Marguerite Izolda Devereux

by Steph

24

age

Woman

gender

08/18/1994

birthday

blood status

Pureblood

sexual orientation

PANSEXUAL

epidemic x status

IMPACTED

occupation

DELEGATE FOR FRANCE

general appearance

She looks very much like her cousins, aunts, and uncles-- most of them, at least. Soft red hair, light eyes, nary a freckle (save for a mole or three), high cheekboned, straight-nosed, and clean-featured, tall and (in her case) curvy. Long and thin fingers, usually well-manicured.

She's a knockout, really. She likes to pretend at modesty.

former school

Beauxbatons

former house

PRÊTRESSE

achievements

PREFECT
HEAD PREFECT
TOP MARKS IN CHARMS, HISTORY, AND ART

university

Pantheon-Sorbonne University of Magic

university major(s)

Political Science, Linguistics

years attended

2011 - 2016

skills

CALLIGRAPHY: you want something to look like it was made by Irish monks in the 1200s? she's got you. you want calligraphy animals? she's also got you. with that, though, came a surprising talent in FORGERY, not that she'll ever admit that.
LANGUAGES AND DIALECTS-- she can speak and write (French, of course) Poitevin, Provençal, Breton, Greek, as well as English.
SPONTANEOUSLY PROBLEM-SOLVING. DISPLAYING CONFIDENCE. BODY LANGUAGE-- perhaps not reading it, but she knows to work her own, as benefits someone who had been near-raised to take part in politics
WATER-RELATED MAGIC-- she's certainly no elemental, but her spells with water are certainly something.

weaknesses

BEING BRUSHED ASIDE, HER DEAD BROTHER, FEELING UNAPPRECIATED, HER FORMER SISTER-IN-LAW, A FEAR OF BEING REPLACED

positive traits

Anticipative, artful, articulate, athletic, caring, charismatic, clever, compassionate, determined, high-minded, methodical and matriculate (because someone's fancy), passionate, unsentimental

negative traits

Ambitious, (somewhat) arrogant, (kind of) brittle, conformist (but when she's not, it's Bad), critical, fanciful, hesitant, insincere, narcissistic, opportunistic, skeptical

hobbies/interests

she really likes watching people paint.
she enjoys calligraphy
medieval books 
very very appreciative of old twisting family trees. she's nowhere near the level of her former sister-in-law, but she likes studying the old ones for the aesthetic and age value. she likes to call it "holding history" and she sees no difference be it magical or muggle.
she likes to people watch.

accomplishments

TOTALLY FOUND OUT THAT WHO ARRANGED FOR HER BROTHER'S DEATH
IS COMPLETELY RIGHT THAT HER NIECE IS NOT OF HER BROTHER'S GET
ASSISTANT DELEGATE TO BRITAIN
DELEGATE TO BRITAIN

character history

Marguerite was born in 1994, in the same year that her cousin the Heir-in-Waiting would marry her aunt, both of who were chosen as her godparents, along with the mother of her cousin Julianna. She had a relatively happy childhood, for all that her parents hadn't quite loved each other. Once Marguerite was three and her older brother five, it was judged that they were likely to survive common childhood illnesses and accidents, and her parents divorced to marry those suggested by their own parents. During that short time period, her mother enjoyed the use of the title Châtelaine of Devereux in Bretagne-- that is to say, Alene-Dione lived in the château in Brittany (located in Côtes-d'Armor, to be precise) and enjoyed the privileges of being treated as older sister or younger brother of the Heir, as the brother it rightfully belonged to didn't choose to use it.

She enjoyed both her step-parents, being young enough that she didn't quite remember when her parents had been married. Like her mother and father before her, Marguerite was brought up knowing that she was one of the closest to the Heir's line but unneeded-- that her brother would be more likely be the child who would bring their line in with the Heir's than she was (his marriage was already arranged, of course, to their cousin Isabelle, who had two years on him). Marguerite had the dim and distant awareness that she would be one of the women most likely to eventually become the Head's wife-- for all that the future Head was a child. When her cousin the Heir died in the Battle of Hogwarts, Marguerite was four years old, and her brother was six. Alene-Dione's brother Alexandre came back home to France, and and attempted to claim his title with a new wife and a new daughter in his arms.

Titles were shifted around, to arrange for the sudden gap. It was rare that Heirs died, and rarer still that the Heir to the family was the Head's infant great-grandchild with no siblings. No one had expected that, and it messed up the order of the titles and châteaux. Alexandre struck out, however, and his claim to the château in Brittany was dismissed with the explanation that the Heir's heir was his uncle Simon, and therefore Simon had the arguable claim. Alexandre lost that tilt, but won a different one-- his daughter Julianna (Marguerite's godsister) fell in love with the Châtelain of the Brittany château, and he with her. They married after a year or so, displacing Marguerite's aunt Melina in truth, if not in title.

Marguerite was six at the time, but she was old enough to notice the schism slowly growing in her family. Her godmothers lay on different sides of the crack-- her aunt Gwenaëlle (widow of the previous Heir and Châtelaine of Devereux in Paris until her son, the new Heir, came of age) took the side of her father's line, and her first-cousin-once-removed Marina (former partner of Alexandre and mother of Julianna) took the side of the Head's grandchildren, as it benefited her daughter. Even her parents had different views-- Edmond supported his displaced sisters, and Alene-Dione her brother. Officially, there was no need to marry sides together once more, as Marguerite's brother Alain had been set to marry Simon's sister Isabelle since he was born, and their children would marry the Heir's children, Arsène's heirs and René's heirs becoming one and the same.

But they were Devereux and they were family-- they kept wedding each other, marrying their further out-daughters to other important families to marry future children back in. Marguerite, in a generation suddenly overwhelmed with daughters, was both close enough to the Heir to be considered a serious contender to marry him, and unnecessary to bring the lines closer together. Her cousin Simon's daughters were both not as high-ranked at the start-- his daughter Rosamunde had hair far closer to reddish blonde and Clarisse had more of her mother's auburn than her father's soft red. Though they stood closer in line and in proximity, it was unthinkable that the Head or Heir not have the Devereux red hair. Emeric's daughter Koa's children with Edmond's brother were both brunettes. They would be the daughters most likely to marry out for the sake of alliances with other families. If someone wanted a closer connection to the Heir than cousins, they could seek out his maternal half-siblings, for all that they were furthest back in line of all the options.

Marguerite attended Beauxbatons, the first cousin in a few generations to not have at least one cousin in the first hundred starting out in the same First year as she. Pretty, polished, popular, and pert, she had little trouble attracting friends who were not Devereux cousins, and she enjoyed her time there. Upon her graduation, she attended first one of the best magical universities in France to study political science, and took classes at the great Pantheon-Sorbonne University. After all, she had the highest chance of marrying the Heir-- one of her godmothers was his mother, and Alexandre's line had already wed in-- so she must prepare accordingly. Her chosen art was calligraphy, and it was thought unique enough to set her apart from her rival cousins.

During the wedding of her brother and his aunt, she kept a calm, placid smile on her face-- it was no secret that Isabelle and Marguerite heavily disliked each other, and the dislike continued between newly-made husband and wife. And then she'd forgotten to consider the influence of Isabelle on her decade-younger nephew, had not taken into consideration the years they had grown up together. Daniel followed in the footsteps of his uncle and grandfather, and chose his own wife rather than the one suggested to him. He chose Alexandre's daughter Sarotte, a move that at least healed the schism between Marguerite's godmothers, as Sarotte was the daughter of Alexandre's second wife, and further of René's line. Shortly after the proposal of Daniel to Sarotte, Alain was killed in a drunken duel with an unknown wizard. Two months after his death, Isabelle announced that she was carrying his child. Forty-one weeks after Alain's death, Isabelle gave birth to a daughter she named Julienne.

And then, Marguerite struck out. Marguerite had never believed Julienne was her brother's. If Julienne was not her brother's, then it was Marguerite who was her brother's heir. Her brother had been the heir of their father, but now it was Marguerite. Their father was the first born son of Arséne, identical twin brother to René, and only the supposed younger brother. Her father was his father's male heir, and Marguerite his heir if Julienne was not Alain's.

But then.

She'd made one misstep too many, she'd insulted too many family members of a higher ranking than herself, for all her degrees and knowing better. She'd put herself in disgrace. But she couldn't be disowned-- not the arguable heir of the one of three arguable heirs, not the arguable Châtelaine de Bretagne en Devereux, not the oldest surviving child of the Head's only living daughter. Devereux took care of Devereux, and for all that she had not done that, she was still to be taken care of. So exile of a sort was the answer-- she'd still be invited back to reunions, she'd still be under the eye of a relative, but she would no longer live in true France.

There was a cousin-- there were always several cousins-- in an ambassadorial position. Adélaïde Chevalier was the new delegate to Britain (she'd earned the position after Melina Devereux resigned to stay in England, of all places), and while she still had the loyalty, values, and reddish hair, she was three generations removed from the Devereux name, for all that she was first cousin on both sides to Melisandè Devereux, and her cousin and sister had married or had Devereuxs. It was easily done, then, to have Adélaïde take on her sister's step-daughter as her intern after a stop at home. For all that relations were souring, the French Muggle-borns (in both the general opinion of Le Parlement Magique Français, the Département de la Coopération Magique Internationale, and their chosen representative on the ICW) needed to be returned to France, as unharmed as possible, and diplomacy seemingly in effect.

But there were limitations-- while Adélaïde might be able to return to France to work with Marguerite's aunt, Marguerite had to stay. It wasn't as if she was unqualified, as her degree had been in politics and diplomacy, but she was still rather. . .young. If relations soured to the point of France completely recalling all their representatives. . .well. Marguerite would simply need to find a new diplomat in the British Ministry to work for.

parents

Edmond Devereux (1960), Alene-Dione Acutus (1965)
Step: Nadia de Trefle-Picques (1960), Adam Acutus (1950)

siblings

Full: Alain René Devereux (1990 - 2017)
Paternal: Laurent Ada Euphrasie Devereux (1/1996),  Félicité Vittorine Marie Devereux (11/2001)
Maternal: Arlette Adele Acutus (7/2000), Admenta Arlindë Acutus (10/2002)

children

Not yet

partner

"It should be my cousin Daniel Devereux"

other family

here is one tree. Here is another {LINK}

family history

The Devereuxs hail from both magical and (distant) Muggle lines of Mélusine, fabled sorceress. It is unknown if she was Anamagus or Maledictus, though from time to time, a daughter is usually born with a gift for water is born into her line. Though they take pride in their famous ancestress, they swear and live by a lesser-known ancestress who may not have even been magical. It is from her children that they are certain to carry Mélusine's blood, though their ancestress might well have had some more-famed lineage of her own.

They also carry the blood of the Beast of Gévaudan (previously Isabelle XVIII), though that one is not so much bragged about, understandably.

---

The founder of her line springs from Francois d'Évreux, and his lady wife, the bastard-born Isabelle d'Évreux, formerly of Anjou. At a young age, Aelis d'Évreux ran away from her parents to a whorehouse, unwilling to marry her cousin and eventually become a duchess. Carrying nothing but a set of silken undergarments and a slim wooden rod, Aelis had demanded that they shelter her there, and proclaimed that she wished to be whore. When asked for her name, she replied that her first name was of no use anymore, but that her surname was d'Évreux. However, an error caused it to be written down as Devereux, and the young whore-to-be became known only as that name.

She had her first child at a young age: a girl that she named Senna, with the explanation that her father was a riverman from the Seine. She serviced many customers, and a rumor had it that even the King of France had visited her once or twice. Young and captivating, Devereux was expected to be highborn, on the account she knew how to read and write well, knew how to speak five languages and had a noble manner and bearing.

Five years after her first child, a young woman with Devereux's look made her way to the whorehouse and demanded to speak to "the whore Devereux". Devereux, who had been servicing a man at the time, was summoned, and led the noblewoman into a private chamber, in which they exchanged words, indistinguishable shouting was heard, and the red-haired noblewoman stormed out without a backwards look.

Over her lifetime, Devereux had thirty-six children, and thirty of them survived infancy and childhood. Despite the fact that as she grew older, Devereux's beauty began to fail her, and she was no longer as shapely as she had been before, Devereux still had the captivating pull over men she had always possessed. She boasted of knowing the names of each and every father of her many children, and would often send her flame-haired children to their fathers, whether they be nobility or peasant. Even stranger, the supposed fathers would take them in. It was said she took up with a nobleman, who fell so deeply in love with her as to wed her. She bore him her final son, and after his death, took up the life of a courtesan once more. She later died at the extraordinary age of one hundred and two, and her remains were burned, then later buried.

After Isabelle I Devereux was born in 1321, it was decided that her line would lead the family, as she was of the direct lineage of still-living Senna and Essone, of the illegitimate highborn Capet, and of the still noble (and legitimate) D'Évreux. Shortly after Isabelle's birth, however, her father Antoin was killed in a duel with his cousin Édouard Anjou over Isabelle's mother Isabeau. To make amends for the death, Édouard offered his hand for the infant Isabelle, which was accepted by Essone and Senna's son Richard, to try and quiet what family feud might begin brewing, and keep it simple to know the next man who would lead the family, as well as linking the Anjous to the Devereux clan. After Édouard's well-deserved death and Isabelle's kidnapping of her grandson about twenty-six years later during Devereux's funeral, the Devereuxs agreed to a few terms for the return of him who they would set as Head: the handing-over of Isabelle's daughter Aelis III, making arranged marriages consensual on both sides, a minimum age of marriage, and inheritance customs.

With a worshipful near-obsession with their ancestress from that point, her sons and daughters strove to be a close-knit community with each other, and intermarried their children to keep whatever inheritance they might receive into the family, and as not to lose the history of Devere amongst themselves. Over time, it became the norm for the heir's older sister to betroth her oldest daughter to the heir's heir, or if such an older sister was lacking, the heir to be wed the redheaded female cousin closest in age. While many of Devereux's children and grandchildren eventually left France, for the New World, for other countries of Europe and Asia, and the Ottoman Empire, the prison colony of Australia, and the many countries of Africa, they would hold reunions often, making sure to keep in close contact and loyal to the leader. Over time, they formed a bank of sorts, of which all grown members of Devereux would pay a special tax to, for the children of Devereux to never be impoverished, or in great need of money.

Until the late eighteenth century, that was all that was known about their ancestress Devereux was that the name she was born under began with an A, she was literate, and fluent in five languages. Extensive research later confirmed that she was of noble descent, though it was uncertain from which line. From there, and from historical records of noble births, disappearances, and deaths, it was theorized she herself was illegitimate, and concluded her father had been noble, and her mother a commoner, and the richly-dressed red-haired maiden her half or full sister, or merely a lover. Try as they might, however, her first name had been lost to the sands of time.

Devereux's children continued intermarrying, and preferred to marry out their sons and daughters to people who were influential, rather than becoming influential themselves, thinking that their influence would last best this way. This way, they spread influence of their own as well, pressing spouses to support ideas by those married to Devereux. Like their self-famed ancestress, they would "sell" in a way, the hand of the women of those closely related to the Heir or Head, when not wedding them to male cousins to bind the lines closer together. Due to being founded by a female whore, and the compromises forced by Isabelle I, for a few centuries they were said to allow their women a type of freedom not typically found-- until, that is, other families caught up, or surpassed them.

Devereuxs, while one of the greater families in France, being wed into every inch of Ministry and societies, have not quite reached for power themselves, content to interfamilial loyalty and communication. Or so they claim, anyway-- a chateau in Aquitaine, two manors (in Burgundy and Brittany), a large house in Bonifacio, and a residence in Le Marais-- might speak to otherwise, or at least, of a high opinion of themselves.

(Some of the more hardcore claim that their family's responsible for the commonality of Devereux as a name, even among Muggles. It's a total lie, as it would be common in another country. . .but such is life)

---

Her father was the arguable Heir.

Edmond Devereux was firstborn son of the Heir's identical twin brother, born before the Heir's son was. Being that the Heir and his brother were identical twins, there was the possibility that they had gotten mixed up before, that one could pretend to be the other. Arséne had now a son and a daughter; his brother René had none. Still it was agreed that it would be best to marry their children as tightly as possible together. Luckily, René's wife Simone had a child later that year, who would be married to Arséne's older child-- René's oldest child who happened to be a son, and Arséne's oldest child who happened to be a daughter. It would cover both lines of inheritance from them, and René's daughter would marry Edmond if she was born and when she came of age. Their children would then intermarry, so that the heir of René and Arséne would be one and the same, taking his place as Châtelain de Devereux eventually.

His future wife came about a few years later, but a gap of five years between man and woman was deemed to be little enough. Had it been the other way around perhaps it might have raised an eyebrow, but Edmond was older than Alene-Dione, first known daughter of the Heir.

However, the best-laid plans often fail, and the Heir-Second-in-Waiting, Edmond's sister's betrothed and Alene-Dione's older brother fell in love with a Greek cousin at a reunion, choosing her before his cousin. It was an insult-- Emeric Devereux and Melisandè were near enough to wed, and Melisandè had trained for years to take on the duties of Châtelaine de Devereux. An offer was made for Melisandè to marry Alexandre, Emeric's younger brother, but she refused. She would go from being the most powerful woman in the family to Châtelaine de Devereux en Bourgogne, which she would only posses for a handful of decades before giving the château and title to one of the children from a match that had spurned her. Rather than do so, Melisandè decided to stay unmarried, to keep the succession as uncomplicated as possible.

When Emeric and Alexandria had their children, Edmond's next-younger sister was promised to the new Heir-Third-in-Waiting, despite her handful of years over him. The breech needed to be taken care of, after all, and Arséne needed to see his blood in the Aquitaine château. Melisandè carried children for her parents eight years after, and the children were named sycophantically, a barb at the Greek wife (Melina, after all, was a Greek name, even if her second, third, and fourth names reflected their heritage), and the brother who had let the insult go. Melina was promised to the Heir-Third-in-Waiting's brother, and would likely see her granddaughter as Châtelaine de Devereux, if the first born of Aldric and Gwenaëlle was male, and Edmond had only daughters.

Alene-Dione and Edmond married in 1985, but experienced problems conceiving. Their grandfather passed away the next year, and Alene-Dione's father stepped in as Châtelain de Devereux. Edmond might never hold one of the Devereux titles, but his children would, and his parents were now Châtelain et Châtelaine de Devereux en Bourgogne. Alene-Dione's brother Alexandre refused to move back in England, so she held his title and lived in his château in Brittany. The title was a loan-- unlike Alexandre's wife, Edmond had no standing as a Châtelain.

Their first child was born in 1990, a son they called Alain. While not ideal, it was manageable-- Emeric had a daughter named Isabelle, just two years Alain's senior. Proper godparents were chosen for him-- the bonded pair of Simon and Melina who were due to marry, and Edmond's sister Melisandè who had done her duty to the family. Emeric died a year later, and the titles were shuffled around again-- Simon and Melina were now to have the château and title, and now it was Alene-Dione holding it for them until they reached their majority.

Marguerite was born three years after that, unnecessary so far for all that her brother held a rival claim that was being neutralized. In 1996, Emeric's sister married Alene-Dione's brother (at long last, the match had happened) and a year and a bit after, Gwenaëlle delivered a boy they called Daniel. Not a few months after, whoever, Aldric heard that his younger brother and Edmond's sister were in danger, and hurled headlong across countries, not remembering to ask cousins to help.

Well. Aldric died, making him the second Devereux heir to die in the space of seven years, and the third important Devereux to die in the space of twelve years. After Aldric's death, Alene-Dione's relative cast off Edmond's sister for the second time, bringing a feud almost into existence and then Edmond's younger sister announced she was leaving France for England, bringing it suddenly to a head a shoved back into the corners.

Edmond and Alene-Dione hadn't bloomed into love, and they'd barely found friendship. After the required son and daughter were born, the pair divorced and sought out different cousins. Edmond married his second cousin-- the first cousin of the girl who was responsible for his younger sister being set aside, as she was a cousin who could not disrupt the succession, and her mother had recently come into a large inheritance that was best to stay in the Devereux line. Alene-Dione followed the wishes of her family-- she married her maternal half-uncle to keep his line of secession from challenging that of her mother's.

So. Was it really Edmond's fault that he implied to his children that René's sons were unworthy?

other

she's not actually right about her sister-in-law and niece.

face claim

SOPHIE TURNER

status of application

Incomplete

have you read the rules?

RULES? NAH

how did you hear about us?

FEVRE DREAM

roleplay sample

[attr="class","staffupdatedstemp"]Accepted!