It's been a while, but i'm back posting here, the game i will post is my current Bradenburg game in MEIOU
Well, some points at the country history are quite "beautiful", starting at day 1, the alliance with Poland was created, this one would be one of the longest and closest alliances in history, until a point where the Polish-Lithuanian kingdom fell in sort of a dark age in their history.
With this alliance, both countries fought and won many wars, always loyal to each other, Bradenburg expanded in Pommerania, Madgeburg, and also expanded at opportunities (missions) against the Teutonic Order, it was around that time when Bradenburg vassalized a elector (in a mission) and another one in opportunity, helping in the road to become HRE, which they did at this time.
However, when the reformation started, things began to change as Bradenburg was converted to the Lutheran church, the alliance with Poland survived, and a new one with the Hohenzollern king in England was born, at that time, the only important lutheran countries were England and Bradenburg, both ruled by the Hohenzollern house.
about the Hohenzollern house : there was a third major ruled by the Hohenzollerns, it was the Castillian-Aragonese crown, a catholic nation, this at the time was the division of the Hohenzollerns.
(A interesting point of this time, before the Hohenzollerns inherited the English crown, England was in anarchy, being invaded by every side, going as far as complete occupation of the country by Wales and a small Irish county, after the Hohenzollerns started to rule, England recovered, building back a mighty navy, a powerful army, one of Europe biggest economies and destroyed their enemies, including France and Burgundy)
One important event in the Brandenburger-Polish relations was when the count of Anhalt inherited the Polish throne, forming a personal union, this of course broke the alliance, it is said that the remains of the old Polish ruling family fleed to Brandenburg in fears of being persecuted in their own country, here they found asylium. After the death of the ruler of Anhalt, Poland once again broke free, this time under the Askanien dinasty, a rising noble family, unlike the original polish royal family, they weren't so loyal to Brandenburg, sending many catholic missionaries into german territory, what would lead to the break of the second Bradenburger-Polish alliance, a event that would lead to both becoming fierce rivals.
Bradenburg (auto)inherited their Serbian vassals and Muscovy at some point, just to release them again some time later, not interested in their land.
the Hohenzollern house at 1566 :
Bradenburg would continue to grow, especially thanks to many cities in the Holy Roman Empire asking to become Brandenburg territory,
, this would lead to a massive growth of the brandenburger economy and army. Europe and the powerful french king knew that, and most of them, including France, saw Brandenburg as the future of Europe.
1565 was a historical year for europe, Brandenburg, already one of the most powerful kingdoms at the time, was hit by something they never expected.
the Kingdom at the time was under a regency, what made things even stranger, the only document they found related to the french king claimed that he wanted his young daughter to marry the brandenburger king, at the time around 6 or 7. what surprised even more was that the French king saw Brandenburg as the future of europe, and with most of the French population was protestant (including the population of Paris), the union could calm down the lutheran population, giving France some stability.
at 1611 another important event took place, recently the French nobles had converted to the Lutheran church, the main reason was the conversion of the Spanish Hohenzollerns, at a time where Spain was under their "peasants war", Brandenburg invaded Spain, forced the current regency to convert and send the heir to study in Berlin, with Lutheran education, after this the rebels were crushed by Brandenburger armies sent to help Spain, this with the help of gifts would give Spain enough strengh to train big armies and defend themselves. back to the main point of the year, France was inherited and unified with Brandenburg into Brandenburg-France, the most powerful empire in the world.
well, this is where i'm currently at in the game, and this is the yearly income of the majors :
religion in europe :
monthly income :
Nice thing that France had 3 provinces in the HRE, so they became my cores and i started building 2 armies (18000 soldiers each) in these provinces asap. i plan to use these 36000 soldiers plus my main army of 20000 to defend France (that's 56000 soldiers!) against rebels until it cores.
EDIT : oh, no thrones claimed, i hate these things