Black Weekend

The Black Weekend
The cover of The Essexian that covered the event and coined the term "Black Weekend".
Date 20 July - 21 July 2019 Location Essexia
Belligerents
Old Guard Party Lord Commissar Jacob of Essexia Lord Matthew of Essexia Earl Jack of Essexia Crown Minister Ben of Essexia Lord George of Essexia	Royalist Party Lord Jamie of Essexia Princess Becky of Essexia Lord Tolu of Essexia

The events of the Black Weekend revolve around a section of the Royalist Party of Essexia who felt that the leadership of Lord Jamie of Essexia had waded away from the traditional values of the party. It remains a picture of how violatile the Essexian political landscape can get.

Events leading up to Black Weekend

1 July 2019:

• 2019 Essexian general election ends in Royalist majority; Lord Jamie becomes First Minister. He brings in a wave of New Royalists, which upsets the old guards of the party.
• The Commonwealth Party of Essexia is dissolved after a crushing defeat, winning only 1 seat. Earl Jack of Molrams gives up leadership to Crown Minister Ben of Essexia, who gives the party's seat to the Liberal Socialist and Cooperative Party before dissolving the party. Both Jack and Ben are left without seats, and are made Crown Ministers.
• Lord Jack resigns his positions due to disagreements with the new First Minister Lord Jamie. The Supreme Court organises the civil case Jack v Jamie, but this case is swiftly ended by an Imperial decree.

2 July 2019:

• Lord Jacob resigns from the Royalist Party due to the "absolute absurdity" of the previous night, and discredits the use of an undemocratic imperial decree. He remains an independent Crown Minister.

• Lord Ben announces the dissolution of CoPa, and agrees with Lord Jacob that the actions of the previous day were "ludicrous".
• Earl Finn, Sam H and Crown Minister Elliot are given the LSC seats.
• Lord Jamie, Lord Matthew, Lord George, Lady Becky, Lord Ben (H), Crown Minister Harry, Crown Minister Matt (G) and Crown Minister Tolu are given the Royalist seats.

11 July 2019:

• Jack returns and becomes Crown Minister of the Interior, with Lord Matthew becoming the Foreign Minister.

16 July 2019:

• FM Lord Jamie announces a cabinet reshuffle.

The Event

20 July:

• Lord Matthew of Essexia leaves the Royalist party due to distrust with First Minister Lord Jamie, but his resignation isn't accepted by the Emperor.
• The aforementioned creates plans for the Old Guard Party with other members of the Royalists and the Emperor.

21 July:

• Lord George subsequently announces his own resignation from the Royalists, also not accepted.
• Lord Ben (H) resigns from the Royalist coalition to recreate the Weeaboo Rights Party as an independent force for stability, resignation not accepted.
• The Emperor accepts the resignation of LSC seat holder Lord Sam (H).
• Lord Matthew (G) subsequently also resigns from the Royalists, resignation not accepted.
• By this point, the Old Guards, as well as Crown Ministers Jack and Ben (S), are organising their rise to power. Jack negotiates with FM Lord Jamie, while Matthew (S) fails to bring Earl Finn on-board. Finn leaks the plans to Jamie, who is angered by the plans. However, Jack succeeds in his negotiations and FM Lord Jamie announces that he will step down the next day, and puts Jacob forward for First Minister. Originally, Jamie tried to claim that he'd only accept the demands if Finn or Jack were put forward for FM, but Jack turned down the position and reminded Jamie of his dilemma.
• For the first time since the 16 September 2018 coup, Emperor Terry dissolves the Parliament, but in an unprecedented move he declares Martial Law.
• Jacob is made Lord Commissar of the Military Council, the equivalent of the Parliament. He makes Crown Minister Ben the Commissar, Jack the Lord Admiral, Matthew (G) a Lieutenant, Matthew (S) a Captain and George (S) a Banner Serjeant (Spelt with a J).

Aftermath

22 July:

• Lord Commissar Jacob declares a pre-Junta state of economy, that the Royal Bank of Essexia should become the Imperial Reserve Bank and merges the Warden of the RBE into the Chancellor.
• Lord Ben (H) resigns from the Royalist coalition to recreate the Weeaboo Rights Party as an independent force for stability, resignation not accepted.

29 July:

• Captain Matthew (S) announces that the Junta will end at midnight.
• Lord Commissar Jacob announces that the Military Council, its adversaries and committees will be disbanded, and in it's place declares that Parliament will resume in the following configuration:

  

  29/7/19 Parliament party diagram, produced by Lord Commissar Jacob.

29/7/19 Post-Junta Parliament

Title	Name	Position(s)	Party
Lord	Jacob	First Minister, Department of History	Old Guard
Lord	Jack	Chancellor	Old Guard
Lord	Matthew (S)	Foreign Minister, Department of Development, Department of Communications	Old Guard
Lord	George	Justice Minister	Old Guard
Lord	Matthew (G)	Health Minister	Old Guard
Lord	Jamie	Media Minister, Department of Enrolment, Department of Social Media	Royalist
Lady	Becky	Agriculture Minister	Royalist
Lord	Harry	Department of Trade	Royalist
Earl	Finn	Interior Minister, Department of National Administration, Department of Security and Social Affairs	LSC
Lord	Elliot	Department of Arts	LSC
Lord	Ben (H)	Technology Minister	WRP
Crown Minister	Ben (S)	Defence Minister, Department of Logistics, Department of Defence Research, Department of Training
Crown Minister	Holly	Department of the Courts
Crown Minister	Chris	Department of Prisons and Probation
Crown Minister	Jack (S)	Department of Transport
Crown Minister	Freja	Department of Social Services
Crown Minister	Tolu	Education Minister, Department of Medicine
Crown Minister	Jacob (O)	Department of Regulations
Crown Minister	Ben (SW)	Department of Broadcasts
Crown Minister	Sam (H)	Culture Minister
Crown Minister	Alex	Department of Sport

30 July 2019:

• Lord Harry resigns his seat as he believes he isn't fit for the job. A by-election is announced, but never occurs. He remains as a Crown Minister.

Legacy

Thew structure set forth by the end of the military Junta is still retained in Essexia to this day, albeit the names and positions are somewhat altered, and their powers have slightly shifted over time due to various legislation. First Minister Jacob has retained one of the longest terms in office in Essexian history, and since the Black Weekend the stability of the nation has remained fairly high.

Similar to the 16 September coup and the General Election itself, the Black Weekend is seen as a negative, volatile but necessary series of events that was due mainly to issues that had been building for many weeks, and in some cases months.