Orangenland - a 17th century imagi-nation

 A couple of years ago, I received The Pikeman's Lament rules as a Christmas present. I liked the idea of using the rules for a Thirty Years' War project, originally planning to use the really nice Peter Pig ECW 15mm figures, with multiple figures on bases to make each unit look bigger, but I later thought about doing it in 28mm instead. I like the look of the Warlord Pike and Shotte figures, especially the plastic boxed sets. I worked out that I could probably put a nice starter army together from a single box of infantry and one of cavalry.

Anyway, to do a project, I would need some context, a backstory for the troops. So, I invented a North-western German state, the Duchy of Orangenland.

Orangenland is made up of three separate territories which were once feudal possessions of the House of Chalon-Arnay, which acquired the title to the Principality of Orange in the late 14th century. Sometime after 1500, the lands passed into the hands of an illegitimate son of the House of Chalon-Arnay. This son, Philibert of Orangenstadt, became a soldier of fortune in the armies of Emperor Charles V, who ennobled him as Herzog von Orangen, uniting the three Kreise of Orangenstadt, Orangenwald and Orangenburg into the Duchy of Orangenland.

Although Philibert was a Catholic, his son  Karl Adolph adopted the Lutheran religion in the 1540s, and the Duchy adopted Lutheranism following the 1555 Peace of Augsburg. Herzog Karl I died in 1584, leaving his son Karl Christoph as Herzog.

Orangenland remained a minor North German state, known mainly for brewing and pork products. Orangen Weissbier was and still is famous as far away as Ruritania The local wine made from the Elbling grape variety is, occasionally, drinkable.

The wine of Orangenland is the main reason why the ruling House of Orangen was an early investor in distilling. Orangenweinbrand is a much more popular drink than most of the wine produced in the Duchy, and is even exported to places as far away as Syldavia and the Duchy of Strackenz.

So, in 1618 on the eve of the terrible Thirty Years' War. Orangenland was a peaceful backwater, but Karl Christoph, Herzog von Orangen had grand expansionist designs and aspired to military glory. Unfortunately, his ambitions were greater than his Treasury permitted and he soon became heavily in debt and became unable to pay off his mercenary general, Willem van Metwoorst, who refused to leave the Duchy with his army unless the money he was owed was forthcoming. Karl Christoph's unscrupulous younger brother Georg Wilhelm had long harboured designs to replace his brother, and to that end began negotiations with several banking houses so that he could borrow enough money to buy the loyalty of Captain van Metwoorst for himself, and then arrange an accident for Karl.

Following the unfortunate hunting accident, Herzog Georg Wilhelm gained an alliance with the United Provinces, claiming an almost completely non-existent but artfully constructed familial relationship between the House of Orange-Nassau and the House of Orangen. This helped smooth the path between the Orangenland Treasury and the banking houses of Antwerp and Amsterdam.

Willem van Metwoorst, was granted the title of Captain General of Orangenland and the army became organised along Dutch lines. From the late 1620s onwards, the Swedish King, Gustavus sent military aides to the Duchy and Scottish recruits began to swell the ranks of the army. A stout defender of the Protestant religion, Georg Wilhelm deftly managed to steer a path between his somewhat dissolute and murky private life and the sterner demands of his professed faith.

So, there is the introduction to Orangenland, its ambitious Herzog and his hard-bitten Captain General Willem van Metwoorst. I shall return to the Duchy again in the future.