Duca Giorgio of Milan was bored. His advancing years did not weigh too heavily on him - he was lithe and physically fit for a man of his age. His years on the throne of the Duchy had been largely uneventful - here a border skirmish, there a successful operation against pirates, some treaties, some trade agreements, the matter of his holiness the Pope.

It was enough to make an intelligent man waste away with the tedium of it all. Even his nights at the dice table were becoming de rigeur. What was the world coming to when a man could not even gain excitement from a wager?

A wager.......a wager!

It was like a bolt of light from the blue - he sat straight upright and a broad smile spread itself across his face.

Why not propose a game, a bit of sport for all the various rulers of the countries of the world? No doubt they were as in need of diversion as he...

He grabbed ink, quill and scroll and began to scribble, putting his ideas into form as the Grand Wager came together in his mind.

Over the next ten years the rulers of the world would compete in a magnificent tournament of Kings, to be judged by their peers on all the matters which make a great statesman: military power, economic strength, diplomatic agility, vision, fortitude and sheer will.

It would be glorious!