Records: Plantagenet Peace with Germany

Rupert had his work cut out for him...

The Holy Roman Empire was under attack – from itself – and in the process, had attacked the English at Calais. War wasn't a great option, but war with magically-enhanced armies was a terrible decision. In just short of a year, the Empire had lost a component king, his emperor father, a good portion of the northwest: both the Upper and Lower Lorraine; all of Burgundy and parts of Swabia, Lombardy and Verona.

As of now, Rome was a self-contained Kingdom and the German states were forbidden from using "Roman" *anything* in their titles. That much wouldn't be hard for the rest to figure out, but the bigger questions from here would be about identity and unification in a shattered region.

## **Emergency Sessions**

After the coronation of Joanna as the sovereign of the Royal Republic of Italy, effectively a kingdom, the lesson coming back was that there was strength in unity. Rupert now had a mandate for *Imperial Reform*, but the individual electors (princes essentially), were at regular odds with the nominal head (the emperor). Charles had tried it and failed, and that was the same problem as had been in England, France and the rest of the known universe.

The answer in both England and France had been for a decisive single leader to bring those princes together in a way that left little doubt as to the dominance of the Royal versus the Noble. This was the strategy of Charlemagne, and was now the strategy of the *Holy Trio of Plantegenets*(or unholy depending on your views). It was an "imperial war" level of regional struggle: the nobles against the Swabian League of Cities, most of whom thought of themselves as princelets in much the same way as the patchwork of northern jurisdictions.

The only way Rupert could get collective attention was to proclaim that the Holy Roman Empire had fallen – and what were they to do in its wake?

### **It Was Startling That It Was Spoken**

People knew the change was afoot. The stories coming out of the west, between France and England, were stories of epic battles and towering armies that went back sixty-plus years. The last five years, with the rise of magic or the return of Merlin or whatever the hell was happening over there was popcorn-worthy.

The constant wars in Italy were along the same lines, especially with rapid expansion of Italian economies checked only the plague or war. The English hand there wasn't *too* surprising, as their Lollard had some interesting ideas, if only knocking the clergy back to what supposed to be spiritual guidance and Christian love, not burning crusades against their neighbors.

Travel to Rome was dangerous, even for the "Holy Roman Emperor," so news of the downfall of that title wasn't terribly surprising. The most startling thing was that it was acknowledged, out loud, by a man in power.

### **The Meeting Was Now In Session**

Between Frankfurt, the "official voting capital" of the Empire (according to the Golden Bull of 1356), and places that were common alternates like Augsburg, Rupert flung chairs and flipped tables to get the attention of nobles who were too locked in their petty battles to realize they were about to be eaten alive.

Some, who hadn't been listening, were ready to back a war against the West. Or against Italy. Or both. Rupert countered that backing wars against the English had been the final undoing of the House of Luxembourg. The House of Habsburg found fantastic irony in there, but few of the other regional nobility were any more willing to hand them the keys to the kingdom either.

It took sales to get it done. If any of these buffoons wanted access to English magic like Italy now had, they had to unify just enough to offer a peace treaty that was at least worth the paper it was written on. This was among the first statements that paused the fighting long enough to get some work done.

## **The Creation of the Kingdom of Germany**

There were already English (or at least Plantagenet) advocates in the crowd. This included the delegation from the Kingdom of Bohemia, as well as select allies like Otto, Duke of Brunswick-Grubenhagen (House of Welf). English printing presses and vernacular bibles alike were spreading like wildfire, as were the *Glow Stones*, that had been gifted through proper channels and were so popular that they now had a black market for them.

Rupert wasn't asking for much, not yet, at least. What he did seek was signatories that would ratify a change in name on the official documentation. They would carry over all the current laws, flawed though they were, with a proviso that negotiations would continue at the Imperial Diets to bring improvements.

Further, the medieval idea of unifying all Christendom into a single political entity, with the Church and the Empire as its leading institutions, was officially dead. Or at least it was dead from the leadership of central Europe. It was a blow to the Germanic ego, but given that they were punching each other out over how best to follow Christ, it was sort of inevitable.

Taking several steps backward, the acknowledgement of limitations was the key to one big step forward: creating the official Kingdom of Germany.

The Key votes would normally come from the seven electors set up during Charles IV's Golden Bull. Those included:

* Three ecclesiastical Electors. Despite the Pope's command for Divestment, the three Archbishops large enough to rate as Electors still hadn't gone anywhere. This wasn't entirely surprising given the turbulence of the Church, the regional politics and the alternatives to ecclesiastical-temporal leadership. There were *ideas* afoot, some of which involved the Plantagenets, but there was mixed reception there, as well.
	+ The Archbishop of Mainz: itself a point of conflict, the current holder was Louis of Meissen, appointed by Pope Gregory XI at the request of Emperor Charles IV. This was in opposition to Adolph I of Nassau, whom the cathedral chapter of Mainz had elected. This led to an armed conflict, known as the Schism of Mainz. Battles were fought in Thuringia and the Eichsfeld. Louis was supported by the Emperor and his son Wenceslaus, by his three brothers and by Landgrave Henry II of Hesse. Adolph of Nassau was supported by Duke Otto I of Brunswick-Göttingen, Count John I of Nassau, Count Henry VI of Waldeck and Count Gottfried VIII of Ziegenhain. Neither side was strong enough to force a victory, and the conflict was ongoing.
	+ The Archbishop of Trier: at the time, the unremarkable Kuno II of Falkenstein. What Kuno was able to relay to the Imperial Diet (echoing the testimony of now-deposed Wenceslaus), was quite remarkable: *the story of the fall of Luxembourg right next door*. There had been volunteers from Trier that went to fight at Calais, and it was a miracle that the Edwardian counterattack didn't push right through. Encouraging, however, was the aftermath: Wenceslaus had been spared, as was the countryside. It was one of the reasons Kuno was coordinating succession plans with Rome and the House of Plantagenet was in the mix.
	+ The Archbishop of Cologne: Friedrich III von Saarwerden was on the younger side and had actually followed Kuno von Falkenstein into the Cologne role after Kuno was reassigned to Trier. There was a great deal of loyalty to the Pope, and especially now that healing miracles were dispensed with regularity. The key was appointing a successor that wasn't going to pillage the area and the recent unrest through the area had proven the neighbors (and the residents, for that matter) couldn't be trusted.
* Four secular Electors: this was complicated as it emphasized the difference of the cross-kingdom *empire* with the formation of a single sovereignty
	+ The King of Bohemia: Bohemia was a separate Kingdom and the Germans had no interest in becoming part of *that* Kingdom. Likewise, with counsel from her Nobles, Queen Anne (currently in the Court of Aquitaine), expressed no desire to subordinate the Kingdom as a principality of a german king. She did support, however, the concept of a German Kingdom, and was ready to sign peace and trade treaties.
	+ The Count Palatine of the Rhine: this was Rupert himself, and he was selling the idea of kingdom, but not necessarily of a sovereign king. An elected king seemed reasonable, like a comfortable continuation of the old Empire methods until they were ready for something else.
	+ The Duke of Saxony: at the time, Wenceslaus I, Duke of Saxe-Wittenberg (House of Ascania), and an ally of Charles IV. He'd been shaken by the recent turn of events, not the least of which included the Italian ally Otto of Brunswick (who was a rival in north-central Germany big enough to fight Charles IV over who should be installed as the Electorate Archbishop of Mainz).
	+ The Margrave of Brandenburg: here, young Queen Anne voted as a German (and indeed, spoke German). She consented to subordinate Brandenburg to Germany rather wage war to keep it Bohemian royal land. This would give her (and her eventual husband) a high noble position in the German court. Given these communiques were coming from Bordeaux, there was an appreciation for the Queen's desire for peace.

### **Just a Few More Details**

Italian and Czech were dropped as Imperial Languages, leaving German and Latin. Some wanted to drop Latin as well, but given that it was already spoken across other geographic lines (such as in England), they kept it.

This was the revised beginning of German mediatization, a series of mediatizations and secularizations that would change the face of the former Empire, but but the ratification of the loose kingdom didn't much hint at the coming turbulence to come – only that the threat of English cannons might end.

### **The Crowning Achievement**

Anne's cooperation was critical here, too, and she risked a ride back to Karlstein Castle in the Central Bohemian Region. It had been held there by Charles IV, and only with her physically there were they able to remove the Imperial Regalia, especially the Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire, and transport it to Rupert for the sake of this new Kingdom of Germany.

By then, Jobst had settled down and wasn't able to react quickly enough to take advantage of the Queen's brief passage through her own country. It did, however, show Jobst was paying attention and still a great deal of power.

With the Crown in hand, it then became an issue of who would actually perform the coronation. While the Golden Bull had officially cut ties to the Pope regarding succession, the end of Charles IV was the beginning of deconstructing the Golden Bull. Given the miracles pouring out of Rome, Pope Urban VI was invited back into the mess – and blessed the ceremony with his performance of the coronation.

## **The Treaty of Bayonne (1379)**

King Rickard was just ending his run through Burgundy/Arles and southern Aquitaine as the former Empire came together enough to empower Rupert as the first technical King of Germany. Given the Pope's presence in Germany, and the signals for growing peace at the German-Italian border, Rupert had momentum on his side as he left for peaceful passage through Arles, France and Aquitaine.

With a parade of Germanic nobles in tow, they arrived cross-country at Bayonne to see the dismissal of Regiments back to their northern Aquitaine posts.

Negotiations were struck between Rupert and the German delegation regarding the borders of Germany, France, Italy and Arelat. While Rick technically didn't control the will of Italy, he was recognized as *influential* there. It didn't take much more than an apology on behalf of the deceased Emperor to secure the current border positions.

There wasn't much more that Rupert could do. While trade and other issues were on the table, he wasn't empowered as king to speak at that level of granularity for the constituent jurisdictions. But he didn't need to. The treaty was a victory, an assurance of peace at the borders, and perhaps better probability of peace at the edges than there was of peace in the middle.

Rupert would take this external victory and fold it into more power internally until there was enough to start getting real work done...