[M2TW AAR] Perfidious Albion! - An Alternate History of Britain

[Jingles]

Perfidious Albion!

An Alternate History of Britain

Greetings, one an all! I have not done an AAR on TWC for some time, and I have decided that , despite consecutive failiures of all my previous ones I'm going to give it one last try.


I will admit that I am a fan of alternate history, and I've read a number of alternate history AARs on the Paradox boards before. However there don't seem to be very many on TWC (if you discount the fact that nearly all AARs are alternate history, in a way), so I have decided to remedy that problem with this: Perfidious Albion! Henceforth known as PA to make things easier

In a nutshell this AAR is an alternate history of Britain, which I plan to be a series of volumes using all the total war games (with the exception of Shogun lol), and one extra one outside of the total war franchise (you can keep guessing as to what that one may be), starting in the 13th century AD. The AAR will work on the premise that from this point onwards, history has taken a different path, and is written here in the form of a history book. For those interested, the POD (Point Of Divergence) is prior to the signing of the Magna Carta by King John, except here, he refuses to sign it, and triggers a civil war, which he wins, thus altering the course of England's future.

Anyway, waffle out of the way, I won't tell you any more, for clues on how it might pan out, see the title banner, +rep for those who spot anything out of the ordinary or eyecatching from it, btw.

The first volume will be played on good ol' vanilla Medieval 2 total war, however I'll say right now that you won't see much of it, because I hate having to upload screenshots, so they'll be few and far between. I'm going to compensate, however with various pictures, paintings, prints and engravings from the era concerned, so without further a do, here we go with the introduction....


...In a little while

[Seleucos of Olympia]

This looks interesting. I'd guess that the last game used will be Hearts of Iron 2 (going by the WWII pictures). If that flag is from HoI2, it looks like England will end up adopting some kind of alternative history communist system...

[Jingles]

This looks interesting. I'd guess that the last game used will be Hearts of Iron 2 (going by the WWII pictures). If that flag is from HoI2, it looks like England will end up adopting some kind of alternative history communist system...

Ah, dang, I was hoping it would take a while to figure that one out Though actually, I might decide to use HoI3 when it's released, depending on how much I can mod it to suit the AAR.

I've already written Chapter One, but I'm with-holding it until tommorow while I get Chapter Two done. I'm trying to stay ahead of the actual update at the moment in case of any absences.

Edit: ah, forget it, I'll throw it up now. I'm bored

[Jingles]

Perfidious Albion – An Alternate History of Britain

Volume One: The Great English War



Introduction

On June 12th 1299, King Robert of England left the Royal tent, and mounted his steed. The army was encamped in a muddy field that sat atop a hill overlooking the surrounding French countryside. The summer rains had hit hard the last few days, and the ground was sodden along with everything else below the knees. As the King shook the muddy water from his boots, he muttered absent-mindedly to his aide; “The rot will be rife amongst our ranks soon enough if the weather doesn’t improve.” As if in answer, a few flecks of incoming rain began to patter against the crest of his helmet as he rode away. The camp, if one could call it that, was vast. Over a thousand tents covered the massive field, and thousands of weary feet had churned the mud in the camp to a dreadful quagmire. Robert’s horse was finding it visibly difficult to negotiate the unruly terrain, but it is said the King just grunted as his charger shambled along, muttering “I’ve slept in worse than this...”

The King did not speak falsely when he uttered these words. Robert’s army had travelled a long way. After a string of victories against the Venetians on the side of the South German states during his critical participation in the War of the First German Alliance, Robert was confident of a triumphant return home. However when war broke out with Scotland, their allies the Danes moved two armies led by King Charles and Prince Haakon into Northern Germany to trap the English force. Worse yet, The Germans, vassals of the powerful Danish Kingdom, were obliged for their own survival to turn on their own comrades, albeit reluctantly. Robert, with the help of an Austrian Lord of his acquaintance, escaped the northern fringes of the Alps and made his way north. By the time the army had regrouped at Bruges, the Scots were conquered, The cities of Frankfurt and Antwerp had been razed to the ground by Robert’s forces and King Charles of Denmark and Norway lay dead upon the fields outside Bremen, his chest pierced by an English Bodkin as he mounted a foolish charge up the slopes of the English held monastery outside the town. English longbows had found and killed two of the dead King’s sons in quick succession, and as of Robert’s return to France, two Franco-Burgundian armies had fallen under a swarm of arrows as well. After cutting a bloody swathe through Germany and the Low countries, He and his victorious comrades continued their scourge through their new enemies, France (who had joined the Danes in an effort to reclaim the channel coast from the English), sacking, pillaging and looting anything of value on their way, in an effort to replenish the weary coffers of England that were supplying their very efforts.

In June 1299, King Robert prepared to march away from Rheims and towards Paris, where the French King and the remnants of his beleaguered army awaited the English forces. In the west of France, the Bretons had fallen under the heel of Robert’s Nephew-in-law; Howard Harris, the Duke of Cornwall, and Robert’s brother Henry, the crown Prince, had slain the last of the Scottish rebels, and was besieging their fortress at Inverness. Henry’s son Edgar had taken Dublin three years ago, and with the fall of the last Scottish King imminent, Robert’s dreams of a United Kingdom of England and Scotland were almost a reality. As he rode along, the King chuckled to himself. “Or perhaps England, Scotland, and France?”

Many years later after King Robert’s death in 1337, French philosopher and wit, Charles D’Albret whilst at the signing of the treaty of Troyes would later grunt contemptuously at the foreign dignitary from Muscovy who was visiting Paris, gesturing towards the ambassador from London; “Mongols, your grace? You should meet the English!”

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The treaty of Troyes was signed just after Robert's death, ending a long, bitter period of feuding between the dual monarchy of England and Scotland, and their enemies, the Kingdom of France.

[Jingles]

Perfidious Albion – An Alternate History of Britain

Volume One: The Great English War



Chapter I - The Ascension of King Robert the Great, and the Outbreak of War.

The Great King at the War's end

King Robert’s reign was not always so glorious as it was in his final days; He had inherited an uncertain throne - his elder brother William, destined originally as the next King was killed fighting the Scots at Aberdeen, the victim of a cunning ambush on the part of King Aiden Canmore that cut down the entire English force with a much smaller army of well trained and disciplined Pikemen.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

An engraving of The first battle of Aberdeen. Attention must be drawn to the top panel, in which Prince William and his men are depicted surrounded by the Scots. In the center, William duels with the Scottish King Aiden atop a mound of fallen English knights.

Robert, at the time but 19 years old was largely presided over by the domineering members of his privy council. Many sought to control the young King for their own ends, but one man stood up for the fresh faced monarch. Edward Harris, the Duke of Cornwall, (Howard Harris’ father) used his powerful connections within the nobles and gentry to have the other councillors step down. He quickly befriended the young King, and it would be unfair to say he did not use this to his advantage. He secured a marriage of his younger sister to the King, thus tying the Harris’s into the Royal family. The reasoning behind this is a little unclear at first, but with some examination, Cornwall’s motive becomes apparent. Robert’s father, Henry, was for the latter half of his reign, quite mad. He suffered, according to recent interpretations of medieval sources, from an acute form of Schizophrenia, and judging by the reports written by both his Physician and Cardinal Thomas, it was quite serious. As with many things, especially in Royal families, madness had a tendency of being hereditary, and Cornwall, in the event of Robert proving to suffer as his father did, had planned to arrange his assassination, and have his sister crowned Queen of England, where he would be in a position of very great power.


A depiction of the marriage of Lady Susan to King Robert. In the center we see Cardinal Thomas, flanked on his right by Lady Susan, and on the left by the King. Note the positioning of the Cardinal slightly above the King - At the time of painting, King Robert was not yet an Anglicanist, thus he is depicted as beneath the power of the church.

As it happened however, Robert was not mad at all, and in fact was an incredibly bright young man, his only ailment being a remarkably short temper. After being on the throne for only three months, Robert had sacked half of the Privy council, keeping only those he could trust as opposed to those his father (or rather his father’s ‘advisers’) had trusted. He made a point of handling almost all affairs of the realm personally, and made numerous trips abroad when simply sending a dignitary would have done. It is said by many sources that Robert was a captivating speaker, and he used this very much to his advantage, courting favour with many of the warring factions of Germany, and the city states of Northern Italy, in particular the Principality of Savoy-Milan, with whom England would share a strong Alliance that lasted well into the latter half of the 16th century, ending with its annexation by the Austro-Venetian Habsburgs. A famous example is his acquittal by the papacy in 1287.

England for the last century or so had been in a religious crisis, and reflective of her island status, its inhabitants sought to distance themselves as much as possible from the quarrels of the feudal states of Europe. The Anglicanist movement in the south of England had begun before Robert’s reign, but it reached a pinnacle when after negotiating away a rebel army outside of Portsmouth, Robert passed an edict that significantly, and indirectly limited Papal supremacy in his realm. The Pope called him to account for this, and in the following November, the King travelled to Italy to receive an audience with his holiness. The official records of their conversation are not on record for the public, however when the King returned to England he, and his countrymen were acquitted completely of any heresy that may have befallen them, and furthermore, in the following year, Robert expelled the Dominican order of friars from English shores, to little or no reaction from Rome.

The Rumblings of War

For much of Robert’s reign his country had been at peace, aside from the revolts in Ireland there was only the Brief War of English Aggression, in which he killed the Scottish King Aiden Canmore to avenge his brother’s death at Aberdeen. This became a turning point in both Scottish and English history, as with the last of the Canmores dead, Scotland descended into bitter infighting with the weak Stuarts emerging in 1297 as the dominant faction, largely due to the fact that their rivals had all perished, either under English swords or rival Scottish ones. However, even with Robert’s victory, he brought the country the storm cloud of war once again, with the jingoistic Stuarts demanding in 1298 their lands back from the previous war. Robert (or rather, his brother Henry, in Robert’s absence) hotly refused, and in September 1298, A Scottish army re-entered Aberdeen, and expelled the English inhabitants, prompting the beginning of the Great English War. The Scots had a close relationship with the Danes, who had in the last century grown to become the dominant faction in Northern Germany and the Low Countries. Danish Lords sat upon thrones in Oslo, Copenhagen, Utrecht and Bremen, and coveted the English possessions in Flanders, and combined with a popular image of disdain for the English ever since William I’s victory in England in 1066 and the dispelling of all Scandinavian influence, The King of Denmark declared war upon Robert, and made his intentions clear by advancing two armies, one towards Frankfurt to cut off Robert, and another towards Bruges.

It is speculated that the causes of the Great English War lay partially in the result of the War of the First German Alliance. The war grew out of Venetian Expansionism in Austria, the former seat of the Holy Roman Empire. Germany had in the last century been slowly carved up by the French, Danes and Polish, and in 1220, the Holy Roman Empire was disbanded when the Polish armies sacked Vienna. As a result, the small states of Germany were no longer unified by a common cause, until in 1280, when the Venetians invaded Austria and conquered Vienna and Salzburg. The Germans of the south formed a coalition against the Italian invaders, and together with the Polish, and the Anglo-Milanese, they threw back the armies of Venice, the Bavarians recapturing Vienna in February, and Savoy-Milan sacking Venice itself in early March.


A sixteenth century Bavarian wall painting of the siege of Vienna. Notable among the smaller force of attackers are the flags of Mecklenburg and Bavaria, both the major players on the side of the allies.

However, the majority of the German states held some allegiance for various reasons to the King of Denmark, and with this new victory, German confidence had grown, and many Bavarian and Württemberger Lords were greedily eyeing up the former German possessions of Bremen and northern Hannover. Denmark as a result found themselves in a tricky situation, with a number of German vassals ready to pounce on their masters. Robert, of course had played a key part in the previous German victory, and was encouraging the German lords to break free of the shackles of Danish imperialism. Thus, when Scotland called for aid, Denmark was all too happy to oblige, sending troops not only to attack the English on the continent, but a large force of Norwegians to aid the Scots. And thus also, Robert found himself on the eve of war, hundreds of miles from English territory, surrounded by panicked German vassals who had decided for the moment that actually it might be best to side with the Danes – for their long term survival.

Robert found himself deep in enemy territory, and a long, bloody road home ahead of him.


English Billmen and Longbowmen - the signature troops of Robert's army, and instrumental in his victories.

[Jingles]

Just a note, I have exams today and tommorow, so I won't be updating again until thursday earliest.

[♔GrinningManiac♔]

Very Very nice. +REP

Promise me you won't burn out and stop writing, it's beaten a lot of stuff on here in terms of quality and effort already.

I was thinking about making such an AAR the other day. I even thought of going as far as modern-day, using World in Conflict as the battle-pics, with a few COD4 first-person shots

[Jingles]

Thanks for the comment . Don't worry, I won't be abandoning this AAR any time soon - writing pseudo-history books is one of my favourite hobbies.

Had an idea though, since the latest version of Arthurian total war has been released, I might backtrack to dark age Britain once I've finished with King Robert....But we'll see.

[Seleucos of Olympia]

I love the history book style! Keep it up!

[Taiyama]

Ah, I love alternate history and the decision to have this span four games is a very interesting and original one. You've written this VERY well, expect me to be following. I second the desire that you not fizzle out on writing this.

[ecclesian_knight]

hey man!

nice AAR

just a little suggestion if you allow..

could you put battle images about the battles you mentioned..
coz it looks good if it has pictures

[Jingles]

Perfidious Albion – An Alternate History of Britain

Volume One: The Great English War



Chapter Two – The First Months in Scotland

King Angus Stuart, the first, and last of the Stuart Royal Line initiated the conflict by marching troops into Aberdeen, the provincial capital of the former Scottish county of Ayrshire, now in English hands since the last war. Angus styled himself as a glorious warrior king, and insisted on leading his armies by the nose wherever they went. In reality however, Angus was a sickly individual. Ever since birth, he had been weak, plagued by various illnesses and it is said that he was never more than ten feet away from a physician or priest. What he lacked in physical stature however, he made up for with intellect. The wily Scot knew well the value of a powerful image, and as a result, he projected to his people the false symbol of the brave and valiant warrior King, and for the most part it worked. The weary people of Scotland had spent years in an on-and-off civil war and now, Angus Stuart gave them a united cause – the reclamation of Scottish lands from the hated English. However, because Stuart had failed to efficiently deal with those who had opposed him in the civil war, many of his closest advisers were disloyal and rebellious, and in the fullness of time, this would prove to be his undoing after the battle of Mossy Rise.


A Romantic depiction of King Angus at Pencook. It's worth pointing out that Angus did not actually take part in the battle itself despite what this painting may convey.

When Angus’ army occupied the town, down in London, Prince Henry, Robert’s brother was ruling as the de facto King of England in his brother’s absence. Unlike Angus, Henry really was a mighty warrior. At the siege of Dublin, he, his bodyguard and three hundred knights sallied forth from the city gates against the Irish revolters and single handedly routed the entire Irish army in a stunning victory. As one of his fellow noblemen, Sir Hugh de Pays, describes: “The Prince, lance couched under his arm, burst among the rebel soldiers, killing a dozen with the tip of his lance, and trampling thrice as many beneath his huge and mighty steed, whereupon he produced his blessed mace, and set about the foe with a vengeance, striking down the Irishmen like a man possessed.” Sir Hugh’s description was well deserved, if a little exaggerated. Henry was a deeply religious man, and professed that in the heat of battle it was not him that smote the enemies of England, but the spirit of the Lord above, guiding his blows with heavenly fury. Whether or not this was true, the fact remained that he was a great fighter, and fiercely Pious. His signature weapon, the mace was a choice influenced by tales of the Norman Bishop, Odo de Bayeux, William the Conqueror’s brother, who fought at Hastings. According to catholic law, the clergy were not to spill Christian blood, so the bloodthirsty bishop instead used a blunt mace to bludgeon the enemies of the church with on the battlefield. Henry followed the notorious bishop’s cruel example with relish, deeming all enemies of England as enemies of the church. Thus after the siege of Dublin was finished, Henry had the five hundred enemy prisoners executed in cold blood, despite the fact that, according to him, all the enemies of England by rights should burn at the stake. However, as one witty English playwright of the 16th century would later pen, “Unfortunately, the Prince hath rarely the time...”


Prince Henry. Regarded generally as an all round villain. At least, That's what Playwright Christopher Marlowe thought of him, Marlowe's plays are probably one of history's greatest Prejudice towards the violent Prince.

When news of Angus’ invasion reached London, the Prince galloped on horseback directly to the army encampment beyond the city boundary, where his army was recuperating after the recent campaign in Ireland. He made a speech to his troops about the noble sovereignty of England, and the evils of the treacherous Scots, who would attack English lands while their noble King was away on campaign. He then made about leading the army north on a brutal five day march to Newcastle, where most of the fighting nobility in the north of England was waiting for him. In contrast, King Angus feasted in the halls of Aberdeen with his comrades when he should have regrettably been planning his next move.

The first real conflict came not far from the town of Longlown, near Carlisle, when a group of Longbowmen recently, answering the call for levies in the villages of Northumberland, had intercepted quite by accident a Scottish raiding party. Understandably without proper leadership, many died on both sides, but as archaeological finds in the area show, the number of wounds containing fragments or whole bodkin arrowheads greatly outweighs those without.. It was but a small conflict, as archaeological finds have shown at the site, however there is little record of the encounter, the only reliable document being a small entry within the pages of the Longlown Abbey’s chronicles, and it did not specify who won, much less the casualties on either side. It’s likely the monks simply heard of it by word of mouth, giving it a sentence within the thousands of pages of parchment present at the Abbey.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Today, the Belfry is all that remains of Longlown Abbey, though most of it, despite its looks, is still the original masonry; the exception being the tudor tower that stands on the left corner of the Belfry. During the reformation, The Abbey was destroyed, however a particular noble took some interest in the Belfry, and decided to keep it as part of his house grounds. The tower is an example of reformation era alterations to various gothic buildings.

The Scots were one of many raiding parties, wholly independent of the armies of the Scottish crown, that had a habit of banding together in times of war, whether through genuine patriotism, or more likely through the quest for loot, now made legal as spoils of war. There are records of even Prince Henry being involved in a border skirmish, albeit on a slightly larger scale, contained within the lines of spidery script that made up his personal letters. He and an advance guard of the army on their march towards the border a week after arriving in Newcastle ‘gave steele’ to a force of Scottish ‘brigandes’ that attempted to assail the little column as it passed on a narrow road through a small wood. Henry claims that there was at least a hundred of them, while in actuality there was probably fifty at the most. No archaeological finds have been found.

As the vanguard pushed on, leading the rest of the army on its way, they eventually came to Carlisle, where the army rested for two days, and picked up more recruits before heading North into Ayrshire. King Angus by this time had fully mobilised, and his spies and scouts had already made their way southwards and could see Henry’s army coming. Angus knew well the success the English Longbow afforded his foes in battle, and knew too the effect on his own men’s morale it had. Thus, as the English marched onwards into Scottish lands, they went unhindered. Angus knew he had to pick his ground very carefully and so by the time the wily Scot had his chance, even the violently zealous Prince Henry was having misgivings at the seeming lack of a Scottish army at all. On the 16th of February 1299, One of Henry’s spies informed him that the Scottish army had finally been spotted on its way towards Dalkeith. Henry, eager to face the cursed enemy, immediately led the army North-West towards Dalkeith in a characteristic forced march, in an attempt to reach the town before the Scots. Unfortunately, the Scottish attack came not at Dalkeith, but a good few miles southeast, at Pencuik (Pencook).

The road past Pencook onwards in the direction of Dalkeith does at one point pass a tall ridge. It was atop this ridge that the Scots waited. Unlike the English, the Scottish troops favoured mobility over protection, and wore very little armour, making their way to battle in the simple tartan garments customary of the period. They waited patiently at Pencook ridge, behind the line of the ridge ready to pounce on the approaching English force. The attack was a success...


A fairly accurate depiction of the lightly armed Scottish warriors, their equipment, save the tartan, had changed very little since the days of Macbeth.

The Scotsman's arch enemy, the English longbows as depicted here at the battle of Mossy Rise. Unlike their continental brethren, the Longbows who fought in Scotland were mostly unarmoured like this one. This is mainly attributed to the fact that these men were levies drawn from Northern England, as opposed to the proffesionals under Robert in Germany.

The English were caught totally unawares, and in a situation that in the century past, King Richard the Lionhearted found himself in at Arsuf, the Englishmen at Pencook met their doom, because unlike the crusader, they were not expecting an ambush, and had not acted accordingly. The Scots attacked first with their bowmen. The English, after many casualties and the intial shock, tried to return fire, but the steep gradient of the ridge meant that the English arrows were made very ineffectual, missing nearly all their targets, and falling with little impact upon the enemy. As Henry made his troops form up to counter the attack, the second phase of King Angus’ ambush came into play. At both ends of the ridge, once the English had passed, the Scottish cavalry, supported by pike men, had begun to make their way round in an encircling movement to cut off the English routes of escape. Luckily for the distraught and livid Prince, he had placed lookouts along the way behind and ahead, and soon knew of the Scottish second attack. He immediately had the army fall back from Pencook ridge under heavy arrow fire, taking many casualties in the process, but assuring the security of his flanks, and giving his archers a good stretch of ground to use against the enemy. However, the attack never came, and the Scots upon the ridge melted away into the undergrowth as quickly as they had come, much to Henry’s disappointment, and even more so to the hundreds of English dead and dying.

As it turned out, Angus had placed his own chain of lookouts, and was quickly able to pass down the message by word of mouth without need of a single runner. Thus the Scottish cavalry were called off, and regrouped an hour later with the rest of the Scottish force who really were at Dalkeith this time. Prince Henry and his men were left in the field parallel to the road, licking their wounds, with the Prince fuming – for the first time in his career he had finished a battle and had no prisoners...

[Jingles]

Thanks for all the kind comments everyone. As for the lack of pictures, I'm working on that. Unfortunately it was only about half way through this campaign that I decided to turn it into an AAR, so screenshots will be rare for now. Even so I don't want to spam them, as my internet speed is not great for uploading lots of big pics.

By the way, a MASSIVE cookie goes to he who spots where I screwed over Shakespeare in that chapter.

[Taiyama]

Another nice post. I have a few questions, though:

1. When you switch games will you move this topic to another sub-forum? Like, when you move to Empire: Total War will you be moving this to the Empire: Total War AAR sub-forum?

2. What will you do about territorial gains made in one game that can't translate over into another game? For example, if you keep the German territories gained in Medieval II, will you just say that they were lost when you move to Empire in, say, wars or rebellions? Or is there a way you can have those territories in the other games too?

[♔GrinningManiac♔]

He said he was going to jump back to Rome at one point, so I'm guessing it won't be linear and chronological. He could probably make up the wars and stuff in between that would lead to the new territory in the other games

[Jingles]

Sorry for the total and utter lack of any activity in the past weeks, but RL stuff has been getting in the way rather a lot. I'll endeavour to continue though when I get the chance. Consider the AAR on hold as opposed to abandoned.

[cisse]

Sorry for the total and utter lack of any activity in the past weeks, but RL stuff has been getting in the way rather a lot. I'll endeavour to continue though when I get the chance. Consider the AAR on hold as opposed to abandoned.

No probs man, take your time. This AAR is worth the wait, one of the best I've read.

[♔GrinningManiac♔]

I'm happy to wait, take your time

[♔GrinningManiac♔]

Ahem, not one to complain, old boy, but I've been trekking in Peru for a month inbetween now and my last post, and nothings happened