EU3-Castillian Rex - 1453-?
 

Greetings, fair reader. I am Alvaro de Souza, loyal Chamberlain to his most royal and August majesty, Juan II of Castile. It is the year of Our Lord, 1453.

I have recently been appointed to this position, and it is a sign of his Majesty's trust and confidence in my skills that he allows me to keep this diary, for future generations to read and understand.

Our situation is good at this time, we are questionably the largest and undoubtedly the greatest of the four nations that make up this section of the world.



We of course, are the land in the royal color of yellow. We have the greatest part of this section of Europe. Our loyal allies of Aragon are colored red on this map, and the provinces of Portugal are in green to our west.

That leaves one major nation to talk about, and that is the one that causes no amount of grief at the court. And that is our neighbors to the south, the Moorish nation of Grenada.

There are very many in our court who consider it an insult that this section of Europe has not fully converted to Christianity, and having a Sunni nation to the south, especially such a large one as Grenada, is an insult to our faith.

Of particular wroth is the King's religious advisor, Tomas de Torquemada who has declared that with nearly 100,000 souls in Moorish lands, we must think heavily about bringing them into our burgeoning lands, the better to convert them to the True Faith. I believe that his majesty is listening to him, and we may be headed for the dark days of war. I pray for our soldiers sake, that our victory is complete, total, and quick.


Tomas de Torquemada-Advisor to the King.

We have much to do in the next days. While his Majesty raises regiments for the campaign, he has asked me to hire those who would provide benefit to the Castillian court, as well as manage our burgeoning trade empire.

There are many long days ahead. May the most holy God bless and protect our land.

OOC:

Our goals

Short Term
1) Weaken the Moorish influence on the European continent. While Grenada as it stands is too big for us to swallow in one gulp, by taking Gibraltar (preventing the Moors from bringing allies from the south) and Almeria under the Castillian banner would isolate Grenada from all support and succor.

2)Form an alliance with Aragon to our east. As the two largest nations in the area, we must band together and dominate the continent!

Long Term:
1) Try to form Spain by diplomatically annexing Aragon (or becoming a Personal Union)

2) Guide our government into finding the new world. The Old World may have hundreds of nations influencing it. let the New World be Castillian! (or Spanish)

May 30, 1453

We have declared war on Grenada, His Majesty has become most anxious to defend the provinces adjacent to the Moors, in case they come storming over the border before they can be properly taught their place. We have hired two mercenary regiments to guard the borders, while our army moves south.

We have hired two great men to fill our court. Ignacio de Reyes, who will assist us with our production, and Gilles Bichon, a novelist of some note, whose stories of Castillian honor will stir our nation (stability bonus)

July 1st, 1453

Our Majesty's prudence was indeed well founded, as the Moors quickly raised an army of nearly 4 thousand. We managed to repulse attacks on Toledo and Cordoba, and have a thousand men beseiging the fortress in Almeria. Of Alarm is the fact that an army of Moors has apparently slipped into Andalucia, but with the King's Royal Regiments coming down, their siege should come to nothing.


The situation of July 1st, 1753

July 21st, 1453. Our noble neighbors of Portugal propose a Military Alliance, we are only too happy too agree.

October sees a 2nd attack on Andalucia, this time they drive out the defenders, although we quickly prepare to drive the invaders out, and we also detail a unit of troops into beseige their capital.

November 12th, 1453: It is my sad duty to report that our great and august majesty, Juan II, has been called home to God, dying in his sleep.

Maybe it is fit that he has passed away now, having set in motion the wheels that will make Castille the greatest of nations on God's earth.

His son, Fernando V, will take over the nation. I have heard him referred to as Fernando the Great in some part, and he is indeed a great man, and may indeed be a great King!


The King has died.. Long Live the King (and with stats like that, PLEASE live a long time!)

January 2nd, 1454- In one of the great battles of recent Castillian history, we destroy the army of King Muhammed X in Andalucia. With sieges of Almeria and Grenada nearly complete and Grenada's greatest armies destroyed, God has given us a great victory!

May 17th, 1454- A Risky assault on Gibraltar, the Rock of the Mediterranian is ordered, and our troops perform admirably, the siege only lasted 77 days! Grenada and Murcia are tougher nuts to crack, as they can be somewhat replenished and supplied by sea, but they cannot last much longer.

May 20th, 1454- I wrote too soon! Apparently the Grenadans did hear of the Gibraltan defeat, because the garrison of Grenada finally broke down and negotiated terms. They were allowed to march out of the city in good order with their regimental flags. The Castillian flag (at least temporarily) flies over 2 out of the 3 moorish provinces.

May 21st, 1454- And Almeria becomes the final hold out province to surrender. We cannot absorb all three into our nation at one go. But we quickly "advise" Grenada's King as to our terms.

Grenada will cede us Gibraltar and Almeria, and pay 50 ducats in war compensation.

The crowning moment was when we forced them to announce their great remorse about the number of Castillian dead in the war.

The war has ended, but both sides know that once the niceties of the truce have been observed, that our troops will be back again, and the next time we will take the jewel of the Nasrid empire and make it our own! The last Moorish province in the Iberian Peninsula will have Castille's flag over it again soon!


Triumphant Castillian troops march out of Grenada. Mark your paths, boys! We'll be back to stay soon!