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Today, I'm thinking about the sad tale of Agnes Bernauer - a woman of modest means who led a short life some five hundred years ago in what is now Bavaria. 1/. 
As is not uncommon, we don't know much about Agnes growing up - rare to know much about a commoner, rare to know much about a women. All we know is that she *may* have been the daughter of a barber-surgeon from Augsburg. /2
We don't even know how and when she met Albrecht III, the future Duke of Bavaria, but meet him she did, and left an impression on him. She was apparently, stunningly beautiful for the age. Soon, she was his mistress - some suggest they married. /3
There is the suggestion that Albrecht met Agnes when letting off steam (ha!) at a bathhouse. In medieval Germany, a bathhouse was a place where men could have a hot soak, drink a bunch of wine and carouse with women. If true, many would have considered this scandalous. /4
Soon enough, Albrecht's father, Duke Ernest of Bavaria, began arrangements for him to make a good marriage. This was an age when 'tactical' marriages not only led to the accumulation of wealth, but strategic defensive arrangements. He was eager to get a good match. /5
Now, Albrecht could have lied, or quietly worked out a compromise regarding Agnes, but he didn't - it seems he told his father he already had a wife. Duke Ernest was incensed - his son had thrown the safety and security of the Duchy into doubt. /6
Yet Ernest did not act straight away. He waited until early October of 1435. on a day when Albrecht was scheduled to go for a hunt. Ernest's men then arrested Agnes on suspicion of witchcraft, and after a cursory trial, took her to a bridge on the Danube. /7
There, on the 12th of October, 1435, Agnes Bernauer was drowned, at the town of Straubing. When Albrecht heard, he fled and threatened to go to war with his father However, the pair soon reconciled and Albrecht made a more 'suitable' marriage. /8
Albrecht obviously felt some remorse and anger over what had happened - he paid for a memorial in the church in Straubing. Obviously didn't feel enough to get the date of her death wrong, however. /9
I'm not sure why I'm thinking about Agnes. Maybe it's a rumination on how institutions grind up individuals. Maybe it's a reflection on how institutions are used to do the dirty work of the powerful. I don't know. Maybe I just want the name of Agnes Bernauer to live on. /FIN
That should be 'get the date of her death RIGHT'. Mea culpa.
