((I think Arthur’s distrust of the monarchs extended into the courts as well. And not just his royal family, but most of them, since they were all intermarried and interconnected.
But he really
really
doesn’t like monarchs.))
England and Monarchs
As far as royalty goes, England never really trusted them fully. This became much more apparent after he went through the Glorious Revolution back in 1689, after absolute monarchs Charles II and Catholic James II, who abdicated.
He kind of generalised it now, because he’s seen it for as long as he could remember, plots within royal families, within the courts, always trying to keep the throne or get to the throne themselves instead of governing and it made him a bit displeased to see. Sure, he’s had some monarchs that he simply adored; Alfred the Great, Elizabeth I, George III and others, but as a whole there’s not much trust.
Which is a reason why he’s always had his Parliament, more so after the Glorious Revolution, keeping checks and balances on the monarch with their hold on the purse strings and things like that, but he’s still wary, and the ever-advancing trend for Parliament to gain power over the monarchs, for it to become more democratic in nature and more representative, it actually came as a relief to him.
Random England Note
He really doesn’t take well to betrayal. Stemming from the fact that he’s not often had an alliance that wasn’t in some way taken advantage of, and thus it takes him a while to warm up to others and accept a relationship, platonic or otherwise, if that is betrayed in any way, he’s usually wont to ending that relationship, no matter what his own feelings towards that person are.
Usually if he trusts someone enough to even be willing to play along with the whole relationship thing, that means that there’s something, if not a large amount of trust, and he’s not afraid to end it in order to preserve his own feelings, as well as Arthur.
Arthur in Relationships
Given the context of his past relationships not being exactly romantic in nature, today if someone approached him for one, he wouldn’t really know what to do with it. His reaction will really depend on what standing the person has with him; if he considers them friends, and perhaps has some feelings for them in return, he’ll play along with it, but he won’t trust the person fully. He won’t easily return any terms of affection, because he doesn’t trust the other person to remain in the relationship with him for longer than a week.
After a few days if they’re still there, he’s just going to get confused, and a bit distant, probably going to test the other person, see to what lengths they actually mean this, and usually it will take a while before he finally manages to accept the idea that he’s in a relationship. Until then it really isn’t anything to him except another game that someone wants to play with him, and that’s how he’ll treat it.
However, if there’s no standing with him, he’ll usually just act old and cynical and wave the idea off as laughable and continue on with life. If they persist, he’s going to get a bit annoyed with it, and usually play along with that as well, again to an extent, until he gets fed up with it and outlines exactly why being in a relationship with him is a horrible idea to even consider.
Anonymous asked: “ ((Can Arthur understand/read any languages?)) ”
((Oh is there not a headcanon about this?
He talks and writes predominantly English. Fluent in Gaelic, though he chooses to not use it very often, if at all. He retains an understanding of Latin, but for the most part that’s forgotten. He talks fluent French, but has a bit of difficulty with the writing, and even when he’s talking, it’s not completely grammatically perfect. He knows basic Indian, Russian and German, mostly enough to get by, because he hasn’t really been that inclined to learn it fluently, and a few basic phrases in Chinese and Japanese. A few words and phrases in Arabic, enough to greet and hold only the most basic of conversations and Hebrew, likewise if not a little less.))
Random Arthur Note
He really hesitates to state his age, coming from the fact that it is, in his opinion, rather extraneous information, and he’s a bit more on the private side.
When he does tell his age, he’ll usually state that he’s just over a thousand years of age, or one-thousand-eighty-seven, which is his age since the unification of England back in 927AD under Athelstan. If he were to count back from what he perceives as his beginning, as Roman England when he was just the representative of London in 43AD, that would put him at one-thousand-nine-hundred-and-sixty-nine years of age. He usually goes with the former, but again only if really pressed for his age.
Random Arthur Note
He’ll keep talking when people are leaving a conversation. He doesn’t expect a response, so usually it’s a bit quieter than he normally speaks, and usually his tone becomes a lot warmer and generally he relaxes again. He just doesn’t like the idea of people warming up to him, that’s his biggest problem, and often why he’ll try and antagonise and push away, because he knows that most will lack the patience necessary to work that past that, so he can keep that up and remain for the most part isolated.
It isn’t that he doesn’t respect the person he’s talking to, because he generally respects many and dislikes very few, he just can’t bring himself to build up relationships with anyone, platonic or otherwise, and it’s almost second nature to push everyone away.
Anonymous asked: “ aRTICHOKES. ”
((He’s not really fond of artichokes all that much, the taste is tolerable, but the texture he absolutely hates.))
Anonymous asked: “ dandruff. ”
((He doesn’t really have any dandruff, and it’s never really been a problem except probably when he was younger and personal hygiene wasn’t really that big of an issue for him.))
