I call this an unfair amount of shading 
, this just fuels my anxiousness to see the results!
, this just fuels my anxiousness to see the results!The Dukes of Fernau, for now.
Teeheehee. Voices from the future know things viewpoint characters in the moment don't. 😏I call this an unfair amount of shading
To be fair, I've begun mapping out what entries will be required before "yeet that dude right out of there" happens.
Some things that happen both OTL and TTL, though they might be different or augmented here:
- industries advance
- colonies start
- international relations & trade
- Courland's *cough* military *cough* capabilities *cough*
- that Cossack rebellion burning brighter and earlier
- related snowballs
- resulting effects on Poland/Lithuania neighbours, friends, rivals
- related snowballs
- the general effect of this timeline shifting countries' religious tolerance a little this way, a little that way.
- related Baltic-area snowball(s)
- possible non-Baltic snowball
6. Letter from Jacob (aka James, in English) Kettler to Charles I of England, Scotland, Ireland et cetera
Dearest Charles,
It has been far too long since we have met in person, but I am glad we manage to keep up this correspondence until we remedy that. I must thank you very much for your letter, and your interest in Baltic affairs.
Chiefly, it is interesting to read of your interest in on the one hand our influx of Jews and Orthodox Christians on the one hand and on the other in our shipbuilding and other growing industries here. As it turns out, the two matters are linked.
As you know, my travels and education in my youth in exile drew my attention to so many matters mercantile. Once allowed to return and rule in Mitau, I was quite resolved to do all I could to modernize the economy of this country by every means possible. As you know, I am blessed with neither your tax base nor taxation powers, but as the main landholder in Courland, there are enough ways to create revenues, invest them in industry, then repeat by creating more revenues from the industries and creating still more. I love this country, but its small population can indeed be a constraint. The more so when you are asking for people to do entirely new things, and learn work unfamiliar to them.
This is why it has been fortunate for so many refugees to arrive in Courland when they did. I should say, not only when, but also which - because these newcomers, particularly so many of the Jews, come already knowledgeable and skilled in all manner of affairs required to manage any estate. And in truth, the finances, accounts et cetera of managing a new enterprise in a new industry are not so different from the finances, accounts et cetera of managing a Polish noble's estate. Truly, it has been a blessing for us to be able to welcome them to Courland. Even as more various peoples flee the Cossack troubles, or flee some strife in the Muscovy lands, we are fortunate to be able to welcome then and put them to work alongside our own peoples. And our own peoples welcome them, because they see themselves and their neighbours thriving. Some say this is Courland's golden age. I am reluctant to call it that myself, as I wish for still more.
To your own troubles, then: it saddens me to hear that things have not been going well between yourself and your parliament. Your father - my godfather - had the same challenges, but it seems these have grown, based on your telling. It was understandable that you should reject the suggestion that your daughter should be wed so young, but it is gladdening that the Dutch are tolerant to a longer engagement - young Mary is possibly the most desirable match for any European crown prince nearing his majority.
But your conflicts! They shock me. To hear that English and Scottish armies are rising against their King, and the Irish are opportunely rebelling too - I am so sorry you face this, god-brother.
I stand ready to help you, both materially and in counsel.
As I have said, Courland's shipbuilding grows apace. You had expressed an interest in purchasing timber from our mills - instead we can offer you ships from our shipyards, with cannon from our foundries, and gunpowder of our manufacture. By the time you receive this letter, six strong ships should be well on their way to Leith, as I trust they will more safely come into the hands of your loyal forces there than anywhere further south. We ask only that you welcome Courland's other ships in your ports and waters in the future. I shall be soon be seeking colonies for sugarcane and other valuable warm-weather crops (perhaps also some saplings grown from the Jesuit's bark seeds you sent, which we are managing to keep alive, though only indoors - how on Earth did you obtain them?). Such ventures require friends, and friendly waters, ports, and markets.
We shall also stand ready to sell you powder and arms at fair rates, should you find yourself requiring new suppliers.
It was good that you stood by Lord Lindsey in his disagreement with your nephew, Rupert. Family are ever loyal, but those experienced with command have a different seasoning to them. It is tragic you must battle your own subjects, but for the best that such a battle be led by reliable men.
Which brings me to the counsel. Dearest Charles, the rapidity of Courland's progress has come by allowing greater freedom to people in what they believe, or at least by showing indifference to their beliefs from a legal or taxation perspective. We would surely be advancing even without, but I have the wits to recognize that our advancement is rather greater with. And from this surprising lesson comes my advice to you: if you might gain somewhat greater loyalty from a somewhat greater share of the peoples of Scotland or England through showing somewhat greater indifference to their varying beliefs, it has the potential to be for the best. But to succeed at it, all the people must have work and opportunity. A man of one faith does not envy the wealth of neighbour of a different faith so much, when he himself is thriving.
May you make your people thrive, and be loyal again.
In fidelity and brotherhood,
-- James Kettler --
Post Scriptum: I have not yet "muscled in" as you put it to the Volga trade to obtain those exotic wares you seek. I have lately had to settle for trade deals with the French and Dutch. And some French things are exotic enough for most Latvians and Latgalians.
It has been far too long since we have met in person, but I am glad we manage to keep up this correspondence until we remedy that. I must thank you very much for your letter, and your interest in Baltic affairs.
Chiefly, it is interesting to read of your interest in on the one hand our influx of Jews and Orthodox Christians on the one hand and on the other in our shipbuilding and other growing industries here. As it turns out, the two matters are linked.
As you know, my travels and education in my youth in exile drew my attention to so many matters mercantile. Once allowed to return and rule in Mitau, I was quite resolved to do all I could to modernize the economy of this country by every means possible. As you know, I am blessed with neither your tax base nor taxation powers, but as the main landholder in Courland, there are enough ways to create revenues, invest them in industry, then repeat by creating more revenues from the industries and creating still more. I love this country, but its small population can indeed be a constraint. The more so when you are asking for people to do entirely new things, and learn work unfamiliar to them.
This is why it has been fortunate for so many refugees to arrive in Courland when they did. I should say, not only when, but also which - because these newcomers, particularly so many of the Jews, come already knowledgeable and skilled in all manner of affairs required to manage any estate. And in truth, the finances, accounts et cetera of managing a new enterprise in a new industry are not so different from the finances, accounts et cetera of managing a Polish noble's estate. Truly, it has been a blessing for us to be able to welcome them to Courland. Even as more various peoples flee the Cossack troubles, or flee some strife in the Muscovy lands, we are fortunate to be able to welcome then and put them to work alongside our own peoples. And our own peoples welcome them, because they see themselves and their neighbours thriving. Some say this is Courland's golden age. I am reluctant to call it that myself, as I wish for still more.
To your own troubles, then: it saddens me to hear that things have not been going well between yourself and your parliament. Your father - my godfather - had the same challenges, but it seems these have grown, based on your telling. It was understandable that you should reject the suggestion that your daughter should be wed so young, but it is gladdening that the Dutch are tolerant to a longer engagement - young Mary is possibly the most desirable match for any European crown prince nearing his majority.
But your conflicts! They shock me. To hear that English and Scottish armies are rising against their King, and the Irish are opportunely rebelling too - I am so sorry you face this, god-brother.
I stand ready to help you, both materially and in counsel.
As I have said, Courland's shipbuilding grows apace. You had expressed an interest in purchasing timber from our mills - instead we can offer you ships from our shipyards, with cannon from our foundries, and gunpowder of our manufacture. By the time you receive this letter, six strong ships should be well on their way to Leith, as I trust they will more safely come into the hands of your loyal forces there than anywhere further south. We ask only that you welcome Courland's other ships in your ports and waters in the future. I shall be soon be seeking colonies for sugarcane and other valuable warm-weather crops (perhaps also some saplings grown from the Jesuit's bark seeds you sent, which we are managing to keep alive, though only indoors - how on Earth did you obtain them?). Such ventures require friends, and friendly waters, ports, and markets.
We shall also stand ready to sell you powder and arms at fair rates, should you find yourself requiring new suppliers.
It was good that you stood by Lord Lindsey in his disagreement with your nephew, Rupert. Family are ever loyal, but those experienced with command have a different seasoning to them. It is tragic you must battle your own subjects, but for the best that such a battle be led by reliable men.
Which brings me to the counsel. Dearest Charles, the rapidity of Courland's progress has come by allowing greater freedom to people in what they believe, or at least by showing indifference to their beliefs from a legal or taxation perspective. We would surely be advancing even without, but I have the wits to recognize that our advancement is rather greater with. And from this surprising lesson comes my advice to you: if you might gain somewhat greater loyalty from a somewhat greater share of the peoples of Scotland or England through showing somewhat greater indifference to their varying beliefs, it has the potential to be for the best. But to succeed at it, all the people must have work and opportunity. A man of one faith does not envy the wealth of neighbour of a different faith so much, when he himself is thriving.
May you make your people thrive, and be loyal again.
In fidelity and brotherhood,
-- James Kettler --
Post Scriptum: I have not yet "muscled in" as you put it to the Volga trade to obtain those exotic wares you seek. I have lately had to settle for trade deals with the French and Dutch. And some French things are exotic enough for most Latvians and Latgalians.
With the above, some gentle butterflies alighting a little further from the Baltic shores which are otherwise this timeline's present focus.
Young William of Orange will have to wait a little while for his bride, and Charles I might or might not accept the advice of Jacob (/James). The English Civil War will take a little longer to arrive at a similar outcome.
Next, back to the Baltic, or Poland/Lithuania.
Young William of Orange will have to wait a little while for his bride, and Charles I might or might not accept the advice of Jacob (/James). The English Civil War will take a little longer to arrive at a similar outcome.
Next, back to the Baltic, or Poland/Lithuania.
7. Eastern European diplomacy, 1640-44
Two things to remember about the time before the Deluge: First, Sweden and Poland/Lithuania were never truly at peace before it happened. They had merely maintained a cease fire for over a decade. And for its part, Russia was still licking its wounds from losing its Baltic possessions (mostly to Sweden), Smolensk (to Lithuania) and the war Poland had declared a generation earlier, in which their king also claimed to be Russia's tsar.
Good fences make good neighbours, they say. These were neighbours with smouldering fences.
Swedish diplomacy, ever since that cease fire, aimed to draw Russia into conflict with Poland once more. It also aimed to needle Hapsburgs wherever possible, the better to grow Swedish influence and territory in Germany (Pomerania was already well in hand). Russian diplomacy, ever since that war with Poland, was to oppose Hapsburgs anywhere politically, but avoid being drawn into any actual warfare without the confidence of a nice, tight coalition.
Polish and Lithuanian diplomacy, well, that was a less clear thing. They were in the Hapsburg camp, to be sure, marriage deals and all. But Polish kings/Lithuanian grand dukes had a rather less free hand in their rule than Swedish kings or Russian tsars. If the szlachta opposed you in something that needed doing, you compromised.
As it turns out, compromises in matters military are rather more painful than compromises in matters diplomatic.
Other neighbours were forward-thinking, oblivious, or indifferent.
Last one first: Khmelnytsky's Cossacks were indifferent. Diplomacy was a thing to do while resting, healing, and resupplying between battles. Battles were their focus; battles earned them status no amount of diplomacy without battles would have.
Oblivious was Courland, eagerly modernizing and putting their own population and immigrant ones to work at an amazing pace, making things and becoming an essential part of so many international supply chains. Neutral to everyone, but also an annoyingly indispensable trading partner to everyone. North of them, Livonia was oblivious for a different reason - war would only bring a new master, and a new master wasn't likely to be any better for Livonia.
Forward-thinking were the schemers and their allies-to-be, waiting for the right offer to pick a side, or switch. Turkey, whispering with Russia and Sweden and the Cossacks and Crimeans and Transylvanians. Sweden, stirrer of pots and poker of bears. And some would-be rebels, anywhere. Some scheming Lithuanian nobles mused about breaking their union with Poland, and if so when, what the cost of it would be, and whether that cost might be less than what the Cossacks and whoever's armies came after the Cossacks would take from them.
But there is no ally like an ally already fully committed in the field. And while Eastern European courts flirted with each other - and courts further West, too - it was only the Cossacks already committed, so far. All without having committed to any alliances - yet.
But the wolves were circling, slowly.
Good fences make good neighbours, they say. These were neighbours with smouldering fences.
Swedish diplomacy, ever since that cease fire, aimed to draw Russia into conflict with Poland once more. It also aimed to needle Hapsburgs wherever possible, the better to grow Swedish influence and territory in Germany (Pomerania was already well in hand). Russian diplomacy, ever since that war with Poland, was to oppose Hapsburgs anywhere politically, but avoid being drawn into any actual warfare without the confidence of a nice, tight coalition.
Polish and Lithuanian diplomacy, well, that was a less clear thing. They were in the Hapsburg camp, to be sure, marriage deals and all. But Polish kings/Lithuanian grand dukes had a rather less free hand in their rule than Swedish kings or Russian tsars. If the szlachta opposed you in something that needed doing, you compromised.
As it turns out, compromises in matters military are rather more painful than compromises in matters diplomatic.
Other neighbours were forward-thinking, oblivious, or indifferent.
Last one first: Khmelnytsky's Cossacks were indifferent. Diplomacy was a thing to do while resting, healing, and resupplying between battles. Battles were their focus; battles earned them status no amount of diplomacy without battles would have.
Oblivious was Courland, eagerly modernizing and putting their own population and immigrant ones to work at an amazing pace, making things and becoming an essential part of so many international supply chains. Neutral to everyone, but also an annoyingly indispensable trading partner to everyone. North of them, Livonia was oblivious for a different reason - war would only bring a new master, and a new master wasn't likely to be any better for Livonia.
Forward-thinking were the schemers and their allies-to-be, waiting for the right offer to pick a side, or switch. Turkey, whispering with Russia and Sweden and the Cossacks and Crimeans and Transylvanians. Sweden, stirrer of pots and poker of bears. And some would-be rebels, anywhere. Some scheming Lithuanian nobles mused about breaking their union with Poland, and if so when, what the cost of it would be, and whether that cost might be less than what the Cossacks and whoever's armies came after the Cossacks would take from them.
But there is no ally like an ally already fully committed in the field. And while Eastern European courts flirted with each other - and courts further West, too - it was only the Cossacks already committed, so far. All without having committed to any alliances - yet.
But the wolves were circling, slowly.
8. Königsberg, Prussia, 1641
Two Princes
One two princes kneel before you
That's what I said now
Princes, princes who adore you
Just go ahead now
One has diamonds in his pockets
That's some bread now
This one says he wants to buy you rockets
Ain't in his head now....
"Two Princes" by Spin Doctors
- - -
"Papa, out with it. You simply cannot hold such a secret in you. Your face looks like a bloated tomato when you try to hold it in."
Princess Louise Charlotte of Brandenburg was impatient. It wasn't that she was eager to be wed, exactly. But that was clearly to be the next big event her life was to encounter, and she was more the sort to get a thing done and move forward from there.
Her parents, Georg Wilhelm of Brandenburg and Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, had themselves married as an alliance of good Protestant families. They raised her as a Calvinist. Calvinists had a certain discerning logic to them, she'd grown up thinking, and she liked to think that was in her too. They were pragmatists, but with goodness and God ever in mind.
"All right, my little princess." This was a jibe, pure and simple. Louise Charlotte was already twenty-three years old. "Your mother and I have indeed chosen. I believe you already know there were no fewer than eight suitors asking for your hand. Of these, we had narrowed the collection down to two: Władysław, house Vasa, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, and Jakob, house Kettler, Duke of Courland and Semigallia."
"And you've taken my desires under consideration in your decision?" She was willing to marry a Catholic. But she was interested in marrying a man of action and learning.
"We did. We wrote to both of them, and amid the expectable pleasantries and formalities, we asked by what means and in what forms each of them might give you the gift of a good life. One pledged to make you the most influential lady in Eastern Europe, dazzling diplomats in courts near and far, beloved by all her people as a symbol of their virtue and wisdom."
She read his body language as a mere pause, and not as any call for her to react. So she reacted not at all, and waited.
"The other proposed to sate your love of gardening. But, boldly so. He would partner with you to find the most interesting and useful plants from five continents and grow them in gardens on at least three. He will have boats made to gather plants, gardeners, and such great minds of agriculture and horticulture as you might invite along to see these gardens thrive, and make the land and people thrive. Which should we marry you off to? He who sees you as a diplomat or he who sees you as a gardener? "
"I confess, father, this will be the first time I consider the undertaking of gardens to sound more ambitious and interesting than the undertaking of statecraft."
"Just so. Therefore, my darling, you shall be the Louise Charlotte, Princess of Brandenburg and also" - he paused for dramatic effect, face in full tomato mode - "Duchess of Courland and Semigallia before summer is done."
Louise Charlotte smiled - only smiled. "Thank you father."
"You are very welcome, Luischen. God knows I may not have been the best leader for Brandenburg during the contest with the Catholic Emperor. I tried to keep us neutral and we all know how that turned out for Brandenburg. For my part, it's not so much the spite of denying my daughter to a Catholic, and more the soft spot I have for how young Jakob's trying his own way to nurture his own kind of neutrality in Courland. All this while Poland seems half falling apart. As for your mother, she wants for you a man with a mind she's confident can keep up with yours."
"May I have your leave to go give mother my gratitude as well?"
"You may indeed. She is already writing letters to every acquaintance she has in France, England, Holland and even Spain in search of the most exotic possible seedlings for a wedding gift. Save her."
One two princes kneel before you
That's what I said now
Princes, princes who adore you
Just go ahead now
One has diamonds in his pockets
That's some bread now
This one says he wants to buy you rockets
Ain't in his head now....
"Two Princes" by Spin Doctors
- - -
"Papa, out with it. You simply cannot hold such a secret in you. Your face looks like a bloated tomato when you try to hold it in."
Princess Louise Charlotte of Brandenburg was impatient. It wasn't that she was eager to be wed, exactly. But that was clearly to be the next big event her life was to encounter, and she was more the sort to get a thing done and move forward from there.
Her parents, Georg Wilhelm of Brandenburg and Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, had themselves married as an alliance of good Protestant families. They raised her as a Calvinist. Calvinists had a certain discerning logic to them, she'd grown up thinking, and she liked to think that was in her too. They were pragmatists, but with goodness and God ever in mind.
"All right, my little princess." This was a jibe, pure and simple. Louise Charlotte was already twenty-three years old. "Your mother and I have indeed chosen. I believe you already know there were no fewer than eight suitors asking for your hand. Of these, we had narrowed the collection down to two: Władysław, house Vasa, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, and Jakob, house Kettler, Duke of Courland and Semigallia."
"And you've taken my desires under consideration in your decision?" She was willing to marry a Catholic. But she was interested in marrying a man of action and learning.
"We did. We wrote to both of them, and amid the expectable pleasantries and formalities, we asked by what means and in what forms each of them might give you the gift of a good life. One pledged to make you the most influential lady in Eastern Europe, dazzling diplomats in courts near and far, beloved by all her people as a symbol of their virtue and wisdom."
She read his body language as a mere pause, and not as any call for her to react. So she reacted not at all, and waited.
"The other proposed to sate your love of gardening. But, boldly so. He would partner with you to find the most interesting and useful plants from five continents and grow them in gardens on at least three. He will have boats made to gather plants, gardeners, and such great minds of agriculture and horticulture as you might invite along to see these gardens thrive, and make the land and people thrive. Which should we marry you off to? He who sees you as a diplomat or he who sees you as a gardener? "
"I confess, father, this will be the first time I consider the undertaking of gardens to sound more ambitious and interesting than the undertaking of statecraft."
"Just so. Therefore, my darling, you shall be the Louise Charlotte, Princess of Brandenburg and also" - he paused for dramatic effect, face in full tomato mode - "Duchess of Courland and Semigallia before summer is done."
Louise Charlotte smiled - only smiled. "Thank you father."
"You are very welcome, Luischen. God knows I may not have been the best leader for Brandenburg during the contest with the Catholic Emperor. I tried to keep us neutral and we all know how that turned out for Brandenburg. For my part, it's not so much the spite of denying my daughter to a Catholic, and more the soft spot I have for how young Jakob's trying his own way to nurture his own kind of neutrality in Courland. All this while Poland seems half falling apart. As for your mother, she wants for you a man with a mind she's confident can keep up with yours."
"May I have your leave to go give mother my gratitude as well?"
"You may indeed. She is already writing letters to every acquaintance she has in France, England, Holland and even Spain in search of the most exotic possible seedlings for a wedding gift. Save her."
9. Goldingen, Courland, 1641
A Game of Chairs and Apples
"Gentlemen, I regret that Jakob has yet to return from his visit to his grand tour of his western factories. The making of tar, ships, saltpeter, lime, paper, glass, timber and the rest is surely more exciting than the prospect of a ride homeward to discuss mere matters of state. But let us not wait to discuss some of those matters, agreed?"
Louise Charlotte had been Duchess since the summer only, and had already earned a measure of deference among Jakob's primary advisors. Today's guests were "the Fs" (Firkss, Filkersamb, and Fischer), plus Dönhof, ben Elisha, and Pletenberg. In such company, deference to her came from at least three things, in varying orders of importance depending on the advisor:
"You are all by now well in the habit of conversing with Jakob about his various enterprises. I will leave you to all that upon his return. For two reasons: primo, that you are his council (official or otherwise) because you are all men capable of furthering his initiative, and secundo, that being such men as to advance such initiatives serves to amplify two critical things. Namely, Courland's ability to achieve Jakob's dreams on the one hand, and on the other, Courland's inability to see what Jakob has the inability to see."
At this, the men were generally stunned. Firkss, the chancellor, spoke first.
"My lady, you have a rather savage way of getting directly to the point. In the duchy's interests, let's dispense with expressing gratitude for the compliment you paid in the first half of that. What is Jakob unable to see?"
"For every month I have been in Courland, you have all worked 10 months under his leadership, plus however many before that under Frederick, when Jakob and his thinking were already surely well known to you. The duke is a man of paramount vision, and possesses the capacity to see the future of any enterprise, particularly those related to commerce or industry, and is a superlative judge of how all the steps necessary to realize such enterprises might be taken for optimal results. And yet: in no way does being an excellent judge of enterprise serve to make him even an average judge of character."
"And we, who are charged primarily with the advancement of his various enterprises, we worsen this about him?"
"The more Jakob sees successes and challenges in all you do" - she gestured generally in front of the men - "the more his attention is drawn to further such successes and challenges. You make him better at what he is best at. It may be the duchy also needs men to make him better at what he is presently worse at."
This inflicted upon the room a thoughtful pause. It was ben Elisha*, the "Mapmaker of Mitau" who spoke first.
"My lady, what might the responsibilities be for a Minister of Judgement of Character? To assess the trustworthiness of men upon whom Courland's success most relies?"
That, and to focus on matters toward which the Duke's considerable energies are simply not directed."
"Such as war." Filkersamb spoke it plainly and neutrally.
"Yes. Or matters of relationships somewhat adjacent to war." She narrowed her eyes. "Gentlemen, kindly stand up. You're going to play a game, and to play it, I wish to move your chairs. The "Fs" first. You shall be a team. Firkss, bring yours here. Sit - you are Sweden. Here I walk across the Gulf of Bothnia, the Baltic, the Gulf of Finland, and - Filkersamb, your chair goes here. You are Russia. I am admittedly placing you nearer Novgorod than Moscow, but so be it, the room is only so large, as we don't want you so far you can't hear the rest of us. Fischer, that leaves you about there" - she pointed - "as the Turkish Empire."
This left five chairs somewhat inside the area surrounded by the three already positioned, geographically unspecified.
"So, we have F for foes. Pletenberg, as your name starts with 'P', you shall be Poland. Do sit here. Ben Elisha, with my apologies, your name starts with a 'B', so you'll be Bohdan Khmelnytsky's Cossacks in Ruthenia. Over here, in front of Fischer."
All eyes turned to Dönhof. "Am I to be 'D' for Deutschland, then?"
"Fine. Near enough. You are the supposedly Holy, assuredly not Roman, certainly Empire of Ferdinand the third. Sit here - your chair is vaguely Vienna."
With that, Louise Charlotte was the only one left standing, barring servants. She nudged the last two chairs into position, almost in a row between Pletenberg and Firkss. She then moved tow small tables to each side of the empty chair nearest Firkss, and relocated the trays of apple slices and pitchers of drink to those tables. She then sat in the chair between them.
"We are ready, then. The empty chair is my father's family in Prussia. I am fittingly not sitting there, as my place is now here," she pointed at her own chair. "This last chair is Courland in our game. And my apologies to you all, but Courland is pregnant and easily tired, so the food and drink is with me. Perhaps that's reason to covet my chair." She grabbed a slice of an apple from a tray and made quick work of it.
"I will propose to you something that could reasonably happen in any of these lands represented in our chairs. Or I will state some fact. I will then ask you each what you do in your roles. Simple."
"Pletenberg! You've failed to convince your nobles to let you raise a decent army or build any navy at all. Ben Elisha - you see this clearly every time you thrash another Polish fighting force in the field. Dönhof - do you care? Do you act?"
"Care, yes. I may need to marry off some Hapsburg princesses. Act, no."
She picked an apple off the tray and threw it to ben Elisha. "Congratulations, you pluck the heart of Poland. If I recall my husband's vassalage correctly, he puts three hundred cavalry in the field at some point in the failed defence." She flicked another apple slice off the tray as the made the point. It broke in two on the floor. "Courland loses too."
"Next: Russia and Sweden each want more of the Baltic. Both are strong, but not confident enough in themselves and each other. They enlist the Sultan for help, in Constantinople and a little nearer in Crimea. Our 'F' team works in concert. Fischer, what do you want in such an arrangement?"
"Good relations with major powers. I like a stronger Sweden and a stronger Russia, so long as their strength is further away from my lands. I also like anyone on my Balkan borders nervous. Lastly - Crimea's not mine, my lady. They are just my friends."
"Fair. So you help Bohdan enough to keep Ruthenia out of Russian hands, and maybe help your Crimean friends - thank you for the correction - gain lands or slaves or whatever they like. Meanwhile up North, Sweden and Russia are emboldened to act. Filkersamb, how do you act?"
"I take Smolensk back from Lithuania. I'll keep going to Riga if I can get there, then use it to take any foothold on the Baltic I can get. Otherwise, I play nice with Sweden and offer them support to strengthen their hold around Riga if they'll give me any port in Livonia - say, Narva."
"Firkss, does Sweden love new Russian friends that much?"
Firkss simply scoffed. "I send fleets across the Baltic from Sweden, and armies by land down from Livonia. I take Riga before the Filkersamb wakes from having a dream about it."
Where the Duchess had been most animatedly directing the game and conversation thus far, she nearly whispered now: "And then?"
"I suppose an army in Riga might as well conquer Courland too. Maybe I coax Prussia to become a Swedish vassal instead of a Polish one. The Eastern Baltic is mine. I sue for peace once I have the lands I want, so Russia's advance is halted earlier. They get Smolensk, and perhaps some more of Lithuania."
The duchess grabbed another three apple slices from the tray. "Half of Poland" - she tossed a slice to ben Elisha. "Half of Lithuania" - another slice, to Filkersamb. "The rest of both" - she rose and tossed the third slice to Pletenberg. Then she turned the empty Prussia chair toward Firkss.
Then she kicked the Courland chair over.
"Courland dies, gentlemen. Its foundries, shipyards, timber mills and whatever else either go silent, are destroyed, or become Swedish. I have no meaningful defences, no army or cavalry of note, and no tax base for mercenaries."
She reached down, casually, and lifted the chair back to its original position. Then the turned the Prussian chair back around.
"Care for another round? Some of you might get more of these lovely apples. The empty chair might face different ways" - she illustrated by pointing it toward Filkersamb, then her Courland chair, then back to Pletenberg - "but I promise you my chair will get kicked over rather a lot."
As it was no longer a game, the men collectively and wordlessly resolved that to play another round was not necessary.
By the time Jakob had returned from his tour, his council had resolved that Courland needed better fortifications, that better fortifications were almost certainly insufficient to defend it, that Courland most particularly needed to generously offer good deals on apple slices to its neighbours in order to avoid said neighbours kicking over its chair.
Or, failing that, Courland needed plans to get its trays of apple slices safely away when the this or that chair-kicker came.
- - -
* the same Tevel we met in the "Motke the Merchant" chapter, now employed at gathering all possible maps and geographical knowledge with which to equip Jakob's colonial ambitions, as well as better informing Courland's shipbuilding where possible.
"Gentlemen, I regret that Jakob has yet to return from his visit to his grand tour of his western factories. The making of tar, ships, saltpeter, lime, paper, glass, timber and the rest is surely more exciting than the prospect of a ride homeward to discuss mere matters of state. But let us not wait to discuss some of those matters, agreed?"
Louise Charlotte had been Duchess since the summer only, and had already earned a measure of deference among Jakob's primary advisors. Today's guests were "the Fs" (Firkss, Filkersamb, and Fischer), plus Dönhof, ben Elisha, and Pletenberg. In such company, deference to her came from at least three things, in varying orders of importance depending on the advisor:
- that she was their Duchess by marriage to Jakob
- that she had in mere months taken the estates of her dowry and launched those estates into dairying and the advancement of her "dowry gardens"
- that she was already with child, and in no way slower for it.
"You are all by now well in the habit of conversing with Jakob about his various enterprises. I will leave you to all that upon his return. For two reasons: primo, that you are his council (official or otherwise) because you are all men capable of furthering his initiative, and secundo, that being such men as to advance such initiatives serves to amplify two critical things. Namely, Courland's ability to achieve Jakob's dreams on the one hand, and on the other, Courland's inability to see what Jakob has the inability to see."
At this, the men were generally stunned. Firkss, the chancellor, spoke first.
"My lady, you have a rather savage way of getting directly to the point. In the duchy's interests, let's dispense with expressing gratitude for the compliment you paid in the first half of that. What is Jakob unable to see?"
"For every month I have been in Courland, you have all worked 10 months under his leadership, plus however many before that under Frederick, when Jakob and his thinking were already surely well known to you. The duke is a man of paramount vision, and possesses the capacity to see the future of any enterprise, particularly those related to commerce or industry, and is a superlative judge of how all the steps necessary to realize such enterprises might be taken for optimal results. And yet: in no way does being an excellent judge of enterprise serve to make him even an average judge of character."
"And we, who are charged primarily with the advancement of his various enterprises, we worsen this about him?"
"The more Jakob sees successes and challenges in all you do" - she gestured generally in front of the men - "the more his attention is drawn to further such successes and challenges. You make him better at what he is best at. It may be the duchy also needs men to make him better at what he is presently worse at."
This inflicted upon the room a thoughtful pause. It was ben Elisha*, the "Mapmaker of Mitau" who spoke first.
"My lady, what might the responsibilities be for a Minister of Judgement of Character? To assess the trustworthiness of men upon whom Courland's success most relies?"
That, and to focus on matters toward which the Duke's considerable energies are simply not directed."
"Such as war." Filkersamb spoke it plainly and neutrally.
"Yes. Or matters of relationships somewhat adjacent to war." She narrowed her eyes. "Gentlemen, kindly stand up. You're going to play a game, and to play it, I wish to move your chairs. The "Fs" first. You shall be a team. Firkss, bring yours here. Sit - you are Sweden. Here I walk across the Gulf of Bothnia, the Baltic, the Gulf of Finland, and - Filkersamb, your chair goes here. You are Russia. I am admittedly placing you nearer Novgorod than Moscow, but so be it, the room is only so large, as we don't want you so far you can't hear the rest of us. Fischer, that leaves you about there" - she pointed - "as the Turkish Empire."
This left five chairs somewhat inside the area surrounded by the three already positioned, geographically unspecified.
"So, we have F for foes. Pletenberg, as your name starts with 'P', you shall be Poland. Do sit here. Ben Elisha, with my apologies, your name starts with a 'B', so you'll be Bohdan Khmelnytsky's Cossacks in Ruthenia. Over here, in front of Fischer."
All eyes turned to Dönhof. "Am I to be 'D' for Deutschland, then?"
"Fine. Near enough. You are the supposedly Holy, assuredly not Roman, certainly Empire of Ferdinand the third. Sit here - your chair is vaguely Vienna."
With that, Louise Charlotte was the only one left standing, barring servants. She nudged the last two chairs into position, almost in a row between Pletenberg and Firkss. She then moved tow small tables to each side of the empty chair nearest Firkss, and relocated the trays of apple slices and pitchers of drink to those tables. She then sat in the chair between them.
"We are ready, then. The empty chair is my father's family in Prussia. I am fittingly not sitting there, as my place is now here," she pointed at her own chair. "This last chair is Courland in our game. And my apologies to you all, but Courland is pregnant and easily tired, so the food and drink is with me. Perhaps that's reason to covet my chair." She grabbed a slice of an apple from a tray and made quick work of it.
"I will propose to you something that could reasonably happen in any of these lands represented in our chairs. Or I will state some fact. I will then ask you each what you do in your roles. Simple."
"Pletenberg! You've failed to convince your nobles to let you raise a decent army or build any navy at all. Ben Elisha - you see this clearly every time you thrash another Polish fighting force in the field. Dönhof - do you care? Do you act?"
"Care, yes. I may need to marry off some Hapsburg princesses. Act, no."
She picked an apple off the tray and threw it to ben Elisha. "Congratulations, you pluck the heart of Poland. If I recall my husband's vassalage correctly, he puts three hundred cavalry in the field at some point in the failed defence." She flicked another apple slice off the tray as the made the point. It broke in two on the floor. "Courland loses too."
"Next: Russia and Sweden each want more of the Baltic. Both are strong, but not confident enough in themselves and each other. They enlist the Sultan for help, in Constantinople and a little nearer in Crimea. Our 'F' team works in concert. Fischer, what do you want in such an arrangement?"
"Good relations with major powers. I like a stronger Sweden and a stronger Russia, so long as their strength is further away from my lands. I also like anyone on my Balkan borders nervous. Lastly - Crimea's not mine, my lady. They are just my friends."
"Fair. So you help Bohdan enough to keep Ruthenia out of Russian hands, and maybe help your Crimean friends - thank you for the correction - gain lands or slaves or whatever they like. Meanwhile up North, Sweden and Russia are emboldened to act. Filkersamb, how do you act?"
"I take Smolensk back from Lithuania. I'll keep going to Riga if I can get there, then use it to take any foothold on the Baltic I can get. Otherwise, I play nice with Sweden and offer them support to strengthen their hold around Riga if they'll give me any port in Livonia - say, Narva."
"Firkss, does Sweden love new Russian friends that much?"
Firkss simply scoffed. "I send fleets across the Baltic from Sweden, and armies by land down from Livonia. I take Riga before the Filkersamb wakes from having a dream about it."
Where the Duchess had been most animatedly directing the game and conversation thus far, she nearly whispered now: "And then?"
"I suppose an army in Riga might as well conquer Courland too. Maybe I coax Prussia to become a Swedish vassal instead of a Polish one. The Eastern Baltic is mine. I sue for peace once I have the lands I want, so Russia's advance is halted earlier. They get Smolensk, and perhaps some more of Lithuania."
The duchess grabbed another three apple slices from the tray. "Half of Poland" - she tossed a slice to ben Elisha. "Half of Lithuania" - another slice, to Filkersamb. "The rest of both" - she rose and tossed the third slice to Pletenberg. Then she turned the empty Prussia chair toward Firkss.
Then she kicked the Courland chair over.
"Courland dies, gentlemen. Its foundries, shipyards, timber mills and whatever else either go silent, are destroyed, or become Swedish. I have no meaningful defences, no army or cavalry of note, and no tax base for mercenaries."
She reached down, casually, and lifted the chair back to its original position. Then the turned the Prussian chair back around.
"Care for another round? Some of you might get more of these lovely apples. The empty chair might face different ways" - she illustrated by pointing it toward Filkersamb, then her Courland chair, then back to Pletenberg - "but I promise you my chair will get kicked over rather a lot."
As it was no longer a game, the men collectively and wordlessly resolved that to play another round was not necessary.
By the time Jakob had returned from his tour, his council had resolved that Courland needed better fortifications, that better fortifications were almost certainly insufficient to defend it, that Courland most particularly needed to generously offer good deals on apple slices to its neighbours in order to avoid said neighbours kicking over its chair.
Or, failing that, Courland needed plans to get its trays of apple slices safely away when the this or that chair-kicker came.
- - -
* the same Tevel we met in the "Motke the Merchant" chapter, now employed at gathering all possible maps and geographical knowledge with which to equip Jakob's colonial ambitions, as well as better informing Courland's shipbuilding where possible.
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I loved the game analogy, it also sets things in perspective, Courland is in kind of a pretty bad position once war comes, and economical glory-hunting doesn't help much on that front, i guess?
Thank you! After "Motke the Merchant", this was my favourite episode to write. Louise Charlotte quickly became quite enjoyable.
Courland OTL got steamrolled by Sweden (and, though I haven't perfectly clarified this, Russia's OTL campaign through Lithuania may have reached Semigallia (the Eastern/upstream/further inland part of the duchy).
To be completely fair, Courland and Semigallia weren't quite Thermopylae - I've read exactly zero mentions of any spot in the country that lent itself well to defence, period. But it was a fairly fertile spot, with valleys suited to travel, and travel made it suitable for trade. You just had to outcompete the next valley over, and the valley after that....
OTL, it became a crossroads, for trade and war.
TTL, it is still becoming that same crossroads, with heavier traffic.
And while I'm comparing, I have the duke and duchess married earlier than OTL, a little more alert to threats, and with their investments paying richer and earlier dividends. A chair more worth kicking over.
My reading has turned significantly to knowledge I'll need for the next arc, but there will first have to be an introduction of colonial players, some summary of European butterflies, and a resolution to my earlier-and-harsher peak of the Cossack rebellions.
9. Letter from Jakob to Constantijn Huygens, 1642
Dear Sir Constantijn,
It is with great joy that I received your letter, and greater joy still that you have not yet seen fit to reject my proposal. By your wit and vision, I see why it is that Sir Thomas Roe referred me to you. I believe our views are rather more in alignment than not as regards a University in Courland. We have all this growing industry in our towns, and need only fill the minds of the next generation with the vision to take the greatest possible advantage. We advance in so many crafts here, it will not do for us not to become leaders in their application.
Courland - and Europe! - will benefit from bright young men undertaking a truly practical study of commerce, mathematics, engineering and construction, geography and cartography. I mean to generate the best possible shipbuilders, navigators and astronomers to carry us across oceans, and then have the botanists, linguists, masters of agriculture and merchants to recognize and seize all possible opportunities where we alight.
That you should express an interest in the education of music seems a less complementary goal, but I have no objection to a curriculum of this as well. The duchess would surely support this as a form of patronage of the arts. And visual arts are absolutely complementary to cartography - though I dare say too many of your country's cartographers think to gain notice by the images they place at the edges of their maps rather than the absolute utility of the information in the middle. I will gladly take any recommendation you have for a teacher of cartography, now that you are aware of my bias in this field. Courland does not have a true master cartographer as of yet, but I do have a very enterprising procurator of maps, whose collection has informed my utilitarian preference.
But still, though you continue to not decline my offer, it is easy to note that you have also not accepted. If there are matters to discuss regarding your autonomy to appoint masters in all our fields, please say so. If there are matters of your family's comfort, be assured we shall keep them in comfort. If you even wish to see the university located in Windau or Libau rather than Mitau, I shall accept such conditions without hesitation. You are the man for this enterprise, Sir Constantijn, and for my part I will give it all the support it requires to become a university worthy of your legacy.
With eagerness and much admiration,
-- Jacob Kettler, Duke of Courland and Semigallia and aspiring patron of the arts and education --
Post Scriptum: It remains unclear to me whether you and Sir Thomas have ever truly met, or whether each of your diplomatic oeuvres have simply caused each of you to recognize each other's imprimatur in European affairs intimately. May we together make such an impact on European education as well.
It is with great joy that I received your letter, and greater joy still that you have not yet seen fit to reject my proposal. By your wit and vision, I see why it is that Sir Thomas Roe referred me to you. I believe our views are rather more in alignment than not as regards a University in Courland. We have all this growing industry in our towns, and need only fill the minds of the next generation with the vision to take the greatest possible advantage. We advance in so many crafts here, it will not do for us not to become leaders in their application.
Courland - and Europe! - will benefit from bright young men undertaking a truly practical study of commerce, mathematics, engineering and construction, geography and cartography. I mean to generate the best possible shipbuilders, navigators and astronomers to carry us across oceans, and then have the botanists, linguists, masters of agriculture and merchants to recognize and seize all possible opportunities where we alight.
That you should express an interest in the education of music seems a less complementary goal, but I have no objection to a curriculum of this as well. The duchess would surely support this as a form of patronage of the arts. And visual arts are absolutely complementary to cartography - though I dare say too many of your country's cartographers think to gain notice by the images they place at the edges of their maps rather than the absolute utility of the information in the middle. I will gladly take any recommendation you have for a teacher of cartography, now that you are aware of my bias in this field. Courland does not have a true master cartographer as of yet, but I do have a very enterprising procurator of maps, whose collection has informed my utilitarian preference.
But still, though you continue to not decline my offer, it is easy to note that you have also not accepted. If there are matters to discuss regarding your autonomy to appoint masters in all our fields, please say so. If there are matters of your family's comfort, be assured we shall keep them in comfort. If you even wish to see the university located in Windau or Libau rather than Mitau, I shall accept such conditions without hesitation. You are the man for this enterprise, Sir Constantijn, and for my part I will give it all the support it requires to become a university worthy of your legacy.
With eagerness and much admiration,
-- Jacob Kettler, Duke of Courland and Semigallia and aspiring patron of the arts and education --
Post Scriptum: It remains unclear to me whether you and Sir Thomas have ever truly met, or whether each of your diplomatic oeuvres have simply caused each of you to recognize each other's imprimatur in European affairs intimately. May we together make such an impact on European education as well.
Well, now that's interesting. Or at least would be if such enterprise didn't near death soon...
This was just a little side-quest, if you will. But like the best side-quests in games, still a little means to gain a little power-up to aid one's pursuit of the main quest.
A fortunate error of mine:
As my reading on Courland's economy in this time has advanced, I have learned of another factor that served as a brake on the speed of economic growth and growth of the middle or merchant classes OTL.
Jacob's insistence on owning a maximum of Courland's new enterprises himself served to circumvent his quarrelsome nobles, and secure for him the revenues of these enterprises as an alternative to the taxation revenue Courland pathetically lacked (again, because nobles). But some burghers (generally, merchants of specific "burghs" or towns) went over his head OTL to appeal to his suzerain, the King of Poland, who eventually granted them exclusive or monopoly rights to trade within their own towns. This led to foreign merchants trading directly with the nobles of those towns to be fined.
Having not spotted this previously, I missed out on an additional factor accelerating growth TTL. Here, Jakob's removed tariff disparities against traders of different religions on the grounds that all religions were equal from a legal standpoint in Courland. The effect is surely the same in both cases: lower tariffs, more freedom of trade. Either the burghers who appealed to Jakob and then to Poland in 1644-49 would have not appealed, having already seen either their rights increase, their costs decrease, or both; or else those appeals would have been deemed a rather lesser issue, and Jakob would likely have responded more rapidly and with less resistance by changing the rules and math of Courland commerce. Such changes might not have ended up being quite the same, but they would have surely enhanced the merchant class in both numbers and circumstances.
Net result: more reasons for Courlanders to be happier, wealthier, more enterprising, and for more migrants to be drawn to Courland during somewhat unstable times in neighbouring countries.
As my reading on Courland's economy in this time has advanced, I have learned of another factor that served as a brake on the speed of economic growth and growth of the middle or merchant classes OTL.
Jacob's insistence on owning a maximum of Courland's new enterprises himself served to circumvent his quarrelsome nobles, and secure for him the revenues of these enterprises as an alternative to the taxation revenue Courland pathetically lacked (again, because nobles). But some burghers (generally, merchants of specific "burghs" or towns) went over his head OTL to appeal to his suzerain, the King of Poland, who eventually granted them exclusive or monopoly rights to trade within their own towns. This led to foreign merchants trading directly with the nobles of those towns to be fined.
Having not spotted this previously, I missed out on an additional factor accelerating growth TTL. Here, Jakob's removed tariff disparities against traders of different religions on the grounds that all religions were equal from a legal standpoint in Courland. The effect is surely the same in both cases: lower tariffs, more freedom of trade. Either the burghers who appealed to Jakob and then to Poland in 1644-49 would have not appealed, having already seen either their rights increase, their costs decrease, or both; or else those appeals would have been deemed a rather lesser issue, and Jakob would likely have responded more rapidly and with less resistance by changing the rules and math of Courland commerce. Such changes might not have ended up being quite the same, but they would have surely enhanced the merchant class in both numbers and circumstances.
Net result: more reasons for Courlanders to be happier, wealthier, more enterprising, and for more migrants to be drawn to Courland during somewhat unstable times in neighbouring countries.
10. A south-facing bay in South-Western Tobago, 1642
The Duchess’s Second Garden
"Lower anchor, then lower the shore boats. Tell the other ships to do the same."
The Captain was a Scotsman, Clement Keir by name. With all the trouble between Scotland, England, Ireland and their King, it was a fine time for an enterprising Scotsman to take employment outside their own country. He wasn't the only Scotsman among the crews and colonists, but assuredly the most prominent. A plurality of the higher-ranking crew were Dutch, while a majority of the lower-ranking ones were Lavtians, Kurs and Livs. Duke Jakob's suggestion that the Kurs had sailing in their veins from centuries of meeting or fighting the Vikings seemed to be holding up. Perhaps they hadn't sailed in over three generations, and when they had, not on boats like these.
These were four man-o-wars, made in Courland's coastal shipyards from Courland's and Semigallia's timber, with cannons from its own Courland's foundries, et cetera, et cetera. The most inconspicuous thing not from Courland or Semigallia was the iron, which the duchy had to import, most often from Sweden. And the most conspicuous was the people. However many different peoples lived in Courland and Semigallia these days - Latvians, Livs, Kurs, Baltic Germans, Lithuanians, Poles, Jews, Swedes, Finns, Russians and whatever traders came and went - the diversity of people was still greater on these ships. This was to be Courland's second attempt at a colony on this island, the first having failed three or four years earlier. And however multi-ethnic this colony was, it was still more Couronian than the prior one.
Clem looked to the shore of the bay. After a modest sandy beach, the land swelled into green hillside. Some islands are mountains, rising sharply from the sea, trying to scratch the sky. Tobago didn't seem to have that kind of initiative, feeling more like a family of gentle hills or whales or those manatee creatures he'd seen on a previous voyage, all lain upon one another. His sense of smell made him wince at his own metaphor... best to leave descriptions to others. Nothing on this island resembled a river to either his eye or his cartographer's, but having circumnavigated the entirety, they had faith water would not be scarce.
If Clem was the leader of all these people at sea, the man next to him was to be their leader on land: Cornelius Caroon was Jakob's appointed Governor of New Courland.
"Have ye thought o' what name to apply to this bay yet, Governor?"
Caroon, like Keir, kept his eyes on the shore. "The leeward side already has a Great Courland Bay from the last try here. Great Semigallia Bay seems a bit boring. Do your sailors give names to help them keep an island's points of reference clear in their minds?"
"Aye, but we willna put those names on a maps to be seen by gentlemen."
"Fair. But all the same, indulge me, between us who are not gentlemen."
"Great Courland Bay is already named. And Couronian Point. A name ye've stared at on your map all the voyage long is a name you respect and use - at least if you like those who named it. Folks rather like your duke, so Great Courland Bay 'tis."
"And the others?"
"Clockwise: Couronian Point, Buttocks Bay - makes more sense seeing that on the map, the Heads is the coast with three points jutting out from an otherwise straight shore, then you have Great Courland Bay, after that the coast isn't that compelling name-wise. Until you get round the top and there's the big bite bay, round but deep into the island like someone's bitten from it. Round over the top, then, and windward you get the biggest of the islands around Tobago, so that's Little Tobago and Little Tobago Bay. For these German-speakers we've got, maybe that's Tobagochen Bay. South of there you get The Teats, because anytime there's two of something sticking out at ye, that's all sailors can think about. They dinnae look much like teats, but that's sailors for ye. I think I named a pair o' hills "the teats" when I was a younger sailor, and it more or less stuck - a witty cartographer named the bay between those hills for some princess." Both laughed. Then, noting a nearby sailor holding back his own laugh, they cut their laughing short.
"With all due respect, Clem, I'll be stopping you there. Because if I'm to name something after the Duchess of Courland, I'll have to be able to say with a straight face that it was without any baser motive."
"Aye. You're not wrong to do that. You've met the woman, after all. So, then? Louise Charlotte Bay? Duchess Bay? It is a lovely bay we're in."
"I think I'll keep matters simpler and name the bay for the task most personal to our Duke and Duchess. It will be Garden Bay, and somewhere overlooking it we'll start the second of those gardens the Duke promised to the Duchess. Who knows how well our colonists will manage to get sugarcane growing here? But if we face challenges in that, it will keep spirits up to put efforts into a venture so dear to the Duke and Duchess. "
"Garden Bay is a fine name. After we've offloaded ye, I'll be sailing on to map the coast from Trinidad westward, meeting natives and trading for or collecting more plants for that garden. I'll be seeing your progress afore a few months are passed. Two of the other ships head to find anything of value at English, French or Dutch isles to bring back to Europe. And the last ship will fight the currents that brought us here until they find some southern mirror image of the Volta do mar. That'll be the one that gets the best of our supplies."
"Do you think they'll find one? Another Volta, I mean?"
"I mean, winds don't turn corners or suddenly blow backwards. Somewhere, this wind" - he waved a hand like a leaf on a breeze - "meets that wind" - he waved the second, on a tangential trajectory - "and past that point the direction is different. Or winds hit a shore, and shores sometimes change winds. They'll find something. Maybe something the Portuguese have already found a long time since. We'll just see whether they find something useful."
"Godspeed to them. Perhaps they'll find a good place for the Duchess' third garden."
"Aye. Godspeed indeed. But for now, let's get your people ashore in comfort more than haste, shall we?"
- - -
Many slept ashore that night, under the stars, with or without shelter, dreaming what dreams came at the end of so long a voyage. The first gardeners of Garden Bay.
"Lower anchor, then lower the shore boats. Tell the other ships to do the same."
The Captain was a Scotsman, Clement Keir by name. With all the trouble between Scotland, England, Ireland and their King, it was a fine time for an enterprising Scotsman to take employment outside their own country. He wasn't the only Scotsman among the crews and colonists, but assuredly the most prominent. A plurality of the higher-ranking crew were Dutch, while a majority of the lower-ranking ones were Lavtians, Kurs and Livs. Duke Jakob's suggestion that the Kurs had sailing in their veins from centuries of meeting or fighting the Vikings seemed to be holding up. Perhaps they hadn't sailed in over three generations, and when they had, not on boats like these.
These were four man-o-wars, made in Courland's coastal shipyards from Courland's and Semigallia's timber, with cannons from its own Courland's foundries, et cetera, et cetera. The most inconspicuous thing not from Courland or Semigallia was the iron, which the duchy had to import, most often from Sweden. And the most conspicuous was the people. However many different peoples lived in Courland and Semigallia these days - Latvians, Livs, Kurs, Baltic Germans, Lithuanians, Poles, Jews, Swedes, Finns, Russians and whatever traders came and went - the diversity of people was still greater on these ships. This was to be Courland's second attempt at a colony on this island, the first having failed three or four years earlier. And however multi-ethnic this colony was, it was still more Couronian than the prior one.
Clem looked to the shore of the bay. After a modest sandy beach, the land swelled into green hillside. Some islands are mountains, rising sharply from the sea, trying to scratch the sky. Tobago didn't seem to have that kind of initiative, feeling more like a family of gentle hills or whales or those manatee creatures he'd seen on a previous voyage, all lain upon one another. His sense of smell made him wince at his own metaphor... best to leave descriptions to others. Nothing on this island resembled a river to either his eye or his cartographer's, but having circumnavigated the entirety, they had faith water would not be scarce.
If Clem was the leader of all these people at sea, the man next to him was to be their leader on land: Cornelius Caroon was Jakob's appointed Governor of New Courland.
"Have ye thought o' what name to apply to this bay yet, Governor?"
Caroon, like Keir, kept his eyes on the shore. "The leeward side already has a Great Courland Bay from the last try here. Great Semigallia Bay seems a bit boring. Do your sailors give names to help them keep an island's points of reference clear in their minds?"
"Aye, but we willna put those names on a maps to be seen by gentlemen."
"Fair. But all the same, indulge me, between us who are not gentlemen."
"Great Courland Bay is already named. And Couronian Point. A name ye've stared at on your map all the voyage long is a name you respect and use - at least if you like those who named it. Folks rather like your duke, so Great Courland Bay 'tis."
"And the others?"
"Clockwise: Couronian Point, Buttocks Bay - makes more sense seeing that on the map, the Heads is the coast with three points jutting out from an otherwise straight shore, then you have Great Courland Bay, after that the coast isn't that compelling name-wise. Until you get round the top and there's the big bite bay, round but deep into the island like someone's bitten from it. Round over the top, then, and windward you get the biggest of the islands around Tobago, so that's Little Tobago and Little Tobago Bay. For these German-speakers we've got, maybe that's Tobagochen Bay. South of there you get The Teats, because anytime there's two of something sticking out at ye, that's all sailors can think about. They dinnae look much like teats, but that's sailors for ye. I think I named a pair o' hills "the teats" when I was a younger sailor, and it more or less stuck - a witty cartographer named the bay between those hills for some princess." Both laughed. Then, noting a nearby sailor holding back his own laugh, they cut their laughing short.
"With all due respect, Clem, I'll be stopping you there. Because if I'm to name something after the Duchess of Courland, I'll have to be able to say with a straight face that it was without any baser motive."
"Aye. You're not wrong to do that. You've met the woman, after all. So, then? Louise Charlotte Bay? Duchess Bay? It is a lovely bay we're in."
"I think I'll keep matters simpler and name the bay for the task most personal to our Duke and Duchess. It will be Garden Bay, and somewhere overlooking it we'll start the second of those gardens the Duke promised to the Duchess. Who knows how well our colonists will manage to get sugarcane growing here? But if we face challenges in that, it will keep spirits up to put efforts into a venture so dear to the Duke and Duchess. "
"Garden Bay is a fine name. After we've offloaded ye, I'll be sailing on to map the coast from Trinidad westward, meeting natives and trading for or collecting more plants for that garden. I'll be seeing your progress afore a few months are passed. Two of the other ships head to find anything of value at English, French or Dutch isles to bring back to Europe. And the last ship will fight the currents that brought us here until they find some southern mirror image of the Volta do mar. That'll be the one that gets the best of our supplies."
"Do you think they'll find one? Another Volta, I mean?"
"I mean, winds don't turn corners or suddenly blow backwards. Somewhere, this wind" - he waved a hand like a leaf on a breeze - "meets that wind" - he waved the second, on a tangential trajectory - "and past that point the direction is different. Or winds hit a shore, and shores sometimes change winds. They'll find something. Maybe something the Portuguese have already found a long time since. We'll just see whether they find something useful."
"Godspeed to them. Perhaps they'll find a good place for the Duchess' third garden."
"Aye. Godspeed indeed. But for now, let's get your people ashore in comfort more than haste, shall we?"
- - -
Many slept ashore that night, under the stars, with or without shelter, dreaming what dreams came at the end of so long a voyage. The first gardeners of Garden Bay.
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Fun facts and departures from the preceding entry:
- Curonian Point was an OTL name, corrupted over time into today's "Crown Point". Great Courland Bay has that name to this day.
- Little Tobago is the OTL name for the island offshore to the NE, but the bay facing it picked up an English name (Tyrell's Bay)
- OTL Courland kept attempting to colonize the exact same spot to the North of Great Courland Bay, and the ruins of "Fort James" are there to this day, in modern-day Plymouth.
- TTL's second attempt at a Courland colony on Tobago differed in two key ways:
- a different location: where the Dutch tried to colonize Tobago later, at modern-day Scarborough
- more ships and colonists, and a bit more engagement with the neighbourhood
I'm not gonna lie, the name "Garden Bay" in-context is just too amusing. Now, i don't know how pretty would a sugarcane garden be, but regardless.
I do think it is a better starting point, if you take strategic matters in consideration, it will be a settlement nucleus a lot more defensible. The curonians IOTL established themselves in the northern coast, which is way more rugged while being harder to protect from natives. Talking of these, i do wonder what are your plans for curonian contact with the Caribs ITTL, since weakness in protecting from them was part of the colony's troublesome lifespan in our world.
I'm horrified at the very thought.
On the one hand, the Duchess' gardens aren't intended (by anyone) as plantations themselves, though a place to test out the growing of things that could be plantation-worthy? Absolutely that.
On the other hand, conflating plantations with those gardens is... something I'll have to remember to credit you for when a critic of the plantations will most intentionally do the same, however many centuries down the line.
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11. Events leading to, and results of, the Treaty of Trakai, December 1644
Disease, Death, Divorce, Dismemberment and Dünaburg
People always talk about one specific part of a phoenix's life cycle. They talk about the phoenix rising from the ashes, over and over, and never much bring attention to the phoenix having to die over and over and over to get to the bit where they rise from the ashes. Maybe once, it is snuffed out like a candle, pinched between gloved fingers. Maybe once, it crashes into water, quenched in a fatal cacophony of steam. Maybe once, it just stopped burning, inconspicuously, unseen.
The history of Poland is much the same. You'll hear tell of when this or that royal line was extinguished, but Poland rose from the ashes by voting in a neighbouring country's Grand Duke, or voting in an entire new dynasty. When they voted a woman to be King, because their laws said they could not be ruled by a Queen, but those same laws said nothing about any requirements for a King's gender. When they were overthrown by internal revolt, neighbouring countries, general failures of centralizing enough power under their King's command... Poland kept rising from the ashes. There might be an improbable recovery from a siege, an invasion, diplomacy, defeats of their never-sufficient armies. Poland would come back, ruled by someone new, working with a new covenant between King and szlachta, befriended by powerful foreign friends or pulled by wealthy foreign puppet strings. Poland rose from ashes.
The corollary is that Poland was repeatedly reduced to ashes between resurrections. The most fertile national fate one could imagine for Catholicism to grow in, thrive in.
The Cossacks, once they had all Polish crown land East of the Dnipro and a much of the downstream land West of it, had not since been dislodged. They lost skirmishes, they won battles. They lacked only legitimacy, and various neighbours expressed varying interest in helping them with that.
Lithuania, having itself been victimized by some Cossack raids as well, had lost patience with... everyone. With Russia always threatening and looming over Smolensk, with Cossacks displacing refugees northward or even raiding into Lithuania itself and killing or driving off Lithuanians, or driving off other peoples living there who made so much of Lithuania's economy.
Russia wanted Smolensk back. And Baltic trade. And a Baltic port in which to do that trade. And for Sweden to stop being so manipulative without ever committing to actual action. Russia wanted to be seen as part of Europe.
The Crimean Tatars were loving the chaos, thriving in it. Where Cossacks attacked, Tatars joined them and returned to Crimea with new slaves to sell in the markets of Constantinople... or Istanbul, as more people were starting to call it, the Tatars among them. The Ottomans always welcomed more slaves, and would only accept non-Muslims. And with the Cossack lands buffering Crimea from Poland otherwise, it was a surprisingly safe set-up for gathering slaves to trade, then sending them south across the Black Sea.
Other neighbours of the Ottomans looked nervously at their southern borders as Lithuania looked at Russia. Poland was rarely foremost among neighbours they thought about...
Until the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania fell ill. In the span of a week in 1643, he disappeared from public view and died. Died at home, in bed, not in any battlefield restoring the country's borders and authority. Wladyslaw was never the healthiest of men, and the stresses of rule in a time of rebellion wore him down all the more thoroughly. His heir, Sigismund Casimir Vasa, was but three years old.
A phoenix might live, and be reborn again. But in between one life and the next is a time for vultures.
The szlachta of Poland and Lithuania argued about who might be elected King and Grand Duke next. Wladyslaw's son? One of his brothers? Someone else from a country that would become a sudden and desperately needed ally? If they chose the three-year-old, who would be regent? All szlachta were equals. But kingmakers might be more equal than others.
The Cossacks fortified their positions, mostly, advancing or even pulling back where they thought to have a clearer frontier with its neighbours. From Proskuriv northeastward to Zhytomir to Korosten, the land was Cossack land. If things were blurrier West of that, Khmelnytsky seemed willing to let a border land there. And while the Cossacks showed restraint in the field, they threw themselves into diplomacy. Letters to Krakow and Warsaw and Vilnius told of what royal candidates they would be more inclined to fight with or make peace with. He wrote to Sweden, to Prussia, to Courland, to Hungary and Transylvania and to Russia.
Russia stopped waiting for Sweden to shit or get off the pot. Two slow, strong armies moved West. One sauntered up to Smolensk, which Russia had wanted back since losing it to Lithuania decades before. It laid a siege, almost formulaically, testing for what reaction might come from Vilnius. Vilnius sent an army. But when that army came and easily broke the siege, a second Russian army moved into Inflanty Voivodeship - the last Polish/Lithuanian remnant of Livonia after all it had lost to Sweden before.
And amidst the chaos, Vilnius couldn't muster forces for defence on another front quickly enough. Courland and Semigallia fulfilled their vassalage obligations and got enough men, guns and horses across the Düna to hold Kreutzburg and Dünaburg, but while that saved two towns, it couldn't help hold any of the land around. So Vilnius, too, sent letters. The ones of greatest consequence were penned by Janusz Radziwiłł, a rising force in the Grand Duchy since his father's death.
And Radziwiłł's Divorce played out like this:
When Poland and Lithuania's szlachta gathered in a Election Sejm to choose a new King and Grand Duke, the Lithuanians walked out, claiming they would not accept any Grand Duke elected without representation from all the countries' regions. Poland elected Sigismund Casimir Vasa as King, and set to selecting a suitable regent.
The Lithuanian szlachta invited the Cossacks to their own Election Sejm in Vilnius. The Cossacks were legitimized at a stroke, and had turned an enemy into an ally in Lithuania. The Sejm elected Sigismund Rákóczi, son of the Prince of Transylvania, as the new Grand Duke of Lithuania and Ruthenia. A Protestant to further separate Lithuania and Ruthenia from Poland.
Then Russia, seeing the Cossacks slip from their grasp and into Lithuania's, set to securing peace. The final treaty was signed at Trakai, one time capital of Lithuania. The Tsar was ill and did not come in person. Poland didn't have a regent chosen yet, but sent a hetman. Radziwiłł and Khmlenytsky supported their new Grand Duke. Jakob Kettler came and signed too.
Russia had won Inflanty, save for the two towns on the Düna. They had a border with Semigallia now, and could nearly smell the Baltic. For their feinted siege of Smolensk, then won trade rights in that town, and the right to appoint nobles so 5 hereditary titles there - a foothold to influence Lithuania's future Sejms.
Inflanty went almost entirely to Russia. With neither Kreutzburg nor Dünaburg being adjacent to Lithuania or Poland, they were given to the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, which Russia loomed over on the right bank of the Düna. Courland remained the vassal of Poland rather than Lithuania - as previously in their history, they chose to swear a vassal's oaths to the more distant neighbour.
Poland had lost its crown lands in Ruthenia and beyond. To some, it had lost half of itself by losing Lithuania, birthplace of its greatest dynasty. Having shared jurisdiction over Inflanty with Lithuania, it had lost there too. It held on to Greater and Lesser Poland, and its vassals in Prussia and Courland and Semigallia.
A phoenix, turned to ashes, not yet rising.
People always talk about one specific part of a phoenix's life cycle. They talk about the phoenix rising from the ashes, over and over, and never much bring attention to the phoenix having to die over and over and over to get to the bit where they rise from the ashes. Maybe once, it is snuffed out like a candle, pinched between gloved fingers. Maybe once, it crashes into water, quenched in a fatal cacophony of steam. Maybe once, it just stopped burning, inconspicuously, unseen.
The history of Poland is much the same. You'll hear tell of when this or that royal line was extinguished, but Poland rose from the ashes by voting in a neighbouring country's Grand Duke, or voting in an entire new dynasty. When they voted a woman to be King, because their laws said they could not be ruled by a Queen, but those same laws said nothing about any requirements for a King's gender. When they were overthrown by internal revolt, neighbouring countries, general failures of centralizing enough power under their King's command... Poland kept rising from the ashes. There might be an improbable recovery from a siege, an invasion, diplomacy, defeats of their never-sufficient armies. Poland would come back, ruled by someone new, working with a new covenant between King and szlachta, befriended by powerful foreign friends or pulled by wealthy foreign puppet strings. Poland rose from ashes.
The corollary is that Poland was repeatedly reduced to ashes between resurrections. The most fertile national fate one could imagine for Catholicism to grow in, thrive in.
The Cossacks, once they had all Polish crown land East of the Dnipro and a much of the downstream land West of it, had not since been dislodged. They lost skirmishes, they won battles. They lacked only legitimacy, and various neighbours expressed varying interest in helping them with that.
Lithuania, having itself been victimized by some Cossack raids as well, had lost patience with... everyone. With Russia always threatening and looming over Smolensk, with Cossacks displacing refugees northward or even raiding into Lithuania itself and killing or driving off Lithuanians, or driving off other peoples living there who made so much of Lithuania's economy.
Russia wanted Smolensk back. And Baltic trade. And a Baltic port in which to do that trade. And for Sweden to stop being so manipulative without ever committing to actual action. Russia wanted to be seen as part of Europe.
The Crimean Tatars were loving the chaos, thriving in it. Where Cossacks attacked, Tatars joined them and returned to Crimea with new slaves to sell in the markets of Constantinople... or Istanbul, as more people were starting to call it, the Tatars among them. The Ottomans always welcomed more slaves, and would only accept non-Muslims. And with the Cossack lands buffering Crimea from Poland otherwise, it was a surprisingly safe set-up for gathering slaves to trade, then sending them south across the Black Sea.
Other neighbours of the Ottomans looked nervously at their southern borders as Lithuania looked at Russia. Poland was rarely foremost among neighbours they thought about...
Until the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania fell ill. In the span of a week in 1643, he disappeared from public view and died. Died at home, in bed, not in any battlefield restoring the country's borders and authority. Wladyslaw was never the healthiest of men, and the stresses of rule in a time of rebellion wore him down all the more thoroughly. His heir, Sigismund Casimir Vasa, was but three years old.
A phoenix might live, and be reborn again. But in between one life and the next is a time for vultures.
The szlachta of Poland and Lithuania argued about who might be elected King and Grand Duke next. Wladyslaw's son? One of his brothers? Someone else from a country that would become a sudden and desperately needed ally? If they chose the three-year-old, who would be regent? All szlachta were equals. But kingmakers might be more equal than others.
The Cossacks fortified their positions, mostly, advancing or even pulling back where they thought to have a clearer frontier with its neighbours. From Proskuriv northeastward to Zhytomir to Korosten, the land was Cossack land. If things were blurrier West of that, Khmelnytsky seemed willing to let a border land there. And while the Cossacks showed restraint in the field, they threw themselves into diplomacy. Letters to Krakow and Warsaw and Vilnius told of what royal candidates they would be more inclined to fight with or make peace with. He wrote to Sweden, to Prussia, to Courland, to Hungary and Transylvania and to Russia.
Russia stopped waiting for Sweden to shit or get off the pot. Two slow, strong armies moved West. One sauntered up to Smolensk, which Russia had wanted back since losing it to Lithuania decades before. It laid a siege, almost formulaically, testing for what reaction might come from Vilnius. Vilnius sent an army. But when that army came and easily broke the siege, a second Russian army moved into Inflanty Voivodeship - the last Polish/Lithuanian remnant of Livonia after all it had lost to Sweden before.
And amidst the chaos, Vilnius couldn't muster forces for defence on another front quickly enough. Courland and Semigallia fulfilled their vassalage obligations and got enough men, guns and horses across the Düna to hold Kreutzburg and Dünaburg, but while that saved two towns, it couldn't help hold any of the land around. So Vilnius, too, sent letters. The ones of greatest consequence were penned by Janusz Radziwiłł, a rising force in the Grand Duchy since his father's death.
And Radziwiłł's Divorce played out like this:
When Poland and Lithuania's szlachta gathered in a Election Sejm to choose a new King and Grand Duke, the Lithuanians walked out, claiming they would not accept any Grand Duke elected without representation from all the countries' regions. Poland elected Sigismund Casimir Vasa as King, and set to selecting a suitable regent.
The Lithuanian szlachta invited the Cossacks to their own Election Sejm in Vilnius. The Cossacks were legitimized at a stroke, and had turned an enemy into an ally in Lithuania. The Sejm elected Sigismund Rákóczi, son of the Prince of Transylvania, as the new Grand Duke of Lithuania and Ruthenia. A Protestant to further separate Lithuania and Ruthenia from Poland.
Then Russia, seeing the Cossacks slip from their grasp and into Lithuania's, set to securing peace. The final treaty was signed at Trakai, one time capital of Lithuania. The Tsar was ill and did not come in person. Poland didn't have a regent chosen yet, but sent a hetman. Radziwiłł and Khmlenytsky supported their new Grand Duke. Jakob Kettler came and signed too.
Russia had won Inflanty, save for the two towns on the Düna. They had a border with Semigallia now, and could nearly smell the Baltic. For their feinted siege of Smolensk, then won trade rights in that town, and the right to appoint nobles so 5 hereditary titles there - a foothold to influence Lithuania's future Sejms.
Inflanty went almost entirely to Russia. With neither Kreutzburg nor Dünaburg being adjacent to Lithuania or Poland, they were given to the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, which Russia loomed over on the right bank of the Düna. Courland remained the vassal of Poland rather than Lithuania - as previously in their history, they chose to swear a vassal's oaths to the more distant neighbour.
Poland had lost its crown lands in Ruthenia and beyond. To some, it had lost half of itself by losing Lithuania, birthplace of its greatest dynasty. Having shared jurisdiction over Inflanty with Lithuania, it had lost there too. It held on to Greater and Lesser Poland, and its vassals in Prussia and Courland and Semigallia.
A phoenix, turned to ashes, not yet rising.
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Woah, that was not what i was expecting at all, but it is exciting! Lithuania-Ruthenia breaking off the Commonwealth, with Poland left to itself, together with vassals. That frontier with Russia doesn't smells good for Courland imo, although i think the natural next step for Moscow would be a war with Sweden, i don't think the swedes would quite lose to the russians at this point and stage.
Yet, and also the reason i think this was unexpected, is that Poland's situation probably will become worse before it becomes better. It isn't exactly well-off, but it is intact technically speaking, no flames burning above the polish sky, and that means soon enough there will be flames, with no Commonwealth to amass the resources needed for coping with that. Almost cruel.
Yet, and also the reason i think this was unexpected, is that Poland's situation probably will become worse before it becomes better. It isn't exactly well-off, but it is intact technically speaking, no flames burning above the polish sky, and that means soon enough there will be flames, with no Commonwealth to amass the resources needed for coping with that. Almost cruel.