The Birth of the Scottish Empire

[Bismarck]

For it is preordained that we,
true bearers of this island's past
shall embark on missions most true
in aim and in scope, which commence
not in stronds afar remote
but here, amongst our kin
whose gentle worldy support
we shall come to think derives
more from love of country
than simplest self-preservation.
We shall live to see an end
to the families of Percy and Lancaster,
York and Northumberland, apt payment
for flower'd fields at Holmedon,
and make merry over their dusty graves
as often as their tender troops
have crossed our permissive border
which was of no greater width
than a stream of chamber-lye.

Shakespeare, James I, Act 1, Scene 4 ln 80-98 (1592)


A short recap to 1531

So it was that Scottish armies, mighty with their gleaming pikes and swords fought many smaller forces and won victories throughout the English countryside. They lay siege to countless garrisons whilst their French allies tore into their mutual foes and drove them back towards Calais and Zeeland.

The separate peace signed three years after hostilities began was more generous than they first could have imagined, as they were given Northumberland, Yorkshire and Lancashire, as well as the port county of Meath in Eire, territory which was never occupied by battle.

The Scottish forces then took a more defensive stance, waiting for either allies to request help in their wars or for their hated neighbors to the south to cross into their newly incorporated territories before they engaged in pitched battle. For nearly a century, this was the way the Scottish Wars of Unification were fought. They made the cost of war prohibitively high for each successive incursion, taking land for nearly every peace until England was a mere shell of its former self. The recently founded colonies in the New World were also taken as terms of one of the final agreements. The greatest irony seems to be that London finally fell not to Gaelic stubbornness but to Bourbon anger, as after the Scottish victory at Dunkerque they left the war and a small band of fighters launched from Normandy lay siege to the already smoldering capital and it fell easily to the forces composed almost entirely from the sons of the formerly Anglo-subjugated Normans, now under more traditional Bourbon rule.

Of course, they were not above invasion for their own goals, but their plans were more towards unifying the Gaelic peoples of the Isles, so when they absorbed militarily the Irish kingdom in the mid-1460's and its provinces held by Aragon and England brought them under a unified ruling aristocracy. Since the annexation, no foreign troops have set foot on the Emerald Isle, and they have not been asked to conscript troops... however, there have been two minor armies that were raised at a grassroots level who defended Flandern against the two attacks from Burgundy in 1483 and 1485 during the Six Years War between France, Gelre, Bourbonaise and Scotland versus Burgundy, Helvetia, Koln and Venice, which in terms of invested materials ended in a virtual draw in 1488.

But as Scotland grew more powerful, across the narrow channel, France began to form plans of its own. It seems they grew jealous of their former ally's power. But it seems that James IV was aware of this development and had formed alliances of his own, especially with their neighbors across the North Sea in Sweden, whose navy protected their armies as they crossed the Channel to their continental possessions and closer to their mutual allies in Bourbonaise, Gelre and Friesland. For these favors they engaged in many battles with Sweden's perenial foes, the Danes, including relieving Stockholm from a siege and the taking of the Danish colony of Iceland to bring a few troops away from the frontlines in Scandanavia, allowing the outnumbered Swedes to take key territories on the Continent before ceding them back for a few ducats and the satisfaction of besting their foes once more.

However, English forces onces again came into play, as Lincoln and Anglia together declared independence under the rule of Henry VIII, but their freedom from Stuart rule was shortlived as Scottish forces immediately declared war and annexed the two breakaway colonies, finally unifying the British Isles in 1522. Aside from this minor battle, Scotland has been at virtual peace for two decades.

That is until the French decided to wage war on Scotland and her allies in 1531.

 

[unmerged(7151)]

I got permision denied... is it supposed to be a picture?

 

[Bismarck]

Yes... its supposed to be a picture... I can see it, but apparently no one else can.... but when I come to terms with this problem, there will be a picture there....

M

 

[Storey]

Good start Bismark. Unfortunately the link doesn't work for me either.

Joe

 

[Bismarck]

We have a picture now... At least I hope everyone can see it...

until such time as I can get a more permanent solution, I have found the following site:


http://www.baypal.com/


You can load 15 pictures for 15 days if each is under 60k a piece... and then just type in a relatively short url and it should appear.

The second part of this AAR should be appearing tomorrow night... the first Franco-Scottish war through the Scottish Reformation...

M

 

[Aetius]

I can see it! The British Isles all nice and blue

 

[Bismarck]

The ascendency of the Scottish people to the realm of first, the rulers of the group of islands at one point refered to as the British Isles for its early inhabitants, and secondly to one of the early colonial nations is staggering to say the least, given most of their early efforts on the sea were less than successful, as well as their lack of naturally curious explorers. Most of their early colonies were more prizes of war than discovery.

A. Toynbee, The History of the Early Scottish Empire(1947)


Given the time frame, France's decision towards war could not have come at a worse time, as not only were her forces divided into three virtual compartments by Burgundy and Bourbonaisse, but she was also dealing with protestant factions throughout her countryside. So when French forces attacked Flanders and the towns of Normandy in October of 1531, the combined retribution was swift and costly.

Early successes by the combined Scottish-Bourbon armies pushed French troops towards the divided provinces of Burgundy, and with the sense that a quick profit could be made, the alliance between Helvetia, Burgundy and Savoy massacred and captured all of southern France before leaving the war with tidy profits.

These secondary battles so weakened French moral that they offered the Scottish alliance leader their colonial assets to this time, an offer which was gladly taken by general Mackenzie in the Treaty of Caen in 1537.

Given that Scotland had to this point never commissioned any ships to explore much past the Danish colony of Iceland, colonial possessions were something of a mystery to the kingdom. However, Scotland did have good enough relations with both Lithuania and Portugal to eventually trade discoveries and come up with a pretty accurate map of the world from the kingdoms of Delhi and Bengal through to vast areas of the New World and the Western coastline of Africa. Given this knowledge, Scotland was able to place colonies in strategically important places, including Carolina and Mahe, both of which were to become centers of trade by the 1560's, and places where most of the explorations commissioned by James V and Mary departed from.

Joining Scotland in her colonial efforts were Spain, Portugal, France and Lithuania. Lithuania granted Scottish access to all of their lands in recognition of the contributions that the Scottish aristocracy had made to their own knowledge of the world, and also the guarantee of their colonies against the encroachment of other foreign powers, powers which she herself was not in a position to battle.

This period also lead to remarkable advances in Scotland's military technology, particularly in naval power, as her fleets became much better armed and crewed by men of higher morale and loyalty. James V in addition to building a substantial standing navy also built up a large army before he announced the country's conversion to the Protestant faith in 1542. This army was able to quell every rebellion that arose from Yorkshire to the Highlands.

But the conversion to pure Protestantism was not to last as the teachings of John Knox eventually lead to the Sensible Revolution, who under the rule of Mary, was forced to change the state religion to Presbyterian.

This transformation of Scottish society caused her former allies to abandon her, and she was forced to make new ones in the 1564.

 

[unmerged(6021)]

Very nicely down. I like a good Scotland AAR. With the French down, who might be next. Or shall we see some frugal Scots colonizing the "New" World?

 

[Bismarck]

“The parallels between the Roman Empire and our own is undeniable. It is somewhat heartening to remember that the legions of Rome were so afraid of our ancestors, a wall was deemed a necessity between their dominions and our own so they could rule without fear of our numbers. And now ironically, it is we who find ourselves in fear of those who live on the outskirts of our empire, though now there is not nearly enough brick and mortar in the world to build a wall against our outlying enemies….”

Edward Gibbons, Preface, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776)


By 1569, the Regent of James VI, the Earl of Moray was more than pleased with the state of the Scottish nation, and felt that the Anglo-Saxon peoples should be recognized as equals under the law with those of his other subjects and along with his aristocracy had existing laws changed to recognize this new state of mind. So the Act of Equality drafted and its policies were implemented throughout the 1570's. This domestic policy change helped forge a strong bond between North and South and improved the economic conditions throughout the country.

Moray soon learned that two Scottish generals, Malcolm and Berwick, were planning to aid the remnants of the English royal family gain English independence with Malcolm becoming King of England through marriage with Elizabeth and Berwick's arranged marriage to Margaret, daughter of the former Earl of Cumberland. Rather than kill two capable generals, the regent made them the administrators to the New World and East Indies colonies respectively to remove their influences from European politics.

Scotland then entered into what was to be known as The Tripartite Colonial Alliance in the summer of 1572, as it seemed to be in the best interests of the three major colonial nations to maintain good relations and a united front to combat other upstart nations who may also wish to colonize the world. Spain was the leader of this alliance until the Scotland's Mali Incursion in 1575, which Spain did not stand firm in its commitment to the alliance, and Scotland was able to force Spain to accept the inclusion of the Huguenots of France in the alliance for future leverage against their mutual enemy in France.

The Mali Incursion was Scotland's first war outside of the European theatre, and with its technical prowess and knowledge of military tactics, they were able to make quick work of the relatively primitive natives in the region. However, attrition eventually took more men than battle and in the closing weeks of the campaign, the Scottish commander, Ian MacDonald, was forced to draft a peace treaty before the original scope of the plan was implemented, as his scouts told him that roughly 13 thousand warriors were coming from the north to clash with his 1,500 fatigued Scotsman. In peace, Scotland accepted Walata, and withdrew its troops to the newly annexed territory. It was during this time that the Earl of Moray died and was succeeded by the Earl of Morton, who was promptly executed for his role in the death of the king's father, Lord Darnley, in 1567 when James VI took the throne in 1578. He would not reign for long before the Scottish military got yet another chance to do battle on the continent when war broke out in France just five weeks after he claimed the throne.

The War of the French Reformation began with a minor skirmish between Bourbonnais and French forces on August 24, 1578 and ended up pulling most of the major powers in Western Europe to this time into a war that lasted until the middle of 1580's. Burgundy, Helvetia, Hungary, Venice, Spain, Portugal, Scotland, Aragon, Genoa, Bourbonnais, the Huguenots and Cologne each fought brutal battles throughout the French countryside and at sea in the Channel and Bay of Biscaye. The fiercest fighting was in Champagne and Nivernais, which changed hands 5 times during the war.

The Tripartite Colonial alliance intervention in the war lasted until 1584 when Scottish forces captured Picardie and Brittany and Spanish/Portuguese forces took control of Provence in the south. In separate agreements within days of each other, the victors divided France's colonial possessions amongst themselves, with Scotland acquiring 3 Trading posts and 2 colonies for themselves, which gave them more ready access to the Far East and the resources to expand its colonial efforts in the New World. France meanwhile would be a battlefield for three more years, sapping its strength both economically and demographically.

However, even though peace treaties were signed between all the involved parties, the roots of another war were still embedded deep within French society and were just waiting for an opportunity to emerge. And the catalyst for renewed struggles came with the annexation of the three Huguenot provinces of Maine, Dauphine and Cevennes in 1589. Calvinist ideas were spreading throughout the French-speaking world, and would not be subjugated by the Church of Rome.

 

[Bismarck]

The development of the intellectual Scotland to 1615.

"If the intellectual life of our people had been tempered by a government which was open to ideas from below, revolution like a winter storm would not have come the way it did, merely a tolerable constant snowfall which gradually changed the landscape, easy for those who grew up in it to adjust for the nest day. Scotland seemed prescient to this fact and so they are more prepared to enter the 19th century, its paths already well worn."

Louis Thiers, Histoire de la Revolution Francaise, (1827)


By the time James VI claimed the Scottish throne, Scotland had turned itself from the relatively backwards and superstitious society it was in the closing days of the Hundred Years War into the leading nation for all matters intellectual. Though this was not the original intention.

As Scottish authority began to spread, their society was exposed to many new cultural forces and rather than rigidly holding firm in their old ways, the monarchy and especially the aristocracy found that if they encouraged free trade and innovation of thought, the general condition of the country would improve. This new liberalism was also expressed with the Act of Equality that was discussed in the previous chapter. The major figure in this development was James IV.

James IV thought it was particularly important to reform the education system throughout the state, though his aims were more oriented towards improved military tactics and the general quality of the clergymen, but soon the schools which he gave funding to and other which he had established were offering broader curriculum, including studies in the sciences and philosophy.

It was this very same system that encouraged some degree of freedom of speech, though there were times when faculty went to far and were forced to resign, and in rare cases, were executed. But as time went on, the Scottish universities soon began attracting scholars from other nations, men who were largely persecuted in their own countries for their beliefs and teachings. One notable figure who eventually made his home in Scotland was Galileo Galilei, who after being forced by the Papal Inquisition to renounce his findings about the solar system, was given free passage and tenure at the University of Glasgow and allowed to continue his studies with better optical equipment made in Scotland's Dutch possessions and access to the most modern technical libraries in the world at the time. The Scottish system was also very tolerant to new ideas towards religion, allowing many of the first proto-Deist professors to lecture, beginning what was later to be called the Enlightenment.

The Scottish system not only funded institutions in Scotland proper, but also in its southern realms. Schools such as Cambridge and Oxford were increased in general size, and new schools were founded in Kent, Lincoln and the Midlands. In addition, the Scots were the first of the colonial nations to establish a university in the New World with the founding of the University of New Strathclyde in the Carolina colony in 1601.

Scotland's relatively liberal attitudes angered many of the other nations of Europe, as they saw many of their own groups of dissidents were reading texts written on Scottish soil. However, short of war, there was little that the other countries could do to stop the flow of ideas. It is rumored that one of the popes, most likely Gregory XV, stated that any Catholic country which was possessed of men that held ideas which the church deemed inappropriate should be executed, lest they escape to Scotland and have chance to poison the known world with their thoughts.

 

[Bismarck]

Just a sidenote... because of the Act of Equality, there will be some English leaders popping up throughout the rest of this AAR.

Just so I don't get any complaints later for being historically inaccurate.

M

 

[Bismarck]

They remained isolated from the continent, both spiritually and geographically, and for a lot of nations, this would have perhaps led towards cultural stagnation and a turning inward, but the Scottish mindset allowed them to overcome these limitations and become a superpower before the final Wars of Religion and the Reformist Alliance. Time revealed how these two events helped mould Scotland into the nation it is today.

J.R. Seeley The Expansion of Scotland, 1883



Within 6 years of the annexation of the Huguenot nation, another had developed, not escaping from French sovereignty, but from the tyranny of Burgundy. And so, the tiny nation was once again placed in a position to make itself a beacon for Reformist thought on the continent.

The Huguenots were in a rather tense situation. They were surrounded on all sides by nations that wished them ill: Aragon to the South, Bourbonnais to the north, and Burgundy to the east. It was just a matter of time until something was going to happen in the tiny provinces of Limosin and Guyenne. Matters got worse when Spain and their vassal Portugal broke away from the Tripartite alliance and instead allied themselves with Burgundy and Cologne, forming a cage around the Huguenots, as Spain owned Poitou.

Scotland as alliance leader thought quickly and sought the alliance of Hungary, who had an interest in Northern Europe with their acquisition of Munster three decades earlier, and were in a unique position to check Burgundian power near Scotland's possessions on the continent. James VI prepared a substantial army and the navy to carry them to any potential conflict. The conflict would not be long in coming.

On September 3, 1598 Aragon crossed into Guyenne, bringing the full military might of Scotland to bear into the region. While Scottish were on route to the conflict, the Huguenots were besieged by their foes to the north from Bourbonnais, who joined the conflict with their own allies, Genoa and the Knights, to divide the now crippled nation.

The Scottish general in the expeditionary force, David Mackenzie, had to think quickly, as only one side of the pincer could be dealt with at once. Upon hearing reports the Bourbonnais forces were besieging the capital in Limosin, Mackenzie sped through Spanish Poitou, which was in rebel hands and routed the besieging force before assaulting and capturing Tours.

As his forces were making their way south towards the Aragonian army, the Huguenots capitulated with the fall of Guyenne and readily gave up claims on the land, withdrawing to their home province and giving the Scottish army its turn at the peace table with the alliance's other foes.

Just as Scotland was going to settle the dispute for a cash settlement, Genovese land forces began besieging Calais, which escalated the war, as now Scottish holdings were imperiled. No settlement but land would be enough to end the war.

It was also about this time that Scotland's former ally, Sweden, broke away from its former alliances and gladly joined the coalition, sending ships to aid the Cornwall Fleet in its many battles in the Channel against the Ships of Liguria, stranding the land contingent and allowing infantry to arrive. The Midlands Regiment dealt sharp defeats to the invaders, but the remainders of their army managed to escape total rout for a month until the Battle of the Maas, where the Scottish forces under General Dundale, divided into two and let a small force slowly draw their enemy towards a large clearing before woods, through a falling-back maneuver. As the army retreated into the woods, the larger force prepared to fire a mass volley. The pursuing force approached the wood, convinced that their foe was in disarray, and ready to be routed, when the order to fire was heard and the air filled with smoke as thousands of muskets fired in near unison, shattering the centre of the line into a groaning mass of twisted bodies.

At the sound of gunfire, the Scottish cavalry emerged from the far eastern side of the woods and swept down upon the right flank of the now disarrayed forces, cutting a wide swath through those they found, most unprepared for this turn of events. In retreat, Dundale's forces were merciless in fighting foes who were still combative. When the Midlands regiment had pinned the forces of Genoa down, they forced a surrender with a marked loss of 500 Scots in the battle, to the 3000 lost to Genoa. With this decisive victory, the alliance signed a peace treaty granting the Scottish annexation of Berri and ending the Bourbonnais regime in Central France.

After this brief war, Scotland tried to maintain its peacetime economy, but with the Spanish seizure of the Lenape center of trade of Manhattan, a serious threat to Scottish national interest was at hand, and James VI vowed that it would be in kinder hands before his death. It was just a matter of finding an internationally acceptable motive to begin hostilities on a former ally.

Europe at the end of 1601.

B= Burgundy

M

 

[Bismarck]

“War is not only the cost of our freedom, but of the freedom of our allies. When one falls, either to the guns of an enemy or the chicanery of diplomacy under the influence of another, honour dictates that we destroy whatever malignant force seeks to tear us asunder. For if it happens to one, it can happen to any of us. So do not let your nation’s conversion to the teachings of Luther distance yourself from us. We still wish to maintain this alliance, at whatever cost…”

James VI, letter addressed to Gustavus Adolphus, September 4th, 1621


By the beginning of 1602, any ruling family not allied with or married into the Scottish throne despised them and the actions of their armies. Scotland was blessed with its alliance with reformed Sweden and the Huguenots because it allowed for a type of unity that none of the above nations could find with any other.

For a short time beginning in 1604 and ending in 1610, the nation of Hungary, also finding itself in the rather dubious position of being Calvinist in the midst of hostile Catholic and Moslem nations, was welcomed into the alliance, resulting in the short-lived War of the Hapsburgs Dominion, which doomed Hungary to Austrian and Papal subjugation as the other members of the alliance were unable to get troops from their own nearly concurrent war to support their Hungarian brothers. Hungary soon fell under the influence and into an eventual alliance with Poland, an enemy of Scotland since the annexation of the friendly Lithuanian monarchy in February 1568.

The House of Vasa also had long standing issues with their neighbors to the south which had yet to come to arms, but which was in long term plans, and discussed many times between the two nations through letters. But letters were not the only things exchanged between “the Rulers of the Northern Seas”.

With such a vast economic base, the Bank of Scotland was quite willing to administer aid to its allies for little interest. The Huguenots were rapidly able to build a decent army and improve their infrastructure, while Sweden increased the size of its navy. For this aid, Sweden revealed its knowledge of its surroundings, allowing Scotland a slightly better view of the world.

The bond between these three nations grew stronger throughout the decade, culminating in full military support for the defense of the Huguenots when Guyenne revolted and rejoined them, causing an Aragonian invasion in 1607 and reassertion of Swedish authority over the breakaway nation of Norway in 1608. But these would be mere tests compared to the conflict that began in the early part of 1610.

On February 8, 1610, Scotland was presented with an opportunity to go to war with their perennial foe Burgundy once more, as a border dispute escalated from insults between the leaders of the two nations to the sound of pitched battle in just weeks after the initial incident. It is speculated that the war in northern Burgundy was contrived by James VI to draw Spain into the fight so that the seizure of Manhattan would have some legal backing, as well as being a more palatable war for her allies than attack Spain directly. For days following the Reformist Alliance declaration of war, Burgundy found herself singularly under attack by the long-standing Paris-Geneva-Venice axis, allowing the primary focus of the early war effort to be against Spanish forces.

In the New World, Major Walter Dundee commanded his scant 12,000 men against Spanish armies in 4 territories on their march from Carolina to Manhattan, defeating each smaller force and forcing retreat towards other Spanish-held territories. Spanish forces did occupy a few Scottish territories in the Caribbean Sea, and burned trading posts on the South American coast in an attempt to demand peace. James VI wasn’t interested in a peace that did not include Manhattan. Dundee did his best to accomplish this goal, and after three grueling assaults which resulted in thousands of casualties, his forces breeched the wall and seized the Center of Trade in late November 1613.

The fall of Manhattan seemed to give more fire to Spanish forces, and they were able to defeat a combined Huguenot/Scottish Army in Limosin and link with Burgundian forces in a siege of Tours, captured after 6 months of siege. It became clear to both major parties in the conflict that a solution was going to require more direct action. James VI and his advisors realized this first in 1614, and were able to get their navy, including troop ships, into Spanish waters just as Spaniard fleets were on their way to the Gaelic Isles. The Strathclyde and Cornwall Fleets defeated the attacking navies while the smaller Anglia Fleet deployed troops onto the mainland in Galicia, which due to some well paid for intelligence, was able to quickly siege three of their lightest defended cities in Leon, Gibraltar and Toledo before heading towards the capital. After a long pitched battle, a significantly weakened Scottish force began laying siege to Madrid, and Scotland again sent a diplomat to discuss terms for peace, but unlike the other times, Spain was receptive and agreed that Manhattan was a price it was willing to pay for a separate peace.

Meanwhile, Burgundy was just emerging from its brilliant defense against the combined forces of France and Helvetia, but since the bulk of their troops were in the south, and now behind uncrossable French national territories, Scottish and Swedish forces were able to sweep through northern Burgundy from Artois through Friesland. The Swedish Navies then went on to patrol and battle Spanish ships of war in the Atlantic and in the Bay of Biscaye. The Cornwall Fleet by this time had stopped the Holland regiment from landing in Lothian and perhaps turning the tide of the war against Scotland. The Cornwall Fleet under the leadership of Admiral Chaim Arran chased the fleet towards Iceland before returning to its home port on June 15, 1616. With the north under Stuart control, Burgundy offered Brabant for peace, a proposal which was more than was expected and gladly taken. The alliance was once again at peace and their confidence in each other was as steadfast as ever. Sweden and the Huguenots settled for large cash settlements in 1619, and settled into their own domestic policies. The alliance was once again at peace and their confidence in each other was as steadfast as ever.

But old indemnities still burned brightly, old scores were still to be settled… each member just had to bide its time, knowing that when the moment came to fight, others of their faith would follow them into the fray once again.

 

[unmerged(6528)]

This is very good, keep it coming. I like to see those scots finally get some back. They always end up brutally trounced in my own games...

 

[Faeelin]

Excellent. Always good to see the Scottish trounce the French and English.

Er... umm... had to make a little edit.

 

[Lord Durham]

This is great stuff, Bismarck. I really like the quotations at the beginning of each post. I guess this means haggis will become the food of choice in the Scottish Empire...

 

[Bismarck]

There is going to be a slight delay of about a day as we had a bad icestorm where I live and I was unable to do the work on my campaign/aar due to power outages and phone service disruption. I think that I will probably have the next installment up by Sunday afternoon at the latest.

Just keeping you informed, and thank for the praise, it was much appreciated.

M

 

[unmerged(3459)]

Bad ice storm for me too. But c'mon...we Scots used to just dip the kilt in the river, wrap it around us and when the ice formed we had a nice shield against the weather. 'Course the power outages - that's a different story...

 

[Bismarck]

MacLeod sailed with braw gentlemen
For their beloved kirk and pride’s sake;
The blood of Tweed, the gift of kin,
A love for battle time shan’t slake.

Sound of cannon’s fire: still, shallow,
Over the many leagues, cracked wood
Giving ‘neath, seeding the fallow
Seas, covering with ocean’s hood.

Sir Walter Scott, from ”The Voyage of New Shepard”

The world of the 1620’s was a vastly different place than it was 2 centuries previous. The balance of power in Europe was nothing like it was during the Hundred Year’s War, mainly due to the expansion of Western European power across the oceans. Nations had unified, empires begun, and generally the system we are familiar with today was slowly developing.

Some things, like religious turmoil, seemed to never relent. In Scotland, just as in some of the other larger political entities in Europe, this was especially true. For some countries, like Austria and France, their troublesome minority were Calvinists. For others like the Polish Empire, the trouble was Protestant in nature. Scotland was given its own difficulties with the rise of Puritanism, whose radical views if not properly contained, may have destroyed the country from within.

James VI had tolerated the Puritans as much as possible, but did not appreciate their beliefs when it came to monarchy. The elder Stuart was a strong supporter of the doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings, and his progeny developed this same world-view. The views of the Puritans were also quite contrary to many of the intellectual developments in the Scottish universities. As has been previously stated, the Stuarts valued the intellectual development of the country more than most of their peers on the continent. In fact, the Stuarts created a cabinet of advisors which was in part comprised of faculty of various schools within their holdings.

Rather than allow the Puritans to get a foothold throughout the empire, James and later his son Charles I, tried to mold religious policies towards tolerance. That meant the Catholic faith was more widely accepted, though the locations of their houses of worship were strictly regulated. The various shades of tolerant Protestantism were also given encouragement over those leaning towards Puritanism. Charles was also known to give patronage to many of the prominent playwrights and authors of the time who expressed anti-Puritan sentiments in their work, going so far as to invite some of the most vitriolic to perform for him at his palace.

These reforms helped keep the extremes of Puritanism confined to small centers and isolated for the mainstream of religious thought. One area that was not entirely purged of Puritan influences was the armed forces, as it was generally agreed that on the whole, soldiers which held those ideals were rather more ardent during battle and became relatively efficient at command. However, these commanders were never used for domestic rebel control, but were used in international conflicts. They did end up in staffing foreign garrisons whenever possible.

These policies were in part responsible for Scottish military successes throughout the reign of Charles I. After a period of relative military inactivity, the Reformist alliance was once again taking arms against its enemies.

The Alliance, now Reformist in name alone with the Swedish monarchy’s renewed commitment to Lutheranism in February 1620, supported Sweden’s war on Denmark on March 28, 1626. Since she was already mobilizing forces, Scotland alone declared war on Austria three weeks later, drawing Aragon into the war.

Two weeks after that declaration of war, Charles I declared war on Poland, with Swedish and Huguenot support, bringing Hungary into the war. He claimed he had cause to fight because of Polish obstinacy over passage through its lands in the New World, particularly through Santee. The people of Scotland thought different and the nation became slightly unstable. Luckily, the Puritan generals of the army were already on the high seas when this occurred and the situation was normalized before they could return.

Convinced of the invincibility of his armies, Charles I seemed to be drawing his nation towards disaster. His advisors and the House of Lords were both anxious and in favor of concentrating the nation’s efforts on the war with Denmark in support of their alliance, but Charles believed so strongly in his army’s strength that he would not be dissuaded from his course of action. The situation seemed to worsen as Prussia joined Austria’s alliance and its wars. Charles was still unwavering in the strength of his forces, and his faith was rewarded with the defeat of a numerically superior Danish army in Jylland May 15-18,1626. The capture of Jylland followed in November 1626, with Holstein falling in March and Bremen in August.

Charles’ army from Berri was not so fortunate, as it was left in tatters after an unsuccessful assault in the Aragonian province of Rousillon forced a retreat of the army back into Huguenot territory and back into Berri. The defeat made Charles contemplated offering peace, but the Austrians offered peace first with no concessions a peace treaty gladly accepted.

Meanwhile, in the New World, Scottish troops had occupied all Polish possessions in what has been come to be known as the Long March North, as Scottish troops began marching from Carolina in September and finally arrived in Laurentia in the middle of January. Conditions led to high attrition, but ultimate success in the region by spring 1627.

Swedish forces took over peace keeping in the occupied Danish territories, allowing the assault of Poland to begin in November 1627. The Flandern Regiment, commanded by the stern Thomas Brown, landed outside of Danzig and lay siege for the winter. Brown was one of the Puritan elite in the army, so he was able to keep good order of his army and prepare them for an assault following the spring thaw.

It was during the early parts of the siege that members of the army’s engineering team discovered places in the wall that were weak and would make creating a breech easier. Brown put this information to good use and had his artillery fire on the area to weaken it further before the main attack. In mid-April, Brown ordered his large continental army to attack the now heavily fatigued wall, and the city was taken with a minimum of battle casualties.

When Scotland then sought peace with the demand for Poland’s colonial territories. Sigismund’s diplomatic corps barely contained its laughter. In response, Brown then drove his army south, taking Warsaw and pushed eastward towards the former provinces of Lithuania, while the Anglia fleet harassed and defeated the small, technologically-inferior Polish navies throughout the Baltic, using Stockholm as its base of operations.

By the middle of 1629, Poland was in the midst of a military collapse, as it lost pitched battle after pitched battle deep in its own territories and peace seemed to be the only way they would be able to survive long enough to regain its strength, as Russia was gaining power to the east and Austria was devouring the provinces between them to the west. On October 29, 1629 Poland offered to give up Danzig and 5 colonies in the New World, including the contentious Santee for peace with the Reformist Alliance. Of course, Scotland as alliance leader received these territories. “It was like wanting a pound and finding yourself offered a jewel instead.”

A few days later, Sweden ratified a peace treaty with Denmark, giving Scotland Bremen and taking Holstein and Jylland for themselves. This compromise seemed only fitting. With the hostilities in the North brought to an end, a new set of wars in the South developed, wars the alliance chose wisely to avoid.

Following these acquisitions, Charles I seemed rather pleased, and took a hands-off approach towards the continent. Instead, he encouraged the Scottish Trade commission to establish more trading posts and colonies throughout the world, with emphasis on the Far East, as both Africa and the New World seemed to have been divided by the colonial powers, and the Far East had yet to be really colonized. The period has become known as the Second Scottish Diaspora. It also saw the growth of Scottish economic power throughout the South Seas.

Little did Charles realize that his general order might make Scotland new and powerful enemies.

The general chains of command in the Stuart monarchy:

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[Sorcerer]

Your AAR is definitely worth the work you're giving it. A great read, and the explanations of the political and religious streamings is giving this AAR a special note. It's like reading a history book, but with much more fun...
Great work, keep it up!