The death knell echoed in the sky above Metzl Castle, and the sound of the bell was so clear that it made people feel as if there was only the sound of the ominous copper bell ringing in the air.
A group of priests led the funeral procession, led by an old priest whom the people of Metzl Castle had never seen before, with frost-white hair and a silver cross hanging from his chest. Amid the muffled hymn chanting, the procession slowly approached.
The Duke of Buckingham's coffin was not covered with the customary cruciform garland - the king draped a King of the Roses banner over it. No one raised any doubts about this. If even the Duke of Buckingham could not afford such an honor, then no one in Legrand would be entitled to it.
Unlike ordinary nobles who are buried with a sedan chair carrying a coffin, eight coffin bearers with black hoods carried the duke's coffin out of the mansion. General John, the son of the Duke of Buckingham, was at the head of all the coffin bearers, next to him was the elegant and sad First Mate Charles, and the rest were mostly the Duke's old department.
The duke participated in hundreds of battles for Legrand in his life. Most of the royal personal soldiers he led died in the rebellion in the north with him, but there were countless knights who followed him to the battlefield in that era. .
"It was 1412, when I was a little longbowman, and our general led us to fight the bastards in Thorne... I thought I was dead! Our general was the first to rush Go up, so everyone rushed up..." Almost all those who fought with the Duke of Buckingham affectionately called the Duke "our general".
In all idle stories, there are always knights who are proud to have fought with the Duke.
The funeral procession was long.
Many knights came from all over Legrand, and they all dismounted from their horses and put on the smocks they had worn when they fought with the duke under their sacrificial clothes. They respect their generals with all their might. The king went before them, followed by the nobles, followed by the representatives of the guild.
When the coffin passed the long street where the crowd was waiting, the cries could no longer be suppressed, and it filled the air.
The birds parked on the eaves were alarmed by the cry, and they fluttered their wings and flew into the gray sky. Snow-like white flowers were continuously thrown from all around to the slowly passing coffin.
The mourning flowers fell like snow, as if the sky and the earth were suddenly white, and the world was suddenly sad.
The king was wearing a black cloak. He raised his head and looked at the sad flowers falling like snow, and at the red eyes of people. It seems that winter has not yet passed, and there are still blizzards, but it seems that winter has long since disappeared, and there is boiling magma running underground.
At the end of the funeral procession were poor people who had also come to attend the funeral, who had been invited. But as the coffin passed the long street, more and more people entered the funeral procession. Some of them prepared black clothes themselves, and some took black clothes from the royal guards.
The long black river slowly flowed towards St. Weiss Cathedral.
The Duke's grave is very close to William III.
According to Legrand tradition, the tomb was excavated on the day of the burial. The king dug out the first handful of soil for the duke, and then handed the shovel to General John. After General John, it was passed on to Charles. By the time it was handed over to the last knight, the tomb was big enough and deep enough.
The children of the choir sang the hymn, in which Father Anil, holding the heavy holy book, said the final eulogy.
Standing before the choking crowd, the king watched without expression as the earth covered the coffin covered with the scarlet king's flag. He suddenly raised his hand, took off the rose badge on his chest and threw it into the tomb that was being backfilled.
Some things always come to an end at the cost of taking away something else.
The hymn was swept into the sky in the cold wind, gathered with the death knell, and gathered with more sad songs, as if all the sad past from the legendary era to the present, surging up again, reminding some people, what should they carry.
1433, Legrand, St. Wies Cathedral.
A heavy ashlar was erected in front of the tomb of the Duke of Buckingham, inscribed with blooming roses and the phrase "For Glory". On the day when the tombstone of the Duke of Buckingham was erected, on the other side of the Abyss Channel, the first group of priests in Blasey entered the secular hall.
After the symbols of the old era have fallen, a new era is brewing.
…
Rose Palace, funeral banquet.
This funeral banquet, which was supposed to be quiet and mourning, was destined to be turbulent.
All the state representatives and lords who accepted the invitation gathered in the main hall of the palace. For these state representatives and nobles, they did not have much thought to mourn the death of the Duke of Buckingham, which was not a bad thing for the state. For states and high lords, this means one less person to fear.
Many people can't wait to applaud in their hearts when they cry symbolically.
The battle for power never ends with death.
The Duke of Buckingham has always been a sharp sword to deter the state. After his death, Legrand completely lost an important pillar, and the whole country fell to the young king. Apparently, for the people of the state, they questioned whether the young king could have the same authority—
Victory in war can be attributed to personal valour, but politics requires more dexterity.
After the king's victory, he directly abolished the independent states of Balbo State and Newcana State. This approach, in the eyes of some people, is too young and arrogant and willful.
And the lords and nobles paid more attention to other messages from the funeral than the grief of ordinary people:
The Archbishop of St. Weiss did not attend the funeral throughout the whole process. Does this mean that the Legrand royal family and the Holy Court are indeed about to tear their face again? This funeral did not hold any thanksgiving, and the royal family will not make such a small mistake in etiquette, unless it is intentional... Does this represent the rumored attribute of the king's imminent revenge on the monastery
At the banquet, the lords wore mourning white flowers on their chests, and from time to time they toasted each other in the name of "Mourning for the Duke", taking this opportunity to test each other's words.
The king sits in a position of supreme power.
On the high throne, the king rested his left arm and elbow on the armrest, and held a golden wine glass in his right hand. He let the representatives of the state and the great nobles chat with each other, as if he did not see some people pretending to be. Sadness has been replaced by the joy of mutual benefit. The stained glass on the dome in the hall reflected the light of the candle, and the light fell from the sky, covering the king.
He poured himself his drink expressionlessly, leaving an empty seat beside him.
That position originally belonged to the Duke of Buckingham.
On the other side, as a great effort in this counter-insurgency, Earl Henry, who has made a lot of achievements, sat in a position that did not match his credit, sat with several border lords, and talked in a low voice what. From time to time, his eyes swept over the king who was toasting himself.
General Edmund sat in the corner.
He raised his glass as a cover to observe Count Henry and the others, as well as the king. In the counter-rebellion in the Northland, after he led Angel's army to assist the king in attacking Balbo, he quickly withdrew, unlike the dazed Earl Henry who was actually on the border of Balbo. Occupy a piece of land and try to expand your territory.
Simply stupider than a donkey.
Did he think that the king who abolished the Balbo royal family would be willing to let the land he finally regained be invaded by the lords of the border? Or did he think that after winning a battle, he had enough capital to make an inch in front of the king
For General Edmund, the death of the Duke of Buckingham is definitely not a good thing for the state and the great lords.
When executing the purge order, General Edmund had a hunch, but after seeing the king at this funeral, that hunch became stronger. The death of the Duke of Buckingham injected a cold thing into the king's veins. He seemed to have firmly put on an iron mask. Under the mask was a bloodthirsty monster that was slowly moving. Licking his fangs, he waited for the moment to declare war.
—He went straight from a proud teenage monarch to a monster walking out of blood and fire.
General Edmund would rather face a dangerous but familiar male lion than a bloody monster who doesn't know what to do.
Seeing that the king on the throne did not move from beginning to end, the nobles at the banquet exchanged glances with each other. In the end, an archbishop who came from other provinces to attend the funeral stood up. He came from Jolin County in Legrand and was the clergyman in Legrand after the Archbishop of St. Weiss.
The Archbishop of Jolin County stood up with a glass of wine, raised his glass to the king first, and apologized for his rude behavior, followed by his direct accusation: "Your Majesty, please forgive my presumptuousness, it is really impossible for me to To see such a huge mistake happen in the eyes of all and no one brings it up."
"Speaking."
Holding the glass, the king answered casually.
"Holy Lord, I actually saw such a disregard for the deceased happen today." The Archbishop of Jolin County cried out, holding a wine glass in one hand and the cross on his chest in the other, "At today's funeral, there is no one Thanksgiving for our beloved Mr. Duke... God, what an injustice to a man as noble as him? Do you want to watch as Mr. Duke suffers in purgatory? Don't you think Do you want the Duke not to be redeemed?"
There were whispers in the banquet hall, and it was obvious that the Archbishop of Jolin County was not the only one who noticed this.