Kingdom of Redonda

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Kingdom of Redonda
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Motto: tba
Musical Anthem: tba
Type of entity: Micronation
Location: Redonda
Area claimed: tba km²
Membership: < 100
Date of foundation: 1865
Leadership: Various competing claimants
Purported organisational structure: Absolute monarchy
Language: English
Currency: none


The Kingdom of Redonda was a briefly independent kingdom. In 1865, Matthew Dowdy Shiell, who resided on the nearby island of Montserrat, proclaimed himself King of Redonda. The island of Redonda - an uninhabited island in the Leeward Islands, West Indies of approximately 1 square mile - is now part of Antigua and Barbuda.

Contents

[edit] History of the Kingdom

Matthew Dowdy Shiell, a banker from Montserrat, bought the island when his first son, Matthew Phipps Shiell, was born. He requested the title of King from Queen Victoria and she granted it to him as long as there was no revolt against colonial power. [1]

M.P. Shiell bestowed the title, and the rights of his work, to John Gawsworth, who seems to have sold the title several times due to permanent bankruptcy. Gawsworth bestowed the title, and the rights of his and Shiell's work, to Jon Wynne-Tyson.

Tired of the problems of the kingdom, Wynne-Tyson gave up his title in 1997 when he decided to name Javier Marías as his successor (and bearer of the rights of the work of both Shiell and Gawsworth) because of the portrait of Gawsworth he made in his novel Todas las almas (published in English as All Souls).

All the controversy on the list of contested kings is due to Gawsworth's sales.

[edit] Javier Marías

The Spanish writer Javier Marías, one of the current claimants of Redonda, tells the story of his "coronation" in Negra espalda del tiempo (published in English as Dark Back of Time). He operates a pet publishing house under the name of Reino de Redonda ("Kingdom of Redonda"), and has created a literary prize with the same name. The reward is several thousand euros and a Redondan duchy.

Several Spanish and foreign artists and writers have been granted with Redondan titles, including Pedro Almodóvar (Duke of Trémula), Francis Ford Coppola (Duke of Megalópolis), Alice Munro (Duchess of Ontario), J. M. Coetzee (Duke of Deshonra), Arturo Pérez-Reverte (Duke of Corso), Guillermo Cabrera Infante (Duke of Tigres) and António Lobo Antunes (Duke of Cocodrilos).[2]

[edit] Kings

[edit] Contested kings

[edit] Scenario 1 (Literary)

  • Jon Wynne-Tyson, 1967 - 1997 (styled as King Juan II)
  • Javier Marías, 1997 - present (styled as King Xavier I)

[edit] Scenario 2

  • Arthur John Roberts, 1967 - 1989 (also styled as King Juan II)
  • William Leonard Gates, 1989 - present (styled as King Leo) [followed Roberts]

[edit] Scenario 3

  • Robert Williamson, 1984/5 - present (styled as King Robert the Bald)

[edit] Scenario 4

  • Max Leggett, 1950 - present

[edit] Notes

  1. Matthew Phipps Shiell changed his surname to Shiel.
  2. John Gawsworth is the pseudonym of Terence Ian Fytton Armstrong.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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