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C, give us chaos and war across Europe!
Excellent time for Friesland to manage to lose their North American colonies to rebels, and fight a war en masse against the behemoths of Europe
Excellent time for Friesland to manage to lose their North American colonies to rebels, and fight a war en masse against the behemoths of Europe
Option A. Take the fight to Austria. That seems to be the most obvious option. Not to mention that The former kings of Friesland would roll over in their graves if Friesland allied with Austria. Austria is your traditional enemy and you should take this opportunity to take more from them or just plain break them. Not to mention you stand more to gain by opposing Austria then supporting it. Friesland must never join with the Austrians.
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Certainly option A It would be great to have a counterweight against the revolutionary Austria. Use some editing to make Austria stronger maybe lose a minor war or two to make it more interesting. Wow revolutionary Austria, now that is something I would have never thought!
C, you don't see Napoleonic wars too often in AARs
The Napoleonic Wars will still happen regardless of whether he supports or opposes Austria. It will simply be an Austrian Napoleon instead of a Frisian one. and Colonel Bran is right, there has to be a counterweight to Austria because Austria and Friesland together might very well own everyone else and that would be very uninteresting and boring. A Few epic battles between a Frisian Wellington and an Austrian Napoleon would be much better.
wAAAAAr
Get it?
You are voting B, right?
Excellent update. I'll vote A. As a fellow Brit we both know monarchies always bring lots of fun via scandal and so forth!
Hmmm.... 6 v. 6, eh? I guess that makes me the tie breaker. (For now.) And I choose... Option C!
I say that if C wins out, he should Fight alongside the Austrians only until their are no more common enemies. In essence, divide Europe between the two of you and then there can be an epic clash even bigger then the last one. A true War to End All Wars.
Ooooh! Good idea! I was hoping for a huge war against the rest of Europe, but this works too!
Thank you everyone for voting! It was close for a while, but it looks like C edged it out in the end. Revolution it is!
I must say that I’m slightly disappointed in my work for this chapter though. I did have a number of events planned including colonial uprisings, but I just couldn’t get the events to work right. For example in the Caribbean it would only spawn particularists and Haitian separatists instead of separatists for the nation I wanted even after adding the cores. I’m sorry but it means I’ll have to save any proper colonial uprising type situations for after 1821 when gameplay is no longer a concern.
Chapter Forty Five: The Frisian Revolution
Throne Room, Ex-Royal Palace, Vienna, June 1796
This had once been the centrepiece of the Austrian royal regime, a beautiful chamber in which the sovereign and his court would meet to discuss matters of the realm. With high windows of stained glass, statues of gold and silver, and a luxurious red carpet leading to a brilliantly ornate throne, it would be hard to not be amazed at the wealth and power of the king. Now the room had fallen silent, all its former occupants either dead or in hiding.
The silence was shattered by the resounding crash of the throne toppling onto its side. The fragile ornaments broke into an irreparable mess of pieces and the cushions on which the king would were sent scattering across the floor. Standing to the side of the fallen seat with his arms outstretched and a smirk on his face was the designated leader of the revolution, Rainer Hagedorn.
“One by one the old order of Europe will fall at our hands, just like this. This will be a new era where the kings and aristocrats are confined to the waste piles of history as they should be. Well, if we can get through the coming squabbling,” he said as he turned to face the handful of other people in the room.
A couple of low-ranked soldiers looked on for a moment before continuing their task of carrying tables and placing them in the centre of the throne room atop what had been the path to meet the king. How symbolic it was that the first meeting of the Revolutionary Assembly would take place upon the ruins of the old order. Along with those men was another man dressed in the uniform of a high-ranking army official. Günther Hagedorn had been among the many common-born officers that had switched sides as the revolution finally reached its climax, and he had participated in rescuing his younger brother from the central prison in Vienna before joining him in the march on the royal palace.
“We will need to appoint...no, elect a leader if we want to keep the different factions in our revolution from getting out of hand. I know I’ll be putting in my vote towards you, little brother,” Gunther said with a smile as he watched his sibling continue to move about the throne room and take down ornaments of the old regime.
This made Rainer stop in his tracks and sigh. He replied, “I am not a man to lead a country. I was only made the hero of the revolution because of my failed attempt to seize power two years ago. That was a foolish move, as I did not realise at the time that I was only really capable of leading an army. The common people that freed me are the real heroes and that includes you who joined with and led them, brother. Besides, taking full power would be against the rules.”
“What are you saying?” asked Günther, ignoring the comment on rules in favour of the previous implication.
“I’m saying that you should be the first Consul of the Republic. I’ll be putting forward your name in the coming assembly. You were always a much better politician than a commander, the only reason you joined the military was because of the difficulty of entering politics without a noble heritage. Now that doesn’t matter anymore.” Rainer chuckled and stepped down from the elevated platform on which the throne had stood before heading towards to closed doors at the front of the entrance room.
As if on cue, an exhausted man in a military uniform threw the doors open and dashed to meet Rainer. He pulled a message from his pocket and read, “To our freedom-seeking brothers in Austria, we have begun the downfall of our own aristocratic regime. The chief of our army has seen the worthiness of our cause and has chosen to side with us, and so we will have the full force of the Frisian Army backing up our push on the capital. As such we do not require any aid except your words of support. Signed, Hendrik Jousma, former Minister of State for the Kingdom of Greater Friesland, acting Consul of the Greater Free Republic of Friesland.”
Rainer seemed barely surprised by this turn of events, but he still took the piece of paper so he could read the message himself. He grinned as it sunk in that the fall of European monarchy was really on its way to happening and he turned to Gunther to exclaim happily, “our brothers in Friesland are joining us in revolution! Victory is assured with their wealth at our side!”
Gunther wasn’t quite as impressed. “But what of our long-standing grudge with the Frisians?” he asked dourly, “I know they financed us in this revolution but at the same time a lot of the popular support for it came from the repeated defeats by them that the monarchy had not been able to stop.”
“The rivalry between Austria and Friesland was one of aristocratic disputes, religion, and Imperial politics. Those old ways are gone; we should not harbour grudges now that both our nations have thrown off the shackles of the past. Besides,” he paused and grinned even wider for a moment, “this time they are seeing things my way. I don’t want to be opposing them.”
In Greater Friesland, at the same time
The news that the army was siding with the Common’s Council in current crisis was terrifying news to the nobility of Greater Friesland. With permission from King Wiebe I, they drafted up large armies from the populations in the Frisian heartland and took advantage of loyal garrisons to take control of as many fortresses as possible.
The country was torn in half, with the revolutionaries holding onto the edge of the country thanks to support from the local minorities that were tired of being invaded over and over in the Kingdom’s incessant wars with Austria and Burgundy. It was also very convenient for the revolution that the army was mostly located in those sectors so there were no forces caught off guard and wiped out at the very beginning.
The Common’s Council had placed the temporary headquarters of the Revolutionary Assembly in the city of Lübeck. It was a rich city dominated by the merchant class and so was a haven for anti-aristocratic elements to set up in. It was also chosen as it was isolated from the army just in case the chief had chosen the other side in this conflict.
Now that was no longer an issue, Frisian armies began to march at full speed to secure Lubeck and the Assembly from counterattack. If it fell, the revolution would be over. The Duke of Luneburg had massed an army in Mecklenburg to attempt to do just that, but in the face of two full Frisian armies on the way to their destination it just melted away. The Army of Friesland was positioned further west and was given the task of slowing down the noble armies marching eastward to try and put down the revolution.
With the chaos in Friesland, the electors had convened to elect a new Emperor until the crisis had passed. For the first time Denmark was able to claim the Imperial Crown, and almost immediately attempted to secure its place on the throne by exacting a tax from all Imperial member states.
Naturally, it was voted down even by those who weren’t involved in the Revolution.
The revolutionary government seriously clamped down on the flow of goods to and from the colonies in order to fund the ongoing battles with the aristocracy.
As might be expected the colonials didn’t like that. A major uprising in the Manhattan and Florida regions began in protest of the trade restrictions and Frisian forces across North America scrambled to stamp it out.
While the eastern front was fairly safe with a significant number of armies present there, the southern front was in much more danger. The Armies of Flanders, a weak and fast army not really built for heavy combat, and the Army of Wallonia were the only forces available.
The Army of Flanders could not stand up to the large forces marching in from Hainaut and Brabant and was forced to retreat and seek refuge in Calais. The Army of Wallonia fared better and launched an offensive into Limburg before being force to retreat or risk being surrounded by noble armies.
Stability seemed to be returning to the eastern front as the Army of Friesland won a series of victories in Brunswick that turned back the majority of the noble’s advance on the east.
With the Army of Holstein securing the north and Mecklenburg soon to fall, it seemed a stable front in the region would soon be secured. Unfortunately the Army of Koln was pinned down in the south after a disastrous assault on the fort in Ansbach saw its entire infantry contingent massacred so they could not be counted on for support.
The Revolutionary Assembly continued its heavy-handed efforts to deliver freedom in domestic issues even as the military ensured the freedom from oppression by force.
The Cult of Reason was declared, in which it was made clear that Friesland was beholden to no God or King but only to its people and to knowledge. In a somewhat hypocritical contrast, further controls were put on colonial trade to keep money flowing into the revolutionary coffers to keep it funded. The economy was on the verge of crashing with the chaos in the homeland.
The battle continued but the army was still having trouble breaking through the noble lines to reach the capital and other centres of resistance. A new policy was put in place to encourage regiments to be made of people all from the same region of Greater Friesland.
This spirit of unity among corps would increase unit cohesion and make them even more efficient fighting machines against the rapidly levied aristocratic armies.
The policy was met almost immediately with succeses as a major offensive on the eastern front saw the total routing of two major noble armies with only minimal revolutionary casualties.
What amounted to feudal levies could not stand up to the sheer power and organisation of a modern army.
With those armies crushed, the way to Groningen was left completely open.
The majority of the noble armies had been moved south to Breda, perhaps aiming to deliver a decisive blow to the southern front. The revolutionaries’ breakthrough had caught them completely off guard and they had no way of reaching the capital in time to stop the soldiers advancing on it.
Similar successes were seen in the colonies, as reinforcements finally arrived from other regions.
Local forces had been having trouble, but with fresh faces on the battlefield the rebel armies soon melted away.
Wiebe I attempted to flee along with his entourage as revolutionary forces marched on Groningen, but he was caught by an advance force of cavalry and arrested for crimes against the nation. Within days he was put on trial in front of the Revolutionary Assembly and sentenced to death for ignoring the will of the people.
The revolution had succeeded! The Noble’s Council and their puppet kings were now a thing of the past and the country could finally begin to move on. Now that the status of the revolution was secured diplomats from Austria began to approach the Revolutionary Assembly as the legitimate government of Friesland to discuss an alliance between the two liberated powers.
The end of the king did not mean the end of resistance. The nobles that had been gathering in Breda fled south in fear of their lives with Frisian forces hot on their heels recapturing the Netherlands and securing the peace of the region.
Soon they were cornered and would not be able to last as the noose closed around them.
The end of the monarchies in both Austria and Friesland were a major blow to the Holy Roman Empire. These two powers had more or less defined the politics of the Empire for the past three hundred years as a struggle between them.
The new revolutionary governments of both nations announced their intention to annihilate the Holy Roman Empire as they considered it a relic of a bygone age that was only damaging the people of Europe by its continued existence. They declared their withdrawal from the Empire and began making plans to deliver the killing blow. (Oops, made a slight error there for the Emperor’s prestige loss)
The remaining noble forces were surrounded and either slaughtered or forced to surrender, upon which the men in charge were arrested and executed for their crimes. The Revolution was over, bar a small force of nobles in the Baltic region that was a bit too powerful for local forces to deal with and would have to wait for reinforcement to finish off.
A new era was coming to Europe. Austria and Friesland, together at last, would bring down the old guard and secure the future for their people and all other free people in the world.
To be continued...
The peoples of Austria and Friesland are wholeheartedly behind the government so no internal justification is needed for Imperialistic war. The first target of this war is open for debate though. Where should it be aimed?
Option A: Destroy the Holy Roman Empire. The Danish Emperor and his lackeys in the electors are corrupt and must be purged and freed!
Option B: Bring down the western monarchies. Burgundy, Britain, Castille and so on are all guardians of the old ways. The revolution must be spread!
Option C: Consolidate the Frisian sphere of influence. Without the chains of the HRE Friesland is free to take full control of the nations in its political sphere. Of course, this effectively gives Austria permission to do the same for its own.
I must say that I’m slightly disappointed in my work for this chapter though. I did have a number of events planned including colonial uprisings, but I just couldn’t get the events to work right. For example in the Caribbean it would only spawn particularists and Haitian separatists instead of separatists for the nation I wanted even after adding the cores. I’m sorry but it means I’ll have to save any proper colonial uprising type situations for after 1821 when gameplay is no longer a concern.
Chapter Forty Five: The Frisian Revolution
Throne Room, Ex-Royal Palace, Vienna, June 1796
This had once been the centrepiece of the Austrian royal regime, a beautiful chamber in which the sovereign and his court would meet to discuss matters of the realm. With high windows of stained glass, statues of gold and silver, and a luxurious red carpet leading to a brilliantly ornate throne, it would be hard to not be amazed at the wealth and power of the king. Now the room had fallen silent, all its former occupants either dead or in hiding.
The silence was shattered by the resounding crash of the throne toppling onto its side. The fragile ornaments broke into an irreparable mess of pieces and the cushions on which the king would were sent scattering across the floor. Standing to the side of the fallen seat with his arms outstretched and a smirk on his face was the designated leader of the revolution, Rainer Hagedorn.
“One by one the old order of Europe will fall at our hands, just like this. This will be a new era where the kings and aristocrats are confined to the waste piles of history as they should be. Well, if we can get through the coming squabbling,” he said as he turned to face the handful of other people in the room.
A couple of low-ranked soldiers looked on for a moment before continuing their task of carrying tables and placing them in the centre of the throne room atop what had been the path to meet the king. How symbolic it was that the first meeting of the Revolutionary Assembly would take place upon the ruins of the old order. Along with those men was another man dressed in the uniform of a high-ranking army official. Günther Hagedorn had been among the many common-born officers that had switched sides as the revolution finally reached its climax, and he had participated in rescuing his younger brother from the central prison in Vienna before joining him in the march on the royal palace.
“We will need to appoint...no, elect a leader if we want to keep the different factions in our revolution from getting out of hand. I know I’ll be putting in my vote towards you, little brother,” Gunther said with a smile as he watched his sibling continue to move about the throne room and take down ornaments of the old regime.
This made Rainer stop in his tracks and sigh. He replied, “I am not a man to lead a country. I was only made the hero of the revolution because of my failed attempt to seize power two years ago. That was a foolish move, as I did not realise at the time that I was only really capable of leading an army. The common people that freed me are the real heroes and that includes you who joined with and led them, brother. Besides, taking full power would be against the rules.”
“What are you saying?” asked Günther, ignoring the comment on rules in favour of the previous implication.
“I’m saying that you should be the first Consul of the Republic. I’ll be putting forward your name in the coming assembly. You were always a much better politician than a commander, the only reason you joined the military was because of the difficulty of entering politics without a noble heritage. Now that doesn’t matter anymore.” Rainer chuckled and stepped down from the elevated platform on which the throne had stood before heading towards to closed doors at the front of the entrance room.
As if on cue, an exhausted man in a military uniform threw the doors open and dashed to meet Rainer. He pulled a message from his pocket and read, “To our freedom-seeking brothers in Austria, we have begun the downfall of our own aristocratic regime. The chief of our army has seen the worthiness of our cause and has chosen to side with us, and so we will have the full force of the Frisian Army backing up our push on the capital. As such we do not require any aid except your words of support. Signed, Hendrik Jousma, former Minister of State for the Kingdom of Greater Friesland, acting Consul of the Greater Free Republic of Friesland.”
Rainer seemed barely surprised by this turn of events, but he still took the piece of paper so he could read the message himself. He grinned as it sunk in that the fall of European monarchy was really on its way to happening and he turned to Gunther to exclaim happily, “our brothers in Friesland are joining us in revolution! Victory is assured with their wealth at our side!”
Gunther wasn’t quite as impressed. “But what of our long-standing grudge with the Frisians?” he asked dourly, “I know they financed us in this revolution but at the same time a lot of the popular support for it came from the repeated defeats by them that the monarchy had not been able to stop.”
“The rivalry between Austria and Friesland was one of aristocratic disputes, religion, and Imperial politics. Those old ways are gone; we should not harbour grudges now that both our nations have thrown off the shackles of the past. Besides,” he paused and grinned even wider for a moment, “this time they are seeing things my way. I don’t want to be opposing them.”
In Greater Friesland, at the same time
The news that the army was siding with the Common’s Council in current crisis was terrifying news to the nobility of Greater Friesland. With permission from King Wiebe I, they drafted up large armies from the populations in the Frisian heartland and took advantage of loyal garrisons to take control of as many fortresses as possible.
The country was torn in half, with the revolutionaries holding onto the edge of the country thanks to support from the local minorities that were tired of being invaded over and over in the Kingdom’s incessant wars with Austria and Burgundy. It was also very convenient for the revolution that the army was mostly located in those sectors so there were no forces caught off guard and wiped out at the very beginning.
The Common’s Council had placed the temporary headquarters of the Revolutionary Assembly in the city of Lübeck. It was a rich city dominated by the merchant class and so was a haven for anti-aristocratic elements to set up in. It was also chosen as it was isolated from the army just in case the chief had chosen the other side in this conflict.
Now that was no longer an issue, Frisian armies began to march at full speed to secure Lubeck and the Assembly from counterattack. If it fell, the revolution would be over. The Duke of Luneburg had massed an army in Mecklenburg to attempt to do just that, but in the face of two full Frisian armies on the way to their destination it just melted away. The Army of Friesland was positioned further west and was given the task of slowing down the noble armies marching eastward to try and put down the revolution.
With the chaos in Friesland, the electors had convened to elect a new Emperor until the crisis had passed. For the first time Denmark was able to claim the Imperial Crown, and almost immediately attempted to secure its place on the throne by exacting a tax from all Imperial member states.
Naturally, it was voted down even by those who weren’t involved in the Revolution.
The revolutionary government seriously clamped down on the flow of goods to and from the colonies in order to fund the ongoing battles with the aristocracy.
As might be expected the colonials didn’t like that. A major uprising in the Manhattan and Florida regions began in protest of the trade restrictions and Frisian forces across North America scrambled to stamp it out.
While the eastern front was fairly safe with a significant number of armies present there, the southern front was in much more danger. The Armies of Flanders, a weak and fast army not really built for heavy combat, and the Army of Wallonia were the only forces available.
The Army of Flanders could not stand up to the large forces marching in from Hainaut and Brabant and was forced to retreat and seek refuge in Calais. The Army of Wallonia fared better and launched an offensive into Limburg before being force to retreat or risk being surrounded by noble armies.
Stability seemed to be returning to the eastern front as the Army of Friesland won a series of victories in Brunswick that turned back the majority of the noble’s advance on the east.
With the Army of Holstein securing the north and Mecklenburg soon to fall, it seemed a stable front in the region would soon be secured. Unfortunately the Army of Koln was pinned down in the south after a disastrous assault on the fort in Ansbach saw its entire infantry contingent massacred so they could not be counted on for support.
The Revolutionary Assembly continued its heavy-handed efforts to deliver freedom in domestic issues even as the military ensured the freedom from oppression by force.
The Cult of Reason was declared, in which it was made clear that Friesland was beholden to no God or King but only to its people and to knowledge. In a somewhat hypocritical contrast, further controls were put on colonial trade to keep money flowing into the revolutionary coffers to keep it funded. The economy was on the verge of crashing with the chaos in the homeland.
The battle continued but the army was still having trouble breaking through the noble lines to reach the capital and other centres of resistance. A new policy was put in place to encourage regiments to be made of people all from the same region of Greater Friesland.
This spirit of unity among corps would increase unit cohesion and make them even more efficient fighting machines against the rapidly levied aristocratic armies.
The policy was met almost immediately with succeses as a major offensive on the eastern front saw the total routing of two major noble armies with only minimal revolutionary casualties.
What amounted to feudal levies could not stand up to the sheer power and organisation of a modern army.
With those armies crushed, the way to Groningen was left completely open.
The majority of the noble armies had been moved south to Breda, perhaps aiming to deliver a decisive blow to the southern front. The revolutionaries’ breakthrough had caught them completely off guard and they had no way of reaching the capital in time to stop the soldiers advancing on it.
Similar successes were seen in the colonies, as reinforcements finally arrived from other regions.
Local forces had been having trouble, but with fresh faces on the battlefield the rebel armies soon melted away.
Wiebe I attempted to flee along with his entourage as revolutionary forces marched on Groningen, but he was caught by an advance force of cavalry and arrested for crimes against the nation. Within days he was put on trial in front of the Revolutionary Assembly and sentenced to death for ignoring the will of the people.
The revolution had succeeded! The Noble’s Council and their puppet kings were now a thing of the past and the country could finally begin to move on. Now that the status of the revolution was secured diplomats from Austria began to approach the Revolutionary Assembly as the legitimate government of Friesland to discuss an alliance between the two liberated powers.
The end of the king did not mean the end of resistance. The nobles that had been gathering in Breda fled south in fear of their lives with Frisian forces hot on their heels recapturing the Netherlands and securing the peace of the region.
Soon they were cornered and would not be able to last as the noose closed around them.
The end of the monarchies in both Austria and Friesland were a major blow to the Holy Roman Empire. These two powers had more or less defined the politics of the Empire for the past three hundred years as a struggle between them.
The new revolutionary governments of both nations announced their intention to annihilate the Holy Roman Empire as they considered it a relic of a bygone age that was only damaging the people of Europe by its continued existence. They declared their withdrawal from the Empire and began making plans to deliver the killing blow. (Oops, made a slight error there for the Emperor’s prestige loss)
The remaining noble forces were surrounded and either slaughtered or forced to surrender, upon which the men in charge were arrested and executed for their crimes. The Revolution was over, bar a small force of nobles in the Baltic region that was a bit too powerful for local forces to deal with and would have to wait for reinforcement to finish off.
A new era was coming to Europe. Austria and Friesland, together at last, would bring down the old guard and secure the future for their people and all other free people in the world.
To be continued...
The peoples of Austria and Friesland are wholeheartedly behind the government so no internal justification is needed for Imperialistic war. The first target of this war is open for debate though. Where should it be aimed?
Option A: Destroy the Holy Roman Empire. The Danish Emperor and his lackeys in the electors are corrupt and must be purged and freed!
Option B: Bring down the western monarchies. Burgundy, Britain, Castille and so on are all guardians of the old ways. The revolution must be spread!
Option C: Consolidate the Frisian sphere of influence. Without the chains of the HRE Friesland is free to take full control of the nations in its political sphere. Of course, this effectively gives Austria permission to do the same for its own.