Manus, by the grace of God, King of Hyperion, Duke of Wessex and Count of Elba, to his bishops, dukes, barons, foresters, sheriffs, stewards, yeomen, servants, and to all his officials and loyal subjects, greeting.


Know that before the Holy Sun, for the health of our soul and those of our ancestors and heirs, to the honour of the Gods, the exaltation of the holy Church, and the improvement and better ordering of our new kingdom over others of the Riadan race which have come before, at the advice of our reverend fathers Siverous, bishop of Aquileia, Theodoric, bishop of Wessex, Valens, bishop of Kirdain, Baenor, bishop of Victum, Tar, vicar of Argos, Brother Sully, master of the Knights of Auros in Kirdain, and of the lords Brandoreus, Doge of Aquileia, Thor, Duke of Kirdain, Surly, Baron of Urth, Aeneas Miles, constable of Wessex, Alphacod, general of Kirdain, Max the Dwarf and Monte, thaegars of Urth, Requesta, prime minister of Aquileia, Constantine of Argos, Einar of Sleggjaholl, Red, lord of paupers, Nihilum of Sancta, Shamoke, master of the Temple of Thelema in Urth, Savant of Slade, Tigus, mayor of Soacio, Nira the Queen of Heralds, Thengill of Pugnus Europae, Dulath, chamberlain of Hyperion, Thirlan, treasurer of Hyperion and other loyal subjects:


We have granted to all free men of our realm, for us and our heirs for ever, all the liberties written out below, to have and to keep for them and their heirs, of us and our heirs:


On the Operation of Royal Government:

1. First, that we have granted to Auros, and by this present charter have confirmed for us and our heirs in perpetuity, that the Church under Hyperion, so long as its bishops shall follow our Crown to the exclusion of others, including that of the pontiff of Sanguine, shall be free, and shall have its rights undiminished, and its liberties unimpaired. That we wish this so to be observed appears from the fact that of our own free will, before the outbreak of the present dispute between us and king Robert of Mercia, we granted and confirmed by charter the freedom of the Church's ecclesiastic courts - a right reckoned to be of the greatest necessity and importance to the spiritual lords. Likewise have we granted to other divinities, and by this charter confirm the allowance of a prelature of those faiths which support good and wise rulership, always allowing one bishop only to each shire. This freedom we shall observe ourselves, and desire to be observed in good faith by our heirs in perpetuity.

2. Second, that we, exercising our royal prerogative, shall appoint executive officials to a Royal Cabinet, the which shall be selected from among peers, knights, and freemen of the realm of Hyperion, and which shall, together with us, constitute a body henceforth called "The Crown". The executors of the Crown shall bear the power to administrate in their assigned capacities with royal authority.

3. Third, that we shall address the complaints held against the inertia and lethargy of the court during the tempore regis Roberti with the establishment of a legislature to be comprised of all landholders of magnate rank who shall hold land directly of the king as well as all prelates and archprelates of the Holy Church who so recognize the line of Laureola Malregard-Dei, Manus Dei, and all legitimate heirs as possessing the mandate of Heaven. This legislature shall be termed the House of Lords and shall meet in the royal capitol. Power to sponsor, certify, and legislate any act or law shall reside in this House of Lords, and articles so ratified by this body shall have the backing and potency of the Royal Seal, congruent to any decree or edict declared by the Crown.

4. Fourth, that we shall address the impediment to the free enterprise of the merchant classes in Mercia during tempore regis Roberti by introducing the freeman and minor landholder classes with representation in a lower house of the national legislature. This house shall meet in the royal capitol and shall be termed the House of Communes. Those permitted attendance shall include two knights elected from among the general populace of every shire as well as two burgesses elected from within every township, boroughs, or clanstone. This legislature shall have the power to sponsor legislation which it may pass to the House of Lords to certify, thereupon to gain the backing of the Royal Seal and induction into the common law.

5. The Crown shall maintain the power to overrule any act or law passed by the Houses of Lords and Communes through the power of royal veto. Inasmuch as the house lords or the knights and burgesses of the shire should be relentless in their support of vetoed legislation and desirous of seeing it upheld, a royal veto may be overridden by a three fourths approval by the House of Lords and a three fourths approval by the House of Communes.

6. All legislation to be sponsored and brought to a vote in the Houses shall be submitted to a presiding officer who shall regulate the introduction of bills and acts in a measured and orderly manner. All bills brought to the house floor for approval shall have an expiring time limit imposed by the presiding officer during which all votes must be cast or else forfeited. These presiding officers shall be either the king or his Lord Chancellor in the House of Lords, or the Speaker of the House in the House of Communes.



On the Expansion and Definition of Feudal Law:

7. Feudal law shall exist as a standard throughout the realm of Hyperion, with variations on this standard being specified clearly in the charters, writs, and letters patent issued to new vassals, and thereafter upheld upon review by the college of heralds and law courts, such as chancery.

8. If any magnate holding directly of our Crown shall disappear and leave his land unmanned without a will or an approved declaration of a successor, and we shall not find a suitable successor from among the said lord's vassals, the land shall revert to the Crown in escheat at the end of seven days of the said magnate's disappearance, and we shall appoint a royal sheriff as bailiff over the said escheat. Similarly, if any knight shall vanish from his manor in the same manner, the mesne lord shall appoint a reeve or similar as bailiff over the knight's fee.

9. If we have given the guardianship of any dispossessed or unmanned land to a sheriff, or to any person answerable to us for the revenues, and he commits destruction or damage or mismanagement through incompetency, we will exact compensation from him, and the land shall be entrusted to two worthy and prudent men of the same `fee', who shall be answerable to us for the revenues, or to the person to whom we have assigned them. If we have given or sold to anyone the guardianship of such land, and he causes destruction or damage, he shall lose the guardianship of it, and it shall be handed over to two worthy and prudent men of the same `fee', who shall be similarly answerable to us.

10. For so long as a guardian has guardianship of such land, he shall maintain the houses, clanstones, farms, ponds, mills, mines and everything else pertaining to it from the revenues of the land itself. When a new lord is raised to the fief, this guardian shall restore the whole land to him, stocked with all the necessities required to draw maximum yield from the land.

11. Neither we nor our officials will seize any land or rent in payment of a debt or taxes from a feudal vassal, so long as the debtor has movable goods sufficient to discharge the debt. A debtor's sureties or witnesses in fealty shall not be distrained upon so long as the debtor himself can discharge his debt. If, for lack of means, the debtor is unable to discharge his debt or taxes, his sureties shall be answerable for it. If they so desire, they may seize by force the debtor's lands and rents until they have received satisfaction for the debt that they paid for him, unless the debtor can show that he has settled his obligations to them. If, after a period of time has passed which shall have been outlined in the feudal charter between us and the vassal, no compensation has been made and the debt has not been discharged, the Crown reserves the right to attaint and seize feudal benefices by escheat, enforcing the disseisen through force of arms, if necessary.

12. To obtain the general consent of the realm for the assessment of a conscripted military levy or an extra monetary aid or a `scutage', which shall be a request beyond that outlined in individual fealty charters, we will cause the archbishop, bishops, abbots, dukes, counts, and greater barons to be notified individually. To those who hold lands directly of us we will cause a general summons to be issued, through the sheriffs and other officials, to come together in the House of Lords. When a summons has been issued, the business appointed for the day shall go forward in accordance with the resolution of those present, even if not all those who were summoned have appeared.

13. No man shall be forced to perform more service for a knight's fee, or other free holding of land, than is due from it as detailed in his letters patent, charter of creation, or fief grant.

14. It shall be commonly outlined in most feudal charters that failure to appear for prescribed feudal military duties can be settled with a payment of a monetary sum called scutage, and that this scutage shall be owed and collected in a reasonable amount for every time a vassal does not supply the sworn military aid when requested. However, no constable of any county, duchy or barony shall force any knight to pay money for castleward or muster if he be willing to perform that ward in person with the specified men in service. And if we shall have led or sent him and his men on a military expedition, he shall be quit of ward according to the amount of time during which, through us, he shall have been in military service.

15. Lands taken and attainted by those convicted of high crimes shall be held by us, and then returned or distributed to other lords at our pleasure.