| House of Orléans-Vasser | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Country |
 Canrille |
| Titles |
Empress/Emperor of Canrille Monarch of Lourenne Queen/King of Alduria and Kanjor Queen/King of the Rildanoriens |
| Style(s) | Her/His Royal Majesty |
| Founder | Léopold Jean Tristan d'Orléans-Vasser |
| Current head | Eugénie II d'Orléans-Vasser-DeChambeau |
| Founding | 2608 |
| Deposition | Various |
| Cadet branches |
House of Orléans-Vasser-DeChambeau House of Orléans-Vasser-Deux-Rivières |
| Ethnicity | Canrillaise |
| Religion | Aurorian Patriarchal Church |
| Estates |
Château de Chaumont, Lourenne Palais des Lumières, Lourenne Château de Fin du Nord, Kanjor Château de Fontainebleau-Versailles, Rildanor |
The House of Orléans-Vasser (Canrillaise: Le maison d'Orléans-Vasser) is a historic royal and noble family in the Canrillaise nations as well as certain other territories, notably Narikaton and Darnussia. Although recognised by the International Monarchist League as the ruling royal house in Alduria, Kanjor, Rildanor, and Lourenne. Two of these countries is currently ruled by members of the family. The current head of the family is Eugenie II d'Orléans-Vasser-DeChambeau.
History[]
Founding[]
Léopold of Rildanor on the day of his coronation in 2611
The House was founded with the merger of the noble families of House of Orléans and House of 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 the country.
In 2591, Jean-Philippe and Isolde celebrated the birth of Léopold Jean Tristan d'Orléans-Vasser in the family palace in Rildanor. Léopold was groomed in the noble tradition of both business management and court life. However, it soon became clear that the Rildanorien 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 succession to the throne, the House of Orléans-Vasser was chosen from among the noble families to ascend to the throne based on a distant relation to the Nareaths. 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 Rildanoriens) in Ville de Saints by Arch-Patriarch Sergius II.
Present day[]
At present, the family resides primarily in Lourenne. It is the only Canrillaise-majority nation which has a monarchist form of government at present. Today, Eugenie II d'Orléans-Vasser-DeChambeau is the current head of the family, succeeding her mother Eugenie I. The family retains its claim over the thrones in Alduria, Kanjor, Rildanor, and Lourenne- all of which are recognized by the International Monarchist League.
Distribution[]
Throughout its extensive history, there have been various splits in the Orléans-Vasser family, many of which have subsequently been resolved either through marriage or through formal resolutions. The most notable divisions were between the "four branches" of the House, each corresponding to one of the four states ruled by the House of Orléans-Vasser at its zenith: Kanjor, Lourenne, Narikaton and Rildanor.
According to contemporary definitions, the four branches were all define differently. The Rildanorien branch was composed of descendants of Léopold I of Rildanor, the dynasty's first monarch. The Kanjorien branch was restricted to the descendants of Léopold I of Kanjor, the elder Léopold's grandson. The Lourennais branch was limited to the descendants of Renée I of Lourenne, the elder Léopold's great-great-granddaughter and Narik line of succession is limited to the descendants of Anton II and Adèle I, the daughter of the Kanjorien king Frédéric II.
Over time, particularly once the Orléans-Vasser family experienced a decline in their collective power and wealth, many of these splits were resolved and the House was unified once again. In spite of this, the current head of the family Isabelle does not make any claim to the throne of Lourenne, which is controlled by the House of Orléans-DeChambeau. (see Lourenne)
Rildanor[]
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 [1] in 2709 with Thérèse I as Reine des Rildanoriens.
Kanjor[]
The Kanjorien line has debatably been frought with the most danger and tragedy of all the 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 members 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). This marriage also forms the foundation of Kanjor's claims to the Narikaton/Darnussian throne, which was brought up in the 32nd century in the latter's monarchical restoration and the formation of a new branch of the Orléans-Vasser family.
HRH King Léopold of Kanjor shortly before his assassination in 2683.
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 legitimate 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 Theognosianism 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.
House of Orléans-Vasser family tree.
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. (Albert IV was the other monarch to be assassinated in 3123). 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.
Extinction[]
The Kanjor branch of the family finally ended with King Albert V in 3230. With no children of his own, the crown passed to his distant cousin in the House of Villiers, Noëlle, who chose to end its ties with the former house. However, by a strange twist of fate, the new Queen married Prince Baudouin, the second child of the King of Rildanor. Although Baudouin was second to Princess Joséphine in the line of succession, he nonetheless became King of Rildanor in 3256 after the death of his sister.
Lourenne[]
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."
Re-Established in Lourenne[]
In 4478, François d'Orléans-Vasser, son of Isabelle, the head of the family, married the Lourennais monarch Catherine d'Orléans-DeChambeau. After their marriage, both houses were unified into the House of Orléans-Vasser-DeChabeau. The House of Orléans-Vasser-DeChambeau is the current main branch of the House of Orléans-Vasser which has remained intact for 600 years. Although DeChambeau remains in the official title of the family, the Lourennais branch is still the main branch of the House of Orléans-Vasser.
Darnussia/Narikaton[]
The Darnussia/Narikaton branch of the family, which is also descends from the Imperial Dynasty of Darntus-Raux, was formed in the 32nd century after a centuries-long absence of the monarchy.
The new monarch married Princess Adèle, the sister of the King of Kanjor, Frédéric II, as part of efforts to solidify and legitimize the new branch.
Canrille[]
With the marriage of Baudouin III of Rildanor and Noëlle I of Kanjor, from the House of Villiers, the governments of those two countries decided to merge the crowns through their son, François, who went on to become the next Emperor of Canrille, ruling for 57 years. His sister, Princess Noelle d'Orleans-Vasser et Villiers, is the current Holy Luthori Empress, as she had married Emperor Philip III of Luthori, whilst he was still Viceroy of Alduria.