"What news do we have from our Albion friends lately?"
As Charlemagne began to prepare for war, even if Albion was temporarily caught up in internal affairs, the silence wouldn't last long.
This is an island nation, one with substantial overseas interests. Any attempt by adversaries to build a sea-air force capable of catching up or even surpassing the Albion Royal Fleet will raise their alarm, especially when it's their old foe, Charlemagne. A sense of crisis rises to a matter of life and death.
Unable and unwilling to fire the first shot in a full-scale war, the response to Charlemagne's expansion of its naval forces was to ensure a sufficient maritime deterrent power, embodied in an arms race at sea.
