King

## Sources of the King's Power

The king is an absolute monarch. He sits atop the pyramid of society, admired by his lords, approved (reluctantly) by the clergy, and acclaimed by the commoners. All of his kingdom is his personal possession. The power he wields over others comes from a variety of sources.

### Martial Prowess

The ultimate test of a man in the Sword Age is whether he can beat you in a fight. Many kings wield their authority from behind their guards and knights.

### Ownership

The king owns all the lands, forests, mountains, rivers, and coasts of his kingdom and can do with these as he pleases. The agreements made by everyone before this are codified in the Ancient Law, a body of law that has been enforced and handed down since the children of Adam and Eve came to the island.

In ancient times, the people and leaders agreed to the laws of hospitality, kinship, leadership, and property that everyone knows today. The king rules using established political and administrative organizations handed down to him. He and his landholders all know exactly what their rights and responsibilities are.

To men of power, the kings and dukes and counts of the land of Britain, there are three types of people: fighting-men, commoners, and nuisances who are full of self-importance and try to usurp the prerogatives of the fighting-men (otherwise known as clerics.) When Uther’s brother, Aurelius Ambrosius, became king he confirmed the lands and rights of the many men of power, and granted various rights to others. This way he organized the warlords to defend his best lands. He secured regular tax collection, established a stable currency, and fought against Saxons, Scots, Irish, Picts, and his neighbors until they agreed that he was High King of Britain.

### Income

The king is the richest man in Britain. He is the head of four separate financial systems:

First is his feudal right which is based on giving land to subsidiary warlords in return for them leading knights and soldiers. The king and his court visit each baron regularly, at the warlord’s expense.

Second is the royal income, which collects money from the extensive lands that the king owns. Payments are based on Ancient Law, with set values that have been paid for several generations, as long as no war interrupted them.

Third is the king’s coffer. Certain funds, determined by tradition, go right to the king and into his personal coffers. There is no record. Only the king and his cofferer know how much is in there. Some kings use it to pay off gambling debts to their men, to pay for the appearance of their “silent servants” for a night, convince an enemy to change sides, or whatever other personal whim they have. Kings are often stingy and greedy, except to their warlords and household, and the rumor that “he paid from his coffer” means something extraordinary is going on, or that the king lost a bundle at dice again.

Finally, the royal forests provide an entirely different resource to exploit. The king loves hunting deer in his forests, and also loves the considerable income they generate. The Forest Laws are completely separate from other legal systems, as is their accounting. The chief royal forester never passes his collections through the exchequer or treasurer, but delivers them directly to the chamberlain for his accounts.

#### Feudal Incidents

The king has three particular royal rights that affect his enfeoffed nobility, and hence are distinguished as “feudal”. These are a cause for noble concern, as these all affect their inheritances.

##### Escheat

When any property-holder dies the crown seizes all his land and goods, does a complete investigation to find the proper heir, inventories everything to make sure it is all in good order, and then calculates any addition to previous service they must pay. Even with living heirs this might take years, and the crown meanwhile collects all revenues from it.

##### Primer Seizin

An inheritance tax paid with a relief. When the escheat is done, the king receives from the heir, provided he is of full age, one whole year’s profits of the lands.

##### Wardship

To take care of underage heirs and heiresses during their minority, and to administer their lands. The warden also has the right to choose a husband (for a fee), and collects the relief for it. It’s not unusual for the warden to himself marry a female ward, if it will advance his status.

## The King is Law

Rank has its privileges: Ancient Law gives the king certain rights and powers. Rank also has its responsibilities: to protect the populace and to enforce the same Ancient Law.

### Ancient Law and Custom

We literate people today have an inadequate conception of a world without writing. However, most of human history has been without it. Instead of documents and records, people rely entirely upon oral culture to preserve and share rules and laws. This is called tradition, customs, culture, or just “the way it is.”

Tradition is always conservative and resistant to change. People do not comfortably abandon what has been done “since the beginning of time.” They know that life is precarious at best, and any change endangers the delicate balance of survival.

Ancient Law and Custom is precisely that set of practices and beliefs that has been handed down since Adam and Eve. To everyone concerned, it is fixed and how it is done. Ancient Custom includes those things that people do, and Ancient Law are those things that can cause a person to go to court.

### Writ

A royal writ is a command from the king. It is a law, a statement of fact which must be honored, whatever it says. If it is contrary to Ancient Law and Custom, then it must be obeyed anyway and later brought up as a complaint in court. No one is outside the command of a writ, not even the dukes and the greatest barons.

The chancery is a large body of scribes who copy the king’s commands into formal legalese, in duplicate. Either the chancellor or another court official affixes the king’s seal and dispatches them by royal messenger to the sheriffs of the counties in which they are to be executed. This body of clerks was put together by High King Aurelius Ambrosius in his reorganization.

Only the king may issue writs. He delegates part of this power, however, to his courts of exchequer (for cases concerning money) and to his justiciars (concerning violations against the king), whose writs are no less important.

## Royal Protection

The king extends his protection to all his people, and also to licensed merchants and foreign diplomats in his country. If anyone harms or even threatens them the king will seek out the offenders for his justice as if he had personally been harmed.

## Royal Favors

The king has a royal privilege to be generous for any or no reason. An act of such generosity is called a favor.

A favor is a special privilege or right that is given by a superior lord to another, which indicates approval, affection, and benefit. The recipient of favors is the favorite. This term is often used disparagingly in historical studies today, especially for several kings’ friends who were subsequently scapegoated and killed. However, in such circumstances it is because these unhappy victims were usually favorites who received great gifts of land, titles, and privileges, but who had no other credits or credibility other than that given them by the king. The nobility protested mightily about what they saw as abuses of their ancient rights, but in truth any of the complainants would have been happy to receive the same favors.

The king’s favorites are also called his familiares, literally his “family.” They are the men who are familiar with his thoughts and plans, and who can be trusted to do what the king wants. They are advised on his secret counsels, on his hidden plans, and on his innermost motivations. They are qualified to do his work. Any betrayal of this familiarity is always a deeply hurtful thing for the king; and doubly so for the treacherous lord, who will certainly suffer from the king’s anger.

## The King's Ire

The king has a royal privilege to be angry for any or no reason ~ the royal ire. This is testament to the absolutism of the monarchy that has developed in the wake of the Roman abandonment. There is logic to it, since he can do whatever he wants, either good or bad. Nor ought anyone expect to know why a king acts, what he knows, or how he feels ~ that’s the job of his favorites.

When the king is angry, he creates consequences, and can turn all of power against anyone in his kingdom. It may be real anger for an insult or breaking a vow, or it may be said to be one thing but really be another. Victims of his anger may use every defense they have within the law, but they never expect to really know why, what, or who provoked it.

The expression of his anger includes one or more of these increasingly severe steps:

### Formal distraint

The sheriff (with his levy and local knights if necessary) will capture and impound all the livestock on the offender’s estate.

### Destroy chattels

Anyone may take anything that the offender owns which can be moved (called chattel). In this circumstance “destroy” might mean “confiscate and keep.”

### Slight the castle

To “slight” means to destroy sufficiently to make the defenses useless.

### Loose officials and neighbors

Lords are invited to engage in private war against the offender.

### Licensed jacquerie

The peasants of the offender are encouraged to revolt, destroy, run away, or to join other lords.

### Disseizin

The king cancels the offender’s seizin ~ the right to hold his properties.

### Seize person

The offender is to be an outlaw, and everyone in the kingdom is required to arrest and hold him if possible.

## The King's Mercy

Just as important as the king’s arbitrary ire is his ability to forgive. When the outrage is over it is done, whether it was legal or personal. Rebels, traitors, and murderers who are forgiven by royal decree bear no taint afterwards ~ the honor lost from the royal rejection is recovered. Often, the king even returns all the properties he disseized from the former victim of his anger.

## The King's Army

Britain lives in a Sword Age, when “might makes right,” fighters fight, and commoners take flight. The king must be stronger than his enemies, and he is a paragon of battlefield skill and courage. His household knights are practically rabid in their eagerness to kill and die for him, and his warlords have sworn to fight hard and well (at least for the length of their sworn service).

The king’s personal army is not the largest in the land. However, he always has many or most of his barons along to help, and together they are larger than any rebellion or invasion.

Cavalry are armored riders armed with sword and especially a lance. Their favorite tactic is to charge with lances against a foe to get among them, and then to hack their way free to regroup and do it again. Cavalry may include knights and cavalrymen (non-noble horsed warriors, also known as mounted sergeants).

Knights are a fairly recent innovation, having been codified by Aurelius Ambrosius. They differ from cavalry in that they have sworn eternal loyalty to a lord. He favors them with the best weapons, horses and armor, and trains with them so that they are his elite. Each knight is served by a personal amigier, who is also called “squire. “

Foot soldiers are much more numerous than the powerful cavalry. Theoretically, the infantry forms a solid and reliable wall, and the cavalry can retire safely behind them to prepare for another charge. The foot soldiers are sometimes regulars, called soldeiers, who have some decent combat equipment, and more importantly, some experience in combat. Sometimes they are armed with bows or crossbows. Often the general levy is summoned, which includes all able-bodied free men, whether armed with sword and shield or with a hoe or shovel.

A group of five to twenty mounted men is called an eschille, or squadron.

A conroi is a unit or company, composed of several eschilles totalling 20-50 mounted men and 60-150 foot men. Barons typically lead conrois, which include varying numbers of those different types of combatants.

### The King’s Guard

Most kings, like Aurelius Ambrosius, have about fifty household knights close by at all times. These are the prestigious elite called the King’s Guard. They guard the court in peacetime and are the core of the royal army at war. About a hundred and fifty guardsmen are part of this body as well.

The men are all handpicked by the king or the captain of the guard, a high honor. At feasts they sit close to the high table and enjoy the same quality of food as the barons. They wear rich clothes, and receive the best horses and weapons available.

Assignment to the King’s Guard is not always permanent. For instance, some are the king’s familiars, and may be off on royal business. Knights honored with a fiefdom may take their leave from time to time to care for it. Family business may call a knight away. Less honorably, if a knight fails to please the captain of the guard or rubs the king the wrong way he may be dismissed.

In time of war, the king assigns ten to twenty knights and about fifty foot soldiers to protect the key members of his court, most of whom disperse to various garrisoned castles. (He does keep his personal chamber close by, even on campaign.) Other knights are given command of royal eschilles or conrois. He retains the remaining thirty to forty to surround and protect him at the center of the battle. At his command some or all of them may be sent to reinforce a weak part of the front line, or to charge at his side to execute a breakthrough against a weak part of the enemy line.

The king gathers more troops as he marches towards the site of the conflict, where he expects to find a larger local force waiting to join him.

### Baronial Armies

Each baron has a small army which he commands in war and in peace. Barons defend their lands and regions, respond to the king’s commands, and often muster under the command of their regional duke.

Logres, as an example, includes approximately 45 baronies. Each baron provides a prescribed number of men to defend his castle and protect his local people, and also to go afield with the lord for war. Each baron leads his own company. Numbers range from a single eschille, with an average of ten mounted and twenty foot, to a conroi of 20–50 armored lancers with supporting infantry.

Thus King Aurelius Ambrosius commands the Logres army of about 2,700 mounted troops in all. He and his barons have selected some of these to join the elite force of knights. Seven to eight thousand infantry may be mustered; as well as thousands in the peasant levy, which is ill-armed but capable of fighting other levies.

Seldom does the king summon that whole force. Saxons always threaten, and so some men stay home, exempted from battle to perform guard and garrison duty. Others may be excused because they are sick or wounded.

### Ducal Armies

Dukes were originally leaders of armored horsemen (dux militum), appointed by King Aurelius Ambrosius. After the defeat of Vortigern, Aurelius divided Logres into military regions called dukedoms, each with a duke in charge. Dukes are barons, but in addition to their barony, each holds lands as a gift of his office to pay for a larger army, making the duke the pre-eminent nobleman of the region and a Great Baron of the realm.

A duke is primarily a military office; other barons in his dukedom are not his vassals. However, if his sector of Logres is invaded, a duke has the power to muster any barons within his ducal territory to help. A duke’s personal army usually numbers between 80 and 160 knights, but swells to hundreds of knights for the full ducal army.

The ducal commands of Logres are:

* **Lindsey (north):** Held by the Count of Linden Pool.
* **The Saxon Shore (east):** Held by the Count of Caerwent, an old and very distinguished title with many honors.
* **The Vale, also called Silchester (south):** Held by Sir Ulfius, baron of the Castle of the Buck, Castle at the Loud Stream, and Stoneskeep.
* **Cornwall (west):** Held by Sir Gorlois, Baron of Castle Terrabil, Baron of Camulos’ Castle.
* **The Marche (Cambria border):** Held by Sir Edaris, baron of Leir’s Castle.
* **Glevum (Severn and Avon Valleys):** Held by Sir Eldol, Duke of Glevum.

### Royal Levy

Peasants can be summoned to war and battle by the king in case of invasion or rebellion. Although badly armed, and entirely unarmored and untrained, they are numerous, know their lands, and are sometimes inspired to fight for their homes.

### Garrisons

Castles are garrisoned by knights who own holdings nearby and rotate active duty there. Bowmen and spearmen are on permanent garrison in numbers sufficient to hold the castle.