Fleckenstein (The Kalmar Union)

The County of Fleckenstein, Fleckenstein, is a small constitutional monarchy in the Western Holy Roman Empire. It is bordered by United Netherlands and the Palatinate. The population is around 6,000 and the capital is Lembach.

The Head of State is Count Fredrich III.

The official language is Franconian.

The de facto currency is the Luxembourgoise Guilder (LXG)

History
Forming around the lands of the Fleckenstein family the small lordship was principally famed for the impressive castle built on a sandstone outcrop that formed the seat of the lords.

During the Fifty Years War the castle was ruined by a retreating Luxembourg army in 1653 who apparently used it as firing practice. The act was sorely lamented by King Henry X who had seen it during his youth, and he paid the widow Catherine von Fleckenstein-Dugstul a substantial amount as compensation. Catherine's heirs would use the money to buy the title of Count as well as effectively securing the county's continued survival as an independent state.

The heavily wooded land is sparsely populated and is nowadays the county is chiefly engaged in hosting hunting parties for the great and good of the Rhineland states. There is a unspoken law that lodges should be kept modest after the Bishop of Cologne took deep offense at being outspent by the Duke of Hesse-Kassel on their respective hunting lodges in the 1920s.

Government
Effectively consisting of little more than individual villages, each community governs itself with often direct participation from the residents. There is a central Diet presided over by the Counts and Mayors but these meet irregularly.

It is grouped as one of the Empire's  'Lesser'  states and therefore its foreign affairs and defense is run by a branch of the Imperial government. The counts have historically vehemently resisted any calls to reform or rationalise the smaller states.

The current Head of State is Count Fredrich III and the current Mayor is Martin Deck.