#friedrich i

[best-hohenzollern-ruler]

Wilhelm II (r. 1888-1918)

The Last Kaiser

Well, as you all know, our esteemed Kaiser has had a few bumps along the road of his reign. Most notable was, of course, the sacking of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, which made waves all across Europe. So far, the Iron Chancellor's successors have possessed none of the realpolitik skills needed to govern the country and this "dropping of the pilot" will surely be seen as one of Wilhelm II's greatest failures.

His Majesty has greatly expanded our navy, including the Nassau class of battleship, our response to the British Dreadnought. While some have railed against this expensive arms race with the British, His Majesty assures us that Germany must establish itself on the seas to be taken seriously. One cannot help but wonder if His Majesty's increasingly frantic search for "a place in the sun" has any connection to his upbringing.

His abrasive personality has led to Germany's isolation from former allies Russia and Britain, which places Germany in a precarious geopolitical situation should war in Europe break out. (Note: Don't be ridiculous -T)

Friedrich I (r. 1688-1714)

First King in Prussia

Persuaded the Pope to elevate the duchy of Brandenburg-Prussia to a kingdom, creating the Kingdom of Prussia. Were it not for him, our great state would have never existed. Unfortunately he was unable to claim the title "King of Prussia" due to some ridiculous dispute with the Poles.

A patron of education, he created the Prussian Academy of Arts and the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences. The later was shut down under his son due to monetary constraints, but was later reopened and reorganized until Friedrich der Große.

Although he was militarily opposed to the French, he did incorporate a lot of French culture into his court in an imitation of Louis XIV.

[acrossthewavesoftime]

Interview with a Ghost, or: Royal Ghost Hunters

Left to right: ghost hunters Karl Ludwig I. Elector Palatine (1617–1680), his daughter Liselotte von der Pfalz, Duchess of Orleáns (1652–1722), and Friedrich Wilhelm I., King in Prussia (1688–1740).

Since it’s Halloween, I thought I should make a themed post! And what better topic to choose than ghosts? But more often than not, these restless souls wandering between the worlds, preferably at night, are of an entirely earthly origin— especially when bedsheets are involved.  

Haunted more by a family history of trouble and turmoil than actual ghosts, let’s look at three Stuart descendants and their brush with the allegedly supernatural:

Karl Ludwig, Elector Palatine and the Ghost of Chain Alley

This first story of a successful ghost hunt concerns Karl Ludwig, Elector Palatine, and was passed from Liselotte von der Pfalz to her much younger half-sister Luise on 22 February 1721.

Zu Heidelberg, ehe Ihr geboren, wurd ein groß Geschrei von einem Gespenst, so alle Nacht mit feurigen Augen und großem Geplärr durch die Kettengaß ging. Ihro Gnaden, der Kurfürst, unser Herr Vater, ließ dem Gespenst aufpassen und fangen; da ertappte man drei oder vier Studenten, so Franzosen waren. — Einer, so Beauregard hieß und des Generals Balthasar Schwager war, der war das Kalb, und die andern, ich glaube Monsieur Dangeaus Bruder, Coursillon, so jetzt Abbé ist, halfen zu der Musik. Wenn man die Gespenster genau examiniert, kommt als so was heraus.

From: Künzel, C. [Ed.], Die Briefe der Liselotte. Liselotte von der Pfalz, Herzogin von Orleans, München 1923, p. 442.

Translation:

[…] At Heidelberg, ere you were born, there was great upheaval on account of a ghost, which would go through the Kettengasse [literal translation: Chain Alley] each night with fiery eyes and a great clamour.  His Grace the Elector our father had the ghost waylaid and captured; they caught four students, who were Frenchmen.  – One of them by the name of Beauregard was the brother-in-law of General Balthasar, was the calf and the others, I believe the brother of Monsieur Dangeau, Coursillon, who is an abbé [abbot] now [among them], helped make the music. If only you examine ghosts closely, that’s what you’ll uncover. 

The location of the Kettengasse in Heidelberg, via Google Maps. Conspicuously close to university buildings, it probably was not hard to guess that the ghost was a student hoax.

The Ghost of the Poisoned Princess: Liselotte Investigates

Henrietta Anne (1644–1670), first wife of Philippe, Duke of Orléans in a posthumous portrait by Peter Lely, and rather fittingly dressed in a white gown.

As can be seen from the story relayed to her half-sister, her father's no-nonsensical attitude set the tone for Liselotte’s own approach to ghostly apparitions— some stories, such as the ghost wandering the conspicuously aptly named Kettengasse, just seem too good to be true.

While not directly involved in the ghost hunt itself, Liselotte, a no-nonsensical person who did not believe in organised religion at large and superstition in particular, remained unphased when a ghostly apparition quickly identified as the wronged and restless soul of her husband’s first wife Henrietta Anne of England started to appear on occasion in a specific spot in the gardens of her residence, Saint Cloud palace. Liselotte, while occasionally chiming in on the rumours that Henrietta Anne may have been poisoned by the Chevalier de Lorraine, her husband’s favourite and her personal arch-nemesis, would have nothing of it and even interviewed the ghost in person:

Es gieng vor vielen Jahren ein Geschrey zu St. Cloud, daß feue Madame Geist im Garten bei einem Brunnen gienge, wo sie sich in der größten Hitze aufgehalten, den der Ort ist sehr kühl. Als des Marêchal de Clerembeaut Lakey Abends wie die Sonne untergegangen war, an dem Brunnen gieng Wasser zu schöpfen, sahe er etwas weisses an dem Brunnen sitzen ohne Figur, das stehet gegen ihm auf, und wird noch einmal so groß; der arme Lakey erschrack und lief weg, wie er aber weiter kam, sagte er: er hätte Madame gesehen, wurde tod krank und starb, der aber damals Capitaine du Chateau war, und wohl denken konnte, daß man dahinter stecken müste, gieng etliche Tage nachher auch zu dem Brunnen, und wie er das Gespenst gehen sahe, drohete er dem Gespenst 100 Prügel zu geben, wofern es nicht sagte, wer es wäre. Das Gespenst sagte: ah! Monsieur de Lastera, ne me faites point de mal, je suis la pauvre Philippinette. Diese war ein alt Weib aus dem Dorfe von 77 Jahren, die keinen Zahn mehr im Maule hatte und böse Augen, einen feuerroten Bord darum, ein groß Maul, eine große Nase; Summa se war abscheulich. Man wollte sie in ein Gefängnis führen, ich bat aber für sie. Sie kam mir zu danken; ich sagte: quelle rage Vous tient de faire l’esprit au lieu de Vous aller coucher? Sie fieng an zu lachen und sagte: je ne puis avoir regret à ce que j’ai fait; à mon âge on dort peu. Il faut bien avoir quelque petite chose pour reveiller l’esprit. Tout ce que j’ai fait dans ma jeunesse ne m’a tant rejouï, que de faire l’ésprit. J’étois bien sure, que ceux qui n’auroient pas peur de mon drap bla[n]c, auroient peur de mon visage. Ceux qui avoient peur, faisoient tant de grimaces, que j’en mourrois de rire. Ce Plaisir nocturne me payoit de la peine d’avoir porté la hotte toute la journée. Den 17ten Novembr. 1716.

From: Veltenheim, August F. von [Ed.], Anekdoten vom Französischen Hofe vorzüglich aus den Zeiten Ludewigs des XIV. und des Duc Regent: aus Briefen der Madame d'Orleans Charlotte Elisabeth, Herzog Philipp I. von Orleans Witwe Welchen noch ein Versuch über die Masque de Fer beigefügt ist, Strassbourg 1789, p. 291 f.

Translation:

Many years ago at St. Cloud, there was a rumour that the ghost of the late Madame [Henrietta Maria of England, first wife of Philippe d’Orléans] was pacing beside a well where she had dwelt in the greatest heat, because this place is exceedingly cool. When a lackey of the Marshal de Clerembeaut went to the well one evening to draw water, he saw something white and shapeless sit beside the well, which, facing him, rose and doubled in size; the poor lackey was startled and ran away, and as he got away, said that he had seen Madame, [then] fell fatally ill and died. But the person who was Capitaine du chateau [steward of the palace] at the time, having decided that one should ascertain what was behind all this, afterwards went to the well for several days as well, and upon seeing the ghost, threatened them with 100 lashes if they would not tell him who they were. The ghost said: “Ah! Monsieur de Lastera, do me no harm, I am the poor Philippinette.” She was an old woman from the village who was 77 years old and had not a tooth left in her mouth and bloodshot eyes with red circles around them with a big mouth and a big nose and was therefore, all things considered, hideous. They wanted to take her to prison, but I interceded on her behalf. She came to thank me; I said: “What came over you to try and be funny instead of going to sleep?” She started to laugh and said: “I cannot regret what I have done; at my age, one sleeps little. One has to have a little something to raise one’s spirits. Everything that I have done in my youth has not delighted me as much as playing the spirit. I was quite certain that those who would not be afraid of my white sheet would be afraid of my face. Those who were afraid made such grimaces that I was dying of laughter. This nocturnal pleasure repaid me for the strain of having carried the hood all day.” 17 November 1716.

It's quite telling that she's punning on the phrase faire de l'ésprit, i.e. trying to be witty or funny (with ésprit also meaning spirit). Clearly, she was more amused than annoyed by Philippinette's prank, which stands in stark contrast to the next ghost hunter:

Friedrich Wilhelm I. in Prussia vs. 3 (!) White Ladies

Skipping a few generations down the family tree to the grandson of Liselotte’s favourite aunt Sophie von Hannover, for Friedrich Wilhelm, father of Frederick the Great, King in Prussia, the ghostly appearance of a woman in white announcing his father’s death in 1713 was less accidental than expected. Since generations, it was rumoured that the apparition of the ghostly figure known as the White Lady announced the death of a member of the Hohenzollern family. To name but some of the most prominent recent deaths in the family, the White Lady was rumoured to have been spotted just before the death of his grandmother Louise Henriette of Orange in 1667, grandfather Elector Friedrich Wilhelm in 1688 and their infant son Wilhelm Heinrich in 1649.

The ghost known as the White Lady was long rumoured to have been the unhappy ghost of a woman called Kunigunde von Orlamünde, a 14th century widowed noblewoman who was said to have fallen in love with a much younger man and member of the Hohenzollern family, Albrecht der Schöne [Albrecht the Beautiful]. Albrecht, or so the story goes, wanted to marry her, but faced fierce opposition from his parents, prompting him to say that four eyes stood in the way of their happiness. Kunigunde, misinterpreting her lover’s words, proceeded to murder her two children from her first marriage, thinking they were the two pairs of eyes Albrecht had alluded to. Having murdered her children, the penitent, lovestruck Kunigunde supposedly attached herself permanently to Albrecht’s family after her death. Research done in the 19th century however reveals that Kunigunde was childless, and that her only relationship with Albrecht was one of business, having bought land from him on which she built Himmelthron abbey, as whose abbess she died in 1382.

Another possible inspiration for the White Lady, particularly when seen in the Stadtschloss in Berlin, was Anna von Sydow, mistress of Elector Joachim II of Brandenburg (1505–1571), who died unhappily after having been incarcerated by her lover’s son and successor, to whom she is said to have appeared in her ghostly form to announce his approaching passing.

Epitaph of Kunigunde von Orlamünde as abbess of Himmelthron and a portrait said to depict Anna von Sydow, two women whose names are tethered to the myth of the White Lady of the Hohenzollern family.

Whether there is one definitive inspiration for the White Lady or not, the apparition visiting Friedrich I. on his deathbed was however of an altogether worldlier nature; this White Lady’s name was Sophie Luise zu Mecklenburg-Schwerin— and Friedrich’s third wife.

Friedrich I., King in Prussia.

For some time prior to Friedrich’s death, Sophie Luise’s mental health had deteriorated to such a degree that the Queen was considered insane by contemporaries. What had initially begun with a journey to finding personal religious fulfilment in Pietism and fights with Friedrich over which (Protestant, naturally) denomination was the ‘right’ one, developed into depression and at last, periods of aberration and complete disconnect from the world around her, prompting Friedrich to seek at least spatial separation from her.

One night in the months leading up to his death, Friedrich awoke in his chamber in the Stadtschloss to find a woman with loose hair dressed in nothing but her white, bloodied nightclothes standing over him, and addressing him with reproaches. The King, naturally frightened and thinking the White Lady herself had come to take him away screamed, alerting his household. The attendants thus alarmed and rushing to the scene quickly identified the intruder as none other but the Queen, who had escaped from her quarters. Wholly unaware of what she had done when asked about the incident later, Sophie Luise had broken a glass door on the way to her husband’s quarters and cut herself on the shards, causing the blood stains on her clothing.

Sophie Luise von Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Queen in Prussia (1685–1735).

No longer tenable at the Prussian court after this episode, Sophie Luise, presumably by the authority of the Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm, was sent back to Mecklenburg to live with her mother mere weeks before her husband died; but Sophie Luise’s departure did not mean that Friedrich Wilhelm had put an end to the White Lady for good.

Reports are somewhat murky, but there appear to have been several other, less tragically accidental and decidedly more mean-spirited White Ladies in 1713 Berlin following the death of Friedrich I., which prompted the newly-minted Friedrich Wilhelm I. to act and, hopefully once and for all, banish the White Lady to the realm of legends.

Two men were put into the stocks and (accounts vary here) possibly whipped, one of them a young kitchen hand and the other a soldier. Either they were two genuine pranksters caught red-handed (or rather, white-gowned) in the streets of Berlin, or Friedrich Wilhelm had the men selected at random to make an example of two people he considered expendable to deter any would-be White Ladies.

Whatever the new King’s motivations, there are no reports of the ‘real’ White Lady having visited Friedrich Wilhelm at his own death in 1740; so it worked— at least for a while. By the end of the century, the White Lady was back with the Hohenzollern family and according to legend, even took it upon herself to chill the bones of Napoleon when he visited Bayreuth Palace, associated with the Hohenzollerns, in 1812.

Reports of the White Lady continue into the 20th century; she was last sighted on 31 January 1945 in Berlin, three days before the Stadtschloss was reduced to rubble under allied bombardments. Perhaps, with the rightfully controversial reconstruction of the Stadtschloss (not to speak of the museum housed within, but I digress) over the last few years, she will return, her old haunting-grounds having been restored?

Photo of the north-eastern front of the Stadtschloss in the 1920s.

Photo of the north-eastern front of the Stadtschloss of September 2022, by Frank Schulenburg.

At present, it does not look like it. When Prinz Ferfried von Hohenzollern died about a month ago, there were no reports of the White Lady having made an appearance. But who knows? Perhaps on a dark autumnal night, as the street lanterns cast a sparse glimmer over the river Spree, and not a light shines from the windows of the new Stadtschloss, you might be (un-)lucky enough to spy her...?

...But always remember that if you do, you're most likely to have encountered a modern-day Philippinette.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

[lepreuxchevalier]

My retouch of a second illustration of some "Schwarzen Reiter” that I have officially designed to feature the faction iconography of “Hohenrotbart” or “House Rotbart,” the ruling dynasty of “Das Königreich Middenland” or “The Kingdom of Middenland” in my “homebrew” low-fantasy setting. This artwork was designed for a low-fantasy setting of my original conception with technology and material culture roughly equivalent to European History during the compounded advents of The Italian Renaissance, The Protestant Reformation, and The Discovery of America. Where formations of heavily armoured and mounted, aristocratic and noble knights in suits of full plate armour and heavy coats of chainmail fight alongside professional regiments of pikemen and matchlock musketeers. Where medieval-style stone castles are gradually being outsourced in favour of lavish country estates and devoted military fortifications, or “bastions,” due to the technological advancements being made in gunpowder-based, siege artillery. And where fledgling nation-states in the form of kingdoms and empires look beyond the great oceans and the frontiers of “The Known World” in search of exotic riches and territory.

In context to the canon lore of my medieval fantasy setting, “Hohenrotbart” or “House Rotbart” in the “Austere” or "Northern Imperial" Language is the newly crowned and anointed ruling dynasty of “Das Königreich Middenland” or “The Kingdom of Middenland.” "Das Königreich Middenland" under "Hohenrotbart" is loosely inspired by Medieval and Renaissance Prussia under the theocracy of The Teutonic Knights as well as Ducal Prussia during the 16th and 17th centuries. “Friedrich I, Der erster und herrschend König von Middenland und Der Gründungschef von Hohenrotbart’s" legislative decree to formally convert to “The Luxembourgian Reformation” on behalf of both his dynastic household and his hereditary subjects being highly analogous to the secularization of “The Monastic State of The Teutonic Knights” or “Der Deutschordenstaat,” to The Lutheran, East Prussian Duchy in the early 16th century. Designated in my low-fantasy setting as “Shwarzer Reiter” or “Black Riders.” The constituent “Bruderschaften” or “chapters” of “Die Schwarze Reiter” as the elite, pseudo-monastic, martial fraternities of aristocratic and noble heavy cavalry paying direct homage and military service to the persons of “Die Könige von Middenland” from “Hohenrotbart” as opposed to the feudal, private interests of the aristocratic and noble “great houses” of “junker” princeps and magnates. Each “Brüderschaft” or “chapter” is led under the personal command and the direct supervision by “Ein Großmeister,” or “a grandmaster,” who are each personally and individually appointed for life from “legitimate issues” or “dynastic scions” of the princely “great houses” of “junker” artistocrats and nobles to serve the royal, state interests of “Die Könige von Middenland” from “Hohenrotbart” over those of any aristocratic and noble “great house” of “junker” princeps and magnates. “Die Könige von Middenland” from “Hohenrotbart,” by tradition, are the more-or-less hereditary holders of the appointed office of “Der Hochmeister Der Schwarzen Reiter” or “The Supreme Grandmaster of All Schwarzen Reiter” in order to “rationalize,” or otherwise “reinforce” their authority as the lawful, legitimate, anointed, and undisputed commanders-in-chief of all constituent “Bruderschaften” or "chapters" of "Die Schwarzen Reiter" in Das Königreich Middenland. To reinforce both the professional loyalties and the direct homage of the constituent Bruderschaften of Der Schwarzen Reiter to the persons of “Die Könige von Middenland” from “Hohenrotbart” as the traditional, more-or-less hereditary holders of the appointed office of “Der Hochmeister Der Schwarzen Reiter.” Both the personal livelihoods and the unit upkeep of the constituent “Brüderschaften” of "Der Schwarzen Reiter" were funded through a combination of a quarterly land tax generated by “the demesne” or “the crownlands” under the direct administration of Hohenrotbart Des Königreich Middenland and their civil administrators, through any tariffs imposed on the commerce and the industry of Der König von Middenland’s charter companies and the local trade guilds, as well as through tithes and benefices generated by the religious services of, donations to, and property owned by The Conservative Church of The New Gods in joint partnership with Hohenrotbart Des Königreich Middenland over the sovereign rulership, the state administration, and the systematic, mass conversion of the autochthonous Albic tribes religiously subscribed to the druidic, cult worship of “Erdøk” or ”The Great Forest” geographically located beyond the easternmost fronters of “Das Selbst Kaiserreich Der Menschheit” or “The Empire of Mankind Proper.”

The Joint Partnership between The Conservative Church of The New Gods with "Friedrich I, Der erster und herrschend König von Middenland und Der Gründungschef von Hohenrotbart" would come to an untimely collapse with his legislative decree to become the first hereditary, crowned ruler in both the geographic enormity and the recorded histories of The Known World to officially convert to “The Luxembourgian Reformation” to the religious establishment of The Conservative Church of The New Gods traditionally and officially seated and housed within The Holy Sept of Romulus as the historic capital, civilizational kernel, and titular namesake of The Cosmopolitan, Classical Romulan Republic and “The Empire of Mankind Primus” during "The Civilized World's" historical epoch of "Classical Antiquity" on behalf of both his dynastic household and his hereditary subjects. With Friedrich I's subsequent and consequent “formal assumption of supreme authority over matters of religion” as “The First Supreme Head of The Reformed Church of The New Gods in Das Königreich Middenland" naturally resulting in the systematic persecution, legislative marginalization, and the confiscation of any lands, estates, and treasuries of any ecclesiastical and monastic clergy of The Conservative Church of The New Gods who had both stubbornly refused to submit before, and openly protested against the formal renunciation of his spiritual, cultural, and moral ties of fealty to “The Archpatriarchs” or “The Bishops of Romulus” as “The Anointed, Undisputed, and Universal Heads of The Conservative Church of The New Gods.”

[monstermonger]

I recently bought an art book on Caspar David Friedrich, whose emotional work stuck with me since I first saw it in a museum years ago. Over the course of a few weeks, I read about his life and at the same time did studies/interpretations of many pieces. It was a really enjoyable and fulfilling project; here's a good lot of them together :)

I was happy to see many people enjoyed Friedrich's work+my interpretations while posting them individually. It took way too long, but I FINALLY set up a print shop for some of these + some other pieces for those who expressed interest. Thank you so much!

[diioonysus]

dresses + art

[gilsart]

a small redraw c: he's wearing pink and lilac and he stares into your soul

[gophergal]

a meme specific to my interpretations

[kingoftheu]

It is the mid-1800s. You are Karl Marx. You have risen to prominence aming leftist circles, with your scathing attacks in contemporary Capitalism and Imperialism. You hear a knock on your front door. Your front door is shattered.

A very large black dragon, a veteran of the British Millitary, apologizes for the damage. His name is Temeraire, and he is a Member of Parliament.

He has read your work and wishes to discuss it with you.

[hood-ex]

Never completely understood what Dick meant when he quoted, "When you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you."

Nightwing (Vol. 2) #128

Then I found out that the same quote was used by Bruce in BTAS.

Dick: This city would fall apart without you.

Bruce: Maybe. Maybe not. When you look too long into the abyss, the abyss looks back through you. Maybe it's time for Batman to return to the night that spawned him before anyone else gets hurt!

And then Reddit made me realize that's not the entire quote. It's actually, "He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."

And that makes more sense and helps give context to the last part of the quote. It's interesting because in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, Bruce said a deviated version of this quote to Owlman.

"There is a difference between you and me. We both looked into the abyss, but when it looked back at us, you blinked."

In other words, Owlman became the monster.

[emahriel]

Anor Friedrich

DRAGON'S DOGMA 2

[aconissa]

August Friedrich Schenck, Anguish (1878) & The Orphan (1885)

[best-hohenzollern-ruler]

Friedrich I (r. 1688 - 1713)

First King in Prussia

Much to our eternal chagrin, it was through dealings with Austria that our kingdom came to be. Tensions rose between Habsburgs and Bourbons again, this time over the issue of the successor to the Spanish throne. After much hemming and hawing, Friedrich decided to back the Habsburgs with a contingent of troops. In return for this most generous of favors, the Habsburgs finally acknowledging our king's rightful title over Prussia. As it had always been; never you mind what certain Polish authorities say!

Fittingly for Prussia's first king, Friedrich through the coronation of a lifetime in Königsberg. While the festivities aren't worth remarking upon - if you've seen one coronation, you've seen them all - the economic toll was staggering. A special tax was levied to pay for the ceremony and it only brought in a meagre 500,000 thalers. Friedrich designed every moment and detail of the ceremony, befitting a king of his frivolous talents. It was choked full of symbolism, such as crowning himself in a separate ceremony that snubbed the Estates. This flair for the dramatic continued throughout his reign, though lacking much of the follow through of his two predecessors.

Curiously, he was by all accounts a good father to his son, Friedrich Wilhelm I. Hoping to avoid the pitfalls of his own happy and uncertain childhood, Friedrich provided his son with a full education and a quasi-independent existence. This warm relationship extended even to the later years of the father's life, where they served as co-regents due to Friedrich's diminishing capacities. It leads one to wonder where Friedrich Wilhelm developed his barbaric notions on childrearing, but I am not one to speculate. (Note: Since when? -L)

Friedrich Wilhelm II (r. 1786 - 1797)

Friedrich Wilhelm's lack of interest and education in governing made him reliant on a coterie of ministers and advisors. The most significant of these, Johann Christoph Wöllner, dedicated himself to cultural policies that aimed to eliminate skepticism's corrupting influences on public life and uphold Christian doctrine. A bevy of laws were passed aimed at censorship and school curriculums. Our modern readership should feel assured that those sorts of things are now relegated to the past. (Note: Maintain the fourth wall! -L)

While dear Friedrich der Grosse deserves the credit for the first partition, it was Friedrich Wilhelm who finished the work of his predecessor. It was through his cunning - and Catherine the Great's generosity - that we received many fine cities, the best of all being Danzig. His brilliance, or that of a fine minister, also led us into a closer embrace with our dearly beloathed Austria. It was this treaty that fertilized the garden of our love - and our mutual hatred of France.

He had complicated personal relations. His marriage to his first wife ended after mutual infidelity. Then, he’s reluctantly married to a second and has three mistresses we know about. Not only that, but two of them became morganatic - all while still married to that second wife!

[acrossthewavesoftime]

Louise Henriette of Nassau, Electress consort of Brandenburg, has some questions.

The little lads (l-r): Frederick III/I Elector of Brandenburg, later King of Prussia, contemporaneously nicknamed "Schiefer Fritz" ("skewed Fritz") William Henry, Prince of Orange, later King William III of England

[lepreuxchevalier]

My third illustration of a “Schwarzer Reiter” that I have officially designed for “Hohenrotbart,” the ruling, dynastic house of “Das Königreich Middenland” in my low-fantasy world. Both this illustration and it’s associated “faction iconography” were officially designed for a low-fantasy setting of my original conception with technology and material culture roughly equivalent to European History during the compounded advents of The Italian Renaissance, The Protestant Reformation, and The Discovery of America. Where formations of heavily armoured and mounted knights in either suits of full plate armour or heavy coats of chainmail fight alongside professional armies of pikemen and matchlock musketeers. Where medieval-style stone castles are gradually being outsourced in favour of both lavish country estates and devoted military fortifications, or “bastions,” due to the technological advancements being made in gunpowder-based, siege artillery. And where fledgling nation-states in the form of kingdoms and empires look beyond the great oceans and the frontiers of “The Known World” in search of exotic riches and virgin lands. In context to the canon lore of my low-fantasy world, “Hohenrotbart” or “House Rotbart” is the newly established ruling dynasty over “Das Königreich Middenland” or “The Kingdom of Middenland.” A fantasy kingdom loosely inspired by Medieval and Renaissance Prussia under the theocracy of The Teutonic Knights, as well as 16th and 17th century “Ducal Prussia” after the official dissolution of The Monastic State of The Teutonic Knights in East Prussia. “Die Schwarze Reiter” as the elite, pseudo-monastic, martial fraternities of aristocratic and noble heavy cavalry paying direct homage and military service to the persons of “Die Könige von Middenland” as both the traditional and the hereditary holders of the office of “Der Hochmeister Der Schwarze Reiter” or “The Supreme Grandmaster of All Schwarze Reiter” being highly analogous to the constituent chapters of The Teutonic Knights during The European Middle Ages and The Renaissance. While the official legislation formally decreed by Friedrich I as “Der erster und herrschend König von Middenland” and “Der Gründungschef von Hohenrotbart“ to convert to “The Luxembourgian Reforms” on behalf of his dynastic house and his hereditary subjects being roughly analogous to the secularization of “The Monastic State of The Teutonic Knights” or “Der Deutschordenstaat” into the Lutheran, East Prussian Duchy during the early 16th century. Alongside “Hohenbiermann Der Markgrafschaft Branndenborg,” “Hohenrotbart Des Königreich Middenland” collectively form “Die Sudkreuzritterstaaten,” “Die Teutogenstaaten,” or “Die Sudentscheidenstaaten.” Essentially a “Teutogen” or “Southern Austere” cultural and linguistic bloc born of the complimentary and subsequent events of “The Southern Crusades” and “The Sudsiedlung.” “The Southern Crusades” being the religious warfare and the territorial acquisitions officially preached and prosecuted against the apostate, Albic tribes religiously subscribed to the druidic, cult worship of “Erdøk“ or “The Great Forest” geographically located beyond the eastern frontiers of The Empire of Mankind Proper. While “The Sudsiedlung” denotes the gradual and effective resettlement of culturally and ethnically “Austere” or “Northern Imperial” settlers and immigrants to “Die Sudkreuzritterstaaten” alongside the synonymous, systematic, and complimentary mass conversion efforts and the cultural assimilation of the indigenous “Albic” tribes religiously subscribed to the druidic, cult worship of “Erdøk.” The appeal for the druidic, cult worship of “Erdøk“ or “The Great Forest” already gaining momentum amongst the Albic tribes indigenous to The Former Kingdom of The Midlands long before it’s final collapse beginning with the untimely extinction of the legitimate, male bloodline of The Late House Bartholemnew and the consequent warring and political feuding between the princely, “great houses” of aristocratic and noble princeps and magnates over the issue of legitimate succession to The Late House Bartholemew for the hereditary title of “King of The Midlands.” “Das Königreich Middenland,“ in particular, is the consequential product of “The Midlands Crusade” formally and officially preached and prosecuted against the apostate, Albic tribes geographically located beyond the southernmost frontier of “Das Selbst Kaiserreich der Menscheit.” With Friedrich-Albrecht von Rotbart as Bishop-Prince of Elchingen and one of the three ecclesiastical, invested “Kurfürsten Des Selbst Kaiserreich der Menscheit“ officially serving as “Archpatriarchal Legate,” or the pontifical representative to the person of Archpatriarch Vexillarius IV as “The 299th and Reigning Bishop of Romulus” and “The Current Head of The Conservative Church of The New Gods” for this second “Southern Crusade” officially preached and prosecuted against the apostate, Albic tribes indigenous to The Former Kingdom of The Midlands. Before his formal coronation and anointment as “Der erster und herrschend König von Middenland” and “Der Gründungschef von Hohenrotbart.” Friedrich Von Rotbart was originally a mercenary captain of minor aristocratic stock to a company of professional pike-and-shotte infantry known as “Die Bande Des Falke” of “The Band of The Hawk” operating within both “The Austere” and “The Frivolous” cultural and linguistic hemispheres of The Empire of Mankind Secundus. Friedrich Von Rotbart as a mercenary captain to pike-and-shotte infantry would have been content to ply his trade of professional soldiery in service to Das Selbst Kaiserreich der Menscheit’s great houses of aristocratic and noble “Imperial Princeps” or “Imperial Magnates” were it not for his fraternal connections to his far more prolific, prestigious, and illustrious older brother: Friedrich-Albrecht Von Rotbart, Bishop-Prince of Elchingen, ecclesiastical, invested “Kurfürst Des Selbst Kaiserreich der Menscheit,” and above all “Archpatriarchal Legate to Vexillarius IV for The Midlands Crusade.” In return for the once-in-a-millennium opportunity to be formally crowned and anointed the first monarch of his own sovereign state and the founding head of his own royal household, Friedrich Von Rotbart and his “Bande Des Falke” flocked to the rallying cry of this new “Midlands Crusade” formally preached and prosecuted by his far more prestigious, prolific, and illustrious older brother as the pontifical representative to the person of Archpatriarch Vexillarius IV as “The 299th and Reigning Bishop of Romulus” and “The Current Head of The Conservative Church of The New Gods.” Although having allegedly fought with such distinction and meritorious service so as to earn both the respect and the commendation of the leading aristocratic and noble princeps and magnates as well as the sanctioned church authorities officially involved in The Midlands Crusade. Friedrich Von Rotbart and his “Bande Des Falke” fought only as minor belligerents involved in this campaign of religious warfare and territorial conquest aimed at the systematic, mass conversion of the apostate, Albic tribes religiously subscribed to the druidic, cult worship of “Erdøk.” With The Midlands Crusade concluding in both stunning and overwhelming triumph for the crusaders at the climactic “Battle of The Godswoods.” “The Godswoods” as the holiest shrine and sacred grove to the apostate, Erdøki cultists indigenous to The Former Kingdom of The Midlands was subsequently desecrated and demolished by the conquering, crusading knights of The Midlands Crusade. With it’s constituent lands being officially consecrated as the official site of construction for the new basilica town of Marienburg, where Friedrich-Albrecht von Rotbart would be both formally and officially invested with the awesome and prestigious ecclesiastical office of “Bishop-Patriarch of Marienburg,” with The Bishop of Romulus explicit blessing, in order to facilitate the systematic, mass conversion of the apostate, Albic tribes back into the fold of The Conservative Church of The New Gods. Through sheer virtue of his fraternal ties to both the pontifical representative to the person of Archpatriarch Vexillarius IV for The Midlands Crusade and The Seminal Bishop-Patriarch of Marienburg, Friedrich Von Rotbart was naturally prioritized over all other prospective candidates for the formal and official coronation and anointment as the first secular, worldly monarch for the new “Königreich Middenland” or “The Kingdom of Middenland” as well as “Der Gründungschef von Hohenrotbart” or “The Founding Head of House Rotbart” as the region’s first reigning, dynastic household and hereditary monarch since the untimely extinction of the legitimate, male bloodline of “The Late House Bartholemew” well over a century and a half ago. By sheer virtue of the awesome power, prestige, and authority invested within the ecclesiastical office of Bishop-Patriarch of Marienburg, Friedrich-Albrecht Von Rotbart would use his power, authority, and influence within The Conservative Church of The New Gods to leverage the unanimous religious and political support of the high ranking offices of both the ecclesiastical and the monastic clergy in Das Königreich Middenland for the coronation and the anointment of his younger brother as “Friedrich I, Der erster und herrschend König von Middeland und Der Gründungschef von Hohenrotbart.” Friedrich I’s formal coronation and anointment as “The First and Reigning King of Middenland” and “The Founding Head of House Rotbart,” however, was initially received with both icy anticipation and subtle dread by the newly established princely, “great houses” of “junker” aristocracy and nobility that had formed from the cream, core, and bulk of the conquering, crusading knights of The Midlands Crusade originally preached and prosecuted by Friedrich-Albrecht Von Rotbart as Archpatriarchal Legate to the person of Vexillarius IV as “The 299th and Reigning Bishop of Romulus” and “The Current Head of The Conservative Church of The New Gods.” Friedrich I’s formal coronation and anointment as “Der erster und herrschend König von Middenland” and “Der Gründungschef von Hohenrotbart” was originally judged and disputed with suspicion and skepticism, in equal measure, by the feudal princeps and magnates of “junker” aristocracy and nobility due to his minor aristocratic birth within the “Austere” or “Northern Imperial” cultural and linguistic hemisphere, as well as his professional background as a mercenary captain to pike-and-shotte infantry, as opposed to aristocratic and noble heavy cavalry as the traditionally most prestigious form of military service due to the historical precedence of the militaristic ideology of professional chivalry. With both the formal blessing and the expressed recommendation of Friedrich-Albrecht Von Rotbart as his far more prestigious, prolific, and illustrious older brother and The First Bishop-Patriarch of Marienburg. Friedrich I as “Der erster und herrschend König von Middenland” and “Der Gründungschef von Hohenrotbart” had officially awarded hereditary, dynastic enfeoffment to Das Königreich Middenland’s newly established princely, “great houses” of “junker” aristocrats and nobles the most arable lands, titles, and estates that had not been previously and officially claimed as the legal property of The Conservative Church of The New Gods. Much later into his long, prolific, and illustrious reign, Friedrich I as “Der erster und herrschend König von Middenland” and “Der Gründungschef von Hohenrotbart” would officially decree state legislation to grant both the greater and lesser dynastic houses of “junker” aristocracy and nobility the exclusive, feudal privilege over official appointments as judges and magistrates for the new, secular, provincial, “royal” law courts officially established by Friedrich I shortly after his formal coronation and anointment as “Der erster und herrschend König von Middenland.” The voluminous bodies of secular law codes, customs, and traditions applied to the provincial jurisdiction of the secular, “royal” law courts of the new “Königreich Middenland” essentially being derivative works based on the old town laws of “Die Freie Reichsstädte” or “The Imperial Free Cities” within the “Austere” or “Northern Imperial” cultural and linguistic hemisphere of Das Selbst Kaiserreich Der Menscheit. With the exception of the provincial jurisdiction of the episcopal diocese of The Archbishopric of Marienburg, which fell directly under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction the canon law courts of The Conservative Church of The New Gods officially seated within The Holy Sept of Romulus as the historic kernel, capital, and namesake of The Cosmopolitan, Classical Romulan Republic and “The Empire of Mankind Primus.” In direct cooperation with his far more prestigious, prolific, and illustrious older brother Friedrich-Albrecht Von Rotbart as “The First Bishop-Patriarch of Marienburg.” Friedrich I as “Der erster und herrschend König von Middenland” and “Der Gründungschef von Hohenrotbart” worked in joint partnership with both the ecclesiastical and the monastic clergy of The Conservative Church of The New Gods over the rulership, the state administration, and the systematic, mass conversion of the autochthonous Albic tribes religiously subscribed to the druidic, cult worship of Erdøk. Through the spiritual, cultural, and moral authority of a culturally “Austere” or “Northern Imperial” Conservative clergy with their monopoly on knowledge, education, and learning in general. The systematic, mass conversion of the apostate, Albic tribes of Das Königreich Middenland came synonymously with their thorough assimilation into the “Austere” or “Northern Imperial” culture and language using the church schools and the religious services officially sponsored by a culturally and ethnically “Austere” or “Northern Imperial” Conservative clergy. With any indigenous Albic tribes who had both openly and violently protested against the legislative marginalization of their religious liberties in order to encourage their systematic, mass conversion back into the fold of The Conservative Church of The New Gods facing mass genocide at the hands of either the fledgling, yet powerful professional army of “Hohenrotbart Des Königreich Middenland,” or the feudal, aristocratic levies of knightly retinues or pike-and-shotte infantry regiments paying direct homage and military service to the great houses of junker princeps and magnates. In addition to the systematic, mass conversion and the thorough cultural assimilation of the apostate, Albic tribes religiously subscribed to the druidic, cult worship of “Erdøk” or “The Great Forest.” Friedrich I’s single, most defining, and most enduring policy as “Der erster und herrschend König von Middenland” and “Der Gründungschef von Hohenrotbart” is actively encouraging the mass migration and the thorough and effective resettlement of settlers and immigrants hailing from his native “Austere” or “Northern Imperial” cultural and linguistic hemisphere within The Empire of Mankind Proper. Using the allure and the promise of the opportunity to resettle and start a new life, in free hold, within the newly established castles and fortified cities of Das Königreich Middeland, as well as the most arable lands and estates within their attached countryside. Friedrich I intends to “bolster” or otherwise “revitalize” growth within the local economy, industrial base, and the cultural and scholastic activity of his new “Königreich Middenland” by attracting skilled, moneyed, and educated commoners to permanently resettle into his newly established castles and fortified cities as “burghers” or bourgeoisie, merchants, artisans, and professionals, as well as the most lucrative and arable lands and estates within their attached countryside as “kollmers” or country gentlemen. In order to ease the cultural and religious friction between the equally dramatic and significant influx of “Austere” or “Northern Imperial” settlers and immigrants with the Albic natives. Friedrich I, in direct partnership with the ecclesiastical clergy of The Conservative Church of The New Gods in Middenland, has actively pursued a church and state-mandated policy of encouraging the intermarriage between male settlers and immigrants hailing from the “Austere” or “Northern Imperial” cultural and linguistic hemisphere of The Empire of Mankind Secundus with the daughters of Albic families who had officially converted back into the fold of The Conservative Church of The New Gods. By granting church dowries officially sponsored by the ecclesiastical clergy of The Conservative Church of The New Gods in Das Königreich Middenland to Albic families who had both openly and formally converted back into the fold of The Conservative Faith, Friedrich I hopes to simultaneously stimulate the systematic, mass conversion of the apostate, Albic tribes back into the fold of The Conservative Church of The New Gods, while also easing the societal friction agitated by the cultural and religious differences between the “Austere” or “Northern Imperial” settlers and immigrants with the Albic natives. Despite it’s reputation as the newest, poorest, and least developed sovereign state within the geographic boundaries of “The Civilized World” as officially defined and prescribed by the ecclesiastical and monastic clergy of The Conservative Church of The New Gods, as well as the nonconformist preachers of the multitude, or the plethora of “Reformed” and “Dissenter” churches of The New Gods derived from the theological reforms of Karl von Luxembourg and Cassyon Dufresne, respectively. “Hohenrotbart Des Königreich Middenland” possesses the single largest, most disciplined, most skilled, and most professional armies of pike-and-shotte infantry south of Margrabia Mazowsza under Rod Danielewski. Immediately descended from the military traditions of the conquering, crusading host of The Midlands Crusade formally preached and prosecuted under the ecclesiastical leadership of Bishop-Prince Friedrich-Albrecht von Rotbart as “Archpatriarchal Legate,” or the pontifical representative to the person of Archpatriarch Vexillarius IV for The Midlands Crusade. The professional regiments of pike-and-shotte infantry paying direct homage and military service to Hohenrotbart Des Königreich Middenland are some of the most feared and respected composite units of pikemen and matchlock musketeers to define the current epoch of post-chivalric warfare. Der König von Middenland’s professional regiments of pike-and-shotte infantry are notorious for their steely discipline in holding the line in pitched battles against other composite units of pike-and-shotte infantry and in the face of nigh-irresistible cavalry charges, their superb quality of military fitness and skill-at-arms, and their exceptional degree of military professionalism by contrast to the feudal, aristocratic levies and mercenary contractors more popular elsewhere within “The Civilized World.” This culture of military excellence and professionalism directly inherited from the conquering, crusading host of “The Midlands Crusade” have merely been “bolstered,” or otherwise “reinforced” by the personal and direct supervision of Friedrich I, whose world beating pike-and-shotte infantry regiments have only benefited from his hard-earned, empirical knowledge and worldly experience as a mercenary captain to pike-and-shotte infantry operating within the “Austere” and “Frivolous” states of “Das Selbst Kaiserreich Der Menscheit” before his expressed involvement in The Midlands Crusade at the expressed invitation of his older brother. Although born out of his inherent distrust for the newly established great houses of “junker” princeps and magnates that had formed from the cream, core, and bulk of the conquering, crusading knights originally involved in The Midlands Crusade. “Die Schwarze Reiter” as the elite, pseudo-monastic, aristocratic and noble heavy cavalry paying direct homage and military service to “Hohenrotbart Des Königreich Middenland” as both the traditional and the hereditary holders of the office of “Der Hochmeister Der Schwarze Reiter” or “The Supreme Grandmaster of All Schwarze Reiter” likewise parallel the world-beating military professionalism, discipline, physical fitness, and skill-at-arms of Das Königreich Middenland’s prized regiments of pike-and-shotte infantry. Organized into elite, pseudo-monastic “chapters” or “martial fraternities” known as “Brüderschaften” or “Brotherhoods” each housed and headquartered within a local “chapter house” corresponding within a network of recruiting districts known as “cantons.” And placed under the personal command and the direct supervision of “Ein Großmeister” or “a Grandmaster” personally and directly appointed for life from “legitimate issues” or “dynastic scions” of Das Königreich Middenland’s great houses of “junker” princeps and magnates by the persons of “Die Könige von Middenland” themselves. “Die Schwarze Reiter” as the elite, pseudo-monastic, aristocratic and noble heavy cavalry paying direct homage and military service to “Hohenrotbart Des Königreich Middenland” as both the traditional and the hereditary “Hochmeister Der Schwarze Reiter” or “Supreme Grandmasters of All Schwarze Reiter” were either compelled through the obligatory, feudal, aristocratic “blood tithe,” or otherwise willingly enrolled into the local chapter houses of their respective “Brüderschaft” to serve the royal, state interests of “Die Könige von Middenland” over the feudal, private interests of their aristocratic and noble households. To physically distinguish the constituent “Brüderschaften” of “Die Schwarze Reiter” from the domestic, household knights paying direct homage and military service to Das Königreich Middenland’s newly established great houses of “junker” princeps and magnates. “Die Schwarze Reiter” were issued their signature, black armour further embellished with skull fetishes, gilded plates, and “burned” chainmail to distinguish their rank, seniority, and specific “Brudershaft” while wearing surcoats and cuirasses richly emblazoned or enameled with the escutcheon of “Hohenrotbart” as the founding, ruling, dynastic household of “Das Königreich Middenland.” In order to both preserve and retain the professional loyalties and the direct homage of the various “Brüderschaften” of “Die Schwarze Reiter” to the persons of “Die Könige von Middenland.” Both the personal livelihoods and the upkeep costs of “Die Schwarze Reiter” were funded through a combination of the quarterly income tax generated by Das Königreich Middenland’s “royal demesne” or “crownlands,” by tariffs officially imposed on the trade, commerce, and industry of Der König von Middenland’s charter companies and the local trade guilds, as well as tithes and benefices generated by the religious services of, donations to, and the property owned by The Conservative Church of The New Gods in joint partnership with “Hohenrotbart Des Königreich Middenland” over the rulership, the state administration, and the systematic, mass conversion of the apostate, Albic tribes autochthonous to “Das Königreich Middenland.” Each “Großmeister” was personally and individually charged for life directly by the persons of “Die Könige von Middenland” with the personal command and the direct supervision of “Die Brüderschaften” of “Die Schwarze Reiter,” and could be immediately and unceremoniously stripped of their rank and office should they show any signs of insubordination to the person of “Der König von Middenland” or those of his official, state-sanctioned representatives. All “Schwarze Reiter” from the youngest and rawest of squires to the most venerable and seasoned “Großmeister” were legally obligated to forfeit any lands, titles, and estates within their legal possession at the secular, provincial, “royal” law courts of “Die Könige von Middenland” upon and regardless of their obligatory or voluntary enrollment into the local chapter houses of their respective “Brüderschaft.” Through compelling the second sons of Das Königreich Middenland’s junker aristocrats and nobles, as well as the firstborn sons of poorer junkers into elite, pseudo-monastic, and professional military service as “Schwarze Reiter” through the obligatory, feudal, aristocratic “blood tithe.” Friedrich I as “Der erster und herrschend König von Middenland,” “Der Gründungschef von Hohenrotbart,” and “Der erster Hochmeister Der Schwarze Reiter” hopes to better “entrench” or otherwise “reinforce” the hereditary, dynastic loyalties and the feudal homage of Das Königreich Middenland’s greater and lesser dynastic houses of junker aristocrats and nobles to the persons of “Hohenrotbart Des Königreich Middenland.” In terms Hohenrotbart’s foreign and dynastic policy as the founding, ruling, dynastic household of “Das Königreich Middenland.” Friedrich-Albrecht Von Rotbart shortly after his formal investiture as “The First Bishop-Patriarch of Marienburg” had successfully brokered a matrilineal union with “Hohenbiermann Der Markgrafschaft Brannenborg” through the marriage of Markgraf Friedrich-Albrecht Von Biermann’s younger sister to the newly crowned and anointed “Friedrich I, Der erster und herrschend König von Middenland und Der Gründungschef von Hohenrotbart.” Through the matrilineal union forged by the marriage between Friedrich I and the younger sister of Markgraf Friedrich-Albrecht Von Biermann, the cornerstone for an extraimperial personal union between “Hohenrotbart Des Königreich Middenland” and “Hohenbiermann Der Margrafschaft Brannenborg” as “Die Sudkreuzritterstaaten,” “Die Sudentscheidenstaaten,” or “Die Teutogenstaaten,” or the nation-states born of the subsequent and the complimentary events of “The Southern Crusades” and “The Sudsiedlung” was laid out. Which is most explicitly apparent with the subsequent and the complimentary “Treaties of Marienburg and Brannenborg-An-der-Havel” officially brokered between the state-sanctioned, court representatives of “Hohenbiermann Der Markgrafschaft Brannenborg” and “Hohenrotbart Des Königreich Middenland” over the prospective merger of Die Markgrafschaft Brannenborg and Das Königreich Middenland into an extraimperial composite state united by their shared heritage in “The Southern Crusades” and “The Sudsiedlung,” as well as their shared background as the earliest religious converts to the theological reforms of Karl von Luxembourg to the religious establishment of, and institutions of organized religion within The Conservative Church of The New Gods officially seated in Romulus. Prinzessin Chloe Von Rotbart as Friedrich I’s eldest daughter from a previous marriage before his formal coronation and anointment as “Der erster und herrschend König von Middenland und Der Gründungschef von Hohenrotbart” was formally betrothed to Robert III, The 40th and Late King of Albion and The Former Head of House Lyonheart, as part of a defensive pact to put a check on the belligerence of Maison Williamson du Royaume d’Aquitaine’s as the single largest military powerhouse within “The Civilized World.” Edmund IV as the legitimate successor to both The Kingdom of Albion and House Lyonheart was equally unable to, nor inherently interested in staking a dynastic merger between The Kingdom of Albion and Das Königreich Middenland, as his mother Chloe Von Rotbart was not a “real issue” to the first “Prinzgemahl-Königin von Middenland” from “Hohenbiermann Der Markgrafschaft Brannenborg.” Albrecht Von Biermann as “Der herrschend Markgraf von Brannenborg,” “Der momentan Chef von Hohenbiermann,” and secular, hereditary “Kurfürst des Selbst-Kaiserreich der Menscheit,“ however, was far more successful in cultivating closer ties with Friedrich I as “Der erster und herrschend König von Middenland” and “Der Gründungschef von Hohenrotbart” using a combination of his paternal ties to “Hohenrotbart Des Königreich Middenland,” their shared heritage to the subsequent and the complimentary events of “The Southern Crusades” and “The Sudsiedlung,” as well as their shared background as the earliest religious converts to the theological reforms of “Karl Von Luxembourg,” a learned church doctor of theology at “Die Universität Wörtzburch“ as one of the greatest centers of church-sanctioned, academic research on both The Canon Theology of The New Gods as well as Cosmopolitan, Classical Romulan Civil Law and Jurisprudence north of The Olympian Mountain Valley. Within the subsequent “Treaties of Marienburg and Brannenborg-An-Der-Havel” officially brokered between the state-sanctioned, court representatives of “Hohenbiermann Der Markgrafschaft Brannenborg” and “Hohenrotbart Des Königreich Middenland.” Albrecht Von Biermann as “Der herrschend Markgraf von Brannenborg,” “Der momentan Chef von Hohenbiermann,” secular, hereditary, “Kurfürst Des Selbst-Kaiserreich der Menscheit,” and nephew to Friedrich I as “Der erster und herrschend König von Middenland,” “Der Gründungschef von Hohenrotbart,” and paternal uncle to Albrecht Von Biermann opened negotiations with the proposition of mutual inheritance between Hohenbiermann and Hohenrotbart for both Die Markgrafschaft Brannenborg and Das Königreich Middenland should either dynastic house grow extinct through the male bloodline. Friedrich I, in direct response to the opening propositions of Albrecht Von Biermann’s conditions, further elaborated upon the treaties with the following conditions that Albrecht Von Biermann never officially incorporate Das Königreich Middenland as a constituent, member state within The Empire of Mankind. As Imperial Law had officially restricted any member state outside “the hereditary state” and “the dynastic house” of The Emperor-Elect, as well as “Hohenluxembourg Des Königreich Schönbrunn” from endowing the reigning patriarchs of their dynastic houses with royal titles. That Albrecht Von Biermann and all of his prospective successors as “Die Markgrafen von Brannenborg” officially convert to “The Reformed Faith of The New Gods” based on the theological reforms of Karl Von Luxembourg officially published at “Die Universität Wörtzburch“ by the time of their formal inheritance to “Das Königreich Middenland” from the then extinct, male bloodline of “Hohenrotbart.” So as to simultaneously retain and preserve the religious liberties of all subscribers to The Reformed Church of The New Gods in Das Königreich Middenland, while simultaneously encouraging both the spread and the proliferation of The Reformed Church of The New Gods in Die Markgrafschaft Brannenborg. And that Albrecht Von Biermann and all his prospective successors as “Die Markgrafen von Brannenborg” officially act as both regents and godfathers to Friedrich I’s infant son “Kronprinz Friedrich-Albrecht Von Rotbart” in the event and the occasion of his untimely passing. As Friedrich I had only and finally succeeded in producing a surviving male heir by his late 70′s. To both sweeten and conclude the subsequent and the complimentary “Treaties of Marienburg and Brannenborg-An-Der-Havel,” Albrecht Von Biermann had offered the ultimatum of consenting to the outlined elaborations under the condition that Friedrich I and all of his prospective successors as “Die Könige von Middenland” officially hold the title of “Der Markgraf von Brannenborg” plurally with the title of “Der König von Middenland” rather than incorporating Die Markgrafschaft Brannenborg as a constituent province of Das Königreich Middenland uniquely situated within the southernmost frontier of The Empire of Mankind Proper, so as to simultaneously preserve and retain the awesome power, privilege, and authority traditionally attached to the title of secular, hereditary “Kurfürst Des Selbst Kaiserreich der Menscheit” that had been both traditionally and synonymously tied with the hereditary title of “Die Markgrafen von Brannenborg” since it’s original awarding to Markgraf Friedrich II Von Biermann during The Electoral Reforms of Vespasian VII of The Imperial Household after his official election as The 96th Emperor-Elect of Mankind formally decreed in the aftermath the electoral wars disputing his lawful and legitimate election for the title of “Der Designiert-Kaiser Der Menscheit.” With the passing away of Friedrich-Albrecht Von Rotbart as Friedrich I’s far more prestigious, prolific, and illustrious older brother and The First Bishop-Patriarch of Marienburg. The venerable and ailing Archpatriarch Vexillarius IV as The 299th and Reigning Bishop of Romulus and The Current Head of The Conservative Church of The New Gods had formally and officially invested in Wolfgang Amadeus Von Holswig-Schlestien, Bishop-Prince of Griffenheim and one of the three ecclesiastical, invested “Kurfürsten Des Selbst-Kaiserreich Der Menscheit” as the next Bishop-Patriarch of Marienburg for Das Königreich Middenland. Unlike Friedrich-Albrecht Von Rotbart as his predecessor and The Seminal Bishop-Patriarch of Marienburg. This new Bishop-Patriarch of Marienburg was particularly hellbent on both maximizing and prioritizing the spiritual, cultural, and moral power, authority, and influence of The Conservative Church of The New Gods officially seated in The Holy Sept of the old capital, civilizational kernel, and titular namesake of The Cosmopolitan, Classical Romulan Republic and “The Empire of Mankind Primus” over the rulership, the state administration, and the systematic, mass conversion of Das Königreich Middenland’s apostate, Albic tribes at the expense of reducing the secular, hereditary power, authority, and influence of “Hohenrotbart Des Königreich Middenland” to a purely nominal role. Stating at one point that “The Midlands Crusade was formally preached and prosecuted in the name of The Canon Pantheon of The New Gods, not in the name of the selfish and conceited ambitions of prospective monarchs and aristocrats. And it was through their sheer grace and divinity that the crusade had concluded, in stunning and overwhelming triumph, in favour of the sanctioned forces of The Conservative Church.” In direct response to this ever increasing threat to his sovereign and legitimate rule and authority posed by both this new Bishop-Patriarch of Marienburg and his clerical and lay followers. Friedrich I as “Der erster und herrschend König von Middenland und Der Gründungschef von Hohenrotbart” had formally decreed state legislation to officially convert to The “Reformed” Faith of The New Gods on behalf of both his dynastic household and his hereditary subjects. The “Reformed” Faith essentially being derived from the theological reforms of Karl Von Luxembourg at Die Universität Wörtzburch questioning both the spiritual and cultural legitimacy and the moral infallibility of “The Bishop of Romulus” or “The Archpatriarch” and his spiritual, cultural, and moral authority as “The Last of The Classical Pontiffs,” or the sole, anointed representative to The Entire Canon Pantheon of The New Gods in the whole world after the official dissolution of the “Quattuordecimviri Sacris Faciundus” or “The Pontifical College” under the Cosmopolitan, Classical Romulan Imperator of Mankind “Demetrius Superbus” with his official prescription of The Conservative Faith of The New Gods as “the state religion” of The Cosmopolitan, Classical Romulan Empire of Mankind Primus. As well as protesting against the widespread corruption, the abuses, and the worldly excesses of both the ecclesiastical and the monastic clergy of The Conservative Church of The New Gods. With his legislative decree to officially convert to “The Luxembourgian Reformation” on behalf of both his dynastic household and his hereditary subjects, Friedrich I had finally assumed supreme authority over matters of religion in Das Königreich Middenland. And in the process making himself the effective and virtual “Supreme Head of The Reformed Church of The New Gods in Das Königreich Middenland” as the first major culture and state in both the recorded histories and the geographic expanse of The Known World to officially convert to The “Reformed” Faith of The New Gods based on the theological reforms of Karl Von Luxembourg. With his spiritual ties of fealty to The Holy Sept in Romulus formally annulled through his official conversion to The Luxembourgian Reformation, Friedrich I had actively pursued a policy of the systematic confiscation of the lands, property, and treasuries of any ecclesiastical and monastic clergy of The Conservative Church of The New Gods who had openly refused to submit before the formal renunciation of his spiritual ties of fealty to The Holy Sept in Romulus, while also endowing himself with full control over the state investiture of new bishops and abbots for The Reformed Church of The New Gods in Das Königreich Middenland. Including state investiture over the venerable and prestigious ecclesiastical office of Bishop-Patriarch of Marienburg since it’s original consecration and founding by his far more prestigious, prolific, and illustrious older brother at the stunning conclusion and the aftermath of “The Midlands Crusade” with the historic, subsequent, and complimentary desecration and demolition of “The Godswoods” as the holiest shrine and sacred grove of the apostate, Albic tribes religiously subscribed to the druidic, cult worship “Erdøk” or “The Great Forest.” Friedrich I’s first official policy as “The Supreme Head of The Reformed Church of The New Gods in Das Königreich Middenland” was to decree church legislation to decriminalize both the private ownership and the vernacular translations of The Holy Canons of The New Gods, which had always been traditionally codified in “Cosmopolitan” or “Classical Romulan” as the liturgical language of The Conservative Church of The New Gods since it’s original codification and formalization under the religious reforms traditionally attributed to The Classical Romulan Imperator of Mankind “Cassadorian the Great” with his establishment of The Conservative Faith of The New Gods as the “preferential” religion of The Cosmopolitan, Classical Romulan Empire of Mankind Primus. The possession, the reading, and the strict, legalistic interpretation of the Old Cosmopolitan, Classical Romulan rite and liturgy of The Holy Canons of The New Gods being the exclusive, legal reserve of the ecclesiastical and the monastic clergy of The Conservative Church of The New Gods, as well as the exclusive, feudal privilege of the hereditary, dynastic, greater and lesser houses of feudal aristocracy and nobility since the closing centuries of The Cosmopolitan, Classical Romulan Empire of Mankind Primus at the twilight of The Civilized World’s “Classical Antiquity.” This policy of actively proliferating both the private ownership and the vernacular translations of The Holy Canons of The New Gods would subsequently open both it’s reading and it’s strict interpretation to all social classes outside the ecclesiastical and monastic clergy and the feudal aristocracy and nobility. To “reinforce” or otherwise “bolster” his policy of the mass proliferation of the vernacular translations of The Holy Canons of The New Gods to all social classes outside the ecclesiastical and monastic clergy of The “Reformed” Church of The New Gods in Das Königreich Middenland and the greater and lesser houses “junker” aristocracy and nobility. Friedrich I as “Der erster und herrschend König von Middenland,” “Der Gründungschef von Hohenrotbart,” and “The Supreme Head of The Reformed Church of The New Gods in Das Königreich Middenland” has actively campaigned to encourage both the spread and the growth of mass literacy within Das Königreich Middenland using the religious and political support of any professional printers, missionaries, and church schools personally sympathetic to the theological reforms officially preached and published by Karl Von Luxembourg at Die Universität Wörtzburch. With Friedrich I’s formal issuance of the deed of foundation for “The Collegium Fridericium” or “Die Universität Königsberg” as both the earliest and the greatest, official centre of ideological proliferation for Karl Von Luxembourg’s theological reforms to the religious establishment of, and the institutions of organized religion within The Conservative Church of The New Gods officially seated within The Holy Sept of Romulus as the old capital, civilizational kernel, and titular namesake of both The Cosmopolitan, Classical Romulan Republic and “The Empire of Mankind Primus” until it’s final and final collapse at the very end of The Civilized World’s historical epoch of “Classical Antiquity,” as well as a monolithic religious and material cultural monument literally “set in stone” dedicated to his irrefutable infamy and notoriety as the first hereditary, dynastic ruler in both the recorded histories and the geographic expanse of “The Known World” to formally renounce his spiritual ties of fealty to The Holy Sept in Romulus through his legislative decree to officially convert to “The Luxembourgian Reformation” on behalf of both his dynastic household and his hereditary subjects. “The Collegium Fridericium” or “Die Universität Königsberg” essentially being founded to serve as a mighty bastion of religious and intellectual cultural education designed to produce new ecclesiastical and monastic clergy for Friedrich I’s “Reformed” Church of The New Gods in Das Königreich Middenland, as well as literate and formally educated missionaries to preach and proselytize The Luxembourgian Reformation throughout and beyond Das Königreich Middenland’s established frontiers.

[monstermonger]

A full moon shines, an omen of safe travels.

[phantom-tastic]

The theory of the sublime combines the emotions of horror and pleasure.

The Terror and ‘The Sublime’

Caspar David Friedrich’s ‘The Sea of Ice’ / The Terror (2018) / Franklin Memorial inscription / ‘A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful’ / ‘Nature and the Victorian Imagination’