A Premade TL 3 Estate.

[Cato the Elder]

Since I have spent some time detailing the Hessian village of Ronneburg as it may have existed in the thirteenth century after the protagonist of my current campaign acquired it, I thought I might share my results with the forum at large. I populated this village using a bastardized system cobbled together with the help of Low-Tech Companion 3, At Play in the Fields and Lord of the Manor from Pyramid issues #33 and #52, respectively; Columbia Games' HarnManor for some rough demographic generation; a number of books and papers on German rural life, most helpfully Georges Duby's Rural Economy and Country Life in the Medieval West, Alfred Haverkamp's Medieval Germany 1056-1276, Maria Dobozy's translation of the Sachsenspiegel, and many papers from http://www.medievalists.net/; the historical gazetteer of Hesse; Wikipedia for general information; Google Maps for the village's actual geography; and GURPS Locations: Worminghall, which gave me the idea to run this campaign in the first place. I do not presume to have created a perfect historical model by any means (indeed, I have altered some details for the sake of the story), but this should work well enough for my purposes. Commentary and suggestions are welcome.

BACKGROUND

Frederick von Wittemborg has risen from humble beginnings as the son of a merchant of Lübeck to be incepted as a Doctor of Law at the University of Bologna and now, in the summer of 1245 AD, receive the signal honour of a knighthood from no less a personage than Conrad von Hohenstaufen, King of Germany and son of the Emperor Frederick II, and with it a place in his household as one of the ministeriales that administrate the Holy Roman Empire.

To see Frederick suitably outfitted in his new station, King Conrad has given him the villages of Ronneburg and Diebach am Haag, rich lands in the imperial estates of the Wetterau (it is not a traditional enfeoffment; although the legal particulars are beyond the scope of this forum post, let it suffice to say that Frederick's position is somewhere in between the level of "administrator" and "fief-holder"). Unfortunately for the newly-minted knight, the empire has just suffered a serious reverse at the hands of Pope Innocent IV, who has deposed the Emperor Frederick at the Council of Lyons this year, and the bellicose archbishops of the Rhine, who have long coveted the imperial demesne, are just miles from his lands ...

THE ESTATE

The Ronneburg estate is located in a valley several miles north of the Kinzig river, tucked between two tongues of the Budingen forest, bordered to the south and west by the lands of the Praemonistratarian monastery of Saint John the Baptist in Langenselbold, and the north and east by the holdings of the lords of Budingen, also burgraves of the free imperial city of Gelnhausen (perhaps the second-wealthiest imperial city in Germany). Ronneburg in 1245 is a fairly large village, sixty-one households and 1760 acres in extent. Its much smaller satellite, Diebach am Haag, is home to twenty-nine households and 1050 acres. The whole fief is overseen from the formidable Castle Ronneburg, a stout stone keep atop a hill and surrounded by a palisade.

Most inhabitants of the estate are semi-free sharecroppers. The more prosperous of these serfs sell their harvest to the grain-mongers of the nearby market town of Gelnhausen, paying a cash rent to the lord of Ronneburg for their lands. The less fortunate work the demesne fields (and several acres of orchards) for their livelihoods, with only a garden to call their own. Aside from the serfs, a few free tradesmen (two millers, a carpenter, blacksmith and brewer) make a humble living tending to the day-to-day needs of the villages. There are also a small number of free farmers, two of whom own a full twelve hides of land (180 acres) between them. In addition to the farmers and tradesmen are a few herders who manage the villages' animals: the estate has many hogs and sheep, and not a few cattle beside. Finally, there is the benefice of the village priest, a bit more than three hides in extent.

PEOPLE AND POLITICS

Ronneburg is currently ruled by the lady Agnes, the only child of Ronneburg's last ministerial lord. When Agnes' father died in 1236, the Emperor promised to transfer the estate to the monastery of Langenselbold in attempt to curry favour with the powerful Selbold family, who serve as secular advocates for the canons' many properties in the region. Unfortunately for the Selbolds, their plans were thrown into disarray by Agnes' marriage to Dietmar, a son of lord Ulrich von Budingen, who also had designs on Ronneburg. Dietmar died of illness in 1243, survived only by the lady Agnes and their newborn daughter Gisela. With the line of succession insecure, the Selbolds might still have gotten their way were it not for the king's abrupt appointment of a foreign knight to the fief. Needless to say, the Selbolds are far from pleased.

Agnes, for her part, has long since grown weary of being a bartering chip in Wetterau politics. Her petition to King Conrad (kept secret even from the castle chamberlain, Gunther Herberge, whom Agnes thinks incapable of discretion) for a suitable husband was what brought Frederick to Ronneburg in defiance of the Selbolds' ambitions. She hopes beyond hope that her husband shall live up to her expections, and protect her two-year-old daughter Gisela as his own child.

Matters are only slightly less turbulent inside the village. Ronneburg's two wealthiest farmers, Johannes Volarc and Wilhelm Krempel, are not only the patriarchs of their extended families (whose members are scattered through the surrounding countryside) but fierce rivals for leadership of the village. Thus far there has been no outbreaks of violence, but many village courts have become acrimonious affairs thanks to their meddling.

Lastly, there is the gossip that surrounds Ronneburg's curate, the snide and self-righteous Emelric von Brauneck (a distant relation of the local lord of Ruckingen), and his frequent parishioner, Hilde the brewer's wife. It is no secret that Hilde is often exasperated with the frequent foolishness of her highly-strung husband Rupert, and the village's wagging tongues (most especially Maria von Buchen, Agnes' distant cousin and handmaiden) are quite certain that she has found a less-than-holy outlet in the arms of the village priest. The supposed lovers furiously deny the accusations, of course.

STATISTICS

These figures were generated in part from the random manor generation system in HarnManor. They otherwise follow the system outlined in Lord of the Manor. See Pyramid #3-52 for details. I used the format below to lay out all the information I thought pertinent:

Household @$Monthly Income, Control Rating. $Overlord Income. Acres Rented/Owned.
- Personal Tenant, if any.

Ronneburg

Acreage
1760 acres; 1311 cleared (1291 in use), 449 forested.

Households
Miller @ $730, CR 3. $232.50. 5 acres.
Blacksmith @ $774, CR 3. $232.50. 30 acres.
- 2 Cottars @ $330, CR 5. $193.13. 2*15 acres.
Carpenter @ $695, CR3. $232.50. 25 acres.
Brewer (Rupert) @ $721, CR 3. $232.50. 20 acres.
4 Farmers @ $660, CR 3. $232.50. 4*30 acres.
Farmer (Johannes Volarc) @ $1320, CR 3. $465. 70 acres.
- 2 Cottars @ $330, CR 5. $193.13. 2*15 acres.
- Cottar (Apples) @ $330, CR 5. $255-150. 5.8 acres.
Farmer (Wilhelm Krempel) @ $1320, CR 3. $465. 110 acres.
- 4 Cottars @ $330, CR 5. $193.13.
- Herdsman (Swine) @ $387, CR 4. $1140-300.
Priest (Emelric von Brauneck) @ $1400, CR 2. $290. 50 acres.
- 3 Cottars @ $330, CR 5. $193.13. 3*15 acres.
- Herdsman (Poultry) @ $387, CR 4. $1867-300. 1.4 acres.
21 Sharecroppers @ $330, CR 4. $154.38. 21*15 acres.
8 Cottars @ $330, CR 5. $193.13 10*15 acres.
2 Cottars (Apples) @ $330, CR 5. $255-150. 2*5.8 acres.
Herdsman (Cattle) @ $387, CR 4. $1105-380. 240 acres.
2 Herdsmen (Swine) @ $387, CR 4. $1140-300. 2*32 acres.
2 Herdsmen (Sheep) @ $387, CR 4. $836-300. 2*40 acres.

Economics
61 households, $11437.77 monthly income.

Diebach am Haag

Acreage
1050 acres; 567 cleared (529 in use), 483 forested.

Households
Miller @ $721, CR 3. $232.50. 10 acres.
2 Farmers @ $660, CR 3. $232.50. 2*30 acres.
11 Sharecroppers @ $330, CR 4. $154.38. 11*15 acres.
10 Cottars @ $330, CR 5. $193.13 10*15 acres.
2 Herdsmen (Swine) @ $387, CR 4. $1140-300. 2*32 acres.
2 Herdsmen (Sheep) @ $387, CR 4. $836-300. 2*40 acres.

Economics
28 households, $6923.98 monthly income.

[Cato the Elder]

NOTES
Lacking any GURPS-friendly method of figuring out the income a lord would get from tradesmen and wealthier tenants, I simply multiplied the figures in Lord of the Manor's Overlord Income Table by the recommended wealth level of the occupations found in the Basic Set and Low-Tech Companion 3 (with a few important exceptions, namely Johannes Volarc and Wilhelm Krempel as well as the lucky carpenter who hires cottars to work his land for him). I'm still trying to decide whether I want to use this system; interestingly enough, converting Harn's pence to GURPS $ yields similar results.

Although I have totaled everything up in GURPS $ here, logically speaking the cottars should give Ronneburg's lord grain, not coinage. Although a lord would want only CR 5 cottars instead of CR 4 sharecroppers on paper, in practice the variability of grain harvests, coupled with the lord's obligation to feed and pay a wage to his cottars, makes rent-paying sharecroppers a better deal in many respects. Astute observers will also notice that the "hides" of farmers are larger than the figure given in Lord of the Manor. I did that partially to account for waste land not included in the article's figures, and partially to save myself some accounting headaches.

When all is said and done, Frederick will receive a monthly income of $18,361.75; quite a handsome salary for a Status 3 landed knight, and one he will doubtless improve (albeit through dubious means for a nobleman) with his academic and mercantile skills. In addition to the servants and soldiers given to him in his Cost of Living, he may consider retaining two Status 2 landless knights for his $6,000 surplus to safeguard his estate from robbers, rebels, rabble-rousers and other riff-raff.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

OK, I'm impressed.