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Pre-Industrial Of Pirates and Manatee's - The Kingdom of Bartholomew Roberts

Baron Steakpuncher

Proletarian Puncher of Steaks
Author
Of Pirates and Manatee's : The Kingdom of Bartholomew Roberts

Chapter 1: The Second war of the Quadruple Alliance


bartholomew_roberts-jpg.369964

Contemporary illustration of King Bartholomew I


"The Second war of the Quadruple Alliance" by Wilhelm Habsburg, 5th Duke of Nanzig


The Treaty of the Hague in 1720 had been signed with the purpose of ending conflict on the European continent for the next decade at least. But as history shows, it was not to be.


King Phillip V of Spain was a cunning figure, and though detractors would claim otherwise, was not blind to the issues his kingdom faced. The Treaty of the Hague and the prior Treat of Utrecht had taken what much of the nobility considered to be rightful territory of the Kingdom of Spain. A minor revolt in 1723 had firmly convinced Phillip that the status quo was not sustainable, and that if no action was taken the first king of the house of Bourbon could well be its last.


Thus in the two years leading up to 1725, Spain made preparations for war. Arms were stocked and plans drawn up, while fresh galleons were built in the ports of the Mediterranean sea. But the other powers at be were not blind fools, and if Spain did not wish to find itself the victim of a preemptive attack it needed to convince the rest of Europe that it had goals other than Sicily and the French throne.


Phillip accomplished this by making threatening moves towards its longtime rival in Africa, Morocco. The arab-berber kingdom had long been unstable, and the untimely death of Sultan Ismail from smallpox had lead to a civil war between his sons, which was still ongoing when Phillip declared Casablanca to be apart of the Spanish Empire. The Moroccan civil war stopped almost as swiftly as it had started and the new affirmed Sultan Abu'l Abbas responded by increasing the garrison of the city threefold and asking the Ottoman Empire, the distant if nominal protector of the Barbary states, for assistance, which while limited was given.


Phillip backed down from the situation, and Europe breathed a sigh of relief.


Until a Spanish fleet was sighted off Palermo, where it made landfall and captured the city without a fight on the 21st of June 1725. Sparking the second war of the Quadruple Alliance.


..........

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Jamaica prior to conquest

...........



The Caribbean theatre of the war would rapidly prove to be one of the most bloody. Colonial garrisons fought each other tooth and nail as the armies of Europe clashed in France, while privateers and pirates alike targeted merchant shipping. Puerto Rico was invaded by an English force which besieged besieged the islands capital, while Hispaniola was completely occupied by Spanish forces.


One of the keys to the success of the Spanish war effort was cutting off their enemies from their colonies. While this was of little effect in the northern part of the American continent, in the Caribbean the entire region was thrown into anarchy as Spanish ships and hired privateers struck every colony they could. By February of 1726, only Jamaica remained in English hands.


Jamaica was not intended to be a target, the Island was widely reputed as both to heavily fortified and being far to valuable to the English crown for the meagre amount of men that the Spanish colonies could muster to have any hope of taking it.


But Dionisio Martínez de la Vega, the governor of Cuba, was an ambitious man. In 1725 he had made contact with one of the more odd figures of the 18th century, the pirate Bartholomew Roberts, who had been raiding English shipping in the west Atlantic for a year by the time the war started.


Roberts commanded a fleet of 7 ships by the time Governor Martínez made contact with him, and was interested at the prospect of capturing Jamaica, having hear well of the wealth the island possessed. Martínez supposedly said Roberts could make off with as much gold as his ships could carry if he assisted in seizing the island, and Roberts, not one to turn down such an offer, accepted.


On the 13th of March 1726 Spanish fleet, supported by Roberts and a collection of other pirates, landed at Port Antonio. They then began a campaign of destruction as they conquered the entire eastern half of the island within 3 months, barring Kingstown which was kept under siege.


Roberts distinguished himself greatly during the early phase of the campaign, defeating an English fleet in an ambush and adding three vessels to his armada, while also using his pirates to keep occupied territory calm. At some point during these three months, Roberts made contact with the Maroons, the escaped slaves and taino's who inhabited the uplands of Jamaica.


Guided to Nanny town by freed spanish slaves, Roberts met with "Queen Nanny", an Ashanti woman who ruled the largest group of Maroons present in Jamaica and Quao, the other major leader of the Windward Maroons. It is unknown how Roberts convinced Queen Nanny to support the Spanish, folklore claiming anything from gold to a magic pact, but when he left Nanny town, it was at the head of a thousand strong army of Maroons.


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Queen Nanny, as depicted by an Illustration

Roberts led this newly formed army on a spree of raids and skirmishes. Defeating the hastily assembled army which had gathered in the western half of the Island under Duke Henry Bentinck in a pitched battle east of Negril, and with the help of the Leeward Maroons and an army of freed slaves in addition to his pirates, conquered the entire western part of Jamaica by January of 1727. This combined with the Spanish capture of Kingstown the day before Christmas meant that Jamaica was completely lost to the British.


The Spanish left much of the governance of Jamaica to the coalition of Roberts and the Maroon leaders Quao and Queen Nanny, only exerting their presence in Kingstown and the surrounding area. At some point during the following year, Roberts met the woman who history knows as Queen Ruth, a former slave who became first Roberts lover, then later his wife.


The state of affairs, with Roberts controlling the coastal settlements with his ships while the Maroons ruled the entire interior with the vast number of freed slaves, continued until July of 1729. At this point the news of the end of the Second war of the Quadruple Alliance, and the following Treaty of Cadiz, reached Jamaica. Jamaica was officially to be returned to English control in exchange for other territories, and the Spanish withdrew from the island altogether.


But this did not mean the Maroons, who had no mention in the treaty, accepted this. Panic was widespread amongst the Maroon leaders, many of whom worried about what would happen since the English were coming back. Roberts himself, immensely rich thanks to his plunder accumulated over two years, is said to have been considering abandoning the island and retiring to somewhere in Spain, when his lover Ruth, who had been with him for over a year at that point convinced him otherwise.


Folklore says that Ruth (who was a former maid in the Governors household) pointed out that the English were bankrupt from the loss of so many colonies and four years of war, and that with the destruction of the main fleet in the Bay of Biscay, they had no way of effectively challenging his or the Spanish control of the Caribbean.


Whatever actually happened, when the prospective new governor arrived at Kingston, he did not find a British colony waiting to be taxed for badly needed riches. He arrived to the sight of King Bartholomew the 1st, offering to purchase the island from the British crown.


Authors Note


For those unaware, Bartholomew Roberts was a welshmen often considered the most successful European pirate of all time, capturing 400 ships before his death off west africa in 1722. My POD for this timeline is that he survived what would have been his final battle OTL and after such a close call, he decided that heading to the Caribbean where the spanish treasure fleets were at was a better idea than picking on the west african trade.


Also, this is a transfer of a story on AH.com.
 
Second War of the Quadruple Alliance

Date 21 June 1725 – 5 January 1729
Location Europe, North America, Caribbean
Result - Spanish Victory

  • Treaty of Cadiz
  • Formation of Ibero-Frankish Union
  • Dissolution of 1st Kingdom of France
  • Formation of Grand Duchy of Lorraine-France Comte
  • Formation of Duchy of Brittany
Territorial
changes

  • Spain acquires Sicily, Bahamas, Minorca, Gibraltar, Austrian Netherlands, French Africa, French South America, French India, French Caribbean
  • Savoy acquires Provence
  • England acquires French North America
Belligerents
Spain (Yellow)
23px-Flag_of_Great_Britain_%281707-1800%29.svg.png
Great Britain (Red)
23px-Royal_Standard_of_the_King_of_France.svg.png
France (Non Existent)
Brittany (Blue)
Lorraine-France Comte (Green)
23px-Banner_of_the_Holy_Roman_Emperor_%28after_1400%29.svg.png
Holy Roman Empire (Black - Austria)
23px-Statenvlag.svg.png
Dutch Republic (Orange)
23px-Savoie_flag.svg.png
Savoy (Dark Red)
franco-spanish-war-4-jpg.369985
 
Chapter 2: Jamaican Purchase and Fledgling Steps 1729-33

"On the Independence of nations" by Lady Jane Faithful, Professor of International Studies at Royal Bartholomew Roberts College

Jamaica, Jamdunge, Rock. These are the three most common names for the island located in the southern part of the Caribbean sea, home to the house of Roberts and the first colonial nation in the Americas to be formally independent from its parent country. But the actual events leading to the independence of Jamaica were far from the norm for colonial nations. Instead of the violent revolutions or gradual withdrawals that most regions of the Americas underwent, Jamaica had been occupied by a foreign power and its owner had no way to recover it, while the foreign power did not want it. So it was handed its complete independence almost without argument, King Bartholomew the 1st paying a mere 200,000 pounds for the island, most of which had come from the governors treasury and confiscations from wealthy plantation owners. This sense of legitimacy, though vague, made it far more palatable for European powers to do business with a nation led by an admitted and feared pirate, which King Bartholomew most certainly was.


In 1729, Jamaica was a sparsely settled island, populated mostly by enslaved africans and taino indians, who outnumbered the coastal european population 20 to 1. King Bartholomew was not even the first choice for the rulership of the island, with the maroons initially wanting to select either the warlord Quao or Queen Nanny as sovereign. But the maroons were divided at the best of times, and tensions were running high, so when the freed slave Ruth, Bartholomew's lover, suggested that instead of dividing themselves they could select the man who had freed them, Bartholomew Roberts, as the king, she was not rejected out of hand. By October of 1729 both the leeward and windward Maroons, along with the British colonists of the coastal towns, supported Bartholomew in his bid for kingship. And on the 22nd of October he was officially crowned in St Andrews Church in Kingston.

kingston-1-jpg.370021

It must be remembered that not three years before this, Bartholomew Roberts had been a despised pirate feared across the Atlantic, and he was at heart a pirate still. Despite romantic appeals to the contrary, Bartholomew Roberts was at his core, a despot. He had one response to rebellion, death, one response to thievery of state funds, death, and one response to those challenging his authority, also death. The core of his power base were the Maroon tribes of the interior, who he granted each an earldom, the Leeward Earl and Windward Earl, to be elected from amongst the tribes. The first two were of course his main supporters, Queen Nanny and Quao. The other two key parts of his power were the 22 ships which counted as the Jamaican navy, all of them pirates or captured English vessels, and the masses of freed slaves, the peasantry amongst whom he remained immensely popular even during the low parts of his reign, thanks to edicts banning slavery and other such methods of appealing to the freed slaves. Amongst the english though, his popularity was nebulous at best. Whispers and plots often circles through Kingstown of overthrowing the tyrant pirate, and those whispers died down as one after another, traitors and conspirators began to line the gibbets in the port.


The personal life of King Bartholomew is perhaps more interesting than his reign itself. Though born a commoner Bartholomew recognised quickly several of the challenges of kingship, namely succession. Those closest to the King, his former crew and the officials who made up the court were heavily in favour of Bartholomew seeking some minor female relative of an obscure count or earl in Europe for his bride, to shore up legitimacy in the eyes of the western world. The King however, had a different opinion. Bartholomew recognised that the biggest threat to his reign was losing popularity amongst the teeming largely african descended masses, many of whom still had memories of their homes on the far side of the Atlantic. Thus it was from amongst the former slaves that Bartholomew Roberts picked his bride.



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Modern Portrait of Queen Ruth, based on contemporary descriptions

"Good Queen Ruth" or simply "Queen Ruth" is believed to have been born around 1709-1710, to a enslaved Ashanti family on a plantation to the south of Port Antonio owned by the Governor of Jamaica. At some point she was transferred to Kingston where she acted as a domestic servant in the Governors household, she never learnt to read or write but did have a remarkable talent for taking in information and by the time the Second war of the Quadruple Alliance broke out she had a passable knowledge of governance.


When the combined force of pirates and Spanish soldiers made landfall at Port Antonio, Ruth along with hundreds of other slaves deserted to join them. She most likely was a camp follower for the next year or so of campaigning, probably a washerwoman, and somehow managed in late 1728 to attract the attention of Bartholomew Roberts. Contemporary sources describe their relationship as initially being similar to those typical of camp followers and a soldier in any army, but by the time of the capture of Kingstown, this had changed into more of a loving relationship and Ruth stayed with Roberts even after the army was dissolved into garrisons and the maroons returned to the mountains. Ruth's information on the many places where the Governor might have hidden his funds along with her helping to organise the freed slaves into something resembling a civilisation rather than an anarchic mob had swiftly catapulted her into Roberts inner circle. Or at any rater close enough to him that when she argued he should stay and rule Jamaica rather than return to being a pirate he listened, something his reign would prove was an accomplishment in of itself. Her persuading the Maroons to back Roberts was merely furthering her usefulness to him. All of these things made her a natural choice when Roberts was considering an influential figure amongst the Maroons and freed slaves to wed.


Bartholomew having an african lover was considered somewhat scandalous when it was just a rumour, but his taking an african, and a former slave at that, as his lawful wife in the eyes of god? It was said that every house from Kingston to Negril had something to say about it, and in amongst the upper class it was rarely something good. Nonetheless the couple married on the 22nd of December 1729, in the same church Bartholomew had been crowned in.


The marriage proved to be a fruitful one soon enough, and in April of 1731 their firstborn son Samuel Roberts entered the world, followed by a further 4 children over the next decade. But besides providing heirs to the throne of Jamaica, Queen Ruth served a far more important role in the governance of the island kingdom. The simple fact was that Bartholomew Roberts was a terrible negotiator. He was ill tempered, prone to violence when angry, and despite his charisma was a poor public speaker by the standards of the upper class. This combined with his average at best grasp of administrating his kingdom meant that Queen Ruth ended up serving as the internal diplomat with Jamaica, constantly preventing riots amongst the freedmen blacks, assuring the Maroons that their privileges would remain untouched, and convincing the merchants of Europe to buy Jamaica's valuable sugar. She also acted as a limiter on the notoriously spendthrift King Bartholomew.

Queen Ruth would continue to be a force in Jamaican politics even after the death of her husband, acting as a minister on the Royal Council till her passing in 1793, having survived her son and was grandson, indeed having been acting regent for her eldest great grandchild at the time of her death.


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A drawing of Queen Ruth by her granddaughter, preserved in Kingston Museum

Authors Notes:

The whole figure of Queen Ruth comes from the fact that Bartholomew Roberts was ultimately, a Pirate. He had little administrative experience and likley few limits on his temper. In order for his rule to be successful he needed a way to get the people onside, and ultimately Ruth provides that.
 
Chapter 3: Aftermath of the Second Quadruple Alliance

The Collapse of the First French Kingdom - Written by Sultana Saliha II

The Second Quadruple Alliance was an utter disaster for the Kingdom of France. After the near annihilation of the French army on the Tarn River, where almost 20,000 men were slain in a single days combat, the path to the French heartland was left open to Spanish army. Though attempts were made at Bordeaux and Orleans to halt the advancing Spanish forces, who at that time were directly commanded by King Phillip V, none were successful in achieving anything more than temporary delays.


It is quite possible that a counterattack might have been organised had France's allies been able to come to her aid, but events outside French control ensured that was not to be. Austria was embattled fighting Ottoman forces seeking to advance to Wien, while the British attempted and failed to reinforce their outposts at Gibraltar and the Balearic Isles, while simultaneous fighting skirmishes in North America and the Caribbean. A small force did land in Brittany but General Charles Mordaunt deemed any attempt to fight the Spanish directly unfeasible without support, and instead focused on fortifying Brittany.


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Louis the 15th at coronation

In Paris itself panic had set in by the start of 1727, for two years the Spaniards had been seizing every major french fortress and city in the south one by one. But all of this was nothing compared to the depression which set into the young king Louis. The French monarch had never been the most stable of kings and the defeats suffered by his armies sent the 17 year old into fits of despair where he often wouldn't leave his quarters. Paris itself would fall without a fight on the 19th of July.


In September of 1727, the situation got even worse for the Alliance. The Duchy of Piedmont was nominally subordinate to France, and had benefited from such when acquiring Sardinia from the Spanish in the first Quadruple Alliance. But with the French proving completely unable to stop the 50,000 Spaniards rampaging across the southern portion of their country, Duke Victor Amadeus was hesitant about intervening in any fashion. This changed rapidly when Phillip of Spain offered, in exchange for Savoyard support, the entirety of French Provence, and recognising forever the acquisition of Sardinia. This was enough to decide Victor Amadeus's opinion and by the 16th of October Savoyard forces had entered French territory. In addition Austria's inability to take their focus off the Ottoman threat meant that the Austrian Netherlands were taken almost without any battle to speak of.


The entrance of Savoy into the war meant that any hope of a victory in France was gone. Great Britain and the United Provinces recognised this, and began to focus on eliminating the Spanish Colonies from the fight. But while in North America and the Indies this went in favour of the Alliance, in the Caribbean and South America Spanish forces took many undefended colonies, while the fortress of Jamaica was seized by the pirate "Bloody" Bartholomew Roberts.


In March of 1728 events finally began to turn in the Alliances favour, with the Spanish Navy being defeated in the English Channel at the Battle of Jersey and Phillips attempt to enter the United Provinces stymied by William IV who fought off the Spanish army as it attempted to besiege Eindhoven. In Great Britain the turn of events with the defeat of the Spanish Navy meant that George II was able to convince his government to start incorporating the parts of France under British defacto occupation, instead of abandoning them as was previously considered. While Brittany and Cherbourg were poor prizes, they were far better than losing Minorca and Gibraltar for nothing as was seeming likely.


The situation completely changed once again when in September of 1728 Duke Leopold of Lorraine launched his own attack on the Spaniards, the Austrians still being embroiled in Bosnia and Transylvania. The Duke of Lorraine had been guaranteed by the English and Dutch as much territory as he could conquer should he attack the Spanish and the Duke delivered, launching a lightening offensive which captured France-Comte and parts of Champagne before Phillip V could even get his army out of the Austrian Netherlands. The Situation from that point entered a stalemate. With none of the powers willing to launch an offensive for fear of losing what forces they had left. This culminated in all sides agreeing to peace, which was signed as the Treaty of Cadiz on January 7 1729.

franco-spanish-war-4-jpg.369985



The Treaty of Cadiz recognised the claim of Phillip V of Spain to the French throne, and further granted him Gibraltar and Minorca, along with the Austrian Netherlands in return for Phillip assisting against the Ottoman Empire, blockading the straits and launching an assault on the Algerian beys. The exceptions to this were the French colonies in North America, which were transferred to Britain, the Provence region, ceded to Savoy, Brittany and Cherbourg, ceded to the new Duchy of Brittany under George II's youngest son, the 8 year old William, and what parts of France-comte and Champagne had been occupied by Lorraine, now the Grand Duchy of Lorraine-France Comte.


The rebellions against Philip V began almost instantly in his French possessions, and it wouldn't be until 1735 that the last of these was properly quelled. Far from ruling as the absolute ruler he desired to be he was forced to make concessions to the French Estates such as respecting their autonomy in regards to their own lands, and indeed he would never entirely pacify the French nobility, though he did manage to asset influence through the pro-Spanish clergy and lower classes. Part of the concessions to pacify the French nobility was to recognise the Kingdom of France as being an equal of the Kingdom of Spain, and thus Phillip the V of Spain became Phillip I of the Ibero-Frankish Union, and at this news all Europe trembled.


In Brittany meanwhile, young William I was not a popular choice for duke in the slightest, and the Breton speaking nobility were often at odds with the English and Hanoverian advisors sent by George II to assist his sons rule, and this conflict would plague the duchy for the remainder of the 18th century. That Brittany was being heavily taxed to pay the titanic debt Britain had accrued from four years of war was not helping. Lorraine and its new partner of France Comte on the other hand, having been throughly ravaged by Spanish troops on their way through the area, was rather on side to its new overlords, who offered them comparatively better taxes and rights than France had.


But while the happenings of 1725-29 had been titanic for the people of western Europe, far to the east events of equal importance were playing out.


AUTHORS NOTES



Meh​
 
Chapter 4: From dust to dust, Mughals and the foundation of dynasties


The Empire ruled by guards - Written by Professor Rafi Gahaur of Imperial Delhi University

Were Emperor Muhammed Shah to have looked upon his empire at his birth, he would have seen the most powerful nation in Bharat since Chandragupta conquered a continent by sheer will. For in 1702 the Mughal dynasties word was law from Makran to Orissa, and the court of Dehli was the wealthiest in not just the east but the west as well, only the courts China and Spain being capable of equaling the sheer opulence on display. But upon his ascent to the throne in 1719, this was no longer the case. The Mughal court was decadent and controlled by viziers and other corrupt officials, while claimants attempted constantly to usurp the rightful Emperor, and indeed the only reason Muhammed Shah ascended to throne was that he was placed there by revolting vassals. Muhammed Shah did attempt to reverse the decline, he attempted to increase the size of the armies loyal to himself while ensuring vassals he deemed loyal were given positions of influence, efforts were made to sponsor the arts and begin a new golden age of Bharati culture under the leadership of the Mughals. But it was not to be.


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Muhammed Shah, last direct ruler of the Mughal Empire

The first sign of the collapse came when the Marathas, the most powerful of the Hindu vassals who'd deposed Muhammed Shah's predecessor, on the west coast of Bharat, refused to pay tribute in 1725. As Muhammed Shah was dealing with both constant raids by the Tamil kings in the south and the ever rebellious Pashtun tribes of Afghanistan this was ignored as something which could be dealt with later. But then it happened again in 1726, and once more in 1727. By that point other Rajas and even some of the more distant muslim vassals of the Mughals began lowering or even outright ceasing their tribute. Muhammed Shah decided that an example needed to be made to both reset Mughal authority and restore the position of Emperor as one not to be lightly trifled with. He set out with an army of 50,000 men for the Raigad Fort, the seat of Maratha power.


The exact specifics of the Battle which followed are unknown, the chaos which followed its aftermath lead to the collapse of both Empires which fought it, most details are in considerable doubt by scholars Bharat wide due to conflicting claims from survivors. If the claims of Muhammed Shah's personal guards before their execution are to be believed, then the conflict itself was actually rather short, with the Maratha fortress being overwhelmed by dedicated artillery barrages and stormed once the walls were breached. After this, the Emperor and his generals, relatives and even many of his more loyal vassals dined in the shattered throne room of the fort. At this point however, the details begin to diverge. Some accounts claim Maratha reinforcements descended upon the feasting army, others claim a storm of immense power smote the fort as divine justice, but the more accepted account is that a surviving retainer or servant of the Marathas hid from the watchful eyes of the Mughal troops initially, waiting until the majority of the army was encamped in and around the fortress, before blowing themselves and the army to pieces with an immense amount of explosives and black powder. Whatever the cause of the disaster, the Emperor, his immediate relatives, his highest generals and several of his most loyal vassals, were all confirmed to be deceased in the aftermath, along with as many as 30,000 men.


The Mughals most distant vassals had declared independence before news of the catastrophe had even made its way to Delhi. The Nizam of Hyberdad, the Shah of Afghanistan, the new and self proclaimed Nawab's of Bengal and the Carnatic, along with the major Hindu vassals, all had proclaimed their independence by the time any semblance of order had been found in Delhi. The European powers, Portugal from Goa and Britain from Bombay, had begun to offer the areas around their cities protection in return for loyalty. In addition to the newly strengthened Sikh revolts in the Punjab and the ever opportunistic tribesmen of Assam and the Orissan hinterland had descended upon the Mughal heartlands, raiding and pillaging as they pleased.


By the dawn of 1729, the Mughal Empire had seemingly collapsed in its entirety, only a small rump state stretching from Patna to Panipat and Narwaul, centred on Agra, remained anything beyond nominally loyal. But the newly crowned Emperor, Ahmad Shah Badur, was only 3 years old, and there was sincere consideration given to the project that perhaps it was time for a new dynasty. But in times of crisis, surprising things happen, rather than from amongst the few surviving influential figures at court the man who would change the destiny of the Mughal Empire was a simple captain of the guards in Delhi.

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Painting of Shahzadeh Khan Muhammed I


When the royal court fled the city for Agra, they took with them one of the last figures who could claim any true claim to the Mughal Empire. Ahmad Shah Badur, the infant son of Muhammed Shah. Unsurprisingly when the court actually arrived at Agra, there was an immediate power struggle between those trying to claim the throne for themselves and those attempting to keep their status though the Mughal Emperors. The future Shahzadeh Khan Muhammad sided with the latter group, but swiftly turned on his nominal allies as well, leaving himself in supreme command of the Mughal Empire and what few forces remained to it. But oddly, he did not kill the young Emperor, instead opting to place him on the throne but keeping himself as both Grand Vizier and the Chief General. Attempts were made by many opportunistic nations over the course of the following five years to take Agra and end the Mughal dynasty once and for all, but Sikh, Hindu and Muslim alike fell before the blade of the man who would not call himself Emperor.


The following decade would see this pattern continue, and in 1737 he adopted the title of Shahzadeh Khan, a union of the titles "Prince" and the more militarily minded "Chief". His success on the battlefield allowed Shahzadeh Khan Muhammad to establish a system often compared to that of Japan's Shoguns, though obviously more complex in its legality. Ahmad Shah Badur was well aware even after he reached his adulthood that he held no power not allowed him by the Shahzadeh, and this was such that even when Shahzadeh Muhammad died in 1754, a new Shahzadeh was appointed from amongst his sons (coincidentally the one which commanded the palace guard) and ever so slowly the Mughal Empire stabilised itself.


It can be said of Ahmad Shah Badur that when he looked out upon Agra he did not see the glorious Empire of his father, nor the wondrous court filled with works of beauty which made the heart weep, he saw a shattered empire on the brink of total destruction and saved only by a man who would not claim a title that many others desired. The Mughal Empire was at its lowest of days, and appeared fragile even to the optimistic.


Of course, as history shows, even a defeat can be a great victory, given time and patience. Both qualities the Mughal Empire had in vast amounts.



Authors Notes

It may have escaped some of you guys notice but these authors can be a wee bit biased.

Also while the Mughals initial collapse was far worse than OTL, I should note that the territory they.... well nominally them at any rate, is far more secure than their somewhat.... nebulous, borders that would constantly contract OTL.

Also Bharat is India.
 
Chapter 5 : The Young Prince


"The Life of King Samuel" by Moses Rake


The reign of Bartholomew the 1st was one of much upheaval. The displacement of the planter class to the other isles of the Caribbean and the subsequent emergence of the Maroon and merchant nobility as major forces within the Jamaican kingdom meant that there was little social structure to build off of, and much of Jamaica's early success can be attributed to the sound choices in allies by King Bartholomew and the fact that his spouse Queen Ruth was an adept negotiator, capable of ensuring that the competing factions focused their attentions on gaining political favours with herself and the king rather than taking out their petty grievances upon one another. Nevertheless, many a faction north inside and outside the kingdom were simply waiting for a chance pounce.


It was fortunate then, that in 1731 the future King Samuel was born. Despite cultural attitudes of the time towards mixed race marriages, the Jamaicans quickly became besotted with the young prince, who was seen by all factions within the new kingdom as a potential bastion of support for their own goals. Most organised plots amongst the coastal whites fell apart now that the new administration of Jamaica had a viable successor while the Maroons and Freedmen Blacks both tied themselves even closer to the Kingdoms fate. This loyalty was only strengthened by the births of Henry (1733), the twins Caroline and Augusta(1738) and Anne (1740).

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Jamaican Maroon Warrior

The following decade would see Jamaica emerge as a unofficial ally of the new Ibero-Frankish union, who despite not directly associating with the much maligned "Pirate Kingdom", did not do anything to crush it either, seeing the new state as a method to keep the pirates of the Caribbean focused on the English and Portuguese rather than going after the Unionist treasure fleets. Merchants who did not wish to pay hefty Unionst tariffs would sell goods at Port Royal first, and Jamaica would in turn export great amounts of sugar and other cash crops which Europe devoured like a hungry dog. Before getting into the events which would begin in 1743 however, one must understand the internal politics of Jamaica. The decade of relative prosperity had not dulled the beast of politics, and even with the planter class gone factions had emerged amongst the influential members of society.


The most powerful faction by 1743 was that of Queen Ruth, former slave who administered the island day to day and had singlehandedly created the ad-hoc system of government used by Jamaica till the 19th century. But there was a significant portion of the influential captains and some of the Maroons who did not believe that Ruth should be in power at all, though this was kept in check by King Bartholomew whom certainly wasn't interested in running the government himself. Ruth herself free much of her power base from the large freedmen population, but also had a great deal of influence with her own bureaucracy and the coastal whites.


The other faction of note was the Samuelists. These were the former members of King Bartholomew's crew and the more warlike Maroons under Quao who were intensely loyal to King Bartholomew himself, but did not feel the same towards Ruth, who they perceived as a negative influence on both the King and the Crown prince for the power which she commanded, and many felt had no right to command. That this faction was more influential amongst the navy and army was perhaps more concerning to the supporters of Ruth than anything else.


Had King Bartholomew lived a long and fruitful reign, no doubt spending much of his time doing little of import and raging at the more incompetent captains of his navy for minor mistakes while doting on his children, then this would not have been an issue whatsoever, as both Ruth's faction and the Samuelists agreed that the King's eldest son was the rightful heir to the throne. But as it happened, in 1743 King Bartholomew Roberts would die of a fever, his eldest son just 12 years old and his kingdom scarcely two years older.


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Young King Samuel



The power struggle was swift and violent, as within days both Ruth and Quao separately proclaimed themselves as Samuel's regent, Quao having seized Kingston proper and placed the new King Samuel under guard while Ruth fled to the countryside with her youngest children. It is possible that given worse circumstances, this may have escalated into an outright civil war, tearing the formative nation apart at the seams. But an unexpected intervention prevented the conflict from escalating.


'Queen' Nanny was an old woman by the time of Bartholomew Roberts death, the Maroon leader long having accepted a quiet retirement in Kingston having nominal command of the town watch and the harbour. Quao no doubt thought that Nanny would side with him against Queen Ruth when the coup occurred, having fought alongside the spiritual leader of the Maroons against the British for many years before independence. But for reasons unknown to history, as Queen Nanny left no written records of her own, just two days after Quao seized the capital the Maroon guardsmen he thought loyal to him revolted, killing many of his closest supporters and placing the aged warleader under arrest. Queen Ruth would return to Kingston just a week afterwards, escorted by some of Nanny's Maroons, and order would be restored within days despite attempted mutinies and minor clashes island wide.


Jamaica had weathered its first crisis. And in the years to come in would weather many more.


_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
 
Chapter 6 : Two Young Conquerers


"Hate always three things. The Devil, the Heretic and the Prussian." - Common Polish Proverb first recorded during the 1760's.

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Frederick the Great

1751 - Outside Poznan - Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth


The stench of gunpowder was one that was ever-present on a deserted battlefield. There were of course other smells, shit, death and the peasantry picking over the remains of soldiers to name but a few. But to the nose of Frederich von Hohenzollern, the burnt wafts of gunpowder always stuck out from amongst the other odours of war.


The sounds too, the cries of wounded foes begging for death, the distance marching of tens of thousands of feet, the caws of carrion birds making their way to a feast beyond all imagining.


A smile made its way to his lips, and Friedrich turned around to his assembled officers, many of whom bore similar expressions, filled with greed at the thought of the riches to come from the victory he had achieved.


"It would appear General Christoph, that the Poles were foolish enough to fall for the bait."


The General in question, Christoph von Dohna, was gazing over the shattered remains of the once proud Commonwealth army, and only glanced towards Friedrich at his comment before replying in an awed tone.


"Indeed they were your majesty, and Prussia is all the greater for it."


Friedrich's smile on grew larger. The battle had long since left his mind. No, as Von Dohna had said, Prussia would be ever greater for the utter decimation inflicted upon the Commonwealth this day. Images of cities he could claim as rightful Prussian heritage sped across his mind. Poznan, Kalisz, Lidzbark and a dozen others would be his for sure. If he was lucky the Poles would be so shocked they might give up Danzig itself!


Friedrich remained atop the little hill, staring at what was to come for some time afterwards. Thoughts of conquest and glory filling his mind. It was only later after general Von Katte approached him and spoke for a time, and the two left for the army camp being set up slightly away from the besieged city of Poznan. The observant watcher may even have noticed that the two were rather closer together than would be expected of King and Vassal, but only the foolish observer would mention such in the presence of an officer.


The man known to history as Frederick the Great was always said to be at home more upon the march than in Berlin. Though nobody was quite sure how or why that could be.


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Prussia in 1763, after the War of the Three Kings
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"The Life of King Samuel" by Moses Rake - continued


"Queen Nanny" as a historical figure, stands out as one of the few who did not seek power for powers sake. Believed to have been born around 1686 in the Ghana region of western Africa, Nanny was enslaved as a young child and transported to Jamaica where it is thought she worked a plantation in the Saint Thomas Parish.


Queen Nanny escaped the planation in the early 18th century along with three other influential figures of Jamaican history. Warlord Quao, "Captain" Cudjoe and Accompong. These four and other slaves joined the "Maroons", a term for the mixed Arawak and African bands of escaped slaves who inhabited much of Jamaica's then unexplored interior, and made life hellish for the British who sought to expand further control of the island. By 1720, Nanny had established what would become known as "Nannytown", the first permanent settlement of the Maroons, there Nanny would act as "Obeah", a term still used to denote a figure of spiritual and political importance in Jamaica.


It is probable that had events gone otherwise and the British been given time to properly reinforce Jamaica, that the Maroons would have been crushed and an otherwise fascinating period of colonial history would have been lost forever. But in 1726 the entire history of Jamaica was irrevocably changed when the combined force of Governor Dionisio Martinez and Bartholomew Roberts landed at Port Antonio.


The defeat of the British force sent to stop the landing caught the attention of the Maroons, and a meeting was held between the Windward and Leeward groups to discuss possible action. Cudjoe favoured remaining in the mountains and using the distraction to free as many slaves as possible before the British returned in force. But Quao and Nanny had a different course of action in mind. Freed slaves had guided Bartholomew Roberts to Nannytown, and while the Maroons as a whole were opposed to trusting any european, let alone a man of Britain, they did listen to his words.


The exact course of the debate is unknown after this point. But by the end of the meeting Cudjoe's group had been sidelined and an army of almost two thousand Maroons and freed slaves joined Roberts band of pirates and Spaniards. The sheer numerical advantage this gave the Spanish aligned forces was insurmountable, and every British force sent against it was defeated swiftly, the largest being a band of some 800 under Duke Henry Bentinick who were cornered outside the town of Negril in a last stand.


Nanny and Quao quickly gained a reputation as fierce fighters, both of them becoming in effect the monarchs of the Maroon bands. Over the next two years they would, along with Captain Roberts, establish a regime over the freed slaves and colonists who remained on Jamaica, enforced by the Maroon warriors and supplied by Roberts fleet.


The true change however, would come when the Second Quadruple Alliance came to end in 1729, and Jamaica was handed back to the now bankrupt and war weary Great Britain. Initially this caused an immense panic amongst the Maroons, who were worried about the prospect of an actual British army coming to the island, something not even the warmongering Quao was confident they could defeat.


Surrendering to the British was not an option, so the next obvious choice was to elect a leader from amongst those on the island. Warlord Quao was initially suggested as a potential King by his supporters within the Maroons, but Queen Nanny was supported by an equally large proportion of the Maroons, and even more of the Freedmen blacks. The formative kingdom was seemingly going to break apart before it could even form, but itwas then that the most unlikely of kingmakers emerged. The freed slave Ruth, who had become the lover of Bartholomew Roberts during the years spent on Jamaica, engaged in talks with Queen Nanny and Quao, trying to persuade them to support Bartholomew as a potential King, someone who was universally respected and not bound by Jamaican politics. The last point in especially convinced all the Maroon leaders that the ex-pirate was perhaps the best choice for a King that was available, since they would never support any of colonial population and no leaders of note had yet emerged from the freedmen blacks.


King Bartholomew would return the support shown by Nanny and Quao by granting them the only other noble titles on Jamaica, the self created positions of Leeward Earl and Windward Earl for Quao and Nanny respectively. This gave the two Maroon leaders unrivalled power on Jamaica, but each took it differently. Quao became an intense loyalist and support of King Bartholomew, and was given command of the garrison in Kingston. Nanny on the other hand more or less retired after 1730, acting only as the occasional mediator between the conflicts of Queen Ruth and Quao while keeping herself in relatively good living thanks to her owning much of the good farming land seized from the planters.


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An artistic rendering of King Bartholomew's entrance into Kingston

This retirement would be ended swiftly when the succession crisis of 1743 erupted. Exactly why Nanny acted against Quao's coup is uncertain, especially given that she had worked with Quao for a full 30 years at a minimum by that stage of her life. Regardless, within two days of the coup Maroon guardsmen loyal to Nanny had captured or killed all of the prominent Samuelist leaders, including Quao himself.


Nanny was placed as the new commander of the Kingston garrison and would thereafter act as one of the two powers behind the throne. Even in King Samuels mid 30's he always ensured Queen-Mother Ruth and Nanny were on his side before acting on a decision, a wise choice considering the ruthless nature of the two women he was dealing with. Eventually in 1760 Nanny would pass away from an outbreak of pneumonia passing through Jamaica, and would be the first non-royal person to be given a state funeral by the Kingdom. Nanny's power however would not transfer onto her successor as Windward Earl, her son Kwasi, who was almost entirely subordinate to King Samuel's wishes.


Queen Nanny has remained an important cultural figure in Jamaica even long after her death, and has a statue in Kingston to commemorate her achievements. She also remains a figure of note in the semi-pagan folk beliefs of Jamaica, being known as a wise woman and rumoured to be a woman who possessed great influence with the supernatural throughout her life. Regardless, few of Jamaica's citizens forget one of the mostly influential figures of the 18th century.


Authors Notes

Freddy here was forced into the role of king two years earlier than OTL, and quickly was involved in a opportunistic (But less successful) conflict with Austria which resulted in him claiming a slightly smaller Silesia than OTL. In General he had something of a more successful military career than OTL as well, but it also ended a lot sooner. Suffice to say, if he attempts any partitions he's going to find significant.... opposition from every single one of his neighbours.

Also I know its somewhat unlikely Von Katte would have had the same importance as OTL, but screw likelihood, historical figures deserve a break every now and then!
 
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