The_Emperor
06-29-2004, 23:21
The Trial of King Edward
The Aftermath of glory.
“Thus passes Worldly Glory”… King Edward muttered as he gazed at the fields before him. The sky was dark as he looked at the devastation before him.
The tortured faces of the fallen were all around him in the fields outside Paris. The battle was brutal, but then surely all battles are. The once mighty armies of the Franks were now scattered or lying dead before him, and their place as the greatest power in Christendom was now over.
The Wind picked up as the sky darkened yet more as the King walked on looking for his rival who he was sure remained here. In the small patches of ground between the dead the mud was discoloured. Turned a reddish brown from the spilling of so much blood that day… Everywhere women were turning over bodies, hoping and praying to find out if loved ones were among the dead.
This was what he had wrought, against everyone’s wishes. When war broke out between him and the French, it was he who invaded from Normandy, looking to seize the claim on the French throne by marriage… The Pope had urged him to stop and withdraw his troops within two years, but he pressed on regardless.
Now his Kingdom was vast and his claim fulfilled, but it was of little comfort to him here… Looking out contemplating his victory, it all seemed a little hollow. It was in truth, his treasury was almost entirely gone and to make matters worse he hadn’t captured anything of real value. The French had proven to be stubborn in their defiance, and before the English arrived for another raid they destroyed what they could when the enemy were spotted.
Suddenly he was snapped out of his quiet moment of contemplation as a sharp clap of thunder echoed overhead. The rain came down hard, and everywhere the light drumming sound was heard as the raindrops fell upon the armour of the fallen. The blood washing away into the ground as the sky turned angry.
The King grasped his sword and trudged off through the field to find his horse and company of bodyguards, to ride to shelter…
An Audience.
“Holiness please I beg of you, I need your help to bring about Edward’s downfall,” The Frenchman appealed to the Pope in desperation. “I need money, men and troops”
The Pope shook his head, “No my Son, I am powerless to come to your aid… Emperor Friedrich of the Holy Roman Empire is on our doorstep with a large army, I know of his ambition to take Rome for himself and his alliance with Edward would provide him with the perfect excuse to unseat me”
The Frenchman replied “Excommunicate King Edward then”
The Pope thought about this for a moment as he paced up and down in his hall… “No I have a better idea” After nodding towards the guard the doors opened to reveal a man.
“I will send this man to deal with your rival”.
An Envoy Arrives
The Cardinal arrived before King Edward with his entourage of Bishops and other holy men.
“By decree of our Holy Father the Pope, you are to be tested before god. You shall be placed on trial and submit yourself to the judgement of the church”
The Guards upon hearing this immediately escorted the King away…
The Trial of King Edward.
“I have no need to answer to you, and this trial is wrong I tell you, for I am king I answer to nobody” Edward screamed at the cardinal. The belligerent questioning of the past several days was getting to him… “You dare deny the authority of Gods church over all men, such heresy”
“Answer now, WHY did you go to war with the French?” King Edward paused and answered, “Because it was my claim by right of my mother’s marriage. But I was cheated from it”
“So it was your claim by marriage… however we have studied your claims and it appears that the marriage in question is not of sufficient cause Would it be more accurate to say that you were bloodthirsty and sinful and yearned to strike down your neighbour??”
“No” King Edward answered but it was a faint lie, for he knew that it was his own drive and desire for power that drove him towards it.
Details were read out of the massacre in Normandy, where the civilian population were ejected from the castle to prevent the garrison starving out. “Is it true that instead of letting those women and children pass from your lines back to the nearby town where they could survive, you refused to let them pass and killed any who dared beg for passage”
“Of course you know what happened, instead of doing the honourable thing you were cruel and let them starve to death between the castle walls and ramparts and your own lines, you were cruel and evil and the Devil had taken your soul, have you no faith in god to follow his commandments?”
The king screamed out in anger “Alright I regret it, but it was necessary”
“That level of Cruelty is never necessary” the cardinal retorted.
Then the cardinal produced his diary and read a passage… “Today I had a moment of clarity when I saw the dead lying on that field, god was not there. In fact I don’t remember him EVER being there. Maybe he wasn’t, maybe this is all a lie. Do we choose to have false faith in a lie? Or an honest faith in nothing? I choose to have faith in nothing”
The crowd gasped… And the cardinal turned to the King with a vengeful look on his face. “Are those your words?” The King knew what this meant and was shocked that his secret atheism was exposed… “Those words were written by me” the King muttered.
“Then it is by the judgement inferred to me by almighty god that your body shall burn in that it can save your soul… may God have mercy on you, Heretic King”
The guards dragged off the King of both England and France…
The fate of a king.
The English King was led out into the open courtyard and tied to the stake, below him was piles of wood.
The Cardinal stood beside the other church officials… They began praying over and over again for his soul as the guards lit the wood beneath his feet, the heat and flames grew below him and he struggled and closing his eyes he prayed… King Edward the Atheist Prayed the first meaningful prayer of his life
The flames grew higher and the pain grew immense and the smell of burning flesh gripped him as he looked through around at the gathering. A Cross-was rose high into the air.
The Frenchman smiled at the sight of his oppressor suffering so and looked at the burning monarch, who’s eyes suddenly fixed on to him and a flash of recognition filled his blackened burning face… Before the flames had arisen covering what was left of him.
So ended the rule of King Edward of England.
The Aftermath of glory.
“Thus passes Worldly Glory”… King Edward muttered as he gazed at the fields before him. The sky was dark as he looked at the devastation before him.
The tortured faces of the fallen were all around him in the fields outside Paris. The battle was brutal, but then surely all battles are. The once mighty armies of the Franks were now scattered or lying dead before him, and their place as the greatest power in Christendom was now over.
The Wind picked up as the sky darkened yet more as the King walked on looking for his rival who he was sure remained here. In the small patches of ground between the dead the mud was discoloured. Turned a reddish brown from the spilling of so much blood that day… Everywhere women were turning over bodies, hoping and praying to find out if loved ones were among the dead.
This was what he had wrought, against everyone’s wishes. When war broke out between him and the French, it was he who invaded from Normandy, looking to seize the claim on the French throne by marriage… The Pope had urged him to stop and withdraw his troops within two years, but he pressed on regardless.
Now his Kingdom was vast and his claim fulfilled, but it was of little comfort to him here… Looking out contemplating his victory, it all seemed a little hollow. It was in truth, his treasury was almost entirely gone and to make matters worse he hadn’t captured anything of real value. The French had proven to be stubborn in their defiance, and before the English arrived for another raid they destroyed what they could when the enemy were spotted.
Suddenly he was snapped out of his quiet moment of contemplation as a sharp clap of thunder echoed overhead. The rain came down hard, and everywhere the light drumming sound was heard as the raindrops fell upon the armour of the fallen. The blood washing away into the ground as the sky turned angry.
The King grasped his sword and trudged off through the field to find his horse and company of bodyguards, to ride to shelter…
An Audience.
“Holiness please I beg of you, I need your help to bring about Edward’s downfall,” The Frenchman appealed to the Pope in desperation. “I need money, men and troops”
The Pope shook his head, “No my Son, I am powerless to come to your aid… Emperor Friedrich of the Holy Roman Empire is on our doorstep with a large army, I know of his ambition to take Rome for himself and his alliance with Edward would provide him with the perfect excuse to unseat me”
The Frenchman replied “Excommunicate King Edward then”
The Pope thought about this for a moment as he paced up and down in his hall… “No I have a better idea” After nodding towards the guard the doors opened to reveal a man.
“I will send this man to deal with your rival”.
An Envoy Arrives
The Cardinal arrived before King Edward with his entourage of Bishops and other holy men.
“By decree of our Holy Father the Pope, you are to be tested before god. You shall be placed on trial and submit yourself to the judgement of the church”
The Guards upon hearing this immediately escorted the King away…
The Trial of King Edward.
“I have no need to answer to you, and this trial is wrong I tell you, for I am king I answer to nobody” Edward screamed at the cardinal. The belligerent questioning of the past several days was getting to him… “You dare deny the authority of Gods church over all men, such heresy”
“Answer now, WHY did you go to war with the French?” King Edward paused and answered, “Because it was my claim by right of my mother’s marriage. But I was cheated from it”
“So it was your claim by marriage… however we have studied your claims and it appears that the marriage in question is not of sufficient cause Would it be more accurate to say that you were bloodthirsty and sinful and yearned to strike down your neighbour??”
“No” King Edward answered but it was a faint lie, for he knew that it was his own drive and desire for power that drove him towards it.
Details were read out of the massacre in Normandy, where the civilian population were ejected from the castle to prevent the garrison starving out. “Is it true that instead of letting those women and children pass from your lines back to the nearby town where they could survive, you refused to let them pass and killed any who dared beg for passage”
“Of course you know what happened, instead of doing the honourable thing you were cruel and let them starve to death between the castle walls and ramparts and your own lines, you were cruel and evil and the Devil had taken your soul, have you no faith in god to follow his commandments?”
The king screamed out in anger “Alright I regret it, but it was necessary”
“That level of Cruelty is never necessary” the cardinal retorted.
Then the cardinal produced his diary and read a passage… “Today I had a moment of clarity when I saw the dead lying on that field, god was not there. In fact I don’t remember him EVER being there. Maybe he wasn’t, maybe this is all a lie. Do we choose to have false faith in a lie? Or an honest faith in nothing? I choose to have faith in nothing”
The crowd gasped… And the cardinal turned to the King with a vengeful look on his face. “Are those your words?” The King knew what this meant and was shocked that his secret atheism was exposed… “Those words were written by me” the King muttered.
“Then it is by the judgement inferred to me by almighty god that your body shall burn in that it can save your soul… may God have mercy on you, Heretic King”
The guards dragged off the King of both England and France…
The fate of a king.
The English King was led out into the open courtyard and tied to the stake, below him was piles of wood.
The Cardinal stood beside the other church officials… They began praying over and over again for his soul as the guards lit the wood beneath his feet, the heat and flames grew below him and he struggled and closing his eyes he prayed… King Edward the Atheist Prayed the first meaningful prayer of his life
The flames grew higher and the pain grew immense and the smell of burning flesh gripped him as he looked through around at the gathering. A Cross-was rose high into the air.
The Frenchman smiled at the sight of his oppressor suffering so and looked at the burning monarch, who’s eyes suddenly fixed on to him and a flash of recognition filled his blackened burning face… Before the flames had arisen covering what was left of him.
So ended the rule of King Edward of England.