House of Orléans-Vasser

Le maison d'Orléans-Vasser (House of Orléans-Vasser) is the royal family of Kanjor, Lourenne, and Rildanor.

Family


The House was founded with the merger of the noble families of Orléans and Vasser in 2587 upon the marriage of Jean-Philippe d'Orléans and Isolde de Vasser in Rildanor. While the House of Orléans-Vasser maintained its distant claim to the throne of Rildanor, it was created to extend and manage the business enterprises of the original two houses, the oldest of the noble families of Rildanor.

In 2591, Jean-Philippe and Isolde celebrated the birth of Léopold Jean Tristan d'Orléans-Vasser in the family palace in Rildanor. Young Léopold was groomed in the noble tradition of both business management and court life. However, it soon became clear that the Rildanor royal family, the House of Nareath, would soon end due to the childless marriage of Hénri II.

In October of 2611, after a long discussion in the Senate of Rildanor regarding the successon to the throne, the House of Orléans-Vasser was chosen from among the noble families to ascend to the throne. On 25 December 2611, with much pomp and circumstance, the seventeen-year-old Léopold Jean Tristan d'Orléans-Vasser was crowned Léopold I, Roi des Rildanoriens (King of the Rildanorians) in Ville de Saints by His Holiness Pope Sergius II.

Branches
The House of Orléans-Vasser has three branches, each with its own family head who has claims to one of the countries' thrones. The branches also have different lines of succession, but only the Rildanor branch contains all three branches in its line because they all descend from Léopold I of Rildanor, the family's first monarch. The Kanjor branch is restricted to the descendants of Léopold I of Kanjor, the elder Léopold's grandson, and the Lourenne branch is restricted to the descendants of Renée I of Lourenne, the elder Léopold's great-great-granddaughter.

Rildanorien Branch
King Léopold was married to Princess Isabelle (b. 2591) of Pontesi. They had two children, Joséphine (b. 2614) and Léopold, Prince of Meriath (b. 2615). Princess Josephine was married to Prince Balthazar (b. 2608), Count of Phoénixstein, second son of the Emperor of Jelbania, nephew of the Emperor of Hulstria on 5 May 2637. As the heir to the throne, she became Queen soon after the death of her father from injuries sustained in a car crash on 14 February 2639. She was crowned Joséphine II, Reine des Rildanoriens (Queen of the Rildanorians).

HM Queen Joséphine II gave birth to her only child and heir, HM Prince Alexandre, on 9 August 2641. HM Prince Alexandre was married to Wanda Madeleine Caroline Stuart (b. 2644), Princess of Venetium (Zardugal), daughter of King Charles Frederick I and Queen-Consort Madeleine on 14 December 2668. Six years later, on 24 November 2674, Joséphine II stepped down from the throne of Rildanor citing ill health and, within the customary five days, her son was crowned Alexandre I, Roi des Rildanoriens with Wanda as Queen consort. Soon afterward, the royal couple had a daughter, Princess Thérèse (b. 2678), who was heir apparent to the throne.

In 2682, a few months after the crowning of his cousin Prince Léopold as King of Kanjor, HM King Alexandre was forcibly removed from the throne by several powerful republican and communist parties. Alexandre fled to Kanjor, where he was appointed Regent of Kanjor until the young Louise-Elisabeth came of age. The monarchy, however, would be revived |revived in 2709 with Thérèse I as Reine des Rildanoriens.

Kanjorien Branch
The Kanjorien line has debatably been frought with the most danger and tragedy of the three lines, due to the difficult relationship of the Kanjorien people with outsiders, and the power of republican forces within Kanjor. The Kanjorien line is the only line to have a member of the Orléans-Vasser family assassinated.

Léopold, Prince of Meriath (b. 2615), brother of Joséphine II, married Antonia Af Ehjnhelm (b. 2621) of Darnussia and had a son, Prince Léopold (b. 2640).



The younger Prince Léopold remained third in line to the throne of Rildanor. He married Madeleine Desjardins (b. 2647) in 2672 and their only child, Princess Louise-Elisabeth, was born on 11 April 2678. During the early 2680s, the Kanjorien monarchist movement began in earnest by seeking a family to fill its centuries old royal vacancy. Because of the long duration between the last monarchs and the reestablishment proposal, Kanjor was void of any sizable or legitmate royal family and it was necessary to look abroad to fill this void.

Many suitors offered themselves to the position but the majority failed the prerequisite qualifications of Orthodox Catholicism and French ethnicity as required by the Kanjorien Senate. The younger Prince Léopold of Rildanor was offered and accepted the position in late 2681. He was crowned Léopold, King of Kanjor in Ville de Saints by Pope Jamie II on 1 January 2682 to much fanfare and celebration throughout Kanjor and Rildanor. Léopold began the long process of recreating monarchical institutions and precedents in Kanjor. However, he would not live to see the results of his labour.



On 23 October 2683, as King Léopold addressed a group of reporters on the steps of the newly rechristened États-Généraux building he was shot multiple times at close range by an assassin showing a forged press pass. He was rushed to the nearest hospital but was pronounced dead upon arrival. The assassin, Gustav Genoit, was quickly apprehended by police and the King's bodyguards. Through his interrogation by police it was proved that he had worked alone and had killed the King in order to bring about the second coming of Jesus and the rapture. Genoit was convicted of regicide and given life in prison without the possibility of parole in accordance with Kanjorien law.

Because of Léopold's assassination, his five-year old daughter, Princess Louise-Elisabeth, was crowned HRH Queen Louise-Elisabeth, Reine de Kanjor on 1 November 2683. Given the Queen's tender age, her newly dethroned Rildanorian uncle, Alexandre I of Rildanor, was proclaimed her regent until she reached the legimate age of eighteen.

Queen Louise-Elisabeth


Upon reaching the required age, Louise-Elisabeth was officially given her full authority as Queen by Pope Francis IV. However, three short years later she was dethroned in July 2699 by the newly formed communist movement in Kanjor. Ten years later, Louise-Elisabeth was once again crowned Queen of Kanjor.

On 12 April 2708 Louise-Elisabeth married Corbin Auclair, a Capitaine de marine in the Troupes de marine. On 17 May 2711 the couple's first child, Crown Prince Albert, was born, followed by Prince Henri on 4 October 2712 and Princess Madeleine on 1 August 2715.

In 2740, Louise-Elisabeth was once again dethroned by a Communist government, and fled to Rildanor, fearing for her life. She was later kidnapped and assassinated by a radical terrorist cell in 2749.

King Albert III


Albert was crowned King Albert III of Kanjor in 2759, folowing eighteen years as pretender to the throne in exile with his mother and father in Rildanor. He ruled for fifteen years until 2774. On 21 June 2733, Albert married and HIH Princess Sophie of Pontesi at the National Cathedral. In 2754 the couple's first and only child, HRH Princess Marie Louise-Elisabeth, was born.

Pretenders
Following Albert's ouster as king, the Kanjorien Branch has been sidelined and tenuously maintains their right to the Throne as a series of pretenders. The Branch maintains good relations with the Press and has held several high-profile positions in various business and charitable organizations.

HRH Crown Princess Marie Louise-Elisabeth held the first tenure as Pretender to the Throne of Kanjor which passed to her son, HRH Crown Prince Frédéric, upon her untimely death in 2810. She was also the first to add the name of her husband, Patric Frédéric de Villiers, a descendant of the Duc de Villiers, to the title of the Kanjorien branch of the Orléans-Vasser family. From her point onward, the Kanjorien branch was referred to as the House of Villiers et Orléans-Vasser.

Return to the Throne and Exile
After a long battle against republican forces, HRH Crown Prince Frédéric was crowned King of Kanjor on 1 November 2850. He served only five months in the position before stepping down so his son, HRH King Patric Frédéric, could take the throne. The intention was that his son would be better able to reestablish the monarchical institutions in Kanjor.

However, after the death of HRH Queen Sophie Irène, and the subsequent Monarchist Purge enacted during the 'Reign of Terror', the line of the de Villiers et Orléans-Vasser was forced into exile in Rildanor while still claiming legitimacy in Kanjor.

Lourennian Branch
The Lourennian branch of the family began with Thérèse, the daughter of the deposed king of Rildanor, Alexandre. The House of Orléans-Vasser is related to the Nareaths, who ruled both Rildanor and the its then colony of Lourenne. Under this context, the Government of Lourenne formally offered Thérèse the newly formed Golden Kingdom in 2703, which she accepted without giving up her claim to the Rildanorian throne, styling herself as Thérèse I, Queen of the Rildanorians and Lourenne. However, after being installed as Queen of the Rildanorians in 2709, monarchists in both Lourenne and Rildanor thought the arrangement too confusing and potentially damaging to bilateral relations, forcing the Queen to abdicate her Lourennian throne in favour of her daughter, Renée I. The Lourennian branch would then limit the line of succession to Renée's children.

HM Queen Renée I ruled as regent in Lourenne until 5 March 2778 when her daughter, Crown Princess Isabelle, felt comfortable enough to take the throne of Lourenne.

The Lourennian branch has also deviated from the other two by mixing with non-white peoples, particularly with the majority Mixtec Mayan population of the country. This was part of an effort to truly represent the Lourennian people by mixing their blood with the monarch, but was also the result of a lack of eligible Frenchmen that did not belong to the traditional business elite, which were often branded as "corrupt and mad families."