Kingdom of Redonda

The Kingdom of Redonda is the name for the micronation associated with the tiny uninhabited Caribbean island of Redonda.

The island lies between the islands of Nevis and Montserrat, within the inner arc of the Leeward Islands chain, in the West Indies. Redonda is currently legally a dependency of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. The island is just over one mile long and a third of a mile wide, rising to a 971 foot peak. It is uninhabited by man but teems with bird life, giving rise to the oft-repeated sentiment that its realm is strictly for the birds. Redonda indeed is more or less uninhabitable, since there is no source of freshwater, and most of the island is extremely steep and rocky, with only a relatively small plateau area of grassland at the summit.

From 1865 until 1912 Redonda was the centre of a lucrative trade in guano mining, with many thousands of tons of phosphates shipped to Britain. The ruined mineworkings can still be seen on the island.

Redonda also is a micronation which may, arguably and briefly, genuinely have existed as an independent kingdom during the 19th century. The title to this supposed kingdom is still contested to this day in a half-serious fashion. The "Kingdom" is also often associated with a number of supposed aristocratic members, whose titles are presented by whomever is currently the "King". Currently there are a number of different individuals in several different countries who claim to be the sole legitimate "King" of Redonda.

The idea of the kingdom appears to originate with M. P. Shiel, 1865–1947, an author of fantasy fiction. He claimed that in 1865, his father Matthew Dowdy Shiell, from the nearby island of Montserrat, proclaimed himself to be the rightful, and supposedly legal, "King" of the island of Redonda in order that he might establish his son as the rightful heir to the throne. This story, as first recounted by the son in a promotional leaflet for his books, may be partly or entirely fictional.