Cygnus Betelgeuse Black I (3 Jun 1770 - 24 Apr 1853) was a pure-blood wizard, the son of Betelgeuse Black and his wife Adeliza Black (née Rosier), the brother of Adeliza II, Corvus, and Cetus IV. He was the husband of Aphra Black (née Lestrange), and the father of Misapinoa, Arcturus I, Cygnus II, and Eduardus Limette: whom he was forced to disown when it was discovered that Eduardus was a Squib. He attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry from 1781 to 1788 and was an esteemed member of Slytherin House.
He was a member of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, and served on the family seat in the Wizenagmot, to fulfill his duties as the Family Lord.
Biography
Early life
Early years (1770-1780)
Cygnus Black I was born on 3 June, 1770, in Black Manor, believed to be located somewhere near Tisbury in Wiltshire. He was the son of Betelgeuse Black and his wife Adeliza of the Noble and Ancient House of Rosier. As he was born two months prematurely and thought unlikely to survive, he was baptised the same day by Thomas Secker, a wizard, who was both Rector of St James's and Bishop of Oxford. One month later, he was publicly baptised again by Secker.
Cygnus grew into a healthy but reserved and shy child. The family moved to Grimmauld Place in Islington, London, where Cygnus and his younger brothers Corvus and Cetus (named for their paternal uncle) were educated together by private tutors. Family letters show that he could read and write in both English and French, as well as comment on political events of the time, by the age of eight. He had a younger sister, Adeliza, as well.
Hogwarts years (1781-1788)
Cygnus received an invitation to study at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the summer of 1781. Sometime before attending, it is likely that he purchased or inherited a wand from Ollivander's or the vaults of the House of Black.
On 1 September, 1781, Cygnus was sorted into Slytherin House, as was expected of all sons of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. Cygnus was a talented student, and quickly learned to master Transfiguration, Potions, and Charms.
Marriage (1805)
After the death of his father in 1799, he developed a friendly relationship with his mother's closest confidant, Lord Algernon Bute. He relied on Bute's advice in choosing a wife. In 1800, Cygnus was smitten with Lady Heloise McKinnon, who was a half-blood, and a sister of Barnabus McKinnon. Lord Bute advised against the match and Cygnus abandoned his thoughts of marriage. "I am born for the happiness or misery of a great House," he wrote, "and consequently must often act contrary to my passions."
In the year 1805, nearly five years after he was advised against marrying McKinnon, Cygnus set his sights on another young witch. She was four years his junior and still woefully unmarried, or so she thought at the time, and a member of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Lestrange. They married in a lavish ceremony in Wiltshire, afterwards, Aphra Margravine Lestrange quickly became one of the richest witches in Great Britain.
Later life (1806-1853)
Cygnus and Aphra welcomed a daughter on 14 June, 1806, and they christened her Misapinoa. Four years later, on 13 January, 1810, they were blessed with a son, Cygnus Black II. A second son followed in September of 1814, Arcturus. All three of them went on to attend Hogwarts and were Slytherins. However, the couple's fourth child, Eduardus Limette Black (born 6 November, 1820), was a Squib and was disowned, obliviated, and sent to live in a muggle orphanage at the age of eleven in 1832. Black himself thought that it was to be kinder for his son to be sent away: as ashamed as he was for fathering a Squib, he thought it better for Eduardus to be with his own kind.
Cygnus inherited the bulk of his brother Corvus's estate upon his death in 1848, as his brother had a lack of legitimate issue and never married. He buried his brother on the grounds of the new home he had built, and began to use the house as a summer leisure residence, the first of the Black family to do so.
Widowhood (1849-1853)
- "Darling Aphra, she has left me, yes forever more. But I hope to meet my loved one on that bright and happy shore"
- —Cygnus's composition of the epitaph for his wife, Aphra, 1849
In 1849, Cygnus's wife, Aphra, died of a cough. He wrote a memorializing poem which he left on her gravestone, and buried her beside his brother on the grounds of his brother Corvus's estate, which he had inherited after his death in 1848. In doing so, Cygnus became the founder of Blackmere Cemetery at Blackmere House, where the House of Black would continue to occasionally bury their family members by the sea.
Death (1853)
Cygnus Black I died on 24 December, 1853, of Dragon Pox, aged 83. Six days later, his eldest grandson, Sirius Black I, also passed away due to the disease, which ran rampant in the 1850s. Sirius was eight years old.
Post-mortem
The estate was willed to Cygnus's eldest son, Cygnus Black II, who died six years later, in 1859, leaving everything to Cygnus I's oldest-surviving grandson, Phineas Nigellus Black I (1847 - 1925). Phineas Nigellus was twelve years old at the time, and the Wizenagmot seat was briefly held by Augustus Murray, Lord Arden, in proxy. The seat reverted back to Phineas Nigellus when he reached his majority.
Etymology
Cygnus means "swan" and is also the name of a constellation in the Northern Hemisphere near Lacerta and Lyra, containing the star Deneb. Also called "Northern Cross" and "Swan," the name Cygnus has been used multiple times by members of the Black family.