Roland 'Ironside'
Lived: 1067 A.D - 1128 A.D
Reigned: 1092 A.D - 1128 A.D
"Ironside! Ironside! Long Live Roland Ironside!." - Le Prince Audacieux
Titles:
(Given the vast amount of titles the de Merohingi had from this point on, only the most important will be listed for each entry.)
Duke of Holland and King of Frisia ( 1092 A.D - 1109 A.D)
The Thrice Crowned Emperor: (1092 A.D - 1128 A.D)
Spouse:
Stéphanie Welf, Princess of Italy (Married 1090 A.D, Died 1093 A.D, Pneumonia)
Yekaterina Fydyorov, Princess of Russia (Married 1096 A.D)
Issue:
Stéphanie (Born 1092 A.D)
Jacques (Born 1093 A.D, Died 1127 A.D, Fever)
Clovis (Born 1098 A.D (Later Clovis I))
Héloise (Born 1099 A.D. Died 1126 A.D, burned as heretic)
Sigismond de Hainault (Bastard. Born 1100 A.D. Later King of Jerusalem)
Roland (Born 1101 A.D, Died 1103 A.D, Dysentery)
Jean (Born 1106 A.D)
Charles (Born 1108 A.D, Later Baron of Chranów)

Lived: 1067 A.D - 1128 A.D
Reigned: 1092 A.D - 1128 A.D
"Ironside! Ironside! Long Live Roland Ironside!." - Le Prince Audacieux
Titles:
(Given the vast amount of titles the de Merohingi had from this point on, only the most important will be listed for each entry.)
Duke of Holland and King of Frisia ( 1092 A.D - 1109 A.D)
The Thrice Crowned Emperor: (1092 A.D - 1128 A.D)
Spouse:
Stéphanie Welf, Princess of Italy (Married 1090 A.D, Died 1093 A.D, Pneumonia)
Yekaterina Fydyorov, Princess of Russia (Married 1096 A.D)
Issue:
Stéphanie (Born 1092 A.D)
Jacques (Born 1093 A.D, Died 1127 A.D, Fever)
Clovis (Born 1098 A.D (Later Clovis I))
Héloise (Born 1099 A.D. Died 1126 A.D, burned as heretic)
Sigismond de Hainault (Bastard. Born 1100 A.D. Later King of Jerusalem)
Roland (Born 1101 A.D, Died 1103 A.D, Dysentery)
Jean (Born 1106 A.D)
Charles (Born 1108 A.D, Later Baron of Chranów)
Even before his reign began, Roland had earned a reputation for being a front line commander, and war hero. This was of course due to his defense of Moskva during the Russo-Caspian War, which earned his moniker: Ironside. Unsurprisingly, his early reign was marked by a series of swift military campaigns to reclaim lands owned by foreign nations within the borders of L'Empire les Trois Couronnes.
In 1104 A.D, Pope Innocentius IV declared the Sixth Crusade. What followed was two years of one sided victories on behalf of the Three Crowns. After the Crusade, he granted the Kingdom of Jerusalem to his bastard son, Sigismond, who later formed the cadet branch of the Merovingian dynasty, the House of Hainault.
Roland's reign saw massive political changes throughout the Islamic world. The Kingdom (Later Empire of) of Mali was brought under the Kharijite faith by Caliph Kisha Gao. It didn't take long for the entirety of Western Africa (save the Duchy of Tangier) to fall to his armies. In East Africa, after the Umardin dynasty renounced the Messalian faith, they took up the Yazidi heresy. Meanwhile, the Abbasid's faced rebellion and unrest on the part of the Nasrid Sultanate within their Empire. The Nasrid's patriarch, Najib, was in possession of the Seal of Mohammad, and was seen as his rightful successor.
Najib Nasrid is usually seen as Roland I's opposite, the great Islamic and Christian faiths Champion's.
The Jibrilid's actually fell for a time, to the rebel Nizam ibn Nizam Banu Tamim. Although his reign was short, and within two years the Jibrilid's once again ruled. The event nonetheless shocked the Islamic world, that such a great and storied family could be so easily toppled.
In 1095 A.D, the Imperial ally, the Kingdom of the Caspian, after conquests pushing East, proclaimed itself the Empire of Tartaria, led by the Kuilis dynasty, with Paulicianism as the national faith. Their first years were marked by conflicts with Russia and the Jibrilid's. It also resulted in the Caspian Sea being the border for five different Empires: The Abbasid Empire, The Russian Empire, The Empire of Tartaria, The Jibrilid Empire and L'Empire les Trois Couronnes.
Roland's later years were spent promoting a new 'Couronnian' culture, to properly unify the Empire, rather than many Kingdoms as Vassals to an Emperor, he sought a universal Imperial culture. It would be another four hundred years before something resembling a single culture would arise.
Late in 1127 A.D, after a short illness had weakened him, he received news that his son and heir, Jacques had died to fever. This news devastated the old war hero, and barely two months later, Roland Ironside, the Hero of Moskva and the Sixth Crusade was dead. He was 61.
His grandson, Roland II, succeeded him. With Roland I's death, the peace of his reign came to an end, and the 'Crisis of the 1100's' began.
He was the subject of Philippe de Sáble's 1770 opera, Le Prince Audacieux.
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