Henri de Montmanuel

Henri, ninth Duke of Montmanuel (full name: Henri Louis Isaac Constantine Manuel Diogenes de Montmanuel), holds the rank of General (French: Général d'armée) in Pantocratoria's Imperial Army Legions, and is the supreme commander of Pantocratorian forces in Marlund, under the Danaan-led Allied Central Command, which also includes officers from Excalbia, Marlund, and Adoki. He is the only child of the eighth Duke of Montmanuel and his wife, Jacqueline Phocas. Through his father he is descended in the primary male line from the first Duke of Montmanuel, Manuel Diogenes, who received Montmanuel as fief from the Emperor Manuel VII Comnenus, the former Frank Party Imperial Chancellor the second Duke of Montmanuel, and his father's sister, Isabelle de Montmanuel was the Empress Consort of Emperor Isaac V Capet and mother of the present Emperor Andreus I Capet. Through his mother his ancestry is similarly illustrious - his grandfather, Sir Spiro Phocas, was the founder of the United Christian Front, his great-grandfather was Lord First Admiral Michael I Phocas of the Bosphorus, through whom he is descended of the junior Emperors Constantine XXI Phocas and Isaac III Phocas, and Sir Peter Phocas, leader of the Third Pantocratorian Crusade.

As the scion of the Montmanuel dynasty, Henri de Montmanuel's childhood was spent between the Imperial Court of Christ Pantocrator in New Rome and the Château de Villeduc, mostly at the former. The Montmanuel cabal, a group of ambitious courtiers which had initially formed around Henri de Montmanuel's ancestors and which had come into pre-eminence at court in the reign of the Emperor Isaac V through the machinations of Empress Isabelle, looked upon the young Henri de Montmanuel as its hope for the future. The cabal was powerful enough that even when many of its members were found involved in a conspiracy in the early reign of Emperor Andreus I to disgrace and discredit Empress Theodora, going so far as to poison her with birth control in order to prevent her from conceiving, the ensuing imperial vengeance against the Montmanuel cabal was insufficient to break its power over the court. So effective had its own retaliation against its enemies which had used the Emperor's displeasure as a means to advance their own causes at the cabal's expense been that just a few years later, in 1979, the twenty-one year old Henri de Montmanuel was considered the most likely candidate to marry the Emperor's sister, Princess Irene. Princess Irene was apparently underwhelmed by the thought of marrying her cousin, and the matter was dropped when the Emperor banished her to the Exarchate of New Jerusalem.

Seeking to escape the machinations of the Montmanuel cabal, whose puppet Henri had no desire to be, the young man entered the Imperial Army Legions. As the eldest son of a duke, he was entitled to be immediately elevated to the rank of Major after his completion of officer training. With the influence of the Montmanuel cabal, he could've been elevated even higher fresh out of the academy. He eschewed such privileges of his birth, saying that he wished to be promoted on the basis of merit, not of birth. This isn't to say, however, that his birth has had no bearing on his achieving the second highest rank in the Imperial Army Legions in his career - Henri de Montmanuel's promotions came substantially faster than they did to other officers, and by his early thirties he became a Colonel.

Throughout this time he strenuously avoided the Montmanuel cabal's attempts to arrange his marriage to eligible candidate after eligible candidate. By the late eighties the power of the Montmanuel cabal at court had been seriously diminished since the seventies by a slow but sure erosion of its prestige by the Emperor himself. As new positions at court by which all courtiers measure their advancement became available or old positions became vacant, the Emperor would consistently select from outside of the Montmanuel cabal - he was equally careful not to select from any number of other groups which showed the slightest hint of supplanting the Montmanuel cabal. Henri de Montmanuel's refusal to marry the cabal's marriage candidates, believed to be at the Emperor's personal request, would eventually lead to the final dispersal of all but the most dedicated members in the early nineties when it was presumed that Henri de Montmanuel intended to remain a lifelong bachelor and would therefore leave the cabal without a patron. The Empress Dowager was furious and to her dying breath refused to be present in the same room as the scion of her house.

In 1989, Henri's father died and he became the ninth Duke of Montmanuel. He became a Brigadier General on the day of his investiture - the rank of colonel being beneath the ducal dignity. It was at this time that he developed a particular interest in tanks and armoured vehicles as he served in the Imperial Cataphracti Legion. Throughout the nineties, as he continued to rise through the ranks, he used his influence to ensure that he was assigned to armoured formations whenever possible.

After the death of his aunt, the Empress Dowager, in 1998, the Emperor admitted Henri de Montmanuel into the Order of the Pantocrator and brought him back to the Imperial Court of Christ Pantocrator. He was made a Knight of the Order of the Pantocrator in 1999, and the Emperor offered him the hand in marriage of his niece, Princess Helen. Although the Emperor was enthusiastic about the match, neither Helen's father Monsieur, her mother Madame, Prince Andreus, nor the would-be bride herself shared that enthusiasm, and the Duke declined the offer. His decision seemed to particularly endear him to Prince Andreus, newly created Despot of New Constantinople, and the Duke was invited to the Despotate of New Constantinople to assume command of the Infantry Legion of the Despotate of New Constantinople with the rank of Lieutenant General. He accepted this invitation and moved to New Constantinople, although he declined an invitation to actually take up residence in the Despotic Court of New Constantinople itself, instead preferring his military headquarters.

In 2001, Prince Andreus introduced the Duke of Montmanuel to an extremely beautiful young woman named Henriette d'Altain, the second daughter of the Baron of Altain. Although her family was impoverished relative to its station, Andreus offered to pay the young lady's dowry (which was generous indeed), and suggested her to the Duke as a potential bride. The Despot explained that Henriette's brother was a close friend, and that, given the family's difficult financial circumstances, the Duke would be doing them a great favour indeed if he were to marry the poor, unfortunate young lady. He is also believed to have promised the Duke that, in return for doing his friend such a favour, he would work to secure Montmanuel the command of a second all-armoured legion which was being planned at the time. What he didn't explain to the Duke was that he was utterly besotted with the gorgeous Henriette d'Altain, and that her elevation to the highest ranks of the nobility was the price he had to pay before Henriette d'Altain would agree to become his mistress. The Duke readily agreed to the marriage, and the pair were wed in Montmanuel later that year - he was forty three, she was twenty one. The Despot was the best man.

Despite showing no interest in Henriette prior to their marriage, the Duke quickly became quite fond of his beautiful, much younger wife. When it became obvious to Prince Andreus at a ball at the Despot's palace that the Duke regarded the new Duchess as more than just a pretty ornament on his arm, the Despot quickly arranged for Montmanuel's promotion to General of the Army, and subsequent assignment as commander of Pantocratorian forces on the island of Ghelmanos in the Pantocratorian Archipelago - far too dangerous a place for him to take his wife. It was no coincidence that Montmanuel's assignments kept him away from his wife as much as possible, although the Duke apparently never became suspicious - after a short time away from her, his thoughts always turned to the task at hand. The military life was, after all, his first love - the Duchess of Montmanuel was just an intoxicating distraction.

In 2003 Montmanuel was given command of the Imperial Equites Legion, the second all-armoured legion, formed predominantly out of ex-Syskeyian vehicles. In 2004 the Imperial Equites Legion was deployed in the war against Espario, where it distinguished itself (although admittedly the Esperi army had little in the way of anti-tank equipment). For his role in the Esperi war, Montmanuel was awarded the Eagle Star, a commendation which has only been awarded three times in Pantocratorian history, and was made a Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Louis. During the Syskeyia-Eurusea War, the Imperial Equites Legion saw frontline action against troops and tanks from Vegana and North Star in some of the hard fighting which saw the tide of Reich advance into the Syskeyian mainland turned back. Montmanuel was awarded the Grand Cross of Saint Constantine the Martyr, Pantocratoria's highest military commendation for valour, as were several particularly heroic tank crews.

His return to Pantocratoria coincided with his wife falling pregnant with the Despot's child. Although the Despot and the Duchess' four-year on-and-off affair had ended by this time, the Duke only now found out about it for the first time. He was naturally incensed, and Henriette fled to Lavenrunz to seek the Despot's protection (he had now married Empress Aurora von Sachshausen of Lavenrunz). Montmanuel was sent to take command of Pantocratorian forces in Marlund and Henriette was allowed to return to New Constantinople, where she remained for the duration of her pregnancy. Marlund was the first assignment the Duke actually resented in his military career as a result - his staff frequently found him pacing the halls of his headquarters late at night, raging about his wife's infidelity.

In late 2005, acting under his orders, Pantocratorian forces put down a Bolshevik rebellion in Beyke, Marlund, employing means many critics claim were excessive and indiscriminate to combat the insurgents. Pantocratorian troops were ordered to call artillery or air strikes against buildings from which they had sustained fire rather than entering them and engaging in bloody hand-to-hand combat. Although the civilian population had been warned to flee buildings in which insurgents had taken up positions via television, radio, and pamphlets air dropped over the city, much of the (largely illiterate and impoverished former slave) population of Beyke remained unaware of the peril of remaining in such buildings. In the face of the harshest criticism of the Duke's methods, Montmanuel himself refused to justify himself to the press in any way, shape or form. It was left to others to try to placate public outrage - with varying degrees of success. The Emperor badly misjudged public sentiment by trying to turn the controversial action into a national triumph by ordering Te Deums sung in Pantocratoria's churches to give thanks for the victory - many churchmen refused, most notably Catholic Cardinal Poitiers-Phocas, Archbishop of New Constantinople, and Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Stephanus III.

Shortly after the Beyke incident, the Duchess of Montmanuel gave birth to Marie-Jeanne d'André, the bastard daughter of the Despot of New Constantinople. The day after the birth, the Emperor made Montmanuel a Knight Master of the Order of the Pantocrator, although he didn't bring the Duke back to New Rome to confer the honour in person.

Shortly after having his headquarters relocated to Allied Central Command in Lutherstadt, Montmanuel adopted three African-Ambaran orphans of the Beyke incident, Kallisto, Callimachus, and Radamanthos Miller. By adopting the children, Callimachus, now styled by courtesy Marquis de Montmanuel, became the first black heir to a noble estate in Pantocratoria, and the richest one of them all at that. Upon his request, the Duke was finally recalled from Marlund, and returned to Montmanuel with the children.