Biographies: Elerde of Leon

Elerde of Leon is the "tragi-nasty semi-villain" of An Involuntary King: A Tale of Anglo Saxon England. To find more bios from the novel, visit An Involuntary king: The Stories.

Elerde of Leon [741-c. 800 AD]

Elerde was born in Leon in Cornouaille, one of the kingdoms that later became Brittany, the younger of two surviving sons of a nobleman, Ewen of Leon. As his brother Mihail was expected to inherit Ewen's title and lands, Elerde was destined for the Church.
He was drawn to learning, spoke, read, wrote several languages, and had a particular interest in Ancient Roman poets and military writers. As a boy, however, he trained in the arts of war with his brother, and when he was sent off to Rome in 757 to begin his seminary education, he instead used the money his father had given him to buy himself the armor, weapons, horse and other gear and looked for a lord in whose service he could fight. Not finding one willing to take on such a young man, Elerde joined a band of adventurers and traveled about the Italian peninsula for some years. In 762 he returned to Rome where he found a message that his father had died. Knowing his brother was to inherit, he decided there was no hurry for him to return and he took more than a year before returning to Leon.

When he arrived at his family's stronghold in Leon, he learned that his brother Mikail, an inveterate gambler, had gotten so far into debt that he had had to turn over his lands and all upon them to a more powerful lord in Leon. Elerde, stunned, set off to find his brother. He located him as the young man was about to embark for England to become a soldier of fortune. Elerde, though deeply angry with his brother, chose to go with him. They joined the army of Æthelberht II, king of half Kent, as mercenaries, until Offa, King of Mercia, defeated him and assumed all of Kent into Mercia. Elerde, who had become disgusted with Mihail's drinking and gampbling, left his brother to cope as he could and having shown himself a more than capable leader, formed his own band of mercenaries. He sent to Leon for men he had known as a youth, and many came at his inbitation to join his mercenaries, including his childhood copamio9ns Lagu and Heraral.

For the next few years Elerde and his small company sold his sword to any lord who could afford them. In 766 he found himself in the employ of Gadfried of Tetforde, the cousin of Lawrence, King of Críslicland. Gadfrid commanded him to join the king's service in border battles with some Mercian lords. Gadfrid wanted to ingratiate himself with the king but also commanded Elerde to send reports about battles and plans to him at Tetforde. When the king was seriously wounded in battle, Elerde took the news to Lincoln to the young queen, Josephine, of Críslicland and Affynshire. The two shared a love for Roman poets and soon became friends. One day Elerde, thinking the queen reciprocated his growing passion for her, attempted to seduce her. She spurned him. When the king learned of the Breton's advances, he sent him away to Affynshire's frontiers to strengthen the garrisons there.

While in Affynshire, Elerde ran across malcolm of Horsfort, whom he had fought alongside as mercenaries. The two began to plan a coup in Affynshire, allying themselves with a discontented nobleman, Maegwig of Cross Gates, and old comrades in arms, Ricbeorht of Flanders, Sveun Ormyngel, and Finn O'Donnell. On Beltane, may 1, of 768 the coup was done, Elerde having been given the stronghold of Keito Uxello, Queen Josephine's family's hereditary holding. He had learned just prior to the coup that she was to be there on a visit to her ailing uncle, Earl Ceretic. When the two met he let her go, telling her to get out of Affynshire as he believed the other conspirators would not be squeamish about how they used her to bargain with King Lawrence.

Elerde was, in the meantime, also staying in touch with his former employer, Gadfrid. Whe he learned the queen had only just left the country after a reunion with her husband who was leading the effort to unseat the conspirators and these conspirators began to suspect Elerde was hiding or protecting the queen, he decided to leave the country and return to Críslicland. He arrived sometime after the queen and joined in the usurping of the throne by Gadfrid. Again, participating solely to protect and have access to Josephine, he sent Lagu, one of his soldiers, to find and kill the king. Lawrence's disappearance did not have the effect on the queen he wanted, but he was able first to help her free her imprisoned brother and then to persuade her to flee with him to Northumbria with her children.

When upon their arrival Josephine took refuge at the Holy Isle of Lindisfarne and told Elerde she would not continue to flee with him, he left in despair with his company to find "a battle so fierce I cannot possibly survive."

This biography will continue in the near future.

Imahe: Yes, that's Ioan Gruffud as Lancelot in the 20041 film King Arthur. Wanna change your vote?

A Tragi-nasty Hero/Villain

My husband Jim has been reading my novel to me most nights after we go to bed. It's an interesting experience. I cringe a lot: ""Oh why did I use that word?!" I notice patterns I hadn't seen before now that I am not embroiled in it: "Lawrence is a tad theatrical, isn't he?" And I admit I nod with admiration for my own skill often enough: "That was a pretty good scene with the brigands, wasn't it?"

One thing I am enjoying is actually getting a better sense of the characters than when I crafted them. That's gotta be a good thing, right? The queen really does come off strong in much of the novel, which should make The Muse pretty happy. The character I am looking at with new eyes though is Lord Elerde (eh-laird')of Brittany. He's supposed to be a bad guy kinda sorta, but it's getting harder not to feel sorry for the guy. When I said "Well, he shouldn't have gotten mixed up in it all in the first place," my husband replied, "The heart wants what it wants."

Elerde is the "darkly sensual mercenary" of the back cover and the ads. He is employed by one of the entirely bad bad guys who sends him to the king's court to be undercover. He comes to want to be undercovers with Josephine, whose character flaw is primarily not knowing when she's encouraging men to fall in love with her. Elerde is well educated, erudite, gallant, continental as he is. Her Saxon husband is sexy as hell and admirable, but let's just say Roman love poetry doesn't thrill him the way Beowulf does. Elerde ingratiates himself to the queen, but she's a good girl, she is, and there is no hanky panky. But her brother has sent for her royal hubby and Elerde finds himself posted to the Críslicland equibalent of Siberia.

Elerde of course does an exemplary job. Lawrence has to give him credit for that, but he also likes to get under the king's skin. Lawrence and he get into an unlooked for situation where hthe king almost kills the mercenary. This sparks Elerde to ally with a group of his old army buddies who lack his finer sensibilities in taking over the queen's homeland. He admits he is doing it to get Lawrence's goat and to further his own ambitions, but when he learns the queen is caught behind enemy lines, it all changes. Now he is bent on protecting her. When in spite of his best efforts someone else does a better and incredibly noble job of that, he throws up his hands and goes back to Críslicland where he just happens to know the king's evil cousin -- remember the earlier employer? -- is about to usurp the throne. So smolderingly sexy Elerde has to go protect the queen there.

Elerde's devotion is part of his appeal I suppose. He reveals himself as a big softy a couple times, and frankly he deserves better than Josephine. He deserves someone who will love him back and not just turn a blind eye to his sacrifices. He loves her kids, he hellps take care of her sick daughter, he saves her life more often than anyone else, he really does love her, and what's more, he gets most of the best lines.

The Breton met the earnest even imploring gaze. He nodded slowly. “Methinks the lady has at least two champions besides her husband. Alas, that only one may win her.”

Rory’s gaze changed to a challenge. “If it came to me to make that choice, sir, that champion shall be the king.”

Elerde dismissed Rory with a gesture. “Well then, it is a good thing that you will be unlikely to be the one to choose.”

True, he sends his lieutenant to kill the king. True, he really does want Josephine for himself. True he is a savage fellow in many ways. True, only one of the three men who love her can have her. But there comes a time in the story when you find yourself rooting for him, or at least hurting for him. Well, I did, and I know at least three readers who did also.

One reviewer told me she wants a sequel just about Elerde.

The photo above, by the way, is Ioane Guffudd, the Welsh actor who portrayed Lancelot in the 2001 film "King Arthur" with Clive Owen. He is exactly how I picture Elerde.