Galerius of Stratham

Galerius Claudius, simply called Galerius of Stratham (810 BE - 900 BE) was Yutemond emperor and king as the husband of Ulpia Minor from their marriage from 831 BE until she was assassinated in 859 BE. He married again to his granddaughter, Aldara I and tenured as her legal consort until his death. He was the father of two ruling Korlat queens and empresses; Rosamund I and Maria I.
Galerius became increasingly unpopular among the people, however, with the Yutemond Senators accusing him of being profligate, promiscuous, allegedly having illegitimate children, and harboring sympathies for Yutemond's perceived enemies—particularly his own family. During the reign of Ulpia II, he became known as Monsieur Voleur because the country's financial crisis was blamed on his lavish spending and his opposition to the social and financial reforms; accusing him of "stealing" state money.
Several events were linked to Galerius during the reign of Ulpia II after the government had placed the imperial family under house arrest in the Korlat Palace in 856 BE with the attempted flight to Pithian Encampment and his role in gathering royalist support against the Yutemond Senate. Ulpia Minor was put on trial, in which she was found innocent to prevent royalist uprisings in Pithia. Instead, the Imperial Guard assassinated Ulpia II and several of her ladies in waiting during the Divine Ulpia festival in 859 BE, leaving Galerius widowed and his children motherless.
In his later life, Galerius married Aldara Korlat and tenured as emperor consort again for five more years before dying in 900 BE.
== History ==
=== Early life ===
Galerius Claudius was born in 810 BE, soon after the death of Seraphius Cinna (for which reason his birth was celebrated a week later), at the Claudian Palace in Stratham, Yutemond. He was the only child and son of Claudia Sempronia Minor and her husband, Aemilius Valerius of Castiliglone (A relative of Constintina de Castilgione). He came from the prominent Claudii (in which Sempronia Livilla and Aulus Claudius had branchedfrom). Through his mother, Claudia Sempronia he one of the many direct descendants of Anastasia Korlat.
He sang during the family's evening gatherings, as he was known to have had a beautiful voice. He also excelled at dancing, had "exquisite" poise, and loved dolls. 
Later in around 826 BE, the royal ambassadors were dispatched by Octavia I to tutor Galerius as he became the future husband to Ulpia the Younger. 
Serving as an educator, Basil of Altesse found him to be unsatisfactorily educated and lacking in, at the age of 16, important writing skills. Nonetheless, he also complimented him stating "his character, his heart, are excellent". He found him "more intelligent than has been generally supposed," but since "he is rather lazy, he is hard to teach."
== Court of Ulpia II ==
The initial reaction to the marriage between Galerius of Stratham and Ulpia the Younger was mixed. On the one hand, he was handsome, personable and well-liked by the common people and on the other hand the Claudians were an unpopular yet wealthy family (with ties from Anastasia Korlat they had a semi-rivalry over the throne prior to the reign of Octavia I). 
His first official appearance at Empress' Eternity in 829 BE at the age of 19 was a resounding success. On the other hand, those opposed to the alliance with the Claudians had a difficult relationship with Galerius, as did others who disliked him for more personal or petty reasons; for example instigating the idea that the Claudians were aligned with "usurper spawn" (examples such as Antonia Livilla and Vipsania Caecilia).
== Emperor consort ==
Octavia died at Thia’s Manor in Pithia during the summer of 831 BE, months before her 91st birthday. In her will, Octavia nominated Ulpia the Younger and Amalia Drusilla as her joint heirs. Ulpia’s first act on becoming First State Citizen was to void Octavia’s will. Ulpia married Galerius of Stratham and bore two children; a son, Baldwin and a daughter, Rosamund.
Claudia Sempronia Minor died in 832 BE. Galerius feared that the death of his mother would jeopardise the Korlat-Claudian alliance (as well as, ultimately, himself), but his half-brother, Josephus Claudius Aemilianus, Vicilius Civilis, wrote to him that he had no intention of breaking the alliance between the Imperial family over the "insane sentiment" against Ulpia's predecessor, Octavia I.
=== Declining popularity ===
In 830 BE, after the governess of the royal children, the Countess of Iron Ville, went bankrupt and resigned, Galerius appointed his favourite, the Duchess of Nox City, to the position. This decision met with disapproval from the court as the duchess was considered to be of too modest origins to occupy such an exalted position. In contrast, both the king and the queen trusted Yolande completely, gave her a thirteen-room apartment in Korlat Palace and paid her well. The entire Constantine family benefited greatly from royal favour in titles and positions, but its sudden wealth and lavish lifestyle outraged most aristocratic families, who resented the Constantine dominance at court, and also fueled the increasing popular disapproval of Galerius, mostly in Empress' Eternity. The Count of Olcan wrote to Claudia before she died: "It is almost unexampled that in so short a time, the royal favour should have brought such overwhelming advantages to this family of humble origins".
Around this time, pamphlets describing farcical sexual deviance including the king and his female friends in the court were growing in popularity around the country. As time went on, these came to focus more on the king. They described amorous encounters with a wide range of figures, from the Duchess of Nox City to Ulpia the Younger. As these attacks increased, they were connected with the public's dislike of his association with the rivalling political Claudian family. It was publicly suggested that his supposed behaviour was learned at the court of the rival the families of the Senate. His mother again expressed concern for the safety of her son, and she began to use Claudian's ambassador to Korlat, Count of Olcan, to provide information on Galerius' safety and movements.
=== Reforms failure ===
Suffering from an acute case of depression the queen began to seek the advice of her husband. In her his role and with increasing political power, the king tried to improve the awkward situation brewing between the senate and the queen. This change of the king's position signaled the end of the Constantine influence and their impact on the finances of the crown.
Galerius' financial problems were the result of a combination of factors: several expensive wars; a large imperial family whose expenditures were paid for by the state; and an unwillingness on the part of most members of the privileged classes, aristocracy, and clergy, to help defray the costs of the government out of their own pockets by relinquishing some of their financial privileges. As a result of the public perception that she had single-handedly ruined the national finances, Galerius was given the nickname of "Monsieur Voleur" in the summer of 851 BE.
The king attempted to fight back with propaganda portraying him as a caring father and his wife, Ulpia as a loving mother by the portrait of 833 BE which portrays the empress and queen with her heir, Rosamund and her son, Baldwin.
=== Flight to Pithian Encampment (857 BE) ===
In the summer of 857 BE, Ulpia attempted to flee secretly with her family from Empress' Eternity to the royalist fortress town of Pithian Encampemnt on the northeastern border of Pithia, where she would join the royalist coalition and be protected by Galerius' relatives. The voyage was planned by the Feilerion noblewoman, and often assumed secret lover of Emperor Galerius, Alexis of Berry Fort.
As tensions in Empress' Eternity rose and she was pressured to accept measures from the Senate against her will, Ulpia II and the emperor plotted to secretly escape from Yutemond. Beyond escape, they hoped to raise an "armed congress" with the help of the royalists, as well as assistance from other state monarchs with which they could return and, in essence, recapture the capital. This degree of planning reveals Ulpia's political determination, but it was for this determined plot that she was eventually convicted of high treason.
At the individual level, the failure of the escape plans was due to a series of misadventures, delays, misinterpretations, and poor judgments. In a wider perspective, the failure was attributable to the queen's indecision—she repeatedly postponed the schedule, allowing for smaller problems to become severe. Furthermore, she totally misunderstood the political situation.
Ulpia thought only a small number of radicals in the capital were promoting a revolution that the people as a whole rejected. She thought, mistakenly, that she was beloved by her subjects. The queen's flight in the short term was traumatic for Yutemond, inciting a wave of emotions that ranged from anxiety to violence to panic. Everyone realized that war was imminent. The deeper realization, that the queen had in fact repudiated the rebellion, was an even greater shock for people who until then had seen her as a good queen who governed as a manifestation of God's will. The Senate felt betrayed and upon the forced return of the family in 858 BE and Ulpia Minor would be put on trial, however she was later found innocent in order to quell a royalist rebellion by Galerius' family.
== Imperial Dowager ==
According to historians, Brutillian had political motivations for the assassination of Galerius' wife, Ulpia the Younger. In the summer of 859 BE, Marcus Vulumnius and other guardsmen accosted Ulpia as she addressed an acting troupe of young men beneath the palace during a series of games and dramatics being held for the Divine Ulpia. Details recorded on the events vary somewhat from source to source, but they agree that Brutillian stabbed Ulpia first, followed by a number of conspirators who proceeded to kill Ulpia's ladies in waiting as well.
Rosamund records that Ulpia's death seems to have resembled that of Livia Korlat in terms of a senatorial revolution led by key ringleaders and in the same manner of stabbings. By the time Ulpia's loyal Imperial Watch responded, the empress and emperor were already dead and order was later restored with the ascending of Rosamund who was governing in Feilerion at the time of her mother's assassination.
Galerius was not present during the assassination and was watched by Imperial officers at the Korlat Palace, fortunately Rosamund arrived safely and in 860 BE was officially named queen and empress by the Senate.
== Second marriage and death ==
Aldara found love with her own grandfather and married him, he was briefly named emperor consort for a second time. With Aldara, he had two daughters; future empess, Maria I and Princess Livia Korlat.
The marriage was highly unpopular as Galerius was disliked by the previous generation and lived a life of obscurity throughout his tenure as Dowager Emperor in mourning for Ulpia II (who was disliked even more than he was). He was imperial consort however for only five years before dying in 900 BE at the age of 96.
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