1635- the Wars for the Rhine (ARC)

by Anette Pedersen

  “The Lady Maria seems to be of a very resilient nature.” Franz remarked to Eva as they crossed the square.

  “A most diplomatic way of expressing that she’s totally self-centered and only concern herself with anything affecting her here and now. And you are right. But on the bottom she’s also quite kind, and would probably be more intelligent if everyone around had not always talked about her beauty as if that was the only thing about her worth paying attention to.”

  “Please, allow me to compliment you on your ability to pay attention to everything outside yourself, Lady Eva. And may I enquire if you are as resilient on the inside?”

  Eva looked away from Franz, letting her eyes follow the swallows flying between the trees and their nests under the eaves of the buildings. “Bamberg has taught me that I can do more than I think. In the future I will spend more time among people, and less in my books and my still-room.” She turned her head and looked straight into Franz’s face. “I am not at all certain what I want to do with my life, but I will not let my scars define me. I am worth more than that.”

  “Most certainly, Lady Eva, whole kingdoms more. And did I remember to thank you for saving my life?”

  “Likewise, Bishop Franz.” Eva smiled. “Please, give us your blessing for our journey, and we must be on our way. There’s also appears to a messenger heading for you.”

  * * *

  The vaguely familiar looking courier had dismounted and started patiently walking his horse cool rather than approaching Franz until everybody had finished their goodbyes and the carriage had rolled from the square.

  “My, my. If that isn’t Peckerbun, joy of the ladies eyes and other parts. What have you got?”

  At Wolf’s words Franz stopped and turned to him in outrage. “Ladies present! Your garrison language is not acceptable, Wolf.”

  “If they understand it, they’ve heard it before and have no cause for taking offence, and if they don’t understand it, they have even less cause.” Wolf grinned but stopped and turned to Terrie and Sister Tabitha. “Come say hello to Lieutenant Simon Pettenburg. His sweetheart is Melchior’s quartermaster.”

  “I should perhaps start by assuring you, that the person referred to is female, and was forced by circumstances beyond her control to take on a male’s disguise and seek employment.” The fresh faced young man bowed and smiled at Terrie and Sister Tabitha before handing a bulky message bag to Franz. “There are no urgent military or political news, and everybody in your family is doing fine, Bishop Franz. General von Hatzfeld assumed that the American radios would have brought the most important news, such as the recent death of Archbishop Ferdinand, but was uncertain how many details were shared. The information about the negotiations concerning the USE’s western border is not confidential and might be of interest to the Americans in the administration here. Also I went by way of Mainz, and there are trading news from your brother Heinrich, who suggest that you read those without delay.”

  “While Franz does that, and Pettenburg stables his horse, I’ll go for a walk with the lovely ladies. We’ll meet for lunch in Franz’s dining room.” Wolf said and turned to offer his arm to Terrie.

  “No, please wait.” Terrie interrupted. “Let me invite you all instead. Geyerswoerth Palace at noon. I very much want to hear about Bishop Franz’s family and Lieutenant Pettenburg’s sweetheart, and Wolf can go help with the horse and ask his military questions at the same time.”

  “Lively lady. Is she American?” Simon asked looking after Terrie rushing down the street pulling Sister Tabitha after her.

  “Yes, very.” Wolf answered dryly. “And one hell of a neat shot with that American gun she’s packing. Now tell me if anyone knows the certain whereabouts of Irish Butler and his cohorts?”

  Chapter 48

  Bamberg

  April 30, 1635

  Franz left the Geyerswoerth Palace just as the bells started to call to evening service and the start of the Walpurgis waking night. Overhead the setting sun was starting to color the slowly drifting clouds and with no wind stirring the surface of the river, it was turning into a slowly flowing ribbon of rose and gold. He was expected at the cathedral, but with Schönborn leading the service and holding the sermon there were plenty of time to get there before the doors closed and anyone might miss him. Plenty of time to sit down of one of the benches the Americans had placed on the squares and along the river as if public spaces were taverns encouraging people to hang around and spend money.

  “Good evening Bishop Franz. May I join you?” Frau Kacere’s voice interrupted Franz’s thoughts.

  “Please do, Frau Kacere.” Franz stood up and saw the older woman seated on the bench before sitting down again to watch the sunset.

  “They hung Councilor Bitterfeld in Würzburg the day before yesterday. Did you know that, Bishop Franz?”

  “Yes. Good riddance to bad rubbish, I believe your saying goes.” Franz kept his eyes on hills darkening as the sun descended behind them. “Not a very Christian reaction from a priest, I’m sorry to say, and I’ll probably try to find it in my heart to pray for his soul tonight, but . . .” He hesitated. “I had a visit from his widow today. She came straight from his funeral to thank me for my part in his death. She is now at the Cathedral, where she’ll be spending the night in prayer. Praying for the strength to forgive.” He turned his head to look at Frau Kacere. “If you and your people can stop people like Bitterfeld and father Arnoldi from polluting the world with every breath they take, then I’ll support you with every skill and thought I posses.”

  Frau Kacere shook her head. “I can only promise you we’ll try.”

  They sat for a while in silence.

  “On a lighter note, Frau Kacere. When you arrived, I was just thinking about the benches you had placed around town. Some of the clerics are quite opposed to that, claims it encourage people to loiter and gossip when they should be working to Gods honor.”

  “How protestant of them. And do you agree Bishop Franz?”

  “Not necessarily. Clean streets, benches, even trees planted as if the town were a garden, those all encourage people to linger. It probably makes a town a healthier place to live, but I was wondering if it might not also be a way of encouraging trade?”

  “There’s something of both those reasons involved plus civic pride, public relations, and many others, but my personal reason for wanting to spend money on things like benches is in fact somewhat religious. I don’t if you’ve noticed Bishop Franz, but in addition to those placed where people gather, there’s also quite a few placed with a view to God’s creations such as the hills, the river, and even for watching the sun set.”

  “I see. It’s certainly a beautiful view. I do not believe, I’ve ever heard you mention your religion before, Frau Kacere?” Franz made the last sentence questioning.

  “No, I consider that a private matter.”

  “No offence intended.”

  “And none taken. Me not talking religion is an old decision based on some incidents in my youth. Someday I might tell you about them.” She smiled and continued, “Schönborn mentioned that the two of you were holding a Walpurgis wake tonight in the cathedral. I would have thought you’d start at sunset. Aren’t you going to be late?”

  “I know a back door, and Schönborn is perfectly capable of starting without me.” Franz smiled back. “I just need to compose my mind before heading up hill to join the others. A wake is all about contemplation and prayer and it’s been a very long day. And also a very long year.” Franz nodded towards the northwest and Cologne. “It was only about a year ago, that I learned about Archbishop Ferdinand’s plans to regain control of Bishop’s Alley and the middle Rhine. Until then my life had been,” he hesitated, “understandable. Not smooth, what with the protestant armies driving me and so many of my peers into exile, but still something I could understand and deal with. Make plans about what to do. Then the Duke of Hessen-Kassel attacked and the Archbishop seemed to fall completely apart, and I decided to
stop putting my faith in princes and to trust God for a change.” Franz smiled wryly. “I tend to plan, negotiate and occasionally scheme to make my way rather than to pray and trust God”

  “Nothing wrong with that. God help those, who help themselves.”

  “Yes, but sometimes God might have other priorities, and I have absolutely no taste for gambling.” Franz hesitated. “I’d hired Father Johannes the Painter to restore our family home in Cologne. He’d spend a lot of time in Grantville, but I don’t know if you ever met him there?”

  “Certainly, I attended most of his lessons about the political structures and alliances. The books in our libraries didn’t have anything near the details we needed.”

  “From what Father Johannes told me, the ideals and goals, if not necessarily the means, on which your nation was based, is very close to what I hoped to achieve for my “Kingdom”, but if there’s one thing all my years as a diplomat has taught me, it is to always keep an eye on what the people around me are after. Not necessarily to oppose them, but I have some serious problems with accepting idealism as the primary motivation. Please don’t take offence, Frau Kacere, but just what are you and your fellow Americans after? It don’t appear to be entirely power, and certainly not mainly riches.”

  The old woman beside him sat silent for so long that Franz started wondering if he might have destroyed their highly valued working relationship with his direct question.

  “What we want?” She finally answered. “I suppose we want what everybody wants. A life for ourselves and our children, as pleasant as possible, and with a good balance between security and freedom. The culture we came from placed more importance on freedom, than the one that shaped you, but getting thrown nilly-willy across time—and whatever—shook most of us badly, so we might be more interested in security, than when we felt safe at home in the world we knew.” She smiled at Franz. “We are really very much like you in that we plan and negotiate, rather than just sit down and pray that God will take care of everything. We might be more inclined to fight than scheme, but whatever the means: freedom and security are pretty much the goals.”

  “And according to the news Pettenburg brought, you now have the Rhine and thus access to the Sea.”

  “Yes, now we have the Rhine.”

  Afterword

  When Eric Flint announced that the anthology he was putting together for the 1632 universe would be open for stories from Baen’s Barflies as well as from the invited professional writers, I wrote my first serious attempt at fiction in the form of the short story “Family Faith” featuring the Jesuit priest and painter Father Johannes Grünwald. The story was accepted and published in Ring of Fire I.

  Later the second Father Johannes story, “A Question of Faith,” was published in Grantville Gazette V, but when I had the third story, “Faith in Princes,” ready for submission, I was asked to join what was then called the Torturer of Fulda project. The project was a collaboration intended to deal with the western border of the USE, and with my story taking place in Cologne, it would fit right in. In the following years I added other storylines to cover what was going on around Cologne in 1634/1635, while the other authors involved did things to their stories.

  Eventually my Cologne Cabal became the novel 1635: The Wars for the Rhine.

  It contains:

  • the original story of Father Johannes going to Cologne to work for Prince-Bishop Franz von Hatzfeld, and to search for his missing friend.

  • the story of Archbishop Ferdinand of Cologne’s attempts to regain the power he lost when the protestant armies moved west, and what that did to Charlotte von Zweibrücken and Franz’s older brother General Melchior von Hatzfeldt.

  • the story of the Hessian attack on Cologne mentioned in the story “Prince and Abbot” by Virginia Demarce.

  • the story of four young girls in the middle of the political scene.

  • the story of Wolf von Wildenburger-Hatzfeldt’s ride across Bavaria.

  • the story of Bishop Franz’s return to Würzburg and Bamberg.

  All those story lines have now been incorporated into one continous story about the various attempts to gain control of the Rhine and especially the city of Cologne, and thus the gate between central Europe and the Atlantic Ocean.

  I hope you enjoy my story.

  Anette Pedersen

  Cast of Characters

  The Hatzfeldt family and associates:

  In the late fifteenth century three brothers started the families which around 1632 had grown to the seven lines of the extended and intermarrying Hatzfeldt family. They were mainly lower nobility in the Middle Rhine area serving rulers and high-ranking prelates on both sides of the Rhine as Amtsmen and administrators, but also becoming wealthy landowners in their own right.

  The Hatzfeldts playing the major roles in this novel are the members of the Crottorf line, which are the four sons and one daughter of Imperial Knight Sebastian von Hatzfeldt to Crottorf, and the Wildenburger line, which are the son and two grandchildren of Bernhard von Hatzfeldt of Wildenburg.

  Hatzfeldt, Melchior von: Imperial Count and General, once studying to become a Knight of St. John on Malta, later a mercenary general working for Wallenstein and the Holy Roman Empire.

  Hatzfeldt, Franz von: Prince-Bishop of Würzburg, fled into exile when the Protestant armies conquered Würzburg, formerly a diplomat in the service of the Prince-Bishop of Bamberg, owner of the family Castle Crottorf, Melchior’s younger brother.

  Hatzfeldt, Heinrich von: Domherr at St. Alban in Mainz, remained in Mainz during and after the Swedish conquest of the town, Melchior’s older brother.

  Hatzfeldt, Hermann von: former mercenary Colonel, now about to get married and devoting himself to the family’s business interests, Melchior’s youngest brother.

  Hatzfeldt, Lucie von: widow, crippled after a carriage accident, Melchior’s only surviving sister.

  Wildenburger-Hatzfeldt, Wolf von: Melchior’s second-in-command and cousin.

  Wildenburger-Hatzfeldt, Anna von: Stifts-dame in Bonn, Wolf’s sister.

  Wildenburger-Hatzfeldt, Georg von: former dean in Fulda, Wolf’s father’s brother.

  Allenberg: quartermaster in Melchior von Hatzfeldt’s regiments.

  Backenfoerde, Margaretha von: wealthy widow after Franz Wilhelm von Hatzfeldt-Merten, Melchior von Hatzfeldt’s stepmother.

  Backenfoerde, Sophia “Sobby” von: Margaretha’s niece.

  Cortenbach, Adolpha von: widow of Johann Wilhelm von Weisweiler-Hatzfeldt, wealthy landowner and Amtman in Jülich.

  Dannwitz, Dehn, Lorentz, Mettecoven, and Schierstedt: officers in Melchior von Hatzfeldt’s regiments.

  Eltz, Captain: distant cousin of the Hatzfeldts, formerly serving in Melchior von Hatzfeldt’s regiments, killed in Würzburg during the Swedish attack.

  Grünwald, Johannes, Father: Jesuit priest and painter (Family Faith in Ring of Fire I, and A Question of Faith in Grantville Gazette V), hired by Bishop Franz von Hatzfeldt to refurbish the Hatzfeldt family’s house in Cologne.

  Hatzfeldt, Sebastian von: Imperial Knight and minor nobleman in the service of the archbishops of Mainz, owner of Castle Crottorf, killed when the protestant army attacked the estate. Married three times.

  Hatzfeldt-Fleckenbuehl: branch of the Hatzfeldt family with estates in Hessen.

  Hatzfeldt-Merten, Anna von: Stifts-dame in Cologne, Margaretha von Backenfoerde’s daughter from her first marriage.

  Hatzfeldt-Schönstein: branch of the Hatzfeldt family with estates in Jülich.

  Hatzfeldt-Werther, Johann Adrian von: wealthy landowner in Jülich-Berg, Sebastian’s ward and Melchior’s foster-brother.

  Hatzfelt-Weisweiler, Wilhelm von: major landowner in Jülich, a distant cousin of Melchior von Hatzfeldt.

  Hatzfeldt-Wildenburg, Maria von: Sebastian von Hatzfeldt’s cousin and second wife, Wolf von Wildenburger-Hatzfeldt’s grandfather’s sister. Dead.

  Lenz, Marsch and Niederthal: couriers in Melchior von Hatzfeldt’s
regiments.

  Madeleine: Bavarian noble woman, Wolf von Wildenburger-Hatzfeldt’s mistress.

  Mansfeld, Maria von: Melchior von Hatzfeldt’s dead sweetheart and the mother of his illegitimate child.

  Mittlefeldt: Sergeant in Melchior’s regiment, cousin to Karl Mittelfeldt in Bonn.

  Moreau, Paul: a Protestant painter and friend of Father Johannes Grünwald.

  Peters, the: illegitimate children of Lucie von Hatzfeldt’s husband.

  Pettenburg, Simon: Lieutenant and courier in Melchior von Hatzfeldt’s regiments.

  Schaden: soldier in Melchior von Hatzfeldt’s regiments.

  Scot, Ross “Rosy”: assisting quartermaster in Melchior’ von Hatzfeldts regiments.

  Sickingen, Lucie von: Sebastian von Hatzfeldt’s first wife and mother of five surviving sons and one daughter. Died shortly after the birth of daughter Lucie.

  Tweimal, Otto: Bishop Franz von Hatzfeldt’s secretary.

  Worms-Dalberg, Maria Katharina “Trinket”Kaemmerer von: orphan heiress and ward of Archbishop Ferdinand of Cologne, she’s engaged to Hermann von Hatzfeldt.

  The Zweibrücken family and associates:

  The Zweibrücken family was German high nobility with large estates on the German-French border, and a long tradition for intermarrying with the Swedish royal Vasa family.

  Katharina Charlotte “Charlotte”, Countess Palatine von Zweibrücken: married age 16 to Duke Wolfgang of Jülich-Berg, age 53.

  Elisabeth, Countess Palatine von Zweibrücken: Charlotte’s sister.

  Friedrich, Count Palatine von Zweibrücken: Charlotte’s brother.

  Harbel: Charlotte’s lackey.