In 339 AB, Edwin II, an older man at this point in his life, retired one evening, his five children sleeping comfortably beneath his roof in the Castle at Rhondisfarne. Military preparations had been drawn up to invade the southern pastures of D’Astion, whose borders at this time extended to within fifty miles of the River Duna. In a preemptive strike, the King of D’Astion sent assassins to kill the Royal Family as they slept, resulting in the Night of Broken Glass. Edwin and four of his five children were killed, the only survivor being Anne, the youngest. At the age of twelve, she ascended to the throne with no regency, as all of her most trusted advisors and family members had been slain. Making common cause with the Earls of Irie, she ordered the invasion to commence and personally travelled with the army as it conquered a hundred miles into D’Astion. When D’Astion sued for peace, she took another hundred miles of land in the treaty, incorporating more than a dozen more states into the Kingdom of Rhondisfarne. Many of the commanders and soldiers of the invading army were named as Earls and Lords of the conquered lands, named the southern marches.
