Kenway family

The Kenway Family was a British family who had a central role in the Assassin-Templar War at the 18th century, especially during the Golden Age of Piracy and the American Revolutionary War. It was also an ancestor line of Desmond Miles.

History
The eldest known member of the Kenway family was Bernard Kenway, a English sheep farmer from Manchester at the end of the 17th century. He married a Welshwoman, Linette Hopkins, and settled in Swansea. They had a daughter who died during infancy, and in 1693 they had a son, Edward. In 1703, the Kenway family moved to Hatherton, near Bristol. The Kenways had a reputation of honest farmer. Bernard gave the sales part of his farm to his son, but Edward passed most of his time in taverns. In 1712, Edward married Caroline Scott, the daughter of the wealthy tea merchant and Templars, Emmett Scott and his wife Elizabeth.

The young couple lived modestly in the Kenwway's farm, as Emmett refused that his daughter had married Edward. Desiring to give to his wife a privilege life, Edward decided to become a privateer to sail to the West Indies and returned when he would be rich. Caroline, who was pregnant, refused his husband decision and moved back to her father's home. To be sure that Caroline never returned to the Kenways, Emmett send a group of Templars burn the Kenway's farm. Edward saved his parent but his father disowned him. Trying to understand why his parent's home was burned, Edward was knocked out by Wilson and woke up on the Emperor which sailed to West Indies.

At the begining of his privateer career, Edward met Edward Thatch and Benjamin Hornigold and when the Peace of Utrech was signed, the three became pirates. In 1715, after a battleship in Cape Bonavista, Edward killed the Assassin turncoat Duncan Walpole. Impersonating him, Edward joined the Grand Master of the Caribbean Templars Laureano de Torres y Ayala. Then he gave informations which jeoparzided the position of the Caribbean Assassins and he was inducted in the Templar Order.

The Grand Master revealed the existence of the Observatory, a Isu temple which contained a device capable to spy individuals, which could only be open by a Sage, a reincarnation of the Isu's member Aita. After the Templars captured the new Sage, Bartholomew Roberts, Edward decided to double cross the Templars and to freed Roberts to discover the location of the Observatory and making fortune with it. But the Sage escaped and Edward had been see through by the Templars and was emprisoned on the Spanish Treasure Fleet. There, Edward met the pirate Adéwalé, and together with others prisoners took a brig, El Dorado, and flown a hurricane. Renaming the brig the Jackdaw, Edward became his captain and Adéwalé his quartermaster.

During four years, Edward pursued his quest to find the Sage. During his journey, he met the pirate James Kidd, who was in fact Mary Read, an Caribbean Assassin who wanted that Edward joined the Assassins, but Edward only help the Assassins for money and retrieve the Templar keys. In 1718, he learned his father died from pleurisy. In 1719, Edward found Roberts who led him to the Observatory. There he discovered that the device, a Crystal Skull, a Piece of Eden whichcould be use with a Blood vials to see through the eyes of someone. While Edward changed his mind about selling the Observatory location, Roberts betrayed him and send him in the Kingston prison.

Two years later, Edward escaped from his prison with the help of the Assassin Mentor Ah Tabai and liberated Anne Bonny and Mary Read. But during their escape, Mary died. After the lost of Mary and others friends, Edward decided to overlook his dream of glory and money and became an Assassin to honor Mary's wish. In 1722, Edward killed Roberts, reclaimed the Crystal Skull and replace it in the Observatory after killing Torres.

After the Assassins victory in the Observatory, Edward learned that Caroline died two years before from the smallpox which she contracted from her father. He also discovered he had a daughter, Jennifer Scott, who was born few months after his depart for the West Indies. Then, he gave his hideout to the Assassins and decided to raise his daughter in England and tracked the men responsible of the burning of his family farm. In 1723, during a meeting with his mother, he exposed his plan but she disowned him. Nevertheless, Edward killed Emmett Scott and was about to burn Matthew Hague before Robert Walpole gave him a pardon from his former life as a pirate.

Moving to London, Edward married Stephenson-Oakley, the daughter of a weathly landowner and purchased the Kenway Mansion. In London, Edward joined the British Assassins and became with Miko their leader. With his commercial enterprise, Edward traveled through the world for the Assassins. He visited Isu Temples in Italy and the Alamut Temple. He retrieved a Shroud of Eden, a Piece of Eden which could healed fatal injuries. He hid the Shroud in a box made by the First Civilization in the Tower of London and the key of the box in a secret room in St. Paul's Cathedral.

In December 1725, Edward and Tessa had a son, Haytham. At his eighth birthday, Edward began to train his son as an Assassin. In parallel, Edward searched for the Grand Temple that Roberts evoked in his last moment, where a woman waited. The Grand Master of the British Rite of the Templar Order who was also an employe of Edward, Reginald Birch, wanted to take Edward's research which were in his journal. Thereby he began to courtise Jennifer to access to the journal. He also lured Haytham to know the location of the journal. Jennifer revealed the true allegiance of Birch to her father, so Edward expulsed the Templar from his mansion.

On the tenth birthday of Haytham, Birch send masked men to the Kenway Mansion. They burned it, kidnapped Jennifer, killed Edward and took his journal. Birch sold Jennifer as a slave to Turkish merchants, and she later became a concubine in the Topkapı Palace. Afterwards, Tessa refused to see again her son, who killed to protect her one of Birch's men in front of her eyes to protect her, and decided to reconstructe the Kenway Mansion. Then as nobody knew his implication in mansion's attack, Birch took Haytham under his wing to make him a Templar, promising to find Jennifer. With years, Haytham became a deadly agent for the Templars.

In 1747, Haytham killed Juan Vedomir, a Templar turncoat who stole Edward's journal. Giving back to Birch, the Grand Master informed Haytham the death of his mother. Later Haytham continued the search of the men who burned his family mansion, going to Germany to found Jack Digweed, a servant of Edward who was accused of the attack. Haytham and Birch found Digweed had been tortured by the men who attack the mansion. Haytham pursued one of them and Birch killed Digweed to be sure Haytham didn't know the truth. Mortally wounding his target, Haytham learned that his father was an Assassin and his was killed for something. On the body, Haytham found document which proved the man served the Templar and general Edward Braddock. Arrived in Dutch Republic, Haytham found the other man, Tom Smith, but he was executed for desertion by Braddock. After serving with Braddock at the Siege of Bergen op Zoom, Haytham saw the cruelty of the former Templar.

In 1753, Haytham kidnapped Lucio Albertine in Corsica to decipher his father's journal. Fighting the Assassin Miko, Haytham lost his family sword but gained Miko's hidden blade. In 1754, Haytham killed Miko at the Theatre Royal and took the Grand Temple Key on his body. Birch send Haytham to the Colonies to find the Grand Temple. With the help of others Templars and the Kanien'kehá:ka woman Kaniehtí:io, Haytham stoped the Braddock Expedition and mortally injured the former Templar. Kaniehtí:io show the Grand Temple enter but Haytham couldn't open it with the key. After this, Haytham founded the Colonial Rite of the Templar Order and began a relation with Kaniehtí:io.

Weeks later, Charles Lee gave to Haytham a letter of Jim Holden who informed him that they found the location of Jennifer. Lee also learned to Haytham that Braddock died from his wounds. Kaniehtí:io discovered that Haytham lied, ordered him to leave. Haytham left America, unknowingly Kaniehtí:io was pregnant of his son, Ratonhnhaké:ton.

In 1757, Haytham and Holden went to Constantinople to discovered that Jennifer was send to Qasr al-Azm in Damascus. Rescued her, they flew the palace but Holden was captured. Haytham saved Holden in Egypt, to the Abou Gerbe monastery on Mount Ghebel Eter, where he forcelly underwent a operation to become eunuch. Haytham burned the monastery. Afterwards, Jennifer revealed the truth about Edward's death. Then the sibbling and Holden attacked Birch's chateau in Troyes and killed Birch. After that, Haytham and Jennifer decided to remain in contact, Jennifer settled to the Kenway Mansion and Haytham returned to America.

In 1758, Haytham bought a plantation in Virginia to expand the Colonial Rite influence. With the former Assassin and Templar Shay Cormac, Haytham destroyed the Colonial Assassins and prvented them to find Seismic Temples. In 1760, Haytham crippled the Assassin Mentor Achilles Davenport to be sure he would never return on the field. In 1763, Haytham send a surprise attack on Davenport Homestead, killing the last Assassins but spared Achilles life.

In 1760, Ratonhnhaké:ton was assaulted by a group of Templars led by Charles Lee. Asking for a meeting with the Kanatahséton's leaders, the boy refused to give the village location. Knocked out, Ratonhnhaké:ton woke up to see his village burning by the British troops. His mother died in the flames. Beliving it's was the Templars, this traumatic event gave to Ratonhnhaké:ton a strong sens of justice for his people but also a burning desire to revenge. In 1769, with a Crystal Ball, Ratonhnhaké:ton came in contact with Juno, who asked him to join the Assassins to protect the Grand Temple and his land from the Templar. After a ruthless rejection, Ratonhnhaké:ton finally became an Assassin under the watch of Achilles and began to recruit new apprentices.

During the beginning of the American Revolution, Haytham with the Templars searched to transform the Colonies as a Templar's State, Ratonhnhaké:ton, who took the name of Connor, fought to decrease the Templar influence on the conflict. The action of the two factions led to a moore violent conflict. In 1776, Haytham ordered the assassination of George Washington to place Charles Lee as the Commander in chief of the Continental Army. Ratonhnhaké:ton tried to stop them but was captured and comdamned to death by Lee. During the execution Haytham decided to save his son by cutting the roap, which led to the assassination of the Templar Thomas Hickey.

In 1778, the Templar turncoat Benjamin Church stole supplies of the Continental Army. Ratonhnhaké:ton tracked Church and met his father who also wanted to kill the Templar. Together they decided to establish a truce between the Assassins and the Templars. The father and the son killed Church and found that the British would attack from New York. While Ratonhnhaké:ton wanted to give the information to Washington, Haytham wanted to speak to Lee. At Valley Forge, Haytham exposed to his son the truth around his mother death. Angered that his father hid this information, Ratonhnhaké:ton broke the ties with his father.

In 1781, Achilles died from illness, giving the Homestead to Ratonhnhaké:ton and the leadership of the Colonial Assassins. Ratonhnhaké:ton searched to infiltrate Fort George to kill Lee and to reason his father to left the Templar Order. Knowing his son would come, Haytham gave the Grand Temple Key to Lee and decided to fight his son. During the duel, Haytham knew he couldn't kill his own son and forced Ratonhnhaké:ton to kill him. In 1782, Ratonhnhaké:ton tracked down Lee, kill him and took the Grand Temple Key. Six months later, Ratonhnhaké:ton returned to his village where he entered in contact with Juno who ordered him to hide the key for someone. Ratonhnhaké:ton hid the artefact in the grave of his mentor's son, Connor Davenport. After the end of the war, Ratonhnhaké:ton decided to continue the Assassins' struggle for liberty.

In 1788, Jennifer received the visit of Élise de la Serre, a French Templar who searched Haytham Kenway's letters for the Carroll family. Jennifer agreed to gave the letters to Élise if she pursued the goal to end the war between the Assassins and the Templars. She also gave to the young Templar a Templar pendant, a gift she received from Haytham.

In 1805, Jennifer died in London and the Kenway Mansion was taken by the Templars.

Legacy
The actions of Kenway family impacted the Assassin-Templar War in many ways. The truce between Haytham and his son made the Grand Master beliving in a peace between the Assassins and the Templars. He wrote letters about his dream to his half-sister. After his death, Jennifer wanted to stop the conflict which killed his father and half-brother, then she gave the letters to Élise de la Serre to continue the peace with the Assassins. In 1794 after the death of Élise, her lover, Arno Dorian, inherited of Haytham's letters and promised to improve the peace between the two factions.

In 1868, with the clues left by Edward in his journal and his mansion, the British Assassin Evie Frye and the British Templars fought for the retrieve of the Shroud of Eden in London.

By reliving the memories of Haytham and his son, Desmond Miles, a descendant of Ratonhnhaké:ton, could reach the Key of the Grand Temple and sacrificed himself to save the world from the 2012 coronal mass ejection.

In 2013, Abstergo Entertainment used Edward memories through the Sample 17 Project to find the location of the Observatory and the corpse of Bartholomew Roberts. They used footage his memory to make a movie, Devils of the Caribbean annd a game, Pirates of Nightmares.

Members

 * Bernard Kenway
 * Linette Kenway
 * Edward Kenway
 * Caroline Scott-Kenway
 * Jennifer Scott
 * Tessa Kenway
 * Haytham Kenway
 * Ratonhnhaké:ton