Part 15: Dubito ergo sum (1301-1303)
This year our father Hieronymus - rightfully nicknamed 'the Great' - died in battle against the heathen enemies of the Mongol Horde.
We, Augustin, were therefore elected 'Prince Mayor Augustin II'.
Augustin I, our grandfather, fought with the other patrician families to gain control over the Republic. He built up our economic power on the way
and seized a few cities to bring us even more income.
Hieronymus I, our father, claimed more cities and fought the Teutonic Order in the eastern Baltic. He secured our succession and we are thankful for it.
Now, we have to continue the legacy of our forefathers and bring our family to power in the north of Europe.
Our first ambition will be to get the position of chancellor in the council of our liege, the Kaiser.
It is most likely he will select us for the job, because of our wicked diplomacy skill. We will gain an extra point for fulfilling the ambition.
Our son and most likely heir will be educated by us, of course, and it's good to see our two most important allies -the dukes of Brunswick and Swabia- still like us.
Peter, our current heir, is not the man we hoped him to be. He lacks stewardship skill.
For the time being we will let him stay our heir. His age gives him a lot of respect within the Republic.
The alternatives are listed on the right.
- Ruprecht, our brother; great diplomat like us, decent fighter.
- Hieronymus, our nephew; good diplomat and decent steward and plotter.
Let's hope we live a long life, so our own three sons can grow up to be genius leaders.
And we are paying special attention to our oldest son, little Adolf.
The new Kaiser is a genius also. That's not good.
As vassals, we want a weak leader above us. Preferably weak enough for him to be forced to lower crown authority.
But I think we are out of luck in the Holy Roman Empire. In the future we may have to fight for it.
Of course the genius appointed us chancellor, perfect!
Our wife Peksen bothered us, but not so much. She gave us an opportunity to become Zealous.
I like Zealous.
Being Zealous does not withhold us to attack the Hochmeister, though. He is only holy in name, not in deeds.
We will steal Riga from him.
Adolf is the kind sort of person. In the past, he already gained Trusting and Deceitful. Next to being a genius from birth.
It's good to see he loves us too.
After a short journey, our army is doing a good job along the coasts of the Baltic Sea.
The Hochmeiser could only raise a small army and we crushed it already. Sieging his castles may however take a while.
Adolf is a bad boy. We don't want him to be Cynical, but Zealous like us. He needs the martial skill for his future conquering.
And the Kaiser is a bad boy too, raising Crown Authority almost instantly.
Our kinsman and heir Peter got a genius daughter. Maybe he should become my heir after all..
Our sister Ute needs a new husband, and we have found just the perfect one for her.
The King of Bulgaria will be our ally -not being able to assist us in wars-, but the prestige is good because we are low on it right now.
The love we gave Peksen was worth it. We could be looking forward to our fourth son already!
The allies we can call into war are thus called in. Maybe they can help us to wrap up this war a bit sooner.
Speaking of war...
The Golden Horde seems to be in succession crisis. Let's hope they will be busy for a loooong time, and maybe -just maybe- there will be something in it for us, too.
We finished sieging the castle in Riga. It will be our castle soon.
A far away nephew came of age.
As a tactician, he might be able to assist us in wartime.
Our allies are arriving and going after the small armies that were left over from our battles.
It sure took them a while.
That's my lad! Despite being Trusting and all, our Adolf is a Brave boy.
Let's hope our newest addition to the family will be a brave boy also.
We will continue this sieging.
Until the Hochmeister surrenders!
We are now in control of Riga, half of the duchy of Courland. We will make it a Republic.
Ten years from now -when our truce ends- we can attack the Hochmeister again to seize Kurland.
But now, we will have to think about our next step..
Prince Gudbrand of Norway is revolting. We have a city on his land and could try to seize Akershus.
He's got quite the army, though. It will cost us a lot of hard work to get this claim pressed.
With the help of our allies, we might be able to raise about 30.000 men. But then we would be depending on our allies.
The Mongol Succession Crisis also gives us an opportunity.
We could declare war on the boy in Novgorod and wage a holy war for a one county duchy.
The de jure duchy would give us a claim on the land Denmark has next to it.
The boy has a small army, because he's at war and because he's a boy. But when the Khagan wraps up his crisis, he might come after us.
What should we do?
The options seem to be:
1. Attack the Prince of Norway for Akershus.
2. Attack the Mongol boy for Estonia and risk being kicked out again by the Khagan.
3. Do nothing, save up money, raise Adolf to be a hero, build some buildings, kill some Vorrades, wait for Holland to revolt and the truce to end, etc. etc.
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