 That same year, the shogunal government asked Emperor Go-Daigo to abdicate in favor of his successor, in order to continue the tradition of cloistered rule and the alternation of branches of the Imperial family within the line of succession; Go-Daigo chose to maintain rule, and the ensuing controversy would lead to the Nanboku-chō Wars in which agents of the two Imperial branch families would come to outright war.George Sansom thus describes this move on the part of the shogunate a "fatal blunder" and describes Takatoki as "scarcely sane.His judgement was poor, his conduct erratic.