The style of the king of Amber began quite simply and expanded as the centuries passed and the kingdom interacted more with the Golden Circle.
Oberon
The full style used in the first legal documents (such as the Patent of Title to Lord Feldane the first Lord created by the king) was simply Oberon, King of Amber.
Later as the Church of the Unicorn came to spread the phrase by the will of the Unicorn started to appear more regularly until it became permenant.
During the war with the Moonriders Oberon added both Warden of Arden and Protector of Garnath making his full form Oberon, by the will of the Unicorn, of Amber, King, King of Kings, Warden of Arden and Protector of Garnath. After the war the claim of Garnath, along with the new claim of Lord of the Eastern Isles led directly to the conflict with Rebma.
During the period of conflict with Rebma preceding the birth of Llewella Oberon's style was Oberon, by the will of the Unicorn, of Amber, King, King of Kings and Queens, Lord of the Eastern Isles, Warden of Arden and Protector of Garnath. This was a direct insult to the Rebman style of Moire at the time: Moire, of Rebma and of the Blessed Islands, Queen, Subserviant to no King, Mistress of Nedra and Defender of Nesio. since the Eastern Isles and the Blessed Islands are one in the same. However the final in the final treaty with Rebma he was styled Oberon, by the will of the Unicorn, of Amber and of all of the Shadows, King, Steward of the Isles, Warden of Arden and Protector of Garnath. Moire likewise made adjustments to her style. [According the the wording of the treaty Amber holds the islands in trust until Llewella comes to the throne of Rebma at which time they are to be returned to her as Queen. There is no provision in the treaty for her refusal to take the throne, just her death if it should happen before she becomes Queen, at which point the isles would immediatly pass to her eldest living child as a Principality independant of either kingdom.]
The style Steward of the Isles was removed from Oberon's style when he granted the Regency Steward of the Isles to Corwin on the day after Llewella offical renounced her claim to the throne of Rebma. Oberon's act was in direct violation of the treaty which denied him the right to give the islands to another but since by this time the population was entirely of Amberites rather than Rebmans war was seen as too costly.
About this time Oberon added Autocrat of Gavera and Constable of Cas when the people of Cas "invited" him in to take care of their problem with the neighboring cannabalist raiders. It is notable that soon after the majority of the population who voted to "invite" him in were granted lands and titles in either the Eastern Isles or the Western Marches solving most of the problem by depopulating Cas. Within less than a decade the two titles were merged in to Overlord of the North and then almost immediatly granted to Eric as a Regency. At the same time Oberon ceased using Protector of Garnath though there is no record of it being granted as a Regency.
Some time later Julian was granted the Regency Warden of Arden leaving Oberon's style the rather simple
Oberon, by the will of the Unicorn, of Amber and of all of the Shadows, King. This was the form he used until his death acknowleding neither the death of Eric, or Corwin's possible abdication of his Regency nor resolving the Garnath issue.
Eric
Though considered an Usurper by many Eric did rule in Amber as defcto if not de jure king for almost 5 years.
During this time the style he used was
Eric, by right of his blood, of Amber and of all of the Shadows, King. Soverign of the House of Amber, High Overlord of the North and Steward of the Eastern Isles.
Thus he claimed not only the kingdom but to be the head of household, and restored both his own and Corwin's Regencies to the crown. Still no mention of the possible Garnath Regency, did Benedict, Gerard, Julian, or Caine hold it? Considering the attempted coup and the general belif in his death one would think that if Bleys held it Eric would have reclaimed it. This was the only form used by Eric during his reign.
Random
Random's first offical act after his coronation was to grant Vialle the title of Queen. In those documents he used:
Random, by the will of the Unicorn and right of his blood, of Amber and of all of the Shadows, King. Soverign of the House of Amber and Barimen, Duke of Carchal.
Random returned somewhat to the style of Oberon in claiming the Unicorn's will (which he has some actual witnesses too unlike Oberon), yet he also claims the throne solely by his blood. With the revelation of thier ties to Chaos he claims to be head of both the Amber and Choas branches of the family, no word has been heard from Dworkin on this and sources in Chaos claim that the Amberites have no claim to the House of Barimen, thier titles and lands removed in antiquity.
Carchal is the ancestral home of the Countess of Nesio, Vialle's family. In a rare grant to a male Moire gave Random the title Duke of Carchel on the third anniversary of Random and Vialle's wedding. The grant is more unusual in that it specifies that the title pass only to the female heirs of Vialle's body, by Random, provided such an heir does not inherit the throne of Amber which is rather unlikely in any event. The title specifically does not pass to the heirs of Random's body. All of this is because in Rebma those with disfigurements, ie. blindness, can not inherit titles. Vialle should have been the Countess of Nesio but her disabilty caused the title to pass to her younger sister. So Moire provided for the daughter of Vialle to assume a status of rank in Rebma, despite her future standing in Amber. Unfortunalty with Vialle's death the title will pass to Leah, Countess Nesio and merge with the Nesio titles if Random should die.
|