TEXT: Living Greyhawk: The Yeomanry
  http://yeomanry.living-greyhawk.com/hist.html
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  1/10/04 2:05 PM
  Yeomanry's History
  After the Suel migrated into the Sheldomar Valley, many of their number chose a more peaceful
  existence, eschewing the retreating Noble Houses and their ambitions to the north and east. Instead
  these peoples, primarily lowborn peasantry from the Old Imperium, did not venture far from where they
  emerged into the Flanaess. They settled the high valleys between the Jotens and the Tors and mixed
  with the local Flannae. These new lands, stretching all the way out to the Javan River, had been well
  explored by the Suel Imperium prior to the Twin Cataclysms. The explorers had established mining
  enclaves and listening outposts decades before the onset of the war, some of which produced notable
  settlements such as Melkot in the Tors and Alran on the Jeklean Coast. Certainly, dissident individuals ad
  been secaping Imerial influence to the shores of Jeklea Bay over the dormant Hellfurnaces for centuries,
  but these lands were not of great importance until the destruction of the empire.
  In the century following the migrations, the humble fold who settled these lands were conquered and
  subjugated by a powerful Suel mage who mercilessly swept through their realm from the east. Lord
  Asberdies, as the tyrannical wizard was known, had emerged from the Dreadwood after the terrible
  destruction of his noble house, the infamous Malhel, some years earlier. Asberdies ruled the land and its
  people with cold-blooded ruthlessness in a vain attempt to resurrect a vestige of the glory of the Old
  Imperium. The tyrant was eventually cast down after years of dominion, during which his outrages
  ultimately grew unbearable. The Yeoman farmers banded together into small cadres of around a dozen
  fighters to overcome the forces of the mage in piecemeal fashion through relentless guerrilla strikes upon
  his forces. Asberdies was soon harried from his throne by the insurgents, who were eventually able to
  besiege his stronghold and force him from the land entirely. In the aftermath of securing their
  independence, these citizen-warriors realized that they had essentially formed the framework of a
  government. They elected their own spokesmen, who in turn chose leaders to direct the affairs of the
  realm. The Grosspokesmen, as these leaders would come to be called, established the officer of
  Freeholder, who was essentially an administrator elected to run the government, military, and conduct
  foreign policy.
  Almost two centuries later, in -96 CY, the leaders of the Yeomanry met with representatives of the
  expanding Kingdom of Keoland to discuss their annexation into the latter. Its grosspokesmen and
  freeholders were welcomed as members of the Council of Niole Dra, treated as noble peers within the
  greater realm. Over the next four centuries, the Yeomanry contributed its well-trained warriors to support
  the efforts of the kingdom, primarily be securing its borders from invaders and marauders. They were
  instrumental in the efforts of King Tavish I to conquer the Pomarj and the southern lands which would
  become the Hold of the Sea Princes. But this cooperation ended suddenly, during the reign of Tavish II,
  when the wars turned from defense to naked aggression. In 361 CY, the Yeomanry withdrew its forces
  from the Keoish armies and closed its borders in protest. It was over a century later that reconciliation
  between the two sides was finally achieved, when Tavish IV recognized an independent Yeomanry.
  Thereafter, the Yeomanry settled into a more peaceful existence, which it has known nearly to the
  present day. The result has been the creation of a state ruled by its warrior caste through their
  spokesmen.
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Living Greyhawk/Metaorg Material/Yeomanry/Yeomanry Gazetteer/05 History.pdf