A Murder in the Royal Palace in Edinburgh - a Timeline from 1566

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The Puritan colony of Providence, with its capital of Concord (*Framlingham, Massachusetts) was still a theocratic dictatorship. By 1645 its borders were as follows: A line from Southampton (*Portsmouth, New Hampshire) west to the River Hudson north of *Albany, then south till it met the eastern border of New Norfolk, south along that border to *Poughkeepsie, New York, then east north-east to just south of *Boston, Massachusetts. [1] In 1645 the estimated population was 30,600. All American Indians had been expelled from the colony, except the few hundred who had converted to Puritanism.

In 1638 Oliver Cromwell emigrated with its family from England to Providence. They settled in Concord. He believed there was no future for him in England. He became active in local politics and became prominent in the colonial assembly. There was a Governor appointed by James I and VI, but he had little real power. Actual power was in the Council elected by the assembly. In 1643, Cromwell became the Head of the Council.

The Irish colony of New Ireland, capital Tralee (*Portland, Maine), was flourishing. By 1645 its boundaries were as follows: The northern border of Providence west from Southampton to the River Merrimack, then north along the river to confluence with the River Pemigewasset, then north along that river to its source. [2]. Its northern and eastern borders were the borders with New France, which had not been defined, But OTL New Brunswick, northern Maine and northern New Hampshire were part of New France. The estimated population in 1645 was 26,200. There were significant numbers of American Indian and mixed race people.

[1] For Poughkeepsie see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poughkeepsie,_New_York

[2] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merrimack_River, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pemigewasset_River. [2]

 

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The Dutch colony of New Netherland, capital New Amsterdam (*New Hampton, Virginia), expanded in area and grew in population. In 1645 its borders were as follows: the River *Nuese west from the Atlantic Ocean, then north to the River *James, east along that river to where it turns south at * Richmond, Virginia, north to the River *Potomac, that river east to *Chesapeake Bay, a line across the south of the * Delmarva Peninsula to the Atlantic Ocean. *Hatteras Island was also in New Netherland.

The estimated population in 1645 was 72,700. There were generally good relations with the American Indian nations: Eno, Monacan, Powhatan, Saponi, Secotan, Tuscarora, and Tutelo, with some intermarriage with colonists of European, mainly Dutch, descent.

New Netherland was prosperous with cotton and tobacco exported to Europe. Slaves imported from west Africa worked on the cotton and tobacco farms and plantations.

(1) For the Nuese River see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuse_River.

 

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Ferdinando, the eldest son of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo de' Medici, died from illness in infancy . Therefore his younger brother, Giancarlo de' Medici (born 24 July 1611), became Grand Duke when his father died on 28 February 1621. Because he was only nine years old, his mother, Maria Maddalena, and paternal grandmother, Christina of Lorraine, acted as joint regents. The regency ended when he reached the age of eighteen on 24 July 1629.

Grand Duke Giancarlo I wanted to follow other European nations and have a Tuscan colony in North America. In April 1635 he commissioned a fleet of ships to sail across the Atlantic, and establish a colony. They landed at the mouth of the *St. Jones River, Delaware Bay, in June 1635. (1) They founded a settlement there, which the leader of the colonists named Santa Lucia, There were 774 passengers when the ships landed - men, women and children.

In 1645 the eastern border of the Tuscan colony of Colombia was Delaware Bay. Its southern border was the northern border of New Netherland across the *Delmarva Peninsula, to the River Potomac. The Potomac was the boundary up to * Williamsport, Maryland, then a straight line east to the head of * Delaware Bay. (2)

The estimated population of the colony in 1645 was 18,200. This included colonists of Italian, mostly Tuscan, descent, American Indians and people of mixed race. Colombia had good relations with the native Nanticoke and Susquehannock nations.

(1) For St. Jones River see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Jones_River.

(2) For Williamsport see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williamsport,_Maryland.

 

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James I summoned a parliament for England in April 1643, because he was short of money after the Twenty-Four Years War. After the general election in April 1643, historians have estimated that the Parliamentarians had a majority of 52 over the Royalists in the House of Commons, though many MPs were independents. John Hampden and John Lilburne were prominent Parliamentarians.

The Commons passed a bill which limited the lifetime of a parliament to a maximum of four years, and obliged the king to summon parliament every year. It was rejected by the Royalist dominated House of Lords. The king dissolved Parliament in June 1644, and did not summon another one.

 

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King James VI of Scotland and I of England and Ireland , died from natural causes on 14 May 1646. He was fifty-five years old, and survived by his wife, Queen Catherine de' Medici and their daughter and four sons. The eldest son. Prince James, now became king as James VII and II, at the age of 36. He was born on 10 June 1609.

The new king was the complete opposite of his father. He was dissolute and had a string of mistresses and many illegitimate children. He married Princess Maria of Portugal in May 1628. They had two children, Robert, born 30 June 1629, and Catherine, born 16 March 1631. They had no more children because Maria refused to sleep with her husband because of his unfaithfulness. Not that he minded much. Also he was not interested in affairs of state.

 

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On 12 June 1646, King James II called a general election for the House of Commons for England and Wales. Polling took place in the two weeks of June and the first two weeks of July 1646. Historians have estimated that the Parliamentarian Party won a majority of 94 seats over the Royalist Party, and around twenty-five percent of MPs were Independents. Parliament met on 17 July 1646. King James appointed Sir Thomas Fairfax as secretary of state, and John Hampden as lord treasurer.

Parliament passed the Bill of Rights in November 1646, and the king gave it his Royal Assent. So it became the law of England and Wales, as the Act of Rights. It contained the following provisions: Parliament must meet annually; a general election must be held at least every four years; parliamentary consent was needed to levy taxes and maintain a standing army.

 

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Historians have estimated that by 1645 there 81,300 members of the Fellowship of Christian Love in Britain , 18,000 in Ireland, and several tens of thousands in British colonies in North America, mostly in New Norfolk. There were also several thousand in the Netherland, most in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. The prominent English Parliamentarian, John Lilburne, was a member.

In 1642, the General Assembly of the Fellowship meeting in London, declared that Hell does not exist, because its existence would be incompatible with a God of infinite love. People who are not in a state of sanctity when they die, do not go straight to Heaven. Instead they go to Purgatory, where they are purified of their sins and imperfections. Their length of their stay depends on how holy, or sinful, they are, and how much they have freed themselves from attachment to their sins and faults. Basically how much they love God and their fellow human beings.

 

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Anne of Austria, the wife of King Louis XIII of France, gave birth to a baby girl on 4 September 1638. They named her Marie. This was the day before the birth of the future Louis XIV in OTL.

When Louis died on 14 May 1643, he was succeeded by his son Louis as Louis XIV. However his personality was similar to OTL Philippe I, Duke of Orleans, and born on the same date, 21 September 1640.

(1) See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_I,_Duke_of_Orleans.

 

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Montreal was established by French settlers in 1642 as in OTL.

In April 1645 an expedition set sail from Tralee (OTL Portland, Maine) in New Ireland to discover the North West passage. It was commissioned and financed by Prince Sean and the Irish government. It was led by Captain Tomas O'Hegarty. (1)

The expedition sailed in the Atlantic east past Newfoundland, then north in the Labrador Sea, east through Hudson Strait and Foxe Channel into Foxe Basin. (2) It sailed all around Foxe Basin, and circumnavigated Southampton Island, which O'Hegarty named Enniskillen Island, after his hometown in Ireland. (3) He claimed all the land he discovered for Prince Sean of Ireland. The expedition arrived back in Tralee in October 1645. O'Hegarty made contact with the native Inuit. An expedition led by Henry Hudson in 1610 discovered Foxe Basin. It wintered on Southampton Island in 1610/11, but they all died. See post #76 on page 4.

The University of Cork was founded by Prince Sean in 1646. It was open to Catholics and Protestants, though most of the students and teaching staff were Catholics.

(1) He and Prince Sean are fictional characters.

(2) For Foxe Basin see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxe_Basin.

(3) For Southampton Island see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southampton_Island,

 

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On the expedition of Tomas O'Hegarty to the Arctic in 1645, was the anthropologist and naturalist Kieran Aiken. He was 29 years old, having been born on 7 March 1616 in Tralee. He studied the fauna and flora, and Inuit of the places the expedition passed through and landed. He wrote about his discoveries in a magnificently illustrated book, published in Dublin in 1646. It was well received and successful.

Cork University was intended for the study of the people and natural history of the world outside Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, and the development of navigation and ship building.

 

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In 1645 Lady Harriet Lee became the latest mistress of Prince James, who became King James VII and II in May 1646. She was twenty-eight years old and a granddaughter of Sir Henry Lee (1530 - 1610). He served Henry VII, Edward VI and Elizabeth, becoming her master of the ordance in 1580. He is an historical person, but Harriet is fictional. She was a pretty woman with long fair hair and large breasts. She lived with James in his royal palaces in England and they were seen in public together.

Harriet gave birth to a baby boy on 11 September 1646. She and James named him Richard. After a miscarriage in 1648, she gave birth to a second son on 7 January 1649. She and James named him Charles. He and Richard were given the surname Fitzjames.

Harriet wrote a book called An Intimate Account of Life With King James . It was published in 1656 and was a runaway success. It is still in print in 2022. It gives a very intimate and explicit description of the sex life of Harriet and James, of the different positions in which they had sexual intercourse and their other sexual activities, which did not always take place in a bedroom.

 

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Harriet Lee gave birth to her third son on 15 February 1651. She and King James named him Arthur (Fitzjames). She was not the only woman the king shagged. In the evenings after dinner, he went to the kitchen of the royal palace
in which he was staying, and asked one of the women there if she would like him to shag her. If she said no, he asked other women, until one agreed. He did not always choose the most attractive woman. A woman always did. Historians are agreed that he never raped a woman. He always picked a single unmarried woman, or a widow.

The king and the woman walked to a bedroom. Before they had intercourse, they talked for about an hour, and he got to know her. He always asked her name. He always let her choose the position she liked. He told she could stop anytime she wanted. He was a considerate, sensitive, and experienced lover. He usually brought the women to orgasm. When they had finished, she returned to the kitchen when she was ready. He paid £10 to every woman who gave birth to a child fathered by him. He ensured that she received the best gynaecological treatment. This was worth several thousands of pound, or tens of thousands, in today's money in OTL. He paid £6 for every stillbirth. If a woman suffered a miscarriage, he gave her £3.

Lust was the king's only weakness. He ate and drank in moderation. He never hunted because it was cruel to animals. He was a Catholic and attended Mass every Sunday and holyday. He trusted that God in his infinite mercy would forgive him.

King James VII and II was born on 10 June 1609. He was still handsome and sexuallly vigorous in middle age.

 

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James I and VI, and his successor James II and VII, were patrons of the arts. Their reigns are called the Jacobean age. Anthony Van Dyke (1599 - 1641) was the court painter of James I. William Dobson held the same position at the court of James II. He painted full size portraits of the king and his mistresses, including Harriet Lee.

London expanded in area and grew in population. The architect, Inigo Jones (1573 - 1652), designed a square and a church in the Covent Garden district of Westminster. He also designed the Banqueting House in Whitehall. (1)

James VII and II had sexual intercourse with other female servants in his palaces, as well as the female kitchen staff. From May to August 1652, he was in Scotland with Harriet Lee. They stayed in the Royal Palaces at Holyrood House, Falkland and Linlithgow. In all of them he shagged, the female staff.

In 1633 Nicholas Ferrar and the High Church Anglican community at Little Gidding in Huntingdonshire, joined the Fellowship of Christian Love.

(1) As in OTL for Inigo Jones.

 

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Prince Malcolm of Scotland died on 19 March 1650. He was 72 years old, born 19 March 1577. He was survived by his wife, Princess Mary. Their eldest son, George, Duke of Albany, born in June 1600, became Prince George of Scotland. He and King James VII of Scotland, and II of England and Ireland were cousins.

George had been brought up by his parents to be a compassionate and wise ruler. His father, in the last few years of his life, gave him responsibilities in the government of Scotland.

 

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When George was Duke of Albany, he married Margaret Stewart, daughter of the Earl and Countess of Lennox in the chapel of Holyrood Palace in April 1618. He was seventeen years old and she was fifteen. Margaret gave birth to a baby girl in May 1619. She and George named her Mary. They had six more children. Two girls born June 1621, and January 1628, and four boys born August 1623, February 1625, March 1626, April 1631.

 

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After Margaret had given birth to her youngest child in April 1631, she told George that she did not want to have any more children. She did not get pregnant again. Their eldest daughter, Mary, married her cousin Eamon, Earl of Cork (born 10 October 1617), the eldest son of Prince Sean and Princess Siobhan of Ireland, in June 1639. She gave birth to a baby boy in March 1640. She and Eamon named him Eamon after his father. She gave birth to two more sons in June 1642 and October 1643, and two daughters in January 1646 and February 1647.

George and Margaret's second eldest daughter, Anne, married Angus MacDonald, eldest son of the chief of Clan Donald, in July 1640. She was 19 years old and he was 22 years old.

 

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In Scotland the Lords of the Articles were a committee of the Scottish Parliament, which prepared legislation in detail. Parliament abolished them in February 1651. A new Parliament was elected the following month. It was a single chamber legislsture with 150 members. The 33 counties each returned two members in double member constituencies, making 66. The other 84 members were elected by cities and towns in single or double member constituencies. Also the universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and St. Andrews each returned one member.

Adult men who owned or rented property above a fairly low value had the right to vote. Parliament could pass legislation, which the monarch had the right to veto, and deny the monarch money. Catholics and Protestants could vote and stand for election to the Scottish Parliament.

 

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On 1 September 1656, Prince Sean of Ireland and the Irish Parliament, declared Ireland to be an independent sovereign nation, with Sean as King Sean 1. They renounced their allegiance to King James 11 and VII of England and Scotland.

On 5 March 1657, two large English armies landed in Ireland. The eastern one which landed a few miles south of Dublin, and the southern one which landed at Waterford. After destroying much of these cities, they advanced north, south and west against strong Irish opposition. They captured and destroyed Wexford and Wicklow. They won a few battles, but these were not decisive.

The Irish army, with French and Spanish assistance, decisively defeated the southern English army at the battle of Inistioge (in south-eastern County Kilkenny) on 7 June 1657. It retreated south to Waterford. After some indecisive fighting, the eastern English army was thoroughly defeated by the Irish army, with French and Spanish help, at the battle of Navan in County Meath on 25 August 1657. It retreated east to Drogheda. By 3 September 1657, there were no English armies in Ireland. These armies had committed atrocities in Ireland, what we would now call war crimes. They destroyed cities and towns, killed civilians and raped women.

The Treaty of Cork, signed by King James and King Sean on 12 October 1657, recognised the full independence of Ireland in perpetuity.

 

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After the defeat of England in the Irish War of Independence in 1657, there was widespread opposition to King James and his government. This was organised and led by what were called associations in London, Bristol, Norwich, York and other English cities and towns. These organised large demonstrations against King James and his government. in London and other English cities and towns. Most of these associations were headed by women whose husbands, brothers, fathers, sons, and sweethearts had died in the war.

The London Association was headed by Hannah Ellis. She was 33 years old. Her husband, Walter, a printer, was killed in the war. [1] They had been married for eleven years and had three sons and two daughters. She was described as an attractive, buxom, and loving woman, with forthright opinions. She and Walter were Puritans. She had learned the craft of printing from him. He believed in the education of women. She printed newsletters and pamphlets which denounced the war. She wrote that Walter and her had eagerly supported the war as a righteous crusade against Irish Papists. But after reading reports of atrocities committed by English soldiers in Ireland, she changed her mind and became convinced that the war was wrong and greatly sinful.

These newsletters and pamphlets were taken to cities, towns and villages throughout England. In London they called upon the women and men of the city to assemble outside Whitehall Palace and in St. James's Park in the afternoon of Saturday 20 October 1657. [1] They did so, and historians have estimated that there in the region of 40,000 to 50,000 people there, mostly women. They demanded the abdication of King James in favour of his daughter Princess Catherine (born 11 March 1631). She was married to the third son of Prince George and Princess Margaret of Scotland, Alexander, Earl of Moray (born March 1626). They lived in Scotland.

[1] This was New Style. England, Ireland and Scotland had changed from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar in 1614.

 

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Leading members of King James's Privy Council were Thomas Clifford; Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury; Edward Hyde; Henry Ireton; George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. Hyde was Secretary of State. They and the King were responsible for the decision to invade Ireland. They decided that the army should arrest Hannah Ellis and the other leaders of the demonstration in London, and break up the demonstration.

Soldiers went into the crowd and seized Hannah and seven other women, and one man, and dispersed the crowd. Hannah and the other persons taken were brought before a justice of the peace. He sentenced each of them to be whipped 'until their back be bloody' and one month in Bridewell House of Correction.