The island was claimed by Matthew Dowdy Shiell as the Kingdom of Redonda. Although it is not an independent state, the Kingdom of Redonda is recognized by the UK through a 19th century decree. His son, M. P. Shiel, was crowned as King Felipe in 1880. The throne of the Realm of Redonda passed to the neo-romantic poet and bibliographer John Gawsworth as H.M. Juan I, who passed it to his literary executor John Wynne-Tyson, an independent publisher, styling himself H.M. Juan II. Wynne-Tyson abdicated in 1997 in favour of Javier Marías, the Spanish novelist who, as H.M. Xavier I, also became Shiel's and Gawsworth's literary executor. The Kingdom of Redonda was a briefly independent kingdom. ... M. P. Shiel (July 21, 1865 – February 17, 1947) was a prolific British writer of genre fantasy fiction, remembered mostly for supernatural and science fiction, published as novels, short stories and as serials. ... 1880 (MDCCCLXXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... John Gawsworth (June 29, 1912 - September 23, 1970), a pseudonym of Terence Ian Fytton Armstrong, was a British writer, poet and compiler of anthologies, both of poetry and of short stories. ... Javier MarÃas, (born September 20, 1951), is a Spanish novelist, translator and columnist. ...
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Kingdom of Redonda -- asserts that Robert Williamson is the current king
The Redonda Phosphate Company had been established in 1869, under licence from the British Government, to remove large quantities of phosphate-bearing ore from the island, for processing as artificial fertiliser.
Ruins of the installations survive on Redonda, but the island is now abandoned, and has become a refuge for sea-birds, reptiles, a herd of goats and a colony of burrowing owls recently displaced from Antigua, under whose jurisdiction it remains.
Following precedents going back over sixty years, the present King of Redonda is pledged by the terms of his Irrevocable Covenant to maintain and extend the Intellectual Aristocracy of the Kingdom, to preserve and develop the Realm itself for posterity and to keep the memories of M.P.Shiell and John Gawsworth green.
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