Louisa Treniotis

Louisa Treniotis
Empress of Sunrosia and her constituent realms
Reign	25 December 1921 – 21 January 1922
Predecessor	Adalbert XX
Successor	Monarchy abolished
Regent	Sylviane of Gaullica
Chancellor	Kaspar von Stenhofen
Born	Louisa Johanna Georgiana Theresa Elisabeth (1914-11-30)30 November 1914 Coerz, Grand Duchy of Sunrosia, Sunrosian Monarchy
Died	5 July 2010(2010-07-05) (aged 95) Spálgleann, Caldia
House	Windenheim-Treniotis
Father	Adalbert XX
Mother	Sylviane of Gaullica
Religion	Solarian Catholic
Occupation	Linguist, author

Louisa Treniotis (born Louisa Johanna Georgiana Theresa Elisabeth; 30 November 1914 – 5 July 2010) was the second female and final ruler of the Sunrosian Monarchy and and all of its constituent states for 28 days as Louisa. She adopted the name of Louisa Treniotis after her abdication, by which she become known for her linguistic work on sign languages, particularly on the Swetanian general sign language, and her disability rights activism. Louisa achieved popular recognition as "the Winter Queen" following the publication of her eponymous first autobiography in 1955.

Born with congenital muteness, Louisa was the only child of Adalbert XX and Sylviane of Gaullica and was merely seven when she succeeded her father following his death on 25 December 1921. Ascending to the throne in the midst of the Swetanian Revolution at a time by which most cities have already been lost to revolutionary forces, Louisa reigned only nominally as Empress for before the proclamation of the Panswetanian Council Republic brought an end to monarchical rule. She fled the country with her mother, first to neighbouring Werania and then to Caldia.

In exile in Caldia, Louisa continued her education and earned a Master of Arts degree from the University of Spálgleann. From 1930, she also attended Saint Agathe's School for the Deaf where she learned Caldish sign language and later met Deirdre Ní Síoda, who became her interpreter and lifelong companion. Having no interest in her restoration to the Sunrosian throne, she formally abdicated and renounced her claims on 9 January 1936 and remained in Caldia to continue her research on sign languages, eventually getting awarded with a PhD in linguistics in 1946.

Louisa returned to her homeland (now Swetania) in 1957 after relinquishing her last noble titles, the first member of the former House of Windenheim to be allowed to come back. Continuing her linguistic work here, she was a member of the Committee for a Common Sign Language responsible for the standardisation of the Swetanian general sign language in the 60s. Louisa also became a prominent voice for the rights of people with disabilities in Swetania and internationally, as well as an advocate for Caldish–Swetanian friendship and cooperation. She moved back to Caldia in 1995, where she died fifteen years later.

Early life

Princess Louisa Johanna (right) with her cousin Maria Margarete (left), in late 1918

Louisa was born in the night of the 30 November 1914 in the Palace of the Grand Dukes in Coerz, then the capital of the Sunrosian Monarchy. She was the daughter of the ruling Sunriosan monarch Adalbert XX and Sylviane of Gaullica, a daughter of Albert III of Gaullica. She was baptised Louisa Johanna Georgiana Theresa Elisabeth on December 6 by the Archbishop of Coerz Johann de Weilbourg at the Coerz Cathedral. Her godfather was her maternal grandfather Albert III of Gaullica; her godmother was her paternal grandmother Georgiana of Estmere.

Being the first and only child of Adalbert XX, she became heir presumptive at birth according to the 1856 Edict of Succession. She held the title and style of "Her Imperial Highness the Crown Princess of Sunrosia, Selosia, and Trevelia". Her second name of Johanna was chosen to promote the choice of the regnal name Johanna VIII in continuation of the previous and only female Sunrosian monarch, Johanna VII Josepha, if she ever ascended to the throne. She was officially referred to as Princess Louisa Johanna for the same reason.

The public announcement of her birth was received with joy throughout the country: despite still suffering from the consequences of the Great Collapse, Adalbert XX remained a popular figure thanks of his steadfast support of the Constitutional Charter. In liberal and socialist circles, the news also brought relief as it meant that the former heir presumptive Prince Johann Friedrich, Adalbert XX's uncle known for his reactionary tendencies, was pushed one step back on the order of succession.

Louisa's early life was marked by a fragile health and recurring episodes of illnesses caused constant torment to her parents. At the age of 18 months, she contracted a throat infection that caused further medical complications and almost left her dead. While she eventually recovered with no long-term sequelae, the ordeal prompted doctors to discover the absence of vocal cords in her larynx, a condition believed to be a rare congenital anomaly. Louisa was then confirmed to be mute and that she would never be able to produce any voice.

While the discovery alleviated her parents' concerns about delayed speech acquisition and potential intellectual disability, it also caused her formingly loving father Adalbert, already under a lot of pressure caused by the events of the Great Collapse and his struggle for power with Rudolf von Waldriek, to grow increasingly distant. Conversely, she drew closer to her mother who became responsible for the great majority of decisions concerning Louisa; one of those being to have her taught reading and writing early, in Weranian first and later in Gaullican, so that she may be able to communicate with her family and the palace staff.

In Georgehaven

In February 1919, the failure of the Strakonitz Doctrine in the Airdale War caused the government and royal family to relocate to the western capital of Georgehaven, away from the Estmerish border. To Louisa, the sudden move meant being separated from the palace staff she had learned to communicate somewhat through home signs, and most importantly separation from the young daughter of the palace's head chef, Olga Krausova, who was able to understand Louisa's signs to such an extent Louisa later called her "the first person that I felt truly understood me" in her autobiography. Highly distressed by the move from the only environment she had known, and unable to convince her father to bring some of the Coerz staff with them, she was inconsolable during the entire journey to Georgehaven, and remained so for several months.

Eventually, Louisa settled pretty well in Georgehaven. Her health saw significant improvements attributed to the properties of sea air, and she took an habit of escaping supervision to stroll in the Joannine Palace's expansive gardens, an habit to which her mother ultimately relented in spite of her continuing worries about her daughter's health. The failure of Parsay's putsch in March 1919 to oust Waldriek's government reduced Adalbert XX's to the status of a mere figurehead almost imprisoned in his palace; his newfound isolation from governmental matters allowed him to spend time more time with his daughter, to whom he started teaching Estmerish and come to form a close bond with. The stillbirth of her brother Prince Karl Adalbert in June 1919 – an event she later conceded not truly understanding at the time, yet still deeply saddening her – cemented her position as heir presumptive despite her disability, as her father's rivalry with his uncle grew worse.

Helped by her quiet and observant demeanour, Louisa often snooped around the palace in her free time. While primarily eavesdropping on inconsequential conversations between palace staff, sometimes visitors', Louisa later recalled gleaning "hints that the situation in the east – in the war – was bewilderingly different from what my father was telling me". Most notably, she remembered an incident in October 1921 in which she heard two visiting military officers, one of which she identified as Eugen [von Strakonitz-Petrasch], as describing the situation as "nearing complete collapse, not only on the frontlines but in the whole of our Monarchy" before briefing what seemed to be the opposite of that description to Adalbert. Despite barely understanding the stakes of "the eastern conflict", Louisa still tried to warn her father of the radical discrepancy between what she heard and what he told her, to no avail.

She was present beside her father when he gave his formal ascent to Kaspar von Stenhofen and his clique to remove Waldriek from power, which happened ten days later on 11 November 1921. She recalls her father being "in a state of shock, almost catatonic, as Kaspar listed one by one the catastrophes befalling his realm: the defeats, the economy, and the uprisings". On 30 November, Louisa celebrated her seventh birthday in an unusually austere ambiance with very few attendees, with her father being "present there in body but not in mind", as the battle of Georgehaven between government and revolutionary forces was raging a mere four kilometres from the palace. A week later as the Monarchy lost control of its eastern capital, the remnants of the Sunrosian government and the royal family moved to the small Selosian city of Lellewarden, closer to the Ruttish border.

Lellewarden and reign

Princess Louisa Johanna in December 1921, shortly before her reign, holding the doll she would retain throughout her life

Unlike the previous move, a notable part of the Joannine Palace's staff followed the royal household to Lellewarden's Sievers Palace on 7 December, easing Louisa's pains of the hastily relocation. The Lellewarden government was characterised by people of various importance coming and going within the span of days, limiting her interests in eavesdropping, though not preventing her from noticing that increasingly important government officials were leaving and never returned. She described her life in Lellewarden as being marred by "a despairing feeling of ever-present loneliness, in a palace that was yet bustling with people" and felt increasingly ignored by her parents, as her father had become critically despondant causing her mother to spend most of her time taking care of him. Nevertheless, Louisa managed to start a friendship with Sascha Merode, the son of the finance minister Ludwig Merode, who began to teach her the bases of chess.

In the afternoon of the 25th December, Adalbert XX fatally shot himself. At the time, Louisa was studying only a few rooms away from her father's office and was within earshot of the shot. She immediately rushed to the scene but was prevented from entering the office by the few adults who arrived first, although from their reactions she quickly understood what happened to her father. With everyone focused on his death, she ran away to her bedroom where she cried for what she recalled as "what may have been a mere hour or a dozen to this world, but felt like a dolourously long eternity to me" until her mother found her later. Louisa remained deeply traumatised by the incident throughout her life: she had recurring nightmares based on the event, retained a cowering fear of gunshots-sounding noises, and never again participated in Nativity celebrations as "the joy brought to the world by the birth of Sotiras have in myself been usurped by ever-enduring sorrows".

As per the 1856 Edict of Succession, Louisa officially became Empress of Sunrosia on the same day with her mother serving as her regent, and retaining her first name as regnal name, having no desire to change. This happened in spite of her father's last wishes nominating her uncle Prince Waldemar as heir, as the nomination contravened the Edict of Succession and Waldemar having already fled the country to Gaullica. The death of her father and her accession to the throne went mostly unnoticed owing to the near-collapse of the monarchy at that point, and many monarchists still fought in the name of Adalbert XX for weeks after. She played no active part in her rule and her authority was limited to the Lellewarden and the surrounding lands still under royal control. Even there, the Lellewarden government was collapsing as more and more officials fled the city and country as a revolutionary victory appeared imminent.

Flight from Sunrosia

The proclamation of the Panswetanian Council Republic on 21 January 1922 marked the definitive end of the Sunrosian Monarchy. Lellewarden had remained under uncontested royal control througout the revolution, but the new government's promises of amnesty for royal soldiers caused massive defections. After an unsucessful attempt two days later by defecting soldiers to seize the Sievers Palace and capture the royal family for Oskars Auziňš' approaching Revolutionary Army of the West, Sylviane committed herself and her daughter to an escape from the country planned by the post minister August von Leichhardt. Leichardt's plan called for the royal family to leave at dawn in a coach typical of the Selosian countryside, donning and clothes associated with the petite bourgeoisie and few jewelry, and to make their way north until reaching the Weranian border.

Louisa, her mother, and the coach driver closely followed Leichardt's plan, which proved itself more than adapted for the situation. The planned route went through loyalist-held territory, many of whom hailed the empress and her mother as the party passed through the cities they were defending; however, fighting between royalist and republicans broke out near the town of Dyburiai, which forced the party to take an unplanned detour west of the planned route, which unbeknownst to the driver recently fell under revolutionary control. Despite being held up multiple times by revolutionary detachments, their inconspicuous attires helped fend off suspicions and Sylviane personally chatted with several soldiers to convince them of their false identities. Only near the town of Medumis did bribing the soldiers with jewelry was required so they could continue on their way.

The most notable event of the escape happened near its end in the town of Kiegumas a few kilometres from the Weranian border: the party was once again arrested by a detachment of republican soldiers including some defectors from Lellewarden who grew suspicious of Sylviane's Gaullican-accented Weranian and what they thought was Louisa's unwillingness to answer questions, eventually suspecting their true identities. They informed their commander, and after what Louisa described as "a painstakingly examination that by no mean could have left any doubt in the officer" announced to his men that the pair weren't the empress and her mother and let them continue on their way. A matching account given by Johann Rhesa, later identified as the Kiegumas officer, who claimed to have "identified the former empress, but couldn't find it in my heart to arrest such a pitiful girl".

After crossing the Weranian border, Louisa and her mother were welcomed by a party of Sunrosian émigrés led by Dietrich von Wedell, an aristocrat with significant family ties in Ruttland, and escorted them to the Ruttish capital of Seidenberg (now Šilokrau) where they stayed for a week, before fears of the revolution crossing the border made them move onwards to the Weranic capital of Westbrücken. There, Louisa met Leopold IV and the royal family. The Weranian government, as well as many aristocrats both Weranian and Sunrosian exiles, announced to her their support for her restoration to the throne. Overwhelmed, she confessed to her mother that she "feared becoming a mere tool to others' ambitions" and asked her mother to leave for "someplace calmer". After staying a little under a month in Westbrücken, Louisa and Sylviane left by train to Bürchaft, from where they took a ferry to the distant and neutral Caldia.

The flight from Lellewarden to Caldia was very influential to the young Louisa. She had spent most of her life so far confined to palaces in comfort and tranquility, in spite of the events taking place in the country: the Great Collapse, the Airdale War, and the Swetanian Revolution. Throughout the escape, her worldview was fundamentally changed as she encountered the harsher reality of the Selosian country worsened by the military encounters of the revolution, extremely tense situations, people not treating her better because of her status, and she and her mother would build an extremely close bond. Louisa was particularly marked by the Kiegumas incident, describing it as perhaps of the event I have reflected about the most", and credits the officer's unexplained clemency as "setting me on the path to begin seeing the revolutionaries not as the savage barbarians they were described to me, but as emotional beings just like me".

Titles and honours

• 30 November 1914 – 25 December 1921: Her Imperial Highness the Crown Princess of Sunrosia, Selosia, and Trevelia
• 25 December 1921 – 9 January 1936 (in pretense after 8 January 1922): Her Imperial Majesty the Empress of Sunrosia and Her constituent realms
• 9 January 1936 – 17 March 1957: Her Imperial Highness Princess Louisa Johanna of Sunrosia, Duchess of Coerz

National honours

• Swetania: Heroine of the Social Revolution
  • 8 September 1969: as part of the Committee for a Common Sign Language for their work on the Swetanian General Sign Language
  • 19 April 1978: for continuous promotion of the Swetanian General Sign Language in institutions all around the federation
• Swetania: Star of the Friendship of Nations
  • 12 February 1985: for exceptional work in the promotion of positive Caldish–Swetanian relations