The Kingdom of the Lovasnép Established

On this day the Kingdom of the Lovasnép was established with Leopold I as its king.

Leopold III became Grand Prince in 889, defeating his father’s brother, Émber the Pretender, who also claimed the throne. Prince Leopold had converted from pagan Cromism to the Sanctist faith in 877, and during his reign the country was transformed from an Eastern pagan Principality into a Western Sanctist Apostolic Kingdom.

In response to his petition for recognition by the Holy See, Leopold received the insignia of royalty from the senior prelate of the Western Church, Archcoarb Waldo II of Sancta Sedes. His Bull of 899 invested Leopold as “Arch-King of the Lovasnép Nation,” granted him the crown and the titles of King and Apostolic Legate (hence the traditional style of “Apostolic Majesty” reserved for Barchurian Kings), and conferred upon him the right to have relics of the saints carried before him, along with administrative authority over the monasteries and churches within his realm.

Among the royal insignia sent by Archcoarb Waldo was a golden crown, upon which he had set his blessing, which was used for King Leopold’s coronation on 31 Dusanmonat 899. That crown became “The Holy Crown of Barchu” (also known as the “Crown of Saint Leopold”) and embodied the constitutional continuity of Barchu’s statehood and the unity of the Lovasnép nation for over 1000 years.

In time, there developed around the Crown of Saint Leopold a rich mystical and legal doctrine, tying the physical crown itself to the constitution of the country and the freedoms enjoyed by its inhabitants. Stated briefly, the “Holy Crown Doctrine” asserts that (1) the ultimate power of the state (i.e. governance, legislation and adjudicature) physically resides in the Holy Crown, which itself alone enjoys all royal and legal prerogatives; (2) those who execute the powers of the state (i.e. the king, the voivodes, the nobility, the clergy, the freemen and, eventually, the serfs) unite in the Holy Crown, and the powers they wield emanate from the Holy Crown, exercised by them merely as its representatives; (3) the country’s territory belongs to and is held by the Holy Crown, and all rights of possession are derived from the Holy Crown; and (4) the Holy Crown embodies the anagogic connection between Telluria and Heaven.

Ancillary to the development of the “Holy Crown Doctrine,” there developed four very specific requirements for a legitimate coronation of a Lovasnép King: (1) Descent from the House of Almodozó, (2) Coronation with the Crown of Saint Leopold, (3) Coronation by the Archcoarb of Gomesztér, and (4) Coronation at the Cathedral of Gomesztér. With very few exceptions, every subsequent monarch of Barchu has met those requirements.