Great Engellex
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A ROYAL EVENING
Palace of Hamilton - Lambeth
It was the evening of May the 18th. The Palace of Hamilton was an expansive building of grandeur and sophisticated finery, the ancestral residence of the Duke and Duchess of Southwark and has been the seasonal retreat for the monarchy since 1854, thus providing streams of tales and legends of splendour, opulence to fascinate even the most ardent of republicans. This is the palace where the monarchy retreats for the social season, and where the enjoyment of more intimate balls and parties are hosted, which themselves are rivalled by none else within the Free Cities Union. This evening however would be more intimate than is usually accredited to the Cavendish-Bentinck line, Queen Georgiana is hosting a small dinner party for King Napoleon III to mark the first day of his visit.
The visit of King Napoleon was not a state visit, in fact it was relatively informal, as informal as royalty could be permitted within the protocol and etiquette indoctrinated society of the Free Cities Union. What it necessarily meant was that the to-do’s of involving the cabinet and other politicians, and touring of the country, was abandoned as the invitation was a personal one extended toward His Majesty from Her Majesty. As such only a select few of the aristocracy was invited by the Queen for the evening, specifically the other Royal Houses - and a few of the ‘Political Houses’.
The Duke’s Hall, incorrectly referred to as the King’s Hall by many, is where they dined. The room was gargantuan, warmly lit against the dark panelled walls and with the Lambeth Consort providing exceptionally rich baroque music from the concerto composer Charles Avison. The table stretched the length of the room, with the guests and Her Majesty sitting in the centre. What was presented, by way of food, was an abundance of roasted meats and vegetables as well as a colourful spray of exotic and delightful desserts. It was truly over the top, but it was certainly the impression that was being attempted to be relayed to King Napoleon. Altogether there was a mere thirty people at the dinner party.
“So, Your Majesty, how well does political life occupy your time?” Was the question put to King Napoleon from the Duchess of Salisbury. Her Grace, the Duchess of Salisbury was a rather ostentatious political and aristocratic figure within the Free Cities Union. The political life of the Duchess was providing leadership to the struggle for women’s electoral rights within the Commons Assembly, occasionally from time to time allowing herself to be caught up in relatively minor political scandal. Of course scandal within the Union is not comparable to what many in the far more liberal states would term scandal, a bit of a chalk and cheese. Although that itself is the precise reason for Queen Georgiana to be inviting King Napoleon to Hamilton, the Free Cities Union was extraordinarily unique to the social and political customs of the nations that neighbour it, and amongst the aristocracy a fascination has taken hold on these differences.
However despite these fascinations there were of course political motives at play here. For the past hundred or so years the country has been so economically focused that foreign relations, and the relationships once held between royalty of the continent with our own have been gradually eroded away for the sake of neutrality, which itself was for the sake of industry. Now, however, the Queen intends to bring the presence of the Free Cities Union, and to an extent, Her Majesty’s Court into the brisk environment of international affairs.