"The younger landgrave of Leuchtenberg. Philipp Rudolf, his name is. Papa was lucky to get him onto our staff and Ferdinand has really enjoyed working with him. Everyone says that he's a lot brighter than his older brother, the one in Bavarian service."
She blinked. "Papa…" Cecelia Renata faltered.
Her little brother, now taller than she was, put his arm around her shoulder. "Hold up a bit longer, Sissy," he said. "You can cry for Papa after we get through the funeral."
First things first. The men whom he had invited were all those who long been of his own party, the "peace party," in the Austrian privy council. They would now become his most important advisers. Outside, of course, of the family. That was why they were here.
"I intend," he said, "to take the style of Ferdinand III, even if I am never elected as Holy Roman Emperor. I am already king of Hungary, and am the third Habsburg named Ferdinand to be king of Hungary. It will cause far less confusion than if I choose some other style. It will do."
They agreed.
"I intend to publish, at once, the draft peace proposal that we have discussed for so long, even though I am not emperor and there is no Reichstag in session to which I can present it. I certainly will not present it to the Swedish upstart's parliament, but if we simply circulate it under our signatures, it will function as a counterpoise to any sweeping proposal that Gustav Adolf may make for the Germanies. Nothing ventured, nothing gained."
"Open to all of the Germanies?" Leopold Wilhelm asked.
"Yes."
"Including the Calvinists?"
"Yes."
"Including the, ah, up-timers?"
"Yes."
"Wallenstein?"
"Wallenstein," Ferdinand III said, "is not in the Germanies. The proposed treaty will not be open to the usurper who is now calling himself the king of Bohemia. Let us first try to obtain a settlement in the Germanies. If we achieve that basic goal, then we can worry about handling the empire's peripheral territories."
"Peripheral?"
"The Swiss, of course," Leopold Wilhelm said. "That is one running sore that finally needs to be cauterized."
"And," Empress Eleonora added, "the Spanish Netherlands as well as Bohemia."
With Ferdinand III's advisers gone, only the family was left. A servant quietly brought in several dishes of sugared almonds, then withdrew. Leopold Wilhelm spoke quietly to the guards and pulled the door to Empress Eleonora's private sitting room shut.
"What else do we have to talk about?" Archduchess Cecelia Renata asked.
"Maria Anna," her sister-in-law answered. "Which means, according to what Carafa has told us about the petition to Rome for multiple dispensations, my honored brother Don Fernando. Which leads us to my brother in Spain, which leads us back to Duke Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, who has perched himself across the Spanish road to the Netherlands."
"Not to mention," Leopold Wilhelm grimaced, "that he has seized half of the Habsburg holdings in Swabia, as well."
"That's more Duchess Claudia's immediate problem, since they have been allotted to our cousins in Tyrol for a long time."
"Habsburg problems," Ferdinand III said, "are Habsburg problems. Family is family. There is something that we may be able to do to assist Claudia in regard to Duke Bernhard, depending on whether we are willing to use the prince-bishop of Speyer as a pawn in negotiations. Given that Sotern's subjects are revolting against him because of his pro-French policy and the Swede has occupied his lands on the right bank of the Rhine, we should keep it under consideration, since Speyer is certainly in Duke Bernhard's area of interest. An imperial garrison in left-Rhine Speyer would be very useful."
"Since the duchies of Luxemburg will be part of Don Fernando's new 'kingdom in the Netherlands,'" Empress Eleonora said slowly, "then he will be in the position of a natural protector of the prince-bishop of Trier, as well."
"And that is Sotern, too," Leopold Wilhelm interrupted. "He holds Trier as well as Speyer. He is in no position to resist pressure brought to bear on either of his dioceses. An imperial garrison in Trier would be a good thing. According to the up-time encyclopedias that I have studied, we took Sotern prisoner in 1635 and locked him up for more than a decade. Perhaps we could bring that to his attention."
"Why stop at Trier?" Empress Eleonora asked. "Later in this century, encyclopedias say, the French took the dioceses of Metz, Toul, and Verdun, as well. It seems to me far more appropriate, when I look at the map, that they should be regarded as Habsburg protectorates. If Don Fernando can manage it, of course."
"Those are properly Lorraine. Should we ally with Lorraine?" Cecelia Renata asked. "Should we try to take advantage of the fact that the Swede has crushed the French to restore Duke Charles, since it was the French who forced him out?"
"If we ally with Lorraine…" Ferdinand III paused. "Duke Maximilian borrowed Lorraine's general, the one he is punishing so harshly for the fall of Ingolstadt. Duke Charles is not happy with the way that Maximilian has treated Mercy. There are possibilities there."
"I don't suppose there's anything to be done about Cologne right now," Leopold Wilhelm said.
Empress Eleonora shook her head. "The encyclopedias say that Archbishop Ferdinand did not die, will not die, until 1650, so there does not appear to be any immediate possibility of reducing the Bavarian foothold there. However, if Maximilian's power and influence continue to be greatly reduced, then at the next election there may not be a Bavarian successor."
"So one Catholic elector is definitely pro-Bavarian," Cecelia Renata said. "But Archbishop Anselm Casimir of Mainz is not, and he has thus far managed to elude falling into the Swede's hands as well. If we and Don Fernando can influence Trier, then the two Protestant electors, Saxony and Brandenburg, have no love of Gustav Adolf. Four votes of five, the way Papa set it up. Four votes of seven, even if Bohemia and the Palatinate cast ballots and insist that they are valid. Brother, dear, it may still be possible for us to get you elected as the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III. It certainly couldn't hurt to try."
Ferdinand looked at the younger of his two sisters. "Sissy, have you read about your marriage in the other universe?" he asked abruptly.
She nodded solemnly. "I married the king of Poland. A practical match, of course. The encyclopedias say that it was a disastrously unhappy marriage. They do not say why, but apparently it was so unhappy that people remembered the fact for three hundred and fifty years."
Her eyes filled briefly with tears. "I won't complain. I know my duty. But Papa was always so nice to our mother, and to Mama." She jumped up and gave the empress a kiss. "And you and Mariana like each other."
"Actually," Mariana said, "I love him quite dearly."
"I think," Ferdinand III said firmly, "that in this universe we can rule the king of Poland out, Sissy. I'll think of some other way to handle Wladyslaw. That doesn't mean, of course, that any other marriage we find for you would necessarily be happier. But as I think about it, there is a place where you might be very helpful."
Cecelia Renata raised her eyebrows.
"Duke Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar is now sitting directly on top of the Spanish Road. If he manages to hold that territory, then some time in the next two or three years, a marriage alliance might appear to be prudent. Not to mention helpful to Duchess Claudia in regard to the Swabian possessions."
"If you were prepared to deal with being married to a heretic," Leopold Wilhelm said. Being a bishop, however unwillingly, he did feel obliged to bring the matter up.
"Of course," Ferdinand III said to his younger sister, "Bernhard is not a king. He is only a duke, and a younger son, if that matters to you."