Absolute Enlightenment: Surviving Stuarts TL.

It is certainly posstible, but I find it unlikely - Denmark and Sweden had been locked in competition and back and forth a struggle for survival from 1434 until 1814. It is going to be hard to disregard all that enmity.

Okay, so the most I could achieve is, say, a personal union?
 
Scotland.
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In the spring and summer of 1691, the Scottish Highlands were on the point of open rebellion against the English rule. The Scots maintained a stubborn loyalty to the exiled Stuart King, James II, deposed in 1688 for his pro-Catholic policies. To prevent revolt from Scotland, William III, the new King, ordered that each clan must swear an oath of allegiance to him before New Year's Day, 1692. Failure would be punished with brutal and savage reprisals. Faced with the looming threat of the English Army, all the clan's gave way - even such a wild, bloodthirsty tribe of cattle raiders as the MacDonald's of Glencoe. The MacDonalds' tragedy was that they left their gesture of loyalty too late, even though this was not deliberate. Their aged chief, MacIan MacDonald, spared no effort to meet the deadline. On December 29, 1691, he rode through a vicious snowstorm to take the oath at Fort William.

Built near Inverlochy, and named after the new King, Fort William was a forbidding strongpoint of rock and stone, built to overawe the rebellious Scots. It's Governor was a soldier, Colonel John Hill. But when MacIan presented himself to the Colonel for him to perform his duty, the Governor announced he had no right to administer the oath - it must be sworn before a civil official; the Sheriff at Inverary. MacIan was horrified; a trip of 60 miles lay ahead of him, hard enough in good weather, treacherous in this storm. With a letter from Hill to the Sheriff, explaining that the clansmen had attempted to take the oath at Fort William, the Chief galloped on to Inverary.

When he arrived at Inverary, by yet another cruel twist of fate, MacIan was there too refused, as the Sheriff was away, spending New Year with his family in Hogmanay. MacIan held out, however, and on 6th January he was received by the Sheriff (Who only allowed MacIan to take the oath after he burst into tears), and he pledged his allegiance to William. Those six days were to mean the death sentence for the MacDonalds of Glencoe, however. Ever since the Perthshire Rebellion of 1689, King William and his Council had been eager to teach the Highlander's a lesson. The MacDonalds of Glencoe were, in comparison to most other clans, small and also unpopular with the other clans, especially with Clan Campbell, who had been involved in a conflict since time immemorial for the Glencoe's cattle-thieving ways. The King's Councillors in Edinburgh knew that a swift action against them would not lead to a general uprising. So when the MacDonald's oath was recieved by the Privy Council, they refused to accept it. William wrote after he heard the news, "If MacIan of Glencoe and that tribe should be well separated from the rest, it will be a proper vindication of public justice to extirpate that sect of thieves".

In what is now known as the Glencoe Massacre, 120 Redcoat's were dispatched to Glencoe, late in the bitter month of January. They were billeted in the tiny thatched cottages of MacDonald Country, on the pretext that Fort William had no space for them. Most of the soldiers were Campbells, bitter enemies of the MacDonalds, but they were recieved with the regular hospitality despite this. After dark on February 12, the message of execution was carried secretly down the valley, from cottage to cottage. They were instructed not to show any sign of warlike behaviour before the appointed hour, 5 o' clock the following morning.

A few moments after the arrival of that hour came the first cries, which rang out in the glen. The first man killed was Duncan Rankin, who lived near to the Chief's house. He was shot as he tried to warn the other villagers of the impending attack, and he fell into an icy river. Soldiers knocked on the door of MacIan, telling his Maid that they wished to thank him for his warm welcome as they were leaving. The Chief was roused from his sleep, told his wife to get dressed, and started dressing himself. Impatient at the door, a few soldiers burst in, shooting him in the chest and the head. They stripped his wife, took her jewellery and then raped her. Down the glen other soldiers bayoneted families of MacDonalds as they slept. A young child clung to the legs of the Campbell Commander, Robert Campbell, and pleaded for him to stop the massacre. The reply was a pistol shot through the head at point-blank range. Many of the clansmen higher up in the hills fled with their families after hearing the commotion in the glen. However, many were killed by the bleak and vicious winter, as they had escaped in little more than bare skin.

In a letter to Lieutenant-Colonel Hamilton, a very high-ranking military official in Scotland, William said;

"The Winter is the only season in which we can be sure the Highlanders can not escape us, nor carry their wives, bairns and cattle to the Mountains... It is the only time they can not escape you, for human constitution can not long endure to be out of houses. This is the proper season to maule them, in the cold long nights... This design is to destroy entirely the county of Lochaber, Locheill's lands, Keppoch's, Glengarry's, Appin and Glencoe. I assure you, your powers will be full enough, and I hope the soldiers will not trouble the Government with prisoners."

As a systematic massacre, it was an overwhelming failure. Only 38 butchered and tortured bodies were found in the glen, although it is estimated they killed around 60. Both of MacIan's sons escaped, along with four fifths of the clan. But as a testament to William's cold blooded and unscrupulous attitude to his Scottish Subjects, it is second to none. It fostered a growing culture of hate between the Kingdoms of England and Scotland, which had not been so intense for several centuries. No other single event can be said to be a major factor of Highland loyalty to the Old, and subsequently, the Young Pretenders. As W.E. Aytoun puts it in his Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers and Other Poems,

"The Massacre of Glencoe is an event which neither can nor ought to be forgotten. It was a deed of the worst treason and cruelty--a barbarous infraction of all laws, human and divine; and it exhibits in their foulest perfidy the true characters of the authors and abettors of the Revolution."

After this, Scotland continued much the same as it had done for the times before the Massacre; unstable, on the edge of rebellion, and economically failing. Two enquiries into the Massacre were made, although to little success, as the King personally tried to stop the prosecution of those responsible.

In July 1698, seven ships sailed from Leith, the port of Edinburgh, in what became known as the Darien Scheme. Bound for the legendary Bay of Darien, on the coast of Panama, their cargoes included canvas, linen, homespun cloth and blankets, shoes, stockings and slippers; wigs, bibles and bonnets, oatmeal and barrels of clay pipes. Clearly they had much to learn about trading in the tropics and with Native Americans. Further to the ignorance, or unwisdom, of preaching the Protestant Faith in the direct sphere of influence of possibly the most vehemently Catholic nation in the world; Spain.

Setting up a factory named Forst St Andrews, and claiming for Scotland a small area of the Isthmus of Panama they called New Caledonia, the colonists were met with extreme difficulty from the very start; high fever struck, the Natives proved unfriendly, and a Spanish Expedition prepared to march on them. The Scots held out, with two ships and then three ships coming to reinforce them. But, Scotland could not afford to send another ship after this, and the Colonists were told this. Desperately attempting to hold firm against the incoming Spaniards, they sent letters to the Governors of Jamaica and Nova Scotia, pleading for military and economic assistance, but this was not given, for they had been under strict orders from the King not to help the Scots with their colonisation efforts. The Spaniards took New Caledonia in the Summer of 1700, and the Colonists were allowed by their victor to march out in full military honours, due to their bravery. Because hopes for the mission were so great, the bitter disappointment of the investors was corresponsingly so, and thousands lost a massive proportion of their money. This has been described as another major reason for the Scottish Parliament's support for the Act of Union.

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Sir William Paterson, Leader of the Darien Scheme.​

[1] A great resource for Scottish history, with short summaries of various events, and beautiful poetry included. Check it out here.
Oh, and this is a great resource as well.
 
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The War of the Spanish Succession.

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The War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714) was a conflict, fought primarily in Europe, between two multinational alliances of different states, over the right to succeed the late King Charles II of Spain.

Leading the Grand Alliance, which was composed of England (later Great Britain), the Netherlands, Austria, Hungary[1], Portugal, Hanover and Prussia, were a multitude of tacticians, generals and kings. Some of the more famous commanders were Prince Eugene of Savoy, the Duke of Marlborough, Sir George Rooke, the Earl of Galway, Anthoine Heinsius, Lord Overkirk, the Marquess of Albenarle and the Marquis of Minas. Opposing this alliance was the league of France and her allies, including Bavaria. Some of their notable military minds were the Duke of Berwick, the Duc de Villairs, the Duc de Vendôme, the Comte de Tesse and the Marquis de Bay. The Spanish Empire was divided into supporters of the Grand Alliance, and supporters of the French League.

The aims of the Grand Alliance were to protect English and Dutch interests in Spanish trade, through trying to install Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria, as Spanish Emperor, in the name of his son, the Archduke Charles of Austria. Leopold was the late King Charles' brother-in-law and maternal uncle. The aims of the French League were to expand it's global and regional influence through the use of Spain as essentially a puppet state. They intended to do this by securing the right of the Dauphin's second son, Philip[2], and thereafter the right of his Bourbon descendants, to the Spanish throne. Since becoming King of France constitutionally required one to not be upon the throne of any other nation, the first in line and the second in line were not judged fit for potential King of Spain. As such, the third-in-line to the French throne, Philip, was selected as the figurehead of the French involvement.

The war started surprisingly slowly; Prince Eugene of Savoy led the Austrian Army to victory in Northern Italy at the Battle of Carpi, July 9th, and a string of victories followed in the surrounding areas, but for a while this was the only front. Then, in early 1702, the English and Dutch launched an offensive in Flanders and the Rhineland. They were joined by the Imperial Army of the Holy Roman Empire (Austria & Hanover), and they fought numerous battles with the French- sometimes they were victorious, and sometimes they lost.

The war continued in much the same way as this; equal, until a turning point in the Battle of Blenheim in 1704. The French League's aim in these early years was to capture the city of Vienna, the capital of Austria, to hold the Holy Roman Empire to ransom, gain a favourable peace treaty and obliterate the Grand Alliance. It had a force in Northern Italy pushing through from the southwest, and had made arrangements with a group of Hungarian rebels who planned to attack the city from the east, but their main host was still in France, at the village of Blenheim. The Duke of Marlborough figured out France's plan, and recognised that the force needed to be stopped, or else the war would, in all likelihood, have been lost. In just five weeks, he marched his entire army from Cologne to the village of Blenheim on the River Danube, and met with an Austrian Army there. The Austrians were waiting for reinforcements and refused to attack without them, but the Duke realised that the French would soon attack them. He launched the offensive without the Austrian reinforcements, and, despite not winning the village the first time around, it startled the French and was an important step in eventual victory. In the actual battle that ensued, England and Austria had 52,000 soldiers and 60 guns, whilst France and Bavaria went in with a slight advantage of 56,000 soldiers and 90 guns. The battle was a victory for the Grand Alliance, and it showed the French Army was not invincible, as some had previously thought. It protected Vienna from attack, and, ultimately, upheld the Grand Alliance and the power balance in Europe. In this same year, the Allies took Gibraltar - the war seemed to be turning in favour away from the French.

Other major battles included the Battle of Ramillies, in the Spanish Netherlands,in which the French force in Flanders was reduced from 60, 000 to 10, 000, and the Battle of Ooudenarde, when the French presence in the aforementioned region was almost completely dissolved. Following is a timeline of the War, explaining all the events.

1702
Battle of Carpi & the Northern Italy Campaign of Prince Eugene of Savoy.
Marlborough takes the strongholds of Venloo, Ruremonde, and Liége, in the Spanish Netherlands.
France cut off from Holland and Lower Rhine.
Battle of Vigo won by Sir George Rooke.
Louis of Baden, a commander, defeated at Freidlingen by the French.
Eugene stops the French from taking the Tyrol.

1703
Portugal joins the Alliance.
Marlborough takes the city of Bonn and, as a result, command of the Upper Rhine.

1704
Battle of Blenheim.
Gibraltar taken by the English Navy.

1705
Barcelona taken by Lord Peterborough, an English commander; Catalonia favours the Archduke Charles' claim to the throne.

1706
Battle of Ramillies.
The Alliance takes Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent, Bruges, Ostend, a line of fortresses cutting off the French from Holland.
Turin besieged by the French.

1707
The Duchy of Milan and the Kingdom of Naples favours the Archduke Charles.
Minorca captured by General Stanhope, for the English.
Spain defeats the Grand Alliance at Almanza.
Ghent and Bruges retaken by the French.

1708
Battle of Ooudenarde.
Lille secured by the Grand Alliance. French are forced out of the Spanish Netherlands.

1709
Peace Conference at The Hague. The French refuse to remove Philip from the throne of Spain, and the war goes on.
Mons taken.
Queen Anne dies.[3]

1710
Stanhope defeats the French and Spanish in Spain twice.

1711
The Archduke Charles dies, and his son is named as the heir to the Spanish throne by the Grand Alliance, although France disagrees.

1712
Peace Conference at Utrecht.

1713
Treaty of Utrecht.

[1] They were not, as of yet, in political union, only personal.
[2] Whom the late Charles had named as his heir.
[3] Meaning the Duke of Marlborough was never dismissed from the battlefield, as his wife didn't fall out of favour with the Queen. This has a longer change, as well; it means the Whigs stay in power and, in contrast to the more pacifist Tories, this Government is not shy of conflict or aggression. Expect interesting butterflies.

Comments and anything are all welcomed.
 
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The Aftermath of the War of the Spanish Succession.

The War of the Spanish Succession changed the course of history forever; more than half a million soldiers fought on the battlefield and nearly half of these were killed, and many more captured. The dominance of the Spanish Empire in European and international matters was being brought to an end, as various other countries, such as France, Sweden and Prussia, raced to fill the gap in power it was inevitably going to leave. For Great Britain, the war was viewed as a necessary step in protecting the balance of power in Europe, and it afforded the British Whig Government a great boost in popularity.

The first treaty signed at the end of the war was the Peace of Utrecht. This document, signed by all of the powers of Europe, ensured that Philip was to be recognised as King of Spain, but he also had to renounce his place in the line of succession to the throne of France. Great Britain was granted the Asiento by Spain; the exclusive right to sell slaves to the extensive Spanish colonies. Spain recognised Portuguese sovereignty over Brazil. The territorial changes detailed in the treaty were;
-Savoy granted Sicily and the north-east of the Duchy of Milan
-Sardinia passed to Tuscany
-Genoa given Elba
-Venice gains the north-eastern coast of Naples
-Parma granted the south of the Duchy of Milan
-Sweden ceded the islands of Guadeloupe and Tobago in the Caribbean[1]
-Portugal given the island of Hispaniola
-Britain gains the town of Gibraltar, the Bahamas, the Territory of Florida and the islands of Minorca and Formentara from Spain, and Acadia and St Pitts from France.

Months later, the Treaty of Rastatt gave the European territories of Spain; Naples, Milan, Sardinia and the Southern Netherlands to the Austrian Habsburgs. The even later Treaty of Baden formally ended all hostilities between Austria and France.

The impact of the treaties was massive; France lost her will to dominate Europe, and this set the scene for the Revolutionary spirit of the next decades. Some of the territories granted to the kingdoms of Europe in the New World would be the precursors of vast colonial empires.
 
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