Cecelia Renata rested her left elbow on the polished table; then rested her chin on the palm of her hand. "The Bavarian was a duke and Papa betrothed Maria Anna to him," she said placidly. Then she gave him a wicked grin. "Nor, for that matter, was our honored cousin Fernando a king. Not until last month, that is."
Ferdinand III opened his mouth; then closed it again. "It's a fascinating possibility," he said. "If, of course, Hungary and the Turks do not demand all of our resources. The Ottomans can never be far from Austria's mind. If Austria falls, then Europe falls."
Chapter 65
Tu, Felix Austria, Nube
Magdeburg
Mike Stearns looked up in response to the knock on his office door. People rarely interrupted when Don Francisco was briefing him.
"It's Ed," Claire Hudson said. "Finally."
"Well, just send him on in. What happened?"
"Track delays." Ed Piazza sat down in the softest available chair. "Those benches in the cars are really hell on a middle-aged rear end when there's a rough ride. Five hours of track delays. Can't you do something to make the trains run on time?"
"If I could, I would. 'What's the news of the day, good neighbor, I pray?'"
"No balloons up to the moon. At least not yet, but if we don't get a handle on these lighter-than-air enthusiasts, I wouldn't be surprised. Actually, I have the latest installment in the Gospel According to Annalise-and her cousin Dorothea."
"So?"
"The Richters are spreading out. One of Ronnie Dreeson's stepdaughters married a Nurnberger as her second husband, so she isn't leaving. Two of them and their husbands are going back to Grafenwohr to handle the Richter property up that way. Brechbuhl is staying in Amberg and bringing his children back. Rastetter bought out Arndt's old practice and can use a partner. Brechbuhl can make a much better career there than he'll be allowed to by the Lutherans in Nurnberg, now that Duke Ernst has officially promulgated the religious toleration policy."
"Any specifics on that?"
"Full public toleration for Lutherans, Calvinists, and Catholics, with the Lutherans as 'first among equals,' more or less. Tacit toleration for everything from Jews and Anabaptists to Socinians, Moravian Brethren, and Mormons, on the presumption that they don't make waves or do the ecclesiastical equivalent of yelling 'fire' in a crowded theater."
"Which concurs with the reports that I've received. I don't have a copy of the document itself, yet, but that pretty well covers the situation in the Upper Palatinate, as far as I've heard from Jake Ebeling, too. With the wrap-up at Ingolstadt, since things are still quiet with Wallenstein, Duke Ernst can focus on administration, which is what he does best." Francisco Nasi folded his hands.
"It won't last," Ed Piazza predicted. "Once Wettin becomes prime minister, he'll pull Ernst out of the boondocks and make him Secretary of Education for the USE. He'll want him in Magdeburg, not Amberg."
"The USE doesn't have a Department of Education. Just to be practical," Mike said.
Ed shook his head. "It will under a Wettin administration. If only because Ernst is Wilhelm Wettin's brother. Ernst will do for the USE what Wolfgang Ratichius is doing for the SoTF-take the best of down-time reform ideas and combine them with certain elements of what Grantville brought along. Not with everything that Grantville brought along, by any means. I just don't see that the balance between church-sponsored schools and secular public schools is going to tip any time soon. Not even in the SoTF and Magdeburg Province. 'Soon' meaning 'in my lifetime.' Ernst won't want it to, any more than Wolfgang does. Gustav certainly won't be leading any crusade for replacing Lutheran schools with nondenominational ones. In any case, nobody has the money to scrap the existing system and start over. The way I see it, the secular public schools will be a supplement, giving educational opportunities to kids who don't fit the Lutheran or Catholic-or Calvinist-molds. "
Mike grimaced with disgust. No matter how, well, unfeasible it was, he would rather see the old USA model exported to the entire continent of Europe, 'given his druthers,' as his grandma would have said. "Will he move the normal school to Magdeburg, then?"
Ed shook his head. "Not with the sweetheart deal it has in Amberg. It isn't an either-or situation. He'll see to it that there's funding for another one here. There's plenty of demand and teacher education isn't all that expensive. It's not all that glamorous, either, but it sure is cheap compared to engineering or medicine. And we all know that Gustav is going to spring for Imperial Colleges for those in Magdeburg."
"Duke Ernst can clone the normal school. Can he clone those two boys? It's pretty sure that either Maximilian's nephews stay in Amberg or Gustav decides to move them somewhere else. Somewhere farther from Bavaria and Bohemia." Nasi reached up and pushed his new reading glasses up his nose. Four years of serious, practically non-stop, reading of mostly handwritten reports and relations had taken their toll on his eyes.
"You need to get those frames fitted better the next time you get down to Grantville," Ed said absently. "Have your secretary make an appointment with McNally."
"About the young dukes of Bavaria," Nasi said. He was not about to be distracted.
"I think the USE should leave them where they are for the time being." Ed glared at Mike, even though it was Francisco who had spoken. "They've been through enough, losing their mother and their home. Being separated from their father. I wouldn't recommend taking them away from a tutor they like and from a school where they're just starting to settle in-not at all. They're not just pawns on someone's political chessboard, you know. They're two boys. Real, live, people. Young Maximilian will be thirteen in October. Sigmund just turned eleven. Kids, still."
"Sometimes, the fact that you've spent most of your life as a professional educator just shines through."
"Can't help it, Mike. I did. That's what I am. Time enough to move them if you see some kind of a real threat. Right now, I don't see that Duke Maximilian is in a position to do anything serious. Any major effort would take money and their father is living on Wallenstein's charity. Leave them alone."
"I'd be happier if they were someplace more central. Like Magdeburg."
"If Wettin's smart, and he is, he's having Ernst make friends with them-between now and when the new administration comes in. Figuring the election and the transfer-of-power protocol we've written into the new constitution, that's eight or nine months. Ernst can bring them, and Vervaux, to Magdeburg when he moves. Which makes me hope that by then Larry Mazzare has a Jesuit collegium here to receive them."
"Not a bad solution. Just as long as Duke Ernst can keep them safe between now and then."
"He can. As well as anyone can. I've watched him in action, probably more closely than you've had time to. And I've talked to Duke Johann Philipp about his future son-in-law. Don't underestimate him."
"So much for the Upper Palatinate, from personal soap opera to high policy, then." Mike dismissed one concern.
Turning to Nasi, he raised the next one. "What do you think Austria is going to be doing?"
"Thinking about what princesses they have available to marry to those two Bavarian boys in a decade or so."
"God, Francisco. They're just kids." Mike winced at his involuntary echo of Ed's argument.
"You know the proverb. 'Let others wage war; you, happy Austria, wage marriage.' I don't think that Ferdinand III will want to hold his other sister off the marriage market for several more years just to make a Bavarian marriage-especially since there's a lot less of Bavaria now than there was five years ago. The daughters of Claudia de' Medici, the archduchesses of Austria-Tyrol, are just about the right age and background to pair up with them. They aren't very closely related, either, the way the upper nobility sees these things. For that matter, the way my own people see these things."