Orren the King, our great Emperor, has been seated beside the Three Rivers, and by those streams received a vision of the true and righteous way. He proclaims to the people of Calontir: “Providence has shown to me one who leaves nothing void or empty, but fills all things with joy and hope; it has been her duty to straighten the crooked paths and guide the people.”
Lyra, Queen and sovereign lady, has seen too the vision of truth and shares it with her people: “The world itself sings the joy of one surrounded by rich and precious gems, but who values them not and instead has shown great love of investigating the truth of the world and speaking it to her people.”
Thus have they sought and found her, Magge Magnus, down in an orchard beneath the shade, tending to the fertile lands of the Falcon and seeing that they prosper for all the people. Not resting on cool marble or tasting of the fruits of her labor, she lights from work to work like the papillon, and the whole world delights in her labor as they do to the colors of her favorite creature.
For her faithful service and wise counsel do they proclaim this valiant and virtuous woman a Duchess of the realm, strawberry decorated and gold gilded. Graceful and gracious, to her comital lands they add fields and orchards upon which the butterfly lands, the alpaca grazes, and the falcon soars above; and the taxation from such lands as she has been granted up to an additional income of one thousand five hundred florins or ducats per year, to keep her and her household as befits one such as she.
To all this they set their seals and signs manual in the sight of the people on the 8th day of February, Anno Societatis LIX, to the rejoicing of all servants of the Falcon.
Orren Lyra
Rex Regina
(Text based on Christine de Pizan’s ‘Book of the City of Ladies’, and the Song of Roland as translated by Jessie Crosland. The opening lines are taken directly from the opening of Roland, while the proclamations are adapted from Pizan. The line about crooked paths straight draws on Isaiah 45:2 “I will go before you and make the crooked places straight.”
Butterflies are referenced due to Her Grace’s love for them. The fields and orchards are a reference to the farm they own in Missouri, which also explains the reference to Alpacas.
One thousand five hundred ducats or florins per year would be 10,000 pounds sterling per year; this is based on the income for Earls in the year 1300 running between 400-11000 pounds per year. https://medieval.ucdavis.edu/120D/Money.html. This would put Her Grace on the lower end for Dukes and Duchesses, given the presumed increase in revenues from Earldoms to Dukedoms mirroring that of Baronies to Earldoms; but as this is in addition to her presumed other lands, it would not be historically inappropriate).