The Gordian Knot - A Prussia AAR
Since I am all new to AAR:s I want to start out simple, and perhaps raise the stakes later, if I should find that I get the hang of it… Better chose a format you are comfortable with, than getting mixed up in some roleplaying that you really don’t have the patience for… But, I let this be an experiment, and try to do my best.
//Lucidor
--
Sir!
My king, as per your instructions I hereby present the tidings from the year of our Lord 1492: Things in the realm have been quiet, with the populace going about their duties; all revenues, although small, are flowing into our coffers at a steady pace. Measures to increase this cash flow for the benefit of our longer term plans are steadily underway and took a beginning when we promoted a tax collectors and spend some ducats on the long overdue review of the century old “Book of Homesteads” in our capital province of Brandenburg.
Since I felt that my predecessor, the Duke von Hochwald-See-Ofer-Oberpreussen, let corruption and disinterest run wild in the royal budget by trusting that scoundrel Wurtzfecher, I have done some long needed restructuring. The support for the shipbuilding businesses run by that treacherous bastards ill-begotten third cousin has been cut with the same swiftness that Your Majesty showed in stringing him up for his treacherous spying on behalf of the Habsburgs. We will for the foreseeable future concentrate on trade enterprises and to a smaller extent land warfare. Our Prussian troops have shown a great ability to withstand hardship – and we eagerly await the cannons now tried out in our Royal smithies and foundries. An army equipped with the gunpowder will surely one time rise to the become the overlord of the battlefield, and mow down the opposition like the yew-cut longbows of the English made terrible slaughter upon the French at Agincourt not more than eighty years ago. I strongly support the work Your Majesty has entrusted upon the capable shoulders of my fifth cousin, the Freiherr von Dorfmaier-Zimmerschlafer.
Our plans on a larger scale were advanced as we arranged marriages between our Royal family to the dynasties of Bavaria, Thuringen, the rising Eagle of Russia and the Hungarians. Our invites of a marriage to seal at least our allegiance in name with the Habsburgs was turned down, but we didn’t expect much of it, either.
All our commercial efforts failed, and all our four merchants sent to Mecklemburg failed – however I feel that with greater knowledge and a state-supported trading business, our chances of competing will be much greater.
My wishes for a cheerful celebration of the Birth of our saviour!
Your faithful servant and confident,
Graf Johann von Hemel.
--
Sir!
This year, 1493, has passed in much the same quiet peaceful manner as expected. My travels to Paris and the university of Bologna in search of my lost drunkard of an only son were thus not interfering with my duties to you, thanks to the Divine Providence of our Lord. What times are these when only sons run turn down the helpful advice our fathers and squander their moneys in the gutter! Times are sure a-changing, but be it to better or worse I do not know! The lands have been peaceful and free from revolt and our commercial ventures have finally begun to pay off. Four merchants are established in Mecklemburg and contribute some to our Royal treasury by the special levies lain upon them. Butter has been plentiful upon the tables of merchant as well as farmer.
Royal marriages were made with the lands of Kurpfalz, Serbia, Denmark and finally their vassals of Sweden that have proclaimed independence and went on to lay siege to the fortresses of Skåne. I feel we have a great potential ally in this fierce Northern Lion. Only time will tell what will come of this crackelation of their Kalmar Union.
In the field of technology, we have finally perfected the cannon enough for them to be used by our military forces, and we have started to explore the possibilities of adding an artillery corps to our competent armies. We are slowly starting to see the possibilities our disciplined armies could get from using gunpowder, after seeing the disrupting effects only noise and smoke had on the mounts of the Royal Guard at the September drills. Although horses may learn to disregard the initial shock of thunder and lightning, iron will always bite true.
I leave this letter to your majesty in confidence that we will see great potential gains in the coming years and vow to eagerly and faithfully to Your Majesty seek to further our interests. If one thing came out of the search of my wayward son, now finally returned to Hemel and confined to his quarters it is the words of the old Romans. “Inter arma, leges silent” – between the clashes of arms, laws and treaties are quiet. I see a storm coming up, and want to make Your Majesty clear on a few things. In the war and struggle for survival, there are seldom such luxury as “right or wrong”, only the realities of “winning or losing”.
In heartfelt sympathy and good hope for the betterment of Your Majesty’s terrible Cough,
Your faithful servant and confident,
Graf Johann von Hemel.
--
Sir!
Many years have passed since last I made this kind of yearly summary. As you surely understand this is due to my service as master of the artillery corps in the Brandenburgian army under Falkenstein. This service was of critical importance to my studies in the interaction between men and guns – a treaty I am preparing to lay at Your Majesty’s eyes at the nearest convenience.
After casting fifty guns during the winter and spring months, we declared a war of territorial expansion against our neighbours in the south, Saxony on July 24th. We declined to call in our allies, the Teutonic knights, and relied solely on an army smaller in numerary than our enemies’ the Saxons and the misled Thuringians, bound to us by the marriage between our Kaspar and their Kunigunda. What we had, but they did not possess was the cannon. The monstrosity capable of hurling giant rocks as well as grapeshot across the field, to flatten men and horses before they had gotten the chance to land one single blow. Forgive me if I seem carried away by this new weapon, but considering the poor state of our treasury I feel here that we have the sword with which we can undo the Gordian knot of Habsburg dominance and see to it that we also get our share of the rumoured discoveries in foreign land that the Pope laid out the description of in his Bulla AD 1492.
Back to the war. Our general strategy was followed, but the stern winter of 1495 dictated that we take another course than originally planned for. After the declaration, the Saxons, knowing of our past difficulties in delivering a good performance on the battlefield, stormed across the Elbe, seeing our deficiency in cavalry as a sure sign of victory. Woe to any who sees Victoria as such easily bought! As their columns blew the attack and their Horse charged for our centre, they were met by cleverly concealed cannon, spitting death into and through their very finest detachments. We stood firm through their three separate charges coming across the Elbe and they left over ten thousand – some say fifteen thousand – on the field of battle compared to our losses of two thousand and five hundred men.
As their armies scuttled back to Saxony to lick their wounds, we took to the offence and marched our army through Magdeburg towards Saxony proper to avoid attacking across the Elbe. Unfortunately, after reaching Saxony, we lost some of our precious cavalry troops and some infantry to their prepared defence before being able to shoo the defenders off. Perhaps the time they were given as a respite when we took the road through Magdeburg cost us more in the end than attacking across the Elbe would have?
Winter was hell in Saxony that year. The ground grew into a quagmire and snow fell on the roads and made them into mud holes when the supply trains tried to resupply our starving troops. Fully ten thousand men were no longer once we learned of the futility of our siege of the fortress of Dresden in Saxony proper and come springtime we broke the siege and headed for the smaller one at Dressau in Anhalt. In a matter of months we reduced its wooden stockades and the occasional blockhouse to rubble and accepted their surrender. Saxony thus parted, we headed for their allies, the Thuringians, to force them to exit the war. 3000 fresh troops were raised in the meantime to replace those lost to the winter storms – a meagre “replacements”, but without putting our future solidity on the line by going to the moneylenders in Venice, that is all we could afford.
Thuringen fell on the 16th of October, and the 22nd, our ambassadors manage to settle a peace with them in which they surround their treasury of 242 ducats and cease all hostilities towards us. Great success thus followed a winter of misery. As you are sure to have seen, the siege by the Saxons of the strong ancestral walls of Berlin were largely unsuccessful, with two assaults thrown off by the Palace guards. After wintering in Magdeburg and using the money gained from Thuringen to raise additional troops, we saw it fit to once again lay siege to Dresden in the spring of 1496… The walls crumbled almost to the point of allowing a storm, but hearing of the effects the siege had on Berlin, we decided, Falkenstein and I, to abandon this attempt, and bring aid to the capital. Thus, in August we broke siege and set across the Elbe for Brandenburg. This time we learned that with cannon, even a river poses not too much problem, since they grind down the awaiting troops without them being able to reach you. Perhaps this knowledge could have allowed us to have made swift haste for Dresden in 1494 when we just had thrown back their initial assault and thus saved us the terrible loss of manpower? We will perhaps never know. This time everything fell into place like a charm. Having expected to take some casualties, we chased off the besiegers from the walls of Berlin with minimal casualties on both sides, 350 of ours against 400 something of theirs.
The capital saved, and their whipped army stuttering for Saxony, we decided to winter and raise some additional infantry in Brandenburg. When the skies were clear of the spring and winter storms, we set off across the Elbe and beat the Saxons quite easily… They ran towards Magdeburg, but we let them run. This time, the army would do a proper siege. Infantry digging approaches, and cannon relentlessly grinding down the defenders, we would prevail, since we had time on our hands this time.
In September, the last bastion of the castle surrendered and we flew the black flag of United Prussia over the smoking remains of the city. Sadly, the king had been killed in the siege and thus were unable to sign the peace accords, but his cousin, the castle constable, sealed and signed the “Charta Pacis Saxoniae et Prussiae”, that they graciously accepted the help of Your Majesty to appoint a successor among the nobility, and appoint a regent during the eventual interregnum.
Victoria! Glory to the king, as well as to the great Falkenstein, in the commemoration of whose victories I suggest some kind of Roman arch to be erected in Berlin.
The foreign affairs outside of our own war were a bit neglected. The major event took place in the south, where the Turk annexed the Mamelukes and took control over the south-east Mediterranean Sea… Grave danger to our Venetian trade-routes, I fear, but our merchants still have managed to cut themselves a fair share – unfortunately to a pretty steep cost. I recommend your majesty to keep an eye open for any further developments in this region, though. The Swedes managed to break their bonds of vassalage with the Danes and got away with Skåne as a rich and costly price. I still think we have the making of a great power here, perhaps to be watched with the same vigilance and stern eye as the Turk hordes of the south. In the west, war rages between the French and the Spanish, which still seems indecisive.
I leave you with the good news that after marrying, my son seems to have settled himself and with the help of a great scholar fetched at no small expense from Modena, seem to have taken in the learning of the Classics. Perhaps one day he will take the place of me… The Cough I seem to have gotten while camped outside the walls of Dresden still shakes my body and makes me shiver through the cold winter nights. Surely, I am still able to be Your Majesty’s faithful servant in the peace and affirmation of the winnings that now will come, but will I endure another winter in the field with nothing to preoccupy my mind with, except the crows feasting on my dead horse?
May your Christmas be one of joy and plenty, for Pax once again holds our Kingdom to her bosom,
Your ever faithful confident and servant,
Graf Johann von Hemel.
--
Joachimi Nestori Rego Preussiae plurimam dixit Johannes Hemelius
My beloved king!
I hereby declare my service to the Crown of Prussia, and want to inform you of the relationship I had with our beloved late king, your father. As I am sure you have heard all details more elaborately by your father, I only write to assure you that my service is at your disposal.
The tidings of 1498 are quite uneventful. We have arranged marriages with a great part of Christianity to tie the bands of peace firmer to you realm. The only ones to refuse this gesture of Christian love for our neighbours have so far been the Habsburgs… To put it in the words of our beloved Falkenstein overheard over dinner with our majesty the king this September: “What is it with those Austrian dogs – to turn down the beautiful Brandenburgian maidens?!? I begin to suspect it is not a lack of will – but more a lack of mandom! Have they no balls to give them strength to consummate a marriage!?!”. As your always faithful servant, I want to add my reservations to the truth of his statement, but their constant refusal can hardly be seen as anything else than drawing a line of ill will in our directions.
I will fill you in on latter details later, but as you have seen – the lands are quiet, and the Saxon people accept their infant king with true love for him and his Prussian wife to be.
In loving reverence!
Graf Johann von Hemel.
--
Marshallo Casimiri salutem plurimam dixit Johannes Hemelius!
Datum Aprilo XXI.
O, My friend and most beloved general! Disaster has surely struck our lands! Let the bells be rung in mourning from the ramshackle hamlets of Hemel to the western villages of Anhalt!
Our king Joachim was struck down earlier this week by the foul arrows of pestilence! His promising reign lasted but a few months. The ignorant dukes of Magdeburg and Prussia proper have taken up the burden of interregnum, until his Majesty’s infant son can assume his father’s spectre and crown.
I write this to inform you of my works to further the interests of the crown and declare that I have to play with my cards open on the table to you, to assure you of my honest intentions. If you will support me in counsel in my work to make the standing of Prussia more reputable and tie Europa together in a web of intricate diplomacy with us in its very middle, I will lend my unconditional support if you should clinch with Graf Ritter.
Your friend in dire times of need,
Graf Johann von Hemel.
--
Marshallo Casimiri salutem plurimam dixit Johannes Hemelius!
Datum Febriarii Prima die AD 1502
My friend! I have to congratulate you on your ventures in Poland. When Poland declared war upon our allies in the Teutonic Order, I was caught up by a great fear since we had not yet fully recovered our military strength after the war in Saxony. I feared that we might be overrun by them and lose our Eastern part, but as you now have reported you great successes, I hope that this may be the opportunity to create a safe corridor through the North of Poland and connect our heirlands by a land bridge, free from the uncertainty of pack ice, Danish toll ships and maritime expeditions from our more sea borne neighbours.
I promise you that I will see to it that you will get funding and replacement for your losses incurred by the futility of fully supporting our army in the war to the East.
Your friend Johann.
Post scriptum: Do not hesitate to call me your brother!
- Idem scripsit.
--
Oration held to the regent council February 3rd 1502 by the Duke Johann of Hemel:
Landowners, fellow Prussians. We must not let the Polish juggernaut tear down the foundations of what we are trying to create! Since their declaration of war in August last year on our allies, the Teutonic order we have felt many emotions – first, outrage, when our allies were threatened by the Poles, a grave threat to any power on the Southern coast of the Baltic. Together, we might stand, but sundered and divided, surely we will fall! The outrage that caused us to go to war was followed by shock, and grief, as Hetman Glinski annihilated our Prussian army with ten thousand men. No sword nor pike was left to fend for Prussia in the East but for our allies the Knights, that manage to break the Polish onslaught and lure them into besieging Velikiye, held by a detachment of knights and richly stocked with perishables – located in the worst kind of Lithuanian swamp over the winter and causing them to lose many a man to winter and sickness.
The same year of 1501 had a somewhat reconciliary end when our forces under Marschall Casimir took Westpreussen in a storm and narrowly escaped the winter storms of December as he retreated back to Kustrin. The following year, sieges were laid on Danzig and Posen. However, only the cannons of Falkenberg seem to have made an impact on the walls of Posen, why Marschall Casimir was ordered to force a march to Posen and give his help in reducing the fortress. In late November, the commander of Posen gave in and opened the doors to the city, and Casimir marched back to Kustrin, where he now winters.
Our feelings now are as you can see no longer shock or defeat, but a growing sense of confidence in our weapons and in our strategies. We have yet to meet the Polish cavalry charge with the muzzles of the cannon, but their cities fall one by one into our hands. Attrition in enemy lands has weakened us, and he would be a fool to think that the 5000 infantry recruited in Kustrin in early 1502 will suffice! I motion for us to take a loan, to strengthen the army of Casimir, so that he may crush the Poles into submission and try to press some satisfaction for the part we have taken in this great war.
Gentlemen, burghers and my Most Honoured Widow-Queen. I rest my case.
Since I am all new to AAR:s I want to start out simple, and perhaps raise the stakes later, if I should find that I get the hang of it… Better chose a format you are comfortable with, than getting mixed up in some roleplaying that you really don’t have the patience for… But, I let this be an experiment, and try to do my best.
//Lucidor
--
Sir!
My king, as per your instructions I hereby present the tidings from the year of our Lord 1492: Things in the realm have been quiet, with the populace going about their duties; all revenues, although small, are flowing into our coffers at a steady pace. Measures to increase this cash flow for the benefit of our longer term plans are steadily underway and took a beginning when we promoted a tax collectors and spend some ducats on the long overdue review of the century old “Book of Homesteads” in our capital province of Brandenburg.
Since I felt that my predecessor, the Duke von Hochwald-See-Ofer-Oberpreussen, let corruption and disinterest run wild in the royal budget by trusting that scoundrel Wurtzfecher, I have done some long needed restructuring. The support for the shipbuilding businesses run by that treacherous bastards ill-begotten third cousin has been cut with the same swiftness that Your Majesty showed in stringing him up for his treacherous spying on behalf of the Habsburgs. We will for the foreseeable future concentrate on trade enterprises and to a smaller extent land warfare. Our Prussian troops have shown a great ability to withstand hardship – and we eagerly await the cannons now tried out in our Royal smithies and foundries. An army equipped with the gunpowder will surely one time rise to the become the overlord of the battlefield, and mow down the opposition like the yew-cut longbows of the English made terrible slaughter upon the French at Agincourt not more than eighty years ago. I strongly support the work Your Majesty has entrusted upon the capable shoulders of my fifth cousin, the Freiherr von Dorfmaier-Zimmerschlafer.
Our plans on a larger scale were advanced as we arranged marriages between our Royal family to the dynasties of Bavaria, Thuringen, the rising Eagle of Russia and the Hungarians. Our invites of a marriage to seal at least our allegiance in name with the Habsburgs was turned down, but we didn’t expect much of it, either.
All our commercial efforts failed, and all our four merchants sent to Mecklemburg failed – however I feel that with greater knowledge and a state-supported trading business, our chances of competing will be much greater.
My wishes for a cheerful celebration of the Birth of our saviour!
Your faithful servant and confident,
Graf Johann von Hemel.
--
Sir!
This year, 1493, has passed in much the same quiet peaceful manner as expected. My travels to Paris and the university of Bologna in search of my lost drunkard of an only son were thus not interfering with my duties to you, thanks to the Divine Providence of our Lord. What times are these when only sons run turn down the helpful advice our fathers and squander their moneys in the gutter! Times are sure a-changing, but be it to better or worse I do not know! The lands have been peaceful and free from revolt and our commercial ventures have finally begun to pay off. Four merchants are established in Mecklemburg and contribute some to our Royal treasury by the special levies lain upon them. Butter has been plentiful upon the tables of merchant as well as farmer.
Royal marriages were made with the lands of Kurpfalz, Serbia, Denmark and finally their vassals of Sweden that have proclaimed independence and went on to lay siege to the fortresses of Skåne. I feel we have a great potential ally in this fierce Northern Lion. Only time will tell what will come of this crackelation of their Kalmar Union.
In the field of technology, we have finally perfected the cannon enough for them to be used by our military forces, and we have started to explore the possibilities of adding an artillery corps to our competent armies. We are slowly starting to see the possibilities our disciplined armies could get from using gunpowder, after seeing the disrupting effects only noise and smoke had on the mounts of the Royal Guard at the September drills. Although horses may learn to disregard the initial shock of thunder and lightning, iron will always bite true.
I leave this letter to your majesty in confidence that we will see great potential gains in the coming years and vow to eagerly and faithfully to Your Majesty seek to further our interests. If one thing came out of the search of my wayward son, now finally returned to Hemel and confined to his quarters it is the words of the old Romans. “Inter arma, leges silent” – between the clashes of arms, laws and treaties are quiet. I see a storm coming up, and want to make Your Majesty clear on a few things. In the war and struggle for survival, there are seldom such luxury as “right or wrong”, only the realities of “winning or losing”.
In heartfelt sympathy and good hope for the betterment of Your Majesty’s terrible Cough,
Your faithful servant and confident,
Graf Johann von Hemel.
--
Sir!
Many years have passed since last I made this kind of yearly summary. As you surely understand this is due to my service as master of the artillery corps in the Brandenburgian army under Falkenstein. This service was of critical importance to my studies in the interaction between men and guns – a treaty I am preparing to lay at Your Majesty’s eyes at the nearest convenience.
After casting fifty guns during the winter and spring months, we declared a war of territorial expansion against our neighbours in the south, Saxony on July 24th. We declined to call in our allies, the Teutonic knights, and relied solely on an army smaller in numerary than our enemies’ the Saxons and the misled Thuringians, bound to us by the marriage between our Kaspar and their Kunigunda. What we had, but they did not possess was the cannon. The monstrosity capable of hurling giant rocks as well as grapeshot across the field, to flatten men and horses before they had gotten the chance to land one single blow. Forgive me if I seem carried away by this new weapon, but considering the poor state of our treasury I feel here that we have the sword with which we can undo the Gordian knot of Habsburg dominance and see to it that we also get our share of the rumoured discoveries in foreign land that the Pope laid out the description of in his Bulla AD 1492.
Back to the war. Our general strategy was followed, but the stern winter of 1495 dictated that we take another course than originally planned for. After the declaration, the Saxons, knowing of our past difficulties in delivering a good performance on the battlefield, stormed across the Elbe, seeing our deficiency in cavalry as a sure sign of victory. Woe to any who sees Victoria as such easily bought! As their columns blew the attack and their Horse charged for our centre, they were met by cleverly concealed cannon, spitting death into and through their very finest detachments. We stood firm through their three separate charges coming across the Elbe and they left over ten thousand – some say fifteen thousand – on the field of battle compared to our losses of two thousand and five hundred men.
As their armies scuttled back to Saxony to lick their wounds, we took to the offence and marched our army through Magdeburg towards Saxony proper to avoid attacking across the Elbe. Unfortunately, after reaching Saxony, we lost some of our precious cavalry troops and some infantry to their prepared defence before being able to shoo the defenders off. Perhaps the time they were given as a respite when we took the road through Magdeburg cost us more in the end than attacking across the Elbe would have?
Winter was hell in Saxony that year. The ground grew into a quagmire and snow fell on the roads and made them into mud holes when the supply trains tried to resupply our starving troops. Fully ten thousand men were no longer once we learned of the futility of our siege of the fortress of Dresden in Saxony proper and come springtime we broke the siege and headed for the smaller one at Dressau in Anhalt. In a matter of months we reduced its wooden stockades and the occasional blockhouse to rubble and accepted their surrender. Saxony thus parted, we headed for their allies, the Thuringians, to force them to exit the war. 3000 fresh troops were raised in the meantime to replace those lost to the winter storms – a meagre “replacements”, but without putting our future solidity on the line by going to the moneylenders in Venice, that is all we could afford.
Thuringen fell on the 16th of October, and the 22nd, our ambassadors manage to settle a peace with them in which they surround their treasury of 242 ducats and cease all hostilities towards us. Great success thus followed a winter of misery. As you are sure to have seen, the siege by the Saxons of the strong ancestral walls of Berlin were largely unsuccessful, with two assaults thrown off by the Palace guards. After wintering in Magdeburg and using the money gained from Thuringen to raise additional troops, we saw it fit to once again lay siege to Dresden in the spring of 1496… The walls crumbled almost to the point of allowing a storm, but hearing of the effects the siege had on Berlin, we decided, Falkenstein and I, to abandon this attempt, and bring aid to the capital. Thus, in August we broke siege and set across the Elbe for Brandenburg. This time we learned that with cannon, even a river poses not too much problem, since they grind down the awaiting troops without them being able to reach you. Perhaps this knowledge could have allowed us to have made swift haste for Dresden in 1494 when we just had thrown back their initial assault and thus saved us the terrible loss of manpower? We will perhaps never know. This time everything fell into place like a charm. Having expected to take some casualties, we chased off the besiegers from the walls of Berlin with minimal casualties on both sides, 350 of ours against 400 something of theirs.
The capital saved, and their whipped army stuttering for Saxony, we decided to winter and raise some additional infantry in Brandenburg. When the skies were clear of the spring and winter storms, we set off across the Elbe and beat the Saxons quite easily… They ran towards Magdeburg, but we let them run. This time, the army would do a proper siege. Infantry digging approaches, and cannon relentlessly grinding down the defenders, we would prevail, since we had time on our hands this time.
In September, the last bastion of the castle surrendered and we flew the black flag of United Prussia over the smoking remains of the city. Sadly, the king had been killed in the siege and thus were unable to sign the peace accords, but his cousin, the castle constable, sealed and signed the “Charta Pacis Saxoniae et Prussiae”, that they graciously accepted the help of Your Majesty to appoint a successor among the nobility, and appoint a regent during the eventual interregnum.
Victoria! Glory to the king, as well as to the great Falkenstein, in the commemoration of whose victories I suggest some kind of Roman arch to be erected in Berlin.
The foreign affairs outside of our own war were a bit neglected. The major event took place in the south, where the Turk annexed the Mamelukes and took control over the south-east Mediterranean Sea… Grave danger to our Venetian trade-routes, I fear, but our merchants still have managed to cut themselves a fair share – unfortunately to a pretty steep cost. I recommend your majesty to keep an eye open for any further developments in this region, though. The Swedes managed to break their bonds of vassalage with the Danes and got away with Skåne as a rich and costly price. I still think we have the making of a great power here, perhaps to be watched with the same vigilance and stern eye as the Turk hordes of the south. In the west, war rages between the French and the Spanish, which still seems indecisive.
I leave you with the good news that after marrying, my son seems to have settled himself and with the help of a great scholar fetched at no small expense from Modena, seem to have taken in the learning of the Classics. Perhaps one day he will take the place of me… The Cough I seem to have gotten while camped outside the walls of Dresden still shakes my body and makes me shiver through the cold winter nights. Surely, I am still able to be Your Majesty’s faithful servant in the peace and affirmation of the winnings that now will come, but will I endure another winter in the field with nothing to preoccupy my mind with, except the crows feasting on my dead horse?
May your Christmas be one of joy and plenty, for Pax once again holds our Kingdom to her bosom,
Your ever faithful confident and servant,
Graf Johann von Hemel.
--
Joachimi Nestori Rego Preussiae plurimam dixit Johannes Hemelius
My beloved king!
I hereby declare my service to the Crown of Prussia, and want to inform you of the relationship I had with our beloved late king, your father. As I am sure you have heard all details more elaborately by your father, I only write to assure you that my service is at your disposal.
The tidings of 1498 are quite uneventful. We have arranged marriages with a great part of Christianity to tie the bands of peace firmer to you realm. The only ones to refuse this gesture of Christian love for our neighbours have so far been the Habsburgs… To put it in the words of our beloved Falkenstein overheard over dinner with our majesty the king this September: “What is it with those Austrian dogs – to turn down the beautiful Brandenburgian maidens?!? I begin to suspect it is not a lack of will – but more a lack of mandom! Have they no balls to give them strength to consummate a marriage!?!”. As your always faithful servant, I want to add my reservations to the truth of his statement, but their constant refusal can hardly be seen as anything else than drawing a line of ill will in our directions.
I will fill you in on latter details later, but as you have seen – the lands are quiet, and the Saxon people accept their infant king with true love for him and his Prussian wife to be.
In loving reverence!
Graf Johann von Hemel.
--
Marshallo Casimiri salutem plurimam dixit Johannes Hemelius!
Datum Aprilo XXI.
O, My friend and most beloved general! Disaster has surely struck our lands! Let the bells be rung in mourning from the ramshackle hamlets of Hemel to the western villages of Anhalt!
Our king Joachim was struck down earlier this week by the foul arrows of pestilence! His promising reign lasted but a few months. The ignorant dukes of Magdeburg and Prussia proper have taken up the burden of interregnum, until his Majesty’s infant son can assume his father’s spectre and crown.
I write this to inform you of my works to further the interests of the crown and declare that I have to play with my cards open on the table to you, to assure you of my honest intentions. If you will support me in counsel in my work to make the standing of Prussia more reputable and tie Europa together in a web of intricate diplomacy with us in its very middle, I will lend my unconditional support if you should clinch with Graf Ritter.
Your friend in dire times of need,
Graf Johann von Hemel.
--
Marshallo Casimiri salutem plurimam dixit Johannes Hemelius!
Datum Febriarii Prima die AD 1502
My friend! I have to congratulate you on your ventures in Poland. When Poland declared war upon our allies in the Teutonic Order, I was caught up by a great fear since we had not yet fully recovered our military strength after the war in Saxony. I feared that we might be overrun by them and lose our Eastern part, but as you now have reported you great successes, I hope that this may be the opportunity to create a safe corridor through the North of Poland and connect our heirlands by a land bridge, free from the uncertainty of pack ice, Danish toll ships and maritime expeditions from our more sea borne neighbours.
I promise you that I will see to it that you will get funding and replacement for your losses incurred by the futility of fully supporting our army in the war to the East.
Your friend Johann.
Post scriptum: Do not hesitate to call me your brother!
- Idem scripsit.
--
Oration held to the regent council February 3rd 1502 by the Duke Johann of Hemel:
Landowners, fellow Prussians. We must not let the Polish juggernaut tear down the foundations of what we are trying to create! Since their declaration of war in August last year on our allies, the Teutonic order we have felt many emotions – first, outrage, when our allies were threatened by the Poles, a grave threat to any power on the Southern coast of the Baltic. Together, we might stand, but sundered and divided, surely we will fall! The outrage that caused us to go to war was followed by shock, and grief, as Hetman Glinski annihilated our Prussian army with ten thousand men. No sword nor pike was left to fend for Prussia in the East but for our allies the Knights, that manage to break the Polish onslaught and lure them into besieging Velikiye, held by a detachment of knights and richly stocked with perishables – located in the worst kind of Lithuanian swamp over the winter and causing them to lose many a man to winter and sickness.
The same year of 1501 had a somewhat reconciliary end when our forces under Marschall Casimir took Westpreussen in a storm and narrowly escaped the winter storms of December as he retreated back to Kustrin. The following year, sieges were laid on Danzig and Posen. However, only the cannons of Falkenberg seem to have made an impact on the walls of Posen, why Marschall Casimir was ordered to force a march to Posen and give his help in reducing the fortress. In late November, the commander of Posen gave in and opened the doors to the city, and Casimir marched back to Kustrin, where he now winters.
Our feelings now are as you can see no longer shock or defeat, but a growing sense of confidence in our weapons and in our strategies. We have yet to meet the Polish cavalry charge with the muzzles of the cannon, but their cities fall one by one into our hands. Attrition in enemy lands has weakened us, and he would be a fool to think that the 5000 infantry recruited in Kustrin in early 1502 will suffice! I motion for us to take a loan, to strengthen the army of Casimir, so that he may crush the Poles into submission and try to press some satisfaction for the part we have taken in this great war.
Gentlemen, burghers and my Most Honoured Widow-Queen. I rest my case.
