Garardine Dynasty
The Garardine Dynasty began with the ascension of Garard I to the throne of Wesnoth in 417. Though there were a number of periods of turmoil, the Garardine Dynasty is (aside from the reign of Queen Ashviere) regarded as a strong and prosperous period for the Kingdom of Wesnoth. Most of the Monarchs of the Garardine Dynasty are considered to have been good and just rulers.
Queen Ashviere was the exception to this trend. Though she maneuvered her son into position to take the crown from Garard II after defeating him in battle, Prince Eldred died shortly afterward and was never actually crowned king. This put Ashviere in a dangerous situation, since the only remaining offspring of Garard II was the three-year old Li'sar. Though Li'sar was legally the next in line for the throne, Ashviere's dishonourable behaviour made it likely that one of her nephews might claim the royal scepter. To prevent this eventuality she had them all killed and assumed the throne herself. However, the reign of Ashviere is not considered part of the Garardine dynasty by some historians because Ashviere was not descended from Garard I and therefore not of royal blood. In this view the dynasty was therefore restored with the ascension of Queen Li'sar to the throne in 518.
When Li'sar became queen, she married Konrad I, and though technically the legal authority lay solely in Li'sar's hands, she and Konrad I ruled jointly as king and queen. Though Konrad was presented to the public as the youngest son of Prince Arand, and therefore of royal blood, he was actually an orphan groomed by the mage Delfador to take the place of the dead prince.
The Garardine Dynasty met its greatest threat at the hands of the evil necromancer Mal-Ravanal; though Asheviere had alienated Wesnoth's neighbours and allies, Mal-Ravanal's invasion had much greater long-term consequences. Mal-Ravanal's attack in 626-627 devastated a great deal of the kingdom, and though it was ultimately turned back the consequences to the kingdom were severe, with large parts of central Wesnoth having been turned into a wasteland. Though Konrad II attempted to rebuild the kingdom afterward it is clear that the kingdom was entering a steep decline.
The Garardine Dynasty formally ended with the death of King Konrad II in 673 after a 61-year reign, though many claimants to the throne had enough royal blood to continue the dynasty had they managed to assert control over the Kingdom of Wesnoth. Instead the Kingdom descended into civil war and no one ruler ever gained control over the kingdom until the invasion of the Akladians 165 years later. However, descendents of Garard did retain control of the region around Weldyn (they referred to this region as 'The Kingdom of Wesnoth' even though it contained less than one tenth of the land of the original nation). It was a descendent of these rulers that married the Hagarthen king of Vakladia, and whose son in around 900 YW became King Gawen Haldric Hagarthen, the first Garardine to rule all of Wesnoth in more than 250 years.
The monarchs of the Garardine Dynasty are:
- 417-470 Garard I
- 473-501 Garard II
- 501-518 Ashviere
- 518-563 Li'sar & Konrad I
- 563-585 Ana'sar
- 585-612 Haldric VII
- 612-673 Konrad II
(The death dates of Garard I and Konrad II, and the accession date of Garard II, are erroneous on this chart, having been revised in light of later historical findings.)