--- title: "The Ascension of Esmond III" url: https://austenasia.org/history/the-year-of-the-three-emperors/the-ascension-of-esmond-iii/ date: 2026-08-13 modified: 2026-08-13 lang: en author: "austenasia1" description: "February - March Upon the abdication of Emperor Terry I, the second in line to the Throne was not his daughter, Princess Caroline. She had indeed previously been second in..." image: https://i0.wp.com/austenasia.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/24599_1312518426341_7354079_n.jpg?fit=341%2C296&ssl=1 word_count: 1118 --- # The Ascension of Esmond III **February - March** ![](https://austenasia.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/figure-05-page-5.jpg) Upon the abdication of Emperor Terry I, the second in line to the Throne was not his daughter, Princess Caroline. She had indeed previously been second in line, but in October 2009 she was moved down to third place. Crown Prince Jonathan attended the nearby Stanley Park High School, and many of his friends there were interested in Austenasia. Several of them were recipients of knighthoods bestowed by Jonathan as a mark of friendship, and on 14 October, the Crown Prince’s best friend Esmond had even been given a title of nobility. At the request of his son, Terry I had relinquished one of his noble titles, that of Duke of Highland, and bestowed it upon Esmond (this was not in fact technically legal, but based on the precedent of Empress Margaret having given a noble title in the same way to Lord General William earlier in the year; both title transfers were made retrospectively valid by an Act of Parliament passed in January 2010). On 25 October, at Esmond’s request, the Crown Prince granted him the title Supreme Companion of the Heir - the highest rank in the heir’s personal chivalric order - and had an Act of Parliament passed giving him the unique title “Dark Lord,” and, more significantly, making him second in line to the Throne. This was intended to be an entirely ceremonial honour, with remarkably little thought having been given to the potential legal implications of such a status. When Crown Prince Jonathan refused to accept the Throne in February 2010, then, the choice to do so next passed to Dark Lord Esmond. Fortunately, even before Terry’s declaration of abdication had been made on 15 February, Esmond and Jonathan had been planning to meet with another friend of theirs, Joseph, in the nearby Sutton town centre on 16 February. The meeting went ahead as planned, and the Crown Prince gave Esmond the news that Terry I had abdicated, and that he now had the option to ascend to the Austenasian Throne. Esmond accepted the offer, and affixed his signature to an Act of Parliament officially enacting his ascension to the Throne as His Imperial Majesty Emperor Esmond III, while keeping the Austens and their relatives as those in line to the Throne instead of Esmond’s family. The regnal number of III was chosen in reference to the Anglo-Saxon kings Edmund I and Edmund II, previous rulers over the land now claimed by Austenasia, as Esmond considered his name to be close enough to warrant a continuation of numbering and also preferred an ordinal greater than “the First” simply for aesthetic reasons. Once back home, Crown Prince Jonathan informed his family of the identity of their new sovereign, whom he then contacted over social media to impart more information about Austenasia and his new role as Monarch. During this conversation, Esmond III informed the Crown Prince that he wished to have Austenasia ultimately become self-sufficient, with its own livestock and vegetable gardens. While not in itself a radical statement, this was perhaps the first instance in which the new Emperor let on that he would not confine himself to being a figurehead, but would take an active involvement in the formulation of government policy. The next few weeks were relatively uneventful. A South Korean journalist visited Wrythe and interviewed the Crown Prince about the still rather young Empire, and Esmond III signed into law some Acts of Parliament at Stanley Park. However, one day in early March, a normal evening family dinner at the Imperial Residence resulted in a political debate after the topic of the nation’s new Emperor was brought up. Both Sir Terry and his daughter Princess Caroline seemed to have been under the impression that Esmond’s reign would be a somewhat temporary, provisional one to give members of the family time to make a proper decision about whether or not they wished to ascend the Throne. Jonathan informed them that Esmond was very enthusiastic about his new position and was not likely to abdicate before the two of them left Stanley Park in over a year’s time. Based on the fact that she was the child of the former Emperor, Princess Caroline then announced that she believed she should be Empress, and asked her brother to make it known that she was officially claiming the Throne, despite it now having found an occupant. Terry agreed that it did seem fair that Caroline should be given precedence over Esmond, and Jonathan agreed to arrange a meeting of Cabinet at the weekend with Caroline in attendance to discuss the matter. As previously mentioned, as well as the Austens of Wrythe, the Empire was also home to the Kingsnorths of South Kilttown, with the two houses located about a twenty minute walk away from each other. The Austens and the Kingsnorths had met at Carshalton Methodist Church, which the two families (not usually including Terry, who was self-employed as a gardener and ordinarily had jobs booked on Sundays) at this point attended each Sunday. Jonathan and Caroline became good friends with the Kingsnorths’ son, William, whose idea it was for their home to join Austenasia. Each week, Jonathan and William would use the time they had together after the service to pass through new Acts of Parliament for the Monarch’s approval and to discuss government policies. This week, they were joined by Caroline to discuss her claim to the Throne. Instead of meeting in their usual room, known as the Parlour, this week they decided to meet in the church’s choir vestry, for what would become known as the Vestry Conference. The Vestry Conference took the format of Princess Caroline advancing her claim to the Throne, and Crown Prince Jonathan defending that of Esmond III, with Lord General William attempting to arbitrate. The audio of the meeting was recorded on a tape recorder, and although William initially agreed with Jonathan that Caroline would be unable to become Empress unless Esmond were to abdicate (Caroline rejected a compromise whereby she would be given one of the highest ranking Austenasian noble titles in compensation for having been displaced in the line of succession), towards the end of the meeting he made some comments nevertheless expressing uncertainty with the legality of the process of Esmond’s ascension to the Throne. Realising that his comments could be construed as seditious and incriminating, William demanded Jonathan give him the cassette tape on which they had been recorded. Jonathan refused, questioning where his loyalties lay, and a stand-off commenced which, after Caroline announced that she would seek to overthrow Esmond III, ended with William declaring a civil war upon Esmond on behalf of Caroline’s claim to the Throne.