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Kingdom of Redonda

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The Kingdom of Redonda is a micronation associated with the tiny uninhabited Caribbean island of Redonda.

Kingdom of Redonda
Unrecognized micronation
A view of the small island of Redonda from the southeast in 2012
Dates claimed1929 to present
Area claimedRedonda, Antigua and Barbuda

The island lies between the islands of Nevis and Montserrat, within the inner arc of the Leeward Islands chain, in the West Indies. Redonda is part of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. The island is just over one mile (1.6 km) long and one-third mile (0.54 km) wide, rising to a 971-foot (296 m) peak. The island teems with bird life, but is more or less uninhabitable by humans because there is no source of freshwater other than rain, and most of the island is extremely steep and rocky, with only a relatively small, sloping plateau area of grassland at the summit. Landing on the island is a very challenging process, possible only via the leeward coast on days when the seas are calm. Climbing to the top of the island is also very arduous. Despite these difficulties, from 1865 until 1912 Redonda was part of a lucrative trade in guano mining, and many thousands of tons of phosphates were shipped from Redonda to Britain. The ruins associated with the mineworkings can still be seen on the island.

Various parties claim Redonda as a micronation. An account told by the fantasy writer M. P. Shiel in 1929 claimed that Redonda was established as an "independent kingdom" decades earlier in the 19th century. The title to the supposed kingdom is still contested to this day in a half-serious fashion. The "Kingdom" is also often associated with a number of supposedly aristocratic members, whose titles are awarded by whoever is currently the "King". There are a number of individuals in different countries who claim to be the "King" of Redonda.

History

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The early history of the "Kingdom" of Redonda is shrouded in doubt. There is no known evidence, documentation, or third party verification of Shiel's story.[1]

During Shiel's lifetime

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M. P. Shiel (1865–1947), an author of works of adventure and fantasy fiction, was the first person to give an account of the "Kingdom of Redonda," in 1929, in a promotional pamphlet for a reissue of his books.[2]

According to Shiel's story, Shiel's father, Matthew Dowdy Shiell, who was a trader and Methodist lay preacher from the nearby island of Montserrat, claimed the island of Redonda when his son, Matthew Phipps Shiell, was born. Supposedly the father felt he could legitimately do this, because it appeared to be the case that no country had officially claimed the islet as territory. Shiell senior is also said to have requested the title of King of Redonda from Queen Victoria and according to the legend, it was granted to him by the British Colonial Office rather than by Victoria herself, provided there was no revolt against colonial power.[3]

The son (originally named Matthew Phipps Shiell but later known as the writer M. P. Shiel) claimed he was crowned on Redonda at the age of 15, in 1880, by a bishop from Antigua. However, as M. P. Shiel's recounting of this story never saw print until 1929, it is possible that some, most, or all of the story of his being crowned King of Redonda is pure invention.[1]

Shiel cites two different names for the bishop who performed the coronation: the Reverend Dr Mitchinson and the Rev. Hugh Semper.[1] These men were both genuine clerics in the Caribbean during this period. Whether Shiel had a faulty memory or couldn't keep his invented story consistent is unknown. In "About Myself" Shiel writes that he attempted to impose a tribute tax on the American guano miners, but the request was refused. There has been no independent evidence provided of any such demands.

Several of Shiel's works of fiction concerned various aspects of monarchy. One of his detective heroes is called Cummings King Monk. In Shiel's 1901 end-of-the-world story The Purple Cloud, the protagonist Adam Jeffson, the last man on earth, establishes himself as monarch of the devastated globe, while Shiel's novel The Lord of the Sea (1901) has Richard Hogarth, another Overman figure, coming to dominate the world. In 1899, Shiel wrote about visiting Redonda in his adventure novel Contraband of War.

In later life, Shiel gave the title, and the rights to his work, to his chief admirer, London poet and editor John Gawsworth (Terence Ian Fytton Armstrong), the biographer of Arthur Machen, who was the realm's Archduke. Gawsworth (1912–70) seems to have passed on the title several times when the writer was low in funds.[1] Gawsworth's realm has been facetiously termed "Almadonda" (by the Shielian scholar A. Reynolds Morse (1914–2000)) after the Alma pub in Westbourne Grove, Bayswater, London, where "King Juan" frequently held court in the 1960s.[4]

After Shiel's death

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Gawsworth had also apparently promised to make Max Juan Tonge Leggett, the first son of his friends Charles and Jean Leggett, his Redondan heir if they gave the child (born in the late 1950s) his royal name of Juan.[1]

Some researchers accept that Gawsworth bestowed the title on his friend the publican Arthur John Roberts in 1967, by "Irrevocable Covenant".[1] Prior to this the late writer Dominic Behan (1928–89) also claimed Gawsworth transferred the title to him in 1960. It is also said that Gawsworth handed on the throne to one Aleph Kamal, whose peers[clarification needed] include the novelist Edna O'Brien.

Self-appointed monarchs of Redonda include/included Michael Lawler in 2010, Marvin Kitman and William Scott Home. Scott Home's claim to the title was, he says, based on ESP and reincarnation.[1]

Publisher, author and environmentalist Jon Wynne-Tyson, however, claims that Gawsworth, prior to dying in 1970, bestowed the kingship on him with the literary executorships, although the writer Iain Fletcher was the joint literary executor for Gawsworth.[citation needed]

Later developments

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Jon Wynne-Tyson subsequently visited Redonda in 1979, on an expedition organized by the philanthropist and Shielian publisher A. Reynolds Morse. Wynne-Tyson ruled as King Juan II until abdicating in favour of the novelist Javier Marías of Madrid in 1997, transferring the literary executorship of Gawsworth and Shiel along with the title.[5][6]

Arthur John Roberts' title was subsequently inherited by William Leonard Gates, whom Gawsworth had given the title of "Baron L'Angelier de Blythswood de Redonda". From his home at Thurlton, Norfolk, Gates, who was known as King Leo, presided over a group known as "The Redondan Foundation", not be confused with "The Redondan Cultural Foundation" set up by Paul de Fortis (see below). Gates died on 2 January 2019 and his crown passed to Queen Josephine.[citation needed]

As in Gawsworth's reign, meetings of these rival groups have been held at the Fitzroy Tavern in Fitzrovia, central London. King Leo 'reigned' as king for thirty years, since 1989.[7] Williamson, who lived on Antigua until his death in 2009, set himself up as the rival "King Robert the Bald".[8]

In 1988, London clergyman Paul de Fortis established "The Redondan Cultural Foundation". De Fortis promoted a new king, Cedric Boston (born on Montserrat in 1960). Boston claimed the Redondan throne in 1984, winning the allegiance of a number of Gawsworth's peers.[9]

On the question of the Kingdom of Redonda, Wynne-Tyson has written:

The legend is and should remain a pleasing and eccentric fairy tale; a piece of literary mythology to be taken with salt, romantic sighs, appropriate perplexity, some amusement, but without great seriousness. It is, after all, a fantasy.[10]

Various people have been given a "peerage" status in Redonda. Generally, these were writer friends of Shiel's and Gawsworth in the early years of the Kingdom. They include Arthur Machen, Oliver Stonor, Edgar Jepson, Thomas Burke, Victor Gollancz, Carl Van Vechten, Arthur Ransome, Lawrence Durrell, Gerald Durrell, G. S. Fraser, Michael Harrison, John Heath-Stubbs, Dylan Thomas, Henry Miller, Julian MacLaren-Ross, Philip Lindsay, Rebecca West, John Waller, August Derleth, Stephen Graham, Dorothy L. Sayers, J. B. Priestley, Eden Phillpotts, Stephen Potter, Martin Secker, Frank Swinnerton, John Wain, and Julian Symons. This practice has continued with later kings; examples include the artist Stephen Chambers, ennobled in 2017.

Wynne-Tyson, Javier Marías, Bob Williamson, William Gates and Cedric Boston were all interviewed in the BBC Radio 4 documentary Redonda: The Island with Too Many Kings, broadcast in May 2007.[11]

Death of Javier Marias

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On 11 September 2022, Javier Marías died in Madrid. It was reported that Xavier I had named Juan Gabriel Vásquez[12] as his successor, however, Vásquez later clarified that an official naming ceremony had never taken place.[13]

In August 2022, Spanish writer Javier Diéguez visited the island of Redonda and left some books by Javier Marías, M. P. Shiel, and Jon Wynne-Tyson as a tribute to Javier Marías and the previous monarchs of Redonda.[14] Diéguez's book 'Redonda' narrates his journey to the island and serves as a posthumous tribute to Javier Marías.[15]

List of kings

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Original claims:

Later claims:

  • Arthur John Roberts, 1967–1989 (styled as King Juan II)
  • Jon Wynne-Tyson, 1970–1997 (styled as King Juan II)
  • William Leonard Gates, 1989–2019 (styled as King Leo)
  • Javier Marías, 1997–2022 (styled as King Xavier)
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In 2007, the Wellington Arms pub in Southampton, England, attempted to declare itself an embassy of Redonda, in order to gain diplomatic immunity from a nationwide ban on smoking in enclosed workplaces, including pubs. This ultimately failed when the Foreign and Commonwealth Office pointed out that His Majesty's Government recognises Redonda as a dependent territory of Antigua and Barbuda which, accordingly, is not entitled to establish a separate embassy or high commission in the United Kingdom.[16]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g Squires, John D. "Of Dreams and Shadows: An Outline of the Redonda Legend with Some Notes on Various Claimants to its Uncertain Throne". alangullette.com. Archived from the original on 10 February 2012. Retrieved 28 February 2011.
  2. ^ Squires, John D. "The Redonda Legend: A Chronological Bibliography". alangullette.com. Archived from the original on 5 February 2012. Retrieved 14 August 2006.
  3. ^ de Fortis, Paul (1991). "A History of Redonda". In de Fortis, Rev. Paul (ed.). The Kingdom of Redonda, 1865-1990. Cheshire: The Alyesford Press.
  4. ^ Morse, A. Reynolds (1980). The Works of M. P. Shiel, Vol. 3: The Shielography Updated, part 2. Cleveland: The Reynolds Morse Foundation. pp. 531–552.
  5. ^ Wynne-Tyson, Jon (2004). Finding the Words: A Publishing Life. Wilby, Norfolk: Michael Russell. [Chapter 8, 'The Cause of Half Our Sorrows,' covers the author’s perspective on Gawsworth, Redonda, and the transfer of his disputed royal claim to Javier Marías, pp. 158–195.]
  6. ^ Fay, Sarah (Winter 2006). "Javier Marías, The Art of Fiction No. 190 (interview)". The Paris Review. No. 179.
  7. ^ Hutchison, Henry (2005). Realm of Redonda: A Definitive History of the Island-Kingdom of Santa Maria la Redonda in the West Indies. Thurlton, Norfolk: The Redondan Foundation. [The history of the legend from the perspective of William Gates’s claim.]
  8. ^ "Official Web-Site For The Kingdom of Redonda". thekingdomofredonda.com. 1 September 2009. Archived from the original on 5 January 2014. [Website of the late Bob Williamson]
  9. ^ de Fortis 1991, pp. 19–41 [Argues the case for Cedric Boston].
  10. ^ Wynne-Tyson, Jon (November 1981). "M.P. Shiel: Right Royal Fantasist". Antiquarian Book Monthly Review. 8 (11). Issue 91: 417.
  11. ^ BBC Radio 4 (27 May 2007). "Redonda: The Island with Too Many Kings".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  12. ^ "Juan Gabriel Vásquez sucederá a Javier Marías como Rey de Redonda". Diario ABC (in Spanish). 24 September 2023. Retrieved 24 March 2024.
  13. ^ Vásquez, Juan Gabriel (28 September 2023). "El reino de Redonda: algunas aclaraciones". El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 24 March 2024.
  14. ^ Diéguez, Javier (6 November 2022). "En los reales dominios de Redonda - Javier Diéguez". Zenda (in Spanish). Retrieved 24 March 2024.
  15. ^ purgante (8 January 2024). "El viaje es la metáfora más perfecta de la vida plena: Javier Diéguez". purgante (in Mexican Spanish). Retrieved 24 March 2024.
  16. ^ "Pub 'embassy' dodges smoking ban". BBC. 27 June 2007. Retrieved 21 December 2007.

Further reading

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