A Little History - The kingdom of St. Maurice was established in the year 1675, When Louis-Phillipe I, at that time an itenerate Count in the French court, managed to lay hands on the deed to territory amounting to approximately the lower one-third of the current Alsace region. It took the new owner only a short time to realize that he was sitting on one of the more important trade routes connecting greater France (read Paris) in the west and Vienna in the east. Within ten years, no commerce operating between the two capitols was safe from the wholesale shakedown the Latrine family instigated and Louis-Phillipe had socked away enough cash to hire most of the thugs in eastern France.
When Louis XIV ordered the unfortunate Count to court to explain himself, Louis-Phillipe claimed he never got the message. When Le Roi Soleil threatened to send troops, the resourceful Phillipe declared the territory independent, made himself king and sent emissaries to all the major Germanic states as well as Austria seeking protection. This diplomatic juggling act survives to the present day (December 16, 1757).