Hesse Seewald

With the kind permission of Der Alte Fritz:

Hesse Seewald is a sister duchy next to Hesse Kassel.
Its approximate boundaries are (North) the Harz Mountains;
(West) the Werra and the Wesel Rivers with Munden being a part of the realm;
(South) the Werra River down as far as Vacha, where the Werra takes a 90
degree turn back to the east;
(East) draw a line from Vacha on the Werra north, just to the west of Gotha
(which is part of Saxe Gotha) and on up to the Unstrut River. Then continue the line northward
fromt the Unstrut to the Harz Mountains.

Recently, the duchies of HS and Saxe Gotha were united following the death of the Herzog of
SG. This will add lands including Gotha and Erfurt and place both banks of the Unstrut in the
HS domains.

The majority of the little duchies in Thuringa have banded together in a military alliance to keep
Saxony and Gallia from over running their lands. The members of the alliance include Saxe
Weimar, Saxe Coburg, Saxe Meiningen, Saxe Gotha and Hesse Seewald. The alliance
covers most of the lands that comprise Thuringia.

Other friendly duchies include Hesse Kassel, Brunswick, Hanover, Anhalt, and Prussia
(Germania),

The Duchy derives significant revenues from tolls from the canal that links the Unstrut to the
Werra. This allows barge traffic on the Elbe to cross to the west and into the Rhine tributaries, a
valuable trade route indeed. There are significant iron, silver and gold deposits in the Harz
Mountains and the nearby Herzeberg and Nordhausen Armouries are world famous for thier
armour and munitions production.
The duchy is quite self sufficient economically and always has a budget surplus, which allows it
to maintain a standing army of 30,000 men at arms. This makes the Duchy one of the most
powerful of the second tier of duchies in the Empire.