My new, sixth illustration of a fantasy knight I retouched to feature the colours and faction iconography I designed for House Lyonheart, the current and reigning dynasty of Kings of Albion in my medieval fantasy world. Both this artwork and it’s associated faction iconography were designed for a low-fantasy setting of my original conception with technology and material culture roughly equivalent to the late medieval and renaissance periods of European history. Where formations of heavily armoured and mounted, aristocratic knights in either suits of full plate armour or heavy coats of chainmail fight alongside professional armies of pikemen and matchlock musketeers. Where medieval-style stone castles are gradually being outsourced in favour of both lavish, sumptuous country estates and devoted military fortifications, or “bastions,” due to the technological advancements made in gunpowder-based, siege artillery. And where fledgling nation-states, most notably in the form of kingdoms and empires begin to look beyond the great oceans and the frontiers of The Known World in search of even greater wealth and territory.
In context to the canon lore of my low-fantasy world, House Lyonheart is the reigning, dynastic house of constitutional monarchs over The Island Kingdom of Albion, a fantasy kingdom loosely inspired by The Kingdom of England under The Lancaster, Tudor, and Stuart Kings during the late medieval to early modern periods of English and European history, while also drawing fantastical sources of inspiration from “Ulthuan,” or the land of The High Elves in Warhammer Fantasy as well as The Kingdom of The Westerlands in Game of Thrones. Unlike the overwhelming majority of nation-states based on the mainland of “The Civilized World,” as rigidly defined and interpreted by both the clergy of The Conservative Church of The New Gods, as well as the nonconformist preachers of the myriad “Reformed” and “Dissenter” Churches of The New Gods, The Kingdom of Albion under the dynastic rule of House Lyonheart has embraced a limited form of consensual government known as “constitutional monarchy,” where the executive, legislative, military, fiscal, and religious powers of House Lyonheart as the longtime and reigning dynasty of Kings of Albion have been subjected to the rule of law, as well as bounded by the consent of Albionic “parliament,” a bicameral legislative body invested with the powers of raising and passing state legislation as well as the levying of taxes with or without the consent of The Kings of Albion. Albionic Parliament as the national, legislative body of The Kingdom of Albion consists of both an upper “House of Lords” containing representatives of the greater and lesser houses of feudal aristocracy and nobility within The Kingdom of Albion, as well as representatives of both the ecclesiastical and monastic clergy of The Conservative Church of The New Gods as the official, state-sanctioned religion of The Kingdom of Albion, as well as a far more recent, lower “House of Commons” containing representatives of the country gentlemen, the bourgeoisie, and the merchant guilds with The Kingdom of Albion. The House of Lords as the upper, senior house of Albionic Parliament came into existence following a baronial revolt against Edward Shortsword as 31st King of Albion and former head of House Lyonheart following the calamitous and failed wars of Aquitainian Succession to usurp House Williamson as the lawful and legitimate Kings of Aquitaine and the subsequent drafting of “The Magna Rhetra” as a codified constitution governing the various bodies of Albionic Common Law that were first codified by Albionic court scribes and clergymen under the reign of Artorius the Lyonhearted as the culturally Southern Aquitainian grandson and heir apparent to Hengist Skullsmasher, the first King of Albion and Founding Head of House Lyonheart. The House of Commons as the lower, junior house of Albion’s parliament, by contrast, came into existence following a massive peasant uprising against Robert III as the 40th and late King of Albion and former head of House Lyonheart after a decade of brutal, extortionate taxation levied to in order to pay for the king’s ransom imposed by House Williamson as The Aquitainian Monarchy after his defeat and subsequent capture in The Battle of Tourangeau at the hands Prince Tancred Williamson Duc de Chambord in the wake of the last great Albionic Invasion of Aquitaine.
Although born of House Lyonheart’s disastrous and failed wars against The Kingdom of Aquitaine, both the constitutional monarchy and parliamentary houses of legislation that distinctly characterized the government and society of The Kingdom of Albion under the rule of House Lyonheart has resulted in a fairer, more consensual political and social system that has protected the subjects of The Kings of Albion from the brutal economic recessions and extortionate taxation that became synonymous with the perpetual warfare, cutthroat political intrigues, and brutal religious upheaval that characterized the kingdoms and empires based on the continental mainland of The Civilized World, whose hereditary monarchs and princes universally aspired to the model of House Williamson and The Kingdom of Aquitaine as the “paragon,” “exemplar,” “ideal,” or otherwise “gold standard” of a strong, powerful, and prestigious, prolific, and illustrious absolute monarchy who had finally achieved the centralization of their kingdom into a proper nation state through their ancient, carefully cultivated and manicured political alliance forged with The Conservative Church of The New Gods based in The Holy Sept in Romulus as the official, state religion of The Kingdom of Aquitaine, as well as their gradual pacification of the legislative and military autonomy of the great houses of feudal aristocracy through the superimposition of “Aquitainian Parlements,” or “royal law courts,” over the historic regions of jurisdiction of both the feudal, aristocratic legal customs and traditions of Northern Aquitaine, as well as the old Cosmopolitan, Classical Romulan law codes of Southern Aquitaine left over from the days of “The Romulan Empire” or “The Empire of Mankind Primus” during the long forgotten epoch of “Classical Antiquity” within the long and storied history of “The Civilized World.” As well as using the power and authority of “The Aquitainian Parlements” to organize a national, professional, state funded “royal” army at the expense of the feudal, private levies of the great houses of nobility and aristocracy within The Kingdom of Aquitaine.
Due to the executive, legislative, military, fiscal, and religious restrictions imposed on House Lyonheart as the hereditary, dynastic Kings of Albion through the combination of the unique political and social system of constitutional monarchy and parliamentary legislature, The Kingdom of Albion under the hereditary rule House Lyonheart has remained relatively aloof from the perpetual warfare, cutthroat political intrigues, and brutal religious upheaval that came to characterize the aspiring absolute monarchies based on the continental mainland of The Civilized World. However, under the reign of Edmund IV as the 41st and reigning King of Albion and the current Head of House Lyonheart, The Kingdom of Albion has been officially declared both a political and religious asylum for religious subscribers to The “Reformed” Faith of The New Gods derived from the theological reforms preached and published by Karl Von Luxembourg at Die Universität Wörtzburch in The Empire of Mankind, as well as religious subscribers to any of The “Dissenter” Faiths of The New Gods that either directly or indirectly descend from The “Dissenter” Theology of the Aquitanian vagabond and theologian Cassyon Dufresne as originally preached in “The Cathedral of Les Œillets” in “The Borderlands Confederacy” of culturally “Austere” or “Northern Imperial” states strategically situated between Der Reichstaat and Die Markgrafschaft Brannenborg within The Empire of Mankind. Despite The Kingdom of Albion’s international status as a political and religious asylum for all religious subscribers to both the multitude of “Reformed” and “Dissenter” Churches of The New Gods fleeing from religious persecution and marginalization at the hands of religiously Conservative monarchs and aristocrats, the fourteen year old Edmund IV as the 41st and reigning King of Albion and the current Head of House Lyonheart has already been officially proclaimed as “Defender of The Faith” by elderly Archpatriarch Vexillarius IV as the 299th and reigning Bishop of Romulus and the current Head of The Conservative Church of The New Gods for his written thesis’ openly condemning both the theological reforms of Karl Von Luxembourg as the leading and titular “Great Reformer” to The Conservative Church of The New Gods, as well as Edmund IV’s own maternal grandfather Friedrich I, “Der erster und herrschend König von Middenland” und “Der Gründungschef von Hohenrotbart” and Albrecht Von Biermann, “Der herrschend Markgraf von Brannenborg,” “Der momentan Chef von Hohenbiermann,” und “Kurfürst Des Selbst Kaiserreich der Menscheit” for their actions in officially confiscating the lands, property, and treasuries the ecclesiastical and monastic clergy of The Conservative Church of The New Gods based in Das Königreich Middenland and Die Markgrafschaft Brannenborg, respectively, as the first and second hereditary, dynastic rulers in both the recorded history and the enormity of The Known World to officially renounce The Conservative Faith of The New Gods in favour of The Luxembourgian Reformation on behalf of both their houses and subjects.
Outside of his affairs concerning the religious upheaval surrounding both Karl Von Luxembourg’s and Cassyon Dufresne’s respective reforms to The Conservative Church of The New Gods on the continental mainland of The Civilized World, Edmund IV as 41st and reigning King of Albion and Current Head of House Lyonheart has used the restrictions on any continental military, political, economic, and religious ambitions in The Civilized World imposed by The Kingdom of Albion’s unique system of constitutional monarchy and parliamentary legislature to develop a new, and enduring policy of overseas colonialism and mercantilism devoted to the production and acquisition of luxury goods and natural resources by granting legally exclusive “letters of marque” or “colonial charters” to “trade companies” of merchants, traders, and professionals willing to use their own capital to establish trade posts and colonies in overseas trade theatres in order to export luxury goods and natural resources harvested and produced in “virgin lands” back to The Kingdom of Albion in return for generating a handsome profit from their corporate ventures. In addition to being granted legally exclusive monopolies over certain trade theatres with these “letters of marque” or “colonial charters,” these “trade companies” created by the 41st and reigning King of Albion and the current Head of House Lyonheart would also be given unrestricted political and military autonomy over any acquired and developed colonies and territories established in overseas trade theatres, with the most prominent and lucrative Albionic colonial possessions being established by “The King’s Landing Trade Company” in “New Albion,” and “The World’s End Trade Company” in “Arcadia.” To accommodate his ambition of colonialism and mercantilism, Edmund IV as the reigning King of Albion and the current Head of House Lyonheart has diverted The Kingdom of Albion’s annual, national budget in favour of a powerful, professional, state-funded “royal” navy over a strong standing army, in contradiction to the traditional and historic policy of all historic Kings of Albion before him, and to “subsidize” or otherwise “invest in” the business and industry of trade guilds devoted either to the construction of seafaring vessels or the production of maritime goods and resources on an industrial scale, as a means of bolstering both his ambitions to develop The Kingdom of Albion’s mercantile trade through the establishment of overseas colonies and territories in different trade theatres, and to give his growing professional navy the necessary assets and resources needed to secure the maritime trade lanes established between any overseas colonies and territories with The Kingdom of Albion.
In terms of The Kingdom of Albion’s standing military left over from Robert III’s failed war with House Williamson and The Kingdom of Aquitaine, the infantry regiments serving in the national, professional, state-funded “royal” army of House Lyonheart and The Kingdom of Albion oddly continue to employ peasant levies of billmen and longbowmen in an age when the overwhelming majority of fledgling nation-states and their ruling, dynastic houses based on the continental mainland of The Civilized World have moved on to employing professional regiments of pikemen and matchlock musketeers as the line, core, and bulk of their campaigning armies. Although, like the overwhelming majority of continental, mainland states of The Civilized World, The Kingdom of Albion under the constitutional monarchy of House Lyonheart has fully embraced the employment of gunpowder-based, siege artillery that is so inherently vogue of the current epoch of the post-chivalric battlefields of The Civilized World, fully displacing it’s outdated arsenal of classical and feudal-style windlass artillery pieces such as catapults, trebuchets, ballistae, mangonels, and onagers that have been both historically and traditionally employed on the battlefields of The Civilized World since the days of the Classical Mycaenean “Poleis” or “city states” that once flourished during the long forgotten epoch of “Classical Antiquity” in recorded history of The Civilized World. Despite the seemingly antiquated military technology and tactics employed by the billmen and longbowmen serving in the traditionally strong, standing army of The Kings of Albion. The mixed formations of Billmen and Longbowmen employed personally by House Lyonheart as the constitutional monarchs to The Kingdom of Albion are completely and perfectly capable of holding their own line against the more professional, pike and shotte infantry regiments employed by continental powers in The Civilized World such as Le Royaume d’Aquitaine, Das Königreich Middenland, and Die Markgrafschaft Brannenborg.
