Nicholaus Dimitrios

His Grace Nicholaus Dimitrios MSI
Consul of Belfras
Incumbent
Assumed office 15 January 2015
Monarch	Jason VI Augustus Constantine XX
Lords Palatine	The Duke of Rhenus The Count of Callatis
Preceded by	Gregory Richardson
Leader of liberat populare pars
Incumbent
Assumed office 5 May 2005
Preceded by	Opiter Livius Calacicus
Upper Senator for Patrinos
In office 8 July 1985 – 15 January 2015
Preceded by	Alexandros Gretkos
Succeeded by	Frederick Westbury
Senator for Patrinos' twelfth district
In office 15 February 1983 – 8 July 1985
Preceded by	William Montpellier
Succeeded by	Phillipp Hjerren
Personal details
Born	Nicholaus Alexandros Dimitrios (1955-09-22) 22 September 1955 Mondria, Patrinos, Belfras
Nationality	Belfrasian
Political party	liberat populare pars
Spouse	Beata Anicia (m. 1982)
Children	Victoria Dimitrios Tobias Dimitrios Georgio Dimitrios Christos Dimitrios
Alma mater	Nuovo Portelli (JD) Mondria (BA))

Nicholaus Alexandros Dimitrios, Duke of Mondria MSI (Born 22 September 1955) is a Belfrasian politician and nobleman currently serving as Consul of Belfras and leader of liberat populare pars since 2015 and 2005 respectively. He is the Duke of Patrinos, the nation's largest Duchy and was considered the nation's most influential figure in 2009 and again in 2016 following the Latin Succession Crisis.

From 1983 to 1985 he was the Senator for Patrinos' Twelfth District, which comprised of Orestes Minor and Chewickshire. He was elected as the Upper Senator for Patrinos as a whole from 1985 until his election as Consul in 2015. He became the leader of his political party in 2005 following the death of his predecessor, Opiter Livius Calacicus. Under his leadership the party reinvented itself and solidifed its position as the formal opposition - of which it had been trading places with three other parties during his twenty-two year career prior to becoming leader - for ten years prior to him being elected as Consul of Belfras.

Dimitrios earned the nation's Civil Peace Medal in 2004 after managing negotiations between police forces and protesters in the 2004 Riots of Mondria and Orestes sparked by massive lay-offs during the country's economic down turn.

As Consul, Dimitrios supported passing anti-narcotic bills that saw military action be taken on drug smugglers in the nation's south, provoking the 2018 Thessalona Terror Attack. He also immediately sided with Emperor Constantine during the Latin succession crisis of 2016 and during brief military action he issued the deployment of the nation's quick reaction division.

Early Years

Dimitrios with his parents, c. 1955

Nicholaus Alexandros Dimitrios was born at Saint Octavia Maternity Home in Mondria, Patrinos, on 22 September 1955. He was the first son of Georgio III and Lauren Dimitrios. Georgio III was the reigning Duke of Patrinos and had previously been the Consul of Belfras.

Dimitrios has two younger brothers, Sergios, a Crown Court judge, and Thodoris, a retired lawyer who famously prosecuted Maurinus Glycas, one of Belfras' most notorious serial killers. Dimitrios also has an older sister, Alexia, who served as the Chancellor of Nuovo Portelli for twenty-four years until retiring in 2018.

When Dimitrios was fourteen months old, at the end of 1956, the Dimitrios Estate was heavily damaged in a fire and the family was forced to relocate temporarily to Hazel Terrace in Mondria, the capital of his father's Duchy. He would remain there until 1960 when at age five his father took him on a six month visitation to Latium as parts of his duty as the Duke of Patrinos to attend the court of the Empress Diana. When his father's visitation of Latium came to a close, five and a half years after the fire at the family Estate, they would return to Dimitrios Estate that had been rebuilt with extensive renovations.

Education years and legal career

Dimitrios attended Lechester Woods School from 1963 to 1968. Aged 13, he was sent to spend his school term time boarding at the elite Jason V Academy on the outskirts of Thessalona from 1968 to 1973. Dimitrios is reported to have hated his time at Jason V, with his teachers reportedly being simultaneously impressed by his study form and unimpressed by his social antics. Claudia Fabius, a biographical writer wrote in the 2012-published 'The Dukes of Patrinos' that Dimitrios' teachers "Found themselves exhausted by his social antics in the class-room and were very happy to see him leave at the end of the day, while also being very impressed by the papers he would turn in." This apparently led to an allegation of cheating his tests when he received high scores from a mock exam in 1970, although the allegation was later dismissed by the school's council after Dimitrios explained the processes of his answers and received high scores from sitting a strictly supervised test.

Leaving Jason V Academy at age eighteen, Dimitrios spent a year in Sante Reze with his long-time girlfriend Valeria Falconia. During his time in Sante Reze he apparently engaged in narcotics usage and was briefly in trouble with local police over public intoxication and 'inappropriate public behaviour' with his long-time girlfriend. Toward the end of the year, his father flew out to Sante Reze and returned with Dimitrios, although his girlfriend chose to remain in the country indefinitely.

At age nineteen in 1975 he enrolled into the Mondria Campus of Excellence, reading Jurisprudence for three years. Whilst at the Campus he took a heavy interest in cricket and began to to play it as a hobby. He also reportedly performed some stand-up comedy and played as a parody of Orestes Cotta named Oopsie Cooty. His attendance of the Campus of Excellence earned him a place at the highly prestigious Nuovo Portelli university where he earned his Juris Doctor in 1980 at age twenty-five with honours.

After graduating Nuovo Portelli Dimitrios took the university-sponsored position as a junior lawyer at the Mondria Court of Justice. He met his future wife, Beata Anicia during Patrinos' 1980 Flower Festival in which he was the event's organiser in place of his father who was in hospital for pneumonia.

Early Political Career

Dimitrios had joined liberat populare pars after graduating Nuovo Portelli in 1980 and involved himself in politics whilst attending his position as a junior lawyer. He put himself forward as a candidate for the 1981 by-election for Patrinos' fifth district after it's incumbent holder Torrence Regent was forced to retire for insider trading on the national stock market. Although he lost the by-election by ten percent of the vote, he had acquired a profile in the party as a quick-thinking orator. He was selected as the party's candidate for the 1982 mid-term election for Patrinos' Twelfth District held by Yuletage Crux party member William Montpellier. During the election campaigns he learned that his party's leader, Publius Tadius Lovernianus, was attempting to replace him with his nephew Agristus. Following the discovery, he visited his future ally Aulus Allectius who had been the Secretary of State at the time for the Conservative Party. With Allectius' assistance, Dimitrios was able to acquire Liberat Senatorial support to win a challenge for his selection by Lovernianus and went on to win the seat at the end of 1982.

His maiden speech within Patrinos' Senate was on 15 February 1983 in which he was infamously snubbed by his party's leader. His political ascent after this event was rapid. Two years later on 5 August 1984 criminal investigations triggered by the Torrence Regent Scandal saw the ruling party in Patrinos' senate lose their positions, triggering the largest snap-election in the country's history. Seizing the opportunity, Dimitrios met with his ally Aulus Allectius and select party members to mount a campaign for now vacant positions without the authorisation of their party leader, who was not interested in running for any of the seats. While campaigning for Patrinos' First District, Dimitrios was selected by a coalition of his party and Yuletage Crux as their candidate for the Upper Senatorial seat of Patrinos, which had been vacated by Alexandros Gretkos following the scandal. On 8 July 1985 he won the election to the Upper Senate as the Senator of Patrinos.

Leadership Roles

Six months after winning the election and ascending to the Upper Senate, Dimitrios stood for election to the party council to replace retiring Tiberius Hilario and won with a 92-vote majority. He was kept from holding an actual party seat by Publius Tadius Loveranius until he died suddenly of a heart attack on 15 March 1987, triggering a party reshuffle that saw him be selected as the party's Shadow Secretary of State by new leader Opiter Livius Calacicus. As the party's Shadow Secretary of State, he met regularly with the party's leader and sat beside him when the party as elected as the Formal opposition in 1988.

During a senatorial session on 5 July 1989 he called for an inquiry into the sharply increasing narcotics usage in the south of the country despite an almost 80% inflation of the national police budget focused on fighting drug smugglers into the country. He additionally made a Party Conference speech about the party's foundation being locked into old messages and that the modern middle-class family of the country was being 'left out of politics'. He campaigned in 1990 for a total revamp of the party's policies, citing that the party needed to be 'about the people and the country' as opposed to being about old, outdated policies and philosophies. He campaigned for and had a historic commitment of the party to keeping the nation's energy industry nationalised repealed in order to be more in-line with the present, in which private companies already had a dominating presence in the energy sector.

During the 1992 national elections Dimitrios solidified his hold on Patrinos by increasing his majority to almost 72% of the vote despite his party losing several vital seats in the senate becoming the third largest, losing the formal opposition. Following the defeat of the party, he presented and had several changes to the party made which included the complete elimination of the party's commitment toward nationalisation, allowing it to cooperate with large trade unions on policies that made it more attractive around the country.

During the last three months of 2003 the country had begun the early stages of the 2004 Belfrasian Recession. In Orestes, which has housed much of the nation's steel industry, the nation's largest steel manufacturer Turnstyle went into administration on 5 December 2003, with the government refusing to grant funds to avoid liquidation just before the new year. This meant that in January 2004 almost 15,000 workers both in Orestes and in the State capital of Mondria ended up unemployed with the government's welfare system being retracted the same month as a result of the falling value of the Belfrasian Lira. These situations served to create what became known as the 'Perfect Storm', with an enormous hike in unemployment not receiving support. On 5 February 2004 a protest held in Mondria turned violent a clash between a rogue group of protesters and police led to the deaths of two children who were crushed to death in a stampede, with both sides blaming the other.

Dimitrios met with leaders of a faction of protesters naming themselves 'Justice' and police figures in order to facilitate negotiations for a peaceful solution. His efforts helped bring the riots to a close and he was awarded the Civic Peace Medal in 2004.

Party Leader

On 5 May 2005 party leader and long-time friend of Dimitrios, Opiter Livius Calacicus, died after a long battle with lung cancer. Dimitrios defeated rivals Quintis Horatius and Spuria Nervia in the subsequent leader election and became the leader of liberat populare pars and leader of the opposition. As is customary for the holder of that office, he became a member of the Count Palatine's privy council for the Emperor.

Consul

2016 Latium succession crisis

Main article: Latin succession crisis of 2016

Following the death of Jason VI, Latin emperor and king of Belfras, Dimitrios led a minutes silence in the Upper Senate, lowered the flags to half-mast throughout the country, and made a special announcement the evening that the news broke. As the succession crisis began to grow, a special session was held in the Upper Senate to discuss the ascension to the Belfrasian throne. Dimitrios dismissed the claim of Prince Michael almost immediately, citing that in any situation that may have arisen from the other two, he was in no way entitled to the throne. The senate decided by the end of the session that documentation presented by George and purported to be a legitimisation of his claim was a mere acknowledgement that Jason VI had indeed sired him out of wedlock, an act that made him a 'bastard' in ascension terms - exempt from the throne or any special privileges from the Imperial Family altogether.

Following the conclusion of the special session to determine the rightful successor, Dimitrios dispatched a personal messenger to hand deliver a note to Constantine, expressing condolences for his father's death and acknowledging him as the rightful heir of both the Latin and Belfrasian thrones. Dimitrios ended his personal message stating that he had formed his cabinet and government at Jason VI's pleasure, and that as the rightful King of Belfras his government now serves as Constantine's pleasure. When factions began to form and the crisis escalated, Dimitrios ordered the Armed Forces to stand-by and dispatched the rapid response forces to stand-by at nearby Arthurista alongside a substantial naval force.

Personal Life

Family

Dimitrios married Latin Beata Anicia on 18 August 1982 at the Dimitrios Estate in Patrinos, which has it's own church. They have four children: Victoria, Tobias, Georgio, and Christos.

The couple's first children, twins Victoria and Tobias, were born in a private hospital in Mondria on 15 July 1984, with their mother being treated for Postnatal depression following the birth. Four years later the couple welcomed their third child, Georgio, while on holiday to Vannois on 5 May 1988, with Beata not suffering a relapse of postnatal depression. Their fourth and final child, Christos, was born on 7 April 1993. Victoria and Tobias both attended the Mondria Campus of Excellence and eventually Nuovo Portelli, although Victoria dropped out to pursue a career as a successful cricket player while Tobias continued on to become a politician. Georgio attended the Imperial War College and entered the Army and Christos attended the West Mondria Football Academy while also attending the Jason V Academy, going on to become a football player. In a 2018 interview Dimitrios stated that he was "Happy beyond belief" at his childrens lives, stating that "[it] would've been boring if they had all followed their fathers footsteps, although I am incredibly proud at the life Tobias has carved for himself. They are all living their lives to the best of their abilities and as a father that's all I can ask for."

Wealth

The valued wealth of Dimitrios is a complicated structure: His personal assets valued following his 2015 election win were valued at around B$4.4 million and were described as "Property, possessions, and stock." He is the Duke of Patrinos and is subsequently the owner of it's accounts and possessions, which are valued at B$98 million, and although they are managed by the Duchy's Accountant General, Dimitrios - As Duke - has direct access and total control over the duchy's possessions.

Dimitrios Estate, built in 1623 as 'Oakfield Manor' and renamed following the ascension of the Dimitrios family in 1782, is fully owned by the Duchy but is often itemised as a separate article to it's substantial value at B$350 million. This means that while Dimitrios has personal assets of B$4.4 million, as Duke he has a total wealth figure of B$452.4 million as valued on 2 January 2015.

Nobility

Dimitrios is the eldest son of Duke Georgio III

Titles, styles, honors and arms

Styles of The Duke of Patrinos
Reference style	His Grace
Spoken style	Your Grace

Styles of address

• 22 September 1955 - 19 April 1978: Lord Nicholaus Dimitrios
• 19 April 1978 – present: His Grace The Duke of Patrinos
• 15 January 2015 - present: His Excellence the Consul of Belfras

Decorations

• Belfras: Lord Commander of the Knights of Saint Julius
• Latium: Member of the Most Excellent Order of the Empire 22 February 2017

Awards

• Belfras: Civic Peace Medal (2004)

Arms

Coat of Arms of House Dimitrios

See also

• List of Belfrasian Consuls
• House Dimitrios