Chapter 1: Getting Started. (1066-1076)
The County of Zollern is in debt.
With only 2 gold, the county is losing 0.4 a month, leaving it with only 5 months before entering the red. But for now, Friedrich could only wait, as he couldn’t ask the Pope for money, and couldn’t increase taxes. In December, Friedrich finally runs out of gold, and now needs to raise income. The only thing we could do is fire our Court Tutor, Liutbert, because the position took 0.62 gold a month.
While waiting for his money to slowly come back, Friedrich would search his libraries, where he found an ancient military text in an ancient language. Trying to learn more, Friedrich would try to translate the book into High German, instead of reading a newer scroll.
While working on the translations, he would figure out the name of the battle: The Battle of Thermopylae. Reading the text, it seems as if the battle is over a millennia old, and details how the Greek line held the small passage, but was outflanked by Persians, and the King of Greece would defend the line with his 300 men, dying valiantly.
While studying the bulk of the texts, knights from across Germany heed Friedrich’s call, and slowly entered the county, to try and join Friedrichs army.
After a few weeks, news of a Bison sighting in Zollern would reach Friedrich. Friedrich would begin readying a hunting party, to kill the magnificent beast.
While starting the process, early on Friedrich would find it would require at least 50 gold to finance, so he would delay the hunt to later on.
With an unruly bishop teaching unorthodox doctrine, we would lose standing in the eyes of the pope, which would decrease the chance of getting money from the pope to host the hunt.
While having Count Friedrich III of Ravensburg slipping up, and admitting we have a claim on Grunningein, we couldn’t make a move, as the county was outnumbered 1 to 6 by Friedrich III and his allies.
With the support for Duke Rudolf slowly waning, several counts would try to garner support for installing themselves as duke, something that would be quite unfavorable for Friedrich’s plans.
While training in the art of sword fighting, a lowly footman would almost disarm Friedrich, and Friedrich would take note, inviting the footman, Werner, into the court as a bodyguard.
Finally, after 2 years of trying to convince Rudolf to let Friedrich marry Rudolf’s daughter, Adelaide would finally be betrothed to Friedrich.
With Rudolf accepting, Friedrich would enter an alliance with Rudolf, and Friedrich would begin step 2 of his plan: Kill Rudolf’s heir. At this point, Friedrich would know he could not successfully kill the Heir, so he would slowly wait, biding his time.
In England, William the Conqueror would install himself on the throne, and would expand English holdings into Normandy.
The Count of Zurich, Berthold, would begin fighting against Rudolf in a war for their independence, bringing Friedrich into the war on Rudolf’s side.
After raising his army, Friedrich would march his army to Sigmaringen, to meet up with Rudolf’s forces. After following Rudolf’s forces, they would arrive in Sundgau, where Rudolf’s forces would begin besieging the castle.
Back in Zollern, enemy armies would surround the Castle, trying to enter, which would be a very bad position for the county. Friedrich’s Marshal, Augustin, would also recruit another person into my court, named Baldomar. In Sundgau, Rudolf’s forces would storm the castle, and the county would enter occupation. Sadly, Zollern would fall to enemy forces, and news would reach Friedrich’s armies that 2 of Friedrich’s courtiers would be killed by the attacking army.
The army of Rudolf would march east, perhaps to defend Ulm from siege. While the army passed through Zollern, Friedrich would command his men to stay and free his Castle from occupation. After Rudolf’s army destroyed the enemy army, Rudolf would march his men to pursue the scattered forces, while we would siege Zollern alone.
However, Friedrich would now be in debt, already down 10 gold, and losing over 2 a month. After finally winning the siege, Friedrich would tell his armies to disband, to avoid paying them wages, to help our economy begin gaining money again. Finally, after easily defeating the enemy, duke Rudolf would force his enemies to surrender, ending the war.
Because of helping Rudolf win the war, Friedrich would become chancellor of Swabia, giving Friedrich more power in Rudolf’s court. Almost immediately, however, Rudolf would revoke Friedrich’s position, making Friedrich confused and mad, but Friedrich would not pursue his anger.
As well as this, Friedrich would begin trying to get his bishop to endorse him, to increase his standing in the church. Friedrich would also fire his bodyguard, Werner, to try and stop Friedrich from losing more gold. Along with this, Friedrich would tell his marshal, Augustin, to increase control to raise taxes, to try and get out of debt.
Rudolf would enter war with Sundgau, but Friedrich would decide to not aid Rudolf until Rudolf asked Friedrich himself, because Friedrich still needed to leave debt. Not too much later, news would reach Friedrich that Rudolf easily defeated Sundgau.
In Champagne, a new heresy known as Catharism would form, which denounced the pope in Rome. Upon receiving the news, Friedrich would easily denounce the new faith, to try and gain the favor of the pope.
Back in Zollern, peasants would become dissatisfied with Friedrich’s control over his county, and slowly gained power, to try to make him have less control over his lands.
With Catharism slowly spreading across France, Friedrich could only hope the cult doesn't spread to Germany, or even to Zollern itself.
Friedrich would be appointed as Rudolf’s master of the hunt, but Friedrich would suspect he would be removed shortly. Much to his surprise, he wasn’t removed, and he would stay as Rudolf’s master of the hunt. Not too long after this, Friedrich would be invited to Count Berthold of Zurich’s hunt, and Friedrich would accept, leaving shortly after receiving the invitation.
While traveling, a lunatic would block the road, trying to have a “fair fight” Not having it, Friedrich and his travel party would keep going, trampling the fool. Sadly, Friedrich’s caravan master, Ida, would be trampled by this, but a few days later, the travel party would arrive in Basel.
After a few days at camp, count Berthold announced he would try to hunt a fox, and the hunt had begun. While traveling on the hunt, the hunting party would come across a cottage. The lady living there would be quite fine in Friedrich’s eyes, but Friedrich would resist his urges, and the hunt would continue.
Not even a week later, the hunting party would see the fox, and after pursuing it for a week, count Berthold would kill it and would take its tail, ending the hunt soon after.
After the hunt, Friedrich would arrive in Zollern, with no important things happening on the return trip. In Zollern, Friedrich would receive a request from Rudolf for Friedrich to become the guardian of Bertha, Rudolf’s daughter. Friedrich would accept, and Bertha would begin traveling to Zollern, arriving a week later.
Finally, Friedrich would finally marry Adelaide after her coming of age, and Friedrich would once again be one step closer to being duke of Swabia.
Not too long after that, a Norman Peasant would be arrested for a minor crime, and Friedrich would insult the Norman people, much to the dismay of Friedrich’s Norman bishop, who Friedrich was trying to sway.
After finishing training, Friedrich would order his men to all go to Zollern Separately. After a while, almost half of Friedrich’s army still hadn’t returned, so he would lead a search party to recover his soldiers.
While searching, Friedrich would enter a town where a heretic would declare himself “Divine protector of the town.” Friedrich would declare that he was already ruling by divine right, and the search would continue. After finding a small encampment commanded by one of Friedrich’s knights, Friedrich would be quite angry with the knight for not listening to Friedrich’s orders.
After continuing the search, Friedrich would have to carry water supply for the army mules, and finally the last few soldiers would be found and recovered. Once arriving back in Zollern, Friedrich would arrest his spymaster, Walpurga, for adultery, and she would be put in Friedrich’s dungeons. To replace her, Friedrich would give his knight and court Physician Liutbert the role of spymaster. After a brief stint in the dungeon, Walpurga would finally die.
While waiting for time to pass, Friedrich would learn that his wife, Adelaide, was finally pregnant, and would give birth later, in December, to Klara.
Finally, as the new year began, it had been a decade since Friedrich ascended the throne of Zollern, and the world had changed.
