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PoDs of the Thirty Years War X

This is excellent as ever @Alex Richards

One of those things that remind you of the merits pf great man theory. So much of this war was defined by the personal qualities of the leaders above all else. A different British King would have certainly jumped in.
 
This is excellent as ever @Alex Richards

One of those things that remind you of the merits pf great man theory. So much of this war was defined by the personal qualities of the leaders above all else. A different British King would have certainly jumped in.

I do genuinely think Charles would have dived in in some incompetent fashion had he been running the country in 1618. It might even have been enough to ensure that he (or perhaps Buckingham) is viewed as inept rather than a crypto-Catholic trying to sabotage the Protestant cause by many.

He'd still probably have found some way to piss off Parliament massively however.
 
After reading 'King Henry IX,' I've got a vague idea for a timeline where Henry Stuart comes to the throne and really is the Great Young King- patron of the arts, master of parliament, defender of protestantism, and off he goes at the head of an army to the Palatinate.

And gets bogged down in the unholy mess that was the Thirty Years War, so screams for more money and men. And Brother Charles is left at home to try and manage things, which he does with his usual skill. And Ireland has to be kept down even more firmly than usual, because you can't have the King's subjects volunteering to fight the King's enemies, and besides The Defender of Protestantism needs to show the Celts that he's the one in charge.

And then Henry goes and gets his force cut off and dies ignominiously somewhere in Germany, and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms start off with most of OTL's best officers stuck on the continent and Ireland far stronger relative to England and Scotland than it was historically.

But I don't know remotely enough about the period, and I kind of feel that the moment I began EdT would suddenly emerge from his slumber at the heart of Uchronia Mountain with Book Three of The Bloody Man.
 
No, no, no, @Alex Richards ! You should have notified me before this went up on the website! I could have informed you that Gustavus Adolphus spent years trying to lobby James I and VI to get involved in the conflict! He tried to appeal to the Legacy of Elizabeth I, speak how he envisioned that England was the natural pre-eminent Protestant power of Europe and so should be its courageous leader and defender, and if only he and England would get involved, Gustavus Adolphus would be there at James' side as his loyal and admiring lieutenant!
 
No, no, no, @Alex Richards ! You should have notified me before this went up on the website! I could have informed you that Gustavus Adolphus spent years trying to lobby James I and VI to get involved in the conflict! He tried to appeal to the Legacy of Elizabeth I, speak how he envisioned that England was the natural pre-eminent Protestant power of Europe and so should be its courageous leader and defender, and if only he and England would get involved, Gustavus Adolphus would be there at James' side as his loyal and admiring lieutenant!

This doesn't surprise me in the least.

I must admit I came across the 'Sweden decides that clearly if Charles is so reluctant to send men to the continent he must be secretly working for the Emperor and so starts funding Scottish rebels' bit and immediately thought about your Madagascan pirates anecdote.
 
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