The promise and the war
In 1902, Orlando loses his wife Emily in a British concentration camp in South Africa and promises that his son Conrad will never see war. In 1914 he runs a spy network with his servants Shola and Polly and keeps his son out of the army. When the Sarajevo assassination ignites the First World War, he takes on the Flock, goes to Russia to kill Rasputin and loses Conrad at the front. The trail leads to Morton, the Shepherd, whom Orlando kills on a mountaintop. After the war he buys the tailor shop and founds Kingsman, giving each member a knight's code name. To keep the United States out of the war, the Flock sends the Zimmermann Telegram, and Orlando learns that President Wilson is being blackmailed with footage. Conrad swaps places with a Scottish soldier, the future "Lancelot," and dies at the front.