Renan Aristocracy

the period between 1630 and 1866 is known as the renan aristocracy albrecht renan differed from many members of the wealthy renan family in his close association with the common population his father had owned most of the markian south merkopa trade company, leaving albrecht in control of assets comparable in value to the annual output of an entire country he used this wealth to establish the renan aristocracy in korakord at a time when formal welfare systems were largely absent, the renan aristocracy provided basic clinical treatment even to poor farmers in korakord, which was renamed erlory in 1649 although diminished from its former importance, the city remained a major population centre and was still home to many descendants of communities established during the markian empire most of the country's population consisted of sords, who became increasingly dominant in the day to day administration of the state although officially known as renan, the country was informally referred to as sordland the state continued to develop under albrecht well into his sixties rumburgian king edward later sought to exploit renan's wealth while rumburg was still suffering from the economic consequences of the war of dying roses rumburgian forces attacked renan's northern borders and razed numerous settlements as the war continued, the situation deteriorated for renan as rumburgian armies advanced toward the sordish heartland by then, albrecht was already in his late seventies and increasingly unable to direct the state and the war effort albrecht's son, erik, had been prepared to succeed him he became head of renan at the age of 24 and, on the advice of his agnolian mistress, pursued an alliance with agnolia, which was suffering from valgos raids and faced a similar threat from rumburg agnolian queen lenna supported the alliance and later developed a romantic relationship with erik despite objections from erik's mistress, who had originally proposed the alliance, erik married lenna the marriage created an unexpected political union between the rulers of renan and agnolia and established a united front against rumburg during this period, erik and lenna jointly ruled both countries, effectively creating a single state between renan and agnolia their combined forces halted the rumburgian advance and recovered some lost territory, while valgos ended its raids on agnolia the prolonged war with rumburg, however, caused mounting exhaustion for relatively limited territorial gains in 1710, the three countries signed a peace treaty following lenna's death in 1740, the union dissolved and agnolia descended into civil war between three rival families claiming the kingdom the duke of west agnolia chose to remain within renan and did not participate in the conflict his territory was later renamed agnland after the civil war, agnolia was re established as a merchant republic headed by a rector the early 19th century marked the beginning of the century of revolutions in renan, major political upheaval did not begin until 1833, when nationalist ideas spreading from neighbouring kingdoms inspired opposition to the renan family nationalist revolutionaries argued that the aristocracy was preventing the sords from achieving their full potential as a nation in poorer regions, unrest also turned against privileged bludish and wehzek traders the nationalist revolution escalated in 1859 and resulted in the destruction of the renan aristocracy and the massacre of the entire renan lineage for the next seven years, sordland was engulfed in conflict and fragmented into smaller regional and city states the revolutionary period ended in 1866, when the nationalist leader egmund, who claimed descent from the markian emperors and identified himself as being of maroon blood, unified the country and established the kingdom of sordland