He's in Love with the Devil.

Chapter 38: Port Regulations

It was a little quiet in the room, the king's voice was soft, and it was hard to tell if he was angry or not. The nobles thought that the king's inquiry was intended to make the Earl of Constance the one to be dealt with.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

The Earl of Constant felt for a moment like an ancient brave, but also like a loyal subject who discouraged a tyrannical monarch. In order to show the determination of the nobles that they would not back down, this admonition was drawn up and written by the Earl of Constant, not by his writing officer. [1]

The Earl of Constant replied forcefully, and was prepared to argue eloquently on the spot if the king refused.

The nobles applauded him in hushed tones, calling him "valiant".

"There are three spelling mistakes and four grammatical errors." The king picked up the quill and signed his name on it, then raised his head and looked at the Earl of Constance with a smile on his face, "I will send a reading and writing teacher to your castle later, hopefully next time I will be able to see a qualified paperwork, which shouldn't be too difficult for you, right?"

Earl Constant's expression blanked out.

The hall was silent for a moment, and then the people burst into laughter.

It was something out of decorum, but it had to be said that the air seemed much quicker that way.

I don't know which of the prompter's pinched his throat and shouted through the crowd, "Brave Mr. Earl of Constant, oh, may the Holy One save you from writing!"

The Earl of Constant's face reddened.

He looked into the crowd to find out who the bastard was, but all he saw was a face that couldn't suppress its scorn. Even the nobles who had just applauded him couldn't help but lower their heads and snicker.

"Have a seat, sir."

The king handed the signed name paper to the chancellor.

"A surveyor will follow to resurvey the royal forest, and I hope I have not misunderstood you gentlemen, and that this is what you want."

At the king's joking words, the atmosphere softened.

The bloody m******e just now was brought over so lightly by the king, who didn't seem to skimp on showing some sincerity - he didn't intend to drive all the nobles to the guillotine.

The nobles also felt that they had achieved some victory as well.

So for the time being, it was "all's well that ends well".

Only the Duke of Buckingham on one side sighed in his heart.

--After the king almost died in Kono Forest, he had decided to revise the royal forest law. He was just waiting for the nobles to make a fuss about it so that he could trade what he had originally intended to do for some benefits.

Not knowing the truth might not be a bad thing sometimes.

May the Holy Lord bless the smug nobles.

"Alright, let's discuss one last thing next." The king waited a moment before smiling and reaching down to quiet the crowd, "Let's talk, about ......"

The king stood halfway across the hall, his gaze falling on the representatives of the port citizens sent by the Five Port Alliance.

"Let's talk about the Harbor Restriction Ordinance."

The king said briskly, his tone affable, as if he was just talking about an ordinary, trivial matter that was only brought up in passing. Of course, the smart ones knew that this was the grand finale of the day.

The Harbor Restriction Ordinance, an ordinance that William III had once tried to implement, but never got around to it.

After the death of William III, the Duke of Buckingham had used up all his energy in holding the throne for his nephew, so the Harbor Restriction Ordinance had been delayed. It was not until to-day that the King first brought it up in Parliament.

The representatives of the citizens sent by the Five Harbors Alliance sat in their chairs, and they were not very worried.

Long before attending the parliament, the Cinque Ports Alliance had secured the union of the great nobles of the southeastern coast. The Cinque Ports Alliance's relationship with the nobles along the coast was definitely closer than the king's relationship with them.

They were partners in interest.

The restrictive ordinance would not have been passed.

"Of course, after all, the ordinance has been sitting on the shelf for a bit too long, and there are some things that still need to be changed in some way."

As if he didn't see the Five Harbors Alliance's calm expression, the king clapped his hands. The king's judges stood up and took out a legal document and distributed it.

"Perhaps I should trouble you gentlemen to take that little bit of time to look over these changes?"

The representatives of the Five Harbors Alliance looked at the documents being distributed and suddenly had a bad feeling. They nervously received the new restriction regulations from the judge.

For a while the entire hall was filled with the sound of papers turning pages.

The king observed everyone's expressions and unsurprisingly watched as the nobles' faces showed joy while the representatives of the Five Harbors Alliance gradually lost their composure.

The new Harbor Restriction Ordinance made some changes from the original, the 1/3 penny tax that was originally handed over to the Cinque Ports League was re-judged to be divided among the local nobles in the Southeast in accordance with the Laws of the Lords[2]. In addition to this, there were several other new additions, none of which redistributed the benefits that had originally belonged to the Cinque Ports League.

The alliance between the Cinque Ports and the southeastern nobles was by no means unbreakable.

As long as there were competing interests, even an iron barrel had to be riddled with holes.

"Tell me, your opinions?"

The king inquired in a seemingly cordial manner.

The representatives of the Cinque Ports Alliance turned their eyes to the nobles who had originally made a private pact with them.

They were destined to be disappointed.

The nobles praised the new ordinance as if they had lost their memories for a moment and ignored their gaze. There were even a number of eager ones who stood up and praised the new ordinance, claiming that it inherited the spirit of law that Rogaland was accustomed to.

The representative of the Five Harbors Alliance stood up and was just about to retort when the king clapped his hands.

"All right, gentlemen." He terminated the discussion, "It's late, let's take a vote. Gentlemen, please."

He glanced at the representatives of the Cinque Ports Alliance with fondness.

They were like falling into an ice cave, watching as one after another of their original allies turned their backs on them in the blink of an eye.

The southeastern nobles who were originally thought to be their comrades in arms became their rivals.

The bells of St. Wessex Cathedral rang.

In the sound of the bells that circled back over the Rose Palace, the voting was over, and the new Port Restriction Ordinance was passed with a superbly high number of votes in favor.

........................

As the council representatives left, they saw that the entrance to the royal palace was still bright red. The guillotine stood tall, the blood of the Sheriffs staining the snow.

Some people stood in front of the guillotine for a long time.

He was the only head of one of the five major families of the Cinque Ports Alliance to come to Castle Mertz, Patriarch Dawson.

The brown-haired, brown-eyed patriarch looked at the blood ice that had been frozen by the bitter cold for a long time, and finally made a decision.

He raised his head, "Let's hope that the heavens truly bless Rogaland and bless the Dawson clan."

It was destined to be a busy and opposite winter.

The newly appointed Sheriffs returned in a hurry, and the representatives of the Free Peoples returned to their counties in joy. The blood of the executed sheriffs froze into ice at the entrance of the palace, while the commoners whose houses were in disrepair felt a hint of warmth in the middle of winter. Even if the king's intention was not to do so, things were going in the right direction.

Things were becoming hopeful.

And the representatives of the Five Ports Alliance likewise returned with the new Port Restriction Ordinance. This winter had only just begun for many, and some already understood that the winter of the Five Ports Alliance had arrived.

They will either bow down to the King or rise up in revolt.

The Cinque Ports Alliance, chose the latter.

At the end of October 1432.

In the first week after the Parliament, the League of the Cinque Ports, led by the five families of Gouros and others, protested to the Crown Court: they considered that the Regulation of the Restriction of Ports was contrary to the powers promised to them by the Crown since the eleventh century, and to the spirit of liberty of the port towns.

Represented by the League of the Five Ports, the chambers of commerce along the southeastern seaboard banded together and refused to provide the Crown with military services at sea until the Crown amended the Port Restrictions[3] and refused to transport the materials needed for the construction of castles around the country.

Work on two important military castles being built by the king had to be interrupted.

The resistance of the Cinque Ports League began.

........................

"You don't seem too worried?"

The Duke of Buckingham and the King were walking slowly along the promenade of the palace, the two of them talking as they went.

The Duke of Buckingham was referring to the Chamber of Commerce resistance movement that had taken off in the Southeast, organized by the Five Ports Alliance, which for once had united maritime merchants of all sizes in a unanimous rejection of the King's restrictive regulations.

It was quite loud.

The southeast region is considered the richest part of Rogaland, and the commercial capital of the empire is located there.

But the king doesn't seem to take the union of merchants seriously.

"It's fine to shift the supplies for building military castles to overland transportation." The king replied, "House Grue will gladly take on that responsibility. Nor would the Kingdom of Angellborn refuse a purchase offer from the Crown - they are so poor that even the Minister of Finance was a little reluctant to negotiate. As for the merchants ......"

The king laughed a little.

"They are merchants, not nobles or commoners. My uncle."

"You already have an idea?"

"What do merchants want freedom for?" The king asked, and then made his own answer, "The point of freedom itself is for profit. It's a simple thing ...... put profit in front of them and they'll make a choice faster than anyone else."

The king stepped forward over the cold rocks.

"Watch, an anti-trust law, and you will see how fragile the union of merchants is."

The king said softly.

"Then I'll watch."

The Duke of Buckingham said gently.

The king looked down the entire long corridor, a forest of beautifully carved stone columns long and slender, straight upwards. There was no warmth in the king's eyes.

He never joked.

Once seated at the table of power, then all were hunters. While wanting to treat other people as prey, one had to be prepared for the day when they themselves became prey.

Never forget one thing-

All present are wolves and all present are lambs.

Author's Notes:

[1] As early as the 13th century, it was common for nobles to read and write, and other classes became literate as well. However, writing was considered by many nobles to be a troublesome task, which was incompatible with their status, so they would hire specialized writers.

[2] Historically, already in 1040, the Abbey of the Redeemer and the Abbey of St. Augustine were in constant dispute over the right to levy the 1/3 pence tax in Sandwich.

[3] The naval sense here is not equivalent to that in the modern sense, but refers to the navies of the Middle Ages. Taking the English navy as a prototype, England at that time did not have a formal naval administration or professional naval soldiers, and the port city allies provided important military services at sea for the Crown.

Some introductions to the royal forests of the Middle Ages.

It may be difficult for present-day minds to understand why all the conflicts surrounding the royal forests occurred at that time. However, in the medieval period, the royal forest was one of the king's financial prerogatives.

According to the Forest Laws of the time, people were not allowed to hunt, graze, or cultivate land in the royal forests without authorization. Those who broke the law were severely punished.

"...... The immediate purpose of the royal forest district was to protect the king's hunting grounds and game, so it was able to provide the royal family with a variety of game foods. Through the sale of timber, hunting rights, grazing rights, and clearing rights, the royal forest district also brought in a steady stream of revenue, which had a share in the king's income in the early Middle Ages. Henry II and King John received £2,000 and more than £3,000 per year, respectively, from the royal forest district." --Shi Cheng, "The Financial Privileges of the Kings of Medieval England

It has already been mentioned that the earl's annual income also seldom exceeded five thousand pounds. This was no small sum. But in addition to this, by punishing violators of the forest laws, the king made large judicial profits.

In Mr. Guo Feng's "From Protection to Management: A Study of Royal Forest Revenues in Medieval England", the revenues of the royal forests of that time are described in detail: "...... The royal forests of medieval England accounted for one-third of the land in England in its heyday. In the 12th century, the strict enforcement of the forest law brought many benefits to the royal family, and the royal forests occupied an important position in the royal income.From the end of the 13th century to the beginning of the 14th century, as the forests became more and more the center of agricultural and industrial activities, the enforcement of the forest law shifted from the preservation of the royal prerogative to the increase of the king's income, and the royal forests shifted from protection to management. ......"

"...... According to the medieval forest law, the royal family enjoyed various privileges over the royal forests, such as the right to hunt, the right to rent out land, the right to harvest trees, and the necessary taxes. And the exemption of these privileges, i.e. concessions, could itself bring much economic gain to the crown ......"

From the standpoint of those who came later, something may seem inexplicable, but if one enters it and listens to it, one realizes that there must have been a reason for its creation. History follows its own vein.