Castration of Connor I

Castration of Connor I
An original copy of the Act of Castration from 1400
Parliament of Suder
An Act to limit the powers of His Majesty, King Connor the First of Suder
Territorial extent	Suder
Date passed	3 January 1400
Date of Royal Assent	2 April 1400

TheCastration of Connor I, also known as the Limitation Act is a charter of the Kingdom of Suder of rights and limitations of the monarchy agreed to by Connor I of Suder near Weysburg, on 2 June 1400. The Castration Act was first introduced by the Parliament of Suder on 3 January 1400 by the Archbishop of Weysburg Brandon Biden in an attempt to resolve an ongoing conflict between reform-minded nobles and barons who favored constiutionalism, called Nijs (literally: News) and the nobles and barons who believed in absolutism, called the Puristen (literally: Purists). Two iterations of the act were produced by Archbishop Biden, first in January 1400 and second in June 1400.

History

Background

At the time, the conflict between the Nijs and Puristen had been escalating for several years. The Nijs were primarily lower and middle ranked nobles (though many higher ranked nobles were sympathetic to the Nijist cause) from the Aurspresh, Cummese, Fermden, and West Bergweiser speaking parts of the kingdom. The Nijs favored more constitutional government and were heavily influenced by the ideas of the Age of Reason, and wanted to limit the heavy influence the higher ranked nobles in the south and the central monarchy had over state affairs. They were occasionally called "Parliamentarians", as they wanted to transform the advisory body that the Parliament was at the time into a true legislative one. In addition, while the churches of Suder were formally neutral, they tended to favor the Nijs.

The primary opponents of the Nijs were the Puristen, higher ranked nobles from the Sexish and Robrumaran speaking portions of the kingdom. The Puristen, as higher ranked nobles, benefited from the absolutist status quo. The Puristen frequently abused their powers, forcing what was essentially racketeering from their lower ranked counterparts, threatening war if certain costs weren't paid and protecting those who did pay. One incident from the 1378 Battle of Westicus saw troops from several higher ranked barons not only fail to prevent Ketha-Trewince's troops from sacking the manors who did not pay protection costs, but actively assisting in the sackings as well.

Bouts of violence, such as the 1396 Battle of Joneta, where Nijist nobility refused to pay a tax to the high ranking Baron Edward of Joneta, and had their troops seize the treasuries of the monarch and only vacated after receiving promises of amnesty by Archbishop Brandon Biden, who began to establish himself as compromiser who both sides could deal with. The large amount of influenced waged by the churches during this era meant that both sides sought to have Archbishop Biden endorse them, or at the very least condemn the other. Desperate to prevent war, Archbishop Biden refused to take sides, and instead solved each dispute on a case by case basis. Several other violence incidents would take place throughout the 1390s, culminating in the January 1399 Arrest of Baron Arald.

Baron Arald, one of the de facto leaders of the Nijs was a relatively high ranking noble but was sympathetic to the cause of the Nijs and was a powerful ally. In 1398, the troops of several Puristen barons were sent to raid the manor and fief of a relatively minor noble figure. Upon hearing of the planned raid, Arald dispatched his own army, promising to defend his ally from the "gross abuses of power being wrought upon a good and Christian man". This action sparked enough anger that on 18 October 1399, King Connor I sent royal troops the Arald's castle, beseiged it, and imprisoned Arald in Joneta.

The arrest nearly sparked civil war itself, and conflict was only halted by Archbishop Biden, who pleaded for an emergency session of the Parliament to begin on 3 January of 1400. This request also included halts of the mobilization of armed forces among the Nijs and Puristens and a halt of "tax collection" by Puristen nobles against Nijist nobles. Upon the assembly of the Parliament, the two sides had effectively self-segregated, with the Nijs and Puristen armies assembling just outside of Weysburg, which was hosting the Parliament. So many troops were present that passerby who did not realize the Parliament had come back into session believed that a new war had been called and the kingdom was mustering troops. In an attempt to compromise between the two sides, Archbishop Biden introduced the first "Act of Limitation".

Biden's Act

The original act set certain limitations on power of barons, protected the independence of churches, and protections for lower ranked nobles from the power of higher ranking nobility. However, the original act did not limit much of the king's power and left Parliament more as the advisory body it was rather than making it into a true legislative body but did grant Parliament the power to regulate relations between fiefdoms. Biden suggested the act as a compromise. While the Nijs did not receive a wholly constitutional government or legal equality, they were granted certain protections from abuses of power, given recourses of action against their higher ranked nobles, and had certain limits placed on what barons could do in their fiefs.

In exchange, political power continued to lie in the higher ranking nobility and the monarchy who were still empowered to collect "reasonable taxes" and had wide prerogatives within their own fiefs. Parliament was only empowerd to settle relations and otherwise remained a mostly toothless body. They could still collect taxes for protection of the Nijs, but the taxes had to be reasonable, fair, and agreed upon by both parties through negotiation. In addition, the churches would refuse to intervene in the conflict and would instead remain neutral, a major victory for a group which feared the churches siding with their opponents.

The act proved popular to the Nijs, who considered passage of the act to be a major victory if it came to pass, protecting many of their rights and bringing many reforms to the Suderan political system. While some radicals, called "The Fanged" opposed the act on the principle it did not go far enough, the majority of Nijs were "Half-Jaws", who favored slower and more incremental changes. However, the Puritsen saw the act as an affront to their power and accused Archbishop Biden of treason. They saw the limitations of their power as being the start of a dangerous historical precedent which would result in a much more liberal political system in Suder. In response to the perceived insult by Archbishop Biden, Connor I ordered the execution of Baron Arald and the imprisonment (and likely execution) of Archbishop Biden. Connor also ordered the mobilization of the encamped Puristen armies to move against the outnumbered Nijist armies on 20 February.

The Castration

Luckily for Biden, news of his arrest warrant and mobilization of the Puristen armies were intercepted by Nijist scouts. The Nijist nobles thus delayed the workings of Parliament for several days while more troops were prepared outside Weysburg. On 1 March 1400, the Nijists armies moved on the Puristen ones, beginning the Battle of Weysburg. Despite being lower quality and outnumbered, the Nijist armies had a large amount of longbowmen and men-at-arms in support. In addition the terrain was on the side of the Nijists. The wet and muddy terrain hemmed in by dense woodland favoured the Nijists, whose more lightly armed troops had an easier time moving through the thick mud that the knights of the Puristen armies had to wade through.

Accounts of the battle describe the Puristen forces engaging the Nijist men-at-arms before being rushed from the sides by the longbowmen as the mêlée developed. Nijist historian Julian van Holmes would write that; "For when some of them, killed when battle was first joined, fall at the front, so great was the undisciplined violence and pressure of the mass of men behind them that the living fell on top of the dead, and others falling on top of the living were killed as well."Although the Puristen forces initially responded well and pushed the Nijists back, they became so closely packed that they were described as having trouble using their weapons properly. The pro-Nijist monk of Weysburg saying that; "Their vanguard, composed of about 5,000 men, found itself at first so tightly packed that those who were in the third rank could scarcely use their swords," and even some pro-Puristen sources have described similar conditions.

The recent heavy rain made the battle field very muddy, proving very tiring to walk through in full plate armour. The monk of Weysburg describes the Puristen troops as "marching through the middle of the mud where they sank up to their knees. So they were already overcome with fatigue even before they advanced against the enemy". The deep, soft mud particularly favoured the Nijist force because, once knocked to the ground, the heavily armoured Puristen knights had a hard time getting back up to fight in the mêlée. Seveal sources state that some knights, encumbered by their armour, actually drowned in their helmets.

The result was an utter rout by the Nijists. Their longbows and superior fighting in close quarters demolished much of the Puristen forces, which were considered "elite" and unbeatable by the Nijists. As a result, the humiliated Connor I and his Puristen allies were forced to surrender to the Nijists. However, as a result of the anger at the Puristen attempts to arrest the Archbishop Biden and the execution of Baron Arald and combined with the lack of a need for compromise (the Nijists had won militarily and held the power), the resulting limitations act was far stricter.

Second Act

In this second act, the power of the king was curtailed heavily. While the king held considerable power, especially in the long term operations of the state, day to day powers were formally vested into a new position; the prime minister. In addition, the king was stripped of legislative and judicial powers, with the legislative powers being vested into the Parliament which became a full-fledged legislative body. While the king maintained his veto, the Parliament wielded considerable power. The Royal Army was dissolved and replaced by the Army of Suder, which swore loyalty to both the monarchy and the Parliament. The judicial powers of the state were invested into courts created by Parliament, though the king would retain the power to appoint judges.

All nobility in the country were made equal and allowed to participate in parliamentary politics. While this limited the franchise to 1-2% of adult men, it represented a massive shift away from the absolutist decision making which had marked Suderan politics in the past. Barons were required to protect other fiefdoms in the kingdom in an emergency, even if that fiefdom had not paid any protection price. Taxes were to be conducted in a reasonable manner, and no lord could discriminate against the subjects of one fiefdom who were in his own. In short, all subjects must have their rights respected regardless of where in the kingdom they were.

In addition, the commoners were allowed to criticize their barons in public without fear of repercussion, and the act formally "recommended" that local councils govern towns within fiefdoms. Commoners were allowed to choose their faith without discrimination and had the right to speak their own language, ending discrimination against commoners who worshiped or spoke differently against the majority of the kingdom. All commoners had a right to travel freely throughout the kingdom without unreasonable molestation.

Legacy

The second act was so strict and limiting that one Nijist baron quipped that "His Majesty has been limited to such a degree I would not be surprised if he were to be castrated. We should check if he yet remains His Majesty." This quip earned the act's popular name, the Castration of Connor I.

The Castration became a defining moment in constitutionalist thought, with the victory of the lower nobles disproving the idea of the divine right of kings, and the saying that absolutism "died at Weysburg" became a common joke, and "dying at Weysburg" remains a Suderan expression, meaning that something archaic had finally disappeared. The rights to freedom of religion, freedom of language, freedom of movement, or other basic rights became, to some degree, realistic possibilites for much of Suder's people. Thus, despite not being aimed towards commoners themselves, the rights inspired by the Castration are considered a major influence in movements which emancipated the peasants and moved society towards a more egalitarian direction.

The act inspired other similar limitations in monarchial power, both in the Sexish Countries and abroad.