The White Eagle & the Knight: A Polish AAR

[Riotkiller]

That was an extremely brutal civil war, and with the populace exhausted and the coffers bare there's surely a very strong risk of some neighbouring enemies deciding now is the time to strike. Let's hope they're busy fighting each other and miss the opportunity, and that the new King can use his centralised power to rapidly restore the situation!

 

[Legosim]

Another great update!

 

[Specialist290]

Well, it seems as though the Commonwealth has weathered the storm for the time being -- if it's still appropriate to call it the "Commonwealth," anyway, now that the szlachta have been effectively neutered. Hopefully no one else comes calling while they're still catching their breath...

 

[RossN]

Europe in 1621.​

Appendix: Europe & the New World in 1621

If the England of 1524 had been a weakened, isolated kingdom the England of a century later was little more than a geographical expression. A series of disastrous internal struggles and an economy that had never recovered from the defeat of the Hundred Years War had left the English almost defenceless against their neighbours. Though Anglicanism had eventually triumphed the victory proved a pyrrhic one as a war in the 1550s against the Danes and their allies directly led to the collapse of England as a power.

Surprisingly the rising power in the 'British Isles' was not Scotland, herself a realm in rapid decline, but the young Kingdom of Ireland, which had swallowed most of old England by the end of the Sixteenth Century. The FitzGeralds, the Anglo-Norman Earls of Desmond, had been the most powerful men in the Emerald Isle for two centuries but a series of adroit alliances and opportunism had made them so much more. The genius of the FitzGerald dynasty had been in finding a way to appear Irish to their Gaelic followers and 'English' to the many English malcontents and King Criomhthann III (known as 'Christopher III' to his English speaking subjects) continues that tradition. The city of Cork was now the political heart of the isles and if Ireland was not quite a great power she was a stable and perhaps ambitious one.

The great 'Valois Empire' (or rather the 'Bourbon Empire' in the Seventeenth Century) remained intact and remarkably stable. The French and the Spanish courts conducted their affairs separately, especially in the colonial sphere where there was a fierce sense of rivalry, and some dismay in France that Spain had taken more of the New World along her powerful domain in North Africa, but the Imperial dynasty kept them together. From Paris the young King-Emperor Charles de Bourbom reigns over half of Europe.

The Reformation had been born in Germany and won most of her early converts there, but it had found deep roots in Northern Italy. Between them the Republic of Milan, the Duchy of Mantua and the Serene Republic of Venice rule much of the richest and most civilised land in Europe, even if their overall importance has perhaps declined with the opening of the New World. Their counterparts on the North Sea, the republics of Friesland (or Frisia) and the Netherlands have been minor players in the continents politics, but their reach and global view may lead to impressive things for either state in the future.

In the Holy Roman Empire the Kingdom of Bohemia remains the centre of power and the current King of Bohemia, Joseph von Hapsburg is also the Emperor. Joseph, a monarch who olds court in Prague, speaks Hungarian as his mother tongue and is a Roman Catholic in a Mitteleuropa dominated by Lutherans and Calvinists. Nevertheless Bohemia (and with it both the Hapsburg clan and the Roman Church in the Empire) simply towers above the other principalities and cities of the Empire, even her arch-rival Austria. The Bohemians have even regained much of their lost land in Hungary, though Prague nervously watches the ever growing superpower to the south east.

To the north the Kingdom of Denmark remains mistress of the Baltic, though rumours persist that the current monarch, King Adolf may be the last of the Oldenberg line due to infertility. Surprisingly despite her wealth and powerful fleet the Danes have thus far displayed little interest in the New World. Rather the lure of the Baltic and mastery over Scandinavia has drawn her eye, much to the chagrin of Sweden whose position has little improved in a century.

Denmark's ally is the great Ottoman Empire. The vast Muslim state, at least as rich and sophisticated as any in Europe and home to a great and splendid army and navy has for two centuries been a source of anxiety and distrust among European powers. In truth it has to be admitted that the sultanate is not necessarily the hostile, ambitious neighbour most Christians see her as. The Sultans have generally preferred to increase their power in North Africa and the Near East at the expense of their own rival the Mamluks. Under Sultan Mustafa I, who has ruled from the Tokapi palace since 1580 it seems like the Turkish armies are on the verge of total victory over their enemies in Cairo. Constantinople has even kept up diplomatic relations with many powers in Christendom.

The other great power on the fringes of conventional Europe is the Tsardom of Russia, the enlarged Muscovy of old. The Russians were constrained to the west, facing the Danes and the Poles (separately), but the vast expanses stretching to the east offered other possibilities. The industrious young Tsar, Ivan VII has sought to woo Sweden once more to give his realm a much needed ally.

North America in 1621.

South America in 1621.​

The old Kingdom of Portugal had been eaten alive by the expansion of Spain but even if the state was extinct in the Old World it had a remarkable progeny in the New. La Plata had been founded as a colony of the Portuguese Crown in the early Sixteenth Century but for three generations has been an independent kingdom, ruled by a cadet branch of the de Avis dynasty. King Fernando IV rules a far flung state with territory in the Caribbean and a heartland spread across South America and centred on the growing city of Buenos Aires. La Plata is a cosmopolitan state, her population composed of the descendants of the original Portuguese colonists, reinforced by thousands of emigres from Spanish ruled Lisbon and Porto, mixed in Native Americans and Africans.

La Plata is the only European kingdom fully based in the New World but both France and Spain control territory there, either directly or through colonial governments. French Antarctique (in South America), Nouvelle-Flandre (in North America), Spanish Brazil and New Spain (in North America) are important colonies and it seems very likely that the Bourbon kingdoms will seek to expand them further.

The smaller European states also have a presence in the New World, including those like England and Scotland who are in decline in their own homeland. The largest of the 'minnows' are the Frisians who have established territories in South America, the West Indies and especially Canada where they control much of the growing fur trade. Their rivals the Dutch have also pushed into the far north.

Despite the presence of the European colonial powers Native Americans states still control most of North America and all of Central America. The latter has thus far been largely untouched by direct European contact and the Mayan influenced Kingdom of Tzotzil remains the mainstay of a region of small states that mostly ignore and are ignored by events beyond their region.

The religious turmoil of the Sixteenth Century had settled down in the early Seventeenth. The Roman Catholic Church, battered had splintered as it was had won a qualified victory. While the Protestant and Reformed faiths had spread widely across Central Europe and even into France none of the great powers had abandoned Rome. The serious attempts to win the Holy Roman Empire and Poland-Lithuania for Protestantism had ended in military failure so complete Hungary, a bastion of the Reformed faith was in danger of vanishing from the map. Ireland, Spain, the whole of Scandinavia and Southern Italy remained untouched by the Reformation, and under Spanish leadership in particular the Church has made headway in Iberian ruled North Africa.

The victory had come at great cost. The old unity of the Medieval Church could never be restored. Even where the Church holds sway adoption of the reforms pushed by the Council of Trent remains spotty. The Papacy itself remains too open to control by the great powers. The intricate webweaver Pope Callistus IV, the current pontiff, has proved the exception to this rule and leads an independent minded Vatican. Much to the shock of some the Pope has even shown himself pragmatic enough (or cynical enough in the view of some) to sign an alliance with Protestant Venice.

Quite separate from the troubles in the rest of Christendom the Orthodox Catholic world is represented by both tiny Moldavia and potent Russia, but fully half of the adherents of the Greek Church are under non-Christian rule in the Ottoman Empire (a situation of great frustration to Moscow!)

European religious distribution, 1621.​

 

[RossN]

A brief look at the state of the world in 1621.

~~~~~

Well boys, we did it. The Sejm is no more.

Well it does still exist, albeit drastically reduced in power.

A bloody war but imo a necessary one, and hopefully the Commonwealth will be better positioned in the future.

I think from that perspective it lanced a boil.

Zygmunt won the war but Karol will be first to reap the spoils. He'll also be the one picking up the pieces. It sounds like the royal coffers are bare (pawning the crown jewels!) and after so many years of multi-faceted rebellion, the land can't be in good shape either.

Definitely. It has been an absolutely exhausting struggle for the Commonwealth.

So the szlachta are beaten, but the Commonwealth as a whole is not in much better shape itself. Hopefully Karol will be able to put his house in order before his foreign enemies get any ideas.

Eep! Don't give them ideas!

It is over, but at what cost?

A vast fortune in gold and lives, sadly.

the only thing to hope for is that stronger royal authority is able prevent many of the weaknesses of the IRL Commonwealth

Indeed. I do think things will be different there.

Zygmunt was a cruel and terrible monarch.

Hopefully Karol is better.

Are separatists still infesting the Commonwealth? If so, the war is far from over...

No, the end of the war event lowers the revolt risk to 'normal' levels.

That is an impressively long civil war, one hopes that foreign powers did not take advantage of the thing.
A new world arises for King Karol, one where the commonwealth can finally be run efficiently. Will the Sejm be reduced to a mere rubber stamp or will it still maintain some powers?

The current climate is in flux and I think the Crown and the Sejm are still trying to determine the shift in power.

A strong rule should mean a quiet Commonwealth, I hope.

Hopefully!

A bad start to the war but it got turned around in the end! Let's hope Poland can rebuild its finances quickly now that it's at peace. With your internal troubles put to bed it's time to look outwards and that will require a mighty warchest.

Very true. I think it will be a while before the Commonwealth looks to foreign adventure!

That was an extremely brutal civil war, and with the populace exhausted and the coffers bare there's surely a very strong risk of some neighbouring enemies deciding now is the time to strike. Let's hope they're busy fighting each other and miss the opportunity, and that the new King can use his centralised power to rapidly restore the situation!

I hope you're right!

Another great update!

Thank you!

Well, it seems as though the Commonwealth has weathered the storm for the time being -- if it's still appropriate to call it the "Commonwealth," anyway, now that the szlachta have been effectively neutered. Hopefully no one else comes calling while they're still catching their breath...

Yes, that is definitely a concern...

 

[Cora Giantkiller]

My ancestors hail from Cork so I'm glad to see them doing so well in this alternate timeline.

 

[generalis Julius Caesar]

Very sad about England. Otherwise, I quite like this map.

 

[HistoryDude]

Well, nice to get a look at the world.

Ireland is doing excellent! I wonder if they will form Britannia?

 

[Cromwell]

A nice round up with some real surprises. Friseian Canada, a prospering Ireland and a Catholic Scandinavia, wow.

 

[Riotkiller]

That's quite the Ireland!

 

[Idhrendur]

I'm happy for Ireland, but sad to see Scotland laid so low.

 

[Specialist290]

I can't be the only one who chuckled a little at the irony of the Irish dominating England in this timeline, rather than vice-versa

As always, I'm fascinated by how the colonization of the New World has turned out. The exile kingdom in La Plata in particular is a place I'd be plenty fascinated by if I were able to study the history of this particular world in more detail.

 

[Legosim]

Really enjoy these wrap-up updates as well! Even if the narrative doesn't highlight everything going on all over the continent, still great to check in with them time to time!

 

[Nikolai]

Finally the Sejm is pacified and hereditary rule has come to stabilize the land.

 

[Viden]

It is a shame that Spain is the junior patner of the Bourbon empire. Nevertheless, it is quite a sight to behold.

 

[theauthor]

Surprisingly the rising power in the 'British Isles' was not Scotland, herself a realm in rapid decline, but the young Kingdom of Ireland, which had swallowed most of old England by the end of the Sixteenth Century.

That's definitely the luck of irish right there.

 

[slothinator]

A very impressive outcome for Ireland, I never expected England to be entirely broken like that.
North America is a lot more sparsely colonized than I expected, perhaps the Bourbon empire has grown complacent despite its internal rivalries.
Interesting to see an independent La Plata of considerable size, I have hope that they will be an important player but I have my fears.
That is a thoroughly protestant central Europe, I'm surprised that they didn't take the HRE but Bohemia looks to still be significant (unless the Commonwealth comes knocking soon).

 

[DensleyBlair]

Just want to drop by and say (very long-overdue) that this has been on my catch-up list for a grand old time. I have terrible form following your AARs, @RossN, but they're always quality. Looking forward to getting up to speed here!

 

[RossN]

Karol I Ferdynand Lanckoronski, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (r. 1620 to 1629.)​

Part Sixteen: Karol I Ferdynand Lanckoronski & the Viltautė Regency


The Pacification Sejm of September 1621 brought much needed peace to the Commonwealth but certainty was another matter. The serpentine negotiations in the Palace of the Grand Dukes in Wilno had, over many weeks arrived at a formula the defeated nobles could live with. The Sejm retained many of their personal privileges, involving taxation, the right to trial, the keys to certain high offices and so on and little land exchanged hands, to the disappointment of some adventurers on the royalist side who had been licking their chops at the thought of seizing rebel property. Where the nobles lost and the Crown gained was in two key areas; the end of the power of the personal veto (a limited majority veto was allowed for some matters) and the authority to elect (and depose) the King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania.

The result of all this was still being understood in the reign of Karol I Ferdynand Lanckoronski. The new monarch, who was forty four at the time the war ended had been a loyal soldier for his brother during the rebellion, but otherwise had little in common in Zygmunt. Karol was not a rake, instead being a hard-working introvert. He was religious and a staunch Catholic but his views on recalcitrance were noticeably more merciful than his father’s. A loud or troublesome Protestant might face a sharp fine (not coincidentally a desperately needed source of income for the penniless state) but the threat of being put to the stake vanished into the history books.

The true show of colour in the royal court and a sign of the direction the realm was heading came not from the monarch but from his wife. At the beginning of 1621 Karol Ferdynand had married Viltautė Premyslovci of Kraków [1]. Poland had seen Queen-Consorts before Viltautė, but the young noblewoman beautiful and charming brought fresh life and power to the role. The Premyslovci dynasty and even Kraków herself, long past her prime and grown Protestant and embittered, experienced a revival thanks to the royal consort.

Viltautė would have made her mark in any era but the new monarchy brought her particular importance as her children would in time take the thrones of Poland and Lithuania. Though de-facto hereditary under the Lanckoronskis the Crown had legally depended on the votes of the Sejm up until now. The birth of Crown Prince Svitrigalia in October 1621 ended any faint hopes the nobles had the current King would pass without legitimate heir.

Viltautė Premyslovci, Queen-Consort of Poland & Grand Duchess of Lithuania, later Regent of the Commonwealth (regency. 1629 to 1636)
​

The 1620s offered few opportunities for the royals to exercise their strengthened powers. The treasury was not just frighteningly empty, the Crown’s creditors demanded payment. So strained were resources that what would once have been grandiose public occasions like the royal wedding or the funeral of Cardinal Kalinowski at the end of 1622 saw threadbare celebrations. The Swedish ambassador to Wilno in this period was shocked to discover the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess had been reduced to granting casks of wine from the royal cellars to local magnates and court officials in lieu of land or stipends. Everything had to go towards feeding the ravenous wolf that was the debt.

To make ends meet the single most expensive element of the Commonwealth had to be pruned. The Army could not safely be reduced in actual numbers as the thought of whole companies of career soldiers left to make their way in the world many nervous. Therefore the cuts came in other ways. Purchases of ammunition, fresh horses and other supplies fell to a bare minimum. Food, never particularly splendid for the rank and file reached new depths of quality, leading to the era the Nineteenth Century historian Count Karol Piotrowski described as “the mouse war” when the only enemy the soldiers were fit to fight with rusty swords and empty muskets were the rodents they hunted to supplement their grim diet.

The Navy might have considered their rivals on land basking in good fortune. Not only did the fleet suffer all the same deprivations as the soldiery, they had to continue using outdated and ageing ships in their Baltic patrols against the ever present pirates of Rügen. Throughout the 1620s it has been estimated that more than half the Commonwealth’s warships were unseaworthy and several had to be kept near dry dock lest they founder at anchor in the least inclement weather.

By immense national hardship the last loan was paid off in December 1625. That allowed the recovery of the Crown Jewels of Poland and the Crown Jewels of Lithuania. The treasury had begun to recover thanks to a rise in income from taxation, itself thanks to prolonged internal stability. With pressures eased Wilno once more began to resemble a proper court with seasonal revels, balls and masques.

The revival of extended court life on a scale not seen since the early days Zygmunt saw a new phase in political life in the Commonwealth. The Premyslovcis and other families that been in the royalist camp during the war sought to keep their place at court and as the favourites of the monarch. The Sejm and all the offices that it filled still existed but there were now other routes to the top.

At the end of March 1628 the domestic peace was shattered by a plea for aid from the Duchy of Mecklenburg which had become embroiled in a war with her neighbours Wolgast, Hamburg and Saxony. The enduring alliance between Poland and Mecklenburg had survived the fall of the German dynasty in Poland, the formation of the Commonwealth and the conversion of the Mecklenburgers to the Protestant faith. The small German state was not a significant player in European affairs and not as significant ally as Sweden but she was loyal and honour demanded the Commonwealth come to her rescue.

The initial attitude in Wilno was fatalistic. The Commonwealth army was, at least on paper, large enough to fight Wolgast, Hamburg and Saxony combined. The Army even had the manpower to fight Bohemia should the Emperor become involved. The question was whether the soldiers, who were still painfully rebuilding their supplies were able to fight. And could the treasury take the strain?

The answer to both questions was ‘yes’. The Commonwealth economy had recovered to the point that the armies could be kept in the field, the Navy could hastily be made seaworthy and the treasury continue to grow. Best of all the Bohemians stayed out of the war, still reeling from a recent ill-advised clash with the Ottomans that had seen much of Hungary pass into the rule of the Turks.

The Navy drew first blood, the old but serviceable ships and their crews exchanging cannon fire with the enemy in a series of clashes that saw them driven from the open Baltic. The Commonwealth fleet might not be equal to defeating the Danes but they could certainly sweep aside Hamburg and Wolghast.

It was not a war the Commonwealth had sought but once it had actually begun the King turned to it with gusto. The introvert workaholic, perpetually surrounded by papers of state and rarely emerging into daylight suddenly seemed twenty years younger in spirit, returning to the life of the soldier. When the Commonwealth armies suffered an unexpected check at the Battle of Uckermark on 6 December 1628 the monarch recovered the situation with unflagging optimism. Recovering from this early setback the Commonwealth would defeat the enemy at Stettin on 3 April 1629, opening up the entire of Wolgast for invasion.

The sudden death of Karol I and the regency of his widow Queen-Consort Viltautė.
​

News of the victory at Stettin reached Wilno a few weeks later, only to be swiftly followed by another messenger who had ridden four horses to death in his haste to reach the capital. Karol Ferdynand was dead, the victim of a sudden outbreak of fever. As determined as the old soldier had been in soul his body could not keep up the strain.

The death of the monarch threw the Commonwealth into political crisis. There was a legitimate heir, but Crown Prince Svitrigalia was only seven years old. The Sejm, having lost their automatic right to elect a new king sought to vote in a regent but the Queen-Consort simply ignored them and assumed the role. Viltautė had the support of the old dynastic faction, her own prominent family and their allies, the Church and the Army. Even amongst those who had been on the losing side of the civil war dreaded a return to the conflict and eventually the Sejm gave in and recognised Viltautė as legal regent of Poland and Lithuania.

Viltautė was faced with the ongoing war, which would not draw to a close until late 1631. The Commonwealth, which was doing most of the heavy fighting on land and sea had few spectacular triumphs but simply ground down the enemy, using her superior forces and veteran soldiers. Saxony capitulated in January 1631 and the lion’s share of her treasury fell into Commonwealth hands. Suddenly the Commonwealth had financial security once more, and the final peace with Wolgast in October of that year actually passed with little notice in Wilno – so long as Mecklenburg remained intact the Commonwealth was disinterested in the minor adjustments of German principalities.

The Saxon peace of 1631 saw the Commonwealth amply repaid for her aid during the war.
​

The Queen was uninterested in administration and unfamiliar with warfare and was content to leave such matters to the experts. Her particular genius was for diplomacy and what can best be described as force of personality. In many respects Viltautė’s court recalled something of Zygmunt’s, though those old enough to recall that reign noticed Viltautė, whatever her other flaws, lacked the cruel nature Zygmunt had so often indulged [2].

The immediate post-war years saw the Queen-Consort Regent draw praise and enmity. The court had regained splendour and patronage and some noble families such as Viltautė’s own Premyslovci family and the Kraków based Gosiewski dynasty achieved great power and wealth. The Gosiewskis owed their rank to their Royalist service in the civil war and especially to the famed general Zygfryd Gosiewski. The general had died in 1627 but his daughter Jadwiga was a friend of the Queen-Consort Regent. So trusted was Jadwiga Gosiewski that in 1635 Viltautė arranged a marriage between her son and the noblewoman once Svitrigalia came of age in 1637.

It was from the beginning a scandalous alliance. The bride to be was eleven years older than the boy king, and though a baptised and practising Roman Catholic there was no disguising the fact that the Gosiewiskis were of patrilineal Jewish descent and only converted to Christianity within living memory. The one thing the gossip mongers could not agree between themselves was whether Viltautė intended to remain control of the Commonwealth via her old favourite or whether the evil genius of the piece was Jadwiga who had manipulated the vain Regent into a royal marriage with the ambition of taking control herself (few gave much thought to the boy himself, too young and invisible in the interplay of court life.)

Jadwiga Gosiewski, future wife of King Svitrigaila.
​

Jadwiga was not entirely without support in the broader Commonwealth. In the Army where the ‘Gosiewski’ name meant much there was instinctive sympathy for the general’s daughter. In the old noble families there was some scrambling to arrange ties with the Gosiewskis. Still there was enough opposition to both Jadwiga and the general power and wealth of the Regent that some in the Commonwealth began to turn to other options.

Agirdas Oginski was a young Byelorussian noble whose mother had been the youngest daughter of King Kazimierz IV. He was not the only grandson of a king in the Commonwealth, not even the lone legitimate such grandson but in 1635 he came to the attention of Viltautė and Jadwiga’s enemies. Oginski was young but he was older than Svitrigalia and he had no link to the court faction. For those with an axe to grind against the regency he was a viable alternative king.

A great mythology has grown up around Agirdas Oginski as the voice of the Sejm and an agent for restoring the powers of the nobility, perhaps even bringing in a republic. In fact there is no contemporary evidence for this view. In the 1630s the Sejm was a broken reed, the survivors of the anti-monarchist side too crushed to even entertain supporting a second round of the civil war. Rather, Oginski drew support from within the royalist ranks, from those who had never won favour with Viltautė or who had favour and then lost it in the ruthless world of courtier politics.

On 1 November 1636 Viltautė stepped aside from her role as regent, handing power to her still fifteen year old son Svitrigalia. The move, months earlier than predicted seemed to have been designed to catch the malcontents off guard. If so it failed; even as the young King assumed his duties (and married the twenty six year old Jadwiga Gosiewski) Oginiski and his supporters had raised their standard of revolt in Moheylew. Even with the switch to true hereditary monarchy it seemed succession was not going to be a simple matter...

King & Grand Duke Svitrigaila I assumes the throne in fact, 1 November 1636.

The marriage between Svitrigaila and Jadwiga took place simultaneously with the King's assumption of power.
​

Footnotes:

[1] Kraków in this era was a centre of Protestantism but there remained a circle of Roman Catholic nobility in the city, the Premyslovcis amongst them. THey tended towards pragmatism with their largely Lutheran immediate neighbours.

[2] She may however have been an embezzler, siphoning off much more of the state coffers than she claimed both during her regency and after her son assumed the throne. However given the passage of time and the merciless nature of court gossip it is difficult if not impossible for later historians to prove this.

 

[RossN]

My apologies on this slightly later than planned update. There was a combination of writer's block and other distractions (especially an Argentinian soap opera I randomly found on Youtube about a misogynistic magazine editor magically transformed into a woman by a jilted lover - clearly South American soaps are a little more experimental than our Irish versions...)

In any case good to be back.

~~~~~

My ancestors hail from Cork so I'm glad to see them doing so well in this alternate timeline.

As a Dubliner I'm not quite as glad.

Very sad about England. Otherwise, I quite like this map.

I was very surprised England collapsed so utterly. I knew they where badly defeated in the Hundred Years Wars but even so I thought they'd retain at least some power and cohesion!

Well, nice to get a look at the world.

Ireland is doing excellent! I wonder if they will form Britannia?

Possibly, I'm not sure of the exact conditions. And that would be an amazing twist if 'Britannia' is formed by Hibernia!

A nice round up with some real surprises. Friseian Canada, a prospering Ireland and a Catholic Scandinavia, wow.

I know! Don't forget Protestant Austriand Northern Italy!

That's quite the Ireland!

'Tis.

Ireland is still quite far from a great power, but if she can avoid provoking France and keeping what she has she could be a significant player on the global stage.

I'm happy for Ireland, but sad to see Scotland laid so low.

Scotland was another surprise, and for a while it really seemed Britain would fall to them. Then they feuded with Denmark...

I can't be the only one who chuckled a little at the irony of the Irish dominating England in this timeline, rather than vice-versa

As always, I'm fascinated by how the colonization of the New World has turned out. The exile kingdom in La Plata in particular is a place I'd be plenty fascinated by if I were able to study the history of this particular world in more detail.

Believe me you were not!

The Commonwealth isn't really a player in the New World, but I too am fascinated by La Plata and will be keeping an eye on events there, and elsewhere in the colonial sphere.

Really enjoy these wrap-up updates as well! Even if the narrative doesn't highlight everything going on all over the continent, still great to check in with them time to time!

Thanks!

Glad you enjoy them. I like to take time now and then to show what is going on beyond the borders of the Commonwealth.

Finally the Sejm is pacified and hereditary rule has come to stabilize the land.

Hurrah!

It is a shame that Spain is the junior patner of the Bourbon empire. Nevertheless, it is quite a sight to behold.

I agree. The Bourbon empire is worryingly stable...

That's definitely the luck of irish right there.

Our traditional luck is bad, so this is certainly an inverted timeline.

A very impressive outcome for Ireland, I never expected England to be entirely broken like that.
North America is a lot more sparsely colonized than I expected, perhaps the Bourbon empire has grown complacent despite its internal rivalries.
Interesting to see an independent La Plata of considerable size, I have hope that they will be an important player but I have my fears.
That is a thoroughly protestant central Europe, I'm surprised that they didn't take the HRE but Bohemia looks to still be significant (unless the Commonwealth comes knocking soon).

It is a weird world in many ways and generally speaking colonisation is slower in some parts of the world and quicker in others. I'm sure the maps in another century will be fascinating!

Just want to drop by and say (very long-overdue) that this has been on my catch-up list for a grand old time. I have terrible form following your AARs, @RossN, but they're always quality. Looking forward to getting up to speed here!

Thank you very much and welcome aboard!