[POTN] 2.3 - March, Army of Saints!

Following King Charles's execution in Whitehall in 1649, the royalist cause suffered a heavy blow, and the Parliamentarians consolidated their grip on power in England.

Cromwell's conquest of Ireland that same year meant that the royalist had one last stronghold left - Scotland.

The Prince of Wales, calling himself King Charles II following his father's decapitation, was proclaimed titular King of Scotland by the Scottish Covenanters in 1649. After signing an accord that promised primacy for the Scottish Presbyterian church, Charles' return was permitted by the Scottish nobility. In 1650, he set sail for Scotland from the Dutch Republic, and was welcomed as the rightful King of Scots.

However, by this point, Cromwell was already launching a full-scale invasion of Scotland, in order to subdue to royalist supporters for once and for all. Charles, barely twenty, had to direct parts of the Scottish war effort against the far larger Parliamentarian army.

While the Scots did try to muster a large army with very limited time, they couldn't match the experience of the New Model Army. A heavy defeat at Dunbar in September 1650 by Cromwell forced the Scots to abandon Edinburgh, their capital, and retreated northward with Charles.

On 1st January, 1651, Charles was hastily crowned King of Scots in Perth. amidst the increasingly grim military situation, with the New Model Army pressing north. A series of defeats in July 1651 made Charles extremely desperate for any way to strike back against Cromwell. Following some suggestions, he finally decided to invade England with a relatively small force, seeking to change the tides of the war.

Nonetheless, the Scots were no match for the Parliamentarian forces, and Charles was decisively defeated in Worcester in September 1651. Cromwell tried to arrest him and charge him like he did to his father, but Charles, perhaps miraculously, managed to escape England back to the Dutch Republic. By this point, however, the Dutch Republic was not what it was a couple of years before. Willem II, the Prince of Orange and Charles's brother-in-law, had tragically died in late 1650 at just 24. Willem and Charles's sister Mary were the ones who subsidised his exile in the Dutch Republic before.

For obvious reasons, Willem's infant son, also named Willem, born eight days after his father's death, was not named Stadtholder of the Republic. The Republic entered a Stadtholderless period under the States' Party, with Johan de Witt emerging as the leader. This new government, hostile to the Orangists, was nowhere as friendly to Charles as the Prince of Wales once was. The States' Party, eager to maintain peace, saw Charles as a pretender boy with a dead father, and refused to subsidise him entirely.

While De Witt did not expel Charles from the Republic, the self-proclaimed King, despite a de facto pretender, was determined to withhold a certain dignity worthy for a King. He demanded funds to keep his extravagant household running, whether from his relatives or from the Dutch government.

While the amount required was close to nothing from the perspective of the Dutch merchant empire, the States' Party was reluctant to show any kind of support for Charles, and in fact, would love to force him to leave the Republic willingly as soon as possible, so to maintain peace with Cromwell's Commonwealth.

Meanwhile, the Swedish preparation for the extra settlers in New Sweden was almost ready. King Gustav, with the assistance of several young, ambitious ministers, completed the assembling of volunteers by mid-1651.

Over 300 volunteers were gathered by June, mostly from poor peasant backgrounds in rural Sweden or western Finland, looking for a way to change their lives. The King personally received them in Tre Kronor Castle in July 1651, hosting a grand banquet for the "pioneers of Sweden to the New World". Ten ships were purchased by Sweden from different Hanseatic city-states as civilian ships for the volunteers to take to the West, while a couple of military ships would also follow them, so to guard them against possible pirates.

News from New Sweden, however, was pretty grim. Gustav was informed about constant Dutch provocations and new Dutch fortresses near the Swedish colonies, as if preparing for a siege. With De Witt in power, Gustav was eager not to let this anti-monarchy nation control New Sweden. However, the lands Sweden claimed were sparsely populated, with very few Swedish settlers. The two forts were not built for prolonged sieges by an equally well-equipped European force.

To distance Sweden from the Dutch Republic, Gustav sent Charles an invitation to reside in Sweden temporarily while in exile, when it became obvious that the States' Party wanted Charles gone. Seeking refuge and subsidy, Charles set sail to Göteborg from The Hague in December, and arrived in Stockholm in early January, 1652, meeting the King and the Princess Kristina in person.

At this point, Cromwell's forces were virtually in control of all the British Isles. However, the colonies largely remained staunchly royalist, though there was some chaos in the less densely populated colonies.

Gustav, and the Swedish Privy Council, by this point, had accepted that New Sweden was not very defensible, and was not a very beneficial colony to maintain. While the volunteers had been trained in English beforehand, so to communicate with the English settlers in Virginia, most of the commanders in the Swedish military still believed that New Sweden had very little chance should the Dutch besiege the two forts.

Recognising that Charles only came to Sweden to seek a refuge and capital to maintain his rather pompish lifestyle for a pretender, the Swedish ministers came up with a plan with Gustav, in order to allow Sweden a permanent, defensible foothold in the Americas.

Gustav first offered Charles the Nyköping Castle, an important structure for the House of Vasa. Charles and his host moved into the Castle in February 1652, maintaining a makeshift "court" of England, while spending much time with the mistresses he brought to Sweden from England.

Gustav visited Charles in person later in the month. By promising regular subsidies, he managed to persuade Charles to agree to various conditions to Swedish benefits. On 28th February, 1652, the two signed the Treaty of Nyköping Castle, which was released to the public the following week. The Treaty was as follows:

1. The Kingdom of Sweden recognises King Charles II as the sole rightful monarch of the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland. The Kingdom of Sweden condemns the regicide committed against the late King Charles I, and advocates for justice for the Martyr-King.

2. The Kingdom of Sweden shall provide King Charles II a monthly subsidy of three thousand riksdalers during his stay in the Kingdom. King Charles is free to use the subsidy in however way he deems suitable.

3. As part of a territory exchange, the Colony of Newfoundland shall be transferred from the Kingdom of England to the Kingdom of Sweden. Envoys shall be sent by King Charles II to notify the loyal royalist English settlers of the arrangement.

4. In return, the Colony of New Sweden shall be transferred from the Kingdom of Sweden to the Kingdom of England. Envoys shall be sent by the King to notify settlers of the arrangement. Should they wish to, the Swedish settlers shall be allowed to remain in the region under English rule.

5. Upon the restoration of King Charles II to the British thrones, an alliance treaty shall be concluded as soon as possible between the Kingdom of Sweden and the domains of King Charles II. The Kingdoms involved shall not declare war on one another during the lifetime of the two Kings.

Following the signing of the Treaty, Gustav officially granted royal assent to the creation of the Swedish Crown Colony of Nyfunnenland, designed to be a permanent Swedish foothold in the Americas. Meanwhile, the preparation of the second university in Sweden proper, under the guidance and leadership of Princess Kristina, reached it final stages by spring in 1652.

The University of Stockholm was officially opened by the King, the Queen, and the Princess on 2th April, 1652. Princess Kristina was made the Chancellor with a decree from the King, setting a precedent for women to be considered for crucial roles in the academic field.

Meanwhile. the exploration fleet, destined to head for the New World, was being prepared in Götaborg Port, where the King travelled to a week before the fleet set sail. The King gave a speech to the volunteers upon his arrival at Göteborg, encouraging the volunteers to build their homes in the new world, spreading the Swedish language, faith, and culture. Gustav branded this mission as a holy expedition willed by the Almighty, for the ancient Gothic Kingdom to civilise less fortunate people on the other side of the planet.

Gustav, however, was also aware of the problems with slaves in the new world, and how there were already suppressed slave revolts in other colonies in the new world.

With influence from Kristina and the Queen, Gustav issued the Instrument of Götaborg one day before the fleet's departure, detailing the Swedish policies concerning slaves as follows:

1. Swedish citizens are allowed to own slaves in the New World. However, they can, under no circumstances, enslave fellow Swedish citizens.

2. Any attempts to enslave a frew Swedish citizen shall be seen as an attack against the Kingdom of Sweden, and shall be responded as such.

3. The Colony of Nyfunnenland is to be kept majority Swedish-populated. While slaves are permitted, they shall not constitute the majority of the population. In fact, Swedish citizens should, if possible, avoid bringing slaves to Nyfunnenland. Nonetheless, they are not discouraged to own slaves and lend them to other settlers in other European colonies.

4. Marriages between a Swedish citizen and a slave are strictly forbidden, and considered null and void. Should these marriages be discovered, the slave is to be sentenced to death.

5. Slaves on Nyfunnenland, if freed by their respective owners, are to leave, or be ejected from the Colony as soon as possible, in order to keep Nyfunnenland a Swedish land.

The next day, on 14th May, 1652, the Fleet eventually set sail to the utmost West, carrying over three hundred young souls, men and women dreaming of a better life on the newfound shores.

Upon Gustav's return to the capital, the Riksdag quickly ratified the Intrument of Götaborg, officially starting the new page of Sweden as a colonial power in the new world. However, by this point, a new concern arose amongst members of the Riksdag. The King and the Queen had been married for over three years, but they're hadn't been any kind of possibility of an heir. Not one pregnancy, miscarriage, or even any pregnany symptoms on the Queen were reported throughout the past few years.

Gustav hastily dismissed the Riksdag session as members began raising questions about the King's marriage and the succession. The nobility acted silent, but secretly began gossiping about the royal couple and their fertility. Gustav, still, believed that a child would be the gift of God himself, and was not something that could be obtained by some noble gossips or useless medical attention.

Meanwhile, the Swedisn colonial fleet sailed west in the warm Atlantic in summer. Pirates seldom haunted seas so far in the North, and so the Swedes mostly sailed in peace. Some on board enjoyed the voyage a lot, with some future babies conceived on the ships. These babies, after their birth, were called the "Children of Fortune", and were seen aa symbols of luck and blessing.

After almost three months of voyage, the Swedes finally reaches the coasts of Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland, now Nyfunnenland, on 7th August, 1652. The envoys appointed by Charles II landed at the scattered English settlements, with merely dozens of settlers residing, and delivered the change in governance, providing a letter signed by the exiled King. For the most part, however, the Englishmen were allowed to live as they used to, with only several men landing temporarily to raise the Swedish ensign. As the volunteers could speak basic English, the Swedish language was not forced on the dozens of Englishmen, who remained primarily English-speaking a couple of decades into Swedish rule.

The Swedes, in the meantime, divided into three groups, and formed three new settlements, namely, the towns of Gustavia, Kristina, and Henrietta, at the three prominent bays on Avalon Peninsula.

With the horses they brought from the Swedish mainland, the three settlements were able to maintain contact with one another. The local Beothuk natives posed some threats initially, but the muskets the Swedes brought effectively silenced them, ensuring stable Swedish settlements that would thrive and grow in population.

Fishing was the main way of food-gathering by the Swedes, but hunting was also practiced with the availability of muskets, originally prepared to guard against possible pirates on the voyage. After the winter, the British envoys, along with several military men, sailed back to Europe, delivering the news of the colonial success to Gustav, who in turn sent a couple of new ships, containing weapons, supplies, and a few dozens of new volunteers, to the colonial settlements of Nyfunnenland.