Wednesday 29 March 2017

Royalty In Fact And Fiction

In Britain, we have monarchs in history, in historical fiction and in contemporary society so how about science fiction?

In Our Timeline
1837-1901  Victoria
1901-1910  Edward VII
1910-1936  George V
1936           Edward VIII
1936-1952  George VI
1952-          Elizabeth II

In SM Stirling's Angrezi Raj Timeline
1837-1882  Victoria I
1882-1900  Edward
1900-1921  George IV
1921-1942  Victoria II
1942-1989  Albert I
1989-2005  Elizabeth II
2005-2025  John II
2025-          Charles III

In SM Stirling's Change Timeline
1952-1999  Elizabeth II
1999-          Charles III

And, in Poul Anderson's Technic History timeline, we theorize that the Terran Emperor appoints a descendant of the House of Windsor as the Mayor Palatine of Britain.

4 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Something is odd about Stirling's list of the King Emperors of the Angrezi Raj. It's plain, I think, that the Victoria I and her son Edward were the same Victoria and Edward VII of our timeline. But why wasn't "Edward" called the "VII" of that name? And his son George should have been George V, not "George IV." Something happened to the George IV we knew in our timeline, so that whoever succeeded poor George III was not our George IV.

I agree, I think the Founder of the Terran Empire or one of his successors created a descendant of the British royal family as the Mayor Palatine of Britain.

Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,
In his alternative history narratives, Stirling drops hints that even the unaltered timeline is not identical with ours. We have found such a hint - or hints.
Alan Moore's V FOR VENDETTA has a Queen Zara.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

True, it's one of Stirling's leitmotifs to leave us hints that his alternate histories/worlds are not the same as ours. And I have to conclude that puzzling list of the King Emperors in THE PESHAWAR LANCERS is one such hint (I mean "Edward" and "George IV").

All the same, it would have been nice if the Earth seen in PESHAWAR could have been the same as ours before the comets which struck it in the 1870's of that book diverted history. And I think the "Earth/2" of Stirling's DRAKON comes closest to being our Earth.

Sean

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Just one more note about that list of the King Emperors in Stirling's THE PESHAWAR LANCERS. Was the fact "Edward" in the list has no ordinal a hint there were no PREVIOUS kings named Edward? If so, that's another indication the Earth of PESHAWAR is not our Earth.

BUT, if PESHAWAR was located in our Earth's timeline, I would offer a revised list.

1837-1842 Victoria I
1882-1900 Edward VII
1900-1921 George V
1921-1942 Victoria II
1942-1889 Albert I
1989-2005 Elizabeth II
2005-2025 John II
2025- Charles III

As I'm sure you noticed, the first three sovereigns would be the as in our timeline, being born before the comets which struck the Earth. And Victoria II would be when a really divergent line started.

Sean