Ermengarde Van Arbor

Lady Ermengarde van Arbor, Baroness of Battenburg (1852-1920) was the wife of the Baron Van Arbor.

Young life
Ermengarde van Schwab was born in Swabia, Deutsches Reich in the summer of 1852 to two farmers. As a result, she received no formal education as a child and only learned what was necessary for farming.

By 1870, droughts and a poor market caused Ermengarde's parents to give up farm life permanently. Due to this, the entire Van Schwab family relocated to Cologne to look for work. Ermengarde took a different path and set out for Berlin where she would begin schooling for the first time in her life. She very quickly learned to read and write in her native language (German) and Simlish. After five years of studying, she took a ferry to SimNation.

Adulthood
In SimNation she worked various odd jobs and sent back money to her family in Germany. That same year she met another German immigrant by the name of Otto Van Arbor. They fell in love relatively quickly and married the next year.

Ermengarde gave birth to a baby girl whom she named Gretle; the baby was named after Ermengarde's maternal grandmother Gretle (1788?-1844). Ermengarde began to work a series of odd jobs around the German quarter of SimCity; she made money as both a teacher and a translator.

Becoming nobility
In 1897, Ermengarde and her immediate family were raised to nobility. Her husband became a baron, thus making her a baroness. Despite being almost fifty, her life changed in a very sudden way that she never expected. She began to host parties, organize her husband's profile, and created a network of close confidants.

With her close network of allies and confidantes, she successfully arranged a marriage between the Baronet Goth and her own daughter Gretle in 1899.

Later life
Ermengarde lived out the rest of her days in recluse in happiness. She died of natural causes in 1920.

Titles

 * Ms. Ermengarde Van Schwab (1852-1876)
 * Mrs. Ermengarde Van Arbor (1876-1897)
 * The Honorable Lady Ermengarde Van Arbor, Baroness of Battenburg (1897-1930)