Imperial Diet

[Kagemusha]

Fifth Elector of Swabia stands up and speaks:

"We welcome the words of Dietrich as true and just.If we are to stand above other Nations,the visions of the past and ambitions of Glory should have no place in our minds. As if we were building a castle.First we have to lay down strong foundation,then we can start building walls and towers that touch the sky. The Reich should not be a terrible Empire that sweeps over the land and puts all nations under its boot. Rather it should be the glorious beacon of light among christian nations,which all others look in awe and amazement.Let us leave the ambitions and agressive politics to lesser Nations and let them also be struck down becouse of those errors in their ways. "

Swabian Elector sits down on his place.

[Lucjan]

The words of the Swabian elector are welcome. The Reich will be leader of the Christian faith, and will be the most powerful empire in the world, but it will not be so by playing the role a blatant aggressor. We must take our time and act prudently. The glory of this Reich will surpass anything we have seen in the past, but not by modeling ourselves on the past. Why take to blatant aggression and be hated by our people and deplored by our foes? We can choose our battles wisely, pick our enemies cautiously, and instead be respected by our people and feared by those who would wish us harm. Do not forget, when dealing with an enemy, hatred will embolden him, but fear will make him cower.

Dietrich looks to the Bavarian electors. You are as much a part of this diet as I or any other man here, and for that I respect you. So speak your mind good electors, do you agree?

[TinCow]

Maximillian Mandorf nods to the Duke and rises. He stands in contemplation for several seconds before beginning.

I see wisdom in the words of both Elector von Kassel and Duke von Saxony. It does not seem to me that either of their plans is wrong nor in fact that they are even opposed to each other. Perhaps my perception of the situation would aid in a more agreeable view on the matter.

First, it is undeniable that the lands of which Elector von Kassel speaks rightfully belong to the Reich. We are the rightful heirs of Charles the Hammer, who was himself the rightful heir of the Roman Empire. Those Byzantine fops proclaim their own rights to the title, but they have inherited nothing both togas and decadence. The greatness of Caesar’s Empire lay in Rome and the western territories. We are the western territories. Though we have lost control over many of the provinces, our ordained rights to them have never ceased.

Some territories, like Milan, have recently rebelled against us and our right to them cannot be questioned. Others, such of England, have been lost to the Roman people for many ages. Indeed, the only lands to the west or south which we cannot lay valid claim to are those held by the Scots! All others are splinters of the Roman Empire. Do not forget that the title held by the noble Heinrich is that of the Roman Emperor himself. He is Kaiser because he is the rightful heir of Caesar. It is because of this very reason that he enjoys the divine right of Papal confirmation! That right was given to the Roman people, of which he is the supreme embodiment. We have lost Rome, we have lost many of the territories, but we remain Romans by right to this day! We have every right to reclaim our lands.

That said, it is also undeniable that there would great opposition to the Kaiser’s authority amongst our neighbors. Simply having hereditary rights does not endow the ability to enforce them. Accordingly, Duke von Saxony’s caution is prudent and should be respected. The great Augustus was not afraid to recognize the limitations of his power, nor should we be. War on three fronts would bring devastation to our lands.

Milan is rightfully ours and this cannot be disputed. I do not doubt that the Usurper in Rome will agitate against such a move, but those lands belonged to us not long before our last meeting in this very room! The only people who do not remember our rule in Genoa and Milan are babes, not yet able to take up arms. No just reason can be given to oppose our authority on these lands. The Milanese will certainly fight, but our liberation of those lands from the blasphemous bankers is assured once it begins.

Once these lands are consolidated and are again loyal to the Kaiser, we can turn our attention to our other lost provinces. We all know the Usurper will force all of Christendom to oppose us if we go against those who bend knee to him. So, Rome itself must be the first of the provinces we reclaim! This would also surely result in opposition or perhaps even war with some of our neighbors, but Gregory would soon lie dead and with him the Papal authority to oppose us. If we were then to assert our rights, put an approved man on the throne, and relocate the Papacy to an area deep in our homelands, we would surely have the proper Papal blessings for our future plans.

If the Diet is worried about war on multiple fronts, let us make good friends with the Dutch and the French! Let us send money to them to ensure the security of our borders, rather than funding the Antipope. Surely they would not attack close friends, even if they were encouraged by Rome. Besides, any monies sent to these areas would be used for improvements that would be ours eventually anyway! I do not believe such a course of action is necessary, but it is an option that should at least be considered. Indeed, we could even attempt to cause discord amongst the ‘Kings’ who control our provinces. If Denmark and France were pre-occupied with England, they would be of little threat to us.

We are Romans by all the rights of man and God, my lords. We should not forget this. It would be a noble and virtuous thing to reclaim the provinces lost to us for so long. Yet, such an endeavor will require much planning, more time, even more money, and vast amounts of blood. We should proceed slowly and with caution, striking when we are strong and using diplomacy when we are weak.

[Ituralde]

Loud clapping can be heard at the end of Mandorfs speech emenating from the ranks of the House of Austria.

"Wise words, Duke Mandorf, wise words. I have to agree with them completely!"

[OverKnight]

Otto can be seen scribbling furiously on some parchment. He had looked up when Maximillian addressed the Diet, and his eyes widened when the Bavarian Steward mentioned taking Rome. Otto places his quill down, stands and speaks to the Diet:

My fellow Electors, I apologize for my delay in my response, but I wish to speak as clearly as possible, and it took me several drafts of this speech to do so.

First, I will respond to the comments on my proposal to reunite the Reich. Duke von Saxony has implied that I would immediately send an unprepared army out on a fool's quest and then we would all be excommunicated. Let me respond by quoting from my original speech:

It is a very noble goal, but how do we do it? First, we must finish our consolidation of the rebel lands. Second, we must improve our standing with the Pope so that we may move unhindered against our fellow Catholics. Third, we must increase the size and quality of our military. Then, and only then, can we begin to take back our greater Reich!

These were the goals I set before we began reunification, this noble task would not start until they had been accomplished, I set no time frame. As for whether there are florins enough to have the Pope "indulge" us, I think there will be.

The Duke also mentions a "three front war". This is inaccurate. What I proposed was a series of one front wars, Milan, then France, then Denmark. Not all at once.

As for the accusations of nostalgia and raising lost empires. . .

Otto pauses, some of the restraint he has shown dissipates.

There are dreams worth rebuilding my Lord! There are Reichs that should come again! Maximillian speaks true, Milan is only recently lost to us, but should it always be so? The Capetian usurpers reign in France, with not one drop of Carolingian blood in their veins, should we allow this to stand because it has already come to pass? The Danes have taken Flanders in the last few years, should we let them tread upon our ancestral lands because they have the most recent claim? I say no!

The unified Empire fell not because of a military defeat but because Louis the Pious had three sons! The old Franks did not practice primogeniture as we do. Kingdoms were split among the sons, not inherited in full by the eldest.

Otto smiles sadly.

As a second son, I am regretfully aware of this change, but it is for the best. We shall not repeat that mistake. Our Reich shall not split. We shall not rebuild the old Empire, we will forge a stronger one!

Otto pauses again to collect himself.

You spoke well Duke von Saxony, but your wit was matched by your lack of specifics. How is this "new" Empire to work? What would be its goals? How would we accomplish them? Are we to sit within our realm until we are struck by our neighbors? . . .Yet, we both agree that the Reich must be readied before embracing its destiny, however we view it. Perhaps I speak too harshly. I apologize.

Otto turns to face the Steward of Bavaria

The audacity of what you propose in seizing Rome is breath taking my Lord! I know that Pope Gregory humiliated our Kaiser, making him stand in the snow clad only in a hair shirt for four days, just to gain admittance to see him and beg forgiveness, and that act of hubris sickens me! Yet, if we move against him the price will be high, very high. Even if we do put a pontiff more to our liking in power, they are rarely grateful for long. This is just one mortal man, powerful as he may be! Unless he provokes us with a new act, let him rot in the Lateran palace.

Thank you my lords.

Otto sits.

OOC: Edited for grammar and spelling.

[Lucjan]

There is a smile on Dietrich's face, he doesn't bother standing this time, he just speaks.

"You're counter arguments are well made and take the facade of direct rebutal to my statements, which would, to many men who could not look more directly into the nature of the rebutal themselves, seem a successful maneuver."

He stares at the elector for a moment.

"You have good potential to be a strong statesman, Otto, but maybe it is your youth that still troubles your understanding. Let me explain.

While you have, correctly, quoted yourself on your intention to consolidate our lost land, improve papal relations and the quality and size of our military before we embark on a reconquering of Charles's empire, you must understand the swiftness with such a task can be completed. Such a task could be easily completed within the next ten years, but, for the sake of arguement, let's make it twenty.

Assuming, in the next twenty years, we have accomplished these goals and then seek to retake Milan, there is a severe error in believing the world will not change around us. As I have stated, this is a whole new world than we've ever dealt with before. Times are changing, quickly. The world around us living, breathing, and reacting to every movement we make, the same way in which we react to every one of theirs. I leave you with this potential problem.

Firstly, we accomplish your goals within the next twenty years, the error there is that within the next twenty years, all of our neighbors will have done the exact same thing, and we stand to have no advantage over them that we did not have before. Then, secondly, we move on Milan. Where will the riches of Milan's trade routes have gotten them in twenty years? Far beyond the confines of northern Italy I'm sure, they already spread deep into the heart of Burgundy and the isles south of their mainland shore. But we attack them, regardless of their position in twenty years time. What happens then? If we score several successes, the Pope will see the tide coming, and will threaten us, if not outright declare, our excommunication. Excommunicated or not, Venice, the Pope, Sicily and France will directly stand to suffer from a stronger presence of the Reich in Italy. Venice, the Pope and Sicily being directly affected by our actions there, they stand to lose the most. If they feel threatened, they will strike when we are at our weakest, that point being immediately after our conquests, in the rebuilding process when our florins are diverted, our soldiers depleted, and our morale in that lingering state of relief that the battle has been won, but grief over the loss of so many friends. A war coming at this time against people previously assumed to be neutral, would be devastating to the resolve of our armies. Depleted regiments, defending battered cities, with no florins to spend on swift reinforcements, would be a disaster waiting to happen. You see, even in an intended "one front war", two or more fronts could swiftly open beside it. War is like a vacuum, it sucks everything in.

My ideas run contrary to yours only in that I believe we should be more careful and prudent in our choice of time and place to engage in foreign campaigns. Strike Milan when it's standing with the Pope is low, or excommunicated, hit them where they are weak or where we have superior strength and can stand to fight more enemies than we had initially prepared for. Do not overexpand too rapidly. Conquer, stabilise and rebuild, plan and reinforce, then move on.

You are also correct in saying that the Frankish Empire fell because Louis had three sons. Exactly as I said, it fell of its own volition. Louis chose to divide his empire, his sons chose to bicker and squabble over it. Louis's faith in his progeny was ill placed, and the empire fell of its own internal, familial squabbles. Brother no longer saw brother as brother, just as an unrightful neighbor. So, in this respect, are we not both correct?

You also said yourself, we will not rebuild an old empire, but a new one. Is this not what I have clearly proposed?

In regards to how this new reich will work and what its goals are, why change the workings and the goals from what they are now? I believe the intelligent debate that occurs in this diet is exactly the kind of debate that will be required to deliberate the runnings of a much larger empire, and why change our goal from being the leader of the Christian world? As far as accomplishing that goal I have already outlined that. Patience, prudence, wit and wisdom. Take our oppertunities when they present themselves, but don't go in over our heads.

As well, in speaking of the old Frankish lands. I have never said that these lands should not be taken into the fold of this new reich, only that when and if they are, it should be done as all our conquests should. Wisely. They are rich agricultural lands, and we will not be the only ones with our eyes on them.

The general reasoning for my urge towards caution and prudence is that we no longer have the safety Charles enjoyed. In his time there was no unified power in England, in Italy, in Iberia or in the east. We live now in a time where our actions can provoke an enemy on any potential corner of our borders, and in doing so, there is no guarantee that our expansion will swing one way or the other. It is entirely feasible that we may only ever retake a portion, or maybe none of Charles's old western lands, but may stretch across the whole of Italia and a conflict with Byzantium could arise out of our contradictory claims to the Roman title. Our resources could be sucked south, and our attentions focused in the Balkans instead. And then there is the holy land, which is sorely in need of being rescued from heretical control.

This talk of our expansion is, mind you, solely hypothesis and conjecture, they do not necessarily reflect my views or desires, but they are very real possibilities given the situations that can emerge.

It seems then, Otto, that the only point upon which we disagree is a definate goal for the reich's expansion. You say retake the old lands.

I say stick with prudence and take the circumstances as they come. We may well be able to retake Charles's lost lands, but we may also see an opening to expand into previously uncharted territory for the reich instead, and if that oppertunity arises we should take it, not ignore it in favor of throwing florins and lives away at a potentionally much more difficult undertaking.

My warning is much more of a deterrance to laying too many plans too early. For even the best laid plans last but a few seconds when the world is changing around us. Hopefully, now, you understand my original intentions."

[OverKnight]

Otto listens intently to Dietrich's speech. He mutters something under his breath, ". . .sounds like my father. . .", while he rises to speak:

Thank you for your response Duke von Saxony. I see your views more clearly now. I only hope that caution and wisdom do not turn into passivity and folly. I would not abandon the initiative to our neighbors, yet it would not hurt to watch and wait, for a while at least, for a moment of weakness.

As for being a statesman, God forbid! I would much rather have a sword in my hand and a saddle beneath me.

Otto chuckles to himself and sits.