List of monarchs III

Alright then, sorry about that!

What if the Taiping Rebellion sucseeded

The Heavenly Emperors of China

Xiuquan (House of Hong)
1851 - 1874 [1]

Hong_Xiuquan.jpg

Hong Xiuquan
[1] A aspiring administrator to the Qing Dynasty as a young man, Hong failed the examinations three times. After his third time however Hong had a nervous breakdown and as he was in the midst of his breakdown he reportedly went to Heaven and learned of his supposed relation to Christ. When he supposedly recovered he founded a Christian secret society and began to plot to take over the Qing Empire and spread the word of Christ throughout. This began in 1851 as his followers rose up across Southern China starting whats known in China as the Heavenly Liberation War. The revolt was at first treated as an afterthought by the Qing authorities and only after much of South and South Eastern China fell to the revolters did Qing armies really start to seriously fight the rebellion. This led to some decisive defeats in southern China around Guangdong and Hong realized that his followers, despite their zealousness, couldn't stand up to the Qing armies so he turned to the West. He sent dozens of telegrams to as far away as Great Britain calling on them to help save Christianity in China from extinction. The West finally agreed but only if Hong agreed to give them large concessions which Hong, increasingly backed into a corner, was forced to accept. Soon after Royal Navy ships appeared off the coast of China, Russian troops began to be ferried to the Manchurian border in large numbers and French troops in Indochina began to cross into Chinese territory. The expanded war would go on for ten more years as Hong, now with his army reforming under Western doctrines and with western weapons, slowly inched their way across China. Finally, in 1865 as America was finishing up their Civil War Hong led the Great Heavenly Army, his main force, in a concentrated push towards the capital. The fight was hard but with Royal Navy support and by keeping close to the coast to keep within Western supply the advance moved inexorably towards Beijing and as the outskirts of the city fell to Heavenly armies the last Qing Emperor, the Xianfeng Emperor, committed suicide. Soon after the Empress was forced to flee China and Hong assumed control of all of China.

Before he could even sit on his throne however the West was already calling in their end of the bargain and began demanding large concessions. Hong, concerned they would just depose him if he refused, gave Hainan to France, Taiwan to the UK and Shangdong to Russia. This led to an outcry in China but Emperor Hong, styling himself the Heavenly Emperor quickly squashed dissent using his fanatic Tiāntáng Wèiduì (Heavenly Guard) to suppress the budding rebellions in Beijing and across China. Hong, in an attempt to unify the populace behind him, declared the foundation of the Christian Church of China which fused Confucian teachings and Christian dogma to varying degrees of success. His followers from the rebellion readily accepted the Church but the rest of China were more hesitant with Confucianism remaining a strong minority, only just under the Church. Hong also spread the reforms implemented during the rebellion to the rest of China, reforming the ancient bureaucracy that denied him so many times, changed the calendar and banned polygamy. These two had limited effect outside the cities that were hubs of revolutionary fervor. With China seemingly stabilized Hong turned his eyes to the fringes of China which had taken advantage of the chaos to free itself. Hong sent agitators into Tibet and Xinjiang to cause chaos and make any future invasion easier. However anticlimactically, just as the invasions reached the planning stages Hong was shot and killed by an assassin. He was sucseeded by _______ ________, his __________.
 
@ThatOneGuy, I would like to claim next but could you please give me some sources so I can inform myself on this peculiar period of Chinese History?
I mainly used wikipedia and some educated guessing after Hong came to power as expected. The Guard didn't exist and neither did the Heavenly Army (specifically) so I just filled in some blanks.
 
What if the Taiping Rebellion succeeded

The Heavenly Emperors of China:

Xiquan 1851 - 1874
Tianguifui 1874 - 1912



Xiuquan (House of Hong) 1851 - 1874 [1]

Hong_Xiuquan.jpg

Hong Xiuquan
[1] A aspiring administrator to the Qing Dynasty as a young man, Hong failed the examinations three times. After his third time, however, Hong had a nervous breakdown and as he was in the midst of his breakdown he reportedly went to Heaven and learned of his supposed relation to Christ. When he supposedly recovered he founded a Christian secret society and began to plot to take over the Qing Empire and spread the word of Christ throughout. This began in 1851 as his followers rose up across Southern China starting what's known in China as the Heavenly Liberation War. The revolt was at first treated as an afterthought by the Qing authorities and only after much of South and South-Eastern China fell to the revolters did Qing armies start to seriously fight the rebellion. This led to some decisive defeats in southern China around Guangdong and Hong realized that his followers, despite their zealousness, couldn't stand up to the Qing armies so he turned to the West. He sent dozens of telegrams to as far away as Great Britain calling on them to help save Christianity in China from extinction. The West finally agreed but only if Hong agreed to give them large concessions which Hong, increasingly backed into a corner, was forced to accept. Soon after Royal Navy ships appeared off the coast of China, Russian troops began to be ferried to the Manchurian border in large numbers and French troops in Indochina began to cross into Chinese territory. The expanded war would go on for ten more years as Hong, now with his army reforming under Western doctrines and with western weapons, slowly inched their way across China. Finally, in 1865 as America was finishing up their Civil War Hong led the Great Heavenly Army, his main force, in a concentrated push towards the capital. The fight was hard but with Royal Navy support and by keeping close to the coast to keep within Western supply the advance moved inexorably towards Beijing and as the outskirts of the city fell to Heavenly armies the last Qing Emperor, the Xianfeng Emperor, committed suicide. Soon after the Empress was forced to flee China and Hong assumed control of all of China.

Before he could even sit on his throne however the West was already calling in their end of the bargain and began demanding large concessions. Hong, concerned they would just depose him if he refused, gave Hainan to France, Taiwan to the UK and Shangdong to Russia. This led to an outcry in China but Emperor Hong, styling himself the Heavenly Emperor quickly squashed dissent using his fanatic Tiāntáng Wèiduì (Heavenly Guard) to suppress the budding rebellions in Beijing and across China. Hong, in an attempt to unify the populace behind him, declared the foundation of the Christian Church of China which fused Confucian teachings and Christian dogma to varying degrees of success. His followers from the rebellion readily accepted the Church but the rest of China were more hesitant with Confucianism remaining a strong minority, only just under the Church. Hong also spread the reforms implemented during the rebellion to the rest of China, reforming the ancient bureaucracy that denied him so many times, changed the calendar and banned polygamy. These two had limited effect outside the cities that were hubs of revolutionary fervor. With China seemingly stabilized Hong turned his eyes to the fringes of China which had taken advantage of the chaos to free itself. Hong sent agitators into Tibet and Xinjiang to cause chaos and make any future invasion easier. However anticlimactically, just as the invasions reached the planning stages Hong was shot and killed by an assassin. He was succeeded by Tiaguifu, his son and heir apparent.

Tiaguifu 1874 - 1912 [2]


Hong_Tianguifu.png

A photo of the heavenly king at age 14

Hong Tiaguifu, also known as Hong Futian or Hong Tiangui by some of the Manchu's records, was the second King of the Heavenly Kingdom. A pious young man, the king was full of zealotry and was ready to preach the word of God to every corner of China. He was regarded as a scholar from a young age and was not a particularly brilliant military commander and in fact was bad at horse riding, at the time wrongly considered an essential skill for a commander, and especially a leader. But even with his lack of military prowess, he wished to build railroads to connect the country. He endorsed many of his uncle, Ex-Prince Gan Rengan military and especially administrative reforms, which encouraged the centralization of the Kingdom. His first years of reign were spent in the establishment of a new order in the Nanjing court in a power struggle with his brother Tianguang "The Guang-King", where he came out on top. Frustrated with his losing battle, Tianguang would self-exile himself to Xinjiang, where, with a group of Loyalists, he would conquer the region, and by right of conquest, become sultan of East Turkestan, plotting during the next decade, waiting for the chance to strike.

pekingtrain-620x413.jpg

Painting of the Beijing line later built in the waning years of the king
Meanwhile, the King crushed rebellions all over the country and constructed the first train, the Nanjing-Shanghai line, in 1879 and would build more under his 28 year-long reign. He used railroads to spread the God-worshipping faith and convert millions, sometimes en masse. He would build churches and convert old Buddhist and Taoist monasteries. And last but not least, he would deal with rebellions in the rump state of Xinjiang in 1891. A brief campaign was overseen by Officer Li Rongfa, passing by Jiuquan and attacking Hami, Turpan and Luntai [called by the locals "Ürümqi"]. The Siege of Luntai lasted 10 days, as it was starved out by the Heavenly Army. At last in 1893, Xinjiang would be pacified. The Guang-King would be executed, but his 4-year-old son and his wife would escape, disappearing for some time. Tibet would fall shortly after, not only thanks to the efforts of the previous monarch but also due to expeditions launched by the British during the Great Game. Even if by 1906, direct rule was restored thanks to the Treaty of Lhasa, control of the region was still tenuous.​


3aa1d912d4296a1e1cf26317fcc8ca61.jpg


Uygurs being POWs being enslaved.
But under Taiping rule, the Muslim Uygurs especially would suffer immense brutality, and centuries-old literary traditions would die, In the fire of the fanatical Hong. Many books were burned under the Great Hong Preaching, and it remains a stain on the long history of the Hong, and unfortunately, a footnote in China. This would cause collective cultural trauma, and would not be the last time that the heavenly kings would deal with this unstable and volatile region.​

SS2793325.jpg


The King ordered the killing of Uygur scholars

Tiangufui spent his last years in deep meditation, living in the reclusion in monasteries built during his rule. After a life of War crimes, zealotry, fanaticism, and some progress, King Tiandguifu would die in 1912 and would be succeeded by his ______. ________.



OOC: First time writing any type of narrative on this site, hope you like it.
Edit: Added some details about internal power struggles in the 2nd paragraph.
 
Last edited:

Deleted member 107125

The Heavenly Emperors of China:

Xiquan 1851 - 1874
Tianguifui 1874 - 1912

Qiangjie 1912-1946

Xiuquan (House of Hong) 1851 - 1874 [1]

Hong_Xiuquan.jpg

Hong Xiuquan
[1] A aspiring administrator to the Qing Dynasty as a young man, Hong failed the examinations three times. After his third time, however, Hong had a nervous breakdown and as he was in the midst of his breakdown he reportedly went to Heaven and learned of his supposed relation to Christ. When he supposedly recovered he founded a Christian secret society and began to plot to take over the Qing Empire and spread the word of Christ throughout. This began in 1851 as his followers rose up across Southern China starting what's known in China as the Heavenly Liberation War. The revolt was at first treated as an afterthought by the Qing authorities and only after much of South and South-Eastern China fell to the revolters did Qing armies start to seriously fight the rebellion. This led to some decisive defeats in southern China around Guangdong and Hong realized that his followers, despite their zealousness, couldn't stand up to the Qing armies so he turned to the West. He sent dozens of telegrams to as far away as Great Britain calling on them to help save Christianity in China from extinction. The West finally agreed but only if Hong agreed to give them large concessions which Hong, increasingly backed into a corner, was forced to accept. Soon after Royal Navy ships appeared off the coast of China, Russian troops began to be ferried to the Manchurian border in large numbers and French troops in Indochina began to cross into Chinese territory. The expanded war would go on for ten more years as Hong, now with his army reforming under Western doctrines and with western weapons, slowly inched their way across China. Finally, in 1865 as America was finishing up their Civil War Hong led the Great Heavenly Army, his main force, in a concentrated push towards the capital. The fight was hard but with Royal Navy support and by keeping close to the coast to keep within Western supply the advance moved inexorably towards Beijing and as the outskirts of the city fell to Heavenly armies the last Qing Emperor, the Xianfeng Emperor, committed suicide. Soon after the Empress was forced to flee China and Hong assumed control of all of China.

Before he could even sit on his throne however the West was already calling in their end of the bargain and began demanding large concessions. Hong, concerned they would just depose him if he refused, gave Hainan to France, Taiwan to the UK and Shangdong to Russia. This led to an outcry in China but Emperor Hong, styling himself the Heavenly Emperor quickly squashed dissent using his fanatic Tiāntáng Wèiduì (Heavenly Guard) to suppress the budding rebellions in Beijing and across China. Hong, in an attempt to unify the populace behind him, declared the foundation of the Christian Church of China which fused Confucian teachings and Christian dogma to varying degrees of success. His followers from the rebellion readily accepted the Church but the rest of China were more hesitant with Confucianism remaining a strong minority, only just under the Church. Hong also spread the reforms implemented during the rebellion to the rest of China, reforming the ancient bureaucracy that denied him so many times, changed the calendar and banned polygamy. These two had limited effect outside the cities that were hubs of revolutionary fervor. With China seemingly stabilized Hong turned his eyes to the fringes of China which had taken advantage of the chaos to free itself. Hong sent agitators into Tibet and Xinjiang to cause chaos and make any future invasion easier. However anticlimactically, just as the invasions reached the planning stages Hong was shot and killed by an assassin. He was succeeded by Tiaguifu, his son and heir apparent.

Tiaguifu 1874 - 1912 [2]


Hong_Tianguifu.png

A photo of the heavenly king at age 14

Hong Tiaguifu, also known as Hong Futian or Hong Tiangui by some of the Manchu's records, was the second King of the Heavenly Kingdom. A pious young man, the king was full of zealotry and was ready to preach the word of God to every corner of China. He was regarded as a scholar from a young age and was not a particularly brilliant military commander and in fact was bad at horse riding, at the time wrongly considered an essential skill for a commander, and especially a leader. But even with his lack of military prowess, he wished to build railroads to connect the country. He endorsed many of his uncle, Ex-Prince Gan Rengan military and especially administrative reforms, which encouraged the centralization of the Kingdom. His first years of reign were spent in the establishment of a new order in the Nanjing court in a power struggle with his brother Tianguang "The Guang-King", where he came out on top. Frustrated with his losing battle, Tianguang would self-exile himself to Xinjiang, where, with a group of Loyalists, he would conquer the region, and by right of conquest, become sultan of East Turkestan, plotting during the next decade, waiting for the chance to strike.

pekingtrain-620x413.jpg

Painting of the Beijing line later built in the waning years of the king
Meanwhile, the King crushed rebellions all over the country and constructed the first train, the Nanjing-Shanghai line, in 1879 and would build more under his 28 year-long reign. He used railroads to spread the God-worshipping faith and convert millions, sometimes en masse. He would build churches and convert old Buddhist and Taoist monasteries. And last but not least, he would deal with rebellions in the rump state of Xinjiang in 1891. A brief campaign was overseen by Officer Li Rongfa, passing by Jiuquan and attacking Hami, Turpan and Luntai [called by the locals "Ürümqi"]. The Siege of Luntai lasted 10 days, as it was starved out by the Heavenly Army. At last in 1893, Xinjiang would be pacified. The Guang-King would be executed, but his 4-year-old son and his wife would escape, disappearing for some time. Tibet would fall shortly after, not only thanks to the efforts of the previous monarch but also due to expeditions launched by the British during the Great Game. Even if by 1906, direct rule was restored thanks to the Treaty of Lhasa, control of the region was still tenuous.​


3aa1d912d4296a1e1cf26317fcc8ca61.jpg


Uygurs being POWs being enslaved.
But under Taiping rule, the Muslim Uygurs especially would suffer immense brutality, and centuries-old literary traditions would die, In the fire of the fanatical Hong. Many books were burned under the Great Hong Preaching, and it remains a stain on the long history of the Hong, and unfortunately, a footnote in China. This would cause collective cultural trauma, and would not be the last time that the heavenly kings would deal with this unstable and volatile region.​

SS2793325.jpg


The King ordered the killing of Uygur scholars

Tiangufui spent his last years in deep meditation, living in the reclusion in monasteries built during his rule. After a life of War crimes, zealotry, fanaticism, and some progress, King Tiandguifu would die in 1912 and would be succeeded by his nephew, Hong Qiangjie
The next and last of the Heavenly Emperors of China, Qiangjie, was the nephew of Hong Tianguifui through his sister Hong Xiuying. After the death of Tianguifui’s only son in 1882, Qiangjie, through a complicated web of lies and appeasement, would be appointed crown prince.
Zhang_Zuolin_in_Peking.PNG

Qiangjie became king of The Heavenly Kingdom of Zhongguo in 1912, when his uncle allegedly died of natural causes (although some said he was poisoned by his sister). The most cruel king of Zhongguo, he was also the last.
images

Above:Chinese soldiers preparing for an attack on the German-held port of Tsingtao in 1914
In 1914, war broke out when the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by a Serb nationalist. Fearing isolation from the west, Qiangjie chose to side with the Entente. The brutality of the war and the instability it caused in China caused several rebellions, which led to Zhongguo dropping out of the war.
Namnansuren2.jpg

Tögs- Ochiryen Namnansüren, leader of the Second Mongol Khanate
In Mongolia, several high-ranking princes and leaders rebelled against the King, in favour of reestablishing a Mongol Buddhist monarchy. Similar events occurred in Turkestan and Manchuria.
Chen.jpg

Chen Duxiu of the Socialist Republic of China
But by far the biggest threat to the Monarchy was the socialists, who formed a coalition with Sun- Yat Sen’s Republicans, and received aid from Bolshevik leaders in Siberia. On December 13, 1940, they declared war on the Kingdom, and six years later, seized Peking. King Qiangjie would die in exile in 1953. His ______, ________________ , succeeded him as a pretender to the throne.​
 
What If ... Henry VIII successfully had Henry Fitzroy made King of Ireland in 1529 ...

1529 - 1546 : Henry (House of Fitzroy)

Henry VIII appointed his bastard son as the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1529. Henry wishes to name him King of Ireland but his counsellors strenuously objected and it took several months after being made Lord Lieutenant before he was made King of Ireland in actuality.

Fitzroy was 10 when made King so whilst he was King, the country was run by his father's advisors, notably William Skeffington who was given guardianship of the young King. When he turned 18 in 1537, Skeffington was made Private Secretary for a brief period before his death.

Henry had been provisionally betrothed to Mary Howard in 1533, but the offer of Madeleine of Valois' hand in marriage was too good for Skeffington and Henry VIII to refuse, and the pair were betrothed in 1533, then married when Henry reached majority.

A child was born in 1538, so the nascent Kingdom of Ireland had an heir. Two more children were born in the next five years. However when Henry dies in 1546, at the age of only 27, none of his children had yet reached majority and the question of succession would read it's ugly head.

Henry would be succeeded by ...... his ......


 
What If Henry VIII successfully had Henry Fitzroy made King of Ireland in 1529:

1529 - 1546: Henry I (House of Fitzroy) [1]
1546 - 1555:
Henry II (House of Fitzroy) [2]


show-photo.jpg

Henry VIII appointed his bastard son as the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1529. Henry wished to name him King of Ireland but his counsellors strenuously objected and it took several months after being made Lord Lieutenant before he was made King of Ireland in actuality.

Fitzroy was 10 when made King so whilst he was King, the country was run by his father's advisors, notably William Skeffington who was given guardianship of the young King. When he turned 18 in 1537, Skeffington was made Private Secretary for a brief period before his death.

Henry had been provisionally betrothed to Mary Howard in 1533, but the offer of Madeleine of Valois' hand in marriage was too good for Skeffington and Henry VIII to refuse, and the pair were betrothed in 1533, then married when Henry reached majority.

A child was born in 1538, so the nascent Kingdom of Ireland had an heir. Two more children were born in the next five years. However when Henry dies in 1546, at the age of only 27, none of his children had yet reached majority and the question of succession would read it's ugly head.

Henry would be succeeded by Henry, his eldest son.



images
[2] The eldest of the two sons of Henry I of Ireland and his wife; Madeline of Valois, Henry was destined for the Irish Crown from birth, and from the death of his father, he would embrace this role.
During his short reign of nine years, Henry II sought to expand the power of the Irish court, and to do so, he sought allies in the form of the French, who he would seek to marry, namely himself to his first cousin; Louise of Valois, and his younger brother; Prince John of Ireland, to another cousin, Margaret of Savoy.

Henry II was a man of true piety, and it would be his choice to travel to Rome where he received the Golden Rose from his holiness, and it would be on the return journey from Rome, in 1555, where Henry II would fall ill at the age of 17.

For the entirety of his reign, Henry had simply been a rubber-stamp for the regency of Skeffington, and upon his death, the Regent of Ireland would continue his rule.
 
What If Henry VIII successfully had Henry Fitzroy made King of Ireland in 1529:

1529 - 1546: Henry I (House of Fitzroy) [1]
1546 - 1555:
Henry II (House of Fitzroy) [2]
1555 - 1589:
John (House of Fitzroy) [3]


show-photo.jpg

Henry VIII appointed his bastard son as the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1529. Henry wished to name him King of Ireland but his counsellors strenuously objected and it took several months after being made Lord Lieutenant before he was made King of Ireland in actuality.

Fitzroy was 10 when made King so whilst he was King, the country was run by his father's advisors, notably William Skeffington who was given guardianship of the young King. When he turned 18 in 1537, Skeffington was made Private Secretary for a brief period before his death.

Henry had been provisionally betrothed to Mary Howard in 1533, but the offer of Madeleine of Valois' hand in marriage was too good for Skeffington and Henry VIII to refuse, and the pair were betrothed in 1533, then married when Henry reached majority.

A child was born in 1538, so the nascent Kingdom of Ireland had an heir. Two more children were born in the next five years. However when Henry dies in 1546, at the age of only 27, none of his children had yet reached majority and the question of succession would read it's ugly head.

Henry would be succeeded by Henry, his eldest son.



images
[2] The eldest of the two sons of Henry I of Ireland and his wife; Madeline of Valois, Henry was destined for the Irish Crown from birth, and from the death of his father, he would embrace this role.
During his short reign of nine years, Henry II sought to expand the power of the Irish court, and to do so, he sought allies in the form of the French, who he would seek to marry, namely himself to his first cousin; Louise of Valois, and his younger brother; Prince John of Ireland, to another cousin, Margaret of Savoy.

Henry II was a man of true piety, and it would be his choice to travel to Rome where he received the Golden Rose from his holiness, and it would be on the return journey from Rome, in 1555, where Henry II would fall ill at the age of 17.

For the entirety of his reign, Henry had simply been a rubber-stamp for the regency of Skeffington, and upon his death, the Regent of Ireland would continue his rule.
264_7_2011.jpg

[3]
King John was 14 when his brother died, and would spend the first few years of his reign under the regency of Anthony St.Leger, who became known as King Anthony for his hypnotic hold on the King. Part of St.Leger's power was the new King's inclination for both sexes in the bedroom, which the regent immediately recognized. He installed his nephew, Matthew, as the King's confidant turned lover.

All that changed in early 1558, when the King's wife Margaret of Savoy arrived in Dunmore. The new Queen was a rather authoritative figure who saw the regent as the cap on her and her husband's power at court. When she birthed her first child, ____, the King asked what she wished: her answer was to send Anthony St.Leger from the court (she also tried unsuccessfully to send away Matthew). The King obliged, causing such a shock to St.Leger that gossipers at the time blamed the incident for his failing health and eventual death the next year.

The remaining years of John's reign were most well known for the power struggle between Margaret (who favored a Catholic, pro-French policy) and Matthew (a closet reformer who preferred and English alliance). As one sharp-witted courtier wrote, "King John has two Queens". This battle extended to the children's education as Margaret attempted to have the children brought up by Catholic priests, while Matthew favored secular tutors, writing to the King "do you want to teach the children you are damned to hell's fiery pits". The children (who grew up at the same court in Dublin) ended up receiving wildly varying educations depending on who had the King's favor each year. For example, the King's eldest daughter _______ was sent away to be educated by the nuns on the request of her mother. Her sister _______, only two years younger, instead received a humanist education resembling those of Henry VIII's children, as encouraged by her father's lover.

In the end, King John would be brought down by his love of sex, dying from complications of syphilis. In response to John's reign, his heir _____________, decided to __________.
 
What If Henry VIII successfully had Henry Fitzroy made King of Ireland in 1529:

1529 - 1546: Henry I (House of Fitzroy) [1]
1546 - 1555:
Henry II (House of Fitzroy) [2]
1555 - 1589:
John (House of Fitzroy) [3]
1589 - 1605:
Edward (House of Fitzroy) [4]


show-photo.jpg

Henry VIII appointed his bastard son as the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1529. Henry wished to name him King of Ireland but his counsellors strenuously objected and it took several months after being made Lord Lieutenant before he was made King of Ireland in actuality.

Fitzroy was 10 when made King so whilst he was King, the country was run by his father's advisors, notably William Skeffington who was given guardianship of the young King. When he turned 18 in 1537, Skeffington was made Private Secretary for a brief period before his death.

Henry had been provisionally betrothed to Mary Howard in 1533, but the offer of Madeleine of Valois' hand in marriage was too good for Skeffington and Henry VIII to refuse, and the pair were betrothed in 1533, then married when Henry reached majority.

A child was born in 1538, so the nascent Kingdom of Ireland had an heir. Two more children were born in the next five years. However when Henry dies in 1546, at the age of only 27, none of his children had yet reached majority and the question of succession would read it's ugly head.

Henry would be succeeded by Henry, his eldest son.



images
[2] The eldest of the two sons of Henry I of Ireland and his wife; Madeline of Valois, Henry was destined for the Irish Crown from birth, and from the death of his father, he would embrace this role.
During his short reign of nine years, Henry II sought to expand the power of the Irish court, and to do so, he sought allies in the form of the French, who he would seek to marry, namely himself to his first cousin; Louise of Valois, and his younger brother; Prince John of Ireland, to another cousin, Margaret of Savoy.

Henry II was a man of true piety, and it would be his choice to travel to Rome where he received the Golden Rose from his holiness, and it would be on the return journey from Rome, in 1555, where Henry II would fall ill at the age of 17.

For the entirety of his reign, Henry had simply been a rubber-stamp for the regency of Anthony St Leger, and upon his death, the Regent of Ireland would continue his rule.


264_7_2011.jpg

[3]
King John was 14 when his brother died, and would spend the first few years of his reign under the regency of Anthony St.Leger, who became known as King Anthony for his hypnotic hold on the King. Part of St.Leger's power was the new King's inclination for both sexes in the bedroom, which the regent immediately recognized. He installed his nephew, Matthew, as the King's confidant turned lover.

All that changed in early 1558, when the King's wife Margaret of Savoy arrived in Dunmore. The new Queen was a rather authoritative figure who saw the regent as the cap on her and her husband's power at court. When she birthed her first child, ____, the King asked what she wished: her answer was to send Anthony St.Leger from the court (she also tried unsuccessfully to send away Matthew). The King obliged, causing such a shock to St.Leger that gossipers at the time blamed the incident for his failing health and eventual death the next year.

The remaining years of John's reign were most well known for the power struggle between Margaret (who favored a Catholic, pro-French policy) and Matthew (a closet reformer who preferred and English alliance). As one sharp-witted courtier wrote, "King John has two Queens". This battle extended to the children's education as Margaret attempted to have the children brought up by Catholic priests, while Matthew favored secular tutors, writing to the King "do you want to teach the children you are damned to hell's fiery pits". The children (who grew up at the same court in Dublin) ended up receiving wildly varying educations depending on who had the King's favor each year. For example, the King's eldest daughter _______ was sent away to be educated by the nuns on the request of her mother. Her sister _______, only two years younger, instead received a humanist education resembling those of Henry VIII's children, as encouraged by her father's lover.

In the end, King John would be brought down by his love of sex, dying from complications of syphilis. In response to John's reign, his heir Prince Edward, decided to make Ireland a country with no state religion.

MV5BN2RlMGJkZjMtNWU2YS00ZjU2LTk3M2EtZGZmYjlkOGFhNmZlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjk3NTUyOTc@._V1_.jpg


4) Edward was John's second son, with the eldest predeceasing his father by several years. This was still sufficient time for Edward, who had been brought up by his mother but then trained for courthood by his father's advisors. Edward had hated the manner in which religion had creates a rift between his parents, and caused him to doubt his own abilities - and therefore be signed a bill of religious freedom. Each Irish citizen would be free to practice their own religion, free from persecution - this brought conflict with the Pope, but Edward found support from his great aunt, Queen Elizabeth of England during the Irish Primacy Scandal of 1595. Because he did not outright reject Roman Catholicism, the Pope accepted the decision of the Irish state on the agreement that Edward would pay certain taxes to the Vatican. Edward reluctantly agreed, but claimed all land as royal land and then charged the Irish monasteries rent which he used to pay the taxes.

He married Countess Anna of Nassau, a daughter of William the Silent, Prince of Orange in 1583 and they had two children before Anna died in 1588 during childbirth with their third, a daughter.

He subsequently married Maria of Saxe-Weimar in 1590 and she provided him with several children.

In 1603 when Elizabeth of England died, he was briefly considered for the English throne and considered the lead claimant by Elizabeth herself, but there were objections from the English nobility to a bastard line claiming the Crown when a legitimate claimant existed in the King of Scotland.

At any rate, he died in 1605 after catching pneumonia whilst inspecting the construction of a cathedral in Dublin, intended as the Irish Notre Dame, and his ....... , ...... took the throne.
 
What If Henry VIII successfully had Henry Fitzroy made King of Ireland in 1529:

1529 - 1546: Henry I (House of Fitzroy) [1]
1546 - 1555:
Henry II (House of Fitzroy) [2]
1555 - 1589:
John I (House of Fitzroy) [3]
1589 - 1605:
Edward I (House of Fitzroy) [4]
1605 - 1623:
Margaret I (House of Fitzroy) [5]


show-photo.jpg

Henry VIII appointed his bastard son as the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1529. Henry wished to name him King of Ireland but his counsellors strenuously objected and it took several months after being made Lord Lieutenant before he was made King of Ireland in actuality.

Fitzroy was 10 when made King so whilst he was King, the country was run by his father's advisors, notably William Skeffington who was given guardianship of the young King. When he turned 18 in 1537, Skeffington was made Private Secretary for a brief period before his death.

Henry had been provisionally betrothed to Mary Howard in 1533, but the offer of Madeleine of Valois' hand in marriage was too good for Skeffington and Henry VIII to refuse, and the pair were betrothed in 1533, then married when Henry reached majority.

A child was born in 1538, so the nascent Kingdom of Ireland had an heir. Two more children were born in the next five years. However when Henry dies in 1546, at the age of only 27, none of his children had yet reached majority and the question of succession would read it's ugly head.

Henry would be succeeded by Henry, his eldest son.



images
[2] The eldest of the two sons of Henry I of Ireland and his wife; Madeline of Valois, Henry was destined for the Irish Crown from birth, and from the death of his father, he would embrace this role.
During his short reign of nine years, Henry II sought to expand the power of the Irish court, and to do so, he sought allies in the form of the French, who he would seek to marry, namely himself to his first cousin; Louise of Valois, and his younger brother; Prince John of Ireland, to another cousin, Margaret of Savoy.

Henry II was a man of true piety, and it would be his choice to travel to Rome where he received the Golden Rose from his holiness, and it would be on the return journey from Rome, in 1555, where Henry II would fall ill at the age of 17.

For the entirety of his reign, Henry had simply been a rubber-stamp for the regency of Anthony St Leger, and upon his death, the Regent of Ireland would continue his rule.



264_7_2011.jpg
[3] King John was 14 when his brother died, and would spend the first few years of his reign under the regency of Anthony St.Leger, who became known as King Anthony for his hypnotic hold on the King. Part of St.Leger's power was the new King's inclination for both sexes in the bedroom, which the regent immediately recognized. He installed his nephew, Matthew, as the King's confidant turned lover.

All that changed in early 1558, when the King's wife Margaret of Savoy arrived in Dunmore. The new Queen was a rather authoritative figure who saw the regent as the cap on her and her husband's power at court. When she birthed her first child, Madeline, the King asked what she wished: her answer was to send Anthony St.Leger from the court (she also tried unsuccessfully to send away Matthew). The King obliged, causing such a shock to St.Leger that gossipers at the time blamed the incident for his failing health and eventual death the next year.

The remaining years of John's reign were most well known for the power struggle between Margaret (who favored a Catholic, pro-French policy) and Matthew (a closet reformer who preferred and English alliance). As one sharp-witted courtier wrote, "King John has two Queens". This battle extended to the children's education as Margaret attempted to have the children brought up by Catholic priests, while Matthew favored secular tutors, writing to the King "do you want to teach the children you are damned to hell's fiery pits". The children (who grew up at the same court in Dublin) ended up receiving wildly varying educations depending on who had the King's favor each year. For example, the King's eldest daughter Madeline was sent away to be educated by the nuns on the request of her mother. Her sister Louise, only two years younger, instead received a humanist education resembling those of Henry VIII's children, as encouraged by her father's lover.

In the end, King John would be brought down by his love of sex, dying from complications of syphilis. In response to John's reign, his heir Prince Edward, decided to make Ireland a country with no state religion.


MV5BN2RlMGJkZjMtNWU2YS00ZjU2LTk3M2EtZGZmYjlkOGFhNmZlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjk3NTUyOTc@._V1_.jpg

4) Edward was John's second son, with the eldest predeceasing his father by several years. This was still sufficient time for Edward, who had been brought up by his mother but then trained for courthood by his father's advisors. Edward had hated the manner in which religion had creates a rift between his parents, and caused him to doubt his own abilities - and therefore be signed a bill of religious freedom. Each Irish citizen would be free to practice their own religion, free from persecution - this brought conflict with the Pope, but Edward found support from his great aunt, Queen Elizabeth of England during the Irish Primacy Scandal of 1595. Because he did not outright reject Roman Catholicism, the Pope accepted the decision of the Irish state on the agreement that Edward would pay certain taxes to the Vatican. Edward reluctantly agreed, but claimed all land as royal land and then charged the Irish monasteries rent which he used to pay the taxes.

He married Countess Anna of Nassau, a daughter of William the Silent, Prince of Orange in 1583 and they had two children before Anna died in 1588 during childbirth with their third, a daughter.

He subsequently married Maria of Saxe-Weimar in 1590 and she provided him with several children.

In 1603 when Elizabeth of England died, he was briefly considered for the English throne and considered the lead claimant by Elizabeth herself, but there were objections from the English nobility to a bastard line claiming the Crown when a legitimate claimant existed in the King of Scotland.

At any rate, he died in 1605 after catching pneumonia whilst inspecting the construction of a cathedral in Dublin, intended as the Irish Notre Dame, and his eldest daughter, Princess Margaret, took the throne.

10b6f86835c558f85e1e9f054dae02d0.jpg
[5] The eldest child from Edward I’s marriage to Anna of Nassau, and the first Queen of Ireland. Of the seven daughters of Edward I, Margaret would be the most ardently catholic, opposing her mothers Protestantism and her fathers own ambivalence towards the matter.
Prior to her taking the throne, the Princess would marry Infante Ferdinand of Spain, and the year of her taking the crown of Ireland, she would give birth to her first son and heir; Prince Henry of Ireland.

The first major note of her reign was the completion of the Dublin Cathedral. A massive and baroque cathedral symbolising the piety and Catholicism of Ireland. Her second action would be forcing her younger half-sisters, “The Irish Quintet” to sign away all claim to the throne of Ireland. The younger ones would agree, and be placed in small manorial homes, while the elder of the daughters of Maria of Saxe-Weimar; Maria Anna of Ireland would attempt to fight for her “claim” to the throne. The rebellion of Maria Anna was short lived, and recognised by no other government. From 1610 to 1612, the Protestant revolt would flutter around the Irish countryside, until her capture at Derry. She would be hung in Dublin, alongside the other ringleaders of the revolt. With the settling of the revolt, the reign of Margaret and her husband, who would take the title of Prince-Consort, would be secure.

For the next few years, Ireland simply recovered from the deep split in her loyalties, and another Son and two daughters would be born to the union of Margaret and Ferdinand.

Upon the death of Margaret in 1623, the house of Fitzroy would end, and the House of Hapsburg would inherit the Irish Kingdom.
 
So, in this Ireland list, is Ireland basicaly independent of England? How has this affected England- is it still Anglican? Or is Ireland still an English possession with the Royalty there being puppets of London? Thanks.
 
So, in this Ireland list, is Ireland basicaly independent of England? How has this affected England- is it still Anglican? Or is Ireland still an English possession with the Royalty there being puppets of London? Thanks.
I imagine that Ireland is basically fully independent now.
I similarly imagine that England would have continued as OTL, with Elizabeth’s Protestantism.
 
What If Henry VIII successfully had Henry Fitzroy made King of Ireland in 1529:

1529 - 1546: Henry I (House of Fitzroy) [1]
1546 - 1555:
Henry II (House of Fitzroy) [2]
1555 - 1589:
John I (House of Fitzroy) [3]
1589 - 1605:
Edward I (House of Fitzroy) [4]
1605 - 1623:
Margaret I (House of Fitzroy) [5]
1623 - 1657:
Henry III (House of Hapsburg-Eire) [6]


show-photo.jpg

Henry VIII appointed his bastard son as the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1529. Henry wished to name him King of Ireland but his counsellors strenuously objected and it took several months after being made Lord Lieutenant before he was made King of Ireland in actuality.

Fitzroy was 10 when made King so whilst he was King, the country was run by his father's advisors, notably William Skeffington who was given guardianship of the young King. When he turned 18 in 1537, Skeffington was made Private Secretary for a brief period before his death.

Henry had been provisionally betrothed to Mary Howard in 1533, but the offer of Madeleine of Valois' hand in marriage was too good for Skeffington and Henry VIII to refuse, and the pair were betrothed in 1533, then married when Henry reached majority.

A child was born in 1538, so the nascent Kingdom of Ireland had an heir. Two more children were born in the next five years. However when Henry dies in 1546, at the age of only 27, none of his children had yet reached majority and the question of succession would read it's ugly head.

Henry would be succeeded by Henry, his eldest son.



images
[2] The eldest of the two sons of Henry I of Ireland and his wife; Madeline of Valois, Henry was destined for the Irish Crown from birth, and from the death of his father, he would embrace this role.
During his short reign of nine years, Henry II sought to expand the power of the Irish court, and to do so, he sought allies in the form of the French, who he would seek to marry, namely himself to his first cousin; Louise of Valois, and his younger brother; Prince John of Ireland, to another cousin, Margaret of Savoy.

Henry II was a man of true piety, and it would be his choice to travel to Rome where he received the Golden Rose from his holiness, and it would be on the return journey from Rome, in 1555, where Henry II would fall ill at the age of 17.

For the entirety of his reign, Henry had simply been a rubber-stamp for the regency of Anthony St Leger, and upon his death, the Regent of Ireland would continue his rule.



264_7_2011.jpg
[3] King John was 14 when his brother died, and would spend the first few years of his reign under the regency of Anthony St.Leger, who became known as King Anthony for his hypnotic hold on the King. Part of St.Leger's power was the new King's inclination for both sexes in the bedroom, which the regent immediately recognized. He installed his nephew, Matthew, as the King's confidant turned lover.

All that changed in early 1558, when the King's wife Margaret of Savoy arrived in Dunmore. The new Queen was a rather authoritative figure who saw the regent as the cap on her and her husband's power at court. When she birthed her first child, Madeline, the King asked what she wished: her answer was to send Anthony St.Leger from the court (she also tried unsuccessfully to send away Matthew). The King obliged, causing such a shock to St.Leger that gossipers at the time blamed the incident for his failing health and eventual death the next year.

The remaining years of John's reign were most well known for the power struggle between Margaret (who favored a Catholic, pro-French policy) and Matthew (a closet reformer who preferred and English alliance). As one sharp-witted courtier wrote, "King John has two Queens". This battle extended to the children's education as Margaret attempted to have the children brought up by Catholic priests, while Matthew favored secular tutors, writing to the King "do you want to teach the children you are damned to hell's fiery pits". The children (who grew up at the same court in Dublin) ended up receiving wildly varying educations depending on who had the King's favor each year. For example, the King's eldest daughter Madeline was sent away to be educated by the nuns on the request of her mother. Her sister Louise, only two years younger, instead received a humanist education resembling those of Henry VIII's children, as encouraged by her father's lover.

In the end, King John would be brought down by his love of sex, dying from complications of syphilis. In response to John's reign, his heir Prince Edward, decided to make Ireland a country with no state religion.


MV5BN2RlMGJkZjMtNWU2YS00ZjU2LTk3M2EtZGZmYjlkOGFhNmZlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjk3NTUyOTc@._V1_.jpg

4) Edward was John's second son, with the eldest predeceasing his father by several years. This was still sufficient time for Edward, who had been brought up by his mother but then trained for courthood by his father's advisors. Edward had hated the manner in which religion had creates a rift between his parents, and caused him to doubt his own abilities - and therefore be signed a bill of religious freedom. Each Irish citizen would be free to practice their own religion, free from persecution - this brought conflict with the Pope, but Edward found support from his great aunt, Queen Elizabeth of England during the Irish Primacy Scandal of 1595. Because he did not outright reject Roman Catholicism, the Pope accepted the decision of the Irish state on the agreement that Edward would pay certain taxes to the Vatican. Edward reluctantly agreed, but claimed all land as royal land and then charged the Irish monasteries rent which he used to pay the taxes.

He married Countess Anna of Nassau, a daughter of William the Silent, Prince of Orange in 1583 and they had two children before Anna died in 1588 during childbirth with their third, a daughter.

He subsequently married Maria of Saxe-Weimar in 1590 and she provided him with several children.

In 1603 when Elizabeth of England died, he was briefly considered for the English throne and considered the lead claimant by Elizabeth herself, but there were objections from the English nobility to a bastard line claiming the Crown when a legitimate claimant existed in the King of Scotland.

At any rate, he died in 1605 after catching pneumonia whilst inspecting the construction of a cathedral in Dublin, intended as the Irish Notre Dame, and his eldest daughter, Princess Margaret, took the throne.

10b6f86835c558f85e1e9f054dae02d0.jpg
[5] The eldest child from Edward I’s marriage to Anna of Nassau, and the first Queen of Ireland. Of the seven daughters of Edward I, Margaret would be the most ardently catholic, opposing her mothers Protestantism and her fathers own ambivalence towards the matter.
Prior to her taking the throne, the Princess would marry Infante Ferdinand of Spain, and the year of her taking the crown of Ireland, she would give birth to her first son and heir; Prince Henry of Ireland.

The first major note of her reign was the completion of the Dublin Cathedral. A massive and baroque cathedral symbolising the piety and Catholicism of Ireland. Her second action would be forcing her younger half-sisters, “The Irish Quintet” to sign away all claim to the throne of Ireland. The younger ones would agree, and be placed in small manorial homes, while the elder of the daughters of Maria of Saxe-Weimar; Maria Anna of Ireland would attempt to fight for her “claim” to the throne. The rebellion of Maria Anna was short lived, and recognised by no other government. From 1610 to 1612, the Protestant revolt would flutter around the Irish countryside, until her capture at Derry. She would be hung in Dublin, alongside the other ringleaders of the revolt. With the settling of the revolt, the reign of Margaret and her husband, who would take the title of Prince-Consort, would be secure.

For the next few years, Ireland simply recovered from the deep split in her loyalties, and another Son and two daughters would be born to the union of Margaret and Ferdinand.

Upon the death of Margaret in 1623, the house of Fitzroy would end, and the House of Hapsburg would inherit the Irish Kingdom.


Screen-Shot-2013-12-16-at-20.10.50.png
[6] The Eldest son of Margaret I and Prince-Consort Ferdinand of Ireland, Henry was born in 1605. During his mothers reign, the young prince was often at his mothers side, and became a similarly devout Catholic, perhaps even more so.

In 1619, at the age of fourteen, the Crown Prince of Ireland would marry his paternal cousin; Eleanor of Austria, daughter of his fathers sister. Upon his mothers death, Henry would be crowned in the Dublin Cathedral, started by his grandfather, and he would take the dynastic name “Hapsburg-Eire”.

Between 1627 and 1646, Henry III would have 17 children by his three wives, firstly Eleanor of Austria until her death in 1631, followed by Marie of France until her death in Childbirth in 1642, and then Charlotte de Montespard, who he would take as his Morganatic wife.

The rule of Henry III was a peaceful reign, with the centralisation of the Irish court, and the Colonisation of the Irish Virgin Islands, and upon his death in 1657, Henry III would be succeeded by_______.
 
What If Henry VIII successfully had Henry Fitzroy made King of Ireland in 1529:

1529 - 1546: Henry I (House of Fitzroy) [1]
1546 - 1555:
Henry II (House of Fitzroy) [2]
1555 - 1589:
John I (House of Fitzroy) [3]
1589 - 1605:
Edward I (House of Fitzroy) [4]
1605 - 1623:
Margaret I (House of Fitzroy) [5]
1623 - 1657:
Henry III (House of Hapsburg-Eire) [6]
1657 - 1701: John II/Sean II (House of Hapsburg-Eire) [7]



show-photo.jpg

Henry VIII appointed his bastard son as the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1529. Henry wished to name him King of Ireland but his counsellors strenuously objected and it took several months after being made Lord Lieutenant before he was made King of Ireland in actuality.

Fitzroy was 10 when made King so whilst he was King, the country was run by his father's advisors, notably William Skeffington who was given guardianship of the young King. When he turned 18 in 1537, Skeffington was made Private Secretary for a brief period before his death.

Henry had been provisionally betrothed to Mary Howard in 1533, but the offer of Madeleine of Valois' hand in marriage was too good for Skeffington and Henry VIII to refuse, and the pair were betrothed in 1533, then married when Henry reached majority.

A child was born in 1538, so the nascent Kingdom of Ireland had an heir. Two more children were born in the next five years. However when Henry dies in 1546, at the age of only 27, none of his children had yet reached majority and the question of succession would read it's ugly head.

Henry would be succeeded by Henry, his eldest son.



images
[2] The eldest of the two sons of Henry I of Ireland and his wife; Madeline of Valois, Henry was destined for the Irish Crown from birth, and from the death of his father, he would embrace this role.
During his short reign of nine years, Henry II sought to expand the power of the Irish court, and to do so, he sought allies in the form of the French, who he would seek to marry, namely himself to his first cousin; Louise of Valois, and his younger brother; Prince John of Ireland, to another cousin, Margaret of Savoy.

Henry II was a man of true piety, and it would be his choice to travel to Rome where he received the Golden Rose from his holiness, and it would be on the return journey from Rome, in 1555, where Henry II would fall ill at the age of 17.

For the entirety of his reign, Henry had simply been a rubber-stamp for the regency of Anthony St Leger, and upon his death, the Regent of Ireland would continue his rule.



264_7_2011.jpg
[3] King John was 14 when his brother died, and would spend the first few years of his reign under the regency of Anthony St.Leger, who became known as King Anthony for his hypnotic hold on the King. Part of St.Leger's power was the new King's inclination for both sexes in the bedroom, which the regent immediately recognized. He installed his nephew, Matthew, as the King's confidant turned lover.

All that changed in early 1558, when the King's wife Margaret of Savoy arrived in Dunmore. The new Queen was a rather authoritative figure who saw the regent as the cap on her and her husband's power at court. When she birthed her first child, Madeline, the King asked what she wished: her answer was to send Anthony St.Leger from the court (she also tried unsuccessfully to send away Matthew). The King obliged, causing such a shock to St.Leger that gossipers at the time blamed the incident for his failing health and eventual death the next year.

The remaining years of John's reign were most well known for the power struggle between Margaret (who favored a Catholic, pro-French policy) and Matthew (a closet reformer who preferred and English alliance). As one sharp-witted courtier wrote, "King John has two Queens". This battle extended to the children's education as Margaret attempted to have the children brought up by Catholic priests, while Matthew favored secular tutors, writing to the King "do you want to teach the children you are damned to hell's fiery pits". The children (who grew up at the same court in Dublin) ended up receiving wildly varying educations depending on who had the King's favor each year. For example, the King's eldest daughter Madeline was sent away to be educated by the nuns on the request of her mother. Her sister Louise, only two years younger, instead received a humanist education resembling those of Henry VIII's children, as encouraged by her father's lover.

In the end, King John would be brought down by his love of sex, dying from complications of syphilis. In response to John's reign, his heir Prince Edward, decided to make Ireland a country with no state religion.


MV5BN2RlMGJkZjMtNWU2YS00ZjU2LTk3M2EtZGZmYjlkOGFhNmZlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjk3NTUyOTc@._V1_.jpg

4) Edward was John's second son, with the eldest predeceasing his father by several years. This was still sufficient time for Edward, who had been brought up by his mother but then trained for courthood by his father's advisors. Edward had hated the manner in which religion had creates a rift between his parents, and caused him to doubt his own abilities - and therefore be signed a bill of religious freedom. Each Irish citizen would be free to practice their own religion, free from persecution - this brought conflict with the Pope, but Edward found support from his great aunt, Queen Elizabeth of England during the Irish Primacy Scandal of 1595. Because he did not outright reject Roman Catholicism, the Pope accepted the decision of the Irish state on the agreement that Edward would pay certain taxes to the Vatican. Edward reluctantly agreed, but claimed all land as royal land and then charged the Irish monasteries rent which he used to pay the taxes.

He married Countess Anna of Nassau, a daughter of William the Silent, Prince of Orange in 1583 and they had two children before Anna died in 1588 during childbirth with their third, a daughter.

He subsequently married Maria of Saxe-Weimar in 1590 and she provided him with several children.

In 1603 when Elizabeth of England died, he was briefly considered for the English throne and considered the lead claimant by Elizabeth herself, but there were objections from the English nobility to a bastard line claiming the Crown when a legitimate claimant existed in the King of Scotland.

At any rate, he died in 1605 after catching pneumonia whilst inspecting the construction of a cathedral in Dublin, intended as the Irish Notre Dame, and his eldest daughter, Princess Margaret, took the throne.

10b6f86835c558f85e1e9f054dae02d0.jpg
[5] The eldest child from Edward I’s marriage to Anna of Nassau, and the first Queen of Ireland. Of the seven daughters of Edward I, Margaret would be the most ardently catholic, opposing her mothers Protestantism and her fathers own ambivalence towards the matter.
Prior to her taking the throne, the Princess would marry Infante Ferdinand of Spain, and the year of her taking the crown of Ireland, she would give birth to her first son and heir; Prince Henry of Ireland.

The first major note of her reign was the completion of the Dublin Cathedral. A massive and baroque cathedral symbolising the piety and Catholicism of Ireland. Her second action would be forcing her younger half-sisters, “The Irish Quintet” to sign away all claim to the throne of Ireland. The younger ones would agree, and be placed in small manorial homes, while the elder of the daughters of Maria of Saxe-Weimar; Maria Anna of Ireland would attempt to fight for her “claim” to the throne. The rebellion of Maria Anna was short lived, and recognised by no other government. From 1610 to 1612, the Protestant revolt would flutter around the Irish countryside, until her capture at Derry. She would be hung in Dublin, alongside the other ringleaders of the revolt. With the settling of the revolt, the reign of Margaret and her husband, who would take the title of Prince-Consort, would be secure.

For the next few years, Ireland simply recovered from the deep split in her loyalties, and another Son and two daughters would be born to the union of Margaret and Ferdinand.

Upon the death of Margaret in 1623, the house of Fitzroy would end, and the House of Hapsburg would inherit the Irish Kingdom.


Screen-Shot-2013-12-16-at-20.10.50.png
[6] The Eldest son of Margaret I and Prince-Consort Ferdinand of Ireland, Henry was born in 1605. During his mothers reign, the young prince was often at his mothers side, and became a similarly devout Catholic, perhaps even more so.

In 1619, at the age of fourteen, the Crown Prince of Ireland would marry his paternal cousin; Eleanor of Austria, daughter of his fathers sister. Upon his mothers death, Henry would be crowned in the Dublin Cathedral, started by his grandfather, and he would take the dynastic name “Hapsburg-Eire”.

Between 1627 and 1646, Henry III would have 17 children by his three wives, firstly Eleanor of Austria until her death in 1631, followed by Marie of France until her death in Childbirth in 1642, and then Charlotte de Montespard, who he would take as his Morganatic wife.

The rule of Henry III was a peaceful reign, with the centralisation of the Irish court, and the Colonisation of the Irish Virgin Islands, and upon his death in 1657, Henry III would be succeeded by John II.

[7]
220px-Ritratto_di_Carlo_II_Gonzaga_Nevers.png
John II of Ireland was the third son of Henry III's large brood and spent much of his life never expecting to become King, he was made Duke of Ulster and was raised with the expectation of serving his eldest brother, Henry, Prince of Leinster, however when he and John's second brother Prince Adam died in a boating accident when John was 28 saw the third son thrust into the spotlight. Unmarried at that point his father arranged a marriage for his new heir, Princess Marie-Anne of Orleans, however no children were produced by this marriage.

When Henry III died, John II became a King without an heir.

While England and Scotland convulsed in the throws of the British Civil War between King Frederick Henry I, the Parliamentarians, and Scottish Dissidents, John II focused on continuing Ireland's colonial projects, and supported the arts and the promotion of native Irish culture, both at home, and in the court, he was the first Irish monarch to learn the Irish Language (the court having retained the Tudor English of the Fitzroy's), and began signing documents not as 'John' but as 'Sean'.

When Sean II's first wife died, the King tried again with a second wife, Zofia Opalińska, a Polish noblewoman, this marriage also failed to produce any children.

Giving up hope of having heirs of his own body, Sean II focused on his brothers, the majority of whom had been left as bachelors by their father due to a lack of prospects. While their Hapsburgs relatives on the continent showed signs of dying out, the next six men behind Sean II in line for the throne were married and had more success in bedroom than their brother, some sneeringly called Sean 'Dry-Seed'.

The British Civil War ground down to a brutal halt when Frederick Henry I was captured by Parliamentarians and ultimately executed, horrifying the monarchies of Europe, a collation was formed, led by Louis XIV, Sean II joined the powers of Europe in the first invasion of the British Isles since William the Conqueror. The Invasion phase of the British Civil War saw the end of the Parliamentarians as a military force, their leaders (such as Oliver Cromwell) were executed, and the Kingdom of Great Britain was divided back into the separate Kingdoms of England (under Henry IX) and Scotland (under Charles I).

Sean II then spent the remainder of his life focused on building a new royal palace, as Dublin Castle was seen by Sean as 'too modest', the Caisleán Mhanderley (Manderley Castle) would be seen as an architectural wonder, seen by contemporaries as the nearest royal palace to rival Versailles.

Sean II witnessed the completion of Manderley Castle and lived in his finest work for six months before dying childess, passing the crown to his ___, _____.
 
Last edited:
What If Henry VIII successfully had Henry Fitzroy made King of Ireland in 1529:

1529 - 1546: Henry I (House of Fitzroy) [1]
1546 - 1555:
Henry II (House of Fitzroy) [2]
1555 - 1589:
John I (House of Fitzroy) [3]
1589 - 1605:
Edward I (House of Fitzroy) [4]
1605 - 1623:
Margaret I (House of Fitzroy) [5]
1623 - 1657:
Henry III (House of Hapsburg-Eire) [6]
1657 - 1701: John II/Sean II (House of Hapsburg-Eire) [7]

1701 - 1719: Phillip I (House of Hapsburg-Eire) [8]


show-photo.jpg

Henry VIII appointed his bastard son as the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1529. Henry wished to name him King of Ireland but his counsellors strenuously objected and it took several months after being made Lord Lieutenant before he was made King of Ireland in actuality.

Fitzroy was 10 when made King so whilst he was King, the country was run by his father's advisors, notably William Skeffington who was given guardianship of the young King. When he turned 18 in 1537, Skeffington was made Private Secretary for a brief period before his death.

Henry had been provisionally betrothed to Mary Howard in 1533, but the offer of Madeleine of Valois' hand in marriage was too good for Skeffington and Henry VIII to refuse, and the pair were betrothed in 1533, then married when Henry reached majority.

A child was born in 1538, so the nascent Kingdom of Ireland had an heir. Two more children were born in the next five years. However when Henry dies in 1546, at the age of only 27, none of his children had yet reached majority and the question of succession would read it's ugly head.

Henry would be succeeded by Henry, his eldest son.



images
[2] The eldest of the two sons of Henry I of Ireland and his wife; Madeline of Valois, Henry was destined for the Irish Crown from birth, and from the death of his father, he would embrace this role.
During his short reign of nine years, Henry II sought to expand the power of the Irish court, and to do so, he sought allies in the form of the French, who he would seek to marry, namely himself to his first cousin; Louise of Valois, and his younger brother; Prince John of Ireland, to another cousin, Margaret of Savoy.

Henry II was a man of true piety, and it would be his choice to travel to Rome where he received the Golden Rose from his holiness, and it would be on the return journey from Rome, in 1555, where Henry II would fall ill at the age of 17.

For the entirety of his reign, Henry had simply been a rubber-stamp for the regency of Anthony St Leger, and upon his death, the Regent of Ireland would continue his rule.



264_7_2011.jpg
[3] King John was 14 when his brother died, and would spend the first few years of his reign under the regency of Anthony St.Leger, who became known as King Anthony for his hypnotic hold on the King. Part of St.Leger's power was the new King's inclination for both sexes in the bedroom, which the regent immediately recognized. He installed his nephew, Matthew, as the King's confidant turned lover.

All that changed in early 1558, when the King's wife Margaret of Savoy arrived in Dunmore. The new Queen was a rather authoritative figure who saw the regent as the cap on her and her husband's power at court. When she birthed her first child, Madeline, the King asked what she wished: her answer was to send Anthony St.Leger from the court (she also tried unsuccessfully to send away Matthew). The King obliged, causing such a shock to St.Leger that gossipers at the time blamed the incident for his failing health and eventual death the next year.

The remaining years of John's reign were most well known for the power struggle between Margaret (who favored a Catholic, pro-French policy) and Matthew (a closet reformer who preferred and English alliance). As one sharp-witted courtier wrote, "King John has two Queens". This battle extended to the children's education as Margaret attempted to have the children brought up by Catholic priests, while Matthew favored secular tutors, writing to the King "do you want to teach the children you are damned to hell's fiery pits". The children (who grew up at the same court in Dublin) ended up receiving wildly varying educations depending on who had the King's favor each year. For example, the King's eldest daughter Madeline was sent away to be educated by the nuns on the request of her mother. Her sister Louise, only two years younger, instead received a humanist education resembling those of Henry VIII's children, as encouraged by her father's lover.

In the end, King John would be brought down by his love of sex, dying from complications of syphilis. In response to John's reign, his heir Prince Edward, decided to make Ireland a country with no state religion.


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4) Edward was John's second son, with the eldest predeceasing his father by several years. This was still sufficient time for Edward, who had been brought up by his mother but then trained for courthood by his father's advisors. Edward had hated the manner in which religion had creates a rift between his parents, and caused him to doubt his own abilities - and therefore be signed a bill of religious freedom. Each Irish citizen would be free to practice their own religion, free from persecution - this brought conflict with the Pope, but Edward found support from his great aunt, Queen Elizabeth of England during the Irish Primacy Scandal of 1595. Because he did not outright reject Roman Catholicism, the Pope accepted the decision of the Irish state on the agreement that Edward would pay certain taxes to the Vatican. Edward reluctantly agreed, but claimed all land as royal land and then charged the Irish monasteries rent which he used to pay the taxes.

He married Countess Anna of Nassau, a daughter of William the Silent, Prince of Orange in 1583 and they had two children before Anna died in 1588 during childbirth with their third, a daughter.

He subsequently married Maria of Saxe-Weimar in 1590 and she provided him with several children.

In 1603 when Elizabeth of England died, he was briefly considered for the English throne and considered the lead claimant by Elizabeth herself, but there were objections from the English nobility to a bastard line claiming the Crown when a legitimate claimant existed in the King of Scotland.

At any rate, he died in 1605 after catching pneumonia whilst inspecting the construction of a cathedral in Dublin, intended as the Irish Notre Dame, and his eldest daughter, Princess Margaret, took the throne.

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[5] The eldest child from Edward I’s marriage to Anna of Nassau, and the first Queen of Ireland. Of the seven daughters of Edward I, Margaret would be the most ardently catholic, opposing her mothers Protestantism and her fathers own ambivalence towards the matter.
Prior to her taking the throne, the Princess would marry Infante Ferdinand of Spain, and the year of her taking the crown of Ireland, she would give birth to her first son and heir; Prince Henry of Ireland.

The first major note of her reign was the completion of the Dublin Cathedral. A massive and baroque cathedral symbolising the piety and Catholicism of Ireland. Her second action would be forcing her younger half-sisters, “The Irish Quintet” to sign away all claim to the throne of Ireland. The younger ones would agree, and be placed in small manorial homes, while the elder of the daughters of Maria of Saxe-Weimar; Maria Anna of Ireland would attempt to fight for her “claim” to the throne. The rebellion of Maria Anna was short lived, and recognised by no other government. From 1610 to 1612, the Protestant revolt would flutter around the Irish countryside, until her capture at Derry. She would be hung in Dublin, alongside the other ringleaders of the revolt. With the settling of the revolt, the reign of Margaret and her husband, who would take the title of Prince-Consort, would be secure.

For the next few years, Ireland simply recovered from the deep split in her loyalties, and another Son and two daughters would be born to the union of Margaret and Ferdinand.

Upon the death of Margaret in 1623, the house of Fitzroy would end, and the House of Hapsburg would inherit the Irish Kingdom.


Screen-Shot-2013-12-16-at-20.10.50.png
[6] The Eldest son of Margaret I and Prince-Consort Ferdinand of Ireland, Henry was born in 1605. During his mothers reign, the young prince was often at his mothers side, and became a similarly devout Catholic, perhaps even more so.

In 1619, at the age of fourteen, the Crown Prince of Ireland would marry his paternal cousin; Eleanor of Austria, daughter of his fathers sister. Upon his mothers death, Henry would be crowned in the Dublin Cathedral, started by his grandfather, and he would take the dynastic name “Hapsburg-Eire”.

Between 1627 and 1646, Henry III would have 17 children by his three wives, firstly Eleanor of Austria until her death in 1631, followed by Marie of France until her death in Childbirth in 1642, and then Charlotte de Montespard, who he would take as his Morganatic wife.

The rule of Henry III was a peaceful reign, with the centralisation of the Irish court, and the Colonisation of the Irish Virgin Islands, and upon his death in 1657, Henry III would be succeeded by John II.



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[7] John II of Ireland was the third son of Henry III's large brood and spent much of his life never expecting to become King, he was made Duke of Ulster and was raised with the expectation of serving his eldest brother, Henry, Prince of Leinster, however when he and John's second brother Prince Adam died in a boating accident when John was 28 saw the third son thrust into the spotlight. Unmarried at that point his father arranged a marriage for his new heir, Princess Marie-Anne of Orleans, however no children were produced by this marriage.

When Henry III died, John II became a King without an heir.

While England and Scotland convulsed in the throws of the British Civil War between King Frederick Henry I, the Parliamentarians, and Scottish Dissidents, John II focused on continuing Ireland's colonial projects, and supported the arts and the promotion of native Irish culture, both at home, and in the court, he was the first Irish monarch to learn the Irish Language (the court having retained the Tudor English of the Fitzroy's), and began signing documents not as 'John' but as 'Sean'.

When Sean II's first wife died, the King tried again with a second wife, Zofia Opalińska, a Polish noblewoman, this marriage also failed to produce any children.

Giving up hope of having heirs of his own body, Sean II focused on his brothers, the majority of whom had been left as bachelors by their father due to a lack of prospects. While their Hapsburgs relatives on the continent showed signs of dying out, the next six men behind Sean II in line for the throne were married and had more success in bedroom than their brother, some sneeringly called Sean 'Dry-Seed'.

The British Civil War ground down to a brutal halt when Frederick Henry I was captured by Parliamentarians and ultimately executed, horrifying the monarchies of Europe, a collation was formed, led by Louis XIV, Sean II joined the powers of Europe in the first invasion of the British Isles since William the Conqueror. The Invasion phase of the British Civil War saw the end of the Parliamentarians as a military force, their leaders (such as Oliver Cromwell) were executed, and the Kingdom of Great Britain was divided back into the separate Kingdoms of England (under Henry IX) and Scotland (under Charles I).

Sean II then spent the remainder of his life focused on building a new royal palace, as Dublin Castle was seen by Sean as 'too modest', the Caisleán Mhanderley (Manderley Castle) would be seen as an architectural wonder, seen by contemporaries as the nearest royal palace to rival Versailles.

Sean II witnessed the completion of Manderley Castle and lived in his finest work for six months before dying childess, passing the crown to his brother, Prince Albert Phillip of Ireland, otherwise known as Phillip I of Ireland


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[8] Born in 1639, the eldest of the two sons of Henry III from his marriage to Marie de France. As a Prince, he was originally destined for a Ecclesiastical career, and from 1659 until 1690 he wore the Cardinal’s hat.
In 1690 however the Prince’s world was shaken. The death of his elder brother; Prince Edward, placed Albert Phillip as the heir to the Irish crown. Receiving permission from his Holiness, he would give up the Cardinals cap, and would take a wife with both his Brothers and Papal Blessing. He would marry Cecilia of Bavaria, and in 1693, the pair would welcome their first child, ______.

Upon his brothers death in 1701, Prince Albert Phillip would return from his estates in Rome, which he had received as a gift from his Holiness for his service, and be crowned as Phillip I of Ireland. At his crowning, he was already 61, and was known to be gout ridden.

Unlike his brother, John II, Phillip was no lover of the Irish culture, seeing it as contradictory to Catholic belief, and he would establish the Jure Successionis, placing the succession laws of Ireland in writing. The Statute stated that the Monarch of Ireland must be catholic, disregarding the sons of his fathers third and last marriage, as those individuals had been noted Protestants.

By 1719, Phillip I was Eighty years old, and dying slowly, when suddenly on the fifth of August, the King suddenly died. Rumours of murder and assassination filled the court, and the King was succeeded by ______.
 
What If Henry VIII successfully had Henry Fitzroy made King of Ireland in 1529:

1529 - 1546: Henry I (House of Fitzroy) [1]
1546 - 1555:
Henry II (House of Fitzroy) [2]
1555 - 1589:
John I (House of Fitzroy) [3]
1589 - 1605:
Edward I (House of Fitzroy) [4]
1605 - 1623:
Margaret I (House of Fitzroy) [5]
1623 - 1657:
Henry III (House of Hapsburg-Eire) [6]
1657 - 1701: John II/Sean II (House of Hapsburg-Eire) [7]

1701 - 1719: Phillip I (House of Hapsburg-Eire) [8]
1719 - 1750:
Mary (House of Hapsburg-Eire) [9]


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Henry VIII appointed his bastard son as the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1529. Henry wished to name him King of Ireland but his counsellors strenuously objected and it took several months after being made Lord Lieutenant before he was made King of Ireland in actuality.

Fitzroy was 10 when made King so whilst he was King, the country was run by his father's advisors, notably William Skeffington who was given guardianship of the young King. When he turned 18 in 1537, Skeffington was made Private Secretary for a brief period before his death.

Henry had been provisionally betrothed to Mary Howard in 1533, but the offer of Madeleine of Valois' hand in marriage was too good for Skeffington and Henry VIII to refuse, and the pair were betrothed in 1533, then married when Henry reached majority.

A child was born in 1538, so the nascent Kingdom of Ireland had an heir. Two more children were born in the next five years. However when Henry dies in 1546, at the age of only 27, none of his children had yet reached majority and the question of succession would read it's ugly head.

Henry would be succeeded by Henry, his eldest son.



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[2] The eldest of the two sons of Henry I of Ireland and his wife; Madeline of Valois, Henry was destined for the Irish Crown from birth, and from the death of his father, he would embrace this role.
During his short reign of nine years, Henry II sought to expand the power of the Irish court, and to do so, he sought allies in the form of the French, who he would seek to marry, namely himself to his first cousin; Louise of Valois, and his younger brother; Prince John of Ireland, to another cousin, Margaret of Savoy.

Henry II was a man of true piety, and it would be his choice to travel to Rome where he received the Golden Rose from his holiness, and it would be on the return journey from Rome, in 1555, where Henry II would fall ill at the age of 17.

For the entirety of his reign, Henry had simply been a rubber-stamp for the regency of Anthony St Leger, and upon his death, the Regent of Ireland would continue his rule.



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[3] King John was 14 when his brother died, and would spend the first few years of his reign under the regency of Anthony St.Leger, who became known as King Anthony for his hypnotic hold on the King. Part of St.Leger's power was the new King's inclination for both sexes in the bedroom, which the regent immediately recognized. He installed his nephew, Matthew, as the King's confidant turned lover.

All that changed in early 1558, when the King's wife Margaret of Savoy arrived in Dunmore. The new Queen was a rather authoritative figure who saw the regent as the cap on her and her husband's power at court. When she birthed her first child, Madeline, the King asked what she wished: her answer was to send Anthony St.Leger from the court (she also tried unsuccessfully to send away Matthew). The King obliged, causing such a shock to St.Leger that gossipers at the time blamed the incident for his failing health and eventual death the next year.

The remaining years of John's reign were most well known for the power struggle between Margaret (who favored a Catholic, pro-French policy) and Matthew (a closet reformer who preferred and English alliance). As one sharp-witted courtier wrote, "King John has two Queens". This battle extended to the children's education as Margaret attempted to have the children brought up by Catholic priests, while Matthew favored secular tutors, writing to the King "do you want to teach the children you are damned to hell's fiery pits". The children (who grew up at the same court in Dublin) ended up receiving wildly varying educations depending on who had the King's favor each year. For example, the King's eldest daughter Madeline was sent away to be educated by the nuns on the request of her mother. Her sister Louise, only two years younger, instead received a humanist education resembling those of Henry VIII's children, as encouraged by her father's lover.

In the end, King John would be brought down by his love of sex, dying from complications of syphilis. In response to John's reign, his heir Prince Edward, decided to make Ireland a country with no state religion.


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4) Edward was John's second son, with the eldest predeceasing his father by several years. This was still sufficient time for Edward, who had been brought up by his mother but then trained for courthood by his father's advisors. Edward had hated the manner in which religion had creates a rift between his parents, and caused him to doubt his own abilities - and therefore be signed a bill of religious freedom. Each Irish citizen would be free to practice their own religion, free from persecution - this brought conflict with the Pope, but Edward found support from his great aunt, Queen Elizabeth of England during the Irish Primacy Scandal of 1595. Because he did not outright reject Roman Catholicism, the Pope accepted the decision of the Irish state on the agreement that Edward would pay certain taxes to the Vatican. Edward reluctantly agreed, but claimed all land as royal land and then charged the Irish monasteries rent which he used to pay the taxes.

He married Countess Anna of Nassau, a daughter of William the Silent, Prince of Orange in 1583 and they had two children before Anna died in 1588 during childbirth with their third, a daughter.

He subsequently married Maria of Saxe-Weimar in 1590 and she provided him with several children.

In 1603 when Elizabeth of England died, he was briefly considered for the English throne and considered the lead claimant by Elizabeth herself, but there were objections from the English nobility to a bastard line claiming the Crown when a legitimate claimant existed in the King of Scotland.

At any rate, he died in 1605 after catching pneumonia whilst inspecting the construction of a cathedral in Dublin, intended as the Irish Notre Dame, and his eldest daughter, Princess Margaret, took the throne.

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[5] The eldest child from Edward I’s marriage to Anna of Nassau, and the first Queen of Ireland. Of the seven daughters of Edward I, Margaret would be the most ardently catholic, opposing her mothers Protestantism and her fathers own ambivalence towards the matter.
Prior to her taking the throne, the Princess would marry Infante Ferdinand of Spain, and the year of her taking the crown of Ireland, she would give birth to her first son and heir; Prince Henry of Ireland.

The first major note of her reign was the completion of the Dublin Cathedral. A massive and baroque cathedral symbolising the piety and Catholicism of Ireland. Her second action would be forcing her younger half-sisters, “The Irish Quintet” to sign away all claim to the throne of Ireland. The younger ones would agree, and be placed in small manorial homes, while the elder of the daughters of Maria of Saxe-Weimar; Maria Anna of Ireland would attempt to fight for her “claim” to the throne. The rebellion of Maria Anna was short lived, and recognised by no other government. From 1610 to 1612, the Protestant revolt would flutter around the Irish countryside, until her capture at Derry. She would be hung in Dublin, alongside the other ringleaders of the revolt. With the settling of the revolt, the reign of Margaret and her husband, who would take the title of Prince-Consort, would be secure.

For the next few years, Ireland simply recovered from the deep split in her loyalties, and another Son and two daughters would be born to the union of Margaret and Ferdinand.

Upon the death of Margaret in 1623, the house of Fitzroy would end, and the House of Hapsburg would inherit the Irish Kingdom.


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[6] The Eldest son of Margaret I and Prince-Consort Ferdinand of Ireland, Henry was born in 1605. During his mothers reign, the young prince was often at his mothers side, and became a similarly devout Catholic, perhaps even more so.

In 1619, at the age of fourteen, the Crown Prince of Ireland would marry his paternal cousin; Eleanor of Austria, daughter of his fathers sister. Upon his mothers death, Henry would be crowned in the Dublin Cathedral, started by his grandfather, and he would take the dynastic name “Hapsburg-Eire”.

Between 1627 and 1646, Henry III would have 17 children by his three wives, firstly Eleanor of Austria until her death in 1631, followed by Marie of France until her death in Childbirth in 1642, and then Charlotte de Montespard, who he would take as his Morganatic wife.

The rule of Henry III was a peaceful reign, with the centralisation of the Irish court, and the Colonisation of the Irish Virgin Islands, and upon his death in 1657, Henry III would be succeeded by John II.



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[7] John II of Ireland was the third son of Henry III's large brood and spent much of his life never expecting to become King, he was made Duke of Ulster and was raised with the expectation of serving his eldest brother, Henry, Prince of Leinster, however when he and John's second brother Prince Adam died in a boating accident when John was 28 saw the third son thrust into the spotlight. Unmarried at that point his father arranged a marriage for his new heir, Princess Marie-Anne of Orleans, however no children were produced by this marriage.

When Henry III died, John II became a King without an heir.

While England and Scotland convulsed in the throws of the British Civil War between King Frederick Henry I, the Parliamentarians, and Scottish Dissidents, John II focused on continuing Ireland's colonial projects, and supported the arts and the promotion of native Irish culture, both at home, and in the court, he was the first Irish monarch to learn the Irish Language (the court having retained the Tudor English of the Fitzroy's), and began signing documents not as 'John' but as 'Sean'.

When Sean II's first wife died, the King tried again with a second wife, Zofia Opalińska, a Polish noblewoman, this marriage also failed to produce any children.

Giving up hope of having heirs of his own body, Sean II focused on his brothers, the majority of whom had been left as bachelors by their father due to a lack of prospects. While their Hapsburgs relatives on the continent showed signs of dying out, the next six men behind Sean II in line for the throne were married and had more success in bedroom than their brother, some sneeringly called Sean 'Dry-Seed'.

The British Civil War ground down to a brutal halt when Frederick Henry I was captured by Parliamentarians and ultimately executed, horrifying the monarchies of Europe, a collation was formed, led by Louis XIV, Sean II joined the powers of Europe in the first invasion of the British Isles since William the Conqueror. The Invasion phase of the British Civil War saw the end of the Parliamentarians as a military force, their leaders (such as Oliver Cromwell) were executed, and the Kingdom of Great Britain was divided back into the separate Kingdoms of England (under Henry IX) and Scotland (under Charles I).

Sean II then spent the remainder of his life focused on building a new royal palace, as Dublin Castle was seen by Sean as 'too modest', the Caisleán Mhanderley (Manderley Castle) would be seen as an architectural wonder, seen by contemporaries as the nearest royal palace to rival Versailles.

Sean II witnessed the completion of Manderley Castle and lived in his finest work for six months before dying childess, passing the crown to his brother, Prince Albert Phillip of Ireland, otherwise known as Phillip I of Ireland


William_Cadogan%2C_1st_Earl_Cadogan_by_Louis_Laguerre.jpg
[8] Born in 1639, the eldest of the two sons of Henry III from his marriage to Marie de France. As a Prince, he was originally destined for a Ecclesiastical career, and from 1659 until 1690 he wore the Cardinal’s hat.
In 1690 however the Prince’s world was shaken. The death of his elder brother; Prince Edward, placed Albert Phillip as the heir to the Irish crown. Receiving permission from his Holiness, he would give up the Cardinals cap, and would take a wife with both his Brothers and Papal Blessing. He would marry Cecilia of Bavaria, and in 1693, the pair would welcome their first child, Mary.

Upon his brothers death in 1701, Prince Albert Phillip would return from his estates in Rome, which he had received as a gift from his Holiness for his service, and be crowned as Phillip I of Ireland. At his crowning, he was already 61, and was known to be gout ridden.

Unlike his brother, John II, Phillip was no lover of the Irish culture, seeing it as contradictory to Catholic belief, and he would establish the Jure Successionis, placing the succession laws of Ireland in writing. The Statute stated that the Monarch of Ireland must be catholic, disregarding the sons of his fathers third and last marriage, as those individuals had been noted Protestants.

By 1719, Phillip I was Eighty years old, and dying slowly, when suddenly on the fifth of August, the King suddenly died. Rumours of murder and assassination filled the court, and the King was succeeded by Mary, Princess of Leinster.

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[9] Mary was born in 1693, the eldest of three sisters, named after the Virgin Mary at her father's insistance and later used it as her regnal name, at her father's dying wishes. She was betrothed and later married to Antoine, Dauphin of France, later crowned Louis Antoine, King of France. Much like her early years on her father's estates in Italy, and her ten years in France, this meant that she spent much of her life outside of Ireland. Far from being a stranger in her own country, this made her a relative celebrity and she returned to Dublin with French fashion and cuisine to introduce to society. The major problem with Mary was her marriage - should any of her son's survive her husband, they would be made King of France, and should they survive her, it would result in a Franco-Gaelic union which many Irish nobles were not enamoured by. A movement developed that would allow the eldest child to accept France, whilst the next eldest would accept Ireland (as Hapsburg-Eire was a cadet branch, and Bourbon held seniority) but Mary resisted this, but agreed that whilst France practiced succession by the male line only, Ireland would practice male preference primogeniture and allow succession to fall on females. This was, it seemed, satisfactory for Mary's counsellors and the objections ceased.

Mary and Louis Antoine spent their time mostly separate once she became Queen, she would visit France annually but for the rest of the year, Louis Antoine would spend time with his mistresses and father, it was claimed, two dozen children between them, though he only recognised one, Antoine, Count of Paris, and attempted to convince his wife that Antoine should marry one of their youngest daughters. Mary fiercely resisted, and refused to see her husband for two years.

For her own part, Mary became enamoured with the Ambassador to Morocco and it was rumoured they developed a sexual relationship which may have resulted in a daughter. Ironically, it was rumoured that this daughter then married the Count of Paris, allowing her a presence at the French Court in the presence of her "mothers" semi estranged husband.

It was later recounted in a poem entitled "The Tale of the Two Bastards" which was subsequently adapted into a French language movie in 1995, directed by Jean Pierre Jeunet, with Keanu Reeves as the Count of Paris, and Vanessa Paradis as Mary FitzMary. Isabelle Huppert would play Queen Mary of Ireland.

After the minor scandals of her reign, Mary died aged 57 in 1750, to be succeeded by ....... , ......
 
What If Henry VIII successfully had Henry Fitzroy made King of Ireland in 1529:

1529 - 1546: Henry I (House of Fitzroy) [1]
1546 - 1555: Henry II (House of Fitzroy) [2]
1555 - 1589: John I (House of Fitzroy) [3]
1589 - 1605: Edward I (House of Fitzroy) [4]
1605 - 1623: Margaret I (House of Fitzroy) [5]
1623 - 1657: Henry III (House of Hapsburg-Eire) [6]
1657 - 1701: John II/Sean II (House of Hapsburg-Eire) [7]
1701 - 1719: Phillip I (House of Hapsburg-Eire) [8]
1719 - 1750: Mary (House of Hapsburg-Eire) [9]
1750 - 1779: Alfred I (House of Fitzroy-Waterford) [10]


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Henry VIII appointed his bastard son as the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1529. Henry wished to name him King of Ireland but his counsellors strenuously objected and it took several months after being made Lord Lieutenant before he was made King of Ireland in actuality.

Fitzroy was 10 when made King so whilst he was King, the country was run by his father's advisors, notably William Skeffington who was given guardianship of the young King. When he turned 18 in 1537, Skeffington was made Private Secretary for a brief period before his death.

Henry had been provisionally betrothed to Mary Howard in 1533, but the offer of Madeleine of Valois' hand in marriage was too good for Skeffington and Henry VIII to refuse, and the pair were betrothed in 1533, then married when Henry reached majority.

A child was born in 1538, so the nascent Kingdom of Ireland had an heir. Two more children were born in the next five years. However when Henry dies in 1546, at the age of only 27, none of his children had yet reached majority and the question of succession would read it's ugly head.

Henry would be succeeded by Henry, his eldest son.


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[2] The eldest of the two sons of Henry I of Ireland and his wife; Madeline of Valois, Henry was destined for the Irish Crown from birth, and from the death of his father, he would embrace this role.
During his short reign of nine years, Henry II sought to expand the power of the Irish court, and to do so, he sought allies in the form of the French, who he would seek to marry, namely himself to his first cousin; Louise of Valois, and his younger brother; Prince John of Ireland, to another cousin, Margaret of Savoy.

Henry II was a man of true piety, and it would be his choice to travel to Rome where he received the Golden Rose from his holiness, and it would be on the return journey from Rome, in 1555, where Henry II would fall ill at the age of 17.

For the entirety of his reign, Henry had simply been a rubber-stamp for the regency of Anthony St Leger, and upon his death, the Regent of Ireland would continue his rule.



264_7_2011.jpg

[3]
King John was 14 when his brother died, and would spend the first few years of his reign under the regency of Anthony St.Leger, who became known as King Anthony for his hypnotic hold on the King. Part of St.Leger's power was the new King's inclination for both sexes in the bedroom, which the regent immediately recognized. He installed his nephew, Matthew, as the King's confidant turned lover.

All that changed in early 1558, when the King's wife Margaret of Savoy arrived in Dunmore. The new Queen was a rather authoritative figure who saw the regent as the cap on her and her husband's power at court. When she birthed her first child, Madeline, the King asked what she wished: her answer was to send Anthony St.Leger from the court (she also tried unsuccessfully to send away Matthew). The King obliged, causing such a shock to St.Leger that gossipers at the time blamed the incident for his failing health and eventual death the next year.

The remaining years of John's reign were most well known for the power struggle between Margaret (who favored a Catholic, pro-French policy) and Matthew (a closet reformer who preferred and English alliance). As one sharp-witted courtier wrote, "King John has two Queens". This battle extended to the children's education as Margaret attempted to have the children brought up by Catholic priests, while Matthew favored secular tutors, writing to the King "do you want to teach the children you are damned to hell's fiery pits". The children (who grew up at the same court in Dublin) ended up receiving wildly varying educations depending on who had the King's favor each year. For example, the King's eldest daughter Madeline was sent away to be educated by the nuns on the request of her mother. Her sister Louise, only two years younger, instead received a humanist education resembling those of Henry VIII's children, as encouraged by her father's lover.

In the end, King John would be brought down by his love of sex, dying from complications of syphilis. In response to John's reign, his heir Prince Edward, decided to make Ireland a country with no state religion.


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4) Edward was John's second son, with the eldest predeceasing his father by several years. This was still sufficient time for Edward, who had been brought up by his mother but then trained for courthood by his father's advisors. Edward had hated the manner in which religion had creates a rift between his parents, and caused him to doubt his own abilities - and therefore be signed a bill of religious freedom. Each Irish citizen would be free to practice their own religion, free from persecution - this brought conflict with the Pope, but Edward found support from his great aunt, Queen Elizabeth of England during the Irish Primacy Scandal of 1595. Because he did not outright reject Roman Catholicism, the Pope accepted the decision of the Irish state on the agreement that Edward would pay certain taxes to the Vatican. Edward reluctantly agreed, but claimed all land as royal land and then charged the Irish monasteries rent which he used to pay the taxes.

He married Countess Anna of Nassau, a daughter of William the Silent, Prince of Orange in 1583 and they had two children before Anna died in 1588 during childbirth with their third, a daughter.

He subsequently married Maria of Saxe-Weimar in 1590 and she provided him with several children.

In 1603 when Elizabeth of England died, he was briefly considered for the English throne and considered the lead claimant by Elizabeth herself, but there were objections from the English nobility to a bastard line claiming the Crown when a legitimate claimant existed in the King of Scotland.

At any rate, he died in 1605 after catching pneumonia whilst inspecting the construction of a cathedral in Dublin, intended as the Irish Notre Dame, and his eldest daughter, Princess Margaret, took the throne.

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[5] The eldest child from Edward I’s marriage to Anna of Nassau, and the first Queen of Ireland. Of the seven daughters of Edward I, Margaret would be the most ardently catholic, opposing her mothers Protestantism and her fathers own ambivalence towards the matter.
Prior to her taking the throne, the Princess would marry Infante Ferdinand of Spain, and the year of her taking the crown of Ireland, she would give birth to her first son and heir; Prince Henry of Ireland.

The first major note of her reign was the completion of the Dublin Cathedral. A massive and baroque cathedral symbolising the piety and Catholicism of Ireland. Her second action would be forcing her younger half-sisters, “The Irish Quintet” to sign away all claim to the throne of Ireland. The younger ones would agree, and be placed in small manorial homes, while the elder of the daughters of Maria of Saxe-Weimar; Maria Anna of Ireland would attempt to fight for her “claim” to the throne. The rebellion of Maria Anna was short lived, and recognised by no other government. From 1610 to 1612, the Protestant revolt would flutter around the Irish countryside, until her capture at Derry. She would be hung in Dublin, alongside the other ringleaders of the revolt. With the settling of the revolt, the reign of Margaret and her husband, who would take the title of Prince-Consort, would be secure.

For the next few years, Ireland simply recovered from the deep split in her loyalties, and another Son and two daughters would be born to the union of Margaret and Ferdinand.

Upon the death of Margaret in 1623, the house of Fitzroy would end, and the House of Hapsburg would inherit the Irish Kingdom.


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[6] The Eldest son of Margaret I and Prince-Consort Ferdinand of Ireland, Henry was born in 1605. During his mothers reign, the young prince was often at his mothers side, and became a similarly devout Catholic, perhaps even more so.

In 1619, at the age of fourteen, the Crown Prince of Ireland would marry his paternal cousin; Eleanor of Austria, daughter of his fathers sister. Upon his mothers death, Henry would be crowned in the Dublin Cathedral, started by his grandfather, and he would take the dynastic name “Hapsburg-Eire”.

Between 1627 and 1646, Henry III would have 17 children by his three wives, firstly Eleanor of Austria until her death in 1631, followed by Marie of France until her death in Childbirth in 1642, and then Charlotte de Montespard, who he would take as his Morganatic wife.

The rule of Henry III was a peaceful reign, with the centralisation of the Irish court, and the Colonisation of the Irish Virgin Islands, and upon his death in 1657, Henry III would be succeeded by John II.



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[7] John II of Ireland was the third son of Henry III's large brood and spent much of his life never expecting to become King, he was made Duke of Ulster and was raised with the expectation of serving his eldest brother, Henry, Prince of Leinster, however when he and John's second brother Prince Adam died in a boating accident when John was 28 saw the third son thrust into the spotlight. Unmarried at that point his father arranged a marriage for his new heir, Princess Marie-Anne of Orleans, however no children were produced by this marriage.

When Henry III died, John II became a King without an heir.

While England and Scotland convulsed in the throws of the British Civil War between King Frederick Henry I, the Parliamentarians, and Scottish Dissidents, John II focused on continuing Ireland's colonial projects, and supported the arts and the promotion of native Irish culture, both at home, and in the court, he was the first Irish monarch to learn the Irish Language (the court having retained the Tudor English of the Fitzroy's), and began signing documents not as 'John' but as 'Sean'.

When Sean II's first wife died, the King tried again with a second wife, Zofia Opalińska, a Polish noblewoman, this marriage also failed to produce any children.

Giving up hope of having heirs of his own body, Sean II focused on his brothers, the majority of whom had been left as bachelors by their father due to a lack of prospects. While their Hapsburgs relatives on the continent showed signs of dying out, the next six men behind Sean II in line for the throne were married and had more success in bedroom than their brother, some sneeringly called Sean 'Dry-Seed'.

The British Civil War ground down to a brutal halt when Frederick Henry I was captured by Parliamentarians and ultimately executed, horrifying the monarchies of Europe, a collation was formed, led by Louis XIV, Sean II joined the powers of Europe in the first invasion of the British Isles since William the Conqueror. The Invasion phase of the British Civil War saw the end of the Parliamentarians as a military force, their leaders (such as Oliver Cromwell) were executed, and the Kingdom of Great Britain was divided back into the separate Kingdoms of England (under Henry IX) and Scotland (under Charles I).

Sean II then spent the remainder of his life focused on building a new royal palace, as Dublin Castle was seen by Sean as 'too modest', the Caisleán Mhanderley (Manderley Castle) would be seen as an architectural wonder, seen by contemporaries as the nearest royal palace to rival Versailles.

Sean II witnessed the completion of Manderley Castle and lived in his finest work for six months before dying childess, passing the crown to his brother, Prince Albert Phillip of Ireland, otherwise known as Phillip I of Ireland


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[8] Born in 1639, the eldest of the two sons of Henry III from his marriage to Marie de France. As a Prince, he was originally destined for a Ecclesiastical career, and from 1659 until 1690 he wore the Cardinal’s hat.
In 1690 however the Prince’s world was shaken. The death of his elder brother; Prince Edward, placed Albert Phillip as the heir to the Irish crown. Receiving permission from his Holiness, he would give up the Cardinals cap, and would take a wife with both his Brothers and Papal Blessing. He would marry Cecilia of Bavaria, and in 1693, the pair would welcome their first child, Mary.

Upon his brothers death in 1701, Prince Albert Phillip would return from his estates in Rome, which he had received as a gift from his Holiness for his service, and be crowned as Phillip I of Ireland. At his crowning, he was already 61, and was known to be gout ridden.

Unlike his brother, John II, Phillip was no lover of the Irish culture, seeing it as contradictory to Catholic belief, and he would establish the Jure Successionis, placing the succession laws of Ireland in writing. The Statute stated that the Monarch of Ireland must be catholic, disregarding the sons of his fathers third and last marriage, as those individuals had been noted Protestants.

By 1719, Phillip I was Eighty years old, and dying slowly, when suddenly on the fifth of August, the King suddenly died. Rumours of murder and assassination filled the court, and the King was succeeded by Mary, Princess of Leinster.
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[9] Mary was born in 1693, the eldest of three sisters, named after the Virgin Mary at her father's insistance and later used it as her regnal name, at her father's dying wishes. She was betrothed and later married to Antoine, Dauphin of France, later crowned Louis Antoine, King of France. Much like her early years on her father's estates in Italy, and her ten years in France, this meant that she spent much of her life outside of Ireland. Far from being a stranger in her own country, this made her a relative celebrity and she returned to Dublin with French fashion and cuisine to introduce to society. The major problem with Mary was her marriage - should any of her son's survive her husband, they would be made King of France, and should they survive her, it would result in a Franco-Gaelic union which many Irish nobles were not enamoured by. A movement developed that would allow the eldest child to accept France, whilst the next eldest would accept Ireland (as Hapsburg-Eire was a cadet branch, and Bourbon held seniority) but Mary resisted this, but agreed that whilst France practiced succession by the male line only, Ireland would practice male preference primogeniture and allow succession to fall on females. This was, it seemed, satisfactory for Mary's counsellors and the objections ceased.

Mary and Louis Antoine spent their time mostly separate once she became Queen, she would visit France annually but for the rest of the year, Louis Antoine would spend time with his mistresses and father, it was claimed, two dozen children between them, though he only recognised one, Antoine, Count of Paris, and attempted to convince his wife that Antoine should marry one of their youngest daughters. Mary fiercely resisted, and refused to see her husband for two years.

For her own part, Mary became enamoured with the Ambassador to Morocco and it was rumoured they developed a sexual relationship which may have resulted in a daughter. Ironically, it was rumoured that this daughter then married the Count of Paris, allowing her a presence at the French Court in the presence of her "mothers" semi estranged husband.

It was later recounted in a poem entitled "The Tale of the Two Bastards" which was subsequently adapted into a French language movie in 1995, directed by Jean Pierre Jeunet, with Keanu Reeves as the Count of Paris, and Vanessa Paradis as Mary FitzMary. Isabelle Huppert would play Queen Mary of Ireland.

After the minor scandals of her reign, Mary died aged 57 in 1750, to be succeeded by her grandnephew, Lord Alfred Fitzroy, Duke of Waterford.




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Alfred I, King of Ireland (c.1751)

[8] Lord Alfred, Duke of Waterford became heir-apparent to the Irish throne in 1745, after the death of Queen Mary's younger son, Charles-Philippe, of various venereal diseases. The new heir, a young boy of 4, was at this time being raised by his great-grandmother, Hannah Beaumont, a rich Scottish Noblewoman who had married the Duke of Waterford, a cousin to the royal family from an illegitimate son King John I of Ireland. Her own son, the infamous rogue Bernard Fitzroy, had married the Irish Queen's sister, the deformed Princess Catherine, and had thus fathered Alfred's father, Richard Fitzroy. Now, the story of how Richard Fitzroy married the Princess Helene of Ireland, the only child of the deceased Sean, Prince of Leinster, and by the agreement formed between France and Ireland, heiress to the Irish throne, is a convoluted one, but essentially, the Irish court demanded that she marry domestically, and while she had other cousins, the dumpy Richard seemed the least offensive option. And so they had married, and the Fitzroy line returned. The young Princess, fiercely unhappy in her life, became pregnant quickly (possibly to her husband's cousin, another handsome rogue in the vein of Bernard Fitzroy) and died giving birth to the young Alfred. This boy, the last Irish Prince not in line for the French throne, became the Queen's heir, although she refused to grant him the title Prince of Leinster.

The Queen of Ireland took scant interest in her successor, leaving his rearing to his great-grandmother, the formidable Dowager Duchess of Waterford ("Dowager" as of 1747) and he, along with his cousins, John William Fitzroy and Cecile Marie Fitzory, grew up in the idyllic Waterford estate. He was poorly educated during this time, although he did enjoy history lessons via his grandmother, and learnt book keeping at her side. But Hannah Beaumont felt a literary education, one of languages and other such things, would fill the boy's head with nonsense. Instead, she taught him to balance a budget, to know his lineage and to expect respect from the those around him. His only peers were, in her eyes, herself and his cousins, learning at her steady hand.

His accession was simple enough. While Louis-Antoine made some pointed noises of disapproval, once his son and heir had recognised his abdication, he wasn't going to let his great-grandson's crown leave his head. Instead, the King made his first visit to Ireland in decades, for a 2 month stay that taught him that he liked the Dowager Duchess of Waterford, and he even had the King's father married to Marie Charlotte de Guise, who was probably his illegitimate daughter. Richard Fitzory would go on to father another son, before dying of a heart attack in his 30's.

The court of Dublin, having seen some relaxation under Queen Mary, found itself tightly bound by convention by the will of the Dowager Duchess, who enacted a strict schedule that her grandson would continue for the rest of his life. He arose before sunrise, and for two hours before his official "awakening ceremony", spent that time eating a light breakfast and amusing himself. Then, he would lay in bed to be awoken by his cousin, the Duke of Downshire, his heir apparent, and his great-aunt, the Princess Joan of Ireland and France (the youngest of Queen Mary's daughters, she never married after being scarred by smallpox). He was then prepared for his day with briefings, regardless of his place in government as a child, and spent the next 2-3 hours dressing. Then came a ceremonial lunch, usually with 20-50 people in attendance as the "inner court". He then attended meetings, which acted as his lessons for the day, and shortly followed by a light meal and a nap, followed by a long, ceremonial final meal, before he would open whatever nightly entertainments were being held and, depending on their importance, either stay for the opening or, most likely, be hurried off to bed. Throughout the day, he was attended by no less than 6 peers at a time, sometimes as many as 18, and he had 32 men available at any one time. The Dowager Duchess herself was always present as well, often interrupting his dressing to quiz him on numbers.

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Hannah Fitzroy (previously Beaumont), Dowager Duchess of Waterford (c.1754)

What the child missed, most of all, was spontaneity and fun.

Writing to the King of France in 1754, the young boy asked if he might send word to the Dowager Duchess and allow young Alfred a chance to rest once a month, maybe even twice that. But, outside of severe illness, she was a determined woman, refusing to accept that the young man growing to adulthood in front of her might enjoy something outside of her schedule. So little did he have, in fact, that when in 1756, he did escape the court with his cousins to do some fun, he went overboard, and a young woman known to history as "the Dublin Lass" ended up dead. Little is known of the exact scenario, but it seems that the King wanted a night of passion, and either the young woman refused, or his cousin tried to prevent this from happening. Regardless, the murder was blamed on a gang and the King seems to have never attempted such frivolity again.

As he entered adulthood, he found not even his bride was to be his own choice, which while usual at the time, seems to have prevent him from marrying an Irishwoman he found desirable. Nicole Gregoria Ferrard, the daughter of Earl of Longford. Instead, he was betrothed to The Princess Victoria Douglass of Scotland, a woman 7 years his senior who he found personally repugnant for her cruel temper and "beady eyes". They would have their first child in 1760. Many more would follow.

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Victoria Douglas, Queen of Ireland (c.1762)

However, as much has been written about King Alfred as a personal figure, and his personal life does become more interesting soon, it must be said that as a leader, he was a great figurehead. He knew his numbers well, did not shy away from hard work, but struggled when it came to hard decision making particularly after the influence of the Dowager Duchess ended with her death in 1763. Much has been made of the change in the King following her death, but one thing is for sure, and that is that he was very passionate about the kingdom's economy, but blind to it's needs outside of that. He knew debts needed to be paid, but refused to economize the court, instead ending works on roads and other major infrastructure. He then raised taxes

Indeed, spending on the court tripled between 1760 and 1774, partially due to the arrival of the King's children and his increasing extension of family to support. His half-brother, soon made the Duke of Kingston, who had married in 1762 a woman named Elizabeth Butler. The two would have many children, but their eldest, the Lady Hannah Fitzroy, became the King's obsession.

It's unclear how early the King fixated on his niece. She did not return to the court until 1773, around the age of 10, and by this time, he had begun an affair with an actress in her 50's, named Sarah Hillard. The first real affair he had had, they were an odd pair to have, and it has been suggested that the King loved her due to her similarities to the Dowager Duchess. If that is so, then he loved his niece for her similarities to his cousin, Cecile Marie Fitzroy, who may have become his lover during the regency, although by now she was the Duke of Savoy's lover and possibly secret second wife. So instead, he focused on the young girl, who's father was blocked in his attempts to remove her from the King's attentions. This tells us that, by the mid 1770's, he was making motions against her, and by the second half of the decade, there was definitely a romantic undertone to reports, although she would claim never to have done anything inappropriate with the King. In her own words:

"He loved me from far away, and often talked about wanted a marriage. But no matter how ardent his language, we were pure and he was afraid to even touch me."

Now, all of this would matter little in 1776, when the first stirrings of rebellion amongst the people of Ireland began. Led by a committee of 20 men and women, their original goal was simply lower taxes. But as the movement gained traction, they aimed higher. The King's head.

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The King heard of rebellion. Left to right: The Duke of Ulster, the King of Ireland, the Queen of Ireland, the Lady Hannah Fitzroy (c.1782)

Cities burned as they marched through Ireland, and in 1778, Dublin was under siege. The King, on a walk in the gardens, was siezed, and torn apart by his people. It was a grizzly death, and one that would effect the transition of power in a way not seen in Irish history.
 
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