1851 - and, as a result of a double Royal suicide, England and France are at war. The chosen battleground is northern Spain - but this is only the first part of Europe to feel the dreadful effects of The General European Wars. Conflict spreads northwards, from Tyneside to Dunkirk and into Belgium and the Netherlands. Denmark is threatened with conquest and, in the east, the Russian Tsar gathers an army of nearly 400,000 men to achieve a long-held desire; to turn the Baltic into a Russian lake. British secret agents, nomadic Sami tribesmen and marauding Cossacks will all play their parts as Europe is plunged into nine years of bloody war. A Stuart King will die and a new Stuart King will face challenges both at home and abroad as Kingdoms fall, new nations are created and the map of northern Europe changes almost completely.