I mean the established states and coagulating nations of Scotland, England & Wales, the empire of France, and the islands of Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily. Yet, I say "the West". Don't ask me why, but I just don't feel any Catholic empire-nations like Spain or Portugal are truly a Western thing. Spanish-dominated Rome in the later Renaissance was shocked by anyone ten miles east of Cyprus in regards towards central authority. Mind you, the Catholic nations were a lot nicer places to be than "the West." Mostly the weather but then unexpected wealth, as opposed to what was expected, from the "New Indias" suddenly started paying off for the trouble that they had been from when that silly guy Columbus got funded with his "Western Passage" start-up. Sure slavery and indentured servitude, but people didn't get drawn and quartered for being better read than their monarchs as often.
Despite the Treaty of Perpetual Peace the lands of Scotland are still in the thick of the losing fight against the protesting sentiments of Calvinists and the propagating English. But the growth markets in subversion and burning of heretics is at an all time peak. The French agent-provocateurs are stirring up things in the name of Mary Queen of Scots.
Biggie 8-Mack Henry to the Nth's only son Little Eddie, oh we never knew him, is gone. His estranged sister is in charge. Mary Tudor is proving to all of England & Wales that she is the least Tudor of all her line by rocking the Catholic Church back into the U.K.. The fireworks are provided by all the protestants being burned at the stake, at the very least, for their deviant takes on supernatural affairs. A certain Lizzy, Queen of Protestors, her half-sister, is busy getting her street cred during these most bloody of times.
France can be said to be the most civilized place to be. Henry, not the one you're thinking of (Henry the Second), has been holding BIG FRANCE together for about 9 years now. He's actually doing a good job at not burning too many people at the stake when he can help it . A bunch of hillbilly whiskey producers, the Bourbon, are making things difficult with Spain. Italy just doesn't know when to stop being too Catholic (oh those Spaniards). Still things are banging against the Haspburgs to the northwest even if things in Corsica and the Italian marches are a bit rough. The English cousins are too chaotic to deal with.
Corsica has just freed itself from Franco-Ottoman occupation because Admiral Andrea "Ackbar" Doria and his Genoese Jedi-marines. Well, that and the fact that the Turkish fleet was being wracked with the plague. Henry, the French Guy, knew better than to sink assets like ships in a losing wager so his fleets skedaddled back to France.
Under the dominion of both kinds of Spaniard, the Aragon and the Castille, this collection of small kingdoms were getting introduced to the feudal system about twenty years after everyone else in the world started thinking it was a bad idea.
Despite the long term stability of being ruled by the Spanish Aragon crown, Sicily has been under a cloud of turmoil and just plain bad luck. Always a favorite spot for refugees, the ones at this time from Greek other Mediterranean folk prosecuted by the Ottomans. A massive Earthquake a few years before has not helped out things either. To top things off, the plague is starting to creep around the island.
It's kind of about the give and take in these parts.
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