Stafford & Maxstoke Castles - the Dukedom of Buckingham

[Dirty Chai]

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STAFFORD, Staffordshire & MAXSTOKE, Warwickshire
The caput baroniae of the Duke of Buckingham's estates, these two castles lie some 35 miles apart.

Current Duke of Buckingham: Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham
Locations: Stafford Castle is located in province #8 of Staffordshire. Maxstoke Castle is located in province #10 of Warwickshire.

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Regional Bonus

Royal Forests: Staffordshire is known for being home to two large royal forests, Kinver and Cannock. Besides being quality hunting reserves that a bored sovereign could spend hours in, these forests obviously obstruct enemy advances and are difficult for even experienced scouts to navigate. -2 to enemy's scouting rolls, -1 to the controller's death rolls.

Provincial Bonuses

Stafford Castle: Round and stout, this castle was built by Ralph de Stafford, the first Earl of Stafford, and it has since served as the symbolic home of that family. +3 siege rolls, -3 raid rolls.

Maxstoke Castle: This modest fortress is one of the principal residences of the Dukes of Buckinhgam. +2 siege rolls, -2 raid rolls.

Lordships & Estates

Spoiler for Map:  Staffordshire 7. Lichfield - Average Income 8. Stafford - Average Income 9. Cannock - Average Income 10. Wednesbury - Average Income 11. Seisdon/Dudley - Average Income Warwickshire 10. Birmingham/Maxstoke - Average Income Shropshire 5. Shrewsbury/Caus - Average Income 7. Shifnal - Average Income 8. Bridgenorth - Average Income Powys 13. Brecknock/Brecon - Poor Income Monmouthshire 2. Caerleon/Newport - Prosperous Income Northamptonshire 5. Brixworth - Average Income 9. Daventry - Average Income Huntingdonshire 3. Huntingdon/Kimbolton - Average Income Kent 15. Tonbridge - Prosperous Income Lincolnshire 3. Stamford - Average Income

Yearly Coffers

Poor (red): £200 per annum
Sparse (orange): £250 per annum
Average (yellow): £300 per annum
Prosperous (light green): £350 per annum
Rich (dark green): £400 per annum

Poor: 1 x £200 = £200
Sparse: 0 x £250 = £0
Average: 13 x £300 = £3,900
Prosperous: 1 x £350 = £350
Rich: 0 x £400 = £0

Total Yearly Income (unmodified): £4,450
Modifiers to apply: +5%
Total Modified: £4,672.5

Infrastructure

n/a

Soldiers

Buckingham's Retinue, located at Stafford, Staffordshire
- 100 Yeomen Archers
- 50 Men at Arms
- 265 Mounted Archers

[Lord William]

A letter arrives addressed to the Duke of Buckingham from the Earl of Worcester

It is with great pleasure I humbly invite your Grace and family to dinner on my estate in Cambridgeshire, I hope that are found well and are able to attend the engagement.

Sincerely
William

[Lord William]

Upon receiving your recent letter I have decided to open my London manor and welcome you to dine with us

sincerely
William Mercer

[Oznerol]

Lady Catherine and her children take refuge on Stafford castle, they try to warn the duke by sending several men to seek Buckingham.

[Dirty Chai]

The Duke was present at Stafford, in fact, with the place apparently well guarded - the surrounding hamlets in the barony were hosting armed soldiers and the rectangular castle itself - a manor house, really - had archers strolling the fields around it and doing something over by the edge of the woods - cutting timber?

Harry came outside to greet his wife and children, and then led them inside - it was their home, though all of them, the Duke included, had not lived here for a time.

[Oznerol]

"Oh, Harry!"

Said Catherine, once the kids were gone. She felt good with the sturdy walls around her, in the heartlands of Staffordshire, in Stafford castle with her Stafford husband.

"This is our home, right?"

She looks close to panicking, almost desperate for comfort and affection.

[Dirty Chai]

The duke offered his hands to the duchess after a momentary hesitation, with his palms facing upward in invitation to some form of connection between the estranged couple.

"Once, it was, yes," Harry Stafford affirmed, while reserving his expressions for now, waiting to see what had her so spooked - though, he had a good guess. "It can be once again."

[Oznerol]

Catherine unexpectedly hugs Stafford.

"We have lost, Harry. My nephew was routed and captured. My brother too"

She looked worried.

"I don't know what will happen. I'm worried. Will you cast me away, Harry?"

[Dirty Chai]

Salisbury? Rivers? Captured? Harry's eyes widened a little as he began to see the story unfold and as his wife throws her arms around and under his arms, clinging to him. A surprised moment of hesitation follows before she feels his arms embrace her too, holding her to him loosely. She feared a complete downfall. Utter destruction. That even he would somehow make rid of his Woodville relations, though he was not confident that was possible even if he so desired it.

"Even if I desired to do so," he decided to tell her, trying to calm her, "you are my wife and the mother of my children. How could I cast thee away?"

[Oznerol]

"I don't kn-n-now, Ha-arry"

She muttered, behind her teeth. Catherine didn't know where to place her arms in the embrace, she doubted about placing her hands on his shoulders or hips, but she finally clasped them behind his back, slightly akwardly for two individuals married for a long time.

"You are a duke... and you will not want a disgraced woman by your side"

Catherine was teary, her hands grab his flesh. He was as stout as the castle. Plain and sturdy, but reliable.

"What if they kill them? Will they come after us later? Can't you do anything? Isn't Suffolk your friend? Gloucester? Exeter? Anyone..."

[Dirty Chai]

"I.."

Harry felt a few of her tears fall onto his shoulder as her fingers dug into his sides - which were leaner than she might remember. What if they killed them? Rivers, Salisbury. What would happen to the king's mother? They cannot harm a hair on her head.. she's the king's mother! None of this had ever occurred to him before.

"They cannot harm the king's brother or uncle," he said, unconvincingly, but definitive nonetheless.

[Oznerol]

"What of..."

She looks to a side, seemingly pensive. Then looks back at Stafford.

"Your own grandsire, Woodstock, or good, gentle duke Humphrey?"

Catherine bites her lower lip, something all Woodvilles did and that even the little Harry had done in ocasion, probably to Buckingham's frustration.

"It... it can be done"

[Dirty Chai]

Stafford had known Gloucester to be an honorable man. He had reason to think Clarence was as well. But, Stafford was also a fool who'd betrayed his wife's kin based on such poor judgements. So what did he truly know? His departure from the tower, he now knew, had been a bookend in his life - he left London with a completely impaired sense of the world around him and no longer knew how to understand it. He was finally, at long last, fully convinced that he'd been in the wrong to distance himself and estrange himself from Woodville and Grey - why had he ever done so? He stood by his statement made in tower to Catherine years ago, that he'd wished his life had gone differently - but for different reasons. There was an irony in that no matter his outlook, no matter how it changed - and it was always in transience now - his hindsight only saw a life full of regrets.

"I.."

She had him there, easily. Royal uncles rarely lived long.

"I do not know what to say, Cath," Henry expressed, defeated, powerlessly.

[Oznerol]

"Can you... sleep with me?"

Said her, unexpectedly.

"I would share your chambers tonight only if you want so, my lord"

Catherine added, humbly. She clearly needed some marital comfort. The duchess, after all, had remained without husband for months, no matter how uneffective Stafford could be as a consort for Catherine.

[Dirty Chai]

In this moment, Buckingham decided that, for whatever strange reason, God must truly love him, to give him such plucky luck with this woman's devotion. After all that had happened..

"Of course I want it so," said he, eagerly. Harry held her even more intimately now, and looked down into her heavy-lidded, sorrowful eyes. It was a comfortingly familiar face, he realized, those pudgy cheeks of hers, those motherly eyes of concern. A plain face had somehow become a loving face. Was.. it the same to him for her?

"I.." Henry stuttered, almost blurting out words he was sure he'd never said before.

"I will do what I can to protect thine family, my wife," was what came out instead, weakly.

[Oznerol]

"That gladdens my heart with sudden joy, Harry"

She places both hands on his chest and rests her head on it. She looks more calm, more composed now. Her husband was like a rock she could anchor herself in, unwavering against the waves. At least she firmly hoped and believed so, probably it was an act of self-deception, but she needed to believe her husband would protect her children and her own persona from all harm. He was a duke after all, maybe he had realized, at last.

"I will share your sheets, Harry, today. And tomorrow. And the day after and every day you wish to have me by your side"

[Dirty Chai]

He recalled a time when that had been the case, when they were just newlyweds. It was a barely recognizable set of memories that must've been a short period of time, before the war with France. For a time his temperament cooled and he became content, forgetting his worries and melancholia in a chain of days waking up beside an unexpected source of joy and affection.

The idea that it might be so again out a warmth into him as well, as if contagious. It was an embarrassing sensation, unmanning.

"Marriage is until death, is it not?" the humbled duke suggested, clumsily.

[Oznerol]

"God knows I don't fear his judgement, but I don't intend to die anytime soon"

She knew he was trying to comfort him, no matter how clumsy he was, so she let her do whatever. Catherine was trying, for the first time in a long time, to bond with her husband again. And so she remained by his side by sunset. If Buckingham had found himself at the bottom of a cell, so be it. Better than remaining a lost man, alone in a multitude, mayhaps only death fixed him.

[Dirty Chai]

Harry smiled, genuinely. When had she last seen that?

"I have a saint for a wife, I think," he voiced, before looking over his shoulder to see what retainer had come with her - what retainer he'd be interrogating for more news later after whatever was about to occur between he and his wife. "How is Harry? Anne?"

[Oznerol]

Harry smiled, genuinely. When had she last seen that?

"I have a saint for a wife, I think," he voiced, before looking over his shoulder to see what retainer had come with her - what retainer he'd be interrogating for more news later after whatever was about to occur between he and his wife. "How is Harry? Anne?"

"Both are fine and sound, husband"

Said Catherine.

"Harry is a most pleasant child, not even a tantrum. Anne is a truly sweet child, I have seen none better"