God is a Frenchman - a Timeline (Seven Yrs War POD)

George_Apley · Jan 16, 2022

Eventually I'll do a post for each of the three regions of the Dominion as well, but here's a start. @Tiro

God is a Frenchman: Dominion of America Government (1793-1830)

The Dominion of America was created in 1793 due to unclear jurisdictional issues and internal unrest since the inauguration of the Provincial Union Congress in 1776. The Dominion created a formal central government between the thirteen British American provinces. The government was based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which remained the largest city in British America in the late-1820s. The Dominion government featured Congress, a bicameral legislature modeled after the Parliament from which a government was formed with the consent of the crown-appointed President-General. In the early years, the President-General came from Britain, a point of constant contention for many in America.

The First Minister who headed the government was typically a leader in the majority faction or party in Congress. In the Dominion’s early years the First Minister was often a member of the House of Lords, which was populated by the peerage created by King George III in 1777. In the House of Representatives, modeled after the British House of Commons, members were elected by the voters in each province based on constituencies determined by the provincial legislatures with the consent of the President-General. Congress held responsibility for maintaining the defense of the Dominion as well as inter-provincial trade policies with the assent of the President-General. Parliament was able to override Dominion law in times of war if necessary.

After the New England and Carolina revolts in the first decade of the 19th Century, reforms were put in place that altered the powers and composition of the Dominion government. Constituencies for the House of Representatives were regularized and based on population, while the House of Lords was narrowed in scope, with each province being allowed no more than a dozen members at a time. Membership in the lords was determined by a vote of the peers in each province every four years. The Lords also lost the power to initiate legislation, instead serving as a gatekeeper between the House of Reps and the President-General. The reforms also altered the nature of the Dominion’s Continental Army, the central government’s taxation powers, and also created a traveling Dominion Court to hear cases under Dominion law.

Following these reforms, the Dominion operated smoothly through the 1810s and into the 1820s, holding its own against the Quebecois during Talleyrand’s War from 1814-1817. King George III and then his son fell into the habit of leaving a President-General in place for up to a decade unless the appointee asked to be recalled. The First President-General William Pitt, went on to become a long-serving Prime Minister in Britain. He was followed by William Lygon who navigated the reforms in 1807, and Richard Wellesley who led the Dominion through the Talleyrand’s War. He was replaced by Henry Temple in 1818 who presided over relative prosperity until 1826 when provincial clamoring led to the first American-born President-General in Robert Paterson, a Tory peer and statesman from New Jersey.

While the President-General served as the commander-in-chief of the Continental forces and the figurehead of the Dominion, most day-to-day political power was held by the First Minister and his government. The inaugural First Minister of the Dominion was John Adams, a respected statesman and jurist of whiggish tendency from Massachusetts who served for nearly ten years, but was greatly frustrated by institutional problems and partisanship. He resigned in 1803 and returned to New England where he advocated for the reforms that would take place later that decade. Adams was replaced by John Tyler of Virginia before new elections were held in 1808 and Aaron Ogden, a Tory from New Jersey, became First Minister. Ogden embraced the new reforms and embarked on an aggressive program of internal improvements, particularly updating canals, roads, and port facilities. Ogden served through Talleyrand’s War and retired in 1819, when he was replaced by Ezekiel Rogers of New Hampshire. In 1821 elections were called and Rogers’ government fell to the controversial Whig Peter Andrew Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania, a strong advocate of freer trade between the Dominion and Quebec, a matter controlled by Parliament rather than Congress. Muhlenberg was also a major proponent of the abolition of slavery, which occurred during his tenure by act of Parliament in 1826 after multiple failed attempts in Congress. He had a frosty relationship with the President-General, but his broad popularity allowed him to maintain power and he outlasted Temple, serving through the appointment of Robert Paterson, with whom he likewise had a poor working relationship.

George_Apley · Jan 17, 2022

I feel like this got a little redundant, but here is New England.

God is a Frenchman: New England c. 1830

The Provinces of New England were already a cohesive socio-economic region by the mid-18th Century largely led by Massachusetts. Despite its origins in calvinist Puritanism, the region’s social attitudes softened significantly by the time of the Six Years War. Following the disastrous King Louis’ War in the 1770s, New England faced the closure of its western and northern frontiers as the French seized the western Green Mountains, the woodlands in the north of Maine, and reclaimed the Acadian peninsula, requiring the resettlement of several thousand settlers back in Massachusetts. Border regions and port towns were heavily fortified in the late-18th Century and the population developed a warrior ethos divided along offensive and defensive instincts that battled in the political realm for supremacy during the Restitution War and Talleyrand’s War.

New Englanders were the most resistant British Americans to the ennoblement of prominent citizens by King George III in 1777 and numerous riots, confrontations, and other disturbances occurred through the early 1780s as formerly commonly-held land was granted to the new lords. Many of these peers, including most prominently Edward Holyoke and James Winthrop, opened much of their holdings either as commons or rented at very low rates, which placated all but the most strident anti-noble sentiments. Other peers leveraged their wealth and power into rebuilding communities devastated by war, particularly in coastal Connecticut and Cape Ann in Massachusetts. Politically, New England was generally in favor of increased autonomy for the provinces, that being from both Parliament and Congress. New England was also the most invested region of the Dominion in internal democratic principles. Indeed in 1830 New England was the only Dominion region in which all provinces granted suffrage to all real estate owners with no lower bound. Reflective of this is the official name of Massachusetts and later of Maine being denoted as “commonwealths” due to their high valuation of the “body politic” as described in numerous instances by statesman John Adams.

New England in general struggled to gain its economic footing until the early-19th Century when tax reforms took pressure off of the predominantly small freeholders who made up the majority of New England’s population. With the closure of the western frontier to British settlement, the subsistence farms across New England were rapidly becoming filled with multigenerational families and a land shortage threatened the stability of the region by 1810. Coastal cities grew heavily between 1800 and 1815 with young men and women from the countryside looking for work and lodging. Morality was increasingly a concern of the older generations who feared that the younger New Englanders would fall into debauchery. These concerns coincided with the beginnings of industrialization led by men such as Geoffrey Baxter, and Henry Sears Cabot. Cabot’s model in particular was designed in part with the purpose of providing steady work and clean living to the large numbers of rootless young adults. Cabot’s planned factory towns became common and were replicated elsewhere in New England and the Dominion by the mid-1820s. By the end of the 1820s, pockets of resistance began to foment against the draconian working and living conditions in Cabot-style factory towns, which would develop into a cohesive social movement in the late-1830s known as reclusionism.

The Commonwealth of Maine was the northernmost region of New England and was governed as a district of Massachusetts until 1821, when it received its own charter from King George IV after a multi-decade movement for autonomy from Boston. The territory was engulfed by French territory to the north and northwest and shared waters with Acadia to the east. Dense forests and rolling mountains made overland campaigns difficult, insulating Maine from attacks from Quebec, although Ethan Allen made a storied expedition through the Maine backwoods into Quebec in the 1770s. The border around the Penobscot River was devastated in the Restitution War, but by Talleyrand’s War border raids had settled into a strangely comfortable and familiar pattern of personal and multi-generational retribution. After the war’s conclusion and the beginning of growing peace between the British and French worlds, small-time smuggling between Acadia and Maine became increasingly common. Logging and sheep herding were the largest industry in the interior of Maine, while subsistence farming, fishing, and whaling dominated along the coast. Several successful factory towns sprang up in Maine by the late-1820s along the Saco at Biddeford and the Androscoggin at Anderson (OTL Lewiston). The capital at Falmouth (OTL Portland) was the largest settlement followed by Kittery, which stood across the Piscataqua River from Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

The Province of New Hampshire was the other northern bulwark of New England, with the imposing White Mountains defending the region to the north. New Hampshire had absorbed much of the land south of the Green Mountains after the Treaty of Exmouth in 1775. New Hampshire’s geographic isolation, easy access to Massachusetts and its own heavily fortified port at Portsmouth lead to its rapid expansion in the late-18th and early-19th centuries with over 300,000 living in the province by 1830. While some of this growth was driven by a large inflow of farmers from 1790-1810, the advent of textile factories on the Merrimack River and its tributaries in the 1810s brought tens of thousands to settlements old and new up and down the river valley. Rumford (OTL Concord), Leeds (OTL Manchester), and Waterford (OTL Nashua) led NH’s population growth along the river. Portsmouth, the capital, grew into a major commercial center for both New Hampshire and Maine, becoming the largest British city north of Boston as of 1830. Textiles in New Hampshire were dominated by wool until around 1820 when cotton began to compete for space on the factory floors. Timber and sheep herding were dominant in the northern and western interior and a military-driven economy anchored the southwestern border regions with Quebec.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts was the oldest and most politically dominant of the New England colonies and it had the largest population by 1830 with over 650,000. The province largely dominated the culture and economy of the region and Boston was among the largest cities in the Dominion in 1830. In the late-18th Century Massachusetts was the most resistant to the granting of crownlands to a peerage and likewise several prominents turned down titles including John Adams who became the premier First Minister and only Dominion PM lacking a title before the 1830s. Trends in broader New England were all amplified in Massachusetts, with it’s relatively diverse geography and economy and the governor of the province had great sway in general. The Massachusetts coast was heavily invested in maritime industries as well as a number of mercantile centers aside from Boston, most prominently Newburyport on the north shore and the growing south coast center of New Bedford. The Cape and Islands were heavily invested in fishing and whaling, and also hosted the small number of remaining natives in New England of the Mashpee and Aquinnah Wampanoags. While subsistence farming, sheep herding and lumber remained prominent throughout the central and western parts of the province, factory towns became numerous between 1800 and 1830. Existing riverside towns such as Waltham, Haverhill, and Rockingham (OTL Pittsfield) began to industrialize alongside purpose-built factory towns like Sears (OTL Lowell), Choaton (OTL Lawrence), and Holyoke. The western reaches of the state maintained a strong military presence into the 1820s and Fort Greene at Greeneburg (OTL North Adams) hosted a Dominion military garrison responsible for the New England frontier.

The Province of Rhode Island and Providence had the smallest area of the Dominion provinces but not the smallest population. After the occupation of Newport by the French and raids against Providence in the 1770s, Narragansett Bay was heavily fortified and these emplacements were updated in the 1810s in the prelude to Talleyrand’s War. Little Rhode Island in many ways mirrored the economic development of Massachusetts but on a smaller scale. The bipolar economy of the province swung between Newport, the mercantile and maritime center, and Providence, which was initially a point of export for agricultural products, but evolved by 1830 to include the trade of manufactures built in the factory towns along the Woonsocket River. Canal construction in Massachusetts also allowed Providence to serve as an export center for products from Worcester. In the 1820s Rhode Island had the largest black population per capita in New England and second only to Massachusetts in total number.

The Province of Connecticut was the wealthiest New England colony after King Louis’ War in the 1770s, having only suffered a few raids on coastal towns. The population grew rapidly, mostly due to natural increase in the early-19th Century and by 1830 Connecticut had a population of nearly 350,000. Connecticut maintained the strictest religious policies of New England and members of the established Congregational Church held a privileged position in the province even still in the 1830s. Connecticut life was centered around coastal towns that competed for trade with inland farms and factories, as well as the highway between New Haven and Hartford. Long Island Sound was constantly trolled by numerous packets and other merchantmen moving from town to town, by far the easiest way to travel along the Connecticut coast. Factories sprung up in the 1820s in Hartford and western Connecticut, while farming and livestock towns covered most of the north and east of the province. New Haven and New London competed for the position as preeminent mercantile center in Connecticut. By 1830 New Haven was the largest commercial center, while New London dominated in the maritime industries and naval installations.

George_Apley · Jun 26, 2022

A pause in the TL to continue the review of British America.

God is a Frenchman: Central Provinces - 1830s

The Central Provinces formed the urban core of the Dominion on an axis between New York City and Philadelphia and included the provinces of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. These provinces were diverse and varied in their histories, politics, and demographics but all shared similar economies centered around staple agriculture, animal husbandry, mercantile trade, and increasingly, manufacturing. Despite their relatively similar economies, the political systems and cultural development of the three central provinces greatly differed, contrary to the relative cultural unity of New England. In fact, strong resentments had developed between the three by the 1830s driven in part by the outcome of the French wars of previous decades.

The Province of New York had gone through periods of intense economic distress in the late-18th and early-19th centuries, particularly after the closure of the frontier. Numerous military expeditions into Iroquois Country between the 1770s and 1810s were met with failure. The loss of the Iroquois trade and the inability to formally expand westward decimated the trade economy of the Hudson River Valley and Albany was abandoned as the provincial capital in the 1780s. With little trade coming from points north and west, New York City’s growth stalled for several decades even as the population increased. New York developed two distinct agricultural-based economies with the city as a nexus between them, the Hudson Valley and Long Island.

In the Hudson Valley life was dominated by massive estates owned chiefly by the great old families of the province, many of whom held at least one noble title since George III created an American peerage in the late-1770s. By the 1810s five families–the Rensselaers, Stuyvesants, Schuylers, Livingstones, and De Lancey’s–controlled over 40% of the real estate in the Hudson River Valley on their own. Likewise a majority of residents in the region were lessees in hock to one of the great families; those who owned their own property tended to be employed or hired in service of these same families. Few small independent farms existed in the Hudson Valley by the 1830s as they had been gobbled up by the real estate portfolios of major and minor families and leased back to former owners, often as a condition of debt settlements. This produced a culture in the Hudson Valley not dissimilar from many regions of England itself, with a local peer lording over a large underclass of tenants, servants, and other employees.

The most independent and free areas of the Hudson Valley were those towns dominated by a military presence. Albany and Schenectady were the headquarters and forward garrison of the Continental Army in New York and had economies driven by the needs of the soldiery. Known for smuggling and gambling, Schenectady was ironically a haven for outlaws alongside the Dominion garrison. By the mid-1830s the town was considered a major example of the decay and corruption of the Continental Army in the years since the end of Talleyrand’s War in 1817. Newburgh developed as a Navy town and boasted a sizable shipyard that had begun experimenting with iron-cladding on warships by 1834 with the launching of the HMDS New Jersey. Factories also began to develop on the Hudson’s tributaries. These factory towns were controlled by many of the same families that dominated the real estate of the province, and created a system not dissimilar from the Sears method in Massachusetts.

On Long Island, the landlord-tenant phenomenon also existed, but on a smaller scale, with less than 30% of the land controlled by a small number of great families. Long Island retained pockets of New England-like development with small farms centered around town squares that were hubs of economic activity and a turnpike connecting them to the city. The owner-operator towns of North Hempstead, Islip, and Brookhaven contrasted with landlord-tenant towns like Oyster Bay, Hempstead, and Huntington. This produced a strong political divide on the island and Suffolk County was a bastion of liberal discontent.

Long Island also boasted a healthy maritime industry of fishing and whaling. The industry took several decades to fully recover after King Louis’ War, but by 1830 a healthy fleet of trawlers and whalers operated on Long Island, particularly out of Sag Harbor and Montauk. The maritime industries were the most egalitarian in New York with many owner-operated firms. By mid-century several major players had developed in the whaling industry, such as the dominant Oatker family that owned the largest whaling fleet in the Dominion. In the 1830s, patriarch Jacob Walter Oatker’s power in the whaling industry was only contested by that of Ahab Coffin Swain of Nantucket.

The intersection of the Hudson Valley and Long Island were the twin cities of New York on Manhattan Island, and Brooklyn on far-western Long Island and they both dominated the economy and politics of the province. New York City–often called “York City” by inhabitants–housed over 90,000 residents by 1830. Growth on Manhattan Island crept northward as urban neighborhoods surrounded and bypassed fantastic estates and grounds. Much of the development in the first half of the 19th century was driven by Jacob Walter Oatker, a whaling magnate who also controlled Australis Wharf and Spanish Wharf, and was a major real estate investor. Oatker held no title and died in 1833, but his children built on his legacy and the Oatker family became one of the wealthiest in the Dominion by the 1860s. With its dominant role in both foreign and domestic trade, York City emerged as one of the Dominion’s key economic centers, along with Boston, Philadelphia, and Norfolk. York City also was among the most diverse cities in the northern provinces, with two large black neighborhoods developing by the mid-1830s known as “the Old Admiralty” and “Yanzon Village.”

Brooklyn became the provincial capital in 1782 after the closure of the frontier in the Treaty of Exmouth. The New York government abandoned interior trade and expansion into the upper reaches of the Hudson Valley and refocused on maritime trade. The government of New York was based on that of England, with high minimum land-holding requirements for suffrage in provincial and Dominion elections. The suffrage issue had great political salience in New York, especially on Long Island. Before emancipation, Brooklyn had the highest density of slaves north of Baltimore. In the late-1820s those emancipated people largely dispersed, with many moving to York City, Long Island seaside towns, and factory towns in the Hudson Valley. Still several thousand former slaves became tenants to lordly estates in western Long Island, mirroring those along the Hudson.

The Provincial Assembly met at the Province House, designed in the Dominion Style in 1798 by Jacob Shagen. The Assembly was composed of 63 seats elected by voters in each county. Living in the Governor’s Mansion, the governor was selected by the Assembly every four years and he appointed an Executive Council that served as an upper house of the legislature and high judicial court. The Council met in the Heights House, also designed by Shagen and built in 1801. This government structure allowed a relatively small cadre of notable families to cycle power between them, essentially creating an informal oligarchy. Several electors opted to hold their own private elections among their tenants to survey attitudes and Simon Van Nuys even instituted a Tenancy Board, a quasi-municipal advisory body for the Lord’s various estates and holdings. Such benevolent attitudes were not the norm in New York, however, and tenant rights continued to lead to periodic uprisings and protests through the mid-19th century.

The Province of New Jersey was among the most highly developed and wealthiest provinces in the Dominion by the 1830s. The roots of this prosperity were rooted in the aftermath of the 18th century wars against France where New Jersey suffered little and made out as a creditor for other colonies, particularly New York, which allowed New Jersey to claim Staten Island and secure the sea approach to Newark. New Jersey developed a diverse economy in the early-19th century. Northern New Jersey developed with a combination of small farms and country estates growing staple crops and raising livestock. Manufacturing became increasingly important from the 1820s onward contributing to the population boom in New Jersey in the first half of the 19th century. The government spent increasing resources to develop a sizable port to compete with New York at the mouth of the Raritan River at Perth Amboy. By the mid-1830s, Perth Amboy processed the same amount of shipping as Portsmouth, New Hampshire and by 1838 was connected to New Brunswick via railway.

Politically New Jersey was more egalitarian than New York, but maintained minimum landholdings of ten acres for suffrage in provincial and Dominion elections. The capital in Trenton stood on the turnpike between York City and Philadelphia. This wealthy and heavily developed corridor in middle New Jersey included Princeton, and New Brunswick. These small but growing cities were centers of trade, industry, and education. The New Jersey Central Railway Company opened a trunk line between Newark and Camden in 1837, swiftly becoming one of the most profitable railway companies in North America.

In Trenton, the General Assembly and the Provincial Council together served as the legislature, and the Council also advised the Governor and acted as the top judiciary in the province. The Governor was elected by the voters of New Jersey every four years. The Government Block in Trenton was designed and laid out by British architect Samuel Pepys Cockerell from 1804-1811 in a neoclassical style with grand avenues bracketing commons that connected various government buildings. The grandiosity of the Government Block was a hallmark of New Jersey’s wealth and prosperity in the early-1800s.

Southern New Jersey by 1835 was a patchwork medium and large farms that were dominated by grand estates. This region was strongly Tory in its politics and was quite similar to the Hudson Valley. Despite this, southern Jersey landholders were unable to dominate the provincial government in New Jersey as they were in New York. The combination of both the political balance and prosperity in New Jersey helped to make it one of the most stable provinces in the British Dominion.

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania struggled greatly to find its feet after King Louis’ War in the 1770s and considerable social unrest occurred in the province in the late-18th century. Multiple attempts to secure French territory beyond the Allegheny Mountains invariably ended in failure or negotiated retreat. The gradual withering of Pennsylvania’s will to expand westward was a messy process involving insurrection, pacification, and emigration. Additionally, the conversion of Pennsylvania from a proprietary colony to a royal colony in the 1780s contributed to making the provincial government more effective and responsive. By the 1830s Pennsylvania was largely settled and prosperous, thanks in part to large amounts of Dominion support for internal improvements. The Dominion government had a clear incentive to support stability in Pennsylvania given that Philadelphia hosted the central government.

Pennsylvania’s economy was centered around Philadelphia, which for a time served as the capital for both the provincial and the Dominion governments. Its population grew to nearly 100,000 by 1835 making it the largest city in British America just over New York City. Pennsylvania’s General Assembly met in Philadelphia until 1808 when the provincial capital was moved to Lancaster. As the Dominion government became more established, the city became the American hub for culture and arts. In 1822 the first Dominion Exhibition of British Industry was held in Philadelphia and attracted travelers from across British America to observe the latest in technological and industrial inventions and developments. While the Dominion’s presence had a strong cultural impact, its physical impact on the city was relatively minor. The loose confederation created by the Dominion politically wanted to be portrayed as unthreatening and unobtrusive; its architectural impact was stately but hardly grandiose, particularly when compared to provincial capitol buildings like in New Jersey and New York.

Philadelphia’s built environment and municipal government remained heavily swayed by Quaker ideals. Relatively demure, functional buildings dominated the streetscape. The most impressive architecture in Philadelphia were the grand homes of important families such as the Shippen, Dallas, and Willing clans. The intersection of the merchant class with the Quaker political elites often produced considerable conflict within the city, but Philadelphia Quaker ideals remained dominant in Pennsylvania politics through the 19th century. For example, Quaker lobbying was instrumental in the push against slavery on both sides of the Atlantic, while their instinct for pacifism gave more leeway to the rowdy Appalachian settlers than they received in other provinces such as Virginia. Following Massachusetts' example, the Quaker-dominated legislature officially labeled the colony as a "commonwealth," to reflect that the provincial government was meant to represent and provide for all. In Yorktown the assembly and the governor were elected by nearly all freeholders with very low minimum land holding, while the House of Notables was among by the largest freeholders.

Outside of Philadelphia the province’s development followed similar patterns throughout. From the Lehigh Valley to the Alleghenies, patchworks of small farms, country estates, and merchant towns dotted the landscape. Through the early decades of the 1800s settlers flooded into Pennsylvania towns. Many came from New England as family farms became overcrowded; the Scots-Irish arrived from Ulster, bringing with them a strong independent streak that differed from the communitarian ideals of the Quakers and New Englanders. Many New Englanders settled in northeastern Pennsylvania, a result of Connecticut’s long-standing legal claims over the region that were bitterly fought until the Dominion Congress settled the matter in 1795. They brought with them that particular flavor of Yankee idealism and created communities not dissimilar from those they left behind. The largest towns founded by New Englanders were Pittsfield (OTL Wilkes-Barre), Billingston (OTL Scranton), and Collierton (OTL Carbondale).

The Scots-Irish converged on western Pennsylvania, which had long been the settlement pattern of Ulster immigrants since the mid-18th century. The border region with Quebec had been particularly rough for decades with crisis after crisis due to tax resistance and a lack of sufficient land. This commonly manifested in resentment towards the American peerage, some of whom controlled vast landholdings in western Pennsylvania and were invariably of well-bred English stock. This led more recent arrivals in the 1800s to have four basic options: marry into a landed family, lease land from an estate holder, settle in a town center and find labor work, or move south out of Pennsylvania to try your luck elsewhere. Despite stabilizing conditions in the western province by the 1820s societal tensions between new and established settlers, between the west counties and the east, and between the greater province and Philadelphia simmered just below the surface.

While many new arrivals and grown children opted to move south along the mountain valleys into the Carolinas and Georgia, others chose to settle in rapidly growing towns and cities in Pennsylvania’s interior. Major ironworks were established in Northampton (OTL Allentown), Lancaster, Harrisburg, and Pittsfield by 1840. The population of Pittsfield quadrupled from 1820-1860 due to the heavy mining of anthracite coal in the Wyoming Valley. The Wyoming Fell Mining Company was founded in 1817 and would grow to be one of the preeminent coal companies in British America. Yorktown hosted the headquarters of the Central Pennsylvania Railway Company as well as the Christlich Papermaking Company. The capital at Lancaster was littered with railway lines by 1850 fanning out in seemingly every direction from the central location. Pastoral farmlands surrounded the city and penned in its growth, leading to the densification of outlying towns to absorb housing needs for the capital region. The town of Gettysburg grew from a market town to an important railway crossing linking Maryland to the Pennsylvania railway network by the late-1840s. Shippensburg was the largest city in the Alleghenies. It had a reputation for lawlessness and the county militia were regularly called up to maintain order, particularly as gang violence began to develop after the arrival of the railway in 1841. This periodic unrest occasionally bled into neighboring Quebec as outlaws sought refuge among the Shawnee, Lenape, or Mingo Seneca peoples, which led to several incidents that required government intervention.

An update on the main timeline is coming soon! Some big developments incoming...

George_Apley · May 24, 2022

God Is a Frenchman: 1831

Feb, 1831 - July, 1831	Sons of Saint Patrick Rising In Ireland, an underground organization known as the Sons of Saint Patrick forms in Dublin and spreads to other urban areas on the island in the late-1820s. They form as a result of the continuous suppression and persecution of political activism among native Irish by the British landlords and governors of the island. In the winter of 1831 the Sons begin staging protests and riots targeting British officials and businesses. Food stores marked for export to Britain are raided in Dublin and Belfast and distributed to the urban and rural poor. The governor's mansion is nearly ransacked in early March before British regulars arrive on the scene and disperse the crowd with no injuries. Other incidents are less peacefully resolved. Two country manors are torched and the lieutenant governor and a customs officer are assassinated in the spring. This leads to a harsh crackdown by British officials. Martial law is declared in several Irish cities and the Irish are subjected to restrictions, surveillance, and raids. By mid-summer over 600 have been arrested and twelve men are sentenced to hang. While France issues several diplomatic statements calling for mutual respect and maintenance of the rights of Irishmen, the remarks are tempered with calls for peace and lawfulness among reminders of the Treaty of Dunkirk. For France, the violent and anarchic nature of the Sons of Saint Patrick breeds some surprising sympathy for Britain among French ministers, who have dealt with their own difficulties with the burgeoning workers rights movement.
1831 - 1840	Reign of Paul II of Russia Paul comes to power after the death of his long-reigning grandfather. Several factions of the Russian court prefer Paul's brother Constantine, but nothing occurs to disrupt the succession beyond grumbling behind the scenes. Paul's reign deals with Russian expansion in central Asia and the building of an alliance with Prussia and Austria against France's Holy Alliance. The end of his reign is characterized by micromanagement of the military and clashes with key figures at court.
Apr - Oct, 1831	First Cheyenne War With France having formalized an alliance with the Great Sioux Nation, disgruntled native peoples in the North American plains organize new resistance to the increasing domination of the Sioux. On the western plains of Louisiana the Cheyenne become the most powerful group aligned against the French & Sioux along with their allies the Arapaho and the Pied-Noir. Tensions rise as Lakota horsemen increasingly encroach on western regions and demand tribute from the Cheyenne. Such actions inflame the already militaristic culture of the Cheyenne who form a Great Council Fire at le grand plat with their allies in 1830 and pledge to defend their territories from further invasion. The French construction of Fort Braille [~OTL Agate, NE] on the edge of Cheyenne territory in summer 1830 further builds disfavor with the Cheyenne. With a French garrison and increasing numbers of Sioux in the region the Cheyenne decide to act. Raiding parties hit Lakota encampments along the White River in the spring of 1831. A large force of Cheyenne and Arapaho attacks Fort Braille on 21 May. Unable to breach the palisades, the attackers use pine tar to set sections of the barriers alight. This action forces French soldiers to emerge from the fort leading to a chaotic night battle that leaves several dozen dead. The Governor-General in the capital of Vainqueur dispatches a large cavalry force that joins with a large force of Lakota Sioux at Fort Oumohon in early July. Using Fort Braille as a base on operations, the allied force launches numerous punitive raids against Cheyenne camps through the summer of 1831. A leading Cheyenne war-chief Taureau Noir is captured in late September and is used as leverage to call a peace council. The Cheyenne are compelled to accede to Sioux demands for tribute payments, essentially becoming vassals of the mighty Sioux nations.
May, 1831 - Mar, 1832	Franco-Burmese War French and Indian colonial forces end Burmese meddling in Manipur. Burma had spent the better part of a decade expanding its influence westward setting up an inevitable clash with France's colonial interests. When Burma moves troops into the region Manipur calls on aid from Pondicherry. Burmese forces arrest the King and hold him hostage as French colonial forces from Bengal sweep into Manipur and clash with Burmese forces outside Imphal in August, 1831. Burmese forces are steadily pushed back and French Indian armies under Marshal DeBarge. The French close in on the Burmese capital at Innwa by late October following a breakthrough at Monywa. The Burmese surrender in November, 1831 and the Treaty of Inwa is approved by Paris in March. The Burmese are required to renounce all claims to Manipur and Ahom, grant France most favored trading status, and contribute annual levies to pay for French naval protection of Burmese merchants.
1831 - 1864	Reign of Oscar I of Sweden Early reign marked by increasing industrialization, border wars and retrenchment of absolute monarchy. Later reign characterized by navigating the French Revolutionary Era and increasing tensions within Sweden.
1831 - 1833	Kentaké Wine Wars Cultures clash south of the Ohio River as protestant and Catholic vineyards spread across the Kentake interior. Large landholders based in Montcalm who have the favor of the colonial administration and diocese in Sud du Lac leverage their wealth and influence to encroach further west, pressuring the smaller vineyards owned by Huguenots and Anglos to sell plots of land to the larger interests. These actions cause slow-moving conflicts to simmer as calls for government support by the protestants is ignored. Sabotage of vineyards by either side of the conflict is common in the early 1830s. A number of protestant vintners find themselves arrested for property destruction while Catholic winemakers managed to retaliate against protestants mostly without accountability. Resentments and business rivalries continue well beyond the early 1830s and protestant vitners form an association to more effectively push back against the predatory Catholic vineyards.

George_Apley · May 29, 2022

God is a Frenchman: 1832-33

April, 1832	"The Legend of the Vanishers" Published Considered a landmark in American Gothic Mythos literature, writer Adams Wake Moody regales his readers with a horror tale of a small town in the Berkshires that wakes up one morning to find all the children vanished. The story explores religious superstition, political corruption, frontier violence, and the long shadow of war.
Jun, 1832 - Jan, 1833	First Franco-Vietnamese War The Nguyen Emperor of Vietnam increasingly fears the growing French influence in southern coastal regions, particularly the progress of Catholic missionaries in converting pockets of the Vietnamese people. In November, 1831 he expels all missionaries from Vietnam, and those who refuse are arrested and held in the capital. French East India Company ships arrive in Pondicherry carrying the expelled priests with sad tidings from Indochina. On his own discretion, the Governor-General of French India the Duke de la Trémoille dispatches a military expedition from French India for Indochina. The French forces arrive in June and reinforce the garrison at Tourane (OTL modern Da Neng). Naval and marine forces are able to quickly overcome Vietnamese defenses in port cities south of Tourane. In late July Marshal Gex-Delafose successfully beats back a large assault against Tourane by Nguyen forces from the imperial capital at Hue. Gex-Delafose counters in mid-August coordinating with naval assets to push into Hue and force a settlement with the Nguyen Emperor. The Hue Treaty of 1833 solidifies French hegemony over Vietnamese trade and guarantees Catholic missionaries free conduct in provinces south of Hue. A French intendant will be stationed in the Imperial Court at Hue. King Louis XVII happily approves the treaty and awards la Trémoille for his strong initiative as is Marshal Gex-Delafose. For the Vietnamese, the outcome of the conflict pushes them closer to Qing China, which is also growing increasingly resentful of the French presence.
1832-1864	Reign of the Daoxi Emperor of China Reign marked by increasing imperial crackdowns on western trade in southern China and efforts to counter growing French influence via the trade of wine and opium into Canton. These efforts cause rising tensions and conflict in east Asia.
May, 1832	Ghent East Indies Agreement In Ghent, France and the Netherlands sign a treaty for the French East India Company to merge with the Dutch East India Company. The Netherlands will be guaranteed no less than 1/3 of the seats on the company board and benefit from free trade with the CIO. The agreement also decouples the company from colonial administration, with crown-appointed officials governing territories independently of the CIO. As the eastern trade booms, the Dutch profit greatly from this arrangement, while being able to defray the costs of governing the sprawling East Indies through the French partnership. The treaty cements economic ties between France and the Netherlands and is seen by other European powers as another example of France consolidating its position in western Europe.
Jul, 1832-May, 1835	Second Khiva War Russian forces built up north of the Aral Sea and in Bukhara exact their revenge on the Khanate of Khiva moving along the Oxus River from two directions and squeezing in on the recalcitrant khanate's capital. The Russians are patent and settle on ruining crops rather than seeking decisive battles against the Khan's forces. By the summer of 1835 the Khan capitulates. Russia cleaves off much of the outlying territory of the Khanate on the east coast of the Caspian Sea to be directly governed, while the core of the Khiva's territory is governed by a puppet regime.
Sep, 1832 - Feb, 1833	Samirite Crisis For nearly a decade tensions have built between Ottoman Sultan Mahmud in Constantinople and his brother Samir Pasha in Egypt. Following the war in Greece and the crisis in the Balkans Samir's divisions of troops from Egypt remain in Ottoman Rumelia ostensibly to aid in putting down uprisings among the orthodox Serbs and Bulgars in the region. The local Albanian divisions greatly resent the presence of the Egyptian units. Brawls and confrontations between Albanians and Egyptians are frequent in the early 1830s. By the spring of 1833 the Sultan orders Samir's Egyptian divisions back to Africa. In June, Samir's overarching commander in Rumelia, Mushir al-Fathy, moves his forces to the port at Salonik but then holds per his instructions from the Pasha in Egypt. In late July, word arrives in Constantinople of a list of demands sent by Samir. He explains that his divisions can sail ships to any number of locations along the Mediterranean coast and would prefer to return home to Egypt if only his conditions are met. While framed as a long list, essentially Samir's demands are a call for the autonomy of Egypt from Constantinople in nearly all matters. Sultan Mahmud receives counsel that he must not cede any ground to his brother. Grand Vizier Ahmed Vefik warns that a competing power base in north Africa could lead to the empire's collapse and the loss of Constantinople's control of the holy cities. The Sultan's military advisers, particularly Mushir Beqiri, counsel crushing al-Fathy's forces in Rumelia and then mounting an invasion of Egypt to remove Samir from power in the important province. The Sultan disagrees strongly with his counselors and fears that armed conflict and civil war would be far more likely to disintegrate the Ottoman realm than reaching a settlement with Samir. Mahmud and Selim agree to a secret summit on Rhodes in the new year. Leaving Constantinople in the hands of Vefik, Mahmud and Beqiri sail for Rhodes and meet with Selim in January, 1833. The imperial brothers greet each other warmly and, to the surprise of their aids, cooperatively collaborate on a solution to the tense political situation between them. By mid February, Mahmud and Samir formalize an accord. Based on the Rhodes Accord, Egypt becomes organized as a Khedivate with Samir granted the titles of Khedive and Shalabi. Egypt must sent ample annual revenues to Constantinople and follow imperial foreign policy. The brothers strike an agreement on the military as well, requiring cooperative command and integrated training among troops in the whole Ottoman realm, with the goal of preventing troops from across the empire with developing regional loyalties. The Sultan leaves Rhodes confident that long-term tensions with his brother in Egypt are solved. Samir directs Mushir al-Fathy to return to Cairo with the Egyptian divisions in the spring of 1833.
9 September, 1832	"Il Recupero" of Genoa A coordinated campaign among the younger generation of nobles of the Genoese Alberghi leads to their successful takeover of the Republic's oligarchy from their conservative elders. These new leaders are led by men such as Cesare Cybo Malaspina, Gianluca Pallavicino, and Girolamo Grimaldi Durazzo. Their supporters call their takeover "The Recovery" and they are strongly supportive of the nascent sovereign nationalist school of thought and seek to upend the longstanding order in northern Italy of domination by France, Naples, and the Church.

1833

January, 1833	"The Disciples of the Seraphim" Published In British America the younger generations of New Englanders enact their rebellion against conservative culture in increasingly unorthodox ways. In 1833 Harlan Wentworth Coleridge, a pastor for a factory chapel in Choaton, Massachusetts [OTL Lawrence], writes about a series of revelations he receives from the Lord in the early 1830s. In early 1833 Coleridge self-publishes several copies of his text "The Disciples of the Seraphim," based on his reading of the Book of Matthew and his own revelations. The book preaches that through the love of Christ men and women "must live as the angels in heaven," without strict "institutions of man" such as marriage governing their lives and behavior. Coleridge's teachings on "holy angelic love" appeal to many men and women working under draconian contracts in which factory managers maintain moral living as well as vocational output. Coleridge faces down several angry mobs in Choaton and neighboring communities defending his teachings as righteous and Christian. He's fired by the Choaton factory in late-1833 and moves with a group of about three dozen disciples to Meredith, New Hampshire, where they purchase a gristmill and several orchards through pooling their resources and set about creating a community of "seraphic living." The Seraphim, as they're known, are looked on with fear and disgust by most of New England society, but their teachings resonate among some working people, fed up with the restricting and oppressive lifestyle imposed by the Sears System. By the end of the decade, the town of Meredith has over 1100 new residents, and the Seraphim are firmly in control of the municipality. The Seraphim in Meredith are considered one of the earliest examples of the Reclusionist Movement, a cultural backlash against the modes and mores New England society.
Mar-Nov, 1833	Mexico City Massacre & New Spain Uprising In the winter of 1833 protests break out among bourgeois criollos in New Spain's capital over economic conditions and a lack of advancement opportunities as the best jobs and appointments are awarded to peninsulares from Spain. As the movement grows the protests are violently crushed by colonial government. When a march of several thousand advance on the government district, the Viceroy of New Spain, Marcos Muñoz del Pont orders troops to block the progress. After a standoff in which the leader elements of the march becomes increasingly unruly, soldiers fire on the crowd, killing 43. Scores more are killed and wounded in the stampede that results. The massacre galvanizes many strata of society in both New Spain and more broadly in Spanish America. Several peninsulare officials are assassinated across New Spain and concerns rise that a new "peasant king" will rise up on the frontier to overthrow the Spanish colonial government. When he learns of the situation in America, twenty-two year old King Enrique explodes at his council, many of whom served during his minority. Enrique sacks a number of his councillors and rages that his wishes for nearly a decade were patronized and handled in bad-faith. He even accuses some of his ministers of unchristian conduct. The episode is the latest example of a trend of Enrique having fits of anger over the incompetence, disrespect, and duplicity of those around him. The king directs his ire against the colonial government in New Spain as well. He recalls Viceroy Muñoz del Pont and places him on trial in Madrid for treason, for which he is ultimately sentenced to death. Enrique will extend clemency to Muñoz del Pont who lives out his days on the Canary Islands. For his new Viceroy in New Spain Enrique unexpectedly chooses a man of the church, Padre Francisco Julio de Jovellanos, previously the Archbishop of Seville. The appointment of a priest to the secular post of Viceroy creates some consternation among Spanish elites, but Enrique has grown increasingly distrustful and disdainful of the secular men around him and has a deep faith in the Church's ability to bring forth the better world he envisions. Jovellanos is dispatched with clear instructions to "bring a state of grace" to New Spain and be prepared to faithfully enforce expected reforms. Enrique's firm actions along with the address he forwards to Mexico City with Jovellanos to be published for the populace creates goodwill for the Spanish Crown among the burgeoning Mexican middle-class. The uprisings quickly disperse or are suppressed after Jovellanos's arrival. "Padre Virey," as the locals call the new Viceroy, sets about cleaning house among the elites in the colonial administration and elevating handpicked criollos for power in ministerial positions. Invariably Jovellanos selects men who have evinced strong connections and faith in the Catholic Church.
April, 1833	Paris-Brussels Railway Opens Heralded as the dawn of a new era, a commercial railway connecting Paris to Brussels is completed and opened for service. The first mega-project of the Société des Chemins de Fer de l'Ile de France, the railway receives substantial funding from the French government along with investments from industrial magnates and nobles. The CFIF becomes one of the leading railway companies in western Europe by the end of the 19th Century. Over the coming decades, criss-crossing railway lines will connect the capital to urban and industrial centers across France. The rest of Europe follows closely behind.
June, 1833	First Electric Telegraph Message British American Lemuel F. Dornby wins a competition sponsored by the Dominion Congress to develop a modern telegraph system that facilitates communication along the Dominion seaboard. Dornby, a physician and scientist, invents a system using electric impulses translated into alpha-numerics. Dornby partners with writer A. A. Gould to create the cypher, soon known as the Gouldian Code. Gould's first message from his office to Dorsey's reads "from the hands of man to the eyes of God." Dornby's telegraph and Gould's code are both patented in London by 1835 and communication networks spread in the British realm by the early 1840s, with France and its European allies about year behind. The new telegraph revolutionizes communications across the western world by mid-century.
Sep-Nov, 1833	Papal Tour of Europe Pope Leo VII tours Catholic Europe in the third year of his papacy. Leo sees himself as a defender of the faith after the secular uprising in Rome in 1830. His election in that year ingrains in him the belief that God sees him as a servant for revanchism and reestablishing the church's eminence in the kingdoms of Europe. In Vienna he implores the Habsburgs to keep their focus to the Turks in the Balkans, delivering a homily to crowds that Austria must remain the "bulwark of the west." In Paris he holds a contentious meeting with King Louis XVII in which he scolds the monarch for insufficient devotion to the Church and for reforms that make the church subordinate to secular government. The Pope addresses rumors that Louis's government plans to support a system of state schools that are independent of the Church's houses of education and warns Louis of falling prey to a secular agenda that would lead France into ruin. In Spain the Pope praises King Enrique I for his piety and Enrique seeks Leo's counsel on his ongoing difficulties with his colonial holdings and his distaste for the longstanding group of advisors around him in Madrid. Leo contrasts the Spanish with his French father and declares that France will be in firm hands when the crowns are united by a faithful king.
Oct, 1833-Nov, 1834	Red Sea War As a test of the Rhodes Accord, reformed Ottoman Janissaries join forces with the Egyptians and conduct a war along the Red Sea against Ethiopia. Launching attacks overland attacks from Egyptian Nubia and oversea assault from Arabia the Ottomans successfully lay claim to the long Red Sea coastline that had long been under Ottoman influence but recently had been threatened by the growing power of Ethiopia. The Ottomans and Egyptians conquer the coastline as far south as Zeila and are able to control up to 270 km inland into Ethiopian territory.

George_Apley · Jun 2, 2022

Important update, this one!

God is a Frenchman: 1834-35

February, 1834	Spanish Reforms of 1834 Through 1833 and into the new year, King Enrique works tirelessly on a package of long-overdue reforms to Spanish colonial structure, the economy and the military. The King knows that doing so will upset entrenched power structures on both sides of the ocean and he engages the services of several young criollo bureaucrats working at lower-levels of his government. Enrique also seeks counsel from the one person he knows has personally accomplished government reforms in the face of opposition, his father. He exchanges long letters with King Louis on French administration who is all too pleased to engage with his son after years of distant communication. Louis dispatches Michel Pelletier, a retired administrator in French India and influential private merchant in the India Trade, to be at his son's disposal in Madrid. Pelletier is accompanied by Antoine Danton, one of France's secretaries of state. Enrique finds great value in the perspectives of the men sent by his father, but has a number of pointed disagreements with Danton, who is far more liberal than the Spanish King and oversteps his bounds more than once with his blunt judgements and assessments of the problems in Spanish society. Ultimately the Prince of Craon, the most prominent Frenchman among Enrique's advisors, becomes an important mediator as a conservative French voice who is able to sideline the most liberal ideas from the conversation. Still, letters between the two kings in late-1833 demonstrate the complex dialog between them. Enrique scolds his father in one paragraph while pleading for advice in another. Louis likewise praises his son's tenacity while imploring him to see beyond the confines of his piety, a statement that then leads to an angry admonishment from Enrique. Meanwhile, the Spanish king himself is admonished by several members of his own court, who are deeply invested in the existing structures and suggest that Enrique has been deceived by ill-intentioned liberals. Enrique bemusedly highlights this irony to his father in a letter from late 1833. Ultimately through all the politicking, family drama, and reactionary backlash, Enrique issues a proclamation on the government and trade of Spanish America in February, 1834. The reforms effectively end mercantilism in the Spanish Empire by allowing for the production of domestic consumables in the Spanish colonies, though maintaining exorbitant tariffs on foreign trade. The systems and structures of colonial audiencias are modified and modernized, granting seats exclusively to local criollos, empowering them with legislative power on local matters, and requiring them to document communications with the Viceroys in reports that are forwarded to Spain. In Spain itself, Enrique dissolves the antiquated Conseja de Castillo and orders regional cortes and executive councils to manage domestic policy and implement royal commands. The cortes are to be composed of local nobles and clergy who report to the royal household in Madrid. Enrique also commits increased funding to a number of Catholic orders on the condition that they conduct themselves with faith and devotion on bettering the lives of impoverished paupers across the Spanish realm. Incentives for military advancement are also put in place to further support the meritocratic system put in place by Enrique's grandfather, but which had festered in the years of Enrique's minority. Louis praises his son's accomplishment and continues to advocate for more liberal thinking in his pious and conservative son. Louis tells his son about his future hopes for France, most prominently including a constituent assembly long pushed for by liberal activists with some legislative powers. This admission alarms Enrique who fears that by the time he takes the throne of France his power will be hobbled. Enrique replies to his father with his own desires to bring France and Spain into a grand union that will spread prosperity and sanctity across the vast empire under his watchful eye. Enrique says he "will be as Caesar" and thanks his father for his many contributions to making France a mighty superpower. As their correspondence carries on Louis becomes increasingly concerned about his legacy and the need to robustly cement his reforms before his son takes power. He also fears that his son has strongly expansionist tendencies that will make a European war more likely upon his ascension to the throne. Louis confides these concerns to his longtime premier, the Vicomte de Marçeau, a pragmatic man who shares Louis's vision for France. The men begin to discuss the practicality and circumstances needed to implement structural reforms to the French government before Enrique takes the throne. They take solace that the succession is likely decades in the future.
	British Corn Riots In 1833 the worst harvest since the mid-1810s causes food rationing and high prices across the British Isles. Relaxed import duties on French and Spanish grains had expired in the mid-1820s under the conservative administration of the Lord Bedford. The liberal Lucas Cameron takes the reins of British governance in 1829 but does not make agricultural reform a top issue, focusing instead on local government reforms and the creation of a workhouse system for the urban poor. The harvest shortcomings catch all of Britain off guard and America is unable to make up the difference. The matter exacerbates in January, 1834 when a number of grain stores in northern England are found to be compromised by mold and fungi. In February the lower classes begin to riot to the northwest in Blackpool and Leeds and they quickly spread southward and London's poor neighborhoods become riotous in early March. As intermittent severe rioting continues into April, Prime Minister Cameron pushes a full repeal of the Corn Laws on both domestic and colonial food imports through Parliament in early May. The rioting gradually dies down following the legislation and fizzles by June as food shipments arrive and prices drop.
15 March, 1834	Pont du Vainqueur Bombing On 15 March, 1834 King Louis is riding in a carriage through Paris after leaving the Tuileries for Versailles in anticipation of his forty-third birthday celebrations. As his royal entourage crosses the Seine via the Pont du Vainqueur two men rush past the cavalry escort and lob three fused bombshells at the King's carriage. Two bombs fail to detonate but one explodes while rolling under the carriage, which is shattered by the blast. One of the attackers leaps into the Seine while the other manages to flee into the streets. As the smoke clears, the blast is revealed to have killed the carriage driver and Secretary Antoine Danton. King Louis XVII and the Comte de Blacas, minister of the Maison de Roi are gravely wounded but alive. Louis is brought to the Palais Bourbon and the royal doctors and surgeons are summoned. The King suffers fragment wounds across his left side and concussive head trauma that leaves him drifting in and out of consciousness. Surgeons manage to stabilize the King's wounds by the morning, but he soon loses consciousness and refuses to wake. Premier Marçeau summons the Cabinet at the Louvre, which assembles on 17 March. They dispatch messengers to Madrid to inform King Enrique of his father's condition, place the military on high alert, and monitor the progress of the Maréchaussée in investigating the bombers. That night the Comte de Blacas dies of his injuries and King Louis remains unconscious. On 18 March agents of the Maréchaussée arrest Bartholomeo de Auria and he is interrogated for five days, afterwhich a hunt begins for his co-conspirators. In the final week of March the marshals arrests four more people for the conspiracy, including Enzo Panzani, Vittorio Govi, and Pietro Togliatti, all of them Genoese. On 23 March King Enrique leaves Madrid and makes his way towards Paris, arriving on 3 April. King Louis awakens on 24 March, but becomes feverish and delusional, unable to maintain his focus consistently. He's moved to the Tuileries on the 25th where he continues to be constantly attended to by physicians who believe a number of fragments remain lodged in the King's torso, dangerously close to his heart and lung. After Enrique's arrival, the Spanish King and heir to the French throne visits at his father's bedside with his sister Marie Zephyrine and witnesses the dire condition of King Louis first hand. On 6 April, Louis's Cabinet and Enrique broach the question of a regency. Enrique suggests that, as the legal heir, he should be made regent for the length of his father's incapacity. Premier Marçeau balks at the suggestion pointing to Louis's testaments placing emergency governance in the hands of the Premier in the event of royal incapacity. This disagreement quickly becomes antagonistic between heir and government and the debate over the regency question spills into the public conversation when deliberate leaks about the disagreements appear in papers across France. As the French preemptively mourn for their beloved King Louis XVII, political squabbling over who has the right to rule in his absence dominates the press with "Henri l'Espagnol" (King Enrique) pitted against "Le Grand Bouc de France" (Premier Marçeau). During the succession dispute, the Cabinet continues to pull the levers of power in France until 11 April when King Louis's fever breaks and he is able to hold an audience with his son and his premier. He releases a proclamation on his resumption of royal duties, which calms the immediate crisis of legitimacy among the press but also leads to heightened speculation about the King's injuries and his long-term ability to maintain his duties. By this point all the capitals of Europe are in a frenzy as rumors roll in of an attempted power grab by Enrique in France. Nervous diplomatic communiques flow into Paris urgently requesting confirmation of the condition of King Louis XVII and the French government. Louis manages a brief public appearance on 16 April, waving to the crowd of well-wishers and delivering a statement on his commitment to both his people and his country. On 19 April Enrique departs for Spain as it becomes increasingly evident that King Louis will survive his wounds. Despite a fond and amicable parting between the two kings, the press chooses to focus primarily on the alleged rows between Enrique and Marçeau, which tarnishes both men's images in different segments of society. Enrique writes to his old tutor, Vicente de Goya, with great emotion about the absurdity of allowing the press to print such gossip and create negative feelings toward the Crown in such a time of crisis. He views the French ministers as being the “chefs of a festering stew of rumor and innuendo” to manipulate the public. As 1834 continues, Louis XVII's recovery improves and while he still limits his public schedule, the King returns to being fully engaged in governing his realm. Gifts pour in for him from across the world as foreign leaders, colonial magistrates, and local French citizens all express their relief at his recovery. Princess Marie Zephyrine barely leaves her father's side for weeks, watching over him amid the doctors' and servants' constant doting. Doctors are impressed by the King’s recovery from wounds that they feared to be mortal, but his health remains weak. They express concerns that if there is future movement of the inoperable shards in his body, they may do damage to his vital organs. The doctors order the king to avoid any strenuous physical activity.
May-Jul, 1834	Campesino Revolts Amidst high prices, disdainful nobles, and exploitive industrialists, the peasantry in Spain rebels in several regions that spread from late-Spring to early-Summer 1834. Factories in Seville and Santander are shuttered for weeks as workers strike. In Extremadura and Castille several country estates are ransacked by country peasants. The revolts are the most violent in Basque Country around Bilbao and Navarre where angry rioters clash with soldiers and royal agents. The riots are worsening as King Enrique arrives back in Spain after his travel to France in the aftermath of his father's injuries. Already in a sour mood, Enrique's ship arrives in Bilbao amidst growing violence. The marines and soldiers escorting the King clear the streets and ultimately fire on a mob killing five. Upon arriving back in Madrid, Enrique issues a proclamation of rebellion demanding disturbances to cease on pain of death. Other small-scale massacres occur in Badajoz, Valladolid, and Pamplona. After the revolts are quelled, Enrique meets with industrialists and Church officials to address grievances among the factory labor force, with the King excoriating factory owners for impinging on their workers' expressions of religious devotion through overwork. Despite his efforts to push through some labor limited reforms in 1834, the actions to quell the initial riots are seen as draconian and overly violent by liberals. This exacerbates French liberal concerns about Enrique inheriting the throne, now a very real prospect on the horizon given his father's ailments. Whispers begin among some factions of French liberals that an alternative to Enrique must be found.
June, 1834	Boston-New Haven Railway Opens The first interstate railway opens connecting Boston to New Haven through Worcester and Hartford. The New England Railway Company, owned by a group of industrialists and gentry, expands rapidly through the 19th Century, gobbling up competitors in a race against its largest competitor, the Boston & Maine Railway Company. By 1860, the New England provinces are criss-crossed with dozens of railway lines, the highest concentration in British America.
1 July, 1834	Occupation of Genoa After several weeks of interrogation in March and April 1834, the conspirators in the plot to assassinate King Louis XVII of France are finally put on trial. The procedure and ultimate execution of the five men is a media spectacle in France and distracts from the other major response of France to the attempted murder of her king. Through the interrogations it's learned that not only did all of the men live in Genoa, but also that several oligarchs of the Genoese Republic were aware of the plot but never forwarded any intelligence to French authorities. On 1 July, after a quiet mustering, French troops move into the Republic of Genoa from Lower Savoy and French warships drop anchor in Genoa's harbor. France justifies its actions by officially accusing Genoa of breaking the terms of the Holy Alliance by harboring mutual enemies and knowingly neglecting seditious and treasonous actions. Several of the young Genoese leaders of "Il Recupero" are arrested while the Republic itself is politically neutered with French military oversight. While there is minor resistance to the French occupation, it's sparse and the Republic receives little sympathy from the rest of Europe, with the Italian states accepted as being firmly within France's sphere of influence. French troops are soon joined by Neapolitan forces eager to show support for the French Crown.
Oct, 1834-1836	First Gula War Several years after the beginning of the repatriation movement from British America to Sierra Leone, conflict develops between the native Gula people and the incoming black Americans. In 1834 nearly 30,000 emancipated black Americans have made the cross to West Africa and the settlement of Freetown has become the center of a large colony spreading along the coast and moving inland. The black settlers build a very western colony in Sierra Leone mostly designed around the sorts of communities they knew from British America. Plantation towns spring up by the early 1830s and Freetown begins to develop a character not dissimilar from a more tropical version of Philadelphia. These developments come at the expense of the native Gula people, who share ancestry with some of the black Americans, but not most. The settlers raid native Gula communities for labor and seize their land for plantations and small farms. The colony of Sierra Leone is led by a British Governor and a legislature of landowners elected from the among the settlers. This governing body begins offering bounties for native fighters who raid settlements, leading to broader conflict with the Gula people. Weapons are shipped from Europe and America making the Freetown militia among the best equipped fighting force in West Africa by the mid-1830s. The Gula are largely pushed out of the lands around Freetown by 1836, with prisoners used as a labor force.
April, 1835	Paris to Cologne Railway Opens The Compagnie des Chemins de Fer Rhénans, sponsored by a variety of French & german industrialists as well as the governments of France & Cologne opens a railway connecting the French capital with that of one of its strongest german allies. The Rhineland countries have mostly kept pace with French industrialization and France is the biggest customer for coal mined in Cologne and Westphalia. Both passenger carriages and freight trains traverse the line, which is quickly joined by expansions fanning out from urban and industrial centers.
May, 1835 - Oct, 1837	Kokand War As Russia expands into central Asia the Khan of Kokand in the east consolidates his power among the rulers in the mountainous region. Through the 1820s the Khanate uses diplomacy and conquest to become a strong anchor of power against Russian expansion. Some of this is coordinated by French diplomats traveling from India, wary of Russian expansion towards French interests in India. Russian ambitions reach Kokand in the early-1830s first seeking trade and quickly turning towards extortionate tribute. A Russian garrison in the Kazakh administrative city of Hazrat close to Kokand's borders builds tensions that lead to fighting by the summer of 1835. Russian efforts to capture outlying regions of the Khanate are accomplished by the fall of 1835, but capturing the city of Tashkent proves costly and the core of the Khanate in the Fergana Valley holds out until 1837. By the end of that year Russia manages to depose the Khan and installs a puppet government that will be subservient to distant St. Petersburg.
5 June, 1835	Treaty of Cologne In the 1830s the German states find themselves struggling economically due to difficult trade barriers that raise prices and make innovation and adoption of new technologies difficult. Price spikes in 1834 are the final push that leads several German states come together and seek solutions. The states of the Rhineland meet in Cologne in the Spring of 1835. Delegates from Cologne, Westphalia, Hessia, the Palatinate, Baden, Württemberg, and Oldenburg debate a number of reforms that could ease commerce between them and promote growth and prosperity. France, Saxony, Austria, and Hanover send observers and France makes clear that efficiency among the Rhineland states is a welcome development, pointedly excluding the kingdoms further east. Ultimately the Rhineland states propose a loose union of open trade and mutually accepted currency with a government binding them on economic matters. For the leaders of these countries, forming a union helps increase their leverage against the larger kingdoms in the german realm and also simplifies their trade and foreign relations. The german kingdoms do not object to the formation, nor does the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor. On 5 June, 1835 the Treaty of Cologne is ratified forming the Rheinbund (Confederation of the Rhine), with a rotating capital holding meetings of the Bundesrat. Oldenburg is the only state that sends delegates to Cologne that doesn't ratify the treaty. The Rheinbund, like its constituent states, is heavily in the French orbit, integral to the French economy and wide buffer between France and its traditional adversaries in the east.
May, 1835	La Suie Published Written by Jacques Seznec in the mid-1830s, La Suie (The Soot) becomes a famed example of French romantic industrial fiction. The novel flips the triomphaliste narrative on its head by portraying the filthy underworld of the burgeoning industrial center of Lyons. The plot follows the Brodeur family through many trials as the father and sons toil in a factory while the mother serves as a maid to the factory's owner. The Soot is casts a critical eye on the class structure of France as well as an early effort to peel back the guilding of the French Empire in the mid-1800s.
September, 1835	Le Commerce Impérial Published Michel Pelletier, a retired colonial administrator in India and merchant of the East India trade, publishes On Imperial Commerce in 1835. The book is a treatise on effectively managing colonial possessions and commerce based on his experiences and observations in the Indian Ocean. Pelletier highlights a delicate balance between the positive-valuation of native societies and their "embetterment through commercial, legal, and social exchange." Pelletier advocates that successful colonialism follow that of a well-respected parent: kind, yet firm. He advocates a colonial program of moving from "accommodation to assimilation" over the period of many years and avoiding direct governance over territory where possible through diplomacy and alliances. The volume is viewed as a both summation of French colonial successes and failures over the previous century and a blueprint for the success of future endeavours.
Nov, 1835-Jun, 1837	Arikara War The French and Sioux consolidate their control over the northern Great Plains by compelling fealty or conducting war against the dominant non-Sioux tribes in the region, the Arikara and the Mandan. For a year and a half raids are a frequent occurrence, but the French play little direct role in this conflict, preferring to stay on the sidelines and keep the Sioux well supplied and armed. One exception to this policy of non-engagement is at the defense of Fort Vérendrye (~OTL Cherry Creek, SD), where the Plains Hussars make their first significant debut on the battlefield and annihilate a group of attacking Arikara raiders. By the end of the conflict vast regions are under the hegemony of the Sioux and the French have secured more territory for trade. The French continue to leverage access to vaccinations as a means to pacify unfriendly native groups.

George_Apley · Dec 26, 2021

As promised and voted on, the next personal profile is on Marie Antoinette – herein known by her Austrian name, Maria Antonia. Next one is Hidalgo.

God is a Frenchman Personal Profiles: Maria Antonia von Habsburg (1755-1838)

Princess Maria Antonia of Austria was born in November, 1755 to Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Franz. She was the third daughter of the empress to survive childhood. Her upbringing was typical of high-born girls, with her education emphasizing the qualities and skills needed to be a desirable match for a foreign prince. Maria Theresa held years-long negotiations with Louis XV of France on a betrothal between Maria Antonia and Louis-August, both children at the time. Such a marriage would have helped to cement the Franco-Austrian alliance that won the Six Years War. Ironically the war victory is what caused the marriage negotiations to collapse. Maria Theresa found herself distrusting Louis XV in his victory, fearing his ambitions in Italy and Germany.

The marriage drama for young Maria Antonia did not end there. In 1768 the Habsburgs successfully arranged a betrothal to Friedrich August, the young Elector of Saxony. The match was expected to cement the loyalty of the House of Wettin to Austria. Shortly after the betrothal announcement, Louis XV stole the limelight by announcing the wedding of his grandson the Dauphin to Maria Amalia, Friedrich August’s younger sister. This Franco-Saxon match meant that Saxony’s loyalty would be in contention, rather than clearly aligned with the Habsburgs or Bourbons.

Maria Antonia wed Friedrich August in May, 1771 just as France and Britain returned to war. Austria and the Holy Roman Empire (except for Hanover) maintained neutrality in the conflict for two years until a French victory looked increasingly likely to upset the balance of power in Europe. Still a teenager, Maria Antonia’s family encouraged her to pressure her husband to contribute men and treasure to the war-effort, but Friedrich August followed the lead of Prussia and kept to his neutrality, navigating between the currents of France and Austria. The neutrality pained her, but she had little influence in the policy decisions of her husband. The young princess gave birth to her first child, a daughter Maria Johanna, in 1779. Her first son and heir to Saxony was born in 1781, Josef Wilhelm.

After the war and Austria’s losses, Maria Antonia’s husband was made King of Saxony, making her the Queen. She felt conflicted by the title, as her triumph came at the expense of her family. She took comfort in her sister Maria Carolina, who married Karl Wilhelm of Saxe-Meiningen and frequently lodged at the Queen’s apartments in Dresden. The sisters threw unparalleled parties for the high-born of Saxony in the late-1770s, ingratiating themselves with the Saxon nobility and launched a number of charitable causes, which introduced them more to the Saxon people. In 1779, Maria Carolina’s husband was made King of Bavaria, which pulled her away to Munich to serve as Queen; this move was a painful change for the young Queen of Saxony.

For his part, King Friedrich August made a strong effort to provide the Queen with happiness and independence, granting her Schloss Moritzburg as her personal residence. She decorated the castle at great expense, which generated no shortage of controversy among the Saxon bourgeoisie. The Queen’s ladies-in-waiting ended up being a helpful social connection for her, giving her a number of trusted confidantes, particularly Sophie Friederike the Princess of Thun and Taxis who became Maria Antonia’s closest friend in the Saxon court. She also valued her role in the world of fashion. While she generally followed the trends set by her sister-in-law, Queen Marie Amalie of France, Maria Antonia had a famously independent streak in her hair and dress styles, most notably her love of feathers and faux-birds incorporated into her hairdo.

In 1780, a pair of French jewelers, Charles Auguste Boehmer and Paul Bassange, approached the Queen with a fabulous diamond necklace, first commissioned by King Louis XV of France, but now unclaimed. The cost of 2,000,000 French livres was too steep even for the Queen and though tempted, after considering the offer and viewing the necklace, she rejected the sale. Boehmer, desperate to sell the jewelry, attempted to force the Queen’s hand by leaking correspondence to the Saxon press, which proved to be a grave error for the jeweler. The Leipzig press ultimately rallied around the Queen once it came to light that she refused the purchase, and a furious King Friedrich August expelled Boehmer and Bassange from the country. The Diamond necklace scandal continued in 1781 when the jewelers were robbed by highwaymen on their journey out of Saxony. The King’s troops tracked down the thieves before the diamonds were hocked. Friedrich August ultimately purchased the necklace for his wife at a cost of 1,250,000 livres, a severely discounted price, but still a cost that created controversy. Despite this, he presented it to his wife as a means of apology for going through the scandalous ordeal. For many years, the Queen refused to wear it.

In 1786, she was painted by the female French portraitist Vigée Le Brun (see left). The painting was cutting-edge in style for a royal portrait with the Queen in informal dress. It created some negative chatter in the press, but many marveled at the confidence of her pose and gaze. Several other German nobles commissioned similarly-styled portraits from Le Brun and others. A "Saxon Antonia Portrait" became a style in central Europe from the mid-1880s through the 1890s.

Maria Antonia bore two more children, one of which survived childhood. She named her second son Anton Josef, born in 1786. After Anton's birth, the Queen spent more time in her Dresden apartments alongside her husband and children. She increasingly became a confidante of her husband and played an important role in the next two decades towards abolishing traditional serfdom and land reforms, which enabled her to grow beyond the financial scandals early in her husband’s reign and ingratiate herself with the people. In 1799 her daughter was wed to the heir of Hesse-Cassel. Two years later, her eldest son Josef married Louisa, a princess of Hesse-Darmstadt. By 1805, Maria Antonia had two grandchildren, one from each of her two eldest children.

She greatly struggled with her husband’s stubborn insistence on neutrality in both the 1807 and 1814 conflicts between Austria and France. The royal couple were reported to have tremendous rows over the issue, particularly in 1807. The King proclaimed that he maintained his love for his Austrian wife, but that his heart also followed his beloved sister the Queen Mother at Versailles. He had always claimed to get on better with his nephew Louis XVII of France, than his wife’s nephew Franz II. For both wars Maria Antonia sequestered herself at Moritzburg and refused to see her husband for months or years at a time. Her 1807 depression deepened when her beloved son Anton was killed in a Mensur fencing duel in early 1808 at the University of Leipzig, which he had insisted on attending despite admonishments from his parents. While the death caused her much pain, it also drew her back to her husband, at least until the next war seven years later.

After the Treaty of Heidelberg in 1817 Friedrich Augustus became Holy Roman Emperor, claiming the imperial seat from Maria Antonia’s nephew in Austria. She strived to maintain the Habsburg connection to the HRE throne and threw herself into the ceremonial role of Empress. She toured the German realm and became a well-known figure, in part due to her likeness on a denomination of Thaler coinage. Her state visits in each of the German states were a badge of honor for each ruler, even for her humiliated nephew in Austria. He thanked her personally for her graciousness and kindness in the face of his misfortune and for her steady representation of the Habsburg family in the courts of the imperial realm.

Alexander_Kucharski,_La_Reine_Marie-Antoinette_(années_1790).jpeg

Her eldest son, and heir to the throne, Josef Wilhelm died in a carriage accident at the age of thirty-nine in 1820. His wife had died in childbirth in 1810, leaving their three children to be raised by a cadre of nannies and tutors. Josef’s two youngest children, Karl and Louisa, born in 1808 and 1810 respectively, were sent to their grandmother’s household, while Max, his oldest son and heir, was sent to his grandfather to learn matters of state. Maria Antonia greatly enjoyed the presence of her grandchildren and they kept her mood lifted in the face of their father’s death.

Friedrich August died in 1827, leaving Maria Antonia to become a dowager queen as her grandson assumed the Saxon throne. The imperial seat returned to her nephew Franz in that year and she graciously toured with his wife as a reintroduction to the German realm. As her age advanced, she took on fewer and fewer state roles, though she frequently expressed fears of coming European discord as the political mood in France turned in the 1830s. The Dowager Queen of Saxony died in February 1838, just as her grandson Maximilian prepared Saxony for its first war in over seventy years, unable to keep the strict neutral line of his grandfather. Maria Antonia, Queen of Saxony, died in her favored residence at Moritzburg, with several of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren by her side. In her life she successfully navigated scandals, international crises, and personal tragedies, and was remembered well by the Saxon people, as well as those throughout the German world.

George_Apley · Jul 1, 2022

1836 is gearing up to be a long one, so I'm breaking it up into pieces on the political situation in France and then I'll share other tidbits from the year when that's done. Here's the first part covering the winter:

1836 Proclamation on the Estates General

Following the attempt on his life, King Louis and his Premier Fabrice Marçeau spend time discussing how to accelerate their long-term plans for French governmental reforms. Though Louis puts on a strong front during his occasional public appearances, in private the King believes he will not live much longer. The pain in his chest from the unremoved fragments causes him great discomfort and doctors continually advise him to remain inactive lest the fragments shift and cause him mortal damage. Through the fall of 1835 Louis and Marçeau plan for a major announcement early the following year that is sure to cause a political earthquake.

On 11 January, 1836 Louis issues a proclamation calling for a meeting of the états généraux, the defunct advisory assembly of an earlier age. Coinciding with the release, Marçeau delivers a publicized address to the French court "on a new and modern politics.” He calls for sweeping liberal reforms to the French political system based on the proclamation. Marçeau discusses the King's proclamation in detail and reviews the goals of the forthcoming meeting of the three estates, most notably that the assembly will be tasked with drafting a constitution for France and its empire. Marçeau implores each of the three estates (the clergy, the nobility, and the citizenry) to support creating reforms that will allow France to continue to prosper and lead Europe through the 19th Century.

Generally, liberals greet the proclamation and address with excitement and glee that Louis’s government is following through on goals their movement has had for over forty years. Pamphlets and newspapers declare the dawn of a new age in French politics that will grant more voice to the people. Among the most radical however, the Estates General meeting is criticized for being a structure of absolutism that grants the citizenry a merely equal vote with the church and the nobility as a bloc. The Truthists begin pushing for the Estates General to give the people more of a voice in the meeting than the other two estates.

Many conservatives face the news with great apprehension and anger percolates around the idea that the government will stack the agenda with radical items aimed to further neuter the privileges of the Church and the nobility. One anonymous pamphlet questions the King’s mental state due to his injuries and accuses Marçeau of manipulating Louis’s endorsement of radical, anti-monarchist policies. Some even suggest that the Premier may be a republican. In other conservative quarters though, there is cautious optimism that the clergy and the nobility will be able to prevent the Third Estate from gaining too much power from the assembly, and that they may even succeed at grabbing more power for themselves at the expense of the monarchy.

In Madrid, Louis's son is infuriated by the announcement. Enrique was unaware of any immediate plans on the part of his father to implement such policy reforms. He blames the machinations of liberals such as Marçeau for indulging his father's naïve idealism and he vents to his confidants that his father "means to bury me under a constitution that grants undue privileges to a public that knows not what to do with them." Enrique plans a visit to France in the Spring to discuss these matters with Louis in person.

Arrondissements Elections for the Estates General

From February through March each of the 400 arrondissements in France select their delegates to attend the Estates General in Paris, scheduled to begin in May of that year. Initially the expectation is that each district will send three delegates from each Estate: three clergy, three nobles, and three commoners. On 13 February Premier Marçeau announces that the Third Estate (the commoners) will send six delegates per arrondissement, a concession to the radical liberals that leads several leading conservatives–including the King's uncle, the Comte d'Artois–to publicly come out against the assembly. D'Artois writes in the conservative l'Alpha et l'Oméga newspaper that "republican radicals have seized the heart of his Majesty. Watch now how they march his shattered body towards the abyss." His complaints themselves generate much press, mostly by liberal publications mockingly referring to the Comte d’Artois as le bouffon le plus sombre, as put by the editors of the liberal l’Ami de Tous. Despite such prominent conservative complaints, no conservative district councilors boycott the Estates General election.

Both moderate and radical liberals are pleased by the Premier’s decision. The Marquis de Lafayette, universally respected as le grand vieux maréchal, writes in l’Ami that "over nine-in-ten of our countrymen stand in the Third Estate. To grant such a modest advantage to them in the coming assembly is hardly a scandal." Jean Pierre Maupassant, the president of the Normandy Truthists–one of the most radical associations in France–writes in l'Exhortation that "the whole nation will hold a stake in the destiny of France! The people will not be forever denied!"

Factions of the three estates hold three separate elections in each arrondissement to choose their delegates. Each district council decides the precise rules of the elections on its own. Since the mid-1810s, these district councils have been elected by landowners and clergymen in the arrondissements and the wide variety of property holders across regions produces councils that are wildly different.

The most radical councils are found in Normandy, Brittany, and Flanders with their large number of small farm landowners, artisans, and service professionals. The council for the arrondissement of Dunkerque is dominated by Truthists and they vote to send several of their own number as well as a number of prominent non-landholders in the reformist camp. France’s southwest is dominated by the nobility and large-landholders, selecting mostly conservative and moderate delegates. This is also the case in industrializing cities such as Lyons, where the working classes rarely own their own property and therefore are not entitled to suffrage in district elections. This disenfranchisement leads to several work-stoppage actions meant to influence the district councils in the election for the Estates General. These protests reveal the agitation among the public for changes to the political system.

More coming soon...

George_Apley · Jul 2, 2022

Continuing with our story...

Death of King Louis XVII of France

The Spanish King arrives in Paris to meet with his father on 24 April, 1836, shortly after his 25th birthday. King Louis throws him a sumptuous, yet demure, banquet at the Tuileries Palace that evening. Many members of the extended royal family are in attendance including Louis’s ailing uncle the Comte d’Artois, the Duc d’Orleáns, the Prince de Condé, the Duke of Penthièvre, and the Prince de Conti. The Duc d’Orleáns, a man with severe mental handicaps, is attended by his aunt Bathilde and his younger siblings including three brothers. Though he has little reasons to suspect so, Enrique interprets the convocation of the many blood royals, particularly the House of Orleáns, to be a tacit threat to his succession, which he confides to his longtime aide-de-camp Armando Pico, Conde de Nacajuca, who suggests that perhaps the Spanish King is overreading the significance of the guest list.

Enrique sees through his father’s grandiose presentation as host, noting the clear deterioration in his father’s physicality. He becomes increasingly paranoid when his father retreats to his chambers without inviting him to a private audience. This is enhanced the following day when King Louis seemingly avoids one-on-one time with Enrique again, hosting a grand parade through Paris in King Enrique’s honor with a crier proclaiming the crowd to “greet your Dauphin and future king, Henri d'Espagne!” Enrique’s negative reaction to the procession is physically apparent as he sits stone-faced in his carriage and neglects to wave to the crowds. The disconnect between the two kings is deep; King Louis believes the public display will reassure his son of his position, while his son is certain that calling him “Henri d’Espagne” is a clear snub and a signal that he is an outsider in France. According to various palace sources, Enrique manages to corner his father in the palace upon their return and brusquely demands they meet to discuss the pending Estates General. Louis warmly promises his son that the following night they will dine in private together and discuss matters of state.

The following night the two king’s dine alone in King Louis’ apartments. According to palace sources, the two men begin the night cordially, but as dinner progresses the tension between the two breaks. Both men allegedly express sentiments that escalate their argument. Louis scolds his son for being so wedded to anachronistic philosophies, flippantly blaming his adolescence in the Spanish court for his “overly pious sentiments.” This comment allegedly leads to a "heated row," described by palace sources as increasingly venomous. Louis angrily sends all servants out of his chambers and further accounts of the argument are incomplete. Some sources report hearing bits of shouted remarks from Enrique that his father plans on “wrecking the monarchy,” and that “you have made me a stranger to France!” Reports hold that Louis pulled no punches with one such comment being, “would France be better led by a simpleton than a petulant boy who thinks he speaks with God’s voice?” Apart from the shouting, crashes are heard through the apartment doors.

At a point near 9:30 reports agree that the argument suddenly goes quiet and remains so for several minutes before Enrique comes to the door and flatly says “the King of France is gone.” Servants and guards rush into King Louis’ apartments to find him on the floor, with a small pool of blood around his head and on the corner of a heavy marble table. His son crouches several feet away with his head in his hands. The room is littered with toppled furniture and shattered glass from a broken wine bottle. The royal doctor, August Laframb, is summoned as are Queen Mother Marie Amalie, Princess Marie Zephyrine, Premier Marçeau and several other cabinet members, as well as several men of Enrique’s entourage. At 10:48 on the night of 26 April, King Louis XVII is pronounced dead. The doctor notes a wound on the king’s head but does not believe it to have been fatal. After a preliminary examination of the body, he announces that the likely cause of death is heart failure due to the debris lodged in his torso; he attributes the head wound to Louis striking the marble table as he fell to the ground. Laframb says that an autopsy must be performed to confirm his initial findings.

Almost immediately after the doctor’s examination Enrique’s advisors seek to sequester him. The Spanish king seems shocked by the evening’s events, muttering that “God makes his will be known” to his advisors as he is led from the dining hall. Premier Marçeau summons the commander of the Marshalcy to the palace to begin a formal investigation and begin interviewing palace staff. When the French attempt to question Enrique himself, the Spanish foreign minister, the Marqués de Camarasa, angrily confronts them for “casting suspicions” on the Spanish king. Camarasa ends up in a physical altercation with the French domestic minister of the Maison de Roi Gaspard Mériadec de Rohan when the French insist upon gathering facts from Enrique. Enrique is allowed to retire to his chambers and is not interviewed by the French authorities until the following morning.

George_Apley · Jul 3, 2022

The Immediate Aftermath

On the morning of 27 April, 1836 the French cabinet struggles with what to announce to the public and questions how to deal with Enrique. Upon his father’s death the Spanish King is the legal sovereign of France and thus the Cabinet’s own authority is suddenly unclear. There are major foreign concerns to consider as well as ongoing domestic policy that could be disrupted by the unplanned succession. They decide that they must move quickly and decisively, while also attempting to stay in Enrique’s good graces. There is disagreement on whether to clearly announce a cause of death and whether to disclose an ongoing investigation. Several cabinet members are openly suspicious of Enrique, with de Rohan suggesting that Louis must have been pushed to strike the table so heavily. Doctor Laframb is insistent that the head trauma was not severe enough to cause death, but concedes that his preferred theory cannot be confirmed until an autopsy can be performed. Premier Marçeau decides that the Royal Household will release a statement on King Louis’ death and announcing that an autopsy will be completed to confirm the cause, with no mention of any other investigation.

The commandant of the Maréchaussée, Jean-Alexandre Trogneux, and his marshals have worked through the night interviewing staff and corroborating reports in preparation for their interview with Louis’ son. Trogneux is wary of the interview due to the sovereign status of Enrique following his father’s death. The marshals’ interview of the Spanish king occurs at 10am on the 27th. Enrique acknowledges the angry row with his father over the imposition of a constitutional monarchy and insists that his father became animated before clutching his chest in pain and collapsing, hitting his head on the table and falling to the floor. When he is asked why he did not immediately call for assistance from the staff and guards, Enrique replies that he was stunned by his father’s sudden fall and subsequent gasps. He says that he tended to his father, noting the blood on his arms and clothes from cradling his father’s head. He says that he prayed over his father until Louis' gasping ceased and he felt the spirit leave him. After that response Camarasa ends the interview, saying that Enrique has answered all relevant questions in the matter.

The Royal Household releases a brief statement on the death of King Louis as his son is being interviewed by the Marshalcy. The news hits Paris like a bombshell. Church bells peale and crowds flood the streets moving towards the Tuileries Palace. Mourners are greeted by Premier Marçeau, who has long been a friend to the people of Paris. The beloved old “Vicomte le Bouc” grasps hands with the people and delivers a speech extolling the virtues of the late king. The orator recounts the reign of Louis XVII and traces his successes with Baron Malreaux and Prince Talleyrand before his own long premiership that began after Malreaux’s retirement in 1825. He preaches on Louis’ love for his country and his people, the pain of losing his queen, his pride in his son and his devotion to his daughter. Marçeau closes discussing the difficulties faced by the King since the bombing on the Pont le Vainqueur and his strong desire to bring constitutional reform to France before his death. Marçeau commits to being in attendance at the Estates General and pushing for King Louis’ vision for France. Shouts of “vive notre roi Louis le bien-aimé” echo across Paris.

The Conde de Nacajuca, King Enrique’s confidant, is in the crowd for Marçeau’s speech and returns to the guest suites to inform him of the French Premier’s oration. Enrique once again believes that the French government is trying to entrap him into accepting constitutional reforms. He insists that he release his own statement on his father’s death and his unexpected accession to the throne of France. Some of his counselors advise that he wait for the autopsy report to be completed, but the Prince de Craon and his great-uncle the Count d’Artois encourage him to create his own narrative and prepare the people for his rule. Writing as Henri de Bourbon de France et d’Espagne, he speaks of his childhood in France and his love for the countryside, as well as his eagerness to spend more time in the country of his birth as he expands his realm to include both France and Spain. He speaks of his piety as a guiding principle and his belief in industrial progress; he eloquently praises the faith of the French people, their passion, and their industriousness. He also provides his own account of his father’s death, a far more detailed accounting than the minimal information produced by the Royal Household. He omits any mention of the argument, but includes the details of his father’s fall and how they “prayed together” until Louis passed. Henri’s public letter is released on the afternoon of the 27th and is set for publication in the morning papers alongside Marçeau’s address.

Behind the scenes, Doctor Laframb sends for his colleague Doctor Adrien Bergeret who had recently returned from a stint in Vienna practicing under the revolutionary Austrian surgeon Theodore von Kolowrat. Laframb and Bergeret begin their autopsy of King Louis XVII on the morning of 28 April, amid the public discussion of Marçeau’s and Henri’s statements to the people of France. Bergeret’s methods are cutting edge and the doctors conduct a full examination of King Louis’ body. They discover the full extent of Louis’ internal wounds from his brush with death in 1834. Several shards more than a centimeter inhabit Louis’ torso, one of which had punctured a chamber of his heart, which the doctors determine was the main factor in his death. Another was dangerously close to puncturing his left lung. They deduce that physical activity was key for the shard’s movement deeper into Louis’ body. The head wound is found to be concussive but superficial. Cardiac failure due to complications from foreign bodies in the torso is marked as the official cause of death by Doctor Laframb. The doctors find no evidence of foul play and refuse to speculate on whether the King’s death could have been caused by a push given the lack of any evidence to support such a claim. They also find that no amount of medical assistance could have averted the King’s death once the shard had punctured the heart. All in all the autopsy appears to corroborate Henri’s version of events and exonerates the King’s son of any culpability for not calling for help.

The autopsy report is released to the public the following day by the Royal Household over the strong objections of de Rohan. Minister de Rohan has an alternative theory of the King’s death based on testimony from household staff that suggests a physical struggle between the men; he believes that his son pushed him with sufficient strength to cause the shard near his heart to fatally pierce it. De Rohan argues that Henri must be replaced and given over for trial in the regicide of his father. Premier Marçeau is angered by this suggestion and overrules de Rohan with the strong support of the Cabinet; he makes it clear that there will be no public speculation of foul play on the part of the French government. Marçeau is particularly wary of civil disorder and fears that provoking Henri could lead him to summarily dismiss the government or revoke the proclamation for the Estates General. Marçeau’s strategy is to keep the people’s expectations high, while maintaining at least a cordial relationship with the young man. In this way, Marçeau believes the young Henri can be politically boxed in and that a constitution can still be achieved despite his far more conservative ideology.

George_Apley · Jul 15, 2022

We have a few more narratives to go on the death of King Louis XVII.

Foreign Reactions

Following the autopsy report, the French government turns its attention to managing foreign reactions, which by 30 April have begun to arrive. Claude de Montferrand, the Foreign Minister, spends days with his staff replying to communiques from across Europe. Among France’s allies the reactions are highly sympathetic; Louis XVII was instrumental in solidifying the Holy Alliance, setting a new path for the Rhineland states, and aiding with the recovery of the Netherlands after the devastating war against France. Ferdinando V, King of Naples, sends copious gifts of wine, coffee, pistachios, oranges, and other agricultural products. The Bundesrat of the Rheinbund announces the commission of a statue of Louis XVII to be installed in Cologne. The Dutch King Willem credits Louis with the restoration of the monarchy to the Netherlands and eulogizes his magnanimity following Talleyrand’s War.

Other nations express their condolences, but clearly delineate their concerns over the presumed forthcoming violation of the Peace of Utrecht. Maximilian I of Saxony writes a long letter of condolences to his great-aunt, France's Queen Mother Marie Amalie, but his government’s official communique to Montferrand tersely alludes to the possibility of the long peace in Europe being shattered by discord resulting from Louis’ death. His infirm great-uncle Karl Wilhelm I of Bavaria writes of his deep respect for Louis XVII and his hopes that dynastic questions do not throw his own twilight years into turmoil. Franz II of Austria has been in intermittent seclusion fighting an illness since the winter of 1835 and while there’s little love lost between him and the late French king, the Habsburg patriarch writes to the Queen Mother that Louis was “the wisest and most fair-minded enemy” he ever faced. Franz concedes to Marie Amalie that Louis was a strong leader who informed some of his own choices in Austria. Still, Austria’s powerful foreign minister, Johan Anton von Bach, delivers a communique to Montferrand that requires “stability” in Europe in the coming years. Bach seems to deliberately avoid mention of Utrecht, but strongly implies that Austria will not countenance any changes that majorly disrupt the two decades of stability among the European powers.

In Russia Tsar Paul II has become eager to become a major player in Europe, building off of Russian successes in central Asia. With Austria largely cowed and Britain withdrawn from continental affairs, Paul believes that French hegemony deserves a challenge, particularly if the global empires of France and Spain are to be unified. Already by 1835 Paul has emissaries in the powerful Sikh Empire northwest of India seeding distrust in French colonial officials. Paul also makes overtures to Prussia, which is beginning to rebuild and modernize its military. On hearing of Louis’ death, Paul’s Foreign Minister, Karl Dmitri von Nesselrode, writes to Austria warning a unified France and Spain would further dominate western Germany and the Italian Peninsula, further encroaching its influence into Bavaria and Saxony, accelerating Austria’s isolation. He writes a similar letter to Britain, hyping concerns about Hanover and the openness of maritime trade. Despite not being a party to the Peace of Utrecht, when Nesselrode writes to France he is so bold as to ask Montferrand which alternative to Henri the French have chosen to be crowned King, implicitly threatening a deterioration of relations should France and Spain join under a royal union.

For their part the British simply send condolences from King George IV and the government sends along a formulaic statement that makes no mention of the Peace of Utrecht. The British have just concluded a wide-ranging treaty with Portugal and Prime Minister Lucas Cameron is not eager to be drawn into a continental entanglement. As the Portuguese expressed great concern about the unification of France and Spain the British government commits to itself that they will exhaust their diplomatic and deterrence tools to protect their interests in Hanover and Portugal without fighting France. The government has the backing of the King and his brother Edward Augustus, the heir to the throne. Other European powers take the British government’s dispatch to Paris as an abandonment of the United Kingdom’s role as enforcer of the Peace of Utrecht, a realization that causes Russia to step in to fill the void.

George_Apley · Aug 2, 2022

1836 Part 5 - Mourning & Succession

The release of the autopsy report paves the way for a period of national mourning that will culminate in the official coronation of King Henri V. The final piece remaining is the as yet unfinished Marshalcy investigation report. Commandant Jean-Alexandre Trogneux has compiled testimony from over two dozen servants, guards, officials, and doctors, as well as from Louis’ son. He sits in his private offices drafting a report that reviews the evening’s events step-by-step. His draft is over a dozen pages long when he begins to receive visits. Officials from both the French Cabinet and the Spanish entourage find Trogneux and inquire about his progress and findings. Secretary Rohan visits multiple times, reinforcing his own theories on the death of the king. The Conde de Nacajuca presses Trogneux from the other direction, reminding the Marshal of the Spanish King’s deep Catholic faith and the damage undue speculation would do for his accession to the French crown. Premier Marçeau’s representatives make clear to the Marshal that an overly comprehensive report could fuel conspiracies and public disorder that would damage the French government. Trogneux, a man of strong devotion to the Church, also consults with the Archbishop of Paris Jacques-Christophe de Pompignan. The commandant withholds any official announcement for several weeks.

Meanwhile the month of May is dedicated to public mourning of Louis XVII. A memorial service is held at Notre Dame de Paris on 14 May, 1836 followed by a funeral procession miles long from the cathedral in central Paris to the recently renovated Royal Basilica of Saint-Denis, where Louis is interred alongside his ancestors. Outside of Paris memorial services are held across France and once word arrives in the colonies, major memorials are held across the French Empire as well, most notably in New Orleans, Montreal, and Pondicherry. Governor-General Pichon of Louisiana, already in France for official business, is the only colonial administrator able to attend the King’s state funeral in Paris. Numerous other dignitaries from the Holy Alliance and the Rhineland are in attendance.

The day after Louis’ burial arrangements begin for Henri’s inauguration. Planned primarily by the Prince of Craon–the highest ranking French counselor to the Spanish court–and the Archbishop of Rheims, great attention to detail is afforded to the requirements of the devoutly Catholic king. Henri is greatly concerned with satisfying the traditional Sacre to the letter and extraordinarily requests that Pope Leo VII to perform the ceremony; being fond of the young monarch, Leo agrees and departs Rome for Rheims. The stately event occurs on 30 May, 1836 before an exclusive crowd of church officials, high nobility, and personal friends of Henri. French court painter Claude Rimbert captures the ceremony in his wall-sized piece Sacre du Roi de France et d'Espagne. The exclusion from the ceremony of the late-Louis’s government officials is glaring, leading to much speculation on the new King’s plans for a France that is generally far more liberal than his kingdom in Spain. Other than the long public parade from Rheims to Paris, Henri declines to hold any elaborate parties for his accession and does not attend any inaugural parties thrown in his honor by several social heavyweights in the Marais. On top of his father’s passing, the death of his great uncle the Comte d’Artois on 4 June lends a solemn tone on Henri’s first weeks.

The day before the Sacre of King Henri, the Marshalcy quietly releases Commandant Trogneux’s investigation report. Relative to the agonizing Trogneux has gone through behind the scenes, the much awaited report is quite perfunctory, tracking with Henri’s public remarks and the autopsy report; the commandant has evidently caved to pressures and omitted much of his findings from the official report. While much of French society accepts the Marshalcy report, factions of liberals believe the five page document reads as incomplete with sketchy details. King Louis’ Secretary of the Maison du Roi Gaspard Mériadec de Rohan–the most vocal anti-Henriste in the French government–is aghast at the report, which he had anonymously heralded in the radical press as “the coming truth of the death of our King.” Rohan is wise enough to avoid any public pronouncements against the report or against the new King, but he puts plans in motion to disseminate his deeply-held convictions on the death of Louis XVII.

George_Apley · Aug 22, 2022

Nascent Discontent

Scarcely a week after the accession of King Henri, a pamphlet makes its first appearance on the streets of Paris. Attributed only to the mysterious pseudonym Celui Qui Sait (He Who Knows), the pamphlet entitled l’Usurpation claims to be based on sources within the Royal Household and accuses the governments of France and Spain of orchestrating a coverup of the murder of Louis XVII by his son Henri. The Usurpation details the dining room argument between the two kings and accuses Henri of pushing his father with the force to cause his heart failure.

The pamphlet goes on to accuse the Spanish counselors of obstructing the truth, accuses the French cabinet of cravenly capitulating due to political expediency, and accuses the doctors and the marshalcy of omitting key details from their reports on King Louis’s death. As a motive, the author points to the planned Estates General to draft a constitution that could lessen royal powers in France. It is even suggested that King Louis could have threatened to pass over Henri in the line of succession, causing his son to fly into a rage.

L’Usurpation spreads quickly and causes a rising furor among French liberals. While few serious leaders in the liberal movement believe all of Celui’s claims, there are numerous calls in the reformist press for further answers and for the government to address his dangerous accusations. More radical Truthists latch onto l’Usurpation as evidence of a conservative Spanish conspiracy against the people. One truthist publication declares that Henri must submit to trial before the forthcoming Estates General, while another declares him an illegitimate regicidal imposter.

Conservatives pillory the pamphlet as seditious sour grapes. Many conservative publications attack the pamphlet and its cheerleaders as desecrating the memory of Louis XVII. Accusations of lèse-majesté are leveled at the pamphlet’s anonymous author as well as the as-yet unknown printers. There are many calls for mass arrests and suppression of the growing street protests in Paris and efforts underfoot to uncover the mysterious Celui Qui Sait.

Among the high society nobles of the Marais the political divide is evident as always. Some loud conservatives see the opportunity to launch into Henri’s good graces, notably the Duc de Polignac and the Vicomte de Bonald. Aristocratic liberals such as the Marquis de Vence and the Marquis de Condorcet are loath to address the pamphlet directly, but make urgent contact with Premier Marçeau. Among the more apolitical socialites, few will outwardly acknowledge the pamphlet, though there is an undercurrent in Marais salons finding it believable that the dour and lugubrious Henri, well known to have a tinderbox temper, could have done exactly as the pamphlet has described.

By mid-June some sections of Paris are under mob rule as the pamphlet’s influence emboldens angry denizens of the capital. What becomes known as the Paris Succession Revolt locks down areas of the city with barricades and nearly constant protests flood the streets. This poses an immediate crisis for King Henri who understands the need to ingratiate himself with the people of France. He is furious at the libelous pamphlet and rails against the ludicrous press freedoms that writers in France have enjoyed for fifteen years. Henri dismisses the liberal Minister of Justice Alphonse de Grouchy when he refuses to counsel any action against the pamphlet’s disseminators, thereafter ordering the Marshalcy to investigate the pamphlet’s origins and printing locales. The conservative Prince de Craon advises Henri to tread carefully, justifying royal injury investigations under existing French law, rather than overturning the press reforms of his father outright.

The King’s longtime confidante the Conde de Nacajuca strongly suspects the involvement of the former Minister of the Maison de Roi Gaspard Mériadec de Rohan. A warrant is issued for de Rohan under suspicion of lèse-majesté and he is arrested at his home on 27 June. Though de Rohan stridently denies being the author of the pamphlet he is held in the Bastille for several weeks. Without clear evidence to present, de Rohan’s arrest galvanizes the Parisian mobs and the Norman Truthist newspaper l’Exhortation openly calls for the deposition of Henri. Liberal print shops in Paris are raided by the Marshalcy and several are shut down for their publications, though none are found to be printers of l’Usurpation. On 30 June a confrontation between Marshalcy agents and an angry crowd outside the well-regarded liberal paper l’Ami de Tous nearly becomes violent until the publisher Horace Desmoulins settles the crowd and welcomes the Marshals to search his facility.

With social unrest spreading beyond Paris by the end of June, Premier Marçeau visits the Hôtel de Carnavalet and delivers an address that is then published in numerous papers. Marçeau denounces the pamphlet as riddled with fabrication designed to stir discontent and violence the nation as France mourns one king and welcomes the new. He implores the raucous crowds to return to their homes and businesses and to not let their fears poison their futures through disorder. He calls on the people to maintain the French open-mindedness that has helped create so much progress and to not judge a new leader until there are results to judge. Le grand vieux bouc de France is still well-loved by the people of Paris and his words carry sway and contribute to a calming in the streets as July begins.

Behind the scenes Marçeau has seized the opportunity to show Henri that he can be more of an asset than a hindrance in the governance of France. He has made an ally of the trusted Prince de Craon, the new Minister of the Maison de Roi, to persuade the King to navigate a moderate path through the Paris succession crisis. They remind Henri that France is not Spain and political and cultural differences cannot be swept away. The Premier leverages the response to his speech as evidence that the people are considerate in their passions and suggests that a royal commitment to hold the Estates General will do much to calm the nerves of French liberal society. Craon surprises Henri by agreeing with Marçeau and reminds him that disunion in France will be perceived as a weakness by foreign adversaries who are already clamoring for a succession war.

Confronted with unity between the liberal Marçeau and the conservative Craon, Henri accepts their advice. Still, Henri remains strongly opposed to a constitution that would neuter his power, insisting that any such convocation of the estates will be on his terms. On 8 July, after several days of consultation and drafting, King Henri releases the Proclamation of 1836 also known as la première proclamation henriste. Therein Henri begrudgingly attempts to adopt a similar tone to that of the popular Premier. He proclaims to have “no intentions” to reverse the policies of his father and “does not foresee” a need to do so. He promises that “all loyal citizens” will receive the “highest benefits of latin culture” under his reign. Crucially, he commits to following through on the meeting of the Estates General, though he hedges on precisely when it shall be held. Soon afterward de Rohan is released from the Bastille, though he remains under close watch by the marshalcy.

The proclamation is generally well received and quells much of the unrest. Mainstream liberals follow the tack of their Premier, taking a wait-and-see approach to the young King. Radicals make their distrust of Henri well known, but their rhetoric settles as they process the newly aggressive enforcement of lèse majesté laws. Delegates to the Estates General of all political stripes applaud the King’s commitment and await for his call for convocation. Much of the summer of 1836 is focused on drafting proposals for the meeting while the government deals with the new regime. Henri gradually replaces many of his father’s advisors in the government, though Marçeau is maintained as Premier, keeping a liberal face. As the weeks march on many political watchers begin to wonder who is using who; is Marçeau using Henri, or is Henri using Marçeau?

This is the final long narrative for now. The immediate succession saga is over... we will have one more update to finish up other 1836 happenings before moving on to see how Henri navigates both domestic and foreign matters in the first year of his reign. Can he continue to avoid internal unrest and foreign war? Does he want to?

George_Apley · Sep 18, 2022

Here's the rest of the goings on in 1836 apart from the French succession drama.

February, 1836	Vienna-Krakow Railway Opens After several years of experiments with steam engines on railways for connecting industry with natural resources, Austria opens up its first major line between Vienna and Krakow in the winter of 1836. Operated by the Kaiser Franz Nordbahn, the rail line precipitated stations being built in Brunn, Ostrau, and Kattowitz. The 1840s would see the expansion of rail across the Habsburg realm.
March, 1836	Treaty of Areosa By the mid-1830s the British are still seeking new grounds to settle their population. While birth rates remain flat since 1815, the population pressures on resources in Britain and fears of unrest continue to plague the government. The American Dominion is unable to absorb large numbers of immigrants and settlers in the colonies on the Gold Coast of Africa struggle with tropical diseases. North Australia is increasingly developed but expensive and distant. Britain is also constantly seeking new markets for its industrial output. Prime Minister Lucas Cameron lays the matter at the feet of his Foreign Minister, the liberal Thomas Grosvenor, Lord Westminster. By the mid-1830s, Grosvenor has identified Portugal as the best partner for a broad agreement. After over two years of intermittent negotiations, Grosvenor travels to Areosa in the north of Portugal in September, 1835. The resulting agreement is ratified by both countries in March, 1836. The Treaty of Areosa includes a number of provisions: Tariffs will be eliminated between Britain and Portugal, though their respective colonies may not directly trade with one another. Brazilian foodstuffs and cotton is secured in exchange for British industrial output. Southern regions of Brazil will be formally opened to British settlers on the conditions that they consent to Brazilian colonial governance. Controversially, Portugal extracts a defensive alliance from Britain, creating another friction point besides Hanover at which Britain could be drawn into a continental conflict. King George IV, committed to his isolationist stance, considers rejecting the treaty based on this final provision, but is convinced by Cameron and Grosvenor to give his assent. Grosvenor is unable to convince to the Portuguese to budge on the trade and practice of slavery despite his fervent efforts. This failure leads the treaty to be strongly criticized by anti-slavery forces in Britain and the Dominion of America. Portugal remains the largest player in the trafficking of slaves from Africa to the Americas and the prospect of British immigrants participating in the trade and practice of slavery is unconscionable to many.
May, 1836	Chemin de fer du Saint-Laurent Opens The first long-distance railway opens in French Quebec with the linkage of Quebec City, Montreal, and Vaudreuil by the Saint-Lawrence Railway Company. In general, adoption of railways in French America is slower than in Europe, as settlement patterns generally follow navigable natural waterways and built canals. The Saint-Lawrence Railway runs to Toronto by 1845 and Detroit by 1850.
August, 1836	Dominion Negro Industry League Founded In the 1830s social and economic problems for the freedmen in the British Dominion continue, with widespread poverty, vagrancy, and racial violence. In the summer of 1836 several prominent black businessmen and a number of liberal white allies hold a conference in Philadelphia at which they found the Dominion Negro Industry League. This advocacy and philanthropic organization dedicated itself to black businesses and participation in industry. Over time they increasingly become leading voices in opposition to the Repatriation Movement sending black Americans to Sierra Leone. The League headquartered itself in an old meetinghouse in Baltimore, Maryland and grew to become one of the largest advocacy groups for freedmen in the British Dominion.
Oct, 1836 - 5, 1837	France Seaport Revolts French Succession Crisis: By the fall of 1836, Henri V has postponed the Estates General twice since his July Proclamation. French liberals have become increasingly fearful of backsliding under the new king, clamoring in the press for the convocation to be held in fidelity with Louis XVII's January proclamation. Premier Marçeau makes public assurances that the meeting will be held, but the more time passes, the more hollow his promises ring among the liberals. Port communities in northern France halt many luxury shipments in protest of Henri's continued postponement of the Estates General. The Véristes Normandes, among the most radical reformists in France, use their power on local councils to whip discontent among their constituencies. Sailors and stevedores at Le Havre, Rouen, and Cherbourg engage in work stoppages to protest the continued postponement of the Estates General. After a bloody clash at Le Havre in November between government marshals and the striking workers, the protests spread throughout northern ports, including in Flanders and Brittany. Attempts in the late-autumn to expand the reach of these labor protest to French colonial ports in Quebec and Louisiana are unsuccessful, but they do spark much conversation going forward in colonial society about rights and self-determination from the top-down governance in French America. Several more violent clashes take place in northern ports while government forces secure western and southern ports and shipping traffic is successfully redirected by the spring of 1837. When the Estates General is finally scheduled for May 1837, the wind is taken from the sails of the work-stoppage protests. All Truthist delegates from Normandy, Flanders, and Brittany are barred from the convocation and resulting protests are authoritatively crushed.
1836	Reclusionism Takes Root in New England Throughout the 1830s, liberal countercultures begin to emerge in the British Dominion, particularly in conservative New England where a generation of youth find themselves living in factory campuses under the economic foot of floor leaders and the moral foot of boarding supervisors. The overarching name of the counterculture movement is known as "Reclusionism" after an essay written in 1836 by Andrew Edwards Baldwin of Northampton, MA. Under reclusionist thinking, industrialization breeds autocratic pollution of the body, soul, and environment, and reclusionists seek to create a "quilted economy" of independent, self-sufficient communities that trade among one another, independent of the machinists and penny pinchers of the booming factory towns. The movement is considered an organic one, largely without leadership, and it rapidly becomes a popular escape for factory toilers. Reclusionists seek to replicate the "simpler times" before the advent of industry. Although critics would often conflate them, reclusionism is markedly distinct from break-away religious communities such as the Seraphim in Meredith, NH. What both movements have in common are their found roots in the backlash against industrialization. One of the most successful founders of a reclusionist community is Robert Emerson Bliss of Concord, MA who purchases land on the outskirts of Lancaster, MA and, with his extended family and followers, builds a sprawling farm called Chocksett Fields. Chocksett Fields is among the first and largest of the so-called "patchwork towns" on the "quilted map" of New England. Other patchworks pop up throughout New England in the late-1830s, some small farms, others growing communities. Chocksett Fields succeeds at incorporating as a town of its own by 1850. By the late-1840s several long-established municipalities have also adopted the ideology of reclusionism. The movement produces numerous sub-cultural trends in fashion and literature well into the mid-19th Century.

George_Apley · Oct 12, 2022

The Estates General & the Great Crisis of 1837

Opening the Estates General

In the spring of 1837, French society is buzzing with expectations for the Estates General. Henri V’s hand had been forced by politics to finally hold the great council after months of various excuses and hedging. With the end of the northern port closures and the expulsion of the radical Truthists from the roster of delegates, French conservatives feel more secure in their position. Delegates trickle into Paris through April and early May as the city absorbs several thousand temporary residents. The meeting is held in the great Cirque Royal, a massive venue with vaulted ceilings and Europe’s largest dome completed in 1835 with a capacity of nearly 5,500. Nearly 2,000 delegates are seated according to estate; 400 clergy, 400 nobles, and 1200 commoners.

On 14 May, Premier Marçeau opens the meeting on behalf of Henri V and is quickly elected as the consensus President of the Estates General. Marçeau reads an address from the King welcoming the delegates and expounding on the expected glory that will arise from the great meeting. Henri has spent the better part of a year working with his advisors on whipping a bloc of votes that will follow his clandestine directions, and he trusts that his factions will be able to prevent the meeting from descending to radical and chaotic depths. Aside from the monarchist so-called Bloc Royal, other factions and sub-factions emerge as the meeting carries on. The liberal Bloc Carnavalet, the military Bloc Fontainebleau, the merchant dominated Bloc de la Bourse, and the labor dominated Bloc Traboule. With the replacement of Truthists in the delegate count, the most radical and borderline-republican factions are unrepresented at the Estates General.

In one of its first actions, the three estates vote on how to vote. Under pre-existing ancient rules, all matters brought before the Estates are voted on by the three estates as equal blocs. Challenging this, a motion is made by delegates of the Third Estate to change the rules so that each delegate’s vote is counted towards the decision, a change that would grant the common delegates theoretical weight should they vote as a bloc. The motion is expected to fail but unexpectedly passes with the narrow support of the Second Estate, showcasing the strength of the liberal caucus among the aristocratic delegates. The change to delegate-majority rules promotes factional cooperation among delegates across different estates and promotes the development of the political blocs. The outcome surprises the King, who had expected the nobility to provide him with political cover against the more liberal motions on the floor. Despite this, Henri and his advisors remain confident that his Bloc Royal will prevail, especially when the body agrees a supermajority requirement for recommending articles to a constitution.

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Troubles for Henri

The Estates General carries on through May and June with general success. Despite several difficult matters having been tabled, the delegates manage to reach tentative agreements on a wide range of topics that have percolated in French society for decades including, freedom of worship, the relationship between Bishops and regional secular authorities, uniform taxation limits and structures, and various due process guarantees in the judiciary. Most significantly, the delegates successfully negotiate a structure for a permanent legislative authority vested in a reformed états généraux, somewhat modeled after the British Parliament’s bicameral system. Les États Supérieurs Sereins et Nobles (The Noble and Serene Superior Estates) would be composed of members of the clergy and nobility, while commoners would comprise Le Grand État Tiers du Peuple (The Great Third Estate of the People). Marçeau is greatly credited with being a broker of compromise and maintaining relative comity in the cirque des délégués, so-called by many members of the press in their reporting on the Estates General. The leaders of various blocs hope to continue working through the summer and offer the King an official proposal in the Fall.

King Henri is displeased. Although he has gone out of his way to grant space for his bloc royal to negotiate in the Estates General, by late-June he has come to regret being so accommodating of the assembly. “The Old Goat has made me a dupe,” Henri rages about Premier Marçeau to the Prince of Craon, his domestic policy minister. To the Conde de Nacajuca, the King declares that, “without a doubt my father looks down on me and laughs at my predicament, but he will not have the last laugh!” Henri quietly summons the leaders of the bloc royal from each estate and demands that they begin to gum up the work of the assembly. In the last week of June, a number of conservative delegates begin to insist upon proposals and amendments that take the assembly backward, such as demanding that the Superior Estates being directly appointed by the King, rather than elected among the clergy and nobility.

On 29 June Pascal Depardieu, a fiery conservative orator of the Third Estate, changes the tone of the entire endeavor by delivering a volatile speech decrying the assembly as a “Trojan Horse concealing within soldiers of heresy and anarchy,” and that “in our haste for conciliation we cannot rashly open our gates to the swords of our very destruction.” Affronted reformists and liberals respond with hot speeches of their own, precipitating an apparent collapse of negotiations in a number of ongoing committees. Marçeau’s attempts to restore a sense of camaraderie falls flat as conservatives attack him as “underhanded” and “Ulysses himself in the story of our own debasement.”

As the Estates General in Paris descends into shouted speeches, name-calling and accusations, other problems begin to erupt in King Henri’s realm. Beginning in mid-June a number of small but growing protests begin in Spanish cities demanding that the King call a Gran Cortes with the same purpose as the Estates General in France. Rhetoric from the activists describe Spain as “the forsaken kingdom” and that the Spanish people “refuse to be second class to los gabachos.” By the end of the month, the Gran Cortes Uprisings are strengthening and it becomes increasingly clear to Henri that he risks losing his grip on the Spanish government if the French assembly succeeds at creating a constitution; “a constitution is a pox on the God-given sovereignty of the Crown,” he writes to his chief Spanish minister the Duke of Osuna.

In the first week of July the King receives more unwelcome news from the Americas. The Governor-General of Grand Quebec, the Baron de Longueuil, forwards a petition from an ad hoc assembly known as the Congress of Detroit. The petition respectfully requests the inclusion of the French-American departments in the Estates General or else some equivalent assembly in French America that can serve a similar purpose, as well as a list of grievances relating to the style of governance in French America. Louisiana’s Governor-General, the newly arrived Baron de Pichon, reports hearing of similar sentiments in his jurisdiction as well. The King sends reply that his governors may deal with the situation as they see fit, but that they are not to cede any of the viceregal power vested in their positions. When news arrives from the Viceroy of Perù, the Conde de San Isidro, that native Peruvians in the highlands are in rebellion, Henri increasingly sees internal threats in all corners of his realm. He huddles with his closest French and Spanish advisors at Versailles and begins to plan his moves to restore order to his realm.

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The July Proclamation & the Summer of Protest

On the morning of 18 July, 1837 the delegates at the Cirque Royal are enduring an impassioned call for comity by the highly respected and aging Marquis de Lafayette when a messenger arrives delivering news from Versailles. The vast hall quiets as, in a strong but halting voice, the Vicomte de Marçeau reads a proclamation from the King. The July Proclamation declares that debate in the Estates General has been of great value to the Kingdom of France and has revealed great wisdom to the King on the way forward for France. He declares that the time may come when the realm may need a constitution, but that, in a time of such transition and change, such grand reforms are unwise. Henri then issues a battery of policies evidently delineated from the most conservative proposals from the bloc royal. Most notably, there is to be a set of new Grands Conseils d'Etat (Grand Councils of State) to advise the King on legislative matters on a regular basis, separate from the existing Cabinet of government. The assemblée des notables du roi (Assembly of Notables of the King), is to be elected by freeholders from the provinces of France, the departments of French America, and other such imperial settlements and postings in Australia, India, and Africa. Councils of the aristocracy and clergy will also be formed. All will have frequent meetings with the King to advise on matters of public importance.

The Cirque Royal fills with murmurs as Marçeau makes his way through the King’s proclamation, his own oration betraying surprise with the decrees. It concludes with a statement of gratitude towards the Estates General and welcomes them to continue to meet on an advisory basis until such point that they conclude to adjourn or the new State Councils supplant their work. As Marçeau concludes his reading, the delegates are, for a time, in stunned silence. There is to be no constitution for France. No grand package of reforms. Nothing resembling the enlightened path laid forth by King Louis XVII. For all its polite grandeur, the July Proclamation merely serves to repackage and reinforce absolute monarchism in France. As several shouts of “fourberie” and “ traîtrise” rise from the chamber’s left, where liberal and reformist delegates have organized since the opening days of the assembly. They are met with cries of “longue vie au roi” from the right, where the bloc royal are seated. Among delegates of all factions there is a sense of confusion and Félix Besnard, a moderate reformist, calls out to Marçeau, asking if the Premier knew of this before he read it. A somber Marçeau can merely shake his head, dumbstruck and unable to even call the assembly to order. Hundreds of delegates march out of the Cirque Royal to meet the press.

As anger begins to fill the streets of Paris about the King’s proclamation the Marshalcy is prepared. The people are told that they may protest, but that order must be maintained and that direct attacks on the King will be greeted with arrest. Over 800 are arrested in Paris on the night of 18 July and in subsequent weeks, over 10,000 will be detained as a result of protests across France. The King has planned for this as well, however, and included a number of liberal due process reforms in his proclamation. When the vast majority of those arrested are quickly released, the King’s Justice Minister, Louis-Bonabes de Rougé, delivers a widely distributed speech pointing out that the very reforms being protested for are the reason why so many are back on the street. De Rougé accuses liberals of revealing their true, power-hungry intentions, contrary to their claims of merely supporting reform policies. “Our King has handed down these policies so strenuously advocated for,” he declares “and yet still he is derided for not bowing to further radical demands? The good and faithful people of France see through such deceits!”

The palace propaganda has the desired effect of dividing even some moderate reformers from the liberal street protests. Yes, a constitution was promised, but in general the times were good in France. There is little appetite for anti-monarchist rhetoric among the French public at-large and as the weeks pass on, the protests both wither in size and increase in their radicalism. In Spain, a separate proclamation has made many of the same moves as the French version, and protests are quickly quelled by Summer's end. In French America, Henri is celebrated for promising to include them in his new Councils, while in Spanish America a number of Viceroys are replaced with more hardline men to quell violence on the outskirts of colonial control. For his part, the Vicomte de Marçeau feels compelled to resign his post after over a decade as Premier of France. He feels personally betrayed and distrusted by the King and retires to a small chateau outside of Chartres, believing himself to have failed both Louis XVII and the French people. Henri immediately elevates the much more conservative Charles François Prince de Craon to the post of Premier.

Summer marches on and clashes between protesters and police increase as L'Été de la Contestation continues. Acts of vandalism and arson become increasingly associated with the protests as radical Truthists take on a leadership role with many mainstream liberals silencing themselves. To the Truthists, Henri’s actions to undermine the Estates General are simply more evidence of the conservative conspiracy to murder Louis XVII to halt constitutional reforms. When Truthist-backed Seaport Revolts threaten to restart in the north, Navy troops and sailors are in place to break the work stoppages, leading to a number of violent clashes–most significantly at Calais and Anvers. The massive Lyons Strike is organized by Truthists shuttering many of France’s largest textile mills for several weeks. The Marshalcy becomes more aggressive and prosecutors more harsh, with hearsay often being used in court to convict Truthists of lèse-majesté. Crackdowns against the protests continue as Autumn falls over France and the nation’s attention turns toward foreign matters.

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French Betrothal Crisis

Henri determines back in the early Summer that the best way for unity to return to his realms is to incite a foreign threat. To that end, he begins making moves that he knows his European adversaries cannot ignore. In mid-July, just before his proclamation undercutting the Estates General, Henri announces the betrothal of his beloved sister Marie Zéphyrine to Prince Albert of Bavaria, 2nd in line and soon-to-be Crown Prince of Bavaria. The announcement makes waves in the Germanic world as Bavaria has traditionally been highly francophobic not to mention there being a very public courtship between Albert and Princess Maria Louisa of Austria. The betrothal therefore appears to be a diplomatic coup against Austria and many wonder what bargain Henri struck with the old King Karl Wilhelm I of Bavaria. Amidst this diplomatic rumpus, Kaiser Franz of Austria dies the week after the announcement and his son rises to the throne as Ferdinand IV.

Not only is Ferdinand more hawkish by disposition than his father, but he sees the Bavarian betrothal as both a personal and a dynastic slight. It is his daughter Maria Louisa who is slighted by the announcement and the match with the French princess threatens more than half-a-century of mutual understanding that Bavaria sits in Vienna’s influence. Reportedly, the wishes of Albert’s father Prince Johan–the Crown Prince of Bavaria–were superseded by his grandfather, and many openly wonder what dirty tricks and extortions the Franco-Spanish King leveraged to convince old King Bavaria to approve the match. Ferdinand had already been lobbying his father for war over Henri’s Peace of Utrecht violation and now as Kaiser he is a leading voice in the strengthening “war party” of anti-French leaders.

If the Bavarian betrothal announcement wasn’t enough, Henri has arranged another even more explosive announcement on tap for the first week of August. On the 8th, King Ferdinando V of Naples proclaims that his eldest daughter Maria Carolina will wed Henri V/I of France and Spain. Ferdinando’s heir and only surviving son, Prince Francesco, is a sickly young man whom many expect to die young and without an heir. The expectation then, is that his older sister, the eldest of five daughters, will produce the next heir to the Neapolitan throne. The announcement of her betrothal to Henri sets the stage for their son to be the potential heir to thrones of France, Spain, and Naples, joining the three largest kingdoms in the Holy Alliance in a personal union not seen since the heyday of Rome. The news inflames francophobia across central and eastern Europe. The hawkish Prussian Foreign Minister Karl Johan von Maur writes, “Europe stood by while Louis XVII flaunted Utrecht for a sense of love and now his twice-crowned son seeks to follow this example as a strategy in empire.” Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III, advancing in age, is eager to finally exact revenge for his grandfather’s humiliation and begins strongly agitating for an intervention.

Between Austria, Prussia, and Russia reaction is strongly negative and the likelihood of war seems high. King Maximilian I of Saxony also expresses extreme skepticism. His kingdom is wedged between the French-client Rheinbund, now-French-trending Bavaria, and increasingly assertive and anti-French Austria and Prussia. He is certain that his lands will be contested by cannonfire whether he stays neutral like his forefathers or not. In talking to his advisors, the Saxon King believes that a victorious coalition against France can reset the balance of power in Europe, and prevent Bourbon supremacy over all points west of Vienna. He believes that Saxony will find more influence in a multi-polar Europe, than one dominated by France. Even smaller Holy Alliance members such as Venice, Lombardy, and Savoy-Sardinia are wary of a triple crown. For his part, Henri maintains that the likelihood of his son attaining the throne of Naples is low and all of the hysterics in the rest of Europe is overwrought; “We are already bonded to the Neapolitan realm through our Holy Alliance, we need not deepen it further under one crown,” he writes in September.

In France and Spain the betrothal announcement is met with a mix of reactions. While many conservatives are pleased to see the 26-year old Henri finally take a bride, for the radical Truthists, the evidence of vast conspiracy to unify the Holy Alliance under a conservative Catholic rule glares them in the face. As most of society sees these theories as bogus, the betrothal succeeds at further isolating the radicals from respectable citizens. The conservative press takes advantage of the foreign reaction, whipping fervor in the public that France must “prepare a strong defense against her jealous enemies,” and that “domestic radicals seek to give credence and strength to our foreign adversaries.” These attacks are a major contributing factor in the crackdown against the summer demonstrations, as citizens are encouraged to provide hearsay evidence against their neighbors to support charges of lége majesté.

⦁ ⦁ ⦁

Foreign Ultimatums & War

In Russia, Tsar Paul II had retreated from his hawkish war harping in 1836 after the British expressed no interest in building a coalition against Henri upon his succession. But now, finding an invigorated new Kaiser in Austria and an eager Prussia, Paul is inspired to re-engage. The Tsar is a mercurial figure among the monarchs of Europe. Simultaneously brash and paranoid, he is desperate to maintain the approval of the Russian aristocracy that was so-well fostered by his grandfather Alexander. Paul is famous for performing personal feats of strength for the Russian court, even having wrestled a bear to prove his masculinity. His predisposition to support a European intervention kicks into overdrive when the Warsaw Uprising of 1837 begins in late-August. Inspired by the Truthist protests in France, a well-organized liberal rebellion hatches in the old Polish capital, being led by several former politicians and captains of the defunct Commonwealth. The unprepared Russian garrison in Warsaw is overwhelmed and by mid-September, the city of Warsaw is in the hands of the rebels, declaring “Warsaw is liberated from despotism! God-willing our brethren in Paris will follow us!” Furious, Paul blames the whole ordeal on King Henri.

Despite frequent counsel from his Foreign Affairs minister Nesselrode, the Tsar has a poor understanding of French affairs. He convinces himself that Henri is backing the Polish nationalists who openly support the Truthist protesters of France. In fact, Henri is disturbed by the rhetoric in Warsaw, and fears that the inclination among the French people to support Poles against Russia will drive people back towards the French Truthists still demonstrating in the streets. Regardless, Paul’s misunderstanding drives him towards a desire to lead a coalition against Henri and his growing hegemony over western Europe. In late-September Paul rushes 40,000 troops into Warsaw and drive the rebels back into hiding. He also dispatches Nesselrode to Berlin, Vienna, and Dresden with the purpose of formalizing a coalition.

The Tsar then makes renewed overtures with Britain, instructing ambassador Alexander Serdobin to impress on the British the necessity of confronting the Holy Alliance before the entire continent is under Bourbon sway. King George IV, stricken by an acute case of pleurisy, is unable to meet with Serdobin. Prime Minister Cameron and Foreign Minister Grosvenor, Lord Winchester are disinclined to involve Britain in any continental conflagration. Cameron is dealing with growing poll tax riots paired with a reinvigorated Compactor movement and he is struggling to build support for a Reform Act to quell domestic unrest. Grosvenor tells Serdobin that Britain will defend their brethren in Hanover and honor their agreements with Portugal, but will vigorously maintain a well-armed neutrality should hostilities break out on the continent. The heir-apparent, Edward Augustus, frustrates Serdobin with his glib attitude towards European affairs. “The French already control half the continent by pact, it makes slight difference to us if a pact turns to a dynasty,” he reportedly tells the Russian ambassador. Despite his inability to bring the British into the nascent coalition’s fold, Serdobin is able to report to von Nesselrode that the keys to British entry into a continental war are Hanover and Portugal.

In early-October, Nesselrode’s diplomatic tour pays off. He secures a secret agreement between the monarchs of central and eastern Europe as well as the Duke of Oldenburg, who is asked to put feelers out with King Frederik VI of Denmark but receives no commitment. Now with the backing of a strong coalition, von Nesselrode begins to write. Known as the von Nesselrode Communiqué, the missive is directed at the foreign ministries of France, Spain, and Naples. He meticulously lays out the history of the Peace of Utrecht and the flagrant violations thereof by the kingdoms of France and Spain. Von Nesselrode explicitly calls for Henri to abdicate from either of his thrones, with the crown of France passing to the House of Bourbon-Orleans, or the crown of Spain passing to a cadet branch of the Bourbon-Sicilia. The communiqué also demands that Henri call off his betrothal to the Princess of Naples, in the interest of “peaceable stability” in Europe.

Henri is pleased to read the demands of von Nesselrode on 11 October, and allows the royalist press and his foreign ministry to handle the response. Conservative writers are apoplectic at the audacity of the Russians to make demands on matters plainly outside of their business. Henri issues a proclamation in support for “our most Catholic brothers” in Warsaw and directs his foreign ministry, now led by the hawkish François-Hubert Duhamel, to issue a formal response to von Nesselrode. Delivered by 21 October, the Duhamel Replies are remarkable diplomatic documents, which flatly refuse the Russians and refute every point made by von Nesselrode with an abruptness scarcely seen in European foreign policy. France also demands that Russia return to the pre-1817 borders with Poland, reestablishing a Polish state to be ruled by a Catholic Grand Duke to be chosen by a future treaty convention, likewise proposed by Duhamel. As Henri expects, his foreign minister’s bold rudeness and brazen demands outclass von Nesselrode, leading to outrage in the Russian court and demands that the Tsar declare war.

In the midst of the diplomatic war-mongering, Austria and Bavaria have planned to destabilize the situation further. Austrian Foreign Minister Johan Anton von Bach successfully plots with Johan August of Bavaria to declare his father infirm and incapable of carrying out his duties as king and Johan August assumes control of the kingdom as Prince Regent. On 29 October he announces the end of his son Albert’s betrothal to Princess Zéphyrine of Bourbon, which infuriates her brother Henri. To rankle France even more, von Bach has arranged for Albert to wed, not Maria Louisa of Austria, but Augusta Carolina von Hohenlohe, the only child of the Duke of Franconia, setting up an enlarged Kingdom of Bavaria with close ties to Austria. Further insults are delivered through diplomatic channels and the French press near-universally pillories the “Bavarian usurpation,” pinning the blame on the wiley Bach. Several Austrian papers respond to French outrage with cruel irony alluding to the usurpation conspiracy against Henri V, fanning the flames of discontent within France itself.

Amidst all the royal dramatics, armies begin to gradually mobilize in France. The move by Henri finally manages to goad the Russo-Austrian coalition into preemptively declaring war on France and Spain in letters received on 13 November, 1837. For the King of France and Spain, war presents a great opportunity to unite his kingdoms and end the frustrating dissent to his rightful rule. For the coalition of Russia, Austria, Prussia, and their allies, the war is an opportunity to break French hegemony over western Europe, re-establish lost prestige, and significantly reshape the map of Europe for the first time in over fifty years. In the spring, campaigning will begin in what comes to be called–somewhat inaccurately–the War of French Succession.

George_Apley · Oct 18, 2022

GIAF: 1837-1838 -- Preparing for War

The Coalition of Austria, Russia, Prussia, and Saxony declares war against Henri of France and Spain in December, 1837 to prevent the solidification of Franco-Spanish union and the strengthening of its hegemony over Europe. By the new year the rest of the Holy Alliance, including Naples, Parma, Venice, and Savoy-Sardinia, declare war against the coalition as a bloc. The Rhenish Confederation votes in February, 1838 to grant the Alliance use of their infrastructure and safe-passage through their territories, but stop short of declaring war against the Coalition. A volunteer Deutsche Korps of Rhinelanders does mobilize in France early in the new year. Rome adopts a similar policy to the Rheinbund for the Papal States, while the Dutch, Danes, and Swedes announce their neutrality along with Great Britain, Hanover, and Portugal. Europe has not been at war since 1817 and warring parties are eager to test their forces against one another.

The French are able to mobilize quickly given the professionalization of the French Royal Army and the well-established network of reserve divisions that can be swiftly activated across the arrondissements of France. Recent experiences in North Africa have given many French officers and sergeants valuable experience and many of the field and general officers still remember Talleyrand’s War. Spain’s continued policy of rotating regiments to the colonies in America makes for an experienced force, but generally more familiar with internal actions rather than field formations. Indeed, the War of French Succession marks the first time in many decades that Spanish troops fight in large numbers outside of Iberia and the Spanish Empire. To enhance the Spanish contribution, a number of French officers are sent to Spain to recruit and train new regiments that will join French and Italian divisions on the northern and southern European fronts.

Austria’s army has undergone its own modernization in the last two decades since Talleyrand’s War, modeled in part after the reforms made by France under the Marquis de Lafayette in Louis XVII’s early reign. Nobility no longer have a monopoly on officer commissions and the officer ranks also display a strong level of ethnic diversity, not just German, Hungarian, and Czech. Many Poles, both native to Silesia and Galicia or migrants fleeing Russian despotism in the Commonwealth, are in leadership roles in the Austrian military as well as Croats and Serbians, whose mettle in combat was clearly demonstrated in Talleyrand’s War. Prussia and Saxony both have a reputation for well-formed and drilled troops, but Prussia is also known for failing in spite of its professionalism and Saxony hasn’t used its army in war since the 1760s. Russia, despite its great size is slow to mobilize, partly due to the large commitment of troops that are committed to occupying and pacifying central Asia. Russia has the most conservative military on the continent, having had astonishingly little recent engagement with the armies of Europe other than relatively brief wars against Austria and Sweden. Tsar Paul II is eager to showcase his army’s abilities after their experiences fighting against the Kazakhs, Turkmen, and Uzbeks east of the Caspian Sea.

Regarding naval strength, the French far outstrip any of their opponents, in spite of having mothballed a large number of older warships in the late-1820s. King Louis XVII had directed the Royale to begin experimenting with modernizing warships in 1829, producing a number of iron-plated and steam-paddle warships by the mid-1830s. France also engaged in a modernization and refurbishment campaign to prepare more than three-dozen hulking ships-of-the-line from the 1810s for modern warfare. The Spanish likewise have a formidable force at their disposal, as Henri mirrored many of his father’s naval policies in Spain. Naples is the weak link in the Holy Alliance’s navy, with few modern warships in its aging fleet.

Compared to France and Spain, the Coalition hardly compares with naval power. The Austrian fleet has greatly deteriorated in the last twenty years as resources increasingly poured into rebuilding the army after the defeat in Talleyrand’s War. The ability of the Austrians to project any power beyond the Adriatic is slight. Russia’s navy is in better shape than Austria’s, but the Russians lack any tradition of power projection on the high seas and have few tempting targets close to any of their naval bases in the Baltic and Black seas. Prussia’s naval forces are even weaker than Austria’s, almost entirely made up of older corvettes and frigates designed more for customs duty than fleet action. It is this weakness that leads the Coalition to so aggressively court Great Britain to join their war against the French.

Despite decades of frequent economic hardship and political upheaval, the British remain a significant naval power and use their mastery of the seas to maintain their far-flung colonial empire. As France is well-aware, British disengagement on the continent of Europe has not led to a deterioration of their military acumen. What Britain has done though, is downsize their naval assets, maintaining 1st-rate warships mainly for deterrence and homeland defense. The Royal Navy has a large number of state-of-the-art frigates of various classes that experiment with durability and speed using iron plating and steam power. The British also build a fleet of armed clippers in the envied Dominion shipyards of North America; these ships are astonishingly fast and nimble enabling them, in theory, to tackle much higher rated opponents given the proper conditions.

The strong rebuff to the Coalition by the governing isolationist wing of the Whig Party and the monarch is not echoed in all corners of British society. The much reduced Tories and a number of loud internationalist Whigs mount a very public campaign arguing that the time for Britain’s self-imposed seclusion has passed and that it’s time to remember the proud history of an English Queen standing against a mighty Catholic armada and to strive towards that history. While this faction is small, it has enough influence to force the government to be considerate in its policies, lest the public be won over by the hawks. The King does order Hanoverian troops to be placed on high alert and to defend their homeland should any party violate their neutrality. Just as the Coalition pressures Britain to join them, France lobbies hard, if quietly, for continued British neutrality.

The winter of 1838 proves to be a harsh one, leaving any thoughts of early campaigning in the realm of fantasy. As their men mobilize and train, leaders busy themselves planning their opening moves for the spring. Marechal Pierre de Maupeou takes overall command of Alliance efforts on the German front, while Marechal Bernard de Breme assumes command in Italy. Austria plans a major opening push in the Po Valley to be conducted by General Heinrich von Schrattenbach, while the Prussians, Saxons, and Russians prepare the thrust into the Rhineland under the overall command of Russian General Alexander Dobrovolsky. The firm neutrality of Hanover and nominal neutrality of Franconia and Bavaria means that any German front between the Alliance and Coalition will be confined to the 90 kilometer border between Hessia and Saxony, setting up a race to place armies and break through into more politically open ground…

George_Apley · Oct 22, 2022

I've decided to drop pieces of the 1838 war campaigns as I write them, rather than do a massive long drop.

1838: The War of French Succession -- The First Italian Campaign (Part 1)

The Coalition makes the first move in the war in the spring of 1838. Austrian Heinrich von Schrattenbach's army crosses the Tagliamento River near Varmo on 13 May and brushes past Venetian border defenses. The start to the campaign hits before the Alliance has fully mustered in northern Italy with the Venetians facing the full might of the Austrian invasion force with only a few advance regiments of Parmesan troops. Over 90,000 Austrian troops enter Venice from the east and successfully occupy Portogruaro and Pordenone within a week as the defenders fall back west of the Meduna River. An additional 40,000 troops march south from Trent along the Adige River valley and emerge from the Alps to siege Verona. The Siege of Verona only lasts for 10 days before the mayor capitulates. On 26 May the Venetians retreat west of the Pauve River to form a defensive line at Treviso but on the 29th are forced back again to Pancrazio at the Dese River. The speed of Austria's success in Venice stuns the Alliance.

French Marshal Bernard de Breme has just arrived in Turin on 23 May when he learns of the Austrian offensive. He has with him over 40,000 French troops and nearly 50,000 mustered men from Savoy, Lombardy, and Naples. Naples has promised that an additional 30,000 troops will shortly land in Ravenna and march north to the aid of Venice. Breme is also expecting an additional 40,000 troops from Spain under Ricardo María de Álava who will land at Genoa, but they are late arriving. Frustrated, Breme decides to move his forces to Milan and rely on dispatching individual corps to probe and harass the Austrians, rather than commit his entire army to action when they’re without a key component. This essentially writes off Venice for the time-being, ceding the ground to Schrattenbach. Indeed on 8 June the Austrians land an additional 20,000 troops at Cortellazzo, tightening the noose on Venice itself. The Austrian Navy under Admiral Hermann Montecuccoli proceeds to blockade the city as Schrattenbach’s forces approach by land from three directions, initiating the Siege of Venice.

Enrico Dandolo, the Doge of Venice, takes a strong stand and rallies the city, becoming the first notable Doge in fifty years and refusing to surrender to the Austrian onslaught for weeks. Several attempts are made to break the Austrian siege, most notably at the Battle of Cavarzere on 1 July, when the Neapolitan army under Michele Filangieri arrives from Ravenna. Facing Austrian corps commander Franz Kinsky, Filangieri misreads the Austrian tactics and his army is shattered by the slightly smaller Austrian force. The remaining Neapolitan troops retreat all the way to Modena. There are also a pair of attempts by the Neapolitan Navy to break the Austrian siege of Venice that fail. Following the collapse of Filangieri’s army, the resistance in the City of Venice falters, with the Doge finally capitulating on 9 July.

General Álava’s Spanish corps finally arrives in Genoa on 24 June but are further waylaid there due to an outbreak of a colic disease during transit. With most of Venice under Austrian control by the early July, Marshal Breme is compelled to make a move without his full strength, lest more of northern Italy fall to the Hapsburg armies. Several brigades of Spanish troops join Breme in Milan on 30 June and they depart for Cremona where they rendezvous with Filangieri’s reduced corps of Neapolitans. Breme directs his corps commanders to send divisions on either side of the Po River to probe and skirmish with the Austrians before committing the army to any movements that Schrattenbach could avoid and punch around them towards Milan or Parma.

On 4 July at the Battle of Mottella a Spanish brigade under Guzmán Osuna clashes with an Austrian division under Endre Hadik. The Spanish unexpectedly best the larger Austrian force, which retreats back towards Verona. Further south a French and Savoyard division under Philippe Leclerc de Hautcloque meets the Austrians outside of Rovigo on 7 July. At the Battle of Rovigo the Austrians, led by Mattias Sarkotic, successfully pin the Alliance forces with their backs to the Po, forcing a fighting retreat to the Po River crossing at Polesella into Papal territory. The frustrated Sarkotic does not pursue, given the clear instructions from Vienna to not violate the supposed neutrality of the Holy See.

Breme mounts a full assault against the Austrians at Verona on 16 July. Although muddy conditions make for a difficult march, the Allies successfully form up in their corps and hammer Schrattenbach’s forces on a long battlefront. The first day of fighting is bloody and leads to little ground trading hands, with the Allies falling back to regroup overnight. On the morning of 17 July, Breme takes advantage of an unseasonably chilly fog to reposition his formations and by mid-morning is able to break the cohesion of Schrattenbach’s forces, with some Austrian divisions retreating across the Adige River and others scatter to the southeast, crossing the Adige at Tombazosana. The Alliance victory at the Battle of Verona re-energizes Breme and his corps commanders. They prepare to continue the offensive to liberate Venice when news arrives from Turin that sucks the wind from the sails of the Alliance Army...

George_Apley · Oct 22, 2022

Map: Northern Italy c. 1838

George_Apley · Oct 22, 2022

1838: The War of French Succession -- The First Italian Campaign (Part 2)

The years-long occupation of Genoa by French troops creates a deeply embittered populace, particularly among the youth. With the young leaders of the nationalist Recovery jailed in the Tower of Grimaldi, the underground press foments the dissatisfaction among the population in the face of French and Neapolitan soldiers roughly asserting themselves on the populace. When thousands of ill Spanish soldiers arrive in June, 1838, consume more of the city’s resources, and firmly establish Genoa as a logistical hub for the Alliance, disgruntled Genoese youth begin to antagonize the occupiers raising tensions in the city. On the night of July 13, a group of boys begin verbally harassing a pair of French sentinels at a ferry dock. An altercation develops in which a Genoese boy is struck with the butt of a guard’s musket, leading to the guard being shoved into the water by the others. The second guard, enraged by the insolence lunges with his bayonet at the boys, piercing 17-year old Domenico Garibaldi, leading to his death.

Garibaldi had been the third son of a prominent merchant family known for their Genoan nationalism and distaste for the domineering French presence. His death shocks the city and mobs swiftly form, demanding retribution against the soldier involved. Jurist and writer Carlo Mazzini, an intellectual leader among the city’s sovereign nationalists, fans the flames of protest rapidly producing anonymous pamphlets denouncing the Holy Alliance as “the chains binding our rightful sovereignty to the domination of France, just as a slave is bound to his master.” Mazzini also writes to sympathetic contacts in the government in Turin, knowing the elites of Savoy-Sardinia likewise resent the Bourbon domination of their surrounding states.

On 6 June, an encampment of Alliance soldiers, mostly recovering Spanish troops, comes to flame in what becomes a great conflagration and kills over eighty. The French commandant overseeing Genoa, Colonel Nicolas de Neufville, blames the fire on arson and calls for French reserves in Turin to storm Genoa and help restore order. By 24 July, uprisings against small local garrisons are reported all across the Ligurian coast. In Genoa itself French-issued arms mysteriously begin appearing in the hands of Genoese rebels. A major confrontation takes place on 27 July at the Battle of Grimaldi Tower in which well-armed rioters confront the guards at the prison. Six men are killed in a shoot-out before the rebels storm the tower and release a number of political prisoners, including Cesare Cybo Malaspina the figural leader of the sovereign nationalist movement.

Learning of the chaos in Genoa on 23 July, Marshal Breme flies into a rage from his headquarters outside Verona. “How can I progress against the menace before us when our rear tears into our backs?” He reportedly yells to his aides-de-camp. Breme insists that reserve elements in Turin can handle the rebellion in Genoa and continues planning a forward attack against Schrattenbach’s regrouped Austrian forces near the valley community of Rovolon. On 29 July, the Battle of Rovalon is raging and Breme is preparing to commit his reserves to deliver the retreating Austrians a crushing blow when a dispatcher appears in his command post. The nationalist uprising has spread to Turin and reinforcements are requested to aid in the pacification of the mobs. Snarling, Breme orders his reserves to commit to their assault, but Schrattenbach’s formations are successfully disengaging and conducting an orderly retreat into the high ground to the southeast. No longer able to trust his supply lines through Turin, Breme leaves several corps in Verona and Milan to hold against the Austrians while he disembarks with nearly 30,000 troops back towards Turin and Genoa, furious at leaving his mission to liberate Venice incomplete.

Breme orders 12,000 troops to Turin and proceeds himself to Genoa. The Alliance forces who arrive at Turin swiftly pacify the city as armed rebels melt into the countryside and the troops are welcomed by the Savoyard officials. In Genoa however, the administration under Col. Neufville controls less than half of the city, while the countryside lacks any order. At the town of Toirano, nestled in the foothills of western Genoa, Malaspina and Mazzini lead a number of other Genoan nationalist in declaring the Sovereign Republic of Liguria, independent of all nations and unbeholden to any imposed international dictums such as the Holy Alliance. While the prospects for this attempted government seem slim, the news of the declaration is quickly spread and inspires a number of smaller risings in Florence, Milan, and even in Nice. More significantly the Alliance plans for an easy victory against Austria in the Po Valley are dashed by the Genoan Uprising, as troops intended to be fighting Schrattenbach are bogged down in police actions in the Piemonte.

The Austrians take full advantage of the Alliance difficulties. Verona changes hands again on 26 August with little resistance from the Alliance forces, which opt to retreat towards Milan. On 3 September, after a swift advance into Parmesan Lombardy, Schrattenbach defeats an Alliance force at the Battle of Gambara and occupies Cremona by the 5th, threatening to cut the road between Parma and Milan as well as blocking overland reinforcements from Naples. This sets up a race to control the key Po crossing at Piacenza. Breme is unable to muster the numbers he needs to hold off the overwhelming Austrian force at the Battle of Piacenza. On 12 September Schrattenbach drives the Alliance west of the town after a long artillery duel. The Austrian control of this key crossroads forces the Alliance to consider temporarily abandoning Milan until the situation in Genoa can be brought under control, an unthinkable proposition at the start of campaigning.

As Austrian troops enter a somber Milan in mid-September, Breme is recalled to Paris and Marshal Charles de Paladines, his most senior corps commander assumes responsibility for the Alliance efforts in Italy. Austria is eager to consolidate its gains and wary of overstretching supply lines through partisan-active areas. Schrattenbach is satisfied with his progress and sets up his headquarters in Verona. Major actions in the first Italian campaign conclude in late-September, 1838, with a stunning victory for the Coalition. News in France reports on the bungled campaign in a variety of ways. Most conservative and mainstream publications squarely blame the "radical revolutionaries" in Genoa. Various military publications target Marshal Breme, invariably blaming both his "smug certitude" and also his "timid distractibility." One radical French nationalist paper, Vive la France!, blames the "lackluster Spanish mobilization" for slowing down the offensive and giving the Austrians an advantage. King Henri is upset by the news but not overly concerned. "Our alliance is a juggernaut," he says to his Cabinet. "Once we build our momentum we will not be stopped. Certainly not by the likes of a fading empire and a backwards Eastern facsimile of our own grandeur."

Marshal Paladines continued Breme’s efforts to stabilize Genoa and the Piedmont as well as deter the Austrians from any attempts to press further west before winter. There are several cavalry skirmishes near Novara and Pavia through the autumn as both sides probe defenses. Schrattenbach’s infantry forces focus on garrisoning and securing supply lines to Trent and Weiden in Friaul. By mid-November the City of Genoa is back under control and on 2 December Royale troops land at Loano in an operation to secure the so-called Ligurian Republic government in Toirano. Though several collaborators are arrested, Mazzini, Malaspina and other leaders successfully flee the town into the hills and are smuggled to Sardinia on Giuseppe Garibaldi’s merchantman Amore per Nizza.

Alliance naval forces provide an important victory before the conclusion of 1838. French and Spanish reinforcements rendezvous with the Neapolitan fleet at Taranto and make their way into the Adriatic. On 14 December they engage the Austrian Navy at the Battle of Kamenjak. Modernized steam-assisted ships allow many Alliance vessels to maneuver against the wind and the Austrians are routed. As the Austrians retreat to Triest, the Alliance cruises to the City of Venice and liberates the island, landing a regiment of Royale troops on 22 December. Although Austria continues to control the mainland, freeing the city and controlling the seas provides a major propaganda coup for France in the New Year.

George_Apley · Oct 24, 2022

1838: The War of French Succession -- The First German Campaign (Part 1)

In Germany, the French make a show of using the new railway from Paris to Cologne to transport troops out of France in late-May, 1838. In Frankfurt the corps of troops that entered Cologne by rail rendezvous with others from across France, over 100,000 men in all. Despite the officially neutral status of the Rheinbund, the French are greeted with celebrations in many cities and towns and in Frankfurt a vast parade ground is prepared by the Grand Duke of Hessia. King Henri himself travels to Frankfurt, escorted into the city by his honor guard and riding a white stallion alongside the Bundeskanzler of the Confederation, Alexander von Sternberg-Mandersheid, and Marshal Maupeou, who is in overall command of the German campaign. Henri’s personal inspection of the troops ensures high morale as they prepare to embark into Saxony. In particular, the visit from the King helps to blunt the bad news coming from the Italian front. The pomp of the expedition also swells the ranks of Rhinelanders who sign up for the Deutsche Korps, and the unit is nearly 25,000 strong by the time they march out of Frankfurt on 14 June.

Meanwhile the Coalition forces muster outside Berlin. By mid-May, three Austrian corps have arrived from Prague and Breslau, joining two Prussian corps and three Saxon brigades. The Saxons have left the bulk of their forces in their territory, guarding against a French invasion from Hessian territory. Philipp Johann von Schwarzenberg and Friedrich Georg von Hacke are in overall command of the Austrian and Prussians respectively, while the Saxons will be led by their king himself, Maximilian I. Based on prior negotiations, the supreme commander of the Coalition in the campaign will be Russian general Alexander Nikolayevich Dobrovolsky, but apart from several brigades of Cossack cavalry and Polish infantry, the Russians are slow to arrive. After three weeks of waiting they receive word from Maximilian that the French are on the move in the Rhineland. Schwarzenberg is impatient and wants to lead the Coalition forces into Saxony without Dobrovolsky and let the Russians catch up, but Hacke refuses to leave Prussia without the main Russian army, which will make up nearly 100,000 men. Saxony will begin the campaign facing the French alone.

On 1 July the French army of over a hundred thousand men encounters 70,000 Saxon troops outside the town of Eisenach. At the Battle of Eisenach, Saxon artillery is skillfully placed by Ludwig Karl von Aster and savages the leading French formations. But a genius flanking maneuver utilizing the natural terrain by French cavalry under Brigadier Alexandre Lepic neutralizes the Saxon left artillery emplacements long enough for a French breakthrough that forces Maximilian to pull back his army to the north to avoid encirclement. The Saxons fall back through the valleys in the Hainich Forest, which hinders French cavalry harassment and enables them to regroup at Mühlhausen. Maupeou decides against chasing Maximilian and has the French army advance east towards Erfurt. Between 4-6 July several skirmishes with militias at Gotha marginally slow their progress. The largest of these is the Battle of Gamstädt, where the local militia have the support of a brigade of Saxon cavalry. The French march through Erfurt on 8 July with no organized resistance. Maupeou reports back to Paris about his easy progress into Saxony, and his anticipations for more difficult battles to come, noting that the three biggest belligerent armies in the Coalition have thus far not made themselves known.

The same day the French clash with King Maximilian at Eisenach the Russian army begins to arrive at Berlin. General Alexander Nikolayevich Dobrovolsky parades into the Coalition encampment with almost absurd grandeur. The conservatism of the Russian army is on full display for the more modernized Austrian and Prussian forces, which were reformed and rebuilt over the decades. Going over war plans, Schwarzenberg begins to question the wisdom of allowing the Russian commander to assume overall command; afterall the Austrians have familiarity fighting against France, while the Russians haven’t stepped foot east of Poland since the Six Years War. He privately notes that, while their troops are numerous, the Russian order of battle is inefficient and its officers inadequate to modern field command. Russian artillery is poorly incorporated into infantry support and is highly immobile relative to its allies in the Coalition. "This manner of order may be adequate on the eastern steppes, but I fear for its preparedness for the fields of Europe," he writes to Schrattenbach, his counterpart in Italy. Schwarzenberg endeavors to incorporate adjustments to Dobrovolsky’s plans to handicap the perceived Russian mobility problems. The massive Coalition army leaves their Berlin camp on 5 July and makes for Leipzig, where Coalition commanders have determined they will halt the French advance…

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