Part V
The first years of Duke Victor Amedee’s reign were calm and peaceful. Our colonies in North and South America grew and prospered, and in 1677 one of our numerous cartographic expeditions established an outpost on the island of Madagascar. One year later we discovered two small islands in the Indian Ocean, we called Mauritius and Bourbon: the first settlers arrived there only a few months later.
As religious differences became less important in these days of enlightenment, the Duke tried to improve our relations with the Huguenots, the Netherlands and various other Protestant nations (he even allowed some of their merchants to return to Liguria). But when we had to expel a radical Reformist group which called itself the Vaudois from the valleys of Piemont (they tried to establish a state in the state), this efforts were almost ruined.
The March of 1681 saw new tensions and boundary disputes between our great nation and our neighbours in Spain. This had happened several times in the last years, but this time, the Pope sided with Spain and demanded, that all Italian provinces should be placed under Spanish protection. As neither the most experienced diplomats, nor the greatest gifts could change his mind, we had to intervene. Our Italian armies drove the few mercenaries the Pope had hired away, and started to besiege Roma in July 1683. Although all European nations sent notes of protest, none of them dared to send troops to help the Holy Father. When the city of Rome fell in August 1685, the times of a sovereign Papal State were once and forever over: Naples became a Savoien province and the Pope had to accept our supremacy over Italy and the Holy City.
After this proof of his nation’s strength, Duke Victor Amedee had no problems to convince the Duke of Lorraine and Champagne to unite both nations under his just leadership. As a gesture of good will towards the Emperor, we granted independence to the German Duchy of Luxemburg. Only 3 months later, France (Berri, Bourgogne and Picardie) followed the example of Lorraine.
But not all of our neighbours were pleased with our attempts to unify France. Especially England and the Netherlands were deeply concerned. In the following months, agents of both nations brought weapons and money to the exiled Vaudois. On the 26th of February 1688 the Vaudois returned with force into Piemont, and even started to besiege Turino. The Duke immediately took command over our Italian forces and led the troops against the rebels. Although the Vaudois army with its 43.000 men outnumbered our capital’s garrison almost 3 to 1, they were no match for our disciplined and trained troops. The Vaudois rebellion was crushed, before it had begun.
During the last decade of the 17th century everything took its normal course. The stable government with its good politics led to unknown wealth throughout the realm. Especially 1694 proved to be one of the best years in Savoien history: exceptional harvests, new mines in Monterrey and several taxation reforms greatly improved our state’s income.
On New Years Day of 1699 the new Pope wisely decided to place himself under our protection, surrendering the keys of the Holy City to Duke Victor Amedee. Now only Venice and Sicily prevented the formation of an Italian kingdom. But again the focus of our monarch’s attention shifted towards France.
After improving our relations with Burgundy and the Huguenots during the last year, the Duke finally decided to restore peace and justice to France. Therefore, he decided to join Burgundy in their war against the impudent invaders from Pommern in March 1700. We easily defeated the troops those Germans had landed in Normandie, and immediately started to retake the province’s cities. But then, in August 1702, Burgundy declared war on the Netherlands, the Huguenots and Scotland. After initial successes, the Huguenots invasion of Languedoc was stopped in December of the same year by our newly formed regiments. The Reformist Scots even dared to send an expedition to Roma in the following spring (the few soldiers that survived this foolish adventure were sent to the bottom of the Mediterranean together with their fleet). As we had regained the initiative, nothing could prevent our victory. In the peace of Toulouse of April 1704, the Huguenots ceded their colonies of Santee and Maroni to Savoy; the Netherlands paid 150 pounds of gold to Burgundy. One year later, Pommern accepted a white peace. To prove his eternal gratitude, the Duke of Burgundy decided to become our vassal
Good news arrived in late 1705 from our Californian domains. A crisis in England led to severe unrest throughout British Columbia, which resulted in the defection of all English colonies to our crown (the settlers happily even adopted our superior Italian way of life). We accepted these brave men as our vassals and sent them signs of our goodwill (which were delivered by our tax collectors and missionaries of course). Our colonization of the East Coast made great progresses during these years too (Santee, Carolina and Savannah soon became some of the wealthiest regions of the whole continent).
Over the next four years our troops had to crush several rebellions, and we suspected the Netherlands of financing these rebels. Our suspicion even grew, when the Dutch Republic annexed the Huguenot’s state of Southern France. Now we had to act. The Duke again took command of our army and led the troops to the border provinces - war was declared on the 4th of August 1709. Almost nothing is to say about the following campaigns: the Duke easily crushed the resistance in the south, and then took command of our northern armies, bringing the war to Flanders, Zeeland and Holland. When the Netherlands finally signed the peace of Amsterdam, they had no choice but to accept our offer: Gascogne, Poitou and Guyenne became part of Greater Savoy, and the colony of Amapa also came under our control.
France 1713
With many new provinces under his rule, Duke Victor Amedee had to reform the government. After he had presented the new constitution to the nobility and the free cities on the 23rd of January 1717, all knew that a time of absolute monarchical power had begun.
When Burgundy declared war on the Palatinate one year later, we saw this as a mere disturbance at first. But after three month of fighting, the Burgundian army was reduced to dust, and Austria had sided with the Palatinate. As the Duke of Burgundy had started this war without consulting our Duke, we didn’t feel obliged to fight against our imperial cousin. After we paid 200 pounds of gold as a retribution for the damage our troops had inflicted to the city of Heidelberg, the Palatinate signed a separate peace treaty in November 1718. The very moment we withdrew our forces, England declared war on Burgundy and sent its Marines to Normandie. After another 6 years of fighting, Burgundy had lost Artois and Cleve to Austria and Normandie to England.
As we felt pity for our once royal cousin, the Duke decided to take the burden of leadership from his shoulders. Burgundy became part of the Duchy of Greater Savoy on Christmas Eve 1724. Duke Victor Amedee was crowned King of France in the cathedral of Reims two days later, taking residence in Paris during the first weeks of the next years.
Soon our merchants dominated the markets of Paris. With the additional taxes from our new provinces we were able to construct several innovative weaving mills in Lombardia, Siena and Savoie in the following years (which increased our income even more).
New troubles arose in 1729, when the settlers of Olympia revolted and even defected to the crown of England. We immediately sent notes of complaint to London, but the English government decided to keep this province. The following months saw Savoien diplomats in almost all European capitols, bringing letters of friendships and gifts. England could do nothing but fear the coalition we built during the first weeks of 1730: the Netherlands, Denmark and Scotland formed a military alliance under our leadership. Entire Europe waited for the storm to come.
But when Duke Victor Amedee died on the 8th of September 1730, the war was delayed until his son Charle Emmanuel III fully was in command of our nation (and since England convinced Portugal to join its alliance with Brittany, we could need the additional time to reinforce our troops).
On the first day of 1731 our ambassador delivered our declaration of war to the King of England. All over the globe, Savoien troops attacked and defeated England and its allies: the new colonies of British Columbia were the first to fall, soon followed by the island of St. Thomas and Portuguese Senegal. We annihilated the troops of Brittany in a large battle in March and covered the whole Duchy with our troops soon thereafter. The fortresses of Normandie and Calais were taken by storm. In the following months, our troops conquered almost entire Brazil (which was completely undefended) and moved into New England after gaining the right of access through the lands of the Cherokee.
England and Portugal tried to recover during the following years, but their successes were short lived at best. When Scottish troops started to besiege London in July 1734, England had to accept its total defeat. When peace returned to land and sea, Normandie and Calais belonged to Savoy and Northumberland became a province of Scotland; Portugal had to cede several colonies in Asia to the Netherlands and paid 580 pounds of gold for the returning of their Brazilian holdings. The Duke of Brittany would be our vassal in the future.
Only 3 months later, the cities of Artois revolted against Austria and placed themselves under our protection. The imperial ambassador reminded the Duke of our own position in the Olympian dispute, when he handed the Austrian declaration of war over to Duke Charle Emmanuel.
Our allies dishonoured our victorious alliance and instead allowed Austrian troops to march trough Dutch territory, thus avoiding our strong fortifications along the Rhine. As the invaders were led by some of the greatest generals of the last decades, our northern army had to retreat after loosing several skirmishes around Brussels. Duke Charle Emmanuel immediately gathered troops in the South. But when he marched north, Austrian troops under his nephew Eugene, Prince of Savoy (who had been exiled for his arrogant and eccentric behaviour several years ago), crossed the Rhine and forced the Duke to accept battle in Lorraine.
The greatest battle of modern history began on the 7th of February 1735. Over 52.000 Savoien soldiers faced 67.000 Austrians. The battle was furious and for several days, victory was at hand. But when Prince Eugene himself led a surprising cavalry attack and captured almost our entire artillery, the day was lost. We had to retreat 1 week later. The Emperor accepted our peace offer soon thereafter: Brabant would be part of the Habsburg lands.
Over 37.000 brave Savoien soldiers paid with their lives for the treason of Eugene of Savoy. After returning to Turino, Duke Charle Emmanuel decided to confiscate all of the former Prince’s possessions and placed him under a sentence of death if he should dare to return to Savoy for even a single day. And every single man, woman and child of our entire nation hoped, he would.
Part V
Eugene the Arch traitor, Prince of Savoy, Austrian General
The first years of Duke Victor Amedee’s reign were calm and peaceful. Our colonies in North and South America grew and prospered, and in 1677 one of our numerous cartographic expeditions established an outpost on the island of Madagascar. One year later we discovered two small islands in the Indian Ocean, we called Mauritius and Bourbon: the first settlers arrived there only a few months later.
As religious differences became less important in these days of enlightenment, the Duke tried to improve our relations with the Huguenots, the Netherlands and various other Protestant nations (he even allowed some of their merchants to return to Liguria). But when we had to expel a radical Reformist group which called itself the Vaudois from the valleys of Piemont (they tried to establish a state in the state), this efforts were almost ruined.
The March of 1681 saw new tensions and boundary disputes between our great nation and our neighbours in Spain. This had happened several times in the last years, but this time, the Pope sided with Spain and demanded, that all Italian provinces should be placed under Spanish protection. As neither the most experienced diplomats, nor the greatest gifts could change his mind, we had to intervene. Our Italian armies drove the few mercenaries the Pope had hired away, and started to besiege Roma in July 1683. Although all European nations sent notes of protest, none of them dared to send troops to help the Holy Father. When the city of Rome fell in August 1685, the times of a sovereign Papal State were once and forever over: Naples became a Savoien province and the Pope had to accept our supremacy over Italy and the Holy City.
After this proof of his nation’s strength, Duke Victor Amedee had no problems to convince the Duke of Lorraine and Champagne to unite both nations under his just leadership. As a gesture of good will towards the Emperor, we granted independence to the German Duchy of Luxemburg. Only 3 months later, France (Berri, Bourgogne and Picardie) followed the example of Lorraine.
But not all of our neighbours were pleased with our attempts to unify France. Especially England and the Netherlands were deeply concerned. In the following months, agents of both nations brought weapons and money to the exiled Vaudois. On the 26th of February 1688 the Vaudois returned with force into Piemont, and even started to besiege Turino. The Duke immediately took command over our Italian forces and led the troops against the rebels. Although the Vaudois army with its 43.000 men outnumbered our capital’s garrison almost 3 to 1, they were no match for our disciplined and trained troops. The Vaudois rebellion was crushed, before it had begun.
During the last decade of the 17th century everything took its normal course. The stable government with its good politics led to unknown wealth throughout the realm. Especially 1694 proved to be one of the best years in Savoien history: exceptional harvests, new mines in Monterrey and several taxation reforms greatly improved our state’s income.
On New Years Day of 1699 the new Pope wisely decided to place himself under our protection, surrendering the keys of the Holy City to Duke Victor Amedee. Now only Venice and Sicily prevented the formation of an Italian kingdom. But again the focus of our monarch’s attention shifted towards France.
After improving our relations with Burgundy and the Huguenots during the last year, the Duke finally decided to restore peace and justice to France. Therefore, he decided to join Burgundy in their war against the impudent invaders from Pommern in March 1700. We easily defeated the troops those Germans had landed in Normandie, and immediately started to retake the province’s cities. But then, in August 1702, Burgundy declared war on the Netherlands, the Huguenots and Scotland. After initial successes, the Huguenots invasion of Languedoc was stopped in December of the same year by our newly formed regiments. The Reformist Scots even dared to send an expedition to Roma in the following spring (the few soldiers that survived this foolish adventure were sent to the bottom of the Mediterranean together with their fleet). As we had regained the initiative, nothing could prevent our victory. In the peace of Toulouse of April 1704, the Huguenots ceded their colonies of Santee and Maroni to Savoy; the Netherlands paid 150 pounds of gold to Burgundy. One year later, Pommern accepted a white peace. To prove his eternal gratitude, the Duke of Burgundy decided to become our vassal
Good news arrived in late 1705 from our Californian domains. A crisis in England led to severe unrest throughout British Columbia, which resulted in the defection of all English colonies to our crown (the settlers happily even adopted our superior Italian way of life). We accepted these brave men as our vassals and sent them signs of our goodwill (which were delivered by our tax collectors and missionaries of course). Our colonization of the East Coast made great progresses during these years too (Santee, Carolina and Savannah soon became some of the wealthiest regions of the whole continent).
Over the next four years our troops had to crush several rebellions, and we suspected the Netherlands of financing these rebels. Our suspicion even grew, when the Dutch Republic annexed the Huguenot’s state of Southern France. Now we had to act. The Duke again took command of our army and led the troops to the border provinces - war was declared on the 4th of August 1709. Almost nothing is to say about the following campaigns: the Duke easily crushed the resistance in the south, and then took command of our northern armies, bringing the war to Flanders, Zeeland and Holland. When the Netherlands finally signed the peace of Amsterdam, they had no choice but to accept our offer: Gascogne, Poitou and Guyenne became part of Greater Savoy, and the colony of Amapa also came under our control.
France 1713
With many new provinces under his rule, Duke Victor Amedee had to reform the government. After he had presented the new constitution to the nobility and the free cities on the 23rd of January 1717, all knew that a time of absolute monarchical power had begun.
When Burgundy declared war on the Palatinate one year later, we saw this as a mere disturbance at first. But after three month of fighting, the Burgundian army was reduced to dust, and Austria had sided with the Palatinate. As the Duke of Burgundy had started this war without consulting our Duke, we didn’t feel obliged to fight against our imperial cousin. After we paid 200 pounds of gold as a retribution for the damage our troops had inflicted to the city of Heidelberg, the Palatinate signed a separate peace treaty in November 1718. The very moment we withdrew our forces, England declared war on Burgundy and sent its Marines to Normandie. After another 6 years of fighting, Burgundy had lost Artois and Cleve to Austria and Normandie to England.
As we felt pity for our once royal cousin, the Duke decided to take the burden of leadership from his shoulders. Burgundy became part of the Duchy of Greater Savoy on Christmas Eve 1724. Duke Victor Amedee was crowned King of France in the cathedral of Reims two days later, taking residence in Paris during the first weeks of the next years.
Soon our merchants dominated the markets of Paris. With the additional taxes from our new provinces we were able to construct several innovative weaving mills in Lombardia, Siena and Savoie in the following years (which increased our income even more).
New troubles arose in 1729, when the settlers of Olympia revolted and even defected to the crown of England. We immediately sent notes of complaint to London, but the English government decided to keep this province. The following months saw Savoien diplomats in almost all European capitols, bringing letters of friendships and gifts. England could do nothing but fear the coalition we built during the first weeks of 1730: the Netherlands, Denmark and Scotland formed a military alliance under our leadership. Entire Europe waited for the storm to come.
But when Duke Victor Amedee died on the 8th of September 1730, the war was delayed until his son Charle Emmanuel III fully was in command of our nation (and since England convinced Portugal to join its alliance with Brittany, we could need the additional time to reinforce our troops).
On the first day of 1731 our ambassador delivered our declaration of war to the King of England. All over the globe, Savoien troops attacked and defeated England and its allies: the new colonies of British Columbia were the first to fall, soon followed by the island of St. Thomas and Portuguese Senegal. We annihilated the troops of Brittany in a large battle in March and covered the whole Duchy with our troops soon thereafter. The fortresses of Normandie and Calais were taken by storm. In the following months, our troops conquered almost entire Brazil (which was completely undefended) and moved into New England after gaining the right of access through the lands of the Cherokee.
England and Portugal tried to recover during the following years, but their successes were short lived at best. When Scottish troops started to besiege London in July 1734, England had to accept its total defeat. When peace returned to land and sea, Normandie and Calais belonged to Savoy and Northumberland became a province of Scotland; Portugal had to cede several colonies in Asia to the Netherlands and paid 580 pounds of gold for the returning of their Brazilian holdings. The Duke of Brittany would be our vassal in the future.
Only 3 months later, the cities of Artois revolted against Austria and placed themselves under our protection. The imperial ambassador reminded the Duke of our own position in the Olympian dispute, when he handed the Austrian declaration of war over to Duke Charle Emmanuel.
Our allies dishonoured our victorious alliance and instead allowed Austrian troops to march trough Dutch territory, thus avoiding our strong fortifications along the Rhine. As the invaders were led by some of the greatest generals of the last decades, our northern army had to retreat after loosing several skirmishes around Brussels. Duke Charle Emmanuel immediately gathered troops in the South. But when he marched north, Austrian troops under his nephew Eugene, Prince of Savoy (who had been exiled for his arrogant and eccentric behaviour several years ago), crossed the Rhine and forced the Duke to accept battle in Lorraine.
The greatest battle of modern history began on the 7th of February 1735. Over 52.000 Savoien soldiers faced 67.000 Austrians. The battle was furious and for several days, victory was at hand. But when Prince Eugene himself led a surprising cavalry attack and captured almost our entire artillery, the day was lost. We had to retreat 1 week later. The Emperor accepted our peace offer soon thereafter: Brabant would be part of the Habsburg lands.
Over 37.000 brave Savoien soldiers paid with their lives for the treason of Eugene of Savoy. After returning to Turino, Duke Charle Emmanuel decided to confiscate all of the former Prince’s possessions and placed him under a sentence of death if he should dare to return to Savoy for even a single day. And every single man, woman and child of our entire nation hoped, he would.
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Looks like your Savoy is a true superpower now, able to do just about anything -- except defeat Austria. 
