Chapter 166: Election to the throne

After staying in Vienna for another night, the Marchioness Facchetti returned to Italy.

Although this trip was short, leaving her no time to appreciate the beauty of Vienna, it was indeed very fruitful for her and her family.

This was the first time that Ladislaus served as someone else's political protector, granting political benefits as a monarch and demanding something in return.

Although some Viennese nobles may feel that the new owner may be a little too generous to his lover after learning about the Colonna family's receipt.

However, the wealthy province of Friuli obtained from the wealthy Republic of Venice gave him a lot of prestige when he took office.

And the price paid by the Medici Cardinal would soon give Ladislaus more of the prestige he so desperately needed.

After seeing off the Marquise Facchetti, Ladislaus also left Vienna for Frankfurt that day.

On May 30, 1523, Ladislaus arrived at the Imperial Municipality of Nuremberg and was warmly welcomed by the mayor of Nuremberg.

Don't get me wrong. Municipality does not mean that the emperor has the right to rule the city, but it indicates whether any duke has the right to the city. The city is ruled by its own parliament and is considered a mini city-state like Frankfurt.

In order for the new acting cardinal to choose this path and reaffirm Nuremberg's exclusive status, Nuremberg provided Austrian Ladislaus with a gift of 10,000 talers and paid a large amount of travel expenses.

The Imperial Municipality of Nuremberg and several similar surrounding city-states have always been threatened by the strong branches of the Wittelsbach family in Bavaria and the Rhine-Palatin. Its success depends very much on Austria's balance and control of the various branches of the Wittelsbach family.

inhibition.

Therefore, several municipalities in the Central German Empire, including Augsburg and Ulm, relatively speaking, assumed some obligations to the central government. Although they were unwilling to recognize feudal power and resisted the institutionalization of taxation, they still

Every year, the Habsburg family is honored a little, and this income is an important source of private treasury for the rulers of Vienna.

Therefore, despite being tired from the journey, Ladislaus insisted on dancing a few dances with several noble ladies and ladies from Nuremberg at the dinner party.

He also generously praised the outstanding contributions of the Nuremberg heroes to the unification and stability of the empire.

However, he refused the mayor's niece's suggestion to show him the way to his bedroom.

Because at the end of the banquet in the city hall, Ladislaus met the ambassador of the Austrian Electorate of the Rhine-Palatinate who had just arrived, and received an unexpected news.

Although Heidelberg was very close to Frankfurt, Louis V, Elector of the Rhine-Palatinate, set out from his capital Heidelberg to the east of his territory to meet him, and then went with him to Frankfurt.

So Ladislaus decided that he needed to recharge himself at night to deal with the old fox tomorrow.

In addition to a few Austrian noblewomen, the maids currently following him are Mrs. Reinhardt. Although she has a German name, she is still learning German. In addition, her birth is not enough, so even if she has the rank of priest

Ladislaus's goal of installing a chamberlain for her also seemed difficult to achieve.

The original housekeeper came from Hungary with Anna Jagloni Habsburg, and this time she also went to Spain with her, so this position was vacant.

But having a knight-level woman serve as housekeeper is still unacceptable to other women who are eyeing her.

Mrs. Reinhard has also been immersed in dizzy happiness recently, although the German maids all look down on this "illiterate" from the Italian countryside.

But since the newly in power Cardinal Archbishop only allowed this "illiterate" to sleep on his bed except for the "middle-aged woman" from Siena, the maids still surrounded her and complimented her beauty and wisdom in Italian, using all kinds of tactics.

Do whatever it takes to please her.

All palace maids are either very beautiful or very scheming, so they are sent to the palace by their parents to serve the monarch.

Mrs. Reinhardt, who was born into a lower-level noble and could not even speak Latin, did have a bit of normal stage fright compared to them, and after experiencing the harshness of the world, she could somewhat feel the malice behind these women's flattering smiles.

However, having experienced suffering is what Ladislaus sees as her advantage. Compared with those noble ladies who rely purely on birth and beauty to climb up, she will be more grateful and understand that it is love rather than pure lust that makes her

Obtained a status that was unimaginable in the past.

Ladislas believed this relationship would be more reliable.

Therefore, this time I specially brought Mrs. Reinhardt with me to show my attitude.

In order to take care of her oath of traveling by land, she insisted on taking the land route and gave up all places where waterways could be used.

But today, Ladislaus went to bed after letting Mrs. Reinhard massage his legs for a while. As mentioned before, he wanted to take a good rest.

On May 31, Ladislaus was grandly received by the Elector at the border of the Rhine-Palatinate Electorate.

The Elector of the Rhine-Palatin came to greet Ladislaus with his entire court, including all members of the Elector's own family and nearly five hundred retainers.

Although Ladislaus is not a contender for the throne, and it may be difficult for him to turn Austria into his hereditary territory, it is obvious that if nothing unexpected happens, he will control the most important affairs of the entire Holy Roman Empire in the next few decades.

One of the vassal states.

Even so, theoretically Ladislaus's status is not as good as that of an elector, especially when the election for the imperial throne is about to take place.

Ladislaus was not at ease with the elector's low profile.

Is this guy still fighting against the doctrine of the Nuremberg Reich Municipality?

This is not easy to handle. After all, they have just received money from others, and if the Habsburgs are the only super-first-class family in the empire, then Wittelsbach is the best among the first-class families. It is absolutely impossible to allow them to expand their power.

However, after the meeting, the Elector of the Rhine-Palatin did not make any demands. Instead, he presented a congratulatory gift of 10,000 talers and distributed a large number of valuable gifts to the accompanying nobles and maids.

Although he received 120,000 thalers for the ticket, that money came from the Spanish treasury and Ferdinand's private treasury, so Ladislaus was still in a good mood.

Next, the elector did not talk about business at all, but only used various means to strengthen feelings.

Then they did not go to Franconia, the important town in the eastern part of the Rhine-Palatinate electorate, but went straight west.

The huge procession followed the Main River, a tributary of the Rhine River, through the territory of the Archbishop of Würzburg. This archbishop was also a religious prince but did not have the right to vote, and headed for Frankfurt.

The territory of the Rhine-Palatinate elector was very fragmented along the Rhine, intertwined with the territories of several municipalities and religious princes, and was generally divided into two disconnected chunks, known as the Upper and Lower Palatinate. The upper and lower Palatinate were based on

The upper and lower reaches of the Rhine are named, with upper referring to the eastern part and lower referring to the western part.

This strange state line was the result of compromises following various marriages and succession wars, and was very common among the German princes.

On June 14, Ladislaus met with the Elector of Mainz outside Frankfurt. Prime Minister Sazastan and Frunzberg, who had arrived in Frankfurt earlier, also went out to greet him. They would meet him at the manor outside the city.
Chapter completed!