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?

Biography, Josephine, Lady of Críslicland, Affynshire and Cleethorpes

A fictional biography drawn from An Involuntary King: A Tale of Anglo Saxon England - see right.

Josephine, Lady of Críslicland, Affynshire and Cleethorpes
748-835 AD

Josephine, called "Sunshine" as a child, was born to the king and queen of Affynshire on 27 April, 748 AD, at Ratherwood. She was the second of three children, having an older sister named Lorin. She spent her childhood years between the royal stronghold of Ratherwood and her mother's families forest stronghold of Keito Uxello in the foothills of the Pennines. Her older sister died young, followed shortly by their mother. She was betrothed to Lawrence, the second son of the king of the neighboring kingdom of Críslicland, when she was but right years of age, becoming his wife and lady of that kingdom in 764 when she was sixteen. After her father's murder soon after her marriage to King Lawrence of Críslicland, Josephine became Lady of Affynshire in partnership with her husband, her younger brother not being suitable for kingship in the estimation of that country's Witan.

A few years later, after the birth of a son, Peter, twin daughters, Caitness and Elaine, and the adoption of the orphaned Tavish, Josephine paid a visit to her family in Keito Uxello when her mother's kinsman, Ceretic, was gravely ill. The day before her planned returned to Críslicland, a cabal led by Malcolm of Horsfort seized control of the stronghold of Ratherwood and the whole kingdom. Josephine joined her cousins' resistance force, being an able archer in her own right. After a brief reunion with her husband at the camp where he and his armies lay in siege of Ratherwood, she set out for Críslicland, but was ambushed on her way to the border by henchmen of Malcolm. With the help of Siannone ui' Níall (English: Shannon O'Neill), a bard with whom she was traveling, Josephine escaped and made her way back to her husband's stronghold of Lawrencium. Again, she was caught behind the lines when her husband's cousin, Gadfrid, usurped the crown. With the assistance of a Breton mercenary lord, Elerde of Léon, she and her children escaped to the Holy Isle of LindisfArne. When Lawrence succeeded in regaining the throne of Críslicland, the royal couple and their family was reunited. In the meantime, Lawrence had agreed to let the Affynshire crown go to Josephine's eldest cousin, the highly acclaimed archer Ruallauh, Earl of Keito Uxello.

Lawrence and Josephine lived peacefully for several years until in about 793 the Viking raids along the east coast of England began. Military pressure from Offa, King of Mercia, had been ongoing throughout his father's and his own reign, and at the death of King Ruallauh in 798, Lawrence, Ruallaug's son Ceretic, and King Offa signed the Treaty of Lincoln that ceded both Críslicland and Affynshire to Mercia. Josephine, understanding that her husband took the step for the better protection of his people, n evertheless was only too ready to stop being the Lady of Críslicland.

Josephine and Lawrence enjoyed many years of relative peace until Lawrence's death in 835. Josephine died three years later at the age of 89. a remarkable age for a woman of her era.

[Source, Josephine's co-creator Nan Hawthorne, author of An Involuntary King: A Tale of Anglo Saxon England. Josephine's original creator is Laura D., who prefers to remain last-nameless.]