Personal recollections of Baron Autumn, Sir Alaric d'al Sancroix Part 1
I think I'll always remember that day, a bright searing spot burned deep within the recesses of my mind, the day I inherited my title. It was one of the most important days in my life, and would set in motion the events that would change my life forever. I was a man of only 25 then having spent my formative years fighting in Antar since 14, but now I was finally home.
It was strange to come home to this of course, my Fathers death had shook me to my core when I heard about it in Antar despite, or perhaps because of, our relatively cool relationship. To have one of the first things upon my return home be the granting of a title I wasn't expecting to inherit for atleat 10 more years was a shock.
But I kept my nerve, I mean how could I not, I was in the presence of many of my soon to be peers in the cortes and most importantly the King himself. So I kept myself as stoic as I possibly could, steeling my resolve as I approached the throne. The ceremony itself was a rather dull and affair, an exchange of oaths between me and the King, much like many of our old traditions.
Though there was an interesting breach of etiquette when someone called for "Huzzah for Lord Autumn, the most gallant of soldiers" and I received three huzzahs from the chamber. After that I quickly found my place among the other Saltcoast lords, who all moved to give me a seat and welcome me to the chamber.
Then it happened, Wulfrum was granted the floor near the end of a long and tedious session of the courtes. He started with a blatant bit of flattery aimed towards officers of the dozen year war such as myself. But then he moved onto the real reason he took the floor as he gave an address calling for an end to the war taxes that had devastated the commons and a shrinking of the Tierran military.
Immediately there was an uproar in the chamber as the voices of supporters and those against clashed in a cacophony of anger and vitriol. The King looked on all this, his knuckles white around the hilt of the royal sword Pactmaker, as his Chancellor of the Exquencer, Earl Weathern, the man responsible for managing the crown's taxes and spending, looked on in tight-lipped fury.
I knew then that I had to make my position known, so I stood, ignoring the hand trying to stop me, and moved towards the throne. The king gives ascent for me to speak, despite obvious reluctance because of some archaic custom of a lord not speaking during his first session in the cortes, so I begin.
"My Lords, if we must speak of matters of state, let us do so without illusions," I began, "It is easy to speak of abstracts as we sit in this chamber, of 'armies' and 'fleets,' of 'defences' and 'economies.' Yet let us not forget that armies are made up of men. They are led by gentlemen of the blood, that is true, but if there is anything that my years at war have taught me, it is that an army without its common soldiery is like a mast without sails. Without this common soldier, there can be no army." I then had given a pause to let the lords of the cortes stew on what I said.
"Yet who is this soldier?" I continued after the pause "What compels him to brave hardship and battle? Ask any soldier, and the answer will come readily enough: he fights for Tierra and her King. Yet what are these things to him, a man who has likely never before left his home village, a man who has likely never glimpsed his King? Ask him, and he will tell you: to him, Tierra means his old parents at home in their cottage, it is the girl he means to marry, the children he means to sire, the shop he means to open. The King is the man who keeps these things safe for him, so that he may return to them, once his service is done."
Then I turned slowly for dramatic effect and pitched my voice low and ominous.
"So what happens when he comes to find that the King's taxes have driven his old parents out of their cottage? That they have driven his sweetheart to destitution? That they have snatched away his chance for a shop and a family? Will he fight for a kingdom that is empty promises? Will he fight for a King who he believes has betrayed him?"
I let the lords stew on that for a few moments, reaching the answer on their own, before finishing "relief must be brought to the poor. These onerous taxes must end. Beggar our people to pay for our army, and we shall soon find ourselves with neither."
This speech would be met with applause as some lords leaped to their feet with enthusiasm. The Duke Wulfram had even met my gaze and nodded with approval. But there where those who met my speech with stone faced silence, one of whom was the King Himself.
After this, I had returned to my seat, and the debate picked up again, the two sides going stroke and counterstroke against one another. But finally, after what felt like an eternity, the session ended, and I filed out of the cortes chambers.
