1632 characters

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Main articles: 1632 series, The Grantville Gazettes, 1632 Editorial Board, and 1632 Research Committee

This is a compendium of the many historical and even greater number of fictional characters that appear in the nearly twenty plus works of Eric Flint's best selling 1632 series— an aggregation of likely neohistorical developments centered in seventeenth century Europe conceived both as a stand alone novel and as an experimental mode of writing Alternate history stories, but which became a succession of very successful literary experiments and best selling trend setting experiment in collaborative writing with many contributors over a seven year gestation period.

Which is to say, the characters listed herein are used to entertain and in its more serious moments as a series, make up as realistic a fictional neohistory as can be conceived and hammered out during months of collaborative discussion and research.

The result is a complex "messy" (Flint's term) collection of books presenting a plausible neohistory that 'might happen' as written, should ever a somewhat typical rural American town of 3,000 plus rednecked West Virginian hillbillies just happen to drop into the middle of Central Europe during the formative years of Early Modern Europe. As part of the "Messiness" that Flint believes is "Real Life", and therefore "history" the various works switch character mixes and within each, to narrative viewpoints to sometimes bewildering "Odd people in odd places", which within the story arch of a given book somehow all works together to present a whole which not only lends credibility to the technique, but background understanding and depth of exposition that illuminates history in our past, even as it exposes the plot in the down-time neohistory of the parallel universe of the world depicted in 1632 and its sequels.  

Contents 1 Use of characters in general 2 Historical figures 2.1 Abrabanel family 2.2 Adolphus, Gustavus II 2.3 Acontius, Jacob 2.4 Austria, Ferdinand II of 2.4.1 Austria, Cecilia Renata, Archduchess of 2.4.2 Austria, Ferdinand III 2.4.3 Austria, Leopold Wilhelm, Archduke of 2.4.4 Austria, Maria Anna of, Archduchess 2.5 Bavaria, Albrecht, Duke of 2.5.1 Bavaria, Karl Johann Franz of 2.5.2 Bavaria, Maximilian Heinrich of 2.5.3 Bavaria, Sigmund Albrect of 2.5.4 Bavaria, Elisabeth Renata of 2.5.5 Bavaria, Maximilian I, duke of 2.6 Bedmar, Alfonso, Marquis of 2.7 Comenius, Johann, Bishop 2.8 Eugenia, Isabella Clara, Infanta of Spain 2.9 Fernando, Don 2.10 of Saxony, John George 2.11 Harvey, William 2.12 Kircher, Athanasius 2.13 Mazarini 2.14 Mendoza, Dona Mencia de 2.15 Mercy, Franz von 2.16 Olearius, Adam 2.17 Pappenheim, Gottfried 2.18 Orange, William I, Prince of 2.19 Orange, Fredrick Hendrik, Prince of 2.20 Richelieu, Cardinal 2.21 Rembrandt 2.22 Rubens 2.23 Early life 2.24 Saxe-Weimar Dukes of the House of Wettin 2.24.1 Saxe-Weimar, Johann II, Duke of 2.24.2 Saxe-Wiemar, Albrecht, Duke of 2.24.3 Saxe-Wiemar, Bernhard of, Duke 2.24.4 Saxe-Weimar, Ernst of, Duke 2.24.5 Saxe-Wiemar, Wilhelm IV of, duke 2.25 Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, Christian Guenther I of 2.26 Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, Ludwig Guenther of 2.27 Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, Emelie, countess of 2.28 Schickard, Wilhelm 2.29 Sweden, Christina of 2.30 Sweden, Gustav II Adolf of 2.31 Tilly, Johann Tserclaes, Count of 2.32 Turenne, Viscount of 2.33 Urban VIII, Pope 2.34 Vasa, the house of, Nobles of, 2.35 Wallenstein, Albrecht von 2.36 William Wettin 3 Ambiguous persons 3.1 Hesse-Rotenberg, Hermann of, Duke 4 Fictional characters 4.1 Abrabanel, Balthazar 4.2 Abrabanel, Rebecca 4.3 Adducci, Bernadette 4.4 Adducci, Tony, Jr. 4.5 Allegretti, Susanna 4.6 Arndt, Augustin 4.7 Cantrell, Eddie 4.8 Dreeson, Henry 4.9 Dreeson, Veronica 4.10 Edelmann, Karl Jurgen 4.11 Ferrara, Greg 4.12 Franz and Marla 4.13 Frost, Dan 4.14 Haygood, Jere 4.15 Higgins, Jeff 4.16 Hoffman, Ernst 4.17 Hudson, Wille Ray 4.18 Jackson, Frank 4.19 Jefferson, Anne 4.20 Lefferts, Harry 4.21 Linder, Marla 4.22 Mackay, Alex and Julie 4.22.1 Mackay, Alexander 4.22.2 Mackay, Julie 4.23 McDougal, Pete 4.24 Murphy, Nowell 4.25 Musketeers, Four 4.26 Nichols, James 4.27 Nichols, Sharon 4.28 Richter, Gretchen 4.29 Richter, Hans 4.30 Roth family 4.30.1 Roth, Morris 4.30.2 Scylwester, Franz 4.31 Southworth, Aidan 4.32 Simpson, John and Mary 4.32.1 Simpson, John Chandler 4.32.2 Simpson, Mary 4.32.3 Simpson, Tom and Rita 4.32.3.1 Simpson, Rita 4.32.3.2 Simpson, Tom 4.33 Sims family 4.34 Spen, Sir James 4.35 Stearns, Mike and Becky 4.35.1 Stearns, Becky 4.35.2 Stearns, Rebbecca 4.35.3 Stearns, Michael "Mike" 4.36 Stone Family 4.36.1 Stone, Frank 4.36.2 Stone, Gerry 4.36.3 Stone, Magda 4.36.4 Stone, Ron 4.37 Stone, Tom 4.38 Sybolt, Red 4.39 Torstensson, Lennart 4.40 Trout, Len 4.41 Wild, Larry 4.42 Wood, Jesse 5 Notes and references

[edit] Use of characters in general

Characters in 1632 are generally tightly involved with some aspect of the overarching story and are used to further the story line to the brief "action" episodes by skillful use of dialog, interpersonal situations, candid differences of opinion and character persona. By switching narrative viewpoints frequently between various down-time (in universe) characters Flint and his many collaborators move the story presentations along while constantly presenting new developments and thought provoking background insights (and little known historical tidbits forming the foundation of our up-time modern world), as well as depicting the occasional character foible or flaw that in some cases, is the real heart of the conflict in the seventeenth century setting—"I'm a nobleman, and you're a peasant so shut up and peasant, peasant"—not to mention outright greed, thirst for power, and other such unsavory motivators.

Still, the character set while rich in numbers, is for the most part undeveloped overall as in depth individuals one can relate to on a deeper plane in the mainline novels of the set save for a few key repeating characters, most notable among these such as Mike Stearns and his wife Becky Stearns, whose romance figures prominently toward the end of the lead novel 1632. Beginning in the 1633 sequel, the early non-mainline plot thread novels each introduced a different core of key protagonists such as the Stone boys, and especially Sharon Nichols, her beaus Hans Richter and then the Spanish ambasadors factonum Ruy Sanchez de Casador y Ortiz as well as Father Larry Mazzare, and Tom Stone and his wife Magda nee Magdalena Edelmann who anchor the South European thread.

Others developed in substantial depth are as a rule a key repeating character such as the revolutionary zealot Gretchen Richter or Colonel Jesse Woods whose air force figures large in 1633, various short stories, and 1634: The Baltic War. The back and forth narrative technique even there offsets much of the shallowness by giving a good feel for the thought processes, motivations, prejudices, and so forth in the exposing dialog of the given scene. Place settings are quite sketchy in comparison and left up to the imagination of the reader, including most battle scenes and the like. The tales are character centered and focused on the underlying motives of human kind, which goes far to explain the success of the set.

In the copious short fiction, especially that of the eighteen Grantville Gazette's in depth characterization has become more a norm and modus operandi of narrative exposition. This group of stories, almost as a rule, generally involves the personal problems, experiences and resolution of some "common man on the street" as seen up close and personal through their eyes, whether to down-timers (people born in the sixteenth or seventeenth century) or up-timers (The Americans now living in the timeline of the neohistory). A number of those writers have developed story lines that have been serialized over several issues of the Gazette's, and being "ground level" oriented and personal experiences dealing with the commonplace everyday hassles of life in general, there is much empathy between reader and character. It's easy to see ourselves in their place, whereas it's not so easy to imagine ourselves as a top tough negotiator and world shaker like Mike Stearns, Prime Minister of the United States of Europe, and former President of the Confederated Principalities of Europe.

[edit] Historical figures

The historical research behind the series overall is impressive, and for the most part, historic characters are given believable and logically consistent roles and personality characterizations consistent with the historical record. As prime minister of France, even the notionally villainous characters such as Cardinal Richelieu are portrayed with a great deal of care, in his case, as suave, charming, persuasive and very clever— Charles I of England, along with his bride, and Louis XII of France are portrayed perhaps worse than their real selves were, but if the authors took a little extra literary liberty with such characters, it is because the historical record has already damned them, and they are portrayed consistent with what is known of them, or at least can be extrapolated from what is known of them. A strong king, like Gustavus II Adolphus is portrayed with extreme vigor, decisiveness (matching his nearly unmatched history as a general), and so forth. The noblemen, the "princes" of The Germanies run the full spectrum of character archetypes from the venal to the shrewd, the clever to the manipulative, the grasping to the cowardly indecisive. In truth, but for a few scattered scenes setting background up in the back plots, historical figures are kept off stage letting the fictional carry most of the action.

[edit] Abrabanel family

The Abrabanel (or Abravanel family) were a widespread clan of Sephardic Jewish merchants, financiers, bankers, physicians, and other such professions who were influential in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries after most were forcibly expelled from Spain after the convulsions and consolidations of 1492, or had to become "Marranos" (Secret Jews ostensibly practicing Christianity for fear of their lives; the Inquisition came about to ferret out Marrano and the equivalent Islamic Moriscos).

Flint places several important Sephardic families (Also includes Franciso Nasi and various relations) in the courts or capitals of various seventeenth century nations including London (Kingdom of England), Amsterdam and Brussels (the Dutch Republic), Vienna (kingdom of Austria, and in the service of the HRE Emperor Ferdinand II of Austria), in Istanbul (Ottoman Empire), the Most Serene Republic of Venice and Naples. He also depicts the far flung interests and inter-relational workings of Marranos forming a de facto spy network, and in particular relates that such a network was used by the English during their struggles with Spain before Charles I of England expulsed most Marranos in England.

The family decides in late 1631 to firmly ally itself with the New United States (NUS) during the pre-election politicing when the Grantville Emergency Committee is transitioning from being in charge to supervising in succession an Grantville Constitutional Convention and beyond to an elected Republic organized strongly on the United States Constitution, the 'New United States'.

 

[edit] Adolphus, Gustavus II

Adolphus, Gustavus II, Gustav, Gustavus, Gustav II Adolf, Gustavus II Vasa, etcetera

— are all forms used by historians and with some variety in the series books. See below Sweden, Gustav II Adolf of

[edit] Acontius, Jacob

Jacob Acontius (Italian: Jacopo (or Giacomo) Aconcio; 7 September 1492 – around 1566) was an Italian jurist, theologian, philosopher and engineer. He was traditionally thought to have been born at Trento, although it was probably Ossana (Italy). He was one of the earliest educated Renaissance Italians, like Peter Martyr and Bernardino Ochino, who repudiated papal doctrine (technically thereby committing heresy) and ultimately found refuge in England fleeing the wrath of the Office of the Holy Inquisition. Like them, his revolt against Romanism took a more extreme form than Lutheranism, and after a temporary residence in Switzerland and at Strasbourg (between 1557 and 1558), he arrived in England soon after Elizabeth's accession (1559). He had studied law and theology, but his profession was that of an engineer, and in this capacity he found employment with the English government.

He was granted naturalization on 8 October 1561 ^[1]. He was for some time occupied with draining Plumstead marshes, for which object various acts of Parliament were passed at this time ^[2]. In 1564 he was sent to report on the fortifications of Berwick ^[3]; his report is now in the Record Office ^[4]. His importance to history depends not upon his contributions as engineer and naturalized citizen of the Kingdom of England, but most impacted history instead by his contributions to the philosophy and the practice of religious toleration. Before reaching England he had published a treatise on the methods of investigation, De Methodo, hoc est, de recte investigandarum tradendarumque Scientiarum ratione (Basel, 1558, 8vo); and his critical spirit placed him outside all the recognized religious societies of his time.

In 1632-verse:, Acontius is long dead but influential philosophically in scientific practices among a protestant group called Acontians who are established in both the Netherlands and England.<cref >Template:Cite GG05</ref >

[edit] Austria, Ferdinand II of

The Holy Roman Emperor, head of the German Catholic League in 1632-verse, the devoute Ferdinand II of Austria. Cecilia Renata of Austria is the younger sister and co-conspirator of Maria Anna of Austria. (Painted as Queen of Poland, which will not be her arranged marriage in the 1632-verse. Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor Painting by Peter Thys Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in his Gallery in Bussels (Painting by David Teniers the Younger, ca. 1650, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna)

Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor (1578–1637)

Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire; married to Eleonore Gonzaga; father of Maria Anna of Austria, Cecylia Renata and Ferdinand III

In the 1632-verse:  ??? dies already in 1634 as broken man, after being deposed in Bohemia by Wallenstein and remaining without any success in Germany

[edit] Austria, Cecilia Renata, Archduchess of

Archduchess Cecilia Renata of Austria (1611–1643)

In our time line, this daughter of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor was wed to a Polish nobleman and became Queen of Poland from 1637; which the historical references discussed between the sisters within the series depict as being a very unhappy marriage.

In the 1632-verse:  Cecilia Renata of Austria is the younger sister and co-conspirator of Maria Anna of Austria during the early phases of 1634: The Bavarian Crisis—where the two conspire against priests, advisors, tutors and talk about marriages to this or that notable. She resurfaces again as a character towards the end of 1634: The Bavarian Crisis during the deathwatch of Ferdinand II, who departs life much sooner in the neohistory. Brother Ferdinand III conveys he will not be marrying her to anyone from Poland given the dour reports of the American's histories for that dynastic union.

[edit] Austria, Ferdinand III

Known to historians as Ferdinand III, of Austria, (July 13, 1608 – April 2, 1657), he was made King of Hungary in 1625, and King of Bohemia in 1627 in OTL. As the oldest son of Ferdinand II he eventually reigned as Holy Roman Emperor—between February 15, 1637 – 1657; A dignity in no way automatic for it was not an inheritable or powerful office, but one of prestige with high moral authority— after Ferdinand II's death in 1636 opened the Elected office of King of the Romans, the precursor title necessary to being coronated and anointed as Emperor by the Pope.

   Eldest son of Emperor Ferdinand II from the house of Habsburg and his first wife, Maria Anna of Bavaria.

   Following the death of Wallenstein in 1634, he was made titular head of the Imperial Army in the Thirty Years' War, and later that year joined with his cousin the Cardinal-Infante to defeat the Swedes at Nördlingen.
   Leader of the peace party at court, he helped negotiate the Peace of Prague with the Protestant States, especially Saxony in 1635. In the 1632-verse, he was replaced by Wallenstein in 1633 as leader of Bohemia, in a plot thread begun in Ring of Fire

[edit] Austria, Leopold Wilhelm, Archduke of

In OTL, Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria (b. Wiener Neustadt January 5, 1614 -d. Vienna November 20, 1662) was the youngest son of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor, and was a military commander, and made Governor of the Spanish Netherlands (from 1647 to 1656), and a famous patron of the arts who left a legacy extending to our times. He is also known as Leopold Wilhelm von Habsburg but as a son of the Emperor carried the title Archduke of Austria.

He was the youngest son of Ferdinand II of Habsburg and of Maria-Anna of Bavaria (1574-1616), daughter of William V, Duke of Bavaria. His elder brother became Emperor Ferdinand III (1608-1657). Leopold became bishop and served as general in the Thirty Years' War.

   When he assumed the government of the Spanish Netherlands, Leopold Wilhelm, being a great lover of art, employed the great Flemish painter David Teniers the Younger not only as a painter but as keeper of the collection of pictures he was then forming. With the rank and title of "ayuda de camara," Teniers took up his abode in Brussels shortly after 1647. Immense sums were spent in the acquisition of paintings for the archduke. A number of valuable works of the Italian masters, now in the Vienna Museum, came from Leopold's gallery after having belonged to Charles I and the duke of Buckingham.

In the 1632-verse neohistory, Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria is also the younger brother of Maria Anna and conspires a bit in a cameo color role with his two sister behind the backs of his father's councilors and his teachers. Whether he plays a larger role going forward only time will tell.

[edit] Austria, Maria Anna of, Archduchess

Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria (13 January 1610 - 25 September 1665 Munich) (de: Maria Anna von Habsburg, Erzherzogin von Österreich, also known as Maria Anna von Bayern or Maria-Anna, Kurfürstin von Bayern). Born in Graz, her parents were Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor of Habsburg and Maria Anna of Bavaria.

She married Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria on the 15 July 1635 in Vienna, was the mother to Ferdinand Maria, elector of Bavaria (de Bavière (Wittelsbach)) and Maximilian Philip (30 Sept 1638 - 20 March 1704) (Landgrave, de Bavière (Wittelsbach), de Leuchtenberg).

   The motivation of Maximilian for this swift remarriage (he had recently been widowed by Elisabeth Renata), was not so much political grounds as the hope of producing a prince to inherit.

    Maria Anna is generally described as clever, cautious, energetic, stern, frugal, and experienced in matters of financial administration. In contrast to the Elector's first wife, Maria Anna was very interested in politics and well instructed about developments. She was not bound to the Habsburgs, but rather completely advocated the Bavarian standpoint. Additionally, she conducted lively exchanges of opinion with high officials of the Munich court and took part in meetings of the cabinet. After Maximilian's death, she undertook the regency for their oldest son, Ferdinand Maria.

Preceded by OTL: Elizabeth of Lorraine NTL: Elizabeth Renata of Bavaria

Electress of Bavaria 1635 – 1651

Succeeded by OTL: Henriette Adelaide of Savoy (Daughter-in-Law) NTL: Fled the marriage

 

First introduced as a fictionalized character in 1634: The Bavarian Crisis, she is the heart of the storm of crises, some of which she has little to do with. Like the real Maria Anna, she is depicted as bright, clever, politically and socially astute, kind, considerate, and religious. Frugality and financial administration never arise in the 1632-verse, but her care in planning not only her escape, but that of the staff she discerns as loyal to her from Vienna goes far in confirming "cautious"—albeit leavened with a bit of youthful exuberance and illusions of invincibility.

Making her way with a party on foot along the long road to Swabia and Switzerland she earns credits in the schools of unintended consequences and school of hard knocks. The party makes it to safety in the United States of Europe, and again she is cautious not to rely on her nominal enemies; although as she walks and suffers, she is mulling over intelligence and indications her cousin Don Fernando is tighter with the Grantvillers of the USE than she would have credited in Munich or Vienna, but elects to undertake more perils on the remainder of the journey to Bern.
   The interests of others once there gather a new storm of threats and responses both from the burgers of the city and from without from the army of the ambitious Duke Bernard of Saxe-Weimer who seeks to force her into marriage and ensure he will achieve lands of his own.
   USE communications and technology come into play through the diplomatic fast dancing of Becky Stearns still on scene in the Netherlands and matching steps and exercised authority by husband Mike Stearns from Magdeburg enabling her to escape with her virtue intact, and achieving a chastisement of more of Europe's notables.

[edit] Bavaria, Albrecht, Duke of

Duke Albrecht of Bavaria is heir apparent to the dignities of his childless brother Elector Maximilian I of Bavaria and dispossessed of his lands in Leuchtenberg in the Palatinate which were occupied by Swedish forces in the fall of 1631 in the sudden move south by Gustavus through Thuringia, the Palatinate, and into Bavaria after the September 17th victory at Breitenfeld and Leipzig left him in possession of the central northern plains of Geography of Germany.

also Landgraf of Leuchtenberg, spouse of Mechthilde of Leuchtenberg

Albrecht VI von Bayern (1584–1666)

Landgraf of Leuchtenberg.

In the 1632-verse:  During 1634: The Bavarian Crisis, he and his family get trampled under during the 'witch hunt' for traitors by his brother the reigning duke Maximilian, such that he loses both younger children during the flight, his wife (Mechthilde of Leuchtenberg) and oldest son are killed, and he flees to exile in the NTL Bohemia ruled by Wallenstein.

[edit] Bavaria, Karl Johann Franz of

Oldest son and heir of Duke Albrecht and Mechthilde of Leuchtenberg; is killed along with mother in the "witch hunt" for traitors by the forces of his uncle Maximilian I in 1634: The Bavarian Crisis.

[edit] Bavaria, Maximilian Heinrich of

Young second son of Duke Albrecht and Mechthilde of Leuchtenberg; is separated from his father in the "witch hunt" for traitors by the forces of his uncle Maximilian I in 1634: The Bavarian Crisis, and is feared dead. He made his way from the skirmish safely with brother Sigmund Albrect and is safe in USE territory at the end of 1634: The Baltic War.

[edit] Bavaria, Sigmund Albrect of

Young third son of Duke Albrecht and Mechthilde of Leuchtenberg; is separated from his father in the "witch hunt" for traitors by the forces of his uncle Maximilian I in 1634: The Bavarian Crisis, and is feared dead. He made his way from the skirmish safely with brother Maximilian Heinrich and is safe in USE territory at the end of 1634: The Baltic War.

[edit] Bavaria, Elisabeth Renata of

[edit main]

In OTL, better known as Elizabeth of Lorraine, the French princess and bride of Maximilian I `Elisabet Renata' was the daughter of Charles III, Duke of Lorraine in his marriage to Claude of Valois. Born 1574, she died of a lingering and painful cancer in 1635. Princess Elizabeth married Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria on 6 February 1595 in Nancy, but their marriage was childless.

In the 1632-verse fiction, she plays an important political `what-if' background role as `Elizabet' dies a full year earlier after 38 years of marriage during the winter of 1633–34 from complications of pneumonia leaving a much bereaved loving and pious 60 year-old husband leaving her deathbed to write an oath in his own blood to abdicate and end his life in a monastery.^[5]

Preceded by Elizabeth of Bohemia

Electress Palatine (Electress of Bavaria) 1623 – 1635

Succeeded by OTL: Maria Anna of Austria NTL: will likely skip a generation, Albrecht's wife died.

This opens up the duchy to factional disputes on the privy council, a core membership of which do not like or get along with his brother and heir, duke Albrecht, or his strong willed wife. The privy council convinces him to forget his oath and remarry, hence unconsoled and unschooled by the experience of seeing a loved one waste away in pain from cancer, the Elector is cold and standoffish towards the 26 year-old and self-confident, self-possessed and independent Archduchess Maria Anna when she arrives in Bavaria surrounded by much ceremony—to the point of never having a private conversation with the young lady. (See also: Dukes of Lorraine family tree)

[edit] Bavaria, Maximilian I, duke of

• Distraught and grieving at the sudden death of his wife, Elisabeth Renata, to pneumonia in January of 1634 (NTL), Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria plays a central role in 1634: The Bavarian Crisis—the prologue to the work begins with him taking an oath he writes in his own blood to abdicate and spend the remainder of his life in a monastery. (In OTL, Maximilian's wife survives a bit over a year longer during a lingering death to cancer. In both time lines after the death of his wife, he becomes betrothed to Maria Anna.) Subsequently, his privy council convinces that he must take a new wife and the Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria aged 25, the daughter of his long time ally Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Hungary is selected for the pious 61 year old nobleman. Subsequently the Bavarian Crises flows from the basic incompatibilities between the two as brought to a head by the capture of two revered 'American' women of the new United States of Europe—Veronica Dreeson and Mary Simpson.

 

Maximilian of Bavaria (1573–1651)

called "the Great"; Wittelsbach ruler of Bavaria and a prince-elector (Kurfürst) of the Holy Roman Empire, and founder and head of Catholic League (German) and therefore de facto head of its armies

In the 1632-verse:  becomes very paranoid after losing his intended fiancée and starts terror and witch hunts in Bavaria, kills his sister-in-law duchess Mechtild, his brother Albrecht gets exiled in the flight to Bohemia taking that fork of a road whilst the Electors troops are in hot pursuit. This is likely to be a factor in the forthcoming 1635: Soldier of Bohemia sequel expected in 2008.

1632 characters House of Wittelsbach Born: 17 April 1573 Died: 27 September 1651
Regnal titles
Preceded by William V	Duke of Bavaria 1597-1651	Succeeded by OTL: Ferdinand Maria NTL: To be continued...
Preceded by Frederick V	Elector Palatine or Elector of Bavaria 1623-1651

[edit] Bedmar, Alfonso, Marquis of

Bedmar in real life and in the series, is a professional diplomat nominally in the service of Hapsburg Spain. His loyalties are questionable to some degree for he ends up befriending the American embassy party in 1634: The Galileo Affair in Venice, and executes another bit of diplomatic legerdemain to facilitate the journey of Anna Maria to the Netherlands in 1634: The Bavarian Crisis, in which he winds up with the new King in the Netherlands as an advisor in his capital at Brussels.

Alfonso de la Cueva, marqués de Bedmar (1572–1655)

Spanish diplomat, bishop and cardinal

In the 1632-verse:  becomes chancellor of the new kingdom in the Low Countries

[edit] Comenius, Johann, Bishop

John Amos Comenius (Czech: Jan Ámos Komenský; Slovak: Ján Amos Komenský; German: Johann Amos Comenius;

Polish: Jan Amos Komeński; latinized: Iohannes Amos Comenius) (March 28, 1592 – November 15, 1670) was a Czech teacher, scientist, educator, and writer. He was a Unity of the Brethren/Moravian Protestant bishop, a religious refugee, and one of the earliest champions of universal education, a concept eventually set forth in his book Didactica Magna. Comenius became known as the teacher of nations.

In the 1632 series, he first appears in "The Wallenstein Gambit" along with union agitator/organizer Red Sybolt in Morris Roth's newly acquired estate in Bohemia.

Drexel, Jeremias

A member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), Drexel plays a background role in 1634: The Bavarian Crisis by writing a special alteration of the extravagant play "Belisarius" for the wedding festivities of Maximilian and Marie Anna's betrothal celebration—and clandestinely aiding the Jesuit helping Maria Anna with her plans to flee with the Father-General's (and by implication, from the Pope) direct orders. Neither character attends, Maria Anna choosing the bustling confusion of the day to be a good choice to flee Munich.

Jeremias Drexel (1581–1638)

Jesuit writer at the Munich court of Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria

In the 1632-verse:  ?

 

Ernst, Duke

— See Saxe-Weimer, Ernst, duke of

[edit] Eugenia, Isabella Clara, Infanta of Spain

Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain, (12 August 1566 – 1 December 1633) was, together with her husband Albert VII, Archduke of Austria joint sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands. Born in Segovia on 12 August 1566, the daughter of Philip II of Spain and his third wife Elisabeth of Valois. Isabella's mother, Elisabeth of Valois, had originally been betrothed to Don Carlos of Spain, the son of Phillip but political complications unexpectedly necessitated her marriage to Philip instead. Despite the significant age difference between them, Philip was very attached to Elisabeth and when she later gave birth to Isabella Clara Eugenia on 12 August 1566 Phillip was overjoyed despite the child's sex; A sister, Catherine Micaela, the Infanta Catalina Micaela, joined the family the next year. Elisabeth had a miscarriage on October 3, 1568, and died the same day, along with her newborn infant son so Isabella grew up with her sister Catalina, beloved by her father and her stepmother Anna of Austria, Philip's fourth wife. Philip ultimately fathered five children by Anna, all of whom died in early childhood except his eventual actual heir and her half brother Philip III of Spain, Don Carlos having died before he could succeed to the throne. Isabella was the only person whom Philip II permitted to help him with his work, sorting his papers and translating Italian documents into the Spanish language for him. Isabella remained close to her father until his death on 13 September 1598, and served as his primary caretaker during the last three years of his life, when he was plagued by gout and frequent illness.

At age 31 on 18 April 1599, Isabella finally married her cousin Archduke Albert of Austria, the younger brother of her former fiancé Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor. Albert was the joint sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands and the former viceroy of Portugal. As Albert also was the Archbishop of Toledo, he had to be released from his religious commitments by Pope Clement VIII before the wedding could take place, a circumstance with was neither unusual nor unforeseen—secondary male heirs were frequently pledged to the church as early as birth. Her nephew Don Fernando, the Cardinal-Infante Fernando was named Cardinal at the age of eleven years—long before ever taking holy orders. Shortly before Philip II died on September 13, 1598, he renounced his rights to the Netherlands in favor of his daughter Isabella and her husband. Isabella and Albert's three children all died in infancy, and with Alberts eventual death, Isabella inherited the Burgundian Circle, though her nephew Phillip IV of Spain in our timeline reaquired a claim.

Legacy in the Spanish Netherlands

Beginning in 1601, the couple ruled the Spanish Netherlands together, and after Albert's death Isabella was appointed governor of the Netherlands on behalf of the King of Spain since they had no heirs. A false anecdote links Isabella, the siege of Ostend, and the horse coat colour isabelline. The reign of Albert and Isabella is considered the Golden Age of the Spanish Netherlands. The reign of the Archdukes Isabella Clara Eugenia and Albert of Austria is a key period in the history of the Spanish Netherlands. After four decades of war, it brought a period of much-needed peace and stability to the economy of the Southern Netherlands. In addition to economic prosperity, the actions of the Archdukes stimulated the growth of a separate South Netherlandish identity. The Archdukes consolidated the authority of the House of Habsburg over the territory of the Southern Netherlands and largely succeeded in reconciling previous anti-Spanish sentiments.

When it became clear that independence would not be possible, the Archdukes' goal became to reincorporate the Southern Provinces into the Spanish monarchy. In pursuit of that goal and to get their political agenda to all Flemish social classes, the Archdukes used the most diverse mediums. The visual arts, with the baroque popularized in the wake of the Catholic Reformation, was the perfect tool. Thus Isabella and her husband stimulated the growth of this artistic movement, which resulted in the creation of the Flemish Baroque.

Their patronage of such artists as Peter Paul Rubens, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Coebergher, the De Nole family, the Van Veens and many others were the beginning of a Golden Age in the Southern Netherlands. This, coupled with the political configuration of the period, made the Archdukes' Court at Brussels one of the foremost political and artistic centers in Europe of that time. It became the testing ground for the Spanish Monarchy's European plans, a boiling pot full of people of all sorts: from artists and diplomats to defectors, spies and penitent traitors, from Spanish confessors, Italian counselors, Burgundian functionaries, English musicians, German bodyguards to the Belgian nobles. The Treaty of London and the Twelve Years' Truce were brought about thanks to the active involvement of the Archdukes in the negotiations. Brussels became a vital link in the chain of Habsburg courts and the diplomatic conduits between Madrid, Vienna, Paris, London, Lisbon, Graz, Innsbruck, Prague and The Hague could be said to run through Brussels.

When Albert died in 1621, Isabella joined the order of the Sisters of St. Clare, and became the governor of the Netherlands on behalf of the King of Spain. She was succeeded as Governor by Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand, the third son of her half brother Philip III of Spain in 1633.

Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain (1566-1633*), Infanta of Spain, Archduchess of Austria and the joint sovereign of the Seventeen Provinces, is the heir to the territories of the Spanish Netherlands and beloved of her nephew the Cardinal-Infante, Don Fernando, who was appointed governor-general of the Spanish Netherlands by his brother Phillip IV of Spain who expected to inherit the Burgundian Circle from his aunt. She plays a supportive advisor role in various books of the main plot threads and even dares to meet with the demon of aristocracy, the adamant and tireless organizers of the COC's (Committees of Corespondence), Gretchen Richter.

 

[edit] Fernando, Don

aka Ferdinand, Cardinal-Infante Don

The Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand or Don Fernando in the timeline of 1632 successfully re-conquers most of the Low countries aided by the League of Ostend in 1633 (and by the time period covered by the corpus of the first four 1634 based novels) and settles into a long winters siege of Amsterdam— where he is found advised by his dowager aunt, the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain, and diplomat/Painter Rubens. While besieging Amsterdam, he comes into contact with various citizens of the USE and begins gradually contemplating cutting a deal with the Prince of Orange to become a monarch and found a dynasty of his own in the territories of the combined Low Countries, at the expense of his older brother, king Philip IV of Spain.

In this 'evolution in his thinking' (parts of his seduction are covered in most of the works, including the first three Grantville Gazettes) he is aided and abetted by the machinations of Mike Stearns and Ambassadoress Rebecca Abrabanel Stearns who is on scene in the siege of Amsterdam. Both Gretchen Richter and Jeff Higgins play a role in redirecting the Cardinal-Infante thoughts, which turn to founding his own dynasty instead of taking holy vows, an act of despite for his older brother, but one approved of by his Aunt Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain, who is the actual administrator of the Spanish Netherlands, and is also influenced strongly by the embassy party.

In the fictional events, she puts her will into such an order so that Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand will inherit her claim, and in the end of 1634: The Bavarian Crisis, he declares himself
"king in the Netherlands"
   —providing a "convenient" political fig-leaf of doubt as to whether the new kingdom is subject to his brother.

Moreover, Don Fernando receives permissions from the pope to recant the childhood vows that had him slated for holy orders and as 1634: The Bavarian Crisis ends marries his Austrian Habsburg cousin, the Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria who has had adventures— fleeing a likely disaster-of-a-marriage from Munich in the very heart of Bavaria— with her fathers' old ally (and much older) Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria. In her escape through Switzerland, she was aided by various agents of the United States of Europe and directly by Veronica Dreeson and Mary Simpson of Grantville. In the end, the Prime Minister of the United States of Europe (USE) sends an aircraft to convey Don Fernando to his prospective bride, and the couple by return flight to the Netherlands.

Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand (1609–1641)

also known as Fernando and as Ferdinand von Österreich; Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands, Cardinal, Infante, Archbishop of Toledo and military commander

In the 1632-verse:  conquers the Dutch and becomes an independent king of the Low Countries, marries his first cousin 'Maria Anna of Austria' who escapes the intended marriage to her aged uncle 'Maximilian of Bavaria'

[edit] of Saxony, John George

Prince-Elector John George I, Elector of Saxony is perhaps the most vilified historical character in the 1632 series canon. Flint calls him the Prince of Hem and Haw, the king of doubt, and paints him as repeatedly saying both yes and no. He and Gustavus Adolphus are introduced in the same scene where the Golden King, the Lion of the North is depicted breaking furniture and cursing up a royal storm, mainly raging at John George of Saxony who would not negotiate a deal to let his Army (In Pomerania and Brandenburg) cross through into northern Thuringia to succor Magdeburg from Tilly's forces.

In OTL history: Gradually, however, he was made uneasy by the obvious trend of the imperial policy towards the annihilation of Protestantism, and by a dread lest the ecclesiastical lands should be taken from him; and the issue of the edict of restitution in March 1629 put the capstone to his fears. Still, although clamouring vainly for the exemption of the electorate from the area covered by the edict, John George took no decided measures to break his alliance with the emperor. He did, indeed, in February 1631 call a meeting of Protestant princes at Leipzig, but in spite of the appeals of the preacher Matthias Hoe von Hohenegg (1580-1645) he contented himself with a formal protest.

Meanwhile Gustavus Adolphus had landed in Germany, aiming to relieve Magdeburg. Gustavus attempted to conclude an alliance with John George to allow him to cross the Elbe at Wittenberg, but John George remained hesitant to join the Protestant cause and the discussions went nowhere. Hoping that an alliance would be concluded eventually, Gustavus avoided any military action.

The Count of Tilly, commander of the main imperial force, was also concerned about the possibility of an alliance, no matter how unlikely it was at the time. In order to preempt any such move, he invaded Saxony and started to ravage the countryside. This had the effect of driving John George into the alliance he had hoped to preempt, which was concluded in September 1631. The Saxon troops were present at the battle of Breitenfeld, but were routed by the imperialists, the elector himself seeking safety in flight. Meanwhile, Gustavus' other forces stood to their guns, refused the broken left flank and scored one of the most decisive victories recorded in modern warfare—a smashing victory which effectively destroyed the Catholic forces as an army.

Despite the ignomious behavior of his army, John George soon took the offensive moving south and somewhat east into Bohemia while Gustavus crossed Thuringia (North to South) in the west and counter-attacked Ferdinand II and Duke Maximillian's southern catholic army in the middle Rhine valley (capturing Franconia and The Electoral Palatinate), driving the catholic forces back into Austria and Bavaria. Marching into Bohemia the Saxons occupied Prague, but John George soon began to negotiate for peace and consequently his soldiers offered little resistance to Wallenstein, who drove them back into Saxony after he was re-retained by Ferdinand II. However, for the present the efforts of Gustavus Adolphus prevented the elector from deserting him, but the position was changed by the death of the king at Lützen in 1632, and the refusal of Saxony to join the Protestant league under Swedish leadership.

Still letting his troops fight in a desultory fashion against the imperialists, John George again negotiated for peace, and in May 1635 he concluded the important treaty of Prague with Ferdinand II. His reward was Lusatia and certain other additions of territory; the retention by his son Augustus of the archbishopric of Magdeburg; and some concessions with regard to the edict of restitution. Almost at once he declared war upon the Swedes, but in October 1636 he was beaten at Wittstock; and Saxony, ravaged impartially by both sides, was soon in a deplorable condition. At length in September 1645 the elector was compelled to agree to a truce with the Swedes, who, however, retained Leipzig; and as far as Saxony was concerned this ended the Thirty Years' War. After the peace of Westphalia, which with regard to Saxony did little more than confirm the treaty of Prague, John George died (1656).

Although not without political acumen, he was not a great ruler; his character appears to have been harsh and unlovely, and he was addicted to drink and other diversions such as hunting.

 

Johann Gerhard

???

Johann Gerhard (1582–1637)

Lutheran theologian

In the 1632-verse:  ?

[edit] Harvey, William

Dr. William Harvey, the rediscoverer of the circulatory system first appears as a fictionalized character in the Ring of Fire story "A matter of Consultation" where he runs afoul of the nurses Ann Jefferson and Sharon Nichols. In the aftermath of the tale, Harvey visits Grantville and is provided copies of some medical references as well as some strategic encyclopedia pages he'd been reading to kill time concerning the history of England of his time and the fate of king Charles I of England. These materials have far reaching consequences in the plotlines begun in 1633 as the English monarchy begins what will soon become a familiar over-theme in the series—actions of and by the crowned heads of Europe anticipating or trying to prevent matters documented in the histories reported from the town from the future, Grantville.
Appears in the stories:

[[Ring of Fire (anthology)#"A Matter of Consultation" "A Matter of Consultation" ]] in ROF-1 in the novel 1633 in the novel 1634: The Baltic War [[Grantville Gazette III#"Hobson's Choice" "Hobson's Choice" ]] in GG03

[edit] Kircher, Athanasius

Athanasius Kircher (sometimes spelled Kirchner) was a 17th century German Jesuit scholar and Polymath who published around 40 works, most notably in the fields of oriental studies, geology and medicine.

He made an early study of Egyptian hieroglyphs and maintained a huge corespondence (with over 700 notables of the day). One of the first people to observe microbes through a microscope, he was thus ahead of his time in proposing that the plague was caused by an infectious microorganism and in suggesting effective measures to prevent the spread of the disease. Kircher has been compared to Leonardo da Vinci for his inventiveness and the breadth and depth of his work. A scientific star in his day, towards the end of his life he was eclipsed by the rationalism of René Descartes and others. One scholar, Edward W. Schmidt, has called him "the last Renaissance man".

The Ring of Fire series employs Fr. Kircher in a variety of short stories and as a backdrop character for the exposition of religious strife during the Thirty Years' War in the novels 1634: The Galileo Affair and 1634: The Bavarian Crisis. In the former his role is relatively minor, as he steps in as curate of Saint Mary's Parish for the parish priest—the newly named last resort Ambassador of the embattled and newly organized United States of Europe (USE) to the Most Serene Republic of Venice—Fr. Lawrence Mazarre. He plays a larger role in 1634: The Bavarian Crisis where he forms part of an Jesuit information network that helps resolve the personal and political concerns of the staunchly Catholic heroine, Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria and the aid she receives in her flight from citizens and government functionaries of the State of Thuringia-Franconia.

[edit] Mazarini

• Jules Mazarin, born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino (14 July 1602 – 9 March 1661) was an accomplished Italian politician who served as the chief minister of France (hand picked successor to Richelieu) from 1642 until his death, in our timeline (OTL).

In the 1632-verse: Mazarini makes his appearance in the flagship novel 1632 and the short story "Between the Armies" (Ring of Fire). Thereafter, he is a frequent mention in the Central European thread as events elsewhere are reacted to in Italy or sometimes, France, and in the events which occur in Southern Europe, especially in 1634–35, The Galileo Affair and The Cannon Law.

Jules Cardinal Mazarin (1602–1661)

served as the chief minister of France from 1642, until his death. Mazarin succeeded his mentor, Cardinal Richelieu

In the 1632-verse:  Becomes embroiled in a three way contest for his loyalty; the USE, to whom he was a diplomat during the NUS period, and with which he has become familiar; France, whose leader, Richelieu, has read OTL history and wants to assure the value of his heir; and the Papacy, of which he is a part of the hierarchy.

Medici, Claudia de'

Claudia de' Medici is the widow of Archduke Leopold of Austria-Tirol and a presence in the court of Ferdinand II and his wife.

[edit] Mendoza, Dona Mencia de

Doña Mencia de Mendoza is a sister to Cardinal Bedmar and the chief attendant and confidant of Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria. When Maria Anna and her party makes their escape from Munich on the morning of a huge festival/play, Mendoza stays behind in the outer suite running interference for the Archduchess who is claimed to be indisposed by severe menstrual cramps. The Archduchess is particularly solicitous of her welfare during the escape from Munich in 1634: The Bavarian Crisis, and sends Susanna Allegretti to delay her own escape and assist the Doña on her old hobbled legs to make her own escape when the subterfuge carried on by the Doña must be undone and the courts physician insists on seeing Maximilian's bride-to-be. Susanna just manages to escape the resultant security alert, and the Doña is safely hidden within the palace and escapes later.

[edit] Mercy, Franz von

Bavarian general in the service of Maximilian I.

[edit] Olearius, Adam

Adam Olearius (born Adam Oehlschlaeger) (ca. August 16, 1603– February 22, 1671), German scholar, mathematician, geographer and librarian. He became secretary to the ambassador sent by Frederick III, duke of Holstein-Gottorp to the Shah of Persia, and published two books about the events and observations during his travels. He was born at Aschersleben, near Magdeburg. After studying at Leipzig he became librarian and court mathematician to Duke Frederick III of Holstein-Gottorp, and in 1633 he was appointed secretary to the ambassadors Philip Crusius, jurisconsult, and Otto Bruggemann or Brugman, merchant, sent by the duke to Muscovy and Persia in the hope of making arrangements by which his newly-founded city of Friedrichstadt should become the terminus of an overland silk-trade. This embassy started from Gottorp on October 22, 1633, and travelled by Hamburg, Lubeck, Riga, Dorpat (five months' stay), Revel, Narva, Ladoga, and Novgorod to Moscow (August 14, 1634). Here they concluded an advantageous treaty with Michael Romanov, and returned forthwith to Gottorp (December 14, 1634-April 7, 1635) to procure the ratification of this arrangement from the duke, before proceeding to Persia. All of these travels are forstalled in the 1632-verse timeline, where instead Fredrick III becomes an ally of both Gustavus and the up-timers in Grantville whom Olearius encounters in 1631 of the neohistorical timeline.

In that encounter, Adam Olearius was introduced as the traveling companion of Dr. William Harvey visiting a village between Jena and Grantville in "A matter of Consultation" where he is portrayed as gallant, charming, and someone obviously attracted to and interested in nurse Anne Jefferson, who ends up as part of the diplomatic party trapped in the siege of Amsterdam beginning in the novel 1633, continued in three Grantville Gazettes stories by Flint, and the long awaited 1634: The Baltic War, where the couple announce intentions to get married and even discuss income arrangements, employment, etc.

Appears in the series stories:

"A Matter of Consultation" in the anthology Ring of Fire

• 1633
• "Portraits" in the anthology Grantville Gazette I
• "Steps in the Dance" in the anthology Grantville Gazette II
• "Postage Due" in the anthology Grantville Gazette III
• 1634: The Baltic War
• 1634: The Bavarian Crisis

[edit] Pappenheim, Gottfried

General Gottfried Pappenheim was a famous cavalry commander during the Thirty Years' war employed by the imperial armies of the German Catholic League. He lead a famous cavalry force known as Pappenheim's Black Cuirassiers, and appears in his historic role in the three chapters of 1632 detailing the First Battle of Breitenfeld. Like in OTL, Pappenheim ends up in the employ of Albrect von Wallenstein, but the Battle of Alte Vista is altered in the neohistory due to the alliance with the up-timers and their firearms, and Pappenheim appears in the series as a personality in "Here Comes Santa Claus" in the anthology Ring of Fire where he acts as an emissary from Wallenstein and helps to foil a terrorist action at a town wide Christmas celibration.

[edit] Orange, William I, Prince of

William the Silent

Prince William I of Orange, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg (April 24, 1533 – July 10, 1584). In the series, deceased father of Prince of Orange, Fredrick Hendrik; assassinated "in the year of Prince Hendrick's birth ^[6]. A capable statesman, he was also widely known as William the Silent (Dutch: Willem de Zwijger), was born in the House of Nassau. He became Prince of Orange in 1544 and is thereby the founder of the House of Orange-Nassau. He was the main leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish that set off the Eighty Years' War and resulted in the formal independence of the United Provinces in 1648.

[edit] Orange, Fredrick Hendrik, Prince of

 

[edit] Richelieu, Cardinal

Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu, Cardinal-Duc de Richelieu (September 9, 1585 – December 4, 1642), was a French clergyman, noble, and statesman.
   Consecrated as a bishop in 1607, he later entered politics, becoming a Secretary of State in 1616. Richelieu soon rose in both the Church and the state, becoming a cardinal in 1622, and King Louis XIII's chief minister in 1624. He remained in office until his death in 1642; he was succeeded by Jules Cardinal Mazarin.
   The Cardinal de Richelieu was often known by the title of the King's "Chief Minister" or "First Minister". As a result, he is sometimes considered to be the world's first Prime Minister, in the modern sense of the term. He sought to consolidate royal power and crush domestic factions. By restraining the power of the nobility, he transformed France into a strong, centralized state. His chief foreign policy objective was to check the power of the Austro-Spanish Habsburg dynasty. Although he was a Roman Catholic cardinal, he did not hesitate to make alliances with Protestant rulers in attempting to achieve this goal. His tenure was marked by the Thirty Years' War that engulfed Europe.
   As an advocate for Samuel de Champlain and of the retention of Québec, he founded the Compagnie des Cent-Associés and saw the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye return Québec to French rule under Champlain, after the settlement had been captured by the Kirkes in 1629. This in part allowed the colony to eventually develop into the heartland of Francophone culture in North America.
   Richelieu was also famous for his patronage of the arts; most notably, he founded the Académie française, the learned society responsible for matters pertaining to the French language. Richelieu is also known by the sobriquet l'Éminence rouge ("the Red Eminence"), from the red shade of a cardinal's vestments and the style "eminence" as a cardinal. He is also a leading character in The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, père and its subsequent film adaptations.

In the 1632 milieu, he openly declares himself an enemy of the USE in 1633 and proceeds to hatch plots to oppose both the New United States (NUS) and the former ally, king Gustavus II Adolf of the House of Vasa now ruling the polyglut Confederated Principalities of Europe. Richelieu teams with Wallenstein to attack Grantville towards the end of 1632. This lead to a reconsideration of needs by Stearns and the ramshackle government of the Confederated Principalities of Europe. Foiled in that plot, Richelieu swaps tactics and begins to aid Habsburg Spain hoping to involve the kingdom in a more general war in Germany, a state he'd sought to avoid previously. Consequently, he arranges the League of Ostend, which involves both Catholic and Protestant powers, and the outcome of that machination was the defeat of the Dutch Fleet laying open the Netherlands to invasion by an expeditionary force. The invasion is largely successful. Meanwhile, the League attacks in the Baltic sending a combined Dutch and French army to attack overland, and a combined fleet of French, English and Danish ships to cut Gustavus off from the Baltic Sea lines of communications (SLOCs)— in effect, a powerful move in an attempt to starve him out and cut him off from Sweden. 1633 ends with the Baltic front having Gustavus besieged and blockaded in Luebeck, but due to the heroics of several young Grantvillers at the Battle of Wismar, Gustavus has the port of Wismar kept open.

 

[edit] Rembrandt

The great Dutch painter Rembrandt plays a minor role in 1632-verse, being mentioned humorously as a "relative unknown" in the Flint short story "Postage Due" , wherein an American suggested universal postal service with stamps having Anne Jefferson as the common model is pushed through in the Spanish Netherlands, other minor Northern European states and with prime minister Mike Stearns pulling the negotiating strings, presumably the United States of Europe (USE) as soon as Stearns convinces Gustavus of the benefits. The story ends with Richelieu selecting a painter to join the parade of states joining the new service, despite the nominal hostilities, which makes the postal service a typical Stearnsian stroke at the underpinnings of the old Europe with untold and unexpected consequences for the down-time leaders which adopt the new technology.

[edit] Rubens

Peter Paul Rubens appears in the 1632 series almost continuously from the novel sequel 1633 onwards in the main plot threads since he is serving as an adviser to the Cardinal Infante, who is besieging Amsterdam.

The real rubens

Peter Paul Rubens (June 28, 1577 – May 30, 1640) was a prolific seventeenth-century Flemish and European painter, and a proponent of an exuberant Baroque style that emphasized movement, color, and sensuality. He is well-known for his Counter-Reformation altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects. In addition to running a large studio in Antwerp that produced paintings popular with nobility and art collectors throughout Europe, Rubens was a classically-educated humanist scholar, art collector, and diplomat who was knighted by both Philip IV, king of Spain, and Charles I, king of England.

Biography

[edit] Early life

Rubens was born in Siegen, Westphalia, to Jan Rubens and Maria Pypelincks. His father, a Calvinist, and mother fled Antwerp for Cologne in 1568, after increased religious turmoil and persecution of Protestants during the rule of the Spanish Netherlands by the Duke of Alba. Jan Rubens became the legal advisor (and lover) to Anna of Saxony, the second wife of William I of Orange, and settled at her court in Siegen in 1570. Following imprisonment for the affair, Peter Paul Rubens was born in 1577. The family returned to Cologne the next year. In 1589, two years after his father's death, Rubens moved with his mother to Antwerp, where he was raised Catholic. Religion figured prominently in much of his work and Rubens later became one of the leading voices of the Catholic Counter-Reformation style of painting.^[7]

In Antwerp Rubens received a humanist education, studying Latin and classical literature. By fourteen he began his artistic apprenticeship with Tobias Verhaeght. Subsequently, he studied under two of the city's leading painters of the time, the late mannerists Adam van Noort and Otto van Veen.^[8] Much of his earliest training involved copying earlier artists' works, such as woodcuts by Hans Holbein the Younger and Marcantonio Raimondi's engravings after Raphael. Rubens completed his education in 1598, at which time he entered the Guild of St. Luke as an independent master.^[9]

Italy (1600–1608)

In 1600, Rubens traveled to Italy. He stopped first in Venice, where he experienced first-hand paintings by Titian, Veronese, and Tintoretto, before settling in Mantua at the court of duke Vincenzo I of Gonzaga. The coloring and compositions of Veronese and Tintoretto had an immediate effect on Rubens's painting, and his later, mature style was profoundly influenced by Titian.^[10] With financial support from the duke, Rubens traveled to Rome by way of Florence in 1601. There, he studied classical Greek and Roman art and copied works of the Italian masters. The Hellenistic sculpture Laocoön and his Sons was especially influential on him, as was the art of Michelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci.^[11] He was also influenced by the recent, highly naturalistic paintings by Caravaggio. He later made a copy of that artist's Entombment of Christ, recommended that his patron, the duke of Mantua, purchase The Death of the Virgin (Louvre),^[12] and was instrumental in the acquisition of The Madonna of the Rosary (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna) for the Dominican church in Antwerp. During this first stay in Rome, Rubens completed his first altarpiece commission, St. Helena with the True Cross for the Roman church, Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.

[edit] Saxe-Weimar Dukes of the House of Wettin

Saxe-Weimar is the family seat of a cadet branch of the House of Wettin with the ducal title held by Wilhelm (William) of Saxe-Weimar, who in the 1632 NTL abdicates and becomes the head of the parliamentary loyal opposition as William Wettin. The Wettins are more of an extended clan than a single line of nobility, and through that house, the dukes of Saxe-Weimar are related one way or another to almost every other house of European nobility. The Saxe-Weimar dukes were in a somewhat ambiguous position, for the tradition of dividing the lands between all the sons had diminished the families lands to tiny pockets of holdings scattered the length and breadth of Thuringia, where it might be said, they were not alone—for much of Thuringia was like that, a quality that no doubt attracted Flints eye as he researched for a locus for his 1632 setting. That the dukes were heavily involved with Gustavas no doubt made his choice easier, for where ever he put Grantville, it is certain he needed a place where it could grow to meet any challenge from a hypothetically strong local governor. In Thuringia, he could nurture the town through that first year of plot and character development in 1631.

[edit] Saxe-Weimar, Johann II, Duke of

Main articles: Earnestine duchies and House of Wettin

Johann II, Duke of Saxe-Weimar (or John II), does not figure directly in the 1632 series, but five of his sons do. This is their family background:

 

[edit] Saxe-Wiemar, Albrecht, Duke of

Real historical younger brother of William/Wilhelm.

[edit] Saxe-Wiemar, Bernhard of, Duke

Duke Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar is the youngest brother of dukes Wilhelm and Ernst of Saxe-Weimar and considered a traitor to Gustavus and the USE (dating from 1633 CPoE days in NTL time) when he sold his services to Cardinal Richelieu and France. According to Bernard, Gustavas betrayed the Wettin dukes instead, when he let the NUS keep the Wettin lands in Thuringia, or at least when Gustavas did so and did not immediately settle new lands upon the brother dukes. In 1634: The Baltic War Bernard is seen to be playing a dangerous double game of medieval politics, which comes to bear partial fruit in 1634: The Bavarian Crisis.

[edit] Saxe-Weimar, Ernst of, Duke

Saxe-Weimar is the family seat of the cadet branch of the House of Wettin with the ducal title held by Wilhelm (William) of Saxe-Weimar, who in the 1632 NTL abdicates and becomes the head of the parliamentary loyal opposition as #William Wettin. Genealogically, Ernst is one of his younger brothers and unlike in the neo-history, the family territories of the various Dukes of Saxe-Weimar was not apparently ruled by the four brothers, but by William.

[edit] Saxe-Wiemar, Wilhelm IV of, duke

Or Duke William IV of Saxe-Weimar -- the noblemans name before his fictional abdication to run for the USE house of commons. See below: William Wettin.

Wilhelm of Saxe-Weimar (Wilhelm Wettin) (1598–1662)

5th Duke of Saxe-Weimar, key ally of Gustavus Adolphus through much of the Thirty Years' War but shunned by Axel Oxenstierna after Gustavus' death

In the 1632-verse:  abdicates his duchy, takes the name Wilhelm Wettin and becomes the leader of the opposition party against Mike Stearns, actively seeking to become the next Prime Minister of the USE

[edit] Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, Christian Guenther I of

Cousin of Count Ludwig Guenther, Christian Guenther I of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, and the House of Schwarzburg, is another sovereign nobleman displaced by the impact of Grantville on Southern Thuringia. Schwarzburg-Sondershausen holdings intermingle with or are territories of listed municipalities under the sway of the American economic hegemony, at the very least, and several of the towns became members of the republican government of the confederated New United States (NUS) and hence the confederation of the Confederated Principalities of Europe and federal government of United States of Europe (USE).

[edit] Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, Ludwig Guenther of

Count Ludwig Guenther of Schwartzburg-Rudolstadt (in German: Günther) and the ancient House of Schwarzburg plays an important role in the background "freedom of religion theme" that reoccurs frequently in various works of the Ring of Fire series. Having inherited the dignity of his office the September of the year before after the death of his older brother Karl (Charles), the count of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt was the first sovereign nobleman aware of and troubled by the town from the future, Grantville, for a chunk of the old family seat at Schwarzburg overlapped the Ring of Fire and went forward to 2000 AD according to the series canon as recorded in 1632 and the "first contact" story Grantville Gazette V . In the later about ten citizens of Schwarzburg loose their lives in the ROF event, including some who slide over the locally formed cliff at the ring edge where Grantvilles terrain is below that of the town cut by the ROF. Count Günther despite having lost a significant chunk of land to the new town of Grantville first comes to the readers attention in the Grantville Gazette I seminal story "The Rudolstadt Colloquy" , which he has organized to fill a pastoral office in a new church he has built primarily to serve the Lutheran population that have emigrated as war refugees to Grantville. Doctrinal differences, as well as the modern mind-set of the American's belief in freedom of religion need aired and dealt with, and "colloquy's" are "formal conversations of an official nature" in which such matters are resolved. Subsequent developments in both the main plot threads and the Grantville Gazettes frequently refer back to the Rudolstadt Colloquy, so this is indeed a "big deal", especially to the European mind still wedded strongly to religion in their day to day lives.

Count Guenther appears again in both 1634: The Ram Rebellion , one chapter of which set in March of 1633 involves a flashback "argument" between President Stearns of the NUS and his Secretary of State Ed Piazza, in which Piazza "educates" the President to how big a deal colloquy's happen to be in the day and age (Those rulers who cannot attend in person, invariably send a senior aide as a personal representative and observer) of the story line. By 1634: The Baltic War, the author's have Count Guenther is holding a United States of Europe (USE)-wide colloquy (see Magdeburg Colloquy) for all of Lutheran Europe, including his homeland of Sweden.

[edit] Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, Emelie, countess of

Countess Emelie of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt is an infuential philanthropist, socialite and supporter of modern social services under the administration of Gustavus the capital at Magdeburg.

[edit] Schickard, Wilhelm

Professor Wilhelm Schickard was a bonefide polymath, Professor of Mathematics, Aramaic, and Hebrew etc., educated at the University of Tübingen, and later returned to teach there. He built a mechanical calculator in 1623 and was an ordained Lutheran protestant minister.

In the 1632-verse, he is part of a network of scholars sharing news and intelligence by courier pigeons and USE telecommunications (radio or telegraph) which end up involved in the behind the scenes diplomacy of 1634: The Bavarian Crisis.^[13] Formerly a Professor of Mathematics at Tubingen University in Württemberg, reputed to be an excellent mathematician, Schickard in 1634 has a position with the United States of Europe (USE) in Magedeburg working for Secretary of State Duke Hermann of Hesse-Rotenberg, on mapping service projects for Gustavus Adolphus. He built some sort of "calculating box" used by astronomer Johannes Kepler when both were present at University of Tübingen (which ceased operation during the tumult of the Thirty Years' war), according to the authors Flint and DeMarce, accounting for his employment by the USE.

[edit] Sweden, Christina of

Sole heir to Gustavus Adolphus, Christina ruled the Swedish Empire for a while in the historical time line, then abdicated the throne. In the novel 1633 she becomes a "political gesture" as Gustavus lets her stay in the circle of the up-timers as a nine-year old, lets her visit the Magdeburg Committees of Corespondence repeatedly, and take up with an American social worker, Carol Platzner after the formation of the United States of Europe (USE). All this puts the quality society of the Germanies up in arms, and these themes play out in 1634: The Baltic War where Gustav also makes it clear he wants her to associate with Julie Sims Mackay, the newly appointed Baroness _____ when she returns from her travels to Great Britain with Alex Mackay and child.

Princess Kristin (1626–1689)

Sole heiress to Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden

In the 1632-verse:  Willful child, raised among Americans, who grows to accept responsibility and to prefer the company of Americans

[edit] Sweden, Gustav II Adolf of

Gustavus II Adolphus plays a major role in the 1632 neohistory, having lived beyond his death in battle in OTL and becomes first an ally of the 'New United States', then Protector-General (as "Captain Gars") under the short lived CPoE, then in 1633, "The Emperor of the United States of Europe (USE) and King of Sweden". In the various 1634 books he is ever present in the background with occasional cameos, and reprises an addition large role in 1634: The Baltic War. It is fair to say that without his protection and blessings, the New United States (NUS) would have likely been conquered, or at least suffered grievous harm during the 1632-1633 time frame, by the forces surreptitiously set against the up-timer community and its new republic by the alarmed protectors of the rights of noblemen, and especially the devious plots of Cardinal Richelieu. In addition to that, had Gustavus taken the "Grantville is the work of the devil, and must be expunged" side in the debates over what the 1632 series (also known as 'Ring of Fire series') meant, Grantville might well have been facing his armies as well as those of the Catholics. Instead, Gustavus and Mike Stearns cut a deal reorganizing German Europe and the NUS into the ramshackle Confederated Principalities of Europe, giving the 'New United States' time to develop further adaptive technology in support of the king.

[edit] Tilly, Johann Tserclaes, Count of

Count Tilly was in his seventies and hadn't lost in a battle over fifty years as a commanding officer until Gustavus beat him at the Battle of Breitenfeld (September 14, 1631) on the German plains just to the north of Leipzig. ...

Johan Tzerclaes, Count of Tilly (1559–1632)

general in Bavarian and Imperial service

In the 1632-verse:  Dies from wounds sustained in action against Gustavus Aldophus.

[edit] Turenne, Viscount of

Vicomte Henri de la Tour d'Auverge (literally: Viscount Henry of the tower of Auverge)

Turenne (1611–1675)

Marshal of France

In the 1632-verse:  Achieves greatness early, as a result of Richelieu studying the near future of France in stolen history books and appointing him as director of research, and a Marshal of France—thus creating a homebrewed political crisis. In 1634: The Baltic War Turenne leads a cavalry raid deep into Swedish held territory to raid the Weitz oil fields for technology, especially the radio equipment, and to disrupt the Americans production, for Richelieu's spies have gleaned the importance of the mineral. Turenne concludes during the raid that any army in Europe within the next two years, will need aircraft of their own to be effective—this insight comes as he gets a feel for how rapidly the one they encounter is moving, and the fact he spent the days they journeyed looking our fearfully least one of the craft discover the raid. In a moment of stubborn stupidity, American industrialist Quentin C. Underwood gets himself killed during the raid, failing to flee when he had time, despite orders from Mike Stearns to do so.

[edit] Urban VIII, Pope

Ordained as Malfeo Barberini, Pope Urban VIII and the various Cardinals Barberini play an important role as themselves in the South and South-west Europe thread that began with the Andrew Dennis tale "Between the Armies" (Ring of Fire), and continued in 1634: The Galileo Affair and 1635: The Canon Law— which events resonate with other matters as portrayed in the two Central European (main story line) threads, such as has been related in '1634: The Ram Rebellion, 1634: The Baltic War, and 1634: The Bavarian Crisis. Inasmuch as these four books are concurrent in the NTL beginning in the winter of 1633—1634 and each concluding circa early summer, the NTL year 1634 has a lot of room for additional plot development and effects in Central Europe to boomerang similar to the plot line of 1635: The Canon Law, as the pope-to-USE interactions ripple through and affect actions in greater Europe, in particular Spain and France. Combined with ripples set forth by the concurrent events (e.g. the Peace of Copenhagen, the unexpected new large kingdom in Northwestern Europe of the Bavarian Crisis, etc.), Europe in the NTL promises indeed to be "interesting times".

[edit] Vasa, the house of, Nobles of,

The House of Vasa enters into the series via the "Golden Lion of the North", Gustavus II Adolphus Vasa, who inherited a feud with the Polish ruling line of Sigismund III Vasa, once also the (deposed) king of Sweden who lost that throne to Charles IX of Sweden, Gustavus' uncle in 1599—1604 in a preliminary bout of social troubles based on religions at odds with one another. Sigismund upon further reflection then started a series of protracted wars to regain the throne which were instrumental in blooding the young Gustavus while his father still ruled and lived. Gustavus himself began the next round with an invasion of Livonia kicking off the Polish-Swedish War (1625–1629) and with the peace, courted by the losing protestants suffering through the Thirty Years' War Gustavus chose to intervene and help out.

The sons of Sigismund III Vasa, CWładysław IV Vasa and then John II Casimir of Poland — both inherited the Polish throne in time, as well as continuing the wars with Sweden until all the foregoing were dead along with the dynasty, for Christina, Gustavus's sole legitimate issue, abdicated the Swedish throne in 1654, six years after the end of the Thirty Years' War.

[edit] Wallenstein, Albrecht von

Main article: Wallenstein (1632)

Albrecht von Wallenstein was a noted general, and can lay claim to being the first ever "Military Contractor". His role in the series has been that of hated enemy as a stalking horse, worrying at the edges of things, until he made an accommodation with Mike Stearns after almost being terminated by an extremely long rifle shot during the Battle of Alte Vista. His shot up jaw was repaired by Dr. Henry Sims in a delicious twist of irony, and he withdrew his support for the German Catholic League and formed an alliance with the United States of Europe (USE) in the Flint novelette "The Wallenstein Gambit". Wallenstein was also the ruthless character that sent the Croatian cavalry raid with specific instructions to target the school in the Battle of Grantville High School, as he recognized the Americans knowledge base was their true source of power; allied with Richelieu in that matter, the Cardinal had desired him to severe the Grantville ties to monetary resources by killing all the Jews in town.

Albrecht von Wallenstein (1583–1634)

Czech soldier and politician who gave his services (an army of 30,000 to 100,000 men) during the Danish Period of the Thirty Years' War to Ferdinand II for no charge except the right to plunder the territories that he conquered

In the 1632-verse:  Becomes an ally of Gustavus Adolphus and ruler of Bohemia after a successful coup d'état.

[edit] William Wettin

     Saxe-Weimar, shown within the other Ernestine duchies and showing      Saxe-Jena, which was joined to Saxe-Weimar in 1690 (OTL).

Born Wilhelm, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, Wilhelm was made regent then eventually (1626) inherited the duchy from his older brother and was a staunch ally of Gustavus Adolphus in OTL and in the time line of 1632-verse where he and his brothers were displaced from his lands in Thuringia by the formation of the New United States (NUS) in 1631–32. He is depicted as decent noblemen caught up in the war in service to Gustavus— even expressing an appreciation and thanks that the NUS had fed and saved so many of Thuringia's people^[14] during the preceding winter of '31-32. He was the actual Landed title holder of the displaced Dukes of Saxe-Weimar of the prestigious ancient House of Wettin coloring the historical background of the 1632 series, Wilhelm held onto the dignities as duke in OTL until his death in 1662.

In the NTL, the three Wettin brothers are represented as sharing the ducal dignities and ruling by committee over the family lands, which may have been de facto practice inside the family, while duke Wilhelm held the actual power. His brother Albrechts, is absent in the neo-history, whereas his Brother Ernst is depicted as being older than the youngest brother. In 1633, Wilhelm abdicates in the 1632 time line and runs successfully for a seat in the new House of Commons in the United States of Europe where he becomes one of leaders of the loyal opposition to the Stearns regime; a position Mike Stearns encouraged him to take up.

[edit] Ambiguous persons

Some possible historical figures (usually of minor consequence in the stories) are used by the expert historians guiding the 1632 Research Committee, which includes both Flint and Virginia DeMarce. DeMarce is a world-class expert in European Genealogy, and occasional parties are difficult to confirm. Until, researched, these parties have a home in this section.

[edit] Hesse-Rotenberg, Hermann of, Duke

Duke Hermann of Hesse-Rotenberg is the United States of Europe (USE) Secretary of State in the timeline of the 1634 books of the series. The duke doesn't play a direct role in the plotting, but employs the brilliant professor-doktor Wilhelm Schickard, who is part of a network of scholars sharing news and intelligence by courier pigeons and USE telecommunications (radio or telegraph) which end up involved in the behind the scenes diplomacy of 1634: The Bavarian Crisis.^[15]

[edit] Fictional characters

This section is maintained alphabetically, lastname, firstname, but individuals of particular note may have their own section as a link to point from other articles.

[edit] Abrabanel, Balthazar

Dr. Balthazar Abrabanel, jewish morano physician, courier and sometimes spy enters the 1632-verse fleeing for his life with daughter Rebbecca Abrabanel while having a heart attack in a coach. Balthazar is tended to by Dr. James Nichols who is accompanying the posse lead by Mike Stearns who deals roughly with the pursuing mercenaries chasing the small family.

...

[edit] Abrabanel, Rebecca

Fictional daughter of Balthazar Abrabanel of the far flung influential and non-fictional Jewish Abrabanel family who served as "Court Jews" in many European courts; Rebecca^[16] becomes "National Security Advisor" to Chairman Michael Stearns of the Grantville Emergency Committee, is chief translator in most negotiations with the neighboring native Europeans and is drafted immediately by the authorities to serve as a news anchorwoman when the High School's television equipment is utilized to broadcast as the towns cable television system. She becomes wildly popular in the new society mixing German refugees and stranded Americans and is subsequently elected in succession: Member of the Grantville Constitutional Convention, Senator of the New United States (NUS), and lastly Mrs. Mike Stearns, "Senator and National Security Advisor and special diplomatic envoy of President Stearns.

Milieu creator Flint is on record stating that he considers any story in which she, Gustavus or her husband Mike make an appearance—in which they are actively doing something,as opposed to just making a supporting "color" cameo—part of the main plot thread. However, most 1632 affectionados, despite his leaning towards character based plot threads, nonetheless think in terms of geography as defining plot threads.

[edit] Adducci, Bernadette

Former Nun, policewoman and social worker in Grantville; aunt of Tony Adducci in Basel. In the book 1634: The Bavarian Crisis Bernadette provides a diplomatic conduit for the escaping Archduchess of Austria in her flight from Maximilian I to the arms of Don Fernando, King in the Netherlands.

[edit] Adducci, Tony, Jr.

Tony is a radio operator that serves Ambassadoress Diane Jackson in the embassy to Bern, Switzerland in 1634: The Bavarian Crisis. Under her directed hints, Tony manages to creatively "loose in processing" a message he has just verbalized to her as he transcribed the Morse code, enabling her to honestly say in a confrontational meeting just after that she has "seen no such message", which helps the negotiations as the spill over from the crisis hits the politics in Bern.

[edit] Allegretti, Susanna

An apprentice seamstress from the Tirol region of northern Italy, Susanna Allegretti is frequently at odds with her new mistress—head seamstress —Frau Stecher—who is a spy for the Hapsburg facotums keeping an eye on the Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria. The two young women manage to form a relationship nonetheless, and when Maria Anna parcels out tasks for her loyal retainers aiding and abetting her and their escapes, the Archduchess charges Susanna with assisting her advisor and friend, the dowager sister of the Spanish diplomat Cardinal Bedmar, Dona Mencia de Mendoza, who is hobbled by age and arthritis from being either agile or quick. With a bit of subterfuge the two women part ways and separately escape. Dona Mencia de Mendoza, deciding the up-timers are trustworthy makes her way to Grantville.

[edit] Arndt, Augustin

• 1634: The Bavarian Crisis

[edit] Cantrell, Eddie

Navy Lieutenant-Commander Eddie Cantrell first appeared as one of the four teens (affectionately called the "Four Musketeers" by Stearns) rescuing the Richter family in the end phase of the Battle of the Crapper in the NTL summer of 1631. In the David Weber short story: "In the Navy" (Ring of Fire, winter '32-'33 NTL) he is shown convincing Mike Stearns that Gustavus Adolphus needs a navy far more to fight a war efficiently than many other projects currently scheduled in the labor, resources, and talent strapped Confederated Principalities of Europe, and becomes the father of the NUS/CPoE navy, and along the way plays an important literary role in helping to rehabilitate John Chandler Simpson into a sympathetic and likable character.

He appears in several stories in Ring of Fire : In "Curio and Relic" Eddie is involved in a gun fight with downtimers stealing firearms from the chaotic environs of Grantville.^check

In 1633, Lt. Cantrell heads up the mixed forces charged with defending Wismar Bay from the invading League of Ostend forces. In the action, he is lamed and captured by the Danish forces so that he takes the stage as a prisoner of war in 1634: The Baltic War where he succumbs to youthful folly and raging hormones and become the eager groom to King Christian IV of Denmark's daughter, Anne Cathrine.

[edit] Dreeson, Henry

Mayor of Grantville and eventual spouse of Veronica Richter (widow to Johann Stephan Richter)

[edit] Dreeson, Veronica

Main article: Veronica Richter

Widow of Johann Stephan Richter, Veronica Dreeson becomes a founder of primary schools and eventual spouse of Grantville Mayor Henry Dreeson. Appearing first in 1632 as step-grandmother of Gretchen Richter Higgins and Hans Richter, and known as "Ronnie", she is one of the principle protagonists in 1634: The Bavarian Crisis as she returns to her husbands estate and old home town near Amberg in the Upper Palatinate accompanying a strategic trade mission and Mary Simpson triggering one part of the Bavarian Crisis. She has also figured into several key Grantville Gazette tales.

[edit] Edelmann, Karl Jurgen

A guildmaster of Jena, father of Magdalena Stone who initially rejects the suite of Tom "Stoner" Stone in the Mercedes Lackey shared universe short story "To Dye For". Herr Edelmann's rejection stimulates Tom Stone into taking the first uncharacteristically practical steps that will win her hand and end with him eventually becoming a pharmacological and chemical research wizard— and under the able guidance and business sense of Magda, one of the richest men in Europe in the new time line.

Herr Edelmanns' otherwise relatively minor role in the series serves further as a good illustration of one of the underlying themes dear to creator Eric Flint— that historical movements are not the things of big men in positions of power, but the aggregation of the individual acts by individuals going about their daily lives making decisions for what they judge are their own self-interests, and that is what creates an historic force. The theme is reinforced over and over in the series, but the first overt occurrence is the way in which the recidivist earstwhile hippy Stoner is received with a great deal of reverence and respect as Herr Doktor Stone in Venice and the University of Padua, when part of the medical mission of the embassy party to The Most Serene Republic of Venice in 1634: The Galileo Affair.

[edit] Ferrara, Greg

Greg Ferrara‎ is the head of the science department of Grantville High School and is a key figure in the Emergency Town Meeting three days after the Ring of Fire emergency. Greg is named to the Grantville Emergency Committee by Chairman Michael Stearns in their first "Gear down strategy" session and sub-vocally earmarked by Stearns as his unofficial "Minister of the arms Complex"^[16]

[edit] Franz and Marla

For the popular "Franz and Marla stories" See Franz Scylwester and Marla Linder

[edit] Frost, Dan

Chief of Police Dan Frost is the first up-timer casualty during the immediate aftermath of the Ring of Fire event. Investigating smoke, Frost is wounded by Spanish soldiers of Tilly's army in early on in the first novel. Later, he single handedly stalls a charge across a bridge by rampaging Croatian cavalry units, using two modern handguns to demonstrate the effects of good marksmanship and fire power. In the series as a whole, he became a background figure acting as a security consultant to the new order settling into the plains of Germany.

[edit] Haygood, Jere

Jere Haygood and Pete McDougal are two up-timers stationed in the sacked and destroyed city of Magdeburg which he is rebuilding as his continental capital. Both make their appearance in the series in David Webers tale "In the Navy" . Haygood is on loan to Gustav's administration shortly after the formation of the Confederated Principalities of Europe in the fall of 1632 and the following winter. There he assists John Chandler Simpson in siting a shipyard for the proposed naval construction by the New United States. Haygood headed up one Grantville's Civil Engineering firms and is detailed to assist the king's officials in planning a modern city, but mostly to improve the river and canal transport network, a vital need in the era when "good roads" are represented in the brief but limited main streets paved by cobblestones in larger cities and the roads in between are mere cart tracks— overland, goods are mainly shipped by mule train. In conjunction with Admiral-to-be Simpson, Haygood, with a long background as an civil war re-enactor, helps to convince Gustav's officer corp of the benefits reorganizing the army into a smaller more professional form using newly designed firearms with bayonets instead of the Pike and shot "normal army" of the day equipped with two-thirds pikes and one-third musket. Gustavus's forces are already half-and-half, which by the thinking of the day, is too few pikes to protect against either a cavalry or massed organized infantry executing a determined charge.

Higgins, Gretchen 

— See Gretchen Richter

[edit] Higgins, Jeff

Good natured large bodied teen hero of 1632 (novel), married to CoC organizing terror Gretchen Richter that he married after rescuing, brother-in-law of fallen aviation hero of 1633 (novel) Hans Richter, and relative (step-grandson-in-law) of Veronica Dreeson.

[edit] Hoffman, Ernst

Ernst Hoffman is a protestant mercenary leader who's band of "goons" has been extorting and lording it over the citizens in the walled^[17] town of Badenburg under the guise of protecting the inhabitants. They have done absolutely nothing to protect the region outside the towns walls, and Mike Stearns decides^[17] that they will do for the up-timers first act of liberation.^[18][19] The band of about 500 is enticed from behind the town walls to participate in the Battle of the Crapper and breaks to run before the action is fully joined. Flint uses the roughly battalion sized band as well as the opposition mercenary companys^[20] under Count of Tilly to illustrate the perfidious nature of the mercenary armies of the times and the damned-if-we-do, damned-if-we-don't nature of utilizing the freelance companies of the era. If the town hadn't hired the mercenaries, it would have sacked Badenburg, with even worse results.^[21] The American/Stearns plan is to deal with both groups of mercenaries using their superior fire power to cowl the force.^[19][22] In the event, Hoffman's goons realizing the Americans have broken the Hapsburg army, turn from their flight and run to loot, pillage, and rape amongst the Catholics baggage train and camp followers. In that second phase of the battle, Gretchen Richter meets the Four Musketeers and future husband Jeff Higgins who takes the lead in standing off the protestant mercenaries mobbing the Catholic's camp. Hoffman is personally placed in handcuffs by Mike Stearns and the mercenary band is captured along with the Catholic remnants.

[edit] Hudson, Wille Ray

Aside from Henry Dreeson, Wille Ray Hudson, is the only Grantviller appointed to the Emergency Committee that has any practical experience with government having been on the state legislature of West Virginia for a number of terms. He is (considered by many, including Mike Stearns) the best farmer in Grantville, and so is appointed to the Grantville Constitutional Sub-committee but has the primary role of making sure Grantville and the influx of refugees have sufficient food— Chairman of Agriculture co-ordination and rationing. Wille Ray accordingly works closely with both the Resource committee and Rationing committees and plays a role in many of the ground-level-view stories published in The Grantville Gazettes. Flint, et al. haven't used him in a major novel since his cameos in 1632, save by reference or mentions.

[edit] Jackson, Frank

Frank Jackson is a United Mine Workers union associate of Grantville Emergency Committee chairman, Mike Stearns and appointed to the Emergency Committee Cabinet by Stearns during the events of the Grantville Emergency Town Meeting approved both in their offices by overwhelming voice vote— all that organizational efforts occurring just three days after the Ring of Fire ripped the town from the twentieth century. He became head of its armed forces which were formed around a nucleus of UMWA miners who had military service. With Stearns in overall command at the Battles of the New United States of the joint forces of Alexander Mackay and Jackson's army, General Jackson led the NUS forces through all of 1631–1632 until after the governmental reorganization in October 1633 created the United States of Europe (USE)—where part of the bargain with Gustavus was that the up-timer forces would be consolidated with the king of Sweden's other armies. In 1633 he is the New United States (NUS) Army Chief of Staff, by American tradition the active forces supreme commander under the short lived Confederated Principalities of Europe governmental structure. By 1634: The Baltic War, General Jackson is attached to Gustav Adolf's personal staff as liaison for up-timer military technology, as he'd served in the US Army as a Sergeant^{[citation needed]}}, and needed further training, at least logistically, to actively lead large organizations of troops.

[edit] Jefferson, Anne

Created in the story "A Matter of Consultation" in Ring of Fire by veteran science fiction S. L. Viehl, Anne Jefferson is a registered nurse, classmate of Sharon Nichols and native West Virginian who, like Nichols was visiting Grantville for the occasion of her friend Rita Stearns' wedding, and anticipating her own in just six weeks. Her betrothed was left behind up-time, and she is showcased in the important short story "A Matter of Consultation" in Ring of Fire wherein she is nearly burned as a witch for herbally treating a failing patient with a congenital heart condition, and butts heads with Dr. William Harvey who is all too ready to stand by as the villagers burn Jefferson and a local herbalist, Tibelda as witches.

Flint incorporates her as an important character in the widely varied negotiations set inside the overall depiction of the Siege of Amsterdam, which begins with her taking center stage in the three Flint (added) Gazettes stories in their print released versions: "Portraits" , "Steps in the Dance" , and "Postage Due" . Flint continues her influential role within the siege in each of 1633 1634: The Bavarian Crisis & 1634: The Baltic War. Flint's use of her in the related gazettes tales is to explain a typically Stearnsian bit of legerdemain — to improve communications in Europe by expediting a trans-European common postal system which will in the long run undermine the opposition. Even the canny Cardinal Richelieu fails to appreciate the danger of a freer flow of ideas and concepts across borders (which of course cannot be limited to just technology, but also include political ideas) to the established aristocratic heirarchy, hence Jefferson's role becomes very important in Stearn's long range schemes to build democracy upon the graves of aristocratic institutions, putting Jefferson, like Gretchen Richter at the heart of the revolution in thought behind the sweeping neohistorical events related in the long fiction of the series.

When introduced and invented, Viehl has Nichols and Jefferson face off against Dr. William Harvey, the "discoverer" of the circulatory system, and the two nurses "give him some pointers", including a humbling dressing down about medicine and the abilities of women and medicines. Concurrently, Anne Jefferson meets her future husband, diplomat and mathematician Adam Olearius [1] who'd been acting as guide and translator for Harvey. Olearius also appears on-stage during many of the scenes set in the strange siege of Amsterdam, and his relations with Jefferson add a romantic and sometimes comic backdrop to some of the diplomatic goings-ons.

By the conclusion of The Baltic War and The Bavarian Crisis, each of which end in mid-summer of 1634, the two are betrothed and planning a life together in Amsterdam where Jefferson has established herself as a Doctor of the new wonderful up-time medicine and has established a family practice amidst the siege, whereas many of the cities established doctors had fled the city. This development is foreshadowed as an event which with help of the now firmly established Dutch Committees of Corespondence's will help break the power of another guild—the guild system being another authoritarian institution deemed repressive in the series canon that is opposed to modern freedoms and thought.

[edit] Lefferts, Harry

Main article: Harry Lefferts

Harry Lefferts (Captain, USE Army, CO Commandos)^[23] is a rough and tumble union organizer and troubleshooter that evolves in the series from brash, reckless and dangerous to daring, calculating, dangerous and shrewd leader of Mike Stearns' protective detail and special operations (commando) team. In 1634: The Baltic War Harry's team infiltrates London, and rescues the embassy imprisoned by King Charles.

[edit] Linder, Marla

Marla Liner, born Kristen Marlena Linder, is a Grantville musician of great talent introduced by David Carrico that befriends the crippled down-timer musician Franz Scylwester in a succession of connected sequential stories that explore the influence of up-timer music and instruments upon the down-time neohistory. The group, make up essentially one long tale serialized beginning with "The Sound of Music" in the anthology Grantville Gazette II which explore the impact of up-timer musical knowledge, instruments and sheet music on down-timer culture and music.

Marla, who sings at least as well as she plays keyboard instruments, has been devastated by the Ring of Fire and had held great ambitions to attend a prestigious musical institute. In the first story, while on stage, her last name isn't even mentioned. Scylwester has similar psychic wounds from deliberately maimed and losing his career as a crack violinist, and Carrico's Franz and Marla stories explore both the new world of music enabled by Grantville's musical knowledge, but are very sensitive and depict the two characters psychologically assisting the other to come to grips with the new reality and undergo healing. Along the way they discover the wonders of one another.

The two are promoted to major characters, albeit in the role of background characters during the novel 1634: The Baltic War and "Command Performance" , where Franz gets demonstrates his renewed mastery, having learned to play left handed, and publically asks Ms. Linder for her hand as partial conclusion to a high society concert hosted by Mary Simpson —the storyline in the anthology Ring of Fire II . The same concert is backdrop for the entry of Admiral John Chandler Simpson in the aftermath of the industrial accident that begins The Baltic War.

Luxemburg, Rosa

Rosa Luxemburg, a radical reformer and marxist is used by Flint in his solo novel, The Anaconda Project, as an inspirational jewess adopted by the revolutionary Spartacus League (named after an organization she founded) to reform the government of Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania.^[24]

[edit] Mackay, Alex and Julie

[edit] Mackay, Alexander

Alex Mackay redirects here.

Main article: Alex and Julie Mackay

Scottish cavalry Captain Alexander Mackay of Gustav's Green Regiment, is out in the surrounding countryside near Badenburg leading part of his scouting company about four or five days after the Ring of Fire when one of his scouts reports something strange (a burial mound plus unburned buildings with signs of battle and violence) at a nearby farm. Investigating the various anomalies, to the point of digging up the mass grave, the patrol is then surprised by patrolling American miners (veterans of the United States Armed forces) in up-time camouflage clothing.

The encounter is the first organized downtime military force to encounter the Grantvillers; Mackay is screening well in advance of Gustav's army, in effect on detached duty stationed at Badenburg to keep an eye on Count Tilly's catholic forces, with an independent mission to search for and find courier Balthazar Abrabanel who has monetary loans in the form of a chest of coins from the Protestant burghers of Amsterdam for King Gustavus Adolphus. Mackay, who is reminiscent of Tom Saywer in appearance, "falls hard" for senior cheerleading captain Julie Sims when the Grantville Emergency Committee's cabinet invite Mackay and Andrew Lennox, along with their whole scouting patrol, into Grantville High School for lunch in the school cafeteria. Later that day, Mackay suggests an alliance and the two groups agree to form an informal alliance to protect south central Thuringia, with Stearns and the Grantville Emergency Committee acting for Grantville in the unlikely location of Morris Roth's living room.^[25] The time line and revealed plot record is unclear as to whether "American" forces outside those at the Battle of the farm house, the Scots cavalry, or any other force in the Badenburg area has rebuffed any units of Tilly's forces before, but the back plot is clear that the Battle of the Crapper occurs two weeks or so ^[26] after the alliance in principle is agreed upon by Stearns and Mackay to act jointly to protect the various regions of southern Thuringia in the summer of 1631. Along with the 'New United States' up-timer army formed under Frank Jackson, the two forces join to defend Badenburg and liberate it as well from the Protestant mercenary leader, Earnst Hoffman's battalion sized unit which has been extorting support from the town while allegedly protecting it.

. <under construction - may need a main article>

[edit] Mackay, Julie

Main article: Alex and Julie Mackay

Daughter of Grantville dentist Henry Sims, Julie captivates the attention of Scotts Captain Alexander MacKay when he first enters Grantville High School early in the book 1632. She turns out to be a crack rifle shot and had been training for the Olympic biathlon. Julie, as a cheerleader, greatly distracts MacKay with her boundless enthusiastic energy and attire. In the latter part of the novel 1632, she is exhibited as a ruthless sniper, and one of a handful of women capable of passing the physical requirements of the Grantville army.

[edit] McDougal, Pete

Pete McDougal is one of a handful of up-timers stationed in the sacked and destroyed city of Magdeburg which Gustavus Adolfs' rebuilding as his continental capital. Along with Jere Haygood he makes his appearance in the series in David Webers tale "In the Navy" . Haygood is on loan to Gustav's administration shortly after the formation of the Confederated Principalities of Europe in the fall of 1632 and the following winter while McDougal, a former UMWA official and friend of Mike Stearns is acting as Mike's direct representative in the capital, an omnbudsman and facilitator heading up the New United States (NUS) embassy and co-ordinating the Americans assistance to Gustavus' people. John Chandler Simpson the ex-CEO clashes with McDougal over security issues, in particularly the lack of military bearing and discipline as evinced in the casual way another American, Matt Lowry, is standing guard over the New United States embassy.

[edit] Murphy, Nowell

Nowell Murphy (also known as Nowell Stull) is a young uptimer employed by the New United States (NUS) state department, who becomes something of an undercover troubleshooter. Uncertain of her vocation, she has a talent for looking at things a bit differently and so in the world of bureaucrats, is a somewhat uncomfortable subordinate to have. Having an unhappy family situation in Grantville—she is literally a bastard born out of wedlock, she is contemplating becoming a nun when Mike Sterns and Ed Piazza empower her as a special envoy to investigate likely sales of advanced guns to enemy countries. She later acquits herself well in the conclusion and climax scene of the Ram Rebellion, and appears again as a major character in the two longest stories in Ring of Fire II . In later spin-off stories in the Grantville Gazettes it is revealed she was actually born in the valid marriage of an inadvertent bigamy situation, and in fact her half-sister and half-brother might more properly be considered illegitimate given the oddities of the soap operaish family history.

Series appearances:

• 1634: The Ram Rebellion , various stories, arguably the lead character of the work
• Ring of Fire II , lead protagonist of Virginia Demarce's Family tale and Eric Flint's novelette Eric's Austrian espionage novelette .

[edit] Musketeers, Four

Half-disparaging, half-humorous, and half-well-intentioned name given to the four bright, somewhat nerdy, and inseparable senior war gamers who take on a large role in 1632, many short stories, and other sequels.

• Larry Wild
• Eddie Cantrell
• Jeff Higgins
• Jimmy Andersen

Higgins, Gretchen 

— See Gretchen Richter

[edit] Nichols, James

• Dr. James Nichols, MD., was a visitor to Grantville during the wedding of Tom Simpson and Rita Stearns —named New United States (NUS) Chief of heath, medical care and sanitation in the days of the Grantville Emergency Committee rule, and a member of the Emergency Committee Cabinet. A combat veteran of Vietnam via the marines, Nichols had a background as coming from the rough side of town in Chicago's Black ghetto. The handsome widower accompanies Stearns and Chief Frost immediately after the ROF, and his presence indubitably lead to several persons surviving that would have perished, including the chief, Anna's^[27] father, and heart attack victim Balthazar Abrabanel. He later takes parts in many minor sequences, including the introduction of the Stone Family to the milieu in the Ring of Fire story "To Dye For".

[edit] Nichols, Sharon

• Sharon Nichols is the daughter of James Nichols, and was a bridesmaid of Rita Simpson accounting for her, and Dr. Nichols presence in Grantville on the occasion of the Ring of Fire. She is an important character who has played a role in Ring of Fire where she and tbdl give the famous English Physician a few lessons about medicine, and was betrothed to the hero Hans Richter before finding a new love in the Southern European plot thread in the novels 1634: The Galileo Affair and its direct sequel 1635: The Cannon Law, where she has been promoted into the position of USE 'Ambassadoress' [sic] to the Most Serene Republic of Venice and the Papal States, where she resides in Rome. She has married to Ruy Sanchez de Casador y Ortiz the factotum to the Spanish Ambassador

[edit] Richter, Gretchen

Main article: Gretchen Richter

Most sympathetic heroine of 1632 (novel) and organizing terror of the Committees of Corespondence, "chooser of the saved" and statuesque "Stacked" blonde; step-grand-daughter of Veronica Dreeson and brother to Hans Richter. Gretchen figures prominently in cameo appearances in virtually all of the books, or is at least mentioned, as the worst nightmare of the autocratic nobility of high and low estates. In "When the Chips are Down" in a humorous scene, she almost shoots Larry Wild who has haplessly created a choking smoke in the family's kitchen which spreads to the rest of the joined trailers the extended family calls home; triggering memories of camp raids and looters in Gretchen—who always seem to burn as they pillage and rape.

[edit] Richter, Hans

Hans Richter is the likeable younger brother, daredevil driver of the 1632 novel, and first German aircraft pilot that captures the imagination of the common German townsmen and peasants and validate that the New United States (NUS) government is indeed for all the people, not just the noble-like up-timers from Grantville about half-way into 1633. Subsequently, when he dies heroically attacking the combined Danish-French fleets in the Battle of Wismar, Hans becomes the first national hero of the new emerging German Nationalistic mindset and inspires the German commoners who begin to gather spontaneously on the day after his death in Gustav's newly rebuilt capital Magdeburg, roaming about aimlessly, gathering in troublesome knots, and growling restlessly outside the Confederated Principalities of Europe's parliamentary hall where the House of Lords is sitting. General Torstenson is ready to call in his army to suppress a riot from its camp outside the city when Mike Stearns asks if he'll (he, Admiral Simpson and several others in authority) will follow Mike's lead. Upon receiving their willingness, Stearns talks to the crowd and throws open the ship yard and other government buildings and turns the impending riot into an impromptu celebration honoring the new heroes of the fatherland. In the aftermath, Stearns leverages off the unrest to drive home a new accommodation with Gustav II Adolf, and becomes the first prime minister of the new Sweden lead empire: the United States of Europe (USE).

[edit] Roth family

Roth, Judith

[edit] Roth, Morris

Morris and Judith Roth are the only Jewish people of Grantville. Stearns, showing surprising sensitivity and uncharacteristic tact solicits shelter for the two Abrabanel's in the Roth home during the aftermath of the Battle of the farm house. The alliance between the down-timer Scots cavalry unit and the up-timers is agreed to in the Roth's living room, and their kitchen and one of its large tables becomes the war room where the two sides plan out a campaign to protect southern Thuringia from Count Tilly's approaching Catholic forces.

[edit] Scylwester, Franz

Franz Scylwester is a crippled down and out down-timer musician — and former maestro violinist introduced in "The Sound of Music" in the anthology Grantville Gazette III — who had been victimized by a rival for his prestigious post as first violinist of the Cathedral of Mainz, and had his left (or fingering) hand deliberately and maliciously mutilated in the encounter such that he will never play the violin again. Scylwester makes his way eking out an existence writing corespondence letters for the illiterate and gradually wends his way to Grantville, where he is exposed to modern Rock and Roll (which appalls him), but also to modern musical knowledge from "Master Herr Professor Wendell" (the high school music teacher), and a local girl, Marla Linder, a singer-musician that befriends him. From both he learns about the breadth and depth of modern musical instruments and the systematized musical theory available from these strange people from the future, while becoming emotionally entangled with Marla whilst fighting off feelings of unworthiness since he is crippled and cannot hope to support her. 1632 writer David Carrico writes with great sensitivity and brings the two sympathetic characters back in a succession of stories beginning with "Heavy Metal Music" in the anthology Grantville Gazette IV, in effect serializing stories told primarily from Scylwester's viewpoint, and uses the likable and sympathetic character with the help of the good natured Marla to explore interactions between the 1630's musical world and the intriguing blended culture coming into existence in central Europe.

The romantic dance between the two climaxes in "Command Performance" in Ring of Fire II where Franz demonstrates his newly learned mastery of the violin, now left handed, at a triumphant debut concert hosted by the redoubtable "Dame of Magdeburg", Mary Simpson, featuring Marla, and the expanding circle of her down-timer students. The same tale is used as background to introduce the Simpson's into the novel 1634: The Baltic War toward the conclusion of the events around the industrial accident and river set ablaze that begins the novel.

[edit] Southworth, Aidan

Sergeant Aidan Southworth of the USE Marine Corp. is a friend of the Stone brothers, particularly Frank and plays the role of embassy guard in 1634: The Galileo Affair.

[edit] Simpson, John and Mary

[edit] Simpson, John Chandler

Main article: John Chandler Simpson

Father of Tom, brother-in-law of Mike Stearns, Simpson is introduced on the very first page of 1632 as a bad character one loves to hate. He fulfills that role throughout 1632' in the politics providing the early plot tension of the novel. He is rehabilitated some in the David Weber short story "In the Navy" wherein he is almost assassinated by agents of Richelieu, and ascends further in limited scenes of 1633 as a somewhat like-able strong character that will naturally have occasional clashes with other type-A personalities such as Mike Stearns or Frank Jackson. Also, during "In the Navy", Simpson plays a pivotal role in both convincing Stearns of the direction he needs to nudge Gustavus' remake of his army, but also in convincing Swedish officers of the desirability to evolve their forces as recommended—a plot seed which has yet to play out in significant detail, but for the CoC references in the newly increased forces of the 1634 books. In the various 1634 works, he plays additional parts that continue his rehabilitation and improved likability climaxing in 1634: The Baltic War by which events have painted him as a sympathetic, likable, if somewhat stiff-necked quirky but bona fide hero of the book as the Navy of the USE he built up and engineers takes center stage.

[edit] Simpson, Mary

Mary Simpson (1632 character) redirects here.

Wife of eventual Admiral John Chandler Simpson, and socialite with a penchant for organization and fund raising. In 1633 (novel) and various Grantville Gazettes her behind the scenes machinations are used to generate social exposition and move the plots along by showing how various upper class elements are persuaded the Stearns revolution and the Emperor has their good points. In 1634: The Bavarian Crisis she accompanies Veronica Dreeson and a trade mission to the Upper Palatinate figuring in her second major role in the series.

[edit] Simpson, Tom and Rita

Rita Stearns Simpson, and husband Tom Simpson have the distinction of opening 1632 in scenes shared by Mike Stearns and James Nichols. They are all participating and celebrating with their guests in their wedding reception as the Ring of Fire interrupted the celebrating. Rita, younger sister raised by Mike Stearns since their father's death is off with her bridesmaids and visiting other guests of what is her home and people, enjoying the best day of her life, radiant as all brides should be, while her new husband and brother are trading severe looks with the groom's parents and Tom Simpson opens the flagship novel with a scene where he is apologizing to Mike for his parents' attitude.

Stearns has paid for the wedding and reception, but it is clearly not up to the standards of the big-city big shot snobbish elder Simpsons, industrialist and socialite both—and they are not hiding their attitudes. The reception is alcohol-free as the only facility in the town suitable for a large wedding is the Grantville High School gymnasium and cafeteria—but school property is no inhibition to the large number of United Mine Workers local members in attendance. Tom appears in a few other scenes of 1632 as he has a penchant for picking up languages and helps transition German refugees into the NUS army, but Rita all but disappears in the ensemble cast until the sequel 1633,^{[citation needed]} when she resurfaces as the official 'Ambassadoress'^[28] (sic) to the court of Charles I of England—as in the emerging Early Modern Europe, professional diplomats were not yet a profession and such roles were generally filled by a relation of the "ruler"; which in the case of the NUS of the CPoE was President Michael Stearns—in early plot of 1633 the embassy party to England is imprisoned in the Tower of London where it remains (circa nine months) until near the end of 1634: The Baltic War.

[edit] Simpson, Rita

Tom is brother-in-law to Mike Stearns and spouse of his sister Rita Stearns Simpson. Their wedding reception opened the flag-ship novel, and was interrupted by the Assiti Shards event known as The Ring of Fire. The initial novel introduces both Tom and Mike Stearns (as well as the novels' main internal antagonist, Tom's father John Chandler Simpson) in the same initial scene where Tom is apologizing to Mike Stearns for the way his parents are behaving. Subsequent events in 1632 lead to Tom and Rita in a state of total estrangement from John and Mary Simpson until well into 1633 (novel) where Stearns agrees to intercede with his brother-in-law for the now (and more sympathetic characterization of) Admiral Simpson.

The tension will continue between the couples at least through the spring of 1634, as The Baltic War sequel comes to a close with the younger couple is still abroad; Stearns has made some complimentary and peacemaking overtures by radio as a consequence of his promises, but the rift was so great, only face to face meetings can cure the rift.

The newlyweds are however confined to the tower of London in 1633 (novel) as diplomacy of the day pretty much requires a relative or very close associate. So "Lady Stearns" (Rita) acts as the figure-head ambassador sent to London and Charles I of England— who without even meeting them, places them under house arrest, confining the party to the grounds of the Tower of London. Rescued in The Baltic War by Capt. Harry Lefferts' commando team, the embassy team reaches The Netherlands along side Prime Minister of the USE, Mike Stearns.

[edit] Simpson, Tom

Son of corporate magnate and ex-navy officer John Simpson and socialite ("Dame of Three Rivers") and champion fund raiser Mary Simpson, Tom Simpson is married to eventual Ambassadoress to England, Rita Stearns and brother-in-law to series mover and shaker, Michael Stearns. Simpson has the very first sentence of the first chapter of the flag ship novel "I'm sorry about my parents, Mike". Built just less than suitable to be an NFL linesman, Simpson is a huge man and when the Ring of Fire events stress the community, the battles between his father and Mike Stearns spill over into an estrangement from his parents that last until (a reunion off stage) sometime in the 1634: The Baltic War and 1634: The Bavarian Crisis time-frame— the spring of 1634.

In the latter, we see the two Simpson men meeting together with Stearns and other military leaders plotting out a part of a possible rescue of Tom Stearns mother Mary, who has fallen into the hands of Catholic fanatic Maximilian of Bavaria. Tom Sterns is promoted from Captain to Major in the scene where Lieutenant Eddie Cantrell, co-author of the rescue concept, receives an equivalent promotion to naval Lieutenant Commander. Simpson had been incarcerated in the Tower of London in the 1633 novel, and played a small supporting role in the main plot thread works throughout. He joined the NUS armed forces out of lack of anything more suitable for his skill set, where he headed up the initial down-timer German recruits who signed on with the nascent American power. In the course of his scenes, most all involved small actions or battles by the NUS/CPoE/USE armed forces, save for his supporting role as companion and commander of his wife and Ambassadoress' military contingent in 1633—where his forces did skirmish with Channel pirates.

[edit] Sims family

Sims, Julie

— see Julie Mackay above and main article: Alex and Julie Mackay.

Julie's sniper/preferred hunting rifle: Remington .308 caliber Model 700, with ART-2 scope; Karen Tyler on uncle Frank Jackson's M49 spotting scope.^[29]

Sims, Henry 

Father of Julie Sims Mackay, town dentist Henry Sims is brother-in-law of Frank Jackson and fixes up Alexander Mackay's smile in bit of humorous romantic comedy for the Scots Captain would face worse than a dentists drill to gain an edge in pursuit of Julie, his "Queen of Hearts". Doctor Sims direct role in the books is minor to date, but like Mike Stearns and his brother-in-law Frank Jackson he doesn't care for Julie Sims football boy-friend Chip ______ either, and all approve of Captain Alexander Mackay.^[29] Gave Julie her preferred rifle three years back,^[29] and in the Virginia DeMarce short story "Biting Time" appears again in support as the family forces rally to convince Veronica to be fitted for false teeth.

[edit] Spen, Sir James

Sir James Spen, a Scottish general in the employ of Gustavus is probably an historical character and commands the king of Sweden's Green Regiment, making him the commanding officer of Alexander Mackay. Flint writes: "He was simultaneously the Swedish ambassador to England as well as the English ambassador to Sweden—and one of Gustav's top military commanders in the bargin."^[30] Flint portrays him as a confidant of Gustav on two occasions and presents a dialog between the two where Spens supports the reports sent about Grantville by Mackay as the pious Gustavus gropes with the manifestation of what he perceives as an act of God: "So be it. God's will, clear enough. Is Satan so powerful he could transplant a colony from the future? I think not!" He went back to rubbing his hands. "Besides, one cannot fixate on the problems. There is also the opportunity."^[31] In the same scene, Spens represents his faith in Mackay and his belief in the reports he'd sent about Grantville: Spens nodded firmly. "Absolutely, I've known him since he was a lad of five. I took him into my service more from my own high opinion of him than from the fact his father is an old friend."^[32]

[edit] Stearns, Mike and Becky

Inasmuch as Eric Flint has a set of central characters in the series, they are certainly the doting parents of Stephanie Stearns, who was born in (1632) the early winter of '32-'33 after the close of 1632— though nearly assassinated in her mom's womb by Wallenstein's Croatian cavalry before Jeff Higgins came to the rescue of both.

Flint has stated baldly, that he considers a story the main thread if either or both of these two characters are "doing something", excluding the many stories by other authors and other threads where they are included as "color" in a background cameo, even some short stories where they are more or less integral to the tale. In truth, the distinction is somewhat tough to draw as even the other main plot threads known to date has Mike or both appear as part of the storyline, usually receiving intelligence used to expand plot background or issuing a directive.

[edit] Stearns, Becky

or

[edit] Stearns, Rebbecca

Main article: Becky Stearns

Rebbecca "Becky" (Abrabanel) Stearns is a fictional character inserted into the historically influential far-flung Sephardic Jewish Abrabanel family, who according to Flint were frequently found in influential positions as "Court Jews" in various political entities of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Rescued by the UMWA posse at the Battle of the farm house early in the novel 1632, Flint almost immediately uses the burgeoning attraction between them to generate background on the state of the European Jewish population in the era and its little known historical struggles. This is a sub-plot of the overall greater conflict which has religious persecution and forcible official state churches as its constant backdrop and overarching great historical theme. The Abrabanel family and their description of little known persecution of the Jews during the late middle ages and into the modern era is revealed through dialog between the American up-timers and the down-time Jewish families that, in essence, come to believe the Americans and their freedom of religion can protect them as well. That use is continued throughout the series as a recurrent sub-theme, aided and abetted later on by the introduction of other Jewish figures such as the fictional Judith and Morris Roth, who anchor the East-Central and Eastern European thread revolving around Albrecht Von Wallenstein starting in the "The Wallenstein Gambit —and which is continued in the first long serialized novel of the plot sequence The Anaconda Project— and other members of the Abrabanel clan and other Sephardic Jews such as Don Francisco Nasi who becomes one of Mike Stearns major political aides and Director of intelligence for the United States of Europe.

Rebbecca Abrabanel, more than any character in the 1632 novel is used to expose historical factors at play during the first novel and later stories. She is sent as an envoy to France and the Netherlands and with her embassy party elects to endure the seige of Amsterdam, which she turns into an opportunity to further the revolution in thought her husband is leading from Germany. In the event during 1633 she lays the groundwork and plants the ideas (aided by the ability to communicate with Prime Minister and husband Mike Stearns secretly by radio) that lead to a peace and an new stable largish kingdom in the low countries. As comes together over several books, large western portions of what became Germany, the French, Spanish, and Dutch Netherlands including the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg becomes a unified kingdom in 1634: The Bavarian Crisis. In the neohistory, in no small part because of Becky's work, France and Germany will have to deal with a populous, prosperous and unified largish nation in the European North Sea corner, instead of a host of weak disparate and divided small nations who can't prevent the larger nations from invading every 25 years or so.

[edit] Stearns, Michael "Mike"

Main article: Mike Stearns

Michael Stearns is the most frequently appearing central character moving and shaking the universe of 1632. A United Mine Workers Union official, Stearns dropped out from college and was a prize fighter for several years in California. After losing his lady love under tragic circumstances, Stearns returns to a union career and raising his younger sister Rita when his father took ill and died some years before the time line of the first novel. Having a core group of other union men around him at his sisters wedding, organizers like Harry Lefferts and friend Frank Jackson Mike and his men are deputized by Chief of Police Dan Frost when he is shot by Catholic mercenaries immediately after the Ring of Fire event. He opposes John Simpson a few days later in a town meeting, and finds at the end of the encounter he has been elected by acclaim as Head of an Emergency Committee heading up the towns early efforts to survive the war torn early seventeenth century. Subsequently, as circumstances in the neo-history evolve governmental forms and circumstances, he is successively elected president of the New United States, Prime minister of the Confederated Principalities of Europe ((CPoE), and first prime minister of Gustavus II, Emperor of the newly formed federated republic, the United States of Europe (1632 series).

[edit] Stone Family

The Stone family is the invention of series guest writer Mercedes Lackey in the Ring of Fire story "To Dye For" headed by pharmacologist-hippy "Stoner" Stone who is particular adept with recreational extra-sensory stimulatory compounds, especially in growing a potent variety of Canabis in the family greenhouse. "Stoner", in the series is an extremely laid back character that becomes famous in Europe as Doctor Professor Stoner, and is named as the medical attache in the New United States of Europe's first Embassy delegation sent to the Most Serene Republic of Venice during the 1634: The Galileo Affair which is set in the winter of 1633–34 and following spring through July.

[edit] Stone, Frank

Frank Stone (Faramir Stone) —The oldest of Stoner's three sons, Frank Stone is a central character in 1634: The Galileo Affair where he first does everything in his power to delay the Venice committee of correspondence from a zany idea to rescue Galileo from the authorities of the Inquisition, and when dupped along with everyone else in the committee, winds up becoming the de nomine leader of the rescue attempt. He takes a further foray onto center stage in 1635: The Cannon Law when he elects to attempt to start a business and a Rome chapter of the Committee of correspondence.

[edit] Stone, Gerry

Gwaihar "Gerry" Stone is the youngest of the three Stone brothers, and has "Stop-sign Red" hair that genetically makes it quite certain that he is not Tom Stone's natural son. He is nonetheless treated as one by the "responsible hippie", who was left with all three boys when all the "old lady chicks 'split' with the girl-chicks" from the Lothlorien Commune circa the late eighties, and he's been parenting them ever since.

[edit] Stone, Magda

As a daughter of the guildmaster Karl Jurgen Edelmann, Magdelena Stone was a spinster in her early thirties wasting away doing the books for her father's business — until a delegation from her town visited Grantville and she met her soul-mate, Tom Stone. His initial courting was received with favor as the family was impressed with the wealth on display in Grantville, at least until her father decided "Stoner" wasn't the man of means he'd mistaken him to be. The romantic personal personal growth journey from crushing blow to triumphant groom is told in Mercedes Lackey's story "To Dye For" in the anthology Ring of Fire.

Stoner goes on to apply his pharmacological knowledge aided by the High Schools science department to develop simpler (early era) antibiotics such as Chloramphenicol, and some sulfa drugs as well as the insecticide DDT—some of which were detailed in examples in reference or text books—most of which are still in use in today's third world countries as they are easy and inexpensive to make compared to later developed alternatives used in developed countries. By early 1634, now firmly established as an increasingly rich and famous dye maker, pharmacologist and chemist; Magda accompanies her antibiotic, analgesic, and clothing dye developing wizard of a husband to a years posting to lecture at the University of Padua, as part of the Embassy sent to the Most Serene Republic of Venice.

Once there, she takes her husbands wealth and shows the business acumen which built it into a fortune, and turns the couple into the "wealthiest family in Europe" with the able assistance of Sharon Nichols in the novel 1634: The Galileo Affair. Shopping from a list of needed commodities put together by Grantville's Research and Development establishment and incensed by the cultural meme of only men have a head for business attitudes initially encountered in Venice, the two women aided by the jewish lawyer aiding the embassy proceed to fleece all comers and dominate the Venice and Baltic commodities markets in a comic semi-swindle where the two women use the power of radio communications to corner the markets for their entire shopping list, plus a lot more. After that bravura performance, she has dropped into the background in the series and is presumably happy counting Stoners money.

[edit] Stone, Ron

Registered Ronald Stone in the Grantville (Marion County) school system, the likely blood half-brother of Frank Stone was named "Elrond" by his (possible) father and the mother that abandoned him into the care of Tom Stone.

[edit] Stone, Tom

Tom "Stoner" Stone is a laid back non-businessman who "Tuned-In, and Dropped-out" in the early seventies, leaving Pharmacology graduate school at Purdue University to join the Lothlorien Commune outside Grantville. Enticed by a "chick" named "Lisa", she had the acknowledged biological son Frank (Faramir) and he may have fathered Ron (Elrond) as well by another mother, before "all the 'Old Ladies' left with the 'girl-chicks'" and the commune, now sans females, broke up, leaving Stoner in possession with three young boys. Gerry is definitely not his son as the flaming red hair attests genetically.

[edit] Sybolt, Red

Red Sybolt was introduced by veteran Science Fiction writer K. D. Wentworth in the "The Three R's" in the anthology Ring of Fire where he aids an emissary of Comenius of the Moravian Church. He is mentioned a few times as an old colleague, a master "labor organizer" (revolutionary) and close friend of Mike Stearns. He appears as a brief referenced party recommended to Morris Roth in Flint's "The Wallenstein Gambit" , and that early plotting finally began fruiting in the long awaited Eastern European Thread in The Anaconda Project (Serialized in The Grantville Gazettes beginning in Grantville Gazette XII of November 2007)^check .

[edit] Torstensson, Lennart

Count General Lennart Torstensson was a famed understudy of Gustavus Adolphus who in his early career primarily managed the kings artillery brigades. He appears in that capacity in several memorable scenes in the initial novel 1632, where the outcome of the Alte Veste was notably different than that mentioned below. In the novel 1634: The Baltic War Tortensten leads the land forces relieving the Seige of Luebeck, and takes overall command of Gustavus' northern armies while the irrepressible monarch conducts affairs of state with Prime minister Stearns and king Christian IV of Denmark. His force, assisted by uptimer General Frank Jackson chases the Danish forces from the region and then totally destroys the French army pinned in the base of the Jutland peninsula. Flint's depiction of Torstensson is as a mildly charismatic unflappable level headed man wise beyond his years yet open minded and still capable of bursts of youthful enthusiasm and wonder. For example he is presented late in 1632 marveling over and gushing about the machining of the new canons brought by the American delegation when they first meet Gustavus and duke Wilhelm. In 1633, he is a steady hand during the near riot that precipitates the transistion from the cumbersome patchwork of the Confederated Principalities of Europe to the more modernlike United States of Europe (USE).

The real Torstensson had an illustrious career and survived the fall of Gustavus, captivity (Alte Veste), serious illness, and became in time a Field Martial in the Swedish Empire of OTL. The 1911 Encyclopedia Brittanica gives this resume:

LENNART TORSTENSSON, Count (1603-1651), Swedish soldier, son of Torsten Lennartsson, commandant of Elfsborg, was born at Forstena in Vestergaland. At the age of fifteen he became one of the pages of the young Gustavus Adolphus and served during the Prussian campaigns of 1628-29. In 1629 he was set over the Swedish artillery, which under his guidance materially contributed to the victories of Breitenfeld (1631) and Lech (1632). The same year he was taken prisoner at Alte Veste and shut up for nearly a year at Ingolstadt. Under Bailer he rendered distinguished service at the battle of Wittstock (1636) and during the energetic defence of Pomerania in 1637-38, as well as at the battle of Chemnitz (1638) and in the raid into Bohemia in 1639. Illness compelled him to return to Sweden in 1641, when he was made a senator. The sudden death of Baner in May 1641 recalled Torstensson to Germany as generalissimo of the Swedish forces and governor-general of Pomerania. He was at the same time promoted to the rank of field marshal. The period of his command (1641-1645) forms one of the most brilliant chapters in the military history ,of Sweden. In 1642 he marched through Brandenburg and Silesia into Moravia, taking all the principal fortresses on his way. On returning through Saxony he well nigh annihilated the imperialist army at the second battle of Breitenfeld (Oct. 23, 1642). In 1643 he invaded Moravia for the second time, but was suddenly recalled to invade Denmark, when his rapid and unexpected intervention paralysed the Danish defence on the land side, though Torstensson's own position in Jutland was for a time precarious owing to the skilful handling of the Danish fleet by Christian IV. In 1644 he led his army for the third time into the heart of Germany and routed the imperialists at Jiiterbog (Nov. 23). At the beginning of November 1645 he broke into Bohemia, and the brilliant victory of Jankow (Feb. 24, 1645) laid open before him the road to Vienna. Yet, though one end of the Danube bridge actually fell into his hands, his exhausted army was unable to penetrate any farther and, in December the same year, Torstensson, crippled by gout, was forced to resign his command and return to Sweden. In 1647 he was created a count. From 1648 to 1651 he ruled all the western provinces of Sweden, as governor-general. On his death at Stockholm (April 7, '1651) he was buried solemnly in the Riddarholmskyrka, the Pantheon of Sweden. Torstensson was remarkable for the extraordinary and incalculable rapidity of his movements, though very frequently he had to lead the army in a litter, as his bodily infirmities would not permit him to mount his horse. He was also the most scientific artillery officer and the best and most successful engineer in the Swedish army.

His son, Senator Count Anders Torstensson (1641-1686), was from 1674 to 1681 governor-general of Esthonia. The family became extinct on the sword-side in 1727. [2]

[edit] Trout, Len

Len Trout is the Grantville High School Assistant Principal (British English: Headmaster) and school disciplinarian at the time of the Ring of Fire, and succeeds Ed Piazza as Principal. He is characterized as an early morning grump— with a need to stoke a low blood sugar level with three cups of coffee—each ladened with copious amounts of both cream and sugar, before one wants to cross his path^[33]—the Four Musketeers want to avoid annoying the next morning when they bed down on the rug of the Principals' Office. Trout is presented as a decent man and capable background figure aside from the grumpiness sans early coffee, and is killed off heroically in defense of the school gymnasium entrance when the Croatians force the doors in the Battle of Grantville High.

[edit] Wild, Larry

Larry Wild is one of the Four Musketeers introduced midway through the novel 1632, and is the central character in "When the Chips are Down" , which canonically reveals some of the problems and solutions incorporated into the Emergency Committee policy of Gearing down. Wild is killed in the 1633 Battle of Wismar while piloting the most capable speed boat, "The Outlaw", as the Grantvillers support Gustav's Confederated Principalities of Europe under the onslaught of League of Ostend naval forces accompanying invading expeditionary forces. His death, along that with aviator Hans Richter inspires the feelings of nationalism that shortly afterwards sweep through central Germany and result in the new stronger government of United States of Europe (USE) with Mike Stearns as first prime minister.

[edit] Wood, Jesse

Colonel James "Jesse" Wood was a retired United States Air Force tanker pilot and has been involved from the outset in the NUS/USE efforts to develop basic aircraft and build an air force. He is unpretentious and informal with a tendency to calmness when others would panic, perhaps necessary traits in the NUS air force's sole test pilot. He has a bent for organization and through the loss of his protégé, Hans Richter in the Battle of Wismar has developed a strong dislike for the opponents of the NUS and Gustavus Adolf.^[34] During the winter of 1633-34 Wood organizes a "message sending" demonstration to bomb Paris, and let Cardinal Richelieu know just what the up-timers and Gustavus's administration (now reorganized as the United States of Europe (USE) "Thinks" of France's and Richelieu's recent changes in foreign policy which resulted in the League of Ostend and a French army besieging Gustav in Luebeck.

[edit] Notes and references