1634: The Bavarian Crisis

by Eric Flint

Early revelations detail machinations by the Habsburg heiress Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria (1610–1665) to gather information as aided and abetted by a dowager aunt and her younger sister behind the backs of her father Emperor Ferdinand II of the Holy Roman Empire and his Jesuit watchdogs. Duke Veronica Dreeson and Mary Simpson meanwhile plan a trip to tend to personal matters to the Upper Palatinate border region conquered by Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden and administered for him from Amberg by ally Duke Ernest of Saxe-Gotha, one of the four Wettin dukes that were supplanted by Grantville's (formation of the NUS) actions in 1631 and 1632. Events in the other 1634 novels (1634: The Galileo Affair, 1634: The Ram Rebellion, 1634: The Baltic War) are integrated into the action and political events behind the scenes, and this book ties a host of little oddities into a coherent canvas capturing a snapshot of the state of Europe in early summer of 1634.

Concurrent with their pet projects, the formidable Dreeson and Simpson women are accompanied by a trade delegation with the strategic goal of restoring the iron production of the Upper Palatinate to feed the war needs of the USE.