List of monarchs III

[The_Last_Plantagenet]

What about a marriage union rather than an invasion?
Are we ready for the next king of England?

I don’t see anything wrong with my turn as is. Maybe we can get an independent ireland later when their economy is able to diversify.

 

[Jonathan]

I don’t see anything wrong with my turn as is. Maybe we can get an independent ireland later when their economy is able to diversify.

Fair enough. I’ll go now.

 

[Jonathan]

'The Cold-Hearted Swot'
What if Edward VI lived just long enough to produce an heir?

1547 - 1569: Edward VI (House of Tudor) [1]
1569 - 1576: Stephen II (House of Tudor) [2]
1576 - 1579: Henry IX (House of Fitzalan) [3]
1579 - 1585: Henry X (House of Fitzalan) [4]
1585 - 1585: Edward VII (House of Fitzalan) [5]
1585 -1601: Thomas I (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [6]
1601 -16: John II (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [7]

Spoiler: Edward VI to Thomas I

[1] The only son and child of Henry VIII and his third wife, Jane Seymour, Edward was one of the youngest monarchs in English history, ascending to the throne at the age of 9, and ruled during the time that its formation as a truly protestant nation occurred, with the Church of England becoming more in line with those of Sweden and Denmark. A sickly man, many said he survived instead of living, suffering from some sort of disease every year of his lifetime, finally dying from tuberculosis, a disease he had lived with for years, at age 31. He also had two half sisters (who were called bastards but had been born as princesses of England in his father's two previous marriages), the ladies Mary and Elizabeth, the first (made Duchess of Bedford after giving birth to a bastard son by a groom six years prior), died of a disease in the bowels at age 45, and the second married Lord Robert Dudley and later was made Duchess of Leinster by her own right, sent in exile to Ireland for some years, she was in many ways responsible for spreading the protestant faith among the Irish nobility and people, even though many did not follow Anglicanism per se, she served as Lord Deputy of Ireland for years for her brother and his successors. Married to Lady Jane Grey in 1554, after his death she served as regent to their son, Stephen II.
[2] Stephen II of England's brief reign was turbulent. His father having passed when he was less than two years old, the noblemen of the realm immediately began jockeying for power. In 1573, after failing to prevent the annexation of Northumberland by the Scots at the behest of Thomas Percy, Queen Jane was removed by a coalition of nobles and replaced with the Earl of Warwick. However, Warwick's government proved to be equally inept and in 1575 he was removed from power after a brief civil war. Stephen took ill and died (not at all related to his new, noble-appointed chef, of course), and without a male successor the selection of a new king was given over to Parliament. Parliament appointed Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel to take the throne.
[3] The election of Henry IX by Parliament was highly controversial, and largely a result of the fractious political infighting throughout the reign of Stephen II. The 12th Earl of Arundel had been a near-permanent fixture in the courts of the Tudor monarchs, and had shrewdly supported the Regency Council of Jane to maintain a strong political position. However, upon the loss of Northumberland and the humiliation of the Earl of Warwick, Henry was courted by his supporters in Parliament as a neutral candidate around which the nobles of England could unite - and his pragmatic ambition played to their demands. Despite being 63 at the time of his coronation, Henry was able to point to an heir (also called Henry, Baron Maltravers, born in 1538), while his two daughters were well-wedded into the heart of the nobility with children of their own. Coming to the throne in 1576, Henry IX was a divisive figure and often unaccepted by those who favoured his rival candidates for the throne. Many of these candidates remained a threat upon his death just three years later in 1579.
[4] While his father's reign was tense with political intrigue and unrest due to the decision of completely set aside all female Tudors (from the lines of Elizabeth and Mary and Princess Jane, Stephen II's older sister), Henry X's was marked by war. The English Civil War (sometimes called the War of the Five Kings) began when Lady Elizabeth, who had been living in Ireland since 1552, declared Irish independence with herself as Queen in 1582 - basically declaring that any authority England had over it was moot after they basically deposed the Tudors. This action by now Queen Elizabeth started a domino effect as all the groups against the new monarchs decided that now was the time to seize the throne for themselves. The first to raise the banners of war where the Protestants who, together with their belief that Henry X was a crypto-catholic (his family having only begrudgingly accepted Protestantism during the reign of Edward VI) and that this line was barely of royal standard, rose in rebellion by the end of 1582. A good chunk of England rose with them under the leadership of the Duke of Bedford and Thomas (the bastard son of the Lady Mary, who had received her title after her death), the latter of whom was was fiercely Protestant and had eloped and married Princess Jane in 1571. The Scottish were led by the young James VI who invaded England to assert his claim as a man of full royal lineage and a direct descendant of Henry VII, while even the Welsh rose up under a pretender alleging to be the illegitimate son of Edward VI. (He died fighting a second pretender, supposedly the illegitimate grandson of Prince Arthur, son of Henry VII). Henry X died in the camp of battle fighting against Thomas, who had by that point taken control of most of the kingdom after allying with his half-aunt. By the time of his death Henry was reviled for rumours that he had (unsuccessfully) proposed to Philip II of Spain to convert to Catholicism should the Habsburgs help him in retaining his English crown, and was succeeded by the short reign of his son Edward VII.
[5] Edward VII, the last of the Fitzalans, came to the throne as any semblance of power slipped from his dynasty's grasp. His father's forces had been decisively defeated by Thomas, and Edward was forced to withdraw further and further south to prevent the obliteration of his few remaining forces. Overtures to Francis II of France also failed, given the ongoing French Wars of Religion, and in late-July Edward was forced to consider drastic options. He wrote to James VI, who was engaged in a protracted campaign against Thomas in the north, citing the claim that they were in fact related given the kinship of the Stewarts and the Fitzalans from Alan Fitz Flaad (d. 1120). Lacking a male heir, Edward proposed that his only daughter Eleanor (still a child) marry James and that their kin would be the heirs of both Scotland and England, unifying the two countries and ending the continuous Anglo-Scottish wars diplomatically. James rebuffed the offer, and moved to engage Thomas directly at the Battle of Yarm (almost a century to the day as the Battle of Bosworth Field). Edward was subsequently killed by rebel mutineers attempting to flee the country from Dartmouth - having been on the throne for less than a year - leading both James and Thomas to declare themselves King prior to their engagement. Although initially favouring the larger force of Thomas, the clash was a narrow one and affected significantly by changeable weather conditions and the difficult conditions to the east around the River Leven. By killing James at the climax of the battle and the subsequent rout, Thomas emerged victorious. With Edward drowned in Devon and the Fitzalan line forced from power, Thomas de Sabaudia faced no further resistance, and was subsequently coronated in London by the Archbishop of Canterbury - ending the War of the Five Kings.

​

[6] Thomas was not born to greatness, being the result of a short lived romance between the unmarried Princess Mary of England, and Emanuele Tomasso de Sabaudia; the illegitimate son of Carlo III, Duke of Savoy, and a serving officer of the English court. The young bastard was born in 1540, six years before his grandfather; Henry VIIIs death, and the crowning of his uncle; Edward VII. By the death of his cousin; Stephen II, Thomas de Sabaudia saw himself as the sole remaining heir, and the rightful King of England.
With his mothers title; Duke of Bedford, Thomas took a healthy annuity from the Fitzalan Kings, and despite his ties to the English throne, he would go to the continent where he made his name known as a reputable mercenary in the service of Italian dukes, the Spanish crown, and even the King of Poland.

With the victory of the War of the English Succession, otherwise known as the War of the Five Kings, Thomas secured his right and the throne. Much of the early years of his rule was spent on clearing the rebel groups, and bringing the heavy hammer of order upon those nobles who had supported the other claimants. By 1593, the purge had been completed, and the nickname “the Bloody” had been attached to the memory of Thomas I. After the death of his wife; Jane Fitzalan, Thomas would married Catherine of Portugal in 1588. The Catholic Catherine was seen as a poor choice, but the prospect of restoring the Anglo-Portuguese alliance proved right. Their union was short but fruitful, with two sons and a daughter being born before her death in 1597.

With his rule stable in England, Thomas would turn his sights to the lost Kingdom of Ireland, and despite the loyalties to Elizabeth of Leinster, the Irish armies could not withstand the English onslaught, and by 1598, English rule was reinstated, at least within the Pale.

The last years of Thomas Is life were spent in relative opulence, with the palaces of England being some of the greatest and wealthiest in Europe. He would pass in 1601, and the throne would pass to his eldest son, John, Prince of Wales.

[7] John was born 1582, to King Thomas and Queen Catherine, he was named after his maternal grandfather, King John IV of Portugal.

His upbringing was mainly performed by his mother, while his father was dealing with the rebels; although the Privy Council states that the tutors needed their approval, with the Protestant nobility such as Earl of Oxford and Earl of Huntingdon.

In 1600, at 16 years old, John married 15 year old, Princess Sophia of Denmark, the youngest daughter of Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow and King Frederick II of Denmark, as well as sister of Anne, Queen consort of Scotland.

The year after, two events changed his life, first was the birth of his son, ___________ and then the death of his father, leading to John succeeded the throne.
To secure the rule in Ireland, John arranged the marriage of his brother, Emmanuel, Duke of York, to Elizabeth Dudly, Duchess of Leinster, the only surviving heir of Robert I of Ireland, son of Elizabeth I of Ireland.
This marriage allowed the nobility of Ireland to rally behind their new Lord Protector of Ireland.
While his sister Mary, was married to their cousin, Sebastian II of Portugal.
Along with these marriages, John would also be the match-maker for many of his noble subjects, betrothing formerly rival houses to one another, stating that he never wished for English blood to be spilt by other English men on English soil.

With this his 37 year reign, saw that peace was never broken meaning that instead of spending taxes on armies the privy council was able to concentrate more on increasing the naval size, trade routes we able to be more secure allowing colonist the ability to travel further without the threat of being cut off from supplies.

His death at the age of 55 came as a great shock, for the healthy king was assumed to live forever, however while dancing at a party held in honour of the birth of his first great-grandchild, a feat that no monarch had claimed before , he collapsed, into the arms of his daughter in law, lost consciousness and was carried to a nearby lounge chair, where he was pronounced dead.
At first there was speculation of murder, however after an examination from an independent doctor, it was found that he had a brain aneurysm. He was succeeded by __________, ___________, leaving behind his wife, __ children, ____ grandchild and 1 great-grandchildren.

 

[The_Last_Plantagenet]

'The Cold-Hearted Swot'
What if Edward VI lived just long enough to produce an heir?

1547 - 1569: Edward VI (House of Tudor) [1]
1569 - 1576: Stephen II (House of Tudor) [2]
1576 - 1579: Henry IX (House of Fitzalan) [3]
1579 - 1585: Henry X (House of Fitzalan) [4]
1585 - 1585: Edward VII (House of Fitzalan) [5]
1585 -1601: Thomas I (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [6]
1601 - 1638: John II (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [7]
1638 - 1651: Edward VIII (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [8]

Spoiler: Edward VI to John II

[1] The only son and child of Henry VIII and his third wife, Jane Seymour, Edward was one of the youngest monarchs in English history, ascending to the throne at the age of 9, and ruled during the time that its formation as a truly protestant nation occurred, with the Church of England becoming more in line with those of Sweden and Denmark. A sickly man, many said he survived instead of living, suffering from some sort of disease every year of his lifetime, finally dying from tuberculosis, a disease he had lived with for years, at age 31. He also had two half sisters (who were called bastards but had been born as princesses of England in his father's two previous marriages), the ladies Mary and Elizabeth, the first (made Duchess of Bedford after giving birth to a bastard son by a groom six years prior), died of a disease in the bowels at age 45, and the second married Lord Robert Dudley and later was made Duchess of Leinster by her own right, sent in exile to Ireland for some years, she was in many ways responsible for spreading the protestant faith among the Irish nobility and people, even though many did not follow Anglicanism per se, she served as Lord Deputy of Ireland for years for her brother and his successors. Married to Lady Jane Grey in 1554, after his death she served as regent to their son, Stephen II.
[2] Stephen II of England's brief reign was turbulent. His father having passed when he was less than two years old, the noblemen of the realm immediately began jockeying for power. In 1573, after failing to prevent the annexation of Northumberland by the Scots at the behest of Thomas Percy, Queen Jane was removed by a coalition of nobles and replaced with the Earl of Warwick. However, Warwick's government proved to be equally inept and in 1575 he was removed from power after a brief civil war. Stephen took ill and died (not at all related to his new, noble-appointed chef, of course), and without a male successor the selection of a new king was given over to Parliament. Parliament appointed Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel to take the throne.
[3] The election of Henry IX by Parliament was highly controversial, and largely a result of the fractious political infighting throughout the reign of Stephen II. The 12th Earl of Arundel had been a near-permanent fixture in the courts of the Tudor monarchs, and had shrewdly supported the Regency Council of Jane to maintain a strong political position. However, upon the loss of Northumberland and the humiliation of the Earl of Warwick, Henry was courted by his supporters in Parliament as a neutral candidate around which the nobles of England could unite - and his pragmatic ambition played to their demands. Despite being 63 at the time of his coronation, Henry was able to point to an heir (also called Henry, Baron Maltravers, born in 1538), while his two daughters were well-wedded into the heart of the nobility with children of their own. Coming to the throne in 1576, Henry IX was a divisive figure and often unaccepted by those who favoured his rival candidates for the throne. Many of these candidates remained a threat upon his death just three years later in 1579.
[4] While his father's reign was tense with political intrigue and unrest due to the decision of completely set aside all female Tudors (from the lines of Elizabeth and Mary and Princess Jane, Stephen II's older sister), Henry X's was marked by war. The English Civil War (sometimes called the War of the Five Kings) began when Lady Elizabeth, who had been living in Ireland since 1552, declared Irish independence with herself as Queen in 1582 - basically declaring that any authority England had over it was moot after they basically deposed the Tudors. This action by now Queen Elizabeth started a domino effect as all the groups against the new monarchs decided that now was the time to seize the throne for themselves. The first to raise the banners of war where the Protestants who, together with their belief that Henry X was a crypto-catholic (his family having only begrudgingly accepted Protestantism during the reign of Edward VI) and that this line was barely of royal standard, rose in rebellion by the end of 1582. A good chunk of England rose with them under the leadership of the Duke of Bedford and Thomas (the bastard son of the Lady Mary, who had received her title after her death), the latter of whom was was fiercely Protestant and had eloped and married Princess Jane in 1571. The Scottish were led by the young James VI who invaded England to assert his claim as a man of full royal lineage and a direct descendant of Henry VII, while even the Welsh rose up under a pretender alleging to be the illegitimate son of Edward VI. (He died fighting a second pretender, supposedly the illegitimate grandson of Prince Arthur, son of Henry VII). Henry X died in the camp of battle fighting against Thomas, who had by that point taken control of most of the kingdom after allying with his half-aunt. By the time of his death Henry was reviled for rumours that he had (unsuccessfully) proposed to Philip II of Spain to convert to Catholicism should the Habsburgs help him in retaining his English crown, and was succeeded by the short reign of his son Edward VII.
[5] Edward VII, the last of the Fitzalans, came to the throne as any semblance of power slipped from his dynasty's grasp. His father's forces had been decisively defeated by Thomas, and Edward was forced to withdraw further and further south to prevent the obliteration of his few remaining forces. Overtures to Francis II of France also failed, given the ongoing French Wars of Religion, and in late-July Edward was forced to consider drastic options. He wrote to James VI, who was engaged in a protracted campaign against Thomas in the north, citing the claim that they were in fact related given the kinship of the Stewarts and the Fitzalans from Alan Fitz Flaad (d. 1120). Lacking a male heir, Edward proposed that his only daughter Eleanor (still a child) marry James and that their kin would be the heirs of both Scotland and England, unifying the two countries and ending the continuous Anglo-Scottish wars diplomatically. James rebuffed the offer, and moved to engage Thomas directly at the Battle of Yarm (almost a century to the day as the Battle of Bosworth Field). Edward was subsequently killed by rebel mutineers attempting to flee the country from Dartmouth - having been on the throne for less than a year - leading both James and Thomas to declare themselves King prior to their engagement. Although initially favouring the larger force of Thomas, the clash was a narrow one and affected significantly by changeable weather conditions and the difficult conditions to the east around the River Leven. By killing James at the climax of the battle and the subsequent rout, Thomas emerged victorious. With Edward drowned in Devon and the Fitzalan line forced from power, Thomas de Sabaudia faced no further resistance, and was subsequently coronated in London by the Archbishop of Canterbury - ending the War of the Five Kings.

​

[6] Thomas was not born to greatness, being the result of a short lived romance between the unmarried Princess Mary of England, and Emanuele Tomasso de Sabaudia; the illegitimate son of Carlo III, Duke of Savoy, and a serving officer of the English court. The young bastard was born in 1540, six years before his grandfather; Henry VIIIs death, and the crowning of his uncle; Edward VII. By the death of his cousin; Stephen II, Thomas de Sabaudia saw himself as the sole remaining heir, and the rightful King of England.
With his mothers title; Duke of Bedford, Thomas took a healthy annuity from the Fitzalan Kings, and despite his ties to the English throne, he would go to the continent where he made his name known as a reputable mercenary in the service of Italian dukes, the Spanish crown, and even the King of Poland.

With the victory of the War of the English Succession, otherwise known as the War of the Five Kings, Thomas secured his right and the throne. Much of the early years of his rule was spent on clearing the rebel groups, and bringing the heavy hammer of order upon those nobles who had supported the other claimants. By 1593, the purge had been completed, and the nickname “the Bloody” had been attached to the memory of Thomas I. After the death of his wife; Jane Fitzalan, Thomas would married Catherine of Portugal in 1588. The Catholic Catherine was seen as a poor choice, but the prospect of restoring the Anglo-Portuguese alliance proved right. Their union was short but fruitful, with two sons and a daughter being born before her death in 1597.

With his rule stable in England, Thomas would turn his sights to the lost Kingdom of Ireland, and despite the loyalties to Elizabeth of Leinster, the Irish armies could not withstand the English onslaught, and by 1598, English rule was reinstated, at least within the Pale.

The last years of Thomas Is life were spent in relative opulence, with the palaces of England being some of the greatest and wealthiest in Europe. He would pass in 1601, and the throne would pass to his eldest son, John, Prince of Wales.


[7] John was born 1582, to King Thomas and Queen Catherine, he was named after his maternal grandfather, King John IV of Portugal.

His upbringing was mainly performed by his mother, while his father was dealing with the rebels; although the Privy Council states that the tutors needed their approval, with the Protestant nobility such as Earl of Oxford and Earl of Huntingdon.

In 1600, at 16 years old, John married 15 year old, Princess Sophia of Denmark, the youngest daughter of Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow and King Frederick II of Denmark, as well as sister of Anne, Queen consort of Scotland.

The year after, two events changed his life, first was the birth of his son, Thomas, Prince of Wales and then the death of his father, leading to John succeeded the throne.
To secure the rule in Ireland, John arranged the marriage of his brother, Emmanuel, Duke of York, to Elizabeth Dudly, Duchess of Leinster, the only surviving heir of Robert I of Ireland, son of Elizabeth I of Ireland.
This marriage allowed the nobility of Ireland to rally behind their new Lord Protector of Ireland.
While his sister Mary, was married to their cousin, Sebastian II of Portugal.
Along with these marriages, John would also be the match-maker for many of his noble subjects, betrothing formerly rival houses to one another, stating that he never wished for English blood to be spilt by other English men on English soil.

With this his 37 year reign, saw that peace was never broken meaning that instead of spending taxes on armies the privy council was able to concentrate more on increasing the naval size, trade routes we able to be more secure allowing colonist the ability to travel further without the threat of being cut off from supplies.

His death at the age of 55 came as a great shock, for the healthy king was assumed to live forever, however while dancing at a party held in honour of the birth of his first great-grandchild, a feat that no monarch had claimed before , he collapsed, into the arms of his daughter in law, lost consciousness and was carried to a nearby lounge chair, where he was pronounced dead.
At first there was speculation of murder, however after an examination from an independent doctor, it was found that he had a brain aneurysm. He was succeeded by his Second son, Edward, Duke of Clarence, leaving behind his wife, 8 children, 22 grandchild and 1 great-grandchildren.

[8] Edward was the second, out of six, son of John II and his wife, and until the age of 4, there was no expectation that he would inherit the throne, when his brother reached the age of 6 and his developmental disabilities became apparent. Thomas, Prince of Wales was known to be deaf from birth, and developmentally stunted, and so Edward, Duke of Clarence was pushed into the limelight as the heir-principal of his father, even though his elder brother was still alive.

Inheriting the throne at the age of 37, and with 6 children of his own by his wife; Catherine of Milan, and a further two sons; John and William, by his mistress, Edward VIII looked to be a great king. He worked to continue the peace his father had built, and largely succeeded.
It would be in 1645 that Thomas, Prince of Wales would pass, and so the heir of Edward VIII would finally receive the much vaunted title.

after a mere thirteen years on the throne; Edward VIII would pass, and his throne would go to_____

 

[Premier Taylerov]

'The Cold-Hearted Swot'
What if Edward VI lived just long enough to produce an heir?

1547 - 1569: Edward VI (House of Tudor) [1]
1569 - 1576: Stephen II (House of Tudor) [2]
1576 - 1579: Henry IX (House of Fitzalan) [3]
1579 - 1585: Henry X (House of Fitzalan) [4]
1585 - 1585: Edward VII (House of Fitzalan) [5]
1585 -1601: Thomas I (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [6]
1601 - 1638: John II (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [7]
1638 - 1651: Edward VIII (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [8]
1651 - 1669: Edward IX (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [9]

Spoiler: Edward VI to Edward VIII

[1] The only son and child of Henry VIII and his third wife, Jane Seymour, Edward was one of the youngest monarchs in English history, ascending to the throne at the age of 9, and ruled during the time that its formation as a truly protestant nation occurred, with the Church of England becoming more in line with those of Sweden and Denmark. A sickly man, many said he survived instead of living, suffering from some sort of disease every year of his lifetime, finally dying from tuberculosis, a disease he had lived with for years, at age 31. He also had two half sisters (who were called bastards but had been born as princesses of England in his father's two previous marriages), the ladies Mary and Elizabeth, the first (made Duchess of Bedford after giving birth to a bastard son by a groom six years prior), died of a disease in the bowels at age 45, and the second married Lord Robert Dudley and later was made Duchess of Leinster by her own right, sent in exile to Ireland for some years, she was in many ways responsible for spreading the protestant faith among the Irish nobility and people, even though many did not follow Anglicanism per se, she served as Lord Deputy of Ireland for years for her brother and his successors. Married to Lady Jane Grey in 1554, after his death she served as regent to their son, Stephen II.

[2] Stephen II of England's brief reign was turbulent. His father having passed when he was less than two years old, the noblemen of the realm immediately began jockeying for power. In 1573, after failing to prevent the annexation of Northumberland by the Scots at the behest of Thomas Percy, Queen Jane was removed by a coalition of nobles and replaced with the Earl of Warwick. However, Warwick's government proved to be equally inept and in 1575 he was removed from power after a brief civil war. Stephen took ill and died (not at all related to his new, noble-appointed chef, of course), and without a male successor the selection of a new king was given over to Parliament. Parliament appointed Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel to take the throne.

[3] The election of Henry IX by Parliament was highly controversial, and largely a result of the fractious political infighting throughout the reign of Stephen II. The 12th Earl of Arundel had been a near-permanent fixture in the courts of the Tudor monarchs, and had shrewdly supported the Regency Council of Jane to maintain a strong political position. However, upon the loss of Northumberland and the humiliation of the Earl of Warwick, Henry was courted by his supporters in Parliament as a neutral candidate around which the nobles of England could unite - and his pragmatic ambition played to their demands. Despite being 63 at the time of his coronation, Henry was able to point to an heir (also called Henry, Baron Maltravers, born in 1538), while his two daughters were well-wedded into the heart of the nobility with children of their own. Coming to the throne in 1576, Henry IX was a divisive figure and often unaccepted by those who favoured his rival candidates for the throne. Many of these candidates remained a threat upon his death just three years later in 1579.

[4] While his father's reign was tense with political intrigue and unrest due to the decision of completely set aside all female Tudors (from the lines of Elizabeth and Mary and Princess Jane, Stephen II's older sister), Henry X's was marked by war. The English Civil War (sometimes called the War of the Five Kings) began when Lady Elizabeth, who had been living in Ireland since 1552, declared Irish independence with herself as Queen in 1582 - basically declaring that any authority England had over it was moot after they basically deposed the Tudors. This action by now Queen Elizabeth started a domino effect as all the groups against the new monarchs decided that now was the time to seize the throne for themselves. The first to raise the banners of war where the Protestants who, together with their belief that Henry X was a crypto-catholic (his family having only begrudgingly accepted Protestantism during the reign of Edward VI) and that this line was barely of royal standard, rose in rebellion by the end of 1582. A good chunk of England rose with them under the leadership of the Duke of Bedford and Thomas (the bastard son of the Lady Mary, who had received her title after her death), the latter of whom was was fiercely Protestant and had eloped and married Princess Jane in 1571. The Scottish were led by the young James VI who invaded England to assert his claim as a man of full royal lineage and a direct descendant of Henry VII, while even the Welsh rose up under a pretender alleging to be the illegitimate son of Edward VI. (He died fighting a second pretender, supposedly the illegitimate grandson of Prince Arthur, son of Henry VII). Henry X died in the camp of battle fighting against Thomas, who had by that point taken control of most of the kingdom after allying with his half-aunt. By the time of his death Henry was reviled for rumours that he had (unsuccessfully) proposed to Philip II of Spain to convert to Catholicism should the Habsburgs help him in retaining his English crown, and was succeeded by the short reign of his son Edward VII.

[5] Edward VII, the last of the Fitzalans, came to the throne as any semblance of power slipped from his dynasty's grasp. His father's forces had been decisively defeated by Thomas, and Edward was forced to withdraw further and further south to prevent the obliteration of his few remaining forces. Overtures to Francis II of France also failed, given the ongoing French Wars of Religion, and in late-July Edward was forced to consider drastic options. He wrote to James VI, who was engaged in a protracted campaign against Thomas in the north, citing the claim that they were in fact related given the kinship of the Stewarts and the Fitzalans from Alan Fitz Flaad (d. 1120). Lacking a male heir, Edward proposed that his only daughter Eleanor (still a child) marry James and that their kin would be the heirs of both Scotland and England, unifying the two countries and ending the continuous Anglo-Scottish wars diplomatically. James rebuffed the offer, and moved to engage Thomas directly at the Battle of Yarm (almost a century to the day as the Battle of Bosworth Field). Edward was subsequently killed by rebel mutineers attempting to flee the country from Dartmouth - having been on the throne for less than a year - leading both James and Thomas to declare themselves King prior to their engagement. Although initially favouring the larger force of Thomas, the clash was a narrow one and affected significantly by changeable weather conditions and the difficult conditions to the east around the River Leven. By killing James at the climax of the battle and the subsequent rout, Thomas emerged victorious. With Edward drowned in Devon and the Fitzalan line forced from power, Thomas de Sabaudia faced no further resistance, and was subsequently coronated in London by the Archbishop of Canterbury - ending the War of the Five Kings.

[6] Thomas was not born to greatness, being the result of a short lived romance between the unmarried Princess Mary of England, and Emanuele Tomasso de Sabaudia - the illegitimate son of Carlo III, Duke of Savoy, and a serving officer of the English court. The young bastard was born in 1540, six years before the death of his grandfather Henry VIII and the crowning of his uncle Edward VII. By the death of his cousin; Stephen II, Thomas de Sabaudia saw himself as the sole remaining heir, and the rightful King of England. Thomas, Duke of Bedford, took a healthy annuity from the Fitzalan Kings, and despite his ties to the English throne, he would go to the continent where he made his name known as a reputable mercenary in the service of Italian dukes, the Spanish crown, and even the King of Poland. With the victory of the War of the English Succession (otherwise known as the War of the Five Kings) Thomas secured his right and the throne. Much of his early rule was spent on clearing the rebel groups, and bringing the heavy hammer of order upon those nobles who had supported the other claimants. By 1593, the purge had been completed, and the nickname “the Bloody” had been attached to the memory of Thomas I. After the death of his wife; Jane Fitzalan, Thomas would married Catherine of Portugal in 1588. The Catholic Catherine was seen as a poor choice, but the prospect of restoring the Anglo-Portuguese alliance proved right. Their union was short but fruitful, with two sons and a daughter being born before her death in 1597. With his rule stable in England, Thomas would turn his sights to the lost Kingdom of Ireland, and despite the loyalties to Elizabeth of Leinster the Irish armies could not withstand the English onslaught; by 1598 English rule was reinstated, at least within the Pale. The last years of his life were spent in relative opulence, with the palaces of England being some of the greatest and wealthiest in Europe. He would pass in 1601, and the throne would pass to his eldest son, John, Prince of Wales.

[7] John was born 1582, to King Thomas and Queen Catherine, he was named after his maternal grandfather, King John IV of Portugal. His upbringing was mainly performed by his mother, while his father was dealing with the rebels (although the Privy Council necessitated the tutors be approved by the Protestant nobility). In 1600, at 16, John married Princess Sophia of Denmark (the youngest daughter of Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow and King Frederick II of Denmark, and a year his junior). She was also the sister of Anne, Queen Consort of Scotland. To secure English rule in Ireland John arranged the marriage of his brother Emmanuel, Duke of York, to Elizabeth Dudley - the only surviving heir of Robert I of Ireland. This marriage rallied the Irish nobility behind his rule, while his sister Mary was married to their cousin Sebastian II of Portugal. Along with these marriages John would also be the match-maker for many of his noble subjects, betrothing formerly rival houses to one another, stating that he never wished for English blood to be split by other English men on English soil. Peace was never broken within his 37-year reign, and instead of spending taxes on standing armies the Privy Council was able to concentrate on increasing the size of the Navy and mercantilism. His death at the age of 55 came as a great shock, for the healthy king was assumed to live forever. However, while dancing at a party held in honour of the birth of his first great-grandchild - a feat that no monarch had claimed before - John collapsed into the arms of his daughter-in-law, lost consciousness and was carried to a nearby lounge chair, where he was pronounced dead. At first there was speculation of murder, but after an examination from an independent doctor it was found that he had a brain aneurysm. He was succeeded by his second son Edward, Duke of Clarence - leaving behind his wife, 8 children, 22 grandchild and 1 great-grandchild.

[8] Edward was the second of the six sons of John II and until the age of 4 there was no expectation that he would inherit the throne. When his elder brother Thomas reached the age of 6 his developmental disabilities became apparent. Known to be deaf from birth and developmentally stunted, Thomas was unfit for rule and so Edward was pushed into the limelight as the heir-principal of his father, even though his elder brother was still alive. Having inherited the throne at the age of 37, and with 6 children of his own by his wife Catherine of Milan as well as two illegitimate sons (John and William), Edward VIII looked to be a great king. He worked to continue the peace his father had built, and largely succeeded. However, after a mere thirteen years on the throne Edward would be succeeded by his eldest son, who took the throne as Edward IX.

[9] As the eldest legitimate son of Edward VIII, Edward IX quickly showed a keen interest in the development of the English navy but also, more importantly, in the dramatic surge in commitment to the fledging North American colonies. A major shipbuilding programme was bolstered by the arrival of Protestant Dutch fleeing from the devastating war between France and the Habsburg family compact, while England prospered from her neutrality on the edge of Europe. The peaceful reign of the Tudor-Sabaudia dynasty continued, although religious upheaval in Scotland threatened the tentative status quo amid threats of a renewed Auld Alliance. London grew rapidly as England embraced her commercial revolution, and although Edward failed in his attempts to create a single national bank (primarily as a means to finance his navy) economic reforms loomed heavily over the horizon. Blessed with his large extended family and happily married, when Edward died of dropsy in 1669 the crown passed to _____________ - a monarch who, although tested by both economic and military crises, would reign over the true beginnings of the modern English state.

 

[The_Last_Plantagenet]

'The Cold-Hearted Swot'
What if Edward VI lived just long enough to produce an heir?

1547 - 1569: Edward VI (House of Tudor) [1]
1569 - 1576: Stephen II (House of Tudor) [2]
1576 - 1579: Henry IX (House of Fitzalan) [3]
1579 - 1585: Henry X (House of Fitzalan) [4]
1585 - 1585: Edward VII (House of Fitzalan) [5]
1585 -1601: Thomas I (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [6]
1601 - 1638: John II (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [7]
1638 - 1651: Edward VIII (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [8]
1651 - 1669: Edward IX (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [9]
1669 - 1678: John III (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [10]

Spoiler: Edward VI to Edward

[1] The only son and child of Henry VIII and his third wife, Jane Seymour, Edward was one of the youngest monarchs in English history, ascending to the throne at the age of 9, and ruled during the time that its formation as a truly protestant nation occurred, with the Church of England becoming more in line with those of Sweden and Denmark. A sickly man, many said he survived instead of living, suffering from some sort of disease every year of his lifetime, finally dying from tuberculosis, a disease he had lived with for years, at age 31. He also had two half sisters (who were called bastards but had been born as princesses of England in his father's two previous marriages), the ladies Mary and Elizabeth, the first (made Duchess of Bedford after giving birth to a bastard son by a groom six years prior), died of a disease in the bowels at age 45, and the second married Lord Robert Dudley and later was made Duchess of Leinster by her own right, sent in exile to Ireland for some years, she was in many ways responsible for spreading the protestant faith among the Irish nobility and people, even though many did not follow Anglicanism per se, she served as Lord Deputy of Ireland for years for her brother and his successors. Married to Lady Jane Grey in 1554, after his death she served as regent to their son, Stephen II.

[2] Stephen II of England's brief reign was turbulent. His father having passed when he was less than two years old, the noblemen of the realm immediately began jockeying for power. In 1573, after failing to prevent the annexation of Northumberland by the Scots at the behest of Thomas Percy, Queen Jane was removed by a coalition of nobles and replaced with the Earl of Warwick. However, Warwick's government proved to be equally inept and in 1575 he was removed from power after a brief civil war. Stephen took ill and died (not at all related to his new, noble-appointed chef, of course), and without a male successor the selection of a new king was given over to Parliament. Parliament appointed Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel to take the throne.

[3] The election of Henry IX by Parliament was highly controversial, and largely a result of the fractious political infighting throughout the reign of Stephen II. The 12th Earl of Arundel had been a near-permanent fixture in the courts of the Tudor monarchs, and had shrewdly supported the Regency Council of Jane to maintain a strong political position. However, upon the loss of Northumberland and the humiliation of the Earl of Warwick, Henry was courted by his supporters in Parliament as a neutral candidate around which the nobles of England could unite - and his pragmatic ambition played to their demands. Despite being 63 at the time of his coronation, Henry was able to point to an heir (also called Henry, Baron Maltravers, born in 1538), while his two daughters were well-wedded into the heart of the nobility with children of their own. Coming to the throne in 1576, Henry IX was a divisive figure and often unaccepted by those who favoured his rival candidates for the throne. Many of these candidates remained a threat upon his death just three years later in 1579.

[4] While his father's reign was tense with political intrigue and unrest due to the decision of completely set aside all female Tudors (from the lines of Elizabeth and Mary and Princess Jane, Stephen II's older sister), Henry X's was marked by war. The English Civil War (sometimes called the War of the Five Kings) began when Lady Elizabeth, who had been living in Ireland since 1552, declared Irish independence with herself as Queen in 1582 - basically declaring that any authority England had over it was moot after they basically deposed the Tudors. This action by now Queen Elizabeth started a domino effect as all the groups against the new monarchs decided that now was the time to seize the throne for themselves. The first to raise the banners of war where the Protestants who, together with their belief that Henry X was a crypto-catholic (his family having only begrudgingly accepted Protestantism during the reign of Edward VI) and that this line was barely of royal standard, rose in rebellion by the end of 1582. A good chunk of England rose with them under the leadership of the Duke of Bedford and Thomas (the bastard son of the Lady Mary, who had received her title after her death), the latter of whom was was fiercely Protestant and had eloped and married Princess Jane in 1571. The Scottish were led by the young James VI who invaded England to assert his claim as a man of full royal lineage and a direct descendant of Henry VII, while even the Welsh rose up under a pretender alleging to be the illegitimate son of Edward VI. (He died fighting a second pretender, supposedly the illegitimate grandson of Prince Arthur, son of Henry VII). Henry X died in the camp of battle fighting against Thomas, who had by that point taken control of most of the kingdom after allying with his half-aunt. By the time of his death Henry was reviled for rumours that he had (unsuccessfully) proposed to Philip II of Spain to convert to Catholicism should the Habsburgs help him in retaining his English crown, and was succeeded by the short reign of his son Edward VII.

[5] Edward VII, the last of the Fitzalans, came to the throne as any semblance of power slipped from his dynasty's grasp. His father's forces had been decisively defeated by Thomas, and Edward was forced to withdraw further and further south to prevent the obliteration of his few remaining forces. Overtures to Francis II of France also failed, given the ongoing French Wars of Religion, and in late-July Edward was forced to consider drastic options. He wrote to James VI, who was engaged in a protracted campaign against Thomas in the north, citing the claim that they were in fact related given the kinship of the Stewarts and the Fitzalans from Alan Fitz Flaad (d. 1120). Lacking a male heir, Edward proposed that his only daughter Eleanor (still a child) marry James and that their kin would be the heirs of both Scotland and England, unifying the two countries and ending the continuous Anglo-Scottish wars diplomatically. James rebuffed the offer, and moved to engage Thomas directly at the Battle of Yarm (almost a century to the day as the Battle of Bosworth Field). Edward was subsequently killed by rebel mutineers attempting to flee the country from Dartmouth - having been on the throne for less than a year - leading both James and Thomas to declare themselves King prior to their engagement. Although initially favouring the larger force of Thomas, the clash was a narrow one and affected significantly by changeable weather conditions and the difficult conditions to the east around the River Leven. By killing James at the climax of the battle and the subsequent rout, Thomas emerged victorious. With Edward drowned in Devon and the Fitzalan line forced from power, Thomas de Sabaudia faced no further resistance, and was subsequently coronated in London by the Archbishop of Canterbury - ending the War of the Five Kings.

[6] Thomas was not born to greatness, being the result of a short lived romance between the unmarried Princess Mary of England, and Emanuele Tomasso de Sabaudia - the illegitimate son of Carlo III, Duke of Savoy, and a serving officer of the English court. The young bastard was born in 1540, six years before the death of his grandfather Henry VIII and the crowning of his uncle Edward VII. By the death of his cousin; Stephen II, Thomas de Sabaudia saw himself as the sole remaining heir, and the rightful King of England. Thomas, Duke of Bedford, took a healthy annuity from the Fitzalan Kings, and despite his ties to the English throne, he would go to the continent where he made his name known as a reputable mercenary in the service of Italian dukes, the Spanish crown, and even the King of Poland. With the victory of the War of the English Succession (otherwise known as the War of the Five Kings) Thomas secured his right and the throne. Much of his early rule was spent on clearing the rebel groups, and bringing the heavy hammer of order upon those nobles who had supported the other claimants. By 1593, the purge had been completed, and the nickname “the Bloody” had been attached to the memory of Thomas I. After the death of his wife; Jane Fitzalan, Thomas would married Catherine of Portugal in 1588. The Catholic Catherine was seen as a poor choice, but the prospect of restoring the Anglo-Portuguese alliance proved right. Their union was short but fruitful, with two sons and a daughter being born before her death in 1597. With his rule stable in England, Thomas would turn his sights to the lost Kingdom of Ireland, and despite the loyalties to Elizabeth of Leinster the Irish armies could not withstand the English onslaught; by 1598 English rule was reinstated, at least within the Pale. The last years of his life were spent in relative opulence, with the palaces of England being some of the greatest and wealthiest in Europe. He would pass in 1601, and the throne would pass to his eldest son, John, Prince of Wales.

[7] John was born 1582, to King Thomas and Queen Catherine, he was named after his maternal grandfather, King John IV of Portugal. His upbringing was mainly performed by his mother, while his father was dealing with the rebels (although the Privy Council necessitated the tutors be approved by the Protestant nobility). In 1600, at 16, John married Princess Sophia of Denmark (the youngest daughter of Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow and King Frederick II of Denmark, and a year his junior). She was also the sister of Anne, Queen Consort of Scotland. To secure English rule in Ireland John arranged the marriage of his brother Emmanuel, Duke of York, to Elizabeth Dudley - the only surviving heir of Robert I of Ireland. This marriage rallied the Irish nobility behind his rule, while his sister Mary was married to their cousin Sebastian II of Portugal. Along with these marriages John would also be the match-maker for many of his noble subjects, betrothing formerly rival houses to one another, stating that he never wished for English blood to be split by other English men on English soil. Peace was never broken within his 37-year reign, and instead of spending taxes on standing armies the Privy Council was able to concentrate on increasing the size of the Navy and mercantilism. His death at the age of 55 came as a great shock, for the healthy king was assumed to live forever. However, while dancing at a party held in honour of the birth of his first great-grandchild - a feat that no monarch had claimed before - John collapsed into the arms of his daughter-in-law, lost consciousness and was carried to a nearby lounge chair, where he was pronounced dead. At first there was speculation of murder, but after an examination from an independent doctor it was found that he had a brain aneurysm. He was succeeded by his second son Edward, Duke of Clarence - leaving behind his wife, 8 children, 22 grandchild and 1 great-grandchild.

[8] Edward was the second of the six sons of John II and until the age of 4 there was no expectation that he would inherit the throne. When his elder brother Thomas reached the age of 6 his developmental disabilities became apparent. Known to be deaf from birth and developmentally stunted, Thomas was unfit for rule and so Edward was pushed into the limelight as the heir-principal of his father, even though his elder brother was still alive. Having inherited the throne at the age of 37, and with 6 children of his own by his wife Catherine of Milan as well as two illegitimate sons (John and William), Edward VIII looked to be a great king. He worked to continue the peace his father had built, and largely succeeded. However, after a mere thirteen years on the throne Edward would be succeeded by his eldest son, who took the throne as Edward IX.

[9] As the eldest legitimate son of Edward VIII, Edward IX quickly showed a keen interest in the development of the English navy but also, more importantly, in the dramatic surge in commitment to the fledging North American colonies. A major shipbuilding programme was bolstered by the arrival of Protestant Dutch fleeing from the devastating war between France and the Habsburg family compact, while England prospered from her neutrality on the edge of Europe. The peaceful reign of the Tudor-Sabaudia dynasty continued, although religious upheaval in Scotland threatened the tentative status quo amid threats of a renewed Auld Alliance. London grew rapidly as England embraced her commercial revolution, and although Edward failed in his attempts to create a single national bank (primarily as a means to finance his navy) economic reforms loomed heavily over the horizon. Blessed with his large extended family and happily married, when Edward died of dropsy in 1669 the crown passed to his younger brother; Maximilian John, Duke of York- a monarch who, although tested by both economic and military crises, would reign over the true beginnings of the modern English state.

[10] Maximilian John was born during the reign of his grandfather; John II. Early in life, he was destined to marry Elizabeth of York, the daughter of Emmanuel, Third duke of York, and the senior most descendant of Elizabeth, Queen of Ireland. With their marriage, the Cadet branch of the Dukes of York came to an end, and the title returned to the Royal Family. their marriage was fruitful; producing three sons and two daughters, which radically opposed his brother; Edward’s marriage, for the Prince of Wales had but one son, who died at the young age of 18.

upon his brother’s death; John III took the thrones of England, and Ireland, and for the next two years, worked tirelessly, and in 1671; his efforts cane to fruition. The Act of Union passed through Parliament; and the United Kingdoms of England and Ireland was born. With his marriage to Elizabeth of York; those Irishmen who’s families still supported the descendants of Elizabeth as the rightful kings and queens of Ireland were assuaged.

War would come to England and Ireland in 1674, as the Ultra-Catholic Valois would attempt to finally wrest Calais from the Protestant Anglicans. Charles XIII of France began the colossal assault on Calais as well as a third invasion of the Protestant Netherlands, now only nominally ruled by the Hapsburg.
Over four years, the French would assault the walls of Calais no less than seven times, and in 1678; the French guns would hit home. the grapeshot struck the munitions store of Calais redoubt, and an entire length of wall would be turned into dust and smoke, taking along with it the King; John III who personally led the defence of Calais in the final years. As the news of his death went through the garrison like wildfire, the Parliament of England and Ireland would sue for peace, and the throne would pass to ______

 

[Premier Taylerov]

'The Cold-Hearted Swot'
What if Edward VI lived just long enough to produce an heir?

1547 - 1569: Edward VI (House of Tudor) [1]
1569 - 1576: Stephen II (House of Tudor) [2]
1576 - 1579: Henry IX (House of Fitzalan) [3]
1579 - 1585: Henry X (House of Fitzalan) [4]
1585 - 1585: Edward VII (House of Fitzalan) [5]
1585 -1601: Thomas I (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [6]
1601 - 1638: John II (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [7]
1638 - 1651: Edward VIII (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [8]
1651 - 1669: Edward IX (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [9]
1669 - 1678: John III (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [10]
1678 - 1702: Edward X (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [11]

Spoiler: Edward VI to John III

[1] The only son and child of Henry VIII and his third wife, Jane Seymour, Edward was one of the youngest monarchs in English history, ascending to the throne at the age of 9, and ruled during the time that its formation as a truly protestant nation occurred, with the Church of England becoming more in line with those of Sweden and Denmark. A sickly man, many said he survived instead of living, suffering from some sort of disease every year of his lifetime, finally dying from tuberculosis, a disease he had lived with for years, at age 31. He also had two half sisters (who were called bastards but had been born as princesses of England in his father's two previous marriages), the ladies Mary and Elizabeth, the first (made Duchess of Bedford after giving birth to a bastard son by a groom six years prior), died of a disease in the bowels at age 45, and the second married Lord Robert Dudley and later was made Duchess of Leinster by her own right, sent in exile to Ireland for some years, she was in many ways responsible for spreading the protestant faith among the Irish nobility and people, even though many did not follow Anglicanism per se, she served as Lord Deputy of Ireland for years for her brother and his successors. Married to Lady Jane Grey in 1554, after his death she served as regent to their son, Stephen II.

[2] Stephen II of England's brief reign was turbulent. His father having passed when he was less than two years old, the noblemen of the realm immediately began jockeying for power. In 1573, after failing to prevent the annexation of Northumberland by the Scots at the behest of Thomas Percy, Queen Jane was removed by a coalition of nobles and replaced with the Earl of Warwick. However, Warwick's government proved to be equally inept and in 1575 he was removed from power after a brief civil war. Stephen took ill and died (not at all related to his new, noble-appointed chef, of course), and without a male successor the selection of a new king was given over to Parliament. Parliament appointed Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel to take the throne.

[3] The election of Henry IX by Parliament was highly controversial, and largely a result of the fractious political infighting throughout the reign of Stephen II. The 12th Earl of Arundel had been a near-permanent fixture in the courts of the Tudor monarchs, and had shrewdly supported the Regency Council of Jane to maintain a strong political position. However, upon the loss of Northumberland and the humiliation of the Earl of Warwick, Henry was courted by his supporters in Parliament as a neutral candidate around which the nobles of England could unite - and his pragmatic ambition played to their demands. Despite being 63 at the time of his coronation, Henry was able to point to an heir (also called Henry, Baron Maltravers, born in 1538), while his two daughters were well-wedded into the heart of the nobility with children of their own. Coming to the throne in 1576, Henry IX was a divisive figure and often unaccepted by those who favoured his rival candidates for the throne. Many of these candidates remained a threat upon his death just three years later in 1579.

[4] While his father's reign was tense with political intrigue and unrest due to the decision of completely set aside all female Tudors (from the lines of Elizabeth and Mary and Princess Jane, Stephen II's older sister), Henry X's was marked by war. The English Civil War (sometimes called the War of the Five Kings) began when Lady Elizabeth, who had been living in Ireland since 1552, declared Irish independence with herself as Queen in 1582 - basically declaring that any authority England had over it was moot after they basically deposed the Tudors. This action by now Queen Elizabeth started a domino effect as all the groups against the new monarchs decided that now was the time to seize the throne for themselves. The first to raise the banners of war where the Protestants who, together with their belief that Henry X was a crypto-catholic (his family having only begrudgingly accepted Protestantism during the reign of Edward VI) and that this line was barely of royal standard, rose in rebellion by the end of 1582. A good chunk of England rose with them under the leadership of the Duke of Bedford and Thomas (the bastard son of the Lady Mary, who had received her title after her death), the latter of whom was was fiercely Protestant and had eloped and married Princess Jane in 1571. The Scottish were led by the young James VI who invaded England to assert his claim as a man of full royal lineage and a direct descendant of Henry VII, while even the Welsh rose up under a pretender alleging to be the illegitimate son of Edward VI. (He died fighting a second pretender, supposedly the illegitimate grandson of Prince Arthur, son of Henry VII). Henry X died in the camp of battle fighting against Thomas, who had by that point taken control of most of the kingdom after allying with his half-aunt. By the time of his death Henry was reviled for rumours that he had (unsuccessfully) proposed to Philip II of Spain to convert to Catholicism should the Habsburgs help him in retaining his English crown, and was succeeded by the short reign of his son Edward VII.

[5] Edward VII, the last of the Fitzalans, came to the throne as any semblance of power slipped from his dynasty's grasp. His father's forces had been decisively defeated by Thomas, and Edward was forced to withdraw further and further south to prevent the obliteration of his few remaining forces. Overtures to Francis II of France also failed, given the ongoing French Wars of Religion, and in late-July Edward was forced to consider drastic options. He wrote to James VI, who was engaged in a protracted campaign against Thomas in the north, citing the claim that they were in fact related given the kinship of the Stewarts and the Fitzalans from Alan Fitz Flaad (d. 1120). Lacking a male heir, Edward proposed that his only daughter Eleanor (still a child) marry James and that their kin would be the heirs of both Scotland and England, unifying the two countries and ending the continuous Anglo-Scottish wars diplomatically. James rebuffed the offer, and moved to engage Thomas directly at the Battle of Yarm (almost a century to the day as the Battle of Bosworth Field). Edward was subsequently killed by rebel mutineers attempting to flee the country from Dartmouth - having been on the throne for less than a year - leading both James and Thomas to declare themselves King prior to their engagement. Although initially favouring the larger force of Thomas, the clash was a narrow one and affected significantly by changeable weather conditions and the difficult conditions to the east around the River Leven. By killing James at the climax of the battle and the subsequent rout, Thomas emerged victorious. With Edward drowned in Devon and the Fitzalan line forced from power, Thomas de Sabaudia faced no further resistance, and was subsequently coronated in London by the Archbishop of Canterbury - ending the War of the Five Kings.

[6] Thomas was not born to greatness, being the result of a short lived romance between the unmarried Princess Mary of England, and Emanuele Tomasso de Sabaudia - the illegitimate son of Carlo III, Duke of Savoy, and a serving officer of the English court. The young bastard was born in 1540, six years before the death of his grandfather Henry VIII and the crowning of his uncle Edward VII. By the death of his cousin; Stephen II, Thomas de Sabaudia saw himself as the sole remaining heir, and the rightful King of England. Thomas, Duke of Bedford, took a healthy annuity from the Fitzalan Kings, and despite his ties to the English throne, he would go to the continent where he made his name known as a reputable mercenary in the service of Italian dukes, the Spanish crown, and even the King of Poland. With the victory of the War of the English Succession (otherwise known as the War of the Five Kings) Thomas secured his right and the throne. Much of his early rule was spent on clearing the rebel groups, and bringing the heavy hammer of order upon those nobles who had supported the other claimants. By 1593, the purge had been completed, and the nickname “the Bloody” had been attached to the memory of Thomas I. After the death of his wife; Jane Fitzalan, Thomas would married Catherine of Portugal in 1588. The Catholic Catherine was seen as a poor choice, but the prospect of restoring the Anglo-Portuguese alliance proved right. Their union was short but fruitful, with two sons and a daughter being born before her death in 1597. With his rule stable in England, Thomas would turn his sights to the lost Kingdom of Ireland, and despite the loyalties to Elizabeth of Leinster the Irish armies could not withstand the English onslaught; by 1598 English rule was reinstated, at least within the Pale. The last years of his life were spent in relative opulence, with the palaces of England being some of the greatest and wealthiest in Europe. He would pass in 1601, and the throne would pass to his eldest son, John, Prince of Wales.

[7] John was born 1582, to King Thomas and Queen Catherine, he was named after his maternal grandfather, King John IV of Portugal. His upbringing was mainly performed by his mother, while his father was dealing with the rebels (although the Privy Council necessitated the tutors be approved by the Protestant nobility). In 1600, at 16, John married Princess Sophia of Denmark (the youngest daughter of Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow and King Frederick II of Denmark, and a year his junior). She was also the sister of Anne, Queen Consort of Scotland. To secure English rule in Ireland John arranged the marriage of his brother Emmanuel, Duke of York, to Elizabeth Dudley - the only surviving heir of Robert I of Ireland. This marriage rallied the Irish nobility behind his rule, while his sister Mary was married to their cousin Sebastian II of Portugal. Along with these marriages John would also be the match-maker for many of his noble subjects, betrothing formerly rival houses to one another, stating that he never wished for English blood to be split by other English men on English soil. Peace was never broken within his 37-year reign, and instead of spending taxes on standing armies the Privy Council was able to concentrate on increasing the size of the Navy and mercantilism. His death at the age of 55 came as a great shock, for the healthy king was assumed to live forever. However, while dancing at a party held in honour of the birth of his first great-grandchild - a feat that no monarch had claimed before - John collapsed into the arms of his daughter-in-law, lost consciousness and was carried to a nearby lounge chair, where he was pronounced dead. At first there was speculation of murder, but after an examination from an independent doctor it was found that he had a brain aneurysm. He was succeeded by his second son Edward, Duke of Clarence - leaving behind his wife, 8 children, 22 grandchild and 1 great-grandchild.

[8] Edward was the second of the six sons of John II and until the age of 4 there was no expectation that he would inherit the throne. When his elder brother Thomas reached the age of 6 his developmental disabilities became apparent. Known to be deaf from birth and developmentally stunted, Thomas was unfit for rule and so Edward was pushed into the limelight as the heir-principal of his father, even though his elder brother was still alive. Having inherited the throne at the age of 37, and with 6 children of his own by his wife Catherine of Milan as well as two illegitimate sons (John and William), Edward VIII looked to be a great king. He worked to continue the peace his father had built, and largely succeeded. However, after a mere thirteen years on the throne Edward would be succeeded by his eldest son, who took the throne as Edward IX.

[9] As the eldest legitimate son of Edward VIII, Edward IX quickly showed a keen interest in the development of the English navy but also, more importantly, in the dramatic surge in commitment to the fledging North American colonies. A major shipbuilding programme was bolstered by the arrival of Protestant Dutch fleeing from the devastating war between France and the Habsburg family compact, while England prospered from her neutrality on the edge of Europe. The peaceful reign of the Tudor-Sabaudia dynasty continued, although religious upheaval in Scotland threatened the tentative status quo amid threats of a renewed Auld Alliance. London grew rapidly as England embraced her commercial revolution, and although Edward failed in his attempts to create a single national bank (primarily as a means to finance his navy) economic reforms loomed heavily over the horizon. Blessed with his large extended family and happily married, when Edward died of dropsy in 1669 the crown passed to his younger brother Maximilian John, Duke of York- a monarch who, although tested by both economic and military crises, would reign over the true beginnings of the modern English state.

[10] Maximilian John was born during the reign of his grandfather, John II. Early in life, he was destined to marry Elizabeth of York (the daughter of Emmanuel, 3rd Duke of York, and the senior most descendant of Elizabeth, Queen of Ireland). With their marriage, the cadet branch of the Dukes of York came to an end, and the title returned to the royal family. Their marriage was fruitful, producing three sons and two daughters, - in stark contrast to his brother (the future Edward X), for the Prince of Wales had but one son who died at the young age of 18. Upon the death of Edward IX John took the thrones of England and Ireland, and for the next two years worked tirelessly to consolidate his kingdoms into a single state. The 1671 Act of Union passed through both parliaments, and formed the United Kingdoms of England and Ireland. This, combined with his popular marriage to Elizabeth, finally established the Tudor-Sabaudia dynasty as the rightful monarchs of Ireland. However, war would come to the United Kingdoms as the ultra-Catholic Valois attempted to conquer Calais in 1764. Charles XIII of France assaulted the walls of the fortress city no fewer than seven times, also leading an invasion of the Netherlands. Unfortunately, the French cannon also struck the munitions store, detonating the powder as well as the King (who was leading the defence of his European redoubt). Upon the death of John II the city quickly fell, and the throne passed to his brother Edward.

[11] The reign of John III had been a turning point for his dynasty; while the unification of England and Ireland would create a powerful mercantile state focused largely upon the Atlantic, his premature death and the forced involvement of the United Kingdoms in European affairs all but doomed the continuation of Tudor-Sabaudian rule deep into the Eighteenth Century. Although Edward was a capable ruler, the 1678 Treaty of Coulogne (establishing a short-lived peace with France) was highly-unpopular and did little to prevent the further conflagration in Europe. France, triumphant, launched enthusiastically into the First War of the Valois - their first attempt to establish both French and High-Church dominance over the Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburgs. Such a challenge to the European status necessitated an Austrian-led coalition, with Emperor Otto VI quickly establishing a strong position in Central Europe. For the most part Edward attempted to keep the United Kingdoms out of the conflict, but in 1682 agreed to sponsor large campaigns against French positions in North America as well as conduct a sizeable naval campaign as part of the anti-Valois coalition. The war dominated his reign, but Edward would not seek any personal glory on the battlefield - instead, he served as a shrewd administrator and diplomat. Upon the European stalemate in 1687, Edward was able to secure major American colonial concessions from the French in exchange for his recognition of the annexation of Calais and the Netherlands. Although the Second War of the Valois would begin in 1691 the United Kingdoms remained neutral until the intervention of the Scots into the conflict in 1697. Most significantly, however, Edward was never able to overcome his fertility problems. When he died in 1702 the throne passed to the only living child of John III - his youngest daughter, ________________.

 

[Asharella]

Claim

 

[Asharella]

'The Cold-Hearted Swot'
What if Edward VI lived just long enough to produce an heir?

1547 - 1569: Edward VI (House of Tudor) [1]
1569 - 1576: Stephen II (House of Tudor) [2]
1576 - 1579: Henry IX (House of Fitzalan) [3]
1579 - 1585: Henry X (House of Fitzalan) [4]
1585 - 1585: Edward VII (House of Fitzalan) [5]
1585 -1601: Thomas I (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [6]
1601 - 1638: John II (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [7]
1638 - 1651: Edward VIII (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [8]
1651 - 1669: Edward IX (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [9]
1669 - 1678: John III (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [10]
1678 - 1702: Edward X (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [11]
1702 - 1779: Bridget I (House of Stewart) [12]

Spoiler: Edward VI to Edward X

[1] The only son and child of Henry VIII and his third wife, Jane Seymour, Edward was one of the youngest monarchs in English history, ascending to the throne at the age of 9, and ruled during the time that its formation as a truly protestant nation occurred, with the Church of England becoming more in line with those of Sweden and Denmark. A sickly man, many said he survived instead of living, suffering from some sort of disease every year of his lifetime, finally dying from tuberculosis, a disease he had lived with for years, at age 31. He also had two half sisters (who were called bastards but had been born as princesses of England in his father's two previous marriages), the ladies Mary and Elizabeth, the first (made Duchess of Bedford after giving birth to a bastard son by a groom six years prior), died of a disease in the bowels at age 45, and the second married Lord Robert Dudley and later was made Duchess of Leinster by her own right, sent in exile to Ireland for some years, she was in many ways responsible for spreading the protestant faith among the Irish nobility and people, even though many did not follow Anglicanism per se, she served as Lord Deputy of Ireland for years for her brother and his successors. Married to Lady Jane Grey in 1554, after his death she served as regent to their son, Stephen II.

[2] Stephen II of England's brief reign was turbulent. His father having passed when he was less than two years old, the noblemen of the realm immediately began jockeying for power. In 1573, after failing to prevent the annexation of Northumberland by the Scots at the behest of Thomas Percy, Queen Jane was removed by a coalition of nobles and replaced with the Earl of Warwick. However, Warwick's government proved to be equally inept and in 1575 he was removed from power after a brief civil war. Stephen took ill and died (not at all related to his new, noble-appointed chef, of course), and without a male successor the selection of a new king was given over to Parliament. Parliament appointed Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel to take the throne.

[3] The election of Henry IX by Parliament was highly controversial, and largely a result of the fractious political infighting throughout the reign of Stephen II. The 12th Earl of Arundel had been a near-permanent fixture in the courts of the Tudor monarchs, and had shrewdly supported the Regency Council of Jane to maintain a strong political position. However, upon the loss of Northumberland and the humiliation of the Earl of Warwick, Henry was courted by his supporters in Parliament as a neutral candidate around which the nobles of England could unite - and his pragmatic ambition played to their demands. Despite being 63 at the time of his coronation, Henry was able to point to an heir (also called Henry, Baron Maltravers, born in 1538), while his two daughters were well-wedded into the heart of the nobility with children of their own. Coming to the throne in 1576, Henry IX was a divisive figure and often unaccepted by those who favoured his rival candidates for the throne. Many of these candidates remained a threat upon his death just three years later in 1579.

[4] While his father's reign was tense with political intrigue and unrest due to the decision of completely set aside all female Tudors (from the lines of Elizabeth and Mary and Princess Jane, Stephen II's older sister), Henry X's was marked by war. The English Civil War (sometimes called the War of the Five Kings) began when Lady Elizabeth, who had been living in Ireland since 1552, declared Irish independence with herself as Queen in 1582 - basically declaring that any authority England had over it was moot after they basically deposed the Tudors. This action by now Queen Elizabeth started a domino effect as all the groups against the new monarchs decided that now was the time to seize the throne for themselves. The first to raise the banners of war where the Protestants who, together with their belief that Henry X was a crypto-catholic (his family having only begrudgingly accepted Protestantism during the reign of Edward VI) and that this line was barely of royal standard, rose in rebellion by the end of 1582. A good chunk of England rose with them under the leadership of the Duke of Bedford and Thomas (the bastard son of the Lady Mary, who had received her title after her death), the latter of whom was was fiercely Protestant and had eloped and married Princess Jane in 1571. The Scottish were led by the young James VI who invaded England to assert his claim as a man of full royal lineage and a direct descendant of Henry VII, while even the Welsh rose up under a pretender alleging to be the illegitimate son of Edward VI. (He died fighting a second pretender, supposedly the illegitimate grandson of Prince Arthur, son of Henry VII). Henry X died in the camp of battle fighting against Thomas, who had by that point taken control of most of the kingdom after allying with his half-aunt. By the time of his death Henry was reviled for rumours that he had (unsuccessfully) proposed to Philip II of Spain to convert to Catholicism should the Habsburgs help him in retaining his English crown, and was succeeded by the short reign of his son Edward VII.

[5] Edward VII, the last of the Fitzalans, came to the throne as any semblance of power slipped from his dynasty's grasp. His father's forces had been decisively defeated by Thomas, and Edward was forced to withdraw further and further south to prevent the obliteration of his few remaining forces. Overtures to Francis II of France also failed, given the ongoing French Wars of Religion, and in late-July Edward was forced to consider drastic options. He wrote to James VI, who was engaged in a protracted campaign against Thomas in the north, citing the claim that they were in fact related given the kinship of the Stewarts and the Fitzalans from Alan Fitz Flaad (d. 1120). Lacking a male heir, Edward proposed that his only daughter Eleanor (still a child) marry James and that their kin would be the heirs of both Scotland and England, unifying the two countries and ending the continuous Anglo-Scottish wars diplomatically. James rebuffed the offer, and moved to engage Thomas directly at the Battle of Yarm (almost a century to the day as the Battle of Bosworth Field). Edward was subsequently killed by rebel mutineers attempting to flee the country from Dartmouth - having been on the throne for less than a year - leading both James and Thomas to declare themselves King prior to their engagement. Although initially favouring the larger force of Thomas, the clash was a narrow one and affected significantly by changeable weather conditions and the difficult conditions to the east around the River Leven. By killing James at the climax of the battle and the subsequent rout, Thomas emerged victorious. With Edward drowned in Devon and the Fitzalan line forced from power, Thomas de Sabaudia faced no further resistance, and was subsequently coronated in London by the Archbishop of Canterbury - ending the War of the Five Kings.

[6] Thomas was not born to greatness, being the result of a short lived romance between the unmarried Princess Mary of England, and Emanuele Tomasso de Sabaudia - the illegitimate son of Carlo III, Duke of Savoy, and a serving officer of the English court. The young bastard was born in 1540, six years before the death of his grandfather Henry VIII and the crowning of his uncle Edward VII. By the death of his cousin; Stephen II, Thomas de Sabaudia saw himself as the sole remaining heir, and the rightful King of England. Thomas, Duke of Bedford, took a healthy annuity from the Fitzalan Kings, and despite his ties to the English throne, he would go to the continent where he made his name known as a reputable mercenary in the service of Italian dukes, the Spanish crown, and even the King of Poland. With the victory of the War of the English Succession (otherwise known as the War of the Five Kings) Thomas secured his right and the throne. Much of his early rule was spent on clearing the rebel groups, and bringing the heavy hammer of order upon those nobles who had supported the other claimants. By 1593, the purge had been completed, and the nickname “the Bloody” had been attached to the memory of Thomas I. After the death of his wife; Jane Fitzalan, Thomas would married Catherine of Portugal in 1588. The Catholic Catherine was seen as a poor choice, but the prospect of restoring the Anglo-Portuguese alliance proved right. Their union was short but fruitful, with two sons and a daughter being born before her death in 1597. With his rule stable in England, Thomas would turn his sights to the lost Kingdom of Ireland, and despite the loyalties to Elizabeth of Leinster the Irish armies could not withstand the English onslaught; by 1598 English rule was reinstated, at least within the Pale. The last years of his life were spent in relative opulence, with the palaces of England being some of the greatest and wealthiest in Europe. He would pass in 1601, and the throne would pass to his eldest son, John, Prince of Wales.

[7] John was born 1582, to King Thomas and Queen Catherine, he was named after his maternal grandfather, King John IV of Portugal. His upbringing was mainly performed by his mother, while his father was dealing with the rebels (although the Privy Council necessitated the tutors be approved by the Protestant nobility). In 1600, at 16, John married Princess Sophia of Denmark (the youngest daughter of Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow and King Frederick II of Denmark, and a year his junior). She was also the sister of Anne, Queen Consort of Scotland. To secure English rule in Ireland John arranged the marriage of his brother Emmanuel, Duke of York, to Elizabeth Dudley - the only surviving heir of Robert I of Ireland. This marriage rallied the Irish nobility behind his rule, while his sister Mary was married to their cousin Sebastian II of Portugal. Along with these marriages John would also be the match-maker for many of his noble subjects, betrothing formerly rival houses to one another, stating that he never wished for English blood to be split by other English men on English soil. Peace was never broken within his 37-year reign, and instead of spending taxes on standing armies the Privy Council was able to concentrate on increasing the size of the Navy and mercantilism. His death at the age of 55 came as a great shock, for the healthy king was assumed to live forever. However, while dancing at a party held in honour of the birth of his first great-grandchild - a feat that no monarch had claimed before - John collapsed into the arms of his daughter-in-law, lost consciousness and was carried to a nearby lounge chair, where he was pronounced dead. At first there was speculation of murder, but after an examination from an independent doctor it was found that he had a brain aneurysm. He was succeeded by his second son Edward, Duke of Clarence - leaving behind his wife, 8 children, 22 grandchild and 1 great-grandchild.

[8] Edward was the second of the six sons of John II and until the age of 4 there was no expectation that he would inherit the throne. When his elder brother Thomas reached the age of 6 his developmental disabilities became apparent. Known to be deaf from birth and developmentally stunted, Thomas was unfit for rule and so Edward was pushed into the limelight as the heir-principal of his father, even though his elder brother was still alive. Having inherited the throne at the age of 37, and with 6 children of his own by his wife Catherine of Milan as well as two illegitimate sons (John and William), Edward VIII looked to be a great king. He worked to continue the peace his father had built, and largely succeeded. However, after a mere thirteen years on the throne Edward would be succeeded by his eldest son, who took the throne as Edward IX.

[9] As the eldest legitimate son of Edward VIII, Edward IX quickly showed a keen interest in the development of the English navy but also, more importantly, in the dramatic surge in commitment to the fledging North American colonies. A major shipbuilding programme was bolstered by the arrival of Protestant Dutch fleeing from the devastating war between France and the Habsburg family compact, while England prospered from her neutrality on the edge of Europe. The peaceful reign of the Tudor-Sabaudia dynasty continued, although religious upheaval in Scotland threatened the tentative status quo amid threats of a renewed Auld Alliance. London grew rapidly as England embraced her commercial revolution, and although Edward failed in his attempts to create a single national bank (primarily as a means to finance his navy) economic reforms loomed heavily over the horizon. Blessed with his large extended family and happily married, when Edward died of dropsy in 1669 the crown passed to his younger brother Maximilian John, Duke of York- a monarch who, although tested by both economic and military crises, would reign over the true beginnings of the modern English state.

[10] Maximilian John was born during the reign of his grandfather, John II. Early in life, he was destined to marry Elizabeth of York (the daughter of Emmanuel, 3rd Duke of York, and the senior most descendant of Elizabeth, Queen of Ireland). With their marriage, the cadet branch of the Dukes of York came to an end, and the title returned to the royal family. Their marriage was fruitful, producing three sons and two daughters, - in stark contrast to his brother (the future Edward X), for the Prince of Wales had but one son who died at the young age of 18. Upon the death of Edward IX John took the thrones of England and Ireland, and for the next two years worked tirelessly to consolidate his kingdoms into a single state. The 1671 Act of Union passed through both parliaments, and formed the United Kingdoms of England and Ireland. This, combined with his popular marriage to Elizabeth, finally established the Tudor-Sabaudia dynasty as the rightful monarchs of Ireland. However, war would come to the United Kingdoms as the ultra-Catholic Valois attempted to conquer Calais in 1764. Charles XIII of France assaulted the walls of the fortress city no fewer than seven times, also leading an invasion of the Netherlands. Unfortunately, the French cannon also struck the munitions store, detonating the powder as well as the King (who was leading the defence of his European redoubt). Upon the death of John III the city quickly fell, and the throne passed to his brother Edward.

[11] The reign of John III had been a turning point for his dynasty; while the unification of England and Ireland would create a powerful mercantile state focused largely upon the Atlantic, his premature death and the forced involvement of the United Kingdoms in European affairs all but doomed the continuation of Tudor-Sabaudian rule deep into the Eighteenth Century. Although Edward was a capable ruler, the 1678 Treaty of Coulogne (establishing a short-lived peace with France) was highly-unpopular and did little to prevent the further conflagration in Europe. France, triumphant, launched enthusiastically into the First War of the Valois - their first attempt to establish both French and High-Church dominance over the Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburgs. Such a challenge to the European status necessitated an Austrian-led coalition, with Emperor Otto VI quickly establishing a strong position in Central Europe. For the most part Edward attempted to keep the United Kingdoms out of the conflict, but in 1682 agreed to sponsor large campaigns against French positions in North America as well as conduct a sizeable naval campaign as part of the anti-Valois coalition. The war dominated his reign, but Edward would not seek any personal glory on the battlefield - instead, he served as a shrewd administrator and diplomat. Upon the European stalemate in 1687, Edward was able to secure major American colonial concessions from the French in exchange for his recognition of the annexation of Calais and the Netherlands. Although the Second War of the Valois would begin in 1691 the United Kingdoms remained neutral until the intervention of the Scots into the conflict in 1697. Most significantly, however, Edward was never able to overcome his fertility problems. When he died in 1702 the throne passed to the only living child of John III - his youngest daughter, Bridget, the Queen of Scotland.

​

[12] Princess Bridget was the last child of John III and Elizabeth of York. Her siblings were Emmanuel (b. 1650-1678) Elizabeth (1654-1670), Henry (1658-1678), and Thomas (1662-1701). She was a surprise child born to the Queen after it was thought her child bearing years were done, in 1675 when the Queen was 40 and the King was 50. She was the only child born while her father was King. The child was a comfort to her mother still morning the loss of her daughter Elizabeth who had died from the sweating sickness just weeks before her sixteenth birthday.

Bridget was only 3 years old when her father and her two oldest brothers died in the Battle of Calais. That left her as a toddler and Prince Thomas, only 15 years old, to inherit the throne. Thomas was an effeminate boy with no interest in the throne nor the will to resist his uncle. Thomas was instead adopted by his uncle as his heir and became the Prince of Wales.

Princess Bridget and her mother, the Duchess of York, who no longer used the title of Queen in order to not appear a rival to her brother-in-law, relocated to the Duchess's lands in Ireland, where the Princess was raised apart from the intrigue of the court.

In 1693 on her 18th birthday, the Princess was wed to her distant cousin, James VII Stewart, King of Scotland. She gave birth to her first child, later James VIII, in 1696. Her focus was on Presbyterian Scotland and had no idea she would become the heir to the throne of England and Ireland until her brother Thomas died under mysterious circumstances while traveling with his closest companion, Geoffrey Howard, the Duke of Clarence, who fled the scene and then hung himself from an oak tree. Many believe that Geoffrey accidentally killed Thomas during a lover's spat that turned violent.

Queen Bridget and the King of Scotland, along with Prince James, now heir to both thrones, and their other children, traveled back and forth from one court to the next. James' brother, Charles Stewart, acted as his regent while he was with his wife in London, and Bridget's mother, who now reclaimed the title of Dowager Queen, acted as her regent while she was in Edinburgh. A major result of this was the increase in the role of the Parliaments in governing both kingdoms.

Although the kingdoms were not in a personal union, it was clear they eventually would be. The practical reality was that both kingdoms cooperated, especially in overseas matters and trade. This became even more so when James VIII ascended to the Scots throne in 1721. The reigning King of Scotland was the heir to the throne of England and Ireland.

Bridget was the longest monarch in the history of England and Ireland, reigning for 77 years and living until she was 104. She outlived many of her children, grandchildren, and even some great-grandchildren. During the Bridgettian Era great changes occurred in Britain, a term that was used more and more for the two kingdoms. The Industrial Revolution began, the North American colonies were organized into a colonial federation, the East India Trading Company was established, and Britain became the two most powerful kingdoms in the world.

In 1758 the two Parliaments agreed to an act of union to be effective on the death of the Queen and assumption of the English & Irish throne by the Scots monarch. They did not expect that it would be another 21 years before the then 83 year old monarch would die.

The Bridgettian Era is considered the Golden Age of Britain. When the Queen finally died the entire English speaking world mourned for months and the color black remained a fashion staple for years after the official mourning period was done. She was succeed by her _________________, _______________, the reigning King/Queen of Scotland.

 

[Asharella]

OOC: the long life and reign of Queen Bridget was inspired by Olivia de Haviland, dying recently at the age of 104, and Elizabeth II who now is the longest reigning British monarch ever and shows no hint of dying soon.

 

[Peppe]

I claim next

 

[Premier Taylerov]

'The Cold-Hearted Swot'
What if Edward VI lived just long enough to produce an heir?

1702 - 1779: Bridget I (House of Stewart) [12]

Nice update, but wouldn't Bridget still be a member of the Tudor-Sabaudia dynasty given that her father was John III? Her children, as descendants of James VII, would be Stewarts though.

 

[Peppe]

'The Cold-Hearted Swot'
What if Edward VI lived just long enough to produce an heir?

1547 - 1569: Edward VI (House of Tudor) [1]
1569 - 1576: Stephen II (House of Tudor) [2]
1576 - 1579: Henry IX (House of Fitzalan) [3]
1579 - 1585: Henry X (House of Fitzalan) [4]
1585 - 1585: Edward VII (House of Fitzalan) [5]
1585 -1601: Thomas I (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [6]
1601 - 1638: John II (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [7]
1638 - 1651: Edward VIII (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [8]
1651 - 1669: Edward IX (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [9]
1669 - 1678: John III (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [10]
1678 - 1702: Edward X (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [11]
1702 - 1779: Bridget I (House of Stewart) [12]

Kings and Queens of the United Kingdoms

1779 - 1795: Mary II (House of Stewart) [13]

Spoiler: Edward VI to Bridget I

[1] The only son and child of Henry VIII and his third wife, Jane Seymour, Edward was one of the youngest monarchs in English history, ascending to the throne at the age of 9, and ruled during the time that its formation as a truly protestant nation occurred, with the Church of England becoming more in line with those of Sweden and Denmark. A sickly man, many said he survived instead of living, suffering from some sort of disease every year of his lifetime, finally dying from tuberculosis, a disease he had lived with for years, at age 31. He also had two half sisters (who were called bastards but had been born as princesses of England in his father's two previous marriages), the ladies Mary and Elizabeth, the first (made Duchess of Bedford after giving birth to a bastard son by a groom six years prior), died of a disease in the bowels at age 45, and the second married Lord Robert Dudley and later was made Duchess of Leinster by her own right, sent in exile to Ireland for some years, she was in many ways responsible for spreading the protestant faith among the Irish nobility and people, even though many did not follow Anglicanism per se, she served as Lord Deputy of Ireland for years for her brother and his successors. Married to Lady Jane Grey in 1554, after his death she served as regent to their son, Stephen II.

[2] Stephen II of England's brief reign was turbulent. His father having passed when he was less than two years old, the noblemen of the realm immediately began jockeying for power. In 1573, after failing to prevent the annexation of Northumberland by the Scots at the behest of Thomas Percy, Queen Jane was removed by a coalition of nobles and replaced with the Earl of Warwick. However, Warwick's government proved to be equally inept and in 1575 he was removed from power after a brief civil war. Stephen took ill and died (not at all related to his new, noble-appointed chef, of course), and without a male successor the selection of a new king was given over to Parliament. Parliament appointed Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel to take the throne.

[3] The election of Henry IX by Parliament was highly controversial, and largely a result of the fractious political infighting throughout the reign of Stephen II. The 12th Earl of Arundel had been a near-permanent fixture in the courts of the Tudor monarchs, and had shrewdly supported the Regency Council of Jane to maintain a strong political position. However, upon the loss of Northumberland and the humiliation of the Earl of Warwick, Henry was courted by his supporters in Parliament as a neutral candidate around which the nobles of England could unite - and his pragmatic ambition played to their demands. Despite being 63 at the time of his coronation, Henry was able to point to an heir (also called Henry, Baron Maltravers, born in 1538), while his two daughters were well-wedded into the heart of the nobility with children of their own. Coming to the throne in 1576, Henry IX was a divisive figure and often unaccepted by those who favoured his rival candidates for the throne. Many of these candidates remained a threat upon his death just three years later in 1579.

[4] While his father's reign was tense with political intrigue and unrest due to the decision of completely set aside all female Tudors (from the lines of Elizabeth and Mary and Princess Jane, Stephen II's older sister), Henry X's was marked by war. The English Civil War (sometimes called the War of the Five Kings) began when Lady Elizabeth, who had been living in Ireland since 1552, declared Irish independence with herself as Queen in 1582 - basically declaring that any authority England had over it was moot after they basically deposed the Tudors. This action by now Queen Elizabeth started a domino effect as all the groups against the new monarchs decided that now was the time to seize the throne for themselves. The first to raise the banners of war where the Protestants who, together with their belief that Henry X was a crypto-catholic (his family having only begrudgingly accepted Protestantism during the reign of Edward VI) and that this line was barely of royal standard, rose in rebellion by the end of 1582. A good chunk of England rose with them under the leadership of the Duke of Bedford and Thomas (the bastard son of the Lady Mary, who had received her title after her death), the latter of whom was was fiercely Protestant and had eloped and married Princess Jane in 1571. The Scottish were led by the young James VI who invaded England to assert his claim as a man of full royal lineage and a direct descendant of Henry VII, while even the Welsh rose up under a pretender alleging to be the illegitimate son of Edward VI. (He died fighting a second pretender, supposedly the illegitimate grandson of Prince Arthur, son of Henry VII). Henry X died in the camp of battle fighting against Thomas, who had by that point taken control of most of the kingdom after allying with his half-aunt. By the time of his death Henry was reviled for rumours that he had (unsuccessfully) proposed to Philip II of Spain to convert to Catholicism should the Habsburgs help him in retaining his English crown, and was succeeded by the short reign of his son Edward VII.

[5] Edward VII, the last of the Fitzalans, came to the throne as any semblance of power slipped from his dynasty's grasp. His father's forces had been decisively defeated by Thomas, and Edward was forced to withdraw further and further south to prevent the obliteration of his few remaining forces. Overtures to Francis II of France also failed, given the ongoing French Wars of Religion, and in late-July Edward was forced to consider drastic options. He wrote to James VI, who was engaged in a protracted campaign against Thomas in the north, citing the claim that they were in fact related given the kinship of the Stewarts and the Fitzalans from Alan Fitz Flaad (d. 1120). Lacking a male heir, Edward proposed that his only daughter Eleanor (still a child) marry James and that their kin would be the heirs of both Scotland and England, unifying the two countries and ending the continuous Anglo-Scottish wars diplomatically. James rebuffed the offer, and moved to engage Thomas directly at the Battle of Yarm (almost a century to the day as the Battle of Bosworth Field). Edward was subsequently killed by rebel mutineers attempting to flee the country from Dartmouth - having been on the throne for less than a year - leading both James and Thomas to declare themselves King prior to their engagement. Although initially favouring the larger force of Thomas, the clash was a narrow one and affected significantly by changeable weather conditions and the difficult conditions to the east around the River Leven. By killing James at the climax of the battle and the subsequent rout, Thomas emerged victorious. With Edward drowned in Devon and the Fitzalan line forced from power, Thomas de Sabaudia faced no further resistance, and was subsequently coronated in London by the Archbishop of Canterbury - ending the War of the Five Kings.

[6] Thomas was not born to greatness, being the result of a short lived romance between the unmarried Princess Mary of England, and Emanuele Tomasso de Sabaudia - the illegitimate son of Carlo III, Duke of Savoy, and a serving officer of the English court. The young bastard was born in 1540, six years before the death of his grandfather Henry VIII and the crowning of his uncle Edward VII. By the death of his cousin; Stephen II, Thomas de Sabaudia saw himself as the sole remaining heir, and the rightful King of England. Thomas, Duke of Bedford, took a healthy annuity from the Fitzalan Kings, and despite his ties to the English throne, he would go to the continent where he made his name known as a reputable mercenary in the service of Italian dukes, the Spanish crown, and even the King of Poland. With the victory of the War of the English Succession (otherwise known as the War of the Five Kings) Thomas secured his right and the throne. Much of his early rule was spent on clearing the rebel groups, and bringing the heavy hammer of order upon those nobles who had supported the other claimants. By 1593, the purge had been completed, and the nickname “the Bloody” had been attached to the memory of Thomas I. After the death of his wife; Jane Fitzalan, Thomas would married Catherine of Portugal in 1588. The Catholic Catherine was seen as a poor choice, but the prospect of restoring the Anglo-Portuguese alliance proved right. Their union was short but fruitful, with two sons and a daughter being born before her death in 1597. With his rule stable in England, Thomas would turn his sights to the lost Kingdom of Ireland, and despite the loyalties to Elizabeth of Leinster the Irish armies could not withstand the English onslaught; by 1598 English rule was reinstated, at least within the Pale. The last years of his life were spent in relative opulence, with the palaces of England being some of the greatest and wealthiest in Europe. He would pass in 1601, and the throne would pass to his eldest son, John, Prince of Wales.

[7] John was born 1582, to King Thomas and Queen Catherine, he was named after his maternal grandfather, King John IV of Portugal. His upbringing was mainly performed by his mother, while his father was dealing with the rebels (although the Privy Council necessitated the tutors be approved by the Protestant nobility). In 1600, at 16, John married Princess Sophia of Denmark (the youngest daughter of Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow and King Frederick II of Denmark, and a year his junior). She was also the sister of Anne, Queen Consort of Scotland. To secure English rule in Ireland John arranged the marriage of his brother Emmanuel, Duke of York, to Elizabeth Dudley - the only surviving heir of Robert I of Ireland. This marriage rallied the Irish nobility behind his rule, while his sister Mary was married to their cousin Sebastian II of Portugal. Along with these marriages John would also be the match-maker for many of his noble subjects, betrothing formerly rival houses to one another, stating that he never wished for English blood to be split by other English men on English soil. Peace was never broken within his 37-year reign, and instead of spending taxes on standing armies the Privy Council was able to concentrate on increasing the size of the Navy and mercantilism. His death at the age of 55 came as a great shock, for the healthy king was assumed to live forever. However, while dancing at a party held in honour of the birth of his first great-grandchild - a feat that no monarch had claimed before - John collapsed into the arms of his daughter-in-law, lost consciousness and was carried to a nearby lounge chair, where he was pronounced dead. At first there was speculation of murder, but after an examination from an independent doctor it was found that he had a brain aneurysm. He was succeeded by his second son Edward, Duke of Clarence - leaving behind his wife, 8 children, 22 grandchild and 1 great-grandchild.

[8] Edward was the second of the six sons of John II and until the age of 4 there was no expectation that he would inherit the throne. When his elder brother Thomas reached the age of 6 his developmental disabilities became apparent. Known to be deaf from birth and developmentally stunted, Thomas was unfit for rule and so Edward was pushed into the limelight as the heir-principal of his father, even though his elder brother was still alive. Having inherited the throne at the age of 37, and with 6 children of his own by his wife Catherine of Milan as well as two illegitimate sons (John and William), Edward VIII looked to be a great king. He worked to continue the peace his father had built, and largely succeeded. However, after a mere thirteen years on the throne Edward would be succeeded by his eldest son, who took the throne as Edward IX.

[9] As the eldest legitimate son of Edward VIII, Edward IX quickly showed a keen interest in the development of the English navy but also, more importantly, in the dramatic surge in commitment to the fledging North American colonies. A major shipbuilding programme was bolstered by the arrival of Protestant Dutch fleeing from the devastating war between France and the Habsburg family compact, while England prospered from her neutrality on the edge of Europe. The peaceful reign of the Tudor-Sabaudia dynasty continued, although religious upheaval in Scotland threatened the tentative status quo amid threats of a renewed Auld Alliance. London grew rapidly as England embraced her commercial revolution, and although Edward failed in his attempts to create a single national bank (primarily as a means to finance his navy) economic reforms loomed heavily over the horizon. Blessed with his large extended family and happily married, when Edward died of dropsy in 1669 the crown passed to his younger brother Maximilian John, Duke of York- a monarch who, although tested by both economic and military crises, would reign over the true beginnings of the modern English state.

[10] Maximilian John was born during the reign of his grandfather, John II. Early in life, he was destined to marry Elizabeth of York (the daughter of Emmanuel, 3rd Duke of York, and the senior most descendant of Elizabeth, Queen of Ireland). With their marriage, the cadet branch of the Dukes of York came to an end, and the title returned to the royal family. Their marriage was fruitful, producing three sons and two daughters, - in stark contrast to his brother (the future Edward X), for the Prince of Wales had but one son who died at the young age of 18. Upon the death of Edward IX John took the thrones of England and Ireland, and for the next two years worked tirelessly to consolidate his kingdoms into a single state. The 1671 Act of Union passed through both parliaments, and formed the United Kingdoms of England and Ireland. This, combined with his popular marriage to Elizabeth, finally established the Tudor-Sabaudia dynasty as the rightful monarchs of Ireland. However, war would come to the United Kingdoms as the ultra-Catholic Valois attempted to conquer Calais in 1764. Charles XIII of France assaulted the walls of the fortress city no fewer than seven times, also leading an invasion of the Netherlands. Unfortunately, the French cannon also struck the munitions store, detonating the powder as well as the King (who was leading the defence of his European redoubt). Upon the death of John III the city quickly fell, and the throne passed to his brother Edward.

[11] The reign of John III had been a turning point for his dynasty; while the unification of England and Ireland would create a powerful mercantile state focused largely upon the Atlantic, his premature death and the forced involvement of the United Kingdoms in European affairs all but doomed the continuation of Tudor-Sabaudian rule deep into the Eighteenth Century. Although Edward was a capable ruler, the 1678 Treaty of Coulogne (establishing a short-lived peace with France) was highly-unpopular and did little to prevent the further conflagration in Europe. France, triumphant, launched enthusiastically into the First War of the Valois - their first attempt to establish both French and High-Church dominance over the Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburgs. Such a challenge to the European status necessitated an Austrian-led coalition, with Emperor Otto VI quickly establishing a strong position in Central Europe. For the most part Edward attempted to keep the United Kingdoms out of the conflict, but in 1682 agreed to sponsor large campaigns against French positions in North America as well as conduct a sizeable naval campaign as part of the anti-Valois coalition. The war dominated his reign, but Edward would not seek any personal glory on the battlefield - instead, he served as a shrewd administrator and diplomat. Upon the European stalemate in 1687, Edward was able to secure major American colonial concessions from the French in exchange for his recognition of the annexation of Calais and the Netherlands. Although the Second War of the Valois would begin in 1691 the United Kingdoms remained neutral until the intervention of the Scots into the conflict in 1697. Most significantly, however, Edward was never able to overcome his fertility problems. When he died in 1702 the throne passed to the only living child of John III - his youngest daughter, Bridget, the Queen of Scotland.
[12] Princess Bridget was the last child of John III and Elizabeth of York. Her siblings were Emmanuel (b. 1650-1678) Elizabeth (1654-1670), Henry (1658-1678), and Thomas (1662-1701). She was a surprise child born to the Queen after it was thought her child bearing years were done, in 1675 when the Queen was 40 and the King was 50. She was the only child born while her father was King. The child was a comfort to her mother still morning the loss of her daughter Elizabeth who had died from the sweating sickness just weeks before her sixteenth birthday.

Bridget was only 3 years old when her father and her two oldest brothers died in the Battle of Calais. That left her as a toddler and Prince Thomas, only 15 years old, to inherit the throne. Thomas was an effeminate boy with no interest in the throne nor the will to resist his uncle. Thomas was instead adopted by his uncle as his heir and became the Prince of Wales.

Princess Bridget and her mother, the Duchess of York, who no longer used the title of Queen in order to not appear a rival to her brother-in-law, relocated to the Duchess's lands in Ireland, where the Princess was raised apart from the intrigue of the court.

In 1693 on her 18th birthday, the Princess was wed to her distant cousin, James VII Stewart, King of Scotland. She gave birth to her first child, later James VIII, in 1696. Her focus was on Presbyterian Scotland and had no idea she would become the heir to the throne of England and Ireland until her brother Thomas died under mysterious circumstances while traveling with his closest companion, Geoffrey Howard, the Duke of Clarence, who fled the scene and then hung himself from an oak tree. Many believe that Geoffrey accidentally killed Thomas during a lover's spat that turned violent.

Queen Bridget and the King of Scotland, along with Prince James, now heir to both thrones, and their other children, traveled back and forth from one court to the next. James' brother, Charles Stewart, acted as his regent while he was with his wife in London, and Bridget's mother, who now reclaimed the title of Dowager Queen, acted as her regent while she was in Edinburgh. A major result of this was the increase in the role of the Parliaments in governing both kingdoms.

Although the kingdoms were not in a personal union, it was clear they eventually would be. The practical reality was that both kingdoms cooperated, especially in overseas matters and trade. This became even more so when James VIII ascended to the Scots throne in 1721. The reigning King of Scotland was the heir to the throne of England and Ireland.

Bridget was the longest monarch in the history of England and Ireland, reigning for 77 years and living until she was 104. She outlived many of her children, grandchildren, and even some great-grandchildren. During the Bridgettian Era great changes occurred in Britain, a term that was used more and more for the two kingdoms. The Industrial Revolution began, the North American colonies were organized into a colonial federation, the East India Trading Company was established, and Britain became the two most powerful kingdoms in the world.

In 1758 the two Parliaments agreed to an act of union to be effective on the death of the Queen and assumption of the English & Irish throne by the Scots monarch. They did not expect that it would be another 21 years before the then 83 year old monarch would die.

The Bridgettian Era is considered the Golden Age of Britain. When the Queen finally died the entire English speaking world mourned for months and the color black remained a fashion staple for years after the official mourning period was done. She was succeed by her granddaughter, Mary II, the reigning Queen of Scotland.

[13] Commonly overshadowed by her long-living grandmother, Mary II* started her life as a monarch, as five months before her birth King James VIII died from a stroke in 1731, and her older brother, James IX, died of the sweats at age 14 less than a week before the Queen Mother entered labour, also dying from what has been theorized as eclampsia.

Trained in the art of ruling by her grandmother, Mary's time as Queen of Scots has been traditionally characterized as being unremarkable, as outside of defending the strengthening of ties between the kingdoms of Britain, which was already in process even before her birth, the queen spent most of her time in leisure, leaving government to her relatives and children while she hunted, invested on the arts or traveled, being the first British monarch (even if at the time she was only the Queen of Scotland, and was in her visit acting as Princess of Wales) to visit the Colonies in 1768. She also loved animals, and her personal menagerie, the ancestress to the modern Royal Zoo of Edinburgh, included unique animals like the Auk (extinct on the wild), the sea cow (brought by a Scottish fur trader from the Bering Sea, she ordered that they bring as many as they found to her, alive and well, also extinct on the wild) and even elephants.

Aged 48 at the time of her ascension to the Anglo-Irish throne, Mary's reign over the united British Isles was relatively peaceful, as they remained out of the bloody collapse of the Spanish Empire into its successor kingdoms, outside of the royal intervention/take-over on the East India Trading Company in 1788 after the Cooch Behar Massacre (where the company ended up slaughtering an entire royal family almost to extinction). She was also the first British monarch to be photographed, as the earliest type of camera was invented less than a year before her death (although the image has been, sadly, lost)

Married at age 16 to Gregory Cromwell, 2nd Duke of Ardglass, she was succeded by her ______, ___________

* OOC: Basically, the numeral of a Britsh monarch should be

 

[Premier Taylerov]

'THE COLD-HEARTED SWOT'
What if Edward VI lived just long enough to produce an heir?

Monarchs of England (1547-1671)
Monarchs of the United Kingdoms of England and Ireland (1671-1779)

1547 - 1569: Edward VI (House of Tudor) [1]
1569 - 1576: Stephen II (House of Tudor) [2]
1576 - 1579: Henry IX (House of Fitzalan) [3]
1579 - 1585: Henry X (House of Fitzalan) [4]
1585 - 1585: Edward VII (House of Fitzalan) [5]
1585 -1601: Thomas I (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [6]
1601 - 1638: John II (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [7]
1638 - 1651: Edward VIII (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [8]
1651 - 1669: Edward IX (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [9]
1669 - 1678: John III (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [10]
1678 - 1702: Edward X (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [11]
1702 - 1779: Bridget I (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [12]

Monarchs of the United Kingdoms of England, Ireland and Scotland (1779-)

1779 - 1795: Mary II (House of Stewart) [13]
1795 - 1804: Thomas II (House of Cromwell) [14]

Spoiler: Edward VI to Mary II

[1] The only son and child of Henry VIII and his third wife, Jane Seymour, Edward was one of the youngest monarchs in English history, ascending to the throne at the age of 9, and ruled during the time that its formation as a truly protestant nation occurred, with the Church of England becoming more in line with those of Sweden and Denmark. A sickly man, many said he survived instead of living, suffering from some sort of disease every year of his lifetime, finally dying from tuberculosis, a disease he had lived with for years, at age 31. He also had two half sisters (who were called bastards but had been born as princesses of England in his father's two previous marriages), the ladies Mary and Elizabeth, the first (made Duchess of Bedford after giving birth to a bastard son by a groom six years prior), died of a disease in the bowels at age 45, and the second married Lord Robert Dudley and later was made Duchess of Leinster by her own right, sent in exile to Ireland for some years, she was in many ways responsible for spreading the protestant faith among the Irish nobility and people, even though many did not follow Anglicanism per se, she served as Lord Deputy of Ireland for years for her brother and his successors. Married to Lady Jane Grey in 1554, after his death she served as regent to their son, Stephen II.

[2] Stephen II of England's brief reign was turbulent. His father having passed when he was less than two years old, the noblemen of the realm immediately began jockeying for power. In 1573, after failing to prevent the annexation of Northumberland by the Scots at the behest of Thomas Percy, Queen Jane was removed by a coalition of nobles and replaced with the Earl of Warwick. However, Warwick's government proved to be equally inept and in 1575 he was removed from power after a brief civil war. Stephen took ill and died (not at all related to his new, noble-appointed chef, of course), and without a male successor the selection of a new king was given over to Parliament. Parliament appointed Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel to take the throne.

[3] The election of Henry IX by Parliament was highly controversial, and largely a result of the fractious political infighting throughout the reign of Stephen II. The 12th Earl of Arundel had been a near-permanent fixture in the courts of the Tudor monarchs, and had shrewdly supported the Regency Council of Jane to maintain a strong political position. However, upon the loss of Northumberland and the humiliation of the Earl of Warwick, Henry was courted by his supporters in Parliament as a neutral candidate around which the nobles of England could unite - and his pragmatic ambition played to their demands. Despite being 63 at the time of his coronation, Henry was able to point to an heir (also called Henry, Baron Maltravers, born in 1538), while his two daughters were well-wedded into the heart of the nobility with children of their own. Coming to the throne in 1576, Henry IX was a divisive figure and often unaccepted by those who favoured his rival candidates for the throne. Many of these candidates remained a threat upon his death just three years later in 1579.

[4] While his father's reign was tense with political intrigue and unrest due to the decision of completely set aside all female Tudors (from the lines of Elizabeth and Mary and Princess Jane, Stephen II's older sister), Henry X's was marked by war. The English Civil War (sometimes called the War of the Five Kings) began when Lady Elizabeth, who had been living in Ireland since 1552, declared Irish independence with herself as Queen in 1582 - basically declaring that any authority England had over it was moot after they basically deposed the Tudors. This action by now Queen Elizabeth started a domino effect as all the groups against the new monarchs decided that now was the time to seize the throne for themselves. The first to raise the banners of war where the Protestants who, together with their belief that Henry X was a crypto-catholic (his family having only begrudgingly accepted Protestantism during the reign of Edward VI) and that this line was barely of royal standard, rose in rebellion by the end of 1582. A good chunk of England rose with them under the leadership of the Duke of Bedford and Thomas (the bastard son of the Lady Mary, who had received her title after her death), the latter of whom was was fiercely Protestant and had eloped and married Princess Jane in 1571. The Scottish were led by the young James VI who invaded England to assert his claim as a man of full royal lineage and a direct descendant of Henry VII, while even the Welsh rose up under a pretender alleging to be the illegitimate son of Edward VI. (He died fighting a second pretender, supposedly the illegitimate grandson of Prince Arthur, son of Henry VII). Henry X died in the camp of battle fighting against Thomas, who had by that point taken control of most of the kingdom after allying with his half-aunt. By the time of his death Henry was reviled for rumours that he had (unsuccessfully) proposed to Philip II of Spain to convert to Catholicism should the Habsburgs help him in retaining his English crown, and was succeeded by the short reign of his son Edward VII.

[5] Edward VII, the last of the Fitzalans, came to the throne as any semblance of power slipped from his dynasty's grasp. His father's forces had been decisively defeated by Thomas, and Edward was forced to withdraw further and further south to prevent the obliteration of his few remaining forces. Overtures to Francis II of France also failed, given the ongoing French Wars of Religion, and in late-July Edward was forced to consider drastic options. He wrote to James VI, who was engaged in a protracted campaign against Thomas in the north, citing the claim that they were in fact related given the kinship of the Stewarts and the Fitzalans from Alan Fitz Flaad (d. 1120). Lacking a male heir, Edward proposed that his only daughter Eleanor (still a child) marry James and that their kin would be the heirs of both Scotland and England, unifying the two countries and ending the continuous Anglo-Scottish wars diplomatically. James rebuffed the offer, and moved to engage Thomas directly at the Battle of Yarm (almost a century to the day as the Battle of Bosworth Field). Edward was subsequently killed by rebel mutineers attempting to flee the country from Dartmouth - having been on the throne for less than a year - leading both James and Thomas to declare themselves King prior to their engagement. Although initially favouring the larger force of Thomas, the clash was a narrow one and affected significantly by changeable weather conditions and the difficult conditions to the east around the River Leven. By killing James at the climax of the battle and the subsequent rout, Thomas emerged victorious. With Edward drowned in Devon and the Fitzalan line forced from power, Thomas de Sabaudia faced no further resistance, and was subsequently coronated in London by the Archbishop of Canterbury - ending the War of the Five Kings.

[6] Thomas was not born to greatness, being the result of a short lived romance between the unmarried Princess Mary of England, and Emanuele Tomasso de Sabaudia - the illegitimate son of Carlo III, Duke of Savoy, and a serving officer of the English court. The young bastard was born in 1540, six years before the death of his grandfather Henry VIII and the crowning of his uncle Edward VII. By the death of his cousin; Stephen II, Thomas de Sabaudia saw himself as the sole remaining heir, and the rightful King of England. Thomas, Duke of Bedford, took a healthy annuity from the Fitzalan Kings, and despite his ties to the English throne, he would go to the continent where he made his name known as a reputable mercenary in the service of Italian dukes, the Spanish crown, and even the King of Poland. With the victory of the War of the English Succession (otherwise known as the War of the Five Kings) Thomas secured his right and the throne. Much of his early rule was spent on clearing the rebel groups, and bringing the heavy hammer of order upon those nobles who had supported the other claimants. By 1593, the purge had been completed, and the nickname “the Bloody” had been attached to the memory of Thomas I. After the death of his wife; Jane Fitzalan, Thomas would married Catherine of Portugal in 1588. The Catholic Catherine was seen as a poor choice, but the prospect of restoring the Anglo-Portuguese alliance proved right. Their union was short but fruitful, with two sons and a daughter being born before her death in 1597. With his rule stable in England, Thomas would turn his sights to the lost Kingdom of Ireland, and despite the loyalties to Elizabeth of Leinster the Irish armies could not withstand the English onslaught; by 1598 English rule was reinstated, at least within the Pale. The last years of his life were spent in relative opulence, with the palaces of England being some of the greatest and wealthiest in Europe. He would pass in 1601, and the throne would pass to his eldest son, John, Prince of Wales.

[7] John was born 1582, to King Thomas and Queen Catherine, he was named after his maternal grandfather, King John IV of Portugal. His upbringing was mainly performed by his mother, while his father was dealing with the rebels (although the Privy Council necessitated the tutors be approved by the Protestant nobility). In 1600, at 16, John married Princess Sophia of Denmark (the youngest daughter of Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow and King Frederick II of Denmark, and a year his junior). She was also the sister of Anne, Queen Consort of Scotland. To secure English rule in Ireland John arranged the marriage of his brother Emmanuel, Duke of York, to Elizabeth Dudley - the only surviving heir of Robert I of Ireland. This marriage rallied the Irish nobility behind his rule, while his sister Mary was married to their cousin Sebastian II of Portugal. Along with these marriages John would also be the match-maker for many of his noble subjects, betrothing formerly rival houses to one another, stating that he never wished for English blood to be split by other English men on English soil. Peace was never broken within his 37-year reign, and instead of spending taxes on standing armies the Privy Council was able to concentrate on increasing the size of the Navy and mercantilism. His death at the age of 55 came as a great shock, for the healthy king was assumed to live forever. However, while dancing at a party held in honour of the birth of his first great-grandchild - a feat that no monarch had claimed before - John collapsed into the arms of his daughter-in-law, lost consciousness and was carried to a nearby lounge chair, where he was pronounced dead. At first there was speculation of murder, but after an examination from an independent doctor it was found that he had a brain aneurysm. He was succeeded by his second son Edward, Duke of Clarence - leaving behind his wife, 8 children, 22 grandchild and 1 great-grandchild.

[8] Edward was the second of the six sons of John II and until the age of 4 there was no expectation that he would inherit the throne. When his elder brother Thomas reached the age of 6 his developmental disabilities became apparent. Known to be deaf from birth and developmentally stunted, Thomas was unfit for rule and so Edward was pushed into the limelight as the heir-principal of his father, even though his elder brother was still alive. Having inherited the throne at the age of 37, and with 6 children of his own by his wife Catherine of Milan as well as two illegitimate sons (John and William), Edward VIII looked to be a great king. He worked to continue the peace his father had built, and largely succeeded. However, after a mere thirteen years on the throne Edward would be succeeded by his eldest son, who took the throne as Edward IX.

[9] As the eldest legitimate son of Edward VIII, Edward IX quickly showed a keen interest in the development of the English navy but also, more importantly, in the dramatic surge in commitment to the fledging North American colonies. A major shipbuilding programme was bolstered by the arrival of Protestant Dutch fleeing from the devastating war between France and the Habsburg family compact, while England prospered from her neutrality on the edge of Europe. The peaceful reign of the Tudor-Sabaudia dynasty continued, although religious upheaval in Scotland threatened the tentative status quo amid threats of a renewed Auld Alliance. London grew rapidly as England embraced her commercial revolution, and although Edward failed in his attempts to create a single national bank (primarily as a means to finance his navy) economic reforms loomed heavily over the horizon. Blessed with his large extended family and happily married, when Edward died of dropsy in 1669 the crown passed to his younger brother Maximilian John, Duke of York- a monarch who, although tested by both economic and military crises, would reign over the true beginnings of the modern English state.

[10] Maximilian John was born during the reign of his grandfather, John II. Early in life, he was destined to marry Elizabeth of York (the daughter of Emmanuel, 3rd Duke of York, and the senior most descendant of Elizabeth, Queen of Ireland). With their marriage, the cadet branch of the Dukes of York came to an end, and the title returned to the royal family. Their marriage was fruitful, producing three sons and two daughters, - in stark contrast to his brother (the future Edward X), for the Prince of Wales had but one son who died at the young age of 18. Upon the death of Edward IX John took the thrones of England and Ireland, and for the next two years worked tirelessly to consolidate his kingdoms into a single state. The 1671 Act of Union passed through both parliaments, and formed the United Kingdoms of England and Ireland. This, combined with his popular marriage to Elizabeth, finally established the Tudor-Sabaudia dynasty as the rightful monarchs of Ireland. However, war would come to the United Kingdoms as the ultra-Catholic Valois attempted to conquer Calais in 1764. Charles XIII of France assaulted the walls of the fortress city no fewer than seven times, also leading an invasion of the Netherlands. Unfortunately, the French cannon also struck the munitions store, detonating the powder as well as the King (who was leading the defence of his European redoubt). Upon the death of John III the city quickly fell, and the throne passed to his brother Edward.

[11] The reign of John III had been a turning point for his dynasty; while the unification of England and Ireland would create a powerful mercantile state focused largely upon the Atlantic, his premature death and the forced involvement of the United Kingdoms in European affairs all was a crisis for Tudor-Sabaudian rule. Although Edward was a capable ruler, the 1678 Treaty of Coulogne (establishing a short-lived peace with France) was highly-unpopular and did little to prevent the further conflagration in Europe. France, triumphant, launched enthusiastically into the First War of the Valois - their first attempt to establish both French and High-Church dominance over the Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburgs. Such a challenge to the European status necessitated an Austrian-led coalition, with Emperor Otto VI quickly establishing a strong position in Central Europe. For the most part Edward attempted to keep the United Kingdoms out of the conflict, but in 1682 agreed to sponsor large campaigns against French positions in North America as well as conduct a sizeable naval campaign as part of the anti-Valois coalition. The war dominated his reign, but Edward would not seek any personal glory on the battlefield - instead, he served as a shrewd administrator and diplomat. Upon the European stalemate in 1687, Edward was able to secure major American colonial concessions from the French in exchange for his recognition of the annexation of Calais and the Netherlands. Although the Second War of the Valois would begin in 1691 the United Kingdoms remained neutral until the intervention of the Scots into the conflict in 1697. Most significantly, however, Edward was never able to overcome his fertility problems. When he died in 1702 the throne passed to the only living child of John III - his youngest daughter, Bridget, the Queen of Scotland.

[12] Princess Bridget was the last child of John III and Elizabeth of York. Her siblings were Emmanuel (b. 1650-1678) Elizabeth (1654-1670), Henry (1658-1678), and Thomas (1662-1701). She was a surprise child born to the 40-year-old Queen in 1675 - long after it was thought her child-bearing years were over. She was the only child born while her father was King, and a comfort to her mother still morning the loss of her daughter Elizabeth who had died from the sweating sickness just weeks before her sixteenth birthday. Bridget was only 3 years old when her father and her two oldest brothers died in the Battle of Calais, leaving her and her elder brother Prince Thomas, only 15 years old, as the only heirs to the throne. Thomas was an effeminate boy with no interest in the throne nor the will to resist his uncle, and was subsequently adopted as his heir. Princess Bridget and her mother, the Duchess of York (who no longer used the title of Queen in order to not appear a rival to her brother-in-law) relocated to their lands in Ireland, where the princess was raised apart from the intrigue of the court. In 1693, on her 18th birthday, the Princess was wed to her distant cousin, James VII Stewart, King of Scotland. She gave birth to her first child, later James VIII, in 1696. Her focus was on Presbyterian Scotland and had no idea she would become the heir to the throne of England and Ireland until her brother Thomas died under mysterious circumstances while traveling with his closest companion Geoffrey Howard, the Duke of Clarence. Clarence fled the scene and then hung himself from an oak tree, with many believing that Geoffrey had accidentally killed Thomas during a violent lover's spat. Queen Bridget and the King of Scotland, along with Prince James (now heir to both thrones) traveled back and forth from one court to the next. James' brother, Charles Stewart, acted as his regent while he was with his wife in London, and Bridget's mother, who now reclaimed the title of Dowager Queen, acted as her regent while she was in Edinburgh. A major result of this was the increase in the role of the parliaments in governing both kingdoms; although the kingdoms were not in a personal union, it was clear they eventually would be. The practical reality was that both kingdoms cooperated, especially in overseas matters and trade, and this became even more evident when James VIII ascended to the Scottish throne in 1721. The reigning King of Scotland was the heir to the throne of England and Ireland. Bridget was the longest monarch in the history of England and Ireland, reigning for 77 years and living until she was 104. She outlived many of her children, grandchildren, and even some great-grandchildren. During the Bridgettian Era great changes occurred in Britain, a term that was used more and more for the two kingdoms. The Industrial Revolution began, the North American colonies were organized into a colonial federation, the East India Trading Company was established, and Britain became the two most powerful kingdoms in the world. In 1758 the two Parliaments agreed to another Act of Union to be effective on the death of the Queen and assumption of the English & Irish throne by the Scots monarch. They did not expect that it would be another 21 years before the then 83 year old monarch would die. The Bridgettian Era is considered the Golden Age of Britain. When the Queen finally died the entire English speaking world mourned for months and the color black remained a fashion staple for years after the official mourning period was done. She was succeed by her granddaughter, Mary II, the reigning Queen of Scotland.

[13] Commonly overshadowed by her long-living grandmother Mary II started her life as a monarch, as James VIII died five months before her birth while her elder brother James IX died of the sweats (at age 14) less than a week before the Queen Mother entered labour. Her mother also died from what has been theorized as eclampsia. Trained in the art of ruling by her grandmother, Mary's time as Queen of Scots has been traditionally characterized as being unremarkable, as outside the strengthening of ties between the kingdoms of Britain (which was already in process even before her birth) the Queen spent most of her time in leisure. She left government to her relatives and children while she hunted, invested in the arts or traveled, and was the first British monarch to visit the Colonies in 1768 (even if she had only been the Queen of Scotland at the time). She also loved animals and her personal menagerie, and was the ancestress to the modern Royal Zoo of Edinburgh. The zoo included unique animals, extinct in the wild, such as the like the Great Auk, the sea cow (brought by a Scottish fur trader from the Bering Sea) and even elephants. Aged 48 at the time of her ascension to the Anglo-Irish throne, Mary's reign over the united British Isles was relatively peaceful; the Stewarts remained uninvolved in the bloody collapse of the Spanish Empire into its successor kingdoms and outside of the royal intervention/take-over on the East India Trading Company in 1788 after the Cooch Behar Massacre . She was also the first British monarch to be photographed, as the earliest type of camera was invented less than a year before her death (although the image has been, sadly, lost). Married at age 16 to Gregory Cromwell, 2nd Duke of Ardglass, she was succeeded by her eldest son, Thomas.

[14] Thomas took the throne in 1795 at the head of a globe-spanning imperial state, and despite the minor domestic squabbles caused by the ongoing Regnal Number Controversy it seemed the United Kingdoms of Britain were immune to the political convulsions on the continent. The first monarch of the House of Cromwell (and having resisted calls to take a regnal name not-yet used in any of the Three Kingdoms), Thomas was nevertheless intimidated by the sweeping nationalist revolutions in Europe and quickly established himself as a reactionary. He supported the conservative parliamentary majority of the Church Party, and resisted calls for greater democratization both at home and in the Colonies. He also opposed the growing influence of the 'new gentry' - the rising number of industrialists and career politicians funded by the new northern factories, such as the wealth of the Earl of Salford or the Marquess of Ayrshire. By 1800, protests broke out across the major cities (partly exacerbated by the dire economic situation caused by the collapse of the East India Trading Company and the disastrous effect of the Spanish Revolution on international trade) to push for social reform, financial liberalization and political influence for the masses. Thomas II was highly-reluctant to agree to their demands, and although the protestors never sought to overthrow the monarchy (with the defenestration of the Spanish Habsburgs unpopular in Britain given their shared history against the French) many celebrated the death of the King in 1804. They viewed his successor, _______________, with a renewed optimism in the hope for a political settlement, although it was clear that this would be misplaced for the most part.

Married at age 16 to Gregory Cromwell, 2nd Duke of Ardglass, she was succeeded by her ______, ___________

Aww, I had an idea for her successor but you hornswoggled that in at the last minute.

 

[Peppe]

'THE COLD-HEARTED SWOT'
What if Edward VI lived just long enough to produce an heir?

Monarchs of England (1547-1671)
Monarchs of the United Kingdoms of England and Ireland (1671-1779)

1547 - 1569: Edward VI (House of Tudor) [1]
1569 - 1576: Stephen II (House of Tudor) [2]
1576 - 1579: Henry IX (House of Fitzalan) [3]
1579 - 1585: Henry X (House of Fitzalan) [4]
1585 - 1585: Edward VII (House of Fitzalan) [5]
1585 -1601: Thomas I (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [6]
1601 - 1638: John II (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [7]
1638 - 1651: Edward VIII (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [8]
1651 - 1669: Edward IX (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [9]
1669 - 1678: John III (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [10]
1678 - 1702: Edward X (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [11]
1702 - 1779: Bridget I (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [12]

Monarchs of the United Kingdoms of England, Ireland and Scotland (1779-)

1779 - 1795: Mary II (House of Stewart) [13]
1795 - 1804: Thomas II (House of Cromwell) [14]

Spoiler: Edward VI to Mary II

[1] The only son and child of Henry VIII and his third wife, Jane Seymour, Edward was one of the youngest monarchs in English history, ascending to the throne at the age of 9, and ruled during the time that its formation as a truly protestant nation occurred, with the Church of England becoming more in line with those of Sweden and Denmark. A sickly man, many said he survived instead of living, suffering from some sort of disease every year of his lifetime, finally dying from tuberculosis, a disease he had lived with for years, at age 31. He also had two half sisters (who were called bastards but had been born as princesses of England in his father's two previous marriages), the ladies Mary and Elizabeth, the first (made Duchess of Bedford after giving birth to a bastard son by a groom six years prior), died of a disease in the bowels at age 45, and the second married Lord Robert Dudley and later was made Duchess of Leinster by her own right, sent in exile to Ireland for some years, she was in many ways responsible for spreading the protestant faith among the Irish nobility and people, even though many did not follow Anglicanism per se, she served as Lord Deputy of Ireland for years for her brother and his successors. Married to Lady Jane Grey in 1554, after his death she served as regent to their son, Stephen II.

[2] Stephen II of England's brief reign was turbulent. His father having passed when he was less than two years old, the noblemen of the realm immediately began jockeying for power. In 1573, after failing to prevent the annexation of Northumberland by the Scots at the behest of Thomas Percy, Queen Jane was removed by a coalition of nobles and replaced with the Earl of Warwick. However, Warwick's government proved to be equally inept and in 1575 he was removed from power after a brief civil war. Stephen took ill and died (not at all related to his new, noble-appointed chef, of course), and without a male successor the selection of a new king was given over to Parliament. Parliament appointed Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel to take the throne.

[3] The election of Henry IX by Parliament was highly controversial, and largely a result of the fractious political infighting throughout the reign of Stephen II. The 12th Earl of Arundel had been a near-permanent fixture in the courts of the Tudor monarchs, and had shrewdly supported the Regency Council of Jane to maintain a strong political position. However, upon the loss of Northumberland and the humiliation of the Earl of Warwick, Henry was courted by his supporters in Parliament as a neutral candidate around which the nobles of England could unite - and his pragmatic ambition played to their demands. Despite being 63 at the time of his coronation, Henry was able to point to an heir (also called Henry, Baron Maltravers, born in 1538), while his two daughters were well-wedded into the heart of the nobility with children of their own. Coming to the throne in 1576, Henry IX was a divisive figure and often unaccepted by those who favoured his rival candidates for the throne. Many of these candidates remained a threat upon his death just three years later in 1579.

[4] While his father's reign was tense with political intrigue and unrest due to the decision of completely set aside all female Tudors (from the lines of Elizabeth and Mary and Princess Jane, Stephen II's older sister), Henry X's was marked by war. The English Civil War (sometimes called the War of the Five Kings) began when Lady Elizabeth, who had been living in Ireland since 1552, declared Irish independence with herself as Queen in 1582 - basically declaring that any authority England had over it was moot after they basically deposed the Tudors. This action by now Queen Elizabeth started a domino effect as all the groups against the new monarchs decided that now was the time to seize the throne for themselves. The first to raise the banners of war where the Protestants who, together with their belief that Henry X was a crypto-catholic (his family having only begrudgingly accepted Protestantism during the reign of Edward VI) and that this line was barely of royal standard, rose in rebellion by the end of 1582. A good chunk of England rose with them under the leadership of the Duke of Bedford and Thomas (the bastard son of the Lady Mary, who had received her title after her death), the latter of whom was was fiercely Protestant and had eloped and married Princess Jane in 1571. The Scottish were led by the young James VI who invaded England to assert his claim as a man of full royal lineage and a direct descendant of Henry VII, while even the Welsh rose up under a pretender alleging to be the illegitimate son of Edward VI. (He died fighting a second pretender, supposedly the illegitimate grandson of Prince Arthur, son of Henry VII). Henry X died in the camp of battle fighting against Thomas, who had by that point taken control of most of the kingdom after allying with his half-aunt. By the time of his death Henry was reviled for rumours that he had (unsuccessfully) proposed to Philip II of Spain to convert to Catholicism should the Habsburgs help him in retaining his English crown, and was succeeded by the short reign of his son Edward VII.

[5] Edward VII, the last of the Fitzalans, came to the throne as any semblance of power slipped from his dynasty's grasp. His father's forces had been decisively defeated by Thomas, and Edward was forced to withdraw further and further south to prevent the obliteration of his few remaining forces. Overtures to Francis II of France also failed, given the ongoing French Wars of Religion, and in late-July Edward was forced to consider drastic options. He wrote to James VI, who was engaged in a protracted campaign against Thomas in the north, citing the claim that they were in fact related given the kinship of the Stewarts and the Fitzalans from Alan Fitz Flaad (d. 1120). Lacking a male heir, Edward proposed that his only daughter Eleanor (still a child) marry James and that their kin would be the heirs of both Scotland and England, unifying the two countries and ending the continuous Anglo-Scottish wars diplomatically. James rebuffed the offer, and moved to engage Thomas directly at the Battle of Yarm (almost a century to the day as the Battle of Bosworth Field). Edward was subsequently killed by rebel mutineers attempting to flee the country from Dartmouth - having been on the throne for less than a year - leading both James and Thomas to declare themselves King prior to their engagement. Although initially favouring the larger force of Thomas, the clash was a narrow one and affected significantly by changeable weather conditions and the difficult conditions to the east around the River Leven. By killing James at the climax of the battle and the subsequent rout, Thomas emerged victorious. With Edward drowned in Devon and the Fitzalan line forced from power, Thomas de Sabaudia faced no further resistance, and was subsequently coronated in London by the Archbishop of Canterbury - ending the War of the Five Kings.

[6] Thomas was not born to greatness, being the result of a short lived romance between the unmarried Princess Mary of England, and Emanuele Tomasso de Sabaudia - the illegitimate son of Carlo III, Duke of Savoy, and a serving officer of the English court. The young bastard was born in 1540, six years before the death of his grandfather Henry VIII and the crowning of his uncle Edward VII. By the death of his cousin; Stephen II, Thomas de Sabaudia saw himself as the sole remaining heir, and the rightful King of England. Thomas, Duke of Bedford, took a healthy annuity from the Fitzalan Kings, and despite his ties to the English throne, he would go to the continent where he made his name known as a reputable mercenary in the service of Italian dukes, the Spanish crown, and even the King of Poland. With the victory of the War of the English Succession (otherwise known as the War of the Five Kings) Thomas secured his right and the throne. Much of his early rule was spent on clearing the rebel groups, and bringing the heavy hammer of order upon those nobles who had supported the other claimants. By 1593, the purge had been completed, and the nickname “the Bloody” had been attached to the memory of Thomas I. After the death of his wife; Jane Fitzalan, Thomas would married Catherine of Portugal in 1588. The Catholic Catherine was seen as a poor choice, but the prospect of restoring the Anglo-Portuguese alliance proved right. Their union was short but fruitful, with two sons and a daughter being born before her death in 1597. With his rule stable in England, Thomas would turn his sights to the lost Kingdom of Ireland, and despite the loyalties to Elizabeth of Leinster the Irish armies could not withstand the English onslaught; by 1598 English rule was reinstated, at least within the Pale. The last years of his life were spent in relative opulence, with the palaces of England being some of the greatest and wealthiest in Europe. He would pass in 1601, and the throne would pass to his eldest son, John, Prince of Wales.

[7] John was born 1582, to King Thomas and Queen Catherine, he was named after his maternal grandfather, King John IV of Portugal. His upbringing was mainly performed by his mother, while his father was dealing with the rebels (although the Privy Council necessitated the tutors be approved by the Protestant nobility). In 1600, at 16, John married Princess Sophia of Denmark (the youngest daughter of Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow and King Frederick II of Denmark, and a year his junior). She was also the sister of Anne, Queen Consort of Scotland. To secure English rule in Ireland John arranged the marriage of his brother Emmanuel, Duke of York, to Elizabeth Dudley - the only surviving heir of Robert I of Ireland. This marriage rallied the Irish nobility behind his rule, while his sister Mary was married to their cousin Sebastian II of Portugal. Along with these marriages John would also be the match-maker for many of his noble subjects, betrothing formerly rival houses to one another, stating that he never wished for English blood to be split by other English men on English soil. Peace was never broken within his 37-year reign, and instead of spending taxes on standing armies the Privy Council was able to concentrate on increasing the size of the Navy and mercantilism. His death at the age of 55 came as a great shock, for the healthy king was assumed to live forever. However, while dancing at a party held in honour of the birth of his first great-grandchild - a feat that no monarch had claimed before - John collapsed into the arms of his daughter-in-law, lost consciousness and was carried to a nearby lounge chair, where he was pronounced dead. At first there was speculation of murder, but after an examination from an independent doctor it was found that he had a brain aneurysm. He was succeeded by his second son Edward, Duke of Clarence - leaving behind his wife, 8 children, 22 grandchild and 1 great-grandchild.

[8] Edward was the second of the six sons of John II and until the age of 4 there was no expectation that he would inherit the throne. When his elder brother Thomas reached the age of 6 his developmental disabilities became apparent. Known to be deaf from birth and developmentally stunted, Thomas was unfit for rule and so Edward was pushed into the limelight as the heir-principal of his father, even though his elder brother was still alive. Having inherited the throne at the age of 37, and with 6 children of his own by his wife Catherine of Milan as well as two illegitimate sons (John and William), Edward VIII looked to be a great king. He worked to continue the peace his father had built, and largely succeeded. However, after a mere thirteen years on the throne Edward would be succeeded by his eldest son, who took the throne as Edward IX.

[9] As the eldest legitimate son of Edward VIII, Edward IX quickly showed a keen interest in the development of the English navy but also, more importantly, in the dramatic surge in commitment to the fledging North American colonies. A major shipbuilding programme was bolstered by the arrival of Protestant Dutch fleeing from the devastating war between France and the Habsburg family compact, while England prospered from her neutrality on the edge of Europe. The peaceful reign of the Tudor-Sabaudia dynasty continued, although religious upheaval in Scotland threatened the tentative status quo amid threats of a renewed Auld Alliance. London grew rapidly as England embraced her commercial revolution, and although Edward failed in his attempts to create a single national bank (primarily as a means to finance his navy) economic reforms loomed heavily over the horizon. Blessed with his large extended family and happily married, when Edward died of dropsy in 1669 the crown passed to his younger brother Maximilian John, Duke of York- a monarch who, although tested by both economic and military crises, would reign over the true beginnings of the modern English state.

[10] Maximilian John was born during the reign of his grandfather, John II. Early in life, he was destined to marry Elizabeth of York (the daughter of Emmanuel, 3rd Duke of York, and the senior most descendant of Elizabeth, Queen of Ireland). With their marriage, the cadet branch of the Dukes of York came to an end, and the title returned to the royal family. Their marriage was fruitful, producing three sons and two daughters, - in stark contrast to his brother (the future Edward X), for the Prince of Wales had but one son who died at the young age of 18. Upon the death of Edward IX John took the thrones of England and Ireland, and for the next two years worked tirelessly to consolidate his kingdoms into a single state. The 1671 Act of Union passed through both parliaments, and formed the United Kingdoms of England and Ireland. This, combined with his popular marriage to Elizabeth, finally established the Tudor-Sabaudia dynasty as the rightful monarchs of Ireland. However, war would come to the United Kingdoms as the ultra-Catholic Valois attempted to conquer Calais in 1764. Charles XIII of France assaulted the walls of the fortress city no fewer than seven times, also leading an invasion of the Netherlands. Unfortunately, the French cannon also struck the munitions store, detonating the powder as well as the King (who was leading the defence of his European redoubt). Upon the death of John III the city quickly fell, and the throne passed to his brother Edward.

[11] The reign of John III had been a turning point for his dynasty; while the unification of England and Ireland would create a powerful mercantile state focused largely upon the Atlantic, his premature death and the forced involvement of the United Kingdoms in European affairs all was a crisis for Tudor-Sabaudian rule. Although Edward was a capable ruler, the 1678 Treaty of Coulogne (establishing a short-lived peace with France) was highly-unpopular and did little to prevent the further conflagration in Europe. France, triumphant, launched enthusiastically into the First War of the Valois - their first attempt to establish both French and High-Church dominance over the Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburgs. Such a challenge to the European status necessitated an Austrian-led coalition, with Emperor Otto VI quickly establishing a strong position in Central Europe. For the most part Edward attempted to keep the United Kingdoms out of the conflict, but in 1682 agreed to sponsor large campaigns against French positions in North America as well as conduct a sizeable naval campaign as part of the anti-Valois coalition. The war dominated his reign, but Edward would not seek any personal glory on the battlefield - instead, he served as a shrewd administrator and diplomat. Upon the European stalemate in 1687, Edward was able to secure major American colonial concessions from the French in exchange for his recognition of the annexation of Calais and the Netherlands. Although the Second War of the Valois would begin in 1691 the United Kingdoms remained neutral until the intervention of the Scots into the conflict in 1697. Most significantly, however, Edward was never able to overcome his fertility problems. When he died in 1702 the throne passed to the only living child of John III - his youngest daughter, Bridget, the Queen of Scotland.

[12] Princess Bridget was the last child of John III and Elizabeth of York. Her siblings were Emmanuel (b. 1650-1678) Elizabeth (1654-1670), Henry (1658-1678), and Thomas (1662-1701). She was a surprise child born to the 40-year-old Queen in 1675 - long after it was thought her child-bearing years were over. She was the only child born while her father was King, and a comfort to her mother still morning the loss of her daughter Elizabeth who had died from the sweating sickness just weeks before her sixteenth birthday. Bridget was only 3 years old when her father and her two oldest brothers died in the Battle of Calais, leaving her and her elder brother Prince Thomas, only 15 years old, as the only heirs to the throne. Thomas was an effeminate boy with no interest in the throne nor the will to resist his uncle, and was subsequently adopted as his heir. Princess Bridget and her mother, the Duchess of York (who no longer used the title of Queen in order to not appear a rival to her brother-in-law) relocated to their lands in Ireland, where the princess was raised apart from the intrigue of the court. In 1693, on her 18th birthday, the Princess was wed to her distant cousin, James VII Stewart, King of Scotland. She gave birth to her first child, later James VIII, in 1696. Her focus was on Presbyterian Scotland and had no idea she would become the heir to the throne of England and Ireland until her brother Thomas died under mysterious circumstances while traveling with his closest companion Geoffrey Howard, the Duke of Clarence. Clarence fled the scene and then hung himself from an oak tree, with many believing that Geoffrey had accidentally killed Thomas during a violent lover's spat. Queen Bridget and the King of Scotland, along with Prince James (now heir to both thrones) traveled back and forth from one court to the next. James' brother, Charles Stewart, acted as his regent while he was with his wife in London, and Bridget's mother, who now reclaimed the title of Dowager Queen, acted as her regent while she was in Edinburgh. A major result of this was the increase in the role of the parliaments in governing both kingdoms; although the kingdoms were not in a personal union, it was clear they eventually would be. The practical reality was that both kingdoms cooperated, especially in overseas matters and trade, and this became even more evident when James VIII ascended to the Scottish throne in 1721. The reigning King of Scotland was the heir to the throne of England and Ireland. Bridget was the longest monarch in the history of England and Ireland, reigning for 77 years and living until she was 104. She outlived many of her children, grandchildren, and even some great-grandchildren. During the Bridgettian Era great changes occurred in Britain, a term that was used more and more for the two kingdoms. The Industrial Revolution began, the North American colonies were organized into a colonial federation, the East India Trading Company was established, and Britain became the two most powerful kingdoms in the world. In 1758 the two Parliaments agreed to another Act of Union to be effective on the death of the Queen and assumption of the English & Irish throne by the Scots monarch. They did not expect that it would be another 21 years before the then 83 year old monarch would die. The Bridgettian Era is considered the Golden Age of Britain. When the Queen finally died the entire English speaking world mourned for months and the color black remained a fashion staple for years after the official mourning period was done. She was succeed by her granddaughter, Mary II, the reigning Queen of Scotland.

[13] Commonly overshadowed by her long-living grandmother Mary II started her life as a monarch, as James VIII died five months before her birth while her elder brother James IX died of the sweats (at age 14) less than a week before the Queen Mother entered labour. Her mother also died from what has been theorized as eclampsia. Trained in the art of ruling by her grandmother, Mary's time as Queen of Scots has been traditionally characterized as being unremarkable, as outside the strengthening of ties between the kingdoms of Britain (which was already in process even before her birth) the Queen spent most of her time in leisure. She left government to her relatives and children while she hunted, invested in the arts or traveled, and was the first British monarch to visit the Colonies in 1768 (even if she had only been the Queen of Scotland at the time). She also loved animals and her personal menagerie, and was the ancestress to the modern Royal Zoo of Edinburgh. The zoo included unique animals, extinct in the wild, such as the like the Great Auk, the sea cow (brought by a Scottish fur trader from the Bering Sea) and even elephants. Aged 48 at the time of her ascension to the Anglo-Irish throne, Mary's reign over the united British Isles was relatively peaceful; the Stewarts remained uninvolved in the bloody collapse of the Spanish Empire into its successor kingdoms and outside of the royal intervention/take-over on the East India Trading Company in 1788 after the Cooch Behar Massacre . She was also the first British monarch to be photographed, as the earliest type of camera was invented less than a year before her death (although the image has been, sadly, lost). Married at age 16 to Gregory Cromwell, 2nd Duke of Ardglass, she was succeeded by her eldest son, Thomas.

[14] Thomas took the throne in 1795 at the head of a globe-spanning imperial state, and despite the minor domestic squabbles caused by the ongoing Regnal Number Controversy it seemed the United Kingdoms of Britain were immune to the political convulsions on the continent. The first monarch of the House of Cromwell (and having resisted calls to take a regnal name not-yet used in any of the Three Kingdoms), Thomas was nevertheless intimidated by the sweeping nationalist revolutions in Europe and quickly established himself as a reactionary. He supported the conservative parliamentary majority of the Church Party, and resisted calls for greater democratization both at home and in the Colonies. He also opposed the growing influence of the 'new gentry' - the rising number of industrialists and career politicians funded by the new northern factories, such as the wealth of the Earl of Salford or the Marquess of Ayrshire. By 1800, protests broke out across the major cities (partly exacerbated by the dire economic situation caused by the collapse of the East India Trading Company and the disastrous effect of the Spanish Revolution on international trade) to push for social reform, financial liberalization and political influence for the masses. Thomas II was highly-reluctant to agree to their demands, and although the protestors never sought to overthrow the monarchy (with the defenestration of the Spanish Habsburgs unpopular in Britain given their shared history against the French) many celebrated the death of the King in 1804. They viewed his successor, _______________, with a renewed optimism in the hope for a political settlement, although it was clear that this would be misplaced for the most part.


Aww, I had an idea for her successor but you hornswoggled that in at the last minute.

I must say I was going more for a break up of the Spanish Colonial empire due to a large-scale civil war due to various branches of the Royal Family vying for the throne after the main one died out, and not a French Revolution-esque scenario, but I guess it works (and maybe the successor kingdoms I spoke of are those born out of the family members who were already in the colonies or who escaped the revolution)

(also, just out of curiosity, what was your plan for her successor?)

 

[Peppe]

'THE COLD-HEARTED SWOT'
What if Edward VI lived just long enough to produce an heir?

Monarchs of England (1547-1671)
Monarchs of the United Kingdoms of England and Ireland (1671-1779)

1547 - 1569: Edward VI (House of Tudor) [1]
1569 - 1576: Stephen II (House of Tudor) [2]
1576 - 1579: Henry IX (House of Fitzalan) [3]
1579 - 1585: Henry X (House of Fitzalan) [4]
1585 - 1585: Edward VII (House of Fitzalan) [5]
1585 -1601: Thomas I (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [6]
1601 - 1638: John II (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [7]
1638 - 1651: Edward VIII (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [8]
1651 - 1669: Edward IX (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [9]
1669 - 1678: John III (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [10]
1678 - 1702: Edward X (House of Tudor-Sabaudia) [11]
1702 - 1779: Bridget I (House of Stewart) [12]

Monarchs of the United Kingdoms of England, Ireland and Scotland (1779-)

1779 - 1795: Mary II (House of Stewart) [13]
1795 - 1804: Thomas II (House of Cromwell) [14]
1804 - 1804: Alexander IV (House of Cromwell) [15]

Spoiler: Edward VI to Tomas II

[1] The only son and child of Henry VIII and his third wife, Jane Seymour, Edward was one of the youngest monarchs in English history, ascending to the throne at the age of 9, and ruled during the time that its formation as a truly protestant nation occurred, with the Church of England becoming more in line with those of Sweden and Denmark. A sickly man, many said he survived instead of living, suffering from some sort of disease every year of his lifetime, finally dying from tuberculosis, a disease he had lived with for years, at age 31. He also had two half sisters (who were called bastards but had been born as princesses of England in his father's two previous marriages), the ladies Mary and Elizabeth, the first (made Duchess of Bedford after giving birth to a bastard son by a groom six years prior), died of a disease in the bowels at age 45, and the second married Lord Robert Dudley and later was made Duchess of Leinster by her own right, sent in exile to Ireland for some years, she was in many ways responsible for spreading the protestant faith among the Irish nobility and people, even though many did not follow Anglicanism per se, she served as Lord Deputy of Ireland for years for her brother and his successors. Married to Lady Jane Grey in 1554, after his death she served as regent to their son, Stephen II.

[2] Stephen II of England's brief reign was turbulent. His father having passed when he was less than two years old, the noblemen of the realm immediately began jockeying for power. In 1573, after failing to prevent the annexation of Northumberland by the Scots at the behest of Thomas Percy, Queen Jane was removed by a coalition of nobles and replaced with the Earl of Warwick. However, Warwick's government proved to be equally inept and in 1575 he was removed from power after a brief civil war. Stephen took ill and died (not at all related to his new, noble-appointed chef, of course), and without a male successor the selection of a new king was given over to Parliament. Parliament appointed Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel to take the throne.

[3] The election of Henry IX by Parliament was highly controversial, and largely a result of the fractious political infighting throughout the reign of Stephen II. The 12th Earl of Arundel had been a near-permanent fixture in the courts of the Tudor monarchs, and had shrewdly supported the Regency Council of Jane to maintain a strong political position. However, upon the loss of Northumberland and the humiliation of the Earl of Warwick, Henry was courted by his supporters in Parliament as a neutral candidate around which the nobles of England could unite - and his pragmatic ambition played to their demands. Despite being 63 at the time of his coronation, Henry was able to point to an heir (also called Henry, Baron Maltravers, born in 1538), while his two daughters were well-wedded into the heart of the nobility with children of their own. Coming to the throne in 1576, Henry IX was a divisive figure and often unaccepted by those who favoured his rival candidates for the throne. Many of these candidates remained a threat upon his death just three years later in 1579.

[4] While his father's reign was tense with political intrigue and unrest due to the decision of completely set aside all female Tudors (from the lines of Elizabeth and Mary and Princess Jane, Stephen II's older sister), Henry X's was marked by war. The English Civil War (sometimes called the War of the Five Kings) began when Lady Elizabeth, who had been living in Ireland since 1552, declared Irish independence with herself as Queen in 1582 - basically declaring that any authority England had over it was moot after they basically deposed the Tudors. This action by now Queen Elizabeth started a domino effect as all the groups against the new monarchs decided that now was the time to seize the throne for themselves. The first to raise the banners of war where the Protestants who, together with their belief that Henry X was a crypto-catholic (his family having only begrudgingly accepted Protestantism during the reign of Edward VI) and that this line was barely of royal standard, rose in rebellion by the end of 1582. A good chunk of England rose with them under the leadership of the Duke of Bedford and Thomas (the bastard son of the Lady Mary, who had received her title after her death), the latter of whom was was fiercely Protestant and had eloped and married Princess Jane in 1571. The Scottish were led by the young James VI who invaded England to assert his claim as a man of full royal lineage and a direct descendant of Henry VII, while even the Welsh rose up under a pretender alleging to be the illegitimate son of Edward VI. (He died fighting a second pretender, supposedly the illegitimate grandson of Prince Arthur, son of Henry VII). Henry X died in the camp of battle fighting against Thomas, who had by that point taken control of most of the kingdom after allying with his half-aunt. By the time of his death Henry was reviled for rumours that he had (unsuccessfully) proposed to Philip II of Spain to convert to Catholicism should the Habsburgs help him in retaining his English crown, and was succeeded by the short reign of his son Edward VII.

[5] Edward VII, the last of the Fitzalans, came to the throne as any semblance of power slipped from his dynasty's grasp. His father's forces had been decisively defeated by Thomas, and Edward was forced to withdraw further and further south to prevent the obliteration of his few remaining forces. Overtures to Francis II of France also failed, given the ongoing French Wars of Religion, and in late-July Edward was forced to consider drastic options. He wrote to James VI, who was engaged in a protracted campaign against Thomas in the north, citing the claim that they were in fact related given the kinship of the Stewarts and the Fitzalans from Alan Fitz Flaad (d. 1120). Lacking a male heir, Edward proposed that his only daughter Eleanor (still a child) marry James and that their kin would be the heirs of both Scotland and England, unifying the two countries and ending the continuous Anglo-Scottish wars diplomatically. James rebuffed the offer, and moved to engage Thomas directly at the Battle of Yarm (almost a century to the day as the Battle of Bosworth Field). Edward was subsequently killed by rebel mutineers attempting to flee the country from Dartmouth - having been on the throne for less than a year - leading both James and Thomas to declare themselves King prior to their engagement. Although initially favouring the larger force of Thomas, the clash was a narrow one and affected significantly by changeable weather conditions and the difficult conditions to the east around the River Leven. By killing James at the climax of the battle and the subsequent rout, Thomas emerged victorious. With Edward drowned in Devon and the Fitzalan line forced from power, Thomas de Sabaudia faced no further resistance, and was subsequently coronated in London by the Archbishop of Canterbury - ending the War of the Five Kings.

[6] Thomas was not born to greatness, being the result of a short lived romance between the unmarried Princess Mary of England, and Emanuele Tomasso de Sabaudia - the illegitimate son of Carlo III, Duke of Savoy, and a serving officer of the English court. The young bastard was born in 1540, six years before the death of his grandfather Henry VIII and the crowning of his uncle Edward VII. By the death of his cousin; Stephen II, Thomas de Sabaudia saw himself as the sole remaining heir, and the rightful King of England. Thomas, Duke of Bedford, took a healthy annuity from the Fitzalan Kings, and despite his ties to the English throne, he would go to the continent where he made his name known as a reputable mercenary in the service of Italian dukes, the Spanish crown, and even the King of Poland. With the victory of the War of the English Succession (otherwise known as the War of the Five Kings) Thomas secured his right and the throne. Much of his early rule was spent on clearing the rebel groups, and bringing the heavy hammer of order upon those nobles who had supported the other claimants. By 1593, the purge had been completed, and the nickname “the Bloody” had been attached to the memory of Thomas I. After the death of his wife; Jane Fitzalan, Thomas would married Catherine of Portugal in 1588. The Catholic Catherine was seen as a poor choice, but the prospect of restoring the Anglo-Portuguese alliance proved right. Their union was short but fruitful, with two sons and a daughter being born before her death in 1597. With his rule stable in England, Thomas would turn his sights to the lost Kingdom of Ireland, and despite the loyalties to Elizabeth of Leinster the Irish armies could not withstand the English onslaught; by 1598 English rule was reinstated, at least within the Pale. The last years of his life were spent in relative opulence, with the palaces of England being some of the greatest and wealthiest in Europe. He would pass in 1601, and the throne would pass to his eldest son, John, Prince of Wales.

[7] John was born 1582, to King Thomas and Queen Catherine, he was named after his maternal grandfather, King John IV of Portugal. His upbringing was mainly performed by his mother, while his father was dealing with the rebels (although the Privy Council necessitated the tutors be approved by the Protestant nobility). In 1600, at 16, John married Princess Sophia of Denmark (the youngest daughter of Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow and King Frederick II of Denmark, and a year his junior). She was also the sister of Anne, Queen Consort of Scotland. To secure English rule in Ireland John arranged the marriage of his brother Emmanuel, Duke of York, to Elizabeth Dudley - the only surviving heir of Robert I of Ireland. This marriage rallied the Irish nobility behind his rule, while his sister Mary was married to their cousin Sebastian II of Portugal. Along with these marriages John would also be the match-maker for many of his noble subjects, betrothing formerly rival houses to one another, stating that he never wished for English blood to be split by other English men on English soil. Peace was never broken within his 37-year reign, and instead of spending taxes on standing armies the Privy Council was able to concentrate on increasing the size of the Navy and mercantilism. His death at the age of 55 came as a great shock, for the healthy king was assumed to live forever. However, while dancing at a party held in honour of the birth of his first great-grandchild - a feat that no monarch had claimed before - John collapsed into the arms of his daughter-in-law, lost consciousness and was carried to a nearby lounge chair, where he was pronounced dead. At first there was speculation of murder, but after an examination from an independent doctor it was found that he had a brain aneurysm. He was succeeded by his second son Edward, Duke of Clarence - leaving behind his wife, 8 children, 22 grandchild and 1 great-grandchild.

[8] Edward was the second of the six sons of John II and until the age of 4 there was no expectation that he would inherit the throne. When his elder brother Thomas reached the age of 6 his developmental disabilities became apparent. Known to be deaf from birth and developmentally stunted, Thomas was unfit for rule and so Edward was pushed into the limelight as the heir-principal of his father, even though his elder brother was still alive. Having inherited the throne at the age of 37, and with 6 children of his own by his wife Catherine of Milan as well as two illegitimate sons (John and William), Edward VIII looked to be a great king. He worked to continue the peace his father had built, and largely succeeded. However, after a mere thirteen years on the throne Edward would be succeeded by his eldest son, who took the throne as Edward IX.

[9] As the eldest legitimate son of Edward VIII, Edward IX quickly showed a keen interest in the development of the English navy but also, more importantly, in the dramatic surge in commitment to the fledging North American colonies. A major shipbuilding programme was bolstered by the arrival of Protestant Dutch fleeing from the devastating war between France and the Habsburg family compact, while England prospered from her neutrality on the edge of Europe. The peaceful reign of the Tudor-Sabaudia dynasty continued, although religious upheaval in Scotland threatened the tentative status quo amid threats of a renewed Auld Alliance. London grew rapidly as England embraced her commercial revolution, and although Edward failed in his attempts to create a single national bank (primarily as a means to finance his navy) economic reforms loomed heavily over the horizon. Blessed with his large extended family and happily married, when Edward died of dropsy in 1669 the crown passed to his younger brother Maximilian John, Duke of York- a monarch who, although tested by both economic and military crises, would reign over the true beginnings of the modern English state.

[10] Maximilian John was born during the reign of his grandfather, John II. Early in life, he was destined to marry Elizabeth of York (the daughter of Emmanuel, 3rd Duke of York, and the senior most descendant of Elizabeth, Queen of Ireland). With their marriage, the cadet branch of the Dukes of York came to an end, and the title returned to the royal family. Their marriage was fruitful, producing three sons and two daughters, - in stark contrast to his brother (the future Edward X), for the Prince of Wales had but one son who died at the young age of 18. Upon the death of Edward IX John took the thrones of England and Ireland, and for the next two years worked tirelessly to consolidate his kingdoms into a single state. The 1671 Act of Union passed through both parliaments, and formed the United Kingdoms of England and Ireland. This, combined with his popular marriage to Elizabeth, finally established the Tudor-Sabaudia dynasty as the rightful monarchs of Ireland. However, war would come to the United Kingdoms as the ultra-Catholic Valois attempted to conquer Calais in 1764. Charles XIII of France assaulted the walls of the fortress city no fewer than seven times, also leading an invasion of the Netherlands. Unfortunately, the French cannon also struck the munitions store, detonating the powder as well as the King (who was leading the defence of his European redoubt). Upon the death of John III the city quickly fell, and the throne passed to his brother Edward.

[11] The reign of John III had been a turning point for his dynasty; while the unification of England and Ireland would create a powerful mercantile state focused largely upon the Atlantic, his premature death and the forced involvement of the United Kingdoms in European affairs all was a crisis for Tudor-Sabaudian rule. Although Edward was a capable ruler, the 1678 Treaty of Coulogne (establishing a short-lived peace with France) was highly-unpopular and did little to prevent the further conflagration in Europe. France, triumphant, launched enthusiastically into the First War of the Valois - their first attempt to establish both French and High-Church dominance over the Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburgs. Such a challenge to the European status necessitated an Austrian-led coalition, with Emperor Otto VI quickly establishing a strong position in Central Europe. For the most part Edward attempted to keep the United Kingdoms out of the conflict, but in 1682 agreed to sponsor large campaigns against French positions in North America as well as conduct a sizeable naval campaign as part of the anti-Valois coalition. The war dominated his reign, but Edward would not seek any personal glory on the battlefield - instead, he served as a shrewd administrator and diplomat. Upon the European stalemate in 1687, Edward was able to secure major American colonial concessions from the French in exchange for his recognition of the annexation of Calais and the Netherlands. Although the Second War of the Valois would begin in 1691 the United Kingdoms remained neutral until the intervention of the Scots into the conflict in 1697. Most significantly, however, Edward was never able to overcome his fertility problems. When he died in 1702 the throne passed to the only living child of John III - his youngest daughter, Bridget, the Queen of Scotland.

[12] Princess Bridget was the last child of John III and Elizabeth of York. Her siblings were Emmanuel (b. 1650-1678) Elizabeth (1654-1670), Henry (1658-1678), and Thomas (1662-1701). She was a surprise child born to the 40-year-old Queen in 1675 - long after it was thought her child-bearing years were over. She was the only child born while her father was King, and a comfort to her mother still morning the loss of her daughter Elizabeth who had died from the sweating sickness just weeks before her sixteenth birthday. Bridget was only 3 years old when her father and her two oldest brothers died in the Battle of Calais, leaving her and her elder brother Prince Thomas, only 15 years old, as the only heirs to the throne. Thomas was an effeminate boy with no interest in the throne nor the will to resist his uncle, and was subsequently adopted as his heir. Princess Bridget and her mother, the Duchess of York (who no longer used the title of Queen in order to not appear a rival to her brother-in-law) relocated to their lands in Ireland, where the princess was raised apart from the intrigue of the court. In 1693, on her 18th birthday, the Princess was wed to her distant cousin, James VII Stewart, King of Scotland. She gave birth to her first child, later James VIII, in 1696. Her focus was on Presbyterian Scotland and had no idea she would become the heir to the throne of England and Ireland until her brother Thomas died under mysterious circumstances while traveling with his closest companion Geoffrey Howard, the Duke of Clarence. Clarence fled the scene and then hung himself from an oak tree, with many believing that Geoffrey had accidentally killed Thomas during a violent lover's spat. Queen Bridget and the King of Scotland, along with Prince James (now heir to both thrones) traveled back and forth from one court to the next. James' brother, Charles Stewart, acted as his regent while he was with his wife in London, and Bridget's mother, who now reclaimed the title of Dowager Queen, acted as her regent while she was in Edinburgh. A major result of this was the increase in the role of the parliaments in governing both kingdoms; although the kingdoms were not in a personal union, it was clear they eventually would be. The practical reality was that both kingdoms cooperated, especially in overseas matters and trade, and this became even more evident when James VIII ascended to the Scottish throne in 1721. The reigning King of Scotland was the heir to the throne of England and Ireland. Bridget was the longest monarch in the history of England and Ireland, reigning for 77 years and living until she was 104. She outlived many of her children, grandchildren, and even some great-grandchildren. During the Bridgettian Era great changes occurred in Britain, a term that was used more and more for the two kingdoms. The Industrial Revolution began, the North American colonies were organized into a colonial federation, the East India Trading Company was established, and Britain became the two most powerful kingdoms in the world. In 1758 the two Parliaments agreed to another Act of Union to be effective on the death of the Queen and assumption of the English & Irish throne by the Scots monarch. They did not expect that it would be another 21 years before the then 83 year old monarch would die. The Bridgettian Era is considered the Golden Age of Britain. When the Queen finally died the entire English speaking world mourned for months and the color black remained a fashion staple for years after the official mourning period was done. She was succeed by her granddaughter, Mary II, the reigning Queen of Scotland.

[13] Commonly overshadowed by her long-living grandmother Mary II started her life as a monarch, as James VIII died five months before her birth while her elder brother James IX died of the sweats (at age 14) less than a week before the Queen Mother entered labour. Her mother also died from what has been theorized as eclampsia. Trained in the art of ruling by her grandmother, Mary's time as Queen of Scots has been traditionally characterized as being unremarkable, as outside the strengthening of ties between the kingdoms of Britain (which was already in process even before her birth) the Queen spent most of her time in leisure. She left government to her relatives and children while she hunted, invested in the arts or traveled, and was the first British monarch to visit the Colonies in 1768 (even if she had only been the Queen of Scotland at the time). She also loved animals and her personal menagerie, and was the ancestress to the modern Royal Zoo of Edinburgh. The zoo included unique animals, extinct in the wild, such as the like the Great Auk, the sea cow (brought by a Scottish fur trader from the Bering Sea) and even elephants. Aged 48 at the time of her ascension to the Anglo-Irish throne, Mary's reign over the united British Isles was relatively peaceful; the Stewarts remained uninvolved in the bloody collapse of the Spanish Empire into its successor kingdoms and outside of the royal intervention/take-over on the East India Trading Company in 1788 after the Cooch Behar Massacre . She was also the first British monarch to be photographed, as the earliest type of camera was invented less than a year before her death (although the image has been, sadly, lost). Married at age 16 to Gregory Cromwell, 2nd Duke of Ardglass, she was succeeded by her eldest son, Thomas.

[14] Thomas took the throne in 1795 at the head of a globe-spanning imperial state, and despite the minor domestic squabbles caused by the ongoing Regnal Number Controversy it seemed the United Kingdoms of Britain were immune to the political convulsions on the continent. The first monarch of the House of Cromwell, Thomas was nevertheless intimidated by the sweeping nationalist revolutions in Europe and quickly established himself as a reactionary. He supported the conservative parliamentary majority of the Church Party, and resisted calls for greater democratization both at home and in the Colonies. He also opposed the growing influence of the 'new gentry' - the rising number of industrialists and career politicians funded by the new northern factories, such as the wealth of the Earl of Salford or the Marquess of Ayrshire. By 1800, protests broke out across the major cities (partly exacerbated by the dire economic situation caused by the collapse of the East India Trading Company and the disastrous effect of the Spanish Revolution on international trade) to push for social reform, financial liberalization and political influence for the masses. Thomas II was highly-reluctant to agree to their demands, and although the protestors never sought to overthrow the monarchy (with the defenestration of the Spanish Habsburgs unpopular in Britain) many celebrated the death of the King in 1804. They viewed his successor, Alexander, with a renewed optimism in the hope for a political settlement, although it was clear that this would be misplaced for the most part.

[15] Alexander IV succeded his father in midst of social, political and economical unrest as Europe and the Americas suffered through the Era of Troubles in the aftermath of the Spanish Revolution. The king was considered by many as a hopeful figure in the stricken kingdoms, which had been suffering through years of protests for democratization, but while more liberal than his predecessor, Alexander did not bring the political settlement hoped for, as while he did try to bring together a bill to expand the franchise to vote to around 30% of the male population and have the colonies send representatives to parliament, he was shot in the neck by a revolutionary (Spanish backed, as he was known for his support of the UK going to war with the revolutionaries after their invasion of Portugal the previous year, and was responsible for convincing his father to send the royal navy to help the Portuguese monarchy escape to their colonies in Brazil) less than three months into his reign, dying drowned in his own blood and leaving his young ____, ____________, as his successor

 

[Jonathan]

Claiming the next monarch.

 

[Asharella]

Nice update, but wouldn't Bridget still be a member of the Tudor-Sabaudia dynasty given that her father was John III? Her children, as descendants of James VII, would be Stewarts though.

She took her husband's name and was Bridget Stewart when she took the throne. So it was her choice to be the first of the Stewart Dynasty.

Please everyone, retcon your updates to follow what *I* wrote not what someone else suggested I should have written and to honor Queen Bridget's choice. Thanks.

 

[The_Last_Plantagenet]

She took her husband's name and was Bridget Stewart when she took the throne. So it was her choice to be the first of the Stewart Dynasty.

Please everyone, retcon your updates to follow what *I* wrote not what someone else suggested I should have written and to honor Queen Bridget's choice. Thanks.

That isn’t how it works. Despite marrying her husband, she’d still be a Tudor-Sabaudia, much like Elizabeth II is still a Windsor despite her husbands last name, or Queen Victoria being the last Hanoverian.
Bridget, regardless of her choices, would still be considered the last Tudor-Sabaudia.

 

[Asharella]

That isn’t how it works. Despite marrying her husband, she’d still be a Tudor-Sabaudia, much like Elizabeth II is still a Windsor despite her husbands last name, or Queen Victoria being the last Hanoverian.
Bridget, regardless of her choices, would still be considered the last Tudor-Sabaudia.

Well, I would think a Queen's choice would count, but it isn't that important so I won't argue for it and yield to your better knowledge.