Rudolf VI, king of Rothenia

Rudolf Robert Maxim Elpherg-Rassendyll (B. 1988) son of Rudolf Fitz-James Leopold, 13th Earl of Burlesdon (D. 1997) and Eugenia, daughter of Alejandro Carlos Luis Jacobo Fitz-James y Toledo, 12th Duke of Munster and La Coruña. Educated: Palmers Preparatory School co. Surrey to 2001, Eton College, 2001-2005, King Edward VI School Medwardine, 2005-2007. University: Oxford, St Johns College, 2007-2010, BA 1st Class, PPE. MA (2011). Married Harriet, Queen of Rothenia, daughter of Richard Peacher. Children: Maxim II King of Rothenia; Leopold, Duke of Radelngrad; Osra, Princess of Rothenia.

## Restoration of the Rothenian Monarchy

This key event is sketched out in **HHP**. The crisis in the Maritz administration in 2004-5 led to a rise in monarchist sentiment in the Rothenian Third Republic in the face of a dangerous resurgence of hard right groups with connections to the former totalitarian Horvarth regime and raised also fears of a military coup.  An astute and well-funded campaign masterminded during this period by a  group around the media magnate Willem Vincent played on these fears and exploited the abiding Elphberg loyalism still strong in the northern provinces of Rothenia.  The deployment of the internet in the monarchist cause gave it a particular attraction to younger age groups.  Rudolf Elphberg-Rassendyll and his advisers projected his candidature as the sole hope of national unity and reform.  An attempted assassination of the earl on his arrival in Rothenia in the spring of 2006 was traced to agents of the former Communist secret service, the  *Okranske Deinst* (ORD) and was counterproductive to the anti-Maritz faction.  The incoming Trachtenberg regime adopted the monarchist cause and the Elphberg party's coup in producing the national symbol, the *Tassilisnerkron*, in the course of the election campaign led to an overwhelming popular reaction in favour of restoration.  Rudolf was proclaimed king of Rothenia in Easter Week 2005 and the Elphberg banner was raised once more over the Residenz of Strelzen.

## The Horde Wars

The restored Elphberg monarchy underlined the Rothenian commitment to the principles of the EU and NATO.  Rothenian troops fought and took casualties in some numbers in NATO's Afghan campaign.  King Rudolf's commitment to the organisation and his personal reputation in the wake of the terrorist attack on Rothenia during 2014 (**GS**) led to his unprecedented appointment as civil and military chief of the organisation as anti-Western forces began to coalesce under the emperor of the Horde, Malik-Ramu.  It was as a consequence of this that King Rudolf abdicated in favour of his eldest son, Maxim II, in 2015 (**TR**).  Rudolf took the title of Prince of Elphberg.  The subsequent invasion of the Balkans and the military defeat of the Horde in the battle of the Starel Gap placed the former King Rudolf in a unique position and propelled him into the leadership of the West and made him the visionary founder of the Oecumene (**TF**).  The kingdom of Rothenia was to become the secondary title of the Emperor of the West, Rudolf's title after his inauguration as hereditary monarch of the Oecumene, with his court resident in Istanbul.