Chapter 257: Defense of the Chosen Family

Albrecht left with the hope of Lower Austria. His infant son was the key to whether the Habsburgs could return to the rulership of the Holy Roman Empire.

Some soldiers stayed in Vienna to prevent Upper Austrians from taking the opportunity to attack. The rest went to Hungary to guard against enemies in the Pozzoni area.

Peter first went north to force the small lords who were unwilling to submit to Buda to pack up, but before he went, some of them rushed to pledge their allegiance to the Duke. They were afraid that the Duke would raze their manors to the ground. After all, their army was not good enough in front of the Duke.

The secular nobles were quite sensible, but the religious nobles were not so good. Catholic abbots and priests resisted Buda's administrative orders. They asked Rome and the Holy Roman Empire for help and asked for reinforcements to rescue the Hungarian people in distress.

But now no one can save them. Faced with the army's pressure, they either surrendered or turned to ashes.

With the Duke's army as a backing, it was much easier for Mary to issue decrees to allocate resources. Both religious land laws and conscription laws can be carried out normally, and central power is more centralized.

The Hungarian armies from all directions were given to Peter to command. Within ten days, he led 10,000 troops to Pozzoni and recovered Hungarian territory to the west.

In Gyor, the army led by Peter defeated an enemy army of 2,000 people. His cavalry had entered the Austrian region to plunder and harass, while his opponents were in a hurry and even the army had not been assembled. It seemed difficult not to lose, but we could not take it lightly.

(The eyes shifted to the east)

The Roman Empire continued to advance in Anatolia, and towns such as Ancyra and Sinop were successively recovered. Constantinople sent officials to govern and integrate the local area, confiscated the enemy's land and property and redistributed them to the country's soldiers and nobles. Wojc, who was guarding Ancyra, obtained a piece of land of more than 6,000 acres and a lot of money. The Christian slaves who were originally on the land all became self-employed farmers, and even many people rushed to convert to Christianity in order to live a better life in the empire.

Moreover, the news of Prince Musa's death spread throughout the place. Muhammad hurriedly sent troops to collect his brother's inheritance, but if he went too late, it would be gone. Karaman also took the opportunity to expand, but the pressure from Rome made him negotiate with Venice. One needed Rome's trade, and the other needed to protect itself. The two countries with different fathers and mothers became brothers.

Another victory made Mircea even more proud, especially the recovery of Ancyra marked that the situation in Anatolia returned to the period of Manuel I. However, there was no Crusader state to help distract the attention of the Turks at this time, and Rome had to bear the pressure of the entire Middle East.

How can the enemy attack many times? Mircea read the books of the Crusader states and the Western bishoprics and felt that the fief bishop could be carried out in the new territory.

The fief bishop, or the prince bishop, refers to a bishop who governs one or more principalities as a prince of the church and has both political and religious powers. These secular statuses do not come from the noble status obtained by the bishop before receiving the holy office, but are attached to these bishop positions and inherited with the inheritance of the bishop's position. When the bishop's jurisdiction is the archdiocese, he is called the fief archbishop. In addition, there are similar clergy positions such as fief abbots. Generally speaking, the duchies governed by these bishops will partially or completely overlap with the dioceses they manage, but this is not always the case. For example, Cologne became a free city because it became independent from the Electorate of Cologne, so the territory of the Archbishop of Cologne does not include Cologne.

Fief bishoprics were very common among the feudal princes of the Holy Roman Empire, some of whom even obtained the title of Imperial Prince and could send representatives to the Imperial Parliament. In order to resist the powerful dukes in the Germanic tribes, the East Frankish King Henry the Fowler and his son, the Holy Roman Emperor Otto I, had to find a way to resist the influence of the dukes. So Otto I introduced priests to compete with the princes of the secular state, and then granted territories to influential bishops, and fief bishops came into being; their seats also changed from ordinary dioceses to fief dioceses or fief bishoprics.

Now, Mircea intends to establish fief bishops in the East, and the Orthodox Church will certainly support it, but it will also be harmful to the centralization of the country.

But when he sought support, not only the cabinet ministers opposed it, but even the Ecumenical Patriarch did not agree with the establishment of fiefdom bishops. Because this means that the Orthodox Church has to face those aggressive pagans alone, especially in the East, without the support of secular regimes. So the Ecumenical Patriarch contacted and imitated the West to establish three major knightly orders, giving them the opportunity to establish an independent country, which can not only ensure the spread of religion, but also ensure that the land will not be taken away. Constantinople, on the other hand, implemented suzerainty and used diplomatic capabilities to control the land.

Mircea has heard of the Knights' Order. Isn't the Teutonic Knights in the north the same? They also established an independent regime. This approach is not impossible. Since the bishop's territory is not okay, then change the approach.

The Orthodox Church is still more obedient than the Catholic Church. At least there is no need to worry about things like the struggle for the right of appointment. The Knights' Order organized by them must be very good.

However, in the division of new territories, the church also got a lot of land, which originally belonged to those pagan temples, and it can be regarded as not changing the functional use. The church can only continue to play a role in the spiritual field, and there is basically no place for them in the secular world. Students graduating from various universities are fresh bureaucrats who will take care of local administration for the emperor.

However, with the expansion of territory and the emergence of various affairs, more and more bureaucrats are needed. They are all paid, and together with military expenses, they account for more than half of the total expenditure in a year. But the benefit is that the local control is higher than before. Local officials will serve in different places. They can only rely on the emperor. In order not to be dismissed, they will naturally work twice as hard. Whoever wants independence, the local officials will be the first to deal with him.

Rome has not been so comfortable for a long time. All this is brought about by the establishment of the Bartlan Dynasty. For this reason, the Great Privilege Document was not only recognized, but the church also took the initiative to shape the family into a chosen family, and it was also recognized by important rulers such as Caesar, Augustus, and Constantine. Of course, these are what the church said. Whether it has been recognized by these rulers or not, you have to ask them in person.

Bartlan became a real royal family, and the two ancient families of Rurik and Luxembourg also married with it, which is the best proof. Everything has changed.