Chapter 24

Rome, Papal States. September 1068

In Rome, Pope Alexander was happy as a clam. France and Brittany were in a tenuous alliance against Marion’s Britain, and Breton agents were recruiting pirates from all over Europe and North Africa to raid British coastal settlements. The sale of captured slaves would raise valuable cash for the alliance while simultaneously weakening Marion. Another equally dark reason for Alexander to be happy was every pirate sunk by the British Navy was one less to raid the commerce of friendly kingdoms. It was even better when the pirate was Muslim because Alexander got a two-for-one deal; another pirate disposed of, and more unbelievers would be in Hell, where they belonged. It wasn’t his fault they hadn’t embraced the church before their untimely demise.

With the extra money Alexander was showering on the French and Bretons, they could be ready to launch an invasion of England before the end of the year. Winter in the English Channel isn’t the ideal time to launch an invasion, so it would have to wait until spring. Every person that Alexander talked to reinforced that; weather during the winter along the Atlantic coast was too unpredictable to launch the size of invasion needed to destroy Marion. If the French attempted to interrupt British trade, Marion would know something was happening. The most worrying part was neither the Bretons nor the French would have much in the way of firearms, with the French not believing in them and the Bretons “officially” prohibited from manufacturing them.

With the British threat in check, for the time being, Alexander could turn his attention back to the mess on the Italian peninsula. There, the Normans under Robert Guiscard were again getting rambunctious, but Papal forces were ready this time with support from the northern Italian cities. Many sent money, while others sent soldiers or food. Alexander didn’t know when the Normans would strike, but he would crush them when they did, even if he didn’t get help from the Holy Roman Empire. Alexander’s long-term goal was to extend the Papal States to the toe of the Italian peninsula and maybe even Sicily.

Frankfort, Holy Roman Empire. August 1068

In Frankfort, Henry was angry. There had been increasing pirate raids from the Rhine Estuary and north to Hamburg. From his spies, he knew the British were having the same problem, but to what degree, he didn’t know. Henry was beginning to regret telling Gretchen to stay in Britain, partly because of the large amount of information she had sent back and partly because he still had feelings for her. When she resigned from his service, Henry lost a powerful spy while Marion gained a powerful spy.

The last part was most worrying for Henry because he knew how intelligent Gretchen was, and she knew how Henry worked. If there was a worse person to go over to a potential rival, Henry couldn’t think of them. Many evenings, Henry would sit alone and contemplate what losing Gretchen meant to him personally and professionally.

Bertha wasn’t feeling forgiving of Henry’s moping. She liked the influence she had over Henry and the power she had over the empire’s nobles. If the nobles wanted something, they took it to Bertha, who would take it to Henry for a fee. The higher the fee, the harder she would push whatever the noble wanted. When Gretchen was around, she kept Bertha’s influence to a minimum by using her body and brain. Gretchen was much better looking than Bertha and a much more enthusiastic lover. In addition to being a better lover, Gretchen offered far more stimulating conversation than Bertha ever did.

With Gretchen out of the way, Bertha was now pregnant, which would keep Henry from bugging her until he needed another child. Hopefully, the child would be a boy, which would help secure the throne for the family and keep Bertha’s influence for years to come. If it was a girl, it might be a problem, but with the job Marion was doing in Britain, a woman in charge of the Holy Roman Empire might not be a bad idea. Of course, the child would still need to be elected, but by the time they were old enough, Bertha hoped most of the nobles would owe her a favor or two. That would secure her child’s election for Emperor and her place in power.

The most immediate threat to Henry was the economy started slowing down as he turned back to the nobles. It took Henry a few months to realize something terrible was happening, and only when he reviewed how much money was coming into his treasury did he realize how bad things were. He would have known much faster if he had taken the time to listen to the plebeian class.

That was something Gretchen did; she listened to the plebeians. Her philosophy was there were far more commoners than nobles, and given a chance; they were more productive. By helping the commoners be a little more productive, it paid huge dividends to the Empire’s economy. Now the commoners were not getting that help, and the Empire’s income reflected it.

The nobles were parasites feeding on the empire, but it would take enormous strength to keep them in check, strength Henry no longer had. Gretchen had been that strength, and with her gone, Henry lost most of his ability to say “No” to his nobles. It didn’t help that Bertha was actively advocating for them. After reflecting on the income summary and walking by his private lake, Henry realized why his income had gone down. The nobles couldn’t grow the economy as merchants and artisans could. The lower classes had incentives to take the risk and grow, while most nobles refused to take the necessary risk.

At about the same time Luke was fighting off the Moor raid, Henry secretly penned a letter to Gretchen, begging her to return to the empire. He would offer her anything she desired if she would return and help him rule. Bertha was too much a noblewoman and always sided with the nobility. Sure, some nobles worked to expand the economy and made money hand over fist, but most nobles took money from the economy without adding anything in return.

For the time being, the nobles were under control, but Henry feared that before too long, they would be demanding concessions for their continued support. Then the solution came to him from Britain. One of his merchants brought word of the stunning British victory over the Moorish pirates, and Henry had his answer. He would make his army like the British Army, which had very few nobles. Instead, the officers were commoners who had proved they could lead soldiers in battle.

The other half of Marion’s success story was technology. The British military exclusively used gunpowder weapons, with the army only using edged weapons as a last resort. While Henry couldn’t hope to match the British Navy with their steam-powered ships and accurate cannons, he could build an army that was second to none on the continent. The one constant theme in Gretchen’s reports was that Marion would not attack unless provoked. Henry couldn’t see any reason he would provoke Marion. They didn’t have overlapping interests, and Henry didn’t care for the new French king. Even though Guiscard had only been on the French throne for a few months, he was already making himself a pain in Henry’s arse.

When Henry quietly investigated the possibility of promoting commoners to officers, he was surprised to find his army was well on its way. Numerous NCOs could be promoted to officers, and every NCO promoted was one less noble in the army and one more officer loyal to Henry. Henry knew the project would take time, but it needed to be done, and at the moment, he had time.

Another step in strengthening the empire was the road, and canal network could be improved. When the army was on campaign, it was far easier to keep them supplied via a canal than by the roads. Both improvements would also help the economy. The most significant improvement to the economy, though, came from the use of coal in industry. For centuries, German blacksmiths had used charcoal to produce iron. With coal, they could achieve a much hotter fire enabling them to work the iron faster. Faster ironworking meant Henry’s army could obtain weapons quicker and at a lower cost than before. Henry’s eventual goal was to free the serfs and force the landowner to pay fair wages for their workers. Industrialization could help achieve that goal.

Paris, France. September 1068

While Henry was working to dilute the influence of nobles in his army, King Guiscard was increasing their power in the French Army. Any commoner that had been promoted to an officer by Philip was removed and replaced by a young nobleman. The nobles came from families to whom Guiscard owed favors or wanted their backing.

Commoners were only allowed to serve as soldiers and were banned from becoming officers. Nobles were automatically officers because Guiscard viewed nobles as superior leaders. The example of the British Army was ignored because those nobles were British, not the natural leaders that French nobles were.

The French Navy was treated the same way as Guiscard poured money into the navy to help it grow. In order to invade Britain, Guiscard would need a powerful fleet and good officers to lead it. To help the navy grow, Guiscard commissioned the building of several naval shipyards along the channel and impressed locals to work in them. Local sailors would be used to fill out the crews of the ships being built, and when war broke out, Guiscard planned on impressing every merchant ship he could find.

Military projects were only a side note to Guiscard’s primary task. He needed a noble heir to succeed him, and all his earlier children didn’t measure up. Most had commoner mothers who Guiscard had forced to bear his children. Others, including his wife, were low-level nobles who were barely better off than the serfs working the fields.

After making inquiries, Guiscard found the perfect wife. She was Clémence d’Aquitaine, daughter of William VII, Duke of Aquitaine and Ermensinde de Longwy. By marrying Clémence d’Aquitaine, Guiscard received a large amount of land in southwestern France as a dowry and the support of the Duke of Aquitaine, who had been one of the most vocal opponents of Guiscard.

Their wedding was set for Christmas day, 1068. After the wedding, Guiscard would arrange for the rest of his wife’s family to meet with an unfortunate accident, leaving the Duchy of Aquitaine to him.

Another piece of land Guiscard had his eyes set on was the land west of the Rhine that the Holy Roman Empire held. Guiscard reasoned that since that land was once Roman, it wasn’t German and, therefore, shouldn’t be ruled by a barbaric German. To obtain the land in question, Guiscard had every lawyer he could find going through ancient claims and deeds, looking for a legal reason to demand all the land west of the Rhine. With the complicated history of land ownership, it didn’t take long to find numerous claims he could make. A military solution was not on the table at the moment, hence the lawyers. Guiscard didn’t want to fight a two-front war; first Marion, then the Holy Roman Empire.

One of his foreign policy accomplishments was signing a formal alliance with Brittany; this had several effects. Brittany had a place to continue developing and manufacturing firearms away from prying British eyes, and Guiscard got a secured border allowing him to focus on other areas. The big one was when Guiscard decided it was time to invade England; he would have an enthusiastic ally who had fought the British before. Guiscard didn’t know how long it would take before he was ready to take on the British, but he was figuring some time in 1069.