Not to take away from it, but I was reading a bit of your 'Harlot' TL and I know you either abandoned it or are just focusing on this, but I got a question that's killing me. As a fan of old prestigious monarchies myself (something of a romantic Monarchist) especially the Capets, and Arapads. Do the Tusculums survive into the modern age in your TL even as a branch of a branch family? Or are they meant to just be the Capets and Arapads; Makers more than shakers of nations as it were. Sorry for pivoting.
It's not abandoned, but rather on hiatus. I'm focusing on this TL for now, but I have write-ups for future updates in SotHE. As for your question, I'm afraid I don't know - at best, I only write/contemplate a few decades in advance, and I have never really considered whether the family would survive that long in any form. Most royal dynasties aren't so lucky to last 1000+ years, although since by 1100 in that TL the Tusculani have intermarried with a variety of other royal and noble families it might be a fair bet that
someone in the modern age can trace their ancestry back to Alberic. IIRC I mentioned something about the Hungarian noble house of Oktávján being a long-lasting presence in Hungarian history, who are male-line (but illegitimate) descendants of Constantine I of Tusculum through John Aureus.
I wonder if the Corsicans will receive a von Steuben/Valley Forge sort of training in the near future?
The thing about von Steuben was that he represented a rare opportunity - it's not every day you get an offer of free help from an aide-de-camp to Frederick the Great, who isn't just a combat officer but a highly qualified quartermaster and trainer too.
There aren't too many shining stars among Theodore's foreign troops; Drevitz is competent, but no genius. We will, however, be introducing a few more newcomers shortly, including some of Theodore's old Scottish/Irish Jacobite buddies who were a sort of stateless military class at this point in the 18th century, floating around between various Catholic royal courts.
To clarify, the purple in the map is French occupied, right?
The Blue/Purple is "French or Franco-Genoese occupation," as contrasted with Red, which means that only the Genoese have a presence there.
Is there a word missing here? It feels like it.
Fixed, thanks.
The Genoese, meanwhile, act like dumb twats, forcing French troops to perform garrison duties across all held territory.
You know, I really do try not to make caricatures. Sometimes people are incompetent, sometimes states are dysfunctional, but I usually don't like it when a country in a TL just seems to blunder continuously. This TL is not intended to be some kind of Genoa-screw. When you read the history of the rebellion, however, the scale of ineptitude and failure beggars belief. The stubbornness, vindictiveness, and stupidity of the Genoese administration cannot be overstated.
Every chance at peace or resolution the Genoese got during
decades of rebellion was utterly squandered, and the Senate demonstrated that it could (and would) snatch defeat from the jaws of victory at every opportunity. To give just one not-yet-mentioned example, at one point (in the 1740s IIRC) the rebellion had died down somewhat until a new General-Commissioner arrived and blithely re-instituted the
due seini, the
exact same tax that had triggered the revolt in 1729 in the first place. It's simply unbelievable; fiction can't compete.
You have, at this point, a completely enervated and demoralized army with personnel of the lowest quality. Their gormless officers are almost completely without experience or training, minor gentry who in many cases acquired their position by virtue of finding enough warm bodies to fill a company. The crisis of recruiting is so bad that the Archbishop offered to allow new recruits to eat meat during Lent as an incentive to enlist, and even the men who do sign up frequently demand written contracts saying they won't be sent to Corsica. The Republic's Corsican soldiers have a decent reputation but they can't be trusted to fight on their home soil, so what remains are the Ligurian peasants who were luckless or stupid enough not to get out of Corsican service; the absolute dregs of Europe, foreign soldiers who deserted from other armies in the last war and who serve Genoa in lieu of starving; and the remains of the "company of bandits," literal brigands and released criminals who have been pressed into the regular army as an alternative to prison or hanging. The only other companies of any worth are the Swiss/Grisons companies, or at least those that survived the debacle at San Fiorenzo, and since Mari knows they're the only ones he can trust he's placed them on garrison duty at Calvi and Ajaccio to guard against the perfidious French.
There is very little reason for such an army to stand and risk their lives against the "savage" Corsicans, especially now that the Corsicans seem to be as well-armed as they are, and particularly since the signal which Mari seems to be sending is that "fighting" is supposed to be the job of the French anyway. The result is that Genoese units, poorly led, poorly supplied, and filled with deserters, criminals, and unenthusiastic peasants, excel only at looting and have very little motivation to actually fight. Not for no reason did Genoese "tactics" basically devolve to brigandage around this time.
At this point, it seems that bankruptcy is still the most dangerous enemy of Theodore, rather than any enemy commander or force. Lose Balagna, lose any hope of replenishing materiel and munitions.
It's not
quite so bad as that, because even without the Balagna there are still some productive provinces (i.e. the Nebbio) and ports/coasts to bring in more munitions (San Fiorenzo, Bastia, the coast of Aleria). The Corsican guerrilla war dragged on well into 1740 despite having no control over the coasts whatsoever, and without any arms from the "syndicate fleet" of 1738. Losing the Balagna is bad, but it doesn't immediately cripple the rebellion. The bigger worry would be if the northeast falls as well, because that means the loss of all rebel ports and the entire northern olive-growing region, to say nothing of the psychological loss of the Genoese capital, Bastia.
