Abscapit Respublic of Quesailles

The Abscapit Respublic of Quesailles (Savamese: République abscapite quesaillaise) was a noble respublican government which was formed in 1328 following the Baths Riots in Quesailles and remained a sovereign realm until it became subordinate to Auguste de Flessandre in 1412 after the Three Forests War. It was the largest, and the most famous a posteriori, of the abscapit respublics, a form of respublican government which existed in Savam in the 14^th and 15^th centuries which was characterised by a "vacant throne" in which nobody officially held executive power; such a respublic was described as abscapitis, "headless". In practice, representatives of the parliament yielded executive power in the name of the parliament and the "missing monarch". Abscapit respublics somewhat prefigured the modern trend of increased fusion of power in favour of the parliament which started in the Sabamic world during the 18^th century.

Respublic of Quesailles Respublique quesailloise
1328–1412
The Respublic of Quesailles shown (in green) relative to the other major Savamese realms in 1400 CE
Capital	Quesailles
Common languages	Old Savamese
Religion	Cairony (Post-Imperial)
Government	Republic
Chancellor
• 1362-1381	Dominique du Felbois
Legislature	Quesailles Consilium
History
• Baths Riots	1328
• Integration into Flessandre-Anciens domain	1412
Succeeded by Dordanie

At its peak during the late 14^th century, the respublic controlled most of western Dordanie along the river Gaste; between 1362 and 1381 it was under the leadership of Dominique du Felbois, viscount of Felbois-Laherse, a well-known figure of Savamese medieval history. The respublic remained the last major state in the Savamese realms to have its economy based on slavery and to resist feudalisation in the late post-Secote period.

History

Establishment

Following the collapse of the Montalbian Empire at the peak of the Great Plague in 1316, most of Lower and Middle Gaste, the former imperial core, were placed under the fragile authority of a remnant of the Montalban dynasty. Paul de Montalban liked to style himself Prince of the Savamese in reference to his illustrious lineage, but he controlled only the region extending from Quesailles to Sévinne and had to contend with the powerful Consiliums of both cities, which represented the urban elites.

The two parliaments had enjoyed a considerable degree of power during the imperial period, notably after Alban Augustus used them to assess his imperial legitimacy. More importantly, the region of Middle Gaste had largely resisted the Secote-led manoralisation; as a result, its economy was still largely based on the use of slave labour on farms and other production sites such as mines, sawmills and various forms of manufacturing. Compared to other states, such as Quènie or the Sablons, where feudalism had spread further, the urban slave-owners in Quesailles, forming another branch of the nobility, were in a better position to resist attempts by Paul to centralise power in his hands or dilute urban influence through manoralism and feudalism.

In the late 1320s, as the plague had petered out and the region's economy was recovering, tensions grew quickly between the prince and the parliament of Quesailles. Paul and his supporters in the higher feudal rural nobility wanted to increase their control over the administration, especially so that they could benefit from increasing tax revenues as trade resumed; they were also seeking to increase their estates in order to counterbalance the economic power of the parliamentarians. Members of the parliament, from the lower landed or urban slave-owning nobility, rejected these attempts and regularly accused Paul and his supporters of corruption and nepotism, notably through an unfair use of the farm system.

After a ruinous expedition against the Prince of Quènie during the summer of 1328, Paul tried to create a new tax on oil so he could pay the large mercenary knights' host which he had in his employment. The parliament rejected the impost, as many of its members were involved in the production and export of vegetable and animal oils (produced from rapeseed/turnip or animal fats). Angered, and fearing a negative reaction from his mercenaries stationed outside the city's walls, Paul and his men seized the municipal magisterial treasury on 7 Sation and paid a part of the mercenaries' pay with it. Following the event, the parliament held a troubled session as a mob started to form outside its doors. By the late afternoon of the 8^th, a large mob of lesser nobles and burghers had assembled on the Forum and started to attack on sight any known supporter of Paul. Rumour spread that the Prince was at the Old Baths, trying to escape a particularly hot afternoon that day. The crowd stormed the baths and proceeded to wreck them, killing Paul, some of his supporters and many innocent bystanders in the process. The event became known as the Baths Riots.

Following the riots and with Paul dead, the parliament assumed full control over the administration. Paul's heirs were taken hostage and forced to sign an abdication of their properties in exchange for protection against the mob. Chancellor Félix de la Tour-Blué declared that the "parliament will convene later to find a suitable dux (leader) for the city, and it will take as long as it judges necessary to elect an appropriately fair and honest candidate". In effect, the parliament would never elect a new Prince, creating a de facto parliamentary respublic at the core of the Savamese Realms.

A major player

Initially, the respublic controlled only estates in central Gaste, notably those that had been directly administrated from Quesailles during the Montalbian Empire. It started to grow as some smaller independent states asked to become its protectorates. Indeed, many sovereign lower nobles (who were relatively common in the immediate decades following the Empire's collapse) saw benefit in a government that was controlled by members of their class instead of the usual aristocracy. It vindicated its existence during the brief Quènian raid in the spring of 1329, when Prince Justinian tried to exploit a perceived weakness in Quesailles to put Lower Gaste under his control. The respublic was able to raise many knights to its support and repelled the Prince's invasion.

The respublic's influence grew quickly during the 1330s and 1340s, as many smaller states joined it to avoid being placed under the authority of the quickly growing Arganite States. By 1350, Quesailles had became the principal counterweight to the influence of the conservative Argan, and especially so after the city of Poignes, the birthplace of Orange Revivalism, allied with the respublic in 1348. The parliament and the Archmatron of Quesailles supported Orangism and, hence, the de facto schism that was growing within the Old Savamese Argan.

With or without a parliamentary government (or a slavery-based economy), a state centred around Quesailles would have been a major player in the realms, as it had major economic resources with its well-developed agricultural countryside and urban craftsmanship, and enjoyed a strategic position along northern Messenian trade routes. However, historians have argued that the climate created by the parliamentary government was favourable to a form of entrepreneurship by the lower nobility and burghers, which further enhanced the region's economic power. This helped the continued existence of slavery in Quesailles while it was rapidly declining in other parts of the realms, and also fed into an early form of capitalism (which would have a lasting influence later with early industrialisation during the Golden Century). It was during the respublican period that Quesailles surpassed Sévinne as western Dordanie's first city.

In the late 1350s, antagonism between Quesailles and the Arganite States rose to new heights as both states battled for influence over the region of Adaque (roughly the area located between Maconfle and Taurive in western Middle Gaste). After a number of local limited conflicts with the Archmatron of Bar (who was subject to the Holy Mother in Etamps-La-Sainte), all-out war broke in 1360. The respublic was defeated during the Adaquian War and lost most of its influence in the region, even losing control of Taurive. The political crisis that followed the defeat saw the emergence of a new figure: Dominique du Felbois, viscount of Felbois-Laherse. A member of the parliament since 1349, Felbois was elected chancellor in late 1362. A charismatic leader, Felbois would lead the respublic to its apogee in the 1370s.

Under Felbois' leadership, the parliament re-instated a standing army in the Montalbian fashion; this was instrumental in securing the respublic's victory in the Second Adaquian War, at the conclusion of which it retook Taurive and extended its estates in Adaque. However, the chancellor did not engage in unreflective militarism: in 1372 the respublic signed the Fair Charter at Castel-la-Neuve, which stipulated its borders with the Arganite States and declared "everlasting peace". Liberated from the costs of war, the respublic spread its economic and political influence over its neighbours, benefiting from the imperial prestige associated with the parliaments of Quesailles and Taurive. It bankrolled several important realms, including the Princedom of the Sablons and even the Arganite states to some extent. At the height of its power, in the late 1370s, the respublic had effectively brought under its wing all of Lower and Middle Gaste, Occois, the Verbian Country (up to Outre Garde in modern Ceresora) and a significant part of Lower Védomagne (in essence, modern Dordanie).

Felbois also created the cens, a poll tax that fixed a threshold for obtaining suffrage in the parliament. The cens applied only to non-nobles, as the nobility were allowed to vote and take parliamentary positions by default, but, for the first time since the end of the Third Sabamani Empire, some commoners were allowed to take part in the upper levels of government. Under the initial cens definition, only a small group of wealthy burghers gained the right to vote. They would have to wait until 1521 to gain the actual right to seat in parliament. For the next few centuries Quesailles and its direct vassals remained almost the only ones to apply such a system. It would not be until the 19^th century that the voting franchise started to be broadened to non-nobles in the rest of the realms.

Decline

The respublic started to decline following the death of Felbois in 1381. To secure his power, Felbois had essentially inhibited the emergence of other leaders; he also lacked a clear successor. Three chancellors passed in rapid succession before Flavien de Palestel could secure the position in 1383. Although the respublic was still considerably wealthy, a part of its influence in Dordanie had relied on Felbois' clout; with the Chancellor gone, many smaller sovereigns became less inclined toward Quesailles; the leadership crisis had also diminished its political capital.

The respublic continued to be a significant, albeit diminishing, player in the realms until the Three Forests War. In 1405, the respublic was stuck between two ambitious states: to the north-west Quènie under Prince Gallois de Montalban-Dessor and to the east, the new rising star, the unified Sablons-Benovia under Prince Auguste de Flessandre. During the spring of 1406, Prince Gallois launched an invasion of the respublic's territories, with the goal of getting a solid hold on Lower Gaste. The war became known as the "three forests" war because of the pretext used by Gallois to declare war on the respublic, which involved three small forests located near Jagues-Salins, over which there was a dispute over ownership and hunting rights.

Although it managed to resist the Quènians assaults for a time, Quesailles started to lose ground, and came close to defeat when Prince Gallois reached Quesailles itself and started to besiege the city in Ediface 1409. As Gallois' bombards were tearing down the city's walls, nobleman and parliamentarian Lucien L'Houstalet secured the assistance of Auguste de Flessandre during a diplomatic mission in Belny. Auguste and his host moved into Lower Gaste by the next spring, but it was too late: Quesailles surrendered on the morning of 17 Conservene 1409. However, the respublic continued to fight from Sévinne, as many members of Quesailles' parliament had escaped by boat on the Gaste before the city fell. The intervention of Auguste turned the tides, especially after the Battle of Châtelus-Malvaleix, where Prince Gallois lost his right eye. At the war's end, the respublic was forced to acknowledge Auguste de Flessandre's terms for his assistance against the Quènians and lost its sovereignty, becoming subordinate to the prince's domain; Auguste was elected Prince of the Gaste by the parliament on 21 Dominy 1412.

Epilogue

Although it ceased to be a sovereign state after 1412, the respublic continued to exist de facto as a strongly autonomous local administration of the Flessandres' western estates. It retained its local particularism, notably slavery, for a time. Over the course of the 15^th century the Flessandres would slowly make Quesailles and the Middle Gaste the centre of their realm, owing to the region economic and symbolic weight; most of the respublic became part of the Flessandre demesne.

The integration into the Flessandre realm would eventually mean the terminal demise of slavery, which was replaced by a proto-capitalist system with corporations of urban-based (noble and non-noble) owners employing paid free workers on their rural properties and in urban manufactures. Manoralism and feudalism also spread to the region, but in a limited fashion, as the Flessandre monarchs were keen to hold those rich estates directly; indeed, tax revenues from the Quesailles region represented up to a third of the Flessandres' annual revenue by the end of the century.

Although the Flessandres increased their control over Quesailles, making the city their capital also had some contrary effects. The city's parliament started to increase its influence over the other Flessandre possessions, taking the legislative role of the ancient imperial parliaments; the monarchs agreed with this process, both for ideological and political (as a way to soothe urban elites everywhere) reasons and encouraged it. It was little surprise, then, that Quesailles became the capital of the Kingdom of Dordanie at its foundation in 1461, and that Quesailles' parliament became the new state legislature.