1634 - The Bavarian Crisis by Eric Flint

Author:Eric Flint [Flint, Eric]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Europe, Alternative histories (Fiction), Europe - History - 17th century, Alternative History, Space Opera, General, Science Fiction, Adventure, Historical fiction, Thirty Years' War; 1618-1648, Fiction, Time travel
ISBN: 9781439132760
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2009-06-29T23:00:00+00:00

a line with it. Marc had never seen a city with quite so many churches and monasteries. Back on the main

street, they walked northeast through the chief marketplace, past the parliament house where the

Bavarian Estates met, and the city hall.

"The Estates," Leopold commented, "have frequently not been happy with the cost of all this ducal

splendor. In 1571, the ducal household was up to more than eight hundred and fifty people. Just Duke

Wilhelm's investment in music, Orlando di Lasso, Andrea Gabrieli, sixty-odd singers and instrumentalists,

plus a boys' chorus, was incredibly expensive. The extravagance of it all was why, in 1597, the Estates

compelled Duke Wilhelm to abdicate in favor of his son. A lot of Duke Maximilian's efforts during the

first years of his rule went to getting a grip on the financial situation. Even now, though, when the total

number of court personnel is smaller, most of it comprises the duke's own household: the hunt, the

stables, the cellar, the kitchens, the bodyguards; painters, sculptors, craftsmen, tailors. Duke Maximilian's

'strictest economy' has only reduced the court personnel to about seven hundred and seventy. Less than

a fourth are engaged in the administration of the duchy, from the highest member of the privy council

down to the most junior clerk. And, of course, Duke Albrecht has his own household, with his own

major domo and steward. As will the new duchess."

It was fairly easy, most of the time, to guess which of the people in the street were residents of

Munich and which were visitors. Munich women wore hats with high crowns and the ubiquitous aprons,

many of them colored. The men wore the same style of hat.

Duke Maximilian's officials attempted to enforce the 1626 sumptuary ordinance regulating

"unnecessary and superfluous costliness" in the clothing worn by his subjects, the Kleiderordnung, quite

strictly in this, his capital city. Woe to the farmer who had his wife's shoes sewn on a last or the ordinary

workman who expended his money on a pair of knit stockings with satin garters! The ordinance divided

the duke's subjects into classes and prescribed the acceptable clothing for each, the man and his family

alike: farmers, day laborers, menial civil servants, and common soldiers; ordinary citizens of a town and

artisans; merchants and civil servants of higher rank, such as court clerks; patrician families in the cities;

knights and the lower nobility; lawyers and university professors; counts and barons.

Leopold's factor in Neuburg had a copy of the pamphlet. He and Marc were wearing clothing

entirely suitable for a merchant of modest means and his son, without satin trimming. The lace on their

collars was carefully narrower than a joint on the middle finger, but not in the Munich local style. They

were, after all, here as foreign tourists.

"If Duke Maximilian had been born English," Leopold commented softly, "he would have made an

excellent Puritan. I have read a commentary by a visitor from Holland, written already twenty-five years

ago, in which he stated that the members of the duke's court were 'all temperate, strict in morals and

upright; every vice is banned at this court; the prince hates drunkards, rascals, and idlers; everything is

directed to virtue, temperance, and piety.

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