Marin still had many places to ask for Lübeck and Hamburg, so naturally, he took the two great speakers, Tagfacht and Heisenberg, to the emperor's line and visited the emperor Maximilian I, who had rushed over. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

As the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Maximilian I was not as authoritative as the emperors of the East. At the time of the Imperial Conference, Maximilian I was merely the leader of the Austrian side. Presiding over the meeting was the Elector of Mainz. Of course, the emperor is also on the rostrum, as a mascot.

However, even if he was not an emperor with real power, Maximilian I was still very powerful. Not to mention the fact that Austria itself and its ally, the Swabian League, combined had dozens of votes, and in addition, Prince Philip, the son of Maximilian I, alone had a lot of votes.

Because Prince Philip is not only the Duke of Burgundy, but also the Count of the Netherlands, the Count of Flanders, the Duke of Brabant, the Duke of Luxembourg, the Count of Roussillon, etc., one person has several votes, which can be called a vote machine.

Anyway, when voting at the Imperial Council, everyone else voted with a single vote, but Prince Philip grabbed a handful of votes to vote......

Fortunately, although Prince Philip is not filial and unkind, he is still a smart man and knows that he is politically aligned with his father, Maximilian I. It is precisely because of this that the Habsburg family, led by Maximilian I, has become the most powerful family in swiping votes. Of course, in front of the coalition of the seven electors, that number of votes is nothing.

You know, Maximilian I, counting a group of Austrian nobles, his own son, and the Swabian League, could only get about 65 votes. The seven electors, but the three major religious princes, led 120 religious votes. And that's not even counting the secular Electors and their little brothers.

Therefore, in the Imperial Diet, Maximilian I could not fight the vote group composed of the seven electors.

Of course, the reason why Maximilian I was always blocked by the princes was also because when he was young, he expressed the idea of wanting to learn from France, abolish the autonomy of the princes, and engage in centralization.

This idea is undoubtedly very harmful to the interests of the princes. Therefore, the seven electors, who were originally not united, began to oppose Maximilian I's idea of centralizing power at every turn.

Even Marin, a former thug of Maximilian I, was excluded and hostile by most of the princes from the beginning because of his boss's ambition to centralize power. For other emperors, such as Maximilian I and his father Frederick III, they were not collectively excluded like Maximilian I. Because, Frederick III never regarded himself as an emperor at all, but buried himself in expanding the territory of the Habsburgs, and regarded himself as a big prince. Therefore, the princes did not reject him either.

But when Maximilian I was young, he was very envious of the centralized system in France, and once expressed his desire to suppress the princes and establish a centralized princes in Germany.

When the news spread, Maximilian I suddenly became an enemy of all the German princes. Even when he was old and no longer young, the princes never gave up their vigilance against him. During the First Italian War, Maximilian I asked the Imperial Diet for a war tax to prevent the French from growing in Italy. Although the princes knew that Maximilian I was right. However, in their hearts, it was the most important thing to prevent Maximilian I from becoming bigger. Therefore, the princes preferred to watch the French grow in Italy rather than see the anti-French allied army of Maximilian I as the leader of the alliance win.

Because, if the allies led by Maximilian I defeated the French army, Maximilian I's fame would be greatly enhanced, which would help him expand his influence in Germany, and possibly lead Maximilian I to pursue his "centralization" work. And this is what the princes never want to see.

Therefore, although Maximilian I went to the Imperial Council of Worms to ask for help, the princes simply ignored him, causing the HRE army to move slowly, not acting with the Italian army, and losing the opportunity to defeat Charles VIII.

Of course, this result changed after Marin crossed over. Taking advantage of the weakness of the French army in the middle of the night, Marin organized a night attack, which defeated the French army and scared Charles VIII away.

And because Marin was Maximilian I's general, Marin's victory also brought fame to Maximilian I, and because of the ransom of the captives, he brought a lot of money to Maximilian I. This was helpful for Maximilian I's "centralization" cause.

Therefore, Marin, as the emperor's "lackey", was naturally hostile to the princes before.

However, as time passed, everyone found that although Marin was still on the emperor's side, he no longer personally led the emperor to fight, but only sent Frentzberg to bring two phalanxes to serve the emperor.

Therefore, everyone's attitude towards Marin later eased. After all, Marin is more and more like a prince than an emperor's eagle dog.

After arriving at the Emperor's line with the two Speakers, Maximilian I warmly received the two Speakers of Tagfacht and Heisenberg.

In fact, it was not only Lübeck and Hamburg who needed political allies, the emperor needed allies more than they did. The capabilities of the Hanseatic League, Maximilian I knew very well. If nothing else, the Hanseatic League, led by Lübeck and Hamburg, was definitely influential enough for the 75 mercantile imperial cities, at least half of them. Winning Lübeck and Hamburg equally won the majority of the 75 imperial city votes.

The 65 votes of the Habsburgs and their allies, plus 75 votes for the Imperial cities (ideally), already reached 140 votes. Although it is still a little short of 165, which is half of the total 330 votes, it is only 25 votes. With more than 165 votes, the emperor will be able to fulfill some of his wishes. At that time, as long as you are willing to pay the price, 25 votes will be available.

Therefore, Maximilian I treated the two Grand Speakers of Tag Facht and Heisenberg as absolute guests. Looking at the posture, it was a proper hit.

After being busy with the affairs of his allies, Marin naturally needs to be busy with his own affairs. This time, it is definitely a big thing for me to succeed in becoming the Duke of Schleswig and let the Duchy of Schleswig join the Holy Roman Empire.

This kind of thing is bigger than the average thing. So, it needs to reach three-quarters of the votes to be sure.

This is because, once the Holy Roman Empire openly accepted the Duchy of Schleswig, it meant that the Duchy of Schleswig would be under the protection of the Holy Roman Empire. If Denmark wanted to take back the Duchy of Schleswig, it would not be against the Marins, but with the entire empire.

This kind of thing is a big risk. As a result, voting will also be more deliberate, requiring three-quarters of the votes to pass.

So, Marin needs to make sure that the total number of votes reaches 248 in order to pass. At present, Marin is mainly able to plot 120 votes from the religious circles and 75 votes from the imperial cities that Lübeck helped to get. and 65 votes of the Habsburgs.

It seems that Marlin's passage is stable. However, the 120 votes cast by the religious community will not all be cast for Marin. Even the electors of the three major religions could not do it. Because, everyone has likes and dislikes. Even the three major electors cannot guarantee that the members of the parliament of those religious circles will not support Marin.

According to the three Electors, they could only guarantee 100 votes to Marin. In addition, the 75 imperial cities will not all vote for Marin, even if Lübeck helps, it is useless. Of these 75 imperial cities, 20 were in the Saxon business district and the Electoral State of Brandenburg.

These 20 imperial cities may give face to the main and deputy alliance leaders in other ways. But in the case of Marin, it is possible that under pressure from the Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg, they will not vote for Marin.

The simple reason is that these cities are all within the territory of the Electors of Saxony or Brandenburg, or their dependencies. If they did not listen to the two Electors, it would be enough for them to give in if they ordered a card to block commercial activity in these 20 cities.

Therefore, all Marin can guarantee now is 100 votes for the religious community, 55 votes for the Imperial city, and 65 votes for the Emperor. The total number of tickets added up is only 220. It was 28 short of the required 248.

So, Marin needs to give gifts. Mainly to woo the duchies and counties that were in their own right, as well as some dominions. Combined, these votes are definitely more than 28.

Therefore, after helping to pull the strings, Marin took his retinue and paid attention to the princes who were in their own way......

"Lord Albert, please help me with this election." Marin said to Duke Albert IV of Bavaria with a smile on his face. Of course, empty words are useless. Marin beckoned, and a small box full of gold coins was brought up, containing 3,000 gold coins. When Albert saw Marin doing this, he nodded and agreed, and was willing to help persuade his younger brother to vote together.

Marin then went on to visit the other neutral princes. It's just that this process makes Marin a little confused......

"Duke John, I'll bother you a lot about my business. A small gift is not a tribute! With that, a box of gold coins was presented.

"Earl John, please help me with my business. A small gift, not a tribute! "The Earl's is less, a bag of gold coins.

"Duke William, please help. A small gift is not a tribute! A small box of gold coins was presented.

"Earl William, my business ......"

"Lord William, my business ......"

"Earl William, my business ......"

"Duke Charlie, please help me more......"

"Earl Charles, my business ......"

"Lord Charlie, my ......"

……

Over the course of a few days, Marin visited dozens of princes, all of whom fainted.

And what made him even more dizzy was that most of the princes he visited were called John, William, and Charlie, which made him very devastated......

European aristocrats are too uncreative in their names, and they use so many names upside down. Like France, from Louis I, all the way to Louis XVIII. If it weren't for the kingdom, it would be dozens of Louis......

More than 300 princes in Germany, named Johann, Wilhelm, and Charles, seem to be more frequent than the others. Some countries are John X and above. As for William VIII and Charles IX, it is not surprising.

As far as Marin knows, among the 330 princes, there are at least a hundred or dozens of them named John, William and Charlie, which makes Marin a little dizzy.

Therefore, in order to distinguish these people, Malint brought a small notebook and recorded it - this is John II of a certain country, that is John XI of XX country, that is William IV of XX country, and that is Charles VIII of XX country......

If you don't write it down in a small notebook, Marin probably will be able to dizzy himself by calling someone else......