[EU3 Death and Taxes] Mares de Açúcar e Especiarias: A Lusitanian AAR

[SouthernKing]

Welcome! This is my first AAR on this site (not my first story/AAR about a strategy game, I have done several for Civ4 on the Civfanatics forums)

I will be playing as Portugal, using Death and Taxes 3.4 (or whatever was the latest version to not have the 1356 start) and that is what I will be playing throughout (unless, if it is possible to keep the save intact and transfer it to 4.X, then I will transfer. I would appreciate it if someone told me this.). This will be a history book style AAR, written from the perspective of someone in-universe. [Annotations will be written in brackets within the text, like this.] I will try to play in-character, so I will be making some moves that otherwise would be questionable. My goals ATM are to control everywhere that Portugal did historically, and more if possible, and turn Portugal into a sea-spanning empire.

Anyway, I will beautify this post later, when I have the time and motivation. Expect weekly updates.

 

[SouthernKing]

October 15, 1399 was a decisive date in the history of the British Isles, for it was the date on which Henry of Bolingbroke, 2nd Duke of Lancaster, was elevated to the throne of England, becoming Henry IV. Little did anyone know that this event would change European history within just a few years.

Joao I, King of Portugal, took an immediate dislike to the new king. Joao had been cordial friends and allies with Richard II, Henry’s predecessor on the throne. However, Joao took an immediate dislike to the new king, considering him arrogant. Joao had visited London for the coronation, and during a feast afterwards Henry had made a tasteless joke about Joao. Needless to say, when just days later Henry asked Joao for aid in England’s war with France before Joao boarded the ship back to Portugal, Joao refused. The incident would start a long history of feuding between the the two kings and their respective countries, which would ultimately lead to war in less than a decade.

Joao I, King of Portugal 1385-1418​

When Joao returned to Lisboa, he decided that increasing the size and strength of the Portuguese military were in order. To do this, he elevated his top [“top” in this case meaning the people Joao thought were the most loyal to him] officers in each branch of the military, Nuno Alvarez Pereira in the army and Antonio de Carvalho in the navy, to the newly created posts of Grand Commander and Grand Admiral respectively, to head reforms as necessary. The size of the Portuguese army was doubled virtually overnight, and with de Carvalho’s leadership, a new generation of admiralty was recruited.

On the foreign front, Joao decided that it would be of utmost priority to ensure Portugal’s security. Therefore, Joao signed a defensive pact with King Enrique III of Castille to ensure Portuguese independence in Iberia. To help check England, he signed a defensive pact with King Robert III of Scotland. Both kings would become Joao’s personal friends later in life.

The Catholic Church in 1399 was struggling in the midst of the Avignon antipapacy and yet another investiture contest with the Holy Roman Empire. With the Church unable to maintain as strong a grip on Europe as it had done in the past, Joao began encouraging court scholars, as well as those at secular schools such as the University of Beira, to start straying from the Church’s narrowminded view. Although this meant that Portugal would start losing influence and favor within the Church, its reputation was crippled to the point where little could be done about these moves. Joao did take special precautions to ensure that he was not excommunicated.

In early 1400, a minor noble in the city of Faro, in the south of the country, proved himself to be Portugal’s foremost expert at defensive fortifications. Word of him arrived at the court, whence Joao proclaimed that not only would he be allowed to stay in Faro, he would also be elevated to the position of Mayor of Faro. [the previous mayor had died just months earlier]

In late 1402, tensions were rising between Castile and England over a trade dispute, especially after Enrique III banished all Englishmen from the country in November 1402. Henry IV within days declared war, joined by Wales and Pomerania. It proved to be a grave mistake. Portugal in defense of her ally embarked six thousand soldiers, half the Portuguese army, on a campaign to land in Wales and threaten England. [Why exactly Joao did this is unknown, but accounts suggest that the king was to some extent a megalomaniac.] The Pomeranian and Welsh navies were both easily crushed in the English Channel, and in April 1403 the Portuguese army debarked in Gwynedd, on the north coast of Wales, easily crushing the smaller Welsh army; only a handful of Welshmen escaped death or capture. The Portuguese soon laid siege to Caernarfon, the Welsh capital, and Joao soon sailed from Lisboa to join them. But in June, instead of heading directly to the Scottish border, an English army numbering thirteen thousand, coming from the south, attacked the Portuguese. Joao arrived just in time to see the battle; not wanting to see his army get destroyed, he accepted an offer of white peace, removing Portugal from the war. However, with the Portuguese army proving a key distraction, the Scottish were able to crush the English army in Northumberland, and England was forced to accept a humiliating peace, losing most of her northern lands to Scotland and Cornwall and Kent to Burgundy.

​

The next few years brought peace However, bickering between nobles began to take its toll on the efficiency of the government. In April 1404, crisis emerged when Joao attempted to redraw the borders of feudal domains within the country to better organize and ease administration. However, this was not pleasing to many of the nobles who would end up losing land during the redrawing. Crisis emerged, as noble after noble threatened to revolt. Joao was forced to let the nobles retain control over everything except Lisboa and its vicinity, while he had been planning to add additional lands to his demesne. Consolidation of Portuguese royal power would have to wait.

A map of Portugal as it were after the 1404 redrawing of ducal boundaries, with said boundaries visible.​

The Portuguese navy was rapidly gaining a reputation as one of the most advanced and strongest in Europe. It already eclipsed that of its neighbor Castile, and only countries such as England and France could outmatch it. By 1407, it had become so reputable that Grand Admiral Antonio de Carvalho declared in a now-famous letter to King Joao that "Portugal's future lies across the waters" and that "we need to embrace glory in our navy." Centuries later, his words seem telling, even prophetic, although nobody realized it at the time...

​

 

[hoplitejoe]

You had a lucky escape from England's navy

 

[Mosher]

Sub post

 

[MoreEpicThanYou]

Why didn't you start in 1356? Anyway, sub.

 

[Optical]

the latest version to not have the 1356 start

Looks great so far

 

[Yoshiegg737]

I be watching

 

[GamezRule]

Lurker mode initiated!

 

[mayor]

subbed

 

[Alexius08]

Will be watching on this one, especially on how you'd depict 'el Hombre'.

 

[uat2d]

Seas of sugar and spices? Now that's an interesting name!

Funny that you immediately declared war on England when Portugal and England have the oldest alliance in history, dating back to 1386.

 

[civ_king]

Seas of sugar and spices? Now that's an interesting name!

Funny that you immediately declared war on England when Portugal and England have the oldest alliance in history, dating back to 1386.

Becuase 1386 totally predates the Auld Alliance (circa 1295) amirite?

 

[hoplitejoe]

It was the longest alliance and oldest current alliance. I have a feeling that there have been alliances for quite a long time prior to 1295

 

[Jos Ballenbak]

Oh hi, I'm Jos Ballenbak, zombiehunter by nature, but I will watch your AAR as it progresses.

 

[uat2d]

It was the longest alliance and oldest current alliance. I have a feeling that there have been alliances for quite a long time prior to 1295

Indeed, as long as there has been war there have been alliances!

However those are no longer active, whereas even in the last century Portugal for example confiscated all German ships in its ports during WW1 and allowed the Allies to use the base of Lajes in Azores during WW2, because of that alliance.

 

[W|M]

Will be watching on this one, especially on how you'd depict 'el Hombre'.

It's O Homem, not El Hombre!

 

[uat2d]

It's O Homem, not El Hombre!

I believe that was how Isabella called João II.

Oh, those were the days...

 

[civ_king]

It was the longest alliance and oldest current alliance. I have a feeling that there have been alliances for quite a long time prior to 1295

I never found a document ending the Auld Alliance, even though the military side was mostly ended the economic and political side survived much longer, perhaps it never ended.

 

[hoplitejoe]

We are talking about military alliances though

 

[civ_king]

We are talking about military alliances though

The Scots have always come to the aid of France even when Scotland was barred from helping (perfidious Albion), plus new research suggests it was never revoked. Both countries act as if it never ended.