THE LATE EDWARD AND CECILY: A Historiographical Evaluation

[NovumChase 235]

 

A HISTORIOGRAPHICAL EVALUATION OF THE LIVES AND CHARACTERS OF

COMPOSED BY MEANS OF WRITTEN AND SPOKEN ACCOUNTS OF THE LATE PRINCES OF ALSTION

 

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W R I T T E N  B Y
R O T H W I N  A L D O R

 

P U B L I S H E D  B Y  T H E
N O R T H E R N  G E O G R A P H I C A L  S O C I E T Y

 

O N  T H E
9 T H  O F  O W Y N ’ S  L I G H T ,  2 0 5 9

 

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I WAS BORN IN THE waning days of the lordship of the beloved Archduke Edward I and Archduchess Cecily of Alba—the Princes Edward and Cecily—to whom much praise is lofted. As their rulership was confined to the rosy days of my childhood, and as I witnessed the ascent of Edward II as Archduke in the footsteps of his father, I naturally sought, as I came into the fruits of adulthood, to make an honest evaluation of the predecessor to our good Archduke Edward II.

 

It was happy that, at such time, I sought entrance into the Northern Geographical Society, and it was asked of me that I write, as a demonstration of my commitment to good scholarship, reckonings of a historical person while in the employ of two discrete methods, spoken and written historical research. It was happier still that, soon after, I chanced upon the convivial Henri Charles Halcourt, then heir to the Barony of Artois, whose memory of the Archduke Edward’s reign was the first tool with which I attempted to apprehend the lives of Edward and Cecily. It is here that I begin the history of the Princes; it shall be made up first of a history of the Princes as known through oral history, and then a history of the two as gathered from the writs and works of the time.

 

This work would not have been possible without the enduring scholastic patronage of the esteemed Archduke Edward and Archduchess Jane of Alba and the staff of Castle Glasgon, nor could it have matured without the guidance of Dame Manon von Volkrich, who, as President of the Society, illuminated this work’s path to completion. I must lastly thank my kindred for their enduring support, most particularly my good sister Roswyn Aldor, who, in the hermitage that this work demanded of me, has honorably fulfilled the public duties of our House.

 

 

THE FIRST ENDEAVOR IN THIS work is to tell a full historical account of the Princes Edward and Cecily through what is spoken of them, as I have ascertained it through oral interviews, conversation, and what I heard of the Princes as I grew. These spoken words include a few well-known factual particulars of the lives of the Princes, qualitative statements about their characters and accomplishments, and meditations on their combined legacy. I shall hence tell, and thereafter evaluate, the history of the Princes as it has come to me through the spoken word.

 

Prince Edward Caius and Princess Cecily Amelia were born in the late days of the 20^th century, both bearing the name of Alstion, that most noble Horenic house which emerged from the dissolution of the House of Horen after the War of Two Emperors. Edward was son to Leufroy Guy Alstion, son of Robert Owyn, son of Emil Caius, second son of Charles I, first king of restored Aaun. Cecily was Edward’s third cousin through Charles I’s eldest son James; both Princes were scions of the Alstion legacy but of disparate limbs of the House, which, in their youth, needed to reckon with the dissolution of the Apostolic Kingdom of Aaun, the domain of their fore-elders. These facts are in common fluency and are not, to my knowledge, disputed.

 

When I moved beyond the details of their childhood and set myself to asking rememberers about the Princes’ subsequent rule and accomplishments, I was dealt a dazzling array of grandly given answers. As it is the duty of the historian to read against history—that is, to read the history of each remembered event as if it is a distortion of the truth, and determine the degree of that distortion in order to more fully get to the root of the matter—my wits bade me to skepticism at first. The Lord Henri Halcourt accredited the Princes with “the restoration of the Alstion line and the diasporic people of Aaun.” Could this charmingly simple assertion have been true? Contrary to the skepticism which assailed me, I believe, through investigation, that the Princes are indeed, more or less, the grand figures responsible for the accomplishments widely attributed to them. As I proceeded through oral interview, there was a dearth of negative testimonials, but, more than this, all seemed to share a coherent and continuous view of the course of their reigns, which I will proceed in relating below.

 

After the end of the Apostolic Kingdom of Aaun, it was under the vigorous pursuit of restoration of Edward I that the Duchy of Alba was formed to succeed it. He and the good Cecily Alstion married; Cecily, being of an elder line, represented a uniquely senior claim to the succession of House Alstion, and a coupling of Edward and Cecily together was a match Alstion-blooded enough to earn the undisputed trust and respect of the now-scattered Aaunic people. Intriguingly, the two ruled in tandem and were quickly distinguished in service to the Empire. Edward I was appointed Lord Chamberlain and, some years later, Cecily was named Arbiter Draconis, a steward of Horenic genealogy in direct service to the Emperor. The tandem rule was one element of the Princes’ rule that I had chosen to read against in particular, as some rememberers attributed Alba’s prestige and accomplishments during this period solely to Edward. However, I could not find anything substantial to indicate that this was anything more than a male bias, as none would take the expected step to speak of Cecily as meek or unindustrious. It was in tandem rule that, after decades at the head of the Duchy of Alba—elevated to an Archduchy during their reign—the two, GOD rest their souls, met their untimely deaths at sea during the flight from Aevos.

 

So too did I try to read against their characters, and I had, here, more success. “… he was a man of low tempers, typically well-mannered but nay one of the Aldersberg sort,” replied Henri on matters of Edward’s personage. “He was certainly known for his baldness in later years,” he admitted in good humor, “but a respectable man through and through.” It struck me at once that a man who could be known for something as trivial as his hairless head could not have been some great tyrant—perhaps, indeed, this speaks to the “low tempers” that were said to constitute him. However, I needed to more thoroughly wonder at the truth of Edward’s low tempers as Henri told of the attempted assassinations of the Archduke during his reign. I pondered within how it was that a man regarded as a great restorer and who met with such opposition could have indeed been so personally mild. I am more inclined, instead, to believe that the baldness was an attribute used to make light of a character who was, in fact, a most serious and driven man who, by that nature, made enemies.

 

The character of Cecily was, too, of sincere interest to me. In both quiet murmurings and public proclamations, she has always been given as the equal and coordinate of Edward—in not only title, but in status and influence, too—which is, as readers of history will well understand, an uncommon placement for a woman. Wondering at this placement, there would seem to me two explanations for this: firstly, that her birth in the elder Alstion line made her innate part in restoring the dynasty great by nature; and—or—her temperament was indomitable, and she, using devices of stubbornness and personal character, drove her way to equality with her husband by strength of personage. I am inclined to believe that it was an alliance of these two things which secured her status for her, for many historical persons have had one or the other and been unable to establish similar stations for themselves.

 

The combined legacy of the Princes Edward and Cecily is most often spoken of as a renaissance of the Alstion line and all who belong to it. This is where what is spoken of the past meets with the present, for the Archduchy of Alba, as it stands, is a shining vassal of the Empire of Man indeed—productive, populous, and respected. It is the current standing of the Archduchy, and the ease with which the good heir to the Princes—Archduke Edward II—was accepted by his people, that inclines me to my fair and commendatory assessment of the Princes, even in my attempt to read against all of the praise popularly lofted upon them.

 

 

THE SECOND ENDEAVOR HERE IS to lay out a discrete history of the Princes by means of written texts pertinent to their lives and deeds, followed by a short analysis. This method of historical compilation proved more immediately fruitful in producing exact details of the Princes’ lives, though a fuller meditation on the differences between the spoken and written histories will be given in the subsequent part.

 

The long history of the House of Alstion has, to my knowledge, been given no better exploration than A Study into the Patriarchs of Horen and Alstion (1859), compiled by Maxim of the Attenlund, William Alstion, and Jurgen Barclay. It was into this most ancient and noble lineage that Prince Edward Caius Alstion was born on the 10th of Godfrey’s Triumph, 1979, and Princess Cecily Amelia Alstion on the 5th of Owyn’s Flame, 1982. This was in the days of Aevos, when Charles II Alstion—father to Cecily and the later King Godwin II, and second cousin once removed to Edward—ruled the Apostolic Kingdom of Aaun from Whitespire. The childhoods of Edward and Cecily were marked by the disastrous Ravenmirian–Aaunic War of 1989–1990, the concluding compact of which, the Treaty of Minas Aranath, immediately saw Charles’s abdication to a pontifical regency and the cessation of much land to the Church of the Canon. The War would later doom Aaun to full destruction, as the Church regency over Godwin II Alstion culminated in his abdication to his brother, Mark Anthony, whereupon disputation of the throne grew too great and the Kingdom fell into disarray and dissolution. The Godwinites were scattered upon every road, and the once-reigning Alstions were left to ponder what to make of the future of the Aaunic diaspora.

 

It was out of this void that Edward and Cecily struck decisively upward. Edward’s return to the Lowlands at the turn of the millenium coincided with the establishment of the Duchy of Alba under the good Edward and Cecily’s domain. They presented an Alba of peace, work, and Aaunic revival, rebuking war and inviting all humans to settle within the Duchy. For their successes, Edward was elevated to Lord Chamberlain in 2025, and then to Archduke, together with Cecily, in 2032. For her own merits, Cecily was appointed the first Arbiter Draconis, a proxy of the Emperor in the Draconis-Atrium, a gathering of Horenic-Imperial blood-descendants. In this upward direction, free of the strife of war and the talons of disorder, the Princes went their way through Aevos and, after half a century of rule, toward the New World. It was in this fateful journey that, sailing aboard the Anna Lorena, they met their deaths as the vessel crashed upon the rocks of Prince’s Rest on the shores of the New World, in 2051. They left behind decades of peaceable and respected rule that brought the Alstion line back to strength and standing and built an Archduchy which stands now at the fore of the Empire of Man.

 

I am able to make one special addition to this section with thanks to the Lord Archduke and Lady Archduchess, and to the staff of Castle Glasgon, who allowed me to review the private correspondences of the late Princes. Within them, I found peers of the realm writing to the Alstion dynasty in peace and hope, anticipating, it seems, the gentle nature of the Princes. “The time is nigh for a greater unity amongst our peoples,” agrees Henrik I, Princeps of Ivöria, in one correspondence. Another writ, this one from the young Tiberias I, then Duke of Burgundy, speaks of a shared interest of the two to “ease tensions between our respective realms”, writing with anticipation of visiting Alba. The correspondences would go, in the view of this author, to support the public image of the Princes as peaceable and sensible rulers.

 

Estimating the characters of the Princes from the written histories must be, by necessity, an act of inference, helped by the materials we can access. We must envision Edward a judicious but ambitious character, a friend to peace but also an avid restorer of Aaun’s legacy. Cecily needs be seen a woman of uncommon drive, whose involvement in the Horenic bloodline must be viewed as a token of a character with no fear of involving herself in the highest powers among Men.

 

 

I ADMIT THAT, BEFORE I undertook to write the histories of the Princes as they appear in speech and in the written word, I had imagined the differences between the two would be noticeable, but not great. Invariably, the spoken histories would bear upon the Princes’ characters, and the written ones would shed more light upon the exact facts of history. I am, however, astouded at the sheer gulf between the two histories. Not only could virtually no few qualitative statements about the Princes be made from the written histories—aside, of course, from inference—but entire historical events were contained in each history that were wholly absent from the other. The writings of the Princes’ time mention no assassination attempt, and fewer than ever live to recall the war between Ravenmire and Aaun.

 

Both methods, in their own ways, managed to surprise me. I expected to need to peel away decades of bias from spoken history, only to find that it reflected reality with reasonable faith; likewise, I expected written history to provide a fuller picture when, indeed, it has given only a different one, just with more exact details. Let this be a testament, to myself more than anyone, that any history must be written with an apt respect for methodology and the limitations of the tools used to compile that history. The written sources give us a more apparently concrete path to the truth, more easily traced, while the spoken sources give a beautiful impression of the true; the two ways must be metered carefully, for they are complementary and—in many cases, I do not doubt—contradictory.
 

 

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Mister ROTHWIN ALDOR, AUTHOR
@NovumChase

Master of Pedigrees of Alba,

Folkman of Leever,

Junior Member of the Northern Geographical Society

 

Her Ladyship, DAME MANON YVAINE VON VOLKRICH, SUPERVISOR
@esotericas

Dame of Arts, Lady of Deguise,
Baroness of Guise and Distrugestadt,
President of the Northern Geographical Society

 

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THE NORTHERN GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY IS NOT RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE FOR ANY CONTENTS.

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[0mnip0tent 358]

Within the Aldor family's Alban home sat the author's younger sister, Roswyn Aldor, who had apprehended a copy of the publishing from him. How very proud she was of him as she read over it!