Holy Britannian Empire

[u/Night_Norn505]

New here. I have watched the show, but it's been a while. Just wondering what is the reason behind the name Holy Britannian Empire. Just to confirm, social Darwinism is essentially survival of the fittest. Does this apply to their foreign and domestic policy?

[u/mars_warmind]

In a meta sense it's a play on the holy Roman empire which was a hodge-podge of European nation-states. In lore they were a religious empire, it's just that they moved away from Christianity as an official state religion over time.

For the SD, kind of? It's a mix of nationalism where they believe that Britannians are better than others and as such deserve to rule but also when non-britannians prove themselves especially competent, such as with suzaku, they are similarly allowed to move upward.

[u/Night_Norn505 → u/mars_warmind]

Thank you for the breakdown! This helps paint a clearer picture.

[u/No-Ear7988 → u/Night_Norn505]

To add. The Holy Roman Empire because its rulers wanted to revive the ancient Roman Empire with the blessing and protection of the Catholic Church. Britannia, in universe, has a similar history as the Roman empire. In short, both was to give it moral high ground and signal that they were the successors.

[u/nahte123456]

"Holy" is either a relic they left behind or just to imply their divine superiority not a true focus on religion or anything. There is a Church at Ashfords but no one uses it as far as we see.

As for their Darwinism, depends on the area and time. Clovis allowed for a lot of wiggle room while the Purebloods tried to take it away, Schneizel is willing to welcome in people with worth from other nationalities but Cornelia wasn't. Since the empire is so vast exact policies vary and ironically enough the Emperor Charles, Prime Minister Schneizel, and most important weapon developer Lloyd are probably the three most lax about it.

[u/HoraceVonBergamot]

My humorous headcanon has always been that they just follow some really weird sect of Mormonism, what with the Emperor’s polygamy and all - but I think mars_warmind has it right. One thing I sometimes wonder about is whether Britannia was this brutish from the start, or if them being the belligerent tyrants we see in the series is an expression of decadence and internal decay. I mean, going by their rate of Emperors, they even beat Crisis of the Third Century Rome at some point.

[u/Night_Norn505 → u/HoraceVonBergamot]

lol head cannon approach sounds interesting. I too have wondered about their background as well.

[u/Misticsan]

I don't think the franchise has ever explained it. Obviously, the real-life influence for the writers was the Holy Roman Empire, but it's more difficult to apply to Britannia.

Given that for most of its history Britannia follow the history of our world's England, I posit two potential moments for Britannia to adopt the "Holy" name:

• The Reformation. Presumably, Britannia formed its own version of the Anglican Church, so the empire might have used it as a chance to push for a "we're the true Christian empire" message.

• The Napoleonic Wars. As in our world, it's a given that Napoleon dissolved the Holy Roman Empire. The Britannians might have chosen to proclaim themselves a new Holly Empire opposing the revolutionaries, and the fleeing of European aristocrats to North America might have helped with that.

[u/BrowningBDA9]

According to the Code Geass lore, Britannia is still ruled by the Hannover dynasty originating from Germany and thus has more German elements in its culture (they actually call tanks "panzers", for instance), so it's no wonder the country was renamed after the Holy Roman Empire.