I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 1273 Choosing the Wrong Side Requires Bearing the Consequences
Almost overnight, news of Archbishop Friedrich's arrest by the Vatican spread throughout Osnabrück.

Soon, a large number of pamphlets appeared out of nowhere, numbering as many as twenty or thirty thousand.

It details how the Protestant Friedrich bribed the Vienna authorities to gain control of the Osnabrück diocese, how he then oppressed Catholic priests, amassed wealth, and had eight mistresses at the same time.

Well, the pamphlets were naturally printed by agents of the Security Bureau working overtime. As for their contents, such gossip is rampant in aristocratic circles; you can easily find out by asking around and embellishing it a bit.

That afternoon, angry speakers appeared on the streets, denouncing the "heretic" Friedrich for his sinful blasphemy against the sacred parish of Osnabrück.

According to their accounts, the entire parish's believers might be unable to enter heaven after death because their souls had been corrupted by heresy.

This organized propaganda spread extremely quickly, and the entire city's population began to erupt in anger.

The following morning, thousands of people gathered in front of Osnabrück Cathedral, chanting slogans demanding the severe punishment of Friedrich.

Many priests also took the opportunity to join their ranks and lead people in religious ceremonies—during Friedrich's rule, these ordinary Catholic priests had little chance of advancement, so how could they not take advantage of their misfortune?

Friedrich's continued absence led his confidants and the city's security forces to believe the rumors were true, thus preventing them from using violence to disperse the demonstrators.

Then, a prominent Catholic priest, with the support of security agents, led a group into the church, expelled the priests loyal to Friedrich, and announced that a new archbishop recognized by the Vatican would be elected.

Two days later, the whole of Cologne heard about the religious riots that had broken out in Osnabrück and the archbishop's whereabouts.

Archbishop Maximilian hastily dispatched 700 Münster garrison troops to quell the unrest, while also sending men to search for Friedrich's whereabouts in various places.

However, shortly after his army set out, Archbishop Paderborn arrived in Osnabrück with more than 400 soldiers. Accompanying him was Bishop Campanella, representing the Holy See.

In front of more than two thousand protesting citizens, Franz Egon first praised their actions against heresy and expressed his support for the re-election of the archbishop.

He then dropped a bombshell, saying that it was precisely because of the support of Archbishop Maximilian that Friedrich was able to control Osnabrück.

When Maximilian's army arrived in Osnabrück, he was met by more than two thousand angry followers, who also possessed a considerable number of weapons—brought to them by Franz Egon.

Behind them were Paderborn's army.

Just as the two sides were locked in a standoff, Nassau, Mainz, Bavaria, Baden and other countries publicly condemned Maximilian for allowing a "heretic" to become the archbishop of Cologne, as if they had never known about Cologne's political structure before.

The following day, riots broke out even in Cologne's capital, Münster, with large numbers of Catholics taking to the streets to demand that their archbishop distance himself from Friedrich.

Maximilian was alarmed and hastily withdrew his troops to stabilize the situation. At the same time, he ordered the two lords of Lipper and Schaumburg-Lipper, north of Cologne, to send troops to Osnabrück.

However, nobody paid any attention to him.

The current "heresy incident" is causing quite a stir, and taking action at this time could easily make one an enemy of all Catholics in Cologne. Just as all of North Germany was focused on Cologne, Baron Schliben of Hesse-Darmstadt was leading more than 5 soldiers from Giessen, heading straight for Kassel.

The day after they left, Ludwig X formally declared war on Hesse-Kassel under the pretext of "reclaiming the ancestral lands of Rhinefels and Marburg".

Wilhelm IX never expected Darmstadt to launch a sudden attack, leaving him less than two days to prepare. Meanwhile, the troops in Hesse-Kassel were still in French prisoner-of-war camps.

He had no choice but to hastily order General Kniphausen to gather more than 1200 soldiers and deploy them south of Kassel, while simultaneously seeking assistance from Brunswick, Thuringia, and other countries.

The Darmstadt army had an absolute advantage in both manpower and equipment, and Marmont's command ability far surpassed that of Kniphausen.

The battle lasted only about three hours before Marmont's strikers broke into the city of Kassel.

William IX had no choice but to flee the city overnight and seek refuge in Brunswick to the north.

However, hundreds of Brunswick soldiers stopped him at the border, saying that he needed the Duke's permission to enter the country first.

Before the messenger from Brunswick could return, the cavalry from Hesse-Darmstadt caught up.

After William IX was taken back to Kassel, he initially tried to negotiate, demanding that Göttingen in the north be retained as a territory—Darmstadt's approach clearly violated the conventions between the North German states and would inevitably face enormous pressure from surrounding countries.

But just one day later, Bavaria and Nassau took the lead in recognizing Ludwig X’s rule over Hesse-Kassel—a legal justification for him as a member of the Hesse family.

Then came Mainz, Würzburg, Prussia... Except for Cologne, which was in turmoil, all the northern German countries made the same statement.

Yes, long before Ludwig X's army set out, Talleyrand had already completed diplomatic negotiations on this matter among various countries.

Having lost all hope, William IX reluctantly signed the Treaty of Kassel, relinquishing all rights to the Hesse territories in exchange for his entire family being exiled to Prussia.

Two weeks later, Ludwig X personally welcomed an army of over ten thousand men in Marburg, a city in southern Hesse.

Although these soldiers were in tattered uniforms and had no weapons, they all had excited smiles on their faces.

Yes, these were the Hesse-Kassel troops captured by the French—who had previously been under British command and fighting in the Swiss region.

The narrative these prisoners heard was that William IX sold them to England for £34—money that London had given to Kassel as aid—and that His Majesty Ludwig X, in an effort to rescue them, fought a fierce battle with William IX's army, drove out the tyrant, and then paid a large ransom to allow them to return home.

His Majesty Ludwig X even gave each of them a living allowance of 20 florins. Well, this money came from the 34 pounds given by the British, most of which was in the treasury of the Royal Palace in Kassel.

(End of this chapter)