American Executor: James VII & II

He takes the throne where caution should have grown,

Yet finds within himself a firmer claim;

No tempered rule, but certainty full-blown,

That crowns are held by more than mortal frame.

The lessons paid in blood seem less than flame

To one who trusts what none may countermand—

He claims the right no yielding will amend.

The faith he holds he will not set aside,

Nor bend his course to suit a shifting land,

But stands resolved where others might divide—

He claims the right no yielding will amend.

The court grows strained where difference cannot rest,

And fear returns where once was measured peace;

For what he grants to some is seen as test

Of how far rule from balance may release.

The murmurs swell, the quiet doubts increase,

No longer stilled by memory’s firm command—

He claims the right no yielding will amend.

The Parliament resists, the factions stir,

Each act a spark no will can countermand,

And in that strain, the break draws ever nearer—

He claims the right no yielding will amend.

No war declared, yet conflict takes its form,

A gathering force that waits its moment clear;

Across the sea, another rides the storm,

Invited where the king inspires more fear.

The landing comes, the path of flight grows near,

And power shifts without a battle planned—

He claims the right no yielding will amend.

For even kings who will not yield their ground

May find that ground no longer theirs to stand,

When trust dissolves without a single sound—

He claims the right no yielding will amend.

The throne stands empty, though no death has come,

No blade has fallen as before was seen;

Instead, a quiet turning, swift and numb,

Removes the one who thought his right supreme.

A different pair now rise within the scheme,

To rule where he could neither bend nor stand—

He claims the right no yielding will amend.

And in that loss, a subtler truth is shown:

Not all who fall are struck by forceful hand,

But some undone by standing all alone—

He claims the right no yielding will amend.

So ends the reign that would not learn to yield,

That pressed its claim beyond what time allowed;

No shattered crown upon a bloody field,

But absence where a king had stood unbowed.

The lesson echoes, quiet yet aloud:

That rule must shift where circumstance demands—

He claims the right no yielding will amend.

And those who follow take a different course,

To hold the crown by more negotiated strand,

A balance struck by history’s steady force—

He claims the right no yielding will amend.

Envoi:

O king who stood and would not understand,

You held a right too rigidly at hand;

And found that power slips where none will bend,

For even crowns must answer to the land—

He claims the right no yielding will amend.