The Rise of the European Emperor

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() The matter of the County of Oldenburg has also been satisfactorily resolved. Before signing, Julius II lightly mentioned the matter of the County of Oldenburg. Originally, some princes also opposed the annexation of Oldenburg by Marin. However, Julius II said that Marin had given up the Kingdom of Norway and half of the ceded land of Brandenburg and Saxony, and the issue of the county of Oldenburg did not seem to be a big deal.

However, there are still many traditional nobles who have raised objections-they believe that the title of aristocrat cannot be easily abolished, and the title of the Oldenburg family should not be deprived of it because of its defeat.

In this regard, Julius II naturally proposed a plan that had been prepared for a long time - to change the fief of the Oldenburg family to the Kingdom of Norway...

Since the Kingdom of Denmark has avoided ceding the Kingdom of Norway, it should be fine to accept an earl who has lost his land, right? Anyway, the Kingdom of Norway has more land. What's more, John, Count of Oldenburg, is the cousin of King Hans of Denmark.

But King Hans of Denmark said that even if he took over his cousin John, he would not be able to give him the same fertile fief as Oldenburg. Because the more valuable fiefs of the Kingdom of Norway are all in the south, but they have long been divided up by traditional old noble families, and it is impossible to have the same fertile land for cousins. Norway is large, but mostly uncultivated land. Even if those land were distributed to John's cousin, the cousin's family would not get any tax and would live very poor...

In this regard, Marin has naturally prepared a countermeasure for a long time-he said that the manor that originally belonged to the Oldenburg family, which was taken over from Earl John, is still supplied to John according to the previous amount every year. Earl's family. In this way, even if Earl John was allocated a barren land, he did not have to worry about family expenses. Moreover, as long as the Earl John's branch is unbroken, Oldenburg under the rule of Marin and Marin's descendants will insist on providing a considerable amount of food to Earl John and his descendants every year...

In other words, in terms of economic interests, John, Count of Oldenburg, did not suffer any losses. Then, what King Hans has to do is to give Count John a piece of land at will to ensure his noble status. In this way, things are easier to do. Because the most important thing the Kingdom of Norway lacks is land.

So, King Hans really canonized Count John as the Earl of Iceland...

Iceland! It's a huge country.

There are a full 100,000 square kilometers... However, Iceland cannot engage in agriculture at all. In later generations, Icelandic agriculture can only grow cold-hardy potatoes, or build some vegetable greenhouses (Vegetable greenhouses are not popular in Europe, glass greenhouses are popular) or something. Due to insufficient light, there are often polar nights. In later generations, vegetable greenhouses in Iceland often use fluorescent lamps to provide light for vegetable greenhouses, which consumes a lot of electricity every year. However, fortunately, Iceland has cheap geothermal power generation, and the electricity price is low, so it can be done.

Because there is no potato planting in Europe, nor the ability to develop vegetable greenhouses. Therefore, when Earl John's family went to Iceland, they could only let the people under their control raise reindeer, sheep, Icelandic horses, etc., and engage in animal husbandry. Of course, fishing can also be developed...

Fortunately, Marin was willing to provide the same amount of food as the previous harvest, and Earl John's family didn't lose much in terms of benefits. It's just that he will be far away from mainstream European society in the future. After all, Iceland is too far from continental Europe...

However, Marin also promised to allow Earl John's family to live in Las Vegas, a casino city at the mouth of the Elbe. As for the counties of Iceland, it is entirely possible to send someone to take care of them. In this way, the earl family can no longer go to the bitter cold places like Iceland. However, Las Vegas has a lot of fun activities and great temptations. As for whether the grain harvested by the Earl's family will be spent in Las Vegas after being converted into money, that is not something Marin can guarantee...

...

Of course, since John, the Earl of Oldenburg has been renamed the Earl of Iceland, the princes of the original Earl of Oldenburg, although they agreed with the occupation of Marin, firmly disagreed with the occupation of the Earl of Oldenburg in the Imperial Prince Court. seat. As a result, after the vote of the princes, the county of Oldenburg was officially removed from the Imperial Court of Princes. In other words, Marin got the land, but did not get the corresponding title. Of course, if Marin himself wanted to make an earl under his rule, that would be fine. However, that kind of earl does not belong to the imperial earl sequence, and is not eligible to enter the imperial vassal court.

...

In this way, the matter of the Oldenburg Country has been satisfactorily resolved. Just when everyone thought that the matter was over, after the signing, Pope Julius II suddenly proposed an amazing proposal - a land replacement plan.

As for who to replace with whom, specifically - Marin took out the Stendal region and the Salzwedel region (a total area of ​​more than 4,700 square kilometers), which was ceded from the Electoral State of Brandenburg, and Bremen. The Archbishopric undertakes land swaps.

Since then, the Archbishopric of Bremen has moved its capital from Bremerfeld to Stendal. The original territory of the Archbishopric of Bremen became the territory of Marin...

At first glance, most people feel that the exchange of the Archbishopric of Bremen for the Stendal region and the Salzwedel region seems to be a bit of a disadvantage. After all, the Archbishopric of Bremen covers an area of ​​around 6,000 square kilometers. The Stendal region and the Salzwedel region add up, but only more than 4,700 square kilometers.

However, this is not the case at all...

The Archbishopric of Bremen looks vast and bears the name of the famous Hanseatic city of Bremen. But in fact, the city of Bremen has long been independent from the Archbishopric of Bremen. No matter how rich the city of Bremen is, it has nothing to do with the Archbishopric of Bremen. Since 1219, the residence of the Archbishop of Bremen has moved from the city of Bremen to the small town of Bremerford. Moreover, the outer port of Hamburg, Cuxhaven, although it is also on the edge of the Archbishopric of Bremen, was also sold to Hamburg by the Archbishopric of Bremen, and has nothing to do with the Archbishopric of Bremen...

The current Archbishopric of Bremen, although it is located by the sea, is actually an agricultural country and its economy is not developed at all. Moreover, because it is located on the seaside, there are many swamps in the Archbishopric of Bremen, and the land development rate is not very high. Even in the Stendal region alone, the economy surpasses that of the Archbishopric of Bremen. Agriculturally, the Stendal region and the Salzwedel region also have more arable land than the Archbishopric of Bremen, as well as population.

Therefore, when Pope Julius II proposed this land replacement plan, the Archbishop of Bremen, Johan Rodwaal, was not against it. He had only one request—that is, to have the Electorate of Brandenburg bring the nobles of the two regions back to the East Bank. As a result, the farmland and manor of those nobles in these two regions will be vacant, just for him and the protagonists of the Archbishopric of Bremen to divide up together...

As for the land of the Archdiocese of Bremen itself? Because there are too many swamps, there is not as much arable land as the Stendal region and the Salzwedel region. What's more, Stendal was a very prosperous commercial city and inland port on the Elbe. After they moved their residence from Bremerfeld to Stendal, the business tax here went to the bishops of the Archbishopric of Bremen...

The only one who is depressed is Joachim I, Elector of Brandenburg. After all, if you take away all the big and small nobles from these two regions, you will also need to place them somewhere...

Because after the signing, the Stendal region and the Salzwedel region already belong to Marin. Then, how to deal with that land is Marin's own business. Of course, the exchange of territory would become a matter between Marin and the Archbishop of Bremen, Johann Rodwal. As long as the Archbishopric of Bremen agrees, it is not easy for others to interfere. Moreover, from the perspective of economic interests, Marin is actually the one who suffers. After all, the Stendal region and the Salzwedel region combined, except that the area is smaller than the Archbishopric of Bremen, in other respects, it is completely better than the Archbishopric of Bremen. As long as Marin doesn't take advantage, the princes are happy to see it.

As for why Julius II put it up at the imperial meeting, he actually asked the princes to be a witness. In addition, Julius II proposed that since Marin's territory is basically on the North Sea, he proposed , merge all the territories of Marin into a vassal state - the Grand Duchy of the North Sea. And Marin, also renamed the Grand Duke of Beihai...

There was no opinion that Marin wanted to merge the territories. Moreover, the territorial merger means that Marin will lose a seat in the House of Princes of the Empire (Marin originally had two seats in the Counties of East Frisland and the Duchy of Schleswig). However, the promotion to the Grand Duchy made everyone unhappy at once...

why? The status of the Grand Duke is above the Duke... If Marin is successfully promoted to the Grand Duke, everyone will bow to him first. This is a bit unbearable for the nobles who are very respectful...

Now, in the entire Holy Roman Empire, there is only one grand duchy, the Grand Duchy of Austria. Moreover, the Habsburg family is a royal family, and the title of Grand Duke is to highlight the dignity. Do you, Marin, also want to be the Grand Duke? What about dreaming?

In the end, Marin took the next step and promised that even if he was promoted to the Grand Duke, the German dukes and protagonists would not have to go through the etiquette of seeing their superiors first. In other words, this is just a name, and within the empire, its status is still equal to that of a duke.

Of course, as a price, Marin is willing to give up one seat and keep only one prince seat in the Imperial Prince Court...

When the princes heard it, they felt that Marin did not take advantage of this matter. Although it was called the Grand Duchy, in the Imperial Council, he was equal to the Duke, and he did not overwhelm them. As a result, they passed Marin's proposal, agreeing that Marin would integrate the territory under his rule into the Grand Duchy of Beihai, and they also agreed that Marin Jinjue would be the Grand Duke of Beihai. However, the invention of the Imperial Parliament stipulates that the rights and interests enjoyed by Marin are still the same as those of the Duke...

In this way, Marin became the Grand Duke of Beihai, and the territory under his rule was also integrated into the Grand Duchy of Beihai. As for why it is called the Grand Duchy of Beihai? That's because the last man who dominated the North Sea was named Canute...

Who is Canute? That was the founder of the Danish North Sea Empire, named "Emperor Canute". Marin integrated the land under his control into the Grand Duchy of the North Sea.

In fact, Marin is also secretly sending a signal to the German princes - Lao Tzu does not want to participate in the land hegemony, but only wants to dominate the ocean...

The German princes, although vaguely aware of Marin's aspirations, were happy to see it succeed. In any case, their interests are not above the ocean, and it is none of their business that Marin is in the North Sea. They were even happy that Marin, a guy who could fight, turned his attention to Beihai.

The only person who was unhappy at the scene was probably the Danish King Hans-Nima, you want to be Emperor Canute and dominate the North Sea, what about Denmark? You must know that the North Sea has always been the base of Denmark. Besides, Emperor Canute himself is a Dane...Unfortunately, now he has no ability to challenge Marin, so he can only endure...