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

morningSIDEr: Yes, I think he is, oddly enough. He reminds me a lot of Charles II in our real world; cunning enough not to cause a schism, but very much an absolutist.
Morrell8: I hope so too!
Range: Thanks!
Sethanon: Thanks man.
Loki: So it seems. But in what way, I wonder?

Chapter 28a: Sublime Absolutism

Summarised from Chapter 6 of ’Britannia Triumphant’ by Lady Mendenhall.

The remainder of the 1630s saw a fundamental shift in British politics. Never before had a monarch taken the monarchy into the places that Edward V now did. For centuries Parliament had been a body of advice and consultation, and also a way for the King to raise taxes. More than that it had become a way for the middle and upper class to express their grievances to the King in a formal way, and also provided regional representation.
However, there was nothing to stop the King not calling Parliament, and very little to stop him changing the country to a new path entirely.

For centuries the main problem had been taxation; the royal domains had been too poor to allow the King to ignore Parliament. However, as Edward was Duke of Flanders as well some of the most productive areas in the realm were there for him. By enforcing new laws on the peasantry in France and England he acquired the money he needed.





This change caused serious concerns in the nobility and middle class alike. As incentives the King gave away lands, titles and offices to those men who joined his cause. Others who opposed him had their lands confiscated and redistributed. Furthermore, new laws by edict imposed restrictions on the common people which had vanished centuries before.

Resentment was growing rapidly towards the King, but he managed to charm and cajole support. It was his succession though that would be the real issue. His son George was lazy, greedy and indolent. Few people wanted him as King, and it is clear that he would have made a terrible ruler…or possibly not.
One of the ironies of history is that looking back one can see things clearer, but cannot change them. While George would not have been a good King it is almost certain he would have not been as divisive, and therefore as disastrous as his brother.
Regardless, when George died in a hunting accident in 1639 (an event many believe was actually an assassination by his brother or opponents of his), Prince Edward became heir to the throne.





For all this though, King Edward still had some popularity, and he pushed through some important reforms in the 1630s. Some of these changes, enacted by decree, would have been opposed by Parliament. First of all, he reformed the military, introducing the use of firearms on a large scale for the first time in the cavalry. Later he annexed and conquered even more of France until by 1639 Britain dominated almost all of France.
















Edward V’s health had been declining through the 1630s, and when he died the same year as his elder son Britain was at a turning point. It had become almost uniquely powerful, but the key struggle between King and Parliament, Nobles and Commoners, had not been resolved. It was left to his son Edward VI to deal with. History would show that he was utterly unsuited to the role….





(Included a map for you.)

Sather: This game was weird in that most countries migrated, snake-like, to the east! By the end Lithuania ended up in the Crimea!
Morrell8: Thanks! And I fear Edward's fate is set to be far more...unhappy.
Quicksabre: Thank you!
bananafishtoday: Or worse....
Avindian: The EU3 screenshot taker won't let you take that front screen. I use Fraps and it comes out perfectly.
Sethanon: Yes, I set myself very clear goals, and it explains why IC Britain survived; they never pushed too far.
Loki: Spot on.

Chapter 29 – Parting Words

30/1/1820

The next morning a depressing sleet was still falling, making the stones slick and icy. John woke, having wrapped himself in three blankets to keep warm.
As he finished getting dressed a maid came in with hot water for him, and he shaved quickly before heading downstairs.
To his surprise, Sir Henry York was waiting for him on the landing. He gestured John to a door and led him onto the battlements. The sleet was turning to rain, and they found shelter under an awning.
“Did you sleep well, John?” Henry asked.
“Very well, thank you, sir,” John replied.
“Just Harry will do, I’m pretty sure I don’t deserve to be a knight.” He looked at John for a moment as though martialling his thoughts. “I wanted to talk to you before you left. You and I both know some of her Ladyship’s secrets, but by no means all. When I first met her it was in ’88, and I was a young engineer officer with nothing to do but sketch the sights of Paris, from the Parliament to the Union Brotherhood statue. But then came the Revolution and I was swept up with her….” He sighed as he remembered events more than thirty before.
“I know what it’s like, John,” he continued after a moment. “She’s pretty, I won’t deny it, and she’s unique. The dangers, the excitement, the struggle to prevent Paris falling, then our operations into France. I was there when the First Consul was captured, and so was she. And I learned the truth then too, and ever since then we’ve been close.” He seemed lost for words for a moment. “I need to tell you this because I want you to be aware that she’s not like us. In forty years you’ll be like me, and she’ll still look the same, that same charming smile. But, she will find someone new, someone younger. I went to the funeral of her previous ‘associate’, a great musician and artist, Sir Allen Ramsey.”
John nodded, though he was confused at the point. “But she’s been good to you hasn’t she?”
“Oh yes, don’t mistake my words as criticism. She has been kindness itself to me. The very reason I am a ‘sir’ is because of Lady Mendenhall. No, what I meant was that even after all these years I know so little about her. Where she comes from, how she is who she is. Also remember that even though she is very talented I do not think she is immortal. Look after her, John. I would be very loathe to have anything happen to her.”
“She always seems as though she has the answers,” John commented.
“No one, not even her, can have all the answers. And take good care of yourself. If I know anything you’ll be heading into some pretty dangerous times. Do you have a weapon?”
“Yes, but I’ve not loaded it,” John said.
“Let’s go and do that…just so it’s ready to hand if you need it.”

When they came down for breakfast Lady Mendenhall and Tempest were there already. Victoria was out strapping gear onto a carriage shielded from the rain.
“Ah, there you are. Nothing wrong I trust?” her Ladyship asked.
“No, no, just helping John here with his things,” Sir Henry said.
“Of course. We should get moving as soon as possible. I have gotten us passage all the way to London. If we leave now we should get there by late tonight.”
And so, when they were ready they headed for the train station. John gave a backward glance to Sir Henry York who waved them off. There was so much still to learn it seemed.

When they were safely on the train and setting off, John found himself sitting in a first class carriage beside Lady Mendenhall. Victoria and Tempest were elsewhere. The compartment they were in was private, with just the two of them. There were two long seats opposite each other, but John sat beside her Ladyship because he felt ill travelling backwards. At the end of the seats was an area for luggage near the compartment door. As the train headed through the winter landscape he found himself glancing at her Ladyship every so often.
Finally, she smiled and looked at him. “Go ahead and ask, John. I can see you will quite burst if you don’t!”
A touch embarrassed, John coughed. “I talked with Sir Henry. I…am I the latest in a long line?” he asked, not sure if this would upset her or not.
“Yes, but I don’t want you to feel as though that is demeaning in any way. John, I think you are a very talented man, and I asked for your companionship because I value it. I was going to tell you in good time about myself, but you figured it out far faster than anyone else. Look, don’t be angry, John,” she said, and to his surprise he saw she was almost pleading. “I need…I need someone to be with me. It gives me perspective, a moral compass even. If I was by myself for four hundred years I would quickly grow to despise most people for their wicked, corrupt ways, their greed, their ignorance. But if I have someone with me who can give me the lens of humanity…I can see the world as I should.”
“It must be hard though to watch…well…time pass,” he said. He couldn’t bring himself to mention death, though it was clearly there.
“It’s more terrible than you can imagine.” For a moment Lady Mendenhall seemed sad, her head bowed. “To see them all pass in time. The people I’ve loved, those I helped, even those I’ve fought. But, there are two ways you can look at it; John, a jaded and cynical view, or a more optimistic way. I’m not sure if I’ve made the world a better place, but I’ve tried.”
“I think you have. I’m happy to have met you, Lady.”
“And likewise, John.”
“I was going to ask-“ he begun.

And then someone tried to kill them. Whoever they were really had terrible timing!

Sather: Oh, she certainly does have crises of faith, that's for sure. You'll see one soon enough. Haha, glad you liked it!
Morrell8: I think it'd be a pretty anti-climactic story if they did!
Arakhor: Exactly!

Chapter 29a – Edward VI and the Crisis of Government

Summarised from Chapter 7 of ’Britannia Triumphant’ by Lady Mendenhall.

For centuries England and then Great Britain had largely avoided widespread internal strife. There had naturally been disagreements between the King and Parliament, and between English and French, but it had not developed further. Even the Reformation had passed by with relatively little strife. Indeed, so far had that progressed that by this stage over 85% of the population were Protestant at least publicly. The policy of allowing religious minorities to form specialised colonies aboard had also helped bleed off population.

However, King Edward VI came to the throne in 1639 with very different ideas about how Great Britain should be ruled. Influenced by his family’s upbringing and Swedish mother, Edward had grown up expecting that the will of the monarch would be obeyed by all in the realm. If for some reason it wasn’t then he saw nothing wrong with using force to impose it.
In many ways Edward was like his father, though different in a key way. Whereas his father was personally charming, manipulative and amoral, his son was religious, stubborn and arrogant. He was intelligent though, and a great lover of art, but he lacked that certain something that makes a good King; the ability to compromise.
Suspicion at the time and up until the present has maintained that Edward was Catholic, but there is no real reason to suspect he was. The King never married, so his dominant influences was his strongly Protestant mother and nominally Protestant father. While he may have flirted with the idea, he never showed it in public.



Within eight months of his coronation the new King was already embroiled in a crisis. The problem was that it had been customary for Parliament to be called on the accession of a new monarch so they could give their blessing to the new ruler.
Edward though did not like Parliament. He took very seriously the almost mystical traditions of his coronation, and sincerely believed that he was God’s chosen. The problem with this of course was that most in Parliament believed that the King was little more than a man, and that it was the country that was sanctified. The King meanwhile had found Paris a more peaceful home, and set up a semi-permanent court there, away from London and its Parliamentarians.

The Parliamentarians were angered that they had not been called for, and that they had been ignored for the last decade in Edward V’s reign. Thus, many of them assembled on their own, appearing in London and forming the so-called Defiant Parliament. Their leaders were two men; Edward Seymour (himself related to the King, and would be related to the later Seymour dynasty) and Thomas Cromwell.
Cromwell was a man of immense wealth, having made his fortune in Caribbean trade, then purchased himself a large estate and entered Parliament before Edward V last dismissed the body. Seymour on the other hand was royalty, though fully committed to the cause of Parliament despite this.





The King reacted to this body angrily by ordering them to disperse, and then sending a force of militia to Parliament. The palace of Westminster was closed to them though, and hostile London crowds forced the soldiers to back off.

The King had other bad news as well. To the south the grandson of Philip V of Castille, Enrique V, proclaimed himself King of a united Spain, his mother Maria having defeated and annexed the crown of Aragon a few years before.



In Normandy the Duke’s son Quentin de la Boucque, finding that the King had disinherited him rather arbitrarily in favour of a relative, raised rebellion. The forces he raised were considerable, as Normans had grown to resent the Grey’s heavy taxation and restriction on their freedoms. However, despite assembling a large army they were defeated by the King’s forces.





Despite this potent warning of royal strength, Parliament was now in something like open defiance against the King. The realm was split in two; with the King and his armies in France, and Parliament in England.
Parliament demanded to be reinstated by Edward and for full and proper elections to be held, as well as the King to listen to a petition of grievances called the Twenty Eight Pens because of the number of its authors.
Unwilling to compromise and angered at this defiance, the King enlisted several rather suspicious persons with the aim of eliminating the Parliamentary leaders, especially Seymour and Cromwell. The King, so driven by principle normally could not see how this one act would not only taint his character but also how it would drive his enemies to resist him all the more.

On the 19th of August 1642 Edward Seymour and his son Humphrey were travelling from Parliament to their home when they were ambushed by masked attackers. At the same moment, Thomas Cromwell and his young daughter Alexandra were leaving church when they were also attacked.
Fortunately for the Cromwells news had leaked out of the plot, and they were saved without injury.
However Edward Seymour and Humphrey were not so lucky. Humphrey, then only thirteen, was shot and killed, though it was probable that he was not the target of the shot. His father meanwhile was stabbed through the chest and died soon after.





Several of the assassins were captured, interrogated and incriminating evidence was found on them. Now with a martyr to the cause, and a fever pitch of anger, civil war was inevitable. Edward’s bungling attempt to terrorise his own people had utterly backfired, and the stage was set for dramatic and terrible scenes to come.

Well, I knew they had all the right conditions, but after two years still hadn't clicked the decision. I got annoyed and did it for them!

Also, during their war with Aragon I had also taken over Spain and annexed Aragon, rather than whatever absurd thing the AI was about to do.