Japeth the Vermillion (Merveilles des Morte)

Japeth the Vermillion
Portrait by Giovanni Strozzi, 1540
Born	7 March 1489 Gotha, Thuringia, Holy Roman Empire
Died	10 April 1548 Hamburg, Hanseatic League, Holy Roman Empire
House	House of Jenagotha
Father	Thin White Duke
Mother	Maria of Brandenburg
Religion	Jungism (1507-) Roman Catholicism (-1507)

Japeth von Jenagotha (7 March 1489 - 10 April 1548), also known by his nickname Japeth the Vermillion based on his red hair, was a Thuringian nobleman and knight. Japeth was born to the Thin White Duke and his eleventh wife Maria of Brandenburg, an illegitimate daughter of Henry VIII, Holy Roman Emperor and one his many wives taken after the Lenzburg-Premsylid War. As a young man Japeth adopted Jungism in the wake of the Protestant Reformation, although unlike many of his siblings he did not serve in any combat roles. Like the majority of his fellow dynasts, Japeth had a home during the reign of the Thin White Duke, who had an open policy toward all his descendants. However, Japeth's uneventful youth and tendency to stay secluded in the family home led to him being called lazy and gluttonous by many of his siblings, including the future Duke of Thuringia, Hugh the Heir.

With the death of the Thin White Duke in 1522 Japeth was now facing the prospect of being expelled from his home, and so set about making a name for himself as an adventurer. Throughout the 1520s he campaigned as part of the Kingdom of Switzerland competition, to little success. In 1530 he bought a position in the Hanseatic navy, traveling to the New World while following a possible competition lead. Although considered a poor fighter at home, in the New World he established himself as a prominent noble, eventually becoming an early Carolingian nobleman. He died of disease in 1548 and his estates were passed on to various relatives.