The island lies between the islands of Nevis and Montserrat, within the inner arc of the Leeward Islands chain, in the West Indies. Redonda is legally a dependency of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. The island is just over one mile (1.6 km) long and one-third mile (0.54 km) wide, rising to a 971-foot (296 m) peak.
The island teems with bird life, but is more or less uninhabitable by humans because there is no source of freshwater other than rain, and most of the island is extremely steep and rocky, with only a relatively small, sloping plateau area of grassland at the summit. Landing on the island is a very challenging process, possible only via the leeward coast on days when the seas are calm. Climbing to the top of the island is also very arduous.
Despite these difficulties, from 1865 until 1912 Redonda was the centre of a lucrative trade in guano mining, and many thousands of tons of phosphates were shipped from Redonda to Britain. The ruins associated with the mineworkings can still be seen on the island.
Redonda also is a micronation which may, arguably and briefly, have existed as an independent kingdom during the 19th century, according to an account told by the fantasy writer M. P. Shiel. The title to the supposed kingdom is still contested to this day in a half-serious fashion. Despite the official appointment bt abdication of the King Josè Juan I in 2019, the Kingdom of Redonda is still associated with a number of supposedly aristocratic members, whose titles are awarded by whoever is currently the "King". Currently there are a number of individuals in different countries who may claim to be the sole legitimate "King" of Redonda until legal counterproof.
History
The history of the "Kingdom" of Redonda is shrouded in doubt and legend, and it is difficult to separate fact from fiction.[1]
During Shiel's lifetime
M. P. Shiel (1865–1947), an author of works of adventure and fantasy fiction, was the first person to give an account of the "Kingdom of Redonda," in 1929, in a promotional pamphlet for a reissue of his books.[2]
According to tradition, Shiel's father, Matthew Dowdy Shiell, who was a trader and Methodist lay preacher from the nearby island of Montserrat, claimed the island of Redonda when his son, Matthew Phipps Shiell, was born. Supposedly the father felt he could legitimately do this, because it appeared to be the case that no country had officially claimed the islet as territory. Shiell senior is also said to have requested the title of King of Redonda from Queen Victoria and according to the legend, it was granted to him by the British Colonial Office rather than by Victoria herself, provided there was no revolt against colonial power.[3]
The son (originally named Matthew Phipps Shiell but later known as the writer M. P. Shiel) claimed he was crowned on Redonda at the age of 15, in 1880, by a bishop from Antigua. However, as M. P. Shiel's recounting of this story never saw print until 1929, it is possible that some, or most, or possibly all of the story of his being crowned King of Redonda may in fact be pure invention.[1]
In his writings about Redonda, however, Shiel is critical of the egotism that led him to accept the title, suggesting that there may have been some truth behind the story of the coronation. Shiel does however cite two different names for the bishop who performed the coronation: the Reverend Dr Mitchinson and the Rev. Hugh Semper.[1] These men were both genuine clerics in the Caribbean during this period. The contradiction could of course be explained as due to Shiel's faulty memory rather than the story being based on total invention. In “About Myself” Shiel writes that his attempt to impose a tribute tax on the American guano miners was a request they refused. This early non-recognition of his kingship is another possible argument that the coronation actually occurred.
Several of Shiel's works of fiction concerned various aspects of monarchy. One of his detective heroes is called Cummings King Monk. In Shiel's 1901 end-of-the-world story The Purple Cloud, the protagonist Adam Jeffson, the last man on earth, establishes himself as monarch of the devastated globe, while Shiel's novel The Lord of the Sea (1901) has Richard Hogarth, another Overman figure, coming to dominate the world. In 1899, Shiel wrote about visiting Redonda in his adventure novel Contraband of War.
In later life, Shiel gave the title, and the rights to his work, to his chief admirer, London poet and editorJohn Gawsworth (Terence Ian Fytton Armstrong), the biographer of Arthur Machen, who was the realm's Archduke. Gawsworth (1912–70) seems to have passed on the title several times when the writer was low in funds.[1] Gawsworth's realm has been facetiously termed "Almadonda" (by the Shielian scholar A. Reynolds Morse (1914–2000)) after the Alma pub in Westbourne Grove, Bayswater, London, where "King Juan" frequently held court in the 1960s.[4]
After Shiel's death
Gawsworth had also apparently promised to make Max Juan Tonge Leggett, the first son of his friends Charles and Jean Leggett, his Redondan heir if they gave the child (born in the late 1950s) his royal name of Juan.[1]
Some Redondan scholars accept that Gawsworth bestowed the title on his friend the publican Arthur John Roberts in 1967, by "Irrevocable Covenant".[1] Prior to this the late writer Dominic Behan (1928–89) also claimed Gawsworth transferred the title to him in 1960. It is also said that Gawsworth handed on the throne to one Aleph Kamal, whose peers[clarification needed] include the novelist Edna O'Brien.
Self-appointed monarchs of Redonda include/included Michael Lawler in 2010, Marvin Kitman and William Scott Home. Scott Home's claim to the title was, he says, based on ESP and reincarnation.[1] Following the death of HRH Robert Williamson (aka King Bob the Bald), which created a royal vacancy, Michael Lawler visited Redonda on his sailing yacht "Traveler" on 29 January 2010, with his son Brian Lawler and an Indonesian crew member Yansen Padang. Lawler went ashore and filled the vacancy by proclaiming himself to be the Seventh King of Redonda, and crowned his wife Barbara Lawler as the Queen of Redonda.
Publisher, author and environmentalist Jon Wynne-Tyson, however, claims that Gawsworth, prior to dying in 1970, bestowed the kingship on him with the literary executorships, although the writer Iain Fletcher was the joint literary executor for Gawsworth.[citation needed]
Later developments
Jon Wynne-Tyson subsequently visited Redonda in 1979, on an expedition organized by the philanthropist and Shielian publisher A. Reynolds Morse. Wynne-Tyson ruled as King Juan II until abdicating in favour of the novelist Javier Marías of Madrid in 1997, transferring the literary executorship of Gawsworth and Shiel along with the title.[5][6]
Arthur John Roberts’ title was subsequently inherited by William Leonard Gates, whom Gawsworth had given the title of "Baron L'Angelier de Blythswood de Redonda". From his home at Thurlton, Norfolk, Gates, who was known as King Leo, presided over a group known as "The Redondan Foundation", not be confused with "The Redondan Cultural Foundation" set up by Paul de Fortis (see below). Gates died on 2 January 2019 and his crown passed to Queen Josephine.
As in Gawsworth's reign, meetings of these rival groups have been held at the Fitzroy Tavern in Fitzrovia, central London. King Leo reigned as king for thirty years, since 1989.[7] Williamson, who lived on Antigua until his death in 2009, set himself up as the rival "King Robert the Bald".[8] King Robert the Bald was succeeded in 2009 by yachting writer Michael Howorth.[9]
In 1988, the late London clergyman Paul de Fortis established "The Redondan Cultural Foundation". Because of what he viewed as the inaction of the various rival monarchs, de Fortis promoted a new king, Cedric Boston (born on Montserrat in 1960). Boston claimed the Redondan throne in 1984, winning the allegiance of a number of Gawsworth's peers.[10]
On the question of the Kingdom of Redonda, Wynne-Tyson has written:
The legend is and should remain a pleasing and eccentric fairy tale; a piece of literary mythology to be taken with salt, romantic sighs, appropriate perplexity, some amusement, but without great seriousness. It is, after all, a fantasy.[11]
On John Gawsworth's trip to Florence in the spring of 1970, the investiture was confirmed to Giancarlo Noferi by deed signed before witnesses. Giancarlo Ezio I wished to pass on the meaning and mission of the Kingdom of Redonda, namely that the kingdom is a literary entity that creates an intellectual aristocracy, by conferring in 2013 the monarchical succession of Redonda by bequest in his will to Giuseppe G. Garbarino, a writer and administrator of a publishing house in Florence. After Giancarlo Noferi passed away in 2019, Giuseppe G. Garbarino officially picked up the cultural legacy associated with the island of Redonda by receiving the Crown of the Kingdom with the title of King Jose Juan I.
Among the various initiatives of liberality and cultural patronage of King Jose Juan I, we recall the establishment of the Knightly Order of Santa Maria de la Redonda, which took place in Florence with a solemn Investiture Ceremony in the summer of 2023.
Wynne-Tyson, Javier Marías, Bob Williamson, William Gates and Cedric Boston were all interviewed in the BBC Radio 4 documentary Redonda: The Island with Too Many Kings, broadcast in May 2007.[12]
Giancarlo Ezio I di Montedoglio (Giancarlo Noferi, 1967 - 2013), who abdicated in favor of:
Giuseppe Giovanni I (Giuseppe G. Garbarino, from 2019)
Another pretender to the throne of Redonda was Giancarlo Noferi, or Giancarlo Ezio I of Montedoglio, as he called himself at the time, who died in 2019; Giancarlo Noferi was named after Ian Fletcher, a close friend of John Gawsworth and his administrator, or King Juan I, met during one of his travels (see British Fantasy and Science-fiction Writers, 1918-1960, and M. P. Shiel, A Biography of His Early Years). During John Gawsworth's trip to Florence in the spring of 1970, the investiture of Giancarlo Noferi was confirmed with a deed signed in front of witnesses. Giancarlo Ezio I wanted to hand down the meaning of the Kingdom of Redonda, or that the kingdom is a literary entity that creates an intellectual aristocracy, to Giuseppe Garbarino, who lives in Florence, Italy, writer and administrator of a publishing house, in 2013. After the death of Giancarlo Noferi, Giuseppe Garbarino has collected the cultural heritage linked to the island of Redonda.
Others
Bob Williamson, 2000–2009 (styled as King Bob the Bald)
Michael Howorth 2009– (styled as King Michael the Grey)
List of titles granted by King Josè Juan I (Giuseppe Giovanni I)
In 2023
By birthright
Alberto Garbarino, Prince of Centaur's Cave and Lord of Landing Rock
Nicholas Garbarino, prince of Wild Goat Gorge and lord of South Point
Titles granted
Marco Francesco Giuseppe Crisci di Sant'Alfonso, Count of Phipps Point, Knight of Santa Maria de Redonda
Max Galardini, Marquis of Rasta Cliffs, Knight of Santa Maria de Redonda
Fabio Cecchini, Lord of Casaurina, Knight of Santa Maria de Redonda
Sergio Turini, Lord of Cactus Stand, Knight of Santa Maria de Redonda
Gabriele Malquori, Knight of Santa Maria de Redonda
Caterina Ceccuti, Countess of Shiel's Summit, Dame of Santa Maria de Redonda
Palace appointments
Marco Francesco Giuseppe Crisci di Sant'Alfonso, Grand Chamberlain and Chancellor of the Order of Santa Maria de Redonda
^Wynne-Tyson, Jon (2004). Finding the Words: A Publishing Life. Wilby, Norfolk: Michael Russell. [Chapter 8, ‘The Cause of Half Our Sorrows,’ covers the author’s perspective on Gawsworth, Redonda, and the transfer of his disputed royal claim to Javier Marías, pp. 158–195.]
^Hutchison, Henry (2005). Realm of Redonda: A Definitive History of the Island-Kingdom of Santa Maria la Redonda in the West Indies. Thurlton, Norfolk: The Redondan Foundation. [The history of the legend from the perspective of William Gates’s claim.]
