Asdis III of Vinland (The Kalmar Union)

The reign of Asdis III was dominated by the Leifian War of Religion, a conflict which would firmly divide the nations of Eastern Leifia into two armed and hostile camps.

Asdis was the second daughter of Thorey IV and followed her mother's lead by pledging herself to the Lutheran creed. Her older sister Kristjana had meanwhile converted to Catholicism. When Thorey died in 1560 both sisters would contest for the throne. Whilst a European country may have simply relented to Kristjana's claim Vinland's throne was electable and at the whims of the Althing; an institution which had become thoroughly Lutheran during Thorey's reign. Hence Asdis was their preferred candidate and when she presented herself to the assembly in Isafjordhur and proclaimed her undying devotion to the faith they readily proclaimed her queen.

Her ministers pushed her to confiscate her sister and her husband's property but preferring reconciliation and looking to avoid the kind of persecution occurring in Europe by this point she granted 'peace upon her sister' as long as the family held 'peace upon the queen'.

It was a neat legal solution which was soon filtered out to most of the still-Catholic lords. If they wished to hold on to their properties they needed to show that they supported the Althing and royal family. Most did swear an oath to that effect and interfaith relations were generally good. Outside of Vinland this caused considerable upset however. In Álengiamark Lutheranism was becoming entrenched in Quiripiland, much to the general dismay of its earls, and Lutheran leaders there hoped to stave off violence by repeating oaths of loyalty to their queen.

Vinland had already angered both Leon and the Papacy by blithely ignoring the Treaty of Quisqueyanos (1558) by claiming Alkafuglaeyjar, which Vinlandic explorer-merchants discovered in 1562, and which by right of the treaty should belong to Leon. This resulted in Vinland's navy, still small by European standards, finding itself frequently in clashes with Leonese vessels. It would be no wonder that Leon gladly seized the opportunity to declare war officially on the Leifian upstart.

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