The Battle of Twin Towers, a later woodcutting depicting violence between Catholic and Jungist delegations during the election.
The Imperial Elections of 1595-1596 were a series of attempted elections and subsequent skirmishes in the lead-up to the Forty Years' War. Following the death of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor in 1595, an Imperial Election was called in the city of Frankfurt. With no clear candidate apparent who could appeal to both Catholics and Jungists in the worsening religious climate, a year-long deadlock ensued instead, leading to increasing tensions among the city's populace, and more extreme acts of intrigue and violence by both sides. Ultimately each side would election their own emperor: Frederick V of the Palatinate for the Catholics and Joktan of Hesse for the Jungists, beginning the Frankfurt Phase.
The city of Frankfurt was a majority Jungist city surrounded primarily by Catholic powers, such as the Archbishopric of Mainz. As religious violence began to unfold in the city, this left mayors Salentin von Isenburg and Isaac Grieff scrambling to keep the city intact. Isenburg would attempt to force a decision and contain the electors in one location by isolating them within the Reichstag building. The declaration of Frederick V as Emperor by the Catholics on 30 July only turned the Reichstag into a battleground, which spilled over into the rest of the city.
Background[]
Charles V would be the last universally accepted Emperor by both Catholics and Jungists before the Forty Years' War.
On 13 August 1595 Charles V, the Catholic Emperor from the Duchy of Livonia, died at the age of 68. The Emperor met his demise after an accidental impaling while trying on the armor and armament of his grandfather Marek Ironside during a dinner party, leaving the Holy Roman Empire to an uncertain fate. Charles had managed to keep the empire intact while serving as a neutral emperor, but his death put into motion a plan by his allies to keep Catholic control over the throne. Before his death, Charles V coordinated with the Catholic League, agreeing to put his son-in-law Frederick V of the Palatinate in his will as his successor, as he was deemed a neutral candidate that both the Habsburg and the Arpads could agree upon. Thus the Catholic side was highly organized behind one candidate, and entered the conference already confident in having secured half the electorate. With the victory in the Trier War, the Archbishopric of Trier could be counted as Catholic once more, as could the rest of the ecclesiastic electors, even in the wake of Hamburg-Lubeck’s conversion to Jungism.
Prior to the election the Rätian Union was disorganized in regards to its stance. The ongoing political schism between the “Optimates and Populares” of the Union – the lack of trust between the nobility and Jenagothas versus lower class politicians uplifted by the new government system – led to an internally focused government, which was hesitant to respond to foreign matters. However, the imperial delegation at the behest of President of the Magi Jair von Jenagotha sought to have a unified opinion going into the election. Gedeon II of Thuringia and Henry V of Saxony would be persuaded to form a strong voting bloc, voting for an agreed upon third party if needed, and not voting without consulting the other first. Similarly Bohemia and Brandenburg, although both preferring to elect a fellow Premyslid, found a Jungist Emperor non-negotiable in the wake of the religious upheaval in Bohemia before and during Charles V’s reign.
Although elderly by the time of the election, Zebulon Zobel retained the position of Premier Captain, and was a crucial vote for the Catholics. During Charles V’s reign he had also elevated three Catholic guardsmen, leaving the Imperial Guard in total at six Catholics and three Jungists, which would make a Jungist-backed veto of Zobel’s vote impossible. By chance the cabinet member votes were given to two Jungist-leaning officials who happened to agree, creating what would become a completely even 9-9 split of the imperial electorate.
Early Conferences[]
Both sides attempted to sway or bribe members from the other to their cause. The most obvious targets were the cabinet members, Jaromir III of Bohemia and Imperial Guard Saumon Meise. Despite repeated attempts to bribe both men, Jaromir III refused because of the Catholic side’s chosen candidate, and Meise was zealously anti-Catholic and favored chaos over compromise. Simon Burkhart II secretly tried to pressure the Archbishop of Bremen to switch his vote, but when this was revealed the Hansa was lambasted by the other Archbishops, and complaints were sent to have Simon excommunicated. Charle V’s wife and his successor, Marek II, were both pressured to invoke the “Right of God’s Arbitration”, which would have undoubtedly benefited the Jungists by invalidating several ecclesiastic votes, but both were Catholic and refused.
After a deadlock of nearly three weeks, the conference was paused in preparation for Christmas, with plans to resume discussion and voting during the following spring. The Archbishop of Cologne would not return to Frankfurt, as he was adamant against changing his vote. Other electors, such as Henry V of Saxony, elected to not leave the city at all, preferring to monitor the situation closely. Allegedly, while traveling out of the city, an attempted assassination attempt was carried out against Saumon Meise, which would have ended the schism if it succeeded. Meise miraculously fought off his attackers and escaped, going into hiding. Jaromir III would elect to vote by proxy the coming spring, sending his brother Charles in his stead.
In late March voting was resumed. By this time the general populace was well aware of the issues and had their own opinions on the matter, as did numerous foreign nations. During the arrival of the Rätian delegates, which was now traveling with a large caravan of guards and courtiers, an impromptu parade broke out among the largely Jungist population of Frankfurt. Conversely, the Archbishop of Mainz was coldly received, but nonetheless entered the city with a large group of some 200 attainers. Numerous foreign dignitaries had arrived in the city, including a papal legate with word that Simon Burkhart had been excommunicated. It was hoped this would incite rebellion against him and perhaps turn the Hanseatic League Catholic once more, but it seemed to have the opposite effect of hardening Burkhart’s resolve.
The arrival of Catholic soldiers from Darmstadt in the vicinity of Frankfurt caused a panic in the city.
The deadlock would continue over the next few months, causing increasingly escalated bouts of violence and intrigue. Protests began across the city, much to the dismay of the leading mayors and city council. During one incident, the Archbishop of Salzburg organized a procession of the Catholic population through the city for a saint’s feast day, causing the gathered crowd to be attacked by onlookers. Three days later Salzburg was pushed out of town by a mob, with several of his entourage being captured. According to one account, "boisterous Jungists of Frankfurt... having captured a plethora of priests, nuns, and friars, caused divers feather beds to be ripped, and all the feathers thrown into a great hall, whither the nuns and friars were thrust naked with their bodies oiled and pitched and to tumble among these feathers." The Archbishop of Mainz and other officials from the late government of Charles V would begin organizing an armed response, calling upon reserves of the Imperial army to begin organizing around Frankfurt. A force of some 800 men from Darmstadt would be sent to the city strictly for the purposes of alleged peacekeeping.
Mayors' Gambits[]
This decision was highly controversial and caused the city to fall into a panic. The solution by Salentin von Isenburg, Senior Mayor of Frankfurt, was to produce an ancient-looking document which he claimed was an edict from Henry VIII, Holy Roman Emperor, which decreed that generals and their armies, or any weapons, were not allowed within the city, as the city was to be a neutral meeting place, based on the rules of the ancient Roman Republic. Although almost certainly a forgery by Isenburg, the expertly crafted law and the evidence surrounding it was enough to halt the Archbishop of Mainz’s proposed plan for the time being. Instead the Archbishop’s militia was camped at Mörfelden, just south of Frankfurt and outside the city limits.
Salentin von Isenburg, the elderly Senior Mayor
Isaac Grieff, the untested Junior Mayor
So would begin a year long struggle by the partnership of Salentin von Isenburg and Junior Mayor Isaac Grieff to deter any damage to Frankfurt. Isenburg was an elderly and experienced politician, having served all his life in the Frankfurt assemblies, and multiple times as mayor. Grieff on the other hand was a young and untested man from a non-noble family, who unexpectedly rose to the position of Junior Mayor after receiving a plethora of throwaway votes. Fearing that both sides were in favor of increased escalation, the mayors would begin strategically spying on and befriending the various electors, hoping to learn of any plot before it could be initiated.
In early May the Mayors received word that Jungist extremists were planning to plant explosives in the city and kill some of the Catholic electors. Isenburg organized a very public feast with several prominent Catholics in the hopes of attracting the group's attention, and during the feast, Grieff searched underneath the building’s floorboards to discover the planted bomb and disarm it. Unaware of the bomb plot, Jungists perceived Isenburg as becoming Catholic-leaning and criticized him. Nonetheless, Isenburg used this apparent Catholic trust to receive rumors of a plot to assassinate Charles Premyslid and leaked this information to the Jungists, ending their criticism of him.
Despite the ban on weapons and soldiers within the city, a local noble named Hieronymus the Younger, a nephew of prominent leader Hieronymus Kellner, began organizing a Jungist militia in the city. Hieronymus’ group would patrol the streets and occasionally acted as police, but more often than not was a force of intimidation against Catholics and protection for Jungists. On one occasion Hieronymus appeared outside the residence of the Archbishop of Bremen, attempting to stop him from leaving the house for the vote. After receiving news that the Archbishop had been trapped in his house for a week, a Catholic militia led by Ludwig von Glauburg was formed that scared off Hieronymus after some light fighting in the street.
Isenburg’s solution was to have all the electors still present assemble within the Reichstag, with enough supplies and supporters to potentially stay there without leaving. Although this ensured the safety of the electors and quelled violence for a time, it would ultimately lock all the most belligerent men in the city together in the same building. Each elector was granted a room or small wing of the building, and each day Isenburg hoped to have a vote undertaken in the center of the building. It became clear that they would not come to a solution on their own, and Isenburg and Grieff attempted to meet with various electors privately and negotiate a compromise. For the next two months the situation in the Reichstag became an unproductive one, with meetings between the two sides only turning to arguments, and hours spent separately turning into plotting sessions, talks of strategy, and sometimes impromptu parties. The period would later be dramatized by Shakespeare in his play, 16 Angry Men.
The Catholic side was increasingly confident in Frederick V of the Palatinate, and argued that despite no formal vote being concluded that would have granted him the title, on account of him having the closest to a passing vote, and with many Jungist electors refusing to participate, he was by right the proper emperor. On 30 July Frederick V was referred to openly for the first time as emperor, and the Catholic electors attempted to pressure Isenburg into allowing the rest of the legislature into the building to witness this and confirm it. A physical altercation broke out, with the Duke of Hesse being injured, and the Archbishop of Salzburg being thrown out the building’s window in a cart of manure that was below. Isenburg suffered a blow to the head and was carried out of the building by Grieff and attendants, leaving the electors to their own devices for the rest of the night.
The next morning Isenburg awoke to news of protests breaking out around the Reichstag. Hieronymus’ mob attempted to escort Catholic dignitaries into the building, and their parade soon turned into defensive march. The two mobs clashed outside the building, while the Frankfurter guard, numbering some 400 men on the periphery of the building, were essentially put to siege by the crowd outside, suffering 161 casualties over the following week. Inside the building, the electors initially split into their separate halves of the building, beginning the so-called “Battle of Twin Towers”. This effectively marked the beginning of formal warfare, and the beginning of the Frankfurt Phase of the Forty Years' War.
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