Count Heinrich

Count Heinrich is the Emperor’s favorite and appointed governor of the bishop’s city, where he restores civic order during the plague-era disruption but rules in a way that alienates its citizens. His encounter with Goldmund makes his authority personal and consequential: he sentences the homeless wanderer to hang on a theft charge, while Narcissus secures his pardon through negotiations that also involve concessions to the count.

Appointment and Rule

During the plague, the bishop fled the city, leaving a breakdown of order and safety. The Emperor, who happened to be in the region, dispatched Count Heinrich to govern. With a small force of horsemen and soldiers, the count restored order, but his rule imposed hardships on the citizens. By the time Goldmund returned, people had grown tired of Heinrich and his court, including his mistress Agnes, and the city council preferred the expected return of the bishop to dealing with the Emperor’s favorite.

The count’s position was not merely local. Narcissus later explained that Heinrich served as the Emperor’s executor in various matters, at a time when issues between the Emperor and the religious order needed to be settled. Narcissus had come to the city as one of the order’s delegates to negotiate with him, though the negotiations had achieved little success. The account thus places Heinrich at the intersection of civic government and a wider political contest involving the Emperor and the religious order.

Encounter with Goldmund

Goldmund became interested in Agnes after seeing her ride past and learning that she lived at the castle as the governor’s mistress. He pursued her attention for two days, repeatedly appearing where she would see him; on the third day, she arranged to meet him away from the castle. Their liaison led Goldmund into the castle’s inner rooms, where Agnes tried to conceal him when the count arrived.

When Heinrich entered the dark room carrying a candle and an unsheathed sword, Goldmund gathered dresses and coats to make himself look like a thief. The count found him and questioned him. Goldmund described himself as a homeless poor man, but Heinrich treated theft as sufficient grounds for execution and also raised the possibility that Goldmund had approached Agnes. He ordered his men to bind the prisoner, take him to the dungeon, and hang him the next morning. Goldmund did not resist as he was led away.

Sentence, Negotiation, and Pardon

The sentence was not carried out immediately. Two priests passing the bound Goldmund learned that he had no confessor. One insisted that even a man accused of theft retained the right to confession and the sacraments, and arranged to speak to Heinrich that evening before the prisoner could be taken away. This intervention delayed the execution and asserted a religious protection within the count’s exercise of secular power.

Narcissus then secured Goldmund’s release. When he found his old friend in the prison, he told him that he had been pardoned and had been sent to take him away from the city. Goldmund later learned that Narcissus had pleaded for his life during the previous night. The political context complicates the rescue: Narcissus’s delegation was negotiating with Heinrich on behalf of the religious order, and Goldmund was not told that his life had been secured at the cost of concessions to the count. When Narcissus asked whether the arrest for theft had been genuine, Goldmund explained that he had been visiting Agnes and that the count likely knew it. Narcissus answered that Heinrich was capable of bargaining.

Character and Narrative Function

Heinrich’s conduct links personal authority to political leverage. He presents Goldmund’s presence in the castle as a theft case and orders a rapid execution, despite the possibility that the real offense concerned Agnes. The intervention of the priests establishes a procedural limit on that power, while Narcissus’s negotiations reveal how a pardon can depend on political exchange as well as friendship. Heinrich remains a powerful figure in the episode, but the narrative does not make him the center of the rescue: his authority is checked first by the claim to religious sacraments and then redirected through negotiation, allowing Goldmund to leave with Narcissus.