Swiss Arms 92 (Patreon)

Swiss Arms

Chapter 92

-VB-

Hans von Fluelaberg

As much as I wanted to keep an eye out on the election conference of the new prince-bishop, something else quickly caught my attention, and I could not let it go.

Earlier this year, I sent out of a call for a professional army to all members of the Compact. Due to travel distances, time it takes for people to come to a decision, and more, I hadn’t received any word back from the majority of the Compact members.

The only ones to have given me a quick reply had been Davos and Kloister, but that was because both of them were close to me and relied heavily on my city for too many things. There was actually a very good chance that I can get Davos to become part of my city, partially because my city and their village was creeping toward each other along the road that I’ve built, but that’s besides the point.

And I finally got the replies while waiting in Chur.

“So everyone accepted it except for St. Peters and Langweis,” I muttered to myself as I stared at the letters of acceptance of a “professional” army. Of course, they all had their reasons for why they accepted. In the case of Maienfeld, they have been at the center of conflict the Compact has been involved in every single time due to their position as a crossroad from Bodensee to Chur and Walensee to Davos. They had every reason to be the foremost supporter of a professional army.

In contrast, Langweis and St. Peters were safe in valleys and mountains behind Chur. Throughout the years, Chur has had fights break out at their doorstep and even within their city limits, but the two aforementioned members of the Compact never saw the fight nor did they have to fight. Also, as the two smallest members of the Compact in size, population, and wealth, they had the most to lose.

Why would they lose something? Unlike larger members that could field both a small militia and support the professional army, the geopolitical status of the two members meant that their expansion was capped, their income limited, and their population stagnant.

And honestly, I was kind of done with dealing with them, too.

This call for a professional army was essentially another call to arms, just in a roundabout way. They have been recalcitrant and objected to everything anyone did in the Compact. They complained when someone got richer. They complained when someone got close. They complained when things didn’t go their way, which was no way because they never said about what or why they wanted something. Even when I got rid of bandits, they complained about not doing it fast enough!

Yeah, I think it was time that I did something about them.

Knock knock.

I paused in my rumination and looked up toward the door of the small manor I rented in Chur. “Come in,” I said loudly and the door opened to reveal. My eyebrows rose up and I stood up from my chair. “John! Why didn’t you send me a message or something?” I said with a smile as I approached my former ward and gave him a bear hug. John hugged me back, and we parted after only a moment. It was only then that I noticed the other man who had followed in with John. He looked familiar.

“I just wanted to surprise you,” he replied with a boyish grin and I rolled my eyes. He noticed that I saw the other man and stepped aside. “Right. Hans, this is Mayor Antoni of Chur. He’s here to ask you a few things.”

“Welcome mayor,” I said as the man bowed briefly. He was, after all, a commoner and I a baron. “What is it that you want to discuss with me?”

“I… I understand that Chur has been a member of the Compact so far because it was the Prince-Bishop of Chur who was in the Compact.”

“It is,” I said before I made the cross. “May Bishop Siegfried rest in peace by God’s side.”

Both John and the mayor followed suit. After a moment of pause, the mayor spoke up.

“I would like for Chur to join not as a fief under the Prince-Bishop of Chur but as its own town.”

… I kind of saw this coming when I realized that Chur’s position was tied to the Prince-Bishop of Chur, but for them to outright come out and say it…

What’s worse was that I did have a precedent for this.

Legally speaking for the empire, Maienfeld was supposed to be Toggenburg’s vassal, but they were accepted before Toggenburg’s inclusion into the Compact. On top of that, even after Toggenburg’s inclusion, I didn’t let John take Maienfeld back into his fold. The issue slid past us because it never became a problem in the first place.

But if I choose to let Chur in while there was an election for the prince-bishop, then it would be seen both as a direct insult to the church and an illegal act of stealing a lord’s vassal from underneath him without just cause.

Which would be enough for the next prince-bishop to petition the emperor, and the emperor will most likely have to fine heavily at best while resetting everything or strip me of my title for breaking the Emperor’s Truce.

At the same time, I couldn’t just ignore Chur because it was troublesome. Chur was the main political center of the Compact. Hell, it could be said that a good third to half of our authority and legitimacy in these valleys derived from the Prince-Bishop of Chur’s inclusion. Giving the next prince-bishop reason to leave the Compact would weaken us that much.

… but not if I get permission from the congregation of the diocese’s clerics.

“Don’t tell anyone else that you asked that here,” I told him and then meaningfully looked at John. “I’ll need to do some work… but before we go there, I want to talk about what the town of Chur can do for the Compact.” ‘And me.’

“I don’t understand…” the mayor muttered.

“What happens if I just accept your offer to join us? On the surface, Chur is being divided religiously and secularly when we didn’t get an agreement from them or the emperor. You know as well as I do that -.”

“I- I would have thought that you wanted Chur in the Compact.”

I stopped when I saw the outraged look on the mayor.

“We fought with you, baron, and now you’re just going to abandon us because it’s inconvenient?!”

I glared at him. “I never said I’ll abandon you or the like. Don’t put words in my mouth, mayor.”

John looked like he was regretting bringing in the mayor to meet me.

Obviously, the mayor had wanted this and he was reacting aggressively since he didn’t feel like he was getting what he needed. Or wanted.

“Why come to me?” I asked him. “The Prince-Bishop would have been a member of the Compact anyway, so it wouldn’t have changed anything.”

“Because the town doesn’t want to gamble our lives and livelihood every ten or twenty years,” he replied with a grimace. “Bishop Siegfried was a good man of God, even if he wasn’t the best commander of men. What guarantee do we have that the next prince-bishop will be the same? Or that we will even have someone who won’t abuse us? I’ve read the charter of the Compact, Your Lordship. I saw how brilliantly it was designed to protect its members from each other as well as from outside threats. But what about internal ones? You can’t interfere if the bishop abuses his power within Chur, you know this to be true.”

I rolled my jaws before nodding. Abuse of power within a small place like Chur or any of the village and town members of the Compact had never been the focus or even something I thought about.

“Just … give me a week. It will be before the election comes to an end, and I’ll have something, probably.”

The mayor hesitated before ultimately bowing and leaving us two alone.

“... Hans, I’m sorry about that,” John spoke up. “I didn’t think that the mayor would be so bold as to accuse you of negligence.”

“You aren’t the one who said it and you don’t share his feelings. It’s not your responsibility to apologize on the mayor’s behalf,” I replied with a huff as I stepped back around the table and sat down on the ornate wooden chair. I gestured for him to sit and he did so on the sofa nearby. “By the way, if you wanted to surprise me, then you did it on at least two account, so kudos to you.”

He chuckled nervously.

“... Actually, I want to get your opinion on something. Maienfeld.”

“Ah, that? Yes, it … used to belong to the Barony of Brandis, but, well, the Unruly Year happened.”

I nodded. “Would you say that it still belongs to you?” I asked. “Since it is a village that is within the lands of your vassal. Speaking of which, who is the Baron of Brandis now?”

“No one. You may have, ahem, killed off their line.”

“... Wait, I did?”

“Yes. My mother told me that since there was no more eligible member of their household fit to take the title of Baron of Brandis, we regained the land in that area aside from Maienfeld for obvious reasons.”

“So you more or less gave up your authority over the village.”

“Yes, unintentionally.”

I hummed. “Do you think something like that could happen here?”

“What do you mean?”

“Hear me out…”