Of Pride and Power - 19. Chapter 19: “Use the surrender tactic: transform weakness into power.”

Strength isn’t always measured by arms when you have an absolute advantage over others. Weakness and submission are sometimes important tools for good leaders to improve their positions. While her troops and weapons were impressive, they were not invincible. The materials in their weapons, machines, and vehicles were poorer in quality than the materials I produced, meaning her forces lacked the industrial capacity that my knowledge and Robert’s ability offered. Before the Industrial Revolution, steel, rubber, and composite material production was limited. Even if you knew the method and formula for converting petroleum to plastic or bauxite to aluminum, there was a supply chain of materials that were needed to create finished products, along with quality control processes for military-grade materials. Their superiority would not last due to their neglect of fundamental capacity needs that every protagonist of an Isekai like Souma, Hiraku, and Rimuru understood by their nature. At that time, I wasn’t anywhere near as prescient about the deficits in Mary or the Church’s forces. Even without knowing all these factors, I did understand there was a gap that needed to be addressed.

Glancing over at Robert, I held his hand and signed one word, “Knowledge”. He understood the meaning and the strategy that would need to be used against such an overwhelming force without a reply.

Beyond land, sea, and air, there is a military power that supersedes all the others, information. In the 21^st century, military strategists and autocrats fully realized Sun Tzu’s ultimate ambition of “knowing yourself and your enemy” through the fourth field of information warfare to win wars and wipe out nations without engaging in battle. We needed to learn more about their capabilities, especially the power source of the sky fortress and its railgun. The technologies were theoretically possible even during my time, We also needed to inspire people to create and support an alternative ideology to the fear of such a show of force. The battle for London was over, but the war for the throne had just begun.

Most people in my era saw information warfare as a new type of warfare with the introduction of the internet and social media revolution, causing internal unrest from Egypt to the United States, but the real origin of such tactics began here in the 16^th century during the Wars of Religion. The spread of literacy through the printing press created the first information revolution that allowed Martin Luther’s challenges to Catholicism or John Calvin’s heretical notions of predestination to spread across the continent, breaking apart the Medieval Holy Roman Empire and creating the new nations of Belgium and the Netherlands. Maps of the Americas, designs of Spanish ships and cannons, and countless other secrets were used by the Anti-Catholic factions due to the success of the information war, sowing the seeds for the end of Catholicism as the dominant Christian authority in the world. If a few pamphlets could do that, someone with more knowledge and experience can achieve even more.

My first move upon entering London was to provide aid to the injured civilians within the city. After making our parade with Mary’s troops, my entourage and several knights, who stuck by my side for various reasons, began rescuing the civilians buried in the shelling. My ability, akin to biological ground sonar, was very useful in the search and rescue efforts despite the small group of people that I had with me. When we rescued injured people, we provided food and water from the stores that I had brought with me. Mary’s men and allies did not touch the wooden barrels of water, preserved meats, vegetables, or medicines, probably due to disdain for the primitive and paltry offering of discolored water, weeks-old food, and powdered herbs. The goods that we provided were high quality: enriched water with vitamin C and electrolytes, modern pasteurized and preserved foods that killed off bacteria, and an assortment of antibiotics and anti-inflammation powders created jointly by Robert and Puck. As Mary’s men were busy corralling nobles and residents for a proclamation ceremony near Westminster Palace, spared from destruction due to the presence of Parliament, they couldn’t see what they were missing out on and the knights assisting me were not knowledgeable enough to understand the resources that I was offering to those who were injured or dispossessed.

My most important equipment that no one truly appreciated among the wagons was thousands of clean white papers, a hundred specialty wax papers, barrels of oil-based ink, and an odd-looking machine, which I knew was a mimeograph. Until the 1960s and 1970s use of copiers and computer printing, the mimeograph was the most cost-effective way of creating copies of documents for distribution. During World War II, these machines were used by resistance movements in German-occupied Europe to produce unfiltered news reports. Printing presses did exist in this era, but they were cumbersome, and they could not produce what I wanted in time. Like newspapers and later Twitter influencers, speed and dissemination of information were important to the creation of perspective reality.

While the railgun was able to destroy various palace complexes with accuracy, the same could not be said about the garrisons of John Dudley’s 10,000-men army. I cannot fault the weapon system for the collateral damage, since the death toll and damage were much smaller than a standard siege of a major city like London. The fault should be laid at the battle plans of John Dudley, who anticipated to use his troops for a prolonged urban battle and the lack of support from the militia muster orders had forced him to house some of his forces in pockets of the city that he needed to secure. Food and water supplies were heavily depleted as another result. However, Mary deserved fault for ignoring the needs of the people, since she would rather have her troops and resources dedicated to a ceremony for a demonstration of power. Her pomp and pride are common traits among aristocrats, which in my history led to future popular unrest with the breakdown of medieval value systems. People do not live for your greatness; they live for themselves and those they care about. Her neglect of the civilian population in pursuit of the nominal title of “Queen” became her undoing. I reinforced those known facts and spread them.

Among those we rescued was Ambrose’s current twelve-year-old page, Gabriel, who resembled Puck slightly with his angular elfin features and mischievous eyes. He was found buried three days after the assault, nearly dead from dehydration and hunger. His location was where the old palace of Hampton Court used to be. His location and the appearance of metal locks on the door near him indicated that he was likely placed under some form of house arrest. Francis had informed me that Edward had left London with Ambrose, which frustrated John Dudley before his death. However, no one knew where Edward and Ambrose had run off. Gabriel was beaten and imprisoned, but he did not divulge any information. What John Dudley nor Ambrose was that Gabriel was one of the fair folk spies, who were providing intelligence about John Dudley’s actions. While Ambrose was a nominal ally and friend, he was aligned with his power-hungry father, so placing a spy near him was a necessity. Of course, Puck did pester us about intimate details about Ambrose’s actions around the page. Despite the sexual tension due to the similarity to Puck, Ambrose was a gentle and good master to his page, plus Gabriel was aromantic and asexual. It was cute to see Puck’s jealousy spring up, but he was caring and protective towards Gabriel, nursing him slightly at the same time.

Gabriel informed us that he did not know where Ambrose took Edward, but he assumed that Ambrose would be heading to Hatch Beauchamp Manor. Despite nominally siding with Mary, I was one of the last remaining havens in the kingdoms for them. However, upon entering my territory, Mary would be alerted to their presence by her spies. I had to make preparations for that occurrence. I had Gabriel brought to my tavern inn on the road London’s Ludgate, where he could recuperate. Francis sent word back to my troops to begin “Assarting” the lands. We had wanted to do this for some time because the odds of completing a major purge of spies in a short time without missing some individuals were nearly implausible. The success of this operation was due to Frances’ quick thinking as I learned later.

Of course, a big move had to be made in London to prevent future reprisal attacks by Mary’s forces. At this point, I wasn’t ready to fight her power, nor could I compete against the various armies of Mary’s English, Spanish, French, and Scottish allies. There was only one logical move to make, I had to surrender to Mary Tudor. I had prepared myself for this move, chosen the right kinds of people around me to minimize the risks, and even prepared a worst-case escape plan if needed.

On July 19^th, 1553, Mary was proclaimed the legitimate heir to the throne of England by an act of Parliament at Westminster Palace, thirteen days after the mass destruction in London. As with many acts of Parliament during the Tudor era, the proclamation was more a matter of performance for legitimacy, rather than a legislative vote. It had already been decided upon by those with real power or an army within the city. The coronation would occur in October, while the former government ministers and holdouts of Edward or John Dudley, who did not accept Mary’s reign would be purged and executed. Thomas Tallis had stated that only three dozen Parliament members out of more than a hundred representatives and eleven Privy Council members of the nearly forty at its height during Edward’s reign were assisting in the proclamation ceremony. In practical terms, Mary had between 25-30% support within the government at best, while most nobles and leaders were nominally accepting her reign in absentia.

When her proclamation was read by her chief advisor, Stephen Gardiner, and Mary stood up to face the assembled masses, the English Catholic nobles bowed in support of her claim to the throne. Mary of Guise’s Scottish forces and the Spanish contingent did not bow, which was expected if somewhat uncourteous. However, the lack of supplication that surprised everyone in the gathering in front of Westminster was the contingent of nobles from Western England and Wales that had followed me, along with the civilians that Mary’s troops had hastily gathered. For a few uncomfortable minutes, there was stunned silence as no one made a move.

Even though the nobles in my entourage were afraid of Mary’s military forces, they also knew that the bulk of my forces were back in the West. Before leaving Hatch Beauchamp Manor, Francis had gathered all the family members of these nobles to be my guests near my manor in Somerset or in the city of Bristol, surrounded by residents, craftsmen, guilds, and troops completely loyal to me. If they betray me here and now, their entire family would be forfeited. As for the civilians, they were not loyal to me, but they had no love for Mary or her seizure of the throne. Rumors of Mary murdering Edward along with John Dudley were spread far and wide by my agents in the city with mimeograph pamphlets, discrediting her ascension to the throne. Fear of a usurper, who murdered her family members, kept them from accepting Mary.

Additionally, in a far less benign fact within those pamphlets, I highlighted that Mary was a woman. Despite my disdain for sexism and misogyny, it was an easy bigoted route of attack to use against her among the masses as it was in history. The great chain of being in a society that had existed since the Middle Ages meant women were never to be treated as superior to men. The same Christian order that Mary supported undermined her own rule. Elizabeth had the same problem during her early reign, but eventually through strategic repressive laws and appearances, she was able to maintain her hegemony. However, sexism and bigotry continued to grow, especially among the reform-minded Protestant contingent that would form the Puritan movement, creating a legacy in English and later United States history.

On this point, I want my descendants to remember that I am not perfect, nor pure in my ideals as much as I desire. To gain power, horrible human concepts have to be exploited to achieve better ends. Mary’s actions later were self-evidently harmful and repressive, while the promotion of concepts that I and men like John Knox accepted among the populace to remove Mary Tudor, Mary of Guise, and Catherine Medici from their thrones were no less wrong. Human beings are by nature quick to judge without reason. Being intersex, I had one trick that Elizabeth did not have in history, I could pass as a male with my leather armor hiding my breasts, trousers with codpieces that accentuate my average endowment, and strategic use of makeup to obscure my feminine features. In the eyes of England’s male-dominated population, I could connect to them far more than a woman like Mary. Elizabeth did the same in my history, often wearing armor to assuage her subject of feminine aspects in her character. Mary was in contrast dressed in traditional female attire with jewels to showcase her femininity, which was tragically one of the key reasons her historical counterpart never gained wide acceptance as ruler of England.

Before Mary or her soldiers reacted to this display of disobedience, I moved toward the front of her supplicating troops and equally powerful allies. Mary and everyone watched my motions. I had practiced a polished curtsy and began my formal surrender to Mary.

“Your Majesty,

I approach Your Majesty with heartfelt greetings and the sincerest expressions of familial love and loyalty. As Elias Tudor, a devoted sibling in the service of the Crown, I extend my humble supplication to Your Grace, my esteemed sister. I further extend the supplication of the western lands that I hold in the name of the Crown and those subjects therein.

May it please Your Majesty to receive this humble message, wherein I convey my deepest affection and unwavering commitment to supporting Your Majesty's reign? I recognize the wisdom and strength with which Your Grace governs, and I stand ready to contribute in any manner that aligns with Your Majesty's esteemed wishes.

With familial warmth and respect, I, Elias Tudor, Duke of Somerset, Gloucestershire, Devonshire, and Cornwall, recognize you, Mary Tudor, as my lawful Queen.”

All the nobles and commoners, who stood moments earlier, had bowed alongside me as I delivered my formal speech of supplication to Mary. In doing what I did, I showed Mary that I was willing to surrender everything to her and I was no threat to her rule. On the other hand, through the actions of others and rumors that I spread in the city, I also demonstrated to her that to maintain her reign, her show of force was not going to be enough. I could in an act of contrition bring her support that she could not win easily through violence. Machiavelli may be right about the need for rulers to use cruelty and fear to maintain their power, but the amount of fear and application of fear would not be explored until the 20^th century by individuals like Robert Greene. Essentially, through surrender, I forced Mary to agree to my terms.

Mary froze for a moment at the display of supplication and contrition, while considering an appropriate response. Like her historic counterpart, she hated me, but she also could not avoid recognizing me.

“My faithful Duke,

I graciously receive your kind supplication and expressions of loyalty. Your devoted service to the Crown is noted and appreciated. It is heartening to witness the dedication of noble subjects like yourself.

As your Queen, I am grateful for the support and loyalty extended by individuals of your stature. Your commitment to the welfare of the realm is duly recognized. Rest assured that your sentiments are received with appreciation as well as those within the realms of Somerset, Gloucestershire, Devonshire, and Cornwall that you protect in my name.

May God guide and bless you in your endeavors, and may the realm continue to prosper under the watchful eyes of its loyal servants.

With esteem, I receive your Grace’s support, Elias Tudor, Duke of Somerset, Gloucestershire, Devonshire, and Cornwall.”

In surrendering to Mary, I had retained my position, and in fact, my authority had grown. My title was nominally only Duke of Somerset, after the fall of the Seymore brothers, but I had extended my control over the majority of southwestern England, including some areas of southern Wales. As the earls and knights of those territories sought my advice and needed material from lands I held, my power had grown to match a medieval Duke. What I lacked was the legitimacy to make rules for the territories, which I had obtained from Mary through her acceptance of my new title.

In Mary or her courtier's eyes, I was just playing medieval politics by getting more land under my control to create new nobles, who would owe fealty to me. This act allowed dukes like Seymore and Dudley to increase their military power, by creating a client-lord system of military service. As both men were defeated easily, such medieval tactics were already proven to be ineffective, so there was no fear in my request. While I could have created lower-ranking nobles to expand a medieval military levee through this new authority, poorly trained peasant armies led by nobles would have been useless against the armies that my opponents held. Instead, the authority allowed me to centralize the control and administration of the region, and altered the original course of English gentrification, eliminating thousands of titled lords and ladies in service of the throne. Elizabeth and her successors were famous for creating and selling noble titles for no reason other than profit.

In my history, by the end of the 16^th century, 2% of England’s population such as nobles of gentry rank or higher and the royal family would hold 95% of all lands and goods in the kingdom, while 98% of the population would be poor commoners with very little material goods or land. England’s population was around 2.5 million at this time, but it would grow to around 4 million by the end of Elizabeth’s 44-year reign. Higher population, consolidated wealth-tied landowners, and consumer buying power decline led to economic instability for over a century. That kind of society is reminiscent of the United States in the late 20^th and early 21^st century, when the offshoot concept, The American Dream of landownership, caused marginalization and societal issues for decades even after the speculative aspects became less pronounced after 2008. The need for opulent manor houses, elaborate décor, and ostentatious staff of hundreds for new gentlemen farmers or established noble families trying to win offices at the Royal Court in London created unsustainable ideals. In my time, dramas like Downton Abbey showed the tail-end of this wasteful and inefficient landowning culture with dozens of servants answering the call of their noble lord in the 20th-century Edwardian era, which was merely one-tenth as severe as it was during the Tudor and Stuarts reigns when hundreds or even a thousand people served landed nobles. To eliminate this societal disease before it becomes ingrained like seasonal influenza, I needed to reform the system and mentality for wealth generation at the birth of the modern English state.

With this power, technical education would be my first major reform out of the shadowy cooperative agreements I had with guilds, craftsmen, and merchants that supplied my armies with munitions and weapon’s interchangeable parts. Gears and analog machines were already developed in Italy during the Renaissance, a century ago, so training young men and women in maintaining gears, belts, and machine operations would not seem out of place, especially with the Papal State having unified Italy twenty years ago under their current Pope with similar advanced technologies.

Education was haphazard during this era in history, but some of the elements in modern education systems had begun to appear as well. Under Edward’s reign, a series of grammar schools, known as “King Edward’s Schools”, was set up across the nation for young members of the lower nobility from seven to fifteen years of age starting in 1551, while commoners likewise received a basic education at so-called “Poor Schools” with similar functions. Basic literacy and mathematics improved under Edward’s reign, but they were still inferior to private tutors of the upper nobility and royal family. Despite the progress in basic education, higher education institutions like Colleges and Universities were focused primarily on classical topics such as studying Greek and Latin texts for source materials with directions from royal decrees for certain subject matter focuses.

From modern history, I knew the failings of directed outcome-based education in Western societies, probably a descendant of this early English model. By the second decade of the 21^st century, education in mathematics, science, language, literature, and history had lost its purpose of creating well-rounded individuals due to the need for mandatory and standardized curriculums. These became major problems with the need for applied technical education rising in importance, reducing mechanical and analytical skills. When supply chains broke down between 2018-2022 due to trade issues with microchip manufacturers and a pandemic outbreak, humanity was unable to perform even the most basic of activities. While there’s nothing wrong with specialized subjects, the focus on outcomes rather than qualitative tracks created a generation of poorly educated dependents in society that relied too heavily on computer-assisted functions, when those functions relied on specific machinery that required specialized skills. My world had dehumanized itself, creating social and economic issues with their dependencies.

After what happened, Mary would not allow me to leave London. I was housed in quarters within the Tower of London’s royal complex. Technically, I was not a prisoner as Elizabeth would have been during Wyatt’s Rebellion, but Mary did not want to risk me plotting against her in my territory. I had foreseen house arrest as a likely outcome of joining Mary’s side in this coup d’etat, so I had already prepared instructions for everyone. I knew she had no grounds to execute me, so my life was never in danger, but it wouldn’t stop someone from assassinating me unofficially. Due to the threat of assassination, Robert chose to stay by my side throughout the year in the Tower by swearing his allegiance to only me. His mother was vocally opposed to our proximity, so we were nominally assigned to separate apartments. However, at mealtimes and bedtimes, we would find our way into each other’s company. With my ability to analyze substances for foreign matter and Robert’s ability to manipulate matter, every attempt at poison was easily thwarted. As with many things fated to occur in history, we both ended up in the Tower of London as our historical counterparts in 1554.

Additionally, due to my contrition, I could legally begin making administrative acts within my territory, which I had already planned with my administrative staff and military officers before departing on the campaign, such as my education reforms and military buildup. During my incarceration, the triplets secured the series of taverns around London that I owned in secret, gathering intelligence and spreading disinformation about Mary. They also served as an advanced support team for me, relaying coded messages through trusted servants to the Tower.

Francis would leave for continental Europe following his historical counterpart example during Mary’s reign, but instead of going to Zurich, which had already been fully occupied by Papal and Imperial forces, I directed him to go to the small Kingdom of Navarre with instructions to work with retainers of the recently born Henry Bourbon, who will one day be remembered as King Henry IV of France and father of Louis XIII. He would be a prime target for the forces of Habsburg and Medici forces, due to his bloodline and historical value. In history, Elizabeth I and Henry IV were allies and friends, despite the twenty-year age gap. Though it did not last long, the Triple Alliance of 1596 between England, France, and the United Provinces of the Netherlands was the culmination of diplomatic and intelligence collaborations over decades by Elizabeth and her aides like Francis Walsingham. Ultimately, my foreign policy goal was to form that historic alliance, Henry Bourbon must become king of France. I’ve been prodding Francis for years to write about his exploits in France, but outside of unofficial reports to me and embellished fictional stories of the “Black Knight of Death”, few will know of his accomplishments.

The most important job belonged to Puck, he became an apprentice royal cook for Mary. I needed someone who could affect the food and drink of Mary. Outright poison would be too dangerous and easily detectable, especially if modern medical knowledge was available. However, slow-acting agents that affect risk factors in human bodies could produce better results. Puck’s knowledge of toxicology had a connection to human biology, so I wanted him to use his skill to increase Mary’s risk factors for ovarian cysts to form. This would prevent her from ever having children. In practice, I was merely returning Mary’s murderous plot at her, but I cannot say as someone who bore children that I don’t feel guilt for denying her. Women and Omegas understand that children represent hope and potential, Mary’s hopelessness and destructive patterns in later years were partially my fault, despite the assurance to the contrary by my partners and lovers. In a tragic twist of fate, the historical event I tried to avert would never happen in any case.

Neither Mary nor I learned that Philip of the Habsburg family did not take Mary as his wife as he did in history, instead accepting Elisabeth of Valois, daughter of Catherine de Medici, who would have been his second wife after Mary’s death. It was a political marriage and strategic masterstroke that secured the power of France, Italy, Spain, and Germany in an alliance, nearly ten years earlier. Behind this move were two men: Guillamo Medici, the current Pope, and Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor. Securing the English throne was a pittance compared to that marriage announcement. Reginald Pole, serving as Papal legate, was instructed to marry Queen Mary Tudor due to his English lineage and loyalty to Rome. Reginald Pole was both a devout Roman Catholic and a descendant of the Yorkist line of English kings from Edward IV and Richard III, so he was historically in contention for Mary’s hand in marriage even after he became a Cardinal in 1536. The idea of Catholic celibacy was less a commandment than an ideal before the 17^th century. Mary, though dismayed at the new suitor, accepted her Pope’s order faithfully and married Reginald Pole a year later, on July 25^th, 1554, when she would have wed Phillip. I was released at that point to be part of the wedding.

These historical deviations created major problems in the years to come. There were valid reasons why Reginald Pole wasn’t chosen as Mary’s original suitor in history, being a Catholic Cardinal and a male descendant from the House of York were polarizing attributes. Additionally, without the military support of a powerful foreign state like Spain, Mary had to rely on her loyalist forces. Between my surrender and these maneuvers outside her control, my position had improved.