Giles Michel Rucher

Giles Michel Rucher (1893-1973) is a political leader best known for founding the Federated Commonwealth of Nations in 1936.

Birth and Early Life
Giles Rucher was born in 1893 in what is currently Kingdom of Lesser Britannia (KLB) occupied Aquitaine (formerly part of the French Republic). His family’s ancestral home was Octeville-sur-Mer in Normandy. As a young man, he migrated to Montreal in Laurentia, GNE, to study at McGill University. Like most young men of his time, he was enlisted in the First Great War (1913-18), fighting to stabilize Europe with GNE and other KLB allies. While at McGill, he had studied political science and military history, and this grounding served him well as he rose through the military ranks, ultimately earning a field commission as an airship captain before going into foreign intelligence.

Post GW1 Endeavors
After the war, Rucher went on to earn a doctorate in Virginian History from King's College, New York, where he met and married the former Gwenevere Williams (1899-1990). Together they had three children whom Gwen scrupulously kept out of the public eye. By all accounts, the Rucher home was always a flurry of activity and a major source of joy. While an graduate intern, he had the fortune to work with Cherokee, Incan, and Gael Kingdom diplomats on the formation of the Aboriginal Protectorate in Australia, established in 1908. Rucher had a gift for languages and a taste for a variety of stimulating beverages. He ultimately left a promising career in academia to engage in the tea trade, starting first in India and then moving into the rising yerba mate market in South Virginia. His tireless promotion of mate as a non-habit-forming alternative to coffee and tea led to its popularization throughout the Virginias, where it holds its own against other breakfast wake-me-ups.

Political Career and the Beehive Doctrine
With his fortune made in transcontinental shipping, Rucher turned his eye back to the idea of the "Virginia that might have been," seeking to build stronger political and cultural ties among the nations of North and South Virginia. Following the First Great War (GW1), Rucher was alarmed at what he considered to be European Powers turning their "greedy eyes" toward Virginia's ample assets. Rucher wrote an influential monograph drawing from the allegory present in LCD heraldic symbols, likening the Eurasians to a great bear and the Virginias to a beehive, out of which came the Beehive Doctrine -- "Though we may 'bee' little, we are fierce!" -- asserting that the Virginias were happy to trade but would not be ruled. Thus, with the stroke of a fountain pen, Rucher became a polarizing international celebrity, revered by his supporters and reviled by his critics.

Development of the Federated Commonwealth of Nations
After the First Great War, Rucher, sensing an increasingly isolationist spirit in the Virginias and a less-than-accommodating tone from the then-current KLB monarch. Rucher, who by this point had risen to prominence within Atlantican politics, reached out to his nation and other Virginian nations to formally end their subject status to the crown. On March 21, 1936, Greater New England, Lower California and Deseret, the Texas Republic, the Red Nut Republic, and the Republic Argenta formally declared their independence from their status as client states of the Kingdom of Lesser Brittania, establishing themselves as the Federated Commonwealth of Nations. Within a year, the Southern Afrikan States petitioned for and gained admission into the FCN. Rucher was elected by FCN representatives as its first prime minister, and his election was ratified by SAS the following year.

Second Great War and "Gilesland"
The years following the FCN's creation were tumultuous, and the founding nations had to bind strongly together to develop self-sufficiency. These were lean years for the commonwealth, and its future was not certain. Monarchist nations both on the continent and abroad took to calling the FCN "Gilesland" and asserting that the commonwealth would devolve into a puppet dictatorship ready to be picked apart in short order.

The simultaneous rise of both China and the Japanese Prosperity Collective (Japan, Greater Joseon, and Manchuria) as major powers in east Asia began to call Eurasian powers' attention late in the 1930s. In a move to keep the Virginias at bay, Japan attacked Hawaii, Cascadia-Pacifica, in 1939, occupying the islands and using them as a staging ground for other Pacific Island conquests. Rucher, acting on the FCN's behalf, provided material support from LCD and RA to assist CP's defense. In 1941, Japan (seeing the FCN as a de facto enemy in spite of its supposed neutrality) kicked the beehive, bombing Long Beach, LC. "An attack on one is an attack on all," declared Rucher in a stirring wireless address on October 5. "October 4th, 1941, a day that will live in infamy." The Chinese government found itself divided as to whom to support, some parties seeing an opportunity to retake Manchuria by allying with CP and FCN, and others seeking to preserve the main portion of the empire by allying with Japan.

Rallying around the moniker of Gilesland, combined FCN troops joined their CP allies in the recapture of the lost islands and captured territory in Japan and China. At the same time, the Imperial Republic declared war on China. China became caught up in a two-front war out of which emerged a Middle Kingdom (Xian) subject to the Imperial Republic, the Republic of China (Guangzhou) to the south, and what would ultimately become North China (Beijing).

Post-war Diplomacy
Rucher remained as head of government throughout the war, establishing many of the norms of conduct that continue presently. He advocated for the creation of a mobile capital that changed from country to country every four years and mandatory federal elections on the same timetable. He also set the precedent of having the prime minister remain in office for a maximum of two terms. Thus, although the war's end remained uncertain, Rucher stepped down as prime minister after two terms in office in 1945. Rucher remained active in FCN diplomacy after the war, negotiating a successful armistice in China on agreeable terms with the Imperial Republic and ensuring a power balance in the region. The three-nation solution built around three Chinese power centers allowed the Imperial Republic a route to the sea, liberation of Chinese nationals held under Japanese rule, and democratic process to flourish in the south.

Retirement from Public Life
Following the post-war period, Rucher retired from public life, opting to return to his love of piloting airships. He moved around the continent on an annual cycle (typically from Nova Scotia to Lower California to Plains, RA). Rucher was involved in experiments with overcoming the challenges of high-altitude flight and successfully patented a number of mechanical upgrades to both dirigible and winged flight. He maintained an active interest in the development of higher-speed air and ground travel, proposing the Pan-Virginian Pneumatic Railway, which has moved successively closer to completion each year. In 2018, on the 115th anniversary of his birth, the South Virginian stretch of the railroad was completed in Tar Flats, Amazonia.

Airship Accident, Death, and Memorial
Rucher remained vital into his later years, continuing to pilot airships into his 80s. On a blustery April morning, an experimental high-altitude airship he was co-piloting crashed in the Paine (PIE-Ne) Towers mountain range in Patagonia, RA. All souls were lost, and the recovery party took several weeks to reach the crash site. While the crash was ruled as caused by mechanical error, some controversy remains as to the exact causes of the crash. A makeshift memorial was held at the site (later renamed Rucher Tower), and the remains of the crew were brought back to Bellaire, where they were interred with full honors in Recoleta Cemetery.

Legacy
Giles Rucher left behind a legacy of industry, diplomacy, and honor for his fellow citizens and the FCN. His approach to responsible government left an enduring mark on the federation he helped found and on international relations throughout the 20th Century.