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 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.

Against Isatal and downfall
In March 1019, Renée gave birth to a daughter, Jahanne Renée, after the death of Crown Prince René in December 1018. Renée was in a frenzy, as her edge was gone, and now that Jakigan in his 50s, her chances of having another son were very slim. In order to maintain her power, Renée kept looking for doctors and tonics for Jakigan on the one hand, hoping to get pregnant again, on the other hand, she began to find a way to deal with Isatal. Since the emperor had no male heir, Isatal had already been heir-persumptive to the throne. At that time, it was suggested that Renée should marry her daughter Jahanne to Isatal's eldest son, but Renée categorically refused. She did not want to share power with Isatal. Instead, she wanted to kill Isatal and his children.

In February 1020, Isatal's residence was attacked. Although Isatal and his family were not injured, his residence was burned down and property was damaged, including some relics left to him by his parents. At the time, many people thought it was Renée's plan, and Isatal felt the same way, and he was very angry with Renée. But Renee was pregnant at the time, and historians believed she didn't need to take the risk, and some believed it was Isatal's self-directed act.

On 15 September, Renée successfully gave birth to a son, Rogathu. Because all the children she had given birth before died in infancy, Renée was afraid that Rogathu would also die, and she felt very insecure. On the one hand, she continued to persecute Isatal, and on the other hand, she began to look for a suitable heir. Some ministers reminded her that empresses like Anmarie and Ceisivey who tried to break the law of succession were ultimately unsuccessful, but Renée remained reckless and ignored the law. Her actions caused public outrage and a bad reputation among the people, and the bards used the mythical witch Oburie to ridicule her. After her father Fabio II knowing that, he wrote many letters to persuade her to restrain her behavior.

In May 1021, Renée promoted Nipofe de Nescalle to finance minister, a decision that was met with much opposition, and the chief minister, Joan de Malcara protested to the emperor, but the emperor did not reply. Rumors spread around Nanwa that the emperor had been controlled by Renée and that Nescalle was Renée's lover. In June, Malcara was assassinated, which was believed to have been done by Nescalle. Isatal filed an application to the court for a public trial of Malcara's assassination, but Renée interfered with justice and accused Isatal of treason and sent the army to arrest him. Isatal protested again to Emperor Jakigan, and at the same time fled to the domain of his nephew, Diagar II, Duke of Mohal. After waiting for three months, Isatal did not wait for the emperor's reply. He was completely disappointed, realizing that Jakigan was completely controlled by the empress, and he had to get rid of them, otherwise there was only a dead end for him. Moreover, Renée army looted Isatal's territory, completely destroying his official residence in Reiya, which turned his attitude for Renée to hatred. He promised Diagar II that he would stand on his side in the dispute between him and Hsindran princes in exchange for Mohal's money and military support; he wrote a letter to the Pharaja, affirming his legitimacy of the imperial throne, and the evil deeds of Renée for many years were written into it, and asked the Pharaja to inform the kingdoms of this. Isatal led the army into Eadien and was welcomed by the people. Many nobles also showed their allegiance to him. They had endured Jakigan and Renée for many years and were now unwilling to support this couple.

On 16 September, Isatal entered the Nanwa Palace and deposed Jakigan. The Supreme Court recognized this and declared Isatal the new emperor instead of Crown Prince Rogathu. When Renee saw that the situation was over, she disguised herself as a servant and fled Nanwa with her son Rogathu. Isatal began his reign as Isatal III, Eadien Emperor, while his older brother Jakigan was placed under house arrest in the palace of Little Ethong. Jakigan did not live long. He was old and suffered the blow of losing the throne. He died two years later. Before his death, he left a last word, hoping that Isatal III could pardon his wife and his son.

Exile and death
Renée's property and territory in Eadien were confiscated. She was not willing to lose everything, and did not want to live under the mercy of Isatal III. She tried to win the support of other countries and put her young son on the throne. She first went to Sayamati, where her sister Eliana was the queen, but she was soon disappointed and gave up the idea of an alliance with Sayamati. On the one hand, King Joan III has recognized Isatal as the emperor, and signed some agreements with him to continue the alliance between the Eadien Empire and Sayamati; on the other hand, his sister Eliana had little influence on the king, and her power was limited; the two had been separated for a long time, and it was the mistress Kesara de Poltier who really exerted influence on the king. And because Renée was no longer the empress, Eliana's attitude towards her and Rogathu was very cold, as well as some courtiers were also very contemptuous of them. Renée can't stand the contempt of others, sson she left Sayamati.

After deliberation, Renée went to Hsindra. Joana, Queen of Hsindra, became the protector of her nephew Rogathu, and was willing to help Renée and her son return to Eadien, but she refused to support Renée's attempt to regain the throne. After all, the current emperor Isatal III was her younger brother. Renée, who first wanted to keep her son safe, signed a document in January 1024, appointing Joana as Rogathu's guardian, and Joana would take good care of Rogathu. After staying at Hsindran court for a while, Renée left and went on to gain support in other countries. Elyene Renée, the eldest daughter of Eliana Moshacca Mihadela, Queen regent of Maharapura, was named after Renée, suggesting that when Elyene Renée was born, Renée was likely in Maharapura and forming an alliance with Maharapura, but obviously, Maharapura just wanted to disturb the situation in Eadien, not really want to help Renée, so at the latest in February 1026, Renée left Maharapura and arrived in Palarra. Belfante VII, Duke of Palarra, offered to marry Renée, and Renée almost agreed, but as Belfante VII received warnings from Isatal III and King Fabio V of Hsindra, the marriage fell through.

In June 1026, Renée sneaked back to the Eadien Empire, organized a riot in Nebousha in the south, and set fire to a manor house of the chief minister, Min Gasi. Because of his brother's last words, Isatal III originally planned to exile Renée from the empire, but now he was completely provoked, issued a wanted order for Renée throughout the empire, and asked foreign monarchs to assist him in arresting her. Soon after he had the court pass the death sentence against Renée. Renée realized that there was no hope for a comeback, so she fled back to Hsindra, and Joana still did not hand Renée to her brother Isatal because of her nephew Rogathu. She instructed Renée to flee to the Elapa Temple in Bekinla. Renée spent the last four years of her life in the Elapa Temple, where her sister Anmarie, who had become a nun, came to accompany her. Renée lived a peaceful life, never went out again, nor continued her ambitions, and many letters were exchanged between her and Rogathu, but the mother and son never saw each other again.

On 28 April 1030, Renée died, and before she died, she wrote a letter to Isatal III, hoping that he would allow Rogathu to return to the empire. Isatal III still refused to forgive Renée, so Renée was not buried in Yanimen, and was eventually buried in Le Dula Paso in Hsindra.

Issue
Renée had 2 sons and 1 daughter with Jakigan.

1. René, Eadien Crown Prince (c. 6 September 1017-December 1018)

2. Jahanne Renée (March-18 November 1019)

3. Rogathu (15 September 1020-29 August 1069) was Eadien crown Prince from his birth until 1021, and Duke of Laungshe from 1036 until his death. He married Jahanne Anne of Lysé, and had issue, 2 sons and 1 daughter.