Addressed to Hughes, on Lotharingia

[Publius 4098]

Spoiler

 

 

Dearest Hughes,

 

Our history has seen our Goldfields finding consistent sustenance through the rain of blood. You may not now know the stresses I have witnessed, as you were but a boy, but the risk of a succession crisis and ruinous intra-state conflict is not possible to recommence in our current state.

 

Within Lotharingia and our bloodline, we find a history of leadership and God graced grandeur that few can relate to. Whether it be in the empire, or our liberation, from de Sola to d’Amaury we ought not find ourselves toiling over anything beneath the Seven Skies. You are but a boy. In my near four decades of living, my eyes have beheld the fires that have set alight all we know, and for you to come ahead of a band who dares even spill blood in our court makes my stomach turn; you are not old enough to lead, and those who propose you do so seem untempered. May those men who bear over you see that my regency is nothing but legal, I can trust you are not a marionette of evil.

 

Simply see one path as necessary for our people, that of which I see none able to dissuade another of; Our chivalry, adherence to our oaths and honour, and lastly, our protection of those who hold nothing dear but the Creator and his chosen people's betterment.

 

For you I offer your birthright on a silver platter. More than you could have achieved without my intervention, for I respect the laws of our land. We need not toil; but I know not what is to come of the meeting we had since my assumption of Royal responsibilities. Such ungraceful entry into the court of Metz would be met with execution by any other lord, but my spirit imbues me with both great moral endurance and patience.

 

I wish not to just hear from you among written correspondence, but from you as a boy budding into a man. What transpired the other day was beyond necessary, but I have ensured that my back may be stressed with a strenuous grace by assuming the path of the righteous. I await your pronouncement at Ostwick, so I may block the Bastard’s Band from flooding our lands otherwise. Should we find peace though, I pray it's by virtue of reason.

 

God Bless,

Odo d’Amaury

[Icarnus 1669]

-snipped-

[Jonificus 2762]

"So be it." Father Jovarn muttered after the King made his decision in the council chambers.

[Heff 2460]

"Peace in our time" says Clement.