Records: the accession of Edward IV

## **King Edward IV** hit the ground running...

Two days after the passing of his father, Edward IV convened an official Royal Court that looked very much like the one he'd assumed and had been managing for a year now.

### **The Royal Edicts**

The new King proclaimed several Royal edicts, any one of which would've shaken England to the core, but together signified that while his son had Merlin's magic, Edward was going to channel Arthur's leadership. *Those edicts included:*

* The Statues of Kilkenny were repealed and revoked. Using the justification laid out by his elder son, he endorsed the political philosophy and enacted it.
* On that wavelength, Edward forbid English Courts to be used as a method of income. Justice was not served as something to be purchased by the highest bidder. Especially for someone that had lost a just cause to a higher bidder, this turn of events simply made them drop to their knees and praise God.
* Likewise, the new king rescinded the Edict of Expulsion, claiming divine inspiration to live closer to what Christ the Anointed actually said and did (and was).
* On that note, King Edward unilaterally outlawed torture, standardizing punishments for normal crimes, emphasizing restitution and correction, rather than retaliation and retribution. All instruments of torture still in the Royal inventory (and there were a few), were burned, the remains purified by prayer, then melted for scrap.
* The banning of serfdom. This was the final English blow against an insidious form of debt bondage slavery. This struck certain portions of the aristocracy *hard*, especially given the ongoing labor shortage, but instantly rocketed *King Edward **IV*** to absolute superstar status with the commons.
* Banning unfair rents, eliminating sumptuary laws, and heavily modifying the 1349 Ordinance of Labourers and 1351 Statute of Labourers.

Altogether, this addressed the serious concerns of the English countryside. Near-unthinkable just a few years ago, the education of centuries of context and evolution hit Edward like the Word of God. While the aristocracy saw this is an unabashed reach toward populism, that same appeal neatly flipped the discontent that had been festering – and would've manifest in the 1381 Peasants' Revolt.

### **Wardrobe vs Treasury**

Further findings from the *Council on Monetary Affairs:* tying the royal fortune to the national fortune was inherently dangerous for the Royal Household, especially given catastrophic events like plague and war (which England was suffering on a regular basis).

A separation was made between the Crown Wardrobe and a new *Royal Treasury*.

* To increase security, the Crown divided the wardrobe and changed accounting procedures.
* Taxes, oversight and audits were limited to the Royal Treasury.
* The Crown Wardrobe was neither negotiable nor subject for discussion.
* As long as the Treasury had operational funds, the Crown could move money over a certain threshold (£30k) into the personal wardrobe with impunity. If necessary, the Crown could lend money back to the treasury.

### **The vesting of Palatine interests**

Having started the rectification of England, *Edward IV* conferred all of the expected titles upon his son and successor, *Crown Prince Edward of Angoulême*. Significantly, things were shifting to acknowledge the role *Prince Richard of Bordeaux* had in maintaining and preserving the natural lines of succession.

* ***Crown Prince Edward of Angoulême***
	+ Prince of Wales
		- The same Wales that was currently suffering partial rebellion. For his part, Edward accepted the honor in fluent Welsh, surprising the audience enough to affect politics in the region.
	+ Duke of Cornwall
		- Cornwall is the furthest, most southwesterly corner of England (with Penzance at it's tip). Likewise, Edward accepted the honor in fluent Cornish.
	+ Earl of Chester
		- Concurrent with the Prince of Wales title, Chester (on the northeast border of Wales and not that far south of Scotland) was decidedly English. As such, Edward (native French speaker) accepted the honor not just in English, but in the Chester dialect.
* ***Richard of Bordeaux, Prince of Aquitaine***
	+ Richard was born there (as was his brother), but the area was still enthralled by the *Glow Stones* that young Rick had sent through Bordeaux. Richard had never raised a sword in combat, but he was still venerated as a war hero.
		- It didn't hurt that he'd gone on to learn fluent Gascon, a dialect of Occitan.
	+ The principality was an evolution of the region as a duchy, originally under the supremacy of Frankish kings, then English (with pure French battling to be next). Gascony and all areas of southwestern France, including the currently-held Bayonne, would answer to Aquitaine.
	+ There were even thoughts of breaking it off as a declared independent Kingdom. From there, if they followed suit with Ireland, Scotland and Wales as separate kingdoms, the Crown of England could be considered an *empire* rather than a monarchy...

## **The Coronation of King Edward IV**

Two weeks after the death of Edward III, the official mourning, the new king's edicts, there was a need to keep England moving. This was a period of upheaval, and a stately processional wasn't going to win the big war. Still, it all started with the local audience – and what momentum their experience generated moving outward.

### **The Processional**

There were certain realities of the time, one of which was that there was no reliable and regular news reporting outlet (in the world). This made elements such as the health of the king entire hearsay until people saw it for themselves. This had a bearing on the kingdom and the ability to rule it, with such factors as the health of the king having ultimately having an impact on every day life (change in the crown usually resulted in upheaval of some sort somewhere, usually led by men with swords).

For that, the day before, there was a processional from the Tower of London to City of Westminster. This let people see the King, the Queen Consort, the Princes and immediate family of the Crown.

### **The day of the Coronation**

As planned and expected, the Coronation of the British monarch itself took place in Westminster Abbey, just west of the Palace of Westminster. As planned, it was conducted by the now-controversial Archbishop of Canterbury Simon Sudbury.

There was the recognition and oath.

There was the anointing and crowning.

The Lord Great Chamberlain presented the spurs, which represent chivalry.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by other bishops, presented the Sword of State to the Sovereign. The Sovereign was then further robed, this time receiving bracelets and putting the Robe Royal and Stole Royal on top of the supertunica.

The Archbishop delivered several Crown Jewels to the Sovereign:

* First, the Orb, a hollow golden sphere set with numerous precious and semi-precious stones. The Orb was surmounted by a cross, representing the rule of Jesus over the world; it was returned to the Altar immediately after being received.
* Next, the Sovereign received a ring representing the "marriage" between him and the nation.
* The Sceptre with the Dove (so called because it is surmounted by a dove representing the Holy Spirit) and the Sceptre with the Cross (which incorporates Cullinan I) were delivered to the Sovereign.
* As the Sovereign held the two scepters, the Archbishop of Canterbury placed St Edward's Crown on his head.

All cried "God Save the King", and placed their coronets and caps on their heads as cannons were fired from the Tower of London.

### **The presentation of *Excalibur, Reborn***

Fitting, now that the Crown was officially on Edward's head, that it was the turn of the Royal Order or Merlin. Technically, this was the beginning of paying homage – and the ROM edged out the clergy in this case.

It was known that Edward III’s original 1344 plan was to revive the Round Table of King Arthur, though that never came to fruition. The best he'd managed was the Order of the Garter, and it carried connotations from this legend by the circular shape of the garter. These were the things on people's minds as the coronation had been filtered through Prince Richard's *high-security* preparations.

The members of the Order of Merlin marched out – not in Wizard's Robes, but in knight's armor that had the *hum* of magic. There, they presented a sheathed sword at the rear of the abbey.

Richard took the sword, held it aloft, and announced: “Excalibur, Reborn!”

People guessed what was coming and it *still*surprised them. He unsheathed it by a quarter, nearly blinding everybody. There were cries, shouts, and a few faintings. He laid it upon a royal purple pillow with four golden doves at the corners and walked it down the main aisle. The blade was glowing in golden-white light – eliciting gasps from the entire abbey.

Prince Edward re-sheathed the sword – and as he did, the golden doves turned real – again startling the audience. “Father, may God’s peace forever follow the wake of this sword.”

The doves split, one landing on the shoulder of the Crown Prince, one on the new King, another on the Queen Consort, and the last upon the Archbishop’s shoulder.

The king unsheathed the sword entirely and held the shining blade aloft, as he'd been coached – though he was surprised to feel the power coursing through it. In his hand, the golden aura seemed to extend over King Edward himself.

The Princes dropped a knee, in military coordination, and bowed their heads. In perfect unison, they – *and the armored Royal of Order of Merlin* – shouted: *"Edward, True King of England!"*

A good deal of Westminster Abbey broke down into tears, overcome with emotion. For those with good vision, who could see through watery eyes, it appeared as if the doves bowed before taking flight. They fluttered away, out through an open window, some imagined as if returning to God.

Though they tried, the audience couldn't hold back sobs. They were quite sure they had just witnessed a string of miracles.

### **The Homage Processional**

It took a moment for the collected witnesses to collect themselves after the *Presentation of Excalibur*. The power was palpable, a silent vibration that seemed to flow through their souls. People on the streets would speak of the moment that the Order carried the sword through London. They'd felt it pass by – *and now Excalibur itself was in the hands of the Rightful King of England*.

Perhaps more than ever before, there was a feeling that all was right with the world.

Then began the homage processional. In order:

* The collected clergy.
* Individually by the Royal Family.
* A procession of the peers by rank, starting with:
* John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster , the one duke of the realm.
* The earls: Richard FitzAlan, 9th Earl of Surrey, Thomas de Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick, Robert de Vere, 9th Earl of Oxford, Margaret, 2nd Countess of Norfolk, Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March, Edward de Courtenay, 3rd Earl of Devon, William de Montacute, 2nd Earl of Salisbury, William de Ufford, 2nd Earl of Suffolk, John Hastings, 3rd Earl of Pembroke and Hugh de Stafford, 2nd Earl of Stafford.
* Then it got complicated. Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent, was Queen Joan’s oldest living son and (and technically princes' half-brother…). Edmund of Langley, 1st Earl of Cambridge, was a younger brother to the King. Enguerrand de Coucy, 1st Earl of Bedford, was a French diplomat married to Isabella of England, Edward III’s daughter… and now again stuck between a rock and a hard place). Keeping the family connections tight, John IV, Earl of Richmond (alt-future Duke of Brittany and former husband of Mary Plantagenet, a now-deceased daughter of King Edward III). Then there was Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Buckingham, the youngest of the king's brothers, elevated in Edward’s last moments of semi-lucidity – *the same Thomas whom now-Edward IV had relieved of the position of Constable of the Realm*(though allowed him to keep Pleshey castle in Essex as a consolation prize).
* There were thirty or so barons to follow before the official processional of homage concluded.

### **Conclusion of Ceremonies**

The passage of pomp and circumstance was meant to drive home the authority of the king. Indeed, the recent edicts to nobility and commons alike needed gravity behind it, and perhaps the ceremony might've been sufficient. But that question was never considered after the presentation *of a demonstrably magic sword*.

Excalibur itself was intimidating, but Excalibur in the hands of Edward the Warrior gave the royal prerogative a kind of dominant authority that wasn't easily captured in words.