Chapter 242: House Of Lords III

The middle of June was chosen as the date of the first meeting of the year for it was in time with when some of the eldest sons of the peers graduate from Windsor School of Nobles, take their hereditary title, and become new members replacing the ones who choose to retire the year before. 

For example, a duke has a son that is an earl, and the earl now has a son of his own. When the grandson graduates, he may remain as a lord, but if the duke chooses to retire, the son goes up the ladder and so does the grandson. The duke becomes an honorary duke with no role in court, while the next two generations take the mantle. 

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The meeting for that day began with the introduction of new members. For this year, there were 3. One was the new Baron, Howard Dane, the other was the new Viscount, John Depp. The third one was Prince Frederick William. 

A second prince is given the same privilege of attending court because if something were to happen to the crown prince, the 2nd price will take over his position. In some cases, besides death, if the crown prince were found to be inadequate or guilty of a crime, he may be ousted from his position through petition. The house of lords may vote to demote him to give way to the 2nd prince.

Thus, the battle for the throne between princes was possible. However, the crown prince has the advantage. 

Frederick smiled and waved as the peers lauded him as his name was called. He even looked at Geoffrey as if telling him that soon, he would be dragged away from his seat and their positions would be exchanged.

Geoffrey almost wanted to frown. Not because he's afraid, rather, it was because his brother's idiocy still baffles him. Does he not understand that the fight for the throne should come second when facing the current situation where the radical faction is just waiting for the right timing to charter for change?

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Anyway, currently, only about 45% of the court were from the monarchist faction. The ministers were default monarchist because they are appointed by the king. However, when it comes to the battle of the throne, they are the ones most concerned.

To understand why that is the case, one should look at the function and the composition of the ministry.

The ministries work directly under the king. They make for the centralized governance in improving the lives of the citizens of the kingdom as whole, though most of the time, they mainly focus on the capital. Anyway, due to the nature of their work, they stay in the capital year-round unless they are directly ordered by the king to go to certain places. They attend meetings in the throne room and individually at the king's private office when needed.

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The duty of the Ministers is to administer nationwide state affairs. Given their responsibility, the peerage title does not always go to the eldest son. It is the King who appoints the next minister that becomes the royal duke from the same family. If the appointed person's performance is not satisfactory, the king may also replace said person to another kin. However, rarely does that happen because of the need of continuity. 

Thus, the 8 ministers will always be monarchist, and they are not loyal to just the faction but to the crown. The only downside is that they would always want to be in favor with the next king for obvious reasons and if they fall out of favor with the reigning one, they will want to change to the next in line.

Meanwhile, there are 2 vice ministers for each ministry. 

The first seat is given to the peerage, usually, the next in line to the duke, and if not of age yet, then the duke's younger brother or nearest kin, also their rank would still give them the right to vote. (3 marquis and 5 earls). The purpose was to cross check that the ministers are doing their job, and also to invigorate their duty to the crown and the kingdom as a whole. 

Of course, there's another side to that which was not of common knowledge. Since the oldest son who's next in line to the duchy would work as vice minister, they would need to stay in the capital. This serves as insurance that the dukes would not dare to act against the crown. (it's like they're hostages in a dressed-up way.) 

Mostly they are neutral, but they should be more inclined to be monarchist.

The second seat is begotten through competence. Aside from that, to be considered for the position, he must be royal or noble descent. Usually, it goes to the very talented sons other than the heir. However, they are not given the right to vote. 

In summary, the ministry which makes up for 25% of the house votes, although default monarchist faction is also divided from within. 

The other 20% of the monarchist faction is made up of loyal vassals. The only reason that they don't recruit just about everyone is because it's too expensive to maintain. Besides, the poor landed gentry can be easily swayed.

The other 30% are from the neutral group. They can remain neutral either because they still have a clean slate or because they are not powerful or rich enough to matter. However, it's unknown who amongst them are really sympathizers of the radical faction.

The radicals make up for 25%. The king always let them exist because there's no sufficient reason to get rid of them. Aside from that, when they don't try to contradict the reigning monarch, they are useful in cross checking the actions of the monarchists. 

In the end, check and balance in court is needed because if the king lets the monarchists gain too much power, they may usurp him and make him abdicate in favor of the next in line. 

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TBC

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