Chapter Forty One: The Protestant War, part two - The Spanish Revolt
Henry I summoned the full Imperial Council: the British Witangamot, the French Parliament, and the advisory bodies of Scotland, Spain, British Africa, and the British Antilles, to answer the alarmed requests for clarification that were coming in.
Out of all the territories, it was the heavily Catholic Spains that were the most horrified. The Duke of Toledo called the Emperor's edict blasphemy, and refused to accept it. The Portuguese lords, also more Catholic than the rest of the Empire but not wanting to be swallowed up by their neighbors, were willing to accept the edict and quash rebellion in Spain if need be, as long as their rights to practice as they had were protected.
Henry pointed to the coexistence of Lutheran Scotland and Catholic France as proof that their beliefs, as well as the Spanish, would remain respected. He issued his famous declaration that the Emperor would not "look into men's souls, and that all he wanted was temporal loyalty.
The Scottish and the colonial representatives, the latter who had already welcomed the break from Rome, cheered the assertion, and the edict was welcomed with only some abstentions from the French and of course, massive refusal from the Spanish.
Henry reinforced the castles in Spain and sent the Mediterranean fleet to Barcelona, and when Spain rose, led by the Duke of Toledo, the Emperor was ready. Feria, governed by the massively popular Prince John, remained loyal and had huge recruitment to defend the Empire.
There was however, differences of opinion in how to handle the rebellion. France and Portugal, who despite the union of the Crowns were economic rivals of Spain, wanted the revolt crushed as brutally as possible. This became a more popular view after Barcelona rebels tried to board His Majesty's Imperial Warship Solaris, which had crossed the Atlantic when the edict was posted and was led by Antillian native Admiral Montezuma, Baron Tenochtitlan.
But the Scottish Queen personally reminded the Emperor that the actions of his ancestor, Edward Longshanks, had created a rift in Scotland that had taken over a century to repair. Henry elected then to use the most powerful weapon at his disposal: the treasury. He announced that damages incurred during the revolt would be covered by the Crown, but only for loyal subjects.
With it now more profitable to support the Emperor, the Duke of Toledo 'accidentally' falling from a window in his castle, and trade cut off from both Portugal and France, the rebellion burned itself out. Henry now turned his attention to the Austrian Empire, which with Papal help had recovered and now threatened to crush the uprising in Germany.