Records: United Britannia joins the CMC

## **The Homecoming**

It had taken until November, 1381, for United Britannia to finally, formally join the *Commonwealth of the Magna Carta*. While many of the functions, including mutual aid and channel-specific communications  were still carried by Noble Plantagenet, the CMC had been formed specifically to assume many (if not most) of those duties.

In ways that echoes the difference between the Royal Wardrobe and the [National] Crown Treasury, the NP was the ultimate insiders group: the connection to the Royal Household itself as opposed to the CMC, which was connected to the greater government, the parliamentary affairs and so on.

In fact, the CMC had evolved beyond the inspiration of England and greater Britannia, and it had to: it now spanned two hemispheres and took point on facing into the conflict brewing behind the mish-mash of factor behind the *Incidence of Incidents*.

### **Paying their Dues**

The UB overlapped some of the same functions, including common defense, market, etcetera. That made the CMC an additional and expensive layer of insurance. The CMC "dues" are 2% of national gross tax revenue; what would go to the Crown (national) Treasury.

The UB was itself comprised of several sovereignties, so negotiated and partially paid on their behalf. The UB arranged that half the CMC dues are paid against the collective, coming from the UB itself. The other was 1% directly from the component countries.

The Rise of the Orks, however, had been one of the points that drove home the cost of the collective insurance was worth it, especially when the AoC was able to ride through a portion central eastern England and clear out a rampaging horde that the local Regiments simply couldn't break away to address given how spread out they were already were in the unending game of whack-a-mole with the quickly regenerating orks.

### **England vs Aquitaine**

Another hesitation from English Parliament was none other than national pride. England would enter the Commonwealth, and while they led the UB, they weren't in the driver's seat of the CMC. For reference, England contributed far more into the UB coffers than either Scotland or Ireland (much less Wales, Cornwall or the Manx). Likewise, Aquitaine paid far more into the CMC than any other component.

Aquitaine paid 5% of their gross revenue into the Commonwealth and thus... justified a permanent leadership position. Another 5% went to the church for health and human services, and 2% went to the Noble Plantagenet. For Aquitaine, this left 88% for every other project, from bridges to the military. This was one of the reasons that the military capital could afford to be high, but the rosters were comparatively short: keep the sustained expenses (wages and eventual pensions) under control.

### **Public Perceptions**

The opinions were universally positive, at least from the inside, and mostly positive from the neighbors. Still, the spin varied depending on geography. From inside, the Commonwealth was a brotherhood, a growing sisterhood and a fraternal order of free men.

From the outside, especially those whose sovereignty felt threatened, the CMC was an *empire*. That Aquitaine had a permanent leadership position made it a valid argument, justified or not. That Aquitaine itself was part of an empire of the Ricardian Crown (leading Arelat, Bohemia and France) only added fuel to the fire.

## **Current CMC Membership**

### **Eastern Hemisphere**

* The Kingdom of Aquitaine
* The Kingdom of Arelat
* The Kingdom of Castile
* The Principality of the Peloponnese
* The Kingdom of France
* The Royal Republic of Italy
* The Kingdom of Bohemia
* The Kingdom of Israel
* The Kingdom of Zion
* United Britannia

### **Western Hemisphere**

* The Principality of Kaskaskia
* The Duchy of Beothuk
* The Kingdom of Azteca
* The Kingdom of Mayapan