This brief is taken from a post on the Fife and Drum forum from 2017.
A slight misnomer in the name "Electorate of Tiberia with a king at the head" this is all due King Richard the first of Tiberia who is quoted as saying "you can vote anybody in as king as longs as it is me". Thus was created TIBERIA.
Between the lines
People think maps are drawn to show you where places are, however they are drawn to remind us of where places are. If you do not remember where a place is or you do not draw maps of places where you have been, over time these places fade from memory and places seem to disappear. Have you been traveling to some place and taken the left road instead of the right thinking maybe you are taking the wrong turning or ever looked at a fold out map in a book which has folds in the pages. These are called lines, places can disappear in between these lines and folds, why are maps folded in a certain way.
We look at an 18th century map of Europe we see Prussia, Russia, Austria, France, Spain, Tiberia, Duchy of Lorraine. Tiberia? I hear you say, you may not have heard of it but if you look closely along the lines in the folds of the maps between these countries you may see something that your eyes are telling you that there’s nothing there. What has happened is that countries have not been drawn on the map and over time their whereabouts have faded from people’s memories, but look very closely on older maps and you may see the small kingdom of Tiberia (and by no means the only one) nestled between these larger countries.
Tiberia does exist but has faded from memory as people did not visit and forgot to draw it on maps. During the 18th century it was ruled by kings and princes and was known as the electorate of Tiberia its uniform influences are primary of French persuasion, style and custom.
Tiberian real estate
Potted history of Tiberia
The electorate of Tiberia was established in early 10th century from a loose coalition of small cantons. Tiberia was first drawn on the map of Mungi in 961 for Richard the first king of Tiberia, a large map on rich golden cloth was presented to the king who then demand several more maps made. He had planned to give them to the crowned heads of Europe as gifts, unfortunately the fledgling Tiberian cartographers and map making guild went bankrupt after producing just two maps.
This had the effect of putting off any other map makers and destroying the short lived Tiberian tourist industry congress (Tea time Monday 961 until supper Tuesday 961) no maps no tourists.
Having been promised a map of gold from the king of Tiberia the king of France took great offence when one was not forthcoming, thus he declared war on Tiberia. Alas for the French armies they had no map of Tiberia so they could not find it to invade, thus ended the shortest war in history.
These events did not go unnoticed by Gregor Widemark a monk of the Tiberian royal household and part of the college of wise men, who task it, was to protect the interest of this fledgling country (an early intelligence service). Gregor had noted that without maps it was hard to plan and coordinate the invasion of a country, if you wanted to win a war a map was a very useful thing to have. Thus “The Service” was formed a secret society whose job it was to stop the drawing and development of maps of Tiberia and across Europe to make sure Tiberia was not on any map. As we now see “The service” has been very successful in its mission to hide this small country from the outside world and Tiberia has fallen between the line and gaps on maps worldwide (which was Gregors plan all along eminent Tiberian theologians in the know argue). Also working with the royal landscape gardeners roads and path along the Tiberian borders were constantly changed to help hide the country.
Tiberia in 961 was a collection of small dukedoms and principalities constantly fighting each other, king Richard the first had more soldiers and was better in a fight than the rest, so within 20 years he had doubled the size of Tiberian land but was not marked on any map. The success of this was all due to the “The service” who’s monks were based in a clobbers shop in the capital, Within a 100 years Tiberia was a rich nation, still beset with some internal strive but not well visited by other nations. One of its best business investments was “shoes for the crusaders” making a fortune for the Tiberian royal treasury and enabling “The service” to be financially independent of the crown
Over several hundred years there have been numerous wars, campaigns and revolts to name a few.
King Richards war 961 – 989
King Richard II war of conquest 900 -920
War of Robin the thin 1090
War of Robin the fat 1101
The border wars 1130 – 1150
The great uncivil war of the two Robins 1200 – 1222
The butcher the bakers and candle stick makers rebellion 1250 – 1252
The brewers revolt 1301
The shoe makers revolt 1345
The fletchers rebellion 1346, 1356, 1415
The revolting Roberts rebellion 1450
Pie makes insurrections 1510
Hostel and inn keepers revolt 1560
The wars of reunion 1570 – 1601
The wars of the Electorate of Tiberia 1695 - 1710
The great Northern wars of the tanner’s guild 1700 – 1711
The wars of the secession of Tiberia 1730 – 1740
The 2nd wars of the Electorate of Tiberia 1741 – 1766
More wars will come to light as ancient tomes are studied.
The period I will primary cover is from 1695 – 1770 of Tiberia military history.
Action.
Photo's from Chris Gregg
I hope you have enjoyed my first foray into the lost history of Tiberia.
Willz.
