Chapter 21 - Betrayal
The day after the royal assembly, King Henry sent Chancellor Walpole to Warsaw to personally tell King Mical I of Poland that England will stand by his side. Poland had protected the English realm in the past, now it was time to help Poland in gaining access to the Baltic Sea.
The Small Council decided with its wisdom to support the colonial nations more during these times of war. Any expansion in Europe would be foolish now that the English realm was at war with the Holy Roman Emperor of Hesse and his allies, among which was Bohemia.
Thomas Lancaster was called back to Europe to lead the army which Henry VII dispatched for his ally. Lord Commander Morgan also ordered Conquistador Cavendish to return to Elizabethia to lead an attack against the natives. He was expected to arrive in Port Elizabeth in about a year. The journey through Anglica was long and dangerous.
Part of the economic and military plan was to modernize the merchant marine. The barque was outdated and new ships had to be ordered to replace them. The first fleets to be modernized was the trade fleet that was stationed in the Bay of Biscay and the small fleet which was patrolling the waters near Lübeck.
A Catholic uprising in Vienna was put down thanks to a nearby Polish army. The Austrians had tried to defeat the zealots themselves but failed miserably. Honoring the call to arms was definitely the right decision because even in this offensive war, the Polish helped Henry VII out. Vienna was saved.
Meanwhile in Utrecht a Protestant uprising occurred. After some debate with his advisors, Henry approved to fund his Brethren's just cause with some ducats. The Protestant faith had to be supported beyond England's borders. Of course, there was some danger in supporting a rebellion abroad, given that Utrecht was a member of the coalition against England. Hopefully, England's involvement would not be discovered.
Ambassador Edgar Lancaster left for Southern France after Henry had approved negotiations with the Hussites. He was prepared to give them more religious freedom if they would stop revolting. A risky undertaking.
In Poland, Crown Prince Thomas led 22.000 Englishmen against an imperial army. The battle became tricky after reinforcements from Magdeburg arrived. At the end of the battle, about 4.000 of Thomas's men had fallen but the battle was won and the road to Stettin was open.
On 7 September 1511, Edgar Lancaster sent word to the capital that Henri de Treville accepted the King's terms. The Hussite rebellion in France was settled peacefully. The concessions were serve though. It would take decades to convert the French provinces to the true faith now.
Good news also arrived from Utrecht. The Protestant uprising was successful and the Catholic ruling class was overthrown! Oddly, Utrecht remained in the coalition against England, despite the new government only existing because of the funds which the English treasury had provided them with. Such fools.
In West Africa, Ivory Coast Trading continued force-converting the Muslim and Animist population. More rebels rose up in arms. Henry was concerned by the aggressive approach which the trading company had chosen. Despite this aggressiveness, only three out of the eleven provinces in English West Africa were Protestant. Cayor and Gabu were the other two.
With the economy going well, more people settle down in the Duchy of Normandy, especially in Caen, and in Essex. They all wanted a slice of English prosperity.
On 20 February 1512, during the siege of Stettin, Thomas Lancaster was shot by a Pomeranian crossbow. His corps was brought to England where he received a royal funeral. Henry VII was very happy that his first-born did not live long enough to rise to the throne. The plan of getting rid of him by assigning to him a dangerous mission had worked! Well, the country was not in a safer position. His second-born son, Arthur, was not any better. Arthur was a known bully. Sure, he was not a madman like his brother Thomas but he was a ruthless fanatic. His aggressiveness was shown first when Arthur was a toddler. Back then he used to pick fights with other toddlers. He even broke some noses but he got better now.
One point that Henry hadn't considered was that the death of his son and heir would give the nobility in the large cities more reason to demand old rights. He accepted their demands, fearing tensions with them.
In the spring of 1512, the synch started to get widely used by the peasantry. This increased production efficiency greatly.
With Lord Commander Morgan in Arica and the truce with Mali having expired, everything was set for a military campaign against the African savages. War was declared on 14 April 1512. Jenne and Songhai sided with Mali. Together, these three tribes fielded a much larger army compared with what England had deployed in West Africa but the Royal Army had no concerns about that. Most of the savages fought still with spears and basic bows.
At the Battle of Joma, Lord Commander Morgan crushed Mali's army before reinforcements from Songhai and Jenne arrived. A few months later, he took care of Songhai's army.
In Europe, Poland's war for Stettin was also going well. English troops occupied Stettin on 11 July 1512 and a few days before the harbor city fell, the combined forces of Poland and Austria crushed an imperial army in Elsass.
England was not the only prosperous country in Europe. The Ambrosian republic of Milan for example was doing superbly. They annexed Cuneo and Nice from their neighbor Savoy in mid September 1512.
Stettin was occupied a group of very cruel Englishmen who raped Pomeranian women and plundered the locals. They established a reign of terror which created heavy unrest in the province.
Mical I decided to make peace with Pomerania much to Henry's surprise. Poland only demanded a few ducats and war reparations. This was odd but of course it was Poland's decision alone and there was little Henry could do about it. At least Mical seemed very happy with England's contribution.
At about the same time as the peace treaty was signed, Lord Commander Morgan sent 6.000 mercenaries to Jenne which occupied the province after 235 days of siege. Shortly after, the province was incorporated into the English realm.
Eight new caravels were being built in Britain to strengthen the merchant marine in the Channel and West Africa.
England's long-term plan of retaking the French cores suffered a setback in July 1513 when Burgundy annexed Picardie, as part of the Swiss war against Provence. Burgundy also completed the integration of Flanders into their country which was another setback.
The conversion of Orkney was completed the following month. The Church of England now had a solid presence in Scotland. Missionaries were now sent to the Duchy of Mercia, Marches to be precise.
With Lord Commander Morgan in Africa, the realm was slowly losing stability. In Graz and Kärnten, the nobility led a 30.000 men strong revolt. England was sinking in chaos. It seems that the separatists were trying to take advantage of the situation that Austria was pretty defenceless. Less than 20.000 troops guarded Austria at the time of the outbreak of the rebellion.
The Austrian army engaged the smaller of the two rebel armies in the fields outside of Graz. Thanks to unexpected support from Bosnia, the battle was won. The Austrian army was led by no general and so it really came down to the Bosnians who popped up out of nowhere.
Giancarolo Spinola sent the word out of Milan that the Ambrosian Republic declared war on Parma! Switzerland and Verden joined Parma in this war but Spinola was not concerned about that.
In West Africa, Lord Commander Morgan's siege corps was successful in occupying another one of Mali's provinces. The war was going well so far and another fortified province fell not much later after 275 days of siege.
Lord Commander Morgan left the 6.000 mercenaries in West Africa behind and set sail for New York. A religious civil war had broken out in Nova Scotia and the colonial militia was too weak to fight the rebels. Meanwhile Conquistador Cavendish had arrived in Central Anglica and war was declared on the other natives in the area. All that land was claimed by Elizabethia.
At the Battle of New York, the Lord Commander defeated the Catholic rebels and made Nova Scotia safe again.
The Anglica natives attacked the colony of North Wellington. Conquistador Cavendish had to fall back to ensure that none of the colonies were plundered. After defeating the native army in North Wellington, he marched north.
In Africa, the Lord Commander's mercenaries forced Mali to sign a peace treaty which was very favorable for England. Six provinces joined English West Africa, including Sierra Leone which used to be a Portuguese possession before the de Avis dynasty lost it to Mali in a war.
One of the side effects of the peace treaty with Mali was that the other African countries in the region were not only unhappy but also fearing that England would subjugate them as well. Timbuktu was the first African tribe to join a coalition against England as a reaction.
Wars were also fought elsewhere. Castile for example declared war on Tunis. It seemed that the Castilians had recovered from their losses against Aragon. Portugal joined them in this war. Not much later, the Mamluks then also declared war on Tunis and her ally Morocco.
With so many wars in Europe and Africa, Henry ordered Lord Commander Morgan back to England. He set sail from New York in August 1514.
The largest battle, so far, against the Anglican savages was fort in Port Elizabeth where more than 11.000 natives from no less than six tribes were killed.
Ivory Coast Trading kept force-converting natives in West Africa. A dangerous undertaking which was now banned for a period of no less than five years. Too many locals were killed in those uprisings.
Another revolt broke out in Graz. It was 20.000 men strong, doubling the total amount of rebels in Austria. The majority of the Austrian forces was destroyed by the rebels. It was time for England to intervene. Lord Commander Morgan would have to take care of them. He was heading for the port of Görz to aid the Austrians in the war against the rebels.
In the Caribbean, England's second colony became self-sustaining in early April 1515. More settlers left Britain and headed for New Dublin and New Cork. Others wanted to explore and colonize the large nearby island.
The word spread through Europe that Portugal had fired privateers to patrol in West Africa. What was suspicious about this was that, Portugal’s only competition in that region was its loyal ally England. Why would the de Avis do such a thing? Henry didn't believe the rumors.
Castile's war in Tunisia went quite well and a few months after the declaration of war, two important provinces had already been occupied.
In May 1515, the colony on St. Helena also became self-sustaining. It was used a naval base to colonize the Cape of Good Hope. Francis MacCork was in charge of the expedition.
Later that month, the first pirates showed up in West Africa. They harassed England ships and made trading there insecure. After one of the pirate captains was caught, the rumors were indeed confirmed that King Joao II had sent them England's way! Henry was furious. It was time to consult with his advisors on this disturbing matter.
