Petrus I

Petrus I (Petrus John Jacobi; born 12 January 1562) was the second King of Faramount, reigning over the nation from his father's death in 1580 until his death in 1630. Highly intelligent and well-educated, he spoke four languages, and authored several philosophical works. He faced consistent challenges during his rule, and is recognized historically for his political prowess. During his fifty year reign, he established the foundations of the modern Faramanian state including the parliament, nobility, civil bureaucracy, and link to the Levantine Union. He was first Faramanian monarch to celebrate a ruby jubilee, and was in the midst of planning his diamond jubilee when he died. Petrus faced an immediate challenge to his rule when he assumed office at age eighteen, just after the death of his father, Matthaeus I. The two surviving older brothers of Matthaeus demanded to be crowned in Petrus' stead, claiming that he was too young to rule. The Terusos had considerable financial resources at their disposal, and used this money to buy the loyalty of the mercenaries that by that point comprised the Royal Guard, upon which Matthaeus had relied for administration, law enforcement, and security. Petrus thus in reality faced a triple threat: his brothers' claim to throne, his military's lack of loyalty, and his own lack of an effective bureaucracy. Furthermore, given the immediacy of the former threat, had to move quickly to preserve his power.

The new king successfully addressed all three threats by creating in Faramount a unique nobility empowered not as landowners but as executives serving the king. He named his uncles as dukes, putting them in charge of administrating large swathes of the kingdom, and authorized them to appoint lesser nobles to assist. He granted to each noble a small estate, and more importantly, a salary and broad authority. By 1588, Petrus had successfully created a powerful bureaucracy, and effectively bought the support of his uncles, along with the most influential Royal Guardsmen. The kings of Faramount would rely upon nobles to execute their edicts for the next two centuries, until the creation of the civil service.

Petrus simultaneously faced a new exterior threat as many of the nobles of the Holy Levantine Empire had ambitions to reconquer his territory, especially given his effective lack of a standing army. The king sought to head off this threat by directly approaching the Holy Levantine Emperor, asking how he could obtain a guarantee of independence. Following some negotiation, the emperor agreed to once again recognize Faramount's independence, provided that Petrus made a number of economic concessions to the empire. Ultimately, in 1592, in return for the emperor's support, Petrus accepted a free trade agreement and an open border agreement with the Empire, and also agreed to use the Imperial Dollar as Faramount's currency.

Yet signing this agreement forced Petrus to seek a new revenue stream as tariffs on imports from the HLE had previously sustained his regime. He saw only one option: levying a property tax, something that Matthaeus had avoided doing out of fear of prompting a revolt from Faramount's large population of mostly independent landowners. Petrus headed off a potential rebellion by issuing an edict holding that the right to property would not be abridged in any manner, including via taxation, without first convening a parliament comprised of elected representatives of Faramount's landowners. The first such parliament in 1701 approved of a new land tax, giving Petrus the ability to maintain the existing state, and furthermore to establish as standing army.

Petrus spent the remainder of his rule organizing the new government he had created, and establishing proper diplomatic relations with his humerous neighbors. Petrus married in 1584, and had six children. He designated his eldest son, Marcus I, as his successor, passing over two daughters, and thus established the rule that only men could serve as Faramount's monarch. Faramount would only set aside that policy in 1992, when it adopted its constitution. Petrus died suddenly of a stroke in 1630 at age sixty-eight.