Somebody on discord was kind enough to make a family shield from my instructions, it turned out really nice
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Diederik II, part III
The reign of Diederik II, part III
Whilst the new status quo was certainly a hard swallow for many, it had finally brought peace, but more importantly unity, back to the realm. Which meant that foreign intervention became a larger possibility again. And there was one country many were keen on to receive Saxon revenge, England.
The Saxon Troubles had allowed for England to once again grow in strength. Whilst it had provided no direct danger to Scotland as the kingdom held by the MacGregors had been able bolster her defences and postponed any potential rebellion in the Lowlands, Northumberland or Cumbria loyal to London. When that rebellion did eventually fire, it was already 1657, and the rebolstered garrison sent by Broenswiek would only play a minor role in putting down the rebel armies. A greater problem had become the continued piracy both in the North Sea but also in the North Atlantic and even in Periosia. But, the target in this case was rather unusual, namely the whaling ships in the North Atlantic. For the Roderlo’s, it provided to mainly be a dent in the wealth of the city of Amsterdam, where most whaling companies in Saxony had based themselves from. Their main base of operations had been established in Smeerpothaven, an island far north from the Scottish Färöarna Islands. But, for Scotland, the hit had been much harder, as a larger part of the economy had become dependent on the trade of whaling produce with the continent (Scotland had become the primary supplier of whaling produce to powers who refused to trade with Saxony, mainly France). Thus, when during the Saxon Troubles her ability to project overseas was lost partially, the English established themselves in what they called Beaver Bay, where they started whaling, intercepting Scottish whaling in the area and starting their own beaver fur trade. Finally, by the crushing of the revolt in 1657, the Staten Generaal decided to declare war to put the English in their place again. Those, exactly, two years from the 2nd of November 1657 to the 2nd of November 1659 that made up the Third Anglo-Saxon War was the greatest military defeat in English history. The English, Irish and Welsh ability to make war or even properly defend their established holding had in any way been restored following the English Civil War, despite the strong warmaking ability of the Parliamentarians during that conflict. No, once again, the contact of London with the outside world was once again immediately cut off at the start of the war, and the Saxon-Scottish force was able to cross the border from their supply bases in what was once Northern England. By June 19th of 1658, the first Scottish units began to encircle London and subjugate to her 3rd siege since the first one by Diederik van Oranje-Nassau in 1619. Both Richard V and his Parliament had fled to Ireland, where they had hoped to make a last stand by virtue of the Emerald Isle being a lower priority to their enemy and thus dedicating lesser forces to it. Initially it seemed to work as the Scottish invasion of Ulster was repelled in July of 1658, but as most of England and Wales had fallen by then, avenging the humiliation the Scottish had faced became the top priority for the campaigning season of 1659. By then, Dublin had become a fortress, that would be put to siege from the 6th of April onwards. Whilst the Saxon-Scottish force was willing to sit the siege out, the strain on their supply chain had become to large to allow the siege to continue into the winter, and the city would be taken by storm on the 26 of October, capturing the government of the United Kingdom which had been trapped in there. Forced to sign a peace, Richard V and his government gave up on the whaling piracy, surrendered dominion over Beaver Bay to the colonial authorities of Nova Scotia and paid for the damages caused and the cost of the invading armies, a light peace treaty which was condemned by many in Broenswiek. But, where most hawks were interested in weakening England, her Crowned Republic and her Anglican Church, the more moderate members of the Staten, who had won out with the favour of the monarch in the end, were more concerned about the potential of a foreign power who could take advantage of continued English weakness (read King Clotair in Paris).
Rough extent of Scottish colonial authority in Periosia following the acquisition of Beaver Bay
Whilst the Peace of Dublin was a moderate one, it did result in a large transfer of wealth from the English treasury to the Saxon one. Whilst the treaty may have been moderate, in terms of land transfers, the sums of cash transferred had been more than enough to pay for the listed costs which they were supposed to pay for according to Dublin. What remained was pure profit for the treasury, which used it to pay the outstanding loans which had been taken to help fund the war effort during the Saxon Troubles. But soon, with the finances of the nation fully restored, the monarch, again, looked at overseas expansion, this time to support his own VOC. And the VOC had become interested in the markets of the Indian subcontinent. India had found itself in a renewed position of disunity after the end of the Turkic Tughlaq Dynasty had collapsed in the later half of the 15th century. Whilst the Tughlaq had been collapsing, the void would be filled by one of the last entities that had avoided Tughlaq rule, the Eastern Ganga dynasty of Kalinga. During the collapse she would ally herself with the many revolting entities and herself conquer those who did not wish to cooperate with the Ganga. What this eventually lead to was that, at the point of VOC entry into the subcontinent, the Ganga ruled over a state stretching from the western borders of Bengal to the Persian Gulf. All colonial powers had already attempted to make a deal with the Kalinga Ganga. Following the conquest of and establishment of the colonial capital of the VOC at Batavia one of the higher priorities had become a port in southern India. It was admiral Merckx who, in 1664 in service of the company, would be sent from Batavia to Orissa to hopefully buy a lesser port to allow for access to the subcontinent. He was sent there with perhaps the full knowledge that the Ganga were unwilling to accept the surrender of a port, very much weary of whatever may result of it following the conquest of Batavia. Whilst he did negotiate with good faith when he was in Cuttack, the terms both sides found non-negotiable were simply too far removed from one another. When he was readying to leave Cuttack, the detachment of soldiers that had accompanied him got into a scuffle with Ganga soldiers, which ended in the capture of most of this escort, Merckx fleeing to his ships and fleeing out of the harbour whilst under fire from the cannons on the shore. The incident was most certainly the plan B the company had thought up to grant themselves a casus belli if the Ganga were unwilling to give in, but Merckx returned to Batavia and raved at governor Visscher as the plan had, in the end, put his own life in danger. But, it would result in the desired war. The VOC fleet would leave Batavia in September, crossing the Bay of Bengal where they arrived at the northern end of the Coast of Coromandel. From there, they would sail and fight their way south along the coast in a series of skirmishes to land the army on Ceylon. The final and decisive battle would take place on the waters just east of Tharangambadi where the Kalinga fleet had finally been able to gather up. Whilst bad positioning on the part of Merckx allowed for his flagship and a couple of lesser ships to be isolated by the Kalinga fleet, the breakout from the encirclement sank both the Kalinga flagship and their morale and the fleet would find herself fleeing to the coast where she would be beached and set upon by the cannons of the Company fleet and the marines who undertook raids for the coming three nights. The destruction of the Ganga fleet not only meant the isolation of Ceylon, it also meant that escape from the much larger Company army for the Ganga army stationed there was now impossible, which would find itself destroyed before it was allowed to retreat into the hinterlands of the island. Even a relieve force sent by the erstwhile ally of the Kalinga, the Timurids, found destruction outside of the city of Negapatam. The Kalinga, not wishing to see much of the wealth of their realm stripped away by a foreign army ravaging about, and having to worry about the Maratha state to their west, gave in, ceding the Maldives, Ceylon and opening trade to foreign powers. The VOC on their part was quite pleased with the result, but Ceylon would prove to be a hotbed of rebellion as the company was unable to fully assert their authority over the innards of the island, demonstrated by the fact that when, now governor of Ceylon, Merkx was required to quell a small uprising, was killed in the ambush that followed.
The last few years of the reign of would be quiet, mainly filled with a renewed fever to build upon the polders, dealing with the remnants of English piracy and the accompanying smuggling and further opening up trade links throughout the Baltic. Diederik would have a stroke on the 2nd of January 1673, passing away because of the complications on the 31st at the age of 38. For the whole duration of his reign, he didn’t have a son, thus leaving the throne to his younger brother Johannes.
Diederik II, reigned from 1637 to 1673
Whilst the new status quo was certainly a hard swallow for many, it had finally brought peace, but more importantly unity, back to the realm. Which meant that foreign intervention became a larger possibility again. And there was one country many were keen on to receive Saxon revenge, England.
The Saxon Troubles had allowed for England to once again grow in strength. Whilst it had provided no direct danger to Scotland as the kingdom held by the MacGregors had been able bolster her defences and postponed any potential rebellion in the Lowlands, Northumberland or Cumbria loyal to London. When that rebellion did eventually fire, it was already 1657, and the rebolstered garrison sent by Broenswiek would only play a minor role in putting down the rebel armies. A greater problem had become the continued piracy both in the North Sea but also in the North Atlantic and even in Periosia. But, the target in this case was rather unusual, namely the whaling ships in the North Atlantic. For the Roderlo’s, it provided to mainly be a dent in the wealth of the city of Amsterdam, where most whaling companies in Saxony had based themselves from. Their main base of operations had been established in Smeerpothaven, an island far north from the Scottish Färöarna Islands. But, for Scotland, the hit had been much harder, as a larger part of the economy had become dependent on the trade of whaling produce with the continent (Scotland had become the primary supplier of whaling produce to powers who refused to trade with Saxony, mainly France). Thus, when during the Saxon Troubles her ability to project overseas was lost partially, the English established themselves in what they called Beaver Bay, where they started whaling, intercepting Scottish whaling in the area and starting their own beaver fur trade. Finally, by the crushing of the revolt in 1657, the Staten Generaal decided to declare war to put the English in their place again. Those, exactly, two years from the 2nd of November 1657 to the 2nd of November 1659 that made up the Third Anglo-Saxon War was the greatest military defeat in English history. The English, Irish and Welsh ability to make war or even properly defend their established holding had in any way been restored following the English Civil War, despite the strong warmaking ability of the Parliamentarians during that conflict. No, once again, the contact of London with the outside world was once again immediately cut off at the start of the war, and the Saxon-Scottish force was able to cross the border from their supply bases in what was once Northern England. By June 19th of 1658, the first Scottish units began to encircle London and subjugate to her 3rd siege since the first one by Diederik van Oranje-Nassau in 1619. Both Richard V and his Parliament had fled to Ireland, where they had hoped to make a last stand by virtue of the Emerald Isle being a lower priority to their enemy and thus dedicating lesser forces to it. Initially it seemed to work as the Scottish invasion of Ulster was repelled in July of 1658, but as most of England and Wales had fallen by then, avenging the humiliation the Scottish had faced became the top priority for the campaigning season of 1659. By then, Dublin had become a fortress, that would be put to siege from the 6th of April onwards. Whilst the Saxon-Scottish force was willing to sit the siege out, the strain on their supply chain had become to large to allow the siege to continue into the winter, and the city would be taken by storm on the 26 of October, capturing the government of the United Kingdom which had been trapped in there. Forced to sign a peace, Richard V and his government gave up on the whaling piracy, surrendered dominion over Beaver Bay to the colonial authorities of Nova Scotia and paid for the damages caused and the cost of the invading armies, a light peace treaty which was condemned by many in Broenswiek. But, where most hawks were interested in weakening England, her Crowned Republic and her Anglican Church, the more moderate members of the Staten, who had won out with the favour of the monarch in the end, were more concerned about the potential of a foreign power who could take advantage of continued English weakness (read King Clotair in Paris).
Rough extent of Scottish colonial authority in Periosia following the acquisition of Beaver Bay
Whilst the Peace of Dublin was a moderate one, it did result in a large transfer of wealth from the English treasury to the Saxon one. Whilst the treaty may have been moderate, in terms of land transfers, the sums of cash transferred had been more than enough to pay for the listed costs which they were supposed to pay for according to Dublin. What remained was pure profit for the treasury, which used it to pay the outstanding loans which had been taken to help fund the war effort during the Saxon Troubles. But soon, with the finances of the nation fully restored, the monarch, again, looked at overseas expansion, this time to support his own VOC. And the VOC had become interested in the markets of the Indian subcontinent. India had found itself in a renewed position of disunity after the end of the Turkic Tughlaq Dynasty had collapsed in the later half of the 15th century. Whilst the Tughlaq had been collapsing, the void would be filled by one of the last entities that had avoided Tughlaq rule, the Eastern Ganga dynasty of Kalinga. During the collapse she would ally herself with the many revolting entities and herself conquer those who did not wish to cooperate with the Ganga. What this eventually lead to was that, at the point of VOC entry into the subcontinent, the Ganga ruled over a state stretching from the western borders of Bengal to the Persian Gulf. All colonial powers had already attempted to make a deal with the Kalinga Ganga. Following the conquest of and establishment of the colonial capital of the VOC at Batavia one of the higher priorities had become a port in southern India. It was admiral Merckx who, in 1664 in service of the company, would be sent from Batavia to Orissa to hopefully buy a lesser port to allow for access to the subcontinent. He was sent there with perhaps the full knowledge that the Ganga were unwilling to accept the surrender of a port, very much weary of whatever may result of it following the conquest of Batavia. Whilst he did negotiate with good faith when he was in Cuttack, the terms both sides found non-negotiable were simply too far removed from one another. When he was readying to leave Cuttack, the detachment of soldiers that had accompanied him got into a scuffle with Ganga soldiers, which ended in the capture of most of this escort, Merckx fleeing to his ships and fleeing out of the harbour whilst under fire from the cannons on the shore. The incident was most certainly the plan B the company had thought up to grant themselves a casus belli if the Ganga were unwilling to give in, but Merckx returned to Batavia and raved at governor Visscher as the plan had, in the end, put his own life in danger. But, it would result in the desired war. The VOC fleet would leave Batavia in September, crossing the Bay of Bengal where they arrived at the northern end of the Coast of Coromandel. From there, they would sail and fight their way south along the coast in a series of skirmishes to land the army on Ceylon. The final and decisive battle would take place on the waters just east of Tharangambadi where the Kalinga fleet had finally been able to gather up. Whilst bad positioning on the part of Merckx allowed for his flagship and a couple of lesser ships to be isolated by the Kalinga fleet, the breakout from the encirclement sank both the Kalinga flagship and their morale and the fleet would find herself fleeing to the coast where she would be beached and set upon by the cannons of the Company fleet and the marines who undertook raids for the coming three nights. The destruction of the Ganga fleet not only meant the isolation of Ceylon, it also meant that escape from the much larger Company army for the Ganga army stationed there was now impossible, which would find itself destroyed before it was allowed to retreat into the hinterlands of the island. Even a relieve force sent by the erstwhile ally of the Kalinga, the Timurids, found destruction outside of the city of Negapatam. The Kalinga, not wishing to see much of the wealth of their realm stripped away by a foreign army ravaging about, and having to worry about the Maratha state to their west, gave in, ceding the Maldives, Ceylon and opening trade to foreign powers. The VOC on their part was quite pleased with the result, but Ceylon would prove to be a hotbed of rebellion as the company was unable to fully assert their authority over the innards of the island, demonstrated by the fact that when, now governor of Ceylon, Merkx was required to quell a small uprising, was killed in the ambush that followed.
The last few years of the reign of would be quiet, mainly filled with a renewed fever to build upon the polders, dealing with the remnants of English piracy and the accompanying smuggling and further opening up trade links throughout the Baltic. Diederik would have a stroke on the 2nd of January 1673, passing away because of the complications on the 31st at the age of 38. For the whole duration of his reign, he didn’t have a son, thus leaving the throne to his younger brother Johannes.
Diederik II, reigned from 1637 to 1673
Pretty much, the Puritan Crown exists only in the shadow of Broenswiek
Johannes IV
The reign of Johannes IV
Johannes IV was only 3 months old when his father Frederik-Hendrik II was murdered. Throughout their youth, the two brothers would both be educated by men selected by their widowed mother. As told earlier, Diederik II was tutored by Van Deal in matters of statecraft. Johannes IV, not expected to ever rule the nation, was educated mostly in matters of warfare. In 1651, at the age of 14, he would become a part of the leadership of the garrison of Bergen. The next year, he would command a regiment during the Tranenrebellie, being the one to report the death of Van den Bergh to his brother. During the later years of his reign, Johannes would be a part of the invading force during the 3rd Anglo-Saxon War, leading his army through Western England and Wales, capturing Bristol and from there moving east to link up with Van Oranje-Nassau in London who would leave Johannes in control of the forces occupying Southern England whilst he would move to capture Dublin. After returning home he would be made Stadhouder of Gelre, Zutphen and Oversticht, occupying the family castle as his seat of governance. He would spend Christmas of 1672 in Antwerp, discussing the defense of the French border regions with a couple of other Stadhouders from the Dutch part of the realm. As he was returning home on the 4th of January, and after his carriage had crossed the Waal river, a rider approached who would bring him the news of the stroke his brother had had. He would make haste and head to Broenswiek, where he would spent some time with his brother when recovery still seemed possible, before going rapidly downhill on the 28th. The death of his brother was announced to him during dinner on the 31st.
The fortress town of Samberburcht constructed based on instructions from Johannes IV
Johannes IV was a military man at heart, although he did not lack the capabilities to handle the basic matters of statecraft. Whilst his reforms are recalled as a military matter, it’s mostly a matter of statecraft. The end of the so called provincial armies had been heralded by the Akte des Landsvrede. What had enabled the provinces to revolt was their continued ability to raise armed forces on their own. From the medieval era onwards, many towns and cities had had their own schutterij, a local militia. And whilst many of these did indeed take part in the rebellions, they had never been the backbone of any kind of armed force the province had been able to bring against the central authority in Broenswiek. It had been their own, professionally raised army. These had continued existing along with the army raised by the monarch and the Staten Generaal ever since it had first been convened in 1444, but since then the trend had certainly been towards the increasing importance of the central army. In 1654, there had been put a cap on the size of the armies the provinces could raise, which varied roughly according to seize, population and income, with Saxony the largest at about a 10th of what the monarch and the Staten had raised at any moment. Whilst it meant that the provinces themselves would be unable to make a fist against Broenswiek, it did mean that a little more than a quarter of the regular army that the realm would field would fall under multiple, parallel command structures. Throughout his somewhat short reign, Johannes IV was able to get rid of all provincial armies. At first, he was able to forcibly disband the armies of the Wallonian provinces and added in many militias for good measure. What it would mean was that the defense, both in the regular and in the civil sense, was in the hands of the central government now, meaning that it would actually become a regular expense, something which would cause tensions later. Following Wallonia would be the smaller provinces, think those among the Rhine and scattered throughout the Netherlands. Being dependent on outside support for defense made giving up their own meagre forces. Next were the provinces already well represented within the army, think Gelre, Saxony and Brabant. The last ones were, to be expected, the merchantile provinces. As always most resilient against any kind of centralization of power. Whilst simple strongarming was a part of the argument, Johannes IV made a concession which he had already been preparing to make.
As with any army which needed to move onwards in the early modern era, the Saxon army had a issue with officers. Whilst, as Frederik-Hendrik had documented, Saxony did have her fair history with peasant armies and thus a more bottom up style of leadership, the fact that feudalism had triumphed over the peasant armies of the Northern HRE had placed army leadership firmly in the hand of her aristocratic class. As was everywhere, nepotism played a fair part in the selection of new officers. Not only that, but what more socialist inclined writers would describe as “classism” also played a fair part. The regular commoner never had a shot at any real high position of authority within the army (and it’s not as if those wealthy but not of noble lineage wanted it to be that way), but those of considerable wealth also had a harder time to get into the ranks of the officers. The general acceptance of nepotism did extend to large sums of money for recommendations, but the prestige of a name was never attainable for many. Whilst Holland had seen a partial merger of the merchant and noble classes, this did not extend that far inland. There was, however, somewhat of a way around this. Those local militias and schutterijen, often employed by the regular armies, would allow for those of lower standing to gain positions of command. Johannes IV was well aware of the practice, coming into contact with it through his own military career. From him serving at the field of battle Venlo through his later career in Britain and even in organizing the small remnants of the provincial armies during his tenure as Stadhouder he would find frustration in his available officers, especially knowing that there were more capable men within the local militia, or at least with more talent than those currently officially serving under him. He would gather a small clique of bourgeois who were willing to strive for officership along with several nobles who would love to have them serve under them. In the 1680 session of the Staten Generaal he set aside funding for a new officer academy in Hannover, where he would also introduce officer commissions into the army structure. Whilst paying for a commission is often thought of as the peak of corruption in any armed force, it was at the time a innovation, especially as it opened up the ranks of the army to a new group of potential recruits who enthausiastically joined joined the ranks of the officers. Even the men of the regular soldry now found a way potentially to the top, as a wealthy higher officer might become their patron and they could start rising in the ranks (and earn a bit off the top as the junior officer would give up the potential gains of being promoted and thus receiving a more valuable commission).
To continue a, by this point, long Roderlo tradition, Johannes IV died relatively young, aged 43 on the 23rd of November 1680. At autopsy, it was discovered that the cause of death had been what was initially testicular cancer. His short 7 year reign cemented the new internal stability of the realm.
Johannes IV, reigned from 1671 to 1680
Johannes IV was only 3 months old when his father Frederik-Hendrik II was murdered. Throughout their youth, the two brothers would both be educated by men selected by their widowed mother. As told earlier, Diederik II was tutored by Van Deal in matters of statecraft. Johannes IV, not expected to ever rule the nation, was educated mostly in matters of warfare. In 1651, at the age of 14, he would become a part of the leadership of the garrison of Bergen. The next year, he would command a regiment during the Tranenrebellie, being the one to report the death of Van den Bergh to his brother. During the later years of his reign, Johannes would be a part of the invading force during the 3rd Anglo-Saxon War, leading his army through Western England and Wales, capturing Bristol and from there moving east to link up with Van Oranje-Nassau in London who would leave Johannes in control of the forces occupying Southern England whilst he would move to capture Dublin. After returning home he would be made Stadhouder of Gelre, Zutphen and Oversticht, occupying the family castle as his seat of governance. He would spend Christmas of 1672 in Antwerp, discussing the defense of the French border regions with a couple of other Stadhouders from the Dutch part of the realm. As he was returning home on the 4th of January, and after his carriage had crossed the Waal river, a rider approached who would bring him the news of the stroke his brother had had. He would make haste and head to Broenswiek, where he would spent some time with his brother when recovery still seemed possible, before going rapidly downhill on the 28th. The death of his brother was announced to him during dinner on the 31st.
The fortress town of Samberburcht constructed based on instructions from Johannes IV
Johannes IV was a military man at heart, although he did not lack the capabilities to handle the basic matters of statecraft. Whilst his reforms are recalled as a military matter, it’s mostly a matter of statecraft. The end of the so called provincial armies had been heralded by the Akte des Landsvrede. What had enabled the provinces to revolt was their continued ability to raise armed forces on their own. From the medieval era onwards, many towns and cities had had their own schutterij, a local militia. And whilst many of these did indeed take part in the rebellions, they had never been the backbone of any kind of armed force the province had been able to bring against the central authority in Broenswiek. It had been their own, professionally raised army. These had continued existing along with the army raised by the monarch and the Staten Generaal ever since it had first been convened in 1444, but since then the trend had certainly been towards the increasing importance of the central army. In 1654, there had been put a cap on the size of the armies the provinces could raise, which varied roughly according to seize, population and income, with Saxony the largest at about a 10th of what the monarch and the Staten had raised at any moment. Whilst it meant that the provinces themselves would be unable to make a fist against Broenswiek, it did mean that a little more than a quarter of the regular army that the realm would field would fall under multiple, parallel command structures. Throughout his somewhat short reign, Johannes IV was able to get rid of all provincial armies. At first, he was able to forcibly disband the armies of the Wallonian provinces and added in many militias for good measure. What it would mean was that the defense, both in the regular and in the civil sense, was in the hands of the central government now, meaning that it would actually become a regular expense, something which would cause tensions later. Following Wallonia would be the smaller provinces, think those among the Rhine and scattered throughout the Netherlands. Being dependent on outside support for defense made giving up their own meagre forces. Next were the provinces already well represented within the army, think Gelre, Saxony and Brabant. The last ones were, to be expected, the merchantile provinces. As always most resilient against any kind of centralization of power. Whilst simple strongarming was a part of the argument, Johannes IV made a concession which he had already been preparing to make.
As with any army which needed to move onwards in the early modern era, the Saxon army had a issue with officers. Whilst, as Frederik-Hendrik had documented, Saxony did have her fair history with peasant armies and thus a more bottom up style of leadership, the fact that feudalism had triumphed over the peasant armies of the Northern HRE had placed army leadership firmly in the hand of her aristocratic class. As was everywhere, nepotism played a fair part in the selection of new officers. Not only that, but what more socialist inclined writers would describe as “classism” also played a fair part. The regular commoner never had a shot at any real high position of authority within the army (and it’s not as if those wealthy but not of noble lineage wanted it to be that way), but those of considerable wealth also had a harder time to get into the ranks of the officers. The general acceptance of nepotism did extend to large sums of money for recommendations, but the prestige of a name was never attainable for many. Whilst Holland had seen a partial merger of the merchant and noble classes, this did not extend that far inland. There was, however, somewhat of a way around this. Those local militias and schutterijen, often employed by the regular armies, would allow for those of lower standing to gain positions of command. Johannes IV was well aware of the practice, coming into contact with it through his own military career. From him serving at the field of battle Venlo through his later career in Britain and even in organizing the small remnants of the provincial armies during his tenure as Stadhouder he would find frustration in his available officers, especially knowing that there were more capable men within the local militia, or at least with more talent than those currently officially serving under him. He would gather a small clique of bourgeois who were willing to strive for officership along with several nobles who would love to have them serve under them. In the 1680 session of the Staten Generaal he set aside funding for a new officer academy in Hannover, where he would also introduce officer commissions into the army structure. Whilst paying for a commission is often thought of as the peak of corruption in any armed force, it was at the time a innovation, especially as it opened up the ranks of the army to a new group of potential recruits who enthausiastically joined joined the ranks of the officers. Even the men of the regular soldry now found a way potentially to the top, as a wealthy higher officer might become their patron and they could start rising in the ranks (and earn a bit off the top as the junior officer would give up the potential gains of being promoted and thus receiving a more valuable commission).
To continue a, by this point, long Roderlo tradition, Johannes IV died relatively young, aged 43 on the 23rd of November 1680. At autopsy, it was discovered that the cause of death had been what was initially testicular cancer. His short 7 year reign cemented the new internal stability of the realm.
Johannes IV, reigned from 1671 to 1680
This was a good reform for the state. Both weakening its foes and strengthening the military.
Karel III
The reign of Karel III
For a long time, through either sheer luck or more active diplomacy, Saxony had found herself outside of European conflict for a while. Despite the inter-European wars fought over the last decade, some involving both allies and rivals of Saxony, she had mostly reserved herself to fighting outside of the European mainland. Mainland Europe had been the site of internal strife or consolidating her position in the Empire, no major warfare to strengthen her own position or that of an ally. This would, however, change shorty into the reign of Karel III.
Two months after the birth of his first son (the young Johannes V), Denmark would declare war on the Polish lordship of Inowroclaw, the independence of which was guaranteed by the Teutonic Order, weary of the Danish ambitions in the Baltic sea and thus upon her coasts. Ever since the Danish conquest of the Brandenburgian holdings in Pommeralia, there had been tensions as the Brandenburgers had conquered Danzig from the Teutons. Inowroclaw lay precicely south of Danish Pommeralia on the Vistula, with the Teutons just east. Victory was a forgone conclusion simply due to the size of the combined Saxon-Danish armed forces, which outnumbered the Teutons and her allies from the Alpine region by somewhere between 2 or 3 to 1. This is precicely why both the young monarch and his parliament were unwilling to commit too many troops to this war. (In case of the parliament, they didn’t like the expenditure, in case on the monarch, he needed the troops for something else on his mind.) They would, however, be soon forced to change their attitude. On the 8th of February 1863, Stadholder Diederik II was able to score a major victory outside of Brünn where he was able to fully whipe out a Teuton army. However, through detachments, minor skirmishes and plain attrition his depleted force would be whiped out on the 23rd of February just a couple of kilometers away from the first field of battle. Reminded much of the First Holsteen War, and not wishing to suffer any more humiliating defeats, both parliament and the monarch authorized two new armies to be sent east, and for the lost Army of Westphalia to be rebuilt and later recommitted to the fight. Immediate result of the loss at Brünn was the Kingdom of Bohemia being knocked out of the war as a Danish ally, but, not grasped at the time, was that the Saxon military had perhaps been out of the European game for a little bit too long. What must also be mentioned is that a rather large sum was payed to the Teutons to ensure the safety of the leadership of the army that had just gotten whiped out, leading to a direct strengthening of the Teutonic war effort which lead to setbacks for the Danes in Estonia.
Bohemia being knocked out didn’t decisively change the outcome of the war, but it did however complicate the peace proceedings, as they were forced to secede most of Greater Poland to Uros Decanski II Czartoryski, nominal pretender to the Polish crown. What would otherwise have been the banishment of the Czartoryski to their other holding, the city of Kiev, turned into a minor territorial concession. The Duchy of Vastergötland would also come to an end, being integrated into the Danish crown. The Danes were, in turn, disappointed by the attitude the Saxons held about their designs upon the Baltic coast. As of yet, the access the Saxons held to the coasts was still free, but they feared the Danes gaining unfavorable leverage. Despite demands such as the secession of all of Estonia, the east bank of the Vistula and the city of Riga, this was mediated back to equal trading rights for Danish merchants (compared to the more welcome Saxon and Dutch merchants) and the secession of the islands of Ösel. Denmark, fearful of the weariness their aggressive expansion would cause in the kingdoms of Sweden and Finland (who had, as of yet, still been played apart from the Teutons), agreed, hoping that Sweden and Finland would not form a united block against the power of Copenhagen.
Of further note is the VOC campaign against the Hosokawa Shogunate of 1688-1689. Whereas the war against the Kalinga had been a matter entirely provoked by the VOC, in this case she stumbled into a case that server her search for new markets perfectly. In a fine example of how the coin, sword and cross were often carried by the same hand in the Far East, the murder of a Dominican missionary would lead to intervention by the VOC. The army of the Company (already made up of mostly European mercenaries) would, in this case, be backed up by mostly Chinese mercenaries, also showing the growing importance of Formosa to the VOC (and the growing Chinese presence on the island). The Japanese islands had, since the establishment of the Hosokawa Shogunate, grown wealthy by the internal peace that now reigned, the war like qualities of the samurai losing some of their significance as they generally developed an affection for more economic and but especially cultural pursuits, despite the restrictions of their class, as they were not incredibly strictly enforced by the Hosokawa. Much like the Koreans had experienced, the Hosokawa had seen the development of their navy to fight the pirates active on the many lesser islands. Despite the home advantage the Japanese navy had, the VOC would triumph, their victory not fully undependent on those exact pirates. The VOC would, through dominance of the sea, be able to trap the Japanese army on Kyushu, beating it in a series of engagements largely supported by the navy. Pressing their advantage, the armies stood at Kyoto, home of both the Shogun and powerless Emperor, 20 months after the start of the campaign. Japan would be forced to grant trading concessions along with the ports of Nagasaki and Kagoshima and the islands of Tsushima and Okinawa. As for the pirates, the VOC was already planning to hand them over to the authorities in Kyoto at the start of the war. “Piracy is simply bad for business.”
The happenings over in the east are worth mentioning due to the significance they would have a couple of years later on what was going on back over in Europe. What had been on the mind of Karel III during the First Baltic War was the aggressive foreign policy of the d’Escoubleau’s of France, Clotaire V (1637-1675), Hugues III (1675-1688) and now the regent for Théoderic III, Eglantine de Blois, had been pushing French influence in Lorraine and the Rhine, a historically contested region between the Holy Roman Empire and France. Bohemian weakness lead to no opposition when the Duke of Lorraine, in search of a new powerfull backer after a series of lost wars to the Bishop of Trier, declared the feudal contracts with Emperor null and void, instead seeking a new one with the young Théodreic III. Ironically enough, no attempt to restore the rights of Reginar II would be undertaken as the Bishop of Trier was also very much in Paris’ pocket, her prime ally on the western bank of the Rhine. As of 1691, France had found herself dragged into a Balkan conflict between now styled Vlachian “Emperor of the Romans” and the more traditionally styled Byzantine “Emperor of the Romans” in their feud over the Serbian despotate. The monarch determined that now was the time to strike, despite the signals that the newer officers gave him. The Saxon army would not be able to best a French army in a 1 to 1 fight. The French had more experience as they had found themselves in a state of semi-constant warfare (either internal and external) since Clotaire V had risen to the throne and they had also adopted modern and strict styles of drill. Their finances would also be able to hold up better as unlike a enemy like Great Britain, they were not nearly as dependent on overseas trade with their colonies of Louisiana and Remigia but much more on the Mediterranean where the navy had difficulties projecting power. The demand to retreat from the Empire was made on September 22nd 1691, only three months after Théoderic III had reached seniority. Rejection was received on the 29th and on the 1st of October the armies began movements to put Caux, Rethel and Trier to siege.
The initial naïve optimism of the war lasted under a year. Caux and Rethel, not much more than some hastily improved late medieval fortresses fell quickly after the Saxon cannons were brought to bear on their walls. Frankfurt fell to a combined Holsteener-Danish siege. Which lead to the first attempted siege of Paris and the Saxon army stuck on the much more fortified Trier. May the 1st would however see the death of Emperor Václav VI and the election of Jakob II of Baden, a French ally, which would lead to the Imperial Diet attempting to denounce the war Saxony was waging. Much more worrying were the troop movements through Baden, as a Savoyard army was preparing to get the Free City of Frankfurt back in the fight. On the 9th of August, a Papal-Saxon force attempted to relieve the garrison. The Savoyards had, however, been reinforced over the course of the nigh by a massive French army. And as the forces under Papal commander Callistus Serio advanced in the morning, they found themselves quickly on the backfoot as the French aggressively counterattacked with their superior numbers. They were barely able to escape. The French force followed up by moving on the now unsupported army besieging Trier, who were luckily informed in time and made an orderly retreat. A week later, much the same happened in Northern France, as the Saxon armies had been split by French maneuvers and the siege of Paris had to be abandoned, barely escaping back to Kamerijk. It was at Kamerijk that, reinforced by units from the east, the French advance would be stopped and forced to retreat in a battle that cost the Saxon much more lives in comparison to the French, despite outnumbering their foe 2 to 1. In a fine example of severely lacking coordination between allies, a small Savoyard army would be crushed at Kamerijk 3 weeks later, as well as a Danish victory over another Savoyard army at Rothenburg. It had, however, become clear that Saxon chances for victory had quickly diminished. Peace had returned in the Balkan with a status quo ante bellum (unsatisfactory for both sides) and the Pope leaving the war at the cost of possessions in the Po Valley just after New Year 1693.
As of yet there still existed a change for the Roderlo to be victorious. Victory over the French at Kamerijk had secured their ability to hold on to Caux and Rethel and with it the road to Paris. A attempt to put Rethel to siege in March was defeated and thus the time was deemed right to attempt to take Paris to hopefully end the war on favorable terms. Whilst Paris was put to siege for a second time. The French would move on the rear of the Saxon armies to cut supplies, leading to a ever escalating series of skirmishes which would culminate with the gathering of forces just north of Reims near the town of Courcy. Outnumbered and outgunned, they would be forced to retreat after one of the most bloody days in the history of the Saxon military. The cavalry heavy army was, however, able to use her horse mounted soldiers well to allow the army to retreat west where she would eventually find the safety of the fortress at Amerongen. It was however clear that even the strong fortresses of the South would not be able to provide safety for the battered army, thus, they retreated further to Brabant. The main issue that faced the defense of the fortresses was now demoralization, worsened further by the fall and subsequent sack of Kamerijk. A full collapse of the military apparatus was however prevented by the calculating diplomacy of Maarten van Stein-Stirum, one of the monarchs prime diplomats. He would, as described in his own words, “bribe the ego of Théoderic III.” He would be able to come to a deal that was a combination of a massive bribe in gold, admittance of defeat and the return of the port in Japan. For Théodoric, it was revenge upon the enemies of France that his grandfather had not been able to get. When read out in the Staten Generaal, it caused an outroar. A member for Zeeland would not that “a war lost by the nobility should not be paid for by the merchant marine!” But, the simple fact was that if this deal could not be agreed upon, that the bribe would otherwise have to be the coastline from Grevelingen to Caux. Parliament, pushed on by the monarch, would begrudgingly accept. France exited the war and abandoned her allies, who would in turn be unable to hold back the simple weight of the Saxon army. Savoy would be forced to return recent gains against both the Pope and multiple princes just north of the Alps. Trier was forced to return parts of Central Lorraine, in the hopes that some leverage could be gained upon but it would prove to be to no avail. In the end, the war fueled revanchism within Saxony and gave Théoderic a desire for more. A second War of the Rhine proved inevitable.
New status quo in the Upper Rhine following the First War of the Rhine
The period following the First War of the Rhine is often compared to the situation following the is often compared to that following the First Holsteen War. Whilst yes, revenge was the prime motivator behind change, it is a sign of the times that this was much more dependent on systems rather than the personal will and ambition of the monarch. Karel III was not the prime mover of change within the military apparatus. Conduct of the war had been in the hands of the many older aristocratic nobles, and the loss in the war opened up the way for the (still) Grand Ducal Officer Academy of Hannover to start paying dividends as her cadets started filtering into the now empty positions, which lead to a greater emphasis on massed artillery and the expansion of the infantry body of the army. The Staten Generaal had also, begrudgingly, come around to the increased amount of spending. However much discontent there may have been with the “aristocratic loss of the war”, the simple fact was that a superior enemy did not care about who lost the war for them, just that the Saxons did. At the same time, Van Stein-Stirum was sent to the Mediterranean to hopefully gain an advantage over the French. He would, together with a section of the admiralty, negotiate about aid towards the Papal navy and a Saxon naval base in Pisa “in the hypothetical situation” that war was to break out with France again. Main target would be the French trade with North Africa and the Most Serene Republic of Trinacria and Parthenopea. War with the foremost merchants power of the Mediterranean was however a acceptable risk if it meant the ability to threaten French merchant activity. The great achievement of Van Stein-Stirum was, however, the defection of the most potent French ally, Savoy. Savoy had effectively been bribed by the French in the advancements of their claims in the Po Valley against Friuli and the Papal State. Where success in the early war had granted them parts of their claims, France exiting the war early meant that Savoy was forced to return the land along with more in the Holy Roman Empire. This betrayal lead to the immediate cancellation of the alliance upon the conclusion of hostilities. The death of Thomas V in 1697 also lead to the loss of the Savoyard throne for the house Habsburg. In their stead, a cadet branch of the d’Escoubleau. This particular branch had actually partaken in one of the many internal conflicts that France had faced in the middle of the 17th century. They had been landowners in the southeast of France and had attempted to push their claim to the French throne during the minority of Théoderic III, causing them to lose their claims and go into a favorable exile in Savoy. Where the Habsburgs had been more interested in foreign policy aimed at the Empire and thus their predisposition to anything related of the Iron Crown of Lombardy, the d’Escoubleau-Provence were much more interested in their old Marquisate of Provence and the lands surrounding, making them a perfect ally against the Kingdom of France. France, in term, desperate for a new Italian ally, would bind herself to Friuli, a state that had found herself in conflict with both Savoy and the Pope. Also, in 1706, the crown of Emperor would pass back to the Bohemians with the crowning of Rudolf III, and he was again not favorable to continued French expansion in the Rhine. Not all was as smooth sailing as is presented though. In New Saxony, a colonel of mixed European-native descent and famed for his exploits during the guerilla of the French colonies was promoted to a general serving under the Viceduke. It was however a very controversial move as he himself was one of the first few and faint voices calling for more independence from Broenswiek. Meanwhile, the monarch himself was much more interested in the quiet start of the Enlightement and the Industrial Revolution, often receiving some of the lesser known early Enlightement thinkers at one of his countryside palaces to converse with, or being shown some of the earliest prototypes of industrial machines.
Whilst this was going on in Europe, the VOC retook her footing after the forced loss of her holdings in mainland Japan. 1703 saw the VOC assume more control over the island of Java and expand her spice plantation in the Molucca’s. The more noted war was their second conflict with the Kalinga, as they had again started providing support to another series of revolts on Ceylon. Much like the First War of the Rhine, what was first hoped to be a quick war against a distracted enemy with limited goals turned out to be a massive slog and a massive loss for the VOC. The Ganga found themselves joined by the Malay states of Pasai and Perak, who hoped to split the VOC up and push them out of their long established base in Southern Sumatra. Hope for quick victory was real. If the army of the Company was able to force the Kalinga to negotiate quickly enough, and Palembang held out long enough, it might just all be over in a year. And the army was at first able to advance at a lighting speed along the Andhra Coast, taking all forts along the way in just 10 months and projected to join the Bengali army in their siege of Cuttack in another 5. But, it was at this point that the government in Batavia recalled their armies as Batavia itself had quickly become threatened by the advancing Malaysians. Over the course of the late summer, they would be defeated in a series of battles on Western Java as the recall bulk of the army and navy now made escape impossible. News of Batavia being threatened or the final victory at Banten on the 11th of July, as Karel III died on the 7th of September, aged 42.
Karel III, reigned from 1680 to 1706
For a long time, through either sheer luck or more active diplomacy, Saxony had found herself outside of European conflict for a while. Despite the inter-European wars fought over the last decade, some involving both allies and rivals of Saxony, she had mostly reserved herself to fighting outside of the European mainland. Mainland Europe had been the site of internal strife or consolidating her position in the Empire, no major warfare to strengthen her own position or that of an ally. This would, however, change shorty into the reign of Karel III.
Two months after the birth of his first son (the young Johannes V), Denmark would declare war on the Polish lordship of Inowroclaw, the independence of which was guaranteed by the Teutonic Order, weary of the Danish ambitions in the Baltic sea and thus upon her coasts. Ever since the Danish conquest of the Brandenburgian holdings in Pommeralia, there had been tensions as the Brandenburgers had conquered Danzig from the Teutons. Inowroclaw lay precicely south of Danish Pommeralia on the Vistula, with the Teutons just east. Victory was a forgone conclusion simply due to the size of the combined Saxon-Danish armed forces, which outnumbered the Teutons and her allies from the Alpine region by somewhere between 2 or 3 to 1. This is precicely why both the young monarch and his parliament were unwilling to commit too many troops to this war. (In case of the parliament, they didn’t like the expenditure, in case on the monarch, he needed the troops for something else on his mind.) They would, however, be soon forced to change their attitude. On the 8th of February 1863, Stadholder Diederik II was able to score a major victory outside of Brünn where he was able to fully whipe out a Teuton army. However, through detachments, minor skirmishes and plain attrition his depleted force would be whiped out on the 23rd of February just a couple of kilometers away from the first field of battle. Reminded much of the First Holsteen War, and not wishing to suffer any more humiliating defeats, both parliament and the monarch authorized two new armies to be sent east, and for the lost Army of Westphalia to be rebuilt and later recommitted to the fight. Immediate result of the loss at Brünn was the Kingdom of Bohemia being knocked out of the war as a Danish ally, but, not grasped at the time, was that the Saxon military had perhaps been out of the European game for a little bit too long. What must also be mentioned is that a rather large sum was payed to the Teutons to ensure the safety of the leadership of the army that had just gotten whiped out, leading to a direct strengthening of the Teutonic war effort which lead to setbacks for the Danes in Estonia.
Bohemia being knocked out didn’t decisively change the outcome of the war, but it did however complicate the peace proceedings, as they were forced to secede most of Greater Poland to Uros Decanski II Czartoryski, nominal pretender to the Polish crown. What would otherwise have been the banishment of the Czartoryski to their other holding, the city of Kiev, turned into a minor territorial concession. The Duchy of Vastergötland would also come to an end, being integrated into the Danish crown. The Danes were, in turn, disappointed by the attitude the Saxons held about their designs upon the Baltic coast. As of yet, the access the Saxons held to the coasts was still free, but they feared the Danes gaining unfavorable leverage. Despite demands such as the secession of all of Estonia, the east bank of the Vistula and the city of Riga, this was mediated back to equal trading rights for Danish merchants (compared to the more welcome Saxon and Dutch merchants) and the secession of the islands of Ösel. Denmark, fearful of the weariness their aggressive expansion would cause in the kingdoms of Sweden and Finland (who had, as of yet, still been played apart from the Teutons), agreed, hoping that Sweden and Finland would not form a united block against the power of Copenhagen.
Of further note is the VOC campaign against the Hosokawa Shogunate of 1688-1689. Whereas the war against the Kalinga had been a matter entirely provoked by the VOC, in this case she stumbled into a case that server her search for new markets perfectly. In a fine example of how the coin, sword and cross were often carried by the same hand in the Far East, the murder of a Dominican missionary would lead to intervention by the VOC. The army of the Company (already made up of mostly European mercenaries) would, in this case, be backed up by mostly Chinese mercenaries, also showing the growing importance of Formosa to the VOC (and the growing Chinese presence on the island). The Japanese islands had, since the establishment of the Hosokawa Shogunate, grown wealthy by the internal peace that now reigned, the war like qualities of the samurai losing some of their significance as they generally developed an affection for more economic and but especially cultural pursuits, despite the restrictions of their class, as they were not incredibly strictly enforced by the Hosokawa. Much like the Koreans had experienced, the Hosokawa had seen the development of their navy to fight the pirates active on the many lesser islands. Despite the home advantage the Japanese navy had, the VOC would triumph, their victory not fully undependent on those exact pirates. The VOC would, through dominance of the sea, be able to trap the Japanese army on Kyushu, beating it in a series of engagements largely supported by the navy. Pressing their advantage, the armies stood at Kyoto, home of both the Shogun and powerless Emperor, 20 months after the start of the campaign. Japan would be forced to grant trading concessions along with the ports of Nagasaki and Kagoshima and the islands of Tsushima and Okinawa. As for the pirates, the VOC was already planning to hand them over to the authorities in Kyoto at the start of the war. “Piracy is simply bad for business.”
The happenings over in the east are worth mentioning due to the significance they would have a couple of years later on what was going on back over in Europe. What had been on the mind of Karel III during the First Baltic War was the aggressive foreign policy of the d’Escoubleau’s of France, Clotaire V (1637-1675), Hugues III (1675-1688) and now the regent for Théoderic III, Eglantine de Blois, had been pushing French influence in Lorraine and the Rhine, a historically contested region between the Holy Roman Empire and France. Bohemian weakness lead to no opposition when the Duke of Lorraine, in search of a new powerfull backer after a series of lost wars to the Bishop of Trier, declared the feudal contracts with Emperor null and void, instead seeking a new one with the young Théodreic III. Ironically enough, no attempt to restore the rights of Reginar II would be undertaken as the Bishop of Trier was also very much in Paris’ pocket, her prime ally on the western bank of the Rhine. As of 1691, France had found herself dragged into a Balkan conflict between now styled Vlachian “Emperor of the Romans” and the more traditionally styled Byzantine “Emperor of the Romans” in their feud over the Serbian despotate. The monarch determined that now was the time to strike, despite the signals that the newer officers gave him. The Saxon army would not be able to best a French army in a 1 to 1 fight. The French had more experience as they had found themselves in a state of semi-constant warfare (either internal and external) since Clotaire V had risen to the throne and they had also adopted modern and strict styles of drill. Their finances would also be able to hold up better as unlike a enemy like Great Britain, they were not nearly as dependent on overseas trade with their colonies of Louisiana and Remigia but much more on the Mediterranean where the navy had difficulties projecting power. The demand to retreat from the Empire was made on September 22nd 1691, only three months after Théoderic III had reached seniority. Rejection was received on the 29th and on the 1st of October the armies began movements to put Caux, Rethel and Trier to siege.
The initial naïve optimism of the war lasted under a year. Caux and Rethel, not much more than some hastily improved late medieval fortresses fell quickly after the Saxon cannons were brought to bear on their walls. Frankfurt fell to a combined Holsteener-Danish siege. Which lead to the first attempted siege of Paris and the Saxon army stuck on the much more fortified Trier. May the 1st would however see the death of Emperor Václav VI and the election of Jakob II of Baden, a French ally, which would lead to the Imperial Diet attempting to denounce the war Saxony was waging. Much more worrying were the troop movements through Baden, as a Savoyard army was preparing to get the Free City of Frankfurt back in the fight. On the 9th of August, a Papal-Saxon force attempted to relieve the garrison. The Savoyards had, however, been reinforced over the course of the nigh by a massive French army. And as the forces under Papal commander Callistus Serio advanced in the morning, they found themselves quickly on the backfoot as the French aggressively counterattacked with their superior numbers. They were barely able to escape. The French force followed up by moving on the now unsupported army besieging Trier, who were luckily informed in time and made an orderly retreat. A week later, much the same happened in Northern France, as the Saxon armies had been split by French maneuvers and the siege of Paris had to be abandoned, barely escaping back to Kamerijk. It was at Kamerijk that, reinforced by units from the east, the French advance would be stopped and forced to retreat in a battle that cost the Saxon much more lives in comparison to the French, despite outnumbering their foe 2 to 1. In a fine example of severely lacking coordination between allies, a small Savoyard army would be crushed at Kamerijk 3 weeks later, as well as a Danish victory over another Savoyard army at Rothenburg. It had, however, become clear that Saxon chances for victory had quickly diminished. Peace had returned in the Balkan with a status quo ante bellum (unsatisfactory for both sides) and the Pope leaving the war at the cost of possessions in the Po Valley just after New Year 1693.
As of yet there still existed a change for the Roderlo to be victorious. Victory over the French at Kamerijk had secured their ability to hold on to Caux and Rethel and with it the road to Paris. A attempt to put Rethel to siege in March was defeated and thus the time was deemed right to attempt to take Paris to hopefully end the war on favorable terms. Whilst Paris was put to siege for a second time. The French would move on the rear of the Saxon armies to cut supplies, leading to a ever escalating series of skirmishes which would culminate with the gathering of forces just north of Reims near the town of Courcy. Outnumbered and outgunned, they would be forced to retreat after one of the most bloody days in the history of the Saxon military. The cavalry heavy army was, however, able to use her horse mounted soldiers well to allow the army to retreat west where she would eventually find the safety of the fortress at Amerongen. It was however clear that even the strong fortresses of the South would not be able to provide safety for the battered army, thus, they retreated further to Brabant. The main issue that faced the defense of the fortresses was now demoralization, worsened further by the fall and subsequent sack of Kamerijk. A full collapse of the military apparatus was however prevented by the calculating diplomacy of Maarten van Stein-Stirum, one of the monarchs prime diplomats. He would, as described in his own words, “bribe the ego of Théoderic III.” He would be able to come to a deal that was a combination of a massive bribe in gold, admittance of defeat and the return of the port in Japan. For Théodoric, it was revenge upon the enemies of France that his grandfather had not been able to get. When read out in the Staten Generaal, it caused an outroar. A member for Zeeland would not that “a war lost by the nobility should not be paid for by the merchant marine!” But, the simple fact was that if this deal could not be agreed upon, that the bribe would otherwise have to be the coastline from Grevelingen to Caux. Parliament, pushed on by the monarch, would begrudgingly accept. France exited the war and abandoned her allies, who would in turn be unable to hold back the simple weight of the Saxon army. Savoy would be forced to return recent gains against both the Pope and multiple princes just north of the Alps. Trier was forced to return parts of Central Lorraine, in the hopes that some leverage could be gained upon but it would prove to be to no avail. In the end, the war fueled revanchism within Saxony and gave Théoderic a desire for more. A second War of the Rhine proved inevitable.
New status quo in the Upper Rhine following the First War of the Rhine
The period following the First War of the Rhine is often compared to the situation following the is often compared to that following the First Holsteen War. Whilst yes, revenge was the prime motivator behind change, it is a sign of the times that this was much more dependent on systems rather than the personal will and ambition of the monarch. Karel III was not the prime mover of change within the military apparatus. Conduct of the war had been in the hands of the many older aristocratic nobles, and the loss in the war opened up the way for the (still) Grand Ducal Officer Academy of Hannover to start paying dividends as her cadets started filtering into the now empty positions, which lead to a greater emphasis on massed artillery and the expansion of the infantry body of the army. The Staten Generaal had also, begrudgingly, come around to the increased amount of spending. However much discontent there may have been with the “aristocratic loss of the war”, the simple fact was that a superior enemy did not care about who lost the war for them, just that the Saxons did. At the same time, Van Stein-Stirum was sent to the Mediterranean to hopefully gain an advantage over the French. He would, together with a section of the admiralty, negotiate about aid towards the Papal navy and a Saxon naval base in Pisa “in the hypothetical situation” that war was to break out with France again. Main target would be the French trade with North Africa and the Most Serene Republic of Trinacria and Parthenopea. War with the foremost merchants power of the Mediterranean was however a acceptable risk if it meant the ability to threaten French merchant activity. The great achievement of Van Stein-Stirum was, however, the defection of the most potent French ally, Savoy. Savoy had effectively been bribed by the French in the advancements of their claims in the Po Valley against Friuli and the Papal State. Where success in the early war had granted them parts of their claims, France exiting the war early meant that Savoy was forced to return the land along with more in the Holy Roman Empire. This betrayal lead to the immediate cancellation of the alliance upon the conclusion of hostilities. The death of Thomas V in 1697 also lead to the loss of the Savoyard throne for the house Habsburg. In their stead, a cadet branch of the d’Escoubleau. This particular branch had actually partaken in one of the many internal conflicts that France had faced in the middle of the 17th century. They had been landowners in the southeast of France and had attempted to push their claim to the French throne during the minority of Théoderic III, causing them to lose their claims and go into a favorable exile in Savoy. Where the Habsburgs had been more interested in foreign policy aimed at the Empire and thus their predisposition to anything related of the Iron Crown of Lombardy, the d’Escoubleau-Provence were much more interested in their old Marquisate of Provence and the lands surrounding, making them a perfect ally against the Kingdom of France. France, in term, desperate for a new Italian ally, would bind herself to Friuli, a state that had found herself in conflict with both Savoy and the Pope. Also, in 1706, the crown of Emperor would pass back to the Bohemians with the crowning of Rudolf III, and he was again not favorable to continued French expansion in the Rhine. Not all was as smooth sailing as is presented though. In New Saxony, a colonel of mixed European-native descent and famed for his exploits during the guerilla of the French colonies was promoted to a general serving under the Viceduke. It was however a very controversial move as he himself was one of the first few and faint voices calling for more independence from Broenswiek. Meanwhile, the monarch himself was much more interested in the quiet start of the Enlightement and the Industrial Revolution, often receiving some of the lesser known early Enlightement thinkers at one of his countryside palaces to converse with, or being shown some of the earliest prototypes of industrial machines.
Whilst this was going on in Europe, the VOC retook her footing after the forced loss of her holdings in mainland Japan. 1703 saw the VOC assume more control over the island of Java and expand her spice plantation in the Molucca’s. The more noted war was their second conflict with the Kalinga, as they had again started providing support to another series of revolts on Ceylon. Much like the First War of the Rhine, what was first hoped to be a quick war against a distracted enemy with limited goals turned out to be a massive slog and a massive loss for the VOC. The Ganga found themselves joined by the Malay states of Pasai and Perak, who hoped to split the VOC up and push them out of their long established base in Southern Sumatra. Hope for quick victory was real. If the army of the Company was able to force the Kalinga to negotiate quickly enough, and Palembang held out long enough, it might just all be over in a year. And the army was at first able to advance at a lighting speed along the Andhra Coast, taking all forts along the way in just 10 months and projected to join the Bengali army in their siege of Cuttack in another 5. But, it was at this point that the government in Batavia recalled their armies as Batavia itself had quickly become threatened by the advancing Malaysians. Over the course of the late summer, they would be defeated in a series of battles on Western Java as the recall bulk of the army and navy now made escape impossible. News of Batavia being threatened or the final victory at Banten on the 11th of July, as Karel III died on the 7th of September, aged 42.
Karel III, reigned from 1680 to 1706
Saxony seems to be having problems.
Also, why are there two "Roman Empires"? Did Byzantium survive the Ottomans?
Also, why are there two "Roman Empires"? Did Byzantium survive the Ottomans?
I've went around to the 1444 intermission and dug up the Near East picture
Johannes V
The reign of Johannes V
It had quickly become clear to the VOC leadership in Batavia and back over at her headquarters in Europe that the conflict she had found herself in wasn’t the quick, low cost operation she had hoped for. 1707 would see a slow, arguois campaign across Sumatra with a stubborn defense at Palembang. In turn, the force left behind in mainland India would face the full might of the Kalinga army as they had dealt with the enemies on their northern frontier, leading to a crushing defeat whilst trying to lift the siege of Velandadu. Another battle, on lesser scale, at Madurai would see them forced to retreat to Ceylon, whilst the garrisons in the mainland, now isolated from any outside help, would be rolled up, with all gains of 1705 lost. This would be topped off by a naval defeat at the tip of Sumatra, attempting to bombard the Pasai capital. The VOC would lose some of her most battle capable ships. To continue financing the war had become too costly a option for the Company, yet it would not allow herself to be bested by a Asian power, fearfull of what consequences that would entail for her holdings, mainly surrounding the Chinese seas. The VOC turned to the Staten Generaal for direct aid. Where the proceeding started normal, it was a member for Keulen who, half-jokingly it must be said, noted that “a war lost by the Company should not be paid for by the aristocracy.” The joke turned into a argument, the argument into anger, anger into rage and rage escalated into a brawl which saw the whole floor of the chamber covered in men fighting or those trying to stop the fight. It was only the direct intervention of the monarch, who commanded some of his guards to enter the chamber, putting the fight, and the day’s proceedings, to a end. It was only the next day, and with the “carefully persuaded” resignation of the two members who had started the argument, that the proceedings would continue. Within the first year of his reign, the 24 year old Johannes had already left his impression on his parliament.
The debates considering the extent of the aid, and the demands in turn are best described as a “long slog”. Both sides understood the need to compromise (lest they embarrass themselves again), but it didn’t mean that this was very willingly. Slow, but never stuck, the aid bill would be passed on 17th of June 1707. It contained a payment that was “carefully considered to be the amount needed to defeat the Ganga of India”, and not much more than that. Not that it was needed because the bill also required the company to concentrate her efforts on defeating the Ganga, to be read as cutting her losses everywhere else. Luckily, the Pasai had been willing to seek peace following their victory on the sea outside of Pasai, as it left her position strong enough to actually resist demands. In the end, only minor concessions around Palembang would be given to help increase the defense of the city in the future. Following some tense moments around the summer of 1708, when the potential of a Indian army landing on Ceylon seemed real and would have destroyed the VOC presence in India, late 1708 saw the gathering of the new VOC armies on Ceylon, with them crossing onto the mainland in early 1709. This time, there would be no lighting war up the Andhra Coast, as the fortresses had been heavily reinforced, if only provisionally. A slog of a campaign with only minimal battles was the result, and in 1710 the flank of the advance up the coast was so endangered that a campaign into the uplands of Hyderabad was conducted with the simple goal of preventing any supply base of being set up, a simple campaign of plunder. Finally, the Company would take Cuttack in the first days of 1711. With the funds the Staten Generaal had set aside gone, and any more expenditure coming, once again, from her own coffers, whatever the Orissans offered was what she was going to get. Control over Madurai and her surroundings, the port of Bahktal and the secession of any support to rebels on Ceylon (not that the Ganga maintained the base’s for such support anymore). The VOC, exhausted, took the deal, forced to focus her resources into rebuilding the fleet after a devastating loss in the Bay of Bengal.
National interest had however diverted from the humiliation that had been the bare skin victory over in India. Growing ever more confident about the renewed ability of the army, the military leadership began provoking a confrontation with the French. Ever since the dissolution of the personal union over France, the French colonies in the New World lived in a continuous state of uncertainty. They had been founded by French merchants for the purpose of trade with the native population, but it had later expanded into colonies of settlement and plantation as Louisiana and Remigia provided fertile land for especially tobacco, a commodity in increasing demand back over in Europe. The previous war had seen the occupation of these colonies and the guerilla fought by local garrisons reinforced by militia’s and native allies. The end of the war had seen the evacuation of these territories and French administration had returned. The end of the war had however left multiple minor border issue’s unsolved, along with ongoing conflict between the native allies of both parties. Colonial authorities were encouraged to press the issue’s by providing arms to native allies and construct fortresses in the disputed areas, a job much easier as the previous war had left the authorities with extensive knowledge of area. At the same time, New Antwerp began giving out letters of marque to pirates operating from the Republic of Providence. Most prominent of these was Rosalie Gibbs, a Georgian of Catholic-Welsh origin, she had turned to piracy after the death of her husband and her only daughter had left her with a mountain of debt. Throughout the early 1710’ns, the French coffers and colonies felt the squeeze as Providence and Broenswiek made a tidy profit off of the tobacco piracy. This went so far that, in 1713, the admiralty over in Antwerp actually requested that Gibbs, by now a well-known captain, travel to Europe and take charge of the main formation of the Saxon fleet, doing so by December of that year. That same year Théoderic III sent more soldiers overseas to Remigia. In the summer of 1714, this would lead to the Masacre at Fort Strydom. 15 Saxon soldiers were killed out of a garrison of 55. Demands for the return of the fortress and the abandonment of all French territorial claims were unmet. War was declared in September that year.
The Second War of the Rhine provided both sides the rematch they had been hoping for. For Saxony, it was the chance at revenge she was hoping for, for France, victory would assure dominance of the Upper Rhine and finally security for her ever more profitable colonies. But, the task that France faced was much harder this time. Savoy had flipped sides, her ally Friuli was isolated and the southeast laid open to invasion. For both sides, the goal was clear, dominance of the Alps, and Saxony was hundreds of kilometers away. French strategy was based around taking control of the northern end of the Alps, Savoyard Switzerland, and dominating the passes south, to take away the most likely route of advance for any Saxon force through Trier and Lorraine. By May 1st 1715, Basel was in French hands and French forces were shoring up the position in the passes leading up to Milan, dominance of Italy seemed secure and the war doomed for Saxony, had it not been for the fact that on March 12th Paris was already in Saxon hands and Dijon was being stormed. Trier was deemed too small of a threat to the Saxon Rhine and her fortifications too strong to be a priority. By the end of summer, still without any mayor engagements, Basel had been returned to Savoy, the French armies trapped east of the Alps and Friuli settled with the unbearable task of supplying the massive French forces. France had also come to be stuck without a head of state as Théoderic insisted in witnessing the sure to be victory first hand. The French armies, stuck in either unknown or hostile territory, were forced to retreat further and further, further and further away from home, whilst Saxon, Savoyard and Papal armies took control over the Po valley, as the Friulian armies refused to give battle to a superior enemy. Not only that, but over the course of 1715 and 1716 the Danes actually took the effort of breaking through the rough half a dozen modern and less than modern fortresses that protected Trier itself and her hold over the Rhine, exiting the war, making returning home for the French even more impossible than it already was. The only way now was to defeat the numerically superior allied forces in a pitched battle and making a run for it whilst they were licking their wounds. First battle would be done at the northeastern most end of the Alps, at the Wienerwald. A force of roughly 30.000 Frenchmen faced of against a allied force just over twice their number. A brilliant piece of defence by the French commander Carloman de Bercy, he managed to inflict about 2500 more casualties on the Saxons than the 3000 they inflicted on him and he managed to retreat in good order, luring the Saxons to the east whilst the main body of the army was attempting to move through Carinthia, neutral Tyrol and Savoy, homewards. However, aid by the Savoyards, familiar with Alpine warfare, made the Saxon army much more mobile than her French counterpart, despite not being intended to fight in the terrain. The French losing time to break through, and it all came to a head at the city of Villach in Carinthia. Around the city, a small force of Saxons and Savoyards was camping, and on the 4th of September 1716, the French main body of 96.000 soldiers would attempt to force their way through the 23.000 allied soldiers. The allies were, however, very much aware that the Saxon main body of 112.000 men was less than a days march behind. The French attacked just before dawn, which the allied forces had actually anticipated. At first, the French thought they had achieved complete surprise, but this was shattered moments later when the cannons of the defense of Villach opened up with cannister at point blank range, shattering the first French wave. For three and a half hours, the Saxon-Savoyard army held on by anchoring her lines on the sides of the mountains, placing itself in the valley the French had to pass through. After those three and a half hours, when the line seemed about to waver, a cannonshot was seen from a hill in the direction of Klagenfurt, signalling the arrival of Karel Roderlo, first cousin once removed of Johannes V, commanding the main body of the allied army. Carloman de Bercy fought a defencive action against Karel for as long as he could to buy Théoderic as much time as he could to force victory, but the main valley needed for the advance still wasn’t laid open. At about one past noon the decision was made to have as much of the army attempt to get away through one of the lesser valleys, with the king in front to head the defense of France. De Bercy actually rallied the troops so well for the defence that Karel had thought the French had received reinforcements. Only when later noticed from greater height that the French had started their retreat did a full scale attack begin, cutting straight through the middle of the French army, preventing most of it from retreating and being stuck between the mountains on two sides and allied soldiers on the other two. The death of De Bercy by a cannonball shooting his legs under him finally allowed for this part of the French army to surrender. Much of the part of the French army that had escaped was hunted down later as the valley they retreated into simply wasn’t large enough to allow for such an army to march through at such a scale and such a speed. To this day, one can still find people there who claim descent from French soldiers who hid in the mountains and simply never left for France again. As for what it was worth in the end, Théoderic was able to escape to France with a small section of his army. Back at home, there were new soldiers waiting, however, France would be at the mercy of her enemies.
The French defeat at Villach meant the immediate exit of Friuli from the war in exchange for the return of large parts of Steiermark to her dejure Duke. As for France, Théoderic focused his defence on the southeast, although it was compromised as in May 1717 Rosalie Gibbs, in command of a combined Papal-Saxon armada in the Mediterranean defeated the whole remaining French navy, followed quickly by the taking of Marseilles and Toulon. His defeat and capture at the hands of a smaller Saxon-Papal army under command of Waldemar van Enter, one of the new Hannoverian officers, finally forced peace upon France. The terms with Saxony might actually be considered the least harsh, as for them the victory was overcoming the French armies in the field. Saxony demanded the handover of all holdings in the New World as well as the restoration of the Duke of Lorraine to the Empire. For the Pope, it was reperations for the loss of Avignon some centuries before. The Savoyard demands were the harshest, as it was the secession of the Dauphinate and Provence. As for Théoderic III, the close to 4 year long occupation some parts of the realm had withstood had made him very unpopular to say the least, despite the many achievements of his realm. In the interest of protecting the rights of his son, his wife Marie de Bourbon, preformed a palace coup, forcing an abdication and having herself be established as the regent of their 13 year old son.
At this point, we could return to the Far East, where between 1718 and 1722 the VOC once again found herself in conflict with Pasai and Perak again, this time backed up by the Timurids of Persia who began cultivating a interest in Sumatra, or how the Yuan began developing their own trade networks with India, the more important developments took place in Europe over this time. We shall reflect on this situation in the Far East in the near future.
From 1718 to 1720, Brandenburg had found herself in another war on two fronts with Denmark and Bohemia. Despite holding the Imperial throne, Bohemia was in a weakened position. The loss of Greater Poland to the Czartoryski had restarted instability in the Kingdom of Poland as their title was threatened from west and east, not to forget that the Danube Basin was also proving a volatile region. Denmark, at the time, was also facing revolts throughout Norway. All in all, the situation allowed for the numerically outnumbered Brandenburgers to gain a decisive victory over her enemies, again taking the port city of Stettin and taking control over the bordering Sudeten mountains and Silesia. For over a century now, Broenswiek had maintained a balance of power east of the Elbe, mainly to make sure no country would prove able to challenge Saxony enough by laying waste to her heartland. Whilst the relation between Broenswiek and Prague had long since soured, protestant Brandenburg, a very viable military power especially with a enlarged tax and population base, would prove a much more formidable enemy than the old ally, Catholic Bohemia with a sub-par army quality wise. The war with Brandenburg is not worth discussing, a quick affair dealt with through numerical superiority and fast movement. Within a year, spanning late 1722 and early 1723, Brandenburg was forced to abandon her territorial acquisitions, forced to return to the 1717 status quo. But this is where Broenswiek and Prague clashed.
Johannes V had provided Emperor Premsyl III a great service, possibly preventing the end of the Crown of Bohemia, he had hoped for a counterservice, one that only the Emperor could provide, a royal title. For centuries now, the Roderlo had occupied one of the most powerfull realms of Europe, witch shared institution it had practically become a fully united entity if it was only besides the fact that all individual pieces owed loyalty to the Emperor. Yes, the Roderlo had occupied the throne of the Kingdom of France for about a odd century, and since 1675 a Estrid-Roderlo (much more Roderlo than Estrid but the name carried significant prestige for the Danish kingdom so it was put first) occupied the Danish throne. But the last time there had been a king who ruled from Saxony it was Otto Liudolfinger who rose to be King of Germany and (re-)founder of the Holy Roman Empire. He had died in 973. To add fuel to the fire, in 1721, as Boniface III had reached the age of seniority, he had himself crowned as the King of Arelat, a title within the Holy Roman Empire effectively dead since the 14th century, when the heir to the French throne was raised to the title of Dauphine by the Emperor himself. With the secession of the Dauphinate Amédée VII had seen it fit to claim the title, although he had died only days before his coronation as such. The young Escoubleau king, much like his Saxon counterpart, wished to see his title confirmed by the Emperor. For Premsyl III it was a simple direct assault on his powers as Emperor. Ever since the short-lived Bohemian Reformation, the Emperors seated in Prague had worked mostly on bringing the heart of the Holy Roman Empire, the shattered core between the Alps, France, Burgundy and Saxony back to the fold, with many great results. Whereas after the Protestant League had proven itself unable to challenge Catholicism as the state religion of the Empire there had only been 3 eligible electors (the Grand Duke of Saxony, the King of Bohemia and the Bishop of Trier), by now, through diplomacy, strategic marriages and some fair deal of bloodletting, there were 8 electors who could vote for a new emperor, even if all their subjects were not fully in line with Rome. Within these states, there was at least some semblance of traditional feudal loyalty to the Emperor. The Austrians, ever protestant, continued to snub the Emperors, much like the other members east of the Elbe. Savoy had moved out from under the French shadow, ready to assert herself, and Saxony was by now a world spanning empire. Giving out and affirming the royal titles would be the death sentence for the Empire, shattering the last remaining authority it had. Only a suicidal Emperor could have agreed to the demands. And thus, despite being chosen to, as a hoped sign of good faith, host the 1723 and 1724 sessions of the Reichstag, the situation continued to deteriorate. Not only that, but by this point the Enlightenment had “made a damming statement about the HRE.” This is not the famous “not Holy, or Roman, or an Empire” quote, this is a fabrication by 19th century liberals. The Enlightenment had started developing the idea of the nation. To put the sole responsibility of the end of the HRE on the shoulders of the Enlightenment is wrong. The Empire, through religious conflict, growing outside influence and the Continental Germanic sphere growing both in Europe and the rest of the world, had simply culturally shattered. The HRE was a Empire in the sense that it was a entity containing multiple nations. This is why the title of King would destroy the HRE.
It is during the growing tensions of 1724 that Johannes V would seek allies among his fellow princes, foreshadowing the shattering of the HRE that was about to happen. In the summer of 1724 he and his 24 year old son, Willem-Frederik, would tour the Empire. The electors, in general, stood behind the heir of the men who had empowered them, except a few. The Duke of Thuringia, seeing in Saxony a rival of Brandenburg who actually proved time after time the better in the field, saw a ally in standing up and hopefully regaining lands in Meissen. The Duke of Lorraine, who owed much to his Saxon backers and hoped for a royal title themselves and to press claims in the Rhine. And lastly a ambitious Count of Rothenburg, who hoped for the title of prince and lands to go along with it. In November, Johannes V and Willem-Frederik went to tour the northern HRE, with a curtesy visit to their vasal Adolf IV in Kiel, a unsuccesfull bribe to Kanut III in Wismar, to be followed with a visit to the Duke of Pommerania and a member of the family, Svein II of Estrid-Roderlo, in Copenhagen. On the 18th of December, whilst crossing the frozen straits to Sjealland to spend Christmas in Copenhagen, the carriage carrying both the Grand Duke and his heir crashed through the sea ice. The throne would pass on to the closes living male relative of the king, his cousin and the Victor of Villach, Karel IV.
Johannes V, reigned from 1706 to 1724
It had quickly become clear to the VOC leadership in Batavia and back over at her headquarters in Europe that the conflict she had found herself in wasn’t the quick, low cost operation she had hoped for. 1707 would see a slow, arguois campaign across Sumatra with a stubborn defense at Palembang. In turn, the force left behind in mainland India would face the full might of the Kalinga army as they had dealt with the enemies on their northern frontier, leading to a crushing defeat whilst trying to lift the siege of Velandadu. Another battle, on lesser scale, at Madurai would see them forced to retreat to Ceylon, whilst the garrisons in the mainland, now isolated from any outside help, would be rolled up, with all gains of 1705 lost. This would be topped off by a naval defeat at the tip of Sumatra, attempting to bombard the Pasai capital. The VOC would lose some of her most battle capable ships. To continue financing the war had become too costly a option for the Company, yet it would not allow herself to be bested by a Asian power, fearfull of what consequences that would entail for her holdings, mainly surrounding the Chinese seas. The VOC turned to the Staten Generaal for direct aid. Where the proceeding started normal, it was a member for Keulen who, half-jokingly it must be said, noted that “a war lost by the Company should not be paid for by the aristocracy.” The joke turned into a argument, the argument into anger, anger into rage and rage escalated into a brawl which saw the whole floor of the chamber covered in men fighting or those trying to stop the fight. It was only the direct intervention of the monarch, who commanded some of his guards to enter the chamber, putting the fight, and the day’s proceedings, to a end. It was only the next day, and with the “carefully persuaded” resignation of the two members who had started the argument, that the proceedings would continue. Within the first year of his reign, the 24 year old Johannes had already left his impression on his parliament.
The debates considering the extent of the aid, and the demands in turn are best described as a “long slog”. Both sides understood the need to compromise (lest they embarrass themselves again), but it didn’t mean that this was very willingly. Slow, but never stuck, the aid bill would be passed on 17th of June 1707. It contained a payment that was “carefully considered to be the amount needed to defeat the Ganga of India”, and not much more than that. Not that it was needed because the bill also required the company to concentrate her efforts on defeating the Ganga, to be read as cutting her losses everywhere else. Luckily, the Pasai had been willing to seek peace following their victory on the sea outside of Pasai, as it left her position strong enough to actually resist demands. In the end, only minor concessions around Palembang would be given to help increase the defense of the city in the future. Following some tense moments around the summer of 1708, when the potential of a Indian army landing on Ceylon seemed real and would have destroyed the VOC presence in India, late 1708 saw the gathering of the new VOC armies on Ceylon, with them crossing onto the mainland in early 1709. This time, there would be no lighting war up the Andhra Coast, as the fortresses had been heavily reinforced, if only provisionally. A slog of a campaign with only minimal battles was the result, and in 1710 the flank of the advance up the coast was so endangered that a campaign into the uplands of Hyderabad was conducted with the simple goal of preventing any supply base of being set up, a simple campaign of plunder. Finally, the Company would take Cuttack in the first days of 1711. With the funds the Staten Generaal had set aside gone, and any more expenditure coming, once again, from her own coffers, whatever the Orissans offered was what she was going to get. Control over Madurai and her surroundings, the port of Bahktal and the secession of any support to rebels on Ceylon (not that the Ganga maintained the base’s for such support anymore). The VOC, exhausted, took the deal, forced to focus her resources into rebuilding the fleet after a devastating loss in the Bay of Bengal.
National interest had however diverted from the humiliation that had been the bare skin victory over in India. Growing ever more confident about the renewed ability of the army, the military leadership began provoking a confrontation with the French. Ever since the dissolution of the personal union over France, the French colonies in the New World lived in a continuous state of uncertainty. They had been founded by French merchants for the purpose of trade with the native population, but it had later expanded into colonies of settlement and plantation as Louisiana and Remigia provided fertile land for especially tobacco, a commodity in increasing demand back over in Europe. The previous war had seen the occupation of these colonies and the guerilla fought by local garrisons reinforced by militia’s and native allies. The end of the war had seen the evacuation of these territories and French administration had returned. The end of the war had however left multiple minor border issue’s unsolved, along with ongoing conflict between the native allies of both parties. Colonial authorities were encouraged to press the issue’s by providing arms to native allies and construct fortresses in the disputed areas, a job much easier as the previous war had left the authorities with extensive knowledge of area. At the same time, New Antwerp began giving out letters of marque to pirates operating from the Republic of Providence. Most prominent of these was Rosalie Gibbs, a Georgian of Catholic-Welsh origin, she had turned to piracy after the death of her husband and her only daughter had left her with a mountain of debt. Throughout the early 1710’ns, the French coffers and colonies felt the squeeze as Providence and Broenswiek made a tidy profit off of the tobacco piracy. This went so far that, in 1713, the admiralty over in Antwerp actually requested that Gibbs, by now a well-known captain, travel to Europe and take charge of the main formation of the Saxon fleet, doing so by December of that year. That same year Théoderic III sent more soldiers overseas to Remigia. In the summer of 1714, this would lead to the Masacre at Fort Strydom. 15 Saxon soldiers were killed out of a garrison of 55. Demands for the return of the fortress and the abandonment of all French territorial claims were unmet. War was declared in September that year.
The Second War of the Rhine provided both sides the rematch they had been hoping for. For Saxony, it was the chance at revenge she was hoping for, for France, victory would assure dominance of the Upper Rhine and finally security for her ever more profitable colonies. But, the task that France faced was much harder this time. Savoy had flipped sides, her ally Friuli was isolated and the southeast laid open to invasion. For both sides, the goal was clear, dominance of the Alps, and Saxony was hundreds of kilometers away. French strategy was based around taking control of the northern end of the Alps, Savoyard Switzerland, and dominating the passes south, to take away the most likely route of advance for any Saxon force through Trier and Lorraine. By May 1st 1715, Basel was in French hands and French forces were shoring up the position in the passes leading up to Milan, dominance of Italy seemed secure and the war doomed for Saxony, had it not been for the fact that on March 12th Paris was already in Saxon hands and Dijon was being stormed. Trier was deemed too small of a threat to the Saxon Rhine and her fortifications too strong to be a priority. By the end of summer, still without any mayor engagements, Basel had been returned to Savoy, the French armies trapped east of the Alps and Friuli settled with the unbearable task of supplying the massive French forces. France had also come to be stuck without a head of state as Théoderic insisted in witnessing the sure to be victory first hand. The French armies, stuck in either unknown or hostile territory, were forced to retreat further and further, further and further away from home, whilst Saxon, Savoyard and Papal armies took control over the Po valley, as the Friulian armies refused to give battle to a superior enemy. Not only that, but over the course of 1715 and 1716 the Danes actually took the effort of breaking through the rough half a dozen modern and less than modern fortresses that protected Trier itself and her hold over the Rhine, exiting the war, making returning home for the French even more impossible than it already was. The only way now was to defeat the numerically superior allied forces in a pitched battle and making a run for it whilst they were licking their wounds. First battle would be done at the northeastern most end of the Alps, at the Wienerwald. A force of roughly 30.000 Frenchmen faced of against a allied force just over twice their number. A brilliant piece of defence by the French commander Carloman de Bercy, he managed to inflict about 2500 more casualties on the Saxons than the 3000 they inflicted on him and he managed to retreat in good order, luring the Saxons to the east whilst the main body of the army was attempting to move through Carinthia, neutral Tyrol and Savoy, homewards. However, aid by the Savoyards, familiar with Alpine warfare, made the Saxon army much more mobile than her French counterpart, despite not being intended to fight in the terrain. The French losing time to break through, and it all came to a head at the city of Villach in Carinthia. Around the city, a small force of Saxons and Savoyards was camping, and on the 4th of September 1716, the French main body of 96.000 soldiers would attempt to force their way through the 23.000 allied soldiers. The allies were, however, very much aware that the Saxon main body of 112.000 men was less than a days march behind. The French attacked just before dawn, which the allied forces had actually anticipated. At first, the French thought they had achieved complete surprise, but this was shattered moments later when the cannons of the defense of Villach opened up with cannister at point blank range, shattering the first French wave. For three and a half hours, the Saxon-Savoyard army held on by anchoring her lines on the sides of the mountains, placing itself in the valley the French had to pass through. After those three and a half hours, when the line seemed about to waver, a cannonshot was seen from a hill in the direction of Klagenfurt, signalling the arrival of Karel Roderlo, first cousin once removed of Johannes V, commanding the main body of the allied army. Carloman de Bercy fought a defencive action against Karel for as long as he could to buy Théoderic as much time as he could to force victory, but the main valley needed for the advance still wasn’t laid open. At about one past noon the decision was made to have as much of the army attempt to get away through one of the lesser valleys, with the king in front to head the defense of France. De Bercy actually rallied the troops so well for the defence that Karel had thought the French had received reinforcements. Only when later noticed from greater height that the French had started their retreat did a full scale attack begin, cutting straight through the middle of the French army, preventing most of it from retreating and being stuck between the mountains on two sides and allied soldiers on the other two. The death of De Bercy by a cannonball shooting his legs under him finally allowed for this part of the French army to surrender. Much of the part of the French army that had escaped was hunted down later as the valley they retreated into simply wasn’t large enough to allow for such an army to march through at such a scale and such a speed. To this day, one can still find people there who claim descent from French soldiers who hid in the mountains and simply never left for France again. As for what it was worth in the end, Théoderic was able to escape to France with a small section of his army. Back at home, there were new soldiers waiting, however, France would be at the mercy of her enemies.
The French defeat at Villach meant the immediate exit of Friuli from the war in exchange for the return of large parts of Steiermark to her dejure Duke. As for France, Théoderic focused his defence on the southeast, although it was compromised as in May 1717 Rosalie Gibbs, in command of a combined Papal-Saxon armada in the Mediterranean defeated the whole remaining French navy, followed quickly by the taking of Marseilles and Toulon. His defeat and capture at the hands of a smaller Saxon-Papal army under command of Waldemar van Enter, one of the new Hannoverian officers, finally forced peace upon France. The terms with Saxony might actually be considered the least harsh, as for them the victory was overcoming the French armies in the field. Saxony demanded the handover of all holdings in the New World as well as the restoration of the Duke of Lorraine to the Empire. For the Pope, it was reperations for the loss of Avignon some centuries before. The Savoyard demands were the harshest, as it was the secession of the Dauphinate and Provence. As for Théoderic III, the close to 4 year long occupation some parts of the realm had withstood had made him very unpopular to say the least, despite the many achievements of his realm. In the interest of protecting the rights of his son, his wife Marie de Bourbon, preformed a palace coup, forcing an abdication and having herself be established as the regent of their 13 year old son.
At this point, we could return to the Far East, where between 1718 and 1722 the VOC once again found herself in conflict with Pasai and Perak again, this time backed up by the Timurids of Persia who began cultivating a interest in Sumatra, or how the Yuan began developing their own trade networks with India, the more important developments took place in Europe over this time. We shall reflect on this situation in the Far East in the near future.
From 1718 to 1720, Brandenburg had found herself in another war on two fronts with Denmark and Bohemia. Despite holding the Imperial throne, Bohemia was in a weakened position. The loss of Greater Poland to the Czartoryski had restarted instability in the Kingdom of Poland as their title was threatened from west and east, not to forget that the Danube Basin was also proving a volatile region. Denmark, at the time, was also facing revolts throughout Norway. All in all, the situation allowed for the numerically outnumbered Brandenburgers to gain a decisive victory over her enemies, again taking the port city of Stettin and taking control over the bordering Sudeten mountains and Silesia. For over a century now, Broenswiek had maintained a balance of power east of the Elbe, mainly to make sure no country would prove able to challenge Saxony enough by laying waste to her heartland. Whilst the relation between Broenswiek and Prague had long since soured, protestant Brandenburg, a very viable military power especially with a enlarged tax and population base, would prove a much more formidable enemy than the old ally, Catholic Bohemia with a sub-par army quality wise. The war with Brandenburg is not worth discussing, a quick affair dealt with through numerical superiority and fast movement. Within a year, spanning late 1722 and early 1723, Brandenburg was forced to abandon her territorial acquisitions, forced to return to the 1717 status quo. But this is where Broenswiek and Prague clashed.
Johannes V had provided Emperor Premsyl III a great service, possibly preventing the end of the Crown of Bohemia, he had hoped for a counterservice, one that only the Emperor could provide, a royal title. For centuries now, the Roderlo had occupied one of the most powerfull realms of Europe, witch shared institution it had practically become a fully united entity if it was only besides the fact that all individual pieces owed loyalty to the Emperor. Yes, the Roderlo had occupied the throne of the Kingdom of France for about a odd century, and since 1675 a Estrid-Roderlo (much more Roderlo than Estrid but the name carried significant prestige for the Danish kingdom so it was put first) occupied the Danish throne. But the last time there had been a king who ruled from Saxony it was Otto Liudolfinger who rose to be King of Germany and (re-)founder of the Holy Roman Empire. He had died in 973. To add fuel to the fire, in 1721, as Boniface III had reached the age of seniority, he had himself crowned as the King of Arelat, a title within the Holy Roman Empire effectively dead since the 14th century, when the heir to the French throne was raised to the title of Dauphine by the Emperor himself. With the secession of the Dauphinate Amédée VII had seen it fit to claim the title, although he had died only days before his coronation as such. The young Escoubleau king, much like his Saxon counterpart, wished to see his title confirmed by the Emperor. For Premsyl III it was a simple direct assault on his powers as Emperor. Ever since the short-lived Bohemian Reformation, the Emperors seated in Prague had worked mostly on bringing the heart of the Holy Roman Empire, the shattered core between the Alps, France, Burgundy and Saxony back to the fold, with many great results. Whereas after the Protestant League had proven itself unable to challenge Catholicism as the state religion of the Empire there had only been 3 eligible electors (the Grand Duke of Saxony, the King of Bohemia and the Bishop of Trier), by now, through diplomacy, strategic marriages and some fair deal of bloodletting, there were 8 electors who could vote for a new emperor, even if all their subjects were not fully in line with Rome. Within these states, there was at least some semblance of traditional feudal loyalty to the Emperor. The Austrians, ever protestant, continued to snub the Emperors, much like the other members east of the Elbe. Savoy had moved out from under the French shadow, ready to assert herself, and Saxony was by now a world spanning empire. Giving out and affirming the royal titles would be the death sentence for the Empire, shattering the last remaining authority it had. Only a suicidal Emperor could have agreed to the demands. And thus, despite being chosen to, as a hoped sign of good faith, host the 1723 and 1724 sessions of the Reichstag, the situation continued to deteriorate. Not only that, but by this point the Enlightenment had “made a damming statement about the HRE.” This is not the famous “not Holy, or Roman, or an Empire” quote, this is a fabrication by 19th century liberals. The Enlightenment had started developing the idea of the nation. To put the sole responsibility of the end of the HRE on the shoulders of the Enlightenment is wrong. The Empire, through religious conflict, growing outside influence and the Continental Germanic sphere growing both in Europe and the rest of the world, had simply culturally shattered. The HRE was a Empire in the sense that it was a entity containing multiple nations. This is why the title of King would destroy the HRE.
It is during the growing tensions of 1724 that Johannes V would seek allies among his fellow princes, foreshadowing the shattering of the HRE that was about to happen. In the summer of 1724 he and his 24 year old son, Willem-Frederik, would tour the Empire. The electors, in general, stood behind the heir of the men who had empowered them, except a few. The Duke of Thuringia, seeing in Saxony a rival of Brandenburg who actually proved time after time the better in the field, saw a ally in standing up and hopefully regaining lands in Meissen. The Duke of Lorraine, who owed much to his Saxon backers and hoped for a royal title themselves and to press claims in the Rhine. And lastly a ambitious Count of Rothenburg, who hoped for the title of prince and lands to go along with it. In November, Johannes V and Willem-Frederik went to tour the northern HRE, with a curtesy visit to their vasal Adolf IV in Kiel, a unsuccesfull bribe to Kanut III in Wismar, to be followed with a visit to the Duke of Pommerania and a member of the family, Svein II of Estrid-Roderlo, in Copenhagen. On the 18th of December, whilst crossing the frozen straits to Sjealland to spend Christmas in Copenhagen, the carriage carrying both the Grand Duke and his heir crashed through the sea ice. The throne would pass on to the closes living male relative of the king, his cousin and the Victor of Villach, Karel IV.
Johannes V, reigned from 1706 to 1724
Karel IV, part I
The reign of Karel IV, part I
The ascension to the throne of Karel III was a great shock throughout both Saxony and the rest of Europe. Not only because of the way his predecessor had died and he had suddenly become the direct heir, but mostly because of the reputation he had gained. Not being closely linked to the line of succession had allowed him to cut lose from the many rules, regulations and obligations of the court in Broenswiek. From a young age, he had always been the wilder type, especially at some of the many parties held at lesser castles. By the age of 15, there were already stories of him having mistresses of up to 10 years older. By the next year, this turned into a great controversy as he had a affair with the wife of Count Willem-Otto van Randwijk, the Stadholder of Gelre, Zutphen, Kleef and Berg. By now, he had become quite the headache for the late Karel III, so he was quickly shipped off on what would be his Grand Tour of Italy, a custom much more common among Scottish and Scandinavian upper classes, but was not unknown to the rest of the continent. His Grand Tour would however be a 7 year long journey across almost the whole of the continent. At the end of 1706, he crossed the Alps into Italy. Whilst staying and studying in Florence, he would have an affair with young Duke of Tuscany. He would travel further south to Rome, where he was received by Pope Sylvester IV. In one of their evening dinners, a theological debate would begin which, as confirmed by both Karel’s own writings and that of witnesses, was almost won by the young Roderlo had it not been for the intercession of Cardinal Casciano. Travveling further to the south he would spend some months between the ruins of the Mezzegiorno before hopping on a Parthenopean ship bound for Thessaloniki and traveling overland to Constantinople, where he would wander the streets and witness the Vlachian siege of the city in 1708. From there, he would sail along with a Genoan merchant back to Italy, where he would spend a few months studying in Venice, especially intrigued by the old institutions of the Republic of the city. Having made a fair bit of pocket money off of his travels on merchants ships, he would throw some of the wildest parties that Italy had seen, amazing his guests with a inexplicable ability to keep drinking without getting drunk. He would, once again, leave behind a fair amount of children conceived either out of wedlock of with a woman who wore the ring of another man. From Genoa he would travel on to Spain, where for his personal enjoyment, he would re-enact Don Quixote to see how long he could pull off the act without the authorities getting to him. 23 days was the answer, from where he was put on a boat in Lisbon and sent back home to Amsterdam.
He arrived back in Amsterdam in late 1709, where, once Broenswiek and Johannes V had been made aware of his return, decided to send him away, again. This time, he would leave for the Baltic, where he would learn among the knights of the Teutonic Order, again, not without “sexual controversy”. In late 1710 war would erupt between the Knights and the Russian Principality of Muscovy. A slow mobilization of the armies saw the piecemeal destruction of them, which lead to the Muscovite besieging the city of Pskov, where Karel was remaining at the time. During the storming of the ramparts, the commander of the city was killed. For an hour, the city was leaderless and the defenses of the city began to waver, until it was Karel who, reluctantly, stepped up to the position, rallying the garrison and seeing the Muscovites driven off, seeing the lifting of the siege some two weeks later as the relieving army of Teutons arrived. During the following 2 years he would command Teuton forces in Ingria and Smolensk, before being requested to return to Broenswiek. There, some of the officers of Hannover had actually been sent to observe the conflict to the east, mostly to asses the Teutons ability to see of any potential Danish attack, and they had noted the abilities of the semi-exiled Roderlo. On their recommendation Johannes V had recalled him. He would be allowed to return home and command a army in the field if he “would be able to behave himself like a propper man for once”. He acquiesced, though this didn’t actually change his behavior, but he went about it in a much more discreet manner. Thus, for his “exploits” after he had returned home we have to go off of him own incomplete and exaggerated writings. Thus, we shall not cover them, but they are colorful to say the least. But this was the man that rose to the Saxon throne on 18th of December 1724.
Battle of Bryansk, one of many Teuton-Muscovite clashes going on in the Land of the Rus at the time
If the previous section also hadn’t made it clear, Karel IV was a well learned and conversed man. During his travels he often found himself in one of many coffeehouses enjoying Olivarian coffee whilst partaking in much of the philosophizing of the age. This would quickly come to define his reign. Much less cautious than his uncle had been, he would begin to actively provoke the Emperor into a confrontation. In the company of his court, he demanded to be called king, though it was not yet clear what he was the king of. Within communications with Boniface III he would deliberately often refer to his kingly title, being responded in kind, though still not clear what he was the king of. In late October of 1726, Emperor Premysl III would visit Broenswiek, still with the hopes of working something out, as the alternative title of “King in” had been floating around. It turned into a disaster, much wanted by Karel IV. When the Emperor would speak to him, he would simply refuse to listen if he did not refer to him as king. The first day, this caused annoyance, the second day massive frustration, causing the Emperor to simply leave on the third day, the 29th of October; “he is still the same brat that toured the continent.” Karel took his chance, playing up the personal insult and demanding a apology, which did not come. On the 14th of November, war would be declared against the Bohemians, starting the War of Imperial Dissolution.
The actions of Karel IV had shocked many of his allies within the Empire, the more diplomatic approach of Johannes V bringing them on board to what might have been slow escalating action, but not this. Since the return of Premysl III to Prague, the armies of the Crown of Bohemia had been gathering for what was obvious to be the inevitable clash. As soon as the declaration of war was received, they would march on Saxony, in the hopes to bring a decisive blow quickly to then take Broenswiek, forcing a Roderlo concession. In a way, the Emperor had made a right assessment, many of the armies under the Staten were either forced to divert to the west to help out the Count of Rothenburg or simply days away from mobilization yet. What they failed to consider is the fact that enemy they were facing was Karel IV. He was able to get the Dutch section of his forces destined for the clash with Bohemia to Broenswiek within a week. Through his personal popularity and loyalty among the troops he was able to ask the most of them they could give. His greatest obstacle, the IJssel, was crossed by seizing all nearby ships and having them form a bridge across the river which the army marched across. By the end, some 156.000 men stood at the ready to march of east to counter the Bohemians, their vassals, allies and whatever scraps came in from the rest of the Empire to defend their liege, numbering around 202.000. News had come in that this army had moved north, through Brandenburger lands, to keep Karel IV cut of from whatever Danish reinforcements might arrive. (Denmark would stay neutral during the conflict, seeing the war as a chance to take on the Teutons without Saxon involvement in the peace process.) For the Bohemians the issue had now become where the cross the Elve river, which was clear pretty quick. There was one crossing fully controlled by Brandenburg, on route to Broenswiek where they would have a chance of a unopposed crossing, Dessau. By now, late November, the Victor of Villach was also made aware of this fact. He gathered whatever could move, horses, carts, even another couple of ships, and loaded them to the brim with soldiers and their equipment, and he raced off to Dessau. There, he had his small army immediately prepare for a assault of the city, whilst he went off to the gates to demand the surrender of the garrison. So surprised in fact by the arrival of the Saxons, the garrison threw down their arms at the sight of Karel and his cavalry escort riding through the open gates. Once the commander was made aware of this fact, he angerly demanded to know what was going on, as the Margrave was neutral in the conflict. Karel simply responded by stating that “I’m at war with the Emperor, I have no reason to trust his vassals.” Now, the waiting game had begun, as the now Saxon garrison manning the city defenses and positions in the countryside waited for the inevitable arrival of the Bohemians.
The night from the 4th to the 5th of December saw the unusually late first snowfall of the year, and as the sun began to rise the snowfall only began to increase. The Elve was not yet covered in much ice however. Closing in on midday, the Bohemian vanguard arrived, expecting a safe crossing of the Elve. They were granted it by the watchfull Saxons, who opened up on their enemy once they began setting up positions to secure the crossing. Though most of the Bohemian light infantry present was captured, the cavalry was able to make it back across to notify the Saxon control of the city to their commander, Rudolf von Capek. Within two hours, the main body of the Bohemian army, some 190.000 men stood ready to force a crossing, retake Dessau and hopefully convince the weary, protestant Margrave that Saxon defeat would be in his interest. Now, the attempt to cross would be challenged immediately. Not only that, but the Saxon army, disorganized by the taking of all logistical and transport methods, began to trickle in, a the longer the Bohemians waited, the harder the crossing would be. Over the course of the afternoon, the first two attempts at a bridgehead were countercharged by the Saxon infantry, until the third bridgehead at half past 5 was formed. Some 65.000 Saxons were now present, but they could not force the Bohemians back to the other side of the river. At the same time, it was quickly turning dark, and the bridgehead laid within artillery range of the city, forcing a move on the city. The city, relatively lightly defended to make the two countercharges possible, would fall within a hour of the order of the storming, already long past the sun went down, leaving the Imperial army in control of the city. But, during the assault, Karel IV gained another massive amount or reinforcements, with more coming in over the course of the night.
As of the rising of the sun on St. Nicholas Day and the final stop of the snowfall, the Saxon army still stood between the Imperial and Broenswiek, massing for their assault on the Saxon lines as soon as the sun had awoken the soldiers from their sleep. But, as the first hour of forming up and the restart of the battle came to an end, they began to be attacked from the rear, during the night, a part of the Saxon army themselves had made the crossing. The Imperial army, cramped in the site of her original landing and the city of Dessau, was unable to effectively maneuver enough units to challenge the Saxon attack, finding herself encircled by a lesser foe. The snow surrounding Dessau would colour red, as well as the Elve, something seen as far as Meideborg and Stendal downstream. But, by the end of the day, the strength of the Empire was gone, Karel IV, now hailed as the Dessauer, had triumphed.
March written in honour of the Dessauer and his victory at Dessau
The destruction of the Imperial armies sealed the fate of the Empire within the first month of the war. By now, the issue for Karel had become enforcing his will upon the rest of the Empire, meaning occupation of land, taking of capitals, imprisoning princes and electors. This included a close call at the Siege of Rothenburg where the city almost fell into Hessian hands, a close call with death at the Siege of Trier and the capture of the Emperor at the Polish capital of Cracow, but, by early 1728 the Roderlo monarch had dragged about half the nobility of Europe to Rome, where the Pope agreed to be a (not so) neutral arbitrator between the parties. The last gathering of the Reichstag, also in Rome, would confirm the Treaty of Rome on the 4th of April. It contained several small territorial changes in favour of Saxony and her allies, main receiver of which being Rothenburg, which would also be elevated to status of principality. The Emperor would also confirm the bestowment of the Kingdom of Arelat to Boniface III, and agreed to crown Karel a king. Karel IV had become captivated by the idea of the “triune people”, the three tribes of the Dutch, Frisians and Saxons brought together into one greater whole, a union destined from the start of these tribes. This idea had received the name of Dietsland, a mistranslation or wrongly spelled version of Duitsland, meaning “land of the people” (with people here in a very blood-bond manner, and not the more modern English connotations with more left wing ideologies), but which itself was disliked through it also describing the old Kingdom of East Frankia and one of the titles of the Emperor. The English, having already assigned “Dutch” to the Netherlands by this point, chose to translate this new title as the Kingdom of Dytschland. The final act of the Treaty of Rome, was Premysl III agreeing to his abdication as Holy Roman Emperor, with Pope Hadrianus VI swearing, both for himself and his successors seating on the Throne of Saint Peter, to not crown another Emperor, ending Charlemagne’s Empire that had been founded 927 years before.
Where once was the favorite capital of Charlemagne, and for centuries Emperors had been crowned as his successor in the Cathedral of Aken, on the 17th of May 1728, Karel IV would be crowned King of Dytschland by His Holiness Hadrianus VI, to be followed by a recognition of his title by King Premysl III of Bohemia.
The ascension to the throne of Karel III was a great shock throughout both Saxony and the rest of Europe. Not only because of the way his predecessor had died and he had suddenly become the direct heir, but mostly because of the reputation he had gained. Not being closely linked to the line of succession had allowed him to cut lose from the many rules, regulations and obligations of the court in Broenswiek. From a young age, he had always been the wilder type, especially at some of the many parties held at lesser castles. By the age of 15, there were already stories of him having mistresses of up to 10 years older. By the next year, this turned into a great controversy as he had a affair with the wife of Count Willem-Otto van Randwijk, the Stadholder of Gelre, Zutphen, Kleef and Berg. By now, he had become quite the headache for the late Karel III, so he was quickly shipped off on what would be his Grand Tour of Italy, a custom much more common among Scottish and Scandinavian upper classes, but was not unknown to the rest of the continent. His Grand Tour would however be a 7 year long journey across almost the whole of the continent. At the end of 1706, he crossed the Alps into Italy. Whilst staying and studying in Florence, he would have an affair with young Duke of Tuscany. He would travel further south to Rome, where he was received by Pope Sylvester IV. In one of their evening dinners, a theological debate would begin which, as confirmed by both Karel’s own writings and that of witnesses, was almost won by the young Roderlo had it not been for the intercession of Cardinal Casciano. Travveling further to the south he would spend some months between the ruins of the Mezzegiorno before hopping on a Parthenopean ship bound for Thessaloniki and traveling overland to Constantinople, where he would wander the streets and witness the Vlachian siege of the city in 1708. From there, he would sail along with a Genoan merchant back to Italy, where he would spend a few months studying in Venice, especially intrigued by the old institutions of the Republic of the city. Having made a fair bit of pocket money off of his travels on merchants ships, he would throw some of the wildest parties that Italy had seen, amazing his guests with a inexplicable ability to keep drinking without getting drunk. He would, once again, leave behind a fair amount of children conceived either out of wedlock of with a woman who wore the ring of another man. From Genoa he would travel on to Spain, where for his personal enjoyment, he would re-enact Don Quixote to see how long he could pull off the act without the authorities getting to him. 23 days was the answer, from where he was put on a boat in Lisbon and sent back home to Amsterdam.
He arrived back in Amsterdam in late 1709, where, once Broenswiek and Johannes V had been made aware of his return, decided to send him away, again. This time, he would leave for the Baltic, where he would learn among the knights of the Teutonic Order, again, not without “sexual controversy”. In late 1710 war would erupt between the Knights and the Russian Principality of Muscovy. A slow mobilization of the armies saw the piecemeal destruction of them, which lead to the Muscovite besieging the city of Pskov, where Karel was remaining at the time. During the storming of the ramparts, the commander of the city was killed. For an hour, the city was leaderless and the defenses of the city began to waver, until it was Karel who, reluctantly, stepped up to the position, rallying the garrison and seeing the Muscovites driven off, seeing the lifting of the siege some two weeks later as the relieving army of Teutons arrived. During the following 2 years he would command Teuton forces in Ingria and Smolensk, before being requested to return to Broenswiek. There, some of the officers of Hannover had actually been sent to observe the conflict to the east, mostly to asses the Teutons ability to see of any potential Danish attack, and they had noted the abilities of the semi-exiled Roderlo. On their recommendation Johannes V had recalled him. He would be allowed to return home and command a army in the field if he “would be able to behave himself like a propper man for once”. He acquiesced, though this didn’t actually change his behavior, but he went about it in a much more discreet manner. Thus, for his “exploits” after he had returned home we have to go off of him own incomplete and exaggerated writings. Thus, we shall not cover them, but they are colorful to say the least. But this was the man that rose to the Saxon throne on 18th of December 1724.
Battle of Bryansk, one of many Teuton-Muscovite clashes going on in the Land of the Rus at the time
If the previous section also hadn’t made it clear, Karel IV was a well learned and conversed man. During his travels he often found himself in one of many coffeehouses enjoying Olivarian coffee whilst partaking in much of the philosophizing of the age. This would quickly come to define his reign. Much less cautious than his uncle had been, he would begin to actively provoke the Emperor into a confrontation. In the company of his court, he demanded to be called king, though it was not yet clear what he was the king of. Within communications with Boniface III he would deliberately often refer to his kingly title, being responded in kind, though still not clear what he was the king of. In late October of 1726, Emperor Premysl III would visit Broenswiek, still with the hopes of working something out, as the alternative title of “King in” had been floating around. It turned into a disaster, much wanted by Karel IV. When the Emperor would speak to him, he would simply refuse to listen if he did not refer to him as king. The first day, this caused annoyance, the second day massive frustration, causing the Emperor to simply leave on the third day, the 29th of October; “he is still the same brat that toured the continent.” Karel took his chance, playing up the personal insult and demanding a apology, which did not come. On the 14th of November, war would be declared against the Bohemians, starting the War of Imperial Dissolution.
The actions of Karel IV had shocked many of his allies within the Empire, the more diplomatic approach of Johannes V bringing them on board to what might have been slow escalating action, but not this. Since the return of Premysl III to Prague, the armies of the Crown of Bohemia had been gathering for what was obvious to be the inevitable clash. As soon as the declaration of war was received, they would march on Saxony, in the hopes to bring a decisive blow quickly to then take Broenswiek, forcing a Roderlo concession. In a way, the Emperor had made a right assessment, many of the armies under the Staten were either forced to divert to the west to help out the Count of Rothenburg or simply days away from mobilization yet. What they failed to consider is the fact that enemy they were facing was Karel IV. He was able to get the Dutch section of his forces destined for the clash with Bohemia to Broenswiek within a week. Through his personal popularity and loyalty among the troops he was able to ask the most of them they could give. His greatest obstacle, the IJssel, was crossed by seizing all nearby ships and having them form a bridge across the river which the army marched across. By the end, some 156.000 men stood at the ready to march of east to counter the Bohemians, their vassals, allies and whatever scraps came in from the rest of the Empire to defend their liege, numbering around 202.000. News had come in that this army had moved north, through Brandenburger lands, to keep Karel IV cut of from whatever Danish reinforcements might arrive. (Denmark would stay neutral during the conflict, seeing the war as a chance to take on the Teutons without Saxon involvement in the peace process.) For the Bohemians the issue had now become where the cross the Elve river, which was clear pretty quick. There was one crossing fully controlled by Brandenburg, on route to Broenswiek where they would have a chance of a unopposed crossing, Dessau. By now, late November, the Victor of Villach was also made aware of this fact. He gathered whatever could move, horses, carts, even another couple of ships, and loaded them to the brim with soldiers and their equipment, and he raced off to Dessau. There, he had his small army immediately prepare for a assault of the city, whilst he went off to the gates to demand the surrender of the garrison. So surprised in fact by the arrival of the Saxons, the garrison threw down their arms at the sight of Karel and his cavalry escort riding through the open gates. Once the commander was made aware of this fact, he angerly demanded to know what was going on, as the Margrave was neutral in the conflict. Karel simply responded by stating that “I’m at war with the Emperor, I have no reason to trust his vassals.” Now, the waiting game had begun, as the now Saxon garrison manning the city defenses and positions in the countryside waited for the inevitable arrival of the Bohemians.
The night from the 4th to the 5th of December saw the unusually late first snowfall of the year, and as the sun began to rise the snowfall only began to increase. The Elve was not yet covered in much ice however. Closing in on midday, the Bohemian vanguard arrived, expecting a safe crossing of the Elve. They were granted it by the watchfull Saxons, who opened up on their enemy once they began setting up positions to secure the crossing. Though most of the Bohemian light infantry present was captured, the cavalry was able to make it back across to notify the Saxon control of the city to their commander, Rudolf von Capek. Within two hours, the main body of the Bohemian army, some 190.000 men stood ready to force a crossing, retake Dessau and hopefully convince the weary, protestant Margrave that Saxon defeat would be in his interest. Now, the attempt to cross would be challenged immediately. Not only that, but the Saxon army, disorganized by the taking of all logistical and transport methods, began to trickle in, a the longer the Bohemians waited, the harder the crossing would be. Over the course of the afternoon, the first two attempts at a bridgehead were countercharged by the Saxon infantry, until the third bridgehead at half past 5 was formed. Some 65.000 Saxons were now present, but they could not force the Bohemians back to the other side of the river. At the same time, it was quickly turning dark, and the bridgehead laid within artillery range of the city, forcing a move on the city. The city, relatively lightly defended to make the two countercharges possible, would fall within a hour of the order of the storming, already long past the sun went down, leaving the Imperial army in control of the city. But, during the assault, Karel IV gained another massive amount or reinforcements, with more coming in over the course of the night.
As of the rising of the sun on St. Nicholas Day and the final stop of the snowfall, the Saxon army still stood between the Imperial and Broenswiek, massing for their assault on the Saxon lines as soon as the sun had awoken the soldiers from their sleep. But, as the first hour of forming up and the restart of the battle came to an end, they began to be attacked from the rear, during the night, a part of the Saxon army themselves had made the crossing. The Imperial army, cramped in the site of her original landing and the city of Dessau, was unable to effectively maneuver enough units to challenge the Saxon attack, finding herself encircled by a lesser foe. The snow surrounding Dessau would colour red, as well as the Elve, something seen as far as Meideborg and Stendal downstream. But, by the end of the day, the strength of the Empire was gone, Karel IV, now hailed as the Dessauer, had triumphed.
The destruction of the Imperial armies sealed the fate of the Empire within the first month of the war. By now, the issue for Karel had become enforcing his will upon the rest of the Empire, meaning occupation of land, taking of capitals, imprisoning princes and electors. This included a close call at the Siege of Rothenburg where the city almost fell into Hessian hands, a close call with death at the Siege of Trier and the capture of the Emperor at the Polish capital of Cracow, but, by early 1728 the Roderlo monarch had dragged about half the nobility of Europe to Rome, where the Pope agreed to be a (not so) neutral arbitrator between the parties. The last gathering of the Reichstag, also in Rome, would confirm the Treaty of Rome on the 4th of April. It contained several small territorial changes in favour of Saxony and her allies, main receiver of which being Rothenburg, which would also be elevated to status of principality. The Emperor would also confirm the bestowment of the Kingdom of Arelat to Boniface III, and agreed to crown Karel a king. Karel IV had become captivated by the idea of the “triune people”, the three tribes of the Dutch, Frisians and Saxons brought together into one greater whole, a union destined from the start of these tribes. This idea had received the name of Dietsland, a mistranslation or wrongly spelled version of Duitsland, meaning “land of the people” (with people here in a very blood-bond manner, and not the more modern English connotations with more left wing ideologies), but which itself was disliked through it also describing the old Kingdom of East Frankia and one of the titles of the Emperor. The English, having already assigned “Dutch” to the Netherlands by this point, chose to translate this new title as the Kingdom of Dytschland. The final act of the Treaty of Rome, was Premysl III agreeing to his abdication as Holy Roman Emperor, with Pope Hadrianus VI swearing, both for himself and his successors seating on the Throne of Saint Peter, to not crown another Emperor, ending Charlemagne’s Empire that had been founded 927 years before.
Where once was the favorite capital of Charlemagne, and for centuries Emperors had been crowned as his successor in the Cathedral of Aken, on the 17th of May 1728, Karel IV would be crowned King of Dytschland by His Holiness Hadrianus VI, to be followed by a recognition of his title by King Premysl III of Bohemia.
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And so the HRE dies.
Karel III seems like a controversial figure. Is he homosexual? If so, that could come back to bite him - this time views homosexuals badly... although maybe he can change these views?
Karel III seems like a controversial figure. Is he homosexual? If so, that could come back to bite him - this time views homosexuals badly... although maybe he can change these views?
The demise of the Holy Roman Empire is always a tragedy, but Dytschland is an interesting kingdom to emerge from the ruins.
Intermission: the state of the world at the foundation of Dytschland in 1728
Intermission: the state of the world at the foundation of Dytschland in 1728
For the occasion for the foundation of the nation of Dytschland that still lasts on to today, we shall take a look at the rest of the world to find out what kind of context the new kingdom finds herself in.
Within Europe, this is of course the shattering of the old order on the continent. Within Europe, there was already the sentiment that this change, sooner or later, would bring about much more change, perhaps entirely opposed by the man who had originally brought about this shattering, Johannes V, had wanted. But, to the west, he had also broken the old order. France, a very stable power from the Medieval Era onwards, had suffered a massive defeat which resulted in the loss of her recent gains in Lorraine but mostly parts of the Kingdom which had fallen back under the sway of the Crown itself some 300 years ago. As of yet, she is still recovering from the shock. Italy is under the spell of a almost serene peace only broken by her involvement in outside conflict, developing into perhaps the core of European knowledge with the rest of the continent slowly finding a renewed interest in Antiquity and her often interesting forms of government both living, ceremonial or dead. The Balkans is best described as a Europe’s continuous civil war, as minor Slavic states, minor princes and the Two Romes clash. North from here, we find the clash between the Slavs and the Germanics as the Teutons have slowly been forced back out of the lands of the Rus. At the same time, the two Scandinavian powers took Saxon, now Dytsch, distraction in the former Holy Roman Empire as their chance to strike and strike hard. The Swedes have made themselves master of Finland, whereas the Danes took upon devouring the heartland of the Teutonic Order. For the Teutons, their very existence now hangs in the balance, hard pressed from all sides. Finally, we turn to the most stable region of Europe, the British Isles, where ever since the end of the Third Anglo-Saxon War peace has reigned over the islands. The Cromwell monarchy has gone so far as to actually grow into a country punching above its wheight as the Saxon pressure finally relented, being able to fight a war to status quo ante bellum with the premier colonial power after Dytschland, Spain.
Africa as a continent can be considered largely stable, or a continuation of long-lasting trends and rivalries. North Africa has seen the long march of the Bahri dynasty of Egypt westwards, retaking lands that have been under Catholic since the late medieval era, ending physical Sicilian presence on the continent, but having to contend with an organized local community of Sicilian Catholics. Luckily, the Bahri are well known in having to deal with local Dhimmi, as Egypt itself is estimated to be perhaps majority Catholic, another remnant of the Crusading Era. The Bahri’s excellent relationship with her Christian minorities has actually empowered them, giving access to the very profitable trading networks of the Genoese and Sicilians. Following the coast clockwise, we reach the Horn of Africa, dominated by the Sharifs of Hejaz and the Sultans of Adal, masters of the region after (mostly) overcoming their Coptic adversaries, the Ethiopians, though both powers continue to find it hard to enforce their authority in the semi-autonomous Ethiopian Highlands. Following the coast we come to multiple Islamic slaver empires and the first colonial presence of our journey, Spain, which has recently established herself on Madagascar, to challenge the native Merina dynasty. From here, we find the Dytsch presence in South Africa, a ever increasing one as, despite Company reservations, the settler population keeps increasing, and this has created tensions as Company rule is harsh and at the same time it is unwilling to defend outlying settlements against Capoïd and Bantu attacks, combined with a now particularly integrated community of mixed descent. Up the coast again, we find Scottish colonies and British colonies, separated by a somewhat strong native and Catholic kingdom in the Kongo. West Africa is the location of the great Islamic Mali Empire and a coastline dominated by French, British, Dytsch and Spanish interests. Spain, from the Reconquista onwards, has found herself in almost constant conflict over the routes through the sands of the Sahara with the Mali, with both powers knowing times of dominance over the others.
Asia, for hundreds of years now, is the playball of the Mongols and the descendants of Ghengis Khan. Only recently have the Rus in the west been able to overcome the dominance of the people of the Steppe, throwing the Golden Horde back beyond the Urals. Persia, large tracts of the Steppe and the Near East are dominated by the Timurid dynasty ruling from Isfahan. Central Asia remains ruled by a series of Horse Lords, but under pressure from outside forces, even if Siberia remains mostly empty for now. India has known a long period of pre-Islamic revival, with both the Jain and the new Sikh knowing large successes against the Turkic Tughluc, though their role as Islamic rulers has been replaced by the Kalinga Ganga, who themselves have found challenge in the anti-Islamic forces of the northwest and now the arrival of outside powers, not only the Dytsch, but also increasing interest from other European powers, but most upsetting has been the Yuan Dynasty, Mongol rulers of China for 5 centuries now, and their arrival in the subcontinent. Dytsch merchants establishing ever greater control over the sea lanes to India, and their base of operations on the doorstep of the Celestial Kingdom, harboring smugglers, pirates and political dissidents. Initially “receiving a warm welcome” as the Yuan seemed to be a alternative for many who sought neither cross nor cresent, but quickly proving itself as a harsh ruler as they administered their newly conquered ports as a core part of the empire, unwilling to respect many of the local differences causing much the same dissent that persisted in South China. European interest is also increasing in the islands of Southeast Asia, as the VOC has recently taken Malacca and as powers from all over the world have scrambled for the islands further north. Japan, whilst shocked at foreign encroachment, was somewhat reassured as the French had forced a VOC retreat from the mainland, for now.
Lastly we turn to the New World. Despite massive contention along the whole way in the development of their colonial empire, the British have been able to establish themselves well. Newfoundland and Georgia have been limited by hostile colonies on all sided, but Olivaria had become a prime producer of exotic woods, dyes, sugar and coffee. Besides mere economic considerations, the colonies have provided a excellent refuge for the opponents of the government in London, first for the many Catholics who were disenfranchised when the Church of England was established and later the more moderate Anglicans took refuge in the colonies as with Parliamentarian victory came the victory of the Puritans. Dytschland stands as the undisputed master of the New World, but threats to her power are most likely coming from within as already the Viceduchy of New Saxony had shown some signs of discontent. Spain rules over a largely consolidated realm after early defeats and stiff resistance in the Andes. Within the Saxon colonies, the recently acquired French colonies, whilst quiet, remain a source of continuous opposition. Finally, there is Nova Scotia, or as it is slowly being knowing, Caledonia, the crown of the empire of Aberdeen.
The state of the world in 1728
For the occasion for the foundation of the nation of Dytschland that still lasts on to today, we shall take a look at the rest of the world to find out what kind of context the new kingdom finds herself in.
Within Europe, this is of course the shattering of the old order on the continent. Within Europe, there was already the sentiment that this change, sooner or later, would bring about much more change, perhaps entirely opposed by the man who had originally brought about this shattering, Johannes V, had wanted. But, to the west, he had also broken the old order. France, a very stable power from the Medieval Era onwards, had suffered a massive defeat which resulted in the loss of her recent gains in Lorraine but mostly parts of the Kingdom which had fallen back under the sway of the Crown itself some 300 years ago. As of yet, she is still recovering from the shock. Italy is under the spell of a almost serene peace only broken by her involvement in outside conflict, developing into perhaps the core of European knowledge with the rest of the continent slowly finding a renewed interest in Antiquity and her often interesting forms of government both living, ceremonial or dead. The Balkans is best described as a Europe’s continuous civil war, as minor Slavic states, minor princes and the Two Romes clash. North from here, we find the clash between the Slavs and the Germanics as the Teutons have slowly been forced back out of the lands of the Rus. At the same time, the two Scandinavian powers took Saxon, now Dytsch, distraction in the former Holy Roman Empire as their chance to strike and strike hard. The Swedes have made themselves master of Finland, whereas the Danes took upon devouring the heartland of the Teutonic Order. For the Teutons, their very existence now hangs in the balance, hard pressed from all sides. Finally, we turn to the most stable region of Europe, the British Isles, where ever since the end of the Third Anglo-Saxon War peace has reigned over the islands. The Cromwell monarchy has gone so far as to actually grow into a country punching above its wheight as the Saxon pressure finally relented, being able to fight a war to status quo ante bellum with the premier colonial power after Dytschland, Spain.
Africa as a continent can be considered largely stable, or a continuation of long-lasting trends and rivalries. North Africa has seen the long march of the Bahri dynasty of Egypt westwards, retaking lands that have been under Catholic since the late medieval era, ending physical Sicilian presence on the continent, but having to contend with an organized local community of Sicilian Catholics. Luckily, the Bahri are well known in having to deal with local Dhimmi, as Egypt itself is estimated to be perhaps majority Catholic, another remnant of the Crusading Era. The Bahri’s excellent relationship with her Christian minorities has actually empowered them, giving access to the very profitable trading networks of the Genoese and Sicilians. Following the coast clockwise, we reach the Horn of Africa, dominated by the Sharifs of Hejaz and the Sultans of Adal, masters of the region after (mostly) overcoming their Coptic adversaries, the Ethiopians, though both powers continue to find it hard to enforce their authority in the semi-autonomous Ethiopian Highlands. Following the coast we come to multiple Islamic slaver empires and the first colonial presence of our journey, Spain, which has recently established herself on Madagascar, to challenge the native Merina dynasty. From here, we find the Dytsch presence in South Africa, a ever increasing one as, despite Company reservations, the settler population keeps increasing, and this has created tensions as Company rule is harsh and at the same time it is unwilling to defend outlying settlements against Capoïd and Bantu attacks, combined with a now particularly integrated community of mixed descent. Up the coast again, we find Scottish colonies and British colonies, separated by a somewhat strong native and Catholic kingdom in the Kongo. West Africa is the location of the great Islamic Mali Empire and a coastline dominated by French, British, Dytsch and Spanish interests. Spain, from the Reconquista onwards, has found herself in almost constant conflict over the routes through the sands of the Sahara with the Mali, with both powers knowing times of dominance over the others.
Asia, for hundreds of years now, is the playball of the Mongols and the descendants of Ghengis Khan. Only recently have the Rus in the west been able to overcome the dominance of the people of the Steppe, throwing the Golden Horde back beyond the Urals. Persia, large tracts of the Steppe and the Near East are dominated by the Timurid dynasty ruling from Isfahan. Central Asia remains ruled by a series of Horse Lords, but under pressure from outside forces, even if Siberia remains mostly empty for now. India has known a long period of pre-Islamic revival, with both the Jain and the new Sikh knowing large successes against the Turkic Tughluc, though their role as Islamic rulers has been replaced by the Kalinga Ganga, who themselves have found challenge in the anti-Islamic forces of the northwest and now the arrival of outside powers, not only the Dytsch, but also increasing interest from other European powers, but most upsetting has been the Yuan Dynasty, Mongol rulers of China for 5 centuries now, and their arrival in the subcontinent. Dytsch merchants establishing ever greater control over the sea lanes to India, and their base of operations on the doorstep of the Celestial Kingdom, harboring smugglers, pirates and political dissidents. Initially “receiving a warm welcome” as the Yuan seemed to be a alternative for many who sought neither cross nor cresent, but quickly proving itself as a harsh ruler as they administered their newly conquered ports as a core part of the empire, unwilling to respect many of the local differences causing much the same dissent that persisted in South China. European interest is also increasing in the islands of Southeast Asia, as the VOC has recently taken Malacca and as powers from all over the world have scrambled for the islands further north. Japan, whilst shocked at foreign encroachment, was somewhat reassured as the French had forced a VOC retreat from the mainland, for now.
The state of the world in 1728
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I had a bit of a discussion on the name itself. My goal was to bestow the "of the people" title to the new state as the prime continental Germanic power. Simply calling it "Duitsland" (Dutch for Germany) just seemed strange for me. "Dutchland" is just a weird word and I already use Dutch to refer to the people and language of the Netherlands. (I think there is a time earlier in the AAR which calls it "Netherlandish" which shows I was already thinking about this issue back then.) "Dietschland" is a word used to describe a Greater Dutch state IRL and is a concept irrelevant in that manner in the context of the AAR. "Dytschland" than is the English translation of this word, which I partly based on "Deitscherei" as I partook in a CKII After the End game at the time.
Considering he isn't exclusively interested in men, he isn't exactly homosexual. I wanted to have a monarch who break the mold a bit, and a 18th century monarch who disturbs the old European order in this way is the perfect pick. The 18th century was also filled with figures such as Charles XII, Frederick the Great and Catherine the Great, so it's as good a time as any to have this kind of monarch
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