Heiliges Römisches Reich der Deutscher Nation

[Ayzek]

Aachen, Kingdom of Germany, Holy Roman Empire
1 January 1780

The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation was increasingly holy and an empire. When Protestantism spread like wildfire across the whole of the empire in the early 16th, its German Emperors took advantage to cleanse the realm of the Papist stench that long undermined the Imperial Crown. With the Emperor Protestant and the Anglo-Frankish and Scandinavians in his support, the Pope could do little but watch as Protestantism overran northern and central Germany. The European wars of religion consequently came to an end much earlier, with the Holy Roman Empire united under a Protestant monarch by the end of the century, following various minor, localized conflicts. Unravaged by the likes of the Thirty Year's War and unhampered by the Peace of Westphalia, the empire was much stronger and its monarch much more powerful. Though Catholics were allowed to practice their faith, the faith of the Emperor was the faith of the empire and a Catholic was prohibited from holding office or throne.

Together with the Aulic Council and the Imperial Chamber Court of the eve of the 15th century and the Imperial Diet, in perpetual session since the late 17th century, the Holy Roman Empire of the 16th century was certainly seeming a unified nation-state. The Emperor's Imperial Army was composed of more than just German troops, and the Army of the Holy Roman Empire was increasingly well-funded, manned, and dependable. The Diet had even authorized an Imperial Navy in 1776, which was beginning to take shape in the shipyards of Holland and Pomerania.

The sun was rising on the Holy Roman Empire.

King of Germany and Bohemia, the Holy Roman Emperor was unrivaled within his realm, and the princes knew it. The election of the next emperor was already little more than formality, as no one commanded as much power and faith as the House of Luxembourg-Wittelsbach and its patriarch. Nonetheless, to absolutely subjugate the imperial princes would take time and careful maneuvering.

[Ayzek]

At 63 years old, Frederick IV felt he was reaching his time. But there was still much to do. Though the largely Protestant population of Bohemia had welcomed him with open arms, incorporating the territory had been no simple task. He'd been in Prague for nearly a decade after seizing the throne from his cousins in Austria and had only recently returned to Aachen. He'd spent a short while presiding over the Imperial Diet in Regensburg urging it expand the Army of the Holy Roman Empire, arguing that the Emperor's armies alone could no longer properly defend the empire in the modern world. Perhaps it was true, though perhaps he simply wanted to free his troops for the subjugation of Hungary and Transylvania. While his Imperial Army would march across the world at a single command, deploying the Army of the Holy Roman Empire required first consulting the Imperial Diet.

The Army of the Empire was nonetheless a deterrent. He planned on stationing them in the west and north while his main armies marched into Hungary. Though Europe had made no stirrings to intervene in Holy Roman affairs, one could not be too cautious. And after the rebellions in Hungary and Transylvania were put down, perhaps the time would be right to unify the empire.