Turn 5: Schmalkaldic League

The Ottomans made a not wholly successful, but certainly not unsuccessful attempt at invading Belgrade. The siege of Belgrade failed to take the city, but the Hungarian-Bohemian defense forces lost many of their ground troops. The Ottomans continue to be aloof from European affairs, a spectre haunting Europe from the East. The pirate port at Algiers laid in wait.

The Hapsburgs while struggling to control their fragmented Empire, continue to have a great deal of wealth and prestige. Charles V was coronated Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Paul III in Vienna. Spain launched a voyage of conquest to the New World. Conquistador de Cordova landed at the Mayan shores, in the wake of the successful conquest of the Azteks, expecting an easy fight. However, the Maya, having had advance warning, had called upon their Sun Gods, and employed ample sacrifices. The colonizing powers were unprepared for the sunbeams pouring from the sky, as human-like figures, holding a hammer in one hand, and a sickle in the other, descended. Captain de Cordova knelt before these gods, and in a flash of light, the entire invasion armada, all of the Spanish gold, and conquistadors disappeared in a blaze of light. The scant few men who made it back to the Hapsburg court, having only such an absurd story to defend themselves, were summarily beheaded by Charles V.

In the Mediterranean, the Hapsburg fleet engaged Corsairs at Algiers, winning a decisive naval battle and capturing the pirate king Barbarossa.

England dealt most with its adversaries to the North, engaging the Scottish highlanders at Edinburgh. Led by Brandon, an English siege was unsuccessful. although they did eliminate the meager Scottish fleet. The God Damn Irish revolted again, for the second time in a decade. The London Police were formed to represent the King in matters of civil law and order, and upgrade and professionalize the local Constabulatory of Ireland. It is hoped that a new age of peaceful participation in the greater Economy will ensue.

The French launched an attack on the renegade heathen city-states of the Schmalkaldic League, taking Trier. The Hapsburgs similarly attempted to put down ideological reform in Germany. They regained political control of southwestern and southern Germany. They took heavy losses however, as their Academi mercenaries abandoned their posts; a plague infested their camps; and their legions were not able to make it home to Hapsburg territory, opting instead to marry local German peasants and settle down for a life of farming and dairying.

The leading Protestant reformers of the time attended a meeting the Marburg, at the behest of Philip I of Hessen, which attempted to solve a disputation between Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli over the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Philip’s primary motivation for this conference was political; he wished to unite the Protestant states in political alliance, and to this end, religious harmony was an important consideration.

After the Diet of Speyer had confirmed the edict of Worms, Philip I felt the need to reconcile the diverging views of Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli in order to develop a unified Protestant theology.

If Philip wanted the meeting to be a symbol of Protestant unity he was disappointed. Both Luther and Zwingli fell out over the sacrament of the Eucharist. (wikipedia)

Pope Paul III was an effective leader of counter-reformation efforts, re-converting the cities of Strasburg, Mainz, Nuremburg, Regensburg, and Salzburg. The infant Schmalkaldic League found itself immediately under threat from the established powers of France, the Papacy, and the Holy Roman Empire.