Political Fight

Elizabeth I was Mark VI's eldest child. 

She wasn't deemed a candidate for the throne only because she was born a girl. 

In other terms, she was highly qualified, with a sharp mind and strong personality.

Under the usual rule, she had no chance. 

However, Mark VI changed the law by passing a decree. 

The House of Blue Bloods can overrule the king's decrees on some issues, including inheritance laws, diminishing nobles' power, granting special favors, or promoting nobles. 

However, it would take time. 

It would take at least a few days for them to gather in the house and vote for it. In the meantime, the order would technically go into effect.

Moreover, nobles wanted to use this opportunity to weaken Mark VI, so they didn't call the house back into session to overrule the order. 

They never expected a young King, Mark VI, to abdicate the throne. 

But now, it's too late to regret anything. 

Kings are holy! 

Nothing can remove them from power, not even being a woman! 

Elizabeth I has inherited the throne according to rules, fair and square. As for whether the House of Blue Bloods would have, in a theoretical reality, voted to overrule Alex VI's decision, it is irrelevant! 

As a matter of objective fact, Elizabeth I became their king. 

They were left with no choice but to accept this extremely hard-to-swallow fact.

They displayed their contempt in their first act after opening the House of Blue Bloods session. 

Their first act was voting nearly unanimously to pass resolution 77d-885-66-10 to repeal Alex VI's decree, 77d-885-66-9, regarding including girls in the line of succession. 

The only holdouts were a few other women who inherited their titles in the days when the order was active. 

Repealing that decree didn't change anything about Elizabeth I. She had already become the king, and nothing could change it. 

But they still did it to 'prevent future harm.'

With the decree now repealed, the previous controlling decree regarding the line of succession that excluded women became active again.

Their second act was inaugurating Elizabeth I. 

Even if they hate her, they must go through the process. 

Respect for the nobility and the king was ingrained in the Blue Blood Kingdom; even if they despise their king, they will respect her. 

Otherwise, the country wouldn't have lasted as long as it did. 

Elizabeth I came into the House of Blue Bloods, and everyone bowed to her as they must to their king. 

They sat down respectfully and listened to her speech. 

"I know you dislike me, but let us all work together, taking our world even higher than it is," she tried to speak vaguely and optimistically. 

Nobles all nodded and clapped. But it was all a show. 

They showed respect on the surface but had no respect in their hearts. It became evident very quickly. 

Elizabeth I nominated a commoner as the prime minister, and the House of Blue Bloods rejected him. 

The conditions for appointing the prime minister are very favorable to the king. 

As long as less than 60% of the house votes against the nominee, the nominee will be presumed approved. 

It will leave open the room for abstentions for those who don't want to take any side. For example, a prime minister will be confirmed with a vote of 10% Ays, 31% abstentions, and 59% Nays. 

But when it comes to votes regarding the nominees of Elizabeth I, the vote was 1% Ays, 10% abstentions, and 89% Nays. 

As a result, her nominees to all of the ministerial positions, and even some lower positions, failed.

The government went on without ministers for months. 

It was good for nobles, as without ministers, they would wield more power, although not by much. 

As it was before, nobles in their lands were sovereign, for the ministers were mainly responsible for the 20% royal land. 

They still, however, did have power regarding nobles in some cases, hence the House of Blue Bloods' power over their appointment.

Elizabeth I became resentful of the nobles. 

They only opposed her because she was a woman, something she couldn't change. As a result, she decided to retaliate.

She was no pushover.

His father didn't choose her only because he wanted a woman to be the king; he believed in her ability to fight even in this hostile environment.

She had the opportunity to retaliate. 

In the last days of her father's reign, nearly everyone resigned. It was a crisis then, but now, it's an opportunity for payback.

After she became the king, all of those who resigned requested to take back their resignation letters. 

Elizabeth I had been putting off those for a few months, but now that the nobles were playing hardball, she also decided to play their game. 

She accepted all those resignation letters and decided to appoint women to every single vacancy. 

It was not that she thought only women were qualified. 

It was a payback that goes like this: "You can tolerate me as a woman? Then let's see how you take it if you see women officials in all directions!"

Most powerful nobles were usually around the capital; the king had direct authority over the capital. 

This means the nobles really began to see women appointed to all critical positions within the city. 

Only positions with power over nobles' land must be confirmed by the House of Blue Bloods, so city-level positions can be directly appointed without anyone confirming them.

The nobles were disgusted, with many treating the newly appointed women poorly, but they couldn't do anything.

However, they didn't dare to ignore their authority, as that might give Elizabeth I an excuse to arrest them.

The Nobels' response was to look the other way, pretend nothing had happened, and disrespect them whenever they encountered them by chance.

Initially, Elizabeth I didn't want to go this far. 

She was well educated by her father and believed in absolute meritocracy. 

But she was very resentful of the nobles because of how they treated her, so she had no choice but to fight back.

Her next act was appointing duke positions. 

The king has the sole authority to appoint dukes, with no say from the House of Blue Bloods. 

Elizabeth I fired all dukes and appointed women from the Johnson family to the positions. 

Her appointments were designed to cause disruptions. 

She usually removed the husband and appointed the wife or removed a brother and appointed a sister. 

It infuriated the Johnson family, but they couldn't do anything. The king was inviolable, and other nobles and even the royal family were powerless. 

They could only watch as 19 of their male duke friends walked out, and 19 women came in to take their seats.

The next matter was appointing barons. 

Elizabeth I began appointing commoner women to the new baron positions that came up. 

However, the House of Blue Bloods had the authority to intervene in this matter. 

They quickly acted and passed Resolution 77d-885-69-64, overruling the previous decree, 77d-885-66-11 that reduced baron terms to 2 generations. 

With that decree repealed, the barons went back to having 9 generations. 

The vote was 62% for, 10% abstentions, and 28% against, with most of that 28% coming from dukes appointed by Elizabeth I. 

Voting rights in the House of Blue Bloods weren't equal and depended on many factors, such as the number of cities under control, the army, and population, so those 19 dukes had lots of voting power.

The law of Blue Bloods works in mysterious ways. 

Technically speaking, nothing will ever be truly repealed. 

For example, if the House of Blue Bloods changes its mind, it could repeal Resolution 77d-885-65-64. In that case, that means decree 77d-885-66-11 would come back into effect again. 

Because of this anomaly, record-keeping is paramount in the Blue Bloods kingdom. They have records of resolutions passed tens of thousands of years ago, all preserved in appropriate conditions. 

This also makes everything very complicated for lawyers. Repealing one resolution could disrupt the legal system in many places. 

As a result, some resolutions that are the root of the kingdom's laws are considered fundamental resolutions. 

Those would practically never be repealed, as repealing them would, in effect, invalidate many other later resolutions based on them.

There are two ways to repeal resolutions and decrees: one is a resolution of the majority of the House of Blue Bloods, and the other is a decree from the king. 

The king could unilaterally repeal resolutions and decrees, but in practical reality, any repealing must have the agreement of the House of Blue Bloods. 

Because the House of Blue Bloods has the power to overrule the king's decrees related to the mentioned areas, if they disagree on any decree repealing a previous resolution or decree, they could repeal the decree that repealed the previous decree or resolution and, in effect, restore the previous law. 

Still, convening every time to overrule the king's decrees could be very troublesome. 

But for Elizabeth I now, the nobles' trouble was pleasing to see. 

So, she started finding resolutions she disagreed with and repealed them. 

For her, it was easy, with a pen stroke, but for the House of Blue Bloods, it wasn't easy, with every overruling taking ten days.

The king is very powerful in the Blue Bloods kingdom. 

Not all kings were like Elizabeth I, who had very little support in the House of Blue Bloods. 

If a king has at least 40% there, they could do most of what they want without much trouble. 

That's because, with a 40% solid vote for the king, they could delay any repeal by months using various means. Without 40% support, however, it would take 10 days; that is the worst-case scenario. 

Elizabeth I now has a 20% solid vote, so her decrees were all overruled around 10 days after she signed them. 

But nothing prohibited her from signing another decree repealing the same resolution again. It was a massive trouble for the nobles.

To be honest, this exposed a flaw in the system. 

What Elizabeth I is doing now clearly shows that allowing the king to make as many decrees as they wanted with a pen stroke and then asking the House of Blue Bloods to repeal it using ten days of hard work could be misused. 

Nobody ever thought the king would use this loophole, but Elizabeth I herself was someone nobody thought could ever become king either.

But there was no way to repeal it. 

Powers of the king have been granted to her by the first resolution, 1a-1-1-1. 

That is the document that is behind all the laws of the kingdom. 

In that document, it was noted that for the House of Blue Bloods to repeal resolutions and decrees, they must do the whole document. 

The House couldn't just pick and choose which parts to repeal. 

To weaken Elizabeth I's powers, they must repeal resolution 1a-1-1-1, all of it. 

But doing that would void nearly all laws in the kingdom. 

Rarely does one find a decree or resolution that hasn't referenced 1a-1-1-1. 

With 1a-1-1-1 gone, all those references become void, and many laws become invalid in the process. It would be chaos.

This situation stress-tested the whole system of the Blue Blood kingdom. 

Nobles could have been enraged so much that they repealed 1a-1-1-1. 

But they didn't. 

They decided it wasn't worth doing it, as it had the potential for great chaos that could have threatened the kingdom's existence.

As a result, they had no choice but to sit at a table and negotiate with Elizabeth I. 

Elizabeth I felt refreshed when she saw them coming to talk. 

Finally, they stopped trying to ignore her. 

Her first condition to start any negotiation was for them to accept women being included in the line of succession. 

To her surprise, the nobles accepted readily. 

The genie is already out of the box, with women being mayors and governors; it's impossible to return to when it was unacceptable. 

Now, only a few months after Elizabeth I became king, public opinion is turning to accepting her. 

Especially commoners who have enjoyed her generosity in opening the royal treasury and funding their children's education. 

Nobles usually ignore the commoners, but they couldn't be too far away from general public opinion. 

The negotiations were successful, with both sides making concessions. 

The nobles agreed to all gender equality demands, and Elizabeth agreed not to repeal any decree or resolution without prior approval.