Hamilton and Randolph- Working for Morgan

[Wren]

I have often wondered how Morgan’s household staff feel about working for him, especially with his Deryni ness and the amount of enemies he has.

In the Knighting of Derry, Alaric mentions that he can be demanding, and the pay for his employees is only moderate. Add that to The fact that Morgan is Dernyi and has so many enemies.
Hamilton and Hillary seem to have actual affection for him, and probably hold hereditary positions at Coroth.
I wonder what someone like Master Randolph, the physician feels about working for Morgan. We see him traveling to a horse show with Alaric in the Knighting of Derry, where he knows Morgan is using his Dernyi powers to control Derry’s pain. He must be more tolerant of magic than most others of his time. Morgan obviously trusts Randolph to use his powers in front of him.

There is also a part of Dernyi Checkmate where Randolph circulates among the crowds at Coroth Court to spy for Morgan on what people are saying. That seems an odd task for a physician. Randolph is also present on Morgan’s ship for the failed assassination attempt on Morgan because he is Dernyi. In fact, morgan’s Squire Robert is killed during the attack.

Randolph is Morgan’s surgeon/physician, a position which requires a lot of trust. Morgan can be demanding, the pay is moderate, and he is Dernyi, which makes him a target, as well as those around him. Plus, the prestige normally attached to working for a duke may not apply in Morgan’s case.  It makes me wonder how people like Hamilton, and Randolph really feel about working for Morgan and his magic.

Hamilton liked Richenda, one of the few. I wonder if he and Randolph and others at Coroth knew she was Dernyi as well and how they reacted to their liege lord marrying the widow of a traitor. Did they share the mistrust of the rest of the men?

Just something I recently started pondering.

[Laurna]

I really like your thoughts on this subject. Yes, I sincerely believe that Morgan's men in Coroth love their duke.

Some of these positions are hereditary positions, which means the families have been taking care of Corwyn for decades, maybe centuries. Corwyn has always been held by a Deryni Duke, ever since the very first Festil became King. Even before that, the duchy was half of the ancient Mooryn Kingdom which was also ruled by a Deryni family. These positions of city stewards and clerks would have been taught father to son and the loyalties and tolerances of Deryni would have been endowed from father to son over the generations; the same as Kenneth Morgan's loyalties to the Haldanes were passed down to Alaric. These men were also Alaric's regents after his father had passed away and I believe that they were very protective of Alaric from the beginning. It had been two generations since Corwyn had seen a male heir.  In that day and age that was something to be proud of.

As for the Moderate pay, well, I question how moderate it really was. Corwyn was the wealthiest duchy in the kingdom. It is a major port perfectly situated in the center of the eleven kingdoms. A huge trading center. The duchy was able to hold its own as a neutral province for 100 years after the fall of the Festils and the restoration of the Haldanes. It was during the battle of Rengarth that Corwyn was forced to choose a side between Torenth and Gwynedd. Even then, Corwyn held some of its independence. Only at the battle of Killingford did the Deryni Dukes of Corwyn prove their full loyalty to the Haldanes. If and when KK writes the Road to Killingford, I am hopeful that we shall see just how Gwynedd gains this wealthy Deryni duchy's loyalty.

As for Randolph, I like to think that he and Alaric are best friends, able to work well together. Because Alaric is such a loyal, compassionate Duke it is easy to  see where his physician and his immediate employees are very loyal to him in return.
Alaric's trouble with people seems to stem mostly from Rhemuth. For that I would place blame on the queen and on the Archbishops for their hatred of Deryni and their blindness to seeing who Alaric really is.

[revanne]

I agree with all Laurna has said.

In addition I don't really believe Morgan in what he tells Derry. I get the impression that he really wants Derry to work for him, but wants it to be because he is a man Derry wants to be with not because it is an easy job or just a way of improving the financial position of Derry's earldom. I think that Derry is the young brother Morgan never had, or perhaps the cousin he lost when Duncan went into the priesthood. Quite clearly there is genuine affection between the two and a lot of stories that had probably better not be told once Morgan meets Richenda.

I agree with Laurna that Morgan's people hold him in genuine respect and love- the scene when Richard (not Robert btw) FitzWilliam dies in Morgan's arms aboard ship is testimony to that and utterly heart wrenching. They after all know what he is really like to set against the picture painted by the church. The crops have not failed, nor people died in horrible ways any more than is usual and he is a good and kindly Lord. Even the rebel soldier whom Morgan and Duncan heal at the beginning of HD is a rather reluctant critic.

The hostility to Richenda in Coroth is not because she is the wife of a traitor but because it is feared she will use Brendan to supplant Morgan's rightful heirs - exacerbated when her first child with Morgan is a girl. We are not told whether folk in Coroth know that Richenda is Deryni - if they don't it is even greater evidence for their support for Morgan as Brendan would be assumed to be human and might be supposed to be a welcome end to the Deryni rule in Corwyn.

Great topic Wren.

[tenworld]

I wonder if Morgan put some controls in people that work for him, not to make them like him but to safeguard him from some enemy deryni using them (as derry was). But there is the possibility that, being hereditary positions in a historically deryni dukedom, they are actually deryni but that is never acknowledged.

[reiki deryni]

It is mentioned in the Knighting of Derry, that controls will be put in place. Pretty much we see all or it is hint or implied all deryni characters do so to their people. In their place, I would do that as a given, especially the human ones. As for them being deryni it is a possibility, but has never even been implied or hinted at.