He had succeded to the title of Freiherr von Drachenshorst upon the death of his father, Freiherr Ulrich von Drachenshorst in a tournament at the age of 45 . Günter was Freiherr Ulrich's only legitimate son. Much given to the exercise of the droit de seigneur (the "right" of the first night which entitled him to take the virginity of any bride he chose to before her husband had access to her), Freiherr Ulrich had begotten literally dozens of bastards, so that Günter had numerous half-brothers and hal-sisters, but no legitimate siblings.

Günter, a fine horseman and a passable swordsman, despite his father's death in one, was passionately devoted to tournaments. His other passion was the pursuit of whatever virgins his father had left in the tiny barony. He was more discriminating and selective than his father and, therefore not as active sexually and though he had deflowered a number of virgins, he had yet to beget a surviving bastard.

He had got one Elsa with child who had died in childbirth, as had the child. He was as unaware of that fact as he was that he had earned the undying hatred of Elsa's suitor, a youth of 15 named Klaus Eisenschmiedt, who called himself Klaus, Freiknabe im Oberdrachenfels, a parody of a title of nobility, for, though he was a bastard of Freiherr Ulrich and therefore Günter's half-brother, of course, his illegitimacy denied him any claim to nobility.

He devised a bold, half-mad plan for revenge which depended on Freiherr Günter's recklessness. The young knight was given to charging at full gallop down the forest road, lance in rest, as if he were competing in a tournament. He had run down a few peasants who had not got out of his way fast enough, without even looking back. There was a very straight, wide, level stretch of the forest road where the Freiherr could be counted on to charge at full gallop.

One warm day in May, 1432, Freiherr Günter von Drachenshorst left his castle, followed by his entourage, on his way to a tournament. The Freiherr was armoured cap à pie in full plate armour, nearly 300 pounds of steel, on a charger, similarly armoured.

Firmly gripping his lance in his right hand and the reins in his left, he charged at full gallop, having left his slower and more cautious companions far behind, down the straight and level portion of the forest road. He hardly noticed out of the corner of his eye, his vision blocked by his bulky helm, a youth clad in green tunic and hose and wearing over his head a black hood with eyeholes, like that of an executioner, who ran out of the forest on his right, the west directly toward him. Most peasants ran away from the charging knight.

The stripling had timed his run so that he reached the road just as the charging knight drew abreast of him. To Günter's utter astonishment, the lad leaped up and seized his lance, pulling the point down into the road. Acting as a lever, the lance lifted the Freiherr up out of his saddle and his charger ran out from under him.

For an instant, before the lance broke, Freiherr Günter hung, balanced on his lance some two yards above the road. Then he fell heavily to the ground on his right side. There was much clanking and clattering of steel and snapping and cracking of bone. Even had he been uninjured, the unhorsed knight could not have risen because of the great weight of his armor. He rolled over onto his back like a beetle turned onto its back, ineffectually waving his left arm and leg. He seemed to have no use of his right limbs.

The green-clad youth ran into the woods on the west only to return carrying a heavy oaken cudgel. Ignoring the Freiherr's screams and cries for help. he knelt before Günter and unbolted his brayette [a kind of steel protective cup held in place by a toggle-bolt] and threw it aside. He lifted up Günter's chain mail skirt, exposing his privates, raised the cudgel over his head and brought it down on the Freiherr's unprotected male organs. Three times he struck, reducing Freiherr Günter's manhood to a mass of unrecognizable mangled flesh.

The knight's base-born assailant ran into the woods on the west until out of sight of Freiherr Günter and there discarded his club and the black hood, exposing the golden hair and handsome face of Klaus Eisenschmiedt, bearing the unmistakeable features of a descendent of Ulrich von Drachenshorst.

Then he ran up a forest path parallel to the road, crossed the road unseen, and entered the forest on the east side of the road, bound for his home, the village of Unterdrachenfels, well south of the place where Freiherr Günter had met his fate.

Hearing Günter's screams, his entourage spurred their steeds and soon reached the fallen knight. By this time, he was unable to speak, but it was at least evident that he had been unhorsed by someone who had then brutally and indecently attacked and destroyed his privates.

In order to move Freiherr Günter, his friends had to remove as much of his armour as possible. Then they made a litter of their lances and cloaks and gently transferred him to it. That he survived being carried in this fashion nearly three miles [German miles, of about 5000 feet] back to the castle is surprising, but he had been a robust, healthy young man. That he was never to be again.

At Schloss Drachenshorst, there was a monk skilled in medicine who acted as the Freiherr's personal physician. Brüder Athanasius had the rest of Günter's armour removed and surveyed the damage. It was gruesome. The right shoulder, right elbow, right hip, and right knee were all broken and there were compound fractures of the long bones of the forearm and thigh. The remains of the genitalia had to be removed in their entirety.

It was impossible to restore the movement of any of the broken joints. They would have to be set in a particular attitude permanently. It was decided, with the concurrence of the Freiherr, that the bones and joints should be set in a seated position with the right arm bent as it would be in grasping a scepter. Thus he could occupy his baronial throne and be carried about the castle in a chair. Of course, he could never walk or ride again.

The presence of blood in his urine indicated injury to his kidneys which would probably shorten his life. The question of the succession , therefore, arose. If he should die young, who would succeed him ? Having no legitimate siblings he had no nephews who could succeed him, though he did have a first cousin, Ruprecht, whom he detested.

Pointing out that he was not dead yet, Günter brushed these considerations aside for the moment . Of far greater importance was the apprehension of his assailant. Freiherr Günter was absolutely certain of one thing: his assailant came from Oberdrachenfels on the west side of the forest road . After all, he had seen the youth flee into the woods on the west.

As soon as he had recovered to a sufficient extent that he could receive visitors, he had all of the young men and youths of Oberdrachenfels between the ages of 14 and 18 brought to the castle for interrogation. He did not hesitate to put to torture those who seemed suspicious to him. Indeed, he regarded torture as a trial by ordeal, a legitimate legal procedure. If one of the suspects failed to survive torture, this was prima facie evidence that he was the culprit.

Inasmuch as his assailant had destroyed his testicles, Günter did not hesitate to have the testicles of the suspects crushed to obtain a confession. One suspect in particular, a red-headed 16-year-old named Hans Zimmermann, whose attitude was rather disrespectful, attracted his attention. Hans was the right height and build to be the assailant. Unbeknownst to the Freiherr, Hans had a grievance against him and had he had the ingenuity to plan and execute the attack, might well have been his assailant.

In one of his mad, reckless charges down the forest road, Günter had run down and killed Hans' best friend. Hans found it difficult to conceal his hatred and also his glee at the Freiherr's mangled condition, of which he had learned from rumours circulating in the village. Günter not only had this boy put to torture, but witnessed it himself.

Hans endured the ordinary tortures such as branding in various inconspicuous places upon his body and extraction of his fingernails with pincers, but, when his testicles were crushed under a pile of paving stones, Hans went into shock and soon died. Freiherr Günter exulted. Hans had failed the trial by ordeal and, therefore, must have been his attacker. The Freiherr was satisfied and the matter was closed.

Klaus, in Unterdrachenfels, never displayed any suspicious knowledge of the attack on the Freiherr. While in Zauberstein am Rhein, many miles to the south and outside the Freiherr's domain, to purchase tools for his stepfather, the smith, Klaus had his green garments dyed bark brown, a common colour for the clothing of peasants. No one, even in Unterdrachenfels ever suspected Klaus of the attack upon the Freiherr, especially now that the assailant had been indentified and put to death.

The problem of the succession remained, however. It was obvious that the Freiherr was not in good health though not in immediate danger of death. Günter was determined that Ruprecht should NEVER become Freiherr of Drachenshorst. One day, his tax collector, Wilhelm Schönhaupt, mentioned to the Freiherr that he had seen in Unterdrachenfels a young man who looked enough like Günter to be his brother and who was said to be one of Freiherr Ulrich's bastards./

It was not without apprehension that Klaus received a letter from the Freiherr's amanuensis inviting him to visit Freiherr Günter at the castle.

Unless he were a suspect, why did the Freiherr want to see him ? But, the case was said to be settled, and if he were a suspect, why invite him to the castle, why not just arrest him ?

With mixed emotions, Klaus made haste to comply with his lord's wishes. Arrived at the castle he was shown immediately into the Freiherr's presence. Gunter stared at the handsome youth before and exclaimed "Gott im Himmel !" Du siehst echt wie mich wenn ich um fünfzehn oder sechszehn war." ["God in Heaven ! Thou lookest exactly as I when I was fifteen or sixteen."] How old are you ?" " I shall be sixteen next month, my lord."

"I was told that you look enough like me to be my brother...and, of course you are, aren't you ?" "Yes, my lord, Freiherr Ulrich von Drachenshorst was my father, by way of the droit de seigneur." "Yes, if you were legitimate, you would be a von Drachenshorst. And...you...may...yet...be." Klaus could not conceal his astonishment.

"I can never beget a legitimate heir to the title of Freiherr, for reasons which we need not go into. I have no nephews to inherit the title. The nearest possible claimant is a cousin whom I have specifically excluded from my last will and testament. Yet, the title must not fail of a successor or the King will assign it to another. To keep the title and fief in the family, it must be inherited by a von Drachenshorst of our bloodline. Except for the technicality of legitimacy, you are as much a von Drachenshorst as I.

I am prepared, therefore to undertake legal proceedings to legitimize you. The King may well have the authority to do this; if not, I have been assured that the Holy Roman Emperor does. Are you willing to be made a von Drachenshorst and my younger brother ? To say that Klaus was thunderstruck at this turn of events would be a very great understatement.

Mustering all of the composure of which he was capable, Klaus bowed his head and said "I would be both a fool and a churl if I refused. I am deeply grateful, my lord. I accept."

"You are well-spoken and courteous, but there is much which you will have to learn in the few years left to me before you are fitted to be a Freiherr. You must live here in the castle with me and learn the arts of war and peace, diplomacy, formal speech, horsemanship, swordsmanship and ever so much more. Fear not that my effort to legitimize you will fail. It will not.

And it did not. In due course, Klaus, formerly Eisenschmiedt, became Klaus von Drachenshorst and , upon Freiherr Günter's death from kidney failure at the age of 33, Klaus became the Freiherr in his 26th year.