The Gaosa Gazette
The Duke, the Princess and the Shotgun Wedding!
20 July 2139
Liatsoa, Garandy, the Celestial Empire
While the Emperor resorts in the Hemaka Islands, shocking news has coming out of a different set of isles in the empire, on those of Garandy. There, in the heart of the densely populated seaport and former seat of the Lota Family, the Duke of Angoulême, the handsome young widower of Vaohangy Lota remarried in a sudden lavish ceremony, barely six months after the death of his first wife.
Angoulême, the twenty year old brother of the Empress has long been known to be the paramour of the Emperor, the two oft being seen together intimately. Angoulême has in the eyes of many been the true consort in the empire, serving not only as one of the Emperor’s advisors, but taking up the role of his absentee sister in court and the Inama. This arrangement was done in tandem with his late wife’s affair with the Emperor, the trio forming an odd alliance.
This alliance however has seemed in shambles since Vaohangy Lota’s death and the Duke of Angoulême being sent to Garandy to secure the inheritance of his stepson, leaving the Emperor alone and with a dark cloud over him. Where the emperor appears to have no preference in his lovers, it whitely agreed amongst the Court the same is not true for Angoulême, and thus a new bride for the Hollande heir seemed unlikely. And thus unexpected.
The only thing more shocking than the remarriage the Duke of Angoulême however, is in fact his choice of bride, the scandalous Princess Yonela. The youngest child of the late Andeja I, the 27 year old great-aunt of the emperor, Yonela has long been the rebel of the Imperial Family. Having fled the empire during the reign of their nephew, leaving as a man, adopting non-binary pronouns and working as a mercenary and pirate for years in exile, the princess had only returned to their homeland on condition of their pardon for their crimes.
Noted to be a favorite of the Emperor’s aunts and great-aunts, for the amorous monarch has always preferred his equally amorous aunts Yonela and Mamela to their more upright sisters, Yonela has been noted for their friendship with the Duchess of Chasse and adoration of the Emperor’s children. Yonela’s naval knowledge and experience as a pirate lord in Garandy lead to their appointment as Governor-General of Garandy earlier this year.
It seems in this, their joint arrival in Garandy, that the Duke and Princess got to know one another. No one would have suspected it would result in marriage. The princess had previous expressed no interest in the concept in any sense of permanence, said to have a husband in no less than theee different ports, and having already had a daughter out of wedlock, and yet the whole of the island found themselves delighted with the news of the match.
The Duke of Angoulême, dressed in the Hollande blue and white wed Princess Yonela, dressed in a man’s mourning suit, cigar in hand and a sea green rose pin to their chest in a swift civil ceremony in the Arsenal, before greeting cheering crowds with thousands of gift baskets, Knick knacks and free alcohol, easily winning the love of the citizenry of the Garandaians.
Where they already lived the Governor-General, for Yonela had lived amongst them in secrets for years, it seems the gift of free spirits and his position as their beloved Lota’s widower, and stepfather of the Duke of Vendome, has won Angoulême their love.
Of course all wonder if there exists any live between the new couple. We perhaps may never know the truth of their bed chamber, but it one must be blind to believe this a fairytale romance. While the two seem to get along, there is of course the political nature of the marriage. The Duke having originally promised to the Princess Imperial—only for her to disappear before the wedding could take place— and then his marriage to the Lota heiress, it seems this new match is the Duke’s attempt to repair the rift between the Hollande and the Imperial Family.
Rebellious they may be, a princess is still a princess. And Yonela holds the Dukedom of Haillun in their own right, which had once belonged to the Hollande. Thus in this marriage perhaps the rift is twice over repaired, if in an unorthodox manner. Unorthodox marriages it seems is the preference of both Duke and Princess, as Yonela seems to have spent the wedding night out on the town drinking, while the Duke has slipped away off the island to honeymoon elsewhere.