Charles IV, Duke of Brécourt, King of Altia (Pretender)

Charles IV was King pretender to the throne of the Kingdom of Altia. From a cadet branch of the royal family, Charles went into exile during the First Republican Revolution. Following the social tremors and growing unrest following the establishment of the First "Patrician" Republic, the ostensibly progressive Charles IV was a popular candidate for restoration to the Altian throne as a constitutional monarch. Popular among moderates, his death in exile prompted the first wave of unrest in the Altian Republic that would lead to the Wars of May.

Early Life and Education
Charles IV was born into a cadet branch of the House of Liege in the city of Edessa, the historical capital of the Duchy of Brécourt. Owing to its distance from the capital (or perhaps in spite of it) the region suffered little of the divisive progressive or reactionary tendencies of its neighbors or the capital. While schooled at some of the best universities and institutions in the Kingdom of Altia, Charles would prove a mediocre student throughout his academic career, graduating from the Royal Military Academy near the bottom of his class. Still, Charles would excel in History and political sciences, and showed keen promise as an administrator even in his formulative years.

Shortly after his graduation from the Royal Military Academy, the Duke would be married to Anne, the Countess of Aranjuez in 301. The marriage was a happy one, lasting until 305 with the death of Anne of Aranjuez, of cancer. While Anne would leave a daughter, born in 303 she would not survive her mother for long, dying in 306, just prior to the outbreak of war.

The Patrician Revolution
Following his graduation from the Royal Military Academy, Charles would receive an appointment with the Royal Ministry of Commerce, where he served for five years. During this time, Charles would distinguish himself for his relations with more economically liberal personalities in the ministry, in addition to attempts to liberalize the extant monopolistic policies regarding the spice trade.



With the outbreak of unrest in the capital in 307, Charles was charged with a captaincy of a squadron of Royal Dragoons stationed in the restive capital. The objective of this force, among others, was to protect leading elements of the Royal Family from capture and harm by the Revolutionary Mob. The Duke of Brécourt's service would be both brief and relatively indistinguished, the capital falling to Revolutionary forces less than six months into his captaincy.

With the mobilization of the private armies of insurgent nobles, coupled with the revolutionary mob in and around the capital, the Royalist cause was effectively dead within a year of the outbreak of hostilities. Like many others among the Royal Family, Charles would go into exile to escape the predicted retribution against Royalist partisans.

Exile in Ulsino, Treatises
Following the Patrician Revolution, Charles IV would go into exile in the neighboring Kingdom of Ulsino, taking refuge in the capital of Metternich. During this time, he would pen several memoirs concerning life in the Ancien Regime, whose commercial success would garner the exiled Duke bother commercial and political fame. Of particular note were his Treatises, a series of political essays which, while (apologetically) in favor of a Royalist Restoration, were vocal in their promotion of the "Third Section," the non-noble classes.This included universal sufrage extended to non-landed individuals, including women. Moreover, a staunchly independent judiciary was promoted to curb both the authority of the Nobles in the Altian House of government and the theoretical monarchy. Thus, in spite of his Noble roots, and role in the first Patrician Revolution, The Duke would continue to receive visitors and guests throughout his middle age, ranging from curious nostalgia-seekers, to budding revolutionaries.

With the death of Charle's Uncle Stephen III, and the execution or submission of claims to the Altian throne by the main House of Liege, Charles IV would become the next in line of succession, a claim contested by the Baron Henri de Montroche. While the vitriolic Henri de Montroche would advocate a militant restoration of the monarchy by foreign and loyal military forces, the Duke stood in favor of a willing return based on a referendum by the citizens of the new Republic. His progressive slant already well-known, such a restoration would be favored by the bourgeois masses disillusioned with the patrician dominated First Republic. Thus, while the Duke's actual administrative and political finesse were never proven, his apparent ideological orientation was enough to make him an exceedingly popular figure in the capital and progressive provinces.

Death
On the morning of 21 March, 351, after a riding accident the King Pretender Charles IV died from a pierced lung. The ensuing investigation, headed by the Royal Ulsinian Constabulary, would determine that the Duke had died naturally of his wounds, and that the circumstances surrounding his death showed no indication of foul play. In spite of popular demands for his body to be repatriated to Altian soil for burial, Charles IV would be interred in the Royal Cemetery in Metternich. Documents acquired during the Social War would prove that a request by the Altian government that the Duke's body remain in exile was the limit of any Altian role in the death of the Duke.

Legacy
The Death of Charles IV in the midst of increasing political turmoil in the capital would have dire repercussions for the Patrician Republic. With the only other candidate for Constitutional Monarchy existing in the Absolutist Henri de Montroche and with gridlock in national politics, unrest swept across the republic. Rumors ranging from Patrician agents assassinating the Duke, to The Kingdom of Ulsino's compliance in killing the Progressive Charles stoked the unrest that would lead to the Second "Universal" Revolution in Altia. Ultimately, the death of Charles IV would represent the hopelessness and lack of options available to the "Third Section" and serve as an early rallying cry for the new Revolutionary cause.