1495 part 2
Apologies for the day off chaps! Was recuperating! Here is a stonker of an update; I have crammed a lot of stuff in!
Exploration in the Age of York, J Slight 2014
1495 was a defining year in Yorkist involvement in the new world. Sir Robert Chatham set sail for Norland in spring with a fleet of 12 ships and the people to establish a colony in Norland under the command of James St Leger, a respected west country gentry who nonetheless as a second son elected to take his chances in the new world. Chatham retraced his steps from the previous year and arrived in New Norfolk and founded a small trading post at St Barnabus (Halifax OTL). Beyond the name and location it is hard to discern much about the settlement in the early years; there does not seem to have been a permanent population and the most convincing explanation is that it was used as a convenient watering station, and certainly that Chatham engaged in fishing around this coast.
Moving further south, Chatham arrived at Jordanstown (Boston) and founded the first European settlement in Norland for nearly 500 years. Jordanstown was chosen for its sheltered harbor and friendly locals, who it seems continued to be cordial into 1496. St Leger and his group of around 600 colonists established a town on the southern tip of the harbour with a palisade, homes and of course a Church. The surviving royal writs for Jordanstown record that its aim was mostly trade. Society of Merchant Venturers records also show that limited amounts of furs and unusual vegetables (including potatoes) were brought back from the 1495 expedition.
With the colony established Chatham took around half of the ships south to map the Norland coastline and test the theory that it and the Columbias were two distinct land masses. He recorded numerous inlets and small islands along the coast and made notes as to their viability for settlement. His greatest triumph came in early August when the small fleet was driven inland by a storm; Chatham gave it the rather pious name of Calvary bay (OTL Chesapeake) and took refuge along a peninsular with a native village Chatham recorded was called Kagoughtown - although this was clearly anglicisation of the name. Nonetheless Chatham was quite taken in by the ‘pleasant climate’ of the region and named the settlement Goughtown. Chatham was particularly intrigued by a leaf that the local tribes smoked which Chatham recorded gave him a strong feeling of contentment, this leaf was called Tobacco and when the ships set sail later in August they brought two sacks with them.
Chatham returned to England by way of Jordanstown, collected what items they had for trade, and commissioned them to find more of the strange leaf he had discovered. The second voyage to Norland was not met with the same excitement as the one to the Columbias had been. Chatham did not come back with tales of Gold or exotic plants, beside the potatoes that is, and it seemed that the prospects for Norland were lower than those further south. The saving grace for the entire enterprise was the tobacco which Chatham had brought back; the Society of Merchant Venturers were so taken with it that they commanded Chatham to return the following year in search of more, and the plant it came from. The mood in Bristol was perhaps also lifted by the news from the Columbias.
The voyage to the Columbias of 1495 was once again led by Lord Bradbury and Christopher Columbus who was becoming increasingly recalcitrant and grumpy that his opinions and schemes were being side-tracked by the English crown. There is some evidence that Columbus had even threatened to find a different patron if his demands to explore further west and annex the land of Yucka (Yucatan) and beyond for himself were not met. To assuage him, this voyage was accompanied by Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk and Admiral of England. Norfolk after all had interests with the Merchant Adventurers guild, but it is believed that Edward dispatched him personally as his eyes and ears, with France cowed yet again the threat from elsewhere was lessened. Another new figure on the voyage was Bishop William Smyth who had been ‘fortunate’ enough to be selected as the first Bishop of New Albion.
On the outward voyage, Bradbury sent Sir Thomas Hawkyns with a few ships to Fair Isle (Bermuda) to establish a fort and watering station and most importantly to deny it to the Spanish or Portuguese. However this still left a fleet of 18 ships to sail into Yorkstown harbor just before Easter Sunday 1495. The timing was perfect; Bishop Smyth held mass in the small wooden Church in Yorkstown and called on God to bless the colony and their future voyages. God was certainly blessing Nova Albion by this point; the mines had yielded some £15,000 worth of Gold for the English Exchequer (after the Merchant Adventurers had taken their cut) in under a year and the first attempts at agriculture had gone well, although even better with some local crop which was called Maize. In fact with the further colonists brought to Yorkstown the small settlement was running out of room - penned in as it was between sea and mountains - and so the search began for a new settlement location began.
By 1495 the local population of Nova Albion had been ravaged by disease and so the island was quite empty, especially as the Taino tribes fled whenever they saw Europeans, and were encouraged to do so at the point of a handgun if they did not. This made the search for a new settlement much easier and the various ships spent all Summer 1495 searching the coast of Nova Albion for a new site. Eventually a place on the south east coast was selected in the arms of the Howard River which protected it and the flat land to its east from native raids. Under Norfolk’s guidance, and in honour of the saints day upon its founding, the city was named ‘The Royal Borough of St Cornelius and St Gregory’ perhaps realising that this was a mouthful Berners and his associates began calling it Cornel within the year (OTL Santo Domingo) and work began immediately on a stone Cathedral and fort - for this was to be the Island’s official capital.
Eventually some 1,000 settlers were sent to Cornel to help with the building work, many of them hailed from the north of England and so sheep farming was quickly established on the slopes behind the town and the town would continue to have a rather ‘northern’ feel for at least a century. Meanwhile, perhaps to keep them apart, the 1,000 or so Welshmen were settled in the central valley to the west of St Edward where they established their own settlement of Haurafen (Orvan in English) which would become a distinct culture in its own right (to this day Orvan Rugby Club is one of the most successful in the western hemisphere).
The 1495 expedition was incredibly important in the history of the Yorkists in the new world; it established a major capital and the embryo of a settler culture. It also brought the Church officially to the islands. The voyage was also significant because Norfolk’s presence supercharged the impetus towards exploitation and colonisation in the region. As one of Edward V’s long-time friends, and the first Falcon to visit the Columbias, Howard was able to impress upon the King the potential that the area had, including the surrounding islands of Cove and St John too. It seems that this is what led Edward to award Lord Thomas Bradbury the title ‘Duke of Albion’ in late 1495 and place him in charge of all further efforts in the new world. However there was one failure in 1495 which changed the trajectory of the Yorkists in the Columbias for decades.
Christopher Columbus had become a desperate man by 1495. The initial shine of his first voyage had worn off long ago, and he had been overtaken by Bradbury, even Chatham, in the eyes of Edward V. Indeed Columbus’ continued insistence that the Columbias were somewhere near modern India surely won him little favour. Columbus left Yorkstown in May 1495 with five ships under strange circumstances. Bradbury records that Columbus took his leave without requesting permission, although the presence of Robert Wydow and Lord Morely make this unlikely. These two men had already sailed west of Nova Albion with Columbus twice now, and were increasingly taking the appearance of his chaperons rather than his companions.
Robert Wydow, the Dominican Friar and by now resident expert on new world languages, records that Columbus was ‘sorely intent on discovering the Indus, El Dorado, Atlantis, even Utopia itself if it could give his life some meaning and win him favour with the King.’ Wydow is clearly exaggerating but given Columbus’ discovery of Gold in the jungle west of Yucka in the land he had named St Nicholas, he probably wanted to return to discover the source and possibly prove it was India after all.
Regardless of the motive, Columbus’ attitude would be his undoing. The five ships anchored in a shallow bay some 100 leagues west of Yucka in July 1495, Columbus taking a party of men and Robert Wydow ashore to trade, and possibly find some Gold. Wydow records the resulting event at length, and with a great deal of criticism, but suffice it to say that in the ensuing encounter Columbus was killed. The most likely story is that he blundered into a confrontation with the local inhabitants and after an incoherent argument, the explorer did something rash and ended up with an arrow through his throat. Wydow and the remaining members of the party were able to recover his body and return to the ship but they left immediately for Yorkstown with the news.
With Columbus dead, a large impetus for further west-ward expansion died with him; the English believed that Columbus was merely arrogant and insane in pushing further into the jungle, and his death had proven that in their eyes. It would be almost a decade before another English expedition sailed west past Cape Albatross on the western-most tip of Cove (Cuba). It was also very convenient that Columbus removed himself from the equation in 1495 as it allowed the Yorkists to rely more solely on English expertise in the large part, and it is possible Edward Vwas envisioning a way to sideline the Genoan anyway.
It is hard to write an obituary of Christopher Columbus for so much has already been written, and much of it partisan. He remains famous as the man who discovered the Columbias - they are still named after him - and so his boldness and bravery in that initial endeavor must be applauded. However it is hard to see the man in the last eighteen months of his life as anything other than a greedy, arrogant, self-obsessed explorer who refused to be proven wrong by his paymasters and consequently refused to heed them in turn. The fact that Columbus finally perished as the victim of his own glory-seeking behaviour is perhaps poetic enough.
Indeed when Bradbury and Norfolk returned to England that winter masses were sung in St Paul’s Cathedral for the dead man, but they were not excessive. It would seem that Bradbury (now made Duke of Albion), Norfolk and Edward V were united in their apathy at his passing, it was almost inconsequential to them. Columbus' death closed off further westward English voyages until 1503, but they were not interested anyway. The House of York had no desire to disappear into the jungles of St Nicholas (OTL Mexico) when they had so much to do in the Columbia islands and beyond, and aside from Columbus’ death there was so much to celebrate as 1495 came to a close.
Exploration in the Age of York, J Slight 2014
1495 was a defining year in Yorkist involvement in the new world. Sir Robert Chatham set sail for Norland in spring with a fleet of 12 ships and the people to establish a colony in Norland under the command of James St Leger, a respected west country gentry who nonetheless as a second son elected to take his chances in the new world. Chatham retraced his steps from the previous year and arrived in New Norfolk and founded a small trading post at St Barnabus (Halifax OTL). Beyond the name and location it is hard to discern much about the settlement in the early years; there does not seem to have been a permanent population and the most convincing explanation is that it was used as a convenient watering station, and certainly that Chatham engaged in fishing around this coast.
Moving further south, Chatham arrived at Jordanstown (Boston) and founded the first European settlement in Norland for nearly 500 years. Jordanstown was chosen for its sheltered harbor and friendly locals, who it seems continued to be cordial into 1496. St Leger and his group of around 600 colonists established a town on the southern tip of the harbour with a palisade, homes and of course a Church. The surviving royal writs for Jordanstown record that its aim was mostly trade. Society of Merchant Venturers records also show that limited amounts of furs and unusual vegetables (including potatoes) were brought back from the 1495 expedition.
With the colony established Chatham took around half of the ships south to map the Norland coastline and test the theory that it and the Columbias were two distinct land masses. He recorded numerous inlets and small islands along the coast and made notes as to their viability for settlement. His greatest triumph came in early August when the small fleet was driven inland by a storm; Chatham gave it the rather pious name of Calvary bay (OTL Chesapeake) and took refuge along a peninsular with a native village Chatham recorded was called Kagoughtown - although this was clearly anglicisation of the name. Nonetheless Chatham was quite taken in by the ‘pleasant climate’ of the region and named the settlement Goughtown. Chatham was particularly intrigued by a leaf that the local tribes smoked which Chatham recorded gave him a strong feeling of contentment, this leaf was called Tobacco and when the ships set sail later in August they brought two sacks with them.
Chatham returned to England by way of Jordanstown, collected what items they had for trade, and commissioned them to find more of the strange leaf he had discovered. The second voyage to Norland was not met with the same excitement as the one to the Columbias had been. Chatham did not come back with tales of Gold or exotic plants, beside the potatoes that is, and it seemed that the prospects for Norland were lower than those further south. The saving grace for the entire enterprise was the tobacco which Chatham had brought back; the Society of Merchant Venturers were so taken with it that they commanded Chatham to return the following year in search of more, and the plant it came from. The mood in Bristol was perhaps also lifted by the news from the Columbias.
The voyage to the Columbias of 1495 was once again led by Lord Bradbury and Christopher Columbus who was becoming increasingly recalcitrant and grumpy that his opinions and schemes were being side-tracked by the English crown. There is some evidence that Columbus had even threatened to find a different patron if his demands to explore further west and annex the land of Yucka (Yucatan) and beyond for himself were not met. To assuage him, this voyage was accompanied by Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk and Admiral of England. Norfolk after all had interests with the Merchant Adventurers guild, but it is believed that Edward dispatched him personally as his eyes and ears, with France cowed yet again the threat from elsewhere was lessened. Another new figure on the voyage was Bishop William Smyth who had been ‘fortunate’ enough to be selected as the first Bishop of New Albion.
On the outward voyage, Bradbury sent Sir Thomas Hawkyns with a few ships to Fair Isle (Bermuda) to establish a fort and watering station and most importantly to deny it to the Spanish or Portuguese. However this still left a fleet of 18 ships to sail into Yorkstown harbor just before Easter Sunday 1495. The timing was perfect; Bishop Smyth held mass in the small wooden Church in Yorkstown and called on God to bless the colony and their future voyages. God was certainly blessing Nova Albion by this point; the mines had yielded some £15,000 worth of Gold for the English Exchequer (after the Merchant Adventurers had taken their cut) in under a year and the first attempts at agriculture had gone well, although even better with some local crop which was called Maize. In fact with the further colonists brought to Yorkstown the small settlement was running out of room - penned in as it was between sea and mountains - and so the search began for a new settlement location began.
By 1495 the local population of Nova Albion had been ravaged by disease and so the island was quite empty, especially as the Taino tribes fled whenever they saw Europeans, and were encouraged to do so at the point of a handgun if they did not. This made the search for a new settlement much easier and the various ships spent all Summer 1495 searching the coast of Nova Albion for a new site. Eventually a place on the south east coast was selected in the arms of the Howard River which protected it and the flat land to its east from native raids. Under Norfolk’s guidance, and in honour of the saints day upon its founding, the city was named ‘The Royal Borough of St Cornelius and St Gregory’ perhaps realising that this was a mouthful Berners and his associates began calling it Cornel within the year (OTL Santo Domingo) and work began immediately on a stone Cathedral and fort - for this was to be the Island’s official capital.
Eventually some 1,000 settlers were sent to Cornel to help with the building work, many of them hailed from the north of England and so sheep farming was quickly established on the slopes behind the town and the town would continue to have a rather ‘northern’ feel for at least a century. Meanwhile, perhaps to keep them apart, the 1,000 or so Welshmen were settled in the central valley to the west of St Edward where they established their own settlement of Haurafen (Orvan in English) which would become a distinct culture in its own right (to this day Orvan Rugby Club is one of the most successful in the western hemisphere).
The 1495 expedition was incredibly important in the history of the Yorkists in the new world; it established a major capital and the embryo of a settler culture. It also brought the Church officially to the islands. The voyage was also significant because Norfolk’s presence supercharged the impetus towards exploitation and colonisation in the region. As one of Edward V’s long-time friends, and the first Falcon to visit the Columbias, Howard was able to impress upon the King the potential that the area had, including the surrounding islands of Cove and St John too. It seems that this is what led Edward to award Lord Thomas Bradbury the title ‘Duke of Albion’ in late 1495 and place him in charge of all further efforts in the new world. However there was one failure in 1495 which changed the trajectory of the Yorkists in the Columbias for decades.
Christopher Columbus had become a desperate man by 1495. The initial shine of his first voyage had worn off long ago, and he had been overtaken by Bradbury, even Chatham, in the eyes of Edward V. Indeed Columbus’ continued insistence that the Columbias were somewhere near modern India surely won him little favour. Columbus left Yorkstown in May 1495 with five ships under strange circumstances. Bradbury records that Columbus took his leave without requesting permission, although the presence of Robert Wydow and Lord Morely make this unlikely. These two men had already sailed west of Nova Albion with Columbus twice now, and were increasingly taking the appearance of his chaperons rather than his companions.
Robert Wydow, the Dominican Friar and by now resident expert on new world languages, records that Columbus was ‘sorely intent on discovering the Indus, El Dorado, Atlantis, even Utopia itself if it could give his life some meaning and win him favour with the King.’ Wydow is clearly exaggerating but given Columbus’ discovery of Gold in the jungle west of Yucka in the land he had named St Nicholas, he probably wanted to return to discover the source and possibly prove it was India after all.
Regardless of the motive, Columbus’ attitude would be his undoing. The five ships anchored in a shallow bay some 100 leagues west of Yucka in July 1495, Columbus taking a party of men and Robert Wydow ashore to trade, and possibly find some Gold. Wydow records the resulting event at length, and with a great deal of criticism, but suffice it to say that in the ensuing encounter Columbus was killed. The most likely story is that he blundered into a confrontation with the local inhabitants and after an incoherent argument, the explorer did something rash and ended up with an arrow through his throat. Wydow and the remaining members of the party were able to recover his body and return to the ship but they left immediately for Yorkstown with the news.
With Columbus dead, a large impetus for further west-ward expansion died with him; the English believed that Columbus was merely arrogant and insane in pushing further into the jungle, and his death had proven that in their eyes. It would be almost a decade before another English expedition sailed west past Cape Albatross on the western-most tip of Cove (Cuba). It was also very convenient that Columbus removed himself from the equation in 1495 as it allowed the Yorkists to rely more solely on English expertise in the large part, and it is possible Edward Vwas envisioning a way to sideline the Genoan anyway.
It is hard to write an obituary of Christopher Columbus for so much has already been written, and much of it partisan. He remains famous as the man who discovered the Columbias - they are still named after him - and so his boldness and bravery in that initial endeavor must be applauded. However it is hard to see the man in the last eighteen months of his life as anything other than a greedy, arrogant, self-obsessed explorer who refused to be proven wrong by his paymasters and consequently refused to heed them in turn. The fact that Columbus finally perished as the victim of his own glory-seeking behaviour is perhaps poetic enough.
Indeed when Bradbury and Norfolk returned to England that winter masses were sung in St Paul’s Cathedral for the dead man, but they were not excessive. It would seem that Bradbury (now made Duke of Albion), Norfolk and Edward V were united in their apathy at his passing, it was almost inconsequential to them. Columbus' death closed off further westward English voyages until 1503, but they were not interested anyway. The House of York had no desire to disappear into the jungles of St Nicholas (OTL Mexico) when they had so much to do in the Columbia islands and beyond, and aside from Columbus’ death there was so much to celebrate as 1495 came to a close.
