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Post by TheRomanSlayer on May 8, 2018 5:39:24 GMT
The main problem now is that this TL might not get enough exposure to most readers here, but I am going to keep posting the updates.
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lordroel
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Post by lordroel on May 8, 2018 5:54:04 GMT
The main problem now is that this TL might not get enough exposure to most readers here, but I am going to keep posting the updates. Well, I hope that it might, but I am glad that you will keep updating this timeline here. |
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stevep
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Post by stevep on May 8, 2018 8:22:03 GMT
The main problem now is that this TL might not get enough exposure to most readers here, but I am going to keep posting the updates. Well I'm been replying on another site because I saw it there 1st but definitely keeping an eye on how things develop.  |
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on May 8, 2018 14:51:36 GMT
All right, thanks for the support. IF there any questions though, feel free to ask. Now, on with the next update:
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Case Study #4: Eastern Europe
When Maximillian had won the Hungarian crown through the War of Hungarian Succession in 1492-1494, he had no idea that the struggle between the Hapsburgs and the Jagiellon dynasty of Poland-Lithuania had turned from a mere dynastic rivalry into a fully fledged feud of geopolitical proportions. Although he was still heir to the throne of the Holy Roman Empire, the possession of the Hungarian Kingdom now meant that should he ascend into the throne as Frederick III's successor, he would have expanded the borders of the Holy Roman Empire right up to the Danube, and consequently, the Holy Roman Empire will now have a common border with the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans. To ensure the stability of his new Hungarian domain, he engineered a series of diplomatic treaties with the Kalmar Union (of which Denmark was the dominant power), the Grand Duchy of Muscovy (Maximillian and Ivan III had a common enemy in the Polish-Lithuanian dual state) and the three Iberian Kingdoms of Castile, Aragon and Portugal.
Unfortunately, his expansion came at the cost of the loss of Croatia to the inept John Corvinus, who was engaged in a war with the Ottomans in an attempt to boost his legitimacy and reputation, but all it did was worsen his reputation and made a potential coup against him even bigger. To make matters worse, the Ottoman conquest of Syrmia (Srem) had allowed Sultan Bayezid II to position his armies for the inevitable Siege of Belgrade, which didn't kick off until 1499 when he gave the task of subduing the rest of Croatia to Sehzade Ahmet. In addition, he appointed Sehzade Korkut as commander of the Ottoman forces currently stationed in Vukovar to besiege Belgrade, but preparations were long and tenuous. New cannon foundries were being built (Bayezid II was advised by Grand Vizier Koca Davud Pasha to build new arms factories within Rumelia to ease up on logistics) while Ottoman sipahis were encouraged to build new horse ranches in Anatolia and southern Macedonia to supply the Ottoman Army with horses for the cavalry.
From Vukovar, Sehzade Korkut and Gazi Husrev Beg moved westward, taking various Croatian towns and villages, along with an additional 10,000 captives to be sent to Constantinople. Their fortunes were bolstered by small scale mutinies among the Croatian soldiers (certainly egged on by minor nobles who refused to obey orders from an 'illegitimate' king) but defections to the Ottomans were certainly not reported. In fact, individual soldiers had defected to the Ottomans, not out of anger and outrage, but by sheer opportunism.
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“Pashalarim, we have approached the bastions of the infidels who continue to oppose us. The Golden Apple is within striking range, but we cannot sustain a war with them as long as we don't have the logistics to do so. Unfortunately, Allah does not give us the luxury of preparing for a long war, for we have enemies on all sides. Thus we must muster the strength to subjugate the Croatian lands before we move to strike the Hungarians, the Austrians and even the Poles. Let us not forget that we have an additional task of bringing order to Mesopotamia, the Levant, Kurdistan, Trabzon, the Caucasus, the Arabian Peninsula and even the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. An order that can only be accomplished under our power.” Sultan Bayezid II, addressing the Divan in Istanbul, August of 1494.
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Excerpts from “The Hapsburgs's Unholy Alliance”
by: Valdemar Svensson
University of Stockholm Printing Press, 2013
Chapter Five: Hapsburg-Muscovite Diplomatic Overture
In the midst of the dynastic struggle between the Hapsburgs and the Jagiellons, Maximillian realized that even with the Lithuanian resources at Polish disposal, he could not triumph over his enemies alone. Thus he began to make diplomatic overtures to Poland's neighbors, namely the Teutonic Knights, the Kalmar Union, and most controversially, the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Why it was considered controversial for the next heir to the throne of the Holy Roman Empire to make overtures to the people the Vatican considered as heretics and schismatics was because of their fanatical anti-Catholic bigotry. At the same time, the Muscovites were also locked in a struggle with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania over the rest of the East Slavic lands that comprised of the former Kievan Rus' (or Kyivan Rus' in Ruthenian and Belarusian) that are under Lithuanian control. Lithuanian influence had allowed the Ruthenian lands to experience a degree of Western influence while the Muscovites had remained influenced by Oriental thinking, as well as the Byzantine legacy that lingered, thanks to Sophia Palaiologina's marriage to Ivan III.
Although Maximillian had also expressed disappointment in the Muscovite path to Orthodox Christianity, he viewed them as potential allies against Polish hegemony over Eastern Europe and sought to cultivate his new diplomatic standing with the Muscovite domain. He was not alone in that matter: the Kalmar Union too, had also sought to make a diplomatic overture to Muscovy and under King John of Denmark, he had beaten Maximillian to the punch by being the first European monarch to establish a formal diplomatic relationship with Muscovy. Undeterred, Maximillian would also go on to form a diplomatic relationship with the Kalmar Union, a decision that led to Poland-Lithuania's decision to support the independence of the Swedish lands and possibly integrate Sweden into the Polish sphere of influence in the future.
The top envoys of the Holy Roman Empire, the Kalmar Union and Muscovy met for the first time in July of 1494 in the Hungarian capital of Budapest. Though the interactions between the three envoys were friendly, the monarchs in question were nervous at what was to become the Concert of Budapest. Unbeknownst to the three monarchs who sent their envoys to Budapest, two rival Catholic factions had began to work on a project of rapprochement of the two Christian churches. The Papists sought to subjugate the schismatic Orthodox into Papal authority, while the Savonarolists originally wanted to reform and rebuild the Catholic Church before it would seek rapprochement with the Eastern Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic Churches. It was said that the Savonarolists had gained a much bigger influence among the French Catholics due to Savonarola's residence in France while their counterparts in Eastern Europe weren't in a position to influence the reformation movement.
In the Concert of Budapest, Maximillian agreed to recognize the sovereignty of Muscovy while Ivan III through his envoy, acknowledged the sovereignty of the Holy Roman Empire. Though the religions issues were consigned to an afterthought, they came to an agreement on certain key issues:
- Practical military aid to Muscovy in exchange for Muscovite guarantees of religious freedom.
- Muscovite participation in a future war against Poland-Lithuania alongside the Holy Roman Empire.
- Muscovite participation in a future war against Sweden alongside Denmark.
- Establishments of education centers on Muscovite territory under Danish supervision, of which the adoption of the Magdeburg laws would become a top priority.
- Danish and Imperial participation in a future war against the Ottoman Empire alongside Muscovy.
Although those key issues were hotly discussed among the Muscovite envoys, there was not yet a formal treaty that would have made all the parties involved in fulfilling these obligations. For instance, Ivan III's envoys were not comfortable with Catholic missionaries walking around Orthodox territory and Imperial envoys did not like the idea of an alliance with a schismatic nation like Muscovy. Ultimately, the three nations involved in the Concert of Budapest came to a realization that Poland-Lithuania remained a dangerous threat to their ambitions. For Maximillian himself, the growing relations with Muscovy was being reinforced upon an earlier attempt at a Hapsburg-Muscovite diplomatic rapprochement. It was for this reason that Ivan III instructed his envoys to make a declaration that under no circumstances should any of his sons or daughters be allowed to marry any Jagiellon offspring, even if it was meant to hold any peace between Lithuania and Muscovy. This declaration unfortunately, would not last long, as the rapprochement between the Hapsburgs and Muscovy had started to fall apart.
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Excerpts from “From Kievan Rus' to the Russian Imperial Federation: A Detailed History”
by: Sergei Simeonov
Chorny Medved Printing Press, published 2015
Chapter Eight: A Smooth Transition
The 1490s marked a turbulent time within the Grand Duchy of Moscow, as the current Grand Duke, Ivan III, had continued to gather up the Russian lands. Tragedy also struck the Rurikid dynasty, as the youngest son, Andrey Ivanovich, had died from an infected eardrum. The first attempts at building a workable relationship between Muscovy and the states of Central and Western Europe was best described as a 'cautious step fraught with potential mistakes', as demonstrated by the Concert of Budapest of 1494. Although there was no agreement made, the Concert of Budapest was the first step in coaxing Muscovy towards European civilization, but it proved to be short lived. The antagonism between Catholicism and Orthodoxy made the diplomatic overtures difficult, and Ivan III's own anti-Catholic fanaticism (encouraged by his wife, Sophia Palaiologina, who was herself a devout Orthodox Christian) had all but killed the possibility of a united front against the Ottoman menace in the Balkans.
However, the friendliness emitted during the Concert of Budapest would be short lived. In 1495, Maximillian decided to abandon his earlier diplomatic overtures to Muscovy, though the Kalmar Union would continue their alliance with the Muscovites. Moreover, Ivan III now felt unsure of where his domain needed to be, as the border wars between Muscovy and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania resulted in a few minor territorial gains for the former. As he didn't want to completely push Lithuania back into Poland's arms, he decided to show a bit of restraint on dealing with the Lithuanian state, and in extension, Poland. Playing on the Jagiellon dynasty's fear of the loss of influence on the European stage, Ivan III agreed to return the lands that he previously took during the border wars in exchange for one lucrative deal: a marriage match between Vasily III and any remaining Jagiellon princesses who weren't taken yet, thus breaching the obligations made at the Concert of Budapest (though the key issues became dead by now). Additionally, the Poles were not amused at the idea of their own princesses marrying an Orthodox prince, but John I Albert realized the advantages he can take from driving a wedge between the Hapsburgs and the Muscovites. Thus he reluctantly agreed to give his younger sister Elizabeth's hand in marriage to Prince Vasily III instead of marrying his daughter Helena off to his surviving brother, Alexander Jagiellon. Moreover, an agreement was made where Princess Elizabeth would be allowed to keep her faith, but her children would be required to be baptized into the Orthodox Christian Church, effectively preventing her from becoming Grand Duchess of Muscovy, but instead be declared the Duchess Consort.
The wedding took place in the Saint Sophia Cathedral Church in Minsk, amidst a crowd of Belorussian onlookers who were curious at the presence of a Polish princess holding the hand of a Muscovite prince. From the beginning, Vasily III and Elizabeth Jagiellon's marriage went off on a smooth start, and just as his mother Sophia had influenced his father's political mindset (ie: the adoption of Byzantine traditions to the Muscovite court), Elizabeth would go on to influence Vasily III by introducing him to the various innovations and ideas that are currently popular in Poland, Lithuania and Central Europe. It was under her guidance and influence that Vasily III would champion and adopt certain reforms inspired by the Magdeburg Laws on urban development and the re-codification of Muscovite law on the Byzantine and Polish model. In essence, Vasily III wouldn't remake Muscovy into a cheap imitation of Poland-Lithuania, but to adopt the best practices of Poland, the Holy Roman Empire and later on, to everyone's shock, the Ottoman Empire.
Muscovite society was still considered backwards by most of Europe, as the first steps towards serfdom was being taken, even as Western Europe is slowly moving out of feudalism. Hence the adoption of certain aspects of the Magdeburg Laws was deemed to be necessary in the development of various Muscovite and later Russian urban towns and cities, for it also determined the economic activity there, contributing to the growing trade links between the later Tsardom of Russia, Eastern Europe and the gunpowder empires of the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. It was left to both the Jagiellons of Poland and Lithuania and reluctantly, the Kalmar Union, to help guide the Muscovite state through the murky waters of Western influence. However, within Lithuania itself there were various nobles who were divided into three camps: the mainly Polonized pro-Catholic faction that seeks to reinstate the union between Poland and Lithuania, the fiercely pro-independent sovereignty faction that seeks to upgrade Lithuania's status into an actual Kingdom, and the Orthodox Christian pro-Moscow faction that wanted to break away from Lithuania and join the growing Muscovite domain. While the pro-Muscovy faction remained strong in the borderlands of Muscovy and the Belorussian lands, the pro-Catholic faction held their ground in western Belorussia and the borderlands between Poland and the Ruthenian lands. It was this fierce divide that Vasily III had to navigate through with the help of his wife, who functioned more as his unofficial advisor. The political division of the Lithuanian nobility was further exasperated by Alexander Jagiellon's rewarding of important posts to his fellow ethnic Lithuanians, neglecting the aspirations of his Belorussian and Ruthenian subjects. Finally, the newly emerging separatist domains had its own ideas on where they belong, as it was the case with the Ruthenian lands of Zaporozhye, Chernigov, Kiev and Pereyaslavl, which chose to become independent from both Lithuania and Muscovy.
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lordroel
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Post by lordroel on May 8, 2018 15:30:16 GMT
All right, thanks for the support. IF there any questions though, feel free to ask. Now, on with the next update: [/font] [/quote] No questions yet, but there might be in the future. |
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on May 9, 2018 1:59:37 GMT
That's all right.
I would also like to say that there will be flags made for this TL as well.
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lordroel
Administrator
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Post by lordroel on May 9, 2018 3:05:42 GMT
That's all right. I would also like to say that there will be flags made for this TL as well. Nice, i like flags. |
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on May 9, 2018 16:44:06 GMT
Case Study #5: Iberia and North Africa
The long awaited campaign made by the Kingdoms of Aragon and Castille against the Emirate of Granada was further bolstered by the entry of the Kingdom of Portugal into this war. From 1490 until the beginning of 1492 the Portuguese provided additional manpower and resources to the Castilian and Aragonese war effort. Unfortunately, a jousting accident had occurred in June 18, 1492 when Isabella of Aragon's younger brother Prince John of Asturias was knocked off his horse. A lance had collided with his shield, throwing him off his horse and snapping his neck. His questionable health became a huge factor as he was unable to regain consciousness, contributing to his death. With his death, it became clear that the crowns of Castile and Aragon would pass on to the House of Aviz. This meant that Ferdinand II of Aragon would have to recognize Prince Afonso as his new heir. Some of the Castilian and Aragonese nobles balked at the idea of their domains being passed into the hands of the Portuguese domain, but a few number of nobles had realized the geopolitical implications of uniting the crowns of Castile, Aragon and Portugal: it would create a truly unified kingdom on the Iberian Peninsula. It was not until 1516 when Ferdinand II of Aragon had died that the parliaments of the three Iberian kingdoms would pass the famous “Seville Decree”, in which the formation of the United Kingdom of Gran Hispania was declared, or informally speaking, the three Iberian kingdoms became the unified Spanish kingdom.
Portugal's involvement in the offensive against the Emirate of Granada had provoked a panic in the nearby Kingdom of Morocco. The Portuguese possession of the Graciosa fortress had not only allowed them to expand their mercantile trade, but it was also used as a naval base from which they can menace the Moroccan state. With Portugal now becoming more integrated with Castile and Aragon, the Portuguese gave permission for Castilian and Aragonese warships to use the Portuguese occupied port of Asilah to resupply their warships for further raids into North Africa. As a result, the three combined navies were able to initiate a naval blockade on Moroccan ports, preventing them from sending supplies to the besieged Granadan defenders who were worn down by decades of warfare with their Christian foes. It was from Asilah that the Granadan War had turned into a wider conflict, with Morocco being dragged into the Granadan conflict. Although the Moroccans wanted to aid their Granada allies, they also saw greater profit in selling their agricultural products to the Christian powers and didn't want to destroy their source of income. However, Morocco's inaction would eventually arise a desire for greater conflict with the three Iberian kingdoms from an unexpected source: the Kingdom of Tlemcen.
The Kingdom of Tlemcen was no stranger to foreign occupation: it normally functioned as a vassal of the Moroccans, the Ifiriqiya state and the Aragonese. However, the Sultanate of Tunis also competed with Tlemcen for control of the southern Mediterranean region, and was the richer of the two North African kingdoms. Yet the most powerful state in North Africa definitely went to the Mamluk Sultanate. The Mamluks were different from their neighbors in that most of their soldiers were of Circassian origin who converted to Islam. Yet their possession of two of Islam's holy cities, Mecca and Medina, made them an important player in the Islamic world, something that made the Ottomans uneasy, for they are also aiming to add the legitimacy of the Islamic world to their cultural collection. Thus the Sultanate of Tunis under the Hafsid dynasty took advantage of Tlemcen's weakening position by offering its support to the besieged Granadans against the Christian powers of the Iberian peninsula.
Starting in August of 1492, the three Iberian fleets bombarded the coastal cities of Almeria and Marbella. Once the naval bombardments commenced, their land counterparts began marching towards Purchena. Portuguese troops led by Prince Afonso landed in Motril by August 18 and proceeded to occupy the rest of southern Granada while Castilian and Aragonese ground forces led by King Ferdinand II moved towards Iznajar and Moclin. Once those cities fell under the joint Castilian-Aragonese control, the King proceeded to make his final push towards Granada while waiting for his son-in-law to meet up with him. In August 25, Prince Afonso's troops took the city of Orgiva after a week long siege in which Portuguese troops had conducted themselves in such a brutal manner that the surviving refugees of the fallen city moved in droves towards Berja, complicating the movements of the Granadan army. News of the Portuguese capture of Orgiva also caused panic within the inhabitants of the city of Granada itself as some of the survivors of the carnage of Orgiva joined the defenders in resisting the Christian advance. Such a surge in the number of defenders would play a pivotal role in the costly conquest of Granada, leading to a much bigger retaliation from traumatized soldiers who took their anger out on civilians who surrendered.
Although Boabdil, the ruler of the Granadan state, was prepared to surrender to the triumphant Christian forces, news of their conduct in Orgiva, along with Orgiva's surviving refugees who were furious at their leader's defeatist attitude, forced him to reconsider his position and prepared Granada for a long siege. Thus to the surprise and shock of King Ferdinand's forces, the city of Granada became an armed camp, with the Orgiva survivors among the men who took up arms and stood at the city walls. Luckily, the combined Castilian-Aragonese forces brought enough cannons to knock down the city walls, but King Ferdinand was confident enough that the approaching Portuguese army under Prince Afonso's leadership will arrive to relieve him of the enormous burden of capturing the walled city. To encourage the defenders of Granada's walls, Boabadil personally took command of the armies inside, while sending emisarries to Tlemcen and Tunis for help. His charisma and courage earned the respect of Granada's defenders to the point where he promised them that should they face defeat, they will face it together and perish together. That promise was tragically kept, for three weeks after the Siege of Granada had begun, Prince Afonso's troops managed to reach its outskirts by October of 1492 (the Siege of Granada began in the beginning of September) and attacked from the south. News of Prince Afonso's arrival had also raised the morale of the Castilian-Aragonese forces who grabbed enough courage to launch an assault on the city walls. Another week of furious bombardment had finally reduced Granada's walls to rubble, while Prince Afonso's artillery units also struck at the weak points in the southern wall. Both King Ferdinand's army and that of Prince Afonso surged into the city, though many of their troops were killed in the process as revenge for the atrocities committed in Orgiva. Seeing most of their comrades killed, the battle hardened troops of the two commanders spared no chances when encountering surrendering enemy soldiers, who were promptly killed. When Boabadil himself led the final charge towards the advancing Castilian-Aragonese forces, it was Prince Afonso who faced him in close quarters combat. After just an hour of fighting up close, Boabadil chose to commit suicide rather than allow himself to be paraded as a prisoner of war.
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The Sultanate of Tunis and the Kingdom of Tlemcen received news of Boabdil's death in Granada with great mourning when additional news of Granada's fall to the Christian armies also reached the two kingdoms. Fear ran through the minds of the public, who were more concerned with the three Iberian kingdoms' next potential target: their own homelands. For Morocco, the Portuguese occupation of its lands was further pronounced by the construction of its forts, and with Castile and Aragon allowed to use Portuguese ports, it was only a matter of time before Morocco was the next target of the Reconquista. Although Tlemcen and Tunis would also try to find Christian allies that have a grudge against the three Iberian kingdoms (and later on, the unified Spanish kingdom), the anti-Muslim animosity of the European states had forced them into the arms of the Mamluk Sultanate, though the Ottomans will also try to court them as well.
The weaknesses of the two North African kingdoms lay in the declining trade with the Italian states that relied on North African trade due to Aragon's increasing control over the Kingdom of Naples and the Kingdom of Sicily. Moreover, even with the cross-Sahara trade strengthening the economic ties between Tlemcen and Tunis, piracy also presented another problem. It was for this reason that the Ottomans under Bayezid II and his successors had made plans to bring most of North Africa under their control, not through conquest, but through vassalage. By the time the three Iberian kingdoms' respective parliaments had voted in favor of proclaiming the United Kingdom of Spain, their next target had shifted to Morocco. However, naval blockades plus raids and expeditions beyond Ceuta had also made the Moroccan ruling dynasty more uncomfortable with having the three victors of the Reconquista so close to its capital city, Fez. Starting in the beginning of July of 1495, the Wattasid dynasty began to improve the defenses and expanded the city of Tagmadart in an effort to stymie the later Spanish conquest of Morocco, if it ever happened. It was logical, to the minds of the Wattasid dynasty, that from Ceuta, the future Spanish conquest of Morocco will aim at capturing Fez, hence the relocation of the capital to Tagmadart in 1503.
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Granada's reconstruction after it was taken over by the Kingdom of Castile was long and extensive: the naval bombardments of the port cities that the Portuguese army had occupied resulted in major damages to the harbours, resulting in the rise of demand for shipyard workers to be hired by the eagerly opportunistic Castilian merchants. With the former Granadan state's position as the 'barricade' between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, its reconstruction became the top priority of King Ferdinand II. Thus with the additional 40,000 soldiers stationed throughout the former Granadan state, Castilian, Aragonese and Portuguese settlers moved in to claim the properties of the previous owners who fled south to Morocco. Upon the recommendation of King Joao II of Portugal, Prince Afonso became the provisional viceroy of the newly formed 'Duchy of Granada' in 1496. It also explained the future titles that Prince Afonso acquired upon succeeding his father-in-law: “King of Gran Hispania and Grand Duke of Granada”. Some of his policies that later benefited most of the Spanish Empire had its origins in his tenure as Grand Duke of Granada: the religious tolerance policy he formed was progressive in his time, though small scale discrimination against Jews and Muslims persisted.
Prince Afonso also spearheaded the construction of new shipyards throughout his Granadan duchy, particularly designed to build new galleon ships suited for long range explorations. Yet despite Prince Afonso's development of the shipbuilding industry in Granada, Ferdinand II was also desperate to search for a new route to Asia and had sent envoys to the Italian states to locate and recruit potential explorers. To his surprise, one of the envoys who went to Genoa had struck up a friendship with two of Domenico Solumbus's sons, Christopher and Bartholomew. Additionally, the two brothers' had constantly lobbied for years with various European monarchs who were skeptical about their harebrained ideas of locating a western route to Asia, but when they were summoned to the court of Ferdinand II, he gave them his approval only after listening to the debates that the two brothers had made with regards to their project.
As for King Joao II of Portugal, while his Aragonese counterpart had bought into the Columbus brothers' scheme, he was a bit hesitant on backing such a project, owing to the available knowledge of the entire planet at that time. Yet he didn't want to see himself as someone who was beaten to the punch by his brother-in-law in the race to locate the western route to Asia. Therefore, he had appointed an experienced Portuguese explorer by the name of Joao Alvares Fagundes to join in the expedition as well, but for the purpose of locating a different western route through a more northern approach. The competition over the search for a western route to Asia and the possible territorial disputes that might arose would later be settled by the 1500 Treaty of Alhambra, where each Crown (Castile, Aragon and Portugal) would be allowed to lay claim on which territory they wanted to acquire. Within the Treaty of Alhambra, the colonies that were established under the three Iberian Kingdoms were: the Viceroyalty of Nueva Alhambra (under Castilian control), Nueva Lusitania (under Portuguese control) and Nueva Majorca (under Aragonese control). Though there was no restriction on whose country's settlers were allowed to settle in, there were many cultural preferences for certain types of settlers. For instance, the Viceroyalty of Nueva Alhambra only wanted Castilian and Basque peasants, while Nueva Lusitania mainly attracted Portuguese settlers and Nueva Majorca opened its doors to Catalan, Aragonese, Jewish and Italian settlers. In addition, a special Autonomous Captaincy General of Nueva Sidonia was created for Sephardic Jews who wanted to create a new life in the New World, but it was built under the supervision of the Aragonese crown.
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on May 10, 2018 14:59:42 GMT
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Case Study #6: England, Scotland and France
In the aftermath of the French conquest of Brittany and its subsequent annexation, King Charles VIII started to reconsider his friendship with Henry VII of England and had begun to create plans to instigate another War of Succession inside English soil, this time with the full intention of installing a pro-French ally who would be a useful tool in France's struggles against bjoth the Spanish and the Hapsburgs. In the midst of the growing French ambition plus the intrigues of Savonarola and his followers, it was Edward Plantagenet, the younger brother of the Countess of Salisbury, who would be thrusted into this deadly power struggle. It seems that the old Yorkist-Lancastrian power struggle was about to become erupted in a Second War of the Roses, although this time it would be the French who will become the main benefactors of this conflict.
Fate had smiled upon the House of Valois, and especially Charles VIII: his wife Anne of Brittany had given birth to a healthy young daughter back in December 10, 1492. Acting upon the medical advice from several healers connected to the Savonarolists, Anne of Brittany stayed in the Chateau d'Amboise residence for the majority of her pregnancy. It was a practice that she eventually adopted when she became pregnant with five more children. The new daughter was christened as Princess Margaret de Valois, and she was the first surviving daughter to survive into adulthood. Four years later, Anne would give birth to another daughter, Princess Beatrice de Valois in May 12, 1496, and Charles VIII's firstborn son soon followed in July 19, 1499, named Henri de Valois. Unfortunately, an unnamed stillborn daughter followed in 1502, but Anne and Charles VIII were lucky to have another son by 1507, who was subsequently christened as Prince Alexander de Valois. Furthermore, most of Charles's children were tutored by Savonarola himself, whose knowledge of logic, ethics, philosophy and government became influential in the later development of the Savonarolist Rite of the French Church. While the happy couple were present in the rearing of their children, Charles VIII kept in contact with both the 17th Earl of Warwick and his sister Margaret Pole, whose marriage to Richard Pole had cemented the Tudor family's ties to that of the York and Lancaster branches of the Plantagenet dynasty. To Henry VII however, the growing interference of the French in English internal affairs had become troublesome, and disgruntled by Charles VIII's blatant annexation of Brittany in which he sent troops to prevent the personal union of Brittany and France from becoming a reality, he began to launch a witch hunt for secret supporters of the 17th Earl of Warwick.
One additional fallout from the English military intervention in Brittany was Charles VIII's repudiation of the promise he made to Henry VII not to shelter rebels fighting against his authority. Among the persons who benefited from the falling out between Henry VII and Charles VIII of France was a renegade Yorkist supporter by the name of Perkin Warbeck. Though he was mistaken for Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, he entertained the idea of claiming the English throne for himself before a chance meeting with Edward Plantagenet, 17th Duke of Warwick in April of 1494 had forced himself to reconsider his target of the English throne. When Warbeck and the 17th Duke of Warwick had met for the first time over a dueling tournament in Cornwall, the former was impressed with the royal pedigree that the latter possessed. Moreover, the two became close friends as Edward became interested in the affairs happening in Continental Europe. It was also through Warbeck that Edward had met the Stafford family, and a soiree in the winter of 1495 had allowed him to meet for the first time the eldest daughter of Henry Stafford, Elizabeth. The courtship between Edward and Elizabeth was maintained in secret, particularly because Henry VII was eager to win over more dukes and duchesses to his cause and to prevent a Yorkist restoration. By 1496, the couple fell in love and planned to marry, but the Stafford family faced increasing pressure from the king to stop Edward's courtship with Elizabeth.
The history of the Savonarolists in England was rather different than the Savonarolists of France. Unlike France, England had a strong reformist movement prior to Savonarola's appearance on the international stage called the Lollards, which advocated for the reformation of Western Christianity. Fearing the royal authorities and that of the Catholic Church in England, the surviving Lollards were smuggled to France by their French Savonarolist friends. Among the smuggled Lollards was Thomas Harding, whose religious dissidence had already landed him in trouble twice in his lifetime. The Amersham Lollards, as the heretics were known, were in grave danger if their true faith was discovered, and as France was fast becoming a hotspot for Christian reformists, the Lollards soon found refuge in the French domain. It also helped that the English control of Calais became a departure point for English Lollards who were attracted by the growing reputation of the Savonarolists. Eventually even the 17th Earl of Warwick himself joined the Lollard crowd through the efforts of his friend, Perkin Warbeck. His departure from England by September of 1496 with Elizabeth Stafford in secrecy had allowed them to reside in the court of Charles VIII. By the time Henry VII had learned of Edward`s departure, he grew outraged and searched for the incompetent spies who allowed the Yorkist pretender to escape from England.
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Excerpts from “A Reformation Attempted: The Savonarolan Revolution”
by: Jean-Claude de Olympe
De Coligny Printing Press, published 2015
Chapter Eight: The Savonarolan-Lollard Alliance
When Savonarola settled in France as the religious advisor to King Charles VIII, he had several hundreds of followers who accompanied him on his journey. Between 1494 and 1499, five thousand Savonarolists had settled in Avignon, once the center of the Avignon Papacy. Although the Savonarolists acquired significant influence within the French political, religious and economic circles, their presence was ignored by the religious authorities until 1496 when another group of religious reformists from England arrived in France. The Lollards, led by the Amersham leadership around Thomas Harding, were far more radical than some of the Savonarolists and in addition to their grievances against the Catholic Church, their biggest criticism was the constant insistence of having the Mass conducted in Latin rather than the language of the people who attended the church services (in this case, English). As no one had understood the Latin tongue, the Lollard criticism of the language used in the Catholic mass was significant.
The subsequent collaboration between the Savonarolists and the Lollards had caused an alarm in the rest of Europe, especially within the Holy Roman Empire, Castile, Aragon and Portugal. As the Iberian peninsula became the bastion of Roman Catholicism in Western Europe, they were fearful of the potential spread of the heresies that are originating in France. It was because of France's tolerance of heretics that diplomatic relations between the Holy Roman Empire and the three Iberian kingdoms were established. Though there was no talk of a marriage match between the Houses of Aviz, Transtamara and Hapsburg, they did form a military alliance called the Pact of Ravenna (made in early 1501). The Pact of Ravenna, or also known as the League of Ravenna, was a coalition of pro-Papal Catholic nations of the Holy Roman Empire, Castile, Aragon and Portugal, although the 1516 Seville Decree would later revise the terms of the Pact of Ravenna to include Gran Hispania/Spain. In 1498, the Kingdom of Hungary under Maximillian I would join, though Poland-Lithuania was at the fence, due to the intrigues of Maximillian in wanting to install his son Philip the Handsome as King of Poland. Because Barbara Jagiellon was already arranged to marry Duke Georg of Saxony, Philip the Handsome was instead married off to Duchess Sophie of Brandenburg-Ansbach. Though no one had picked up this significant match, it was the beginning of a familial alliance between the Houses of Hapsburg and the House of Hohenzollern that controlled the Margraviate of Brandenburg. Subsequently, Brandenburg would also play a vital role in retaining the dominant influence of Catholicism in eastern Germany.
The consequences of the Pact of Ravenna's existence had greatly worried Charles VIII, who also feared that Henry VII was going to join the pact as well. His fears were proven correct when the English envoys were sent to Castile on Henry VII's orders for a suitable match between the youngest daughter of Ferdinand II of Aragon, Catherine, and Prince Arthur Tudor in October of 1498, although their arranged marriage had existed prior to the existence of the Pact of Ravenna by virtue of proxy marriage way before that. The match also worried the self-exiled 17th Earl of Warwick, who feared that his chances of acquiring the English throne and restoring the Yorkist Dynasty was slipping. Thus in the same month as the match that happened, Edward Plantagenet and Elizabeth Stafford were officially married by October 31, 1498. The marriage was celebrated within Chateau d'Amboise, and both Charles VIII and Anne of Brittany attended the wedding as honored guests.
In the first few days of Edward's married life, he and his new wife undertook a tour of the French countryside, accompanied by twenty pro-Yorkist English knights and thirty French knights who acted as bodyguards. Traveling with them was Savonarola's fellow accomplice, Silvestro Maruffi, who had embraced his friend's ideas. Within the French countryside, Savonarolists had constructed several few villages where Savonarola's ideas were put into practice. Dubbed the Savonarola villages, they acted as the catalyst for one of France's earliest attempts at agrarian reforms at a scale never seen before. The Savonarola Villages consisted of one town hall, several houses where the peasants lived and two manors owned by the local landlord. The landlord was required to keep a certain amount of money for charity in case the peasants under his control are unable to contribute. Charging interests for loans in the Savonarola Village was outlawed, a crude judicial system was established to punish offenders who deviated from Savonarola's laws and encouraged a small scale industry to flourish, mainly dominated by desperate trade guilds seeking to build their business. A school was also built to educate the young children residing within these villages and a church was also erected, often staffed with Savonarolan priests who conducted the services. For payments to the landlord in a Savonarola Village, the peasant has to agree to put up some of his possessions as collateral in case he was unable to make the payment. The money lenders who existed within these villages were forbidden from practicing usury and also encouraged peasants who can't make payments in money to barter their crops for profit. In addition, if there were peasants who don't have any land to work on, they were sent to the trade guilds where the tradesmen taught them the basic skills in metalsmith, woodwork and light scale manufacturing. It was said that Charles VIII's successors had admired the Savonarola Village's socio-economic experiment that they eventually extended that practice to the entire country.
The presence of the Savonarola Village had clearly impressed the newly married English couple, because upon the outbreak of the War of the English Succession in February of 1502 over the premature death of Henry VII from the infamous sweating sickness, the 17th Earl of Warwick along with various troops of the English Army who defected to his side, as well as Irish mercenaries recruited by Perkin Warbeck, had launched an invasion of Cornwall, backed by the French fleet that accompanied them. Once they landed in Cornwall and occupied the village of Falmouth, Edward began to reorganize Falmouth and the nearby village of Penryn into Savonarola Villages. An ambitious land reform was promised by the Yorkist faction, while Cornish peasants who were attracted to the idea of changing their lives for the better, became ardent supporters of the 17th Earl of Warwick. In addition, the Lollards who also joined Edward and his army took over the administrative positions of every Cornish town and village, confiscating Church lands and interrupting Catholic services by preaching in front of the Church doors. While Charles VIII officially entered the War of the English Succession on Edward's side, Aragonese volunteers from the Crown of Aragon joined the army of the young King Arthur I Tudor. The War of the English Succession became the first proxy war in the deadly struggle between the Catholic Church and the growing Reformist movement consisting of Savonarolists and Lollards. In addition, the Kingdom of Scotland (a French ally) also took interest in their neighbor's succession crisis and openly joined their French ally in backing Edward over Arthur I. Upon Edward's recommendation, Perkin Warbeck and 5,000 Irish volunteers would depart from Falmouth and journey by sea to Ayr, landing in the Scottish port by August of 1502. There, they were later joined by Scottish troops commanded by the 1st Earl of Bothwell while making preparations for the invasion of northern England. As the young Arthur constantly battled his own illness and the Yorkist faction, the momentum picked up for Edward as he marched his army eastwards, towards London. At the same time, the Scottish and English border reivers who constantly fought each other, cooperated for the first time when Warbeck's forces besieged Carlisle by October of 1502. Although the Siege of Carlisle was just as brutal as the Siege of Orgiva, there were far less amount of atrocities there, as Warbeck was focused on winning the hearts and minds of the people inside.
The Lollard-Savonarolist cause received a massive boost in morale when on October 16, 1502, Arthur fell gravely ill while resting inside Ludlow Castle. Even despite the constant surveillance of the young king by his healers, he succumbed to his illness and died. The death of Arthur would have allowed the young Prince Henry to become kind, with Elizabeth of York acting as regent, if it wasn't for Richard Pole's offensive into Kent (Richard Pole sided with his brother-in-law when the War of the English Succession started), resulting in the capture of young Prince Henry and his mother.
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Excerpts from Perkin Warbeck's Letter to King James IV of Scotland, December 5, 1502
“To His Excellency:
I am pleased to hear of your decision to support the rightful candidate for the English throne, and as you have requested, I will relay your wishes to His Majesty, King Edward V Plantagenet, King of England of the House of York. Although we have significant trouble with the Tudor loyalists in the north, the news of the short lived Tudor monarch has decreased their morale and their leaders are parlaying with us in exchange for their lives. I am not sure if you will be comfortable with this idea, but apparently your French ally has hosted a rather interesting individual. A fellow who has lived in Florence has managed to come up with such radical ideas on how we as Christians should live. His ideas of charity, piety and humility has really placed an enormous pressure on the Papists who fear the unknown, and with God's grace, the Tudor alliance with the Iberian kingdoms has collapsed. Little Prince Henry is far too young to rule, but I would have preferred not to spare the little bastard.
While I continue to write this letter, the legitimate King of England has started to gather up more soldiers and supporters, through his ambitious promises of land reform. You may or may not be aware that England had a peasants' revolt almost a hundred years ago, and we're eager to prevent that from happening again. The grievances of our peasantry has to be something that a wise king would listen to, for they've always vented their anger at the upper classes who are far better off.
Your Servant in Service,
Perkin Warbeck”
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Excerpts from King James IV of Scotland's Letter to Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick and King of England, December 19, 1502
“To His Majesty, King Edward V of the House of York:
I've written this letter to congratulate you on your ascension into the throne as King of England, although the method you've chosen to take has rather made me uncomfortable. However, given that King Charles VIII of France is a good friend of the Stewart clan and the Scottish state, I have decided to reserve my judgment towards you until you can deliver the promises that you've declared, as Sir Warbeck has mentioned in his letter to me. With your cooperation, we can look past our grievances and improve the Auld Alliance, or rather, replace it with a new kind of alliance. One that aimed at the Papal-backed kingdoms in the Continent. The Scandinavians are also quite friendly with my domain, but the wily Swedes in the east clamour about breaking the Kalmar Union apart. I have not heard of the fellow that Sir Warbeck has talked about, but when I heard that the Lollards have formed an alliance with these followers of the Florentine firebrand preacher, I can only hope that they will bring the needed changes that our Western Catholic Church needs. His Holiness the Pope Alexander VI remains corrupt, and I for one, do not want to serve such a buffoon.
Once you've taken your throne, then we shall discuss any past grievances that our predecessors have and we'll settle it once and for all. The fate and future of these isles will remain shrouded unless we take active steps to address them. Only when our grievances are truly settled, then we can start planning for the long struggle against the Papacy.
In Salutation,
King James IV of Scotland”
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on May 12, 2018 3:40:01 GMT
Case Study #7: Ireland
In the midst of the political upheaval in England, France and the rest of the European continent, no one had predicted that out of all nations, Ireland would be mostly affected. While the rest of Ireland were under the control of various Irish clans, a few territories had been under the control of the Hiberno-Norman ruling classes, of which the FitzGerald clan was the most famous. At the same time, the enemy of the FitzGerald dynasty, the MacCarthy clan that ruled the Kingdom of Desmond, had been an English ally until the Yorkist restoration when France openly backed the new candidate for the English throne, Edward V Plantagenet, formerly known as the 17th Earl of Warwick. The War of the English Succession didn't end until 1505 when the last pro-Tudor stronghold, Cardiff, fell under the control of the Yorkists. Unlike the English and their puppets in the Pale who began to embrace the words and ideas of the Italian religious reformer, Girolamo Savonarola, the Irish remained steadfast in their Catholic faith. It was because of their desire to resist English conquest and colonization that the current head of the MacCarthy family, Finghin MacCarthy Reagh, had personally traveled to the Castilian court in 1502, under personal peril, to seek an audience with Ferdinand II of Aragon and his wife, Isabella of Castile.
In Toledo, the passionate Irish nobleman had pleaded with the Spanish authorities to aid them in the cause of overthrowing English control of the Pale. Furthermore, he also revealed the death of Arthur Tudor and the capture of the 10 year old Prince Henry and his mother, Elizabeth of York. He also added that the potential fear for the execution of the last Tudor heir was real, and that the Spanish should intervene in restoring the rightful ruler of England. Ferdinand II didn't need any more persuasion, as he learned of the Savonarolan heresies that have affected England, and that he knew who the real culprit was responsible. Unfortunately, he told the Irish nobleman who asked for help that no such thing would be coming, due to the recent Reconstruction after the fall of Granada. However, he advised him to make his case known in the Vatican, the Holy Roman Empire and even Hungary. Between 1502 and 1504, Finghin MacCarthy's journey throughout continental Europe had reaped only a few benefits in that he was being backed by Maximillian for the potential role as the King of a united Ireland in the future. Furthermore, the MacCarthy Reagh's allegiance to the Vatican would allow Pope Pius III to call for a crusade against the heretics in France and England.
Unfortunately, the campaign against the English in Ireland received an unexpected blow when Finghin himself was assassinated by pro-English Irish collaborators hired by Perkin Warbeck while staying in Calais. Apparently Edward V Plantagenet had gotten wind of what the Irish were up to and decided to kill the source of the problem. Even worse, the death of Finghin MacCarthy allowed Donal MacCarthy to succeed him and to call for a general Irish rebellion against English rule. The Irish War of Resistance of 1504-1506 was the first case of a proxy war between France and the Pact of Ravenna in which large volunteers from all over Europe joined in the fight. Even Scotland had joined in the fight in Ireland, although it was limited to sending supplies to back the Irish clans seeking a closer relationship with the Scots. Fearing the loss of Ireland, Edward V Plantagenet immediately became more involved in suppressing the Irish rebels, but his method of suppression was rather harsh and often atrocious. Captured Irish lords who are under English control were summarily executed, while the peasants who were under the control of their lords were either enslaved or executed. The ones who were enslaved were in reality forced into serfdom under English landlords, laboring on their lands in the Pale. Even the Catholic churches were attacked by Edward's troops, citing the Vatican's influence in keeping Ireland under their control, though this vicious attack only served the Vatican in propagating anti-English and anti-French propaganda.
The brutal conduct of the English in Ireland played into the hands of King James IV of Scotland, who started to doubt his country's diplomatic friendship with England. By depicting the English as barbarians who disrespected the cultures of the peoples under their control, he hoped to incite more Irish anger at the English and even began to style himself as King of Scotland and Prince of Ireland (although he hasn't entertained the idea of elevating Ireland to a fully fledged status of a Kingdom). In 1506, Scottish troops began to land in Carrickfergus to reinforce the King of Scotland's Ulsterian allies. Within a few weeks, all of northeastern Ireland came under Scottish control. It was in Carrickfergus that King James IV (who later joined his troops in September of 1506) issued a proclamation that made the peoples of Ulster the subjects of the Kingdom of Scotland. James IV, in a move that would set Scotland and England on a collision course and forever break the Auld Alliance permanently, also claimed the title “Prince of Ireland”, and set out to win over more Irish inhabitants to his cause.
At the beginning of December of 1506, the Scottish army began to move towards Dublin in an effort to conquer the strategically important city from the English. Accompanying the Scottish forces were twenty Scottish warships, each of them armed with cannons as well. The siege began on December 3rd, when James IV gave orders to bombard the city with cannon fire. Right away, the English sensed the danger that the Scots had posed to Dublin and began to send their warships to distract the Scottish fleet, effectively diverting the Scottish fleet's attention away from the city and towards the incoming English fleet. Out of the 35 English warships that were sent to distract the Scottish ships, only 7 ships were sunk. The Scottish fleet lost half of their warships, but James IV's troops continued to pound away at Dublin. To distract the English from their attempts at rescuing Dublin, James IV sent a letter to his youngest brother, Prince John Stewart, to mount an invasion of northern England on December 13th. Prince John's attack on northern England had resulted in the devastation of farmlands, houses and several fortresses. Eventually on December 16th, Edward V called for an armistice with James IV in Cardiff to discuss the peace terms. Although both sides would gain from the Treaty of Cardiff of 1506, it was Edward V who eventually lost more in the long run, as James IV demanded the transfer of the Pale from English control to Scottish control in exchange for guarantees that the Scots won't annex any English territory. Reluctantly, Edward V had to agree, because the English Army was close to exhaustion and fears of a Spanish invasion of Ireland had prompted him and King Charles VIII of France to settle things now.
The consequences of the Scottish expedition to Ireland under James IV was that while England had lost its foothold in Ireland, the humiliation of Edward V at the hands of James IV made him a bit more dependent on the French for survival. At the same time, Charles VIII of France could not continue to treat his new English ally like a puppet and strives to make sure that his new alliance with England was of an equal footing. However, the new friendship with England came at a heavy price: the Auld Alliance between France, Scotland and Norway was effectively broken. Scotland would later gravitate towards the Scandinavian countries, especially the newly independent Swedish state, while Ireland would go through a few more civil wars before Edward V's fears of a Spanish invasion would become a reality in 1559. Meanwhile, Scotland's control of the former English Pale became the center of a pro-Scottish client state called the Principality of Dublin, which formed the core of the future Irish principality that entered a dynastic union with the Kingdom of Scotland, although future Scottish rulers would give their Irish brethren more autonomy. As for England, the loss of the Pale was one of the few reasons for their desire for an expansion into continental Europe and the aggressive push in the Age of Exploration.
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Sorry for the very short update, but as I know a little about Irish history, forgive me Irish readers for butchering up your history in this update. It is indeed quite short, and the issue facing Burgundy will be covered in a future update, but for the next update we'll go back to the Ottomans and what is happening in the rest of the Middle East.
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lordroel
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Post by lordroel on May 12, 2018 9:44:00 GMT
Sorry for the very short update, but as I know a little about Irish history, forgive me Irish readers for butchering up your history in this update. Well at least you have tried, i would never be able to to that. |
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on May 12, 2018 15:40:36 GMT
Sorry for the very short update, but as I know a little about Irish history, forgive me Irish readers for butchering up your history in this update. Well at least you have tried, i would never be able to to that. Yep, and with this update this TL is fully caught up in updates. |
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lordroel
Administrator
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Likes: 49,439
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Post by lordroel on May 12, 2018 19:17:39 GMT
Well at least you have tried, i would never be able to to that. Yep, and with this update this TL is fully caught up in updates. So when you update the next it will be together with the other place where you update this timeline of yours. |
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on May 12, 2018 22:36:02 GMT
Althistoria is where I also have the TL, as well as Sufficient Velocity, though the mods in SV would frown on multiple posts without responses.
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lordroel
Administrator
Posts: 68,033
Likes: 49,439
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Post by lordroel on May 12, 2018 22:42:29 GMT
Althistoria is where I also have the TL, as well as Sufficient Velocity, though the mods in SV would frown on multiple posts without responses. No problem here, small forum, everybody does it, and if the admin of the forum does it, then it is not a problem. |
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