Ažerey 2e
From Almeopedia
Ažerey 2e [a ˈʒɛ rɛj ˈfto rɛ] was a king of Verduria, the third of the Abolineron dynasty.
He was born in 3302, son of Caloton, son of Mëranac 1e.
Struggle for the succession
Caloton died two years before his father, leaving a daughter, Icëlana. Mëranac had not named an heir, so the succession was decided by the Esčambra, which picked Icëlana. The family itself and many nobles had supported Ažerey, partly because they disliked the idea of a female ruler, partly because Ažerey was only 14 and was thus easily manipulated. In the elections of 3319 his faction (led by Mëranac’s brother Bómedrac) gained power and voted to depose Icëlana and give the sash to Ažerey. The Esčambra had no right to do anything of the sort; but the Palace Guard was loyal to Bómedrac. Icëlana was imprisoned. With his supporters in control of both Palace and Esčambra, there was no effective opposition, and Ažerey became king.
Five years later, Icëlana escaped and began raising support for a rebellion against her nephew. A strange, minimal sort of civil war ensued. There were no battles or armies; the conflict involved skirmishes between gangs of armed supporters, maneuvers in the Esčambra, and attempts at kidnapping, assassination, and vote fraud. Bómedrac collapsed at a state dinner in 3327; it’s generally believed that he was poisoned, though a minority maintain that he suffered a stroke which, ironically, saved him from an Ismaîn assassin’s blade. In any case his faction was weakened, and Icëlana regained the sash the next year.
The maneuvering continued, however, and Ažerey was restored to the throne seven years later, in 3335; this time Icëlana was exiled to Šerian, and Ažerey kept her son Zerdorot hostage in the Palace. This was enough to quiet things down for awhile, and when Icëlana died in 3349 the country hoped that the troubles were over.
Parliamentary rule
Ažerey proved a canny leader of his volatile family— he imprisoned his own brother Dómucon when the latter attempted to take on Bómedrac’s role as power behind the throne— but had no great interest in affairs of state. Ironically— since Mëranac had lambasted the Eleďi for their reliance on the Esčambra, and promised to restore a strong royal power— policy became the affair of the Esčambra, and day-to-day administration came into the hands of the Konselora, the king’s cabinet.
Ažerey had an unusually able minister of the Exchequer in Tihom Berg, duke of Anaseri, not coincidentally leader of the Caďin party in the Esčambra. Anaseri expanded Bómedrac’s old coalition; his even-handedness and his renunciation of any role in the royal family itself helped him win over many of Icëlana’s supporters. Under his leadership, the Esčambra undertook a revision of Verdurian law, and Verduria assumed direct rule over Téllinor, in the far west of Ereláe.
He was known as the Sanno Konselore Daluii, the Lord of the King’s Council or Prime Minister; this was an old courtesy title, but became essential when Anaseri gave the ministry of the Exchequer to another Esčambrom. Since his time the position has ordinarily— and now legally— belonged to the leader of the largest party (fako) in the Esčambra.
His one failure was the loss of Ctésifon, and it led to his own fall, in 3360, since the Caďinî resented this loss of Mëranac’s conquest. They had not, however, been willing to pay for the larger army that would have been needed to defeat the rebels, and as Anaseri sardonically commented, referring to the Ctésifoni legislature, “I can rule one Konselora, but not two.” He retired to his estate and died in 3366.
Family
Ažerey married Katye, daughter of the duke of Šerian, in 3331, during Icëlana’s second reign; they had two sons, Mëranac (3331) and Ževuran (3334). Mëranac seemed a little headstrong, but when Ažerey died in 3369 he could surely rest satisfied that the dynasty was back on a firm footing.
| Preceded by: Icëlana | Ažerey 2e 3319-29 | Succeeded by: Icëlana |
| Preceded by: Icëlana | Ažerey 2e 3335-69 | Succeeded by: Mëranac 2e |
