Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="ferratus" data-source="post: 4389534" data-attributes="member: 55966">You do realize of course that it is bad history to say that the peasants didn't have rights?  In fact, in many ways they had more rights and say over how they governed than we do now.  They also contributed a smaller share of their income to their government.   The big rights they didn't have were based on freedom of movement, freedom to choose your own trade, and the right not to be tortured.  All of these restrictions of rights on serfs are legacies of the edicts of the Roman Empire, particularly the Emperor Domitian.This is of course speaking of English peasants in the high middle ages.  They had greater or lesser rights depending on the time period and the country.  We are talking 1000 years over an entire continent here.  It would have been better if there had been agitation for rights, and the Suzail Writ was in response to it, like the Magna Carta or Bismark's reforms.I'm not sure how you would have a benevolent monarchy and not have it be competent.  A good government has to be exactly that.   The shortcomings of the Obaskyrs, Purple Dragons and War Wizards has been shown in "Cormyr: A Novel" but it was never in contemporary times.The part that ground my nuts was the part about Azoun V signing the Suzail Writ.  It smacked of a condescending elite of foward thinkers bestowing rights on their lessers and moving forward the progress of history.  I'm a Canadian and I love the monarchy and the constitution based on the westminster model.   Not only is it cheaper than the presidential model, it keeps ideologies from appropriating the symbolism of the state.  I don't fancy having my citizenship and patriotism questioned based on my political positions or moral values.   Now, I wouldn't mind if Canada had its own King/Queen, and if the anti-catholic laws were removed to allow for the succession of a Catholic monarch but it is a quibble compared to the huge benefits of having a constitutional monarchy.  Ensuring my citizenship merely by swearing fealty to the Queen keeps me from having to swear fealty to a set of values held by my enemies. Of course, if ERII or her successors ever became something more than a figurehead and gained actual political power, we would have to revisit the issue.</blockquote>

Verification