Conseil du Royaume

[Cultured Drizzt fan]

Yvon shakes his head

if we hand Valencia to them then we will be surrounded on two sides. When they do attack, and they will, then we are going to be fighting a vicious war, and it will not be on our terms. My lord appears correct to me, It is our land, why should we pay them an arm and a leg for it?


Yvon turns to Gaetan, face hardening

It appears times change, brother in arms.

[Braden]

My Lords, I am truely in favour of granting Caernarvon to the English in a deal to cain Caen...and good luck to them.

It is the insistance of giving so much coin AND Valencia that sticks in my craw.

On thinking though I realise why so much coin is required...Velencia is just too far from the English crown to be controlled by them without significant expense to them. They are clearly not fools.

If we had a holding in Ireland or Norway I feel our deal would be struck with little coin or, indeed, arguments from the Council.

Velencia, for me, is a staging post for any quests against the heretics and should not be relinquished if at all possible.

As it stands however, Caen would be of much use to us.

I put my feelings to the Council and to my King, I can do nothing more.

[Cultured Drizzt fan]

Also, what do the Milanese think they are doing? As it stands two separate armies have marched from Italy and are making their merry way through Burgandy and Toulouse. I do not remember allowing them to do any such thing? This seems a breach of protocol that we should definitely try and fix. The armies are small so far, but I think we need to get it in these foolish Italians heads that we do not appreciate this behavior.

[TinCow]

Christophe yawns and opens an eye.

Apologies, good sirs, I appear to have fallen asleep in the wrong place. I thought this was the Conseil due Royaume, where gathered the proud and courages nobles of France. I see that I was wrong and that I am instead surrounded by miserly merchants with no taste for battle. Please pardon me, as I had no desire to interrupt your petty hagglings. Could someone be so good as to direct me to whence I could find those men whose sacks are filled with brass, rather than gold?

[_Tristan_]

Philippe looks at de Perrone.

And pray tell us, de Perrone, of your accomplishments ? Have done anything else but follow in the wake of my son Louis, with the baggage train, so to speak ? Here are men that have fought valiantly for the Crown and for France (pointing towards the benches of Lorraine and the benches of the Order) so keep your insults to yourself unless you have something useful to say.

There is more brass in these men's sacks that there will ever be in yours, they've proven it.

[OverKnight]

Hugues mutters to himself, "Flung by my own trebuchet" and then stands to speak.

My King and Seigneurs, we have all served the realm in different ways. Some in battle, some in diplomacy and some in administration. All service is valued.

Hugues glances at the King after saying this and then continues.

The question on the table is whether the deal that we can reach with the English is good for the Realm. The King has raised several fine points for it, and I agree with his Majesty. Others have stated we shouldn't buy what we can take by force.

I can understand those views, but given the current circumstances and edicts, I am inclined to make the deal.

Edit: Hugues turns to Lacaze.

I will keep an eye on the Milanese. I'll have more to say on the matter once I have the latest reports.

[AussieGiant]

"The agreement is not ideal but it brings us a step closer to our goal.

In zat regard I also zink we should move forward wiz ze proposition."

[Braden]

I will keep my Kings council on these matters for now. A continued offensive war against the English, though appealing to many of us at so many levels would only result ultimately in Excommunication.

That would be an unacceptable price indeed, no matter the cultural need we have to have our own lands back.

I can wait for this.

Thinking to the future, I see our quest into Iberia as something we will need to do in the near years, the cleansing of the Heretics is something that must call all of us eventually…Muslim presence on the continent will not be tolerated for much longer.

To this end, I ask, how will relinquishing control of our Iberian holdings hamper this? It is an open question but one the Seneschal and the King must consider.

Caen will be big boost to our nation that is certain and link our Kingdom finally, I care not for Wales so that leaves only the consideration of coin…can we truly afford this cost? With Caen under our domain finally, would the income from here pay for itself?

The next issue is the Milanese. I too have heard reports of at least one army, small this is true, near our Mediterranean coast. They are certainly no direct military threat as they are small but they can stop trade, affecting the states income, and if they do have aggressive intent they are more than capable of besieging one of our cities and potentially starving it out before aid arrives.

Should we strike at such an army though, even if they are in our own territory…would we…AGAIN…be verbally assaulted by the Papacy for striking at our Catholic neighbours?

Personally, I would see a small force sent to destroy these incursions where-ever they occur but perhaps just a significantly superior force needs to chaperone these forces away from our provinces?

Of course, it would also be more advantageous to attack these formations as the Milanese are rich and could pay ransom for their wandering men but I still am perplexed by the Popes responses to us of late.