After the forest of Foixà: a new beginning for the House of Barcelona

Kurt_Steiner · Jun 24, 2023

Chapter 41. European alarum (1602-1610)

The death of Eduardo II in 1602 came as a surprise for many, including his closest advisors. He was 76 years old but due to his long reign, many had forgotten that he was a human being after all. Thus, Eduardo, Prince of Asturias and Duke of Girona, became King Eduardo III when he was 33. Ironically, he had spent most of his adult life in Aragon as lieutenant of his father to keep those kingdoms in peace and to secure its overseas possessions. However, a few months after he rose to the throne, events in Europe fixed his attention beyond the Pyrenees.

The Polish Civil War (1602-1604) was a short and bloody affair that changed nothing in Poland. Stanislas crushed his rival in a few battles that were determined by his elite cavalry units. Thus, towards the end of 1603, King Karel found himself under siege in Prague. The siege went on and one until Karel became persuaded that no Protestant German prince was to help him. Thus, on January 18th, 1604, he gave up. He abandoned his claims over the Polish throne and, with a decimated army and an economy in shambles, he prepared for the worst that times were to bring to his kingdom. And worse those times were, as, in 1606, Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor, claiming his ancient rights over Bohemia, invaded the devastated country. This would led to the Swedish intervention with Charles IX of Sweden invading Saxony and bringing havoc to the Empire, with Protestant princes joining the Catholic Emperor to fight the invader and Catholic princes siding with the Swedish king to stop their ambitious overlord. The death of Charles in 1611 and of Rudolf in 1612 seemed to pave the way for a peaceful settlement, Emperor Matthias and King Charles IX seemed to be ready to accept an independent Bohemia provided that it sided neither with the Empire nor with Sweden. However, Henri V of France (1608-1660, r 1624-1660) managed to persuade Rudolf to keep fighting until he had defeated the "Reformed swine". That caused an upheaval in France that would end with the Reformed rebellion of 1613.

By then Charles IX of Sweden found himself in a peculiar situation. He had managed to end the Kalwar War against Denmark-Norway with a peace that did not cost Sweden any territory, but it was forced to pay a heavy indemnity by the Treaty of Knäred (21 January 1613). However, he was also in war against Russia since 1610, and Michael I of Russia was determined not to give up any territory promised by Vasili IV for the Swedish help during the Polish Civil War. Thus, in the end he was forced to sign a return to the status ante bellum to fight Russia. Mattias, on his side, was in a hurry to end the war, as he was determined to reform the Empire to end, for once and all, the religious strife that would allow him to take profit of the long crisis that was dooming the Ottoman Empire. The Treaty of Winterfeld (1615) ended the Swedish-Austro War and returned peace to Europe.

While all this was going on, Eduardo II was quite interested in the tactics used by Mathias and Charles and in international relations. It was obvious that England was still smarting from the havoc caused by the Low Countries War (1576-1579), which had only lasted three years but had devastated the English economy and had bleed England white. Thus, England, after securing Bruges and Ghent as the spoils of the war, withdrew from the international scene and began to nurture herself with the Aztec gold and silver. John Seymour, Earl of Surrey, the acting Prime Councilor of King Edward VI, had gathered around himself the best minds of his age to achieve the mighty enterprise and bid farewell to the continent. To his surprise, Eduardo III saw all his diplomatic embassies to London politely refused. Some commercial agreements were signed but, all in all, the English seemed reluctant to sign anything that might lead to bigger compromises in the future. Thus, Eduardo III returned his attention to the Reformed rebellion in France. With the “treasure fleets” shipping as much as 90 tons of silver across the Atlantic each year, the Hispanic economy boomed, and Eduardo II was dying to test the strength of his Empire. With the "European Civil War" reaching an end, the Hispanic king decided to strike and invaded Occitania, the old Catalan area of expansion since the creation of the Crown of Aragon.

To prepare for this, he used his first years on the throne to relax the religious laws enacted by De Cisneros. In what was termed as the "Edwardian Settlement'', a series of edicts were passed between 1602 and 1610 that returned some rights to the Reformed Hispanic community. In this he seemed to follow the path taken by María II of Portugal (1545-1606, r. 1577-1606), a moderate Catholic with a reforming streak; thus, while the "Edwardian Settlement" was defined by the supremacy of the Hispanich Church, under Eduardo II it was implemented with a strong toleration of the Reformed Hispanics. Only those who proved too stubborn to accept the settlement were given only specific and limited rights. However, a change was introduced by that time. If with his father the Reformed had been invited to emigrate to the New World, this stopped in 1610. In fact, no Reformed would cross to the new World for the next two decades so their numbers on the other side soon paled compared with the Catholic settlers, which included many German and Polish Catholics that had escaped from the war in the old continent. Thus, when Occitania rose against Henri V, he marched into the South of France to offer his protection to both its Catholic and Reformed inhabitants.

In late August entered in France with 10,000 men that he commanded himself. On September 10, he had the gates of Toulouse open to his army, who had received reinforcements from Catalonia and by local volunteers and several southern lords. All in all he mustered 22,000 men with him. half of them the local militia, which had a reduced military value. Henri V of France, who by then had focused in crushing the rebels in Normandy, Britanny and the Picardy, suddenly found himself needing to rush to the south. He began to move to the south on September 17 with 23,000 men, including 6,000 horses and 14 guns. By then Eduardo II had reorganized his army and used the Occitan militia to protect his supply lines. All in all, he had 27,000 men, with 8,000 horses and 18 guns. The two armies met a Castelnadaury on September 19, and the battle was a short affair that lasted only half an hour. The French Army was broken in his first charge by the fast firing muskets of the Hispanic Army and put to flee while a surprised Eduardo III, fearing an ambush, refrained his army and did not harassed the enemy force in his withdrawal. Henry V simply withdrew back to Paris and, beset by enemies in all sides, he offered peace to Eduardo. He was to surrender Toulouse to the Hispanic king. Eduardo III simply laughed at the proposal and kept advancing. By early November the French had lost, either by the actions of the Hispanic armies or the rebellious Occitans, the control of all the lands to the south of the Lot River and Eduardo III was at the gates of Nimes. There he called off the campaign and returned to Hispania to prepare the next campaign in the Spring of 1611.

Kurt_Steiner · Jul 1, 2023

Chapter 42. Eduardo III "El Breve" (1610-1620)

In spite of himself, Eduardo III had to admit that he could not go on fighting with France. The cost of keeping an army in Portugal to back the friendly monarchy there and to keep the English intervention away plus the colonial expeding (mainly in the huge fleet to protect the Hispanic trade between the New World and Europe) meant that the war with France was suddenly too costly until England could not be appeased. In any case, Eduardo III decided to fool París and began to muster an army for the campaign of 1611. With luck he could raise a field force for just three months and hoping that they could achieve a decisive victory that finished the French hopes. However, Eduardo III doubted that the new French commander, Gaspard III de Coligny, duc de Châtillon, would play by the rules. And he was rigth, as Châtillon avoided giving battle to Eduardo, who then launched an invasion from Navarre in the Summer of 1611 and rose the stakes by sacking and razing Bayonne. After securing the plunder and sending it back to Hispania, he resumed his march north, towards Bordeaux. By then, Paris had had enough and sought a truce and the initiation of formal negotiations between France and Hispania. Eduardo III responded quickly and in the positive. His enthusiasm for a peace was seens as strange did not cause any reaction in Paris but one of relief; however, we should keep in mind that neither the French monarch nor his ministers had no clear idea of the extent of the chaos within the Hispanic economy and still saw the Hispanic Imperial Army as a massive threat. They interpreted Eduardo’s sudden overtures not as a sign of desperation but as an oportunity to avoid a shameful defeat.

The ceasefire saw an immediate halt to fighting and rapid discussions to be held in Lyon. Both sides were ambitious going in and, given the lack of clarity in the conflict, the result could have gone in any direction, but with the Hispanic army in control of most of Occitania, the French government was quite doubtful about his chances of reaching a fair peace settlement and the French nobility worried by the increasing taxes. In the end, the Treaty of Lyon (September 11, 1612) was that rarest of political documents - a genuine compromise that left both sides genuinely thrilled with the result. Peace would be immediate, the two sides would recognise their colonial and European borders and France would pay a large and regular indemnity (based on the income from the colonies). Finally, after centuries of failed attempts, the greatest dream of the old counts of Barcelona was achieved: Occitania would become an autonomous Kingdom under Hispanic suzerainty. To compensate France from this loss, París received in exchange Madagascar in its entirety. Even if its colonization had been abandoned in 1575, as we have already seen, the French were persuaded that the island was the 'Cuba' of that side of the world. Eventually, the conquest and settlement of the island would be started in 1631 by Louis XIII. le Roi Soleil (1626-1692).

This war changed France altogether. Defeated and cut in size with the loss of the Midi, France was now one of the weaker Europran powers. Despite her acquisitions of colonies in the New World, she had suffered a catastrophic loss and from then on, the country constantly lived in fear of her mighty English, German and Hispanic neighbours. With Englanfñe and the Hispania now enjoying warm relations, that threat was only worsened. It was even worse when the Hugenots settlers in the New World revolted and Portugal seized the opportunity to fully dominate Brazil by taking the French colonies in 1627, beginning with the immensely productive colony of Saint-Louis (OTL Río de Janeiro).

It was just the beginning. In 1628 the English launched a violent takeover of the French colonies in North América and the Caribbean área. The so-called "Indian Wars" would be over by 1631 and it saw the French Empire in the New World being ripped appart. The province of New Aquitaine (OTL North and South Carolina) was conquered by the Habsburgs, who managed to unite their Reformed and Catholic subjects against the French; the settlements in the Atlantic shores and in the San Lorenzo river ended in English hands; finally, Louisiana was taken, bit by bit, by the Hispanic Empire, just to eventually sell its northern part ot England in 1700.

Meanwhile, the Germans, the Dutch and the Swedes had established a few trading posts near the Cabo (Cape - OTL Cape Town) and further east, near Fuerte Navidad (Fort Christmas - OTL Natal). It led to several diplomatic exchanges as Eduardo III was aware of the Dutch and Swedish desires to access the Indian Ocean but he did not want to have more competition in the area, as he had enough with the English and French settlements. After some clashes with the natives and the Swedes in 1618, Eduardo's officials suggested to look for a colony further to the northwest, but the king would have none of it and insisted on clearing the Cape of any unwanted interference. Further clashes and troubles with the natives led to the bulk of the German and Swedish settlers moving north to colonise the Namib Bay, with the Dutch established on the mouth of the Guambea (Gambia) River, and the Germans in Namib. Both areas proved to be a source of slaves amd this led to the construction of various Forts and “factories” throughout West Africa to take full profit of the "bussines".

Then, at the end of October 1620, the king fell ill when he prepared to travel to Barcelona and had to stop in the town of Sant Climent where the doctors, who traveled from the capital to treat him, could not do anything to save him. He died on November 11, 1620 on the feast of Saint Martin. Modern forensic studies of his remains, exhumed in 2010, indicate that his death was probably due to a lung condition.

He left no male heir but he had a few uncles and cousins.

Kurt_Steiner · Jul 9, 2023

Chapter 43. The Onset of an Empire (1620-1627)

After the death of Eduardo III, the question of succession was placed in his closest kind, that is, the scions of Alfonso, 5th Duke of Palma (1497-1565). His grandson, Jaime (1586-1646), 7th Duke of Palma, was described as timid, shy, passive, well-intentioned and averse to warfare and violence; while his grandfather and father had proved reliable administrators and warriors, Jaime, in his time as Royal Lieutenant of Aragon, had proved a failure as his peace policy failed when the quarrelsome nobles saw the weakness of Jaime and factions in the Parliament and favourites in Jaime's entourage encouraged the rise of disorder in the Aragonese crown. This led to his replacement by his cousin, Eduardo, 5th Duke of Toledo (1575-1629) in the spring of 1610, after a few months of rule.

As Eduardo III lacked an heir and Jaime of Palma became second in line for the succession, there were efforts to strengthen his character and personality. After the Aragonese interlude, Jaime of Palma was sent to Navarre. There Jaime proved himself as unsuitable to as governor is he had been in Aragon, but he soon became dependant of his advisers, his half-brothers Pere, earl of Ribagorza (1573-1619), and Berenguer, earl of Trastámara (1576-1635), who were the illegitimate children of Jaime's father by his mistress Joana Serna. As Pere of Ribagorza was a gifted politician and quite able to have Jaime following his way, his luck in Navarra soon improved. Thus, by the time of Eduardo III's death, Ribagorza's status had improved and he was seen as a worthy successor of the king. However, those close to him doubted very much about his capabilities.

However, Ribagorza died a few weeks after Jaime was crowned in Toledo. Thus, Jaime III of Aragon and Valencia, I of Castille and Navarre and V of the Balearic Islands, who was by nature shy, pious, and averse to deceit and bloodshed, immediately allowed his court to be dominated by Berenguer of Trastámara, who built around himself a ring of a few noble favourites who had his trust and he promoted in the royal court and in the government. Thus, Trastámara soon clashed with Eduardo of Toledo, who was aghast by the nepotism and corruption that Trastámara brought upon the king and the country. However, Trastámara's position was too strong and his influence was seen in the marriage of the king with Ana Isabel of Francia (1605-1657) in 1621. As honors and titles rained upon him, many began to resent Trastámara's rise. Among those was Eduardo of Toledo, who opposed a group of nobles who sought to impeach Trastámara. The group was formed by Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo, 4th Duke of Alba, Ranuccio Farnesio, 4th Duke of Parma, and Eduardo, Duke of Toledo. These were later joined by Francisco de Moncada y Moncada, marquis of Aitona, and Francisco de Melo, marquis of Villanueva. They clashed with Trastámarar in foreign policy, as the favourite of the king searched actively a French alliance, which was actively opposed by Toledo, who pressed for an expasion of the Hispanic holdings in the south of France. The chance to finish France made Alba and Toledo to press for a war, something that Jaime III was not too keen, even without the influlence of Trastámara. Then France changed that.

The unexpected death of Ferdinand, the elder son of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor, in 1631 was a terrible source of grief for his father. Although he was 23 years of age, he had a troubled youth, suffering from a series of illnesses since he was 4 four years old. In spite of this, he managed to grow and to become a quite healthy young man. Even if he was not a warrior himself, he was a quite accomplished tactician, like his father, but more stubborn than him, something that his tutors had learnt to their dismay. Thus, in 1625 he demanded to be included in the regency council and to become part of the governing process. His father was perplexed, but he aw it as a chance to teach statesmanship and warfare to the future Emperor.

Then, in 1627, a Catholic riot against the Reformed took place in Lyon, and soon violence spread from the city to Orleans and then jumped to the neighbouring country. Suddenly, to the surprise of the French King and his ministers, many French Catholics (very much more than expected) rose in arms and allied with their brethren in Austria. Many French, Austrian and Bohemian Reformed were murdered in those days. Bordeaux fell to the French Catholic rebels In June 23, 1627 and the regent sent Barthélémy de Beauharnais with 11,000 men and 100 guns to crush the rebels. To their dismay, de Beauharnais was beaten, losing a third of his force and having to withdraw in shame (July 19). Thinking that this would be the excuse for a Hispanic invasion, de Bonne dispatched the Royal Army under Guillaume d’Ornano to Bordeaux, first to crush the rebels and then to block any foreign army. However, neither King Jaime nor his right hand man reacted in time, much to the changrin of Alba and Toledo.

Meanwhile, the Bohemian Revolt forced Ferdinand II to ask for Hispanic assistance. Even if against his will, King Jaime mustered his forces and named Toledo as its commander. However,a riot in Tolouse developed into a full Reformed rebellion and Toledo had to cross the Pyréenes to crush the rebels. There he would find a very hard nut to crack.

Kurt_Steiner · Jul 12, 2023

Chapter 44. The road to (civil) war (1627-1628)

As soon as Eduardo, Duke of Toledo set his headquarters in Tolosa, the flurry of orders, demands and suggestions that arrived from the royal court were simply exhausting. The king, through Trastámara, demanded Toledo a swift end to the rebellion and without too much bloodshed and the least possible expense to the Treasury. Thus, on July 30, 1627, Toledo opened talks with the main rebel leaders: Carles Jubany, Robert Bougre, Bernard Autier and Renaud de Montpeyroux. The demands of the rebels were simple: the end of the religious persecution and segregation which was applied against the Reformed population. Toledo saw no problems with the demands, as he judged the rebels to be, all in all, loyal to the King and the Empire but were simply angered at being discriminated against and persecuted by the royal officials. Thus, as he informed the King about the talks and advised to either remove the anti-Reformed measures or to reform them by abolishing its articles that were the cause of the revolt.

Back in the royal court Trastámara fumed at Toledo's proposal as he thought that the duke had overstepped himself by talking with the rebels. However, King Jaime was delighted with the solution as it involved no bloodshed. Thus, he asked the archbishop of Toledo, Fernando de Sándoval, the create a committee that would study the reform of religious legislation. Ironically, while Sándoval was in favour of a reform, he considered that Toledo's proposal was too radical. Thus, he was not too inclined to introduce any "innovative" laws that may give too much power to the Reformed, which were the majority of the population in a great part of Occitania. What followed then was a flood of letters between the King (even if many thought that Jaime was controlled by Trastámara) and Toledo, one pressing for hard measures and the other ignoring the royal commands and demanding full powers to solve the issue on his own way. Meawnhile, as it was expected, the committee led by de Sándoval concluded that any reform would only damage the unity of the Empire as it would damage the standing of the true faith, that is, of the Hispanic Church.

The situation further worsened when, in early September 1627, the Parliaments of Catalonia and Valencia joined Eduardo of Toledo in their demands for more religious freedom. They were joined by the Aragonese and Neapolitean parliaments in January 1628 and, by then, the stubborn position of Trastámara worried many in Castille as they began to be worried by the claims that the Aragonese Crown, on its own, were to pass the reform of the laws. This claim, however, was a bluff, as king Jaime, as ruler of Aragon, would not sign the new rules, but it was enough to put more pressure upon Trastámara. Eventually, the breakdown in law and order, corruption, the distribution of royal land to the king's favourites, the troubled state of the crown's finances, and the Occitan revolt led to a heated season in the Castillian Parliament, where the reformist faction led by the Duke of Alba, the Duke of Parma, the marquis of Aitona, and the marquis of Villanueva demanded the removal of Trastámara. Threatened with an impeachement, the favourite of the king left the court and withdrew to his states in April 1628. However, the king remained undecided about what to do in Occitania. until the Summer of that year, when he began to follow Toledo's advice. Then, in September, Trastámara returned to the royal court and the question returned to square one.

In October, a stand-off took place south of Toledo, with the Duke of Alba presenting a list of grievances and demands to the court circle, including the arrest of Berenguer, earl of Trastámara. Unexpectedly, Queen Ana Isabel intervened to prevent the arrest of Trastámara, which was declared free of any charges. Hardly one week later Jubany, Bougre, Autier and de Montpeyroux were declared traitors, thus ending the peace talks between them and Eduardo de Toledo fumed at this. When he had a peaceful solution to the Occitan problem, the archbishop of Toledo joined sides with Trastámara and persuaded the king to take a hard stance and force Toledo to use his army against the rebels. However, they could not imagine what would take place next.

On July 10, 1628, the Aragonese Parliaments agreed to declare Trastámara and his allies as "enemies of the land", that is, enemies of the Crown of Aragon, and "traitors to the good king Jaime". When Jaime refused to dismiss Trastámara, he was also declared "enemy of the people" and deposed him. On early August they offered the crown to Eduardo of Toledo. who accepted and sent to Barcelona his elder son, Pere, as his lieutenant. The Hispanic Empire was at war with itself.

Kurt_Steiner · Jul 18, 2023

Chapter 45. The civil war (1628-1635) -1-

After the proclamations of the Aragonese Parliaments, Trastámara decided to quell the rebellion with a risky move: he would take a small elite force to storm Zaragoza by surprise and to arrest all the members of the Parliaments gathered there. Thus, on July 22, 1628 his force was ambushed by Eduardo de Toledo himself when Trastámara was crossing the village of Paniza, 52 kilometres to the south of Zaragoza. While Trastámara had 3,000 men with him, Toledo led a force of around 8,000 troops and had the element of surprise. The men of Trastámara, in spite of their elite status, broke when they were fired from all sides and fled. Their commander attempted to organize a last stand but when Manuel de Guzmán y Silva, 8th Duke of Medina Sidonia (1579-1628), was mortally wounded, Trastámara lost his temper and joined the rout. Gaspar de Guzmán y Pimentel, Duke of Olivares (1587-1628), was killed when he was trying to form a rearguard to cover the retreat. A struggle that had lasted less than half an hour and which resulted in fewer than 160 casualties combined began the war.

In this situation, a man held the keys of the Empire: Antonio Álvarez de Toledo y Beaumont, 5th Duke of Alba, who had the command of the Hispanic largest standing army. Even worse, as Alba was one of the richest men in the Empire, he could afford to pay the salaries of the bulk of the army. However, Alba was more a poet and a philosopher than a condottiero, and, for the moment, he was happy enough when the King chose him to replace Trastámara as the de facto valido (the king's favourite) and as first minister. However, all the attempts to reconcile both sides failed and Trastámara replaced Alba and recovered his position on October 25, 1628.

Neither side had not been idle during this time and had been actively recruiting armed support for their cause, but it seemed as neither Toledo nor Trastámara were willing to be the one to fire the first shot. Meanwhile, Toledo, still the uncrowned king of Aragon, had the Parliaments to pass a new ordinance that increased the religious rights of the Reformed and other religious (Christians, of course) minorities in the Crown of Aragon. In the end. Trastámara moved first and attempted to win to his side the Navarrese kingdom. Even though Navarre was one of the domains of the king of Aragon, Pamplona had remained silent during the crisis. Thus, the king's favourite dispatched Carlos Coloma (1566-1637) with 10,000 men to Pamplona to secure the city and thus the kingdom. On the way, they were ambushed at Valdejunquera (April 15, 1629) by Ranuccio Farnesio, Duke of Parma, who was moving in the same direction and with the same mission. Even if he had just 5,000 men with him, Farnesio launched a daring attack against the superior enemy force, Coloma, a veteran soldier, took up a defensive position; however, the commander of his cavalry launched his horses in a mad dash against the enemy formation; they were throwback with heavy losses, but the cavalry charged again. Against his best instincts, Coloma attacked with the bulk of his army, starting a confusing melée during which the Loyalist commander was cut down; this caused his complete left flank to flee with the parts of his army that had not yet committed themselves. At this point, all remaining Loyalist resistance collapsed, and the Aragonese soldiers had only to advance to complete the rout, which continued through the night, with the Aragonese soldiers pursuing the fleeing enemy for miles across the countryside. At least 1,000 Loyalists were killed with the Aragonese losing nearly 400. Unopposed, Farnesio entered Pamplona, where he was acknowledged as the lieutenant of Eduardo of Toledo in that kingdom.

Then, suddenly, Eduardo of Toledo suddenly fell ill. His doctors attributed his illness to a cold, while his closest friends mentioned a stroke. In other words, no one had a name for the illness that sent Eduardo to his grave. Rumours abound of death by poisoning while some people ascribed it as the result of eating a salad after he had become overcome by heat which caused a chill, others said it was an apoplexy brought on by the stubborn Aragonese Parliaments, and even a bout malaria was suggested. In any case, on April 24, 1629, Eduardo of Toledo was dead. Hardly a week later his son Pere, who was 34 years old, was crowned as Pedro V of Aragon and II of Castile. His first campaign, though, was to take him North, not West. During his time in Toulouse he had learnt during their talks with the Occitan nobility about the French weaknesses; this knowledge had been reinforced by a small web of spies that he had created in France when he was in Barcelona.

The dire situation of Ferdinand II had prompted Louis XIII of France to dispatch Henri II de Montmorency with 16,000 men to Bohemia to support their king. There he joined hands with the Bohemian Generalísimo, Count Jindřich Matyáš of Thurn-Valsassina, who led the united army north, crossing into Polish Prussia in May 1632 and seized the port town of Danzig. The Swedes were furious, as this moved put their control of the Baltic in jeopardy and, thus, dispatched Crown Prince Gustav with an army of 25,000 to recapture the city. This marked the beginning of the Bohemian-Swedish War (1632-1635). As the Swedes dominated the Baltic Sea they were able to easily shipp men and supplies to Germany, something that spelled troubles to no end for Bohemia and his allies. To the south, Ferdinand II could not believe his luck.

In Barcelona Pedro V could not believe his eyes. Thus, as the Franco-Bohemian and Swedish armies clashed in the battle of Rain (September, 15, 1632), Pedro invaded France while his brother Jaime protected the Aragonese border. Surprised by this move, Louis XIII redirected the reinforcements destined to Bohemia under the command of Charles, Duke of Nevers. One month later, Nevers was crushed in the battle of Guéret (October 9, 1632) and Louis XIII quickly offered peace terms. In fact, the French king bought peace for his realm; he was to pay 125,000 crowns to Pedro, who then rushed south to fight for his crown.

He was in a hurry, indeed, as King Jaime and the Duke of Trastámara were advancing towards Zaragoza with 75,000 men.

Kurt_Steiner · Jul 24, 2023

Chapter 46. The civil war (1628-1635) -2-

Following the example of the Swedish army, Pedro V deployed his army in two lines of infantry in the center, squadrons of cavalry on each wing, and a thin line of artillery at the front, but with the center infantry formed in squares. All in all, he had 35,000 men with him, including 8,000 German mercenaries and 7,000 horses, and 20 guns. The Hispanic army was an odd mixture of modern and old ways. While its bulk was made with heavy infantry armed with pikes and arquebuses, Trastámara had also recruited a great number of volunteers that, in the best of cases, could be considered light infantry. In fact, they were little that useless cannon fodder that Trastámara hoped that it would attract the bulk of the enemy fire while his elite forces charged.

The two armies met at Épila, 40 kms to the west of Zaragoza. The battle began at 10.00 am, October 29, 1632 with the two armies firing volleys with their arquebuses and their guns. The Aragonese arquebusiers soon outclassed their rivals and they fired twice as fast as their Hispanic foes. Trastámara, seeing that the light infantry would suffer greatly even before they were within reach of their enemies, ordered an all out attack. Before he could do that, he shifted the cavalry on the right flank to mass it along the one on the left flank to launch a single and devastating charge. To this Pedro V reacted slowly and, by the time that his cavalry in the right began to move, his focus on the left flank had been crushed and put on the run. Then, the Hispanic cavalry got behind the Aragonese lines and, when they prepared to charge, they met the massed volleys of the infantry squares. Meanwhile, the Hispanic infantry kept moving forwards to get to grips with their enemies under a storm of fire that withered its ranks. One they were at close range, the Aragonese long pikes kept them at bay. Seeing that his light infantry was having no effect, Trastámara withdrew them and launched his own heavy infantry, who had no better luck.

When the tired and demoralized Hispanic light infantrymen saw the bloodied and decimated cavalry, their morale plummeted; they threw their weapons and fled the battlefield, a rout began to slowly spread through the Hispanic army. By 11.30, Trastámara's army had vanished from the battlefield with their battered heavy infantry withdrawing in close order to cover the withdrawal. However, Pedro V only launched a few raids with the surviving cavalry. He hoped that by sparing their enemies he would win some support among the Hispanic noblemen that were against the war. All in all, the Hispanic lost 2,000 men for 800 Aragonese casualties. The defeat shocked Castile. No one had expected that his army, who had twice the men of their enemies, suffered such a defeat. Even worse, the vision of the defeated army returning to Castile reduced to barely half of its original strength and with the constant drop out of deserters that ran to their homes. This had, however, a positive effect by the time that the army was back in Toledo. Then, Trastámara had with him around 30,000 men, most of them veterans of past campaigns and determined to avenge the shame suffered in Épila.

Trastámara proved then to be a great organizer with an impressive strategic mindset but completely unable to translate it into a meaningful campaign. His faults at Épila were going to be repeated in the future: he was slow to act as he was afraid that his enemy had unseen reserves that would suddenly materialize in his flanks and destroy him. Thus, his infantry was quite slow in his advance to support his victorious calvary. The enemy squares, which proved to be small mobile fortresses, proved too much for the Hispanic calvary and the infantry was unable to break through his closed ranks.

The Hispanic army only moved again the following spring. On late April 1633 a smaller Hispanic army mustering only 8,000 infantry, 2,000 cavalry and 20 guns marched towards Valencia. There he met Pedro V and his brother, Jaume, Duke of Zaragoza, with 5,000 infantry, 1,000 cavalry and 10 guns. As predicted by Jaume of Zaragoza, early on the morning of May 26 the Hispanic placed their artillery on the two hills and began battering the Aragonese defences. However, the Hispanic artillery overshot their enemies and it took a time to correct the mistake. Then, the fog began to arise over the battlefield. The morning fog was thick and it covered the movements of the two forces, Thus, when Trastámara finally set his cavalry free, the right flank simply rushed into the fog and to open ground, as the Aragonese army had veered to the left further than expected, and the left flank charged against the enemy squares, that opened fired at point blank range. By the time that the Hispanic commander could extricate his men from the mess, his force had been severly mauled. The Hispanic infantry moved quickly, but the cavalry charge had led to the Aragonese closing ranks earlier than expected and the Hispanic infantrymen just through themselves against the enemy spears and arquebuses. Neither group was facing the other; each was offset slightly to the right, but the left wing of the Hispanic army was able to defeat his rivals, who were quickly overwhelmed and fled.

Then, fate struck Trastámara. The calvary on the right returned then and saw the Hispanic infantry that had defeated their rivals forming to envelope the enemy flank. Due to the fog, visibility was low and the two main forces failed to notice the disaster that had befell upon the Aragonese army on the right. Meanwhile, Jaume of Zaragoza was pushing the enemy left flank bit by bit, but Trastámara did not judge that as anything dangerous. Then, his own calvary charged against his right flank. Pedro V, suddenly aware of the enemy on his flank, turned some guns and opened fire. This was too much for some Hispanic soldiers, who simply fled shouting "Treason! Treason!". Then the Hispanic calvary commander, Baron Jean de Beck, became aware of his mistake. As the shouts of treason spread quickly throughout the Hispanic line, breaking it apart as men fled in anger, panic and confusion, a cannonball behaded de Beck and his horsemen began to flee.

The battle lasted from two to three hours, and was over by the time the fog lifted in the early morning. As usual in most battles of the time, the routed army suffered far more casualties; fleeing men were cut down from behind in droves. Thus, the Hispanic casualties were high: 1,500 dead and 4,000 prisoners. The Aragonese did not come lightly, even if most of its casualties were suffered by the left wing: between 600 and 1,000 dead. With half of his veteran forces crushed, Trastámara withdrew to Castile. There he found King Jaime determined to end the war and with half of the Castilian nobility asking for Trastámara's head.

Kurt_Steiner · Jul 31, 2023

Chapter 47. The civil war (1628-1635) -3-

Following the defeat, King Jaime and the Duke of Trastámara began to fear a coup. In fact, there was one, directed against Trastámara, but the plotters were quite slow and careful in his planning and Trastámara missed them completely, instead focusing on Gaspar Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, 9th Duke of Medina Sidonia (1602-1664), The investigation was unable to find anything treacherous in Medina Sidonia's activities, but Trastámara remained deeply suspicious about him. Meanwhile, as the summer began in Castille, the plotters, led by Cristóbal Gómez de Sandoval, 2nd Duke of Uceda, moved to form a party within the royal court of Toledo, the so-called Legitimists, who looked for a reform of the administration of the kingdom that removed the figure of the valido and instead created a body of royal advisors, all of them with the same power and the same closeness to the king. Of course, Trastámara did not like their proposal at all. Thus, when a clash between the valido and the Legitimists was in order, Trastámara's wife, Catalina de Mendoza y Sandoval, became acutely ill and, to the surprise of many, Trastámara left Toledo to take care of her. The Duke was not to return to the royal court. After his wife died from consumption on May 17, 1635, the Duke languished in his palace. He never recovered from the loss and, eventually, he died from melancholy on September 23, 1635.

With Trastámara thus removed, the Legitimists saw their way open to reform and power, but then Gaspar de Guzmán, count of Olivares (1587-1645), opposed them with a group of his own creation, the so-called Royalists, who were in favour of a reform but a slower pace. In short, Olivares and his cronies aimed for a reform that left all the power in the hands of the nobility that controlled Castille. King Jaime, however, had his own plan. Whilst his father and his ancestors had embraced bureaucracy and legislative lawmaking, Jaime used the two diverging factions to create a proto-technocratic government under his control, something that surprised and enraged many. Soon the Legitimists attempted to block Jaime's reforms, and he reacted by simply arresting the dissidents, The Royalists sided with the king, but the monarch soon found another faction to support him that was even more valuable that the nobility: the rising middle class made by coalition of lower nobleman, burghers, farmers and bureaucrats.

However, this process took time and when Jaime was finally ready to resume the war against Eduardo III of Aragon, his rival had used the time to appease his French neighbour, to move closer to England and to be ready for a final clash against Castille. Eduardo had also accepted that he lacked the power and the support to win the Hispanic crown so he hoped that, under Jaime, in a few years, the Hispanic people would ask him to libérate them from Jaime's opression. However, he had to defeat him first.

On his part, Jaime prepared the last campaign with great care. He gave the command of the main army to his most trusted general, Francisco de Melo, for the invasion of Aragon while he would conquer Valencia at the same time. Caught between the two forces, Eduardo would be crushed. However. De Melo moved faster than expected and he was at the gates of Zaragoza while Jaime had barely crossed the border. De Melo, seeing that Zaragoza qas undefended, sent urgent requests for Jaime to join him in Aragon.

Eduardo, however, gave no time to de Melo's message to reach Jaime. On 14 May 1635, at around 4 o'clock in the morning, Eduardo, who had planned for an early attack, quickly roused his men to engage the enemy. De Melo had a similar idea and both sides moved even before the sun could rise. This would determine the fateof thebattle, as half of De Melo's force lost its way in the thick morning fog and thus the Hispanic commander had with him only 15,000 men; facing him was Eduardo with 14,000. The battle began well for de Melo, as his left flank quickly overwhelmed the enemy. Aragonese soldiers fled the field, chased by the Hispanic cavalry. Then, free from any interference of their mounted counterpart, the Aragonese cavalry moved against the advancing enemies and opened fire with their rangec fire-weapons before charging. De Melo's left flank disintegrated as Enric Folch de Cardona, count of Cardona, rallied 800 of the fleeing soldiers and led them back to the battle and storming the battered enemy left flank.

In the center the fighting was evenly matched and intense. The Hispanic right wing, however, was suffering a hard treatment at the hands of the enemy guns and began to break by the time that Cardona returned to the battle. De Melo, seeing the shift, ordered most of his reserves to help ease the pressure on the right, and took the rest into fighting at the left, but by the time he arrived there, the flank had collapsed. At this moment Eduardo sent in his reserves against the enemy centre, hastening its collapse.

The battle lasted from two to three hours, and was over by the time the fog lifted in the early morning. The Hispanic lost 4.000 mem and the Aragonese 1.500. De Melo was devastated with this defeat, and withdrew to Castillle while Eduardo's cavalry found the 'missing' wing of De Melo's army and forced them to surrender. Then, Eduardo rushed to Valencia, while Jaime still ignored what happened in Zaragoza. When the Hispanic knew about the disaster, he withdrew to Castille to meet the Duke of Alba, who was raising an army there. However, Jaime was not aware of two things: Alba had barely with him a few hundred men with him and waz waiting for reinforcements from Andalucía, next, he had Eduardo following his shadow, when he became aware of this, he ordered to move faster and this turned the withdrawal into a rout. Of the 6.000 men he had with him when he began his ill-fated invasion, he returned with only 4.000.

In such ignominious way finished the Hispanic king the civil war.

Kurt_Steiner · Aug 11, 2023

Chapter 48: Hispania after the war (1635-1640)

The chaos that followed the defeat was immense but mostly limited to the royal entourage and the government. Order was restored relatively quickly and though the news came as a shock, they were not followed by any kind of violence many feared it might. The common people liked their King, for the most part, and they were happy that the war was over as, they hoped, it meant the return of their sons and the end of the extra taxation. Thus, while those close to the King were still coping with the loss of the Crown of Aragon and the defeat, most of the Hispanics happily returned to their daily chores.

It is into this land of confusion, one man of humble origins found himself placed at the center of the intrigues around the king. Diego Tenorio y Alatriste (1601-1647) entered the Guardia de Corps (guards of the Royal Family) in 1618. His intelligence and audacity led him to be noticed by the King (and according to some, by the Queen, too) and he rose through the ranks with great ease: in May 1620 he was promoted to the rank of Colonel. In 1623 he was Adjudant-General of the Bodyguard; in March he became Gentleman of the Chamber and in July was promoted to Lieutenant-General. His frequent promotions were signs of his increasing influence over the King and Queen, and attracted the attention of many who wanted to prosper under his shadow. He managed to bring down with his schemes two validos, Pedro Fernández de Castro, count of Lemos, and Juan de Tassis y Peralta, count of Villamediana; the last valido did not take his fall gladly and conspired to have the king declared unfit to rule and the establishment of a Regency Council for his heir, his grandson.

Jaime immediately opposed this. In retrospect underhanded motives seemed obvious but Villamediana claimed that it was essential to appoint a Regency Council. The Duke of Alba, taking up the mantle as leader of the "legitimists", was deathly opposed to this and said that in the traditions of the realm, a regency council should be formed and made up only of the Great Earls of the Realm. This immediately caused serious discontent among the middle classes and soon petitioners flooded the capital and took to the streets, protesting against any council ruled by thd nobility. Then, on August 12, 1636, Villamediana was murdered as he stepped out of his coach. Queen Maria Luisa then arranged for Tenorio to be the Royal Chancellor. Tenorio's appointment seems to have been accomplished with the full acceptance of the king who wanted to withdraw from the court and who was too happy to have a competent and trustworthy stand-in to replace him. In October 1636, Tenorio was made Duke of Sueca with grandeeship and a Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece the following year.

With Tenorio at the helm, many historians claim that the Hispanic Empire had its first truly “modern” political system in his history. Whilst previous monarchs had embraced bureaucracy and legislative lawmaking, Tenorio’ emphasis on a proto-technocratic rule was remarkable and novel for the era. Either siding with the Legitimists or with the Pragmatists, Tenorio was able to put forward his policies. He even resorted to the “popular will” when he needed to move on and both parties did not support him. He embarked in 1637 in the construction of new public schools were open not only to the elite but to children of the middle class and government service as well. The education was often rudimentary but their main goal was not bringing literacy into the students but to teach them modern, enlightened ideas of philosophy and politics centered on the greatness of the Empire and less in the needs of their social classes, as well as to build networks of young men who would soon enter the administration of the empire. In the last objective, Tenorio met with failure, as the scions of the noble houses closed ranks and did not mix with the sons of merchants and bankers. By then, the two main "parties" were beginning to split among those determined to keep loyal to the king and those to their ideas. This division would only help Tenorio to further achieve his goals... until the "Reform" party was formed with splitters from both parties and decided to go even further than Tenorio wanted.

The Reformists were a weird and rag-tag who simply wanted more power for themselves while reducing the one of Tenorio; thus, they proposed the creation of a "Cabinet of Ministers" that would mix the existing bodies of advisors and royal chamber into a single body; it would be presided by a "Prime Minister" which would be only first among equals, a mixture between the spokesperson of the cabinet and a minister with a special duty. In the end, as Tenorio was deeply disliked by . In the end, the Legitimists and the Royalists joined the Reformist and the "Amedment for the Parliament Rules" were passed on June 7, 1638. Aware of his defeat, Tenorio attempted to win the Legitimists and the Reformists by proposing a reduction in taxes, much to the anger of the Royalist faction, who wanted not only to keep them but to raise them according to their plans to reconquer Aragon in a not so distant future. However, Tenorio was aware that it was not possible to extract further resources from Castile, as its economy was at breaking point and the New World colonies were keeping the economy alive. Nevertheless, even if he was only partially succesful with his tax reform the privileged position of the Castilian nobility remained very much as it was and the rise hardly affected them. Eventually, as he could not negotiate new loans with neither the German, Dutch and Genoese bankers, he attempted to solve the problem by declaring a state bankruptcy. With the bulk of the debt now removed, Tenorio hoped to turn to indigenous bankers for renewed funds. If he paid any thought to the German and Dutch (and Geonoese) bankers that went bankrupt with his move, no one knows. However, this move was to bit Spain sooner than expected.

Kurt_Steiner · Aug 21, 2023

Chapter 49: Imperial expansion (1640-1652)

Venice had joined the Imperial race and in the early 1610 four great ships departed to Africa, which resulted in the founding of a city in the mouth of the Gambia river. It soon became a valuable trading post that sent gold, spices and slaves to Europe. Nova Venetia, as it was called, soon attracted the attention of Hispania but any attempt to conquer the colony was quietly shelved as it would mean troubles with the Northern League, a temporary alliance that had united the North of Italy against any possible foreign threat.

Meanwhile, the end of the Baltic War (1630-1640) had seen Sweeden humbled by Prussia, Russia and the Polish-Lituanian Commonwealth. This had introduced new players in the Baltic Theatre and, even if London did not consider that the friendship between the three winners were going to last, they were worried by the turn of events. In France, an attempt to replace the so-called Roi fainéant ("do-nothing king", "lazy king") Louis XIII led to a succession of coup d'etats (1625-1633) that replaced Louis with his cousin Charles, Duke of Normandy, and then returned the crown to Louis, who finally lost it in what became the "St. Bartholomew's Day massacre" (August 24th, 1632) when a failed coup turned París into a battlefield. At the end of that sad day, 2,500 people were dead, among them Louis XIII and Charles of Normandy. Louis'son became Louis XIV and with him began an age of peace and prosperity that lasted until his death in 1685.

It must be said that, while this was happening, both Jaime of Hispania and Pedro V of Aragon stubbornly refused to take part in the conflicts, though they were asked fepeatedly by their ministers and allies to do so. They advocated a strict policy of splendid isolation, albeit for different reasons, and focused solely on internal reform and colonial development. This led to an Aragonese intervention in the Lebanon during the Great Balkan War (1644-1652) that pushed the Ottoman Empire against Venice, the Austrian Empire, the Polish-Lituanian Commonwealth and Russia. It ended with the Ottoman defeat and the Treaty of Saint Angelo (1652). It was a complete disaster for the Sultan, as the Empire lost Croatia, Bosnia, Slavonia, Hungary, and Transylvania to Austria, Ruthenia to Poland and had to Grant the independence of Moldavia and the Bessarabia, which became two Russian Protectorates.

It was during this war that history seemed to go back when Aragonese troops landed in the Lebanon and Palestine in 1648. Even if the Ottoman army was crippled by horrendous casualties and dwindling supplies, it still capable of offering a spirited defense of Jerusalem even if in the Lebanon its forces were crushed again and again. Thus, even if the local commander, Alam Khan, could not avoid the loss of Tyre, Sidon, Beirut and Trípoli and all the land between those cities, he was able to stop the Aragonese advance at Ramlah. He had lost Haifa, Acre, but Jerusalem remained in Ottoman hands by the end of 1651. However, when the Aragonese army marched from Beirut towards to Damascus, the Ottoman will crumbled even before the first Aragonese shells fell in the Bekaa Valley, where a small Ottoman force made a stand that barely slowed the Aragonese advance. Thus, to Pedro V's surprise, Mehmed IV offered to give to Aragon the lands that formed the county of Trípoli and the kingdom of Jerusalem in 1192 in exchange of peace. Once the Treaty of Alexandretta (1652) was signed, the guns were silent once more in the Middle East. As Pedro V saw it, it was a temporary peace. The lands he had just annexed were to become Aragon's base in his final assault to take both Jerusalem and Damascus. He was sure that he would not need to wait for too long, as Mehmed IV's days on the throne were numbered after such a shameful surrender. Time was to prove him wrong, as Mehmed IV ruled the Ottoman Empire until his death (6 January 1693).

Meanwhile, in Asia, the weak state of the Ming Empire had led to European powers to pick small pieces of the Empire. The Portuguese annexed several coastal cities and turned them into trade centers (Macao and Yanao₁) in 1676, followed quite soon by the English (Hong Kong) in 1680 and the Dutch taking the island of Formosa in 1682. This also led to a war with Portugal, who had explored the island but not settled it. Lisbon claimed that the island was their but hte Dutch Republic simply ignored them. Only the increasing problems of the Dutch with the natives and the flood of exotic good that Macao and Yanao sent to the mainland had the issue being eventually dropped. Eventually, the Dutch would sell Formosa to the French in 1699 and turned their attention to to the south, to Đại Việt.

₁ - IOTL Yangiang

Kurt_Steiner · Aug 27, 2023

Chapter 50: The Reformation of the Heretics (1650-1652)

The death of King Jaime of Hispania in 1646 came as a relief for many (among them, Jaime himself) who blamed him for the break up of the Empire. His son, also named Jaime (1601-1678) , was a promise brighter than his father, even if his tutor, the Duke of Alba, had some doubts about the heir due to his stubbornness. In fact, it was a bit worse than this. Jaime IV was, all in all, a well educated and informed man, he is a learned man and somewhat of an academic and philosopher and a bit of a perfectionist who saw his fate was to create a more modern state. Later described by historians as probably being a bit obsessive-compulsive, Jaime IV wanted to have everything ordered and in its place. Thus, when his wishes and reality clashed, it went nasty quite fast. He did not mind changes... provided that they came his way. Determined to rule, he considered that the King had not only to be the head of the Government, but also of the Church. However, no one should have been surprised by this as, in his last years, his father had handed over authority to Jaime bit by bit, even if under the control of the Royal Council. Thus, the change in the throne was a quiet transferral of power, leaving a successful and workable administration and one of the most qualified and educated kings that Hispania had in its history. The Empire needed a change after the trauma of the civil war, and thus it came a younger and more determined monarch, a strong religious devotion and big ambitions.

Just in case, his father had opted for a quiet marriage for his son and he was wedded to the daughter of the Duke of Medinaceli, Antonio de la Cerda y Dávila. Arranged when Jaime was barely a teenager, the marriage was not fated to be a happy one. Cristina was a reserved but fiercely independent woman who missed too much his freedom in the family castle and refused to spend much time in the royal court. Jaime was happy with this once their first son was born in 1628, followed by another in 1630. Thus, he happily packed his wife for the royal palace of Salamanca and forgot about her... once he became king. Then the fight began. Jaime IV demanded to have his sons with him, to learn how to rule the kingdom, but Cristina wanted nothing of that, as they were too young. Thus, husband and wife started a shooting war that horrified the court for his viciousness. They never again had children (Jaime himself is known to have sired at least four recorded bastards, two of which were acknowledged - Alfonso and Ramon Berenguer. For a time, annulment or divorce were both considered but as Jaime was a devout man and he wanted to ensure the support of the church, nothing of that short happened and the two simply avoided one another, Cristina living in the royal palaces of Salamanca, Seville or Valencia, depending on the season until she passed away after a bout of malaria in Seville in 1670.

Soon a crisis erupted. The suffering caused by the war had caused a not unexpected return to religion by the humble classes. The surprise came when a new religious faction appeared in Toulouse and Carcassonne around the late 1630s. All in all, this new group demanded a return to the origins of Christianity, away from the luxury of the Papacy and the wickedness of the world. This was not dangerous enough, but there was a part of their religious ideas that caused a widespread alarm from Toledo to Rome: They addressed the problem of the existence of evil in the world by stating that as God was sheer goodness, he had nothing to do with evil and this he was powerless to act against it, as evil was alien to his nature. This brought to many memories of the Cathars and Pope Urban VIII, in the papal bull Sanctissimus Dominus Noster of March, 13 1640, gave a stern warning about any ideas that doubted about God's "perfection, goodness, incomprehensibility, omnipresence, immutability, eternity and oneness." However, in spite of Urban VIII and his successor (Innocent X)'s efforts, this set of ideas was to spread quite fast not only through Occitania but also in Aragon, Navarre, Castile, France and Italy. Called by its enemies and critics as "Neo-Cathars", the followers of this variety of Christianity simply called themselves "Good Christians".

To face this problem, both Jaime IV of Hispania and Eduardo V of Aragon (1605-1655) resorted to a stronger line against religious dissension and a centralised, episcopal reaction led, undoubtedly, by the monarch. In spite of their political ideas, both Jaime and Eduardo agreed on the need of a church united wholly in doctrine and leadership - with them as both temporal and spiritual leaders. To this end, they called a "Grand Council" to bring together all the high ranking members of the church of both kingdoms to agree upon a new charter for the faith. First summoned in December of 1650, the Council opened for Easter 1652 and lasted two months with intense negotiation and debate from the various factions. In one side there were those in support of a centralised church who, quite unsurprisngly, followed quite closely the idea of Jaime IV. There was, on the other side, those who proposed to have the Hispanic and Aragonese churches united but by a covenant or argreement that kept in place their independence. Finally, of course, there were those who tired soon of the argument between the "unifiers" and the "convenanters" and demanded a direct action against the heretics. Then, to the surprise of many, a group representing the "Neo-Cathars" rose and explained to all their program, which was based in the emphasis on poverty; the concept of the universal priesthood; baptism was not necessary for entrance into heaven; Man was an alien and a sojourner in a temporary world and his aim must be to free his spirit, which was in its nature good, and restore it to communion with God; the rejection of most of the Catholic rites, which where all reduced to a single one, the so-called consolamentum, and so on. It goes without saying that this caused a furious uproar among the Catholic bishops and cardinals.

In the end, by the time that ths Council was over (June 1652) it proved to be a complete failure. But for the agreement upon a handful of doctrinal points, the Hispanic and Aragonese churchmen departed without having agreed upon a solution in the Neo-Cathar problem. Jaime IV had reinforced his control over the Hispanic church while Eduardo V had become tired of the endless arguing and, even worse, of the constant bickering between the Bishops and Archbishops for wordly matters. So, while in the end both of them reserved for themselves the position of Defender of the Church, that is, its head and controller, on having printed a translated Bible, the right to appoint all Bishops and Archbishops and over the collection and spending of tithes, there was no agreement about what to do with the "Neo-Cathars". Thus, while Jaime IV simply stated that would be enough with having the heretics being captured, imprisoned and even executed, Eduardo V was not so sure about it. After all, as one of his advisors stated, when asked about why they did not simply expulse the heretics, "We cannot do that! They are our neighbours and we see them live honorably!". On the Hispanic side, their position was summarized in a simple saying: "Suffer not the heretic to live!". However, behind this apparent union, Jaime IV had a problem to deal with: the Jews and those who sympathized with the heretics or followed their ideas.

In addition to the political division, it seemed that the former Hispanic Empire was on the verge of a religious split.

Kurt_Steiner · Sep 4, 2023

Chapter 51: Religious problems and colonial expansion (1652-1655)

The reform of the Royal Hispanic African Company, intended to make it more autonomous, was to create a crisis in Hispania. Just as the company expanded to include all the Hispanic trade operations taking place from Melilla to the Cape, it began to be controlled by Rodrigo Gómez de Sandoval (1614-1657), 3rd Duke of Lerma, and Juan Téllez-Girón, 3rd Duke of Osuna (1598-1656), it began to engage in the slave trade. Soon its slaves were sold not only to the Hispanic colonies, but also to the English, Portuguese, French and Danish. By 1650 Hispania was the most prolific slave trader in the world with the help of the Oyo and Kongo kingdoms, who had little troubles to sell them prisoners en masse as they raided their neighbours. In fact Nkanga a Lukeni, the ruler of the Kongo, not only converted himself to Christianity and became King García I of Kongo, but also asked Jaime IV to send Christian priests to his Empire to convert its inhabitants. This would come to an end with Garcia's son, António I (or Nkanga a Mvita), who suceeded his father in 1661 and attempted to get rid of any foreign meddling. However by then the Royal Hispanic African company posted record profits year on year. Even worse, the trade also filled the royal coffers and, along with a period relative external peace, helped the economy to stay strong. However, there were some criticism about the morality of trading with human beings and the rivals of Lerma and Osuna began to move behind the courtain and filled the ears of Jaime IV with all kind of rumours and gossip about the Company.

Meanwhile, King Eduardo V of Aragon had to face a fact. The annexation of Occitania had increased the number of Neo-Cathars within his empire, who where around 30 to 40 % of the inhabitants of some áreas in Occitania (Viscounties of Béziers, Carcassonne and Razes) while on some other went from 10 to 20% (Counties of Toulouse, Bigorre, Béarn, Comminges, Foix and viscounty of Albi) or below 10% (Gascony). However, by 1650 those numbers were very much higher in the southern and center areas of Gascony, in Béarn and Foix (almost reaching 45%), Toulouse (30%) and it was estimated that a quarter of the population of Provence were either Neo-Cathar or had some leaning towards that faith. Even worse, as it had also spread not only to the north, to France (Poitou, Santonge, La Marche, Maine, Touraine and Delphiné), but also to Aragon. The area around the Pyrenées were known to have sympathis for this new generation of Good Christians and Eduardo V, after discussing the matter with the Church and his Royal Council, determined that, even if he risked angering the Pope to no end, he was not willing to persecute the so-called heretics who, after all, did not put into question the role of the Catholic Church. With their example of simple life and simple creed it was enough to have Rome in the loosing side. However, as unrooting the heressy meant to burn down half of the Occitans lands, he was not willing to do so.

Religion was also causing some troubles to Jaime IV. The Council of 1652 had ended in failure but this mean little for the most radical Catholic faction in his kingdom. They hated all kind of mid-terms. They resented that so much of the original Christian doctrine the church had been abandoned and demanded not only both dissent and deviation be purged, but also a return to the purity of the original ways, when Our Lord walked the earth. What Jesuschrist had to do with burning other Christians puzzled James and most of his subjects, so the radicals were few and very disliked by all. The most die-hard of them, of course, could not tolerate the new, "autocratic" ways of the king and a small number moved to the New World, looking for a new life there. However, a core handful of the most devotedly independent founded their own faith: "La Iglesia Independiente de Cristo" (The Independent Church of Christ, usually known simply as the "Independents"). However, those die-hard had their own problems as they claimed the original mandate of the “original Church '', so it could be argued that they claimed, as the Neo-Cathars, that Rome did not longer represent the Church created by Peter. Thus, the Inquisition also targeted them. Repressed and looked with either fear or contempt by the bulk of the Hispanic population, is no wonder that many Radicals were broken by the persecution and, by the late 1670, the Independents were barely a few tens of hundreds, most of them active in rural areas.

Then, in 1654, the Aragonese ships began to explore the African and Indian Coast, and began moving even further west and to the south. In 1657 Aragon would claim its first colony in an archipielago of islands to the south of the Indian Ocean. They would become the Aragonese colony of Maragda₁

₁ - OTL Indonesia.

Kurt_Steiner · Sep 12, 2023

Chapter 52: Colonial rivalries (1655-1680)

Just as the religious turmoil was being calmed down, Jaime IV of Hispania decided to reinforce his position as Emperor and hired a team of writers and printers to publish his theory about the Divine Right of Kings. When the first treaties dealing with the topic appeared around 1666, they enjoyed great success. The treaties centered around national institutions, legalism, balance of powers and citizenship. However, many people felt worried about the new ways outlined in the writings. Suddenly it appeared that Jaime IV wanted not only to rule by himself, but to have everything depending on his will. For the Hispanic Grandees, and for the cities, used to defend their rights in their Parliaments, this step towards an absolute monarchy became a frightening vision of impending doom. Jaime III's refusal to deal with the Parliament but when it was totally necessary and his fondness for managing personally every little issue of the realm frustrated and even frightened many constitutionalists. Even his own supporters were divided on the issue, as some of them feared that an absolutist King would not need them if all the powers was in his hands. Suddenly, the popularity of Jaime IV dropped dramatically. This was first seen when dealing with the yearly budget, as the Prime Minister of the Royal Council, until then the first of the royal councilors, fearing that he and the other ministers would be shunned or replaced by a whim of the king, became the visible head of the opposition to the "Divine Right of Kings" and opposed frontally the royal demands for new fundings for the Imperial projects. Ironically, the prime minister was one of the few Catalan Loyalists that remained in the service of the king, Dalmau de Queralt y Codina, count of Santa Coloma de Queralt (1593-1661). Old but still reliable, Santa Coloma offered a stubborn resistance to the King's ways. Thus, the relationship between the King and his political class became exceptionally tense in those days.

Meanwhile, Aragon was busy exploring the Maragdan archipelago₁. By 1661 the explorers reported that they had found a great mass of land to the south of the archipielago that attracted the interest of the Crown. Thus, the exploration of Maragda and its surrounding area became the main Aragonese enterprise for the next decades and, at the same time, a blessing for the Crown as the Neo-Cathars became attracted by the idea of evangelizing this unexplored continent and the perfecti joined the explorers in their advance inland, soon to be followed by Occitan settlers along with Neo-Cathars from Northern Italy and Southern Switzerland. Eventually, the arrival of Neo-Cathar perfecti was stopped by the Crown as their evangelizing activities with the local tribes caused an uproar in the Aragonese Catholic church when their priests came into contact with the Maragdian natives and were appaled by what they saw: the Neo-Cathars dualist teachings had been integrated in different measure by the tribes, resulting in some strange adaptations of the religion by the tribesmen that horrified the Catholic priests. Thus, in 1675 the Neo-Cathar proselytisation among the tribes was forbidden by law.

Attracted and interested by the tales of a great land of mass discovered by the Aragonese, Jaime IV decided to try exploring there as the New World, or Ameriga, as it was called by then, there was no more space to expand but for the empty masses of land to the North and South of the land mass. And, while the Hispanic explorers had began moving south and, thanks to the lack of Portuguese interest to move southwards, following witj the plans for the creation of the so-called "Reino de Chile'' (Kingdom of Chile). However, the funds for that project were being constantly delayed in the Parliament until the planned expansion south the Loa and Black Rivers was quietly forgotten. Ironically, when Hispania finally expanded it was due to a third party. The rivalry between England and the Dutch Republic over the Caribbean trade finally exploded in 1662 when the English launched a series of raids against the Dutch settlements in Maiami₂ combined with a devastating blockade against the Republic in Europe. The decimation of the Dutch fleet and the crisis caused by loosing Maiami to the Dutch economy gave wings to Jaime IV, that mustered all the strength of his kingdom to conquer the Dutch settlements in West Africa, further worsening the Dutch crisis, something that gave wings to the Hispanics in their trade with India. However, the expansion into the so called Chilean Kingdom was still frozen.

A twist in fate took place in 1670, when the Dutch, now the Batavian Republic, allied with Sweden to conquer the Hispanic Antillas and to divide them evenly among the two. Why Sweden had decided to ally with the Batavians is quite simple: its ways of expansion were temporarily blocked by the rising German (still Habsburg-led) and Russian Empires, Ameriga appeared as the most attractive option for Stockholm. The war began with good omens for the northern allies until London, worried for the allied success, joined the war on the Hispanic side in 1672. The war became a stalemate while the Batavian, English and Hispanic privateers kept harassing both sides until the end of the decade, when, in 1677, a surprise attack by a Spanish Armada crushed the bulk of the Swedish-Batavian fleet at Beveland. By the treaty of Toledo (1678) England was given the Batavian settlements around the Hudson River and the Hispanic the Swedish colony of Gustavland₃. With the Batavian reduced to their settlements in Suriname, to the North of the Portuguese settlement of Brazil and the Swedish colonies concentrated around the Hudson Bay and the French focusing their colonizing effort in Madagascar, the Anglo-Hispanic were the true masters of Ameriga.

At the same time, peace returned to the Balkans. Since the Imperial expasion towards Bosnia, war had exploded in 1665. In a display of the Austrian might and the Ottoman weakness, after two years of battling Bosnia was incorportared into the Habsburg Austria, but this had only made plain clear that the Ottoman Empire was in crisis. So, in 1670, the Empire moved towards Transylvania, and its rulers recognized the suzerainty of the Habsburg emperor Charles II and the region was officially attached to the Habsburg Empire as the Principality of Transylvania subjected to the direct rule of the emperor

₁ - OTL Indonesia
₂- OTL Miami
₃ -OTL Louisiana.

Kurt_Steiner · Sep 23, 2023

Chapter 53: European storms (1680-1685)

The death of Jaime IV in 1678 left the Hispanic Empire in the capable but voluble hands of his son Enrique, now Emperor Enrique V of Hispania (1623-1698). The new Emperor had to deal with the of his younger brothers during his reign:

Alfonso (1625-1680), Duke of Trastámara and lord of Lemos and Sarria;
Fernando (1634-1690), Duke of Ledesma and Lord of Haro, Béjar, Granadilla and Montemayor;
Tello (1637–1687), Duke of Monteagudo and lord of Vizcaya;
Juana (1642-1696), Countess of Medina de Rioseco, married to Fernán de Castro;
Sancho (1644-1684), Duke of Alburquerque and lord of Ledesma, Briones, Cerezo, Alba de Liste and Montalbán.

His brother Alfonso died two years later, leaving his titles and lands to his son Juan (b. 1646-1691). Proud and stubborn, Juan was a pain in the side to his cousin the Emperor, so he was send to watch the Portuguese border, until he was recalled in 1682 as Enrique V had serious doubts that he was plotting with Castilian and Portuguese noblemen to create a kingdom for himself in the western part of the Peninsula. For the remaining of his life, Juan was a loyal subdit that gave little problem to his cousin. Fernando, Duke of Ledesma, and Tello, duke of Monteagudo, were constantly pestering the Emperor for more titles, gold and power. Enrique, who found them "boring and useless", became used to summon them very rarely and gave them no important charge in his administration. Eventually, he would find them an use, as we shall see. Sancho, Duque of Alburquerque, was sent as ambassador to England, were he proved to be quite an asset and a very accomplished spy and plotter. Thus, England was the beginning of the risky life of Alburquerque, as we shall see. Finally, Juana, Countess of Medina de Rioseco, lost her husband little after having her daughter Leonor and returned to the court with his cousin. There they were a constant source of gossip, as Juana refused all the pretender to marry her and Enrique seemed not to be in a hurry to marry his cousin, who was 42 when her husband died.

Determined and energetic, Enrique V proved to be a very controlling king, even more than his father. When war broke in 1682 between Aragon and the German Empire, in one side, and France, in the other, Enrique attempted to persuade the English monarch, Charles II (1661-1700, r. 1680-1700), to unite their strength to find a peaceful settlement to the war. Charles, however, was a letargic king that was had no interest in the European events. Not even his Prime Minister, Sir Thomas Dickinson, was able to persuade the English king to act and, in 1685, an exhausted and almost bankrupt France had to admit defeat. The worst concessions they were forced to made were to the Aragonese, who claimed all the lands of the former Duchy of Aquitaine. Thus, the new border between Aragon and France started at the Vendee in the west and snaked south-easterly over to Rhône. In the north, the French conceded only the Pas-de-Calais and a chunk of eastern Champagne to the German Empire. Worried by the defeat and weakness of France and the rise of Aragon, Enrique V felt depressed as he was unable to make Charles II to join him until the German Emperor bought his silence with a small colonial gift: the "German Islands" (Bärtigen, the Weisseland and Korsau₁) were transferred to Hispania, which added a modest income to the Hispanic treasury from the plantations of the region. Enrique V, feeling remorse for his lack of success in the French debacle, signed several trade treaties with France, helping king Robert II with the reconstruction of his country, that led to a rapid economic recovery.

In the east, the German Empire reached a equitable peace treaty (1685) with Sweden that settle several decades of naval skirmishes and land raids. Sweden was given the German Pomerania and the Empire recovered Lubek, Rostock, Wismar, Kiel and Jutland, which were immediately and massively fortified. With Denmark turned into an unwilling "partner" of Germany, the scenari for the next war was just but settle. However, while Leopold I of Germany was more than happy with this new situation, Charles XIV was determined to recover the lost lands and to crush the Empire. Not even the adquisition to of new trading posts in the English Caribbean colonies seemed to appease Charles, as Germany adquired simialr rights in the area, too.

All in all, the end of the conflict had given rise to the strongest German economic growth in a century. The Swedes were weakened, with a German shadow growing over their most vulnerable fronts. Finally, France had just avoided the total dismemberment that Enrique V had feared.

Then, in 1682 Fernando of Ledesma and Tello of Monteagudo made their move to have a saying in the royal government of Hispania.

₁ - OTL Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and Curacao

Kurt_Steiner · Sep 29, 2023

After this TL turned one year old, another chapter for this TL! Thanks for being there and for your support, my readers!

Chapter 54: Consolidation and expansion (1685-1700)

It came as a surprise when Fernando of Ledesma and Tello of Monteagudo demanded to be given a seat in the royal council when it was widely known that neither the king trusted them nor they were interested in government matters. Thus, Enrique V felt quite suspicious about this demand at once and had his brothers closely watched. Thus, by the Spring of 1685 they were close advisors of the king, who, apparently, valued greatly their opinions. That autumm Enrique V married again after the death of his wife in the Summer of 1684. Many were surprised by the election of the monarch, who picked a Swedish Princess for the marriage. She was Ulrika of Sweden, the youngest daughter of Charles XIV. It was a surprising move and many thought that the king was moving closer to Sweden and away from the German Empire. They were wrong.

Thus, after marrying and, soon after, with his wife in the first stages of her first pregnancy, Enrique V turned to his next project, the "Schooling Program". The king wanted to create with the new state-funded schools a powerful and loyal middle class by having their children educated into the matters that interested the king. Thus, along some notions of basic numeracy, literacy, history and theology, the young pupils were taught what made a true Hispanic man, and reminded of their luck of learning and thus improving as human beings thanks to the generosity of His Majesty. This, along with the repeated public appeals of the king, were to make him "El emperador del pueblo", that is, the “People’s Emperor” and Enrique V spent most of his time winning the love of his population with a generous bombardment of popular theatre plays, posters and pamphlets. Of course, not everybody was swayed by the constant propaganda campaign, but they were a minority and Enrique V was popular and well trusted by his people.

However, he failed in his efforts about his brothers. Fueled by his paranoia, the King’s attempts at espionage often fell far short. Fernando and Tello’s network of spies, bribed servants, turncoats and double agents, were too much for Enrique V. The pair were both sharp and cunning but Enrique V could keep them at bay thanks to hisgenerosity and displays of wealth. However, he began to loose ground soon when Ulrika, angered for the lack of kingly attention, sided with her brothers-in-law, something that allowed them to introduce their agents into her husband’s inner circle. Unknown to them, this agents were soon working for Ulrika, who misled both her husband and brothers in law not only about each other, but about her intentions. Enrique V was to hold the levers of power, but it she was determined to rule hidden in the shadows. There was a question, however, that make the four of them to work together: the reconstruction of the country. The efforts to rebuild areas affected by the war against Aragon, rebuilding abandoned villages, restoring decaying roadways and breathing life back into the country had been going on for many years. Many towns had seen their churches, town halls, pubs and schools restored or rebuilt anew. First the efforts were centered into the wealthy ports of Valencia and then Enrique placed his attention to the Castilian cities, from Leon to Albacete. Along with Sevilla and Cádiz, Murcia and Jaén were turned into major hubs of trade and early industry, even if their architecture was often neglected, Enrique V also spent tens of thousands of doblones to turn Zaragoza and Cuenca into huge trade centers for the Aragonese market and the same happened to Pamplona and Estella for the European markets. The harbours of Cantabria, Galicia and Andalucia were expanded in a massive effort that amazed the foreign visitors of Spain.

Also, in 1689, a treaty was signed with the Inca remnant in Cusco, the Inca capital. Reduce by the conquistadores to a shell of their former glory, the Incas were offered a unique opportunity to expand their lands with Hispanic support. What Enrique V wanted was to create a client state that acted as a buffer between the Hispanic lands and the Batavian settlements in Suriname and the Portuguese Brazil. Coming into effect in 1690, the deal led to economic ties as well, with Hispanic engineers providing the Inca with thousands of muskets and even built them a great foundry in Cusco, as well as sulphur mines, greatly increasing local firearm production. The Incas were also given access to the Hispanic port cities and were to be support in the construction of their own harbours when, as expected, the Inca lands reached the Caribe and Atlantic Ocean. In exhange for their arms, gunpowder, manufactured goods, and more, the Hispanic received foodstuffs, wool, llamas and even Inca workers, who returned to their Inca homes after some years of labour with cash and, in some cases, books, to the benefit their communities and villages. If anyone was mislead thinking surprised that the Incas had been turned into Hispanic allies, they were sadly mistaken. For Enrique V they were nothing but a piece of his wider plans. This would be proved in the 1700s with the Brazilian war.

Kurt_Steiner · Oct 8, 2023

Chapter 55: The Last Summer of Peace (1688-1696)

The death of Enrique V of Hispania (1698) fired an age of controlled chaos. His two sons were already dead (Fernando, the elder, died in 1688 when he was 45 after a lifetime filled with several illnesses; and Juan, the younger, died in 1692, when he was 67) but his grandsons (from his son Juan) were ready to replace hin. They were

Fernando (1655-1711), prince of Asturias, born in Madrid, married with Luisa of Braganza (1652-1710), without sons.
Carlos (1658-1730), Duke of Madrid, born in Madrid, married with Maria of Saxony (1680-1717), 8 children -six sons, two daughters-
Felipe (1662-1707), Duke of Plasencia, born in Madrid, married with Isabel of France (1669-1701), 3 children -one son, two daughters-.

Historians claim that the three Royal brothers formed a very united clan, with Fernando having a clear preference for his brother Felipe. Carlos, on his part, It is claimed that they were very sure about their chances to reach the throne, and this is proved by the so-called "Aranjuez Meeting" (May 1688), when, with his grandfather this alive, the would-be rulers of the Empire divided the real and their overseas provinces into their areas of influence. Apparently, they also included in their meeting their cousins, Juan (1659-1691), 2nd Duke of Trastámara; Juan Alfonso (1665-1694), the would- be Duke of Ledesma; Juan (1655-1690), the short-lived 2nd Duke of Monteagudo; and Fernando (1661-1702), Duke of Alburquerque. All the historians point out that a deep dislike was born between the royal brothers and their cousins, as the princes found their relatives too demanding, too proud and too dangerous. This was a lesson that they would keep in their mind when Fernando rose to the throne.

In 1691, with the Ottomans crumbling in face of the Venetian onslaught in Greece and defeated by the Habsburg Austrian forces at the battle of Slankamen, Fernando V of Castile send his brother Felipe and his cousins, Juan, Duke of Trastámara, and Fernando, Duke of Alburquerque, to the Middle East. Since 1651 taking both Jerusalem and Damascus had been a pending issue for the Aragonese kings. Thus, when Carles I of Aragon, cousin of the late Eduardo V, launched an all-out assault to take the Holy City, Fernando V organized an expedition under the command of his brother to take Damascus. However, the Hispanic army never reached the Holy Land as a storm had them landing in Greece. And, as they were there, Felipe decided that it was a good idea to take Athens. In the end, it was an enterprise that took two years to complete and caused many casualties among the Hispanic army, mainly due to the illnesses caused by the unhealthy conditions of their camp. Among the dead was Juan of Trastámara. His son Enrique (1680-1707), was in Castile, and proved to be absolutely loyal to Fernando V, who kept him close by his side at the court. Apparently, Felipe of Plasencia, after conquering Athens in 1693, considered he had done enough and returned to Castile while Carlos I de Aragon kept pressing towards Damascus after taking Jerusalem in 1692. However, the war was proving to be quite expensive and divisive at home so, by 1693, Carlos I of Aragon withdrew from Damascus and returned to Aragon, where he was to fight to keep the kingdom at peace in the postwar years until the war debt was gone.

Meanwhile, Savoy, despite being linked to the German Empire for its past as a state of the Holy Roman Empire, began to move closer to France as its Duke, Victor Amadeus II, hoped that by moving closer to París would lead the German Emperor to offer him a better deal than anything that the French could offer. However, Leopold I of Germany was not inclined to do so as he hoped that, being trapped between the German Empire and the Aragonese-Occitan Empire and with the weak state of France, it would be enough to disuade the Savoyan duke.

Then, Jan III Sobieski, King of Poland, died in 1696 and the Polish Diet refused to crown Augustus, Elector of Saxony, and elected Stanisław Leszczyński as the new king and Great Duke of Lithuania. This was more than Leopold I of Germany could take and threatened with war unless Augustus' rights were recognized by ghe Polish Diet. This demand was refused by the Polish, so, in September 1696, the German Empire went to war against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Kurt_Steiner · Oct 12, 2023

Chapter 56: The War of the Four Years (1696-1700)

As the German armies crossed into Poland, the Swedish King Charles XV (b. 1682, d 1746, r. 1697-1746) declared war at once just to recoil in horror as Peter I of Russia (b. 1672, d. 1726, r. 1682-1726) joined the German side and invaded both Poland and Finland in December 1696. Fully aware that France was unwilling to act unless the Hispanic and British Empires joined the Swedish side, Charles XV was in a hopeless situation. Then, on January 1697, Charles II of England asked to his Parliament to join the war in the Swedish side. This was followed by the uprising led by Amadeus II of Savoy in March 1697 and the Hispanic invasion of Aragon in April of the same year. In all but in name, the Polish war had turned into the Great European War.

With the economic growth brought by the Hispanic Real Compañía de Indias (Royal Company of the Indies), the silver of the New World help to fund the miitary recovery of the Hispanic armies, which was initially used to reinforce the fleet and then to prepare the army, which was tested in a few border clashes in Africa when the Hispanic empire attempted to expand towards the north, towards Ethopia, in 1687. However, the effort proved to be too costly and Enrique V turned his attention to his plans for Europe. He had been interested to conquer Ethiopia to crush the Aragonese trade routes to Asia, but he considered that direct action would be the wisest option. He only had to wait for the moment. It finally arrived ten years later. Meanwhile, thanks to his trade relations, Aragon had not only annexed the former Kingdom of Colombo and the island of Ceilan in its entirety, but also the Aragonese established a half dozen trading ports in southern India. By 1692 the Aragonese control spread to the Indian mainland and secured direct control over a strip of land that wrapped around from Trivandrum to Madras. This worried London and caused the Anglo-Hispanic reapprochement, breaking one of the traditional and main Aragonese alliances as England was creating trading posts in the Eastern Indian ocean; in the Burmese city of Bassein, Siamese Phuket, the Addu Atoll and the wealthy port of Medan; however, in a lucky move, the Aragonese had established themselves in the greatest prize of the area, the port of Singapura, the wealthiest and largest of the oversea Chinese Empire. This confirmed the English change of sides.

The English, however, did not commit themselves to the war, but for some money and mercenaries lend to France. The terminally-ill Charles II prompted its nobility and parlamentarians to jockey for power with the next king. It was a game that would only finish in 1700, when Charles finally died and England began to fade from history for the next hundred years. Anne (1687-1724), his daughter and heir, was to spend half of his reign (1700-1724) battling with his cousins (Charles, duke of Cambridge -1680/1715-, James, Duke of Kendal -1682/1733-, Henry, Duke of Berwick -1685/1749- and Edgar, Duke of Albermale -1688/1723-). The death of Kendal and Albermale without issue would prove essential to the recovery of the Treasury with the return of the tittles and the lands to the Crown.

While the war in Eastern Europe saw the forces of Stanisław Leszczyński being crushed between the German hammer and the Russian anvil, Victor Amadeus II of Savoy was surprised by the fast reaction of the Empire and the armies mustered against him. So, he begged France for help, but the French forces were busy consolidating their position on the Rhine after they had seized Strasboug, on the right bank of the Rhine, and there was nothing to be spared to help the Savoyard army. Even worse, the Vaudois (Piedmontese and Savoyard Protestants), who had being viciously persecuted in 1685, rose in revolt against Victor Amadeus. Thus, by late 1692, Victor Amadeus II secretly negotiated a separate treaty with Leopold I and prepared to turn against France. By 1693 Paris was very much on his own after Leszczyński had been crushed, Poland divided between Germany and Russia, the German armies were returning in mass to the Rhine and the Russians turned against Sweden, When Norways rose in revolt in 1694, Charles XV asked for peace to a very amused Peter I.

In the Peninsula, the Hispanic forces were advancing towards Zaragoza and Valencia. While the Aragonese city resisted and the Mediterranean front hold against the enemy assault, even if the western part of Aragon, the inner, mostly Castillian speaking regions, was in Hispanic hands and the communication to Navarre restricted to the Occitan routes.

It was then, in 1700, when Charles II of England died and London offered to mediate with the warrying parties to find a negotiated end of the war. Defeated at Fleurus and pushed out of Flanders, France was ready for peace.

Kurt_Steiner · Oct 18, 2023

Chapter 57: Up and Downs of a King-Emperor (1700-1730)

The annexation of Navarre and the Castilian-speaking areas of Aragon caused some concern in London as fearing that the next step was to conquer Catalonia and Valencia. An united Hispania was not something that London wanted to see, as it would mean not only a powerful rival in the New World but also an united France as Paris would be free and strong enough to go against the Aragonese remnant, Occitania. Aragon then made an unexpected move that worried London even more: they signed an alliance with Moulay Ismail Ibn Sharif, Sultan of Morocco. However, the next Aragonese move pleased London. In May 1701 an Aragonese delegation offered Aragonese support against Hispania if London decided to go to war for the Asiatic colonies of King Fernando V. However, the death of Charles II meant the rise to the throne of his Scottish cousin James, half Yorkist himself. James, who became James V of England and VIII of Scotland (born in 1683), was well liked by his English subjects as he promised to keep the independence of the two kingdoms and the peace so badly needed for the English economy. This would begin to change in 1707, when he attempted to rule the island from Edinburgh. From then on, even his die-hard supporters began to turn against him in the Parliament.

Hispania was not to go to war any time soon as the health of Fernando V took a sudden turn to the worse in 1703. He recovered by 1704, but he began to complain from constant headaches from then on, until, by 1706, he was constantly bedridden and with his brothers Carlos and Felipe in power as regents. The unexpected death of the younger brother in 1707. His son, Diego (born in 1679), had been named governor of the Aragonese lands of the Crown, after the war, and returned to claim his inheritance, thus becoming part of the regency with his uncle Carlos. In 1709, Diego, who had recently lost his wife, became the heir to Maria Theresa Gonzaga, last Duchess of Parma, who named him as her heir in an effort to move away from the Habsburgs, who she had come to dislike in her last years. Thus, with Diego on his way to Italy, Carlos became the only ruler of Hispania until the death of his brother Fernando, two years later.

Carlos, as the second son of the late king, had been prepared to be a soldier, not a ruler. Raised by his mother and educated by the finest tutors throughout the land, he demonstrated a sharp intellect, but his interest in several matters forced his mother to intervene as he was unable to focuse in a single issue. As he grew older, Carlos developed a clear but somewhat heterodox set of beliefs in several topics. He had a strong belief in the divine right of kings, but he was hardly interested in religion. Once he became king, he claimed his absolute right to rule. He was fascinated and inspired by the governments of the German Empire and decided to reform Hispania following the German model. But first he had his coronation, an opulent, glorious and expensive one, as King-Emperor of Hispania. And, as such, he styled himself Carlos I.

As King-Emperor, one of his first actions was replace the whole government by the most relevant members of the conservative benches of the Cortes. Ironically, in due time, many historians were to notice a similar trend between Carlos I of Hispania and James V of England. Both were grandiose, rather imperious and a firm believer in the divine right of kings to rule. Both saw Parliament with disdain and scorn, but while James V simply used any chance he had to ignore the English Parliament, Carlos I attempted to attempt to dominate it. To achieve this he selected Juan "the Younger Duke" (1678-1724), 3rd Duke of Trastámara, as his prime minister, a position that he served from 1709-1715, 1719-1722 and briefly again in 1723, When others were appointed, it was when it was politically expedient, the Parliament became too rebellious to achieve any compromise, thus forcing Carlos I into embarrassing concessions that only helped to increase the royal hatred towards the institution. When his cousin Trastámara died, he replaced him with the most notorious sycophantic character of his realm, Fernando de Salvaterra, 4th count of Salvaterra de Magos, the leader of the "Imperiales" (Imperials), the most militaristic and expansionist party in the Parliament and also the biggest supporters of the absolute power of the king. Salvaterra rose to the Premiership in 1725 and he's remembered for his attempts to colonize Baffin's Island, which was named as Carlonia by Salvaterra. This move not only puzzled James V, but also worried him as he saw a new phase of the expansionist policies of Hispania. However, the failure to support the fisheries and ports in the frozen plains of the islands not only meant the end of the hopes to colonize Carlonia by 1730 meant the fall of Salvaterra, who returned in shame to the benches.

His replacement was one of the "new man" of the kingdom, Óscar Balmes, who had made a fortune thanks to the American trade. The leader of the Commoner faction in the parliament, Balmes could not translate his sharp intelligence into political success and by 1740 he was out of power. By then Carlos had to admit that his efforts to block the Parliament had worked too well, but at the price of the complete stagnation of his Empire, that began to fall behind the English and to look as an easy prey for the raising powers. Thus, when Carlos I died in 1730, his Empire was in deep need of a complete overhaul.

Kurt_Steiner · Oct 23, 2023

Chapter 58: The "King of peace": Carlos II (1730-1757)

In spite of the stagnation of the Empire, Carlos II began his reign with a renovation of the royal palaces and with a wide program of social works. The construction of new roads was mixed with the renewal of the old ones. New gardens were added to the cities along with new buildings, harbours were improved and enlarged and, to the surprise of many, Carlos II imposed a peaceful foreign policy towards Aragon which included a series of trade treaties that opened the New World colonies to the Aragonese merchants. With this Carlos II hoped that the Aragonese competence would force the Hispanic tradesmen to become more competitive and it would give a new strength to the advance of the Hispanic science, technology and wealth thanks to this peaceful competition. The impact on the national mood was rapid and disastrous as many Hispaniards did not understood the true reasons of their monarch. The expensive expansion of the communication system (which included the modernization of the commercial fleet that linked Hispania with its Empire) and the "privileges" given to the Aragonese in a time that the country was suffering under the new taxes introduced to support the construction program of the king caused a subdued anger that bit by bit began to grow. The first riots, centered over the rising costs of bread. broke out in Toledo on March 10, 1741.

All in all, 2,000 rioters marched to the Plaza Mayor, shouting insults against Mendoza, the Food Commissary of the city. They encountered Luis Antonio Fernández de Córdoba y Spínola, 11th Duke of Medinaceli, whom they surrounded and persuaded to present their petitions to the king. The duke reported to the king, who remained calm and apparently not worried at all by the seriousness of the situation. He ordered that bread was at once cooked in the royal kitchen and freely given to the people. On March 14, the situation worsened. The rioters, strengthened in numbers and in confidence, marched towards the king's palace, which was defended by Spanish troops. The soldiers fired and killed several men and women, but a priest managed to make his way to Carlos and present him with the petitions. The priest's tone was ominous, and he warned of an unstoppable revolution if the demands were not met. The rioters' demands included:

That the price of basic goods be lowered.
That the Juntas de Abastos (municipal boards responsible for commodity prices and supplies) be suppressed.
That the troops withdraw to their respective headquarters.
That His Majesty shows himself and speaks from his own mouth his desire to fulfill and satisfy these demands.

The king was inclined to accept the demands, despite being counselled not to do so by several of his ministers. Those ministers who believed he should accept the rioters' demands, emphasized that the riots were not a challenge against royal authority, but that they could develop into such should the demands be ignored. Carlos appeared on the palace balcony. The rioters once again presented their demands. Carlos calmly acceded to their demands and then retired into the palace. This action temporarily calmed the populace.

The king then named a military junta to restore order. The city remained calm. However, upon hearing that Carlos had placed the military in command of the situation, there were fears that a large force of royal troops would enter Madrid and crush the revolt. In reaction to these fears, some 30,000 people, including men, women, and children, surrounded the house of Diego Rojas Contreras, bishop of Toledo, and president of the Council of Castile. The bishop was instructed to inform the king of the popular mood and to draw up a series of demands. The king replied with a letter that stated that he sincerely promised to comply with the demands of his people, and asked for calm and order. This calmed the populace once again. In the following weeks, several of the new taxes were withdrawn and the expenses cut to a half. Then the king placed the government in the hands of his Chief Minister, Sebastián de la Cuadra, 1st Marquess of Villarías. Apparently, the protesters had won. In fact, most of the construction program designed by Carlos II had been finished and the extraordinary taxes were to be cancelled or reduced. Thus, Carlos II had agreed with the reforms just because this suited him. This was to be the cause of future problems between the king and his subjects.

With his confidence renewed, Carlos devoted all his efforts into the last stages of the project, neglecting diplomatic and economic affairs to study his gardens or to chat with his architects. The government lied in the capable hands of Villarías, who is best rembered as the co-founder of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (RABASF; Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando) in 1744 and as a patron of arts. His replacement was José de Carvajal y Lancáster, who carried out an aggresive policy. In 1750, he threatened Portugal with war unless Lisbon accepted the Hispanic claims over the borders of Río de la Plata and Brazil; it was a bluff that worked, as the Colonia del Sacramento was returned to Spain in exchange of some Paraguayan territories.

The new royal apartments in Toledo .

In 1751 Carvajal was forced to raise the taxes again. The delicate situation of the Empire and the expenses of the king threatened to bankrupt it. The size of the army and of the navy was cut by a third. Colonial subjects, until now exempt from such things, had a tax placed upon imports for the first time in 1746. In 1753 another bankruptcy was avoided only after hard negotiations with foreign and domestic debtors, who were given a share in the Real Compañía de Indias (Royal Company of the Indies); part of the American silver was thus used to pay the Hispanic debt. The crisis led to the creation of the Banco Imperial (Imperial Bank), but Aranda was unable to make Carlos II to reduce his waste of money, which ensured the financial crisis was unavoidable.

Looking for money, Carlos II had an idea that horrified Carvajal and most of the king's ministers. The king would make new members of the Parliament in exchange for money. In his primary goal, Carlos succeeded utterly and the royal coffins were filled with gold. Also, the Parliament was filled with new members that owed their seats to the king, who could unseat them if someone offered a better price. However, Parliament became so weakened and corrupted that was hardly an useful institution for the government of the Empire. Carvajal resigned and went into a self-imposed exile as the new Hispanic ambassador in Paris. His replacement as Chief Minister was Jerónimo Grimaldi y Pallavicini, 1st Duke of Grimaldi, in 1755. A corrupt plutocrat, Grimaldi was forced to resign in April 8, 1757, hardly two weeks after the death of Carlos II. The new king, Jaime V, had Grimaldi paying half of his fortune to avoid being jailed and then exiled him to Portugal.

Kurt_Steiner · Nov 1, 2023

Chapter 59:Jaime V - the home front (1757-1767)

Jaime V (1710-1767, reigned 1754-1767) had the making of a great king. Born in the Imperial Palace of Toledo on February 15, 1710, his birth was seen as a gift from Heaven as his uncle, King Fernando, was not to live long. In this environment and under the strict tutelage of his father, young Jaime developed the rather peculiar temperament. He became a mixture between a hard worker and devoted administrator, and a dilettante prince devoted to ride a favoured horse, hunting, reading a new book or seducing a chamber maid. Young Jaime enjoyed a strong relationship with his grandmother who, in turn, enjoyed the role of matriarch and tutor. It was she who, eventually, tamed Jaime's riotous and rebellious behaviour by separating the young Prince from his father. His tutors struggled to keep him focused on education throughout his childhood and teens and young Jaime spent much of the 1720s being reluctantly taken away from favoured books or hobbies. He adored his grandmother, and he was devastated by her death in 1725, the turning point of his life. who he saw as both wise and good tempered, and occasionally clashed with his grandiose father. Young Jaime found much support in the future Chief Minister, Fernando de Salvaterra, 4th count of Salvaterra de Magos, who became a tutor of the future king in all but in name. It was Salvaterra who introduced him into the world of politics, much to the king's dismay, as father and son seldom agreed on politics or even personal matters. Thus, the king was determinwd not to give any official dduties to his son until he changed his behaviour.

In 1726, at the age of 16, he was wed to Princess Caroline Elizabeth of Great Britain (1713 –1757)- daughter of King George II of Great Britain and Ireland. For unknown reasons, the marriage was an unhappy one. The new queen suffered a deep melancholy that not even her visits to her family back in London could alleviate. in 1743, Caroline's suffered a mental breakdown and retired to the Royal Palace of la Granja de San Idelfonso for many years prior to her own death, accessible to only her husband and closest friends. By then they had been blessed with only one child but, luckily, he was a healthy prince born in 1736.

Jaime was 20 years old when his father became King-Emperor. This fact, along with his marriage and his son, sobered Jaime's temper, who took fully his role as heir of the Empire, while being introduced to matters of government, and was surprised and offended when he saw he watched with shock and disapproval as the widespread waste of money and resources led to the ríots of 1741. He was concerned with the rising power of the old Castilian nobilty, who he identified as a threat to royal authority. With the death of his father in 1754, the new King took little time to show his new powers with Jerónimo Grimaldi y Pallavicini, 1st Duke of Grimaldi, who was dismished as Chief Minister and sent to exile. This was followed by a return to more constitutional rule for the Cortes, which had been eclipsed and sidelined during the reign of his father. With Jaime V the Hispanic Parliament met in a former Palace of Toledo, in what had become the "ministerial" area of the city, close to the Royal Palace and to the houses of the most important (and rich) Hispanic families.

This scheme came to an end around 1765, when, after ten years in power and exhausted with the fights with its rivals to the left and to the right of the Parliament, the Refomists stepped out of power and refused to bend under the pressure of Jaime V, who balked at the idea of having to deal with the "Left Party" and its radical faction, the "Comuneros" ("Commoners"). However, he would not stand them for long, as he died two years later, in 1767. However, the “Electoral Act” of 1766, which modified the requirements for voters to ensure that all adult male landlords could vote. With that, the Leftists hoped, the next king would meet a more active and stronger Cortes than his father.

Kurt_Steiner · Nov 10, 2023

Chapter 60: Sowing Decay (1767-1780)

Pedro II (1736-1822) was the first Hispanic monarch who reigned under the heel of the Cortes. Raised under his protective daughter, the future king was a spoiled boy who had everything he asked for, even before he demanded it. By the time of his father’s death, Pedro (who was 31 years old at the time) was ready for the throne. His leisurely and playful childhood was left behind and in his youthhood he seemed to fully grasp the reality of the situation. The economy was crumbling, the nobiliy triumphant, the raising middle class angered and the nation beset by social issues on all sides. Used to have everything he wanted at once, when Pedro faced a problem he could not solve, the young king's mood drakened, becoming rather antisocial and unforgiving. He would come to terms with the state of affairs, in own quiet way. However, he had made few allies while being a prince and, once in the throne, he had to rely in the friends and advisors of his father. At least, this lack of familiarity was a good thing, as he lacked any prejudices against any side and, to sum up, the new monarch represented a chance for a new beginning for the Empire.

In his youth, Pedro II had been married to María de Silva y Álvarez de Toledo (1740-1782), the only daughter of Francisco de Paula de Silva y Álvarez de Toledo, 10th Duke of Huéscar (who was son of Fernando de Silva y Álvarez de Toledo, 12th Duke of Alba de Tormes). Francisco was the head of the Royal Council and Fernando was one of the leaders of the Reformist party. With this it was hoped that the Reformers were to side with the throne. The marriage was rather productive: between 1759 and 1770) three sons and two daughter were born, even if one two boys and one girl would survive into adulthood. María would act as the connexion between his father and uncle (and the Reformers) while the king gathered around him a quadre of supporters. However, gone were the times when kings where the ones who decided the fate of Hispania.

José Moñino, count of Floridablanca (1728-1808), became the first Chief Minister of Pedro II. He was popular among the nobility for his combination of patriotism, cunning and loyalty, something that also endeared him to the king. He was to be one of the more lasting Chief Minister in the history of Spain, has he fufilled that role from 1767 to 1782, and retained some influence on his successors while being Minister of Justice from 1782 and 1793. One of his first actions was to put the Royal Council under the control of the government by having its members being approved by the Council of Ministers. Then he secured that only those with an extense military background could join the Supreme War Council, which, eventually, would be dissolved and its powers transfered to the Ministries of the Army and of the Navy in 1778. However, the military would keep selecting the ministers of those two deparments.

Floridablanca also managed to build around himself a wide coalition of Reformers, include members of the most radical and of the most conservative factions. With this support, in 1780 he replaced the Royal Council with the Executive Council, with the Chief Minister as its head. The Vice Chief Minister was then given responsibility for all foreign affairs, thus becoming the Foreign Minister. The Ministers were still named by the king, but Pedro II trusted Floridablanca and selected the nanes suggested by his Chief Minister. Meanwhile, in the Cortes, Floridablanca wad able to rally around him the support of the moderate Left Party; the "Comuneros", however, refused to even meet with Floridablanca's secretaries. Meanwhile, by 1780 too the King’s efforts to make friends and influence people outside his Chief Minister had largely failed. He was well thought of, even among his prospective rivals in the Diputados (the members of the Parliament) who liked their king and enjoyed his efforts to woo them with his patronage. He was thus reduced to the support of a small but devoted cadre of political followers. The true power was with the Chief Minister. Thus, when a situation requiered to take a firm decission, officials in every branch of government would listen to Floridablanca over the King.

However, the king was able to win some allies by handing out of titles; thus, he ppointed many allies to senior noble titles, hoping to shore up his own position in the Hispanic Pârliament and in the administration of the American Colonies. This, of course, ballooned the Upper House to an even more enormous size than before and, by 1770, it had as many as 525 members, up from 150 just ten years prior. However, when in contact with some of the true "blue bood" noblemen, some of those upstarts, became infatuated with "their" class peers and thus had little problem to change sides. However, by the widespread use of bribes by both sides and this "selling" of tittles, Pedro II had began the process by which the Parliament soon became a corrupt and despicable institution. Then. the Austrian War of Succession changed the balance of power in Central Europe.

After the forest of Foixà: a new beginning for the House of Barcelona

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After the forest of Foixà: a new beginning for the House of Barcelona

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