Chapter 12, The Reign of Gilbra

Gilbra the Weak, 2nd Grand Prince of the Kingdom of Aerdy

Born -215 CY, Died -198 CY

Reigned -206 to -198 CY

Gilbra, -203 CY
Dean-Charles Chapman in The White Queen

The assassination of his father and older brother in Roland left Mikar’s younger son, Gilbra as the successor to the title of Grand Prince. His mother, Hildora remained a prisoner of the cabal of Rolandi nobles who had carried out the treacherous deed. By fortunate happenstance he had remained in Rel Astra instead of accompanying his parents and brother to Roland, which had been meant to show that a Garasteth of Mikar’s line still held the reins of power, even if it was a 9 year old boy. The person to who it fell to act as regent was his 47 year old uncle, Erian, who had always been Mikar’s most trusted aid and general, and had recently been created, Duke of Jalpa. It was his duty to hold the Kingdom of Aerdy together in this tumultuous time.

The Regent’s obvious first course of action was to revenge the death of his brother and sovereign on the Rolandi, and to do this while keeping his nephew safe and protecting his right to the throne. His niece, Lorana and her Naelax husband, the ambitious Hatha the Younger had a 5 year old son, Baldo, who had a clear claim to the throne as the next in line of succession by traditional Oeridian law. Fortunately Mikar had done an admirable job of making clear the threat to the other Celestial Houses the Naelax posed as rivals for the throne, and that house did not have any real support for rebellion. 

Despite this most of the houses remained somewhat ambivalent of the Garasteth cause and many were eager to see that house’s power diminished. When the Regent called for aid, the only ones who answered were the Darmen who were tied closely to the Garasteth by marriage. Near the end of the war against the southern Thellari kingdom, Erian had wed Florula, daughter of the Darmen Prince, Rogeros. She was also a close cousin of the newly created Duke of Kalstrand. The Torquann sent a small contingent of troops to aid in besieging Roland but their prince was more intent on continuing their conquest of the Flan tribes north of the Nallid River. The other houses also were for the most part intent on pursuing their own interests. By Midsummer, the Duke of Jalpa had gathered all the forces he could and was ready to march on Roland. His wife, herself a renowned knight and skilled military commander remained in Rel Astra to act as regent for Gilbra and to keep close watch on the Naelax to the south. The investment of Roland began on the 11^th of Reaping, -206 CY.

Florula, Duchess of Jalpa,
c. 200 CY
Amparo Alcaraz in El Cid (2020)

The siege dragged on into the spring of -205 CY with no end in sight. The Rolandi had been well-supplied to begin with and with few naval forces available to Erian to maintain a blockade the city could not be starved. The stratagem that Erian would finally use to defeat them came from his wife, Florula. A Rel Astran ship captain had captured a Rolandi ship sailing south and during the taking of it his crew had interrupted an envoy trying to burn letters. One partially burned missive had been meant for the Naelax prince, Hatha the Elder, offering to swear fealty to him and turn over the captive Hildora if he would aid them. Florula sent a swift messenger to Erian with a plan to relay a forged agreement from Hatha, saying that he would attack Rel Astra, drawing most of the besieging army away. Erian agreed and the message was sent using a trusted ship’s captain from Fairisle. This was followed by false rumors that a Naelax army was marching on the Garasteth lands. When most of the besieging army seemed to decamp suddenly in the night, the Rolandi set the following day to sally out of the city and attack the camp. When they did so they were surprised to find most of the force had remained hidden in their tents. What had appeared to be a large departing force had been mostly grooms and lesser troops, each bearing two torches to inflate their numbers. One wing of Aerdy cavalry which had been waiting for their chance rushed and took the poorly defended gate to the city. With passage secured, the Garasteth and Darmen soldiers rushed in, falling upon the defenders like wild beasts. The sack was brutal, killing a large part of the population and burning much of the city. Hildora was rescued but her mind had snapped at the latest outrage perpetrated against her. Her infant son had been killed by the Rolandi the month before, his royal blood poured out in sacrifice to Syrul(1) in an attempt to gain her favor in their treacherous plan to forge an alliance with the Naelax. Hildora would never be the same again. All of the Rolandi nobility were replaced with Aerdy knights holding unquestioned loyalty to the Garasteth.

Returning to Rel Astra, Erian oversaw the formal election of Gilbra as Grand Prince of Aerdy by the Diet of the Six Houses and his own formal appointment as regent. The coronation took place in Planting of -205 CY with extreme pomp and celebration. With his nephew’s rule firmly secured, the Regent began planning on the goal he and his brother had set their eyes upon before the latter’s untimely demise; to eliminate the recently reunited Ehlissa as a rival. Such an undertaking would require the full strength of Aerdy and throughout the next few years Erian negotiated the support of most of the other Celestial Houses. The Naelax, though still with the largest contiguous landholdings in the Kingdom, remained bitter over what they felt had been a lack of reward for their participation in the conquest of Thalland.

Landrav, Fasstal of Ehlissa
and Zelrad, -201 CY
Michael Fassbinder in MacBeth (2015)

Ehlissa had continued to succumb to the dominance of the overwhelmingly Zelrad regency which had finally absorbed the last of the other Suloise states to its south, along the eastern coast of the Azure Sea. In -201 Arnoult, the old Zelrad fasstal and Protector of the Realm died. With no surviving children his brother, Landrav became his heir. Landrav, determined to set a new course for Ehlissa forced his young niece, Ehlissa XVI to abdicate and marry him. He declared the two states united, with him as Fasstal of Ehlissa and Zelrad, ruling from Karnosa. His niece forsook the royal name and as his consort was again known by her birth name of Ehlyra. Predictably, a small rebellion broke out among the Flan population but was brutally put down by the Suloise. Thus ended the Queendom of Ehlissa, which up to that point was the oldest nation in the Flanaess. Seeing Ehlissa’s weakened state, Erian launched his long-awaited invasion in the summer of -201 CY. By autumn of that year, Ehlissa east of the Ruksi River had fallen to Aerdy. Many of the smaller, old Suloise houses that had been there since the days of the Zelrad’s first landing in -400 CY had become disillusioned by the focus of their fasstals on the conquest of the lands to the south. They were just as happy to be vassals of the Oeridians as their traditional rulers. With little choice, Landrav signed a treaty with Aerdy, ceding those lands to them(2).

With his uncle’s guidance, the 14 year old grand prince, Gilbra created two duchies out of the newly-conquered lands, Avoharp in the east, awarded to a Cranden noble who ruled from Hexpools, and Serumaran in the west, with a Darmen duke in Zelradton. Collectively the Aerdi began referring to the newly conquered land as Ahlissa. This would be the crowning achievement of Gilbra’s reign and the only thing he is given partial credit for since history tells us by this time he was largely ineffective as a ruler, uninterested in affairs of state. 

Since the age of twelve he had become much enamored of the hunt, and spent most of his time in the stables and kennels of the palace in Rel Astra, issuing forth only to chase deer and boar in the Grandwood. As he aged he did not turn to more kingly pursuits and became known for his practice of excessive drinking and other debauchery. He was more than happy to leave ruling to his uncle and at times his aunt-by-marriage. They spent the rest of Gilbra’s reign concerned with expanding trade and preventing foreign and domestic conflict. Competition between Nehron’s coastal cities and the Duchy of Chathold for the afore-mentioned trade caused conflict between them that sometimes flared into violence. This was further exacerbated by each state’s designs on the lands of the Flannish Lathu Kingdom, which Aerdy had a treaty of peace with. Likewise the southern duchies sometimes skirmished with the union of Ehlissa and Zelrad as well as the Sunndi, and Erian was required to smooth over relations. Also, Inter-house feuding among Aerdy’s princes occasionally flared into conflict. The Torquann-led conquest of the Flan to the north remained supported by the crown and the warlike Erian frequently took part in these campaigns. It was during this time that rumors of the Necromancers of Trask were first heard in Aerdy.

Gilbra's Last Hunt, -198 CY
Portrait of King John Hunting, Statutes of England,
John (1199–1216)–Edward I (1272–1307),
 including Magna Carta, 1215,
14th century

Gilbra remained unmarried and childless, and in -198 CY, at the age of 17 his reign ended ignominiously when he fell off his horse and broke his neck attempting to jump a stream while chasing a stag in the Grandwood. The crown passed to his uncle, though not without challenge as we shall see. Legend says that in gratitude, Erian made it his first act as Grand Prince to outlaw the taking of stags in the Grandwood for ten years. This is most likely false though, as there is no written evidence of this law and it was well known that Erian was very fond of his nephew, despite the young man’s failings. He had spent considerable time and effort trying to see him married in order to continue his brother, Mikar’s line, but without success.

Next Chapter -- The Reign of Erian, Part 1

Art Notes:

Gilbra, -203 CY The young Grand Prince is here seen at the age of 12 on the first and only military campaign he ever took part in, in the autumn of that year. It succeeded in the conquest of a number of Flan tribes west of the Flanmi and north of Dustbridge in what today is the Principality of Darnagal. It was here that the young grand prince got his first taste of hunting, an activity that became an obsession with him. He is seen wearing a solid breastplate, which is not a typical armor of the period and had not seen much use since the end of the Migrations, though it was still common among the Flan warriors of Ehlissa and some other areas of the western Flanaess. This style does not have much in common with those though, being very plain and practical in comparison. It resembles somewhat the form that would come into use at the end of the 5^th century and eventually evolve into the full plate of the 6^th century.

Florula, Duchess of Jalpa, c. 200 CY The wife of Erian and daughter of Prince Rogeros of the Darmen. Shield maidens, though infrequent by this time among the Aerdi, were still in evidence and Florula is a perfect example. As a young woman she fought in the pacification of the Naelax prior to the founding of the Kingdom of Aerdy, and then in the conquest of both Thellari kingdoms. She is seen here a bit older taking part in the one of the frequent campaigns against the northern Flan. She is described as having been a large woman, as tall as her husband though small compared to her brothers, hulking knights known as the Four Giants, each of whom died in battle before seeing the heights to which their sister would ultimately ascend.

Landrav, Fasstal of Ehlissa and Zelrad, -201 CY  In a house noted for a number of villainous figures, Landrav stands out. While the early legal systems of Oeridians in the Post-Migrations period allowed for multiple spouses, Suloise law left over from the Empire strictly limited individuals to one spouse, granting generous and specific rights to any spouse who was divorced. Landrav, seeking to marry his niece to legitimize his rule as the fasstal of a united Ehlissan-Zelrad state, is strongly rumored to have killed his first wife, Lodosinda to facilitate those nuptials. Never mind the ethics of forcing a marriage with his own niece. It is even said that he poisoned his brother, Arnoult to gain the title of Fasstal of the Zelrad. The crown he wears is Ehlissan in basic style, though the designs carved on the wyvern bone pieces are Suloise in style. Bone from the wyverns who roosted in the Headlands and Iron Hills was frequently used in decoration among the Ehlissan nobility and was a symbol of power and majesty.

Gilbra's Last Hunt, -198 CY Here the young king is depicted on the fateful hunt that claimed his life, in an illuminated manuscript from the 4^th century, Annals of the Grand Princes of the Kingdom of Aerdy, by Edron Grelden. Grelden’s reputation as an historian is somewhat tarnished by his frequent echoing of base gossip. He repeated that of Erian’s supposed animosity toward his nephew, even embellishing it by adding a rumor that Gilbra had been plied with strong wine just before the hunt by an agent of his uncle, the Regent. This is of course as ridiculous as all of the other similar tales.

End Notes:

1. The Suel goddess of Lies, Deceit, Treachery, and False Promises. Her holy symbol is a forked tongue.

2. Living Naerie Gazetteer (LNG) p. 9 “-200 CY (approx.): Aerdy, led by Cranden and Darmen princes, conquers large portions of the 'crumbling' Flan Kingdom of Ehlissa. Queen Ehlyra marries Landrav, a Zelrad prince, who takes power, declaring himself the first Fasstal of Ehlissa. After signing a treaty with the Aerdi, Landrav cedes all of Ehlissa east of the Iron Hills to Aerdy, retaining the lands of Naerie and the Ehlissan heartlands in the Iron Hills and eastern Headlands around the city of Karnosa.”