When Diplomacy Fails Podcast

The only tremors around here are those I'm making in the historical fiction genre! Matchlock is a historical fiction series set during the Thirty Years' War, beginning in 1622, when Matthew Lock lands in Europe to investigate the brutal murder of his parents. Order your copy of Matchlock and the Embassy by clicking here. In this episode we radically change our focus, away from the Empire and towards a brand new theatre of Europe – Scandinavia. It was there, in the sphere of the Baltic, Eastern Europe and the wild North, that an incredible drama was playing itself out, as the House of Vasa divided over matters or religion and leadership, with profound results for Poland, Sweden, Russia and pretty much everyone else in the region. The House of Vasa’s predominant King, Sigismund III, rowed away from Sweden in the late 1590s, never to return again. His uncle, Charles IX, had effectively deposed him in the name of Lutheran leadership and more rights for the nobility. It was a watershed moment for both Poland and S