| “ | Let the earth gape! Let blood and fire obliterate the world! But be sure I will never desist till I have dragged to my palace by her hair the barbarian queen, the daughter of dogs, the __ | „ |
| ~ Rabadash. |
Rabadash is the main antagonist in The Horse and his Boy, the fifth instalment of The Chronicles of Narnia book series. He is a Calormene prince and the son of the Tisroc, the ruler of Calormen, a desert country south of Narnia.
History[]
During the Golden Age of Narnia, the Monarchs of Narnia, Edmund, Peter, Susan, and Lucy, had attempted to establish a diplomatic relations with the Calormenes.
During Rabadash's visit to Narnia, he fell in love with Susan. Edmund, Susan and their entourage soon visited Tashbaan. During both times, Rabadash courted her quite heavily and even wanted to marry her. However, Susan began to have doubts and suspected that the Prince might hold the Narnians prisoners until she agreed to marry, or even force her to marry him which caused Susan to reject him. Because of this, the Narnians managed to escape Narnia on their ship at night.
Angered, Rabadash tried to persuade his father to invade Narnia, but the Tisroc refused because feared Narnia due to it being a country of powerful magic and even feared the Pevensies since the White Witch was defeated. He also believed that the inhabitants were demons in the form of animals and monsters. Aslan was a demon in the form of a lion. Unwilling to give up, Rabadash then planned to conquer Archenland, a neighboring country that was between Narnia and Calormen, and conquer Narnia, using Archenland as a staging post to do so. He assembled an army of 200 horsemen for the attack. During a secret meeting with his father,He told him his plan and his father agreed to the plan. His plan begins to go wrong as they were overheard by the Tarkeena, Aravis and her friend who in turn told Shasta, who warned King Lune, the king of Archenland and later arrived in Narnia and warned the people there of Rabadash's attack.
Meanwhile, Rabadash and his army arrived at Archenland's capital, Anvard and started his attack. During Rabadash's siege on Anvard, some Narnian reinforcements arrived just in time to help the Archenlander army. Both armies eventually managed to defeat the Calormenes. However during the battle, Rabadash challenged Edmund to a one-on-one fight but he had to jump off a wall to reach him, and got caught on a hook the back of his hauberk (shirt of chain mail) got caught on a hook in the wall, leaving him to hang there rather pathetically. Rabadash demanded to fight Edmund and be let down, but King Lune refused, saying that because of attacking Archenland in a time of peace, Rabadash had proven himself no knight, but a traitor, one rather to be whipped by the hangman than to be suffered to cross swords with any person of honor, humiliating him.
Rabadash was then captured and taken prisoner alongside the surviving Calormenes. He was brought to trial before the monarchs of Narnia and Archenland, demanding that he hear his conditions. Instead, Rabadash taunted the monarchs and promised revenge. Aslan then appeared and confronted him about his aggression. He gave him an able opportunity and chance for redemption, but Rabadash still refused and continued to bluster, threatening to never rest until he had Susan, even if he had to wage war on the entire world.
As punishment, Aslan turned Rabadash into a donkey, which could only be undone once he entered Tash's temple during his country's great Autumn Feast that year. Aslan then warned him that if he ever went more than ten miles from the temple, he would resume the donkey form for the rest of his life. After Aslan left, King Lune offered to transport Rabadash back to his home on his best cattle-boat, with the freshest of thistles and carrots, but his kind offer was, needless to say, refused, with a rather hard kick from Rabadash to one of the Archenlander guards. After he returned home, and when he stood in front of Tash's temple, in sight of all Tashbaan, he changed back into his natural human form, and everyone recognized him as their prince.
Eventually, he succeeded his father as the new Tisroc, but because of his curse he mainly stayed in the city, and was unable to lead any military campaigns. His reign was one of the most peaceful in Calormene history, which earned him the official title, "Rabadash the Peacemaker".
However, he was still remembered for his defeat and transformation and behind his back, and after his death, he was referred to as "Rabadash the Ridiculous". His reputation became very unpopular throughout the Calormene Empire, and if a student in a Calormene school ever did anything unusually stupid, they would very likely be called "a second Rabadash".
[]
 Villains
| ||
|
Jadis' Army & Followers Telmarines Calormenes Others | ||