Imperium Britannicum/Imperial Remnant

Imperial Commonwealth Armed Forces
Also known as	Imperial Remnant
Leader	General Officers Council
Dates of operation	1946–1970s
Split from	Loyalists
Motives	Restoration of the United Kingdom and the Imperial Commonwealth
Active regions	Great Britain, Ireland, North America, Western Europe
Ideology	Monarchism Imperialism
Opponents	Great Britain
Battles and wars	Remnant Campaign

The Imperial Remnant, officially the Armed Forces of the Imperial Commonwealth, was a royalist paramilitary force that sought the restoration of the United Kingdom and the Imperial Commonwealth under claimant to the abolished throne, head of the House of Windsor and former Duke of Gloucester, Henry IX. It was formed in 1946 following the collapse of the Imperial Commonwealth by a group of loyalist army officers who planned to continue the struggle to restore the monarchy underground. The Remnant considered itself the legitimate continuation of the Imperial Commonwealth and led an armed struggle until the death of Henry IX in 1974. The conflict became known as the Remnant Campaign. It was designated a terrorist organisation in Great Britain, Ireland, North America and France where it was most active.

History

Origins

In March 1944, the British Revolution (also known as the British Civil War) broke out when radical republicans rebelled against the military dictatorship in place since 1940. A Revolutionary Parliament assembled in April and declared Great Britain a revolutionary republic, dissolving the Imperial Commonwealth and abolishing the monarchy. King George VI and the royal family fled to North America, itself ravaged in revolutionary conflict, and then to Australasia which had been the most stable dominion amidst the Grand Revolutions. The revolutionaries gained the upper hand and the royalists in Great Britain were largely beaten by early 1945. Still though, pro-Commonwealth forces (dubbed the Loyalists) remained fighting globally until July 1946 when George VI called for them to surrender. He saw the military situation as untenable and that the monarchy would only be restored in Great Britain with mass popular and political support which he lacked.

Most Loyalists surrendered to local revolutionaries but a contingent of royalists remained and had already been preparing for a potential underground conflict. Prince Henry, younger brother of George VI, was against this decision and requested his brother abdicate as head of the House of Windsor. The aging George VI, himself only reluctantly head of the house due to the assassination of his older brother and tired from years of war, accepted and Prince Henry became claimant to the British throne as Henry IX.

In August, Henry called a private meeting of loyalist army officers and important politicians, primarily those from Britain which had fled alongside the royalty, where they decided to continue a more underground armed struggle against the revolutionaries that had taken over the Commonwealth, especially in Great Britain. The present army officers became the General Officers Council and were designated the legitimate and highest authority of the Imperial Commonwealth which was illegally dissolved by the revolutionaries. The paramilitary organisation led by the GOC would claim to be the Armed Forces of the Imperial Commonwealth.