The Reign of Johannes III “de Wetgever”, part I
As we follow the Roderlo’s throughout history, it becomes clear that regencies are not uncommon for this dynasty. Both before and after the Staten Generaal was founded, there had been regencies, but these had had some time to be prepared and had a propper figure to lead the regency. Often being a Duchess-Dowager, a other relative or a bishop. But, with the unexpected death of Grand Duke Floris, there came a massive problem in the fact that nobody had prepared any kind of regency. The old Duchess-Dowager, wife of Grand Duke Jan was long dead, outlived by much by her husband. The wife of Grand Duke Floris was also dead, dying because of complications with the birth of her second daughter. For a few days after the 11th of October, this meant that, whilst Johannes III was Grand Duke under the idea of “the Grand Duke is dead, long live the Grand Duke”, nobody held actual power.
The Staten Generaal quickly reacted. Whilst normally called together by the monarch, now, the Staten van Vlaanderen took the initiative. They sent out riders for the Staten Generaal to gather at once in Broenswiek. They would do so on the 17th, with about 2/3rds of the total amount of seated members being present for the first day of the session, many not being able to be there at such a short notice, with many of the other members not even having their usual entourage with them. The rest of the members would come in over the next days. The session moved fast, and despite not being fully filled, it was able to gain the majority needed to pass the motion to establish a regency to be staffed by people to be determined by the Staten Generaal. Only a few members voted against, mostly men who had been close confidentials of Floris and Jan, who saw it as a powergrab by the Staten Generaal, who had no right calling itself together. Among the men who voted for the move was Stadholder Adolf, who mainly saw the move as needed for two reasons. The first is obvious, if not this regency council appointed by the Staten Generaal, than who? Secondly was much more pragmatic. Yes, it was a massive, unlawfull powergrab, but, he was the most powerfull noble of the realm, a natural pick for such a council, and he would not throw away such a position to at least keep the powergrab in check by voting against it by blind idealism.
As the days went on, debate ensued over who should take place in this council, and who many men should even be on it. The second issue was resolved after two days, which was twelve. The first one was harder, as it should be representative of the whole apparatus of the state. First to be picked were the Bishop of Utrecht and the Bishop of Keulen as the ecclesiastical representatives. Second were some five important merchants of Amsterdam, Ghent, Brugge, Amsterdam and Breemn respectively. Next were three noblemen, two from Saxony and one from Gelre. Lastly, on the final day of the debates, it was decided that both a general and admiral should take seat on the council. The admiral was from Zeeland, which lead to the nobles forming a block behind the Stadholder. They were refusing to support anything if he was not put on the council, fearing domination by merchants of the Netherlands. Whilst Stadholder over there, he remained a noblemen with the strongest connections to the ruling house. Thus, not wishing to deadlock the Staten Generaal, and the entire nation, he was put on the council as the last member.
It is on the council that we find the last service of the Stadholder and the preservation of what in any other cae would have been the legacy of Grand Duke Floris. The MacGregors of Scotland had seen the kingdom in a long decline, ending with English invasion and Alan II of England declaring himself King of Great Britain and Ireland. The regency, pushed on by Adolf, would send a delegation to the Shetlands to work out a deal. It was obvious that it was only a matter of time before a English expedition would land on the islands. The negotiations were tough, despite the tough situation for the MacGregors. What the Saxons needed was a legitimate line for the Scottish throne to support. What the Scots needed was everything, absolutely everything. The main negotiations were around the future of the Scottish economy, the degree of political independence Scotland would have, Saxon sponsorship of the Scottish state, the future frontier with England and the future of Nova Scotia, Belgium and Newfoundland. In the end. Scottish trade would be dominated by Dutch and Frisian merchants, they would be allowed to invest freely in the Scottish economy, whilst Scotland would have her national defence bolstered by Saxon funds and Scotland would be allowed to maintain her colonies north of the Belgian frontier at the Spaarne river. Negotiations were completed on the 6th of November 1588, with a delegation traveling to Broenswiek to, on the 5th of December, bow before a slightly confused 7 year old Johannes as he was proclaimed as the new Protector of Scotland. Only 3 days later would Stadholder Adolf die. The position of Stadholder of Vlaanderen would be granted to the Stadholder of Doornik, but his son Willem-Frederik would succeed him in Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht, as well as in his position on the regency council.
Despite the involvement of military men like the Van Oranje-Nassau’s, the regency council would not involve itself in warfare, also because warfare was a issue that was the prerogative of the monarch (with consent of parliament of course), but because the previous monarch had not officially delegated power to a regent, the “constitutional” (no codified constitution existed) consequences were thought of as too great. The council did heavily involve itself in the development of the national economy and preparation for war with England, the obvious goal of the Protectorate. The main focus of the Staten Generaal would be the continued reclamation of land in Holland and Zeeland. With the works in Zeeland would also come the fortifications at Vlissingen and Westkapelle and in the north of Flanders at Breskens and Cadzand, which would be fortifications aimed at controlling shipping up and down the Westerschelde to the port of Antwerp. Antwerp, meanwhile, had grown into a absolutely massive hub of global trade, as products from all over the world were heading to her as the stapleport of the whole of Europe. From this time, we already see some Middle Eastern and West African merchants making the trek all the way to the port to do business. The Staten Generaal would also massively increase the size of the navy in anticipation of the coming conflict with the English. The last victory over the English had only been possible because of the addition of the French navy in the Battle off the Tyne Mouth. It were the Dutch merchants who demanded that, to make sure that trade would continue on at least relatively uninterrupted, the navy would be able to best the English in a one on one fight. Lastly, the normally unwilling Holland and Flanders were both willing to fund an expansion of the standing army in expectation of the campaign in Scotland, England and Wales.
On the 1st of January 1597 Johannes III would reach seniority and at the session of parliament that followed the parliament would dismiss the regency council. Immediate issue’s were another French noble attempting to seize the French throne and the early death of Willem-Frederik in a explosion in a gunpowder storage whilst preparing for the campaign in Scotland. He would again be replaced by his son Diederik, who would become the primary commander of the campaign. And, whilst the Staten Generaal were discussing on matters of language within the city of Ryssel, the final preparations for the Highlands Campaign.
A ultimatum would be delivered on the 2nd of January, to the English authorities in Edinburgh, which would be denied and immediately followed by a declaration of war in the name of the Protector of Scotland. The Highlands Campaign would begin on the 9th as the Army of the Rhine would land on the Orkney’s under the command of Diederik von Arnim. First priority of the navy was the reinforcement of the army now in the far north of the Hasting’s realm. Whilst the main power of the navy was focussed on escorting the troops north as any loss might have been disastrous for both those men and the ones already in Scotland proper, elements of the navy on trade escort were caught off-guard by the full might of the English navy, suffering some losses before being able to retreat. Revenge would come at the hight of summer, as the Saxon navy was able to corner and best the English navy at the Moray Firth, ending any hope of the English maintaining control of the seas around Scotland, allowing the armies to move onto the highlands. That same summer, Saxon armies would do battle outside of the (slowly being reinforced) walls of Broenswiek, leading to another Saxon victory forcing the way open to the city of Mainz.
Meanwhile, back in Scotland, the army and navy, under command of Diederik van Oranje-Nassau, would take control over the Hebredines after a series of clashes with the English forces on the islands. But, as of yet, the armies were still stuck in the Highlands as Aberdeen, the old royal capital of Scotland, was still under English control. At the same time, back in the south, a massive revolt would break , partially lead by parliament, against Fulk II and his policies of centralisation and slow moves to take away many of the privileges of parliament, foreshadowing the English Civil War. The fall of Aberdeen had also removed the last obstacle for the Saxons to move on into Northern England, and on a visit to his generals, he would speak the words that would define the coming decades. “The spite against Prefidious Albion is nowhere more rooted in the national spirit than in the Netherlands, Saxony and Frisia. May God punish England.” These words would actually travel back to the Staten Generaal, where, once read, the whole house would join in with “God straffe Engeland!” Whilst moving south, the Saxon armies would assume a scorched earth policy. Over the coming months the army would move south until when, in February 1602, the army stood at the gates of London. Fulk, unwilling to let England fall to the torch, surrendered. Peace would be humiliating, England was indeed punished. The mainland holdings of Newfoundland would be lost to Belgium and the Highlands and old capital of Aberdeen would come back under royal Scottish control.
Now that the English had had their first taste of real defeat, Saxon merchants ruled supreme. But, especially in the slowly blossoming trade with the far east, competition between the different Dutch merchants was starting to hurt the competitive position of the nation as a whole in comparison with the Spanish merchants trading in the Indian Ocean. And not only was the national competitive position at risk, these smaller companies also had a worse negotiating position with their far eastern partners. The merchants, especially the ones seated in the Staten Generaal were slowly becoming aware of this situation, the Grand Duke to was well aware of losing the competitive advantage that came with the fortresses the Saxons had established in South Africa and Southern Sumatra. It was the Grand Duke, like much in his reign, who would take the initiative. In the 1604 session of the Staten Generaal, Johannes would put before the house a bill that was meant to unify the companies and grant that newly created company a charter, a monopoly on all Saxon trade from Kaapstad to the east, meaning all of the Indian Ocean, the Indonesian Archipelago, China and whatever unknown lands there would be left to be discovered. This company, being an amalgamation of the efforts of multiple merchants, would be named the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie.
The company was actually very innovative. Because of the large degree of investors involved (many companies sailing for India, Indonesia, Indochina and China had been doing so with just one ship), the Grand Duke came up with a rather innovative solution. Shared ownership based on the amount of invested in the company and a dividend pay-out based on how large of a part of the company one owns. But, not only would ownership be shared, one could also sell their part of the company on to someone else, and the company could also receive an influx of cash by selling new stocks. The VOC would be the first publicly traded company in the world.
The roadblock the Saxons faced to the total domination of the coastline of the MacGregor Bay were colonies belonging to the Kingdom of Norway. Norway had found itself in much of the same situation as Scotland, perhaps because it had found itself in a union with Scotland for a while. Both Scotland and Norway had bankrupted themselves attempting to establish colonies in the New World, both on the northern part of Periosia, which was combined with foreign takeover at home leading to a utter collapse of the authority of the crown. In case of Norway, foreign invasion had been of the Dukes of Vastergötland (a curious bunch who had established themselves fully independent from the Kingdom of Sweden), the Kings of Finland and Kings of Denmark. Finland, the growing power of Scandinavia, had actually backed up the remnants of Norway much as Saxony had with Scotland. What this resulted in was a war spanning 3 years, in the freezing cold of winter at times, across Scandinavia as Saxony and Denmark fought to end the independent Kingdom of Norway and push Finland back into the woodlands of Lappland, resulting in the Norwegian crown passing on to Gorm II along with Vastergötlander possessions within Norway and the division of the Periosian colonies between Belgium and Nova Scotia.
Whilst the victory of Saxony and Denmark had caused the undisputed supremacy of the latter in Scandinavian affairs, there would develop a much bigger upset in the European balance of power in the Holy Roman Empire. The title of King of the Romans, King of the Germans and Holy Roman Emperor had been lost for the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1591 when the remaining electors, excluding Saxony, had voted to back the Duke of Savoy, Boniface II von Habsburg, for the Imperial throne. This choice continued to be supported in 1602 when his heir, Thomas II, was also elected to the Imperial throne. Bohemia, which had internally also had a elective monarchy, the situation caused a massive upset as the Imperial throne had been in the hands of the crown ever since 1439. Internally, Bohemia was growing restless, as the Reformation had taken a hold of the Germanic populations of the kingdom. Thus, when Václav V von Habsburg died, his cousin, Siegmund V would be elected. He was from the Styrian branch of the family, meaning that he was a Bauhamertist, yet he offered himself up as a compromise candidate to heal the wounds of the kingdom, gaining support from both Protestant and Catholic nobles alike. But, once on the throne he would quickly side with the Protestant nobles, declaring Bauhamertism the state religion, thus, ending the diarchy with Broenswiek. Whilst he would die in 1617, causing a short violent struggle over the throne which the Catholics would win by placing Waldemar VII, a Savoyard Habsburg, on the throne, there would be no rapprochement between the two old diarchs.
1617 would also be the year of the start of the Second Anglo-Saxon war. Whilst the war would result in the reconquest of the Lowlands and the annexation of Cumbria and Northumberland into the Scottish Crown, for what remained of the “Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland” it provided the definitive blow to royal power, as King Richard IV had tied his success (after the failures of his father against the Saxons and Scottish) to that of his army. But, now that that was destroyed, his dictatorial rule over the Parliament resulted in them demanding his abdication. He refused, beginning the English Civil War. Whilst important in the sense that the English would keep themselves occupied on their island for a while, the conflict between monarch and his parliament was also propping up in Saxony.
Johannes III was the beginning of the idea of absolutism within Saxony, and he was quite a extraordinary monarch for Saxon standards. Often taking initiative over the Staten Generaal in proposing legislation or even sidestepping them by going directly to the provinces themselves and taking on responsibilities that had been the responsibility of the Stadholder. He had also been able to have the merchants be indebted to him by funding a lot of the VOC from his personal fortune. Where, in the past, the Grand Duke and Staten Generaal had a much more balanced relation where both took active roles in the legislative process requiring both to actively consent to the laws, the political manoeuvring had the Staten Generaal vote itself (partially) out of the way on the 24th of February 1624, as it granted the right to levy taxation to the monarch in case of emergency. Taxation had been an issue that the provincial estates, and later the Staten Generaal had always had a say in. Johannes III, whilst he would still work with the unofficial consent of the Staten Generaal, would start to centralize power into his person, becoming an example for many other European monarchs as it hailed the age of absolutism.
