Joseph I of New Britannia

Joseph I of New Britannia was the seventh Monarch of New Britannia. Jospeh was born to Robert Delmade in 32 1ENB, and was followed shortly by his two brothers over the next 3 years. His father was the official responsible for the then monarch Henry I's succession to the throne and was the Duke of Kingstone. Thus Joseph was born into a family of prestige and power. When his father defeated the Second Britannian Invasion of New Britannia, Joseph benefited from his father's vastly increased wealth and power through a top notch education and an easy entrance into the military's officer corps and ultimately its leadership once he displayed his skills. He would play a significant role in deposing Charles I, which brought him to the attention of New Britannia. When his father became monarch in 57 1ENB, Joseph would become New Britannia's Crown Prince. As a result of his father's advanced age, it was assumed Joseph would succeed to the throne soon, affording him great influence. While not as brilliant militarily as his father, Joseph was a skilled general and would play a key supporting role in defeating the invasion, becoming infamous in Britannia for his wholesale slaughter of the remnants of the Britannian forces after the Battle of Stradwick and the impalement of any prisoners he had taken. Joseph would, within a year, become King of New Britannia. Once upon the throne, he ordered his forces to storm the lands of the nobility who had initially resisted his father's rise to power, dissolving their fiefdoms into smaller ones for loyalists to his family and ordering the execution of all the nobles in the north that had proven disloyal, as well as those he suspected of disloyalty. Joseph's rule was solidified from this point on and was known as a fair but stern monarch throughout most of his reign. His crowning achievement, however, would be a minor invasion of the Britannian Empire, launched in order to allow for its barbarian neighbors to more easily invade it and to humiliate the Britannians. While he withdrew his forces after a few months, Joseph had earned widespread acclaim for his actions and boosted New Britannia's prestige immensely. Joseph would also oversee New Britannia's further colonization of neighboring lands. He would ultimately die in 96 1ENB after reigning for more than 30 years. He would be succeeded by his first son, Phillip I of New Britannia.