Emperor Hugh
Reign: 347 YE - 368 YE TBC
Called:The Fat
Early Life and Election
After the death of Empress Giselle de Sarvos, Hugh de Rousillon of Dawn takes the crown. Nephew of the Dawnish general Leon de Rousillon, and a noble of a politically and militarily powerful Dawn noble house, Hugh was a personable, enthusiastic and idealistic knight with extensive battlefield experience. Unfortunately, he was an absolutely abyssmal administrator, incapable of delegation, torn between the realities of political life and his personal idealism.
Reign
His reign is marked by a dizzying number of feasts, banquets and tourneys during which he desperately tried to woo an increasingly jaded Imperial Senate, as well as a sequence of crushing military defeats as Generals began to compete with each other over dwindling resources.
While Hugh is on the throne, the Empire loses Mournwold, Liathaven, Segura, Reikos and finally Karsk. The Imperial Senate and the Military Council consistently squabble over apportioning blame; senators of individual nations refuse to assist each other for fear that their own lands be lost next. Following the departure of the Holberg senator in 346 a total of six senators are forced to step down during Hugh's reign, making the turmoil in the Senate even worse.
Death and Legacy
By the end of his reign, the Emperor was almost unrecognisable as the energetic young man he had been when the took the Throne. Decades of feasting had left him corpulent and unhealthy, barely able to fit into his harness. Trying to stay ahead of the manipulations and machinations of the Senate had left him exhausted and despondent. According to those who saw him in the fateful battle for Karsk that spelled the end of his reign and ultimately his life, he was a broken man who embraced the peace offered by death.
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