The Black Crown Affair
Background
Shortly into his reign, King Philippe Le Bel was drawn into war with the Kingdom of Logres, whose ruler was at the time also Duke of Akitania, a vassal to Gallia. Shortly afterwards, Gallia entered an extended and brutal campaign to crush a revolt by the Cloth Cities, adding them to the royal domain with a harsh treaty.
These wars, combined with his father's debts and mounting administrative costs, were a massive drain on the Galled treasury. Philippe was forced to take out loans from the Urzh Kroashent (Knights of the Crossroads), the Southern Church and various banks and merchant guilds, including some owned by the Re Vihan. A series of economic calamities forced further debts onto the Kingdom and led to massive social unrest. Rioting in Per-Ys forced the King to seek refuge with the Urzh Kroashent, who offered sanctuary for the unpopular monarch. Humiliated and desperate, Philippe hatched a plan to dispatch his many enemies, real and imagined, in a series of meticulously planned purges.
The Black Crown Affair
The King's first target was the Re Vihan lenders, assuming that there would be less pushback from the Bediz (Human) population or political rivals. He ordered the expulsion of the Re Vihan from the Gallian Crownlands and its direct vassals, seizing their mundane property, destroying magikal objects by melting them down into blackened slag. Philippe, taking on the role of a defender of humanity against Faerie corruption, ordered the forging of a crown from these melted objects, a grim headpiece of blackened metal. The measure was unsuccessful, as much of the Re Vihan treasure was hidden in Faerie and he had overestimated the anti-fae zeal of the local populace. Despite prejudice, the lenders had a reputation for honest, albeit complex, lending. Philippe's taxcollectors, on the other hand, quickly gained a deserved reputation for brutality, inflexibility and corruption. The actions drew the notice of the Sidhe Courts as well, who began to focus with interest and wariness on Gallia.
Philippe next turned his attention to the Southern Church, levying a massive tax on their properties, up to 1/2 of their revenue. He had already begun manipulating the appointment of key positions within the Church to weaken its reaction against him. Those who opposed him suddenly found themselves accused of heresy and treason. The High Priest of Remus condemned the actions, threatening excommunication on the King. Before this could take place, Philippe dispatched a team of assassins to silence his opponent. The message was sent, and opposition crumbled. Philippe's candidate was named High Priest and the temporal home of the Church was moved from Remus to Avinhon, with the full control of Gallia. Phillipe began to refer to Gallia as a "Royal Theocracy" and himself as the avatar of Mithras. With his largest political critic effectively silenced, Philippe began moving against his next target: The Urzh Kroashent.
The Destruction of the Urzh Kroashent
Philippe had long held a grudge against the Order for a variety of reasons. He considered them arrogant, their autonomy an affront to his royal and divine authority, and the Gallian treasury was in massive debt to them. He viewed their sheltering of him during the economic riots not as an act of kindness, but one of humiliation. Losses in the Crusades, culminating in the Order joining with the forces of Iram against a common enemy, had soured the Knights' relationship with the Church, which was eager to get back into Philippe's favour following the political coup that had led to its relocation, and its popularity among the devout Faithful, who had been exposed to propaganda condemning this "heretical" action. Philippe orchestrated a list of charges against the Order, including heresy, blasphemy, treason and conspiring with the Sidhe against humanity, and set his plan into motion.
Philippe's agents launched a simultaneous raid against the Order, coordinated by a series of sealed envelopes. Thousands of arrests, and dozens of assassinations, were carried out and all property was seized. The suddenness and efficiency caught the Knights off guard, and little resistance was given. The few that remained were encouraged (partially as a result of the torture of leadership and forgery of documents) to turn themselves in to clear up the "misunderstanding." Those who did were trapped upon making an appearance and arrested. Others were attacked and killed before they could clear their names. The trials that followed, despite the formation of a Church Inquest, were spurious affairs, resulting from torture, false confessions and fabricated evidence, with no opportunity to present defenses. The Church, bowing to Philippe's demands, excommunicated the entire order. The Grandmaster and several ranking officers were burnt at the stake in front of the Cathedral of Perys, dealing the final blow to resistance. The Black Crown, formed of corrupted magik, became a symbol of the proceeding seeming to possess a mesmerizing effect on the frenzied crowds.
Within a year, the largest organization in Bedouar had been completely eliminated. Eager to obtain the legendary treasure of the Order, Philippe transferred all property he could to the Royal treasury. Many assets were later divested to the Black Order, but the supposed horde never surfaced.
The Nesle Tower Affair
The High Priest of the Southern Churchwas struck ill and died painfully within a month of the burnings. Popular sentiment continued to fall against Philippe, who continued to grow more and more detached, fervent in his belief as the savior of Mankind, that the Sidhe were plotting against him at all times. This paranoia came to a head in the scandal of the Nesle Tower Affair. The scandal unfolded when the three daughters-in-law of Philippe were found to be having affairs in the abandoned Nesle watchtower on the edge of Perys, two consorting with a pair Norman knights and the third with a Sidhe man.
The three lovers were condemned to die by public execution. The male knight was castrated, flayed and drawn and quartered, the female knight was stripped and beaten, then broken on the wheel. The Sidhe was shackled with iron and beaten with an iron poker, before finally molten iron was poured down his throat. The princesses had their heads shaved and were sentenced to life imprisonment in Kastell Galliard.
Phillipe, furious, began the final act of the Black Crown Affair. An all out extermination campaign against the Faerie, Re Vihan, Milliget and Boermezh. However, the Sidhe Courts had taken notice, watching the events unfold. The pleas of the imprisoned princesses and the execution of the Sidhe Lord was the last straw and the unified Courts mobilized against Gallia, marching towards Per-ys, overcoming the resistance of the vassals in Anjev, who had been stripped of much of their military power by Philippe.
At the royal fortress outside of the city, Philippe revealed his plot to set fire to the capital, destroying the Sidhe in the process with molten iron and dark magik, which would result in the deaths of the mortal population as well. Philippe killed his own vassals who attempted to stop him, moving out to the balcony of his palace, the black crown pulsing with dark power. The Queens of Summer and Winter stood in the courtyard below and the King seemed prepared to order the massacre.
Then, a look of horror, before returning to the stoney expression he was known for. Viscous tentacles, black as pitch and dripping with oil, erupted from the ground, wrapping around the tower, hardening into black stone. The Sidhe retreated as the castle was engulfed, the land ripping itself apart. When the dust settled, the surviving vassals investigated the haunting ruins. They found the King on his balcony, his flesh replaced by an exquisite statue of grey stone, a perfect likeness. The black crown sat still and dormant, unnaturally cold to the touch. The castle was sealed and the new king quickly coronated. The true nature of the final act of the Black Crown Affair has been kept a strict secret, known only to highly placed Clerics and Philippe's inner circle of Gallian nobles.
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