Lurching toward a "Historical" Narrative. . .

As some of you might know, I’ve been at a loss as to how one might explain the “history” and origins of my own Grand Duchy of Stollen (and its enemy the Electorate of Zichenau). What has given me problems is that Stollen et al are located to the northeast of extreme eastern Prussia, sandwiched between Frederick II’s lands, Russia, Poland, and Courland. Far outside the historical boundaries of The Holy Roman Empire. Although I must play around with things in considerably more detail, I think I can now explain things a bit better.

My rationale for Stollen and Zichenau? Their origins can be traced to the crusades of the Teutonic Knights, during the 1200s, to Christianize the pagan Slavic tribes in the area – the Prussi, Letts, Livs, et al. In the centuries that followed, people from Hesse and the Saxon duchies settled the region and efforts at “germanization” of the original inhabitants followed.

Hansa merchants from prominent trading centers like Lübeck, Greifswald, and Danzig established trade in the region. The Reformation led to Stollen and Zichenau embracing the Protestant cause for the most part, although there are still large enclaves of Catholics in each country. By the 1700s, both groups manage to live peacefully with each other.

So, there is the nugget of my historical narrative for the Grand Duchy of Stollen campaign. More to follow once I have some time to do a bit more research and thinking about how to "tweak" it. Special thanks to Jeff Hudelson, the man behind Saxe-Bearstein, for his assistance!

Comments

Bluebear Jeff said…

You are most welcome. By the way, for a very different view of the Teutonic Knights, you might want to read "The Cross-Time Engineer" and its sequels by Leo Frankowski. These SF novels are fun reads (although Frankowski has some quirks concerning women that I don't care for).

-- Jeff

10:51 PM

The Eventual Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment. . .

The Anhalt-Zerbst regiment musters in the drill square to sort themselves into platoons and companies during the coming weeks Fall maneuvers if you will. A large dose of real life the last few days with the start of classes next Monday, various preparatory meetings, and finishing up a few other things this week. But, I managed to sort out 60 or so Minden Austrian infantry from the pile and get 'em stuck to temporary painting bases. Must carefully drill out the hands of several NCOs for flagpoles and pole arms this weekend before the usual basecoat. I'm thinking of mixing the usual white gesso with the usual light gray to kill two birds with one stone so to speak. Applying both base- and undercoat in one fell swoop as my grandmother used to say. In the meantime, the recently finished squadron of Saxon cuirassiers has been placed carefully in one of the clear acrylic boxes on my shelves until I have the suitable flag to affix. -- Sto...

Presenting the Anspach-Bayreuth Kuirassiere!!!

Here they are, with the rearmost nine figures still drying, three squadrons of the Anspach-Bayreuth Kuirassiere, now in the service of the Grand Duchy of Stollen. And now, it's onto that artillery!

Continued Regional Map Revisions. . .

F ooled around a bit more with the revised map just before and after dinner this evening, using the Fotor app to reinsert missing text . I also removed a few other things using the 'Magic Eraser' function, which works surprisingly well. Now, we're getting somewhere. I just have to figure out how to ensure that the text is all a uniform font style and maybe figure out a way to add a few bunches of trees to suggest forested areas, Ninja AI is not always entirely cooperative to the tune of "I'm sorry Dave. I can't do that." -- Stokes

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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