Alliances and Emperors
With the great success Honegger had brought the Swiss, Honegger easily won the next election against four other candidates. Not that they weren’t good; in fact, some may have been better. But the Swiss didn’t like taking chances and they knew Honegger was a good man. Besides, he loved his job and people speculated he wouldn’t leave the desk or the frontlines as a general until he died.
Soon after, Bavaria offered Switzerland a military alliance. The Swiss refused, for their focus was on the southern Italian states, not on central Europe. Bavaria wasn’t too disturbed anyhow. Allies were easy enough to find in other parts of Europe. Switzerland had merely looked powerful due to its recent conquests.
The populace of the territory that had once belonged to Sicily began to get restless as the thought of belonging to Switzerland sunk in. Many felt it was alright, as Italian was one of Switzerland’s four languages. But others longed to re-join the kingdom of Sicily to the west. Chief of these dissenters was Roberto Grimaldi. He was able to rally 8000 people to join him, 1000 of which were mounted units.
Honegger decided to recruit another cavalry division before sending the military to disband the revolution. Meanwhile, a chief advisor of Switzerland died. He had been a man who brought the merchants much progress, with ideas that increased their chance to compete in foreign markets. He was replaced by Albert Herbert, a man focused on increasing the efficiency of production.
News from the West came to Switzerland as well. It turned out that the king of Brittany had no legitimate heir. Since Aragon had the largest claim to the throne, the king of Aragon proclaimed the former territories of Brittany as Aragonian. The news did not trouble Honegger. They were far away and his focus was on Italy, not France.
In January, 1416, the military was finally ready to march upon the Sicilian revolutionaries. The horses rode up so fast that they surprised the units of Grimaldi. However, while the battle was won by the Swiss, they also suffered some heavy casualties. Thus, it was decided that Grimaldi be hung from the gallows in Sicily as an example to other would-be revolutionaries.
With that done, Honegger returned to Bern and sat down at his desk.
One year later, he received a letter with barely legible writing. It looked like someone had written it with white ink of all things. Squinting to read it, he made out that Bohemia was working on some sort of Reichsreform. Since there was no monarchy in Switzerland, they voted for reform. However, after he sent in the letter, he never heard about it again. Indeed, it was as if it had been some elaborate prank.
Two months passed by and he received another letter, this time from Milan. It read:
“Dear Syndic Honegger,
Although we have had a great alliance, except for that incident where we didn’t come to your aid and all, we regret to inform you that it must be ceased. This is due to your decision to vote yes for Reichsreform.
So long,
Milan”
Honegger was confused. There was that mention of Reichsreform again. He still had no idea what it meant or why he should vote for it. But apparently Milan was angry about it. He racked his mind for something on the subject but came up shorthanded. He asked the Tagsatzung and his advisors but they were all oblivious as well. He would have shrugged off the loss of the alliance, but a week earlier he had heard that the French had seized the port off of Milan as their own. This was troubling news, as it meant the French had an interest in the peninsula now as well.
Honegger shook his head and had a cup of strong tea to clear his mind. He looked upon his nation and realized that they were focusing too much on the offensive when there weren’t that many wars to be fought. He decided to rebuild some walls in the fortifications.
On May, 1417, one a man appeared who proclaimed himself the Emperor of Switzerland. Strangely, the deranged man was able to raise up a small army of 8000 men. The Swiss army descended on his and a large battle was fought that ended up on the front steps of the Tagsatzung itself. The Emperor of Switzerland was not captured, however. He was wearing a mask and disappeared before the battle was over. This would probably not be the last of his shenanigans.
Following the conflict, the Emperor of The Holy Roman Empire and King of Bohemia suddenly decided that Switzerland would be a great ally. The large nation sent an offer and Switzerland readily accepted it.
Sicily, a long-time ally of Switzerland’s, viewed this new alliance as a threat to itself. They argued that they would also be dragged into Bohemia’s wars, and that besides, Naples belonged to them. The Swiss frowned on this and saw it as a reason to declare war, but did not want to lose another ally. Besides, it would be hard to reach Sicily over the ocean without ships.
In July 1418, the Genoese League decided to set up yet another trading post to Venice through Swiss territory. This one would be in the Swiss province of Abruzzi.
Over the next two years, nothing much happened for Switzerland. They did learn that Bavaria was fighting many wars in the name of the empire and that Switzerland could join them if they wished. However, the Swiss did not want to get involved in wars with neither Austria nor France. Both were far too powerful.
On April 8, 1419, another election was held. Yet again, Charles Honegger won by a landslide vote.
He was able to prove his successes soon after in November when it was found that the bureaucracy was increasing the taxes able to be gained from the populace. This was welcome news to the Tagsatzung.
Switzerland received another alliance offer from Bavaria in early 1420. They decided to accept this time, as they were to be involved in the north anyways thanks to Bohemia. They also gained a casus belli against many of the northern German states.
Honegger frowned at the large amounts of casus bellis. He asked for a member to investigate and he came back with the following intelligence report:
So Bohemia was fighting four different wars, two of them with major countries in the world and many of them with Holy Roman Empire nations… This could be trouble for Bohemia. Its prestige among other countries was already plummeting due to these facts. If situations did not improve, perhaps Bohemia would have to give up its crown as Emperor when the king died…