| |
 ou are in England in the year 1273. You
are Robert, the second son of Lord Landley, a
middle level aristocrat with a castle in the west
of England. You have never been to London with
your father on the rare trips that he makes. You
have seen some of the neighboring knights and
lords but have not been introduced because of
your youth.
The times you live in are very
turbulent. There is a need for armed knights to
keep order, both to prevent risings of the
peasantry and to keep other lords and knights
from raiding the area. All of the aristocracy is
part of a grand hierarchy from the lowest knights
at the bottom to the King alone at the top.
Except for the King, all of the knights and lords
are vassals of someone above them and, except for
the very lowest, all have their own vassals
beneath them.
This system of loyalty and duty should
ensure peace and order, but plots and outright
treachery are the order of the day. Almost all
kings have had to deal with plots against their
rule.
Lately there has been more tension in
the castle and your father has been distant
during meals and often absent from the great
hall. Letters stamped with red wax have been
coming and going -- the warning signs of another
plot, or rumor of a plot, or the attempt to
create the rumor of a plot to see who would join
in.
Suddenly a servant comes up to you: your
father wants to see you, now. You are needed to
take part in the urgent business at hand, the
first time that you have been old enough to do
so. Your older brother has been made squire to a
knight to learn his duties and is at a tourney
far to the south. You hurry to your father's
rooms, passing through the great hall with its
walls hung with weapons and banners. At one end,
behind where your father sits at the head of the
great table are his arms and his shield.
You remember your lessons with Roger,
your father’s herald, who instructs you in
the complicated system of blazon, the
description in special language of a shield, and emblazon,
the colors and pictures on the shield, and who
raps you on the knuckles when you do not remember
your lessons. You recall the blazon of your
fathers arms that has been drilled into your mind
for instant recognition:
Or, on a cross azure,
five lozenges argent
After so much study this actually makes
sense to you: Or, a gold background; cross
azure, a blue cross and five lozenges
argent, five silver diamond shapes on the
blue cross.
Some day the shield, and most of the
lands, responsibilities, powers and dangers that
go with it, will belong to your older brother.
Unless, of course, they are lost in the swirlings
of politics and violence.
You
hope to inherit a small estate from your mother,
and you may gain lands from a marriage your
parents arrange, if they can find an heiress with
no living brothers. But most of your father's
lands will go to your older brother.
Click here to
Continue
|
|