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Swiss Arms

Chapter 30

-VB-

It came to be known as the Burning of Toggenburg and the First Toggenburg War because this was not the last time that that Toggenburg became the center of a regional war.

The Fall of Toggenburg, the Surrender of Werdenberg, and the Prominance of the Compact upset the balance of the entire region. In fact, these three events had a bigger impact on the region than the Bishop of Chur’s Decline. The Decline might have been the catalyst for the instability and the Unruly Year, but it was a struggle for dominance among the known players.

The Surrender of Werdenberg came after the Battle of Maienfeld, and made the Compact of the Seven the military leader by showing the neighboring lords and cities that someone was strong enough to force a lord to give up on the defense provided by his castle.

Then the Fall of Toggenburg happened.

Witnesses to the event described it as merciless pyre. Commander Marris set fire to the Toggenburg Castle, the hill it sat upon, and the forest surrounding the castle. Surrounded on all sides by irate soldiers on all sides, the Count of Toggenburg hoped to ride out he flames from within his castle walls. Unfortunately, fire jumped into the castle and there was no stopping it from within a castle without a well of its own. Only his wife and their four children survived the fire. The rest of the Toggenburg Castle and the four hundred people living and working there died to the fire.

In the peace treaty signed by the soot-covered regent and Commander Marris of the Compact, the new count became a hostage to the Compact, the Compact was forced to severe all alliances, acknowledge the Compact’s political independence, and pay war reparations.

This beggared the already weakened lordship to poverty. With their only castle gone, no allies to call upon, and their count soon growing up to identify himself more with his wardens than his own family and land, the County of Toggenburg became wholly dependent upon the Compact of the Seven to survive within two decades.

This, of course, also opened up opportunities for an already powerful city named Zurich on the other side Toggenburg from the Compact and gave them even more room to grow than they already had, and this city would soon grow strong enough to challenge the might of Habsburgs in the near future with their allies.

In essence, the Decline, the Surrender, the Fall, and the Prominence all came together to describe a political event that would dominate the Alps for decades to come.

The Birth of the Four Leagues.

-VB-

The people of Maienfeld greeted us all with flowers and cheers and treated us like heroes.

Oh, my militia-soldiers tried to be stoic and all, but when one man ran up to his wife and started kissing in public, it wasn’t long before I was seeing young men without wives getting looks and advances from single young women in the crowd.

Did I feel jealous?

… Maybe.

Was it what was at the center of my mind?

No.

No, no, no. To the people here, the Surrender of Werdenberg and the Fall of Toggenburg as well as the signed peace treaties acknowleging the Compact’s political independence proved that they were free and that this war was over.

Yeah, this war was over, but they didn’t know that they took part in killing the Habsburg’s son-in-law, and the Habsburgs were, at this point in time, a military powerhouse in control over two duchies, numerous allies around the region, and contesting for the kingship of Bohemia (a big deal like California was a big deal in the USA, politically, economically, and socially) while we, the Compact, was like a rural town in West Virginia.

Did I mention that we killed the Habsburg’s son-in-law?

I wanted to scream, because the Werdernberg and Toggenburg combined did not have a tenth of the men the Habsburg could bring to the field, and fielding that big of an army to “avenge the death of their son-in-law” was an “honorable” casus belli.

So when everyone else in the village was celebrating, I kept up an equally cheerful mask but screamed in panic inside.

Little John, the Count of Toggenburg and my hostage, thankfully didn’t realize it, because he was busy glaring at people celebrating his father’s death.

… Maybe I should focus on what I could help right now and deal with the possibly impending doom later.

“John.”

The boy looked up.

He was a brown-haired, pale (but that may be because he was afraid of me after he watched me brutally cut down a bear that thought to make him its food with a single strike), and short boy. The rich clothes he wore when we first met (even if they were soot-covered) got changed out with decent woolen clothes.

He was a pretty boy, and was going to be a lady killer in the future.

“Don’t fault them for it,” I spoke to him from the side of the celebration feast while unlucky messengers left the village to go and spread the victorious news to the rest of the Compact.

His tiny hands curled up, and he bit the insides of his mouth to keep himself from speaking out.

“They did not ask to be attacked nor did we stop your father from surrendering,” I added. “I was waiting, you know? For your father to come. We just wanted to be left alone… to not have to fear someone stabbing us.”

“He was your lord…” he finally broke and hissed.

“The only Lord in these lands is God, John. Never forget that,” I replied. “Men and women, their institutions, and their faults all come and go, but God remains as he always has.”

Tears began pricking the boy’s eyes, and he swiped them quickly with the wool sleeve of his shirt.

“I didn’t want to fight you father or his friends. I was just farming and mining, you know? But then my little village started to get attacked, so we fought back.”

I didn’t know if I was helping or making it worse, but I couldn’t help myself, too.

“I didn’t want to be a commander. I just wanted to do my cool little things. Would you believe me if I told you that I was almost a hermit?”

He snorted.

“Really, I’m not joking! I was living in this weird wooden tower barely three floors high that I made on my own. I was busy trying to think up ways to farm fish!”

“You can’t farm fish,” John mocked me.

“Watch me, boy. I’ll show you how to farm fish.”

“Fish are disgusting,” he replied incredulously.

I gasped.

It was the start of a trivial argument that would last for a decade.

-VB-

It took me a week to travel between each of the member villages of the Compact to drop off the remaining militiamen and then return home to Davos-Fluela, and by that point, messages have been sent back and froth among us and the lords.

The Nine Lord-Compact War was over.

Sure, the Bishopric of Chur was still at war with the Sargans, and the Sargans only begrudgingly - maybe a little fearfully - agreed to peace with us since they still had the rest of the Prince-Bishopric to fry and because their immediate neighbor to the north, the County of Werdenberg, put pressure to accept peace, but the Compact’s part in the Unruly Year was over.

The Compact and all of its people treated me as their savior, even though everything from the Fall of Chur was partially my fault. If I didn’t curbstomp the Bishop too hard, none of this would have happened, after all.

I, of course, did not directly tell them that, because it made little logical sense even to me but also because there was no point taking the blame where there were no blames to be had.

In the months to come, Sax-Misox (the two brothers fighting over the title) eventually settled their differences with the younger brother taking their father’s old lands and the older brother taking their father’s conquered lands, which included everything from the Barony of Vaz to Town of Zuoz, which was in the same valley as Zernez.

Sargans and Chur eventually settled their differences since Sargans only had the City of Chur to take from the Bishop of Chur, but doing so might get him excommunicated. The war ended, essentially, because the territorial gains possible in the war became zero and the defender had no manpower or will to go on the offensive.

As for what that meant for us, it meant that peddlers, merchants, and pilgrims finally started passing by our valleys and mountain passes again.

Trade was booming again, and I wanted to complete my industrialization quest as quickly as possible.