Regarding Marin's asking price in money, Henry, Duke of Luneburg, felt nothing. However, Marin proposed that the Duke of Saxony cede Friesland, which is a big deal.
In the Middle Ages, it was not uncommon for nobles to be captured. Moreover, it is normal to ask for ransom. However, requests to cede land are relatively rare. Because the nobility is "expensive" only by having land. How expensive is it if there is no land, or less land
Of course, it is not that there is no cession of land. That half, though, happens when power meets power. The nobles in the Middle Ages valued order the most. As a new nobleman, Marin wanted the Duchy of Saxony to cede such a large piece of land as soon as he came up, which made Henry, Duke of Luneburg instinctively feel uncomfortable.
Because the Principality of Luneburg is not far from the Counties of East Frisia, and there is only the Bishop of Münster or the Counties of Oldenburg in the middle. If Marin annexes Friesland this time, and then annexes the Bishop of Münster or the Earl of Oldenburg next time, then, next, it is possible to annex Luneburg...
Therefore, Henry, Duke of Lüneburg is not feeling well...
Then, Duke Henry returned to Luneburg on the grounds that he could not be the master, and told the waiting Duke of Saxony the news, and suggested that the Duke of Saxony join other nobles to put pressure on Marin...
The purpose of the pressure is not not to pay money, but to get Marin to give up the idea of seizing West Friesland. The combat effectiveness of Marin's army is already there. Even a powerful country like the Principality of Saxony can't beat him. If Marin is opened for expansion, maybe the next expansion madman will appear.
Saxony can't hold Marin down, and neither can Luneburg. Therefore, the Duke of Saxony began to send his men to ask for help from his nephew, the Elector of Saxony, and the other six major electors. Even the Duke of Saxony rushed to Innsbruck in person to ask for help from Emperor Maximilian I who had returned to Austria, hoping that the emperor would stand up and say peace...
Around the New Year, the seven electors of the Holy Roman Empire successively received requests from the Duke of Saxony. Except for King Wladyslaw II of Bohemia who expressed his disinterest, the other six electors all showed Marin's tendency to expand. , expressed vigilance.
Most importantly, Marin was ostensibly an important thug for Emperor Maximilian I. Therefore, they are not willing to see Marin own more territory.
Therefore, except for the King of Bohemia, the other six electors all asked Marin to give up his territorial claim to West Frisia in the name of mediation. However, out of the dark psychology of being willing to see the unlucky Saxons, except for the Saxon elector, the other five electors expressed no objection to Marin's ransom demand.
Based on the principle that Marin could not request the cession of West Frisia, under the witness of the representatives of the six electors, Marin and the Duke of Saxony started negotiations in Papenburg, a city in the north of the Bishop of Münster close to the Counties of East Frisia. …
In this regard, Marin expressed great depression. Originally, he planned to completely take over West Friesland. However, all of a sudden, the six major electors jointly put pressure on him, so that he had to humiliately accept their "suggestion"...
There is no other reason. If it is one of the six electors, Marin will not be afraid. Now, after defeating the 24,000 army of the Principality of Saxony, Marin's limelight has never been better, and the morale of his soldiers is also particularly strong, and he seems to be confident. At this time, Marin is not afraid to confront any vassal state head-on, even if the emperor is elected.
However, when the six electors united, Marin had to persuade him. As a sudden rising aristocrat, what Marin wants at this stage is not rapid expansion, but an urgent need for recognition from all parties. After all, his rise time is too short and his foundation is weak. Moreover, newcomers are easily suppressed by the old forces. This point is not only applicable to the feudal hegemony, but also to the workplace of later generations. Some new employees appear too quickly, and they are also easily resisted and suppressed by old employees. By the same token, Marin, a "new employee" in the aristocratic world, has risen too fast, and it is inevitable that he will be hostile and jealous of those old aristocratic forces. In desperation, Marin decided to hide his strength and bide his time, and lay a solid foundation.
You know, any elector can gather an army of 20,000. Together with the six major electors, it is not difficult to gather an army of more than 100,000. Such a number of people has already exceeded the total population of East Frisia. No matter how big Marin is, he dare not say that he can fight hundreds of thousands of troops with 10,000 people. Unless, his men all use advanced weapons hundreds of years ahead of this era...
But for now, Marin's army can only be said to be one step ahead of the times. It is not a problem for 10,000 people to fight the opponent's 20,000 to 30,000. If you want to hit hundreds of thousands, don't dream... So, Marin decisively gave up the territorial claim and began to bargain with the Saxons in other ways...
For Marin's other types of demands, representatives of the other five major electors except the Saxon elector were very supportive. Because the electors are not so harmonious. If the seven electors were so united, perhaps the Habsburg family would have been killed by them. There are also many dirty things among the electors.
For example, the Saxon business district is the second largest business district in the Hanseatic League, and the Elector of Saxony and the Duke of Saxony have benefited greatly from this. Their respective financial revenues far exceed those of other electors. This inevitably aroused the jealousy of other electors.
Therefore, they also encouraged Marin to weaken the Duke of Saxony more openly and secretly. Anyway, as long as Marin doesn't want to expand, they are still willing to support Marin to bite off a large piece of meat from the Principality of Saxony. After all, Marin's East Friesland, plus the Wadden Islands, is only three thousand and a few hundred square kilometers, but it is only a county (European counties, generally two to three thousand square kilometers in size), and it is difficult to rise up .
Even, for the Duke of Saxony's failure in this expansion, the five major electors were very gloating. Therefore, as long as Marin does not touch the red line of the territory, the representatives of the other five electors will all express their support...
Although the Duke of Saxony was dissatisfied with the ransom price of Prince George and the knight, he still accepted it. You know, among the 1,980 knights captured by Marin, 1,200 of them were borrowed from the Elector of Saxony. Needless to say, these people must be redeemed.
Then, on the ransom of the regular infantry, the two sides began a fierce bargaining. In fact, Marin's asking price of 50 gold coins for an infantryman is not high. It's just that the Saxons captured too many people this time, which has exceeded the capacity of the Duke of Saxony.
Because, according to Marin's asking price, the Principality of Saxony would not be able to raise so much money even if it was selling iron. After all, that was 1.64 million gold coins. The annual fiscal revenue of the Duchy of Saxony is only about 300,000 gold coins. Moreover, the money is not saved, but more than half of it will be spent. The rest of the year, at most tens of thousands of gold coins. Right now, the Duchy of Saxony can give up to five or six million gold coins. Most of the rest, I can't even get it out.
Marin thought about it, and the Principality of Saxony really couldn't afford that much money. However, Marin didn't want to suffer. In the end, Marin proposed a plan to "replace the population with gold coins"...
Marin proposed that since the Saxons can't afford that much money, the population can be used to offset the money. For example, the 8,000 conscripts and 10,000 civilians who were captured by the Saxons, Marin planned to turn them all into serfs under his own name...
Of course, it is not enough to just want men. These young men are certainly good labor, but a man alone cannot have children. This is not good for future population growth in East Frisia.
Therefore, Marin requested that the Duke of Saxony send all the families of these 18,000 young adults to East Frisia. In exchange, Marin is willing to waive Saxony's compensation of 500,000 gold coins - anyway, the Saxons can't afford that much money...
Although Albrecht, the Duke of Saxony, was unwilling to lose so many young men, he couldn't afford that much money. For this reason, after consideration, he accepted Marin's plan of "population offsetting gold coins". However, the two sides had a big disagreement on the amount of gold coins that the population should offset...
According to Marin's plan, in addition to sending all the 18,000 young and strong family members to East Frisia, the Duke of Saxony had to pay another huge ransom of 1.14 million Gulden gold coins. The Duke of Saxony felt that it was still too high. You know, there are only half a million gold coins in his treasury. He is not the king of France, even if he is rich, he is only the duke of a principality. Therefore, being able to take out more than five hundred thousand gold coins is already the limit. Any more, and the Duke of Saxony would have to borrow.
However, the loan is not so easy to repay. These days, the annual interest rate on loans to nobles is as high as 10% to 15%. If you borrow a loan of 1 million gold coins, the annual interest alone will be as high as 100,000 to 150,000 gold coins. This was nearly half of Saxony's annual income, and the Duchy of Saxony might have gone bankrupt if it had borrowed so much.
Therefore, Albrecht, Duke of Saxony, definitely hoped that the more gold coins that those strong men could replace, the better. As for the population, the Principality of Saxony, as one of the most prosperous vassal states in Germany, has no shortage. Right now, the Principality of Saxony has a population of more than 800,000, and with the addition of more than 200,000 in West Frisia, there are millions of people. Therefore, the loss of tens of thousands of people is still bearable. Moreover, in the territory of the Principality of Saxony, because of the long peace, the population is too large. After all, the food production in this era is there...
During the break in the negotiations, Albrecht, Duke of Saxony, lowered his face and humbly begged the representatives of the other five major electors for help.
The representatives of the major electors were actually very conflicted at this time. On the one hand, they were happy to see the jokes of the Duke of Saxony. On the other hand, they don't want Marin, the "running dog" of Maximilian I, to be too proud...
In the end, they chose a handful of the Duke of La Saxony...
Then, with the help of representatives of several major electors, the Duke of Saxony finally won a "discount"—he only needed to send the family members of the 18,000 people. In addition, the cash payment was reduced from 1.14 million to 1 million...
The loan of 500,000 gold coins, the Duke of Saxony gritted his teeth and could still bear it. It's just that the Principality of Saxony has been in debt for many years, but it will not go bankrupt. After all, the commercial prosperity of the Principality of Saxony lies there.
In fact, several other electors were also happy to watch Marin joke. Because, 18,000 strong men, including their families, have a total of 50,000 to 60,000 people.
Fifty to sixty thousand people have the same number of mouths. These people poured into the Counties of East Frisia, and the food consumption alone was an astronomical figure. Even if Marin gets 1 million gold coins, it is estimated that most of them will be spent on feeding those immigrants...
Moreover, several major electors also have a lot of information about the Counties of East Frisia. They all agree - East Frisia can't feed that many people. Because there are too many swamps in East Frisia, which are suitable for arable land and cannot support so many people... In the end, these populations may even drag down the Counties of East Frisia-this is what they are happy to see...
However, what they don't know is that because Marin has mastered advanced agricultural technology, tens of thousands of people can also support him. You know, apart from reselling the grain acquired by other nobles during the autumn harvest, Marin basically didn't move much of his own grain. The reason why he didn't move was to wait for the consumption of immigrants. That's the total output of 500 million pounds of rye, which is enough to feed hundreds of thousands of people for a year... Unexpectedly, the Duke of Saxony sent him away before he started emigrating. 18,000 strong men came, and they were also responsible for sending their families—now, Marin doesn't have to worry about immigration...
When signing the final treaty, Marin suddenly thought of something special request-for those young and strong without wives, the Duke of Saxony must be responsible for sending an extra young serf to marry those young and strong... After all, those 18,000 young and strong , if there are thousands of bachelors, finding wives for them will be very problematic. Therefore, Marin directly pushed this matter to the Duke of Saxony. Even many of Marin's soldiers are still bachelors. The wretched Marin directly asked the Duke of Saxony to help him solve this matter together - who said that Saxony has a large population... Moreover, Marin also pointed out that a young golden girl must be required, otherwise he would refuse to "accept the goods" - This is also to prevent the Duke of Saxony from using barren old women to make up for it...
In the end, Marin let go—if you don’t send enough women, your son will not go back, and he will sit in my prison...