Franconia

The Duchy of Franconia was one of the original German stem duchies. In the 1750’s Matthew West decided to buy an immediate domain within the Holy Roman Empire to give his children and grandchildren better marriage opportunities among the European royalty, especially among those under Salic Law. Part of his reasoning was that he saw the probability that if his special genes were not spread more broadly than the Anglosphere, it would produce a single dominant culture too soon. Because of some circumstances he did not foresee, he wound up with not one, but five immediate domains, all of which were in the eastern part of Franconia. This agglomeration was known as the Five Principalities. He used it to start marrying off his daughters and granddaughters into the ruling families of the Holy Roman Empire, as well as coming up with a third wife for himself.

As part of the Seven Years’ War, several of the Five Principalities’ neighbors went to war against them. This heavily increased the area under the control of the Five Principalities. In the peace settlement, West was elevated to Prince-Elector and Duke of Franconia.

The following map is from further forward in the timeline of the Hidden Angels Series; however, the area shown as the Duchy of Franconia on the map is the same as the Electorate of Franconia from 1763 to 1821.