March – May
Immediately after the declaration of civil war on Sunday 7 March, Jonathan, Caroline and William went back to their respective homes. Princess Caroline was arrested for high treason, and Sir Terry agreed with the Crown Prince that she should be placed under low-security house arrest, only permitted to leave the house for school or under the supervision of a parent for the duration of the war. Having previously given moral support to Caroline’s claim, Terry now declared a position of neutrality upon learning of William’s declaration of war. Although he would not publicly side against his own daughter, he privately expressed the opinion that even if Esmond should not have been made Monarch, Caroline should have accepted a peaceful compromise.
Meanwhile, news of the outbreak of civil war was placed online, initiating one of the features of the Austenasian Civil War for which it would be best remembered abroad: the pointless involvement of foreign small nations and micronations declaring war to offer what amounted to mere moral support for one side or the other. Mere hours after news of the war had been published, the “Socialist Union of Nemkhavia and Pristinia” (SUNP) declared war on Austenasia on behalf of Caroline’s claim, leading to a counter-declaration upon the rebels and “SUNP” by the Midget Nation-in-Exile. A more professional and mature response came from the Grand Unified Micronational (GUM), the UN-like body in which most influential members of the online “MicroWiki community” are members. At its scheduled weekly meeting that evening, the organisation’s Supreme Judge, Robert Lethler, offered to host peace talks on Wednesday 10th.
The following day, Monday 8th, Crown Prince Jonathan met with Emperor Esmond III at Stanley Park, and informed him about the outbreak of civil war. Esmond reacted quickly and effectively to raise a proper army to defend his rule. Austenasia had had a military since May 2009, but it had consisted solely of Jonathan and William and served a mostly ceremonial purpose. Now, the Emperor and Prime Minister recruited several of their friends who enthusiastically agreed to defend the Austenasian government against the rebels. By the end of the day, the Austenasian Army had eleven soldiers, under the command of Crown Prince Jonathan as Field Marshal and newly-appointed Minister of Defence, and General Sir Joseph Goldie (the same Joseph who had met with Jonathan and Esmond on the day of the latter’s accession in Sutton) as “High General,” a rank which was never officially granted but openly used nonetheless to signify Esmond’s third-in-command.
By Wednesday 10th, news of the civil war had taken over at Stanley Park. Esmond III and Crown Prince Jonathan were saluted by students they had never met as they walked down corridors, lessons were interrupted by teachers asking questions about the political and military situation in Austenasia, and the Austenasian Army had swollen to twenty four recruits, not counting several others who pledged loyalty or offered their support to Esmond without actually enlisting. Esmond set up a military headquarters in the school playground where his officers and supporters would meet each morning break and lunchtime to suggest options and discuss different aspects of the war plan.
That evening, the peace talks suggested by the Grand Unified Micronational took place online. Jonathan and Caroline spoke with Supreme Judge Lethler, who suggested a referendum be carried out to ascertain the will of the people on who should be Monarch; effectively an election for the possession of the Throne. Jonathan and Caroline thanked Lethler for his idea, and agreed that it would be carried out should there seem to be no other way to resolve the conflict. The weeks passed, with no actual fighting taking place. Although Esmond recruited twenty seven people willing to fight for him, William had meanwhile been undertaking a similar endeavour at his own school, Wilsons, and by the end of March claimed he had over eighty one soldiers signed up; a truly substantial army if, as William some years later admitted, the numbers had not been exaggerated. However, regardless of any inflation of the figures, William genuinely had enough recruits and supporters to seriously challenge the Austenasian Army if the two met in combat.
Esmond’s military headquarters gradually ran out of battle plans and military strategies to discuss, and began to debate government policy itself. With William in open rebellion, Jonathan had become a de facto one-man Cabinet, and, with one out of the two Representatives absent, the Crown Prince was able to use his “deciding vote” as Prime Minister to put legislation through Parliament without an actual vote taking place. The careful balance of power between Wrythe and South Kilttown cultivated under the reign of Terry I disintegrated, and it became the case that as Jonathan presented Esmond with legislation at what was swiftly becoming a school-based “Imperial Court” instead of a body of purely military advisors, the Emperor would allow his supporters, officers, and self-appointed courtiers to debate its contents before signing it.
By mid-April, the war seemed to have stagnated. No battles had taken place despite the dozens of high school students who had signed up to fight on either side, and the foreign micronations which had declared war on one side or the other gradually withdrew as the ridiculousness of their actions became clear. Crown Prince Jonathan arranged for Esmond and Caroline to have a phone call on April 1st, but no result came of it, with both individuals simply repeating demands for the other to surrender.
Just as it seemed that the war so many had been recruited for would come to nothing, a battle finally took place. Despite the war, Jonathan and William had remained friends on a personal level, and continued to attend Carshalton Methodist Church each Sunday. The two of them arranged to meet outside the church after the morning service on Sunday 18th April to negotiate possible ways to bring the war peacefully to a close. Both agreed that the other could bring no more than twelve of their soldiers to protect them. Jonathan messaged roughly half of the Austenasian Army, asking them to accompany him; however, specifying that they would just be bodyguards during a peace talk left most of them feeling that it was not an urgent request, and, unlike what would most likely have happened had they been summoned for combat, only one soldier – General Sir Ryan, the next highest-ranking of Esmond’s officers after Joseph – turned up. William, however, did not ask any of his own recruits to accompany him, or if he did, none arrived.
It was therefore the case that Jonathan met with Ryan in Carshalton Park (immediately behind the church) at about midday. They left the park and met William outside the church, where the Crown Prince and William began to discuss peace terms. William refused to do anything more than personally declare neutrality, and even then only on the condition that he would be immediately reinstated with all former titles and positions. This being unacceptable, Jonathan and Ryan decided to attempt to arrest William and force him to surrender there and then in an attempt to bring the war to a close. Revealing plastic handcuffs, they attempted to capture and subdue him, but the handcuffs were broken, and Jonathan and Ryan withdrew to Vicereine Margaret’s car to retrieve a bag of military equipment: toy guns, walkie-talkies and the like. However, William managed to steal the bag and run off into the park with it, the Crown Prince and General in pursuit.
Jonathan managed to retrieve the bag of equipment, and the “battle” proper then broke out. William attacked the government force by swinging his jacket at their faces, while Jonathan and Ryan attempted to get close enough to him to wrestle him to the ground. The battle ended when Jonathan and William rolled down a hill wrestling, only to get up and find William had a nosebleed. While William insisted that he had not been hit on the nose and that his nosebleed was from exertion, Jonathan ordered an immediate halt to the attempts to arrest him and with Ryan gave him medical attention while escorting him out of the park. William soon recovered and returned home.
Although neither Jonathan nor Ryan at the time referred to this event as a battle, this is what it swiftly became regarded as when the story was told the next day at Stanley Park. For the first time in the war, soldiers on opposite sides had met and engaged in combat, and Esmond’s supporters had emerged victorious. This led to a huge morale boost for the imperial forces, and the Emperor ordered Jonathan to organise a referendum as initially suggested by Lethler the previous month, confident that the populace would support him. Lord John, William’s father, signed an agreement to organise the referendum, but William at first refused to sign.
However, on Sunday 2nd May, another battle – this time somewhat more deserving of the name – took place. Six supporters of Esmond had been summoned by an Austenasian Army officer, Lieutenant Sir Alfred, to train in the Grove Park in Carshalton before prospective recruitment into the army. While there, they were approached by a group of a similar size, some members of which knew Alfred’s friends. Engaging in conversation, it was made known why Alfred’s group was there, and the newcomers revealed that they were Wilsons students who had been recruited by William. A battle broke out whereby each group attempted to make the other leave the park by charging at them in an attempt to make them retreat. Rain started to fall, and Caroline’s supporters gave up and left the park, which was claimed as a victory by Alfred in the name of the Emperor against the rebels.
After news of this defeat of his forces reached William, he agreed on Sunday 9th to sign the agreement organising the referendum for the following week. On Sunday 16th – Sir Terry’s 49th birthday – the vote took place. The population of Austenasia was asked to choose between Esmond or Caroline as Monarch, with an option to abstain; not counting abstentions, two-thirds of the votes went to Esmond, with William himself deciding on the day to give up and support the Emperor.
With victory for Esmond in the referendum, a peace treaty was negotiated with Caroline and William. On Sunday 23rd, the Treaty of Ruskin Road was signed outside of Carshalton Methodist Church by Crown Prince Jonathan, Princess Caroline, and William. Caroline withdrew her immediate claim to the Throne, denounced all military support for it, was freed from house arrest and accepted a sentence of a week’s exile for high treason (carried out later that year while on holiday with the Imperial Family in Devon). William surrendered, disbanded all rebel forces, recognised Esmond III as Emperor, and was given an amnesty in recognition that he was of the incorrect, but sincere, belief that he was doing his duty to who he thought should lawfully be Monarch. Vicereine Margaret and her sister-in-law Dame Rosalind also signed as witnesses to these three signatories. The following day, Monday 24th May, Emperor Esmond III gave his own signature to the treaty (with General Sir Joseph and one of Esmond’s courtiers, Sir George, signing as witnesses), entering it into force. The Austenasian Civil War was finally at an end.
