Alternative History
William of Talstein
Hans Holbein d. J. 059 Cropped
Portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1482
Imperial Guard
Reign 1479-1484
Burgrave of Talstein
Reign 1472-1484
Predecessor Title Created
Successor Henry IX
Lord of Rutha
Reign 1480-1484
Predecessor Title Created
Successor William II
Born 1 June 1450
Erfurt, Thuringia,
Holy Roman Empire
Died 19 September 1484
Near Voralburg, Swiss Confederacy
Issue
House House of Jenagotha
Father Thin White Duke
Mother Drusilla of Thuringia
Religion Roman Catholicism

William of Talstein (1 June 1450 - 19 September 1484) was a Thuringian knight and military commander. He was the eldest child of the Thin White Duke and was heir apparent to the Duchy of Thuringia, before his untimely death in battle. William was appointed Burgrave of Talstein in 1472 and Lord of Rutha in 1480 by his father, and also became an Imperial Guard as part of the inaugural class appointed by Henry VIII, Holy Roman Emperor.

Groomed from a young age in statecraft by his father, William distinguished himself as a brave and capable leader. Unlike his father he showed interest in swordsmanship and in chivalry, eventually becoming a knight. He served closely with his father and the rest of his family during the reign of Henry VIII, promoting the Emperor to appoint William to the imperial guard in 1479. William appears to have taken the job very seriously, and looked up to knights such as Jaromir "the Bear" Přemyslid and Rolf "Greyhands" Bayard, the latter of which once remarked that William's greatest sin as a knight was pride. His father expected William to resign from the guard upon his ascension to the throne of Thuringia, something that William did not agree to.

When the Lenzburg-Premyslid War broke out in 1484 William was accompanying his father as a bodyguard in Frankfurt, and carried out the arrest of prominent Lenzburgers within the government, such as Aymon von Lenzburg. Soon after William was appointed commander of Thuringian forces and led an imperial attachment to much acclaim at the Battle of Constance. In September he spearheaded a zealous march into the Swiss Confederacy, where he fell in battle near Voralburg. The Thin White Duke refused to believe that such an excellent fighter had been bested fairly in battle, and instead believed that a Swiss agent had backstabbed his son, fueling his Swissophobia.

Although dying relatively young, William would father several influential descendants. Most notably, his oldest son would become Henry IX, Holy Roman Emperor after the death of Henry VIII in 1493, and later became the Apostolic President of the Rätian Union. Rule over the union therefore descended through William's descendants, while Thuringia itself would fall to the descendants of Hugh the Heir, William's distant half-brother. Talstein also was inherited by Henry IX, while the Lordship of Rutha fell to his brother, William II. He was replaced in the Imperial Guard by Sir Ernest Frederick.

This article is part of Merveilles des Morte.