Rose Aphantuteins Erdam

Rose Aphantuteins Erdam (born Bomutugen, 1414-16 June 1455), was the third wife and Queen consort of King Henry IV of Auwyland. She was the only Auwish queen who was a Muslim and from Africa. Because of her dark skin, she was called “Queen of Satan” or “Black Queen” at that time. She was made the queen by the alliance of Auwyland and Salhi Sultanate. She had no impact in Auwyland. Her death marked the end of the alliance.

Background
She was born a princess of Salhi Sultanate, a country located in the Eastern Africa, to Sultan Tantun III (1398-1428), and a slave in the harem. Her name Bomutugen was a kind of flower in Africa. In Tantun III’s harem, Sultana Setkya Borom was the most powerful woman and Sultan’s favorite wife, whose children had higher states and rights of inheritance, while Bomutugen, whose mother was only a slave, was not important at all. At that time, Rubha Empire, the most powerful country in Africa, threatened other African nations including Salhi Sultanate, thus Salhi Sultanate became a vassal state of Rubha to seek for its protection. To show Salhi’s submission, all Setkya’s daughters married Rubha emperor. In 1428, Tantun III died, succeeded by Tulu II (1412-1456), Setkya’s eldest son. In 1440, King Henry IV of New England planned to marry again. To confront Turkey, which block the Mediterranean route, Henry IV tried to ally a African country. He chose Salhi Sultanate because of its location, and propose to marry a Salhi princess as his new queen. Meanwhile. Tulu II also wanted to get rid of being a vassal state by other country’s help. Strong New England was a great choice. But Tulu II has no daughter, and all of his father and Setkya’s daughters married Rubha emperor. Reluctantly, Tulu II could only choose slaves’ daughters to marry the king, among whom Bomutugen was thought the most beautiful by Tulu II, so she was chosen. Setkya Sultan recongnized Bomutugen as her daughter, and Bomutugen was taught court etiquette of New England by the ambassadress. On 12 June 1440, a sunny day, Bomutugen began her journey to New England from the Gauche River Port.

Arriving in New England
Bomutugen arrived at Portsmouth in New England on 21 June 1440. She was welcomed to the Portsmouth Castle by royal nobles waiting there, but her arrival was not pleasant. When she got off the ship and landed, the nobles with high interest were very surprised and dodged. Some of the noble women were stunned on the spot, and the welcome people were also scared when they saw Bomutugen and her black attendants, then scattered by fear. The next morning, Bomutugen and her maids were taken to the local church of San Tory to be baptized. At first, priests in the church refused to serve her. However, at the insistence of the king's daughter, Anne, Bomutugen was baptized and changed her name to Rose Aphantuteins Erdam, but she did not convert to Catholicism. On 1 July, Rose, nobles and their entourage set out from Portsmouth for Boston.

Into the court
In the afternoon of the next day, Rose arrived at Boston. The king and nobles were waiting for the new queen in the St. German Palace. Crown Prince Edward was particularly concerned about it. He was worried that the new queen would be favored and threaten his position by giving birth. But when he saw queen Rose, his heart settled down. Because of her dark skin and ugly appearance, Henry IV would never love her. In sharp contrast to the crown prince, King Henry IV himself might have thought that Rose was a beautiful and white princess, but who knew that she was neither beautiful nor white. Just one look, the queen lost her favor in the king's heart. The nobles who accompanied the king talked about why Rose's skin was black. A message spread in the court: the new queen is cursed by Satan, and anyone who gets close to her will be affected by bad luck. The nobles did not dare to talk and contact with Queen Rose too much. As soon as Rose entered the palace, she was excluded by the court.

Queen consort
On 3 September, Henry IV and Rose got married, although both were reluctant - Henry IV didn't want to marry a black woman as his wife, while Rose wanted an Islamic wedding; they were very embarrassed at the wedding, but the wedding went smoothly. Soon afterwards, Rose Aphantuteins Erdam was officially crowned Queen of New England. Although Rose successfully married the king and became the queen, her situation in the palace was still very tough. Nobles often compared her with deceased queens Christina and Catherine. Queen Rose was not as popular as Queen Christina and Queen Catherine. Therefore, Queen Rose was often the object of ridicule. Facing these, Rose was angry but had nothing to do with it- life of the long-term absence of a sense of existence in the court of Salhi Sultanate made her could not cope with various kinds of situations as the first lady. As a Muslim, she didn't understand the royal court and Christian rules of New England, and she never learned to speak English or French for her entire life. In nobles and people’s minds at that time, it was very terrible and unacceptable for such a pagan to become the queen. People firmly believed that this marriage would not be blessed by the God, because the queen herself was cursed by Satan.

Although Henry IV gave her enough respect, he seldom met with her. It was said that the king and queen never consummated. Prince Edward despised her because she was a pagan. Edward thought that she should not be the queen and avoided meeting her as much as possible. At this time, the real "Queen" in the court was Henry IV's mistress Mary Solleia. Mary Solleia was the object of bowing by nobles in the court, not the queen. In history, there was no record of the intersection between Queen Rose and Mary Solleia, but from the treatment and respect they received, Mary Solleia was obviously more like a queen. Mary Solleia is in charge of the court, rather than Queen Rose who was not good at giving orders at all. At all kinds of banquets and activities, the one who sit side by side with the king was proud and bright Mary Solleia. At the same time, Queen Rose strictly abided by the Islamic law, wearing simple clothes, and never appeared in public; it was Mary Solleia who had a fierce political struggle with the crown prince, not Queen Rose who had little influence on politics. Even after Mary Solleia died in 1447, Rose was still ignored by the court. In daily life, Queen Rose stayed in the palace, praying for Islam, chatting with her black maids and playing the popular games in Salhi Sultanate. The king intended to appoint a maid of New England to her, but no noble woman was willing to get close to a black woman. Countess Ramses, Queen Catherine's lady-in-waiting, became her nominal maid, but the countess never talked to the queen. The queen also liked to talk with Salhi Ambassador Bobom Vassilazia. She often called him into the palace, talked with him for hours, or went out to the embassy to see him in person. Many people thought that the queen had an affair with Bobom. Henry IV refuted this claim. He defended the Queen's reputation. However, in order to stop the rumors, he expelled Bobom back to the Sultanate in 1449, and the Sultanate sent a new ambassador, Anchacham Gegavreo. Queen Rose was told that she could not see the ambassador for more than an hour at a time. The queen was very sad.

Death
In the last few years of her life, Queen Rose often wrote letters to her relatives in her home country. She wrote to her brother Tulu II to wish him good health, and hoped that after her death, he would take her body back to the Sultanate of Salhi for burial. Tulu II replied that he would bury her with Islamic rites. She wrote to her mother, who was freed from slavery and got a title because Rose became Queen of New England, Rose told her mother about her depression. In her letter, she said that her marriage with the king would never be forgiven by Allah, and she hoped that she would never marry to New England. She wrote to her sister Jamitugen, Empress of the Rubha Empire, who was promoted from a concubine to empress consort because Rose became Queen of New England. In her letter, she said that she was on the edge of the court. Jamitugen replied that both of them were just political ornaments. Crown Princess Cornelia became the actual queen since 1447. She sympathized with Rose and gave her as much money and jewelry as possible. She was afraid of the queen by her dark skin and never talked to her. Queen Rose was still depressed all day long. On 16 June 1455, a sunny day, Queen Rose passed away. She was 41 years old. The court did not show too many waves about her death. She was entombed in Julian Manor. Tulu II fulfilled his promise and negotiated with New England to bury her in an Islamic funeral. Her tombstone reads: great King Henry IV's wife, Queen of New England, Rose Aphantuteins Erdam, rests in peace here. After her death, all traces of Islam were removed from the court. All the portraits and relics of the queen were moved from the Boston Palace to Julian Manor. All her black maids were sent back to the Sultanate of Salhi. Fearing that the Salhi-New England League would break up after Rose's death, Tulu II proposed to marry his daughter, Esimum, to Henry IV, who refused without thinking about it. Since then, the relationship between the two countries had become weaker and weaker, and the Julian Manor where Queen Rose was buried had become more and more desolate. It was not until 1688 that Mortimer II ordered someone to repair and guard it. However, most of remains and portraits of the queen in the manor had been stolen.