Hubert de Cotentin

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According to the Raven King's account of his own origins he was born into the noble Uskglass family, of whom one Hubert de Cotentin was a powerful enemy. In the lawless times of the late eleventh century the avaricious Hubert killed the men of the family and took their lands. The Raven King's father, also named John Uskglass, appealed to King William II (his liege lord) for justice and protection: but received none. The evil flourished unchecked, and so John Uskglass the elder was shortly thereafter murdered and his infant son - the baby that would become the Raven King - taken by Hubert's men into the woods, and left there to die. They were perhaps unwilling to add child-murder to their crimes. In the woods however he was found by fairies, and among this singular race it was a deplorable habit to steal unguarded children. In this case it proved a stroke of good fortune for the abandoned child. The fairies took him in, and he became in a short time a favourite of King Oberon, who gave him a good magical upbringing [45].

The Raven King cited the failure of William II to administer justice in this matter as his reason for making war upon England in 1110.

Cotentin is a peninsula in Normandy, whence no doubt the first of the Cotentin family came.