History of Urcea (1798-1902)

The History of Urcea from 1798-1902, sometimes also called the Reform Period, consists of period of time from the end of the reign of King Lucás III to the restoration of House de Weluta following the Red Interregnum and First Great War. Chastened from significant defeats during the Second Caroline War, Urcea entered a period of national renewal and reform, bringing about political and social changes as well as a cultural awakening of Urcean identity. Most of the period is taken up by a period known as the "Aedanicad", the reign of King Aedanicus VIII, which saw Urcea make major territorial gains in the Grand Duchy of Carolina, Dericania, and overseas as well. The period of reform strengthened the economy, society, and military, and the increased influence of the military lead to a coup in 1889 that established a Crown Regency. The Regency itself saw an accelerated pace of reforms, including the Administrative Reorganization Act of 1892 which established Urcea's modern internal borders. Loyalists of House de Weluta and international allies would come together to depose the Regency and restore the Monarchy in 1902.

End of Imperial control
Undeterred by the Princes of the Holy Levantine Empire taking advantage of him and despite his reduced force presence, King Brian III continued to prosecute the war in an effort to regain the Imperial Throne and restore order in the Empire. The Princes sued for peace following the election of 1799 on the terms of Brian merely accepting the election, but this time he turned the offer down. Fighting continued in the Second Caroline War at mostly a draw until 1802, where the Royal Army was ejected from Carolina following its defeat at the Battle of Durham in June. The King positioned his forces in a defensive position at the Northgate and tried to sue for peace under the same terms, but now the Empire demanded separation of the Grand Duchy of Carolina from Urcea, which was rejected. Imperial forces were unable to break through the Northgate until October of 1803, when a small force of Burgoignesc landed on the Odoneru coast south of the Pralia Mountains and advanced on the Royal Army from behind in a coordinated attack with the Imperial Army. The Royal Army disintegrated at the Battle of the Northgate and King Brian was forced to flee to Urceopolis in disguise. The door was now open for the Imperial Army to sack much of the Urcean heartland, but it decided to take preparations the Northgate to prevent a counterattack on Carolina before marching. The Imperial Army's command began to discuss the possibility of partitioning the Duchy of Holchester, Gassavelia, and, critically, the Electorate of Canaery and its neighboring duchies from the Urcean Crown.

A later depiction of Prince Niall in the highlands.

In an event that would become legendary, the 22-year old Prince of Halfway, Niall, snuck out of Urceopolis on November 24th under the cover of night after having being forbidden to do so by his father, and rode from Urceopolis to the famously loyal Ionian Plateau alone on horseback. According to legend - and some scholars who have analyzed subsequent orders of battle have attested that it is plausible - the Prince was caught up to by a cohort of the Household Life Guard, sent to detain him and escort him back to the Julian Palace. The Prince not only convinced them to allow him to proceed, but according to the legend the Cohort joined his party en route to the Highlands. Upon arrival, in a personal appeal not unlike that of his ancestor, Emperor Leo III of the Holy Levantine Empire, Niall raised the clans of the Highlands and launched a guerrilla campaign in order to harass and impede the advance of the Imperial Army. The Highlanders lost every actual field battle they were forced to fight, but Niall's legend grew as he personally lead his men in the field and, unlike his father, never fled before his force retreated in good order. It was during this time that he acquired the nickname he would bear for the rest of his life, even after his accession to King - "The Black Prince", due to the Highlanders' frequency of night raids and strikes. The Imperial Army spent much of 1804 chasing Niall across the Ionian Plateau. The Prince also famously crossed the Ionian mountains and raised Ómestaderoi militia and raiders, striking at Imperial camps in Carolina, previously thought safe. Despite his triumphs in every battle fought so far, Emperor Mauricio I could neither pin down the prince nor conclusively determine how many soldiers were in the field against him, buying the Kingdom vital time. At the end of the 1804 campaign season, the Emperor attempted to bypass the Ionian Plateau altogether and marched down the Urce River, but was halted by Castle Welute. With the Ionians at his flanks and the formidable Castle along the banks of the river, bypassing the Castle to march directly towards Urceopolis would prove an extremely dangerous proposition, threatening to entirely cut off the Imperial Army from its line of retreat and supply line. The Imperial Army advanced towards the Castle and there was skirmishing between the Imperial Army and Castle garrison throughout the fall, but the Emperor thought better of a direct assault and retreated back to Northgate where the Army would winter. During that winter of 1804-05, the Imperial Army was constantly harassed by small bands of Ionian raiders loyal to the Black Prince, and by spring the Army was poorly supplied and in poor morale.

By the time of the 1805 campaign season, King Brian had raised enough men to reforge the Royal Army, although he agreed to a concession to the Concilium Daoni in order to raise the funds to pay for it. He agreed to the demand that a Chancellor of the Royal Treasury, a vicar of the Procurator, be created and that the Daoni had the power to appoint one. He also agreed to the demand that a formal vote of approval had to be taken by the Daoni in order to approve the King's appointments to the Concilium Purpaidá - the Concession of 1747 only required a "general consensus of approval". With another important development in the Constitution of Urcea, King Brian departed Urceopolis, marching north, and, combined with his son's forces he defeated the beleaguered Imperial Army at the Battle of Tarrin in May 1805, sending the Imperial Army back north of the Northgate. A subsequent victory occurred in the Duchy of Holchester the same month, where the civil conflict between pro- and anti- Urcean nobles which began in 1798 was ended by a combination of Ómestaderoi militia from Carolina and local pro-Velucian Dukes, who won a decisive battle not far from Holchester. King Brian's forces were unable to cross the Northgate themselves, but the Imperial Army and Emperor saw that their supply lines across Holchester were now cut, and subsequently sued for peace under the terms offered in 1802 - namely, the surrender of the Grand Duchy of Carolina, which would be garrisoned by the Imperial Army from that point onward. The King begrudgingly agreed and spent the rest of his life cursing the decision, growing extremely obese and unable. The Black Prince, meanwhile, grew in popularity and became something of a Prince of the people before the King sent him away to study in Béyasar, where he encountered students of the Kilikas Enlightenment. Though he rejected much of what he deemed their "excesses", Prince Niall learned many useful ideas for reform there before being recalled to Urceopolis in 1809 - his father had died, and he was to be crowned King.

Niall's reforms
King Niall V sought to combine his experience during the war with his education to bring about a fundamental change in the way Urcea was governed and fought its wars. Niall sought to prevent Urcea from ever losing in a manner similar to the Second Caroline War again, but more aptly noted that Urcea had a far greater population than the Kingdom of Dericania but continually found itself at numerical disadvantages in wars with its neighbors. King Niall's reign - a key part of the so-called Reform Era - emphasized the realization that Urcea, if it engaged the collective will and resources of its entire population, the Apostolic Kingdom could dominate much of Levantia without any real competition. To this end, Niall's reign focused on a three-pronged approach: the first of which was administrative reforms aimed at creating a levée en masse, which included the first formal Kingdom-wide census in 1810; the second of which involved political liberalization aimed at increasing national "buy-in" and engagement for the Kingdom's policy decisionmaking, and; the third of which involved reforms implementing a basic national education as well as a publicly subsidized nationalistic art program, which included the adoption of a new national flag in 1830. The key plank of the second reform included the issuance of the Great Bull of 1811, which guaranteed certain civil liberties and political rights. The Bull was developed by the King with significant input from his chief advisor Corio de Weluta, a distant cousin and member of the Royal dynasty. To this day the Great Bull is widely known as "Urcea's Bill of Rights", and played yet another key step in the development of the Constitution of Urcea. The third reform brought about the first organized national propaganda effort in Urcea and likely in Levantia. As part of that program, many drew parallels between King Niall and Saint Julius I, who utilized the large numbers of Latino-Gaels and Gaelic people to field armies capable of defeating Gallawa. Besides the favorable comparison to the national founding father, this comparison also drew links between Gallawa and the present Holy Levantine Empire, both as enemies of the Urcean people.

It was at this time, and partly due to the propaganda and education efforts, that Urcea's neighbors in the Holy Levantine Empire as well as the Empire in general were portrayed to the people as a "foreign master" of Urcea and its subjects, and that the "Black Prince" fought for national liberation and national defense during the Second Caroline War. The relationship between the Empire and Urcea grew increasingly antagonistic in this context beginning a period that would become known by historians as the Recess of the Julii. The Empire began to use the Imperial Inquisition for political reprisals in Urcea after the end of the war, leading to increasing disillusion with the Inquisition by the King and Government of Urcea. In 1815, King Niall V obtained permission from Pope Pius VII to banish the Inquisition from Urcea, and in its place he created the office of Censor. The Emperor of the Levantines, Mauricio I, suffered a major loss of face after opting not to prosecute a war against Urcea for what was considered an illegal act under the law of the Holy Levantine Empire. Niall's governmental reforms also included the empowerment of the Gildertach, giving them fuller oversight of trade negotiations and agreements. Niall's reform of the Gildertach was the last major one done to the institution, though a formalization of its powers over trade gradually came to be understood during the reign of King Aedanicus VIII later in the 19th century.

Abroad, the independence and establishment of Paulastra provided an opportunity to spread the influence and prestige of the House de Weluta with the new nation, who shared a partial Urcean heritage. Niall sent his chief advisor and Procurator, Corio de Weluta, to the Paulastrans to become their King in 1824. Niall would later say that losing Corio was "like the death of a brother", but recognized the value in creating dynastic relations with the new nation.

King Niall's reign, which concluded in 1837, mostly achieved all three reforms. In 1827, he reached another settlement with the Concilium Daoni in which the King's nomination for Procurator had to be approved by majority vote of the Daoni, increasing their standing further as a national legislature. By 1835, the Royal Army - reformed into a permanent, standing army - was the largest in Levantia. Urcea's enemies - viewed by the Urcean people as the Holy Levantine Empire - were in decline. King Niall V died in 1837, but left to his son and successors the tools of a politically engaged and militarily powerful nation - tools that were aimed to be used in Carolina as soon as the opportunity presented itself.

The rejuvenation of the Kingdom's fortunes under the reign of Niall and his grandson precipitated a rejuvenation of the national spirit as well, and the nation fully embraced the Romantic movement by the 1820s in both art and literature. Part of the Romantic movement in Urcea centered around the notion of reclaiming the identity and greatness of Great Levantia as opposed to the historical influences of the Holy Levantine Empire, which Urceans sought to distance themselves from as part of the Recess of the Julii. A major expression of this budding cultural renaissance was the Tria nomina movement, which sought to restore Levantine-style naming conventions. The movement reached its height in 1858 as Niall's grandson, King Aedancius, convened all of the Estates of Urcea and established the Tria nomina as the naming method of the estates, and he personally adopted the naming style as well for House de Weluta. The naming movement would continue to prosper until the late 1880s.

Carolina and the "Aedanicad"
Niall's immediate successor was his often-sickly 37-year old son, Patrick II, whose tumultuous and short reign required long periods of regency before ultimately succumbing to illness and dying in 1841. Patrick's 19-year old son, now King Aedanicus VIII, would rule for a momentous five decades, defining the period of Urcean history known popularly as the "Aedanicad". While the King would become accustomed to political maneuvering as he grew older, a great deal of power devolved to the Concilium Purpaidá and Concilium Daoni during his early reign, as the King deliberately delegated authority to the Councils. King Aedanicus was not, however, totally uninterested in governing; he continued his grandfather's reforms to the Royal Army in preparation for a potential war in Carolina, not only to reclaim national honor but also to build a northern canal to the Vandarch which might solidify the Urce River as a major international waterway. King Aedanicus, in consultation with the councils, declared war on the Grand Duchy of Carolina on April 13th, 1843, beginning the Third Caroline War. Not unlike the War of the Caroline Succession, most of the forces arrayed against Urcea were from the Kingdom of Dericania, as the Deric Princes once again banded together in order to fend off Urcean aggression. Unlike those previous wars, King Aedanicus VIII used the reforms of his predecessors to begin mass levying as part of what was framed as a "great patriotic effort" of "national unification". While the Royal Army began to mass huge numbers of forces, the standing core of the Royal Army crossed into Carolina and, like in the First Caroline War, quickly enveloped the Grand Duchy with the help of descendants of the Ómestaderoi, which capitulated on July 9th, 1843, and was annexed into the Apostolic Kingdom the next day. The remainder of the nearly-five year conflict would see Urcean forces invade and eventually overwhelm the Kingdom of Dericania, dealing another critical blow to the stability of the Holy Levantine Empire and creating significant enmity between Urceans and Derics as forces of the Royal Army burnt Corcra to the ground, only leaving the grand Imperial Palace complex left standing, albeit looted. Throughout the war, the Royal Army made grueling but ultimately victorious progress as hundreds of thousands of Urceans fanned out throughout Dericania, overwhelming many of the local principalities.

Aedanicus Carolinicus, a contemporary depiction of King Aedanicus VIII following the victory in the Third Caroline War.

During the war, important changes occurred to the growing Constitution of Urcea. As a consequence of the continued financial support for fielding very large armies in Dericania, King Aedanicus VIII offered a major concession to the Concilium Daoni - namely, that it be possible for the Chancellor of the Royal Treasury to be a sitting Delegate of the Concilium Daoni. Following this concession in 1845, the very first Chancellor and Temporary President was elected in the Daoni from the National Pact by merging the two most important offices a Delegate could hold, creating the modern office of the Urcean premiership. Following decades of demands and with many hundreds of thousands of men in the field, King Aedanicus finally conceded to universal male suffrage for Delegate elections in 1846.

The war ended in 1848 with Urcea emerging totally victorious and the Grand Duchy of Carolina permanently connected to the Urcean crown in addition to the annexation of Transionia, which completed an eastern riverine border running from Gassavelia to the Duchy of Holchester by annexing ten counties and duchies that were previously the westernmost portion of Dericania. The withdrawing Urcean Royal Army lead to nationalistic uprisings beginning in Dericania as civil authority in the area was temporarily absent. The defeat of the Kingdom of Dericania lead to the rise of Derian nationalism, and Derian nationalists attempted to oust the various princes in Dericania and unite into a single Deric state, one that could stand on its own against Urcea. The subsequent unrest - and question over whether or not Bergendii or other people had a place in the Deric state - lead to the First Fratricide. For his victory, after the Great Landsmeet a decade later, as part of the tria nomina system he enacted, King Aedanicus VIII adopted the agnomen Carolinicus at the opening ceremony of the Caroline Arch. As the vast Royal Army returned home to vote for the first time in the 1850 election, a more radical new generation of National Pact Delegates swept into office, inaugurating a period of more aggressive reforms to the Urcean state and a period of feuding between King Aedanicus and the Concilium Daoni. It was during this period that the office of Procurator returned to a period of greater prominence and was politicized for the first time, as the King appointed Delegates as Procurator in order to grasp the upper hand for control of the Royal Treasury with the Chancellor. While it was never prohibited, the precedent of Delegates serving as Procurator established another Constitutional precedent that would later allow the Chancellor and Temporary President to simultaneously serve as Procurator, accumulating a wide array of powers over the Urcean state. Aedanicus would also concede, in the 1860s, the power for the Chancellor to choose members of the Purpaidá via constitutional advice to the King. Aedanicus's reign continued for several decades, but the increasing reform of the military lead to increasing political power of the armed forces. The regime's continued reforms and the nation's prosperity lead to stability for the Crown, but the relative power of the Armed Forces became a major political issue in the public and in the Concilium Daoni during the 1870s. Increasingly, the Royal Army was becoming an attractive destination for members of the privilegiata class, and the army became a hotbed of reform-minded politics as the 19th century progressed. During the period, and in the 1870s in particular, the National Pact, sometimes referred to as the Party of Order, was the dominant political organization in Urcea. It controlled wide majorities in the Daoni during this period and faced very little organized opposition besides the nascent power of the Armed Forces. Due to the success of Crown Liberalism during the period, the National Pact considered the Government of Urcea its own "property", in the sense that they had secured hard fought reforms towards a liberalized Constitution of Urcea and they were willing to fight to defend it. This set the stage for conflict between the National Pact and the armed forces at the end of the century.

In the 1850s, following the end of the war in Carolina, Aedanicus set his eyes on western Crona; he was the first Apostolic King of Urcea to do so. Since the middle of the 17th century, the Levantine powers - Urcea included - held various trade rights throughout northwestern Crona around the Sea of Nysdra, especially within Quetzenkel. The nascent states of Burgundie held trade investments and colonial interests - even in its early state - in Crona, Punth, and Audonia, and King Aedanicus believed Urcea's next project should be a demonstration of its power abroad. While the Royal Navy was mostly inadequate in comparison to other Occidental powers, it would be suitable enough to bring diplomats and soldiers to Crona. Power projection was not Aedanicus's only goal, however; in an effort to strengthen army recruiting, the King had promised land to veterans of the Third Caroline War, and territory in the Carolinas had long since been taken. The Urcean territory in Crona would be a settler colony rather than a mere exploitative one. Based out of trading centers in Quetzenkel, Urcean officials began to search the neighboring regions for a suitable territory to acquire via negotiation if possible. In 1857, a suitor was found; the Northern Confederation tribe of the Schoharie was willing to sell land in its southernmost tip, which was primarily swampy and unusable to the locals. Urcea purchased the land for 4 million talers, and King Aedanicus formally proclaimed the Colony of New Harren the next year, as veterans and others willing to try their luck began settling the land in 1859.

Aedanicus's reign was characterized by a cultural renaissance in Urcea. A spirit of national renewal had been on the rise since the end of the Second Caroline War during the reign of King Niall, as the reform efforts successfully created a sense of national consciousness. This sense of consciousness exploded after the Third Caroline War, and Romantic nationalism swept the nation, though, unlike in other countries, in induced adoration and praise for King Aedanicus and his predecessor King Niall for their wisdom and strength in leading the country. Though many historians have dismissed Aedanicus's reign as overrated and the praise he received by contemporaries unwarranted, especially considering the reduction of prerogatives of the Apostolic King of Urcea during his reign, 21st century historians have given Aedanicus praise for his full embrasure of the cultural revival in the country at the time. Besides commissioning public arts programs, Aedanicus fully engorged himself in everything the Romantic movement had to offer. Famously, the King convened a Great Landsmeet in 1858 - an ancient Urcean institution not seen since the 13th century - to adopt the Tria nomina system, which recalled ancient Levantine naming systems. The King also involved himself heavily in the appearance of the nation, introducing landscape architecture to the country, which would lay the groundwork for the success of the city beautiful movement in Urcea following the restoration in the early 20th century. His building program included construction of the Caroline Arch, celebrating the Kingdom's victory in the Third Caroline War. Most famously, the King connected several disparate parks - including the Royal Gardens outside the Julian Palace built in the Imperial era - into a massive park known as the Royal Green, which stretched across the entirety of the Pale. The dome of the Julian Palace had collapsed in 1858, and accordingly, following up on the construction of the new park, the King began a massive renovation of the Julian Palace in 1861. The project, mostly an entire reconstruction of the building, which had been last altered in the 17th century, brought its current Gothic revival form into being. The King relocated to Castle Welute on a semi-permanent basis after the 1858 collapse and subsequent renovation. During this time, the King also completed a renovation of The Praetorium, the government hub for both Urceopolis and the Archduchy of Urceopolis. All three projects were complete in time for the 1869-70 International Exposition, when the palace was opened to international visitors for the first six months of the Exposition. The King also ordered the removal of several layers of outer defenses of the then-neglected Castle Welute, including the crumbling outer walls. The King also introduced planned revitalization of the Castle complex, though it was not carried out until the restoration of his son, King Patrick III. Another major project of the King's was the construction of the Carolina-Grand Canal, beginning in 1865 and completed in 1880. The Canal was the first access point to the Vandarch from the Urce River, and the project helped Urceopolis continue its ascent as a major world economic capital. The canal's 15-year construction would later cause significant problems for the government, as the cost of construction played a role in the large debts incurred by Urcea by the 1880s.

Like many of his predecessors, Aedanicus was also concerned with legal reform and efforts to centralize in order to better utilize the Kingdom's extensive resources. The dukes and counts in the former territories of Angla and Gassavelia had retained their privileges and autonomy in part as a way to ensure their loyalty and keep their territories tied to Urcea, an expedient that was no longer viewed as necessary due to the power demonstrated by Urcea in the Third Caroline War. It was also unclear whether or not these territories were formally included within the Crown of Urcea or were merely part of the Imperial Kingdom of Urcea. Aedanicus's chief constitutional goal of his reign was to bring uniformity of royal power to the entire realm including these "ethnic" outlier territories acquired during the Great Confessional War, and most Urceans viewed the "feudal" authority of local nobility to be an anachronism in the otherwise modernizing reigns of Niall and Aedanicus. During the latter's reign, the Concilium Daoni passed several initiatives supported by the King to reduce the autonomy of the nobles. Chief among these was the repeal of the right to appeal to the Emperor of the Levantines in 1854, essentially tying them to the Crown and subsuming them into Crown law as adopted by the King and Councils. This action provoked considerable unrest both in the territories themselves and in the Holy Levantine Empire; the Imperial Diet condemned the action as illegal. Nevertheless, Royal tax collectors and members of the Royal Army began to flood into the territories in 1855 followed by "policy advisors" to the dukes and counts the next year. While it would take the Regency period to fully curb the influence of the local nobility, Aedanicus had laid the first steps for doing so and was content for the remainder of his reign in the authority he held in former Angla and Gassavelia. The centralization plan also included reducing the autonomy of Urcea's few overseas possessions, including New Archduchy and Antilles. While the efforts were largely successful in Antilles and resulted in better administration that prevented the abuses of many merchants based on the island, the centralization efforts in New Archduchy lead to significant resentment in the colony and an eventual rift growing in relations between Urcea and its colony.

Aedanicus and his grandfather Niall had successfully rebuilt the Royal Army leading to its decisive success in the Third Caroline War, but during the period the Royal Navy had been seriously neglected, and by the 1860s the fleet was primarily comprised of wooden sailing ships and some steamers built during King Niall's reign. The shortfalls of the Royal Navy were on display while Urcea worked to acquire New Harren, which was accompanied by serious logistical problems due to non-steam powered travel time and ship reliability. Aedanicus began a large overhaul of the navy during this period, intending to construct more than a hundred armored cruisers. The navy revitalization effort lead to a large shipbuilding boom, with new firms such as the Royal Sealift Company being founded to handle the increased demand. The navy was all-ironclad by the early 1870s, and the Urcean navy was, for the time, relatively advanced and powerful. The navy added several protected cruisers in the mid-1880s, but the cost of the naval overhaul was mounting and the various political instabilities that characterized the 1880s lead to the cancellation of further naval development just prior to the election of 1885, though the economic shipbuilding boom had ended by the mid-1870s leading to a market consolidation of shipbuilding contracts. Consequently, when Urcea's navy would next go to war in the Red Interregnum in the late 1890s and early 1900s, most of its ships were already in use for three decades and were considered mostly obsolete. Aedanicus's interest in naval affairs would be inherited by his son, however, who would prosecute a similar period of buildup during his own reign. Urcea attempted to expand its New Harren colony in 1881 using the power of its navy; while efforts to subdue the Northern Confederation's coasts were entirely successful, the interior of the Confederation held out and the Royal Army's expeditionary force failed to make meaningful progress. The colony was ceded territory in the ensuing peace, but the small gains from an expensive war were a bitter disappointment for the increasingly divided Urcean government.

The King's reforms also included changes to the Gildertach, a process began by his grandfather. In 1848, Aedanicus formalized many of the changes made by King Niall V by consolidating them - and other statutes - into the Guild Law, which only the Gildertach could amend. The Guild Law set the number and scope of the guilds, how the Gildertach was governed, and set forth the responsibilities and limitations of the power of the Gildertach. The institution was now also required to meet at least five times a year as opposed to the requirement of five times per decade as mandated in the 17th century. Consequently, the Gildertach found itself without a permanent home, sometimes meeting in the Julian Palace when the Concilium Daoni was out of session, sometimes meeting in the Praetorium, but most commonly meeting in the Hermitage in the Grand Duchy of Harren, far from Urceopolis. As part of his large construction effort, King Aedanicus VIII began construction on the Guilder Palace to permanently house the Gildertach, and it was completed in 1857.

The Aedanicad was considered a period of unrivaled prosperity in Urcea and what was then a peak for the arts, science, philosophy, construction, and culture. The Ionian Hotel War is sometimes viewed as a symbol of Urcean society during the period.

Aedanicus's decline
In 1870, the seventy-two families of the Kingdom of Crotona launched what is known as the Valerian Rebellion following the removal of one of their members as the Custóir of the Valerii estate in combination with economic reforms launched on the island. Following two years of fighting between the Royal Army and forces loyal to the seventy-two, the latter were broken and their political and economic hold over the island destroyed. Domestic violence on this scale in Urcea had been unheard of since the Great Confessional War and the incident was deeply embarrassing to the country and King Aedanicus. Following the war, military rule was established on the islands for the remaining time of the Kingdom's existence.

During the 1880s, King Aedanicus, now in his 60s, was struggling with various illnesses and would be known to have long lapses of reason and consciousness. Beginning a tradition that remains through the present, the King decided to permanently relocate to Castle Welute to take in the "country airs" and to escape the looming political chaos in Urceopolis. Despite this retreat from public life, the King finalized publishing the Consolidated Laws of HMCM's Kingdom and State, a sweeping legal reform and consolidation that considerably eased administrative and judicial burdens. The Election of 1885 threw the government into chaos, as dissenting factions within the National Pact could not agree on a leader. King Aedanicus opted to appoint a leading General, Gréagóir FitzRex, as Procurator in an attempt to co-opt the military and restoring order in the government. FitzRex received a very narrow approval from the Concilium Daoni and began to exercise increasing control over the government, appointing his own members to the Purpaidá despite that being under the Chancellor's purview. Despite the military's nascent political power, it was not immune from the growing sense of decay at the end of the long Aedanicad that struck every other part of the country and society. While the navy was falling behind technologically, the Royal Army became imbued in a scandal known as the Eight Rifle Affair, in which the Army ordered 8 different standardized rifle designs between 1880 and 1887 due to a series of escalating favors and corruption within the Army and connected industries, with six of the rifles being used for less than a decade. The Eight Rifle Affair was supported by funds specifically appropriated for the conversion to use of as part of a modernization program, and the failure and controversy around it weaked both the Apostolic King and Concilium Daoni. The Eight Rifle Affair was extremely costly to the already-tight government budget, leading to a near-discrediting of the army and a hope for FitzRex's opposition. Army leadership eventually decided to license a foreign design from Veltorina. The adoption of the this semi-successful licensed rifle - dubbed the SR-8 - brought the affair to an end in 1887, finally giving the Royal Army a standardized bolt-action rifle for use for the next decade and a half.

Now empowered, Procurator FitzRex convinced the elderly King to grant him the previously Royal title of Magister Militum, granting FitzRex total control over the armed forces, subsequently inducing the Daoni to vote the powerless title Commander-in-Chief to the King instead. The Daoni remained without a Chancellor and Temporary President for the remainder of the 1886-1890 term, and Procurator FitzRex used this to push through a series of aggressive reforms intended at modernization, which were initially popular. In 1889, King Aedanicus VIII died and supposedly named FitzRex as Crown Regent for the Kingdom rather than the normal succession to his son and heir, the Prince of Halfway, Patrick. Historians, scholars, and forensics experts have long argued whether or not "Aedanicus's Last Will and Testament" was forged. Either way, Procurator Gréagóir FitzRex became Crown-Regent Gréagóir FitzRex, as no King sat in the Julian Palace. The new Crown-Regent swore to install a "legitimate but popular" King following a brief period of reform.

Crown Regency
Gréagóir FitzRex sat on the Julian Throne on behalf of a yet-uncrowned Apostolic King of Urcea, and began to implement a wide-reaching series of reforms. His primary focus was on the elevation of the privilegiata officer class at the expense of the nobility, which he aimed to dissolve. FitzRex also sought to secede Urcea from the Holy Levantine Empire, and align Urcea with Caphiria as part of an anti-socialist coalition in light of the semi-recently established socialist state in Veltorina. However, the most wide-reaching and best remembered reform was the Administrative Reorganization Act of 1892, creating the modern system of provinces, states, and crownlands in use within the Government of Urcea.

The early regency period gave the colony of New Archduchy a pretext to move against Urcea. Chafing for decades under efforts to reduce its autonomy, the colony cited the lack of a King and lack of legitimate Royal authority exercised by FitzRex. Citing that its charter established it as a "crown colony", the colony declared independence on 9 August 1890 stating that the bonds between it and Urcea had lapsed as the latter no longer had a King to rule the former. While FitzRex refused to recognize their independence, he had limited resources - and very little naval capacity - to resist their independence, resolving to reclaim the colony at a later date.

FitzRex's regime heavily relied upon the veneer of legitimacy granted by the Concilium Daoni, whose flag and arms he adopted as the de facto symbols of the nation during a regency period. While continuing to push new laws through the Daoni, observers noted an increasingly autocratic tendency as members of his Concilium Purpaidá were Generals or other army officers loyal to him. The election of 1895 was mired in allegations of fraud, ballot-stuffing, and violence that returned an overwhelming majority in the Daoni for independent politicians aligned with the Crown-Regent. In 1896, FitzRex began to spearhead two of his other major initiatives. He announced the formation of a commission that would disentangle Urcea's economic and political institutions from the Holy Levantine Empire, and that Urcea would secede from the Empire by 1905. His proposal to secede was approved by the Gildertach in February of 1896. Second, he passed the Property and Holdings Requirement Act of 1896. This law reduced the property requirement to join the noble optimate class to virtually 0 talers, and also suspended the mechanisms necessary to enroll and maintain membership in the optimate class, functionally abolishing the class by attrition. While most - even traditionalists and conservatives - had little to offer regarding his class changes, given how irrelevant the optimates were, the decision to pull Urcea out of the Empire was highly controversial. Despite the animosity between Urcean nationalist tendencies and the Empire spawned by the Recess of the Julii, Urcea still had some national pride in its role in such an ancient institution.

In spring 1896, FitzRex began to circulate the notion of a new Apostolic King of Urcea being crowned by 1905 upon the exit of the Kingdom from the Holy Levantine Empire. While FitzRex never formally proposed a candidate to the Daoni, he unofficially negotiated with Daoni leaders and prominent military officials about the possibility of crowning Aedanicus Mandt as Apostolic King. Mandt was the head of the House of Mandt, a relatively prominent optimate family with historic ties to the Creagmer republics. He had descent from a daughter of King Brian II (reigned 1768-1781) and had long maintained his historic relation to Saint Julius I. Despite this, the Mandts did not claim to be part of the Julian dynasty and openly eschewed the Julian identity, instead emphasizing their identity as Custóirs of the Scipii estate. Mandt had a degree of public noteriety and his father had served with distinction in the Third Caroline War, bringing the family public noteriety and fame. Aedanicus Mandt had been responsible for overseeing, during the later reign of Aedanicus VIII, for several building projects in Urceopolis, using the opportunity for self-aggrandizement and political fame. FitzRex alluded to his support for Mandt in a public letter written in March 1896, referring to Mandt as a "prince of the people" both due to his popularity and membership in the Scipii estate. Mandt was broadly unacceptable to nearly all prominent political and military leaders excepting those closest to FitzRex. Many would simply not accept any non-Julian candidate, and many found Mandt to be personally faulty as many leaders believed Mandt's desire for fame would make him a King that could be easily manipulated by FitzRex. The proposal enraged Ionian delegates in the Concilium Daoni and Ionian military leaders, who FitzRex had previously hinted to that he may appoint an outlying member of House de Weluta, who still enjoyed the loyalty of the people of the Ionian Plateau. Many Ionian senior officers and delegates resigned in protest and returned to the Plateau in May 1896. By the end of that month, even FitzRex's closest advisors and supporters believed Mandt to be untenable, and by early June FitzRex conceded in his private writings that Aedanicus Mandt would never be Apostolic King. The Mandt Affair had the effect of consolidating Ionian opposition to the Crown Regency and lead many of FitzRex's supporters to question his political instincts.

Behind his public persona, FitzRex worked to consolidate power by moving away from the bourgeoisie-backed Crown Liberal system of Urcea into a more dictatorial, military, technocratic apparatus. This division between the urban privilegiata and the military privilegiata created most of the political fissures in his regime. The National Pact began to openly contest the 1895 election results in July 1896, resulting in the Regal Army being called in to seize their headquarters and dissolve the party, though most party leaders learned of the operation beforehand and fled to the Ionian Plateau, receiving protection from the recently alienated local leaders. Meanwhile, Crown-Regent Gréagóir FitzRex claimed plausible deniability by decrying the operation having occurred "at the hands of rogues" who "must face the rule of law", but no charges were filed. In 1897, the Crown Regent announced that provincial Governors would not be elected as per the Administrative Reorganization Act of 1892, but rather would be appointed directly by the Crown-Regent with approval of the provincial legislatures, most of which were lead by FitzRex loyalists. This lead to widespread protests, and by July 1897, the National Pact had been outlawed by the Crown Regency on account of it being a "criminal conspiracy against the stability of the state". National Pact leaders fled Urceopolis and rallied clans in the Ionian Plateau into open revolt. Civil war had begun, and it took the names "'97 Rising" or "Red Interregnum" for the blood spilled during the conflict, though some historians use that term to refer to the entirety of FitzRex's administration.

'97 Rising
While the initial revolt was largely between disaffected Crown Liberals and the Regency, leaders of the uprising pledged to recall the Prince of Halfway of House de Weluta, then living in exile in Burgundie, to the Throne. The promise of restoration motivated Church officials to lean towards the side of the insurrectionaries, and the liberal National Pact successfully forged an alliance with traditionalist conservatives who held power in the Ionian Plateau. No large scale fighting occurred in 1897, but by the end of the year a portion of the armed forces had defected to the rebelling parties, which were now calling themselves the "Legitimists". Facing a larger coalition, FitzRex began to move his technocratic regime in an increasingly socialist direction in an attempt to bring the lower classes to his banner, a move that many historians claim was successful and politically shrewd though in complete contravention of FitzRex's stated rationale for his alliance with Caphiria. Early 1898 saw a campaign of Royal Army forces trying and failing to break into the Ionian Plateau in an effort to capture Legitimist leaders, and the failure to do so - culminating with a decisive Legitimist victory at the Battle of Goldvale in April - put the Regency regime on the defensive for much of the remainder of the war. Various states of the Holy Levantine Empire - citing the illegality of Urcea's planned secession and answering calls from within Urcea - declared war following the battle in an effort to help the restoration. Much of the war from 1898 through 1900 focused on the guerilla conflict and small scale clashes domestically, though the war - which was now part of the global First Great War - saw relatively significant naval action in the run up to allied intervention. The presence of large rebel armies on Urcean territory and foreign blockading actions provided FitzRex with the pretext to indefinitely suspend meetings of the Concilium Daoni, leaving total control of the war government in the hands of his handpicked Concilium Purpaidá ministers.

Although the Legitimist Front was active within the the Valley, the Regal Army was having better success keeping most of the allied Imperial forces bottled behind the Ionian Mountains. Attempts by Burgundie and other Imperial nations to bypass the mountains via the Julia Bay were no less successful, as combined efforts of the Regal Navy and Caphiria's Imperial Naval Fleet successfully managed to interdict allied efforts to break through for most of 1898-1901. Despite the availability of machine gun technology, it was not widely employed during the early war, making the Red Interregnum the final major Occidental conflict to employ traditional cavalry charges and other traditional techniques. The early parts of the war saw employment, on both sides, of technology that would later have significant use but was not yet technologically ready for warfare. Most prominently, Caphiria and Urcea collaborated on the creation of fifteen armored cars for use in battle, but each of the fifteen broke down on the battlefield and the idea was scrapped for a decade. The failure of the forces of the Holy Levantine Empire would be temporary, however, as the internal successes of Legitimist forces - which, by February of 1899 induced defections of entire Cohorts and Regiments at a time - opened the doorway for external aid. Defections within the Regal Navy meant that an organized Legitimist navy - sailing out of bases in Gassavelia - took to the seas by the summer of 1899. By August 1899, the Regal-Caphirian joint naval operation no longer held absolute dominion over the Julia Bay. On land, Legitimists scored a significant victory over the Regal Army, defeating it in battle at Northgate and was forcing to retreat. This victory allowed the creation of a Legitimist government in Carolina and allowed Levantine armies to link up with Legitimist forces. Despite this, allied forces could proceed no further as regrouped Regal forces created a successful defensive perimeter stretching from Westglen and Goldvale.

As the war dragged onward with no clear path to victory, the Crown Regent began to search for ways to gain an advantage. The socialist policies FitzRex pursued earlier in the war were enhanced, and the Crown Regent decided to reconvene the Concilium Daoni, which had been suspended since May of the previous year, in October of 1899. The Crown Regent guaranteed elections would proceed on schedule in November of 1900. The Crown Regent also promised that, prior to the secession from the Holy Levantine Empire in 1905, a new Apostolic King of Urcea would be found, and that the Crown Regent was personally pursuing all potential candidates. House de Weluta would be disinherited, but both local and foreign candidates who would stand by the reforms would sit on the Julian Throne. The potential of restoration - and the restoration of the Concilium Daoni - intrigued many and persuaded some moderates to FitzRex's side. A renewed manpower pool helped solidify the war on land, but the war on the sea was gradually slipping from FitzRex as increasing defections from the Regal Navy and the full participation of the Navy of Burgundie lead to something resembling true parity on the seas.

The war would continue as a stalemate through the end of 1900, as in the north Imperial-Legitimist allied forces were unable to break the defensive perimeter with heavy artillery, beginning a period of trench warfare. This would be the end of FitzRex's fortunes, however. The abysmal turnout in the November 1900 elections resulted in a victory for socialists in the 1900 Daoni election. FitzRex accepted the new Daoni in an effort to court revolutionaries, but this move alienated policymakers in Venceia and resulted in a gradual withdrawal of Caphirian material and military support.

With the beginning of the 1901 campaign season, allied forces began several offensives as part of a two pronged effort to cut the nation in two and gain access to the Urcean valley. In the spring, Burgundie and other Imperial allies began an invasion of Urcea in the newly formed province of Burgundiemarch in what would become known as the Overland Campaign. FitzRex had anticipated such a move and heavily fortified the province, leading to Burgoignesc forces being bogged down quickly and leading, ultimately, to operational failure. Burgoignesc and Legitimist forces defeated the Regal Navy and established a blockade of Cana, capturing the city in June in the decisive Fall of Cana. With the port city and most of Canaery under its control, the allies began the Antonine Campaign, an effort to secure access into the Urcean valley by the few routes through the Urcean frontier. With the success of that effort by the end of 1901, allied forces could now enter the Urcean plain by land or by sea, as control of Cana gave a vital base from which to raid and land soldiers. Imperial forces began to stream into Cana and across the countryside, taking much of southern Urcea from the Crown Regency. By the end of 1901, the forces of the Crown Regency were reduced to an area approximately covering the Archduchy of Urceopolis and Eastglen, and most of the remaining navy had defected to the Legitimist cause or surrendered, leading to a blockade over the winter. The Antonine Campaign was considered a decisive blow against the military fortunes of the FitzRex regime, and from its base of operations in Meliferia and along the Via Antonia allied forces began to launch raids across the Archduchy over the winter, severely harming the agricultural output and logistics of the regime.

The "Crowned republic" scandal would embroil FitzRex's government and largely serve to discredit the regency in the eyes of most moderates and especially moderate conservatives. Publicly, FitzRex continued to offer his guarantee that a new King might soon be found on schedule with Urcea's withdrawal from the Empire in 1905. Privately, however, FitzRex soured on the prospect of monarchy given the ability of Patrick, Prince of Halfway in the field and in the public imagination; though FitzRex would not pick someone as strong willed or capable, the position was a threat to him all the same. In August of 1901 the Crown-Regent privately began to draw up plans for reforming the Apostolic Kingdom into the "United Provinces of Urcea" with a strong executive Presidency, which he of course would fill, allowing FitzRex to exercise permanent legitimacy in office. Whether or not FitzRex thought the United Provinces plan would work is unclear, but historians believe he was planning on floating several "trial balloons", so to speak, in advance of revealing the full plan. Government officials leaked the plan at the end of August, outraging the public and forcing FitzRex to entirely disavow the plan. Despite his public disavowal, the Regency began to lose the support of committed constitutional monarchists, who had already been weary of working alongside socialists and professional military officers.

The blockade lead to rapidly deteriorating conditions inside the Regal lines, as food became scarce and most lower class freemen were laid off and sent home due to the lack of available work. Widespread unrest gripped Urceopolis as the city approached starvation by the end of January. The Crown Regent diverted more of his power to the Concilium Daoni in order to reduce the unrest and began to re-purpose some of the Regal Army for night raids across the lines to take foodstores back to the city. The Crown Regent began a semi-effective food rationing system, and began to open the Julian Palace to the public, sharing the Palace's food stores with the masses. These measures were effective in restoring confidence for much of February 1902, but even the Palace's food stores began to run low by the end of the month. FitzRex had restored public confidence in his regime for a temporary time, but the effort became his undoing. On the night of March 2nd, 1902, a family of Urceopolitans were refused larger portions despite the state of their famished children, causing an argument between the family and the workers at the Palace. FitzRex attempted to mediate the discussion, but the argument escalated and the leader of the family stabbed the Crown Regent, leading to the Palace dining hall erupting in a massive riot. FitzRex, not fatally wounded, was trampled in the chaos and was pronounced dead in the Palace. The Daoni met in an emergency session into the early morning of the 3rd, and, following hours of debate, the socialist majority in the Daoni declared a republic which would continue the fight against the Legitimists. It voted to abolish itself and replace itself with a "National Assembly of the Republic".

The Republic
The Urcean Republic was declared on March 3rd, 1902, in the Royal Green to large crowds assembled outside the Julian Palace. The crowd, largely assembled from groups sympathetic to the socialist majority in the new National Assembly, cheered. The new Republican government began to establish laws, create a new food rationing system, organize the now "National Republican Army" out of the old Regal Army, and created national workshops and gardens from which material and food could be provided. It decamped the Julian Palace and determined to take up residence in the Praetorium instead, citing their intent to distance themselves from the "Royal" history. Additionally, the Assembly created a citizen National Guard to keep order and provide a reliable alternative to the conservative privilegiata officer corps of the National Republican Army. The National Assembly was made up of independent socialist members of Assembly in a loose majority (which eventually coalesced into the Republican Party just prior to the fall of the Republic) as well as a well organized minority party known as the National Democratic Party (Urcea), which was made up of the Crown Regent's supporters and allies and were known informally as "FitzRex's Party" prior to the establishment of the Republic. The party established itself as a formal organization with the establishment of the Republic, and it vowed to carry on FitzRex's ideas of social egalitarianism without full economic socialism.

The Assembly voted, in the middle of March, to completely abolish the optimate and privilegiata classes, establishing a so-called "socialist nation of freemen". Within the first three months of its existence, the Republic's efforts - including the workshop program - had largely been effective in revitalizing the city's wartorn economy and ending the food shortage. The Republic's existence galvanized socialists within the remaining territory it controlled, and many came streaming into Urceopolis to join the Guard. While the Republic saw some political and social successes, the National Republican Army saw a series of reversals on the front. Legitimist and Imperial forces routed Republican defenders at the critical Battle of the Urce on July 9th, 1902, creating a large hole in the defensive line around the Archduchy of Urceopolis. Most of the officers of the National Republican Army - conservative privilegiata - surrendered after the Battle, but about half of the forces from surrendered armies defied their officers and retreated to Urceopolis to defend the Republic. Historians and scholars have debated whether or not the average Republican soldier was a socialist or truly believed in the Republic. A consensus has formed suggesting that about a third of these soldiers were committed republicans of some form or other, but most had developed a hatred of the enemy in the last five years of war and wanted to continue fighting. Whatever the cause, more than 75,000 soldiers - many of whom were gravely injured or ill - continued on to Urceopolis to defend the Republic. By August, the Republic was reduced to just the city and its environs, and the Siege of Urceopolis began. On paper, the remaining National Republican Army and National Guard forces numbered somewhere around 300,000, but scholars have estimated that the amount of men ready for service was not higher than 125,000, and the realistic figure was probably around 75,000 fit to fight at their peak.

Under siege, the Republican government adopted an increasingly radical posture, moving from a position that could be called revolutionary democratic socialism to a more overt dictatorship of the proletariat, purging the remaining privilegiata from the officer corps and arresting any remaining former optimates as potential fifth columnists. Increasing war footing alienated the outer boroughs of the city, which had always been tepid in their support, leading to the Republican forces retreating into the Pale and Oldtown, which they fortified. The radical footing of the government undermined its authority, however, as a dispute with the Pope lead to the National Guard seizing the Papal State, sending Pope Leo XIII fleeing to allied lines and polarizing the thoroughly Catholic population of the Republic, as the Church - heretofore a neutral party - now fully condemned the revolutionary government. The radicalization also resulted in a crackdown on the National Democratic Party (Urcea), which soon fled the city and defected to the Legitimist cause, making a large public disavowal of republicanism in the process.

On September 8th, combined Urceo-Burgoignesc marine forces stormed The Pale, successfully taking the island after a short skirmish on the Royal Green, which notably left bullet holes in parts of the Levantine Forum which can still be seen today. The same day, the Prince of Halfway took up residence in the Julian Palace but announced he would not take the crown until the whole of Urceopolis was unified under Royal control. The Republican government, now confined to Oldtown, grew increasingly radical and formed the Republican Party, the only legal party within the Daoni. The siege continued on and, without access to the Urce River, the city slowly began to starve once more. The once-strong political binds between the workers and the Republic slowly began to fray, and party officials were often seen openly feuding in the street and gathering rival street gangs. Morale recovered somewhat to begin October as a Legitimist raiding party was captured and publicly executed as reactionary traitors, giving the impression that the National Republican Army was still a fighting force of note. By October, fighting men (and, by now, women) fit for combat was probably no higher than around 40,000 due to defections, disease, and the loss of The Pale. Legitimist forces could have stormed the city - allied forces were probably around 400,000 all told - but a potential sack of Urceopolis was considered to be the absolute worst possible scenario for the legitimacy of the Restoration.

End of the Republic
On November 17th, party leaders decided to launch a purge of any remaining privilegiata officers from the ranks of the National Republican Army. The regular Army - as well as those manning the barricades - had become loyal to their commanders rather than to the Republic, and the Assembly decided a quick, nighttime purge would sure up their own position. Informants immediately rushed back to the barracks, where the officers summoned a large contingent of loyalist troops, where they fortified and laid a trap. Party militia arrived and were slaughtered, and the Republican Army forces quickly marched on the Praetorium and besieged the building by 10 PM that night. At 2 AM the following morning, the Army stormed the Praetorium and massacred the leaders of the Republican Party and any members of the National Assembly it could find. On the morning of the 18th, the Army found several former members of Assembly from the National Democratic Party (Urcea) which had remained in the city and installed them in the Assembly. The Republic was now in the hands of the Army and the National Democratic Party, though the Praetorium was now besieged by socialist partisans lead by a few Republicans which had escaped. A tense standoff was broken by 3 in the afternoon on the 18th, as reinforcements from the city's defenses routed the partisans in a particularly bloody affair. Army leaders began to meet with the new Assembly majority members to determine the best course of action to take. On the next morning, November 19th, 1902, the Assembly voted to dissolve the Urcean Republic effective midnight and voted to reconstitute itself as the Concilium Daoni. Before adjourning, the Assembly gave the formal order to the Army to stand down and also formally invited the Prince of Halfway to take control of the city. The National Republican Army surrendered to the Legitimist cause by 1 PM on the 19th, and the newly reconstituted Royal Army entered the city. Prince Patrick and the Pope soon followed. A hastily organized coronation ceremony in St. Peter's Archbasilica followed that evening, and the Prince of Halfway formally became King Patrick III, cementing the restoration and end of the Republic.