G7 - The War of the English Succession & the breaking of the Pirate Brotherhood

Was considering the Spainish beaches for the sun seekers, & maybe skiing holidays in the Austrian Alps.

With some cheap away day fares to parts of Greece & the Dalmation coast.

If you know a good recipe for Goat sausages then we can maybe come to an arrangement.

J Flower wrote:Was considering the Spainish beaches for the sun seekers, & maybe skiing holidays in the Austrian Alps.

With some cheap away day fares to parts of Greece & the Dalmation coast.

If you know a good recipe for Goat sausages then we can maybe come to an arrangement.

July 1709 Glori du Roi has shown up and we seem to be well into the "Holiday Season":

1) Following their spring break in Scotland the Russians seem to be giving the sailing one more try and have shown up off the Coast of Sweden at Calmar.

Can the Swedes & the Russians find time for one final Naval Battle before talks in Warsaw start?  Talks now due to start October 1709.

2) Dutch seem to be building castles on the beach at Dunbar watched by the English Navy who were also busy stopping the new Austrian Envoy to Scotland at Leith and throwing 20 of his bodyguards in clink.  Seems Prince Eugene of Savoy may have had a diplomatic pass but the Jacobites draw the line at allowing a whole general staff be "smuggled" into Edinburgh in the Diplomatic bag.

3) In England itself the Princess Royal declared a Bank Holiday to celebrate a good harvest.  While the Royal Navy & the Country enjoyed itself the Dutch landed an Austrian Army at Hastings.

With a Williamite Dutch Army in Scotland, a HWIC 5th column in England and Williams Austrian Allies landed at Hastings one has to wonder why English Ministers seem fixed on the threat posed by Spain while seeming to pay little attention to the closer threat posed by the Dutch and Austrians.  Mind you if Charles the Good of Spain was upset about being called a Billiard Cheat and soft on Pirates he is likely to be even more upset after a month long Anglo-Russian Propaganda Blitz about "Foul Dons" and why "Spain can not be trusted" !

To date the Anglo-Russian Propaganda Blitz seems to have had

- No effect in Rome, probably the Pope does not wish to be told what to do by an Anglo-Russian alliance who are 99% heretic.
- Has convinced the House of Lords but not the Commons who voted down tax bills yet again.
- Unknown effect on the French.....Louis XIV was directly responsible for and favoured the split of the British Isles and the English Empire (which would weaken a major French Rival) which King James is trying to end with his invasion of Scotland.  But Louis can hardly look with favour on any attempt to restore William to the English Throne which would also ruin the Bourbon policy towards the British Isles
- No effect in New York were Richard Coote has declined to co-operate with Sir John Henry & the Russians and has locked up one Thomas Blakeney & a Thomas Drew as suspected Jacobite spies.

Meanwhile in other events:

- The Persians have introduced a coach service in Isfahan with really comfortable coaches.  Yet more proof that Persia is the most civilized and technically advanced state in G7.
- Italian Opera has been introduced in San Francisco...........perhaps Tom Blakeney is on the wrong Coast?
- Hapsburg grain factors seem to be getting jumbled up about which silo to use to supply which market but the good news form the Levant markets is that Spain, Austria, Bavaria, Persia and Rumelia are getting supplied with enough grain to keep the bakers fully employed.  A good deed by the infamous billiard cheat King Carlos of Spain & Naples or is he just running out of storage?

- Finally in the "Heart of Darkness" AKA The Siege of Edinburgh.  King William received more reinforcements when 3 battered Battalions of the Glasgow Regt made their way into the city.  While the Jacobites received Cossack reinforcements.

Oddly little else happened which may mean General Montrose refusal to open the gates even under flag of truce has spoiled Jacobite plots or the English are waiting for their Russian Allies to join them.

Your summary as ever useful Stuart thankyoufor simplyfying things somewhat.

Bit of a mixed bag from the Russian point of view,

the Navy got lost in the Baltic they were supposed to be heading for Cardiff to drop off an army but as they couldn't find it on the map they went to Calmar instead.

As for the Propoganda well, it was more a case of giving credit where credit is due, Spain & Austria the great Catholic bastions of the faith have managed to get all the Protestants in Europe in one  place. If they can find a way to sink the British Isles then the heretic threat is dealt a great blow. That a few Ortodox Russians also get to go under is simply the cherry on the top. It wasn't ment as propoganda, more a congratulation on a job well done.

Still trying to gather enough kindling for a certain fire......Stuart you know which one I mean


One thing of note is the level of diplomatic activity(aka Letter writting) has it died a death in the age of the smartphone. A large number of letters have been depatched from the Kremlin as yet only a few replies have found their way back, Personally I've always enjoyed the letter writting side of LGDR, I can only hope that the distance involved has delayed some replies, afterall it is one of the foundation stones of the whole concept of LGDR, I hope this is not a cry in the wilderness & that in coming months more of you will find time to put pen to paper or finger to keyboard or whatever it is you do with these new fangled technical devices.

I think most of the main Catholic States are not worried about protestant heretics in the British Isles, Germany, Sweden & etc. They are more worried by all those Orthodox heretics (I mean Patriarch's) in Russia and the Ottoman Empire saying nasty things about the Bishop of Rome & Roman Caholic Dogma.

On the subject of lost fleets what baffled me was how the Dutch Navy was able to sail through the Straits of Dover and down the English Channel to land an Williamite Army at Hastings without the Royal Navy doing anything about it. Couple of months before they had 80 frigates outside the main Dutch ports.

Seems to me that either the Royal Navy has suffered a disgrace on a par with the Dutch Raid on the Medway. Or its started to employ Russian pilots or the Captains of the Royal Navy do not want to fight against King William & for King James.

How many of the Parliamentary seats King James has abolished or is going to abolish belong to Naval families?

With the English Navy going AWOL can the Russian Navy find its way out of the Baltic and across the North Sea to save the day? Without being mugged by Viking types or the Dutch?

Have given the Russian Navy orders to follow the coastline untill they find the way out of the Baltic

Have also been considering arranging a day trip to Rome, with a box of matches & a couple of gallons of petrol, As the old Russian saying goes, Rome wasn't built in a day- But it burnt down in one.

August 1709 Gloire du Roi has shown up and it seems that Life is about to get "interesting" not to mention down right nasty in G7! With James Stuart kicking things off with a £10 a corpse bounty and burning 5000 Scots non combatants to death we may may be heading back to the good old days of Gloire. When wars were fought with objectives other than pre peace talks postureing.

For non players in G7 here are the highlights:

1) Following the defeat of his tax bills in the commons King James has said all the "No" votes do not count, Parliament is in recess (will it ever sit again?) and he is going to collect the tax anyway plus 50%. With anyone who does not pay being considered a traitor and shot!

2) As well as doing away with Parliament and calling in the Russians (Russian 3rd Army now at Leith asking who the need to kill) the Jacobites have also been acting to crush the freedom of the Press with dire threats to throw Jonathan Swift from a roof seeming to work on said writter.

In brief merry England is now a brutal military dictatorship with the Tyrannt James Stuart backed by the Supreme Autocrat of all the Russians and perhaps the French?

3) In Versailles King Louis XIV said "I WILL NOT LET DOWN MY FRIEND KING JAMES"......some people think that in order to keep the De facto Frenchman James Stuart (brought up in France from age of six months) on the throne of England. King Louis is willing to rip up the treaty of Yorktown and the French promise "not to provide either money, troops or ships to the Jacobites" take the no doubt huge loss of honour and start a new war with King William and his Dutch & Hapsburg Allies.

Some people also think that the Emperor and his sons do not really care who rules England and Scotland but do care hugely about all the lands the Hapsburg family lost to Louis 1648-1690 and want the elderly Louis to dishonour France by breaking a treaty prior to starting a war which will see the French fighting on three fronts to retain the "stolen" (In the Hapsburgs opinion) lands.

4) No doubt in an attempt to disrupt the Dutch landing any more Pro William forces in England or Scotland the 180 ships of the English Navy attacked Amsterdam. Either it was a very light probe (determination C?) or their heart is not in fighting for a Catholic "French" King who is seemingly set on doing away with English Freedoms as the Royal Navy pulled back on the loss of one frigate.

5) The Dutch who are strongly pro King William (he is also their Stadtholder) have asked to hire more Swiss and Austrian Troops.

6) This is on top of the 40 Austrian Battalions the Dutch have recently landed at Hastings. The Austrians have been visited by the Duke of Devonshire who was either acting as a customs officer or was spying but apart from that do not seem to be doing a lot apart from their Engineers throwing up some field works. One suspects that these Austrians are either getting over sea sickness or they are acting as a lure to get James Army out of London/Scotland.

7) In Scotland the major events have been at Edinburgh. Inside the city Jacobite Agents sabotaged fire fighting equipment the set fires in poorer parts of the city which destroyed 20% of the city, killed 5000 people and destroyed the city magazine. With the arrival of Siege Guns and the issue of ladders a Jacobite attack on Scotlands Capital is now likely. The Question is will the English Terror tactics lead to a failure of Scots Morale or will they fight to avenge the Scots Women and Children burnt to death in King James fires? Also will the Dutch at Dunbar attempt to break the siege?

Probably having to hack a hole through a Russian covering Army to do so? At least the Russians are used to being attacked by fanatic Protestants.......Swedes or Dutch whats the difference?

No doubt outraged by attacks on English Freedoms & the burning of 5000 protestants New York & the Puritan New England colonies have declared for King William and told the Russians were they can put their lease agreement. To reinforce the point the New Englanders and King Williams Lord Protector of the America's has welcomed a Spanish Trade Mission to New York. Probably taking view that the Spanish may be Catholic but at least they have been anti French and anti Jacobite for the last 30 years.

Other than the dispute over the British Succession not a lot happening:

9) Swedes have appointed their envoy in Warsaw to act as their delegate at the Peace Talks. While the Czar has sent his Navy in to the Sound in a direct challenge to the Swedish Navy to come out and fight. Clearly the Czar does not want the talks dominated by the last Naval Battle in which the Swedes sent 25 Russian Line Ships and a Russian Admiral to the bottom of the Golf of Riga.

10) The Jusuits have openned a hospital at Whydah and their leader got all metaphysical in Rome.

11) The French arrested a spy in Brest

12) The Sedili Council meet in Naples and had dinner.......allowing the Queen Dowager to show off her new dinner service. The Queen has ordered new services in Porcelain for the King & Queen of Spain, the Emperor and the Pope and the Cuira from the Palermo trade Guild while helping the Rumelian Churches avoid a nasty famine.

No doubt King James will view Sierre D'Espaenar and the Italian Cardinals eating off Hapsburg Porcelain and the sending of famine relief to Rumelia rather than a crusade as yet more evidence that the Catholic Church is soft and needs to be run by him and the Czar rather than a bunch of milk sop Italian & Spanish Cardinals.

In Rome, Toledo & Naples the modern view is that true converts are made via education and holy example not by burning the bodies of possible converts with James viewed at a fanatic and a disgrace who does more harm than good to the Catholic Cause.

Seems that the Catholic Cause has a big nasty split in it.

Have always said nothing like a good religious War to put some spite in the game......even better if its a civil war as well.

Wow. That is wonderfully insane. I had intended to play James with a chip on his shoulder for the foul murder of his father, but that's full-on balls to the walls crazy.

I think it's probably doomed because its alienating his own subjects, but it's still pretty awesome.

Bugger, navy got it wrong again.

All I want them to do is sail to Rome & see it burnt to the ground, is that too much to ask. Instaed they get stuck in the Baltic sound & Scotland goes up in flames, I think Richard is deliberatly misreading my orders to frustrate my grand plan.

Mind you it must be said that the people in Scotland who got burnt probably want James head on a stick as much as Dutch, aren't they the ones who say" the only king is God" so it may well be that James has actually done William a favour by taking out people who will rise up against however becomes king.

After building Sandcastles I take it the Austrian Engineers next task will be the constuction of 40 lots of deck chairs so that the Tyrol Tourists can soak up hte summer sun in Hastings.

there are also a lot of people who will line up with either side to settle old scores.... gonna get very interesting.....

Kingmaker wrote:there are also a lot of people who will line up with either side to settle old scores.... gonna get very interesting.....  

Actually the oddity about G7 is that historic alliances and feuds from pre 1700 have not changed very much and have not really been joined by any new ones.

The line up of the 9 years war still seems broadly unchanged. With the recent exception of Russia getting bored with its feud with Sweden and trying to join in the Williamite/Jacobite feud.

I am looking forward to when Louis XIV decides to settle old scores with the Hapsburgs.

Its going to get nasty

J Flower wrote:Bugger, navy got it wrong again.

All I want them to do is sail to Rome & see it burnt to the ground, is that too much to ask. Instaed they get stuck in the Baltic sound & Scotland goes up in flames, I think Richard is deliberatly misreading my orders to frustrate my grand plan.

If Jason's Russian Navy ever finds it way out of the Baltic they may be able to use their new knowledge of inshore navigation "Russian Style"..........bang.....thats a sand bank........crash.......and thats a rock.........to join with the 4th Anglo-Dutch Naval War currently under way in the Zuidersee.

Normally Naval Battles in Gloire du Roi are a bit of a bore with both sides forming line of battle and the side with the most guns/heavest broadside wins. Ship design, sailing skill, tactics, tides, water depth, terrain, quality charts and the like hardly ever seems to come into effect.

However with the English 5th & 6th rates raiding into the shallows of the Zuidersee and running into the Dutch Fleet returned from its latest "smuggling" trip to Sussex all of the above would seem to apply and I congradulate the players for being daring and inventive. Dutch Warships with their square keels, lighter build and lighter weight of guns can operate effectively in lighter winds and in much shallower waters than the big English Lineships with their deep keels and heavier guns/build but this tactical advantage comes at a price. Basically one on one Dutch Warships can operate in waters the English can only send frigates into and will defeat a frigate but will be in trouble against big English 1st & 2nd rates.

Cue the Dutch trying to bring the English Frigates to battle inshore where the big English Line Ships can not go while the English try to get out of the Zuidersee, over the bar on the tide and pick the right chanels to deeper water and lure the Dutch onto the English (Russian?) Lineships lurking in deeper water.

Errors in Navigation or judgement of water depth on a coast famous for its lack of landmark's could see ships drawing 12 foot of water trying to run a sand bar covered by 10 foot of water. Crashing into Islands in the dark (The inhabitants of said Frisian Islands being infamous wreckers) or finding themselves looking down the wrong end of a bow rake from a English 1st rate.

Thinking about it this is stuff for proper sailors.......best not to ask to Czars men to work out tidal races , variable water depth , draught of own ship all at the same time as fighting a battle and being sea sick.

It seems I have the luck of choosing Nations with Naval reputations, First Prussia & now Russia.Both Nations notable for their Naval exploits.

Wait until the Russian Navy releases it's latest secret weapon, it is still in the development Stage but could revolutionise the whole concept of Naval warfare.

I don't think the Dutch need to worry about Russian ships luring off their coasts, sinking maybe but not luring the Russian navy won't lure, I'm sure that is only a tactic avaliable to the Nautically advanced Nations.

But oh joy & celebration, New York has declared against me, I take it I am now allowed to burn the place to the ground & sow the fields with salt? It'll be a good training for when I get my troops to storm Rome.

Perhaps you should deliver a bunch of drunken Cossacks to new york.  Good times will be had, I am sure.

Thats indeed my plan, just got to find out exactly where New York is.


Just out of interest, has anyone else noticed that it appears TRKL may have returned to France, at least that is the assertion from the Newsletter.

Is is a case of hold at arms length- light fuse- throw -Run - hide under bed with blanket over head?

J Flower wrote:Thats indeed my plan, just got to find out exactly where New York is.


Just out of interest, has anyone else noticed that it appears TRKL may have returned to France, at least that is the assertion from the Newsletter.

Is is a case of hold at arms length- light fuse- throw -Run - hide under bed with blanket over head?

Since the Duke of York is not going to be winning any popularity contests in New England after burning 5000 Protestants in Scotland I think the Dutch part of the population want to change the name back to New Amsterdam. Which had added advantage that the Czar's Navy will probably get lost and run aground in the Zuiderzee!

If TRKL has "returned" it would seem that in G7 we now have:

- A Catholic Fanatic running England (and burning or banishing thousands) who is so extreme that the Pope & The Society of Jesus have disowned him.

- Said Fanatic is allied and in the pay of a drunken schismatic who's Orthodox Bishops want to burn the "anti-christ" AKA the Pope/Rome and convert all other communions in the growing Russian Empire to Orthodoxy.

- And now its hinted that their Dark Master has brushed the nice, civilized Crown Prince of France to one side so he can return to his policies of the 1670's's - terror attacks on Brussels, Barcelona, Genoa & the Empire plus an alliance with the Stuarts to wipe out the hated Dutch Republic & nasty things like Diets, Parliaments etc which get in the way of absolutism.

Finally, at long last I have a Chacter who even Richard is going to have to write up as "The Good Guy"..........Loyal Son to his Father the Emperor, Good Father & Husband, Noble Upholder of Treaties, Traditional Rights & Liberties.......Charles the Good of Spain. But can he hold the Line?

lets face it Stuart you don't stand a chance, you simply miss nailing ambassadors to doors & blinding enemy soldier & cutting off their thumbs.

Having the inqusition is just too much of a temptation, you'll soon have the comfy chair & the goat back in action.

It'll take out all the fun if you start to play such an angelic role.......It'll realy break my heart to see you suffer in such a terriable way.

Just for the Record Burning down Rome has been an ambition since playing LGDR, it's got nothing absolutly nothing do with having a horde of Russian Cossacks who just want to plunder their way around the holiday resorts of the Med.

A bit like the modern day English tourist, just in a nicer way.

Fredrick is looking to relocate if not as Fredrick then possibly a suitable Cossack person

J Flower wrote:lets face it Stuart you don't stand a chance, you simply miss nailing ambassadors to doors & blinding enemy soldier & cutting off their thumbs.

Having the inqusition is just too much of a temptation, you'll soon have the comfy chair & the goat back in action.

It'll take out all the fun if you start to play such an angelic role.......It'll realy break my heart to see you suffer in such a terriable way.

Just for the Record Burning down Rome has been an ambition since playing LGDR, it's got nothing absolutly nothing do with having a horde of Russian Cossacks who just want to plunder their way around the holiday resorts of the Med.

A bit like the modern day English tourist, just in a nicer way.

Oh the wicked lies from a heretic!! About the Godly Men of the Holy Inqusition AKA Spanish Department of Education who at worst burn a few unlicenced book's which could corrupt young minds plus keep the authors awake and standing up for a very long time (and then hand the author's over to the civil authorities).

Compared to the Turks, Russians, Swedes & French for instance Hapsburg Armies of this period seem to have preferred "contributions" to plundering and generally honoured agreements, did not go in for terror tactics and treated captives (with exception of some Hungarian rebels) fairly well.  Probably because they did not often rush sieges by the launch of a Storm.

Really only worry for heretic, plundering cossacks is actually being taken captive since at Zenta and some other battles  the number of POWs taken was tiny.

ANNOUNCEMENT::

Fredrick von der Decken has arrived in Game 7....

bad guys beware...

...Just when you think G7 can't get any stranger...it gains not only a cuddly Stuart but also Decken...

NURSE...the Screens!

yes but far enough way not to bother you guys......  



....yet....

Jason wrote:...Just when you think G7 can't get any stranger...it gains not only a cuddly Stuart but also Decken...

NURSE...the Screens!

But surely most of my characters are cuddly

Examples include:

- Sargon my little D & D Halfling Druid with his dog "Moonflower"

- Viscount Charles Hardinge in Scrabble - a lover of cricket, tea, port, polo and high class totty even the French Tart who slipped him a mickey finn. He even keeps on his injured gentlemens gentleman who someone dropped a roof on.

- Mustapha Kruppa in Glori.......overworked, underpaid, bee keeper & generally misunderstood opera patron. Who handed himself over to the Sultan risking death to avoid a civil war in the Ottoman Empire.

Sept 1709 Gloire du Roi has shown up and for non G7 players who may be thinking of taking a position (welcome Nexus) here are the highlights.

1) In London King James has had enough of Parliaments and has had the Palace of Westminster knocked down and replaced with a park!

This would seem to mark the the end for Parliamentary Government and its replacement by Royal Absolutism......but the good news is that King James is paying for concerts in the park and the Russian Ambassador is busy buying drinks for anyone who is anyone in London.

2) Also being bought drinks etc are are the 300 plus MP's & Lords who voted against paying for James Wars against the Dutch & the Scots. In contrast the MP's and Lords who voted for burning Protestants women & children in their beds and tax collectors are having their windows broken, hay stacks burnt etc.......but popular revolt it is not.

3) It basically seems that King Williams regular troops & allies are waiting for a popular revolt but the population are waiting Williams Dutch & allies to do something:

- Oddly the Dutch Battle Fleet allowed English Cruisers to sail away from Amsterdam and even capture some more fishing smacks without even trying to bring them to battle! Trump & DeRoyter must be spinning in their graves.

- The Austrians are still on holiday in Hastings........getting into slanging matches with local landowners ref their sand castles.

- Dutch Army in Scotland also seem to be on holiday.......some going for a walk in the borders but going no were near all those nasty Russians covering the siege of Edinburgh.

4) Too be fair the rest of the War in Scotland does seem to be getting a bit more active:

- The force promised by Williams Spanish Allies has finally showed up and fighting is now starting to rage in the Streets of Glasgow. OK it may be a normal saturday night.......but with grenadoes & light cannon?

- In Edinburgh Williams Scots defeated James English and Highlanders after a long and bloody fight but have lost the East Wall of the City to the Sukharev Regt of the Streltsy. It could have been a lot worse for the Williamite Scots but the other Streltsy Regiments are now on "strike?"........being good Orthodox fanatics they objected to being blessed by a Catholic Priest.


In other news:

5) The Bavarians have invented the Pianoforte. Bet the Electoress is delighted!

6) Her brother the King of Spain governments seems to have spent month trying to sort out judgement of Wine Vintages in Iberia & Italy.

7) In Russia the General Staff seem to be looking hard at the fortification of Moscow. Not sure if they are worried about the Sweedes or the Janissary (sorry i mean Streltsy) Corp. But it should be noted that Lev Naryshkin has made it to Warsaw so the GNW may be ending.

Two Jacobite spies have escaped in New York

9) In Rome the general feeling seems to be that James Stuart turning possible converts into ashe makes it hard to convert them

10) Finally in Varsailles Big Bad Lou seems to be a bit annoyed with the Dutch flying his flag as a ruse de guerre. He also seems to have indicated that come July 1710 he is going start another war and push into Franche-Comte and onto the Rhine again.

In Varsailles Sir Sidney Godolphin also proposed an extension and amendment to the Anglo-Spanish non aggression treaty which would see England being able to void treaty and go to help France in the event of a future war but would force Spain to stop sending (the currently allowed) help to its Scots & Dutch allies.

General view in Varsailles is that Sir Sidney is a bit of a wag and a very funny man. But does King Carlos have a sence of Humour?

October 1709 Gloire du Roi has shown up and for non players here are the highlights:

1) In England James Stuart continues to lock people up and seize property such as the Hardwyke family & their estates in Yorkshire.......Alas poor England/HWIC crushed under the heel of the tyrant.

2) Dutch have still not landed in England to rally the Williamite cause and their Austrian allies now seem to be bottled up at Hastings by the English Navy and so all in all its been a good month for the Jacobites in England and a bad one for the Williamites.

3) Its also "grim up North" were a bombardment by the English Navy has destroyed parts of Glasgow next to the Clyde and savage street fighting has been going on in Edinburgh. The Scots defeated an English attack from the west of Edinburgh and mangled the Highlanders but they only just managed to hang on against the Russian Hordes who now have firm control of the East Wall.

4) The slightly better news for the Scots was that Lord Galloway has lead a confederate force of Spanish, Swiss, Scots & Dutch to victory in Glasgow and the Amsterdam Cavalry got into the English routers cutting down the Chief of Clan MacDonald. Another leading Jacobite Lord the Earl of Dunbar was killed by a cannon ball from the English fleet.

5) As well as killing Scots a Squadron of the English Navy also found some Spanish ships in Scots waters and attacked them. The English had the best of the fight up to the point when the range closed and the Spanish used their Scots "carronades"

6) In Ireland........no fighting but Narcisssus Marsh had a general rant esp about the tactics of Spanish Light Infantry and even claimed that Spanish Troops in Scotland have broken the Anglo-Spanish non aggression treaty.....a claim not even the treaty's author or the now demolished English Parliament agreed with.

Too be fair to Narcissus a lot of others seem upset about the tactic's of the Miquelets. Who like the Grenzer & Hussars are of limited use on the battlefield but are experts at raid, skirmish and cutting throats.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Getting away from the War of the British Succession

7) The Swedes have put forward their terms to end the Great Northern War in Warsaw. The Russians have yet to reply in Public but talks are now under way and the Russian Navy has left the sound. It is now believed to be "becalmed" somewhere in the Baltic. With luck it may get home before it gets trapped in the Ice and they all have to eat their boots.

The Duc of Medina-Sidonia is now trying to produce Wine in New Spain.

9) Wonder if this is hampered by some Spanish Slavers prefering to run down some of the slave's to allow a quick sale to the Jesuits rather than shipping?

10) Seems the Asante and the Prussians may have fallen out over conditions of trade as Gross Friedrichsburg.

11) Venice has sold the island of Zakinthos to the Crown of England.

12) Fired up by sales of cheap Vodka the new England Orangemen are threatening to march south and take control of all the colonies for King William. Who I wonder sold the Vodka? And can they find York Town?

13) In Versailles the Sun King is still upset that the Dutch have been making free with his flag and moaning that people seem to ignore Papal Bulls. Since Louis has never paid any attention to the Pope, is considered the head of the Gallacian Church and has been happy to ally against Catholic's with Protestants, Ottoman Muslims & Russian Orthodox this no doubt seems like rank hypocracy to the HRE etc, etc, etc.

Louis has made the English Admiral who attacked Amsterdam a member of the "Order of Admiral Jean Bart" and sent a lot of gold coins to Sebastien Vauban as a reward for his services in helping to defend France.

The English Admiral is no doubt delighted with the award named after a French Pirate while the remark's about Verban works inc the "Soon his work will stand the test in practice" would seem to have two meaning. Either the King is going to try and take some of Verban's Rhine Fortresses from the Austrians or he fears he is going to do something which will cause France to come under attack.

14) Finally the Russians seem to be taking great glee in mocking the pope while getting their facts 100% wrong......the Spanish Catholic's actually killed no Highlanders or Catholic's in Glasgow.......only Protestant English. But Boris Golitsyn clearly does not allow a mere fact to get get in the way.

Sorry about getting my facts wrong ;

I simply beleived what was written in the Papers, That the Stuart( Catholic kings followers) had their throats cut, Then the Catholic Sir Donald Macdonald narrowly escaped death at the hands of an Assassin. Obviously the Russians got it wrong ...again. Sorry I forgot the Jacobites are reknown for their staunch Protestanst beleifs.