A Glorious Difference

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

The next King of England, Scotland, Ireland, and France (even if the latter was a fictitious title in pretense he would rather be rid of when the opportunity arose) paced uneasily in his apartment in Whitehall. The unexpected suddenness of his brother's death would complicate things, especially because of all the illegitimate scions he has sired. Indeed, the eldest of them, James, the Duke of Monmouth and Buccleuch had claimed that his parents had been secretly wed, but King Charles II had denied that to his death bed.  The same death bed he had idiotically taken communion from a Popish priest before dying.  Maybe if Charles hadn't seen their father beheaded as he had, he would have been more pragmatic about such things.

A servant came in, "Your Majesty, the Earl of Rochester desires speech with you."

"Very well.  I suppose I have, no we have been alone in our thoughts long enough," he said with a forced smile. He was not amused by the word play, tho it was appropriate to his changed circumstances, as was being called Majesty instead of Grace had he had been just yesterday.

"I bear ill news I'm afraid.  Your nephew is even now speaking in the House of Lords trying to gain support for himself," said the Earl when he entered.

The king grimaced. "I had hoped he would be at the least more prudent.  Now I have no choice, Lawrence. See to it that James is arrested. I cannot let anyone doubt that the new King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland is named Henry, not James."

As the Earl departed, King Henry IX, thought it probably was for the best that it had been his brother James and not him who had been taken away by the smallpox that had also claimed their sister Mary twenty-five years ago not long after their brother had reclaimed the throne.  James had been if anything even more open in his Catholic sympathies than Charles had.  The Duke of Monmouth might have actually been able to raise a rebellion if James had inherited the throne. Britain did not need another war. Indeed, he probably would have won.  Henry missed his older brother dearly, even after twenty-five years, and he loved him, but he was a pompous fool who likely would not have held on to his crown long.

(Apologies who know British history better than I.  Anyway, as is probably already clear to those who know this period, the POD for this timeline is that in September 1660 it is the middle brother James Stuart, the Duke of York and not the youngest brother Henry Stuart, the Duke of Gloucester who dies of smallpox.)

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Lady Day 1685 is called James Day by some waggish historians as the dawn of the new year (as marked by the Julian calendar then in use in England) saw two Jameses crossing the English Channel in opposite directions.  The thirty-five year old James, Duke of Monmouth had managed to elude capture and was that day aboard a ship headed to the Netherlands. Going in the opposite direction was James, Earl of Cambridge, soon to be Prince of Wales, and his mother Marie. The twenty-three year old heir to Henry IX had been named after his uncle who had died two years before his birth.

The northbound James had accompanied her to spend the winter as she held court in her capacity as Regent of Neuchâtel for her brother Jean Louis. His uncle Charles II had been in good health when they had left. If he hadn't, he would have stayed in England while his younger brother Henry had accompanied her as she took care of what would someday be his.  It had not  been thought she was likely to inherit her father's lands and titles when she had married Henry. Her father had remarried after the death of her mother and had produced an heir and a spare. But the heir suffered from dementia and the spare had died fighting in the Franco-Dutch War a decade before. Besides Neuchâtel there were some French fiefs his demented uncle held, but Protestant Neuchâtel, sandwiched between France to the West and Switzerland to the east was the only place where Jean Louis would have been sovereign had he been competent to rule.

(In OTL a match between Henry Stuart and Marie had been floated prior to his death in 1660. I decided to have them marry and have children for this timeline. In our timeline, Marie had experienced difficulties in securing control of her brother's lands, not doing so until his death in 1694 instead of after the death of her stepmother in 1679 as I am presuming here. She would rule as Princess of Neuchâtel until her death in 1707 when the title would pass to Frederick I of Prussia.)

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

In the cool dawn of a late September morning, Percy Kirke looked out upon Boston Harbor from the deck of the HMS Gloucester, formerly the HMS Monmouth.  The ship had been renamed once the Duke of Monmouth had fled England to the not-so-warm welcome of William, Prince of Orange. William was not pleased to be drawn into the quarrel between his cousins James and Henry, but he was willing to make use of James to try and extract some concessions from England for the Netherlands.  That meant that most of the Royal Navy was being concentrated at home in case a fourth Anglo-Dutch War broke out, but the Gloucester had been spared for the purpose of sending the new governor of the newly formed Dominion of New England to his post.

The reorganization of the colonial governments had begun under Charles II, with Kirke angling for the commission before the king's death that Henry IX had placed in his hands.  He was not certain if he wanted it now, as there was the prospect of war back home, but maybe there would be some fighting here in the colonies. It was after all why he had brought along his Lambs. As stiff-necked as the Puritans he was being sent to bring to heel were reputed to be, they could not be as perfidious as the Moors his two regiments had faced in Tangiers before it had been decided the place was not worth the cost in blood and treasure its keeping required.

Plymouth Colony had never had a formal charter, Massachusetts Bay had had its charter revoked under Charles, the Provinces of New Gloucester, New Hampshire and New Somerset were previously royal colonies. Connecticut and Rhode Island were to also have their charters revoked, with their territory to be included. Including New Jersey had been considered, but that proprietary colony had an acceptable level of governance, and Brigadier Kirke knew he had plenty to deal with.  He actually had more to deal with than he thought he did, but he wouldn't learn that until later.

(In OTL, Percy Kirke had been the initial choice to be the governor of the newly created Dominion of New England, but after the bloody vicious performance of Kirke's Lambs in the Battle of Sedgewick which ended Monmouth's Rebellion, he never received the gubernatorial commission and only after some delay was a governor appointed, a delay which gave the colonists additional time to resist the changes, which in OTL were eventually undone for the most part by the Glorious Revolution in 1689. New Somerset was in our timeline a name applied to Maine that never caught on, while as might be expected New Gloucester is our timeline's New York. However, the boundary between New Gloucester and New Jersey is not the same, being simply the 41th parallel north.)

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

This is awesome, but I am confused as to Henry's wife is. By Marie, do you mean Marie of Modena?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

No, Marie de Nemours.  If it had been Maria of Modena, she would have had to give birth to Prince James at age three, whereas Marie was thirty-seven in 1662.  While it would be possible for Maria to be the queen consort of this timeline's future James II, I don't think so.  Henry IX is likely to find good Protestant wives for his sons. In fact, I think I'll make that the focus of my next post.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

James, Prince of Wales, was nervous and understandably so.  It wasn't every day one was to be wed. He probably would not have to have married for a few years now except for his uncle's unexpected death last spring. However, his father, Henry IX, wanted him to get started on siring an heir of his own. He also wanted to avoid the troubles he was having with the illegitimate horde Charles II had sired with his many mistresses. Plus, the marriage would help secure an alliance with the major German realm of Brandenburg-Prussia, which would be useful if war did come with the Dutch or maybe the French if William of Orange proved sensible and the Great Elector could be weaned from his French patronage.

At least Amalia was pretty and charming, even if her German accent grated somewhat on his ears. The fifteen-year old girl was not yet fully proficient in English, so they spoke to each other mostly in French. Her father Frederick William would not be there, having stayed in Potsdam, but her mother, the redoubtable Sophia Dorothea was here.

Thus it was on the first day of June 1686 that James Arthur Stuart, Prince of Wales and Maria Amalia of Brandenburg-Schwedt were wed.

(In our timeline, Maria Amalia, daughter of the Great Elector, Frederick William would end up marrying a pair of German dukes, the first dying from smallpox, the stress thereof causing her to miscarry.)

[Rooney]

This is very well written and an enjoyable read. A good show all around.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Knowing True Fed's record on alternate history timelines, I fear getting too involved before he eventually quits.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Governor Kirke really, really, really wished he was anyplace other than Boston right now, and not because of the latest dispatches from Europe.  Personally, he hoped that the war that was brewing back home would be with France and not the Netherlands.  Not because of any personal animus against the French.  Nor was it because there were French colonies nearby he could go and attack while there were no such Dutch colonies in the vicinity.  While the Dutch might try to retake New Gloucester, he doubted they would, and if they did they would be dealt with easily enough.  No rather it was because he could hope the French would do that which he could not do, but really wished he could do, and that was to burn down this perfidious nest of Puritans he was condemned by his commission to remain among.

Increase Mather and his son Cotton Mather were the two worst thorns in his side. His ostensible secretary, Edward Randolph, was also a thorn because of his insistence in carrying out the Navigation Acts. Kirke thought trying to enforce those acts foolish.  There were too many places smugglers could land illicit cargoes along the coast, so he would rather deal with other matters, such as establishing proper land titles (and the quit rents that would come from them). Trying to weld the disparate parts of New England into one colony was difficult enough without having to implement the foolishness of the Board of Trade and its mercantilist policies.

At least the construction of the new church was proceeding nicely. The Anglican minister who had been sent to be its priest had finally realized that Kirke was not going to be so foolish as to commandeer on even on a temporary basis one of the the Puritan churches for his use, so instead of bothering him, he bothered the workmen so as to exhort them to work faster on the completion of the King's Chapel. Not that Kirke expected any of the locals to worship there once it was finished, but it would serve as a church for unfortunate Englishmen such as himself who were stationed here in Boston for a time.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

A glorious difference indeed, especially for America.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Having read through this, looks quite interesting! I'd like to see where this goes.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Knowing True Fed's record on alternate history timelines, I fear getting too involved before he eventually quits.

You're such a Negative Nancy, sir. Ernest record of abandoning started stuff is not as severe as mine

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Louis de Buade de Frontenac was glad to be back in Quebec, relaxing before his fireplace, enjoying some brandy as he recuperated from the vigors of his recent travels. He gave a silent toast to peace, appropriate for both the birth of the Prince of Peace, whose natal day this was in his year 1686 and for the peace he had negotiated with the Iroquois Confederacy.

He gave an ironic smile noticed only by himself and of course God who sees everything. Brandy had almost been his undoing.  Back in 1682 because Bishop Laval had disapproved of his selling brandy to the Indians he had been forced out as Governor-General of New France. But between the incompetence of his successor and the retirement of the bishop from ill health, the way had been paved for his return.

Not that he thought his King would likely approve too much of the peace he had signed with the Iroquis chiefs at Fort Cataraqui. However Louis XIV would likely approve of the war he had arranged for.  Come the spring, with both the Iroquis and the Wabanaki as his allies, he would attack south on a broad front to deal a harsh blow to New England. War was coming and the only uncertainty about it was which side the Dutch would be on, not that it really mattered who the shopkeepers supported.

(In OTL, after La Barre was sacked in 1685, it had been Denonville who had been named Governor General and he had pursued an antagonistic policy against the Iroquois that led to them siding with the English in OTL's King William's War. Frontenac had not resumed being Governor General in OTL until 1689. In this timeline, the chill in relations with England following the death of Charles II had caused Denonville to be kept in France instead of being sent to New France in 1685.)