Carta Solis Simplified

[Kyrendis Varen]

Understanding that most people will neither need or want to read the full text of the Carta Solis, back when it was originally posted I made a translation of it into ordinary language. This is a direct copy of that translation.

Since the Carta Solis was written in the proper legal language from 800 years ago, it has come to my attention that not a few people may have no idea what it actually says.

So, here's a translation of our prime legal document, the Carta Solis, into modern, understandable English.

Manus, by the grace of God, King of Hyperion, Duke of Wessex and Count of Elba, to his bishops, dukes, barons, foresters, sheriffs, stewards, yeomen, servants, and to all his officials and loyal subjects, greeting.


Know that before the Holy Sun, for the health of our soul and those of our ancestors and heirs, to the honour of the Gods, the exaltation of the holy Church, and the improvement and better ordering of our new kingdom over others of the Riadan race which have come before, at the advice of our reverend fathers Siverous, bishop of Aquileia, Theodoric, bishop of Wessex, Valens, bishop of Kirdain, Baenor, bishop of Victum, Tar, vicar of Argos, Brother Sully, master of the Knights of Auros in Kirdain, and of the lords Brandoreus, Doge of Aquileia, Thor, Duke of Kirdain, Surly, Baron of Urth, Aeneas Miles, constable of Wessex, Alphacod, general of Kirdain, Max the Dwarf and Monte, thaegars of Urth, Requesta, prime minister of Aquileia, Constantine of Argos, Einar of Sleggjaholl, Red, lord of paupers, Nihilum of Sancta, Shamoke, master of the Temple of Thelema in Urth, Savant of Slade, Tigus, mayor of Soacio, Nira the Queen of Heralds, Thengill of Pugnus Europae, Dulath, chamberlain of Hyperion, Thirlan, treasurer of Hyperion and other loyal subjects:

Translation: Opening, basically listing the important members of Hyperion, and the people who contributed to the creation of the document.

We have granted to all free men of our realm, for us and our heirs for ever, all the liberties written out below, to have and to keep for them and their heirs, of us and our heirs:

Translation: Describes the document as a universal code that applies to all members of the nation.

On the Operation of Royal Government:

1. First, that we have granted to Auros, and by this present charter have confirmed for us and our heirs in perpetuity, that the Church under Hyperion, so long as its bishops shall follow our Crown to the exclusion of others, including that of the pontiff of Sanguine, shall be free, and shall have its rights undiminished, and its liberties unimpaired.

Translation: The Church of Auros has the right to operate in Hyperion unimpeded and without discrimination. As long as they agree that the head of the Church is the King of Hyperion, and not the head of the Church operating in the Mercian court or any other court.

That we wish this so to be observed appears from the fact that of our own free will, before the outbreak of the present dispute between us and king Robert of Mercia, we granted and confirmed by charter the freedom of the Church's ecclesiastic courts - a right reckoned to be of the greatest necessity and importance to the spiritual lords. Likewise have we granted to other divinities, and by this charter confirm the allowance of a prelature of those faiths which support good and wise rulership, always allowing one bishop only to each shire. This freedom we shall observe ourselves, and desire to be observed in good faith by our heirs in perpetuity.

Translation: The above deal with the Church was made before the Hyperion Kingdom split from the Kingdom of Mercia, and the Church itself will be allowed to have it’s own hierarchy “the freedom of the Church's ecclesiastic courts”. Ecclesiastic is just a fancy name for priest or minister. In addition, it would seem that Hyperion would support any other religions that would not interfere with the leadership or loyalty of members to Hyperion, which obviously excludes such deities as the Alfar god. Also establishes that each clan or city (I’m unsure what he’s referring to by Shire) should be allowed only one bishop.

2. Second, that we, exercising our royal prerogative, shall appoint executive officials to a Royal Cabinet, the which shall be selected from among peers, knights, and freemen of the realm of Hyperion, and which shall, together with us, constitute a body henceforth called "The Crown". The executors of the Crown shall bear the power to administrate in their assigned capacities with royal authority.

Translation: The Royal Cabinet is established in this section, and is given to power to act as the highest authority within the Hyperion Kingdom (The Crown, basically The Government.).

3. Third, that we shall address the complaints held against the inertia and lethargy of the court during the tempore regis Roberti with the establishment of a legislature to be comprised of all landholders of magnate rank who shall hold land directly of the king as well as all prelates and archprelates of the Holy Church who so recognize the line of Laureola Malregard-Dei, Manus Dei, and all legitimate heirs as possessing the mandate of Heaven. This legislature shall be termed the House of Lords and shall meet in the royal capitol. Power to sponsor, certify, and legislate any act or law shall reside in this House of Lords, and articles so ratified by this body shall have the backing and potency of the Royal Seal, congruent to any decree or edict declared by the Crown.

Translation: The House of Lords is established in this section, referring to the lack of control/progress humans in Mercia had over their government as a reason for it’s existence. The House consists of Magnates, that is, the leaders of the major clans, such as Baron Surly, Duke Thor, or Doge Brando, and specific members of the Church. The House can pass laws that effect all of Hyperion.

4. Fourth, that we shall address the impediment to the free enterprise of the merchant classes in Mercia during tempore regis Roberti by introducing the freeman and minor landholder classes with representation in a lower house of the national legislature. This house shall meet in the royal capitol and shall be termed the House of Communes. Those permitted attendance shall include two knights elected from among the general populace of every shire as well as two burgesses elected from within every township, boroughs, or clanstone. This legislature shall have the power to sponsor legislation which it may pass to the House of Lords to certify, thereupon to gain the backing of the Royal Seal and induction into the common law.

Translation: The House of Communes is established in this article. This House is made up of merchant burgesses and minor landholders. Two merchants from each clanstone-city and two knights from each Shire (duchy, barony, etc.) will be elected to this post. They can propose laws, which then go to the House of Lords to be decided on.

5. The Crown shall maintain the power to overrule any act or law passed by the Houses of Lords and Communes through the power of royal veto. Inasmuch as the house lords or the knights and burgesses of the shire should be relentless in their support of vetoed legislation and desirous of seeing it upheld, a royal veto may be overridden by a three fourths approval by the House of Lords and a three fourths approval by the House of Communes.

Translation: The Crown (that is, the Royal Cabinet) can veto any law that comes out of the former two houses. This can be overridden by 3/4ths of both houses agreeing to support the specific law. This seems to be very similar to the power of Presidential Veto in the US.

6. All legislation to be sponsored and brought to a vote in the Houses shall be submitted to a presiding officer who shall regulate the introduction of bills and acts in a measured and orderly manner. All bills brought to the house floor for approval shall have an expiring time limit imposed by the presiding officer during which all votes must be cast or else forfeited. These presiding officers shall be either the king or his Lord Chancellor in the House of Lords, or the Speaker of the House in the House of Communes.

Translation: This section establishes a “Speaker” position in both aforementioned houses, who serves as the central figure who opens and closes the meeting and voting. In the House of Lords, it’s either the king or whoever he selects as Lord Chancellor. In the House of Communes it is the Speaker of the House, who I assume is elected by the members, though it doesn’t say specifically.

On the Expansion and Definition of Feudal Law:

7. Feudal law shall exist as a standard throughout the realm of Hyperion, with variations on this standard being specified clearly in the charters, writs, and letters patent issued to new vassals, and thereafter upheld upon review by the college of heralds and law courts, such as chancery.

Translation: The basic laws of Hyperion apply to everyone. Any by-laws or amendments for specific cities/nations have to be specified in the basic “constitutions” of the other nations which will be reviewed by the College of Heralds and the courts before being allowed.

8. If any magnate holding directly of our Crown shall disappear and leave his land unmanned without a will or an approved declaration of a successor, and we shall not find a suitable successor from among the said lord's vassals, the land shall revert to the Crown in escheat at the end of seven days of the said magnate's disappearance, and we shall appoint a royal sheriff as bailiff over the said escheat. Similarly, if any knight shall vanish from his manor in the same manner, the mesne lord shall appoint a reeve or similar as bailiff over the knight's fee.

Translation: If you get run over or something and you don’t show up for a while, the government of Hyperion will give your land to either a successor chosen in your lands or, if none can be found in a week, to the government itself to do with as it sees fit.

9. If we have given the guardianship of any dispossessed or unmanned land to a sheriff, or to any person answerable to us for the revenues, and he commits destruction or damage or mismanagement through incompetency, we will exact compensation from him, and the land shall be entrusted to two worthy and prudent men of the same `fee', who shall be answerable to us for the revenues, or to the person to whom we have assigned them. If we have given or sold to anyone the guardianship of such land, and he causes destruction or damage, he shall lose the guardianship of it, and it shall be handed over to two worthy and prudent men of the same `fee', who shall be similarly answerable to us.

Translation: If they do find a successor or temporary holder, and he screws everything up or breaks stuff, they’ll take the land from him and make him pay back the loss. Then they will assign the land to two other people of the same social class. Same thing if they sell the use of the land to him. I assume this will have a bearing on deals with the government over resource and mining rights, if you don’t turn a profit or if you do terrible, they can take it back.

10. For so long as a guardian has guardianship of such land, he shall maintain the houses, clanstones, farms, ponds, mills, mines and everything else pertaining to it from the revenues of the land itself. When a new lord is raised to the fief, this guardian shall restore the whole land to him, stocked with all the necessities required to draw maximum yield from the land.

Translation: The Guardians of the land as assigned by the government are expected to take good care of it, and when asked, to turn it over to whatever new Lord is given it by the government.

11. Neither we nor our officials will seize any land or rent in payment of a debt or taxes from a feudal vassal, so long as the debtor has movable goods sufficient to discharge the debt. A debtor's sureties or witnesses in fealty shall not be distrained upon so long as the debtor himself can discharge his debt. If, for lack of means, the debtor is unable to discharge his debt or taxes, his sureties shall be answerable for it. If they so desire, they may seize by force the debtor's lands and rents until they have received satisfaction for the debt that they paid for him, unless the debtor can show that he has settled his obligations to them. If, after a period of time has passed which shall have been outlined in the feudal charter between us and the vassal, no compensation has been made and the debt has not been discharged, the Crown reserves the right to attaint and seize feudal benefices by escheat, enforcing the disseisen through force of arms, if necessary.

Translation: As long as a knight/lord has enough money or goods to pay a debt, they will not take land or personnel from that lord to pay the debt. As well, the personnel below the knight/lord will not be responsible for any of the debt themselves, it will all fall on the knight. If the knight can’t pay in goods or gold, then it is acceptable to seize land as a payment. If you don’t pay for long enough, the Crown has the right to march the army in to get it by any means necessary. Extra: Although not specified, the "sureties" in a feudal contract will be of the same social class as the fiefholder receiving the grant. If he doesn't pay, it's they who will have to pay extra to make up for it. It's like having a cosigner on an apartment lease.

12. To obtain the general consent of the realm for the assessment of a conscripted military levy or an extra monetary aid or a `scutage', which shall be a request beyond that outlined in individual fealty charters, we will cause the archbishop, bishops, abbots, dukes, counts, and greater barons to be notified individually. To those who hold lands directly of us we will cause a general summons to be issued, through the sheriffs and other officials, to come together in the House of Lords. When a summons has been issued, the business appointed for the day shall go forward in accordance with the resolution of those present, even if not all those who were summoned have appeared.

Translation: If a knight/lord wants to increase his taxes or force military service or something similar, he must make a request to the House of Lords. When the House meets on the issue, they will discuss it after the normal business and if anyone does not attend the meeting, they will vote anyway.

13. No man shall be forced to perform more service for a knight's fee, or other free holding of land, than is due from it as detailed in his letters patent, charter of creation, or fief grant.

Translation: Knights/lords cannot threaten or pressure people under them to force them to give the knight/lord more work or resources that were agreed upon when the serf/freeman started work. Nor can the knights themselves be forced to do more than they agreed upon with their liege lords.

14. It shall be commonly outlined in most feudal charters that failure to appear for prescribed feudal military duties can be settled with a payment of a monetary sum called scutage, and that this scutage shall be owed and collected in a reasonable amount for every time a vassal does not supply the sworn military aid when requested. However, no constable of any county, duchy or barony shall force any knight to pay money for castleward or muster if he be willing to perform that ward in person with the specified men in service. And if we shall have led or sent him and his men on a military expedition, he shall be quit of ward according to the amount of time during which, through us, he shall have been in military service.

Translation: Knights can pay a fee, ‘scutage’, to be exempt from military service or required assistance. At the same time, constables cannot charge knights for military to defend their cities by bringing a part of a nations army to help. This seems to be to stop constables from hiring out the army as mercenaries. Knights that perform specific missions or attacks for the Crown may be allowed to become exempt from some future war/battle/military service without having to pay the scutage. Payment can only be made in lieu of service; it cannot be forced or demanded instead of service when service is available.

15. Lands taken and attainted by those convicted of high crimes shall be held by us, and then returned or distributed to other lords at our pleasure.

Translation: If you mess up enough for the government to take your land from you, don’t expect to get it back.

On the Expanded Rights of Freemen under our Royal Government:

16. The city of Sol Invictus shall be the seat of the new royal court. This city shall be a boroughs which shall enjoy all the ancient liberties and free customs enjoyed by the city of Sanguine, both by land and by water. We also will and grant that other cities, boroughs, towns, and ports shall enjoy all their liberties and free customs. Subjects residing in all counties, duchies and baronies, shall enjoy the rights of freemen and burgesses so long as they hold deed in title to a structure or a ship which stands within the buildable land of Hyperion.

Translation: Sol Invictus will be the Capital of Hyperion, the meeting place of all the Houses, and the place where the Royal Court operates from. This also establishes (much to my own delight) that any man who owns a building or a ship which exists within Hyperion shall become a freeman, a burgess.

17. In future we will allow no one to levy a monetary aid directly from his free men.

Translation: You can’t force the freemen who live on your land to give you money.

18. Any serf or vagabond of any shire may be distrained upon by the Crown and immediately exiled if such is found by the Crown to be in the interest of the realm at large. No freeman or gentleman shall be executed, or disseized, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any way harmed-nor will we go upon or send upon him, save by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.

Translation: Bad luck to the beggars. Basically, any Villien/Serfs or Beggars/Vagabonds can be up and kicked out of the nation at any time for any reason the government sees fit. The freemen and knights on the other hand get a trial at least, and can’t be just kicked out. Basically only Freemen and Gentry get the rights of due process. Not to say that beggars will be oppressed, but it isn’t a legal necessity to go through the courts with them.

On the Administration of Law and Order:

19. The royal sheriffs, the Lord Constable, the Lord Chancellor and other bailiffs of ours shall have the power to hold the pleas of our Crown.

Translation: These people can act as judges. Sheriffs, Constanbles, Chancellors, and bailiffs.

20. Ordinary lawsuits shall be held by mesne lords in their respective shires, according to the procedures they recognize for their magistracy. The royal sheriffs shall be on hand in all shires and provinces for those preferring to seek appeal from the king's justice. Rulings of the sheriff courts shall be binding on any subject in any shire, save those which lie outside of secular jurisdiction, as ecclesiastics. Rulings of shire magistrate courts may also be appealed to the royal sheriff courts.

Translation: Normally the knights/lords of a specific realm will hand the court cases of those in their realms. Anyone who feels the lord’s decision was wrong can apply for an appeal to a royal sheriff who will be there to hear them. Hmm. The appeal from the sherrifs’ is final, and there is no other appeal. In addition, it seems the Church is outside the jurisdiction (basically power to enfore laws) of the sheriffs. I assume this means that the church will try their own members, not that they are immune to prosecution all together.

21. For a trivial offence, a free man shall be fined only in proportion to the degree of his offence, and for a serious offence correspondingly, but not so heavily as to deprive him of his livelihood. In the same way, a merchant shall be spared his merchandise, and a serf the implements of his serfdom, if they fall upon the mercy of a royal court. None of these fines shall be imposed except by the assessment on oath of between three and six reputable men of the neighbourhood of the accused who shall be chosen by the sheriff and called as a jury of assize.

Translation: This section describes the possible punishments given for breaking the laws. A man will never be fined so bad as to bankrupt him or make his work impossible. Ie. They won’t take your only axe if you are a woodsman. Fines can only be applies by a jury called by a sheriff of at least 3 men.

22. Magnates shall not be amerced save through their peers in the House of Lords, and only according to the measure of the offence.

Translation: Amerce is a fancy word for fine or penalty. Basically this just says that only the House of Lords can punish Lords, which indirectly gives them immunity to prosecution in the lower courts.

23. No cleric shall be amerced by secular courts royal or noble, but only through the operation of the ecclesiastic courts, unless the ecclesiastic courts shall request it of the secular authorities.

Translation: Priests can’t be tried in normal courts either, the Church tries it’s own people, unless it specifically asks the government to try them.

24. No sheriff, on his own simple assertion, shall henceforth submit any one to fine or amercement without producing faithful witnesses in evidence.

Translation: There has to be at least some evidence or witnesses for a fine to be applied, and it can’t just be done arbitrarily.

25. We will not make men executors, constables, sheriffs, yeomen or other bailiffs of the royal court unless they are such as know the law of the realm, and are minded to observe it rightly.

Translation: The people that the Crown appoints to administrate legal matter know what they are doing or they wouldn’t be there, please show them some respect.

26. To none will we sell, to none deny or delay, right or justice.

Translation: There’s a doozy. This is basically “all men created equal.” No one will be denied rights that they have, and no one will be able to buy their way out of punishment.

On the Protection and Handling of Property:

27. If any freeman shall have disappeared for a period of two weeks, his chattels shall be distributed through the hands of his near relatives and friends, by view of the Church; saving to any one the debts which the man owed him. In lands which have no ministry of the Church, the responsibility for fair distribution shall fall to the mesne lord.

Translation: Same thing as article 8, but for merchants. If you disappear for two weeks and noone knows where you are, they will take your stuff, use some of it to pay off any debts you have, and anything else will go to your next of kin. Basically they assume you to be dead after two weeks.

28. No yeoman, sheriff, clerk or other bailiff of ours shall take the goods or other chattels of any one except he straightway give money for them, or can be allowed a respite in that regard by the will of the seller. Nor shall any sheriff nor bailiff of ours, nor any one else, take the horses or carts of any freeman for transport, unless by the will of that freeman. Neither shall we nor our bailiffs take another's wood or resources for castles or for other private uses, unless by the will of him to whom the resource belongs.

Translation: Basically, no one in employ of the government can force you to give them goods, money, or services without paying for them.

On the Advocacy of the Free Trade:

29. All merchants who register with the chancery may safely and securely go out of Hyperion, and come into Hyperion, and delay and pass through Hyperion, as well by land as by water, for the purpose of buying and selling, subject to the ancient and right customs-save in time of war, and if they are of the land at war against us. And if such be found in our land at the beginning of the war, they shall be held, without harm to their bodies and goods, until it shall be known to us or our royal court how the merchants of our land are to be treated who shall, at that time, be found in the land at war against us. And if ours shall be safe there, the others shall be safe in our land.

Translation: Kyrendis likes. Basically this section establishes that any merchants who regiser as merchants have freedom of movement in and out of Hyperion, and the freedom to trade with whoever they want, as long as the people they are trading with are not currently at war with Hyperion. If they are at war, Hyperion will treat the enemy’s merchants whichever way the enemy treats their merchants, and trade may still go on.

30. Henceforth any person giving fealty to us as a royal subject, may go out of our realm and return to it, safely and securely, by land and by water, except perhaps for a brief period in time of war, for the common good of the realm. But exiles and outlaws are excepted according to the law of the realm; also people of a land at war against us, and the merchants, with regard to whom shall be done as we have said.

Translation: Any member of Hyperion can enter or exit Hyperion at will during peacetime. Exiles and outlaws are KoS. It also reiterates the merchant thing, where it depends on how the enemy treats Hyperion’s merchants during wartime.

On Policies of War and Force:

31. Concerning forests and warrens, and concerning foresters, rangers, and the Royal Warden, we shall maintain a royal patrol in each county, which in its duties seeks out raiders, brigands, outlaws, foreign soldiery, poachers, and thieves and shall eradicate them entirely.

Translation: This section establishes what we in Wessex called the Rangers. Basically, they will be roaming the countryside killing the bad guys. Theives, bandits, people we’re at war with, that kind of thing.

32. Straightaway after disassociating from Mercia we shall remove from the new realm all foreign soldiers, crossbowmen, servants, and hirelings who may have come with horses and arms to the harm of the realm, and we shall not allow them entry into Hyperion without permission, even for the sake of passage, and all royal subjects are called to take up arms against any such incursions in the future.

Translation: Any troop movements by any other nations throughout Hypeion lands will be considered an act of war, and will be responded to with the sharp end of pointy sticks of metal.

33. When the Church shall call a crusade, or when a military levy shall be called all of those taking part shall enjoy a respite from fines and amercements owed, duties of offices held, and a reasonable respite from feudal military obligations. The Crown may call for an end to both levies and crusades at its pleasure.

Translation: If the Church calls a crusade, anyone crusading is free from pretty much all taxes fines, fees, and service requirements as long as they are slaughtering those heathens. The government can call an end to a crusade.

34. No landholder of any fee may initiate wars or aggression on realms which have been recognized by the Crown or the College of Heralds, save they immediately be called to do so out of self defence. Landholders shall bear the right to police their holdings and neighboring badlands or wastelands of barbarians, hillmen, outlaws, renegades, nomads, and all such as hold neither sovereignty nor statehood in the eyes of the Crown.

Translation: Knights/lords can’t start a war or fight nearby realms except in self defence. People also have the right to kill in defence of their own lands or livelihoods from unaligned parties such as thieves and bandits.

Moreover all the subjects of our realm, clergy as well as laity, shall, as far as pertains to them, observe, with regard to their vassals, all which we have decreed and which shall, as far as pertains to us, be observed in our realm with regard to our own.

Translation: This is the start of the conclusion. Basically says that this document applies to all members of Hyperion, and that all members are expected to abide by it and enforce it.

Wherefore we will and firmly decree that the subjects of our realm shall have and hold all the aforesaid liberties, rights and concessions, duly and in peace, freely and quietly, fully and entirely, for themselves and their heirs from us and our heirs, in all matters and in all places, forever, as has been said. Moreover it has been sworn, on our part as well as on the part of the lords, that all these above mentioned provisions shall be observed with good faith and without evil intent. The witnesses being the above mentioned and many others.

Translation: The above document will be upheld with good intentions by every member of the government, and every lord/knight. It also establishes the Carta Solis as applying forever, or at least, as long as Hyperion exists. By the normal definitions in common law, this also makes the Carta Solis the prime legal document, which means it cannot be changed or ignored except by specific consent of the highest government office (In this case the Crown or the House of Lords.) basically making it the ‘Constitution’ of Hyperion.


Well, there you are. Carta Solis for the Legalese Impaired.