Imperial Diet IV

[GeneralHankerchief]

Conrad Salier:

Your worldview being as limited as it is, Lothar, I would expect you to say something like that. You were not old enough to remember life before Outremer. The Reich's very soul was at risk. We had been excommunicated for an age, money was not coming easily, and the fears were that we would be the target of a Crusade. Outremer changed all that. It was approved by noble commanders, men that you could only dream to emulate. It gave us all, and still continues to give the faithful, inner peace.

As for Peter, if, as you say, Jerusalem is a land of heresy and heathens, then is it not our duty as good Christians to work and remove that heresy?

[gibsonsg91921]

Perhaps, but as a religious man, can't you think of a safer and more holy place to put the Pope?

[Privateerkev]

Perhaps, but as a religious man, can't you think of a safer and more holy place to put the Pope?

Jan's aide pipes up

Safer maybe but is there a more holy place than Jerusalem?

[gibsonsg91921]

Jerusalem may have once been holy, but it is polluted by the heathen Saracens. Take him to *scoff* Durazzo, take him to the side of the road, I really don't care.

[OverKnight]

Matthias, flicking a bit of seaweed off his shoulder, speaks.

It is unfortunate that Sicily's ill conceived attack on Durazzo forced us to choose between two allies. I am astounded that their leader willingly chose to plunge his country into excommunication for a simple territory. It is the height of stupidity. Yes Sicily was our oldest Ally, but if they were foolish enough to attack the Pope, could we really trust them anyway? Would we want to keep such a foolish ally?

The whole situation is unfortunate because we now have another potentially hostile nation on our border. Though I would not advocate an aggressive approach towards Sicily. We may no longer be allies, but I say we stay out of any conflict between them and the Church, we owe them that much and we are stretched thin as it is. It seems the Church is now capable of defending itself anyway.

Lothar, Outremer has brought us much more than grief and misery. Besides the benefit of doing God's work, which you seem to care little about, there are more practical aspects that even you might acknowledge. The Missionary work done there by our priests has allowed many of them to rise into the College of Cardinals and even the Throne of Peter. Of course we can never fully control the Church, but we have by far the most sway over it. If we ever need another Crusade called, I am sure we'll have it.

Has it always been easy to work with the Church, mercurial as it sometime is? No, but it is worth it. As for abandoning Outremer, that would be most unwise, Peter. Would you have us give all five territories to the Mongols? The Egyptians? Or the Papacy? If we abandon Outremer, sooner or later the enemies we fight there would make their way to the Reich's homelands. I say we fight them there, so we don't have to fight them here.

There have been times on my long slog to the Holy Land, that I have doubted my choice to go there. That I wished to turn around or just stayed on the docks at Bologna. I am not even there yet, but I will be someday. The Mongols might already have perished again, there may be nothing for me to do, but I will continue on. I will do this because Outremer is the Reich, it is a dream brought to reality by our greatest Generals and Statesmen, it is the sword and shield of Christendom, and it is worth keeping and defending.

[Cecil XIX]

Now that I have spent a day in mourning, I am now ready to swear fealty to Emperor Siegfried. Let us put this incident behind us and work towards finally achieving a state of normalcy.

[Stig]

*Ansehelms stands and speaks*

Duke Scherer, you want to have a vote amongst Dukes. But do we need that.
Bavaria swore it would follow Kaiser Siegfried, The Outremer did the same and believe me there's little anyone can do from stopping Franconia as well.
That's 3 out of 5 houses. I don't see a reason to vote, next to that in this Diet I heard little against Siegfried, apart from Hummel everyone withdrew their statements after Dieter brought in the will.
All in all only the Swabians seem upset, because they don't have the Kaiser anymore.

No there's no reason what so ever to do any voting.
Let me give you a collection of what has been said:
Jan von Hamburg

Long live the Kaiser!

Matthias Steffen

I am your man.

Lothar Steffen

I hereby proclaim my loyalty to Kaiser Siegfried.

Duke Steffen

re-afirm my allegiance to the current Kaiser

King Salier

My Lord, Outremer is yours to command.

Sigismund von Mahren

I am now ready to swear fealty to Emperor Siegfried.

And take it that all Franconians support Kaiser Siegfried.
That gives us a Diet influence (if all stayed the same (little changed I think)) of 38 and everyone who did not swore to follow Siegfried yet have 26 influence with voting.



And I fail to see how people as loyal to the Reich as you Hans (OOC: 9 loyalty) do not see Siegfried as Kaiser.