Biography: Josephine, Lady of Críslicland, Affynshire, and Cleethorpes

A fictional biography drawn from An Involuntary King: A Tale of Anglo Saxon England - see right.

Josephine, Lady of Críslicland, Affynshire and Cleethorpes
748-835 AD

Josephine, called "Sunshine" as a child, was born to the king and queen of Affynshire on 27 April, 748 AD, at Ratherwood. She was the second of three children, having an older sister named Lorin. She spent her childhood years between the royal stronghold of Ratherwood and her mother's families forest stronghold of Keito Uxello in the foothills of the Pennines. Her older sister died young, followed shortly by their mother. She was betrothed to Lawrence, the second son of the king of the neighboring kingdom of Críslicland, when she was but right years of age, becoming his wife and lady of that kingdom in 764 when she was sixteen. After her father's murder soon after her marriage to King Lawrence of Críslicland, Josephine became Lady of Affynshire in partnership with her husband, her younger brother not being suitable for kingship in the estimation of that country's Witan.

A few years later, after the birth of a son, Peter, twin daughters, Caitness and Elaine, and the adoption of the orphaned Tavish, Josephine paid a visit to her family in Keito Uxello when her mother's kinsman, Ceretic, was gravely ill. The day before her planned returned to Críslicland, a cabal led by Malcolm of Horsfort seized control of the stronghold of Ratherwood and the whole kingdom. Josephine joined her cousins' resistance force, being an able archer in her own right. After a brief reunion with her husband at the camp where he and his armies lay in siege of Ratherwood, she set out for Críslicland, but was ambushed on her way to the border by henchmen of Malcolm. With the help of Siannone ui' Níall (English: Shannon O'Neill), a bard with whom she was traveling, Josephine escaped and made her way back to her husband's stronghold of Lawrencium. Again, she was caught behind the lines when her husband's cousin, Gadfrid, usurped the crown. With the assistance of a Breton mercenary lord, Elerde of Léon, she and her children escaped to the Holy Isle of LindisfArne. When Lawrence succeeded in regaining the throne of Críslicland, the royal couple and their family was reunited. In the meantime, Lawrence had agreed to let the Affynshire crown go to Josephine's eldest cousin, the highly acclaimed archer Ruallauh, Earl of Keito Uxello.

Lawrence and Josephine lived peacefully for several years until in about 793 the Viking raids along the east coast of England began. Military pressure from Offa, King of Mercia, had been ongoing throughout his father's and his own reign, and at the death of King Ruallauh in 798, Lawrence, Ruallaug's son Ceretic, and King Offa signed the Treaty of Lincoln that ceded both Críslicland and Affynshire to Mercia. Josephine, understanding that her husband took the step for the better protection of his people, n evertheless was only too ready to stop being the Lady of Críslicland.

Josephine and Lawrence enjoyed many years of relative peace until Lawrence's death in 835. Josephine died three years later at the age of 89. a remarkable age for a woman of her era.

[Source, Josephine's co-creator Nan Hawthorne, author of An Involuntary King: A Tale of Anglo Saxon England. Josephine's original creator is Laura D., who prefers to remain last-nameless.]