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Once upon a time on a small island there was a king called Robert, who wanted a son, but only had a daughter.
He first considered to call her James, while buying the silence of the in-the-know, but one of his advisors, a strange man always wearing big hats some believed to be some kind of sorceror, convinced him it wasn't really a wise move.
"Sooner or later she will have to wear a kilt, and the truth will appear.", he said.
The king surrendered to his arguments and soon the girl who could have been James was renamed Alice, to the surprise of a court where most believed her to be a boy.
But the night later, Robert made a strange dream where he was drinking tea with a strange creature with rabbit ears warning him about an impending doom.
"You don't know was saying the were-rabbit, who was also wearing the same kind of big hat as his unnamed advisor, but by calling her Alice, you have just made a move in direction of total uchrony. Now the world will only become more and more chaotic, you will even lose control of yourself and make all kind of strange decisions."
The king wanted to answer that calling his child Alice or James shouldn't have such big consequences but he was unable to speak, he was becoming smaller and smaller, and orange also, and finally was eaten by the gigantic rabbit.
Awaking in a bad mood, Robert ordered to hang his cook when he learned that a carrot cake was planned for his supper.
Anyway, for the moment there was no sign of the impending chaos. Worried by the power of England (I forgot to mention, that king wasn't even the only king on the small island), especially after that nightmare about tea, Robert decided it was time to establish good relations with the french.
Sadly, having renamed his son Alice had probably made a bad impression on foreign courts, and doubting of the sex of the offered bride, the french refused his royal marriage proposal. Robert then decided to ignore these frog eaters and to concentrate for a while on his country, deciding that it should be more centralized, then spending a year chasing a pretender (which happened to be called James and have a rabbit on his shield), beating him in everyone of his provinces before he accepted defeat.
Nothing but the usual life of the rulers of this time, the king was reinsured.
As he visited all his provinces (and several times some, damn pretender rebels), Robert noted that they were starting to get more pronounced identities. The people of the western isles were proud but poor warriors, offering their swords for nearly nothing, while those of Fife were loyalists always acclaiming him when he crossed their county. Aberdeen had bad carpenters, unable to correctly repair a ship, while Ayrshire was known for its good roads, which allowed him to finally catch James the Rabbit.
Soon after defeating the rebels, Robert got an alliance proposal from Castille, who was at war with Morocco and Algiers after having annexed Granada so fast that the king wondered if it was the first sign of the announced uchrony.
Robert anyway decided to accept, considering he was needing some strong allies against the evil tea drinkers of the southern part of his island (they had just annexed Connaught, and despite being at war with the french, were keeping an as big army as Robert's one -that means a rather small army in fact- just on the scottish fronteer).
But it wasn't the time to face the english yet. Considering he was going to be called in the Castillan war Robert decided to act first, and so started the war of scottish intervention against Morocco and Algiers, also a good pretext to raise the war taxes his depressive economy called for.
And soon, at the head of the, limited, troops he could embark, that was no more than 3000 men (including the only scottish knights regiment), Robert sailed to Morocco.
A large Castillan army had landed in the east, and most of the muslim forces were travelling to face it, so Robert could quietly siege Tangiers (a province known for its very bad fortifications), the time for his fleet to make another trip and send him his remaining 3000 men (Scotland was totally empty at this point, but Robert could hope the English were occupied enough with the french to ignore the departure of the whole scott army).
Taking Tangiers was easy, but moving to Ceuta, Robert had the surprise to meet an immense horde of muslims led by their best commanders, and having to fight at one against ten had no other choice than to order a strategic retreat (at least it's the version of scottish historians). Minority reports say the story was a little different, the morrocans had just one or two hundred more men than him, and not even a general. Anyway, Robert was defeated and at this point things looked really bad as his whole army could very well be destroyed before recovering.
But luck was on Robert side. Luck and the castillan too, who attacked Ceuta coming from the east before the muslims could leave the province (the spaniards were finally defeated but Robert was already in Tangiers and marching south).
Even better, the small garrison he had let at Tangiers had decided to learn the local muslims the merits of eating bacon, and just after Robert had left the province for Toubkhal, a big berber revolt erupted just in the path of the moroccan army, who were finally destroyed, surrounded by castillans in Ceuta, the remnants of Robert army in the south, and the berbers in Tangiers.
Robert then split his forces to siege the strangely desert southern Morocco, while his fleet was sent to carry new troops recently built in Scotland. It's travelling to the mother island that the scottish fleet was going to fight the most decisive and only naval battle of the war, in the middle of the irish sea, where the scotts had the suprise to meet and defeat a big moroccan fleet, sinking two galleys and three transports and capturing a carrack. Would the six transports of this fleet had been able to land their troops, the only 3 regiments of Scotland would hardly have stopped them.
But the Maghrebi were far to be defeated. Coming back from the east, their bigger army suddenly arrived on the back of the castillan who were sieging Mellila, while another army appeared in the south and took the direction of Marrakech. Meanwhile another berber revolt erupted in Ceuta, defeating the castillan regiment which was sieging the city.
The defeated main spaniard army decided to flee to Toubkhal, despite being in superior numbers, abandonning the 2000 men Robert was leading against 9000 Morrocans.
This trahison marked the end of the Scottish Intervention. Realising he could only lose against the forces surrounding him, Robert decided to conclude peace for as much he could optain, letting the Castillan finish their war alone.
The Maroc accepted to let him Tangiers (a province berber rebels were going to conquer a few days after) and 50 ducats.
Soon after something strange happened. In every foreign court, his conquest of Tangiers was celebrated like a great victory (despite the province being lost to rebels, and his coward way to abandon the war), Scottland jumped from being a despised nation to the top 5 of the most prestigious ones, a prestige allowing the scotts to place two merchants in a row in Lubeck, an exploit nobody would have believed possible.
Robert was so happy he didn't immediatly saw a link with the strange predictions of the were-rabbit.
But he could have noted, many other strange things were happening everywhere in Europe. Like the fact that another of the most prestigious nations was Luxemburg, also gifted with a sudden popularity, or all these new specialities the nations had developped.
England getting a discount on transport costs looked normal, as the Papacy getting a diplomats bonus or Milan an increased discipline, but what about Austria getting a large colonist placement bonus or Hungary an increased naval morale ?
The world was starting to become weird, and to adapt to this new world, Robert had a sudden inspiration and decided to change his policies. Not one of his policies, all of them.
One minute later Scottland was an highly naval, depressingly decentralized, rather innovative and liberal nation. And not even a revolt to sanction that.
To celebrate this shift to complete decentralization (and because he wasn't willing to pay his troops a new trip to North Africa, after having been defeated by rebels a first time) Robert decided to agree with the berber rebels demands. He then tried to sell the ruined province back to Morrocco but, he wanted at least 150 ducats and they refused.
It's soon after that, probably influenced by the citizens of Tangiers, Scotland joined the muslim technology group.
"Far worse things or far better things could have happened, far worse and far better things will happen, it's just the beggining of chaos." the were-rabbit said in a new dream.
PS : So I play with eu3 randomizer (making this AAR while I'm testing a new version of the mod) in permanent chaos mode (meaning random things will be randomized over time, like religions, cultures, tech groups, inflation, stability, policies, cores, etc... etc..., random bonuses/maluses given and things like a mayan invasion or every nation of the world being given Quest for the New World may happen) with default settings except "All Religious Conversions Allowed" ( + I've run an add provinces modifiers and add nationals bonuses on capitals process one time in the beginning (bonuses I've made conquerable in this version of the mod) -, I never refuse randomizations in the events (some allow to avoid their effects, as the mod is more made to be an editor), and always take the default choice. I play with Ideas of Glory mod policies effects and static modifiers but normal dw 5.1 out of that (everything default, except no lucky nation -some will be anyway -, 75 years before discoveries spread, and my heir renamed Alice of course).
Then the goal is ... to see how things evolve and if I can deal with that (can't say if I will do a world conquest or just try to survive as I may be nomad-tech tomorrow and England may end a land oriented nation that will destroy Scotland even more easily than in vanilla, but it's fun).
"Making those strange dreams every night, again and again, king Robert had a an extreme fear of tea and carrots.
In these times a scottish noble could lose all his demesnes just for dressing in orange, and, since the edict of Edinburg of 1403, anyone organizing tea parties or growing carrots in the northern realm could be hanged, dismembered, skinned, geld and given to the porks.
The strange advisor with a big hat had convinced the king to invite scottish peasants to grow potatoes instead, but as they had yet to be discovered in Europe, it only resulted in increasing their already extreme poverty.
Meanwhile, the young Alice, forced to witness the regular supplices of outlawed cultivators, could only find refuge in her own world of dreams, she was spending most of her time in her bedroom speaking with imaginary friends, including a smoking cat and a rabbit like creature with long ears.
Would the king have heard about that he would certainly have disinherited his daughter, as his hate for rabbits was even stronger than his fear of carrots.
At every dinner, at every supper, he demanded rabbit meat (which was very expensive in this time, due to the rabbits having deserted this country now devoid of carrots), he devoured angrily, muttering "It's me eating you not you eating me !".
But one evening, in a middle of a banquet, as usual gobbling some rabbit meat, he stopped to mummer and became dark red. He standed up a moment, suffocating, holding his throat, and before anyone could react suddenly collapsed.
The doctors concluded a fragment of rabbit bone was responsible of his death."
Only aged of 9, and still living in her world of dreams, the young Alice could only delegate power to her councellors, while she learned about the situation of the realm and her future duties.
A situation that was all but favorable.
The english were threatening as ever, having not only resisted the french and kept their provinces on the continent but also annexed Armagnac.
Thinking they could be stopped in their ambition to conquer Ireland, Robert had, some months before his death, and some weeks before their peace with the french, accepted an alliance proposal of Tyrone. But now it was only a matter of worry for the regency council, considering the only reasonable choice, would Tyrone call to arms against the english, would be to betray that unsignifiant ally. Luckily, King Henry Lancaster prefered to start with the south of the island and declared war to Munster and its Breton allies.
Another late decision of Robert I forgot to mention, was the one to sell Tangiers back to Morocco, a deal finally concluded for a price of 100 ducats in july 1404, after a new huge berber revolt (and the depressing state of Scottish economy) convinced him he couldn't wait for a better deal.
This money, and the shift to a free trade oriented policy allowed the scotts to establish and maintain some merchants on the continent (usually one or two in Lubeck and two or three in Antwerpen), improving a little their income, but due to the extreme decentralization Scotland was still one of the poorest countries.
Speaking about policies changes, many other countries had made surprising choices in the last years. If England remained a naval oriented nation, Aragon and Portugal had shifted to a total land focus... unlike France and Hungary.
(Land Focus mean a land scale of 2, High Land Focus mean a land scale of 4 more, etc...)
These extreme policies were going to have big consequences over time, especially with their impact on research and traditions.
(NdA : like said above I use Ideas of Glory scales, having far more effects than vanilla ones and creating big technology and traditions differences over time)
But Alice was too young to be passioned by these administrative and politic questions, her heart full of dreams was more excited by the tales of far away countries. And, since a few years, she could only find reasons for. While other sciences were lagging in Scotland, geographic knowledge had largely beneffited from the conversion to muslim group, and it seems some european nations were getting news of even farer countries.
Anyway, despite Scotland having as national speciality increased chances to place colonists, this knowledge could hardly be exploited for the moment.
So the regency council concentrated his effort on improving relations with as many countries possible, marrying all available cousins of the Stuart family to countries including Denmark, Castille, France, Sweden and a bunch of Holy Roman Empire states .
A discussed choice was the one to conclude one with England or not, who had just decided to add Scotland to its sphere, but considering everything reducing the chances of an actually unwinnable war was good to take, the council finally decided so.
This intense diplomatic activity was going to be rewarded in the following years by several alliance proposals, including one from Sweden that was accepted in 1409 (the others, coming from improbable german minors, or a Brittany at war with England, were ignored).
Meanwhile the confuse "Spanish Crusade Against Granada" war was still raging in the south between Castille, Morocco, Algiers and awful lots of Berber rebels, the only new elements being the involvment of Portugal on Castillian side, and Tripoli on the other, and the Pope calling for a crusade against Algiers.
Naturally, in 1407, their truce with Morocco ending, the Scotts were called by Castille, and soon after debarked in Ifni, the plan being to try to seize this center of trade.
But this audacious plan ended being a complete failure, due to the difficulty to carry troops there fast enough (if well furnished in big ships, with its 6 carracks the scottish fleet still had only 3 transports, and the time to make two trips to carry 6 regiments to Ifni a 10,000 men strong muslim army was on this way to counter-attack). 3000 men could be reembarked, the other were lost and it ended the scottish involvment in this war.
Some months later Castille, who had also lost its main african army, accepted a white peace.
The following years, and all money that could be found (that wasn't a lot, even taking 0,15% inflation a year, Scotland yearly income was around 20) were spent rebuilding the scottish army (most regiments being replaced with cheaper troops from the western isles) in prevision of more interesting times.
Meanwhile, England conquered Munster and a big chunck of Brittany, while also (for reasons I have to admit I completely ignore) being at war with the Bohemian Roman Emperor, Riga and a bunch of far away german states.
Out of that, and some minor events, everything was quiet, even the announced chaos had for the moment stopped to spread to Europe.
(NdA : out of Permanent Chaos Mode and Randomization Affect You, my settings are in fact the settings randomly chosen by the chaos mode ; they should change every 3 years in average)
Let's hope the incoming reign of Alice Stuart will be more exciting.
ps : the big problem I have is Scotland is an already poor nation with normal settings, and randomized policies giving me 5 decentralization, 4 naval and 4 aristocracy made the things even worse, I have to pray for a return of chaos and random events giving me some income or increasing my land forcelimit to be able to fund a decent army and expand.
Episode 3 : The Glorious Reign of Queen Alice the First, part one : the Danish wars. (1410-1421)
"One of the first decisions of Queen Alice was to abolish the edict of Edimburg of 1403, and everywhere in the realm cultivators, tea lovers and people with foxy hair rejoyced.
But despite Scotland being restored as a carrot producing country, the realm remained damn poor.
The religious autorities were also worried by the rumors surrounding the queen. It was said she was spending her time speaking with invisible friends, including an entity she called the Smoking Cat, something that appeared as a clear sign of sorcery. And her politic, clearly favoring innovation over fear of god, was only confirming these worries.
When her son fell ill, only some months after her crowning, many considered it was a punishment for her heretic behavior, and so the archbishop of Edinburg invited her to repent and pray, and her son will be saved (the economy minister agreed considering it was a less costly choice than calling a doctor).
But it didn't really worked, although Alice was blessed with a new child some months later, a very intelligent looking daughter she decided to call Alice junior."
Europe in 1410 looked rather quiet, out of Lithuania in the middle of a peasants war and still fighting the Golden Horde (while most other neighbors had accepted to pay tributes), and Denmark in a long and very stagnant war against Novgorod since 7 years, most countries could enjoy peace.
Of the big powers, only England had largely expanded since 1399, obtaining two provinces in Brittany, Munster, Armagnac and the revocation of french cores in Gascogne and Labourd. Their war against a large german coalition had recently ended with the english renouncing a core on Picardy, but they were still looking powerful as ever.
Tyrone, the scotts irish allies, had succeeded to annex Leinster before the English, but their chance to survive the unavoidable future war (England having the conquer Ireland mission) still looked very small.
Despite Alice reestabilishing some crown autority, Scotland's economic situation was as bad as ever, only some lucky events and regular minting allowing the country to stay debt free, but the Stuart's passion for paintings (which were the only possible use of scotts officials for the moment) had boosted cultural tradition, allowing some competent advisors to be recruited.
Despite being very innovative, Scotland was still lagging in technology, to the point the nation begun to buy weapons from its Castillan allies.
The rebuilding of scottish army forces (now counting 11 regiments, a little more than its pityful force limit of 9) had also allowed Scotland to exit English sphere of influence, these finally sympathetic southern neighbors replaced with a guarantee.
Pursuing the prudent policy of the regency council, Alice renewed all the previously concluded royal marriages (only Denmark refusing one, something they were going to pay heavily), and concluding one with France finally succeeded to fulfill the Auld Alliance goal.
The new objective suggested by the big hat advisor was to conquer Orkney, currently held by Norway, currently in a personnal union with Denmark.
Denmark being already exhausted by its war against Novgorod, and Sweden one of the Scotts ally the decision was soon taken to push the claim, the war being funded by a 5 years loan.
The main battles of the first months of the war were fought at sea, and despite their lack of admiral ended in a succession of victories for the scotts, finally finding a reason not to regret their shift to an extremely naval policy.
The situation looked less good in Scandinavia, having several provinces sieged by Holstein and Norway, the Swedish allies were calling for help (and giving a generous subvention in exchange).
The Holstein army being busy in Sweden it was decided to occupy their country first, and seing their very interesting national bonus (increasing yearly land tradition) to even annex them.
Soon Holstein and Svelsig were sieged, but on its way back the scottish fleet had the bad surprise to encounter the whole danish drakkars one in the middle of the north sea. By chance the fleet could retreat without losing a ship, and even better, demoralized by this huge naval battle, the danish returning to the Baltic were then defeated by Sweden and Novgorod losing most of their forces.
Then, unable to cross the straits to counter attack, while the scottish army was sieging their capital, the Danish were condemned to lose, and despite Norway resisting well in northern Scandinavia, had to accept to let Karelia and Estland to Novgorod, and give Orkney, and even Slevsig to the Scotts.
Of course, the now tarnished reputation of Scotland, wasn't really helping its merchant to maintain their positions in Lubeck and Antwerpen, but it was the price to pay to finally reach a land force limit allowing to have a decent army (if 12 regiments can be called so) without extra costs.
Another little problem was the Empire considering Holstein and (more surprisingly) Slesvig as german states. But the emperor having just passed, Bohemia could only issue meaningless threats, which were answered by insults and the decision to make these two provinces leave the HRE.
The next suggested objective, vassalizing the Hansa, looked very exciting, sadly they were not only richer but also far more powerful and advanced than Scotland. So it was decided to wait for them to be engaged in some big war, to try to subjugate them (something that sadly won't happen in the next decade).
In 1416, the Scottish administration reported that Ayrshire had paid far more taxes than usual, and was in fact becoming a richer province. But the advantage gained in Ayrshire was lost with Highlands, Holstein and Slesvig getting poorer in the next years. Scotland could only envy England and Brittany the chaos gods had gifted with some really rich provinces.
Queen Alice anyway did her best to improve the situation of the realm, recruiting a competent master of mint, paying back her loan, and taking all decisions that could reduce Scottish poverty or improve its research. Considering the desperate need of more income, it was decided to adopt Bureaucracy as first national idea (National Bank was another considered option, but with inflation likely to be suddenly replaced with a random value, bureaucracy finally looked a better placement).
Despite being extremely innovative, Scotland was far to be an advanced nation for european standards ; only the Papal State, Novgorod and Napoli (probably in worse technology groups) lagging behind. Most advanced nation of the world, the Ottomans had already reached the level 6 in every technology by 1419, making sure they are in the western one.
In 1417, Scotland was invited to join a Castillan and Portuguese war against Aragon. Alice had some reasons to refuse as the Aragonese had recently concluded an alliance with England but finally accepted, wondering if it will end being her worst decision ever.
By chance the English weren't really in a hurry to help their allies, and Portugal obtained the end of their Alliance before they even moved a finger. Then that conflict was a succession of easy victories, ending with Castille obtaining Navarra, Aragon and Valencia.
The next war was started by Sweden, sad to have got nothing in the last war against Denmark, as soon the truce ended. Novgorod having also resumed its conflict with the danes. Naturally Alice supported her swedish allies, as it was also an occasion to expand her continental demesne. The whole scottish army was sent to siege Jylland and Fyn.
Something she completely overlooked was the alliance Denmark had concluded with Tyrone (they are so small, it was easy to forget). And so these irish ex-allies could invade an emptied Scotland, taking Ayrshire before new levies and troops returning from conquered Jylland could repel them.
England exploited the situation to finish its conquest of Ireland, and even if both Sweden, Novgorod and Scotland got what they wanted in this war, Denmark only keeping 3 provinces, the English annexing Tyrone and Leinster could be considered the real winners.
A worrying situation for Scotland, the Lancasters now owning all Ireland in addition to secured positions on the continent, it's improbable they won't developp the ambition to conquer the whole British Isles.
Episode 4 : The Glorious Reign of Queen Alice the First, part two : The English Threat (1422-1432)
"The more she was thinking about it, the more queen Alice considered the Announced Chaos, that had so much frightened her father, as a meaningless supersticion. Nothing really strange had happened in a long time, and it seemed all those surprising events that had plagued the reign of Robert III were now a thing of the past. Of course reports were coming for other countries saying they experienced brutal changes of their stability, or that their capital religion had spread to neighboring provinces, but nothing like that affected Scotland in the first decades of her reign. At some point the scottish culture had suddenly entered a golden era, allowing to recruit advisors of an extreme quality, but as that tradition was already high it wasn't making a that big difference. Out of that some provinces were becoming more special, for example Jylland plagued with lazy tax collectors, or Ayrshire now having expensive sailors in addition to bad carpenters (definitively not the place to build a fleet), but for the moment the situation remained perfectly manageable. More worrying was the attitude of the English, their new king Charles showing the ambition to subjugate Scotland, and multiplying provocations, like taking James as second name, just to remember Alice her difficult childhood."
In 1422 Alice was called by Sweden and Novgorod (after beating the Danes two times together they had finally officialized their alliance) to help them against Gotland (an help they obviously weren't really needing, anyway...) a short war that ended before Scottish fleet even reached the Baltic, Sweden annexing the small island.
The next call to arms was going to be a more serious one. In 1424, as she was as usual dreaming about the Hansa subjugation mission (a dream that looked hardly achievable considering the merchant republic was also a major military power, and, blessed with a research bonus, the most advanced european nation), Alice was awakened by a messenger from Castille and their Portuguese allies asking her to provide help against Aragon, who had recently concluded a new alliance with England.
Unlike in the previous Aragonese war, the english were decided to help their ally, and immediatly marched against Scotland when Queen Alice answered the call.
But king Charles James was a little too optimistic, thinking he could beat the general John Knox, a tough veteran of the Danish campaigns, with equal forces in scottish hilly territory.
Soon it's the scotts Highlanders that were going to invade northern England, the too confiant king Charles having sent half his troops to Iberia to support Aragon.
There the english got some early successes against the Portuguese, but they were far to match the power of Castille, who easily defeated their Aragonese allies and crossed the mountains to invade Aquitaine.
Charles James was definitively not a great stratege, blinded by his confidence in english superiority, he ordered his main army to start a new offensive in Ayrshire, facing the huge Highlander army, instead of getting rid of the small scottish vanguard sieging english cities.
Meanwhile in Portugal Castille was counter-attacking, soon freeing Porto and defeating the english expeditionnary force, while subventioning Scotland to finish them on the British isles.
One of the first european military powers in the beginning of the war, they started with more troops than Castille, the english had managed with their incoherent strategy to lose the two thirds of their scattered forces in only 6 months (another big army of theirs being surrounded and destroyed by the Spaniards in Gascogne).
Meanwhile, the Highlanders could, unopposed after their victory in Ayrshire accompany the english back home.
The victory was so complete, Alice could have taken London and dictated humuliating victory conditions, but the Castillan, leading the coalition and probably tired to pay subsidies, decided otherwise, settling for Labourd and the independance of Cornwall and Northumberland.
The immediate choice of Alice was to guarantee and establish good relations with these new states the english were very probably going to attack as soon the truce will end.
To be able to keep some of the highlanders in her army, something the weak scottish economy couldn't really fund, a competent army organiser was recruited, then there was nothing to do but to wait for the inevitable second war.
In 1426 the Castillan called Scotland for a crusade against Morocco, exploiting its war with Algiers, but Scotland was so poor it was decided to spend a year collecting war taxes before starting to pay full wages, and the war finally ended before the scottish expeditionnary force was ready, Castille gaining Tangiers. Out of that and some minors events the period was extremely quiet.
Meanwhile, England was preparing too, concluding a worrying alliance with the new Austrian Roman Emperor.
One night Queen Alice made a dream where the Smoking Cat announced her that the mod now allowed to display other nations technology groups. While she didn't exactly understood what was a "mod", nor how she could do that, she activated the option and discovered the following :
Most european big powers remain in western technology group : France, England, Castille, Portugal, the Hansa, the Teutonic Order and Sweden, but they are not alone, the Golden Horde, Nogai, Tripoli, Gondwana and Kazakh have western technology too (the main hordes with western tech promise some action in eastern europe...).
Finally, Ottomans still have Ottoman Technology, which is shared with Byzantium, and more surprisingly Ceylon.
The Eastern Technology Group counts Novgorod, but also Algiers, Austria and Aceh.
Like Scotland, Lithuania and Bohemia are with the Mameluks and Bihar in Muslim Technology Group.
The Indian Group include most other indian countries, but also Morocco, Karaman, Norway, Qara Qohyu and the Papal State. Chinese Technology is no longer the technology of chinese, but is the one of Muscowy, Serbia, Bourbon and the Timurids.
The only known nation in the Sub Saharan technology group is not african, it's the Jalayalids.
And the winners are Milan and Orleans, who enjoy a new life of nomadism, and Napoli and Ming in New World group.
Speaking about Napoli, they anyway managed to expand, annexing most papal state provinces in 1427.
On that map, it can be seen that Austria started to invade Milan, an invasion that will be complete by 1430 and end in full annexation. Charles James of England, to the good surprise of the scotts, refused to follow Austria in this conflict, ending the frightening austro-english alliance after only two years (and a small excommunication war against Hungary). In Scotland monuments have been built in the glory of King Charles James, whose systematic stupid decisions did so much to weaken England. Some months later, he died in a rabbit accident, and his sister Anne (a frightening 7/7/7) rose to power, probably the best thing Charles James ever did for his country.
But even by themselves, the English were still a big power, having more than 50000 soldiers at their disposal their armies rebuilt, and this time mostly gathered in their main land, the coming war wasn't going to be as easy as the first conflict.
Especially as rebels in Orkney and Jylland decided to revolt just when the truce was about to end. So when the war started, 7 scottish regiments were in former Danish provinces and 5 on their way to Orkney, two armies the huge english fleet was going to block for months. And Scotland wasn't either in situation to recruit new troops, the loan Alice had to contract for the first conflict, having just been repayed.
But naturally the Highlanders came to Alice help, as well as her Swedish allies, and Castille as usual paying the bills. And Burgundy, who had so far no contact at all with the scotts, also decided to provide financial support (as well as France some years later), and was rewarded with the honour to marry a Stuart. Out of their weak Aragonese allies, only Portugal (who had abandonned the Castillan Alliance during the Crusade against Morocco) sided with England in this war, their other ally, Trier, dishonoring the alliance, when, in the following years, Burgundy, France, and countries as improbable as Polotsk, Corfu, Friesland and Sardinia were going to join the fight against them.
The english had been blessed with an exceptionnal general in the person of Nehemiah Buckingham, as John Knox was soon going to realise in the battle of Ayrshire, a crushing defeat for the recently gathered scottish army. Only the favorable terrain of their Highlands saved the scotts from annihilation when he tried to pursue them.
A Portuguse fleet was helping the English to block scottish forces in Western Isles and Orkney, so Alice decided to accept a white peace with them as soon they proposed, especially as the Castillan weren't really in need of scottish help to easily defeat them.
Meanwhile, the Scotts were pursuing Nehemiah army, through Fife, Lothian and Cumbria, but he managed to save his regiments joining the army sieging Northumberland, and fresh english forces coming from the south inflicted a new defeat to John Knox.
By chance the Orkney and Western Isles armies had finally find a way to cross the straits, the english fleet being busy chasing Swedish transports around Ireland (where they succeeded to debark some troops), and the whole scott army (out of the forces still blockaded in Denmark) could finally be gathered and reorganized in Ayrshire, to then chase the english who had advanced to Lothian, and pursue that army in Fife.
But tired by those battles, the scottish army was unable to resist when Nemediah having recuperated came back from Northumberland, and despite fighting at 1 against 2 the brillant english general inflicted new crushing defeats to John Knox forcing him to retreat to the Highlands (would he have reached them one day later his whole army would have been destroyed) and then Aberdeen, where the scotts were finally allowed to recover.
Meanwhile the scottish fleet tried a sortie as the main english one was far away but didn't succeed to defeat the small squadron (in fact as big as the whole scottish fleet) the english had let in the North Channel.
Globally things weren't looking good for the Scotts at the end of 1431, if their army was saved, Nemediah it would have been suicidal to attack with a terrain disadvantage was sieging the Highlands, and their other general, Archibald Cumberland, Ayrshire with the remnants of the army beaten in Fife. After his many defeat John Knox decided to avoid the english generals, and abandonning them Scotland rushed to the south where Northumberland was about to fall. A move that ended being a brillant one, the unleaded southern english army being completely destroyed.
The war was also raging on other theaters, England started to invade a deserted Sweden (most Swedish forces being in Brittany or Ireland), the Scottish army unable to cross the straits was unable to help, while France had joined the war and was trying to reconquer Aquitaine (not successfully for the moment as it seems another of the cheated generals the chaos gods had granted the english was there).
The main good news were coming from the Iberian front, where Castille was easily defeating Portugal and Aragon.
But on the British Isles the war was far to be won. Ayrshire and Highlands were still under siege and likely to surrender in the coming months, and would the Highlands fall it would be the end of free reinforcements for the Scotts.
When John Knox, despite having superior forces was defeated once again trying to come to the rescue many thought the war was lost.
Episode 5 : The Glorious Reign of Alice the First, part 3 : Defeating the Red Queen (1433-1443)
There are many tales about the Red Queen Anne of England. Most depict her as the devil incarnate, one of the most evil rulers earth had ever known. But if the way most other powers reacted everytime she started a war against Scotland seem to confirm she was the most hatred of her time, her actions don't really seem to desserve such treatment. As some may argue she just tried to help badly chosen allies like Aragon or Denmark, or to recover the lands conquered by her father. Anyway... Everytime a large coalition formed to fight her, providing massive war subsidies to Scotland.
The battle of the Highlands of january 1433 was probably the most decisive of all the wars between England of Scotland. Inverness, where Highlanders were supposed to gather in the coming months, was sieged since more than a year and about to fall. So, despite having been defeated in Ayrshire by a worse general, John Knox, following the advice of the recently recruited grand captain Alpain Fletcher, decided as soon his army had recovered a little to attack the forces of Nehemiah Buckingham, who had never lost against him, even with far inferior forces, in what looked a desperate attempt to save the city.
But as soon the Scottish army entered the province, the victory became certain. From every village, from every small castles the Highlanders were coming to John Knox help. As good a general he was, Nehemiah Buckingham could probably, helped by the favorable terrain have repelled 18000 tired soldiers with his ten fresh regiments, but he had no chance against 30000 furious warriors.
Then the scottish horde could easily free Ayrshire and Fife, and pursue the english back home, finally completely destroying their army in Lancashire. Meanwhile Alice's Swedish allies were landing in southern England, while the english were busy dealing with the many rebellions funded by the coalition.
The only bad news of this period came from Northumberland, who had resisted for nearly three years only to fall just before the return of John Knox. It decided Castille to end its involvment in this war, obtaining the province of Labourd and the release of Armagnac.
The last english army was defeated in Yorkshire then pursued through all the country and finally destroyed in Glamorgan. Then there was nothing left to do but waiting for the english cities to fall.
Alice prefered to avoid to see Sweden obtain lands in the British isles a separate peace, so she decided to conclude peace as soon her allies occupied London, obtaining the release of the irish states and the provinces of Cumbria and Northumberland.
Scotland was ending this war not only bigger and stronger but also richer than the realm had ever been, due to all the subsidies sent by Castille, Burgundy and France. This money allowed Alice to developp Ayrshire into a center a trade.
Meanwhile galvanized by the victory the inhabitants of Orkney finally accepted to be called Scotts, and the golden cultural era Scotland was in, allowed the realm to recruit an exceptionnal advisor in the person of Alexander Stratbogie.
But year 1434 also seen two of the best friends of Scotland start a bloody war against each other.
When Castille, allied with Scotland since 1399, called for help against France, Alice ignored the advices of her prudent councellors and accepted, hoping that with the help of a scottish expeditionary force the French could be stopped in the mountains. War was also declared against Morocco in 1435, who was trying to exploit the situation to retake Tangiers.
The problem was France not only had a big army, this highly naval nation also had a stronger fleet than Scotland. No matter where Alice tried to load her troops a french squadron soon arrived and forced the scotts back to their port. In total 4 carracks and 2 transports were lost in the several attempts to provide help to Castille.
When by some miracle two regiments finally managed to be embarked, sending them to Spain looked too risky for what remained of the scottish fleet, so it was decided to use them against the irish french allies of Munster, who were forced to end this alliance.
Having did what she could for her alliance, and really unable to do more, Alice considered her honor was safe and concluded white peaces with Castillan enemies as soon she could obtain them.
The war between Castille and France continued for 3 more years, ending with the french obtaining Labourd as well as the release of Navarra and Galicia.
Once this peace allowed them to send forces to North Africa, Castille was able to easily defeat Morocco, also invaded by Algiers, and obtained several more provinces in their peace agreement of 1440.
Meanwhile in Scotland, the census of 1437 gave surprising results. It seems that, hating the red queen like everyone else, most of the english population had decided to leave their mainland to settle in the recently conquered provinces, especially Northumberland, Newcastle becoming one of the three largest european cities with nearly 200,000 inhabitants.
At the same time most of the scotts decided that the oceanic climate of Orkney was more suited for them than the ones of Ayrshire or the Highlands and the small island became the most populated province of scottish culture.
Overall with all these migrations, Scotland population had more than tripled, but scottish were now just a small minority, the realm counting larger populations of english of danish origin.
Reports were also coming for other countries who had experienced the same kind of thing, for example Venezia having suddenly became the largest city of Europe with about 450000 citizens, while many other provinces, especially in Hungary and Lithuania, were losing most of their population.
Alice also learned that France and several other countries had experienced a sudain regression of its research capacity, leaving the western technology group for the new world one, but this event didn't affect Scotland, still in the muslim group.
In 1439 Sweden and its Novgorodian allies called Scotland in a war against Norway, Denmark and Muscowy (England refusing the call, only to start its own war to retake Tyrone some months later).
Soon the scottish army sieged the undefended Danish cities, the only bad news of the early war being the death of the veteran general John Knox, who was soon replaced by an as competent general in the person of Duncan Fleming.
Seeing all scottish troops away from their ex-danish provinces, Saxe Luneburg tried to exploit the situation to seize Holstein and joined the Muscowite alliance, something they soon regretted as the Hansa seing all saxon troops away from home, decided to exploit the situation to annex them. The war then expanded to Burgundy and its german allies who had warned the Hansa, and soon half north germany as well as Poland and Bavaria joined this very confuse war, on one side or the other.
But for Scotland the important event was the red queen declaring war to Tyrone. Of course Alice, as well as her Swedish allies, decided to support the irish, while France was also restarting their hundred years war against them, and Burgundy, if busy and quasi on the other side in the other conflict (actually not really, they were at war against the Hansa which was at war against Denmark, etc... but they were not at war with Scotland and Sweden), decided to send the usual subsidies to Scotland. Of the usual allies only Castille wasn't involved this time.
While the war looked already won on the diplomatic front, of the english allies only Lorraine honoring their call, it was far to be the case on the field, as Scotland soon realised the english, being in the western group, had a large technologic advantage, using longbowmen against still medieval scottish troops.
The scotts anyway managed to destroy one of their armies which was trying to invade Cumbria, but their other force assaulted and took Newcastle, and marched to siege Lothian. Only them being exhausted by the assault allowed the scotts to repell them, and with heavy losses for the two sides.
Instead of pursuing that army, Alice decided to retreat her forces to the Highlands and improve their training, as the country had just learned how to form men at arms, only marching south in september 1440.
Meanwhile the english had recovered too (and vassalized Tyrone), and gathered an army of nearly 30000 men in Cumbria. But seing the scotts stay inactive, they made the error to split this army, sending half of their forces to Ayrshire.
It was decided to send a small force (8000 men against their 15 regiments) to slow them with the help of the hilly terrain, while the main scottish force rushed through Lothian to face their army of Cumbria, which was about to fall.
This plan succeeded perfectly, the southern english army was forced to retreat, defeated again in Northumberland and finally destroyed coming back to Cumbria, then, if the other battle was lost, all scottish forces could be gathered to defeat the remaining army.
In the east, the Swedish alliance was also clearly winning, Denmark being forced to abandon the war and several Norwegian provinces.
But the english still had large armies in Britain, and 1441 saw them launching some massive counter-attack, chasing the small forces let to siege northern england, and advancing up to Fife in Scotland. But one more time the Red Queen was too ambitious, dividing her forces to siege several cities and so allowing the scotts to defeat and destroy them one by one.
Many battles were also fought at sea between English and French or Swedish fleet, in the beggining to the advantage of the first, but after some their exhausted navy looked like an easy prey.
Scotland decided to set a trap for them, risking its small fleet to slow one of the main english ones (which was travelling to block, as usual, the movement of a scott regiment from Orkney to Britain), and allow Sweden to defeat it.
It was only the first defeat of the english navy, many other were going to follow. By the end of the war their fleet which had counted up to 80 ships was reduced to only 24.
And once the army sieging Fife was finally defeated with the help of a new wave of Highlanders, England was open land for Alice, the war ending exactly like the last, except, this time even english continental holdings could be sieged.
Tired of these continuous wars with England, Alice decided to punish the Red Queen so much that she will no longer be in position to annoy her (and obtain an university in the same move), so the provinces of York, Derby, Oxfordshire and Lincoln were demanded, giving Scotland a direct access to the english capital.
-, 75 years before discoveries spread, and my heir renamed Alice of course). 
