King Theodore's Corsica

[frustrated progressive]

It’s back...with a bang!

I wonder whether other Corsican notables could seek to fan the flames for their own purposes, or whether the anti-French role of frederic will slowly morph into his real political identity.

 

[jjstraub4]

So the French have been soundly defeated in the island

I suspect the king will claim it was his cunning plan all along , and that he has always been a stalwart friend of the Vritish empire

 

[Carp]

I apologize for the hiatus. I’ve been rather busy lately, and I was also on vacation in France and Spain for a few weeks. (No, I didn’t go to Corsica, but I did go to a Corsican restaurant and had a very nice fiadone.) This update also proved extremely difficult - I was not happy with how I originally planned it and ended up putting it aside and completely rewriting it several times. I’m happy with how it ultimately turned out, and hopefully successive updates will come more quickly. I’ve got the 1760s pretty well planned out at this point.

The next update will concern the immediate aftermath of Concador, Britain’s policy towards “the island we sort of conquered but is still technically neutral,” and the struggle within the Corsican elite to figure out exactly where the kingdom is heading and who ought to lead it there. The disruption of occupation and war have severely weakened an already weak government, and there is a significant pro-French faction in Corsica that’s not going away just because Monti bit the dust. The temptation for Britain to meddle in the affairs of this weak-but-strategically-important state will be overwhelming.

 

[Grand_Panjandrum]

Excellent! I was just thinking about the TL the other day. I am very glad to see an update.

I'm glad to see that Wolfe survived the battle in this TL, but it seems that his French counterpart is cursed to perish throughout the multiverse. I hope we hear what happens to Montcalm.

 

[John Fredrick Parker]

Excellent update @Carp, and glad to see this back!

Will we be getting an updated map soon, showing us the British gains?

 

[St. Just]

Glad to see this back! Will SotHE also be getting new updates anytime soon?

 

[Herucalmo]

Huh, so Paoli may have just moved Corsica out of the frying pan and into the fire as it were.

 

[Icedaemon]

Great to have you back! A very interesting chapter - the French forces getting kicked out so suddenly was rather surprising. In particular, I found the way the religious mob so quickly became a revolt by apparent virtue of mere misunderstandings in spite of all the various officers acting sensibly and trying to defuse the situation very evocative.

 

[Mackon]

Oh wow, great to see this back So much his own chagrin the Prince is a hero against the French Still there at many worse ways that could have gone.

 

[Carp]

Will we be getting an updated map soon, showing us the British gains?

Possibly in the next update, although the overall picture isn't that complicated. Presently the British control Ajaccio, Capraia, and San Fiorenzo Bay, with Wolfe headquartered at Patrimonio. The French still hold Calvi with one battalion.

Glad to see this back! Will SotHE also be getting new updates anytime soon?

Nothing imminent. It's really too much work for me to do two TLs at once. I would like to come back to SotHE at some point, but I'm increasingly of the opinion that this would take the form of a reboot rather than a continuation. I'm not very fond of the approach to butterflies I took in SotHE (which is why I did things differently here), and I have a better understanding of the politics of that time period which makes me cringe a bit when I read some of the old SotHE updates. I've been doing a bit of writing on the side related to SotHE, but I can't really see it happening until I end KTC or put it on hold to do other projects.

A very interesting chapter - the French forces getting kicked out so suddenly was rather surprising. In particular, I found the way the religious mob so quickly became a revolt by apparent virtue of mere misunderstandings in spite of all the various officers acting sensibly and trying to defuse the situation very evocative.

A similar offensive took place IOTL when the British conquered the island during the French Revolutionary Wars: The British attacked Mortella and Fornali, the French retreated to Bastia, and were ultimately forced to surrender after Bastia was besieged from land and sea. The difference ITTL is the uprising in Bastia which prevents the French from retreating there, and it quickly became clear to me that without that exit, the French in the Nebbio really have nowhere to go. At that point, Monti knew that the only way out was over the bodies of his enemies. He failed, but he wasn't stupid; Wolfe was just faster and luckier. The French army was not destroyed at Concador, but it was bloodied, demoralized by the loss of its leader, and backed into a corner. Monti's subordinates sensibly capitulated.

The Barefoot Revolt also has a somewhat relevant historical inspiration. In 1791, outraged at the implementation of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, certain counter-revolutionary Bastiesi incited a revolt during Rogation Days. The crowd seized control of the citadel with shouts of "long live our religion" and chased out the pro-Paris civil administration. Or, in the (rather poorly translated) words of a contemporary:

With rogations, it is the custom that all the city walks in procession in the countryside. This procession appeared this time in an extraordinary fashion: men and women walked one foot knotted, others covered with ashes, others giving themselves the discipline with iron spikes which made blood run down their chest and shoulders, others finally dragging after them, with great noise, long chains to which they were fastened. It was in the midst of such a spectacle that those who followed cried out to the people: "Religion is lost in this isle if you do not defend it! They want to take away the religion of your fathers and their Ministers! Will you suffer your religion which assures you of eternal happiness to be replaced by a political cult and schismatic priests?"

That gave me the idea for a Rogation Days revolt (and Wolfe's campaign happened to be in the right time of year), but the two uprisings don't really have much else in common. The OTL revolt was more deliberately incited and was actually motivated by religion, while TTL's Barefoot Revolt was only incidentally religious, with the Rogation Days procession merely providing the kettle in which the mounting anger, fear, and anxiety of the Bastiesi could boil over.

 

[AvatarOfKhaine]

Loved the update and looking forward for more to come, nice to see you back!

 

[The Undead Martyr]

Speaking of ending KTC, are you planning to go beyond Theodore's death? Someone jokingly suggested an epilogue with Theodore's descendant being proclaimed King of Italy in Rome- a tall order, but I wonder how it could happen.

At the least Corsica itself would probably need to expand a bit more in the 18th century- carving up Genoa's corpse is the most obvious first step, for maximum irony Genoa itself could become a Corsican colony. Perhaps a turn towards Sardinia, and an attempt to reunify the defunct kingdom of Corsica and Sardinia? If and when the Medici go extinct (or has that already happened?) Corsica could make a play for the Duchy of Tuscany and quite possibly gain at least part of it (IIRC doesn't Corsica already have minor holdings on the mainland?).

Aside from Corsica being part of Italy and a probable Corsican Guard for the king (and of course the dynasty being different than the Savoy) I wonder what such a state would look like compared to the 19th century kingdom; probably less directly engaged with the Habsburgs, and a greater focus on the Western Mediterranean- maybe focusing on Tunisia over eg Dalmatia or Crete (though it's a question whether Venice would still be annexed by the Habsburgs without the Napoleonic Wars; they might stay wholly independent TTL like Germany and Austria).

 

[SenatorErnesto]

I’ll be sad the day this timeline comes to a close, but nonetheless I hope we get to see a glimpse of Corsica beyond Theodore I. Even a small passage in the modern day would be cool, but I’m sure however it descends it’ll be awesome.

 

[cmakk1012]

There’s always a more cheaty way to get Theodore’s descendant on the Italian throne: a royal marriage between Corsica and, say, Sardinia, where the latter even ends up adopting Theodore (or Teodoro?) as a Royal name. Then, it could be a unification similar to OTL and still have a von Neuhoff descendant on the throne.

 

[Carp]

I do intend to go beyond Theodore’s death. Presently, my plan is to go at least as far as the 1780s. Once we get into OTL’s French Revolutionary era, however, my job becomes a lot harder, as Napoleon’s absence means a vastly different world history (to say nothing of the fact that the French Revolution itself could conceivably be avoided or significantly altered by various changes in the TL). I may just end the TL somewhere around 1790, or I may decide to keep going with it, depending on how ambitious I’m feeling at that time.

Corsica is not a very good base for unifying Italy, for political ambitions require money and men, and Corsica has little of either. Probably the only way to make it work is through the magic of royal marriage, although the state most likely to achieve unification - Sardinia - has male-only succession. That’s not a problem if you merely want a Neuhoff descendant on the throne; indeed that’s extremely easy, particularly if the Neuhoffs marry into the rather minor Savoyard cadet house of Savoy-Carignano and they end up inheriting Sardinia when the main line dies out as it historically did in 1831. But if you actually want a Neuhoff male-line dynastic king, Salic inheritance makes that tough. IIRC Naples-Sicily is only semi-Salic, so perhaps that’s a better bet if you’re willing to imagine an alternate Neapolitan-led unification. It might be some time before a Bourbon consents to marry a Neuhoff, though.

The other problem, besides the fundamental lack of resources, is that the idea of a personal union is contrary to the founding logic of Theodore’s state. Both historically and ITTL, one of the key arguments for Theodore’s rule - as opposed to giving the crown to an established monarch - was that Corsica, being a small country, would inevitably be neglected if it were a dependency of another, larger kingdom. The Corsicans didn’t have to look far to see how that worked: Despite being “Kings of Sardinia,” the Savoyard kings did not lavish much attention on the poor, backwards island from which they got their royal title. Thus the 1736 constitution prohibits the king from residing outside the kingdom, and it’s hard to imagine a King of Italy (or even Sardinia, for that matter) ruling from Bastia. Certainly constitutions can be overturned, but the Corsicans might not be too happy about “their king” moving off to Turin or Rome and leaving them under some viceroy.

Theodore does indeed possess estates in the Milanese which came to him through Queen Eleonora’s dowry, but it would be incorrect to say that Corsica has those lands. They are the personal property of Theodore, not annexed to the crown. Theodore owns them and collects rents from them, but he is not sovereign over them any more than, say, a Milanese burgher is sovereign over his house. In the Milanese Theodore is just a landowner, not a king.

 

[52cardsshortofadeck]

The other problem, besides the fundamental lack of resources, is that the idea of a personal union is contrary to the founding logic of Theodore’s state. Both historically and ITTL, one of the key arguments for Theodore’s rule - as opposed to giving the crown to an established monarch - was that Corsica, being a small country, would inevitably be neglected if it were a dependency of another, larger kingdom. The Corsicans didn’t have to look far to see how that worked: Despite being “Kings of Sardinia,” the Savoyard kings did not lavish much attention on the poor, backwards island from which they got their royal title. Thus the 1736 constitution prohibits the king from residing outside the kingdom, and it’s hard to imagine a King of Italy (or even Sardinia, for that matter) ruling from Bastia. Certainly constitutions can be overturned, but the Corsicans might not be too happy about “their king” moving off to Turin or Rome and leaving them under some viceroy.

Perhaps have an 'Italian Confederation' form and have a Neuhoff dynast lead it somehow? Of course, that's probably even more implausible for a whole host of reasons...

 

[Grand_Panjandrum]

I personally would find a surviving independent Corsica much more interesting than as a participant in Italian unification. I would agree that the idea of unification would only make the Corsicans more protective of their independence.

 

[John Fredrick Parker]

@Carp Now there’s an interesting idea - what if Théodore has a daughter, who marries a son of the Prince of Carignano? If this daughter inherits the Corsican throne, I wouldn’t imagine Coriscans would object too strenously to future monarchs having a title of Sardinian nobility on the side; then skip ahead a couple of generations to 1831...

 

[Carp]

Now there’s an interesting idea - what if Théodore has a daughter, who marries a son of the Prince of Carignano? If this daughter inherits the Corsican throne, I wouldn’t imagine Coriscans would object too strenously to future monarchs having a title of Sardinian nobility on the side; then skip ahead a couple of generations to 1831...

That’s certainly plausible, although the generations don’t really line up and you might have to arrange a convenient death or two. I doubt the Corsicans would object to a Carignano-Neuhoff king (who cares as long as he’s Catholic and lives in Corsica?), and Sardinia and Britain would both be supportive. It would certainly advance the ambitions of the Kings of Sardinia, insofar as a Carignano King of Corsica is likely to be a satellite of Turin. France and Austria would be less enthusiastic: France would be concerned about Corsica going into the hands of the House of Savoy, which was usually friendly with the British, while Maria Theresa was absolutely opposed to further Sardinian expansion and would much prefer the succession of the Lorraine-connected Prince of Capraia.

But yes, that would work for your purposes, assuming that a) the main Savoyard line still dies out as IOTL, and b) Savoy still unites Italy as IOTL. Obviously neither is guaranteed given a 1736 POD.

 

[Daztur]

As has been pointed out up-thread any Theodoran expansion into the mainland would just make Corsica a backwater in its own country. Maybe picking up Sardinia would be an exception but besides that anything else would just sideline Corsica.