House of Aldric
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This article or section is a work in progress. The information below may be incomplete, outdated, or subject to change. |
| Country |  Ransenarformerly  Shireroth
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| Place of origin | Zolt, Goldshire |
| Progenitor | Nóe Aldric |
| Founder as royal house | Ruadh I |
| Founded (AN) | 1711 AN (accession to the throne of Ransenar) |
| Current head | Cosgrach I |
| Heir apparent | Crown Prince Hartmut |
| Cadet branches | Aldric of Teldrin |
The House of Aldric is the reigning royal house of the Kingdom of Ransenar, a constituent Realm of the Benacian Union. It has held the Ransenari throne since the accession of Ruadh I in 1711 AN, and its present head is Cosgrach I, who reigns as King and Szodan of the Realm. The house is Goldshirian in origin, descending from the untitled Aldric family of Zolt in Goldshire, and rose to prominence in the service of the Imperial Republic of Shireroth before transplanting itself to Ransenar during the collapse of Shirerithian authority in the Benacian northwest.
The dynasty takes its name and much of its political prestige from Hartmut Aldric, Duke of Calezi (1613 AN to 1667 AN), Steward of Shireroth and founding figurehead of Aldricism, although it does not descend from him. Hartmut died without issue, and the royal line instead runs through his much younger half-brother Ruadh, who governed Ransenar first as Regent and Lord Protector and was raised to the throne by the Ransenari Congress at Ransenar's accession to the Benacian Union. The persistent conflation of the house with the childless Steward, common in Ransenari usage, stems from the deliberate homage the reigning line pays to his memory, including in the name of the current heir apparent.
The House of Aldric is closely bound to the Imperial Democratic Party, the hegemonic party of Ransenari politics, within which the conservative and monarchist "Aldric school" defends the dynasty's position. The house is not connected to Saint Aldric of Anglien, a Nazarene martyr venerated in the Free Duchy of Anglien, with whom it shares only a common given name.[1]
Origins
The Aldrics were an untitled landholding family of Zolt in Goldshire, one of the historic counties of the Imperial Republic of Shireroth.[2] The progenitor of the house, Nóe Aldric, held the family estate at Zolt and was noted for the Alexandrian tutor he retained for his household, Georgio Ducruet, who is credited with instilling the values of industry and perseverance that the family later made central to its self-image.[3] The Goldshirian homeland of the family — the mercantile port of Zolt and the county of Elsyran to which it belonged — later lent its older place-names to the kingdom the dynasty would come to rule: Ransenar itself, and counties such as Elsenar, recall the Rannish and Elsenari peoples of the Goldshirian northwest.[4]
Nóe Aldric married twice. His first marriage, to Cristin Ní Fionnghalaigh, produced Hartmut, the son who carried the family into the high nobility of Shireroth. A second marriage late in Nóe's life, to Sorcha Ní Bhraonáin, produced Ruadh, born in 1654 AN, more than four decades after his half-brother. It is from this younger, cadet issue of the family, rather than from the celebrated Steward, that the royal house descends.
The Steward and the name
Hartmut Aldric, Duke of Calezi, was the most eminent member of the family in the seventeenth century. Rising through the counties of Elsyran and Suthergold, he served as Regent of Shireroth from 1656 AN to 1661 AN and as Steward of the Imperial Republic from 1663 AN until his assassination in Brookshire in 1667 AN.[5] He endorsed and then led the Imperial Democratic Party, and the body of liberal and civic-nationalist thought later systematized as Aldricism took his name and his tenure as its point of reference.
Hartmut left no children. His long attachment was to Audun Joel, twin brother of Noah of Elsenar. Audun Joel died in 1651 AN, and the dukedom of Calezi became extinct at Hartmut's own death for want of an heir.[6] The royal house that now bears the Aldric name therefore honors him as its founding intellectual patron and namesake without claiming descent from his person. The reigning line has repeatedly renewed that homage, most visibly in naming the present heir apparent for him.
Rise in Ransenar
The transplantation of the Aldrics to Ransenar was the work of Hartmut's half-brother Ruadh. After the Steward's death and the wider disintegration of Shirerithian authority known as the Kalirion Fracture, the party machine of the Imperial Democratic Party in Goldshire, led by Sean O'Callaghan together with the young Ruadh, survived the collapse of central government and reconstituted itself as the political spine of a new state in the northwest.[7]
When the Ransenari Congress proclaimed the Kingdom of Ransenar in 1673 AN, the infant Kaiseress Salome was declared Queen as a figurehead, and Ruadh Aldric was appointed Regent and Lord Protector, with the title Count of Teldrin, to govern in her minority.[8] Ruadh took an active hand in government during his regency, lobbying the Congress through the financial rescue of 1680 AN and later appearing as a witness in the inquiry into the cash-for-peerages scandal of 1682 AN and 1683 AN.[9]
Over the following decades the Congress moved to sever the Ransenari crown from the House of Ayreon-Kalirion altogether. The Crown was first offered beyond Ransenar, to Vadoma I of Western Natopia, Francis Joseph IV of Alexandria, and Manco Capac I of Nouvelle Alexandrie, but no consensus candidate emerged from outside the country, and support instead gathered around Ruadh Aldric, extending even to parts of the republican opposition.[10] The Severance of the Throne Act and the Succession to the Throne Act were adopted in 1706 AN and took effect at Ransenar's accession to the Benacian Union in 1711 AN, when Ruadh was crowned King Ruadh I and the Treaty of Goldfield bound Ransenar into the Union.[11]
The new dynasty made its first appearances as royalty at the accession ceremony held at Goldfield in 1711 AN, attended by Ruadh I and his son Crown Prince Cosgrach, and at the Goldfield Naval Review the following year; Ruadh I was nominated to the Order of the Red Hand at the accession.[12] Ruadh I reigned for forty-one years until his death in 1752 AN, and was succeeded by his son Cosgrach I.
Position and powers
Within Ransenar the head of the House of Aldric reigns as King and, in the vocabulary Ransenar shares with the wider Benacian Union, as Szodan of the Realm and President of the Civil Executive. The royal role is largely ceremonial. Executive government is conducted by the Lord Chief Steward, the leader commanding a majority in the Ransenari Congress, an office held since 1752 AN by Eamon Brannigan, whom Cosgrach I appointed on his accession.[13] The Crown nonetheless retains formal prerogatives, which it exercises through numbered Royal Decrees carrying the force of law, the instrument by which offices such as the Lord Captain of the Three Ports are filled.[14] The legal basis of the monarchy and its establishment was fixed by the Throne and Crown of Ransenar Act, which created the Royal Household of the Realm of Ransenar, the Throne Trust, and the Crown Jeweler's Office.[15]
Ransenar is a constituent Realm rather than an independent kingdom, and the position of its royal house is accordingly bounded by the Union. Foreign relations, the armed forces, currency, and the instruments of subjecthood are matters reserved to the Benacian Union, and the accession of each King of Ransenar is subject to confirmation by the First Consul, who may withhold it only on defined constitutional grounds.[16] The house thus exercises a genuine but circumscribed sovereignty, complete in the internal affairs of the kingdom and subordinate to the Union in all it reserves to itself.
Cadet titles and the Aldric school
The heir apparent to the throne of Ransenar bears the title Prince of Elsenar, after the county of Elsenar in Ransenar. The senior cadet branch of the house, descended from Prince Bréanainn, the second son of Ruadh I, holds the countship of Teldrin, the title Ruadh himself had carried as Lord Protector, and is known as the Aldrics of Teldrin, after their seat at Teldrin on the River Elwynn.[17]
The dynasty's standing in Ransenari public life is inseparable from the Imperial Democratic Party, which has governed Ransenar without interruption since its foundation. The party is divided into four internal currents, of which the dominant one descends from Sean O'Callaghan and holds the leadership; the conservative and monarchist minority known as the "Aldric school," rooted in the old Goldshirian nobility that followed the family into exile, is the current most closely identified with the interests of the reigning house.[18] The dynasty's cause is also carried in the press by The National & Royal Standard, a daily published at Airle that has supported the Aldrics as monarchs since 1675 AN.[19]
Genealogy
The House of Aldric descends from the untitled Aldric family of Zolt through the junior line of Ruadh I, and comprises the reigning royal line together with the cadet Aldrics of Teldrin.
Schematic branching
Family tree
- Nóe Aldric (b. c.1588 AN, d. c.1662 AN) m.1 Cristin Ní Fionnghalaigh (d. c.1650 AN); m.2 Sorcha Ní Bhraonáin (b. c.1633 AN, d. c.1691 AN)
- (by Cristin) Hartmut Aldric, Duke of Calezi (b. 1613 AN, d. 1667 AN), Steward of Shireroth; died without issue
- (by Sorcha) Ruadh I, King of Ransenar (b. 1654 AN, d. 1752 AN) m. Éibhleann of Teldrin (b. c.1663 AN, d. c.1741 AN)
- Cosgrach I, King of Ransenar (b. c.1690 AN) m. Gormlaith of Airle (b. c.1696 AN)
- Prince Bréanainn Aldric, Count of Teldrin (b. c.1694 AN, d. c.1760 AN) m. Líadan Ní Chearbhaill (b. c.1699 AN) (Aldric of Teldrin)
- Princess Sorcha Aldric (b. c.1697 AN) m. Fearghal, Lord Captain of the Three Ports (b. c.1692 AN)
Heraldry
The arms of the House of Aldric have not yet been blazoned in a settled form. The house takes as its informal motto the phrase industry and perseverance, the values that family tradition traces to Georgio Ducruet, the Alexandrian tutor of the household of Nóe Aldric.[20]
Principal members
| Member | Position | Since |
|---|---|---|
| Cosgrach I | King of Ransenar; head of the house | 1752 AN |
| Crown Prince Hartmut | Heir apparent; Prince of Elsenar | 1752 AN |
| Conmhac Aldric | Count of Teldrin; head of the cadet branch | c.1760 AN |
See also
- Ransenar
- King of Ransenar
- Cosgrach I
- Ruadh I
- Hartmut Aldric
- Aldricism
- Imperial Democratic Party (Ransenar)
- The National & Royal Standard
- Order of the Red Hand
- House of Carrillo
References
- ^ The surname Aldric is attested widely across Micras as both a family name and a given name; the coincidence with the martyr-saint of Anglien carries no genealogical significance.
- ^ Goldshire, ShireWiki.
- ^ Hartmut Aldric; Hartmut Aldric, ShireWiki.
- ^ Ransenar; Elsyran, ShireWiki; Ran County Decree of 5150 - Flag and Seal, Bastion Union forum, in-character decree of Krasniy Yastreb, Count of Ran.
- ^ Hartmut Aldric; Steward of Shireroth.
- ^ Duke of Calezi.
- ^ Imperial Democratic Party (Ransenar).
- ^ Provisional Government of the Kingdom of Ransenar; Ransenar.
- ^ Imperial Democratic Party (Ransenar).
- ^ Accession of Ransenar to the Benacian Union; Imperial Democratic Party (Ransenar).
- ^ Accession of Ransenar to the Benacian Union; Treaty of Goldfield.
- ^ Ransenari ceremony of accession to Benacian Union, 1711; Goldfield Naval Review of 1712; Order of the Red Hand.
- ^ Ransenar; Imperial Democratic Party (Ransenar).
- ^ Captaincy of the Three Ports.
- ^ Imperial Democratic Party (Ransenar).
- ^ Treaty of Goldfield; Benacian Union.
- ^ Captaincy of the Three Ports.
- ^ Imperial Democratic Party (Ransenar).
- ^ The National & Royal Standard.
- ^ Hartmut Aldric; Hartmut Aldric, ShireWiki.
