Chapter 1: Baltimore's Ambition
Hello hello! This is my first attempt at writing a timeline for this site, and it's one I'm quite excited for. This timeline explores a world where the 13 Colonies (or what few of them were around by 1700) never got the chance to form a common American identity and instead separated into three distinct, squabbling factions. What would these countries look like? What would their dynamics be with each other, the great powers of Europe, and the increasingly displaced Native Americans? And how radically different would a North America (and later, a world) without a United States look?
Well, before we can get to those questions, we have a big one to tackle first: how did British North America fracture? It'll take some time to answer this question, so without further ado, let's begin!
Chapter 1: Baltimore’s Ambition
The 1620s were rough for the Colony of Virginia. Though the colonists had learned to feed themselves and its tobacco industry was beginning to take shape, those were about the only things going well. They managed to enrage the Powhatan people so much that they stumbled into a second war less than a decade after the first had concluded and, much to the befuddlement of London, got slaughtered in the first couple of years. And that’s not even touching the financial and political mess the Virginia Company of London was in. By the middle of the decade, King James I was so fed up with the Company’s mismanagement that he dissolved the charter and declared Virginia a crown colony.
Virginia’s fortunes improved by 1630. The colony was heading for an uneasy peace with the Powhatan and the English Crown, now held by Charles I, managed the colony more competently than the old Company. Yet, Virginia was still lacking one thing: manpower. And not just slave labor. Land needed to be settled, estates had to be managed, logistics needed to be coordinated, coopers and artisans needed to support local agriculture, sailors had to fill the harbors, and much, much more. The Jamestown Massacre of 1622 kneecapped the colony’s early production, and it hadn’t recovered to Charles I’s liking.
Enter George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore. Lord Baltimore had made it his personal mission to create a safe haven for his fellow Catholics in the New World. His efforts were fruitless thus far, with the Colony of Avalon being abandoned and the settlers at Jamestown coolly rejecting his proposals. Even in his failing health, he was determined to fight on. He had the respect of the king and friends in his court. It was time to play hardball.
Lord Baltimore’s proposal was simple: permit the free practice of Catholicism in Virginia [1]. Baltimore’s argument was threefold: the moral duty to provide a safe haven to persecuted Catholics, the political benefit of drawing settlers away from rival Catholic kingdoms, and, most importantly, the influx of settlers would solve Virginia’s labor shortage.
Lord Baltimore’s request wouldn’t go unchallenged, however. A delegation of Virginians led by the colony’s most prominent [2] clergyman, Anthony Panton [3]. Panton had come prepared with a full-throated attack on Catholicism and a lecture on how a rigidly Anglican society in the New World would produce a more loyal and productive colony.
Panton’s arguments hit trouble before they even started. Upon entering Charles I’s court, the Virginian delegation was shocked to see Queen Henrietta Maria, a Catholic, seated beside the King as his advisor [4]. The Queen Consort was present at the request of Lord Baltimore, though she needed little persuading. Panton was forced to alter his prepared remarks on the fly so as to not offend the Queen. While he was a skilled orator, the impromptu changes made his speech far less effective than he wished.
The rest of the Virginian delegation’s arguments were similarly blunted. Representatives from the Colony’s Governor’s Council discussed the body’s previous pro-Anglican laws. They stressed the dangers of overturning the laws of the legislature. Charles, an absolute monarch, was not impressed by these arguments. Nor did he wish to give deference to the Virginian legislature when he was already locked in an escalating power struggle with his own legislature at home.
On April 8, 1632, Charles I issued the Declaration Concerning Religion in Virginia (often shortened to the Catholic Declaration). The Catholic Declaration allowed for the free practice of Catholicism, the establishment of Catholic churches, and prohibited discrimination against or harassment of Virginians for practicing Catholicism [5].
With his mission finally realized, Lord Baltimore was able to rest. His ailing health, age, and previous bouts with plague finally caught up with him, rendering him bedridden only a day after the Catholic Declaration was announced. On April 15, 1632, Lord George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore passed away in his home in London [6]. The next step, Catholic settlement of Virginia, was now left to his sons Cecil (now the new Lord Baltimore) and Leonard.
[1] POD – OTL, Lord Baltimore asked to split the territory north of the Potomac from Virginia, forming the Province of Maryland.
[2] According to Notes on the Virginia Colonial Clergy by Edward D. Neill (1877).
[3] OTL William Claiborne led the Virginian opposition to the establishment of Maryland, but that was based primarily on Virginia’s (and Claiborne’s personal) territorial claims to the northern Chesapeake Bay. Since TTL’s complaints are mostly religious, Panton leads the charge.
[4] OTL Charles I and Henrietta Maria were not close at the beginning of their marriage, but they grew inseparable by the 1630s. Consequently, Henrietta involved herself more and more in politics as Charles I’s advisor.
[5] Very similar to OTL’s Maryland Toleration Act, though TTL’s version is narrowed to protect Catholics and Anglicans, rather than Trinitarians as a whole. This notably excludes Puritans from protection.
[6] Lord Baltimore died on the same day OTL. However, the process of creating an entirely new charter took longer than TTL’s Catholic Declaration, so he died five weeks before his dream was achieved OTL.
Well, before we can get to those questions, we have a big one to tackle first: how did British North America fracture? It'll take some time to answer this question, so without further ado, let's begin!
Chapter 1: Baltimore’s Ambition
The 1620s were rough for the Colony of Virginia. Though the colonists had learned to feed themselves and its tobacco industry was beginning to take shape, those were about the only things going well. They managed to enrage the Powhatan people so much that they stumbled into a second war less than a decade after the first had concluded and, much to the befuddlement of London, got slaughtered in the first couple of years. And that’s not even touching the financial and political mess the Virginia Company of London was in. By the middle of the decade, King James I was so fed up with the Company’s mismanagement that he dissolved the charter and declared Virginia a crown colony.
Virginia’s fortunes improved by 1630. The colony was heading for an uneasy peace with the Powhatan and the English Crown, now held by Charles I, managed the colony more competently than the old Company. Yet, Virginia was still lacking one thing: manpower. And not just slave labor. Land needed to be settled, estates had to be managed, logistics needed to be coordinated, coopers and artisans needed to support local agriculture, sailors had to fill the harbors, and much, much more. The Jamestown Massacre of 1622 kneecapped the colony’s early production, and it hadn’t recovered to Charles I’s liking.
Enter George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore. Lord Baltimore had made it his personal mission to create a safe haven for his fellow Catholics in the New World. His efforts were fruitless thus far, with the Colony of Avalon being abandoned and the settlers at Jamestown coolly rejecting his proposals. Even in his failing health, he was determined to fight on. He had the respect of the king and friends in his court. It was time to play hardball.
Lord Baltimore’s proposal was simple: permit the free practice of Catholicism in Virginia [1]. Baltimore’s argument was threefold: the moral duty to provide a safe haven to persecuted Catholics, the political benefit of drawing settlers away from rival Catholic kingdoms, and, most importantly, the influx of settlers would solve Virginia’s labor shortage.
Lord Baltimore’s request wouldn’t go unchallenged, however. A delegation of Virginians led by the colony’s most prominent [2] clergyman, Anthony Panton [3]. Panton had come prepared with a full-throated attack on Catholicism and a lecture on how a rigidly Anglican society in the New World would produce a more loyal and productive colony.
Panton’s arguments hit trouble before they even started. Upon entering Charles I’s court, the Virginian delegation was shocked to see Queen Henrietta Maria, a Catholic, seated beside the King as his advisor [4]. The Queen Consort was present at the request of Lord Baltimore, though she needed little persuading. Panton was forced to alter his prepared remarks on the fly so as to not offend the Queen. While he was a skilled orator, the impromptu changes made his speech far less effective than he wished.
The rest of the Virginian delegation’s arguments were similarly blunted. Representatives from the Colony’s Governor’s Council discussed the body’s previous pro-Anglican laws. They stressed the dangers of overturning the laws of the legislature. Charles, an absolute monarch, was not impressed by these arguments. Nor did he wish to give deference to the Virginian legislature when he was already locked in an escalating power struggle with his own legislature at home.
On April 8, 1632, Charles I issued the Declaration Concerning Religion in Virginia (often shortened to the Catholic Declaration). The Catholic Declaration allowed for the free practice of Catholicism, the establishment of Catholic churches, and prohibited discrimination against or harassment of Virginians for practicing Catholicism [5].
With his mission finally realized, Lord Baltimore was able to rest. His ailing health, age, and previous bouts with plague finally caught up with him, rendering him bedridden only a day after the Catholic Declaration was announced. On April 15, 1632, Lord George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore passed away in his home in London [6]. The next step, Catholic settlement of Virginia, was now left to his sons Cecil (now the new Lord Baltimore) and Leonard.
[1] POD – OTL, Lord Baltimore asked to split the territory north of the Potomac from Virginia, forming the Province of Maryland.
[2] According to Notes on the Virginia Colonial Clergy by Edward D. Neill (1877).
[3] OTL William Claiborne led the Virginian opposition to the establishment of Maryland, but that was based primarily on Virginia’s (and Claiborne’s personal) territorial claims to the northern Chesapeake Bay. Since TTL’s complaints are mostly religious, Panton leads the charge.
[4] OTL Charles I and Henrietta Maria were not close at the beginning of their marriage, but they grew inseparable by the 1630s. Consequently, Henrietta involved herself more and more in politics as Charles I’s advisor.
[5] Very similar to OTL’s Maryland Toleration Act, though TTL’s version is narrowed to protect Catholics and Anglicans, rather than Trinitarians as a whole. This notably excludes Puritans from protection.
[6] Lord Baltimore died on the same day OTL. However, the process of creating an entirely new charter took longer than TTL’s Catholic Declaration, so he died five weeks before his dream was achieved OTL.
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