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I really enjoyed this chapter. The back and forth, and the fact that Cecily is there advising Richard is a lovely behind-the-scenes look at their relationship.
Also:
Zing! Love it.
I particularly enjoyed writing this scene, especially as I believe Cecily may be my favorite character to write for. She has a strength (as mentioned in the last line) that is often lacking in many of the male characters. And I think she is more level headed than Margaret of Anjou, regardless of how formidable she may be now or will be going forward. Even Richard of York has his moments of doubt that she does not possess (as hopefully shown in the scene above.) Of the 3 main women of this era (to include Margaret Beaufort who is still quite young as of 1452) to me Cecily is really the most fascinating.
I also really love the relationship between Richard and Cecily. From all of my reading, theirs was a true one and not just a match made for other reasons (even if those were also present.) It's fun to try and bring it to life.
The final line, stronger than any man and telling Richard that the only person who loves his voice more than her is himself. I asked if Richard would be happy with anything less than the crown, but the better question is would Cecily? I can imagine her wielding an axe to the necks of Margaret and Richard and having Henry under her thumb. Thank you for the update.
You may very well be right about Cecily. She does, after all, have a minor claim to the throne herself through her...wait for it...Beaufort ancestry.
Her mother was Joan Beaufort, daughter of John of Gaunt. Thus she is descended from Edward III. Her claim would grow a little stronger should Henry VI do away with the Beaufort exclusion from succession put into place when Henry IV came to power and name Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset as his heir since he remains without issue. It is ironically this point that is one of the thorniest for Richard of York who himself wanted to be named official heir (and obviously holds the best claim and arguably better than Henry himself.)
Well... the Succession Crisis grows more inevitable by the day.
It most certainly does and thank goodness for that. Otherwise I'd have little to write about.
If I was King Henry and as pious as he, but possessive of an atom more firmness and imagination, at this point I would just go: “Alright, you don’t want to listen to me? Fine. Maybe Rome will knock some sense into your heads,” and call for a Papal emissary to investigate the succession dispute, then laugh my rear end off when said emissary issued a final report to the effect of “this whole mess could have been resolved in five minutes had the English ever bothered to pass a proper succession law and the principal lords of state not had all the intelligence and coordination of a bunch of crabs fighting in a boiling pot.”
That is a possible route to take but I'd think even in the 15th century, England would be rather leery of inviting Papal influence on the royal court and succession. More to that, it could invite an opening of a can of worms for Henry himself as it may be judged that he and his line of Lancastrian Kings were illegitimate since they usurped the throne from Richard II. It is this matter, I believe, that truly leads to the WOTR and should rightly be considered the real start of it.
...dude...it took centuries for someone to make an inheritance law that stuck.
And that guy, Henry 8th, only managed it because the other two people in line for the throne were women (and one was a Catholic. And both were by that time illegitimate).
And even then, it lasted one ruler before being broken and a bit of violence was required to get back on track.
It was only after the Glorious Revolution (that is, the second time Parliament took over the monarchy), that rhe rules became fixed and legally binding, followed to the letter.
A decentralised fuedal England has no chance of getting an inheritance law passed that will be obeyed in due course. And certainly not when there are 200 people with a claim to the throne, all of whom belong to two feuding halves of a family with massive armies and treasuries.
This is a particularly fine point. Even the above mentioned Beaufort exclusion provision put in place under Henry IV is suspect as he may not have really had that authority as it was an amendment to the parliamentary statute in place at the time. And since we're not at a point where the King can just do whatever he wants (especially in England) it is a specifically sticky issue. That does not mean that he cannot try, however.
To all - Really great looks to the scene above and the moment in time. I took many of the words Richard sent to the council at Shrewsbury from his actual "manifesto" though I took some liberties with the wording. It's about half real and half made up by me. I hope it flows seamlessly. In OTL this was done in February of 1452 but I pushed it out to later to allow for the battle at Saintonge to come before he sent it. We're starting to see a little divergence from actual history and I hope it works and makes sense.
I'm looking to get another scene up by Monday but my writing has slowed in the past week as RL gets back to some sense of normalcy. As in, I'm fully back to work and thus have less time to write in and around other things. But I am still plugging along and have at least the rest of this chapter outlined even if not yet written. The next scene is mostly done and I hope to finish it over the weekend.
Thank you to all for reading and giving comment! It definitely keeps me moving.
