Elegy for Francis, Duke of Dukes | An Alternate History

Party Politics

FINAL STANZA, VERSE III

The friendship enjoyed between those two was doomed by the machinations of the English parliamentarians. Within a year of the revolution's closure Atwood was tried for supposedly betraying the cause by giving away territories to Francis. For this crime he was exiled not only from England but from the entire known world. He was sailed across the Atlantic and thrown ashore, never to be seen again. Rumor has it he founded a field hospital for wounded natives that he ran until his death in a raid on the facility.

In the Union, a similar story nearly played out. Norman nobility seated in Rouen held great sway over internal politics, having funded the war against Charles. Debts were repaid in the form of votes and seats in government. By 1566 nearly half of the nation's hundred twenty-five members of parliament was subservient to the Rouenists. They threatened to oust the Duke of Dukes if he didn't reaffirm their right to inherit government positions.

Ultimately these threats petered out as Francis refused to budge. He even created a faction of his own, the Maritime Party. It offered a path to citizenship for subjects in the many Mediterranean colonies by virtue of joining the navy or becoming merchants. Countless souls enjoyed newfound freedom for siding with Francis. The vast majority were eager to break from Italy and Anatolia, having been caught in a struggle between powers in those two regions for centuries. Existing at least partially on their own terms was a breath of fresh air. How quickly that breeze soured!