table. He found it placed over some greased letters and papers from some German princes and the Parisian estates, which he hadn’t read, and amidst the gulps told his friend that he was indeed working on that particular problem.
This perked Turenne’s interest as Nicholas hadn’t shown the slightest interest in actually solving the extremely demanding war of attrition that had evolved along the Franco-Austrian lines.
“And how exactly…”
“Do I plan to do that you want to ask?”
“Your wisdom never ceases to amaze me Nicholas...”
Swinging one booted foot on the ornate table, the king of France happily elaborated further. “It’s all very simple actually. I have written the governors in the districts and ordered them to raise 40,000 more men. Two more armies, each of 20,000 men for Olivares and Eleanor to go play with. That should swing the momentum in our favour.”
“You mean to tell me that, you have issued a decree for levying two grand armies without the support of either the Estates or the Conceil des Affairs?”
“Exactly! Can’t you see the brilliance? I am cutting away all the needless palaver of the estates in order to secure the people under my protection. With these men, the whores of Spain and Austria shall tremble and Olivares wail under the righteous fury of the reformation!”
Turenne began to grasp what direction the discussion was taking…
“But what will the people think when you ignore their lawful institutions and avoid the Council of your Father?”
Nicholas raised his chin in a characteristically obstinate way, sniffed once and turned his head to the castle sealing.
“I have their swords[1], they will do a they are told.”
France was bogged down in a seemingly endless conflict with the Habsburg powers. There was no sign of a possible breakthrough in either Spain or Germany and as such, the allies of Nicholas began to waver. The Republics of the Netherlands and Flanders had both joined with high hopes of obtaining the same amount of ransoms as they have achieved through the last war with Spain and Lorraine. When this seemed to be unattainable and as Spaniard privateers raided their all important trade routes, they began to rethink their commitment to the war. Their pleas to Nicholas about ending the war on favourable terms were not answered. The sovereign of France was only interested in humbling Eleanor and Anton and the petty economics of the Flemish and Dutch republics didn’t matter much to him. It was a different matter with England though. Charles had promised his French ally that the navy of his kingdoms would bring an army to the Spanish shores, but neither army nor navy showed up. The exiled forces of Parliament still bickered in Ireland and Charles had decided to use the force to intimidate them instead of the Catholic powers, with who he actually was at war. When the Irish had backed down, the money Charles had set aside for his Spanish campaign had been spent and the armed forces of England-Scotland had to return home. Nicholas was furious and for a time relations between the kingdoms reached unheard lows.
But for all the international bickering between the alliance members who fought for either honour or wealth, it would be Nicholas’ blatant disregard for the institutions of his people that shook France out of course.
It was common law in France that the king had to at least listen to the advice of either the estates or his noble councillors before acting and by ignoring both instances in his drive towards the conquest of Spain and the dethroning of Anton, Nicholas had circumvented the most basic instrument of trust between the sovereign and his people. While the early signs of increased centralization from the Louvre had already awoken some elements of internal French resistance (See the First Fronde) this breach would lead to further risings. The first came as isolated events with local nobles in Bourgogne and Dauhpiné rising in revolt, but later the estates of Avignon, Navarre and Poitou also rose along their nobles. Totalling no more than 20,000 men in isolated groupings these forces took upon themselves to free their local communities from royal tyranny, but a collective leadership lacked.
The first actions of the Second Fronde
This leadership was to be found no more than a few weeks later, when it became obvious that the King and his government were unable to act swiftly enough to counter the rebels. As mentioned before all the royal forces were tied down in Spain and Germany thus the insurgents faced no serious threat, which allowed them to pursue their intrigues against Nicholas. Words reached the other nobles that the king would be incapable of resisting them and that the best way to sway him away from the dangerous and failing war would be to rise in revolt.
Soon the members of the nobility in Brittany, Languedoc and Guyenne also joined in on the rebel side when their demands were rejected by an increasingly enraged Nicholas. The first and third estates now united in opposition towards Nicholas’ disrespect of the laws of the French state and his increasingly impulsive foreign diplomacy. The intrigues had been prepared for a long time, but when the leadership of the opposition came out in the open, the king all of the sudden began to act…
More revolts…
[1]See chapter Chapter XXXI – King Nicolas
Spring, the Year of our Lord 1639
“Pray tell, Henri… why am I eating dry German breakfast in Ansbach when I should be dining in Eleanor’s favourite mansion in Austrian Vienna? There’s something oddly fishy about this whole situation…”
Turenne turned around from the window and gazed at Nicholas who, while leaning back on his stool, played with an elegant dagger he had found somewhere in the count’s drawers. Outside the castle walls, the unruly mass of French soldiers drilled for what to the comte seemed to have been the hundredth time since dawn. The steady sound of their armoured boots against the wet cobble stones made him yearn after campaigning once again.
“Majesty, wars are not simply matters of marching from one place to another. Sometimes there’s someone in the way… in our case, well we are talking about at least 60,000 angry Austrians all armed and dangerous.” He couldn’t help himself to finish the sentence off with a boyish grin.
Sighing and looking ever so bored, Nicholas stretched himself in the chair while fumbling for his glass of wine on the table. He found it placed over some greased letters and papers from some German princes and the Parisian estates, which he hadn’t read, and amidst the gulps told his friend that he was indeed working on that particular problem.
This perked Turenne’s interest as Nicholas hadn’t shown the slightest interest in actually solving the extremely demanding war of attrition that had evolved along the Franco-Austrian lines.
“And how exactly…”
“Do I plan to do that you want to ask?”
“Your wisdom never ceases to amaze me Nicholas...”
Swinging one booted foot on the ornate table, the king of France happily elaborated further. “It’s all very simple actually. I have written the governors in the districts and ordered them to raise 40,000 more men. Two more armies, each of 20,000 men for Olivares and Eleanor to go play with. That should swing the momentum in our favour.”
“You mean to tell me that, you have issued a decree for levying two grand armies without the support of either the Estates or the Conceil des Affairs?”
“Exactly! Can’t you see the brilliance? I am cutting away all the needless palaver of the estates in order to secure the people under my protection. With these men, the whores of Spain and Austria shall tremble and Olivares wail under the righteous fury of the reformation!”
Turenne began to grasp what direction the discussion was taking…
“But what will the people think when you ignore their lawful institutions and avoid the Council of your Father?”
Nicholas raised his chin in a characteristically obstinate way, sniffed once and turned his head to the castle sealing.
“I have their swords[1], they will do a they are told.”
***
France was bogged down in a seemingly endless conflict with the Habsburg powers. There was no sign of a possible breakthrough in either Spain or Germany and as such, the allies of Nicholas began to waver. The Republics of the Netherlands and Flanders had both joined with high hopes of obtaining the same amount of ransoms as they have achieved through the last war with Spain and Lorraine. When this seemed to be unattainable and as Spaniard privateers raided their all important trade routes, they began to rethink their commitment to the war. Their pleas to Nicholas about ending the war on favourable terms were not answered. The sovereign of France was only interested in humbling Eleanor and Anton and the petty economics of the Flemish and Dutch republics didn’t matter much to him. It was a different matter with England though. Charles had promised his French ally that the navy of his kingdoms would bring an army to the Spanish shores, but neither army nor navy showed up. The exiled forces of Parliament still bickered in Ireland and Charles had decided to use the force to intimidate them instead of the Catholic powers, with who he actually was at war. When the Irish had backed down, the money Charles had set aside for his Spanish campaign had been spent and the armed forces of England-Scotland had to return home. Nicholas was furious and for a time relations between the kingdoms reached unheard lows.
But for all the international bickering between the alliance members who fought for either honour or wealth, it would be Nicholas’ blatant disregard for the institutions of his people that shook France out of course.
It was common law in France that the king had to at least listen to the advice of either the estates or his noble councillors before acting and by ignoring both instances in his drive towards the conquest of Spain and the dethroning of Anton, Nicholas had circumvented the most basic instrument of trust between the sovereign and his people. While the early signs of increased centralization from the Louvre had already awoken some elements of internal French resistance (See the First Fronde) this breach would lead to further risings. The first came as isolated events with local nobles in Bourgogne and Dauhpiné rising in revolt, but later the estates of Avignon, Navarre and Poitou also rose along their nobles. Totalling no more than 20,000 men in isolated groupings these forces took upon themselves to free their local communities from royal tyranny, but a collective leadership lacked.
The first actions of the Second Fronde
This leadership was to be found no more than a few weeks later, when it became obvious that the King and his government were unable to act swiftly enough to counter the rebels. As mentioned before all the royal forces were tied down in Spain and Germany thus the insurgents faced no serious threat, which allowed them to pursue their intrigues against Nicholas. Words reached the other nobles that the king would be incapable of resisting them and that the best way to sway him away from the dangerous and failing war would be to rise in revolt.
Soon the members of the nobility in Brittany, Languedoc and Guyenne also joined in on the rebel side when their demands were rejected by an increasingly enraged Nicholas. The first and third estates now united in opposition towards Nicholas’ disrespect of the laws of the French state and his increasingly impulsive foreign diplomacy. The intrigues had been prepared for a long time, but when the leadership of the opposition came out in the open, the king all of the sudden began to act…
More revolts…
[1]See chapter Chapter XXXI – King Nicolas
Ah, the population is unhappy.
Perhaps another chicken in the pot would help? Or maybe just purging the nobility?
Perhaps another chicken in the pot would help? Or maybe just purging the nobility?
Ah...the joy of rebels. The least they could have done was find a couple of pretenders to the throne!
Well that's certainly going to make fighting the war much more difficult. It may be time to cut your losses unless you have some grand scheme up your sleeve. But perhaps you do... 
More than 500 posts and close t0 25,000 views. Yay!
Gracias all of you.
@ RGB: Finally someone caught the reference. I am most pleased with this ^^. Although the chicken-in-the-pot-method would have been the obvious choice of his father, the question remains unanswered... so far. Will Nicholas take the route of his dad or go the more absolutist way (maybe putting peasants into pots instead?).
@ Urcules: Ah thou kind words I feed on those ;p
@ Delex : Yargh!
@ naggy: Now where did I put that Condé
@ coz1: Well I might consider moving some troops to fight them. Does that count as a trick up my sleeve
@ balkanite: Yes!
@ asd21593 No!
Also, what's up with changing your avatar so much? I get confused!
Gracias all of you.
@ RGB: Finally someone caught the reference. I am most pleased with this ^^. Although the chicken-in-the-pot-method would have been the obvious choice of his father, the question remains unanswered... so far. Will Nicholas take the route of his dad or go the more absolutist way (maybe putting peasants into pots instead?).
@ Urcules: Ah thou kind words I feed on those ;p
@ Delex : Yargh!
@ naggy: Now where did I put that Condé
@ coz1: Well I might consider moving some troops to fight them. Does that count as a trick up my sleeve
@ balkanite: Yes!
@ asd21593 No!
Also, what's up with changing your avatar so much? I get confused!
@ asd21593 No!
Struggles make AARs so much more interesting
EDIT: Also, about the avatar, I was just testing out new ones that would fit my new Peruvian AAR. I'm sticking this one (EU3 Peruvian flag).
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Perhaps the Netherlands and Flanders could end the war with good terms and leave France screwed...
I've been lurking on this AAR for quite some time, but i wanted to drop a line and mention who fantastic I think your work here has been, almost makes me want to try a hand at a Calvinist France, spreading the heretical-protestant faith
They are still rebels.
Off with their heads!
Thank you
oI am beginning to see a pattern in levels of dastardliness.
1) Spanish 2) Austrians 3) Dutch/Flemish
That is indeed great praise from someone whose sympathies (I guess
) lies with the papists in Madrid! Can I offer a conversion?
Are there any other states that could attack France while she's down? Savoy or Milan maybe?
It's a bit ironic that for most of its history, France had a huge army with nearly unlimited reserves of manpower. Louis XIV's army were about ten times bigger than the Austrian. One reason why France didn't conquer most of Europe was that it almost always faced an alliance of many other countries (usually funded and held together by the British), which forced it to fight on multiple fronts and split its forces. Eventually the Germans and Russians overcame it, but in the EU3 period, France was clearly the most powerful continental power. My personal theory is that all powers like that eventually exhaust themselves and simply give up on being the bogeyman