As the community grew, James challenged his people to make him a constitutional monarch by designing for themselves a democratically elected parliamentary government. Controversial Prime Minister Robert Gresham and others embraced the king’s challenge and set to work composing a constitution to replace the restrictive Charter. The Organic Law was proclaimed by King James on January 27, 2003, bringing an end to absolutism in Hanover and ushering in a new era of representative government. Hanover became a secular state celebrating freedom of religion and liberty of conscience.
During James’ reign, Sir Steven Foong (now Lord Damoneigh) established the Royal Bank of Hanover and began to encourage the development of a ‘real goods’ free-market economic system within Hanover. The talen was declared the official monetary unit by royal decree and independent entrepreneurs began to open small businesses, including newspapers, graphic design services, a law office and even a fully operational on-line casino. Individuals from Australia to Malaysia to California began to identify themselves as "Hanoverians." Hanover had ‘arrived’ and James began to steer his realm away from the world of ‘micronational’ simulations toward an arena described by some as the ‘fifth world.’
In spite of Hanover’s successes, James began to feel himself a stranger in the realm which he had founded. As the King’s priorities began to change, he often seemed to lose focus, becoming increasingly irresolute and vacillatory. He found himself uncomfortable with his nation’s borrowed name, ‘Hanover’(although it was he, himself, who named the realm), and at one point attempted to rename the kingdom ‘Vierkrona’. As members of the elected government began to publicly suggest that the monarchy take on a more symbolic role, James began to withdraw from the public eye and even from his own ministers and councilors, whom he frequently swore to secrecy. At the height of his isolation, only the prime minister and the lord chancellor were granted access to the king in the course of a weekly “audience” held each Wednesday. Additionally, James’ continental affinities began to make him feel more and more like a fish-out-of-water in Hanover’s decidedly British-styled system.
The King’s religion became increasingly more important to him in the face of bigotry from abroad. James bristled at anti-Catholic slurs volleyed across the border by certain Protestant sects in the Empire of Ascalon, one of Hanover’s closest allies. In an open letter to Pope John Paul II published in Hanover’s public forums, James praised the 25 year career of the aging pontiff and spoke of the “filial” relationship between “Christian princes and the Vicar of Christ.” His antiquated and politically incorrect phraseology seemed to dismiss Protestantism altogether and may have been a calculated snub directed against his fundamentalist detractors. In spite of his growing weariness of the bombastic utterances of non-Catholic micronational ‘clergy,’ James maintained a respectful friendship with the leadership of the Anglican-inspired Ascalonian Church, which he invited to maintain a presence in his realm. He was particularly fond of Hanover’s first Ascalonian bishop, Keith Paulson, whose moderate views and courtly manners appealed to the monarch. The Protestant Archbishop Sebastian Nehen was named chaplain of James’ ‘Order of the Paraclete,’ abolished in the final days of his reign.
In August of 2003, James called a special session of the Royal Council of State to inform his advisors of his desire to abdicate the throne of Hanover in order to found a new national community based upon the systems of the ancien regime of pre-revolutionary France. On September 5, 2003, James finally left his now estranged love, Hanover, for the Kingdom of Varennes, where he ascended the throne as King Louis I. The Kingdom of Varennes, according to James’ design, took an anachronistic approach to monarchy, restoring the French-styled ‘old guard’ system of nobility and consolidating power in the hands of the monarch. Taking the reins of an unabashedly Catholic kingdom in the continental tradition, James found himself at last at home.
To many, James was a mystery. A veritable wealth of contradictions, James often confounded his inner circle with his unpredictablity. While he clung to royal tradition, often employing the royal ‘we’ and issuing archaically worded letters patent and proclamations, he did not hesitate to replace the royal anthem “God Save the King” with an alternative rock ballad. A devout Roman Catholic and a member of the conservative Republican Party in the United States, James was an unashamed advocate of equal rights for gays and lesbians, frequently calling upon his listeners to reject intolerance and social injustice. He was at once an opponent of abortion, an opponent of the death penalty and a proponent of gun-control, valuing all human life as sacred. A chain-smoker, he urged his ministers to mind their health by taking occasional ‘vacations’ from national activities. James advocated peace among nations, though he publicly supported the American-led invasion of Iraq. While he was condemned by some religious groups as a sinner, the micronational newspaper The Citizen declared him “saintly.” He was regarded by some as creative and by others as merely eccentric.
With a native New Yorker’s flair for the dramatic, James staged the monarchy like a Broadway musical. To aid him in acting-out the theatrical drama of the Crown, he enlisted the talents of a full cast of royal characters, complete with four princes, a princess and a queen. For a time, the Duchess of Claremont (the King’s sister) and the Prince de Foix entertained, amused and even shocked the public with their saucy exchanges. King James created orders of chivalry and titled lords, referred to his home as the “palace,” and appeared in official photographs wearing a sash and breast star with a lace cravat. To James, the monarchy was a brilliant pageant proclaiming the legitimacy of Hanover. Despite his love of pomp and circumstance, James was never crowned, nor was he ever formally installed as king. He may have regarded such formalities as beneath the dignity of a nation’s founder. In all things he was in every way the “king from central casting:” formal, genial, pompous, humble, warm, icy, approachable, aloof, quirky, conservative, avante-garde, stoic, romantic, solemn, comical, serious and ridiculous all at once.
The father of his ‘country,’ King James I gave his all to Hanover, yet in the end he turned-down all that Hanover had to offer in return. “Well, you can’t have everything,” James was often heard to declare, “Where on earth would you put it?” |
