On a summer night in 1424, Albert V met with a few of his friends that he had appointed into the state council. Over many glasses of a particularly sweet and thick wine, they discussed the topics of the day. Hours went on, and the conversation drifted from this to that, until fatefully, the course of discussion lead them to the idea of extending Austria's borders. Throughout the evening, Albert V had kept quiet, listening to the conversation and enjoying himself, laughing occasionally at the right points and nodding understandingly here and there. As the others began to talk about broadening the map of Austria, he began to shake with anticipation. He could take it no more.
“We must take Helvetia! Look at it,” he stated, rolling a map across the table. “Helvetia is the perfect extension to the west. Truly, I think I.. well, we.. need it.”
“So, you're suggesting taking over Helvetia? They already hate us, how do you plan on getting them to join us?”
Albert V smiled. “With force.”
“Um.. aren't they recently allied with Strassburg?”
“What kind of joke is that?” Albert V rolled around in his chair, almost falling on to the floor. “Strassburg is a tiny little place.. I believe they are just one province. They are hardly a threat.. Still, perhaps it would be best to get on their good side anyway.”
“Um, Albert,” spoke up the skinny guy. “What about Salzburg, i mean really.. they are right there. I'm sure we can take them more easily.”
“I do not wish to talk about Salzburg right now. They refused my kind offer to become or vassals about three years ago. They are our allies, but i don't even care to get them involved in our war against Helvetia.”
“Hold on.” They all spoke up. “Are you implying that you want to declare war immediately?!”
“Not yet, I figure we'll need about a year to prepare, get Helvetia's friends to be on our side too. I mean, come on.. we already have a good cause for war, so we're wholly justified. But their buddies, like Strassburg, may feel the need to defend their allies. So, I figure, if they are going to be fighting us, make them love us first..”
Albert V spent the rest of 1424 buttering up Strassburg. He sent them two extravagant gifts. They were not at all impressed by the decorative toothpick set. So, he put more effort into choice with the second. They absolutely fell in love with the fine crafted bust of their leader. All with the intent to buy the love of Helvetia's friends and family, before we declared war on Helvetia.
It was our understanding that there was a royal marriage between Wurtemberg and Helvetia, however, Wurtemberg already loved us. So there was no attempt to impress them. With this firmly decided, the year ended with marriage between the royal families of Helvetia and Milan. Then, in the middle of the next year, Baden entered the alliance with Strassburg and Helvetia.
Regardless of the affairs of Helvetia through 1424 and 1425, Albert V held steadfast to his plans to take over Helvetia. He ordered the training of another army, to be lead by Albert V's dear friend Colonel Tisza. And it was at the end of 1425 that we saw fit to start the first promotion of a bailiff to tax collector, and this took place in our city of Graz. Graz was located in our south-eastern most province, Steiermark.
And so the year 1425 ended. As Austria, we were down to 366 ducat, we had four merchants anxiously awaiting their chance to be dispatched, and all six of our diplomats were ready to deliver Albert V's gifts and letters. He continued with his plans to take Helvetia. By this time, we had already formed extremely amiable relations with Helvetia's friends and family. 1426 would be the year that we went into Helvetia..
It was February 11, 1426 that we declared war on Helvetia. The effect this had on the morale of our people was very minimal, from my understanding. Calling on our allies Salzburg was considered, yet decided against. This should not be a difficult war for us, and Salzburg would not be much help. During the period of this war, we trained and created a handful of additional armies. This would be a period of not only war, but tremendous military growth.
The Austrian K.u.K army left the city of Innsbruck to enter Helvetia. Arriving on April 21, their battle in Schwyz was over on April 29. At this point, they laid into the cities of Schwyz, attempting a violent take-over. It looked like our army would be there for quite some time.
While the siege on Schwyz continued, we marched our Austrian Army of Bohemia through Schwyz. Their destination was the other Helvetian province of Bern, where they arrived in September to fight a quick and victorious battle. As they were marching, Albert V ordered the training of another army. It was in Wien that he dubbed the new company the “Austrian Army of Italy”. At the very front of this unlikely bunch stood Colonel Bolzen, bald head and all.
It was at this point, when we had both of their provinces under siege, that Helvetia sent their first diplomat looking for peace. The offer he carried asked that we give them peace AND pay them a small sum of money for their troubles. September 27, 1426, the Helvetian diplomat arrived and handed the papers to Albert V.
“What is this? A peace offer in which I pay your little country 5 ducats? This is the most absu..” He paused and thought a moment. Turning to his counselor he whispered, “Are we losing out there and they are offering us this peace out of pity?”
“Not at all sir, the word we have received is that it only took about a week to defeat their armies in battle; and currently both Schwyz and Bern are under siege.”
Albert V nodded appreciatively. “Very well.. Very well indeed.” He crumpled up the peace offer and threw it back at the bearded diplomat. “Come back with something better next time.”
And so it continued. We had Helvetia under siege, by waging battle upon their provinces of Schwyz and Bern. Of course, we didn't really have enough military in either to do too much damage. After a total of three Helvetian diplomats had arrived with peace offers that promptly got thrown back in their faces, Albert V started to get pretty upset. He was calmed down by a large lunch that lasted at least three hours, and then he went to bed. Upon his waking, an order was put out to for Colonel Dachstein to send his Austrian Army of Silesia all the way from Northern Ostmarch down to Schwyz to aid complete the siege. It was decided to simply leave the smaller Austrian Army of Bohemia in Bern to prevent them from interfering with Colonel Dachstein.
Navarra entered an alliance, with Strassburg, Helvetia, and Baden, on April 26, 1427, joining the war against us. This was of little concern to us. Navarra is far far away, and we did not expect to be involved in this war for too much longer regardless. In May, Colonel Dachstein arrived in Schwyz, and then damage really began to be dealt. The third week of March, 1428, we successfully captured Schwyz.
Now, we had captured Schwyz, and were marching the K.u.K. army from Schwyz into Bern. It was then that the peace offers started coming in from Helvetia's allies. We accept a white peace from Baden, Strassburg, and Navarra. Another diplomat from Helvetia arrived, bearing another one of their peace offers in which we paid them money.
The bailiff of Wien trained into the title of tax collector, to increase the efficiency of squeezing the ducats out of our citizens. A year later, in September of 1428, we made great improvements in our infrastructure. In fact, one of our new committees drew up the plans for a fine arts academy. Albert V, who was preoccupied with the war on Helvetia, looked at the plans and said, “that's lovely, how much?” When his question was answered he had to be given another three hour lunch. The plans for the academy of have been buried in the pile of things our leaders have “declined to do at this time.”
Albert V, always trying to keep up relations with Salzburg, “our future province of Salzburg,” as he called them, sent a letter asking how they were doing, and telling them of the affairs of Austria. He received a friendly letter in return, where they even offered them help if we ever needed it.
We received two more diplomats from Helvetia with increasingly insulting peace offers. Albert could take no more. As his face went red, Colonel Stuhleck and his Austrian Army of Hungary marched into Bern to tear it apart. When we heard that there was going to be a royal marriage between Helvetia and Strassburg, we advised they hold it in Strassburg. And finally, on November 21, 1429, we captured Bern from Helvetia.
On December 18, 1429, Albert had just sent out an order to promote the bailiff in Innsbruck, when another Helvetian diplomat arrived. It was then that we received a peace offer worth reading. Helvetia offered us Schwyz and one ducat in return for peace. This treaty went back to Helvetia with Albert V's signature on it. He then requested that the K.u.K. army leave Bern for Tirol, and the Austrian Army of Bohemia leave Bern for Ostmarch. We now had Schwyz to call our own.
1430. Albert V had a new map drawn up of Austria. Now that we had Schwyz, we now shared borders with Savoy and our former vassal Baden. The addition to our nation pleased Albert, however he wanted more. There was one more province to Helvetia and he wanted it. After a long discussion he was convinced to hold off a little while. Our bailiff in Ostmarch received the tax collector training as well. At the same time, Colonel Stuhleck was ordered to keep his Austrian Army of Hungary in Schwyz. We made improvements in our land military technology, and have made progress as far as ideas for building fortresses.
On May 27, 1430, silly little Helvetia declared war on Burgundy. Strassburg, Baden, and Navarra joined Helvetia in this war. England joined Burgundy. Upon seeing that Navarra had taken the other side, England discontinued the royal marriage they had with them.
Albert continued his campaign to keep Salzburg's love, and sent them gift after gift. Salzburg became our vassal on August 23, 1432. Soon after, a royal marriage occurred between us and Baden, giving us, once again, a connection to our new neighbours. Another marriage followed soon after with us and Mantua.
Also in 1432, great plans were made to build a cathedral to honor God. No doubt this would've boosted morale, however we simply did not have the funds, and with the coming war against little Helvetia, had no interest in taking out a loan.
Albert V received a petition from the peasants of Tirol on August 8, 1434. What this petition pertained to is unknown. Albert simply decided it was in our best interests to agree, and he signed it and sent it off. The small rebellion they had begun in Tirol was quickly squashed within two weeks. Still, word had gotten out all over Austria and it took about eight months to assure everybody that everything was okay.
Now that this was over, Colonel Gottwald took his Austrian K.u.K. army into Schwyz to prepare for their attack on Bern. A week later, in May of 1436, this turn out to be a good thing, as the Helvetian population of our province Schwyz became unhappy about the change in policies we had adopted in response to the Tirol petition. They had a small revolt which was ceased immediately. Once again, word got out, and the peasants of Steiermark agreed with Schwyz and begun tearing up the town. The Imperial Guard, still stationed in Steiermark, had no trouble stopping the commotion.
Once the whole country was assured, yet again, that our way was the right way, the Imperial Guard left Steiermark for Schwyz. From Schwyz they would assist in the attack on Bern, which Albert V had planned for the next year, 1437.
Our declaration of war was delivered to Helvetia on June 29, 1437. Baden, being terribly upset by this, ended the royal marriage between us, and joined Strassburg in siding with Helvetia in the war.
A small part of our population opposed the declaration of war on fellow Catholics. Overall, the country was happy to see our intentions to spread the power of Austria. In August, we defeated Helvetia's military and our Imperial Guard laid siege on their province of Bern. Now nobody cared whether they were Catholic or not. Austria's stability was back to perfection. Well, all things considered, it was okay.
In September of 1438, we captured Helvetia. Baden and Strassburg simultaneously sent diplomats requesting that we be good to them and forget that they were involved at all. Since they hadn't even lifted a finger in the war except to say they would help Helvetia, Albert V agreed to peace with them. Helvetia's diplomat was sent away with a box of assorted cheeses and orders to come back with a worthy offer.
After some discussions and talks with Helvetia, the war ended when Bern was finally annexed on April 9, 1439. There was a minor revolt in Schwyz, which was to be expected. That was quickly quieted down. Having added Bern to our nation, we now shared borders with two more provinces, one owned by Burgundy, the other by Savoy.
Franche-Compte, the Catholic Burgundy owned province, did not like us much at all. They were, of course, primarily a french culture mining copper. The Savoy owned province was Savoie, who really could care less about Austria. They too were French Catholics. However Savoie was a producer of fine quality and rather expensive cloth. Since the peace agreement in March of 1424, Savoy claimed the Papal States as a vassal. They also had some royalty married off to Milan and Genoa.
The irony of the annexation of Bern is that Albert V did not live to see it. The Holy Roman Empire declared Albert V an emperor in December of 1437. This honour allowed him to choose an excellent minister for the cabinet. The minister only stuck around for a year. Strangely, his disappearance coincided with the death of Albert V in early 1439.
Lasislas Postumus stepped up to the throne, replacing the late Albert V. It became apparent to us that Postumus's big thing was writing letter to Hungary. He did it every chance he got. Most of his letter never made it across the border, as we were afraid that such inexplicable attention may raise some eyebrows. It was also immediately obvious that Postumus did not have the same skills and abilities as Albert V. However, with this being his first year in power, we hoped he would learn. The Holy Roman Empire gave their blessing on his head anyway, and Lasislas Postumus assumed the title of emperor that Albert had carried.
