Mariela of Melleray

Mariela of Melleray
Title Queen of Malat and Lady of Melleray Birthday 15 May 1988 Father Thibault of Melleray Mother Maria of St. Vittorio

Her Majesty Queen Mariela (Mariela Constance Elizabeth) (born 15 May 1988), styled Her Majesty the Queen, is the Queen regnant and Head of State of the Second Malatese Republic and is also Lady of Melleray. She was crowned on 21 January 2005. On 1 March of that year, she married King Raik III of Erlangen-Ansbach and Peru.

Life

Queen Mariela was born at the Palais du Croix Sainte, the ancestral home of the Lords of Melleray in that city. Her father Thibault was the oldest child of the Lady of Melleray and her mother Marie was the youngest daughter of the Lord of St. Vittorio. She was named for her mother and grandmothers, Constance of Melleray and Catherine of St. Vittorio.

For four years after her birth, the parents and their young daughter lived in a chateau in the heart of Mellerey's wine country. Her mother saw to her needs, foregoing the usual nannies and governesses during that time. Thibault was often away on his business, but the family was remarkably close-knit living in the seclusion that the rural setting provided.

On 22 June 1992, Thibault and Marie were killed in a plane crash not far from their home. The young Mariela was brought back to the place of her birth by her paternal grandmother Constance, the Lady of Melleray.

Education

The young daughter of the heir of Melleray was taught at home during her first four years. After the death of her parents, young Mariela lived for six years in the house of her grandmother, educated by tutors and governesses. This early education consisted of the basic mathematics and sciences along with a grounding in languages, including her native Malatese, the Melleray dialact of French along with the Italian of her mother's family.

Upon Mariela's tenth year, Lady Constance sent her granddaughter to the School of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart for continued education. By all accounts, Mariela was an excellent student who furthered her fluency in French and Italian along with Latin.

Kidnapping and coronation

In early 2005, a few months before the seventeenth birthday of Mariela, the general strike was broken by Count Fernando's government. On 13 January, Mariela was taken out of her school by one of her grandmother's retainers, Santino Rodrigo, who was secretly a fascist operative. Over the next week, the girl was held in seclusion by the fascist Malatese Party of National Revival at an estate in the countryside outside Melita. During that time, she was interviewed and evaluated by the fascist Council of Five, though Mariela did not realize it at the time.

On 18 January, the fascists marched into the capital Melita with Mariela at their head and the girl was already being hailed as the People's Queen; she was crowned in the Hall of the Universita in Melita on the 21st. Seventeen days later, Fernando abdicated the comittal throne and the fascists called for Mariela as a compromise candidate to rule as Queen of Malat (and to serve as their puppet). The loyalist faction chose instead to continue the civil war and elected Mariela's grandmother Constance to a second term as Countess.

The people however hailed Mariela as the leader of their island and accepted the young lady into their hearts as their queen; on 8 February, the death of the Queen's grandmother was announced and Mariela assumed the additional title of Lady of Melleray, becoming the uncontested monarch of the island.

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Queen Mariela in 2005

Assassination and escape

Queen Mariela was not completely accepted by everyone in Malat, however. According to documents smuggled out at the time of her escape to Erlangen-Ansbach, the more radical elements of the Malatese fascists saw a queen as a betrayal of the principles of the revolution. These elements organized an execution squad to infiltrate the royal household and assassinate Mariela.

On 22 February, the plan was put into action, with two women in place with the Queen and several others arriving later to carry out the execution. However, the loyalists intervened through the operative Rodrigo, who was having second thoughts after learning of the plan to kill Mariela. The attack was thwarted and Mariela was delivered to the Erlangen-Ansbach Embassy in Melita by her cousin and de jure heir, Rene de Montpellier, who also escaped to the United Kingdom at that time.

King Raik III of Erlangen-Ansbach and Peru gave both scions of the House of Melleray sanctuary in his lands. The fascist government secretly purged the radical elements and blamed the deaths stemming from the failed plot on Erlangen agents and called the entire affair a kidnapping.

Mariela currently resides in Erlangen-Ansbach. She was married to King Raik III on 1 March 2005. Her title in the United Kingdom is Her Majesty Queen (Consort) Mariela, Grand Duchess of the Two Brussels, Countess of Gründlach etc.

Reconciliation

Later in 2005 she gave birth to the twin Princes Alfred and Heinrich. The latter one is designated to inherit the throne of Malat from his mother once.

Following the previous reconciliation between the Malatese and Erlangen-Ansbacher government the marriage between the Queen and King Raik is now fully recognised and the throne succession was regulated in a mutual accord.

Today Malat and Erlangen-Ansbach share splendid relations and are closely tied to each other via the ITO alliance and the Alliance of Monarchist European States.