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The Anglo-Frankish Commonwealth
Official name: Anglo-Frankish Commonwealth
Capital: Caen
Demonym: Anglo-Frankish
Languages: English, French
Ethnic Groups: Frankish, Anglo-Saxons, Welsh, Flemish, others
Government: Aristocratic republic
Head of State: Lord Protector of the Anglo-Frankish Commonwealth, Augustus FitzRoy (since 1778)
Head of Government: Chairman of the Commonwealth Council
Legislature: General Assembly (Lower House), Council of State (Upper House)
Established: 1669
History
The Kingdom of England and France
In 1446, King Henry VI of England was crowned as King of France, establishing the short-lived Lancaster dinasty. He was succeeded by his son Edward, who was able to consolidate the new kingdom. Edward had not descendency, however, and a new dinasty, the House of Valois, would follow in 1485. The dinasty would last until 1589, when Henry, from the House of Bourbon, the heir to the Kingdom of Navarre, would become Henry X of France and Henry V of France.
While the Lollard Reform movement had dominated in most of England since the reign of Henry VI, continental France was increasingly divided between Protestants and Catholics in the 16th century. Henry X would keep his Protestant faith, and was able to defeat the Catholic party, supported by Spain. However, King Henry was known for his religious tolerance, and he issued the Edict of Coutras in 1592, granting circumscribed toleration to the Catholics in French territory. However, this policy had an abrupt end in 1622, when Catholic conspirators killed the king and most members of the royal family.
The only surviving royal child was Henriette Marie, who was only 12 at the time. Charles d'Albert, Duke of Luynes, a prominent general, was proclaimed Regent. However, civil war soon erupted in Britain, once Henriette Marie died as consequence of smallpox in 1625, as a conspiracy led by Ferdinand Fairfax claimed the English throne. The rebels failed to take London in 1634, after General Robert Devereux defeated the northern armies in the Battle of Leicester. After the Peace of Chelmsford (1638), the Kingdom of York, under the House of Fairfax, would be established with Ferdinand as king (succeeded in 1648 by his son Thomas I).
The Commonwealth of England and France
After the death of Duke of Luynes in 1639, his brother Honoré d'Albert, Marshall of the continental army, took power but he proved unable to consolidate it. In 1641, Robert Devereux, Count of Essex, rejected to follow orders from Honoré d'Albert. Late that year, an army led by Oliver Cromwell crossed the English Channel. Once in the continent, he received the support of Isaac Manasses de Pas, Marquis de Feuquieres, and both marched toward Paris. In February 1644, an Assembly met in Versailles, and the Commonwealth of England and France was proclaimed. The army of Honoré d'Albert would be finally defeated in the Battle of Orleans (1646), and Honoré would be wounded, arrested, and later executed. The Charter of Caen (1648) would establish a constitutional convention, and executive powers were granted to Oliver Cromwell, who was officially appointed Lord Protector of the Commonwealth in 1649. However, the civil war continued for another decade.
Although elections were held for a parliament in Caen in 1651, the Lord Protector assumed soon dictatorial powers. The civil war became as much a political as a religious conflict, specially afte the Massacre of Dijon (1653), in which Cromwell suppressed a Catholic revolt, and thousands of Catholics were executed, prompting the intervention of Spain and Austria. Cromwell would die in 1658, being succeeded by his son Richard. However, Richard Cromwell was forced to renounce as Lord Protector in 1661, as he lacked the support of both the army and the parliament. He would be replaced by George Monck, who would be forced to sign the Peace of Bourdeaux, which ceased hostilities with Austria in exchange of territorial loses in eastern France and the establishment of the Kingdom of Bretagne. The war would not end until 1666, which consolidated the existence of the Kingdom of Toulouse and more territorial losses to Navarre and Spain.
The Anglo-Frankish Commonwealth
George Monck had been forced to step down in 1654, and General Abraham Duquesne was proclaimed as Lord Protector. As consequence of the long wars, the country was devastated and the economy was considerably weak. Duquesne, was able to make important fiscal and administrative reforms. A new parliament was elected in 1656, and in 1659 it was drafted a constitutional reform, which reduced the power of the executive government and established a more rational form of government. As result, the country was officially renamed as Anglo-Frankish Commonwealth in 1670.
Abraham Duquesne stepped down in 1673, being replaced as Lord Protector by Henri de La Tour d’Auvergne (who died two years later), and Nicolat Catinat. Catinat stepped down as Lord Protector in 1681, being replaced by Edward Cromwell (Richard Cromwell's son and Oliver Cromwell's grandson), although Catinat retained a huge influence in the government until the 1690s. After Edward Cromwell died in 1688, he was replaced by his brother Oliver Cromwell II, who would remain as Lord Protector until his death in 1705. In the last decade of the 17th century, the Anglo-Frankish Commonwealth was able to experience a slow economic recovery and it played a minor role during the Spanish War of Succession.
After the death of the Oliver Cromwell II in 1705, John Churchill was appointed Lord Protector, serving until his death in 1722. During those years, the Anglo-Frankish Commonwealth was able to annex the Flemish territories after a successful war against the Austrian and German coalition and start the expansion of the colonial territories.
There was a relative political instability during the next two decades in which three Lord Protectors (all serving until their death) ruled the country.
William Pitt became the longest serving Lord Protector and the only once to be appointed twice as Lord Protector as, after an early retirement from 1771 to 1774, he was appointed again in early 1774 serving for 31 years between 1743 and his death in 1778. He was replaced by Augustus FitzRoy.
Political system of the Anglo-Frankish Commonwealth
The basis of the Anglo-Frankish Commonwealth constitutional system were established in the Charter of Caen (1648) and the 1669 constitutional amends. Formally, the Commonwealth is an aristocratic republic divided in twelve autonomus provinces and which head of state, the Lord Protector, is indirectly elected and serves for life, although the office is not hereditary.
The Lord Protector
The Lord Protector is the head of state of the Anglo-Frankish Commonwealth. Under the constitution, the Lord Protector serves for life but can not choose his own successor. The Lord Protector is the commander-in-chief of all the Commowealth armies, and he directly appoints the Lieutenant-Governors -the heads of the provincial governments- and the colonial administration, and he is supposed to lead the country's foreign policy as well.
The Lord Protector has right to veto laws passed by the General Assembly and he has the right to reject the nomination of a candidate to the Chairmanship of the Commonwealth Council.
The Commonwealth Council
The Commonwealth Council functions as the executive committee of the Commonwealth, and carries out its executive functions. It proposes the budget, organizes and finances the armies of the Commonwealth, and levies taxes throughout the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth Council is headed by the Chairman of the Commonwealth Council, who is elected by the General Assembly. The other members of the council are appointed by the provinces for a six-year term. Those members are supposed to vote individually, not by province.
As the members of the council are directly elected by the provinces, the composition and political orientation of the Commonwealth Council rarely changes, turning the council into a joint grand coalition of political opponents. The members of the council are not supposed to publicly criticise one another, even though they are often bitter political opponents. They are actually expected to publicly support all decisions of the government, even against their own personal or religious opinion.
The composition of the Commonwealth Council is constitutionally established, according the autonomous provinces:
Every member of the Council often heads a government deparment, and they are often called "secretaries", even though no such post officially exists. However, as Council members, they are not only responsible for those department, but also for the business of their colleagues' departments as well, and for the conduct of the government as a whole. Decisions to be taken by the Council are always prepared by the responsible department, and it is expected to be a wide consensus inside the government.
The Chairman of the Council has no authority or veto over the rest of members of the Council, although he is expected to have a huge influence and to act as arbiter of the eventual differences of opinion. The members of the council are supposedly elected indirectly by their local government, and they usually came from the richer merchant families or the gentry, although the constitution does not officially allow hereditary offices.
By convention, the Chairman of the Commonwealth Council and the Lord Protector must be from different backgrounds. That mean that if, for example, the Lord Protector is an Anglo-Saxon, then the Chairman of the Commonwealth Council shall be from a Frankish background, or vice versa.
The General Assembly
The General Assembly is the national parliament, considered the Lower House and main legislative body. It is formed by 200 members, elected in direct election (suffrage is severely restricted, however, so often elections are rarely competitive). The General Assembly has important legislative powers, and there is no hierarchy between their members. According the constitution, the Commonwealth Council is subordinate to the General Assembly, which is proclaimed to represent the national sovereignty, although the Lord Protector has many veto powers on the decisions of the legislature.
The General Assembly elects both the Chairman of the Commonwealth Council (although his nomination may be vetoed by the Lord Protector) and the Speaker of the General Assembly. Considering that the collegiate and indirect election of the members of the Commonwealth Council formally prevent the existance of an official opposition, the Speaker of the General Assembly has an important political influence on the general policy of the assembly.
By convention, the Speaker of the General Assembly is a Huguenot.
The Anglo-Frankish Council of State
The Anglo-Frankish Council of State, usually known as Council of State, is considered the the Upper House of the parliament. It is formed by the nineteen members of the Commonwealth Council, the twelve Lieutenant-Governors, and the Speaker of the General Assembly. It meets at least once a year, and it has limited powers, including the power to veto any law passed by the General Assembly, and the power to override any veto by the Lord Protector as well (in that case, however, a 2/3 majority in both chambers is required).
The Council of State, however, is mostly famous because -in case of death or resignation of the head of state- it elects a new Lord Protector for life.
Religion in the Anglo-Frankish Commonwealth
Following Pope Martin V's support to a rival candidate to the crown to France, Henry VI (1422-1471), granted tolerance to the supporters of the Lollardy movement, which opposed many of the practices of the Catholic Church. Although he never gave official support to the movement, it run unopposed and King Henry VI took advantage to get rid of Catholic clergy critical of his political reforms.
The Valois dinasty, established by Charles I in 1485, reestablished the Catholic doctrine as the sole religion in the state, but it was too weak to inforce such policy in England, while support of Protestant teachings started to spread in several French regions. The 16th century Religious Wars, and the came of a Protestant king in 1589 with Henry X of England and Henry V of France, only endangered the dominance of Catholicism in the Kingdom of England and France.
The political and religious violence during the 17th century civil wars in continental France, and the loss of large territories in Burgundy and southern France -the main Catholic strongholds- signified the final transition toward a non-Catholic majority. The openly anti-Catholic policies of the Commonwealth of England and France, the creation of a more mainstream and conservative Lollardy United Church in England during the rule of Lord Protector Edward Cromwell only were reduced toward a restrictive tolerance in the late years of Arthur Dillon as Lord Protector (1722-1733).
Officially, since the 1669 constitutional reform, every province has the freedom to regulate the religious question as it wished, including the right to accept only one religion in their province, although since 1727, the Commonwealth established that every person should be free in the choice of their personal religion and that no person should be prosecuted based on their religious choice.
In practice, however, Catholic services in some provinces are severely restricted or even forbidden. In at least four of the six English provinces, any person who wishes to hold public office had to be a member or at least conform to the Anglo-Saxon United Church.
Official name: Anglo-Frankish Commonwealth
Capital: Caen
Demonym: Anglo-Frankish
Languages: English, French
Ethnic Groups: Frankish, Anglo-Saxons, Welsh, Flemish, others
Government: Aristocratic republic
Head of State: Lord Protector of the Anglo-Frankish Commonwealth, Augustus FitzRoy (since 1778)
Head of Government: Chairman of the Commonwealth Council
Legislature: General Assembly (Lower House), Council of State (Upper House)
Established: 1669
History
The Kingdom of England and France
In 1446, King Henry VI of England was crowned as King of France, establishing the short-lived Lancaster dinasty. He was succeeded by his son Edward, who was able to consolidate the new kingdom. Edward had not descendency, however, and a new dinasty, the House of Valois, would follow in 1485. The dinasty would last until 1589, when Henry, from the House of Bourbon, the heir to the Kingdom of Navarre, would become Henry X of France and Henry V of France.
While the Lollard Reform movement had dominated in most of England since the reign of Henry VI, continental France was increasingly divided between Protestants and Catholics in the 16th century. Henry X would keep his Protestant faith, and was able to defeat the Catholic party, supported by Spain. However, King Henry was known for his religious tolerance, and he issued the Edict of Coutras in 1592, granting circumscribed toleration to the Catholics in French territory. However, this policy had an abrupt end in 1622, when Catholic conspirators killed the king and most members of the royal family.
The only surviving royal child was Henriette Marie, who was only 12 at the time. Charles d'Albert, Duke of Luynes, a prominent general, was proclaimed Regent. However, civil war soon erupted in Britain, once Henriette Marie died as consequence of smallpox in 1625, as a conspiracy led by Ferdinand Fairfax claimed the English throne. The rebels failed to take London in 1634, after General Robert Devereux defeated the northern armies in the Battle of Leicester. After the Peace of Chelmsford (1638), the Kingdom of York, under the House of Fairfax, would be established with Ferdinand as king (succeeded in 1648 by his son Thomas I).
The Commonwealth of England and France
After the death of Duke of Luynes in 1639, his brother Honoré d'Albert, Marshall of the continental army, took power but he proved unable to consolidate it. In 1641, Robert Devereux, Count of Essex, rejected to follow orders from Honoré d'Albert. Late that year, an army led by Oliver Cromwell crossed the English Channel. Once in the continent, he received the support of Isaac Manasses de Pas, Marquis de Feuquieres, and both marched toward Paris. In February 1644, an Assembly met in Versailles, and the Commonwealth of England and France was proclaimed. The army of Honoré d'Albert would be finally defeated in the Battle of Orleans (1646), and Honoré would be wounded, arrested, and later executed. The Charter of Caen (1648) would establish a constitutional convention, and executive powers were granted to Oliver Cromwell, who was officially appointed Lord Protector of the Commonwealth in 1649. However, the civil war continued for another decade.
Although elections were held for a parliament in Caen in 1651, the Lord Protector assumed soon dictatorial powers. The civil war became as much a political as a religious conflict, specially afte the Massacre of Dijon (1653), in which Cromwell suppressed a Catholic revolt, and thousands of Catholics were executed, prompting the intervention of Spain and Austria. Cromwell would die in 1658, being succeeded by his son Richard. However, Richard Cromwell was forced to renounce as Lord Protector in 1661, as he lacked the support of both the army and the parliament. He would be replaced by George Monck, who would be forced to sign the Peace of Bourdeaux, which ceased hostilities with Austria in exchange of territorial loses in eastern France and the establishment of the Kingdom of Bretagne. The war would not end until 1666, which consolidated the existence of the Kingdom of Toulouse and more territorial losses to Navarre and Spain.
The Anglo-Frankish Commonwealth
George Monck had been forced to step down in 1654, and General Abraham Duquesne was proclaimed as Lord Protector. As consequence of the long wars, the country was devastated and the economy was considerably weak. Duquesne, was able to make important fiscal and administrative reforms. A new parliament was elected in 1656, and in 1659 it was drafted a constitutional reform, which reduced the power of the executive government and established a more rational form of government. As result, the country was officially renamed as Anglo-Frankish Commonwealth in 1670.
Abraham Duquesne stepped down in 1673, being replaced as Lord Protector by Henri de La Tour d’Auvergne (who died two years later), and Nicolat Catinat. Catinat stepped down as Lord Protector in 1681, being replaced by Edward Cromwell (Richard Cromwell's son and Oliver Cromwell's grandson), although Catinat retained a huge influence in the government until the 1690s. After Edward Cromwell died in 1688, he was replaced by his brother Oliver Cromwell II, who would remain as Lord Protector until his death in 1705. In the last decade of the 17th century, the Anglo-Frankish Commonwealth was able to experience a slow economic recovery and it played a minor role during the Spanish War of Succession.
After the death of the Oliver Cromwell II in 1705, John Churchill was appointed Lord Protector, serving until his death in 1722. During those years, the Anglo-Frankish Commonwealth was able to annex the Flemish territories after a successful war against the Austrian and German coalition and start the expansion of the colonial territories.
There was a relative political instability during the next two decades in which three Lord Protectors (all serving until their death) ruled the country.
William Pitt became the longest serving Lord Protector and the only once to be appointed twice as Lord Protector as, after an early retirement from 1771 to 1774, he was appointed again in early 1774 serving for 31 years between 1743 and his death in 1778. He was replaced by Augustus FitzRoy.
Political system of the Anglo-Frankish Commonwealth
The basis of the Anglo-Frankish Commonwealth constitutional system were established in the Charter of Caen (1648) and the 1669 constitutional amends. Formally, the Commonwealth is an aristocratic republic divided in twelve autonomus provinces and which head of state, the Lord Protector, is indirectly elected and serves for life, although the office is not hereditary.
The Lord Protector
The Lord Protector is the head of state of the Anglo-Frankish Commonwealth. Under the constitution, the Lord Protector serves for life but can not choose his own successor. The Lord Protector is the commander-in-chief of all the Commowealth armies, and he directly appoints the Lieutenant-Governors -the heads of the provincial governments- and the colonial administration, and he is supposed to lead the country's foreign policy as well.
The Lord Protector has right to veto laws passed by the General Assembly and he has the right to reject the nomination of a candidate to the Chairmanship of the Commonwealth Council.
The Commonwealth Council
The Commonwealth Council functions as the executive committee of the Commonwealth, and carries out its executive functions. It proposes the budget, organizes and finances the armies of the Commonwealth, and levies taxes throughout the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth Council is headed by the Chairman of the Commonwealth Council, who is elected by the General Assembly. The other members of the council are appointed by the provinces for a six-year term. Those members are supposed to vote individually, not by province.
As the members of the council are directly elected by the provinces, the composition and political orientation of the Commonwealth Council rarely changes, turning the council into a joint grand coalition of political opponents. The members of the council are not supposed to publicly criticise one another, even though they are often bitter political opponents. They are actually expected to publicly support all decisions of the government, even against their own personal or religious opinion.
The composition of the Commonwealth Council is constitutionally established, according the autonomous provinces:
- The Chairman of the Council, elected by the General Assembly
- Province of Ile-de-Seine (4 members)
- Province of London (3 members)
- Province of Wales (1 member)
- Province of South West England (1 member)
- Province of South East England (1 member)
- Province of East England (1 member)
- Province of Hinterlands (2 member)
- Province of Loire (1 member)
- Province of Normandy (2 member)
- Province of Hauts-de-Manche (2 member)
Every member of the Council often heads a government deparment, and they are often called "secretaries", even though no such post officially exists. However, as Council members, they are not only responsible for those department, but also for the business of their colleagues' departments as well, and for the conduct of the government as a whole. Decisions to be taken by the Council are always prepared by the responsible department, and it is expected to be a wide consensus inside the government.
The Chairman of the Council has no authority or veto over the rest of members of the Council, although he is expected to have a huge influence and to act as arbiter of the eventual differences of opinion. The members of the council are supposedly elected indirectly by their local government, and they usually came from the richer merchant families or the gentry, although the constitution does not officially allow hereditary offices.
By convention, the Chairman of the Commonwealth Council and the Lord Protector must be from different backgrounds. That mean that if, for example, the Lord Protector is an Anglo-Saxon, then the Chairman of the Commonwealth Council shall be from a Frankish background, or vice versa.
The General Assembly
The General Assembly is the national parliament, considered the Lower House and main legislative body. It is formed by 200 members, elected in direct election (suffrage is severely restricted, however, so often elections are rarely competitive). The General Assembly has important legislative powers, and there is no hierarchy between their members. According the constitution, the Commonwealth Council is subordinate to the General Assembly, which is proclaimed to represent the national sovereignty, although the Lord Protector has many veto powers on the decisions of the legislature.
The General Assembly elects both the Chairman of the Commonwealth Council (although his nomination may be vetoed by the Lord Protector) and the Speaker of the General Assembly. Considering that the collegiate and indirect election of the members of the Commonwealth Council formally prevent the existance of an official opposition, the Speaker of the General Assembly has an important political influence on the general policy of the assembly.
By convention, the Speaker of the General Assembly is a Huguenot.
The Anglo-Frankish Council of State
The Anglo-Frankish Council of State, usually known as Council of State, is considered the the Upper House of the parliament. It is formed by the nineteen members of the Commonwealth Council, the twelve Lieutenant-Governors, and the Speaker of the General Assembly. It meets at least once a year, and it has limited powers, including the power to veto any law passed by the General Assembly, and the power to override any veto by the Lord Protector as well (in that case, however, a 2/3 majority in both chambers is required).
The Council of State, however, is mostly famous because -in case of death or resignation of the head of state- it elects a new Lord Protector for life.
Religion in the Anglo-Frankish Commonwealth
Following Pope Martin V's support to a rival candidate to the crown to France, Henry VI (1422-1471), granted tolerance to the supporters of the Lollardy movement, which opposed many of the practices of the Catholic Church. Although he never gave official support to the movement, it run unopposed and King Henry VI took advantage to get rid of Catholic clergy critical of his political reforms.
The Valois dinasty, established by Charles I in 1485, reestablished the Catholic doctrine as the sole religion in the state, but it was too weak to inforce such policy in England, while support of Protestant teachings started to spread in several French regions. The 16th century Religious Wars, and the came of a Protestant king in 1589 with Henry X of England and Henry V of France, only endangered the dominance of Catholicism in the Kingdom of England and France.
The political and religious violence during the 17th century civil wars in continental France, and the loss of large territories in Burgundy and southern France -the main Catholic strongholds- signified the final transition toward a non-Catholic majority. The openly anti-Catholic policies of the Commonwealth of England and France, the creation of a more mainstream and conservative Lollardy United Church in England during the rule of Lord Protector Edward Cromwell only were reduced toward a restrictive tolerance in the late years of Arthur Dillon as Lord Protector (1722-1733).
Officially, since the 1669 constitutional reform, every province has the freedom to regulate the religious question as it wished, including the right to accept only one religion in their province, although since 1727, the Commonwealth established that every person should be free in the choice of their personal religion and that no person should be prosecuted based on their religious choice.
In practice, however, Catholic services in some provinces are severely restricted or even forbidden. In at least four of the six English provinces, any person who wishes to hold public office had to be a member or at least conform to the Anglo-Saxon United Church.