Renée of Basnoi

Renée d'Este (28 June 993 - 28 April 1030), was Eadien Empress as the second wife of Jakigan, who ruled the empire de facto during her husband's late years of his tenure. Her rule was generally regarded as a disaster, which was the main reason why her husband was known as "Jakigan the Disaster". After Isatal III replaced Jakigan as the emperor, Renée ran around to find support, trying to make her son Rogathu emperor, and provoked many rebellions in the Empire. In 1026, she failed to bribe the attendants in the Nanwa Palace to poison the emperor. As a result, she was wanted by the Empire and was forced to flee to the Elapa Temple, where she died four years later. Her reign in the later period of the reign of Jakigan and the rebellion during the reign of Isatal III greatly weakened the Eadien Empire and laid the foundation for the disintegration of the Empire in the future.

Early life
Renée of Basnoi was born on 28 June 993 in Maldoill Manor, Michela. She was the third daughter of Fabio II, Duke of Basnoi, and his spouse, Anmarie of Forle. She had 2 brothers and 5 sisters, including Fabio III, who will become Duke of Basnoi, and Eliana of Basnoi, Queen of Sayamati.

Like most noble women at that time, Renée and her sisters were sent to a Suma temple for education. Her sister, Anmarie of Basnoi, was very devout and eventually became a nun. However, Renée showed different qualities from her sister. She despised the education which demanded her to be upright and simple in the temple, Even when she read the deeds of the sages, she would sneer. Renée was shallow, vain and arrogant. She always went to the downtown in gorgeous clothes. It's the happiest thing in her girlhood to hear the praise from the citizens.

Renée was very smart. She had learnt many things when she was 11 years old. She can read the full text of "Maha Sutra". But her teachers are very worried about her morality. They never dare to persuade her, because it may make her angry, and the consequences were terrible. It was said that Renée once put a viper under the quilt of a teacher she hated.

Renée was very beautiful, because she often appeared in public, so her fame of beauty quickly spread, but this brought her some bad reputation, that she was too indulgent, so in 1010, when Basnoi and Sayamati connected by marriage, Sayamati did not choose the right age Renée, but chose her sister Eliana as the queen, This made Renée feel insulted. She swore that she would marry an emperor or a king, whose title should not be lower than her sister's.

Empress of Eadien
Because Renée vowed to be a queen or empress, it became very difficult to find a suitable marriage for her, but the opportunity finally came. In 1014, Emmé of Limgoo, wife of Jakigan, Eadien Emperor, died. Although Jakigan was 50 years old at that time, he had no heir, whose two sons born to Emmé died before, so he decided to marry another wife in order to produce an heir. After all, Jakigan was 50. It's not easy for him to find a bride. When he heard that Renée of Basnoi was very beautiful, he decided to propose to her. Basnoi was very rich, Renée's dowry will be a huge sum of money. Renée's sister was Queen of Sayamati, and the Eadien Empire and Sayamati were allies for many years; if these sister's sons ruled the two countries, it would be very beneficial to consolidate the alliance.

Renée did not hesitate to agree to the marriage proposal of Jakigan. She knew that she was already 21, as she grew older, her chance to marry an emperor or a king became more and more slim, so she seized the opportunity. Renée's father, Fabio II, was not as straightforward as his daughter. He proposed to Jakigan that he would not pay a huge dowry as he married Eliana, and that the Empire must give up two enclaves in Basnoi: Maungshila and Tawi. Considering that it was not easy to find a beautiful young bride, Jakigan agreed to Fabio II's requests, but it made the nobles feel insulted, so they didn't like Renée very much from the beginning.

In May 1014, accompanied by her mother and brother Muhatane, Renée arrived in Nanwa. According to the emperor's instructions, a welcome ceremony was held in front of the Sun Gate for her. The emperor specially recalled Kalidha Min Gasi, Duchess of Reiya, the wife of his brother Isatal, and asked her to lead Renée into the palace, because she was one of the highest status women in the empire at that time. Jakigan was very happy for Renée's arrival. Before that, he only heard that his fiancee is a beautiful woman, but now he has confirmed it with his own eyes.

The wedding of Jakigan and Renée was held on 22 May, and the celebration activities in Nanwa continued until the middle of June. However, Jakigan did not intend to coronate Renée because he had reached an agreement with the nobles that the new empress would be coronated after the birth of an heir. In July, Jakigan and Renée went to the Temple of Maha Phangchan to visit the emperor's mother Galandaph.

Renée was young and beautiful. Jakigan adored her very much and often stayed with her. Although there was a need to have a son, people still thought that the emperor went to the empress's chamber too often. With the emperor's love, Renée began to ask for money and jewelry from the emperor. Jakigan agreed almost all of her requests. In 1015, Renée's annuity had reached about 160,000 nelas, which was only a small part of her income. She came from Basnoi ,which was rich and extravagant, so after she became the empress, she still spent a lot of money. The income of annuity and territory could not satisfy her at all. So she tried every means to collect money, including using some illegal means, which soon made her unpopular among the citizens, because she greatly violated their interests.

In October 1015, when Renée was cruising on the Merigne River, she was attacked by some citizens. They threw stones at Renée's boat and yelled, "Get out! Basnoi whore!". Renée was not happy with her bad reputation, but she didn't think she was wrong. She just thought that the people who spoke ill of her were a mob; Someone once advised her not to be too extravagant, but got only ridicule.

Rise to power
As he grew older, Jakigan became more and more dependent on his young wife, which made his favorite minister, Joan Sifloung, Marquis of Muraïha, the eldest son of the last Marquis of Muraïha, Diagar Sifloung, uneasy. Diagar Sifloung was the personal escort of Jakigan appointed by his father Hsinpalay IV and was trusted by Jakigan. After Jakigan succeeded to the throne, he was promoted to the finance minister of the Empire and held power. After his death in 1011, his eldest son Joan inherited his position and title. For many years, Joan can be said the second to the emperor in the Empire, but Renée was a great challenge to his power. He clearly knew that Chandra que Maïdara, the favorite Minister of Minsi II, collapsed more than 100 years ago because he offended Empress Atula of Mohal, so he decided not to be an enemy with Renée, but to show his kindness. Renée was also happy to take over the olive branch thrown by this powerful minister. The two reached an agreement on many things and jointly influenced Jakigan.

However, the relationship between Renée and Sifloung broke down. In 1016, Renée nominated Henther Le Bffa from Basnoi as the high priest of the East District of Nanwa. She accepted a heavy bribe from Le Bffa and hoped that Sifloung would support her to make Le Bffa the high priest, but Sifloung knew that people were hostile to Basnoi. If he supported Le Bffa, then the anger of the nobility and the people will be passed on to him, so he chose to support a local priest, Dhammadhipati de Wisusite as the high priest of the East District of Nanwa, and exposed Renée's bribery. Eventually, Dhammadhipati became the high priest, and his daughter Isovanasi Sisowalashamia de Wisusite will be the first wife of Thusuaye I in the future. Renée and Henther Le Bffa were also investigated. Henther was deported, and Renée was forced to donate 500,000 nelas to the temple in the east Nanwa. Since then, the relationship between Renée and Sifloung broke down. They regarded each other as enemies and tried every means to get rid of each other. Although Renée was loved by the emperor, Sifloung has the support of many nobles and the new high priest Dhammadhipati, and had a good reputation among the people, so Renée can't start her political struggle against Sifloung for the time being.

In 1017, Renée became pregnant and gave birth to her eldest son René in September. On October 13, she was officially crowned, and René was also declared the heir of the Empire. As the mother of the future emperor and the officially crowned empress, Renée's power rose to a higher level. Some nobles who had stood on the side of Sifloung also took advantage of the situation and turned to support Renée. Among the people, Renée's reputation also improved among people because she successfully gave birth to an heir. In such an environment, Renée became a favorable party, and she launched an attack on Sifloung. On the one hand, she made a lot of public opinion, saying that Sifloung and his father had used witchcraft to control the emperor, and the death of the emperor's first two sons was due to Sifloung's curse in order to seize power for a long time; On the other hand, she arrested some of Sifloung's confidants and took refuge with her nobles, forged evidence of Sifloung's crime and intention to rebel. Under her slander, even some small fights among the people were misinterpreted as Sifloung's attempt to instigate rebellion. Meanwhile, she prevented Sifloung from seeing the emperor and constantly spoke ill of Sifloung in front of the emperor. Once Prince René cried, Renée said that Sifloung was using witchcraft and wanted René to die like his brothers. Under heavy pressure, Jakigan signed Sifloung's arrest warrant, and finally beheaded him in January 1018, and Sifloung's confidants were expelled.

With the downfall of Sifloung, Renée was dominant in the government and the public. She installed her own forces in various regions and positions, and then intensified her efforts to collect money. Renée didn't relax her vigilance. She was watching for potential political enemies. Prince Isatal, the emperor's brother and Duke of Reiya, became the target of her attention, because Isatal was the second heir to the throne. If her son Prince René died prematurely, the throne would fall into Isatal's hands, and she would lose all her power. Renée could not tolerate it, so she decided to remove Isatal, even if her son really died prematurely, she should let a well controlled puppet be the emperor, so that she can continue to hold power, and Isatal was obviously not a puppet who will be controlled by others.

In June 1018, under the instruction of Renée, the imperial court of Nanwa tried to recover Isatal's territory in Pinlay and Maladhy. Isatal refused. These were lands left to him by his mother Empress Elancca. Isatal wrote a letter to Emperor Jakigan, accusing the imperial court of making an unfair judgment on himself, and asked the emperor to give herself an explanation. Renée stopped the letter, handed it directly to the justices, and instigated them to feel that Isatal was challenging the imperial law system. On 28 June, the court issued an order requiring Isatal to travel to Nanwa to defend himself. All this was carried out without the knowledge of Jakigan, and it was Renée who blocked the news. Isatal knew that if he went to Nanwa, he was likely to be arrested, so he and his wife and children fled across the border to Hsindra in early July. His sister Joana was Queen of Hsindra, and she could protect him.

Joana was willing to ease the relationship between her two brothers. She wrote a letter and asked Hsindra's ambassador to the Eadien empire to present it to Jakigan. After reading Joana's letter, Jakigan knew that Isatal had been persecuted from Nanwa without his knowledge. He promised to thoroughly investigate the matter, give Isatal an explanation, and ensure that all titles, territories and treatment of Isatal in the Empire remained unchanged. Renée confessed everything to her husband and hoped that the investigation would not continue. Jakigan forgave her, but in order to explain to Isatal, he replaced three of the justices, and the whole imperial court suffered great personnel changes. That month, Renée was diagnosed with pregnancy again. She also relaxed her vigilance towards Isatal and expressed her willingness to show friendship to Isatal. In October, Isatal returned to Eadien and entered the Nanwa Palace at the invitation of his brother. However, for insurance, he left his pregnant wife and young son in Hsindran court under the protection of his sister Joana. Isatal entered the court accompanied by his illegitimate sister Manarella. Jakigan and Renée led the crowd to meet him. Renée took the initiative to let Isatal hold Prince René. Jakigan publicly apologized to Isatal and repeatedly stressed that he was absolutely not hostile to him. Isatal also vowed to be loyal to Jakigan and Prince René. In this way, Renée and Isatal reached a temporary peace. But Isatal was afraid that Renée will continue to attack him. Especially now that she was pregnant, she was likely to have another son and rose to a higher level of power. After a brief residence in the court for about ten days, Isatal left Nanwa and cultivated forces in the southern part of the Empire.