A More Personal Union

[Razgriz 2K9]

If it wasn't for the time period, I'd complain of pedophilia. O_O

But Henry Alexander...probably the first time I've seen an original name if there ever was one.

[Thespitron 6000]

Originally Posted by Razgriz 2K9

If it wasn't for the time period, I'd complain of pedophilia. O_O

OTL Rudolf never married; it has been speculated that he was gay. I think it would be entirely in character for him to make a marriage he probably wouldn't have to consummate. He was kind of a weird guy.

[Thespitron 6000]

September 1588: Ferdinand of Uceda delights his father and his court when he announces that his wife, Carlotta Maria, is expecting their first child. Philip is sixty-one, increasingly an old man, and he wants grandchildren, both to secure his succession and to temper his Machiavellian son. In his old age, Philip is growing sentimental, mourning the loss of his son Carlos, and disapproving of Ferdinand’s attempts to meddle in government instead of fathering children. He’s long had a tendentious relationship with his second son, seeing Ferdinand as a busybody who sticks his nose in where it doesn’t belong, but Ferdinand’s forcefulness of personality exceeds even his own, and over the years, as he grows more frail, Philip has reluctantly turned over more and more of Spain’s governance to his son. By now, Ferdinand is king in all but name, a fact which Philip resents, but the impending birth of his first grandchild mollifies the King of Spain somewhat.

[Thespitron 6000]

Winter 1588 - 1589: Spanish ships attempt to block the Strait of Gibraltar to Alliance shipping, stating their concerns about piracy. “It is a truth, in these days, that the common pirate doth make a disguisement upon himself by the flight of flags of such kingdoms as Denmark, England, Scotland, and France,” writes Ferdinand in a letter to Elizabeth Tudor, “while this practice be unknown for flags of Spain or Portugal.” Pretext or no, this is a clear act of aggression, tantamount to war, and Elizabeth and Henri are outraged, but once more Charles VI steps in and gets Ferdinand to rescind his orders. “Brother, I like it not that you ape the Miles Gloriosus, to your detriment, I believe, and loose your sword in its scabbard, such that you might draw down the wrath of Mars himself upon you,” writes Charles to Ferdinand. “Our alliance is drawn up with a watch posted for defense, and not for offensive actions as such. If you continue to bite your thumb towards the English, in such a manner as to bring war, then you stand alone, for let no man say I make war; let every man say I make peace.”

Momentarily chastened, Ferdinand backs down. Without Imperial help, he does not have a second front for the French to fight upon, and his whole endeavor will founder. Still, he’s not about to let the Alliance members go about their business unmolested. Isn’t the whole point of the Catholic League to stem the tide of Protestant revolution? And Charles does not seem particularly committed to that cause. Ferdinand fails to recognize Charles’s very real need to assuage the fears of his Protestant nobles, and that means conciliation towards the Protestant nations. Charles is more concerned with peace than Catholic preeminence; while he will go to war in the event of unprovoked aggression, his political position is much weaker than it appears from the outside, and Ferdinand’s saber-rattling does not sit well with him. For the moment, however, Charles’s level-headed diplomacy has won the day.

[Derekc2]

I have the feeling Ferdinand will eventually start his war and the Holy roman Emperor will tell him to go screw himself and allow the french to destroy the Spanish in war...again.

[Massa Chief]

Charles VI is the official boss of Late Renaissance diplomacy.

[Thespitron 6000]

1589: “The Last Good Year”

Europe lies quiet. A pall hangs over the continent, nervous energy building up behind the scenes, in courts and private chambers. Weapons are churned out of foundries and smithies at an ever increasing rate. Monarchs beggar themselves in foreign loans to stockpile arms for a war that may never come, but seems increasingly likely. Rude castles and other fortifications spring up along borders where Alliance and League rub shoulders uneasily.

In January, Henri le Cyclope celebrates his twenty-fifth birthday. The boy who once was relegated to the sidelines by powerful women all too eager to manipulate and use him has become the leader of an alliance of states that holds the future of Europe in its hands; the boy who was once belittled as a bastard and a cripple now is held by many as a paragon of masculine virtue, a reviver of chivalric virtues thought forgotten, the father of a healthy son and the continuer of dynasty well into the seventeenth century.

Ferdinand of Uceda turns twenty-six in February. Dark, brooding, at home only when piloting his small pleasure yacht alone around the ponds and lakes of Asturias, he dreams of a war to purge the continent of hated heresy and to throw down his despised nemesis, his cousin Henri. He has been balked at every turn by the changing vicissitudes of European politics, but decades of neglect by his father and defeat at home and abroad have taught him patience. He will have his war, one way or another.

In March, Catherine d’Medici, the last link to the France of old, passes from this Earth, largely forgotten by the world she did more than virtually anyone to create. She is not mourned by her grandson, although her remaining children--Charles, the increasingly frail Duke of Provence; Henri, Duke of Orleans; Elisabeth, Queen of Spain; and Marguerite, Queen of Denmark--each take a brief moment to mark the passing of their mother. It is, in many respects, the end of an age.

In May, Carlotta Maria, Princess of Asturias, gives birth to a healthy baby boy. His father names the child Ferdinand, after himself.

The Navarrese found the settlement of Henriviela on the east coast of Malagasia in June; they almost immediately come under attack from natives, sparking a brush war that will last twenty years.

The summer months are dominated, at least in the Caribbean, by the name Drake. Francis Drake and his son Henry are the terrors of the waves, now in command of eight ships and sinking more. In June they raid Cape Verde, burning the town; in July their ships attack a fleet of Spanish galleons low in the water with silver from the New World; in August they hit Portuguese slavers bound for the docks of Santo Domingo. They transport the slaves to St. Brendan’s and freedom, then return to their rapacious ways in the fall.

October brings the death of Elizabeth Tudor’s long-time favorite, Robert Dudley, who dies of stomach cancer. Dudley leaves a mixed legacy--his help in forming royalist alliances was key to putting down the abortive rebellions in Ireland, but the death of his first wife, Amy, lead many to believe he had murdered her--but he is sincerely mourned by most who knew him. Survived by his second wife, Frances, and their two-year-old son, also called Robert, Dudley is keenly missed by Elizabeth, who in her grief for her perennial “Eyes” allows Frances to return to court, having been banished for the temerity of marrying the Queen’s favorite. This also marks a reconciliation between Frances and her father, the Queen’s spymaster, who had counseled against the marriage. Dudley’s death paves the way for his position to be assumed by the dashing Sir Edward Cromwell, a veteran of wars in Ireland, who quickly becomes a dominating presence at court.

The same month, the Dutch Republic makes it a crime to be a Catholic priest, and one punishable by death to be a Jesuit. Two Spaniards, suspected of being Jesuit priests, are hung in Amsterdam; the Spanish government protests, but, after the snubbing they received from the Empire the previous winter, do nothing else. Ferdinand remembers the incident, however, and saves it as a mark in the ledger against the Republic that must be repaid.

November comes, and with it heavy rains across the south of England. Elizabeth Tudor, walking the corridors of Whitehall, watches as rivulets of rain trickle down the tall windows, and feels every day of her fifty-six years. “It is a harder rain than this that comes,” she says, and nods to herself. Everything seems to balance on a precipice to her, and she thinks of her father, and his final days, bloated and tended by nurses and his wife, as courtiers prowled, circling like jackals and seeking to commandeer a future that was as delicate as a butterfly emerging from its cocoon. She thinks of those days and shivers; the days were evil.

It is the last days of the last good year.

[Derekc2]

And Ferdinand naming his son after him returns the unoriginality of European royalty.

[Thespitron 6000]

February 1590: Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, is taking a walk in his snowy gardens when he collapses in extreme pain. His attendants are quick to rush him inside, and get him to bed, but despite the best care from his doctors he rapidly worsens. The stress of decades of maintaining the peace in Europe has left him prematurely aged, and left him vulnerable to infection--in this case, to Helicobacter pylori. Ferdinand and his shenanigans have given the Emperor an ulcer, which for months has secretly eaten away at Charles’s stomach lining. Now his stomach has been perforated, and gastric bleeding has set in, as well as peritonitis. His doctors do the best they can, but medical science is very limited. He lingers for two weeks in agony, before at last he is released from his pain. The Holy Roman Emperor is dead at the age of 49.

[kellineil]

Oh crap, here we go

[Xgentis]

I wonder who will become the next emperor of the HRE. Will Elizabeth Tudor officially make Henri le cyclope her heir?

[Razgriz 2K9]

Charles VI, the only man capable of holding two men with egos the size of Europe apart is dead...

...EVERYBODY, raises your guns, pikes, bayonets and ships. It will be a killingly good ol time, eh?

[Xgentis]

Originally Posted by Razgriz 2K9

Charles VI, the only man capable of holding two men with egos the size of Europe apart is dead...

...EVERYBODY, raises your guns, pikes, bayonets and ships. It will be a killingly good ol time, eh?

Bayonets? What is that?

[Razgriz 2K9]

Originally Posted by Xgentis

Bayonets? What is that?

Fine, raise something that's long sharp and pointy...let's kill some Spaniards.

Is it wrong that I have some idea of a peace should one side win?

[Xgentis]

Originally Posted by Razgriz 2K9

Fine, raise something that's long sharp and pointy...let's kill some Spaniards.

Is it wrong that I have some idea of a peace should one side win?

I can see the HRE going to pieces for good. But I am certain that the next war will go on for a few years.

[Yorel]

Ferdinand of Uceda wants a war and the only man that ever managed to stop him, Emperor Charles VI, is now dead... When will the powder keg explode and where will the spark come from?

Also wondering who is going to succeed Charles VI as HRE... Probably his son if he has one.

[Xgentis]

Originally Posted by Yorel

Ferdinand of Uceda wants a war and the only man that ever managed to stop him, Emperor Charles VI, is now dead... When will the powder keg explode and where will the spark come from?

Also wondering who is going to succeed Charles VI as HRE... Probably his son if he has one.

If he get ellected and that is not sure yet.

[Thespitron 6000]

Originally Posted by Yorel

Ferdinand of Uceda wants a war and the only man that ever managed to stop him, Emperor Charles VI, is now dead... When will the powder keg explode and where will the spark come from?

Also wondering who is going to succeed Charles VI as HRE... Probably his son if he has one.

Charles's oldest son, Maximilian, is twelve.

[The Duke of Waltham]

Originally Posted by Xgentis

Bayonets? What is that?

Why, it's a new type of ship, of course!

[naraht]

Just curious, other than the real possibility that St. Brendan's will come under attack, how will War affect Drake? Does he raise the English Flag? Will *that* make a difference to how the Spanish/Portuguese would treat him should he be captured? (probably not) Would the English government be willing to put additional ships under his command?

The scary thing is that Drake is probably *more* of an irritation to the Spanish Government ITTL than in ours.