Swiss Arms 102 (Patreon)

Swiss Arms

Chapter 102

-VB-

Isabella von Fluelaberg

Barony of Fluelaberg

She read through the letter meant for her husband, and realized just how big of a deal this was. 

One did not just buy a barony. This kind of opportunity came only once every generation, especially in a manner that allowed for direct land-to-land connections. 

This was probably the secondmost important political decision Hans could make as both the leader of the Compact and as the founder of his own house. 

“You want … me to head the negotiation?” she asked in surprise. 

“Yes,” he replied. “I can negotiate with the count, but it is my opinion that you will be able to better negotiate than I can.”

She stared at Hans. “I … I don’t think you understand what you are doing, husband,” she began. 

“Hmm?” 

“Husband, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I understand that you are showing how much you trust me by offering me to do this…” And she wanted to. A successful negotiation with the Count of Heiligenberg might be what she needed to show that she deserved to stand by his side. But she also loved him too much to use her desire for better standing to potentially rob him of a better deal. “This is too big. I can’t … I won’t take this role.” Even if it hurt her a little to deny it. 

Hans looked at her in surprise. 

“... I thought that a noblewoman in your position would have a better negotiating right and stand than a peasant baron would,” I replied. “Is that not the case?”

She shook her head. “If you were just any other baron across the empire, then you would be right. And wise for admitting that to yourself and delegating the role to me. However, you are not a regular baron nobility. You are one of the most competent generals of our time, if not the most competent. You’ve repelled a duchy’s full roster of knights and men-at-arms.” She stopped and then glared. “Unless you are trying to use me to insult someone else.”

He looked surprised by her accusation. “What? No. That’s not what I am doing.”

“Then?”

He hesitated briefly before he sighed. “I just thought that you would appreciate how much I am trying to involve you in … all of this ruling stuff. You know, that you are my equal.”

Her heart squeezed a little before she sighed. “Husband… Hans. I am happy to hear that from you,” she replied. “But this is not the way. In fact, I could go so far as to say that you are neglecting your duties as the lord.”

He stared at her for a moment before nodding. “Okay, can you explain? I’m not a noble, so I probably don’t know all of the intricacies…”

She nodded in return. This was expected as well as her duty to educate her husband on topics like these that he knew very little about, especially since he hadn’t hired anyone to educate himself.

“Had I been the ruling baroness and you the consort baron, then it would be fine for me to show up as the negotiator. However, I am not. Sending me in your stead when you have little to no emergency sends a signal that you, a baron, does not consider him, a count, to be of significance. This would be an insult.”

“Okay, that’s actually pretty simple.”

“Two. I love you, Hans, but I am not your equal. I am your lady and you are my lord, and there are clearly defined duties. I can only act in your stead if you are not present or otherwise unable to carry out your duties. Telling me to perform your duties while you are able, in this case the negotiation for a successful acquisition of the Rheintal territory and potentially the title of a count, is you neglecting your duty. In fact, such acquisition would be considered the highest priority for a lord with the exception of duties such as siring an heir or defending your lands.”

Hans tapped his index finger on the solid table. Isabella allowed him some time to absorb everything she said so far. 

“I know that this might not be too different from what you grew up with. A peasant husband and wife perform many of the same duties, but even then, the man of the household defends the family and the woman performs household works. Is this not the case in your father’s house?”

“... Kind of?”

She blinked. “It isn’t?”

“Well, since both mother and father both works out in the field during planting and harvest seasons, they tend to take turns in things like cooking, trading, and the like. If there’s a baby in the house, then mother gets less work. If father has to go be a mercenary to bring in some additional coins, then mother gets more work.”

“I see. It is a much more equal relationship compared to that of a lord and lady’s. But even nobles do that, Hans. When the lord goes off to war, then the lady takes control of the house and maintains the household. This is what I did when you went off to fight on multiple occasions. This is not the clearly defined roles I mentioned earlier. These are exceptions to a normal relationship and defined roles of a man and a woman.”

“Then what would be the roles?”

She took a deep breath and thought about it. How did she simply this …?

… Ah. That was one way to put it.

“A man’s role is to be the public face of the house. A woman’s role is to be the head of the household in private.” She fidgeted a little. “Which … I may have violated by asking you to train me.”

“And I don’t intend to stopping that.”

She smiled. “Thank you. But that is what I mean. You’ve already given me a lot of leeways that a more traditional lord would have allowed. This is why it is more important that I do not go lest you are seen by other lords as nothing but a puppet for me and the House of Gorizia.” She raised her hand when he opened his lips to speak. “And before you say that you don’t care, please remember that this will affect not just you and the Compact but my father’s house as well. I am now a woman of the House of Fluelaberg but I would like it if you did not cause undue troubles for my father and brothers.”

He snorted. “Alright, alright. I’ll … step it up a bit.” Then he paused contemplatively before speaking up again curiously. “So what are the things that I’ll have to know and act like when I’m talking with a totally strange count?” he asked. “Your cousin and enemies don’t count.”

She chuckled. “Well, I suppose we can start there.”

-VB-

Andrea Terrena

Barony of Fluelaberg

Andrea looked over the rest of his men as they loaded the carts with goods more valuable than their lives. 

And they better respect it if they didn’t want to end up dead and in a ditch between here and Pisa.

He watched as one of the workers grabbed a hold of another stack of porcelain dishes, which were all carefully wrapped up in the softest fabrics these mountain hicks had on hand, and carefully laid them down inside of a wooden crate. He spread them out evenly and made sure to cushion them with wool. 

And then he placed a false bottom top on top of those, and made sure the porcelains themselves weren’t touching the wooden false bottom. Once the false bottom firmly remained in place, he placed the cheaper goods - like low quality wool - on top. Once he had the crate packed to the brim with the wool, he closed it. 

Andrea knew that he was now smuggling porcelain out of a town owned by a man so bloodthirsty that no lord would protect him.

But it would be worth it. If he could make it out of here and get to Milan, Genoa or Pisa, then he could sell it for at least three times how much he spent. 

He looked up and grunted in satisfaction as he saw his laborers awaiting his orders.

“Not a word out of you of this,” he warned them all. “And whatever else you aren’t supposed to have needs to be in false bottom as well.”

The workers and guards alike all nodded. 

Andrea couldn’t believe his fortune. One of the porcelain makers wanted to make more money by not paying taxes, so he and the man made sure backroom deals. 

Of course, he couldn’t proudly carry those around in the city. No, this blasted place scrutinized what kinds of goods came and left, going so far as to require a list of goods on paper or parchment for merchants leaving the town. To make sure that their illegal dealings weren’t discovered, he had needed to hide it, and that’s where these false bottom crates came into play. 

Considering that there were only four such crates in his caravan that had easily over four dozen, he knew it would go undiscovered. 

“Alright, then we set out!” he shouted, and the caravan quickly began to gather their things. 

Within an hour of his declaration, he and his caravan of four ox, four carts, and sixteen men were by the western gate.

There, he found himself subject to a quick search by the squad of guards.

They looked into his crates, shuffled the goods around a bit, and then came to see some of his men. Andrea held his breath, praying to God that none of his men had things they shouldn’t have. He intentionally gave them some room in the false bottoms for that exact reason! 

The guards went around and then nodded. “You’re good to go,” the deep baritone voice of the gate guard captain (which he could tell from a fancier 

He was free to go. 

After briefly glancing at the light snowfall, Andrea ushered his people forward. He wanted to be in Chur and out of this cold by the end of the week! 

-VB-

Anton Luhr

Munich, Duchy of Upper Bavaria

He frowned.

He did not like frowning.

Ladies didn’t like it when he frowned. Always went on about how a handsome man like him needed to smile more. 

But as he stared at the coins in front of him, he couldn’t help but frown.

Because he had too much Wittelsbach silver pfennigs.

It … started, like what, a few months ago? More Wittelsbach pfennigs started piling up faster than any other coins. He expected to have more of it than any other coins. In fact, he expected to have ten times more of it than a Tyrolian pfennig or two times more of it than Swabian pfennigs. 

But the most troubling part of it was that he had two hundred times more Wittelsbach pfennigs than he had Florentine florin and Genoese genovino combined, which was abnormal. He needed to get rid of it, but other merchants and peddlers were also trying to get rid of it. 

In the markets, grocers started demanding more Wittelsbach pfennigs for the same good while the price remained the same with other coins. 

It was an irksome situation, but it was still a white pfennig, not the black pfennigs that had too much copper mixed in. So it still held value. 

But he still needed to use it up. Having too much of one coin as a merchant guild was not good for the prospects of that guild. It might signal that the guild didn’t have the necessary connections to trade in the surrounding regions or other cities, or that the city they were based in didn’t have a lot of trade itself. 

All of which was bad. 

He didn’t think that trade was bad in Munich, and he doubted that his guild didn’t have the connections. If anything, he now had more coin flowing in than before. There were even some of those elusive Fluelan porcelain and ceramics that were showing up in the market. 

But why did they have to be so expensive? Ugh. His wife was hounding him to get some. 

Whatever. He’ll deal with the Wittelsbach pfennig tomorrow. He’ll want to go and get some 

-VB-

A/N: 

something I found out during my superficial research into Italian nobility is that the former German and Italian nobilities run around in the same circles and marry among each other to this day. Could be because they retained a lot of land and property from their old days, so rich people are just meeting rich people, but I thought that it was still interesting for yall to know. Case in point, because wikipedia exists, Matilda Borromeo and Prince Antonio zu Furstenberg. And by sheer coincidence, I picked the couple whose ancestor later owns, wait for it, Heiligenberg. This was how my wiki walk went. Milan > Matricula nobilium familiarum Mediolani > House of Arese > Beatrice Borromeo Arese Taverna > House of Furstenberg (link in the name of Prince Antonius zu Furstenberg). The Furstenberg acquisition of Heiligenberg happens in 1535, though. 

Yes, crime is starting up in our town. It’s just smuggling a few tax-free white porcelain here and there (not the more valuable blue and green porcelains, which Hans personally makes). But the growing wealth in the town will soon bring in bigger trouble…

Oh, and yeah. Hans’s scheme against the Wittelsbach is starting to come to fruition.