René Gramont
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| Réne Gramont | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 2nd President of Laeral | |
| In office 1962–1966 | |
| Prime Minister | Sun Jia-wei |
| Preceded by | François Guirard |
| 2nd Prime Minister of Laeral | |
| In office 1958–1962 | |
| President | François Guirard |
| 1st Foreign Minister of Laeral | |
| In office 1954–1958 | |
| President | François Guichard |
| Prime Minister | Sun Jia-wei |
| 1st President of the Republic of Laeral | |
| In office 1922–1932 | |
| Prime Minister | Jean-Philippe Salaun |
| Vice President | Edmond Yeoh |
| Personal details | |
| Born | August 18, 1884 Maissis, Harcour, Laeral |
| Died | January 19, 1966 Meilinis, Laeral |
| Cause of death | Heart attack |
| Resting place | Gramont Mausoleum, Maissis, Harcour, Laeral |
| Citizenship | Laeralian |
| Political party | Social Democratic |
| Other political affiliations | Committee for Democracy and Progress Labor Party |
| Spouse(s) | Thérèse Gramont (1905-1928) |
| Domestic partner | Elnara Harim, Gabrielle Travers, Sabine Bellerose |
| Children | Alexine Gramont, Liliane Gramont, Stephan Gramont, Annette Gramont, Pei-shan Gramont |
| Mother | Marie-Ange Gramont |
| Father | Emile Gramont |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | First Allied Provinces of Laeral (1904-1916) Committee for Democracy and Progress (1919-1922) |
| Service/branch | Army |
| Years of service | 1904-1916; 1919-1922 |
| Rank | Major (First Allied Provinces of Laeral) Field Marshal (Committee for Democracy and Progress) |
| Commands | Second Harcour Infantry Regiment (First Allied Provinces of Laeral) Army of the Committee for Democracy and Progress |
| Awards | Order of National Merit, Medal of Valor (Second Class) (First Allied Provinces of Laeral) Order of Han Guiying (First Class), Laeralian Medal of the Civil War (Gold) (Republic of Laeral) |
Réne Corentin Gramont was a Laeralian soldier, revolutionary statesman, and politician who led the Committee for Democracy and Progress in the Laeralian Civil War and served as the first President of the Republic of Laeral and later as the second President of the Second Allied Provinces of Laeral. As the leader of the Gang of Five during the Republic of Laeral period, he enacted wide-ranging reforms to the Laeralian state and Laeralian society known as the Rose Revolution, under the core principles of republicanism, reformism, socialism, secularism, and anti-imperialism, which were sometimes known as Gramontism. Gramont later became a major political force in the early years of the Second Allied Provinces of Laeral, serving as President from 1962 until his death in office in 1966. He is widely considered among the greatest figures in Laeralian history and an architect of modern Laeral; he often appears on lists of the greatest leaders of the 20th century.
Gramont initially came to prominence as a soldier in the army of the First Allied Provinces of Laeral, rising to the rank of Major in the First Fellsian War and becoming a decorated hero following victories at the battles of Poimur, Corentin, and Valengny. After his resignation from the Laeralian Army, he joined an underground group pushing for societal and governmental reform, known as the Committee for Democracy and Progress (CDP). When the Laeralian Civil War broke out in 1919, Gramont assumed command of the forces of the CDP, ultimately using his tactical acumen to defeat government forces and replace the First Allied Provinces with the Republic of Laeral.
He was elected as the Republic's first President in 1922, and subsequently reelected in 1927 for a second five-year term. His government enacted socialist and modernization programs with the ultimate goal of reforming Laeral into a modern, progressive, and tolerant nation. He created free nationwide public education, abolishing religious schooling and instituting a new nationwide curriculum. He reversed laws which promoted racial discrimination, and adopted redistributive policies meant to promote Rén empowerment. Under his rule, Laeralian women were emancipated under liberalized laws, and received social and civil rights similar to those of men. He also defeated Libertas Omnium Maximus in the Brissac War (1925-1928), bringing modern-day Brissac and Lematre provinces under Laeralian rule.
As the leader of Laeral's Social Democratic Party, he remained an influential figure in the development of the Laeralian state as his close allies Jean-Philippe Salaun, Zhou Wei-lin, and Sun Jia-wei went on to lead the Republic. During the Bloody Summer, he led government forces against Alain Mette's Laeralian Front, and played a major role in the drafting of the Laeralian Constitution, which created the Second Allied Provinces of Laeral. Hoping to check President François Guirard's policies, Gramont was named as the Foreign Minister of the new nation, becoming Prime Minister in 1958 and being elected President in 1962. As President of the Second Allied Provinces, he came under criticism for taking authoritarian actions during the Emergency Period. He died of a heart attack in 1966, and received a state funeral before being buried in the immense Gramont Mausoleum near his birthplace in Harcour.
Early Life
Réne Corentin Gramont was born in the rural town of Maissis, in Harcour province, Laeral, to Emile Gramont, a local merchant and trader, and Marie-Ange Gramont. It is believed that one of his grandparents on his mother's side, as well as at least one of his great-grandparents on his father's side, were Rén; Gramont himself identified as Arrivée throughout his life. A middle name does not appear on his birth certificate; he adopted the name Corentin following his near-death experience at that battle during the First Fellsian War. His younger brother died at a young age, and as a result Gramont grew up as an only child; Emile and Marie-Ange Gramont found it difficult to conceive children. Gramont attended a local parochial school for his early education, and a secular private school for further education. In 1900, Gramont applied and was accepted to the Laeralian Military Academy in Althea, Loiraine.
Gramont had initially hoped to join the cavalry, then seen as the surest path to social advancement, but was denied by his instructors, instead becoming an infantry officer. Gramont had become involved in politics in Althea; he was notably sympathetic to the city's labor unions, and joined a club of young officer cadets dedicated to discussing reforms to the existing political system. He also opposed the Laeralian expeditionary force sent to Shen to quell the Golden Flag Rebellion, sympathizing with the plight of the Shen rebels. He graduated from the academy near the top of his class, but was not offered a position with a serving regiment, possibly because of his political views or his unrefined, rural manners. During his time at the Laeralian Military Academy, he met Thérèse Perray, the eldest daughter of a wealthy merchant supplying the Laeralian army. The two became infatuated with one another, and ultimately married in 1905.
Military Career
Early Years
Upon graduating, Gramont was not offered a position with a serving regiment, but instead placed on half-pay and given a secretarial position at the Althea Armory. He was reportedly a mediocre secretary, and his half-pay salary meant that he lived in a small apartment. One of his neighbors was Zhou Wei-lin, then unsuccessfully seeking a mercantile career. The two men became friends; Zhou would eventually become Gramont's aide-de-camp during the First Fellsian War. Around this time, Gramont also met the union leader Julien Cheng, who would eventually become Economy Minister under Gramont's presidency.
In 1905, Gramont married Thérèse Perray, and the two honeymooned in northern Meilinis; Gramont would later be involved in fierce battles of the First Fellsian War near the very same countryside landscapes he and his newlywed wife had admired. Thanks to the influence of his father-in-law Jacques Perray, Gramont was taken off of half-pay in 1906. Instead of being assigned to a military unit, however, Second Lieutenant Gramont was assigned to a military delegation sent to Serriel, where Sultan Mansur Hazinedar was relying on Laeralian assistance to defeat a tribal uprising of the nomadic Suhar people.
Gramont left his pregnant wife in Althea in March 1906, accompanying around two dozen Laeralian Army officers on a trip by sea to Serriel. Gramont proved a quick study at languages, quickly mastering the Serrin language and thus becoming a trusted aide to the leader of the delegation, Colonel Sabin de Montreuil. Gramont accompanied the Sultan's forces on expeditions into the interior to fight the Suhar rebels, observing firsthand the value of good logistics, the dangers posed by the stealth and camouflage of the Suhar, and the deadly potential of the Narbonne machine guns provided by the Laeralian delegation. Gramont escaped his first battles unharmed, noting in a letter to a friend that "adventure, once sampled, is a hard dish to resist."
Gramont spent nearly two years in Serriel, at one point contracting a serious case of tuberculosis. He was treated by a Serrielan nurse, Elnara Hanim, with whom he developed romantic feelings for; it is believed that they may have consummated an affair. In March 1908, the Laeralian delegation was sent to the city of Xianjiapo, a Shen city which was administered by Laeral following the Golden Flag Rebellion. The international occupation of the region was violent and destructive; promoted to the rank of Lieutenant and assigned to the headquarters of the Laeralian Expeditionary Force, he saw firsthand the impact of the Laeralian occupation. In a letter to his wife Thérèse, he wrote that: "the cruelties perpetrated upon the people of the Shen land we have come to occupy is difficult to convey with words. The men view us with defiance like a cold flame in their eyes, while the women flinch away and keep close their children. The rhetoric and justification of the men in our halls of government in distant Laeral is flimsy when viewed alongside the barbaric nature of the international occupation in Xianjiapo and the surrounding lands."
In late 1909, Gramont was granted permission to return to Laeral by ship. Upon returning to Althea, he rejoined his wife and saw his infant daughter, Alexine Gramont, for the first time. He was granted a post at the headquarters of the Second Army, comprising the Loiraine provincial forces which had been absorbed into the national army by the 1888 Gagneux Reforms. A May 1910 evaluation by Captain Adolphe Reyer of the Second Army described Gramont as "a committed soldier, most intelligent and quick of wit, yet finds it difficult to grasp his position with regards to his brother officers." It appeared as if Lieutenant Gramont may have been held in an advisory position forever, yet he was soon to be given opportunities for advancement by the outbreak of hostilities in 1911.
First Fellsian War
On the March 18th Incident in 1911, a High Fellsian railroad bridge in the volatile High Fellsian border region of Valenne was blown up by saboteurs. One of those saboteurs was shot and killed by Fellsian soldiers; the attack was used as an excuse by the High Fellsian Parliament to declare war on Laeral. The Laeralian standing army was quickly called up to the northern frontier; soldiers in Gramont's regiment were given only one day to prepare for immediate deployment to the front. As a native Harcouran, Lieutenant Gramont was assigned to the Second Harcour Infantry Regiment, part of the Second Army. As the regiment deployed and was sent northwards, High Fellsian troops advanced southwards through Cenefort and Minzu provinces, forcing Laeralian troops back before them.
Gramont's unit arrived at the front lines in time to join Field Marshal Duval's counteroffensive, which forced back overextended Fellsian forces. Upon reaching the front in early May 1911, the Second Harcour Infantry found themselves in fluid fighting in northern Meilinis, where Fellsian cavalry were spearheading the drive southwards. In fighting around Dumont's Farm, the farm horse Gramont had commandeered was shot to death underneath him, but Gramont was unharmed, making him a celebrated figure among the regiment.
In July 1911, as the Fellsian advance stalled in their drive southwards, the front lines settled into the trench warfare which would become synonymous with the war itself. Artillery and machine guns meant that advance was difficult, while soldiers frequently came under attack. Gramont's regiment was located on the front lines in northwestern Meilinis, only around fifteen kilometers north of the village where Gramont and his wife had honeymooned. "All around us is desolation," wrote Gramont in a letter to Thérèse. "Even amid the mud and grime of the trenches I am sheltering in, I recall the beauty of the land we visited after our marriage." With the Fellsian trenches only around 50 meters away, the Laeralian soldiers were constantly on guard for enemy soldiers, while the trench came under frequent shelling. Bolstered by reinforcements from the Third Army (comprising forces of the southeastern provinces), the Laeralian commander Field Marshal Duval called for an attack in March 1912, near the town of Poimur, where the Fellsians had occupied the fortress of Fort de Poimur.
The attack on Poimur was preceded by a buildup of around 135,000 Laeralian troops and an artillery barrage of three days in length. At 9:00 on the morning of March 19th, roughly 30,000 Laeralian soldiers charged towards Fellsian positions. Gramont's Second Harcour Infantry was among the regiments advancing towards the town of Poimur; although the regiment sustained some casualties to enemy fire, Gramont's platoon took only a single casualty according to battlefield records.