Historical Background

Arransia's national heroine is the redheaded Queen Margaret, who in 1651 briefly took advantage of civil war in Brunswick to seize the country's throne. The Battle of Gollanfield in June 1651 was the last occasion when an Arransian army defeated a Brunswickian one in a pitched battle. This war also saw the defeat of a Brunswickian fleet by the irascible, one-legged Arransian admiral "wee" John Brodie at the Battle of Ugglesby Head. Although felt by many naval historians to owe more to luck than skill, this decisive victory is considered the greatest in Arransian history and Ugglesby Head Day on 14 May is celebrated as a national holiday.

Only 27 at the time of her moment of triumph, Margaret lived on for another 45 years, nursing her grievances and plotting schemes of revenge that never came to fruition. Unlike Britain's Queen Elizabeth I, she had seven children by three different husbands, and in total outlived five husbands, the last of whom she married when she was 66 and he was 25. In real life she was described as a plain, plump, freckly-faced woman, but all contemporary portraits show her as a serene beauty, and it is one of these that adorns the Arransian $1 note. Arransia's solitary and now very elderly aircraft carrier is also named after her.

Arransia had an ancient Parliament, but it never exercised much power, and the Kings continued to rule as near-absolute monarchs, although their chronic shortage of tax revenue meant the scope for exercising this power was always limited. The development of political thought in the late 18th century, and revolutions in other countries, led an increasing number of Arransians to question the absolute monarchy. In 1837, after the deranged, megalomaniac King Andrew VI had ordered the Arransian fleet to carry out a suicidal attack against Brunswickian ports, the navy mutinied and the bloodless "Ginger Revolution" ensued, which greatly curbed the powers of the monarchy and installed a modern constitutional system which, with some changes, has endured to the present day. Arransia was the first country in the world to give women the vote, in 1837, but originally this was confined to female property owners, and it was not until 1929 that genuine universal suffrage was achieved.

In terms of religion, Arransia is predominantly Catholic, with two archepiscopal provinces of Danby and Pentrich. In the 1360s, in an attempt to counter the population decline following the Black Death, the clergy in the country were given a temporary dispensation to marry, which has continued to the present day, and perhaps helps explain why the Reformation only had a limited effect. Over the years, the Papacy have made several attempts to rescind this concession but it has always met with strong resistance, in particular during the 19th century, when the appointment of foreign celibate Archbishops was greeted with riots, eventually forcing their withdrawal. The Arransian clergy are in fact noted for their tendency to have large families. The country has a number of interesting mediaeval cathedrals, but most of them seem to be unfinished in some way. The exception to this is the magnificent St Mary's Cathedral in Danby, with its solid yet graceful late Gothic style and 526' spire, which was consciously built as a celebration of Arransian independence and often features on lists of the ten finest buildings in the world.

Arransia has never been known for religious fanaticism and, apart from a short period in the 16th century, has generally extended toleration to other faiths. About 15% of those claiming to be Christians belong to various Protestant denominations, and the country has a Jewish community of some 75,000, many of whom originally came to Arransia to escape persecution in countries to the east. Arransia also has a long-standing population of about 15,000 Gypsies, most of whom still adhere to the traditional travelling lifestyle. Some Arransian Gypsy families have a strong position in the Sabrantian scrap metal trade and, possibly for this reason, "Arransian Gypsies" tend to have an unjustified bad reputation in Brunswick.

The Arransian legal code has its origins in the laws applying in Brunswick before 1326. Arransia retains trial by jury for all serious criminal cases, and a broadly adversarial system, although it is significant that juries are only required to make judgments on issues of fact, not of law. In theory, the right to silence continues to apply, but in practice the courts expect defendants to make a "deposition" setting out their basis of their defence and do not look kindly on those who simply refuse to say anything. Arransian judges are noted for taking an independent-minded stance and even in the days of near-absolute monarchy would sometimes overturn royal decrees. The highest court is the High Court of Pleas, which combines the roles of a constitutional supreme court and an ultimate court of appeal. Justices are now required to retire at 75, but in the past a number continued to sit into their nineties.

Following the Revolution, Brunswick carried out a comprehensive review of its legal code, and it is now regarded as a model that has been adopted to a greater or lesser degree by a number of other countries. Nothing comparable occurred in Arransia, with the result that the legal code retains a distinctly mediaeval character and is widely regarded as complex and obscure. Arransians are notoriously litigious and the legal profession make a good living. Businesses in other countries make strenuous efforts to avoid disputes coming within the scope of Arransian commercial or marine law, as that tends to result in lengthy and expensive cases and a strong likelihood of an outcome favourable to Arransian interests.

See the following pages for a more detailed account of Arransian history since 1949:

Part 1: 1949 - The End of the War | Part 2: 1949-1965 | Part 3: 1965-1969 | Part 4: 1969-1981 | Part 5: 1981-1990 | Part 6: 1990-1998 | Part 7: 1998-2006

The Royal House

The Arransian royal house, the House of Fraser, have, unlike most of their foreign counterparts, never had any problems with producing heirs, and succession crises have been non-existent. Over the years, Arransian princesses, who were regarded as good breeding stock (although typically somewhat horse-faced and of only modest intelligence) married into all the major royal families, and it is now the case that every surviving monarch in the Western world is a direct descendent of Robert I through the female line.

The current king, Malcolm VII (b 1933), broke with convention in marrying an actress, Imogen Wallace (b 1939), rather than an aristocrat or a foreign princess. Queen Imogen has been the model of a dignified and charming consort, but in her former career – while in general a distinguished stage actress – she did in the mid-60s make a small number of "art" films which are perhaps not quite what one would expect of a future queen. They have only had the one child, Princess Fiona, born in 1972, who is untypically attractive and intelligent for an Arransian royal. A headstrong and wilful individual, she has had a series of what are generally regarded as unsuitable liaisons and so far has not married. She is currently romancing Alex Morton (b 1978), the lead singer of the rock band Lost Patrol, who have become very popular in Arransia and Brunswick for their grandiose, sweeping, romantic songs which seem to hint at profound meaning while not making it explicit (although some critics dismiss their music as empty bombast). He is six years her junior, and, an articulate and relatively clean-living character, is widely felt to be her most suitable beau so far. Arransia has a strict privacy law and the royal family are not subject to the gossip and tabloid intrusion that is typical of the UK. If and when Fiona succeeds to the throne (and her father is now 72 and in poor health) she will be only the country's second reigning Queen after Margaret.

At the beginning of September, after much press speculation, it was announced that Fiona was expecting a child, and that Alex Morton was the father. Shortly afterwards it was announced that the couple were to marry on Friday 21 October, in a low-key ceremony in the chapel of Danby Castle, which Fiona had requested should be free of any military pomp.

LATEST! A report on the Royal Wedding can be found here.

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