The year is 1752 and Europe looks very different than it had half a century ago. Spain and France had won the War of Spanish Succession, uniting the two great Empires under King Charles II of the family of Bourbon. The nation formed out of this union came to be known as the Bourbon Empire or the Empire of Bourbonnais. When Charles the II died in 1736, his son Enrique ascended to the throne.Enrique had been raised by Jesuit priests in a monastary in Spain, and he is one of the most fervent Catholics in Europe. His 1738 meeting with the Papacy led him on a crusade to win back the Anglican heretics of England. Austria could not, in good conscience, side with heretics in a holy war, and they remained neutral. Italian and German Catholic mercenaries joined the Bourbon armies in a massive invasion of England. The Holy Roman Emperor forbade any of the Princes to side with England. It all culminated on Christmas Day, 1742, when the Pope joined the triumphant King Enrique in London to crown the Archbishop Francis of Normandy as King Francis I, rightful of England.
King Francis immediately began sending missionaries throughout England, and issued edicts that forbade Protestants from practicing their faith. Thousands of Anglicans and other Protestants fled to Germany, Sweden or America, but many fled to Scotland and Northern Ireland. Scottish Protestants refused to hold Mass, resulting in a rebellion. The Bourbons failed to get involved and King Francis couldn't muster enough public support to put the rebels down, so he was forced to recognize them as an independent nation.
The King of Portugal, seeing that continental Portugal is surrounded by the Bourbons and fearing an invasion, moves his capitol to Rio de Janerio, Brazil. He continues to rule as King of Portugal, only he does it from a colony. Around the same time, the Prince of Bavaria died with no clear heir. Both Austria and Prussia want to take the land for themselves and the Austro-Prussian War breaks out in 1752. The Prussians shamelessly ask for the Ottomans to help them in the war with Austria, but the Austrian Hapbsburgs are far too proud to ask the rival Bourbons for help.
It is in this jumbled time that you take control of your nation. Protestant America chafes under a Catholic King, and perhaps the revolution will come early. The Dutch are uncomfortably close to the zealous Bourbons, and the English are a crumbling island looking for redemption. Who will you lead forward into the uncertain era ahead?
