Queen
While the King is the most powerful ruler in the land, the Queen is probably the most popular with the people. Arburgians love to honour their current Queen and the Queens of the past. There are two main reasons for that: One, they are often from more low and middle class households and didn't grow up royal, making the public feel more connected to them. This does, however result in a bit of resentment from more upper class women who feel that they would have made a better queen. Two, the work they do in the kingdom often directly benefits the people.
Lakes and other locations and building have been named after them, but the biggest honour for the queens is the way Arburgians keep track of time. Their calendar has twelve months, and they are chronologically named after the queens and their daughters. To find out more about how Arburg honours their heroes, click here to go to the related article. The twelve months of the year in Arburg are (the ones marked with stars were queens, the others just daughters): Helena*
Alexia*
Isabelle
Ariya
Esmae*
Keira
Karina
Belle*
Sylvie*
Lucia
Amira*
Hanna*
Hanna was the seventh Queen, so before she was on the throne, the unnamed months were just referred to by number. This system of months reminds Arburg of its history and its founders. However, these aren't the only queens in the History of Arburg. If you want to read about each royal couple in Arburg's history, click here: History of Arburg. Here is a list of the rest of the queens, after Hanna:
Elodie
Maisie
Joan
Callie
Neva
Probably the most special thing about the queens is the way that they are selected to marry the crown prince. This article goes into extensive detail about the whole process: The King's new bride. Here is a comprehensive look at the different queens Arburg has had:
Lakes and other locations and building have been named after them, but the biggest honour for the queens is the way Arburgians keep track of time. Their calendar has twelve months, and they are chronologically named after the queens and their daughters. To find out more about how Arburg honours their heroes, click here to go to the related article. The twelve months of the year in Arburg are (the ones marked with stars were queens, the others just daughters): Helena*
Alexia*
Isabelle
Ariya
Esmae*
Keira
Karina
Belle*
Sylvie*
Lucia
Amira*
Hanna*
Hanna was the seventh Queen, so before she was on the throne, the unnamed months were just referred to by number. This system of months reminds Arburg of its history and its founders. However, these aren't the only queens in the History of Arburg. If you want to read about each royal couple in Arburg's history, click here: History of Arburg. Here is a list of the rest of the queens, after Hanna:
Elodie
Maisie
Joan
Callie
Neva
Probably the most special thing about the queens is the way that they are selected to marry the crown prince. This article goes into extensive detail about the whole process: The King's new bride. Here is a comprehensive look at the different queens Arburg has had:
Helena
"light"
Married to Harold I, she was the only Queen not to be married via arrangement. (See: The King's new bride). Three years into their marriage, she died while giving birth to their first child, Harold II. Her husband was extremely devastated by her death; she was the love of his life. He named Arburg's largest lake and their first month after her, as well as building the palace orchard for her.
Helena was a passionate gardener. Before becoming queen, she lived in a family near what is now Pleosal. They were farmers, which gave her an opportunity to develop her hobby. When she moved to the palace, her husband had twenty gardens surrounding the palace planted, in addition to the magnificent orchard.
Alexia
"defender of the people"
She was the first to ascend into royalty through the Choosing. She bore her husband, Harold II, three children: Isabelle, Ariya and Harold III. She came from a middle class family in Asmye, back when it was only a small town. Her father was a merchant in the fishing industry, which, back then, was at the start of its success boom.
Alexia was one of the most politically involved queens, probably because she had been exposed to the foundations of business. She was a big part in helping Harold II to fill gaps that had been left behind by his father. As a couple, the two reportedly didn't ever really "fall in love". The whole marital arrangement was still so new, and they just didn't have any romantic chemistry. It was said, though, that they functioned well as partners to lead the country, as they both knew what they needed to do: put the good of Arburg first. You may be surprised at the fact that she had three children with him, but some say that, after Harold III was born, she requested a separate bedroom. She had done her primary duty as Queen, and was ready to set all her focus on Arburg. It is even said that put more time into raising her country than her children.
Esmae
"loved"
Two years into her marriage with Harold III, she gave birth to twins: a boy, Harold IV, and a girl, Keira. At two year intervals, they also had Arthur and then Keira. Unfortunately, seven years into their marriage, Harold IV died unexpectedly at the age of five. It was a national tragedy, and the whole of Arburg mourned with them. The death of Harold meant that Arthur was the new crown prince.
Losing her eldest child was extremely hard on Esmae, and some say she never truly recovered from that. Since Helena died early, and Alexia was more interested in Queen as a position, Esmae was the first Queen to really treasure the garden. After Harold IV's death, she spent hours on end walking the grounds of the orchard. She would also spend her time there watching the birds, reading or sketching. After the initial shock of her son's death, about a year later, she began to slowly return to her duties. She found that her place was more to be wife and a mother than a ruler, so she kept to that. She still spent much time in the orchard, though.
Her marriage, though arranged like Alexia's, was quite successful. By the time the couple were parents, they had allegedly fallen for each other completely. Although the death of their oldest was very hard for them, and affected their married relationship adversely for quite a while, they still found their way back to each other eventually. Esmae used to live with her family in Eflaria.
Belle
"beauty"
Belle wasn't on the throne for very long, it only totaled to 16 years, which is several years below the average. This was because she really struggled to have children. In her marriage to Arthur, her first pregnancy was after six years of them trying, and she miscarried a total of three babies. This lack of offspring meant that the throne would have to be passed on to Arthur's oldest nephew, Richard, who was the son of Keira.
Belle and Arthur's marriage was extremely difficult at first, as he was quite resentful that she couldn't produce a direct heir to his throne. This resulted in her never really getting into the politics of being Queen - she didn't really want to be around Arthur much in the beginning, and then, when they finally resolved their conflicts to the point where they were happily married, she had already started on other projects. Those were mostly centered around health care. She focused almost all of time and energy into adoption and fostering work. She engaged personally with women like herself - unable to have children but desperate to become mothers. Since she herself was not permitted to adopt children, she enabled other couples to do so, as well as setting up a fostering program in cooperation with the Eflarian orphanage at the time. (Hanna's humanitarian work resulted in the Grand Hall making conditions for orphans much better, but Belle's work set the foundation for it.)
Sylvie
"forest"
Richard and Sylvie's marriage was quite successful. She bore him three children: Jonathan, Lucia and Joel. She did whatever duties Richard asked her to take care of. This compliant attitude probably came from the fact that she came from a lower class family, where her mother worked as a nanny and her father as a cleaner in Eflaria.
Amira
"princess, rich, cultivated"
The meaning of her name truly did her justice. Overall, she was quite a snob, having grown up in one of the richest families of Arburg, living in Eflaria. In the beginning, she was widely unpopular because of her unapologetic, spoiled, stuck-up manner. The public did warm up to her, however, when she bore Jacob two sons in relatively quick succession: Kit and Walter. Bringing two possible heirs into the bloodline within three years of being married was something no one had done before, so she gained the people's respect. In the end, she was widely known for the extravagant parties she would throw, filled with class, luxury and excess. Often, if she found out that someone was talking badly about her, she would invite them to her next party, which no one dared to refuse as it was such a great honour. What was most important, in the end, was that she understood how it worked to be royal. She had all the etiquette, class and elegance of a typical upper class woman, and knew how to get what she wanted when she wanted it. Overall, she didn't contribute a whole lot to society, but her husband's fair ruling made up for the little she did on the political side.
Hanna
"grace"
After Amira's time as Queen, Hanna had to prove to the people that a Queen could do more than just frolick. She came from a lowly family from what is now Lochines, and left behind the most impressive legacy of all. She was by far the most popular Queen of all. To read all about her and her work for Arburg, check out this article: Hanna Lynn.
She only had one child, and after she gave birth to Kit II, she decided that she wasn't going to have any more children in order to focus on her work more. Apparently Kit I urged her to rethink her decision, but she remained stubbornly decided.
Elodie
"wealthy"
Queen Elodie is the only woman to ever rule Arburg. Normally, only men qualify as absolute monarchs, but this was a particularly unique scenario. Usually, if no son was around to take the throne, it went to the King's oldest nephew. Anyone further than a nephew is too far for the crown to go. King Lukas was meant to take the throne directly from his uncle, King Kit II, when he turned 21, but an unexpected tragedy resulted in Kit II dying after only two years on the throne. Lukas was only 5 when this happened, and all the Elders agreed that that was far too young for him to ascend to power. Therefore, it was decided that Elodie would rule until the appropriate time came for Lukas to be crowned King. She ruled for 12 years, with more involvement of the Elders than a normal King would have had. This unexpected rule meant that she was also the only ruler that wasn't coronated on the 1st Helena, the first day of the year, another customary tradition of Arburg. She was known throughout the land as a fair and just ruler, and although there was some uproar in the first few months of her being queen, she was quickly accepted.
Lukas was the first king that wasn't directly in King Harold's bloodline, which was quite difficult for the people to accept, especially after they had to deal with the shock of a woman being on the throne. Unfortunately, due to Hanna's decision not to have any more children, and Elodie never having any children with Kit II, there was no other choice.
Although Elodie was only 22 when she became Queen, and she had just lost her husband, of whom she had become quite fond, she performed extremely well as a monarch. Not every woman of Arburg would have been able to pull that off.
Maisie
"pearl"
Maisie had four children with Lukas: Joel, Michael, Alice and Elyse. The King and Queen allegedly fell in love very quickly, and she was already pregnant within one year of their marriage. Maisie spent a lot of her time raising and spending time with her children. Besides that, she also invested some time into starting a project to help the homeless and decrease unemployment. Soup kitchens and temporary shelters were the biggest parts of this project, but she also took it upon herself to make it possible for people in need of financial support or a job to directly appeal to her in the Palace. Most of the Elders weren't very happy with her inviting people into the palace in the first place, however, so that endeavour didn't really take off as much as she would have liked.
Joan
"God is gracious"
Joan and Joel's arranged marriage was not very successful, especially in the beginning. They reportedly couldn't really stand the sight of each other in the first three years, and then they eventually came to a truce where they agreed to at least have some mutual respect. Eventually, she gave birth to a son, six years into their marriage. The pregnancy was very emotionally and physically taxing for her, and after Arthur II was born, she had severe postpartum depression. Unfortunately, she died five years later. Surprisingly, it seemed to hit Joel quite hard. The public barely saw him for half a year after her death. After he recovered, however, he got back into his work, and he spent a total of 27 years as King, which is one of the longest reigns there has been.
Callie
"beautiful"
Callie had three children with Arthur II: Everly, Eleanor and Ronan . She had Everly and Elenaor quite quickly, by their third year, she was already a mother of two girls. Before Ronan was born, which was six years into their marriage, the public was a little bit worried that an heir wouldn't be produced, but all worries dissipated soon enough.
Callie was quite a fragile girl from a wealthy upper class family from Asmye. She often kept to herself and her children, and wasn't seen much outside the palace.
Neva
"snow"
Neva is the current Queen of Arburg, with two children; William and Maisie. Her and Ronan are happily married. She was quite interested from the very beginning of her marriage, to be included in Ronan's business, though what exactly she takes responsibility for as Queen is not made public. She still made sure, however, that she was involved in her children growing up, too. She particularly took it upon herself to prepare William for his future duties as King and as a husband.
Requirements
-
For more detailed information on the choosing of a Queen for Arburg, check out this article: The King's new bride.She must be natively Arburg, having been born, raised and lived her whole life in some part of Arburg, not including Atra and Rascad. She can come from any class. The birth year of the woman must be either one above, below, or the same as the prince's. She must be physically healthy.
Appointment
One month before the crown prince's 21st birthday, the choice of bride is announced, and she moves into the palace. They are married on his birthday, and then get coronated on the next first Helena (first day of the next year).
Duties
Their most important duties are to do their very best to produce an heir to the throne, to present herself in the best light as Queen as a representative of the Royal Palace and of Arburg.
Type
Nobility, Honorific / Ceremonial
Form of Address
Her highness
Source of Authority
The King and the Elders.
Length of Term
Until the heir to the throne is 21.
Reports directly to
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