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THE REGENCY<br />
It is incredible that the young Prince is still alive. The<br />
Council of Regents is planning to supplant him, but I think<br />
the Regents are divided as much against themselves as<br />
they are united in their most basic aims. I’// wager that<br />
Alexander will live only so long as he is useful Then we<br />
shall have a tragic death and a new ruler. Pray God the<br />
Federation survives it all!<br />
—Jose Estevez, Duke of New Andalusia, from a letter<br />
written three weeks before his arrest for treason, 2518<br />
Prince Alexander’s aunts, Laura <strong>Davion</strong> and Cassandra<br />
Varnay, were the heads of the Council of Regents, which would<br />
rule while Alexander was still too young to handle the affairs of<br />
his realm. Under the Act of Succession passed during the Ellen<br />
<strong>Davion</strong> era, the two aunts were each permitted to choose another<br />
Regent, with the High Council appointing a fifth member.<br />
Cassandra Varnay selected her husband, David, while Laura<br />
<strong>Davion</strong> chose the well-respected General Nikolai Rostov, a powerful<br />
military leader. After a lengthy debate, the High Council<br />
appointed Carmen Estevez <strong>Davion</strong>, William’s widow, as the fifth<br />
member. Though only 43, the Dowager Princess of <strong>Davion</strong> was<br />
an invalid, crippled by strokes suffered in the wake of the sudden<br />
deaths of husband, son, and daughter-in-law. Her membership<br />
on the Council was largely honorary. Some loyalists sought<br />
to use her to offset the overweening ambition of the two <strong>Davion</strong><br />
aunts, but she was never able to muster the energy or the support<br />
needed to resist her treacherous daughters.<br />
On the day of the funeral ceremonies for Prince William, the<br />
backroom struggle for power had already begun among the Council<br />
of Regents. David Varnay, supported by Cassandra, put forward<br />
a motion betrothing the five-year-old Prince to David’s sevenyear-old<br />
niece, Cynthia. He also sought to have Cynthia named<br />
as Heir-Apparent in case of Prince William’s death. He claimed<br />
that this would preventeit her <strong>Davion</strong> Regent from plotting her<br />
own advancement at the Prince’s expense. The latter motion was<br />
voted down, but General Rostov had backed the betrothal motion<br />
against Laura’s protests. As it turned out, his was the surer<br />
instinct. As long as the Varnays were hoping for a union with the<br />
Prince, their tactics would be less brutal. This bought time for<br />
Laura and the General, who lacked the power base that the<br />
Varnays enjoyed because of their holdings on New Syrtis.<br />
During the Regency years, the Regents openly exercised<br />
power in pursuit of personal goals. The High Council’s hopes for<br />
moderation were dashed when the Dowager Princess retired into<br />
seclusion on New Andalusia, granting complete control of her<br />
vote to Laura <strong>Davion</strong>. From that point on, Rostov was the real<br />
key to the Regency, as he held the deciding vote in any dispute.<br />
When he and Laura voted together to make her Prince of the<br />
Draconis March in place of the childless Prince Vladimir Kerensky,<br />
Laura got the power base she needed to offset the Varnay Princedom<br />
in the Capellan March.<br />
Surprisingly, the Varnays themselves proposed Rostov as<br />
Prince of the Terran March in 251 5, after Prince Charles Leightan<br />
and his immediate family died during a Terran raid on Robinson.<br />
Laura could not oppose the move for fear of alienating Rostov.<br />
She could never fully trust him again, however, for he was now<br />
as much in debt to her rivals as he was to her. Moreover, ongoing<br />
problems on the Terran frontier kept the new Prince busy<br />
leading military forces instead of involved in politics on New<br />
Avalon.<br />
By 2517, the lines were well drawn. The Prince of<br />
the Outer March, junior of the five Princes, found it expedient<br />
to steer a neutral course. He could never completely<br />
ignore the wishes of the Varnays, however, for they controlled<br />
many trading partners and key merchant routes<br />
into his territory. Meanwhile, Laura <strong>Davion</strong> was growing<br />
increasingly isolated as Rostov began to play an increasingly<br />
independent game. The last bid for sanity came from the<br />
High Council, who once again sought to use the Dowager Princess<br />
as a focal point. The effort come much too late, for she died<br />
in 2518.<br />
Almost immediately, Varnay’s ubiquitous secret service<br />
agents began to report evidence of a plot to overthrow the Regents,<br />
presumably led by the most prominent of the High Council<br />
moderates. First to be accused was Jos6 Estevez, the late<br />
Dowager Princess’s cousin and the most charismatic of the moderate<br />
leaders. It did not take long for the cries of treason to become<br />
widespread throughout the government.<br />
The Treason Trials of 2518-2520 purged the High Council of<br />
most moderates and a large proportion of the Lauraists as well,<br />
though the Varnays were careful to avoid persecuting anyone<br />
who might have connections with Rostov. With the General’s<br />
power growing steadily, the two Varnays were reluctant to make<br />
him an enemy without first trying to secure him as a friend.<br />
VARNAY VS DAVION<br />
Aside from bloodshed and political terror, the Treason Trials<br />
left another legacy. With the Dowager Princess dead, there were<br />
now only four Regents, with equal votes in the management of<br />
the Federated Suns. The High Council had the right to name a<br />
replacement for Princess Carmen, but Varnay’s political influence<br />
and Rostov’s military strength kept fainthearted Councilors<br />
from exercising their prerogative. Rather than offend one side or<br />
the other, the Council refused to name a new Regent, leaving<br />
the four survivors in contention.<br />
Winning Rostov’s permanent support was the Varnays’ best<br />
hope of defeating Laura’s faction. Laura also courted the bluff<br />
soldier’s support. Meanwhile, she stubbornly maintained that her<br />
power to act in Princess Carmen’s name had been an outright<br />
transfer of Regency authority and not, as most claimed, a simple<br />
delegation of voting power that lapsed with the Princess’s death.<br />
Once again, the High Council was reluctant to take a stand until<br />
a winner emerged in this struggle for control of the state. This, in<br />
turn, only served to magnify Rostov’s importance.<br />
Rostov’s power rested, not on the weak reed of politics, but<br />
on the solid foundation of his popularity with the army. In a series<br />
of campaigns on the Terran frontier, Rostov had stopped Terra’s<br />
military forces cold, thanks more to brilliant strategy than to<br />
highquality troops or equipment. In the event of open civil war,<br />
Rostov’s reputation as a military leader would surely attract the<br />
widespread support of soldiers throughout the realm. David<br />
Varnay’s ill-managed effort to earn equal fame on the Capellan<br />
border in 2521 only underlined Rostov’s skill and influence.<br />
In that same year, Laura won Rostov back into her camp<br />
when she proposed that he be named First Marshal of the Federated<br />
Suns, an extraordinary military command that would supersede<br />
all other military posts in all five Principalities. Because<br />
the vote on Rostov’s command came up while David Varnay was<br />
still away on the Capellan front, it was Cassandra who decided,<br />
on her own, to vote against Rostov. This act of bad judgement<br />
jeopardized everything for which she and her husband had worked<br />
up until now. Her vote not only failed to block Rostov’s appointment,<br />
but also created ill will.
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