PART V
The gold mosaic of a wall
Chapter 33
“Oh, for the love of God, husband!” exclaimed Amalie Elizabeth. The wife of the landgrave of Hesse-Kassel rose from her chair and stalked over to a nearby desk. Angrily pulling open a drawer, she withdrew a thick sheaf of letters and waved it in his direction.
“How much longer will you nurse these foolish dreams of yours? Do you really think these—” Here she shook the letters fiercely. “These posturers! These cretins! These petty—”
She broke off, slapping the letters down on the table and taking several deep breaths. Her pretty face was flushed with anger.
Wilhelm V of Hesse-Kassel grimaced. Seated next to him on the luxurious couch in the salon, Wilhelm of Saxe-Weimar tried to keep himself from smiling.
“Those are, ah . . .”
Amalie gave him a sour glance. “You know perfectly well what they are, Wilhelm, even if you’ve never seen them. My husband here—” She jiggled the letters in the direction of the landgrave. “—has been trying for a year now to get the nobility of the Confederated Principalities of Europe to form a common bloc. The smaller princes and nobles, that is. Squeezed the way we are between the king of Sweden, the princes of Saxony and Brandenburg—now, most of all, by the Americans—”
She broke off, sighing. “I told him from the beginning it was pointless. May as well try to herd cats. Particularly vain and lazy and stupid cats, to boot.”
The landgrave avoided her stony gaze. “And to what end?” she demanded. “Would you like to know, Wilhelm? Here, I’ll read some of them to you! You’re an old and close friend of the family, so why not?”
Hesse-Kassel scowled, but did quite dare to object. The landgravine picked up the top letter from the pile and began reading.
“This one is from—well, never mind—but it’s a report of a conversation at a dinner table, shortly after my husband’s first circular letter went out. Sophia von Markenfeld is reported to have said to her husband: ‘Albrecht, I wouldn’t trust this for a moment. The count of Sommersburg is certain to be allied to Hesse-Kassel. And do you remember how Sommersburg cheated me out of great-aunt Leopoldine’s garnet-and-pearl necklace that she always said that I should have, but he put it into the probate and his daughter Louisa ended up with it?’
“Then, needless to say, Georg von Gluecksburg jumped in—oh, yes, Wilhelm, of course he was there—do you think he wouldn’t have been—”
It was Saxe-Weimar’s turn to grimace. Von Gluecksburg bore a remarkable physical resemblance to a piglet. The resemblance was by no means superficial.
Amalie continued:
“—said to his brother, ‘Ernst, I wouldn’t go along with this if I were you. The Sommersburgs were also very unhelpful in the matter of the border between Craichsbach and Altfelden. With a new administration, we can refile the litigation and request a rehearing.’ ”
Hesse-Kassel sighed. Wilhelm heard him mutter something about incest. It was true enough—certainly on a political level. The nobility of Thuringia, Saxony, northern Franconia, and eastern Hessia consisted of families which had intermarried so many times that the resultant feuds were as rancorous and never-ending as they were picayune.
Amalie had picked up another letter. “This one is too long to quote, but the gist of it is that there was a meeting at Herzfeld to discuss my husband’s circular, but only about half of those invited came. The many Heinrichs of the Reuss lines, as you know, mostly hold land east of Jena and so they were more concerned with what was happening in Albertine Saxony. The two lines of Schwarzburgs apparently decided to maintain a position of neutrality for the time being, while the Ernestine Wettins—they were led by you, of course, Wilhelm—sent a message announcing they were thinking of throwing in their lot with King Gustavus Adolphus and the new United States. So none of them bothered to show up at all. Good for you.”
She scanned down more of the letter. “Of the ones that came, the wife of the count von Morsburg and her sister-in-law, who are also cousins, revisited—for what is it, now? the fortieth time?—the long-discussed issue of which one had brought the more valuable dowry to her marriage.” She barked a sarcastic laugh. “And—it failed only this!—Johann von Rechberg and Margrave Christoph von Thuen continued the tension that has marked their relationship since the unfortunate incident in 1614 of the expensive prostitute in Leiden when both were on their grand tour.”