Librus Domni
Town of Pau, Barony of Bearn, Dukedom of Aquitaine, Anno Domino 752
Duke Bernald's quite the control freak
Wants to know all within his fiefs
Counting us like herds of cattle
Now to call us all to Battle!
All men receive vows from his lesser, and owes vows to his better. All men has a lord and has his charge. All men have one place in the hierarchy under God our Lord.
Sir Jerome Lucien Blackmoor was riding to the town of Pau, for he has been summoned by the Baron, Sir Peridor, to meet there.
Beside him rode a fellow knight, Sir Jules Strongaxe, who gained his title for gallant duty at the Battle of Tours. It seems that all the knights and lords of the realm were called to meet their Barons, and all the Barons and Marquis to meet the Duke. Was it war? The border of the Moors was still tenacious and unsettled, and an expedition might be sent any day; or even an expedition into Provence, where the first payment of the tithe was nearly stolen by a robber baron, and only three survived the return trip after delivering the valuables? But there was not call to arms... yet.
Pau, nestled into the convergence of two rivers and three hills, came into view. Two of the towers which festooned the town were Roman in origin, stout stone held up with rubble and wood. A great keep, itself once a tower, stood at the highest hill; its lower extremes were the same as its fellows, but its high tower tops were made with the fresh masonry; the Baron of Bearn explained this great expense, after holding out nearly a year in the depilated keep against rampaging Moors, that he preferred if his breastworks didn't always catch on fire every other day.
Over the bridge the two knights rode, and it was clear that both ahead and behind a great march of knights came.
Something big is about to happen.
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Upon the podium, the Baron watched as the Bishop read the missive from Bordeaux.
Lords, Knights, proud Christians of the Realm!
Today, the Duke of Aquitaine, your Lord Bernald Reginald III, shall command you to do your duty.
You shalt count every family, and take from each family an able-bodied man for war, and you shall record the number of men in that family, and of their religious beliefs.
And you shalt arrive at Bearn ready for combat in a week's time, with all your arms and armor, and a wagon for each Lord and two Mules for each Knight full of supplies.
And you shalt be prepared to, with your Baron or Marquis, to march to Toulouse by the end of this Month at the start of campaigning season.
May we win a victory!
Duci Aquitinus, Bernald Reginald
That done, the Bishop seemed to wish to continue before he stopped himself. He made a brief smile before looking over the assembled men. He then whispered to Peridor, who also chucked, and left the podium.
"It seems, men, that we're to prepare for war." cried the Baron "Ready your men, bodily and spiritually, and be ready to meet your Lord! And ready them to meet our Lord!"
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At Toulouse, the clerk's hands moved rapidly over the papers. "229 Noble Houses from Bearn" came the missive "The first, right hand of Sir Periodor, is thus named as Sir Jules Strongaxe and brought 35 men from the same number of families, 11 of them following the old beliefs."
The Duke nodded as the reports streamed in, soon he will have his army, and he will have his state, and soon he will march again upon the battle field.
And soon he will win a victory in the battlefield of Faith, and prove his worth to all who has left before him.
)
I'll just need to know your form of government and state religion.
