Maria IX and IV

Maria IX and IV
Portrait of Maria, 1835
Queen of Ferunia (more...)
Tenure	March 10, 1828 – December 9, 1831
Coronation	June 26, 1828
Predecessor	Livius II
Successor	Monarchy abolished
Regent	Marius Obrius
Queen of Trurnia (more...)
Tenure	March 10, 1828 – December 9, 1831
Coronation	June 26, 1828
Predecessor	Livius II
Successor	Monarchy abolished
Regent	Marius Obrius
Princess of Tuxtla Martínez
Tenure	July 20, 1835 – September 11, 1869
Archduchess of Trurnia
Tenure	September 23, 1816 – March 10, 1828
Predecessor	Lucius Obrius
Successor	Sophia Adriana
Regent	Marius Obrius
Born	(1814-07-11)July 11, 1814 Montcabralo, Ferunia and Trurnia
Died	September 11, 1869(1869-09-11) (aged 55) Tuxtla Martínez, Creeperopolis
Burial	October 10, 1869 Church of Saint Bartholomew the Martyr
Spouse	Augusto, Prince of Tuxtla Martínez (m. 1834; her death 1869)
Issue among others...	Augusto Jaime María Guadalupe Sergio
Full name Illyrian Iberic: Maria Phillipa Josephina Adriana Creeperian: María Felipa Josefa Adriano y Galieno-Polonio de Martínez
House	Martínez – Pelayo, Adrianus
Dynasty	Claudian-Adrian
Father	Livius II of Ferunia and Trurnia
Mother	Phillipa de Hoesio
Religion	Catholic

Maria IX and IV (full name: Maria Phillipa Josephina Adriana, Creeperian: María Felipa Josefa Adriano y Galieno-Polonio de Martínez, July 11, 1814 - September 11, 1869), nicknamed the the Exile Queen (le Esilia Reina), was the queen of Ferunia as Maria IX and the queen of Trurnia as Maria IV from 1828 to 1831. Maria was the final monarch of Ferunia and Trurnia and ruled from the death of her father Livius II to her deposition in 1831. Following her reign, Maria spent 38 years in exile in the State of the Church and Creeperopolis. Through marriage to Augusto, Prince of Tuxtla Martínez, in 1835, the younger brother of King Adolfo III of Creeperopolis, Maria was the princess of Tuxtla Martínez.

Maria was born in 1814 and prior to her accession held the title of Archduchess of Trurnia. Maria was born out of wedlock to King Livius II and Phillipa de Hoesio, which led to her being declared illegitimate upon birth until she was recognized in 1816. She was raised by queen consort Sofia of Illyricum. Maria lived in Trurnia until the death of Livius II at the Siege of Montcabralo during the Wars of the North Rivers in 1828.

At just fourteen, Maria was crowned as the queen of Ferunia and Trurnia and Marius Obrius was selected as her regent. Maria and Obrius continued the Wars of the North Rivers against Illyricum and president of Illyricum Romulonysyos Anyastynaxos, however defeats at the Battle of Peliono and the Siege of Monsolo led to continued Illyrian gains. As queen, Maria instituted reforms granting the National Diet of Ferunia and Trurnia more power and she established the 1829 Charter Agreement which established greater rights to the growing peasant population. During her reign, a particular art and architecture style, later known as the Marianic Style, arose, which spread throughout Illyricum and the Republic of Pensulia as well as Ferunia and Trurnia.

Following a defeat at the Battle of Ponsolto in August 1831, Maria was forced to take command of the Ferunian and Trurnian forces with her regent Obrius having been captured and executed. Maria gathered Ferunian and Trurnian forces near Marina and led them into the field at the Battle of Gobolana in early November. The Ferunian and Trurnian army was routed and Maria was captured, soon after Illyrian forces marched into Ferunia, toppling the Ferunian and Trurnian government. Maria was forced to sign the Treaty of Marina on December 9 by president Anyastynaxos, which led to the disestablishment of the Kingdom of Ferunia and Trurnia.

Fearing her execution, Maria and several of her courtiers escaped Marina that night, fleeing south the Enjola before setting sail in early 1832 for Creeperopolis. After arriving in Creeperopolis, Maria sought refuge with Emperor Manuel IV of Creeperopolis and Pope Gregorio XVI, who allowed Maria to stay in San Salvador del Oeste and Tuxtla Martínez. In 1835 Maria married Augusto, the Prince of Tuxtla Martínez, who was the younger brother of recently crowned Emperor Adolfo III, and became the princess of Tuxtla Martínez and an important presence at the court of Creeperopolis. Maria would have five children, including Augusto, who served as the Viceroy of Zapatista from 1873 to 1888 and 1892 to 1904, and Jaime, who served as the Captain General of San Salvador del Oeste from 1865 to 1899.

Early life

Maria Phillipa Josephina Adriana was born on July 11, 1814, in Montcabralo in the Kingdom of Ferunia and Trurnia. Maria was the daughter of King Livius II of Ferunia and Trurnia and Phillipa de Hoesio, the daughter of Archduke Marius Galienus. Maria was born out of wedlock through an unplanned affair between Livius and Phillipa. From birth Maria was declared illegitimate and was sent by Livius to Marina to live with Earl Matellus Galienus and his wife Maria Aemilia of Marina.

Maria was raised by by Earl Matellus and Maria Aemilia for two years before the marriage of Livius II and Sofia of Illyricum on May 23, 1816. The marriage, arranged by president of Illyricum Marius Connus, solidified the alliance between the First Republic of Illyricum and Ferunia and Trurnia. At the marriage, Maria was in attendance with her older adoptive sister, Amelia, who served as a flower girl. Soon after the marriage, on September 23, Livius released a Succession Act which officially recognized Maria as legitimate.

Maria was moved to Trurnia and was named as the Archduchess of Trurnia, with Marius Obrius serving as her regent. Maria was raised by Sofia of Illyricum and her younger sister Juliana in Trurnia, where she was mostly kept from public circles. In 1819, Romulonysyos Anyastynaxos took power in a coup, killing president Connus and establishing the Second Republic of Illyricum. Fearing the outbreak of large scale conflict, Livius sent Maria and Sofia of Illyricum to Salonia in order to help gain favor with Anyastynaxos.

In 1822, Maria and Sofia were sent out of the Anyastynaxian court following the Ilio Affair, which drove Ferunia and Trurnia into political conflict against Illyricum. Maria was just nine-years-old in 1823 when the Wars of the North Rivers began. Livius and leading general Manorius Fantius, Duke of Carriano, led Ferunian and Trurnian forces against Anyastynaxos in northern Ferunia and Trurnia. Ferunia and Trurnia fought Illyricum well for several years, however by 1827 Ferunian and Trurnian forces were depleted and exhausted, giving Illyricum the military advantage.

Reign

Accession

Pope Leo XII crowned Maria in 1828 and offered papal support to her in the Wars of the Northern Rivers

In November, 1827, the exhausted Ferunian and Trurnian army was defeated at the Battle of Falonio River and forced eastward to the town of Montcabralo. At the time, Maria was in Montcabralo with Patriarch Regulus Decillius and she was unable to leave the city after Illyrian forces surrounded it. The siege lasted over a month before Livius was struck and killed by a canon shot on March 10. Maria was immediately roused by Fantius and brought into the Church of Saint Peter in Montcabralo, where an impromptu coronation was held. Maria was crowned and styled as "Her Royal Majesty Queen Maria IX and IV Josephina Adriana of Ferunia and Trurnia, Unifier of the Twin Realms, Principal Commander of the Combined Forces, and Queen Holy Protector of Our Immortal and Infallible Church." At just thirteen years of age, Maria became the youngest monarch in Ferunian and Trurnian history.

Maria and most of her remaining Ferunian and Trurnian force soon withdrew from Montcabralo, leaving the city to be ravaged and almost completely destroyed by the Illyrian force. Maria and the troops retreated back to Trurnia under the cover of heavy rains which prevent Illyrian advances. At Trurnia, Maria called the Ferunian and Trurnian National Diet to an emergency meeting to select her regent and to establish a new military plan. Marius Obrius was selected as regent and he immediately took control of the army, leaving Maria safely in Trurnia. On June 26, Maria held an official coronation in Trurnia, which was attended by various Catholic leaders and religious figures including Pope Leo XII, who celebrated the ceremony. Pope Leo XII also guaranteed support from the State of the Church for Maria in the Wars of the North Rivers, pledging to help defend the Catholic cause in the region.

Domestic policy

Lucio Longio, the first and only Popular Tribune selected through the 1829 Charter Agreement

As soon as Maria became queen, widespread poverty and famine affected Ferunia and Trurnia on account of the war with Illyricum, with crop failures threatening the peasant population. These problems forced Maria and the National Diet to address the growing Ferunian and Trurnian economic crisis, as the nation had been in decline since the reign of queen Sophia II two decades prior. Maria pushed for negotiations with Anyastynaxos in order to end the war and free the nation of its economic problems, however she was overruled by her regent Marius Obrius and the National Diet, which refused to concede territory to Illyricum in a settlement.

In December, 1828, after a prolonged drought many Ferunian and Trurnian farmers began to rise up, fighting to gain representation in the National Diet. The Peasant Revolt of 1829 lasted for several months and threatened the entirety of Ferunia and Trurnia, with many farmers joining Illyrian forces in seeking to dismantle the monarchy of Ferunia and Trurnia. After a defeat at the Battle of Harolonia, in which Illyrian forces were aided by local peasantry, Maria and the National Diet were forced to address the revolt.

Maria proposed a charter agreement which would establish the position of Popular Tribune to represent and work for the rights of the peasantry. Regent Obrius and many other leaders were originally skeptical, however, after popular spokesman Lucio Longio addressed the Nation Diet in May 1829, the charter received more widespread support. The agreement was ratified in June 1829, ending the Peasant Revolt and installing Longio as the first Popular Tribune.

In addition the establishment of the Popular Tribune, Maria also worked to improve national culture and science, inviting top artists from the region such as Mario Lujo and Petro Philippo. These artists, along with a larger scale growing regional artistic movement, established the Marianic Style of art, named for Maria. The movement, sometimes known as Ferunian and Trurnian Classicism, was influenced by the Republic Style which arose in Illyricum in the early 1800s and would grow to dominate Ferunian and Trurnian art and architecture throughout the mid 1800s.

Foreign policy

Due largely to her youth and political inexperience, Maria avoided international politics most of her reign, leaving Anastasius Dardanus, Duke of Upolia, in charge of foreign policy. Maria had her first major diplomatic mission in 1829, when she traveled to the Republic of Pensulia to meet with president of Pensulia Jario Denelio in order to gain Pensulian support in the Wars of the North Roses. Maria was unable to however, forcing her to turn to the Second Republic of Uralis. President of Uralis Marco Jusso met with Maria and the two reached an agreement securing Ferunian and Trurnian support in the Uralic–Illyrian War and Uralic support in the Wars of the North Rivers.

Deposition

Main article: Treaty of Marina

Battle of Gobolana

Throughout Maria's reign, as she instituted various domestic policies to address the Peasant Revolt, the war with Illyricum continued, reaching heights in August, 1831. Ferunian and Trurnian forces were repeatedly defeated by Illyricum and Anyastynaxos, most majorly at Peliono in 1829 and Monsolo in 1830. At the Battle of Ponsolto in August, 1831, Illyrian forces defeated the Ferunian and Trurnian army, once again lead by Regent Obrius. Illyrian troops captured Obrius and a large contingent of Ferunian and Trurnian troops, effectively eliminating most of the standing army of Ferunia and Trurnia.

Many Ferunian and Trurnian nobles fled the nation, fearing to be executed by Anyastynaxos as Obrius had been. The National Diet then fell into disarray, with Maria disbanding the National Diet in September. Despite the counsel of many of her closest advisors, which was to flee the nation to avoid being captured by Illyrian troops, Maria decided to remain and defend the last few remaining strongholds. Trurnia and Ponturbe fell in late October, which forced Maria to withdraw her troops southwest to Marina where they regrouped and prepared for battle.

At the Battle of Gobolana on November 4, in her first major engagement as the leader of the Ferunian and Trurnian forces, Maria was defeated and routed by Illyricum and president Anyastynaxos. Illyrian troops captured almost the entirety of the Ferunian and Trurnian army, and captured Maria the night of the battle as she tried to escape to Ferunia. The defeat, and Maria's capture, served to finally topple Ferunia and Trurnia. Illyrian troops marched into Ferunia on November 14 with Maria in chains, publicly shaming and abusing her before the royal Palace of Plautiticum, which they then looted and destroyed.

Maria was then taken to Trurnia where she was imprisioned in the Çastelo de Adriano for two weeks. On December 1, Maria was released and taken to Marina, where she was forced to participate in a peace settlement with Illyricum. Due to her captivity, Maria was unable to negotiate effectively and Anyastynaxos took control and demanded the execution of many prominent nobles unless Maria swear her fealty to him. The Treaty of Marina was signed on December 9, in which Illyricum took full control of all Ferunian and Trurnian territory and Maria was forced to swear full fealty and surrender herself officially over to Anyastynaxos.

Princess of Tuxtla Martínez

Escape

On the night of December 9, after signing the treaty, Maria and several of her courtiers escaped Marina and moved quickly south to Enjola. Maria moved through Enjola, reaching Mussum in late December, where she bought passage on a spice ship sailing to Atlántida. While Anyastynaxos did launch minimal attempts to recapture Maria after she escaped, these failed and the Illyrians soon gave up after several weeks. Maria arrived in Victoria, Atlántida, and quickly moved south into Creeperopolis.

Maria traveled to San Salvador where she met Manuel, Prince of Usqulúmen, the son of Creeperian emperor Manuel IV. Maria managed to gain an audience with Manuel IV and Pope Gregorio XVI, in which she asked to be granted safety from the Illyrians and to be taken in as a political ally. Manuel IV and Pope Gregorio XVI eventually allowed her asylum, however, not wishing to lose trades routes through the Andaluzian Sea, which Illyricum controlled, Manuel decided not to allow Maria to live in Creeperopolis, sending her to San Salvador del Oeste in the State of the Church.

Maria stayed in San Salvador del Oeste under the protection of Pope Gregorio XVI from early 1832 until June 1833, when violence broke out in Creeperopolis. Troops loyal to the line of Salvador III, who had been killed in the War of the Creeperian Succession, led by his grandson Adolfo Martínez Llachaumán and general Miguel Cabañeras Gutiérrez stormed the San Salvador Imperial Palace in the Revolution of 1833. Emperor Manuel IV and his son Manuel Martínez Ramos were executed on June 14 and soon after Adolfo Martínez Llachaumán was crowned by Pope Gregorio XVI, who supported the revolt, as Adolfo III.

Maria's husband Augusto, Prince of Tuxtla Martínez

Adolfist troops also purged loyalists of Manuel IV in San Salvador del Oeste, and, suspecting Maria to be a Manuelist loyalist, captured and imprisoned her on June 18. Maria requested an audience with Adolfo III and Pope Gregorio XVI in order to prove her innocence and loyalty to Adolfo, which she had in early May. Maria was released after swearing loyalty to Adolfo III and was allowed to remain in San Salvador at the imperial court. Maria stayed at the imperial court with the wife of Miguel Cabañeras Gutiérrez, Amelia Carpio Rodríguez, who taught her Creeperian court customs and introduced the nineteen-year-old Maria to the nobility.

Marriage

In August, 1833, Maria was introduced to Augusto, Prince of Tuxtla Martínez and brother of Emperor Adolfo III. Augusto began to court Maria soon after, with the two spending their time in Tuxtla Martínez where Augusto lived. The relationship was initially looked unfavorably upon by the Creeperian nobility, however, after Augusto received support from Adolfo III, it began to receive more support.

After almost a year of courtship, on July 28, 1834, Maria and Augusto married in a large ceremony at San Pedro's Basilica in San Salvador del Oeste. In attendance were Adolfo III and his wife Isabela as well as Pope Gregorio XVI, Miguel Cabañeras Gutiérrez, and Jorge Montt Álvarez. Maria was just twenty, and Augusto was twenty-six. In the ceremony Maria also took on her Creeperian name, María Felipa Josefa Adriano y Galieno-Polonio de Martínez, as her official name. Through her marriage, Maria became the princess of Tuxtla Martínez and remains as the only Ferunian to ever hold a position in the Creeperian nobility.

Life as a princess

Maria and Augusto remained at the imperial court in San Salvador for almost a year, staying in the San Salvador Imperial Palace with Adolfo. During that time they hosted a national delegation from Pensulia, led by Maritius Flaccus. The two later moved to Tuxtla Martínez permanently in 1836, where they stayed in the Martínez Palace, which was being extensively expanded and renovated as part of a wedding gift commissioned two years prior. On June 20, 1837, Maria gave birth to her first son, Augusto.

Maria helped design and reform large sections of the palace, most majorly the east wing which later became known as "Maria's Hall." Mario Martínez Gonzalez oversaw the project, which was finally finished in 1840. Upon the opening of vast new sections of the palace, Emperor Adolfo addressed Martínez Gonzalez and Maria and declared "You have made a second heaven on this very earth."

Maria's second son, Jaime, Prince of La'Mirada, known as el búho, who served as the Captain General of San Salvador del Oeste from 1865 to 1899

When queen consort Isabela became ill for an extended time in 1840, Maria took in two of their daughters, Angela and Alexandra for several months before Isabela recovered. Maria was an influential court figure at the court of Adolfo. She worked to elevate several personal friends, including TBDNAME and TBDNAME, to important court positions, including TBDPOSITION and TBDPOSITION.

In 1842, Augusto was sent to fight in the First Senvarian Insurgency, serving with Manuel Cabañeras Carpio and later fighting at the Siege of Pisac in 1846. After returning from the fighting in 1847, Augusto stayed at the court in San Salvador, where he lobbied his brother Emperor Adolfo to grant him more governmental authority, lobbying to be named the Viceroy of Zapatista or the Captain General of San Esteban. However Adolfo refused, as he considered Augusto unfit for greater government authority. Later in 1850, Maria and Augusto were placed under house arrest for several months, after rumors of a possible plot to overthrow Adolfo with general Gustavo López Pérez surfaced. They were released after Augusto publicly announced his decision to no longer pursue further government positions.

After the birth of her final child, Sergio, Prince of Guazapa, in 1850, Maria became increasingly secluded from the public eye along with her husband, as the two were pushed out by Adolfists in the imperial court. Eventually in 1852, Augusto and Adolfo reconciled, which allowed Maria and Augusto to return to the imperial court, albeit still with damaged reputations. At the behest of court officials and Adolfo, Maria received the New Illyrian delegation, led by Johano E. Croeso. The delegation sought to soften relations with Creeperopolis, which had become volatile after a ship of Catholic refugees fleeing New Illyricum to Creeperopolis was destroyed on order of Grand Marshall of the Union Tito Moçeo. The mission effectively failed, and Croeso returned after several months.

In 1855, Maria helped oversee the housing and acceptance of many Illyrians into San Salvador del Oeste, who were fleeing persecution under the Moçeo regime. Maria helped fund the establishment of several housing complexes for the Illyrians and the Church of Saint Bartholomew the Martyr, which remains the only Illyrian Catholic church in Sur. Maria's funding allowed the Illyrian section of San Salvador del Oeste to become rather affluent and influential, with Tiberio Marcelo Julio serving as the city mayor from 1889 to 1893 and again from 1897 to 1901. A statue of Maria was constructed in the quarter, however it was destroyed, along with much of the neighborhood, in the Papal War.

Augusto was again called to serve, this time in the conquest of El Salvador in 1856 with Miguel Santín Castillo. The fighting, however, only lasted for a short time, after which Augusto was considered for the position of Captain General of the new Captaincy General of Nuevo Honduras, but was ultimately not chosen. In 1860, Adolfo Maria and Augusto would be sent to Chalatenango in Castilliano to meet with King Alfonso II. The pair met with King Alfonso and Prime Minister of Castilliano Bernabé Sarmiento Cambeiro and successfully negotiated for more open trade relations and the allowance of Creeperian trade operations in Bay of Castilliano from Santa María.

In 1864, Adolfo sent Maria and Augusto once again to the court of Castilliano, where this time they spent an entire year meeting with Alfonso. Once again they successfully negotiated for freer trade as well as minor military support for maintaining Creeperian control over Senvar and Sonsatepan. In addition, Maria helped organize the marriage of her son, Jaime, Prince of La'Mirada, to Princess Amelia, the youngest daughter of Alfonso, in 1865. The marriage, and the familial alliance which Maria and Augusto formed with the royal family of Castilliano, elevated their position in the Creeperian court, and led to Jaime's selection as the Captain General of San Salvador del Oeste later that year.

Death and funeral

Church of Saint Bartholomew the Martyr

Maria stayed in San Salvador Oeste with her son Jaime and daughter-in-law Amelia for over a year, helping garner support for them amongst the local nobility and with Pope Pío IX. However after returning from San Salvador Oeste to Martínez Palace, Maria became ill for an extended time. After over six months of incapacitation, with the sickness and its cause still unknown, most in the imperial court began to prepare for Maria's death. In January 1868, she began to unexpectedly recover, which at the time Maria credited to the intervention of Saint Diego Cosnvarubias Torres and Our Lady of Guadeloupe. That summer, Maria and Augusto would return once more to the court of Alfonso in Castilliano, where they continued expansion of trade between Creeperopolis and Castilliano.

In honor of Saint Diego Cosnvarubias Torres and Our Lady of Guadeloupe, Maria decided to travel to the San Carlos Islands on a pilgrimage to Guadeloupe, which she completed in March, 1869. Shortly after returning however, Maria once again fell ill, and was kept in isolation in Martínez Palace. Maria's condition continued to worsen over the following months, and on September 11, she died at the age of fifty-five. Maria was buried in the Church of Saint Bartholomew the Martyr, and her funeral was attended by both the Creeperian and Castillianan royal families, including Adolfo and Alfonso, as well as her five children and TBD grand-children. Augusto would die several years later, in 1874, at age sixty-four, and would be buried alongside her.

Issue

Maria and Augusto had five children:

Name	Portrait	Birth	Titles and positions
Augusto Filipo Marcos		June 20, 1837 – April 20, 1914 (aged 76)	Prince of Tuxtla Martínez Viceroy of Zapatista (1873 - 1888, 1892 - 1904)
Jaime Alexander Vicente		July 15, 1838 – August 29, 1911 (aged 73)	Prince of La'Mirada Captain General of San Salvador del Oeste (1865 - 1899)
María Sadie Anastasia		January 29, 1841 – May 28, 1902 (aged 61)	Princess of Teguracoa
Guadalupe María Sofía		September 6, 1843 – April 2, 1916 (aged 72)	Princess of Mafrerio
Sergio Santiago Augusto		January 6, 1850 – September 21, 1899 (aged 49)	Prince of Guazapa