The Magnificent 2


 * The Magnificent, Part Two
 * by Dan McCollum
 * 9 April 2002

After the destruction of the Regent's forces, Aethelred II showed surprising leniency towards those who had supported his uncle Edward. Although several high nobles were executed for crimes against the Deputy, all who swore fealty to Aethelred were pardoned and allowed to return to their homes. Any who subsequently rose up against the Deputy, and there were a few throughout his reign, were treated in the harshest possible manner. As far as Aethelred was concerned, he had given them a warning, and any who chose to ignore it would have to suffer the consequences.

Aethelred’s most innovative act of statecraft was the creation of a unified state. Rather than regard himself as the primary feudal lord in a feudal system, he saw himself as the sovereign ruler of a united realm. In his mind, it was England which was of supreme importance, not the holding of Northumbria, Mercia or Wessex.

In order to accomplish his goals, the Deputy began the long process of reforming the English legal system, which was largely based upon the old Anglo-Saxon system of common law, as well as that of the Legalist system that had evolved from the Teachings of Ragnar the Prophet. Both had a huge grip upon the minds of the people and Judges and, unfortunately, the two systems disagreed on many points. As in any disagreement between two parties, Aethelred II did the wise thing, he sought for a third party to mediate between the two. He found it in the legal system of the Emperor Justinian I, which was only now beginning to filter into the House of Submission. Aethelred’s synthesis formed the basis for the Western, or Gnyr, legal school.

Still, problems remained. After all, the Romans were the enemies of Submission, and there was strong resistance to Aethelred’s implementation of a foreign law which was used by the Crusaders who had driven Submission from Italy and the Deputate of the Kamarg. Aethelred, understanding this problem, would spend most of his reign creating a single law code, which was a merging of the three schools of England, and them imposing it upon the people.

To further his goal, the Deputy created a body of roving Judges who were responsible only to him, and had power over the older system of Manorial Judges, which had fallen into decadence and uselessness. These Judges traveled from town to town in their jurisdiction, hearing cases and making reports. These reports were sent to York where they were archived for future use as precedent, or appeal. Many of these reports survive and can still be viewed today in the Deputate Archives, where they serve as an immeasurable source of knowledge of the Middle Ages.

Aethelred also hoped to assert his power over the most powerful nobles, and centralize power in his own hands. Here, however, he ran into one of the greatest threats ever faced by any English deputy, and one can argue that he either did, or did not accomplish his goals. England in the Middle Ages was not a centralized state The Deputy ruled over a score of feudal domains ruled by nobles both powerful and weak. When a strong Deputy arose, he was often able to beat down the nobles, but if a weak Deputy ruled, or a string of weak deputies as had been the case since the late third century, the nobles where able to weaken the position of the Deputy.

As he began to rule in his own name, Aethelred's main strategy was to employ marriage and law to assert his own power. A viral man, he is said to have fathered ten daughters during his life. These daughters where married off to wealthy and powerful nobles who could then be counted on as allies against his enemies. The Deputy also created a secret order of spies which reported on the most trivial of his nobles’ actions, waiting for the moment to drag them before a reliable Judge and have their fiefs taken away and added to the Deputy's own domain.

In his quest to centralize power, the Deputy ran into difficulties with the English Great Holy Thing, who feared, rightly, that their own powers could be reduced. There can be little doubt that Aethelred II sought to create a form of Caesaropapism, in which the secular ruler is also head of the religious hierarchy, as the later rulers of Kievan Rus had established. It was the Deputy’s wish that the Thing should rule by his will and his will alone.

The Great Holy Thing responded by electing one of its own members, Hakon Whitebeard, to represent it and fight against the growing power of the Deputy. So began a long series of disputes which ranged from the treatment of holy men by the King's Judges, to major theological issues raised by Aethelred’s legal reforms. It is said that, in a moment of frustration, the always outspoken Aethelred told one of Hakon's messengers that "the three greatest liars in the world were Moses, Jesus and Ragnar." Aethelred was said to have been threatened with expulsion from the House of Submission several times before his death.

The Holy Thing was not the only religious issue to arise during Aethelred's reign. In SE 403 [1175 CE], a preacher known by the name of Derrick Proudfoot was wandering the country preaching on the issues of fate in the lives of everyday men and women. Proudfoot preached that Man had no self-will of his own, and that if the All-Father was all knowing, then every event in one’s life was predestined from the moment of birth. He furthermore began to claim that the All-Father himself might lack self-will, and that it was Wyrd, or fate, which was the true determiner of the universe.

This was too much for the Holy Thing, who demanded that Aethelred respond by crushing the preacher and his followers. The Deputy would, no doubt, have wanted to respond and point out that if they wished to be independent from him, then the Thing could resolve its own issues. Unfortunately for him, The Wyrdians as they came to be known, were disturbing the peace of the Deputate, and something had to be done.

On March 20, SE 413 [1185 CE] Derrick Proudfoot was put to death, martyred as the Wyrdians would claim, by the Deputy's order. Unfortunately for future rulers, this did not put an end to the Wyrdians, in fact it seems to have given them focus. The sect would go on to cause headaches for future English Deputies, and be a leading contributor to the Submissive Reformation in the 6th Century SE.

Throughout his many years, Aethelred II remained a devoted scholar. He was enthralled by the classic works of the Ancient Greeks and Romans, which had been translated into Norse by the scholars at the court of Rurik of Mallorca, as well as the stories of the neighboring Celtic people. The Deputy is said to have collected one of the largest libraries in Europe at that time, with works numbering in the thousands. His research into other cultures also led him to be interested in the heroic past of his own people, and the Deputy kept on hand a large body of scholars and artisans to capture the spirit of the old age. It was during his reign that Harold of Bath's History of the Anglo-Saxons, Robert Armstrong's Beowulf, and The Ring Saga where all compiled. Aethelred also, personally, compiled a written record of the ancient myths and legends of the Anglo-Saxon people, much to the horror of Hakon Whitebeard, which gives us one of the more beautiful and poetic books of the Teutonic Pre-Submissive religion.

In November of SE 417 [1189 CE], Aethelred II passed away from pneumonia which he caught while on campaign crushing a rebellion by a minor noble. However, it is commonly held in English myth that Aethelred is but sleeping and shall come again when his country is in its darkest hour. He left behind a great and wonderful life, a library of thousands of manuscripts, and the love of an entire people. Sadly, in coming years, so many of his dreams would turn to ash.

Forward to England: Albion in Descent by Dan McCollum.

Forward to Submission: To the Winds by Jonathan I. Edelstein.

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