Empire of the West

Part 1

The famous empire of King Ferdinand of England and Spain marked a turning point in European history. Queen Mary and King Philip had laid the foundations, and after the death of the former, Prince Ferdinand had ruled in England as Regent for his father, prosecuting the war in the Netherlands, and winning back Calais from France. After the death of King Philip, Ferdinand took on the governance of both kingdoms. His reign saw the acquisition of Portugal, and the climactic war with Scotland in which saw England finally established dominance over all the island of Great Britain.

By the time of Ferdinand's death in 1620, he had defeated a Stuart rebellion on the one hand, and a Portuguese one on the other, crushed French attempts to over-run the Free County, and secured control of Milan.

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
Part 2

The lack of a Protestant England will have serious knock-on effects. With England actively working against Protestantism, and not just removed from the equation in a positive sense, the Netherlands will fall back into Habsburg hands, and Protestantism will be less of a factor in France. Henri IV's conversion upon his accession will fit well into this picture but the rest of his reign could be quite different - for example, the factors leading to his assassination may be changed, allowing him a longer rule and Louis XIII the time to grow up and into his role as successor.

Protestantism will be mainly restricted to Germany and Scandinavia, but may get a stronger hold in Scotland, especially as a reaction to English conquest. A Stuart exile regime is likely to be established in France, where the Auld Alliance would continue despite England's ascendance within the British Isles. A Habsburg king in London would mean that the events leading up to the outbreak of the Thirty Years War do not happen, since no Habsburg scion is going to lead the Protestant cause within Germany. Quite possibly the events in the Palatinate still occur but their repurcussions are to be seen in the light of a continued great war in the West between Spain-England and France.

Possibly the focus for a religious conflict of great ferocity does shift to the Netherlands, with Protestant forces within Germany supporting rebels against the Habsburgs, and France supporting them for political as opposed to religious reasons.

It would be Ferdinand's successor who has to deal with the explosion of this into a great war. Whilst France may appear surrounded, it also means that the Habsburgs are vulnerable in every direction. Ferdinand may have secured Franche Comte but its position in the Franco-German borderland would mean that its a priority target for Paris. Similarly Milan is the gateway to Italy, and Italian campaigns are a constant feature of Franco-Spanish conflict in this era.

The Western Habsburgs (*as opposed to the Imperial line in Vienna) also have a major focus in the New World, where the energies of Spain, Portugal and England are all combined in a single interest. Denying French, and one supposes Swedish and Danish, incursions is going to be strengthened by this unity.

OTL the Thirty Years War saw the arrival of Sweden as a great power, able to impose her will upon a Germany shattered by many years of war. It seems likely that something similar will occur here, but that the focus will be different - Swedish forces in the Netherlands for example. The whole Swedish-Polish dynastic crisis and conflict could be changed, though the role of the religious element in this would remain. What odds for a Protestant conversion of Poland under a successful Gustavus Adolphus re-uniting the two realms ?

No Battle of Lutzen and Gustavus, who was only 38 at the time of his death, could achieve even greater things in his life. He may even get to spend a bit more time with his wife, and perhaps sire another child.

The rise of a too-powerful Protestant Sweden, especially if forging an empire including Poland, could well lead to France turning against her ally. If Henri IV dies of old age around this time, the mid 1630s, then Louis XIII's accession at the more mature age of his middle thirties, could see a stable France change its policy. The great knock-on effect of this down the line might be a French conquest of Sweden's protectorate in the Netherlands, and a determined eradication of Protestant influence. Gaston of Orleans may get to be known as the "Butcher of Amsterdam"

Whilst things in the West are falling out differently in the 1640s, the East would see a strong and earlier rivalry between Sweden-Poland and Russia. Driven from most of the HRE, Gustavus Adolphus in his full middle age may take up the sword against Russia. Russia has had its own troubles but emerged unified under Michael Romanov, an exact contemporary of Gustavus Adolphus. Both men will be in their late forties, and it could be a decisive conflict in the East.

Louis XIII's France could set up an independent Catholic Netherlands, annexing the Southern areas for itself, and fighting off repeated Habsburg attempts to regain their territory. The Western Habsburgs would have their own internal tensions, but I see Philip (III of Spain, II of Portugal and England) as desiring to keep his dominions intact. This idea could be enhanced by his not having any surviving brothers, thus making the Western Habsburgs a thin line, dependant on the head of the dynasty.

There could be a merging of the great magnates of Spain and England, with some Spanish dukes getting substantial English peerages, and some English dukes getting Spanish titles. This could be especially the case where a noble shines in military command, and is thus rewarded with a greater title in his home kingdom, and a subsidiary one in the other. Within England, the Howards are often seen as the premier Catholic family, and could well gain even more prestige and influence here

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
I am not so much looking to completely timeline this out as to create a general overview.

In themes, I would like to see a Swedish-Polish Protestant empire over a series of conflicts in the later 17th century soundly defeat Russia, and lead to the independence of the Ukraine as a Cossack hetmanate. Russia disintegrates into a number of feuding fiefdoms, and Sweden is keen to keep things that way.

But without knowledge of OTL, Sweden's main concerns will be the Eastern Habsburgs on the one hand, and the Ottoman Empire on the other. With allies in Ukraine, and in Moldavia and Wallachia, Sweden could rival the Austrians as the leaders of Christendom.

The Siege of Vienna in this timeline may be raised not by anyone from Poland, but by a Western Habsburg force under an English general, seeing thus the Eastern branch of the dynasty saved by the Western. There would be a period within which there is some merging of interests between the two, magnates holding positions in both realms, some territorial exchanges, and marriages in the interest of one branch performed by the other, with resulting offspring moving to positions in the other realm.

A trans-Mediterranean unified effort against the Ottomans could be the immediate result of such a coming together, with a Spanish-English invasion of North Africa on the one hand, and Imperial intervention in Greece on the other. But the promising gains from these would be offset by the growing menace of Sweden on the flank, and perhaps by a Swedish thrust through the Principalities deep into Bulgaria, which leads Vienna to fear a Swedish conquest of Constantinople, and sees the Habsburgs make peace, with gains, with the Ottomans, and intervene to stir up trouble for the Swedes elsewhere within their dominions

France of course is not idle, and probably uses the period of Eastern Habsburg weakness, and then unified Habsburg warfare against the Ottomans to increase and strengthen her position within Germany. Louis XIV seeks to outshine his father's achievements, and once Habsburg attentions turn back towards Sweden he would look to ally with that empire, and use the alliance to finally eradicate Habsburg possessions on France's Eastern border. He would also seek once again to stir up the Stuarts and look towards a Scottish uprising.

Though this may gain support amongst the clans and among those elements of the nobility disaffected or in disfavour, a large proportion of the Scottish nobility has moved beyond a parochial vision. For example, the Habsburgs will have rewarded with favour, and with honours, those who fought for them on the previous occasions, whilst others now have moved fully into the multi-kingdom orbit and hold titles, own lands, and work positions in England, in Spain or in Portugal. Probably something akin to 1745 occurs fifty years earlier here, with the last desperate throw of the dice by the Stuart exiles, with substantial French support.

It is defeated in battle, many of the rebellion's leaders are killed, and as a result the "Cleansing of the Highlands" occurs at the turn of the 18th century. Perhaps King Philip's second son, Ferdinand, Duke of York and Milan is the man responsible for the massacres that tame the clans.

The Western Habsburg response to French machinations would no doubt be an attempt to reconquer the Netherlands. This again would see warfare sweeping across Germany as the Western and Eastern Habsburgs unite their armies against France. One could imagine an English-Spanish fleet entering and operating within the Baltic, and armies supported by them operating along the Northern coast.

Whilst climactic on a geographic scale, this war would be a lot shorter than the previous alternate Thirty Years War. And in a sense it would be without any definite outcome, the sides fighting to exhaustion a la the OTL War of Spanish Succession (which doesn't of course occur here)

The main beneficiaries of course are the Ottomans, happy to see all their enemies fighting amongst themselves. They would be able to regain their position within Greece, and crush any remaining resistance in Bulgaria, whilst probably continuing an alignment with the Eastern Habsburgs in attempting to drive Swedish influence out of the Principalities.

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
The eighteenth century saw the great kingdoms of Europe fight each other to mutual bankruptcy in a series of wars for prominence, both within Europe and across the world.

Increasingly, North America and India began to play a leading role in these conflicts, with the French increasing their presence in the former through penetration from the North into the Mississippi valley. The independent Catholic kingdom of the Netherlands began to assert a greater autonomy from its French protectors, and although frequently assailed by land during one conflict or another, its mercantile enterprise, and navy soon established for itself areas of control in formerly Habsburg lands in the Americas. Much effort was expended by the Western Habsburgs in trying to drive the Dutch out of these strongholds, a disproportionate effort compared to the value of gains from so doing, or of loss if they had left them alone.

Upon King Philip III & II's death, he was succeeded by his eldest son, previously Prince of Wales and the Asturias, who took the throne as King Philip IV & III. He did much to secure the Western dynasty through his three marriages, all of which produced children, including a total of six sons, each of whom was created a duke in all three realms of the crown (Spain, Portugal and England, which latter included Ireland and Scotland).

The Eastern Habsburgs, however, ran into a succession crisis, and with Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor having only surviving daughters, the elder two of these were married to Western Habsburg cousins, viz two of the sons of King Philip IV * III. The marriage of the eldest, Maria Theresa, to Prince Charles, Duke of Cambridge (and of elsewhere in the Spanish and Portuguese peerages) proved childless, whilst the marriage of her sister Maria Anna to Prince Alphonso, Duke of Albemarle (etc) produced just one son and one daughter.

Upon Emperor Charles VI's death in 1746, it was agreed that Maria Anna and Alphonso would be regents within the Habsburg domanis for their young son, Ferdinand. At this point the Italian domains of the Habsburgs of both branches were consolidated into one kingdom and given to Maria Theresa and Charles, with reversion to any children they might have, or if not to a younger son of Maria Anna and Alphonso, or failing that to any younger offspring of the infant Ferdinand, or in the final analysis to another scion of the dynasty, who would be drawn from the Western branch.

But the whole convoluted tale through the Imperial crown completely open, with rival claims by both Charles and Alphonso, with others saying that the little Ferdinand should wear it, but with many within Germany backing the claims of the Elector of Bavaria, and others pushing for a Swedish option, hoping to balance out the power of the Habsburgs. As in all such things, it led to war...

Philip IV and III together with his advisors came out in support of Alphonso's claims to the Imperial crown. There was certainly nothing other than convention that required the Emperor to be the eldest in line, and if the claims of his son to rule the combined Eastern domains were counted as the paramount factor, then Alphonso's claim made more sense than Charles'. There was certainly no precedent for women to rule at all, so the role of Charles VI's daughters was solely, as it were, to serve as a means of descent.

Charles, Duke of Cambridge accepted this in bad grace and withdrew to his new Italian domains. Though he would not act against his brother, and sister-in-law, over the course of the war he made little effort to help them, and this denial of the combined Italian realms' manpower and wealth was to prove a serious hinderance to the Habsburg cause.

The Swedish option was favoured only by a minority of Protestant states, and the majority of the Electors threw their weight in behind the Bavarian. Charles VII Albert of Bavaria could claim a Habsburg wife, in his case a niece of Charles VI by his elder brother, and had a son, Maximilian whose bloodline was every bit as good, as far as descent from the Eastern Habsburgs went. Moreover, he was not a Habsburg, but was a Catholic and was assured of French support.

France's ambitions in the Franco-German borderland were at odds with those of most German states, and included a concerted effort to conquer Lorraine, but whilst French arms on the one hand did not seem to be acting in common cause with their allies, on the other hand the French and Dutch armies that were put into the field against the Habsburgs did. In addition, France was able to call upon the Swedish-Polish alliance, and further bring pressure on the Habsburgs in that way.

In the North American sphere, French and Dutch naval successes began to cause serious problems for the Western Habsburgs, whose power was being drained off to fight in this theatre, instead of in providing aid to their Eastern cousins, a problem further exacerbated by the removal of Italy from the equation. With the involvement of Indian Nations, and a major French attack against Habsburg forts in the North, much energy was diverted to the colonial conflict.

Within Europe, Habsburg arms suffered a series of reversals before the newly-elevated Duke of Berkshire was able to force a stabilisation with a victory over combined Swedish and Brandenburger forces. The renewal of the campaign the following year saw an initial Habsburg counter-attack collapse after the duke was killed in an ambush, and the Franco-Swedish forces combine and drive into Austria itself.

At this point several of the N German states switched sides, alarmed at the growing power of their allies, and at reports of French massacres in Lorraine, which was being purged of its independent-minded elite. Scions of its ruling family took refuge in Milan, but heavy French rule was imposed across the duchy.

The defection of Hannover especially to the Habsburg cause created serious problems for France. Louis XIV had been succeeded by his eldest son, Louis XV, but he had died before the start of the war, aged almost as old as his father. His son, Louis XVI, formerly the Duke of Burgundy, was already an old man of ill-health by the time the war had begun, and now at a critical juncture in it he died in turn to be succeeded by his son, Louis XVII, previously Duke of Brittany, a man in his mid forties but keen as any youngster to prove himself.

Hannover's defection had opened the door to Western Habsburg forces to land in the North-West, and with France's extended supply lines already stretched, a new Habsburg force now fell upon them in the Palatinate. Led by the Duke of York, Prince Ferdinand (II), son of the previous Duke of York, this force was able to create havoc in the rear of the French lines. Against all advice, Louis XVII decided to lead his new army in person, marching from Paris to the Palatinate at great speed, and with awful determination. The Duke of York was an experienced soldier, from his youth fighting in the Americas, and in the frequent campaigns across Europe. Whilst the former Duke of Brittany had some military service, as heir he had not been in frequent combat, and his understanding of the fast-evolving art of modern warfare was limited.

The campaign was a disaster for France, and Louis XVII's death, drowned whilst crossing a river in full retreat, opened up the prospect of negotiations. His brother, Charles Louis, acted as Regent for Louis' 16 year old son, now Louis XVIII, and made it known to the Habsburgs that he was willing to negotiate a peace.

Even whilst Charles VII Albert and his Swedish allies were continuing the war at full tilt, France signed an agreement to withdraw her forces, in return for recognition of all her gains in the Americas.

Free to focus on the Bavarians, the Western Habsburg armies broke the back of German resistance, and united with their Eastern cousins in over-running the electorate. The King of Sweden and Poland withdrew from the conflict, concerned at Ottoman pressure upon his protectorates in the Principalities, and at resurgent Muscovite elements looking to re-unite the fractured Russia.

Charles VII Albert agreed to relinquish the Imperial crown for restitution of his Bavarian dominions, and the withdrawal of Habsburg forces from his lands. Alphonso, Duke of Albemarle, was thus crowned Holy Roman Emperor Alphonso I


Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
The internal tensions within the Western Habsburg lands, exacerbated by taxation and the calls of the Americas upon the home nations, led to unrest and difficulties in several areas. Most serious was that of Portugal, where the estates refused the king an additional rise in income. As a result, the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal were eventually merged into the Kingdom of Iberia, whilst similar troubles in the English dependant realms of Scotland and Ireland saw the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain, with both Iberia and Great Britain forming the United Kingdom of the Western realm.

The process took some years to complete, some decades to bed in, and saw a short sharp Portuguese rebellion which was brutally crushed and more long-lived, if smaller scale, troubles in Scotland and Ireland.

France had similar years of difficulty in fully absorbing Lorraine, but took the expedient of shipping off rebellious factions and their families to N America, to populate the increasingly long frontier as French holdings continued to develop.

Philip V of Spain and IV of England, was re-envisaged in the light of these constitutional developments simply as Philip V of the United Kingdom of Iberia and Great Britain, it being decided that the highest regnal number from either Spain or England would apply to all future monarchs.

He and his brothers now strode the continent as colossi, albeit ones in some financial difficulty. Emperor Alphonso was able to use the period of peace after the settlement of the War of Austrian Succession to bed down financial reforms, and prepare a more stable future for his son, Ferdinand of Austria.

But in Italy, King Charles (Carlo) was having his own difficulties in attempting to forge a united realm from the disparate pieces, a quest not helped by his and Maria Theresa's childlessness. With Alphonso and Maria Anna also having no more children beyond Ferdinand and his sister, the succession to the Italian throne was vested either in some future potential younger son of Ferdinand, or in another Habsburg scion of the Western realm to be chosen as the time arose. It was not a recipe for stability.

Nor was the quest of forging states as disparate as Milan in the North and Sicily in the South into one kingdom, regional differences, separatism and antagonisms being further complicated by the interlocking pieces of the non-Habsburg states remaining upon the peninsular. Whilst feeling himself to be at heart a progressive and enlightened man, Charles nevertheless spent a majority of his time in plotting the suppression of rebellions, the execution, imprisonment or exile of leading rebels, the occasional deportation or transplanting of difficult populations, and the need to be at guard against his neighbours.

Louis XVIII's France began to factor more heavily in his calculations as Charles and his wife aged, and Louis XVIII confidently built French military power up to new heights, a mission which the cessation of war rather contrarily had made easier since military reforms could be seen through to the end, and forces being built up were not immediately whittled away in campaigns.

But peace such as it was could not last long in the conditions then prevailing. To be sure, whilst the West rode its uneasy peace, sorted out numerous rebellions and uprisings, and armed for the next conflict, the East and South engaged in wars of their own.

Sweden-Poland engaged in a long and bloody campaign to break the ability of Muscovy to recombine the Russian nations, a war complicated by the entry of the Ottoman empire and the defeat of Swedish forces in the Principalities which opened the door to the invasion of Poland itself, and to a unification of Ottoman and Krim Tatar forces against the Ukraine. Sweden would eventually win back the advantage, but not before heavy losses, and an even heavier drain on her finances. Moscow was shattered, the Ukraine badly hit by being over-run and fought over, Moldavia and Wallachia ravaged in the war of Swedish reconquest, and Sweden and Poland both financially exhausted. When all was over, the Ottoman empire had gained nothing, but neither lost anything, and Sweden had recovered her strength, and annexed Moldavia and Wallachia to her united realm, an action which brought the immediate hostility of the Emperor.

Whilst Alphonso was not willing to go to war over the Principalities, he did engage in a subversive campaign, aiding and arming elements determined to fight their new Swedish masters for independence. Sweden-Poland's attempt to impose Protestantism in place of the Rumanian Eastern Orthodox church also created huge waves of emnity, and it was not long before Sweden was bogged down in a full-scale civil war raging across the principalities

In the Americas, the Habsburg Viceroyalties underwent a reorganisation as a result of French advances, and of Dutch and Danish settlement that they had been unable to stop. This reorganisation united the East coast colonies in one over-arcing government, and gave them dominion over the Appalachians as well as the Floridas. French machinations against the Indian Nations in these areas, stirring them up and providing arms and supplies, led to a move to create a proper and permanent viceregal army. Although resisted in some quarters, this was achieved and was blooded in conflict with an Indian Confederacy under Cherokee leadership that was resisting Habsburg penetration of its lands

India too, saw French, Dutch and Danish rivalry to longer-standing Habsburg influence. French power at the courts of several powerful monarchs soon began to be a serious concern for Philip V of his ministers, and the youngest of his brothers, Prince Henry, Duke of Sussex (etc) was sent out to command Habsburg forces and use his own royal birth to convince wavering allies, and reluctant neighbours.

In North Africa, Habsburg power continued to grow at the slow but steady pace it had long seen, with the expansion of the military frontier, and the gradual transformation of allies into clients, into peoples absorbed within the empire. Frequently, Habsburg forces clashed with Ottoman vassals, or the vassals of Ottoman vassals, but direct conflict remained absent and the conflict hidden from most of the people of the empire

What they did see, though, was the spiralling cost of American defence, with the war against the Cherokee Confederation costing as much as the longer conflict against the French, and with the viceregal army expanding to almost double its size to cope with this. Unrest and unease within Iberia and Great Britain was compounded when French expansion into the Southern Great Plains meant that traditional Habsburg vassals now began to switch their allegiance, if not in actual fact changing their actions, to the French. The suggestion to build up the viceregal forces of Mexico and to send a larger fleet to the Caribbean was voted down in the parliament in London, whilst the cortes in Madrid saw angry scenes of disturbance when moved to vote upon the matter.

King Philip V was well aware that the problem lay within the Americas, not within his realms, but saw also that the genesis of the problem was in all cases France. Concerned over French intrigues within the Italian peninsular, and French influence at the Papal court in Rome, he now began to see France portrayed as the root and source of all his problems, and at one and the same time the solution. A cassus belli of the French supplanting Habsburg influence in Mysore, within India, and the loss of valuable trading contacts, saw the eruption of the greatest war the world had ever seen.

Fought across four continents, the Ten Years War would complete the work of conflicts earlier in the century, and break the system that had lasted for hundreds of years.

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
The Ten Years War would see fighting across the European continent, the length and breadth of the Mediterranean, across North Africa, in various areas of Southern Africa, in the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf, within India itself, and up and down the Americas, on both Eastern and Western shores.

When it was over, the map of the world would have been withdrawn, and the new form seem set to last for ever, but that was far from being the case. No, there would be no reversion to pre-war situations, but the barriers blown apart by the war would be further breached, and the 18th century would fade out in a roar of revolution

But none of that was known to those who fought the war, nor to those who made policy, or drew up strategy. If the drain on finances that the Americas had become had any impact, it was only at the level of making things more difficult, more complicated and much more arduous. But in that issue would lie the roots of the future disasters

- - -

The fortunes of war never swing entirely one way, that is a lesson to be learnt by the study of history. Thus it was that whilst the first moves were made by the Western Habsburgs in India, and came away with some triumphant successes, the less well thought-out European side to things collapsed in disarray with a failed landing in the Netherlands, and an invasion of Southern France broken upon the Pyrenees. But what gain there was to France was soon lost as Charles' Italy found the time and the will to hit back at those who had manipulated plots against them for many years, and advanced through French-allied Savoy before being halted by reinforcements.

Habsburg naval plans swept the French from off the majority of the Indian Ocean, but failed to locate the main body of their fleet in the Caribbean, and Louis XVIII well-prepared and maintained fleet soon sent out new warships to the one, and fell upon their enemy in the other, negating early Habsburg gains and inflicting a crushing defeat on them in the West Indies

The entry of the Eastern Habsburgs was perhaps inevitable but delayed due to fears over Swedish intentions, and the anxiety caused by Swedish emnity over Habsburg support for rebels in the Rumanian principalities. But once Alphonso assured himself, as such he was able, of Sweden's lack of imminent threat, his entry into the conflict was able to open up a route across allied German states for a Western Habsburg army to unite with his and face the French

Only Louis XVIII had not been idle, and did not spend his time waiting for his enemies to come together and defeat him. Whilst an advance force moved into the Black Forest, he sent the bulk of his army into Switzerland, breaking asunder that country's neutrality, and falling upon the Habsburgs from unexpected directions. Whilst half his force advanced on Milan, the rest pressed into Austria, causing Alphonso to recall elements of his army to face the new threat

And so it would go on, the tides of war breaking first one way and then the other. Plans made carefully would be smashed aside by counter-strokes that anticipated or ignored such plans. Such counter-moves would in turn break upon a more speedy response than anticipated, or a breakdown in supplies, or in simply the fortunes of war and the course of a battle.

And as the war went on, it became harder and harder to ignore its impact in the major cities of the combatants, even if those cities never themselves came under any threat at all. The wounded were everywhere, beggars multiplying, traitors' heads adorning the tops of city gates, political argument raging, the newspapers and magazines fulminating, the economies slowly collapsing, and ever more men were being called up, or impressed, and ever more money was being demanded to fight a war which had more fronts simultaneously than any other before fought

The stress and strain was not just on economies, or political entities, but upon people themselves. Philip V succumbed to a heart attack after running through the Bay of Biscay to make a personal appearance in London to try to force through parliament a new and ruinously expensive Navy Bill. Charles of Italy died of pneumonia after being soaked in the mountains whilst inspecting his troops in the rain. By agreement within the dynasty he was succeeded by his nephew, not a son of Ferdinand, who was of yet still, worryingly, childless, but by the eldest son of his younger brother Edward, Duke of Albany (etc). This young man, also called Charles, arrived in Naples with no Italian, and little understanding of the complexities of his new kingdom, but with an excellent military education, and with tremendous energy. Within weeks he had defeated a French army which had landed behind the lines in Northern Tuscany, and had occupied Rome, forcing the Pope to abandon his long-standing pro-French position

Emperor Alphonso lived on into good old age, his son Ferdinand becoming embroiled in a messy divorce that was only finally sanctioned after Charles II occupied Rome. Childless from his first marriage, Ferdinand was desperate to sire an heir, and in a move which shocked many chose to marry a young Protestant princess from Brandenburg, a widow with three children, whose husband had been killed the month previously. Assured of her fertility, he heartily set about making babies, and was rewarded on the day he received news that Sweden was finally declaring war on Austria by word that his wife was definitely pregnant.

The entry of Sweden-Poland into the conflict made little immediate difference, as Alphonso's German allies held back the advance, and made ready to advance into Poland itself. But in creating a vacuum in the Principalities it exacerbated the conflict there, creating an opening for the Ottoman empire who invaded "to restore order" and delivered a smashing defeat to those Swedish forces remaining there in any strength.

Philip VI of the United Kingdom of Iberia and Great Britain began his reign by diverting a substantial part of his army from the European continent to North America. French support for the Cherokee Confederation had turned a war that had long become a running sore, into a staggering defeat, and a march on the coast that had only been halted by an almost suicidal resistance from the viceregal army. With the French navy harassing the coast, the Habsburg forces were in dire need of relief, and this Philip sent, diverting a planned expedition to Italy to the aid of his American possessions.

Meanwhile France had been far from idle in the Indian Ocean, its warships continuing to grow in number, and inflicting substantial damage on the Habsburg East India traders, whilst an elite force landed at Pondicherry had marched to the relief of Mysore and delivered the Duke of Sussex a stinging defeat

And in every conflict comes something completely out of the blue, out of "left field" as modern parlance would, oddly, say. In this case, it was the Tsardom of Kazan, one of the Russian successor states, and a fusion of Christian Orthodoxy and a subjugated Muslim heritage. Long relegated to the backward position amongst the Russian states, Kazan had benefitted from Sweden's recent wars of devastation against Muscovy, and had been fighting a desultory series of wars against the other Russian states for some years.

Now, though, they had something to offer and the appearance at the court of the ageing Emperor Alphonso of a Kazan noble acting as ambassador who had come via Crimea and the Ottoman empire, caused something of a sensation. As did his offer...

Thus the new year brought a new factor into the equation, as Kazanese forces surged through Muscovy to the borders of Sweden-Poland and hit them in the rear. At the same time, Vienna announced that their new vassals were being given every support, and that Kazan had promised to convert to Catholicism

With the Pope suddenly a convert to the Habsburg cause, King Louis XVIII was finding himself increasingly isolated. His armies had been repulsed from Italy, and although the Italian advance had been bogged down in the Alps, he was clearly on the defensive. The loss of Milan rankled, he having announced its capture as the righting of a historic wrong, and now being openly punned in the Paris underground press as "the wronging" of a historic re-righting. His attempt to invade Iberia bogged down in Catalonia, and although the Habsburgs failed to completely repulse him, it was clear it was going nowhere. Meanwhile within Germany, the few remaining French allies were being over-run, and his own forces clearly placed on the defensive. Only in the Americas and in India was there any good news and that took several months to reach home

The appearance of Kazan in Sweden-Poland's rear was a major blow to French hopes of a resurgant Sweden, and the Ottoman advance in the Principalities served to draw off more forces into S Poland as a breakthrough into Podolia threatened. It was clear that no real aid would be forthcoming from Sweden-Poland, and indeed the rather smallscale Imperial advance into Poland was only being held at enormous effort

As usual though the tides ebbed both ways. Just as events looked as if they would overwhelm the French cause, there came news back to Europe of French warships operating in the Pacific, and the capture of the Manila galleon fleet. Furthermore, French forces crossing from the Indian Ocean even affected a landing in California and overwhelmed the Habsburg garrison there

This was just another aspect of the globalisation of the conflict. Not only were French warships now operating out of bases in Madagascar, Mauritius, the Seychelles and the Comoros, but French and Dutch forces had also occupied Habsburg trading posts in Southern Africa. Whilst the Habsburgs were unable to do much about French bases in the Indian Ocean, Philip VI was determined to regain the initiative in at least one overseas conflict, and committed sizeable forces to the recapture of the South African bases

- - -

* A note on names, the Habsburg princes would likely carry a dual ducal title, such as Duke of Cambridge and Duc de Sevilla, or Duke of Sussex and Duc de Cadiz, etc. They would also have multiple forms of their names - for example Charles in England, Carlos in Spain, Carlo in Italy. Since the story is being more or less told from an English perspective, I've mainly gone with the English option each time, whilst noting that the individual may be better known by his Spanish form and title in the rest of the Western Habsburg dominions.

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
So far, with the curious exception of Kazan, the war had gone along mostly familiar lines, albeit on a wider scale and with greater overseas operations at any one time than ever before. But changes were coming, changes that would begin with what seemed to be unconnected events and then grow into a furore that would see the century out in chaos

Sweden-Poland, assailed on all sides and with its force of arms sadly lacking in comparison to its glory days, splintered into pieces as Kazan forces took Smolensk, and Ottoman armies advanced into Podolia. A faction of Polish nobles rose up and overthrew the Vasa king, proclaiming one of their own number as King of Poland in his place. Within Sweden a similar attempt by a faction to gain control of the government was defeated and the conspirators executed. The king gathered together loyal forces across the North and crossed the Baltic, marching not towards the steadily advancing Kazan forces, but on Warsaw where the new 'king' had had himself crowned as king.

In North America, the Franco-Cherokee alliance succeeded in beating off a counter-offensive by the Habsburg vice-regal army, and in driving South to the coast, achieving their aim in the swamps of Florida, rather than the more populated areas of Felipia (Carolina ?). However, attempts by viceregal and militia forces to drive them back got bogged down, quite literally, and when a giant naval battle off the Florida coast resulted in a resounding French victory, the Habsburg forces retreated North to Felipia, to regroup, rearm and resupply. However, all these things were coming up short - wastage of manpower had been high in the swamps, and few arms and supplies were waiting them back at their bases, French blockade of the coast having prevented many ships from entering the harbours.

General Wyndham, newly arrived from England, took charge at this juncture, creating a defensive perimeter in the South, but directing the majority of forces North, aiming to take the offensive against the French in the area of the Great Lakes. At this moment, one of his senior military commanders, an American-born fellow, defected to the French, and was soon to be heard raising the flag of rebellion, not in the name of France, but in the name of a free and independent America. Although initially few in number, he soon attracted to his flag a scattering of fellows, some of English origin, many of Spanish origin, amongst them a priest and a former army officer who had been invalided into retirement some years previously. From the French stronghold of Fort Louis these men launched what was to become known to history as the Independence Proclamation

Back in Europe, when King Philip VI was finally informed of these events (the delay being due to both bureaucratic incompetence and distance of travel) he was bemused, and scathing; how could a handful of free-thinkers bring down the greatest empire the world had ever known ?

In a shock move, the new 'King of Poland' made a secret approach to the Kazan army and agreed an alliance, based on a cession of territory, whereupon the Kazan forces fell upon the Swedish king and his forces as he rushed towards Warsaw to take back control of his Polish capital. Slaughtered in their thousands, and with their king lying dead upon the battlefield, the Swedes fled back North, the Kazan forces resuming their march on Warsaw and making no mention of the secret treaty

These two sets of events take the attention during this period, but of course the war was raging elsewhere, with successes and failures on both sides. Flushed by his agreement with the Pope, King Charles II of Italy used this mandate to over-run some Papal fiefs whose loyalty to the Habsburg cause was suspect. Sensing imminent isolation, Venice threw themselves into the war on the side of France, and soon Louis XVIII's armies were back within the borders of Savoy, as Charles II battled to defend his Northern base of Milan from a bi-directional attack

German forces loyal to Alphonso invaded the Kingdom of the Netherlands, but were held off from Amsterdam by a determined resistance, bolstered by the timely arrival of a French army. Weakened in the centre, though, French control of Lorraine was challenged by an Imperial thrust that broke down before achieving its objective but did result in almost a half of the duchy remaining in Habsburg hands. Emperor Alphonso held a ceremony reinstating the legitimate claimant from his exile in Milan

In Warsaw, the government of the new king was panicking as the Kazan forces, sweeping to their banner thousands of Russians from the other states now under their sway, swept towards the Polish capital. The Kazan leaders ignored all appeals to abide by the treaty, and even to accept even greater territorial cessions. This latter offer becoming commonly known, there occurred in Krakow a rising of bughers and lower nobility who took control of the province and called for a national convention to bring order and honour to their nation. An Imperial army, poised to advance on Krakow, agreed a non-aggression pact with the new leadership there, and instead by-passed the province, heading towards Warsaw

But the Kazan forces, ragtag though many of them were, greatly outnumbered their Imperial allies, well-supplied and resplendant though most of them were. Shouting defiance to the end, the king secretly tried to flee from the beleagured city and was cut down and killed by some of his own guardsmen. One of his fellow nobles attempted to proclaim himself king in turn and made desperate overtures to the Imperials, but the Kazan army entered the city and a general massacre began

Back in Stockholm, a stunned Riksdag agreed a regency council for the late king's adolescent son, and appointed his uncle, husband of the late king's sister, as overall Regent. But it was enough effort simply to raise and equip an army for the defence of Sweden itself; any idea of carrying the war back into Poland was a pipedream at this time

The Ottoman empire had not been idle, its armies over-running Podolia and entering Volhynia and Ruthenia before being stopped by an over-extension of their supply lines. In the Mediterranean, a French fleet had made an abortive landing in Tripolitania, defeating the Ottoman vassal's fleet, and attempting to project power into Tripoli as a move as much to outflank the Habsburgs to the West as to put pressure on the Ottomans. But the landing had run into trouble, and what troops were landed were soon disembarked and headed for Malta, to challenge the Knights of St John to enter the conflict one way or the other

Initially the Order had been French-leaning, following the inclination of the Pope, but after the Habsburg entry into Rome, and especially the news from Kazan, the Order, like the Pope himself, had leaned further and further towards the Habsburg position. Now, Louis XVIII's admiral would press the issue, and if necessary press the attack

Back in the Americas, General Wyndham's new strategy initially met with success as the new campaigning season dawned, but soon the distances involved, and the fact that French and Indian forces tended to fall back rather than fight open battle was having an exhausting effect upon his men. In addition, increasingly the main French settlements away from the Saint Lawrence had come to be lower down the Mississippi and though he threatened to sever contact between the two ends of the French realm, he could not hope to hold the ground gained without substantial reinforcement - which he knew he did not have, despite repeated pleas to Madrid and London

Believing the Independence threat to be little more than a bad joke, and having faith in Wyndham's abilities, Philip VI had directed his energies elsewhere, sending a Habsburg fleet into the Indian Ocean to challenge the French, and coming to the aid of Malta after the French ended up besieging it. In addition, forces were sent to Italy to bolster Charles II's defences, and into the Adriatic to challenge the remnants of Venice's great power

French defence of the Netherlands turned into a counter-offensive as the weather brightened, and soon a substantial French force was operating in Westphalia and the Rhineland. The increasing calls of these forces, however, weakened the ability of Paris to send reinforcements into Savoy, and soon the conflict there had returned to one of defence, albeit with French forces a hundred miles further East than previously

The Rape of Warsaw had shocked the world, but Emperor Alphonso was a practical man, and as many a commentator said the Kazan army were practically barbarians. Their leaders kept their word to be baptised into the Catholic church, and Imperial Vicars were soon at large within Poland, finding a substantial number of converts, not so much due to surviving Papist cells, as to the impression that conversion would offer immunity from Kazan raping and pillaging, which it largely did thanks to the clerks and administrators who followed in the bishops' wake and noted down who owned what, and who had converted when.

Ottoman forces turned their attention to the Ukraine, forcing a humiliating settlement upon the Cossack Hetman, and securing a large bounty that was a welcome addition to imperial coffers

And in North America, General Wyndham ordered that his army withdraw, destroying every settlement they passed through and burning every fort they abandoned as they went. Whilst practical from a military point of view, this proved a major propaganda victory for the Independents, who soon were crowing that Habsburg rule was not about the well-being of their subjects, but about their simply being their subjects.

Slowly at first, rebel cells began to grow in a number of the American cities

- - -

*1 I could offer names of characters but since they will be dead before too long, due as much to the passage of time as to battles and the like, it seems sensible to restrict myself just to those characters who need names to make the work flow, and since it is written from an English perspective that is where most names mentioned will probably be from

**2 It should be reiterated that Kazan is simply another Russian successor state, after Russia per se was broken up. Muscovy for a long time remained dominant, but the Swedes destroyed it in a campaign simultaneous with the peace enjoyed in the West of Europe. Kazan basically started off by filling a vacuum, discovered that everyone else was actually so weak that they could press the advantage, and then made a deal with the Emperor. The inhabitants of Kazan were a mixture of Russian settlers and native one-time Muslims who had been converted to Orthodox Christianity. Whilst mass voluntary conversion to Catholicism is unlikely, the best place for such to occur would be Kazan, and the example of their leaders doing so would lead to many others deciding it was a good idea too. It can also have something of an air of modernism about it, which Kazan's leaders aspire to. There is no great Orthodox nation, nor has there been since the destruction of Russia, but there are several great Catholic ones, and it is clearly not something that goes against God's will. As for retention of the name, Burgundy might offer an example where it shifted geographically, coming to mean something else, or even Saxony.

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
The disintegration of Sweden-Poland and the sudden climactic arrival on the scene of Kazan could not fail to be noticed by everyone. The events in North America, however, continued to be interpreted in different ways by different people, the range of interpretations ranging from a Peasants Revolt for the modern era on the one hand, a usual campaign with inconsequential offshoots on the second hand, and the portent of something new on the third hand, the latter being of course the most rare, for how many people have three hands ?

Having retreated back to Habsburg lands in the viceroyalty, General Wyndham launched a scathing attack on the lack of support he was receiving from Europe, gaining himself an extra squadron of battleships, and an official, if secret, reprimand for the tone of his report. Whilst retained in military command, he was superceded in political affairs by Ferdinand (III) Duke of York, the third of his line, and a man with great military experience, gained somewhat incongruosly largely in North Africa. He was not in America to command the armies of Philip VI but to co-ordinate army, navy and civilian authorities and lead the military command towards the achievement of a successful conclusion to the conflict. Amongst his staff were a surprising number of Berbers, converts to Catholicism who had served him well in N Africa and whose blond hair and blue eyes meant that their looks were not out of place in N America, except ironically in areas with a high Iberian population

Emperor Alphonso, whilst old and increasingly infirm remained in command of all his mental faculties. He could see as much as the next man that a huge and powerful Kazan was not to be desired as a neighbour. Consequentially he began to negotiate with the so-far untouched Polish remnant in Krakow, whose safety remained at the whim of the Imperial army. A strong buffer state was needed, but Alphonso was adamant that it would have to be Catholic, and that all connections to Sweden would have to be severed. The first caused far more problems amongst the Polish convention delegates than did the second

With the Duke of York co-ordinating between the army and the navy, General Wyndham was assured of supplies and protection for his flanks as he resumed the approach he had abandoned upon assuming command - that of facing the French and the Cherokee Confederation in the South, where the bulk of their forces were engaged and where the bulk of their successes had been achieved. He arrived in Felipia and absorbed into his own army that which he had left to hold the defensive perimeter, and began making plans for the advance

The French and Cherokee had not been inactive, and had constructed on the Southern coast a series of small forts and ports, to which supplies were being delivered by the French fleet still operating with relative impunity in the Caribbean. A number of Dutch privateers also put in, bringing trade from the Dutch outposts on the Southern edge of the sea.

In addition, the French force in the Pacific had enlarged their bridgehead in California, beaten off a desultory Spanish attempt to recapture it, and made alliance with the local Indian Nations. The small fleet had been augmented by reinforcements from the Indian Ocean, and the whole force was able to operate on a self-sufficient basis

Back in the Indian Ocean, both the French and the Habsburgs had reinforced their fleets, and the pitched battles that the former sought occurred, bring cheery if belated news to Madrid and to London as the Habsburg fleet, heavier in large-gunned battleships destroyed French squadrons mainly composed of lighter ships of the line and heavy frigates, ideal for the Indian Ocean in every way, except when your enemy brings a powerful battlefleet into it

Cut off from supplies, the French campaign in India, so far a successful, if somewhat sedate affair, suffered a serious reverse as the Habsburgs began to regain ground, and Indian monarchs, ever fickle, began to switch sides or to hedge their bets

Malta fell to Louis XVIII's forces, despite Habsburg naval assaults on the besieging force, and the fleur de lys was soon after flying in Valetta harbour. France poured in troops and experts to repair and reinforce the defences, and based permanently a naval squadron there, one of sufficient strength to deter all but a main battlefleet.

Habsburg forces in the Adriatic stormed ashore in Dalmatia, seizing Venetian possessions as they worked their way up the coast.

Eastern Habsburg armies remained in the field in the Trentino, against Venice, in Switzerland and Germany against the French, and in Galicia, defending Krakow and opening the gateway to Poland, one that an increasing number of clerics and missionaries passed through

Meanwhile the Ottomans finally crushed Christian resistance in Moldavia and Wallachia and instituted a system of governance ignoring local nobles as candidates for princes but importing Greek magnates from Constantinople to rule as princes for the empire

The army of Kazan began to feel the strain that occurs with peace when the whole impetus had been one of war. With the work of re-Catholicising Poland proceeding apace, but no peace treaty on the table, and with Emperor Alphonso obviously loathe to see the breakup of Poland, there was much wild talk amongst the Kazan commanders. Some wanted to march on Vienna to force the Emperor to accede to mass annexations. Others saw a Christian duty to challenge the Ottoman Empire and march on Constantinople, but were shouted down when reminded that they were no longer Orthodox and that Constantinople's position in the mythos was thus substantially reduced. More sober heads prevailed, arguing that as war was clearly necessary the current one should be fought to a conclusion and that it was not Poland they had been fighting but Sweden. In consequence the great army swang North, some to construct a fleet in Riga and Reval; the rest to advance into Finland

Given breathing space, the Krakow convention was at last able to draw in nobles from across the whole of Poland, and as a majority of these proved to be recent, wholly practical, converts to Catholicism, the first of Alphonso's conditions began to look at last to be possible

In Stockholm there was a general panic. The Regent assumed personal command of the armies, and the fleet began to deliver army formations to those areas threatened by imminent Kazan attack. Strong diplomatic overtures to Denmark resulted in nothing more than laughter, and it was shockingly clear to the Riksdag that Sweden stood alone against the forces of barbarism

The Habsburg naval forces in North America won a string of smallscale, but important, victories to clear the Western coast of French vessels, and were able to keep pace with General Wyndham's unified army as it marched South into the Floridas

Back North, a rebel group led by the Iberian priest had crossed into Habsburg territory and was preparing a rising with one of the stronger rebel cells.

Louis XVIII was tiring of the conflict in Europe, of the backwards and forwards movement of armies in the same old pattern as the rest of the century. The Indian dimension had gone sour, and though the North American campaign still had promise it had largely failed to deliver the promised results of the capture of major towns and cities. Malta looked more like the crowning glory than a stepping stone, whilst the French position within Savoy, Switzerland and Germany was more one of holding the line than of being poised for action. As he explained to his son and heir France had but two choices - one to make peace as things stood, which would not be at all disadvantageous, or to go for a knock-out blow before the cost of the war crippled the French economy. Whilst strategically the little movement on the German, Swiss or Savoy fronts was not a bad thing, it was nevertheless being achieved at a prodigious cost in men, arms and money. Whilst the same was no doubt true for the Habsburgs, Louis XVIII was little bothered by their plight, and only interested in France's. His main dream, that of a French Indian empire, appeared to be in ruins and he was losing the heart for the fight in Europe. The Dauphin, a man keen on the concept of glory, argued for a stunning knockout blow, rather than a whimpering limp towards peace

Under the auspices of Emperor Alphonso, and under the eyes of the Papal Vicar, the Polish National Convention in Krakow voted to agree to the two prerequisites - to adopt Catholicism as the state religion, and to sever all ties with Sweden. It then moved on to what it could agree in a more positive and forward-looking fashion

General Wyndham engaged the Cherokee Confederation in a series of running battles along the flanks of the French army; although these engagements could technically be termed victories, it was the Indian Nations' nature to depart the field, and the gain from each engagement was negligible. In fact, the constant fear of the sudden descent of the Indians led to a growing paranoia that began to infest the men's every action, and when the French did finally bestir themselves to offer battle it was some hours before the viceregal army understood what was happening

A small turn-around had meanwhile been achieved in the Indian Ocean, a Habsburg supply convoy being ambushed and captured by a French heavy frigate squadron operating from a hidden base on the West coast of Madagascar. Although they were unable to make much use of the supplies themselves, their denying them to the Habsburg forces in Southern India indirectly caused the death of the Duke of Sussex, killed in an engagement with Mysore that he might easily have won had he not had to worry about the rate of fire from his men's muskets. His death led to a brief French resurgance before his deputy, General Wellesley, proved that the Habsburg strength had not rested on the royal prince alone

Amongst the swamps and plains of West Florida, the army of General Wyndham at last came face to face with that of his French enemy. General Hoche was a veteran of many a war, and had conserved his forces for just such an occasion. Nevertheless, the viceregal forces were confident - had not the French shyed away from direct conflict until now, and didn't that obviously mean they were either weak or afraid? Unfortunately for the Habsburg army they had misread their enemy, and would suffer for it

Back in Madrid, King Philip VI, confident that the new North American strategy would prove successful, and disdainful of the rebel Independents, ordered that the French be driven from that corner of Catalonia they still held, and that armies from Iberia should penetrate deep within the French realm itself.

The Polish national convention voted to elect as king a man from one of the few dissenting families who had retained their position within the joint kingdom, a Catholic who had ever remained true to his faith, and as a noble had suffered the indignity of never being asked to serve in any office at all in Protestant Sweden-Poland. Now cometh his hour, and he accepted the honour with good grace, and with the Papal Vicar's promise in his pocket

General Wyndham was killed, the majority of his senior officers also, either on the field or cut down by Cherokee Confederation units as they attempted to flee. It was some weeks before Felipia received definite news of the disaster, but the absence of good news had begun to sow the seeds of doubt a long time before that.

In cnotrast, the rebels learned soon from General Hoche of his victory, Indian riders passing the message up the line to Fort Louis where the Independence Convention, as it now termed itself in conscious imitation of the Poles, had gathered a growing number of influential rebels to its banner.

Within the viceroyalty itself, the priest organised a rising, timed to coincide with the arrival of news of the Habsburg defeat. It was two weeks late in occurring, due to vagaries in the post system, and as such went off half-coked with the result that all involved were cut down, the priest last and alone. As such it entered Independents history as a martyrdom, the first rising, a showing of the colours before the storm ahead

Philip VI of the United Kingdom of Iberia and Great Britain was at the Catalan front, personally directing operations, when news reached him of the disaster in West Florida. He suffered a seizure and was rushed to a hospital, the morale and drive of his commanders being broken in its wake, and the new offensive going off only at half-steam, with half-hearted effort as everyone awaited news of the king

Louis XVIII, hearted by the news from India and from America, gave the assent to Plan Zenith, and passed the detail into the hands of the Dauphin, the fifty year-old determined to earn himself a place in the history books, one way or the other. He began to gather veteran detachments in the North, initially in the French Netherlands, but increasingly in Normandy and Britanny, and also diverted naval squadrons destined for the Caribbean to a more Northerly cause, bringing them into Brest and Le Havre and Antwerp.

As a result, a French naval attempt to secure primacy off the Felipian coast was defeated by the Habsburg navy, but Hoche and the Indians succeeded in driving back the defenders, over-running the Southern cities, and posing a threat to the heartland of the viceroyalty

At the same time, the rebels in the North invaded with the support of French irregulars, over-running carefully selected settlements, and bringing about a rising in several towns who declared for the Independants

Habsburg forces at last subdued Venice by a joint land and sea campaign, blowing up the city's defences and causing half of it to succumb to the sea

Swedish defence against the Kazan forces was initially strong and spirited but after several defeats followed by massacres was completely broken. The Regent was killed in action, and the main Swedish fleet destroyed in battle by a recently-constructed Kazan fleet boasting a suspicious number of Habsburg "observers". The Regency Council offered surrender, but the Kazan forces went one further, sacking and burning Stockholm from the sea before retiring and agreeing to consider terms

A Polish National Convention delegation entered Smolensk with Imperial and Papal support, inspecting the condition of Poles there, and offering conversion to anyone willing to undertake acceptance into the Church of Rome

The Duke of York took over defence of the viceroyalty, committing all reserves and militia to the defence of the South, and finally managing to stabilise the line after two running battles best described as draws. His reaction to events in the North was largely one of indifferene - an insignificant bunch of traitors was over-running some towns, so ? He had his job to do - defeat the French, and destroy the Indians...

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
The French invasion of England would come to be seen as a desperate throw of the dice, but at the time was supposed to be a masterstroke, the single move that would force the Habsburgs to the negotiating table and end the war in France's favour.

Operation Zenith, the Dauphin's pet project got off to a good start, with a French fleet, uniting from the various ports it had been dsitributed amongst defeating and all but destroying a Habsburg force late out of London in response to these unforeseen developments. Sad, for the Habsburgs, an equally strong force had but a couple of days previously departed from Plymouth for the Americas, escorting a new army of the best men that England could gather quickly to the colours. Prince Louis had not been aware of this, but it all played into his hands

The French army thus faced nothing more than militia and locally-organised irregulars and soon had complete military control of the South, and were marching on London. Irony often plays a major role in life, and here it piled it on high. King Philip VI normally held things tight to his chest, but because of his incapacity after his collapse in Catalonia, control had been released to local regencies in both Iberia and Great Britain. As a result, London was far more able than it usually would have been to take drastic measures in the defence of the realm. Over the complaints of many, the Regency Council of Great Britain voted to abandon the capital and withdraw North, thus forcing the French to extend their supply lines, whilst at the same time allowing themselves to consolidate what forces could be found

Prince Louis' chosen man, General Kellerman, entered London in virtual silence, the majority of the population having fled, and those who had not soon firing the city in an inferno that all but drove the French out into the country. French naval forces sank any warship they came across on the East coast, but could affect little the forces gathering in the interior. By the time that Kellerman had gathered his forces and was ready to march, the Great British army was nearing half his strength, and gathering at Nottingham

Madrid, learning of these calamities ordered an immediate resumption of the stalled advance from Catalonia.Initial penetration into Cerdagne was curtailed by a spirited French counter-attack, and a Habsburg naval attack upon Narbonne was driven off with heavy losses

Sweden's surrender became an issue of international concern as Kazan attempted to foist upon Stockholm terms that other nations were not comfortable with - for example, how could Sweden cede Eastern Poland when it had long ceased to have effective control there? Emperor Alphonso sent a series of sharp letters to the Kazan leadership, but only the personal intervention of the Pope, stating that he was about to welcome a Catholic Poland back into the fold, brought about a response. Kazan felt betrayed - had it not been offered Smolensk, had it not been offered far more to stop fighting, but it had continued to fight, to Warsaw and to Stockholm, and now its allies insisted it give up the majority of its conquests ? Neither Alphonso nor the Pope saw much justification in these arguments, and a bitter stalemate ensued

Within North America, the Duke of York's stabilisation of the front began to unravel as more and more cities in his rear rose up in support of the Independants. Finally forced to confront the reality of this threat Prince Ferdinand III dispatched General Raphael who soon found himself bogged down in conflict with irregulars, both French and those now calling themselves American

British forces executed a slow and careful retreat from Nottingham to York, constantly gathering veterans, militia and new recruits to the colours, and with the Regency Council appointing the Duke of Norfolk (and several other titles in Spain, Portugal, Italy and N Africa) as commander in chief. Deciding to make a stand at York, he dispatched secondary forces under the veteran, but still fit, cavalry commander, the 70 year Duke of Ormonde, and the young but inspirational Prince Henry of York, nephew to the Duke now fighting in the Americas

General Kellerman found himself assailed on all sides as he advanced on the British provisional capital, but with French warships in the Humber, and off the Tyne, he felt secure and committed his forces. What followed was one of the longest single battles in history, lasting several days and seeing some units go up to 96 hours without sleep as they fought to contain and respond to enemy assaults. Eventually, Kellerman lay dead, his command broken, his cavalry slaughtered and the remains of his army streaming East to the Humber and a naval salvation, harried as they went by Ormonde's cavalry. Prince Henry would die of his wounds and become a national hero, whilst the Duke of Norfolk for his part was appointed sole Regent, pending decision of Philip VI who remained seriously ill in Spain

The Dauphin was found dead two days later, official reports said of a heart attack brought on by stress, unofficial reports said of suicide. Louis XVIII said nothing, and would himself be dead within the year, to be succeeded by his eldest grandson, twenty year old Louis XIX

The old king would live long enough to see French arms in North America overtaken by a national rebellion which swept aside the Duke of York's forces and soon instituted a popular government in those areas remaining to viceregal rule after the advance of French and Cherokee forces. General Hoche would meet with the self-proclaimed President Arnold, a coming together of old men in the best moments of their life

Philip VI recovered enough to give orders and decrees and receive visitors but never was able to walk again. At his death, he was succeeded by his surviving son, Charles II (by Iberian numbering which trumped that of Great Britain). His role in history was to deal with the aftermath of his father's reign, and the devastating new forces unleashed upon the world

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
The end of the Ten Years War was not one of victories, defeats and settlements, but of confusion, collapse and chaos. The reinforcements sent to N America were immediately drawn into the confusing and bloody struggle against the Independents, whilst within Great Britain the end of the French invasion was not met by a return to the status quo ante, but by demands from the gentry that their sacrifices be recognised by compensation and an increase in their political role. In both cases, King Charles II was not willing to negotiate, and in both North America and Great Britain a brutal repression was the order of the day. It was not successful

The young Louis XIX was a more clear-headed fellow than his grandfather and father, and recognised the futility of a war being fought for victory when one had already succeeded in not losing. He secured a ceasefire with Charles II's Italty, and after a short period a truce with the Empire.

Alphonso was by now ailing badly but his mind refused to desert his body, and he held conferences hour by hour at his sick bed. Whilst keen to accept French overtures for peace in the West, his over-riding focus remained on Poland. Kazan must be contained, and Poland must be strong enough to act independently as a buffer state, as longas she was Catholic and free from Swedish influence, a duality which the new king offered in abundance.

Sweden, desperate for formalise peace with Kazan and infuriated by Imperial reservations suggested an international congress to sort things out, and resolve conflicts once and for all. Free of enemy forces, and also free at last of allied Frenchmen, the Kingdom of the Netherlands opened itself up to host such a congress

Charles II of the United Kingdom of Iberia and Great Britain remained dead set against such an event, sending a third army to North America, and a strongly worded message of protest to his namesake, King of Italy, over his peace treaty with the French.

The former proved more significant than the latter which earned but a half-hearted insincere apology. The third army, commanded by the Iberian Duke of Alba, and consisting solely of Spanish and Portuguese soldiers, arrived at a time when the previous two forces were attempting to hold their ground against a rebel offensive. By its harsh policies, the third army drove a swathe of neutral waverers into rebel arms, and in a year-long campaign, all three Habsburg armies were defeated, and largely destroyed, by Independants supported by the French and Cherokee

Budgetary crises which had raised their heads earlier in the war and then seemed to be solved by certain difficult-to-quantify expedients now came to the fore again. Economics is a lot about confidence, and when confidence wanes a seemingly impregnable position can suddenly be immensely vulnerable. This realisation, available to common man, yeomanry and gentry alike, was more insulated when it came to the high aristocracy, and when it came to royalty King Charles II refused to entertain the idea at all.

Kazan made a bad grace peace, accepting a Swedish cession of Finland in return for giving up all claims to Polish Smolensk, and getting full international recognition of the unification of former Russian states under her auspices in return for conifirming the national conversion to Catholicism.

The replacement of all N American commanders with the Duke of Norfolk proved to be a disaster as he was unable to transfer his organisation skills, succesful in the defence of Great Britain to dealing with a rebellion from amongst the viceroyalty's own populace. His assassination simply put a seal on the whole affair, and with French and Cherokee forces riding shotgun, President Arnold entered into his full inheritance - well, full if one discounted Southern Felipia which he ceded to France and Appalachia, a Habsburg claim they had never made good, which was the Cherokee heartland

The defeat in N America had a knock-on effect within Great Britain where a gentry and lower nobility, largely drawn to a Deist and Agnostic tradition, defeated Habsburg attempts to reimpose order by the use of Iberian veterans, and after the death of Norfolk was confirmed, broke away in a declaration as bold as that being issued time after time by Arnold across the Atlantic

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
I think I was a bit bored last night. That's it for now, but it was intended to carry on

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
AWESOME!!!! Massive Hapsburg Anglo-Spanish Empire that slowly falls, not with a whimper, but with several, loud, globe-encompassing bangs.

Also, a very nice take on doing a TL with such a distant and far-reaching POD. I'm eager to see how things turn out.
 
AWESOME!!!! Massive Hapsburg Anglo-Spanish Empire that slowly falls, not with a whimper, but with several, loud, globe-encompassing bangs.

Also, a very nice take on doing a TL with such a distant and far-reaching POD. I'm eager to see how things turn out.

Thank you!

A comment is all I need to get me writing again tonight :)

The next piece is already partly written, but I fell asleep!

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
The peace congress initiated by Sweden with Dutch support, and growing quickly to include Imperial, Papal, Italian and Kazan attitudes soon echoed out fuirther among the nations of Europe. Held in Amsterdam, it was a perfect venue for all concerned, but only disaster would drive the French and the Western Habsburgs there

Louis XIX, flushed and confident after the successes in North America was torn between his desire to end the war, and the national shame at the defeat within Great Britain. Hoping to square the circle, he decided that a major push into Spain would surely drive the Western Habsburgs to the peace congress, whilst also giving back to France her honour and standing within Europe - for how many nations took great note of her gains in North America ?

With the front in Cerdagne as frozen as that in Catalonia had previously been, he ordered his armies, now free of conflict in the North and East, to advance into Spanish Navarre and the Basque provinces of Iberia.

Charles II of the United Kingdom of Iberia and (more or less in name only at this juncture) Great Britain, faced off against the invasion at a significant disadvantage. His best forces had been decimated in N America, others were even at that moment raising the Irish loyalists to the crown, and preparing an invasion of Wales, whilst operations in North Africa had drawn in others, against both French and Ottoman forces, operating in an uneasy alliance.

Within Great Britain, the heartland of the uprising was in England and amongst the nobility of Wales. Scotland remained cool to both sides, the aristocracy divided, and the people feeling distant from the conflict. Ireland increasingly rallied to the Habsburg cause, the presence of a significant Iberian army reminding the devout Catholics of their duty, and presenting the Agnosticism and Deism of a significant minority of the English gentry as a deadly heresy that needed to be rooted out.

This army continued to make preparations for a landing in Western Wales, and the leaders of the Uprising attempted to organise a response from less than enthusiastic Welshmen, many of whom had a fervent hatred of their local lesser nobility, ironmasters and coalmasters that many of them were. Whilst this was going on in Great Britain, the Iberian forces available to Charles II attempted to hold back the French invasion.

But against elite and veteran troops, fresh from their long years of campaign within Germany, or NW Italy, the hastily-assembled second-rate forces of the Iberians were no match, and were soon smashed, and routed. In the long term this would prove a disaster for France

Charles II was not a man to give up, though the word "pig-headed" might better describe this sentiment. He ordered new armies to be raised, and took personal command of these forces, determined that Habsburg honour would be redeemed. Whilst the French were over-running the Basque provinces, securing Spanish Navarre and launching twin advances, one into Aragon, and the other towards the Asturias, Charles II was reviewing his new forces, older men, and younger men, the less able, the less fit and criminals released from their sentences to serve. He refused to call back the army from Ireland, and was unable to disengage any forces from N Africa for to do so would risk collapsing the entire front. Instead he placed his confidence in numbers, and in his own, ultimately unproven, ability as a commander. It was not a wise equation

But the further the French advanced, and the longer the Habsburgs held out, the more difficult the strains on the French economy became, the longer the supply lines, the more Habsburg naval forces harried any attempt to supply the advancing forces by sea, and the more local disaffection with both the Habsburg government in Madrid, and the French military authorities grew

As the Congress of Amsterdam hashed out settlements for the German war, the Italian and Polish conflicts, everyone was well aware that there were two major principals missing. The self-declared Commonwealth of Great Britain sent a representative but was denied recognition, whilst the Republic of America was recognised, but given no representation as the Habsburgs had already signed a peace treaty with their leadership.

Both Austria and Italy pressed Charles II to end the war, stressing that simply agreeing to this condition would see the withdrawal of French forces, and the settlement of all differences by committee. But the Western king was unable to stomach what he saw as simple surrender, and determined to prove his critics wrong, and to lead in person his new armies to victory. Victory there would be, but it would not be his

For a short while it was that of France, but the annihilation of the Iberian army at Zaragossa, and the panicked flight of Charles II brought to the French the problem of suddenly having an area almost double the size of that previously administered to control by military force alone. Locals refused to work with the occupation authorities, and those few, mainly ambitious nobles, who did agree were soon assassinated, struck down in the darkness or fire-bombed out of their homes.

Louis XIX was forced to send ever larger amounts of monies into Spain to administer areas which he had no interest in, which France had no claim to, and whose populations increasingly hated them. In such conditions, the example of England was enough to bring about a revolution, local juntas proclaiming regional self-rule, and announcing a national convention in Galicia, which too rose up against both the collapsing Iberian government, and the French who had not yet penetrated deeply into the region. Portugal too rose up under a particularist regime, initially including several ambitious members of the local aristocracy, but after a series of disagreements over direction seeing them bloodily purged and more common representatives, commanders of the urban militias, take control of the Provisional Government formed in Lisbon.

Faced with the complete collapse of Habsburg authority across much of Iberia, and the end of financing for supply and reinforcements, Habsburg arms ground to a halt elsewhere. In N Africa, the commander agreed a truce, and used the breathing space to proclaim himself Emperor of Algiers, meeting surprising little resistance, either from his veteran army or from the settler population, both of whom were happy to be spared the bloodshed and chaos now blossoming across Iberia.

In Ireland, the last remaining combatant army of the Western empire pressed on with its planned invasion of Wales, but with less force than intended. Battling their way out of Pembrokeshire, they became bogged down in Glamorgan, and the series of battles which ensued brought little conclusion, but much death and destruction. The Habsburgs were saved from disaster by a popular rising in the rear of the Commonwealth army, the actions of its commanders having lit the fuse of common anger, and brought about an explosion that matched the severity of that in certain areas of Iberia. Local committees took charge, Commonwealth officers were cut down, and patrols attacked, and whilst London sent out a second army to rescue their first, the badly-hurting Habsburg forces used the reprieve to withdraw back to Ireland

Charles II retired to a redoubt in Andalucia and attempted to rebuild his authority, but across the rest of Iberia the loose federation of regional juntas was successfully commanding popular support, driving out, or massacring those factions which refused to accept their authority, and in the areas under French control co-ordinating, often at great personal cost, attacks against the occupation authorities

The budget over-strained, morale rapidly sinking, and with the financial markets collapsing in Paris, King Louis XIX faced the realisation that France could not afford to continue the war, but that any attempt to disengage would bring with it popular revolution that would overtake a substantial part of his forces. The aged General Hoche was brought back from the Americas to attempt to organise a withdrawal, but with the promised naval support whittled down by dockyard strikes, and the failure of deliveries of supplies, Hoche's arrival in Santander failed to be the inspiration that the French king had hoped. Instead, he was accompanied by a bare half of the promised naval strength, with even less of the promised supplies, and with small-scale mutinies aboard several vessels which had only been forced to sea by harsh measures against the crews.

Whilst Hoche struggled to take effective command of the dispersed and bogged down French forces, the federation of junta met in session in Galicia, electing a president and a military command, and sending out representatives into the regions to better work with the local forces gathering under local banners

A dagger slipped beneath his bottom rib by a disgruntled guards office put paid to Charles II, and his family, including his successor the young Charles III, fled to Italy. Andalucia fell to local junta, and the remains of the Habsburg armies there fought amongst themselves, eventually to emerge united under one General Vittoria who pledged his allegiance to the federation, but made no move to cede any of his authority, thus at one stroke becoming the single most powerful commander of any armed force within Iberia - or Spain as it perhaps should be said, since the Lisbon government had declared independence, proclaiming the Commonwealth of Portugal, and driving out Spanish merchants and nobles who resided within their territory

With great expense, and much bloodshed, the combined Commonwealth armies in Wales put down the popular rebellion in the valleys, but ruled thereafter by garrisons and fortresses, rather than from mansion houses and churches, as previously. The Southern Welsh simmered in bitter hostility, but would remain compliant enough that the London government was able to hold elections to the Commonwealth assembly, called to formalise their seizure of power

By careful management, Hoche succeeded in shortening French lines, withdrawing from Eastern Galicia and most of the Asturias, and forming a defensive line within Aragon, with little loss, except amongst those elements of the local populations who had collaborated with them, and were now forced to flee with the French, or stand and face almost certain death at the hands of the junta's courts - if the people did not get them first

In Amsterdam, the delegations viewed these events with some alarm, not least because Commonwealth and Junta were beginning to be seen as worthy ideas amongst elements of their own people. Italy entirely withdrew from the Congress, stating that it had nothing to gain, since France had already agreed its common border, and it was no concern of anyone other than their Austrian cousins what happened to Venetian territory. Other delegations drifted into stagnation, their senior representatives returning home to deal with the increasing social problems that were now gathering force across the continent

The almost guttering congress was only given new life by French disasters the following Spring, the first of the new century. Hoche proved unable to repeat his manoevres of the following Autumn and a planned careful withdrawal into the Basque provinces became a rout as the juntas rose, and Spanish localised forces ambushed and cut off formation after formation. After Hoche himself only narrowly escaped such a fate, all control evaporated and French forces streamed back towards the frontier, the aged general, now an exhausted and almost broken man, being evacuated by warship from San Sebastian as the city rose in revolt around him.

The site of the devastated French forces straggling back into French Navarre proved the lie to Louis XIX's claims to have ended the war with honour, a desperate twisting of the truth that Paris had been putting out with accounts of the young Charles III's court of exile in Florence.

The rising of several cities, and an increasing particularist problem in Navarre, Languedoc and Provence, caused Louis XIX to send his brother, the Duc de Berry, to Amsterdam and demand a pan-European response to what he termed "anarchism". In protest, the British withdrew their unrecognised delegation, whilst the Swedes, ruled perhaps by a forerunner of the more extreme movements now gaining currency, voiced a protest.

But the 'Liberation' of Spain did not bring peace, the internal contradictions between a federal government bringing the juntas together, and the local populace suporting them in their own regions, proving almost impossible to pull together in any except a military fashion, and that only in the face of a common enemy. Only in Andalucia, where General Vittoria ruled with an iron fist, was the ideal perhaps seen in one form, if not in that of liberty

Charles III's embassy to Amsterdam met with widespread derision, but it could not be denied that it came with the same aim in mind as that of Louis XIX, the return of the social fabric to normality, and the reimposition of traditional forms of government

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
There now ensued a period when even the notion of monarchy would come under threat. In Sweden it was already little more than symbolic, in Poland it was as much the first among equals as anything else. In the Western Empire it had disappeared entirely, except for the Loyalist Catholics in Ireland, and perhaps in a perverted fashion by the self-declared Emperor of Algiers, who used monarchial forms, and ruled in a monarchial style, even though nobody outside his realm recognised the legitimacy of any of this.

In the island of Great Britain, the Commonwealth government was bolstered by the successful conclusion of elections, for even though substantial opposition movements won a large number of seats, their participation in the democratic process gave legitimacy, even by default, to the regime

Within Portugal a similar situation was emerging, though more bloodily and with greater massacres of opponents, be they Spanish communities in Portuguese cities, or aristocratic cliques, raising their own armies to attempt to gain influence within the reborn nation

But Spain remained fragmented. Only in Andalucia was there strong rule, elsewhere the contrasting dual function of the juntas made them enemies of part of the local population, angry at the seeming kowtowing to the federation, and of the federal government, angry at its own dictates being constantly watered down across the regions. The federation held, but localised conflicts between factions were commonplace, and the federal authority became starved of resources as any monies raised locally came increasingly to be spent locally by the ruling faction in seeing off their rivals, or in failing to at which point the incoming faction would seize the money and use it to consolidate their position. The fleet rotted, and territories overseas became neglected, the remaining American vice-royalties increasingly looking to their own resources as any lead or direction, whether from Spain or from Charles III in his Florentine exile, seemed but a pipe dream

Within India, the great winners from the weakness spread across Western Europe were the Dutch and the Danes, the virtual collapse of Habsburg power, and the crippling budget crisis of the French, allowing the more mercantile-based colonial authorities of these two nations to utilise their resources and greatly expand their influence

In North America, the French dominions remained peaceful, the Northern settlements thriving in contact with the Republic of America, the Southermost settlements enjoying a similar boom in alliance with the Cherokee Confederation. Their numbers not requiring monies or supplies from the home land, the French viewed events across the Atlantic with some bemusement. There was much sadness at the fate that had overtaken old Hoche, but with that a feeling that the old hero should never have left the Americas behind; this was where he belonged, and his fall from grace in Spain only confirmed that opinion amongst the French settler populations

Virtual civil war was now engulfing much of Southern France, made worse by the twin problems of frozen finances in Paris, and thousands of disaffected soldiers roaming the Southern provinces, all honour lost in Spain, unpaid and starving and open to any master who could give them any of these three things.

The Congress in Amsterdam sought to combat the ills now assailing the nations of Europe, but only the representatives of the Tsar of Kazan could look upon events in the sure and certain knowledge that the infection was not spreading into their own realm even as they spoke

For a while it looked as if things could be contained, the sporadic outbreaks of revolt in the German states, Northern France, the Netherlands, or the Eastern Habsburg dominions being contained, but this was to be the calm before the storm. And its catalyst, that general of ausopicious name, Vittoria, Presidente of Andalucia within the federation of the juntas of Iberia (in fact just being Spain)

Civil revolts in Valencia and Barcelona bringing Catalan nationalists to power, the federal government requested (for one did not order him) General Vittoria to suppress these regimes and return the two geographic junta to an agreeable governance. Securing what little monies were available, and keen to flex his muscles, Vittoria progressed North, his disciplined troops seeing off hodgepodge Catalan forces before he swept through the one city, and then laid bloody siege to the second. The attempt of a rival faction in Malaga to seize control of that junta in his rear was seen off by a flying column that swept back down to the city and massacred both the rebel leadership and the crowds that had come out in their support. Pausing only to loot a few country estates, this flying column continued down the coast and soon took control of what small naval force remained to the nation, a half dozen battleships rotting in Cadiz, but still crewed and armed. Enthusing their bored and despondent crews the flying column accompanied them by sea round the coast to Barcelona and brought the siege to a successful, and fiery end, the city being devastated and that portion of the inhabitants who did not flee, massacred. Bloody Vittoria, as he was now being known, pushed on up the coast, not only over-running the rest of Catalonia, but sweeping into Roussillon and Cerdagne within France and laying siege to Narbonne, where he again used his small navy to good advantage

Louis XIX had watched this progression with growing alarm, and had agreed to cede a large strip of the French Netherlands, to Amsterdam, for a loan enabling him to raise and equip a veteran force, and ready some of the ships immobilised at Toulon for sea. Even as the people of Paris rioted and took to the barricades in protest at the direction of this money whilst they starved, he sent this force towards Narbonne, to raise the siege, and restore French honour

In a heated exchange at Amsterdam, the Tsar of Kazan offered, as something of a joke or throwaway remark, to make some of his veteran forces available to the Western powers. The suggestion was met by a thoughtful silence instead of the expected hilarity, only Emperor Ferdinand, who had finally succeeded Alphonso upon the old man's death, looking seriously concerned at the idea

Across the Atlantic, and at something of a remove from its own territory, the IDEA of the Republic of America was nevertheless beginning to have serious repurcussions in other viceroyalties of the Western Empire. Charles III from Florence may decree things, and the reminted coinage might bear his likeness, but it was clear that each of the viceregal governments was on its own. French influence across the Great Plains, and the French settlement in California, which now looked like a permanent institution, was putting especial pressures upon Mexico. There the Iberian elite was faced with the native-born mixed aristocracy, mixed both with Indian and with British elements, the Irish being especially well represented in certain areas. This combination of loyalties led to the half-suggestion of a great Crusade to secure the North meeting with widespread approval and soon volunteer regiments of various hues were gathering to march.

Further South this amalgamation of Loyalist sentiments was much less common, and in Bogata and Caracas, in Lima and Buenos Aires local populations fought running battles against the military force of the viceroy. In Salvador, capital of the viceroyalty of Brasil, the forces worked the other way, the viceroy's government declaring for the reborn nation of Portugal, the sizeable Spanish and British populations within his cities banding together to resist this in armed uprising

Only chaos was a constant

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
General Vittoria spent the Winter consolidating his position before Narbonne and building up and resupplying his forces, the writ in his rear being little challenged, even across Catalonia which lay broken and prostrate behind him. Similarly the new French army gathered itself, the ships at Toulon repaired and refitted, dissidents were identified and shot, or hung, and the seas of the Gulf of Lyon slowly returned to active French control.

Come the Spring and both sides looked forward to a clash of arms, something more worrying in retrospect for the French who were unproven and more desperate. Yet the battle could have gone either way, its early moves seeing several chances for the French to press their early advantage, but Vittoria holding on, and by eveningfall, his warships having evaded the less-experienced French vessels able to pour shot down onto the exposed flank of the French army along the coast. As they broke and ran, Vittoria pressed a night attack, something he had perfected during the Catalan campaign, but something that the French were completely unprepared for. Their order disintegrated, and by dawn the survivors were to be found streaming across the hills several miles away. Narbonne capitulated the next day, all hope of rescue now gone. For once Vittoria was relatively magnanimous in victory, only hanging a dozen leading citizens in his eagerness to lead the chase after the devastated French army

Louis XIX abandoned Paris in the face of a popular uprising, his sending in of the Guards against the population breaking down as frontline units refused to fire on the women and old men manning the barricades. As Vittoria pressed East into Provence, and serious outbreaks of revolt spread into Britanny and Flanders, the king took refuge in the heavily militarised area of Lorraine, ironically an area where local hatreds of the French ran deepest, but where the garrison forces were strongest and most in control across the whole of France

The increasing fragmentation of France had serious repurcussions for Germany, and also for the Netherlands, led in another irony by the disaffected French settler population who found themselves in the areas which Louis had agreed to sell to Amsterdam. These areas rising in pro-French rebellion, others rose in anti-monarchial revolt, and even a few small Northern areas of the kingdom in a Protestant uprising where minor nobility, long hiding their genuine Protestant beliefs, made their presence known and invited in Oldenburg and Hannoverian forces to support them in a religious war

This religious spark polarised the nations of the Holy Roman Empire, until now united behind the Emperor in opposing popular "common" revolt. A series of "provocations" where agitators claimed that Catholic Imperial forces had over-reacted and massacred people who were "protesters and not rebels" led to a number of princes putting protests before the emperor. In vain did Ferdinand protest that such religious differences were a thing of the past, and their use merely playing into rebel hands.

A break between Vittoria and the federal government of Spanish junta began small, with their asking him to return and intervene in Aragon where a separatist movement had seized control of the Zaragossa junta, and his ignoring them and invading Provence. With the Basque provinces interpreting these events as an opportunity to elect separatist delegates to their junta, the federal government ordered Vittoria to return. He did not,but the successor to his flying column was now a whole army dispatched back to Andalucia to deal with elements that the federal governent were supporting and stirring up in his rear as a means of coercing him. After their annihilation, and the massacre of elements which had been seen to support them, this second army marched on Madrid

Vittoria meanwhile had reached Avignon, his advance forces laying siege to Marseilles and Toulon, his ranging cavalry cutting off the South coast from the French forces of the interior. With separatist governments now seized of power in Brittany, Navarre and Flanders, where they clashed with pro-French irregulars in insurrection against the Dutch, Louis XIX's writ was restricted to an area consisting of the heavily militarised East (Lorraine and Burgundy), Normandy, and the area between the Vendee and Boulogne. Even within these areas, popular revolts drew his forces away from gathering to oppose Vittoria as he approached Lyons, and his detached army threatened to overwhelm the major French bases of the South

The Duc de Berry, representing his brother in Amsterdam, was hard-pressed to put a good light on events, and was listened to in stark horror by most other leaders of delegations as he outlined the spread of subversive ideas. The Netherlands was already involved in two severe civil conflicts, the one in the South where the newly annexed territories had spawned militia which had ravaged the Southern historical provinces, and the other in the North where Protestant forces, supportted by NW German states, were in open revolt

Emperor Ferdinand was desperately looking for solutions which would not involve Germany in a ruinous religious war, and once again, more seriously this time, the Tsar of Kazan offered his veteran forces for Western Europe. This time Ferdinand instructed his representative, the Prince of Liechtenstein, to open negotiations for such an eventuality, requiring him to insist upon the absolute integrity of Poland, and a constancy to the Catholic faith. Somewhat surprised, but never one to be discouraged, the Tsar sent his brother Grand Duke Josef to negotiate directly with the Imperial delegation

By the time that Josef arrived in Amsterdam, Vittoria's forces had taken Marseilles, and the French naval force at Toulon had burnt itself rather than fall into enemy hands. Vittoria's deputy was laying siege to Madrid, and his diplomats agreeing a treaty of recognition with the Emperor of Algiers

Charles III in Florence was an increasingly irrelevant figure, his court more famous for its sexual debauchery than for any political manoevrings, and only a decreasing number of American viceroyalties taking notice of its decrees in the world of global politics. Ironic as it may seem, Mexico which professed itself most loyal, increasingly ignored the decrees from out of Florence, formulating the theory that they were "degraded" versions of "true" Habsburg doctrine

The "crusade" into the North broke upon the desert in the West, but was able to reacquaint the East with Habsburg rule, and drive the Cheyenne, Arapahoe and Kiowa back from deep within their borders, making alliance with Apache and Comanche, and threatening the Western flank of the French upon the Mississippi, though further advance than this would have proved impossible. The French dominion government made settlement, and peace reigned in the South of North America, but the continued independent French presence in California continued to rankle in Mexico City, and the vice-regal government decided that only a naval solution would offer any chance of victory

Pro-Portuguese forces in Brasil had got bogged down in conflict with Spanish and British settlers on the one hand, proclaiming allegiance to Charles III, and with workers and slave armies on the other, who offered allegiance to no man except themselves

Neither Florence nor Madrid was able to offer much hope or assistance to the Americas, and even those areas proclaiming most virullent loyalty to either Charles III or the federal junta relied soley upon their own devices

As Vittoria's deputy besieged Madrid, and he himself advanced into the Free County, in ironic reflection of older Spanish policy, Louis XIX agreed a full and binding alliance with the Tsar of Kazan through his brother Grand Duke Josef. A fleet of Kazan warships, successors to that which participated in the defeat of Sweden, brought Kazan forces to Amsterdam, and to the amazement of most the populace their forces marched out through the city and into the country to head for where their new ally had requested their presence

Within the Commonwealth of Great Britain many voices were raised against the presence of "beastmen" and "Tatars" in the West of Europe, denigrating them as baby-eaters and child-rapists, as the nicest of things said about them. The fact of a large of Kazan army marching South to engage Vittoria's army excited the imagination everywhere, and the actuality petrified local populations into terrified co-operation

Vittoria had never met an enemy like this, and certainly never one whose civilian population so willingly gave it information against his own movements. But neither had a battle been fought on French soil against an invader who had virtually conquered the South, and with the fall of Lyons was now advancing on the last redoubt of the French royal family.

Within Spain, the calls that Vittoria made for this campaign reduced his second army to a level where it was unable to take Madrid, and where federal junta forces were able to regain the initiativer and hold the capital.

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
It was no surprise when federal junta forces were unable to exploit their holding onto Madrid, in fact it was enough for them to do so, rather than fall to any of the conflicting factions.

Austria the while maintained a relative peace, the Emperor focused more on events across the Empire, than in his own dominions but particularist movements proved as contagious as popularist risings. Hungary rose in a ragged national rebellion, the nobility having difficulty reconciling their oaths and their nationalism.

Ferdinand detached the majority of his standing armies to deal with the crisis, whilst maintaining a strong presence within Germany, and in the former Venetian domains

Even though the Eastern Habsburg lands experienced this convulsion, Austria remained one of the more stable lands as the froces unleashed by ruinous war raged about the European continent.

The Kazan army mrached to war, deployed for battle as Vittoria attempted a swing towards Dijon, West before East, hoping to avoid their main force, but ready if they did not. They did not.

Skirmishes preceded the battle, running fights along the lines as both sides manoevred for battle. Eventually, Vittoria realised he could not evade the Kazans, and that he must fight Grand Duke Josef. He swung around away from Lorraine, forcing the Kazan army onto the backfoot, and attacked.

Historians would later say that the failure of Vittoria's forces to take Madrid was a harbinger of things to come, but this was a nonsense - if he had won at Dijon, he could later have sent more of his force back into Iberia. His defeat at Dijon did not hinge in any way on the stalled front within Spain, the main army that he had was a quite separate force.

Lose he did, though, and not in a limited fashion, but on a massive one. Everything was even for much of the day, nightfall bringing a limited advantage to the Kazan forces who had held their ground and repulsed the Spanish. The second day of the battle showed that neither side had spent the night asleep - Vittoria had redeployed his forces ready to strike at the weaker Kazan right with overwhelming force, but the Kazan commanders had sent a force round the flanks of the Spanish, taking advantage of relatively friendly Frenchmen to guide them in the dark. As Vittoria launched his killing blow, the Kazan army launched its own, right up his posterior, smashing through it and catching his leftwing before it could completely break the Kazan right. Vittoria died somewhere on the field of battle, his naked body later dragged behind a horse to a church where it was left for locals to dispose of. A priest ensured he got a decent burial, but the next day the grave was empty. A few years later a few Kazan soldiers told the tale of their digging up the body, roasting it and feeding it to the dogs. Maybe it was the truth; nobody ever claimed that Vittoria had ascended into Heaven as a new element in the Godhead

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
Rather than find himself a loser from the annihilation of his prospective ally, Vittoria, the self-declared Emperor of Algiers took the opportunity to imprison Vittoria's representatives and sell them back to the federal junta in Madrid. The situation remained unchanged, but at least it had got no worse for him

In Amsterdam, initial jubilation at the news that the Kazan army had defeated and killed Vittoria turned to alarm as news reached them that the Kazan force had pressed on, retaking Marseilles from Vittoria's shattered remnants and then chasing the Spanish back Westward in a bloodthirsty pursuit, before pouring across the border into Catalonia.

From Florence, Charles III issued a proclamation "welcoming" the Kazan army into Iberia as "liberators" and exhorting them to remember that the people of Spain were the "loyal subjects led astray" of His Majesty

By the time this missive reached the Kazan army it had already burnt Valencia and wreaked ruin upon a Barcelona which had in desperation thrown its gates open to them. The Kazan advanced on Malaga and Granada, into the heartland of Vittoria's early support. From Madrid came but few words of protest, the prospect of Vittoria's entire nest of supporters being wiped out proving more attractive than fears of death and destruction amongst the innocent proved problematic

Louis XIX journeyed in the wake of the Kazan army, half-escorted by Imperial forces which Ferdinand had sent to his aid, and half by remnants of his own Guard regiments. They toured the scene of the battle before Dijon then passed through Lyons, which was largely unscathed, having been by-passed by the main Kazan force, to Marseilles which was a shattered ruin, with unburied bodies in the streets and the harbour filled with similar human and wooden detritus. The French king stayed only two hours before heading back North, reports saying that the "God-awful stench" was to blame for this

Within Portugal, the heyday of the workers was coming to an end as a counter-revolution by the gentry and lesser nobility sought to emulate what they saw as the "strong and stable Commonwealth of Great Britain". A revolt in Faro was bloodily suppressed, and a bizarre mixture of anarchists and Habsburg monarchists in Porto was crushed before it could get anything meaningful together. Thus emboldened, the assembly chose a Dictator for a period of two years, someone to pull policy together with defined powers that he could act alone in without reference to the assembly. In conscious copying of the American form, many began to term the Dictator as "President" even tho the Iberian word meant something completely different in its usual application

These events had their echo across the Atlantic where the 3-way civil war in Brasil was still raging between pro-Portuguese elements, British and Spanish Royalists, and workers and slaves who acknowledged neither man nor God as their better. With the news breaking of the Dictators crackdown on workers councils and of the "easing out" of worker delegates from certain departments of the assembly, the workers made common cause with the Royalists, ensuring the defeat of the smaller Portuguese Nationalists, and ransacking their estates. Whilst slaves wreaked their vengeance on their masters, and workers looted the mansions of the deposed nobility, the mercantile and industrialist factions forming the Spanish and British Royalist community took effective control of the government, sending a letter of loyalty to Charles III in Florence, and inviting him to come and take direct control of the colony

Mexico, pursuing a middle policy between ignoring Charles III's court in Florence and giving protestations of their loyalty, embarked upon a naval construction programme on their West coast, drawing in artisans from the Manila fleet, and a number of lesser warships from the Philippines which they were able to buy the ships, and the services of the crews of.

In the North, the French in California no longer bothered to try to interdict the Fleet, after all they already had a nice place to live so why risk their lives. Things got even more complicated when French parties ranging out from the initial settlement reported the presence of gold in an area where they were constructing an outer trading settlement with the Indians. Now, many of the sailors poured into the interior, determined to make their fortune.

The global nature of the events of the early years of the new (19th) century was further emphasised when the Habsburg colonies within India, centred upon Bombay and Goa in the West, upon receivign the news from Brasil declared for Portugal after months of unrest, and carried out a purge of Habsburg Royalists, many of whom fled into the interior.

In Florence, Charles III proved unwilling to leave his many sexual partners behind, as did most of his court, but a couple of female-side cousins had more balls. One, the Duke of Harwich and Minorca, a Howard scion whose mother was a Habsburg, announced his "willingness" to go to Ireland as Charles' viceroy, whilst another, an Austrian who had been created Duke of Plymouth and Tortelissas upon his marriage to a Western Habsburg princess begged Charles III to send him to Salvador, if the king did not wish to go there himself. Charles was uncertain, unwilling to let powerful men out of his sight, but Emperor Ferdinand prevailed upon him, and he eventually agreed - if Ferdinand would pay for the missions. This the exasperated Holy Roman Emperor agreed to do

The army of Kazan meanwhile had wreaked bloody vengeance upon Andalucia, and pressed on to Cadiz, a loyal junta to the federal government in Madrid. Operating upon their understanding of orders from Amsterdam, they laid siege to the city, and in a series of costly assaults across the isthmus carried the defences and massacred the inhabitants. The Kazan commander then read out a communique, denouncing non-monarchical forms of government and urging Madrid to return to the proper form of governance and invite back their king

This series of events owed far more to Louis XIX and the Prince of Liechtenstein and their manoevrings than it did to any wish or word of Charles III, whose embassy at Amsterdam was pitiable, and whose interests were largely being "protected" or determined by his fellow monarchs. In such a way, then did the name and "policy" of Charles III come to be associated with the Massacre at Cadiz by both the federal junta in Madrid, and the Spanish people in general. The immediate result was an outpouring of national sentiment, the protestations of loyalty to Madrid, and the raising of additional forces by the localised junta, these to be sent to Madrid to participate in the anticipated battle to defend the city against the "barbarian horde"

In the Commonwealth of Great Britain, these events merely proved them right all along in denigrating the Kazan army as "Tatars" with all the barbarian associations that brought. As such, there was a movement amongst many to send Volunteer Regiments to fight alongside their "post-Habsburg brothers" in Iberia. Madrid welcomed any and all offers of military aid, and thus several thousand British soldiers were soon crossing the Bay of Biscay to disembark in Spain. Privateers from out of Ireland sank several of the transports before the British resorted to basic convoys, using what naval strength they could rustle up - mainly by denuding their Eastern coast, and thus opening THAT up to Habsburg-paid privateers operating out of the Frisian coast

Meanwhile, within Western and Northern France, the various revolutionary and particularist governments which had seized power and driven the Royalists out began to form into a confederation of interest, modelled in part upon the German states of the HRE who retained their sovereignty but modelled in interest upon the Spanish federal junta which co-ordinated defence against its enemies. With Louis XIX with Eastern Habsburg money raising a new army in the Netherlands, and yet more troops from Kazan arriving by sea, the many governments were well aware they would soon need to act decisively in their own defence

Within Hungary, the Nationalist uprising elected Prince Esterhazy as its king, appealing to other European monarchies to recognise it as a worthy equal and not see it as a revolutionary evil. But with France's Louis XIX and the Western Habsburg Charles III both relying upon Eastern Habsburg money, and neither Italy nor Poland having any interest in upsetting their current enviable positions of peace, this plea fell almost upon deaf ears. It did though meet with interest in Istanbul, where the Ottomans agreed to send an ambassador to Buda and open discussions. At the same time they sent a delegate to Vienna to both reassure the Emperor of their friendship and to gauge his true strength

The action of Irish privateers in the Bay of Biscay had goaded the junta of Coruna to rebuild some its naval strength and to attempt to aid the small British navy in safely escorting the British Volunteer Regiments to Spain. As such a couple of third rates and several frigates were returned to service. It was one of these latter which, purely by chance, intercepted the ship carrying the Duke of Harwich from Pisa to Cork and sank it with no survivors

The Duke of Plymouth was luckier, and safely arrived in Salvador to offer the disappointed Brasilian leadership some hope - disappointment because Charles III has neither come himself nor sent a male Habsburg, but hope because the duke by female descent was a close blood relative and had come with viceregal powers. An experienced military commander in the wars of the Eastern Empire before his marriage, the Duke of Plymouth immediately instituted an audit of Brasilian power

The Kazan armies paused to devastate Seville and massacre its inhabitants before it advanced upon Madrid. The federal junta used that time to organise the local formations pouring in, and the British Volunteer Regiments who survived the crossing, into wings of its operational army. The centre was still to be composed of the veteran federal force which had saved the city from Vittoria's detached forces.

The Kazan forces had meanwhile received reinforcements from the new armies landing in the Netherlands and making the transit down through Eastern and across Southern France, Eastern Habsburg money and French Royalist decrees smoothing their passage and enabling the constant good state of supply that the army was in. Louis XIX had also caused to rebuilt at Toulon something of a nucleus of a new fleet, and this engaged the remnants of Vittoria's naval forces, which had escaped destruction by basing themselves in the Balaeric Islands.

British and Spanish Royalist refugees fleeing into the Indian interior, made common cause with French Royalist and Netherlands forces, as well as elements amongst the largely neutralist Danes. Using French allies, and Netherlands warships, they advanced from several directions upon the Portuguese-declared dominions in the West

Kazan forces smashed into Madrid like a hurricaine, coming from several directions simultaneously and never letting up. The defenders were buffeted, and the wings began to break as the inexperienced local forces and the British volunteers neither could cope with the onslaught. The veteran centre held - to its cost. As the local forces broke and ran, fleeing back towards their various junta, and as the British fought themselves out of the action and retired North, the veteran federal army held its ground - and was destroyed. Madrid went the same way as Cadiz and Seville, at last rousing Charles III out of his debauchery at Florence to condemn his allies and urge his "cousins and fellow monarchs" to order their allies to abide by some restraint. The Kazan forces did not seem to be in the mood for restraint and engaged in an orgy of nun-raping, before leaving Madrid without a single virgin nun and advancing North in pursuit of the British, the only coherent fighting force to have escaped the defeat

Charles III left Florence for the first time in years and journeyed to Milan to meet with his cousin, the King of Italy. Little was agreed, perhaps even nothing, but the presence of a Polish representative put a different complection on things when he "accidentally" let slip the Ottoman ambassador's presentation in Buda. Charles III demanded of the Imperial ambassador to know whether he was being told what was going on, but the ambassador diseminated and Charles was clearly disbelieving

Charles returned to Florence, but was no longer so drowned in his sexual depravity that he forgot himself. He sent secret representatives to Istanbul, to Buda, and to Warsaw. He had great plans - if only he could work out what they were !

Kazan forces fought their way to Valladolid and then towards Santander, all the while the Spanish federal forces, gathering as many local forces as they could, and the British continuing to pour in Volunteer formations as their naval forces and those from Coruna united off the Northern coast.

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
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