Roger II of Cattala

King Roger II of House Celestine was the fourth King of Cattala and the son of King Alain I and great-grandson of the monarchy's founder, King Roger Celestine. Unlike his father, Roger was heralded as a true, just and powerful monarch and became the first King to conquer Roumeli during the Bronze War, thereby ending the Unification Age and uniting all of the Cattalian islands.

Marriage
With his efforts focused on expanding the army, King Roger was rarely at home and had refused to marry despite his fathers orders for him to do so. When King Alain died, Roger was urged by his senior advisers to marry quickly and secure the future of the monarchy. His cousin and father's close confident, Duke Luciano Aroe, mysteriously disappeared after having a heated argument with the new King about the succession. He was believed to have fled to France without leaving a reason.

After returning from battle in North Africa in 1093, the King was confronted by the Princes of Fieranti, Monte Calida and Hellas, who were all concerned at the lack of an heir. With the King approaching his 40th birthday, they regarded it as essential that he marry. Under pressure, he sought solace with an eastern duke's daughter, 23-year-old Lady Alexandra Beaurein. Within six months of their courtship, they married in Calora Cathedral. This angered local lords from around the capital, none of whom attended the unannounced wedding, having anticipated that the rumoured marriage would take place in Celeste Cathedral, where all previous royal marriages had taken place.

Lady Beaurein was said to have been besotted with her husband, and during the first few months of their marriage she was always around him, despite their seventeen year age gap. Once she got pregnant though, he went off to inspect the barracks of Lessito and left her behind in Celeste. She spent the next nine months alone in the citadel, and was said to have become "greyer as each day past" according to canon sources. King Roger returned for the birth, but upon discovering it was a daughter, quickly left again. Their marriage became based entirely around her birthing a son. By his 45th birthday, she had given birth to two daughters and three stillborns. Court officials were becoming increasingly concerned with the lack of a male heir and the rise of nationalism in Roumeli, which had long been a target for invasion.

The Queen was struggling under the growing pressure on her to birth a son. When she became pregnant in 1098, she was warned by the King in one of their many arguments that she had to give birth to a son or he would send her back to her father in chains. Fortunately for her, the ageing King and the court, she gave birth to a son, David. Her husband was not present at the birth.

Death and Legacy
King Roger II died in Thermopylae Castle, the fortress conquered by him and his army just five years before his death. According to sources from the time, Roger had suffered ailing health after receiving various battle wounds early in his reign, and the strain of the Bronze War had left him ill for the final years of his reign. His death because of war led to him being regarded as akin to his great-grandfather, who had also died as a result of a battle wound sustained in Monte Calida, which he had been conquering in 1021.

Roger's reign saw the House of Celestine achieve its century-long ambition to conquer all of the Cattalian islands. With Roumeli now subdued, his son, King David I, was able to focus on building the country's economy and reduce the monarchy's dependence on its military strength.