Bellesea Palace
 Bellesea Palace in Zalae | |
| Type | Royal palace |
| Location | Royal District of Zalae, Caputia |
| Owner | The Caputian Crown |
| Resident | Queen Elizabeth I |
| Notable feature | Hall of Diplomats |
Bellesea Palace was the royal palace of the Kingdom of the Union of Caputia, in the Royal District of Zalae, the kingdom's capital. It was the principal residence of Queen Elizabeth I and the seat of her court, and the phrase the Court at Bellesea Palace denoted the sovereign's official establishment throughout the kingdom's history. The Declaration of Zalae, the proclamation that ended the Commonwealth of Hamland and founded the kingdom, was signed at the palace and proclaimed from its balcony.
History
Bellesea Palace stood in the historic core of Zalae, one of the few parts of the city to come through the Hammish Civil War largely intact. In the closing days of the war a delegation of the National Provisional Authority was received at the palace, where it delivered a verified copy of the will of General Augustus Eliphas together with a signed statement of surrender and allegiance to Regina Ravaillac. Ravaillac signed the Declaration of Zalae at the palace shortly afterward and proclaimed the Kingdom of the Union of Caputia from its balcony, taking the regnal name Elizabeth. The Declaration seated the royal court at Bellesea Palace until the Constitutional Convention could settle the question of a national capital; Zalae was confirmed as the capital, and the palace remained the seat of the crown for the remainder of the kingdom's existence.
By the standards of royal residences the palace was a deliberately modest building. Contemporary accounts describe it as a rather small structure, and Elizabeth I was said to have chosen for her residence a house that could inspire national pride without invoking visions of aloof and distant opulence.
Seat of the court
As the seat of the court, Bellesea Palace was the place from which the formal instruments of the reign were issued. Orders in council were dated at the Court at Bellesea Palace, among them the orders that gave effect to the kingdom's political parties framework, established the Church of Caputia, chartered the Caputian Broadcasting Corporation in 1658 AN, and created the state corporations. Letters patent conferring peerages and knighthoods were given at the palace, as were the commissions of officers of the Queen's Army, and the proclamation appointing the First Seydlitz Government was issued there on 12.XIII.1665 AN. The palace's Court Circular was published in the Zalae Gazette, and the Queen's seals and cypher were announced from the palace.
Foreign missions in Zalae were accredited to the Court of Bellesea Palace. Woodrest Mansion, the official residence of the prime minister, stood within the palace grounds, opposite the palace itself; it was from the palace that Christophe Landry and his successors received the sovereign's commission to form a government.
Notable events
The civil ceremony that opened the royal wedding of Elizabeth I and Emperor Francis Joseph IV of Alexandria was held at Bellesea Palace on 25.XV.1661 AN, the palace being chosen as neutral ground because each spouse was the head of a church.
In 1657 AN the palace received the state visit of Kaiser Ayreon IV of Shireroth, whom the Queen and the Royal Family greeted before the palace, and hosted the Non-Aligned Movement for Peace and Prosperity Summit, whose reception, ball, and state dinner were held in the palace's Hall of Diplomats. The Edict of Pallisican Expulsion and Repudiation, the second edict of the kingdom's history, was issued from the palace in 1658 AN.
