Duke Charles Olivarden the Elder

Portrait of Duke Charles shortly after the Gardener Rebellion, circa 63 CE.

### Relatives

Duke Charles Olivarden I (father deceased)Duchess Felice Olivarden (mother, deceased)

Vikar Olivarden (brother, deceased)

Ser Damian Olivarden (uncle, deceased)

Duchess Armina Olivarden (wife, deceased)

Duke Geoffrey Olivarden (son, deceased)

Ser Charles Olivarden the Younger (son, deceased)

Felix Olivarden (son, deceased)

### Affiliation

FleurHouse WilemDuchy of VerdenHouse Olivarden

## Physical description

### Eye color

Green

**Duke Charles Olivarden the Elder** or **Duke Charles Olivarden II** was the ruling duke of the Duchy of ---- for thirty years as well as the Lord of House Olivarden. He was one of the key players in the Gardener Rebellion, a succession crisis caused by his fathering of a supposed bastard, Charles the Pretender.

## Biography

Charles was born on the 3rd of Shados 10 CE to his father, Duke Charles Olivarden I, and his mother, Duchess Felice Olivarden. As their eldest son, Charles was brought up to succeed his father as Duke of ---. Like his brother, Vikar Olivarden, Charles proved young to be skilled at the sword, doing well in the yard. He squired starting at the age of ten for his uncle, Ser Damian Olivarden. He was knighted by Queen Isabella Wilem of Flowers in 26 CE.

In early Attep of 28 CE, while traveling to Wilemberg on summons from Queen Isabella Wilem of Flowers, the then Ser Charles Olivarden was stopped in a town called Oakgrove, for a great oak tree grew there. At the tavern where he and his party stayed, he met a young barmaid called Elisia Fair-Welcome, an orphan woman of seventeen. Being crafty, the young knight Charles eloped with the woman into the night where they slept together beneath the great oak tree. He promised to return for her after his father's duties were done in the capitol, but he never did. A year later, young Elisia gave birth to a baby boy she called Charles Olivarden, after his father.

From 30 to 39 CE, Ser Charles would live at Evermere in Wilemberg as a member of the queen's Lily Knights. His service was uneventful and upon hearing of his father's failing health, he was dismissed from service to begin his rule of Oligarden and the Duchy of ---. When Duke Charles Olivarden I died on 20th Nordren 39, Charles soon replaced him, becoming Duke Charles Olivarden II on 1st Korvos 39. He married Armina --- several months later, on the 3rd of Kaltan. Duchess Armina Olivarden gave him a son the following year, called Geoffrey. In 42, she would bear him another son called Charles and a final son called Felix in 45. Duke Charles, now called the Elder, ruled comfortably from Oligarden for nearly twenty years.

### The Gardener Rebellion

Throughout his time as Duke, Charles the Elder would receive letters from Elisia Fair-Welcome and her son, the hedge knight, Charles. These letters begged Charles to recognize his bastard as his legitimate heir, as Elisia claimed the two had been married in secret beneath the great oak tree that night in Oakgrove. Duke Charles ignored these letters, claiming he had no recollection of Elisia and that her bastard did not belong to him. Recognizing that Charles would never be legitimized without force, so the two decided to present their claims to one of House Olivarden's vassals, House Oster. The Oster's hated the Olivardens for capturing the seat they claimed as their own and agreed to secretly fund and bolster Charle's forces to rebel against Duke Charles the Elder. While Charles the Pretender garnered support among the peasants who resented Olivarden's handling of the Famine of 56, Elisia preached in the streets of Charle's deception, of how his trueborn heir was left to live among the commoners so that he could enjoy his cavalier life of pleasures. By late 59 CE, a force large enough to challenge the Olivardens had been assembled.

On 18 Priyat 59 CE, Charles the Pretender raided the small town of Eastbrook, where a tax collection office had been established. The men who worked under the Pretender wore commoner's clothing, thus they were mistaken for gardeners lending to the name, the Gardener Rebellion. When Duke Charles heard of this clear attack on his peace, he became furious, dispatching his brother Ser Vikar Olivarden with a host east to stop what he assumed to be a band of raiding marauders. When Ser Vikar arrived with his host, Eastbrook had been raised and they found the body of the Olivarden tax collector, hanged in the center of the town with a letter attached to his bare chest. It said:

*"Look upon the blasted remains of once Eastbrook and tremble*

*Within a year what ye see here will be the fate of all --- if the Liar does not acknowledge his crimes*

*I will smite down every last thread of thy works before I accept anything less than legitimization.*

*Do not dally, Liar.*

*-Charles of Oakengrove, Trueborn son of Duke Charles Olivarden II, Heir of Oligarden"*

When Ser Vikar relayed the message to Duke Charles he laughed. He tossed the letter to the floor and commanded that Vikar "Bring him the head of this pretender within a fortnight, that all may know the price of rebellion. Ser Vikar amassed a larger force and left for the east at the start of Dagotep, 60 CE. Meanwhile, Duke Charles began to spread information about Charles the Pretender as he was now known, making sure that every town along the coast knew his words were lies. Heavy snows held up Vikar's party and they did not make it to east --- until the 12th of Holeaum. They found the peasantry there unwilling to talk, hostile, or otherwise missing. The party, a good twenty knights and thirty footmen, rested in the empty village of Kurth. While several parties were out scouting, the town was ambushed by the Pretender's forces. Nearly everyone was killed, save for Ser Vikar and two knights who fled while returning from scouting. When word of their failure reached Duke Charles, he was furious. He ordered all his forces be gathered, that his vassals provide all their retinues, and that the whole of his men march east to slaughter the Pretender. He sent his two eldest sons to lead their own hosts.

Fighting began in full in the summer of 60 CE, when Charles the Elder's men met the Pretender's forced en route west towards Three Hills. The forces met and the battle ended in a slight victory for the Pretender. It was apparent during this battle that the Pretender was no mere peasant and that his skills at commanding a force even of unskilled men was beyond anything the Olivardens had expected. Fleeing, the host established themselves at Birch, fortifying the towns existing walls and using Castle Birch as a vantage point to survey the surrounding flat lands. Duke Charles himself arrived at the castle on 35 Attep. He began to send out forces to meet the Pretenders from Birch. On the 14th of Netep, the Battle of the Cairn took place, in which the Pretender himself led a charge of forty horsed knights against thirty-three Olivarden knights led by Ser Geoffrey Olivarden. Among the forces was his brother, Charles the Younger. It is said that during this battle, Charles the Pretender chased Charles the Younger across the field, jumping his horse over dying men to strike the young lordling down. His body was not retrieved by the Olivardens, instead being taken by the Pretender to be held as ransom.

Charles the Elder was distraught to hear of his son's death. He nearly rode to meet the Pretender on the field himself in response, but his retainers stopped him. His fury knew no bounds and in his rage he screamed threats and cursed the bastard's name from the top of Birch's tower. After four days shut up in the tower, he opened the doors and demanded a meeting with the Pretender.

Charles the Elder and Charles the Pretender met on the field near Ivan's Cairn on the 29th of Netep, where the Pretender had struck down his son. The Pretender and Duke spoke for only twelve minutes, in which time no peace was made. The Pretender addressed Charles the Younger as his brother, infuriating the Duke. When asked what must be done to receive his son's remains, the Pretender said that he only had to recognize him as his true heir. To this, the Duke laughed in his face, telling Charles he'd rather face the forces of all the North before legitimizing a lowborn bastard of another man. In response, the Pretender told Charles, most famously that "For each month that passes, thou shalt ask more from me, but mine offer shall remain the same. When thy brother and mine brothers' bodies lie before thee, will you accept then?" The meeting ended there.

The tides turned in the favor of Duke Charles after this meeting, as he himself began to lead his forces in battle from his tent beyond the field. With the element of surprise no longer on the side of the Pretender, his unskilled forces struggled to match the strength of Olivarden's knights. Of course, there were curious knights joining the forces of the Pretender everyday, with strange arms on their shields unknown to the Fleurians. The Olivardens theorized they were sellswords, mercenaries from Korevna or Media brought in from the east. They made it no easy task, but by Cernon the Pretender seemed to be wavering.

Fighting stalled throughout the winter of 60 and into 61 CE. When the snows melted in Holeaum, members of both hosts met several miles outside of Birch, near a large orchard called Hallard's. A battle broke out, one in which the Olivardens commander and brother of the Duke, Ser Vikar Olivarden was slain in combat with the Pretender. The remaining forces fled towards Birch but were struck down by the Pretender's men. Once again, the body of Vikar was recovered by the Pretender. Enraged, Charles the Elder's humiliation was only further enforced by a letter from Queen Minerva Wilem, simply telling him to handle his bastard before she arrived herself. Fearing the wrath of the queen, Charles took all his men and prepared for one final fight. On the 9th of Holeaum 61 CE, the Pretender's forces met the Olivardens outside of Birch.

During the fight, Charles the Elder's youngest son, Felix Olivarden was struck down, though this was not known to him until after the fighting had stopped. Charles engaged in the fighting himself, striking down many on the field. However, it would be his retainer, a knight of House Olivarden called Ser Michael Redscythe, who killed the Pretender. The two were engaging in single combat, when Ser Michael landed a blow on the Pretender's side, spilling his intestines across the back of his horse. Ser Michael hacked off his head there, holding it up by its long brown hair in his left hand as he road down fleeing Gardener forces. The Olivardens had finally stamped out the rebellion.

### After the Gardener Rebellion

Duke Charles was devastated by the loss of his sons and brother as well as humiliated by the time it took to quell the rebellion. Returning to Oligarden, he had the head of the Pretender paraded on a spike through each town they passed. Along with the desiccated body of Charles the Pretender, his captured mother, Elisia, was dragged barefoot and in chains to Oligarden where she was hanged. Finally at peace, Charles began to rebuild his Duchy. He imposed harsh punishments on those found to be Gardener sympathizers, offering rewards in gold lilies to whoever turned in a neighbor or brother. He harried the town of Oakengrove so that nothing grows there to this day. However, when he tried to have the great oak there chopped down, he found no axe would penetrate its bark so he ordered it burned instead. Its charred husk remains there, adorned with small poppets and trinkets. To ensure he could not be worshiped as a saint, Charles had the Pretender's corpse and possessions burnt and scattered to the winds. After all was done, he rested.

Charles the Elder ruled another eight years at Oligarden, repairing the rift of his Duchy somewhat through lighter taxing of all peasants and an investigation into Charles that proved he was the bastard son of a stable hand and Elisia. He died in 69 CE on the 3rd of Kaltan with his only surviving son, Geoffrey by his side. He was survived by his wife and son.

## Appearance

Charles Olivarden II was an average sized man with dark brown hair and green eyes. His nose was crooked from an early melee and his teeth equally jutted at odd angles. He had slightly tanned skin, common to those close to the River Lands. In his old age he became somewhat fat, though still capable in battle.