Chapter 26

Rome, Papal States. October 1068

While going through reports from his priest and bishops in England, Alexander learned about the new British naval base and the destruction of the Muslim pirate fleet. Alexander was of two minds about the Muslim fleet’s destruction. On the one hand, Urtatim Bint Asbat had been a significant thorn in the side of many Christian rulers around the western Mediterranean. On the other hand, Marion’s forces had won another major victory.

If Alexander was going to defeat Marion and bring the British back under church power, he would have to take drastic action, an action he desperately didn’t want to take. Alexander would have to launch a holy war against Marion, but that would have unforeseen consequences, and Alexander no longer doubted the power that Marion wielded in Britain. The other thought giving Alexander pause was Marion had left the church alone aside from demanding greater transparency and forcibly removing some corrupt church officials. One of those corrupt officials was none other than the one Luke had shot in the knee, and Marion had dripped Luke’s cum in his mouth.

With the corrupt officials gone and services held in English, church income in Britain had increased by ten percent despite Marion banishing the church from commercial enterprises unless they wanted to pay taxes on that income. Since the church in Britain didn’t want to pay taxes, they sold their commercial holdings and used that income to upgrade British churches. Ironically, part of the extra income from British churches was used to subsidize the Breton and French armies so they could invade Britain. The rest of the additional income was used to help build the Papal States’ war machine.

In times past, the Papal States was another weak military power on the Italian Peninsula and only survived because the Pope had outside support. Now Alexander wanted to change that, and to do that, he would need to build the Papal Army into a much more powerful war machine.

Considering their most recent victory over the Muslims, Alexander was forced to admit the old ways of fighting were gone and never coming back. If he wanted the Papal States to stay relevant, Alexander would need to modernize the Papal Army, and to do that; they would need rifled muskets and smoothbore artillery. It would be better if Alexander could have the breechloading rifles and steel artillery that the British Army used, but nobody in Europe besides the British could get the technology to work.

Regarding smoothbore artillery, if it was one thing Alexander had, it was connections to some of Europe’s best bellmakers. It was already known that casting a bronze cannon was very similar to casting a bell. Alexander would buy muskets from Brittany, Norway, and the Holy Roman Empire to speed up his force’s adaptation. If he could be left alone, Alexander was confident he could have the most powerful army in Italy by the spring of 1069. Late one evening, he was sitting in his chamber alone, aside from his servant Sextus;

“I must be going mad, Sextus.”

“Why?”

“I have realized I must adopt Queen Marion’s style of waging war if the Papal States are to survive.”

“And that is such a bad thing?”

“Don’t you see, Sextus, it’s like becoming the devil to fight the devil. I fought for over two years to destroy Marion, and her devilish inventions, only to start using them myself. What will happen next, a woman on the throne of the church?”

“Nobody ever said you had to adopt all of Marion’s innovations. Everyone knows Marion is a fluke, and things will return to normal soon enough. What is a person’s life compared to the time that passed since Christ was on Earth? What’s that compared to the time since the ancient Egyptians? There were a few notable female Egyptian rulers, and they still have men in charge. I believe your Grace that men are destined to be the leaders of God’s children, and the British are actually led by Marion’s husband, Luke, not her.”

“You may be right, Sextus. It does seem that Marion repeats everything her husband says. Thank you, you may have devised a way to sow dissent among the British population.”

“Thank you, your Grace.”

Alexander tossed a pouch of gold to Sextus for his insight into dealing with Marion. If the British started questioning who they were following, they would challenge everything she said and eventually rise against her paving the way for friendly powers to invade and install a king that would be friendly to the pope.

“Sextus, I want to write letters to all my representatives in Britain, ordering them to publicly question who the ruler of Britain really is.”

“Of course, your Grace, I should have all the letters written within three days.”

“See to it, Sextus. This has to go right, and you’re the only person I trust to make it happen.”

Frankfort, Holy Roman Empire. October 1068

While Sextus was writing letters to the Pope’s representatives in Britain, Henry IV wrote a very different letter to one particular Brit. He desperately needed Gretchen to return home and advise him on getting out of the mess he was in with his nobles. It was early fall, and revenue was continuing to fall. Also, nobles demanded that some of Henry’s fundamental reforms be canceled. Reforms like firearms for the army and commoners in the officer corps. Every commoner promoted into the officer corps was one less noble’s son that could be given their first command.

Compounding Henry’s problems was his wife pushing him toward being concerned for only the noble’s concerns and not the worries of the commoners as Gretchen did. Gretchen understood there are far more commoners than there were nobles.

Even when Henry stood his ground against his wife, she had a lever to force his cooperation. She refused his advances until he gave in to whatever demand she had. This worked well against Henry because he refused to visit the local brothel. One of the books Gretchen sent back was a medical book that explained sexually transmitted diseases. When Henry entered the local brothel, he saw the signs of sexually transmitted infections on most of the whores.

Bertha might have believed Marion was a complete liar, but Henry believed what Gretchen had sent back. He believed the books because he could go out and see what was described for himself. Anytime Bertha got on her soapbox about what Marion was doing, Henry ignored her the best he could. While some of the information Gretchen sent back, Henry found difficult to believe, the one thing he had no difficulty believing was Queen Marion I would be remembered far into the future. Like Julius Caesar or Alexander the Great, Marion would be remembered and revered far into the future.

Henry was far less sure about his legacy. He was the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire but hadn’t done anything memorable. Sure, Henry conquered the rebellious province of Saxony, but rulers did that all the time and almost all were forgotten. Henry didn’t want to be forgotten by history, but having to share the stage with someone like Marion, he had his work cut out for him. The thought of being forgotten made Henry so depressed that nothing seemed to cheer him.

At parties, Henry’s first thought was how much money was being thrown away only to show off to fellow nobles. Within weeks of Henry’s epiphany, he couldn’t stand to be near nobles. Like Gretchen had stated multiple times, the nobility was nothing but leeches sucking the life out of the Empire.

Gretchen was still affecting Henry; her leaving and his ordering her not to return had pried Henry’s eyes open to the actual state of the empire, and he didn’t like what he saw. In late autumn, Henry came to several firm conclusions. One was unless there were drastic changes, the empire would be at significant risk of external threats. Two, the empire would never be strong enough if Henry relied on the nobles; he had to tap into the strength of the middle class. To do that, the reforms that Henry had canceled had to be reinstated and expanded.

These conclusions were brought about by the relatively poor harvest that year. The only areas with good crops were where the commoners ran things. In areas where the local nobility ran things, the harvest was poor. This discrepancy was the last straw for Henry, and by the first of November, he had reinstated all the canceled reforms. When the nobles complained, he ordered them to shut up and pointed to the recent harvest.

Not getting anywhere with Henry, the nobles turned to Bertha and paid her huge sums to turn Henry around. This time when she denied Henry, he left the bed chamber. As he left, he spoke a stern warning to Bertha;

“If you try to seek sexual relief from someone else, I will have you executed as a traitor. If you try and abort my child, your execution will be far worse.”

When Henry left the room, Bertha was in shock. He had never stood up to her before, but the look in his eyes told her he was serious. She had apparently lost her leverage, but all that meant to her was Henry getting it from someone else. If she could find that woman, Bertha would be able to push Henry to do whatever she wanted.

Soon, Bertha followed Henry everywhere and paid various servants for information about what he was doing. What she found was disturbing; Henry wasn’t being entertained by another woman or even a man. He spent the days at a desk reading reports and sending orders. When Henry did go out, it was to visit the military base or one of the countless workshops that now dotted Frankfort. At night, Henry worked as long as he had light, and when he was done, he visited the royal chapel before going to bed alone. The next day, the cycle would repeat.

Then Bertha’s spy efforts hit a snag; her child decided it was time to make an early appearance. Bertha’s water broke early in the morning, and the royal midwife and priest were at her side before long. Not long after daybreak, Henry stopped by to check on things before going to the office. The tension between Henry and Bertha was so thick it would take an axe to cut it. By this time, Bertha and Henry hated each other despite the flame of their earlier romance. Bertha wanted her influence back, while Henry only needed an heir from Bertha. Outside of that, he didn’t care about her anymore. Her attempted use of her body to influence Henry toward the nobles who were paying her was bad enough; Henry also knew about her spying on him. Bertha didn’t stop to wonder if some of the servants she was paying to spy on Henry were, in fact, spies for Henry.

Henry kept many spies among the servants to watch for assassination attempts. Any assassin that tried to get to him in the castle would have to have friends among the servants. Keeping spies in his court was one of Gretchen’s lasting influences, just like the spies Henry kept all over the empire. Their job was to inform Henry if any of the nobles got too much power.

After suffering in labor all day, Bertha delivered a healthy boy as the sun began to set. The boy was named Henry after his father, and Bertha hoped he would one day become Henry V. Henry had his heir, but due to high mortality rates, he wanted a few more sons to ensure his family would continue.

With an heir, Henry could focus on securing his legacy as a great leader. The literacy program for commoners was one of the first to return to operation. Henry had noticed that commoners who had gone through the program before being canceled had higher incomes than commoners who didn’t read. Some literate commoners had higher incomes than nobles in the same area. This was enough proof for Henry that Marion was on the right track, and that following her was the intelligent thing to do. By following, Henry would see her pitfalls and be able to avoid them himself.

As Henry worked to reinstate programs, he was thankful his military reforms hadn’t been canceled because some of his margraves were becoming restless. Chief among these was the new Margrave of Meissen, Egbert II. Egbert had been close to Duke Ordulf Billung, and his execution had angered Egbert so much that he wanted revenge.

Through his spies, Henry knew Egbert was looking to Poland for a possible alliance against Henry, going so far as to offer Poland the recently reconquered Milceni region. As long as Egbert had Polish support and won the war with Henry, Poland would receive Milceni and a guarantee that Milceni would remain Polish.

Egbert also had a problem; the Margravate of Meissen was a poor regain with few natural resources. The porcelain industry that would later make the region famous hadn’t been introduced yet. Egbert’s only significant source of revenue was from taxing trade flowing through his lands, but Henry IV cut that funding off when he banned the practice of taxing internal trade. With tariffs cut off, Egbert had to find alternative sources of financing.

One autumn night, when he was visiting the local brothel, it hit him. He would lease out whores to other nobles and towns, with Egbert receiving a large portion of the whore’s incomes. To have enough whores to pay for the needed army, Egbert planned to go from household to household and collected one female from every house. He didn’t care if they were married or not. He didn’t even care if the woman was nine months pregnant. She would become a whore, or she would never see her family again. Any child born of a whore would become state property, no matter when that child was conceived.

On 1 November 1068, Egbert set his plan into motion when he went through the town of Meissen and collected the women to start his whoring empire. The sweep took two days, and once it was done, Egbert ordered all the women to be assembled so he could inspect them. In all, they managed to collect almost two hundred women. While some were beggars, others were wives and daughters of merchants or artisans. Egbert walked into the room where they were assembled and smiled before shouting directions;

“WOMEN! I know you wonder why you have been assembled here, so I will tell you now. This region is poor but must have soldiers to protect it against its enemies. To have those soldiers, I need money, and all of you will help me get the funds required. You have been selected to become whores and will be leased out to rich nobles or towns that do not want their women degraded.” Some of the women gasped while others cried. A few, though, looked at Egbert with fire in their eyes. Egbert had to break these women, or everything could fall apart. “I want all of you to strip and form a single line facing me! Any who refuse will have their clothing cut from them before being whipped. Now, STRIP!”

Slowly the women stripped and lined up. The guards had to cut the clothing off several women, but they had fun whipping them. Once all the women were lined up, Egbert slowly walked the line to see what goods he had to sell. Some of the women were too old, so Egbert had those women taken to the hog pens. The ones who were too young were put to work in the kitchen until they came of age.

Once he made the first pass separating the ones who wouldn’t be whores, Egbert made another pass. This time the inspection was much more thorough. Egbert checked each woman from head to toe. He checked each woman’s breast for firmness or to see if she was lactating. Lactating women were taken to the nursery to be wet nurses when they were not whores. Teeth were inspected to ensure no sharp edges to catch on her customer’s cock. If a sharp tooth was found, all that woman’s teeth were pulled. Each woman was ordered to spread her legs so Egbert could check her virginity. Virgins were worth much more and would be auctioned off, a few at a time, so the price would remain high.

Once Egbert had priced the women, it was time to degrade them further. He ordered all body hair to be pulled before they were sold. Egbert didn’t want the girls carrying lice. Each woman had her arms and legs restrained while a servant would pluck every hair from her body below the neck. It was worst for those women with hairy pussies or hair in their butt crack because when Egbert said every hair, he meant every hair. After the long hairs were plucked, each woman’s body was waxed to rid it of the fine hairs. Each woman was inspected after the servant was done with them. If any hair was found, the servant was beaten while the offending hair was removed.