The Vagrant Prince

[Lusk]

In 2845, His Serene Highness Leopold II went on a long walk during lunch throughout the State Office in Bekenial, the capitol building of what was then called the Principality of Central Macon. When he returned, he found that that the lock on his door had been changed. The Prince turned to one of his accompanying Palace Guards, lictor-general Julius St. James, and asked him to call the State Office's control board from a courtesy telephone. It was on that windy October day that he learned that the Principality was no more, and a bloodless coup by Hutori revivalists, which enjoyed wide popular support in the first multi-party elections for the Council of the Principality, had taken effect. It is said that right after Leopold II and his entourage entered the elevator, John III unlocked the Head of State office for the first time.

Leopold II boarded the Royal Coach to Axminster. Upon arrival, he retreated to the Personal Quarters of the Lusk Palace, the vast complex that serves as corporate headquarters, family residence, cathedral, and spy center all in one, and stayed there for an entire year, only making appearances at the chapel to attend services on Sundays. His many calls to the IML for mediation were met initially with stonewalling, and it is said that Leopold, typically a calm man, flew into a rage when it was reported that the Conservative-Libertarian Party intended to remove the hereditary mayorships that had been a cornerstone of Lusk rule. Finally, on the day before the one-year anniversary of the restoration, Leopold II boarded a plane to Kien in Hulstria from Axminster International Airport.

Among the sovereign courts of the world, Leopold II's once-surprise visits became routine. While he spent the most time in Hulstria as a guest of the Empress, who is his first cousin once removed, he has travelled to any court which would accept him: Luthori, Tukarali, Mordusia, Keymon, Vorona, Yishelem, Alduria, even Pontesi. Apparently bored with his mere arrival, he often appeared at courts incognito, but his famously enormous nose gave him away half the time. Since 2846, he has not returned to Axminster, but has left his brother, Lawrence, Count of Carter City, and his firstborn son, Benedict, Earl of Axminster, in charge of the Lusk empire.

As privatization, deregulation, and democratization continued in his former territory, his behavior has become more and more erratic. While he has not sent any messages back to Axminster save the one creating the Party Chairman so that he would not have to directly participate in the "Parliament of Whores," as he frequently calls it, his bizarre behavior and heavy drinking as a guest of state at foreign courts has become something of a legend. Like every Lusk Prince since their return to the territory in 2669, Leopold is a heavy smoker, and frequently disregards the non-smoking rules at the court of Mordusia, once going so far as to extinguish a cigarette on the face on a manservant. Although restitution was made, he has not returned since. Another time at Yishelem, while enjoying a dinner at the court of the Bailiff, after imbibing far too much wine, stuck two rib-bones of a pig into his mouth and proclaimed himself the "Walrus Spirit of the Jewish Nation" and chided the Bailiff for his poor treatment of the Jewish population. He was escorted from the dinner and placed on a yacht with instructions to sail somewhere else, although he has returned since following a formal apology. His escapades with the male wait-staff in several more conservative countries has raised some eyebrows.

Finally, this year, 2850, saw an election in Hutori which returned the CLP to a second term of power. Leopold II is reported to have fallen off a pier in Veilchen, Hilgar, Greater Hulstria with a blood alcohol content of 0.23 and nearly drowned had not been for a quick save by Lictor-General St. James. Two days following, he made a speech where he announced that Lusk was prepared to direct its political energies elsewhere at the beck of the IML. The Continuity Committee of the Council of the Principality, the last vestige of Lusk rule in Hutori, continues futile negotiations with the sitting monarchy there...

[Lusk]

LEOPOLD II DECLARED DEAD

22 April 2854

AXMINSTER-- After being missing for the past three weeks, it was today declared that the Prince would henceforth be assumed dead. He was last seen leaving a nightclub in Kien, Hulstria on the first of April and returning to his hotel. After three days, his guards entered his room and could not find him. This caps off years of bizarre and erratic behavior which has apparently ended in his death. Benedict II will be formally installed next week as Prince Lusk. In a speech, Benedict declared that he would hold the course on advocating synarchy in Hutori instead of free-market capitalism. Lusk kremlinologists expect no major policy shifts from Axminster.