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[align=center] EUSTACE CHAPUYS

* lyrics describing your character here .
HEY THERE. THE NAME IS MIKE, AND I AM 1 WEEK OLD (FACEBOOK SAYS SO). I'VE BEEN ROLEPLAYING FOR ABOUT ZINGOLLION YEARS AND MY OTHER CHARACTERS WOULD BE THE HOWARD BROTHERS. I FOUND FKAC AT MY LAPTOP. OH, BY THE WAY, I READ THE RULES. WANT PROOF? THE CODE WORD IS ALTER NET UNI VERSE WANT TO REACH ME? HERE'S MY IM: ASK ME
[/align]- - - - - Full Name, Eustace Chapuys
- - - - Title, His Excellency Imperial Ambassador to England. - - - - Gender, Male. - - - - Sexuality, Heterosexual. - - - - Age, 40 - - - - Place at Court, Ambassador - - - - PB (Play-By), Anthony Brophy
[align=center] [/align]- - - - - Loves,
Catherine of Aragon (respectfully) Humanism Intelligent conversation Books Savoy Peace and calm Spain Roman Catholic Church Etiquette Sunshine Strolls Writing letters - - - - Loathes, Hypocrites Fools England Heretics Cold Horse riding Sea travels Advancing in age Being patronized Hunts Jousts - - - - Strengths, Shrewd observer Highly educated and intelligent Loyal to his masters and friends Versed in politics Hardworking Good with languages - - - - Weaknesses, Poor horseman Trusts too quickly in things he wants to believe Knows England only superficially Pacifist at heart His devotion to Catherine of Aragon Sea sickness - - - - Dreams, First and foremost Eustace wants to serve the Emperor and Catherine of Aragon successfully. He also dreams of peaceful retirement in Savoy when his duty is done. - - - - Fears, Eustace fears the most that he will fail those he has to serve: the Emperor and the Princess Catherine of Aragon. Also, he dreads the prospect of growing old and frail in England. - - - - Overall Personality, Three words describe Eustace as he is often seen by the outside world: gentle, kind, and intelligent. The Savoyan is a firm believer in the virtue of pacifism, derived from his keen interest in the ‘new learning’ that promotes the notion of perpetual peace. He hasn’t the comfort of abiding to it to the full extent, because Eustace’s job as ambassador means he must endorse the Emperor’s policies – and if they herald war, he must herald war also. Eustace is seemingly tireless in promoting the will of his master. However, he balances this conflict between politics and personal opinion with his personal acts. The court has never witnessed him raising his voice, he loathes violence, and only special circumstances will drag him out to jousts, hunts, and other sports that requiring the use of weapons. Eustace himself had never learnt to wield any sort of arm. He also pleads with a touch of hilarity that horses don’t like him, although he rides when it’s a thing of necessity.
Of course, the Imperial Ambassador knows all the subtleties of social deportment and pays a huge deal of attention to not offending anybody. Whatever his thoughts of a person are, he masks them with mildness and politesse. He’s made a name for himself at court as a man of learning and broad horizons, and yet he manages to stay at the corner of political life, which is exactly where he means to remain. Chapuys knows his boundaries in court, and wishes to remain at the edge of events, not in the centre of them, so that he can always appear impartial and count on a relation from one member of court or another. He acts with such softness in his custom that people find him likeable and easy to be with. He has simple tastes in almost everything, and prefers simple yet nutritious meals above articles of luxury. His preferred spot at court are the palace gardens, but only when the weather allows him to walk unrestrained. The chilliness and dampness, taking at least the half of year in England, bother him greatly. He enjoys reading, but finds the court library a rather dull place, with works that he either read already or has no interest in. Certainly, his most guarded secret is that he has no love whatsoever for England or its people. He never wanted to return to the kingdom in the first place, but he is a man of duty. He finds the current King of England an intelligent man, but also unstable and whimsical.
Eustace is a firmly rooted Catholic. He has no family except cousins, and being once a priest, he bears no wishes to marry, seeing it that the Roman Church is his wife for all life. There is no desire in him to punish heretics – he has shed his religious robes for that of a diplomat, and leaves the task of purification in the hands of episcopacy. The greatest personal concern for Chapuys now is the wellbeing of Catherine of Aragon. The Dowager Princess, although her fate has much improved under Henry VIII’s rule, still faces an uncertain future. Since they are both at court, the Ambassador visits the Spanish infanta almost every day to speak with her and to offer advice and assistance in any form available. He grew to love the young princess perhaps like an uncle would.
[align=center] [/align]- - - - - Family Members,
Louis Chapuys, father (deceased) Guigonne Chapuys, nee Dupuys, mother (deceased)
- - - - Overall History, Eustace Chapuys was born one warm August of the year 1461 in Annécy in Savoy, to a town magistrate Louis Chapuys and Guigonne Chapuys, nee Dupuys. He was their only child, and so had the parents’ focus. However, he was not pampered, his father instead did his best to ensure his son grew up as just an kind man, and incited in young Eustace an interest in scholarly pursuits. The boy grew up in the company of equally stationed boys, attended school with them and made early friendships. It can be stated that his childhood was rather bland, because he had no outright enemies, nor loves, and he certainly did not act a leader. He excelled in his early studies though, encouraged by his mother and father. Apart from time spent with books, he made early trips around Savoy and to Geneva, which gave him knowledge of the local people and history of the region. Of that he eventually wrote a short treatise dedicated to his parents, and with guidance of his closest childhood tutor. It was clear to the Chapuys family by then that Eustace intellect predestined him for great things.
But first the young man had to receive further education. For that he entered university in Turin in 1478, and several years later, Rome. He received a doctorate in law, both civil and canon, and finding fondness for God’s word, became ordained as a priest in 1486. The same year, as a learned man and through kindness of well positioned friends, he was made a canon of Geneva and Dean of Viry. He was not meant to remain a cleric for long though. Merely two years after his ordination, Eustace was presented to Charles I, Duke of Savoy, and soon entered his employ, serving in various diplomatic missions. He had already written and spoken French, Italian, Latin and Greek. In 1490, the year of his master’s death, Eustace was on a mission to the Spanish court of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castille. Impressed by the crafty union of two Spanish kingdoms, even more mesmerized by personality, learning and acumen of Queen Isabella, Eustace offered his services to Spain, a country that he grew to love. Chapuys’s offer was well received, for in his short stay he was found a shrewd man, gaining people through intelligence, kindness and general mild behaviour, as well as great interest in Spanish culture. In just several months he became so acquainted with the Castillian language that he started tentatively using it in speech.
For the next several years Eustace travelled around European courts, including his home Savoy, Rome, Paris, several German Duchies and the Low Countries, serving in various functions. Among the people he had met was the famous Erasmus of Rotterdam, and the two became friends and pen pals. At breaks from foreign appointments, he assisted the Spanish government as a lawman, and his knowledge, as well as fondness of the country grew. Among other Spanish royalty, he saw the Princess Catherine of Aragon on several occasions, albeit she was only a small girl then. Fate intended the two to meet again under changed circumstances though.
In 1501, for his long and loyal service to the monarchs of Aragon and Castille, Eustace received a promotion to the post of Spanish Ambassador in England. He was torn in two. On one hand, he was delighted to be put in such position of trust, on another he hadn’t yet spoken a word of English and hardly knew anything relevant about the island kingdom of Henry Tudor, apart from its general history and what was whispered of it in the world of European politics. His consolation was in the fact that he was accompanying Catherine of Aragon, who was to be the wife of king’s heir, and thus the two states enjoyed a period of friendship, which would make Eustace’s job fairly easy. He was present during Catherine’s and Prince Arthur’s first meeting at Dogmersfield, and honestly terrified by the sickly appearance of the Prince of Wales. However, he said nothing, lauded the marriage that took place ten days later, after which he dispatched quickly to London, leaving the Spanish bride to her life at Ludlow Castle.
The ambassadorial work in Henry VII’s court proved draining, and with very little reward. First, Eustace was left virtually alone, without friends, at court which language he did not speak. He found the cold weather distasteful and caustic King and court not easy to live with. He did his best however, trying to fit in as well as he could, setting about to make new friends, of which Thomas More became the first, thanks to the mutual knowledge of Erasmus and shared interest in new learning. Yet, what seemed like a promising start was thwarted when the disaster struck. In the spring of 1502 both Catherine and Arthur suffered a bout of sweating sickness. Eustace was terrified the infanta was going to die from illness that would never befall her in Spain. Thankfully, she was spared but her husband had died, leaving her a widow and in a very difficult position. The King made the Princess all but his prisoner, equipped very poorly in some provincial castle, while Chapuys, still crawling in the manner of language and with little space to move, faced two tasks: assisting Catherine of Aragon as well as possible, and withstanding repeated attacks from the suddenly hostile English King. While in the latter case it was all he could do to reassure of Spanish will to respect the agreement, Eustace concentrated his efforts on making Catherine’s life at least a bit better. They have exchanged countless letters and he had managed, despite many difficulties, several visits to lift her spirits. On the knowledge that she almost lived like a wretched beggar, he bought her new clothes with his own money. Though greatly disturbed and in growing hatred of anything English, the ambassador always acted to Catherine with remarkable stoicism, and her beacon of hope.
In time, Henry VII grew tired or distracted, and his demands towards the Spanish ambassador grew few and odd, hostility turning into cold indifference. Meanwhile, Eustace’s tireless efforts at betterment began to bear fruit, and the courtiers now recognised him as a good conversationalist. He also made great progress in his command of English, surprising those that remembered his early stumbles. His main concern though, was still aiding Princess Catherine, and he came up with a brilliant plan of how to bring her back to court, at the same time assuring his own return to the continent which he dearly missed. In his correspondence with Isabella of Castille, Eustace detailed a masterpiece stroke which would make her daughter Catherine a marvel of Europe. In long letters the ambassador drew the scheme of his own recall to Spain, or any other European country he was needed in, leaving the post of ambassador in England vacant and ready for Catherine to take hold of, making her the first woman ambassador in history. After long discourse, Isabella agreed to the plan, which was due to be executed in the year 1505. However, the unfortunate death of Isabella that year cast dark clouds over Chapuys’s effort. Her husband, Ferdinand of Aragon, who knew all about it, sternly refused to go with it, although Eustace was sure the king had condoned it when Isabella was alive.
It didn’t take much time to realize why Ferdinand changed his mind: he was too busy with the matters of succession, the issue of Castille slipping away from him, to be bothered with England, or even with his own daughter. It took three long years, years of Catherine’s unspeakable misery in her English exile, and Eustace’s quiet discontent as he grew better acquainted and recognized at English court, before things changed. In 1507, finally, his king was climbing on top of affairs in Spain. All along Eustace’s letters painted the vision of Catherine’s disgraced and pointed subtly to his abandoned idea, or otherwise hopelessly pleaded for her dowry to be paid at last. He was in that like Cato Maior, with his famous Carthago delenda est. As only King of Aragon, Ferdinand was unable to pay his dues. But now, settling as governor of the whole Spanish realm again, the father remembered his child and his ears were opened to one humble servant’s whispers. So in May, Eustace set out for the final journey to see Catherine of Aragon, Dowager Princess of Wales, and to give her the good news. A part of him chided for leaving Catherine on her own, especially that he now saw her as a grown woman, proud, courageous, and deeply pious like her mother was, and he could not help but admire her. But there was also the other part, which longed to leave England, and which said it was all for Catherine’s happiness and glory. It was a difficult goodbye, and Eustace thought it would be forever.
Alas, it is the man’s fate to wander blindly, and to accept the verdicts of the merciful God. And it was Eustace’s great surprise, and disappointment he made his utmost to never show, when he was once again summoned to resume his ambassadorial duties in England, this time for the Emperor Charles V, who succeeded Ferdinand as King of Spain. While the Holy Roman Empire had no representative in the English court, the Emperor saw it unfit that his aunt remained his only ambassador in Henry VIII’s court. It quickly dawned on Charles that Chapuys, who was again by this time enjoying an easy assignment in Savoy, should return to England. The advantages of his reinstatement were many, first and foremost being the good reputation he built with the English courtiers, since he never openly admitted his loathing of the island kingdom. And thus, Eustace Chapuys came back to England to take the duties of Imperial Ambassador, and more privately to again support Catherine of Aragon as well as he can.
[/font]- - - - - Roleplay Sample, You know where to find plenty.
[align=center] THIS TEMPLATE WAS MADE BY THATSNOTMYNAME ! @ CAUTION EDITED BY LANIE OF FKAC [/align]
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