Swiss Arms 98 (Patreon)

Swiss Arms

Chapter 98

-VB-

Henry of Gorizia

Duke of Carinthia, Margrave of Carniola, and Count of Tyrol

Stams, Tyrol

He walked down the corridor of a Cistercian abbey toward a room that he had very few connections with. But saying that about his mother would be harsh. It’s just that he had very few memories about her. He was only three years old when she died at the tender age of forty-six years old. His father, Meinhard of Gorizia, lived to be fifty-seven, though he had also been ten years younger than his mother when they married, and passed away only eight years ago.

His mother’s passing hadn’t been impactful as his father’s death, but that was simply because he had been too young.

Apparently, his older sister had been much more dramatic, according to his father. 

But he was a dutiful son and so he would pay his respects to his mother who brought him to this world. 

As he stepped into the chapel that housed both his mother and father, he allowed himself to relax a little. The Stams Abbey was not a particularly populated abbey and he’d asked that no one follow him into the chapel.

He walked up to the two long tombs that were side by side to each other and … just sat down at the foot of them both.

“Hello, mother and father. It’s been a while since I visited you both,” he began quietly. “I don’t know if Otto and Louis* visited you lately, but I know I haven’t visited you in half a decade. I’m sorry about that.”

He couldn’t even say that he had been busy because, well, even if he had been, was it still not a son’s duty to come and see his parents once in a while? Stams was less than an hour away by a galloping horse. He could have certainly visited them when he passed Stams to visit Isabella, but he hadn’t. 

He didn’t have an excuse. 

“... If you are wondering how I am, then I can tell you that I am doing well,” he continued. “I even made a friend with a commoner, if you can believe that. He’s a baron now for his role in pacifiying the Upper Rhine Valley. He’s a tall and strong fellow who goes by Hans.” He paused. “He’s also the one now helping me beat our rivals to the north. The Wittelsbachs have been taking liberty with their neighbors, and marched an army through my lands with barely a prior consultation to attack my friend and cousin-in-law. I also discovered that they also used my friend for their gain, which makes me more than a little upset. To that end, we are working together to depose him and put his older brother as the sole duke of the Upper Bavarian Duchy.”

He smirked. “It’s actually funny, you know? The plan Hans came up with. Using his resource as a rich man - richer than I am, actually - he wants to mint fake coins with the markings of Upper Bavaria, use those to purchase goods through middlemen, and slowly chip away at the financial foundation of the Bavarian Wittelsbachs. He even has the support of Imperial Cities to help facilitate that transfer of subpar coinage.” He shook his head. “As if that isn’t enough, he also proposed that we ally the Wittelbachs enemies, the Habsburgs. While my sister agreed as she is the wife of the current emperor, her all of her sons - Frederick, Henry, Rudolf, and Leopold - are friends with Duke Louis, which makes future alliance with Habsburg tenuous at best. Or so I think. Hans doesn’t think so. According to him and the imprisoned Duke Rudolf, Louis is greedy and will want to take bites out of Habsburg holdings if he can get away with it. All they had to do was ensure that he couldn’t.

“Hans is a smart man, and I think I should be happy I am nominally his ally through his marriage with Isabella. Speaking of which, yes, it was Isabella who got married to him. Apparently, the girl traveled all the wa from Gorizia to some alpine village to find the source of luxury goods and found him instead. I feel bad for her father. He always doted on her but now, she’s far away from his grasp.”

He paused. “Oh! I also received a letter from Isabella. She’s pregnant! I’m a little sad that she didn’t marry him matrilineally, but at least the child’s birth will cement our two house’s alliance, so I will be happy for her and Hans.”

“Oh, Isabella is pregnant?”

Henry stopped talking and looked over his shoulder and saw Otto. “I didn’t expect to see you here,” he said. 

“Why wouldn’t I?” his “big boned” and much more debaucherous brother asked. “It’s not like I have things to do, unlike you. You’re always busy.” He came over and sat down on the hard grey stone floor. “... Hey, mum and da.”

Henry rolled his eyes. “You always were the most informal of us all.”

“And despite being the youngst, you’re the most stuck-up out of us all.”

It descended into a friendly brotherly argument from there. 

It was nice.

-VB-

A/N: I know, there are a lot of Louis’s, but this one dies quickly (d. 1305) so leave him be. He iant showing up in this story.