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Thorey VI
Lossy-page1-720px-Anthony van Dyck - A Genoese Lady with Her Child - 1954.392 - Cleveland Museum of Art.tiff
Thorey VI, with her stepson Landgrave Sigismund
Queen of Vinland
Reign 3rd June, 1681 - 27th March, 1694
Predecessor Greta I
Successor Thorey VII
Born 5th June, 1650
Fjallasay, Nor-Hafsvaedaland Fylk, Vinland
Died 27th March, 1694
St. Katrín's, Sud-Hafsvaedaland Fylk, Vinland
Spouse Jobst of Meerzisch, Jobst Karlsson

Kjartan of Grálamborg

Issue Thorey VII

Jóhannes Jobstsson
Eyfinna I

Full name
Thorey Valdemarsdottír
House Eiriksdottír
Father Valdemar Kristjansson
Mother Greta

Thorey VI was queen of Vinland during the late 17th century. Her 13-year reign is usually said to mark the beginning of the 'Vinlandic Golden Age', a period of sustained growth and prosperity.

Succeeding on the death of her mother Greta I in 1681, Thorey and her ministers were left to resolve the First Vinland-Lakota War. With their options rapidly diminishing Lakota sued for peace in October 1681. The peace talks would take two years to finalise mostly thanks to the disintegrating Ochangaran-Mamaceqtawia union which distracted Vinland's diplomats. However while things were finalised Vinland would do much to secure the peace. Nakotaland, Ojibwe, Haanininland, Apsaalookriga and Baxojeyuh were all released as sovereign states. During the war certain local chiefs had assisted the Vinlandic force and these were recognised as kings of the new states.

The Vinlandic army would be on hand to provide the muscle to secure their rules. Rather than the massed-infantry army which was standard for eastern Leifia the plains required a fast-moving cavalry force, a lesson Vinlandic commanders had been slow to learn during the war. A new professional dragoon force, the Fljúgandíherin (Flying army), was assembled as a result. The reliance on Vinlandic military power to keep the new states led some in the Althing to wonder why they just didn't annex them outright. Many diplomats, both at home and elsewhere would see the states simply as Vinland's vassals, an image that would last until the mid-19th century.

Meanwhile engineers poured in to build the infrastructure (roads, bridges, forts etc) the new states sorely needed, especially as the retreating Lakota had often burned whatever permanent structures they had abandoned. And merchants would follow, setting up profitable links with the Vinlandic frontier trading posts to move furs, minerals to domestic markets or export to Europe. What the new states had in abundance was farmland, and wheat, already widely grown, was suddenly a source of wealth. For the five new states it was a cheap way of paying for Vinland's services, for Vinland it was a step toward food security. By the end of Thorey's reign flour was being stockpiled in the cities and towns and the excess was exported to other Leifian countries. Stringent laws concerning wheat, flour, minimum stockpiles and its trade, were laid out by the Althing. Hunger and famine would be alien to Vinland for decades to come, paving the way toward a population boom.

The New Dutch[]

Thorey married the youngest legitimate son of Charles III of Luxembourg: Jobst. The once-widowed duke came with a small family already in tow but Thorey was smitten and readily accepted his son and daughter as her own. The Althing hoped the once-widowed Luxembourger would help facilitate trade with Europe beyond the usual Kalmar markets and, to a degree he did. However he would be much more influential in bringing Dutch émigrés to Vinland. Not only was the Dutch economy sluggish following the Fifty Years War but also in 1680 a broad revolt erupted in Holland only to be bloodily quashed by Jobst's elder half-brother Charles of Utrecht.

Many dissidents would flee Holland, some to German states, some to Anglia, some to the independent Kaapstad colony, but around 15,000 were eventually provided with passage to Vinland. Encompassing a broad spectrum of talents these newcomers quickly settled into Vinlandic life while the crown and Althing ignored complaints from the local population that the ný hollansk were given preferential treatment. Skilled craftsmen settled in several town and cities introducing new techniques to to the textile industry. Others were settled in the farming communities along the north-east shore of Ontario Vatn but were quick to see the potential of their new homeland and inject industry there too. New water-driven sawmills were built, especially on the Styrisfisk and Sagonask rivers. Shipbuilding was already becoming an important Vinlandic industry but this new plentiful supply of cut timber allowed a rapid and cheaper expansion in the fleet. Cut timber was soon flowing into the expanding Drottningarskipasmítastutvar (Royal Shipworks) at Leir where Ontario Vatn narrows to the Breiduras.

Cornelis van Aerssen (1637-1688)

Jobst of Meerzisch

The émigrés also included a few artists who were quick to reinvigorate Vinland's moribund artistic movement either by setting up new studios with fresh apprentices, or encouraging their Vinlandic breathren to embrace new techniques.

Thorey and the Althing politely refused to get involved in the Kalmar-Wessex War (1668-1701) however pounced on Wessex's share of the Taino trade, tacitly supporting pirates preying on the unprotected Wessex cargo ships and sheltering the Breton navy in Lucayanaeyjar

Expanding Horizons[]

With Vinland's ocean tonnage increasing rapidly each year its merchants, ný hollansk merchants included, were emboldened to look further to expand the countries trade links. Though this would effect her successor's reigns more, during her reign certain important developments were in progress.

During her reign Vinland's presence at the Adyar River on the east coast of India was expanded; the trading post was fortressed and a more formal treaty signed with the local Gingee kings. A Vinlandic army company was stationed at the fort too, ready for use by the kings in times of need. Through this post Vinland would export vasts amounts of fabric (Calicoe, Muslin) back to Leifia. Though the fur trade at home or cash-crop goods from the Taino Sea would always be more profitable, the trade with India held prestige and captured the public's imagination.

Vinland's 'Maídisshofn' fort on the West African Coast had been violently destroyed in 1641 by the locals and in the meantime several European countries had carved up the West African trade. Eager to get back to Africa but to avoid confrontation a factory was planted at the mouth of the Komo River and a lively trade with the local Mpongwe tribe, who acted as middlemen for the interior tribes, started, mostly ivory, dyewood and gum.

Thorey would also authorise the Indíanivik scheme to settle Algoa Bay on the southern tip of Africa shortly before her death, however the scheme would run into immediate complications and did not live up to expectations.

Succession[]

Jobst died in 1687. The marriage had been a happy one and Thorey would enter a long period of mourning. She would remarry, to her second cousin Lord Kjartan of Grálamborg in 1691 but would then die in 1694 of complications following the still-birth of a son. Both of her daughters, Thorey and Eyfinna, would succeed her in turn. Jobst's children from his first marriage would continue to live in Vinland and play vital roles in the years to come; Eleanor became a trusted advisor to Thorey and Eyfinna, Sigismund a local lord until fate gave him a new role.

When Henry XI of Luxembourg died in 1723 Sigismund was technically first in line for the throne. He and Jóhannes would lead Vinland's campaign during the War of Luxembourg Succession.

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