Orders and reports thread

[OverKnight]

1186

My agents tell me that Duke Hummel's siege of Rheims has caused a French response:

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The French chose not to attack, nor have I any word if Hummel plans to.

Our diplomat near Rome, Heinricus Plittersdorf, has been bribed into the service of the French. A waste of money in my opinion, his many failures in negotiating with the Papacy had already ruined him.

The experience of the Count of Venice in trading has paid off, a Master Merchant's guild has been built in his city.

Unfortunately, we have lost the last merchant recruited before my term to the same Byzantine merchant who struck before. A poor show of gratitude for the Greeks.

Speaking of the Byzantine Empire, they have made peace with the Egyptians.

That annoying French agent in Dijon has been eliminated.

The Hungarian Boris Janos has been made a Cardinal.

The Pope has ordered us to cease hostilities with the Venetians for 8 years (4 turns), or risk excommunication. The Pope, surprisingly, made no mention of France. A pity for the Venetians that we already have Ragusa. I have no intention of advancing against them, so I will gladly comply.

Soon after this, more serious news reached me about the Pope:

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I mourn the passing of Pope Lanbertus, for Cardinal Aston could have easily forsaken our agreement, but did not.

I was a bit shocked when I saw who the candidates were for his replacement:

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It seems Cardinal von der Pfalz is now more favored than Cardinal Herden among our delegation. More alarming to me was the presence of the Sicilian Cardinal Amocacci in the Preferati. Ironically, I had hoped for this six years ago. But now, the Sicilians would vote for their own, we would not have their support for our Cardinal. This was a blow, as the Venetians and Hungarians had 5 votes total. If they both voted for Burislev we would be in terrible danger.

While I deeply wish to have an Imperial Cardinal become Pope, this was not to be our year. I decided to throw our support behind Cardinal Amocacci:

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The gamble paid off, we are now very high in the favor of Pope Pisanus:

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I have written to the new Pope and asked him to give his blessing and sanction to our Crusade. I await his reply.