Swiss Arms 190 (Patreon)

Swiss Arms

Chapter 190

-VB-

Hans

1311

Johannes von Schwanden.

An abbess with a man’s name. Johannes von Schwanden was not a purely religious woman.

It was easy to determine that when I found out her family had provided two more abbots for the Einsiedeln Abbey. The position of the abbot was very much a political one as well as a religious one. Even our Prince-Bishop of Chur had needed to partake in some politics to become the bishop.

As for her defiance against my authority?

While technically this made them rebels in my eyes, I knew that killing her and the others taking their stand even with extreme prejudice would see me excommunicated. 

And I did not want to get excommunicated. 

At the same time, I couldn’t afford to let her take a stand against my new authority. On a personal level, I didn’t give a shit what some weak abbess wanted or needed. As a new count who had a bunch of new vassals who may also be looking for the earliest sign for disobedience if not outright rebellion, I couldn’t have that. 

So how did I reconcile this? 

Simple. 

“You want to… sell us this territory?” Magistrate Werner Stauffacher repeated as he looked at me across the table inside the Stauffacher Manor at the center of Schwyz.

Instead of continuing east on my planned tour of my new territory, I had turned south after meeting the abbess and entered the town of Schwyz, one of the three Forest Cantons that had formed their own confederacy sometime around the reformation of my Compact. 

“Indeed,” I replied with a nod. “You know that I am originally from Uri.”

“This, I knew, yes,” the bushy bearded man replied. With him were two men he considered his close advisors, though they weren’t important to me. The only other person who was actually important for this meeting outside of myself and the magistrate was Chief Magistrate Werner II of Attinghausen of Uri, who had come when invited to see and witness this event. “I also know from rumors that you have defeated the Habsburgs who were encroaching upon our lands and took everything they had west of Lake Constance.”

“I did,” I replied. “Including their ancestral castle.”

He slowly reeled back. 

“Impressive.”

But he looked worried. 

Very worried. 

I had a vague idea about what he may be thinking. Could he trust me? Was I someone who was also looking to annex the Forest Cantons? Unlike the Habsburgs, I at least had the excuse that since it was my homeland, it should belong to the most powerful man to have come from there… or some other excuse nobles gave these days when they were fabricating claims or professing some actual bullshit claim.

And I certainly had the manpower and money to do it. Hell, considering the help I’ve provided and the kind of membership and prosperity people had under my rule as the de facto ruler of the Compact (simply by virtue of being the richest and now the most landholding elite), the Canton of Uri might leave the alliance with enough incentive. 

But I wasn’t doing that. 

No.

I was here to solve two of my problems with one stroke of the pen.

Because between the two of us - the magistrate and I - laid three pieces of paper: a map of the region I’d drawn myself and three copies of a simple contract. 

The map showed the extent of the land that fell under the authority of the Einsiedeln Abbey. 

The contracts all stated the same thing. 

In exchange for 5 gold marks, the vassalage of Einsiedeln Abbey that I legally held would be transferred to the town of Schwyz. Or more specifically into the hands of Magistrate Werner Stauffacher, the most influential nobleman of the House Stauffacher of Schwyz. 

Yes, instead of dealing with the problem child that Einsiedeln’s abbess intended on becoming, I was going to sell my overlordship over the abbey to someone else, get money out of it, and wash my hands of the mess. 

But why did I offer it to the good magistrate instead of someone from Uri? 

… Because Uri was poor. Sure, yes, it stood to benefit from one of two major passes that went through the Alps between Swabia and Italy. The other pass being my own Fluela Pass that I have built up over the last decade. But Uri lacked the combined population, money, and the will needed to enrich themselves from this natural geographic advantage.

Why else would my father be working as a mercenary? It wasn’t that he didn’t understand the importance of Uri’s place; selling food and goods to passing peddlers and merchants would have done great. Father couldn’t do that because he didn’t even have the amount of land necessary to fund that kind of venture. 

So as much as I wanted to enrich my home village and its people, I needed to keep my mark straight and sell it to someone who could actually afford to pay for twenty-five square miles of land. 

Ergo, Schwyz.

Schwyz was not rich by the standards of Chur, Constance, or Fluelaberg but it was also the most established and the richest town within the Forest Cantons. 

“This is a very … small sum for such an amount of land.”

It was. Kind of.

Rheintal, the strip of land next to Werdenberg and the St. Gallens Abbey had cost me just under 500 gold guelders. 

5 gold marks was close to 350 gold guelders.

But land didn’t grow anywhere, and twenty-five square miles of land (or rather authority over it as the overlord) was cheap in comparison to a war that might or might not earn Schwyz land.

“I will sign this,” Magistrate Werner said after a while. He pulled out his ink quill and signed on all three copies of the contract.

I signed my name as well, and grinned as I shook his hand while Magistrate Attinghausen signed as the witness. He tried to smile but he was still suspicious of me. Why wouldn’t he be? No one just sells land like this! Not for such a paltry sum!

He just didn’t understand that to me it was never about the land or authority. 

“Pleasure doing business with you, magistrate.” 

It was about getting rid of an annoyance I didn’t have to be distracted by or give the church any excuse to denounce me.