Just asking, without the raid on Bremerhaven, would the Imperial fleet have supported the Dutch if Henry had invaded anyway? The Triple Monarchy should still be take over Burgundy, though this will the offset by the alienation of the Germans and Henry's faiure to see things through in Arles.
An Age of Miracles: The Revival of Rhomanion
- Thread starter Basileus444
- Start date
- Status
??? He has done the exact opposite, He is intervening to support (and conquer) the french part of the kingdom, which is not happy at all with their "dutchfied" king.
While it's idiotic to challenge Germany, it's only natural once you decide to attack Lotharingia. In the short term Germany may have trouble seeking revenge given that it must contain the russian counteroffensive.
The Castille-Portugal union was a long time coming, interesting that bit about Navarre, the consequences could be interesting
B444,
A very good update...so,are you paving the way for an eventual absolute monarchy in Russia? Megas Rigas with the revenues of Siberia? Yes,the proceeds might be small now,but later?...
A very convoluted turn of events in the west;why do I smell the makings of another thirty years war which will have a very different result from that in 1648 OTL?
A very good update...so,are you paving the way for an eventual absolute monarchy in Russia? Megas Rigas with the revenues of Siberia? Yes,the proceeds might be small now,but later?...
A very convoluted turn of events in the west;why do I smell the makings of another thirty years war which will have a very different result from that in 1648 OTL?
The 'Glorious Tenth of August' has given Henry a great deal of prestige, in the Triple Monarchy. The Triunes' complete and utter disregard for the rights of neutrals and xenophobic tendencies is copied and pasted directly from OTL. The English kings had a lot of trouble with English privateers attacking neutral shipping and ruining their diplomacy, but the English people didn't care because it was 'dirty foreigners' being robbed. Of course, they weren't so blase when the Barbary corsairs started trolling Cornwall...
But the Triple Monarchy definitely has issues with foreign countries trusting them, and this does not help.
The Triumvirate is trying to use marriage alliances as a way of expanding influence and power, as opposed to Andreas Niketas-style conquest. It is a good idea, but one with a potential to backfire. The official name of World War I (tentatively scheduled for 1630) is the War of the Roman Succession.
Unfortunately in history, the bad guys and the jerks don't always get their comeuppance.
TTL will be no different.
The Komnenoi still in the Empire are either distant, distant cousins of the Imperial line or descended from one of Theodoros IV's or Andreas' numerous daughters. The most prominent of them is Princess Theodora Komnena Drakina, great-granddaughter of Andreas via Theodoros 'the Zookeeper' and Helena and Alexeia Drakina, great-great-granddaughters of Andreas Niketas via an illegitimate daughter he had with a camp follower from Messina.
In terms of Imperial line, male-descent, Komnenoi, one has to look outside of the Empire proper, where they rule as Despots of Egypt, Sicily (from Zoe, Andreas' favorite sister and the one present at the Black Day), Arles, and Mexico. Plus there are the Khomeini of Persia.
Word of God: If the 'Glorious Tenth of August' had not taken place and the German fleet at Bremerhaven was intact, it would have supported the Dutch. In that case, the Royal Navy would be outnumbered and outgunned and in a hard position.
From a purely military standpoint, the attack was a good idea, but not diplomatically. The closest analogy is Pearl Harbor, although the Germans aren't as incensed as the Americans. They want revenge, but not necessarily the annihilation of the Triple Monarchy (although they wouldn't mind).
Russia's setup isn't as good as it appears. The central government is weak and while Siberian revenues aren't anywhere near enough to match say Great Pronsk, the zemsky sobor doesn't have anywhere near that kind of power. Basically it has very strong regional governments, a weak central authority, and a weak king but one much better placed than the zemsky sobor to expand his power. Russia will have lots of constitutional trouble in the future.
The events along the Rhine aren't the setup for a TTL 30 Years' War. I am setting up a rough equivalent to the OTL French-English rivalry between the Triple Monarchy and the HRE. Without a Lotharingian buffer state, the two are guaranteed to bump heads.
But the Triple Monarchy definitely has issues with foreign countries trusting them, and this does not help.
The Triumvirate is trying to use marriage alliances as a way of expanding influence and power, as opposed to Andreas Niketas-style conquest. It is a good idea, but one with a potential to backfire. The official name of World War I (tentatively scheduled for 1630) is the War of the Roman Succession.
Unfortunately in history, the bad guys and the jerks don't always get their comeuppance.
TTL will be no different. The Komnenoi still in the Empire are either distant, distant cousins of the Imperial line or descended from one of Theodoros IV's or Andreas' numerous daughters. The most prominent of them is Princess Theodora Komnena Drakina, great-granddaughter of Andreas via Theodoros 'the Zookeeper' and Helena and Alexeia Drakina, great-great-granddaughters of Andreas Niketas via an illegitimate daughter he had with a camp follower from Messina.
In terms of Imperial line, male-descent, Komnenoi, one has to look outside of the Empire proper, where they rule as Despots of Egypt, Sicily (from Zoe, Andreas' favorite sister and the one present at the Black Day), Arles, and Mexico. Plus there are the Khomeini of Persia.
Word of God: If the 'Glorious Tenth of August' had not taken place and the German fleet at Bremerhaven was intact, it would have supported the Dutch. In that case, the Royal Navy would be outnumbered and outgunned and in a hard position.
From a purely military standpoint, the attack was a good idea, but not diplomatically. The closest analogy is Pearl Harbor, although the Germans aren't as incensed as the Americans. They want revenge, but not necessarily the annihilation of the Triple Monarchy (although they wouldn't mind).
Russia's setup isn't as good as it appears. The central government is weak and while Siberian revenues aren't anywhere near enough to match say Great Pronsk, the zemsky sobor doesn't have anywhere near that kind of power. Basically it has very strong regional governments, a weak central authority, and a weak king but one much better placed than the zemsky sobor to expand his power. Russia will have lots of constitutional trouble in the future.
The events along the Rhine aren't the setup for a TTL 30 Years' War. I am setting up a rough equivalent to the OTL French-English rivalry between the Triple Monarchy and the HRE. Without a Lotharingian buffer state, the two are guaranteed to bump heads.
its 56 years in the future as of 1574. honestly, that would match up well with the current Empress's probable death. question is: who will get the throne? Russia? Hungary? i cant think of many nations that has a realistic chance of owning all of Rome, even on paper.
one thing is for certain: it may be damaging to Rome. Again. thus forcing a period of recovery and reforms and certain strain. Again. you'd think they'd get tired of it...
One would think that there were such things as states that avoided having crisis, strain, and needing reforms to deal with the consequences.
Frankly, from the standpoint of "shitty things happen", Rhomania is still in the category of states doing quite well - and not just for y'know, continuing to exist.
Frankly, from the standpoint of "shitty things happen", Rhomania is still in the category of states doing quite well - and not just for y'know, continuing to exist.
The Roman Empire could afford to stagnate a little. i dont know what B444's final borders would be, but if its smaller than it is now, then they obviously stagnated a lot at some point, cause i dont think they can get any larger.
Great wars are the price of being great powers, and Rhomania cannot afford to not be a great power. Witness OTL. The First World War will reflect that, in contrast to the Time of Troubles which was largely brought on by succession crises and pointless persecution of the Muslims.
"Why are all Triunes so ornery?"
"The food."-Excerpt from Thessaloniki comedy, c. 1620
1575: The progress of the Triune armies is staggering. By the end of 1574, virtually all of Burgundy, the Franche-Comte, and Lorraine is in Henry’s hands. The fortress belt guarding the Dutch lands is in pieces after the capitulations of Calais, Arras, and Lens, and a major victory has been won at Douvrin, leaving almost a thousand Lotharingian dead on the field. One of those left on the field for dead is Captain Wilhelm Sebastian von Blucher, a nobleman from Mecklenburg-Schwerin, but he is discovered by a cavalry patrol and lives.
There are a great many Germans serving in the Lotharingian armies, and it is clear that the war in the west is of far greater import to them than the war in the east. Henry is not just attacking Lotharingian territories; his troops have sequestered the sovereign bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun as well. Troops belonging to the Archbishop of Cologne have exchanged fire with Triune columns.
In response, Friedrich, King of the Romans, has marshaled seven thousand Bavarians and Tyrolese in the Lower Palatine while a Reichsarmee twice that size mustered from the Westphalian and Lower Saxon Reichskreise is coalescing at Mainz. It tastes blood soon, for the Duke of Cleves has chosen to side with Emperor/King Henry in exchange for supporting his dynastic claims to Julich and Berg.
Placed under the Imperial ban, the Reichsarmee, commanded by Landgrave Johann of Hesse-Kassel, overruns the territory of Cleves and sends the Duke fleeing westward. Ambushed and killed by Utrecht militia, the Duchy passes into the hands of his three-year-old son.
The destruction of the Duke is pleasing to Emperor Wilhelm, since Cleves was one of the more prominent non-electoral Imperial princes and a political opponent. But the manner is not nearly as palatable. The swift, victorious campaign has brought a great deal of prestige to the Landgrave, head of the ancient, venerable House of Guelph, the family with the greatest chance of wresting the imperial diadem from the Wittelsbachs.
The other ingredient in the sour taste in Wilhelm’s mouth is caused by a far greater Imperial Prince, Pope Alexander VI, formerly Manfred von Hohenzollern. When the Papacy had originally relocated to Mainz during the reign of Emperor Frederick III, the Imperial line had viewed it as an opportunity to place the popes in their pocket.
That was a hundred years ago. For the first half of that century, the plan unfolded more or less as the Holy Roman Emperors desired. The besieged Papacy provided powerful financial, moral, and administrative support in the Imperial cause in exchange for continued protection. The new Knights Templars had been valued servants of the Emperors in their diverse realms, helping the House of Wittelsbach to become absolute rulers in Bavaria, Schleswig-Holstein, and their minor territories (the large exception is Saxony and Brandenburg, where Wittelsbach absolutism is impeded by the terms of the Act of Transference).
However now the Papacy is acting like an Imperial Prince, and given its unique position it is well suited to lead the princes in opposition to Imperial programs. The numerous minor ecclesiastical states follow the Pope’s leadership largely without question, although the Archbishops of Trier, almost a dynastic possession of the House of Habsburg, and those of Cologne are not always cooperative.
With the money and prestige at his disposal, the lay realms are also inclined to listen to the Pope. The assembly of the Reichsarmee at Alexander VI’s Mainz, plus the twelve hundred men and three months’ worth of supply and pay he provides for the entire army, give him an exceedingly unwelcome influence over the currently most powerful army in Germany.
In the east, the war is getting more difficult. Logistics in the interior of Russia are a flat impossibility; the Kiev and Novgorod offensives had blown out the armies despite their tremendous success. The Zemsky Sobor in Vladimir is out of range of the allied armies, but still capable of mustering the manpower of Great Pronsk and the Tatar and Kalmyk peoples of the Volga basin. By this point too interest payments on his war debts are consuming close to a quarter of his yearly income. With a tidal wave of low-interest Roman loans flowing north, the Russian exchequer is in better shape than his own.
Although Ioannes Laskaris brought with him several military advisors, mostly the cashiered tourmarches and strategoi of the eastern tagmata, Josef Stalin is unquestioned commander of the Russian armies. During the war, he had in the east, despite having only a miniscule fraction of the Russian regular forces available, crippled the resurgent power of the White Horde with the help of Uzbek allies. In the cavalry war waged after the fall of Novgorod, he has by far had the better of the exchange.
As a result the loss of the Hungarian hussars is especially painful, as Buda withdraws from the war. Apostolic Emperor Andrew VI Hunyadi would much rather march his troops into the rich lands of northern Italy, continuing an old Arpad tradition, than duel over the vast stretches of Scythia that he has little chance of holding. After the success of the first offensive, his heart had never been into the war; not one man of the Black Army, the elite corps of the Hungarian military that is the equal of any Roman tagma, has left the frontiers of the Hungarian Empire.
Italy, ravaged after nine years, is a juicy target. King Andrea Visconti, giving up on restoring all his lost territories, has decided to cut his losses. The Republic of Genoa regains its independence, including the ownership of Corsica, although its Ligurian hinterland is truncated. It is the first serious crack in the League of Arezzo (the Piedmontese rebels had never counted for much) but not enough to lever the advantage to the side of the exhausted Lombards.
Nevertheless the Commune of Siena, originally the heart of the League, is seriously strained. The rigors of war have weakened the city’s control of the Tuscan plain, particularly boisterous Firenze (Florence). The chief mainstay of the League now is the Duchy of Latium, the Colonna Dukes leveraging their control of the alum mines of Tolfa into serious economic and military power. Twenty two hundred Castilian mercenaries form the disciplined core of their army.
Meanwhile nine times that number have crossed the Pyrenees, the first significant Castilian foreign initiative since Andreas the Little Megas annihilated their army at Selinus in 1462, unless one counts the brief sputter that was the Grand Alliance of All Spain. But the kings of that land have not been idle over that last century. The development of Castilian industry has enriched the country, although it as best should be described as not-poor. The regiments of Castilian manhood that have fought in all the major and most of the minor wars of the west have kept Castilian military thought and armament fully up to date.
The Kings have also substantially consolidated their control over the land, curbing their over-mighty nobles both with their gunpowder armaments and enforcing their attendance of the monarchs at the El Escorial. The petermen organized to oversee saltpeter production during the Gunpowder Crusade have developed into a class of royal officials educated at the University of Toledo, implementing a tax system that weighs heavily on the peasantry but does not leave the nobility or clergy untouched.
The Palace of the Escorial, seat of the Kings of Castile. The grandees of the realm were required to spend at least 6 months of each year here, and noble children 9 months.
The taxes and customs receipts finance a small regular army backed by a formidable artillery train, which is supported by the Santa Hermandad. Meaning Holy Brotherhood, it is a direct derivative of the medieval institution and functions both as a police force answerable only to the crown and a reserve force for the army. Drilled by army officers and kept to the same standard of discipline, they are a powerful force.
The army, under the command of Francisco de Toledo, Duke of Merida, rendezvouses with King Leo Komnenos and his fourteen thousand men. Marching east the joint armies confront King Rene and his twenty six thousand troops at the village of Auvillar, on the pilgrim road to Compostela. Merida sets up his command post in a pilgrim hostel.
May 31 is a clear, sunny day, the light breeze carrying the roll of the cannon far and wide. The Castilian artillery, outnumbering Rene’s almost five to three, has adopted the Roman method of carrying prepackaged containers of powder and shot, enabling them to maintain a rate of fire faster than their arquebusiers.
Still the onslaught of Rene’s Provencal knighthood routs the bulk of Leo’s troops, save for two thousand that stand firm around his person. Vexed but unconcerned, Merida orders the Hermandad contingents to refuse their line. Commanded by the young Duke of Alba, they hold their ranks against almost double their number of Provencal horse and foot, pulverizing their columns with precise volleys of fire. On the right the Castilian artillery breaks up Rene’s flank, through which Merida sends two thousand heavy cavalry spearheaded by the Knights of Santiago. The Provencals shatter; the contingent which had been pursuing Leo’s Gascons returns in time to be annihilated.
The battle, commencing at 10 in the morning, is effectively over by three in the afternoon. Rene’s household troops retire in good order, but he has lost half his artillery and a third of his baggage, plus five thousand casualties (3500 are prisoners taken in the rout). Merida and Leo took eleven hundred, two third of those Leo’s.
Auvillar has exceedingly bad timing in Emperor Henry’s point of view. The brilliant successes of the past year have stalled in the Flemish countryside, whose peasantry are annoyingly well-armed. To the south, Friedrich has been raiding into Franche-Comte with some success with support from the Swiss cantons, and the Bernese League is demanding an indemnity for its neutrality.
At sea the picture is also getting worse. Earlier the Royal Navy had scored victories over the Lotharingian fleets at Wissant and Blankenberge, but that has been repaid at Briel. Fifteen ships out of sixty two were sunk or captured, with over three thousand casualties. The Dutch took half of that. Meanwhile from Dunkirk pours forth waves of privateers, taking prizes all along the shores of the Triple Monarchy (helped in the Irish Sea by the Lord of the Isles and their large galley fleet).
The Battle of Briel. Despite a slight disadvantage in hulls and an almost three to two disadvantage in heavy guns (the shallow Dutch coasts hampers the building of large warships) the skilled maneuvering of the Dutch fleet enabled them to fall on the isolated Triune rearguard and largely obliterate it.
Counter-waves of privateers usher forth, mostly from the West Country and the Cinque Ports, and true to the traditions of their ancestors they are not particular about the rights of neutrals, despite attempts by Henry to restrict their activities. The Royal Navy is powerful, but their support is still needed.
On August 10, eight Roman merchantmen are passing Guernsey loaded with cargoes of Roman silk, jewelry, and spices. Bound for Denmark for Baltic naval stores (Rhomania gets most of what she needs from internal sources, but Baltic timber is preferred for the masts of the great ships). A large English privateer squadron, twenty hulls strong, attacks them.
Unfortunately for them, the large Roman armaments industry and its cheap cannons makes it easy for Roman merchantmen to run heavily armed, and three of the ships are classed as ‘merchant reserve’ by the Roman government. Ship and cannon taxes are waived and customs dues lowered, and in exchange the crews are required to maintain a certain level of armament and proficiency in their use and can be called up as naval auxiliaries when needed by the Imperial fleet.
One of those ships is the Minotaur, one of the largest ships in the known world, displacing 1550 tons. The other merchantmen, ranging from 300 to 700 tons, look like ducklings to her mother duck, and they flock to the protective frown of her thirty heavy and seventy small guns. Her first broadside, double-shot and delivered at sixty yards, dismasts the 450 ton Pelican from Bristol and leaves her sinking from half a dozen forty and thirty-two pounder shots in her waterline (three of Minotaur’s four gun masters are Roman naval veterans).
That brings the pirates up short for a moment, but they know that Roman ships heading east in this part of the world means rich cargoes so they keep up the attack. The terrible cannonades of the Minotaur keep them at bay for the rest of the day, although the other ships help. The wreck of the Courtesan from Cherbourg falls away from the action over a quarter of her crew as casualties from snipers posted in the rigging of the Hermes.
However by three in the afternoon the Roman powder is almost expended. A brief reprieve is granted when three Hansa ships blunder into the fight, two of which are captured. At 3:45 the Minotaur’s mizzenmast falls, damaged by shots from the Courtesan. The captain, acting as admiral of the squadron, tells the other ships to scatter.
The Minotaur attempts to distract the Triune ships, but with only 10% of its powder remaining and practically immobile, the efforts are ineffective. By morning five of the eight Roman ships have been captured, including the Minotaur. The sixth is taken by a Dunkirk privateer off Ushant. The other two make it back to the Mediterranean, although one of them is taken by a pair of Algerian corsairs (incidentally commanded by a French and English renegade). The value of the captured cargo is equivalent to a sixth of London’s custom receipts for 1574.
"Why are all Triunes so ornery?"
"The food."-Excerpt from Thessaloniki comedy, c. 1620
1575: The progress of the Triune armies is staggering. By the end of 1574, virtually all of Burgundy, the Franche-Comte, and Lorraine is in Henry’s hands. The fortress belt guarding the Dutch lands is in pieces after the capitulations of Calais, Arras, and Lens, and a major victory has been won at Douvrin, leaving almost a thousand Lotharingian dead on the field. One of those left on the field for dead is Captain Wilhelm Sebastian von Blucher, a nobleman from Mecklenburg-Schwerin, but he is discovered by a cavalry patrol and lives.
There are a great many Germans serving in the Lotharingian armies, and it is clear that the war in the west is of far greater import to them than the war in the east. Henry is not just attacking Lotharingian territories; his troops have sequestered the sovereign bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun as well. Troops belonging to the Archbishop of Cologne have exchanged fire with Triune columns.
In response, Friedrich, King of the Romans, has marshaled seven thousand Bavarians and Tyrolese in the Lower Palatine while a Reichsarmee twice that size mustered from the Westphalian and Lower Saxon Reichskreise is coalescing at Mainz. It tastes blood soon, for the Duke of Cleves has chosen to side with Emperor/King Henry in exchange for supporting his dynastic claims to Julich and Berg.
Placed under the Imperial ban, the Reichsarmee, commanded by Landgrave Johann of Hesse-Kassel, overruns the territory of Cleves and sends the Duke fleeing westward. Ambushed and killed by Utrecht militia, the Duchy passes into the hands of his three-year-old son.
The destruction of the Duke is pleasing to Emperor Wilhelm, since Cleves was one of the more prominent non-electoral Imperial princes and a political opponent. But the manner is not nearly as palatable. The swift, victorious campaign has brought a great deal of prestige to the Landgrave, head of the ancient, venerable House of Guelph, the family with the greatest chance of wresting the imperial diadem from the Wittelsbachs.
The other ingredient in the sour taste in Wilhelm’s mouth is caused by a far greater Imperial Prince, Pope Alexander VI, formerly Manfred von Hohenzollern. When the Papacy had originally relocated to Mainz during the reign of Emperor Frederick III, the Imperial line had viewed it as an opportunity to place the popes in their pocket.
That was a hundred years ago. For the first half of that century, the plan unfolded more or less as the Holy Roman Emperors desired. The besieged Papacy provided powerful financial, moral, and administrative support in the Imperial cause in exchange for continued protection. The new Knights Templars had been valued servants of the Emperors in their diverse realms, helping the House of Wittelsbach to become absolute rulers in Bavaria, Schleswig-Holstein, and their minor territories (the large exception is Saxony and Brandenburg, where Wittelsbach absolutism is impeded by the terms of the Act of Transference).
However now the Papacy is acting like an Imperial Prince, and given its unique position it is well suited to lead the princes in opposition to Imperial programs. The numerous minor ecclesiastical states follow the Pope’s leadership largely without question, although the Archbishops of Trier, almost a dynastic possession of the House of Habsburg, and those of Cologne are not always cooperative.
With the money and prestige at his disposal, the lay realms are also inclined to listen to the Pope. The assembly of the Reichsarmee at Alexander VI’s Mainz, plus the twelve hundred men and three months’ worth of supply and pay he provides for the entire army, give him an exceedingly unwelcome influence over the currently most powerful army in Germany.
In the east, the war is getting more difficult. Logistics in the interior of Russia are a flat impossibility; the Kiev and Novgorod offensives had blown out the armies despite their tremendous success. The Zemsky Sobor in Vladimir is out of range of the allied armies, but still capable of mustering the manpower of Great Pronsk and the Tatar and Kalmyk peoples of the Volga basin. By this point too interest payments on his war debts are consuming close to a quarter of his yearly income. With a tidal wave of low-interest Roman loans flowing north, the Russian exchequer is in better shape than his own.
Although Ioannes Laskaris brought with him several military advisors, mostly the cashiered tourmarches and strategoi of the eastern tagmata, Josef Stalin is unquestioned commander of the Russian armies. During the war, he had in the east, despite having only a miniscule fraction of the Russian regular forces available, crippled the resurgent power of the White Horde with the help of Uzbek allies. In the cavalry war waged after the fall of Novgorod, he has by far had the better of the exchange.
As a result the loss of the Hungarian hussars is especially painful, as Buda withdraws from the war. Apostolic Emperor Andrew VI Hunyadi would much rather march his troops into the rich lands of northern Italy, continuing an old Arpad tradition, than duel over the vast stretches of Scythia that he has little chance of holding. After the success of the first offensive, his heart had never been into the war; not one man of the Black Army, the elite corps of the Hungarian military that is the equal of any Roman tagma, has left the frontiers of the Hungarian Empire.
Italy, ravaged after nine years, is a juicy target. King Andrea Visconti, giving up on restoring all his lost territories, has decided to cut his losses. The Republic of Genoa regains its independence, including the ownership of Corsica, although its Ligurian hinterland is truncated. It is the first serious crack in the League of Arezzo (the Piedmontese rebels had never counted for much) but not enough to lever the advantage to the side of the exhausted Lombards.
Nevertheless the Commune of Siena, originally the heart of the League, is seriously strained. The rigors of war have weakened the city’s control of the Tuscan plain, particularly boisterous Firenze (Florence). The chief mainstay of the League now is the Duchy of Latium, the Colonna Dukes leveraging their control of the alum mines of Tolfa into serious economic and military power. Twenty two hundred Castilian mercenaries form the disciplined core of their army.
Meanwhile nine times that number have crossed the Pyrenees, the first significant Castilian foreign initiative since Andreas the Little Megas annihilated their army at Selinus in 1462, unless one counts the brief sputter that was the Grand Alliance of All Spain. But the kings of that land have not been idle over that last century. The development of Castilian industry has enriched the country, although it as best should be described as not-poor. The regiments of Castilian manhood that have fought in all the major and most of the minor wars of the west have kept Castilian military thought and armament fully up to date.
The Kings have also substantially consolidated their control over the land, curbing their over-mighty nobles both with their gunpowder armaments and enforcing their attendance of the monarchs at the El Escorial. The petermen organized to oversee saltpeter production during the Gunpowder Crusade have developed into a class of royal officials educated at the University of Toledo, implementing a tax system that weighs heavily on the peasantry but does not leave the nobility or clergy untouched.
The Palace of the Escorial, seat of the Kings of Castile. The grandees of the realm were required to spend at least 6 months of each year here, and noble children 9 months.
The taxes and customs receipts finance a small regular army backed by a formidable artillery train, which is supported by the Santa Hermandad. Meaning Holy Brotherhood, it is a direct derivative of the medieval institution and functions both as a police force answerable only to the crown and a reserve force for the army. Drilled by army officers and kept to the same standard of discipline, they are a powerful force.
The army, under the command of Francisco de Toledo, Duke of Merida, rendezvouses with King Leo Komnenos and his fourteen thousand men. Marching east the joint armies confront King Rene and his twenty six thousand troops at the village of Auvillar, on the pilgrim road to Compostela. Merida sets up his command post in a pilgrim hostel.
May 31 is a clear, sunny day, the light breeze carrying the roll of the cannon far and wide. The Castilian artillery, outnumbering Rene’s almost five to three, has adopted the Roman method of carrying prepackaged containers of powder and shot, enabling them to maintain a rate of fire faster than their arquebusiers.
Still the onslaught of Rene’s Provencal knighthood routs the bulk of Leo’s troops, save for two thousand that stand firm around his person. Vexed but unconcerned, Merida orders the Hermandad contingents to refuse their line. Commanded by the young Duke of Alba, they hold their ranks against almost double their number of Provencal horse and foot, pulverizing their columns with precise volleys of fire. On the right the Castilian artillery breaks up Rene’s flank, through which Merida sends two thousand heavy cavalry spearheaded by the Knights of Santiago. The Provencals shatter; the contingent which had been pursuing Leo’s Gascons returns in time to be annihilated.
The battle, commencing at 10 in the morning, is effectively over by three in the afternoon. Rene’s household troops retire in good order, but he has lost half his artillery and a third of his baggage, plus five thousand casualties (3500 are prisoners taken in the rout). Merida and Leo took eleven hundred, two third of those Leo’s.
Auvillar has exceedingly bad timing in Emperor Henry’s point of view. The brilliant successes of the past year have stalled in the Flemish countryside, whose peasantry are annoyingly well-armed. To the south, Friedrich has been raiding into Franche-Comte with some success with support from the Swiss cantons, and the Bernese League is demanding an indemnity for its neutrality.
At sea the picture is also getting worse. Earlier the Royal Navy had scored victories over the Lotharingian fleets at Wissant and Blankenberge, but that has been repaid at Briel. Fifteen ships out of sixty two were sunk or captured, with over three thousand casualties. The Dutch took half of that. Meanwhile from Dunkirk pours forth waves of privateers, taking prizes all along the shores of the Triple Monarchy (helped in the Irish Sea by the Lord of the Isles and their large galley fleet).
The Battle of Briel. Despite a slight disadvantage in hulls and an almost three to two disadvantage in heavy guns (the shallow Dutch coasts hampers the building of large warships) the skilled maneuvering of the Dutch fleet enabled them to fall on the isolated Triune rearguard and largely obliterate it.
Counter-waves of privateers usher forth, mostly from the West Country and the Cinque Ports, and true to the traditions of their ancestors they are not particular about the rights of neutrals, despite attempts by Henry to restrict their activities. The Royal Navy is powerful, but their support is still needed.
On August 10, eight Roman merchantmen are passing Guernsey loaded with cargoes of Roman silk, jewelry, and spices. Bound for Denmark for Baltic naval stores (Rhomania gets most of what she needs from internal sources, but Baltic timber is preferred for the masts of the great ships). A large English privateer squadron, twenty hulls strong, attacks them.
Unfortunately for them, the large Roman armaments industry and its cheap cannons makes it easy for Roman merchantmen to run heavily armed, and three of the ships are classed as ‘merchant reserve’ by the Roman government. Ship and cannon taxes are waived and customs dues lowered, and in exchange the crews are required to maintain a certain level of armament and proficiency in their use and can be called up as naval auxiliaries when needed by the Imperial fleet.
One of those ships is the Minotaur, one of the largest ships in the known world, displacing 1550 tons. The other merchantmen, ranging from 300 to 700 tons, look like ducklings to her mother duck, and they flock to the protective frown of her thirty heavy and seventy small guns. Her first broadside, double-shot and delivered at sixty yards, dismasts the 450 ton Pelican from Bristol and leaves her sinking from half a dozen forty and thirty-two pounder shots in her waterline (three of Minotaur’s four gun masters are Roman naval veterans).
That brings the pirates up short for a moment, but they know that Roman ships heading east in this part of the world means rich cargoes so they keep up the attack. The terrible cannonades of the Minotaur keep them at bay for the rest of the day, although the other ships help. The wreck of the Courtesan from Cherbourg falls away from the action over a quarter of her crew as casualties from snipers posted in the rigging of the Hermes.
However by three in the afternoon the Roman powder is almost expended. A brief reprieve is granted when three Hansa ships blunder into the fight, two of which are captured. At 3:45 the Minotaur’s mizzenmast falls, damaged by shots from the Courtesan. The captain, acting as admiral of the squadron, tells the other ships to scatter.
The Minotaur attempts to distract the Triune ships, but with only 10% of its powder remaining and practically immobile, the efforts are ineffective. By morning five of the eight Roman ships have been captured, including the Minotaur. The sixth is taken by a Dunkirk privateer off Ushant. The other two make it back to the Mediterranean, although one of them is taken by a pair of Algerian corsairs (incidentally commanded by a French and English renegade). The value of the captured cargo is equivalent to a sixth of London’s custom receipts for 1574.
The Triunes have learned nothing from history, it seems. These are the very same mistakes that led to the Thirty Years War.
So, will Rhomania declare war on the Triunes, using it indirectly to put Leo Komnenos on the throne?
Also, were the Romans at the end using a TTL East Indiaman? That's like 200 years ahead of schedule!
EDIT: So how's the efforts against the Corsairs going? Iberians saber-rattling against each other again?
EDIT2: Leo's lackluster performance at war is somewhat troubling. We need a stellar leader to lead the Arles-Aragon Union, dammit!
EDIT3:
So, will Rhomania declare war on the Triunes, using it indirectly to put Leo Komnenos on the throne?
Also, were the Romans at the end using a TTL East Indiaman? That's like 200 years ahead of schedule!
EDIT: So how's the efforts against the Corsairs going? Iberians saber-rattling against each other again?
EDIT2: Leo's lackluster performance at war is somewhat troubling. We need a stellar leader to lead the Arles-Aragon Union, dammit!
EDIT3:
This part confuses me. Does this mean that the galley fleet is full of easy prey?
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The Triple Monarchy needs the privateers though, because the Royal Navy, while powerful, isn't enough. Look at OTL Elizabethan England, for example Besides, every nation with privateers will face these kind of problems. Henry should end the war now, though. He's pretty much got what he wanted, territorialy.
No he hasn't, not yet. He wants all land to the west of the Rhine and north of the Pyrenees.
Which is why he needs to swing back towards Arles. No one said he had to reach the Rhine in one war. The Triunes already hold Burgundy and Lorraine; maybe they can take Alsace, but they're definitely not going to reach the Left Bank. Having a friendly Arles to the south is much more beneficial long term to Henry if the Triple Monarchy and HRE or going to be bumping heads for the next few decades.
Henry doesn't seem like the type to think through things. After all he did invade attack the Holy Roman Empire for no reason.
B444 already stated it: If the Triunes allowed the Imperial fleet to join the Dutch, they'd be screwed. The only way to prevent that would have been never to declare war on Lotharingia in the first place, but that would probably have been improbable, considering the current political climate in the Triple Monarchy.
Are the Triunes arrogant? Defintely. Xenophobic? Sure. Horrible foreign policy? Yup. But that doesn't mean that they have to be geopolitically inept. If Leo wins, Henry ends up in the same situation that his father and grandfather faced in the 30YW, but now plus a pissed off HRE(although a weakened Lothariniga). And Rene's already promised Henry that Arles will revert to Plantagenet rule if there's no male heir. Now obviously we know that won't happen, but based on the current state of the war, Henry should just hold on to whatever he's taken and refocus on the Arletian conflict.
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