King of Mercenaries

Paris, France, Charles VIII was throwing a tantrum within the royal palace. Because Marin’s “amazing exploits”, had already spread to France from the Holy Roman Empire.

Different to the reaction of citizens of the Holy Roman Empire, the Holy Romanian citizens felt glory and pride because they were the winners. While France, as the losing side, felt really pissed off.

Especially Charles VIII who had personally commanded the 8000 French knights and was defeated, had become the butt of the joke. The French people did not dare to publicly mock him, but the Germans, Spaniards, British and Italians cared not. As such, Charles VIII was now the joke of the entire European continent.

The specific reason why Charles VIII felt so much humiliation was, the person who had defeated him wasn’t some well-known battlefield commander, instead, it was a 17 year old boy who was leading an army for the first time…

If he had lost to a veteran commander, Charles VIII could’ve came up with an excuse. But losing to a 17 year old boy, Charles VIII was basically ashamed…

Although the French were defeated in an ambush. However, no matter what, he shouldn’t have lost to a 17 year old boy…

That’s why, it was currently taboo for Charles VIII to hear people speak about what happened in Italy. Whoever dared speak it, it would enrage him and cause him to draw his sword.

To be honest in his heart, the moment he had heard Marin was bestowed the Baron of Texel, North of Holland, Charles VIII couldn’t wait to send troops over to Texel, to capture Marin all the way to Paris, and apply all kinds of cruel torture on him.

However, Europe was different from Asia. Kings of Asia, if they felt their reputation disgraced, they could easily send out their subordinates to openly hunt the person who had disgraced their lord.

But Europeans during the Middle Ages, were extremely attentive to their aristocratic demeanor. In Europe, everyone had formed a conventional agreement — without a good justification, they were forbidden from harming fellow nobles. If on the battlefield, a certain noble surrendered, they must be treated hospitably, and wait for the enemy to pay for the ransom

The reason why this “tacit agreement” exists, was actually because the nobles of Europe were worried that they might be taken captive on the battlefield someday, and would face brutality. That’s why, normally they did not dare brach that rule.

Because, if someone who broke that rule as well as their family members, get taken captive on the battlefield, the enemy could also not care about their aristocratic demeanor and eliminate you.

If Marin was still a squire, and not a member of Aristocratic society, Charles VIII could absolutely publicly dispatch troops to capture and kill him. Because the aristocratic demeanor does not apply to the commonfolk. However, Marin was already a Baron of the Empire after being bestowed by the Holy Roman Empire, and he had joined the Aristocratic society. If Charles VIII had sent people to attack Marin, it was equivalent to ‘breaking the rules’.

Besides, Marin had defeated the French army on the battlefield, though there was the advantage of an ambush, they had still fought the French army with blades and spears.

If, Charles VIII was defeated by Marin on the battlefield, but he used an extremely despicable way to murder Marin, then, he would probably be faced with the scorn and disdain of Europe’s nobles.

And coincidentally, Charles VIII was someone who valued his reputation, someone who wanted to conquer Europe. As a conqueror, the first thing was to have a pristine reputation, and not carry out anything that would draw the scorn of other nobles.

To be more specific, it means to not break the rules.

The King of Britain, Richard III, in order to usurp the throne, had imprisoned his own two nephews and slain them. To prevent other people from finding evidence, he had ordered the brutal act for these two young princes to be nailed into the wall. Although he did not leave behind any evidence. But because he was the greatest culprit of his nephews’ murder, he was despised by the entire Europe. To the point that because Richard III had broken the rule, it caused his subordinates to no longer obey him. When Henry VII raised the flags of rebellion, many noble Warlords of the House of York, quickly defected and supported Henry VII, betraying Richard III.

Charles VIII really wanted to send troops to kill Marin, but, he didn’t wish to break the rules, which would cause him to be betrayed by everyone — what happened to Richard III wasn’t that long ago…

However, Charles VIII really couldn’t take this lying down, and couldn’t stand Marin having a peaceful life. Under the recommendation of his inept advisor, Charles VIII had decided to use another way to punish Marin…

After some thought, Charles VIII ordered —

No French merchant, and foreign merchants who intend to do business within French borders, shall have any trading relationship with the Baron of Texel. Anybody who disobeyed, and confirmed to be true, shall be exiled out of France, and forbidden to return.

A sanction like that, wasn’t too cruel, but it was really quite a lethal move.

Because, France was the most important wine-production area in Europe. In the Middle Ages, the average European does not like drinking water. Regardless if they were noble or commonfolk, they all liked to drink either wine or ale. Only peasants who were at the extreme bottom of the social hierarchy would drink water, and unboiled one at that.

Meanwhile, the wine produced from Southwest France was cheap and high quality, and had always been one of the bestseller of Europe. Many countries, including France’s nemesis, Britain, all wanted to import wine from France, and in huge quantities.

However, if those merchants still want  to import wine from France, they must draw a line with Marin…

And such a move was truly a ruthless one. From his informants, Charles VIII understood that Texel was currently building a lighthouse and port, it was evident that they intended to develop marine trade. And his actions was to break Marin’s momentum at making money

…

However, the moment Marin heard Charles VIII’s trade sanctions, he let out a huge breath of relief…

Charles VIII as the King of France, how mighty was the strength behind him? If he was as shameless as Richard III, to send a huge army to besiege Texel, he really couldn’t handle that.

The reason why Marin relocated his 400 subordinates to Texel, was actually a precaution against the French’s desire for revenge.

After all, Texel was at sea, if France sent out their fleet to besiege Texel, Marin could only resist from his shelter.

Besides, because Marin was in the Emperor’s faction, he was naturally not in line with the traditional feudal lords. If he was besieged by the French, no neighbouring lord would come to his aid. Probably even Netherlands which were under the Emperor’s name would be unwilling to save him. Because the local lords of Netherland was still resistant against the Emperor (before this, Maximillian the First had been put under house arrest by the Netherland nobles, and it was Frederick III who sent troops to rescue him)….

That’s why, in this period of time, Marin was actually quite afraid…

However, the moment Charles VIII announced his trade sanctions, Marin let out a huge breath of relief.

Because, if Charles VIII was dealing with him with this way, then that basically means that he wouldn’t send an army to deal with him.

Although a trade sanction such as that was a huge blow to Marin. But that’s still way better than someone coming after his life.

Besides, Marin’s main trading partner — Wiggin’s Merchant Association did not have much ties with France. Besides, the trading between the two parties were carried out very low key, so outsiders did not know much. That’s why, Charles VIII’s trade sanction only had limited damage.

Because, the French sanctions at the most, would only affect the Netherland merchants of the Flanders region — they have a lot of mercantile ties with France, as well as the Britain, Spaniards and Italians.

Meanwhile among the three countries Britain, Spain, Italy, Spain itself was an extremely important wine producer. That’s why the effects on Spain by this trading sanction wasn’t that huge. Italy also had their own wine production lines. Only Britain, because of frequent rains, lack the needed sun and warmth for the growth of grapes, which forced them to import great quantites of wine from foreign lands. And the major wine import source for Britain, was the Bordeaux region…

As for the Holy Roman Empire, only a small portion of the merchants would be affected. Because the Holy Roman Empire shared a long border with France, plenty of people had tight merchantile contracts with France But there were also plenty of merchants, more than half who had nothing to do with the French.

Especially the Hanseatic League which had dominated the trade of Northern and Northwestern Europe, they weren’t that close with France. What Marin was thinking, was to establish good relations with the Hanseatic League, and make a fortune through that route. As such, the trade sanctions from the French might cause many potential customers to draw the line with Marin, but that would not stop Marin’s uprising. THe most it could do, was put a hamper on how much money he would make, and it wasn’t a disastrous blow.

The other main reason was — Germanic people loved ale more, not wine. So even if the wine production within Deutsche Germany was low, it was sufficient for consumption. Because in Deutsche Germany. the ones who drink wine are usually the nobles and clergymen. Because there was a lack in demand, even if the production of wine was low in Deutsche Germany, it was sufficient for consumption, as such, the Germanic region did not import large amounts of wine from France.

As such, with so many people looking unfavourably at Marin, Marin still continues to go on his own, and was fully supporting the development of Texel.

However, in order to not enrage Charles VIII, or humiliate him to the point of sending troops to kill Marin, he had decided to — appear subservient, so that Charles VIII would feel better… Treating this as him imitating Goujian’s “Great Revival”, as a transmigrator from modern times, Marin did not believe that his face was worth more than his life… as such, Marin sent a messenger to deliver his “apology letter”, and emphasizing the great dangers of ‘syphilis’ and ways of treatment.

The reason why Marin did this, aside from giving Charles VIII an out, he also wished for France to suppress the spread of syphilis. Because, if syphilis started spreading through France, it would easily spread around to neighbouring countries, which would cause a pandemic in Europe (which was exactly what happened in the original timeline).

Charles VIII did not accept Marin’s ‘apology’, but he did start paying attention to the ‘syphilis’ Marin had mentioned. Because syphilis was the precise reason why the French fled Italy. To be more precise, without the endemic of syphilis, Charles VIII wouldn’t have needed to flee North, let alone being defeated by Marin…

Besides, Marin’s action of ‘apology’ also made Charles VIII feel a bit better, which had caused his urgent desire to slay Marin to be washed away.

Of course, that just means that Charles VIII wouldn’t publicly send out troops to kill Marin. But if they meet each other on the battlefield, Charles VIII would definitely not be stingy with the bounty, and would make the French army to slay Marin. Besides, this also doensn’t rule out that Charles VIII would not send assassins to kill Marin. However, those two dangerous scenarios weren’t without their solutions, as long as he paid attention, he was still in relative safety. On must know, the assassins of this day and age still used daggers and crossbows, so those were much easier to be on guard against. Even at the start of the 17th century, when the French King Henry IV was assassinated, someone had stabbed him with a sharp dagger. As for firearms, the currently popular matchlocks were extremely unsuited for assassination. Because the ignited safety fuse would be easily discovered by soldiers. Only when flintlocks are discovered, would there be any assassinations with flintlock pistols. The good thing was, flintlock guns were at small caliber, and was extremely inaccurate, so they weren’t great weapons anyways. To be precise, only rifles with extremely high accuracy would be the best weapon for assassination. Which also means, even if Marin encountered an assassin, if he had done his best to stay on guard, he would still be able to avoid it…

However, the possibility of Charles VIII sending someone to assassinate Marin wasn’t that high. Because he was the King of France, to send someone to kill a small time Baron like Marin, he would probably get mocked by the entire European continent, which would shame him even more than the defeat in battle. Only by sending someone to defeat Marin or even slay Marin in the battlefield, would that be able to wash away his shame.