On both banks of the Rhine, dozens of Imperial Estates, large and small, began mobilizing supplies and levying troops in preparation for the campaign against Lorraine.
In Further Austria and Franche-Comté, Christopher—tasked with quelling the rebellion—called for a military muster on his own sovereign lands for the first time to prepare for war. Unfortunately, his more distant territories in Dauphiné and Provence still required a significant number of troops to maintain stability, and in the wake of previous conflicts, they were in no position to provide additional men or money. Relying on the support of the nobility in Austria's western borderlands and assistance from the newly established Governor-Generalship of Swabia, Christopher managed to scrape together a force of nearly **5,000** men.
The core of this army, aside from a small personal guard, consisted primarily of several hundred knights from Alsace and surrounding areas. This was a feudal army through and through, and it was expected that the rest of the Allied forces would be composed of similar elements. Compared to the resources his father could command, the cards in Christopher's hand were far too few. He did not yet have the authority to use "great weapons" like standing armies, which were enormously expensive and carried the inherent risk of mutiny.
As luck would have it, the opponent he faced this time was another monarch who, much like his father, built his power on a standing army—one that often received accolades as "advanced and elite": the Burgundian host. To counter the formidable Burgundian New Army, Christopher had to rely on numerical superiority, seeking as much support as possible from the members of the League.
Of course, he did not forget to ask his father for help. While Laszlo did not intend to enter the war immediately—and had not brought his elite Praetorian Guards while touring the relatively safe southern Empire—he nevertheless ordered a total of eight legions from Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, and Milan, plus a cavalry corps, to actively prepare for war and remain on standby.
It was impossible to commit all these legions to the fight against Burgundy; Northern Italy, Northern Germany, and even Poland were priority areas for the stationed legions to watch. However, mobilizing over **10,000** troops for the western theater remained entirely feasible. The startup funds to bring these troops to a state of war did not even need to be raised separately; they would be advanced using the payments Charles had made for the purchase of Guelders.
In addition to mobilizing the Habsburg military power on the western front, Laszlo provided Christopher with substantial aid in other forms. In his capacity as Emperor, he issued decrees to nearly thirty Imperial Free Cities in Swabia and the Upper Rhine, as well as to the knightly leagues of both regions, commanding them to assist their King, Christopher, in suppressing the rebellion in Lorraine.
Although these decrees required every knight to be fully armored and accompanied by at least three squires to assemble in the Bishopric of Strasbourg, and for the Free Cities to contribute a quarter of their city guards to the Imperial army, very few knights or cities complied strictly with the requirements. This was a form of tacit Imperial political philosophy: "Aim for the top to get the middle." Though the targets were not met, inland cities like Ulm and Frankfurt did agree to provide some assistance to the gathering Imperial forces.
A segment of the Imperial knights responded to the Emperor's summons, determined to find opportunities for promotion and fortune on the battlefield. Furthermore, some Imperial nobles friendly to the Emperor joined the army, particularly within the Swabian Circle. One such example was the Count of Hohenzollern in Swabia. He had attempted to acquire large tracts of Austrian land adjacent to his county from the Emperor, but due to his strained finances, his plans had never come to fruition. Now, he turned to serving the Emperor to earn territorial rewards and compensation, leading his two sons without hesitation to join the Imperial army assembling in the Austrian Swabian borderlands.
The Count set a strong example, and several other Swabian Imperial Estates joined the force. The army gathered in Swabia eventually assembled in the Bishopric of Strasbourg under the unified command of the Dukes of Baden and Württemberg, numbering around **4,000**. The third part of the Imperial army came from the princes and Estates of the Upper Rhine, congregating at Saarbrücken. This force was slightly smaller than the other two, with about **3,000** men commanded by the Count Palatine and the Archbishop of Trier.
The three forces planned to set out from Franche-Comté, Strasbourg, and Saarbrücken, advancing into Lorraine from the south, east, and north respectively, to finally link up at Nancy. In the process, every inch of Lorraine's soil was to be ruthlessly ravaged by the Imperial army—which was, in truth, the primary motivation for most of the participants.
However, as sound as the plan was, major problems emerged right from the initial troop assembly. The fledgling League was a mess of coordination, and the speed of mobilization was generally sluggish. Tardy arrivals, resistance to the levy, and dissatisfaction with quotas were common. Consequently, more than a month after the summons was issued, the Imperial army was still not ready for war.
Fortunately, both sides were equally incompetent, and the situation on the Burgundian side was arguably worse. In Guelders, Charles had committed over **10,000** troops led by his trusted generals, but they had yet to occupy the entire territory. Liège had recently erupted in rebellion, leaving local order in shambles, and unrest was beginning to spread to Utrecht. Because of this, Charles had to leave enough troops in Brussels to maintain his grip on the Low Countries. With troops from Calais and the Somme recalled, and after accounting for the minimum garrison needed in the Low Countries, Charles was unable to field a force of more than **5,000**.
Moreover, the States-General of the Low Countries expressed strong opposition to the march on Lorraine; they had never had much interest in territorial expansion outside their own region. Charles wasted months trying to persuade the provinces to provide support, causing him to fall behind in this "competition of mediocrity."
Beyond the League of Constance and the Kingdom of Burgundy, two other powers were also agonizing over the brewing war in Lorraine. One was René, Count of Vaudémont, who was caught in the eye of the storm. Having just defeated the Burgundian forces invading Lorraine and enjoying the acclaim of the local populace, he suddenly heard that the Emperor intended to award Lorraine to the Duke of Baden and was assembling an army to sweep through the duchy. Meanwhile, Burgundy was also preparing to avenge its defeated troops. Waking up to find himself a target of everyone's wrath, René was understandably desperate—but there was someone even more so.
In a military camp near Orléans, Charles VIII stared gloomily at a letter on his desk. For months, he had gathered his troops, waiting to repel an attack from Louis XI. He waited and waited, but news of an enemy advance never came. As summer arrived, he realized that Louis XI was playing a war of attrition, intending to bleed him dry in the Loire Valley. His enemies had likely caught wind of his fiscal and manpower difficulties; thus, his cunning older brother chose to face him in a stalemate, waiting for his army to collapse under the weight of its own hardships amidst constant harassment and small skirmishes.
To avoid the worst outcome, Charles VIII had recently resolved to head south to the Loire Valley to seek a decisive battle. Yet at this critical juncture, Burgundy—which had agreed to provide extra military aid—suddenly broke its promise and withdrew the troops intended for Northern France. Furthermore, intelligence from the Empire claimed the Emperor was gathering an army to attack Lorraine to counter Burgundian expansion.
This news left Charles VIII stunned. Just as he was finally getting ready to stand up to his older brother, he turned around to find that his two "big brothers" were about to start fighting each other and had no time to provide him with any effective help. Fortunately, the Emperor's reputation for being "faithful to his word" was not mere talk. Even in this situation, Laszlo did not issue a decree to recall the Imperial legions serving in the Northern French army. Had he done so, Charles VIII would have had to flee back to Paris that very night.
However, even if he didn't have to flee immediately, he still had to face the Grand Army of Southern France led by his brother alone. To delay was death; to attack offered little hope. Charles VIII saw only darkness ahead. Nonetheless, the young monarch finally decided to head south to settle matters with Louis XI. It was his last chance; if he missed this moment, he would have to disband the army he had worked so hard to assemble and lose the power to resist the court at Tours.
A similar situation of North-South confrontation existed in England. Like Charles VIII, Edward IV of the House of York drew aid from both Burgundy and the Empire, though the support he received was far less substantial. Nevertheless, the resilient Edward used his small army to ignite a new round of civil war in Northern England, forcing the Lancastrian rulers to abandon their power struggles in London and organize an army to march north to crush the rebellion. The continuation of the Wars of the Roses caused England to miss another opportunity to return to the Continent—though, for them, this might not have been a bad thing.
Three wars effectively dragged all of Western Europe into the flames. Meanwhile, the interior of the Empire was no longer as peaceful as it once was. In Northern Germany, numerous latent local disputes showed signs of escalating into armed conflict. Fortunately, the Emperor's majesty still held sway in most corners, so the number of Estates actually resorting to force was limited. The Western Empire showed unprecedented unity in its opposition to Burgundy. Furthermore, due to the Emperor's previous tour of Aachen, these regions had grown more respectful of Imperial authority; the Emperor's supporters held the majority and maintained peace in the western Circles according to Imperial law.
In the Eastern Empire, however, various conflicts between knights and princes, and between princes themselves, erupted in the Franconian Circle. Tensions between the Margrave of Ansbach, the Imperial City of Nuremberg, and the Bishops of Würzburg and Bamberg had intensified after years of buildup, eventually exploding into armed clashes involving thousands. Even the Bishops of Würzburg and Bamberg—both supporters of the Emperor—began attacking each other due to old grudges left over from the collapse of an earlier alliance.
Franconia briefly became a paradise for "robber knights," with as many as thirty castles joining robber-knight gangs that ravaged the region. On the political level, the struggle between the Bishop of Würzburg and the Margrave of Ansbach over the legitimate succession of the Duchy of Franconia—and the governorship of the Circle—gradually escalated from verbal attacks to organized mutual raids.
This was the state of Franconia, near the Emperor's own territories. In the states of Upper and Lower Saxony further north, things were even more dire. Lübeck merchants, who had recently been confirmed by the Emperor to have Imperial customs exemptions, set out joyfully for business, only to be hijacked shortly after sailing from the Free City. The cities of Rostock and Wismar, dissatisfied with the Emperor's favoritism, began to resist the Hanseatic League. Encouraged by their overlord, the Duke of Mecklenburg, they ignored Imperial Court rulings and levied customs duties far above the average. Mecklenburg also implemented a policy of land blockades and maritime privateering against Lübeck. Relations between Lübeck and Mecklenburg froze instantly, bringing both sides to the brink of war.
Simultaneously, trade disputes in London expanded. Shortly before the Diet of Augsburg, a Hanseatic assembly in Utrecht presided over by the Emperor's envoy had forced Lübeck and Cologne into an outward reconciliation under Imperial pressure. However, England's protectionist trade policies did not end with the internal Hanseatic settlement. To secure the continued support of London citizens and the Cinque Ports, Queen Mother Margaret decided to terminate the Hanseatic League's trade privileges entirely.
Consequently, shortly after the Utrecht assembly, ten Hanseatic cities led by Lübeck declared war on England, initiating a grand "Privateer War." From Cologne in the west to Riga in the east, Hanseatic ships and English merchant vessels engaged in a raw "trade war" on the high seas—sinking or capturing ships, seizing cargo, and striking at each other's commerce. Lübeck, already in conflict with England and Denmark, now faced a "backstab" from Mecklenburg, leaving it in a precarious position.
Further east, the Grand Duke of Lithuania had officially raised his army in Vilnius and was marching south, intending to take Warsaw first before moving on Kraków to force Konrad to submit. Within Poland, King Konrad was struggling to handle an inheritance dispute with his brother while simultaneously dealing with a series of uprisings by the Lesser Polish nobility, leaving him in a state of utter disarray. To prevent the reunion of Poland and Lithuania and to reclaim lost lands, the Teutonic Order had gathered an army of several thousand and was preparing to set out from Marienburg to conquer Samogitia.
Most of Europe was now engulfed in the flames of war, but this had little to do with the majority of the people living under the rule of the House of Habsburg. As the recognized hegemon of the Continent, Laszlo maintained peace and stability across all his hereditary lands—ensuring his subjects could produce and live undisturbed—while observing the situation across Europe with composure, waiting for the right moment to intervene and alter the course of these vital disputes.