Alexandra V of Cattala

Alexandra V (Alexandra Mary, born 15th January 1975) is the constitutional monarch of the United Kingdom of Cattala and Princess of Roumeli. As head of state, she is the commander-in-chief of the Armato Salvatori and also influential in the Church of Cattala.

Alexandra was born in Celeste and educated privately in her family palaces in Cape Almae. Her father, Duke George, died in a car accident 1986, when Alexandra was aged 11. Her grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, taught Alexandra the roles and duties of being monarch ahead of her imminent accession to the throne. Alexandra became Crown Princess in 1987 and began undertaking public duties alongside her ageing grandmother. Elizabeth ascended to the throne in spring of 1994, and became the youngest monarch in over 500 years, at the age of just 19. Her coronation service was broadcast across the country on big screens and was celebrated with a national holiday.

Two months after becoming Queen, Alexandra married her childhood friend Luciano Vaas in a lavish ceremony attended by monarchs and heads of states from across the world. The couple have three children, Crown Prince Edward, Princess Helena and Prince Louis who were born in December 1994, 1997 and 2000.

Between 1995 and 2001, her sister Princess Gabriella was regent whilst Alexandra raised her children and only performed modest duties as Queen. Since then, Alexandra has taken on full international duties as Queen and has become arguably the most popular monarch since the re-instatement of the crown.

Early life
Alexandra Bonnecelli was the first child of Duke George and Duchess Adriana. Her father was the only son of Queen Elizabeth and Duke Vincent, whilst her mother was the eldest daughter of a Duke from the westerlands of Amosseri. She was born at 3pm on the 15th January 1975 in Victoria Palace, the royal palace of Celestine, and was baptised in the Celestine Chapel on the 25th June 1975 by the Divina Anima Della Chiesa. Upon her birth, Alexandra was not styled as a Princess due to her being the great-niece of the reigning monarch, King Roger XVI. However she was granted the Duchy of Fieranti by the King, a title bestowed upon senior members of the royal family, which befitted the third-in-line to the throne. She spent most of her young life in her ancestral home in Fieranti, accompanied by her mother and father until he was called to court in 1983 as the King's health declined. Alexandra was close to her younger sister Gabriella, and the two were mostly seen together playing at official events and during family portraits. During the 1984 Winter Olympics, in Yugoslavia, journalists noted that the young princess seemed considerably more "regal" than her sister and older members of the royal staff said she seemed much more "natural" in her position than her father had done at her age.

When Alexandra was eleven, her father died in a car accident. The young Duchess was immediately taken out of the spotlight and moved to one of the rural palaces in Fieranti. She was the only one of her father's three children to attend his funeral. King Roger died less than a year after her father and on the 28th December 1987, the new Crown Princess left her school and Fieranti, to live with her grandmother Queen Elizabeth in Celeste. Elizabeth announced Alexandra as her heiress apparent in her first Christmas Speech as Queen, having previously told Lord Varmini that the princess was the "hope of the realm" and "much lay on her shoulders".

Education
Much like previous generations of royals, Alexandra was educated from the age of three by a governess but was not educated with her younger sister. Following her father's death, Alexandra began attending the Florian School, a distinguished school for the wealthy. Once her grandmother, Queen Elizabeth was crowned, she began taking an active role in the Crown Princess' education and there were numerous rumours of huge rows between Duchess Adriana and Queen Elizabeth regarding Alexandra's education. She left the Florian School after less than a year.

Instead of attending full-time Secondaria school, Alexandra began intensive training for her role as sovereign and returned to governess education, something that her mother could never accept and led to her "storming out of Celeste". Alexandra achieved five B grades and two A grades in her final exams at 16, before leaving education to take on more royal responsibilities. In 1994, during her pregnancy, Alexandra began further education lessons with a governess and has strictly enforced a "complete and thorough" education for her own children.

Heiress Presumptive
Arriving in Celeste, at the age of 12, Princess Alexandra was largely ignored by senior courtiers and royal journalists until the Christmas Speech of 1987, when she became Crown Princess. The young heiress resided alongside her grandmother's apartments in Victoria Palace and spent "many hours" each day with the Queen, studying and learning about the history of Cattala, the monarchy and the role of the sovereign in society. Alexandra was only seen in public with Elizabeth when they attended Mass together each Sunday - since the death of her father, the Crown Princess was known to have become a devout Cattalian Church follower.

At the age of 15, it was decided that the young Princess should begin royal tours and taking a more pivotal role within the royal household. With her mother refusing to return to Celeste, Queen Elizabeth took most of the responsibility for her heir apparent's training and intensified the education and training in royal traditions and protocol. By the time of her 15th birthday, Alexandra was fluent in the three main languages of Cattala and was being tutored in national and constitutional history, cultures of the realm and the teachings of the Church of Cattala. One week after her 16th birthday, Alexandra began her first international tour when she visited the UK, Ireland and the Nordic countries alongside her grandmother. The princess was widely praised for her gentle and polite attitude on the tour and was noted to have had a long conversation with the British sovereign, her grandmother's namesake.

The arrival of the exiled Emperor of the Tirnreich in 1990 to the Court of Amadeus led to rumours of a royal attraction as the 15-year-old Alexandra became "good friends" with the 22-year-old Konrad von Nacht. Elizabeth noted in her diary that the pair were on "a similar path" and they grew closer as his stay continued. Elizabeth was fully supportive of the relationship, believing it was beneficial to both future monarchs that they "learn from one another" and "actively council each other". However, as her public presence grew, her work within the Palace also increased and the rumours of romance faded as Alexandra took on greater demands and visits to the Bonnecelli's guest became few and far between. Alexandra became a Counsellor of State in 1991 and rapidly began taking on further responsibilities, including overseas tours representing her grandmother.

In 1989, the Princess was introduced to Luciano Vaas, second-in-line to the Imperial Lordship of Roumeli, and the pair became close as the son of Lord Daniel Vaas began attending court sessions for his father. In 1991, they began courting and meeting in secret locations in the Palace, believing that they had not been found out by Queen Elizabeth. The Queen and Lord Vaas were in regular correspondence at the time, and both remarked at their knowledge of the blossoming friendship. Elizabeth waited four months before revealing that she knew about the romance. From then on, Luciano and the Crown Princess were regularly spotted in public together and one newspaper called them the "favourite royal couple in decades". In 1993, the couple got engaged whilst on holiday in Ascadylea, and preparations were made for the couple to share apartments in the King Marco Palace, on the outskirts of Celeste.

On the 11th March 1994, upon arriving in the royal study of Victoria Palace, Crown Princess Alexandra was greeted by the Bishop of Celeste and Lord Celestine, who kneeled before her and called her "Your Grace", informing her of her grandmother's death and announcing her as Queen of Cattala.

Reign


After the death of her grandmother, Alexandra assumed the mantle of head of state at the age of 19. Two months later, she married Luciano Vaas on a national holiday in a wedding that cost £700,000 but caused discord with the Roumelese nobility as the Queen continued to refer to herself as Alexandra Bonnecelli, not Vaas, reportedly at the insistence of her late grandmother who also retained the Bonnecelli title when she married in 1948.

Three month after her wedding, Alexandra announced that she was pregnant, after weeks of media speculation. There was outcry from within the conservative ranks of the Church of Cattala after rumours emerged that she had conceived the new Crown Prince before her wedding, which was proved true when the Prince was born naturally in December. The birth of her son left the Queen with a difficult decision over her first Christmas as monarch; did she continue to serve in her full role as head of state and leave the raising of her son to nannies, or step back from her position to raise the future King?

On the 1st January 1995, Alexandra announced her sister, Princess Gabriella, was to serve as Regent during her absence, as she intended to raise her young son herself. In April 1995, Alexandra announced she was pregnant with her second child, and gave birth to Princess Helena in November that year. The regency continued after the birth of Helena and would ultimately last for six years.

In 1995, the White Guards, an arm of the military police, used live rounds on activists who tried to storm the Queen's Suite of King Marco Palace and killed three unarmed activists. The Queen, who was eight months pregnant, and the infant Crown Prince were unharmed. During the rest of the decade, Alexandra remained in a remote palace in Fieranti, away from the constant attention of the capital and raised her young children in private. Plans for her to return to Celeste in 2000 went awry after it was announced in September 1999 that the Queen was pregnant with her third child. Prince Louis was born on the 20th January 2000 and the regency continued despite growing discontent amongst courtiers and officials that the Queen had been absent for almost 6 years.

On Christmas Day 2000, Princess Helena (now five years old) and Prince Louis made their first public appearances when the Queen held her first public address since the Queen's Speech of 1994. The Princess Regent and Alexandra, alongside her three children, announced that she would be returning to full duties as of the 1st January and the duchy of Lessito would be split between Princess Gabriella and Princess Helena. The Queen's return was welcomed by the public, press and palace officials, who had become increasingly concerned that she may have the longest regency in Cattalian history.

Titles, styles, honours, and arms

 * 15 January 1975 - 31 December 1986: Alexandra Bonnecelli, Duchess of Fieranti
 * 1 January 1987 - 11 March 1994: Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Alexandra
 * 11 March 1994 - : Her Grace Queen Alexandra the Fifth, Princess of Roumeli

Queen Alexandra, as head of state, has numerous official titles but the most common one is "Her Grace, Queen Alexandra" or "Queen Alexandra the Fifth". When she was born, Alexandra was gifted the title of Duchess of Fieranti, which she then gave up when she became Crown Princess after the death of her uncle, Roger XVI of Cattala without an heir, making her heiress apparent to the throne as her grandmother ascended to the throne. In common parlance, she is The Queen or Her Grace. She also has other titles, including "Comandante dei Salvatori" as commander-in-chief of the armed forces and as "Princess of Roumeli".

Her formal title, in full, is Her Grace, Queen Alexandra the Fifth, Sovereign of Greater Cattala and Princess of Roumeli, Protector of the Realm, Duchess of Oriastone and Dame Spiritual of the Faith.

The Queen is also known by her Celestinian title, granted upon her by her ancestral link to the Celestine monarchy and consisting of mostly ancient titles. Her Grace, The Queen Alexandra of House Celestine, the Fifth of Her Name, By the Grace of God, Queen of Greater Cattala, Princess of Roumeli, Princess of Sovereign Amosseri, Grand Duchess of the Union, Conqueror of Ionia, Commander of the Seven Armies, Queen of the Stag and Chancellor of the Faith.

In June 2012, Alexandra was gifted the Medal of the Mayan Jaguar, a rare and highly valued honour for a foreign head of state from the Republic of Yucatan. The medal was awarded for her Excellence in Diplomacy and her Successful and Glorious Reign Over Cattala.

Ancestry
Queen Alexandra is descended from noble houses across Europe, especially the English, Spanish and Italian royal families through her maternal, royal side. The Celestine household regularly married children into dukedoms and lesser royals from across Europe, right up to the late 19th century, to ensure the diplomatic and trade benefits of relations with European kingdoms was maintained. Alexandra's line through her great-grandfather Marco Bonnecelli links her to the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg through his female-line descendancy from Queen Michéle Celestine, daughter of the prince of Schleswig. The Bonnecelli crown can trace its lineage to the House of Bourbon through French and Spanish paternal and maternal ties.