"That was up-time, in the United States and Canada, after they'd been put through the wringer for another three hundred fifty years or so. Hey, the University of Mainz bought a reprint of the 1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, too." Simrock thought a minute. "Or maybe those were Amish. Anabaptist sectarians, anyway. In the here and now, the Mennonites are mostly pretty urban and pretty uppity."
Tata clapped. "Uppity like 'uppity women'?"
"You got it. Uppity. Van de Passe has moved around a lot. He left Antwerp when they expelled the Protestants. He left Aachen when they expelled the Protestants. He managed about twenty years in Cologne before they expelled the Protestants. He did engravings and his wife ran a book and print shop to help support the family."
Joel winced. "Expelled, expelled, expelled. That sounds like a liturgy. I apologize on behalf of my church."
"Why?" Theo wrinkled his forehead. "If the Calvinists had expelled him, I wouldn't apologize for it."
"I think you should," Margarethe said, "if they had. But as it happened, they didn't get a chance. The Catholics beat them to it."
Joel didn't feel exactly like leading a cheer for the Counter-Reformation. Thank God for the USE's newly hatched cardinal protector—once known as Father Mazzare.
Friedrich looked at the morning edition with delight. "It's the first time I've ever been in the newspaper," he exclaimed.
"Father saw it too," Margarethe said. "He went off to file a complaint with General Brahe."
Eberhard snatched it away. "The quality of the cartoon doesn't quite measure up to a van de Passe."
"Hey, a person has to be really influential, politically, to earn a van de Passe cartoon. How many people outside of our family will really care that I have renounced my title? Or that you let me?"
"More than you would dream," Theo predicted. "Papa had Georg Wulf von Wildenstein in tow. He intends to get the landgrave of Hesse-Kassel involved on the grounds that Margarethe is one of his subjects."
"How did the newspaper find out?" Justina asked. "That's a better question."
"I like it," Reichard said. "Good publicity for the Horn of Plenty. Good example in regard to the equality of all men. The image of Margarethe as leading Brillo on a leash is particularly good, given the current events in Franconia. But who drew the cartoon?"
Every head in the taproom turned toward Hartmann Simrock.
"If it will make you feel better, you may consider their transfer to the Fulda Barracks Regiment in the SoTF forces as a disciplinary measure," Brahe said. "It is my sincere belief that the newspapers will make less furor about the title renunciation and morganatic marriage if they appear to have taken place under the aegis of the up-timers."
Colonel von Zitzewitz had not enjoyed having the young dukes of Württemberg under his command, but losing them was a considerable blow to his prestige, so on balance he was not happy.
"Mainz will be more tranquil without their presence, right now. Fulda will do very well and Utt has agreed that he will take them." Since von Zitzewitz didn't know, Brahe saw no reason to mention that he had been trying to palm this particular simmering pot of trouble off on Fulda for three months.
Zitzewitz inclined his head.
"Just think," Botvidsson added. "There is some consolation. Their friends Simrock and Pistor have patriotically volunteered for the army also, as a gesture of solidarity with Friedrich the ex-duke, since neither of them has a title to renounce. You might have had two more radical CoC sympathizers among your junior officers."
The colonel began to perceive the benefits that would compensate for his losses. He inclined his head again and backed out of the room.
Botvidsson mentioned that he needed a draft memo for communicating the information about the transfer of the young dukes to the king. To the emperor, that was. They were, after all, dukes. Or, in one case, had been a duke just yesterday.
"Bury it," Brahe said. "Bury it somewhere between a list of statistics on how many improved latrines we have constructed and a report on how many of the draft horses have gone down with colic. In front of the latrine statistics, put a memo on the training of city gate guards. Behind the horse colic, attach a discussion of how we are handling the directive that we are to get rid of the train of camp followers when the army is moving. Do not include anything about the renunciation of titles, and I see no real reason to pester the king with Pistor's complaints about the marriage. The chaplain is a Calvinist, after all, and so is his daughter, so what concern is her marriage to Gustavus Adolphus?