[English Patriot]

The Prince wasted no time in alienating his French advisors with his “barbarous manners, indulgent misbehaviour and a worrying tendency to insult the attending Cardinal”

-An Anglo-French Chronicler

Imperial Ambitions, Part III

The Cast

Bevan VII, King of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and France, Holy Britannic Emperor
Henry X, King of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and France, Holy Britannic Emperor
Joseph I, King of Saxony
Archduke Johann Karl I, Archduke of Austria
Edward, Duke of York, Viceroy of India
Isabelle de Montaigne, French aristocrat and later, Queen
Samuel Gonzaga, Sicilian General in America
Sir Andrew de Beauharnais, the Chancellor of the Exchequer
Viscount Louis d’Ornano, the First Lord of the Admiralty
Lord Leicester, the Marshal of France
Lord Suffolk, Imperial Secretary

The Rhine alliance had been rebuilt under strict British supervision, never again would the King-Emperor let the buffer provinces slip under foreign influence or control. Indeed, the time for Laissez faire diplomacy had gone, with Britain surrounded by strong powers and Empires spreading across the globe, the British Empire would have to keep its eyes open. To this end it began new diplomatic overtures to the nations of Europe, Austria, Muscovy, Sweden, the Greek nations of Morea and Athens. It was Britain’s hope to turn Europe against Saxony, who still straddled central Europe despite its heavy defeat only two years ago.

Unlike the shaky despotate of Byzantium, Saxony was headed by a strong King and supported by many nobles. Much of the Saxon Empire was German by degrees and many supported the idea of unification under a new German Empire, after Saxony’s defeat, many prominent and not so prominent citizens of Saxony called for a German Empire not only to rival the new Holy Britannic Empire, but to humiliate and defeat it. The last war had left Saxony militarily weak, weak enough that Austria, desperate to improve its own standing had invaded, Austria had made some ground in Bohemia, but was being pushed back in Italy and Southern Poland. The new King of Saxony, Joseph I knew that the only thing keeping Britain from military intervention was its now endemic problems with manpower.

As the war began to turn against Austria, the aging Duke Johann Karl hoped for British intervention, but the British ambassadors declined to make war this time. Britain had now suffered twice from a lack of manpower, it had forced early peace treaties with both Byzantium and Saxony. The volunteer army had fought its last war. An Empire of Britain’s size and obligations could no longer rely on such a capricious method of recruitment that was overstocked in peacetime and drastically short in long wars.

Instead, on the 4th of July, 1784, the King-Emperor Bevan VII introduced conscription in the European parts of the Empire, for young men aged eighteen and over. This new system, utilising a perpetually trained reserve would enable Britain not only to field more troops, but to raise more in a short period of time and continue wars to its advantage. The 1784 Imperial Service Act did not have jurisdiction in the Americas, India, Africa or the Pacific, as it was not cost effective to enforce, nor politically expedient, the Americans had threatened rebellion before over the subject, and Bevan VII was not foolish enough to try his luck in such a precarious position.

In view of Bevan VII’s advancing age and in the hope of educating his son, Henry, Prince of Normandy in ruling the Empire, the Prince was made Regent of France, the other half of the Empire. The decision was an enormous act of faith for Bevan VII, France was unknowably important to Britain, the city of Paris, centre of European trade was twinned with London in size and productivity, the Vineyards of Champagne and the Toulouse region supplied the Empire with the very best wine in the world, the steel in Lorraine was used by both the military and the civilian populace, its growing industrialisation matched that of Britain’s and its extensive grain fields stocked the granaries of the Empire. And these economic benefits do nothing to mention the fact that almost half of the Empire’s army was French. France’s dockyards were at this moment being expanded and naval equipment manufacturies built to sate the ever present appetite of the Admiralty in London. The language of the Empire, a half-caste tongue of Anglo-French. The King-Emperor may have hoped that France would teach the Prince something of governing an Empire, the Prince had already seen warfare, he had commanded a Cavalry regiment in Elsass and Baden during the Luxembourg war, it was remarked by one fellow Officer that “the Prince has a good eye for uniform, though one expresses concern over his Highness’s use of the frontal charge and his excessive love of danger”. Having failed to learn war like his uncles, the Duke of York and the Duc of Orleans, Henry now turned to administration and diplomacy. The Prince wasted no time in alienating his French advisors with his “barbarous manners, indulgent misbehaviour and a worrying tendency to insult the attending Cardinal”

His Most Catholic Majesty, Henry X, King-Emperor of the Holy Britannic Empire, King of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and France, King of Jerusalem, Lord of New England and his Empire across the globe, Defender of the Faith, By the Grace of God, Holy Roman Emperor


Henry X, and the new British uniforms

The King-Emperor Bevan VII died in August 1787 and the Prince Henry was sent to London and then to Westminster where he was crowned Henry X on the 14th of August 1787 as the King of England, Scotland and Ireland. Henry then travelled to Rheims where he was crowned King of France and then finally to Rome, where he was crowned Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and then acclaimed King-Emperor of the Holy Britannic Empire. Once again the Princes of Europe where received in Rome, the Saxon-Austrian war had come to nothing and relationships in Europe where stable, if not cordial. Henry X, lacking the diplomatic flair of his father did not succeed in winning their confidence, or in persuading the King of Saxony to return to the Empire.

While Henry X was being crowned, his uncle, the Duke of York was prosecuting another successful war in India, the inhabitable areas of Australia had been colonised and the Native Americans had given the English colonists their first real period of peace in many years. Throughout the world, the British Empire grew inexorably. The latest Indian war ended in December 1788, the British presence in India was inescapable, and now was impossible to destroy, the ever growing markets and exotic goods promised to make India the new France.

While York manufactured victory in India, Henry X’s diplomatic overtures in Europe failed miserably which resulted in him marrying the Lady Isabelle de Montaigne, the daughter of the Comte of Vendee. His greatest achievement was the overblown 1794 Military dress Act, which merely gave the army a new set of uniforms. By 1794 however, he spent most of his time at court in Versailles Palace, newly built in 1790. Three men came to prominence in the Empire, selected by the King-Emperor Henry X, it was one of the few choices he made well. Sir Andrew de Beauharnais, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Viscount Louis d’Ornano, the First Lord of the Admiralty, and Lord Leicester, the Marshal of France. These three men were the guiding force of the Empire while the King-Emperor was at Versailles, and to their credit, they were well suited for the occupation, Sir Andrew’s tax reforms were a great step forward for its time, a truly efficient graduated tax that could be applied to all parts of the Empire.

The First Triumvirate, Tax Reforms, the Second Triumvirate

The Lord Leicester prosecuted a lightning war against the Republic of Novgorod for the control of the Naxos Islands, the war itself was mainly a Naval war, with only the Crete army of three thousand men taking part in the occupation of the Islands. The war lasted a mere ten months, a insignificant period compared to the Luxembourg war, and was a very quiet war, with the majority of naval combat occurring in the first weeks of the war. The main fighting however, had not been on the Naxos Islands, or even between Britain and Novgorod. Thousands of miles away, on the Pacific coast of North America, a fast paced war of manoeuvre was fought between the Kingdom of Sicily and the Republic of Novgorod, over American Novgorod colonies. The war was a resounding success, commanded by General Samuel Gonzaga, the Sicilians captured the entire pacific coast, bar Alaska and the Saxon Cochimi peninsular.

The peace proceeding after the Luxembourg war had given Britain and unrivalled chance to rebuild its Navy, the battle of Amsterdam had been a bloody victory which only increased the need to expand the fleets. The entire Island of Britain and the Northern coast of France was constantly building ships for the British battle fleets. The 1784 Imperial Service Act had yielded hundreds of thousands of fresh recruits which were placed on the huge battleships or the Eastern border of France. But it seemed the conscription legislation had come too late, Europe for the most part was at peace, the Saxons had given up their ideas of Western conquest, the Byzantines were too busy struggling on their own, Iberia was spending its time and effort on its South American Empire, although its tensions with the Milanese Empire required mediation, Iberia was a quiet, helpful southern neighbour to the British Empire.

In May 1796, Britain was called to help defend Cyprus against the Sultanate of Dulkadir, Dulkadir was a small country by British standards and had broken away from Byzantine control in 1783 under the command of Muhammad III, since its rebellion, it had consistently chafed against the Byzantines and Ottoman Turks, its northern neighbours. To the south, seemingly unprotected, sat Cyprus. However, Cyprus, a vassal of the Holy Britannic Empire, had petitioned the King-Emperor for assistance, and Viscount Louis d’Ornano had replied, the Mediterranean fleet was despatched at once to hem the Dulkadir ships into port and cut the country of from the fleet and stop any possible invasion of Cyprus, as this was happening, the Armies of Jerusalem invaded and swept aside the Dulkadir resistance. The war ended five months later, the Sultanate of Dulkadir paid reparations to the British and gave promises not to attempt such an invasion again.

The aging Duke of York invaded India once again in 1798, under the Triumvirate of Viscount d’Ornano, Lord Leicester and now Lord Suffolk, the Duke of York was given free reign in India, and was later appointed the Viceroy of India. The 1798 war was fought across the whole of the Indian subcontinent, the Indian armies, despite valiant resistance and often, the advantage of numbers were defeated time and time again by advanced British firepower. In 1799, the Kingdom of Orissa was annexed by the Duke of York, in May 1801, the British peace deal with Rajputana gave them lands as far as the Indus Valley in the west. On the 30th of September, the official end of the 1798 war in India, the British annexed the provinces of Bastar, Ahmadnagar, and most importantly Kutch, a major centre of trade, now brought under the East India Company’s control.

Under the triumvirate, Britain was experiencing a welcome period of peace and prosperity, as long as Henry X could be kept in Versailles, the Empire would continue on its pleasant course.