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A forum for the disscussion of the Play by Mail games from Agema Publications


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    G7....War declared

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    Post by Vauban Thu Jul 30, 2020 10:33 am

    France has declared war on Genoa and a mighty fleet has arrived off that City. This is gunboat diplomacy at its finest....

    For its part, Austria is keeping well away. Its a struggle to find an empty road out of Vienna anyway. Great herds of cows moving hither and thither, great cartloads of building materials coming into the city making it one huge construction site.

    Still, if any Genoese bankers are leaving in haste,  Vienna would welcome them for its new City Bank.


    Last edited by Vauban on Fri Jul 31, 2020 12:29 pm; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : Title alteration)
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    Post by Vauban Thu Jul 30, 2020 11:15 am

    Sorry, should have pinned the above to the G7 board...my bad
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    Post by Stuart Bailey Fri Jul 31, 2020 1:56 am

    The G7 thread title "The War of the English succession and the breaking of the Pirate Brotherhood" is a bit outdated since the English succession crisis is now sorted out and the factions which evolved out of the split in the Brotherhood are no longer having a civil war.

    For a replacement title "War declared" is as good as any for a game which seems to be drifting back to its roots - which was basically dominated by the Wars of Louis XIV past, current and future !!!

    So for non G7 players here are the highlights from July 1714 but for number one highlight we will keep with established tradition:

    1) After its loss of 20,000 slaves (still not found) and its dumping of thousands of very badly ill (SL #9) & out of supply Hungarians on Spanish San Francisco in a attempt to keep some of its passangers alive...........The Russian Navy was proud to declare July 1714 a disaster free month with no ships, passengers or cargo lost!  If it keeps up at this rate by the 1850/60's and the start of Scabble the Russians may even have a semi ok Navy. With Czar Peter and his trusted right hand Prince Golitsyn recorded in Russian History Books as the glorious founding fathers of the Russian Navy who's inspired leadership overcame a few minor problems and lead the Russian Navy to its first glorious Victory in the Great Northern War.

    - And before anyone start's being picky about words like "minor problems" and "inspired leadership" I said RUSSIAN HISTORY BOOKS!

    2) Actually their was no Naval losses at all to report.  Persian merchant ships in African waters were attacked by French cruisers but managed to escape,  while further French cruisers showed up outside a load of Spanish ports from La Coruna to Naples but did not attack anyone or anything in July 1714 at least.  Are they looking to ambush Persian merchant ships as they try to leave or enter port?  Or is this just another attempt to annoy the Spanish such as the recent marching of a French Army across Flanders?

    3) As already mentioned in above posts a very large Fleet has gathered to the west of Genoa.  At 19 miles its ensigns can not be made out and it could be the lost Russian slave fleet but since Louis XIV has declared war on Genoa this month it is the belief of many in Genoa and elsewhere that this fleet is French and hostile and may be intending a repeat of 1697 when Louis XIV bombarded Genoa the last time.

    4) Louis XIV declared war on Genoa after the French declared that their missing Controller-General of Finances had laundered the missing money through the Bank of Genoa.  Not really sure why Desmarets needs to launder Gold in Genoa (don't they have anyone in France who can melt down a load of Gold coins and turn them into Gold Bars?) or if this was before or after he sailed to Trinidad.

    - Either way its not looking good for the Republic of Saint George.........first England, then Scotland, then the UDP and Genoa.  But who will be next to be a target for Louis XIV and the mighty French War Machine?  

    5) In other news from France the Royal Palace of Fontainbleau is being done up to show the world that Louis XIV still has plenty of cash even after being robbed by his own minister and paying for huge numbers of troops and war ships.  Interior design by Andre Charles Boulle.

    - The English envoy Lord G said England was abandoning as too much trouble efforts to sort out a Treaty between the French who do not answer letters and the Emperor Elect who wants to haggle over every line.  But England will protect French shipping from attacks once Patrols are set up.  Could this lead to clashes between English and Persian, Pirate and Genoan Naval forces in near future?  Or other people? since:
     
    - Other news from Paris blames Prince Golitsyn for being in league with Desmarets and the Persians and also the Countess Gabriel del Montosa of Hainaulte for handling some of the Gold laundered by the Bank of Genoa.

    6) Interestingly Prince Golitsyn responded to charges that he was "G" by freely admitting that he was "G" and a criminal mastermind of such cunning that he had even managed to forget it was him who robbed the Freanch or what happened to the gold.  Is this the famous Russian irony at work?  Or a cunning double bluff by the greatest Criminal of the age?? Suspect

    7) Gabriel responded to the charges against her by basically bursting into tears before he Aunt and saying the letters "found" six months after the French Guards ripped the place apart and found nothing must have been "planted" since and are a forgery.  The Knights of the Golden Fleece and the all might of Spanish Macho Pride has basically wrapped round their Countess like a warm protective blanket.  Indeed Lt-Gen Graf von Neiss was so overcome in his love, devotion and protective feelings towards the Countess that actually proposed and the Countess said yes, turning tears of frustration into tears of joy!  

    Cool Not such happy news from Las Palmas were Edward Coldstream pirate investigator for King James III was checking up on facts concerning Blackbeards raid when he was assassinated!

    - This is the second one of King James III pirate investigators to have been shot (probably by the Brotherhood????) but the first one was on Jamaica were you expect such going on.  But Spanish Ports pride themselves on honest prices, honest measure, top quality inns, clean brothels and their visitors not getting shot as its bad for trade!

    9) In England King James went to a cricket match and was critical of Golf (which his father was a dab hand at) while Bishop Gilbert Burnet was buried at Sea with his Golf Clubs.  God knows why the good bishop was not buried in Salisbury Cathedral or why he was buried with his golf clubs.  They do very strange things in Wiltshire.  Meanwhile Charles de Bourbon Duc of Berry has shown up in London on the French Frigata the Apollon, paper did not say if he brought his Whites or his Golf Clubs.

    10) In Regensburg - Joseph Jacob Ignaz Johan Anton Eustachius of the House of Hapsburg was put forward as a candidate to be the next Holy Roman Emperor to tumultuous applause.

    11) Back home in Vienna Fieldmarshall Viasemitinov has offered to supply Kiev Pigs & Cows to the Austrain National Herd (damaged by Rainerpest a few years back) but while the kind offer was much appreciated the Austrians have already purchased a lot of improved breeds from Spainish breeders.  General belief is that buying Prize Toledo Merino Rams etc was a good purchase but who was the idiot who bought Spanish Fighting Bulls.  This could be the end of that fine old Austrain sport of bull baiting with dogs.

    12) In Copenhagen King Charles XII of Sweden is making good progress with both the Kalmar Union and Lady Sophie Rosenkrantz.  Could it be wedding bells be in the near future?

    13) Wedding bells are not in the near future of the run away love birds Alan Standing and Miss Jane Eyre as the Puritan Governor of New York has sent them to Holy Orders in Siberia after finding them guilty of living in sin!

    14) Further south another couple who have been living in sin - Gen Alva Ixtilxochitl Carlos and his Navaho mistress Walks in the Clouds Woman - finally gave into Church pressure and got married.  Having lost his bet with the Cardinal the Viceroy of New Spain funded 1000 Church schools, which was then matched by Viceroys in Peru and New Grenada since it would not do to be outdone by "those flashy g**s in Mexico City"

    - The Church in the Spanish Empire hope to introduce universal education in the near future if Louis XIV does not attack them again and close down their schools like the last time.

    15) After finding they were being set up by outside powers - The Spanish and Ottoman Anatolia have signed a trade and non aggression treaty.  With the Spanish Envoy offering £100,000 in gold for info on the forger(s) who produced the now infamous Rakoczi Letters and the forged letters planted in the closed Spanish Embassy to France.

    16) Russian's and Moldavia's in talks about restoration of Orthodox Holy places and a Moldavian National Militia

    17) Those old mates the Great Moghul and the Persian envoy in private talks about whatever Persians and Moghuls find to talk about, wild estimates would include -----Chess Problems? Polo? Why has your Shah not married by daughter yet? Can you supply £40m worth of Gold for me to make the Peacock Throne with? -----and other general chit chat.


    Last edited by Stuart Bailey on Fri Jul 31, 2020 1:23 pm; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : Spelling)

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    Post by Papa Clement Fri Jul 31, 2020 10:58 am

    I also welcome the move to a new thread, though suggest it is retitled to reference which game it refers to ... "G7 - War Declared?" could be a possibility? Otherwise it will become mighty confusing for those who are in multiple games.

    No need to add a great deal to Stuart's writeup as it has been a fairly quiet turn. However for clarification ...

    1. The superiority of cricket over golf was explained in the newspaper. From the previous month it was revealed that Burnett was a secret Calvinist, and although playing golf (or 'kolf' as the Dutch refer to it) is not evidence of being a Calvinist, it is certainly enough to raise suspicion. As to the charge that King James II was a 'dab hand at golf', this inaccuracy must be corrected. It is true that before he became King, he played in the first international golf contest (1681) against two English courtiers, this was as part of a bet over rights to claim the game for Scotland or England. This was deemed to be a matter of honour and he was arguably tricked into the bet because he was obliged to pay a substantial sum to his team mate, John Paterson, who spent his winnings on a mansion in Edinburgh (now believed to have been demolished during the recent war). So although he may have played golf, there is clear evidence he was not particularly good at it, and did not continue the practice once he became King. As a secret Calvinist, Burnet could not be buried in a Church of England cathedral, so naturally was dumped at sea along with his golf clubs.

    2. The response to the murder of Edward Coldstream on the Spanish island of Las Palmas is clearly a major diplomatic incident, the repercussions of which require serious thought. Had a Spanish visitor presented himself in London to the authorities, raised a series of questions to help with their own investigations into their missing archbishop, then been shot in the back as he left, we can only imagine the screams from King Charles, the demands for war from the Cortez, articles in the newspaper of the kind "many people think London is run by pirates", etc, etc. For Stuart to dismiss the incident as unwelcome because it is 'bad for trade' is laughable - such trade that there was has been all but wiped out by his punitive 50% tax on English ships sailing past Gibraltar which he had claimed were put in place due to England's support for the Ottomans over Oran. Of course, King James never for one minute believed that Spain's action was anything other than an attempt to hit English trade and stop English merchants breaking de facto Spanish trading monopolies, (i.e. nothing to do with the Ottomans), but now the Ottomans have made some kind of agreement with Spain, I'm really curious what justification Spain will claim for not removing them?

    Otherwise it does seem that once again England is a far more enlightened and peaceful place than many areas of the world, although whether it remains so may become apparent over the next few months as investigations over Desmarets and the French fraud are hopefully brought to a successful conclusion with the guilty parties identified and captured.
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    Post by Papa Clement Fri Jul 31, 2020 1:02 pm

    Thanks for updating the title of the thread.
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    Post by Stuart Bailey Fri Jul 31, 2020 2:16 pm

    Papa Clement wrote:Thanks for updating the title of the thread.

    Like the new title........esp the question mark added on at the end.

    Also agree 100% that cricket is a superior game to golf. I was aware that James II was a good yachtsman and is also claimed to be one of the first international players of golf for Scotland. Feel that the fact that the Scots team won that first international may have contributed to it being remembered esp in Scotland.

    If he was any good or just a hacker who was carried to victory by his playing partner I do not know. But considering the gifts dished out to their favourites by his brother, father and grandfather a mansion in Edinburgh does not seem that extreme. Sometimes feel Stuart and indeed English Kings in general could not win. Since either they were much too generous with the Nations tax payments or they were "too mean."

    News to me that Calvinist, Catholics, and other non Anglicans can not be buried in a Church of England Cathedral. Were is the Calvinist Prince Rupert of the Rhine now buried? The English are going to have problems when they have to bury James III or is he now an Anglican?

    Also agree 100% that the murder in Las Palmas is clearly a major diplomatic incident - just like the English Pirate raid on Havanna and the earlier English pitate raid on Las Palmas. It the English want to murder each other at home fair enough - just wish they would not do it in Spanish ports right in the middle of the seista as well! You know how upset Spanish Minister get if they have to end their nap and investigate something.

    Its giving that man Watts a blank cheque to write loads of stuff which is just going to cause trouble and goes against the basic principles of Hapsburg Spain which runs perfectly ok on the three wise monkey principal and on finding out what the Nobility and Church etc want to do and them ordering them to do it.



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    Post by Papa Clement Fri Jul 31, 2020 3:27 pm

    Yes, the question mark was deliberate since it is hoped that G7 will not descend into total war for the rest of its existence, but I won't insist on it.

    At least we can agree that cricket is superior to golf.

    I'm actually finding researching the history of golf quite fascinating.  It does seem to have started in Holland, but met with some resistance in Scotland being banned by various kings.  Like many games the rules evolve, but with golf being fundamentally simple (unlike cricket), I have to wonder why some rules were introduced.  Example, the Leith Rules (mid-1700s) said "Your Tee must be upon the ground" and "You are not to change the Ball which you strike off the Tee".  What kind of golfing cheat would want to place the Tee anywhere except on the ground?   Did they think it would give an advantage if they placed the Tee in the mouth of a servant and hit it while standing on a horse?  And were golfers really in the habit of changing the ball each time they played a new hole?  Call it a rare example of personal prejudice if you like, but I cannot see the point of golf.  If as a peace offering Spain offers to organise a golfing competition rather than sending a cricket team, you can imagine how badly this will go down!

    Politically, you are probably right that the Scots adopted it as their own and then exported it as a kind of counter to non-Scottish pastimes, but in a land where decent flat agricultural land is required for growing crops to feed cattle, I don't really want to encourage Scottish nobles to enclose land to make golf courses!

    I won't comment any more on the murder in Las Palmas since that should be kept within the game and I haven't decided what to do about it yet.

    On non-Anglicans being buried in Anglican churches, my answer is "it depends".  Rest assured that when my character dies he will be buried in Catholic ground, hopefully having seen England restored to the true Catholic faith.  When the Church of England was established it took over (effectively nationalised) a lot of functions previously carried out at local level by individual parish churches/monasteries, so I don't know whether the Church of England (in 1700) had the legal obligation to bury everyone whatever their religion or however they died.  It is one of the curious things that it was one of the biggest powergrabs by the state that there has ever been, and extended the influence of the state into everyone's life far more than its architects ever realised.  People actually had far more freedom as part of the Catholic Church (where the limits of church power and state power were clearly defined) than they did as protestants under the centralised state of Henry VIII.  This aside, ethically and morally even the Church of England would have difficulty with some requests for burial.  With most non-Anglicans it probably doesn't cause them a problem because they have conceded similar principles, but Calvinists are different and as a bishop, Burnett was even more different.  I don't pretend to be an expert in heresy so am happy for others to correct me, but the trouble with Calvinist beliefs is that they hold the repugnant doctrine of double predestination which is against the original Henrician articles of the Church of England (as restored in the game by me).  Thus Calvinists believe they are the elect and everyone else is damned, so there is a serious question mark over whether Burnett (if he was a Calvinist) would want to be buried among those he believed were destined for hell.  Secondly, Calvinists don't believe in the authority of bishops, which makes Burnett even more of a problem (as well as a hypocrite).  How can Burnett be a genuine 'bishop' in the Church of England if he doesn't believe in the teachings of that church or in the position (bishop) he holds?  Logically it would be insulting to those Anglicans he deceived and disrespectful of his own professed Calvinism if he had been buried in Salisbury cathedral.  Burial at sea seemed to be the best compromise and disposing of his golf clubs a powerful symbol that Calvinists should not introduce their games of questionable morality into England.  A Catholic would not wish to be buried in an Anglican church (which he did not recognise), but from the Anglican perspective they would not have a problem burying a Catholic if the law required them to do so, for to protestants the state determines what is believed and how religion is practiced.  They, of course, could not conduct a valid requiem mass and no Catholic family would be happy that their relative was denied the sacraments, etc.
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    Post by Stuart Bailey Sun Aug 30, 2020 11:34 pm

    G7 - A game you know you have been played in for too long when you are perfectly happy to tranfer £850,000 from the position treasury to prove that your NPC is a very nice young lady who has not plundered the French Treasury of £40,000,000 in gold.

    Only hope that when her lawyers confirm the value of her estate to her husband to be it does not suddenly increase to £40,850,000.
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    Post by Stuart Bailey Sun Sep 13, 2020 12:02 am

    August 1714 edition of the Gloire du Roi has shown up and for non players in G7 here are the highlights:

    1) As is traditional with G7 reports - the important news to report is NO RUSSIAN SHIPPING LOSSES!

    - The French lost a Frigate and 22 merchant liners in Levant waters probably due to their war with Genoa and 1 liner off the Horn of Africa probably as a result of their war with Persia. While the English lost one in the West Indies due to reasons unknown since no one is at war with them (a very unusual state of affairs over the last two and a half decades).

    2) Genoa is now under blockade by 31 SOL, 42 Cruisers and 69 Transports of the French Navy while on the landward side the French Armee Royale has started siege operations.

    3) I small French Naval attack has also been mounted on the Port of Bastia which failed with the loss of a French Frigate which does have the advantage for the French of blocking the narrow entrance and stopping more elements of the Navy of Genoa from getting to see.

    4) Reaction to the French declaration of war has generally been poor with Spain and the Italian states in particular seeing possible mis-use of a Genoan Bank by corrupt French Ministers as a very poor reason to declare war on the Republic of Saint George. Some will no doubt see a lot of self interest in the Spanish reaction in particular since if mis-use of a Bank by a French Minister on the take is a valid reason for Louis XIV to declare war. Then clearly Louis XIV is not going to be short of reasons to declare war on the House of Hapsburg and Spain in particular when the treaty of Scotland runs out.

    - Currently Spanish envoys in Rome and Genoa are urging a full audit of the Bank of Genoa to see if the money which so say left France for Genoa ever arrived and went through the Banks Books. With the general view being expressed that this is probably another false trail a bit like the story of Desmarets fleeing France for the Spanish Main with boxes of treasure.

    5) When not waging wars with Persia and Genoa King Louis XIV found time to fix the roof of Notre Dame. Perhaps he is planning a society wedding as these seem somewhat in fashion at the moment inc:

    6) King Charles of Sweden spent month making further progress on this Union with the Danes inc his marriage Union with the Lady Sophie Rosenkrantz which is to take place next month. With only a small legal misunderstanding about the rights of Swedish Nobles to hold things up.

    7) Graf von Neiss and Gabriel del Montosa Countess of Hainault hosted a ball to mark their engagement. The bridegroom got news from his bride to be lawyers that the young ladies estate is worth around £850,000. Not a bad estate to come with one of the best looking and most influential women in Europe but hardly £40m in Gold.

    Cool Mostly importantly of all another ball was held in St James Palace to mark the engagement of Louis XIV Grandson the Duc de Berry to the Princess Royal of England. The Duc of Berry has also been given Hampton Court Palace, made Master-General of the Ordnance (John Churchill old post) and granted the title of Duke of Bristol which gives him the right to sit in the House of Lords.

    9) The Election of the new Holy Roman Empire is now in full flow, but can it actually be called an election with only one person standing? Indeed in some places they are already planning the Street parties and potters are busy making mugs and plates to celebrate the election of Joseph von Hapsburg.

    - In contrast to his somewhat aloof father who seemed to have little interest in the Holy Roman Empire the new Hapsburg leader seems happy to be viewed as a first amongst equals and as the "chairman" of the German and Italian Princes. With his interest in farming and beer "Farmer" Joseph seems a more natural leader than his father for the Imperial Free Cities, Knights and small nobles of the HRE is rally round in face of Louis XIV on the rampage.

    10) Moldavia has rejected Russia offers to help restore their Churches and improve their armed forces. No doubt wishing to avoid upsetting their overlord the Sultan who is known to view the spread of Russian influence in his Empire in a somewhat nagative manner.

    11) The Bishop of London showed up in Las Palmas to help the investigation and found the Spanish authorities in a very helpful and understanding mood . The Body of the late Mr Coldstream has been embalmed and sent back to Bristol along with a pension for his family. But too date no progress has been made on finding the assassin. Probably because no one has a clue what he looks like or who he is.........bit like the hunt for Desmarets and his ship(s).

    12) Daniel Defoe and five others visited Blackbeards old base on Cat Island. Oddly they came across a three graves the largest of which seems to have been dug up and is now empty!

    13) Vasily Golitsyn continued that favourite far eastern hobby of mocking the French.

    14) The Great Moghul has removed the punitive tax on English trade.

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    Post by Papa Clement Sun Sep 13, 2020 10:54 am

    This has been one of the most surprising and puzzling turns for a long time, certainly interesting from the Jacobite viewpoint.  

    I can't comment on the situation with France/Genoa/Desmarets ... I had hoped to solve the mystery this turn, but it has been delayed.  

    Surprise/Puzzle 1
    Stuart rightly picked this up, but not the significance.  The puzzle to be solved here was what to do with Hampton Court Palace.  Historically it was built by Wolsey - in the wrong place to be useful, too large and a bit of a white elephant - then given by him to Henry 8th, who also didn't really know what to do with it.  In most countries the monarch has the finest houses, but in England they tended to be built by subjects (perhaps because like King James, English kings don't seem to have much money?) The Stuarts used it as a sanctuary from London, but never really took to it.  Charles 2nd/James 2nd more or less abandoned it, but William viewed it as an English Versailles and 'restored' it.  At one point I did consider giving it to a rich noble, but after a decade of war there aren't many of those around.  So the best compromise I could find was to give it away as part of Princess Louisa's dowry, thereby flattering the Duc de Berry who will naturally remodel it again, removing the Calvinist decorations.  It might seem strange to view buildings in religious terms, but the development of Hampton Court does track failed religious changes in England - Wolsey trying to tinker with a Catholic edifice and creating a monster, Henry trying to turn it protestant, the subsequent failure of every monarch to live peacefully there (except perhaps Cromwell who of course refused the title of 'king').  I'm very curious what the Duc de Berry will do with it ... will he complete William's vision and make it a mini-Versailles full of French style, correcting Calvinist architectural mistakes, perhaps adding a Desmarets maze in the garden, or knock the whole thing down and start again?

    Surprise/Puzzle 2
    This was not mentioned in Stuart's writeup, but during excavations at the site of Glastonbury Abbey,  English scholars may have found the tomb of King Arthur.  This was rumoured, but as with a lot of these old documents, you never really know how much is accurate and how much is convenient.  I had just expected to find a few monastic outbuildings, but this is something special!  Just goes to show, if you ask the right questions, sometimes you can be surprised by the answer.  G7....War declared 3465686019

    Surprise/Puzzle 3
    Spain's willingness to co-operate over the murder of Coldstream!  Will freely admit I was a bit stumped what to do about this last month, and delayed making a decision.  Clearly it could have quickly deteriorated into something very nasty (and if it had happened a few years ago would have just been yet another reason for deteriorating Anglo-Spanish relations), but as far as I can remember this is the first time Spain has actually put her hands up and not tried to defend the indefensible!  Not only that, but is responding in a very Catholic way, attempting not only to investigate the matter, but also make restitution and ... well, I am genuinely shocked!  Shocked  If I can find the tomb of King Arthur then I'm sure Spain can track down a common murderer in one of his own cities, but what that investigation reveals may prove to be much more interesting.

    Surprise/Puzzle 4
    The visit to Cat Island.  This again has me stumped.  The 3 Crosses marking a single grave may have religious significance ... they are known as Calvary Crosses (Christ in the centre, 2 thieves on either side), but if this is something to do with Blackbeard, was Blackbeard religious?  I don't know.  It may be the missing archbishop's grave (if it actually contained the archbishop and had not simply been dug in preparation for him?)  Or does it have some other significance?  More thought is clearly needed.  It sounds like this adventure is going to have plenty of twists and turns, with clues unfolding month by month.  If nothing else Defoe should be able to write a good story if he doesn't meet the same fate as Coldstream! scratch

    This is just speculation, but one of the odd things about this story is that the archbishop was not returned after the ransom was paid. Why not? Pirates want gold - they got gold. To not return the archbishop is self-defeating for if they took another hostage in future, nobody would pay the ransom they demanded. If the archbishop had died then surely they would have sent the body back? It may well be that the archbishop is alive. What if, refusing to take any nonsense from pirates, the archbishop set about converting them, and chose not to return? That might explain the religious significance of the 3 crosses, and why nothing was heard from Blackbeard after the raid on Las Palmas? Of course the idea that Blackbeard (presumably without his beard) and his crew have settled down to be good Catholic farmers, in some far flung colony, attending daily mass with the archbishop, may be not quite the kind of story Defoe expects to write, but it could be the most plausible result of the destruction of his den by Spain.

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    Post by jamesbond007 Mon Sep 14, 2020 7:40 am

    Two very good and informative write ups. Thanks for taking the time. Interesting read.
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    Post by Stuart Bailey Wed Oct 21, 2020 12:13 am

    Sept 1714 Gloire du Roi has shown up and for non G7 types here is the news:

    1) - In the most important new's item of the month (for cricket lovers) a Royal Select XI which included King James III in person, defeated the county Champions: Devon. The Devon captain's very odd field placement, selection of who was to bowl which left Devon two star quick bowlers un-used and his running out of the three best Devon batsmen while blocking a heroic seven runs from almost half the balls bowled at Devon batsmen. Has been put down to Captain John Matthews taking a blow to the head when dropping a catch in the Royal Select XI innings.

    Anyone who suggests that John Matthews may have not being trying his best to defeat a team which included his King, the Duke of Devonshire (his landlord) and no less than three noble ladies will result in "anyone" being taken round the back of a barn and given a damn good thrashing by the large blacksmiths who are in the employ of John Mattews.

    The Devon team drowned their sorrows in a monumental weekend in London, paid for by their captain out of the proceeds of a friendly sporting wager's he had with the Royal Chamberlain and the Duke of Devonshire Steward that the Royal Select XI would win and the Duke of Devonshire would top score and win the game for the King.

    With Devon's scoreing shots all making Lady Mary Swinburne (next Duchess of Devon???) run so much that she was about to swoon into the arms of the top scoring hero of the hour. Thomas Foster MP - the Mad Jacobite choice for a Mad Jacobite and a Northern Lover of the true spirit of Cricket who could certainly see the Holy Game being abused by a bunch of Devon pirates and smugglers to help their chief's pursuit of a fair Northern Maid - cut in ahead of Duke and swept the fair Lady Mary into his arms!

    To judge from the expression on the face of the Duke and some of his merry men......someone had betterinvent pads, gloves and the box by next season! This means war!!

    2) In vastly less important news the Russian Navy had a loss free month - The Persians lost 13 ships one more than the French who lost 12 and maintain their comfortable lead on the Lloyds List of Naval losses in terms of ships. As most of these 25 ships are assumed captured by the other side with crews mostly still alive it is believed the Russians are still well ahead in terms of numbers drowned.

    - Interestingly the Franco-Persian Naval war is almost all in African waters with a mere 3 ships out of the 25 reported lost in Indian waters.

    In other news:

    3) Daniel Defoe is having a House built on Cat Island were Blackbeard used to have his base when a huge Ruby believed to be from Blackbeards loot was dug up when laying the foundations. The question is who holds mineral rights to the Bahamas? The Crown of England, the Czar as leaseholder or as stolen property from the raid on Havana should it go to the Spanish underwriters?

    4) In desperate attempt to stop the attack on Genoa - the Bank of St George offered to throw open its books to Papal and French auditors and prove that they have not (knowingly) been handling stolen French money. A offer which has rec'd the full backing of the Papacy and Spain etc in an effort to save Catholic lives.

    - Sadly these plea's for mercy fell on the deaf ears of the French War Machine and with support of a massive artillery bombardment which reduced the Church of San Donato and about a quarter of Genoa to cinders with huge loss of civilian life the city was stormed. The French using a Ottoman style perpetual storm with wave after wave of French attackers thrown in to finally carry the breach.

    - With no Citadel to fall back into and the Port blockaded by the French Navy under Rene Duguay-Trouin (a close relative and name sake of original who was killed in Dublin? Or more Necromancy?) the Doge of Genoa surrendered without conditions to try and stop the slaughter of his people.

    - It remains to be seen what French intentions actually are but dropping mortar bombs on it seems a odd way to preserve possible evidence.

    5) In a rather more small scale bombardment and sack James Scarsfield 2nd Earl of Lucan and Irish (?) Jacobite troops loyal to King James III stormed the town of Scarborough on the Island of Tobago while raging against "Traitors and Protestants". The town was unsuccessfully defended by Colonel Killigrews and English Troops of the Jamaica Regt (loyal to ?).

    - Tobago a English Island off the Spanish Main used to be infamous haunt for smugglers. But with Spanish Free Trade and low taxes ruining the economic basis for smuggling to the Spanish have the smugglers started buying Spanish goods to be smuggled into England to avoid the 250% tarriff on products like coffee? And this was just a large scale raid by the "Revenue" or is their a deeper reason for such a raid to be lead in person by such a senior Jacobite?

    6) To mark what is believed to be the finding of the tomb of King Arthur the Royal Wedding of the Jacobite Princess Royal and the Duc of Berry is to have a Arthurian theme.

    7) Anglo-Austrian relations which have been poor for many years seem to have improved a bit with the English Parliament in Warwick agreeing to lower tarrifs on trade with Austria to 10% while the Austrians offered Jethro Tull a job. But what does he know about Goat farming?

    Cool The English Parliament also passed some C14 act against Roger Martel who these days is Spanish Viceroy of Africa.

    9) The Dutch would like a 1,000,000 ducats from Russia to build laddel dredgers.......who much is that in real money?

    10) King Charles XII of Sweden (or King in Sweden as he is now to be known) has married Lady Sophie Rosenkrantz and sorted out last months problems with the Riksdag......nearly. Seems the Riksdag need one more clause added which will mean any Kalmar Union Laws will only take effect if voted through by both the Danish and Swedish National assemblies.

    11) French have thanked the Russians for trying to broker a peace with Persia but have basically confirmed they are not going to say sorry to the Shah for calling him an Ottoman or anything else he is feeling offended about. And that their peace offer to Persia remains the same as it has been for last three years and the Shah can take it or leave it. This would not seem to give the Russians much to work with.

    The honoured Russian Envoy was also asked to bring Russian Department East to heel and stop Prince Golitsyn from mocking French claims. It remains to be seen if Prince Golitsyn pays any attention to the wishes of the Russian foreign office (The men who gave St Petersburg away and killed most of the Russian Navy) or if he will have something to say about trying to find evidence by dropping Mortar bombs on it)

    12) Emperor Elect Joseph spent the month visiting hospitals and dishing out medels and new flags to crack Austrian Units in Vienna.

    13) In the latest twist to the Desmaret affair it has been reported that the fugitive may have fled from Marseilles on a ship bound for Venice. Does this mean that the French are now going to say sorry to Spain for saying the fugitive and their gold had found a home on the Spanish Main? Or does it mean the French will now bombard Venice in effort to flush out the fugitive and their gold in the same way as they threated Genoa? Has Louis XIV got something against Republic's since he has now attacked Scotland, UDP, Genoa and now Venice?

    14) In Madrid Carlos III is very unhappy about the French attack on his friend the Doge of Genoa and held forth about the Hapsburg family being the the last line of defence for freedom, liberty and traditional ways of doing things against absolutism and tyranny. Some people may think that when Charles von Hapsburg talks about freedom and liberty it has a very specific meaning. Meanwhile his Wife and Family went to the Opera and the Autumn art show at the Prada.

    - According to Charles von Hapsburg investigations have shown the possible existence of various money trails from Jeweish money lenders in France to banks in Genoa, Hamburg and Spain with the money then seeming to have been paid to Chinese Hongs and other suppliers of legitimate trade. This means according to Charles that if the French have a valid reason to attack Genoa they have an equally valid reason to attack any state with either a bank or international trade.

    15) If Charles was upset about Genoa he is going to be even more upset by the fact that Spanish General Staff got hold of a map (published in England so they really should have been on their Guard) showing Mantua as part of the Duchy of Milan so they sent a small garrison to guard the river on which it stands and funded some improvements. This came as an almighty shock to the Tuscan garrison who arrested the equally baffled troops from Naples.

    - Looks like the long time Spanish Envoy to Tuscany is going to have to eat lots of humble pie and dish out a lot of solid silver wine coolers and bottles of the good stuff to get Charles men set free. Mantua in particular should do rather well out of the great Nottingham map disaster.

    - Could have been worse as the English map makers may have exchanged at least 4 cities between the Kingdom of Naples and the Papal states.

    16) Ref the Papal States Cardinal Alphonso who is also Bishop of Madrid and Spanish Envoy to the Holy City has had the river Tiber made navigable by Spanish Dredgers and re-filled Jusuit and Roman grain silo's to help Pilgrims and the Jesuits Holy Mission.

    17) The above shows the difference between Bourbon and Hapsburg diplomacy in Italy. One is conducted with an Iron Fist and the terror inspired by the Yves d'Alegre the butcher of Genoa and his like. The other is conducted via free trade, large amounts of cash, local Girls like the Queen of Spain and her sisters (born Milan) and elderly Cardinals and envoys. The Duke of Savoy rather showed which he likes better by sending a Envoy from Savoy to sit in the Reichstag of the Holy Roman Empire. Will Venice follow Milan and Savoy into the Imperial club? Will the Pope crown Josef?

    18) The Czar and Tsarina went to visit the River Neva Canal project - expecting to see a very expensive water way under construction. Actually he saw lots a very expensive cleared forest which is now growing again while confused Russian engineers try and work out how to make water flow up hill.
    Its Russia.....it involves water and thinks which float on it.......enough said.

    19) The Persians have found the Peron Isles............where the hell are the Peron Isles?

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    Post by Papa Clement Wed Oct 21, 2020 8:33 am

    Stuart Bailey wrote:Sept 1714 Gloire du Roi has shown up and for non G7 types here is the news:

    1) - In the most important new's item of the month (for cricket lovers) a Royal Select XI which included King James III in person, defeated the county Champions: Devon. The Devon captain's very odd field placement, selection of who was to bowl which left Devon two star quick bowlers un-used and his running out of the three best Devon batsmen while blocking a heroic seven runs from almost half the balls bowled at Devon batsmen.  Has been put down to Captain John Matthews taking a blow to the head when dropping a catch in the Royal Select XI innings.

    Anyone who suggests that John Matthews may have not being trying his best to defeat a team which included his King, the Duke of Devonshire (his landlord) and no less than three noble ladies will result in "anyone" being taken round the back of a barn and given a damn good thrashing by the large blacksmiths who are in the employ of John Matthews.

    The Devon team drowned their sorrows in a monumental weekend in London, paid for by their captain out of the proceeds of a friendly sporting wager's he had with the Royal Chamberlain and the Duke of Devonshire Steward that the Royal Select XI would win and the Duke of Devonshire would top score and win the game for the King.

    With Devon's scoreing shots all making Lady Mary Swinburne (next Duchess of Devon???) run so much that she was about to swoon into the arms of the top scoring hero of the hour.  Thomas Forster MP - the Mad Jacobite choice for a Mad Jacobite and a Northern Lover of the true spirit of Cricket who could certainly see the Holy Game being abused by a bunch of Devon pirates and smugglers to help their chief's pursuit of a fair Northern Maid - cut in ahead of Duke and swept the fair Lady Mary into his arms!

    To judge from the expression on the face of the Duke and some of his merry men......someone had better invent pads, gloves and the box by next season!  This means war!!

    By far one of the fairest writeups in a long time, so well done Stuart!

    A surprising result in the Royal Cricket match, but one which could well require some rule changes.  Although I had appreciated that there were no rules against female players, and that there was no official dress code, I had not realised that in 1700 the practice was to throw the ball directly at the players.

    Whether this now means that a dress code and safety equipment has to be introduced, I'm not sure.  Gut feeling is that I'm against it, but clearly something has to be done, so will have a think.

    Perhaps of equal importance is that we have discovered that the game version of Thomas Forster MP clearly has some ability at cricket.  The real Thomas Forster MP seemed only to be any good at getting elected to things.  He was a Northumbrian Jacobite, a protestant, whose aunt married the bishop of Durham.  He managed to be elected general in the 1715 rising (yes, without an effective command structure, Jacobites did elect their generals) and was as ineffective in this role as everything else he did.  Happily, his subordinates achieved much greater success by ignoring him, perhaps realising that as an MP he was much more comfortable receiving reports of their victories and taking the credit for them rather than actually helping them in a meaningful way.  He was described as having a big mouth and a big nose, the former being of great use in Parliament, the latter in the stocks.
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    Post by Papa Clement Wed Oct 21, 2020 9:16 am

    Stuart Bailey wrote:Sept 1714 Gloire du Roi has shown up and for non G7 types here is the news:

    3) Daniel Defoe is having a House built on Cat Island were Blackbeard used to have his base when a huge Ruby believed to be from Blackbeards loot was dug up when laying the foundations.  The question is who holds mineral rights to the Bahamas?  The Crown of England, the Czar as leaseholder or as stolen property from the raid on Havana should it go to the Spanish underwriters?

    5) In a rather more small scale bombardment and sack James Sarsfield 2nd Earl of Lucan and Irish (?) Jacobite troops loyal to King James III stormed the town of Scarborough on the Island of Tobago while raging against "Traitors and Protestants".  The town was unsuccessfully defended by Colonel Killigrews and English Troops of the Jamaica Regt (loyal to ?).

    - Tobago a English Island off the Spanish Main used to be infamous haunt for smugglers.  But with Spanish Free Trade and low taxes ruining the economic basis for smuggling to the Spanish have the smugglers started buying Spanish goods to be smuggled into England to avoid the 250% tarriff on products like coffee?  And this was just a large scale raid by the "Revenue" or is their a deeper reason for such a raid to be lead in person by such a senior Jacobite?


    Rather difficult for me to comment on these happenings, but I will say that in their own way, both have led to very surprising leads this month.  An announcement will be made next month which hopefully will clear things up, although it isn't exactly as I was expecting.

    I can confirm, though, that Lord Lucan's troops were in fact rather hastily raised English trainees, and in typically Jacobite style they took on highly disciplined and experienced pro-Williamite traitors and beat them.  The underdog triumphs again.  Keen observers of events may recall that Lord Lucan's last military engagement followed a remarkably similar tactical model - as soon as the enemy is spotted, grab a sword and charge at them; anyone who doesn't break at least 5 swords in the attack isn't trying hard enough!  Quite what his men think of him is unknown, but he does seem to get better results than Thomas Forster MP.  His dislike of traitors and Calvinists is probably down to being held prisoner by the Dutch and missing out on the chance to break even more swords.

    Stuart Bailey wrote:
    6) To mark what is believed to be the finding of the tomb of King Arthur the Royal Wedding of the Jacobite Princess Royal and the Duc of Berry is to have a Arthurian theme.

    The wedding is due to be held next month, postponed because some of the bridesmaids were needed for the cricket match.  It would naturally have been bad form to postpone the cricket match for a wedding, and would hardly have helped Anglo-Swedish relations had King Charles' wedding been overshadowed.

    Stuart Bailey wrote:
    Cool The English Parliament also passed some C14 act against Roger Martel who these days is Spanish Viceroy of Africa.

    The Statute of Winton dates from 1285, but remains a most useful piece of legislation.  MPs have not quite understood its significance, but rather than clear it up here, I'll let it take its course in the game.


    Stuart Bailey wrote:
    19) The Persians have found the Peron Isles............where the hell are the Peron Isles?  

    To the best of my knowledge there are only 3 unchartered/unexplored/unexplained areas left to discover:
    1. The Spanish economy, banking system and anything to do with Roger Martel - it is possible the Peron Isles are hidden in there, but if so Persia will find that Martel has the prior claim.
    2. The interior of Africa - not necessarily easy to reach by ship, so we can discount that possibility, which leaves ...
    3. The South Pacific, probably somewhere south of Malaysia, but north of Antarctica.  If they are inhabited then it may be by cannibals, who could have eaten Desmarets and any French liner crews Persia is tempted to abandon on the islands.  If the missing French money does turn up on the Peron Isles then Jacobite Naval Intelligence will end up looking incredibly stupid.
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    Post by Stuart Bailey Wed Oct 21, 2020 8:10 pm

    When/if the French money show's up I suspect a lot of people's theories are going to end up looking as silly as the Spanish General Staff when it looked at a map and went.......its in the Gloire du Roi is much be right! Embarassed Embarassed Embarassed

    For players who do not have access to the Gloire du Roi Sept 1714 it should be noted that the summary of the cricket match is true to the gambling mad spirit of early cricket where even county teams often had a Lord as captain and most of the team worked for him in their private lives so they could be sure to get a day off work for a important match. Rather than than what was actually in the paper.

    It is also true to how I see the British NPC who have survived the anarchy of the last decade and a half (would love to see Agema notes on some of them) who seem to basically fall into three groups:

    - Hard core Jacobites like Thomas Foster, Sir John Hall, Lord Lucan etc who with the exception of the Duke of Berwick all seem to have fallen on their head a couple of times too many during drunken point to point races.

    - Trimmers like Godolphin and Devonshire who have turned their coat so many times they must be light headed.

    - Exiles like Martel, Savage, Killigrew and a load of others mostly in America who lost the civil war and have mostly been drowning their sorrows ever since.

    No wonder King James is having to pad out his cricket team with ladies and the House of Lords with French Imports its the only way he can get some NPC's who are fairly sane and not prone to take political advise from a Parrot or think odds of 8-1 against is a good risk.

    You just have to admire a player who with eyes wide open elects to play with capped honour (due to keeping a unpopular minority faith for his own character) and a bunch of NPC's who even their own side considered a bit odd to say the least. The expression "insanely brave" could have been coined for some of these Northern Gentry........and now they are being exposed to the heat and rum of the Caribbean!
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    Post by Papa Clement Wed Oct 21, 2020 9:14 pm

    Stuart Bailey wrote:For players who do not have access to the Gloire du Roi Sept 1714 it should be noted that the summary of the cricket match is true to the gambling mad spirit of early cricket where even county teams often had a Lord as captain and most of the team worked for him in their private lives so they could be sure to get a day off work for a important match.  Rather than than what was actually in the paper.

    It is also true to how I see the British NPC who have survived the anarchy of the last decade and a half (would love to see Agema notes on some of them) who seem to basically fall into three groups:  

    - Hard core Jacobites like Thomas Forster, Sir John Hall, Lord Lucan etc who with the exception of the Duke of Berwick all seem to have fallen on their head a couple of times too many during drunken point to point races.

    - Trimmers like Godolphin and Devonshire who have turned their coat so many times they must be light headed.

    - Exiles like Martel, Savage, Killigrew and a load of others mostly in America who lost the civil war and have mostly been drowning their sorrows ever since.

    No wonder King James is having to pad out his cricket team with ladies and the House of Lords with French Imports its the only way he can get some NPC's who are fairly sane and not prone to take political advise from a Parrot or think odds of 8-1 against is a good risk.

    I was aware of the gambling element which is why in April's newspaper I reminded everyone that "the Gaming Act 1664 which prohibits bets over £100 is still in force – let us enjoy the game without excessive wagers spoiling it!”  So I hope the game was played in an honourable manner, which the newspaper write-up certainly suggests it was.  For Stuart's forum write-up a little poetic license was expected, and doesn't spoil what was an extraordinary game.

    I'm not saying the whole cricket thing started as a joke, but like many things in LGDR it took on a life of its own.  I am still hopeful that one day we can have a proper international league.  It is very much the time when cricket was taking off so it is the kind of period detail that adds to the enjoyment of the game for players who don't want to spend their time always fighting wars.  Some players just hold balls and banquets, I'm trying cricket.  I do have a few more ideas for the London summer season, but I don't want to spoil it.

    As to the types of NPC who survived the anarchy, I would categorise them as:
    1. Hard core Jacobites - there are probably relatively few of those, but will include those bound by personal loyalty, usually after having followed my father into exile or have been ransomed back from UDP or others.
    2. Moderate Jacobites - quite probably the vast majority who have now accepted that William was a mistake and that the country is once more ruled by its rightful king.
    3. The muddled middle - those who having served various administrations over the years are not sure whether their best chance of survival is to prove to KJ that they are now loyal and capable, or to join the opposition in Parliament and make just enough waves to demonstrate to any future change of government that they were my supporters in name only.
    4. Those who have fled or been exiled to the colonies and are trying to stay under the radar.  They may have a dodgy past and are fed up with being dragged in every time I investigate something and their name crops up.
    5. Those like Martel, Savage, etc, who have a price on their head and know that the chance of them being given a pardon and welcomed back into high office is about as likely as the Spanish church throwing a party for Blackbeard.

    It is, of course, possible to pass from one category to the other as a result of gameplay.  An extreme example would be Col.Keene.  He was commander of 1st Dragoons based at Greenwich with suspected HWIC links.  He defeated a French cavalry patrol in Oct-1704 outside London, clearly fighting for William, but accepted the restoration of my father.  However, there must have been something hidden in his backstory because in Jan-1706 it was his regiment who backed Churchill and he arrested my father.   As a precaution I broke up his regiment and removed him from active service in Sep-1708 shortly after I joined as KJ, but he went off in a huff to Edinburgh to fight for William.  He was captured when I took Edinburgh and having explained his need to fight, was sent to Glasgow to accept the Kentigern/Spanish surrender, killed the Spanish Major Loyala in a duel (I was rather hoping it would have been the other way round, but some characters seem impossible to kill off) and reported back the strength of Kentigern forces.  That helped establish his loyalty - he is just a hardworking officer who wants to fight for whoever happens to hold the English crown.  He had no particular animosity towards my father, but did feel some personal loyalty to Churchill so did not question orders when he should have done.  He was captured at Ayr by the Dutch and was one of the named officers returned in the peace, which also seems to have increased his personal loyalty to me.  So despite his chequered record and flipflopping, he seems to be a soldier loyal to the English crown. He also probably realised that if he turns again there is no way back.  My lists are full of people like him - some will never support me, but most now have bought in to the moral vision and wish to help rebuild England and rid it of troublemakers.

    It is one of the strange things that historically JFES was probably a bit of an unknown to many of his supporters who backed him because they believed in the Stuart succession rather than through a personal liking of him.  They also understood the risks.  In the North East, the senior leader was Lord Derwentwater, and he was lukewarm in his support for KJ in public (appearing to be a 'reluctant rebel', but behind the scenes it was his ability to inspire local Jacobite gentry and it was they who really marshalled the rebellion down to quite a low level.  So convinced were they of the cause that they almost competed with each other to be as pro-KJ as they could, and with a mix of dad's army bungling and sheer bravado, they ran rings round Williamite forces.  The inclusion of Jacobite Northumbrian ladies is also a historical touch since having perfected their riding skills in the local hunts, they acted as couriers.  One of the reasons for the scale of the 1715 rebellion in Northumberland was that Williamite spies were too busy watching Lord Derwentwater that they ignored the lower gentry and women.  Northumberland was also a local Catholic stronghold so with many families marrying within the locality, visiting each other's houses with the local hunts, it was rather difficult to find anyone who was not a Jacobite.  The Pilgrimage of Grace started in Yorkshire, but spread throughout the North and it was only 180 years ago - there is no doubt that some Catholics viewed the 1715 rebellion as a chance to take part in a re-run, but most of the people were disaffected protestants who had tolerated Queen Anne, but would not have a German on the throne.  At a local level, the rebellions were solid, but they remained poorly coordinated nationally, which was a major factor in their ultimate failure.  I can certainly recommend reading about the Northumbrian Jacobites if any player is contemplating attempting a rising in another game, or just to find inspiration for some fascinating game characters.  They certainly weren't all mad, just a decent bunch of northerners who were fed up with incompetent southerners making a mess of things.
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    Post by Papa Clement Wed Oct 21, 2020 11:32 pm

    Stuart Bailey wrote:You just have to admire a player who with eyes wide open elects to play with capped honour (due to keeping a unpopular minority faith for his own character) and a bunch of NPC's who even their own side considered a bit odd to say the least.  The expression "insanely brave" could have been coined for some of these Northern Gentry........and now they are being exposed to the heat and rum of the Caribbean!

    On capped honour, the way I play King James very much fits in with his own personal history.  It does mean that I have to sacrifice the 'easy' honour wins, but there is huge satisfaction for every point of honour gained.  Ultimately England responds to solid moral leadership, a vision for the country that everyone can share.  It is largely about being honourable and giving others the opportunity to be honourable.  Religion can, of course, underpin a moral code and encourage honourable behaviour, but only seems to have an effect upon honour in the sense that it helps prove you share the values of those you rule.  Building churches and attending services do not by themselves make a ruler religious and if his behaviour is suspect or his sneaky deeds are exposed, then they may backfire as he will be seen to be treating religion with contempt.   Consequently whichever religion a ruler follows does not determine success on the honour table.

    As for the "insanely brave Northern gentry", I'm sure they'll do fine in foreign climates, before they get homesick.  There is perhaps something about rebels that tends to find its way to the surface irrespective of where they are.  The English seem to have a natural tendency to rebel against something, and if it isn't obvious what to rebel against, they make sure they find it.  Perhaps Swashbuckler or Scabble is the natural place where such characters will develop, but LGDR is flexible enough to allow some of them to have their moment in the newspaper.
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    Post by Stuart Bailey Sat Dec 05, 2020 6:42 pm

    October 1714 Gloire du Roi has shown up and for non players in G7 here are the highlights:

    1) In absence of cricket reports the traditional priority in G7 is Russian shipping losses - and this month I can report 0 Russian ships lost. Assume they were all in dry dock with crews visiting a inland inn since the weather is starting to turn nasty in many places.  Though it should be noted that 1st Russian Battlefleet in their lease hold of New York now has a English Commander and various English sailors in its employment who may know some techical stuff like the pointy bit goes first and which ropes to pull.

    2) Actual shipping losses were 10 Persian ships taken by French commerce raiders on their return to Indian waters.  The French and the Persians have been exchanging ships for so long now I am convinced that half of the sailors in the French merchant fleet now have one wife in France and another in Persia (along with their Islamic name and ID) and vis versa for a lot of the Persian merchant fleet.

    - Meanwhile other French corvettes were having to dodge superior numbers of Persian corvettes and cutters in African waters and yet more were being provocative and showing the Lilly Banner outside of Cadiz.  General feeling being that if the French can annoy the Spanish enough that they slaughter a load of French corvettes which are a lot slower and massively outgunned by modern Spanish frigates. Louis XIV gets his war with Spain without any annoying Spanish mutual defence treaties being invoked.  Question is will Charles von Hapsburg be stupid enough to fall into this trap?  And how does the French Navy feel about being offered up as a Kings Gambit?

    3) In Scarborough (thats Scarborough Tobago not Yorkshire) Jacobite English soldiers went house to house looking for two Frenchmen Messrs Desmarets and Carpreye.  Then even checked the dead bodies from last month which could not have been nice in the heat of the West Indies - but no sign of those damn cunning French master criminals.

    - Also in the port of Scarborough (Tobago) and after ships had tried to slip away under cover of Darkness (and failed) the Jocobite English fleet of Admiral Sir Edward Whitaker arrested various Spanish flagged and at least partly Spanish crewed and officiered ships commanded by Commodore Finch - These English/American sailor types seem to end up everywhere these days.  

    - It is not clear if Admiral Whitaker has just broken the treaty of Scotland by arresting harmless Spanish ships or if anything can be proved against Commodore Finch and his men.  Admiral Whitaker already has a reputation of heavy handed treatment and arresting people for looking Spanish.

    4) Meanwhile as part of the general world wide hunt for the French master criminal (and ex 2nd most important Minister in the French Government) Desmarets his loot and his criminal connections:

    - The English have been digging up graves on Cat Island and also offering a pardon while trying to contact the infamous Blackbeard.  Probably on basis that it takes a master criminal to catch another master criminal.  The general English theory that Spain is responsible for everything since 1700 now seems to have moved to being a general theory that "Martel is responsible everything, and Spain is responsible for everything he and the HWIC has ever done.  Even if Spain knows nothing about it and at various times the HWIC was registered on English and then French territory while having a seperate Spanish subsidary"

    - No further reports from Venice were Desmarets may have fled from the South of France.

    - Spanish investigations have also hit a blank.  They did manage to arrest the assassin of Edward Colston and tried to get him talk but he seems to have been a hired gun only and was unable to provide any evidence to save his neck from the Spanish rope.  His 0.75 calibre musket gave no information, the calibre being usual for medium calibre muskets inc that used by the Spanish, Austrian and Persian military as well as produced in large numbers by the Beech Mill factory in Bristol for trade with the America's and Africa.  

    - Father Balducci is being sent by Rome to help investigate the books of the Bank of St George for possible traces of the launding of stolen French money through that Bank in Genoa

    5) The French Government has confirmed it was co-operate with the Papal investigation.  But in the meantime the French have placed the Doge of Genoa under house arrest and seized control of both the Treasury of Genoa and the Bank of St George.  They have also cleared the Bank of staff and customers and seized all the Bank ledgers.  Which means the Papal investigation is going to struggle to interview possible witnesses and also now has a possible crime site so contaminated that no reasonable judge would accept evidence from it.

    As of October 1714 the French Government has not said when its going to withdraw from Genoa, what it plans to do to the Doge and the financial reserves of the Republic or the Bank of St George (if not already plundered by the French Army).

    6) Various people inc the King & Queen of Spain, the Emperor Elect and the Papacy seem just a tad upset about the arrest of the Doge (on what charge? Mis-use of a Bank on his territory by a criminal French minister) and the butchery of 25% of the city.

    - The Emperor Elect put proposals to the various Austrian Diets to increase tax levels to 10% due to threat posed by France (and Ottomans) and the famously tight fisted diets passed it on the nod.

    - The Spanish Royal Poet wrote a lament for Genoa later put to music which so moved the Italian Queen of Spain that she had to leave the room in tears.

    - The Genoan Administration of the Island of Corsica and the Genoan fleet based on the same Island in dispair at what has happened to their home city and Doge have placed themselves under the protection of the King of Spain. While his brother the Emperor Elect has offered a home to exiles.  Naturally it is hoped that the French will withdraw after their "investigation" if complete or is it just cover for the French to annex Genoa and open up the route to Milan and the South of Austria as many seem to think? a provocation of the House of Austria on a par with marching diseased armies across Flanders and flaunting the Lilly Banner before the guns of Cadiz.

    7) City Bank of Vienna is now open for business and the Austrians have now employed Jethro Tull and re-started goat exports.  Meanwhile the Russians were looking to employ Mr Abraham Darby who the could not find and also buy shares in the VOIC but found they are all now owned by the Dutch Goverment.  

    Cool Various Germans and seem to have got medals and are talking about Alliances.  Not really sure if all these Prussians, Hanoverians, and Scandi held Imperial lands are concerned about possible French aggression against the Empire since the Bank of Hamburg seems to have been as involved as the Bank of St George.  Or aim to avoid being dragged into a war the French may be planning against the Emperor and his various relations if some of their Banks were also used by French master criminals.

    9) After the Mantua map fiasco various Spanish Administrations have been eating a lot of humble pie and trying to calm down a upset Grand Duke of Tuscany and the Gonzaga family of Mantua.  Too date Cosimo III has not been calmed down enough to pardon the arrested and let them on their way.

    - What with Spanish flagged ships arrested in the West Indies, Troops who it has to be admitted were in the wrong arrested in Italy, and the French feeling free to march across provinces and show their nasty white duster outside Cadiz.  Clearly the Spanish Government somewhat dominated by elderly Cardinals and ladies scared of even a gentle ticking off from the Pope and the Vicar-General of the Jesuits is just considered as being too soft and cuddly to do anything nasty.lol! Just as well they have Roger Martel or as he is know known as Rodrigo Martello ready to put some steel in advise to the King which is probably why King James wants his estranged uncle sacked (That and the fact that if Charles II of England secret marriage to a lady from Flanders is proved Roger would be the true Catholic King of England not James III)

    10) The Orthodox Monastery and its library of St Mark has been re-established in Jerusalem.  These days its hard to say if the Ottoman Grand Vizier is more worried about the growth of Russian backed Orthodox influence or Persian backed Shia influence in the Empire.  At least the Empire has very few Catholic's so the only thing being pushed on him from the west is exports of tobacco and high quality Austrian Goats.

    11) In turn up for the books in Kingston  "Hanging" Judge Hull let 100 smugglers off with suspended sentences and a stern warning not to do it again.  But he does want to hang three gents called Joy, Grant and Arkwright for the henious crime of exporting pepper grown on Jamaica without paying the excise duty on pepper exports.  The three gentlemen in question seem to have vanished from the Island.  Probably for lands were businessmen feel valued and customs seems to involve a honesty box on the end of the pier.  

    12) The Prince and Princess of Lyonesse had a Authorian themed wedding in London.  Fortunately the bridemaids were all able to cover up their bruises from last months cricket match.  But rules changes are being considered to make it a safer game and have bowlers get people out by means other than knocking them out by means of a fast beamer to the head.  But option of bouncing the ball off a well grassed and watered wicket so it springs up and hits the batter in the private parts or breaks a hand remains a valid method to force your opponent to retire hurt.

    13) Russia and Persia have agreed a trade treaty and reduced tarriff levels on trade to 5%.

    Note to readers of above who think G7 is starting to drift towards scabble with cricket, random Brits showing up all over the place and no one having a clue what is going on I fear you may be correct.  Can Lord Blandford trace his ancestory back to a tall, dark and handsome Son of Charles II?


    Last edited by Stuart Bailey on Sat Dec 05, 2020 6:54 pm; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : poor grammer)
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    Post by Papa Clement Sat Dec 05, 2020 10:09 pm

    Stuart Bailey wrote:October 1714 Gloire du Roi has shown up and for non players in G7 here are the highlights:

    ... Note to readers of above who think G7 is starting to drift towards scabble with cricket, random Brits showing up all over the place and no one having a clue what is going on I fear you may be correct.

    For those who would like a less biased and considerably better written account than the previous post which does seem to have confused Scabble with G7 ...

    1. No Russian ships are reported lost this month.

    2. On the island of Tobago, Lord Lucan's victorious troops began the hunt for Desmarets and Carpreye, although without the descriptions at hand from Jacobite Naval Intelligence, failed to make any progress.  Those closely following events and hoping that they can be brought to a speedy and successful conclusion may have a little while longer to wait since an administrative error meant new intelligence operatives are travelling from London.  It was judged that Lord Lucan's unique style of interrogation (if he hasn't broken a few swords, then he doesn't feel as if he has done a good job) may make good newspaper copy, but is less likely to get to the truth than a more considered approach.  Meanwhile that scourge of pirates, Vice Admiral Sir Edward Whitaker, successfully rounded up the Portobello Company ships which had been preying on English merchantmen.  It should be noted that HWIC has for many years been a subsidiary of the Spanish owned Portobello Company, which in part explains the use of Spanish flags and the presence of Spanish officers.  That Commodore Finch (is Richard trying to tell us something?) is more than willing to take advice from those Spanish officers really tells us who is behind what has been going on here.  The suggestion that the fleet be permitted to withdraw to Cadiz also seems to be a Spanish attempt to cover up what they have done.  It is rather laughable that Stuart's writeup suggests that an attack on these ships is a breach of the Treaty of Scotland by England after all the English merchant ships they have been responsible for taking over the last few years.  It is, of course, possible that those ships contain Desmarets/Carpreye, so this side of the story is far from over.

    3. At Versailles King Louis has taken possession of the Bank of St.George (Genoa) and confirmed that he will accept Fr.Balducci as Papal auditor, as have King James and King Charles of Spain.  So that's shifted responsibility for what happens next onto the (inactive and pro-Spanish) Pope.  King Charles probably can't believe his luck.  Given the deteriorating situation on Las Palmas, King James is beginning to regret what otherwise seemed like a sensible compromise to give Spain every chance to prove she was innocent of anything to do with the Desmarets fraud.  However, a word once given is kept, at least by King James.  The odds on a Spanish acquittal seem to have shortened considerably given the close ties between the Papacy and Spain.  An active Pope has usually proved more willing to listen to other nations, but I can't remember a time in G7 when an inactive Pope has not supported whatever Spain wished.  France must be very sure of his case or has made a huge gamble.  Masses, laments and tears for Genoa may well help sway Papal opinion, but founding a Madrid Rifle & Shooting Club a few months after Coldstream was shot may do the opposite.  Indeed Martel's attempt to garrote who he believes to be responsible is somewhat badly timed.

    4. The wedding of the Prince and Princess of Lyonesse went off without any problems, despite the rain.  At the reception it was confirmed that the 0.75 calibre musket used to shoot Edward Coldstream could well have been manufactured by HWIC.  Some minor adjustments to the rules of cricket were also proposed and enthusiastically accepted.

    5. English expertise seems to be sought by Austria and Russia, although it is normally considered bad form to go poaching characters, the rulers in question have asked permission.

    6. In the northern HRE, Hanover and Prussia join Austria in trying to improve their mutual relations while the Bank of Vienna is trying to attract depositors from the Bank of St.George.  The hard pressed peasants of Austria are being asked to pay additional taxes to fund it and the cost of goats.  There is a case for the latter since numerically peasants eat more than the nobility, but I'm amazed Emperor Joseph managed to convince them to pay for the bank.

    7. The Tsar remains concerned, probably justifiably, that with the expiry of the Treaty of Scotland, the largely phony war Spain is engaged in against England and France may turn into a real war.  Blaming the Pope for not stopping this is an interesting line, but in G7 at least, the Pope has rarely intervened in what he deems to be political rather than religious matters.  After all in G7, England, France and Spain have not attacked clergy, withheld tithes or managed to get themselves excommunicated.  Of course the Pope may change his mind now it is proved that Roger Martel (who fools nobody by describing himself as Roderigo Martello) was really behind the kidnapping of Archbishop Alvarades and the attacks on Spanish colonies and shipping, which he has long blamed on his nemesis, Blackbeard.  There is a considerable and overwhelming weight of evidence against Martel, certainly enough to clear Blackbeard, which destroys the narrative Spain has stuck to for over a decade, and would appear to remove the motive from Martel's 'suspect' for the murder of Coldstream.  If Martel really had nothing to do with the murder, he would have been better advised not to act as though there is something to cover up, otherwise doing so inevitably draws attention to the situation.

    8. The difference between English and Spanish justice is demonstrated on Jamaica where Chief Justice "Mad Jack" Hall showed unexpected leniency for those caught up in HWIC/Portobello Company's pepper smuggling operation.  We now have the names of the 3 ringleaders and 2 of their ships.   Mindful of King James' reputation of being tough with pirates, Defoe has resorted to unusual methods to get an interview with Blackbeard for his new book.  Clearly he finds the prospect of coming face to face with a real pirate rather daunting - either that or he realises that now Jacobite Naval Intelligence has exonerated Blackbeard from being responsible for the raid on Havana, raid on Las Palmas and kidnapping of the archbishop, the book he intended to write may be slightly short of detail.  Perhaps I should restore his morale by suggesting he devotes a few chapters to the Scandals and Swindles of Roderigo Martello instead ... that should be a huge tome and quite possibly a best seller for those who dislike King James.  Provided the book is printed in England, I have no objection to it being translated into Spanish and sold throughout the Spanish Empire to gentlemen of discernment who may use its contents to sue King Charles for lavishing Spanish taxes on a pirate.  The more King Charles defends Martel, the better the book should sell and the more angry honourable Spanish Grandees will become.  While Stuart admires me for playing a Catholic King of a majority Anglican country, let me in charity admire him for giving so much land, money, offices and time to a pirate who by his own admission has bankrupted everything he touched.   It may be that Spaniards are actually incredibly honest and are paying all the taxes they owe ... it is just that Martel is raiding the 'honesty boxes' to pay for his dishonesty.  

    Since I'm not in Scabble I can't comment on the parallels between games, but I would be amazed if there could be anyone quite like Roderigo Martello in any other game.  There was a time when as head of HWIC, he was actively played, only becoming a Spanish-controlled character after the player dropped.  So how much of his character and backstory were invented by that player and how much has been developed by Stuart is unclear.  However, I'm happy to give both of them the credit for some fine roleplay and Stuart has certainly made it an interesting game by continuing to support the character rather than kill him off or let him drift into obscurity.  The question is whether he will be defenestrated by Spanish nobles who want their revenge, or empty the Spanish treasury and have his men take over a Spanish warship to go out fighting and confirm him position as the most successful pirate in the history of LGDR?
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    Post by Stuart Bailey Sun Dec 06, 2020 12:32 am

    It should be pointed out that Blackbeard & Martel from G7 are not in the same league as Lord Blandford and Dr Fu-Manchu in scabble with Blandford in particular responsible for the the theft of hundreds of Millions of pounds in particular when he managed to divert the tax payments of the whole Tea Cartel to HM tax office for several years.

    - But if anyone is interested in picking up a small position with a hell of a back story. Blackbeard in G7 started out played by Deacon and one of his major crimes was when he sacked Havana. Too be fair it was not a very brutal raid and was mostly aimed at the theft of goods stored in harbour side warehouses which he no doubt sold via the Pemberton Company for a large profit. Deacon/Blackbeard freely admitted that Havana was him and it sent Blackbeard shooting up the honour list so that for many years afterwards Blackbeard was high up on the G7 honour list.

    In fact he even claimed to have taken off the Gov of Cuba daughter and married her! A counter Spanish claim was that he had carried off a maid trying on one of her mistresses dresses and the actual daughter is a Lady in Waiting at the Spanish Court.

    - A year or so later the Spanish flipped a couple of his agents in Santa Marta and they confirmed that Blackbeard and his loot was on Cat Island. Which is a total sod to get too through all the shallows and reefs and without charts. Blackbeard men spotted the Spanish raid and made a clean get away on their ships but the Spanish were able to burn his dockyard, repair yard etc and recover £402,000 which they claimed as compensation for losses suffered at Havana and elsewhere.

    -Having no doubt decided that the West Indies was getting too hot for comfort with Naval patrols of various powers active in the area plus a feud with Martel and the HWIC which compromised his security, Blackbeard then went on the Red Sea run and moved most of his operations to Africa with a raid on Las Palmas being pretty much the last operation before the player dropped out the game.

    - Blackbeard was then taken up by a 2nd player (no doubt interested in the high honour score) who moved his centre of operations back to the America's but the mainland and got all political founding the "Sons of Liberty" before he dropped out. Oddly at one stage G7 had three active English positions......the HWIC, Blackbeard and the Sons of Liberty and the Jacobites but no one running the London Govt!

    - These days Blackbeard seems to be retired, probably on a really nice plantation with his Spanish bride and protected by his old captains and allies who form the corp of the Czars adminisration in the Russian leasehold and are now all very repectable.

    __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    Martel and the HWIC started out a trade company HQ on the English colony of Jamacia. With the player claiming to be a moderate Jacobite due to being a Catholic and a son of Charles II.

    I suspect that this claim was developed by the player who thought he could act as a trade bridge between English merchants and Catholic Powers like France and Spain. France certainly helped him out my buying shares in the HWIC while Spain which at the time was trying to help the English and set up free trade offered money and recruits to set up a Spanish subsidary of the HWIC - The Portobello Company.

    But the English Governments of the time either ignored the HWIC or were unfriendly which was shooting themselves in the foot as the player was mostly interested in going into great detail on trade. Such as with his smoked fish trade in Whitby, Sheep farming and cloth making in Yorkshire and musket factory in Bristol all of which provided support to his trade with Africa and the America's. The Pepper plantation on Jamacia would seem to be another one of his.

    It was also role-played that the HWIC had a history of smuggling and shared history with the Brotherhood. Which split when Spain declared free trade with the HWIC faction joining the Portobello chamber of commerce like a rat up a drain pipe while Blackbeard's faction continued as old style Pirates. A story line which fitted in well when Blackbeard as picking off HWIC ships and HWIC agents were trying to infiltrate the Prmberton Company and later the Sons of Liberty.

    Think the player finally had enough when the English government surrended his Jamacian HQ to the French without even speaking to him and then murdered James II (in theory a relative). Having a low opinion of English Governments was fairly common view at the time. No one should run out on their allies with zero notice in a war they started through their own ill judged actions! And please do not start a War with France when you can not fight your way out of a paper bag.

    Faced with total lack of co-operation and help from English Governments, Martel drifted off to become Spanish Viceroy of Africa. At the time the max 4 military changes rule was in place and Spain really needed someone with a couple of extra military changes to help defend its small and isolated African colonies. Martel always found trade and the Spanish Post Office/Royal Bank of Africa a lot more interesting that building up the Spanish Empire in Africa with armies of Askari but it worked out ok esp after Blackbeard Mk1 dropped interet in Africa.

    Eventually Martel MK1 (The nice one) dropped out of G7 and without someone to make up the losses with annual subsidy payment both the Post Office and the Royal Bank of Africa went bust and required expensive Govt rescues. But actually that was my fault seeing how much is pumped into the Royal Bank of the America to help provide financial services to Spanish Trade should have known same would apply in Africa.

    Now thinks got confused when Deacon (Blackbeard Mk1) returned as Martel MK2 for a time. I strongly suspect Martel MK2 was a lot more shaddy character than the Mk 1 trader. It is known that he had talks with the Jacobite Govt of England and wanted to return to the English fold but was unable to come to an agreement and was certainly trying to play both sides against the middle but was unable to come to an agreement with his Nephew and dropped out of the game.

    Spain has continued to treat Martel as the nice friendly charming MK 1 trader who supplied us with Dredgers, East Indiamen, Naval flintlocks and lots of other good things. But has Richard allowed the character to be influenced by some of the bad Mk2 Deacon influence? Or even all the nasty things King James III has done to the HWIC?

    Have to admitt as a player (not as a character) I could believe Martel had been influenced to be involved in a theft from the English Treasury or a plot to murder King James III. But having had many years experience of trying to get Agema NPC to do anything how the hell would you get a semi Spanish NPC in Oran to join with a French Minister to rob the French Treasury and more importantly why use a non French agent in such a plot? Martel is sod all use in any such plot unless you want to send the English barking up the wrong tree. And its odd that the French called in the English to investigate unless they wanted someone to find such a trail.

    So if anyone wants to take over Martel feel free................only if you you find £40m in gold on your character sheet.......well done at long last you have found King Salomon's mines. But please do not brag about it unless you want French debt collectors at the door and as we have seen from Genoa they are not nice people! And Onan was such a pretty town as well.
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    Post by Papa Clement Sun Dec 06, 2020 11:39 am

    Stuart Bailey wrote:It should be pointed out that Blackbeard & Martel from G7 are not in the same league as Lord Blandford and Dr Fu-Manchu in scabble with Blandford in particular responsible for the the theft of hundreds of Millions of pounds in particular when he managed to divert the tax payments of the whole Tea Cartel to HM tax office for several years.

    I have no intention of transgressing the rules on diplomacy over the forum, so will not comment on the Martel side of things except to note that any suggestion that he is a relative of King Charles II was comprehensively rejected more than a decade ago within the game, and Stuart's acceptance of the Papal Bull confirming King James as the rightful King of England and his signature on the Treaty of Scotland should finally put this matter to rest.  For Stuart to continue to defend Martel's slander proves how desperate he is to salvage something from a destroyed reputation.  Since Blackbeard is believed to be an inactive character and the case relates to events more than a decade ago within game history, I will comment on those points in more detail.  However, nothing in Stuart's account seems to change the substance of the findings of 'Blackbeard Exonerated' in this month's newspaper:

    Stuart Bailey wrote:
    - But if anyone is interested in picking up a small position with a hell of a back story. Blackbeard in G7 started out played by Deacon and one of his major crimes was when he sacked Havana.  Too be fair it was not a very brutal raid and was mostly aimed at the theft of goods stored in harbour side warehouses which he no doubt sold via the Pemberton Company for a large profit.  Deacon/Blackbeard freely admitted that Havana was him and it sent Blackbeard shooting up the honour list so that for many years afterwards Blackbeard was high up on the G7 honour list.

    Given it has been proved Blackbeard could not have committed the Las Palmas raid in 1702, yet still claimed responsibility for it, it would appear that an easy way for pirates to gain honour is to act as though they are responsible for every act of piracy/outrage committed by anyone.  Do you believe what a pirate says he has done to build up his own reputation?  It was precisely through claiming responsibility for what he didn't do that Blackbeard built his reputation, so it was a natural way to roleplay the character.

    Stuart Bailey wrote:
    In fact he even claimed to have taken off the Gov of Cuba daughter and married her!  A counter Spanish claim was that he had carried off a maid trying on one of her mistresses dresses and the actual daughter is a Lady in Waiting at the Spanish Court.

    There does appear to be a range of opinions about what the Havana raid (1700) was designed to achieve.  If we believe the Spanish claim that Blackbeard carried off a maid and married her, then this would prove that Blackbeard's claim to have married the governor's daughter is an exaggeration which helped ... build up his own reputation.   That's the thing about pirates, they gain honour for doing the opposite of what honourable players do.

    Stuart Bailey wrote:
    - A year or so later the Spanish flipped a couple of his agents in Santa Marta and they confirmed that Blackbeard and his loot was on Cat Island.  Which is a total sod to get too through all the shallows and reefs and without charts.  Blackbeard men spotted the Spanish raid and made a clean get away on their ships but the Spanish were able to burn his dockyard, repair yard etc and recover £402,000 which they claimed as compensation for losses suffered at Havana and elsewhere.

    To take £402,000 in loot from a firesale of goods stolen in Havana is quite an achievement and suggests that Blackbeard was also involved in various other activities to raise money.  The destruction of his base on Cat Island must have been a serious blow, but happened 2 years after the Havana raid, so in this time Blackbeard would have had to pay 2 years of upkeep on his ships and buildings.  This puts the raid on Havana to be ridiculously lucrative (possibly more than the value of legitimate trade at the time?)  Clearly something doesn't add up and Blackbeard had other sources of income or was being sponsored by a 3rd party.  Given this and the activities of the Pemberton Company, the link the £402,000 and the Havana raid is not established.

    Stuart Bailey wrote:
    -Having no doubt decided that the West Indies was getting too hot for comfort with Naval patrols of various powers active in the area plus a feud with Martel and the HWIC which compromised his security, Blackbeard then went on the Red Sea run and moved most of his operations to Africa with a raid on Las Palmas being pretty much the last operation before the player dropped out the game.

    It is proved that Blackbeard could not have been in 2 places at once: he was in Bristol at the same time the Las Palmas raid was being carried out, with independent witnesses as detailed in the newspaper.  There is no reason for the captured captain of a merchant ship who was being ransomed and the clergyman who paid the ransom to be lying.

    Pirate raids against Spanish shipping stopped the very month Martel was appointed by Spain which is in itself suspicious.  If Martel was appointed to hunt down Blackbeard then despite having been given Spanish resources to aid him, he totally failed to do this.  Stuart's chronology is also factually incorrect.   Spain 'declared free trade' long before Martel was appointed so it was not this event that 'split the brotherhood'; similarly the loss of Jamaica to France happened in 1703 so was 8 months after Martel accepted Spanish offices.  It was therefore not the case that the loss of Jamaica pushed an 'honest trader' into working for Spain.  Martel, in various versions, knew what he was doing and regularly played everyone off against each other, just as pirates do.

    Stuart Bailey wrote:
    - Blackbeard was then taken up by a 2nd player (no doubt interested in the high honour score) who moved his centre of operations back to the America's but the mainland and got all political founding the "Sons of Liberty" before he dropped out.  Oddly at one stage G7 had three active English positions......the HWIC, Blackbeard and the Sons of Liberty and the Jacobites but no one running the London Govt!

    The Sons of Liberty are nothing to do with Blackbeard, but were a purely political faction who may have engaged in intimidation, but not piracy.  The Sons of Liberty probably qualify as an 'English faction, but that never applied to Blackbeard who never claimed to be anything other than a pirate.  There were also other 'English factions' at the time with varying allegiances, sponsored by many different players, so whether they can be considered 'English' or just fronts for 3rd parties is a matter of choice.

    There is another curious parallel here with Sir John Henry, who at one time was used by one English player as their character.  Stuart will surely not deny that Spain launched a particularly vicious campaign against Sir John Henry, citing his background links with the Sons of Liberty.  Although there was no evidence that Sir John had committed crimes directly (and any political activity he had been involved with had been pardoned by previous players), it was largely to placate Spain and signal that England under King James was going to be free from those with a dodgy history, that I sent him into exile in America.  He is no longer on my character list, but is helping the Tsar hunt down pirates.  Martel is responsible for far more than Sir John Henry ever did, yet Stuart has refused (so far) to dismiss him.  Other than demonstrating the incredible hypocrisy of the Spanish, I find it rather amusing that Stuart's determination to cling on to Martel despite all the evidence against him, has now come back to bite him.  All these years he assumed that Blackbeard was his enemy, when in reality even if Blackbeard was responsible for all that Stuart has blamed him for, Martel caused far more financial damage to Spain than Blackbeard ever did.

    Stuart Bailey wrote:
    - These days Blackbeard seems to be retired, probably on a really nice plantation with his Spanish bride and protected by his old captains and allies who form the corp of the Czar's administration in the Russian leasehold and are now all very respectable.

    It is possible that Blackbeard is somewhere in the Russian administered leased American territories, but if he is then it will be up to the Tsar to find him.  Extensive investigations by the Tsar have turned up plenty of Orangist traitors, smugglers, kidnappers and general nasty types who at some stage belonged to the Sons of Liberty and HWIC, but no evidence of Blackbeard which suggests that he is elsewhere.  If he has a Spanish bride, surely the most likely location is a Spanish colony, hiding under an assumed name and after abandoning his beard and tidying himself up, living as a Spanish subject?

    The real historical Blackbeard was not a particularly good pirate, but was an exceptional showman who relied on his image to scare ships into surrendering.  According to Defoe's account he did not actually start his career as a pirate until the spring of 1717 when he plundered a ship of some flour and another of a few gallons of wine.  After securing a bigger ship he accepted an amnesty and pardon from the Governor of North Carolina, only to return to piracy in June 1718 being sponsored to do so by that governor.  When the Governor of Virginia found out he issued a proclamation and a reward of 140 guineas for Blackbeard, and by November 1718 he had been tracked down by Lieut.Maynard and killed.  Evidence on board his ship led to the seizure of supplies ashore and the payment of a total of £2,500 to Maynard and his crew.  The real villain of the story may well not have been Blackbeard, who in the few short months of his career was mainly acting on behalf of his sponsor so may well fall into the 'privateer' category.  Yet the legend remains because of his image.
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    Post by Stuart Bailey Sun Dec 06, 2020 8:22 pm

    If people want to believe that Blackbeard is nothing more that a crime free spreader of tall tales wrongly oppressed by the nasty Spanish that is their option.

    If the English want to to give him a Royal Pardon and make him Sir Edward Teach of Bristol in the same way as they also Knighted those other famous NOT pirates Francis Drake, Henry Morgan and Christopher Myngs they can also do this.

    A English Pardon will however not extend to cover offences on Spanish territory or against Spanish ships & a reward of £60,000 dead or alive remains in place.

    Since even if a good lawyer can try and come up the an alibi for Blackbeard concerning various different offences it should be noted that when the Spanish captured his base on Cat Island in July 1702 they recovered two Spanish merchant ships, a large stash of coins both English Guineas and Spanish Maravedis, plus several English merchant sailors who claim to have been pressganged by Blackbeard.

    In theory I guess the Guineas could have been an advance from his publisher, the Maravedis the result of a card game and the English can pardon the press ganging. But the recovered Spanish ships are what Spanish Courts call EVIDENCE !!! other ships, ports and Cathedrals he may not have robbed not to mention fraud against the Spanish Crown if he did not actually have my Archbishop is surplus to requirements since we can only hang him once.
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    Post by Papa Clement Sun Dec 06, 2020 10:04 pm

    Stuart Bailey wrote:If people want to believe that Blackbeard is nothing more that a crime free spreader of tall tales wrongly oppressed by the nasty Spanish that is their option.

    I never claimed that Blackbeard was innocent of everything - he is recorded as having taken various merchant ships including English and Spanish ships, ransoming captains, etc.  But he is clearly not guilty of the Raid on Las Palmas and there is severe doubt over his participation in the raid on Havana.

    Stuart Bailey wrote:If the English want to to give him a Royal Pardon and make him Sir Edward Teach of Bristol in the same way as they also Knighted those other famous NOT pirates Francis Drake, Henry Morgan and Christopher Myngs they can also do this.

    I can assure you there is no possibility of him being awarded a knighthood - we have certain standards, unlike the Spanish who have lavished honours on Martel.

    Stuart Bailey wrote:A English Pardon will however not extend to cover offences on Spanish territory or against Spanish ships & a reward of £60,000 dead or alive remains in place.

    I am not aware of any proven offences Blackbeard committed on Spanish territory, and offences against any ship in international waters may not fall inside Spanish jurisdiction.  The reward of £60K clearly isn't enough to tempt Martel to go after Blackbeard, nor for a Spanish fleet which spotted "Blackbeard" overhauling English liners in the Caribbean and did nothing to stop them.

    There is now plenty of proof of offences Martel committed on Spanish territory, so if Spanish law means anything surely these have to be prosecuted.

    Stuart Bailey wrote:Since even if a good lawyer can try and come up the an alibi for Blackbeard concerning various different offences it should be noted that when the Spanish captured his base on Cat Island in July 1702 they recovered two Spanish merchant ships, a large stash of coins both English Guineas and Spanish Maravedis, plus several English merchant sailors who claim to have been pressganged by Blackbeard.

    In theory I guess the Guineas could have been an advance from his publisher, the Maravedis the result of a card game and the English can pardon the press ganging.  But the recovered Spanish ships are what Spanish Courts call EVIDENCE !!! other ships, ports and Cathedrals he may not have robbed not to mention fraud against the Spanish Crown if he did not actually have my Archbishop is surplus to requirements since we can only hang him once.  

    If memory serves when the Spanish were defending HWIC activities in the London courts they claimed that Spanish Maravedis were used as a common currency of exchange and therefore possession of such could not be indicative of any link to the Spanish crown.  Similarly pressganged sailors would naturally blame a pirate for what could have been desertion.  Possession of Spanish-built merchant ships again could well be in the natural course of trade as ships are bought/sold or transferred to factions like the Portobello Company, or so Spanish lawyers have argued in the past.  These are not made up claims from a 'good lawyer', simply the kind of routine arguments put forward by the Spanish to frustrate successful prosecutions against their agents in G7 from 1708-1714.

    Pirates only usually need to be hung once, but in the case of Martel it may take several attempts since he does seem to have rather a lot of ways to escape justice.  Perhaps in the next few months we will need to start a new thread ... "G7 and the hunt for Roderigo Martello"?  Think of it as a kind of Wacky Races with Martel as the pigeon, and a £100K reward posted by King James.  We could have Lord "break 5 swords" Lucan teamed up with the Doge of Genoa, storming the walls of Oran; Viscount Falkland could team up with the Grand Vizier in a naval blockade; Thomas Forster MP could try to float into Oran in a balloon and throw cricket balls at him; even the Pope may send a few Cardinals to try and beat him with their croziers.  And naturally we would have Cardinal Portocarrero and the Duke of Palma in the Dastardly & Muttley role, trying to sabotage all the other teams and 'inadvertently' keep Martel alive for just that little bit longer.  Defoe won't just get one bestseller out of this, it will be a whole series.  Compared to this, wars are so boring! jocolor
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    Post by Stuart Bailey Mon Dec 07, 2020 8:26 pm

    Raleigh, Francis Drake, Henry Morgan and Christopher Myngs get knighthoods but their fellow English folk hero, fighter against the ghastly Dons who has done so much to help the trade and political development of the American colonies does not get a Knighthood Sad   Is is because he is a Brissol Boy and from the wrong side of the Avon?

    Poor Roger..........have always seen this character as a English version of Stuart Law.  Charming, well thought off, but not all his idea's work.  Or in the case of the Spanish Post Office and the Royal Bank of Africa only work after a boat load of money is used to fix the holes letting in water.  Not sure what he has done to have cricket balls thrown at him by a mad Northumbrian.

    Perhaps for reasons of his health he needs to move onto somewhere a long way from water were people admire someone with big idea's.........Moscow, Dept East or Persia? Not saying the Czar employs some odd characters but lets face it he has given Golitysn a job! Along with half the Sons of Liberty, various Jacobites and just about anyone who claims to be able to row a boat no more than say 90 degree's off cource.
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    Post by J Flower Tue Dec 08, 2020 11:24 am

    You simply don't understand the Russian world out look, After 2 pints of vodka having accurate muskets is irrelevant.

    Bit confused by this Cricket game thingy, is it now going to become normal practice to head the ball to ensure more runs for the team? Taking the "Wooden ships & Iron men" quote to an extreme.

    Would like to welcome a new Prussian Government to the Game as well. & Is that a Hannovarien in the mix as well.

    IMPORTANT NEWS the Russian navy not only didn't loose a ship( Thank you Mr Agema) but managed to sail a squadron to the new African colony in Accra, without loss or SL ( admittedly they were heading for New York but can't have everything.)






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