Both are autonomous parts of their respective countries.
Friesland is akin to Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten, being a constitutent country (in specific the Grand Duchy of Friesland) of the Kingdom of the Netherlands since the 1980s. It is basically its own small state, which only has its military and foreign policy directly controlled by the Dutch Government (and also enters any nation-spanning project, like the Damming of of the Zuiderzee and the Waddenzee); the heir to the Dutch Throne also serves as its official "Stadtholder", as a training for becoming the monarch
Norrland is a similar situation, although in this case, instead of it being caused by developments over the years, it was caused by the Scandinavian War of the 1970s. You see, ITTL Sweden goes down a semi-fascist development in the mid-20th century, and it results on a dramatic but in the end failed attempt at centralizing the government, which only resulted on a semi-civil war in Sweden and a general war against the Nordic Federation. As a result of said war, Sweden lost Jämtland and Härjedalen; got its government overhawled and decentralized; and saw Norrland (which in this case doesn't entirely follow the Historical Lands of Sweden, instead being the provinces north of Medelpad) become a de facto independent nation within Sweden, with it only following Stockholm's weak grip in relation to foreign relations. Norrland nominally is still ruled by the Swedish Monarch, but de facto is a crowned republic, with the Grand Duke of Norrland (a member of the Swedish Royal Family who "became native") being the nominal "Viceroy" of Norrland but the region de facto being a semi-parliamentary semi-direct republic
Thats a typo, Margaret's eldest son, Pedro, was meant to be the King of Acre (I actually confused quite a bit in relation to those kingdom's during the making of Margaret's "biography", Acre was meant to be an autonomous kingdom within Brazil since the 1900s, ruled by her eldest son, while Equador was to go to one of his children, since Margaret's youngest son died at the age of 17 during the Brazilian Civil War)
The Two Sicilies became the Three Sicilies during the aftermath of the Second World War, when the country officially elevated its only colony, Croumier (officially called Sicilian Africa until the 1940s), to the rank of a constituent part. Until 1977 the country's name was still "Two Sicilies", but developments both in the society and government caused the country to be renamed to "Three Sicilies" to include a direct reference to its third and most recent part
Dear, if you don't know why do you think I do? (just kidding)
To do a simple explanation (because if I actually tried to explain it in detail I'd probably just end up with a new update), French Guiana (which calls itself the "Fourth French Republic") was the sole colony of France in the aftermath of WWI to not be either annexed or made independent due to being a protectorate. Instead, it became a rump successor of the Third French Republic, later ruled by President-Marshal de Gaulle for much of the 20th century. The country actually was pretty good under de Gaulle, who ended up a unlikely but suprisignly dedicate member of the Axis Powers during WWII, but after the death of his successor in the 1990s the country fell into a civil war.
Although it may not look like that, French Guiana is actually a pretty chill place, the civil war in of itself run hot through the 1990s and 2000s (and even then it was often more a war of skirmishes and cloak-and-dagger stuff), but now the three main sides of the conflict are basically under an uneasy but manageable peace after being exhausted by war and pressured by their neighbors (the light greeen part is where powers are small and too patchworky). Political and military analists often have a betting pool over what will be the final shape of French Guiana, some of the most popular options are:
A) Feudal confederacy (whcih is sort of the current status)
B) Triarchy established by the three main sides of the conflict
C) Autonomous annexation by Brazil
That is the result of me thinking on adding small fictional states to the TL's Europe as a mostly unrelated but still there flare.
I made a world map with them, and updated the first post to have it, but then got uncertain about my idea and haven't yet made up my mind.
Actually, since I'm speaking of it: I'm wracking my mind thinking if I should or should not have this fiction-based/inspired microstates in Europe or not. There are three options (also, on the case of answering the simple "no" or the simply "yes", please feel free to comment why you choose said option, so I can have some feedback on that matter) The Poll I made for this (I'm going to take note on it until October 15th)
Ecuador (or, as it is ITTL most commonly known internationaly, Equador), was one of the only South-American country to be an ally of Brazil during WWI, but it was ravaged by the war in an impressively high level, to the point that the entire country was seen as a no-mans land at some times.
Seeing an opportunity (as it would officially give Brazil an access to the Pacific) but also feeling a bit obliged (since Equador went that way in great part due to standing by the side of her country), Empress Victoria offered, during the peace treaties finishing the war, to annex Equador as an autonomous kingdom (having already done so to Acre and planning to do so to Entrerrios and Uruguay). Seeing how they didn't have much options (and Equador was entering a civil war of sorts), the Equadorian representatives accepted the offer, and so the independent republic that had lasted since the 1830 became a autonomous kingdom of Brazil in 1922
I'm not entirely sure (since I didn't make a list of rulers of the Beaver Islands outside of their names and reigns) but outside of distant relations (like marrying heiresses who are distantly descended from medieval royalty or something like that) I don't think so
Couto Misto is a case of the Treaty of Lisbon resulting on a different compromise between Portugal and Spain (on the grand old history of "both sides hate it, so its good" compromises) in relation to the microstate. Due to some pre-1819 changes on their history (including Infante Pedro Carlos of Spain and Portugal not dying in 1812 and his wife (and maternal first cousin and paternal first cousin once removed), Maria Teresa, not remarrying to the Count of Molina), the member of the House of Bourbon-Braganza are much closer to both the Spanish Bourbons and the Portuguese Braganzas, with the first "Prince of the Couto Misto", Sebastian I (Pedro Carlos and Maria Teresa's only son), being Queen Isabella II of Spain's ITTL father-in-law (through his only son of his first marriage) and Queen Maria II of Portugal's son-in-law (through his second marriage to her ITTL eldest daughter)
Although Friederike IV was the "King of Prussia" (since she was legally a man), she wanted her husband to have a high title withouth it being above her's, so she gave the title of "King of Prussia" to Wilhelm III (who was her male-line cousin through Wolfgang II) as the highest title bellow her own
I sort-of tried to show that with how Wilhelm III is written on the infobox for Wolfgang III, as the way I wrote was meant to present "King of Prussia" as a literal title and not him actually being the ruler of Prussia (in which case it would have been "Wilhelm III of Prussia"
The Saxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koharys of Peru are descended from Prince Ludwig August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (his father being Prince August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the second son of Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Saalfeld, who founded the House of Gotha-Kohary).
Just like OTL, Ludwig married Princess Leopoldina of Brazil (youngest daughter of Pedro II), meaning also that, through marriage, he was the brother-in-law of his second cousin, Margaret (Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Saalfeld was the sibling right in between Erns I of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and the Duchess of Kent)
It's interesting you ask that, I'm currently on the imperial kingdoms' update (took waaaay longer than I expected) and there you'll see a bit more about Lower Burma and Edwards VII to IX
The Crimea is a bit like an annexation that never reached its end. De jure most of the peninsula is a part of the Second Crimean Republic, which is a protectorate of Russia, but de facto said republic is a city state aligned with Russia centered in Sevastopol, while Russia herself has been controlling the Crimean peninsula for the better part of 50 years.
The situation, all things considered, is surprisingly stable, and even the Crimean government gets a bit baffled over the fact that they haven't yet proposed to become an autonomous state within Russia and make what is already the reality a fact (Russia doesn't push the matter either since its relationship with Crimea and Sevastopol isn't a bad or hindering one)
I originally though Haakon VII had died, but now that you asked I'm pretty sure he abdicated (this is not meant as a joke, BTW, I sincerely just changed my mind after giving a second consideration, Haakon VII suffered a traumatic train accident ITTL that left him in a years-long coma, his wife, who became regent, saw the chances of the king waking up as slim, and so abdicated in his name so as to prevent a constitutional crisis)
ITTL the Hanoverian monarchy was never dissolved, as unlike OTL the War of 1866 saw the defeated states that in OTL were annexed be all entered into the Northern German Confederation and de facto turned into extensions of Prussia, the only one who actually was annexed was the Free City of Frankfurt.
The Corsican Royal Family is descended from Lucien Bonaparte, Prince of Canino and Musignano, Napoleon's eldest younger brother. They in specific descend from Napoléon Charles Bonaparte, 5th Prince of Canino (Lucien's grandson by his eldest son, who married Joseph Bonaparte's eldest surviving daughter)
In relation to how Patagonia became an elective monarchy, this is brought by the fact that the kingdom is the result of a much more successful Kingdom of Araucania and Patagonia, and, much like in OTL, said kingdom was an elective monarch, with the sole "king" of Araucania, Aurelio Antonio I, being elected "Great Toqui, Supreme Chieftain of the Mapuches" by a group of Mapuche tribal leaders. Even after the kingdom got off the ground and gained Albish recognition and support, the elective monarchy aspect has remained, even if it changed drastically over the years.
In relation to who can be elected, originally there was no set rules for who could or could-not be elected monarch, Aurelio Antonio I himself was a French lawyer before coming to Araucania after reading an 16th-century epic about the Spanish Conquest of Chile, and was elected by a group of Mapuche rulers due to them possibly believing their cause might be better received with an European on its helm. After Aurelio Antonio I died in 1898, the kingdom saw nearly 3 decades of uncertainty in relation to how to choose a new ruler.
Only in the late 1920s that a new king was chosen, when a member of the House of Battenberg, Enrique I (in specific one of the grandsons of Princess Beatrice through the Earl of Arklow), became king after spending the later 1910s and the 1920s as the de facto leader of the Albish military in Patagonia and later the de facto head of the kingdom. During his reign, he established that a new monarch was to be elected among his descendants, establishing a precedent that has remained in place ever since.
Finally, in relation to who can vote on the position. The original election of Aurelio Antonio I saw a group of about 20 Mapuche loncos, and there wasn't much else to that. With his election (which was more of a formality), Enrique I established that the people who could be involved in the election were:
- The hereditary rulers of the kingdom's provinces (Patagonia's provinces are also a weird bunch)
- A group of 18 loncos/high-ranking chieftains/officials/noblement
- A group of 5 high-ranking members of the Royal Family
(in the case of a tie, as the number of electors is even, the Albish Monarch is the one to come and end the standstill
It's interesting you ask that, I'm currently on the imperial kingdoms' update (took waaaay longer than I expected) and there you'll see a bit more about Lower Burma and Edwards VII to IX
I asked that because in Emperor Leonard’s infobox, it says that one of his sons become King of Lower Burma, which doesn’t make sense if it already has a monarchy. So he marry into them?
I asked that because in Emperor Leonard’s infobox, it says that one of his sons become King of Lower Burma, which doesn’t make sense if it already has a monarchy. So he marry into them?
Oh, I got it.
I think you mixed up Emperor Leonard with Leonard of the Carnatic. The emperor doesn't have any children involved with Burma in general, but the king has a son who marries Queen Phayalat of Upper Burma
Ok, this one I haven't done an deep-dive into how things work there but how it came to be is a part I already did (the idea of Italy colonizing the Northwest of New Guinea, though, came from the "Of Rajahs and Hornbills" TL by @Al-numbers):
ITTL Savoy Italy manages to establish a colony in New Guinea during the 1870s, which later becomes the most important colony of the Italian "Empire", due to its large size (compared to their other ITTL territories) and mostly untapped resources and potential.
Ironically Italy ends up being the one (among the colonial powers in New Guinea) to have the largest initial investment to develop its colony, when originally the plan was both to colonize for prestige reasons and to extract resources. Interestingly (and possibly a bit ironically), Italy also ends up being the first one to begin a settlement-style colony (and invest quite heavily in catequizing), supporting the immigration of unmarried young individuals to Italian Papua (as it was called) where they mainly marry locals, resulting on the colony, by the time of WWI, being a rather developed territory inhabited mainly by native peoples and a new biraccial population (which inhabits most of the coastlines).
Now, how the modern kingdom came to be is a direct result of WWI.
With the war's end, the Hapsburgs officially annexed Italian Papua as a part of the UHE's empire, but due to the development of the colony they end up seeing it as being impossible to be a direct territory of the UHE, and instead make a member of the Hapsburg Dynasty (one of the teenager sons of Archduchess Maria Valerie with Archduke Franz Salvador of Austria-Tuscany), who "coincidentaly" has just married to one of the daughters of Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, into the King of Papua, establishing a new autonomous state within the UHE that later becomes independent with the end of the Hapsburgs East Indies.
Well, that depends. If I post all of the thing together I hope to do so by the end of next week, if I do it in parts then I could post something today.
I technically already finished the imperial kingdoms (they aren't as detailed of posts as my country infoboxes) but then I decided to make an infobox and write-up about each of the current monarchs of the imperial kingdoms, and that's what is taking most of my time at the moment.
Well, that depends. If I post all of the thing together I hope to do so by the end of next week, if I do it in parts then I could post something today.
I technically already finished the imperial kingdoms (they aren't as detailed of posts as my country infoboxes) but then I decided to make an infobox and write-up about each of the current monarchs of the imperial kingdoms, and that's what is taking most of my time at the moment.
Well, I listed them in chronological order on the Word Document of this TL, so I'm thinking about dividing by the date of the kingdom's establishment/the monarch that created the kingdom
Well, I listed them in chronological order on the Word Document of this TL, so I'm thinking about dividing by the date of the kingdom's establishment/the monarch that created the kingdom
So, @TheBeanieBaron, I followed your advice, and here is the first (of possibly three) posts listing the imperial kingdoms, showing the 10 that matter of the 11 created by Empress Victoria.
The Imperial Kingdoms, of the Creation of Empress Victoria
Note I: I’ll admit that initially I planned on having a Wikipedia box for every one of the kingdoms, but then I noticed that if I did that I would probably only post this update months from now or would end up losing the will to do this TL. So instead I’m placing the data usually on those boxes on the segments for each kingdom and later I’ll try and make the boxes to replace them Note II: Just as a heads-up, many of the monarchs presented should have their name in other languages as well as their English iteration, many should have their religions specified, and at least half of them should also have a military career shown, but I forgot about both until it was too late (at least for me) to add them
Established a total of 22 times by the empresses and emperors of Albion between 1880 and 2015 (and serving as an inspiration for similar states within other powers like Japan, Russia, Germany and the UHE), the kingdoms are a somewhat[1] unique creation of Albion firstly presented on the Statute of Windsor in 1878, when the monarch was recognized the right to “grant at his or her pleasure domains and titles carved out of their realms beyond to sea, to whomever they should wish” (although an unspoken agreement was made that said “whomever” referred only to relatives of the monarch, preferably close ones, and that most of the carving would be done before any granting), creating what was in essence continuations of past colonies now under the rule of hereditary “local” monarchs in a plan of the government to use of the Royal Family’s own charisma to deal with more unruly or tense territories.
In modern times divided between the kingdoms in Bharat and Albion (while Oregon is no longer considered a part of the category after becoming a member of the Commonwealth), who respectively hold 8 and 13 of them[2].
As per the precedent established by George V of Bengal, the imperial kingdoms retroactively consider all monarchs of Britain, England, Scotland or Ireland[3] as being their predecessors up to said imperial kingdom’s establishment. Traditionally monarchs whose names ruled after the Union of Crowns will simply place themselves as the latest on the line (Like James VIII of Kiribati), while monarchs whose names came before that will add the numbers from all kingdoms before placing themselves at the latest (like Edward X of Lower Burma). Depending on the region they may also recognize rulers of previous iterations of the kingdom (like Cyprus) and/or recognize heirs after 1603 who while parents of monarchs never inherited their thrones.
It also needs to be clarified that any and all royal dukes made monarchs had their peerages absorbed back by the Crown; and imperial kingdoms whose founding monarch is still on the throne will show said monarch’s entire offspring instead of only the highest-ranked positions on its succession. Co-monarchs will be shown in italic and unless stated as being otherwise the succession of a monarch is from parent to child
[1] When the idea was first proposed by Empress Victoria during talks to Prime Ministers Disraeli and Gladstone in 1875, she explained that it was in part inspired by the historical examples of granting “fringe” territories to family branches, like the Bourbons with the Three Sicilies or the Hapsburgs with Tuscany
[2] When the division of the Bharati and Albish Crowns occurred the numbers where 8 in Bharat and 5 in Albion
[3] In specific the historical High Kings of Ireland, from the 9th to the 12th centuries. It depends on the kingdom if only the exact Gaelic name counts or if the anglicized version is valid
BENGAL (বেঙ্গল এবং বিহারের কিংডম)
Officially the Imperial United Kingdom of Bengal and Bihar
Capital at the City of Calcutta, also the kingdom’s largest city, with a population of nearly 8 million inhabitants
The kingdom has Bengali, English and Sanskrit as its official languages, it also recognizes a total of 42 regional languages
It has a population of 326 million inhabitants, which are mainly ethnic Bengalis and are divided between 48%Muslim, 36% Hindu, and around 16% of other religions, mainly Hindu-Anglicanism, Buddhism, Jainism and Catholicism
Bengal is an executive monarchy in the Westminster Style, with its monarch having considerable executive powers while the legislative and judicial powers are held by the Parliament of Bengal and the High Court of Bengal
Bengal was established on September 20th, 1880, as the first ever imperial kingdom. Its first monarch, the second son of Empress Victoria, was beforehand the Duke of York and Albany, having been created as such in 1866 The Monarchs’ List
1880-1910: George V (b.1884:d.1910), born Prince George Ernst of the United Kingdom, and of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha 1910-1926: George VI Vincent (b.1867:d.1926) born Prince George Vincent of York and Albany 1926-1934: Elizabeth II (b.1895:d.1934) 1934-1970: Elizabeth III (b.1915:d.1970) George VII (b.1910:d.1967), ruled from marriage in 1938 until his death[1] 1970-2018: George VIII Valentine (b.1938:d.2018) 2018-: George IX Victor (b.1995) Heir apparent; George Bhashkar, Crown Prince of Bengal and Nawab of Orissa (b.2017) son of George IX 2. Princess Maud Kasturi of Bengal (b.2018) daughter of George IX 3. Princess Elizabeth Falguni of Bengal (b.2019) daughter of George IX 4. Princess Margaret of Bengal, Princess-Abbess of Kolkata (b.1960) half-sister of George IX, a catholic nun 5. Princess Adelaide of Bengal, Begum of Murshidabad (b.1944) aunt of George IX
[1] Born Prince George Edward of Albion, son of Emperor Henry
George IX Victor (George Victor Indrashis Matthew Bitan; born 4 June 1995) is the current King of Bengal and Bihar, ascending as the 7th monarch of Bengal and Bihar on April 17th, 2018, upon the death of his father, George VIII.
The only son and child of George VIII of Bengal by his second wife, Lady Vrishti FitzRoy-Windsor, who had been his mistress since 1956, George IX was born only four months after his parents’ marriage, which was motivated by his impending birth and in part by the recent entrance of Princess Margaret of Bengal’s to a convent. Born after a pregnancy of great risk, the king is another one on the long history of Victorian Hemophiliacs[1] among Windsor dynasts, in his case caused by genetic mutations on his mother’s gametes due to her age (the Queen Mother of Bengal being 64 at the time of the birth).
Heir apparent from birth, being the first surviving son and second surviving child of his father, and from an early age showing promise in his aptitude to the position, George IX actually became the ruler of Bengal 8 years before his inheritance, being made co-Regent with his mother and supported by his half-sister in 2010, when the rapid onset of dementia on his father made the late king incapable of continuing his duties.
Sole regent from 2013, when he reached majority, until his father’s death in 2018, George IX Victor has mostly been a competed, if perhaps rather uninspired, ruler, with his rule and reign being marked by the finishing of George VIII’s decades-long cleaning of the Ganges and by the nearly total restructuring of Calcutta’s West End[2], a project planned by his father and his half-sister[3] but started during his time as regent in 2016, being as of 2020 underway, with the main parts of the project expected to be finished by 2022[4]
Married in 2015 to his girlfriend of six years (and distant cousin), Princess Gayatri Devi of Koch Bihar, George IX Victor currently has three children, a son and two daughters, and the royal couple is currently expecting triplets
[1] Another name used for type-2 hemophilia, or Hemophilia B, which was first officially discovered among the descendants of Empress Victoria in the 1940s, although it was already a known fact that the hemophilia inherited through her line was remarkably worse than the more common type of the disease
[2] The OTL City of Howrah and the Kolkata Port Constituency, which with the industrialization of Bengal became a center for both slums and industry in Calcutta, with the slums then being replaced mainly by council houses after the Second World War, much of the restructuring was focused on that, seeing as how bad projecting and designing mixed with the decay of the years made them the poster child of urban decay on Bengal and much of Bharat
[3] Before becoming a nun, Princess Margaret of Bengal was an architect and an urban planner, and in great part decided to enter a religious order as a way of getting into the network of charity and social projects of the Catholic Church in Bengal (as her asexuality made her not be bothered by the chastity vows in the least), when George VIII begun his restructuring project, he knew she would be on board for that, and so invited her to help plan and design it (she even brought religious orders in, with the project being sort-of comically famous for the fact that there were buff nuns helping with building and demolishing things
[4] The project is in specific based around first demolishing the most decayed parts of the West End (which are often the most uninhabited) and rebuilding them (mainly on a “Nouvelle Belle Époque” style), expanding from there and shuffling the local inhabitants around (since most of the “council buildings” of the region are government-owned) so as to not leave people homeless while they are on the demolish and rebuild stages. Many have either called it the most ambitious or the most foolish housing and urban planning project ever seen in Albion (this was in part inspired by Brazil’s OTL urban reforms during the Belle Époque, only without simply forcing people out of the slums into even worse slums)
============================================================================== MAHARASHTRA (महाराष्ट्राचे राज्य)
Officially the Kingdom of the Maharashtra, being until 1949 the Kingdom of Bombay
Capital in the City and Island of Bombay, also the kingdom’s largest city, with a population of 12.5 million inhabitants
The kingdom has Marathi, English and Sanskrit as its official languages, it also recognizes 5 regional languages
The kingdom has a total population of 84 million inhabitants, which are divided among ethnic Marathas (which make the majority at around 80%) and over a dozen ethnic majorities, with Kannada, European, Konkani and Urdu ethnic groups making together about 18% of the population. Religiously the kingdom is majority Hindu, who make about 71% of the population, and has comprehensive Christian (mainly Hindu-Anglican), Muslim and Jain minorities, making 13%, 10% and 5% of the population respectively
Maharashtra is an executive monarchy in the Westminster Style as well as a bureaucratic state, with its monarch holding the executive power and having an overarching power over the legislative judiciary branches[1] while the bureaucracy of the country holds a considerable amount of power on both of said branches, with the Parliament of Bombay and the Marathi High Court having only partial control over the legislative and judiciary powers
Maharashtra was established on September 20th, 1880, as the second imperial kingdom. Its first monarch, the third son of Empress Victoria, was beforehand the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, having been created as such in 1879, and was also the first Lord of Kafiristan, which remained under a personal union with Maharashtra from 1882 to 1975 The Monarchs’ List
1880-1932: Victor I (b.1849:d.1938), born Prince Victor Alfred of the United Kingdom and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, abdicated 1932-1969: Albert Edward (b.1919:d.1969), son of Arthur, Crown Prince of Bombay and Kafiristan 1969-1975: Victor II (b.1940:d.1975), last Lord of Kafiristan to also be the ruler of Maharashtra 1975-2003: Rajaram (b.1944:d.2003), brother of Victor II, born Prince Henry Gustav Rajaram of Maharashtra and Kafiristan[2] 2003-: Tarabai (b:1960), illegitimate daughter of Rajaram, legitimized in 1969 Heir apparent: Rajaram, Crown Prince of Maharashtra and Prince of the Seven Islands (b.1983) son of Tarabai 2. Prince Ravi Shekhar of Maharashtra (b.2005) son of Rajaram 3. Princess Jayanti of Maharashtra (b.2009) daughter of Rajaram 4. Prince Roshan of Maharashtra (b.2010) son of Rajaram 5. Prince Anjaneya of Maharashtra (b.2015) son of Rajaram
[1] Similar to the Brazilian Moderator Power
[2] Stepped down from inheriting the throne of Kafiristan, which was inherited by his youngest brother, George (b.1952)
Tarabai (Tarabai Apoorva Kishori Elinor; born 28 February 1960) is the current monarch of Maharashtra, ascending as the kingdom’s 5th ruler and first queen regnant upon her father’s death in September 9th, 2003.
Born illegitimate in 1960 during the reign of her grandfather, Tarabai has remarked that her childhood was rather an uninspiring and sheltered one, often self-mockingly joking about what she considered “naughty” and “thrilling” during her youth[1]. Her parent’s eldest child, Tarabai was 9 and already had 4 younger siblings when they married, having been forced to do so by her grandfather, who also retroactively recognized his son’s offspring as legitimate. She is a known smoker since her youth, and is often seen with a cigarette
Considered the unofficial heir of Maharashtra long before she was made such in 1980[2], in part due to her uncle, King Victor II,’s sterility, and in part due to her younger brother’s perceived incapacity to inherit the throne[2], Tarabai has answered many interviews on the subject of her training for the position, going in depth about the pressure and challenges she went through during that time.
Married in 1980 to the Prince Shivaji of Kolhapur, a descendant of the rulers of the Maratha Confederacy and her maternal cousin, Tarabai and him have become famous for their closeness, which some commentators have called “a sickeningly sweet affair”, with her own father once saying that it was like they “never left the honeymoon stage”
Made the First Minister of Maharashtra in 1990, having already served as her father’s assistant since 1985, Tarabai became then the de facto deputy ruler of Maharashtra, a position that rose de facto ruler as the decade went on and King Rajaram’s known weak health decayed steadily. She became Regent in 1999, and begun that same year the “Shadow CIty Project”, turning Bombay’s infamous seaborne slums[3] into an artificial island on Front Bay
Officially made Queen when king Rajaram died from a general systems failure in 2003, Tarabai has been a ruler whose reign has been an overall prosperous one, if marked by sorrowful and unfortunate events, like the 2008 and 2013 Cyclone and Monsoon seasons, Maharashtra’s de facto war with Rajputana during the 2010s, and her own long fight against cancer, which lasted for most of the 2000s and 2010s
Tarabai is also the most recent monarch of an imperial kingdom to have had to deal with an attempted coup d’état, with the aggravator of having to do so while recovering from a hysterectomy, quashing an attempted putsch in 2016
[1] She told a reporter once that she, from the ages of 11 to 18, thought, without an ounce of irony, that running through a field of wheat whose owner she did not know with her siblings would be the most thrilling experience in her life
[2] Of Tarabai’s three younger brothers, the eldest, Prince Alfred, one year her junior, was born with developmental problems, while the younger two, the twin princes Albert and Victor, were born congenitally blind. Although not officially, that was considered by most to de facto exclude them from any chances of inheriting the throne of Maharashtra, if not through law through force later on
[3] Called “Plankytown”
============================================================================== CYPRUS (βασίλειο της Κύπρου/مملكة قبرص)
Officially the Serene Kingdom of Cyprus
Capital in the City of Nicosia, also the kingdom’s largest city, with a population of 315 thousand inhabitants
The kingdom has Greek, Turkish, Armenian, Arabic, Aramaic and English as its official languages[1]
The kingdom has a total population of 2.8 million inhabitants, which are comprised mainly of Greek Cypriots, who make about 75% of the population, and Turkish Cypriots, who make 16% of the population, while the remainder is mainly comprised of Cypriot Armenians, Maronites and Assyrians, who together make about 7% of the population. The kingdom follows mostly ethnic lines in relation to religion, with most Greek Cypriots being Orthodox Christians, Turkish Cypriots being Sunni Muslim, and the Armenians, Maronites and Assyrians all mostly being of their personal branches of Christianity
Cyprus is a semi-executive monarchy in the Westminster Style, with its monarch holding the executive power but sharing it with his two Chief Ministers, while the Cypriot Parliament and High Court of Nicosia hold the legislative and judiciary powers
Cyprus was established on October 31st, 1880, as the third imperial kingdom. Its first monarch, a son of Empress Elizabeth of the Hapsburgs, was the first grandchild of Empress Victoria to be granted a kingdom. Unlike the other imperial kingdoms, it was nominally a part of another nation, in specific the Ottoman Empire[2], from 1880 to 1926, with its monarch being officially the Khedive of Cyprus until officially declaring independence with the collapse of the Ottomans
Unlike most other imperial kingdoms, Cyprus recognizes the Crusader Kingdom of Cyprus, which held the island from 1992 to 1489, as a direct predecessor, with its monarchy identifying itself as the official direct successor of the Lusignan Dynasty[3] and including them when counting the monarchs of Cyprus The Monarchs’ List
1880-1921: Alexander IV (b.1866:d.1921), born Archduke Franz Alexander of Austria, Prince of Hungary and Bohemia, etc. 1921-1940: Alexander V (b.1885:d.1940), last Ottoman Khedive of Cyprus from 1921 to 1926 1940-1953: Janus II (b.1918:d.1953) 1953-1976: Alexander VI (b.1941:d.1976) 1976-1992: Constantine IV (b.1960:d.1992) 1992-: Alexander VII (b.1990) Heir apparent: Janus, Crown Prince of Cyprus, Archduke of Morphou, Duke of Thouars (b.2013) son of Alexander VII 2. Archduke Constantine of Cyprus (b.2016) son of Alexander VII 3. Archduke Maurice of Cyprus, Duke of Larnaca (b.1992) son of Constantine IV 4. Archduke Michael of Larnaca (b.2008) son of the Duke of Larnaca 5. Archduchess Olga of Cyprus (b.1993) daughter of Constantine IV, born Archduke Constantine of Cyprus
[1] All of them being in specific the local dialects of said languages, with Cypriot Greek, Turkish and Arabic being the most different from the “mainstream” of their respective languages
[2] Although Cyprus had become de facto a part of the Albish Empire in 1878 with the Congress of Berlin, it officially was still a part of the Ottoman Empire until said empire’s collapse in the 1920s
[3] The Cypriot Hapsburgs in specific consider themselves the seniormost heirs of the Cypriot House of Poitiers-Lusignan (and through them a variety of claims to Crusader titles) through the wife of Alexander IV, Princess Louise Charlotte Marie de La Trémoille, 10th Duchess of Thouars (1863-1925), who was the seniormost living descendant of Anne of Cyprus (1418-1462), daughter of King Janus I and wife of Louis I of Savoy, through all her lines, being Anne’s descendant by 14 generations through the eldest daughter (Anne of Savoy, wife of Frederick IV of Naples) of her eldest son (Amadeus IX of Savoy)
Alexander VII (Alexander Julius Augustine Michael Philip Arcturus Louis Thomas Gustav Maximillian Maria Joseph; born 11 May 1990) is the sixth and current monarch of Cyprus, ascending to the throne with the death of his father in April 26th, 1992.
Born the first son and eldest child of Constantine IV of Cyprus, Alexander VII wasn’t even two when his parents died on a freak accident[1] and he became king, being the youngest person ever to inherit the throne of an imperial kingdom. Due to his extremely young age, Alexander’s paternal grandmother, the formidable Queen Augusta, became Regent for the second time[2], serving on the position until he was declared of age in 2006.
A Victorian Hemophiliac[3], Alexander VII was raised in a rather secluded lifestyle mainly at the Royal Palaces of Nicosia and Haspolat, which resulted on him becoming infamous through the Cypriot capital for his escapades as a teenager[4]. He, besides being groomed for his position, was schooled by tutors with his siblings, with the king being remarked for both his intelligence and thrive and for his somewhat childishly naïve and impulsive nature.
The 1990s and 2000s in Cyprus were marked by the Troubles[5], caused in great part by a dramatic downturn of the Cypriot economy, which saw the explosion of ethnic and social tensions in the kingdom, with their height during the early 2000s being marked as being de facto a civil war. In 2004 Alexander VII nearly became another casualty in them, being kidnapped by socialist insurrectionists and nearly dying from his injuries, saved only by a well-timed rescue.
Declared as having reached majority in 2006, at the age of 16, Alexander VII’s early direct rule was marked by the constant presence of his grandmother, who remained over his shoulder until 2009, and for the “end” of the Troubles with the entrance of the Albish Army in suppressing the insurrections, which had remained even after the Cypriot economy started to recover.
The 2010s have, in turn, been marked mainly by the aftermath of the Troubles, which although militarily ended by 2010 have causes still present in Cyprus and have left scars across the kingdom, with the Cypriot government being focused on both societal, infrastructural and internal reforms in an effort to recover. The kingdom has seen a growth in the economy, with the end of the Troubles and large investments causing a dramatic revitalization of the tourism and services industries.
Married in 2010 to his cousin, Princess Maria Clytemnestra of Pontus[6], after dating since 2004, the two have two sons together, their youngest causing the queen to have to go through an emergency hysterectomy. Although not officially, the couple has been, also since 2004, together with Artem Kadis, a mathematician
[1] Constantine IV of Cyprus and Queen Maria Erigone died when, during a surprise feast on the gardens of the Royal Palace of Nicosia to commemorate their wedding anniversary, they were thanking friends and relatives and kissed, just when the microphone they were holding suffered a short circuit and electrocuted both. The king died almost immediately, but the pregnant queen survived long enough to be brought to an ambulance before entering a short-lived vegetative state, with Archduke Michael of Cyprus being born hours after both of his parents were dead
[2] Augusta also served as Regent of Cyprus for her husband and then her son, from 1966 to 1982
[3] In a unique turn of events, both of his parents were hemophiliacs, with all of their children being hemophiliacs as well, with Archduchess Maria Augusta being marked for having the genes for both type-1 and type-2 hemophilia
[4] One of the more interesting factoid about said escapades being Alexander VII’s involvement with the more unsavory parts of Nicosia, befriending and later “converting” entire street gangs
[5] Not to be confused with the other historical periods called “Troubles”
[6] Daughter of Princess Maria Adriana of Lebanon (older half-sister of Maria Erigone) and Prince Serafeim of Pontus, she is known for her social works in the help of fire and disfiguration victims, having survived having 65% of her body burned in a hiking trip in 2006 and suffering from a dramatic abuse by the press and “critics” due to her disfiguration (one especially hurtful tabloid went as far as calling her “Queen Jerky”). She is also the first queen consort to have a master’s degree, having firstly completed a Bachelor of Engineering/Science in 2010 and in 2018 completing a Master of Engineering (Mining)
============================================================================== CARNATIC (கர்நாடக இராச்சியம்/కర్నాటక రాజ్యం)
Officially the Kingdom of the Carnatic
Capital in the Port of Madras (or Chennai), also the kingdom’s largest city, with a population of 7 million inhabitants
The kingdom has Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, English and Sanskrit as its official languages, it also recognizes 15 regional languages
The kingdom has a total population of 78 million inhabitants, of whom a majority (at nearly 80%) are ethnic Tamils, with ethnic Telugus being the largest minority (at around 14%), while those of European Ancestry make about 2.5% of the population. The kingdom is majority Hindu in relation to religion, at 77%, while Christians, at 11%, and Muslism, at 7%, are the largest minorities
The Carnatic is a parliamentary monarchy, with the monarch delegating most of their executive powers to their Private Secretary and intervening only when necessary, while the legislative and judiciary are held by the Parliament of the Carnatic and the Royal Court of the Carnatic
The Carnatic was established on September 20th, 1888, as the fifth[1] imperial kingdom. Its first monarch, the fourth son of Empress Victoria, was beforehand the Duke of Gwynedd, having been created as such in 1880, and was also the Lord Chamberlain of Coorg, a title still held by his descendants granted by his sister-in-law The Monarchs’ List
1888-1914: Leopold (b.1863:d.1914), born Prince Leopold Thomas of the United Kingdom, abdicated 1914-1948: Frederick I (b.1882:d.1948) 1948-1950: Frederick II (b.1898:d.1950) 1950-1987: Mary Jayamma (b.1920), abdicated, currently Queen Emerita Mary, Lady of the Realm 1987-2017: Charlotte (b.1948), abdicated, currently Queen Emerita Charlotte, Deputy Lady of the Realm 2017-: Yukiva (b.1980) Heir apparent: Laarusha, Crown Princess of the Carnatic and Archduchess of Chennai (b.2011) daughter of Yukiva 2. Princess Keshavi of the Carnatic (b.2014) daughter of Yukiva 3. Princess Annapurna of the Carnatic (b.2015) daughter of Yukiva 4. Princess Dathrija of the Carnatic (b.2016) daughter of Yukiva 5. Prince Sankar of the Carnatic (b.2018) son of Yukiva[2]
[1] As mentioned before, Oregon, which was the fourth imperial kingdom, is not appearing here since it has an update all for itself
[2] His birth was the first male born on the main branch of the Windsors of the Carnatic since Prince Albert Haridwar in 1949
Yukiva (Victoria Yukiva Vishurutha Indhumathi; born 3 March 1980) is the sixth and current monarch of the Carnatic, as well as its third reigning queen and third queen to reign in a row, ascending to the throne upon her mother’s abdication on August 18th, 2007. She is the daughter of Queen Charlotte of the Carnatic and Prince Raghunatha of Pudukkottai.
Born during the reign of her grandmother, Queen Mary Jayamma, as her parent’s eldest daughter, Yukiva attended Gandhi College at Madras before studying medicine at the University of Oxford, graduating with a specialization in Pediatrics in 2008. An avid fan of figure skating, Yukiva competed at the Winter Imperial Games of 1999 to 2011 before retiring, and remains the largest monetary supporter of ice sports in the Carnatic.
Although she only ascended to the throne of the Carnatic in 2017, the transition of power to Yukiva begun in 2010, with her mother’s functions and powers being gradually phased to her through the following years. Made the queen’s official formal representative to most public events in 2015, Yukiva was made regent in late 2016, reaching the final step before abdication in her induction to the throne.
Officially rising to become Queen of the Carnatic in August 18th, 2017, with the final abdication of her mother, who then proceeded to move to a countryside palace with her Paramour, Yukiva has, like her predecessors, remained out of politics, and has placed a focus on supporting social programs as well as children’s health projects. She is an outspoken fighter against drug-use among teenagers and young adults, establishing various anti-drug and rehabilitation programs even before ascending to the throne.
Mainly through inheritance from her father[1], Yukiva is one of the wealthiest royals in the world, with her personal assets being valued at nearly 1 billion pounds and including a large amount of lands in Southern Bharat and Sri Lanka. As the monarch of the Carnatic, she also owns shares in most of the Casinos in the kingdom, as well as its largest clothing retail chain.
Married in 2009 to her cousin, Prince Bageshri of Maharashtra, after nearly seven years in a relationship, which started while both studied at Oxford, they have seven children together, and were created Raja and Rani of Kolaba by his mother, Queen Tarabai, upon their marriage.
[1] Who passed all his possessions, also mainly inherited, to his children upon becoming a Jain
============================================================================== BERAR (बेरारचे राज्य)
Officially the ExaltedKingdom of Berar
Capital in the City of Ellichpur (or Achalpur), also the kingdom’s largest city, with a population of 150 thousand inhabitants
The kingdom has thirteen official or recognized languages, with Marathi, Urdu, Lambadi, English and Sanskrit as its main ones
The kingdom has a total population of about 3 million people, a majority (at about 95%) of whom are ethnic Marathas of various groups. The kingdom is majority Hindu (at 76% of the population) while it also has visible Muslim (at 8%), Christian (at 5%), Jewish (at 4%) and Christian Jain[1] (0.9%) minorities
Berar is an executive monarchy in the Westminster Style, with its monarch holding the executive power while the Senate of Berar and the High Court of Ellichpur hold the legislative and judiciary, and is also semi-federative, with most of its settlements working on a semi-autonomous administration. Its monarch is also the direct commander of the kingdom’s military[2]
Berar was established on July 11th, 1891, as the sixth imperial kingdom. Its first monarch, the paternal first cousin of Empress Victoria, was beforehand the 2nd Duke of Cambridge, having inherited his title in 1850, as was the only enthroned imperial monarch to not be directly descended from Empress Victoria
Unlike all other imperial kingdoms, Berar is the only one whose Royal Family was not on the Albish Line of Succession from the beginning[3] due to being originated from an marriage without permission[4][5] The Monarchs’ List
1891-1904: George V (b.1819:d.1904), born Prince George of Cambridge, Prince of Hanover and Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg 1904-1912: Adolphus I (b.1846:d.1912), born Adolphus FitzGeorge and “recognized” in 1893[6] 1912-1928: Olga (b.1877:d.1928), born Olga Maria Adelaide Aldridge FitzGeorge, “recognized” in 1893 1928-1955: Adolphus II (b.1900:d.1955), born Prince Adolphus of Berar and Battenberg, son-in-law of the Nizam of Hyderabad[7] 1955-: Mary III (b.1926) Heir apparent: Henry August, Mirza-Baig of Berar, Duke of Cambridge-in-Berar and Nawab of Amravati (b.1949) son of Mary III 2. Princess Olga of Berar, Duchess of Melghat (b.1981) daughter of Henry August 3. Prince George of Melghat, Marquisof Chikhaldara (b.2002) son of Olga 4. Princess Victoria of Melghat (b.2004) daughter of Olga 5. Prince Vincent of Melghat (b.2009) son of Olga
[1] Said minority is considered “visible” due to the fact that about 95% of their total numbers lives in Berar
[2] In no small part due to Berar’s first monarch having been the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces of the British/Albish Army from 1856 until his enthronement, and as such spending a good part of his time administrating the military of his new kingdom
[3] This comment is technically only a half-truth, as members of the House of Berar are in the line of succession, but none of said members are on it through their direct descent from George V of Berar, being on it due to descending from Empress Victoria
[4] When George V of Berar, at the time still only Prince George of Cambridge, married his wife, the actress Sarah Fairbrother, in 1847, he did so without asking for a royal assent from his cousin, Empress Victoria, which, as a contravention of the Royal Marriages Act 1772, made his children ineligible for any his pre-enthronement rights and titles, which included both his dukedom and right to inheritance to the British/Albish throne. As the Empress was never asked to approve the marriage, it is considered “without permission” instead of “unapproved” or “prohibited”.
[5] Interestingly (and ironically) it is almost an unofficial agreement among the members of the Albish Imperial Family that, had George V of Berar asked for the empress approval for his marriage, she would have actually signed on it, as the empress was known for being rather nonchalant about her cousin-in-laws pre-marital life (Sarah had been her husband’s mistress since at least 1842, was pregnant of their third son at the day of their marriage, and had had two illegitimate children before even meeting George in 1840) and for considering Sarah as her friend, even serving as the godmother of her cousin’s third son, Augustus. It is also agreed that George V couldn’t have known how his cousin would react before his marriage, and that the reason why the Empress never offered to retroactively recognize his marriage was due to believing it would be the height of offensiveness to do so, as it would (in her mind) be her saying she didn’t think her cousin’s marriage or even his children were truly legitimate unless she officially recognized it as being so
[6] Due to his eldest son’s complete lack of interest for inheriting Berar, George V had to find a manner to make him (the eldest son) and his offspring not eligible to the Berari throne (since the idea of abdicating rights wasn’t really considered by anyone of them) but not the other two sons George V had; the solution the king found was making so that, in Berar, only if an illegitimate child was younger than the age of 3 at the time of their parents’ marriage they would be considered legitimate, which meant that only his second son, born in 1846, would be considered legitimate by Berar, and as such was “recognized” as the heir to the throne of Berar in 1893
[7] Although George V was made King in 1891 and Berar had been under British or Albish rule since 1853, the region had been under the de jure sovereignty of the Nizam of Hyderabad since 1724 (which had been recognized by the British in 1804), with his heir being the “Mirza-Baig (“Prince”) of Berar”. Because of that, from 1891 to 1925, there was a slight (mainly based on bickering) dispute between Berar and Hyderabad over whom had the authority over the region (with the original wordings of the kingdom’s establishment being a bit too-vague to be understood) which only ended with the marriage of Adolphus II to the Princess Dilawar of Hyderabad (one of the 21 daughters of Asaf Jah VII), where the Nizam symbolically gave Berar as his daughter’s dowry
Mary III (Mary Adelaide Georgiana Sylvia; born 29 July 1926) is the fifth and current Monarch of Berar and Commander-in-Chief of the Army of Berar, she is the kingdom’s second queen regnant.
Born into the House of Berar (-FitzGeorge-Battenberg), Mary is the eldest child and daughter of Adolphus II of Berar and Dilawar of Hyderabad. Having only two younger sisters, she became heir presumptive to her father in 1928, when he succeeded his own mother to the throne. Entering the Albish Army at the age of 18 in 1944, feeling that it was needed should she come to inherit the throne, Mary III remained in active service until 1948, and continued on a non-fighting position until 1955.
Serving as her father’s right-hand-woman during the early Second World War, Mary III succeeded him upon his death from a stroke caused by poisoning on January 21st, 1955. On her accession, she became the first woman to command the Army of Berar, since her grandmother left those duties to her son and her husband, and the first monarch of Berar to be descended from the Nizams of Hyderabad.
Like many others of the House of Berar, Mary III is a self-declared “Jewish Christian”, and although in the communion of the Anglican Church she holds to many traditional Jewish customs, beliefs and traditions, once saying that “The only reason I’m not a Jew is because of Jesus”. Religiously speaking she is a rather “eclectic” individual in her relationships and upbringing, with her mother being a Sunni Muslim, her husband being a self-declared Hindu-Muslim and her youngest son being a Christian Jain.
Married in 1948 to Prince Jawan Yasavantrav of Nagpur, whom she first started a relationship as a teenager when they met in Monte Carlo, the couple had three sons together. Widowed less than seven years after marriage, when the recently-made Prince Consort died shielding her from an assassination attempt, Mary III has never officially remarried, and has been since the 1960s in a relationship with Lady Olivia Bhonsle, her late-husband’s second cousin once removed and their children’s governess.
One of the world’s longest-reigning monarchs, commemorating her Diamond Jubilee in 2015, Mary III’s reign, outside of its first years, has been one marked by internal stability and peace in Berar, with the kingdom being considered one of the most overall peaceful regions of Bharat. She has become a bit infamous for her military forces, though, as Berar is the imperial kingdom with the largest number of troops per capita and, due to its stability and general lack of problems, has become known for often “exporting” the bulk of its army to other parts of the Albish Empire, generally for a commission that has become an official revenue source for Berar over the decades.
Surviving a difficult battle against breast cancer in the 1970s, which saw her removing both of her breasts and going through years of precautionary chemotherapy, Mary III, uniquely enough for most monarchs, became in the aftermath of her fight known for her personal interests and personality, as she discovered a passion for cooking and baking that, due to the rather laissez-faire nature of the Berari government, actually came to be channeled into a “career”.
Although still a monarch, Mary III has become a famous baker, cake-decorator and television personality, having dozens of cookbooks, various television shows and a baking and catering company known for its high-quality wedding cakes and foods. Known for her cool and irreverent personality, marked by a “no-shits-to-give” attitude and witty sense of humor, Mary III is considered one of the most well-liked and the most eccentric monarch in Albion.
She announced in early 2020 her plans on abdicating, with it being set to happen in December 20th, 2021
============================================================================== AOTEAROA/NEW ZEALAND (Kingitanga o Aotearoa)
Officially the United Kingdom of Aotearoa, it is commonly called New Zealand
Capital in the Port of Wellington, which has a population of 462 thousand inhabitants. The kingdom’s largest city is Auckland, with a population of 1.5 million inhabitants
The kingdom has English, Maori, Moriori, New Zealand Irish[1] and the Imperial Sign Language as its official languages
The kingdom has a total population of 5.2 million inhabitants, of whom 70% are of European ancestry (mainly British or Irish) while the native Maori make-up the largest minority at nearly 20% of the population, peoples of Asian or Pacific Islander ancestry comprise 8% of the population. A majority of the population is Christian, at about 80%, while Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims and Non-Religious make most of the remaining percentage
Aotearoa is a parliamentary monarchy in the Westminster System, with its First Minister holding most of the executive power while the monarch serves as a neutral overarching figure for it, the legislative and the judiciary
Aotearoa was established on May 26th, 1894, as the seventh imperial kingdom. Its first monarch, the third son of Emperor Arthur (at the time still the Prince of Wales), never held a royal dukedom before his enthronement, and married some weeks after his enthronement
Unlike most other imperial kingdoms, Aotearoa also counts the High Kings of Ireland when counting its monarchs, and in specific uses their anglicized names
Aotearoa is one of the few imperial kingdoms to have princely states within its territory, with its government recognizing the autonomous authority of the TanuiConfederacy[1], the Tūwharetoa Kingdom[2] and the Kingdom of Rēkohu[3] The Monarchs’ List
1894-1901: George V (b.1868:d.1901), born Prince George Henry Victor of Wales 1901-1920: Roderick II (b.1895:d.1920) 1920-1981: Meredith (b.1913:d.1981), by marriage Duchess of St. Albans
1981-1993: Roderick III (b.1935:d.1993) 1993-1996: Donald VI (b.1964:d.1996) 1996-2000: Hector III (b.1979:d.2000) 2000-: Roderick IV (b.1993) Heir apparent: Princess Victoria, Princess of Greystone, Archduchess of Southland (b.2018) daughter of Roderick IV 2. Prince Arthur of Aotearoa (b.2020) son of Roderick IV 3. Prince Archibald of Aotearoa (b.2020) son of Roderick IV 4. Princess Meredith of Aotearoa, Duchess of Auckland (b.1995) daughter of Hector III 5. Prince Charles of Aotearoa, Earl of Eden (b.2018) son of Meredith
[1] Born from the Irish immigrants to Aotearoa, who mainly came from Connacht and Donegal, New Zealand Irish is considered the most unique of dialects of Irish that exists, as it has a considerable influence of Maori on its pronunciation and in loanwords, as well as having a generally large deviation from other kinds of Irish due to a century and a half of local developments
[2] The largest recognized Maori state, comprising a considerable part of the North Island and made by several tribes, it is ruled by a de jure elective king that serves as a “high king” over the entire state, and has some power over all the confederacy’s members as well as over some other Maori tribes across Aotearoa
[3] The other recognized Maori state, it covers much of the center of the North Island
[4] Something of a unique state, the kingdom, whose territory comprises the entirety of the Chatham Islands, is in fact closer in structure to a communal society, with its status as a monarchy only being established by the Albish when they made the first leader to come to them for help during the Moriori Genocide the nominal king of the entire people after they established a pseudo-protectorate over the islands in the 1850s[a]
[a] A minor POD caused in part by the butterfly effect, ITTL the Ngāti Tama and Ngāti Mutunga tribes landed on the Chatham Islands later than OTL, and at the time the Moriori had a somehow closer relation with the Albish to the point of managing to successfully ask for aid from them
In a small tangent on relation to Aotearoa, here is the streamlined line of descent from Queen Meredith’s second son, Prince Anthony, as upon her marriage to Lord Charles Beauclerk, 15th Duke of St. Albans (b.1915:d.1968), it was agreed that his titles would pass down to their second son instead of being absorbed into the Aotearoan crown.
HRH, Prince Anthony of Aotearoa, 16th Duke of St. Albans (b.1936:d.1976)
married The Most Hon. Lady Edith Abney-Hastings, 7th Marchioness of Hastings (b.1934)
Prince Albert Frederick of Aotearoa, 17th Duke of St. Albans (b.1954:d.2019) married Empress Charlotte
Cedric, Prince of Wales (b.1982), also the 18th Duke of St. Albans and the 15th Earl of Loudon
Prince Thomas of Wales, Duke of Cambridge (b.2001), also Earl of Burford and Baron of Botreaux
As has been said on the article about Empress Charlotte of Albion, agnatically the Prince of Wales and his children are the direct agnatic descendants of King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland, through his illegitimate line of descendants of the Dukes of St. Albans. Interestingly, through the female line, the Prince of Wales is also the heir to another alternate line of succession to the (in specific) English throne, as his paternal grandmother, the 7th Marchioness of Hastings (in OTL only the 12th Countess of Loudon), is also the seniormost legitimate descendant of George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, through his daughter, the Countess of Salisbury, and so, for those who believe that the line descending from Edward IV are not legitimate, he technically will be the first “legitimate” successor of Richard III.
Roderick IV (Roderick Marcus Murtagh George Archibald Anthony; born in 19 November 1993) is the seventh and current monarch of Aotearoa. Ascending to the throne at the age of 6, he is, among current monarchs of imperial kingdoms, the one to most recently be under a regency due to being underage.
Born during the reign of his great-grandfather and eponym, as the only son and eldest child of Hector III and Victoria of Teck, Roderick IV was nearly born out of wedlock, as his parents, childhood sweethearts and merely teenagers at the time, married only hours before his birth, which came extremely prematurely. Kept on a neonatal ICU for nearly 6 months due to being born at only 28 weeks, his premature birth resulted on the king having a highly underdeveloped lung and only one functional kidney.
Prince of Greystone at the age of 2, when his grandfather died in 1996, Roderick IV ascended to the Aotearoan throne when his father died from a sudden respiratory failure in August 2nd, 2000, being only 6 at the time. Due to being still a child, the new king became the fourth monarch of Aotearoa to start their reign under a regency.
Assuming full royal powers in 2011, when he reached majority at the age of 18, Roderick’s direct reign has seen a rise in immigration to Aotearoa, mainly from other corners of Albion, and a small but perceptible rise in political fraction, with the monarch being forced, for the first time in over 50 years, to temporarily take full control of the governmental administration for nearly the entirety of 2016 and much of 2017 due to the state of Parliament and political unity. Roderick IV has openly expressed his fondness and enjoyment of his current First Minister, the Baroness Morrinsville, whom he has called “the most capable I’ve ever seen”
A Bachelor of Letters, Roderick IV is the first monarch of Aotearoa to have published books, having, as of 2020, published a total of five books under pseudonyms, including two translations of historical works or compilations of tales. Fluent in Maori, Moriori and Irish-Gaelic[1], being the first monarch of Aotearoa to be both[2], Roderick IV is known for his tendency to mix languages when speaking, sometimes doing so even during speeches.
Married to Princess Tomairangi Te Wherowhero of Waikato in 2016, after being engaged since the age of 9, they are the first biracial royal couple of Aotearoa, as well as the first time a Aotearoan monarch married one of the native royal families. They have three children together, their eldest, a daughter, being the first heir apparent to follow absolute primogeniture
[1] He was taught New Zealand Irish, and is quite talented at it and Standard Irish, but colloquially speaks mainly on the (endangered) Roscommon Dialect, in itself a dialect of Connacht Irish, which is the “family language” of his mother, the Connacht Branch of the House of Teck
[2] Although all Aotearoan monarchs have been at least passable at Maori, and Meredith was the first to be fluent in speaking Irish, Roderick IV is the first to be a fluent speaker of both, and lacking any “unplanned” accent, and the first to speak above the “passable” level on Moriori
============================================================================== THE BAHAMAS (Königreich und Gemeinwesen der Bahamas)
Officially the Kingdom and Commonwealth of the Bahamas
Capital in the City of Nassau, also the kingdom’s largest city, with a population of 290 thousand inhabitants
The kingdom has Imperial English[1] as its official language, and recognizes Bahamian English[2], German[3], Chinese[4] and Greek[5] as national languages[6]
The kingdom has a total population of 485 thousand inhabitants, made up by 50% of Afro-Bahamians, 30% of Mixed-Bahamians (mainly the result of 20th and 21st century miscegenation by English Euromericans and Afro-Bahamians), 15% of White Bahamians (mainly descended from 19th and 20th century German and Greek immigrants) and 2%Sino-Bahamians (mainly descended from 20th century immigrants) with the remaining 3% of the population being of various other ethnic groups. The kingdom is overwhelmingly Christian, with Protestant denominations in specific making about 85% of the population
The Bahamas are an executive monarchy in the Westminster Style, with its monarch holding the executive power as well as some overarching authority over the legislative and judiciary, who otherwise are held by the Parliament of the Bahamas and the High Court of Nassau.
The Bahamas were established on August 10th, 1895, as the eight imperial kingdom. Its first monarch, a son of German Empress Victoria, was the second and last non-Albish royal to receive an imperial kingdom, and was enthroned on the day of his marriage.
The Bahamas are one of the two current imperial kingdoms[7] to be territorially expanded after its establishment, annexing the Florida Keys archipelago during the Second American Civil War. It is also the only imperial kingdom to include the Electress Sophia of Hanover when counting its monarchs[8]
Interestingly the Bahamian Royal Family, the House of Hohenzollern-Nassau-Zuylestein, is agnatically descended from the House of Nassau[9], but is not considered a part of the actual dynasty due to the branch it descends from, Nassau de Zuylestein[10], being an illegitimate one, which some consider a funny bit of irony since not a single one of the official branches of the Nassau Dynasty are through agnatic lines[11] The Monarch’s List
1895-1952: Sigismund I (b.1866:d.1952), born Prince Sigismund of Prussia, also Commander-in-Chief of the Caribbean Fleet
1952-1959: Sigismund II (b.1900:d.1959) 1959-1995: Mary IV (b.1935:d.2014), abdicated, Retired Queen Mary from 1995 to 2014 1995-2016: Sophia II (b.1960), abdicated, currently Retired Queen Sophia, Princess of Zuylestein-in-Andros 2016-: Sophia III (b.1984), also Princess of the Keys and Grand Duchess of Inagua
Heir apparent: Sigismund, Prince Royal of the Bahamas and Grand Duke of Andros (b.2011) son of Sophia III 2. Princess Charlotte of the Bahamas (b.2011) daughter of Sophia III 3. Princess Caroline of the Bahamas (b.2011) daughter of Sophia III 4. Princess Margaret of the Bahamas, 2nd Duchess of Eleuthera (b.1985) niece of Sophia II 5. Princess Annelise of Eleuthera, Princess of Windermere (b.2007) daughter of Margaret
[1] Colloquially called “Posh” in the Bahamas, other names for it are “Madam’s English” and “The Empress’ English”
[2] An English Creole language, it is de facto the vernacular language of the Bahamas, but most Bahamians consider it to actually be simply their local dialect of Imperial English and not a separate language (which has caused it to be relatively understudied)
[3] An German Creole language, spoken by parts of the German-Bahamian population, it is in specific derived from the Lower Saxon and Eastern Lower German dialects of German, as most of immigrants from Germany came of the region of Lower Saxony and Pomerania
[4] A Greek Outlying dialect, spoken by much of the Greco-Bahamian population, it is actually divided into two dialects, one descended from the Greek of the late 19th-century Aegean immigrants and the other from the turn-of-the-century Cappadocian and Pontic immigrants
[5] Spoken by parts of the Sino-Bahamian population, it is a dialect similar to the Suzhou dialect of the Wu Languages, as much of the Chinese immigration to the Bahamas came from the Wu region of China along Shanghai and the mouth of the Yangtze
[6] Which means that although not official languages of the kingdom, said languages can be taught in school and are protected by law as a precaution in case their numbers dwindle to the point of becoming extinct
[7] If Oregon was still considered an imperial kingdom, it would be a third
[8] Mary IV, upon becoming Queen, actually decided to take the time to preemptively make a set of rules and a list of whom should be included when counting regnal numbers, establishing a system considered one of (and probably the most) complicated regnal counting systems among the imperial kingdoms. Although her wording was at times complicated, the main point Mary IV establish was that names used before 1707 (with the first Acts of Union) but not after should have their numbers calculated by doing a sum of all eponymous monarchs before the counting of a newcomer (reason why Mary IV herself wasn’t “Mary III”); another major precedent she created was of who should be included when doing said counting, establishing the counting of English Monarchs as beginning with Alfred the Great in 886 and doing a list of which non-reigning ancestors should be included in calculations (and by doing so posthumously renumbering various monarchs). The individuals of said list are:
In relation to the thrones after the Union of Crowns in 1603
- The German Empress Victoria (1840-1905), the mother of Sigismund I of the Bahamas – as Victoria II
- Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (1767-1820), the father of Empress Victoria – as Edward XI
- Frederick, Prince of Wales (1707-1751), the father of George III of the United Kingdom – as Frederick
- Electress Sophia of Hanover (1630-1714), the mother of George I of Great Britain – as Sophia I
- Electress Palatine Elizabeth (1596-1662), the mother of the above, daughter of James VI & I – as Elizabeth III In relation to the Kingdom of Scotland before the Union of Crowns
- Princess Marjorie de Brus/Bruce (1296-1316), the mother of Robert II Stewart, daughter of Robert I the Bruce – as Margaret I
- Robert VI de Brus, Lord of Annandale (1243-1304), the father of Robert I the Bruce – as Robert II
- Robert V de Brus, Lord of Annandale (c.1210-1295), the father of the above – as Robert I
- Isobel of Huntington (1199-1251), the mother of the above – as Isobel
- Prince David of Scotland, 8th Earl of Huntingdon (1152-1219), the father of the above – as David II
- Prince Henry of Scotland, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon (1114-1152), the father of the above, son of David I Dunkeld – as Henry
- Princess Bethóc of Scotland, the mother of Duncan I Dunkeld, daughter of Malcolm II MacAlpin – as Beatrice In relation to the Kingdom of England before the Union of Crowns, of the times of the Wars of the Roses
- Princess Margaret Tudor (1489-1541), the mother of James V of Scotland and great-grandmother of James VI – as Margaret III
- Elizabeth of York (1466-1503), the mother of Henry VIII, wife of Henry VII and daughter of Edward IV – as Elizabeth I
---Following the Ancestry of Henry VII---
- Margaret Beaufort (1441/43-1509), the mother of Henry VII – as Margaret II
- John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset (1403-1444), the father of the above – as John IV
- John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset (c.1371-1401), the father of the above – as John III
- John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (1340-1399), the father of the above and of Henry IV, son of Edward III – as John II
---Following the Ancestry of Elizabeth of York---
- Anne Mortimer (1390-1411), the paternal grandmother of Edward IV and Richard III – as Anne I
- Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March (1374-1398), the father of the above – as Roger
- Philippa of Clarence, 5th Countess of Ulster (1355-1382), the mother of the above – as Philippa
- Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence (1338-1368), the father of the above, son of Edward III – as Lionel In relation to the Kingdom of England before the Union of Crowns, of the times before the 100 Years War
- Empress Matilda, Lady of the English (c.1102-1167), the mother of Henry II, daughter of Henry I – as Matilda II
- Princess Matilda of Scotland (c.1080-1118), the mother of the above – as Matilda I
- Saint Margaret of Scotland (c.1045-1093), the mother of the above – as Margaret I
- Edward the Exile (1016-1057), the father of the above and of Edgar II, son of Edmund II Ironside – as Edward IV
[9] Although originally the Royal House of the Bahamas was an offshoot of the Prussia-Brandenburg” (AKA “Main Imperial”) branch of the Hohenzollern Dynasty, that ended with Mary IV, who married The Hon. William Philip Nassau de Zuylestein and made the House of Hohenzollern-Nassau, which continued due to her daughters and granddaughters mainly marrying one or other Nassau (mainly “de Zuylestein”) cousins
[10] Originated in the early 17th century with Frederick of Nassau, Lord of Zuylestein (illegitimate son of Frederick Henry, 19th Prince of Orange, the third Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic and the youngest son and child of William the Silent), the family entered the Peerage of England with his son, William van Nassau de Zuylestein, who was made Earl of Rochford by William III, his first cousin (as he was an important player in preparing the Glorious Revolution). All of that is following OTL, with things changing in a minor pre-Victoria POD as the family, instead of dying out in the legitimate male line in the early 19th century, flourished during the 1780s and the 1800s, starting with the 4th earl marrying his mistress and being followed by his ITTL legitimate son (whose OTL agnatic descent lasted up to the 1990s) while his brother’s children produced two new branches of the family
The only non-illegitimate and non-morganatic branches of the Nassau Dynasty are the houses of Orange-Nassau (who originated the Nassau de Zuylestein branch, and died on the male line with Wilhelmina of the Netherlands in 1969) and of Nassau-Weilburg and Nassau-Weilburg-Usingen (who separated with the daughters of William IV, Grand Duke of Luxembourg and Elector of Nassau, who was the last male agnate of the House of Nassau). The Nassau-Weilburg-Usingen, who are the Electors of Nassau (and went through a bit of religious flip-flopping), are the only of the three with any claim to still being agnates of the dynasty, as they descend on the male line from Karl Philipp of Nassau-Usingen, Count ofWeilnau (1746-1789), who was the morganatic son of the penultimate Sovereign Prince of Nassau-Usingen and whose descendants were granted the title of “Princes of Nassau-Usingen” by the Electors of Nassau
On the morganatic side of things there are, excluding the Nassau-Usingen, two other male-line branches of the dynasty, the Princes of Nassau-Saarbrucken (or Dukes of Nassau-Dillingen), descended from the last sovereign Prince of Nassau-Saarbrucken and his morganatic second wife (who was born middle-class and even worked as the handmaid of one of his previous mistresses, before taking the position of mistress herself, which she held for over a decade before their marriage); and the Princes of Nassau-Merenberg (or Counts of Merenberg), descended from Prince Nikolaus Wilhelm of Nassau by his wife, Natalia Pushkina, daughter of the famous writer Alexander Pushkin.
Interestingly, the House of Orange-Nassau of the Netherlands (and its branches on post-colonial kingdoms) does descend on the female line from another illegitimate branch of the Orange-Nassau Dynasty, as Queen Juliana of the Netherlands’ husband was Lord George Crawley (-Nassau d’Auverquerque), 9th Earl of Grantham, whose ancestor, the first Earl of Grantham of the Peerage of Great Britain, was the grandson of Henry de Nassau d’Auverquerque (the sole Earl of Grantham in the Peerage of England, a second cousin once removed of King William III, and a great-grandson of Maurice, Prince of Orange) through his mother, Lady Frances, who died only days after her son was made an earl (he had been Viscount Boston since 1755)
Sophia III (Sofia Evangeline Wilhelmina Marion; born in 27 January 1984) is the fifth and current monarch of the Bahamas, as well as their third reigning queen both overall and in a row, ascending to the throne upon her mother’s abdication.
Born into the House of Hohenzollern-Nassau during the reign of her grandmother, Mary IV, Sophia is the only child of Queen Sophia II, at the time still Princess Royal, and Bertrand, Prince of Zuylestein-in-Andros. She went through most of her primary and secondary education at the Queen Mary’s Academy, Nassau, an all-girls school affiliated with the Royal Navy where she developed an interest for entering the armed forces.
Enrolling in the Royal Navy upon completing her schooling in 2001, Sophia III remained on active service until 2015, taking leave to attend the Naval College of Engineers of Nassau, from where she left with a Bachelor of Engineering, and for the birth of her children. For most of her service Sophia III was a Captain, becoming a Commodore in 2012, and served mainly on the Caribbean Fleet, working in the late 2000s on the fight against drug-trafficking and pirating along the Caribbean Sea. Upon her retirement from active service in 2015, the then Princess Royal was made a Rear-Admiral, which is her current rank.
Openly lesbian, Sophia III has been in a relationship since her teens with Lady Cornelia Ellice[1], made Countess of Nassau in 2016, which started when both were studying at Queen Mary’s, and is quite frank over her lack of sexual interest for men. Nonetheless, Sophia caused a bit of a tizzy in 2006 when she married her childhood friend and distant cousin, Michael Savage Nassau de Zuylestein, who, much like her, is extremely open about his own sexuality.
Due to the couple’s lack of sexual attraction, they only had children in 2011, when they had triplets through Sophia III’s paramour, who served as their surrogate. The queen is also the carrier of a mitochondrial mutation that causes LHON, which resulted on their children being the first royalty known to have underwent mitochondrial replacement, their “donor” being the Countess of Nassau herself.
Sophia III officially became Queen of the Bahamas on June 22nd, 2016, with her mother’s abdication, but, unlike with the transition from Mary IV to Sophia II, the process took over a year as the then monarch followed the example set by other imperial kingdoms and phased the royal powers to her daughter. Her reign has been mainly marked by the post-2018 economic downturn on the Bahamas, caused mainly by the collapse of the Angelique Conglomerate, the kingdom’s largest private employer, after a corruption and plotted treason scandal. Although things seem to be in the upswing, in special after the government took control of most of the conglomerate’s splinters, analysts say it may take years for a full recovery.
In popular culture, Sophia III of the Bahamas is known for her dry and cold-seeming personality, which often makes people do double takes in her more irreverent and eccentric moments. She is also known for her stormy relationship with the Duchess of Eleuthera, with some believing that Sophia’s reason for marrying and having children was barring her from inheriting the throne of the Bahamas. The two are seen to have been getting better in their relation in more recent years, in special after the duchess’ show of loyalty during the Angelique Crisis[2]
[1] Interestingly, a descendant of Elizabeth Courtney, the illegitimate daughter of Lady Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, and the 2nd Earl Grey, British Prime Minister from 1830 to 1834
[2] Although the failed treason plot was to place the Duchess of Eleuthera on the throne of the Bahamas by assassinating Sophia III and her children, the duchess, upon being invited to the plot, chose to retain her loyalty to the kingdom and her family instead of following her ambitions or desires, working with the plotters just long enough to gain hard proof of their treason before denouncing them in international television
============================================================================== ADEN (المملكة المتحدة للأراضي وخليج عدن وحضرموت وصوماليلاند)
Officially the United Kingdom of the Lands and the Gulf of Aden, the Hadhramaut and Somaliland
Capital in the Port of Aden, also the kingdom’s largest city, with a population of 738 thousand inhabitants
The kingdom has Arabic[1], Somali and Imperial English as its official languages, and also recognizes Soqotri, Mehri, Hobyot. Jibbali and Shehri as regional languages
The kingdom has a total population of nearly 10 million inhabitants, of whom an overwhelming majority are Sunni Muslims (with only about 5% being of some other religion or denomination), while ethnically it is almost equally divided (about 45% to 48%) between Somalis (mainly of the Ishaak and Dir clans) and Arabs (mainly of Yemeni and Hadhramauti identity), while about 7% of the population is made of other Semitic peoples, Afaris and of people of European or South Asian ancestry
Aden is a semi-absolute monarchy, with its monarch (who is officially an executive monarch of the Westminster Style) holding strong and overarching powers over all branches of government, with both the Parliament and the High Court of Aden being subservient to his authority. Aden is also considered semi-federative due to the high number of princely states and the various levels of autonomy within them
Aden was established on September 5th, 1896, as the ninth imperial kingdom. Its first king, the third son of George V of Bengal, was already married to the two daughters of Sultan Turki bin Said of Oman beforehand, having married them shortly after converting to Islam in 1895
Unlike all other imperial kingdoms, Aden not only possesses princely states within its territory but most of its area is actually made by them, with the Adenese government recognizing a total of 54 princely states, of whom only 2 (the Sultanate of Habr Yunis and the Isaaq Sultanate) are located on Somaliland and only 1 (the Al-Mahri Sultanate of Socotra) is entirely insular, and include some states, of whom the most prominent is the Abdali Sultanate[2], which are actually comprised of various smaller princely states. The direct territories under the rule of the Adenese government are the area of the Port of Aden and the western half of Somaliland The Monarchs’ List
1896-1903: Benedict Mubarak Ismail bin George (b.1872:d.1903), born Prince Alfred Benedict of York (and later Bengal) 1903-1957: Muhammad bin Ismail (b.1896:d.1957) 1957-1960: Hakim bin Muhammad (b.1920:d.1960) 1960-2015: Abdul bin Muhammad (b.1927) son of Muhammad of Aden, abdicated, currently Retired King Abdul 2016-: Amir bin Said (b.1979) born Prince Amir of Aden, son of Prince Said of Aden, grandson of Muhammad of Aden Heir apparent: Ismail, Crown Prince of Aden, Emir of Hargeisa and Prince of Seera (b.2001) son of Queen Hagarla 2. Prince Moulay of Aden (b.2002) son of Queen Amatalrauf 3. Prince Qasim of Aden (b.2002) son of Queen Hagarla 4. Prince Ali of Aden (b.2005) son of Queen Ramziya 5. Prince Ahmad of Aden (b.2006) son of Queen Ramziya
[1] The kingdom has a standardized version of Arabic (called Adenese Arabic) as the official one, but does still recognize the Ta’izzi-Adeni, Hadhrami and Dhofari dialects of Arabic, even if only in a regional level
[2] Also known as the Sultanate of Lahej, it was the first state of the Aden Protectorate that preceded the imperial kingdom (being the original state to hold the port before the coming of the British in the late 1830s) and officially has a territory made of most of the lands west of the Aden Province, but fragmentation among its tribes, sheikdoms and settlements over the 19th and 20th centuries resulted on it de facto being fragmented into a group of states, the largest of whom isn’t even the one held by the Abdali Sultan around Lahej
Amir bin Saidal Mubarak (Amir Muhammad Ismail Benedict Victor; born in 30 March 1979) is the fifth and current King of Aden. A great-grandson of Mubarak Ismail[1] of Aden, he was chosen by Abdul of Aden as his successor upon the former king’s abdication, and was proclaimed king on September 4th, 2016, being the most recently ascended monarch in the Arabic Peninsula.
The only son of Prince Said Tariq of Aden and Princess Zainab of Egypt, Amir lost his parents to a plane crash when he was only 5, and was rotated among the expansive Royal House of Aden until he was 9, when his uncle, then King Abdul, adopted him. Amir became the heir presumptive of Aden upon his adoption, his being the first and (as of 2020) only time an imperial monarch adopted a close relative and made them their heir.
Raised in Aden, Amir had his secondary education at Eton, Berkshire, and his higher education at Oxford University, graduating with a Bachelor of Economics degree. Entering the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 2000, he served for four years in the Albish Army after graduating there, being deployed mainly to Aden itself during his active service.
Leaving the army in 2006, Amir entered the Ministry of the Economy of Aden that year, being made its head in 2010 when he was made a Minister in his adoptive father’s cabinet. Amir held the position until 2013, when he was made Deputy First Minister.
Deputy First Minister from 2013 to early 2016, Amir became regent to his adoptive father in January 26th of that year, when Abdul of Aden fell into a month-long coma after breaking his hip while on a flight of stairs. Amir remained on that position until September 3rd, 2016, when the still bedridden king abdicated, and was officially declared as his successor a few hours later, on the 4th. Amir’s coronation occurred on September 5th, being one of the fastest times between the ascension and coronation of a monarch, being a televised ceremony marked by the individual swearing of oaths of fealty by the rulers of all princely states of Aden.
A still relatively recent one, Amir’s reign has been an overall stable one, with the most remarkable events of it being the finishing of the building of Aden’s “Stilted City” and the failed terrorist attack on the Adenese Royal Family while they were staying on vacation, which saw the first time on his reign that the king and his wives’ military background came to the forefront of the popular mind[2].
A Sunni Muslim (of the Mubaraki Sect), Amir is currently the only monarch of an Imperial Kingdom to be officially polygamous, marrying firstly to Princess Hagaria of Habr Yunis, a decorated member of the Imperial Special Forces, in 1998; and second to his cousin, also a commodore of the Royal Navy, Princess Amatalrauf of Dahla, in 1999. Finally, in 2002, he married his third and fourth wives, the twin princesses Rawda and Ramziya of Lahej, whom he met on the ceremony awarding them the Victoria Cross. Together the five have fourteen children
[1] Although “Benedict Ismail” is the most commonly used version of the first king of Aden’s name, the name’s Arabic equivalent is also often used, in special in Aden itself
[2] Queen Hagaria ended with the highest kill count, the king with the lowest
============================================================================== PUNJAB (ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦਾ ਰਾਜ)
Officially the State of Punjab
Capital in the City of Lahore, also the kingdom’s largest city, with a population of 14 million inhabitants
The kingdom has Punjabi[1], Persian[2], Hindi, English and Sanskrit as its official languages, but also recognizes on a regional level the Haryanvi, Saraiki, Dogri, Gojri, Hindko, Pahari, Pashto, Urdu, Bagri, Balochi and Sindhi languages
The kingdom has a total population of 98 million inhabitants. Of them, a majority (of around 80%) are ethnic Punjabis, while various other ethnic groups make the remaining of the population, including Dogras, Pashtuns, Haryanvis, Saraikis and Muhajirs. The region is mostly divided between Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus, who respectively make around 31%, 35% and 27% of the population, while the remaining 7% are made mainly of Christians, Jains, Zoroastrians, Buddhists and Ravidassias
The Punjab is a semi-executive monarchy in the Westminster Style, with the monarch holding much of the executive power but also sharing it with his First Ministers, while the Punjabi Parliament and Paramount Court hold the legislative and judiciary
The Punjab was established on September 20th, 1896, as the tenth imperial kingdom. It is the only imperial kingdom to have enthroned co-monarchs upon its creation, with them being the second son of George V of Bengal and a daughter of Maharaja Duleep Singh[3], who were beforehand the Duke and Duchess of Lahore since their marriage in 1892
Similarly to Cyprus, the Punjab recognizes the monarchs of the Sikh Empire as being predecessors of its own monarchy, but as of 2020 only one of its monarchs, Victor Sher II[4], has actually used them when counting their regnal name The Monarch’s List
1896-1960: Victor I (b.1871:d.1960), born Prince Victor Augustus of York (and later Bengal) 1896-1945: Catherine (b.1871:d.1945), born Princess Catherine Hilda Duleep Singh of Punjab 1960-1978: Victor Sher II (b.1935:d.1978), born Prince Victor Duleep Singh of Punjab, grandson of Victor I and Catherine[5] 1978-: Victor III Ranjit (b.1960) Heir apparent: Crown Prince Victor Satparvan, Sher-e-Punjab and Maharaja of Lahore (b.1985) son of Victor III Ranjit 2. Prince Albert Dharamjyot of Punjab, Raja of Shahpur (b.1987) son of Victor III Ranjit 3. Prince Nicholas Satsarang of Shahpur (b.2010) son of the Raja of Shahpur 4. Princess Violet Saroor of Shahpur (b.2012) daughter of the Raja of Shahpur 5. Princess Hilda Premsukh of Punjab (b.1982) daughter of Victor III Ranjit
[1] On both the Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi scripts of the language
[2] The language of court and literature of Punjab for centuries, and the language of court during the late Sikh Empire, it was actually in decline when it was made official in the state mainly as a reckoning to the old empire, but said official status caused a revival of the language on Punjab, with it serving as a species of lingua franca among non-Punjabi ethnic groups
[3] Victor Sher II included both Victor I and Sher Singh, the 4th Sikh Emperor, when counting his regnal numerals
[4] The 5th and last Maharaja of the Sikh Empire, Catherine was his second daughter by his first wife, Bamba Müller[5] His mother, Victoria, was the eldest of the daughters of Victor I and Catherine of Punjab, while his father was the only son and child of Prince Frederick Duleep Singh, second son of Maharaja Duleep Singh and Head of the Sikh Imperial Family
Victor III Ranjit (Victor Ranjit Adalbert Nirmal Lahna; born in 4 July 1960) is the third(fourth)[1] and current monarch of the Punjab, being also the second-oldest male (and oldest to have inherited his throne) among the current rulers of the imperial kingdoms.
Born into the House of Punjab as the second son and child of Victor, Sher-e-Punjab, and Bakhtawar of Patiala, Victor III Ranjit was only three-months-old when his father became King of Punjab, and for most of his first years he lived at the Jamnikachukuma Palace, his parents fortified retreat residence in Shahura, while Victor Sher II was involved in the administration of post-war Punjab. A second son, Victor III was never expected to inherit his father’s position, instead developing an interest for dancing and acting that resulted in him entering the Imperial Ballet School in 1972, being set to become a member of The Imperial Ballet upon graduation.
Said ambitions were ended when, in an unexpected turn of events, both Victor III’s older brother and father died in the span of a single week, the former to a motorcycle accident and the latter from a heart attack. Suddenly entrusted with the position of monarch at the age of 18 in December 22nd, 1978, Victor III’s early reign was marked by instability and uncertainty as he settled into his new role and got accustomed back with Punjab, with Queen Mother Bakhtawar becoming the greatest support to his reign as the éminence grise of Punjab, maintaining at bay most discontent and/or dissident forces.
Married in 1980 to Princess Karanjit of Kapurthala, his late brother’s fiancée, in what is admitted to have been a move by the queen mother to gather popular support to his side, as Karanjit remained a beloved figure as the dowager crown princess, they have five children together, and for all that their marriage did not start smoothly or peacefully the two are known for having come to love eachother over the years.
Although he has been the monarch of Punjab for over 40 years, Victor III Ranjit’s reign has been a surprisingly uneventful one, with the king being known for his overall neutral stance on most political matters and for the fact that his wife and eldest son are as much of the rulers of Punjab as him. The king’s most known direct actions are his social projects, which have done many great things for the life of the poor and in special for poor and homeless youths, and his avid support of the arts and education.
Although Punjab is considered one of the more conservative parts of the Albish Empire, Victor III Ranjit is known for his open support for people who aren’t straight or aren’t cisgender, causing a bit of a scandal when he socked a politician for said politician’s speech condemning the Marriage Act of 1995
[1] There has always been some confusion on the matter, due to the fact that Punjab had a pair of co-monarchs where neither was officially considered as being deserving of the title due to being the consort of the other, so to this day people aren’t sure if they should count Victor I and Catherine separately or as a “single” monarch
============================================================================== ASSAM (असम की घाटियों और पहाड़ियों का क्षेत्र)
Officially the Realm of the Valleys and Hills of Assam
Capital in City and County of Shillong, which has a population of nearly 150 thousand inhabitants. The kingdom’s largest city is Dispur, with a population of 1.8 million inhabitants
The kingdom has Assamese[1], Nepali, Hindi, Gaelic, English and Sanskrit as its official languages, but also recognizes over 20 minority or regional languages, including Khasi, Garo, Bengali, Apatani, Moinba, Adi-mishmi and Kachari
The kingdom has a total population about 36.6 million inhabitants, who are made of about 70% of ethnic Assamese, while the remaining 30% are divided among dozens of smaller ethnic groups, including the Khasi, Nyishi and Bohtiya peoples, as well as one of the largest European-descended groups in Bharat by percentage of the population[2]. The kingdom is majority Christian, with over 80% of the population identifying as such, the largest denomination being the branches of Hindu-Anglicanism
Assam is a strong executive monarchy in the Westminster Style, with its monarch holding the executive power but also having an amount of legislative and judiciary powers, which are mainly held by the Parliament of Shillong and the High Court of Assam
Assam was established on September 1st, 1906, as the eleventh imperial kingdom, being also the first to be made during the 20th century and the last created by Empress Victoria. Its first monarch, the third son of Leopold of the Carnatic, was beforehand the Raja of Darwha, having been created as such in 1901
Unlike all other Bharati imperial kingdoms, Assam officially has a princely state within its territory, the Jaintia Kingdom, which is made by the twenty Khasi Hills Chieftainships, de facto petty princely states that are an integrated part of the kingdom’s territory, in part due to the future personal union of Jaintia with Assam and in other due to the location of Assam’s capital as a species of enclave within the Khasi and Jaintia Hills[3]
Unlike most other imperial kingdoms, Assam also includes the High Kings of Ireland (in specific those considered historical) when counting its monarchs, and does not differentiate between anglicized or non-anglicized variations The Monarchs’ List
1906-1946: Leopold (b.1885:d.1946), born Prince Leopold Maurice Charles of Gwynedd (and later the Carnatic) 1946-1952: Percival I (b.1906:d:1952), born Prince Percival Edmund of Darwha 1952-1960: Brian III (b.1931), abdicated[4], currently the Archduke of Dispur
(Disputed during 1955-1957 by Aurelius (b.1941:d,1957?), son of Percival I, allied puppet[5]) 1960: Percival II (b.1933), son of Percival I, abdicated[6], currently the Archduke of Gohpur 1960-: Ariana (b.1937), daughter of Percival I, First Minister of Assam from 1955 to 1960, Rani of Jaintia from 1959 to 2003 Heir apparent: Mael Jasamanta, Maharaja of Balpara, Raja of Jaintia and Lord of Shillong (b.1956) son of Ariana 2. Prince Adrian of Assam and Jaintia, Crown Prince of Jaintia and Archduke of Kamrup (b.1983) 3. Prince Francis of Assam and Jaintia, Prince of Magaldai (b.2005) son of Adrian 4. Prince Octavius of Assam and Jaintia (b.2010) son of Adrian 5. Princess Adelaide of Assam and Jaintia (b.2006) daughter of Adrian
[1] The easternmost Indo-Aryan language in the world by land of origin
[2] Assam has one of the largest European-descended or European populations in Bharat, with about a third of the population identifying as having some European ancestry (although only about 10% of the population identify as being “European”), most of that population is of Irish or Scottish ancestry, resulting on a creole mix of Irish and Scottish Gaelic being an official language in Assam
[3] Originally established due to its location on the crossing of the Khasi Hills and serving as their headquarters until the establishment of the Assam Colony, the city and county is marked for its nicknamed of “Scotland of the East” due to its cooler climate and hilly landscape reminding the British of the Scottish Highlands
[4] Traumatized by the events of the Second World War, Brian III abdicated as soon as he could after the war’s end and moved to the Home Islands where he worked as a chemistry professor and later became Headmaster of Eton, currently finishing his second decade on the office
[5] The youngest son of Percival I, being his only child by his second wife, Aurelius became the allied puppet of Assam during the Second World War and is believed to have been executed on orders of either Brian III or then First Minister Ariana after his capture in 1957, with his body being left on a ditch somewhere in Northeastern Assam
[6] The second son of Percival I and just as disinterested on the Assamese throne as Brian III, his reign lasted the time it took for him to do the procedures to abdicate from it, and after his abdication Percival II (mainly known by his third middle name, Aberforth) moved to the Home Islands and opened a pub in Berkshire
Ariana (Ariana Walburga Adelaide Margaret; born in 1 May 1937) is the fifth and current monarch of Assam, as well as the kingdom’s sole reigning queen and longest-reigning monarch, commemorating her 60th year on the throne with a Diamond Jubilee in 2020.
The third child and only daughter of Percival I of Assam, with his first wife, Kendra of Aotearoa[1], born during the reign of her grandfather, Leopold, Ariana, at the time of her birth, was never expected to become a monarch, being not only a daughter but having two older brothers, but nonetheless received the same education as her older siblings, being considered early on the most talented and driven of the three in relation to learning.
Only two when her mother died, Ariana grew up by the side of her stepmother, Diana Barebone, whom she called “her dearly beloved”, and was known for often coddling and spoiling her youngest brother, Aurelius, who Ariana called her “favorite sibling”. When she was 9 Ariana’s father became king, and she was given the title “Lady of Assam” by him, the following year, in 1947, Ariana was betrothed to Crown Prince Lakshmi of Jaintia, with whom she had been friends since toddlerhood.
Only 15 when Percival I died from an untimely stroke in 1952, Ariana spent the early years of the Second World War in a mix of worry and overwork, supporting Brian III while Kuomintang China loomed over Assam. She finally married in 1954, only two months before the death of Emperor Leonard at the Blitz and the Allied invasion of Bharat.
Made her brother’s First Minister in 1955, when Assam was invaded and the kingdom became a thorn warzone, Ariana’s time on the position, which would last until her ascension to the throne, was marked by difficulty and the need for harsh decisions, with her and her husband de facto taking control over Assam while her oldest brother served as their figurehead and her youngest brother was a puppet of the Allies. On 1957 the loyalist forces captured Aurelius, and until recently Ariana was believed to have ordered the boy’s execution. During the war itself Ariana had her first and only child, Jasamanta II, who was born prematurely when she survived a car explosion and was made sterile by the shrapnel.
After the war ended in 1958, Ariana continued holding the position, while her husband ascended to the position of Raja of Jaintia in 1959. In 1960 she oversaw her brother Brian III’s abdication, and the entire short reign and following abdication of her other brother, Percival II, officially becoming the monarch of Assam in May 17th, 1960, at the age of 23.
An extremely competent monarch and administrator under any kind of pressure, with her early reign in special being a show of it, marked by the rebuilding of Assam nearly from the ground-up and the greater integration of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills into the kingdom, Ariana is known much for her personality, being often curt and harsh and with an imposing presence, which is only helped by her remarkably booming voice.
Nicknamed “The Witch Queen of Assam” by her critics due to her appearance[2] in her early years, Ariana (accidentally or not) rebranded that name with her reign, which was marked in the 1960s and 70s for the almost magical recovery and growth of Assam’s economy and infrastructure in the post-war years, and then as she aged the nickname developed yet another new meaning as the queen became famous for seemingly always being one step ahead of anyone against or supporting her. Ariana sometimes has also shown a sense of humor on the matter, and, for example, has made a tradition of wearing some variation of a witch costume at her All Hallows’ Eve Speech.
Widowed in 2003, when Lakshmi III of Jaintia died the year before their 50th anniversary, Ariana has expressed her desire to be buried with him upon death, and in Mary 2nd, 2020, announced she was beginning the process of abdicating to her son, having been diagnosed with the earliest stages of Alzheimer in March of the same year
[1] Illegitimate granddaughter of George V of Aotearoa, she and her father were recognized by Queen Meredith as being akin to the legitimized descendant of Louis XIV, not having right to inherit the throne but being recognized as a part of the Royal House of Aotearoa
[2] Ariana always had a striking appearance, but the war aged her dramatically to the point that some of those features could be considered similar to those of a stereotypical witch
If you feel that way then my objective here is complete
(I think it is on alternate histories like this that the the fact that I unironicaly like the HRE’s borders shows)
If you feel that way then my objective here is complete
(I think it is on alternate histories like this that the the fact that I unironicaly like the HRE’s borders shows)
Oh yes, but its complicated.
You see, originally it was understood that an imperial kingdom was established out of a colony (also called ultramarine territory) just as a dominion would be established, and with the dwindling of the ultramarine territories it was understood that chances of new imperial kingdoms being established were plummeting (besides the fact that at some point creating an imperial kingdom wasn't simply to deal with a desire for autonomy, but also to give a state for interested members of the imperial family). And then Quebec happened and now things are a bit more complicated.
Generally speaking Dominions don't generally clamor for their own monarchies (in special the older ones), and the parts of the empire that are directly connected to London are in general fine with the current system, but there is a single dominion, Puerto Rico, which is considered a strong contender to being made a kingdom.
In relation to regions of dominions wanting to become kingdoms there are some where there is a certain desire for a local monarchy, but it’s still a bit of a contentious issue if they should actually be made into imperial kingdoms or autonomous kingdoms within dominions. The most known of said regions are:
- Tasmania
- Western Australia
- And the Western parts of Kenya
(There’s a bit of a want for that in parts of Canada, but things are bound to only get more complicated there)
Interstingly, there is a land that isn’t a actual part of the empire but where there is a desire among parts of the population for it to become a imperial kingdom of Albion (although as of 2020 it hasn’t yet become supported by a majority of the population): Brittany
So, here's part two of the imperial kingdoms, sorry for it being the shortest of the three (and for, at least to me, not being my best work in the writting department)
The Imperial Kingdoms, of the Creations of Emperors Henry and Leonard
Between the creation of the 11th and the 12th imperial kingdoms, there was a hiatus of 30 years, 3 months, and 10 days, during which the entirety of the reign of Emperor Arthur, and the majority of the reign of Emperor Henry, occured.
Due to a variety of reasons, of whom the chief ones were bad timing, lack of interest and general circumstances, the reigns of Emperors Henry and Leonard of Albion saw the creation of only three imperial kingdoms, with there being also a span of 15 years between the creations of Emperor Henry and the creation of Emperor Leonard.
Unlike most of the imperial kingdoms that preceeded them, the 12th, 13th and 14th kingdoms saw a certain amount of effort being placed on acclimating the first monarchs to their new kingdoms before enthronement, with said first monarchs being appointed to the rulership of their kingdom's territorial predecessors at least a year beforehand.
It is also here that the oldest imperial kingdom to still be ruled by its first monarch (as of 2020) appears
LOWER BURMA (မြင့်မြတ်ညီညွတ်သောနိုင်ငံတော်အောက်မြန်မာပြည်၊ ရခိုင်နှင့်တနင်္သာရီ)
Officially the Sublime Unified Kingdom of Lower Burma, Arakan and Tenasserim
Capital in the City of Rangoon, also the kingdom’s largest city, with a population of 5.3 million inhabitants
The kingdom has Lower Burmish[1], English and Sanskrit as its official languages, and also recognizes a set of Karenic, Arakanese, Kuki-Chin and Mon dialects and languages on a regional level
The kingdom has a total population of nearly 19 million inhabitants, a majority of whom are ethnic Burmese, while the Karen, Rakhine, Chin, Rohingya and Mon peoples make the largest ethnic minorities, with peoples of European and Chinese descent being a prominent minority specifically on urban areas. The kingdom is majority Christian, with 63% of the population being a part of the Protestant Church of Burma[2] while another 5% profess to some other Christian church or denomination, the largest minorities are Buddhists, who officially make 25% of the population[3], and Muslims, who make about 6% of the population (and live mainly on the region of Arakan)
Lower Burma is a semi-executive monarchy in the Westminster Style, having developed from a constitutional absolute monarchy, with its monarch holding most of the executive power but delegating a relatively large percentage of it to his First Minister, with the Lower Burmese Parliament and Primal Court holding the legislative and judiciary powers. Some like to joke that Lower Burma is also partially a theocracy due to the power of the kingdom’s national church, the Protestant Church of Burma, and the religious-based powers of its monarch[4]
Lower Burma was established on December 11th, 1936, as the twelfth imperial kingdom. Its first monarch, the second son of Emperor Henry, was beforehand the Duke of York, having been created as such in 1924, and a vicar in the Church of England since 1935[5], he was also the Viceroy of Lower Burma, having been appointed as such in 1933 The Monarchs’ List
1937-1972: Edward X (b.1895:d.1972), born Prince Edward David of Cambridge 1972-1977: Edward XI Thuraphaya (b.1939:d.1977) 1977-2009: William V Kaunghayma (b.1955) abdicated[6], currently the King Father/Hkamedaw 2009-: Edward XII Sittwe (b.1980)
Heir apparent: Crown Prince Einshay Mintha Edward, Deputy King of the Realm, Uparaja of Arakan (b.2016) son of Edward XII
2. Prince Stephen Mintha of Lower Burma (b.2020) son of Edward XII
3. Princess Minthami Wallis of Lower Burma, Lady of Hmway Saung, Lady of the Scarlet Pavilion (b.1982) daughter of William V
4. Prince Mintha Charles of Lower Burma (b.2018) son of the Lady of Hmway Saung
5. Princess Minthami Lavinia of Lower Burma (b.2018) daughter of the Lady of Hmway Saung
[1] A branch of the Burmese language (also called “Yangon Burmese”), it’s difference to “Upper Burmish” (or “Mandalay Burmese”) is akin to the difference between European and North American English
[2] Officially the “Most Illustrious and Serene National Protestant Church of Lower Burma” (colloquially known as “Protestant Church of Burma” or “PCB”), which has been the national church of the kingdom since 1945, for more info into it look-up the threadmark into “Hindu-Anglicanism”
[3] As the Protestant Church of Burma is a highly syncretized religion with Buddhism, some consider it to be a part of the Buddhist percentage and as such consider Buddhism to be the unofficial religious majority of Lower Burma, at 88%
[4] The power of the Lower Burmese monarch within the PCB, which they are the head of, is considerably greater than the Albish Monarch within the British churches they head, in part due to the fact that all Lower Burmese kings have been much more involved in their national church, and have all been ordained priests within it
[5] An ordained priest since the age of 25, and a vicar since the year before his enthronement, Edward X of Lower Burma actually remained a member of the Church of England until 1938, when he married a thrice-divorced Burmese-Canadian socialite and was converted to the Protestant Church of Burma by her, entering it in 1939 and becoming its head in 1945 when he made it the national church of Lower Burma
[6] The King Father abdicated in a move to end Lower Burma’s de facto absolute monarchy, seeing his continued presence on the throne (due to his personal popularity with the people as an admired and beloved fatherly figure) as a hindrance to any chance of the kingdom moving to a more relaxed monarchy
Edward XII Sittwe (Edward Suu Aung Wunna; born in 18 August 1980) is the fourth and current monarch of Lower Burma, Arakan and Northern Tenasserim, and Mahasamgharaja of the Protestant Church of Burma. After his father abdicated the throne in his favor, he became monarch on December 7th, 2009, being the first king of Lower Burma to ascend to the throne while his predecessor was still alive and the first to not head a de facto absolute monarchy.
Edward XII was born August 18th, 1980, at the hospital pavilion of the Kandawgyi Palace Complex of Rangoon. He is the eldest son of king William V Kaunghayma, had with his foremost wife, Queen Amay Suu Kyi[1]. He has a younger sister, Princess Mintha Wallis, as well as nine half-sisters and five half-brothers. As the only son of the king by his primary consort, Edward XII was at birth entitled “Prince of Sittwe”[2], and was from birth the Crown Prince of Lower Burma, being recognized as Deputy King (or Uparaja) at the age of 14.
Studying at Magdalen College, University of Oxford, Edward XII graduated from there after completing the Foreign Service Programme, leaving with a degree in Foreign Relations. As like all of his predecessors, he was trained on becoming a member of the PCB, becoming an ordained priest of the church shortly after his graduation.
De facto taking the position of Deputy King at the age of 25, that same year William V announced his intention to abdicate in his son’s favor within the next five years, with Edward XII being, for the next four years, in a gradual acquisition of powers from his father. On December 7th, 2009, the former king issued a Royal Edict officially announcing his abdication and transferred the throne to Edward XII, who was officially crowned on September 23rd, 2012. At the end of his coronation Edward XII also was passed the office of Mahasamgharaja from his father, who has the coronation itself as his last ceremony holding the position.
A liberal much like his parents, and in special influenced by the formidable Queen Mother, Edward XII is known for his widespread reforms of the government, finishing his father’s work on curbing overarching aristocratic power by diminishing his own powers in a constitutional reform, becoming the first monarch of Lower Burma to divide the executive power with his First Ministers and to de facto abdicate from having a direct control over the legislative and judiciary.
Although he has curbed his royal powers (although still holding onto his various royal prerogatives), Edward XII still remains the Mahasamgharaja of the Protestant Church of Burma, and holds de facto absolute power of the kingdom’s state church, but, unlike his predecessors, the king has shied away from using said power to control the government through religious influence, and has instead focused on the spiritual and internal aspects of the office.
Sometimes called a Dharma King, Edward XII has, in general, focused on the social and religious aspects of his position, and is known for his social works based around one or both of said aspects. As of 2020 the king’s most known works are the “Rehabilitation Project”, a land reform and redistribution project that has been in progress since 2014; the complete overhaul and reform of the foster system in Lower Burma; and the establishment of the “Kidu” in Lower Burma[3], creating a direct and effective way through which citizens can appeal to the monarch for help.
A capable diplomat, Edward XII is also known for his work on Lower Burma’s unofficial foreign relations, reestablishing the kingdom’s relationship with neighboring Thailand after decades of estrangement.
Monogamous unlike his father and grandfather, Edward XII has been married since 2003 to Elizabeht Thiri Sanda Williamson[4] (born Elizabeth Sarah), whom he met while both were studying at Oxford, after being in a relationship since 2000. Known for their problems conceiving, which were later revealed to be caused mainly by infertility on the king’s part[5], the couple had their first son in 2016, after a long fertility treatment, and had another in 2020 after a similar process.
[1] Daughter of Bogyoke Aung San, 1st Archduke of Myaungmya, one of Lower Burma’s most talented military leaders before and during the Second World War, being posthumously given the highest peerage ever created in the kingdom
[2] Lower Burma partially follows the Upper Burmese custom of kings having their princely title as their regnal name, with most monarchs adding it as a secondary component
[3] A Bhutanese tradition by origin (the idea being brought to Edward XII by his grandmother, a princess of Bhutan by birth) based on the sacred duty of a Dharma King (a title officially used to refer to the monarchs of Bhutan and Sikkim) being caring for his people
[4] Upon converting to the Protestant Church of Burma, Elizabeth changed her middle name, Sarah, for “Thiri Sanda”, which had been an overblown nickname Edward XII had given to her in their early months of dating, meaning “Splendorous Moon”)
[5] Although the queen has revealed she has an endometrial lining on the thin side (which already makes the implantation of a fertilized egg more difficult), Edward XII (after the news of the queen’s fertility problems were made open and she started suffering from harassment by the press and politicians) revealed that he has Oligoasthenozoospermia, having a low sperm count and producing sperm with reduced motility, which results on him being de facto infertile without medical assistance
============================================================================== THE STRAITS (Kerajaan Bersatu Selat dan Riau-Lingga)
Officially the United Kingdom of the Straits and Riau-Lingga
Capital in the City and State of Singapore, also the kingdom’s largest city, with a population of 6.1 million inhabitants
The kingdom has Imperial English, Singapore English[1], Malay, Mandarin, Javanese and Tamil as its official languages, and also recognizes various minority languages and dialects on a local level
The kingdom has a total population of 11.4 million inhabitants, of whom the two largest groups are the ethnic Malays, who make 40% of the population, and ethnic Chinese, at 35%, while it also has considerable Javanese, Indian and European minorities, who comprehend, respectively, 7.7%, 4.5%, and 2.3% of the total population, with the remaining 10% being of a variety of other ethnic groups. The kingdom is a majority Muslim, with the followers of Islam making about 52% of the population, while the other half is made mostly by Buddhists, at 24%, Christians, at 13%, Hindus, at 4%, and followers of Chinese religions, at 3%
The Straits are a rather strong executive monarchy in the Westminster Style, with its monarch not only holding the executive power but having considerable powers over the legislative and judiciary branches of government, who are officially held by the Parliament of the Straits and the National Court
The Straits were established on December 11th, 1936, as the thirteenth imperial kingdom. Its first monarch, the third son of Emperor Henry, was beforehand the Duke of Sussex, having been created as such in 1924, and the Governor of the Straits Settlements, having been appointed as such in 1930
Together with the Bahamas the Straits are one of the only two current imperial kingdoms to have been expanded after being established, doing so with the annexation of the Sultanate of Riau-Lingga[2] in 1963, which already had been de facto united with the Straits for a time[3] but became officially so with the death of Sultan Mahmud V, who willed his throne to the Queen of the Straits, who officially united the two states in the mid-to-late 1960s
Similarly to only a few other imperial kingdoms, the Straits also possess an princely state within their territory, the Governorate of the Cocos-Keeling Islands[4], and are marked by their remarkable span of territory, as both the Cocos-Keeling Islands and the “nearby”[5] Christmas Islands are located on the Indian Ocean proper, on the other side of the Malay Archipelago from the Straits The Monarchs’ List
1937-1961: Albert (b.1895:d.1981), born Prince Albert of Cambridge, abdicated[6], King Father Albert from 1961 to 1981 1961-: Elizabeth II (b.1926), born Princess Elizabeth of York, Sultana consort of Riau-Lingga from 1947 to 1963 Mahmud V (b.1921:d.1963), Sultan of Riau-Lingga since 1954, ruled as co-monarch from 1961 until his death Heir apparent: Tengku Besar Albert Sulaiman of the Straits and Riau-Lingga, Yang di-Pertuan Muda (b.1948) son of Elizabeth II 2. Tengku Muda Henry Abdul Rahman of the Straits and Riau-Lingga, Raja Muda (b.1973) son of Albert 3. Tengku Charles Muhammad of the Straits and Riau-Lingga, Raja of Daik (b.1992) son of Henry 4. Tengku Elizabeth Midha of the Straits and Riau-Lingga (b.2014) daughter of Charles 5. Tengku Charlotte Haryati of the Straits and Riau-Lingga (b.2015) daughter of Charles
[1] A variation of Imperial English marked by the adoption of Malay and Mandarin words, terms and some wording structures
[2] Which, unlike OTL, never saw the fall of the Bendahara dynasty and, after some developments in relation to the Dutch, officially became a British (later Albish) protectorate during the 1850s
[3] Ever since the marriage of Mahmud V to the then heiress to the Straits in 1947, the imperial kingdom and the sultanate had been in a slow process of uniting through cooperating administrations and interwoven economies, and in 1961 Elizabeth II, upon her ascension, even made her husband the nominal co-monarch of the Straits. Mahmud V’s will more than anything simply gave the final push on the unification process
[4] Originally an uninhabited archipelago made of two flat, low-lying coral atolls, it was claimed and settled by John Clunies-Ross (Clunies-Ross I) in the 1820s, and only in the 1850s that the then British Empire annexed the islands (by mistake, apparently, as the captain who did the annexation simply though he was on the Cocos Islands of the Andaman), but it remained under the “rule” of its original owners, who were titled “superintendents”. In 1886, during the “reign” of Clunies-Ross III, Empress Victoria officially recognized the Clunies-Ross rule with a perpetual grant, and recognized them as hereditary “Resident Magistrates” of the islands, with the “governorate” being established in 1965 by Elizabeth II of the Straits, who officially recognized the islands as being a uniquely strange princely state
[5] If somewhere 985 kilometers away can be said to be “nearby”
[6] Already tired from ruling before WWII and having suffered as a Chinese war-prisoner through much of it, Albert hadn’t actually ruled the Straits for years beforehand, and his abdication was simply him giving up any pretenses of doing so
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Mary Victoria Gilbertine Alexandra; born in 22 April 1926) is the second and current monarch of the Straits, as well as the ninth monarch and first sultana regnant of Riau. As the Queen of the Straits, she is also the nominal Commander-in-Chief of the East Indies Fleet of the Royal Navy and the Admiral Commanding of the Singapore Station. She is also, since 1998, recognized as the honorary “Third Sea Lord”, and holds the position of Chairwoman of the Sovereign Council of Malaysia since 1982.
Born as the first child of the then Duke and Duchess of York, on her maternal grandfather’s house at Mayfair, London, Elizabeth II lived on the Home Islands only until the age of 4, moving with her family to Singapore in 1930 when her father was appointed governor of the Straits Settlements. Originally educated privately at home with her sister, firstly by a governess and then by a series of tutors, Elizabeth II showed from a young age a keen interest for the sea and the navy, something that she passed to her younger sister, Princess Margaret, and after much discussions entered the Royal Naval College, Singapore, at the age of 10.
After nearly 11 years as a Princess of York, Elizabeth II became a “Princess of the Straits” in December 11th, 1936, with the enthronement of Albert of the Straits, and on the following year was a member of the procession during his coronation. Heiress presumptive upon her father’s enthronement, Elizabeth II continued to study at the Royal Naval College, Singapore, until the age of 16, when she progressed to Dartmouth, becoming an ensign at HMS Kinghorne in 1944.
Married on October of 1947 to then Crown Prince Mahmud of Riau-Lingga after years of courtship[2], Elizabeth II did not retired from the Royal Navy upon marriage, although she did take partial leaves during her first and second pregnancies, and spent the late 1940s and early 1950s as a speedy riser on the ranks of the Royal Navy, being a Rear Admiral by 1952.
Stationed on Australia during the early years of the Second World War, Elizabeth II was there when the Straits (and in specific Singapore) fell to the Allies in 1954, hearing of the capture of the city and her parents while at dinner with her family, and served as one of the fiercest and most brutal leaders of the Royal Navy on the Eastern Front of the war, later becoming the de facto ruler of the insular parts of Albish-held Southeast-Asia.
The de facto ruler of the Straits and Riau-Lingga after the end of the Second World War, with her husband being the nominal Sultan of Riau since 1954, Elizabeth II became the official ruler of the Straits on May 17th, 1961, when her father, weakened and traumatized by his time as a prisoner of war, abdicated on his daughter’s name and dropped any pretenses of being the actual ruler of their kingdom.
Co-monarch with her husband for two years, Elizabeth II became a widow in 1963 when Mahmud V died from lung cancer on June 29th, and at the same time inherited his throne. Because of that, Elizabeth II’s early reign was marked not only by the rebuilding of the Straits, which were decimated by the Second World War, but also by the finalization of integrating the Straits with the also rebuilding Riau-Lingga Sultanate, a process that symbolically was completed on August 26th, 1967, when Elizabeth II was crowned simultaneously as Queen of the Straits and Sultana of Riau-Lingga.
Currently the longest-serving ruler of Southeast Asia and the Malay World (and one of the region’s longest-reigning monarchs in history), with over 6 decades of experience as a ruler, Elizabeth II is considered by many the primus inter pares among the rulers of the region, often being seen as a source of guidance and counsel for her youngest peers. On the Straits themselves, the queen is colloquially known as “Queen Nenek” by her subjects, and has her long reign marked, above all else, by the growth and development of the kingdom over the decades, going from a land ravaged by war sustained by being a bastion of Albish military power to an economic powerhouse, serving as a financial, services and shipping hub and having one of the highest qualities of living across the Albish Empire.
Identifying as a deeply religious woman, Elizabeth II is also a self-declared “incomplete convert”, admitting to the fact that, although converting to Islam in 1947 in preparation to her marriage, she never abandoned much of the beliefs she was raised with as an Anglican, calling her beliefs as being “a mixing of both what I was raised with, what I married into[3], and some things I accepted with the years”[4]. In relation to her personal life and interests, Elizabeth II is known for her interest in marine biology and ecology, often visiting research centers and aquariums on her free time, and is known for her lifelong friendship with the late Julia McWilliams, the decorated Royal Navy Commodore, marine biologist and military researcher.
[1] 17 Bruton Street, nowadays the official residence of the monarch of the Straits in London, was at the time of Elizabeth II's birth the London home of her maternal grandfather, the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne
[2] The two had actually met as children, and were even casual friends, but only started developing a closer and later romantic relationship after meeting as students at Dartmouth (Mahmud became an officer of the Engineer Corps of the Royal Navy), spending much of the years between 1942 and 1947 in a long courtship done through letters and chance encounters, with Elizabeth II revealing much later on they actually had their first night together in 1945, while stationed at Malacca
[3] Doing the Hajj in 1948, and committing to Islamic dietary laws (the queen has at times even joked about her sorrow at not being capable of drinking wine or whisky anymore), Elizabeth II has as the main points of her mixing the manner through which she does her daily prayers (the queen has admitted to mostly doing it on the same manner as she prayed when she was officially Christian) and the fact that she fasts during both Lent and the Ramadan
[4] The last part referring most probably to Elizabeth II’s admittance to having adopted some beliefs from Hinduism, in special the idea of reincarnation
[a] Although Elizabeth II had been the monarch of the Straits for the good part of a decade and Mahmud V had been Sultan since 1954, war, rebuilding and integrating caused both of them to delay their coronations, with Elizabeth ending-up being crowned in 1967 while Mahmud V had a hastily-prepared coronation a few weeks before his death
============================================================================== SIERRA LEONE (Kiŋdɔm de Salone)
Officially the Kingdom of Sierra Leone
Capital in the Port of Freetown, also the kingdom’s largest city, with a population of 1.2 million inhabitants
The kingdom has Imperial English and Krio[1] as its official languages, it also has over 30 native languages within its territory, many of whom are official on the local or regional level
The kingdom has a total population of nearly 12 million inhabitants, and is an extremely multiethnic country having at least as many native ethnic groups as it does languages, outside of them, there are also those of Afro-Americandescent[2], who make about 8% of the population, and those of Euro-American descent[3], who make another 3% of the population. Religiously the country is mostly divided among Muslims (mainly Sunni of the Maliki school of jurisprudence[4]), who make about 26% of the population, Christians (mainly Protestants), who make about 18% of the population, and Krio[5], the largest Christo-IslamicReligion[6], whose believers make 51% of the population; another 3% are followers of African folk religions[7]
Sierra Leone is a nominal executive monarchy in the Westminster Style, with its monarch holding the executive power but rarely using it (delegating the office of chief of government to her Foremost Ministers when she isn’t needed) while the Parliament of Sierra Leone and the High Court of Freetown hold the legislative and judiciary powers
Sierra Leone was established on June 2nd, 1952, as the fourteenth imperial kingdom. Its first (and current) monarch, the third daughter of Emperor Leonard (being the only monarch enthroned by him), never held a royal dukedom before her enthronement, but had been married to Prince Theodore of Gondar, an Ethiopian Prince[8] since 1950, she was beforehand the Governor-General of Sierra Leone since 1950
The first imperial kingdom to be established specifically from Albion’s direct territories in Africa, Sierra Leone is marked by being semi-feudal in a similar sense to some of the other territories of the empire in the continent, with its smaller administrative divisions (shires and domains[9]) being mainly ruled in a level or other by the hereditary native nobility recognized by the Albish in the 19th century, in special on the domain level, where the position of hereditary administrator is entirely official, with their level of authority depending on the place The Monarch and her Family
Since 1952: Victoria II (b.1931), born Princess Victoria Mary of Wales, the first and currently only monarch of the country
Her late husband, Prince George of Gondar, Grand Duke of Rokel (b.1930:d.2017)
1) Crown Princess Leona of Sierra Leone, Grand Duchess of Rokel, Princess of Kenema, Duchess of Pepel (b.1953)
m. Prince Marcel Etienne of Wahran, Duke of Lungi (b.1952)
1) Prince Henry Victor of Sierra Leone, Duke of Sherbro (b.1980) m. Lady Harriet Lipton-Paget of Maforki (b.1980)
1) Princess Georgiana of Sherbro (b.2007)
2) Princess Adelaide of Sherbro (b.2009)
3) Princess Magdalene of Sherbro (b.2013)
2) Princess Marcella of Sierra Leone (b.1983) m. Diedrich II, Grand Duke of Reisküste and Prince of Prussia (b.1979)
1) Prince Diethard of Reisküste and Prussia, Hereditary Grand Duke (b.2009)
2) Prince Wulfric of Reisküste and Prussia (b.2010)
2) Princess Millicent of Sierra Leone, First Royal Lady (b.1955)
3) Princess Oriana of Sierra Leone (b.1957:d.2012) m. Leul Ras Mengesha III, King of Tigray (b.1953)
1) Makeda, Empress consort of Ethiopia (b.1975) m. Salomon V, Emperor of Ethiopia (b.1974:d.2009)
1) see Meklit, Crown Princess of Tigray
2) Menelik III, Emperor of Ethiopia (b.1995) m. Woyzero Alitash of Gondar (b.1994)
1) Leult-hoy Judith, Queen of Shewa (b.2011) m. Leul Ras Sahle Melekot, King of Shewa (b.2011)
2) Abeto Kidane, Crown Prince of Tigray (b.1977) m. Princess Meklit of Ethiopia, Crown Princess of Tigray (b.1993)
1) Leul Lij Tesfaye of Tigray (b.2011)
2) Leult Oriana of Tigray (b.2013)
3) Leult Desta of Tigray (b.2014)
4) Leul Lij Dawit Yakob of Tigray (b.2016)
5) Leult Seble of Tigray (b.2017)
3) Abeto Yohannes of Tigray (b.1979)
4) Zewditu of Tigray (b.1980) m. Leul Ras Woldemichael Solomon IV, Bahri Negus (b.1975)
1) Emebet Etenesh, Crown Princess of Medri Bahri (b.2002)
2) Emebet Yewubdar of Medri Bahri (b.2003)
3) Emebet Mariam of Medri Bahri (b.2005)
4) Princess Cersei of Sierra Leone, 1st Duchess of Waterloo in Sierra (b.1969)
m. Robert Peters, 7th Duke of Freetown, 3rd Prince of Kabala and Deputy Minister of Mining (b.1967)(a)
m. James Sackville, Duke of Waterloo in Sierra (b.1982)(b)
1a) Prince John of Freetown (b.1995)
2a) Princess Meryl of Freetown (b.1997)
3a) Prince Thomas of Sierra Leone, 1st Duke of York in Sierra (b.2000) m. Princess Louisa of the Bullom (b.1999)
1) Princess Adele of York (b.2019)
4b) Princess Anna of Waterloo (b.2006)
5b) Prince George of Waterloo (b.2009)
[1] Also called Sierra Leonean Creole, it is an offshoot of the various variations and dialects of English brought during the settlement of the Sierra Leone Colony, and due to its non-native origins is considered by the kingdom’s government as another national lingua franca together with Imperial English
[2] Mainly the descendants of the Nova Scotian Settlers, Jamaican Maroons and various liberated slaves who settled Sierra Leone from its inception and throughout the 19th century (during which a majority came from the United States, or escaped from there to Canada and then to Sierra Leone)
[3] Ergo, the mostly biracial descendants of the Albish settlers who came over the course of the 19th century
[4] The main school of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence in Africa, influenced by Sufism, it is marked by considering popular consensus
[5] A result of both exceedingly convincing missionaries coming to entrenched Muslim communities and the Islamic Reformation, Krio, sometimes called Faith of Sierra Leone, is a religion that mixes both local Islamic Faith with Protestant (mainly Anglican and Presbyterian) Christianity, as well as a good serving of folk beliefs. Some have called it “Islamic Christianity”, and it often gets exceedingly confusing when the matter of jurisprudence comes (as it uses both the Quran, the protestant Bible, the hadiths, and popular consensus as its sources)
[6] A bit of a strange appearance from the 19th century onward, they aren’t that numerous or widespread, and only really came into being with the Islamic Reformation, but are marked by generally seeing the mixing of both Christianity and Islam into a single set of beliefs and rituals, often possessing both the jurisprudence of the latter and the mysticism of the former
[7] Although some consider those numbers to be much higher, as often practitioners of other faiths also hold many folk beliefs or have their own faiths highly syncretized with said beliefs
[8] A direct descendant of Emperor Tewodros II of Ethiopia, whose only son, Prince Alemayehu, did not die at age 18 like OTL and had descendants, his son being later recognized as the nominal King of Gondar by Emperor Salomon IV of Ethiopia (in part due to his marriage to one of Alemayehu’s daughters, and in part due to his mother’s own prodding due to her sibling-like relationship with the Ethiopian prince). Theodore was actually born in Wiltshire, and set foot in Ethiopia for the first time when he went there for his daughter’s marriage in 1972
[9] That being the most commonly used name, others include fiefdoms, chiefdoms, states, native kingdoms and princely states
Victoria II (Victoria Mary Albert Laetitia; born in 29 July 1931) is the Queen of Sierra Leone. The first monarch of Sierra Leone as an imperial kingdom of Albion, she ascended to the position on June 2nd, 1952, upon being enthroned by her father, Emperor Leonard of Albion. She is the first woman to be enthroned as the sole ruler of an imperial kingdom, and currently the oldest living enthroned monarch among the Albish imperial kingdoms.
Born on July 29th, 1931, in Windlesham Moor, as the sixth child and third daughter of the Prince and Princess of Wales (later Emperor Leonard and Empress Olivia), Victoria II was at birth the seventh in the line of succession to the Albish throne, a number that later rose to sixth upon the death of her grandfather in 1943.
Known for her liking of acting, singing and dancing since an early age, Victoria II was as a child and then a teenager known for her bright, humorous and high-spirited personality, something she has retained to this day. She met her future husband, Prince Theodore of Gondar, when both were 14 and on holiday in Bath, and commented over the years on the fact that it took them months to become comfortable around eachother, with the couple only officially entering a romantic relationship in 1949.
Married in 1950, when she was 19 and him 20, Victoria II was shortly thereafter made the Governor-General of Sierra Leone, becoming one of the youngest individuals ever appointed to rule over an albish territory. It is agreed that the appointing was in preparation to making her a monarch, which is most greatly shown by the fact that, upon her enthronement, which occurred less than a year into the Second World War, Victoria II only had to wait a week before her coronation, whose preparations had been completed months beforehand.
In Sierra Leone for nearly the entirety of the war, forcing her way in to attend Emperor Leonard’s funeral, Victoria II, during that time, mostly served as the sustainer of high spirits in Sierra Leone, which became one of the parts of the Albish Empire least affected by the war and served as a central point for the Axis’ military efforts and strategy. It was also during the war that Victoria II had her three eldest daughters, all born on a bunker beneath the Royal Palace of Freetown[1].
Possessing one of the longest reigns in history, Victoria II’s nearly seven decades as the ruler of Sierra Leone have been (as of 2020) marked by her serving as the neutral but friendly and caring head of the kingdom’s government, serving, in the simplest of terms, as the individual responsible for dealing with the complicated internal diplomacy of Sierra Leone. Although officially the sole holder of the executive power on the kingdom, Victoria II nonetheless has historically preferred to delegate the work as chief of the executive to her Foremost Ministers, more than once explaining how the needs of Sierra Leone’s governance are simply too great for a single individual, but has also not shied away from actively taking the reins of power, doing so in special during the political turmoil and instability of the late 20th century. Currently (as of 2020), Victoria II’s main FM is her daughter and heir, Leona, who was appointed to the position in 2012 and divides the power with four other ministers.
During her reign Victoria II has also seen a great development of Sierra Leone in its economy, infrastructure and life quality, with the kingdom having one of the lowest rates of poverty, illiteracy and child mortality in West Africa, and being marked for the fact that there is barely any difference in life quality between urban and rural environments. Although always complimentary of the large mining and agricultural sectors of Sierra Leone (which provide most of the kingdom’s exports), Victoria II is known for her spearheading the development of the kingdom’s services sectors, which provides work for over a third of the population and, interestingly, is mainly based around “exporting” work, as Sierra Leone is the main destination for outsourcing customer interaction services[2].
Known for having a kind and charming public persona, Victoria II is also known for her abhorrence of corruption, child labor and forced labor, the latter two of which caused her to nationalize large chunks of both the mining and cocoa farming industries of Sierra Leone while the former is considered the greatest factor behind the political unrest of the late 20th century, and whose response to is the reason why Victoria II will probably always be remembered for the “Nine Purges”.
By marriage an Ethiopian princess, although she and her husband visited Ethiopia for the first time in the 70s, Victoria II is the maternal great-grandmother of Emperor Menelik III of Ethiopia, through her third daughter, Princess Oriana, who died in 2012. With her husband Victoria II is the mother of four daughters, of whom three are married. Although originally believing to have become sterile after the complicated pregnancy of Princess Oriana, the queen gave birth to last child in 1969, 12 years after her beforehand-youngest daughter. Princess Cersei is most often known for her relationship with her parents and personal life, becoming infamous as a young woman for being a tabloid fodder, marrying her gay friend in 1995, divorcing from said gay friend in the year 2000, and marrying her mother’s 20-year-old then junior undersecretary.
[1] “Better be safe than sorry when air-raids are a thing”
[2] Some like to joke that Sierra Leone is one of the only places in the world where a subsistent farmer is also a call center worker, with most of them actually doing said job from home
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Mary Victoria Gilbertine Alexandra; born in 22 April 1926) is the second and current monarch of the Straits, as well as the ninth monarch and first sultana regnant of Riau. As the Queen of the Straits, she is also the nominal Commander-in-Chief of the East Indies Fleet of the Royal Navy and the Admiral Commanding of the Singapore Station. She is also, since 1998, recognized as the honorary “Third Sea Lord”, and holds the position of Chairwoman of the Sovereign Council of Malaysia since 1982.
Born as the first child of the then Duke and Duchess of York, on her maternal grandfather’s house at Mayfair, London, Elizabeth II lived on the Home Islands only until the age of 4, moving with her family to Singapore in 1930 when her father was appointed governor of the Straits Settlements. Originally educated privately at home with her sister, firstly by a governess and then by a series of tutors, Elizabeth II showed from a young age a keen interest for the sea and the navy, something that she passed to her younger sister, Princess Margaret, and after much discussions entered the Royal Naval College, Singapore, at the age of 10.
After nearly 11 years as a Princess of York, Elizabeth II became a “Princess of the Straits” in December 11th, 1936, with the enthronement of Albert of the Straits, and on the following year was a member of the procession during his coronation. Heiress presumptive upon her father’s enthronement, Elizabeth II continued to study at the Royal Naval College, Singapore, until the age of 16, when she progressed to Dartmouth, becoming an ensign at HMS Kinghorne in 1944.
Married on October of 1947 to then Crown Prince Mahmud of Riau-Lingga after years of courtship[2], Elizabeth II did not retired from the Royal Navy upon marriage, although she did take partial leaves during her first and second pregnancies, and spent the late 1940s and early 1950s as a speedy riser on the ranks of the Royal Navy, being a Rear Admiral by 1952.
Stationed on Australia during the early years of the Second World War, Elizabeth II was there when the Straits (and in specific Singapore) fell to the Allies in 1954, hearing of the capture of the city and her parents while at dinner with her family, and served as one of the fiercest and most brutal leaders of the Royal Navy on the Eastern Front of the war, later becoming the de facto ruler of the insular parts of Albish-held Southeast-Asia.
The de facto ruler of the Straits and Riau-Lingga after the end of the Second World War, with her husband being the nominal Sultan of Riau since 1954, Elizabeth II became the official ruler of the Straits on May 17th, 1961, when her father, weakened and traumatized by his time as a prisoner of war, abdicated on his daughter’s name and dropped any pretenses of being the actual ruler of their kingdom.
Co-monarch with her husband for two years, Elizabeth II became a widow in 1963 when Mahmud V died from lung cancer on June 29th, and at the same time inherited his throne. Because of that, Elizabeth II’s early reign was marked not only by the rebuilding of the Straits, which were decimated by the Second World War, but also by the finalization of integrating the Straits with the also rebuilding Riau-Lingga Sultanate, a process that symbolically was completed on August 26th, 1967, when Elizabeth II was crowned simultaneously as Queen of the Straits and Sultana of Riau-Lingga.
Currently the longest-serving ruler of Southeast Asia and the Malay World (and one of the region’s longest-reigning monarchs in history), with over 6 decades of experience as a ruler, Elizabeth II is considered by many the primus inter pares among the rulers of the region, often being seen as a source of guidance and counsel for her youngest peers. On the Straits themselves, the queen is colloquially known as “Queen Nenek” by her subjects, and has her long reign marked, above all else, by the growth and development of the kingdom over the decades, going from a land ravaged by war sustained by being a bastion of Albish military power to an economic powerhouse, serving as a financial, services and shipping hub and having one of the highest qualities of living across the Albish Empire.
Identifying as a deeply religious woman, Elizabeth II is also a self-declared “incomplete convert”, admitting to the fact that, although converting to Islam in 1947 in preparation to her marriage, she never abandoned much of the beliefs she was raised with as an Anglican, calling her beliefs as being “a mixing of both what I was raised with, what I married into[3], and some things I accepted with the years”[4]. In relation to her personal life and interests, Elizabeth II is known for her interest in marine biology and ecology, often visiting research centers and aquariums on her free time, and is known for her lifelong friendship with the late Julia McWilliams, the decorated Royal Navy Commodore, marine biologist and military researcher.
[1] 17 Bruton Street, nowadays the official residence of the monarch of the Straits in London, was at the time of Elizabeth II's birth the London home of her maternal grandfather, the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne
[2] The two had actually met as children, and were even casual friends, but only started developing a closer and later romantic relationship after meeting as students at Dartmouth (Mahmud became an officer of the Engineer Corps of the Royal Navy), spending much of the years between 1942 and 1947 in a long courtship done through letters and chance encounters, with Elizabeth II revealing much later on they actually had their first night together in 1945, while stationed at Malacca
[3] Doing the Hajj in 1948, and committing to Islamic dietary laws (the queen has at times even joked about her sorrow at not being capable of drinking wine or whisky anymore), Elizabeth II has as the main points of her mixing the manner through which she does her daily prayers (the queen has admitted to mostly doing it on the same manner as she prayed when she was officially Christian) and the fact that she fasts during both Lent and the Ramadan
[4] The last part referring most probably to Elizabeth II’s admittance to having adopted some beliefs from Hinduism, in special the idea of reincarnation
[a] Although Elizabeth II had been the monarch of the Straits for the good part of a decade and Mahmud V had been Sultan since 1954, war, rebuilding and integrating caused both of them to delay their coronations, with Elizabeth ending-up being crowned in 1967 while Mahmud V had a hastily-prepared coronation a few weeks after his death
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