Chapter 160
Swiss Arms
Chapter 160
-VB-
Though formed in the midst of the coin crisis that shook the central region of the empire, the Fluelaberg-Gorizia-Habsburg alliance was never going to last long, and anyone practiced in geopolitics of the era would have seen it. The reason for this is as simple and complicated as it could get: land.
The Habsburgs could not afford to expand into the Bavarian lands, whose alliances and house networks would have overwhelmed the Habsburgs at this stage of development. The region that would become future Baden-Wurttemburg was already heavily influenced and dominated by the Habsburgs, and so breaking those alliances and influences to go for direct land grabs would turn them into diplomatic pariahs instantly for attacking blood relations.
They could not afford to attack the rich and powerful city-states of the Northern Italy, and all routes they wanted to expand through were occupied by powerful states they could not afford to anger like the Serene Republic of Venice, County of Savoy and its regional allies, and the Lordship of Milan and its growing power.
This left the Three Lords generation of early Habsburg - Rudolf, Leopold, and Albert, the sons of King of Romans Albert I of Habsburg - with only three paths to expand militarily: the Kingdom of Hungary, Crown of Bohemia, and the lands of Gorizia.
At the time, House Gorizia controlled four main titles: their titular County of Gorizia in Northern Italy, the County of Tyrol in the Central/Eastern Alps, and the twin duchies of Carinthia and Carniola in the southeastern reaches of the Holy Roman Empire. Together, these four titles granted them enough land, prestige, manpower, and wealth to rival the Habsburgs. And given their better reputation (simply by not being as much of a powerhungry house like the Habsburgs), their status was a cause enough for the Bohemian nobles to ask Duke Henry of Gorizia to become their king over the Wittelsbach and Habsburg nobles when the last king of their native dynasty died.
This unified the lands south and north of the Habsburg into the hands of one of their rival houses. However, this was a consolidation of titles and power that had not yet solidified. The Bohemian nobles, in particular, were not yet fully in support of the new Gorizian king, no matter his marital status with one of their princesses and had actually helped another Gorizian rival. The House of Luxembourg took advantage of this by smuggling out a different princess for their scion to marry, and the same nobles who helped them with the smuggling were ready for even more disruption.