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The other armada
Parts 10-20
The Other Armada Pt. Eleven: You Take the High Road, I'll Take Scotland... Selections from the Treaty of Lisbon, Signed September 20, 1781 -The Kingdom of Great Britain to cede the Isles of Cutter, Guernsey,
Sark, Alderney, and Jersey to the Kingdom of France in perpetuity
Signed-
The Other Armada Pt. 11.5: A Little Irish In Me "Granted formal independance by the Act of Liberation in 1782, in which the British Parliment (now meeting in a hastily-constructed wooden theater in London), promised to never again send British troops onto Irish soil) the Kingdom of Ireland saw many changes with their new-found freedoms." "The city of Cork, ceded to the French, soon became a thriving port
city, with a strong immigrant community from all over the world. Though
many in the city
"The British having largely dispersed the lines of the various Irish Kings, the first King of the fully-independant Kingdom of Ireland was Louis-Philippe Joseph de Bourbon-Orl?ans, styling himself King Philip I of Ireland. A popular man, a minor cousin of King Louis XVI, he immediately became a great friend of the Irish people, very surprising for a Bourbon. It was on his recommendation that Ireland retained their Parliment, rather than becoming an absolute monarchy, sparing Ireland many years of possible unrest and hardship." "Philip's first Prime Minister of Ireland was Henry Grattan who soon
was known as the Irish Walpole..."
The Other Armada Pt. Twelve: Democracy, and Other Terrors. As the 1780s dawned, the American government is faced with a twin problem: What to do with territories that they had actually won in battle, that hadn't rebelled with the rest of the colonies, and what to do about political unity. For the first, the solution iss simple. Nova Scotia and West Florida are created Territories, with Nathanial Greene and Benjamin Lincoln chosen as the military governors of both until elections could be held and they could be admitted as states. Both men soon learn the irritations of such a job, especially after the Continental Army demobilizes and heads home. For the second, events finally lead to the Constitutional Convention of 1785, with George Washington and John Adams elected as President and Vice-President near the end of that same year, for a five year term. For Washington's Cabinet, he chooses many prominent men from all sections: James Madison as Secretary of State, Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury, and many other luminaries in positions of power. Dispatched as Minister to Sweden is Thomas Jefferson, in terrible disgrace at home for his treaty that handed over American-conquered Canada to the French. Many, many Americans are angry at the French for this slight, especially those Continentals who settled in Nova Scotia... Further south in the Americas, the colony of East Florida begins expanding rapidly in early 1782 with the arrival of the first of what will eventually be 120,000 Loyalists from all over the United States and newly re-French Canada. Landing at St. Augustine, they soon begin disseminating into the interior, fighting several bloody wars with the Seminoles before finally crushing them under sheer weight of numbers near the end of the decade. By that time, many more have died of malaria, so a project begins to completely drain the Everglades swamp...of course, also by then, they have an entirely new problem. George III abdicates in 1782, retiring to an estate in Hanover where he will go quietly mad until his death by cardiac arrest in 1802. George IV is crowned King at the terrifyingly young age of 20. A drunk and lollygagger, George would much rather be out drinking, which he does. One thing he does bother to do is ensure the rise to power of his old friend Charles Fox, who becomes Prime Minister in 1783. The British people do not like their young King, or much of anything to do with the Hanoverians, but they are stuck with him. Fox's tentative efforts at reform are met with near-total failure, especially attempts to emacipate the Catholics; it makes him seem even more of a French puppet than in OTL. Many British Catholics have headed for Ireland, where they are fully emancipated. Except, of course, for an irritating minority that keeps insisting that Charles Edward Stuart, now allowed back in the country. Fox finally concieves a bold plan to do away with the Stuart problem. Charles, when confronted with the choice of life-long house arrest in a lonely estate on the Isle of Skye, vs a chance to be in charge somewhere, picks the latter...and so, in 1785, the new Governor-General of East Florida sets sail. Charles Edward Stuart! The colony, which already gives rights to Catholics to accomadate the Spaniards living there (as of the Act of 1780, in a rather desperate bid to get the Spanish and Americans out of WEST Florida) welcomes the new Governor-General with rather puzzled arms. When he dies in 1790, many more English Catholics have emigrated to Florida, further swelling the population of the colony. Continuing the tradition of royal Governor-Generals, the next is Ernest, Duke of Cumberland... France, meanwhile, expands her trading empire. The Marquis de Lafayette accepts a posting in India, where he soon finds himself fighting on the island of Ceylon. French explorers land on the coast of Australia, soon discovering everywhere save the tiny British colony of Botany Bay. French ships follow up on Cook, planting French flags in Hawaii and Polynesia. A slight movement begins to free the slaves in the Caribbean. Spain, also, experiences a great financial
revolution, with the new revenues from Spanish Oregon and the Hudson's
Bay Company, now run from Madrid. The Dutch get stupfyingly rich from the
East Indies spice trade...
The Other Armada Pt. 14: Without Form Like many things, it begins with something simple. Richard Sheridan is addressing a packed crowd of spectators on Streatham Hill, speaking on the value of the Rights of Man. It is March of 1795, a clear, crisp day. Sheridan has the crowd spellbound, his playwrighting abilities have translated well to speechcraft...until the soldiers arrive. They are a regiment of South Wales Borderers, come to arrest Sheridan. Sheridan is astonished, he knew Prime Minister Addington was cracking down on dissent, but he had no idea that he, an old friend of George IV, could possibly be arrested, and thrown in Newgate...which he promptly is. Conditions aren't good there, but they are tolerable, even after Sheridan finds himself rubbing elbows with a crowd as diverse as Charles Grey, William Wilberforce, and even Edmund Burke. To the dissenters outside the prison, in London and the surrounding countryside, however, their heroes have been seized by the government to have who knows what done to them! Of all the second-rank leaders of the political movements, only one man steps forward to assume leadership of the United Society of the People...a young orator named William Blake. Speaking to a rapidly-growing swell of underground leaders, Blake's message is clear. The arrest of Sheridan and the others, especially of prominent men like Burke, spells only one thing: Repression. If the government is allowed to get away with this, they'll get away with anything, and any hopes of political reform will be dead for generations. There is only one chance...liberate the prisoners, and then, strike against the government itself. Blake has agents already in the mob in St. Giles, a slum neighborhood...perfect for firing up into a revoltionary fervor when he speaks there on July 3, 1795. Blake speaks for two hours, and when he is finished, the 1,000 or so people there will follow him into Hell. Or at least to Newgate... The attack is sudden and swift; fortunately the crowd does not seek the death of any of the guards, merely the liberation of the prisoners. With Sheridan, Burke, and Grey safely free (mostly horrified by what has happened, especially Burke), the mob now turns ugly. Many of the freed prisoners, criminals and the dregs of society, join the mob, dispersing rapidly through the city when soldiers arrive, looting and burning. When reports of this get to Addington, he assumes (not unreasonably) that it is a full-fledged rebellion, and warrants are issued for the arrest of William Blake, Richard Sheridan, William Wilberforce, Edmund Burke, and Charles Grey, along with a dozen other liberals and radicals...on a charge of capital treason. This will prove to be Addington's mistake; while Blake is radical enough, a bitter failed art student with a hatred of the French and monarchism that runs deep, as is Grey, Wilberforce and especially Burke are basically pro-monarchy...until, of course, they find themselves with warrants out on their heads. Fleeing into the countryside, protected by a defecting company of infantry led by a young captain named Isacc Brock, the group eventually comes to rest in Coventry, and actually takes shelter for the night of July 12 in the burnt-out shell of the temporary Parliment building of 1780. While there, they begin work on a document called "A Declaration of
the Rights of Man...
The Other Armada Pt. 15: When a Cold Wind Blows, It Chills You... February 20, 1796
The Agamemnon fired a burst of shell into the fleeing rebel frigate, setting it alight. Captain Horatio Nelson watched with grim satisfaction, tempered with the realization of just how useless it might be. The Plymouth mutineers still controlled the city, in cooperation with a "British Council" of workers and reformers, and other traitors to the King, and a defeat of a minor raid against Devon wouldn't change that. Nelson would be loyal to his dying day, of course, but many weren't.
He'd been a Spanish prisoner in Cuba for two years after his raid against
Nicuragua had
Reports of how the war was going were...interesting, though, when he and his ship put into port for resupply. Sir William Erskine, a young divisional commander, had put down the rebellious Scots quite bloodily, and while he was rumored to act on behalf of the King...well, the rumors coming out of Scotland were disturbing. "A road from Edinburgh to London, paved in the blood of rebels..." William Howe, meanwhile, was tangling with rebellious republicans in
Wales, and had taken Fishguard before being beaten back by a well-armed
force, consisting
March 1, 1796
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart watched with pleasure as _Martel_ entered its
final act. He'd been despairing of commisions just a few years before,
until King
Of course, he could still accept commisions from elsewhere, like from
back home...he carefully studied the document, with the astonishing signature
and seal of the King of Prussia and the Emperor of Austria. "Write an anthem
commerating the glory of the German people..."
The Other Armada Pt. 16: The Darkest Tale That Was Ever Told The late 1790s are a time of splendor and luxury for France. Many salon writers are calling Louis XVI "The Dawn King", in memory of the luxury and prosperity of France under Louis XIV. They are, for the moment, blinded to the historical lesson of Louis XIV...when France gets too powerful, the rest of Europe gangs up on her. Despite urgent proposals from the Count d'Artois, France stays neutral in the British Revolution, supplying only desultory and occasional aid to the Royalist forces. And, again, despite tensions with the increasingly unified Germans on the eastern frontier, France's main military expeditures are the conquests in India, and occasional help to the Spanish in their conquests in Morocco. Speaking of India, the Marquis de Lafayette finally returns home in early 1797, leaving matters in the hands of his assistant Bernadotte, utterly exhausted. He has been fighting almost contiously for nearly twenty years, first in the Americas, then in India, and he just wants to rest. He settles in his family estate, where he begins to write his memoirs and watches, with interest, the ongoing events in the British Revolution... In early 1798, Isacc Brock, who has gone from captain to general in three years, is struck down at the fall of Manchester, the second Martyr of the Revolution, after Edmund Burke, who died on Christmas Day, 1797, shortly after completing the sections of the Republican Proclimation that outline equal rights for all men. Chosen to replace him is John Moore, who immediatly makes his goal the destruction of Royalist forces in the Appenines. Earlier generals have been distracted by the impulse to take on the increasingly insane William Erskine, who has been almost completely cut off from Royalist help in Scotland for over a year now. Moore's goal is nothing more and nothing less than the destruction of the British Army, or at least to force it to surrender. Tired and sick, General Henry Clinton died in 1796, replaced by the even older William Howe. Many commentators note how young the Republicans are, and how old the Royalists... London remains safe for the moment, though the King has taken up shelter in Kent, in an unknown country estate. Significantly, though, he sends his children, Princess Charlotte, who is 12, and Prince Arthur, who is six. (They are different children than in OTL, as George married a different princess, a niece of the King of Sweden.), to East Florida, where they soon play on the sprawling St. Augustine estate of Ernest, the Duke of Cumberland and Governor-General of East Florida. Ernest, meanwhile, has been meeting with the commander
of the local militia, a middle-aged Loyalist hero, Patrick Ferguson. Ferguson
is still bitter about the failure of the British to support him against
Morgan and Lincoln, and has been turning a blind eye to raids against West
Florida and Georgia. Ferguson and Ernest are also privately wondering just
what they will do if the Republicans win...
The Other Armada Pt. 17: Death Becomes Them 1798 sees a smallpox expedition sweeping through Britain, with 100,000 to die before it is all over. The plague is a calamity, killing a fair percentage of the casualties of the entire war up to this time. The exhausted armies temporarily pause to take stock of the situation. Among the dead are Republicans William Wilberforce and Edmund Blackadder. Wilberforce, the "conscience" of the Revolution, will be missed in days to come. John Moore has secured everything up to the Scottish border, and raids
across the border into Scotland speak of horrors; William Erskine has gone
slowly mad,
Young Francis Jeffrey leads the Resistance, despite his limp from polio, he plots and schemes against Erskine from his fortress in the Marches, a bold strategist, most noted for his Edinburgh Review, getting out the news of Erskine's horrors to the people of the countryside, rising them up. Jeffrey leads one camp on John Moore's shoulder, suggesting that he strike north against Erskine at all costs. The other is led by William Blake, a firm believer in his People's Militia. Despite the failure of the militia at most battles against veteran troops, Blake is still very influential in the Republican camp. Blake argues for a strike south, against the Royalist positions in the southwest of England. While the Republicans control most of the country from their capital at Coventry, they will never be in charge unless they control the city of London itself. Let Erskine fall, or raise a People's Militia against him in Scotland. Moore ponders his decision for a long time, through the long, hot, poxy summer of 1798, until he finally makes his choice. It will be an all or nothing gesture...he will gather his regulars and strike against the Royalist positions north of London like the wrath of God, while William Blake himself will lead the expedition north into Scotland... William Blake fights a hard, bitter battle through the fall and winter of 1799. Finally bringing Erskine to battle at Tweedsmuir, Blake crushes Erskine's personal guard and shatters his army on October 31. For the rest of the winter and spring, Blake's amy chases Erskine all through Scotland, until he is finally captured, identified, and decapitated by an officer in Blake's army named Ned Pakenham. Blake becomes temporary governor of Scotland, until the Scottish Parliment can be reassembled. Moore's campaign of 1798-99 is one of the high points of British military history; Tarleton's defeat and capture at Gloucester, Howe's long and bitter retreat from Northampton to Reading, finally ending in the surrender at Guildford, becomes as legendary as any battle of Marlborough's or Cromwell's. On February 14, 1799, Henry Addington surrenders himself and his Cabinet to John Moore's army, and a week later, George IV abdicates in favor of his brother Ernest (as regent until Prince Arthur comes of age), and surrenders also. Monarchial problems aren't over yet...in March of that year, King Louis XVI accepts the delivery of prize Barbary cattle, taken especially for the table of the King himself. Little does he know of the plague ravaging the city, with 3000 dead daily. The cattle are prepared as part of a grand steak dinner, with most of the royal family invited... On March 5-6, 1799, King Louis XVI, the Dauphin, the King's younger
brother, the comte Provence, and Louis' younger son, Charles, all die of
a combination
The Other Armada Pt 18: Hearts Know What To Say May 14, 1799
"He is spineless," the comte d'Artois, second line to the throne of
France, muttered as he stared out the window. "The republican, English-loving
dogs who murdered my brother and his family are STILL OUT THERE!" He pointed
to a random neighborhood of Paris. "I tell you, Polignac, Louis is weak!
He sits on the
"No," said the conservative politician, after a moment's thought, "some may call it treason, perhaps, but you are as royal as he is, and far more correct in your views. He hasn't the support of the Civil Service, and his reforms make him look like a Orleanist...", muttered Polignac, referring to Philip I's recent request, on behalf of his subjects, the Irish people, for a return of the city of Kinsale to the Kingdom of Ireland. The King had been considering it, of all things, before his brother talked him out of it. "Yes..." said Charles, looking out over Paris again, at Notre Dame. "I am correct, I know I am. And I am just as royal as he is, too..." August 23, 1799
Sixteen year-old Washington Irving carried another stack of papers up
to his employer's desk, transcripts of conversations with country people
from all over
Irving carefully set them on the Scotsman's desk. "These are the files
on the Headless Horseman, Mr. Scott, all the interviews, from the farmer
and the
The Other Armada Pt. 19: There's Something About Britain As Henry Addington and the former George IV board the H.M.S. Agamemnon, on their way to permanent exile in Florida, the new government of Britain is faced with the problem of what to do about...well, a government. While a Republican Council consisting of Home Popham, Grey, Blake, Sheridan, and Elizabeth Fry govern the country, delegates from all over Britain meet in a quickly-thrown together meeting area on the Sussex Downs to plan the future of the British people. The convention, as most Constitutional Conventions do, seperates into factions almost immediately. Lord George Gordon and Elizabeth Fry lead the radical wing, they want equal sufferage for all, Catholic, Protestant, poor, rich, black, and white, male and female, with an abolishment of the state church, and devolution to local governments. Sheridan and Grey are the more middle-of-the-road faction, favoring something more akin to the American Constitution, while Baron William Grenville and his brother George head the conservative faction, calling for a "Parliment without the King". Throughout 1799, while most of Europe deals with their own republican movements in their own way, Britain deals with getting a successful one...until, at last, they finally do. On December 6, 1799, the 273 delegates put their signatures on the Sussex Constitution, and broadsheets are distributed throughout Britain, describing the new government. On the most basic level, who gets to
vote, matters are compromised somewhat. Members of every religion and race
get equal sufferage, but property qualifications are retained, while they
are lowered somewhat. Women gain the right to hold property and full status
under the law, except they may not vote
The House of Lords is retained, though significantly altered. Those who sit in it now retain their status and title, but the titles will not be inherited. As members die off, their seats will be filled by elections from the borough in which they lived. Areas with no local lord now will have their elections immediately. Elected Lords will not have any titles, though they may be called "Lord Smith", though that will not pass onto their children. The House of Lords will be the only house that taxation bills and Constitutional Amendments may originate in. Lords who have fled the country will be replaced by election and stripped of their titles. The election for the House of Lords will be every ten years. In the executive branch, three men will be elected Premier every ten years. They alone have the power to make war, declare war, and execute the laws of the land, and they can cancel each other out. John Moore himself, from his camp near the Convention, insists on this. He has no desire to go down as Cromwell, Mk. Two, especially since he has no urge to be in charge... The judiciary is heavily
reformed, modeled closely on both the Scottish and American legal systems.
One of the key things they need, it is decided, is a
In the election of 1800, held early in the
new year, three men are chosen for the top spots by the massed British
electorate; Richard Sheridan, William
In response to the Revolution, every country
in Europe sees an outbreak of Republican sentiment in 1800, from learned
papers written in the more free
Interestingly, it is only France that really
plans to make reforms. King Louis XVII chooses a Parlement from among the
most prominent nobles of the
The Other Armada Pt. 19.5: Where Are They Now? 1800 The Americans: James Madison is Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and a rather frustrated man. When the Republican party seemed near defeat in the early part of the Adams administration, he accepted what appeared to be a plum assignment, one that ensured him a steady job, unlike so many of his fellow partymen. Now, the success of the British Revolution has spawned a revival of the party, and he is trapped in a position he swore to keep for the rest of his life. While President John Jay did beat Monroe, Monroe won the Vice-Presidency instead of John Marshall, the Federalist candidate, and Jay has adopted a policy in favor of Britain over France. Willam Maclay, the new minister to Britain, is the perfect candidate, a small d-democrat in every sense of the world. Madison reads the papers, and chats with old friends, and thinks idly of what might have been... 21 year old Zebulon Pike has just graduated from West Point Military Academy. Founded in 1796 by a US slightly more worried about military affairs than in OTL, what with a large, agressive state with few apparant rivals on its borders, one that had badly screwed them over in the very recent past. Pike is heading for his post in Fort Greene, on the border with the French territory of Michigan. Settlement there is skimpy at best, but it is clear that it favors the United States, especially since France has begun sending certain prisoners to Western Australia, rather than Detriot. Pike looks forward to a relatively uneventful posting under General
Henry Dearborn, where he and his fellow messmates may plan the war everyone
has been
The British: William Wordsworth is a Gothic writer, living in a small one-story house in Kent, a bleak area that has never really recovered from the Invasion of '79. The death of his sister Dorothy in 1797 at the hands of rampaging Republican forces under the unstable Lord George Gordon "cured me of poetry", as he wrote to a friend in London. However, the creative urge still burns within him, and Wordsworth decides that he will write a book, a great epic tale...but of what, is the question? As he stares out into the empty fields, he finally makes his choice. He will test the waters of the new government's freedom of speech laws with a tale hearkening back to the earliest days of Britain; "Arthur, The Once and Future King." Mary Wollstonecraft is one of only three female Members of the New Parliment, elected from her district in the South of London. Wollstonecraft is one of the most radical members in the New Parliment, she is fully in favor of spreading the revolution to the rest of Europe by any means necessary. She has written many works on the necessity of revolution and of equal rights for women. To the surprise of many, Wollstonecraft is often seen in the company of Premier William Blake, and the two previously unmarriageable pair are often whispered about... The French: François-Athanase Charette de La Contrie is blasting his way through Algiers. Incidents with French cargo vessels, including one captained by a minor cousin of the King, have prompted a full-scale response against the pirates. Francois, a naval officer by training, has commanded at the seizure of Tripoli itself, leaving only the other two major states to fall to France. He cares not for rumors of revolution and discontent, he only wants to bring this area under the control of France. Alexander Berthier is slowly working on establishing proper trade relations with the Marathras to the north. The sudden re-apperance and conquests of France in recent years made them so nervous, they managed to temporarily, at least, organize themselves into a well-armed and well-formed state, at least one that can resist "incursions" and "probings" by French-backed forces on their southern border. He knows full well the British are supplying them somewhat through Calcutta, but he just can't prove it. And the rest: Ernest I has declared himself King of Florida. With the backing of Ferguson's colonial militia, Royalist troops and ships that have arrived after the Republican victory, he has temporarily assured himself of no invasion attempts by the Americas, despite an abortive brush by General William Hull. Ernest has married by this time, to Claudia, daughter of the King of Bohemia, and is expecting a child of his own. While he is not formally irrendentist, not yet, he does still title himself with all the titles his father had, save only King of France. In Spanish California, Don Alejandro de la Vega is riding through the
countryside, alone with his thoughts. Since the death of his wife Chiquita,
he was forced to send his son Diego back to Madrid for a proper education,
and this has left him all alone in a vast mansion house. Unlike many men
of his time, he remains loyal to the memory of his wife, so he has focused
his energies into long rides, far off into the hills. He is almost a week's
ride away from home when he draws his horse up to a river to drink. He
gets off, and as he is dipping his hands into the water of the stream to
drink himself, he happens to look down and spy a golden glint in the water...
The Other Armada Pt. 20: Thinking Things Out The first half of the 18-aughts is a surprisingly dull time, at least to the perceptions of the military-minded of the world. While French forces do complete the conquest of Algiers, and American forces in Tennessee under General James Wilkinson begin a series of off-again-on-again wars with the Cree Indians, most of the nations of the world are at comparitive peace with each other. In May of 1801, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Owen, founders of the town of New Harmony, Pennsylvania, publish _Education of the Soul_, describing their ideal for a public school system. State-funded schools and state-funding teacher training programs will not be fully adopted for many years in most countries, both the state of Pennsylvania and their native British Republic adopts their system within a decade. Despite the hesitancy of the Jay administration, the United States signs a formal alliance with the British Republic in 1802. The US is more internationalistic in this TL, much less isolationist. The American Minister to Britain, John Quincy Adams, soon is managing an active cross-channel trade, American Admiral Preble and British Admiral Popham are arguing over who has the betters ships as they cruise from Savannah to Gambia to Australia, then the long run back to American shores. The decade also sees the publishing of the first series of Romantic
poems and prose works by Humphrey Davy. The British NMP and his circle
of mad friends,
William Blake and Mary Wollstonecraft finally bring their romance to
a head in 1804 with a marriage in London's St. Paul's cathedral. Britain
is astounded at
To fill out his term, Richard Sheridan and William Carey select William
Hayley, the Sussex country squire who provided a place for the Constitutional
Convention on the grounds of his home. Hayley is an obtuse man, mostly
chosen as a place holder and a friend of Blake's, and he soon fades into
obscurity. With Carey concentrating on missionary and education work among
the poor of Britain, as well as managing the affairs of Gambia and Australia,
the de facto
In France, things start out looking good. The Marquis de Condorcet emerges
as a leader in Louis XVII's Parlement, and a humanist leader for France
in general.
Of all the people stirred by this rather controversial statement, none
is more stirrered than the Comte D'Artois, Charles. Brother to the King
and heir to the
Never shy about expressing his opinions on the matter, Charles and his brother argue frequently, often in public, about the Parlement and the future of the monarchy in France in general. Charles is horrified in 1805 when his brother confides privately that he finds the Orleanist model in Ireland highly appealing, a Consitutional monarchy. He completely loses control of himself and shouts at Louis, shaking him by the shoulders, reminding him of his duty to France, to protect the Crown and produce an heir, calling him a traitor to the line going back to Capet, almost shrieking...and Louis, startled by his brother's rage, takes a step back, and trips over the carpet. Charles is horrified to watch as Louis falls backward, and strikes his
temple on the corner of a marble table with a sickening crunch. He yells
for physicians and tries to make his brother comfortable, weeping, but
soon is confronted with the stark truth. King Louis will never wake up.
Charles must take the throne and act as Regent, for the duration of Louis's
disablement...
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