we've hit maximum meta, alternate monarchies within alternate monarchies
List of monarchs III
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we've hit maximum meta, alternate monarchies within alternate monarchies
We now have new veins to mine: we can go back to older lines we've made and take an alternative anywhere in them.
I think I may have already tried to fix it myself, that may have been part of the problem...
no, it was messed up when i posted my original part, and I'm confused as to why it did that, no fault of yours
[/SPOILER]What if Henry VIII's and Catherine of Aragon's son had survived?
Monarchs of England and Ireland
1509 - 1547: Henry VIII (House of Tudor)
1547 - 1572: Henry IX "the Bloody" (House of Tudor) [1]
1572 - 1586: Phillip I "the Pious" (House of Tudor) [2]
1586 - 1616: Henry X (House of Tudor) [3]
1616 - 1639: John II "the Portuguese" (House of Tudor) [4]
1639 - 1663: Sebastian I (House of Tudor) [5]
1663 - 1681: Alphonsus I "the Sailor"(House of Tudor) [6]
1681 - 1732: Henry XI (House of Tudor) [7]
1732 - 1749: Edward VI (House of Tudor) [8]
1749 - 1762: John III (House of Tudor) [9]
Monarchs of The United Kingdom of Great Britain, Ireland, & Norway
1762 - 1806: John III (House of Tudor) [9]
1806 - 1845: Jasper I 'the Witch-King' (House of Tudor) [10]
1845 - 1861: Henry XII (House of Tudor) [11]
1861 - 1866: Sebastian II (House of Tudor) [12]
1866 - 1893: John IV (House of Tudor) [13]
1893 - 1911: John V (House of Tudor) [14]
1911 - 1912: John VI (House of Tudor) [15]
1912 - 1922: Sebastian III (House of Tudor) [16]
1922 - 1939: Margaret I (House of Tudor) [17]
1939- 2000: (red) Katherine I (House of Tudor) (/red) [18]
[1] Henry was raised to be a Catholic by his parents, and so was very concerned with preserving the true faith among his population, often by bloody or violent means. His father Henry VIII had faced problems with heretics, and this problems had continued under his own reign. In 1550, there was a rebellion by the Protestant population in London, which led to a massacre by Henry's Catholic forces against the peasantry which became known as Bloody August due it happening throughout the month of August.
Henry oversaw the expansion of the English army and navy, which he used to crush dissidents and instil fear onto his subjects. However, he also used said army against the Scottish in the invasion of 1554.
The invading English proved effective against the Scots, and Scotland was annexed. However local resistant militias remained commonplace even at the end of his reign.
Henry married Isabella de Medici, a Catholic who bore him many children,
When the French Wars of Religion broke out, Henry stayed out of the war, claiming it would be too costly for the Kingdom, and would yield little results.
Henry died age 61, and was succeeded by his second son, Phillp Henry, Cardinal-Duke of York.
[2] After the Death of Henry, Prince of Wales in 1567 after a bout of Sweating Sickness striking the Palace, killing numerous members of the court as well as the Third son of Henry IX, Edward Duke of Clarence, Phillip was named as Heir to the English throne.
Phillip had been inducted to the Roman Catholic Church in the early 1560s, and through his father's influence, He rapidly was made a Cardinal and Bishop of Ferrara. At the time of the Bout of the Sickness, He was in Rome, and made his way to England when he heard the news.
After his arrival in Westminster, his crowning was one of the few moments where he removed his Cardinal's cap, and for the remainder of his reign, the cap would remain atop his royal head. For the coronation, beside him stood his sole remaining brother, Prince Louis, Duke of Lancaster.
His reign, a short fourteen years, restored the image of a Catholic England to much of Europe, mainly through generous donations to the Papacy, but also through the marriage of the two sons of the Duke of Lancaster to two Catholic princesses, firstly to an Infanta of Spain, and secondly to an Infanta of Portugal.
Phillip would frequently return to Rome during his reign, and was said to have taken Papal advice on many matters, and it was on one of the voyages where He was taken ill off shore of Cadiz. His body was returned to England, and a massive Royal funeral took place upon his return.
He was succeeded by his nephew, Prince Henry of Lancaster.
[3] Coming to the throne aged 14, Henry's first few years were marked by the regency of his mother Elizabeth. It was during the final year of her regency the Scottish rose up in defiance of the English King, with the head of the House of Stewart James leading the Stewartist cause. James Stewart enjoyed minor success, before being beaten back by English forces in the battle of Bellingham. When Henry came to the throne, he heroically led his armies into battle against the Scottish. The war was won soon after, and James Stewart was hung drawn and quartered in front of the King and his men.
It was in this early life experience that Henry began to define himself as a military expert, able of besting the strongest armies in Europe. Henry spent much of his reign fighting in Ireland, eventually gaining the whole island.
Henry was often described as envious of the Spanish Empire, wanting the colonies in America that they possessed. In 1602, Henry decided to give his explorers grants so they could found colonies in North America. He founded the English colonies of Virginia, New Berkshire (Modern day North and South Carolina), and Breretonland (named after the explorer John Brereton) and the Bahamas, which became very wealthy and successful colonies.
Henry died unexpectedly of a heart attack age 44, leaving his Kingdom to his younger, Prince John, Duke of Lancaster.
[4] The second son of Prince Louis, Duke of Lancaster, John was married to Infanta Beatrice of Portugal shortly before his twelth birthday, and returned with his bride to Lisbon. For much of his brothers reign, he was known simply as the 'Duke of Lancaster' eschewing the typical title of an heir in favour of that which he inherited from his father.
His life in Portugal was a happy one, residing mostly in the Algarve alongside his wife and children, of which he had four sons and three daughters. He would spend his days hunting and residing over a small Manorial court, which was usually filled with English and Irish merchants, seeking to make riches in the foreign ports that Portugal could bring.
After his Brothers death, John returned to England to assume the throne, and was crowned at Westminster as John II of England. His wife and children would follow later, and bring with them their Portuguese culture.
At the crowning of what was essentially a foreign monarch, several Protestant Nobles would rise in East Anglia, and attempt to crown one of their own, The Duke of Suffolk, as King claiming he had right to the throne via his descent from Henry VII.
The Revolt was put down, through extreme measures and the Nobles were each Hung, Drawn and Quartered in the presence of the King.
For the remainder of John's reign, it was largely peaceful, aside from the 'Bishop's War' in Ireland in 1631, an armed dispute between the Anglo-Irish Nobility, and the Catholic Bishops, which was resolved by intervention from the crown. John II would pass after 23 years of ruling, and pass the throne to his second son, Prince Sebastian, Duke of York.
[5] Prince Sebastian became heir to the throne following his older brother John's death in a hunting accident in 1625. Sebastian was perhaps the most Portuguese of all the children, possibly unsurprisingly given he had been named after the young King Sebastian who had died heroically resisting Spanish encroachment on the Kingdom of Portugal in 1580.
He married Princess Luisa Christina of Savoy and had five children with her. Despite the difference in their ages, the match was a happy one and Luisa would often act as Sebastian's Regent, for Sebastian never lost his love of travel and sense of adventure, one he had cultivated as a second son who never really expected to inherit. His favourite destination was Portugal, for he remembered his childhood there fondly and did all he could to help his beloved natal country preserve its independence from Spain. Unfortunately, this meant his reputation at home suffered, for the English resented having a King who seemed to care more for events overseas than for protecting his own people. It would be left to his heir to repair relations between the Crown and the English/Scottish peerage.
Like his namesake, Sebastian would die defending Portuguese independence, for he led a contingent of English troops to Portugal's aid against the Spanish at Ameixial near Estremoz on June 8, 1663. The battle went to Portugal, but at the cost of the ageing English King's life.
Sebastian would be succeeded by his eldest son, Alphonsus , Prince of Wales.
[6] Alphonsus was the eldest son of Sebastian I, and his bride Luisa Christina, and after the news of his father's death in the battle of Ameixial, was crowned Alphonsus I of England.
Unlike his Grandfather and father, Alphonsus spent little time in Portugal, save for the occasion of his marriage to his cousin, Infanta Maria Alphonsa of Portugal, daughter of Sebastião II. The royal pair would have three children, all daughters.
For much of his life, he would remain in southern England, residing at his residence in Southampton, where he would be fascinated by the array of sailing vessels, and also meet regularly with the Admiralty. He would continue this fascination throughout his life and expanded the English Navy heavily, and also spend vast funds on the few English colonies, and capture others, including the city of Alphonsbrough in New Kent (OTL Virginia)
Alphonsus's reign was largely peaceful, aside from the Revolt of the Irish Lords in 1670, and the Norwegian War of Freedom, in which Norway, with Anglo-Irish and swedish assistance gained freedom from Denmark, and established the Duke of Mecklenburg as King, with King Adolphus of Norway taking the Throne.
Alphonsus would pass in the summer of 1681, and the throne would go to his nephew, Henry, Prince of Wales.
[7] Prince Henry, was born on 19 February 1661, to Sebastian’s second son Prince John, Duke of York and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of Theophilus Howard, 2nd Earl of Suffolk.
His father would die in 1666, during a fire which engulfed their residence, York House in London, while Elizabeth and Prince Henry was visiting her relatives, rumours are that the fire happened during an affair Prince John was having with a stable hand, having sent all the other servants away.
With the birth of the last daughter to King Alphonsus, it was clear that Henry would become heir and would be ideal to secure the family by marrying one of his cousin, the royal princesses, however with word from Spain regarding King Charles II, the Habsburg ruler of the Spanish Empire and his physical disabilities, believed to be the result of inbreeding.
Instead he married firstly Princess Eleonore Erdmuthe Louise of Saxe-Eisenach (13 April 1662 – 9 September 1696) and then secondly Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans (13 September 1676 – 23 December 1744). With both marriages he could produce 15 children, making sure the Tudor line would continue.
His domestic policies was made better by his foreign policies, with one of steady economical trade and marriages between major nations and his three cousins, his daughters and many granddaughters.
His death on 1 May 1732, aged 71, following three years of sickness and having his son, Edward, Prince of Wales, acting as regent.
[8] By the time Prince Edward, born in 1691, took the throne he was already 42 and established as regent for his father. He had married Princess Victoria of Norway in 1710, the granddaughter of King Alphonsus via his eldest daughter Princess Eleonore, uniting the claims of the two lines. The marriage was fraught with issues, as Queen Victoria saw her claim as senior to her husband's and was charged with sewing tensions between King Edward and his heir John. Despite this, the King's reign was known as an intellectual renaissance (thanks to the influence of his many relations spreading knowledge from throughout Europe) and a sort of Golden Age for female learning, brought about by both Queen Victoria and the King's mistress Lady Bridget Howard.
Due to/Despite his tumultuous marriage Edward VI & Victoria did not/did manage to have children. When the King left to suppress a rebellion in Ireland, which was funded by the Queen's eldest brother King Harald of Norway who believed he was the true heir to King Alphonsus via his mother's claim, the regent was his heir John. While in Dublin the King was killed from an assassination by an Irish nationalist named Sean O'Donnell, leaving John as the monarch and the prospect of more Irish rebellion & war with Norway looming.
[9] A charismatic and easily likable man, as one of Edward VI's many nephews, John had been prepared for kingship fairly early in his life, learning the ways of politics and war. Upon the sudden assassination of Edward VI, the new king immediately set to work preparing his nation for the wars to come. His first actions were to call forth a grand army for the subjugation of the many young rebellions in Ireland. Throughout 1749 and early 1750 this army would be trained, and in August of 1750, the war that would be known as the Shattering of the Harps (after the adoption of the Green Harp Banner by many of the rebellion forces as a standard) would commence. Over the following year English forces would smash the assembled hosts of the Irish rebellions, ending with the death of the self proclaimed King of Ireland, George Talbot, at the battle of Aughrim. after this, most of the remaining rebel bands scattered and fled before the armies of the King.
However, he had not dismissed the threat of Norway during the campaigns in Ireland. Simultaneous with the marshaling of the army, John III was making ready the navy to wage war upon the sea. However, this would prove a monumental task, for the navy of Alphonsus had languished since his death, with its size dwindling to some 13 ships of the line, and 26 smaller vessels active, mostly out posted in the Caribbean and Americas. Upon their return from their tropical postings, they were immediately put to work training crews for ships that had been built and left sitting unmanned for decades. it would take them nearly two years to do so, with constant raiding and piracy from Norwegian ships interrupting much of England's trade. But when the fleet put to sea in mid 1751, it would number some 24 ships of the line and 53 ships of frigate or below rating. For the next two years they would hunt down and destroy the vast majority of the Norwegian fleet, with the largest battle occurring on April 11th, 1753. Some 11 Norwegian ships of the line and 14 frigates and sloops would face the English fleet fielding some 19 ships of the line and 27 frigates. This fleet, under the command of the hero of the campaign, Lord Admiral Alexander Gordon, Earl Granville, would smash the Norwegian fleet and launch an assault on the Norwegian mainland. His fleet would weigh anchor at the capital of Bergen, depositing a force of some 2,000 marines, these troops would be the vanguard for the English invasion force. By the end of 1754, the last English troops (veterans from Ireland) would be marching across the whole of Norway.
With the conquest of the nation, John III (using his relation to King Harald) was declared Sovereign King of Norway, bringing the nation under English influence. From here John's reign was relatively peaceful. the next half century would be marked as a time of great prosperity and enlightenment in England. to solidify his position as Sovereign of three separate kingdoms, He would exercise his considerable direct power in Norway and Ireland, as well as his strong political presence in the English parliament, to force all three nations to pass The Act of Union of 1762, this would combine the three crowns into a single body, and consolidate all governance into the parliament in London. The new nation would be simply referred to as Great Britain
Yet, peace was gasping near the end of the kings reign. In France, strife was stirring, and anger with the French King, Charles IX was growing among the people. already there were riots in the streets, and the nation was in peril. Yet that would be a trial for another king, for on October 3rd, 1806, King John III would pass away after an astounding 57 years on the throne. Leaving his second grandson, Prince Jasper of Wales to take the throne.
[10]
Jasper I, the second son of the only son of John III, Edward, Prince of Wales and his wife Princess Wilhelmine of Prussia, was only twelve when he took the throne of Great Britain, his elder brother Prince Philip of Wales having died two years prior of what modern historians believe to be hydrocephalus. Due to his status as a minor there was need of a regency, while his mother Wilhelmine was seen as the primary candidate, her tendencies of supporting her father Frederick William II's Germanic centric policies alienated much of the British political scene.
So for over a year as continental Europe erupted into horrific violence, first in France due to Charles IX's tyrannical rule devolving into a massive Revolution that quickly spread into the decaying Holy Roman Empire and the decadent Spanish Empire, the British Kingdoms were in a state of inertia as various factions swirled, none strong enough to seize the tiller of power on behalf of the young King.
Not to mention that the succession after Jasper I was unclear, Henry IX had had two wives and thirteen legitimate children, all of whom had married various nobles and royals across Europe, and in turn many of them had had children as well. Many feared that if Jasper I died then a war for the British succession would be inevitable.
Jasper himself spent much of his youth being educated by tutors, he displayed little interest in military matters, preferring to study history, philosophy, and more esoteric matters such as alchemy, astrology, and magic. The later was taught by a enigmatic figure in the young King's court, a mysterious elder peasant woman and suspected witch known as Alice Troyes, though the King would gather a strange court of hedge-wizards, natural philosophers, astrologers, alchemists, and other assorted practitioners of the strange, leading Jasper to be called 'the Witch-Boy' or more popularly 'the Witch-King of Great Britain', or simply the Witch-King.
At age fourteen, even as the First French Republic was formed on the corpses of Charles IX and his immediate family, Jasper I was able to convince a slim majority of the nobility to square the circle and proclaim his majority, allowing the young King to simply rule alone and ended much of the paralysis that had gripped the United Kingdoms.
This was under the advice of the Baron Grenville, who had managed to gain enough supporters during the 'Regency Crisis' to be a serious contender, but not enough to truly win. Earning the young King's trust he would become Jasper's principle advisor during much of his youth, much to the ire of the boy's mother who was dismissed from court upon Jasper's majority.
A series of coalition wars were already underway in Europe against Revolutionary France and Spain, led by Prussia and Russia due to the Hapsburg's being led by a highly inbred and mentally retarded Emperor, and last of the line of his family as well.
Jasper formally joined the Fourth Coalition on March 4h, 1809 against France and the Spanish Republicans that would later seize Spain in July of 1809, driving the Spanish royal family into exile in Mexico.
While the British navy would win several victories against France, on land they, like much of Europe continued to be defeated by the massive volunteer armies of the French Republic, leading defeat.
The Fifth and Sixth Coalition Wars would end similarly, however the Spanish and French Republics would buckle under the strain in different wars, the Spanish Republic would be toppled by a coup by an ambitious general eager to become a dictator, however he was quickly toppled by a mass revolt in Madrid by the people of the city and a group of businessmen and 'former' nobles invited a member of the Portuguese Royal family to become the new King of Spain.
While France witnessed a more successful internal coup that saw the rise of a new President For Life, Gilbert du Motier, the former Marquis de Lafayette and later proclaimed the Emperor of the French in 1814. This while not seen as ideal, led to a lessening of the violence in Western Europe, though the revolts and chaos of the Holy Roman Empire continued on, but more as a local problem that did not require British intervention... Until the last Habsburg died in 1821, leading to the various Dukes, Kings, and other rulers of the HRE to formally dissolve the Empire, however the succession to the various Habsburg lands led to the War of the Habsburg Succession, in which Britain tried to play the role of mediator with mixed results.
In the end the Archduchy of Austria and much of the lands in the Hapsburg German parts of the HRE were taken by different members of the House of Wittelsbach and the House of Hohenzollern, while a local nobleman with a drop of Hapsburg blood took Hungary, while the Italian lands were given to the Pope, and Bohemia elected a polish magnate as their King.
In the last years of the reign of Jasper I, the colonies in the New World had expanded considerably and were demanding various reforms and representation in Parliament, while Ireland suffered from severe famine that was only alleviated by the King spending tremendous sums of the government's budget for emergency supplies.
Jasper I would marry Princess Amalia Sophie of Sweden in his twenties, but the couple would only produce a single child, Henry Phillip, Prince of Wales who would inherit the throne after Jasper I died at age 51 of mercury poisoning from his alchemic experiments.
[11] Prince Henry Phillip of Wales would take the throne in 1845, after the death of his father Jasper I, commonly known as the Witch-King, a sobriquet which brought the Prince of Wales torment during his life, and so after his succession to the throne, he notoriously destroyed much of his father's notes and experiments, while gifting other 'notable' portions of the collection to the Freemasons Grand Lodge of England.
Early in life, Henry had been married to Infante Antonia of Portugal and Brazil, reigniting the relationship between the two royal houses, and she gave him three sons, and two daughters. The marriage was one of politics, but it would be rude to say there was no love between the two.
For his short reign, Henry XII of Great Britain, Ireland and Norway would be largely content to leave the everyday governance to his officials and advisors, preferring the quiet palatial life to one of stress.
In 1861, Henry XII would pass after a Stroke, and leave the throne to his eldest son, Sebastian.
[12] A flamboyant, debaucherous, and quick tempered man, Sebastian was always in trouble when he was younger, being engaged in many duels across his short life. His fathers hands-off approach to both the nation and parenting, did little to effect the outrageous excess and debauchery of his son. Indeed, even Sebastian's ascension to the throne could not dampen the new kings habits. Fancying the role of the monarch to be a strong and acting political force, in the vein of his Great Great Grandfather, he would sit at the head o all meetings of the house of lords. and for all of his brief rule he was known to burst into outrageous rants and tirades on the floor of said house, berating those present as fools and codgers not worthy of their posts and holdings. Indeed it was such events as these for which he would lose his life, as in the summer of 1866 he and the Lord Earl of Christiania (Norwegian nobility) both found each other deeply offended and their honor desecrated by the other and agreed upon a duel. The fateful day would be August 26th, as the two men walked their paces and turned to fire, only one round struck home. A talented duelist, the king was outmatched, and the Earls shot lodged itself in the kings brain, killing him instantly. While the Earl would not be charged with any crime, as the duel was legal and agreed upon by all witnessing parties, he would be struck with such guilt that not two weeks later he would commit suicide by jumping off the London bridge, plummeting onto the deck of a passing ship. The king would be given full state funeral on December 6th, at Westminster. Having no legitimate children, he would be succeeded by his brother, John, Duke of York.
[13] John, Duke of York was never expected to succeed to the throne, however the death of his brother forced him into the limelight. While Sebastian II had never married, John would marry his first-cousin, Infanta Phillipina of Spain, who was related via her mother being the sister of John's mother. She also descended from John II of England and Ireland via his daughter, princess Catherine, who married Sebastião I of Portugal, and gave issue including the Monarchs of Portugal and Brazil.
John IV's reign oversaw much of the expansion of the British empire, across much of Western Africa, Persia, and Indochina. He would also grant substantial autonomy to Ireland and Norway, allowing each a lower house of parliament, while the three Houses of Commons where collectively under the British House of Lords.
John IV, firstly with his first wife, would have four children; a son and three daughters, and with his second wife; Princess Magdelina of Holstein-Gottorp-Wiesenburg, a Catholic branch of the house of Oldenburg owning land typically in Silesia, he had a further three sons and two daughters.
John IV would pass in the year 1893, and pass the throne to His second son from his first marriage, John-Henry, Prince of Wales.
[14] John-Henry, Prince of Wales was the second son born from John IV's marriage to Queen Phillipina. John-Henry would become heir after the death of his elder brother, Phillip-John, in 1879.
Before his rise to the throne, John would typically spend his time either at his British estates, Stanley Palace in Chester, or the estates in Spain inherited from his mother. During his many visits to Spain, John-Henry, known as Juan-Henrique de Gales, he would meet and begin to court his second-cousin, Maria Alfonsina, Princess of Piombino, the daughter of Leopoldo Bragnanza, Prince of Piombino. The Principality of Piombino was inherited by the Braganza after the last Ludovisi Princess sold her possessions to Prince Leopoldo of Spain, son of Juan Braganza II of Spain, the second Braganza king of Spain.The marriage with Maria Alfonsina would bring the Prince of Wales two sons.
John V's reign was largely consistent of expanding and centralising the British Empire, across Africa, Asia, and parts of South America.
John V would pass in the winter of 1911, and pass the throne to his eldest son, Prince John.
[15] A sickly child from birth, many didn’t expect him to survive childhood, however he out lived his father.
He was educated privately and was not allowed to interact with other boys, spending a lot of time with his older sister.
He only served just under a year on the throne, before his death on 2nd November 1912 of tuberculosis, at the age of 29, unmarried and childless. His was the shortest reign since King Edward V.
[16] The youngest son of John IV, Sebastian had never thought he would rule, but after the deaths of his two older brothers, his eldest nephew, and the refusal of the Third son and the younger nephew to take the throne, there was no one else. And so the warrior king accepted the throne.
Before the kingship, Sebastian had been a career army man. Attaining the rank of Brigadier, he had been part of the campaign to repel the Boer invasion of Rhodesia, took part in the last great Native war in North America, culminating in the battles of Broken Arrow and Wounded Knee in 1899, and was Commanding officer of the Boxer Expedition that added Hong Kong, Hainan, Macau, and the surrounding territory to the Empire.
It would seem fortuitous then that he was the king when, in 1913, the Great War would break out. Caused by the assassination of Austrian heir, archduke Otto Frederic in Sarajevo by Serbian Nationalist Vitomir Grgurovic, the conflict would quickly explode. Prussia, Bavaria, Austria, and Sweden, against France, Russia, and Italy. The two sides were fairly evenly matched and so both clamoured for the assistance of the British behemoth.
In the end, King Sebastian would lead the nation to the rescue of the Germanic states. Landing at Calais and blockading the French mainland, British forces would see that France was defeated by 1915. Italy would be dispatched in a similar fashion by 1916. However it would take an excruciating 4 years to finally force a Russian surrender. When the war was concluded by the treaty of Lisbon, these were the terms leveled upon the defeated
France - Brittany given Independence as a vassal state to Britain. Alsace-Lothringen ceded to Prussia. various north African colonies ceded to Britain and Prussia. Indemnities on the order of 20 billion francs.
Italy - Veneto and Trieste ceded to Austria and Indemnities on the order of 5 billion Lira
Russia - Ukraine, Ruthenia, and the Grand Baltic Duchy given independence as German vassal states, Finland gains independence. A constitutional monarchy is to be established. Indemnities on the order of 70 Billion rubles.
And with the conclusion of the greatest war in human history, almost 19 million men lay dead across the fields of Europe. But for now peace had been bought. It would only be another three years before the king would pass away, leaving the throne to,.
[17] The granddaughter of his younger sister, Princess Louisa, Duchess of Lennox, who had died the previous year, predeceased by her only son, Jasper, Earl of March and Settringon. The former Lady Margaret Rose Gordon-Lennox became Queen Margaret Rose of the United Kingdom at just 14, on the condition that she take the name Margaret Rose Tudor, so as to preserve the House of Tudor.
Margaret was not a Queen in the mould of her uncles, preferring fun and parties over the 'tedious dotting of i(s) and crossing of ts' as she once famously referred to State Business. However, it could be said that she was a suitable monarch for the times, when her subjects too, wanted to throw off the shackles of war and enjoy their dearly bought peace. Margaret would later be referred to as the 'best-loved Queen in Europe', and was said to be so trusting in her subjects that she would go among them without any regard for protocol.
On the personal side, too, Margaret seemed to live a charmed life. Scandalous though her marriage to the younger son of the Duke of Devonshire, Lord Charles Cavendish, was - she'd been expected to marry one of the younger Russian Princes as a sign of the new peace -, it proved a relatively happy one, though it produced only 3 daughters before her untimely death.
Nonetheless, Margaret's disregard for personal safety would prove to be her undoing, when she was killed by an IRA bomb blast in Coventry in 1939. She was just 31.
She was succeeded as monarch of Britain and Norway by [....]
Queen Katherine I escorted by her cousin James Cavendish, Marquis of Hartington at a ball celebrating her reaching her majority in 1949.
[18] The eldest daughter of Queen Margaret I & Lord Charles Cavendish, Duke of Kendal, eight-year-old Katherine Wilhelmine Louisa ascended to the throne upon her mother's murder. She and her younger sisters, Matilda & Philippa, were kept under lock and key due to her mother's untimely death, with the press dubbing the girls "Captives of Culross" regarding their long retreats to the secluded Scottish countryside.
Upon reaching her majority in 1949 the three sisters became the toast of society, often being seen with colorful characters in London, Kristiana, & Edinburgh much to their father's chagrin. After several years the public, at first sympathetic with the Queen's wish to enjoy life and people in a way she never had before, pressured Katherine to settle down. Her choice of suitor, well known Norweigan playwright Erik Olavsson shocked the nation, due to his career, non-noble status, and 10-year age gap. The pair, who married in 1957, appeared to have a harmonious, though unorthodox, relationship where straying was allowed so long as any flings remained short & didn't result in illegitimate offspring.
By her Diamond Jubilee in 1999, Queen Katherine was beloved by her subjects as their "fun, spirited Queen" as her youthful indiscretions gave way to an image of a playful mother, grandmother, and leader who sought to inject color into people's lives, even during the darkest of moments. Today many remember fondly her touching tribute to her late mother as she created a colorful flower garden called "Forgiveness" and devoted her life to helping bring joy to those who lost parents by gifting them touching handwritten notes and seeds to plant their own gardens.
Unfortunately, her vices would come back to haunt the nation's longest reigning monarch, as her life-long habit of smoking would lead to her early death at 68 due to Lung Cancer, forcing her nation to face the new millennium without one of its most colorful figures.
[/SPOILER]
Queen Katherine I escorted by her cousin James Cavendish, Marquis of Hartington at a ball celebrating her reaching her majority in 1949.
[18] The eldest daughter of Queen Margaret I & Lord Charles Cavendish, Duke of Kendal, eight-year-old Katherine Wilhelmine Louisa ascended to the throne upon her mother's murder. She and her younger sisters, Matilda & Philippa, were kept under lock and key due to her mother's untimely death, with the press dubbing the girls "Captives of Culross" regarding their long retreats to the secluded Scottish countryside.
Upon reaching her majority in 1949 the three sisters became the toast of society, often being seen with colorful characters in London, Kristiana, & Edinburgh much to their father's chagrin. After several years the public, at first sympathetic with the Queen's wish to enjoy life and people in a way she never had before, pressured Katherine to settle down. Her choice of suitor, well known Norweigan playwright Erik Olavsson shocked the nation, due to his career, non-noble status, and 10-year age gap. The pair, who married in 1957, appeared to have a harmonious, though unorthodox, relationship where straying was allowed so long as any flings remained short & didn't result in illegitimate offspring.
By her Diamond Jubilee in 1999, Queen Katherine was beloved by her subjects as their "fun, spirited Queen" as her youthful indiscretions gave way to an image of a playful mother, grandmother, and leader who sought to inject color into people's lives, even during the darkest of moments. Today many remember fondly her touching tribute to her late mother as she created a colorful flower garden called "Forgiveness" and devoted her life to helping bring joy to those who lost parents by gifting them touching handwritten notes and seeds to plant their own gardens.
Unfortunately, her vices would come back to haunt the nation's longest reigning monarch, as her life-long habit of smoking would lead to her early death at 68 due to Lung Cancer, forcing her nation to face the new millennium without one of its most colorful figures.
I like this!
We're rounding off this branch of the tree quite nicely, if I do say so myself What if Henry VIII's and Catherine of Aragon's son had survived?
Monarchs of England and Ireland
1509 - 1547: Henry VIII (House of Tudor)
1547 - 1572: Henry IX "the Bloody" (House of Tudor) [1]
1572 - 1586: Phillip I "the Pious" (House of Tudor) [2]
1586 - 1616: Henry X (House of Tudor) [3]
1616 - 1639: John II "the Portuguese" (House of Tudor) [4]
1639 - 1663: Sebastian I (House of Tudor) [5]
1663 - 1681: Alphonsus I "the Sailor"(House of Tudor) [6]
1681 - 1732: Henry XI (House of Tudor) [7]
1732 - 1749: Edward VI (House of Tudor) [8]
1749 - 1762: John III (House of Tudor) [9]
Monarchs of The United Kingdom of Great Britain, Ireland, & Norway
1762 - 1806: John III (House of Tudor) [9]
1806 - 1845: Jasper I 'the Witch-King' (House of Tudor) [10]
1845 - 1861: Henry XII (House of Tudor) [11]
1861 - 1866: Sebastian II (House of Tudor) [12]
1866 - 1893: John IV (House of Tudor) [13]
1893 - 1911: John V (House of Tudor) [14]
1911 - 1912: John VI (House of Tudor) [15]
1912 - 1922: Sebastian III (House of Tudor) [16]
1922 - 1939: Margaret I (House of Tudor) [17]
1939 - 2000: Katherine I (House of Tudor) [18]
2000 - present: Eric I (House of Tudor-Olavsson) [19]
[1] Henry was raised to be a Catholic by his parents, and so was very concerned with preserving the true faith among his population, often by bloody or violent means. His father Henry VIII had faced problems with heretics, and this problems had continued under his own reign. In 1550, there was a rebellion by the Protestant population in London, which led to a massacre by Henry's Catholic forces against the peasantry which became known as Bloody August due it happening throughout the month of August.
Henry oversaw the expansion of the English army and navy, which he used to crush dissidents and instil fear onto his subjects. However, he also used said army against the Scottish in the invasion of 1554.
The invading English proved effective against the Scots, and Scotland was annexed. However local resistant militias remained commonplace even at the end of his reign.
Henry married Isabella de Medici, a Catholic who bore him many children,
When the French Wars of Religion broke out, Henry stayed out of the war, claiming it would be too costly for the Kingdom, and would yield little results.
Henry died age 61, and was succeeded by his second son, Phillp Henry, Cardinal-Duke of York.
[2] After the Death of Henry, Prince of Wales in 1567 after a bout of Sweating Sickness striking the Palace, killing numerous members of the court as well as the Third son of Henry IX, Edward Duke of Clarence, Phillip was named as Heir to the English throne.
Phillip had been inducted to the Roman Catholic Church in the early 1560s, and through his father's influence, He rapidly was made a Cardinal and Bishop of Ferrara. At the time of the Bout of the Sickness, He was in Rome, and made his way to England when he heard the news.
After his arrival in Westminster, his crowning was one of the few moments where he removed his Cardinal's cap, and for the remainder of his reign, the cap would remain atop his royal head. For the coronation, beside him stood his sole remaining brother, Prince Louis, Duke of Lancaster.
His reign, a short fourteen years, restored the image of a Catholic England to much of Europe, mainly through generous donations to the Papacy, but also through the marriage of the two sons of the Duke of Lancaster to two Catholic princesses, firstly to an Infanta of Spain, and secondly to an Infanta of Portugal.
Phillip would frequently return to Rome during his reign, and was said to have taken Papal advice on many matters, and it was on one of the voyages where He was taken ill off shore of Cadiz. His body was returned to England, and a massive Royal funeral took place upon his return.
He was succeeded by his nephew, Prince Henry of Lancaster.
[3] Coming to the throne aged 14, Henry's first few years were marked by the regency of his mother Elizabeth. It was during the final year of her regency the Scottish rose up in defiance of the English King, with the head of the House of Stewart James leading the Stewartist cause. James Stewart enjoyed minor success, before being beaten back by English forces in the battle of Bellingham. When Henry came to the throne, he heroically led his armies into battle against the Scottish. The war was won soon after, and James Stewart was hung drawn and quartered in front of the King and his men.
It was in this early life experience that Henry began to define himself as a military expert, able of besting the strongest armies in Europe. Henry spent much of his reign fighting in Ireland, eventually gaining the whole island.
Henry was often described as envious of the Spanish Empire, wanting the colonies in America that they possessed. In 1602, Henry decided to give his explorers grants so they could found colonies in North America. He founded the English colonies of Virginia, New Berkshire (Modern day North and South Carolina), and Breretonland (named after the explorer John Brereton) and the Bahamas, which became very wealthy and successful colonies.
Henry died unexpectedly of a heart attack age 44, leaving his Kingdom to his younger, Prince John, Duke of Lancaster.
[4] The second son of Prince Louis, Duke of Lancaster, John was married to Infanta Beatrice of Portugal shortly before his twelth birthday, and returned with his bride to Lisbon. For much of his brothers reign, he was known simply as the 'Duke of Lancaster' eschewing the typical title of an heir in favour of that which he inherited from his father.
His life in Portugal was a happy one, residing mostly in the Algarve alongside his wife and children, of which he had four sons and three daughters. He would spend his days hunting and residing over a small Manorial court, which was usually filled with English and Irish merchants, seeking to make riches in the foreign ports that Portugal could bring.
After his Brothers death, John returned to England to assume the throne, and was crowned at Westminster as John II of England. His wife and children would follow later, and bring with them their Portuguese culture.
At the crowning of what was essentially a foreign monarch, several Protestant Nobles would rise in East Anglia, and attempt to crown one of their own, The Duke of Suffolk, as King claiming he had right to the throne via his descent from Henry VII.
The Revolt was put down, through extreme measures and the Nobles were each Hung, Drawn and Quartered in the presence of the King.
For the remainder of John's reign, it was largely peaceful, aside from the 'Bishop's War' in Ireland in 1631, an armed dispute between the Anglo-Irish Nobility, and the Catholic Bishops, which was resolved by intervention from the crown. John II would pass after 23 years of ruling, and pass the throne to his second son, Prince Sebastian, Duke of York.
[5] Prince Sebastian became heir to the throne following his older brother John's death in a hunting accident in 1625. Sebastian was perhaps the most Portuguese of all the children, possibly unsurprisingly given he had been named after the young King Sebastian who had died heroically resisting Spanish encroachment on the Kingdom of Portugal in 1580.
He married Princess Luisa Christina of Savoy and had five children with her. Despite the difference in their ages, the match was a happy one and Luisa would often act as Sebastian's Regent, for Sebastian never lost his love of travel and sense of adventure, one he had cultivated as a second son who never really expected to inherit. His favourite destination was Portugal, for he remembered his childhood there fondly and did all he could to help his beloved natal country preserve its independence from Spain. Unfortunately, this meant his reputation at home suffered, for the English resented having a King who seemed to care more for events overseas than for protecting his own people. It would be left to his heir to repair relations between the Crown and the English/Scottish peerage.
Like his namesake, Sebastian would die defending Portuguese independence, for he led a contingent of English troops to Portugal's aid against the Spanish at Ameixial near Estremoz on June 8, 1663. The battle went to Portugal, but at the cost of the ageing English King's life.
Sebastian would be succeeded by his eldest son, Alphonsus , Prince of Wales.
[6] Alphonsus was the eldest son of Sebastian I, and his bride Luisa Christina, and after the news of his father's death in the battle of Ameixial, was crowned Alphonsus I of England.
Unlike his Grandfather and father, Alphonsus spent little time in Portugal, save for the occasion of his marriage to his cousin, Infanta Maria Alphonsa of Portugal, daughter of Sebastião II. The royal pair would have three children, all daughters.
For much of his life, he would remain in southern England, residing at his residence in Southampton, where he would be fascinated by the array of sailing vessels, and also meet regularly with the Admiralty. He would continue this fascination throughout his life and expanded the English Navy heavily, and also spend vast funds on the few English colonies, and capture others, including the city of Alphonsbrough in New Kent (OTL Virginia)
Alphonsus's reign was largely peaceful, aside from the Revolt of the Irish Lords in 1670, and the Norwegian War of Freedom, in which Norway, with Anglo-Irish and swedish assistance gained freedom from Denmark, and established the Duke of Mecklenburg as King, with King Adolphus of Norway taking the Throne.
Alphonsus would pass in the summer of 1681, and the throne would go to his nephew, Henry, Prince of Wales.
[7] Prince Henry, was born on 19 February 1661, to Sebastian’s second son Prince John, Duke of York and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of Theophilus Howard, 2nd Earl of Suffolk.
His father would die in 1666, during a fire which engulfed their residence, York House in London, while Elizabeth and Prince Henry was visiting her relatives, rumours are that the fire happened during an affair Prince John was having with a stable hand, having sent all the other servants away.
With the birth of the last daughter to King Alphonsus, it was clear that Henry would become heir and would be ideal to secure the family by marrying one of his cousin, the royal princesses, however with word from Spain regarding King Charles II, the Habsburg ruler of the Spanish Empire and his physical disabilities, believed to be the result of inbreeding.
Instead he married firstly Princess Eleonore Erdmuthe Louise of Saxe-Eisenach (13 April 1662 – 9 September 1696) and then secondly Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans (13 September 1676 – 23 December 1744). With both marriages he could produce 15 children, making sure the Tudor line would continue.
His domestic policies was made better by his foreign policies, with one of steady economical trade and marriages between major nations and his three cousins, his daughters and many granddaughters.
His death on 1 May 1732, aged 71, following three years of sickness and having his son, Edward, Prince of Wales, acting as regent.
[8] By the time Prince Edward, born in 1691, took the throne he was already 42 and established as regent for his father. He had married Princess Victoria of Norway in 1710, the granddaughter of King Alphonsus via his eldest daughter Princess Eleonore, uniting the claims of the two lines. The marriage was fraught with issues, as Queen Victoria saw her claim as senior to her husband's and was charged with sewing tensions between King Edward and his heir John. Despite this, the King's reign was known as an intellectual renaissance (thanks to the influence of his many relations spreading knowledge from throughout Europe) and a sort of Golden Age for female learning, brought about by both Queen Victoria and the King's mistress Lady Bridget Howard.
Due to/Despite his tumultuous marriage Edward VI & Victoria did not/did manage to have children. When the King left to suppress a rebellion in Ireland, which was funded by the Queen's eldest brother King Harald of Norway who believed he was the true heir to King Alphonsus via his mother's claim, the regent was his heir John. While in Dublin the King was killed from an assassination by an Irish nationalist named Sean O'Donnell, leaving John as the monarch and the prospect of more Irish rebellion & war with Norway looming.
[9] A charismatic and easily likable man, as one of Edward VI's many nephews, John had been prepared for kingship fairly early in his life, learning the ways of politics and war. Upon the sudden assassination of Edward VI, the new king immediately set to work preparing his nation for the wars to come. His first actions were to call forth a grand army for the subjugation of the many young rebellions in Ireland. Throughout 1749 and early 1750 this army would be trained, and in August of 1750, the war that would be known as the Shattering of the Harps (after the adoption of the Green Harp Banner by many of the rebellion forces as a standard) would commence. Over the following year English forces would smash the assembled hosts of the Irish rebellions, ending with the death of the self proclaimed King of Ireland, George Talbot, at the battle of Aughrim. after this, most of the remaining rebel bands scattered and fled before the armies of the King.
However, he had not dismissed the threat of Norway during the campaigns in Ireland. Simultaneous with the marshaling of the army, John III was making ready the navy to wage war upon the sea. However, this would prove a monumental task, for the navy of Alphonsus had languished since his death, with its size dwindling to some 13 ships of the line, and 26 smaller vessels active, mostly out posted in the Caribbean and Americas. Upon their return from their tropical postings, they were immediately put to work training crews for ships that had been built and left sitting unmanned for decades. it would take them nearly two years to do so, with constant raiding and piracy from Norwegian ships interrupting much of England's trade. But when the fleet put to sea in mid 1751, it would number some 24 ships of the line and 53 ships of frigate or below rating. For the next two years they would hunt down and destroy the vast majority of the Norwegian fleet, with the largest battle occurring on April 11th, 1753. Some 11 Norwegian ships of the line and 14 frigates and sloops would face the English fleet fielding some 19 ships of the line and 27 frigates. This fleet, under the command of the hero of the campaign, Lord Admiral Alexander Gordon, Earl Granville, would smash the Norwegian fleet and launch an assault on the Norwegian mainland. His fleet would weigh anchor at the capital of Bergen, depositing a force of some 2,000 marines, these troops would be the vanguard for the English invasion force. By the end of 1754, the last English troops (veterans from Ireland) would be marching across the whole of Norway.
With the conquest of the nation, John III (using his relation to King Harald) was declared Sovereign King of Norway, bringing the nation under English influence. From here John's reign was relatively peaceful. the next half century would be marked as a time of great prosperity and enlightenment in England. to solidify his position as Sovereign of three separate kingdoms, He would exercise his considerable direct power in Norway and Ireland, as well as his strong political presence in the English parliament, to force all three nations to pass The Act of Union of 1762, this would combine the three crowns into a single body, and consolidate all governance into the parliament in London. The new nation would be simply referred to as Great Britain
Yet, peace was gasping near the end of the kings reign. In France, strife was stirring, and anger with the French King, Charles IX was growing among the people. already there were riots in the streets, and the nation was in peril. Yet that would be a trial for another king, for on October 3rd, 1806, King John III would pass away after an astounding 57 years on the throne. Leaving his second grandson, Prince Jasper of Wales to take the throne.
[10]
Jasper I, the second son of the only son of John III, Edward, Prince of Wales and his wife Princess Wilhelmine of Prussia, was only twelve when he took the throne of Great Britain, his elder brother Prince Philip of Wales having died two years prior of what modern historians believe to be hydrocephalus. Due to his status as a minor there was need of a regency, while his mother Wilhelmine was seen as the primary candidate, her tendencies of supporting her father Frederick William II's Germanic centric policies alienated much of the British political scene.
So for over a year as continental Europe erupted into horrific violence, first in France due to Charles IX's tyrannical rule devolving into a massive Revolution that quickly spread into the decaying Holy Roman Empire and the decadent Spanish Empire, the British Kingdoms were in a state of inertia as various factions swirled, none strong enough to seize the tiller of power on behalf of the young King.
Not to mention that the succession after Jasper I was unclear, Henry IX had had two wives and thirteen legitimate children, all of whom had married various nobles and royals across Europe, and in turn many of them had had children as well. Many feared that if Jasper I died then a war for the British succession would be inevitable.
Jasper himself spent much of his youth being educated by tutors, he displayed little interest in military matters, preferring to study history, philosophy, and more esoteric matters such as alchemy, astrology, and magic. The later was taught by a enigmatic figure in the young King's court, a mysterious elder peasant woman and suspected witch known as Alice Troyes, though the King would gather a strange court of hedge-wizards, natural philosophers, astrologers, alchemists, and other assorted practitioners of the strange, leading Jasper to be called 'the Witch-Boy' or more popularly 'the Witch-King of Great Britain', or simply the Witch-King.
At age fourteen, even as the First French Republic was formed on the corpses of Charles IX and his immediate family, Jasper I was able to convince a slim majority of the nobility to square the circle and proclaim his majority, allowing the young King to simply rule alone and ended much of the paralysis that had gripped the United Kingdoms.
This was under the advice of the Baron Grenville, who had managed to gain enough supporters during the 'Regency Crisis' to be a serious contender, but not enough to truly win. Earning the young King's trust he would become Jasper's principle advisor during much of his youth, much to the ire of the boy's mother who was dismissed from court upon Jasper's majority.
A series of coalition wars were already underway in Europe against Revolutionary France and Spain, led by Prussia and Russia due to the Hapsburg's being led by a highly inbred and mentally retarded Emperor, and last of the line of his family as well.
Jasper formally joined the Fourth Coalition on March 4h, 1809 against France and the Spanish Republicans that would later seize Spain in July of 1809, driving the Spanish royal family into exile in Mexico.
While the British navy would win several victories against France, on land they, like much of Europe continued to be defeated by the massive volunteer armies of the French Republic, leading defeat.
The Fifth and Sixth Coalition Wars would end similarly, however the Spanish and French Republics would buckle under the strain in different wars, the Spanish Republic would be toppled by a coup by an ambitious general eager to become a dictator, however he was quickly toppled by a mass revolt in Madrid by the people of the city and a group of businessmen and 'former' nobles invited a member of the Portuguese Royal family to become the new King of Spain.
While France witnessed a more successful internal coup that saw the rise of a new President For Life, Gilbert du Motier, the former Marquis de Lafayette and later proclaimed the Emperor of the French in 1814. This while not seen as ideal, led to a lessening of the violence in Western Europe, though the revolts and chaos of the Holy Roman Empire continued on, but more as a local problem that did not require British intervention... Until the last Habsburg died in 1821, leading to the various Dukes, Kings, and other rulers of the HRE to formally dissolve the Empire, however the succession to the various Habsburg lands led to the War of the Habsburg Succession, in which Britain tried to play the role of mediator with mixed results.
In the end the Archduchy of Austria and much of the lands in the Hapsburg German parts of the HRE were taken by different members of the House of Wittelsbach and the House of Hohenzollern, while a local nobleman with a drop of Hapsburg blood took Hungary, while the Italian lands were given to the Pope, and Bohemia elected a polish magnate as their King.
In the last years of the reign of Jasper I, the colonies in the New World had expanded considerably and were demanding various reforms and representation in Parliament, while Ireland suffered from severe famine that was only alleviated by the King spending tremendous sums of the government's budget for emergency supplies.
Jasper I would marry Princess Amalia Sophie of Sweden in his twenties, but the couple would only produce a single child, Henry Phillip, Prince of Wales who would inherit the throne after Jasper I died at age 51 of mercury poisoning from his alchemic experiments.
[11] Prince Henry Phillip of Wales would take the throne in 1845, after the death of his father Jasper I, commonly known as the Witch-King, a sobriquet which brought the Prince of Wales torment during his life, and so after his succession to the throne, he notoriously destroyed much of his father's notes and experiments, while gifting other 'notable' portions of the collection to the Freemasons Grand Lodge of England.
Early in life, Henry had been married to Infante Antonia of Portugal and Brazil, reigniting the relationship between the two royal houses, and she gave him three sons, and two daughters. The marriage was one of politics, but it would be rude to say there was no love between the two.
For his short reign, Henry XII of Great Britain, Ireland and Norway would be largely content to leave the everyday governance to his officials and advisors, preferring the quiet palatial life to one of stress.
In 1861, Henry XII would pass after a Stroke, and leave the throne to his eldest son, Sebastian.
[12] A flamboyant, debaucherous, and quick tempered man, Sebastian was always in trouble when he was younger, being engaged in many duels across his short life. His fathers hands-off approach to both the nation and parenting, did little to effect the outrageous excess and debauchery of his son. Indeed, even Sebastian's ascension to the throne could not dampen the new kings habits. Fancying the role of the monarch to be a strong and acting political force, in the vein of his Great Great Grandfather, he would sit at the head o all meetings of the house of lords. and for all of his brief rule he was known to burst into outrageous rants and tirades on the floor of said house, berating those present as fools and codgers not worthy of their posts and holdings. Indeed it was such events as these for which he would lose his life, as in the summer of 1866 he and the Lord Earl of Christiania (Norwegian nobility) both found each other deeply offended and their honor desecrated by the other and agreed upon a duel. The fateful day would be August 26th, as the two men walked their paces and turned to fire, only one round struck home. A talented duelist, the king was outmatched, and the Earls shot lodged itself in the kings brain, killing him instantly. While the Earl would not be charged with any crime, as the duel was legal and agreed upon by all witnessing parties, he would be struck with such guilt that not two weeks later he would commit suicide by jumping off the London bridge, plummeting onto the deck of a passing ship. The king would be given full state funeral on December 6th, at Westminster. Having no legitimate children, he would be succeeded by his brother, John, Duke of York.
[13] John, Duke of York was never expected to succeed to the throne, however the death of his brother forced him into the limelight. While Sebastian II had never married, John would marry his first-cousin, Infanta Phillipina of Spain, who was related via her mother being the sister of John's mother. She also descended from John II of England and Ireland via his daughter, princess Catherine, who married Sebastião I of Portugal, and gave issue including the Monarchs of Portugal and Brazil.
John IV's reign oversaw much of the expansion of the British empire, across much of Western Africa, Persia, and Indochina. He would also grant substantial autonomy to Ireland and Norway, allowing each a lower house of parliament, while the three Houses of Commons where collectively under the British House of Lords.
John IV, firstly with his first wife, would have four children; a son and three daughters, and with his second wife; Princess Magdelina of Holstein-Gottorp-Wiesenburg, a Catholic branch of the house of Oldenburg owning land typically in Silesia, he had a further three sons and two daughters.
John IV would pass in the year 1893, and pass the throne to His second son from his first marriage, John-Henry, Prince of Wales.
[14] John-Henry, Prince of Wales was the second son born from John IV's marriage to Queen Phillipina. John-Henry would become heir after the death of his elder brother, Phillip-John, in 1879.
Before his rise to the throne, John would typically spend his time either at his British estates, Stanley Palace in Chester, or the estates in Spain inherited from his mother. During his many visits to Spain, John-Henry, known as Juan-Henrique de Gales, he would meet and begin to court his second-cousin, Maria Alfonsina, Princess of Piombino, the daughter of Leopoldo Bragnanza, Prince of Piombino. The Principality of Piombino was inherited by the Braganza after the last Ludovisi Princess sold her possessions to Prince Leopoldo of Spain, son of Juan Braganza II of Spain, the second Braganza king of Spain.The marriage with Maria Alfonsina would bring the Prince of Wales two sons.
John V's reign was largely consistent of expanding and centralising the British Empire, across Africa, Asia, and parts of South America.
John V would pass in the winter of 1911, and pass the throne to his eldest son, Prince John.
[15] A sickly child from birth, many didn’t expect him to survive childhood, however he out lived his father.
He was educated privately and was not allowed to interact with other boys, spending a lot of time with his older sister.
He only served just under a year on the throne, before his death on 2nd November 1912 of tuberculosis, at the age of 29, unmarried and childless. His was the shortest reign since King Edward V.
[16] The youngest son of John IV, Sebastian had never thought he would rule, but after the deaths of his two older brothers, his eldest nephew, and the refusal of the Third son and the younger nephew to take the throne, there was no one else. And so the warrior king accepted the throne.
Before the kingship, Sebastian had been a career army man. Attaining the rank of Brigadier, he had been part of the campaign to repel the Boer invasion of Rhodesia, took part in the last great Native war in North America, culminating in the battles of Broken Arrow and Wounded Knee in 1899, and was Commanding officer of the Boxer Expedition that added Hong Kong, Hainan, Macau, and the surrounding territory to the Empire.
It would seem fortuitous then that he was the king when, in 1913, the Great War would break out. Caused by the assassination of Austrian heir, archduke Otto Frederic in Sarajevo by Serbian Nationalist Vitomir Grgurovic, the conflict would quickly explode. Prussia, Bavaria, Austria, and Sweden, against France, Russia, and Italy. The two sides were fairly evenly matched and so both clamoured for the assistance of the British behemoth.
In the end, King Sebastian would lead the nation to the rescue of the Germanic states. Landing at Calais and blockading the French mainland, British forces would see that France was defeated by 1915. Italy would be dispatched in a similar fashion by 1916. However it would take an excruciating 4 years to finally force a Russian surrender. When the war was concluded by the treaty of Lisbon, these were the terms leveled upon the defeated
France - Brittany given Independence as a vassal state to Britain. Alsace-Lothringen ceded to Prussia. various north African colonies ceded to Britain and Prussia. Indemnities on the order of 20 billion francs.
Italy - Veneto and Trieste ceded to Austria and Indemnities on the order of 5 billion Lira
Russia - Ukraine, Ruthenia, and the Grand Baltic Duchy given independence as German vassal states, Finland gains independence. A constitutional monarchy is to be established. Indemnities on the order of 70 Billion rubles.
And with the conclusion of the greatest war in human history, almost 19 million men lay dead across the fields of Europe. But for now peace had been bought. It would only be another three years before the king would pass away, leaving the throne to his grand-niece, Margaret Rose.
[17] The granddaughter of his younger sister, Princess Louisa, Duchess of Lennox, who had died the previous year, predeceased by her only son, Jasper, Earl of March and Settringon. The former Lady Margaret Rose Gordon-Lennox became Queen Margaret Rose of the United Kingdom at just 14, on the condition that she take the name Margaret Rose Tudor, so as to preserve the House of Tudor.
Margaret was not a Queen in the mould of her uncles, preferring fun and parties over the 'tedious dotting of i(s) and crossing of ts' as she once famously referred to State Business. However, it could be said that she was a suitable monarch for the times, when her subjects too, wanted to throw off the shackles of war and enjoy their dearly bought peace. Margaret would later be referred to as the 'best-loved Queen in Europe', and was said to be so trusting in her subjects that she would go among them without any regard for protocol.
On the personal side, too, Margaret seemed to live a charmed life. Scandalous though her marriage to the younger son of the Duke of Devonshire, Lord Charles Cavendish, was - she'd been expected to marry one of the younger Russian Princes as a sign of the new peace -, it proved a relatively happy one, though it produced only 3 daughters before her untimely death.
Nonetheless, Margaret's disregard for personal safety would prove to be her undoing, when she was killed by an IRA bomb blast in Coventry in 1939. She was just 31.
She was succeeded as monarch of Britain and Norway by her daughter, Katherine.
Queen Katherine I escorted by her cousin James Cavendish, Marquis of Hartington at a ball celebrating her reaching her majority in 1949.
[18] The eldest daughter of Queen Margaret I & Lord Charles Cavendish, Duke of Kendal, eight-year-old Katherine Wilhelmine Louisa ascended to the throne upon her mother's murder. She and her younger sisters, Matilda & Philippa, were kept under lock and key due to her mother's untimely death, with the press dubbing the girls "Captives of Culross" regarding their long retreats to the secluded Scottish countryside.
Upon reaching her majority in 1949 the three sisters became the toast of society, often being seen with colorful characters in London, Kristiana, & Edinburgh much to their father's chagrin. After several years the public, at first sympathetic with the Queen's wish to enjoy life and people in a way she never had before, pressured Katherine to settle down. Her choice of suitor, well known Norweigan playwright Erik Olavsson shocked the nation, due to his career, non-noble status, and 10-year age gap. The pair, who married in 1957, appeared to have a harmonious, though unorthodox, relationship where straying was allowed so long as any flings remained short & didn't result in illegitimate offspring.
By her Diamond Jubilee in 1999, Queen Katherine was beloved by her subjects as their "fun, spirited Queen" as her youthful indiscretions gave way to an image of a playful mother, grandmother, and leader who sought to inject color into people's lives, even during the darkest of moments. Today many remember fondly her touching tribute to her late mother as she created a colorful flower garden called "Forgiveness" and devoted her life to helping bring joy to those who lost parents by gifting them touching handwritten notes and seeds to plant their own gardens.
Unfortunately, her vices would come back to haunt the nation's longest reigning monarch, as her life-long habit of smoking would lead to her early death at 68 due to Lung Cancer, forcing her nation to face the new millennium without one of its most colorful figures.
King Eric, "The Different Kind of King"[19] But the United Kingdom faced the new millennium with an even more colorful monarch, so colorful that he quickly became known as "The Different Kind of King." Prince Eric was born in 1958 on April 1st. He spent half of his childhood in the Oslo palace where his paternal uncle, Sven Olavsson, made Duke of Oslo by Queen Katherine, was the royal presence in Norway. (Sven had been a politician in Norway and was the logical choice to fill the role.) Duke Sven was older than the Prince's father and his son, Stieg Olavsson, was ten years senior to the prince. The two cousins, despite the age difference, were quite close and Stieg was the Prince's mentor.
When the Prince would return to Britain, his cousin would join him. During the 'swinging sixties' as the capital became known as 'Swinging London,' Stieg was in the center of the new bohemian lifestyle of pop art, Carnaby Street fashion, free love, drugs, and, of course, Rock 'n Roll. Whenever possible, Stieg took his little cousin, who pretended to be someone else besides the future heir to the throne, with him: Eric Popper.
For years Eric Popper was believed by many to just be someone who looked very much like the Prince of Wales. In the early 70s, as Eric Popper, he became involved with a comedy troupe and started actually making appearances in their television comedy shows in 1974. It was an open secret that Eric Popper was in truth the Prince of Wales, which he finally confirmed on his 21st birthday in 1979.
He then began to live a lifestyle of car racing, making appearances in the comedy troupe's films, and producing Rock and New Wave music videos in the 1980s. He was the first male heir of the throne to not enter the military or attend University. "The world is my University" he explained.
He shocked the kingdoms when in 1987 he auditioned to be the 7th Doctor in Doctor Who. It is rumored that the produced wanted to cast "Eric Popper" but were politely informed by the Prime Minister that they should go with their second choice, Sylvester McCoy. He finally married in 1991 to an American starlet, Heather Graham, who'd appeared in the quirky TV show "Twin Peaks" that same year.
Princess Heather
Rather than marriage causing him to settle down, the couple became known for their lifestyle of jetting between Oslo, London, and Los Angeles where they engaged in activities more fitting to a Hollywood couple rather than a Royal one. As Eric Popper, the prince would frequent comedy clubs to do stand up, do cameos in comedy films and television shows, race cars, and produce Rock videos, while the Princess continued to act in films, using her maiden name for casting.
The old guard was shocked. But the younger generation loved their wild royal couple.
As King, Eric would continue to spend a lot of time in Oslo as well as London, and would do comedy bits when he would give speeches to the kingdoms. He once said, "The idea of a democratic nation still having a monarch is actually pretty funny, so why not have a king who is funny?"
In his speech to the kingdoms in 2006 he did his first costume appearance, dressing in early Tudor garb. He has since then at times given speeches dressed in exact replicas of many of his predecessors, including in 2014 wearing a dress like Queen Margaret Rose wore at her official portrait.
This has made him more popular with the people.
He and the Queen have three children, Eric, born in 1994, John, born in 1997, and Katherine, born in 2001.
(I will start a new line later.)
Monarchs of England and Ireland
1509 - 1547: Henry VIII (House of Tudor)
1547 - 1572: Henry IX "the Bloody" (House of Tudor) [1]
1572 - 1586: Phillip I "the Pious" (House of Tudor) [2]
1586 - 1616: Henry X (House of Tudor) [3]
1616 - 1639: John II "the Portuguese" (House of Tudor) [4]
1639 - 1663: Sebastian I (House of Tudor) [5]
1663 - 1681: Alphonsus I "the Sailor"(House of Tudor) [6]
1681 - 1732: Henry XI (House of Tudor) [7]
1732 - 1749: Edward VI (House of Tudor) [8]
1749 - 1762: John III (House of Tudor) [9]
Monarchs of The United Kingdom of Great Britain, Ireland, & Norway
1762 - 1806: John III (House of Tudor) [9]
1806 - 1845: Jasper I 'the Witch-King' (House of Tudor) [10]
1845 - 1861: Henry XII (House of Tudor) [11]
1861 - 1866: Sebastian II (House of Tudor) [12]
1866 - 1893: John IV (House of Tudor) [13]
1893 - 1911: John V (House of Tudor) [14]
1911 - 1912: John VI (House of Tudor) [15]
1912 - 1922: Sebastian III (House of Tudor) [16]
1922 - 1939: Margaret I (House of Tudor) [17]
1939 - 2000: Katherine I (House of Tudor) [18]
2000 - present: Eric I (House of Tudor-Olavsson) [19]
Henry oversaw the expansion of the English army and navy, which he used to crush dissidents and instil fear onto his subjects. However, he also used said army against the Scottish in the invasion of 1554.
The invading English proved effective against the Scots, and Scotland was annexed. However local resistant militias remained commonplace even at the end of his reign.
Henry married Isabella de Medici, a Catholic who bore him many children,
When the French Wars of Religion broke out, Henry stayed out of the war, claiming it would be too costly for the Kingdom, and would yield little results.
Henry died age 61, and was succeeded by his second son, Phillp Henry, Cardinal-Duke of York.
Phillip had been inducted to the Roman Catholic Church in the early 1560s, and through his father's influence, He rapidly was made a Cardinal and Bishop of Ferrara. At the time of the Bout of the Sickness, He was in Rome, and made his way to England when he heard the news.
After his arrival in Westminster, his crowning was one of the few moments where he removed his Cardinal's cap, and for the remainder of his reign, the cap would remain atop his royal head. For the coronation, beside him stood his sole remaining brother, Prince Louis, Duke of Lancaster.
His reign, a short fourteen years, restored the image of a Catholic England to much of Europe, mainly through generous donations to the Papacy, but also through the marriage of the two sons of the Duke of Lancaster to two Catholic princesses, firstly to an Infanta of Spain, and secondly to an Infanta of Portugal.
Phillip would frequently return to Rome during his reign, and was said to have taken Papal advice on many matters, and it was on one of the voyages where He was taken ill off shore of Cadiz. His body was returned to England, and a massive Royal funeral took place upon his return.
He was succeeded by his nephew, Prince Henry of Lancaster.
It was in this early life experience that Henry began to define himself as a military expert, able of besting the strongest armies in Europe. Henry spent much of his reign fighting in Ireland, eventually gaining the whole island.
Henry was often described as envious of the Spanish Empire, wanting the colonies in America that they possessed. In 1602, Henry decided to give his explorers grants so they could found colonies in North America. He founded the English colonies of Virginia, New Berkshire (Modern day North and South Carolina), and Breretonland (named after the explorer John Brereton) and the Bahamas, which became very wealthy and successful colonies.
Henry died unexpectedly of a heart attack age 44, leaving his Kingdom to his younger, Prince John, Duke of Lancaster.
His life in Portugal was a happy one, residing mostly in the Algarve alongside his wife and children, of which he had four sons and three daughters. He would spend his days hunting and residing over a small Manorial court, which was usually filled with English and Irish merchants, seeking to make riches in the foreign ports that Portugal could bring.
After his Brothers death, John returned to England to assume the throne, and was crowned at Westminster as John II of England. His wife and children would follow later, and bring with them their Portuguese culture.
At the crowning of what was essentially a foreign monarch, several Protestant Nobles would rise in East Anglia, and attempt to crown one of their own, The Duke of Suffolk, as King claiming he had right to the throne via his descent from Henry VII.
The Revolt was put down, through extreme measures and the Nobles were each Hung, Drawn and Quartered in the presence of the King.
For the remainder of John's reign, it was largely peaceful, aside from the 'Bishop's War' in Ireland in 1631, an armed dispute between the Anglo-Irish Nobility, and the Catholic Bishops, which was resolved by intervention from the crown. John II would pass after 23 years of ruling, and pass the throne to his second son, Prince Sebastian, Duke of York.
He married Princess Luisa Christina of Savoy and had five children with her. Despite the difference in their ages, the match was a happy one and Luisa would often act as Sebastian's Regent, for Sebastian never lost his love of travel and sense of adventure, one he had cultivated as a second son who never really expected to inherit. His favourite destination was Portugal, for he remembered his childhood there fondly and did all he could to help his beloved natal country preserve its independence from Spain. Unfortunately, this meant his reputation at home suffered, for the English resented having a King who seemed to care more for events overseas than for protecting his own people. It would be left to his heir to repair relations between the Crown and the English/Scottish peerage.
Like his namesake, Sebastian would die defending Portuguese independence, for he led a contingent of English troops to Portugal's aid against the Spanish at Ameixial near Estremoz on June 8, 1663. The battle went to Portugal, but at the cost of the ageing English King's life.
Sebastian would be succeeded by his eldest son, Alphonsus , Prince of Wales.
Unlike his Grandfather and father, Alphonsus spent little time in Portugal, save for the occasion of his marriage to his cousin, Infanta Maria Alphonsa of Portugal, daughter of Sebastião II. The royal pair would have three children, all daughters.
For much of his life, he would remain in southern England, residing at his residence in Southampton, where he would be fascinated by the array of sailing vessels, and also meet regularly with the Admiralty. He would continue this fascination throughout his life and expanded the English Navy heavily, and also spend vast funds on the few English colonies, and capture others, including the city of Alphonsbrough in New Kent (OTL Virginia)
Alphonsus's reign was largely peaceful, aside from the Revolt of the Irish Lords in 1670, and the Norwegian War of Freedom, in which Norway, with Anglo-Irish and swedish assistance gained freedom from Denmark, and established the Duke of Mecklenburg as King, with King Adolphus of Norway taking the Throne.
Alphonsus would pass in the summer of 1681, and the throne would go to his nephew, Henry, Prince of Wales.
His father would die in 1666, during a fire which engulfed their residence, York House in London, while Elizabeth and Prince Henry was visiting her relatives, rumours are that the fire happened during an affair Prince John was having with a stable hand, having sent all the other servants away.
With the birth of the last daughter to King Alphonsus, it was clear that Henry would become heir and would be ideal to secure the family by marrying one of his cousin, the royal princesses, however with word from Spain regarding King Charles II, the Habsburg ruler of the Spanish Empire and his physical disabilities, believed to be the result of inbreeding.
Instead he married firstly Princess Eleonore Erdmuthe Louise of Saxe-Eisenach (13 April 1662 – 9 September 1696) and then secondly Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans (13 September 1676 – 23 December 1744). With both marriages he could produce 15 children, making sure the Tudor line would continue.
His domestic policies was made better by his foreign policies, with one of steady economical trade and marriages between major nations and his three cousins, his daughters and many granddaughters.
His death on 1 May 1732, aged 71, following three years of sickness and having his son, Edward, Prince of Wales, acting as regent.
Due to/Despite his tumultuous marriage Edward VI & Victoria did not/did manage to have children. When the King left to suppress a rebellion in Ireland, which was funded by the Queen's eldest brother King Harald of Norway who believed he was the true heir to King Alphonsus via his mother's claim, the regent was his heir John. While in Dublin the King was killed from an assassination by an Irish nationalist named Sean O'Donnell, leaving John as the monarch and the prospect of more Irish rebellion & war with Norway looming.
[9] A charismatic and easily likable man, as one of Edward VI's many nephews, John had been prepared for kingship fairly early in his life, learning the ways of politics and war. Upon the sudden assassination of Edward VI, the new king immediately set to work preparing his nation for the wars to come. His first actions were to call forth a grand army for the subjugation of the many young rebellions in Ireland. Throughout 1749 and early 1750 this army would be trained, and in August of 1750, the war that would be known as the Shattering of the Harps (after the adoption of the Green Harp Banner by many of the rebellion forces as a standard) would commence. Over the following year English forces would smash the assembled hosts of the Irish rebellions, ending with the death of the self proclaimed King of Ireland, George Talbot, at the battle of Aughrim. after this, most of the remaining rebel bands scattered and fled before the armies of the King.
However, he had not dismissed the threat of Norway during the campaigns in Ireland. Simultaneous with the marshaling of the army, John III was making ready the navy to wage war upon the sea. However, this would prove a monumental task, for the navy of Alphonsus had languished since his death, with its size dwindling to some 13 ships of the line, and 26 smaller vessels active, mostly out posted in the Caribbean and Americas. Upon their return from their tropical postings, they were immediately put to work training crews for ships that had been built and left sitting unmanned for decades. it would take them nearly two years to do so, with constant raiding and piracy from Norwegian ships interrupting much of England's trade. But when the fleet put to sea in mid 1751, it would number some 24 ships of the line and 53 ships of frigate or below rating. For the next two years they would hunt down and destroy the vast majority of the Norwegian fleet, with the largest battle occurring on April 11th, 1753. Some 11 Norwegian ships of the line and 14 frigates and sloops would face the English fleet fielding some 19 ships of the line and 27 frigates. This fleet, under the command of the hero of the campaign, Lord Admiral Alexander Gordon, Earl Granville, would smash the Norwegian fleet and launch an assault on the Norwegian mainland. His fleet would weigh anchor at the capital of Bergen, depositing a force of some 2,000 marines, these troops would be the vanguard for the English invasion force. By the end of 1754, the last English troops (veterans from Ireland) would be marching across the whole of Norway.
With the conquest of the nation, John III (using his relation to King Harald) was declared Sovereign King of Norway, bringing the nation under English influence. From here John's reign was relatively peaceful. the next half century would be marked as a time of great prosperity and enlightenment in England. to solidify his position as Sovereign of three separate kingdoms, He would exercise his considerable direct power in Norway and Ireland, as well as his strong political presence in the English parliament, to force all three nations to pass The Act of Union of 1762, this would combine the three crowns into a single body, and consolidate all governance into the parliament in London. The new nation would be simply referred to as Great Britain
Yet, peace was gasping near the end of the kings reign. In France, strife was stirring, and anger with the French King, Charles IX was growing among the people. already there were riots in the streets, and the nation was in peril. Yet that would be a trial for another king, for on October 3rd, 1806, King John III would pass away after an astounding 57 years on the throne. Leaving his second grandson, Prince Jasper of Wales to take the throne.
[10]
So for over a year as continental Europe erupted into horrific violence, first in France due to Charles IX's tyrannical rule devolving into a massive Revolution that quickly spread into the decaying Holy Roman Empire and the decadent Spanish Empire, the British Kingdoms were in a state of inertia as various factions swirled, none strong enough to seize the tiller of power on behalf of the young King.
Not to mention that the succession after Jasper I was unclear, Henry IX had had two wives and thirteen legitimate children, all of whom had married various nobles and royals across Europe, and in turn many of them had had children as well. Many feared that if Jasper I died then a war for the British succession would be inevitable.
Jasper himself spent much of his youth being educated by tutors, he displayed little interest in military matters, preferring to study history, philosophy, and more esoteric matters such as alchemy, astrology, and magic. The later was taught by a enigmatic figure in the young King's court, a mysterious elder peasant woman and suspected witch known as Alice Troyes, though the King would gather a strange court of hedge-wizards, natural philosophers, astrologers, alchemists, and other assorted practitioners of the strange, leading Jasper to be called 'the Witch-Boy' or more popularly 'the Witch-King of Great Britain', or simply the Witch-King.
At age fourteen, even as the First French Republic was formed on the corpses of Charles IX and his immediate family, Jasper I was able to convince a slim majority of the nobility to square the circle and proclaim his majority, allowing the young King to simply rule alone and ended much of the paralysis that had gripped the United Kingdoms.
This was under the advice of the Baron Grenville, who had managed to gain enough supporters during the 'Regency Crisis' to be a serious contender, but not enough to truly win. Earning the young King's trust he would become Jasper's principle advisor during much of his youth, much to the ire of the boy's mother who was dismissed from court upon Jasper's majority.
A series of coalition wars were already underway in Europe against Revolutionary France and Spain, led by Prussia and Russia due to the Hapsburg's being led by a highly inbred and mentally retarded Emperor, and last of the line of his family as well.
Jasper formally joined the Fourth Coalition on March 4h, 1809 against France and the Spanish Republicans that would later seize Spain in July of 1809, driving the Spanish royal family into exile in Mexico.
While the British navy would win several victories against France, on land they, like much of Europe continued to be defeated by the massive volunteer armies of the French Republic, leading defeat.
The Fifth and Sixth Coalition Wars would end similarly, however the Spanish and French Republics would buckle under the strain in different wars, the Spanish Republic would be toppled by a coup by an ambitious general eager to become a dictator, however he was quickly toppled by a mass revolt in Madrid by the people of the city and a group of businessmen and 'former' nobles invited a member of the Portuguese Royal family to become the new King of Spain.
While France witnessed a more successful internal coup that saw the rise of a new President For Life, Gilbert du Motier, the former Marquis de Lafayette and later proclaimed the Emperor of the French in 1814. This while not seen as ideal, led to a lessening of the violence in Western Europe, though the revolts and chaos of the Holy Roman Empire continued on, but more as a local problem that did not require British intervention... Until the last Habsburg died in 1821, leading to the various Dukes, Kings, and other rulers of the HRE to formally dissolve the Empire, however the succession to the various Habsburg lands led to the War of the Habsburg Succession, in which Britain tried to play the role of mediator with mixed results.
In the end the Archduchy of Austria and much of the lands in the Hapsburg German parts of the HRE were taken by different members of the House of Wittelsbach and the House of Hohenzollern, while a local nobleman with a drop of Hapsburg blood took Hungary, while the Italian lands were given to the Pope, and Bohemia elected a polish magnate as their King.
In the last years of the reign of Jasper I, the colonies in the New World had expanded considerably and were demanding various reforms and representation in Parliament, while Ireland suffered from severe famine that was only alleviated by the King spending tremendous sums of the government's budget for emergency supplies.
Jasper I would marry Princess Amalia Sophie of Sweden in his twenties, but the couple would only produce a single child, Henry Phillip, Prince of Wales who would inherit the throne after Jasper I died at age 51 of mercury poisoning from his alchemic experiments.
Early in life, Henry had been married to Infante Antonia of Portugal and Brazil, reigniting the relationship between the two royal houses, and she gave him three sons, and two daughters. The marriage was one of politics, but it would be rude to say there was no love between the two.
For his short reign, Henry XII of Great Britain, Ireland and Norway would be largely content to leave the everyday governance to his officials and advisors, preferring the quiet palatial life to one of stress.
In 1861, Henry XII would pass after a Stroke, and leave the throne to his eldest son, Sebastian.
[12] A flamboyant, debaucherous, and quick tempered man, Sebastian was always in trouble when he was younger, being engaged in many duels across his short life. His fathers hands-off approach to both the nation and parenting, did little to effect the outrageous excess and debauchery of his son. Indeed, even Sebastian's ascension to the throne could not dampen the new kings habits. Fancying the role of the monarch to be a strong and acting political force, in the vein of his Great Great Grandfather, he would sit at the head o all meetings of the house of lords. and for all of his brief rule he was known to burst into outrageous rants and tirades on the floor of said house, berating those present as fools and codgers not worthy of their posts and holdings. Indeed it was such events as these for which he would lose his life, as in the summer of 1866 he and the Lord Earl of Christiania (Norwegian nobility) both found each other deeply offended and their honor desecrated by the other and agreed upon a duel. The fateful day would be August 26th, as the two men walked their paces and turned to fire, only one round struck home. A talented duelist, the king was outmatched, and the Earls shot lodged itself in the kings brain, killing him instantly. While the Earl would not be charged with any crime, as the duel was legal and agreed upon by all witnessing parties, he would be struck with such guilt that not two weeks later he would commit suicide by jumping off the London bridge, plummeting onto the deck of a passing ship. The king would be given full state funeral on December 6th, at Westminster. Having no legitimate children, he would be succeeded by his brother, John, Duke of York.
John IV's reign oversaw much of the expansion of the British empire, across much of Western Africa, Persia, and Indochina. He would also grant substantial autonomy to Ireland and Norway, allowing each a lower house of parliament, while the three Houses of Commons where collectively under the British House of Lords.
John IV, firstly with his first wife, would have four children; a son and three daughters, and with his second wife; Princess Magdelina of Holstein-Gottorp-Wiesenburg, a Catholic branch of the house of Oldenburg owning land typically in Silesia, he had a further three sons and two daughters.
John IV would pass in the year 1893, and pass the throne to His second son from his first marriage, John-Henry, Prince of Wales.
Before his rise to the throne, John would typically spend his time either at his British estates, Stanley Palace in Chester, or the estates in Spain inherited from his mother. During his many visits to Spain, John-Henry, known as Juan-Henrique de Gales, he would meet and begin to court his second-cousin, Maria Alfonsina, Princess of Piombino, the daughter of Leopoldo Bragnanza, Prince of Piombino. The Principality of Piombino was inherited by the Braganza after the last Ludovisi Princess sold her possessions to Prince Leopoldo of Spain, son of Juan Braganza II of Spain, the second Braganza king of Spain.The marriage with Maria Alfonsina would bring the Prince of Wales two sons.
John V's reign was largely consistent of expanding and centralising the British Empire, across Africa, Asia, and parts of South America.
John V would pass in the winter of 1911, and pass the throne to his eldest son, Prince John.
[15] A sickly child from birth, many didn’t expect him to survive childhood, however he out lived his father.
He was educated privately and was not allowed to interact with other boys, spending a lot of time with his older sister.
He only served just under a year on the throne, before his death on 2nd November 1912 of tuberculosis, at the age of 29, unmarried and childless. His was the shortest reign since King Edward V.
[16] The youngest son of John IV, Sebastian had never thought he would rule, but after the deaths of his two older brothers, his eldest nephew, and the refusal of the Third son and the younger nephew to take the throne, there was no one else. And so the warrior king accepted the throne.
Before the kingship, Sebastian had been a career army man. Attaining the rank of Brigadier, he had been part of the campaign to repel the Boer invasion of Rhodesia, took part in the last great Native war in North America, culminating in the battles of Broken Arrow and Wounded Knee in 1899, and was Commanding officer of the Boxer Expedition that added Hong Kong, Hainan, Macau, and the surrounding territory to the Empire.
It would seem fortuitous then that he was the king when, in 1913, the Great War would break out. Caused by the assassination of Austrian heir, archduke Otto Frederic in Sarajevo by Serbian Nationalist Vitomir Grgurovic, the conflict would quickly explode. Prussia, Bavaria, Austria, and Sweden, against France, Russia, and Italy. The two sides were fairly evenly matched and so both clamoured for the assistance of the British behemoth.
In the end, King Sebastian would lead the nation to the rescue of the Germanic states. Landing at Calais and blockading the French mainland, British forces would see that France was defeated by 1915. Italy would be dispatched in a similar fashion by 1916. However it would take an excruciating 4 years to finally force a Russian surrender. When the war was concluded by the treaty of Lisbon, these were the terms leveled upon the defeated
France - Brittany given Independence as a vassal state to Britain. Alsace-Lothringen ceded to Prussia. various north African colonies ceded to Britain and Prussia. Indemnities on the order of 20 billion francs.
Italy - Veneto and Trieste ceded to Austria and Indemnities on the order of 5 billion Lira
Russia - Ukraine, Ruthenia, and the Grand Baltic Duchy given independence as German vassal states, Finland gains independence. A constitutional monarchy is to be established. Indemnities on the order of 70 Billion rubles.
And with the conclusion of the greatest war in human history, almost 19 million men lay dead across the fields of Europe. But for now peace had been bought. It would only be another three years before the king would pass away, leaving the throne to his grand-niece, Margaret Rose.
[17] The granddaughter of his younger sister, Princess Louisa, Duchess of Lennox, who had died the previous year, predeceased by her only son, Jasper, Earl of March and Settringon. The former Lady Margaret Rose Gordon-Lennox became Queen Margaret Rose of the United Kingdom at just 14, on the condition that she take the name Margaret Rose Tudor, so as to preserve the House of Tudor.
Margaret was not a Queen in the mould of her uncles, preferring fun and parties over the 'tedious dotting of i(s) and crossing of ts' as she once famously referred to State Business. However, it could be said that she was a suitable monarch for the times, when her subjects too, wanted to throw off the shackles of war and enjoy their dearly bought peace. Margaret would later be referred to as the 'best-loved Queen in Europe', and was said to be so trusting in her subjects that she would go among them without any regard for protocol.
On the personal side, too, Margaret seemed to live a charmed life. Scandalous though her marriage to the younger son of the Duke of Devonshire, Lord Charles Cavendish, was - she'd been expected to marry one of the younger Russian Princes as a sign of the new peace -, it proved a relatively happy one, though it produced only 3 daughters before her untimely death.
Nonetheless, Margaret's disregard for personal safety would prove to be her undoing, when she was killed by an IRA bomb blast in Coventry in 1939. She was just 31.
She was succeeded as monarch of Britain and Norway by her daughter, Katherine.
[18] The eldest daughter of Queen Margaret I & Lord Charles Cavendish, Duke of Kendal, eight-year-old Katherine Wilhelmine Louisa ascended to the throne upon her mother's murder. She and her younger sisters, Matilda & Philippa, were kept under lock and key due to her mother's untimely death, with the press dubbing the girls "Captives of Culross" regarding their long retreats to the secluded Scottish countryside.
Upon reaching her majority in 1949 the three sisters became the toast of society, often being seen with colorful characters in London, Kristiana, & Edinburgh much to their father's chagrin. After several years the public, at first sympathetic with the Queen's wish to enjoy life and people in a way she never had before, pressured Katherine to settle down. Her choice of suitor, well known Norweigan playwright Erik Olavsson shocked the nation, due to his career, non-noble status, and 10-year age gap. The pair, who married in 1957, appeared to have a harmonious, though unorthodox, relationship where straying was allowed so long as any flings remained short & didn't result in illegitimate offspring.
By her Diamond Jubilee in 1999, Queen Katherine was beloved by her subjects as their "fun, spirited Queen" as her youthful indiscretions gave way to an image of a playful mother, grandmother, and leader who sought to inject color into people's lives, even during the darkest of moments. Today many remember fondly her touching tribute to her late mother as she created a colorful flower garden called "Forgiveness" and devoted her life to helping bring joy to those who lost parents by gifting them touching handwritten notes and seeds to plant their own gardens.
Unfortunately, her vices would come back to haunt the nation's longest reigning monarch, as her life-long habit of smoking would lead to her early death at 68 due to Lung Cancer, forcing her nation to face the new millennium without one of its most colorful figures.
King Eric, "The Different Kind of King"
When the Prince would return to Britain, his cousin would join him. During the 'swinging sixties' as the capital became known as 'Swinging London,' Stieg was in the center of the new bohemian lifestyle of pop art, Carnaby Street fashion, free love, drugs, and, of course, Rock 'n Roll. Whenever possible, Stieg took his little cousin, who pretended to be someone else besides the future heir to the throne, with him: Eric Popper.
For years Eric Popper was believed by many to just be someone who looked very much like the Prince of Wales. In the early 70s, as Eric Popper, he became involved with a comedy troupe and started actually making appearances in their television comedy shows in 1974. It was an open secret that Eric Popper was in truth the Prince of Wales, which he finally confirmed on his 21st birthday in 1979.
He then began to live a lifestyle of car racing, making appearances in the comedy troupe's films, and producing Rock and New Wave music videos in the 1980s. He was the first male heir of the throne to not enter the military or attend University. "The world is my University" he explained.
He shocked the kingdoms when in 1987 he auditioned to be the 7th Doctor in Doctor Who. It is rumored that the produced wanted to cast "Eric Popper" but were politely informed by the Prime Minister that they should go with their second choice, Sylvester McCoy. He finally married in 1991 to an American starlet, Heather Graham, who'd appeared in the quirky TV show "Twin Peaks" that same year.
Princess Heather
Rather than marriage causing him to settle down, the couple became known for their lifestyle of jetting between Oslo, London, and Los Angeles where they engaged in activities more fitting to a Hollywood couple rather than a Royal one. As Eric Popper, the prince would frequent comedy clubs to do stand up, do cameos in comedy films and television shows, race cars, and produce Rock videos, while the Princess continued to act in films, using her maiden name for casting.
The old guard was shocked. But the younger generation loved their wild royal couple.
As King, Eric would continue to spend a lot of time in Oslo as well as London, and would do comedy bits when he would give speeches to the kingdoms. He once said, "The idea of a democratic nation still having a monarch is actually pretty funny, so why not have a king who is funny?"
In his speech to the kingdoms in 2006 he did his first costume appearance, dressing in early Tudor garb. He has since then at times given speeches dressed in exact replicas of many of his predecessors, including in 2014 wearing a dress like Queen Margaret Rose wore at her official portrait.
This has made him more popular with the people.
He and the Queen have three children, Eric, born in 1994, John, born in 1997, and Katherine, born in 2001.
(I will start a new line later.)
What if the Kingdom of Judah had survived the Babylonian conquest as just Jerusalem and then when the Persian Empire conquered Babylonia, the Jewish Kings of the line of David had continued to reign over a Jewish Kingdom in Palestine under the Great King, and then under Alexander, the Hellenistic Kingdoms, and the Romans, who all had done the same thing as the Persians? (If this timeline does't die first- we'll only go to the birth of Jesus- will he be the heir of the kingdom or not?)
597 - 547: Zedekiah I (House of David) [1]
[1] Zedekiah was the younger brother of King Jehoiakim, who was killed by the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, after he conquered all of Judah. At first Zediah's nephew, Jeconiah was made king under Babylon, but after a few months he too was killed and Zedekiah, aged 21, was made the client king. At this time only the city of Jerusalem was ruled by the House of David. Ten years later, Nebuchadnezzar decided to conquer Jerusalem and take the king in chains to Babylon, but Egypt intervened and stopped this. The result was that the House of David continued to rule Jerusalem while the rest of Judah was under Babylonian or Egyptian control. By skillfully playing the two major powers against each other, Zedekiah kept the line of David ruling in the city of David. Zedekiah died at the age of 71 and the throne passed to his ___________, ___________.
597 - 547: Zedekiah I (House of David) [1]
[1] Zedekiah was the younger brother of King Jehoiakim, who was killed by the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, after he conquered all of Judah. At first Zediah's nephew, Jeconiah was made king under Babylon, but after a few months he too was killed and Zedekiah, aged 21, was made the client king. At this time only the city of Jerusalem was ruled by the House of David. Ten years later, Nebuchadnezzar decided to conquer Jerusalem and take the king in chains to Babylon, but Egypt intervened and stopped this. The result was that the House of David continued to rule Jerusalem while the rest of Judah was under Babylonian or Egyptian control. By skillfully playing the two major powers against each other, Zedekiah kept the line of David ruling in the city of David. Zedekiah died at the age of 71 and the throne passed to his ___________, ___________.
What if Henry VIII's and Catherine of Aragon's son had survived?
Monarchs of England and Ireland
1509 - 1547: Henry VIII (House of Tudor)
1547 - 1572: Henry IX "the Bloody" (House of Tudor) [1]
1572 - 1586: Phillip I "the Pious" (House of Tudor) [2]
1586 - 1616: Henry X (House of Tudor) [3]
1616 - 1639: John II "the Portuguese" (House of Tudor) [4]
1639 - 1663: Sebastian I (House of Tudor) [5]
1663 - 1681: Alphonsus I "the Sailor"(House of Tudor) [6]
1681 - 1732: Henry XI (House of Tudor) [7]
1732 - 1749: Edward VI (House of Tudor) [8]
1749 - 1762: John III (House of Tudor) [9]
Monarchs of The United Kingdom of Great Britain, Ireland, & Norway
1762 - 1806: John III (House of Tudor) [9]
1806 - 1845: Jasper I 'the Witch-King' (House of Tudor) [10]
1845 - 1861: Henry XII (House of Tudor) [11]
1861 - 1866: Sebastian II (House of Tudor) [12]
1866 - 1893: John IV (House of Tudor) [13]
1893 - 1911: John V (House of Tudor) [14]
1911 - 1912: John VI (House of Tudor) [15]
1912 - 1922: Sebastian III (House of Tudor) [16]
1922 - 1939: Margaret I (House of Tudor) [17]
1939 - 2000: Katherine I (House of Tudor) [18]
2000 - present: Eric I (House of Tudor-Olavsson) [19]
[1] Henry was raised to be a Catholic by his parents, and so was very concerned with preserving the true faith among his population, often by bloody or violent means. His father Henry VIII had faced problems with heretics, and this problems had continued under his own reign. In 1550, there was a rebellion by the Protestant population in London, which led to a massacre by Henry's Catholic forces against the peasantry which became known as Bloody August due it happening throughout the month of August.
Henry oversaw the expansion of the English army and navy, which he used to crush dissidents and instil fear onto his subjects. However, he also used said army against the Scottish in the invasion of 1554.
The invading English proved effective against the Scots, and Scotland was annexed. However local resistant militias remained commonplace even at the end of his reign.
Henry married Isabella de Medici, a Catholic who bore him many children,
When the French Wars of Religion broke out, Henry stayed out of the war, claiming it would be too costly for the Kingdom, and would yield little results.
Henry died age 61, and was succeeded by his second son, Phillp Henry, Cardinal-Duke of York.
[2] After the Death of Henry, Prince of Wales in 1567 after a bout of Sweating Sickness striking the Palace, killing numerous members of the court as well as the Third son of Henry IX, Edward Duke of Clarence, Phillip was named as Heir to the English throne.
Phillip had been inducted to the Roman Catholic Church in the early 1560s, and through his father's influence, He rapidly was made a Cardinal and Bishop of Ferrara. At the time of the Bout of the Sickness, He was in Rome, and made his way to England when he heard the news.
After his arrival in Westminster, his crowning was one of the few moments where he removed his Cardinal's cap, and for the remainder of his reign, the cap would remain atop his royal head. For the coronation, beside him stood his sole remaining brother, Prince Louis, Duke of Lancaster.
His reign, a short fourteen years, restored the image of a Catholic England to much of Europe, mainly through generous donations to the Papacy, but also through the marriage of the two sons of the Duke of Lancaster to two Catholic princesses, firstly to an Infanta of Spain, and secondly to an Infanta of Portugal.
Phillip would frequently return to Rome during his reign, and was said to have taken Papal advice on many matters, and it was on one of the voyages where He was taken ill off shore of Cadiz. His body was returned to England, and a massive Royal funeral took place upon his return.
He was succeeded by his nephew, Prince Henry of Lancaster.
[3] Coming to the throne aged 14, Henry's first few years were marked by the regency of his mother Elizabeth. It was during the final year of her regency the Scottish rose up in defiance of the English King, with the head of the House of Stewart James leading the Stewartist cause. James Stewart enjoyed minor success, before being beaten back by English forces in the battle of Bellingham. When Henry came to the throne, he heroically led his armies into battle against the Scottish. The war was won soon after, and James Stewart was hung drawn and quartered in front of the King and his men.
It was in this early life experience that Henry began to define himself as a military expert, able of besting the strongest armies in Europe. Henry spent much of his reign fighting in Ireland, eventually gaining the whole island.
Henry was often described as envious of the Spanish Empire, wanting the colonies in America that they possessed. In 1602, Henry decided to give his explorers grants so they could found colonies in North America. He founded the English colonies of Virginia, New Berkshire (Modern day North and South Carolina), and Breretonland (named after the explorer John Brereton) and the Bahamas, which became very wealthy and successful colonies.
Henry died unexpectedly of a heart attack age 44, leaving his Kingdom to his younger, Prince John, Duke of Lancaster.
[4] The second son of Prince Louis, Duke of Lancaster, John was married to Infanta Beatrice of Portugal shortly before his twelth birthday, and returned with his bride to Lisbon. For much of his brothers reign, he was known simply as the 'Duke of Lancaster' eschewing the typical title of an heir in favour of that which he inherited from his father.
His life in Portugal was a happy one, residing mostly in the Algarve alongside his wife and children, of which he had four sons and three daughters. He would spend his days hunting and residing over a small Manorial court, which was usually filled with English and Irish merchants, seeking to make riches in the foreign ports that Portugal could bring.
After his Brothers death, John returned to England to assume the throne, and was crowned at Westminster as John II of England. His wife and children would follow later, and bring with them their Portuguese culture.
At the crowning of what was essentially a foreign monarch, several Protestant Nobles would rise in East Anglia, and attempt to crown one of their own, The Duke of Suffolk, as King claiming he had right to the throne via his descent from Henry VII.
The Revolt was put down, through extreme measures and the Nobles were each Hung, Drawn and Quartered in the presence of the King.
For the remainder of John's reign, it was largely peaceful, aside from the 'Bishop's War' in Ireland in 1631, an armed dispute between the Anglo-Irish Nobility, and the Catholic Bishops, which was resolved by intervention from the crown. John II would pass after 23 years of ruling, and pass the throne to his second son, Prince Sebastian, Duke of York.
[5] Prince Sebastian became heir to the throne following his older brother John's death in a hunting accident in 1625. Sebastian was perhaps the most Portuguese of all the children, possibly unsurprisingly given he had been named after the young King Sebastian who had died heroically resisting Spanish encroachment on the Kingdom of Portugal in 1580.
He married Princess Luisa Christina of Savoy and had five children with her. Despite the difference in their ages, the match was a happy one and Luisa would often act as Sebastian's Regent, for Sebastian never lost his love of travel and sense of adventure, one he had cultivated as a second son who never really expected to inherit. His favourite destination was Portugal, for he remembered his childhood there fondly and did all he could to help his beloved natal country preserve its independence from Spain. Unfortunately, this meant his reputation at home suffered, for the English resented having a King who seemed to care more for events overseas than for protecting his own people. It would be left to his heir to repair relations between the Crown and the English/Scottish peerage.
Like his namesake, Sebastian would die defending Portuguese independence, for he led a contingent of English troops to Portugal's aid against the Spanish at Ameixial near Estremoz on June 8, 1663. The battle went to Portugal, but at the cost of the ageing English King's life.
Sebastian would be succeeded by his eldest son, Alphonsus , Prince of Wales.
[6] Alphonsus was the eldest son of Sebastian I, and his bride Luisa Christina, and after the news of his father's death in the battle of Ameixial, was crowned Alphonsus I of England.
Unlike his Grandfather and father, Alphonsus spent little time in Portugal, save for the occasion of his marriage to his cousin, Infanta Maria Alphonsa of Portugal, daughter of Sebastião II. The royal pair would have three children, all daughters.
For much of his life, he would remain in southern England, residing at his residence in Southampton, where he would be fascinated by the array of sailing vessels, and also meet regularly with the Admiralty. He would continue this fascination throughout his life and expanded the English Navy heavily, and also spend vast funds on the few English colonies, and capture others, including the city of Alphonsbrough in New Kent (OTL Virginia)
Alphonsus's reign was largely peaceful, aside from the Revolt of the Irish Lords in 1670, and the Norwegian War of Freedom, in which Norway, with Anglo-Irish and swedish assistance gained freedom from Denmark, and established the Duke of Mecklenburg as King, with King Adolphus of Norway taking the Throne.
Alphonsus would pass in the summer of 1681, and the throne would go to his nephew, Henry, Prince of Wales.
[7] Prince Henry, was born on 19 February 1661, to Sebastian’s second son Prince John, Duke of York and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of Theophilus Howard, 2nd Earl of Suffolk.
His father would die in 1666, during a fire which engulfed their residence, York House in London, while Elizabeth and Prince Henry was visiting her relatives, rumours are that the fire happened during an affair Prince John was having with a stable hand, having sent all the other servants away.
With the birth of the last daughter to King Alphonsus, it was clear that Henry would become heir and would be ideal to secure the family by marrying one of his cousin, the royal princesses, however with word from Spain regarding King Charles II, the Habsburg ruler of the Spanish Empire and his physical disabilities, believed to be the result of inbreeding.
Instead he married firstly Princess Eleonore Erdmuthe Louise of Saxe-Eisenach (13 April 1662 – 9 September 1696) and then secondly Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans (13 September 1676 – 23 December 1744). With both marriages he could produce 15 children, making sure the Tudor line would continue.
His domestic policies was made better by his foreign policies, with one of steady economical trade and marriages between major nations and his three cousins, his daughters and many granddaughters.
His death on 1 May 1732, aged 71, following three years of sickness and having his son, Edward, Prince of Wales, acting as regent.
[8] By the time Prince Edward, born in 1691, took the throne he was already 42 and established as regent for his father. He had married Princess Victoria of Norway in 1710, the granddaughter of King Alphonsus via his eldest daughter Princess Eleonore, uniting the claims of the two lines. The marriage was fraught with issues, as Queen Victoria saw her claim as senior to her husband's and was charged with sewing tensions between King Edward and his heir John. Despite this, the King's reign was known as an intellectual renaissance (thanks to the influence of his many relations spreading knowledge from throughout Europe) and a sort of Golden Age for female learning, brought about by both Queen Victoria and the King's mistress Lady Bridget Howard.
Due to/Despite his tumultuous marriage Edward VI & Victoria did not/did manage to have children. When the King left to suppress a rebellion in Ireland, which was funded by the Queen's eldest brother King Harald of Norway who believed he was the true heir to King Alphonsus via his mother's claim, the regent was his heir John. While in Dublin the King was killed from an assassination by an Irish nationalist named Sean O'Donnell, leaving John as the monarch and the prospect of more Irish rebellion & war with Norway looming.
[9] A charismatic and easily likable man, as one of Edward VI's many nephews, John had been prepared for kingship fairly early in his life, learning the ways of politics and war. Upon the sudden assassination of Edward VI, the new king immediately set to work preparing his nation for the wars to come. His first actions were to call forth a grand army for the subjugation of the many young rebellions in Ireland. Throughout 1749 and early 1750 this army would be trained, and in August of 1750, the war that would be known as the Shattering of the Harps (after the adoption of the Green Harp Banner by many of the rebellion forces as a standard) would commence. Over the following year English forces would smash the assembled hosts of the Irish rebellions, ending with the death of the self proclaimed King of Ireland, George Talbot, at the battle of Aughrim. after this, most of the remaining rebel bands scattered and fled before the armies of the King.
However, he had not dismissed the threat of Norway during the campaigns in Ireland. Simultaneous with the marshaling of the army, John III was making ready the navy to wage war upon the sea. However, this would prove a monumental task, for the navy of Alphonsus had languished since his death, with its size dwindling to some 13 ships of the line, and 26 smaller vessels active, mostly out posted in the Caribbean and Americas. Upon their return from their tropical postings, they were immediately put to work training crews for ships that had been built and left sitting unmanned for decades. it would take them nearly two years to do so, with constant raiding and piracy from Norwegian ships interrupting much of England's trade. But when the fleet put to sea in mid 1751, it would number some 24 ships of the line and 53 ships of frigate or below rating. For the next two years they would hunt down and destroy the vast majority of the Norwegian fleet, with the largest battle occurring on April 11th, 1753. Some 11 Norwegian ships of the line and 14 frigates and sloops would face the English fleet fielding some 19 ships of the line and 27 frigates. This fleet, under the command of the hero of the campaign, Lord Admiral Alexander Gordon, Earl Granville, would smash the Norwegian fleet and launch an assault on the Norwegian mainland. His fleet would weigh anchor at the capital of Bergen, depositing a force of some 2,000 marines, these troops would be the vanguard for the English invasion force. By the end of 1754, the last English troops (veterans from Ireland) would be marching across the whole of Norway.
With the conquest of the nation, John III (using his relation to King Harald) was declared Sovereign King of Norway, bringing the nation under English influence. From here John's reign was relatively peaceful. the next half century would be marked as a time of great prosperity and enlightenment in England. to solidify his position as Sovereign of three separate kingdoms, He would exercise his considerable direct power in Norway and Ireland, as well as his strong political presence in the English parliament, to force all three nations to pass The Act of Union of 1762, this would combine the three crowns into a single body, and consolidate all governance into the parliament in London. The new nation would be simply referred to as Great Britain
Yet, peace was gasping near the end of the kings reign. In France, strife was stirring, and anger with the French King, Charles IX was growing among the people. already there were riots in the streets, and the nation was in peril. Yet that would be a trial for another king, for on October 3rd, 1806, King John III would pass away after an astounding 57 years on the throne. Leaving his second grandson, Prince Jasper of Wales to take the throne.
[10]
Jasper I, the second son of the only son of John III, Edward, Prince of Wales and his wife Princess Wilhelmine of Prussia, was only twelve when he took the throne of Great Britain, his elder brother Prince Philip of Wales having died two years prior of what modern historians believe to be hydrocephalus. Due to his status as a minor there was need of a regency, while his mother Wilhelmine was seen as the primary candidate, her tendencies of supporting her father Frederick William II's Germanic centric policies alienated much of the British political scene.
So for over a year as continental Europe erupted into horrific violence, first in France due to Charles IX's tyrannical rule devolving into a massive Revolution that quickly spread into the decaying Holy Roman Empire and the decadent Spanish Empire, the British Kingdoms were in a state of inertia as various factions swirled, none strong enough to seize the tiller of power on behalf of the young King.
Not to mention that the succession after Jasper I was unclear, Henry IX had had two wives and thirteen legitimate children, all of whom had married various nobles and royals across Europe, and in turn many of them had had children as well. Many feared that if Jasper I died then a war for the British succession would be inevitable.
Jasper himself spent much of his youth being educated by tutors, he displayed little interest in military matters, preferring to study history, philosophy, and more esoteric matters such as alchemy, astrology, and magic. The later was taught by a enigmatic figure in the young King's court, a mysterious elder peasant woman and suspected witch known as Alice Troyes, though the King would gather a strange court of hedge-wizards, natural philosophers, astrologers, alchemists, and other assorted practitioners of the strange, leading Jasper to be called 'the Witch-Boy' or more popularly 'the Witch-King of Great Britain', or simply the Witch-King.
At age fourteen, even as the First French Republic was formed on the corpses of Charles IX and his immediate family, Jasper I was able to convince a slim majority of the nobility to square the circle and proclaim his majority, allowing the young King to simply rule alone and ended much of the paralysis that had gripped the United Kingdoms.
This was under the advice of the Baron Grenville, who had managed to gain enough supporters during the 'Regency Crisis' to be a serious contender, but not enough to truly win. Earning the young King's trust he would become Jasper's principle advisor during much of his youth, much to the ire of the boy's mother who was dismissed from court upon Jasper's majority.
A series of coalition wars were already underway in Europe against Revolutionary France and Spain, led by Prussia and Russia due to the Hapsburg's being led by a highly inbred and mentally retarded Emperor, and last of the line of his family as well.
Jasper formally joined the Fourth Coalition on March 4h, 1809 against France and the Spanish Republicans that would later seize Spain in July of 1809, driving the Spanish royal family into exile in Mexico.
While the British navy would win several victories against France, on land they, like much of Europe continued to be defeated by the massive volunteer armies of the French Republic, leading defeat.
The Fifth and Sixth Coalition Wars would end similarly, however the Spanish and French Republics would buckle under the strain in different wars, the Spanish Republic would be toppled by a coup by an ambitious general eager to become a dictator, however he was quickly toppled by a mass revolt in Madrid by the people of the city and a group of businessmen and 'former' nobles invited a member of the Portuguese Royal family to become the new King of Spain.
While France witnessed a more successful internal coup that saw the rise of a new President For Life, Gilbert du Motier, the former Marquis de Lafayette and later proclaimed the Emperor of the French in 1814. This while not seen as ideal, led to a lessening of the violence in Western Europe, though the revolts and chaos of the Holy Roman Empire continued on, but more as a local problem that did not require British intervention... Until the last Habsburg died in 1821, leading to the various Dukes, Kings, and other rulers of the HRE to formally dissolve the Empire, however the succession to the various Habsburg lands led to the War of the Habsburg Succession, in which Britain tried to play the role of mediator with mixed results.
In the end the Archduchy of Austria and much of the lands in the Hapsburg German parts of the HRE were taken by different members of the House of Wittelsbach and the House of Hohenzollern, while a local nobleman with a drop of Hapsburg blood took Hungary, while the Italian lands were given to the Pope, and Bohemia elected a polish magnate as their King.
In the last years of the reign of Jasper I, the colonies in the New World had expanded considerably and were demanding various reforms and representation in Parliament, while Ireland suffered from severe famine that was only alleviated by the King spending tremendous sums of the government's budget for emergency supplies.
Jasper I would marry Princess Amalia Sophie of Sweden in his twenties, but the couple would only produce a single child, Henry Phillip, Prince of Wales who would inherit the throne after Jasper I died at age 51 of mercury poisoning from his alchemic experiments.
[11] Prince Henry Phillip of Wales would take the throne in 1845, after the death of his father Jasper I, commonly known as the Witch-King, a sobriquet which brought the Prince of Wales torment during his life, and so after his succession to the throne, he notoriously destroyed much of his father's notes and experiments, while gifting other 'notable' portions of the collection to the Freemasons Grand Lodge of England.
Early in life, Henry had been married to Infante Antonia of Portugal and Brazil, reigniting the relationship between the two royal houses, and she gave him three sons, and two daughters. The marriage was one of politics, but it would be rude to say there was no love between the two.
For his short reign, Henry XII of Great Britain, Ireland and Norway would be largely content to leave the everyday governance to his officials and advisors, preferring the quiet palatial life to one of stress.
In 1861, Henry XII would pass after a Stroke, and leave the throne to his eldest son, Sebastian.
[12] A flamboyant, debaucherous, and quick tempered man, Sebastian was always in trouble when he was younger, being engaged in many duels across his short life. His fathers hands-off approach to both the nation and parenting, did little to effect the outrageous excess and debauchery of his son. Indeed, even Sebastian's ascension to the throne could not dampen the new kings habits. Fancying the role of the monarch to be a strong and acting political force, in the vein of his Great Great Grandfather, he would sit at the head o all meetings of the house of lords. and for all of his brief rule he was known to burst into outrageous rants and tirades on the floor of said house, berating those present as fools and codgers not worthy of their posts and holdings. Indeed it was such events as these for which he would lose his life, as in the summer of 1866 he and the Lord Earl of Christiania (Norwegian nobility) both found each other deeply offended and their honor desecrated by the other and agreed upon a duel. The fateful day would be August 26th, as the two men walked their paces and turned to fire, only one round struck home. A talented duelist, the king was outmatched, and the Earls shot lodged itself in the kings brain, killing him instantly. While the Earl would not be charged with any crime, as the duel was legal and agreed upon by all witnessing parties, he would be struck with such guilt that not two weeks later he would commit suicide by jumping off the London bridge, plummeting onto the deck of a passing ship. The king would be given full state funeral on December 6th, at Westminster. Having no legitimate children, he would be succeeded by his brother, John, Duke of York.
[13] John, Duke of York was never expected to succeed to the throne, however the death of his brother forced him into the limelight. While Sebastian II had never married, John would marry his first-cousin, Infanta Phillipina of Spain, who was related via her mother being the sister of John's mother. She also descended from John II of England and Ireland via his daughter, princess Catherine, who married Sebastião I of Portugal, and gave issue including the Monarchs of Portugal and Brazil.
John IV's reign oversaw much of the expansion of the British empire, across much of Western Africa, Persia, and Indochina. He would also grant substantial autonomy to Ireland and Norway, allowing each a lower house of parliament, while the three Houses of Commons where collectively under the British House of Lords.
John IV, firstly with his first wife, would have four children; a son and three daughters, and with his second wife; Princess Magdelina of Holstein-Gottorp-Wiesenburg, a Catholic branch of the house of Oldenburg owning land typically in Silesia, he had a further three sons and two daughters.
John IV would pass in the year 1893, and pass the throne to His second son from his first marriage, John-Henry, Prince of Wales.
[14] John-Henry, Prince of Wales was the second son born from John IV's marriage to Queen Phillipina. John-Henry would become heir after the death of his elder brother, Phillip-John, in 1879.
Before his rise to the throne, John would typically spend his time either at his British estates, Stanley Palace in Chester, or the estates in Spain inherited from his mother. During his many visits to Spain, John-Henry, known as Juan-Henrique de Gales, he would meet and begin to court his second-cousin, Maria Alfonsina, Princess of Piombino, the daughter of Leopoldo Bragnanza, Prince of Piombino. The Principality of Piombino was inherited by the Braganza after the last Ludovisi Princess sold her possessions to Prince Leopoldo of Spain, son of Juan Braganza II of Spain, the second Braganza king of Spain.The marriage with Maria Alfonsina would bring the Prince of Wales two sons.
John V's reign was largely consistent of expanding and centralising the British Empire, across Africa, Asia, and parts of South America.
John V would pass in the winter of 1911, and pass the throne to his eldest son, Prince John.
[15] A sickly child from birth, many didn’t expect him to survive childhood, however he out lived his father.
He was educated privately and was not allowed to interact with other boys, spending a lot of time with his older sister.
He only served just under a year on the throne, before his death on 2nd November 1912 of tuberculosis, at the age of 29, unmarried and childless. His was the shortest reign since King Edward V.
[16] The youngest son of John IV, Sebastian had never thought he would rule, but after the deaths of his two older brothers, his eldest nephew, and the refusal of the Third son and the younger nephew to take the throne, there was no one else. And so the warrior king accepted the throne.
Before the kingship, Sebastian had been a career army man. Attaining the rank of Brigadier, he had been part of the campaign to repel the Boer invasion of Rhodesia, took part in the last great Native war in North America, culminating in the battles of Broken Arrow and Wounded Knee in 1899, and was Commanding officer of the Boxer Expedition that added Hong Kong, Hainan, Macau, and the surrounding territory to the Empire.
It would seem fortuitous then that he was the king when, in 1913, the Great War would break out. Caused by the assassination of Austrian heir, archduke Otto Frederic in Sarajevo by Serbian Nationalist Vitomir Grgurovic, the conflict would quickly explode. Prussia, Bavaria, Austria, and Sweden, against France, Russia, and Italy. The two sides were fairly evenly matched and so both clamoured for the assistance of the British behemoth.
In the end, King Sebastian would lead the nation to the rescue of the Germanic states. Landing at Calais and blockading the French mainland, British forces would see that France was defeated by 1915. Italy would be dispatched in a similar fashion by 1916. However it would take an excruciating 4 years to finally force a Russian surrender. When the war was concluded by the treaty of Lisbon, these were the terms leveled upon the defeated
France - Brittany given Independence as a vassal state to Britain. Alsace-Lothringen ceded to Prussia. various north African colonies ceded to Britain and Prussia. Indemnities on the order of 20 billion francs.
Italy - Veneto and Trieste ceded to Austria and Indemnities on the order of 5 billion Lira
Russia - Ukraine, Ruthenia, and the Grand Baltic Duchy given independence as German vassal states, Finland gains independence. A constitutional monarchy is to be established. Indemnities on the order of 70 Billion rubles.
And with the conclusion of the greatest war in human history, almost 19 million men lay dead across the fields of Europe. But for now peace had been bought. It would only be another three years before the king would pass away, leaving the throne to his grand-niece, Margaret Rose.
[17] The granddaughter of his younger sister, Princess Louisa, Duchess of Lennox, who had died the previous year, predeceased by her only son, Jasper, Earl of March and Settringon. The former Lady Margaret Rose Gordon-Lennox became Queen Margaret Rose of the United Kingdom at just 14, on the condition that she take the name Margaret Rose Tudor, so as to preserve the House of Tudor.
Margaret was not a Queen in the mould of her uncles, preferring fun and parties over the 'tedious dotting of i(s) and crossing of ts' as she once famously referred to State Business. However, it could be said that she was a suitable monarch for the times, when her subjects too, wanted to throw off the shackles of war and enjoy their dearly bought peace. Margaret would later be referred to as the 'best-loved Queen in Europe', and was said to be so trusting in her subjects that she would go among them without any regard for protocol.
On the personal side, too, Margaret seemed to live a charmed life. Scandalous though her marriage to the younger son of the Duke of Devonshire, Lord Charles Cavendish, was - she'd been expected to marry one of the younger Russian Princes as a sign of the new peace -, it proved a relatively happy one, though it produced only 3 daughters before her untimely death.
Nonetheless, Margaret's disregard for personal safety would prove to be her undoing, when she was killed by an IRA bomb blast in Coventry in 1939. She was just 31.
She was succeeded as monarch of Britain and Norway by her daughter, Katherine.
Queen Katherine I escorted by her cousin James Cavendish, Marquis of Hartington at a ball celebrating her reaching her majority in 1949.
[18] The eldest daughter of Queen Margaret I & Lord Charles Cavendish, Duke of Kendal, eight-year-old Katherine Wilhelmine Louisa ascended to the throne upon her mother's murder. She and her younger sisters, Matilda & Philippa, were kept under lock and key due to her mother's untimely death, with the press dubbing the girls "Captives of Culross" regarding their long retreats to the secluded Scottish countryside.
Upon reaching her majority in 1949 the three sisters became the toast of society, often being seen with colorful characters in London, Kristiana, & Edinburgh much to their father's chagrin. After several years the public, at first sympathetic with the Queen's wish to enjoy life and people in a way she never had before, pressured Katherine to settle down. Her choice of suitor, well known Norweigan playwright Erik Olavsson shocked the nation, due to his career, non-noble status, and 10-year age gap. The pair, who married in 1957, appeared to have a harmonious, though unorthodox, relationship where straying was allowed so long as any flings remained short & didn't result in illegitimate offspring.
By her Diamond Jubilee in 1999, Queen Katherine was beloved by her subjects as their "fun, spirited Queen" as her youthful indiscretions gave way to an image of a playful mother, grandmother, and leader who sought to inject color into people's lives, even during the darkest of moments. Today many remember fondly her touching tribute to her late mother as she created a colorful flower garden called "Forgiveness" and devoted her life to helping bring joy to those who lost parents by gifting them touching handwritten notes and seeds to plant their own gardens.
Unfortunately, her vices would come back to haunt the nation's longest reigning monarch, as her life-long habit of smoking would lead to her early death at 68 due to Lung Cancer, forcing her nation to face the new millennium without one of its most colorful figures.
In 1987 he auditioned to be the 7th Doctor in Doctor Who. It is rumored that the produced wanted to cast "Eric Popper" but were politely informed by the Prime Minister that they should go with their second choice, Sylvester McCoy.
McCoy's my favorite doctor, and Ace's my favorite companion, so I'd really like to see that myself. Season 26 is one of my favorite seasons of the show, it was criminal they cancelled right as its strength was coming back.
Micheal Grade is the only BBC controller not knighted by Queen Elizabeth, allegedly in part because he cancelled Doctor Who.
Interesting, that one of the men I most admire and one I most (joking) dislike from the UK were named Michael and never knighted - Michael Faraday and Michael Grade. I'm also glad Classic Who are coming around on Colin Baker, just see Big Finish to see what he can do with good writers.
An idea for the gown worn by 3 generations of royals: Queen Philippina (nee Infanta of Spain), Queen Margaret I, & King Eric I. Here it is in an official portrait for Margaret's 21st birthday
[2] Unfortunately for Jerusalem, Zedekiah's son, Josiah, was a weak-willed ruler controlled by his Babylonian mistress Aruru. The woman, known to legend as the Whore of Babylon, was focused only on enriching herself and her family and sought to parlay her influence with the King into a power grab. She encouraged Josiah to name her son, Jehokiam, as heir to the throne and was secretly plotting to kill her lover and install herself as regent. She was faced with opposition by Josiah's wife, Mariam, a devout Hebrew woman who sought to secure the succession for her own son Amon. When Josiah died at 57, after a thoroughly unremarkable life, the stage was set. On one side stood Aruru, Jehokiam, and the Babylonians; the other Mariam, Amon, Jerusalem, and Egypt. It was truly remarkable to see the victory of __________________.
What if the Kingdom of Judah had survived the Babylonian conquest as just Jerusalem and then when the Persian Empire conquered Babylonia, the Jewish Kings of the line of David had continued to reign over a Jewish Kingdom in Palestine under the Great King, and then under Alexander, the Hellenistic Kingdoms, and the Romans, who all had done the same thing as the Persians? (If this timeline does't die first- we'll only go to the birth of Jesus- will he be the heir of the kingdom or not?)
597 - 547: Zedekiah I (House of David) [1]
547 - 530: Josiah II (House of David) [2]
530 - 504: Zerubbable (House of David) [3]
[1] Zedekiah was the younger brother of King Jehoiakim, who was killed by the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, after he conquered all of Judah. At first Zediah's nephew, Jeconiah was made king under Babylon, but after a few months he too was killed and Zedekiah, aged 21, was made the client king. At this time only the city of Jerusalem was ruled by the House of David. Ten years later, Nebuchadnezzar decided to conquer Jerusalem and take the king in chains to Babylon, but Egypt intervened and stopped this. The result was that the House of David continued to rule Jerusalem while the rest of Judah was under Babylonian or Egyptian control. By skillfully playing the two major powers against each other, Zedekiah kept the line of David ruling in the city of David. Zedekiah died at the age of 71 and the throne passed to his son, Josiah.
[2] Unfortunately for Jerusalem, Zedekiah's son, Josiah, was a weak-willed ruler controlled by his Babylonian mistress Aruru. The woman, known to legend as the Whore of Babylon, was focused only on enriching herself and her family and sought to parlay her influence with the King into a power grab. She encouraged Josiah to name her son, Jehokiam, as heir to the throne and was secretly plotting to kill her lover and install herself as regent. She was faced with opposition by Josiah's wife, Mariam, a devout Hebrew woman who sought to secure the succession for her own son Amon. When Josiah died at 57, after a thoroughly unremarkable life, the stage was set. On one side stood Aruru, Jehokiam, and the Babylonians; the other Mariam, Amon, Jerusalem, and Egypt. It was truly remarkable to see the victory of the dark horse Zerubbabel and the Persians instead.
[3] Zerubbabel was the son of Sheatiel, who was the son of Jeconiah, and thus Zerubbabel was the second cousin once removed of the two sons of Josiah II. When Nebuchadnezzar killed Jeconiah in 597, the young king was 18 and his son, Sheatiel, was 2 years old. To many the real heir to the throne should have been Sheatiel, but instead the Babylonians put Zedekiah on the throne and took the child prince as a hostage to Babylon. There the exiles considered him the true "Son of David" and transferred that loyalty to his son Zerubbabel, born in 560, when Sheatiel died in 540. By 539, the Great King of Persia, Cyrus the Great, had conquered the kingdom of the Medes, all of Asia Minor and Anatolia, and northern Mesopotamia. Meanwhile the rump Babylonian Empire and the Egyptians battled for control of the Levant, using the small Judaean Kingdom, that was basically Jerusalem, as a pawn. Finally, as the two brothers, one legitimate and one a bastard, readied for a war between Babylon and Egypt to see who would take the seat of David, the armies of Persian conquered Babylon and then marched west, with the Jewish exiles led by Prince Zerubbabel and the prophet Daniel.
Cyrus had promised the Babylonian Jews the return of all Judaea to their kingdom for their support of his conquest of Babylon, including a vast rebuilding project of the City of David and pacification of the peoples of the Land. Included in this was the restoration of the treasures of the temple which had been taken by Nebuchadnezzar in his conquest of 597. Amon fled to Egypt while Jehokiam fought with the Babylonians against Zerubbabel and the Persians. Jehokiam died in battle and Zerubbabel was crowned with the gold crown of David that had been in exile since Jehoiakim had been conquered.
In no time at all Persia did what no Asian empire had been able to accomplish, and conquered Egypt. In this battle Amon was captured and then executed. Zerubbabel was now the undisputed King of Judah.
Both the Babylonians and the Egyptians had insisted on loyalty to their gods as part of Jerusalem's continuance as a kingdom within their Empires. Cyrus told the Jews that he served the same God as them and God had told him to restore the Kingdom of David and the worship of the One True God as under the reforms of Josiah I, the father of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah. This was the task of King Zerubbabel who expanded Jerusalem with a new wall and restored the temple. It was a time of prosperity and peace in Judah.
On his death, Zerubbabel was succeeded by his __________, ____________.
597 - 547: Zedekiah I (House of David) [1]
547 - 530: Josiah II (House of David) [2]
530 - 504: Zerubbable (House of David) [3]
[1] Zedekiah was the younger brother of King Jehoiakim, who was killed by the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, after he conquered all of Judah. At first Zediah's nephew, Jeconiah was made king under Babylon, but after a few months he too was killed and Zedekiah, aged 21, was made the client king. At this time only the city of Jerusalem was ruled by the House of David. Ten years later, Nebuchadnezzar decided to conquer Jerusalem and take the king in chains to Babylon, but Egypt intervened and stopped this. The result was that the House of David continued to rule Jerusalem while the rest of Judah was under Babylonian or Egyptian control. By skillfully playing the two major powers against each other, Zedekiah kept the line of David ruling in the city of David. Zedekiah died at the age of 71 and the throne passed to his son, Josiah.
[2] Unfortunately for Jerusalem, Zedekiah's son, Josiah, was a weak-willed ruler controlled by his Babylonian mistress Aruru. The woman, known to legend as the Whore of Babylon, was focused only on enriching herself and her family and sought to parlay her influence with the King into a power grab. She encouraged Josiah to name her son, Jehokiam, as heir to the throne and was secretly plotting to kill her lover and install herself as regent. She was faced with opposition by Josiah's wife, Mariam, a devout Hebrew woman who sought to secure the succession for her own son Amon. When Josiah died at 57, after a thoroughly unremarkable life, the stage was set. On one side stood Aruru, Jehokiam, and the Babylonians; the other Mariam, Amon, Jerusalem, and Egypt. It was truly remarkable to see the victory of the dark horse Zerubbabel and the Persians instead.
[3] Zerubbabel was the son of Sheatiel, who was the son of Jeconiah, and thus Zerubbabel was the second cousin once removed of the two sons of Josiah II. When Nebuchadnezzar killed Jeconiah in 597, the young king was 18 and his son, Sheatiel, was 2 years old. To many the real heir to the throne should have been Sheatiel, but instead the Babylonians put Zedekiah on the throne and took the child prince as a hostage to Babylon. There the exiles considered him the true "Son of David" and transferred that loyalty to his son Zerubbabel, born in 560, when Sheatiel died in 540. By 539, the Great King of Persia, Cyrus the Great, had conquered the kingdom of the Medes, all of Asia Minor and Anatolia, and northern Mesopotamia. Meanwhile the rump Babylonian Empire and the Egyptians battled for control of the Levant, using the small Judaean Kingdom, that was basically Jerusalem, as a pawn. Finally, as the two brothers, one legitimate and one a bastard, readied for a war between Babylon and Egypt to see who would take the seat of David, the armies of Persian conquered Babylon and then marched west, with the Jewish exiles led by Prince Zerubbabel and the prophet Daniel.
Cyrus had promised the Babylonian Jews the return of all Judaea to their kingdom for their support of his conquest of Babylon, including a vast rebuilding project of the City of David and pacification of the peoples of the Land. Included in this was the restoration of the treasures of the temple which had been taken by Nebuchadnezzar in his conquest of 597. Amon fled to Egypt while Jehokiam fought with the Babylonians against Zerubbabel and the Persians. Jehokiam died in battle and Zerubbabel was crowned with the gold crown of David that had been in exile since Jehoiakim had been conquered.
In no time at all Persia did what no Asian empire had been able to accomplish, and conquered Egypt. In this battle Amon was captured and then executed. Zerubbabel was now the undisputed King of Judah.
Both the Babylonians and the Egyptians had insisted on loyalty to their gods as part of Jerusalem's continuance as a kingdom within their Empires. Cyrus told the Jews that he served the same God as them and God had told him to restore the Kingdom of David and the worship of the One True God as under the reforms of Josiah I, the father of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah. This was the task of King Zerubbabel who expanded Jerusalem with a new wall and restored the temple. It was a time of prosperity and peace in Judah.
On his death, Zerubbabel was succeeded by his __________, ____________.
What if the Kingdom of Judah had survived the Babylonian conquest as just Jerusalem and then when the Persian Empire conquered Babylonia, the Jewish Kings of the line of David had continued to reign over a Jewish Kingdom in Palestine under the Great King, and then under Alexander, the Hellenistic Kingdoms, and the Romans, who all had done the same thing as the Persians? (If this timeline does't die first- we'll only go to the birth of Jesus- will he be the heir of the kingdom or not?)
597 - 547: Zedekiah I (House of David) [1]
547 - 530: Josiah II (House of David) [2]
530 - 504: Zerubbable (House of David) [3]
504 - 481: Manasseh II (House of David) [4]
[1] Zedekiah was the younger brother of King Jehoiakim, who was killed by the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, after he conquered all of Judah. At first Zediah's nephew, Jeconiah was made king under Babylon, but after a few months he too was killed and Zedekiah, aged 21, was made the client king. At this time only the city of Jerusalem was ruled by the House of David. Ten years later, Nebuchadnezzar decided to conquer Jerusalem and take the king in chains to Babylon, but Egypt intervened and stopped this. The result was that the House of David continued to rule Jerusalem while the rest of Judah was under Babylonian or Egyptian control. By skillfully playing the two major powers against each other, Zedekiah kept the line of David ruling in the city of David. Zedekiah died at the age of 71 and the throne passed to his son, Josiah.
[2] Unfortunately for Jerusalem, Zedekiah's son, Josiah, was a weak-willed ruler controlled by his Babylonian mistress Aruru. The woman, known to legend as the Whore of Babylon, was focused only on enriching herself and her family and sought to parlay her influence with the King into a power grab. She encouraged Josiah to name her son, Jehokiam, as heir to the throne and was secretly plotting to kill her lover and install herself as regent. She was faced with opposition by Josiah's wife, Mariam, a devout Hebrew woman who sought to secure the succession for her own son Amon. When Josiah died at 57, after a thoroughly unremarkable life, the stage was set. On one side stood Aruru, Jehokiam, and the Babylonians; the other Mariam, Amon, Jerusalem, and Egypt. It was truly remarkable to see the victory of the dark horse Zerubbabel and the Persians instead.
[3] Zerubbabel was the son of Sheatiel, who was the son of Jeconiah, and thus Zerubbabel was the second cousin once removed of the two sons of Josiah II. When Nebuchadnezzar killed Jeconiah in 597, the young king was 18 and his son, Sheatiel, was 2 years old. To many the real heir to the throne should have been Sheatiel, but instead the Babylonians put Zedekiah on the throne and took the child prince as a hostage to Babylon. There the exiles considered him the true "Son of David" and transferred that loyalty to his son Zerubbabel, born in 560, when Sheatiel died in 540. By 539, the Great King of Persia, Cyrus the Great, had conquered the kingdom of the Medes, all of Asia Minor and Anatolia, and northern Mesopotamia. Meanwhile the rump Babylonian Empire and the Egyptians battled for control of the Levant, using the small Judaean Kingdom, that was basically Jerusalem, as a pawn. Finally, as the two brothers, one legitimate and one a bastard, readied for a war between Babylon and Egypt to see who would take the seat of David, the armies of Persian conquered Babylon and then marched west, with the Jewish exiles led by Prince Zerubbabel and the prophet Daniel.
Cyrus had promised the Babylonian Jews the return of all Judaea to their kingdom for their support of his conquest of Babylon, including a vast rebuilding project of the City of David and pacification of the peoples of the Land. Included in this was the restoration of the treasures of the temple which had been taken by Nebuchadnezzar in his conquest of 597. Amon fled to Egypt while Jehokiam fought with the Babylonians against Zerubbabel and the Persians. Jehokiam died in battle and Zerubbabel was crowned with the gold crown of David that had been in exile since Jehoiakim had been conquered.
In no time at all Persia did what no Asian empire had been able to accomplish, and conquered Egypt. In this battle Amon was captured and then executed. Zerubbabel was now the undisputed King of Judah.
Both the Babylonians and the Egyptians had insisted on loyalty to their gods as part of Jerusalem's continuance as a kingdom within their Empires. Cyrus told the Jews that he served the same God as them and God had told him to restore the Kingdom of David and the worship of the One True God as under the reforms of Josiah I, the father of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah. This was the task of King Zerubbabel who expanded Jerusalem with a new wall and restored the temple. It was a time of prosperity and peace in Judah.
On his death, Zerubbabel was succeeded by his third son, Manasseh II.
[3] Manasseh II, the third son of Zerubbabel by his father's Persian wife Phaedyma was not expected to become the King of Judah, as he had two older brothers Elnathan and Jeush, however the pair died under suspicious circumstances a year apart from another. While whispers of poison were made against Phaedyma, nothing was ever conclusively proven.
Never the less the third son of Zerubbabel found himself becoming the King of Judah in an era of peace and prosperity, however he was a Client-King of the Persian Empire, and to the north the Persians had established a parallel client-kingdom called Samaria under Jeroboam III, and had allowed a number of descendants of the Ten Tribes of Israel to return home.
The first problem of Manasseh II's reign came when the Samarians were granted permission by Cambyses II of Persia the right to rebuild their Temple, a direct challenge to Judah's exclusive claim to the Temple of Solomon. Despite making a direct audience with Cambyses's in Babylon, Manasseh II failed to convince the Persian King of Kings to rescind his edict.
Further problems came when Manasseh II returned to Judah, there he discovered that while the people were worshiping God, they were also falling under the influence of their Persian masters, the beginnings of religious experimentation, adoption of foreign deities alongside YHWH, and the like.
The more hardline priests of the 'One True God' were opposed to this, others were in favor of expanding their understanding of philosophy and faith, Manasseh II himself proved indecisive on the matter, over the years issuing edicts both in favor of the Persianizers (as they came to be called) and against, even while busying himself with his harem of wives and producing over 20 children.
Manasseh II died of a fever and was succeeded by ______, ______.
597 - 547: Zedekiah I (House of David) [1]
547 - 530: Josiah II (House of David) [2]
530 - 504: Zerubbable (House of David) [3]
504 - 481: Manasseh II (House of David) [4]
[1] Zedekiah was the younger brother of King Jehoiakim, who was killed by the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, after he conquered all of Judah. At first Zediah's nephew, Jeconiah was made king under Babylon, but after a few months he too was killed and Zedekiah, aged 21, was made the client king. At this time only the city of Jerusalem was ruled by the House of David. Ten years later, Nebuchadnezzar decided to conquer Jerusalem and take the king in chains to Babylon, but Egypt intervened and stopped this. The result was that the House of David continued to rule Jerusalem while the rest of Judah was under Babylonian or Egyptian control. By skillfully playing the two major powers against each other, Zedekiah kept the line of David ruling in the city of David. Zedekiah died at the age of 71 and the throne passed to his son, Josiah.
[2] Unfortunately for Jerusalem, Zedekiah's son, Josiah, was a weak-willed ruler controlled by his Babylonian mistress Aruru. The woman, known to legend as the Whore of Babylon, was focused only on enriching herself and her family and sought to parlay her influence with the King into a power grab. She encouraged Josiah to name her son, Jehokiam, as heir to the throne and was secretly plotting to kill her lover and install herself as regent. She was faced with opposition by Josiah's wife, Mariam, a devout Hebrew woman who sought to secure the succession for her own son Amon. When Josiah died at 57, after a thoroughly unremarkable life, the stage was set. On one side stood Aruru, Jehokiam, and the Babylonians; the other Mariam, Amon, Jerusalem, and Egypt. It was truly remarkable to see the victory of the dark horse Zerubbabel and the Persians instead.
[3] Zerubbabel was the son of Sheatiel, who was the son of Jeconiah, and thus Zerubbabel was the second cousin once removed of the two sons of Josiah II. When Nebuchadnezzar killed Jeconiah in 597, the young king was 18 and his son, Sheatiel, was 2 years old. To many the real heir to the throne should have been Sheatiel, but instead the Babylonians put Zedekiah on the throne and took the child prince as a hostage to Babylon. There the exiles considered him the true "Son of David" and transferred that loyalty to his son Zerubbabel, born in 560, when Sheatiel died in 540. By 539, the Great King of Persia, Cyrus the Great, had conquered the kingdom of the Medes, all of Asia Minor and Anatolia, and northern Mesopotamia. Meanwhile the rump Babylonian Empire and the Egyptians battled for control of the Levant, using the small Judaean Kingdom, that was basically Jerusalem, as a pawn. Finally, as the two brothers, one legitimate and one a bastard, readied for a war between Babylon and Egypt to see who would take the seat of David, the armies of Persian conquered Babylon and then marched west, with the Jewish exiles led by Prince Zerubbabel and the prophet Daniel.
Cyrus had promised the Babylonian Jews the return of all Judaea to their kingdom for their support of his conquest of Babylon, including a vast rebuilding project of the City of David and pacification of the peoples of the Land. Included in this was the restoration of the treasures of the temple which had been taken by Nebuchadnezzar in his conquest of 597. Amon fled to Egypt while Jehokiam fought with the Babylonians against Zerubbabel and the Persians. Jehokiam died in battle and Zerubbabel was crowned with the gold crown of David that had been in exile since Jehoiakim had been conquered.
In no time at all Persia did what no Asian empire had been able to accomplish, and conquered Egypt. In this battle Amon was captured and then executed. Zerubbabel was now the undisputed King of Judah.
Both the Babylonians and the Egyptians had insisted on loyalty to their gods as part of Jerusalem's continuance as a kingdom within their Empires. Cyrus told the Jews that he served the same God as them and God had told him to restore the Kingdom of David and the worship of the One True God as under the reforms of Josiah I, the father of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah. This was the task of King Zerubbabel who expanded Jerusalem with a new wall and restored the temple. It was a time of prosperity and peace in Judah.
On his death, Zerubbabel was succeeded by his third son, Manasseh II.
[3] Manasseh II, the third son of Zerubbabel by his father's Persian wife Phaedyma was not expected to become the King of Judah, as he had two older brothers Elnathan and Jeush, however the pair died under suspicious circumstances a year apart from another. While whispers of poison were made against Phaedyma, nothing was ever conclusively proven.
Never the less the third son of Zerubbabel found himself becoming the King of Judah in an era of peace and prosperity, however he was a Client-King of the Persian Empire, and to the north the Persians had established a parallel client-kingdom called Samaria under Jeroboam III, and had allowed a number of descendants of the Ten Tribes of Israel to return home.
The first problem of Manasseh II's reign came when the Samarians were granted permission by Cambyses II of Persia the right to rebuild their Temple, a direct challenge to Judah's exclusive claim to the Temple of Solomon. Despite making a direct audience with Cambyses's in Babylon, Manasseh II failed to convince the Persian King of Kings to rescind his edict.
Further problems came when Manasseh II returned to Judah, there he discovered that while the people were worshiping God, they were also falling under the influence of their Persian masters, the beginnings of religious experimentation, adoption of foreign deities alongside YHWH, and the like.
The more hardline priests of the 'One True God' were opposed to this, others were in favor of expanding their understanding of philosophy and faith, Manasseh II himself proved indecisive on the matter, over the years issuing edicts both in favor of the Persianizers (as they came to be called) and against, even while busying himself with his harem of wives and producing over 20 children.
Manasseh II died of a fever and was succeeded by ______, ______.
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Except it's not the second temple, as the first one was never destroyed as in OTL, just had it's treasure taken.
Except it's not the second temple, as the first one was never destroyed as in OTL, just had it's treasure taken.
I thought it was destroyed, at what point did it get destroyed?
In OTL the tradition story is that Nebuchadnezzar destroyed it in 587 BCE. In this alt timeline, the Egyptians intervened and Nebuchadnezzar didn't destroy it and Jersualem and end the kingdom of Judah.