Too Young to be Called to Knighthood

Once upon a time there was a king who ruled a small island close to another large and prosperous kingdom. The island king, who wore a beard, came to power many years earlier with the help of a powerful Northern kingdom far away. He was a supporter of an ideology hated by the large and prosperous kingdom. They tried for many years to depose him, but he was stronger than they thought. He survived even after the kingdom that supported him collapsed. He tried to do good things for his people, but made many mistakes. Many of his people loved him and many hated him.

Many of those that hated him fled the island kingdom to live on a southern peninsula in the nearby prosperous kingdom. They became citizens of the prosperous kingdom and the politicians wanted their support. Consequently the prosperous kingdom did everything it could to fight and embarrass the bearded king on the island to the South.

One day a mother and her little boy joined some others on a boat and fled to the prosperous country to join some of their relatives. There was an accident and most of them drowned. But the little boy survived. Now his father who remained in the island kingdom wanted the little boy to come home. But some of his relatives who fled the island kingdom wanted to embarrass the bearded king and would not let him go. They enlisted the help of the politicians and all the town criers in the prosperous kingdom to help them keep the boy from returning to his father. Instead they wanted to confer knighthood on the boy.

The fight went on for months. Perhaps it will stretch on for years. A little boy, caught in the middle, is deprived of the love of his immediate family because some aunts, uncles, and cousins in the new land want to use him to fight the bearded king. It all seemed so silly yet tragic to many people in the prosperous kingdom. After all, the bearded king is very old. He will probably die in a few years. When that happens all the trouble between the island kingdom and the prosperous kingdom might end rather quickly.

However, a troubled young man grows up in the prosperous kingdom. He has learned to hate many of his fellow citizens in the island nation. He has even been taught to hate his immediate family. After the bearded king has died, he leads a rebellion against the supporters of the bearded king and a great civil war takes place in the island nation. His forces defeat the forces of the people and he sets up a new dictatorship on the island. He sets forth a policy of retribution on the supporters of the bearded king. Bloodshed is so great that the prosperous nation tries to intervene. Many of their own sons are killed trying to end this horrible civil war.

My friends, the last paragraph is pure fiction and probably will not happen. But it is the kind of thing that has happened much too often in the history of the prosperous kingdom. Maybe for once the prosperous nation could do what is right and return the little boy to his father in the island nation. The little boy may not have all the wonderful things to be found in the prosperous nation, but he will have the love of a father and two grandmothers. He will probably be taught what is right and to love instead of hate. I doubt if this family will live happily ever after, but they must be given a chance.