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