Terran Empire

The Terran Empire was a sovereign state that existed in the Milky Way galaxy from its foundation in 2430 to its abolition in 2675. Though the worlds over which it ruled spanned a wide area of space, much its territory was concentrated in the spin- and rimward edge of the Milky Way in the Orion, Perseus, and Outer Arms of the galaxy. At its height, it ruled roughly a sixth of the Milky Way, including a third of the human population.
The Empire came into being in November 2430 when the Terran Federation ratified the declaration of First Lord William Compton as Emperor, and codified in a short charter the hereditary succession of the Compton dynasty to this newly-established emperordom. Unlike other hereditary titles of nobility in the Federation, the office of Terran Emperor was established as sovereign, not peerage. Thus, the Terran Emperor outranked all other imperial titles and was seen constitutionally as the fount of all honor.
At its outset, the Empire was a federal state with clusters of worlds given autonomous powers and their own parliaments, and a weak central parliament. The Imperial Parliament was elected through single-member constituencies, the sheer number of which was perceived as bogging down legislative progress. With calls for reform, the Empire was reorganized as a unitary state during the reign of Empress Mary I, which reduced the number of elected Members of Parliament to 800 and established virtual parliamentary sovereignty. This arrangement lasted until its abolition in 2675. The Empire was, throughout its history, the leading state of the Interstellar Treaty Organisation, and the "galactic face of humanity". Its size, industrial capacity, and power projection eventually enabled and guided the creation of a unified human republic.
== History ==
The Terran Empire came into being officially on 1 January 2430. In actuality, the constitution enacting its existence was signed into law on 4 December 2429, but the law was not to take effect until the beginning of the next year. The initial formation of the Empire was little different from the preceding Terran Federation, and it retained the Parliamentary government and federal structure. The primary change was the creation of the hereditary emperordom in the House of Compton. All nobles were obligated to swear fealty to the Emperor, and lay down their sovereign rights over their allodial fiefs. Many did not comply, and the constitutional constraints upon the Emperor prevented the necessary action to enforce this. War between feudal principalities was just as common as war between nobles and the Imperial armed forces. The Emperors were often forced to confer military authority upon loyal nobles, effectively restoring feudalism. The first three centuries were marred by civil war.
=== Constitutional history ===
William I consciously modelled the new monarchy on Napoleonic France, and created the concept that the Emperor's sovereignty derived from the people and the Emperor likewise had a responsibility to provide for the welfare of its subjects. The Emperor wielded moderated executive power, with most governing authority delegated to the Prime Minister, who would be appointed by the Emperor on the advice and consent of Parliament. The first Imperial Constitution defined this relationship, and retained the Federation's parliamentary and federal structure. The lower assembly, the House of Commons, consisted of delegations of the member worlds and colonies, as well as delegations for specific groups, such as spacers and aliens. These delegations were composed of single-member constituencies elected by first-past-the-post voting, and Earth's was by far the largest. As the Empire grew, however, these constituencies multiplied greatly in number, as did the size of some delegations relative to Earth's, and made political decision-making difficult. The Parliament became bitterly partisan and sectional in its proceedings.
The Terran Emperor, in this first phase of the Empire, held little domestic governing power. As the electoral system made the selection of a Prime Minister difficult, and the Emperor was legally constrained from governing the Empire directly, ministerial gridlock was commonplace and Imperial member worlds practically governed themselves. Civil war between feudal planetary lords was a constant issue, and a threat to the sovereignty and legitimacy of the Emperor. The right of the Emperor to use military force to put down these feuds was a hot-button within among
 the aristocracy and only gradually came to be accepted as a necessary right. The "feudal period" lasted for the first half of the Empire's existence, during which several Emperors involved themselves directly in feudal wars and some perished in battle. Empress Mary I eventually put down the majority of rebellions and called for a wide-ranging Imperial Reform.
After 2550, the Empire became a stronger, centralized parliamentary monarchy. The Emperor was vested with supreme executive power and the Prime Minister was responsible to both the monarch and to the parliament. The reformation of the House of Commons into party-list proportional representation enabled the consolidation of political parties into coalitions or, gradually, functional interstellar political parties. The reformed Middle Empire era saw the expansion of executive power, especially that of the Crown, even as Parliament was nominally granted supreme legislative authority; several monarchs suspended parliament during times of emergency or crisis. The Late Empire saw rapid constitutional changes. The greatest of these was the 11th-hour abolition of the Premiership by Emperor Maximilian Charles upon his accession in 2668. Other changes included the establishment of a complex state security apparatus, emergency measures against treasonous political groups, and suspension of some civil liberties. In its last few years, the Terran Empire took the brunt of organisational changes that transformed the Interstellar Treaty Organisation into the Central Galactic Union. The Terran Empire was finally abolished, along with all other member states of the Galactic Confederation, on 30 March 2675 by an edict of the Confederate Assembly.
== Government ==
The Terran Imperial government was structured by both a codified and a customary constitution, the body of codified laws and stautes, and the accumulated precedent of centuries of common law. In contrast to the preceding Terran Federation, the Imperial Constitution structured the government as a Westminster-style parliamentary monarchy. The clear delimitation of powers between the executive and the legislative were dissolved in favor of a centralized and parliamentary government, though this took some time to become effective. The power of local landowners and settled military aristocrats were only gradually eroded. It would not be until the mid-2500s that the Emperor and the Prime Minister became the powerful figures the Constitution intended.
The central embodiment of the government was the Crown, the legal entity of the state in all its aspects. The Emperor, as head of state, embodied the Crown and was the de jure source of political legitimacy. The Emperor was advised by the Privy Council, a group of imperial advisors. In practice, much of the executive power was delegated to the Cabinet, a committee within the Privy Council. While the Cabinet in theory could be composed at the Emperor's discretion, in practice the Cabinet was composed of members of political groups that could command a majority in the Imperial Parliament. The Prime Minister was the chairperson of the Cabinet, and was usually the head of that political grouping. Despite these constitutional conventions, the Emperors did occasionally appoint Prime Ministers that were back-benchers of their parties, and were able to dismiss an inadequate Prime Minister. By custom, the Emperor could make one decree at the throne on the day of his or her coronation without requiring the advice of Parliament; this was usually a relatively minor piece of policymaking, but in 2668 Emperor Maximilian Charles I used this to abolish the office of Prime Minister and assert the right of the Emperor to personally chair the Cabinet.
The Imperial Parliament was composed of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, which came to exercise parliamentary supremacy. Initially, the Commons were composed of members representing single-member constituencies, the number of which swelled as federal subjects developed out of territories held by the Empire. By 2550, the Commons were composed of 12,588 members. This was drastically reduced to a 1000-member house elected by party-list proportional representation, which was reduced further to 800 members by the reforms promulgated in 2552. The House of Lords had always been composed of the hereditary and appointed nobility of the Empire, becoming a body of around 2,000 members. The House of Commons had the sole right to originate spending bills, and most legislation originated and was debated in the Commons. The role of the House of Lords was to review the laws passed by the Commons prior to Imperial Assent. The Lords, while not chosen on the basis of partisan representation, often aligned to one or more political parties, though a considerable number always remained nonpartisan. The Lords could block or delay bills passed by the Commons, including supply or money bills; in effect, the head of government had to command a majority or a workable coalition in both the Commons and the Lords to enact policy. The Parliament could force the dismissal or reshuffle of a cabinet if the government were unable to secure supply. The Parliament was traditionally elected every five years, but snap elections could be called or Parliament could be dissolved by the Emperor at any time.
The judiciary was complicated, and was both independent and intertwined with the executive and legislature, and was based around a combination civil and common law. The House of Lords functioned as the highest court of appeal, and the court of first instance of trial of peers. The Lord Chancellor presided over most constitutional, criminal, and civil cases, while the Lord Constable presided over cases regarding the misuse of heraldry. These officers were held by hereditary right by specific peers. They were advised by peers with legal training, who often acted in their stead. All of these judicial officers acted in the name of the Emperor. However, the common law system of the judiciary established that it could restrain the prerogatives and power of the Emperor and the Parliament by its ability to review laws in court. Generally, lower Crown Courts would act as courts of first instance and appeal, moving from the sub-regional level to the regional, planetary, star system, and then provincial level; an appeal could be then placed towards the High Court of Justice, which also acted as the court of first instance for treason and other political crimes. A separate Military Courts system existed for the armed forces, and an Admiralty Court for cases where maritime law applied. The Emperor had the prerogative of executive pardon, though this was used prudently.
The Empire was originally administered with each world as its own province, sometimes grouped as districts for the purposes of defense, social services administration, and the law courts. After 2520, worlds were grouped into Provinces; each world was either a County, a Colony, or an Imperial Territory. Governors of each world were appointed by the Emperor, and each province had an elected Provincial Parliament; most worlds had some form of representative, responsible government in the form of county commissions, colonial assemblies, or other unitary authorities.
==List of Terran Emperors==
== List of Prime Ministers ==
The officer of Prime Minister was both statutory and customary. The Imperial Constitution stated that "the Imperial cabinet of ministers within the Emperor's private council, chaired by a prime minister appointed by the Emperor and with the confidence of Parliament." Political custom and constitutional convention continued the traditions of the Terran Federation and many of its constituent monarchies, wherein the Prime Minister would typically be the leader of the largest political party represented in parliament.
Name 	Term of Office	Party 	Notes
 	 	 	
Philip Lighthorse Leigh 	2550-2572 	Social Democratic Labor Party 	Served through the reigns of 3 emperors
Carloman Sorge 	2572-2573 	Imperial Conservative Party 	Lost snap election
Fabian Patrice 	2573-2577 	Social Democratic Labor Party 	Part of the National Government coalition
Duarte Delgado 	2577-2587 	Liberal Refoundation Party 	Part of the National Government coalition
Philip Patrick Rycon 	2587-2608 	Imperial Conservative Party 	Died in office
Edward, Duke of Newfoundland 	2608-2617 	Imperial Conservative Party 	
Frederik, Duke of Nieuwvaalia	2617-2627 	Imperial Conservative Party 	
Richard, Duke of Gloucester 	2627-2637 	Imperial Conservative Party 	
Frederick Foal Rycon 	2637-2657 	Dual card NHILP and ICP 	Parliament prorogued 2641-2652
Henry Oswald Addington 	2657-2668 	National Humanist Imperial Labor Party	Last holder; office abolished 2668