So I've decided to take a stab at doing a bit of AH writing. For those perhaps despairing at my research skills based on the quick map I bashed together in the Map Thread - don't worry, this TL concerns itself with areas I actually have extensive knowledge on (and the resources with which to fill any gaps therein). I can't promise whether or not this will be a long-lived project; given (a) various time commitments and (b) it just might not work very well.
The PoD is that William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, dies in infancy and the basic premise that, with the influence of the Cecil family eliminated, the "divine right of kings"-related issues that first came up with Henry VIII and echoed under the Stuart kings, could have swung the other way, leading to a Britain that, instead of becoming one of the cradles of liberalism and parliamentary democracy, instead became a cradle of absolutism. Oh yeah, and as the title implies there'll be a fair amount of butterflying.
I'm also going to experiment with what is probably a fairly unusual style: Brief excerpts from ATL sources.
Here goes!
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Brychta, Prof. Sir Edmund: The Cecils from the Welsh Marches to Cambridgeshire, p. 123. Oxford, MCMLIV: Magdalen College.
Before however [joining Henry VIII at the Field of the Cloth of Gold], his wife Jane bore Sir Richard a son, William. William died three months after birth, as we discover in the records of St. Leonard's Priory (Benedictine) in Stamford, the Lincolnshire village near Burghley House, which Sir Richard patronized:
hodie pr Non Mart AD MDXXI confrequentauimus primi anni commemorationem funeris Gulielmi Caecilii qui paruulo mortus est sed DG die natali Id Sept hoc prioria baptizatus erat
Today on the 6th of March [1522] we have commemorated the year's mind of William Cecil who died in infancy but by the Grace of God was baptized in this priory on the day of his birth, the 13th of September.
The death of William proved disastrous to Sir Richard, as Jane would bear him no further sons. As older readers will remember, fee tail, until 1937, could not be inherited by women. Upon Sir Richard's death in 1549, the Cecil estate would pass to his younger brother John, and escheated to the Crown a year later when the latter died of consumption without issue.
Dr. S. Whetton-Bloom et. al.: Tudor England, p. 268. Richmond, MMIV: University of Virginia, King James College.
When the young Prince Edward died of consumption aged only 13, Henry and his ministers quickly scrambled to prevent the accession of his Catholic daughter Mary. This was accomplished through his Fourth Succession Act (42 Hen. VIII, c. 4), formally titled
An Act to stay the Realm against Insidious Popery. This Act repealed the prior succession acts, and went a step further than the First: It excluded in perpetuity those who did not conform to the Church of England from succession to the throne.
Wherefore be it enacted that no man that holdeth the false and abhorrent Teachings of Rome, or confesseth that there be any greater Authority spiritual in this Realme but that of our most rightful Sovereign Lord and King, or any to equal His Majesty, or in any other way sheweth himself to fall prey to the wiles of that degraded Apostolic See, shall be let to gouerne this Realme by and with oure consent, for such abandonment to the fate of Popery should be a most displeasing and wretched Thing unto Our heavenly Father, who would surely visit these Lands with great disfavour should we, the most humble and loyal subjects of our wise Governor placed upon His Throne by the same Father on high, stand by in idle sin as this occur.
This Act, however, sent shockwaves through Europe. The news particularly aggravated Prince Philip II of Spain, who had been courting Mary. With the Pope's blessing, Philip attempted to form a coalition against England - an effort in which, for the most part, he failed. Henry II of France was aware of the courtship between Philip and Mary, and refused to partake in a war which would ultimately serve only to strengthen Spain. However, Mary of Guise, Queen of Scots, pledged her support to the endeavour. Philip decided to wait until Elizabeth actually succeeded, striking when Britain was politically weak and he might have some popular sentiment on his side.
Henry died in 1552, and as soon as the news reached Spain, Philip set out with his
Armada to surprise and overwhelm Elizabeth - and he certainly succeeded. For a detailed account of the ensuing battles, see chapter XIX.
For the purposes of this chapter, we shall skip ahead and resume our story at the end of 1553: The Spanish Army is routed, but at grave cost to the English. Unable to match, much less overcome, the practically unscathed Scots expectantly garrisoned at Newcastle, Carlisle and the milefortlets in between, the exhausted young Queen, certainly having enjoyed no easy start to her reign, signs a peace with Mary of Guise conceding the lands north of Hadrian's Wall. Despite having bravely faced field command as a woman of tender age, this earned her no small amount of disfavour with her subjects, which she would spend the next half-decade attempting to rectify.