Arthur, Prince of Eirias

By his mistress:
Peronnelle of Eirias

**Arthur, Prince of Eirias** was a Breton prince and nobleman.

**[Rewriting]**

He was the younger of Henri the Restorer's two sons, made lord over the peak of Eirias by his father in 3E 260 at the age of seven. He was the first Prince of Eirias in the Third Era.

Arthur was a man of consequence within and without his native Arian. By his efforts, his kingdom was brought into league with the power of the day and by his campaigns the Reachmen of Cragdale were made to submit to his nephew Henri XIX.

The Prince was a polymath, studied in subjects from history to law and trained in arts magical and martial. He was a grandson of Coeth and inherited the scholarly tradition of his forebears from his mother; herself said to be among the best educated people in the realm.

For most of his life, Arthur was an opponent of the Three Queens. In particular, he rivalled with the Queen Mother Theodolinde despite having once been her closest friend at court. When his brother Henri XVIII died, she commanded Arthur to gather and slay the King's illegitimate children. When he refused, he was exiled from the court.

Arthur took with him those known baseborn sons and daughters of the King that he could find, forever embittering himself with the Queen Mother. His reputation was attacked and tarnished, and it was not until his successes in Cragdale that this was reversed.

Arthur relied a great deal upon these illegitimate nephews and nieces. He especially depended on his nephews Red Henri, Pierre, and Charles, to govern his realm and aid in his ambitions. He paid significant fees to tutors for their education and was repaid by their loyal service.

## **Biography**

### **Early Years**

The Prince was born in the Silver City, palace of the High King in Arian, on 7th Sun’s Dusk 3E 253; an auspicious date shared with Arthur the Old. Under the light of the stars, crowned by a wreath of phoenix feathers per the custom of his House, he was given his ancestor’s name.

Arthur was the younger of two sons born to Henri the Restorer and his queen Emma. He was to be raised in the palace, near to but not alongside his brother, and came to enjoy the tutelage of innumerable scholars seeking patronage in Arian. He was nurtured in the tradition of his forebears, reading subjects suc h as law, history, mathematics, and alchemy. He was taught to use a sword and ride a horse, to shoot a bow, and to don armour. These martial skills were honed once he moved to live at Castle Cirnau.

At the age of seven, not yet a squire, Arthur was made Prince of Eirias by his father. The title, long defunct, was newly restored in a bid to strengthen the King against his two other subject and dynastic Princes. Actual governance of the eponymous Mount Eirias and its surrounding territories remained with royal officials, ministers drawn from the court, until Arthur came of age. In fact, it was not until then that he ever visited his lands.

The Prince of Eirias was just ten when his father died, stolen by a plague that ravaged his body in only a fortnight. He was present at his father’s side, along with his brother and the rest of his family, the gathered noblemen, and a number of ministers. Arthur’s brother Henri was quickly seated on their father’s throne.

Significant flooding followed soon after the late King’s death. The bards attributed the catastrophe to the tears of the Restorer’s subjects. Others viewed the floods as divine warning against, even condemnation of, the new King. The floods for the first time paused the Restorer’s great agricultural project and vast swathes of farming land were purchased by silk merchants. In his memoirs, Arthur concluded that the floods were the work of corrupt officials. In particular, he named the minister Charles Rougeux.

There was some consternation in the palace that Arthur might seek to take his brother’s throne, or that he would be brought to it by usurpers acting on his behalf. He showed greater talent and, more concerningly, greater ambition than Henri. Many wondered what would happen if the boy one day declared that he would walk through the flames of the phoenix in his brother’s stead and whether the King would even attempt to stop him. It was decided that Arthur should be sent away, first to Castle Cirnau and then later to Seren.

Arthur came into the service of his distant relation Prince Alberic XII of Seren. Though this appointment was undoubtedly prestigious, his cousin the hero of wars and legends, it was also undoubtedly a relegation. Alberic, mythic though his status was, was a man already past seventy; he was a relic of a bygone age, subject now of no fewer than four kings. Arthur could little hope to leave the halls of Seren, let alone ride in any battle.

This exclusion to the lavish but distant palace severed the young Prince from attaining any early martial feats. It instilled in him, however, patience, loyalty, and perseverance.

### **Coronation of Henri XVIII**

In 3E 271, the council of regents that governed the realm on the King’s behalf formally relinquished its powers. Arthur’s brother was to be crowned a second time, marking the beginning of his reign proper. The Prince, recently knighted by Alberic, travelled to the capital with his guardian to attend. Henri did not welcome Arthur’s return with pomp or ceremony, neither did he make arrangements for his stay. The Prince of Eirias was scandalously left to spend his first night in the city, not in the palace, paying rent for lodgings. Sir Blaise Lamarque, sent by the Queen Mother, retrieved Arthur in the morning.

Arthur found his mother far more welcoming. The two frequently wrote to one another, but had not met in person for almost a decade. He additionally met his uncle, the Lord of Coeth, for the first time. A year later, Lord Henri would be dead. Emma apologised on her son’s behalf, who once more snubbed Arthur by not meeting him when he entered the palace. *‘The King is often distracted,’* she told him, *‘Even from his own mother.’*

   The King’s *distractions* quickly revealed themselves. Arthur encountered a dozen or so strange women wandering here and there in the palace, each protected by knights in mithril. Each one seemed a queen and ministers bowed as they passed by, but no news of his brother marrying or taking a *maîtresse-en-titre* had ever reached Seren.

When he finally came to his brother, led to a hidden balcony by his mother, Arthur found the King enjoying a performance by court minstrels. He greeted Henri, did not speak of the insults dealt him, and sat to watch the play. That same evening, Henri walked through the pyres lit by his ancestor. He was then crowned the next morning before the court, then he appeared before the people at noon.

Arthur was little more than a spectator, watching as King Aymar I’s crown was placed on Henri’s head, hearing his words to court and then to country. A week later, Arthur left for Seren once more.

### **Journey to Eirias**

In 3E 274, Arthur left the court of Seren for his own in Eirias. He arrived on the eve of his twenty-first birthday, celebrating it the next day as the *ruling* Prince of Eirias. Castle Certh was abuzz, split between those gladdened by the Prince’s arrival and those still clinging to the authority the Restorer gave them.

Arthur did not, though he was expected to, embark upon weeks of diplomacy and politicking to win his seat. He neither debated nor negotiated with *the squatters*. Instead, the Prince simply ignored the court ministers and began to lord over his land. Dual government could only last so long. At the first sign of conflict, when the Prince commanded one thing and the ministers another, the latter finally surrendered.

The King was apathetic, favouring neither side. When his ministers returned to the palace protesting their expulsion, they found him utterly uninterested. Henri was not concerned with Arthur’s move against his representatives, even if it was by extension a move against himself. The Prince was pleased, for he had proven he could act as he desired.

The following year, Arthur led a chevauchee into the Kingdom of Cigfrain. He cited as his justification attacks on villages under his protection, though the King of Cigfrain protested that he was not behind them.

### **Subjugation of Cigfrain**

What began as a punitive expedition quickly morphed into a more significant conflict. Arthur led a campaign of terror through the hills and valleys of Cigfrain, driving peasants into the towns. He was met with little resistance, evading those lords that did ride out to meet him. Turmoil in the Kingdom, some of whose nobility was already in open revolt, rendered its defences impotent.

In the palace, Arthur was censured as a rogue subject. Even the Queen Mother could not justify his war, excessive and illegitimate as it was. Messengers reached the Prince’s company every few days, commanding him to halt his incursion at a given point; by their arrival, however, he was already beyond that point.

The palace, unable to restrict the Prince, was forced to adopt the conflict he had triggered. Opponents of the *reckless prince*, ministers who had been expelled from Eirias, saw opportunity to damn him however. Arthur received a decree commanding him to subjugate the King of Cigfrain, to force his fealty to Henri as High King. The Prince of Eirias was ill-equipped and ill-prepared for all-out war.

For all of a year, Arthur struggled mightily to bring the King of Cigfrain to heel. He did not wash the stains of blood from his clothes and armour, declaring he would not until he had attained victory. Though victory he attained, the Prince suffered terrible losses in the conflict. All but one of his captains, nine out of ten, were killed in the fighting.

Arthur returned to the city of Arian still wearing his bloodied garb. He presented the King with Cigfrain’s surrender.

### **Career at Court**

To the dismay of the court, the King was pleased with Arthur’s victory. He saw fit to reward the Prince with office. On the counsel of the Grand High Chancellor, Arthur was named Surveyor of the King’s Pictures.

Arthur was once more stunted by stagnant prestige: he organised the King’s paintings and tapestries, consulted with artists in the King’s employ, and so came to govern some of the fashion of the court. Beyond this, the Prince was essentially powerless.

#### **Royal Wedding**

    In conjunction primarily with the Master of Ceremonies, Arthur was responsible for decorating the palace in preparation for the King’s marriage to the lady Theodolinde of Starry Haven. He commissioned several great tapestries to line the walls, each depicting the kings and queens of old in splendour.

During this time, Arthur became a close friend to Theodolinde, who was herself often the patron of the same artists he was now required to meet. This friendship was first organic and then cultivated, for both sought in one another political alliance. Soon after the royal wedding, Arthur became more relevant in the politics of the court. He exerted his influence through the Queen, who in turn used him against the court ministers. Arthur enjoyed several appointments by the patronage of Theodolinde.

#### **Conflict with the Grand High Chancellor**

As ally to the Queen, Arthur necessarily became enemy to the court ministers who so detested her. He came into frequent conflict with Aimery, the Grand High Chancellor, who was now prime minister for almost thirty years. The bitterest of these conflicts was fought over possession of the Crown Prince.

The Queen was not content that her son should be raised by her own opponents, despite the usual place of the heir being with the King’s ministers. While her husband continued to lavish himself with mistresses, showing little interest in his first and only legitimate child, Theodolinde schemed to oust the court’s tutors so that they might be replaced with her own.

Arthur supported the Queen in this. He had not forgotten how these same ministers had slighted him, plotted against him, or how they had expelled him from the palace as a boy. The Prince met with the King often, once even boldly asking that *he* be given the privilege of directing his nephew’s education. Henri was disinclined to act, disinterested in the rivalries of the court.

The Prince and Prime Minister finally clashed openly when Arthur, knights of the Shining Host in tow, attempted to seize his nephew from his chambers. The two men, with their two companies, almost came to blows in the hallways of the palace. It was only by the intervention of the Queen Mother, who scolded her son and demanded he and his knights lay down their arms, that no massacre of either side occurred. The cold silence that followed was undeniably a victory for the ministers, in whose possession the crown prince firmly remained.

Arthur’s humiliation was great but not beyond the point of recovery. He abandoned his quest to claim the crown prince and, though he had failed the Queen, committed himself to the bolstering of his family above all others at court.

Knowing that her own son was beyond her reach, that her husband was more committed to his many mistresses than his lawful wife, and that the Grand High Chancellor’s grip could not yet be broken, Theodolinde fled to the country. Arthur begged the Queen to remain in the capital, that she maintain appearances, but was denied.

#### **Death of Henri XVIII**

Arthur’s relationship with his brother grew strangely positive following the Queen’s self-exile. He became one of Henri’s confidants, called upon almost nightly at times to discuss the King’s dreams. Arthur wrote in his memoirs that on the last night of 3E 279 the King foresaw his own death. The next day, the first of the new year and the King's birthday, Henri was discovered to have died during his sleep.

There was some speculation among chroniclers that the King had been murdered. Henri was healthy, aged just twenty-nine, and no record of any disease in the court could be found. These speculations *remained* speculations. Henri was swiftly replaced by his son.

Learning that her husband had died, the Queen immediately returned to court. She approached Arthur and asked of him a terrible favour: to gather the King’s illegitimate children and their mothers, and to kill them all. When the Prince refused, calling it an evil, Theodolinde reminded him of his war in Cigfrain. *‘There are no evils,’* she said to him, *‘only that which is necessary and that which is not.’*

Arthur remained unwilling to carry out this mission. When he refused the Queen a second time, she commanded him by her authority. When he refused a third time, she cast him out of the palace. Informal exile followed and Arthur was thrown back to his lands in Eirias.

Before he left, Arthur found all the known mistresses and baseborn children of the late King. He took them with him to his seat at Castle Certh, forever embittering Theodolinde against him. His illegitimate relations came to be raised by his own maîtresse-en-titre, while their mothers largely vanished into the temples.

### **Retreat to Eirias**

Arthur’s expulsion from the palace was quickly followed by a string of attacks on his character. His name was one more censured as the Queen absorbed significant sections of the court in the aftermath of her husband’s death. Arthur was accused of corruption and dishonesty and worse. *‘Will no man right the vices and villainies of this ragged prince?’* the Queen once asked the palace courtiers.

Theodolinde assumed an informal regency on her son’s behalf. In the following weeks, her influence only grew.

#### **The League of Princes**

Fearing a more real wrath now that the Queen had entrenched herself, Arthur sought to create an alliance with his fellow Princes. To this end, he first approached Enguerrand V, the aged Prince of Cyfnos. Enguerrand, whose reputation a man of unbending will was unparalleled, had once sought to rejoin his house to royalty by wedding his eldest daughter Cecile to the King. That he was refused had stung the lord bitterly and he held a personal grudge against the Queen who stole his daughter’s place.

Enguerrand was willing to enleague himself with Arthur, but required that the Prince marry his daughter Eleanor; the youngest of his daughters, still unwed, born to his second marriage. Though he initially hoped to form a union with Enguerrand without a marriage, Arthur agreed. He travelled to Cyfnos, meeting for the first time and marrying Eleanor on the same day.

Arthur looked next to Seren, where he had been raised by Prince Alberic. His guardian still lived, now approaching ninety, and Arthur much more easily secured a pact.

This League of Princes agreed to support each other against any foe, even the Queen Mother Theodolinde (which was to say *the crown*).

#### **Consolidation of Power**

Now content with his security, supported by his fellow noblemen, Arthur embarked upon a strategy of consolidation. Wherever he could, he replaced court officials with his own and usurped royal authority whenever possible. The inspectors of farms were to be his picks, the taxmen in the villages too. In just a few years, the Prince transformed his lands from a royal outpost into an autonomous power of its own.

Arthur applied the laws of his father, so relaxed in the reign of his brother, stringently. Corruption was to be the penultimate crime, second only to treason. Those found to have received bribery were publicly humiliated, their careers made realistically irreparable. The Prince was remarkably just, refusing against the advice of his councillors to use these punishments against his (innocent) opponents in the Principality.

Several castles were constructed, small keeps usually occupying hillocks in the valley, so that Arthur’s rule could be asserted.

#### **Patronage of Artists and Scholars**

In addition to his campaigning for power, Arthur sought to increase the prestige of his fledgling lordship. He personally wrote to a number from the college in Coeth, offering to sponsor their work in his own Principality of Eirias. Arthur commissioned many books and paintings, songs and statues, and began to fill the still barren halls of Castle Certh.

Most, in fact, refused the Prince’s offer, disinclined to leave Coeth or Arian. Those that accepted his patronage, however, found themselves lavishly rewarded with both wealth and preferment: things difficult to receive in busier courts.

**[Rewriting]**

## **Notes**

1. ↑ Princes belonging to the Galan dynasty wore crowns of phoenix feathers to signify their rank.
2. ↑ The Princes of Cyfnos and Seren.
3. ↑ Charles Rougeux was responsible for the maintenance of all flood defences in the Kingdom. Arthur asserted that he, in collusion with silk merchants, caused the flooding by damaging these defences.
4. ↑ On a number of occasions throughout the history of the Kingdom, secondary heirs took the throne in place of the Crown Prince or Princess. This was legitimised by completing the rituals introduced by King Tancred of old.
5. ↑ Prince Alberic XII was Arthur's first cousin twice removed.
6. ↑ Prince Alberic XII lived through the reigns of seven Kings: Arthur XII, Aymar II, Aymar III, Aymar IV, Henri XVII, Henri XVIII, and HenrI XIX. Following the victory of Henri the Restorer, he was said to have lived through five: Arthur XII, Arthur XIII, Henri XVII, Henri XVIII, and Henri XIX.
7. ↑ A *maîtresse-en-titre* was an official (and legitimate) mistress.
8. ↑ It is indeed unlikely the King of Cigfrain sponsored any attack on villages in Arian. Whether or not Arthur actually knew this was a subject of debate among historians.
9. ↑ Arthur's actions in the Kingdom of Cigfrain, which involved the razing of villages, earned him a terrifying reputation. His mother was especially horrified.
10. ↑ Theodolinde became exceptionally paranoid, at first justifiably so, when she learned her husband's many illegitimate children had been taken by Arthur. For years, she feared he sought to depose her own son. These fears were shown to be misplaced, for Arthur never contested his nephew's rule.