After Becoming The Tyrant

There was a little silence in the surroundings, the king's voice was soft, and he couldn't distinguish between emotions and anger.The nobles thought that the king asked this question because he planned to regard Earl Const as the early bird that needed to be dealt with.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

At this moment, Earl Const felt like a loyal minister who bravely dissuaded the tyrannical monarch in ancient times.In order to show the determination of the nobles not to back down, this letter of advice was drafted and written by Earl Const, not his scribe. [1]

Earl Const replied sonorously, and was ready to speak eloquently on the spot if the king refused.

The nobles applauded him lowly, calling him "extremely brave."

"There are three misspellings and four grammatical mistakes." The king picked up the quill and signed his name on it, then raised his head and looked at Earl Const with a half-smile, "I will send someone to read it later. Write teacher to go to your castle, I hope I can see a qualified document next time, this should not be difficult for you, right?"

Earl Const's expression was blank.

There was a moment of silence in the hall, and then people burst into laughter.

It was an impolite thing to do, but it must be said that it made the air much happier.

I don't know which narrow-minded ghost squeezed his throat and shouted in the crowd: "Brave Mr. Earl Const, oh, may the Lord save your writing!"

Earl Const flushed red.

He searched for his reputation, trying to find out which bastard made the mistake, but he only saw faces that couldn't suppress their laughter.Even the nobles who had just cheered for him couldn't help lowering their heads and sniggering.

"Sit down, sir."

The King delivered the signed paper to the Chancellor.

"Subsequently, there will be surveyors re-surveying the royal forest. I hope I didn't misunderstand what you mean. This is what you want."

In the joking words of the king, the atmosphere eased down.

The bloody massacre just now was brought over so lightly by the king, he seemed not stingy to show some sincerity - he did not intend to drive all the nobles to the guillotine.

The nobles also felt they had achieved some victories.

So now overall it can be regarded as "happy to all".

Only the Duke of Buckingham sighed inwardly.

——After the king almost died in the Kono Forest, he made up his mind to revise the Royal Forest Law.He just waited for the nobles to launch an attack on this, so that he could use what he planned to do in exchange for some benefits.

Not knowing the truth is sometimes not necessarily a bad thing.

Holy Lord Yuan bless the proud nobles.

"Okay, let's discuss the last thing." The king waited for a while, then smiled and stretched out his hand to calm everyone down, "Let's talk about..."

The king was halfway across the hall, and his eyes fell on the representatives of the port citizens sent by the Cinque Port Alliance.

"About the Port Limitation Act."

The king said briskly, in a very friendly tone, as if he were just saying something ordinary, just mentioned in passing.Of course, smart people know that this is the finale of today.

The "Port Limitation Act", which was a regulation that William III tried to implement but failed to implement in time.

After the death of William III, the Duke of Buckingham had exhausted all his energy to defend the throne for his nephew, so the "Port Limitation Act" was dragged down.To this day, the King brought it up in Parliament for the first time.

The representatives of the citizens sent by the Five-Port Alliance sat on the chairs, and they were not very worried.

Long before participating in the parliament, the Five-Port Alliance won the alliance of the great nobles along the southeastern coast.The relationship between the Five-Port Alliance and the nobles in the coastal areas is definitely closer than the relationship between the king and them.

They are partners of interest.

Restrictions will not be passed.

"Of course, after all, the regulations have been shelved for a long time, and some things still need to be modified."

As if he didn't see the calm expression of the Five-Port Alliance, the king clapped his hands.The king's judges stood up, took out legal documents and distributed them.

"Perhaps I should trouble you gentlemen to take a little time to look at these changes?"

The representatives of the Five-Port Alliance looked at the distributed documents and suddenly had a bad feeling.They nervously took over the new restrictions from the judge.

For a while, the entire hall was filled with the sound of "rustling" pages turning.

The king observed everyone's expressions, and as expected, he saw joy on the faces of the nobles, while the representatives of the Five-Port Alliance gradually lost their composure.

The new "Port Restriction Regulations" made some changes on the original basis. The 1/3 penny tax originally collected by the Five-Port Alliance was re-divided to the local nobles in the southeast according to the lord's law.[2 ].In addition, there are several other newly added regulations, all of which have redistributed the interests that originally belonged to the Five-Port Alliance.

The alliance between the Ancient Port Alliance and the southeast nobles is by no means unbreakable.

As long as there is a competition of interests, even an iron bucket will be riddled with holes.

"Tell me, what's your opinion?"

The king asked kindly.

The representatives of the Five-Port Alliance turned their attention to the nobles who had originally made a private agreement with them.

They are bound to be disappointed.

The nobles were full of praise for this, as if they lost their memory for a moment, turning a blind eye to their gaze.Many anxious people even stood up and praised the new regulation, saying that it inherited Legrand's usual legal spirit.

The representative of the Five-Port Alliance stood up, and just as he was about to refute, the king clapped his hands.

"Well, gentlemen." He broke off the discussion. "It's getting late. Let's go to the vote. Gentlemen, please."

He glanced at the representatives of the Five-Port Alliance meaningfully.

They were like falling into an ice cave, watching one after another original allies abandon themselves in a blink of an eye.

The southeastern nobles who originally thought they would become their comrades-in-arms became their competitors.

The bells of St. Wythe's Cathedral struck.

With the sound of the bell ringing in the sky above the Rose Palace, the voting ended, and the new "Port Restriction Regulations" was passed with a super high number of votes in favor.

........................

When the parliamentary representatives left, they saw that the gate of the palace was still bright red.The guillotine stood tall, and the blood of the sheriffs stained the snow red.

Someone stood for a long time before the guillotine.

He is the only head of the five major families of the Cinque Port Alliance who came to Merz Castle, Patriarch Dawson.

The brown-haired and brown-eyed patriarch looked at the blood ice that had been frozen by the severe cold for a long time, and finally made a decision.

He raised his head: "I hope God will bless Legrand and the Dawson family."

This is bound to be a busy and very different winter.

The newly appointed sheriffs hurried home, and the representatives of the free folk returned to the counties with joy.The blood of the executed sheriffs froze into ice at the gate of the palace, while the civilians with dilapidated houses felt a little warmth in the midwinter.Even if the king didn't mean it that way, things are going in a good direction.

Everything becomes hopeful.

The representatives of the Five-Port Alliance also returned with the new "Port Restriction Regulations".For many people, this winter is just the beginning, while some people already understand that the winter of the Five-Port Alliance has arrived.

They either bowed their heads to the king, or rose up and rebelled.

The Five-Port Alliance chose the latter.

The end of October 1432.

In the first week after the end of the parliament, the five-port alliance headed by five families including Guros protested to the royal court: they believed that the "Port Restriction Act" violated the powers promised to them by the royal family since the eleventh century, and was incompatible with the The free spirit of the port city goes against it.

Represented by the Five-Port Alliance, the chambers of commerce along the southeast coast united and refused to provide the royal family with maritime military services[3] before the royal family made amendments to the "Port Restriction Regulations", and also refused to transport and build castles around the royal family. supplies.

The construction of two important military castles by the king had to be interrupted.

The resistance movement of the Five-Port Alliance kicked off.

........................

"You don't seem very worried?"

The Duke of Buckingham and the king walked slowly on the promenade of the palace, and the two talked while walking.

The Duke of Buckingham refers to the Chamber of Commerce resistance movement in the southeast region. Under the organization of the Five-Port Alliance, this time, maritime merchants, large and small, united and unanimously refused to accept the king's restrictions.

The momentum is quite large.

The southeastern region can be regarded as the wealthiest place in Legrand, where the commercial capital of the empire is located.

But the king doesn't seem to take the alliance of merchants seriously.

"It is also possible to transfer the materials for the construction of the military castle to land transportation." The king replied, "The Gru family will be happy to undertake this responsibility. The Angor state will not reject the purchase plan offered by the royal family-they are so poor Even the Chancellor of the Exchequer felt a bit uncomfortable when negotiating. As for those businessmen..."

The king smiled.

"They were merchants, not nobles or commoners. My uncle."

"You already have an idea?"

"What do merchants want to be free for?" asked the king, and then he answered himself, "The meaning of freedom itself is for profit. It's a simple thing... put profit before them, and they will be more important than anyone else." Make choices faster."

The king stepped forward on the cold rock.

"Look, an anti-monopoly law, and you will know how fragile the alliance of businessmen is."

said the king softly.

"Then let me watch."

said the Duke of Buckingham mildly.

The king looked at the entire long corridor, lined with beautifully carved stone pillars, straight upwards.There was no warmth in the king's eyes.

He never jokes.

Once seated at the table of power, all are hunters.While you want to treat other people as prey, you must be prepared to become prey yourself one day.

Never forget one thing -

All here are wolves, all here are lambs.

The author has something to say: the update time is [-] o'clock every night, and the next time the total number of nutrient solutions will be added is [-].The following remarks contain a little discussion of the royal forest, which can be blocked.

[1] As early as the 13th century, it was very common for nobles to read and write, and other classes also began to read and write.But writing was a troublesome thing for many nobles at that time, and it was not worthy of their own status, so they hired special writers.

[2] Historically, as early as 1040, the Abbey of the Redeemer and St. Augustine had frequently disputed the right to levy a 1/3 penny tax in Sandwich.

[3] The meaning of navy here is not equal to the navy in the modern sense, but refers to the navy in the Middle Ages.Taking the English Navy as the prototype, England did not have a formal naval management organization at that time, and there were no professional naval soldiers. The Port City Alliance provided important maritime military services for the royal family.

Some introductions about the royal forest in the Middle Ages.

With current thinking, it may be difficult to understand why there were various conflicts surrounding the royal forest at that time.In medieval times, however, the royal forest was one of the king's financial prerogatives.

According to the forest law at that time, people were not allowed to hunt, graze, or cultivate wasteland in the royal forest area without authorization.Those who break the law will be severely punished.

"...The direct purpose of the royal forest area is to protect the king's hunting grounds and prey, so it can provide the royal family with a variety of game food. Through the sale of timber, hunting rights, grazing rights, reclamation rights, etc., the royal forest area can also bring Stable income played a certain role in the income of kings in the early Middle Ages. Henry II and King John received 2000 pounds and more than 3000 pounds from the royal forest area respectively every year." - "Financial Privileges of British Kings in the Middle Ages" Shi Cheng

As mentioned earlier, the earl's annual income rarely exceeded five thousand pounds.This is not a small sum.But in addition, by punishing those who violated the laws of the forest, the king also made a lot of judicial profits.

In Mr. Guo Feng's "From Protection to Management: Research on the Income of Royal Forests in Medieval England", he introduced in detail the income of the royal forests at that time: "...the royal forests in medieval England accounted for 1/3 of the land in England in its heyday. 12. As the royal family’s private property, it has always been strictly protected by the forest law. In the 13th century, the strict implementation of the forest law brought a lot of benefits to the royal family, and the royal forest played an important role in the royal family’s income. From the end of the 14th century to the [-]th century In the early stage, as the forest became more and more the center of agricultural and industrial activities, the implementation of the forest law shifted from maintaining royal privileges to increasing the king’s income, and the royal forest shifted from protection to management..."

"...According to the provisions of the forest law in the Middle Ages, the royal family enjoys various privileges to the royal forest, such as hunting rights, land lease rights, forest logging rights, and necessary taxes. The exemption of these privileges is a franchise, which itself can bring the royal family Come a lot of economic gain..."

From the standpoint of a latecomer, some things may seem inexplicable, but as long as you walk into it and listen to it, you will find that things must have their reasons.History runs its own course.

Here are some references:

[1]刘茜茜.1217年英格兰《森林宪章》自由问题探析[J].理论界,2018(04):62-70.

[2]郭峰.中世纪英格兰的王室森林[N].光明日报,2012-12-05(011).

[3]郭峰.从私法到公法:中世纪英格兰森林法的变迁[J].首都师范大学学报(社会科学版),2012(04):29-35.

[4]郭峰.中世纪英格兰森林法庭概述[J].山西师大学报(社会科学版),2010,37(02):82-84+89.

[5]郭峰.从保护到经营:中世纪英格兰王室森林收入研究[J].生产力研究,2010(03):134-135+142.

[6]陈日华.“野味与草木”——中古时期英格兰王室森林问题[J].首都师范大学学报(社会科学版),2008(05):48-53.

[7]施诚.中世纪英国国王的财政特权[J].历史教学问题,2006(02):4-11.