Emperor Morthaetho II Cerneu

**Emperor Morthaetho II Cerneu**, known later in life as **Morthaetho the Kind** (b. cca. 1274 - d. March 3, 1315) was the 5th Emperor of Cornwall.

His rule started shaky when he was around 10, owing to his grandfather's (who to everyone's surprise, including Morthaetho I's himself) Emperor Morthaetho Cerneu tyrannical actions coloring his vassal's perception, however he managed to survive, even with a few robber Regents, including the current King of England.

He decided to continue his predecessors' life work of expanding the Empire into the Kingdom of France. In the meantime, he married a genius Princess of Italy and arranged for his successors to claim the Kingdom themselves, but he failed in keeping the plot hidden that would kill her brother, resulting in her hate towards him for the rest of his life. Fortunately for him, this didn't stop them from having over 5 children.

His greatest achievement was taking territories from the Holy Roman Empire. While his predecessors had always looked at the HRE in fear or hope of an alliance (that never materialized), Morthaetho saw the rival Empire as one that humiliated Cornwall just by its vastness and vowed to show the worth of his own realm now that it had grown substantially while, granted, the HRE had lived for the majority of House Cerneu's relations to the world in a state of turmoil.

While other wars were attempted, they were mere skirmishes to the true First Cornwall-HRE Great War, started on September 19, 1304. Morthaetho chose his tactics well: knowing from history that his enemies tended to ship troops piece-meal to take the capital of Cornwall, he decided to have his main host wait on the British Isles rather than ship them off to Europe. He also even the odds by attempting to make alliances, though many failed, including with Italy, as his wife still hated him for the death of his brother. He did manage to take out Bavaria, one of two of the HRE's allies from the war by negotiating a non-aggression treaty. The HRE initially reacted as Morthaetho predicted, sending around 2000 attackers per trip, however a host of 13,000 arrived in the County of Cornwall itself. It was however greeted by almost 20,000 troops in the Battle of St. Germain, which started on August 10 and ended on September 8 with Cornwall victory. Cornwall registered another major victory at the Battle of Radnor of October 21, with another 6000 German troops being routed by the 18,000 survivors. Another blow, though by no means decisive as the war was already won was the death of current Kaiser Markward von Tyrol in battle on January 25, 1306 by a very member of House Cerneu. On July 10, a peace treaty was signed where his successor agreed to all of Morthaetho's demands.

Though this protected both parties in truce for the next 10 years, Morthaetho saw the chance to help one of his vassals and claim more territories and declared a second Great War on March 9, 1309. Though he won the war on May 15, 1311 he sued for peace too soon, losing his vassals the title they fought for.

Around 1315 he contracted the Great Pox through unknown means and because of it and poor medical care, he died that year on March 3 at 41 years old.

He was succeed by his first son Emperor Ohdear Cerneu.