23/01/820 - Whitehall - It is a sombre crowd gathered here today at Whitehall, as a great man and a great leader of men steps down from the senior post in the Admiralty.
The Duke of Norfolk, the Queen's personal point man on the Kusari war, and the man who many herald as the architect of the Kusari defeat and the saviour of Leeds, delivered his resignation in person to Her Majesty, after a wave of controversial decisions that have rocked the Bretonian government in recent weeks.
Word of a treaty between the Exiled Kusari forces and the BAF particularly causing dissent amongst many who see it as a betrayal of everything they had fought for during the war. But, key sources close to Her Majesty and the Government state that it is the new war with Gallia that has them most concerned.
Some believing it was the Duke of Norfolk's brash and willful push to defeat the Kusari that broke the stalemate and forced the Gallic forces to invade the Tau systems. A push, they claim, that used up the Bretonian reserve and left our Northern front weaker than ever.
Still others blame him for the recent skirmish with Rhienland that saw an even further weakening of the Armed Forces reserves.
But for many, The Duke of Norfolk is still the Hero of Leeds. He won his war, and now that he steps aside, it is up to someone new to take up the mantle of Fleet Admiral, and turn the Gallic horde back, as the Rhienlandic and Kusaran hordes were turned back before.