First I must echo @Chac1 and say this was another fine chapter, plot was advanced and characters developed, even if not totally as you had intended. So this is not a criticism, except perhaps in the literary review sense.
The opening italic blurb sets the context for this scene and I fear it undermined your intent;
Despite that I think the rest of the scene works well. It does show Mathieu standing up for himself and not being completely unskilled at the game, as you say his initial resistance to Wernhard is not something he would have done earlier, the folding under the veiled threat and the mass of other nobles then worked very well and got the point across well while also lightening the mood. As I said the scene works and is an entertaining read, but I agree with Chac1's point that it would have worked better with some example of Mathieu being a better ruler before he crumbles under his flaw.
To end on a high point, the detail about the poisoned minor lord being ignored as he slowly dies was exceptional. A proper 'show don't tell' about how unpleasant and (literally) poisonous the atmosphere in Mathieu's court is, and about how little power and control he had even before the events of the scene. An excellent bit of writing.
The opening italic blurb sets the context for this scene and I fear it undermined your intent;
The way I read that was that Mathieu had been giving in repeatedly before this, avoiding conflict where he could but folding to every request as he went. If the intent was to show him as well-meaning, competent but flawed then having this initial section show him be successful would have been a better start, being actually able to rule well when dealing with people who do not know or lack the skill to exploit his psychological flaws.
Despite that I think the rest of the scene works well. It does show Mathieu standing up for himself and not being completely unskilled at the game, as you say his initial resistance to Wernhard is not something he would have done earlier, the folding under the veiled threat and the mass of other nobles then worked very well and got the point across well while also lightening the mood. As I said the scene works and is an entertaining read, but I agree with Chac1's point that it would have worked better with some example of Mathieu being a better ruler before he crumbles under his flaw.
To end on a high point, the detail about the poisoned minor lord being ignored as he slowly dies was exceptional. A proper 'show don't tell' about how unpleasant and (literally) poisonous the atmosphere in Mathieu's court is, and about how little power and control he had even before the events of the scene. An excellent bit of writing.
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