Albion in Descent

Albion in Descent
by Dan McCollum
6 June 2002

With the death of Aethelred II the Magnificent in SE 417 [1189 CE], the great Deputate of England entered into a period of stagnation and decadence. The nobles, angered by many of the Deputy’s reforms centralizing power, attempted to re-exert their authority over the Deputy and England itself. FN1 In 418, after much bickering, they elected Aethelred's 9 year old son, Harold IV, as Deputy. As Harold had not yet reached the age of majority, the nobles then named a regency council which was to be overseen by Derrick of Northumbria. Derrick was one of the most powerful landholders in the North, and was also Harold’s uncle, being married to Harold’s elder sister Eadgyth.

Derrick set about reversing back many of the reforms of Aethelred, weakening the Deputy's Judges to near uselessness, and repealing several key sections of the new legal code. In three short years, he was able to undo a lifetime of work. The Regency also cooperated closely with the English Holy Thing FN2 and severely persecuted the Wyrdians FN3 and other Submissive heretics.

In SE 422 [1194 CE], still only thirteen years old, young Harold went boating with several other sons of the nobility. Although the seas were calm that day, the ship must have traveled into unsettled waters, for the Deputy was said to have fallen overboard. Three days later his body washed up upon the shore. The suspicious death of the Deputy caused a crisis in England. Derrick of Northumbria, long the power behind the throne, now made his move to become Deputy in name as well as in fact, based on his marriage to Harold’s sister. This did not sit well with many of the other nobles of the country who now feared that Derrick was growing too powerful and must be stopped.

Insisting that the next Deputy should be a member of the old royal house, these nobles denied election to Derrick and instead shifted their support to the ailing Ragnar of Bath, a distant cousin of Aethelred who also possessed the stunning credentials of being 73 years old, blind in one eye, and nearly deaf. It was thought that he would not cause any trouble, and by and large he did not. Ragnar ruled for 4 years before succumbing to tuberculosis and dying.

In SE 426 [1198 CE] the nobles once again met in York to determine who would gain the vacant Deputyship of England. Derrick of Northumbria once again attempted to assert his claim, going so far as to seize the Deputy’s palace and the English treasury in York. However, Erik Hakonson, Speaker of the Holy Thing, condemned Derrick and raised the city of York against him. Derrick’s supporters deserted him in the face of Erik’s opposition, and he was seized and beheaded.

With Derrick’s attempted usurpation put down, the nobility picked yet another cousin of Aethelred, Alfred I of Wessex. FN4 Alfred was a bland and uninspiring figure who would rule competently, if not greatly, for 9 years before dying in battle against Irish raiders. In SE 435 [1207 CE] his son, Alfred II, was chosen to succeed his father. It was not realized until later, and much to the horror of the nobles, that Alfred was a very different character than his father.

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