Realistic or Modern The Devil's Throne - Lore

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The United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of England, Scotland and Ireland - Parliamentary Governance

Some 120 years ago the United Kingdom was gripped by a viscious civil war. Of course at that time it was not known as the United Kingdom, despite the Monarch being the King of England, Scotland and Ireland, they were still by and large separate, having their own armies, customs, laws and parliaments. The Civil War was not over faith or race. It was over the question of who power should lay with, the King, God's elected representative on Earth, or whether power should lay with Parliament, elected not by God, but by the people (or at least those rich enough, influential enough and most importantly Male enough to vote). The war was a bloody affair, families were torn apart, towns and cities such as Bath and Derby were left sacked husks. Eventually however through their superior commanders and a number of early victories from which they were able carry momentum forward, the Royalists were victorious over the Parliamentarians. This event saw a grand consolidation of royal power. Parliament could not simply be abolished however, despite their defeat the body was not fully stripped of its power. It still had licence to debate and had Parliamentary Privilege to be able to discuss any and all matters as long as they were not deemed to be treasonous (this exception has been used several times to arrest and remove malcontent MPs) and her main power still rests in terms of the finances, however through Parliamentary Privilege that are able to voice concern and disapproval of other matters. Whilst the King is the highest legal authority in the land, above any court of law, and has the ability to veto parliamentary laws and proposals, the raising of taxes still resides solely with Parliament. So whilst the King may be able to decree, he still requires Parliamentary support to finance said decrees.

This is where the current Parliamentary system comes into play. The MP who is able to command a majority of MPs under his command traditionally approaches the Monarch who then requests him to lead his Majesty's Government. It is the new Prime Minister's role to both implement Royal Policy, and (with more difficulty) to advise the Monarch what is achievable and what is not. The PM's survival hinges upon 2 factors, maintaining a positive relationship with the Monarch lest he be removed as head of the government, and continuing to maintain the support of his MPs lest he lose his majority and thus the ability to get votes for policies and tax measures, the loss of either of these can result in the Government of the day collapsing.

Parliament is made up of 2 houses, the Lower House being the House of Commons, and the Upper House being the House of Lords. Power rests firmly with the Lower House, made up mostly of members of the landed Gentry who are elected by constituencies to the House, however due to voting laws most local elections have an electoral role of perhaps a hundred compared to a population of several thousand. The Commons proposes new business and laws, and has the first vote. The House of Lords on the other hand simply scrutinised the bill, and can send it back to the House of Commons for another vote, unable to fully kick out laws on their own, acting more as a check to the Commons power as opposed to having any real power of their own.

Following the Act of Union following the civil war, the Westminster Parliament now has MPs from both Scotland, Ireland and England (Wales is included as a principality as part of the Kingdom of England) and whilst still dominated by English MPs and Lords, Parliament now speaks for the whole United Kingdom.


The United Kingdom - The Monarch

As previously touched upon, the Monarch is the spiritual and legal head of the United Kingdom, unimpeachable and without any real checks or balances aside from Parliament’s sovereignty over matters of finance (even though this can be circumvented in practise by the Monarch’s ability to pressure Parliament, it takes brave men to stand before the legal might of the Monarch).

Succession to the throne is through agnatic-cognatic primogeniture. This means that the order of succession begins with the eldest born male heir, and continues down the male children, before the eldest female and so on. As such if the youngest born child is a male, but has 2 elder female siblings, he shall be the heir to the throne prior to his two elder female siblings.


The United Kingdom - Place in the World and Foreign Policy

The United Kingdom’s foreign policy is dictated by two simple facts, that she is an Island Nation and that her interests lie outside of Europe. Britain’s main source of revenue is through her colonial interests, importing raw goods for refinement and manufacture in Britain before being sold to the Continent. Britain’s main, and most profitable colonies, are to be found in America and the Carribean, there have been limited forays into Africa and Asia, however these have been limited by logistical problems due to range. As such the British Army is relatively small in size, focusing more on defence of the existing colonies and land under their control. The main weapon in the Kingdom’s arsenal is her Navy. he Royal Navy is the largest and most modern force in the world, allowing her to protect both the Home Islands, and her Colonies abroad.

Britain’s foreign policy has hinged upon one objective, keeping Europe divided and weak, preventing any one power from dominating the Continent and thus creating a threat to the island nation. This has often brought it into conflict with the 2 historic European super powers, France and Spain who have their own colonial empires as well, threatening British interests abroad. More recently French power has been on the rise (more on this later), to the detriment of Spanish power. As such the King has drawn up a marriage alliance with Spain, marrying his heir to a member of the Spanish Nobility with ties to the King of Spain. Not to close to tie the countries together permanently, but enough to thaw relations and create a new temporary alliance against a resurgent France.

 

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The State of Europe



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Major Powers:

The Kingdom of France - King Phillip VI (House of Rouen)
Faith: Catholic
Capital: Paris

Currently France sits at the pinnacle of the European Hierarchy, her navy is second to that of the Royal Navy, her armies are the finest on the Continent (aside from perhaps the upstart Prussians, but she far outnumbers them), she has the largest population, and the breadth of her colonial interests match that of Britain.

In terms of governance, France’s monarchy is even more powerful that that of Britain’s. The Nobility have been effectively neutered of all power, their holdings stripped away and an elaborate system of Court Etiquette has left power residing solely with the King. Furthermore the French Parliament (The Estates General) as it is, is a poor shadow of the British Parliament, acting only as a rubber stamp authority which acts in merely an advisory capacity, her votes on laws proposed by the King having no legal binding.

The current King of France, Phillip IV of House Rouen, is 40 years old and in his prime. His 20 years of rule has been a period of stability and growth for France. Early religious reforms and persecution in his reign removed the last of the Protestant landlords and nobles, removing the greatest source of religious tension. From this base he has increased the strength and size of the Army and Navy, as well as beginning to exercise this new found power in European affairs, putting renewed pressure on Spanish held Flanders and Wallonia (Modern Day Belgium). This has often been a source of contention between the two nations, with the Spanish Crown holding the title of Duke of Flanders and Wallonia, whilst the French proximity to the region has seen a growth in trading interests including the port of Antwerp. This dispute threatens to create new conflict in Europe, with reports of new French forts on the border being constructed. One on one Spain would be overwhelmed by this new ascendant France, hence the proposition of a British alliance through marriage, however this has once more put Britain and France at odds with each other, with France seeing Britain as allying with her enemies, and Britain wishing to deprive France of further ports along the English Channel.




The Kingdom of Spain - King Carlos III (House of Barcelona)
Faith: Catholic
Capital: Madrid

For 200 years Spain held the undisputed position as the powerhouse of Europe. Her Central and South American Colonies kept a steady stream of Gold and Silver coming in that allowed her to spread her tendrils through Italy and the Low Countries. In more recent times however she has been left by the wayside as the dominant Catholic power, left in the shadow of France over the last century. This has been down to a number of factors, from a succession of weak Kings, inefficient taxation, focus on the colonies as opposed to domestic growth, and a stark decline in gold and silver extraction in the colonies, which Spain has relied on heavily for too long. In Europe her hold over Wallonia and Flanders is becoming a headache, with the French trying to expand their influence into the region, whilst her southern Italian holdings are seen by many as a drain on her resources given their hard to defend position as well as relatively low population and limited financial returns. However it is another example of lingering Spanish pride, attempting to hold onto the last vestiges of her golden era.

Like in France the Kings power is absolute. Unlike France however, corruption amongst the nobility has resulted in the political infrastructure and the economy being weakened. Her army, though large, is spread thinly having to protect Spain itself, Spanish Italy, and Spanish Wallonia and Flanders, and in terms of quality it is not highly thought of. The Navy is in the same situation, large but lacking in modernisation, with funds meant for its upkeep often filtered away by the nobles in positions of command.

Under these conditions the young King Carlos III finds himself in an unenviable position, ruler of a weakened country whose best days lie in the past, with an emboldened France casting its eyes upon her territory. This has forced him into the marriage alliance with Britain, bringing together these strange bedfellows in an attempt to restrict France, whether their bluff is called is another question however.



The Austrian Empire - Emperor Karl Joseph IV (House of Habsburg)
Faith: Catholic
Capital: Vienna

Whilst France and Spain jostle for position in the west, the Austrian Habsburg Empire had remained a constant, dominating Central Europe and acting as a buffer against the Ottoman Empire to the South. For 600 years the Habsburg have ruled Austria, expanding from a single country to their present holdings of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, as well as parts of Northern Italy and Poland. Much like its elderly Emperor, the Empire is a slow moving behemoth much like an iceberg, near unstoppable, but do not expect it to move quickly. Whilst the Emperor has control over a huge swathe of land and people, the numerous different languages, cultures, and rule of law in the parts of the Empire has resulted in something of a Bureaucratic mess, when an order is given in Vienna it takes many weeks before it is passed down to the varying local nobility, and a few more weeks before anything noticeable is actually done about it.

Her army, though vast, once again struggles with the sheer amount of nationalities and languages amongst its officers and enlisted soldiers. However she is still formidable, able to call upon enough manpower and resources to match even the French. However her resources are split between the upstart Prussians to the north, and the weakened yet still vast Ottoman Empire to the south, as such the Emperor sees no gain in embroiling himself in Western European affairs, and has distanced himself from the ongoing crisis in the West.

Given the fact that she holds no overseas colonies with her vast land empire more than enough to try and handle on a day to day basis, the Austrians have next to no Naval power.



Kingdom of Prussia - King Frederick II
Faith: Protestant
Capital: Berlin

Prussia is the young upstart on the province. A hundred years ago Prussia was nothing more than a group of squabbling kingdoms, principalities and cities, much like the rest of Germany. It was under Duke Wilhelm of Prussia that this situation changed. Through marriage to the Duchy of Brandenburg and military conquest of the other states, Prussia forged itself into a new Central European power in the heavily populated and urbanized part of Germany. Wilhelm’s son Frederick declared the enlarged Duchy as the new Kingdom of Prussia, enstating himself as King Frederick I. This did not sit well with Austria, who saw Germany as within their sphere of influence, and war soon followed, many spectators expected it to be a short war ending with the new state being dissolved once more against the might of Austria. They were half right. Under the brilliant leadership of King Frederick the Prussian army, though small, thoroughly outmatched the Austrians in their skill at arms, and routed the main Austrian force, and were soon bearing down on Vienna. Austria sued for peace, and Prussia accepted, recognising that they could not yet afford a protracted war. Prussia gained recognition and prestige, and set out its position as the dominant Protestant power on the continent. Her sights are set on the remaining German states, seeking to subsume them, once more however she faces Austria as a foe, keen to preserve the independence of the Catholic German states, and could be joined by Spain and France if it appears that they are attempting to create a fully Protestant Hegemony in Central/Northern Europe. For now however she is happy to enjoy her new place amongst the big boys of Europe.



Imperial Russia - Tsar Alexander II
Faith: Russian Orthodox
Capital: St Petersburg

Russia, straddling both Europe and Asia, a land shrouded in mystery and intrigue, the last relixc of a bygone era. The Tsar is a holdover from Ancient Times, a dictator with near unlimited power in a time of Absolute Monarchs. His power is unparalleled and there is not even a modicum of checks on his power, his word is law from the plains of the Ukraine to the frozen steppes of Siberia. If it wasn’t for the fact that technologically speaking she is still in the 17th Century, and that it takes months to pull her armies together, there is a good chance that most of Europe would be speaking Russian. Much like Austria, she mostly looks inwards, having to manage Poles, Estonians, Ukrainians, Latvians, Tartars, Kazaks, Finnish and Russians to name but a few of the myriad people who reside in her borders. Whilst fearing the rise of Russia on her border, her natural enemy are the Ottoman Turks to the south, with Romania and the Balkans being an age long area of contention between the two powers.



Minor Powers:

Swiss Confederacy - Council of Cantons
Faith: Mixed Protestant and Catholic
Capital: Nominally Bern

Switzerland has always been a political oddity, a collection of independent Cantons, Bishoprics and Cities sandwiched between France and Austria, an unenviable position to be in. In order to bring about some sense of unity between the states, despite their differences in language and religion, the Swiss states have gathered together in a loose confederacy, lead by a council of the varying civic and religious leaders. This loose confederation has been existence for only 20 years and has yet to face a major challenge to their sovereign rights, if war breaks out on the continent however, this could be liable to change.


Kingdom of Sweden - King Gustav III
Faith: Protestant
Capital: Stockholm

WIP


The Netherlands - Stadtholder Prince William V
Faith: Protestant
Capital: Amsterdam

WIP


Kingdom of Portugal - King Alphonso X
Faith: Catholic
Capital: Lisbon

WIP


The Ottoman Empire - Sultan Mehmed IX
Faith: Muslim
Capital: Istanbul

WIP


Kingdom of Denmark - King Harold VI
Faith: Protestant
Capital: Copenhagen

WIP


Minor Italian States - Various Rulers
Faith: Catholic
Capital: N/A

WIP


Minor German States - Various Rulers
Faith: Mixed Catholic and Protestant
Capital: N/A

WIP