Fitzwalter Family

Second Age of Hycath

In order to avoid another severe conflict, Mary-Anne was instrumental in dissolving England into eleven autonomous Queendoms, the landmass now named the Anglia Isle. She remained as ruler of East Mercia, then its first Queen, until her death in YE 272. Within the new Queendom itself, she joined forces with the heads of two other prominent families – the Loxleys and the Olivers – to establish Nottingham anew as capital city. They would be the original First Families, and Mary-Anne created new Marcdoms within the Queendom for each family.

One of the most notable elements of Queendom life to emerge from this period were the Championships, first held in the wake of Queen Mary-Anne’s coronation in her honour.

Mary-Anne’s daughter and successor, Matilda, would see her reign troubled by seditious rumblings from the Olivers. They had become upset by the continuing matriarchy and matrilineal laws of succession. Matters were accelerated when Eliza Oliver, heir to the Marcdom of Aveland, did not produce a daughter. She wanted her first-born son Merrick to inherit, but the Queen preferred Eliza’s niece Bathsheba. As a compromise, Queen Matilda married her daughter, Princess Cecily, to Eliza’s younger son Gregory, but Eliza and Merrick were not satisfied by this and began gathering allies, including the Loxleys under Adelaide Loxley, 3rd Margrave of Huntingdon. During this time, the Queen had commissioned the first incarnation of the Eye in Nottingham, to keep order as tensions grew.

Cecily succeeded her mother as Queen upon her death in YE 304 and held out against Merrick and his cabal. This culminated in an attempted coup in YE 309, which Cecily successfully quashed. This was partly due to Adelaide, who had defected from the Olivers’ side and surrendered to her. She executed Merrick and banished the Olivers, who would move west and establish their own city, Fort Oliver, in the years to follow. The disgraced family’s former lands and titles became extinct and their lands divided between the Fitzwalters and the Loxleys. 

In YE 516, Queen Alviva II designated a new location for the Championships, which endures to this day. The University of Clifton was granted the right to move its campus to the former site; its own former site was leased to the Barton family, who founded Barton University there.

Acorn Uprising 

Two centuries after their banishment, the Olivers would return to Nottingham as part of a rebellion intended to restore England as a single monarchy under their rule. This was known as the Acorn Uprising. In YE 531, Lydia and Oswald Oliver, the niece and nephew of King Lionel of Fort Oliver, murdered Queen Alviva II and her teenage daughter and heir Gabriella. This brought about the end of the Fitzwalter family’s Hycathic line. Alviva’s brother Jonathan replaced her, becoming John I, the first King of East Mercia. He, together with his wife-to-be, Eleanor Rosamund Loxley, fought the Olivers in the Battle of Anglia in YE 533, at the close of the Second Age of Hycath, emerging victorious.

In the wake of their defeat, the Olivers’ adopted homeland was absorbed into East Mercia and became part of the Marcdom of Huntingdon. Queen Eleanor presided over this integration, ensuring that those citizens who had not sided with the Olivers were not tainted by association and were allowed the same rights as citizens of Nottingham. Oliver supporters and sympathisers were treated less cordially, with some agitators tried and convicted of seditious conduct.

The Age of Equality

King John I died in YE 544. Queen Eleanor then ruled in her own right for three decades; their combined reign is recognised in history as a great era, ushering in the Age of Equality. In this age, lines of succession abandoned the matriarchy of the Ages of Hycath without resorting to pre-Hycathic patriarchy. John and Eleanor’s son and eldest child, Richard Fitzwalter, was crowned King in YE 576. Their daughter, Alviva Loxley, inherited her mother’s Royal Marcdom of Huntingdon.

Richard’s reign had a troublesome start when, at his coronation, a large portion of Nottingham Castle went up in flames after stray cannon sparks ignited the many banners and decorations hung from the castle walls for the event. His solution was to rebuild the castle in a classical European style, moving away from its previous medieval incarnation and extending the grounds. A century and a half later, Queen Alviva III would make further extensions, most notably a third storey.

Richard’s other great architectural achievement was the completion, in YE 583, of the neoclassical Champion’s Arena, a project commissioned by his father in memory of Richard’s aunt Queen Alviva II.

In the wake of the Second Hycath War in the mid-750s YE, Queen Rosamund II restored the Eye, which had fallen into ruin following its destruction during the Acorn Uprising. Rosamund believed that strong defensive surveillance could have limited the damage of the war, and that it was therefore necessary, going forward. The Eye received its present-day name upon completion in YE 761. Since then, it has been in constant service, and it has also been maintained and updated as the technologies of the times have permitted.

The Change

The Marcdom of Nottingham suffered severe losses due to the Great Torrent of YE 781, being virtually halved in size. Due to its solid defences, Nottingham Castle survived, but it has since been a coastal installation.

King Richard III died in YE 846 at the relatively young age of 56, leaving his eldest son, Richard – himself only 24 – to succeed him as Richard IV. The younger Richard had been together with Eleanor Loxley, seven years his senior and already a general, for three years previous to this, but his infertility had led to the end of the relationship. He would remain a bachelor throughout his reign.

Recent History

Promised Land Campaign

see also: Promised Land Campaign

King Richard IV had learned that a new seed had been developed in Al-Murooj. Al-Murooj, also known as the Promised Land, was founded by Hycathae fleeing in defeat after the Second Hycath War a century earlier. The new seed could grow in extreme climates and it could feed on saltwater. With much of East Mercia now ridden with saltwater, the new seed would be a boon for their recovery. Richard and his Council duly opened negotiations with Al-Murooj in an attempt to secure a consignment.

The negotiations came to nothing, however, and Richard made the decision to lead the East Mercian Army to Al-Murooj in YE 876, installing his niece Marian as regent in his absence. The changes also necessitated the return of Richard’s younger brother, John Fitzwalter, along with his wife Isobel (née Clifton, daughter of Warden Charles Clifton). Champion archer Robyn Loxley, daughter of Eleanor and girlfriend to Marian was among the company who left, to great public fanfare.

Upon arriving at Al-Murooj, the army first put pressure on the elders of the city from the outside, but the Hycathae stood firm against their threats. After six months, Richard escalated the conflict into all-out war by launching an attack on the city. This war would last eighteen months, ending in YE 877, when East Mercia lost. Richard and Robyn never returned to Nottingham, sparking rumours back home that they died in battle.

Reign of King John II

John Fitzwalter had taken over as regent by 21 March YE 877, following Marian’s abdication. As the war continued to drain Nottingham’s finances and yield little news of the army, the public’s support began to waver. Political agitation from figures such as Will Scarlett – who had protested King Richard’s campaign from the off – further chipped at morale. The rumours of the King’s and Robyn’s deaths in battle, borne by returning survivors, weighed heavily on the people. John took the decision to declare his brother and Robyn dead, ascending to the throne of East Mercia as King John II in October YE 877.

Concurrent with this, he had announced plans to build a wall separating Nottingham into two Circles. The more affluent centre of the city would be designated the Inner Circle, with the more suburban and agrarian outskirts named the Outer Circle. The official rationale was to improve safety and security, which was enough to placate a populace seeking reassurance and direction in difficult times. Plans were approved in YE 876, while the war was still being fought in Al-Murooj, and construction of the Wall was completed in YE 879.

Queen Isobel lost her life in a terrorist bombing in YE 880, orchestrated by Will Scarlett and his rebels, who had successfully invaded Nottingham Castle. This act pitted them firmly against King John.

Present day

King John II remains head of the family and monarch of East Mercia. He is currently most active in the field of sustainability, working to improve the environmental profile of the country and Nottingham in particular.

Marian Fitzwalter serves as Princess of Nottingham and remains resident at Nottingham Castle as heir apparent to King John. Her relationship with Robyn Loxley soured upon Robyn’s departure to Al-Murooj, and she is presently in a relationship with Philippa Murdoch, Sheriff of Nottingham and half-sister to Robyn.

Coat of Arms

The Fitzwalters’ heraldic colour is blue, and their family coat of arms describes a sword enclosed by vines, denoting the family’s belief in the twin forces of militaristic might and respect for nature, which harks back to their Hycathic ancestry.

In Popular Culture

The Nottingham-based broadcaster and historian Dr. Annette Lynton is known as an authority on Gabriella Fitzwalter, having researched her as the central subject of her PhD. It was published in YE 867, under the title Gabriella Fitzwalter: Woman Divided.

Professor Gilbert Arlin, an historian also based in Nottingham who has long been close to the present monarch, is the author of a continuing series of books on the family’s history, simply titled The Fitzwalters. The first three volumes have been published, with Arlin currently working on the fourth. He appeared in YE 882 on Lynton’s podcast, The Clash of the Cousins, discussing Gabriella Fitzwalter and her contributions to the Battle of Lincoln and the Hycathic victory in YE 1.