Great Chronicle of King Philippe's reign


Where to begin....This question always looms when I write. To start a chronicle is the most difficult thing to do, compared only to predicting the future, which has its own ghastly difficulties. But predicting the future is easier in some ways as you do not really need to know the past. In order to start a sensible and complete chronicle one must know the past of the person or persons that he is writing about.

But I feel tired and currently feel the effects of opium, so as I take my quill I have decided to only give a brief account of Philippe's history before he was crowned King of France.
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Philippe was not a very religious man. Surely he believed in God, but his beliefs were sometimes misguided. Perhaps this explains why I was such a central person in his court. He was only dimly aware of the omnipotent forces that guide our daily lives. Ignorance will not save this man from his fate when the Day of Judgement is at hand

However, for all his religious incompetence and deficiencies, Philippe was a calculating personality and had excellent educational background that honed him into a person destined to hold the title of King of France. It was said by many nobles in the court that there was no wiser man than King Philippe when it came to the matters of finance. And indeed there was no better man than Philippe. He was remarkable and able to set up such complex financial schemes that it would probably take even the most adept monk a matter of years to develop. This financial zeal has gained the Kingdom thousands of florins and the Royal Treasury always had a sizeable stockpile of gold, silver and other precious metals.

Needless to say, I took a fair advantage of the financial well-being of the Kingdom. To do my part I was able to convince Philippe that as supreme astrologer I required various silks, large quantities of opium, large quantities of rare metals (including gold), ink, quills, my own library of rare and ancient books, barrels of whiskey, wine from Champagne for my meditations, 3 rooms in the royal castle, different animal skins, ivory, encrusted jeweled daggers to perform exsorcism, 5 servants, annual salary worthy of a decent nobleman and various other small items not worth mentioning here. Philippe was very generous and accomodated every one of my requests. And so I remained his loyal man of the occult as he liked to call me.

Philippe was crowned King of France at the age of 36. He inherited a fractured kingdom with both Brittany and Toulouse being cut off from the seat of government in Paris. Well, see, techically they were not cut off as the King of England was a nominal vassal of the King of France, but the reality was much different. English king openly flouted Philippe's authority and was increasingly hostile, imposing large taxes on all those who wished to travel between the French heartland and the provinces of Brittany and Toulouse. This irritated Philippe greatly. But for all his ingenuity, he was unable to find a single pretext of rectifying the situation.



I remember Philippe's coronation. It was a very splendid ceremony and it seemed that entire Paris was invited. Thousands, no tens of thousands, no hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets to see and greet the new King as the Royal procession neared the church of Saint Jacques. There the Archbishop of France himself placed the beautiful jeweled crown on Philippe's head proclaiming him to be the King of France and Savior of the Church. Little did the archbishop know about Philippe's religious faults but that did not matter. Afterwards there followed a great banquet, all nobility was invited, me included. Sometime during the banquet Philippe turned to me and asked me if I could see how successfull his reign would be. I reassured him that I would do as he asked but that it may take some time, gazing into the future is a very strenuous excercise. I requested the usual supply of wine, whiskey, opium, ink and parchment to do the gazing.

It took me a week to do the apropriate preparations and meditations. After a gruelling 24 hours of gazing into the future I emerged from my room severely shaken and distraught so much so that my servant thought I was Satan himself. I sent word to Philippe to let him know that I had finished my predictions. When I arrived at the Royal Chamber I saw Philippe sitting in his office chair, writing something with a gold covered quill pen.

So, my man of the occult, have you attended to the service that I have requested of you? he asked.
I have, Your Majesty said I.
Well, tell me then what did you foresee? asked the King again.

To highten the effect of what I was about to say I wore my dark priestly robe and spoke in an unusally high voice, I do not doubt that people halfway across the palace could hear me. This is what I had to say.

HEED MY WARNING KING OF FRANCE,
GREAT FAMINE SHALL ENGULF YOUR REALM
THIS WILL BE NO PURE CHANCE
ENTIRE FRANCE WILL IT OVERWHELM

GREAT FLOOD WILL CLEANSE THE WICKED
AND THEIR CRIES SHALL BE HEARD
IN THE DAYS THAT FOLLOWED
LIKE A SLAUGHTERED HERD

GREAT PLAGUE WILL EAT AWAY
AT THE MULTITUDE DISMAYED
BY THE COUNTRY IN DECAY
BY THOSE OF A FAILED CRUSADE

WAR SHALL GRIP YOU LIKE A VICE
MOUNTAINS WILL FILL UP WITH BLOOD
AND YOU WILL ROLL DAMNATION DICE
TO SEE YOUR MEN KILLED IN MUD

THIS WARNNG I BEQUETH ON YOU
TO IGNORE AT YOUR PERIL
AND NOW I MUST BID ADIEU
LEST I BE MISTAKEN FOR A DEVIL

My speech seemed to have had an enormous impact on the king. He was visibly shaken and pale, with his mouth hanging open and eyes wide with a grimace of fright on his face. Time will tell if the warning had any effect or not. It did, however have an effect on the nobility in Philippe's court. Strange rumours began circulating and different versions of my speech were secretly discussed by many a nobleman.
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PS More to follow. Pics will be added later on as well.