Ulrich von Henslen
Count Ulrich von Henslen was a Braslander nobleman and one of the founding fathers of the Kingdom of Brasland.
He was the eldest son of Friedrich, Count of Henslen, and Countess Sophie von Meissenfeld. The Henslens ruled over a portion of Brasland as vassals of the emperor, so Ulrich was raised to become some day the reigning Count of Henslen.
Despite his family's special status in Brasland and the imperial recognition of their sovereign rights, the Henslens were very patriotic and dreamt with an independent country. Ulrich was educated with these notion and from his youth he was determined to free Brasland from imperial authority.
During the second half of the XVIIth century Brasland faced internal turmoil that gradually increased until it led to an open rebellion against the empire. As one of the two premier noblemen in the realm (along with Duke Alfred von Kerlich), Ulrich was the natural leader of the rebels, although quickly this became only in name, as Frederick Balkronn -a minor aristocrat but a talented military strategist nevertheless- assumed the factual leadership of the rebellion, leading the campaigns and excelling in the battlefield. Due to their efforts, the empire's forces were defeated and Brasland was recognized as an independent state.
Ulrich saw himself as the natural candidate to become King of the new realm, and most of the nobility supported him (he arranged the marriage of his eldest son to the Duke of Kerlich's daughter in order to secure the latter's support to his claims). However, part of the army and most of the people preferred Frederick Balkronn, and the tensions increased between both factions. Realizing that the newly founded nation faced the threat of a civil war right after its birth, the Count renounced to his ambitions and publicly supported Frederick, who was proclaimed and crowned as King of Brasland. As a gesture of goodwill, the new monarch married to Ulrich's daughter, Countess Caroline, and thus the blood of both lineages run into the royal dynasty.
