Wlad Goes Home: A Poland TL

Originally posted by Zorqal
Also, they held numerous Castles and whatnot across Europe IOTL, and ITTL, they are more focused there at the moment

Sorry, but I still can not see it. They about to loose a whole province (Pomerelia) with a wealthy seaport (Danzig/Gdańsk), their capital in Marienburg/Malbork (and actually the whole state) is in danger, and they just shrug and say: "oh, well, we still have a few castles in Germany". AFAIK the castles in question were spread all over HRE, with relatively small lands: OTOH, Pomerelia was big, rich and provided the Teutonic Order with land connection to HRE. It was a vital part of the Teutonic Order State. Its loss was a very heavy blow to the Order IOTL and I can not imagine the Order allowing it without fighting tooth and nail for it ITTL. So I would expect a hard, bitter war, not pretty much an easy campaign with the Order easily accepting its loss.
It is as if Kingdom of England was about to loose Wales, but English king didn't worry, beause he still had some castles in France; or as if USA was about to loose California, but they don't worry too much, cause the still had Hawaii, Guam and Wake Island.
 
Originally posted by Zorqal


Sorry, but I still can not see it. They about to loose a whole province (Pomerelia) with a wealthy seaport (Danzig/Gdańsk), their capital in Marienburg/Malbork (and actually the whole state) is in danger, and they just shrug and say: "oh, well, we still have a few castles in Germany". AFAIK the castles in question were spread all over HRE, with relatively small lands: OTOH, Pomerelia was big, rich and provided the Teutonic Order with land connection to HRE. It was a vital part of the Teutonic Order State. Its loss was a very heavy blow to the Order IOTL and I can not imagine the Order allowing it without fighting tooth and nail for it ITTL. So I would expect a hard, bitter war, not pretty much an easy campaign with the Order easily accepting its loss.
It is as if Kingdom of England was about to loose Wales, but English king didn't worry, beause he still had some castles in France; or as if USA was about to loose California, but they don't worry too much, cause the still had Hawaii, Guam and Wake Island.

ITTL, a few castles has become fair amount of land though. And not having the majority of their army there at the moment doesn't help. And they didn't lose all of the Baltic lands, so maybe they expect to be able to take it back. We'll have to wait and see ;)
 
Wlad Goes Home: A Poland Timeline

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(Sigismund Augustus)

V: A New Knight

With Ladislaus Hunyadi’s death, the Knights of the White Cape was left without a grandmaster. Ladislaus had not selected a successor as his father had with him, so the responsibility fell on King Casimir. Casimir’s first choice would have been Kazmer Hunyadi, to continue the line of Hunyadi Grandmasters, but the boy was only five years old, so the King had to choose outside of the family. In the spring of 1482, the Knights had a new Grandmaster, a young knight by the name of Jan Wilkowie. The bastard of a clergyman, he managed to join the order just before Grand Duke Casimir declared war in 1475, working his way through the ranks in the following wars with the Teutonic Order and Moldavia. The young man looked promising, and the King hoped he would be suitable for the job, and for training Kazmer to be his successor.

Jan’s promise did not last long. Thanks to his parentage, Jan was not a very holy man, believing more in the pleasures of earth, rather than the ones of Heaven. This was contrary to King Casimir’s way, who was a devout Catholic. While Jan is reported to be a womanizer, Casimir seemed to save himself. The stories of Casimir’s chastity have led to rumors that he maybe had numerous bastards across Krakow, or even in Lisbon on his frequent visits. This idea is discredited though, due to his absolute holiness in other areas. Another rumor was that Casimir was homosexual, and that was a prime reason he waited so long to get married. Jan was gluttonous, always excessively eating and drinking wine, even while in Wawel Castle, Casimir’s home in Krakow. In contrast, the King was temperate, only eating modest amounts of food at a time. These differences brewed for three years, until finally they finally boiled over. One night in the summer of 1485, a drunk and nude Jan snuck into the King’s sleeping chambers, and had his way with a serving girl on the floor. When the king awoke and found the two there he was outraged. After that incident, the Code of White was written, a strict set of rules all member of the Knights of the White Cape must follow. It included such things as a member could not marry without being given direct permission from the Grandmaster and they cannot inherit family lands. Jan Wilkowie was promptly beheaded.

King Casimir the Great did not gain his nickname through conquest alone, he was not skilled enough for that. He inherited a system that was on the brink of collapse, after his father’s costly wars. To try and rectify this problem, King Casimir greatly strengthened the power of the people, to try and reduce their hostility towards the monarchy. The Sejm became an annual occurrence, gathering every year. The Sejm was split into two separate chambers, the Senat, made up of 100 Bishops and other dignitaries, and the Sejmik, the chamber made up of 70 lower lords elected from each of the Kingdoms’ provinces. This gave both Poles and Hungarians equal representation in the Kingdom’s government, and gave the nobility much greater power than before. These governmental reforms helped Casimir keep the nobles in check, but at the same time, it limited his power as well, a side effect he may not have foreseen until it was too late.

Not only the nobility were upset though. The serfs were also upset with the Crown, so to try and calm them down he severely loosened their laws, which had be growing ever stricter, almost doing away with serfdom altogether. Suddenly, the crown went from being hated to loved, by nobles and serfs alike. This was the perfect time for a wedding it seemed, as in mid 1491, forty-four year old Casimir Jagiellon marries the fourteen year old Helena Ivanovna Rurikid of Muscovy. While the marriage would consist of no love between the two, they apparently were at least friendly with each other, more than can be said for some marriages of the time. Supposedly, he liked her a little more than she liked him. The King was anxious for a heir, his current one being his brother, Grand Duke Wladyslaw of Lithuania, whose own heir was only a sickly son, despite him being on his fourth marriage. Luckily their first son, Sigismund Augustus is born late in 1491, relieving Casimir of his stress, at least slightly. Sigismund, a quiet child born with a head full of fair hair, lives lavishly, the first heir not born into conflict since King Wladyslaw of Varna’s father, Wladyslaw II Jagiello, who was not born a king at all. In 1493, Sigismund Augustus is joined by a younger brother, Ladislaus Jagiellon, and finally a sister, Anna Jagiellon, in 1496.

According to Casimir’s personal records, no matter what he tried, Helena would not lay with him anymore once he turned fifty years of age in 1497. This made hims incredibly irritated, so to try and calm himself down, he traveled to visit his sister Dorothea in Portugal and to hear from her husband, King John II de Avis, if the rumors of him discovering a new land far to the west of Europe were true. Leaving just after his fiftieth birthday he took only a small force of the Knights of the White Cape with him, including Kazmer Hunyadi, who now was poised to become Grandmaster upon the the current one’s death. Arriving by early summer, he plans to spend several months in Lisbon, one of his favorite places to visit, and leave again in early fall, arriving back in Wawel Castle just before winter arrives. By mid-winter the King had not returned, but Kazmer and several more White Knights did arrive with King Casimir’s cart.



Another short update this time, and sorry if you expected something truly "Great" from Casimir the Great. Part of the reason it's short is that the next couple updates will be glimpses of the rest of Europe, which I am very excited to get to. And, just a heads up: While Poland won't be a colonial player, at least not in the Americas ( ;) ), I am really interested in that, so I will be covering it quite a bit. As always, point out any error or inconsistencies, its very helpful for a first timer like me :).
 
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Question: Would you prefer a longish update with lots of foreign affairs grouped together, uploaded sometime next week, or each country to have its own short one uploaded rather frequently?
 
im thinking of a third option: focus on certain regions in each update. for one update, you can focus on the west, and in another, you can focus on the balkans.

byzantium is doomed, but im assuming your planning something…interesting with them. and what of serbia?
 
im thinking of a third option: focus on certain regions in each update. for one update, you can focus on the west, and in another, you can focus on the balkans.

byzantium is doomed, but im assuming your planning something…interesting with them. and what of serbia?

That may work... I'll see what I want to do.

I do have something planned, something hopefully interesting.
 
The proper spelling of surname is Rurikid (Rurikovich in Russian), not Rurik which is the name of (legendary)founder of the dynasty.
 
Wlad Goes Home: World Tour

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A Brief History of Portugal, 1496 - 1500

When Princess Dorothea of Poland’s husband, King John II, acquired his father’s throne, he had a plan in mind. As his father had expanded the Portuguese lands in Africa, King John wanted to expand Portuguese lands in the far east. Unluckily for him, that was easier said than done. It took many months to pass around the Cabo da Boa Esperanca (1), much longer than troops could be put on a boat to be sent there. So, the desperate king had to find a simpler way to get to the lands of Cathay, Mangi (2), and Japan. So, with few other options, in 1496 King John sent an expedition to the west. The expedition, headed by explorer Agostinho dos Santos, a sailor who had made numerous trips to the Orient himself on other explorers ships. He assumed that the Earth was a sphere, like the Greeks had said many centuries before. He also assumed that if he headed straight west from the Açores, it would take only about a month to reach Cathay.

So, in April of 1496 he heads out from Angra (3), his hometown, and sails due west. A month of continuous sailing later, and he still hadn’t made landfall. The ocean just continued and continued in all directions. Finally, several months later, the Dos Santos expedition lands. dos Santos restocks supplies on the island, and claims it for Portugal dubbing it St. John (4). They sail northwards heading towards what they believe will lead them to the fabled capital Pequim, following the chain of islands they find, claiming each on for Portugal in turn. They think they have landed in Cathay and these are some islands to the east, south of Japan. dos Santos, not having ever been to Cathay itself, but to India, believed that the dark skinned strange speaking men they encounter are the Cathayans. After a few weeks of sailing north-west through the chain of islands, finds a larger one, larger than the rest he had found combined. He dubs this islands Ilha Agostino (5), and ‘founds’ the city of Porto dos Santos (6). After again restocking on Ilha Agostino, the portuguese sailor sail home, to share their story with the King.

By early winter of 1496 the sailors arrive in Lisbon, having gone through their resources much faster on the way home then on the way there. Almost half of the men had died from scurvy. Captain dos Santos survives, and reports his findings directly to the King. The King declares that in the spring of 1497, two-hundred fishermen, traders, and farmers will be sent to construct the city that dos Santos had ‘founded’. in the summer of 1497, one-hundred women would join them. dos Santos goes with the men’s voyage, to do more exploring and mapmaking. He makes more accurate maps than his first visit, and scouts out some more islands to the south of St. John. After comparing his maps to the rough maps of Cathay, Mangi, and Japan, he decides that these islands are not part of Cathay at all, but new chain in the Atlantic, like fabled Atlantis. He decides to name the island Chain, Oeste Cathay, West Cathay, to avoid confusion with the colonists who had already made their home there.

By 1500, roughly five-hundred people are living in Porto dos Santos, with about one-thousand on all of the Portuguese islands combined, not including the natives who live mainly in the hills, slowly trying to adjust to the Europeans ways and trying to manage with a series of strange and deadly diseases that have ravaged their population.

(1). Cape of Good Hope in Portuguese
(2). Cathay referred to northern China, Mangi to southern China. If these two names will ever become more than just European ignorance, we will have to see.
(3). Angra do Heroismo before Queen Maria II
(4). OTL St. Kitts
(5). OTL Puerto Rico
(6). Roughly OTL San Juan

A short one. I really expect my updates to be longer. Anyway, enjoy. Point out any mistakes or anything. Thanks!
 
I know I haven't updated recently, so I'm sorry about that. I've been looking back through what I have written and peoples responses and, despite how new the TL is, I think I am going to end it here. BUT, that doesn't mean I'm not writing. Wlad Goes Home 2.0 will be made! It will be better researched, better written, and more plausible, so all around a greatly improved TL. I realise that I made many sill errors in order to produce quick-ish, and in my rush I had some topics poorly researched. WGH 2.0 will hopefully fix those errors. More time will be spent on King Wladyslaw III and Casimir IV's reigns, and I will have some narrative updates. For the most part, the basics of what is there so far will stay the same, but it will be greatly more detailed. I should have the first update out around the Holiday Season, but don't quote me on that, as real life is a factor. Updates will probably be sporadic and of varying lengths, but one of my goals is for consistently longer updates than the original had.

Anyway, I hope to that any readers will stick around, and I hope to see you there!
 
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