Gunnish Media

[Gunnland]

The Advocate
Informing the Inns of Court and all Gunnishmen since 1665.

THING VOTES 13-12 TO CREATE AN EMPIRE
Liberals Fear Bourgogne Violence; New Ayr MT Casts Decisive Last-Minute Vote
​

WINDHAVEN. Expect to see more black eagle pins. The Thing of All Gunnishmen voted by a razor-thin margin, 13-12, to extend a treaty to the Kingdom of Elben and the Grand Duchy of Bourgogne to resurrect the Sacrum Imperium Tiburum. Whether or not a new Holy Tiburan Empire rises in northern Gallogermania will depend now upon those two nations.

The prospects of the "Empire Bill" looked bleak when news came this morning about terrorist attacks in Agneaux and other towns of Bourgogne. Douglas MacLeish (MT-Dalmyre), the leader of the Liberal Party who originally supported the bill, said that his party was not opposed "in principle" but "in timing." Satisfied with the opposition's unanimous decision that made 12 votes against, radical Liberal member John K. Skylaw (MT-Marian), did not take the floor.

Only minutes before the voting ended, clan chief William MacLeod arrived with a letter signed by the Arundel Parliament authorizing him to take the seat of the imprisoned Ayr MT Catherine MacLeish Birmingham on an interim basis. He cast the decisive vote in favor of empire, which means proposing his own sister Mary MacLeod, Duchess of Lower Marpesia, as an imperial elector.

The proposed terms of the treaty, "Empire Bill II," will created an imperial confederation, governed by a bicameral government with legislative authority over intra-imperial commerce, the common defense, and foreign policy. The proposed basic constitutional situation includes:

• a Council of Electors of seven (7) imperial electors, including
• three (3) ecclesiastic: the Archbishops of Chagny, Eschenbach, and Windhaven
• four (4) secular: the crowns of Bourgogne, Elben, Gunnland, and Lower Marpesia
• who will together elect the Emperor of the Tiburans, to oversee
• combined MILITARY forces of Gunnland, Elben, and Bourgogne
• and also a Council of Cities of fifteen (15) councilors allotted by population, so that
• eight (8) are from the present suzerainty of the Kingdom of Gunnland and populate
• a single imperial DIPLOMATIC CORPS with its headquarters in Chagny
• an IMPERIAL GENDARMERIE to take the place of the Gunnish National Guard
• and IMPERIAL COURTS with jurisdiction over intra-imperial commerce.

 

[Pelasgia]

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Ministry of External Affairs​

ΑΣ 2206/2019 | Δημόσιον | Ἔκτακτον-Ἀστραπιαῖον
Propontis, 21 May 2019

To whom it may concern,

There is no Emperor of the Tiburans but the Emperor of the Tiburans, Isaakios V Laskaris. The Northern Barbarians are incapable, both legally and otherwise, to fashion a new Tiburan Empire out of thin air, without any political or other link to the original Imperium. The sole surviving successor of the Empire of the Tiburans is its Southern half, whose Sovereign sits in Propontis on the Throne of Saint George as the Sovereign (Basileus) of the Pelasgians and Emperor (Autokrator/Imperator) of the Tiburans. This has been the case since the Northern Tiburan Empire fell to the barbarians who now seek to use its corpse as a costume to appropriate the Glory of Tibur.

The first, old Tibur is dead, and only the second, New Tibur (now known as Propontis, though founded as New Tibur by Valentian the Great) stands. The Heretical Vicar of Tibur and any assortment of barbarian Princes crowned by him are incapable of creating a new Sovereign for the Tiburans. That power lays with the Senate, which sits in Propontis, and which has conferred that title upon Isaakios I & V Laskaris as per the lawful procedures of the Tiburan State itself. Though we will maintain our diplomatic ties with the realms attempting to fashion this pseudo-Tiburan confederacy, we refuse to recognise the Germanic Empire as anything but that: a state of the Germanic barbarians, wholly not linked to Tibur.

Signed and sealed,

Emmanouīl L. Avgīros
Minister of External Affairs
Senator by virtue of office

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[Gunnland]

Officium Legati + Regnum Marpesiae
​

The title "Emperor of the Tiburians" belongs to the successor of the Grand Duke of Bourgogne if he would claim it, and resurrect the Sacrum Imperium Tiburum or "Heiliges Tiburisches Reich" as it was popularly known centuries ago. The Thing of All Gunnishmen has invited Karl Maria to cede his title by right of the thousand-year-old legal principle of translatio imperii to the Council of Electors, or "Kurfürstenrat" as it was popularly known, to elect a new Holy Tiburan Emperor in the north.

We do not recognize the claims of the Pelasgian emperor, Isaakios V Laskaris, to be the successor of the Emperor of the Tiburans in the cishamarian realms. We look forward to the day that Throne of Saint George atones for their national apostasy, recognizes the supremacy of His Holiness Ioannes XXIII in all ecclesiastical matters, and embraces a co-emperor in the north as his brother.

Stephen Gunn Larkin
Foreign Secretary

 

[Sikandara]

[div] style="width: 50px; float:left" |

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[/div]THE HIGH COUNCIL OF GOVERNANCE
Ministry for Foreign Affairs

​

The High Council has been specifically asked by His Most Imperial & Sovereign Majesty Emperor Noureddine IX to convey the following message to the Government in Windhaven:

The petty ideologues in Gunnland have made a mockery of what is an Empire. To claim an Empire into existence is the height of pretension and egotism. The mighty Empire of Sikandara stands strong and built on the mighty foundations of its ancestors; for the uninformed, it is on the legacy of the ancestors that Empires are built. Not by strange entities called "the Thing".

The Grand Chamber of the Emerald Throne was most amused when it was heard that the Gunnish pretensions to Empiredom involve such strange acrobatics of language. HMISM Emperor Noureddine IX thanks the Windhaven Government for the laugh.

Under the authority of His Excellency Chancellor Musa Hayreddine

 

[Rheinbund]

OOC: I'm too busy. I missed too much here. Bugger. Please allow me to antedate some things.

IC:

04MAY2019
Kanzleramt — Ufficio di Cancelliere
Trier, Eiffelland-Retalien — Treviri, Eiffellandia-Retalia

It is a shock to us to hear that Robert Gunn passed away. He will be remembered as a great man. Our condolences to Clan Gunn, and to family and friends of Robert Gunn. Former Chancellor of Eiffelland Matthias Graf von Seydewitz and Minister-President of Retalia Walther Grauholzer will attend the funeral on behalf of the government of Eiffelland-Retalia.

Roland Rheinfeld, Chancellor


09MAY2019
Kanzleramt — Ufficio di Cancelliere
Trier, Eiffelland-Retalien — Treviri, Eiffellandia-Retalia

Our congratulations to James Gunn Gallagher with his election as Gunn Chief. May he be guided by wisdom as leader of Clan Gunn.

Roland Rheinfeld, Chancellor


17MAY2019
Aussenministerium — Ministero Degli Esteri
Trier, Eiffelland-Retalien — Treviri, Eiffellandia-Retalia

We consider the formation of an empire consisting of Gunnland, Elben and Bourgogne a matter of those three countries. However, we do call upon the governments of said countries to choose the name of the empire to form with care.

Julia Leverkühn, Minister of Foreign Affairs

 

[Gunnland]

The Advocate
Informing the Inns of Court and all Gunnishmen since 1665.

JUDGE HUNT THROWS OUT DONALD MacLEISH CASE
Surprise Ruling Confirms Missing MacLeish Brother, 62, Is Alive
​

WINDHAVEN. Ellen MacLeod Hunt, the controversial circuit judge from Ayr and fierce critic of the late Robert Gunn, issued a surprise ruling today that the Kingdom of Gunnland could no longer prosecute Donald "Don" MacLeish. Mr. MacLeish, 62, brother of the late Duncan MacLeish, chief of Clan MacLeish and powerful shipping magnate, had been feared dead. He is also the brother of Liberal Party leader Douglas MacLeish (MT-Dalmyre).

"The defendant was tried and sentenced in Pelasgia under imperial law," Judge Hunt's report read, "but Gunnish authorities have shown no cause to arrest him, and the Kingdom of Gunnland has no extradition treaty with the Empire of Pelasgia. Nor has the government shown a raison d'etat to keep the matter a state secret."

Justiciar Philippe Demai had asked the Arundel court for a warrant to arrest MacLeish on special organized crime statutes. Mr. MacLeish was last known to be serving a prison sentence in Pelasgia, before the civil war in that country. It is unknown how he escaped confinement.

Enquêteur Padraig Buchanan Smith excoriated the decision in a written statement, "The decision of the Arundel Court is a travesty for the Kingdom of Gunnland. Don MacLeish is believed to be a dangerous fugitive well-connected in international organized crime. And allowing him to walk freely threatens the very survival of Clan MacLeish."

The chief of the clan, Mark MacLeish, has not commented on the case. Formerly Mark Buchanan Smith, the executive officer of Lloyd and MacLeish General Maritime Group, he was made clan chief in the will of Duncan MacLeish. The brothers of the late Duncan MacLeish are believed to be bitterly opposed to his tenure as chief.

The shorthanded High Court refused to hear the case, though sources at the Inn of Advocates indicated this is because its two members are known to be divided on the issue 2-2: Chief Justice Daniel Keith MacTaigh and Justice Ruth MacAllister Taylor are inclined to uphold Judge Hunt's ruling, while Justice Padraig Cameron MacNeese and Justice Michael MacLeish Held are believed to support the government's case.

 

[Pelasgia]

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Secretariat of External Affairs​

ΑΣ 2248/2019 | Ἀπόῤῥητον | Ἐσπευσμένον
Propontis, 29 May 2019

To whom it may concern,

The

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is most alarmed by the recent decision of the High Court of the Kingdom of Gunnland, and would be willing to offer any aid necessary in the government's case against Donald MacLeish. There is an outstanding warrant for the arrest of the said man, who is due to serve a life sentence in prison in Pelasgia, and we would be willing to receive him if that would relieve you of the problem of dealing with him, in a way that benefits us both. Alternatively, we have information on his cooperation with Imperial authorities; this cooperation led to his sentence reduction from capital punishment to life imprisonment, and could aid you in permanently discrediting him among his own circles and clan. If you so wish, this information can be made available to your intelligence services by the Central State Security Service.

Signed and sealed,

Emmanouīl L. Avgīros
Secretary of External Affairs
Throne Council of Pelasgia

 

[Gunnland]

The Advocate
Informing the Inns of Court and all Gunnishmen since 1665.

CHURCH GRANTS COUNTESS MARY ANNULMENT
MacLeod Noblewoman Free to Marry Azraqi Prince Dalmar
​

WINDHAVEN. Archbishop Edmund Woodstone surprised many by annulling the marriage of former Leader James Buchanan Blackthorn and Countess Mary of Arundel, former chieftess of Clan MacLeod. Bishop Justin Broithe of Ayr had refused, and many inside the Church have criticized Countess Mary for her plans to marry the Azraqi prince, Dalmar of Haradhera, a Hagarite Moslem.

There was no comment from the apostolic palace. Friends of Mr. Blackthorn suggested that he was being "punished" by the Church for failing to support empire. Others in Windhaven have pointed to the rise of William MacLeod in Liberal Party circles, even claiming that he cast the decisive support in favor of empire on the condition that the annulment was granted.

It is not known whether Countess Mary will seek a marriage in the Church. If the project of empire goes forward, however, Prince Dalmar will likely be one of its electors.

 

[Imimoya]

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Royal House of the Medicean-Lorraine
Spokesman for the Grand Duchess's office
​

Date 01062019
Lars​

To whom it may concern,

This office of His Royal Highness, the Grand Duchess of Lars, raises perplexity in the election of a new Tiburan Emperor.

An emperor who does not sit on his original throne, an empire far from the long seas that made his fortunes and a people like the Tiburans, of which we are, together with the Grand Duchy of Retalia and Friuli, the heirs, cannot but wonder what right sets you to claim titles to you so far culturally and geographically. The Crown, and the blessed oil, should surround the head of a Tiburan sovereign.

His Royal Highness, Isabella I of Lars, Grand Duchess of Lars and the 3 duchy electors of Pisae, Volturria and Donesia, informs with supreme ramaric, that there will be no recognition by this royal house of the title of Northern Tiburan Emperor.

Spokeswoman of the Grand Duchess

Tiberio Primo​

 

[Gunnland]

The Advocate
Informing the Inns of Court and all Gunnishmen since 1665.

RATING DOWNGRADE, BOURGOGNE WORRY INVESTORS
ASEG Down From Early-May Record Highs; Closes at t7894
​

AYR. The Ayr Securities and Exchange Group (ASEG) closed well below t8,000, after reaching a record-high of t8,815.04 on May 10. The Gunnish Motor Company (GMC), which received strong support from the Bowerman government, led an upswell of industrial averages. But CEO Nicholas mA. Cottswold reported that export numbers had not met ambitious targets, yet.

"Investors are worried about three things," said Brendan B. MacBoyle, VP at the investment firm Mons Pietatis, "First, the Long Sea crisis does not appear to have hurt Gallian competitors so deeply. Second, there is uncertainty about plans for an imperial currency union with Elben and, more worryingly, Bourgogne. Third, and most importantly, instability in the Burgundian lands threatens overland trade."

The Natalian ratings agency ECR reported a mixed outlook for Gunnland, and surprisingly declined to offer an investment-worthy grade for the kingdom. Leader Bowerman, a former businessman, was asked about this in an Ayr press conference on the Gunnish economy. "It might be a little political," he said dismissively. The Natal apologized for airstrikes that killed Robert Gunn several months ago.

The downgrade could not come at a worse time, according to Padraig mD. MacFallon, VP at the Bank of Arundel. "Himyar matters now. Anyone can see how the Gunnland-Azraq relationship is growing in importance. Banks like mine need to look to invest in transhamarian markets, especially when Kadikistan is not in expansionary mode." Kadikistan borrows hard currency principally from Ayr banks.

Despite its pro-business public profile, the Bowerman government has been reluctant to relax economic controls. Mr. Bowerman said that Gunnland is focused on improving access to Gallian markets, integrating Salen with the Council of the North economies, and pressing ahead with development projects in Crotobaltislavonia.

 

[Rheinbund]

OOC: What happened to that Northern Thaumantic Empire?

 

[Gunnland]

GUNNISH JOURNAL OF POLITICS
Journal 102, Issue 2 * A quarterly academic review.​

Empire May Shift Power from Thing to Cities... And Lawyers
Thomas MacDougall MacIntyre, Marian University

Confederations tend to centralize. Opponents of empire, like former leader James B. Blackthorn loudly and repeatedly remind us of this historical fact. Nobody seems to be heeding Blackthorn's warning: rumors from Eschenbach and Chagny suggest that empire will come before the end of summer. What is taking so long? The short answer is that hammering out the remit of the new imperial courts, and their precise reach over customs and intra-imperial commerce, is complex. And everyone knows this imperial judiciary, not a combined military command or coordinated foreign policy, is the potential vehicle for centralizing power in Chagny.

The Bowerman government has appointed three attorneys specializing in commercial law, Peter K. "Lefty" Quincannon, Anthony G. MacPherson, and Mora MacMorgan Bowerman (the wife of the leader) to represent Gunnland in these negotiations. The Thing has recessed for the summer, with both the Integrity Party and the Liberal Party divided between imperialists and nationalists...

The Holy Tiburian Empire Is the Opposite of Ahistorical: That's the Problem
Ralph Rhyderch, Marian University

The Pelasgians have a point. A Tiburian Empire that includes neither Tibur nor Propontis? But of course, for a thousand years, Chagny was the epicenter of the empire that Voltaire famously called "Neither Tiburian, nor Holy, nor an Empire." And for the last hundred years, the Catholic statesmen of northern Gallo-Germania have felt the pull of the global Church, and defended it against global enemies, both Masonic and communist. So was it only a matter of time that the crowned heads-of-state of the North, their nations slowly uniting under the Council of the North, looked to the past to reinstate their empire?

Yes and no. The sudden death of Grand Duke Charles made it possible. How is this true, if recently released documents make it clear that the grand duke long dreamed of reëstablishing the empire? The reason is the old Gunnish mistrust of the more powerful Bourgogne. Ironically it is the breakup of a powerful Bourgogne, its (disputed) line passing into the hands of Princess Mireille, that will have brought a multinational empire back to the Burgundian people...

 

[Gunnland]

GUNNISH JOURNAL OF POLITICS
Journal 102, Issue 2 * A quarterly academic review.​

Queen's Gambit: Applying Consular Theory to Upcoming Imperial Elections
Théophile Gladstone-Pape, Institut de recherche sociale, Île-des-Pins

Everyone knows "king-and-thing" is shorthand for the Gunnish constitutional system. The eighteenth-century republicans, enamored with Tibur, drew parallels to the consular system of the ancient Tiburian Republic. The patricians of the Gunnish clans, senatorial thegns, are the the leading citizens who staked their money and treasure on war, and elect the king. The plebs elect the Thing of All Gunnishmen, and the Thing its Leader. One patrician, one pleb, two coequal leaders who can veto each other. Inspired, Nedham then Harrington argued, by Tibur in the era of the Licinian rogations. Poppycock, of course.

More recent social scientists of the kilted variety have asked what causes the Stone Chair to become more powerful in some governments, the Leader in others. In the 1950s it was all about Personality Theory of Consulship. In the 1970s, Factoral Cleavage Theory argued that the power of the king had declined along with the clans, as the value of their extensive landholdings declined. Then in the 1990s, New Consular Theory argued that the power of the king was not due to the personality of King Josias, but because the Thing faced a collective action problem.

Now, even if we're still stuck with New Consular Theory, we realize that the unity of the Thing is a variable. Today, William MacDougall Bowerman is the weakest leader in modern history, not because of his personality, but because his Integrity Party is divided between hardline imperialists like Hadrian Molyneux and hardline royalists like former leader James Buchanan Blackthorn. A Liberal Party would fare only slightly better, with this surging faction divided along the same axis, albeit by more moderate imperialists like William MacLeod and moderate royalists like Douglas MacLeish.

So when Queen Julian goes to represent Gunnland in the upcoming imperial elections, she does not need to worry about interference from Leader Bowerman. New Consular Theory predicts that the queen holds all the cards. While MacIntyre (2019) argues that government lawyers will be most influential in steering Gunnland's course in the new empire...

 

[Gunnland]

GUNNISH JOURNAL OF POLITICS
Journal 102, Issue 2 * A quarterly academic review.​

Union, Dominion, Empire: To Understand the New Superstates, Look East
Michabarach Foucauza, Institut de recherche sociale, Île-des-Pins

On the waves of the Thaumantic Domain, a resuscitated federation of Engellkin. The old dream of the great bourgeois trading empire spanning the waves. In the mountains and valleys of the Gallo-Germanian heartland, the revived corpse of a medieval empire, an imitation of an imitation. The old dream of global feudalism that the Catholic Church fits hand-to-glove. And of course, the storm of words and fears: a the Masonic novus ordo seclorum against the ancient bulwarks of fictionalism. Marx would have been surprised to see the old game last so long. Let us restate his famous dictum: history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce, and again as farce, and again...

Yet these are not simply superstructural permutations! In reality, in the material world, these new superstates everywhere forming are imitating something basic. In 1948, as we all know, Nikolai Leninov saw the true political form intimated by the revolution started by Andrej Rurik. The politics of our times has never been about nations, but about quests for global dominance. The ideologists of Westernesse and Christendom now tacitly acknowledge, at least as a matter of political 'form,' this truth of Marxism-Leninovism.

History itself is staked upon the victory of the Union. The Dominion would drag us back into the sooty age of unfettered capitalism and utterly alienated wage labor. The Empire, even further, into the darkness of superstition and...

Does the Gemeinschaft/Gesellschaft Distinction Still Apply in Gunnland?
Aurelia Rupuze, Marian University

It is a commonplace that the Gunnish constitution balances Gesellschaft, impersonal and rationalized society, and Gemeinschaft, personal, emotional, and formative communities. The Thing represents the people and the corporations: the army, the Church, the university, and the legal profession. But Gemeinschaft is not excluded from political life altogether: the Council of Thegns, the clans, and the king (or queen), preserve it. But one may now wonder whether this category of Tönnies and Weber still applies.

For a more than century, one line of critique is that the two wealthy urban clans, the MacLeishes and the (recently unbroken) MacLeods, had ceased to be 'communities' in the traditional sense, so much as wealthy bourgeois families that were adopting modern ways, the story goes, Protestantism, Enlightenment, and Freemasonry. At least this was the claim made by the Integrity Party in the early 1900s, when it enlisted the Gunns and allied clans into its program of Catholic nationalism against the forces of capitalism. Although its ideological force has waned, this remains the center of Gunnish politics today: liberal politicians are still drawn from the MacLeishes and MacLeods, and still suspected to be not entirely proud to be Gunnishmen.

But the dissolution of Gemeinschaft is deeper. The Gunns are an international family. Queen Julian is foreign educated. Prince Joachas lives in Himyar. Even the great nationalist figurehead airman and clan chief, Iain MacDougall, has recently stood for the throne of Virumaa. Most importantly, these clans do not primarily earn income from their lands, but from investment portfolios with shares in companies from Westernesse to Touyou...

 

[Beautancus]

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CONFEDERATED REPUBLIC OF BEAUTANCUS
DEPARTMENT for PROGRESS,
OFFICE for the ADMINISTRATION of GOVERNMENT
Old Mission House, 752 Creekmeadows Boulevard,
Welmonton, City of Welmonton, CRB, 58362
​

While this Office for the Administration of Government must thank the Institute for the work it has done above all else, it must also be made clear that the Confederated Republic rejects the Marxist notion of historical materialism as circular logic and wrong-headed assumption based on carefully engineered preconceptions.

The state of being and great destiny possessed by the Thaumantic peoples of the Domain sets us apart from the rest of civilization, mired in anachronistic superstition as they are. The petty struggles of class warfare and the base treachery of partisan politics mean nothing to the Domain, and provide a miserably skewed context through which to view the Great Work of Engellexic Civilization.

We cannot and shall not dispute that the course adopted by the League of the Four Nations of the Thaumantic Domain is indeed one of Union. We can, and shall dispute that this Union bears any resemblance to the heterogenous ramshackle of Fictional competitor powers and principalities of Gallo-Germania. Likewise and even more so, this Office disputes the insinuation of any likeness with the prison of nations, called Kadikistan.

The Domain is rendered exceptional by a single, unifying ethnic character and heritage, possessing but a single & shared Mother Language, shared political institutions and the commonality of history. Furthermore, the nations of the Domain return willingly to the same state of unified harmony from which they were born - can the Empire or the Red Horde say the same? The Empire might argue it for some distance - but all with the eyes to see and ears to hear can tell you that there would be no possibility of an Empire were it not for the abject terror the masses of the Old World are maintained in - especially as the Domain is accounted.

The Domain moves from strength to strength as the rest of the world tumbles deeper into cowardice and superstition, as it has been for quite some while now.

With our best regards otherwise, I am and shall remain,



Dr. Farnham Leary,
Secretary for Progress,
Confederated Republic of Beautancus

 

[Gunnland]

The Advocate
Informing the Inns of Court and all Gunnishmen since 1665.

MacPHERSON APPOINTED 'INTERIM' FOREIGN SECRETARY
Queen Julian Downplays "Relief" Comment About Empire on KGB-1
​

WINDHAVEN. Queen Julian appointed Anthony Gunn MacPherson as her new "interim" foreign secretary. Mr. MacPherson is an attorney who has participated in extensive negotiations over commercial law that will lay the foundations for the new imperial judiciary. After an emperor is elected, a new imperial foreign ministry will be formed in Chagny to represent Gunnish interests.

"My first priority is to reassure our allies and partners that empire does not represent a break in the foreign policy of Gunnland," said Foreign Secretary MacPherson in his first news conference at the Freehold. "Gunnland and the Council of the North will continue to honor our commitments and agreements to our friends and regional partners."

Former Foreign Secretary Larkin retires from the Foreign Office having achieved his long-term goal of trade agreements with Crotobaltislavonia, Lars, and Eiffello-Retalia. He negotiated these at Île-des-Pins in April. At only 28, he has a bright future in Gunnish politics ahead of him. Another trade attorney, Peter K. Quincannon, has been appointed to lead the mission to the Council of the North.

Queen Julian gave a taped address to the nation on KGB-1 to clarify her much-quoted comment that delegating foreign-policy and security decisions to an imperial government in Chagny is "honestly a great relief." In the address, Her Majesty insisted this comment was taken out of context, and that she is "energetic" about continuing to build up Gunnland and the North.

Liberal thingman John K. Skylaw (MT-University) criticized Queen Julian for "letting a couple of lawyers run Gunnland" as she plans to return to finish her studies at the Robert Koch Universität in Weissenfels, Eiffelland after imperial elections. Enquêteur Padraig B. Smith issued Mr. Skylaw a warning but ruled that he had not clearly violated Gunnland's lèse-majesté laws.

 

[Gunnland]

The following is a book review from the Windhaven Review of Books.

​

Matthew MacLeod Stolmand, Everything That Rises? Failures of Cultural Convergence in the Engellosphere, 1900-1920
Windhaven: Venator, 2019 t16.99 hbk

Walter MacAllister Matthew
​

We left Old Marpesia in two opposite directions and never looked back. West, by sea, to the Thaumantic horizons, sailed rugged individuals who learned to trust their own resourcefulness rather than God. And the rest? We shambled north to the heather of Gunnland, illiterate lairds in our wet granite hovels, to seethe with ressentiment towards those who dared to boldly go, or what is the same, to keep troth with the ancient faith.

This is the usual history, if we believe Mr. Stolmand, of Engellex and Gunnland, or more accurately, of how the Engellkin left the Gunnish behind. But -- can you believe it? -- things are more complicated, the author alleges. The usual received history is a constructed past, labored over by national mythmakers on both sides of the Engelsea. Shocking, I realize.

Stolmand intertwines two well-known stories, the story of Lady Charlotte Cavendish-Bentincke and the civil war in Engellex, and the story of the Easter Rising in Gunnland. He speculates that before the ascendancy of the First Republic, by 1910 more than half of the Engellexic nobility had returned to the practice of Tiburian Catholicism, thanks in large part to secret missions of Gunnish Jesuits and Fergusines. (The number is too high by half.) On the other side, Stolmand colorfully claims that by 1914, "it is doubtful that a MacLeod laird had been to church in three generations." (Still is.)

The thesis of Everything That Rises is that, a century ago, the Engellosphere was converging. Gunnish liberals were questioning Catholicism in Ayr and Dalmyre-Seaguard. Engellexic élites were questioning radical republicanism. The Engelsh-speaking peoples of Europe were rediscovering a common culture. The Gunnish focused intensely upon rechristianizing their fallen-away brethren, while the Engellkin lent a hand to bring their belated cousins into the liberal Enlightenment.

Convergence, Mr. Stolmand tells us, was a missed opportunity that can be grasped again, if only we had the political will to reach out! Of course, he is a Liberal politician, moreover an Integrity turncoat, moreover one who thought he would cross party lines to lead the liberals, until Douglas MacLeish (and more recently William MacLeod) stepped into politics. And so Mr. Stolmand writes a book criticizing MacLeishes and MacLeods for not being the brave liberals that their forefathers were. How convenient for the author and his outré choice of a publishing house, the post-delagationist Venator Foundation.

The rank opportunism of political radicals does not spoil this book as a real work of history, however, so much as its glaring incompleteness. The book almost entirely leaves out the fascinating Fictional Troubles in Beautancus. The modern Masada, the martyrdom of the Milites Domini at Nod, for instance, is a glaring omission. Thaumantic Rite freemasonry is hardly mentioned, except for Mr. Stolmand's snide comments about Gunnish historians that "exaggerate its influence entirely." (As if this were possible.)

Everything That Rises is a high-minded sally to take a middle ground that is, sadly, altogether fictional.

 

[Gunnland]

The Advocate
Informing the Inns of Court and all Gunnishmen since 1665.

BLACKTHORN PROTESTS VISISLAVA LAND DEAL
Former Leader Expelled from Integrity Party After Calling Colleagues "Traitors"
​

WINDHAVEN. The Thing of All Gunnishmen voted 14-9 to sell Visislava, the mountainous and sparsely populated western province of Lower Marpesia, to the Kingdom of Elben. The territory had only been subject to the Kingdom of Gunnland since 2016.

Former Leader James B. Blackthorn (MT-Windhaven) called the sponsor of the bill, Théophile Gladstone-Pape, a "trouser-wearing traitor" and a "foreigner" who "should be hauled onto the Alexander Rex and shot." The Integrity Party narrowly voted to expel Mr. Blackthorn as a party member.

The Visislava land deal has fractured the thin majority of the Integrity Party. Five party members -- the so-called "trousers" -- including Hadrian Molyneux (MT-Marian) and Leader William mD. Bowerman (MT-Oa) voted to approve the deal. But four associated with the Smith-Gallagher Circle -- the so-called "kilts" -- voted against.

Mr. Molyneux called for party unity, reminding his colleagues that the Thing will soon have to elect eight members to the imperial Council of Cities. He warned that if the Integrity Party continues to fracture into "Trouser" and "Kilt" factions, it will be unable to lead at this important time.

 

[Gunnland]

The Advocate
Informing the Inns of Court and all Gunnishmen since 1665.

"TROUSERS" VS. "KILTS" SPLITS RULING INTEGRITY PARTY
Leader Bowerman Acknowledges Factionalism But Says Issue Is "Minor"
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WINDHAVEN. With the expulsion of former Leader James B. Blackthorn and the decision of the Army Council to disaffiliate from the Integrity Party, the longtime governing party in the Thing of All Gunnishmen, saw its number sink to an all time low of 9 seats. The opposition Liberal Party also has 9 seats, leading to speculation that Douglas MacLeish (MT-Dalmyre) could mount a leadership challenge.

Leader William mD. Bowerman (MT-Oa) made a rare television appearance on the Jim Boswell Show and refused to say the party was in crisis. "I am supported by the independents," he told Mr. Boswell.

There are internal problems in the party as well.

Several months ago it was the "professors" against the "colonels," but now a new label of Mr. Blackthorn's coinage hangs on the former faction: the "Trousers." The Trousers are led by a marpesienne law professor at the Marian who has spread the fashion of wearing pants, Hadrian Molyneux (MT-Marian). He and his students meet at MacDonald's Restaurant rather than the Sword and Ship Pub.

The Trousers are staunch imperialists with an international outlook. Théophile Gladstone-Pape is their most famous member. Many of them have a legal background and are taking the lead in the negotiations for the new Holy Tiburian Empire. Two of them, the appointed foreign secretary Anthony G. MacPherson and Peter K. "Lefty" Quincannon, have recently been named to Salen's Order of the Swan.

The Kilts resent the rise of the Trousers, and voted against expelling Mr. Blackthorn from the party. This more loosely defined nationalist group is clustered around the Enquêteur, Padraig B. Smith, and is closely associated with the former friends and associates of Robert Gunn.

Leader Bowerman says that the Trouser-Kilt split is "overblown" and appears to be on friendly terms with both groups. Furthermore, he says that it is important for Integrity MTs to work together with independents to elect a slate of eight candidates for the imperial Council of Cities.

There is speculation that the Trousers could compromise with the Liberals to lock "Kilts" out of imperial offices.

 

[Gunnland]

The Advocate
Informing the Inns of Court and all Gunnishmen since 1665.

A special afternoon edition.

MacHUGH BLASTS LARS: "ONLY LAND RESPECTS LAW"
Queen Names New PM; Immediately Criticizes Lars, "Post-Delegationists"​

WINDHAVEN. Amid unconfirmed reports that Touzen-Scanian "post-delegationist" raiders had sacked Ouistreham, Bourgogne, late yesterday evening, Queen Julian assembled her small council and announced that Dionysius G. MacHugh would replace Iain B. MacLean as prime minister. Mr. MacHugh, who has served in the past as crown's attorney, was a longtime friend of the late statesman Robert Gunn. Crown spokeswoman Madeleine mD. MacNicholls thanked former Prime Minister MacLean for his service, especially his work towards clan social insurance reform.

By morning the EPA was reporting that the attack on Ouistreham was orchestrated by Engellex. Mr. MacHugh told the half-empty Thing of All Gunnishmen that it didn't matter. The Advocate reprints his brief speech here:

The lands of the continent respect laws. We live alongside one another. As friends, as enemies, no matter: we know our collective survival depends on abiding by treaty, and respecting the law of peoples. The sea-peoples on the peripheries of the world are different. Their masters believe the vast oceans that separate them from us allow them to loose the dogs of war, and they will not be bitten. They have no need for law. Pirates living in dreamworlds, they dream they are free from all law, free from all government, even free from God: free from all consequences of their actions. And today they come to test the strength of the people of the land, whose strength they cannot fathom, whose strength is respect for law.

Mr. MacHugh is known to be a close confidant of Queen Julian, and if this morning is any indication, will represent the Stone Chair much more forcefully in the Thing of All Gunnishmen than his predecessor. Although the queen has been silent on matters of foreign policy, the new prime minister's speech is widely perceived as a criticism of both the Engellexian invasion and the Grand Duchy of Lars inviting "post-delegationist" armed forces into its territory.

When asked specifically about the Lars situation, Mr. MacHugh only said, "If 2,000 slit-eyed dogsledders from the other side of the world is worth pissing off Ivar and Trier simultaneously, they'd better fight like hell." He admitted to a Liberal questioner that he did not "have the faintest idea, or care" what post-delegationism is.