(life-dates are as of OTL; for some in Franconia, I only have regnal dates)
The north border of the NewUS is fixed as running pretty much along the trade route from Eisenach to Erfurt, then angling northward a bit to include what is now Landkreis Soemmerda (upon which we have dropped the imaginary principality of that noble rapscallion, Count August von Sommersburg, U.S. senator and future proprietor of Sommersburg Quarries, Concrete, and Cement Corporation).
This means that Nordhausen and Muehlhausen are outside; so is the Eichsfeld. We’re figuring that Erfurt has taken advantage of the disruption caused by the appearance of Grantville and occupation by GA to get rid of its formal allegiance to the Archbishop of Mainz.
[The following was a question that I directed to Eric, as yet unanswered.] I have one leftover question: How do you want to handle Imperial Cities? There are several in Franconia. Do you want to handle each of them as a principality with a seat in the House of Lords in its own right, while also letting the people vote for a delegate to the House of Commons, since the city as such is a territorial ruler?
Non-residents, holding seats by virtue of territories within Thuringia:
1. Elector Johann George I of Saxony (1585-1656)
Seated as co-administrator of the Henneberg territories
2. Duke Wilhelm V of Hesse-Kassel (1602-1637)
Seated by virtue of his claim to Schmalkalden.
NOTE: Is he going to die this young in the 1632-verse? There are advantages both ways: it would be interesting to have his widow Amalie Elisabeth of Hanau-Muenzenberg representing her minor son in the House of Lords for years.
Residents of Thuringia:
3. Duke Wilhelm IV of Saxe-Weimar (1598-1662)
NOTE: Holds the seat also in right of his brothers since in OTL the territory wasn’t divided to provide them with independent principalities until 1640-1641. In 1633, abdicated as duke in favor of his brother Albrecht (Ernst was too busy in the Oberpfalz to take it on). The brothers are: Duke Albrecht of Saxe-Weimar [after 1640, OTL, Saxe-Eisenach] (1599-1644)– will die childless, territories split between Wilhelm and Ernst. Duke Ernst of Saxe-Weimar [after 1640, OTL, Duke Ernst the Pious of Saxe-Gotha] (1601-1675) [Duke Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar (1604-1639)]
4. Duke Johann Philipp of Saxe-Altenburg (1597-1639)
NOTE: Father of only daughter, Elisabeth Sofie, born 1619; let him think a bit about GA and Kristina and hand him an article from the Grantville copy of the Encyclopedia Britannica about the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. Then let him tie the House of Lords in knots for the next several years on the issue of female succession.
NOTE: OTL, Elisabeth Sofie married Duke Ernst. Since they were as happy together as could be for 40 years or thereabouts, we might as well let that one go on as scheduled.
NOTE: Holds the seat also in right of his brothers since in OTL the territory wasn’t divided. They are: Duke Johann Wilhelm of Saxe-Altenburg (1600-1632) Duke Friedrich Wilhelm of Saxe-Altenburg (1603-1669)
5. Johann Casimir, Duke of Saxe-Coburg (1564-1633)
Will die childless – territories to his brother, no. 6 following.
6. Johann Ernst, Duke of Saxe-Eisenach (1566-1638)
Will die childless – territories split up among the Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Altenburg cousins.
7. Count Ludwig Guenther of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt (1581-1646)
NOTE: As of 1632-1633, he’s a bachelor well advanced in later middle age. The Lutherans of Grantville, by virtue of biographical notices in the Concordance to the Lutheran Hymnal, show him a future in which he marries happily and leaves a descendancy of prominent hymn-writing Lutheran Pietists, which will give him an unexpectedly warm and fuzzy sort of feeling about Americans.
8. Count Christian Guenther of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen (1578-1642)
Seated by virtue of having part (the much smaller part) of his lands south of the NewUS northern border.
NOTE: He has a large family, including several boys. He’s not going to be too thrilled about the notion that Cousin Ludwig Guenther will be getting married.
9. Count Heinrich I of Reuss zu Gera (1572-1635)
NOTE: He has three sons named Heinrich to succeed him (they will divide the holdings into Reuss-Gera, Reuss-Lobenstein, and Reuss-Saalberg).
Residents of Franconia:
10. Margrave Christian of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (held office 1603-1655)
11. Bishop of Wuerzburg, seated as a secular ruler Franz von Hatzfeld (held office 1631-1642)
NOTE: I don’t think he’ll be coming to any of the meetings, since his brother was third-in-command of the Imperial army and in OTL he took off for exile in Austria after GA captured Wuerzburg.
12. Bishop of Bamberg, seated as a secular ruler Johann Georg II Fuchs von Dornheim (held office 1623-1633)
Franz von Hatzfeld (held office 1633-1642; see also under Wuerzburg-same person)
13. Abbot of Fulda, seated as a secular ruler Johann Bernhard Schenk von Schweinsberg (held office 1623-1632) Johann Adolf von Hoheneck (1632-1635) Hermann Georg von Neuhoff (1635-1644)
As far as I know, Eric hasn’t decided any of this (probably because his plots thus far haven’t needed it, and he’s planning to keep his options open).
However, I **think** that the existing territories are coming in as states, and that the existing territorial lords are their governors — as in the 1633 conversation between Mike Stearns, Wilhelm, and Albrecht of Saxe-Weimar in the Thuringian Gardens, in which Wilhelm decides to abdicate and run as a commoner, but he abdicates in favor of his brother, who apparently will continue as Duke of Saxe-Weimar.
In the background vignettes I did for several things, which Eric hasn’t quashed, that’s how Grantville is getting along with Count Ludwig Guenther next door. He’s continuing to operate all the parts of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt that the RoF didn’t land on in pretty much the usual way.
Similarly, there was a reference in 1632 about Badenburg, the imaginary Imperial City nearby, coming in as a state — I would assume that domestically, it would keep its city council form of government for the time being, and that any new city-state or independent city (Erfurt) would do likewise.
There may be an anomalous situation for a while in which the people of these territories get to vote for their president and representative in the House of Commons, but have a hereditary ruler who is their governor and representative in the House of Lords.
Grantville may not even set out to impose total uniformity. Count Ludwig Guenther, for example, is still running his Lutheran state church. Eric has mused in print on the Bar that since not every place goes on the US model of separation of church and state, and that most European countries manage the trick of having both an established church and freedom of religion fairly adeptly, that it might be more practical and less disruptive if the church issue were handled as:
1) mandatory freedom of religion for all;
2) no established church at the NewUS level;
3) but, as long as they allow freedom of religion, the individual states within the NewUS may continue administering their churches as customary.
Eric is not visualizing that Grantville will emulate Henry VIII in secularizing church property. Even Henry mostly only secularized the monastic properties — he didn’t do in all the estates owned by the dioceses, etc.
The mandatory freedom of religion would get rid of the cuius regio, eius religio switches and the exiling of dissenters; the national government would be seen as religiously nonpartisan; but the existing system of schools, hospitals, old peoples’ homes, etc., which were largely funded by ecclesiastical property, wouldn’t have to be destroyed before there was something to replace it.