De Bourbauge (Jaedexian Barbari House)

De Bourbauge
Title: Count
Head: Vladimir XI de Bourbauge
Estate:
1. One-fourth of the Trident Isle
2. The town of Vladimgrad (Trident Isle)
3. Chateau Grim (Trident Isle)
4. Bourbauge Mansion (Jaedaxia, Libertas Arrondissement)
5. Part of the Trident Forest
6. Small company of guards
7. Vodka breweries
8. Trident Fur Co.
Race: Vagar

With the fall of the Richelieu de Mer family, the County de Bourbauge is currently the wealthiest and most powerful aristocratic family remaining of the Jaedaxian nobility. In fact, due to their unique location based on the Trident Isle, the house hired smugglers to export the vodka and furs upon which their fortune relies into the Empire. Avoiding both the blockade and the trade embargo, the County de Bourbauge remains with much the same wealth and might as it possessed before the secession.

In direct violation of the Alyssan Civitate, the County de Bourbauge maintains both a fief, with serfs, and a private army. The fief, which houses numerous villages, the town of Vladimgrad, Castle Bourbauge, some of the most arable land in the region, and both part of the Trident Forest and a lengthy strip of coastline, is located on the Trident Isle. It maintains business investments in Jaedaxia, but many of these failed due to the depression, as well as a mansion in the Libertas Arrondissement. Previous to the occupation, there was minimal Imperial presence in the area, so the County de Bourbauge was free to do as it pleased, in violation of the law or not. Now with the occupation, the noble house disguises the fact that it has serfs and a fief. It has bribed the aedile of Jaedaxia to make genuine deeds decreeing that they own, privately, the land that consists of their fief, and they make a public display of paying their serfs to make them appear as employees. The County later taxes, under the guise of rent, this wage entirely.

The County uses its fief to grow potatoes and turnips, brewing vodka, and trapping furs in the forest, with its serfs providing the labour. Formerly it used Trident Shipping Co. to ferry the goods to Jaedaxia’s Defiance harbour, and then to their final destinations, usually southward down the densely populated east coast. With the Trillian and Imperial navy blockade of Jaedaxia’s two harbours and the embargo on all Jaedaxian goods, Trident Shipping Co. became insolvent, and the County hired smugglers to deliver the goods so that, while the shipping company floundered, the house still received the revenues for its goods. Due to a fall in Jaedaxian competition, the rise in price compensated for the steep smuggling cost.

History:

The House de Bourbauge is descended from Vagaran pirate raiders of the Trident Isle who settled on the peninsula, and Medonian settlers who came when Jaedaxia was founded.

Originally, the County de Bourbauge was in Jaedaxia, with its fief being the Ponts Arrondissement, and its seat was the present Chateau Valerian, formerly Chateau Bourbauge. While the Mavloix District was the stronghold of the Richelieu de Mers, the Ponts (Bridges) District was the stronghold of the Bourbauges. From there, the Bourbauges waged several bloody wars against the Richelieu de Mers. Under Count Grim the First, the Bourbauges waged their final and most successful war against the Richelieu de Mers, in which it came to dominate seven of the nine districts of Jaedaxia including both harbours, and commissioned its own fleet (“La Vainquer Fleet”), which conquered the Trident Isle as well. Grim I was assassinated in the King’s Head Pub, and his heir, Vladimir III was, unlike his father, not a soldier. He lived an extravagant lifestyle and squandered much of the vast Bourbauge fortune. As well, under his reign, several of the houses that swore fealty to the County de Bourbauge became insurgent, and claimed parts of Jaedaxia either for themselves or for the Richelieu de Mers. The County de Bourbauge was eventually defeated under Vladimir III, and the house was exiled to the Trident Isle after much of the main branch was publicly executed.

That being centuries ago, the County de Bourbauge had time to recover, and by the time the Reign of Blood had concluded, it had established itself again as a prestigious and wealthy family, thanks to rich trade and farming on the Trident Isle. In the culture race it again became the Richelieu de Mer family’s prime rival. It appears that the County de Bourbauge has finally attained victory over the Richelieu de Mers, as the royal family is now destitute and stripped of all its estate, while the County de Bourbauge has taken their place as the most affluent and powerful family of the Jaedaxian aristocracy.

*Add links to Vladimir etc

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