Praetonia
From WikiStates
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Crown Commonwealth of Praetonia
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| Motto: Royal - "Memento mori" Commonwealth - "Fiat iustitia et ruat caelum" |
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 Map showing Praetonia (dark pink) and Georgian League Realms (light pink) within Haven.
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| Capital (and largest city) |
Kingston | |||
| Official languages | None | |||
| Demonym | Praetonian | |||
| Government | Constitutional monarchy | |||
| - | Sovereign | King George IV | ||
| Establishment | ||||
| - | Monarchy | Antiquity | ||
| - | Bill of Rights | 1692 | ||
| Area | ||||
| - | Total | 35,784,975 km² 13,816,656 sq mi |
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| - | Praetonia proper | 6,455,700 km² 2,492,560 sq mi |
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| Population | ||||
| - | 345 PRP estimate | twelve billion | ||
| GDP (PPP) | 345 PRP estimate | |||
| - | Total | >$500 trillion | ||
| - | Per capita | Over 9,000 | ||
| Currency | Crown (CRW) |
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| Time zone | Kingston Mean Time | |||
| Internet TLD | .cco | |||
| Calling code | +772 | |||
The Crown Commonwealth of Praetonia is a Havenic common law commonwealth whose Home Islands are located in the Fyre Sea. The country also possesses Queensland and Cape King George in North-West Haven, Shrewshire located centrally, Praetonian South Haven on the Strobovian Sea, the South Sea Islands in the Far South, the Picnic Islands on the Ambrose Sea and the Praetonian ViZioniland and Praetonian Orient outside Haven. In recent years a Praetonian-Clandonian condominium colony has been established on the Cayuga Sea, called Albion. The Home Island is linked to mainland Clandonia by a large railway tunnel, but otherwise has no land border. Other Praetonian possessions have land borders with a variety of Havenic powers.
The country is a legal aggregation of its constituent landowners (the Estates-General) and is not universally held to possess a unique sovereignty. A bicameral parliament possesses limited powers of taxation and may control some aspects of the royal prerogative. The Estates-General possess no power to make or ammend legislation. Common law courts provide redress for specific assaults against the person and property of the residents of the country, and are seperate from and superior to the Estates-General.
Praetonia is the founder of the Sovereign League of free countries and the Royal Georgian League of Havenic realms. She considers herself to be a culturally Anglospheric nation, which is reflected most readily in her close ties with the other Anglosphere powers. Her foreign policy is generally interventionist, concerned with protecting Praetonian subjects and their property abroad, as well as spreading liberty and the rule of law, but she has rarely been consistent in maintaining alliances only with free countries, something that remains a deeply controversial political issue.
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History
The Crown Commonwealth was formally established on the 8th August, 1692 (80 New Style Date) with the signing of the Bill of Rights by the restored King George I, but a Praetonian state had previously existed in conditions of varying integrity for more than 1,200 years. The earliest legal unification came with the coronation of King Publius the Great as Emperor of a federacy of the principal Praetonian Kingdoms.
The legal character of the new Imperial state continued to vary between constituent Kingdoms, but the greater bulk of the populace lived under conditions of slavery or serfdom until around the time of the 12/13th century (-5th century New Style Date). Developments in ship construction combined with the decay and collapse of the Kingdom of Senland on the South East coast allowed contact with the Kingdom of Willink to develop rapidly, and along with it wealthy and powerful commcerial port cities on the South East coast.
Co-inciding with this increase in foreign trade and travel in an area of relative independence from the central government, the philosophy of liberty emerged as the dominant political and moral force in the Senland. Ironically, these ideas saw their first implementation in Willink where, in 1440 (-172NS) the Constitution Act was signed into law. In 1472 the Senland Free State was accepted into the Imperium Praetonianum as the first republican constituent in history, and was at that time responsible alone for more than 40% of the entire Empire's industrial production, and home to 8% of its population.
As a Supplicant State it was legally obliged to ceade 35% of its produce in tribute to the Emperor. In fact, only thirteen shillings were ever sent to Imperia. The non-payment of dues was a major source of consternation between the Free State and the Emperor along with his Imperial Council of the Kings of the other Supplicant States, on which the republican Free State was not represented, for much of its existance. In 1607 (-5NS) Castillius was crowned Emperor and, in the course of his Imperial Progress across the Empire, was disgusted to find 'Common merchants and sundry peasants of a city of no great note or import of the Senland Free State so lavishly dressed as to place My Court as beggars aside them.'
In January 1608 (-4NS), with the support of many of the other Kingdoms, Emperor Castillius issued a proclamation demanding a back-dated payment with interest of all dues since 1472, to be delivered within six months, or else he would bring the Senland Free State under his personal rule as an 'Imperial Supplicant'. The Free State - a legal fiction presented by the various anarchic towns and cities as a means of gaining formal recognition of the local supremacy of their laws - quickly responded by establishing a real confederacy, the Grand Commonwealth, and declaring war on the Emperor. The majority of the coastal cities and a significant minority of the country estates and farmland declared for the Grand Commonwealth, and Imperia itself was burned to the ground in the first days of the war as a result of fighting involving liberal revolutionaries. The Emperor was forced to flee to Uxbridge for several weeks before order was finally restored. So began the Praetonian Civil War.
Lasting four years, the civil war destroyed most Praetonian cities and killed more than 30% of the population, mostly by starvation. It was the last time any part of Praetonia would be ruled by an Emperor. In 1612 (0NS) the Grand Commonwealth seized Imperia, the last of the major cities to fall, and established throughout Praetonia an anarchic republic that lasted eighty years. Most of the countryside remained loyal to the Crown, however, and continual food shortages, tempered by imports from Willink, continued until the restoration of the monarch and establishment of the Crown Commonwealth in 1692 (80NS).
Throughout the remainder of the 17th century and the entirety of the 18th, Praetonia experienced enormous economic growth. Freed from civil strife and shortages of the necessities of life, but blessed with a free constitution spanning the length and breadth of the Realm, technological and industrial progress was rapid, leading to a significant increase in population, standards of living and average lifespan. By the mid 18th century, the focus of Praetonian endeavours turned outward to the seas, and the Praetonian merchant marine, flying under thousands of different company and personal flags, girdled the world and visited the ports of every nation.
'Peace and Trade' remained the watch-words of Praetonian Kings and Parliaments alike until the Pan-Havenic Twenty Year's War, referred to in Praetonia as the Great War, when the strategic value of Praetonian trade finally dragged the country into Great Power politics. At the outset of War in April 1881, King George II had declared "No blood for power. Praetonia shall be a safe haven for all who wish to live free." On the 19th of December, the Yuslevak navy attacked and sunk a Praetonian grain colony bound for Willink, with its escort, at the Battle of Tristan Bight. The next day, King George declared war on the Yuslevak Empire to general acclamation, and for the next two decades Praetonia successfully battled to destroy the Yuslevak, Granatian and Red Empires, although the Praetonian private protectorate, Sikhus Ligia, was defeated by and brought under the rule of the Doomingslandi puppet, the Regnum Sacrarii.
During the war, Praetonian government spending expanded enormously, from just 0.5% of GDP to more than 14% in 1895 (283NS). Since the end of the war, it has never dropped back below 3.5%. The Praetonian Navy, the only Praetonian institution to retain the distinction 'Imperial', became and has remained one of the mightiest on earth, and the standing army was permanently established with manpower greater than 0.1% of the population for the first time since the Civil War.
Since the Great War, Praetonian foreign policy has been directed to the defence of lawful Praetonian interests, particularly the protection of private property held abroad and trade agreements against the avaricious or protectionist tendancies of the native governments, and the promotion of general liberty world wide. To that end, Praetonia has been engaged in long-running conflicts with both the Automagfreek and Doomingsland-centric power blocs, and retains a permanent system of alliances across Haven for her own defence and for the advancement of these objectives.
This stance has not been without controversy, and the compromises with principle required to defend the country and pursue geopolitical goals abroad have angered many Praetonians. In the 20th and 21st centuries, the most pressing issue is what form Praetonia's foreign policy should take. Tory realpolitik and Liberal ideology are constantly in conflict. Both may be swept aside if the increasingly popular Commonwealth movement succeeds in restoring the Grand Commonwealth.
Government
Sovereign and Parliament
Praetonia is a constitutional monarchy with King George IV as Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of HM Armed Forces. The King's Royal Prerogative grants him powers to appointment and dismiss ministers, dissolve parliament and call new elections, grant clemency and pardons, award peerages and honours, declare war, issue and revoke passports, create new common law courts and create and administer Royal Commissions and Foundations.
Parliament consists of a House of Commons and a House of Lords. The House of Commons is made up of 852 MPs, elected by the entire adult population of the Crown Commonwealth, except criminals, debtors and the mentally incompetent, according to County constituencies. The House of Commons possesses the sole power to initiate legislation, including Bills of Taxation, and so holds complete control over the government revenue, which must be renewed each year.
The House of Lords is wholly appointed, consisting of those granted life and hereditary peerages by the King. The House tends to be composed of the foremost members of Praetonian society and their descendants. It is inferior in power and scope to the House of Commons, possessing only the power to veto and not to propose or ammend legislation. Approval by majority vote of both Houses is required for a Bill to be passed to the King for his signature, after which it enters the statute book.
The government's power is highly restricted by the Bill of Rights, 1692, to the extent that the business of Parliament is almost solely concerned with the annual revenue bill, which determines the amount of money to be taken in land value tax to fund the armed forces, courts and Government administration, and scrutinising the Government via Members' Questions, Debates and Parliamentary Committees.
The Government is appointed by the King, and its Parliamentary head is the Prime Minister. In addition to the Prime Minister, the five Great Offices of State are controlled by the Secretary of State for the Treasury, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, the Secretary of State for War and the Secretary of State for Home Affairs. Its principal concern is foreign affairs and the military, although it has a subordinate role in maintaining part of the courts system, which is mostly devolved to the local level, and the small Royal Constabulary.
Judicial System
Praetonia has no government administration below the level of Parliament. Local structures are concerned only with the appointment of the judiciary. Local courts exist at the Duchy, County and Lieutenancy levels. The 852 Counties also serve as the Parliamentary constituencies with direct representation in the House of Commons, and contain around eleven million people. A Duchy consists of several Counties, and most were formerly the component Kingdoms of Praetonia. There are presently thirty-seven Duchies, including five in Queensland, two in South Haven and one each in Shrewshire, Albion, Cape King George, the South Sea Islands and the Praetonian Orient.
A Lieutenancy is a subdivision of a County, containing around 15,000 people. Praetonia contains more than 650,000 Lieutenancies. Their borders are not fixed, but are changed by the Royal Commission for the Lieutenancies as population size and distribution changes. They consist of ten elected Aldermen, who choose from their number a Lord Lieutenant, who represents the King in the Lieutenancy. Aldermen serve as or appoint the Magistrates of the Lieutenancy Courts, which arbitrate disputes, settle civil claims, preside over the initial hearings of all criminal proceedings and conduct complete trials of many.
County Courts are presided over by Magistrates chosen at random from among the Lords Lieutenant, and have the power to hear appeals from the Lieutenancy Courts, and hear any criminal proceeding. The Duchy Courts are purely appeals courts, and are presided over by magistrates chosen at random from among the all the Lords Lieutenant of all the Counties of the Duchy with a certain level of experience in the courts. They are the highest courts in the land in common use.
The ultimate Court of Appeal is the Parliamentary Court, sometimes known as the Royal Court, presided over by the King. It differs slightly from all lower courts in that, while the verdict is reached by a jury and there is the ordinary counsel for both sides, all MPs cross-examine the witnesses and make their own closing remarks. This process can result in very slow trials, the record being four years, as a result of which only twelve appeals have been considered significant enough to be heard before the court in the past century, but it is regarded as the final constitutional bulwark against tyranny.
Society
Economy
Politics
Military
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