Your Majesty,
If I may ask, how are Your bastard children now that the succession change has been made? The demands of the letter have been met, so I would expect them to be safe again - or aren't they? If the author of the letter has seen that you are giving in so easily to their demands, then I expect whoever did this to proceed in the same way if there is something he wants. I would suggest to try not to grow too attached to whatever person in the future, and if You do, then to protect them as much as if it was Yourself. A monarch has to be able to rule, not to be dictated his decisions by some ominous person that stays in the dark. If His Majesty has his doubts, the Council is there to provide whatever advice is necessary.
This recent problem brings me to the matter I want to bring forth. What now if the blackmailer wouldn't just aspire to change the succession, but for You to abdicate Your crown of one of Your many kingdoms to a foreign claimant, such as Portugal or Naples? Given Your very understandable reaction to the first blackmail, they would expect You to give in, a choice much harder than before. Either lose one of Your loved ones, or lose a crown of the empire. Hispania has to prevent it with all possible means. We should try to find any claimants to Your kingdoms and have them renounce their claim, whatever necessary. Still, there will always be a claimant the people will be able to rally behind. Another solution would be to crown few selected amongst Your loyal subjects as kings within the empire. The ultimate recognition for their service, creating more loyal powerful vassals and eliminating this threat. Each Emperor of Hispania would crown the kings to serve him in the various kingdoms of the realm, strengthening their pledge of loyalty.
I am praying for the well-being of Your children, may You have brought them to safety wherever they are now.
Your loyal servant,
Denis Vincent de Monstégur, Duke of Trinacria and Chancellor of Hispania
I can assure you that I will not put this empire in danger, nor abdicate my crown. I may have been pressured into changing succession, but the outcome of that decision is not necessarily detrimental to Hispania. The court seemed to agree with the decision, so perhaps it was the right choice after all. Either way, the state of my children is my own concern and I will not allow them to be used against me.
I do not know of any claimants outside of my own family that are not already dead. The Aviz family that ruled over Portugal was exterminated by their primitive overlords, the Castilian branch of the Trastámara family was long ago merged with the Aragonese branch, and I do not know of anyone who could lay a sufficient claim to the rest of the empire. Perhaps the Greeks may make a claim, but I do not want to press them any more than I must. I simply do not know what those involved want, so I could well be playing into their hands with such things. I have not heard from them in years, so perhaps that is the end of it for now. It seems that inaction does not provoke them and it also does not seem to harm the empire, so for now I will not be making any unnecessary changes.
- His Imperial Highness, Pere V de Trastámara, Emperor of Hispania, Caesar of Rome, & Protector of the Greeks
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((Private))
In the dank dungeon-like basement of an old building somewhere in Hispania, a figure waited in the shadows. The plan had progressed slowly over the past few years. There were still obstacles to overcome, pieces of the game that needed to be removed from the board. The emperor had changed succession, but was that enough to ensure everything went to plan? No, anyone that stood in the way had to be eliminated from the picture.
The sound of footsteps alerted the figure to another presence. A brutish man stepped into the torchlight, making sure he did not come too near. The figure remained in the shadows, a precaution to maintain a secret identify.
"Have you found them?" the figure asked in a muffled voice.
"The two bastards have been located," the brute said. "What do you want me to do with them?"
The figure remained silent, thinking over the dilemma for a moment. It was time to make a move. No one could stand in the way.
"Eliminate them."
"As you wish," the brute said with a nod before leaving the room. The figure waited a few minutes after his footsteps had receded before leaving as well. If everything went to plan, yet another threat would be removed soon. Yes, things were proceeding nicely.