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With a run of short lived monarchs like that, I can see why several shorter updates fit the bill.
And Bavaria is huge. Watch out when Austria inevitably inherits.
And Bavaria is huge. Watch out when Austria inevitably inherits.
The History of the Duchy of Savoy
The County of Savoy was born out of the ashes of the Kingdom of Burgundy and was elevated to the status of Duchy in 1416 by Emperor Sigismund. Pressured in the West by its French neighbors and in the east by the Italians, Savoy was a country born of both worlds but belonging to neither. It therefore chose to embark on a quest to unify Italy and protect its French provinces on its own terms. What follows is the history of the Duchy of Savoy from 1419 to the present day.
Philibert II, Eighth Duke of Savoy
1497-1504
Philibert II, known as 'the Handsome', came to the throne determined not to repeat the mistakes of his predecessors. Through no fault of their own, the fourth through seventh Dukes of Savoy had the sort of uneventful reigns that failed to capture young Philibert's imagination. Three of the last four rulers of Savoy had died young, and the fourth, Philibert's father, became Duke while already very old. These were destinies that Philibert did not want. He was married to his ten year-old cousin Yolande Louise, the daughter of Charles I; through her, he could claim the title of King of Jerusalem, Armenia and Cyprus. In Philibert's mind, a man of such position should not content himself with being a historical footnote. Savoy was still technically at war with far-away Georgia, and Philibert started positioning his country to take the fight to the enemy. In this way, he hoped to achieve the greatness his predecessors failed to achieve. The rebuilding of the Savoyard fleet, begun by his wife's father in 1486, was completed under Philibert and preparations began for an expedition to the Black Sea.
Events conspired to bring the war much closer to home, but Philibert would prove equal to the challenge. Florence, tired from years of fighting in the Balkans against Georgian mercenaries, surrendered the entire country of Albania in 1498. Georgian soldiers began raiding Savoy's Italian possessions, forcing Philibert to dispatch an army to Naples. Despite minor early difficulties, the Georgians were expelled from the Italian peninsula. Philibert then had Savoy's newly christened ships enter the Adriatic Sea. The Georgians would not know that Savoy's navy had been completed and Philibert guessed that they would remain in the Adriatic to continue putting pressure on his position in Naples. He thus hoped to surprise the Georgians. His decision proved to be a stroke of strategic genius. Savoy's fleet cornered and destroyed the Georgian ship after a two-month long hunt. When a minor rebellion broke out in Albania, Philibert positioned his fleet off the coast to prevent Georgia from reinforcing its garrisons there. In 1503, Albania declared itself independent. Philibert, whose wife Yolande had passed away in 1499 when she was twelve, arranged to marry Voisava Tripalda, a minor Serb princess with claims in Albania. This cemented relationships between Savoy and the newly-independent Balkan nation and forced Georgia to agree to terms the same year. Philibert, now twenty-two years old, was hungry for more success, but his plans were interrupted by the impolite knock of history coming back to haunt Savoy.
King Louis XII of France
Surveying the political landscape, Philibert realized that France was at the height of its power and could not be defeated. Burgundy no longer existed and England had been all but expelled from the continent. The last time Savoy faced the threat of conquest in the West, it was 1424 and France was a disparate collection of feudal fiefdoms. With the Hundred Years' War long over, France was now a unified country, possibly the strongest in all of Europe. If Savoy could be saved, Philibert would have to act quickly and with daring genius, and that is exactly what he did. The same day that France declared war, Philibert spoke to Maria de Silva y Mendoza, wife of his father, the late Phillipe II. He arranged for her to obtain an alliance with Ferdinand and Isabella, Catholic King and Queen of a unified Spain since 1500. Maria left for Castile immediately. Her mission succeeded, but Philibert would not enjoy the benefits of the Spanish alliance. Like so many of his predecessors, he was doomed to die young. On September 11th, 1504, Philibert II of Savoy passed away at the age of twenty-four, the greatness he craved for himself and Savoy still elusive.
Philibert's reign was particularly significant for Savoy. His attention to affairs in the Black Sea would become a signature of Savoyard politics in the next century, while the decisions that won Albanian independence would have a much more immediate effect. Savoy certainly could not have hoped to withstand a war with France with no army and no navy, two things Philibert rebuilt with great enthusiasm in hopes of pursuing an eastern prize. The young Duke probably never thought for a moment that his attention would be turned westward, or that the tools he built for a war in Georgia would be applied against Savoy's oldest enemy. Indeed, his political naiveity, combined with France's understandable alarm at Savoy's remarkable rearming, no doubt led to the declaration of war. Philibert thus created an army that ironically caused war with France while enabling Savoy to fight a war with France. Finally, his alliance with Spain would become an enduring feature of politics in Savoy. The three results of his brief reign - ambitions in the Black Sea, war with France, and alliance with Spain - would define Savoy for the next century. Philibert, of course, could not have known any of this and died believing he had failed Savoy, but it was certainly in his nature to hope that he had earned his place in history. He had, but it remained to be seen exactly what that place would be.
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Wow, just two days offline and it seems I missed a lot 
.
Great AAR, great updates; Savoy was my first AAR and it was really fun to play. I managed to have France reamed between Burgundy, England and Aragon so I could focus on Italy. It will be interesting to see what kind of strategy you will choose.
.Great AAR, great updates; Savoy was my first AAR and it was really fun to play. I managed to have France reamed between Burgundy, England and Aragon so I could focus on Italy. It will be interesting to see what kind of strategy you will choose.
Still at war with France and a new Duke. Though it sounds like the Spanish alliance and the rebuilt army are strong enough to push at France. Let's hope so. A great series of updates.
I might caution you though, some readers don't always have enough time to read a large series of updates at once. You might consider cutting back to one or two a day as you gain a readership. And I am quite sure this AAR will gain one as it moves along. Just my two ducats. Great work!
I might caution you though, some readers don't always have enough time to read a large series of updates at once. You might consider cutting back to one or two a day as you gain a readership. And I am quite sure this AAR will gain one as it moves along. Just my two ducats. Great work!
The History of the Duchy of Savoy
The County of Savoy was born out of the ashes of the Kingdom of Burgundy and was elevated to the status of Duchy in 1416 by Emperor Sigismund. Pressured in the West by its French neighbors and in the east by the Italians, Savoy was a country born of both worlds but belonging to neither. It therefore chose to embark on a quest to unify Italy and protect its French provinces on its own terms. What follows is the history of the Duchy of Savoy from 1419 to the present day.
Charles III, Ninth Duke of Savoy
1504-1553
Part I
The Savoy that Charles III inherited from his half-brother Philibert was in trouble. Louis XII of France decided to finally resolve the fate of the Duchy, choosing force of arms as his methods and conquest as his goal. Philibert had been prepared to muster Savoy's armies against the French king, but succumbed to the familiar fate of Dukes of Savoy by dying young. Charles, coming to power at the age of eighteen, was to Louis yet another whelp in a nearly unbroken line of boy Dukes. The late Philibert's daring and genius in negotiating an alliance with Spain had given Savoy time to prepare its defense, and it was time the young Charles could not afford to squander.
The Duchy's armies were spread throughout Italy and had been bloodied just three years earlier in war with Georgian mercenary raiders. With victory against the Georgians in Naples and at sea near Albania, Charles found himself in command of a large force that was both experienced and confident, two things the soldiers of his forefather Amadeus VIII were not in the 1424 war with France. That conflict had threatened a much smaller Savoy with extinction; only the guile of a tyrant from Milan had saved Amadeus then. Thus did Charles have three advantages over Amadeus in this second war with France. First, Savoy had greater strategic depth and could afford to flee before the French armies without losing the entire country. Second, its armies were now larger, hardened by battle, and eager to fight. And third, it had an alliance with Spain. Although France was also in a better position than it was eighty years earlier, Charles resolved to press each of his advantages. He therefore took the fight to the enemy.
The armies of Savoy crossed into France in November of 1504, less than two months after Charles had become Duke. Although the French army at Montpellier was at least twenty-thousand strong and better equipped than his own soldiers, Charles guessed that the threat of Spain meant he could afford to split his force. The Army of Savoie crossed the Rhone under the command of the brilliant Odonno Savona. The Lombardia regiment, led by a Milano general Filippo Galeazzo Varese, were sent into the familiar and dangerous battleground of the Luberon. A third army, which the young Duke intended to command himself, was meanwhile assembled in Savoy from the soldiers streaming in from across Italy.
Verese found no resistance in the mountains, so he moved his army deep into Provence, heading for the fortress of Avignon. A skirmish with a French force early in his march was inconclusive and did not alter Verese's path. Pillaging as he went, the grim general hoped to provoke the French into action. It was not until the Army of Savoie was in the fields around Avignon that the French acted; an army, dispatched from Montpellier, confronted the Italians. The French commander sent a message to Verese, giving him an opportunity to ask for terms, but the general was not interested in negotiation or surrender. Declaring that it was not for nothing that an army of Savoy finally stood west of the Luberon, he told the French that he meant to fight. The two armies engaged the next day. Verese had been sent into the forbidding mountains to buy time for Charles and Savona. By the time the dust cleared, he had done all that and more. Against everyone's expectations, except perhaps those of the taciturn general himself, Verese had mastered his enemy. The fields of Provence were left by the fleeing French to Savoy. Verese began the seige of Avignon immediately.
Pausing only to celebrate Christmas while in the field, the Army of Savoie continued its drive for Lyon. The unfortunate Philibert I had died there under mysterious circumstances while under French protection, and Savona was determined to seize the city for his Duke. Less than a month after the amazing victory at Avignon, a smaller French force than Verese had unexpectedly defeated was sent to protect Lyonnais. Savoy had already proven itself equal to the task of confronting more powerful threats; this smaller army was routed. Within five months, France was on the run.
Louis XII knew he could not spare many soldiers to deal with the upstarts from Savoy, but he also expected the skilled and well-equipped army at Montpellier to be sufficient to pacify his eastern flank while he dealt with the perfidious Spaniards. When this proved not to be the case, he began sending troops east. A few thousand men from Brittany here; a few thousand from Auvergne there. Faced as it was with a risky war, France was still an enormous country with thousands of men to spare. The relentless momentum of demographics gave France an oppressive manpower advantage. When Verese sent reinforcements west to assault Langeudoc, France was waiting with some twenty thousand men. Savoy's raid against Montpellier was repulsed and the soldiers fled back to Avignon, where the siege was still in progress.
Louis then made a mistake. Convinced that he had dealt the Duchy a mortal blow, he turned his new army back towards Spain. When Verese rallied the fleeing soldiers and sent them back west, all that the French had left to face them were a few small garrisons. Within days, Verese's armies were besieging two cities. Within months, Avignon had fallen; Charles III's new army had taken Grenoble and pushed Savoy's borders all the way through Dauphine to the Rhone; Lyon and Montepellier were under siege; and Verese was advancing into Cevennes. Louis XII, horrified that the lynchpin fortress of Montepellier might fall, mounted a frantic counterattack. Savoy's army ceded the field to the French king and marched to join Verese. Once again, Louis was convinced he had finished Savoy. Once again, he erred and marched west. By this time, Verese's two armies had joined and he had over twenty-five thousand men at Cevennes. Charles, his Ducal army of mostly peasants and conscripts assembled at Grenoble, sallied forth and reinforced Savona at Lyon. The city fell, and the Duke sent his commander ahead with another twenty-thousand men to Bourgogne. Charles, confident he had won the war, sent Louis XII terms seeking Lyon and all the lands east of the Rhone. The French King dismissed Charles' offer as beyond consideration. Bourgogne was overrun by Savoy four days later. Louis XII was outraged and, for the first time, frightened. The cornered French king refused to accept what had occured and ordered soldiers from Paris and Montpellier to converge on the slim Savoyard positions. With Louis unwilling to contemplate peace as the loser, the war was destined to last another year.
Savoy advances into France.
After his victory at Lyon, Charles and Savona met on the field and discussed how best to deal with Louis. Both the Duke and the general knew that the proud king would not give in easily. They also knew that Savoy needed to bring the war to a conclusion before France could bring its considerable advantages in men and treasure to bear. Like Amadeus VIII and Filippo Maria Visconti, their counterparts in 1426, the two men hatched a plot to bring Louis to the bargaining table. Visconti's plan had been daring in its audacity; it called for tiny Savoy to invade mighty France while leaving the homeland under siege. The plan Charles III and Savona created on the battlefield at Lyon was bolder by an order of magnitude. It was no longer enough to show France that Savoy could do the impossible, as Amadeus had done. It was time for Savoy to threaten Louis himself. Charles returned to Savoy, but Savona guided his army north. He was left with orders to march on Paris, and that is what he inexorably did.
Bourgogne fell, then Nivernais. Verese's armies, fresh from victory in the south, crushed a French counterattack at Cevennes. An army from Montpellier was able to cut off Verese's reinforcements near Lyon, but by October 11, 1506, Savona and the Army of Savoie had arrived at Ile de France. The king reacted again with panic, and rather than press his advantage at Lyonnais, he had the soldiers there move north to defend the capital. In doing so, Louis guided France into Charles' trap and shut the door. His men had come to Paris, but the Army of Savoie was, by then, long gone. And the Spanish army in Burgundy made sure that the soldiers that marched to relieve Paris would stay in Paris. Charles now had a free hand to finish the war on his own terms. On April 15th, 1507, the city of Orleans surrendered to Savona. Louis insisted the war could still be won and refused terms, but when it was reported that Champagne and Cevennes had been lost as well over the next six days, the king finally realized that he had no choice. On April 30th, 1507, France agreed to cede Lyon and the lands east of the Rhone. Spain acquired Guyenne and the admiration of Charles III and the people of Savoy. Considering Savoy's successes, it was a generous peace. Charles, not yet twenty-one years old, returned to Chambery as a conquering hero. The war was over. The reign of Charles III had just begun.
A very good story well written in a way that covers 90 years of game history in swift fashion. I'm particularly impressed by your ability to track the genealogy. The latest portion covering the battles against the Parisian Kings were great, I enjoyed Savory's march through the heart of the France.
I would suggest that you include more screenshots from in-game so we have a better idea of Savory's progression, but who cares what I think lol; great work.
I would suggest that you include more screenshots from in-game so we have a better idea of Savory's progression, but who cares what I think lol; great work.
wow, magnificent war tactic
clever to ally with Spain, they are very usefull in a wartime( def. in the 15-16 century when they are Europe's leading country
clever to ally with Spain, they are very usefull in a wartime( def. in the 15-16 century when they are Europe's leading country
I must say, one of the best updates thusfar. A great victory against France; yet I would immediately prepare for facing them again - they will surely seek to reclaim Lyon.
A solid victory over Louis! And now a strong border with the Rhone and mountains of Dauphine and Provence. You can leave a striking force in Lyonnais ready for the next time. Well done! And terrific reading, too!
The History of the Duchy of Savoy
The County of Savoy was born out of the ashes of the Kingdom of Burgundy and was elevated to the status of Duchy in 1416 by Emperor Sigismund. Pressured in the West by its French neighbors and in the east by the Italians, Savoy was a country born of both worlds but belonging to neither. It therefore chose to embark on a quest to unify Italy and protect its French provinces on its own terms. What follows is the history of the Duchy of Savoy from 1419 to the present day.
Charles III, Ninth Duke of Savoy
1504-1553
Part II
In just three years, Savoy and Spain had made themselves masters of the south of France. While Spain had been encroaching across the Pyrenees for decades, picking up the scraps of territory left in the wake of Europe and France's Hundred Years' War, Savoy had scrupulously avoided involving itself in the affairs of its strong western neighbor. With the exception of the duplicitious Louis I, no Duke of Savoy ever wanted war in France. These differing approaches resulted in each of the victors of the War of 1504 handling the peace in their own ways. Spain continued to agitate for more land by supporting rebels along the border. In 1509, their plans bore fruit when Basques in Gasgogne expelled the French garrisons and pledged themselves to the Spanish crown. Louis XII of France, still reeling from his losses in the south, was unwilling to risk another war and let the Duchy go. Savoy, for its part, followed a different path. Charles made sure his relationship with the Spanish remained strong, but he also sought rapprochement with France. To this end, he spent the next four years on an apparently quixotic quest to charm the French King. Astonishingly, Louis proved amenable to this. Savoy's generosity in the Treaty of Orleans gave France back most of the Duchy's conquests in the War, and this generosity was parlayed by Charles into proof of his good intentions. For Louis' part, he saw an opportunity to drive a possible wedge between the alliance of Castile and Chambrey. On June 10th, 1511, the diplomacy between the two sovereigns culminated in the former enemies becoming relatives by marriage. Charles III of Savoy and Marie of Anjou, a cousin of King Louis XII and distant relation of the long-dead Count of Provence, were wed.
France saw the marriage as an opportunity to strengthen its hand for a possible war with Spain. It had, after all, lost much more territory to the Spanish than it had to Savoy. While Charles had no intention of abanding his erstwhile ally, he desired a union with France as a means to protect the gains of the past war. To maintain his friendship with the Catholic kings, he committed himself to Spain's endeavors in the New World, offering sailors and goods to man the ships for the treacherous voyage across the ocean. This served to keep Savoy in Castile's orbit, but it had tangible benefits as well; Ferdinand and Isabella granted Savoy dominion over parts of the Viceroyalty of New Spain in 1509. Charles thus made sure to take precautions against allowing his French wife to be the pretext for dividing the Spanish alliance. The union, far from making Savoy a French ally, was meant to end Louis XII's hostility and make legitimate the conquests of the war. Charles' choice of a bride is instructive in this instance; although the titles had been taken by the French crown long ago, Marie's bloodline could prove to be useful to a politically-savvy ruler. Through Marie, Charles could claim to be Count of Provence, King of Naples and Sicily, and Duke of Anjou. This opportunity was not lost on the young Duke.
In 1513, Genoa once again went to war with Georgia to protect its Black Sea possessions and Spain dispatched a flotilla to assist its ally. While war in Georgia served no practical purpose for Savoy, Charles wanted an excuse to prove his support of Spain. Two weeks later, Charles declared that Catholics were being oppressed in the east and that he, as the rightful King of Cyprus, Jerusalem, and Armenia, was obliged to protect them. This brought the religious Duchy of Savoy into the war, but also transformed an expedition to crush Georgian pirates into a crusade. An army of ten thousand Christian soldiers set sail from Naples. It would be nearly a decade before they could return, but the Catholic alliance prevailed. The successes of the three powers in this war proved that Spain had the ability to project power far from its borders and that Savoy was willing to back its allies. It also proved that Genoa would not allow its Crimean provinces, which had been trickling away for generations, to go without a struggle. The establishment of a modern crusader state in Sochi by Spanish conquistadores also meant that the alliance could find itself fighting another war in the Black Sea within a generation. When King Carlos II of Spain, who succeeded their Catholic Majesties during the Georgian War, declared Spain the Protector of the Catholic Faith in 1524, a future war in the east was all but guaranteed. More importantly, the Savoyard predilection for standing up for Christendom had become the central cause of the Spanish Crown. Through an unlikely chain of events, the mightiest country in Europe had adopted Savoy's foreign policy as its own.
With the Georgian Crusade concluded, Charles turned his attention to finishing his quest to solidify his conquests in France. Francis I had become King of France in 1515 and was more interested in resolving the questions of the Reformation than in pursuing war in Italy. Austria, which began recovering from its slow decline when it inherited Bohemia in 1526, compounded Francis' problems. He could not afford to provoke the fears of a newly-capable Austria by invading Italy while he was confronting the Holy Roman Empire in Germany over the issues of the Reformation. Nor could he justify a focus on Italy while half of Aquitaine was in Spanish hands. Francis, keenly aware of the strength the Spanish alliance had just demonstrated, wanted security in the south as a means to strengthening his position versus Austria. Charles could not have been unaware of all of this when he began his correspondence with the French King over the ultimate disposition of the Valois' Italian rights; he was therefore able to help King Francis turn a geopolitical reality into an advantage. On May 19, 1529, Francis recognized that his claims in Italy had passed to the Marie of Anjou, who was by now the wife of the Duke of Savoy. The County of Provence and the Kingdom of Naples, which had been taken by force of arms, were now the property of Charles by divine right. The Kingdom of Sicily had also belonged to Marie's family, but Charles acknowledged the sovereignty of the Spanish King in this matter. This careful balancing act maintained Charles' rights, avoided a potential conflict over Sicily, and strengthened the alliance between Spain and Savoy by encouraging Carlos to think of Charles as something of a vassal. This would be a relationship that Carlos would continuously try to define and Charles would continuously leave ambiguous.
The Duchies of Savoy and Milan, the County of Provence, and the Kingdom of Naples, circa 1535
The situation in Italy meanwhile continued to deteriorate. The two strongest powers in Italy, Venice and the Pope, had been locked in a struggle for dominance. Venice had enjoyed the upper hand since 1532 when it captured Romagne. Savoy, long an ally of the Pope, was kept out of this struggle by Charles. The loss of Romagne suited him, as it left Modena isolated and vulnerable to acquisition by Savoy. Charles was also focused on establishing his rights elsewhere and insisted on maintaining his focus. When war broke out again in 1534 over the issue of the sovereignty of Ragusa, Venice once more found itself marching on Rome. Savoy's military, starved of resources since the end of the war with France, was severely underfunded and neither combatant saw the Duchy as a useful military ally in an Italian struggle. Savoy had no treaty obligations to guarantee Papal estates, but it didn't have legitimate claims in the war or a cassus belli against Venice either. Still, Charles saw the conflict between the two Italian powers as an opportunity for Savoy to assume a stronger role in Italy. The Papal alliance and Venice were equally matched; Venice had the superior force, but the Pope had the moral high ground and an extensive alliance of city-states. The support of Savoy could prove decisive. It should have come as no surprise to anyone which side Charles took. His entrance into the war in 1536 after two years of maneuvering Savoy into position was nonetheless a shock to all involved, and had significant ramifications on the destinies of Venice, the Papal states, and Savoy. By the end of the war, the political landscape would be redrawn; a rising power would falter, another would become an Italian great power, and a third would be reduced to irrelevance. Savoy would also be forced to reassess the feeble financial support given to its army in the wake of a senseless and tragic loss.
It looks like a crossroads between four middle powers looking to get a lot bigger. Here's to that power being Savoy.
Addressing the folks.
My original intention was for all questions to be answered by the story itself, but I don't want anyone to think they are being ignored.
coz1 - Having read your Spanish Gold AAR, kind words coming from you mean a lot. Thanks! It's also flattering to hear your comment about the writing having a good historical feel. My history degree has gone unused since I earned it, so it's nice that it's at least doing this much. As for the swift updates being too fast, I've tried to slow them down a tad.
Alexander06 - The thread needed a unique title, and the first Duke of Savoy is Amadeus. Then there's another Amadeus. Amadeus, Amadeus. Woah, woah, Amadeus. Well. . . it made sense at the time!
Grundius - I do not think I can create Italy since I am not using the AGCEEP. Amadeus IX did not become a saint but he was beatified, so a little artistic license was applied there.
Burgundy - As you can see, England and Burgundy were defeated or inherited in the Hundred Years' War.
EvilSanta - Unfortunately, I had already played through to 1595 before I decided to do an AAR. After your requests, I went back to my (very few) saved games and took some screen shots. It's not much, but I hope it's enough to keep you happy until the AAR catches up to the 'present'!
Snake IV - There were a lot of updates in twenty four hours, but as you now know that's because I had already played those parts of the game and was playing catch-up. Bavaria might be big. . . but Charles III is going to spend the last years of his reign trying to inherit it!
Saulta - Most of the Dukes of Savoy have good stats, but they don't last long. Philibert was pretty good, but my favorite was probably Louis or Amadeus IX.
SirCliveWolfe - Don't you hate reading a new AAR and then waiting for the next installation? Me too! I'm glad you enjoyed it, and hope you liked the shotgun format as a way to get started.
The Suebian - You haven't missed a thing. Read at your leisure; the pace is slowing down. Savoy's been some of the most fun I've had playing EUII, but my goal isn't to ream France. Just to thwart it. Well, and maybe ream it a little, too.
Cerol Roberts - I'd love to take credit for tracking the genealogy, but it's really Wikipedia doing all the work for me. There will also be more screenshots after 1595 when I'm caught up to my save point. And I do care what you think. "A very good story, well written in a way that covers 90 years of game history in swift fashion."? That's almost custom-made to be an advertisement for the whole AAR!
Ladislav - It's encouraging to hear you call the AAR believable. A lot of AARs challenge the suspension of disbelief or are written in game terms, and I've tried to avoid that. Hopefully, your comment means I've succeeded.
Thanks for reading, folks. I truly appreciate your comments, requests, and tips - and I appreciate everyone who is watching and lurking, too! Stay tuned for the next and last installation of the amazing reign of Charles III.
My original intention was for all questions to be answered by the story itself, but I don't want anyone to think they are being ignored.
coz1 - Having read your Spanish Gold AAR, kind words coming from you mean a lot. Thanks! It's also flattering to hear your comment about the writing having a good historical feel. My history degree has gone unused since I earned it, so it's nice that it's at least doing this much. As for the swift updates being too fast, I've tried to slow them down a tad.
Alexander06 - The thread needed a unique title, and the first Duke of Savoy is Amadeus. Then there's another Amadeus. Amadeus, Amadeus. Woah, woah, Amadeus. Well. . . it made sense at the time!
Grundius - I do not think I can create Italy since I am not using the AGCEEP. Amadeus IX did not become a saint but he was beatified, so a little artistic license was applied there.
Burgundy - As you can see, England and Burgundy were defeated or inherited in the Hundred Years' War.
EvilSanta - Unfortunately, I had already played through to 1595 before I decided to do an AAR. After your requests, I went back to my (very few) saved games and took some screen shots. It's not much, but I hope it's enough to keep you happy until the AAR catches up to the 'present'!
Snake IV - There were a lot of updates in twenty four hours, but as you now know that's because I had already played those parts of the game and was playing catch-up. Bavaria might be big. . . but Charles III is going to spend the last years of his reign trying to inherit it!
Saulta - Most of the Dukes of Savoy have good stats, but they don't last long. Philibert was pretty good, but my favorite was probably Louis or Amadeus IX.
SirCliveWolfe - Don't you hate reading a new AAR and then waiting for the next installation? Me too! I'm glad you enjoyed it, and hope you liked the shotgun format as a way to get started.
The Suebian - You haven't missed a thing. Read at your leisure; the pace is slowing down. Savoy's been some of the most fun I've had playing EUII, but my goal isn't to ream France. Just to thwart it. Well, and maybe ream it a little, too.
Cerol Roberts - I'd love to take credit for tracking the genealogy, but it's really Wikipedia doing all the work for me. There will also be more screenshots after 1595 when I'm caught up to my save point. And I do care what you think. "A very good story, well written in a way that covers 90 years of game history in swift fashion."? That's almost custom-made to be an advertisement for the whole AAR!
Ladislav - It's encouraging to hear you call the AAR believable. A lot of AARs challenge the suspension of disbelief or are written in game terms, and I've tried to avoid that. Hopefully, your comment means I've succeeded.
Thanks for reading, folks. I truly appreciate your comments, requests, and tips - and I appreciate everyone who is watching and lurking, too! Stay tuned for the next and last installation of the amazing reign of Charles III.
you have succeeded good sir!
and if there is a loosing war on the horizon, well..thats just a cherry on the icing. the suspense is building and this is one of the few aars that i read in their entirity, because i as a reader dont know and cant tell how things will turn out.
excellent writing Phargle! bravo!
and if there is a loosing war on the horizon, well..thats just a cherry on the icing. the suspense is building and this is one of the few aars that i read in their entirity, because i as a reader dont know and cant tell how things will turn out.
excellent writing Phargle! bravo!
The History of the Duchy of Savoy
The County of Savoy was born out of the ashes of the Kingdom of Burgundy and was elevated to the status of Duchy in 1416 by Emperor Sigismund. Pressured in the West by its French neighbors and in the east by the Italians, Savoy was a country born of both worlds but belonging to neither. It therefore chose to embark on a quest to unify Italy and protect its French provinces on its own terms. What follows is the history of the Duchy of Savoy from 1419 to the present day.
Charles III, Ninth Duke of Savoy
1504-1553
Part III
Charles III declared war on Venice on January 8th, 1536. This act should have provoked considerable alarm in the capitals of Europe, and perhaps it would have had a less capable man than Charles been Duke of Savoy. It was not necessarily significant that Charles had gone to war. Every Duke going back to Amadeus VIII had dreams of dominating Italy and Charles was no exception. Many of them had even fought wars in Italy. What was unique is that this marked the first time Savoy declared war as the aggressor; every other time the Duchy fought, it was either as an ally of a warring party or as the victim of invasion. With no allies in the struggle between Venice and the Pope and a cassus belli against neither, Savoy's decision to enter the war had no legal basis. Charles thus ushered in a new era in which Savoy acted not because it was obliged to go to war, but rather because it wanted to go to war.
Even so, Charles worked hard to lay the groundwork for his plans. Both warring parties were ostensibly stronger than Savoy and each regarded the Duchy as one of a smattering of minor Italian states, useful only as a supporting ally or as a proxy against the enemy. That Pope Paul III and Andrea Gritti, Doge of Venice, thought of Savoy as another Genoa, Siena or Tuscany was a fact that was not lost on Charles. Charles also insisted on keeping the army's treasury at the low levels they had fallen to after the French war. Odonno Savona, a hero of that conflict, told the Duke that the army had half of what it needed to equip and pay the men, but Charles believed raising funding would threaten to reveal his plans. The deception took advantage of his neighbors misconceptions and Savoy was able to deploy an army of nearly thirty-five thousand men in Milan without raising suspicions. Finally, when Charles eventually did declare war, he made a token effort to legitimize his actions. Harkening back to Savoy's history of defending Holy Rome, he ordered his soldiers into Venetian territory. In waiting until Venice's army was actually threatening Rome itself, Charles allowed two opportunities to converge. First, however flimsy the rationale, Savoy had a pretext for war. Second, with Venice's army over a hundred miles away, Savoy went to war only when Venice was most vulnerable. That this was ironically also when Venice seemed closest to victory proves how badly Andrea Gritti had misread the political landscape of Italy. The Doge's failure to properly understand Savoy's role was compounded when the Spanish alliance, consisting of Savoy, Spain and Bavaria, entered the war as well. Spain took its role as defender of Catholicism very seriously. Charles' genius in encouraging the Spanish to adopt a policy so central to Savoy's history and his own plans in Italy was now apparent.
While the pre-war maneuvering had certainly been brilliant in providing Savoy with an advantageous position, Odonno Savona's successes against Venice exceeded even the most unrealistic expectations of Savoy's war planners. Striking into Mantua, the old general unexpectedly swept all resistence before him. Telling his men that their victory was an act of God and that a holy mandate for greatness lay before them, Savona marched on Venice itself. Filippo Galeazzo Varese followed Savona in with a second army. Caught between the rock of Verese and the hard place of Savona, the Venetian armies in Italy's north were beaten. In a panic, Andrea Gritti surrendered the city of Venice later that summer. The greatest power in Italy had collapsed in the blink of an eye. Ironically, the scope of this success would sow the seeds of tragic results. Charles was so swept up in the mood the stunning victories inspired that he committed the only mistake of his long reign; the matter of restoring military funding to levels necessary to maintain soldiers in the field was neglected. This cost of this error would come due within months.
After victories over Venice at Mantua and Florenze at Firenze, the two generals were instructed to move their armies south. Charles, who most certainly did not bring Savoy into the conflict simply to protect the Pope, had accomplished half of his objectives with startling speed. Varese and Savona proceeded to accomplish the other half. Venice had been thwarted, but Savoy would be kingmaker rather than victor if it allowed Papal troops to recover Romagna. Only by establishing control over the territory himself could Charles ensure that the Pope's domain in Modena would remain isolated. The generals went about accomplishing this and forced the surrender of Ravenna in the earliest days of 1537. The disgraced Andrea Gritti fell from power in Venice and negotiations with the new Doge began immediately. With these victories in hand and Tuscany still resisting, Savoy's army was split. Varese took his men west to Florence, but Savona was forced deep into Italy's south in pursuit of a retreating Tuscan army. His underequipped, unprepared soldiers had grown overconfident and walked right into a Tuscan trap. On January 30th, 1537, the Army of Savoie under the command of Odonno Savona was ambushed in the Marche and destroyed. Not one of the seven thousand men, including Savona himself, survived. This was a terrible blow to Savoy. Not only had Charles lost an entire army, but the Tuscan army now had a free had to raid Naples, which it did immediately. Charles' failure to restore funding to his army until after the surprising defeat at the Marche meant the war would last another four years. There was also nobody who could fill the role of the indispensible Savona. Although Charles managed to keep the destruction of his southern army a secret from the Venetians until peace was settled in March of that year, the overall mood of Savoy changed from jubilent to grim as it committed itself to Tuscany's defeat. A Tuscan army was crushed outside Florence on March 25th; when the city itself fell a month later, the Savoyard conquerers were not kind.
Tuscany meanwhile continued to harry Savoy in the south. A small garrison sent to relieve Naples was attacked and retreated into Papal lands, waiting only until the army of Varese arrived. Varese then set about pacifying the countryside by systematically eliminating the Tuscan raiders. A small village that was being used as a base was seized in June; in July, Varese scattered two regiments that were marching to Naples. By August, he had driven the enemy back into Apulia. When a Spanish army from Messina arrived to assist him, Varese slogged onward to Tarento. The armies of the alliance besieged the city for nearly a year before it fell. Although the fighting ended in June of 1539, it took nearly two years for a settlement to be reached. Charles had hoped his Spanish allies would agree to divide Tuscany, with Apulia going to Spain and Florence becoming part of Savoy. This was a settlement that pleased nobody except for Charles, and the resulting Treaty of Rome in 1541 saw Savoyard troops leave Florence while the Spaniards remained in Tarento. The war was over, but the boundless confidence of Charles III ended with it. Suffering defeat militarily and politically for the first time in his life, and unable to come to grips with the loss of his beloved friend Savona, Charles mourned while Savoy celebrated. The Italian War of 1536 would be his last adventure.
Charles spent the rest of his life on lesser things. When the Plague of 1541 provoked unrest in the Swiss provinces, the Duchy of Savoy was finally forced to come to grips with the Reformation. Charles, who had lost all but one of his children in the plague, was slow to respond to the insurrection and it spread outside of the Swiss provinces before he finally acted. The imprisonment of François Bonivard at Chillon in 1542 robbed the rebels of political leadership and took the nationalist edge off the revolt. With what was for him glacial speed, Charles spent the next ten years unenthusiastically defeating the Calvanists, first at Bern and then at Milan and Dauphine. In 1551, the rebellion was over and the aged Charles returned to Chambrey to live out the rest of his days. He never emerged from his depression, but he managed to live long enough to savor two final victories. Decades of planning and maneuvering reached fruition with the independence of Modena from the Pope. The very next year, hated Florence was conquered by Siena. With this small measure of satisfaction, Charles III died on August 18th, 1553 at the age of sixty-seven. He had ruled Savoy since he was eighteen years old.
The reign of Charles III transformed Savoy. Gone was the ever-present menace of conquest. Gone were the squabbles of the peninsula. In their places, Charles left a Duchy that had a strong and legitimate border with France and a powerful role in the affairs of Italy. Venice and the Pope, both shattered by Savoy's opportunistic war, would be forced to make common cause while the remaining Italian states drifted into Savoy's orbit. Savoy also enjoyed a special relationship with Spain that was destined to last for generations. Charles left his only surviving child, the twenty-five year old Emmanuel Philibert, a Duchy that was safe, strong, and not beset by enemies. This remarkable achievement was recognized even in Charles' day. When Emmanuel Philibert ascended to the throne, it was commented that he had succeeded the Italian Charlemagne. The courtier sought to flatter the new Duke by repeating what had been cried in the streets of Turin and Chambrey for years. Not one of the French guests in attendance dared protest the accolade.
Great stuff; Charles truly was a good duke. Too bad about the ambush by the Tuscans, though... but would the victory have been that much greater without it?