Vince
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Fantastic update!
I'm constantly fascinated by the consequences of the Roman punitive campaign during Theodor's folly. Admittedly this is in part combined with the issues in the foreign office, but whilst I understand the anti-Roman sentiment here, it does seem a bit rich all things considered.
Vauban and the HRE attack the Romans, which is the Triunes helping the Germans invade the Romans - defacto making them Triune Allies in that regard, so the fact that there is no "why the hell were you that stupid Germany?" sentiment visible leaves me a bit less than impressed with the Lotharingians here, and definately feeds into the idea of an unspoken double-standard, regardless of justification. It's a really interesting aspect of the narrative intentional or otherwise, but I still want to glare at the Lotharingians.
I did specifically check to look at what peace overtures were made/what happened at the time, and in fairness Elizabeth did try and end the war, and D3 is at fault here, ironically he's failed on the two big balance of power changes in Europe, with Henri winning both - damn. One specific bit that stood out was the subsidy idea that was proposed - and I think this is where I'd be curious to know what the Lotharingians were pushing for, if they had any understanding of the Roman mindset as a result of that war they'd have to be able to tell that any policy like that would get nowhere in Constantinople at the time, so I'd be curious to know what they had done to create a peace.
I might have missed it re-reading, but it'd be interesting reading to know whether there was any proto-Italy resolution conversations regarding Germany, and what the Lotharingian perspective on that war was, especially their opinion of the HRE essentially leveraging Triune and Polish support for a war
Though, whilst I've Lotharingia on the mind, I'm curious, the whole "wars beyond the line" treaty, I forget which it is, does that apply to the Triunes and Lotharingia too? Just because with the Lotharingians being somewhat anti-Roman, I can't imagine that has no risk of causing a flashpoint in Rhomania in the East, which would be an ironic twist to essentially cause the long-feared Triune-Roman war on the far side of the world.
I can't exactly blame the Romans at this point for upsetting the balance of power. They're still seeing red at Theodore and Germany for devastating their homes and want them to suffer. I would honestly expect the concept of Schadenfreude to originate in Greece and not Germany in this TL.
I'm likening Henry to be the Trinue equivalent of Andreas. As in like Andreas, Henri made massive gains for his country only to have it experience turmoil after his death.
