O Lord, our God, Arise: More Weekly Reports from England

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English Patriot: They're there, but I'd like to see them try something. Besides, I've got an alliance with Baden specifically made to help fight France.

canonized: A nice idea, but they're too busy with heathens to try dealing with heretics.

stnylan: The jump's already been made, really...

RGB: Again, Lizzie's already chosen to go Protestant.

Olaus Petrus: Well, they're a bit far away to be useful. Maybe Finland in some odd situation, but I can't imagine who I'd be fighting that Poland would be useful with.

TeeWee: I'm already going Anglican, and your idea is exactly what I had in mind with Baden and France.

As for how Poland became Protestant... well, the same way as everywhere else, really. It's just that this time, the kings decided to go Protestant rather than Catholic.

As for how the Hussite Wars went... well, you know how Poland has large portions of Bohemia? That was because of those wars.

Draco Rexus: Well, you'll see... as for Egypt and Russia, the former's too busy fighting the Muslims, and the latter really doesn't care whether a country's Catholic or Protestant, they're both schismatics as far as they're concerned.

 

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It's not a decision. It's destiny. I like the way things are progressing, you'll need all the luck you can get in the next century though.

 

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Well, I don't know - Britain's perhaps best left avoiding involvement in mainland struggles.

Especially seeing as how there's America to colonise and India to conquer.

 

[TeeWee]

Well, I don't know - Britain's perhaps best left avoiding involvement in mainland struggles.

Especially seeing as how there's America to colonise and India to conquer.

Ptooey! Show a little bit ambition young man!

 

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JimboIX: Will I ever. I've played through most of the next century, and it ain't pretty.

RGB: There's not that much more room to expand in America (not that this won't stop me, really) and India's a good distance from being feasable. Besides, I'm in a good position as regards Europe, thanks to my navy: I can attack someone at any point along their coast, while they can't get to me. Only Flanders is vulnerable, and I can defend that well enough. For Continental affairs, that's what allies are for, anyway (the proper British way for dealing with the Continent! )

TeeWee: India isn't ambitious? It's certainly a good goal!

Update as soon as possible, probably today or tomorrow.

 

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With the situation in the Netherlands stabilised, Elisabeth then began working on building up a stable and powerful base from which to interfere in European politics. She continued the policy of enforcing Protestantism, especially in the American colonies; the Lenape lands were soon full of Protestant English (and Protestant mixed-race people), while Boston still proved to be an annoying Catholic holdout. Britain was not as much of a focus at this point, Elisabeth being certain that the closer "Papists" could be kept in line.

The disruption of trade with Flanders caused by the Dutch War of Independence also required a complete restructuring of the English economy. In the midst of a subsequent depression during the 1560s, merchants, having less money at hand, required a way to fund expensive voyages through the world. The answer was the joint-stock company, where people would pool their resources and divide the profits, and the result was the creation of a primitive stock exchange.*

This had its problems, however. Speculators often jumped into high-risk ventures in the hopes of large gains, while others would try manipulating things in order to gain money at others' expense. By 1566, Elisabeth had had enough; in January, she encouraged Parliament to pass controls on the trading of company shares. This stifled some of the more adventurous attempts but also prevented any potential hits on the economy.

18th-century stock trading in New York

What truly restored England's economy, however, was a sudden agricultural boom around 1570. Although this was only a temporary fix, soon to be devoured the deepening "little ice age", this combined with a restoration of trade in Flanders (and soon in the Netherlands as well) to make the wool trade as lucarative as ever. Despite a plague in the fall of 1571, the English economy began working ever faster.

The other part of Elisabeth's plan was foreign policy. The leader of this initiative was Sir Francis Walsingham, made principal secretary in 1576. By this time, however, he had already proven his worth. Foremost amongst his exploits was dealing with the aftermath of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacare in France.

Before 1572, the French capital of Blois contained large numbers of Huguenots, a Calvinist group spread throughout France (especially in the southern part of the country). When, in 1571, King Charles V of France admitted a Huguenot leader named Gaspard de Coligny into his court, one group (which one not being known) of the more devoted Catholics of the country immediately reacted to the event by trying to kill him on 22 August 1572. The attempt failed, but it caught the eye of Charles.

Fearing trouble from the Huguenots, Charles' mother, the Florentine Caterina de Medici, armed the Catholics. This proved an extremely foolish move when, two days later, the leader of the Catholic faction, the Duke of Guise, took it upon himself to finish the assassination job. Once Coligny was dead, he then ordered the city gates shut and the Protestant leaders arrested. Before Charles or Caterina even knew what had happened, the Catholic populace had set on the Huguenots and slaughtered thousands of them.

Contemporary depiction by Francois Dubois

Walsingham happened to be in Blois at the time, and as a Protestant was an obvious target for being killed. His own account of events is almost certainly exaggerated, but whatever occured, he managed to get himself and several dozen Protestants out alive. With some difficulty they made it to the mouth of the Loire and sailed back to England. He continued to support the Monarchomach (king-fighting) faction of the Huguenots in their rebellions against Charles.

One avenue of his foreign policy was the weakening of Spanish wealth from its colonies. Most of this came through the Caribbean, an area with large Spanish holdings but also many places for those seeking to attack Spanish ships to hide. Many pirates began to make their name during this period, the most famous being Francis Drake. Throughout the 1570s, Drake did what he could to fight the Spanish in that area and elsewhere. By 1577, he decided to see what could be found in the Pacific, in case the Spanish were attempting to increase their influence there.

Sir Francis Drake, by Marcus Gheerarts the Younger (1587)

By 1579, Drake had made contact with the main native group in South America, the Inca Empire. The actions of the fierce native tribes had confined the Spanish to the northern and eastern coasts, and Drake wished to encourage them. English ports were set up at the southern end of South America (the "Tierra del Fuego", now New Albion) and at points along the west coast. Drake himself set up at Fort St. George in the Aisen region, and then struck on a grand plan.

Already on the west coast, Drake wished to continue westward into the Pacific. He did so in 1581, and later that year discovered Samoa; early in 1582 he reached Fiji. He would not get much further, however, as other events intervened.

Meanwhile, Sir Humphrey Gilbert sailed around Africa, finding friendly harbour in the Portuguese Cape Colony; from there, he made his way to India. On 1 April 1580 he reached the Bengal region, greeted by Sultan Muzzafar, and established a limited trade presence. It would not grow from this for quite some time, but British influence in India can be traced to this moment.

During the early 1580s, Walsingham also worked to save Elisabeth from assassination attempts. One famous incident was the Babington plot of 1586, where a young noble named Anthony Babington collected a group of plotters in a plan to overthrow Elisabeth and replace her with Mary Borcalan, Elisabeth's Catholic cousin and Duchess of Lothian. The plot fell through, Mary was implicated (and nicknamed the "Queen of Scots" thereafter for her royal ambitions) and executed on 8 February 1587.

Phillip III of Spain, who had been collecting a fleet to deal with Elisabeth when an opportunity showed itself, was now spurred into action by this. On 28 April he began the first stage of his planned invasion of England, sending a fleet of ships out of the port of Cadiz (with more planned to follow). The War of the Spanish Armada had begun.
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*It would not become an organised affair until the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

 

[Woody Man]

Hmm Protestantism has taken a strong hold in Elizabeth's domain, though France is becoming more extreme, this could start a few problems between the two countries, and this isn't mentioning the Spanish!

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

The Armada is coming... let's see how it goes... and to where...

 

[canonized]

Boooooo . Silly Elizabeth . - hopes for a successful landing by the Armada -

 

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English Patriot: The Spanish will get a few mentions during this update. Just a few...

Kurt_Steiner: You're about to find out.

canonized: I'd like to say it works, I'd really like to... but I don't think I did the Armada well enough. I gave the Spanish a whole lot of ships, but the balance of warships and transports was a tricky one, and I didn't really do it right (too many of the latter). Ah, well, I at least get to make it sound exciting...

Oh, and after this is the next "Sources of the English Language" update. Considering the subject matter here, I'll give you all one guess as to what it is...

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The Kings of Spain had had a claim to the English throne since the 12th century. When the line of Osric II died out, the "correct" line (from the Spanish view) went through his daughter to the de Lara dynasty, then a minor noble family in Spain. In 1228, however, Manuel de Lara led a rebellion against Phillip I of Spain,* and he gained the crown himself. The English claim was not usually pressed until the country became Protestant and the added sense of "defeating the heretics" was added. Phillip III gained another claim upon his marriage with Queen Mary, extending the English law that gave a husband title to the lands of his wife. Obviously, the English nobility did not accept Phillip's claim and supported Elisabeth instead.

Phillip's plan to invade England was a two-pronged attack. The army, under Alejandro Farnesio, Duke of Parma, would travel north through friendly France for an attack against Flanders. At the same time, two stages of ships would travel out of Spain: 24 ships to seek out the English navy, and the main Armada of 52 to help the other fleet trap the English, destroy them, and then transport Parma across into England. The first fleet was commanded by the veteran Alvaro de Bazan, and the other by Alonso Perez de Guzman, Duke of Medina-Sidonia.

Plan of the Spanish invasion of England

Against this, Elisabeth had a very paltry fleet. Only 18 warships were immediately available, with 16 able to be collected soon after. These 34 were supplemented with armed merchant ships, but these were of decidedly poor quality, and Elisabeth chose to use the warships alone unless otherwise necessary. Elisabeth needed another plan, and this was provided by Sir Francis Drake, having quickly returned from the Americas on his flagship, the Golden Hind.

Drake would take the 16 backup ships and, leaving the original 18 to hold off Bazan's forward fleet (a feat they were quite capable of doing), he would sail directly to the coast of Spain to destroy as much of Phillip's fleet as possible before they were ready to sail. He had a short window in which to do so, but Elisabeth felt it could be done without crippling the English fleet; Walsingham's spies had discovered that most of Medina-Sidonia's fleet was of quite poor quality and wouldn't hold up well in a fight. Drake found the enemy first of the Finisterre on 23 December 1587, as the Portuguese were screening the area to prevent just such an action. But the Portuguese fleet was only 7 warships and easily dealt with. Drake continued southward to try and reach Cadiz.

The Spanish Armada, by an anonymous English painter (late 16th century)**

Meanwhile, Bazan found the English fleet on 15 July 1587. The battle was only a short skirmish; Medina-Sidonia had been delayed by the threat of Drake, and Bazan simply limped off southward. He went into port in Bretagne and awaited Medina-Sidonia's attack. In fact, the whole Spanish plan had been thrown off completely, as not only the appearance of Drake confused them, but supply problems (despite the great effort of one Miguel de Cervantes in purchasing them) constantly kept the large fleet from moving onward. Parma, for his part, had trouble getting through the French Huguenot lands; France was in its most severe religious crisis at the time, and the presence of the Spanish only made matters worse (and helped lead to the death of King Henri III in 1589).

Spanish attempts to provoke Catholic revolts in England were somewhat more successful, although not entirely so. Persecution had slowed over the previous decades, and some Catholics had been allowed to retain their faith openly; only the eternal hotbeds of Kent and Ireland really became a problem. Even these places were easlily dealt with at first, and Ireland alone continued to rebel, although this was not different from the normal state of affairs for that island.

Drake continued to harass the Spanish along their coastline, and actually attacked Cadiz bay on 13 February 1588. This "cutting expedition" destroyed several ships, set the harbour ablaze, and caused Medina-Sidonia to finally rush out to deal with the English. His philosophy was that the best idea would be to strike against England now, thereby leaving Drake orphaned and able to be dealt with at leisure. Finally, on 9 March 1588, his rushed fleet came to England. Bazan joined the attack, and together they had around 60 ships (poorly supplied and mostly damaged) against around 20 English ships (with longer-range guns).

The English fleet was commanded by Charles Howard, Earl of Nottingham. He chose to keep his distance; the Spanish would have to get through the entire Channel to even reach Flanders, and that assumed that Parma would even be there to be picked up. Howard's decision to keep range infuriated the Spanish, whose goal was to destroy the English fleet; instead, they continued to chase him around, achieving nothing. After five days of fighting, the Spanish fleet pulled back past Ireland to get supplies from Catholics there.

Then came the true defeat of the Armada. The famed attack of the "fireships" came on 14 March, as the Spanish fleet was anchored off Ireland. Although few ships were actually destroyed, the Spanish fleet was forced to set out. As they did, they came across that true bane of North Atlantic sailors, the region's tempestuous weather; the so-called "Protestant Wind" dashed them against the Irish coast. Bazan was killed when his ship, the San Cristobal, sank with all hands aboard; Medina-Sidonia's São Martinho survived, and with the remnants of the Armada went south.

Defeat of the Spanish Armada, by Philippe-Jaques de Loutherbourg (1796).

As news of the event came to England, bells were rung in all the churches of the country. The war was not ended - the Spanish would attempt landings in Ireland and Parma appeared in Flanders, both unsuccessfuly (the Dutch aiding in the defeat of Parma) - but the Battle of the Irish Sea would become famous throughout history as the end of the Armada. Drake continued his actions off Cadiz; in a moment of anticlimax, he was killed on 11 May fighting a large group of Portuguese ships. His fleet dispersed the enemy and sailed back to England, having successfully weakened the Armada and "singed the beard of the King of Spain." His body was placed in a lead coffin and sunk into the sea, eternally remaining off the Spanish coast in defiance of his most hated enemy.

In what is less anticlimax and more farce, another English fleet, under the aging Martin Frobisher, carried around 2,000 English under Sir Walter Raleigh in an attempt to invade the La Plata region. Although the Spanish ships in the region were easily dealt with, Raleigh was killed and his army dispersed or captured when they met the Spanish army south of Buenos Aires. The event was brutally parodied in the 17th century zarzuela La Armada Inglesa by Pedro Calderon de la Barca, eternally giving it the title of the "English Armada", no better fated than its Spanish counterpart.

Sir Walter Raleigh, by Nicholas Hilliard (1585)
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*Actually a French nobleman named Philippe d'Avranches, whose grandfather Abelard had inherited the country in 1167.
**Note that despite the use of the Cross of St. George, these are in fact Spanish and not English ships.

 

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Sources of the English Language, no. 6
Þe Sprec at Tilbury (The Tilbury Speech)​

Even after the defeat of the Armada, there was considerable concern among the English. Parma was still on his way, the Spanish navy could return, and there was the ever-present danger of assassins against Elisabeth herself. Walsingham was active in keeping the latter out, but many warned the queen to stay isolated. Elisabeth would have none of it, and, on 6 August 1588,* spoke to a newly-gathered group of volunteers at Tilbury.



My belofde Engelcynn:

We havaþ been forþtighted by sum** þat sind carefull of oure safety, to tac heed hou we fasten our selfes to yeweapond manys, for dread of belewing; but I mace it sior I do not yearn to life to behight my fast and lofing people. Let tyrants dread, I hafe all ways so beheld my self þat, under God, I hafe set my greatest strengþ and ward in þe holdly hearts and good will of my subiects, and þer for com I amang you, as you see, at þis time, not for my frice and gaming, but beende yehoued, in þe middel and heat of battle, to life and to die amang you all; to ahild for my God, and for my cingrice, and for my people, mine aring and my blood, efen in þe dust.

I cen þat I have þe lice but of a weac and feeble woman, but I hafe þe heart and stomach of a cing, and a cing of England too, and þenc foul scorn þat Parma oþer Spainland, oþer aught of þe prinses of Europe, scould doure to insuoge þe bounds of my rice; to þe hwilc, þan aught unaring scall grow by me, I my self scall nem weapons, I my self scall be youer general, deemer, and lengifer of aught of youer craft in þe acer.

I cen ere, for youer forwardness you hafaþ earned afterlean and coruns; and We do macaþ it sior in þe word of a Prinse, þey scall be rightly agifen you. Amang þam, my lieutenant-general*** scall be in my stead, þan hwam nefer prince bade a more aþely or worþy subiect; not sulting but by youer eaþemood to my general, by youer anfoldness in þe wic, and youer ellendeed in þe acer, we scall scortly hafe ane aþel sige ofer þose fiends of my God, of my cingrice, and of my people.
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*An "enthusiasm for the army" event, actually.
**Perhaps Walsingham, although this is disputed
***Sir Phillip Osbourne, returned to military command by this crisis. The commander in Flanders was Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester.

 

[canonized]

A mournful salute to the noble Spaniards lost . Damn that Elizabeth , Mistress of All Crime . And poor Mary Queen of Scots . A dreadful affair .

 

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Don't you just love Walsingham? I love your twists of history and ahistory, and I'm always a fan of the Howards- particularly the junior branches. Just as wellRaleigh died young...things go so badly for him in the later years otherwise.

 

[canonized]

Don't you just love Walsingham? I love your twists of history and ahistory, and I'm always a fan of the Howards- particularly the junior branches. Just as wellRaleigh died young...things go so badly for him in the later years otherwise.

See this is why I love having you back , Jimbo , you always make much more historically pertinent comments than I do ! o

 

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Haha. And a cing of England too indeed.

Shame about Raleigh.

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

Drake and Raleigh lost in a row... That worries me a bit... Well, better for Raleigh. Better to go down in a blaze of glory than in the Tower waiting for the axe.

 

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canonized: So close; as I said, I goofed up in making the Armada a real threat (I really wanted it to win!). And Lizzie still has some more years left to cause problems, as you shall see when I get to it.

JimboIX: Walsingham has certainly done things well in this story. As for Raleigh; well, instead of things going badly in the future, things go badly for him now instead. Ah, well, he still gets the city in Carolina named after him.

RGB: Yeah, though I think it was more a loss for him than for me.

Kurt_Steiner: Yes, but it's nice that little changes like that show up, this is still an alternate history, after all. And I'd hardly call that little mess of an invasion a "blaze of glory"...

 

[Woody Man]

Pity about losing Drake and Raleigh, jolly good show on the defeat of the Armada!

And I love the section on the English language, its really interesting to see the mix of old Anglo-saxon and look at the Newer English poke its way through

 

[TeeWee]

The Home isles safe again from the Spanish threat, Lizzy now has some interesting options. It seems that invading the Spanish America has been proved unwise. Perhaps interferingin that terrible religious strife in France, with an opportunity to permanently alter the balance on the continent? The temptation must be great.

 

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English Patriot: Yep, I'm working to have English slowly settle into a "modern" form. It'll still sound quite archaic and Germanic to our ears, of course, but that's what happens with 200 more years of Saxon rule.

TeeWee: Well, she's going to be busy with other matters, as you are about to find out.

I'm feeling quite inspired this weekend. I'll finish up Lizzie, and then take a rest for a week before we start the next ruler.

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Peace with Spain did not end conflict, however. The Catholic inhabitants of the country, having risen up in rebellion, would not go down quite as easily, and the later part of 1589 marked the beginning of a renewed civil war. Lancashire, the Scottish highlands, and Kent flared up in rebellion all around the same time; an army sent from Edinburgh (led by the new Duke of Lothian, James) ran up across an approximately equal number of Catholics near Inverness and was sent back southward. He would return late in February of 1590, having reformed his army, to crush them in a bloody battle.

Meanwhile, the Kentish Catholics again besieged London. The army had been drawn north to deal with the Lancastrian Catholics, and was out of place when the Kentish surged northward. The army arrived in time, however, defeated the army, and then set to besieging Canterbury. The city surrendered on 12 September 1590, expecing to be treated well because they had not forced an assault.

They were wrong. As soon as the army came into the city, they set upon the inhabitants of the city with incredible fervor. Much of the army was composed of a more radical group, the Puritans, and they could not allow a "Papist" presence in the country; within minutes, they attacked anyone who seemed even the slightest bit Catholic. Thousands were killed, churches destroyed, and the body of St. Thomas Becket taken from the cathedral, burned, and thrown into the sea.

This had as shocking an effect on Catholics as the massacare in Blois had had on Protestants. The Spanish fleet was still in no condition to attempt an attack on England, and France was too busy with their own Protestants; but there were enough in England itself to at least try and do the job. Ireland flared up in complete and total rebellion, led by the Earl of Tyrone, Hugh O'Neill. At his side was Red Hugh O'Donnell, the Lord of Tyrconnel, who was the true military genius of the rebellion.*

Hugh being declared head of the O'Neill clan, from a 1600 map.

One Catholic nation did go to fight the English: the Holy Roman Emperor, Ernst von der Ardennen. In response, Elisabeth claimed that Luxemburg was a part of the English Netherlands, and brought Baden and the Dutch in to help. The war went well; at Stolberg on 5 May 1592, an 22,000-strong English army under the Earl of Leicester easily defeated nearly 35,000 Imperial soldiers. With the Dutch adding 25,000 men and the Badeners 30,000 to the campaign, the English were able to sweep through the country, and on 20 June 1593, the Treaty of Malmedy granted the region of Luxemburg to Elisabeth. Within a few years, Ernst's realm would collapse, as Protestant nobles in the northern regions rebelled against him and gained their independence.

With that outside Catholic threat destroyed, Elisabeth was able to focus on the Irish. Tyrconnel defeated an English army sent against him in Connacht in April of 1592, but an allied force was destroyed in Leinster that June. He was able to reach as far as Belfast on 26 November, and the English army in Ireland was hemmed in, but Scottish reinforcements made their way across, and Ulster was retaken by late May. The rebellion would continue on a low scale through the rest of Elisabeth's reign, going back and forth for more than a decade.

Elisabeth's anti-Catholic policies did succeed in making headway against some regions. The Catholic regions of Northumberland and Lancaster slowly became more Protestant, as did the Scottish highlands; Catholics remained, but by the late 1590s they no longer made a majority of the populace, and rebellions found less and less support. Conversions in America at this time focused on the natives; the governor of Virginia, John Smith, led a campaign in the Wyandot lands in 1600 which forced the leaders of that tribe to convert and accept Elisabeth's sovreignity.

The most famous person to find some difficulty due to Elisabeth's policy was a playwright from the Avon valley, William Shakespeare. Several times he was accused of Papism; the question of whether these accusations are true or not (he could never admit it openly) is still unanswered. Despite this, however, his fame and ability caused his group to gain the patronage of the Lord Chamberlain, and, after Elisabeth's death, her own heir as the Emperor's Men.

Elsewhere, one man sought to continue Francis Drake's attempt to circumnavigate the globe. Henry Hudson, a London sailor, was contracted in 1597 by the Pacific Company to try and find a route to India. He set off from London, then proceeding to New Albion. From there, he travelled across the Pacific; on 28 June 1599, he reached (and named) New Zealand and on 26 December passed through the Hudson Straits.** By the middle of 1600 he had reached Fort Buckingham on Magriban Island.*** From there, it was a simple matter, resupplying at Portuguese ports along the African coast, to make it back to London in 1601. He was met by massive crowds as his Half Moon docked along the Thames, and in a ceremony soon after was knighted for his achievement as the first man to circumnavigate the globe.

Sir Henry Hudson, in a late 19th century depiction (no contemporary one exists).

The final matter of Elisabeth's reign was her succession. The common claim of her virginity is a difficult one to confirm or deny; her absolute hatred for her husband Nikita Romanovich Zakharyin made a lack of consummation there possible, but rumors abound of affairs with any number of courtiers in England. In any case, she never remarried after Zakharyin's death in 1586; several suitors came forward, but she rejected all for political reasons. Finally, she simply named her not-so-distant relative James, the Duke of Lothian, as her heir. He was immediately accepted by the nobility of England.

In January of 1603, in anticipation of James' inheritance, Parliament passed the Act of Union. This united the crowns of England and Scotland, along with their parliaments; the new land was to be called the Empire of Great Britain. The use of an Imperial dignity was an ambitious one, but the various Protestant powers all accepted its use.† Elisabeth's new title was:

"ELISABEÞ, þrough Godes Gift Empresse of GREATBRITEN; Cween of Iraland & Francland; Ladiy of þe Scottisc & of þe Crecisc Iyles; Ducesse of Bucingham, of Holland & of Friesland, of þe Flanders, of Cornwall, of Island, & of Bretonland; & Countesse of Stafford; of þe Circ in Greatbriten & in Iraland Supreme Head & Defendresse of þe Faiþe; for þe Ceeping of þe hwilc abid we to Crist Iesu, to hwam haþ been gifen Rice & Doom ofer alle þe lands of þe Earþ, and wiþ out hwam ney Mann may wield."

Allegorical depiction of an aged Elisabeth, 1610s.

By early 1603, Elisabeth's health had completely failed. Her problems did not appear to be from any outside source, but she grew weaker and weaker, especially mentally; by 21 March she was bedridden, and on 24 March she died. The Privy Council immediately declared James Borcalan to be the new Emperor, calling him down from Edinburgh to take his place on the throne, ending the Stafford period and beginning the Borcalan dynasty.
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*The Cornish also went into revolt, but were quickly put down.
**In our timeline, the Strait of Torres.
***Reunion.
† The Russian response was somewhat more complex. They claimed the Imperial dignity for themselves through the Byzantine Empire, and didn't like others using it; eventually, Peter the Great of Russia made its use for England official during his reforms.