What if? These Hills Sing of Saxon Kings.

[Beorn]

1066 AD - Harold II is crowned King of England in this year, claiming that Edward the Confessor had left the kingdom to him on his deathbed. From the beginning Harold has a busy year. The northern Earls Morcar and Edwin only begrudgingly accept him as the rightful king, seeing him as little more than a strongman and a usurper. He must also deal with two other men who claim the English throne. Harald Hardrada, and William of Normandy.

Hardrada proved to be not so great a problem. He was utterly destroyed at Stamford bridge, and at least for the time being Harold had won over Morcar and Edwin. But he had to get to Pevensey, and fast. Because William was on the move.

The battle was joined at Hastings. It would be a clash of cultures, where the Norman knight shall meet the Saxon shield wall.

At one point in the battle, William’s Breton forces on the left flank retreated (historians debate to this day whether or not the retreat was feigned). The Saxon infantrymen were preparing to charge after them, but then Harold himself came in front of his men and asked them, “Would you just as soon pursue death?” This kept the right flank of Harold’s forces from breaking, and kept the overall army from breaking.

This had a cumulative effect. The Saxons were not near as depleted by dusk than they would have been had they pursued the feigned retreats. Night fell on the 14th of October, 1066, and William was forced to retire. Harold Godwinson would live to see the tenth month’s fifteenth day.

In the early hours of October 15th, William realized he had no choice but to retreat. He had lost over three thousand men in the Battle, and his scouts had come back reporting seeing English ships patrolling the shore.

By October 16th, there were no Normans left in England. Harold, in a span of just 19 days had beaten back a Viking invasion force of over 7,500, and a Norman invasion force of 8,000.

Rightly, he was hailed as a hero. Harold Godwinson, King of England, had kept his crown and kingdom.

The rest of the year was spent consolidating his Kingdom. He braced the southern shores of England for another attack by William, but the attack never came. William in November of this year returned the Papal banner to Rome, basically telling the Pope, “Thank but no thanks.” William had weakened his position immensely, and now he had rival duchies in France breathing down his neck.

1067 AD - Another busy year for Harold. Malcolm III continued his slave raids on Northumbria, and Morcar and Edwin were letting Harold know about it. All the while the Welsh were getting to be a serious problem.

England continued to burgeon off the wool trade, and as such money was not a particular problem for Harold. Thus began the reprisal raids against the Welsh.

The Welsh were not difficult to defeat in battle, but it was in the inner hills and mountains of Wales that the English found themselves at odds with their Celtic enemy. And so the English avoided conflict in those aforementioned mountains all together. The reprisal succeeded. Harold constructed a few permanent fortifications along the new border, and called it a victory. And he was right. Various agreements were reached with the Welsh princes that basically ended the worst of the raids for the rest of Harold’s reign.

Elsewhere in Europe at this time, Olav III and Magnus II divide up Harald Hardrada’s kingdom amongst themselves.

1068 - 1069 AD - Harold’s troubles were not over. He still had to deal with Malcolm III of Scotland. Malcolm was causing him a lot of grief, because the longer Malcolm was allowed to raid Northumbria, the more angry Morcar and Edwin became. Something had to be done, Harold didn’t defeat Harald and William for nothing.

He understood that at this time in Scotland there was a dispute as to who was the rightful heir to the throne. Lulach, the previous king of Scotland, had been killed by Malcolm III and took the throne by force. This left Lulach’s eldest son Máel Snechtai with nothing more than Moray, and he was not content with having his claim go unrecognized.

In February of 1068 Harold sent a proposition to Máel Snechtai, that basically said that Harold was willing to go to war with Malcolm III and place him on the throne of Scotland on the condition that the raids on Northumbria stopped.

Harold’s successors would later find out it was a deal with the devil. But enough of that for now.

Máel Snechtai accepted the offer, and the campaign began in earnest in May 1068. The invasion of Scotland by England triggered a domino effect, as the Highland Scots took on an “enemy of my enemy” approach (The English were the Enemy of the Lowland Scots), and Malcolm III found himself in a bit of a situation.

By August 1069, with winter fast approaching, Malcolm III had no choice but to flee. There were too many factions in his court conspiring against him, too many enemies invading on all sides. Malcolm fled to Ireland.

On September 14th, 1069, Máel Snechtai of Moray was crowned King of Scotland. Shortly thereafter, Máel Snechtai signed the Treaty of Scone, proclaiming an alliance between England and Scotland. Morcar and Edwin hailed Harold as a hero, the protector of Northumbria. This day would be marked as the beginning of Harold’s short yet placid reign.

1070 - 1077 AD - Harold spent the rest of his reign dealing with the occasional Welsh or Scottish band of brigands who would descend from their poverty-stricken and mountainous lands to raid a farmhouse or two.

In international waters, the biggest battle Harold had to contend with was the Papacy, who still wouldn’t reconcile him. This battle of wills would continue to persist until 1073, when Pope Alexander II died.

But when Harold threw in his lot with Emperor Henry IV in the Investiture Controversy in 1075, Gregory decided that he best make friends where he could. In exchange for recognizing him as the legitimate Pope, Harold would be reconciled. Harold was given an offer he couldn’t refuse. Or, rather, he didn’t want to.

Harold would die in 1077 of natural causes. But Harold left a whole lot of questions of succession unanswered. He had three sons by Edith Swan-neck, Godwine, Edmund, and Magnus. He also had two sons by Aldith of Mercia, Harold and Ulf. Morcar was vying for position of king as well. In July of 1077 the Witanagemot convened in Winchester. Not to mention Harold had two brothers Gyrth and Leofwine

Harold and Ulf were ruled out right away, as at the time they were only 10 years old, and spent very little time concerned with matters of the state. Gyrth and Leofwine were very old and would not last all that much longer, and having to deal with another succession debacle was something the Witanagemot wished to avoid. This left four possible candidates, Morcar, Godwine, Edmund, and Magnus.

Morcar was the most distantly related to Harold, and his abject failure to defend his realms from Scots and Vikings only served to darken his appearance in the eyes of the Witan. This left three very able candidates, Godwine, Edmund, and Magnus. Godwine and Edmund were twins, and older than Magnus, so he was left out.

This left only Godwine and Edmund. The two had performed fantastically in battle against the Scots, and the witan argued over them into August of 1077. Finally, Edmund stepped down, proclaiming that he will not accept the position of king if given, and would not fight his brother for that title. Godwine was proclaimed the King of England.

Morcar wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Elswehere in the world, Marrakesh is founded in 1070, the Byzantine Empire loses the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, the Normans conquer Palermo in 1072, and Henry IV is reconciled at Canossa by Gregory VII.

1078 - 1079 AD - Morcar attempts a rebellion, and indeed does gain some support. However, the Godwins were seen as heroes to most of the people of Northumbria, and the Scottish king was more than eager to support Harold’s successor (and loot Northumbria, a favorite Scottish past time).

The result of this was that Morcar and his brother Edwin were both killed, Edwin in battle and Morcar by an assassin, presumably hired by Máel Snechtai. With Morcar’s death the brief civil war had ended. As an act of gratitude for his participation and support, King Godwine granted his brother Edmund the Earldoms of Mercia and Northumbria. The Godwin family now controlled almost all of England’s earldoms.

1080 - 1090 AD - Godwine spent this time continuing the policies of his father. He spent much money expanding the cities of York, London, and Winchester, as reminders of the glory of the Godwins’ reign. But things were about to change, when Máel Snechtai died in 1090. Máel Snechtai was a half-liked ruler, and he had no issue. Malcolm III was still living, and still had sons. He also had allies in Ireland willing to assist him in taking the throne.

Malcolm III’s brother Máel Muire, the Mormaer of Atholl, had thrown his lot in with the English when Harold Godwinson invaded, and he was the next logical choice for succession.

Also in 1085, Alfonso VI retook Toledo from the Moors. Pope Victor III is elected in 1086. Pope Urban II then ascends the Papacy in 1088.

1091 - 1094 AD - Civil war in Scotland. Malcolm III returned to Scotland, in an attempt to reclaim the throne. He gained support among the anti-English parts of the Scottish nobility, and had a strong position. But Máel Muire had the support of King Godwine of England, and the pro-English parts of the Scottish nobility.

But in late 1093 Malcolm died, and his sons were only willing to carry on the fight for a few more months. In 1094, Malcolm sons reached an agreement that they would renounce their claims if they were given the Mormaerdoms of Ross and Moray to the two eldest, and the rest were given various Thanedoms.

Scotland was secured once again. For now.

In Europe, in 1091 the Normans finally took the last Islamic strongholds in Sicily, and in that same year the Abbadids are overthrown by the Almoravids in Spain, and in 1094 Pope Urban II proclaims a Crusade.

1095 AD - King Godwine dies. The witan approves his son Osmund to ascend the throne.

Elsewhere in Europe, the Council of Clermont sparks off Crusading fervor all over the continent. Osmund expresses a desire to go on Crusade, but knows that he must stay to oversee the affairs of his country.

1096 AD - Earl Edmund of Northumbria dies less than a year after his brother.

1097 - 1114 AD - The reign of Osmund. A placid reign, it was marked by the construction of grand Cathedrals in Winchester, London, and York. In 1114 AD he died, in his late fifties. He had two sons, Edgar and Alfred. Edgar was granted the title King of England, while Alfred was granted the title Earl of Oxford.

Elsewhere in the world, the First Crusade was a resounding success, with the capture of Jerusalem by the First Crusade in 1099. Later in the year Pope Paschal II was elected. In 1105 Henry IV Holy Roman Emperor is deposed by his son Henry V, and in 1106 Henry IV dies. In 1110 the Crusade continues, with the capture of Beirut and Sidon, and in 1111 Henry V is officially recognized by Pope Paschal II as the Holy Roman Emperor,

1114 - 1128 AD - Reign of King Edgar. Again a very placid reign, although he was the first Anglo-Saxon king since Harold Godwinson to marry into the Danish nobility. He continued his father’s policies of maintaining peace on his borders, however his reign saw an increase in Welsh raids. These led to the standard reprisal raids, and few made much of it.

Pope Gelasius II succeeds Pope Paschal II as Pope in 1118, who is in turn succeeded by Pope Callixtus II in 1119, and it was during his reign that the Investiture Controversy came to a close in 1122 with the Concordat of Worms. Pope Honorius II succeeds Callixtus II in 1124. In 1125 Lothair of Saxony becomes Lothair II, Holy Roman Emperor.

In 1128 Edgar dies without an heir. The throne goes to the cadet branch, of the Earls of Northumbria. Edward the Earl of Northumbria ascends the throne.

1130 AD - In 1130 Máel Muire, King of Scotland, finally dies, after living to be over ninety years old. He was succeeded by his son Matad. Matad is friendly to the English, knowing that he owes his kingship to the actions of Edward’s grandfather.

In this year, Pope Innocent II is elected to succeed Honorius II.

1143 AD - Portugal officially recognized as independent by the Kingdom of Leon. Also in this year, Pope Celestine II succeeds Pope Innocent II.

1144 AD - King Edward dies. He is succeeded by his son Edward (III).

Lucius II succeeds Celestine II.

Antioch falls to Zengi.

1145 AD - Pope Eugene III succeeds Lucius II. Pope Eugene III calls the Second Crusade.

1146 AD - Bernard of Clairvaux preaches the Second Crusade. King Edward III was a relatively young man (38), his older brothers having predeceased him before he ascended the throne. He felt young enough to go on Crusade, and made preparations to do so.

1147 AD - Edward III having his clergymen preach the Second Crusade is a resounding success. The Crusade departed from Cornwall in May, with not only English, but Scottish, Irish, Norse, Flemish, German, and Norman crusaders. He leaves his son Harold III in charge of the Kingdom whilst he was away.

1148 - 1152 AD - Welsh raids intensify under the leadership of Owain Gwynedd. The raids were quite successful, and Harold III has little choice but to strike a deal with him.

1148 - 1149 AD - The English Crusaders take various Moorish settlements on their way to the Holy Land.

1150 - 1153 AD - Edward III arrives in the Holy Land, after the Siege of Damascus. He partakes in the Crusade, but after three years he wasn’t the first to realize this Crusade really wasn’t going anywhere. He departs, having in his mind fulfilled his Christian duty, he sets sail for England in 1153.

1153 AD - Eleanor of Aquitane marries Henry II Duke of Normandy. This puts the Normans in a position just as strong as the King of France.

In this year, Matad King of Scotland is succeeded by Malcolm III.

1154 AD - Edward III returns to England. He finds that his son has done only a mediocre job of running the country, and that he is currently at odds with Owain Gywnedd, King of Wales.

1155 - 1158 AD - Edward III launches a counterattack on Owain Gwynedd. Owain Gwynedd loses just about everything, as Edward III is a brilliant tactician, a veteran of the Second Crusade. In 1158 Owain has little choice but to divide up his kingdom with various Welsh noblemen (friends-of-convenience to England), and to cede Gwent, Morcannwg, and Brycheiniog to the Kingdom of England, in Edward III’s attempt to establish permanent English presence in Wales proper.


1155 - 1158 AD - Edward IV launches a counterattack on Owain Gwynedd. Owain Gwynedd loses just about everything, as Edward IV is a brilliant tactician, a veteran of the Second Crusade. In 1158 Owain has little choice but to divide up his kingdom with various Welsh noblemen (friends-of-convenience to England), and to cede Gwent, Morcannwg, and Brycheiniog to the Kingdom of England, in Edward IV’s attempt to establish permanent English presence in Wales proper.

1163 AD - Conan IV Duke of Brittany marries Marie, daughter of Eleanor. Brittany, while not a possession of Henry I, falls into his sphere of influence. Conan IV is seven years older than she, however Conan is desperate, for if he dies without an heir (or heiress, for that matter) then his land will either be fought for by his bastard half-brother, or will be turned into a royal domain.

1165 AD - Conan IV and Marie give birth to Alan V.

1166 AD - Death of Edward IV. Accession of Harold III as King of England.


1167 - 1178 AD - The short reign of King Harold III. King Harold III accomplished little in his reign, however he did manage to begin the restoration of the roads in England, as a means of facilitating growth and trade throughout England. Harold III died without any male heir, and this created a bit of a succession crisis.

Harold III’s eldest daughter had married Canute VI of Denmark. So Canute VI had a claim to the throne of England (a country that really had no laws of succession of which to speak). Many of the Godwins did not fancy this one bit, as they did not want to see their house replaced as the ruling house of England. Then there was the Northumbrian branch, headed by Albert, the Mercian branch, headed by Ethelred, and the Oxford branch, headed by a different Albert.

The Witanagemot was of course comprised of mostly the Godwins and their cadet branches. The succession crisis could have been avoided all together if they could agree on whom to name as king. But there was a definite North/South split in the Witanagemot. The Northern faction supported either Albert or Ethelred (they argued amongst themselves in between arguing with the Southern Faction), and the Southern faction supported Albert of Oxford almost fully. There were a few in the Witanagemot who even supported Canute VI taking the throne (these were the very few non-Godwins in the Witan).

So the problem could only be exacerbated in 1178 when Canute came personally to England to claim the throne. Canute had the support of many of the Northern reeves and thegns, who had grown tired of Godwin rule. Canute also had support of large swaths of the clergy, for Canute was from a young age noted for his piety.

The witan continued to argue over who should be made king when on August 9th, 1178 Canute walked in on the session of Witanagemot in Winchester, and argued his case.

He was promptly thrown out. He had no choice but to leave for Denmark, with full intent of having that crown. But his personal appearance did have an unintended effect: the Witanagemot were able to agree, in the face of Danish invasion, upon Albert, Earl of Oxford. He spent many of his years learning the arts of war, and a warrior king seemed quite appropriate.

1167 AD - Henry I was convinced by his wife Eleanor to invade the County of Toulouse, on account of the Ranulfids’ ancient claim to the County. But Raymond V knew that Eleanor wanted the County, and so appealed to his liege, Louis VII King of France, to garrison his cities with royal troops. That way, an attempt to seize Toulouse would mean war with the crown. Henry I wanted no such war, and as such backed off. Toulouse remained safe and out of Angevin hands.

1169 AD - Dermot MacMurrough King of Leinster is ousted and forced into exile. He appeals to King Harold III of England, however his pleas fall upon deaf ears. Harold III was not interested in getting involved in the politics of Ireland.

Dermot MacMurrough then sought the aid of Malcolm IV King of Scotland, and Malcolm IV was most interested in expanding his kingdom’s influence across the Irish sea. In return for Dermot MacMurrough marrying his daughter to Malcolm IV’s son, Malmure II, Malcolm IV promised Dermot MacMurrough that he would assist with his little situation.

1170 AD - In the same year that Malmure II had a son by the name of Duncan II, Malcolm IV gave Dermot MacMurrough an army by which he may retake his kingdom.

1171 AD - Dermot MacMurrough was successful in retaking the Kingdom of Leinster, but his dreams of becoming the High King of Ireland were out of reach. He was too old, and it had already been taken by Rory O’Connor. Rory O’Connor, not wishing to provoke a conflict with the King of Scotland, acknowledged Dermot MacMurrough as the King of Leinster, and in return Dermot MacMurrough must recognize him as the High King of Ireland. Pressured by Malcolm IV to end the conflict, Dermot MacMurrough accepted.

Dermot MacMurrough died later that year, and he left his son Domnall the King of Leinster.

1172 AD - Marie de Aquitaine marries Alfonso VIII of Castile. Eleanor arranges this marriage to secure the Pyrennean border.

1174 AD - Saladin captures Damascus.

1175 AD - Domnall Cáemánach dies without an heir. The throne of Leinster and Dublin passes to Malmure II/I. The Kings of Ireland are at first unsure of what to make of Malmure, a strange man from across the Irish Sea. But when Malmure gave large portions of Leinster to the King of Munster and the High King himself, the grumbling stopped.

During the next ten years, Malmure II would work with the Papacy to rein in the Celtic churches in Ireland. By 1185 at the Synod of Waterford, Celtic Christianity was brought to an end, and brought into the fold. Malmure’s reason for doing this were many. For one, Malmure was devoutly Catholic, but he also foresaw that he could not reign as King of Scotland, a monarch in communion with Rome, while rule over Leinster as a monarch not in communion with Rome.

1176 AD - Frederick Barbarossa defeated at the Battle of Legnano by the Lombard League. Signing of the pactum Anagninum.

1177 AD - Treaty of Venice. Pope Alexander III recognized by Frederick Barbarossa.

1179 AD - Toward the end of winter in 1179 AD, Canute VI Prince of Denmark brought to bear a large army of over 6,000, and sailed them up the River Thames under the cover of night. The original plan was to sail right into Lundenwic (OTL London), and from there secure the Thames for further waves of invaders. Canute had believed Albert would have expected him in the north, and this seemed to have been backed up by his scouts he had sent earlier. But Albert had anticipated that Lunden was of strategic importance to Canute, more so than Eoforwic (OTL York) or Witanceaster (OTL Winchester), and as such kept most of his fleet in those regions.

The trap was executed perfectly. Canute sailed into a city garrisoned with over 8,000 troops, troops that were expecting him. Canute tried to take the city, but after only three hour’s fighting and not getting anywhere he knew he had been bested. In addition, he was losing his ships, and with them his only way out. Canute sailed away.

Albert I was hailed as a hero, akin to Harold II Godwinson. But Albert I saw this invasion as a warning, that unless standardized Laws of Succession were introduced, more trouble lay in store for England. In October of 1179 Albert I convened the Witanagemot, to discuss this issue.

Albert I effectively wanted to take the Witan out of the loop when it came to matters of succession, and install a clear law of succession, independent of the Witan’s decision.

The Witan was outraged. Who was this Oxfordian upstart? This continental-thinking ne’er-do-well? Although the desire for reducing the power of the Witanagemot was not without precedent. The blind wisdom of the Witan was first shown to be lacking when the Witan allowed Aethelred to return from exile, and over the past one hundred years or so the Witan’s decisions have led to a chaotic domestic situation. So in the eyes of many, Albert I was justified in asking for this slight increase in monarchial power.

It’s only too bad that the Witanagemot seemed to disagree with him.

The Witan realized they had created a monster, and promptly set about to replace him, that he was kin to (most of) them didn’t really seem to matter. They found that the Earl of Hereford, Ethelbert, another Godwin, would more or less fit the bill as a puppet ruler, a figurehead.

About half of the Witan balked at the idea of replacing the king, saying it would result in a loss of face, and walked out.

If only those men knew exactly what the end result of their actions would be, they might have thought twice.

Elsewhere in Europe, the Third Council of the Lateran declares Waldensians and Cathars to be heretics.

1180 AD - The Troubles of 1180. Essentially a civil war, one side supported Ethelbert and the Witanagemot, while the other side, referred to as the Cyunningesmenn (“King’s Men”), supported Albert and his own Witan. It was actually a rather short affair. Albert I was hailed as a hero, and as such the Witanagemot found themselves hard-pressed to raise a large amount of forces willing to fight against this national hero.

The Witan’s strategy was that they would be able to capture Albert I, or otherwise corner him and force him to either abdicate his throne, or to at the very least cease this reformation nonsense. To this end the Witanegamot was sure to secure Lundenwic and the Midlands, and to basically box-in the King in the southeast of England.

They hadn’t counted on the fact that Albert had so much popular support, and support of a large fraction of the nobility. The Witan was able to raise a force of just 7,000 men (they initially had a force of 10,000, however they suffered greatly from desertion and insurrection). They knew they had to defeat Albert decisively in a single battle if this gamble were to pay off.

The battle was joined in Sumortunsete (OTL Somerset). The King’s Men numbered about 7,000, as did the Witan’s forces. The Witan had wonderful leadership, and hoped that this would prove to be the deciding factor.

It was not.

The battle took place on August 1, 1180. The Witan’s forces were utterly routed. The Witan could not regroup, and over the next four months members of the Witan would once again pledge their allegiance to Albert I, and those who didn’t were tracked down and killed in small skirmishes, or by the assassin’s blade. In a great act of mercy, Ethelbert was pardoned of his offenses. Historians agree that this was a calculated move, to endear himself to his people as a firm yet merciful king.

Albert had survived the greatest threat to his crown. Now he could get to those reforms.

Elsewhere in Europe, Louis VII dies and is succeeded by his son, Phillip II.

1181 AD - Albert I was a proud Anglo-Saxon, and was fond of tradition. He wanted a Witanegamot, it was an integral part of England’s culture. And it did serve to help keep the king’s power in check. And so he went about making the Witanegamot in his own image.

He decided that the Witanegamot would have to be divided to represent the various levels of English society. The Witanegamot would be divided into four parts: The Préosthád would represent the church, the Æðelu would represent the various Earldoms throughout the Kingdom, The þegnr?den would represent the king’s thegns (as opposed to the median thegns, who held their lands through some intermediary lord and thus had to be content with being represented by the Æðelu or þegnr?den), and the Líesingas, the Freedmen.

This new Witan was to have jurisdiction over taxation (any tax the king wished to impose had to be approved by the Witan), over legislation (the Witan could create new laws, however they had to be approved by the king), and over managing the state in interregnum periods. It was largely like the old Witan, but a larger swathe of society was represented, and it had absolutely no jurisdiction over succession.

Albert I installed Salic Law as the means by which England’s throne might be inherited.

For the remainder of 1181, England would be without a Witanegamot. However the next year, the new reforms would take effect.

Henry I of Champagne dies in 1181. He grants to County of Champagne to his eldest son, Henry II. Henry II also reigns as the Duke of Aquitaine with his mother.

1182 AD - The new Witan convened without problem, and the affairs of the state ran smoothly, perhaps even smoother than they had before. Things were on the up in England.

Now that he had a moment to rest, Albert sat on his throne, and came to the rumination that England was frequently invaded from the sea. His last bout with Canute VI had only underscored this in his mind.

So it was in the sultry days of 1182 that Albert I decided that he fancied sailing. He began throwing money into expanding the navy immediately, and for this he was applauded. By doing this, England was essentially drawing a line in the sand (or water, as it were), essentially saying “this is our island and if you want it you’ll have to face us on land AND sea”.

1182 - 1219 AD - The rest of Albert I’s reign was marked by peace. The Scots, although expanding their domain, were cordial to the English in their court, and the alliance set down by Harold Godwinson all those years ago continues to be upheld. The Welsh are all but puppets to the English, and the rest of the world looks on in envy at Fortress Bryten (English: Britain) for its peaceful prosperity.

It was in 1187 that the compass arrived in Europe, and soon English traders were using them as well, as trade across the North Sea continued to flourish. It was in that same year that Saladin captured Jerusalem from the Crusaders, and Pope Gregory VIII suggested the Third Crusade. Albert was largely done with war. He was quoted to have said “After fighting my own countrymen, I have no interest in fighting the Saracen.” However, this doesn’t mean that Albert didn’t advertise the Third Crusade in his own land. Prince Harold, Albert’s second son, was preparing England’s forces to go on Crusade.

A marriage of unprecedented proportions took place during the reign of Albert I. Albert I married his son Edwyn to Ada, the Countess of Holland in 1203. Ada’s inheritance of the County of Holland was being threatened by her uncle, and she needed a strong husband in a strong position to help enforce her claim to the throne. Holland was seen by Albert as a stepping stone to incorporating more valuable territories such as Hainaut or even Artois, later on.

He wouldn’t have to wait long. In 1214 Jeanne, the countess of Flanders and Hainaut Jeanne, a girl of but twelve, was only twelve years old. She was in the custody of Philip of Namur, and many in western Europe looked on Flanders/Hainaut with hungry eyes. And so in 1214 Jeanne offered herself to the youngest son of King Albert I of England, Albert.

Albert could not believe it. The richest counties in all of Europe had just fallen into his lap. Albert I of course agreed immediately.

The House of Godwin had now come to control the Counties of Hainaut, Flanders, and Holland under the reign of Albert I.

Although there were problems on the continent. As Count of Holland Edwyn was subservient to the Holy Roman Emperor. His brother was also subservient to the Holy Roman Emperor as Count of Hainaut. This drew England into continental politics.

Initially this was an acceptable, if not idyllic state of affairs. But Albert wanted to be out of politics within the Holy Roman Empire. Knowing that he could not afford to go to war with the burgeoning Holy Roman Empire, he made very little noise about it publicly.

But he saw a way out in 1214, when the war between Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor, and Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (rival claimant) reached its fever pitch. Frederick II sent envoys to Albert, asking for assistance. Albert realized that this was his chance.

In return for an alliance against Otto IV, Albert demanded that Holland and Hainaut be released from the Holy Roman Empire. Frederick’s back was up against the wall. The war wasn’t being lost by him per se, but there was no end to the conflict in sight.

He agreed. Hainaut and Holland would be released from the Holy Roman Empire.

From 1214 - 1216 the scales were tipped in favor of Frederick II. In 1216 Frederick II forced Otto IV to renounce the title of Emperor, and Otto IV would spend the rest of his days in his private lands around Brunswick, where he would die in 1218.

For his actions in strengthening England and expanding her domains, Albert I is fondly remembered as “Albert the Magnificent”.

With Albert’s death in 1219, the kingdom passed to Edwyn, Count of Holland.

1180 AD - Louis VII dies. His son Phillip II inherits the crown of France. In that same year Louis VII marries a woman of Burgundian nobility, in order to strengthen his rather weak position. (Most of his counties, while remaining below him, were allied to or possessions of Eleanor of Aquitaine and her son, Henry II.

1188 AD - Third Crusade begins in earnest, with Frederick Barbarossa setting out from Germany with an army of 100,000.

1189 AD - Harold sets out from England with a large Crusading army. After stopping in Sicily and Crete, they arrive in the Holy Land, just after Philip II’s forces.

1190 AD - Frederick Barbarossa is drowned after being thrown off his horse whilst crossing the Saleph River. Much of the gargantuan German army turns back then. The rest continue on to Antioch, however they continue to suffer from disease.

1191 AD - The three main crusading armies: French under Phillip II, English under Harold, and Germans under Leopold V, all convene on Acre. Acre is captured, and it is the first major victory for the Third Crusade.

Conrad of Montferrat is made King of Jerusalem.

Malcolm IV king of Scotland dies. He is succeeded by Malmure II, who was also King of Leinster.

1192 AD - Jaffa, which Saladin garrisoned very heavily and fortified very well, falls to the Crusaders after a hard fight. The Christians were bruised but continued on. But later in the year Saladin deals a severe blow to the Crusaders in the field, as they began their march east to Jerusalem.

Harold and Leopold realized that even if they could take Jerusalem, it would not be defensible, as Saladin would just summon another army from his vast domain. Philip was not so sure, but when Leopold left the Holy Land late in 1192, Harold and Philip began negotiations with Saladin.

Harold and Philip allowed Saladin to keep Jerusalem, however he must allow free passage for unarmed Christian pilgrims. Saladin was quick to accept, knowing that he had completed his goal of keeping Jerusalem from Crusader hands.

1193 AD - Harold and Philip return to their respective kingdoms.

1198 AD - Rory O’Connor, High King of Ireland, dies. Immediately Ireland is up in arms. The King of Connacht, Conchobar O’Connor has a claim to the title as High King from his father, Rory. But the O’Neals of Ulster were High Kings before Rory, and felt ousted. Malmure II knew that this would be his one opportunity to seize control for himself.

Malmure supported Conchobar in his claim to the throne, so long as he was granted the title King of Ulster. For Conchobar, this was nothing less than a godsend. The King of Scotland supports you in becoming the High King of Ireland!

1199 - 1200 AD - The Scottish conquest of Munster. Malmure II is now King of Scotland, Leinster, Dublin, and Ulster. Conchobar has secured the High Kingship for the O’Connors once and for all.

1200 AD - University of Paris chartered by Philip II.

1201 AD - Proclamation of the Fourth Crusade. Most of Europe remains idle this time around, and watched with bemusement as a gaggle of Italians marched around the Balkans, claiming that to take these cities aided Christendom. In that same year they take the city of Zara.

1202 AD - Zadar falls to the Fourth Crusade.

1204 AD - The Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople. The Fourth Crusade was proclaimed to be at an end, and the Latin Empire of Constantinople is proclaimed. Alexius V flees to create the Empire of Nicaea, Alexios Komnenos creates the Empire of Trebizond, and Michael Komnenos Doukas creates the Despotate of Epirus.

Also in this year, Eleanor of Aquitaine finally dies. Her possessions are divided among her sons, however the Duchy of Aquitaine passes to Henry II, thus maintaining the “empire” that she and her husband had created.

1206 AD - Temujin proclaimed Genghis Khan of the Mongols.

1209 AD - Albigensian Crusade begins. Henry II jumps at the chance to press his ancient claim to the County (the same claim his mother had). Philip II would under other circumstances tried to stop this Champagnian grab for power, however he saw the Albigensian Crusade more of as a means to drain his own coffers than to expand his power. And so he let Henry II do all the footwork for him.

1209 - 1215 AD - Henry II of Champagne effectively conquers all of the County of Toulouse. He claims the County for himself, yet pays homage to the King of France. Fort he longest time the County of Toulouse was virtually an independent country, and Henry II of Champagne brought the County into the royal sphere.

Philip was wrong about the war. Far from draining his coffers, it was proving to expand his coffers. And as such it was in late 1215 that Philip sent his own army to help with occupation and rooting out Cathar sympathizers.

1212 AD - Malmure II/I dies. He passes the Kingdom of Scotland, Leinster, Dublin, and Munster to his son, Duncan II/I.

1216 - 1219 AD - The last years of the Albigensian Crusade (which was now essentially a struggle for Champagnian dominion over the County of Toulouse) was marked by a rather effective counter-attack by Raymond VI, deposed Count of Toulouse, and Raymond VII, his heir-apparent. But with a large royal French army backing up Henry II’s forces, the attack petered-out by mid-1219. Raymond VI would be killed in battle, and Raymond VII retreated to Spain. Exactly what happened to him next is up for debate, however most historians believe that he was assassinated by assassins paid for by William XI/I, Henry’s heir.

Henry II died in 1219 after securing the County of Toulouse for his heirs. To his eldest, William XI/I, he gave the Duchy of Aquitaine and the County of Champagne. To his son Henry he gave the County of Toulouse (William I, Count of Toulouse), and to his son Theobald he gave the County of Auvergne.

In 1217 the Fifth Crusade began, with little fanfare. However the Pope was just barely able to scrounge up enough support for it to create a coherent army.

1219 - 1242 AD - Reign of Edwyn I King of England and Count of Holland. Edwyn presided over a peaceful kingdom during this time. Early on in his reign Edwyn I had to find a way to deal with two predominant questions: How to rule over the newly-freed Counties of Holland and Hainaut (the latter being owned by his brother), and how to somehow pull the County of Flanders out of the Peerage of France.

As to the first problem he at first considered remaking the Counties of Holland and Hainaut into Earldoms. But the courts at these two places were accustomed to doing things a certain way, and as such expressed hostility to such reforms. In the end, Edwyn created “Niðerlandisc laga” (Dutch Law), as a way of keeping the two means of governance separate, yet equal. Under Dutch Law, basically the means of governing the Counties remained the same. Dutch Law also clarified that the Count was at the same level as an Earl, and so on and so forth.

But under Dutch Law a new office was created. The Count of Holland, the Count of Hainaut, and the Count of Flanders would meet to elect the “Niðerlandisc ?rendraca” (Dutch Representative), essentially an extra member of the Witan, who would act as representative for the Counties in the Witanagemot.

As to the second question, there was really no answer. The Count of Flanders would remain under the peerage of France. However, as the King of England wasn’t the Count of Flanders, this caused very little problem in Edwyn’s eyes.

In 1242, Edwyn I dies. He is succeeded by Edwyn II.

1222 AD - Philip II King of France dies, and is succeeded by his son, Philip III.

1228 AD - Beginning of Sixth Crusade, launched by Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor.

1229 AD - With no military engagements the Sixth Crusade retakes Jerusalem via a treaty with al-Kamil.

1230 AD - Union of Castile and Leon.

1231 AD - Duncan II dies. He passes his Kingdoms to his son Duncan III.

1240 AD - Sacking of Kiev by the Mongols.

1241 AD - Battle of Liegnitz. In that same year, however, Ogedei Khan dies, and this ends the Mongol advance into Europe.

1244 AD - Jerusalem is taken once more. This prompts Phillip III to begin to create a Crusading army, and thus the Seventh Crusade begins.

1249 AD - Phillip III leaves. Although an old man, he still wishes to leave. He allows his son to act as regent while he is away.

1247 AD - The last remaining Cathars are slaughtered. This marks the official end of the Albigensian Crusade.

1252 AD - Phillip III dies in the Holy Land. The Crusade had been a disaster, and the death of Philip gave Edwyn II an excuse to go home. Besides, he is needed there. The Welsh were acting up again, and Edwyn II was of the mind to permanently put down this thorn in his side.

Philip III is succeeded by his son, Louis VIII.

1253 AD - Edwyn II returns home, and wastes no time in preparing for the invasion that he hopes will end the Welsh troubles once and for all.

1254 - 1259 AD - Edwyn II’s Welsh Campaign. It takes many years for the Welsh to fall, but the English brought a weapon familiar to the Welsh to the battlefield: the longbow. The English had been raising their own longbow forces for years now (after the conquest of southeastern Wales), and knew that once they brought these troops to the battlefield, the Welsh would lose a major advantage.

Turns out they were right. The campaign was difficult and sporadic, to say the least. However by 1259 Wales was taken, bar the shouting. Wales was conquered, and divided into earldoms. Edwyn II knew that his predecessors’ method of dealing with the Welsh would have only proved effective for a while. By conquering Wales, Edwyn II hoped to end the troubles on the Welsh border once and for all.

1258 AD - Baghdad is overrun by Hulagu Khan’s forces. The Abbasid Caliphate is officially at an end.

1261 AD - Constantinople is recaptured by the Empire of Nicaea, thus re-establishing the Byzantine Empire.

1266 AD - In France, the gold écu and silver grosh coins are minted for the first time.


1267 AD - Death of Edwyn II. Edwyn II did have two sons. One died of smallpox at an early age. His son, Edwyn was at the time of his father’s death in Holland, and had to sail back to claim his throne. However, when Edwyn II died in a freak storm, there was no one descended from Edwyn II left. His only daughter had become an Abbess in Lundenwic.

And so the throne passed to Edwyn II’s cousin, Albert II. Albert II was a very old man at the time of his inheritance, and knew it wouldn’t be long before the throne passed to his son, Albert III.

1267 - 1280 AD - The short reign of King Albert II. There wasn’t much to say about old King Albert. He did a fine job of ruling as Count of Flanders and Hainaut, and did a fine job ruling as King of England, Count of Holland, Zeeland, Flanders, and Hainaut as well.

The one consequence of the passing of the throne passing to Albert II was that now the Kings of England were, simultaneously, in the peerage of France (via the County of Flanders). This had little impact initially, however in the coming years this would begin to matter more.

Albert II died in 1280, and was succeeded by Albert III.

[Beorn]

1269 AD- Ottokar II, after much political maneuvering, is elected King of the Romans, through bribery of the Archbishoprics, and marrying his daughter off to the Duke of Saxony.

1273 - 1274 AD - Ottokar did not go unchallenged. Rudolph I of Austria claimed Austria and Styria as his own, and he had the support of the Duke of Bavaria and (to some extent) the Count of Palatinate. But Bavaria quickly withdrew support of the Duke when many of the German states warned that should the conflict escalate, they would back Ottokar completely. Rudolph basically found himself alone in his opposition to the German King.

1276 AD - Ottokar is crowned Holy Roman Emperor. His services to Christendom (foundation of the Cistercian monastery of Goldenkron, Crusade against the Prussians) did not go unrecognized. The support of the Papacy of the Przemyslid rulers ensured stability in the Holy Roman Empire.

1279 AD - Ladislaus IV of Hungary successfully crushes internal dissent. Royal power in Hungary is largely restored.

1280 - 1291 AD - Albert III’s reign was marked by peace, but with growing tensions with the Scots. For over two hundred years the Scots and English have been friends. But the only reason for this was because the two houses that ruled the respective countries owed each other so much. To the Godwins the Atholls owed the entire reason they ruled Scotland. To the Atholls the Godwins owed the flowering of Northumbria, by reining-in the Scottish raids that had taken place for centuries previous.

Now things were changing. The Scots were getting antsy. They were a bit big for their britches now that they were, effectively, masters of Ireland. The Scots were beginning to take up old habits.

Albert III would prove to be the last Godwin king traced through the male line. He had four daughters, and his eldest daughter had married an earl by the name of Alfred Ealdgar. According to the laws of succession, the eldest son of the eldest daughter has the right to the throne. Alfred Ealdgar had a son named Harold Ealdgar. Because he was only ten years old at the time, the Witanegamot served as regent until Harold turned twenty.

1291 - 1301 AD - The regency of the Witanegamot. The Witan had presided over a mixed period as well. The situation with the Scots continued to deteriorate. Raids had started back up, and while they were not officially backed by the Scottish royalty, the fact that they even took place showed that the Scottish king tended to look the other way. In the private thoughts of the Scottish king, one might imagine the argument that any need to be civil to the English died with the death of Albert III.

However, England’s clout in the Netherlands continued to expand. The English were, arguably, the wealthiest state in Europe at this time. The residences of the Earls who invested in the “wool circle” became more and more opulent, and overall the country prospered.

1291 AD - The fall of Acre.

1295 - 1297 AD - Troubles in France. Louis IX has to contend with what is basically the dissolution of the Champagnian-Aquitanian “Empire” that had formed. Greed and malice had finally taken over. Over the last few centuries the Angevins and Bretons had drifted out of the Champagnian sphere of influence, as did Toulouse. Now Henri and Thibaut were fighting amongst themselves as to who shall have Champagne and Aquitaine.

Rather than allow his kingdom to be torn apart by this, Louis IX finally convinces the brothers to cease the fighting. The counties were now thoroughly divided, there was now no internal threat to the French crown’s power (theoretically).

1301 AD - The death of Ottokar I, Holy Roman Emperor. He had proven far more popular with the Church than the Hohenstaufen rulers, and this ensured the election of his son, Wenceslaus II (Wenceslaus I, HRE). This had profound ramifications, as Wenceslaus was also the Duke of Krakow, and by extension the King of Poland. To sum it up, Wenceslaus II was the King of the Romans, Bohemia, Poland, Duke of Austria, Styria, Carniola, Carinthia, and Krakow.

1305 AD - After procuring Papal recognition of his right to the throne of Poland, Wenceslaus defeats the rival claimant to the Polish throne, Ladislaus, lord of Pomerania, Kuyavia, Leczyca and Sieradz. Ladislaus is assassinated under mysterious circumstances soon after the battle.

1307 AD - Wenceslaus, elevates the various duchies

1310 AD - Wenceslaus notices that things in Rome have reached their nadir. The Papacy was actually considering a move! So Wenceslaus offers the Papacy moves for one year to Graz, while he takes care of the problem in Rome. Wenceslaus succeeds in persuading the Pope.

1311 AD - The Papal Exile. On January 1, 1311, the Pope rang in the new year in Graz. Whilst this was going on, Wenceslaus marched on Rome, in order to take control of the city. The fighting was fierce, but by September most of the anti-papal elements had been thoroughly rooted out.

Wenceslaus found himself in a very tempting position. He COULD try to (diplomatically) keep the papacy in Graz, where he could keep a close eye on it. Ultimately, however, it was not religion that moved him to return Rome to the control of the Papacy, so much as it was his situation. If he had the nerve to keep the Papacy captive, his son Wenceslaus III would stand no chance of winning the election, as the support of the Archbishops were instrumental to the security of the Imperial office for the Przemyslid line.

1312 AD - The Papacy returns to Rome, from what could have been a very, very long Captivity.

1321 AD - Death of Wenceslaus. His son Wenceslaus III is elected. But there are grumblings, which stemmed from the fact that he ruled over such a vast territory. The princes called for a Diet at Nuremburg to hammer-out, among other things, exactly who had the right to elect, and the seemingly rising power of the Emperor.

They finally set into law the electors. They would be the Archbishops of Cologne, Mainz, and Trier, the King of Bohemia, the Duke of Saxony, the Margrave of Brandenburg, and the Count Palatinate had the right to elect the King of the Romans. And the King of the Romans was to be crowned by the standing Pope as the Holy Roman Emperor.

1301 - 1346 AD - The reign of King Harold IV. Harold assumed power once he turned twenty, claiming that he had come of age. Harold IV reigned over a prosperous kingdom, and was one of the last to do so for a while (the Black Death made its entrance into Europe in 1347). Harold put this wealth to good use.

He understood the situation with the Scots. He knew that he had to, in a sense, prove himself to the Scots that the Ealdgar dynasty was to be respected, perhaps more so than the Godwins. He began first by increasing the kingdom’s military strength and presence in the region of Northumbria. What he was doing, essentially, was goading the Scots into attacking. And in 1312, it worked.

A number of Scots got it in their heads that they would pull off a daring raid by sea, like the Vikings did. This was backed by the Mormaer of Moray, brother of King Duncan III, who even provided an amount of ships. The Mormaer’s son was even one of the leaders of the raid. This was dangerous political ground on which to be treading. On March 1, 1312 the Scottish raiding party had, under the cover of night, arrived at Myton (OTL Kingston upon Hull). It was a small port, but it was close enough to Eoforwic to make the Earl of Northumbria very nervous.

During the raid of Myton the son of the Mormaer, Malmure, was killed by arrow fire. The body was seized by the English during the raid, and once the raid was over, Scottish captives positively identified it as Malmure, the King’s nephew. This enraged the English. A member of the royal family of Scotland was at the head of a raid within a day’s ride or so of Eoforwic!

This caused an uproar in both Witanceaster and Perth. Many in the Witan were crying for war, and Harold was happy to oblige. Harold himself wrote a scathing letter to Duncan, King of Scotland, demanding that the King of Scotland not simply act to cease the raids on Northumbria, but in addition to cease the buildup of the Scottish navy, and to even curb their expansion in Ireland. (The first words of the letter were “Lysergic Scotisc” --- [You] vile Scot.)

And when presented with these outrageous demands, what really got the Scots’ blood pumping was that rather than fight, Duncan III considered bowing to these demands. Whether or not that’s actually true is debatable, but his immediate actions following the reception of the letter (which were to return all Scottish ships to their ports post haste and to send a letter of apology) did not help his standing amongst the many Mormaers who clamored for action. Duncan’s actions are puzzling to many historians, but it seems most likely that these actions were meant only to pacify the English at the moment, to avoid immediate war. Duncan III’s other actions in his reign showed no real signs of being an English lap-dog, as some of his contemporaries had painted him to be.

Thus, in the middle of the night, November 4, 1312, as Duncan III was returning to his estate, was attacked by a group of men headed by Ferchar III, Mormaer of Ross. Duncan III was slain in the fighting, and on November 12 Ferchar had enough support in Perth to crown himself King of Scots, Leinster, Dublin, and Ulster as Ferchar I. Duncan III did have a son, and Duncan IV had little choice but to flee to England, where he really wasn’t welcome. But Harold IV welcomed him anyway, knowing him to be a useful pawn.

Toward the end of winter, in 1313, the Scottish campaign began in earnest. The fighting would rage on for four years. Mostly the fighting had been confined to Scotland, although Alfred the Earl of Cornweall (OTL Cornwall) led a daring (and successful) raid to seize Dublin and other Irish coastal cities during the height of the war in 1315.

Meanwhile, in Scotland proper, the war was raging. Unlike the last time England went into Scotland, over two centuries ago, this time the Scots were, more or less, united in their opposition to English invasion. What it ended up coming down to was the relative wealth of the two countries: how long they could sustain a prolonged conflict. The English were able to hire wave after wave of mercenaries from the continent and Ireland to bolster their forces, and to reduce the number of English dead (which turned out to be good P.R. for Harold).

Meanwhile, the Great Famine had struck Europe. From 1315 - 1316 the fighting had ground almost to a halt, as it was difficult to feed a stationary man in a foreign land, let alone an army on the move.

Ferchar simply could not keep up the fight, after four years of fighting, and being often unsuccessful in the field (the English were in control of Perth, the Hebrides [thanks to another naval raid by the Earl of Cornweall], Edinburgh, Glasgow, and several other key locations. Ferchar died under mysterious circumstances in August of 1317. The war weary Scots sought peace with the English, and they got it on September 27, 1317. The terms of the peace were that Cumbria and Edinburgh were to be given to England, and that England have full control of Irish ports on the Irish Sea The terms were harsh, but workable.

Duncan IV was allowed to take his throne, however he was to marry his son to Harold IV’s daughter, Edith. This helped to ensure a familial alliance of sorts, at least for now.

The rest of Harold IV’s reign was spent in relative peace. His son and heir-apparent, Sigemund, marries Joanna Duchess of Brabant in 1334. This was an important marriage, because with the death of Harold IV in 1346 Brabant is also joined to the English crown, making the English the uncontested masters of the Netherlands (sans Guelders and Luxembourg).

In 1346 Harold IV passes away. He is succeeded by his son Sigemund.

1346 - 1366 AD - The reign of King Sigemund was fraught with peril. The Black Death made its debut in Europe not one year after his coronation.

The Black Death had ravaged Europe, and by 1349 Yersinia Pestis had, like Julius Caesar, William of Normandy, and Harald Hardrada before him, arrived on the shores of England. Within weeks the whole of England had been effected, and within just a few months the disease worked its way to Ireland. The fast spread of the disease can be attributed to the fact that travel between Flanders and England was facilitated due to political unity, and the fact that the roads of England were among some of the best-maintained and easiest-traveled in the whole of Europe (thanks to the work of King Harold III, many years previous).

England came through the Black Death a lot worse off than before. There was now a labor shortage of sorts. And because the importation of textiles from the Low Countries was essentially cut off for two years or so, the English had to look for other ways to make their money. The result, was the creation of a textile industry in England itself. It had always been there, but it had for centuries played second fiddle to the Dutch textile mills. Now it had a real chance of overtaking Flanders. But, for now, this was of only minor concern. If the English wouldn’t buy from Flanders‘ mills, then Flanders’ mills would go market their goods elsewhere.

The rest of King Sigemund’s reign was more or less spent in rebuilding after the Black Death. England, that placid island kingdom, stayed largely out of the affairs of the continentals, when it could. But the King of England at this time was technically subservient to the Crown of France, as the County of Flanders was in the crown’s peerage. Sigemund didn’t like the idea one bit. It felt to him as though the King of France had some sort of power over him, and he wished to avoid that sticky situation.

And so he did. He effectively turned Flanders into an apanage, by resigning the title of “Count of Flanders”, and giving it to his son, Sigemund II. (Sigemund would then later grant the title to his son, and so forth) It still wasn’t ideal, but it was better than the King himself being subservient to the French crown. And while he was at it, he granted the Duchy of Brabant to the second-in-line to the throne.

Sigemund would die, and would be remembered as a mediocre king, that one who had to deal with the Black Death, and whose handling of it, while far from an exhibition of incompetence, was also far from an exhibition of administrative mastery. He did, however, show an understanding that in order to maintain England’s prosperity (or, because of the Black Death, regain it), he had to keep England off the continent politically. His successors would slowly find it more and more difficult to not be involved on the continent.

1350 AD - Death of Wenceslaus II (III of Bohemia), Holy Roman Emperor. His son Ottokar III was then elected as the Holy Roman Emperor. He would be the fourth Przemyslid to reign as Holy Roman Emperor.


1366 AD - Sigemund II ascends the throne of England. Like his grandfather before him, he seeks to place England in a strong position, for like the first of the Ealdgars, Sigemund II saw England as being on the cusp of greatness, if only it could just prove itself as being capable. This nation needed a pick-me-up, and it needed one now.

He wouldn’t have to wait all that long. The Scottish monarch had lost near-complete grip on his Irish possessions, and because the Irish were beginning to raid Scottish ports on the Irish sea, the ports that England now controls, Sigemund II let the king of Scotland know exactly how that made him feel.

“Why don’t you buy them from me?” inquired the king of Scotland.

And that’s just what Sigemund did. Leinster and Dublin were sold to England, for a fair price too. And so at the end of the year Sigemund had, for the most part, inherited the Scots’ problem. But in it he saw the pick me up he had been waiting for.

1367 AD - Polish Pomerania is left without an heir to the Duchy, and as such it was now upon Wenceslaus II, Holy Roman Emperor to invest somebody with that particular Duchy. He had four options. He could give it to the Duchy of Pomerania, a rather inconsequential Duchy on the Baltic. He could give it to the Margrave of Brandenburg, and perhaps secure the Przemyslid line completely for the next few generations. He could give it to the Teutonic Order, as a means of pleasing that rather powerful monastic neighbor who has been since the rise of Wencesalus II looking on Gdansk with hungry eyes. He could invest the entire territory to the Bishop of Gdansk. Or he could claim it as Imperial land, personal property of the Holy Roman Empire.

This left Wenceslaus in a rather difficult position. He could basically throw out Pomerania. Giving it to the Duchy of Pomerania would serve only to anger the Teutonic Knights AND Brandenburg. He could give it to the Imperial crown, as a means of expanding the Emperor’s influence, although this ran the risk of angering the Church, and ultimately the Archbishoprics of Trier, Cologne, and Mainz. Granting the entire territory to the Bishop of Gdansk (thus making it the Bishopric of Gdansk) would likely have the opposite effect, although a bishopric in that particular region might prove to be more of a strategic liability than anything.

And so he found himself torn between Brandenburg and the Teutonic Order. Who ought it be? Secure the vote of Brandenburg (and because it was ruled by a Wittelsbach, more than likely that of the Palatinate as well), stifle the growing power of the Teutonic Order? Or secure the friendship of the Teutonic Order, but face serious internal dissent?

1368 AD - After debating about the issue with himself and his advisors for a whole year (and leaving the Territory in a sort of political limbo in the meanwhile) the Emperor decided to confer with the Pope, and see what his thoughts were on the matter.

The Holy Father was quite understanding of his situation. But ultimately Wenceslaus left the meeting with one impression: the Pope wanted it to become either a bishopric, or be given to the Teutonic Knights, in the interests of securing the Baltic shores for the Catholic Church.

And this is exactly what Wenceslaus was prepared to do, when on a hot July day, 1368, the Emperor was bribed.

The Wittelsbachs of Bavaria, Palatinate, and Brandenburg all made a sort of cabal, and pooled their resources together in a mixture of bribery and blackmail. The Emperor knew that Bavaria, the Palatinate, and Brandenburg combined was enough to give the Emperor quite the headache should they choose the path of princely revolt.

The Emperor had his back against the wall. He was not a young man at this point, and he was faced with possible revolt. And while the support of the Archbishoprics and Papacy is nice, it really amounts to little when you have the entire House of Wittelsbach threatening armed rebellion.

And so on August 1, 1368, Wenceslaus had finally come to a fateful decision: the Margrave of Brandenburg was to be invested with Farther Pomerania. How future Przemyslids would come to rue the day that their forebear arrived at this decision…

1369 AD - The Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights was in disbelief. A cabal of Bavarians had taken from the Order the chance at domination of the Baltic Coast. A chance to expand the power of the one true faith to the farthest shores of the cold Baltic, a chance to curb the power of the money-grubbing Hanseatic League.

Meanwhile, the various branches of Wittelsbachs were in celebration. They had muscled their way onto the Baltic, and for it gained the very, very wealthy port of Gdansk. These Przemyslids, they weren’t such bad guys after all, no?

The Pope likewise was furious. He had TOLD Wenceslaus to invest the Teutonic Grand Master with the Duchy! And here he thought these Przemyslids were different, that they were a change from the Staufens of years gone by. He supposed he was wrong. And the Archbishops of Mainz, Trier, and Cologne reacted in the exact same way.

The Pope did not excommunicate Wenceslaus, but he had made it known to him that he no longer enjoyed his support, nor the support of the Archbishops. For eight more years there would be relative peace. But with the death of Wenceslaus, things were about to get very, VERY ugly.

1367 - 1372 AD - The Irish Adventures. For a period of four years, Sigemund put down the rebellions largely by 1369. So he got himself out of a mess that he purchased. He still wasn’t looking too good to the Witanagemot. Claiming (correctly) that these rebellions were backed by the High King (also rulers of Connacht), Sigemund basically used this as an excuse to conquer the island in whole (sans Munster and Scottish Ulster).

And so from late 1369 -1371 Sigemund made war on the High King himself. And a bloody war it was. The campaign reached an climax with the Battle of Tara in 1370, where both King Sigemund and the High King of Ireland himself fought. During the height of the battle, after King Sigemund’s horse was slain in the thick of the fighting, King Sigemund took his horse’s blood, and on his breastplate made the sign of the cross. After this, he shouted “Eadmund Æðeling!” (Saint Edmund!) This rallied the English troops, and the English carried the day. The High King of Ireland was slain.

While resting his forces in Dublin, Sigemund ordered that a crown be forged. On July 19th, 1370, he had himself crowned “King of Ireland” by the Archbishop of Dublin. The old, pagan “High Kingship” was now dead, and a proper, English king was put in its place.

By 1372 Connacht capitulated, and recognized Sigemund as their king. No more were their Crowns of Leinster, of Connacht, of Tara. Now there was but one, single, Irish crown. What better pick-me-up than the de facto conquest of Ireland? And the earls and thegns didn’t mind it either when they were granted shiny new earldoms in Ireland.

1373 AD - Sigemund II didn’t like England’s flag. He saw it as an old, pagan banner, that white dragon on the red field. And so it was this year that he made a new flag: a red Scandinavian cross on a white field, with the crown of St. Edmund in the top left corner. The flag is heralded as a new, Christian (and long overdue) flag of England.

1377 AD - The death of King Wenceslaus III. Ottokar III ascended the throne as King of Bohemia and Poland, Duke of Austria, Carnithia, Carniola, and Krakow. But something strange happened that year, something very strange indeed. Something that had not happened in a long time.

As was expected, the Count Palatinate, the King of Bohemia, and the Margrave of Brandenburg all elected Ottokar III as their Holy Roman Emperor. But Saxony and the three Archbishoprics supported someone else. Someone entirely different. This someone was none other than Rudolf III, son of Wenceslaus (Elector of Saxony). The majority vote had gone to the House of Saxe-Wittenburg, and this understandably angered Ottokar III. So much, in fact, that he refused to acknowledge Emperor Rudolf I, Holy Roman Emperor.

On the face of it, Rudolf I doesn’t seem to have much of a chance. But the situation in the east and within Bohemia itself will ensure that Rudolf I has a run at the Imperial crown. You see, Wenceslaus IV(III HRE) had two sons: Ottokar IV (III HRE) and Wenceslaus V. Wenceslaus V was younger, but had often demanded of his father the right to the Austrian duchies, while his older brother Ottokar IV would get Bohemia/Silesia, and Poland/Krakow. But Wenceslaus IV, like his ancestors, wanted to maintain the personal union that had existed for so long. So while his father gave him great influence throughout all of the Przemyslid realms, he refused to elevate him to Duke of Austria.

Understandably, Wenceslaus V was quite miffed. So when he heard of the troubles concerning the Imperial election, he raised an army to seize Austria for himself. But simultaneously, the Austrian nobility saw a way out of being ruled by the Przemyslids. They looked around and saw Frederick III, Landgrave of Thuringia and Margrave of Meissen. Frederick accepted, and because he found himself fighting Przemyslids, he decided to back Rudolf I.

1378 AD - Wenceslaus V of Bohemia is defeated by the forces of the Austrian nobility. Frederick III and Wenceslaus of Saxony (Rudolf’s father), meanwhile, are fighting Bohemia, with raids into both Silesia and Bohemia proper. Meanwhile the war on the Rhine against the Count Palatinate is slow-going (mostly fighting against Luxembourg, who backed Rudolf. Brandenburg is struggling against Pomerania in the north.

And Ottokar’s problems are about to get a lot bigger.

The Poles had from the war’s onset begun to feel the strain. Thousands of men were levied by the Emperor, and the Polish nobility had had enough. They rescinded Ottokar of the titles “Duke of Krakow” and “King of Poland”, and instead gave the crown to Siemowit III, Duke of Masovia.

Trouble is brewing in Italy. The Guelf factions in Italy, seeing this as their chance to finally break Imperial power in Italy, lead an armed rebellion against the Empire. This rebellion, headed largely by the lords of Milan (Galeazzo II and his brothers Matteo and Bernabo), is backed largely by the Pope.

Milan asks for the French king’s aid in the conflict, and he pounces on the opportunity, with backing from the Pope. The French king uses the pretext that the heir according to proximity of blood to the last Bohemian king of Sicily (descendant of a Bohemian noble installed by Ottokar I) is the French king’s cousin. Ottokar refused to acknowledge the French king’s cousin as King of Sicily, and thus France is added to the problem.

France finds much support in Italy, especially from Florence, Genoa, and Venice, who are looking to destroy the Holy Roman Empire’s hold on Italy.

1379 AD - A pivotal year in the conflict. The combined armies of Frederick III and Wenceslaus of Saxony succeed in defeating Ottokar IV himself at the Battle of Frýdlant. Once Rudolf I crosses over the Jizera Mountain Range, he had near free range over most of the Bohemian interior. Once Bohemia’s mountains had been breached, Frederick III was free to break off with Wenceslaus and fight his own battle with the Bavarians, who stood between him and the Austrian duchy.

Meanwhile, the armies of Siemowit II King of Poland were marching from the East to retake Silesia from Bohemia. Thanks to the defeat at Frýdlant, Silesia is more or less cut off from Bohemia’s armies, and Poland retakes it with barely a fight. Siemowit is then free to send his forces north to take Gdansk from Brandenburg.

Frederick III is quite successful in his attack on Bavaria’s northern borders. Bavaria is struggling to hold on to her southern possessions in the face of Austrian attack, and as such Frederick III practically marches over the border.

1380 AD - The Count Palatinate sues for peace, realizing that at this point that he stands to gain very little. This triggers a chain reaction, as Bavaria throws in the towel soon afterward. Only Brandenburg and Bohemia stand in the way of Rudolf’s claim to the throne.

This year, Wenceslaus of Saxony scores yet another major victory at Kralupy nad Vltavou, and Praha lies wide open to him. Ottokar IV, rather than flee, attempts to mount a defense of Praha, but he is assassinated by Bohemian noblemen who do not wish to lose their heads. Wenceslaus and his son Rudolf I, Holy Roman Emperor march triumphantly into Praha, and weeks later peace is secured with Poland and Brandenburg. Frederick III Wettin is formally invested with Austria.

1381 AD - Wenceslaus and his son Rudolf I, HRE, defeat Wenceslaus V Przemyslid, now the legitimate king of Bohemia, outside Ceské Budejovice. Rudolf I Saxe-Wittenberg is now the Holy Roman Emperor. But he still has a lot of problems to deal with. For one, the Italian Rebellion was in full swing. He needed to stop it, and he needed to do it peacefully.

Meanwhile, Frederick III Wettin dies, shortly after his investment with Austria. He is succeeded by his son Frederick IV without any trouble.

1382 AD - Rudolf I Saxe-Wittenberg creates the Duchy of Milan, a large Duchy comprising much of northern Italy. He also grants the King of France the right to invest the Kingdom of Sicily in whomever he so chooses. To Venice, he grants the entire Veneto region. This pacifies the Italian rebels and the Pope enough so that the rebellion is largely ended with winter of 1382’s onset.

Over the course of five years the Empire has gone through the implosion, and a triumphant reconstruction and redefinition. The civil war of 1377-1382 is today seen by many as a turning point in the history of the Holy Roman Empire, as Rudolf I is the first German to sit on the Imperial throne in over one hundred years.

Meanwhile, there was the awful, awful Bohemian question. There remained no more male Przemyslids left for the throne. However, Wencesalus V left a daughter, who married a Habsburg (who ruled over Breisgau, Argau, and Thurgau), and Ottokar IV left a daughter, who married a Hohenzollern (Franconian branch, ruling over small possessions, most notably the Imperial Free City of Nuremburg). Both families stood to gain a lot from being invested with Bohemia.

Rudolf invested Bohemia in Frederick V Hohenzollern (incidentally, the two shared a common ancestor, Albert II Elector of Saxony). The reason he did so was mostly out of the fact that the Hohenzollerns had the strongest claim (married to the eldest daughter of Ottokar IV, who was older than Wenceslaus V).

1383 AD - Rudolf I still had to deal with Poland’s status in the Holy Roman Empire. There never was any formal declaration making it subject to the Holy Roman Emperor, and the Przemyslids normally ruled it as a separate kingdom (although there were a few cases where the Duchies adhered to Imperial law). And so Rudolf I began writing to King Siemowit III of Poland.

Siemowit’s intentions were made very clear in this discourse. He wanted no part in what he saw as a strictly German nation. And while Siemowit wasn’t against the possibility of the King of Poland being the Holy Roman Emperor or an elector, he did not want to pledge his allegiance to Rudolf I, and this to him was unacceptable. The only man the King of Poland ought swear fealty to is the Holy Father in Rome, not some German sitting in Frankfurt, or wherever he took up his residence.

And so just as soon as Poland was added to the Holy Roman Empire, it was very quietly, very officially, divorced, from the Holy Roman Empire. But after a hundred-year-plus stint in that particular political amalgamation, Poland, whether Siemowit liked it or not, was now bound to the Holy Roman Empire’s fate. But he can afford to put it out of his mind. It is not something he will have to deal with in his lifetime.

1373 - 1392 AD - The rest of the reign of King Sigemund II of England was marked by him, for the most part, resting on his laurels. He threw diplomatic support behind Rudolf I during the Przemyslid/Saxe-Wittenberg civil war, but that was about it. The internal mechanics of the English state were like clockwork during this time. Bar the shouting, England was now the master of the British Isles.

The greatest accomplishment of King Sigemund II is that during the last nineteen years of his life, he devoted his time largely to the codification of English law. Once the codification had largely been completed ( by about 1387). Over the centuries many arcane practices (such as the Thrall-system, Trial by Ordeal, etc ) had been repealed in England, but it was never officially codified into a single series of volumes.

When he died in 1392 he was succeeded by his eldest son, Harold.

1392 - 1414 AD - The reign of King Harold V. Like his father before him, he presided over a mostly peaceful kingdom. However, unlike his father, toward the end of his reign (~1410) he presided over an escalating conflict between the Hanseatic League’s merchants throughout England and her realms, and local merchants. Most notable was the conflict between Dutch merchants and those of the Hanseatic League.

There was a sort of chain reaction across all of England and the Dutch possessions. The friction caused by this often resulted in acts of mob violence, as merchants hired gangs of thugs to destroy shops, and cause mayhem. Both sides were guilty to varying degrees, although surviving historical records would suggest that most of the violence was against the Hansa, rather than against local merchants.

Harold V spent the final years of his reign attempting to placate both sides. But in the end he left for his son (Harold VI) a very tenuous situation.

Harold V died in 1414, and he was succeeded by his son Harold VI.

1409 AD - Death of Siemowit III. His son, Siemowit IV, who through marriage will also inherit the Hungarian throne.

1412 AD - Siemowit IV King of Poland inherits the Kingdom of Hungary.

1419 AD - Death of Rudolf I. He is succeeded by his son Albert I as both Elector of Saxony and as Holy Roman Emperor.

1423 AD - All semblance of civility between Anglo-Dutch and Hansa merchants had largely evaporated by the summer of 1423. The Hansa cities in Germany were threatening to declare war on England if nothing was done to protect their trading rights. The Hanseatic League had a lot to lose if they lost their trading privileges in the Netherlands and England. Lundenwic was a kontore in the Hanseatic League, and Amsterdam had become a key city for the wealthy grain trade.

Harold VI had to be decisive. His father was indecisive, and now his own son was paying the price. In the end, Harold VI decided to revoke the Hansa’s trading rights. This caused a severe uproar throughout the Hanseatic League. And it wasn’t all that long before many Hanseatic cities declared war on England.

1423 - 1429 AD - What ensued was a rather sporadic naval war. The goal of the Hansa was not to destroy, or even invade England, so much that it was to disrupt England’s trade so much that England would have little choice but to grant the Hansa their trading rights once more.

This war was disastrous for the Hanseatic League. Not only were they not able to win a decisive victory over the English navy, but this war sparked off a shipbuilding fever in England, and many consider this war to be the first true test of the mighty English navy.

In 1429 the city of Lübeck surrendered, and with it the rest of the Hanseatic League’s resistance collapsed.

1428 AD - Death of Frederick IV Duke of Austria. He was succeeded by his son Frederick V as Duke of Austria, Carinthia, Carniola, Margrave of Meissen, and Landgrave of Thuringia.

1430 AD - The death of King Harold VI. He is succeeded by his son, Harold VII.

1430 - 1448 AD - The reign of King Harold VII. Harold VII enjoyed the kingdom that his father had left for him. Without the Hansa controlling large portions of the grain and textile industries, England’s wealth became staggering. King Harold VII is most noted for getting the Witenagemot to agree to move from Witenceaster to Lundenwic. Lundenwic had always been the more wealthy city, and the royals had long ago taken up residence there.

The most famous structure built during Harold VII’s reign is by far the Witanærn (“Witenagemot Building”), to house the Witan in Lundenwic. It was done in a largely continental style, as the architect hired to design it studied architecture at the University of Paris.

Harold VII died in 1448, and was succeeded by his son Sigemund III. For his patronage of architecture, Harold VII is remembered as “Harold Wyrhta.” (Harold the Builder)

1440 AD - Death of Albert I, Holy Roman Emperor. He is succeeded by his son, Albert II.

1445 AD - The last Wittelsbach margrave of Brandenburg. Albert I invests Brandenburg in the Luxembourg dynasty.

1448 - 1466 AD - The first part of the reign of King Sigemund III. Sigemund III continued his father’s patronage of construction, but also expanded the military (particularly the navy). The most notable part of this phase of Sigemund’s reign was the conquest of Munster in 1460. One of the Irish Earls claimed that he had the right of succession to Munster, and when the more prominent Munstercians failed to oblige, he appealed to his king to assist him in his claim. By 1462 All of Ireland was under the English crown except Ulster (ruled by Scotland, whose grip on Ulster was already beginning to deteriorate).

1453 AD - The Fall of Constantinople.

1467 AD - Death of Sigemund III. He is succeeded by Sigemund IV.

1467 - 1488 AD - The reign of Sigemund IV King of England and Ireland. Again, England was a prosperous nation at this time. With the Hansa merchants largely expelled (they were still allowed restricted trade in various minor ports), England had once again taken its place as one of the wealthiest nations in all of Europe.

Sigemund IV would play an important role in English history, for he is largely remembered for establishing in Cornwall a School of Navigation, similar to those found in Portugal, Castile, and Aragon. He understood that England, because of its long maritime tradition, was in a position to take control of trade with the Orient, since the usual routes were effectively severed.

Of course, he had one hell of a time trying to convince the Witenagemot the same thing. Why ruin a good thing? England has grown wealthy off supplying the Baltic and Rhineland areas with textiles and grain for centuries! And rather than furthering these, Sigemund proposes to throw precious money into exploring routes around Africa! Or even out west!

Well, Sigemund IV WAS king, and as such he did have the final say. So long as he didn’t start imposing more taxes to fund these projects, it was no skin off their noses. Sigemund understood this very well, and because of this he never got all that far with his dream of discovering an alternate route to the East. His son, however, was quite the mariner, and he is the king who would make all the difference.

During Sigemund IV’s reign English ships went further afield than under any king previous. English ships went as far as the Gold Coast, and the Azores (much to the chagrin of the King of Portugal), and there is clear documentation that ships arrived in Iceland, with the intent of sailing to Greenland colonies, were it not for the storms at the time, and later the threats of the Danish king to attack all English ships within the view of the Icelandic shore.

Sigemund IV died in 1488, and he would be succeeded by his son, Harold VIII.

1471 AD - Death of Albert II Holy Roman Emperor. He is succeeded by Albert III.

1478 AD - The Fall of Constantinople to the Germiyanid Empire.

1480 AD - The destruction of the Kingdom of Granada.

1482 AD - The beginning of troubles in Hungary. The last Polish king of Hungary was ousted. He was incompetent, and it was a miracle he wasn’t ousted in Poland as well. He was seen by the nobles as weak, having struck many deals with the Turk to ensure the safety of his Hungarian realms, and this greatly angered many Hungarian nobles, particularly those on the Turkish border, and those with ties (familial and political) to the Bulgarian and Serbian courts. On top of it, the Polish king had exacted large taxes and tolls from the Hungarians to fund the costly wars against the Lithuanians. While these wars were largely successful (the king of Lithuania converted to Christianity in 1464) they were costly. Rather than extract taxes from the court closest to home (in Poland), he decided to exact it from the faraway Hungarians.

Sounded like a plan. But the Hungarian nobility had a tendency to raise hell when they were overly taxed.

The ousting of the Polish king could only strengthen Hungary, if only the nobility could agree on whom should be crowned king. There were at least two different noblemen rallying support who wanted to, like the king previous, strike deals with the Turk (one had suggested the selling of Dalmatia, which was constantly being attacked by Venetian pirates anyhow). There was another man by the name of István of Transylvania who had taken on a very militant view about dealing with the Turks, going so far as proclaiming a Hungarian Crusade to take Constantinople. He was quite popular in Transylvania.

The rest had appealed to the Holy Roman Emperor Albert III (also Count of Tyrol) to aid them. Albert III felt it his duty to flex his might a little bit, and gladly accepted the Kingship of Hungary. Albert III took his imperial army and knocked a couple of heads around, and largely cemented himself within the Kingdom of Hungary. More or less, Hungary was safe, at least for now. The Saxe-Wittenberg dynasty of rulers were far from ideal, but with the Holy Roman Empire at their side, the Hungarian nobles could (sort of) breath easy in the knowledge that, at least for a while, they were safe.

1488 - 1506 AD - Reign of Harold VIII. He continued his father’s work, and like his father was quite hampered by the Witenagemot’s unwillingness to divert precious resources to what they considered a wild goose chase. It wasn’t until the arrival of one Nicolo Venier, a wealthy Venetian merchant-cum-captain who had lost just about everything with the fall of Constantinople, arrived at the Cornwall School of Navigation in 1490, offering his services. One might think it odd that a merchant would dedicate himself to what was essentially a teaching job, but Nicolo Venier knew that this would be but a stepping stone to greater things.

He was a welcome addition to the school, and his lessons caught Harold VIII’s eye (or rather, ear) as he was doing one of his occasional tours of the school. In particular, Harold VIII overheard Nicolo speaking to his students of the land known only as Bacalao, claiming that he was brought to that land by Navarrese fishermen. Harold VIII discussed in great length the exact location of this land, and when both had come to the conclusion that Bacalao was the easternmost island of Cathay or India, Harold VIII was willing to privately fund an expedition.

And so in 1498 England, with a Venetian merchant/captain/fisherman/teacher at the helm, made a journey for what was (unbeknownst to them) a New World.

Of course, they weren’t the first. In an effort to pioneer their own route to Asia, one that does not require a rounding of Africa, Castile had in 1495 sent out their own expedition to find Asia over the Atlantic, and had stumbled upon a large island which they called “Hispaniola”. The Kingdom of Aragon was also quite interested in the New World, and would send their own expedition later, in 1502. (they would find themselves in the Caribbean as well) Portugal wound up finding Brazil in 1503 by setting off from one of their African “colonies”.

On the dawn of July 29th, 1498, Nicolo Venier woke up to the shouts of “Land! Land!”. Nicolo Venier quickly confirmed that this was Bacalao (Fiscland, as his English crew referred to it. [OTL Newfoundland]). Within a few hours the men were on the land, and basking on the beach. They met natives, and the contact was actually quite friendly. Words were exchanged (as best as they could manage), and as were gifts. A few members of the Beothuk agreed to return with the English to meet the white men’s chief.

Nicolo Venier continued to sail around what is now known today as The Gulf of St. Mark (OTL Gulf of St. Lawrence). Nicolo had at the time christened it “Il Mare di San Marco” after the patron saint of Venice, Saint Mark. He had mistakenly believed that it was a large expanse of ocean lying between Bacalao and Cathay, hence “Il Mare”.

Nicolo Venier returned to England triumphantly in November of 1498, and the natives which were brought back were greeted warmly in Lundenwic by King Harold VIII. Both Harold and Nicolo received great accolades from all four Chambers of the Witenagemot (the Préosthád, the Æðelu, the þegnr?den, and the Líesingas). King Harold VIII proclaimed Nicolo Venier the “Earl of Fiscland,” and now the Witan was throwing its support behind Harold VIII and what was once called his “mad ambition”. For the first time in human history, one could link the lucrative Baltic/North Sea trade with the silk/spice trade of Cathay and India.

Or at least, that’s what was thought. When Nicolo went back in 1500, he came to the conclusion that he had not, as he thought, reached an outlying island of Cathay. He began to discover that the Sea of St. Mark was actually a large Bay, and that Cathay lay further to the west. And so he sailed further south, trying to find a way to reach Cathay by going around the landmass. But after sailing for a week it became quite clear to him that this was a far larger land than previously thought.

He believed to the end (which came in 1508) that if only you were to sail around it, you would reach Cathay proper. But as more and more lands were discovered by Portuguese, Castilians, and Aragonese navigators it became clear to all that this was indeed a New World.

Harold VIII died in 1506, and he would be succeeded by his son Albert IV.

1506 - 1530 AD - Reign of Albert IV. Albert IV largely continued his father’s work of exploring the New World. He did, however, preside over the division of the New World between Castile, Portugal, Aragon, and England with the signing of the Treaty of Burgos in 1515. It effectively granted Portugal all lands to the east of one line, and left the rest to Castile, Aragon, and England. The king of Castile was, understandably, a bit miffed at this, but remained quiet enough. The Pope told the rest that any internal divisions west of the Line of Demarcation would have to be worked out between Aragon, Castile, and England themselves.

For now, England’s interests were much farther north than those of Castile and Aragon, and so there was no foreseeable conflict with the Iberian powers. At least for now. It would take Albert IV’s son, Edward V, to shake things up.

In 1530 Albert IV died. He was succeeded by his son Edward V.


1512 AD - The aging Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor, while liked well enough in his German territories was not the picture of an effective ruler in Hungary. Indeed, Transylvania had for many years now been an independent principality, viciously fighting the Germiyanid Sultans in Romania. Dalmatia was all but lost, a small rump territory having been handed over to the Austrian Wettins a few years back. The rest was given to the Hohenzollern rulers of Bohemia, and Rudolf II was able to keep the crown of St. Stephen.

The Turkish Sultan Yakub III understood the precarious situation that Hungary was in. And understanding it, he took the opportunity to attack.

1512 - 1520 AD - The conquest of most of Hungary by Yakub III. The largely disunited Hungarian magnates got little help from either Transylavania or Rudolf II, and with the fall of Székesfehérvár, the Germiyanid conquest of Hungary was largely complete. Not wanting to drag in the for the moment passive Holy Roman Empire, Yakub III was content with allowing the Hohenzollerns and Wettins to keep their pieces of the pie.

The year 1520 not only marks the death of the Kingdom of Hungary, but also, ironically enough, the deaths of both Rudolf II Holy Roman Emperor and Sultan Yakub III of the Germiyanid Empire. Rudolf II was succeeded by his grandson, Rudolf III of the House of Nassau-Weilburg. The House of Nassau-Weilberg was seen by the electors as both very neutral (i.e. not in control of an electoral vote) and Rudolf was even descended from the previous Emperor.

[Beorn]

1526 AD - The date that most historians regard as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. A German monk by the name of Friedrich Schleisinger stood on the steps of the St. Catherine’s Church immediately after Sunday’s mass and gave an electrifying sermon that challenged the Pope’s authority, and the sale of indulgences.

It was only within the Holy Roman Empire itself that the Protestant Reformation could begin. A collection of strong princes with views that tended to differ from those of the powers-that-be, ruled by an ineffective Emperor, far from Rome itself.

Few outside of Hamburg took Friedrich seriously at first, but his message, aided by the relatively-new printing press, spread like wildfire throughout most of Germany. Friedrich, contrary to what many of his contemporary detractors thought, did not advocate the separation of his followers from the Church. Rather, he wished for reform of the Church. He had felt that the Pope was no longer the “first among equals”, but rather a despot, a sort of Emperor of Emperors that had come to rule over all of Europe.

Friedrich’s heresy was not without precedent. There had been others within the Holy Roman Empire in the last hundred years or so, whom had adopted views very similar to his own. They all wound up being burned at the stake or strung up by their guts or something just as gruesome. What made Friedrich’s heresy dangerous was the timing.

The Turk was pushing into Europe, the Holy Roman Empire was basically a network of shifting alliances rather than a proper religious temporal state, the old ways of feudalism were in decline and Europe had in the previous centuries gone through the one-two punch of the Mongol invasions and the Black Death.

Yes, the timing was perfect. By 1540 many German princes had aligned themselves with Friedrich (mainly in Northern Germany). The only German territories that remained aligned with Rome were Austria, Bavaria, Bohemia, and the Archbishoprics (along with Nassau, territory of the Emperor). When a few malcontents started leaving the Church, all you needed was an armed mob and an inquisitor. When entire states began leaving the Church, you needed a hell of a lot more.

And so from 1541 - 1543 thousands were slaughtered, as armed mobs from both ends of the religious spectrum marched about Germany, purging their own respective domains. Rudolf III had had enough of it. He wished only to have his empire united. After all, the Turk was knocking on the gates of Vienna (Sultan Suleyman II was threatening war at the time over meager border disputes). Thus, in 1543, he called an Imperial Diet at Nuremburg to resolve the issues, for the time being.

Many resolutions were passed at the Diet of Nuremburg, the most important being that the Empire would be run on the principle of “cuius regio, eius religio” (whose reign, his religion). For now, that was enough to end the bloodshed, but a lot of issues went unresolved: issues which the successors to Rudolf III would end up having to deal with.

1558 AD - Death of Rudolf III. Succeeded by Philip I.

1530 - 1553 AD - The reign of King Edward V of England. King Edward V’s reign saw the establishment of trading posts in the Caribbean, something which flew in the face of the Treaty of Burgos, which Edward’s father had, along with the Kings of Portugal, Castile, and Aragon, plus the Pope, had ratified. While the confrontations which resulted did not result in war, it did begin a colonial rivalry which would result in many wars and almost-wars throughout the coming centuries.

Why bother to be confrontational with Castile? For the sheer reason that control of the Caribbean would prove VERY lucrative. Gold, silver, tobacco, sugar, all very abundant in the Americas. And with the Castilian conquest of the Aztec and Incan Empires in the 1530s and 1540s, not only had Aragon essentially lost her chance to become dominant on the Iberian peninsula, but privateering became very, very popular among the English colonial governors (and with Edward V himself).

Edward V, of course, was not entirely free to pursue his colonial ambitions. Edward V was a devout Catholic, and was personally appalled as he witnessed his courts in the Low Countries convert to the various Protestant faiths which had sprung up. He attempted to forcefully put down these heretics, but by around 1550, when he had come to realize that he was having no more effect than stirring the pot, he decided that it would pay off to be more pragmatic when dealing with the Protestants.

Indeed, the only law he enacted was the “Act of Colonial Charters”, which prohibited persons of the Protestant faith from living in English colonies in the New World, and also prohibited the establishment of Protestant Churches in said colonies.

For the moment, this law was actually quite enforceable. The Reformation foundered when it arrived in England, and the Dutch reformers really weren’t all that concerned with the New World, given that they had plenty to deal with in the Old World.

Edward V died in 1558, leaving a small colonial empire to his son, Edward VI.

1566 AD - With the death of the dynasty ruling Aragon, the Kingdom of Aragon effectively fell into the French sphere when the king of Sicily (a Frenchman whose ancestral home was in Toulouse) inherited the Kingdom of Aragon. This tipped the balance of power in western Europe. The French had arrived on the Iberian peninsula, and they would make waves while they were there.


1558 - 1578 AD - The reign of King Edward VI. His reign was marked by few upsets, although the growing religious tension in the County of Holland were getting more apparent. Dutch merchants were angered by the fact that they, because of their faith, were prohibited from even partaking as investors in a colonial venture, and as such Edward VI had on his hands a very, very angry class of Dutch burghers.

A few revolts later, and the Act of Colonial Charters was revised. Protestants were now allowed investment in colonial ventures.

Besides that, not much occurred. The English effectively gained control of Scotland once again when he helped install the Sutherland dynasty of rulers.

Elsewhere, colonies were expanded, and the profits from the New World continued to flow in to English coffers. Edward VI died in 1578, and was succeeded by his son, Albert V.

1567 AD - The effective collapse of the Mamluk state. This creates a power vacuum that both Persia and the Turks are more than eager to fill. The Safavid Shah Tahmasp took full advantage of this collapse initially, however he was facing threats to the east, from the Uzbeks, and as such did not get much further than Tadmor, near the ruins of ancient Palmyra.

1570 AD - The French, while late to the party, manage to establish themselves in the New World, known as Floride (from the Spanish “Florida”). Again, another blatant violation of the Treaty of Burgos, but France justified this by saying that they personally never agreed to the treaty.

Within a few more years, the French settled on most of the nominally-Castilian islands, the ones which had been more sparsely populated.

Within the next few years, the establishment of these colonies would severely upset the three-way balance of power between the nobility, the burghers and the monarchy in France.

1569 - 1575 AD - The first Germiyanid - Safavid war. It was set off when the Sheik of Tripoli (along with various neighboring sheikdoms and emirates) offered the Germiyanid Sultan Abdul I suzerainty over their territories.

Or at least, most of them offered suzerainty. Many others wanted nothing more than a mutual protection pact, the most notable of these being the Emir of Damascus, who had in the two years since the final collapse of the Mamluk state had established for himself a large territory, and it is something which he did not want to have to give up to some faraway Sultan. But the Germiyanid Sultan insisted that he had been granted suzerainty over Damascus along with Tripoli et al.

And so the Emir of Damascus set out to persuade the Shah of Persia to help him out of this pickle he had found himself in.

Shah Tahmasp had succeeded in beating the Uzbeks back across the Oxus again, and was now looking to flex his military might once more (and besides, war kept his often rebellious generals busy). Tahmasp agreed to help out the Emir of Damascus, in the event that this whole mess boiled over, no strings attached (for now). Tahmasp was hell-bent on giving the Persians a Mediterranean port for the first time in millennia.

It wouldn’t take long before the Shah would have his chance. In August of 1575, word had reached the Emir of Damascus that a Turkish army sent to enforce Germiyanid suzerainty over Damascus was descending out of the Anatolian mountains and into Cilicia.

The Emir panicked when he heard that the force was estimated to be over 10,000, and sent a messenger to Tabriz to beg the Shah for assistance. It arrived in just four days. The Shah had been preparing for conflict, and in one week had 12,000 men mobilized and sent to aid the Emir of Damascus.

The war lasted for six years, but ultimately it was the Germiyanids who came out on top. The Shah was able to get more men to the field faster, however this numerical advantage was entirely cancelled-out due to the Turks’ technological edge. The Turks had in their battles with the Europeans come to master the gun and the cannon, and while the Persians fought bravely, it was simply a difference too great to overcome. Essentially, the Germiyanids came out on top because they had access to force multipliers, and the Persians had to slug it out, with very little access to proper cannons and guns.

The effects of this war were felt throughout the Middle East. It essentially established a dualism in that region: the mostly Sunni Germiyanid Empire on one side, and the mostly-Shiite Safavid Empire. The Germiyanids generally more liberal, the Safavids generally more hard-line.

The Germiyanid Sultan had expanded his empire to fill (partially) the vacuum left by the Mamluks. It was the beginning of the end for the old order in the Arab world.

1578 - 1601 AD - The reign of king Albert V of England. Even at the time of his ascension (he was twenty-eight years old) people began to think that Albert V would be the last of the Ealdgar kings. He tried various times to produce a male heir, but failed.

Like his father, Albert V presided over the simmering religious tensions in Holland, but unlike his father did not have to deal with large-scale revolts.

The most significant act of Albert V’s reign was to establish the first English trading colony in India in 1597. This essentially opened up India to further colonization, and English posts were very quickly and much more eagerly followed by the French, who having lost out on much of the New World (which was essentially divided between England, Portugal, and Castile), was looking East rather than west (which flew in the face of Portugal, who according to the Line of Demarcation theoretically owned that half of the world.)

When he died, Albert V’s kingdom passed on to his grandson, Edmund I of the House of Æþelwærd.

1590 AD - The problems in France had finally begun to rear their ugly heads. Many nobles had had enough with what seemed to be an expansion in monarchial power. The King had in so few words basically provided an out for the Dukes’ feudal subjects, and simultaneously the King took most of the profit (the rest going to the Burgher-run colonial Companies).

Adding to the fires was the fact that in the south of Franc in particular, Protestantism was beginning to take hold in many sections of France. In 1581 the various Protestant denominations which had sprung up across France had all convened in Rheims, and unified as the Reformed Church of France. This caused nothing but problems for both the monarchy and the nobility.

So, to review, France is mired in a serious problem. For centuries there has been a sort of three-way balance between monarch, nobility, and the burghers. The nobility had been losing ground over the last hundred years as more and more of their peasants up and left, going into the cities to join the newly-affluent burgher class. This problem had been exacerbated when the king began granting colonial charters without the consent of the nobles. This essentially provided a way out for the peasantry who did not want to remain under their feudal lord.

Add to all this tension the spread of Protestantism throughout much of France. Many nobles, while not officially Protestant, did sympathize with the Protestants and did very little if anything to hinder its spread throughout France. The king was fed up with his rather disloyal Dukes and counts, and was looking for any reason to curb their power and influence, but had again and again dodged the bullet. Likewise the nobles were just looking for an excuse to curb the king’s growing power and influence. Yes, France, that (mostly) placid kingdom between the Rhine and Pyrenees was set to become a very, very dangerous place.

And it finally happened. With the death of the French king Louis IX in 1590, there was a succession crisis. According to Salic Law, the brother of the king of Sicily, Rene, was the rightful heir (through his grandfather the brother of Louis’ grandfather). But Henri the Count of Toulouse claimed the throne according to primogeniture (he was the eldest son of Louis’ aunt).

Naturally, most of the nobles supported Henri Count of Toulouse. But the Duke of Normandy, the Duke of Champagne, and the Duke of Burgundy supported Rene (mostly because Louis, who wanted Rene to succeed him, knew he had to cozy up to them if nobody else).

Everything came to a head when on the night of November 13th , 1590, an assassination attempt was made on Rene. When morning came, he sent a message to Henri Count of Toulouse, revoking his title as count, and telling him to renounce his claim to the throne.

On November 17th, Rene got his response. He refused both demands. The French civil war had begun.

1590 - 1603 AD - For thirteen years the civil war raged on and off. It was divided into three wars. The first war was from 1590 - 1593. It was basically Burgundy/Champagne/Normandy/France against the combined forces of Aquitaine/Anjou/Marche/Gascony/Toulouse. Rene scored a decisive victory at Clermont in 1593, and Toulousian resistance melted. Henri fled to the court of the king of Castile, where he attempted to gather-up support. The remaining nobles were able to retain their lands, for the time being. Rene I was officially crowned on December 5th, 1593

The king of Castile was not trying to get himself involved in a war. But the king of Castile, Fernando VI, had his eyes set on removing the French from what he saw as his own private peninsula, and the longer Aragon existed under a French Sicilian dynasty the more he felt inadequate as a ruler.

And so in 1595 hostilities once again began, but this time the nobles of Aquitaine and Marche, along with Toulousian Protestant malcontents, had the backing of the rich and powerful Castilian Empire.

From 1595 - 1599 the second war progressed, but this war would prove disastrous for the nobility. The reason being was because Henri’s greatest general and confidante, Raymond de Nîmes, scored a major victory over the Duke of Burgundy near Arles. Why was this crushing? Because Raymond was a Protestant.

Rene knew exactly how to turn this in his favor. He sold himself as a defender of the Church, and even received a Papal blessing for victory in his struggle.

Suddenly, Fernando VI, who had scored impressive victories in Aragon over the Sicilians, was beginning to look like the bad guy. The king of rabidly-Catholic Castile was now “supporting” the Reformed Church of France. Obviously, this did not go over well with the clergy, peasants, nobles and everyone in-between in Castile.

Fernando still wanted to claim the title King of Aragon, and was looking for a quick, decisive victory, hoping that he would still come out smelling like roses. He had to actively engage and seek out the bulk of the Aragonian-Sicilian army in order to do this. He got his wish at the foot of Montserrat on May 7th 1598.
He was intending to march to Barcelona, knowing that the enemy HAD to engage him, they HAD to stop him before he reached Barcelona.

To make a long story short, Fernando VI was utterly beaten at Montserrat. He had no choice but to fall back. He had a very angry court to return to in Toledo. Fernando sued for peace, and got it with the onset of winter in 1598.

Once Castilian support had been taken away, Henri couldn’t keep up the war effort. In 1599 he once again retreated, this time to the island of Corsica.

By this point all the rebellious Dukes had been stripped of their titles and kept as courtiers in Paris, essentially under lock and key. The king of France was now in more or less complete control of the France itself. It could have ended there, but Rene, having essentially scored a victory not just for himself but also for the Catholic Church, began to utilize the Inquisition to purge the south of France of all French Protestants. In 1601 there was a mass uprising of Protestants in Toulouse, and the rebels invited Henri back to reclaim Toulouse.

Henri was hoping that the Protestants in Germany would aid him, but in the final war between 1601 - 1603, Henri was all on his own. Henri was finally killed in battle in 1603, and with his death the end of the French Civil War finally came.

The result of the French civil war was that the monarch was now, more or less, the sole and indisputable ruler over his entire realm. The only dukes left with any real power were those of Normandy, Champagne, and Burgundy, the rest was given to loyal courtiers and relations, with very restricted, almost ceremonial, powers.

In effect, feudalism died, and 1603 is seen by many historians as the birth of the French nation.

1601 - 1642 AD - The reign of Edmund I Æþelwærd. His mother reigned as regent for the first eight years of his reign, until his minority ended. He continued many of the policies of his predecessor, but with a far more colonial outlook. He was not concerned with Europe so much, and looked to expand his holdings in the New World. And until he was forced into participation in the German Wars of Religion, he went unfettered.

His unprecedented rate of colonialism was caused by two things. The first being that he repealed the Act of Colonial Charters, and a new wave of Protestants fled to the New World. The second cause was that he recognized that once Portugal and Castile unified, they would soon begin to look more northerly toward England’s colonies.

But then came the German Wars of Religion. For the first two years, it seemed as though he might be able to stay out of it, but the Protestants seized control of Holland, and pledged allegiance to the Duke of Guelders. When the Duke of Guelders accepted, England had little choice but to go to war.

Edmund I would not live to see the end of the war. He died in 1642. He was succeeded by his son Edmund II.

1613 AD - The death of Fernando VI king of Castile meant that there were no male heirs left. He had three daughters, but two had died of smallpox at early ages. The last one was Isabella, who at the time was just 17 years old. It was perfect. Castile needed a change, it did, after the disaster who was Fernando VI. So Isabella was made the regnant Queen of Castile.

1614 AD - The marriage of Isabella and Antonio II, king of Portugal. This was effectively the union of both countries, as Antonio II’s only son died during childbirth, along with his first wife. That is, if the two could conceive a boy.

1615 AD - The birth of Juan/João son of Isabella and Antonio II. He is the heir to the kingdoms of Portugal and Castile.

1627 AD - As a measure of protecting itself from the growing power of Muscovy, Novgorod surrendered to the Kingdom of Lithuania, on the condition that the rights and privileges of the city be retained. This severely tipped the balance of power in Eastern Europe, as Lithuania had grown to become quite powerful since the destruction of the Teutonic Order.

1634 AD - Over the ensuing years, the Turks and the Safavids had expanded their influence in the Levant, and effectively the various Sheiks and Emirs in that region were vassals of either the Shah of Persia or the Sultan of the Turks. This created surprisingly little tension between the two powers, that is, until it came time that the Sheik of Jerusalem had to make a decision.

Meanwhile, in Egypt, the Caliph and a man by the name of al-Badawi had finally molded Egypt proper into a cohesive state. The period of almost seventy years of turmoil had finally come to an end, and now the Caliph began to reassert his control over lands that were once his.

Back in Jerusalem, the Sheik was beginning to feel the pressure. The Germiyanid Sultan was breathing down his neck. The Sheik wished to maintain as much of his independence as possible, and looking around whom did he see but Shah Ismail III? And so the Sheik of Jerusalem began a discourse with the Shah of Persia.

The Shah of Persia was willing to accept the Sheikdom of Jerusalem as a tributary state. It served the Shah’s purpose of getting Jerusalem, one of the holiest sites in all of Islam, and it served the Sheik’s purpose of maintaining a large degree of independence.

This was a problem.

You see, the Caliph was rabidly-Sunni. The Turkish sultan was moderately Sunni. But the Shah of Persia was quite Shiite. When the Caliph got the word that Jerusalem was effectively controlled by Shiites, he, in short, blew his top.

The Caliph knew that his state was, while stable, still reeling from the period of trouble, and would be unable to effectively wage a war against the Persians. But who? What good upstanding Sunni man could reclaim Jerusalem? The Caliph looked to Constantinople.

The Caliph effectively sent permission to the Sultan allowing him to take al-Quds by any means necessary. And so, in 1634, the Sultan declared war on Persia.

1634 - 1642 AD - The second Germiyanid - Safavid War. This time the Safavids were much more ready, much more equipped to deal with the Turks. Shah Ismail III had modernized the army, and largely integrated cannons and muskets into the Persian army. While they were not equal in strength to the Turks, it most certainly leveled the playing field when compared to the two empires’ last struggle.

The war was long and difficult, but in the end, the Turks still won out after eight years of brutal fighting. The reason for this being that it was simply less of a logistics problem to get to the south of the Levant, the place that the Persians were obliged to defend, than it was for the Persians.

The effect of this war was that the Safavid dynasty began to decline. Eight years of incessant warfare had drained both empires, but Persia came out of the war worse off than the Turks had.

1649 AD - Death of Antonio II king of Portugal. He is succeeded by his son, João V.

1635 - 1659 AD - The German Wars of Religion. There were many causes for this war, the most important one being that many issues had not been resolved at the Diet of Nuremburg in 1544. The most pertinent being that the Diet of Nuremburg only accounted for the original Protestant faith founded, Fredericanism. The other large denomination was Hamlinism, founded by Josef Hamel.

Over the last eighty years or so, the Holy Roman Empire was effectively a state in controlled anarchy. That is to say, religious conflicts were frequent, but generally small, and despite the fact that the German people suffered greatly, Protestant and Catholic, things were still more or less balanced. Cuius regio eius religio was the motto for this “empire”. And for a while it actually worked. But things got confused when, on occasion, Protestants gained control of the Archbishoprics. Suddenly, for the Catholics, “Cuius regio, eius religio” wasn’t really good enough, and as such this created a lot of tension among the various religions in the Empire.

The spark that lit the powder keg as it were was the succession in Brandenburg. It should have gone to John IV Duke of Luxembourg, but he was Catholic, and this caused great problems with the Protestant half of the population there. Rather, the Protestants of Brandenburg preferred Charles II of the House of Luxembourg-Guelders (the House of Luxembourg had recently acquired that territory).

And so, the Brandenburger Rebellion began. It started off as a rebellion, but soon enough, it grew into a farther-reaching conflict. Essentially, Europe as a whole was drawn in, if not for religious reasons, then with the notion that they would gain a profit.

The war was fought, much like the French Civil War, in different phases. Sweden’s interests lay in having a friendly Brandenburg on the Baltic, and the Swedish king also happened to be Protestant. Therefore, the king of Sweden came to the conclusion that he ought enter on the Protestant side.

Sweden’s intervention essentially destroyed any hope of this war being a short one. Sweden’s involvement on the Protestant side was quickly followed by English intervention on the Catholic side. (The main reason for this being that his court at Holland had pledged allegiance to the Duke of Guelders.)

The king of France also intervened on the Catholic side, however France only wanted to gain control of some of the wealthy Rhineland area, and the religious aspect to France’s intervention was really quite minimal.

The war went on and off, and in the end there was no clear-cut winner. The Elector of Brandenburg and the Margrave of Brandenburg were made into separate titles, although by the time the Peace of Frankfurt had been signed this was a minor issue.

So who WERE the winners? Who came out on top after nearly twenty years of on and off struggle? Certainly the king of France, who now had control of both the Alsace and the Lorraine regions. Possibly the King of England, who while he lost Holland to the new Margrave of Brandenburg Charles I, had gained full control over Brabant. Maybe the King of Sweden, who got Near Pomerania out of the ensuing Peace.

In fact, on analysis, the real losers of the war were the German people. While the Peace of Frankfurt did ensure that no more religious wars would be fought in the Holy Roman Empire, it destroyed the Empire in all but name. It used to be that “Cuius regio eius religio” united the Empire in an uneasy peace, and now the only thing keeping them together was historical precedent.

1642 - 1667 AD - Reign of King Edmund II of England. He continued the policies of his father of rapid colonialism, and this expansion was helped along by the fact that England now effectively controlled the tobacco supply to Europe. The “Tobacco Barons of England” as they were referred to were among some of Europe’s wealthiest men.

Far from proving a threat, the union of Portugal and Castile had a very unintended effect in the New World, and that was that France’s presence on the Iberian peninsula meant that Portugal and Castile could not afford to keep as many troops as they would have liked in their colonies. The English were basically able to run free with their colonies.

England actually didn’t come off too bad despite losing control of Holland during the German Wars of Religion. It not only had full control of Brabant, but it was now able to pursue its colonial ambitions unfettered, now that it had rid itself of troublesome Amsterdam.

1652 AD - Not ten years after the Second Germiyanid-Safavid War did Egypt once again collapse into a series of squabbling states. Al-Badawi had been unable to provide any stability for his new state for when after he died. The Germiyanid Sultan was quick to react.

1652 - 1653 AD - The Turkish conquest of Egypt. The exact reason for going to war is quite clear. Not only would it give the Sultanate complete mastery of the Eastern Mediterranean and thus bring into its control the last unconquered market for Eastern goods (Alexandria), it was the Sultan’s chance to seize the title of Caliph.

In 1653, the Sultan Ahmed I met personally with the Caliph at Alexandria, and the Caliph agreed to pass on the title to him after his death.

1653 AD - With the death of Isabella of Castile, João V of Portugal inherits the kingdom of Castile. Portugal and Castile would be united under a single dynasty.

1655 AD - The aging Abbasid Caliph dies. Sultan Ahmed I becomes the Caliph. Thus begins the Turkish Caliphate.

1667 AD - Death of Edmund III. He is succeeded by his son, Edmund IV.

1667 - 1687 AD - The reign of King Edmund III. His reign was marked with expansion of interests in the East, and the occasional clash with France over exactly WHO owns the colony of Suðafrica. The two had wanted control of the location simply because it was a wonderful stopping place on the way to and fro India.

Eventually a consensus was reached in 1674. The area around Gáralandbúend (OTL Capetown) was to be an English possession, and the area around Golfe du Saint-Denis (OTL Walvis Bay) would be a French possession. For now anyway, it worked. The French didn’t exactly get the best port of call for their ships, however Walvis Bay was good enough for both the king of France, and the French East India Company.

Many in the Witenagemot grumbled about this. But with the effective conquest of the Aceh Sultanate in 1680, and thus control over a large portion of the lucrative pepper and tin trades, Edmund III was seen as an effective ruler, who knew what was going on in the world, and how to take advantage of these situations.

In 1687 Edmund IV died, and he was succeeded by his son Albert VI.

1680 - 1695 AD - The Great Hungarian War (Also known as the War of the Grand League). This was one of the most important events in the history of Eastern Europe. For centuries now Hungary has been mostly under Turkish rule. However, from the initial conquest there has existed in the most rugged and marginal regions of the Carpathians a rump state, Transylvania. Through the centuries Transylvania has wavered between being a de facto puppet state of the Turks, to a severe thorn in the side of the Sultan in Constantinople. Transylvania’s independence has been preserved, more or less, due to the fact that the Holy Roman Emperor, the King of Poland, and the King of Lithuania all had stakes in keeping Transylvania independent. They wanted that sort of rump state, that sort of enemy at the Sultan’s back, which many saw as the only real thing keeping the Sultan from marching further into Europe.

And the Sultans were content with this. Why go any further into Europe? Combining the resources of Europe with the knowledge of the East, the Turks had grown to become the premiere power in both Europe and the Middle East. So why go off conquering a few mountains in what was in their minds’ eyes the most worthless chunk of land this side of the Bosporus?

But that all changed with the reign of Abdul II. Abdul was a deeply religious man. When it suited him, he saw himself as Caliph first, Sultan second. He felt it his duty as Caliph to endeavor to spread Islam to the far reaches of the known world. Or at least, that’s how he justified his invasion of Transylvania.

Actually, he officially justified his invasion by claiming that it was not a band of common highwaymen but a company of murderers hired by the Prince of Transylvania himself that killed a prominent Turkish diplomat. But Abdul II also played up the religious angle, and the invasion began in 1680.

The force which Abdul has assembled was impressive. To conquer Transylvania he assembled a force of about 100,000 men. Abdul wanted it done right. No foul-ups. He knew undoubtedly that this would provoke a response from at least the Holy Roman Empire (or, more precisely, Bohemia and Austria), and was counting on a very quick campaign of subjugation. He wanted Transylvania’s conquest to be complete within one campaigning season. And with a force of 100,000 before them, many Transylvanian magnates were considering surrender.

But the Turks were not expecting the King of Lithuania to get involved. Sultan Abdul II was counting on war between Lithuania and Sweden (1675 - 1680) lasting many more years, and there was every indication that it would. However, when the king of Sweden unexpectedly dies in February 1680, the new king that came to power was keen on establishing peaceful relations with Lithuania. And so by the time the campaigning season of 1680 had arrived, the King of Lithuania looked south and saw none other than a large number of rampaging Turks. He then noticed that he had a large number of battle-trained and battle-ready troops.

So imagine the Sultan’s surprise when, after breaking his force in two to simultaneously seize Alba Iulia and Cluj in late July/early August of 1680, the beleaguered Transylvanians of Cluj were relieved by a Lithuanian army of 75,000.

The battle of Cluj really was a turning point, because it woke the “King of Hungary” the Holy Roman Emperor from his slumber, and now that he really had a chance to enforce his claims on Hungary, the Holy Roman Emperor and the King of Lithuania created the Grand League in 1682 along with Poland, Bohemia, and Austria.

From that point on the war raged on and off. The Turks and the Christians threw themselves at each other on the fields of battle. The battles almost harkened to an earlier time, a time of Crusader Kings. This particular war gave rise to the early poetry of the accomplished German poet, Jan von Passau, who wrote his poems based on his experience in war. He would end up creating the German national epic “Johannes Beck”. It should be noted that the great composer Alberto Trotto would later put his poetry to music, and create some of the greatest Italian and German operas of all time.

The war’s end was in some ways a foregone conclusion. The combined forces of the Grand League were able to muscle the Turks out of Hungary, and the Peace of Pressburg ended with all the lands of the crown of St. Stephen falling to the Holy Roman Emperor, and the Crimean Khanate was conquered in full by the Kingdom of Lithuania.

Separately, the King of Lithuania was rewarded by both the Pope and the Patriarch in Novgorod with the title “Defensor Fidei” for coming to the aide of the Transylvanians.

The Grand League’s victory in this war marked the beginning of the end for the Turks as the premiere authority in Eastern Europe.

[Beorn]

1687 - 1718 AD - The reign of Albert VI king of England. His reign was a sort of calm before the storm, a time when (diplomatically-speaking) England was in an almost splendid isolation from the continent. Colonies expanded, and English control over the Spice Islands trade was effectively cemented. And with the establishment of the Níwe Dornwaraceaster at the mouth of the Mississippi River, England more or less complete control over whatever came off of the Níweland continent.

During his reign, Albert VI essentially bought Ulster from the Scots. Ulster had become somewhat of a haven for Protestants on the British Isles. While both England and Scotland were Catholic, Scotland was more lax concerning its religious laws, and its control over Ulster had been mostly theoretical to begin with. When Ulster fell into the hands of England, a mass exodus of Protestants was the result, and they fled to Scotland, where not much later they would begin to wreak havoc.

Albert VI of England attempted to stay out of the War of the Sicilian Succession, but where Albert Vi saw ruin, his son Edmund V saw only opportunity.

In 1718, Albert VI died. He was succeeded by his son Edmund V.

1700 - 1710 AD - The Gold Coast Wars. A series of conflicts (mostly between Portugal-Castile and England/France) that took place along the Gold Coast of Africa. Namely, it was for control of the various trades in that region. For the longest time, Portugal was able to maintain more or less total control of the trades there, however when the English merchants began to pay more attention to the slave trade (more demand for slaves in the burgeoning colonies), they began to overtake the Portuguese in what they saw as their own personal playground (textiles, alcohol, and guns were what was usually traded for slaves in west Africa). From 1680-1690 the English and French outpaced the Portuguese in the production of all three. And so the Portuguese put a lock down on the trade in the region. Only Portuguese merchants could trade.

And so the Gold Coast Wars were more like quasi-wars, with official hostilities only breaking out from 1706-1707 over the capture of the English trading post in Ghana.

In the end, it resulted in Portugal’s effective loss of monopoly on the Gold, Slave, and Ivory trades. And many historians will posit that the loss of this control was one of the key reasons why the War of the Sicilian Succession grew to become so all-encompassing.

1713 - 1729 AD - When the King of Sicily died in 1713, there was at once a serious problem. He was without any male heir. This would not have been a problem, but the throne of Sicily (along with the throne of Aragon) would properly go to the King of France.

And so Rene III licked his lips and prepared his head for not one, but two more crowns, and the rest of Europe looked on with trepidation, fearing this new, French dominance over the greater parts of Europe. The most angered by this state of affairs were the Italian duchies and counties, along with the king of Portugal and Castile.

The mood in most of Europe was best summed up by the Pope, who made a remark comparing France to a hammer and an anvil, with Rene III as the blacksmith, and Italy as the iron. The French had, in effect, made nuisances of themselves. What have the French ever done for Italy? They de facto expelled the Holy Roman Emperor from Italy, sure. However, they had now threatened to tip the balance of power in Europe. Were the French king to gain access to that kind of manpower his armies could well overrun half of Europe. (At least, that was the feeling amongst most of Europe’s rulers.

The King of Portugal and Castile was up in arms. The French Sicilians controlling Aragon was bad enough. But now the French themselves were coming to the Iberian peninsula. It was in the King’s eye not so much a matter of succession, so much as it was a matter of national takeover. (The King of Portugal and Castile did not help the situation when in 1712 he began going by the title “King of All the Spains,” implying his realm properly included Aragon and Navarre along with Portugal and Castile.)

The Holy Roman Emperor also looked on with unease. In his mind this succession would allow for the king of France to threaten the Empire’s western borders. Indeed, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII was absolutely convinced that given the opportunity, France would not stop its eastward expansion until they reached the banks of the Rhine (this claim was entirely unsubstantiated, although the Duke of Burgundy making a statement about how he will be dining with his family and his marshal’s family in Frankfurt only served to make Charles paranoid.)

The king of England, however, was more optimistic about the whole state of affairs. Let Rene till his tired soil, let him look out to worn-down mountain peaks, let his reign extend across all the slow-moving, lifeless rivers that his heart so desired. The way he saw it, so long as France was busy keeping his polyglot and rather unlikely empire together, the less problems the French would cause down the road in the faraway East, or the West for that matter.

And so in 1712 the Pope called for a meeting of many of Europe’s crowned heads (including the Dukes of Savoy and Milan, the Doge of Venice, the Governor of Tuscany, a delegation from the ailing King of Sicily, the king of France, a delegation from the Holy Roman Emperor, and the king of Portugal-Spain) in Rome, in an effort to avert what would be total war should Rene not agree to some sort of compromise.

The meeting lasted for seven months, and a plan was finally drafted up. Rene under the proposal (The Treaty of Rome) would keep a substantial amount of his empire. He would be able to keep the isle of Sicily, Sardinia, Aragon proper, Catalonia, and the Aragonian possessions in Guyana. He would, in return, agree to appoint to the proposed Duchy of Napoli a noble of his choice, and hand over Valencia to the king of Portugal-Castile.

In retrospect, it really was quite the generous offer. Of the inheritance he would be able to keep everything but the possessions on the Italian peninsula and Valencia, and while none who drafted it were really happy about it, they would have been willing to work with Rene had he agreed to the treaty.

But he didn’t.

Rene protested that to succeed to the entire realm was his divine right, and while theologically the Pope tended to agree, in the interests of peace (and the maintenance of Italian independence) he disagreed, informing him in so many words that his Divine Right was to succeed to the Crowns, not necessarily the Realms.

Rene wouldn’t have it. He had secured the courts in both Aragon and Sicily, and if he so desired, he could ensure that those crowns would be his before the body was cold.

And so when the king of Sicily died in 1713, Rene had himself crowned king of Sicily and Aragon, and immediately asserted his control over these kingdoms.

And thus did the War of the Sicilian Succession begin.

It was a confusing war, of shifting alliances and many fronts. But throughout the war were two constant sides, France, and the League of Firenze. The War raged on and off for almost twenty years, and many historians argue that this was indeed the first truly globe-spanning war, as battles were fought from California to Goa.

The most notable participant in the war was England, who seizing on the opportunity, claimed Florida for the Kingdom of England, citing that the “Albertine Line,” dividing the western hemisphere between England and Castile was inaccurately placed. Of course, this was only an excuse for seizing control of some of the more valuable Castilian Caribbean islands.

And so the war raged on, and in the end, it came to a very, very mixed result. For France one would hesitate to call it either a victory or a defeat. Full control of Sicily (all of it) and Sardinia was assured, provided that Ferrara be relinquished from the French crown, and that the territorial integrity of Italy was ensured by the Treaty of Milan. However, the war on the Iberian peninsula had been at a stalemate for the last six years, with neither side making particularly great strides toward victory. And the war would have continued were it not for the death of Rene III in 1729. His son, Rene IV, was eager to restore peace to the kingdom.

But the king of Portugal-Castile would not fold. He wanted all of the Iberian peninsula. But when a join English-French raid on Cadiz was conducted, the king of Portugal-Castile had no choice, and was forced by his nobles to sign a peace treaty. Under the treaty, Rene IV was granted the Duchies of Aragon and Castile, and Valencia was surrendered to the King of Portugal-Castile. The only point of contention was Aragon. The Aragonese court did not want to have to deal with a potentially vengeful Portuguese king, and implored Rene IV not to sign the treaty.

And Rene obliged. With English ships firing their cannons on Lisbon, a compromised had to be reached. And so it happened.

The Crown of Aragon was granted to none other than the Duke of Milan. He was seen as neutral, and had served as a sort of go-between for the French and the League of Firenze, and had continued to act as a go-between for France and Portugal.

France came off this war not too worse for wear, and neither did the Italians. In fact, the only real loser in this war was the king of Portugal-Castile. Putting so much into trying to take the Crown of Aragon meant that all of the overseas colonies had suffered tremendously. Florida and Ceylon were ceded to England, and portions of the Mozambique coast and a part of the Angolan coast were granted to France. The inability of the Portuguese king to protect his own colonies in a time of war, while shameful, could be justified. But his inability to defend his very capital, was utterly shameful. This would not bode well for the union.

And so, after 19 years of war, it seemed as though Europe had worked its way through yet another major conflict. But on the Iberian peninsula, things were only just beginning.

1718 - 1731 AD - The reign of Edmund V. Edmund saw the War on the continent as an opportunity to expand his interests abroad, and not a month after his coronation did Edmund ally himself with France. Under his reign, Ceylon and Florida were added to the ever-burgeoning English Empire, and the Empire overall prospered. The Capture of Cadiz and the Bombardment of Lisbon were hailed as some of the finest moments in English naval history.

Edmund V was hailed as a conquering hero, but his successor would not have long to dawdle, as the island’s only major religious conflict was about the erupt.

In 1731 Edmund V died, and was succeeded by his son, Edmund VI.

1731 - 1754 AD - Reign of king Edmund VI of England. Within a year Edmund VI found himself embroiled in a dangerous religious conflict, which threatened to destroy England’s mastery of the British isles.

In 1732 the king of Scotland died. And while it was clear to most that the new King ought be one of his relations from the clan Sutherland, the Ulstermen which had been exiled from Ulster not twenty years earlier had their eyes set on the establishment of a Protestant kingdom, and supported the Protestant Duncan Mowat, of the Protestant branch of the clan Sutherland.

What’s worse was that in the ensuing civil war, the Scottish Protestants received the backing of Both Sweden and Denmark! They had even begun sending troops and supplies to aid them in the conflict. The reasons behind this were many, the most important being that both Sweden and Denmark desired some way to keep the English expansion in check, and placing a Swedish/Danish-backed Protestant kingdom on its northern border seemed actually quite conducive to that end.

And so the English retaliated, this time there was no turning back. The Clan Sutherland was a dangerous family to be ruling Scotland, its own internal divisions had created a war which threatened to tip the balance in not just Britain, but Europe and the Americas.

From 1734 to 1739 the English fought against the Scottish Protestants and their Scandinavian allies, and the end result was that Edmund VI renewed the ancient title of “Bretwalda” and became the king of Scotland.

The rest of his reign was once again spent in peace, except for the putting down of the rebellion of a Scottish clan leader or two in the Highlands.

And so, while Edmund would be the last of the Æþelwærd kings of England, he would also be the one who finally unified all the British Isles under a single ruler. Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, all under the kings of England.

Edmund VI left no male heir to succeed him, and ended up being succeeded by his grandson by his eldest daughter, Wilhelm van Brugge. He would be crowned King Wilhelm I.

1754 AD - The coronation of King Wilhelm I van Brugge of England, Scotland, and Ireland. This period is often referred to as the Wilhelmine Period. Admittedly, the Witenagemot was very suspicious of this “Flemish King” at first. He was young, and foreign. The first of a non-Saxon line to rule over England. The Saxon Englisc were proud of their history of home-grown kings, and were nervous that they were effectively in uncharted territory.

Wilhelm proved himself capable in his first of many years as king. His father was a Chancellor in the King’s court in Flanders, and naturally Wilhelm had become a bit of a money manager himself. The most important thins about this was that Wilhelm’s father had been able to convince that all of the money in Flanders ought be managed by a single bank. Thus the Bank of Flanders had been created. Edmund VI was quite interested in taking this idea national, however he died before he was able to do so.

Wilhelm was able to rally just enough political support to get the proposal through, and the Bank of England was created. This had a major effect on the economy. Not only was it more manageable, but it allowed deficit spending to be much easier.

This would come in much handy during his reign. War was looming on the horizon. And it would come from the least likely of sources.

1755 AD - The Union of Portugal and Castile was in its death throes. The loss of the War of the Sicilian Succession had in Castile blackened the name of the dynasty, and in Portugal there were those who wanted any excuse to overthrow the king. But the position in both kingdoms was secure enough, and indeed a crisis in the coming years could possibly have been averted. However, the King and the Castilian court could not seem to restrain themselves when they finally began to take notice of their Californian “territory”.

As it turns out, in 1752 Edmund VI had chartered the “California Company,” as a means of facilitating Pacific transport to the Spice Islands. By 1755, when Catholic missionaries from Mexico had begun arriving en masse to convert the native Californians, they were surprised to find that their English counterparts had already started.

There were no less than two very small settlements in California already established, with every indication that they were going to grow.

And so the King of Portugal and Castile had quite an earful for the English Witenagemot and Wilhelm. He claimed that the “Albertine Line”, made to divide the New World between Castile and England prevented the settlement of California in its entirety (the only exception to this being Florida)

The King of England noted that if this were true, all the colonies south of the Chesapeake Bay would be technically Spanish (due to the poor means of delineating longitude back when the line was drawn). The King of Portugal-Castile really at this point had no leg to stand on, except that historical precedent had dictated that California was indeed a Spanish territory. Wilhelm didn’t buy it, and neither did the Witenagemot.

1756 - 1759 AD - The Anglo-Iberian War. It was an easy fought war. The near-bankrupt Portuguese and Castilian states simply could not sufficiently defend her own colonies. England however was on the economic upswing, and was able to score victory after victory over the Portuguese and Castilians. The great Admiral Cynebald’s victory at Manila secured the St. Vincent Isles (OTL Philippines). The constant raids on the African coastlines severely disrupted the slave trade (or, rather, redirecting it to the English colonies), which by this point in the war was the last (relatively) secure source of income for the two countries.

The final straw had come in 1759, when Lisbon was raided a second time, and the king was apparently killed attempting to flee the city (he was already an elderly man, and many historians speculate that he wasn’t killed by debris falling from a building hit by a cannon, but rather by a heart attack). Broken, battered, and without a king, Portugal and Castile sued for peace. The terms were quite generous. The St. Vincent Isles were to be handed over, and the Albertine line was be replaced with the new “Wilhelmine Line,” which essentially halted further Castilian settlement.

1759 - 1760 AD - The Iberian Succession Crisis. The death of the King meant a few things: One, the nobility, who wanted to be rid of this “Dynasty of Fools,” now had a chance to unseat them. Two, the potential successors now had a chance to push their own claim for the throne. And three, the king of Aragon was now in a position to try and potentially seize the crown of Castile (or at least Navarre) for himself by force.

Given this situation, it did not take long for peace to go on holiday.

There were three major claimants to the throne, these being John, the king’s brother, Antonio, the king’s eldest son, and Carlos, the king’s more well-liked-by-certain-elements-of-society, however younger son.
1760 - 1768 AD - The Peninsular War. It was a multi-sided conflict, fought largely in isolation from the rest of Europe (as few other major houses in Europe could manufacture a sufficient claim to either of the thrones in contest). It started when the Portuguese nobility threw their support behind the Duke of Beja, Teodosio. The three rival claimants were up in arms at this hijacking of their crowns.

It however was not a civil war until the Castilian army generals and influential titleholders decided that they would throw their support behind Juan (João), the second son of the late king. He had spent most of his time in the court in Toledo, and had always been well-liked by that court’s influential members. The only caveat was that a constitution had to be adopted, limiting the king’s powers (much like what was in England). This was an effort to try to curb the absolutism with which the country had been governed previously, a governance which had led to two very disastrous wars.

The late king’s eldest, Alessandro, was infuriated. It was bad enough the crown of Portugal was taken from him, and now even Toledo has turned its back on the dynasty. He needed support, and he found a very, very sympathetic ear in the King of Aragon, Roberto II. Roberto was willing to go to war to help Alessandro, but only to get the crowns of Portugal and Leon (surprisingly). Castile was to be his own. Alessandro didn’t like this one bit, however he was not in much of a position to bargain, and so agreed to the partition.

This left Jose, the late king’s brother, entirely out of the equation. However, he was able to rally enough support from the nobles from both Lisbon and Toledo who did not approve of the choice of king made by the courts in Toledo or Lisbon. He fled to the northwest corner of Spain, and proclaimed himself “King of Leon”.

The war raged on for eight years, and was quite disastrous for the peninsula. It would be referred to retroactively as “The Last War of Crowns,” as it marks the last major dynastic struggle in all Europe. (This is in fact inaccurate, as the Great Northern War too was a struggle for a crown)

The war kicked off with the quick seizing of Navarre from Castile by Roberto, and Portugal and Castile were quite busy fighting each other on their own border. Meanwhile Jose sent sporadic raids in just about every direction, but dealt mainly in fighting Roberto.

The Portuguese and Castilians really were both quite evenly matched, however the Castilians had behind them far superior leadership. And so it was in 1764 that Lisbon had once again fallen to foreign invaders, (namely, Castilians), and King Teodosio beat a hasty retreat to Brazil. Juan had himself crowned as the true king of Portugal shortly after Teodosio left.

By 1765 it was a three-sided war. Jose had entrenched himself in a very large northern kingdom, comprising the areas of Leon, Galicia, and even Portugal as far south as Porto. Roberto had Navarre and all of Aragon, including Valencia. The rest was Juan’s.

Roberto knew that he had the upper hand. Jose was committed to fighting out this conflict to the end, just like Juan. Whereas Roberto could theoretically back off at any time, no harm no foul. Which means that while Juan and Jose were wearing each other out, Roberto could regroup and plan for later on in the war. At least, that’s what he wanted to do. And in fact the plan worked until 1767, when a most unfortunate evnt happened.

Jose was dead. Probably from a heart attack, just like his older brother. Without a rival claimant to the throne, the Leonese resistance simply melted away. Which meant two things. The first was that, bar the shouting, the Juan had control of all the formerly contested territory. Two, that Roberto was stuck dealing with a very, very angry Juan, and an evermore impatient Alessandro.

The war reached a fever pitch. But that’s just when France began to take notice. The King of France understood very well that Juan was playing for keeps. If Juan succeeded in conquering Aragon, then France would have no buffer state between herself and a very, very hostile Iberian state.

And so the Rene VI King of France went to war with Juan. At first, this meant very little. But he had a plan that would serve just about everybody’s aims.

Teodosio had been stewing in Rio de Janeiro for about three years whilst his country was being run by Juan. And he probably would have continued to stew, and quite honestly might have died in Brazil, were it not for French intervention. Rene VI planned to retake Portugal for Teodosio. Why would Rene care for Teodosio or his decaying empire? Because by splitting up Castile and Portugal, and by keeping Aragon alive, he would be able to keep Iberia divided against itself, and even get a buffer state to boot.

And so a grand martial array of French ships and the occasional Portuguese ship transported a grand army to the shores of Portugal. It was an event known in Portuguese history referred to as “O Regresso do Rei” (The Return of the King). When Teodosio entered Lisbon in triumph in 1768, Portugal was essentially lost for Juan.

In 1769, peace was brokered. Valencia would be returned to Aragon, and Teodosio would be recognized as the rightful king of Portugal. The signing of the Treaty of Seville is still referred to this day as the “Spanish Divorce”.

The only effect in Europe, ultimately, was that Castile and Portugal were separated after 155 years of union. But the effects in the colonies were great. For almost eight years contact with the mother country had essentially been severed. The various Viceroyalties and Captaincies had divided among themselves, each one pledging allegiance to a different kings at different times.

And so the colonies enjoyed a degree of quasi-independence. And while officially the colonies were once again subjects of either Portugal or Castile after this Last War of Crowns, the colonial system never really recovered. Colonial corruption would be a crippling problem from this point on in the two empires.

1772 AD - Rene VI was quite impressed by England’s ability to manage its own finances, and its ability to spend far more than it readily had. So impressed, in fact, that Rene set off to create his own bank for the country’s treasury.

It wasn’t all that easy. There were many who were opposed to such an idea, namely those still working the countryside, whose occupations don’t really require the use of a national banking establishment. However, Rene was able to plow his way through the red tape, and Rene VI was looked upon favorably by the influential bourgeoisie.

France would most certainly be able to put the national bank to good use before the century was out.

1776 - 1784 AD - The Great Northern War. The Grand Duke of Lithuania (Prince of Kiev, and of Novgorod, Ruler of Crimea, etc., etc…) noticed a bit of a situation in Muscovy’s feudal “empire”. Much like the Holy Roman Empire, the only thing which was really holding the Muscovite empire together was historical precedent, (many principalities banded together to destroy the Golden Horde). When the Prince of Moscow failed in his bid to gain very, very valuable ports on the Sea of Japan, many princes took this as a sign of weakness, and when the “Grand Prince” died, the Grand Duke of Lithuania was quick to seize on the opportunity.

But how? Outright invasion might well provoke an outcry in the immediate vicinity (Sweden was sure to take advantage of the situation, and perhaps even the rather ineffective and ailing Poland). Until the Grand Duke of Lithuania thought about a crown.

A very, very ancient crown.

Lithuania had for centuries held Kiev, the ancient capital of what was at the time Russia. But no other Grand Duke had made this an issue. This was not your average Lithuanian. Sigismund VIII wanted control of Russia. Not only would this serve to secure his own borders and provide large amounts of manpower, but it would provide Lithuania with a means of procuring eastern goods directly (rather than having to go through Muscovy, the Germiyanids, or anyone else for that matter)

And so when the Prince of Moscow died in 1776, Sigismund was quick to proclaim himself “Veliky Kniaz” of Kiev, and within a few months’ time began asserting his authority. And so the various Russian principalities were in a very, very weird place for the first few months of 1776.

But then something came out of left field. The grandson of the Swedish king apparently had a claim to the title “Prince of Moscow.”

And the king of Sweden was apparently willing to go to war to bring Russia into the Swedish sphere.

It was like a Lithuanian nightmare come true.

And so what resulted was a confusing, eight-year-long war, one of shifting alliances as the various princes of Russia waffled from one king or another. During the height of the war the Swedes had control of the entire Baltic coast, and were within a day’s march of Vilnius. However, Sigismund was able to procure the help of the King of Denmark in 1780, and the tide slowly turned against the Swedes as they were forced to fight a two-front war.

When Denmark had dragged-in Brandenburg (who wished for control of Swedish Pomerania) the war was essentially over for Sweden. The Swedes’ massive losses meant that by 1783 none of the Russian principalities backed the would-be Swedish Prince.

And so in 1784 Sigismund had his Russia. He immediately set about reforms. There would be none of this 13th century stuff, what with Princes telling the Veliky Kniaz what to do. Sigismund wanted to do things in Russia like he had been doing it in Lithuania (nice and centralized, relatively speaking).

And what better way to do that than a war?

1780 AD - The founding of the first English colony in Australia.

1787 - 1790 AD - With the revolt of the Moldavian prince from Turkish rule, Sigismund recognized his chance. He sent a discourse to the Turkish Sultan, informing him that Lithuania had guaranteed the independence of the Moldavian principality, and that any action taken to bring it back into the Germiyanid Empire would be taken as a declaration of war against Lithuania.

And so the Turks and the Lithuanians once again had themselves a war.

Both nations had battle-hardened armies (the Turks had recently wrested control of Mesopotamia from the crumbling Persian state), and the recent expansion meant that the Turks were actually thriving again. But in the end, sheer logistics won the war for Sigismund, who was unlike the Sultan able to get large armies to the theatre of war very quickly, whereas the Sultan on the other hand had to deal with the painful fact that he could not recruit a sizeable number of troops from the Balkans, and had to transport them from more Islamic regions of the Empire.

When a combined Hungarian-Venetian-Lithuanian fleet had been able to deal the Turks a painful naval defeat in the Sea of Marmara, the Lithuanians were free to run rampant across the Balkans. In 1790 the Turkish Sultan had no choice but to recognize the Moldavian prince as independent.

The loss of Moldavia was a huge blow to the authority of the Sultan in the mostly-Christian Balkans. Many historians trace the wave of nationalism in the Balkans to the outcome of this war.

1788 AD - In an attempt to avoid a succession crisis, the new King of Aragon relinquishes control of the Duchy of Milan to his uncle.

1792 AD - The Purchase of Corsica. Wanting access to the Mediterranean Sea, England was quick to jump on the offer made by the Republic of Genoa, whose control over the isle of Corsica has always been more theoretical than anything else.

[Beorn]

1801 AD - The death of King Wilhelm I van Brugge of England, Scotland, and Ireland, Duke of Brabant and Count of Flanders. It was a reign which saw the rise of a uniquely “Bryttisc” Empire. Under King Wilhelm a national bank was created, which allowed for great spending power, spending power which drove the expansion of the colonies.

Almost all of the Spice Islands have been brought under heel. Australia, an entirely new continent, had been added to the burgeoning empire. India was now essentially and Anglo-French playground, and with victory in the Anglo-Iberian War and the subsequent drawing of the Wilhelmine line, Níweland was now part of the Anglosphere.


1802 AD - The ascension of King Wilhelm II of England. Wilhelm II had the benefit of inheriting what was, bar the shouting, a very, very stable and prosperous empire. Indeed, there really was nothing that could be done to improve Bryten’s standing at the moment.

Of course, things weren’t without their hiccups. France really was beginning to make a pain out of herself in India, and Wilhelm II correctly predicted trouble on the horizon in Africa (although it would be after his own reign) with France.

Wilhelm II also recognized that both the Holy Roman Empire and the Castilian Empire were very, very unstable and unsustainable. Part of the problem was the growth of liberalism. The heart of it all lay in France, a place with a very wealthy bourgeoisie class that had little official power in regards to how the state was run.

The Castilian and Portuguese Empires were in their death throes as well. When King Teodosio was in exile in Brazil, Brazilian officials enjoyed a great degree of freedom that comes with being the only real surviving part of the empire at that time, and ever since Teodosio returned the Brazilians were reluctant, to say the least, to give up these powers. The Castilian Empire, on the other hand, suffered from a complete lack of contact with the motherland for many years, and as such gained a great deal of independence. Like Brazil, many Castilian colonies were rattling for a greater degree of self-rule from the crown.

The Holy Roman Empire as well was straining to keep itself a single cohesive unit. Liberal and Nationalist ideals had slowly begun to trickle out of the free cities of the Empire, and found a ready audience, at least in the middle classes who were living under what was, essentially, an anachronistic state.

And so Wilhelm’s opening address to the Witenagemot addressed all these issues, about how Europe was essentially preparing to rip itself apart, and that the years ahead were shrouded in mystery.

But to the citizens of the Bryttisc Rice (British Empire), life seemed on the up. Bryten had been a bastion for what was a liberal government. There were very clear limits to the power of the monarch, and there was a degree of religious freedom (however Protestantism found itself suppressed in more indirect means). In the colonies, the people enjoyed the low taxes and the opportunities abound.

Wilhelm II was taking control of the Empire at a key turning point domestically-speaking. While historians tend to shy away from pinpointing an exact date on which the Industrial Revolution, but most would agree that by 1802, it was already around, especially in Bryten.

Why Bryten? There were of course numerous factors as to why it would occur in Bryten first and nowhere else. Bryten was abound in natural resources such as coal, iron, lead, copper, tin, limestone, and numerous rivers suitable to tap into for water power using the water wheel. It was also an incredibly densely-populated region of Europe, which meant that there was a large amount of manpower to tap in to.

Combine this with the fact that the Bryttisc middle class had far more capital than their counterparts in any other country, then what you have is a recipe for what was to be known as the Industrial Revolution.

And so Wilhelm II would have a very, very interesting situation with which to deal during the next twenty-three years of his life. And it was only going to get more and more difficult as time went on.

1805 - 1808 AD - The Brazilian Rebellion. Brazilian plantation owners and merchants had demanded more and more autonomy from Lisbon, and when they were denied this autonomy, they revolted. The Brazilian rebellion was quite successful. The reasons for the Portuguese defeat were numerous. For one, Portugal had simply ceased being a powerful nation. The Last War of Crowns was disastrous for Portugal proper, however it proved to be a boon to the people of Brazil, since for the first time all of their tax money was going to help them, rather than investors or peninsulars. Combine these with the fact that control of Brazil was basically centered around only a few ports, and that the Brazilians had the advantage of knowing the area, victory seemed almost predestined.

With the fall of Fortaleza in 1808, the Portuguese had been fully expelled from Brazil.

The king knew that the rebellion was impossible to keep under control after three years of fighting, and so he folded.

What emerged was a sort of super-national federalism, or at least, the beginnings of it. Brazil was proclaimed a separate kingdom, with its own legislative body. However, Brazil would recognize the king of Portugal as their king as well, effectively making Portugal a union of two kingdoms (Portugal and Brazil). And so in this way, one could make the argument that the Portuguese Empire continued to exist beyond 1808, albeit Lisbon’s direct control over Brazil ended that year.

Remarked the famous Brazilian historian Luis Braga, “The first domino had been knocked over. It would not be long before the rest of the world was on fire.”

How right Mr. Braga’s statements would prove to be.

1809 - 1814 AD - The Great Polish War (colloquially the War of the Polish Succession. This war also encompassed the Prussian Revolution), a five-year war which would mark the destruction of the kingdom of Poland. The causes for the war stretched back to the beginning of the eighteenth century. Poland had since then been in a state of gradual decay, due to the unworkable form of government (which made any sort of centralization impossible).

It started off as a civil war, sparked off by a succession crisis, but by 1810 the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII knew that this would be the perfect opportunity to expand his influence. And so, the Kingdom of Hungary (ruled by the Imperial House of Nassau-Weilburg) entered the war.

Knowing that he too had a chance to gain a piece of Poland, the king of Lithuania joined in just months afterward. Following suit was the Kingdom of Sweden, who was looking to, like the kings of Hungary and Lithuania, gain a chunk of Poland.

Enter into this conflict Prussia, which had declared independence from Krakow shortly after the three major kingdoms had entered into the conflict. Prussia’s striking out on its own was fueled by the writings of Karl Ackermann, a Nürnberg resident who had written many pamphlets on exactly what the definition of a nation was, and he had come to the conclusion that a nation was defined by a group of people with a common identity.

Karl Ackermann, upon hearing of the Holy Roman Emperor’s entrance into the war against Poland without any real cassus belli, was reported to have remarked, “Nowadays they [monarchs in general] don’t even need a reason to pull their people into a self-serving war.”

By 1812, Poland itself was pretty much destroyed, and Poland had become a battlefield for the four sides in the conflict. The Polish nobility had thrown in their lot with the Holy Roman Emperor, not wishing to be ruled by an Orthodox king or a nominally-Catholic king (a relation to the king of Sweden).

The fighting would continue for another two years, before a peace was concluded. Sweden got almost nothing except very small monetary compensation. Halych-Volhynia along with any land east of the Vistula was to be granted to Lithuania, Prussia was guaranteed independence by all three parties, Silesia was granted to the Hohenzollern kings of Bohemia (whom had assisted the Henry in expe, and the rest was to be granted to the House of Nassau-Weilburg, to be divided up as they saw fit.

Karl Ackermann would have this to say about the war’s conclusion: “Defeat for national identity? No my friend. The Polish people will do just fine, for now they see the true role of the monarch in the nineteenth century. That of the august position of treasury-drainer and tax-waster. It is a victory because a true example of the modern nation-state has emerged in the farthest reaches of Europe, on those pristine Baltic shores. Prussia, my friend, shall be a light unto the German people.”

1815 AD - With the death of Sigismund IX of Lithuania, his son Alexander IV would be one of the most pivotal leaders in Russian and Lithuanian history. He would kick off his reign by massive reforms as to exactly how his principalities were run, centralizing more than any other monarch before him.

1816 - 1819 AD - The Slavic Rebellions. Spurned on by liberal and nationalist writers, there was a common uprising of Slavs within the Kingdom of Hungary. While these rebellions were suppressed, they seemed almost a precursor to what was to come in 1826.

1821 - 1825 AD - The Barbary Wars. In reaction to constant raiding of Englisc East India Company cargo (raiding purportedly backed by the Sultans of Oman and Yemen) the Empire went to war with these two Sultanates, with its goal being outright conquest and domination.

The wars were on and off at first, but in the end both Oman and Yemen were incorporated into the ever-growing Bryttisc Empire, as protectorates. Zanzibar, however, had to be surrendered to the Empire entirely by the Sultan of Oman, and Aden had to be surrendered by the Sultan of Yemen.

1825 AD - Wilhelm II dies, and is succeeded by Wilhelm III. Wilhelm II proved himself correct that Europe was preparing to tear itself apart, although it would be his son who would watch it occur.

1826 AD - The Czech National Revolution. Fueled by nationalist writers, and by the Czech national reawakening which had occurred in the first twenty years of the nineteenth century, there were calls to overthrow the Hohenzollerns, who were invested with the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1382, and had continuously ruled since then (a reign of 444 years).

This was viewed as an absurd notion by most nationalists, who pointed out that 444 years of ruling Bohemia had resulted in the “Czechification” of the dynasty, and indeed the king was if not loved, then at least respected by most Bohemians.

But the fringe that wanted to bring down the “infernal German dynasty” was quite a vocal one, and on May 4th, 1826 the heir-apparent to the throne, Friedrich VII Duke of Moravia was assassinated and the palace was stormed and the Hohenzollern kings were forced to flee Prague to their ancestral homelands until the noise died down.

Normally, this would have provoked outrage. But now that the king was actually gone, other nationalists, even those who saw the king as a unifying national symbol, jumped on the bandwagon. Within one week, all of Bohemia had fallen to the rebels.

One might call this the awakening of the slumbering giant. The various middle classes throughout the Holy Roman Empire, disillusioned with the concept of outright authority held by the monarch and the limited upward mobility imposed by the existence of an aristocracy, began to rise up.

The rebellions fanned-out from there, although they also sprung up from the myriad free cities which existed across the empire as well. Karl Ackermann knew that he was not safe from the agents of the Holy Roman Empire should he choose to remain in Germany, and so spent two weeks dodging would-be assassins, moving slowly to Bryten.

1826 - 1836 AD - What historians refer to as “The Decade of Revolutions”. Sparked off by the Czech National Revolution, these were essentially liberal revolutions, aimed at either deposing a king or nobleman, or installing a constitutional form of monarchy.

The Nationalist revolutions affected every country in Europe. In Germany however, the Revolutions were the most intense. For the first seven years, the revolutions in Germany were all divided, each one with but a single aim (to overthrow their local Duke or King or Count, or force them to sign a constitution). But in 1833, with the flight of the Holy Roman Emperor to France (where he was, incidentally, well-received) there began talks of the formation of a single German national entity)

The very prospect of a united German state frightened just about everyone in Europe, from Vilnius to Lisbon. It wasn’t until an official Papal bull expressing sincere disapproval of the overthrow of the Holy Roman Emperor did the revolutionaries feel bold enough to actually make this a reality.

The Congress of Frankfurt was a gathering of all the states within the Holy Roman Empire, with the objective being to create a sort of national state. The Congress, taking place in 1834, succeeded in this aim, creating what was essentially a devolved parliamentary democracy. There would exist two parliaments, the South German Parliament and the North German Parliament (reflecting the religious division existing in Germany) and the country would be ruled by a single executive chosen by the two parliaments.

The other thing accomplished at the Congress of Frankfurt was that the new Czech Republic was in serious trouble. They had agreed to give up Silesia, which the Germans considered their own, but no other Germanized areas of Bohemia. To the ultra-nationalist German Republic, this was unacceptable.

And so no sooner were the revolutionaries in the Holy Roman Empire united, they fought each other.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Europe, France was struggling with her own nationalist problems. France proper was more or less unaffected, however the Sicilians and Italians within the French Empire were beginning to make themselves known in Paris. A Pan-Italian movement had arisen, and found themselves readily accepted in the French and Papal-dominated portions of Italy. While these were not to have as much immediate success as the German Revolutions, they were to have serious consequences for the French monarchy down the road.

The king of Lithuania was also having difficulty. While Russia herself remained more or less unaffected by the Revolutions (the insanely-low illiteracy rate and the existence of the serf system prevented its rapid spread), the Poles had begun their own national awakening.

1837 AD - France, the embodiment of the way Europe once was before 1826, saw an opportunity to simultaneously come out on top in Europe, and make itself look like the continent’s savior from liberalism. France would take its mighty war machine, and destroy the new German Republic before it even got off the ground. In a sense, it was an effort to turn back the clock before the Revolutions.

1837 - 1847 AD - The Great European War. It was the first conflict to drag in just about all of Europe since the German Wars of Religion. The French made a bid to simultaneously end the “liberal threat” and ensure French domination of the continent. These efforts were backed by Lithuania, Sweden (struggling with Norwegian nationalism) and most of the North Italian states, but were recognized as power-grabbing by others (most notably, Bryten, along with Castile and Aragon, ironically enough).

The war was a very complex affair, and could more or less be divided into three phases.

The first phase is referred to the Rhineland War (1837-1840). During this time France launched massive invasion into Germany, mostly concentrated in the Rhineland area. The French figured that anti-Revolutionaries in the more Catholic south would begin rising up, and thus it would necessitate a smaller invasion.

And to an extent it worked. The farmers and laborers hadn’t really been all that enthusiastic about German unification in the first place. After all, what good would being under a new government do if all it brought them was the destruction of their farmlands?

But the resistance in the northern regions of Germany was fierce. The French were able to secure the Rhineland for themselves, but that was about it. For about a year all was at a stalemate. It would take two events that would help tip the scales in favor of Germany.

The first was the proclamation of the Neapolitan Rebellion of 1839. Almost all of France’s Italian possessions rose in revolt against her. This tied-up France’s forces, and some directly link this diversion of forces from the war in Germany to the stunning German victory at the Battle of Essen.

The second event was the Palk Strait Incident (1840), where the Bryttisc purported that the French stole a massive quantity of spices. In reality, it was either local opportunists or unrelated pirates, however it gave the Bryttisc Empire a reason to go to war over France’s South Indian possessions.

And so the second phase of the war is referred to as the Extended War (1840- 1845). On the continent, the French progressed unfettered, now aided by Lithuania and Hungary. However abroad, the Bryttisc Empire absolutely destroyed the French East India Company, and even took control of places like Guyana and Sofala. Naturally, the seizure of all of the colonial investors’ assets did not go over well domestically, and it was the loss of India despite decisive victories in Europe.

Interestingly enough, the French made no attempt to take and hold the Bryttisc Niðerland. The French figured that their objective was to take control of Germany, and so simply fortified the borders and launched the occasional raid.

The final phase, referred to as the Brandenburger War, focused on interior northern Germany. The French army was within a two days’ march of Berlin, when France sued for peace. The domestic situation had grown out of control, and France could no longer maintain the war effort.

The Peace of Brussels was signed by all concerned parties. In it, the first provision was the German Republic was to be dissolved, and the Holy Roman Empire restored in its place. All lands west of the Rhine were to be placed under the Peerage of France. The electors affected were to move east of the Rhine (The Palatinate. (Note that this did not affect the ecclesiastical electors. So the only elector affected was the Count Palatinate).

And so, France did become masters of Europe. They now were the power behind the throne occupied by the Holy Roman Emperor, and nobody dared challenged their continental power.

But at what price? Their Indian holdings were reduced to a thin strip on the southwestern coast. Their ports in Africa were in ruins. For France, the Great European War was a Pyrrhic victory.

1837 - 1849 AD - The Latin Revolutions. The trouble in Europe crossed the Atlantic as well. The burgeoning Castilian Empire could no longer hold itself together. With “Revolution” on their lips, the Castilian colonists rebelled against the crown. The revolutions here played out much like the Brazilian Rebellion did in 1805-1808. So by 1849, the Castilian Empire had dissolved almost entirely.

1850 AD - Death of Wilhelm III. Succeeded by Wilhelm IV.


1851 AD - The ascension of Ian Bæcestre (With the popularity of the “Flemish Dynasty,” so-called “continental” names were in vogue. )

Ian Bæcestre was made Governor-General of India in 1851, and it would be his policies which would both bring the East India Company’s power to its height.

Ian immediately pursued a less aggressive policy than his forebears, whose policies had been the cause of several small rebellions. To this, however, was a dual-edged sword. He sought to be far less aggressive to the various Princely States dotted across India, however would be an absolute beast in his various bids to run the Company’s French counterpart out of business, and thus, out of India.

Ian’s attitude to the whole thing can best be summed-up by his reference to the Indian Ocean as “Mare *******,” Latin for “Our Sea,” used by the Ancient Romans to describe the Mediterranean. ian had no problem with other native states in the area, but competition from European colonial powers was something against “[his] very Bryttiscness”.

And so he set out to do just that. Ian had a whole new set of policies, and he began a process of what he called “integration and expulsion”.

Integration referred to the closer relationships he sought with the Indian princes. Previous Governors had been heavy-handed and aggressive to varying degrees toward these Princes, and while this had succeeded in its aim of incorporating these states into the Company’s sphere of influence, it had made some of the Indian higher-ups seriously discontent, and bred a certain disloyalty within the very polyglot ranks of the Company army. Ian also desired to enforce humane laws, as frequently Company men had cruelly-treated the local peoples.

Expulsion referred to the expulsion of the French East India Company. To this end he would divert Company resources to taking control of so much of that shared zone that in order to make up for the deficit the French East India Company would have no choice but to begin selling more and more of its trade rights to the Englisc East India Company. From that point the process would simply accelerate.

1852 AD - A fierce debate in the Witan occurred this year as to the place of slavery within the Bryttisc Empire. Ever since the beginning of the 19th century, slavery had fallen out of favor with large swaths of Imperial society, and yet there were still those who wanted only to further it. Its stronghold was in the south of Níweland, where cotton was king.

Many argued that because of the mechanization of the cotton harvesting process, slavery now served almost no purpose. Many economists had even argued that in the long run it was detrimental, since slavery increased unemployment, and meant that there were fewer consumers to drive the economy.

In the end, the slaveholders in the New World did not have the clout in Lundenwic to preserve slavery. On October 7th, 1852, the Abolition of Slavery Act had passed through the Witan. In it, all slaves were to be freed by January 1st, 1853.

1853 - 1854 AD - While the Abolition of Slavery Act had been largely enforced, there were those who still refused to surrender their slaves. This resulted in a rebellion referred to as the Slaveholders’ Rebellion. It was essentially doomed from the outset, as word spread to their own slaves that legally they were free, colonial citizens of the Bryttisc Empire. By March of 1854 the Rebellion had largely petered-out.

1855 AD - Things in France had come to a head. France was essentially in shambles. The hard-fought victory over the radical German Republic had resulted in the loss of any chance of dominance on the Indian subcontinent. Before the war the French were in a position so that by around 1870 most of the value of India would be in French hands. Now the final outposts of the French East India Company were being run out of business as the Company struggled to pay the dividends to their investors.

And who was to blame for France’s problems?

When the wealthy middle class looked around, the only one they could find was the King Henri VI. It was his predecessor who declared war in the first place. It was his predecessors whose colonial policies made it so easy for the Bryttisc to wrest control of India from France. It was his fault that the taxes were so high, that the country was being bled dry.

And so things could only get worse when a veritable army of German peasants from the newly-conquered Rhineland began marching toward Paris, demanding compensation for the destruction of their lands and the ruining of their harvests.

As they went they picked up other malcontents, mostly French ones, who were tired of the uneven tax burden. And as this army of peasants began taking on a bourgeoisie nature as well, as they, too, were part of the Third Estate, and thus unfairly taxed.

And this march spawned others, from Languedoc, from Normandy, from Alsace and Lorraine, from Auvergne and Limousin, Vendée and Poitou. All of them marching to Paris.

The first arrived on February 4th, 1855. They quickly established tent cities, and Henri knew that this city would only grow. He had to act fast.

He basically do one of two things. On the one hand, nobility and clergy be damned, they’re going to be taxed. On the other, this rather peaceable rebellion could be quashed, martial law imposed, and the taxes imposed by force.

Witnesses said that Henri ruminated as to how neither option was a good option. To redistribute the taxes meant both that the monarchy would be essentially defeated, and that the nation would continue to remain in debt longer. Henri wanted to pull the nation out of debt within ten years, and while the tax burden was quite unfair, the largest source of tax income regardless of percentage was the Peasantry and Bourgeoisie. The longer the nation was in debt, the longer it would be rather ineffective on the world stage, due to the inability to wage effective warfare, or sustain it.

But to enforce the taxes by force meant potentially stirring-up a bee’s nest. And for doing that, there were very generally dire consequences.

And so Henri, whether he liked it or not, had to arrive at a decision.

Henri had to enforce the taxes.

A counterrevolutionary through and through, Henri felt that this march on the capital was opposed to the divine right of his rule and of kings in general. And by extension, this rebellion was heresy.

This whole view of things simply proves to most people around Europe at the time exactly how out of touch the French monarchy had become. France had become as much an anachronism as the Holy Roman Empire, and as such would have come kicking and screaming into the 19th century.

And so the tent city, which by now had swollen to around 200,000, was marched on by another sort of army. A real army. With real guns. Flying the standard of King Henri VI himself.

The tent city was ordered to begin to disband within two days. What ensued was a tense standoff between a heavily-armed force of 10,000 in the French army, against the 100,000-strong “Peasant Army”.

On February 18th, with just twelve hours to pack up and leave, there still remained about 40,000 men in the tent city, and they were refusing to leave. One man, named Jean Campion, began taunting members of the French army. And soon he was joined by at least three dozen others.

What happened next is still debated to this day. Some claim that the shot fired was entirely unprovoked, and yet others claim that a rock was tossed in the general direction of a French soldier, provoking a response. Whatever version is true, what is known is that a shot was fired, and it landed in the gut of one Jacques Picot.

This had two immediate consequences. The first was that the tent city of some 40,000 went absolutely insane. One group of these began fleeing in all directions. The other began taking up arms against the French directly.

The group which had taken to flight did not necessarily flee away from Paris, but rather, into Paris. They looted and burned, and incited several throughout the city to revolt themselves. Within hours, the whole of Paris was up in arms. Herni had no choice but to leave.

Henri was able to leave safely, but only after his personal guard fought viciously in the streets. They made a quick getaway to Rouen. He was expecting safe haven in Bryten, however was turned away. The king couldn’t make a mad dash for Spain or Italy. He knew he couldn’t leave the continent, as it was unlikely that he would be able to influence the fate of his Kingdom from across the Atlantic, and as such had to stay in Europe. Luckily, there still existed various German princes grateful for French intervention in the Great European War, and so Henri made for Bavaria.

As expected, Henri didn’t make it. He was caught after getting all the way to Luxembourg. The rather resentful Duke of Luxembourg himself sent a party to intercept him. Henri had thought that the Duchy of Luxembourg would be a sort of safe way station on his way to Bavaria. He had clearly miscalculated.

Henri was placed back in the custody of the new French National Republic, which had been proclaimed in Paris the day that he fled.

And so as 1855 wound down France was in another sort of civil war. The Royalists had created a stronghold in various pockets around France, particularly in the Aquitaine, Orleans, and Bourgogne regions, with the occasional Royalist uprising in Bretagne, Maine, and Normandie.

1856 - 1857 AD - The French civil war continues. But the outcome was for the most part a foregone conclusion. King Henri simply didn’t have enough people willing to fight for him. On July 9th, 1857, Henri received the news while under house arrest in his palace that the 70,000-strong Royalist army in Aquitaine has not just surrendered, but disbanded entirely.

1858 AD - The drafting of the French Constitution. It was based largely on the Englisc model, whereby the King would have a rather large amount of power, however would be severely limited. France was now a Constitutional Monarchy. There were those who wanted an even more radical form of government, saying that true liberty could not be fully established unless the king were either exiled, or dead.

For now, those persons of that particular political color were content that they had established a cohesive government within three years’ time.

Henri was, of course, none too thrilled by this turn of events. No longer did the French king rule absolutely. Now he was simply a figurehead of a true, bona fide French nation-state.

Many historians are quick to point out the irony that the arguable birthplace of liberalism and nationalism would be one of the last places in western Europe to be dramatically-changed by it, however it upon closer inspection makes sense. For France, Absolute Monarchy simply worked. And if it weren’t for the Pyrrhic victory that was the Peace of Brussels, the Ancién Regime could very well have gone well into the 20th century.

1860 - 1862 AD - A major succession crisis in Persia occurs in this year. The Lithuanians and Brytens fought a proxy war in this succession conflict. On one side, an Omani, Bryttisc-backed candidate, and on the other, a native Lithuanian-backed candidate. This proxy conflict was nothing more than an outgrowth of already fierce competition between Bryten and Lithuania for control of Central Asia.

For Bryten, success in putting their candidate on the throne was crucial. Defeat would mean an Indian Ocean port for Lithuania, and would pose a very, very big threat to the Company and for the Empire at large, the way Lundenwic and Calcutta saw it.

And so by 1862, Bryten succeeded. Persia was now, essentially, a Bryttisc protectorate.

1863 - 1867 AD - The Rhineland and Italian Revolutions. The newborn French nation had attempted to hold together the various nationalities within its borders, but ultimately they tore each other to shreds. In Italy, both the Neapolitan Republic and the Sicilian Republic were proclaimed.

In the Rhineland area, the Duke of Luxembourg took the opportunity to actually ride the wave of nationalistic fervor, and became a figurehead for the revolts there.

The French fought valiantly in their attempts to keep the nation intact, however ultimately failed. The newborn state was not even on its feet economically yet when it was thrust into these wars, and failure seemed inevitable.

The biggest blow to the French was when Frederick IV Duke of Luxembourg was proclaimed Friedrich I “King of Lothringen” in Nancy.

By 1867, the Kingdom of Lothringen, the Neapolitan Republic, and the Sicilian Republic had attained final victory, when in they had attained recognition in the Treaty of Lundenwic and the Treaty of Barcelona.

1865 AD - The French East India Company officially went out of business. Its last holdings were sold to the Englisc East India Company, and its final dividends were paid.

Upon this, a famous political cartoon was published, featuring a colossal Ian Beacestre straddling the Indian Ocean, holding a cable connecting the two sides.

In this same year, the Suez Canal Company was created. It was a Bryttisc Company, largely-backed by both the East India Company and the government in Lundenwic. The idea was to facilitate transport between the colonies around the Indian Ocean, and the rest of the Empire.

1870 - 1871 AD - The Flemish Rebellion. With the increased national awareness throughout all of Europe, the people of Flanders and Hainaut and Brabant all sought greater independence from Bryten. They by no means wished to separate. They were quite aware that Bryttisc military protection was vital. However, under the ancient “Niðerlandisc laga,” they were not in charge of their own taxation, and many of their own internal affairs.

And so Wilhelm IV, being of Flemish blood, was able to soothe the rebels’ concerns very easily. The result was the creation of a devolved Witan of sorts. A Niðerlandisc Parliament.

Wilhelm IV’s opening of the first Niðerlandisc Parliament on May 9th, 1871 was to be one of his final official acts as king. He would die exactly three weeks later, on May 31st. He was succeeded by his son, Wilhelm V.

1872 AD - Wilhelm V was the first king to be crowned as the “King of Bryten”. This radical shift in how the kings styled themselves reflected the state of the Empire at the time. The future was uncertain. Lithuania had grown to become a beast in Central Asia, and was not taking the loss of Persia lightly. In 1872 alone there were no less than three assassination attempts on the Persian Shah’s life, by Lithuanian-backed assassins.

And while the Lithuanians were busy attempting to manufacture yet another Persian succession crisis, there were rumblings. The imperial colonies did not by any means seek independence. In Níweland, the combination of Lithuanian-backed pirate raids on the Pacific coasts and the incendiary character of the new Mexican state prevented any serious call for true independence. Rather, they sought a means by which they could more directly influence the way by which they were run.

And so the idea of creating an “Ábúfanwitenagemot” (Over-Witenagemot). It was an “evolved” parliament of sorts. Just like the devolved Niðerlandisc Parliament regulated the internal affairs of the Niðerlandes, the Ábúfanwitenagemot would only decide on matters strictly pertaining to the entire Empire.

And this proposal had many devoted followers in Bryten as well. Lundenwic wanted access to the vast amounts of manpower in India, Níweland, Australia, and Africa.

It was by no means a new idea. Similar proposals had been in existence since the late 1700s. It only began to gain steam now because of the serious external threats which existed Empire-wide, the rise of separate identities among the Empire’s colonials, and the real-life examples of devolution of power throughout the Empire.

Essentially, the Ábúfanwitenagemot proposal was devolution in reverse. Evolution.

1873 AD - The generally-accepted starting date for the beginning of the Scramble for Africa. The French had developed quite an industrial capacity, and as such thirsted for more and more resources and new markets for its goods. There was but a single continent left untouched, that being Africa.

And so many of the same higher-ups of the now-defunct French East India Company got together and created the French Africa Company.

The French were more than eager to try and regain some face on the world stage. Very quickly Algeria was essentially seized without pretext, and many millions of Francs were poured in to settling the Algerian, Gold, and Ivory Coasts.

And there was no shortage of colonists. Many people in France, rather than go to work in these newfangled factories, chose instead to live out a life somewhat more familiar. The way Africa was marketed as a land of the exotic did wonders for its image in the French public’s eye.

And so France began its own little colonial ambition. Let the Bryttisc have their fetid pond they called “the Indian Ocean”. The last real untapped wealth, that lay in Africa.

1874 - 1882 AD - The last great push of Slavic nationalism. The Balkans and the greater Yugoslavic region simply erupted in violence. The rise of the nation-states had finally caught up with the old Germiyanid Empire. The last few Sultans had indeed been quite generous in their treatment toward the Balkans, however it was not enough. Only independence would serve the ends of these rebels.

And so for a period of eight years, the Germiyanids and the Hungarians were busy fighting their respective rebels. It would have remained quite the local conflict, had Lithuania had been able to keep his nose out of it. The Grand Duke wanted a port for the Lithuanian navy on the Mediterranean. This was his chance.

And so when the Grand Duke began backing the Serbs, Bulgarians and Greeks, and Lundenwic realized exactly what was going on, there was, understandably, a panic. They had to act fast.

And so they too funded (in secret) the Greeks and the Serbs and the Bulgarians, in the hopes that their support would be more appreciated than that of the Grand Duke. The Lithuanians saw right through what was going on. And they did not like one bit how the Bryttisc Empire was muscling-in on what was seen as a problem between the Sultan and the Slavs.

The final result was that war between the two colossi were avoided. With the Treaty of Palermo, Greece, Serbia, Wallachia, and Bulgaria were granted independence. Of those, only Greece would have a port on the Mediterranean, and separate treaties with the Bryttisc guaranteed that there would be no port for Lithuania.

Essentially, the Grand Duke’s scheme was foiled. He had a whole new set of allies in the Balkans, however with no port he failed to greatly tip the balance of power in the region in his favor.

This upsurge in Slavic nationalism would have far-reaching effects. The Empire had come to the brink of war, and this scared most of the detractors of Ábúfanwitenagemot in Lundenwic into changing their minds about the whole matter. Within a few years, the dream of establishing a world-spanning Bryttisc superstate would be achieved.

In the Holy Roman Empire, things had come to a head. The Holy Roman Emperor had used the German states as a means of holding his Hungarian possessions together, and this the various German princes very, very unhappy. It was not even along religious lines, it was across the board. The Princes had felt taken advantage of. The Emperor had used their resources and their manpower to resolve an issue with a separate kingdom.

1886 AD - The North German Princes would be the first to act. They declared themselves no longer bound to the Holy Roman Emperor or the Empire associated with him. Instead, they proclaimed themselves a separate “North German Confederation.”

The Imperial Civil War would last only three months, and with the capture of Budapest by North German armies, and the complete nonsupport of his south German princes, the Holy Roman Emperor was forced to recognize the separation of the North German Confederation from the Holy Roman Empire.

1890 AD - The first Ábúfanwitenagemot was opened. It met in Witanceaster, and included representatives from the three Níwelandisc “dominions” and the Bryttisc Isles. The rest of the Empire had yet to be approved for representation in the Ábúfanwitenagemot.

1895 AD - The creation of the South German Confederation. The Second Imperial Civil War lasted only six weeks, and with the signing of the Treaty of Vienna, the Holy Roman Empire was essentially disbanded. While the Holy Roman Emperor would be recognized as Emperor within the states of the South German Confederation, any and all formal power he had left was written away.

1901 AD - Death of Wilhelm V. Succeeded by his son, Wilhelm VI.


1902 AD - The formation of l’Grande Entente (referred to its detractors as “The Unholy Union,” in reference to the fact that greatly liberal France and archaically-autocratic Lithuania were the main players in it). This was formed out of the dual fear of both France and Lithuania of rising Bryttisc power.

France feared Bryten’s aggressive push into Africa, what France considered to be its own private playground. With the rumblings of Egyptian self-determination going on within the Ottoman Empire, and the Bryttisc need to maintain control over the Suez Canal, France was fearing the worst in the years to come.

Lithuania was not so much afraid so much as it was bitter that it had been defeated in its bids to challenge the Bryttisc at sea. First the failure of the Persian War of Succession, then the failure of the Balkans Wars, and one can clearly see that relations between Lundenwic and Vilnius were cold to say the least.

This creation of military alliances helped to inflame the arms race which had already been going on since the mid-1800s. With vast colonial empires to defend nations were forced to compete with each other for the deadliest technology possible for the purpose of defense. And now that France and Lithuania have pooled their military capability, Bryten naturally had to create its own system of alliances in order to make sure it was not isolated.

1903 AD - Bryten would not have to wait long. Already Hungary, Lothringen, and the two German Confederations banded together, for fear of either Russia or France. The Prime Minister of France remarked that “the Holy Roman Empire has reunited in all but name, for fear of the cockerel and the wolf.”

And so Bryten decided that now would be an opportune time to jump in and gain itself some allies. The Continental Alliance gladly accepted Bryttisc membership, and the name was changed to the Greater Alliance.

And so to Franco-Lithuanian eyes, this seemed to be an unholy alliance of Germanic peoples against Slavs and proper Frenchmen.

The consequences of this war would be felt almost immediately.

[Beorn]

1904 AD - All was not well on the Italian peninsula. Sicily and the Naples united into the Italian Republic, whereas Tuscany, Milan, the domains of the House of Savoy, and the Republic of Genoa, and La Marche had been incorporated into an ever-burgeoning Duchy of Savoy. While a fairly-open and free society, to the radical eyes in the Italian Republic, it seemed as though absolutism was pushing down from the north.

Things came to a head when the Duke of Savoy, Lodovico III had gained enough support to crown himself with the Iron Crown of Lombardy, and had himself proclaimed “King of Italy”.

This was only going to cause problems. Let’s break it down.

France had on the basis of nationalism long claimed the French-speaking areas of the Duchy of Savoy, however had remained relatively quiet about it (they’ve had a whole lot of other stuff to deal with). And yet on the Mezzogiorno side of the Italian peninsula their remained a still-hostile regime (now the Italian Republic).

Recognizing that France would only be at a disadvantage in the event of an Italian unification, there were those throughout the various legislative bodies of the Grand Alliance who supported the idea of if not joining, then at least supporting and providing with generous amounts of arms at least one side in the inevitable conflict.

Supporting the Italian Republic was out of the question. It was both too radical, and in the event of all-out war, the South German Confederation would have war on its own doorstep. And so the Greater Alliance signed a secret agreement called the Zurich Compact. It stated that the Kingdom of Italy was to be aided in the forms of arms shipments and military experts, but nothing like an alliance.

1907 AD - The Lithuanians demanded the opening of Japan to its own traders, culminating in the Bay of Tokyo incident, where Bryttisc ships fired on the Lithuanian ships attempting to enter the harbor.

The incident was played-down in both Vilnius and Lundenwic, however it set the tone for future relations between the two Empires.

1908 AD - The Republic of Prussia had no choice. Under heavy Lithuanian pressure, it turned to the North German Confederation for protection. On May 9th, 1908, Prussia was admitted as a member of the North German Confederation.

1909 AD - When war broke out over skirmishes on the La Marche border, France could only look on in horror as Italy finally made its march toward unification. That is, until France made a deal with the devil.

The Italian National Assembly (the legislative body of the Italian Republic) presented the proposal to France that all national territory of France would be granted provided victory in the war. France’s hands were essentially tied. The Kingdom of Italy had the backing of the Greater Alliance, and victory in any conflict between it and the Republic was more or less assured.

The French National Assembly sent back a counter proposal, suggesting that it send only arms and funds, and hand over Sardinia provided victory.

1910 AD - The propositions and counter-propositions flew back and forth between Paris and Naples for many months, and France was dragging its feet about entering into this conflict. The hawks in the Assembly simply didn’t have enough support to go to war. That is, until the fall of Naples on July 12th.

This was the wake up call that convinced enough of the doves to agree to full-scale conflict with the Kingdom of Italy.

Invasion began in earnest on November 3rd, 1910.Lodovico desperately cried to the Greater Alliance for assistance against the French.

On November 4th, Lithuania joined in on the conflict.

The South German Confederation, after six days, could no longer remain idle. If the French or a pro-French nation gains control northern Italy, the entire position of the Confederation is in danger. On November 9th, the South German Confederation declared war on France and Lithuania. The North German Confederation likewise voted unanimously to go to war to assist its South German allies on November 10th.

The Kingdom of Lothringen however was wary of going to war. Lothringen had a huge border with France, and would not risk going to war unless Bryttisc support was guaranteed.

On November 13th, 1910, an emergency session of the Witenagemot voted to go to war against France and Lithuania. The news was wired to Lothringen on the same day, and on the same day Lothringen went to war with France.

Hungary was the final member of the Grand Alliance to declare war, on November 14th.

The Great War had begun.

1911 AD - The War had progressed slowly in its earlier months. The South German Confederation had picked up the slack for the Kingdom of Italy in its defense of its northern borders. South German strategists contemplated an offensive from Switzerland to take control of the Bourgogne region (and thus assist Lothringen in its own push westward), and also to press toward Provence, essentially cutting-off the French army fighting in Italy.

They got their wish, and the Bourgogne Offensive began on April 7th.

With so many of their own regular army tied-up in the Alps area, France had no choice but to send unseasoned conscripts to the front lines. And while it was quite easy for the slow-moving trench warfare to be maintained by just about anybody, regardless of experience, it did mean that on the Bourgogne front France was put at a slight disadvantage

Bryten had found itself in a pickle. It had no choice but to defend the Low Countries, who of all the subjects of the Empire wanted the war the least.

General Ian Scearmann formulated a plan to present before His Majesty’s Council of War (an emergency body which had been formulated to make quick military decisions. This had only been created before during the Great European War). It involved what was essentially a three-pronged strategy. The plan was to join a new Bryttisc front to the already elongated Lothringen-South German along the Niðerlandisc border, and once the French are at their weakest, launch a dual-landing. One on the beaches of Normandy, close to the Seine, and the other just behind enemy French lines along the new “Bryttisc Front”.

The plan was accepted unanimously by the Gemot Campr?denesse.

In the east, the North Germans, Czechs, Poles, and Hungarians had little choice but to fight out the conflict on a very, very wide front. Hungary was even forced to fight a two-front war against the Serbs, thus making progress on the Lithuanian front very, very difficult. The War in the East would be a slow affair indeed.

In Italy, the war continued on, with little progress being made in the first year. The Italian Republic was considering surrender already, but was not going to give up as of yet.

Abroad, the war was a confusing matter. In Africa’s dense jungles and harsh Sahara it was impossible to fight, and so control of Africa fell upon the task of seizing a few key coastlines and ports.

1912 AD - It was during this year that trouble began for the Greater Alliance, or rather, Lothringen. Lothringen had a large amount of French-speaking peoples, even though this was clearly a German-dominated nation. The largest concentration of French-speakers? Wallonia.

And so the February Uprising took place, when the disaffected Walloons demanded the right to self-determination touted not just by the Kingdom of Lothringen, but also by the nationalist rhetoricians of the day.

This caused severe havoc on a large section of the western front, but when the North German Confederation sent in an army to deal with the problem, it was all but the end for any sort of Walloon state. At least for the next few years.

The February Uprising did serve to show the Alliance that this war was not like previous wars. This was a war that could not be sustained for long, due to its expensive, fast-paced, and, some would say, hypocritical nature.

The February Uprising encouraged a similar, copy-cat uprising in the French part of Switzerland, known as the April Rebellion. Again, this caused minimum problems, however again underscored that the war needed to be brought to a swift end.

In June great progress to that end would be made. Bryten could no longer sit by idly as the French front moved nowhere. The landings had to take place, and they had to take place now.

On June 8th the Kingdom of Aragon joined the Greater Alliance in the hopes that it would be able to gain large portions of the French colonial empire (which was set for dismemberment at war’s end)

And so it was on June 29th, 1912 AD that two amphibious landings were made, one at the Somme region and the other close to the Seine. Many back in Bryten noted the historical irony of these two invasions. It was not nine centuries previous that a Norman attempted this very same landing to destroy all that was English, and William’s reward for it was a mention of his defeat every time the great King Harold was brought up in history class, and the retention of his old moniker “The Bastard“. It seemed as though England was finally coming back to collect its dues.

The war was quite fast from this point on. The Bryttisc did not want this front to become bogged-down, which was why the second landing near Somme, whose ultimate goal was Amiens, was so important. Amiens was the command center for the French against the Bryttisc front.

The French were unable to make an effective response to this invasion. It was not so much a shortage of manpower so much as it was a shock effect of landing so uncomfortably close to Paris, the ancient capital. The city which had not been taken since Rollo the Viking had held the city for ransom.

Preliminary fortifications had already been dug by the French in anticipation of an invasion here, however with the seizure of Amiens the French leadership was thrown into confusion. All along the Bryttisc front breakthroughs were being made, and France had a genuine problem on its hands.

And so it is in times like these that all the statesmen, all the generals and all the admirals, all the royalty and their entourage must sit down and rethink their situation.

The seat of government had yet to relocate, although that was on the voting agenda on that day of July 19th.

And when Frenchmen had to be united most in their struggle against the Germanic hordes which they had found on their doorstep, they seemed to be the most divided.

“Keep up the struggle,” said some.

“To what end? We must beg for peace so as to get it on the most favorable terms,” was the common response.

The King of France was at this time more indecisive than anything else. He was simply at a loss as to what should be done. He decided that the struggle must be kept up. It was for France. His kingdom. His home. If he were to surrender, what kind of king would he be?

And so when the 2nd Army marched into Paris on August 9th, 1912, they found a city devoid of its leadership. The Parisians were almost relieved that the enemy had arrived. For them, the war was over. They could already look forward to some semblance of peace.

The King and the Assembly had all removed themselves to Nantes. But so far from the front had they fled that one by one, their generals began to surrender. Why keep up the struggle when you truly believe that all your beloved government will do is keep running away, rather than meet defeat with them?

1913 AD - On March 9th, the Kingdom of France officially surrendered. Only two-and-a-half years into the conflict, and they had been crushed, on all fronts.

The Republic and Kingdom of Italy had soon reached an understanding, and with the surrender of the Republic of Italy outright on July 4th, 1913, the Italian peninsula had been for the first time in over a millennium been unified.

On the Eastern Front, things were not looking good for Lithuania either. All of Poland had been essentially lost, and the combined German army was marching up the Baltic coast, getting uncomfortably close to Vilnius.

And so it was in the bleak September that Lithuania had no choice but to surrender. Revolts were abound throughout the Lithuanian realms, and ever since the French surrender the war had been growing increasingly unpopular.

1915 AD - The Treaty of Berlin was signed by all combatant nations. In it the French colonial empire was almost entirely dismantled, however reparations were relatively small in comparison to what they could have been. However Lithuania, in the absence of a colonial empire, was forced to pay simply enormous reparations. Along with that, all of its Polish possessions had to be ceded back to the Kingdom of Poland.

1917 AD - The “Three Germanies” as they were called, along with the Holy Roman Emperor, met at the Congress of Frankfurt to discuss their political future.

If there was anything that this war had taught them it was that their interests intersected at more junctions than they had previously thought. The distinction between them was being viewed as increasingly arbitrary. What was the difference between a North German and a South German? Or someone from Lothringen?

The champion for unification was one Karl von Habsburg, whose family had carved-out a sizeable chunk of land in the Swiss Alps. Karl held no titles in his family, and being the youngest of a cadet branch of the Hansburgs was nowhere near a title in the future. As such he had distinguished himself in the South German army, and it was he who was credited with the stunning South German victory at the Battle of Charolles. In essence, he was the unlikely hero, thrust into fame by personal action rather than birth. He was referred to as “novus homo,” a new man.

And so they all voted. The Three Germanies were to be united under one single flag. But it would not take effect immediately. There were still a few kinks to work out.

1918 AD - Kinks like what to do with Slovenia and Wallonia. These two places had been longing for their own nation, and now that 1918 had rolled around, it seemed high time for them to have it.

On January 10th they had finally decided on what to do. Wallonia and Slovenia were to be independent, however associated states. All hereditary titles in the lands affected would still belong to their respective holders, and the two governments would honor those titles.

When the clock struck midnight on February 20th, the nations of Slovenia and Wallonia had begun their existence.

On June 6th, 1918, Germany was officially united.

1920 AD - The war had been devastating for those living in the Bryttisc Low Countries. So devastating was this war to them that in 1920 one François de Witte (who ironically enough was a very distant relative of Wilhelm VI), leader of the Flemish National Party in the devolved Niðerlandisc Witenagemot, gained enough support to call a referendum on secession, despite the fact that the FNP was not the majority party in the Witan.

The issue seemed to transcend party loyalties. It was a question not of whom you voted for in the last election. It was a question on whether or not you believed that union with Bryten was good for the Flemish people.

The votes were tallied. 51% were in favor of remaining with Bryten, while 49% wanted out.

In the end, it was the fact that Lundenwic was doing its best to pull Flanders up out of the destruction wrought by the Great War that kept Flanders tied to Bryten. However, it was theorized by many that once Bryten rebuilds Flanders, there will be no more need for this union, and Flanders shall merrily go on its way.

1922 AD - The opening of the first German parliament. Many parties had tried to persuade Karl von Habsburg to un on their own ticket, however Karl wanted nothing to do with it. He had been highly involved with the nation’s administration, and saw no reason to run. “Knowing that I’m helping my country to get off its feet is enough for me,” he mused.

But it seemed as though destiny had a different fate for Karl.

1923 AD - The king of Hungary died. In the ensuing confusion ethnic tensions broke out across the country. Slovaks wanted self-determination, as did Serbs in Hungary. There was a claimant to the throne, however he found in Germany no support among the electors.

So who was chosen to be the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Germany?

All the Electors had gathered together in Frankfurt. By law, any Catholic was allowed to be nominated and elected. Anybody at all, from the lowliest to the most-entitled nobleman. Unanimously they voted that Karl von Habsburg be elected King of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor.

This was a call that Karl von Habsburg was duty-bound to accept.

And so on Christmas Day in Aachen Karl von Habsburg was crowned as the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Germany.

1924 AD - The Polish Revolution. As the turmoil in Hungary continued and the Polish economy languished, the Poles simply saw no reason to keep their ineffective monarch, and wished for their own Republic.

The Polish people arguably suffered the most in the Great War. Almost all the land that they received as reparations was war-torn and destroyed.

1925 AD - The Russian Civil War. The King of Lithuania had grown increasingly unpopular throughout his domains, and it was in the eyes of many budding young statesmen a time for change. The reparations had crippled the economy in Russia, as the lowest classes began to feel the strain of the high taxes that said reparations incurred.

To most of Russia and Lithuania’s intellectuals, the popular view of history at the time was that Russia had fallen from a great height when Lithuania took control of it. The Lithuanian kings had done nothing but use the Russian people to his own aims.

It was finally time that nationalism came to Russia.

And so on January 10th, 1925, the Republic of Muscovy was proclaimed. Messengers were sent out in all directions to proclaim the freedom of the Russian people.

This Russian Revolution was a confusing one indeed. The Republic of Muscovy was simply Republican in nature, however other propped-up governments had taken on different ideological hues. There were those seeking constitutional monarchy, those seeking a more socialist regime, and still others looking for the retention of the old order but with a new, Russian monarch.

1927 AD - The dust settles in Poland and Hungary. The King of Hungary is to recognize the sovereignty of Slovakia and Vojvodina, abdicates the title “King of Poland”, and recognizes the Polish Republic as a legitimate and sovereign government.


1928 AD - The creation of devolved Irisc and Scotisc Witans.

1933 AD - The Lithuanian king renounced his title as the King of all the Russias. Lithuania’s territory is greatly reduced.

1937 AD - The death of King Wilhelm VI. He is succeeded by his son, Wilhelm VII.

1939 AD - The policies governing Imperial management of Japan are greatly loosened. With the exception of a few exclusive-trading ports, Japan is almost entirely open to anyone who wants to trade there. With the help of a few enterprising businessmen, Japan will industrialize at a rapid pace.

1940 AD - This was a defining year for the state of the Bryttisc Empire. For the longest time the Ábúfanwitenagemot had been dominated by what were essentially white Anglo-Saxon Catholic regions of the Bryttisc state. Suðafrica had been admitted, but admittedly the voting regulations and divisions of the voting districts there were set so that black Suðafricans were disadvantaged when they went to the polls.

And the question as to what was to be done with India was a question which begged answering. It had become clear to many in both India and in the member states of the Ábúfanwitenagemot that this Empire could not be sustained forever, and that either parts of the Empire must be allowed to either leave the Empire all together, or to join the Ábúfanwitenagemot in total.

The cause of civil rights was being championed in Bryten at this time. Demonstrations across the Empire were being held. “Join or Separate!” was a common slogan for this movement.

The situation was simply unsustainable. And so the Ábúfanwitenagemot decided a new course for India.

The Princely States were to be granted wide-ranging, almost total control of their own states, however foreign policy was still to be dictated by Lundenwic. However, certain areas of India were to be given full and equal status, and given their own Witans. These were to be Gujarat, with its capital at Bombay, Calcutta, and its surrounding environs, and the Madras city-state.

This simply was not enough, however. There had to be a compromise. If India was to be truly integrated into this Imperial Federation, there needed to be some way by which this end might be accomplished. And admitting India piecemeal was simply not going to do the trick.

The issue was brought up when large areas of India (almost the entirety of Bengal included) wanted into the Imperial Federation. Bengal had been prospering under Imperial rule, and separation simply was not an option. But Bengal’s population alone was so high that it would easily outvote the Bryttisc representatives alone (even though combined the non-Indian votes would be able to outvote them).

And so when one can’t admit just Bengal into this Imperial Federation, how in the world can one admit India as a whole?

The solution to this was a restructuring of the Ábúfanwitenagemot itself.

Since its inception, it was a unicameral body. Representatives were elected according to population, and for fifty years this is how the Ábúfanwitenagemot functioned.

The restructuring called for a bicameral legislature. In one house the representatives would be elected according to population, just as it had been functioning for half a century.

In the other house however each “dominion” was to be given ten representatives, no more, no less. In order for any measure to pass the Ábúfanwitenagemot, it had to pass through both houses. In this way, the population can still be represented fairly and yet at the same time those fearing areas with high population being able to direct Imperial policy can rest knowing that this is impossible.

[Beorn]

1945 AD - Representatives from Gujarat, Madras, and Calcutta attend their first Ábúfanwitenagemot.

1946 AD - Rajputana, Bihar, and Gwailor apply to become members of the Ábúfanwitenagemot. Calcutta also applies to integrate the Imperial possessions in Bengal which had been forced outside of the Federation. The integration of India had begun in earnest. All proposals were accepted.

1950 AD - There was a counter-movement, however, of Indian nationalists who DID want complete severance from the Empire and the Federation all together. The Indian Nationalist Movement’s stated aim was the formation of a separate Indian state outside of the Bryttisc sphere. While they had been around for a long time, it was only now that they had begun to gain any real momentum.


1951 AD - This year would prove to be a pivotal year in world history, one which would come to define all years after it. The effects would be far-reaching, felt across all the earth, and still felt to this day. Indeed, 1951 would prove to be one of those events in history which reaches out across both time and space.

The Empire and Federation were going through an identity crisis. In Flanders, the separation sentiment had once again begun to pick up steam. It wasn’t because of any fault of the Bryttisc or its own government (although dragging Flanders into the Great War certainly didn’t help). It was simply because that, to many Fleming eyes, the only threat which could ever come to the Flemish nation would arrive as a direct result of Imperial policy.

In India, both the Nationalist movement and the Integrational Movement were picking up with great celerity. Given that these two movements directly opposed each other on just about every single issue, it seemed as though if a solution concerning India were not reached, then India would tear itself apart from political infighting, and many feared that this land of almost half a billion people would bring the rest of the Empire down with it

In Africa, there wasn’t any great demand for independence as of yet, although the occasional African with a degree from Oxford would get upon a pulpit and speak of self-determination, either within or without the Federation. But these intellectuals chose the wrong time to begin their quest for independence (or integration, for that matter). Currently, the African provinces were prospering. And forty years post bellum, there were now a few industrialists seeking to tap into the manpower of Africa.

This meant a lot of things. But the most important was the concept of a railway system connecting Cairo to the Cape, and one connecting the Gold Coast to Mombassa. And to the delight of these industrialists, it turns out that the construction of such a structure was not only doable, but it was doable and even profitable! Many sections of such a railway had already been completed. It was simply a matter of filling in the gaps.

But to this upswing in events in Africa, there was a dark side. The cause of civil rights, which had been championed for Indians, was slow to make its way to Africa itself.

The two-tier citizenship (which, officially, did not exist) had arisen out of a single, solitary fact: the white, European settlers were, as they had always been, grossly outnumbered by black, native Africans. And while to many, perhaps most of the white South Africans it didn’t matter the color of your skin, to many South Africans, particularly those whose ancestors had been there for a long time, the difference between allowing black Africans equal “privileges” and keeping them as second class citizens was the difference between civilization and barbarism. Christianity and barbarism. Freedom, and despotism.

Throw into all this turmoil another political issue and you have yourself a potential problem.

And that issue was called “Bryttisc Primacy”

The Federal Government (in reference to the Imperial Federation) was set up as such that it held power over all the lands across the Empire, including the Bryttisc Witan. However, the Bryttisc Witan held certain powers over all the separate devolved Witans. These were not wide-ranging powers, but they were significant. The first was that Lunden controlled all military directly. There were no autonomous militaries, and yet the various states represented within the Federation were still expected to shell out for whatever military was stationed there.

Because all military answered directly to Lunden, the power of war declaration also fell upon Lunden.

The other significant powers include the appointment of a Governor, to act as a counterbalance to the Prime Minister of the devolved Witan, and to make sure that the actions of the state in question were not contradictory to Imperial, and more specifically Bryttisc policy. The last most important power was the right of the Bryttisc Witan to impose taxes as it saw fit, which the various devolved Witans were allowed to modify by a certain percentage. (This percentage has fluctuated from time to time. Generally speaking during wartime the tax was modifiable up to ~5%, but during peacetime it was up to ~20%)

The tax power was not without its balances, however. The Ábúfanwitenagemot was free to vote on taxes as it saw fit, and any tax imposed by Lunden and repealed by Witanceaster could not be reinstituted for a four-year period, unless by agreement by Lunden and the Witan of the state in question.

Still, these issues had grown quite close to the hearts of many Federals (citizens of the Federation, as opposed to Imperials/Colonials), and by 1951 it had grown to become an issue.

Among the puppet-states of the Bryttisc Empire, things were as they had always been. The only real problems were in Japan, where many wished to further the substantial Japanese industry which had sprung up in the last century, namely through the construction of even more factories, and through the acquisition of raw materials via conquest if necessary.

And so when the Ábúfanwitenagemot was set to convene in 1955, there would be a great deal of issues which needed to be resolved.

1952 AD – The uneasy government in Russia is finally toppled. The Muscovy Republic is the first to devolve into civil war, then the Novgorod Republic is brought down with it. When Crimea makes a bid to control the last Russian ports on the Black Sea, Ukraine contemplates entering, but doesn’t even get the chance to before the very rumor of a foreign war sends the fledgling kingdom into a state of civil war.

The Kingdom of Lithuania was perhaps the only nation in the area in a position to try and help maintain peace in Russia, however its hands were tied by the Treaty of Berlin, which expressly stated that Russia was entirely off-limits when it came to military intervention.

This civil war did not immediately affect the world. Indeed, no nation would express any remorse that faraway, remote Russia was in turmoil (although some aid was sent by the Scandinavian nations to assist Novgorod, whose best interest was in keeping the Novgorod Republic both open and stable). However, the various revolutions which had broken out, which were either nationalist or communist in nature, would change everything.

1953 AD – As war raged on in Russia, new problems were beginning to develop in China. China’s old monarchy had been for the longest time supported by the European powers. Whenever there was any hint of trouble one European power or another would, in the interest of defending its own assets, rush in to save the Emperor and his kingdom.

This is not a good way to maintain control over a state.

Not a good way at all, especially when your people have near-constant exposure to dangerous outside ideas, ideas like democracy, communism, and nationalism.

And so in 1953 it came to pass that there was to be a series of revolts across China.

And this time there was no European power rushing in to stop the revolts. Quite simply, the Chinese monarchy had outgrown its usefulness to the westerners. There was no longer any burning NEED of anything from China. Sure, Europe loved its tea, and its porcelain, and it silks and other fineries, however nothing absolutely necessary came from China anymore, and if trade had to be cut off whilst China works out its problems, then so be it.

To put it bluntly, the Bryttisc Empire, and the rest of Europe, had grown a bit tired of war.

There were those in Lunden who clamored for war, saying that the interests of the Bryttisc Empire must be protected in Asia, but these simply failed to gain any large degree of support.

There were, however, individuals with other ideas in Japan.

The Japanese military had become in a very short span of time a very, very powerful one (however both outnumbered and outclassed by the Bryttisc), and there were those who sought to create in Asia a Japanese Empire. Japanese industrialists were also quite interested in gaining access to their own direct markets, rather than having to go through the Spice Islands Company.

But Lunden was firm on the matter. No. Absolutely not. Japan shall not be expanding its own borders. In no way shape or form.

Or at least, Lunden was quite firm, until one group of Chinese revolutionaries strung-up Bryttisc navy captain Marten Fiscar whilst he was in Shanghai. Or when said group of revolutionaries blew up the “Morcar,” a ship which was in port at the time.

Lunden was up in arms, but the Federation too was up in arms, mainly because each state suffered some sort of casualty with the sinking of the Morcar, from Avalonians to Niwelanders, Greater Saxons and South Africans, Australians and Indians, all suffered some sort of loss.

And so the helping Japan build an empire in Asia didn’t seem at all that bad now that China was beginning to cause problems for the Empire and Federation.

On November 11th, 1953, present with observers from all the states of the Federation, the Lunden Witenagemot resolved to supply Japan with guns, tanks, airplanes and ammunition.

The Bryttisc had no real plan, but knew that a Japanese-controlled China would be easier for the Empire to control than a Chinese-controlled China.

With only two years left before the convening of the Ábúfanwitenagemot, the Federation was beginning t divide on the various issues. Two major coalitions had begun to form. The Fascist Coalition, which believed very strongly in Bryttisc primacy as a means of efficiently executing the measures of the Ábúfanwitenagemot, and the Libran Coalition, one entirely against Bryttisc primacy and sought to make every state in the Federation equal. The Fascist Coalition derived its name from the symbol which it had used, the fasces, a symbol of strength through unity. Likewise the Libran Coalition derived its name from the symbol which it had used, the scales, to represent complete equality of all the states in the Federation.

1954 AD – In this year, the Chinese and Russian revolutions continue, and Japan has Manchuria almost entirely under its control, thanks to Bryttisc help, and a few key ports such as Shanghai are also under occupation as well. Korea, not wanting to be on the receiving end of Japanese aggression, willingly submits itself as a protectorate of the Bryttisc Empire.

In Russia, the Ukraine pulls itself out of its own civil war. Novgorod, with Swedish and Danish assistance, is able to pull through its own troubles after over two years of bitter fighting. In Muscovy however the conflict has only just begun. It is a multi-sided war, with nationalist revolutions on the Asian steppe (Kazaks, etc.), and a bitter struggle between the Russian Communist and Nationalist forces.

Japan also has begun contemplating taking control of as much of Siberia as it can possibly get a hold of as soon as the conflict is over, as a means of both gaining access to the resources there, and as a means of ending Russia’s toehold on the Pacific. This measure is met with great enthusiasm in Lunden, however the war in China is much, much more pressing.

Political tensions reach fever pitch across the empire as election results are tallied.

1955 AD – The meeting of the Fourteenth Ábúfanwitenagemot. The Fascist Coalition wins with a narrow majority.

There were many issues on the table. The issue of Flemish secession from the Federation, the issue of exactly who controls the Imperial military and who pays for it, the ever-present issue of India (almost all of the Princely States had applied to join the Federation, and there had been many appeals to end direct Imperial control over India altogether), the right of Lunden to tax Federal states, and many others.

Flanders was denied independence, however was granted near-complete control over its internal affairs (Lunden was no longer allowed to impose any tax on Flanders, a small victory for the Librans).

The Princely States of India were allowed entrance into the Federation in their entirety. The advantages of being a part of the Federation simply outweighed the rather paltry disadvantages, which were lack of direct control over own military, and that they were subject to taxation by Lunden.

It had been noted, particularly by the Libran Coalition, that the Indian Nationalist Movement, which sought to establish a separate extra-federal Indian state had the most support in sections of India outside of the Princely States, the sections of India under direct Imperial control.

The Libran Coalition understood fully that if most of India was to remain under direct Imperial control, then slowly but surely the Indian nationalists would take control, and chances are it would result in violence. The revolutionary fervor which had plunged China and Russia into utter darkness, and was beginning to take hold of such places as Romania, Hungary, the Germiyanid Empire, and Siam, was now beginning to show through in the rhetoric of prominent Indian nationalists.

The Great Indian Debacle as it was referred to would keep the Ábúfanwitenagemot debating for a full month, with a total of 15 voted being taken before a measure was finally pushed through which would end all direct Imperial control over India (except over a choice few key ports) by 1957. This measure would seal India’s fate, and mark a new chapter in the Great Subcontinent’s history.

The next great item on the agenda for the fourteenth Ábúfanwitenagemot was the issue of Lunden’s right to impose taxes on the Federal states. And while these taxes were greatly adjustable, they were still taxes imposed by a legislative body not representative of the people who are being taxed.

An agreement was reached whereby any tax imposed on a foreign state must be imposed as well on all states of the Federation (the practice beforehand had been to impose a Federal Tax on certain areas of the Empire). In addition the tax could be repealed at any time with a 3:1 majority in the devolved Witan of the relevant state, except in times of war, where Federal defense depends on the tax revenue.

To further regulate taxes, the Ábúfanwitenagemot had to review the Federal tax plan at every meeting, in its entirety. In addition, the Ábúfanwitenagemot was to convene during the midterm (2.5 years), strictly to review Federal Tax Policy.

As for the control of the military, the Fascist Coalition held, unanimously voting down any proposal that there be autonomous militaries for each of the states.

The 14th Ábúfanwitenagemot closed, with just about everybody happy. Compromises were made which would come to define the Federation and the world for the rest of the century.

On June 6th, 1955, the first direct communications satellite was launched. Soon it would be possible to see any event in any part of the globe live on television. (Author’s Note – Because the “first age of globalization” had never really come to a close as a result of OTL’s WWI, and because there had yet to be an ensuing Great Depression, combined with the fact that there was no Cold War as such has led to the flourishing of communications technologies. OTL’s analogue to this technology, the Telstar, would not be launched until 1962.)

In Asia, most of coastal China had been taken over by Japan and the rest by revolutionaries of varying shades. It now seemed high time to end the conflict, however in the face of such success Japan was reluctant to pull the plug on the operation.

That was, until Bryten threatened to pull the plug on oil shipments, which was needed to sustain momentum. Japan had no choice. Its own oil reserves were miniscule, compared to the vast reserves at the disposal of the Federation. Japan tried to get its oil from Mexico and various other countries (who would have been able to provide enough oil to allow Japan to sustain the conflict), however supplying oil to Japan was just too hot diplomatically. Not to mention that it would violate outright the years of friendship between the Bryttisc and Japanese nations.

Russia continued to boil over in civil war, however it had become clear that the communists would win. And it had also become clear that the Asian steppe, too, would be free of Russian rule for the first time in centuries.

1956 AD – The Germiyanid Empire erupts into civil war, as Turkish nationalists seize the capital, Arab nationalists seize their respective territories, and the Germiyanid royal family is forced to flee to, of all places, Greece. The implosion of the Germiyanid state can be chalked up mostly to the rise of Arab nationalism, chronic corruption within the government itself (which meant that oil revenues went to rich Turks in Constantinople rather than the Arabs who retrieved the oil), and a counterpart Turkish nationalist movement, which sought to redefine the Germiyanid state.

At the same time, Wallachia and Moldavia unify as Romania. Hungary is wracked with civil unrest, with calls for greater democracy in Budapest, and calls for secession from Transylvania.

1957 AD – The end of direct Imperial control over India. India is carved up among various Princes. With the impetus for the Indian Nationalist movement gone, the INP was largely made unimportant in Indian politics. However, the Indian Integration Movement would very shortly begin to utilize the sometimes-despotic rule of the Princes to their advantage.

Meanwhile, communist victory in the Muscovy Republic was attained. The Muscovy Republic was officially renamed the Socialist Republic of Russia. Japan concluded the Treaty of Wuhan with various Chinese states, and the war in Asia was mostly over.

The King of Hungary and claimant Holy Roman Emperor is forced to make drastic reforms in order to keep his realm together.

Japan wishes to wage a continuation war with Russia for control over its Siberian territories, however both the Japanese higher-ups and Lunden are tired of supporting military adventurism.

Or at least, East Asian military adventurism. Lunden was happy to support the ongoing rebellions in the Germiyanid Empire through more secretive channels. After all, Bryten needed to make sure that these new political entities soon to emerge were on friendly terms with the Federation, so as both to secure Middle Eastern oil, and the Suez Canal.

1958 AD – The final sections of the Cape-to-Cairo and Mombassa-to-Accra railways are completed in this year. The major hub for all these railways is Mombassa, and it does not take long before Mombassa is referred to as the “Hub of Africa”.

The completion of the railway marks the beginning of a period of rapid industrialization and urbanization of Africa, which will force great changes on the continent and the people thereof. With the complete severance of both Russia and (until recently) China from European investors, Africa had attracted a glut of industrialists looking to tap into Africa’s natural resources and large labor force.

1959 AD – There are rumblings in Indonesia of potentially joining the Ábúfanwitenagemot, however there are too many internal squabbles to make it a reality at the Fifteenth Ábúfanwitenagemot, such as how to structure a state with so many different ethnicities, no common pre-colonial heritage or language, where the capital ought to be, etc. etc.

1960 AD – The Fifteenth Ábúfanwitenagemot convenes. Minor business compared to the last meeting.

Wilhelm VII died in 1960. He is succeeded by his second son (Wilhelm VIII had died as a prince many years back) Ian I (Ian is, by the way, the closest Englisc approximate to “John”).

1961 AD – Troubles in the Middle East largely end. The Germiyanids are allowed to return as purely symbolic figures, and Georgia, Armenia, and the Arab rebels all attain independence.

While cozying-up to the Arab revolutionaries did assist the Bryttisc Empire in maintaining a strong presence in the new Middle East, these new, independent Arab states served as inspirations to the growing number of Arab nationalists who had cropped-up in Bryttisc Arabia.

And like their Indian counterparts, these Arab nationalists were a little less than interested in the prospect of becoming a part of the Federation.

1963 AD – Tensions in South Africa reach fever pitch. Sections of Gáralandbúend are burned to the ground in the Ndebele Riots of 1963, so named for the young boy Leofwine Ndebele. Leofwine Ndebele was killed in an act of police brutality, which sparked riots all across South Africa.

In Lunden it was quite clear that something had to be done concerning the problem of race relations in South Africa.

1964 AD – Many of the new Indian Princely States were clamoring for admittance into the Ábúfanwitenagemot. These motions were quite popular, as a return to the near-despotism of Princely rule was not looked on favorably by the Indian people, who were used to Imperial laws and regulations, which had given them rights as subjects of the Empire. These rights, however, were not guaranteed under the satellite states run by the Princes.

1965 AD – The meeting of the sixteenth Ábúfanwitenagemot. The two major issues which were dealt with were the admittance of Indonesia into the Ábúfanwitenagemot, and the issue of exactly what was going on in South Africa.

Concerning Indonesia, it was certainly not an easy battle for admission. According to the laws, the admission of Indonesia would require that there be ten new representatives be added to represent Indonesia when the Ábúfanwitenagemot meets. This should not have been a problem, however many mistakenly felt that it would be like giving the Indians an extra ten representatives.

In the end Indonesia was to be granted admission into the Ábúfanwitenagemot, with the capital at Singapore. Exactly how much territory was to be granted to Indonesia still needed to be worked out, hence the reason why Indonesia could not be admitted until 1967. Many were in favor of only taking in Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, and Borneo, and yet others still wanted all the islands between Annam and Australia, along with Formosa and the St. Vincent Isles/Antonines (OTL Philippines).

South Africa had become quite a problem, and it had become clear that the current administration was incapable of doing anything about its own situation and that this issue had to be resolved by the highest authority in the Federation.

It wasn’t simply a problem in South Africa. It was in the Niweland states and Australia as well (albeit to a much, much smaller degree). However in the end the Federal and Imperial Civil Rights Act was passed through the Ábúfanwitenagemot.

1966 AD – Aden is returned to the Sheikh of Yemen, for the first time since 1825.

1967 AD – Indonesia is admitted into the Ábúfanwitenagemot. All islands between Southeast Asia and Australia would make up the state, and the Antonines would be a sub-state of Indonesia for a total of ten years, whereupon a plebiscite would be held to determine the status of the Antonine people. Formosa was to remain under direct Bryttisc control.

1968 AD – A busy year in Asia. The Siamese Empire devolved into ethnic infighting. Siam called on Bryten for aid. Indeed with Bryttisc aid the kings of Siam had brought almost all of Southeast Asia under their heel, barring a weak Annamese state and Burma. But there was not enough support in Lunden to get involved with a state that wasn’t even officially associated with the Empire and Federation.

The last few Indian Princes were forced to apply for admission into the Federation. It was the logical conclusion of Bryttisc imperial rule, which had created a well-to-do non-royal class of Indians whose prosperity had begun to take a dive when the direct imperial rule had ended. Couple this with the fact that the membership in the Federation meant near-complete independence in and of itself and joining the Federation was the only natural option.

1969 AD – A second wave of Chinese revolutions occurs, these with no particular ideology except that if there HAD to be a despot ruling over them, it had damned well be a Chinese despot and not a Japanese emperor sitting content far from all the troubles in China.

The Federation refused, this time around, to support Japan in its struggle. It simply had a lot more to deal with internally than it once did, not to mention the fact that supporting Japan in imperial ambitions just wasn’t as popular with the public as it once was.

In this same year, Arab nationalist demonstrations occur across Bryttisc Arabia. On occasion these demonstrations would go from peaceful protests to dangerous riots. Twelve Bryttisc Army officers were killed in Riyadh riots.

In 1969, the Crimean state collapsed due to infighting (not to mention the fact that it didn’t really have a strong national identity in the first place). The Russian Socialist Republic descends upon Simferopol, and it is conquered outright.

1970 AD – The 17th Ábúfanwitenagemot. The major issues tackled were the admission of the rest of India as a part of the Federation, and exactly what was to be done with Arabia.

India was admitted in full. There was no reason not to. Indians were already a part of the Federation, and they would gain no additional representatives in the Second House (the House where representatives aren’t based on population), and their entrance would serve only the strengthen the Federation, both militarily and economically.

However, there really was quite a stir over Arabia.

On the one hand, the Arabs had clearly shown a desire for self-determination, a desire which was respected by the Federation’s highest institutions. On the other, the Bryttisc controlled a huge, huge, huge portion of the world’s oil so long as Arabia remained in Bryttisc hands.

The ensuing debate was nothing less than a political bloodbath, with death threats and accusations of being in bed with Arab nationalists/big oil being exchanged by both sides. Perhaps the most memorable quote came from one Marten Smiþ: “The right to self-determination is a constant for everyone—no matter how much oil they sit on top of.”

Indeed, it seemed as though the Ábúfanwitenagemot would not be able to reach an agreement. However, the decision was finally reached to grant independence to Nejd. The thinking was that either the Arabs will break off the Bryttisc Empire on relatively-friendly terms, or they will find a sympathetic ear for their cause in Russia, or France, or Spain, or anybody else for that matter.

1971 AD – Japan loses much ground in China, being beaten back to Manchuria and a few coastal cities.

1972 AD – Nejd is proclaimed a Republic, and with the form of government decided on independence was granted. All direct Bryttisc control over Arabia officially ends (except Bahrain, which is maintained as a base for the Bryttisc Imperial Navy).

1973 AD – Japan is forced to sign a peace treaty, handing over all their Chinese lands except Manchuria.

Now that the Japanese are gone, China finds itself divided. The most prominent among these is the Guangzhou Republic, a mildly successful state formed with the signing of the Treaty of Wuhan. Less prosperous but more vast was the Socialist States of China. The less-developed internal portions of China had made the adoption of Communism only natural.

Mongolia (which had gained independence in the Russian civil war) had swelled to become a very large state during the turmoil of the Chinese Revolution and the ensuing Japanese invasion. And even further to the west, motivated by the revolutions of various other East Asian people, Sinkiang had proclaimed itself its own independent republic. Tibet continued to remain a political island, safe on its lofty plateau.

In the north, stretching from Beijing to Shanghai was the newly-formed Chinese Republic, ruled by a weak provisional government and run largely by various strongmen.

But these conditions made the Chinese Republic ripe for outside influence.

The Socialist States of China knew that the Chinese Republic was economically devastated, first by the Chinese Revolutions, then the Japanese Invasion, then the Second Chinese Revolution. These conditions meant that it was entirely feasible that the Chinese Communist Party’s Chinese Republic branch could very well gain enough clout in Beijing to unify the Socialist States of China with the Chinese Republic. With so much of China under its control, it wouldn’t be long before the Guangzhou Republic cracked, and all of China would be united under the Red banner.

And the Guangzhou Republic was well aware of all this.

What would ensue would be a political battle for the ages, a battle which would determine the fate of China.

Meanwhile, in Africa, African nationalist movements were finally gaining some steam. Africa had greatly industrialized over the last twenty years, and now had the economic means of standing on its own two feet. And the Africans had begun to notice: particularly, those in Mombassa, the economic hub of all Africa.

And thus, things could only get worse when Mauritania was granted independence by Aragon in that year. And when Mozambique was granted independence by Portugal things could only get worse. Much worse.

1974 AD – Ian Ng’ethe, a Mombassa native, champions the independence of Africans, making fiery speeches up and down the Cape-to-Cairo and Accra-to-Mombassa railways.

1975 AD – The 18th Ábúfanwitenagemot. The problems of Africa could not and would not be addressed in Witanceaster, because the African colonies were under the jurisdiction of Lunden. It was an Imperial, not a Federal, problem and thus the Federation could not do anything about the matter.

Instead, most of the meeting was spent discussing the more mundane matters of running a superstate, such as Federal taxes, the Federal budget, etc. etc.

Indeed, Europe (excepting the Russian Revolutions, and the minor Romanian-Hungarian Conflict in 1957) had been at peace since the end of the Great War in 1915. That’s 60 years of peace, the longest stretch of time without any kind of European conflict in a very, very long time.

Of course, things were beginning to take a dive in many countries.

The problem lay in the Balkans, and Eastern Europe in general. These countries were languishing in ineffective government and such conditions often set the tone for effective yet dangerous regimes.

But aside from general corruption and a lack of prosperity, there was no sign that things could ever become heated. Sure, Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia squabbled over who owned Istria. And yes, Bulgaria was perennially arguing with Turkey as to who owned Western Thrace. And it was only to be expected that the Serbs would bicker with the Bosniaks and the South Serbia and Vojvodina as to who owns what.

In this year, Burma was granted independence from the Bryttisc Empire.

1976 AD – The Serb Republic of Bosnia officially declares war on the Bosniak Republic. Serbia backs up the SRB. The Bosniaks appeal to Croatia for help, as there were various Croat communities scattered throughout Bosnia. Croatia accepts.

Slovenia takes the opportunity to press its own claims on Croatia, and after being refused Slovenia allies itself with the SRB and Serbia. Slovenia is allied to Germany, but Germany at the behest of Bryten stops short of actually sending troops, and instead sends military strategists, materiel, and begins an program targeted at convincing Slovenes in Germany to enlist in the Slovenian army.

Beyond this, the war was largely contained. Bulgaria contemplated assisting Serbia, in return for a guarantee that Serbia would turn around and assist Bulgaria in the seizure of Western Thrace, however the plan, proposed by the Bulgarian government, failed to materialize into any formal measure.

In this year, the Bryttisc Empire places a man on the moon.

1977 AD – In Lunden, the Emancipation of African Colonies Act had finally been pushed through Witenagemot. In a nutshell, it set a deadline for self-government in Africa, through a process of gradually phasing out old colonial institutions and replacing it with African governments (themselves largely taking on the structure and framework of said colonial institutions). The deadline for the independence of half the colonies? 1985.

After the establishment of an independent government, the new state would hold a plebiscite as to whether to join the Federation or to remain outside of the Federation entirely.

What was non-negotiable (at least until 1995) was the emerging states’ participation in the “Pan-African Free Trade Agreement”. PAFTA was designed to maintain the free-flow of goods and people which had existed under the Imperial system.

Speaking of plebiscites, the Antonines voted to remain as a sub-state of Indonesia, with its own Witenagemot. The relationship between Indonesia and the Antonines is akin to the relationship between England and Scotland, with many powers devolved to the Antonine Witenagemot.

1978 AD – The Republic of China adopts a formal Constitution. The Communist Party of China was unable to gain enough ground to topple the Provisional Government, although the Communist Party remained a strong force in RC politics.

1979 AD – Treaty of Vienna was negotiated to end the fighting in the Balkans. The only thing that had brought them all to the table was the threat of a German “peacekeeping mission” to end the conflict in the Balkans.

In it, Croatia agreed to cede all claims to Istria, in return for the Livno State of the Bosniak Republic, among various other border adjustments.

The Treaty called for the creation of a “Pan-Balkans Congress” to promote dialogue between the various ethnic groups in that region. By the end of 1979, all Balkans states agreed to participate in such an international body. Until a proper meeting place could be agreed upon, Nuremburg was to be the meeting place of the Pan-Balkans Congress, which was to meet every five years.

1980 AD – The 19th Ábúfanwitenagemot. Again, minor business dealt with.

The status of all the Caribbean islands was finally clearly-defined. Previously they had been territories of Greater Saxony, and now they were to be “Federal Territory,” until a plebiscite was held as to their status. That they would constitute a new state in the Ábúfanwitenagemot was a foregone conclusion, the question was whether the Caribbean Territories would be admitted as a single state or whether they would admit themselves as separate states.

1981 AD – In the wake of the Balkans Wars and the turmoil in China, Germany (and, more specifically, the Holy Roman Emperor) calls for an international summit to determine how best to help maintain global peace.

1982 AD—The Federation agrees to allow the summit called for by the Holy Roman Emperor to be held in Calcutta.

1984 AD – The Calcutta Summit is held, with a meeting of most of the world’s leaders (or representatives of them), to discuss the maintenance of peace in the global community. It was a very fruitful summit, with many issues having been aired and grievances settled.

The Holy Roman Emperor called for the establishment of a “Global Congress” (inspired by the Pan-Balkans Congress), an international organization dedicated to the promotion of peace and diplomatic discourse. Even with the idea in its infancy, Germany, Bryten, France, Spain, Portugal, Aragon and Italy were already onboard for such an idea.

1985 AD – The Emancipation of African Colonies Act’s deadline was met. A second set of deadlines was set for the rest of the Empire’s African territories, which was 1993.

This year marks the meeting of the 20th Ábúfanwitenagemot.

1986 AD – Meeting of the first Global Congress.

1988 AD – Italy finally gives in to the pressure to let go of its own North African territories. Italy had been, much like Bryten had, sitting on top of a rather large quantity of oil in Libya, and it was for this reason that no independence was granted until so recently.

1990 AD – Meeting of the 21st Ábúfanwitenagemot. The major issue tackled here was, once again, control of the military. Many had felt that it was unfair that the military be solely governed by London, and that there was no Federal army. Or autonomous armies for the states, for that matter.

But despite strong calls for the formation of a Federal army, nothing was done. Lunden would remain in control of its Imperial Army.

1991 AD – Death of Ian I. Succeeded by his son, Ian II.

1993 AD – The second deadline for the Emancipation of African Colonies Act was met. Except for Bryttisc Gold Coast and Bryttisc Linnea (Linnea is roughly OTL’s Nigeria, named after the Linnea River, OTL’s Niger River)

1994 AD – Portugal, under immense international pressure, grants independence to the Congo.

1995 AD – The meeting of the 22nd Ábúfanwitenagemot.

1996 AD – Bryttisc Gold Coast and Bryttisc Linnea are granted independence. This year, to most historians, marks the official end of the Bryttisc Empire (although it is popular among many historians to argue that the end, or at least the beginning of it, of the Empire came with the 14th Ábúfanwitenagemot, which had laid the groundwork for a strong Federation and a trend of self-determination among the various peoples of the Empire)

1997 AD – The end of one-party rule in Russia. The beginning of the Russian Democratic Republic.

1998 AD – The collapse of the Socialist States of China. It had simply no means of competing with the more prosperous Chinese Republics along the coast.

1999 AD – The Japanese pull out of Manchuria. Manchuria is made an independent country.

The Republic of China, the Guanzhou Republic, and the Former Socialist States of China all agree to unification. China is reunited for the first time since 1953, under a democratic government.

2000 AD – The meeting of the 23rd Ábúfanwitenagemot.

2003 AD – The breakup of the Duchy of Lithuania into Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia.

2005 AD – The meeting of the 24th Ábúfanwitenagemot.

2007 AD – The present day.

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