Jacobite Empire

I've always wondered how the world, especially Britain and the Americas, would have been with a Stuart restoration.
So, here's my spin on the possibility. POD is 1688.

1688-
The "Glorious Revolution", or as Jacobites call it "the Dutch coup d'etat", occurs, overthrowing James II nearly bloodlessly. William of Orange is crowned King of England, William III. However, James flees north to Scotland, and then across the main to Ireland in late Summer, pursued by Williamite forces. William III is acclaimed as King of Scotland from London, an action hotly debated. Ireland becomes an rallying point for royalist forces, who have economic aid from France, while Anglo-Scottish naval forces make war across the Irish sea with French and Royal ships.
Meanwhile, on the continent, war still rages in the Netherlands and Rhine as the War of the Grand Alliance takes its toll, consuming thousands of men.


1689-
In Scotland, a Convention of the Lords meets in Edinburgh to decide whether to recognise William as the King of Scotland. A slim majority, mainly Presbyterian lords, decides in favour of the Protestant, Calvinist Dutch prince. The Lords who dissent, led primarily by Episcopals, but with a significant number of Presbyterians, call the Convention void and leave in disgust. One of them is John Graham of Claverhouse, given the title Viscount Dundee in April.
In May, he rallies many Scottish highland clans and a few lowlander clans against Williamite forces. In the Battle of Killiecrankie of late July, Dundee achieves a great victory, destroying the army of Lowland Scots who waited in vain for English reinforcements.

The Jacobite troops, led by Dundee, press on towards Glasgow, which surrenders bloodlessly on August 2. In the second great battle of the war, on August 20, Williamite soldiers square off against the Scottish army in the twin battles of Falkirk-Dalkeith. At Falkirk, a superior Scottish cavalry force obliterates the meagre English infantry, and Dalkeith concludes with the Williamites at rout. The Scots besiege Edinburgh, hammering its walls for a month with captured cannons, capturing the city in late September.

However, as Dundee leads an expeditionary force of 550 men south into the lowlands, to scout English positions, his troops encounter a much larger force of Lowland Scots and Anglo-Dutch soldiers, leading to a fierce skirmish at the Battle of Loch Doon on November 1. As the Scottish troops are surrounded and shot at, the English closed in with bayonets, frightening the Scottish horses to run rampant into the lake, drowning their riders. Only Dundee's horse remains calm, and as he directed troops, an enemy musket shot pierces his breastplate, burying itself deep in his abdomen, mortally wounding him. As he lay dying, he tells a fellow soldier, "Flee. Get to Edinburgh. Tell them...the English are coming, and the apocalypse rides with them!"
That soldier mounted Dundee's steed, and presses his way to the nearby woods, and fled the fight. The remaining men, 250 soldiers, drown in the waters, stabbed by Williamite troops. None would be spared.
As November closes, and December approaches, the English take camp south of Edinburgh.

1690-
The War of the Grand Alliance continues, as does the Jacobite War. The Jacobites, without their great leader, falter, and vacate Edinburgh and Glasgow when rumour comes of a Government Army of over 100,000.
These figures are severely exaggerated from the real force of men, but fear spreads quickly throughout the men, and they rapidly flee to the upper Highlands, scattered among the peaks. However, they retain communication in secrecy, and the distance causes the Williamite forces to assume their enemy dissolved. Their main focus switches to Ireland, while a Jacobite haven forms in the rocky mountains of Northern Scotland.
Because of the events of the previous year, Dundee is made into a heroic martyr for the Stuart cause. The majority of Jacobite military leaders escape to Ireland.

In June, William claims the Irish Crown, in a bid to become ruler of all Britain. However, the Jacobite presence there is too strong. In July, riots across north-east Ireland by Catholic royalists lead to the death of several thousand Protestants in the isle. The ones that are spared are Episcopalians and Anglicans, who are deemed "near enough" to the Catholics that they ignore them. The majority of those murdered are Calvinists, an ideology strongly associated by now with the Williamite cause.

As the year stretches on, the English beachheads in south-east Ireland fall, and the Williamite army in Ireland is, with the aid of France, destroyed by Christmas.

1691-1697-
The War of the Grand Alliance is fought and concludes. The Americas, strongly influenced by Calvinism and the Puritans, stay firmly in the hands of the Williamites, affording them greater economic power than Jacobite Ireland. However, Ireland is never captured by William, though he maintains his claims.

1699-
Treaty of Man, by Irish and Williamite forces, where William recognises James II as King of Ireland, but not ruler of Great Britain. In later years, this treaty will be considered the conclusion point of the Jacobite War. Hostilities between Jacobite Ireland and Williamite Britain cease, and limited trade ensues, although relations occasionally chafe with James claiming legitimacy over all Britain, recognised as such by France.

1701-
War of the Spanish Succession breaks out, at the death of Charles II of Spain, the last Habsburg ruler. Ireland pledges neutrality, though Irish "mercenaries" sail to fight with France on the continent.

1702-
Both James and William die. James' son becomes James III of Ireland, nominally of England and Scotland as well. William and Mary are childless, so the throne falls to Mary's sister, Anne, who becomes Queen of England and Scotland.

1703-1714-
The War of the Spanish Succession is wages and ends. In the midst of the war, Hungary achieves independence from 1704-1713. However, Habsburgian forces manage to restore order just in time for war's end.
Anne dies in an untimely demise after the war's conclusion, leaving the throne to a Protestant German, George of Hanover. George is well-received in England, who see him as "a Saxon coming to rule the Saxons", while Scotland does not receive him particularly well. George's First act is, in 1714, to urge both the Scottish and English parliaments to dissolve, and in an Act of Union, form a single British Parliament for the Kingdom of Great Britain.
This is the last straw for the Jacobites, who thunder across sea, hill, and plain to restore the rightful King to England and Scotland's thrones.

1715-
The Second Jacobite Rebellion.
The Lords in Scotland refusing to recognise the dissolution of the Scottish Parliament, and many clan chiefs from the Highlands and Lowlands, rally around James III at Glasgow, raising the banner of the Stuarts. They march to Edinburgh, and press south. At Loch Doon, James III pays his respects to the dead who fought there in 1689, and they find Dundee's skeleton half-buried in the sand. They give it, and the other Jacobite martyrs, a proper burial, and erect a stone monument to forever mark the site. He is crowned at Scone as King of Scotland.

In late 1715, the Scoto-Irish force of Jacobites cross Hadrian's Wall, a mainly symbolic move. A few skirmishes result, with the small Government forces being wiped away. The majority of Government troops were still on the continent, battling French forces in the renewed conflict, or maintaining order in the Americas. However, the other, more exhausted nations, refused to involve themselves, leaving England alone against France and Spain.
James sends forth a letter, mass-reproduced and distributed across England, proclaiming his conversion to Anglicanism and his willingness to grant a general amnesty to all who side with him, regardless of if they be Catholic, Anglican, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, or Dissenter. He also made an appeal to the small undercurrent of nationalism, saying that while William was connected by blood to the Stuarts, these German Hanoverians were total foreigners, and had absolutely no right to an English, a Scottish, or an Irish throne, and that only a native son of Britain should possess them.

1716-
After several decisive victories in Mercia, the Jacobites, now with a significant English contingent, approach London, laying siege. In vain, the small force of Hanoverians defend against a much larger Jacobite force. By this time, the tide had turned significantly, and the English public largely accepted James' plea for restoration, tiring of war and turmoil.
One June 23rd, 1716, George surrendered and gave up all claims to Britain. In his last act as King, he decreed the Act of Union null and void, and abdicated. He was allowed to return unharmed to Hanover.

To be continued...
 
1717-1720-
Concern over the future of Stuart Britain worries many in the Isles. However, their fears are allayed in December 1720, when his Queen-Consort, Princess Maria of Poland, gives birth to a healthy baby boy, Prince Charles Edward Stuart, Duke of Rothesay and Cornwall, Prince of Wales. He is to be raised in the Anglican faith, to satisfy the anti-Catholic populace of England and Scotland.

1721-
Robert Walpole, leader of the Whig majority in Parliament, is named Lord President of the Council, First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer, giving him effective control over the cabinet. In short, he becomes the de facto presiding Minister of the English government.
Elsewhere, the Great Northern War between Russia and Sweden concludes, with Tsar Peter declaring himself Emperor of the East and King of Asia.

1722-1733-
Britain reconciles with its colonial holdings in North America, granting them increased autonomy. At the same time, the Great Awakening, an explosion of Protestant evangelism and Methodist-influenced theological teaching encapsulates North America, staring 1726. The English authorities make sure it doesn't go too far, and maintains Anglican hold on the colonies, cutting the Awakening short in 1732.

1733-
The War of the Polish Succession begins.
Triggered by Augustus II's death, the war degenerates into a bidding match between Russia and France for influence in Poland. The French candidate, Stanislaus I, fights against the rightful claimant, Augustus III, in a horrendously bloody civil war in Poland itself. Meanwhile, France and Spain engage themselves in war with Saxony, Austria, and Russia across Central Europe.

1734-1738-
The war is waged and concludes, when Britain joins the French side of the war. The combined weight causes the other powers to falter, and the Peace of Vienna establishes Stanislaus I as Grand Duke of Lithuania and Duke of Lorraine, and Augustus III as King of Poland, separating the two countries which had been bound in union for over 300 years. The event sends shockwaves across conservative Europe, but Britain sees it as a positive thing, keeping Europe balanced with several buffer states.
The former Duke of Lorraine, Francis Stephen, who had sided against France, is forced to move to Brussels, with his wife, and he is made an Governor of the Austrian Netherlands.

1739-
Francis Stephen is called to Vienna, to be with his father-in-law, the very ill Charles VI. Charles signs a document making Francis Stephen his adopted son, and calls a special convention of the Imperial Diet. Francis is elected King of the Romans, heir to the Imperial Crown. He would arise to the throne without contest, and would be the official ruler of all the Habsburg Austrian territories. However, he makes his wife, Maria Theresa, his co-governor in Hungary.
In England, James III announces his intent to abdicate England and Scotland to his son, and rule only Ireland as an active monarch. He would, later on, abdicate Ireland to Charles Edward, now 19 years old.

1740-
James III, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, abdicates Great Britain, and lets his 19-year old son becomes King of England and Scotland. Charles Edward Stuart becomes Charles III.
Meanwhile, on the continent, the War of the German Succession breaks out as Charles VI dies, and Francis Stephen ascends to all of the Habsburg thrones, except the electoral throne of Bohemia. The Duke of Saxony, and King of Poland, Frederick Augustus, is elected Frederick II, King of Bohemia and Duke of Silesia. The Imperial Election is disputed, as is the succession of Austria, by Charles Albert of Bavaria, who claims the title Charles VII, Emperor of the Romans and King of the Germans. This double-sided dispute into the Austrian dominions causes the beginning of a fierce and bloody war on the European continent. Bavaria and Saxony, backed by France, engages Austria, Prussia, and Hanover in a hellish German civil war.
 
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For a brief point, we look at Europe on the precipice of war, in late 1740. The war in Germany is beginning to be fought, the main battlefields being Saxony and Bohemia. Bavaria has yet to make their strike into the heart of Austria or Tirol.
Meanwhile, Charles III celebrates his twentieth birthday.

Jacobite 1740.PNG
 
For a brief point, we look at Europe on the precipice of war, in late 1740. The war in Germany is beginning to be fought, the main battlefields being Saxony and Bohemia. Bavaria has yet to make their strike into the heart of Austria or Tirol.
Meanwhile, Charles III celebrates his twentieth birthday.
...
Goooo Bavaria! :D
I have to say, very interesting! Gah, why can't I make timelines like this for Bavaria or Carthage... *hits self*
 
The ones that are spared are Episcopalians and Anglicans, who are deemed "near enough" to the Catholics that they ignore them.
Episcopalians are Anglicans outside Britian after the ARW, which cut them off from the king of England.
 
1733-
The War of the Polish Succession begins.
Triggered by Augustus II's death, the war degenerates into a bidding match between Russia and France for influence in Poland. The French candidate, Stanislaus I, fights against the rightful claimant, Augustus III, in a horrendously bloody civil war in Poland itself. Meanwhile, France and Spain engage themselves in war with Saxony, Austria, and Russia across Central Europe.

1734-1738-
The war is waged and concludes, when Britain joins the French side of the war. The combined weight causes the other powers to falter, and the Peace of Vienna establishes Stanislaus I as Grand Duke of Lithuania and Duke of Lorraine, and Augustus III as King of Poland, separating the two countries which had been bound in union for over 300 years. [...]

...why did you put Stanislaus as a ruler of Lithuania, and Augustus of The Crown (Poland)? It doesn't make sense - I don't see Russia agreeing to have Stanislaus rule lands closer to them (Lithuania)... More likely is Stanislaus getting the Crown...

Also, the map is wrong - everything south of Prypec - meaning Commonwealths' Ukraine was part of a Crown (Poland) not Lithuania, from 1567 onwards...
 
...why did you put Stanislaus as a ruler of Lithuania, and Augustus of The Crown (Poland)? It doesn't make sense - I don't see Russia agreeing to have Stanislaus rule lands closer to them (Lithuania)... More likely is Stanislaus getting the Crown...
Buffers it more erratically, preventing Lithuania from being too "cozy" with Russia, a point stipulated by the opposing powers (France and Spain).

Also, the map is wrong - everything south of Prypec - meaning Commonwealths' Ukraine was part of a Crown (Poland) not Lithuania, from 1567 onwards...
And borders can't change in wartime treaties?

Episcopalians are Anglicans outside Britain after the ARW, which cut them off from the king of England.
Episcopal Church of Scotland. Scottish people in communion with the Anglican Church. Look it up on wiki.
 
Very interesting! Ireland looks like it should be happier under the Stuarts. Why are the American colonies shown as the same color as Scotland/Ireland but the Hudson Bay Possesions are English?

Any details on how this happens?

1722-1733-
Britain reconciles with its colonial holdings in North America, granting them increased autonomy. At the same time, the Great Awakening, an explosion of Protestant evangelism and Methodist-influenced theological teaching encapsulates North America, staring 1726. The English authorities make sure it doesn't go too far, and maintains Anglican hold on the colonies, cutting the Awakening short in 1732.

What exactly is the autonomy? Recognizing rights of colonial legislatures? Between 1688 and 1732, the company colonies were converted into royal colonies OTL. How does this happen OTL?

What authorities are there in the colonies? How do their movements not provoke resentment? At the very least it would be complicated because the resentment would be most noted in New York and the New England colonies. The Middle and Southern colonies, being more Anglican, probably support the movement (or at least the planter class might).
 
Very interesting! Ireland looks like it should be happier under the Stuarts. Why are the American colonies shown as the same colour as Scotland/Ireland but the Hudson Bay Possesions are English?
The American colonies are a bit more autonomous than the Hudson Bay Colony, which is ruled directly by the English crown. The American colonies are, individually, self-governing.

What exactly is the autonomy? Recognizing rights of colonial legislatures?
Sort of. Like the Virginia House of Burgesses, but more widespread into the other colonies.

Between 1688 and 1732, the company colonies were converted into royal colonies OTL. How does this happen OTL?
Pretty much the same way. The restored Stuarts decide to speed up the process and give Royal Charters to the colonies to become self-governing crown colonies rather than direct parts of England. Except, of course, the Hudson Bay Colony, which remains a direct possession of England.

What authorities are there in the colonies?
Colonial governors, who are loyal to the Crown, regardless of the House in power. So, they remain under the control of whoever controls England, and more importantly, whoever grants them more autonomy and "free reign" in their colonies.
 
1741-1745-
The war in Europe rages bloodily for half a decade before reaching a lull and stalemate. Bohemia is lost to Saxony, and Poland occupies Prussia. Bavaria assaults and occupies Tirol, Salzburg, and Styria, and Charles Albert is acclaimed Emperor by a special convention of the Electoral Diet.

The British kingdoms side with France, initially.
However, the French King grows increasingly unwilling to aid a "Protestant Kingdom", even though the Anglicans consider themselves a just middle between absolute Protestantism and Catholicism. Louis XV arranges to assassinate the childless Charles III, and the plan goes under way in 1744.

A group of pro-French English Catholics are hired by the French government to carry out the attack. In mimicry of Guy Fawkes, they plant gunpowder under the Houses of Parliament, set to initiate the bombing on November 5, 1745. They distract the guards, and a man named Francis FitzSimmons stays in the cellars below the Houses to prime the explosives. They go off, blasting the wooden floorboards upwards, lighting the Parliament Houses ablaze. Hundreds are killed.
However, they had made a mistake in their planning, something they had not foreseen. The King arrives half and hour late, due to the carriage axle being broken and needing quick replacement. He immediately begins directing the rescue effort, a move which endears him to the British populace.
The next day, the plotters turn themselves in, unable to handle the guilt of betraying their mother country. They admit to the French crown being behind it.

Charles III then declares war on France, switching sides. This change in alliance re-invigorates the campaign on the side of Austria and Prussia.

1746-
Augustus III of Poland dies in battle at the Siege of Konigsberg, and with him go his claims on Bohemia. Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor and Duke of Bavaria is elected King of Bohemia, as Karel III. A royal election in Poland places Stanislaus of Lithuania as King of Poland, re-uniting Poland and Lithuania, and binding Lorraine in union with the Polish crown.
Meanwhile, the Austrians, under the direction of Maria Theresa, surge forth with Hungarian and Croat soldiers, pushing Bavarian forces back.
Russia involves itself on the side of France, seeing potential gain in suppressing Prussian trade in the Baltic. This leads to a Russian invasion of Hungary in December.

Meanwhile, Britain fights bitterly in the Americas against France, most of the fighting being done in the Ohio Valley, or as it becomes known, Blood Valley.

1747-1750-
The war continues, with much carnage and destruction. Austria contends with Russian invasion in Hungary and attempts to still restore themselves to the Bohemian throne. Prussia declares an armistice with the combatant powers, and pulls out of the Alliance. A second assault by Bavarian, Wurttemberger, Hessian, and Badener armies supporting Charles VII's claim presses deep into Austria, nearing Vienna. For a third time, the Great City of Austria is besieged, their Imperial claimant in tow, while Maria Theresa still directs the Austrian and Hungarian war effort from Pest.

Britain regains control of the Ohio River Valley, and begins an invasion of French Canada, her small corps stationed in the Hudson Bay moving to link up with the main force at Quebec.

1751-
While directing troops at Vienna, Charles VII tumbles into the Danube in mid-February. He is found half a mile downstream, frozen to death, his skin a pinkish-blue from the hypothermia. The Bavarian Emperor is dead.
His son, Maximilian III Joseph is elected by the Diet as Emperor, and he takes the regnal name Charles VIII, in honour of his father. He continues the war, but is not as skilled as his father was in diplomacy, and his support in the small German states falters and crumbles.
It is in the vast many small states that his support lay, and they begin, one by one, to switch allegiance to Francis I. The siege of Vienna ends in late February, with the Bavarian forces fleeing from an oncoming Hungarian army. Meanwhile, Russian troops are held up in Transylvania, pursuing another Hungarian force through the treacherous Carpathians.

In America, the Battle of Quebec commences on March 2, 1751. A force of Royal regiments and Colonial militia armies reach the French-controlled city and shell it for days. Meanwhile, another force moves around the rear of the city, opens a secret entranceway through the sewer system, and a large force gradually infiltrates Quebec. The city falls on April 7, when the gates are opened by the infiltration force, allowing the British to capture the controlling city of French Canada. The hard task of policing the rest of the territory begins.

1752-1756-
A crisis emerges, as Charles III falls ill, and he is without a child. In an emergency situation, he invites the Hanoverian Elector, George Augustus, to diplomatic talks. "Regardless of previous hostilities between our two houses," Charles says, "we must join in amity for the good of all Britons and Saxons under out two houses control," and offers to make George Augustus his heir. George Augustus is some 30 years older than the English King, but accepts his offer. In the Act of Settlement 1752, the descendants of George Augustus are to be the rightful heirs of the English and Scottish and Irish thrones, justified by their blood relation to the Stuarts through George Augustus' great-grandmother.
In 1753, Charles III recovers from his illness, and is able to be an active King again. However, George Augustus remains his heir and is conferred the position of Prince of Wales in 1754.

Meanwhile, the war drags on and on in Europe, with thousands dying, and more and more states switching to the Austrian side. Bavaria is soon under siege by Austria, their candidate an Emperor in name only.

1757-
Victory in India. The English East India Company's private army, backed by the English military, make British dominance in India a permanent, lasting achievement.

Emperor Charles VIII, is besieged at Nuremberg by a great Austrian force. They are joined by Prussia, re-entering the conflict on the side of Austria. This causes an invasion of native Prussian lands by Russia and Poland, forcing King Frederick II to return with the majority of his army to defend his homeland. He leaves, however, a decent force at Nuremberg, to aid the Imperial endeavour.
In December, the siege comes to an end, and Charles VIII surrenders all claims to the Imperial throne, to the Bohemian throne, and to the Austrian territories.

An exhausted Austria returns home for one last fight, to boot Russian soldiers from their native land.

1758-1760-
In January of 1758, James III of Ireland, father to the King of Scotland and England, dies. His throne of Ireland is merged into the Stuart Crown.
Charles III is thrown into a deep depression; he finds solace in drink, and in the arms of a woman, Clementina Walkinshaw. In defiance of his court's advice, he weds her and makes her his Queen-Consort.
She bears him a daughter in 1759, but the child dies within a week from smallpox. Clementina commits suicide in 1760.
Charles III, forlorn and despairing, continues to drink in large quantities, drowning his further depression in alcohol.

On Europe, the war began to draw to a close, until France gears itself for a great strike into the heart of Germany, hell-bent on placing their own influential candidate in power.
The absolutist and divine-right monarch of Louis XV had long been living behind the times, and they fail to realise that the Holy Roman Emperor was but a nominal style. It meant nothing, but this is ignored by the bumbling administration.
France nominates again the Bavarian candidate, but he refuses. So, instead they call for the Saxon duke, Frederick Christian, to become Emperor. Frederick, an avid reader of Germanic history, begins to see it as his destiny to become the first Protestant Emperor, with Protestantism as a wholly German establishment, and a point of German, especially Saxon, pride.
In an illegal proceeding, a convention of a few electors, held hostage by France, acclaim Frederick Christian as Emperor Frederick IV.

1761-
George Augustus of Hanover dies, leaving his inheritance and the Welsh principality to his son, Frederick.
After the death of Empress Elisabeth, Russia switches allegiance, pulls out of Hungary, and begins a rampaging assault on Lithuania; the Prussophile Tsar, Peter III, has ambitions to make Lithuania a Russian puppet. Meanwhile, the vast majority of German states, even former enemies of Austria like Bavaria and Hesse, join in a military alliance against France and Saxony. Although exhausted by years of war, Austria and her allies rouse for a final charge to save their homeland.

1762-
Charles III, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, presses through an Act of Parliament in the 3 kingdoms that merge them into a single state, with a single crown, and a single parliamentary body. The new state is declared as the Union of Great Britain. Charles III becomes King of the Britons, King of England, of Scotland, and of Ireland.
This is his final great act before perishing. On May 2, 1762, Charles III of Great Britain died from a liver haemorrhage caused by the past 4 years of heavy binge drinking. Frederick ascends to the throne, taking the style Frederick I, King of the Britons.

1763-
The great German War ends, with a death toll in the hundreds of thousands. Villages are left destroyed, cities turned to rubble, and fields scorched and burnt. Many historians would refer to it retrospectively as "The 30 Years War, part deux."

The Peace of Aachen affirms Francis Stephen as Emperor Francis I, and affirms Stanislaus I as King of Poland. Prussia annexes a strip of land connecting East Prussia to Brandenburg, and Frederick II restyles himself King of Prussia. Louisiana becomes a Spanish possession, because Spain switched sides in the last year of the war. Canada is transferred to British control, as the Province of Quebec, and Britain secures control over India.
Frederick begins a program to rein in the autonomous colonies, but without breaching their long-held liberties. However, the cost of the war now makes it necessary to tax the British people more heavily than before, to make up for the massive monetary losses. This leads to increased taxation in the colonies, and with it comes colonial demands for Parliamentary representation and a return to their old freedoms.
 
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