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Lists of Heads of Government and Heads of State

2016 - 2019: Theresa May (Conservative)

2019: Boris Johnson (Conservative)


Johnson's minority government is unable to achieve anything but his opponents cannot agree on a course of action, leaving government paralysed while the Withdrawal Agreement sits there without being voted on. Unless there's either an election or vote of no confidence, there'll be no forward movement and the EU27 are getting pissed off. As the deadlock continues into December, the economy slumps and word comes down that the EU27 won't agree to an extension, while all party leaders (except Sturgeon in Scotland) are looking increasingly unpopular. Something has to give.

2019-2020: Amber Rudd (Conservative)

The coup is a brutal action that sees Rudd win through promise of bringing back the MPs who lost the whip and those who've defected to other parties. Unfortunately for Rudd, she can achieve this but now the ERG and chums refuse to back the Withdrawal Agreement - one revised to bring back the Northern Irish backstop - and the DUP can't help, having split over what to do. Labour faces internal conflict over what to do. The Lib Dems, SNP, and PC team up to demand a second referendum now. Deadlock continues.

Rudd gambles on the second referendum and No wins by 50.4%. Remain has been defeated. But the fact she did it at all has the ERG enraged and doesn't solve the "what next?" problem.

2020: Jacob Rees-Mogg (Conservative "& Brexit" Party) in supply-and-confidence with 'Hard DUP'

Coup Two, followed by a surprise merger of the party with Farage's. He believes this will force change. More party defections follow - all independent now, as the Lib Dems aren't taking rats in case they re-rat again - but he assumes an election will see him win. He's got Farage and Cummings on his side, an increasingly disgruntled nation, and a Labour Party divided by an increasingly brutal antisemitism conflict. All he has to do is get everyone to agree an election.

The EU27 sends quiet word to the opposition: just bloody do it.

2020 - 2021: Rebecca Long-Bailey (Labour) in supply-and-confidence with SNP

Against a combined Mogg/Farage force, most English and Welsh Remainers reluctantly go to Labour - helped by a sudden change in leadership soon before. Rees-Mogg thought this meant Labour was vulnerable, rather than benefitting from a leader that hasn't got baggage yet. Still, Labour has lost part of the northern "red wall" and requires the SNP to not be a minority (the Lib Dems are not contacted, but have stolen southern Tory seats from people freaked by Hard Brexit, while the DUP crashed to an Alliance surge).

A long transition to 'soft Brexit' beckons and a withdrawal bill is put through. While the details will take a long time, the government can focus on many new things like -- no it can't, the SNP want a new independence referendum nownowNOW and Labour has to reluctantly allow one for early 2021. Campaigning gets vicious and, in the end, Scotland votes to Remain. The SNP withdraws support to get back at Labour.

2021: Rebecca Long-Bailey (Labour) in supply-and-confidence with Liberal Democrats

More and more conflicts on policy slow down the pace of change. An election may be the only way out--

2021: Rebecca Long-Bailey (Labour) in supply-and-confidence with Liberal Democrats
2022 - 2026: Keir Starmer (Labour) in coalition with Jo Swinson (Liberal Democrats)


Both parties lose seats as a result of working with the other but gain seats in Scotland, where the SNP is losing some ground, and from Tory marginals as Mark Francois craps the bed. (A number of independent MPs are elected) Long-Bailey resigns - potentially pushed - and Chancellor of the Exchequer Starmer wins the party election. A slow, careful centre-left coalition government is organised and slowly grinds its way through. Increasingly, climate change policy is coming to dominate - severe flooding in 2025 forces a state of emergency as hundreds of thousands are displaced and critical infrastructure knocked out.

Because of this, a referendum is held alongside the election on rejoining the European Union for climate change reasons. This is also seen as a way to shore up votes for the government, who is not doing too well in the polls. It half works:

Rejoining: 58% AYE
2026 - 2034: Ruth Davidson (One Nation Party)


The first majority government since 2017, promising national unity and no culture wars and money for all and so forth. This is impossible to achieve especially as the UK is rejoining the EU on lesser terms than it used to have, but the fragmenting of the Labour Party and continuing fall of the former Tories helps Davidson win an early next election anyway. Conservative economic orthodoxy dooms this government in the end, which simply can't deal with the changing world order. The sight of the government operating out of old war bunkers after Hurricane Barry in '31 hits London is a perfect visual sign of this.


2034 - 2044: Jamini Khan (National Labour)

A young radical as a "new girl" MP in 2021, Khan by now is 'the woman for the moment'. EU rules and restrictions are pushed to the limit in a series of state stimulus' to rework infrastructure and the economy the way she thinks it should be, making her both popular and controversial depending on what she reworks when. She notably ends the remaining domestic flights after the Irish Tunnel is built. She's accused, correctly, of using 'pork barrel' spending in parts of the UK to placate residents as climate refugees enter the country.

As her dirtier acts continue to stick, she resigns for the 2044 election to increase National Labour's chances - with the world getting less stable, war is likely and she wants to ensure it's a National Labour government if that happens.

2044 - 2049: Dec Llewellyn (National Labour)
2049 - 2051: Dec Llewellyn (government of national unity)


His premiership is defined by the climate reaching the feared 1.7C rise, the Russian Emergency (or War of the Russias) and the Second Middle Eastern War, and the early death of King William to heatstroke. In the end, this was too much for a single party and a GNU had to be formed as with much of the rest of Europe. While Llewellyn's grand plan had been to federalise the country (something already informally happening since 1999), he spends most of his time keeping everything upright.

2051 - 2057: Jimmy Kowalski (One Nation)


A populist and former social media manager, he is elected after promising the bad times are over. Economic growth does go up and the occupation of the Russias ends with the Treaty of Novrogod, but fatally once he's in power he's less able to make promises and be the fun guy you'd have a spliff with, while other opposition leaders can play the same game.

One popular stunt was to 'celebrate' the joint anniversary of Brexit and Bremain, an excuse for quaint retro cultural events. Everyone has a good laugh at how the past used to be. Cor, imagine thinking Bulgaria was weird and foreign!
 
Prime Ministers of India

1966-1977: Indira Gandhi (Indian National Congress)
1967 def. C. Rajagopalachari (Swatantra Party)
1971 def. Morarji Desai (Indian National Congress (O))


1977-1979: Morarji Desai (Janata Party, in alliance with the Akali Dal, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), and various other regional parties)
1977 def. Indira Gandhi (Indian National Congress)

1979-1980: Charan Singh (Janata Party (Secular)

1980-1996: Indira Gandhi (Indian National Congress)
1980 def. Charan Singh (Janata Party (Secular)), Chandra Shekhar (Janata Party)
1985 def. Chandra Shekhar (Janata Party), Charan Singh (Lok Dal)
1990 def. VP Singh (Jan Morcha), Chandra Shekhar (Janata Party), Lal Krishna Advani (Bharatiya Janata Party), Ajit Singh (Lok Dal (Ajit))
1995 def. VP Singh (Janata Morcha), Atal Bihari Vajpayee (Bharatiya Janata Party)


Having gained and abused dictatorial powers during the Indian Emergency (1975-1977), to the shock of many she was defeated in a landslide in 1977. However, it increasingly became apparent that her opposition was connected by little more than anti-Indira sentiments and the result was a massive number of splits and divisions which ultimately resulted in an election in 1980 which was won by the Congress party in a landslide. This term was met with a severe challenge in the form of a a violent Sikh extremist movement calling for an independent Punjab known as "Khalistan". Led by militant preacher Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, this movement was initially aligned with the Congress party in an attempt to outflank the Sikh party Akali Dal through using a voice "more Sikh than the Sikhs" into the 1980 election, but this alliance broke apart as Bhindranwale's extremism became apparent and alienated Punjabi Hindus and Sikhs aligned with the Congress party. As massacres and inter-religious violence tore through Punjab and to a lesser extent Haryana, Bhindranwale became a fugitive, and ultimately in 1984 he bunkered down with his followers in the holiest Sikh site, the Golden Temple. Indian troops stormed the temple, but the Sikh militants had more firepower than expected, and the result was brutal fighting which damaged the temple. This event remains deeply controversial, with heavy dispute over whether pilgrims at the temple were killed in cold blood by the Indian army or used as human shields by the militants. Despite Bhindranwale having been killed, many Sikhs were deeply angered at their holiest site having been a battleground. Some of them even viewed Bhindranwale as a martyr, and other questions were raised whether this was all conducted simply because Indira Gandhi wanted to come across as a hero who stopped a terrorist. Multiple Sikh battalions in the Indian army mutinied and killed their leaders, and violence increased even more. The Sikh party Akali Dal initiated a campaign of peaceful protest against the Indian government, but sadly they were overshadowed by militants. The 1985 election ended up as a Congress landslide, with many Indians rallying to the existing leader rather than the disorganized opposition to defeat Sikh militancy.

In the 1985-1990 term, Indira Gandhi continued to deal with the Sikh militant movements, and decisively in 1986 she came to an agreement with the Akali Dal in regards to the protest movements, recognizing the Punjabi language as a secondary language in a number of Indian states bordering Punjab and promising a transfer of Chandigarh to Punjab among other things - ultimately the latter promise was broken after a referendum in Chandigarh proved few wanted to be in Punjab. This was protested by many for a myriad of reasons, and in 1987 the leader of the Akali Dal was assassinated by Sikh militants. Slowly but surely, the Sikh militant movement died down, though it took until the 1990s for it to die down entirely. Indira Gandhi, however, again angered many Sikhs by reconstructing the Golden Temple with government funds, the same government which damaged the Golden Temple in the first place. All the same, when in 1989 Sikh militants once more took control of the Golden Temple, they were stopped in collaboration with the Akali Dal in an event considered decisive for ending Sikh militancy without damaging the temple much; it seemed Indira Gandhi had learned her lesson.

Amidst this, in 1987, Indira Gandhi's finance minister VP Singh alleged that the government signed a deal for fighter planes which included illegal embezzlements. He claimed that Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv were both implicated and involved (but especially the latter). He ultimately broke from the Congress party with about 20 MPs, forming their own party. This scandal angered many, and this, not Sikh militancy, was the most discussed issue. In anger, Indira Gandhi removed some of the cabinet members implicated in the scandal, but the opposition was quick to note that this was simply a scapegoat. In 1990, Indira Gandhi's government retained her majority, but a far thinner one largely thanks to VP Singh and his Jan Morcha. Furthermore, the BJP, led by Hindu nationalist firebrand LK Advani, arose on the scene, using the issue of the ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Hindus by militants and a promise to repatriate them to win about 30 seats.

In her 1990-1995 term, Indira Gandhi's tenure was dominated by an entirely different issue - that of the economy. In 1992, the Indian state was moving towards bankruptcy not in the least due to the global recession, and under the advice of her economic advisor Manmohan Singh she used India's national gold reserves as collateral to obtain loans from the IMF and World Bank. However, she was forced to temporarily transition to a free market economic policy to gain those loans, but after the economic crisis was completed, she again re-transitioned to her socialist economic policy. The Indian economy and License Raj, ultimately, was little changed by this economic crisis. In foreign policy, due to the collapse of the ally of the USSR. Indira Gandhi proved surprisingly warm to the US despite having repeatedly used the CIA as a scapegoat in her past tenures, and this warmth was partially reciprocated though it took her successors for it to become a true alliance. Nevertheless, Indira Gandhi's administration was increasingly tired, and protests against her rule slowly but surely rose in the form of economic protests particularly in Gujarat. When one such protest ended up with five dead, fear rose that a second Emergency would be declared. Nevertheless an election was held in 1995 where, despite much of the opposition having united under VP Singh, the Congress party found itself able to win a minority government. In the following year, Indira Gandhi died peacefully in her sleep.

Indira Gandhi is today a highly controversial figure. Having governed India for almost three decades, she remains India's longest serving PM. She is credited with involvement in the Bangladesh Liberation War, stopping the Bangladesh Genocide, and abolishing stipends to former princes; however, she is also criticized for authoritarian attitudes, a cult of personality, lack of tact in regards to Sikh militancy, and a suspension of democracy between 1975 to 1977.

1996-1997: Pranab Mukherjee (Indian National Congress)

Despite having been desired by many members of the Congress party as India's next PM, Rajiv Gandhi decided to refuse, not in the least because outside Congress he was a hated, corrupt figure. Instead, elder Congress member Pranab Mukherjee was made Congress leader, as he was only slightly controversial for actions during the Emergency. Nevertheless, it continued to be true that the Congress party had a mere minority, and in 1997 a vote of confidence ended, to the shock of many, with a majority voting that they had confidence despite Congress not having majority support, including MPs which previously sat with the opposition. Opposition members alleged that the government had been bribing MPs to vote that they had confidence in the Mukherjee ministry, and the president promptly decided to dissolve Parliament.

1997-2004: Lalu Prasad Yadav (Janata Morcha)
1997 def. Pranab Mukherjee (Indian National Congress), Atal Bihari Vajpayee (Bharatiya Janata Party)
2002 def. Rajiv Gandhi (Indian National Congress), Lal Krishna Advani (Bharatiya Janata Party)


Winning the subsequent election with a small majority primarily due to disdain for the Congress party, Lalu Prasad nevertheless believed this was a mandate for his party's manifesto, most critically the implementation of caste-based affirmative action quotas for government positions and universities almost immediately after coming to power. The result was widespread protest, rioting, and self-immolation by upper-castes. Nevertheless, Lalu Prasad refused to budge, calling his platform the will of the majority and accused the protestors of being members of a loud minority opposed to social justice and the lower-castes. The affirmative action is today considered as having transformed Indian politics, increasing caste-based rivalries to never before seen extremes, and whether the affirmative action was a good thing or not remains controversial. In economics, Lalu Prasad proved almost as controversial, deciding that continuing Indira Gandhi's economic policies would make another economic crisis occur no matter what. He moved decisively towards free market economics and removed many regulations, causing an economic boom, and appointed Manmohan Singh, the apolitical economic advisor who recommended Indira Gandhi move to a more free market economic policy, as the finance minister. To many, however, such economic policies were controversial and went against Lalu Prasad's expressed goals of social justice. The most damaging thing towards Lalu Prasad's reputation was perhaps a corruption scandal where he was personally implicated for embezzling over 50 lakhs of rupees from the treasury in 2001 through fradulent expense reporting. This appeared as if it was certain to damage the Janata Morcha's electoral fortunes in the next election. Yet it did not, largely because the Congress party selected Rajiv Gandhi as its leader, and he accepted. He was widely considered corrupt in his own right, and that meant he found it difficult to capitalize on the corruption scandal. The BJP might have been able to use the scandal towards its own benefit, but then Advani held a speech in Pakistan where he praised its founder Jinnah for being secular. This was likely a foolish attempt to dispel his firebrand image, but secularists and Hindu nationalists alike were angered by this speech which they viewed as pro-Pakistan. In combination, this meant that Lalu Prasad was returned with a minority government. He did not get to enjoy it for long, however, when intra-party rival Mulayam Singh Yadav held a party meeting where he expelled Lalu Prasad, who walked out of the meeting with many of his supporters. The result was that Parliament was dissolved, and Lalu Prasad's faction was defeated.

Lalu Prasad's legacy is almost entirely negative. He is hated by upper-castes for the institution of affirmative action, while lower-castes tend to look at lower-caste leaders for legacies to uphold. His economic policy is credited almost entirely to Manmohan Singh, a clean figure unaffected by party. And his corruption is thoroughly hated.

2004-2013: Sushma Swaraj (Bharatiya Janata Party)
2004 def. Sharad Pawar (Indian National Congress), Mulayam Singh Yadav (Janata Morcha (Socialist)), Lalu Prasad Yadav (Janata Morcha (National))
2009 def. Sharad Pawar (Indian National Congress), Mulayam Singh Yadav (Samajwadi Janata Morcha), Lalu Prasad Yadav (Janata Morcha)


In the subsequent election, the BJP led by Advani's replacement Sushma Swaraj was able to win a strong minority. Sushma Swaraj proved extremely charismatic on the campaign trail, and was able to propel the BJP in power simply by being less corrupt than her opponents. To the surprise of many, she continued the free market economic policy of Lalu Prasad, even retaining Manmohan Singh as the finance minister; this was despite the BJP's grassroots the RSS supporting the Gandhian-esque economic policy of integral humanism. As such, he economic boom continued throughout Sushma Swaraj's tenure. In Kashmir, she sought to create Kashmiri Hindu settlements to conclude the BJP's goal of resettling the Kashmiri Hindus, but this proved a failure after the first settlement was attacked and destroyed by militants before even being completed. Most other Kashmiri Hindus refused to support moving back to Kashmir until the problem of militancy was resolved. In foreign policy, she sought rapprochement with Pakistan after the collapse of its military junta and the ascension of Nawaz Sharif to head Pakistan in 2008. This reached its climax in the form of the Karachi Declaration in 2007, which brought a mutual understanding in regards to nuclear arms and normalized relations between the two nations of India and Pakistan. In 2009, Sushma Swaraj won a landslide, hailed as a stateswoman.

In her second term, Parliament issued a law banning and criminalizing the practice of triple talaq, where a Muslim man can divorce his wife by saying "talaq" three times. While most parties supported a ban of triple talaq, many were more reluctant about criminalizing it. She proposed amending Jammu and Kashmir's autonomy out of the constitution, but despite it passing both houses of Parliament barely, it was defeated by the states required to confirm the amendment. It also caused an increase in Kashmiri terrorism. Most controversially, a protest by students in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) against abrogating J&K's autonomy was violently crushed by the Delhi police, under the control of the Delhi government. Despite the BJP's attempts to tar the protesting students as communists and "urban Naxalites", the subsequent sympathy wave resulted in a Congress landslide in Delhi in support of granting it statehood, ultimately granted in 2012. Furthermore, the government carved out the union territory of Ladakh and the state of Jammu from Jammu and Kashmir, and neither had any autonomy. Despite controversy of Muslim-majority Kargil becoming separated from J&K, ultimately a suspected wave of violence in Kashmir against this failed to materialize. Finally, in 2013, bad health forced Sushma Swaraj to resign. She died in 2015.

Sushma Swaraj's legacy is controversial, but far more so outside India than in it. In India, her excellent oratory is remembered above all else, as well as her more popular decisions. Outside it, however, her image is dominated by the JNU protests, representative of an authoritarian attitude.

2013-2014: Pramod Mahajan (Bharatiya Janata Party)

With most of the upper ranks of the BJP resigning, the technocratic-minded Pramod Mahajan was able to win leadership over the BJP. Ruling for a year, he attempted to associate himself with the legacy of Sushma Swaraj. However, Mahajan was an uninspiring figure and found himself bested on the campaign trail by a quite canny politician.

2014-2017: Sharad Pawar (Indian National Congress)
2014 def. Pramod Mahajan (Bharatiya Janata Party), Mulayam Singh Yadav (Samajwadi Janata Morcha), Lalu Prasad Yadav (Janata Morcha)

Having been long in waiting, senior Congress leader Sharad Pawar finally became PM in a coalition government with various regional parties. He proved an effective administrator in office, building up many new roads to and from many parts of India and expanding his electrification efforts. Creating toilets was also a major effort of his, and he is credited for doubling the number of public toilets in India. Nevertheless, whispers of his alleged connections to the sugar mafia did not cease during his tenure, and he had been a politician for so long he was viewed by the Indian people as nothing other than a politician. In 2017, he suffered a heart attack and died.

2017-2019: Mamata Banerjee (Indian National Congress)

Mamata Banerjee had previously served as chief minister of West Bengal, putting an end to dominance of the state by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in the 2011 election. She was then promoted to the centre as a cabinet minister, and after the death of Sharad Pawar, naturally Mamata with her ferocious charisma was the obvious choice as India's next PM. In office, however, she proved deeply controversial. In 2018, a protest by the BJP's student wing, the ABVP, against Congress rule was interrupted by police in Congress-controlled Delhi and some protestors were even hosed down by the government under her command. Yet again, the Indian government was accused internationally of authoritarianism. Furthermore, vast corruption scandals were unveiled in 2019, consisting of much money being laundered by cabinet ministers - though Mamata was not directly implicated, it was not a good look for her government. In the 2019 election, despite a campaign well-fought by Mamata, the Congress party was defeated. The victor of the election was a wholly new party.

2019-: Mayawati (Bahujan Samaj Party)
2019 (in coalition with Samajwadi Janata Morcha) def. Nitin Gadhkari (Bharatiya Janata Party), Mamata Bannerjee (Indian National Congress)

The 2019 election was a revolution of sorts, with the low-caste party BSP ultimately proving the victor in alliance with the SJM. Its leader Mayawati was and is a controversial figure, accused of egotism and dictatorial tendencies. The first thing done by Mayawati upon coming to power was converting to Ambedkarite Buddhism in a televised and streamed ceremony, becoming India's first non-Hindu PM. This event caused widespread low-caste conversions, and it is estimated at least a million people have converted as a result of this, with more converting every day. In office, the Mayawati premiership has constructed and is constructing a variety of monuments to low-caste heroes like Ambedkar and Shahu across India, and many of them contain the BSP symbol, the elephant, in prominent locations. Some even include statues of Mayawati, with justifications for this being that Mayawati's predecessor wanted such statues being built. Furthermore, Mayawati has accused her many, many critics of being anti-Dalit. Naturally, this, as well as quotas for lower-castes being increased, has caused a string of protests around India, though they are not currently being cracked down upon. Mayawati has, however, received praise for being a good administrator.

The path of India under Mayawati remains uncertain. She is, like so many Indian leaders, unhealthily authoritarian, and this has caused backlash. Whether such backlash can unseat her remains to be seen.
 
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By the way: why did Mayawati drop her surname? She does seem to have been born with one.

I don’t know, and looking it up gives me no answers. But here’s some speculation.

Her last name was “Prabhu Das”, which is a very Hindu last name. I think it might have something to do with how Mayawati isn’t exactly a religious Hindu and has stated that if she ever becomes PM she will convert to Buddhism. Prabhu Das is a religious name, clearly, so perhaps it has to do with that.

Or perhaps “Prabhu Das” has some caste connotation I’m not aware of, and like a lot of Indians she wanted to get rid of the discrimination such a last name brings. Of course, generally low-caste Indians change their last name either to something unrelated to caste or to something upper-caste (like Sharma), and I’m not sure why Mayawati would not give herself a new last name.
 
18.Ulysses S. Grant Republican March 9.1869 _March 4.1873

def. Samuel Tilden Democratic

19.Winfield Scott Hancock Democratic March .4 1873_1875

def. James A Garfield Republican


20. Samuel Haydon English May 6.1875_1981


18. President Grant reluctantly ran and won third term. many new cabinet members were picked but selectively since last term there were many scandals in grants cabinet.

19. Surprise victory many people at the time believed the Republicans would win but Hancock promised not to raise tariffs and that led the Democratic party to victory. Unfortunately for president Hancock his term was cut short by a mad man's bullet.

20. A accidental president, a progressive for his time mad e sure blacks in the south could get a good education and work also signed treaty for native American's .
 
HWAT,WHEN,HOW

OR-A VERY DUMB IMPLAUSIBLE LIST INSPIRED BY A VERY DUMB PRETENTIOUS SEQUEL TO A EIGHTIES CLASSIC GAME WITH NO FOOTNOTES

1945-1947: Herbert Morrison (Labour majority)
1947-1952: Stanford Cripps† (Labour majority)
1952-1954: John Strachey (Labour majority)
1954-1956: Anthony Eden (Conservative majority)
1956-1965: Rab Butler (Conservative majority,Conservative Minority after 1964)
1965-1973: Harold Wilson (Labour majority)
1973-1975: Jim Callaghan (Labour majority)
1975-1978: Airey Neave (Conservative Majority)
1978-1980: Geoffrey Howe (Conservative Minority backed by UUP)
1980-1991: Peter Shore (Labour leading War Government,Labour Minority after 1990)
1991-2001: Michael Meadowcroft (Liberal-SDP-One Nation-Green Alliance)
2001-2011: David Mundell (Liberal-SDP-One Nation-Green Alliance)
2011-202x: Liz Truss (Liberal-SDP-One Nation-Green Alliance)


The one who guesses the game get a prize
 
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A list based on a thing I wrote a while ago.

Chief Managers of the Russian-American Company

1863 - 1870: Dmitry Petrovich Maksutov (Navy)
1870 - 1873: Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich (Imperial Family, temporary exile) [1]
1873 - 1883: Fyodor Mikhailovich Novosilsky (Navy) [2]
1883 - 1885: Yevgeni Ivanovich Alekseyev (Navy) [3]
1885 - 1888: Oskar Enqvist (Navy)
1888 - 1892: Zinovy Petrovich Rozhestvensky (Navy) [4]
1892 - 1893: Stepan Osipovich Makarov (Navy)
1893 - 1896: Oskar Starck (Navy) [5]
1896 - 1898: Dejan Subotić (Navy)
1898 - 0000: Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak (Navy) [6]

[1] Exiled as punishment for a scandalous affair which made his continued presence in Saint Petersburg untenable, the Grand Duke spent most of his tenure on a goodwill tour of the United States. The sinecure of the governorship was made obvious in the fact that Grand Duke Alexei only visited Alyeska twice during his term, before the Tsar forgave and recalled him to the metropole.
[2] The second-in-command at the Battle of Sinope, Novosilsky attracted the sinecure of Chief Manager during his twilight years in St Petersburg. Alyeska continued to stagnate under his management, with the Russian population of the colony only breaking 1000 in 1878.
[3] Fresh from a round-the-world voyage, Alekseyev looked to develop the colony as a forward operating base for Russia on the northeast shores of the Pacific. Novoarkhangelsk developed into a minor naval base, with coaling stations at Kodiak and Unalaska linking the Alyeska Squadron to Petropavlovsk and Vladivostok. Soon, however, more prestigious assignments in St Petersburg called, and the nascent development programme was left in the hands of the Captain's successor.
[4] A self-proclaimed hero of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, "Mad Dog" Rozhestvensky was determined to make a name for himself. His time as Governor was spent working feverishly on projects of dubious utility, designed to improve the appearance of the colony from afar - the construction of a gaudy gubernatorial mansion in Novoarkhangelsk, an insistence on bolstering the Alyeska Squadron (which served only to cause an invasion scare in British Columbia), and a genocidal "pacification" campaign against the Tlingit which drove most across the border into Canada (and in pursuing them, the presence of armed Russians on the wrong side of a debated border did not help assuage Canadian fears that an invasion was imminent).
[5] Recognising the primitive state of Alyeskan infrastructure and its tenuous position in case of an actual war, Starck desperately attempted to revitalise the colony. To bump up the number of warm bodies in Russian America land grants were offered, geological surveys were undertaken, the katorga camps extended across the Bering Strait, and exiles were pardoned for agreeing to settle. While it began to have an impact - there were nearly ten thousand Russians in Alyeska by mid-decade - this level of activity did not go unnoticed in Ottawa, London, or Washington.
[6] With the Siknazuak Incident of 1898, Subotić was recalled and his lieutenant governor, an inexperienced 24-year-old naval hydrographer who had only just arrived in Novoarkhangelsk, was elevated to the governorship. As the 20th century nears and frictions grow over Alyeska's newly-discovered mineral bounty between the Russian authorities and the Anglo prospectors who now outnumber them, it is unclear how and under whose rule the colony will greet it.
 
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Presidents of the United States

1997-2009: John Kasich (Republican)
1996 (with Paula Zahn) def. Birch Bayh (Democratic), Jesse Ventura (Independence)
2000 (with Harriet O'Neill) def. Parris Glendening (Democratic), Jesse Ventura (Independence)
2004 (with Harriet O'Neill) def. Lawrence Summers (Democratic), Jesse Ventura (Independence)
2009-2010: John Edwards* (Democratic)
2008 (with Daniel Inouye) def. Charles Bass (Republican)
2010-2013: Daniel Inouye (Democratic)
2010-2011 (Vacant)
2011-2013 (with James B King)

2013-????: Evan Bayh (Democratic)
2012 (with Bill White) def. Joe Arpaio (Republican)
2016 (with Mary Herrera) def. Rick Snyder (Republican)
2020 (with Mary Herrera) def. Marco Rubio (Republican)

A Quick-and-Dirty Parallel list, America-as-NY
 
HWAT,WHEN,HOW

OR-A VERY DUMB IMPLAUSIBLE LIST INSPIRED BY A VERY DUMB PRETENTIOUS SEQUEL TO A EIGHTIES CLASSIC GAME WITH NO FOOTNOTES

1945-1947: Herbert Morrison (Labour majority)
1947-1952: Stanford Cripps† (Labour majority)
1952-1954: John Strachey (Labour majority)
1954-1956: Anthony Eden (Conservative majority)
1956-1965: Rab Butler (Conservative majority)
1965-1973: Harold Wilson (Labour majority)
1973-1975: Jim Callaghan (Labour majority)
1975-1978: Airey Neave (Conservative Majority)
1978-1980: Geoffrey Howe (Conservative Minority backed by UUP)
1980-1991: Peter Shore (Labour leading War Government,Labour Minority after 1990)
1991-2001: Michael Meadowcroft (Liberal-SDP-One Nation-Green Alliance)
2001-2011: David Mundell (Liberal-SDP-One Nation-Green Alliance)
2011-202x: Liz Truss (Liberal-SDP-One Nation-Green Alliance)


The one who guesses the game get a prize

Alright,so basically Clem’s car mysteriously crashes while going to the palace and Herb shamelessly (in the eyes of some anyway) becomes Prime Minister and implements parts of the Beveridge Report and a more localized version of the NHS,along with dealing with MacArthur being assassinated by a former Japanese Major and the near early WW3 it nearly caused (long story,a thing that sorta happened in OTL that was supposed to be framed on the Japanese Communists by some Nationalists who wanted it to start WW3 in 1946 ,but was stopped after the Major poisoned one of his men he didn’t trust for some reason,but lived and ratted him out to the authorities) and a fractured party.Bevin also becomes more erratic due to Clem’s death and is convinced that Morrison was behind the car crash and is plotting to remove him from power,he and Arthur Greenwood making a deal with Cripps to remove Morrison in exchange from few things (having a nuclear program and removing Hugh Dalton mostly,Bevin just wanting revenge at this point) and Herb is removed in November 1947 after the triumvirate sorta finds out about his affair with Ellen Wilkinson and blackmailing him into resigning.

Cripps does the things you expect him to do if he became Prime Minister,but also does some weird unexplainable decisions, like funding numerous bizarre projects like a National Lobotomy Service(that’s right,we’re doing this bit again),creating the first test tube babies,brain transplants,referendums to sort out if colonies want to remain or leave the Empire and a much reviled and short lived Ministry of Rational Alimentation that more or less tries to implement similar dystopian plans that Iulian Mincu created during Ceaucescu’s rule that starved millions.(Note:The last two are implemented after the 1950 General Election,when Cripps is more confident in mysteriously imposing them).The Cambridge Five are also caught quicker than OTL and sent to death,Cripps becoming more disillusioned by 1952 with the world as a whole after awhile and dies in office due to cancer,wondering what possessed him to do the things he did.

Gaitskell and Bevan(who still is in the cabinet due to the Korean War being shorter and the NHS therefore not affected by its cost that much) duke it out and it turns into a bitter stalemate,Morrison also entering the ring to reclaim what he
considers was rightfully his being stolen from him,consequences be damned. Strachey becomes leader and PM as a compromise choice,more or less just doing the same things Herb and Cripps did due to fear of dividing the party and also because he and Labour,well,don’t know what to do anymore besides maintaining the postwar consensus and trying to deal with various scandals coming from actions of the members of the Ministry of Rational Alimentation,due to some of them either abusing their power from their own gain or going too far in imposing rational Alimentation (Earling Studios perfectly captured the feeling of anger the country felt towards the Ministry in the classic comedy “Oh,Fair Albion”,where Alec Guinness gives a great performance as the sinister puritanical Rational Alimentation official,Inspector Jacob Barnably,who terrorizes the residents of the fictional London neighborhood of East Pelham with respecting rationing and his vision of Britain).Eventually this leads to the government falling,Anthony winning and removing the Ministry and some other unsavory acts of the Cripps government,but then Suez happens and uh Wab mysteriously wins somehow and I kinda wanna make this a two parter since I gotta go somewhere and I can’t post for a couple of hours

I did warn this was gonna be really stupid,didn’t I
 
Alright,so basically Clem’s car mysteriously crashes while going to the palace and Herb shamelessly (in the eyes of some anyway) becomes Prime Minister and implements parts of the Beveridge Report and a more localized version of the NHS,along with dealing with MacArthur being assassinated by a former Japanese Major and the near early WW3 it nearly caused (long story,a thing that sorta happened in OTL that was supposed to be framed on the Japanese Communists by some Nationalists who wanted it to start WW3 in 1946 ,but was stopped after the Major poisoned one of his men he didn’t trust for some reason,but lived and ratted him out to the authorities) and a fractured party.Bevin also becomes more erratic due to Clem’s death and is convinced that Morrison was behind the car crash and is plotting to remove him from power,he and Arthur Greenwood making a deal with Cripps to remove Morrison in exchange from few things (having a nuclear program and removing Hugh Dalton mostly,Bevin just wanting revenge at this point) and Herb is removed in November 1947 after the triumvirate sorta finds out about his affair with Ellen Wilkinson and blackmailing him into resigning.

Cripps does the things you expect him to do if he became Prime Minister,but also does some weird unexplainable decisions, like funding numerous bizarre projects like a National Lobotomy Service(that’s right,we’re doing this bit again),creating the first test tube babies,brain transplants,referendums to sort out if colonies want to remain or leave the Empire and a much reviled and short lived Ministry of Rational Alimentation that more or less tries to implement similar dystopian plans that Iulian Mincu created during Ceaucescu’s rule that starved millions.(Note:The last two are implemented after the 1950 General Election,when Cripps is more confident in mysteriously imposing them).The Cambridge Five are also caught quicker than OTL and sent to death,Cripps becoming more disillusioned by 1952 with the world as a whole after awhile and dies in office due to cancer,wondering what possessed him to do the things he did.

Gaitskell and Bevan(who still is in the cabinet due to the Korean War being shorter and the NHS therefore not affected by its cost that much) duke it out and it turns into a bitter stalemate,Morrison also entering the ring to reclaim what he
considers was rightfully his being stolen from him,consequences be damned. Strachey becomes leader and PM as a compromise choice,more or less just doing the same things Herb and Cripps did due to fear of dividing the party and also because he and Labour,well,don’t know what to do anymore besides maintaining the postwar consensus and trying to deal with various scandals coming from actions of the members of the Ministry of Rational Alimentation,due to some of them either abusing their power from their own gain or going too far in imposing rational Alimentation (Earling Studios perfectly captured the feeling of anger the country felt towards the Ministry in the classic comedy “Oh,Fair Albion”,where Alec Guinness gives a great performance as the sinister puritanical Rational Alimentation official,Inspector Jacob Barnably,who terrorizes the residents of the fictional London neighborhood of East Pelham with respecting rationing and his vision of Britain).Eventually this leads to the government falling,Anthony winning and removing the Ministry and some other unsavory acts of the Cripps government,but then Suez happens and uh Wab mysteriously wins somehow and I kinda wanna make this a two parter since I gotta go somewhere and I can’t post for a couple of hours

I did warn this was gonna be really stupid,didn’t I
Right,part 2.Wab is in charge,power hungry and not really wanting to change much,leaving the National Lobotomy Service,test tube baby experiments and weird Crippsian projects in place,occasionally trying to solve problems like Rhodesia via referendum,which doesn’t go as well as planned with Rhodesia declaring independence as end result and Ian Smith and his racist gang in charge and imposing martial law indefinitely.That however is the least of Wab’s problems,given that by 1964 he’s seen as a corrupt slime ball. First came the Profumo Scandal and he refuses to resign,followed by the Argyll Scandal where Duncan Sandys is identified as the Headless Man and the discovery that Raw Mawby,Postmaster General is a Czech spy. Wab however keeps trying desperately to remain in power,blaming others as responsible and trying to present him as necessary to the wealthfare of the nation (as well as blackmailing MPs into supporting him). By hook or by crook he manages to create a hung parliament and survive for a while.That is,until the uncensored Channon Diaries appears, published at the orders of his many rivals in the party,who have become desperate to get rid of the power hungry Butler,even if it means their electoral demise since they don’t want a man like him,who will do anything to stay on the top and doesn’t believe in anything beyond himself,anymore in charge of the country.Wab,derided by all at this point (especially by Private Eye,who among other things publishes a series of satirical speeches in which Wab tells the nation of needing to stay in power for his buttocks,the greatest in all the land,and how he was chosen by God and the ghosts of the nation’s past to run the country forever and ever),loses and is sent to the dustbin of history,occasionally rambling about India,”his true motherland” where he eventually goes to live permanently.

Harold Wilson (because I’m hack who couldn’t think of anyone else) enters power with a large majority,implementing his white heat with vigor and reforming the country socially and economically.Unfortunatly,Harold is just as sneaky and duplicitous as OTL,if not even more,and after a while does more and more populist acts in order to maintain Labour’s strong position,such as organizing a Referendum on the death penalty (on which he stays neutral til a winning side clearly appears) and on the remaining colonies (the overseas territories,along with Grenada and Hong Kong becoming officially part of Britain),as well as making sure that the Backing Britain campaign is successful no matter the costs and England wins every important sporting event.That,along with Wealth fare expenses (no matter the longer turn economic cost) and immigration restrictions are higher than ever,make Woy want to go ahead with a coup against Wilson,which backfires and makes Sunny Jim Harold’s successor after 1970,when Labour wins even more due to England winning the World Cup again and Labour engaging in a little populism,Harold retiring after ‘73,having just started a project on building a number of bunkers around Britain in case of nuclear warfare.

Jim has to handle the economic and energy crisis,being forced to implement a Three Day Week and the temporary reintroduction of the Ministry of Rational Alimentation,renamed the Ministry of Rationing,as well as numerous riots,miner strikes and Northern Ireland going haywire.To say the least,he doesn’t handle them well and the Conservatives manage to get a small majority led by good old Colonel Neave,who unfortunately doesn’t make Britain better,but instead more chaotic.Miners are fighting the police in the streets with dozens of dead,The Troubles went to 11 and Neave’s monetarist plans aren’t well met,with the Colonel having to fight not only various far left and far right extremists who are becoming more popular,but also his own demons,becoming more and more erratic.Things reach a tragic end for Neave as he and a number of Conservative MPs are murdered by an IRA mortal bombing,leading to Howe becoming Prime Minister and trying and failing to keep things under control,becoming a figure of scorne,both in the establishment and the counterculture (Viz famously making fun of him in the comic “Grey Geoff,the Boring Bastard”,while The Clash dedicating an entire concept album about him and other British Prime Ministers).

As such,Peter Shore and Labour rises to power,with the belief that they can change things for the better...only for WW3 to happen after a few months after their victory,due to Snoop Jackson and Brezhnev going overboard during tensions rising after an accidental shootout in Berlin between American and Russian soldiers.The good news is that numerous bunkers have been constructed by 1980 and that Shore’s War Coalition is secure in its victory.The bad news is that most of Europe and North America are irradiated,hundred of millions die and it turns out not all of the bunkers are that well built.The next years are harsh,with Shore running what remains of the country from a bunker and fighting various warlord factions.By 1990,Scotland,Wales and Cornwall are basically independent,as the government can’t really financially support them AND maintaining order in England.Shore is becoming more and more extreme due to having to run a nuclear ravaged nation in a bunker with people he’s starting to get tired of,transmitting radio messages to the population living in bunkers and drinking heavily as authoritarian policies are being reluctantly implemented due to the situation and slowly civilization rebuilds itself back to normal (well,a form of normality anyway) and the War Coalition is dismantled as the government organizes the first election in a decade,with Shore reluctantly still in charge due to being no else acceptable left to run the party that isn’t an extremist.

A hung parliament happens,with Meadowcroft forming a coalition with Shirley,St John-Stevas and Sara Parkin’s parties due to extremists having taken over the rest of the seats and no one wanting to deal with Shore at this point,who’s beyond broken at this point and happily retires,visited from time to time by Woy or Benn.Originally a temporary alliance,the Multicolored Alliance sorta becomes the only acceptable choice,since no one actually wants Nick Griffin,Arthur Scargill ,George Galloway or Katie Hopkins to be in power in any way,so most of the country just gets used to it as either become obsessed with the media of the past or watch That Enfield and Whitehouse Show,Vic Reeves’s highwaymen and smugglers comedy show set in the 1820’s and 1830’s or Steward Lee’s scandalous but popular Life in Hell,where all the hated figures of Britain’s past torture each other and mostly get bored as time comes and goes.All of England in fact mostly reminisces about the good old days that never truly happened,while Wales,Scotland and Cornwall are independent countries and go on their lives,trying to make things better for themselves and letting England in her own fairytale,letting her think she still runs the world out of pity.

Again,I did warn it wasn’t gonna be plausible,didn’t I?

Well,that’s that then.Hopefully I’ve learned something from this and someone was entertained by this mess
 
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Yet More Fashions Made Sacred Monarchs

Part 3: The Ox of the East

The Kings and Queens of Roumania, Their Majesties, by the Grace of God (House of Guelph — 1869-present)
1869-1906: George I [1]
1906-1935: George II [4]
1935-1942: Christian [6]
1942-1960: Catherine [8]
1960-1995: George III [10]
1995-0000: Sophia [12]
0000-0000:
Nicholas Maximilian Constantine Frederick, Prince of Transylvania
0000-0000: Princess Sophia Priscilla Mirela Catherine of Transylvania

Royal Consorts of Roumania (1869-present — by birthright style)
1870-1881: Lady Catherine Brancoveanu (House of Brancoveanu) [2]
1889-1906: Lady Maria Mohylowiecka (House of Movila) [3]
1906-1935: Princess Louisa Frederica of Brandenburg (House of Hohenzollern) [5]
1937-1942: Princess Pranvera of Albania (House of Sanseverino) [7]
1942-1955: Prince Alphonso of Italy (House of Guelph) [9]
1960-1995: Princess Priscilla of England (House of Orange) [11]
1995-0000: Prince Maximilian III of Oettingen-Wallerstein (House of Oettingen)
0000-0000:
Princess Mirela Suada of Albania (House of Sanseverino)

[1] The formation of Roumania from the Ottoman province of Wallachia and the Polish-Lithuanian province of Moldavia under English protection, which ended the Third Moldavian War, created the first state in the Balkans ruled by neither the Osmanli, the Commonwealth nor the Hapsburgs in nearly a hundred years, since the outright annexation of Wallachia by the Osmanli Sultanate in 1780. George I, a relative and a childhood companion of King James IV of England, as well as the inactive claimant to the defunct Electorate of Brunswick, was given its throne in the English-brokered treaty that ended the war. The Fourth Moldavian War quickly showed the new country’s weak position, as the Holy Roman Emperor invaded at his proclamation as King of Roumania rather than as Prince of Moldavia and Wallachia, worrying of a claim to the Roumanian-populated region of Transylvania, at the fringes of the Hapsburg dominions in the Kingdom of Hungary.

England and Sweden came to the rescue that time, but George I knew that he had only been given a modicum of breathing room by the intervention. Though still enjoying England’s support, George refused to rely on this, and played the role of a stringent neutral, refusing to show any favoritism to the Commonwealth, the Hapsburgs or the Osmanlis, and he cultivated trade relationships with all three powers. George I’s Building the Nation campaign is credited by most with the creation of a Roumanian state in fact as well as name. He built a massive system of inexpensive toll roads and bridges crossing all through Roumania, modeled on James III’s roadbuilding policies in England, which encouraged internal trade links between the two former principalities, and promoted industrialization in the urban centers of Constantia, Bucharest and Jassy. In the 1880s, George I imported an enormous number of presses, founding several newspapers and literary societies to encourage Roumanian literacy, sponsoring writers and artists to promote the Roumanian nation and its people, having the written works translated into French so as to create an international audience for them, and he founded the University of Constantia just by the grounds of the Royal Palace in 1893.

King George promoted the interests of the Orthodox clergy throughout his reign, with the Roumanian Orthodox Church created and granted autonomy in 1880. King George, however, remained a devout Protestant, and established the Protestant Church of Roumania, a theologically Lutheran body, in 1873, but created it with a presbyterian polity, to avoid offending the Orthodox Church by appointing bishops.

[2] Queen Catherine was the daughter of the Wallachian noble Stephen Brancoveanu, a powerful lord in the opposition Autonomy Faction against the Sultan, and a scion of the house which had once ruled Wallachia. The marriage between Queen Catherine and King George was purely dynastic; by uniting his bloodline with that of Stephen’s only heir, the king and his descendants acquired legitimacy beyond their enthronement by England. The historically dominant narrative was of a plain and retiring lady who was primarily an engine for her father’s ambitions - particularly in comparison to her much more colorful rivals for her husbands affection - but more modern scholars have displayed that she showed a similar intelligence and cunning to her father, and played more of a role in her husband’s court than previous historians have credited, playing a major role as a defender of Roumania’s liberties and its people, and promoting her family’s interests within the kingdom.

Unfortunately, whatever her intelligence and cunning may have wrought in their own right, she predeceased her father, dying in childbirth in 1881.

[3] Queen Maria was the daughter of Prince Michael Mohylowiecz, one of the great magnates of the Polish-Lithuanian Senate in the late 19th century, as well as a scion of a house which had once ruled both Moldavia and Wallachia. The marriage was agreed as part of a treaty with the Commonwealth, to help repair the frayed ties between Roumania and the Commonwealth following a war scare. Queen Maria was a more obviously dynamic queen than her predecessor, and it quickly became apparent that she would not tolerate rivals. The need to keep a decent relationship with Poland-Lithuania forced the King to exile his illegitimate children from court, and keep his affairs private. However, her dynamism ended here; she had little influence on her husband’s policies. She was entirely uninterested in Roumania and Roumanian domestic affairs, and she was entirely ineffective and promoting Polish-Lithuanian interests in Roumanian foreign affairs. She was de facto exiled from court upon her husband’s death, as she found herself constantly at odds with his children by Queen Catherine, but was also refused permission to return to the Commonwealth.

[4] George II became king upon his father’s death, and inherited a fairly kingdom, though still one in a very precarious situation. Following his father’s advice and training (though against the policy positions he’d usually taken as Crown Prince, where he’d been much more aggressive), he initially kept to his father’s policies, founding the Royal Railroad Company of Roumania in 1907. However, opportunity soon came for his aggressive inclinations to come out, when the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1909 — and, within a few years, the whole Habsburg dominion had burst into flames. In 1912, George II, using the Venetian bombardment of Sarajevo as a pretext, declared war on Austria and Venice, recognized the Spanish Republic and invaded Austrian Hungary. As the flames spread through the Balkans, he also recognized the independence of both the Kingdom of Serbia and Albania from the Osmanli Sultanate, lending men, arms and supplies in an unofficial capacity to avoid opening up a second front in the south.

The war was an unqualified success for Roumania — absolute victory and all of the king’s aims had been achieved as the age of Hapsburg dominion in Europe outside of Venice came to a sudden, violent end, and the Osmanlis were forced to pull back to their modern borders. Following the agreement of the Treaty of Christiania, brokered by Denmark, the Balkans were unrecognizable from their state before the war — Serbia and Albania were both independent states; Hungary, Austria and Bohemia were all separate, Commonwealth-sponsored republics; and - most importantly - Transylvania had been unified with its Roumanian brethren; George gave his son, the Crown Prince George, the style “Prince of Transylvania” in commemoration of this victory.

The rest of George’s reign was spent integrating Transylvania with the rest of the kingdom, and trying to bring the region up to the same level of development as Wallachia and Moldavia. This was a long, expensive project, and Transylvania - though much improved - remained a backwater in comparison to the other two regions. It was also during his reign that the full autocephaly of the Roumanian Orthodox Church was acknowledged, and Patriarch Theodore I was formally inaugurated as the first autocephalous patriarch in 1924.

Though his father is honored as the Father of the Country, George II is sometimes called “George the Glorious” for his great victories for the Roumanian nation.

[5] Though the marriage between Queen Louisa Frederica and George II was one of political calculation in its origin, the pair quickly became enamored of one another — in stark contrast to his father, George II would never take any other lover for the rest of his life. Louisa Frederica struggled to learn Roumanian after her arrival in Constantia, and, while she would never speak with fluency and would always speak with a strong accent, even the effort to do so endeared her to her husband’s people, especially with a predecessor who would only address them in Polish or French. Queen Louisa Frederica is sometimes dismissed as backward, given that she stands a much more retiring, more quiet figure in stark contrast to the many more prominent, outspoken zenobian consorts of her day, such as Marie-Josèphe and Lucretia of France, Maria of England and her sister-in-law, Catherine of Sweden, she did play a quiet, but significant role in the development of women’s liberties in Roumania, in supporting the use of contraception and family planning, as well as pushing her husband to force through the nation’s first spousal injury laws.

Louisa Frederica gave her husband three healthy, manly sons, and she was a heavily involved mother, personally selecting their nurses, their caregivers, their tutors, their confessors and, ultimately, even their drill instructors — and, though some might disdain a woman making these decisions at the time, she was - after all - from Brandenburg. However, fate was cruel to both of them, as each of their sons predeceased them in turn: first their second son, Philip, to his jealous lover’s pistol, when caught in bed with another; then, their eldest, George, in a training accident in Transylvania; and, finally, her youngest and favorite, Augustus, to a train’s boiler explosion. She died only a few months after her husband.

[6] King Christian of Roumania had been the Prince of Transylvania only two years when his uncle died; with three male cousins, he had never been expected to take the throne until he was already an adult. King Christian was much unlike both the previous kings and his cousins; he was an academic at heart, more at home with books about the great courts of the past than with his own. Nevertheless, he grimly took to his new task with the gravity of a contemplative monk twice his age. Controversially, the only very major decision he made was to sell off the lion’s share Royal Railroad Company to private investors, in order to invest that money into a larger navy; this was seen as a pointless gesture by many in the National Assembly, as they thought Roumania could never match neither Poland-Lithuania nor the Osmanli in the Black Sea. However, it wasn’t long before his moves were seen as having had incredible foresight, as the Osmanli Sultante was brought to its knees by civil war and revolt in the Mashrique.

Nevertheless, he did not live to see his Black Sea Fleet come to culmination; he died of a chest infection, still only thirty-seven years old.

[7] Queen Pranvera was chosen as King Christian’s consort by his court two years into his reign; the king had never shown any interest in marriage, or affairs of any kind, before his reign, and still showed little interest afterward. Nevertheless, he and his new wife had a congenial relationship congenial relationship, as Pranvera was a woman as grave and as bookish as her husband. She patronized three new women’s colleges at the University of Constantia, quadrupling their number, and promoted zenobian scholarship.

Pranvera miscarried twice during her husband’s reign, and the couple had no children born. After her husband’s death, she continued to patronize the women’s colleges, and, in 1958, became the patron of the women’s societies that formed after the integration of sexes at the university. In 1954, she was named as patron of the Ladies’ Officer Corps at the Royal Military Academy, until it was dissolved in 1980 after the complete integration of the sexes at the academy.

In 1947, Queen Pranvera married her second husband, The Baron Constantin Regelescu, an illegitimate grandson of George I. She gained one stepdaughter and had two daughters, all three of whom went through the Ladies’ Officer Corps and served in the Roumanian military.

In 1960, she was named patron of the University of Constantia, the first and only patron of the University not to be the sovereign. This was a role she held until her death in 2004.

[8] Queen Catherine took the throne after her (slightly younger) twin brother’s death. Queen Catherine was a more active figure than her brother, and she continued most of his policies. Indeed, she certainly had been been one of King Christian’s closest advisors, and some had even referred to her disdainfully as his “prime minister”. Whatever her role, on becoming sovereign herself, she continued the expansion of the Roumanian Navy until it became the second-largest standing Black Sea fleet, larger than the Osmanli Sultante’s permanent Black Sea squadrons (but smaller than the whole Sultanate navy, which also had bases in the Mediterranean), but smaller than the Polish-Lithuanian Black Sea Armada. With Polish-Lithuanian ascendancy in eastern and central Europe following the Great Baltic War, Queen Catherine was often forced into a neutrally pro-Polish position, even though its natural interests would now align her more with the Balkan states and the Sultanate. She also continued to cultivate relations with England, which had long the sponsors of the independent Roumania, but, while relations between the royal families remained as genial as ever, the National Assembly saw England as distant and weak, while the English Parliament saw Roumania as little more than a Polish puppet which had betrayed England by its failure to join the war to strike Poland-Lithuania in the back.

However, as the leash on Poland-Lithuania’s German and Slavic puppets began to tighten, with even Serbia being dragged into Cracovia’s orbit, Roumania’s continuing independence and neutrality was seen as the only course for both the monarchy’s and the nation’s survival. Queen Catherine did what she could to plot her nation’s course on this single, narrow course, but, as a result of her focus on militarization and naval expansion to protect Roumania’s neutrality, the Roumanian economy began to flounder and fail.

[9] Alphonso, the first male consort of Roumania, was a charming dilettante, with a passing interest in all sorts of things but a passion for none. He patronized the arts and sciences, as well as charities and those few fellow members of his Roman Catholic faith in Roumania. The union of the senior and junior lines of the House of Guelph that his marriage created helped to form the foundation of a very strong cultural and social affinity between the latter’s Italy and the former’s Roumania. Alphonso was far more personable than his wife, and was often used by the Queen as an intermediary with the National Assembly and the Orthodox Church, with which Alphonso had a far better relationship than his Lutheran spouse. By all accounts, it was very difficult to dislike Alphonso.

Like with everything else in his life, Alphonso had a constantly wandering eye, and took several different extramarital lovers during his marriage, both before and after his wife became sovereign, though he was as a rule remarkably discreet about his affairs, considering the show he made of the rest of his life. Despite this open secret, he and his wife did share some affection until the end, and Queen Catherine much mourned his sudden death by cancerous tumor in 1955.

[10] George III took his mother’s throne in 1960, a time of revolutionary change in the world; mass-produced autocarriages, the first fixed-wing aircraft and radio all started to take the world by storm, and, though none began in Roumania, all of them would come to his realm during his reign. George III had always been concerned about his mother’s military spending, and he cut back on “extravagances”, including a significant part of the Roumanian Navy in the Black Sea, in order to plunge money into encouraging new and greater industrialization in the major urban centers of Moldavia and Wallachia. Standing in stark contrast to its Balkan neighbors, Roumania quickly embraced the spirit of the late twentieth century, with its first “international airport” being built in Constantia in 1968, before any such fields had even been considered in the Commonwealth or the Sultanate.

Much of the countryside was neglected early in his reign, but this would soon be resolved in the king’s mind when George III established the Royal Roads and Bridges Company, which used a pool of private investors’ and national joint funding to build the first national-scale autocarriage-dedicated road network in the entire world. However, many rural regions complained that the new roads primarily benefited the cities, in making it easier to bring goods to them, rather than the villages, and rural resentment - both from nobles and peasants - for the king and the high taxes they had paid happily when it meant building a bulwark from the vile Pole and Turk, but less so when it was just to pass the money into the hands of the urban business classes and nobility. The 1982 Mures Uprising showed just how much discontentment had grown, particularly in oft-neglected Transylvania, with the monarchy and with George III’s governance. Though the uprising was crushed by military force, the king learned a lesson, and spent much of the rest of his reign on addressing the problem. The significant cuts to the contributions of the peasantry and rural nobility were much appreciated and easy, but trying to shift the tax burden onto the urban population proved - unsurprisingly - unpopular in his traditional urban base of support, and he spent the last decade of his reign with his government increasingly indebted both to foreign and domestic moneylenders, and constantly at odds with the urban interest-dominated National Assembly for his attempts to raise funds by taxing their patrons.

[11] Queen Priscilla is an imposing, socially dominant woman, who has ruled over Roumanian noble and polite society with an iron fist on behalf of her mother-in-law, husband, and daughter for the past sixty years. It is said that not even a glance is shared between two prospective friends among the Roumanian great and good without her knowing it. She takes very much after her namesake, the Queen regnant of England, who was said to have the same iron grasp on England, Scotland and Ireland. It is said by some that there are many who strongly dislike her, even hate her, but that there are none brave enough anymore to do so openly.

She has been said to endear herself to her family’s more common subjects simply by the grip of sheer terror she maintains upon their nobility, but she also is a great patron of charity, and she pays a generous tithe from her estates to the Roumanian Orthodox Church despite continuing to profess as a Wesleyan and attend the Lutheran services which are run for her late husband and, now, her daughter.

[12] Queen Sophia came to the Roumanian throne a matter of months before the Global War began, and her sole, primary and only goal as sovereign quickly became to keep Roumania out of the war that ripped Europe to shreds by any means necessary, a goal which she - if only narrowly - succeeded in. Sophia assumed emergency powers two months after the start of the war, dissolving the National Assembly for the duration in order to silence both the pro-Commonwealth and pro-English factions in the legislature, using her garrisons in Constantia to guarantee order. Despite her neutrality, she quietly allowed Poland-Lithuania to move troops, materiel and supplies through Roumania to their allies in Serbia on multiple occasions for use against Albania, which had sided with Beijing along with Italy and Sicily, in an attempt to avoid provoking a Commonwealth declaration of war forcing her hand and ending any hope of an independent Roumania.

Roumania passed the war intact, and Sophia decreed a new instrument in 2000 to reconstitute the National Assembly with universal suffrage for the Third Estate, like in France, which significantly weakened the urban business class in the legislature and gave her a more malleable legislature, filled with a royalist contingent primarily focused on maintaining Roumanian neutrality, and evenhandedness between the Commonwealth and England, and their respective allies.

Her domestic policy has been focused on drawing down the enormous debt which her father took out in the form of having finally achieved the tax reforms he sought; nevertheless, there is always the fear that she worries about Roumania in vain — if the madness of the world powers in threatening one another with annihilation by origin bombs can’t be stopped.

Then again, Roumania has always existed on a knife’s edge. What’s one more?
 
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