Chapter 2

“Your Majesty, Lieutenant Colonel Maggor of the Confederacy Space Marines.” The chamberlain made his announcement and stepped back from the door. The Lt. Colonel he’d announced stepped into the presence of his former Queen and bowed, “Your Majesty, thank you for seeing me at such short notice.”

“Come in Colonel,” said the smiling Queen, “I remember how you were always nice to me when I wanted to play with your baton as a young girl and I was curious as to how you’d fared since leaving the planet.” She’d noticed the bow, as a sign of respect, rather than the salute her Grandmother used to receive from the man as the head of the Armed Forces.

“I wouldn’t say it was all good, Ma’am,” replied John Maggor as he moved closer to the Queen. “Some of the things happening out there in the colonies are not pleasant, but I’m getting by, as are most of us.”

‘The colonies,’ thought the young Queen, ‘not the war - interesting.’ She indicated the seat next to her desk and once the soldier was seated she asked, “So what can I do for you, John?” She chuckled when the Marine looked surprised at her question.

“John, you’re an officer in the Confederacy Marine Corps! You have immeasurably more power at your command than I do so it must be something I can do that you can’t,” she said. “So again, what is it you want of me?”

“Ma’am, I’m sure that your Government has been keeping you informed as to what is happening in regards to volunteer extraction, and that you know how precarious the situation is becoming.” The Queen received, on a daily basis, a full update on what her Government was doing as well as a security, foreign and home front briefing. Beatrice, like Elizabeth before her, had taken on a prodigious workload when she became Queen and had no intention of letting standards fall. The Government information, when added to her own press office’s interpretation on any situation meant she was one of the best informed people on the planet.

The Queen simply nodded in confirmation.

“Well we were looking at doing a large scale extraction but to do this we would need a lot of volunteers and, uhmm...” John Maggor found himself blushing, “concubines to be in the same place at the same time. Preferably in a weapon free environment,” explained the former Silver Stick.

The Queen proved she wasn’t stupid, “And wherever I go there is a full security sweep beforehand so you and your people would be safe if the extraction happened somewhere around me.”

“That was one point, Ma’am. The other was a more personal point and that was that I felt we needed to get a British based planet established out in the colonies. Otherwise our culture would be swamped by the large numbers of Americans and Chinese, who’d already been extracted, even more than it has been already,” he finished wistfully.

“Do you think that is wise?” asked the Queen, “Wouldn’t it be better to mix everyone in together.”

“In theory you’re right Ma’am, but as usual human behaviour and in this case lack of forethought by the Darjee have set up a situation where whoever is in charge can do pretty much as they like.” John looked the young Queen in the eye, “If you can’t imagine how bad that is then I’d suggest that you see what you can find out about the colonies in Reck and P’yong, but Ma’am, I’d warn you that it isn’t pleasant reading.”

“And you think we can do better?” she asked.

“I’m not sure about better but I doubt if it would be any worse, Ma’am.” John paused knowing that he was about to step outside his briefing, “and Ma’am, if a member of the Royal family could be persuaded to volunteer I can ensure that they would be running the new colony.”

The Queen frowned, looked the Colonel in the eye and then got a far away look in her own eye. The silence dragged on as the Queen thought and the Colonel became nervous, worrying that he’d gone to far.

“Would a garden party, here at the palace, be a suitable location for one of your extractions?” asked the young Queen suddenly breaking the silence.

The Colonel glanced out of the window at the manicured lawns of Buckingham Palace and then back to the Queen, “That would present an excellent opportunity, Ma’am.”

The Queen nodded, “Very well then, let’s see what we can agree on.”

‘Why’, thought the dejected young Prince as he listened to another boring history lecture, ‘do I have to study this ancient history when the planet will be invaded in five or six years and probably be nothing but a memory in twenty!’

The tutor droned on, “Throughout this period of time most important decisions concerning the Country and its government were made by the reigning King or Queen, often assisted by a small group of advisers that went by the name of the Privy Council. However, before the decisions made by the Monarch could became law, they had to be ratified by Parliament.”

“Then, as now, Parliament consisted of two houses, the Lords and the Commons. At that time the House of Lords was made up of about sixty Dukes, Earls, Barons and Bishops and it was unusual for members of the Upper House to criticise the Monarch’s policies. It had been shown by past events that if they did criticise the policies they were in danger of being stripped of their titles, lands and often their lives.”

Alongside the Prince sat the equally bored Princess who looked at the tutor and dreamed idly of having him hung, drawn and quartered. She barely managing to keep a grin off her face at the image the thought provoked.

Oblivious, or more likely indifferent, to his Royal charges’ ambivalence, the learned gentleman continued to talk. “The members of the House of Commons were much more independent than the members sitting in the House of Lords as they were generally elected by the people who lived in the area they represented. You need to keep in mind that unlike today most of the people didn’t have the vote and so the constituents who voted would only be a low percentage of the population but they would be the most affluent.”

Wandering backwards and forwards across the Palace library the tutor kept up his steady drone. “Throughout the Tudor period the number of sessions of Parliament held varied greatly. Henry VIII, it appears, was in favour of holding regular Parliaments especially when he was in conflict with the Pope in Rome. He made much of the success he had in getting legislation passed in Parliament, claiming that it showed he enjoyed the popular support of the English people.”

“The conflict that ensued when he didn’t leave a son as heir led to many splits in the political make up of the land, especially when the step-sisters Elizabeth and Mary, fought over the crown.”

Prince Andrew shuffled slightly, which attracted the attention of, but failed to stop the tutor. “When Mary the First, who became known as Bloody Mary, became Queen of England she tried very hard to ensure that she had a House of Commons that supported her Catholic religion and would act as a counter-weight to the Lords. She did this by sending out instructions to the sheriffs - who organised the elections - giving details of who she expected to get selected to sit in the Lower House. It did little good in the long term as following her death she was succeeded by Elizabeth the First, who set about rescinding all of the changes which previously favoured Papism.”

“One thing that needs to be remembered is that no Law could be added to the statute books without the Royal seal of approval, just as it is, in theory, today,” said the tutor. “The major difference was that in the Tudor period we are discussing this prerogative was used and in some cases used to excess, for example Elizabeth I did it on no less than thirty-six occasions. The last time that Royal Assent was refused to be granted to an Act was in Seventeen hundred and Seven by Queen Anne,” he smiled gently, “which I’m sure you realise was well after the Tudor period.”

Off to one side of the room a door opened and a man entered, looked around briefly and moved to one side. The tutor ground to a halt at this interruption and then looked slightly perturbed as the children’s mother entered the room. “Thank you,” she said to the tutor, “I need to speak to the children, you may continue the lessons after luncheon.” The tutor bowed and departed without another word, glad that he had done nothing to earn the Royal displeasure.