Sebastien/History

Sebastien was born in the Ardennes region of Belgium on May 30th, 1992, to parents of differing European nationalities: Gilliam desArdennais, present patriarch of the nouveaux-noblesse desArdennais line, and his British-born wife Marilla, formerly of the Highgate family of Sussex.

It may seem strange at first that a posh English debutante like Marille Highgate -- accustomed to the boroughs of London -- would throw in her lot with a gruff, earthy horse-breeder born and raised in the backwaters of Belgium's mountainous southern reaches...but the pairing is more sensible than it may at first appear. The DesArdennais line has existed only since the early 1800s, when Napoleon began to carry out his eponymous war against French territories. Prior to that time, the line was known by the surname de Broqueville -- a family with an inherited title of Count; the same de Broqueville family, in fact, that would go on to supply the country of Belgium's 20th Prime Minister, Charles de Broqueville. Tracing its lines back all the way to the Gauls by way of French Pas de Calais, the family's focus of expertise was in the breeding and training of horses...a pursuit that made it of strategic value during Napoleon's grim march across the French countryside to the south. Vehement disagreements about the way in which to treat with this military monster fractured the family in half; one half retaining the noble title of de Broqueville, and the other adopting the surname of desArdennais, in order to turn its attention to commercial pursuits, as is traditional.

The Ardennes draft horse is extremely sturdy and unique to the region -- and a powerful wartime asset, both for raw utility in the field and for its meat, which locals have supplemented their diets with for centuries. It's on the sale of this beast to Napoleon's forces that the desArdennais family propelled itself to wealth, even if the nature of its business made for less fame than it did fortune. Gilliam desArdennais may be 'a horse-breeder,' but he is also a legitimate untitled noble, descended from the stock of Counts, and a figure of power and prestige in his chosen, if narrow, field.

Enter Marilla, daughter of a man whose Empire was built by racehorses, and...the rest is history, as they say.

Sebastien's history, specifically.