Swiss Arms

Swiss Arms

Chapter 153

-VB-

Count John of Toggenburg

"... No," John replied earnestly, honestly, and with every single fiber of his being.

Because the proposal his mother brought before him needed that kind of firm refusal.

"Why not?" she asked, slightly disheartened but she also expected this from how she didn't look sad.

"Mother, Euphemia is my first cousin," he hissed. "And she's five years old!"

He was now a man of twenty years old, and his mother was doing her utter best to find him a wife. But he did not want to marry his first cousin, the youngest daughter of his mother's younger promiscuous brother, who had three trueborns and thirteen bastards from six women.

"So? She is set to inherit your lord uncle's lands."

"Yes, I know that she's set to legally inherit my count uncle's lands, but she also has half a dozen older bastard brothers who's salivating to take it from her!"

"And you are currently the third in line for his seat, you know," she sighed. "But if you marry your cousin, then you'll secure yourself as the first to inherit because you will be her husband."

"Again, mother, I don't want to marry my five year old cousin."

"... Is it the age? Don't worry. No one will expect you to make an heir with her until she's an adult!"

"I don't want to be a cradle robber, mother!"

"You do realize your father and I had a significant age difference as well, right? When he was thirty years old, he was a very dashing man! Proud but dashing~," she sighed. "Too bad he let that pride get to him and ended up attacking someone he really shouldn't have."

John groaned.

He knew that his mother hadn't loved his father… probably. Not enough to let herself get in the way of his alliance with the now Count Hans von Fluelaberg. In fact, she strutted around with a lot of pride at having held herself back because he was able to diplomatically expand the County of Toggenburg without wasting time and effort in war.

At this point, he was certain that the Habsburgs, every single one of them, had some kind of manipulation fetish. All of them!

Because he had Habsburg blood through his mother, he received near constant messages from other Habsburgs, landed or not, regarding his marital status. At this point, he wanted to marry some farm girl just to tell his relatives to shut the fuck up!

… But no. Even he knew that he couldn't do that. Aside from such an action being a slight against the Habsburgs in general, which will piss off one specific Habsburg.

Leopold the First of his name, the Count of Habsburg and co-Duke of Austria.

While he was sure that Count Leopold would not be able to declare war for the insult (because who in the local region hasn't heard about Count Hans von Fluelaberg and the Compact's defensive pact?), he could still make life more difficult for John.

And John didn't have a farmgirl mistress to marry, anyways.

Which couldn't be said about his younger brother who found a paramour in one of Fluelabergian merchants.

Not a merchant's daughter.

But a woman merchant.

And that woman was at the dinner table with the family.

"Do give him some time, mother," Gertrude von Toggenburg said gently, making his mother temporarily relent. Gertrude was what every mother wanted in their daughter-in-law: beautiful, obedient, supportive of her husband, and capable. In her case, Gertrude supported his younger brother, Alen, with his "attempts at business," which were uneducated emulations of Hans' struggles and efforts.

So far, he wasn't impressed, but he had to admit that his brother did succeed in creating a small mercenary band of fifty soldiers who could be arguably called men-at-arms. Alen used them to provide security to traveling merchants and escorts for lesser nobles who couldn't afford to train their own men-at-arms in large enough numbers.

But this was also only possible because Gertrude bought high quality swords forged in Fluelaberg that no one else would have allowed her to buy because of her lack of upbringing and connections.

And Alen being the third son, mother hadn't been too opposed to the marriage, especially since Gertrude turned out to be a very savvy businesswoman who promised to focus her business endeavors in Toggenburg… if she was allowed to marry Alen. Considering that Toggenburg did now serve as a minor trade route between major Compact towns to realms to the north and west, including the County of Habsburg and County of Kyburg. The Counts of Kyburg, Eberhard II and Hartmann II of House Neu-Kyburg, wanted to maintain a good relationship with the Compact, and were using trade as the starting means to do so.

It was a whole web of intrigue, interests, and involvements that left John with a headache every time he thought about it.

So he didn't.

"Did you hear, brother?"

John turned to look at his other brother, Peter. Peter was a more martial minded man. At eighteen years old, he focused most of his efforts on learning how to fight, regularly going to visit Fluelaberg to learn from the now famous Fluelaberg Rangers, despite the fact that he was the most upset about father's death out of all of John's siblings.

He was also not a fan of getting married so soon, and had just returned from another one of his trips to Fluelaberg.

"Hear what?"

"It seems that the Lombards on the other side of our Alps chose to join the Compact."

He had to think about that for a second before he remembered.

"Oh, you mean Chiavenna? I heard about them from the bishop," he hummed. "He described them as 'ungrateful dogs bit Chur's hand when times were good and who came back crawling when it now looks like they will be swallowed up by bigger dogs.'"

"Untrustworthy, then?"

"Maybe. You have more details?"

"Yes. Apparently, they won't be joining as a member state of the Compact like most large towns are but will be as a vassal town of Count von Fluelaberg."

John hummed.

Did Hans have the means to secure Chiavenna? He tried to remember exactly where it was, but he only had a map of the Compact that Hans provided, not anywhere else. No other map was as precise as the one that Hans made him.

"Do you know how big it is?"

"Nearly two thousand people, I've heard."

"It's certainly a town worth vassalizing," he agreed. "But who ruled over Chiavenna before?"

"The Bishop of Chur."

"... Ah. I assume …?"

Peter shrugged. "I haven't heard about any deals cut between the bishop and the count."

John felt a little worried. Would this cause a problem in the Compact? He didn't think so, especially because, from what the bishop told him, Chiavenna had been nearly independent anyways.

'Maybe I should write a letter to Hans…' he thought.

Then there was a frantic knock on their family dining room.

"Come in!" he yelled, and a pale and sweating messenger came rushing in. He bore the "What is it?"

"P-Pox, milord! Pox outbreak in Maienfeld!"