Igelfeld Family/Von Igelfeld family Memoirs/The Wisdom of Moritz/Realm Hierarchy

"Then again there is always basic realm hierarchy to talk about."

"Yes, it is good to know where are loyalties lie."

Mortiz looked at me quizzically, "YOUR loyalties stand with the Von Igelfeld family first, and also to yourself. But in order to attain the greatness I see in your future it is important to know the direction you need to go and the ladder you need to climb."

"What if I truly want to work for the glory of the realm?"

Moritz clapped his hands, "Good! your learning already for that is exactly the kind of thing you should say. It impresses your realm mates and endears you to the king." He winked. "When I first arrived here I gave a truly lovely speech about the grandeur of Caerwyn and my wish to live up to her beauty and serve to enrich her lands. It was a remarkably crafted lie, and I highly recommend doing likewise."

My mouth hung slightly ajar, "Ah... what if I am not in it for personal glory?"

"Amazing, you are truly a clever one! saying things like that will get you far indeed." he smiled lovingly, "But enough practice, lets talk about the climb. There are two hierarchies at play in the realm; military and political, and we shall start with the military. The General is in charge of grand military coordination, he works to ensure that the armies are working together and are on the same page. Under him, managing the actual movement of troopleaders are the marshals who respond to the orders of the general and are responsible for troopleader coordination. Then the Vice-Marshals, who take control of troopleader coordination in the absence of the Marshal. Lastly, troopleaders who are under the Marshals and are responsible to follow the orders passed down this chain and see to it that the troops under them are well equipped and ready to fight."

"That seems like a lot of people to go through for orders." I replied questioningly.

"Oh, Indeed! If they do not know how to work together well they army can suffer greatly. I have experienced this firsthand being marshal." Moritz leans in and continues softly,"The general simply didn't give orders and I took full command of the legion. It was great fun until he decided to berate me for doing the job he was to lazy to do."

Looking to change the subject I asked, "you said there are two hierarchies?"

"Yes the political as well, Not to say that the military isn't political but it is just the classification I decided on. A saying I coined that rings true is: 'From the King to the nobles to the filthy peasants our foremost allegiance is to the realm. The King is the realm.' This is the ideal remember to follow it for as long as it serves you well. The King is the representative of the realm and everyone should show him allegiance. Under him are the Dukes and under them the region lords. At the bottom of the order of course are the knights of which you are one. Each noble in turn swears on oath to the noble above them and works very hard to please them. Very simple but hard to move up in because there tends to be a limited number of lordships available."

"is it easier to move up he military chain of command?"

"Oh yes! it can be quite simple actually. If you follow all orders given and reply to the marshals orders he will quickly begin to like you, next you must prove, without saying it, that the current vice-marshal is not doing his job and ask to be appointed to his position. After that you enter into the military council of the realm where you can begin to undermine your marshal by giving orders more promptly than he and trying to make him completely unnecessary. Then you can speak with the general and see if he might like you to be marshal instead of the noble you have now made seem lazy and incompetent. Lastly, and this is where it gets difficult, you have to undermine the authority of the general by questioning his orders regularly and setting him up for failure, and after he fails miserably you can speak to the king about how concerned you are about the state of the army and how you are the woman to fix it."

"cousin! that is awful, I cannot believe you would actually do such a thing. Just think of all the enemies you would make along the way. Is that your actual plan?"

Moritz shook his head, "No, in truth I am not as devious as I seem, but it is a good plan no?"