A modern alternate history drama, set in the late 2010s, in which the United States has a royal family—written to capture the pacing of a television series pilot in short story form.
Each episode’s intro montage would begin with the following text:
The American Revolution was going badly, as France and Spain sent the rebels a common message: Without the guarantee of a stable monarchy, the promises of the Continental Congress could not be trusted.
America needed a Crown.
BACKSTORY & PREMISE
After New England was brutally scoured following the American loss of the Saratoga Campaign, the signatories of the Declaration feared for their lives and the lives of their families. Under this threat, republicanism surrendered to parliamentary monarchism, and George Washington was pressured to accept the American Crown to secure the support of anti-British regimes in Europe. Prominent Americans were permitted to establish their own aristocratic Houses, creating an American aristocratic peerage.
With the late assistance of France and Spain, the Americans barely won their independence. Three years after King George II (George Washington Parke Custis, George Washington’s adopted grand-son) took the throne, he had Arlington Palace built at the site where the Custis-Lee Mansion in Arlington Cemetery sits in our reality. This has been the royal residence ever since.
From the coronation of George I, the history of the United States progressed as it did in our world as far as elections are concerned. After John Adams’ three terms in the White House under American King George I, the White House passed through the same presidents, party politics much the same as in our world but with different names. The Republicans were founded as the Freedom Party (the original, real-world Republicans used the slogan “Free Labor, Free Soil, Free Men”) and the Jeffersonian Party (Democrats) renamed themselves the Liberal Party under FDR.
The Civil War, the assassination of Lincoln, World War II, and the social revolution under Roosevelt, and so on. Through this turmoil, the American Crown passed from the House of Washington to the House of Hancock and finally to the House begun by Founders Daniel and Charles Carroll.
In the 21st Century, King Alexander of House Carroll is under scrutiny in the media for his silence after Trump’s election, despite the king’s known support for progressive causes and candidates. The refusal of his only child, Princess Sarah, to marry has raised concerns about her sexuality and the future of the monarchy. Second in line for the throne is a playboy Duke from Maryland with multiple illegitimate progeny.
Welcome to the world of The American Crown.
I am only doing one episode of The American Crown, as an experiment in capturing television drama rhythms in text fiction without sacrificing the strengths of text fiction. Namely the expository power that film and television fiction lacks without the difficult technique of voice-overs.
This first episode will be roughly 9000 words, so it’s about four times longer than my typical chapter length. Consider it a pilot (click here to read).