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And thus, the 17th century began. Over 100 years have passed since the foundation of the Kingdom of Lithuania, and despite the wars, crisises and internal rebellions, the land of the East endured. For how long will they continue on, though? That's a question none can answer.

One painful thorn in Lithuania's side that arose after the Great Russian Rebellion was Livonia. Lithuania's northern neighbour, former rival, enemy, now turned into a nigh protectorate, was, albeit secretly, turning away from it's grasp. Despite it's small size, Livonia was critically important to the economy and prosperity of Lithuania, the reason for that being the port of Riga. Lithuania's own ports - Klaipėda, Karaliaučius, Liepaja - were too small to man the massive exports that both the Lithuanian crown and the numerous magnates were directing to the West, and as such they had to rely on the largest port in the entirety of the Eastern Baltic coast. Keeping Livonia under Lithuania's sphere of influence became vital for the eastern empire, but they were not the only nation fighting. Livonia was the easternmost Catholic nation in Europe, and being surrounded from all sides by an Orthodox, albeit one with ties to the Church, state was the source of great worry.

The Livonians were well aware of what happened in the Teutonic Order, which was also a strategically important state because of it's rich cities and location between Visegrad and Lithuania. As soon as the Lithuanians found the opportunity, they annexed the Order, receiving only minor protests from their neighbours - and Livonia doesn't even border any other nation but the Lithuanians, who could protect them? Ah, but you see, Lithuania wasn't the only player in the Baltic Sea area, The Livonians soon turned to Sweden, a fellow Catholic nation, not as interested in outright annexing them (or at least that's how it seemed), and the Order hoped that by playing off both powers towards each other, they could maintain their independence for the future.

Lithuania knew which way the wind was blowing. Ever since the end of the the Great Russian Rebellion, the Crown put a lot of effort into developing it's own ports - Liepaja (Libau), Klaipėda (Memel), Karaliaučius (Konigsberg) - port maintenance and tariffs were growing to be a lucrative endeavor for the city merchants, who supported this task. Not only that, but the rule of Queen Sofija marked the official beginning of the military navy of the Kingdom of Lithuania, especially with the foundation of the Royal Sea Commission (Karališkoji jūrų komisija) in 1603, an official organization to oversee the matters of "military shipbuilding, ship maintenance and the protection of Lithuanian waters and coasts". Antanas Mužikas, a Lithuanian shipwright and the commander of a merchant flotilla, one of Queen Sofija's favorites, was appointed as the first Royal Sea Commissioner, and instantly was faced with the problems of low funding and low interest by the monarchy.

But still, it was a start.

Interesting news arrived from the steppe at the time, too. The Russian refugees, settlers around the Volga, have finally managed to push back the Tatars around them, centered around the recently founded city of Vostovsk, next to the Volga River. In a shocking turn of events, in the Battle of the Volga in 1604, the musket and pike armed, mostly foot infantry of the Russians managed to push back and defeat an invading army of the Kazan Khanate, with some ingenuity at play - detonating a part of their gunpowder supply to spook and disorganize the horses for the musket skirmishers to fairly easily take down. Even the Russians themselves called the victory to be a stroke of luck - and if they had lost, that would have been the end of the Russian rump state at the Volga. The state of Trans-Russia, though usually called "Volgan Russia" or just the "Volga", lived on to fight another day, even managing to find some allies in the form of local Cossack hosts, some of which even joined the nation, as well as having a steady supply of Russian serfs fleeing from their lords and Russian intellectuals kicked out from their land by the Lithuanian crown.

Lithuania didn't care about that much, though - what mattered more to them was situation in the West. The situation in the Holy Roman Empire was getting closer and closer to a breaking point, tensions between Reformists and Catholics rose, and foreign powers surrounding the Empire were getting ready for a massacre. Austria finally calmed down after over a decade of religious turmoil - the Austrian Reformists were pushed out of Vienna, and Maximilian IV could finally take a look at the outside world with a clear mind. While his health was slowly deteriorating, the succession seemed secure, to his son Augustin, but he was only 14 years of age in 1610. He had a rival in the succession, too - Prince Charles, the nephew of Maximilian IV, a figurehead of the Reformist forces and seemingly a more capable candidate at the moment. But, his armies were defeated near Linz three years earlier, he was incapable of laying a claim without a force backing him, and the Emperor's throne seemed secure at the moment.

Ever since the Reformation, numerous conflicts plagued the land, and the Emperor attempted to mediate the religious strife numerous times by declaring the Salzburg Decree, first released in 1571. According to it, the princes, dukes, margraves and other monarchs of the Holy Roman Empire, were allowed to choose either Reformism or Catholicism, but they were not allowed to either "change the old order of the land" (basically, no France-type revolutions or government changes) or force their religion to their inhabitants. However, this decree only worked on paper, and during times of turmoil in Austria, and often even during times of stability there, the dukes and people would break the Decree as they saw fit. Maximilian IV was ready to go on a quest and re-enforce the ways of old, and this might just be the final spark that ignites the barrel of gunpowder that was Central Europe...


And Lithuania was too deeply tied to the rest of Eastern Europe to not get involved at some point. And Lithuania - Lithuania had to prepare. It's armed forces were far from being as effective and modern as those of Eastern Europe. Algirdas II renovated and introduced Western technologies to the Lithuanian army in the late 15th-early 16th centuries, but they were not followed up by later rulers. Among the parts of the court pushing for reform in the armed forces of the Kingdom was Queen Sofija's son Prince Albertas Jogaila, barely 20 years old at the time, but already very proficient in modern tactics and strategies. Outside of part-time studies in the Vilnius University, he was personally tutored by Žygimantas Astikas, one of the lieutenants of Kęstutis Mykolas Radvila in the Great Russian Rebellion and now among the best army generals in Lithuania, and even though the Prince was infamous for his arrogance and self-centered attitude, Albertas Jogaila showed promise.

The military organization of the wartime forces of the Lithuanian army received a major change in it's structure. The structure of the Voivodeships originates from the times of Jogaila the Great, over two centuries ago by now, and was built with the idea of a feudal army of knights in mind. Each of the Voivodes would have to rally a force of conscripted boyars, each one would have to buy their equipment and horses by themselves, as well as bring a group of armed peasants from their estate to serve as infantry. However, in these times of mercenary armies and professional soldiers, an army mostly composed of feudal knights, no matter how well armed, would not work.

The reforms initiated in 1610 were set to replace the Voivodeship conscription with a semi-standing force for each region. Each Voivodeship would be required to organize and maintain a small (a few thousand soldiers) force of professional soldiers, recruited from the estates of both the crown and the nobility (nobles that were unwilling to send a portion of their peasants to serve in the Army would have to pay an additional tax). More advanced types of equipment, like artillery and naval forces, were to be organized by the Crown directly. Volunteer nobility forces were also allowed, and the Lithuanian Regiment stayed as the core of the Army, albeit somewhat downsized and spread out across Voivodeship units. A similar organization was already employed by Sweden, and quite successfully, in fact, so Lithuania already had someone to look at and "learn from" in this endeavor. It would take a while before this new military force could be fully employed in warfare, however.

However, Queen Sofija of the Kingdom of Lithuania, the Steel Lady, did not get to see the fruits of the reform. On March 21st, 1611, the 68 year old Queen left our world to greet her father and family. Her reign marked a massive change in the state of affairs in the fledgling empire. When the Queen rose to the throne to reclaim her birthright, Lithuania was a chaotic mess in danger of being ripped apart by Russian revolutionaries and Visegradian armies, and while some pieces of Lithuanian land were lost, the country endured - and that's what she is remembered for among Lithuanians today. Perhaps not as much as, say, Jogaila the Great, but the reforms and advancements of her reign are seen as a positive addition to the Lithuanian nation.

A month after Sofija's untimely death, her only son Prince Albertas was coronated as Albertas Jogaila I, King of Lithuania. In this unstable time, when all of Europe could be thrown into a bloody conflict, what will be the ascension of this new monarch mean for the nation?

All of Lithuania was about to find out, and soon learn to call him Albertas 'The Bear'. And not for no reason, either.