Hordt (The Kalmar Union)

The Principality of Hordt, Hordt, Arcist Palatinate, is a small constitutional monarchy on the left bank of the Rhine. To the North and West lies Luxembourg, to the South and West, the Palatinate. To the East lie various small Imperial territories. It is a member of the Holy Roman Empire. The population is around 315,000 and the capital is Mannheim.

The Head of State is Prince Nicholas.

The official language is German.

It has recently adopted the Imperial Mark (HRM), the largest state so far to do so.

History
The ruling house of Wantzenau-Liechtenstein-Wettin can claim descent from the Barrese freedom fighter Joan of Arc.

Joan of Arc


Olaf III, Holy Roman Emperor, dies. He has just started war against France, with the express wish of reuniting the two halves of Charlemagne's empire. While France is initially defeated in battle, war over who will succeed Olaf soon takes priority and French armies are soon able to freely raid across the francophone parts of the Empire.
 * 1383

The Luxembourg claimant Wenceslaus, is crowned King of Germany.
 * 1386

Wenceslaus is deposed by Rupert of Bavaria, leading to full-scale civil war as the Luxembourgs go head to head with the Wittelsbachs, and their Swabian and Papal allies.
 * 1400

Joan is born in Domremy, Duchy of Bar.
 * 1412

The Duke of Bar is declared insane. His son Charles is 1 years old. France, via its vassals Champagne and Burgundy declares regency for the duchy and invades. This is immediately opposed by the Luxembourgs who intice Arles and Anglia into an alliance to encircle France.
 * 1413

France takes to soarched-earth techniques to prevent Arelat armies penetrating Champagne. The Empire is neither united nor peaceful enough to fully push the French out. Anglia contents itself with minor sieges on the Flemish and Hainault borders.
 * 1417

The Defenestration of Prague begins the Hussite Wars. Wenceslaus dies. His brother and successor Sigismund declares his intent to drive France out of Bar but is soon embroiled in the Hussite Wars.
 * 1419

The Barrese Ducal family flees to Swabia.
 * 1421

Joan reports visions of saints who tell her to expel the French out of Bar and help the young Duke reclaim his duchy.
 * 1424

Petitions the garrison at Vaucoulers for permission to visit the Ducal court in exile at Nancy. Her request is rejected. Arles is driven out of Lorraine by Burgundy, who then follow up into Swabia as part of their long off-on Swabian War. France outlaws Charles, essentially annexing Bar and moves its armies forward into Lorraine.
 * 1428

On another visit to Vaucoulers she predicts the imminent defeat of Lorraine at the Battle of Remiremont. She is snuck out of Bar across French held territory to the Decapole city of Selestat. There she meets with Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine, whom she impresses. Wearing donated knight's armour she leads the Lorraine army to break the siege of Saverne. At the head of the army, often as standard bearer, but also directing tactics and troop movement, she leads the Lorrainers to victory after victory over the French forces. The army commanders praise her as a sound strategist, decisive where they might have chosen over-cautious tactics. By October Bar is evacuated by French forces and Charles is installed as the reigning duke.
 * 1429

She is shut out of the Lorraine-Bar war councils as the war takes on a slightly more Imperial edge. 'She is good at raising the morale of the troops but little use at taking cities'- Count Frederich of Anhalt. Duke Charles ennobles her and Lorraine gives her a small parcel of land on the Rhine at Wantzenau. They then advise her to leave the war to the generals and settle down on her land. They are worried that any further involvement on her part would damage the reputation of the Duchy. She is close to being denounced as heretical. Joan spends the year personally organising the refurbishment of the Wantzenau church and dictating (she is illiterate) letters to the Hussites urging them to return to Catholicism.
 * 1430

The Emperor receives Joan as he passes down the Rhine to Mulhouse on his way to receive Burgundian peace envoys and negotiate with the Swiss. She predicts the failure of the Hussite crusade at Domazlice but the end of the Bar war following a massive victory at Troyes. After receiving news of both events Sigismund grants her several small pieces of land in Bohemia, principally around the town of Litomerice, and urges her to go to 'assist' the armies in Bohemia. He hopes she will rally the peasantry into support of the catholic forces. However, arriving in Bohemia she splits the remaining crusade forces into Papal and 'Arcist' camps. Meanwhile, her uncompromising Catholicism halts the split between the moderate Utraquists and the radical Taborites who unite to drive her out of the region.
 * 1431

She is unfamiliar with the infantry and gunpowder based nature of Hussite tactics. Joan's forces are ejected from Bohemia and she is captured at the siege of Meissen. Sigismund refuses to pay her ransom, angry at the way she has misread the political situation and potentially lost him the Bohemian crown. Wantzenau is confiscated as are her other lands (but they are held by Taborites). Meanwhile the anti-pope Marinus III declares her heretical.
 * 1432

Under house arrest in Prague castle she has long discussions with the Hussite scholar Kristan of Prachatice. By the end of the year she is fluent in Czech and 'Joanna of Wantzenau', while still firmly catholic, is at least sympathetic to the Utraquist version of the faith.
 * 1433

The Utraquists and the Taborites fall into civil war over whether to accept peace. Released from prison as the Utraquists gain the upper hand in Prague, Joan is given token command of a small catholic/Utraquist force. Ignoring directions to quietly secure the Duchy of Upper Sorbia, she directs it into Poland who have been using Taborites as auxiliaries during their war against Prussia. A Taborite force is annihilated at Jantar on the Baltic, then Joan's forces, swollen with Pomerellian pikemen, narrowly avoids the Polish royal army looking for her. Leading them back into Sorbia, she directs the relief of two sieges before engaging a Polish army at Otyn. The victory starves the Taborites of support from their brethren in Poland.
 * 1435

She spends the early part of the year besieging various Taborite towns before being wounded at the Battle of Michalovce. She relinquishes command of her army to Prague and recovers on her estates.
 * 1436

The death of Sigismund lessens the German pressure on Prague. Though his son Matthew I is quickly accepted as the new King of Germany his claim to Hungary is less secure and directs much of his energy there.
 * 1437

Joan is present at the Battle of Jesenek which finally destroys Taborite forces. She was probably put in charge of the Catholic infantry there.
 * 1438

Joan and Matthew are reconciled at the peace treaty signing at Jihlava. He reinvests her with Wantzenau. Utraquism is recognised as equal with Catholicism under Bohemian law. Bohemia has been completely ravaged and Joan will spend most of the remainder of her life in relative poverty, trying to improve her estates and the farmers on them and urges neighbouring lords to do the same.
 * 1440

Joan marries a lesser Czech nobleman Nicolas of Sany. They have a daughter, Joanna.
 * 1444

At the age of 37 Joan of Arc dies. Her Wantzenau land is donated to the local abbey. Her Bohemian land is held by Nicholas of Sany until Joanna's majority.
 * 1449

The rumour that she converted to Utraquism on her death bed is widely believed throughout Bohemia. Another rumour circulates later involving a letter to the pope she dictated on her death bed (she remained illiterate) with three predictions; 1) the rise of the Schmalkaldic League and their victory at Mulberg, 2) the assassination of Pope Honorius VII, and a third yet to occur.

Descendants


Joanna inherited assorted Bohemian lands on her 14th birthday and added to them her fathers lands when he died in 1463. She looked to join a nunnery but was dissuaded and would convert to Utraquism in autumn that year. Prominent noblemen looked to match make her with a member of the Luxembourg family as it would have potentially pacified Bohemia as well as given Utraquism a boost and the Luxembourgs a divine link. However, as her mother was not of noble birth this would disqualified any of her children from the Imperial succession. Instead she marries Wenceslaus, from a cadet branch of the Liechtenstein family.

Their sons Nicholas and Wenceslaus were distinguished commanders during the War of Anglian Succession. Their daughter Joanna married the Czech nobleman Jan Korybut,and then, after his death, Georg, a minor landless noble of the House of Wettin. The brothers were jointly awarded with vacant land in the Palatinate Rhine at Hordt. Joanna would inherit Nicholas' share after his death.

In 1539 Georg & Joanna's son Rupert used a huge sum of money raised from the Czech estates to support the rise of the Wettin Emperor Albert, and thereby converts his Rhine holdings into the Margrave of Hordt, gaining immediacy within the Empire.

His son Rupert II embraced Lutheranism and was a staunch supporter of the Schmalkaldic League.

The Margrave was occupied repeatedly during the Fifty Years War and the family retreated to its Czech holdings for most of the duration. The Margrave was restored to Wantzenau-Liechtenstein-Wettin rule after the Peace and it was expanded to include the previously free cities of Worms and Mannheim. Mannheim had been virtually eradicated during the war, but was spectacularly rebuilt by the returning Wantzenaus.

The Margrave was raised to a Principality in 1824. It remains closely allied to Liechtenstein and Saxony.

Government
Hordt's head of state is Prince Nicholas. His Chancellor is Conrad Pfeiffer. Elections to the small Reichstag are held every five years.

Culture
On the anniversary of Joan's death the young females from the town of Horst are dressed up as a small medieval army group. One of the girls is invested with a suit of armour and she will lead the parade as 'Joan'. This parade is a hugely popular event, with mock battles and sieges staged along the Rhine.