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Chapter 2: Age of Adolescence
The history of the Westmarch has long been defined by the conflict between the Kingdoms of Selinus and Iurrak. Ever since Yves the First founded the sublime Kingdom of Iurrak in 521, just after his great and most righteous rebellion against Viola the Third of Selinus, the two great lands have never managed to improve their relationship beyond a prickly tolerance. When sentiments became violent, the conflict has inevitably played out in the three fiefs that lie between Selinus and Iurrak, Saskill, Oakharrow and the Westmarch from north to south.
The wise and great King Gabriel the First of Iurrak made an ill fated attempt to alleviate the constant disagreements. He negotiated the Peace of Equals, ending eighty years of war between Iurrak and Selinus in 601. In that treaty, it was agreed that Saskill, Oakharrow and the Westmarch would form an independent buffer Kingdom between Selinus and Iurrak. Of course, this would turn out to be short lived. Selinus soon after usurped the Saskill title through marriage and skulduggery. The Kings of Iurrak had little choice but to eventually do the same, though they attempted to abide by the terms of the treaty for another two centuries before Annette de Baerle married Ivan, Duke of Taladaria at King Humphrey the Fourth’s behest in 814. So, the title of the March passed to the Duke when the last regnant Marquis, Xavier, passed away. It is for this reason, that, to this day, the Duchy of Taladaria is the only title within the Iurrakan peerage permitted to hold two regnant titles unified within one person, a right formalised in a special agreement between the King and Peers of Iurrak.
From the Encyclopedia Royalis Iurraka, edition of 975.
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