Kingdom of Lleira

Our ancestors have built this kingdom from the ground up, and I shall see it become ever so stronger.

— King Jaymond of Wiz

The Kingdom of Lleira was one of the major human realms in the seventh and eighth centuries AE. The kingdom was building up its influence all the way up until 811 AE when its king, Jaymond of Wiz, managed to dominate the region and unite all human realms into a single Human Empire.

Structure

Nobility

For the entirety of its history, the kingdom was ruled by a royal house with the eldest son inheriting the title of the king and most of the lands, unless otherwise ordered by a late king. The claim on the throne would be passed from late father to his sons, making a son of the king's eldest son stand higher in succession line than the king's younger son, a law known as primogeniture.
Landed direct vassals to the king were known as lords, of which they could be either counts or dukes. The title of a duke was given to a lord that had a town, settlement with at least 1,000 constant population, in his fief. A count was a lord that did not have a town. Overall, the lords formed the highest level of the nobility.

You are a baron, you say? Of which castle would it be?

— Lord speaking to a baron whose castle was burned down

The medium nobility was called barons, landed vassals to the lords. A baron could have either one or several manors depending on their wealth. Owning a castle formally acknowledged as such by the king was required to call yourself a baron. Despite the title being inferior to the lord, some barons had bigger fiefs than many counts did.
The rest of the nobles were knights. If a landed vassal served under someone else but the king and had no castle, then he would be called a Knight. Most of such vassals only had a single manor in their fief. Unlanded vassals to the king were called knights as well. Regardless of the type, the Knights were considered the lowest level nobility.

Servitude

While the "Noble Codex" clearly defined the privileges of the nobility, there was no such thing for the common folk. Their rights and obligations were determined exclusively by the text of the oath given by commoner to their new liege or noble's representative.
The most common oath given was that of a serf. The liege had to protect his serf and to provide a certain amount of land to farm, as specified by the oath. Usually, the serf in return had to come to his liege's aid with arms for no more than 40 days a year, to provide services such as to work the liege's land one or two days a week and to pay taxes in both food and coin. Leaving one's land without an agreement with one's liege was seen as breaking the oath.
An alternative would be an oath of a freeman. A freeman did not get any land from his liege but also did not need to work his liege's lands or to pay any taxes in food. A freeman also paid fewer taxes in coin, and that was an oath most often given by the rich peasants, servants and men-at-arms. It was also possible for a serf to buy out his rented land and become a freeman, should he have enough gold to do so and should his liege be willing to sell their property.

Forcing your subjects to lay with you, flogging a man whose guilt was not proven — those are low, unlawful acts! For the crimes committed, I sentence you to pay 20 gold pieces to each subject of the first act and 50 gold pieces to the subject of the second. And the punishment shall not be so easy a second time!

— King Jaymond of Wiz

Either way, the oath did not typically give the liege any right to unjustly harm or punish their serf or freeman, though they were all subjects of his court. And should a noble violates someone's rights, he could now be judged by his liege and punished. All in all, the peasants were relatively free and protected by the law. But if a man served no liege, then he and his family held no rights in the realm as there were no noble whose duty would be to protect their lives and property.

Land organization

In the society of Lleira, there was never a concept of a clearly defined area. Instead, all of the land under the rule of a noble would be called his fief. It would usually be divided into manors, each governed by a man-at-arms or a member of the noble's own family. A noble did not own all of his fief, parts of it belonging to his vassals and freemen or rented to the serfs, and the fiefs could take some bizarre shapes due to their always-changing nature.
Should a noble conquer part of his neighbour's land, the fief would grow. Should he lose some of his lands, the fief will shrink. Same goes for selling and buying; and an oath given by a freeman would mean that all of the freeman's land would automatically become part of his liege's fief, no matter how far away the rest of it is.

Settlements

I bestow upon you a high honour, my son. You will learn to rule by governing the village of Reide, just like I did at the time. Be sure that your people are safe, the court is just, and all taxes are paid in due.

— Baron Nichol of Fieord

Most towns and villages were headed by a bailiff chosen by the settlement's liege from either among its inhabitants or, more commonly, liege's retainers. The bailiff served in noble's stead by holding a court for minor issues, overseeing the order and collecting taxes, and could be bestowed with the governed land to rule over it as a noble himself.
However, it was not always the case. If a noble lived in the settlement or a nearby castle, and the said settlement was a small village or a hamlet, he would often govern it himself instead of sending in a bailiff. Poor nobles, which the majority of the knights were as well as many barons, often had only a single manor in their fief and thus many small settlements were governed by their direct lieges.
There also existed several so-called free villages and a few free towns. Such names were given to the settlements that did not belong officially to any noble and stood on the land owned by freemen. While those settlements had their own means of governing and an often well-trained militia, most of them eventually fell victims to the pressure from their noble neighbours who rarely liked an idea of peasants governing themselves.

History

After humans crossed the Krisna in an event known as the Exodus, most of them settled on the vast and fertile lands along the river. The population grew rapidly, and many small realms started to emerge there. Most of them would come and go, destroyed by their internal problems and more lucky neighbours.
The Kingdom of Lleira was founded in 436 AE when Duke Oddo Frits raised his banner in rebellion against a king, declaring independence and formation of a new kingdom. Duke died three years later, still waging war against his former liege, and a vassal of his overthrew Oddo's heir to become a king himself. In early times of Lleira, dynasties were often changing until in 592 AE a noble house of Wiz took the throne and have held it ever since.
A unified country has soon proven aggressive yet cautious, attacking its neighbours at the times of weakness and steadily gaining new lands through the means of war and inheritance. By the end of the eighth century AE, only five major kingdoms remained, and Lleira was the strongest of them. Its influence reached its climax under the rule of King Jaymond, who inherited the crown from his father, King Dain II, in 797 AE.
The 13-year-old king was opposed by his uncle, Duke Archebald of Wiz, which started a four-year-long period of unrests. After Duke Archebald was assassinated by a war party presumably from the Kingdom of Moclad in 801 AE, King Jaymond used it as a cause to start a war with his neighbour, which ended in near complete destruction of the Kingdom of Moclad.
The dangerous expansion of the Kingdom of Lleira caused two of its neighbours, the Kingdom of Esma and the Kingdom of Aspax, to make a move against it. In a resulting region-wide War of Five Kings King Jaymond managed to prevail once more. He conquered significant portions of other kingdoms' land, and soon enough united the region, forming a new realm.

Disbandment

From this day, I shall no more be known as King Jaymond of Lleira. Instead, I shall be known as the Emperor of All Humans Jaymond, the First of My Name.

— Jaymond of Wiz

The kingdom ceased to exist during the meeting of the kings of all remaining independent human countries on Wane 81st 811 AE. King Jaymond of Lleira threatened the rest of the kings with the overwhelming power of Lleira's armies and forced them to become his subjects, announcing the creation of the Human Empire off his realm.

Demography and Population

Initially, the Kingdom of Lleira was just a duke's fief inhabited by about 20-30 thousand people. Over time, however, it grew in size, numbering a little over 2 million people by 789 AE. Due to the wars that Lleira often waged against its neighbours, many people died young, which was compensated for by families traditionally having a rather high number of children.
Because of its location not far from the Krisna, the kingdom was always densely populated. And while initially the human societies consisted almost exclusively of freemen, the consolidation of power and the limited total amount of lands saw a rise in the institution of renting land from a wealthy individual. As a result, the majority of the late Lleira's population were serfs.

Territories

The ancestral lands of Lleira are estimated at about 500 square miles, about six times more if one was to count the whole territory of the kingdom which part Lleira once was. Those lands were made part of the country later on, but many more were conquered from other nations that had little to do with Lleira except for losing wars to it. By 789 AE, the kingdom occupied as much as about 33,000 square miles of land.
There were always some noble families who speak of kingdoms they were once part of, especially those whose lands were just recently subjugated. However, most of those lands were given to new lords, and the population did not care much for the businesses of nobles. Thus most of the conquered lands' population quickly start to associate themselves with Lleira, having no real issues with the fact of being conquered by it.

Military

Heed me, villagers, for I bring the word from our liege! The enemy has come to our land. Every man is to gather in the castle, armed and ready. Together, we shall meet the enemy!

— A herald in a village square

The military of Lleira, being a typical feudal kingdom, relied on nobles and levies provided by them. Every man was ought 40 days of service a year to his overlord and should provide himself with arms to do so.
Typically, a knight would have one or two of his retainers, men-at-arms, who were well trained and armed. Those men-at-arms would often be members of the knight's own family such as brothers and sons. In addition, each knight was expected to muster a dozen peasants who would most commonly come with spears and bows. Together, they would form a unit called "lance".
When mustering peasants, a significant portion if not a majority of them were taken from among the freemen for which there were several reasons. First of all, most of the rich peasants were freemen, and no one wanted to have their poorly armed men die in battle and stop paying taxes henceforth, besides shrinking one's manpower. On the other hand, many poor freemen with no land were living mainly by means of hunting; thus, they were decent archers and were also more willing to go to war for plunder and coin.
Wealthier knights and barons with bigger fiefs would come with more of both men-at-arms and peasants. In addition, if a noble had any vassals, which lords and even barons often had, they could call their vassals to arms as well, increasing the total size of forces available. That chain went all the way up to the king, who would usually organise the troops into several units called "companies" in order to maintain at least some level of mobility.
In times of war, many men would also offer their services as mercenaries to any side willing to pay. They were most commonly experienced soldiers or poor, often unlanded men desperate to make a living. Wealthy nobles and kings often used this resource, the latter being able to hire experienced soldiers more easily. That was because those mercenaries had a chance at becoming well-paid and hereditary knights in king's service or even lords, although usually unladed or with just a little fief.

DISBANDED/DISSOLVED

"We know our ways"

Growth 436 AE - Wane 81st, 811 AE

Type

Geopolitical, Kingdom

Formation Type

Feudal levy

Training Level

Levy

Veterancy Level

Experienced

Demonym

Lleirans

Government System

Monarchy, Absolute

Power Structure

Feudal state

Economic System

Traditional

Neighboring Nations

• Kingdom of Esma
• Kingdom of Moclad

Notable Members

• Count Reimfred of Rork
• Duke Archebald of Wiz
• Duke Pawlin of Stush
• King Dain II of Lleira