Dear Creature of the Homely West
By the governing law of the Shire, Bilbo Baggins found himself Thain and reluctant diplomat of the hobbits; which, perhaps he wouldn't have minded if the circumstance's were different. Although seeing as he should have been several times removed before he were to obtain such a title, a desolation had befallen Hobbiton and they found themselves without a home and many without their family.
Yet, with no way to return to the rolling hills of the Shire, Bilbo Baggins found himself in quite the situation indeed; arranged by lords and royalty, to honour aged treaties and debts of old: his hand to be given off to a king he's never met, for the security and safety of his people, and never in all his years would he have thought his life to come to this.