Britain (The Empire of Great Britain): The collapse of Danelaw in the early thirteenth century sent Britain into chaos. Although Alfred the Black of Wessex, in an attempt to restore order, was quick to crown himself “King of Britannia”, his campaigns into Mercia and Sussex were utter failures. Alfred’s son Egbert, keeping the title King of Britannia, was more successful, establishing rule over most of Southern England, but was nonetheless unable to press into Northumbria, which under King Oswald, was having much success itself at bringing order to the north.
In 1219, Godwin, the Duke of Kent and a vassal to Egbert, sought to marry his daughter, Sigrid, to Robert Traversant, Duke of Anjou, only for Egbert to deny the marriage. Robert, feeling dishonored by Egbert’s interference, soon set to rectify the matter and with the permission of the French King, was able to assemble a force with the intent to claim his bride and restore order to England. In 1222, Robert invaded England, first taking the Isle of Wight, and later moving into Sussex and Kent, which were quick to side with Robert over the domineering Egbert.
Robert was also able to arrange an alliance with Oswald in Northumbria, who took a temporary pause in his war with the Scots in order to move into Mercia. On the Seventh of October, the forces of Egbert and Robert met at the Battle of Swindon. Due to the timely betrayal of one of Egbert’s advisors, Robert was able to ambush Egbert’s larger force, leading to a swift and crushing defeat for the king. Legend says that upon capturing Egbert, Robert made one final request for the king to accept his marriage to Sigrid, only for Egbert to spit in Robert’s face. Robert’s response was to decapitate Egbert on spot, bringing an end to the House of Wessex.
After Egbert’s death, Robert chose not to return to France, instead taking control of the now leaderless Wessex. With the death of Duke Godwin, Kent soon fell into his hands as well, and Sussex was quick to accept his position as the ruler of Southern England shortly later. In just two short years, Robert had succeeded at transforming Southern England into a more coherent polity than his predecessors had managed to in twenty.
Robert next set his sights north, intent to bring all of England under his control while he still had the momentum. Fortunately for Robert, King Oswald was still fumbling in Mercia and the Scots had decided they would rather not wait for him to finish his campaigns south to resume their fight. Robert’s invasion of Mercia was swift and painless, as the war torn region was quick to fall to his forces and Oswald was unable to respond due to his war with the Scots. Northumbria itself was a slightly tougher nut to crack, but again, the exhaustion of the enemy proved to Robert’s advantage and Oswald surrendered in 1229. Oswald, perhaps having heard the story of poor Egbert, was quick to pledge his loyalty to Robert, but was instead sent into exile in Ireland, where he would reportedly spend the rest of his days as a monk.
With all of England proper now under his control and most of his followers secure in their castles, Robert now felt confident enough to finally make his intentions public. On Christmas Day, 1230, Robert declared himself King of All England. Robert would rule for another thirty years, securing his claim, before finally dying at age 80 on campaign in Wales, still leading his troops into combat. Robert passed his kingdom to his eldest son Richard, who at age 62, was already an old man himself upon taking the throne. Richard’s brief but chaotic reign would prove nearly disastrous, as he failed to accomplish anything of note and repeatedly bungled the continuing war with Wales. It was only with Richard’s death that the kingdom was saved when Roger, who at age 23, was by far Robert’s youngest son, took the throne. Unfortunately, Roger’s claim to the throne was contested by his nephew Henry who was seven years his senior. Although conflict was avoided when Roger agreed to appoint Henry’s son, John, as his successor, the arrangement would prove to be a major source of contention in later years.
Roger’s rule would prove to be even longer than that of his father. Ruling for forty seven years, Roger’s reign would cement Norman control of England, and although he was never able to fully conquer Wales, he was able bring about the nominal loyalty of numerous local leaders, paving the way for later conquests. As Roger’s reign was so long, he outlived his legal heir, John, by several years and instead appointed his own son, William, as his successor. While some sources claim that Roger saw John’s death as negating his original agreement, others state that in his old age, Roger had simply forgotten about the deal. Regardless of his reasoning, the conflicting claims of William and John’s son, also named Henry, would prove disastrous.
In 1310, the Kingdom of England entered into civil war, as the two claimants for the throne fought one another. The decade long civil war would eventually see Henry emerge victorious and in 1322, exactly a century after Robert’s invasion, he declared himself King of England. Henry’s fifteen year rule would prove to be turbulent, including wars with an increasingly centralized and powerful Scotland as well as with the Kingdom of France over control of Anjou. Both of these conflicts would continue on for the remaining part of the century, long after Henry’s death. In 1410, Roger III would begin an invasion of Ireland with the justification of restoring order after several peasant rebellions had torn apart Dublin, resulting in the murder of several church officials.
The later fifteenth century would see England allied to the Burgundians as well as supporting an uprising in Aquitaine against the French. These adventures would mostly prove fruitless for England, and would eventually culminate in the marriage of King Robert IV of England and Queen Margot I of France in the interest of securing peace. Despite the intention of Robert and Margot, it would soon prove to have the opposite of intended effect. When Robert passed without a male heir in 1503, his daughter, Cécile, Queen of France, attempted to secure her claim to the English throne, only to be rejected by most of the nobility, under the pretext that the throne could only be held by a male. Cécile, believing that the rule of England by a male was simply a matter of tradition, not codified in law, contended that her claim was valid and launched an invasion of Britain, capturing the Isle of Wight and moving into Southern England.
After much contention nearly leading to another civil war amongst the nobility, a king was finally elected to contest Cécile’s claim. James, the Duke of York, was placed on the throne in London, only to be evacuated shortly later as French forces stormed the city. The early years of the war were devastating for England. James, having been picked as a compromise candidate, was a rather ineffective leader, while most of the nobles found themselves unable to agree on any matters of importance. The height of English incompetence was perhaps best demonstrated when despite losing ground to the French every day, a cadre of lords instead chose to launch another invasion of Ireland in a hopeless attempt to secure claims lost in the chaos.
The murder of King James by one his councilors, with the intent to replace him with a more suitable candidate, instead plunged England further into anarchy. By 1512, England had no king and all of the country, save for the far north, Wales and Cornwall, had been lost to the French. Cécile’s claim seemed all but secured. In 1525, Cécile passed away, leaving both England and France to her son Hugh. Hugh, eager to secure his claims to all of England, immediately pushed for an invasion of Wales and Cornwall, ruining a tenuous peace his mother had established with the Celtic regions. The two regions would prove extremely difficult to conquer, and soon French forces became bogged down, forcing them to also make slight concessions in England proper.
In 1528, John of Cumbria, a Duke and recent vassal to the Kingdom of Scotland, was able to make use of French defeats in Wales and Cornwall in order to reclaim much of central England. With his enlarged realm, John was also able to secure the hand of Queen Merida of Scotland. Using a combined Anglo-Scottish Army, John and Merida were soon able to push the French all the way to London, reversing a long string of defeats. By 1540, the only remaining French possession was the Isle of Wight, though Wales, Cornwall and Ireland remained lost for some time.
In 1547, with both Merida and John dead, the throne passed to their teenage son David, who was crowned King of both England and Scotland, as his parents dying wish. Hugh of France, now an old man, of course contested this, but with wars on all his borders, was unable to respond except by pressuring the Pope into protesting the claim as well. David’s response was to simply oust the Roman Catholic Church from Britain, instead creating the Church of the Britannic Rite, with its own leader, an Archpresbyter appointed directly by him with advice from a council of Bishops. Edward I, the previous bishop of Canterbury, was appointed the first Archpresbyter of Church. David would soon bring Cornwall, Wales, and by the end of his reign, even Ireland back under control. With all of the British Isles under his command, in 1556, David was crowned Emperor of the British, to signify his dominion over both the physical and spiritual realm of the isles as well as all people who lived within them.
David’s reign as emperor would prove prosperous for Britain, but not without its complications. Starting in 1560, David sponsored several voyages to the Americas and Asia, securing multiple islands and trading Post in the Caribbean and Far East for Britain, as well as founding numerous small settlements along the coast of North America, though most of the latter failed within the first few years, either as a result of starvation or Spanish and French aggression. In 1564, Archpresbyter Edward died, forcing the first change in the office in the Church’s history. While Edward’s previous appointment had taken place with near unanimous support from the Council of Bishops, David’s new appointment, a Scottish bishop, John of Edinburgh, was not nearly as well received by the predominantly English council. When David refused to relent, nearly half the council withdrew from the Church in protest over the appointment, stating that kings and emperors, as earthly leaders, had no jurisdiction over matters of the divine.
Although David was quick to put the rebellious bishops in their place, the damage had been done and David’s new Church began to fracture. While Scotland remained relatively content to stay under the Church, southern England, Cornwall and Ireland soon rebelled, with many forming their own independent churches or reverting to Catholicism. Riots filled the streets of towns and villages, and David was soon forced to concede that a supermajority of bishops could veto the Emperor’s choice of Archpresbyter. In addition to this, to quell the remaining insubordinate lords, David also agreed to enlarge his personal council, the Imperial Assembly, incorporating nobles from all across the land into a Parliament that met in London. Despite the concession, many small religious cults remained underground, still objecting to imperial influence in the matters of the church. Many of these groups would be among the first to settle in British North America.
In 1570, David died, leaving the imperial crown to his son Walter I. Walter’s rule would see the development of the first permanent British colony in mainland North America, at Castlereagh (Boston), as well as war with the Spanish that would see the island of Cuba divided between the two powers. Walter’s passing in 1590 paved the way for the ascension of David II, who would grant a charter to Alfred Millhouse to found the colony of Carolina as well as to William Elgin to found “the League of British Merchants Trading into the Indies”, or as it quickly became known, The British Indian Trading League (BITL). The League would eventually come to hold a monopoly on all British trade with the Far East, and in 1608, would seize the city of Lhokseumawe in Northern Sumatra, giving the League its first territorial claim.
The seventeenth century would prove enormously beneficial for Britain. As France, Burgundy and Spain became entangled in their own wars over Germany and Italy, the Empire of the British enjoyed a relatively secure position, allowing them greatly expand their colonies in the Americas, Africa and Asia. The largest setback perhaps came in 1642, when a group of British merchants started a riot in the Chinese city of Humen (a town they were legally barred from entering in the first place), resulting in British ships being barred from all Chinese ports. Though the loss of income was substantial, this event did cement an earlier alliance with the Portuguese who the British were now forced to rely on for trade. However, the BITL was able to secure several offices in the Portuguese Ryukus by which they could trade with China by proxy. Despite its setbacks in China, the BITL would prove to be a force of reckoning in India proper, managing to secure footholds in the ports of Bombay, Calcutta and Visag. The influx of new wealthy elites, having made their money in India and abroad, soon demanded their own representation, leading to a significant enlargement of Parliament.
The early eighteenth century would see numerous conflicts with Britain’s traditional Burgundian ally over trade and land in the Caribbean and Far East. These struggles would climax during the Anglo-Burgundian War of 1721, which would see the British capture of all Burgundian colonies in North America and India as well as the capture and expulsion of Burgundian settlers in southern Africa to a small desolate area at the mouth of the Orange River. Burgundian and British relations would only improve with the founding of the Blessed Alliance between France, Spain and Poland-Hungary. The heightened tensions brought upon by the alliance soon escalated into Nine Years War, in which Britain backed Burgundian attempts to recapture the Rhineland and halt encroaching Spanish and French attempts to move into the Far East. The war would prove mostly a loss for the Triple Pact of Britain, Burgundy and Portugal.
The 1746 Treaty of Rouen would see the Pact lose several colonies in the Far East to France and Spain in addition to finally crushing all Burgundian hopes at reconquering the Rhineland. Longer term, the war and subsequent peace did create an understanding between the Burgundians and British, as both powers finally recognized the other’s colonial claims. Though Britain would find herself entangled in several more small wars throughout the century, particularly in India, it was not until the late 1780s did tensions truly begin to rise again with the ascension of Theodosius VII in Rome and Joseph II in Bavaria.
It was in 1802, in the fifth year of the Theodosian Wars, that Britain finally made its intentions clear. With Spain collapsing and France faltering in Italy, the British Emperor Donald III, felt confident declaring war to reverse the British losses in the previous Nine Years War. In what became known as the Three Emperors’ Alliance between Joseph II, Theodosius VII and Donald III, offensives were launched against French and Spanish colonies all across Asia and the Americas, though British contributions to the European theatre were halfhearted at best. Regardless of Britain’s influence in the main theater, its gains in the first few years were nonetheless impressive. With Spain’s complete descent into anarchy, Britain was able to seize numerous Spanish colonies including the other half of Cuba (though it was unable to capture Maracaibo), and eventually turn these victories into further successes in Louisiana and Quebec as well.
By 1808, Theodosius’s Italian Campaign was disintegrating though fortunately for Britain, Burgundian entry into the war on their side, and Joseph’s continued success in Germany were enough to keep France from striking back at Britain. By 1810, both France and Rome, cut off from trade and depleted of manpower were racing each other to collapse. In early January, numerous Roman cities descended into riots and by summer, the entire Roman Empire had collapsed into a civil war between supporters of the Emperor and a rebel faction loosely organized by a discontented Orthodox Church. France had won the Theodosian Wars by luck, but still having yet to quell Joseph II’s new German Empire and facing numerous riots at home, was forced to come to the table to deal with Britain. With little choice but to accept Britain’s new position as the dominant sea power, France surrendered its American colonies to the now enlarged Empire of Great Britain.
Britain’s 1811 victory against France would see the empire reach its greatest extent. Stretching from the frigid tundra of Baffin Island, to the exotic streets of Calcutta, to the newly founded outposts in New Zealand, Britain was truly a world empire. Britain’s growth would only continue for the next few decades, until 1841 with the passing of the Universal Abolition Act which made slavery illegal across the entirety of the Empire. The outlawing of slavery would have profound effects on Britain’s North American empire. In March of 1841, the province of Carolina declared independence, intent to keep slavery alive within its borders.
Though suppressing Carolina’s rebellion was certainly within Britain’s means, the conflict soon escalated when the French populations of Quebec, Louisiana and Ohio, under occupation since the Theodosian Wars, also arose in rebellion. Britain quickly scrambled to put together a force to suppress the revolts, but was overstretched due to wars in India and Africa as well. In February of 1842, the largest conscription in North American history was put in place within the colonies still under British control. In October of the same year, France and Mexico declared war on the British Empire to help secure the independence of the newly declared states. Mexico soon invaded Cuba, seeking to liberate the Spanish population there, succeeding in occupying the whole island, while French “volunteer” forces under Duke Auguste of Brittany, a brother of the French King, were having much success in Louisiana. By 1844, Britain had succeeded in putting down the revolts in Quebec and Ohio, but was still failing to make any headway in Louisiana or Carolina.
In 1845, a series of draft riots overtook Castlereagh, New Edinburgh and Edwardsville, forcing British troops out of the cities. Depleted of manpower and on the verge of losing their remaining colonies, Britain agreed to come to the table in 1846. Shortly later the Treaty of Copenhagen was signed in neutral Denmark, ending the war with Britain agreeing to recognize Carolina and Louisiana as independent states as well as accept Mexican control over Cuba. In addition to this, Britain also reorganized its remaining colonies in New England and Canada as the United Dominions of British North America, an autonomous union of dominions, tied to the crown, but free to pursue its own policies domestically.
The loss of the Great North American War, as it came to be known, was devastating to British moral. For many in the Empire, it seemed as if a world empire they had been so close to achieving had simply slipped through their fingers. Parliament’s decision to pass the Universal Abolition Act with little preparation, despite warnings from the military and intelligence services of possible results, created an incredible backlash against liberal elements within the country, and in 1852, a new party emerged, the British Imperial Defence Party (BIDP). Composed of both nobles and elements of the new rich, the party’s main platform was that the weak policies of concession and appeasement were what led to Britain’s loss in the war, and that British culture should be paramount in all colonies across the empire.
The BIDP’s policies, supported by the new emperor, Donald IV, led to a massive campaign of conquests in Africa and Asia. In 1861, Donald IV was assassinated while giving a speech at a BIDP rally, giving the party impetus to push for the annexation of all BITL territories directly into the empire, as well as the conquests of the fledging Roman colonies in Western Australia. War with the Romans was only avoided when Constantinople, still weak from its own civil war, and reluctant to antagonize their only possible ally against the French, agreed to allow British passage through the newly constructed Suez Canal duty free.
By 1870, most of the hype surrounding the BIDP had begun to die down, as promises that the newly acquired colonies in Africa and Asia would significantly improve the economy proved untrue. The next decade would see a constant trade between the BIDP and the newly reorganized Liberals for leadership of the country. The inconsistent and often lopsided policies of both parties would see the economy struggle throughout most of the 1880s, only held up by technological progress and a resumption of regular trade with many countries that had been embargoed or heavily tariffed under BIDP policies.
By the 1890s, it seemed that the Empire of Great Britain had weathered the storm of the recession and was emerging once again as a global powerhouse, on close parity to its main rivals in Europe and the Americas. In 1898, the Liberals were reelected for a third term in Parliament and though progress has been substantial throughout their now twelve years in control, if they should slip up for even a second it is inevitable that their BIDP rivals will take power once again.