Paris ne vaut pas une messe! - A Huguenot IN AAR

Chapter XXXV – The Tsarina of all the Austrians



“My wish is the will of France and the will of France is the will of God”

- Nicolas I Henri



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The Birth of a Line
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The two imperial states of Russia and Austria had once been in a formal alliance, but that had been back in the days of the first Bourbon-Hapsburg War, when the Spanish empire still ruled in Flanders and Italy. Although separated for several decades, the two empires found each other united once again, when Eleanor of Russia carried the only successor to the Hapsburg throne of Austria in her womb. Although Albrecht’s widow was in a perilous situation in the destabilized arch-duchy with various fractions trying to sway her opinions as regent, her own power was vastly empowered when news reached Vienna that the Tsar had died and had made her his successor. The imperial powers were thus united through Eleanor’s marriage to Albrecht and her position as the guardian of the heir to both the Romanov and Hapsburg houses. The fury of Nicolas would no end take when he learned that despite the great troubles he had gone through to remove the two lines from each other, the murder of Albrecht had brought about the exact opposite. When Eleanor would give birth, a new arch enemy of France would be born and that enemy would unite two of the greatest empires in Christendom against the Huguenot nation.


In Vienna, the nobles had a hard time coping with the fact that their nation had assumed the lesser role in Eleanor’s union, but the prospect of having Russia as an assured ally against the ever rising threat of France made the bickering more or less disappear from the former Hapsburg court. With the submission of the Austrian nobility assured, the new ruler of all the Austrians and Russians promptly prepared to take the fight to the man she deemed responsible for the death of her husband, Nicolas I Henri, king of the French. That, she found, would best be done in the Imperial court of Anton, who hid behind his crown when faced with the wrath of the might of Austria and Russia.




The situation within the empire was nearing civil war. Anton’s election had not brought the conciliation the Protestant princes had hoped for. Instead Nicolas and his supporters denounced the Empire and the Catholic bloc only obeyed Imperial law when it worked to their advantage which in turn caused the Imperial authority Anton wielded to crumble.



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Like a Storm
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Anton was desperate to restore Imperial order, but he lacked both the funds and the political weight to force the shattered states into a coherent force that could rival the power of France and Austria. By 1637, electors were hurryingly distancing themselves from Anton while the states of the empire descended into a hysterical pit of frustration and anger. The political and religious situation was derailing further as each day passed. The bishop of Würzburg was dethroned by Calvinist Germans[1] funded by French goal while the Protestants in Württemberg and Bohemia were burned en masse ny their Austrian overlords. And while the empire began to fade, Anton hid in his castle by the Danish border, relying more on their guarantee over his duchy than the Imperial Army. That was until Eleanor came along.


The regent of Austria came to Anton with a plan (and some historians claim that she travelled to Holstein with more than that in mind) to strengthen the emperor’s position on the expense of the French. Eleanor proposed that Anton was to rule the empire through backing from the armies of the Catholic bloc, if only he would consult her before making any extreme decisions or changes to Imperial policy. To Anton the suggested deal seemed like a double edged sword. On one hand he would practically have to resign most of his freedom to Eleanor, but he would maintain the credibility of the Imperial title. In the end, the prospect of the benevolent and glorious reputation he could gather in times to come as the saviour of the Holy Roman Empire prevailed over Anton’s fears of contemporary ridicule. No official pact was ever signed, but documents remain detailing the growing cooperation between Anton and the widow from Russia in form of large troop movements throughout the Empire. Although she had no imperial crown on her brow, Eleanor now practically ruled the most Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation and her sceptre was Anton I von Holstein.


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Casus Belli
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What ultimately sparked what would become the largest and most horrendous conflict France had seen since the Bourbon succession was the combination of several heated debates, lawsuits and legal procedure at the Imperial Diet of Vienna (another sign that Anton had moved closer to Eleanor). The queen mother (as Eleanor was now addressed as in Austria) had done her best thanks to Anton and her intervention to secure Imperial order to disprove the French claims on Ansbach and Nicolas’ recent vassalisation of Baden in order to counter the position of the French king within the empire. Slowly and steadily the imperial clerks fabricated and produced documents[2] that sowed common contempt for France in the courts of the German princes. While there could have been some legal merit to the Austrian questioning of the legality in Nicolas’ outright submission of the estates in Ansbach and Baden, the prime reason was the strategic value of the provinces in question. The county of Ansbach was of great importance to Austria as it could be the stepping stone to unite the country’s borders around the two states of Salzburg and Bavaria, thus granting the arch-duchy complete control over Southern Germany. But other issues also played major roles in the road to the great show down over the Empire. French claims on Barcelona and the outright threat Nicolas posed to Catholic dominance over Western Europe also more or less forced the hands of the Austrian and imperial statesmen when it came to deal with France and its king.

The work of Eleanor and Anton was presented in late 1637 at the fifth imperial diet held in Nuremberg, Bavaria. Through what more or less appeared to be a show trial, Anton ordered Nicolas to hand over control of Ansbach over to an officer appointed by the Imperial diet (which was still unacceptable as the diet was completely in Anton’s camp) and declared that the count of Baden was to be retuned control of the key fortresses on the German side of the Rhine. Enraged, the French left Germany for France in a hurry, to carry the bad news to their liege. The response from Nicolas arrived at the Imperial diet a week later in the form of a very hostile letter.

To Anton, the realm-snatcher, emperor of all windbags and false liege of the Romans.

I am Nicolas Henri, king of France and Navarre, conqueror of Papism and protector of true Christendom. It is an indecent woman that has placed the heavy crown of the German Nation on your brow and because of that you are not man enough to defend it, should it come to that. My land is my own by virtue of friendship and God’s blessing and you shall not and you cannot take it away.

If you wish to act upon your word, which I doubt as you are a woman’s pet and not fit to rule an empire as holy as that of the German nation, be advised that by doing so you are attacking a king directly appointed by God himself. My wish is the will of France and the will of France is the will of God and one does not defy the Lord. Windbag of Germany, I find you disgusting, you are nothing more than a drunk German who will change his mind when sober[3], if the harlot of all the Russians allows you to…


I am Nicolas, son of Henri and when my armies march, nations tremble and fall.
I have subdued Spain and taken her treasures, for the lions of the Netherlands roar with me.
I have cordoned the seas of Papism, for the guns of the English fire where I ask.


I have slain any man that dared come before me, for I am Nicolas, king of the French and if you oppose me you too shall fall and the crown of Germany return to its lawful owner.​

- Nicolas









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Coming up: Declaration of War - Europe on the Brink of Catastrophe



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