King Christian

Male - He/Him

Blue

Blonde

6'7

Muscular

Christian grew-up in the earldom/country of Rutland, the smallest county in all of England. He lived there all his youth, becoming an Earl as a teenager after his father died. Growing-up, he learned Catholic Theology, learned Latin, exercised & learned the ways of the sword.

He had a younger twin sister named Christina. When the 2 turned 18, they were sent to London to make their debut introduction along with other noble teenagers at the time, who were all also coming of age.

At just 18, Christian was already the tallest teenage boy in the room, with a detailed muscular body. His shirts hugged his physique so well, that the outline of his abs were always visible.

When they arrived in Greenwich, Christian & Christina caught eyes quite easily. Christian was the tallest & muscular youth in the room with a handsome face to boot, while his sister Christina was the most beautiful maiden in the room. There, in Greenwich Palace, they met the royal family: King Henry, Queen Catherine & Princess Mary. Their accomodations were subsidized by the crown, and they only had a limited allowance from their mom back in Rutland.

New to the court, they were naïve & didn't know their way around. While praying together on St. Paul's Cathedral, they met Queen Catherine of Aragon who welcomed the twins kindly.

When they returned to court, they briefly served the royal family before being taken-in by Thomas Howard, The Duke of Norfolk. The Duke of Norfolk was "The Premiere Peer of The Realm", the most prominent, richest & most powerful non-royal man in the entire kingdom. He took them under his tutelage & taught them as best as he could about the goings-on in court.

Christian did slight the king however when he beat the king in games of sport during his time in court.

Eventually, he had to leave London & go to Oxfordshire to study in Oxford University. In Oxford, he studied theology, law, military & finance and he was also very much an active athlete during University.

Girls couldn't go to university, so Christina stayed behind in London to serve as a lady-in-waiting for Queen Catherine & as a tutor for Princess Mary, though Christian did send Christina copies of his books & notes as much as possible so that she could educate herself & trickle his knowledge down to her however way he could.

When he graduated 4 years later, he returned back to London to reunite with his sister & pick her up. Together, they went back to their original home & estate in Rutland. They managed the family & household estate while taking care of their aging mother for a while.

To celebrate Christian's University graduation, they threw a party & invited Queen Catherine of Aragon as the guest-of-honor.

After that, Christian worked for the military & went on his first assignment to Calais (England's only city in the European continent at the time). His job was to defend Calais from a French siege at the time.

Co-ordinating with The Spanish Habsburgs, Christian united English, Spanish, Dutch & German soldiers to put-up a defense in The Siege of Calais, and Christian, as its commander, defeated the invading French forces.

Christian was deemed & hailed as a unifying military hero, skyrocketing his popularity when news of his victory spread back in England. The king was delighted with Christian's accomplishment, and he was branded a military hero & champion upon his return. Afterwards, he joined the king on a diplomatic trip to the continent whereupon he advised & convinced the king to stay aligned with & favor The Habsburgs, reinforcing the Catholic Alliance between the 2 of them.

After their return to England, Christian helped the king even further by helping King Henry make money in the realm of business.

Domestic Industry and International Trade

King Henry gave Christian reign over some of the crown's own money & lands. Christian first invested in wool production in many crown estates. He invests heavily in the wool trade in England, buying-up further lands and putting these lands under cultivation. But rather than relying on domestic consumers or middleman to sell the wool, he got directly involved in the export of wool to Flanders and Holland where artisan craftsmen make fine cloth and sell it abroad. He even brought back some of the Catholic craftsmen from Flanders fleeing religious unrest to start a fine cloth industry in England.

The Crown - and his - fortunes expand due to his new business venture. Christian tells the Dutch merchants he dealt with to inform him of any investment opportunities further afield either in the West Indies or the East Indies.

The relevance of this new Cloth Industry is as follows: England was rich in wool but most of the time, England could only sell raw wool, not pre-made cloth. So everytime they wanna export cloth, they first need to ship it overseas to Flanders, Holland & Antwerp where textile factories would process them before sending them back to England. This was tedious because it wasted time & money, so rather than wasting time, money & effort on exporting then importing the same resource, he just started the cloth industry locally.

Pleased with Christian's streak of successful services to the crown, King Henry promoted The Earldom/County of Rutland into a Duchy and he was named The First Duke of Rutland.

After Christian became a duke, he continued working for King Henry by becoming a diplomat under Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey where the 2 men worked together to promote peace between England, Spain & France.

During this time, King Henry was looking for a way to annul his marriage with Queen Catherine of Aragon because they hadn't had a son. They only had 1 living daughter together, Princess Mary. As a devout Catholic, he was of course on Queen Catherine's side all throughout the affair.

Cardinal Thomas Wolsey failed to secure an annulment from the papacy between King Henry & Queen Catherine and as punishment, he was due to be executed, but Cardinal Wolsey died on the way. Sir Thomas More was soon appointed as Lord Chancellor, replacing Wolsey. Christian became Thomas More's right hand man & successor.

The King grew impatient. Catherine refused to agree to an annulment & King Henry was madly in lust with a woman named Anne Boleyn. King Henry soon broke from Rome, under the advise of his Chief Minister Thomas Cromwell.

Under Cromwell, King Henry pushed forth The Oath of Supremacy in Parliament which commanded his subjects to swear loyalty to the king first & foremost, and to recognize the king as "Supreme Head of The Church of England" and not the pope in Rome.

Thomas More & Christian both refused. Christian was briefly imprisoned in The Tower of London for his refusal, but Thomas More was executed for his refusal.

Queen Catherine was sent to live in the cold & drafty Kimbolton Palace & Princess Mary was sent to live in Windsor Castle. The king then married Anne Boleyn in secret while Catherine was still alive, an act of bigamy in the eyes of many, because Queen Catherine of Aragon never agreed to the divorce, and neither did the pope approve of an annulment. Henry's "divorce" was completely one-sided and was therefore seen as illegitimate in the eyes of supermajority of Christendom.

Now, King Henry had a habit known as "The Religious Pendulum". Everytime 1 faction disappointed him, he'd side with the other. Everytime his wives & Lord Chancellors displeased him, he'd pick a candidate from the opposite faction to work with next.

For Example:

King Henry's first Lord Chancellor was Cardinal Wolsey, a reformer. His 2nd Lord Chancellor was Thomas More, a conservative. The religious pendulum was about to swing back to the reformists' side. A man named Thomas Audley, who was a puppet of The Boleyns, was about to become the next Lord Chancellor, but as Thomas Audley was a Protestant Reformer and a mere puppet of The Boleyns, Christian & his sister Christina couldn't let that happen.

Under the cover of night, while Audley was on his way back home from his studies & training in preparation to become the next Lord Chancellor, Christina walked past him in the streets of London. In 1 fell swoop, without any witnesses around, Christina pulled a sword out of her dress & sliced Thomas Audley's neck, killing him before he could become Lord Chancellor.

Christina swiftly left the scene.

Thomas Audley's death was thus labelled as a robbery gone wrong, and as the reformists had no other candidate for the Lord Chancellorship & they couldn't train one in time, King Henry gave the Lord Chancellorship back to the conservatives again by naming Christian as Lord Chancellor of England.

As Lord Chancellor of England, Christian resumed Thomas More's anti-heresy policies, making sure that english translations of The Bible didn't make their way into England & rooting-out Protestant hideouts. He even burnt heretics on the stake & had many Lutherans executed, doing his utmost to undo the Protestant Reformation taking root in England.

Soon after, he directed Thomas Wolsey's former sources of income to him, and he even used his power as Lord Chancellor to transfer full legal ownership of Hampton Court Palace to him.

As Lord Chancellor of England, Christian not only empowered the conservative Catholic faction in The English Court and boosted both his & the crown's wealth, but he also organized & funded the legal system, reforming it wherever necessary, and under his tenure as King Henry's partner in government, Christian became the 2nd richest man in England and he also facilitated secret communications between Queen Catherine of Aragon & Princess Mary. Unfortunately, though, despite his great political power, Christian desperately wanted to facilitate a secret meeting between Queen Catherine & Princess Mary. He desperately wanted to help Princess Mary sneak-out to see her mother 1 more time, but he couldn't because King Henry, the newly crowned "Queen" Anne and Chief Minister Thomas Cromwell were watching his every move. King Henry explicitly commanded that Catherine & Mary should be kept separate, and he couldn't even adjust Princess Mary's schedule without arousing suspicion from the reformist, so unfortunately, he couldn't do anything.

When Anne Boleyn was crowned & named "Queen", Christian & Christina intentionally refused to attend the wedding despite their prominent & senior positions in court, creating excuses for their absence, citing busy schedules, personal issues & mental health breaks. They even refused to attend Princess Elizabeth's birth & christening.

When Queen Catherine of Aragon died 3 years later, Christian wore black to work for an entire year. Despite not having spent as much time with Queen Catherine as his sister did, Christian did love & respect Queen Catherine, and he never stopped believing that Catherine was the rightful, true & only Queen of England. Her legitimacy was never put into question, and conversely, he never stopped regarding Anne Boleyn as a false queen and Elizabeth as an illegitimate bastard.

When King Henry grew bored of having Anne Boleyn as a wife & queen, Christian found himself in a rare moment of unity with Thomas Cromwell. Cromwell fabricated charges of witchcraft, incest & adultery against Anne Boleyn. Despite knowing that the charges were a load of nonsense, Christian supported these lies if it meant getting rid of Anne Boleyn & avenging Queen Catherine. Soon, Anne was killed & Christian helped King Henry marry Jane Seymour just a few days later.

And he was one of Queen Jane's best supporters all throughout, as Jane Seymour was a woman of the conservative catholic faction, and he worked together with Jane Seymour to bring about proper reconciliation between King Henry & Princess Mary. They still couldn't get King Henry to reconcile with Rome, though, but they did do their best to bring Catholicism back as much as they could, wherever they could.

As Lord Chancellor, Christian also facilitated the escape of thousands of priests, monks & nuns escaping persecution. King Henry would have churchfolk who refused to take the oath of supremacy persecuted, tortured & killed inhumanely, and Christian, finding these acts of torture abhorrent, facilitated "The Great Escapes", where he'd use English & Spanish ships alike to facilitate the evacuation & departure of thousands of catholics out of the country and towards Spain.

It was one of the riskiest & most daring things he'd ever done.

The treasury was running dry. King Henry's father, King Henry VII, had left behind a full treasury but King Henry VIII used the treasury with massive irresponsibility. He wasted the money on pointless wars with France, jousting, partying, courting nobles to stay loyal to him, giving gifts to his mistresses, etc. Not wanting to appeal to parliament, Chief Minister Thomas Cromwell urged King Henry to dissolve the monasteries of England because they were wealthy. Tens of thousands of priests, monks, nuns and vulnerable citizens who relied on these institutions became impoverished & homeless because of this. Christian believes that the dissolution was completely unjust. The church saved its money as best as it could. They made & kept all that money fair & square, and King Henry was the one who squandered his inheritance yet made others suffer for it.

He completely believes that King Henry & Cromwell were completely in the wrong but he was powerless to stop the dissolution asides from saving as many catholics as he could & being able to protect a small amount of monasteries.

After King Henry married Queen Jane Seymour, Queen Jane eventually gave birth to a boy whom King Henry named "Edward". After Queen Jane Seymour died, she was mourned by Christian.

After that, Thomas Cromwell arranged a marriage between King Henry & Anne of Cleves. But King Henry disliked Anne of Cleves so he had Thomas Cromwell executed, which Christian was more than happy to obey.

In this version of history, Christian had Thomas Cromwell killed by letting catholic survivors of his dissolution beat him up before burning him alive at the stake as a Lutheran Arch-Heretic.

After that, Christian convinced the king to appont Bishop Stephen Gardiner as Archbishop of Canterbury, the highest religious office in all of England, and together, they were able to better get rid of Protestantism in the government.

This was one of the riskiest things Christian ever did.

See, Cranmer was a Protestant Bishop and yet despite this, King Henry kept Cranmer around because Cranmer was useful to the crown & state. He actually almost became Archbishop of Canterbury had Christian not intervened and convinced King Henry to choose Gardiner instead.

Knowing that Cranmer was the strongest "holy man" in the reformists' side, Christian actually had Cranmer assassinated. He did not know the depth of King Henry's care towards Cranmer, and King Henry's rage when Cranmer died was nigh volcanic, to say the least. As Lord Chancellor, he was tasked with finding the killers, with King Henry unaware that Christian was the mastermind of Cranmer's death.

Christian framed someone else for the crime, narrowly avoiding getting executed by King Henry because King Henry had a habit of executing those he deemed "failures".

He's grateful he killed Cranmer after Cromwell died. If he had killed Cranmer before Cromwell died, Cromwell would've easily been able to detect who the most likely suspect was. Lucky him.

Christian resumed service to King Henry by continuing to:

• Purge heresy
• Improve the justice system
• Improve tax collection systems
• Touring the countryside
• Visiting Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, France, The Netherlands & even Germany on behalf of the king for diplomatic purposes

In this version of history, he also successfully managed to convince The Pilgrimage of Grace (an uprising from Northern England where 40,000 men marched to London to depose or free King Henry, believing him to have been corrupted by evil Protestant advisors. In this version of history, Christian spoke to The Pilgrimage of Grace himself & managed to convince them to calm down & back down, not wanting anymore of his Catholic brothers to die.

He also cemented a Catholic Alliance with Spain, and he also built many forts in England to improve national security. He expanded & modernized England's navy.

After years of serving as the 2nd richest & most powerful man in all of England, Christian got fed-up with the king. He had built good clout with other nations as England's Lord Chancellor and a leading diplomat & business partner.

Christian poisoned King Henry while no one was looking. He poured the blood of someone with Sweating Sickness into the king's wine and let him drink it. The King became sick with the sweating sickness, and he eventually moved to secure the throne for himself.

King Henry's death was soon announced to the kingdom, and the reaction was mixed. Some were sad that the king died but many were happy that the tyrant was dead.

Of course he couldn't kill all of his targets in 1 fell swoop. He had 2 more problems: Prince Edward & Princess Elizabeth.

With support from many soldiers, the welsh, the Scots, the Irish, the Spanish & even the French, he launched a coup of the palace to seize the crown for himself. Prince Edward & Princess Elizabeth raised a Protestant Army in England to fight Christian & Princess Mary (who sided with Christian), and England fell into civil war. Catholic vs. Protestant.

After Christian defeated Prince Edward in The Battle of Naseby, Edward & Elizabeth escaped to Germany to seek refuge in the heartland of Protestantism itself, but Christian wasn't about to let them go without a fight, no.

Co-ordinating with the Spanish Habsburgs, and utilizing his army & navy, he invaded Germany to hunt Edward & Elizabeth down, crushing The German Princes & securing the crown & throne for himself.

And now that's where we are.

Christian passed a bill through parliament, along with a papal dispensation to rename himself.

Christian's original last name was "Manners". Christian Manners. "King Christian I of England & Wales", becoming King by "Right of Conquest", an old English custom where a man can become King of England if he succeeded in defeating & conquering other claimants.

As the new King of England & Wales in the prime of his life, he has a few goals he needs to accomplish:

• Dissolve The Church of England as a separate religion
• Reconcile England with Rome
• Restore Catholicism
• Purge Protestantism from England & Wales
• Restore the monasteries & bring the priests, monks & nuns back to England
• Bring law, order & peace back to England
• Make England safer, richer & more prosperous
• Improve England's diplomatic relations with other countries
• Figure-out what to to do with Princess Mary, Daughter of Catherine of Aragon. She did nothing wrong and she's one of his allies and he once also protected her. Plus Spain mainly agreed to help Christian under the agreement that Mary be kept safe.
• Impose Absolutism
• Neuter Parliament
• Find spouses for his siblings to marry
• Exhume Queen Catherine of Aragon's body & have her reburied in Westminster Abbey with full honors as a Queen of England & Wales

• Countess Dowager Marche Manners - Mother
• Duchess Christina Manners - Younger Twin Sister
• Thomas Manners - Younger Brother

Of course she wasn't just an idle character. Christian was busy being Lord Chancellor and Christina couldn't just be a lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon forever, so Christina helped Christian by becoming England's first ever female diplomatic ambassador. She went around Europe more often than he did, and she also helped him make as much money for England as possible.

King Henry thus named her Duchess of St. Albans.

Asides from being Lord Chancellor, Earl of Rutland & Duke of Rutland, he was also named "Duke of Bedford" and "Duke of Gloucester" for his service to the crown, and he was the first man in English history to be named "Archduke".

Christian rebelled when Katherine Howard was still Queen prior to her execution. Christian knew Henry was about to swing back to protestantism the moment Katherine's pre-contract with Henry Mannox and her affairs with Thomas Culpeper and others were exposed. He couldn't let Catherine Parr the Reformer become Queen #6.

1. Agricultural Revolution on His Estates

· Converted his inherited lands into highly productive agricultural zones.
· Introduced advanced crop rotation and land management techniques.
· His estates became models of efficiency, producing abundant seasonal harvests year after year.

2. Domestic Cloth Industry

· Bypassed the traditional export of raw wool to Flanders.
· Built working houses in London and elsewhere to manufacture high-quality cloth in England.
· Created a self-sufficient textile industry, keeping profits at home.

3. Anglo-Dutch Northeast Company

· Established a trading company that challenged the Hanseatic League’s monopoly in the Baltic.
· Traded cloth, arms, and luxury goods with Sweden, Poland, German cities, and even Russia.
· Imported grain, timber, and natural resources.
· Operated cleanly—no slavery, no piracy, no antagonizing major powers.

4. East India Company (Founding Investor)

· Helped create the English East India Company.
· Funded voyages around Africa to India.
· Sold silver and low-value goods in exchange for a fortune in spices.

5. Naval Protection Contract with the Crown

· When Barbary pirates threatened his Indian Ocean route, he used the navy to defend his ships.
· Still made a rich & abundant profit.

6. Diversified Manufacturing

· Expanded beyond cloth into armaments and finer manufactured goods.
· Bought and improved mills across England.
· Modernized production methods across multiple industries.

7. Hampton Court & Wolsey’s Assets

· Redirected most of Cardinal Wolsey’s former income streams to himself.
· Seized Hampton Court Palace as his personal property and as a personal residence.

8. Baltic Trade Dominance

· English ships under his banner dominated Baltic sea routes.
· Supplied warring nations with armaments and supplies—profiting from conflict without direct involvement.
· Made England a major player in northern European commerce.

9. Avoidance of Corruption

· Unlike many wealthy nobles, Christian built his fortune through legitimate trade and innovation.
· Avoided slavery, piracy, and exploitative colonial practices common among other merchants.

• In King Henry's final years, Christian insisted that the king save-up as much money as possible which he then inherited when he became the new King.
• Every single reformist he had arrested & killed - from Audley to Anne to Cromwell to Cranmer - he seized their property, wealth, assets & personal material possessions and made it his. As revenge against The Boleyns, he even had Hever Castle - their home - nationalized by him, and he had the Boleyns stripped of their royal titles. He also took the money from those areas they ruled over, like Rochford which George Boleyn owned but as he had no children, Rochford eventually returned back to the crown's ownership.

Bottom Line:

Christian Manners transformed England from an economic backwater into a commercial power. He was fabulously rich, second only to the king himself—and arguably more influential in shaping England’s long-term economic future than any noble of his generation.

Thomas Howard guided Christian & Christina when they were new to the court. Norfolk even assisted Christian in his studies in Oxford by sending money & updates on the goings-on at court. But Norfolk was also the one who brought Anne Boleyn to court. He also turned against Queen Catherine, a fellow Conservative.

So he has some really mixed feelings about him.

He never felt the embrace of a woman.