scholarship of erenth: A List of the Cities and Provinces of Westrun by Kingdom

A List of the Cities and Provinces of Westrun by Kingdom

There are two basic political subdivisions in Westrun. The first is the Province and the second is the City. Both of them pay tribute to their monarch.

The Provinces vary in size and composition, but all are ruled a lord who is vested in it and responsible for it to the King. The lord may be a minor noble as a baron, a middling noble as a count or a greater noble as a Duke. Sometimes a lord who holds a province on the border of another Realm is considered a Margrave. If the lord of a province is a King in his own right, he is considered a Prince of any other province over which his royal prerogative does not extend. The lord of a province is considered the highest authority there. They have the unlimited chartered power to lay and collect taxes from their residents, to license marriages and other enterprises, as well as to keep the peace on their lands. They also enjoy the right to a trial before their peers and cannot be divested from their land except for cause and then only by trial.

Freeborn men and those who have been liberated from the role of serfs or slaves often find themselves settling around the open-air markets that rise at crossroads and near common river fords. With the permission of a lord they may settle a town on his land which still falls under the jurisdiction of his Reeve and must draw up a contract to pay him taxes and/or rent.

Once a town is in place and has grown to the size of 1000 free men (usually 3-5000 people), they can petition their monarch to fortify the town with a wall. Upon entertaining the petition, the king holds a hearing at which the populace and their lord have the right to be heard. If the hearing finds for the populace, the town contract is replaced by a royal charter. The town then becomes a city, independent of the rule of the lord whose land it was. The city then pays a tribute to the King as any province might. The city also gains the right to enforce its own laws, tax its own citizens, and elect its own mayor. Anyone born in a city is considered a free man, regardless of his parent's social class or condition of servitude. City air makes men free!

The Kingdom of Balduren