Redonda - the glorious kingdom with too many kings

Redonda is a small, virtually uninhabited Caribbean island of the Lesser Antilles, lying between the islands of Nevis and Montserrat. In fact, the island of Redonda is part of Antigua and Barbuda, and one of its six districts. In the old times Caribbean nations called this island Ocanamanru.

This small island is the residue of an extinct volcanic cone.  Almost all more or less important areas of the island have names. The area of the island is quite difficult to calculate because of the extreme steepness of the slopes. According to various estimates, it ranges from 1.6 to 2.6 square kilometers.

Redonda, which lies 56 km south-west of Barbuda, is hardly visited by tourists, but sailors are frequent visitors to these waters. Currently the island is a natural park, which is home to several feral goats, reptiles, insects and various seabirds.

The island was discovered by Christopher Columbus on November 12, 1493, and named «Santa Maria la Redonda». Columbus himself never landed on the island – he just saw it and declared it to belong to Spain. However, in 1869 the island became British territory.

The curious thing about this place is that it is a virtual kingdom, with 9 or more people claiming to be the king of the island. Because of this, Redonda has various flags, emblems and anthems.

The Kingdom of Redonda started to exist in 1865, when a trader Matthew Dowdy Shiell, who came from the neighboring island of Montserrat, proclaimed himself King of Redonda, claiming to be a direct descendant of the royal Irish Tara dynasty.

In 1880, he handed the reins of the island to his son, Matthew Phipps Shiell, who was a British science fiction writer. Matthew decided that henceforth he will be known as  King Felipe, spreading the word about the glorious kingdom of Redonda in pamphlets that many took as another of his works of fiction. Because of this, the kindom's legitimacy and existence was questioned by some.

King Felipe's rule ended in 1947, when a poet and writer John Gawsworth was granted the honorary title of King Terence Armstrong. It is Gawsworth who tainted the history of the marvellous kingdom by indulging in too much horseplay with his title. Due to series of bancrupcies, he would sell his title to whomever he pleased and appointed multiple monarchs to fatten his pocketbook. All this confusion brought about a big drama in the 20th century.

As to the various pretenders to the throne of today, the most important of them are the King Leo, a.k.a. William L. Gates, and a self-proclaimed King Robert the Bald, crowned in 1998.

King Robert the Bald is Bob Williamson, a 60 year old Canadian gentleman, who lives and writes novels in Antigua, and visits his kingdom by yacht. One day he came across Redonda and declared himself ruler in front of a group of 61 people who accompanied him. He also took a liberty of knighting around 100 people, including various bartenders of his favorite pubs and such.

In 2007, a man called Bob Beach declared his pub the Embassy of Redonda to gain diplomatic immunity  from the public smoking ban.

Regardless of all this tomfoolery, Redonda remains a territory of Antigua and Barbuda. According to the British Foreign Office, the"kingdom" is not entitled to have their own embassy wherever it pleases. Therefore, the pub was refused its status by the British government.

Until 1912 the island was inhabited by workers, who gathered guano, rich in phosphorus compounds - the only significant natural resource of Redonda. Phosphates, obtained from guano were used for profuction of gunpowder, fertilizers and other purposes. Since the beginning of the First World War, all work at Redonda was stopped because of problems with transportation and markets. The technical progress made further phosphate mining unprofitable. Therefore, the workers left the island, which has since been uninhabited.

The kingdom or Redonda, however, still exists and even has more than one website, warning everyone to beware of the impostor kings. One of the sites welcomes you to join the Royal Navy of Redonda for only $35. In 2007, the royalty of Redonda, represented by 5 people were interviewed in a BBC documentary on the island, “The Island with Too Many Kings”.

Gallery: Redonda - the glorious kingdom with too many kings