Northern Haiti's King Henry I has created…
October 1820 CE
Northern Haiti's King Henry I has created a hereditary nobility comprising four princes, eight dukes, twenty-two counts, thirty-seven barons, and fourteenknights.
He has established an elaborate dress code and court ceremony and built himself eight palaces and six châteaus, including the spectacular Sans Souci, and the imposing Citadelle Laferriére, a fortress south of his capital at Cap Henry.
He has managed to improve his country's economy but at the cost of forcing former slaves to return to work on the plantations.
During his reign he has distributed plantations to military chiefs, restored soldier peasants to their former occupations, and maintained a general prosperity.
He suffers a paralytic stroke in August 1820 that causes him to lose control of the army, his main source of power.
When his condition is learned, revolts erupt.
In despair over his failure to pacify the country, and with mutinous soldiers almost at the door of his Citadelle, he shoots himself on October 8.
His kingdom, ruled by an even narrower clique than the southern Haitian republic, falls to Boyer, who on October 26 at Cap Henry claims the north at the head of twenty thousand troops.
Haiti is again a single nation.