| Andrew | |
|---|---|
| |
| Head of the British Monarchy and the Commonwealth Realms Ruled By Andrew | |
| Reign | 5 February 1984 – 28 March 2015 |
| Coronation | 17 December 1984 |
| Predecessor | Elizabeth II |
| Successor | William V |
| Born | 19 February 1960 London, United Kingdom |
| Died | 28 March 2015 (aged 55) Atlantic Ocean |
| Spouse | Louisa Gordon-Lennox |
| Issue | William, Elizabeth |
| Full name | |
| Andrew Albert Christian Edward | |
| House | Windsor (official) Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (agnatic) |
| Father | Philip Mountbatten |
| Mother | Elizabeth II |
| Religion | Anglican |
Andrew (Andrew Albert Christian Edward; 19 February 1960 - 28 March 2015) was the head of the British monarchy. During his 31-year reign, he first was king of the United Kingdom in exile, then king of the Dominion of South Africa, and eventually was recognized as the sovereign of a number of other nations around the world. Alongside the Pope, he was arguably the world's most famous and well-traveled monarch of his time.
Exile[]
Then-Prince Andrew was serving on the Royal Navy carrier HMS Invincible at the time of the nuclear attacks of September 26, 1983. He had seen combat during the Falklands War as a helicopter co-pilot. Invincible was in the Red Sea en route to exercises in the Pacific. It managed to evade Soviet attack, and it and other navy ships immediately sailed for Britain to repel the Soviet invasion that they believed was imminent. Since it seemed likely that Andrew was now the head of state, for his safety the captain decided that he would stay in South Africa, an anti-Soviet nation that was on their route and had been spared nuclear attack. Andrew and a bodyguard went to the British embassy in Pretoria, little suspecting that their stay in the country would become permanent.
There was no Soviet invasion, but conditions in Britain were still precarious. Queen Elizabeth died before too long of complications due to radiation exposure. She had been living aboard the royal yacht, her place of refuge under the British government's emergency PYTHON plan; other key leaders were sheltering in other sites scattered across the country. Under these circumstances, it was considered wise for Andrew to stay in South Africa. Philip Russell, the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, agreed to hold a coronation for the new king.
Dominion[]
- Main article: Foundation of the Dominion (1983: Doomsday)
But before too long, Pretoria was not safe either. Protests and resistance against the apartheid regime were boiling over into revolution, and the South African military was cracking down. Port Elizabeth, a city with a substantial Anglo-South African community that was relatively distant from major upheavals, was chosen as the king's new refuge.
That city also sheltered members of South Africa's Opposition. They had already declared their intention to set up an alternative national government, one that would end apartheid and reunite the fracturing country. Andrew's presence allowed them to go even further, to reverse South Africa's controversial 1960 change from Union to Republic, a change strongly associated with the apartheid system. Andrew agreed to serve as the head of state for this rival government, which managed to seize control of Port Elizabeth and began making appeals to other opposition groups throughout the country.
Evacuations of troops and refugees from Britain helped to reinforce this fledgling state, though they also caused the collapse of the British government itself when members of the War Cabinet disagreed on whether they should go or stay. In 1987 the state dropped pretensions to be the national government, renaming itself the Dominion of South Africa and concentrating on defending its particular region.
Reign[]
Personal flag of King Andrew
In 1989 Andrew married Louisa Gordon-Lennox, an English woman from an aristocratic family who had come from Britain with the second refugee convoy. In 1991 they had a son William. The marriage was a deeply unhappy one by all accounts, but it served its main purpose of preserving the continuity of the Realm.
The crisis and turmoil of the postwar years caused most governing bodies to collapse or transform themselves. By the 90s, there was no credible British government left to speak of and what local authorities remained did not presume to act in the king's name. The exception was the Isle of Man, whose leaders managed to govern with more continuity. The Isle continued to acknowledge Andrew as Lord of Mann and restored direct links with the DSA in the early 2000s. These contacts created hope, ultimately unrealized, that his rule could soon be restored throughout the former United Kingdom.
Andrew maintained his strictly apolitical stance through successive South African governments, including those that pursued an aggressive policy toward the Cape and KwaXhosa in the 2000s. These moves left the country more isolated diplomatically.
To counteract this and to generate goodwill toward the Dominion, the country launched a diplomatic campaign focused around Andrew himself, reaching out to other surviving states that might be inclined to restore ties to the sovereign. In 2005, the breakaway Canadian state of Victoria confirmed its loyalty to the monarchy and to him.
In 2010, Andrew embarked on a round of travels aimed at shoring up ties with these other realms. He visited Victoria and Fiji, another country that still recognized his rule. A subsequent trip to England and Scotland was a major news event, re-igniting questions there over whether to restore the monarchy. The visit sparked interest and enthusiasm, but also anger and protests of an intensity that caught both the king and the Dominion government by surprise. The long-term consequence of the trip was to build support around Britain for Andrew's niece Zara, already ruling over the Kingdom of Cleveland and now seen increasingly as a potential monarch who could reunite the UK.
Nevertheless, the tours of 2010 bore fruit elsewhere. In that same eventful year, the Commonwealth of Nations was revived with Andrew as its Head. In 2011 the Territorial Council of Yukon voted to acknowledge him as king as well. Tuvalu followed suit with a vote not long after, though the process of restoration was still incomplete at the time of Andrew's death. Successes in these two associated states of Australia-New Zealand sparked hope that the monarchy might make a return in those countries as well; but there was no appetite there for it.
Death[]
In 2015, Andrew set off on another round of trips, this time across the Atlantic. His plane was to visit each of the DSA's island territories - the first time that any of them had experienced a visit from the reigning monarch - and afterward meet with leaders of a few of the South American and Caribbean nations. But en route from Tristan Da Cunha to Saint Helena, the aircraft encountered an unexpected storm and was lost. Ships from South Africa and South America searched the area to no avail. On 28 March Andrew was officially presumed dead and his son William acclaimed the new sovereign.
Titles and roles[]
Andrew giving a speech in Port Elizabeth.
Andrew continued to make his primary residence in Port Elizabeth, Dominion of South Africa. He reigned as king of the Dominion and four other countries, three in Canada and one in Oceania, as well as Lord of Mann. He was acknowledged as Head of the Commonwealth by that organization's nine member states.
Besides his role as sovereign, Andrew never relinquished his title of Supreme Governor of the Church of England, though he was never able to act on it. The Anglicans of South Africa remained united as a single province spanning all the breakaway states, and in none of them did Andrew play any sort of official role.
His sister Anne is still Queen Mother of the Kingdom of Cleveland. Unsurprisingly, Anne was more popular among the British public than Andrew, who fairly or not is seen as having abandoned the country.
Known realms:
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