The Burnham Conundrum

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

An interesting question has come up in my saga's 1222 Stonehenge Tribunal meeting. (Entirely my own doing, I know, but still.)

Background: my saga is 5th edition, but I'm using the Heirs to Merlin soucebook (which is 4th edition). When I was looking at the map, I noticed that Burnham is well above Hadrian's Wall, and remembered reading that the Grand Tribunal, when they split Brittania, had put the Loch Leglean-Stonehenge border as Hadrian's Wall, and decided to make that an issue at the meeting. (It turns out that this is actually in Lion of the North, which is itself 3rd edition, but I like it and would like to keep it because it makes too much sense.)

But then, someone pointed out that Burnham has been around for 80 years, with two Grand Tribunals since then, and wondered why this hadn't been resolved before then.

I could go with the cop-out that, since each tribunal can only bring three issues to the GT, both Loch Leglean and Stonehenge had more important things to put on the table, but that feels vaguely unsatisfying.

Any ideas?

2

Given the grant Burnham got from English monarchy, perhaps Loch Leglean has been purposefully ignoring them. While their presence isn't welcome, they don't want to press the issue and lose, which would set a precedent for others to encroach on Loch Leglean territory by going through English lords.

They could have come to an agreement with influential members of the covenant to allow them to be part of Stonehenge (which suited them better culturally) as long as their provided something in return. Since Burnham is extremely secretive, that could be just about anything, and it would also explain why this agreement isn't publicly known.