The Grey Eminence - A Narrative/History AAR 1399-1821

bananafishtoday: You make a very, very interesting point in your post. Insightful...but I'm not going to tell you what it is! She isn't a Bathory though, I can tell you that without spoiling things.
John Forseti: The title of the piece WAS suggestive, I agree!
Arakhor: No, this one is Clarice. You've definitely summed up things well. You shall see which is true....
Sather/Aliasing What an interesting comment....
Edgewise: I know...but then I always shout at the TV in horror movies "Don't go in there you stupid person!" For some reason they never listen....
Morrell8: The evidence is...suggestive, yes.
Sethanon: Yeah, but then things wouldn't be as fun! You'll see the answer in...a few updates.
Quicksabre/Loki: Very true. Any sudden departure would be...noticed.

Thanks for your kind words!

Chapter 18a – The Reformation

Summarised from Chapter 5 of ’Britannia Triumphant’ by Lady Mendenhall.

Queen Caroline inherited an untenable situation from her grandfather. The system of religious toleration allowed drastically reduced royal control and lead to the spread of strange and unusual sects. Some of these, such as the Istrians and Downers, begun to question fundamental assumptions about the state and monarchy itself.
Caroline was an intelligent woman, but she was also utterly determined to protect and extend the rights of the monarchy and England as a whole. Therefore, she had only two options. She could seek closer communion with Rome and vigorously suppress heresy by force. Alternatively she could break with Rome and work on the far harder task of converting the people of England and France to the new faith.
In the end Caroline took the momentous step of abandoning the old faith and converting to Protestantism. This was a major step in the history of the Reformation simply because no large state had taken up the new faith, only small German and Dutch city-states.

Why did Caroline do this? Why did she turn her back on a thousand years of religious tradition? Why did she convert to Protestantism?

That perhaps is the question most asked by people then as now. The answer is not simple, and comes in many forms.
Firstly, relations with the Papal states, so strong under early monarchs, had declined noticeably under Henry IV, and into Caroline’s reign. Unhappy at the tolerance given to heretics, angered at English refusals to join a crusade against the Turks, and chauvinistically opposed to a woman ruler, Pope Paul II very nearly excommunicated the Queen in 1529. So bad relations with the Pope was nothing new, but combined with other factors, it made the situation ripe for change.
Secondly, Church assets and properties controlled massive areas of England and France, and with so much wealth stored there it was a tempting target for seizure.
Thirdly, many people, especially in France, had become Protestant anyway, sometimes as a means of rebellion against the crown. Converting would nullify this, though would of course alienate the larger Catholic majority.
Fourthly, Caroline has a plan to fundamentally change the state. With the help of advisors such as Arthur Cabot she sought to change matters to be better for the overall majority of English people. However, this plan required land, it required money, and it required bargaining chips.
Fifth, Caroline had been married to Scottish noble John Lennox, himself a Protestant. Though he never held any control over her politically, it was clear that he wished for their children to be raised Protestant, even before the official conversion.

Lastly, personal issues may well have dictated matters. It is known that as the young Caroline was growing up she was tutored by a Catholic priest, Father Isaiah Blake. Evidence from first hand sources confirms that the Princess was, in some way, badly treated in this time. The details are too unpleasant to relate, but one particular incident when she was fourteen seems to have permanently turned her against the Catholic establishment, fairly or not.

And so, on the second of January 1532 the Queen went before parliament. Now twenty five and recently married to the Protestant John Lennox, the Queen was beautiful, and even more formidable than she had been before now. Her speech, considered one of her best, followed months of bargaining and negotiation so that the vote which followed was a foregone conclusion.
With the consent of nobles and parliament the Queen officially declared that she was the head of the English Church, and that she would be instituting changes to the religious sphere. It was a monumental gamble, and such directness caught everyone by surprise.





Why did chaos not ensue and the Queen fall? The reason is that the Queen had a plan. Shortly after her call to parliament she ordered that all church and monastic property be handed over to her. An inventory carefully prepared the previous year had ensured that she knew exactly what was where. In a stroke the crown’s assets doubled, her income and spread of territory also grew. However, the Queen’s plan was not to keep it. Instead she sold off fully half the lands at cheap prices not just to wealthy nobles, but to relatively humble yeoman and cottagers. The only catch was that the purchasers had to be Protestant. In a stroke she had created a loyal, Protestant class dedicated to following her. Parliament was also greatly enriched by these changes, as were the nobility. The Queen even took over the running of the old charities and hospitals with the remaining church lands to gain support from the common people.
In processions around London and large towns she was cheered by the people. Even the progress of a large comet, now known to be Saint-Saëns Comet, was turned to good use as a sign from God of his approval.
In short the English Reformation, combined with tolerance and generous incentives to convert was the start of something truly amazing. It would not be long however before new problems would arise to threaten this settlement.

They do look similar, but Talena had blue eyes. Picture here:

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/lordvalentai/AAR Nations/1ATalenaMazari.jpg

However, it would be extremely coincidental if two such similar women existed...yes? Or is it?

morningSIDEr said:

(although if it is Talena, as seems to be suggested then he need not truly worry)

Click to expand...

An interesting statement. I wonder....

/end taunting hints.

Sather: I will agree that she is very different character wise, which may be important.
Chris Taylor: Lucille was blonde, correct. Very sound reasoning, especially the part about her being a duck!
Loki: She certainly is!
bananafishtoday: LOL! Nice one!
Sethanon: It will be twisty and surprising, I assure you.
morningSIDEr: Thanks. You've laid out some interesting options there. She's not Lucille, I'll tell you that now. The rest you'll have to wait and see!
quicksabre: Indeed, but are you so quick to assume we're in the same universe or time stream as those people? Maybe we are, maybe we aren't! Thank you.
Avindian: Well, the stab gain one was two years later, but yes, it was helpful. I had relatively few wars or any other bad things so I had very few rebellions early on.
morningSIDEr: Thanks again!

Chapter 19 – Turmoil

24/1/1820

John barely acknowledged the servants as he ran up the stairs to his room. He closed the door and almost fell onto the bed. Slowly, he calmed himself, took a deep breath, and begun to think. Now at last he felt he could rationally analyse the situation.
The room might have a rational explanation. It could be a trick…and yet. And yet there was something wrong, and he knew it. Suddenly, as if the sight of the paintings had done something to him, the pieces started to fit together. The picture they formed was strange, impossible, and yet he started to realise that it was true.
As he lay there on his bed there was a knock at the door. “Sir, dinner is served!” a voice called.
“No, not for me…go away,” John called, not really paying attention. The servant did not try again.

Lady Mendenhall was an enigma. She was an immensely wealthy woman, single, a Duchess, Countess and other titles all on her own. There was nothing strange with this in principle, but it was unusual.
The Lady’s husband had died some years before she said, but how long? Her Ladyship had come to the Orkneys nineteen years before – she trusted Forbes on that – and yet how old was she? No sign of family had ever been seen here, no paintings or portraits or other items. The excuse that they lived in America was possible, but strange to John.
Next was the collection of items, some of them truly valuable and priceless, but all now here, in this place. Surely a family over all that time would have sold off a few items, or some would have gotten lost.
Scrabbling on the bedside table John found the book on Kirkwall he had bought before. The list of the Earls and Countesses provided a strange sight. What was the chance that a noble title would descend for hundreds of years through the female line entirely? Since the laws of inheritance were prejudiced against them it seemed very unlikely.
Last there was the Lady herself and Tempest as well. The comments they made, the way they acted, the extraordinary power she held. It was too much.

But what did it mean?

John lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling for time without count. All these things were strange, all these things were odd. But together what did they add up to?
Something impossible.
At first his mind shied away from something which he knew was silly. There had to be a reasonable explanation for all these things. And yet, John knew there was not. The oddity started and ended with Lady Mendenhall. He should look at the picture as it was, not how he thought it should be. It was as though now his mind was clear and the truth came to him.

The hidden paintings. They showed Lady Mendenhall, the current one, dressed the same all throughout history. It was like she never changed, like she had been there all those times.

John Adams knew the truth. He knew the answer to all these strange things…and despite not fully believing it he stood and headed for the door. He wrenched it open and plunged out. He had to find Lady Mendenhall, had to learn the truth, had to get this turmoil and doubt resolved. He had to know if he was right….

This one is shorter because it's a filler. The confrontation is long...and trust me, the narratives get longer if anything as time goes on. This was a one off and is shorter because during editing I cut part of it because it belonged to a dead plot thread. One other reason it might look shorter is because I've pretty much stopped using pictures in the narratives because it's impossible to find what I want most of the time.

I could have rolled this into the next one, but I wanted Chapter 20 to be the big confrontation...so this one did this.

This might be a good time to explain that aforesaid mentioned dead plot thread.

Originally I had planned something very different indeed. Originally I had planned for her Ladyship to be holding another time traveller captive (Talena or another one), who John rescues, and they work together to oppose Lady Mendenhall. I rejected this though because I couldn't make a plausible story out of it, and I had a better idea of what I wanted to do.

So yeah, stay tuned for all manner of adventures!