Subj : Re: Peace] 6B repost 2/3
To   : All
From : yl112@cornell.edu
Date : Mon Jul 17 2000 04:27 am

From: yl112@cornell.edu
Subject: Re: Peace] 6B repost 2/3



On Wed, 12 Jul 2000, Michelle & Boyd Bottorff wrote:

> After some time, two of the men carry a chair out of the fancy wagon.
> It's not too ornate, but obviously not at all a practical item for a
> group that needs to stay on the move.  The chair is set by the fire, and
> the king sits down in it.

Edgar's eyes narrow.  Either they haven't been out here long, they 
haven't been much challenged...or they're good at keeping themselves 
alive.  From the organization he's seen, Edgar is reluctantly betting on 
the last.

> "My name, as I told you before, is King Liance IV.  I am the rightful
> king of Cantada.  Now, you probably haven't heard of me, and that's
> quite normal.  The man who most acknowledge as king does not want you to
> know what I am going to tell you.
> 
> "You may remember the story of Queen Rila-- this was about 100 years
> ago."
> 
> Well, yes, you *do* remember the story.  It's a hard one to forget.
> King Edgar II, ruler over 100 years ago, had summoned the Duke of Wold
> to the royal castle.  The stories differ on what precisely happened, but
> while the king and the duke were discussing a marriage contract for the
> duke's daughter Rila to then-prince Macadin (later King Macadin II),
> Rila eloped and married on of the duke's barons.
> 
> Again, stories differ on *why* events followed the way they did, but in
> the end, both the marriage contract and the completed marriage were
> allowed to stand.  Rila married both men, spending a year with each one
> at a time.  The baron later received the title of earl-- again, the
> stories differ on *why* he got the higher title...
> 
> ... but one of the more popular versions involves the one son from the
> marriages...

Edgar winces, guessing what's to come and wishing that royals--like his 
grandpa--would have more sense.

> "She ended up marrying both the king and another man, an undistinguished
> baron from her father's holdings.
> 
> "Well, the arrangement was that she would spend one year with one
> husband, then one year with the other one.  And that whenever she left
> one husband for the other, she would wait until after her menses to have
> any marital relations with the husband she joined.  If her usual cycle
> did not occur, then she would rejoin the one she had left.
> 
> "In the seventh year of the reign of Macadin II, Queen Rila left the
> royal castle to go to her other husband the first day of snowfall that
> year.  Five weeks and two days later-- a whole five weeks, mind you--
> she returned to the royal castle, claiming to be pregnant with the royal
> heir.  She was getting on in age-- by this time, she was 37 years old--
> so everyone accepted this claim.  After all, if the child was male, it
> would solve the problem-- even the desire-- of unbroken father to son
> succession.  And the baron obviously had no problems with it.  Later
> that year, he was made the Earl of Sniegrass.  And his child would later
> take the throne.

Edgar looks with amusement at the current Earl of Sniegrass and wonders 
if that historical Earl had such a spoiled temperament, too.

> "Five weeks.  It only takes three weeks from the end of one cycle to the
> beginning of another.
> 
> "Everyone turned a blind eye to the events... except my
> great-great-grandfather, who was the brother of Macadin II.  And should
> have received the throne.  But what could he do?  Popular sentiment was
> in favor of this child, both from the common people and the other
> nobles.  People *want* the king to have sons.  They *don't* want the
> queen bearing bastards, even if the other marriage was legal.
> 
> "So my great-great-grandfather held his peace.  After all, even if he
> wasn't the king, he was given sizable holdings in the south.  He could
> live comfortably, even without the throne.
> 
> "But that was 100 years ago.  Back then, the desert south of here was
> fertile, and my great-great grandfather was a rich man.
> 
> "Now, all that's left of my lands is scrub and brush.  The wealth of my
> family has flown to the winds.
> 
> "And so I have been forced to take to brigandry to try to raise funds to
> reclaim my throne.  My men are still few, but we grow in numbers daily.
> And I will regain my throne, or die trying."
> 
> He pauses.
> 
> "And *when* I regain my throne... the first thing I will do is outlaw
> polyandry."  

"I can see why," Edgar mutters.  "Majesty...is it the wealth and high 
living you're looking for, or the throne itself?  It's not for such as me 
to say, but it seems all that power comes at a bloody lot of 
inconvenience."  He reckons this Liance for a bit of a romantic, but he 
could always be wrong.

YHL

--
|Fidonet:  yl112@cornell.edu
|Internet: scott@conchbbs.com
|
| Standard disclaimer: The views of this user are strictly his own.


---
 # Origin:  (1:106/357.99)
 * Origin: ConchGate (1:106/357.0)

.