Chapter 40: Dowager Baroness Mathilda
...
The room’s windows offered a gloomy view of the Swabian valley, now veiled in the smoke of the great forges.
The door unlatched with a sudden noise.
Dowager Baroness Mathilda, Konrad’s mother, swept into the room.
She had arrived from her dower estate in a distant province only a few days prior, received by Konrad with a formal but cold welcome.
She was a woman bound to the old ways of the Holy Roman Empire... a creature of strict piety and ancient pride. Her gown rustled as she halted before the table.
"I have borne the turning of this estate," Mathilda began, "But I will not keep silent on the blasphemy you bring into the heart of this keep."
"..." Konrad did not look up.
"Name your grievance, Mother."
"Lady Isolde!" Mathilda spat the name like poison. "You parade the former Duchess of Württemberg through these halls not as a hostage, but as your lawful wife. The Church courts in Nuremberg draw up writs to cast us out.
You have broken the holy vows, bypassed the Emperor’s Diet, and bound our house to a woman whose kin even now raise a holy war against us!"
Konrad set his tools down. He turned his eyes toward the Baroness. "The marriage to Lady Isolde was a measured pact... The Fugger moneylenders require a true pledge of our lasting rule before they send the next chests of silver. By bringing the Duchess to our side, we prove our house stands firm."
He paused, shifting his parchment. "Moreover, the seed is sown. She now bears the heir. This truth breaks any plot by the Bavarians to force a marriage upon us."
Mathilda stared at him, her chest heaving. The coldness of his words stripped away centuries of holy tradition!
Without warning, the Baroness lunged forward.
Her hand struck Konrad’s cheek with a sharp crack.
The blow turned Konrad’s head. A red mark grew on his pale skin.
He did not raise a hand.
"What you’re doing is pointless," Konrad said, "Striking the master of this house will not change the truth."
"You are a thing of iron!" Mathilda cried, "You have broken God’s order! Your half-brother, Friedrich, is the rightful heir, a man of faith and honor! He would never forgive the shame you bring upon this house by bedding the foe!"
Konrad’s eyes locked onto hers. The naming of Friedrich turned his mind to the next step of his design.
"Friedrich is no man of faith," Konrad corrected, "He is a ruinous peril to us all. The breaking of our cattle roads and the sudden tolls on Baltic saltpeter are not the winds of chance. They are the fruits of treason."
"This...?" Mathilda froze, breath catching in her throat.
"...treason? What say you?"
"I speak plain truth," Konrad explained, standing.
He walked to an iron chest in the corner. "Your favored stepson has been breaking our supply roads. He has treated in secret with the captains of the Swabian League. He means to starve our people, halt the making of powder, and yield the great forges to the Bishop of Augsburg in exchange for a lord’s seat."
Mathilda stumbled backward, gripping the table for support. The color left her face!
"No... Friedrich is a true man of the Empire. He would never betray his own blood to the priests. You forge lies to excuse your cruel rule."
Konrad did not argue.
He unlatched the chest and drew out a black calfskin ledger, alongside a stack of ciphered scrolls bound in wax.
He dropped them onto the desk before her.
"I do not forge lies, Mother," Konrad stated. "These are the taken books of the Hanseatic smugglers, matched with Friedrich’s own letters. They tell the exact weight of goods he stole from our stores. Herein lies the sworn, written witness of Sir Hildebrand, proving Friedrich’s dark pact with the Bishop."
Mathilda’s hands hovered over the papers.
She knew not how to read the ciphers, but the great heap of proof, bound with the unquestioned wax seal of the old knight, Hildebrand, carried a dreadful truth.
For a long while, the only sound was the distant, steady sound of the water-hammers echoing from the valley.
"The holy war marches..." Mathilda whispered, "If they breach the valley, they will burn us all. If Friedrich has truly joined them..."
She looked at her eldest son, "Why have you not called the noble council? Why have you not laid this before the Swabian magistrates? The lords must be told of this treason at once."
In the old ways of the Empire, a true lord would seek the wisdom of the council, following the strict laws of the Diet. A lord of mercy would try to soften the blow of shedding kindred blood through parley.
"The council’s heart is too soft..." Konrad stated, "They remain anchored to the old ways of noble mercy. If shown these truths, their minds would falter. They would seek to parley, or worse, offer Friedrich exile to the Church to spare his life."
Konrad leaned over the desk, "To falter is death. The Empire is a broken clockwork, crumbling at our borders. To survive, these lands must move as one."
"You mean to put your own half-brother to death in the shadows... Without a trial... Without the council’s word."
"Friedrich shall draw his last breath, but the deed will be done in the light of day, perfect in its measure, and entirely lawful." Konrad corrected.
Tap... tap... He tapped a finger against the ledger. "We now face a holy army of three thousand men-at-arms and horsemen. When their front ranks cross the marked ground at our borders, I shall loose four-and-twenty of my new great guns, firing bursting shot."
"...at the very moment the great guns break the priests’ front line, Friedrich shall lose his head in the courtyard for treason of coin!"
"The sudden strike of my law within, joined with the terrible storm of iron without, shall shatter the spirits of the Emperor’s men. It will prove to the Diet that the Church’s wrath is as nothing against the force of powder and shot."
Mathilda pulled her cloak tight. She didn’t know how to respond to what he had said.
