Realm: Silliness - Subrealm: Royalty
May. 7th, 2006 01:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
choco_froshWARNING: EXTREME GEEKINESS
...So I spent way too much time on Thursday wasting time on Wikipedia looking up EXACTLY who the Jacobite claimant to the British throne would be. (Yes, I´m a geek. And an anachronist. And an Anglophile. Deal.) Turns out he´s an art collector in Munich, who (as a result of a REALLY complicated descent from a daughter of Charles I) would be referred to by any remaining Jacobites as "Francis II, King of England, France, Scotland, Ireland, Bavaria, and Jerusalem." yeah.
The real point is that this got me thinking about what would happen if the entire immediate British royal family got wiped out in some kind of King Ralph scenario. Realistically, what would probably happen is that the country would just give up on the whole monarchy schtick; failing that, they´d presumeably just find Lizzie´s nearest living relative. (pace King Ralph, you´d have to kill about a hundred people just to get back to Queen Victoria, and then, of course...)
I, however, think it would be much cooler, as well as far more popular, to select from all the various pretenders to the throne. After all, in addition to the Jacobite candidate (They´d probably go for Franz´s niece, Sophie of (get this) Liechtenstein (Liechtenstein!), you´ve got an alternative Hannovarian candidate, the soi-disant Duke of Cumberland and Brunswick (OK, he has a history of GBH); Juan Carlos of Spain, who´s descended from John of Gaunt´s second wife (vs. Henry Tudor´s third), and probably any of a number of others with silly claims to the throne. The key would be the selection process:
Reality-TV-style gameshow, with celebrity judges.
Competitions to include:
Horsemanship
Tea drinking
Pop Culture quiz
Willingness, and ability, to become C of E.
Dancing (for cultural completeness: Ballroom, Techno, AND Highland)
English language ability (would have dq´d George I, but most Europeans learn at least some English at this point. Would also dq people like Dubya)
Shooting (your key support base will have no respect for you if you can´t bag a pheasant)
Ability to survive complex pageantry without going stark raving mad.
Political interview (to make sure you aren´t ALREADY stark raving mad)
Coolness of family. (For example, Sophie of Liechtenstein´s grandfather spent WW2 in a concentration camp, and while the family had only been kings since 1806, they go back to the early middle ages and numbered several Emperors in their ranks. On the other hand, her husband´s country is a bit of a joke, frankly...)
Other possible events would include general knowledge, swordsmanship, and extreme sports.
Other suggestions?
PS: You can blame all this on Grace: she said I should post it...
...So I spent way too much time on Thursday wasting time on Wikipedia looking up EXACTLY who the Jacobite claimant to the British throne would be. (Yes, I´m a geek. And an anachronist. And an Anglophile. Deal.) Turns out he´s an art collector in Munich, who (as a result of a REALLY complicated descent from a daughter of Charles I) would be referred to by any remaining Jacobites as "Francis II, King of England, France, Scotland, Ireland, Bavaria, and Jerusalem." yeah.
The real point is that this got me thinking about what would happen if the entire immediate British royal family got wiped out in some kind of King Ralph scenario. Realistically, what would probably happen is that the country would just give up on the whole monarchy schtick; failing that, they´d presumeably just find Lizzie´s nearest living relative. (pace King Ralph, you´d have to kill about a hundred people just to get back to Queen Victoria, and then, of course...)
I, however, think it would be much cooler, as well as far more popular, to select from all the various pretenders to the throne. After all, in addition to the Jacobite candidate (They´d probably go for Franz´s niece, Sophie of (get this) Liechtenstein (Liechtenstein!), you´ve got an alternative Hannovarian candidate, the soi-disant Duke of Cumberland and Brunswick (OK, he has a history of GBH); Juan Carlos of Spain, who´s descended from John of Gaunt´s second wife (vs. Henry Tudor´s third), and probably any of a number of others with silly claims to the throne. The key would be the selection process:
Reality-TV-style gameshow, with celebrity judges.
Competitions to include:
Horsemanship
Tea drinking
Pop Culture quiz
Willingness, and ability, to become C of E.
Dancing (for cultural completeness: Ballroom, Techno, AND Highland)
English language ability (would have dq´d George I, but most Europeans learn at least some English at this point. Would also dq people like Dubya)
Shooting (your key support base will have no respect for you if you can´t bag a pheasant)
Ability to survive complex pageantry without going stark raving mad.
Political interview (to make sure you aren´t ALREADY stark raving mad)
Coolness of family. (For example, Sophie of Liechtenstein´s grandfather spent WW2 in a concentration camp, and while the family had only been kings since 1806, they go back to the early middle ages and numbered several Emperors in their ranks. On the other hand, her husband´s country is a bit of a joke, frankly...)
Other possible events would include general knowledge, swordsmanship, and extreme sports.
Other suggestions?
PS: You can blame all this on Grace: she said I should post it...
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no subject
Date: 2006-05-07 12:35 pm (UTC)That ...
Date: 2006-05-07 01:42 pm (UTC)Who ELSE besides Sophie would compete in this contest? (Which would make truly first-rate TV.)
-g
no subject
Date: 2006-05-07 04:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-07 04:45 pm (UTC). . . How did Jerusalem get in there?
Ability to survive complex pageantry without going stark raving mad.
That would take out most of the contestants, I fear . . .
no subject
Date: 2006-05-07 06:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-08 12:40 am (UTC)(Also annoying that the person giving the paper just seemed to assume that everyone knew this, and all the other intricacies of Tudor politics. It's called an "Early Modern British History" seminar, but that seems to mean "Early Modern British (political, mostly Westminster/London) History" - it's so insular. I mean, more insular than British history usually is, which is pretty insular, being an island and all.)
But exactly how is the Spanish line descended from John of Gaunt? Do you know of any charts? The speaker mentioned some pamphlet, but said the name so quickly I couldn't get it.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-08 12:06 pm (UTC)dad/malcolm
no subject
Date: 2006-05-08 05:36 pm (UTC)Corgies: Don´t THINK that predates George VI. (I hope not, anyway)
John of Gaunt: Married a daughter of one of the kings of Castile, and claimed the throne therof for a while, before marrying the one resulting daughter (Constance?) off to one of the other claimants...who then won the civil war. Didn´t know about the claimant in 1603, though.
Fleurdelis: Mm, yeah, that would be important.
Going nuts: Well, you need the qualification to be, say, Grand Duke of Luxembourg too.
Jerusalem: God only knows. But like the English crown, can descend through the female line. The title got bought up by Charles of Anjou from a bankrupt exiled heiress in the late 13th c., and therafter descended with the crown of Sicily, but I don´t know by which of several possible routes it got to the Bavarians.
Tea: It´s more about wearing the perfect outfit, pouring elegantly, and making small talk.
Who Else: Who knows? There are whole Wikipedia sites devoted to the British succession (Jacobite and otherwise)...