Kingdom of Westernesse

Galtia | Westerness

State of the Kingdom

The Kingdom of Westerness is broken; no king has sat on the throne for 18 years. When the invaders attacked the Duchy of Gilmore, the kingdom rallied to defend the western shore. King Joseph Payne sat on the throne, and his two sons, Baldwin and Joseph II led the king’s forces into battle. They both died during the war. The ensuing plague after the war proceeded to claim a third of the kingdom’s population, which included the king. Hilda, Joseph’s wife, had previously died during childbirth of their third child, Lina, and he never remarried. When the war broke out, Lina was seventeen, and had traveled abroad with her aunt and uncle to Cathan. When both the war and the following plague had passed, word was sent to retrieve the remainder of the royal family – but their ship never made it and was presumed lost at sea, thus ending the Payne reign.

Per the original Charter of Rule, the Kingdom of Westernesse was divided into three duchies (Gilmore, Landon, and Lyonesse). The old laws did account for the end of a royal line and allowed for two dukes to appoint a new king. The laws did not account for a devastating loss of life and financial collapse of the kingdom, with the duchy of Gilmore in shambles and the duke dead, the Duchy of Landon in the hands of a reagent, and only the Duchy of Lyonesse with a surviving duke. In different times, were the Duchess of Lyonesse to have designs for the throne, she could have seized it, court rulings be damned. But it’s taken almost two decades to recover as it is; any meager forces she had at her disposal were needed to maintain order and protection of her own duchy, the thought of seizing control of the kingdom would have been foolish, if impossible.

It is important to have a sense of the grand picture, because now it is time to understand what is happening in the Duchy of Landon. Landon is divided into five Earldoms: Headow, Highside, Kent, Oldhaven, and Scatterby. At the time of the invasion, Duke Miles Wensley ruled fairly. His second wife Margery was with child (his first wife had died young), and his two sons, Rolf and Edward were both knights of the realm. Miles appointed a reagent as was the custom when heading into battle, and the three men led the forces of Landon against the invading elves and gnolls. Many accounts of heroic battles and epic clashes of steel and magic will be told for years to come. But heroism has a price, and all three of them died in battle. In the ensuing chaos, Margery fled the capital and, like so many others, seemed to vanish into smoke.

In addition to the loss of the duke, the Earl of Kent, Cuthbert Glenham also died in battle. By some miracle, the remaining four earls all survived. They are Lord Randall Gage, Earl of Highside, Lady Ursula Myllet, Earl of Oldhaven, Lady Grace Brocksby, Earl of Headow, and Lord Robert Ratcliff, Earl of Scatterby. Lord Leonard Gorney is the duke’s reagent, and he is also the cousin to Countess Brocksby. No earl rules Kent, and the cities and towns have largely fended for themselves these past years. While law and order continue to be a challenge, particularly in keeping the roads safe and the borders secure, the lack of taxes has led them to become complacent about the shape of things.

The authors of the Charter of Rule did have provisions to account for various transfers of power, and while the document is hundreds of pages long, there are four very specific laws that have come into question. The Right of First Arms states that “If the Kingdom is at war, and an earl and his heir is killed in battle, and there is no duke, the captain of the Earls's Guard can lay claim to the title as a military privilege.”

The second law of import is The Right of Third Rule, and it states that “If the Duke dies without an heir and no king sits on the throne, the remaining Earls can appoint one of themselves as Duke. It requires three Earls to ratify the appointment.”

The third law of import is the “Twenty Year Law of Rule”. It states that, “If no Duke sits on the throne and with no heir apparent, and neither is there a King, the Reagent becomes Duke.”

The last law to be aware of is called The Law of Intercession. It states that, “Without an Earl, or Duke, the member towns of an earldom can petition another earl for an intercession - granting that earl to name a reagent to act in the missing earl’s place. The member towns are those listed in the charter document for the earldom.”

All of this brings us to the present. In twenty months, Leonard Gorney will be crowned Duke of Landon if nothing stops the proceedings. The most likely event would be three of the earls to appoint a duke of their choosing; however, Lady Grace Brocksby (of Headow) and Lord Robert Ratcliff  (younger son of Reynold Ratcliff, who passed away a year ago) (of Scatterby) are at an impasse with Lord Randall Gage (of Highside) and Lady Ursula Myllet (of Oldhaven). Lady Brocksby supports her cousin becoming duke (or a legal heir). Without a fifth earl to break the tie, this would seem to be an eventuality.