Immediacy

**Immediacy** (*Rechtstreeksheid*) is a juridical concept of the Kingdom of New Tarajan, a privileged constitutional and political status rooted in Tarajani (and ancient Antanaresian) feudal law under which the estates of the Kingdom such as Free Cities, lordships, and (in extremely rare cases) individuals such as the member knights of some Royal Orders, are declared free from the authority of any local lord and placed under the direct ("immediate", in the sense of "without an intermediary") authority of the King of New Tarajan, and of some institutions of the Kingdom such as the Diet, the Landsraad, and the Royal Chamber of Justice.

Only estates entitled to immediacy can have a seat inside the Landsraad.

## History

The juridical concept known nowadays as *immediacy* was an almost natural result of the birth of the Kingdom itself, declared in 1595 when the Landsraad proclaimed Sigismund Heinrich II Van Vinkel first King of Tarajan. Until then, all the Houses sitting in the Landsraad (better known from their late definition of *Major Houses*) enjoyed a complete independence, acknowledging the theorical suzerainity of the Prince of Antanares. Far from being consensual, the proclamation of a King of Tarajan was obtained by House Van Vinkel with force of arms, but even after the catastrophic defeat suffered at the Second Battle of Himeraa, the Houses of the Landsraad retained a considerable power that could have been easily used against the Crown at the first chance (notwithstanding the possibility of appealing for help to an increasingly expansionist Antanares). As a result, the new King could not but acknowledge the traditional freedom and autonomy of the Houses of the Landsraad inside the framework of the new Kingdom.

As a result, those Houses that enjoyed a place inside the Landsraad were declared as *immediates* to the King, and their rights were confirmed and protected. This resulted in the creation of a strong, but extremely fragmented, aristocratic faction inside the young body of the Kingdom. In 1615 the third king, Heinrich IV (1613-1630) felt strong enough to attempt breaking the very delicate balance brought to being by his grandfather and precariously kept by his father and predecessor, Heinrich III from 1598 to 1613. The new king indeed issued the Capitulum Pacis, a royal constitution that, as the name itself implied, was ostensibly aimed at eliminating any reason for attrition between the Crown and the Houses of the Landsraad, and the Houses themselves. The Capitulum, however, was nothing less that an attempt to establish a more centralized monarchy not dissimilar to those of Duresia and, even more clearly, Eurasia, giving to the Crown the right of organizing and interfering with local administrations at every level, centralizing the collection of taxes (one of the fundametal rights of the Houses), and confiscating most of the castles and fortresses in the Kingdom, true symbols of the aristocratic power over the land.

The predictable result was the so-called Revolt of the Castles (1615-1616), that however resulted in a swift (and unexpected) victory of the Crown over the rebelling nobles, leaving Heinrich IV free to pursue his new policies for the next fourteen years, free of a now humbled Landsraad. What was not achieved by the revolt, came instead as the result of the power struggle between the two aristocratic factions that had consolidated their hold over the royal court in Merlberg during the illness of the king that ultimately had led to his death in 1630. This struggle, originally focused around the two figures of Queen Regent Elise Van Sondenburg (1630-1633 as ruler) and Duke Robert Van Aardenne, soon mutated into the fight between those supporting a strong monarchy against those calling for a restoration of aristocratic power. The resulting period of intermittent yet endemic war lasted for more then twenty years, spanning the reign of three different kings (from their name, the war is better known as War of the Three Sigismunds), and ending only in 1652, when Sigismund VI (1650-1669) issued the Second Capitulum Pacis. This new constitution is considered to be the founding document of the political organization that lasts until nowadays in New Tarajan.

By it, the Landsraad was officially recognized as the legislative body of the Kingdom as part of the States General. More importantly perhaps, its composition was crystallized by the definitive definition of those Houses that could claim a seat inside it, and those who couldn't. The dividing line was finally recognized to be that of immediacy, and the concept was thus finally and definitely stated in the Capitulum.

## Immediacy and the Royal Estates

A most common misunderstanding outside New Tarajan regarding immediacy and its consequences for the status of a House concerns those Minor Houses inside the Royal Estates, States under the direct control of the Royal House. The misunderstanding comes out of confusing the double role of the King as Head of State and as Lord (and thus Head of the Royal House, in itself one of the Major Houses). In Tarajani constitutional law (and its feudal predecessor) the two figures are clearly and accurately kept distinct. As a result, the Minor Houses of a Royal Estate are submitted to the King as their Lord, and not in his role as Head of State of the Kingdom; thus, their position is, under all points of view, a *mediated* one. It is to be noted here that the only element distinguishing the Royal House from the other Major Houses sitting in the Landsraad is that its rule is spread over more than one Estate, a result of the political and military successes that allowed House Van Vinkel to rise to power, and of the right of Prelation it enjoys under the wording of the Second Capitulum.