List of monarchs III

These two facts are inconsistent, as the Princess of Wales, Eddie's grandmother, never remarried.

So it is easy to fix this. We can change Catherine to Bridget or you can change Bridget to Catherine, or we could say she was Bridget Catherine.

I'm not sure it is inconsistent, the very fact that Catherine is stipulated as his younger sister suggests the existence of an older sister, Bridget.
 
I'm not sure it is inconsistent, the very fact that Catherine is stipulated as his younger sister suggests the existence of an older sister, Bridget.

His dad was 32 and Charles was 11 when his dad died and his uncle moved in to the suite in the palace. If an older sister was old enough to not live with her mother she'd have been born when the Prince of Wales was 14 or younger and the Princess of Wales had already been stipulated to be younger than her late husband. That doesn't make sense. But if she wasn't that old, she would have been included in the explanation of who Uncle Emmanuel lived with as a surrogate father figure.

So she's not an older sister. Charles had one sister named Catherine or Bridget or named both.
 
His dad was 32 and Charles was 11 when his dad died and his uncle moved in to the suite in the palace. If an older sister was old enough to not live with her mother she'd have been born when the Prince of Wales was 14 or younger and the Princess of Wales had already been stipulated to be younger than her late husband. That doesn't make sense. But if she wasn't that old, she would have been included in the explanation of who Uncle Emmanuel lived with as a surrogate father figure.

So she's not an older sister. Charles had one sister named Catherine or Bridget or named both.

Or she wasn't living in the same suite, wasn't living in the palace or had already been packed away to boarding school, much as the current Princess Royal was at 13 in 1963 to Benenden.
 
These two facts are inconsistent, as the Princess of Wales, Eddie's grandmother, never remarried.

So it is easy to fix this. We can change Catherine to Bridget or you can change Bridget to Catherine, or we could say she was Bridget Catherine.
I’ll change Bridget to a distant cousin of the royals, keeping Bridget and Catherine separate individuals. Thanks for pick up on this.
 
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Catherine of Howard faithfully bares Henry VIII a son.

Kings of England
1509-1547: Henry VIII (House of Tudor)

1547-1553: Edward VI (House of Tudor)
1553-1598: Henry IX (House of Tudor) [1]
1598-1629: Edward VII (House of Tudor) [2]
1629-1671: Henry X (House of Tudor) [3]


[1] Born in 7th March 1541, Henry, Duke of York was born to 50 year old King Henry VIII, and 18 year old, Catherine Howard.
Upon his birth he was second in line, behind his half brother, Edward, Duke of Cornwall, but before his older sisters, Mary and Elizabeth.

Before his sixth birthday, his father at the age of 55, died on 28 January 1547.

His brother became Edward VI, however since Edward was still a child, rule passed to a regency council dominated by Protestants, who attempted to establish their faith throughout the country. Prince Henry, Duke of York, became heir presumptive.

On 6 July 1553, at the age of 15, Edward VI died from a lung infection, leaving 12 year old, Henry to succeed him.

Again a regency was needed and this came in the form of his maternal Great-uncle Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk (1473 – 25 August 1554) and then his cousin, Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk (10 March 1536 – 2 June 1572)

In 1555, 14 year old Henry IX was married by proxy to 10 year old Princess Anna of Sweden (19 June 1545 – 20 March 1610), his sister Princess Elizabeth stood in her place in London, while Prince Eric stood in his place in Stockholm. The official wedding took place five years later at Richmond Palace

The marriage was said to be a happy one resulting in the birth of 12 children, with 9 reaching adulthood.

Taking control of the throne fully in 1558, Henry’s first job was the smooth relations between foreign warring nations.

His sister Mary, at 42 was seen as to old to wed to a reasonable suitor, so instead was married off as the second wife to Thomas Howard (ca. 1520 – 1582) the youngest son of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk and Lady Elizabeth Stafford. Thomas and Mary was rewarded with the title Duke and Duchess of Richmond. Mary would become weak and ill in May 1558. In pain, possibly from ovarian cysts or uterine cancer, she died in 17 November, leaving her lands and money to Thomas and his children from his first marriage.

Elizabeth on the other hand was 25 and still suited, there were rumors of marrying Anne’s older brother Prince Eric of Sweden, but a double Swedish marriage was seen as beneficial, so instead she was wed off to Frederick II of Denmark & Norway (1 July 1534 – 4 April 1588), this marriage would help peaceful diplomacy in 1563 between Sweden and Denmark & Norway.

Henry IX’s reign was seen as a great alliance of Northern Protestant Nations, while keeping the peace with Spain, France and Rome.

Henry died just before his 57th birthday, following a short illness and was succeeded by King Edward VII Tudor, his grandson.



[2] The eldest son of Prince Thomas of Wales, eldest son of Henry IX, Edward VII was born May 3rd of 1580. He would spend the majority of his childhood in Wales while his father governed as Prince of Wales. An active child, Edward rode extensively and was usually outdoors. Then in 1592 when Prince Thomas of Wales passed, Edward and his two younger siblings, Arthur and Catherine, would be placed in the care of their uncle, Prince Henry Tudor Duke of York.

After Edward's marriage to Princess Elisabeth of Denmark and Norway, the great-granddaughter of Elizabeth Tudor, Edward would return to Wales where he would take up his duties as Prince of Wales. Or in reality, Princess Elizabeth took up the duties, for Edward had returned to the hunting and riding of his youth. But as he was handsome and personable, and Princess Elizabeth handled things ably, no one really cared that the heir to the thrown was somewhat useless.

At age eighteen, Henry IX would die leaving Edward King Edward VII King of England, Ireland, and France (really only a small part of France). As King Edward continued the pattern set while he was Prince of Wales, most tasks were left to his wife or the Privy Council and he would hunt and ride pretty much all day everyday.

In 1614, France would attempt to retake much of the English lands in Normandy. King Edward would travel with the English forces and participate in battle. This endeared him to the common soldier. After almost seven years of war, the borders hadn't really changed all that much, but both sides would finally agree to a peace.

King Edward would return from war a changed man. Having spent a great deal of time with common soldier for seven years, he became concerned with the plight of the common man. He would spend the last 8 years of his life forcing reforms with Tudor bullheadedness.

While many agreed with the changes purposed, most of them wished he wasn't quite so pushy about it. As such, everyone breathed a sigh of relief when finally all that riding and hunting did him in. King Edward VII would die form a head injury that occurred while riding at age 49 leaving his young nephew, Henry as King of England, Ireland, and part of France. He looked to be a much more reasonable individual.

1fc5aac469b8eadb812412be3b829f5d.jpg
[3] Prince Henry, the Duke of Cambridge, was born to Prince Arthur, the younger brother of the King, in 1611 on April 1st. As the King had no children, that made the young Duke the third in line for the throne. His father was born in 1586 and had married a distant cousin, Margaret Seymour, the daughter of Edward Seymour, Lord Beauchamp of Hatch, the son of Lady Catherine Grey, a granddaughter Mary Tudor, the sister of Henry VIII.

Prince Arthur was with his brother, the King, in 1614 on the ground with the common solider, as was his closest friend, Richard Cromwell, the Duke of Kent. It is said the King considered this a lark, while his younger brother saw it as a thing of duty. Perhaps the most important point in the King's life, beginning the changes in his attitudes, was when Arthur died in their first battle sacrificing his life to save the King and Cromwell. Instead of returning home, the King now remained with the soldiers until the end of the war.

The young Duke was not yet three years old when this happened and didn't meet his uncle until he was ten. His world was a world of women, his mother, Princess Margaret, his aunt-in-law, Queen Elisabeth, and his aunt, Princess Catherine. The Duke loved this world and grew up to love women. He disdained the crude world of men, of war and of the hunt and of sports. He preferred the games of the parlor, deep conversations tending to gossip, fashion, and, most of all, pomp and ceremony.

Like his aunt-in-law, the Duke was a pragmatist. He agreed with many of the reforms his Uncle desired after his change of attitude, but agreed he pushed too fast and too hard, alienating the conservative aristocracy who saw the rise of the Parliament and in particular the reformists desire to reform the Church of England along Presbyterian lines, as a threat to them. So they lauded him as the new young King, only 18, when he took the throne. They saw him as a much more reasonable individual.

But they confused his wiles and love of intrigue with actually agreeing with them. Henry deftly played off both sides against each other, seeming to change positions over the years. But slowly and surely the result was a move towards greater and greater power to Parliament and more and more reform in the Church. The Episcopal system was not replaced, just modified with a Presbyterian aspect where a Presbytery of all the clergy and lay elders would share power with the Bishop just as Parliament shared power with the King.

Finally the elite realized they were being played when in 1639 the King called a kingdom wide Church Council to write a confession of faith, a new common book of worship, and a catechism. They clearly saw that the Puritans in control of Parliament would dominate this council and move the Church to aspects they despised. A group of nobles declared that Henry was not the actual son of Prince Arthur, but that he was in truth the son of the Duke of Kent, Richard Cromwell, who'd been Prince Arthur's close friend and had married Princess Margaret in 1622, after returning from the war. Cromwell was the closest advisor of the King and the head of the Privy Council. They declared the legitimate King was Henry's cousin once removed, also named Henry Tudor, the son of the King's great uncle, Henry Tudor. The other Henry was now the 2nd Duke of York and became the champion of the elite.

The Rebellion was quickly put down. The King, who'd dressed like the elite with long hair and lace and frills, showed his loyalty by marching to the Puritan cause by cutting his hair, wearing simple black, and marching with the Army of the Parliament.

But being the pragmatist he was, the King promised the elite that the Council would not go too far. By the middle of the 1640s a 'middle way' in both Kingdom and Church had finally been agreed on in a new consensus.

The Kingdom was peaceful, stable, and prosperous the rest of Henry's reign.

The other big change in the kingdom during Henry's reign was the establishment and settlement of colonies in North America. The first colony of Chesapeake was established during his uncle's reign. By the end of Henry's reign there were 8 North American colonies including Upper Canada.

Henry married after the Yorkist rebellion and married his second cousin, Mary of York, the daughter of the pretender, in part to unite both sides. They had quite a few children and seemed to have a robust and happy marriage, partly because she fully accepted his love of other women. He had many mistresses and more illegitimate children than legitimate.

Henry died at the age of 60 after a long illness. It is now pretty accepted it was Syphilis.
 
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Catherine of Howard faithfully bares Henry VIII a son.

"Kitty did It"

Kings of England
1509-1547: Henry VIII (House of Tudor)

1547-1553: Edward VI (House of Tudor)
1553-1598: Henry IX (House of Tudor) [1]
1598-1629: Edward VII (House of Tudor) [2]
1629-1671: Henry X (House of Tudor) [3]
1671-1720: Henry XI (House of Tudor) [4]


[1] Born in 7th March 1541, Henry, Duke of York was born to 50 year old King Henry VIII, and 18 year old, Catherine Howard.
Upon his birth he was second in line, behind his half brother, Edward, Duke of Cornwall, but before his older sisters, Mary and Elizabeth.

Before his sixth birthday, his father at the age of 55, died on 28 January 1547.

His brother became Edward VI, however since Edward was still a child, rule passed to a regency council dominated by Protestants, who attempted to establish their faith throughout the country. Prince Henry, Duke of York, became heir presumptive.

On 6 July 1553, at the age of 15, Edward VI died from a lung infection, leaving 12 year old, Henry to succeed him.

Again a regency was needed and this came in the form of his maternal Great-uncle Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk (1473 – 25 August 1554) and then his cousin, Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk (10 March 1536 – 2 June 1572)

In 1555, 14 year old Henry IX was married by proxy to 10 year old Princess Anna of Sweden (19 June 1545 – 20 March 1610), his sister Princess Elizabeth stood in her place in London, while Prince Eric stood in his place in Stockholm. The official wedding took place five years later at Richmond Palace

The marriage was said to be a happy one resulting in the birth of 12 children, with 9 reaching adulthood.

Taking control of the throne fully in 1558, Henry’s first job was the smooth relations between foreign warring nations.

His sister Mary, at 42 was seen as to old to wed to a reasonable suitor, so instead was married off as the second wife to Thomas Howard (ca. 1520 – 1582) the youngest son of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk and Lady Elizabeth Stafford. Thomas and Mary was rewarded with the title Duke and Duchess of Richmond. Mary would become weak and ill in May 1558. In pain, possibly from ovarian cysts or uterine cancer, she died in 17 November, leaving her lands and money to Thomas and his children from his first marriage.

Elizabeth on the other hand was 25 and still suited, there were rumors of marrying Anne’s older brother Prince Eric of Sweden, but a double Swedish marriage was seen as beneficial, so instead she was wed off to Frederick II of Denmark & Norway (1 July 1534 – 4 April 1588), this marriage would help peaceful diplomacy in 1563 between Sweden and Denmark & Norway.

Henry IX’s reign was seen as a great alliance of Northern Protestant Nations, while keeping the peace with Spain, France and Rome.

Henry died just before his 57th birthday, following a short illness and was succeeded by King Edward VII Tudor, his grandson.



[2] The eldest son of Prince Thomas of Wales, eldest son of Henry IX, Edward VII was born May 3rd of 1580. He would spend the majority of his childhood in Wales while his father governed as Prince of Wales. An active child, Edward rode extensively and was usually outdoors. Then in 1592 when Prince Thomas of Wales passed, Edward and his two younger siblings, Arthur and Catherine, would be placed in the care of their uncle, Prince Henry Tudor Duke of York.

After Edward's marriage to Princess Elisabeth of Denmark and Norway, the great-granddaughter of Elizabeth Tudor, Edward would return to Wales where he would take up his duties as Prince of Wales. Or in reality, Princess Elizabeth took up the duties, for Edward had returned to the hunting and riding of his youth. But as he was handsome and personable, and Princess Elizabeth handled things ably, no one really cared that the heir to the thrown was somewhat useless.

At age eighteen, Henry IX would die leaving Edward King Edward VII King of England, Ireland, and France (really only a small part of France). As King Edward continued the pattern set while he was Prince of Wales, most tasks were left to his wife or the Privy Council and he would hunt and ride pretty much all day everyday.

In 1614, France would attempt to retake much of the English lands in Normandy. King Edward would travel with the English forces and participate in battle. This endeared him to the common soldier. After almost seven years of war, the borders hadn't really changed all that much, but both sides would finally agree to a peace.

King Edward would return from war a changed man. Having spent a great deal of time with common soldier for seven years, he became concerned with the plight of the common man. He would spend the last 8 years of his life forcing reforms with Tudor bullheadedness.

While many agreed with the changes purposed, most of them wished he wasn't quite so pushy about it. As such, everyone breathed a sigh of relief when finally all that riding and hunting did him in. King Edward VII would die form a head injury that occurred while riding at age 49 leaving his young nephew, Henry as King of England, Ireland, and part of France. He looked to be a much more reasonable individual.

1fc5aac469b8eadb812412be3b829f5d.jpg
[3] Prince Henry, the Duke of Cambridge, was born to Prince Arthur, the younger brother of the King, in 1611 on April 1st. As the King had no children, that made the young Duke the third in line for the throne. His father was born in 1586 and had married a distant cousin, Margaret Seymour, the daughter of Edward Seymour, Lord Beauchamp of Hatch, the son of Lady Catherine Grey, a granddaughter Mary Tudor, the sister of Henry VIII.

Prince Arthur was with his brother, the King, in 1614 on the ground with the common solider, as was his closest friend, Richard Cromwell, the Duke of Kent. It is said the King considered this a lark, while his younger brother saw it as a thing of duty. Perhaps the most important point in the King's life, beginning the changes in his attitudes, was when Arthur died in their first battle sacrificing his life to save the King and Cromwell. Instead of returning home, the King now remained with the soldiers until the end of the war.

The young Duke was not yet three years old when this happened and didn't meet his uncle until he was ten. His world was a world of women, his mother, Princess Margaret, his aunt-in-law, Queen Elisabeth, and his aunt, Princess Catherine. The Duke loved this world and grew up to love women. He disdained the crude world of men, of war and of the hunt and of sports. He preferred the games of the parlor, deep conversations tending to gossip, fashion, and, most of all, pomp and ceremony.

Like his aunt-in-law, the Duke was a pragmatist. He agreed with many of the reforms his Uncle desired after his change of attitude, but agreed he pushed too fast and too hard, alienating the conservative aristocracy who saw the rise of the Parliament and in particular the reformists desire to reform the Church of England along Presbyterian lines, as a threat to them. So they lauded him as the new young King, only 18, when he took the throne. They saw him as a much more reasonable individual.

But they confused his wiles and love of intrigue with actually agreeing with them. Henry deftly played off both sides against each other, seeming to change positions over the years. But slowly and surely the result was a move towards greater and greater power to Parliament and more and more reform in the Church. The Episcopal system was not replaced, just modified with a Presbyterian aspect where a Presbytery of all the clergy and lay elders would share power with the Bishop just as Parliament shared power with the King.

Finally the elite realized they were being played when in 1639 the King called a kingdom wide Church Council to write a confession of faith, a new common book of worship, and a catechism. They clearly saw that the Puritans in control of Parliament would dominate this council and move the Church to aspects they despised. A group of nobles declared that Henry was not the actual son of Prince Arthur, but that he was in truth the son of the Duke of Kent, Richard Cromwell, who'd been Prince Arthur's close friend and had married Princess Margaret in 1622, after returning from the war. Cromwell was the closest advisor of the King and the head of the Privy Council. They declared the legitimate King was Henry's cousin once removed, also named Henry Tudor, the son of the King's great uncle, Henry Tudor. The other Henry was now the 2nd Duke of York and became the champion of the elite.

The Rebellion was quickly put down. The King, who'd dressed like the elite with long hair and lace and frills, showed his loyalty by marching to the Puritan cause by cutting his hair, wearing simple black, and marching with the Army of the Parliament.

But being the pragmatist he was, the King promised the elite that the Council would not go too far. By the middle of the 1640s a 'middle way' in both Kingdom and Church had finally been agreed on in a new consensus.

The Kingdom was peaceful, stable, and prosperous the rest of Henry's reign.

The other big change in the kingdom during Henry's reign was the establishment and settlement of colonies in North America. The first colony of Chesapeake was established during his uncle's reign. By the end of Henry's reign there were 8 North American colonies including Upper Canada.

Henry married after the Yorkist rebellion and married his second cousin, Mary of York, the daughter of the pretender, in part to unite both sides. They had quite a few children and seemed to have a robust and happy marriage, partly because she fully accepted his love of other women. He had many mistresses and more illegitimate children than legitimate.

Henry died at the age of 60 after a long illness. It is now pretty accepted it was Syphilis.
[4]The eldest son and child of Henry X with Mary of York, born almost exactly nine months after their wedding night, Henry XI was raised by his father's first cousin (and one of his only female friends to not be also a mistress at some point) Lady Adelaide Seymour, an extremely pious and conservative woman who would raise the royal children in a similar manner (Henry's younger sister, Princess Elizabeth, would go as far as following the puritan trend of overly religious names, as her first son with the Duke of Richmond would be named "Charles If-Chirst-Had-Not-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned Francis", and her oldest daughter was named "Prudentia", while her youngest son, who would become Duke of New Sarum, in the Colonies, was named "Hate-Evil" but nicknamed "Harry"), with the Prince of Wales becoming remarkably pious and somber, quite unlike his partying and womanizing father.

Much like his father in his dislike of war and fighting, Henry XI's reign would follow a similar vein in a focus for maintaining England and her territories out of the conflicts that marked continental Europe (although his dislike of catholics meant that the king would crack down hard on the remaining Irish Catholics, who held down in the west and south, and would, with the help of the now mostly protestant Gaelic Nobility of the east and north, crush two rebellions there), using England's great navy as a silent threat to anyone who might try and bring the kingdom out of its neutrality. He, instead, invested on colonization, focusing heavily on the settlement of the southern colonies in North America (mostly with indentured servants brought from Africa and Ireland, as the King preferred a more feudal approach to settlement instead of following the Portuguese and French in their slavering ways)

Living in Ludlow from his preteen to young adult years as Prince of Wales, Henry XI took a great liking to the culture, language and history of the Welsh, taking it (and later Cornish, when he visited Cornwall during a tour in the 1670s and saw the ruins of Tintagel, said to have been Camelot from Arthurain Legend and took a similar liking to it) as a second language and creating many Welsh peers during his reign, he also stayed in Wales many times, turning Canarvon castle into a royal residence comparable to Whitehall for that purpose, and later also built the Castle of Tintagel near the ruins that it is named after

Married to Princess Jadwiga of Prussia, herself a cousin from his father's side (her mother was his father's sister), Henry had many children, but most of them died in infancy, and when he died of what is now believed to have been a brain tumor, all the surviving ones had died, with him being succeded by his only grandchild by his eldest son, ___________, who would be the first female monarch of England
 
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"Charles If-Chirst-Had-Not-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned Francis", and her oldest daughter was named "Prudentia", while her youngest son, who would become Duke of New Sarum, in the Colonies, was named "Hate-Evil" but nicknamed "Harry"

Hilarious detail :)
 
Catherine of Howard faithfully bares Henry VIII a son.

"Kitty did It"

Kings of England
1509-1547: Henry VIII (House of Tudor)
1547-1553: Edward VI (House of Tudor)
1553-1598: Henry IX (House of Tudor) [1]
1598-1629: Edward VII (House of Tudor) [2]
1629-1671: Henry X (House of Tudor) [3]
1671-1720: Henry XI (House of Tudor) [4]
1720 - 1752: Grace I (House of Tudor) [5]


Spoiler: Henry IX to Henry XI
[1] Born in 7th March 1541, Henry, Duke of York was born to 50 year old King Henry VIII, and 18 year old, Catherine Howard.
Upon his birth he was second in line, behind his half brother, Edward, Duke of Cornwall, but before his older sisters, Mary and Elizabeth.

Before his sixth birthday, his father at the age of 55, died on 28 January 1547.

His brother became Edward VI, however since Edward was still a child, rule passed to a regency council dominated by Protestants, who attempted to establish their faith throughout the country. Prince Henry, Duke of York, became heir presumptive.

On 6 July 1553, at the age of 15, Edward VI died from a lung infection, leaving 12 year old, Henry to succeed him.

Again a regency was needed and this came in the form of his maternal Great-uncle Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk (1473 – 25 August 1554) and then his cousin, Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk (10 March 1536 – 2 June 1572)

In 1555, 14 year old Henry IX was married by proxy to 10 year old Princess Anna of Sweden (19 June 1545 – 20 March 1610), his sister Princess Elizabeth stood in her place in London, while Prince Eric stood in his place in Stockholm. The official wedding took place five years later at Richmond Palace

The marriage was said to be a happy one resulting in the birth of 12 children, with 9 reaching adulthood.

Taking control of the throne fully in 1558, Henry’s first job was the smooth relations between foreign warring nations.

His sister Mary, at 42 was seen as to old to wed to a reasonable suitor, so instead was married off as the second wife to Thomas Howard (ca. 1520 – 1582) the youngest son of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk and Lady Elizabeth Stafford. Thomas and Mary was rewarded with the title Duke and Duchess of Richmond. Mary would become weak and ill in May 1558. In pain, possibly from ovarian cysts or uterine cancer, she died in 17 November, leaving her lands and money to Thomas and his children from his first marriage.

Elizabeth on the other hand was 25 and still suited, there were rumors of marrying Anne’s older brother Prince Eric of Sweden, but a double Swedish marriage was seen as beneficial, so instead she was wed off to Frederick II of Denmark & Norway (1 July 1534 – 4 April 1588), this marriage would help peaceful diplomacy in 1563 between Sweden and Denmark & Norway.

Henry IX’s reign was seen as a great alliance of Northern Protestant Nations, while keeping the peace with Spain, France and Rome.

Henry died just before his 57th birthday, following a short illness and was succeeded by King Edward VII Tudor, his grandson.


View attachment 571177
[2] The eldest son of Prince Thomas of Wales, eldest son of Henry IX, Edward VII was born May 3rd of 1580. He would spend the majority of his childhood in Wales while his father governed as Prince of Wales. An active child, Edward rode extensively and was usually outdoors. Then in 1592 when Prince Thomas of Wales passed, Edward and his two younger siblings, Arthur and Catherine, would be placed in the care of their uncle, Prince Henry Tudor Duke of York.

After Edward's marriage to Princess Elisabeth of Denmark and Norway, the great-granddaughter of Elizabeth Tudor, Edward would return to Wales where he would take up his duties as Prince of Wales. Or in reality, Princess Elizabeth took up the duties, for Edward had returned to the hunting and riding of his youth. But as he was handsome and personable, and Princess Elizabeth handled things ably, no one really cared that the heir to the thrown was somewhat useless.

At age eighteen, Henry IX would die leaving Edward King Edward VII King of England, Ireland, and France (really only a small part of France). As King Edward continued the pattern set while he was Prince of Wales, most tasks were left to his wife or the Privy Council and he would hunt and ride pretty much all day everyday.

In 1614, France would attempt to retake much of the English lands in Normandy. King Edward would travel with the English forces and participate in battle. This endeared him to the common soldier. After almost seven years of war, the borders hadn't really changed all that much, but both sides would finally agree to a peace.

King Edward would return from war a changed man. Having spent a great deal of time with common soldier for seven years, he became concerned with the plight of the common man. He would spend the last 8 years of his life forcing reforms with Tudor bullheadedness.

While many agreed with the changes purposed, most of them wished he wasn't quite so pushy about it. As such, everyone breathed a sigh of relief when finally all that riding and hunting did him in. King Edward VII would die form a head injury that occurred while riding at age 49 leaving his young nephew, Henry as King of England, Ireland, and part of France. He looked to be a much more reasonable individual.


1fc5aac469b8eadb812412be3b829f5d.jpg

[3] Prince Henry, the Duke of Cambridge, was born to Prince Arthur, the younger brother of the King, in 1611 on April 1st. As the King had no children, that made the young Duke the third in line for the throne. His father was born in 1586 and had married a distant cousin, Margaret Seymour, the daughter of Edward Seymour, Lord Beauchamp of Hatch, the son of Lady Catherine Grey, a granddaughter Mary Tudor, the sister of Henry VIII.

Prince Arthur was with his brother, the King, in 1614 on the ground with the common solider, as was his closest friend, Richard Cromwell, the Duke of Kent. It is said the King considered this a lark, while his younger brother saw it as a thing of duty. Perhaps the most important point in the King's life, beginning the changes in his attitudes, was when Arthur died in their first battle sacrificing his life to save the King and Cromwell. Instead of returning home, the King now remained with the soldiers until the end of the war.

The young Duke was not yet three years old when this happened and didn't meet his uncle until he was ten. His world was a world of women, his mother, Princess Margaret, his aunt-in-law, Queen Elisabeth, and his aunt, Princess Catherine. The Duke loved this world and grew up to love women. He disdained the crude world of men, of war and of the hunt and of sports. He preferred the games of the parlor, deep conversations tending to gossip, fashion, and, most of all, pomp and ceremony.

Like his aunt-in-law, the Duke was a pragmatist. He agreed with many of the reforms his Uncle desired after his change of attitude, but agreed he pushed too fast and too hard, alienating the conservative aristocracy who saw the rise of the Parliament and in particular the reformists desire to reform the Church of England along Presbyterian lines, as a threat to them. So they lauded him as the new young King, only 18, when he took the throne. They saw him as a much more reasonable individual.

But they confused his wiles and love of intrigue with actually agreeing with them. Henry deftly played off both sides against each other, seeming to change positions over the years. But slowly and surely the result was a move towards greater and greater power to Parliament and more and more reform in the Church. The Episcopal system was not replaced, just modified with a Presbyterian aspect where a Presbytery of all the clergy and lay elders would share power with the Bishop just as Parliament shared power with the King.

Finally the elite realized they were being played when in 1639 the King called a kingdom wide Church Council to write a confession of faith, a new common book of worship, and a catechism. They clearly saw that the Puritans in control of Parliament would dominate this council and move the Church to aspects they despised. A group of nobles declared that Henry was not the actual son of Prince Arthur, but that he was in truth the son of the Duke of Kent, Richard Cromwell, who'd been Prince Arthur's close friend and had married Princess Margaret in 1622, after returning from the war. Cromwell was the closest advisor of the King and the head of the Privy Council. They declared the legitimate King was Henry's cousin once removed, also named Henry Tudor, the son of the King's great uncle, Henry Tudor. The other Henry was now the 2nd Duke of York and became the champion of the elite.

The Rebellion was quickly put down. The King, who'd dressed like the elite with long hair and lace and frills, showed his loyalty by marching to the Puritan cause by cutting his hair, wearing simple black, and marching with the Army of the Parliament.

But being the pragmatist he was, the King promised the elite that the Council would not go too far. By the middle of the 1640s a 'middle way' in both Kingdom and Church had finally been agreed on in a new consensus.

The Kingdom was peaceful, stable, and prosperous the rest of Henry's reign.

The other big change in the kingdom during Henry's reign was the establishment and settlement of colonies in North America. The first colony of Chesapeake was established during his uncle's reign. By the end of Henry's reign there were 8 North American colonies including Upper Canada.

Henry married after the Yorkist rebellion and married his second cousin, Mary of York, the daughter of the pretender, in part to unite both sides. They had quite a few children and seemed to have a robust and happy marriage, partly because she fully accepted his love of other women. He had many mistresses and more illegitimate children than legitimate.

Henry died at the age of 60 after a long illness. It is now pretty accepted it was Syphilis.

[4]The eldest son and child of Henry X with Mary of York, born almost exactly nine months after their wedding night, Henry XI was raised by his father's first cousin (and one of his only female friends to not be also a mistress at some point) Lady Adelaide Seymour, an extremely pious and conservative woman who would raise the royal children in a similar manner (Henry's younger sister, Princess Elizabeth, would go as far as following the puritan trend of overly religious names, as her first son with the Duke of Richmond would be named "Charles If-Chirst-Had-Not-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned Francis", and her oldest daughter was named "Prudentia", while her youngest son, who would become Duke of New Sarum, in the Colonies, was named "Hate-Evil" but nicknamed "Harry"), with the Prince of Wales becoming remarkably pious and somber, quite unlike his partying and womanizing father.

Much like his father in his dislike of war and fighting, Henry XI's reign would follow a similar vein in a focus for maintaining England and her territories out of the conflicts that marked continental Europe (although his dislike of catholics meant that the king would crack down hard on the remaining Irish Catholics, who held down in the west and south, and would, with the help of the now mostly protestant Gaelic Nobility of the east and north, crush two rebellions there), using England's great navy as a silent threat to anyone who might try and bring the kingdom out of its neutrality. He, instead, invested on colonization, focusing heavily on the settlement of the southern colonies in North America (mostly with indentured servants brought from Africa and Ireland, as the King preferred a more feudal approach to settlement instead of following the Portuguese and French in their slavering ways)

Living in Ludlow from his preteen to young adult years as Prince of Wales, Henry XI took a great liking to the culture, language and history of the Welsh, taking it (and later Cornish, when he visited Cornwall during a tour in the 1670s and saw the ruins of Tintagel, said to have been Camelot from Arthurain Legend and took a similar liking to it) as a second language and creating many Welsh peers during his reign, he also stayed in Wales many times, turning Canarvon castle into a royal residence comparable to Whitehall for that purpose, and later also built the Castle of Tintagel near the ruins that it is named after

Married to Princess Jadwiga of Prussia, herself a cousin from his father's side (her mother was his father's sister), Henry had many children, but most of them died in infancy, and when he died of what is now believed to have been a brain tumor, all the surviving ones had died, with him being succeded by his only grandchild by his eldest son, the Princess Grace, who would be the first female monarch of England.

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Grace I, Queen of England and Ireland (c.1728)

[5] The Princess Grace Maria Tudor, third born daughter of the Prince of Wales Arthur Tudor and his second wife, Barbara Hamilton of Albany, daughter of the Duke of Albany. Arthur's first wife, Juliana Gonzaga, had been unfertile and had died in 1703 at the age of 30 of accidental poisoning during a fertility treatment. In 1712, her mother and elder siblings Edward and Elizabeth Tudor all took ill of smallpox, dying at the hands of unexperienced nurses and leading to the rest of the royal family being innoculated to prevent further deaths the next year. Grace, now second in line to the throne, saw her father remarry a German Princess, Augusta of Brunswick, and with every stillborn son and sickly daughter, saw herself remain the heiress, with only her younger sister Catherine Tudor surviving infancy. Finally, in 1719, the third Princess of Wales passed away of a kidney infection, and the Prince, distraught, died in a "hunting accident". Grace, now heiress, was rushed away from the Yorkshire estate where her father had secluded himself and his daughters and into the capable hands the Queen.

Jadwiga of Prussia, Queen of England, had custody of her two granddaughters at the time of her husband's death, preventing her other grandchild, Henry Tudor, Duke of St James, from overstepping the succession. Henry, still unmarried in his early 30's, arrived in London within hours of his father's death, seemingly having hovered at the city's edge for a week, since his grandfather's collapse, and rushing to the court to claim the throne. Declaring England could never have a female monarch, he 'kindly' offered to marry his fourteen year old cousin and, even, to betroth their eldest son to her sister to maintain the succession. Henry was nothing if not bold.

His grandmother was disgusted. The Queen Dowager, a tall, broad woman with a deeply engrained sense of morality, lectured not only the Duke, but his cronies, for his arrogance and incestuous plans. Having thoroughly destroyed his hopes for the throne, she then offered his a ceremonial position on HER regency council, along with the suggestion that he finally marry, and offering the suggestion of Elena of Beja, a Portuguese spinster Princess of forty known for her extreme deformaties. Infuriated, Henry went to attack her and then, failing that, attempted to launch a "Catholic invasion", to which he got no support. Unimpressed by her son, Jadwiga had him arrested and imprisoned, visiting him regularly for a year before releasing him. Henry would later actually follow his mother's advice and marry Elena of Beja, when she herself became a potential heiress to the Portuguese Throne, and died in 1728, having managed to father a child on her a year earlier, before the war had been won and she took the throne. Elena, for the record, loved her awful husband deeply and named her son and heir after him.

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Elena I, Queen of Portugal, at her coronation (c.1729). Elena, a widow with a single son, won her throne after the death of the King in 1725 in a fire that took his pregnant bride with him. Elena, the daughter of his eldest aunt, beat out the Archduke Ferdinand of Upper Austria, her cousin by her youngest aunt, and the widowed (childless) Queen of Spain, who failed to take the throne based off her marriage contract and the lack of heir she brought with her. Elena, in 1726 the half-sister of the Duke of Beja, saw her chance to take the throne, marrying an Exiled British Prince and producing a healthy son at the age of 47. This portrait was considered extremely faltering, and Elena would later say she only recognised herself because of her shoes. Her reign was long and relatively peaceful.

Grace, unaware of her uncle's attempts to marry her, fell into a deep and sincere mourning for her father, stepmother, grandfather and, within a year, sister, leaning deeply on her grandmother during her remaining childhood. Taking to dressing in all white, the French style of mourning she found more appealing than the custom black, Grace Maria led no dances and played no games even on her birthday, and in 1724, aged 18, ordered the court into a full year of severe mourning she felt had failed to be followed during the Regency. When her grandmother objected, Grace riled against her and claimed "few know how deeply I feel this sadness inside". Thus began her reputation for madness.

Her first major project was the building of twenty new towns across England, designed by city planners with housing and factories planned to be practical yet appealing, she reasoned that since war had torn England apart many times over, and a population boom following the civil war had left many in her country homeless, it was her job to fix it. The Queen, often absent from more specific policy decisions, was set on this plan, and by 1731 all her envisioned towns were in construction across England. Ten were named Gracetown, seven Arthurtown, and the remaining three Jadwigatown.

The Queen initially refused to marry, turning away the Duke of Guarda, the Dauphin of France and the heir to the Danish Throne within a month of each other. At the needling of her grandmother, she did agree to meet with the Duke of Ross, heir to the Scottish throne as grandson to the King, but even this match did not make it through, due to her distaste of his flippant jokes at the expense of her then recently deceased cousin in Portugal. When Jadwiga of Poland died in 1730, the 24 year old Grace was left a letter that ranked the noblemen of Europe in order of suitability for her. The top choice was Albert of Bavaria, second son to the Duke of Bavaria. The bottom choice was Lord Francis de Lorraine, son of the formerly illegitimate Duke of Lorraine and uncle to the now unseated Duke Nicholas of Lorraine, who's exploits in Sweden with the Princess Dorothea had become legendary. Not on the list was Grace's eventual husband, King Alexander V of Scotland.

Alexander V of Scotland was 72 years old when he agreed to meet with the Queen of England, the pretty but supposedly mad Queen of England, with her wardrobe of white silk and her propensity for long sermons about the afterlife. The courts travelled to the border, and the King, recently a widower with his wife of fifty years dying of pneumonia, demanded his four grandsons practise their manners. He wanted a Scotsman to capture the heart of the Queen. But when Grace of England saw the Scottish royal party, her eyes travelled to the tall, thin old man still tall and graceful on white horseback. She had found the love of her life. He was swept away by her demand to marry him, but in that summer of 1732, agreed, abdicating his throne to his eldest son and travelling to England alongside the Queen, now King of England himself. Their first son was born a year later.

The Queen's reign of England during this time was her most productive. Taking a strong stance on cleanliness and literacy, Grace travelled to the towns she had had built and, confronted with mud and general dirtiness, demanded they be cleaned regularly. Every town had a cleaning committee employed, payed by the state, to ensure walkways were clear and the air was "not poorly scented". She also began building schools in this towns, with two teachers each. Grace imagined a world where everyone was able to read, write do their numbers. She assumed that would solve the issues of poverty in England.

Grace had ten happy years with her husband. She even wore colour for a time. but by 1735, he was obviously ageing and not long for this world. Their final child was born in 1737, and in 1742, she was a widow. He would be buried next to his first wife, and Grace spent the rest of her life reiterating that she wished to join them when she passed.

Her wish would not be granted.

She did not remarry another European Prince, and instead took a lover in former slave Geoffrey Stafford, original name unrecorded, who father a child with her born in 1744, named Rosamund Tudor. A scandal, the Queen claimed a morganatic had taken place between the two, much like the current reigning King of France had with a former mistress, and that while her husband held no rank, and her daughter would not be a Princess, they were part of the royal family and should be treated as such. Grace's actions were considered part of her insanity, but in actuality, should be taken into consideration with the historical reality of the times. In 1711, the slave trade in the Americas had begin to fall as those enslaved rose up and nation states had formed. Portugal's slave ports in Africa had failed within a year of this, leading to the unrest that ended up with Elena of Beja on the throne. England worried their own colonies would rise against them, had ended slavery in the colonies and given slave owners twenty years to end the practise and claim reparations, or else lose their right to compensation. This had not been enough, and in 1724 England began to lose their own colonies. Grace met Geoffrey around this time, when he was amongst an interracial group of 20 men brought to England to negotiate support for "The North Eastern American Kingdom" (OTL Maine, Vermond, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Connexticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and most of Ohio), which she agreed to if a tithe could be paid and an ambassador remain in England. Geoffrey was the result of this, and by 1735 he was considered an integral part of London society by those who had not shunned him. And now, to some, he was all but a King.

Geoffrey Stafford's life before arrive to England had been hard, both as the son of a slave (although he would write in his memoirs that he did no hard labour as by 1711 he was supposedly 9 years old), and a black politician in the early days the North Eastern American Kingdom, later renamed Freeland in 1761. Geoffrey, who took the name in 1720 upon becoming a lawyer, would write daily newsletters about slave liberation and the necessity of an English influence in their politics, which would be part of the reason why he was picked amongst the 20 men sent to London. His father, who died in 1762, was to be paid almost 1000 pounds in 1750 to "write" a tell all book about his son, published in articles across Europe and detailing, amongst other things, his supposed "real wife" Alice Kraft, a white German woman of whom no record exists outside of the book. Many took this as proof that the Queen had married a filthy man only interested in "diluting European whiteness". Regardless, she was considered unwell.

Grace Tudor's relationship with Geoffrey Stafford was perhaps the first issue of her reign the men and women of her court did not take in good faith. Her perpetual mourning was considered somewhat endearing, her hatred of dancing a personality quirk. Even her reluctance to do much fine policy, instead declaring broad concepts and having her ministers make them a reality was considered a smart choice. Women were not expected to know law. They had even accepted her strange choice in a first husband, and Alexander of Scotland had been a popular man towards the end. But a black second husband was considered too far. Grace was, in 1746, briefly imprisoned and Geoffrey run out of London. He was replaced by a white politican from the North Eastern American Kingdom within a year. Grace was allowed out of her imprisonment and given a choice. The throne or Geoffrey. She initially chose the throne.

Sending money to her husband to buy an estate in his homeland and prepare it for them, Grace set about righting England before leaving in 1752. Deeply furious her countrymen were not only so narrow minded, but so cruel, she first punished the Duke of Norfolk and Duke of Richmond for their parts in her imprisonment, then sent away the Portuguese ambassador who had egged them on, himself a former slave owner. Finally, in 1750, she had a portrait painted depicting herself, in one of the only depictions of the Queen in a non-white dress, with her daughter Rosamund, which was to travel with her to the Americas. Grace's final act was one of defiance, and in leaving she did not weep, but instead abdicated to her eldest son _____, demanding he not give into the prejudice of his court, and to not forget his youngest sister.

Grace's reign was remembered in the years following as a strange one. Many of the policies she followed were successful, and her time in the Americas would be fruitful, as she would represent the old world's acceptance of a burgeoning order (although she was not fully accepted their either, with many agreeing that some madness must exist in the woman always in white who walked through cemeteries with her daughter). Her legacy in England would be somewhat tarnished by her final decade on the throne, but children were still educated in the 200 schools she funded, living in houses she had had built in cities she demanded by kept clean. A rising literate class only were able to read the salacious reports of her married life to Geoffrey because of her work. It was all her.

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Grace I, Queen of England and Ireland, sits with her youngest daughter, Rosamund Tudor. (c.1750).
 
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Catherine of Howard faithfully bares Henry VIII a son.

"Kitty did It"

Kings of England
1509-1547: Henry VIII (House of Tudor)
1547-1553: Edward VI (House of Tudor)
1553-1598: Henry IX (House of Tudor) [1]
1598-1629: Edward VII (House of Tudor) [2]
1629-1671: Henry X (House of Tudor) [3]
1671-1720: Henry XI (House of Tudor) [4]
1720 - 1752: Grace I (House of Tudor) [5]


Spoiler: Henry IX to Henry XI
[1] Born in 7th March 1541, Henry, Duke of York was born to 50 year old King Henry VIII, and 18 year old, Catherine Howard.
Upon his birth he was second in line, behind his half brother, Edward, Duke of Cornwall, but before his older sisters, Mary and Elizabeth.

Before his sixth birthday, his father at the age of 55, died on 28 January 1547.

His brother became Edward VI, however since Edward was still a child, rule passed to a regency council dominated by Protestants, who attempted to establish their faith throughout the country. Prince Henry, Duke of York, became heir presumptive.

On 6 July 1553, at the age of 15, Edward VI died from a lung infection, leaving 12 year old, Henry to succeed him.

Again a regency was needed and this came in the form of his maternal Great-uncle Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk (1473 – 25 August 1554) and then his cousin, Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk (10 March 1536 – 2 June 1572)

In 1555, 14 year old Henry IX was married by proxy to 10 year old Princess Anna of Sweden (19 June 1545 – 20 March 1610), his sister Princess Elizabeth stood in her place in London, while Prince Eric stood in his place in Stockholm. The official wedding took place five years later at Richmond Palace

The marriage was said to be a happy one resulting in the birth of 12 children, with 9 reaching adulthood.

Taking control of the throne fully in 1558, Henry’s first job was the smooth relations between foreign warring nations.

His sister Mary, at 42 was seen as to old to wed to a reasonable suitor, so instead was married off as the second wife to Thomas Howard (ca. 1520 – 1582) the youngest son of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk and Lady Elizabeth Stafford. Thomas and Mary was rewarded with the title Duke and Duchess of Richmond. Mary would become weak and ill in May 1558. In pain, possibly from ovarian cysts or uterine cancer, she died in 17 November, leaving her lands and money to Thomas and his children from his first marriage.

Elizabeth on the other hand was 25 and still suited, there were rumors of marrying Anne’s older brother Prince Eric of Sweden, but a double Swedish marriage was seen as beneficial, so instead she was wed off to Frederick II of Denmark & Norway (1 July 1534 – 4 April 1588), this marriage would help peaceful diplomacy in 1563 between Sweden and Denmark & Norway.

Henry IX’s reign was seen as a great alliance of Northern Protestant Nations, while keeping the peace with Spain, France and Rome.

Henry died just before his 57th birthday, following a short illness and was succeeded by King Edward VII Tudor, his grandson.


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[2] The eldest son of Prince Thomas of Wales, eldest son of Henry IX, Edward VII was born May 3rd of 1580. He would spend the majority of his childhood in Wales while his father governed as Prince of Wales. An active child, Edward rode extensively and was usually outdoors. Then in 1592 when Prince Thomas of Wales passed, Edward and his two younger siblings, Arthur and Catherine, would be placed in the care of their uncle, Prince Henry Tudor Duke of York.

After Edward's marriage to Princess Elisabeth of Denmark and Norway, the great-granddaughter of Elizabeth Tudor, Edward would return to Wales where he would take up his duties as Prince of Wales. Or in reality, Princess Elizabeth took up the duties, for Edward had returned to the hunting and riding of his youth. But as he was handsome and personable, and Princess Elizabeth handled things ably, no one really cared that the heir to the thrown was somewhat useless.

At age eighteen, Henry IX would die leaving Edward King Edward VII King of England, Ireland, and France (really only a small part of France). As King Edward continued the pattern set while he was Prince of Wales, most tasks were left to his wife or the Privy Council and he would hunt and ride pretty much all day everyday.

In 1614, France would attempt to retake much of the English lands in Normandy. King Edward would travel with the English forces and participate in battle. This endeared him to the common soldier. After almost seven years of war, the borders hadn't really changed all that much, but both sides would finally agree to a peace.

King Edward would return from war a changed man. Having spent a great deal of time with common soldier for seven years, he became concerned with the plight of the common man. He would spend the last 8 years of his life forcing reforms with Tudor bullheadedness.

While many agreed with the changes purposed, most of them wished he wasn't quite so pushy about it. As such, everyone breathed a sigh of relief when finally all that riding and hunting did him in. King Edward VII would die form a head injury that occurred while riding at age 49 leaving his young nephew, Henry as King of England, Ireland, and part of France. He looked to be a much more reasonable individual.


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[3] Prince Henry, the Duke of Cambridge, was born to Prince Arthur, the younger brother of the King, in 1611 on April 1st. As the King had no children, that made the young Duke the third in line for the throne. His father was born in 1586 and had married a distant cousin, Margaret Seymour, the daughter of Edward Seymour, Lord Beauchamp of Hatch, the son of Lady Catherine Grey, a granddaughter Mary Tudor, the sister of Henry VIII.

Prince Arthur was with his brother, the King, in 1614 on the ground with the common solider, as was his closest friend, Richard Cromwell, the Duke of Kent. It is said the King considered this a lark, while his younger brother saw it as a thing of duty. Perhaps the most important point in the King's life, beginning the changes in his attitudes, was when Arthur died in their first battle sacrificing his life to save the King and Cromwell. Instead of returning home, the King now remained with the soldiers until the end of the war.

The young Duke was not yet three years old when this happened and didn't meet his uncle until he was ten. His world was a world of women, his mother, Princess Margaret, his aunt-in-law, Queen Elisabeth, and his aunt, Princess Catherine. The Duke loved this world and grew up to love women. He disdained the crude world of men, of war and of the hunt and of sports. He preferred the games of the parlor, deep conversations tending to gossip, fashion, and, most of all, pomp and ceremony.

Like his aunt-in-law, the Duke was a pragmatist. He agreed with many of the reforms his Uncle desired after his change of attitude, but agreed he pushed too fast and too hard, alienating the conservative aristocracy who saw the rise of the Parliament and in particular the reformists desire to reform the Church of England along Presbyterian lines, as a threat to them. So they lauded him as the new young King, only 18, when he took the throne. They saw him as a much more reasonable individual.

But they confused his wiles and love of intrigue with actually agreeing with them. Henry deftly played off both sides against each other, seeming to change positions over the years. But slowly and surely the result was a move towards greater and greater power to Parliament and more and more reform in the Church. The Episcopal system was not replaced, just modified with a Presbyterian aspect where a Presbytery of all the clergy and lay elders would share power with the Bishop just as Parliament shared power with the King.

Finally the elite realized they were being played when in 1639 the King called a kingdom wide Church Council to write a confession of faith, a new common book of worship, and a catechism. They clearly saw that the Puritans in control of Parliament would dominate this council and move the Church to aspects they despised. A group of nobles declared that Henry was not the actual son of Prince Arthur, but that he was in truth the son of the Duke of Kent, Richard Cromwell, who'd been Prince Arthur's close friend and had married Princess Margaret in 1622, after returning from the war. Cromwell was the closest advisor of the King and the head of the Privy Council. They declared the legitimate King was Henry's cousin once removed, also named Henry Tudor, the son of the King's great uncle, Henry Tudor. The other Henry was now the 2nd Duke of York and became the champion of the elite.

The Rebellion was quickly put down. The King, who'd dressed like the elite with long hair and lace and frills, showed his loyalty by marching to the Puritan cause by cutting his hair, wearing simple black, and marching with the Army of the Parliament.

But being the pragmatist he was, the King promised the elite that the Council would not go too far. By the middle of the 1640s a 'middle way' in both Kingdom and Church had finally been agreed on in a new consensus.

The Kingdom was peaceful, stable, and prosperous the rest of Henry's reign.

The other big change in the kingdom during Henry's reign was the establishment and settlement of colonies in North America. The first colony of Chesapeake was established during his uncle's reign. By the end of Henry's reign there were 8 North American colonies including Upper Canada.

Henry married after the Yorkist rebellion and married his second cousin, Mary of York, the daughter of the pretender, in part to unite both sides. They had quite a few children and seemed to have a robust and happy marriage, partly because she fully accepted his love of other women. He had many mistresses and more illegitimate children than legitimate.

Henry died at the age of 60 after a long illness. It is now pretty accepted it was Syphilis.

[4]The eldest son and child of Henry X with Mary of York, born almost exactly nine months after their wedding night, Henry XI was raised by his father's first cousin (and one of his only female friends to not be also a mistress at some point) Lady Adelaide Seymour, an extremely pious and conservative woman who would raise the royal children in a similar manner (Henry's younger sister, Princess Elizabeth, would go as far as following the puritan trend of overly religious names, as her first son with the Duke of Richmond would be named "Charles If-Chirst-Had-Not-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned Francis", and her oldest daughter was named "Prudentia", while her youngest son, who would become Duke of New Sarum, in the Colonies, was named "Hate-Evil" but nicknamed "Harry"), with the Prince of Wales becoming remarkably pious and somber, quite unlike his partying and womanizing father.

Much like his father in his dislike of war and fighting, Henry XI's reign would follow a similar vein in a focus for maintaining England and her territories out of the conflicts that marked continental Europe (although his dislike of catholics meant that the king would crack down hard on the remaining Irish Catholics, who held down in the west and south, and would, with the help of the now mostly protestant Gaelic Nobility of the east and north, crush two rebellions there), using England's great navy as a silent threat to anyone who might try and bring the kingdom out of its neutrality. He, instead, invested on colonization, focusing heavily on the settlement of the southern colonies in North America (mostly with indentured servants brought from Africa and Ireland, as the King preferred a more feudal approach to settlement instead of following the Portuguese and French in their slavering ways)

Living in Ludlow from his preteen to young adult years as Prince of Wales, Henry XI took a great liking to the culture, language and history of the Welsh, taking it (and later Cornish, when he visited Cornwall during a tour in the 1670s and saw the ruins of Tintagel, said to have been Camelot from Arthurain Legend and took a similar liking to it) as a second language and creating many Welsh peers during his reign, he also stayed in Wales many times, turning Canarvon castle into a royal residence comparable to Whitehall for that purpose, and later also built the Castle of Tintagel near the ruins that it is named after

Married to Princess Jadwiga of Prussia, herself a cousin from his father's side (her mother was his father's sister), Henry had many children, but most of them died in infancy, and when he died of what is now believed to have been a brain tumor, all the surviving ones had died, with him being succeded by his only grandchild by his eldest son, the Princess Grace, who would be the first female monarch of England.

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Grace I, Queen of England and Ireland (c.1728)

[5] The Princess Grace Maria Tudor, third born daughter of the Prince of Wales Arthur Tudor and his second wife, Barbara Hamilton of Albany, daughter of the Duke of Albany. Arthur's first wife, Juliana Gonzaga, had been unfertile and had died in 1703 at the age of 30 of accidental poisoning during a fertility treatment. In 1712, her mother and elder siblings Edward and Elizabeth Tudor all took ill of smallpox, dying at the hands of unexperienced nurses and leading to the rest of the royal family being innoculated to prevent further deaths the next year. Grace, now second in line to the throne, saw her father remarry a German Princess, Augusta of Brunswick, and with every stillborn son and sickly daughter, saw herself remain the heiress, with only her younger sister Catherine Tudor surviving infancy. Finally, in 1719, the third Princess of Wales passed away of a kidney infection, and the Prince, distraught, died in a "hunting accident". Grace, now heiress, was rushed away from the Yorkshire estate where her father had secluded himself and his daughters and into the capable hands the Queen.

Jadwiga of Poland, Queen of England, had custody of her two granddaughters at the time of her husband's death, preventing her other grandchild, Henry Tudor, Duke of St James, from overstepping the succession. Henry, still unmarried in his early 30's, arrived in London within hours of his father's death, seemingly having hovered at the city's edge for a week, since his grandfather's collapse, and rushing to the court to claim the throne. Declaring England could never have a female monarch, he 'kindly' offered to marry his fourteen year old cousin and, even, to betroth their eldest son to her sister to maintain the succession. Henry was nothing if not bold.

His grandmother was disgusted. The Queen Dowager, a tall, broad woman with a deeply engrained sense of morality, lectured not only the Duke, but his cronies, for his arrogance and incestuous plans. Having thoroughly destroyed his hopes for the throne, she then offered his a ceremonial position on HER regency council, along with the suggestion that he finally marry, and offering the suggestion of Elena of Beja, a Portuguese spinster Princess of forty known for her extreme deformaties. Infuriated, Henry went to attack her and then, failing that, attempted to launch a "Catholic invasion", to which he got no support. Unimpressed by her son, Jadwiga had him arrested and imprisoned, visiting him regularly for a year before releasing him. Henry would later actually follow his mother's advice and marry Elena of Beja, when she herself became a potential heiress to the Portuguese Throne, and died in 1728, having managed to father a child on her a year earlier, before the war had been won and she took the throne. Elena, for the record, loved her awful husband deeply and named her son and heir after him.

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Elena I, Queen of Portugal, at her coronation (c.1729). Elena, a widow with a single son, won her throne after the death of the King in 1725 in a fire that took his pregnant bride with him. Elena, the daughter of his eldest aunt, beat out the Archduke Ferdinand of Upper Austria, her cousin by her youngest aunt, and the widowed (childless) Queen of Spain, who failed to take the throne based off her marriage contract and the lack of heir she brought with her. Elena, in 1726 the half-sister of the Duke of Beja, saw her chance to take the throne, marrying an Exiled British Prince and producing a healthy son at the age of 47. This portrait was considered extremely faltering, and Elena would later say she only recognised herself because of her shoes. Her reign was long and relatively peaceful.

Grace, unaware of her uncle's attempts to marry her, fell into a deep and sincere mourning for her father, stepmother, grandfather and, within a year, sister, leaning deeply on her grandmother during her remaining childhood. Taking to dressing in all white, the French style of mourning she found more appealing than the custom black, Grace Maria led no dances and played no games even on her birthday, and in 1724, aged 18, ordered the court into a full year of severe mourning she felt had failed to be followed during the Regency. When her grandmother objected, Grace riled against her and claimed "few know how deeply I feel this sadness inside". Thus began her reputation for madness.

Her first major project was the building of twenty new towns across England, designed by city planners with housing and factories planned to be practical yet appealing, she reasoned that since war had torn England apart many times over, and a population boom following the civil war had left many in her country homeless, it was her job to fix it. The Queen, often absent from more specific policy decisions, was set on this plan, and by 1731 all her envisioned towns were in construction across England. Ten were named Gracetown, seven Arthurtown, and the remaining three Jadwigatown.

The Queen initially refused to marry, turning away the Duke of Guarda, the Dauphin of France and the heir to the Danish Throne within a month of each other. At the needling of her grandmother, she did agree to meet with the Duke of Ross, heir to the Scottish throne as grandson to the King, but even this match did not make it through, due to her distaste of his flippant jokes at the expense of her then recently deceased cousin in Portugal. When Jadwiga of Poland died in 1730, the 24 year old Grace was left a letter that ranked the noblemen of Europe in order of suitability for her. The top choice was Albert of Bavaria, second son to the Duke of Bavaria. The bottom choice was Lord Francis de Lorraine, son of the formerly illegitimate Duke of Lorraine and uncle to the now unseated Duke Nicholas of Lorraine, who's exploits in Sweden with the Princess Dorothea had become legendary. Not on the list was Grace's eventual husband, King Alexander V of Scotland.

Alexander V of Scotland was 72 years old when he agreed to meet with the Queen of England, the pretty but supposedly mad Queen of England, with her wardrobe of white silk and her propensity for long sermons about the afterlife. The courts travelled to the border, and the King, recently a widower with his wife of fifty years dying of pneumonia, demanded his four grandsons practise their manners. He wanted a Scotsman to capture the heart of the Queen. But when Grace of England saw the Scottish royal party, her eyes travelled to the tall, thin old man still tall and graceful on white horseback. She had found the love of her life. He was swept away by her demand to marry him, but in that summer of 1732, agreed, abdicating his throne to his eldest son and travelling to England alongside the Queen, now King of England himself. Their first son was born a year later.

The Queen's reign of England during this time was her most productive. Taking a strong stance on cleanliness and literacy, Grace travelled to the towns she had had built and, confronted with mud and general dirtiness, demanded they be cleaned regularly. Every town had a cleaning committee employed, payed by the state, to ensure walkways were clear and the air was "not poorly scented". She also began building schools in this towns, with two teachers each. Grace imagined a world where everyone was able to read, write do their numbers. She assumed that would solve the issues of poverty in England.

Grace had ten happy years with her husband. She even wore colour for a time. but by 1735, he was obviously ageing and not long for this world. Their final child was born in 1737, and in 1742, she was a widow. He would be buried next to his first wife, and Grace spent the rest of her life reiterating that she wished to join them when she passed.

Her wish would not be granted.

She did not remarry another European Prince, and instead took a lover in former slave Geoffrey Stafford, original name unrecorded, who father a child with her born in 1744, named Rosamund Tudor. A scandal, the Queen claimed a morganatic had taken place between the two, much like the current reigning King of France had with a former mistress, and that while her husband held no rank, and her daughter would not be a Princess, they were part of the royal family and should be treated as such. Grace's actions were considered part of her insanity, but in actuality, should be taken into consideration with the historical reality of the times. In 1711, the slave trade in the Americas had begin to fall as those enslaved rose up and nation states had formed. Portugal's slave ports in Africa had failed within a year of this, leading to the unrest that ended up with Elena of Beja on the throne. England worried their own colonies would rise against them, had ended slavery in the colonies and given slave owners twenty years to end the practise and claim reparations, or else lose their right to compensation. This had not been enough, and in 1724 England began to lose their own colonies. Grace met Geoffrey around this time, when he was amongst an interracial group of 20 men brought to England to negotiate support for "The North Eastern American Kingdom" (OTL Maine, Vermond, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Connexticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and most of Ohio), which she agreed to if a tithe could be paid and an ambassador remain in England. Geoffrey was the result of this, and by 1735 he was considered an integral part of London society by those who had not shunned him. And now, to some, he was all but a King.

Geoffrey Stafford's life before arrive to England had been hard, both as the son of a slave (although he would write in his memoirs that he did no hard labour as by 1711 he was supposedly 9 years old), and a black politician in the early days the North Eastern American Kingdom, later renamed Freeland in 1761. Geoffrey, who took the name in 1720 upon becoming a lawyer, would write daily newsletters about slave liberation and the necessity of an English influence in their politics, which would be part of the reason why he was picked amongst the 20 men sent to London. His father, who died in 1762, was to be paid almost 1000 pounds in 1750 to "write" a tell all book about his son, published in articles across Europe and detailing, amongst other things, his supposed "real wife" Alice Kraft, a white German woman of whom no record exists outside of the book. Many took this as proof that the Queen had married a filthy man only interested in "diluting European whiteness". Regardless, she was considered unwell.

Grace Tudor's relationship with Geoffrey Stafford was perhaps the first issue of her reign the men and women of her court did not take in good faith. Her perpetual mourning was considered somewhat endearing, her hatred of dancing a personality quirk. Even her reluctance to do much fine policy, instead declaring broad concepts and having her ministers make them a reality was considered a smart choice. Women were not expected to know law. They had even accepted her strange choice in a first husband, and Alexander of Scotland had been a popular man towards the end. But a black second husband was considered too far. Grace was, in 1746, briefly imprisoned and Geoffrey run out of London. He was replaced by a white politican from the North Eastern American Kingdom within a year. Grace was allowed out of her imprisonment and given a choice. The throne or Geoffrey. She initially chose the throne.

Sending money to her husband to buy an estate in his homeland and prepare it for them, Grace set about righting England before leaving in 1752. Deeply furious her countrymen were not only so narrow minded, but so cruel, she first punished the Duke of Norfolk and Duke of Richmond for their parts in her imprisonment, then sent away the Portuguese ambassador who had egged them on, himself a former slave owner. Finally, in 1750, she had a portrait painted depicting herself, in one of the only depictions of the Queen in a non-white dress, with her daughter Rosamund, which was to travel with her to the Americas. Grace's final act was one of defiance, and in leaving she did not weep, but instead abdicated to her eldest son _____, demanding he not give into the prejudice of his court, and to not forget his youngest sister.

Grace's reign was remembered in the years following as a strange one. Many of the policies she followed were successful, and her time in the Americas would be fruitful, as she would represent the old world's acceptance of a burgeoning order (although she was not fully accepted their either, with many agreeing that some madness must exist in the woman always in white who walked through cemeteries with her daughter). Her legacy in England would be somewhat tarnished by her final decade on the throne, but children were still educated in the 200 schools she funded, living in houses she had had built in cities she demanded by kept clean. A rising literate class only were able to read the salacious reports of her married life to Geoffrey because of her work. It was all her.

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Grace I, Queen of England and Ireland, sits with her youngest daughter, Rosamund Tudor. (c.1750).
Just a nitpick, but Jadwiga was a Prussian Princess. Also, what is the "North Eastern American Kingdom"? If it is meant to be an independent american nation made in the English colonies, why would it send a delegation to England to ask for support? No sensible monarch would agree to it and Grace's reign would be marked by a war against the kingdom! (unless the comment about the tithe is meant to say that it still remains under some authority of the English monarchy (possibly with it being in some sort of personal union?), then it actually does make sense that a peaceful middle ground could be found)

(just as a sidenote, I mentioned on Henry XI that slavery ended up not being the main source of hard labour in the colonies, with indentured servitude on the medieval style (tied to the land but no selling) taking the place, even if most of the serfs would probably be people from africa brought by force (although since the independent state you created is based on the colonies that probably would be the first ones, it does make a bit more sense that they would have a larger slave-based workforce, since they would have started during his father reign (even if I think an independence movement based around ending slavery is a bit fishy in such a large scale, seeing as most of the New England states had slavery even years after the Declaration of Independence). Though, how did it get to include most of Ohio? is it a later inclusion? Because even with an earlier start I can't see colonization crossing the Appalachians before at least the mid 18th century)

Besides it, a really cool monarch
 
Just a nitpick, but Jadwiga was a Prussian Princess. Also, what is the "North Eastern American Kingdom"? If it is meant to be an independent american nation made in the English colonies, why would it send a delegation to England to ask for support? No sensible monarch would agree to it and Grace's reign would be marked by a war against the kingdom! (unless the comment about the tithe is meant to say that it still remains under some authority of the English monarchy (possibly with it being in some sort of personal union?), then it actually does make sense that a peaceful middle ground could be found)

(just as a sidenote, I mentioned on Henry XI that slavery ended up not being the main source of hard labour in the colonies, with indentured servitude on the medieval style (tied to the land but no selling) taking the place, even if most of the serfs would probably be people from africa brought by force (although since the independent state you created is based on the colonies that probably would be the first ones, it does make a bit more sense that they would have a larger slave-based workforce, since they would have started during his father reign (even if I think an independence movement based around ending slavery is a bit fishy in such a large scale, seeing as most of the New England states had slavery even years after the Declaration of Independence). Though, how did it get to include most of Ohio? is it a later inclusion? Because even with an earlier start I can't see colonization crossing the Appalachians before at least the mid 18th century)

Besides it, a really cool monarch

Ok I'll edit Poland to Prussia, that was just a slip up on my part. I'll fix that.

As for the American Kingdom, that's essentially what I meant. Freedomland within the timeline I have there is essentially a vassal kingdom. The negotiations are essentially to ensure that England supports the end of slavery, the unification of those cities and estates into one whole state, and ensure good relations. Where it'll go would be up to further additions.

In regards to the slave uprising, I took into consideration what you had said, but slavery was still in existence and here, with a serf class rather than a strictly slave one, and maybe with worse propaganda, I think it's possible for an uprising. It's a stretch, but honestly, I thought he previous posts had left it open enough that this timeline could effectively end slavery in at least the English colonies. And Ohio would be a later inclusion, yes.
 
Catherine of Howard faithfully bares Henry VIII a son.

"Kitty did It"

Kings of England
1509-1547: Henry VIII (House of Tudor)
1547-1553: Edward VI (House of Tudor)
1553-1598: Henry IX (House of Tudor) [1]
1598-1629: Edward VII (House of Tudor) [2]
1629-1671: Henry X (House of Tudor) [3]
1671-1720: Henry XI (House of Tudor) [4]
1720-1752: Grace I (House of Tudor) [5]
1752-1789: Alexander I (House of Stuart) [6]

Kings of England & Scotland
1789-1797: Alexander I & VI (House of Stuart) [6]

Kings of the United Kingdom of England, Scotland, & Ireland
1797-1815: Alexander VI (House of Stuart) [6]


[1] Born in 7th March 1541, Henry, Duke of York was born to 50 year old King Henry VIII, and 18 year old, Catherine Howard.
Upon his birth he was second in line, behind his half brother, Edward, Duke of Cornwall, but before his older sisters, Mary and Elizabeth.

Before his sixth birthday, his father at the age of 55, died on 28 January 1547.

His brother became Edward VI, however since Edward was still a child, rule passed to a regency council dominated by Protestants, who attempted to establish their faith throughout the country. Prince Henry, Duke of York, became heir presumptive.

On 6 July 1553, at the age of 15, Edward VI died from a lung infection, leaving 12 year old, Henry to succeed him.

Again a regency was needed and this came in the form of his maternal Great-uncle Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk (1473 – 25 August 1554) and then his cousin, Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk (10 March 1536 – 2 June 1572)

In 1555, 14 year old Henry IX was married by proxy to 10 year old Princess Anna of Sweden (19 June 1545 – 20 March 1610), his sister Princess Elizabeth stood in her place in London, while Prince Eric stood in his place in Stockholm. The official wedding took place five years later at Richmond Palace

The marriage was said to be a happy one resulting in the birth of 12 children, with 9 reaching adulthood.

Taking control of the throne fully in 1558, Henry’s first job was the smooth relations between foreign warring nations.

His sister Mary, at 42 was seen as to old to wed to a reasonable suitor, so instead was married off as the second wife to Thomas Howard (ca. 1520 – 1582) the youngest son of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk and Lady Elizabeth Stafford. Thomas and Mary was rewarded with the title Duke and Duchess of Richmond. Mary would become weak and ill in May 1558. In pain, possibly from ovarian cysts or uterine cancer, she died in 17 November, leaving her lands and money to Thomas and his children from his first marriage.

Elizabeth on the other hand was 25 and still suited, there were rumors of marrying Anne’s older brother Prince Eric of Sweden, but a double Swedish marriage was seen as beneficial, so instead she was wed off to Frederick II of Denmark & Norway (1 July 1534 – 4 April 1588), this marriage would help peaceful diplomacy in 1563 between Sweden and Denmark & Norway.

Henry IX’s reign was seen as a great alliance of Northern Protestant Nations, while keeping the peace with Spain, France and Rome.

Henry died just before his 57th birthday, following a short illness and was succeeded by King Edward VII Tudor, his grandson.


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[2] The eldest son of Prince Thomas of Wales, eldest son of Henry IX, Edward VII was born May 3rd of 1580. He would spend the majority of his childhood in Wales while his father governed as Prince of Wales. An active child, Edward rode extensively and was usually outdoors. Then in 1592 when Prince Thomas of Wales passed, Edward and his two younger siblings, Arthur and Catherine, would be placed in the care of their uncle, Prince Henry Tudor Duke of York.

After Edward's marriage to Princess Elisabeth of Denmark and Norway, the great-granddaughter of Elizabeth Tudor, Edward would return to Wales where he would take up his duties as Prince of Wales. Or in reality, Princess Elizabeth took up the duties, for Edward had returned to the hunting and riding of his youth. But as he was handsome and personable, and Princess Elizabeth handled things ably, no one really cared that the heir to the thrown was somewhat useless.

At age eighteen, Henry IX would die leaving Edward King Edward VII King of England, Ireland, and France (really only a small part of France). As King Edward continued the pattern set while he was Prince of Wales, most tasks were left to his wife or the Privy Council and he would hunt and ride pretty much all day everyday.

In 1614, France would attempt to retake much of the English lands in Normandy. King Edward would travel with the English forces and participate in battle. This endeared him to the common soldier. After almost seven years of war, the borders hadn't really changed all that much, but both sides would finally agree to a peace.

King Edward would return from war a changed man. Having spent a great deal of time with common soldier for seven years, he became concerned with the plight of the common man. He would spend the last 8 years of his life forcing reforms with Tudor bullheadedness.

While many agreed with the changes purposed, most of them wished he wasn't quite so pushy about it. As such, everyone breathed a sigh of relief when finally all that riding and hunting did him in. King Edward VII would die form a head injury that occurred while riding at age 49 leaving his young nephew, Henry as King of England, Ireland, and part of France. He looked to be a much more reasonable individual.


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[3] Prince Henry, the Duke of Cambridge, was born to Prince Arthur, the younger brother of the King, in 1611 on April 1st. As the King had no children, that made the young Duke the third in line for the throne. His father was born in 1586 and had married a distant cousin, Margaret Seymour, the daughter of Edward Seymour, Lord Beauchamp of Hatch, the son of Lady Catherine Grey, a granddaughter Mary Tudor, the sister of Henry VIII.

Prince Arthur was with his brother, the King, in 1614 on the ground with the common solider, as was his closest friend, Richard Cromwell, the Duke of Kent. It is said the King considered this a lark, while his younger brother saw it as a thing of duty. Perhaps the most important point in the King's life, beginning the changes in his attitudes, was when Arthur died in their first battle sacrificing his life to save the King and Cromwell. Instead of returning home, the King now remained with the soldiers until the end of the war.

The young Duke was not yet three years old when this happened and didn't meet his uncle until he was ten. His world was a world of women, his mother, Princess Margaret, his aunt-in-law, Queen Elisabeth, and his aunt, Princess Catherine. The Duke loved this world and grew up to love women. He disdained the crude world of men, of war and of the hunt and of sports. He preferred the games of the parlor, deep conversations tending to gossip, fashion, and, most of all, pomp and ceremony.

Like his aunt-in-law, the Duke was a pragmatist. He agreed with many of the reforms his Uncle desired after his change of attitude, but agreed he pushed too fast and too hard, alienating the conservative aristocracy who saw the rise of the Parliament and in particular the reformists desire to reform the Church of England along Presbyterian lines, as a threat to them. So they lauded him as the new young King, only 18, when he took the throne. They saw him as a much more reasonable individual.

But they confused his wiles and love of intrigue with actually agreeing with them. Henry deftly played off both sides against each other, seeming to change positions over the years. But slowly and surely the result was a move towards greater and greater power to Parliament and more and more reform in the Church. The Episcopal system was not replaced, just modified with a Presbyterian aspect where a Presbytery of all the clergy and lay elders would share power with the Bishop just as Parliament shared power with the King.

Finally the elite realized they were being played when in 1639 the King called a kingdom wide Church Council to write a confession of faith, a new common book of worship, and a catechism. They clearly saw that the Puritans in control of Parliament would dominate this council and move the Church to aspects they despised. A group of nobles declared that Henry was not the actual son of Prince Arthur, but that he was in truth the son of the Duke of Kent, Richard Cromwell, who'd been Prince Arthur's close friend and had married Princess Margaret in 1622, after returning from the war. Cromwell was the closest advisor of the King and the head of the Privy Council. They declared the legitimate King was Henry's cousin once removed, also named Henry Tudor, the son of the King's great uncle, Henry Tudor. The other Henry was now the 2nd Duke of York and became the champion of the elite.

The Rebellion was quickly put down. The King, who'd dressed like the elite with long hair and lace and frills, showed his loyalty by marching to the Puritan cause by cutting his hair, wearing simple black, and marching with the Army of the Parliament.

But being the pragmatist he was, the King promised the elite that the Council would not go too far. By the middle of the 1640s a 'middle way' in both Kingdom and Church had finally been agreed on in a new consensus.

The Kingdom was peaceful, stable, and prosperous the rest of Henry's reign.

The other big change in the kingdom during Henry's reign was the establishment and settlement of colonies in North America. The first colony of Chesapeake was established during his uncle's reign. By the end of Henry's reign there were 8 North American colonies including Upper Canada.

Henry married after the Yorkist rebellion and married his second cousin, Mary of York, the daughter of the pretender, in part to unite both sides. They had quite a few children and seemed to have a robust and happy marriage, partly because she fully accepted his love of other women. He had many mistresses and more illegitimate children than legitimate.

Henry died at the age of 60 after a long illness. It is now pretty accepted it was Syphilis.

[4]The eldest son and child of Henry X with Mary of York, born almost exactly nine months after their wedding night, Henry XI was raised by his father's first cousin (and one of his only female friends to not be also a mistress at some point) Lady Adelaide Seymour, an extremely pious and conservative woman who would raise the royal children in a similar manner (Henry's younger sister, Princess Elizabeth, would go as far as following the puritan trend of overly religious names, as her first son with the Duke of Richmond would be named "Charles If-Chirst-Had-Not-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned Francis", and her oldest daughter was named "Prudentia", while her youngest son, who would become Duke of New Sarum, in the Colonies, was named "Hate-Evil" but nicknamed "Harry"), with the Prince of Wales becoming remarkably pious and somber, quite unlike his partying and womanizing father.

Much like his father in his dislike of war and fighting, Henry XI's reign would follow a similar vein in a focus for maintaining England and her territories out of the conflicts that marked continental Europe (although his dislike of catholics meant that the king would crack down hard on the remaining Irish Catholics, who held down in the west and south, and would, with the help of the now mostly protestant Gaelic Nobility of the east and north, crush two rebellions there), using England's great navy as a silent threat to anyone who might try and bring the kingdom out of its neutrality. He, instead, invested on colonization, focusing heavily on the settlement of the southern colonies in North America (mostly with indentured servants brought from Africa and Ireland, as the King preferred a more feudal approach to settlement instead of following the Portuguese and French in their slavering ways)

Living in Ludlow from his preteen to young adult years as Prince of Wales, Henry XI took a great liking to the culture, language and history of the Welsh, taking it (and later Cornish, when he visited Cornwall during a tour in the 1670s and saw the ruins of Tintagel, said to have been Camelot from Arthurain Legend and took a similar liking to it) as a second language and creating many Welsh peers during his reign, he also stayed in Wales many times, turning Canarvon castle into a royal residence comparable to Whitehall for that purpose, and later also built the Castle of Tintagel near the ruins that it is named after

Married to Princess Jadwiga of Prussia, herself a cousin from his father's side (her mother was his father's sister), Henry had many children, but most of them died in infancy, and when he died of what is now believed to have been a brain tumor, all the surviving ones had died, with him being succeded by his only grandchild by his eldest son, the Princess Grace, who would be the first female monarch of England.

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Grace I, Queen of England and Ireland (c.1728)

[5] The Princess Grace Maria Tudor, third born daughter of the Prince of Wales Arthur Tudor and his second wife, Barbara Hamilton of Albany, daughter of the Duke of Albany. Arthur's first wife, Juliana Gonzaga, had been unfertile and had died in 1703 at the age of 30 of accidental poisoning during a fertility treatment. In 1712, her mother and elder siblings Edward and Elizabeth Tudor all took ill of smallpox, dying at the hands of unexperienced nurses and leading to the rest of the royal family being innoculated to prevent further deaths the next year. Grace, now second in line to the throne, saw her father remarry a German Princess, Augusta of Brunswick, and with every stillborn son and sickly daughter, saw herself remain the heiress, with only her younger sister Catherine Tudor surviving infancy. Finally, in 1719, the third Princess of Wales passed away of a kidney infection, and the Prince, distraught, died in a "hunting accident". Grace, now heiress, was rushed away from the Yorkshire estate where her father had secluded himself and his daughters and into the capable hands the Queen.

Jadwiga of Prussia, Queen of England, had custody of her two granddaughters at the time of her husband's death, preventing her other grandchild, Henry Tudor, Duke of St James, from overstepping the succession. Henry, still unmarried in his early 30's, arrived in London within hours of his father's death, seemingly having hovered at the city's edge for a week, since his grandfather's collapse, and rushing to the court to claim the throne. Declaring England could never have a female monarch, he 'kindly' offered to marry his fourteen year old cousin and, even, to betroth their eldest son to her sister to maintain the succession. Henry was nothing if not bold.

His grandmother was disgusted. The Queen Dowager, a tall, broad woman with a deeply engrained sense of morality, lectured not only the Duke, but his cronies, for his arrogance and incestuous plans. Having thoroughly destroyed his hopes for the throne, she then offered his a ceremonial position on HER regency council, along with the suggestion that he finally marry, and offering the suggestion of Elena of Beja, a Portuguese spinster Princess of forty known for her extreme deformaties. Infuriated, Henry went to attack her and then, failing that, attempted to launch a "Catholic invasion", to which he got no support. Unimpressed by her son, Jadwiga had him arrested and imprisoned, visiting him regularly for a year before releasing him. Henry would later actually follow his mother's advice and marry Elena of Beja, when she herself became a potential heiress to the Portuguese Throne, and died in 1728, having managed to father a child on her a year earlier, before the war had been won and she took the throne. Elena, for the record, loved her awful husband deeply and named her son and heir after him.

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Elena I, Queen of Portugal, at her coronation (c.1729). Elena, a widow with a single son, won her throne after the death of the King in 1725 in a fire that took his pregnant bride with him. Elena, the daughter of his eldest aunt, beat out the Archduke Ferdinand of Upper Austria, her cousin by her youngest aunt, and the widowed (childless) Queen of Spain, who failed to take the throne based off her marriage contract and the lack of heir she brought with her. Elena, in 1726 the half-sister of the Duke of Beja, saw her chance to take the throne, marrying an Exiled British Prince and producing a healthy son at the age of 47. This portrait was considered extremely faltering, and Elena would later say she only recognised herself because of her shoes. Her reign was long and relatively peaceful.

Grace, unaware of her uncle's attempts to marry her, fell into a deep and sincere mourning for her father, stepmother, grandfather and, within a year, sister, leaning deeply on her grandmother during her remaining childhood. Taking to dressing in all white, the French style of mourning she found more appealing than the custom black, Grace Maria led no dances and played no games even on her birthday, and in 1724, aged 18, ordered the court into a full year of severe mourning she felt had failed to be followed during the Regency. When her grandmother objected, Grace riled against her and claimed "few know how deeply I feel this sadness inside". Thus began her reputation for madness.

Her first major project was the building of twenty new towns across England, designed by city planners with housing and factories planned to be practical yet appealing, she reasoned that since war had torn England apart many times over, and a population boom following the civil war had left many in her country homeless, it was her job to fix it. The Queen, often absent from more specific policy decisions, was set on this plan, and by 1731 all her envisioned towns were in construction across England. Ten were named Gracetown, seven Arthurtown, and the remaining three Jadwigatown.

The Queen initially refused to marry, turning away the Duke of Guarda, the Dauphin of France and the heir to the Danish Throne within a month of each other. At the needling of her grandmother, she did agree to meet with the Duke of Ross, heir to the Scottish throne as grandson to the King, but even this match did not make it through, due to her distaste of his flippant jokes at the expense of her then recently deceased cousin in Portugal. When Jadwiga of Poland died in 1730, the 24 year old Grace was left a letter that ranked the noblemen of Europe in order of suitability for her. The top choice was Albert of Bavaria, second son to the Duke of Bavaria. The bottom choice was Lord Francis de Lorraine, son of the formerly illegitimate Duke of Lorraine and uncle to the now unseated Duke Nicholas of Lorraine, who's exploits in Sweden with the Princess Dorothea had become legendary. Not on the list was Grace's eventual husband, King Alexander V of Scotland.

Alexander V of Scotland was 72 years old when he agreed to meet with the Queen of England, the pretty but supposedly mad Queen of England, with her wardrobe of white silk and her propensity for long sermons about the afterlife. The courts travelled to the border, and the King, recently a widower with his wife of fifty years dying of pneumonia, demanded his four grandsons practise their manners. He wanted a Scotsman to capture the heart of the Queen. But when Grace of England saw the Scottish royal party, her eyes travelled to the tall, thin old man still tall and graceful on white horseback. She had found the love of her life. He was swept away by her demand to marry him, but in that summer of 1732, agreed, abdicating his throne to his eldest son and travelling to England alongside the Queen, now King of England himself. Their first son was born a year later.

The Queen's reign of England during this time was her most productive. Taking a strong stance on cleanliness and literacy, Grace travelled to the towns she had had built and, confronted with mud and general dirtiness, demanded they be cleaned regularly. Every town had a cleaning committee employed, payed by the state, to ensure walkways were clear and the air was "not poorly scented". She also began building schools in this towns, with two teachers each. Grace imagined a world where everyone was able to read, write do their numbers. She assumed that would solve the issues of poverty in England.

Grace had ten happy years with her husband. She even wore colour for a time. but by 1735, he was obviously ageing and not long for this world. Their final child was born in 1737, and in 1742, she was a widow. He would be buried next to his first wife, and Grace spent the rest of her life reiterating that she wished to join them when she passed.

Her wish would not be granted.

She did not remarry another European Prince, and instead took a lover in former slave Geoffrey Stafford, original name unrecorded, who father a child with her born in 1744, named Rosamund Tudor. A scandal, the Queen claimed a morganatic had taken place between the two, much like the current reigning King of France had with a former mistress, and that while her husband held no rank, and her daughter would not be a Princess, they were part of the royal family and should be treated as such. Grace's actions were considered part of her insanity, but in actuality, should be taken into consideration with the historical reality of the times. In 1711, the slave trade in the Americas had begin to fall as those enslaved rose up and nation states had formed. Portugal's slave ports in Africa had failed within a year of this, leading to the unrest that ended up with Elena of Beja on the throne. England worried their own colonies would rise against them, had ended slavery in the colonies and given slave owners twenty years to end the practise and claim reparations, or else lose their right to compensation. This had not been enough, and in 1724 England began to lose their own colonies. Grace met Geoffrey around this time, when he was amongst an interracial group of 20 men brought to England to negotiate support for "The North Eastern American Kingdom" (OTL Maine, Vermond, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Connexticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and most of Ohio), which she agreed to if a tithe could be paid and an ambassador remain in England. Geoffrey was the result of this, and by 1735 he was considered an integral part of London society by those who had not shunned him. And now, to some, he was all but a King.

Geoffrey Stafford's life before arrive to England had been hard, both as the son of a slave (although he would write in his memoirs that he did no hard labour as by 1711 he was supposedly 9 years old), and a black politician in the early days the North Eastern American Kingdom, later renamed Freeland in 1761. Geoffrey, who took the name in 1720 upon becoming a lawyer, would write daily newsletters about slave liberation and the necessity of an English influence in their politics, which would be part of the reason why he was picked amongst the 20 men sent to London. His father, who died in 1762, was to be paid almost 1000 pounds in 1750 to "write" a tell all book about his son, published in articles across Europe and detailing, amongst other things, his supposed "real wife" Alice Kraft, a white German woman of whom no record exists outside of the book. Many took this as proof that the Queen had married a filthy man only interested in "diluting European whiteness". Regardless, she was considered unwell.

Grace Tudor's relationship with Geoffrey Stafford was perhaps the first issue of her reign the men and women of her court did not take in good faith. Her perpetual mourning was considered somewhat endearing, her hatred of dancing a personality quirk. Even her reluctance to do much fine policy, instead declaring broad concepts and having her ministers make them a reality was considered a smart choice. Women were not expected to know law. They had even accepted her strange choice in a first husband, and Alexander of Scotland had been a popular man towards the end. But a black second husband was considered too far. Grace was, in 1746, briefly imprisoned and Geoffrey run out of London. He was replaced by a white politican from the North Eastern American Kingdom within a year. Grace was allowed out of her imprisonment and given a choice. The throne or Geoffrey. She initially chose the throne.

Sending money to her husband to buy an estate in his homeland and prepare it for them, Grace set about righting England before leaving in 1752. Deeply furious her countrymen were not only so narrow minded, but so cruel, she first punished the Duke of Norfolk and Duke of Richmond for their parts in her imprisonment, then sent away the Portuguese ambassador who had egged them on, himself a former slave owner. Finally, in 1750, she had a portrait painted depicting herself, in one of the only depictions of the Queen in a non-white dress, with her daughter Rosamund, which was to travel with her to the Americas. Grace's final act was one of defiance, and in leaving she did not weep, but instead abdicated to her eldest son _____, demanding he not give into the prejudice of his court, and to not forget his youngest sister.

Grace's reign was remembered in the years following as a strange one. Many of the policies she followed were successful, and her time in the Americas would be fruitful, as she would represent the old world's acceptance of a burgeoning order (although she was not fully accepted their either, with many agreeing that some madness must exist in the woman always in white who walked through cemeteries with her daughter). Her legacy in England would be somewhat tarnished by her final decade on the throne, but children were still educated in the 200 schools she funded, living in houses she had had built in cities she demanded by kept clean. A rising literate class only were able to read the salacious reports of her married life to Geoffrey because of her work. It was all her.

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Grace I, Queen of England and Ireland, sits with her youngest daughter, Rosamund Tudor. (c.1750).

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[6] Alexander Henry Charles Stuart was born in 1733 on May 19th to Queen Grace of England and the former king of Scotland, Alexander V Stuart, who'd abdicated to his eldest son, Alexander's adult brother, Charles II, who was 48 when he took the throne. Prince Alexander was seen as the heir to England's throne, but he was fifth in line for the Scottish throne and was never expected to take it. Besides Charles there were his two sons, another Charles, the Duke of Ross, age 27, and Malcolm, age 23, Charles other brother, James, age 44, and James' son, Edmund, age 23. (The Prince's adult nephews had been suitors of his mother, Charles, the Duke of Ross, the primary one.

So it was that the Prince was raised as an English gentleman and only visited Scotland or his brother the Scottish king once before he was 12. He had two full siblings. Princess Charlotte was born in 1735 and Prince William was born in 1737. The first tragedy of the Prince's life was the death of his father when he was not yet even 9 years old. King Alexander had doted on his late in life children and Alexander had adored the old man.

His first visit to Scotland was for his father's funeral. That was when he met his older brothers, their wives, and his nephews, the Duke of Ross and Prince Edmund. By then Prince Malcolm had died in a hunting accident and the English Prince was now fourth in line.

The next time he visited Scotland was when he was 12 with Princess Charlotte and Prince William to spend time living with Prince Edmund. It was then he first met his step grand-niece, the adopted daughter of Prince Edmund, Abigail Stuart, who was 10 at the time. Her mother, Jessica Henry Campbell, had married the Prince after the death of her first husband, Collin Campbell, the 2nd Duke of Argyll. On their marriage Prince Edmund was granted the Dukedom of Argyll as Collin had no heirs other than Abigail. (Edmund already was the Duke of Montrose.)

The English princes and princesses had been removed from London to live with their adult nephew as this was when the scandal of their mother's relationship with Geoffrey Stafford, the Black American, was erupting, their little half sister had been born, the idea that she was insane was spreading throughout Britain, and Edmund had been privately informed that Grace was soon to be arrested.

All three young royals lived with Edmund, Jessica, and Abigail for the next 7 years, even though Grace was released from prison and she had ended, supposedly, the relationship with Stafford. Now they would visit their mother and half sister in the North of England on occasion when Grace and Rosamund would journey there for that.

This forced separation from his mother was the second great tragedy of Alexander's life.

It was while he was living with Edmund that his brother, James, Edmund's father, died of a heart attack in 1748 when Alexander was 14. He was now third in line for the Scottish throne, behind his two nephews, one of whom, Edmund, was filling the role of father for him and his little brother and sister.

By the time Queen Grace abdicated, Alexander was 19 and engaged to Abigail. He also now was 2nd line to the Scottish throne as Charles, the Duke of Ross, had died in a duel. The man had never married and rumors abounded that despite his aggressive attempt to woo Grace, that he actually was only interested in relations with men. It was the 3rd duel over this accusation that led to his death in 1751 when his luck in the previous duels finally failed him.

Alexander was coronated on August 4, 1752. The kingdom heaved a great sigh of relief that the Mad Queen was replaced with the sober King, raised for the last 7 years in the stable household of Prince Edmund, now Duke of Rothesay, Argyll, and Montrose, and heir to the Scottish throne.

Not a year later, on Abigail's 18th birthday, April 22, 1753, Alexander married his childhood love and she became Queen of England.

Alexander continued his mother's program of health and education, but unlike her, he did it through the Parliament, as he was committed to moving the actual governance of the kingdom towards rule of Parliament and the role of the monarch being one of influence and not decree, patronage and not appointment, example and not direction. Edmund had been a strong force in influencing the new King in this direction and would take Scotland in that direction when he took the throne when Charles II died in 1763 at the age of 79. King Alexander of England was now the direct heir to the Scottish Throne.

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King Alexander and Queen Abigail were deeply in love with each other and their marriage was a happy one. Neither ever were unfaithful. They did their ceremonial royal duties always together and greatly increased those events. It seemed that all the people of England, Wales, and Ireland could see the King and Queen at least once a year at some local event whether it was ships being launched, local councils being convened, important weddings, baptisms, and funerals, dedications of public buildings, and awarding of honors.

In 1754 their first child was born. Eventually they would have 12 children, with 9 surviving to adulthood.

Edmund's reign in Scotland was similar in spirit and both Alexander and Abigail would make almost as many royal appearances in Scotland as the English realms, as he was also the Duke of Rothesay and heir to the throne.

What had never been expected when Alexander was born happened when his nephew, Edmund I, passed at the age of 80 in 1789. Alexander the first of his name of England also became Alexander the sixth of his name of Scotland. Alexander was now 56 with adult children and many grand children.

What should have been seen as something to celebrate, the union of the two kingdoms, was to Alexander the third great tragedy of his life. Edmund had been the most important parental figure in his life, also for Abigail. Both had only vague childhood memories of their actual fathers, but Edmund had raised them in their pivotal youth and then throughout their adult lives had been there as a strong, supporting, and encouraging father figure. Alexander wrote in a letter to his brother, William, the Duke of Montrose (granted to him when Edmund became King of Scotland,) "I'd have rather he outlived me and I'd never seen the union of our two kingdoms."

Then came the fourth great tragedy when his mother, Grace died. She was 88 in 1794. Her second husband, Geoffrey Stafford, had died many years before, but they'd had more children. Alexander and his two younger full siblings had never seen her again after she abdicated and went to North America, but they had exchanged letters over the decades. He had never forgotten her or her final plea to him to remember Rosamund. He'd great expanded the lands of their estate in the Fingerlakes and named Grace the Duchess of Niagra and Geoffrey as the Earl of Niagra in 1761, the same year he'd formally recognized the North American kingdom as Freeland. The Duchy was made matriarchal with Rosamund the heir to the Duchy and future female descendants always in line before their male uncles or male cousins.

By the time the Duchess of Niagra died, Freeland was no longer a colony of England, but had become an independent nation through peaceful negotiations. Alexander did his best to insure that the Duchy would continue in the new nation and only signed the treaty in 1791 when that was included.

In 1795 Revolution began in France. There was a conservative reaction in the British kingdoms, but due to the long history of reform in those kingdoms, this conservative reaction was about strengthening Parliamentary governance within a Constitutional Monarchy. An important aspect of this was extending the franchise to all of Ireland and the desire to unify the two kingdoms with one government under one Parliament. Thus in 1797 the Act of Union was passed uniting the two Parliaments and extending the British franchise to all of Ireland. The new United Kingdom was intentionally seen as the union of three kingdoms instead of the two that actually united. Part of the new union was that monarchs would from henceforth number themselves from all previous monarchs of all kingdoms. Thus Alexander was the Sixth of his name and any future William would be the Fourth of his name as there had been two Williams who had been kings of England and one who had been king of Scotland.

Alexander was 63 when he became King of the United Kingdom. He was still robust and healthy.

The fifth great tragedy of Alexander began in 1801 when all his influence, patronage, and example was unable to work for peace with the Republic of France and war broke out. Unlike previous wars of the last few centuries, that had been limited to small professional armies fighting only on designated fields of battle, this was a war between nations with large citizen armies and warfare that devastated cities and populations. Soon all of Europe, including the far Russian Empire, was at war and battle after battle raged and terror swept across the Continent and the Seas where great naval fleets fought each other.

It was feared that Britain would be invaded but that never happened in large part due to the victory of the British Navy that dominated the seven seas.

The finale of this tragedy for Britain and Alexander was the victory of the French April 3, 1814 under their Chancellor, Robespierre, at the Battle of Brabant and the humiliating surrender of the British, Prussians, and Portuguese to the forces of France and its two allies Spain, and Austria. The treaty of Orleans assured that the Republic of France would dominate the Continent for decades. This included the absorption of Portugal into the Republic of Spain, of Prussia into the new Republic of the Germans and Slavs (formerly the Holy Roman Empire), and the loss of Russian lands in the West. This meant that relatives of Alexander on the thrones of Lisbon and Berlin were dethroned and sent into exile, which of course meant the United Kingdom. Although the treaty did not directly hurt the United Kingdom's overseas possessions outside Europe nor limit its Naval power, it was clear that France would not have the stability and finances to build its navy to rival the British. It was only a matter of time until war would return. (It did mean the loss of Gibraltar, which had been a British possession for a hundred years.)

Alexander wept when he signed the treaty on September 30, 1814.

The sixth and last tragedy of Alexander's life was the death of Queen Abigail on Christmas Day, 1814. She died suddenly at the age of 79 while sitting with her family listening to her great grand children sing Christmas Carols. She seemed in fine health with no worries. The children had just finishing singing O Come All Ye Faithful and after the applause she said to the King, "Wasn't that wonderful?" Then she sighed, leaned her head on his shoulder, closed her eyes, and died peacefully.

There was no comforting the 81 year old King. He gave up his royal duties, turning them over to his family, and withdrew entirely from public life. He lost his appetite and had sleep issues. He seemed unable to sleep at night and would wonder the royal palace at night in his night gown and cap. But then he had trouble waking and would doze off in the afternoon.

He himself died a little over five weeks later on February 2, 1815. It was said he died of a broken heart. In truth he starved himself to death as he couldn't stomach eating in his grief over losing the woman he'd love with all his heart for nearly 70 years. Perhaps that is dying of a broken heart?

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Queen Abigail Campbell Stuart​
 
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Love it! Though I do feel that this:
The Duchy was made matriarchal with Rosamund the heir to the Duchy and the future female descendants always first in line over their male siblings.

Is a bit more than a stretch. I could see a specific clause that daughters come before uncles (which isn't always true) but daughters before brothers I can't see flying in the 18th century.

Other than that I love it.
 
Is a bit more than a stretch. I could see a specific clause that daughters come before uncles (which isn't always true) but daughters before brothers I can't see flying in the 18th century.

But in the context of what Grace had been doing when she was Queen, this is nothing. The question is, did it really continue after Rosamund was the 2nd Duchess?
 
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