Europe: Between 1625 and 1628
Europa: Entre 1625 e 1628
The Italian Peninsula
1625 marked the beginning of another grim period for the Italian Peninsula as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse ravaged the once wealthiest part of Europe yet again. War once more brought its consequences as the Habsburgos fought against the Anti-Habsburgo coalition to maintain their holdings and supremacy over the Peninsula. Only the Republic of Luca, the Republic of São Marino and the Duchy of Masa and Carrara were fully outside of the conflict with the much larger states participating in different capacities.
The war brought the need to increase taxes with Espanha and Savoia raising them the most followed by the Duchy of Mântua, especially after the war reached it in 1628. The increase in taxes decreased the people’s purchase power and made their lives much harder which in turn resulted in malnutrition exacerbated by the need to supply the armies. This made the population particularly susceptible to disease which came in the form of an outbreak of the Black Death brought from both Fransa and Alemanha [
Germany] by the soldiers. The plague was particularly deathly in the northern Italian Peninsula which was where the war was looming. The Duchy of Milão was the most affected region with nearly all its largest cities losing 80% of the population but every country to the north of the River Pó outside of Jénova [
Genoa] lost between 40% to 70%. This caused a dramatic demographic shift in the Peninsula which in 1632, when the plague stabilized had the following changes:
The wealthiest cities of Milão and Veneza were now husks of their former glory, the latter still conserved an important economic, political and cultural role in the Peninsula but in the international trade, it was overshadowed by countries with Colonial Empires. The southern part of the Peninsula was the least affected area by the plague but the constant warfare did not allow the region to reach its full potential, instead, the economic, political and cultural centre of the Italians was once more in the centre.
The Estados Papais as the center of Catholicism held a considerable influence over not only the Peninsula and the Catholic world and long gone was its submission to Habsburgo interests, facilitated by the rise of Fransa and to a lesser extent Portugal and Toscânia. But in fact, it was this last country that was emerging as the regional power of the Peninsula, recovering the primacy it held in the times of Cosme the Elder and Lourenso the Magnificent thanks to its modern army and navy, diplomatic might, financial capabilities and emerging economy tied to the Portuguese and French Colonial Empires. The smallest countries such as Parma, Modena and Mântua were the most affected, their small sizes made it impossible to stay unaffected by the geopolitical interests of the Habsburgos and their enemies and also made the impact of the plague much harsher. The Dukes wanted to stay away from the conflict but they couldn’t oppose anyone.
Toscânia:
Leonor de Portugal was capable of capitalizing the war in Toscânia’s favour as already stated. With Piombino and the Prezídio in her control, at least temporarily, she focused her efforts on fully revitalizing the economy, fighting the plague and unifying the laws, customs and taxes of the country. Like most Monarchs of her time, she worked hard to get the assemblies of Florensa and Siena to get their taxes equal and started a new codification of laws based on the existing compilations but also on the Joanine Ordinances of her father in Portugal to integrate everything though she was stealthy about it and did not touch the historical institutions.
She had made some outlandish expenditures to get the territory expansions she carved but the state coffers were not depleted as Leonor used the capital of the Médisis Bank, more specifically the Roman branch, to cover the most pressing needs, thus she managed to make Toscânia the only country in the Peninsula that did not need to increase taxes to face the dire times, a winning strategy. Her policy attracted emigrants from other parts of the Peninsula especially with the war raging, unfortunately, the plague demanded more draconian health measures that made it harder to enter the Grand Duchy and travel through it so the benefits were not seen before the end of the plague. The silk industry in Toscânia also saw a shy rebirth as competition from Milão and Veneza suffered the worst consequences of everything and trade continued with foreign countries like Portugal, Espanha and Fransa.
Tragedy or perhaps the Apiani Curse hit the Médisis on January 23, 1628, when Grand Duke Fernando II died of plague at just seventeen. He had been a bright young man much loved by the population of the Grand Duchy as he often visited the sick often, to give them strength which is more than likely to have been the cause of his so early demise. Leonor was heartbroken and had to be replaced by her brothers-in-law for a few weeks as she grieved. Reportedly she said once to the Portuguese Ambassador “My precious son had been preparing to make a tour around Europe and he was most excited to see our gorgeous Lisboa and God took him away so soon...my heart is broken...”
Fernando’s middle brother, Fransisco Pedro [
Francesco Pietro], then 12 years old took the throne as Fransisco II. Unlike, his brother he was shier and weak-minded but he was a good warrior and determined to be a proper ruler and his mother assured him she would help him. His younger brother João Lourenso [
Giovanni Lorenzo], who at seven was hailed exceptionally bright was groomed to be his counsellor and next head of the Médisis Bank as Leonor knew this would be a great combination that would avert the many errors their ancestors made.
Negotiations were made with Duke Fransisco II of Urbino to continue the betrothal between the Médisis and young Vitória Delarrovere [
Victoria della Rovere], his granddaughter was also being educated by Leonor. Perhaps out of pity and international pressure, the Duke agreed to pass Urbino to the Médisis and Pope Clemente IX relented and agreed provided the Médisis kept the vassalage of Urbino to the Papacy and paid its dues.
Grand Duchess Leonor chose to slowly shift her diplomatic policy from a Pro-Habsburgo stance to a strictly neutral one. Toscânia was not immune to the xenophobic feeling that many Italians had of foreign powers, one of the many intellectuals that Leonor sponsored, Otávio Belenho [
Ottavio Bellegno] published in 1628 a book called “The Need to Revive the Italic League” in which he called for the Italic League created in 1454 by the Estados Papais, Veneza, Milão under the Sforza, Florensa and Nápoles to keep the peace in the Italian Peninsula and keep the foreigners away to be revived after it’s collapse during the Italian War of 1494.
Belenho [
Bellegno] argued that it was needed more than ever in the early 17th Century to prevent the devastation that was occurring and create a solid power block implicitly to oppose Habsburgo and Burbom [
Bourbon] interests. Thus, he argued that the alliance which he envisioned as a political, economic and military one should have Toscânia ruled by the Médisis who were the guarantors of the previous Italic League to be the guarantors and enactors of the new Italic League which he hoped to also encompass the Estados Papais, Veneza, Savoia, Jénova, Parma, Modena, Mântua and Luca.
He claimed a joint navy between Veneza, Jénova, Toscânia and Estados Papais could match every opponent in the Mediterranean except for the Iberian navies and he claimed a joint army with Toscânia and Savoia as the pivots could match any other country that threatened the Peninsula. Belenho [
Bellegno] was not the only one that exalted Italian nationalism against the Burbons and the Habsburgos, Duke Carlos Emanuel I of Savoia also had plenty of admirers such as Alexandre Tasoni [
Alessandro Tassoni] and Fulvio Testi as his very aggressive expansionism was praised and had ignited Italian nationalism and patriotism. One can conclude that there were three major contenders for the beacons of Italy nationalism, Savoia with its very aggressive land expansionism, Veneza with its overseas possessions and Toscânia with its banking power and diplomacy expansionism.
The ever-ambitious Leonor de Portugal was happy to push the Médisis to be beacons of Italian nationalism so she started to pursue a policy to revive the Italic League by agreeing to the betrothal of her eldest daughter Izabel Maria with Duke Eduardo of Parma, which would align two of the most influential Italian families, the Médisis and the Farnese. Since Eduardo and his mother Margarida Aldobrandini [
Margherita Aldobrandini] were seeking to forge alliances with the Este and the Gonzaga, Leonor used them to create a network of family ties that the Médisis could lead as they were by far the strongest out of the four.
Grand Duke Fernando II of Toscânia 1610-1628
The Danube and the Black Sea
Transilvânia:
In Transilvânia, Estêvão Batóri [
István Báthory] finally turned 16 on May 6, 1626, and was therefore considered of age to be elected Prince of Transilvânia as agreed upon between the nobility. Despite this, some members of the Regency were reluctant to comply, namely Estêvão Betlém [
István Bethlen] although when Prince Fernando da Hungria and his uncle Leopoldo travelled for the ceremonies, the opposition backed down, fearing the return of the religious wars to the Principality. Thus on May 25, 1626, the new Prince of Transilvânia was crowned Estêvão II and there were many hopes he would emulate the first Estêvão who ended up as a very powerful Monarch. Young Estêvão swore to be a loyal Christian and a loyal vassal of the King of Hungria, Emperor Fernando II, but also promised to fulfil the Edict of Torda of 1568, which guaranteed religious freedom in Transilvânia, something that his cousin and uncle were not expecting.
Estêvão II was a very pious Catholic but having witnessed what religious wars did to Hungria and beyond, he was committed to keeping the peace not only in Transilvânia but in all of Hungria. He was thus the proper example of the policy of converting through reason and not with the sword as he refused to persecute heretics and tried to remain as impartial as he could. Very different in demeanour from his hated father, Estêvão was quick to gain the support of the Transylvanians. As the heir of all Batóri branches which made him the most powerful man in all three Hungrias (Habsburgo held, Otomano held and Transilvânia) in terms of wealth and power after his uncle. He invited his uncle André Batóri [
András Báthory] who until then lived exiled in Polónia-Lituânia to Transylvania and made him a decently powerful Boiár [
Boyar]. His younger sister Maria Cristina was adamant about becoming a nun and his Habsburgo cousins wanted to make his brother André Carlos, the Cardinal of All Hungria so aside from his younger sister Izabel Madalena, his already married uncle seemed like the only possibility to continue the Batóri line if Estêvão died.
This compelled Prince to find a wife. His mother and his uncle the Emperor wanted him to marry one of the latter’s daughters, either Maria Ana or Sesília Renata [
Cecilia Renata] who were around his age and there were a few other Catholic alternatives in Baviera, Badém and Nasau but a Protestant faction led by Estêvão Betlém was pushing for a Protestant marriage of which one of the suggestions was Catarina of Brandemburgo-Prúsia, a sister to both the current Elector Jorje Guilherme [
George William] and the Queen of Suésia, Maria Leonor.
The Prince put it on his head that Catarina was the perfect choice because not only would it demonstrate he meant his promises to the Protestants but also that it would help his uncle the Emperor’s relationships with the Protestants in hopes that a lasting peace could be achieved in the Empire. His choice was heavily criticized by his Habsburgo uncles and even his mother but there is private correspondence between Estêvão and Prince Fernando that shows that the heir of the Imperial Possessions and Hungria endorsed the choice privately.
Betlém was sent as Ambassador to Berlim where he negotiated the marriage. Jorje Guilherme was at first very concerned, fearing reprisals from everyone as his holdings were either being occupied or used as pathways as if they weren’t his. He eventually conceded when he got guarantees that nothing would happen from the Emperor and a Calvinist proxy marriage in Berlim occurred on December 17, 1626, before a Catholic marriage took place on March 20, 1627, at Alba Júlia with the groom being 16 years old and the bride 21.
The marriage did not start well, however, Estêvão fell in love at first sight with Catarina who was considered beautiful but she was quite haughty, expensive and flirtatious towards men, which left the somewhat socially awkward Prince worried especially when rumours spread around a possible adulterous case. With some work from his mother and sisters, who deeply disliked Catarina’s Calvinism, the relationship started to become smoother with the Princess falling pregnant to an unfortunate miscarriage on April 7, 1628, which ended up with Catarina converting to Catholicism thanks to the influence of the very pious Catholic court. Despite this, like her husband, she was a protector of Protestants and despite her flirtatious personality was very well-liked by the general population of the Principality.
The Jesuits who had entered Transylvania under Jorje I Drugete [
György Drugeth] were succeeding in converting the Principality to Catholicism even though plenty of Hungarian Protestants left Royal Hungria for Transilvânia. Early in his reign Estêvão also tried to improve the lives of the Romanians but his success was limited because the Boiáres were against losing their serfs. All in all, Estêvão II’s reign represented the start of prosperity in Transilvânia. Despite the clear submission of the Principality to the Habsburgos, their overlords, they had plenty of autonomy and the interests of both were not all coincidental. Trade with the rest of Europe was encouraged and so was mining, while Alba Júlia became a cultural centre with foreign musicians, painters, dancers and other artists invited to the Prince’s palace. Estêvão spoke German, Hungarian, Latin and some say Castillian but he quickly became a promoter of Hungarian which started to have a Renaissance under his reign.
Prince Estêvão II of Transilvânia and Catarina of Brandemburgo-Prúsia
Valáquia and Moldávia:
While Nicolau II of Valáquia caught gout just like his father-in-law Radu IX had, it was Radu X who died first January 13, 1626. Many of his loyal Boiáres urged Nicolau to take full control over the country but he refused and honoured the Commitment of Craióva by recognizing Radu’s eldest son, Alexandre of fourteen, as Co-Prince Alexandre III of Valáquia.
Fearing his death, Nicolau’s son Miguel Draculésti was just five years old so it’s likely that he wanted Valáquia to have a grown Prince leading the country and Alexandre filled that role. His death occurred on August 9, 1627, and Alexandre immediately tried to go around the Commitment of Craióva by stating his cousin was too young to be elected Prince but the Boiáres who favoured Nicolau’s side of the family presented him with an ultimatum: either Alexandre accepted Miguel as Co-Prince or they would depose him. Alexandre relented and recognized his seven-year-old cousin as Co-Prince Miguel III.
Because of this, Alexandre yielded most of the power and while he was a good warrior, he lived a lavish lifestyle and was not as capable of diplomacy as his father had been. He was also less inclined to support Greeks and Levantines but even that did not help him from inheriting the hate his father had incurred so he was forced to get someone to help and that someone was Constantino Xerbã [
Constantin Șerban], the bastard son of Radu IX. Constantino was young but was as capable as his father had been and was someone who the now deceased Nicolau II had relied on many times and so did his half-sister Ana Xerbã now that she had the Regency of her son. Alexandre chose him because he trusted him.
Constantino assumed the position of “Prime Minister” becoming the true power behind the throne in Valáquia or as some call him the Third Prince. He kept the policies of his predecessors, keeping good relations with Moldávia, Polónia-Lituânia, Transilvânia, Áustria and Portugal, reduced the taxes in Alexandre’s part of the country and thus curbed the hatred towards him.
Alexandre VI of Moldávia reduced the size of his army to save money but he had to keep a standing army to control the Nogais and Tatars. He also made a consortium with the Polish to create a joint Black Sea Navy and invited Portuguese, Spanish, Venetian and Greek shipbuilders, granting them many privileges including the right to erect Catholic churches, especially in the coast towns of Sitatia Alba [
Cetatea Albă/Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi] and Quilia [
Chilia/Kiliia]. The first galleon, Sfânt Iacob [
Saint James] was completed in 1628 by these very same shipbuilders being the first of its kind on the Black Sea which was deeply concerning for the Ottomans who until then had full control of the Black Sea.
Perhaps the biggest impact of both Polónia-Lituânia and Moldávia having access to the Black Sea was the missionary work, both Catholic and Orthodox, that started along the coast of the Black Sea more specifically to Sircásia [
Circassia] and Jórjia [
Georgia] where Islam was trying to encroach benefitting from decades of Christian decadence. Valáquia and Moldávia reinforced their alliance with the betrothals and later marriages of both Alexandre III and Miguel III with Alexandre VI’s nieces, the first married Simone Movilá and the latter Izabel Movilá while the heir of Moldávia, Constantino was promised to Ilinca Draculésti, the sister of Miguel III. The two Danube Principalities entered an era of prosperity that would last for the next decades.
Crimeia and the Otomano Empire:
Following the Treaty of Vozai of 1624, Saím I [
Sahim I] managed, despite his defeat, to consolidate his reign further. His aggressive treatment of the nobility made them very discontent and Cã Temir, equally discontent after Saím had given his former territory to the Polish and Moldavians, joined forces with them in hopes of taking the Cã down. While at first Temir had the upper hand, Saím managed to get support from the Cossacks and Circassians and turned the tide around by defeating and killing Temir in a battle near the Ottoman fortress of Azóvia [
Azov].
His victory granted Saím absolute control of the Canado da Crimeia [
Crimea Khanate] with the nobility being subservient to him. This allowed him to promote some reforms, the most prominent of which was stripping the nobility from its hereditary fiefs, the Beis [
Beys] and Mirzas had to be appointed by the Cã himself akin to what the Ottoman Sultan did. Saím preferred to nominate the old families to the positions they had been filling for decades to keep them loyal but some he had defeated lost all their power and holdings and everyone needed to understand that the Cã needed to be satisfied for them to retain their offices.
Another change Saím promoted was to end the nomadic lifestyle of his people by promoting the settlement of the existing towns and creating new ones to boost commerce and practice agriculture. Saím and his most loyal allies knew that the age of slave raiding was ending with not only the Commonwealth but also Rúsia and the Cossacks getting increasingly more powerful and difficult to raid. Saím also wanted to be more than a puppet of the Ottoman Sultans and for this, he needed the support of the Polish and Cossacks.
In the Ottoman Empire, Sultan Murade IV was still a minor and his mother Cösem Sultã [
Kösem Sultan] ruled as Regent. Her job was not easy as the Empire still did not recover from the various territorial losses brought about by the Treaty of Belgrado of 1620, was losing against the Persians in Mesopotâmia, facing revolts all over the Empire while the Empire’s strongest vassals had asserted independence and it’s supremacy in the Black Sea was waning. This last point was particularly concerning as the Cossacks were raiding the Empire’s coastal areas with their weak boats while MoldÁvia and Polónia-Lituânia were trying to create war navies. When the Sfânt Iacob completed its maiden voyage, the Porte was scared senseless even when Cösem Sultã had improved the defences of many towns and cities including Constantinópla.
Meanwhile, Cösem Sultã and the Grão-Vizir Hafiz Amade Paxa [
Hafiz Ahmed Pasha] were able to stabilize the economy of the Empire and control inflation by melting down much of the Porte’s gold and silver. The Janisários were paid with this money and kept under control though Murade IV, by no means a frightened individual by nature, was always waiting to end as his half-brother Osmão II had.
While the Eiálete of Tunis stayed loyal to the Sultan, the Janisários of the Eiálete of Egipto were gaining power and prevented a nominated Paxa from assuming power in 1626, preferring the previous one and forcing the new one to return to Constantinópla in shame. Despite this, they remained loyal to the Porte. The Regency of Arjel [
Algiers] and the Eiálete of Tripolitânia, however, while still recognizing the Sultan’s ceremonial authority, refused to accept a nominated Paxa or Bei and instead elected their own, demanding that the Sultan recognize them.
Overall, the rebellions were quelled through multiple means: more autonomy as explained in Ottoman Africa, bribery, marriages with the Sultan’s half-sisters promoted by Cösem Sultã, outright battles as against Abaza Paxa who was defeated, pardoned and sent back to Erzurum from where he had come. Eventually, the Treaty of Mosul was signed in 1627 between the Empire and Pérsia, making Baguedade [
Baghdad] and other eastern regions of the Empire fall to the hands of Pérsia but it brought the much-needed peace that allowed the Empire to finally heal.
Cösem Sultã paid a large role in achieving this peace though Murade was starting to dislike her policies and by 1627 he was openly going against her, trying to assert control of the Empire which he eventually got when he reached the age of majority on July 27, 1628. An aggressive and bellicose man, Murade wanted to reassert control over all the Eiáletes he still had in his control, recover his vassals, recover his lost territories and destroy his enemies: Pérsia, Espanha, Áustria, Polónia-Lituânia, Veneza and Portugal.
I thought about what countries did I need to address and came to the conclusion that many had been addressed so much during the war Updates that there was no point in showing what was happening there. Thus, I ended up with these. Arguably, the Italian Peninsula was not necessary but I decided to put it and show the effects of the plague that are harsher than in OTL because they started earlier and the war has been more devastating. Some plot threads have been established here and there to show where this will go. Now only the King's death is missing. Thank you for sparing time reading and I hope everyone has a nice day and stays safe.
