Saturday, June 9, 2012

Crown princes and their titles

In the present day, the titles of crown princes are pretty much meaningless: Prince of Asturias. Prince of Girona. Prince of Wales. But at some point in history, those titles meant something. And at some point in history, those titles became the titles of crown princes. And because Andalusada parts ways with the world we know in 1081, I'm going to need to rethink all of those stories.
I'm not sure whether this is parerga or not, to be honest. "Parerga" implies stuff that is historically noteworthy, but doesn't directly advance the march of history. (This is why I've recently removed the "parerga" tag from the Bible and the Manazil al-Qur'an; they have huge historical repercussions, in ways that, say, the Nestorian Epistles don't.)

Some of these titles, in fact, are parerga: the Prince of Wales hasn't historically had much actual say over Wales. Others have more impact, like the Prince of Asturias, who did run Asturias until the Catholic Monarchs made it a purely honorary title. (Since the Catholic Monarchs don't exist in Andalusada, the Prince of Asturias could conceivably retain that kind of power down to the present - except that the title didn't exist until 1388, so there's no reason to imagine the Prince exists either.)

And then there are some titles that have enormous impact, like the Dauphin of France, who technically was not only next in line to the French throne but ruled land outside of France itself. Those are the kinds of things that, properly exploited, can have international consequences, like empire-building in German lands and such.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this thought. But it is a thought, and it's going to need more fleshing out in the future. So, for the moment, I'm going to leave it here.

Seville (and the UCNA)

The generic title 'abd Allah "servant of God" was used in al-Andalus from the era of the Berber Fitna. After falling from general use in Abbadid Seville (and the Almohad Empire), it sees a rise to prominence during the Five Families era, where it becomes a half-name, half-title for children specifically being groomed for a place in the succession. This lasts to Umayyad Seville (and extends to the Umayyad Caliphate in New Andalusia, its de facto successor state), such that the likely heirs to the House of Umayya are colloquially known simply as "the Abdallah."

This is a work in progress. It will be expanded upon.

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