AHC: Modern Monarch Descended from Oliver Cromwell

[JonasResende]

As it says on the tin. Lord Ollie left quite a few kids, and was seemingly succeeded by the least talented, Richard (a.k.a. Tumbledown Dick or Queen Dick). However, Lord Oliver was also a wily old bastard, since he held more power than a king ever did. From what I can find, Richard Cromwell's line died out in the early 19th century - and the British government was apparently still keeping an eye on them, since when George III heard that a son had been born to carry on the Lord Protector's line, he remarked "one more Cromwell to bring misery to the world".

The challenge, if you should choose to accept it, is to get Oliver Cromwell's bloodline into that of a royal family circa 2018. Have fun!

 

[Alex Zetsu]

Just have him accept the crown and his son not be an idiot?

 

[FillyofDelphi]

To paraphrase CPG Grey on the subject...

"His son was a fancy country squire who forgot Rule 0 to staying in power: Keep the Army Happy"

So, Richard first and formost needs to kick off his regein and get a solid grip on the reigns of power by firmly standing with the Puritans and Anti-Stuart leadership of the NMA by preventing the forming of a compromise minded Parlament. Perhaps showing a stiff spine and declaring a state of national emergency when the Scots storm south: essentially claiming that normal procedure can't go through while enemy troops are on English soil and convincing the more skittish among the moderates that a temporary suspension of represention under a Committee of National Security than having their privlages permanently stripped by the return of Royalist power.

As the war goes on and the Scottish Royalists make the Monarchy follow through on its promises about reforming the state church closer to their doctrine, the English then realize that they need to offically replace the head of the Church of England to insure the religious dimension of the conflict can be settled in their favor, and so need a Divine Right-endowed Monarch who isen't Charles. Richard is then offered the Throne of England by a Parliament backed by the army and religious administration (who now have to worry about potentially losing their offices and privlages)

 

[Codae]

Sometime in the 1700s, one of Oliver Cromwell's descendants (I dunno, maybe Thomas Bendish Jr.) moves to America. His great-great-great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter marries Najeeb Elias Halaby, their children taking the place of his OTL children by Laura Wilkins, including siring the eventual consort of the king of Jordan.

 

[Jan Olbracht]

Sometime in the 1700s, one of Oliver Cromwell's descendants (I dunno, maybe Thomas Bendish Jr.) moves to America. His great-great-great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter marries Najeeb Elias Halaby, their children taking the place of his OTL children by Laura Wilkins, including siring the eventual consort of the king of Jordan.

Or Cromwell's descendant became actress, replacing Grace Kelly as Princess of Monaco?

 

[JonasResende]

Sometime in the 1700s, one of Oliver Cromwell's descendants (I dunno, maybe Thomas Bendish Jr.) moves to America. His great-great-great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter marries Najeeb Elias Halaby, their children taking the place of his OTL children by Laura Wilkins, including siring the eventual consort of the king of Jordan.

I must admit, I find the idea of a Cromwellian descendant emigrating to America and marrying into one of the families that later found themselves tied by blood to the Bonapartes - it was mostly the Murats and the Bonaparte-Pattersons that married into such families OTL IIRC, but it's a start - is intriguing. Although there's nothing that precludes Laura Wilkins herself being descended from Cromwell (or Halaby for that matter).

Or Cromwell's descendant became actress, replacing Grace Kelly as Princess of Monaco?

IMO, I don't regard Monaco very highly in terms of a monarchy. The Grimaldi family tree seems to be more a litany of princes behaving badly - their consorts being actresses (Grace Kelly and one of the princes in the 18th-19th century) or certainly less than royal. But I suppose it would be possible that one of the Protector's descendants becomes an actress - Caroline Bonaparte Murat is an ancestress of Rene Auberjonois - not a career that she'd have been impressed with, to be sure. Jan Sobieski and Stanislaw Poniatowski are ancestors to a journalist apiece IIRC (Sobieski's got an actress descendant aswell - but I'm not sure how Leelee descends from him in the male line, since none of his sons left issue), and Catherine Oxenberg is likewise descended from Serb royalty, so it's not unthinkable IMO

 

[Kaze]

You forgot one... Cromwell might have had a mistress. Powerful men in that day often did have mistresses and on occasion mistresses have little presents nine months later. The mistress's bastards could have married into the who's who without people even knowing of their parentage - especially if Cromwell did not legitimize or recognize them, and Cromwell kept his dalliances a secret.

 

[Jan Olbracht]

I must admit, I find the idea of a Cromwellian descendant emigrating to America and marrying into one of the families that later found themselves tied by blood to the Bonapartes - it was mostly the Murats and the Bonaparte-Pattersons that married into such families OTL IIRC, but it's a start - is intriguing. Although there's nothing that precludes Laura Wilkins herself being descended from Cromwell (or Halaby for that matter).



IMO, I don't regard Monaco very highly in terms of a monarchy. The Grimaldi family tree seems to be more a litany of princes behaving badly - their consorts being actresses (Grace Kelly and one of the princes in the 18th-19th century) or certainly less than royal. But I suppose it would be possible that one of the Protector's descendants becomes an actress - Caroline Bonaparte Murat is an ancestress of Rene Auberjonois - not a career that she'd have been impressed with, to be sure. Jan Sobieski and Stanislaw Poniatowski are ancestors to a journalist apiece IIRC (Sobieski's got an actress descendant aswell - but I'm not sure how Leelee descends from him in the male line, since none of his sons left issue), and Catherine Oxenberg is likewise descended from Serb royalty, so it's not unthinkable IMO

Leelee Sobieski once said, that she is descendant of "the last King of Poland" or something like this, so I think she doesn't really know exactly whom her "ancestor" was . Catherine Oxenberg OTOH is, if genealogy sites I've checked are right, descendant in unbroken female line of Uliana of Tver (mother of Władysław Jagiełło) and Eufrozyna of Opole (mother of Władysław Łokietek).

Returning to Cromwell family. It is not hard to imagine analogue of Kate Middleton of Cromwellian ancestry.

 

[FillyofDelphi]

All of these really seem to go against the spirit of the thread even if they follow the letter. I mean, there isen't a challange if the methoid would apply just as well to the decendent of literally anybody else, making the "Cromwell" factor immaterial.

 

[JonasResende]

All of these really seem to go against the spirit of the thread even if they follow the letter. I mean, there isen't a challange if the methoid would apply just as well to the decendent of literally anybody else, making the "Cromwell" factor immaterial.

I agree. I did say a "modern monarch", rather than specify something like it has to be Prince Charles or King Felipe VI of Spain or somesuch. As interesting as those other proposals are.

 

[The_Last_Plantagenet]

I think a Cromwellian analogue of Grace Kelly is an interesting point, especially if Male.
Imagine a marriage between the American Oliver John Cromwell, famous action movie star, and the Queen of Naples Isabella III

 

[JonasResende]

I think a Cromwellian analogue of Grace Kelly is an interesting point, especially if Male.
Imagine a marriage between the American Oliver John Cromwell, famous action movie star, and the Queen of Naples Isabella III

And for shit and giggles, the queen dies under suspicious circumstances and O.J. Cromwell ends up in court

Seriously though, reigning queens tend to marry royalty (Elizabeth II) or at least aristocracy (Beatrix, Juliana, Margarethe II), not actors. This will probably change in the future (see Viktoria of Sweden), but, assuming OJ Cromwell is simply Grace born male, the era suggests that it would be more likely that Isabella will marry some minor princeling/nobleman rather than a movie star. Unless you'd like to see a major scandal. Cause then we can throw in her having their first child before the wedding kinda thing too