Cumbria
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Realm of Cumbria | |
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 Flag
 Coat of arms
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Motto: Domine Dirige Nos | |
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| Capital | Chelsea |
| Official languages | None |
| Recognised national languages | English (de facto) |
| Recognised regional languages | Parmar |
| Ethnic groups | 94% White 3.5% East Asian 2% Parmar 0.5% Mixed <0.1% Other |
| Demonym(s) | Cumbrian |
| Government | Monarchy |
• Monarch | Philippa |
• Prime Minister | Norman Moncrieffe |
| Legislature | Parliament |
| Independence from the Kingdom of Brent | |
• Acclamation Day | 12 January 1552 |
| Area | |
• | 315,159 km2 (121,684 sq mi) |
| Population | |
• 2013 estimate | 68,034,691 |
• Density | 215.8/km2 (558.9/sq mi) |
| GDP (PPP) | 2013 estimate |
• Total | $3.595 trillion |
• Per capita | $52,839 |
| Gini (2006) | 30.5 medium |
| HDI (2013) |  0.938very high |
| Currency | Cumbrian Guinea (CHG) |
| Time zone | UTC+10 (CST) |
| Date format | dd-mm-yyyy |
| Driving side | left |
| Calling code | +61 |
| Internet TLD | .ch |
The Realm of Cumbria is a sovereign state located in the Austral Ocean. Cumbria is an archipelago comprising five major islands and over six thousand smaller islands. Cumbria shares no land border with any other country, and the nearest countries to Cumbria are Assam to the north-east and Madaya to the north. The Orient Continent lies to the north.
The Cumbric Isles were first inhabited by the Parmars, who are believed to have arrived from southern Assam in the 4th Century AD. For approximately eight centuries, Cumbria was inhabited solely by the Parmar people until the arrival of Rhodean colonists in the late 12th Century. Sir Henry Brooke, a Brentish explorer, was the first Rhodean to sight Cumbria in April 1171. Cumbria was settled by Rhodean colonists, predominantly from Brent and the Continental realms of the Brentish kings, from 1176 onwards, the first Rhodean settlers having been a mission of Brentish monks.
The Cumbrian nobility declared the country's independence and acclaimed Prince Henry, Duke of Bolingbroke, as King of Cumbria in 1552, during the Wars of Independence (1543-1558). The rebellion was ultimately successful, securing Cumbria's independence.
Cumbria became an international commercial powerhouse over the 17th and 18th Centuries, although the expansion of Rhodean colonial powers into the Orient saw Cumbrian merchants embroiled in colonial conflicts such as the War of Pondicherry (1682-1690) and the War of Selangor (1738-1750). Cumbria attained a position of global economic ascendancy in the 19th Century as it became the first modern industrialised economy in Torras. Cumbria has engaged in a policy of armed neutrality and political isolationism throughout its history, predominantly as a consequence of its minimalist political system. As such, Cumbria has not been in a state of war internationally at any time in its history (although private Cumbrian institutions have been involved in war against other states), and remained neutral and uninvolved during the periods of international warfare in the 20th Century.
Cumbria's form of government is de jure a monarchy, albeit a monarchy with little substantive political power. The current Cumbrian monarch — since 16 May 2010 — is Queen Philippa. Cumbria's political system is unique in that, while the Cumbrian monarch reigns as nominal sovereign, the monarch rather a symbolic figurehead as opposed to a ruler or a government in the conventional sense. Nor does Cumbria have a legislature to speak of. Political observers have posited that Cumbria does not have a state authority in the modern sense, and that Cumbria is arguably an instance of a preserved pre-modern, if not stateless, political order. Cumbria's capital city is Chelsea, and the country's population of 64 million is mostly urbanised, and particularly concentrated in Northumbria, the largest, northernmost island. Other major cities include Wimbourne, Newport and Perth.
Cumbria is a developed country and one of the wealthiest in Torras. Cumbria ranks highly in many international comparisons of national performance, such as quality of life, health, education, economic freedom, and the protection of political liberties and civil rights. Cumbria was one of the world's first industrialised countries and remains one of the world's premier economies with considerable economic and cultural influence internationally.
Etymology
The island was originally christened Cumbria by Henry Brooke in his charts and manuscripts detailing his discoveries in his exploration of the island. Cumbria soon became the widely-accepted name for the island in Rhoda and the West. Brooke named the landmass after the River Chel, the great river which runs through Chelsea and opens at Port Monmouth, the latter being where Brooke first made landfall in 1170. The name Chel is itself an anglicisation of the Parmar name for the river, “Cil” (pronounced “Chill”).
History
Main article - History of Cumbria
Prehistory
The Parmars are the original inhabitants of Cumbria. They are descended from migrants from the Andeian archipelago. The greater part of the Parmar settlers are believed to have crossed the sea to Cumbria in the second half of the 4th Century, eight centuries before the Brentish colonisation of Cumbria. At which time, they were still few in number and were very sparsely settled over the North Island, while the South Island was virtually uninhabited. The Parmars traditionally had an Iron Age culture, and uniformly spoke the Parmar language, which was similar to languages of south-eastern Andies, from whence they seem to have come. Even in the primitive pre-colonial Parmar culture, however, a warrior culture had developed as clan warfare was waged over resources and blood feuds. Testament to this warrior culture was the high degree of violence in traditional Parmar society. The Parmars shared a common religion, which was polytheistic, confessing a belief in a pantheon of gods and goddesses, with religious practices revolving around offerings and sacrifices. Parmar religion seems to have derived from a tribal religion of the region in the Andies from which the Parmars are thought to have migrated.
The Parmars had a tribal society; by the time of Brentish culture they had not yet developed any conception of shared Parmar nationhood. The tribe, consisting of a number of smaller familial clans, was the highest social reality. Families tended to be largely self-sufficient, practising subsistence agriculture. The Parmars were predominantly a pastoral people, and moved their residences frequently; as such there was little in the way of fixed native habitations or settlements in Cumbria. Their grazing behaviours saw that the Parmars did not cluster in any one location. The isolated family croft was the normal unit of settlement, or, at most, small hamlets that clustered around local clan chieftains.
Medieval Cumbria
In April 1171, the Brentish explorer Sir Henry Brooke became the first Rhodean to discover the Cumbrian Isles during his explorations of the East. After reports of the discovery of the new islands reached Rhodes, Pope Pontian III purported to grant possession of the Cumbrian Isles to Brent in a papal bull. Kings of Brent undertook no immediate effort to settle or exploit the isles, however. Rhodean colonisation of the islands began with the settlement founded by the Bangor Monks, a mission of Brentish Benedictine monks who established Bangor Abbey in 1176, the first Rhodean settlers in Cumbria.
Secular settlement of Cumbria began in 1189 with the settlement established by the Montbray party at Trellech, led by the Brentish knight William de Montbray. Other similar expeditions followed Montbray in the following years, founding colonist settlements in various places around the islands, although mainly in Northumbria. Such settler parties were typically composed of a sizable group of peasants led by a lord or a knight with a retinue of men-at-arms. Other ventures, particularly later in the 13th and 14th Centuries, consisted of a lord or a powerful knight taking a host of soldiers and knights to Cumbria with promises of reward, conquering and fortifying a territory, and subsequently bringing out new colonists from Rhodes to settle the area. Rhodean settlement of Cumbria continued steadily until the middle of the 14th Century, when the Black Death broke out in Rhodes and killed an estimated half of the continent's population. Migrants predominantly came from the various provinces of the Orleanian Empire, primarily Brentish, but also Erse, Albans, Gallics, Brehons and Normans. The impetus for such intense migration from Rhodes in the 13th and 14th Centuries seemed to have been the economic and social pressures created by overpopulation in the Rhodean Continent, which had been seeing diminishing quality of life for common people in Rhodes.
The feudal social order of contemporary medieval Rhodes was essentially transplanted in Cumbria, with a hierarchical, status-based society quickly developing in the nascent colony. The establishment of feudal institutions was spurred by the ubiquitous threat of aggression against the settlers by the native Parmar population, as well as coastal raids by pirates from the Andies. An elite class of feudal lords, known as the marcher lords, who, like petty kings, reigned over vast domains and received homage from a great number of barons, were the de facto social and political elite of medieval Cumbria, and by the 14th Century the Cumbrian Isles had become a patchwork of these marcher domains. Despite being nominally a possession of the Brentish Crown, there was little to no presence of any royal authority in medieval Cumbria, leading historians to suggest that medieval Cumbria was effectively a stateless society. In 1233 King Edward III created the office of Seneschal of Cumbria with viceregal-like authority, but the office was neglected and irregularly occupied, vacant for extended periods of time, and the Seneschals were never able to exert any real power in Cumbria.
For the greater part of the first century after settlement, then, the settler population was in a state of siege against the threat of the Parmars and sea-borne pirates, the military feudal aristocracy engaged in permanent low-frequency warfare against the alien threats. Little inter-local commerce took place, and local communities were almost completely economically isolated from one another. The majority of the medieval stone castles that dot the Cumbrian countryside date from this period, and were built as defences against land and sea aggression. The Parmars remained a threat into the 15th Century, although by the end of the 13th Century they had been effectively subdued and pushed onto the outskirts of the country as all the fertile and desirable land in the country was settled. The Parmar population is estimated to have been reduced by up to three-quarters over the 13th and 14th Centuries as a result of wars with the settler population, diseases brought by the settler population and loss of land. Beginning in the 15th Century in earnest, members of the remaining Parmar population in the Cumbrian Isles began to join and integrate themselves into Cumbrian settler society, migrating especially to Chelsea, while those that didn't continued to live in a traditional lifestyle in the outskirts of the country remote from the centres of Rhodean settlement.
After the Parmar threat was quashed by the 14th Century and the pirate threat was under control, trade links across the country and beyond opened up, and market towns grew in number and size. By far the greatest of the medieval urban centres was the northern coastal city of Chelsea, although others of note included Wimborne, Truro, Perth and Lothian. These cities were typically constituted as walled self-governing "communes" on the Rhodean model, governed by a patrician elite of the foremost merchants of the cities. Chelsea rose to ascendancy as the wealthiest and most powerful of the Cumbrian cities due to the trade that flowed into its ports from both sides of the Olympic Ocean, and it was said in the Middle Ages that it was in Chelsea "where East meets West". By the 16th Century Chelsea had become one of the wealthiest and most affluent cities in the world, and was as large as any of the great cities of Rhodes such as Exeter and Rouen.
Cumbrian Civil War
Formal Cumbrian independence from the Kingdom of Brent was secured in 1552 following a period of civil war between a royalist faction of the Cumbrian nobility who supported the King of Brent's ambitions of bringing Cumbria under royal control, and members of the Cumbrian nobility who resisted the King.
Since Pope Pontian III’s issue of the papal bull Laudabiliter in 1171 purporting to grant possession of the Cumbrian Isles to the King of Brent, the Brentish monarch was recognised at least as titular overlord of Cumbria, even if the Brentish Crown was never able to exert any real power in Cumbria. In 1534, after a lengthy dispute with the Pope, King Richard III of Brent had separated the Church of Brent from Thebes and declared himself its Supreme Head, and purported to do the same with respect to the Church in all his dominions, including Cumbria. The King’s purported exertion of power in this way was resisted in Cumbria, where royal power was customarily absent and where the population owed greater allegiance to the Church and the Pope than the absentee Brentish monarch.
Pope Pelagius IV revoked Laudabiliter in 1536, claiming to withdraw Brent’s title to possession over Cumbria. This prompted Richard III to take more direct action to bring Cumbria under royal sway. The following year he sent his younger son, Prince Henry, Duke of Bolingbroke, to Cumbria and titled him ‘Lord of Cumbria’ with the apparent power to rule Cumbria as a vassal of the King. It appears that Bolingbroke, who reportedly had a poor relationship with his father, made little effort to win over, let alone rule, the Cumbrian nobility on the King’s behalf, and instead took advantage of the freedom of being outside his father’s reach. Bolingbroke fell in love with Eleanor Despenser, daughter of Robert Despenser, Lord of Moel, one of the leading Cumbrian noble opponents of the King. They married in 1540 in a marriage ceremony conducted by Simon Randolph, Archbishop of Monmouth, the leader of the Cumbrian bishops, who were loyal to the Pope. It was an act pregnant in symbolism, making it clear that Bolingbroke had no intention of serving the King, nor of returning to Brent.
The King had other willing and loyal, and more reliable, servants in Cumbria, however. Walter de Stuteford, Lord of Beaumaris, one of the most powerful marcher lords in Cumbria, agreed to support the King’s ambitions in Cumbria upon the King’s promise of political and territorial reward. Stuteford started warring on the marcher lords who resisted the King. He was joined by other nobles who similarly hoped for political reward if they served the King, as well as in anticipation of advantage over their political and territorial rivals and of sharing in the proceeds of the substantial territories owned by the Church in Cumbria.
A large number of nobles, known as the ‘Tories’, took up arms against Stuteford and the royalist nobles, led by Robert Despenser and Prince Henry Bolingbroke, as well as John Desmond, Lord of Bramber and Henry Mortimer, Lord of Brechin. The Cumbrian bishops, led by the Archbishop of Monmouth and the Bishop of Truro, were also Tory. The motivations of the Tory nobles were chiefly political—they resented the pretensions of an absentee Brentish king and feared royal encroachment upon the ancient independence and liberty enjoyed by the Cumbrian nobility—although the Tory nobles were also, not insignificantly, united by allegiance to the Pope and the Church. A majority of the Cumbrian marcher lords appear to have supported the Tory cause, although not all took up arms against the royalists.
The civil war continued for twelve years, until 1552, when, after the Battle of Dolbadarn, Stuteford and the leading royalist nobles surrendered on the condition that they be permitted to keep their lands. At the Parliament of Kent, the Cumbrian marcher lords, ecclesiastics and representatives of the boroughs signed the Articles of Kent, a declaration of Cumbrian independence, and acclaimed Prince Henry Bolingbroke as ‘King of the Cumbrian’, testament to the esteem in which Bolingbroke had come to be held as a result of his leading role in fighting for Cumbrian independence. An envoy consisting of Robert Despenser, Henry Mortimer and Gerald de Brus, Bishop of Truro, presented the Articles of Kent to Pope Augustine III in Thebes to plead the Cumbrian nobles’ case. The Pope affirmed the Articles and recognised Henry Bolingbroke as King of the Cumbrian.
The Brentish monarchs would not renounce overlordship over Cumbria and would continue to use the title ‘Lord of Cumbria’ until 1745.
Early modern period
The long reign of Queen Eleanor (reigned 1559–1619) following the Cumbrian Civil War formed what is known as the Eleanorean Era. Sometimes called a "golden age" of Cumbria's history, the Eleanorean Era was a period of peace, stability, prosperity and transformation for Cumbria. Cumbrian commerce flourished during the period, and the international trade revolving around the City of Chelsea came to rival the trade of any of the Rhodean maritime trading powers of Brent, Scenland and Pyrón, and indeed Cumbrian trade came to dominate many parts of the Orient. Chelsea itself would soon claim to be the foremost commercial centre in the world. The Eleanorean Era was also characterised by a flourishing of culture, with such internationally renowned Eleanorean figures as Robert de Grey, Matthew Blake and William Carey contributing to a vibrant cultural life in Eleanorean Cumbria.
Politically, the state of affairs in the Eleanorean Era set the precedent for the following centuries. Queen Eleanor, who had the temper more of a socialite than a ruler, was content to observe the stipulations of the Magna Carta, which preserved all the "ancient liberties" of the Cumbrian nobility and the Church and provided that the monarch's domestic role was largely symbolic and ceremonial, a totem monarch of sorts. Nevertheless, with the establishment of a domestic Cumbrian monarchy, Cumbrian society for the first time had a centre of gravity in the Cumbrian royal court, which quickly became the centre of Cumbrian social life under Eleanor, a notoriously skilled socialite. Eleanor married in 1571 shortly before her 21st birthday into the Mowbray family, one of the most powerful marcher families ruling much of western Northumbria, which would add substantial lands to the royal family's then modest Cumbrian possessions. The Mowbray monarchs of Cumbria followed the precedent set by Eleanor with respect to the role of the monarch, exerting themselves in social life and building the prestige and veneration of the royal court, as well as using the royal family's social position to accrue material benefits, especially through marriages with the nobility, but otherwise not purporting to exercise any substantive political power. The Cumbrian monarchy had established itself in the reigns of Eleanor and the Mowbrays as principally a symbolic and cultural institution rather than a political one.
The Cumbrian monarchs did have a limited political role internationally, however, in managing foreign relations, although in consultation with the nobility. Cumbria's foreign policy during the 16th to 18th Centuries might be characterised as politically isolationist, in the sense that Cumbria did not engage in international politics. Eleanor initially courted relations with Rhodean royalty, but later retreated from doing so when it became clear that, with Rhodes divided by alliances and power struggles, made especially fierce with the Continent's new religious divisions, it was politically dangerous to Cumbria to pursue even friendly relations with other states. Cumbria, instead, turned its attention to its own neighbours in the Orient. Eleanor sent Cumbrian ambassadors to Hoenn, Macan and Madaya, building nascent relations with Cumbria's neighbours, and in 1660, in the Treaty of Maumin, James III secured freedom for all Cumbrian merchants to trade in Macan, the only nation to receive such a privilege in the Wan Dynasty.
The successes of organised Cumbrian merchants in the 17th and 18th Centuries saw the building of a so-called "Cumbrian commercial empire" in the Orient consisting of trading posts and fortified "free trade" regions. Although powerful national chartered companies dominated trade in much of the Orient by force, especially in the Andies, where Cumbrian merchants had always been most active, private defence institutions arose to serve the needs of merchants based in Chelsea, both Cumbrian and foreign, trading with the Orient. Merchants in Chelsea and the numerous trading posts connected to Chelsea formed the confederal Eastern League during the 17th Century to provide for the collective defence and commercial security of its member merchants. The League often came into conflict with the powerful national chartered trading companies such as the Pyrónese and Scanish East Orient Companies. In some instances such conflicts escalated into wars, most notably the War of Pondicherry (1682–1690) and the War of Selangor (1738–1750). The successes of the League in such wars saw the League entrenched as an economically and politically powerful international confederation of merchants which ultimately led to a substantial flow of wealth into its capital, Chelsea.
Modern period
Contemporary Cumbria
Geography
Cumbria is an island nation 268,021 square kilometres in area in total. The Cumbrian archipelago comprises five main island landmasses and over six thousand smaller island. Cumbria is located in the vast Austral Ocean south of the Orient Continent, with the Madayan Sea lying between Cumbria and the mainland Orient. The expansive Assam Archipelago is north-east of Cumbria. Because of its extensive coastline and many far-flung islands under its jurisdiction, Cumbria has significant marine resources, and its Exclusive Economic Zone, one of the largest in Torras, covers 15 times its land area. The Cumbrian Isles host a variety of diverse landscapes, including the Penmounths mountain range in western Cumbria. Most of Cumbria is grasslands and temperate forests, especially along the coastline.
The main rivers in Cumbria are the Chel, Tennant, Todd, Wen, and Anne. Mountain ranges run the length of Cumbria — the Penmounths. Mount Brochan, in the Penmounths, is the highest mountain in Cumbria at 2,228 metres. Off the north-western coast lies the Cumbrian Barrier Reef, the largest coral reef in Torras, extending 2,000 kilometres.
Climate and environment
The climate of Cumbria is significantly influenced by ocean currents. Cumbria has temperate maritime climate, with mean annual temperatures ranging from 12 °C in the south to 20 °C in the north. Rainfall in Cumbria is variable, and frequent droughts can last several seasons due to the ocean current patterns of the Southern Oscillation. The temperature contrast between winter and summer is relatively small, although seasonal highs and lows can be great.
Cumbria has a diverse range of habitats, from alpine heaths to temperate forests. Due to the islands’ great age, variable weather patterns, and long-term geographic isolation, much of Cumbria's biota is unique and diverse. Cumbrian forests are mostly made up of evergreen species; the most dominant species are eucalyptus trees and wattles. Among well-known Cumbrian animals are the monotremes (the platypus and echidna); a host of marsupials, including the Cumbrian wolf, Cumbrian devil, kangaroo, koala, and wombat, and birds such as the emu and the kockoo. Cumbria is also home to many dangerous animals including some of the most venomous snakes in the world.
Regions
Although Cumbria has no officially recognised administrative divisions, the country is divided into a multiplicity of distinct regions and localities, generally known as "marches". They are coterminous with existing or historical domains of marcher lords, or else with independent towns and cities. Historical marches are geographically compact, and are depicted as such in maps, although the domains of the marcher lords from which they derive their existence may or may have included enclaves and exclaves. The marches, as well as the free cities and boroughs, are sources of strong local identity for their inhabitants.
Politics
Cumbria is a monarchy and a unitary realm. Queen Philippa is currently reigning monarch of Cumbria. Cumbria is sometimes regarded as not being a state in the conventional, modern sense. The Cumbrian monarch is nominally sovereign of Cumbria, but does not wield any special legal prerogatives by virtue of that office. The Cumbrian monarch is bound by the same law, in the same way, as the monarch's subjects and, as such, does not have the power to compel her subjects to surrender taxes, nor does she have the authority to make or change the law. The law, in Cumbria, existing and deriving its source independently of the monarch, is supreme. The position of the Cumbrian monarch is comparable to the historical position of the Japanese Emperor — that is, a symbolic figurehead, wielding significant social and cultural influence but no real political power. As such, the Cumbrian monarchy cannot be said to wield the power of a state in the conventional sense, and, indeed, legal and political theorists have posited that the Cumbrian polity is actually an instance of a stateless society, or at least a sui generis or pre-modern form of polity, rather than a modern state.
The monarch's role does, however, involve acting as a focal point for the national community at large in circumstances when such a figure is needed. For example, in the periods of international warfare in the 20th Century, the Cumbrian monarchs acted as a focal point that facilitated political deliberation within the Cumbrian community, for instance by convening parliaments representing the community and interests within the community, and by representing the Cumbrian community's interests abroad.
While the monarch has a limited domestic role, the monarch does, by custom, manage relations with foreign states, although, due to the nature of the Cumbrian polity, diplomacy and dealings with foreign authorities are considered to involve that between the Cumbrian royal dynasty and the foreign authority, rather than the Cumbrian nation at large. Politics, insofar as they exist, accordingly generally concern foreign affairs. The monarch keeps a small retinue of ministers and household officers to advise her on these matters and other political matters, the primary officer being the Chief Secretary (informally known as the Prime Minister), currently Norman Moncrieffe. In the rare event that the monarch requires the counsel of the community of the country at large, Parliament is convened. Parliament is traditionally an assembly of the senior nobility and clergy of Cumbria, although the monarch may invite any individual she chooses to attend. Additionally, a number of parliaments have included elected representatives of localities around the country.
Law
Main article: Cumbrian law
Cumbria has a pluralist legal order in that there is no single body of law which prevails as a monistic legal system in Cumbria, and the legal landscape of Cumbria consists in a multitude of overlapping and co-existing sources of private law and legal rules administered by private courts. For this reason Cumbria's legal order has been described as "polycentric". Sources of law in Cumbria include the universal and fundamental law, known as the common law, which applies presumptively to all persons in Cumbria; and private or particular sources of the law, including legal rules established by contractual arrangements, customary law and religious law.
Although no legal system prevails as a monistic legal system in Cumbria, Cumbrian law, or "common law", prevails as the de facto legal system of Cumbria for all persons in Cumbria other than those who opt out of the common law. The common law is the body of law and jurisprudence which historically gained ascendancy as the predominant legal system in Cumbria governing the lives of the vast majority of the population. The common law co-existed with other legal systems among the population and continues to co-exist so today. The common law originated in the civil courts of the medieval Cumbrian church, and its jurisprudence is heavily influenced by natural law ideas.
The most important legal institutions in Cumbria are the courts and insurance agencies. There is no system of public courts in Cumbria, and courts are completely private institutions. Most first instance courts are local in character, although some prestigious courts, such as the royal Court of Common Pleas in Chelsea, hear matters from all over the country. Specialised appellate courts tend to be national in character, and the most respected appellate courts are connected to prestigious institutions of legal education and knowledge, such as the great law schools at the universities of Ely, St Pauls and Exminster, and the most prestigious Inns of Court. There are also two royal appellate courts: the High Court and the Chief Pleas, the latter having the customary status as the supreme court of common law in Cumbria. Private law systems tend to have their own court systems, such as the mercantile courts of the lex mercatoria or religious courts, although in the case of legal rules established in contractual arrangements where the dispute is essentially over interpretation of contractual terms, common law courts will typically be chosen to resolve such disputes.
Foreign relations
Military
Economy
Cumbria is a wealthy country with a market economy. It is the fourth largest economy in Torras, with high GDP per capita and a low rate of poverty. Gold and silver circulate widely as money in a variety of currency systems. Cumbria has no central bank. The Chelsea Stock Exchange is the largest in Torras.
The fourth largest economy in Torras, Cumbria is one of the world's foremost trading nations, with a highly globalised economy. Cumbria collectively also has the sixth highest per capita GDP (PPP) and was identified by the Cane Economic Research Institute as having the highest median wealth in Torras and second highest average wealth per adult in 2015. Cumbria's capital Chelsea has a GDP per capita higher than any sovereign state. Cumbria was ranked second in Torras in the Human Development Index in 2011 and third in the Index of Economic Freedom in 2010. All of Cumbria's major cities fare well in global comparative livability surveys; Wimbourne reached first place in The Broker's 2015 world's most livable cities list, with Chelsea, Newport and Perth also consistently ranking highly.
Like most developed countries, Cumbria's economy is dominated by the services sector, which makes up around 75% of the national economy and employs most of the country's workforce. Chelsea is one of the "command centres" of the global economy, and is Torras' largest financial centre, with Meaco a close second. There are over 500 banks with offices in Chelsea, and it is the leading international centre in Torras for banking, insurance, Eurobonds, foreign exchange trading and energy futures. The City of Chelsea is also a major hub for other professional and business services, including, traditionally, the legal professions. Tourism is also very important for the Cumbrian economy; Cumbria is consistently in the top 10 tourist destinations in Torras, and Chelsea consistently among the top three most-visited cities in the world.
The Industrial Revolution saw Cumbrian industry assume a place of ascendancy in global trade in the 19th Century, although Cumbria lost its competitive advantage over the late 20th Century as other nations industrialised and manufacturing shifted to the Orient. However, manufacturing remains an important part of Cumbria's contemporary economy, and recently experienced a revival as a result of the mass extraction of bountiful natural gas resources in Cumbria over the last decade. Technical colleges and a long-established custom of youth apprenticeships have helped to sustain high value-added manufacturing in Cumbria while low-skilled manufacturing jobs have moved overseas. The automotive industry is a major part of the Cumbrian manufacturing sector, contributing significantly to the nation’s exports. Cumbria also has significant aerospace and pharmaceutical industries.
Cumbria’s primary sector is also fairly important. While many previously abundant natural resources, such as coal and gold, have long been exhausted, others continue to be beneficially exploited, such as oil and natural gas. Cumbria has experienced something of a resources boom since the end of the Orient War driven especially by regional demand for oil and natural gas. As such, Cumbria is a net exporter of energy, having particularly rich reserves of natural gas, which, having only begun to be exploited in the 21st Century, both helps fuel the domestic economy and is exported abroad. Agriculture in Cumbria is intensive, highly mechanised and efficient. Two-thirds of agricultural production is devoted to livestock, and a third to arable crops; major agricultural industries in Cumbria include the beef and dairy industry, the wool industry, livestock, wheat, cotton, vegetables, fruit and nuts and sugar. Cumbria's fishing industry is also one of the world's most important, and Cumbria is among the world's foremost exporters of fish.
Infrastructure
Cumbria has an extensive road network, with 51,604 km of main roads, 3,847 km of motorways and 378,470 km of paved roads. Road transport is the main means of transportation. A single network of high-speed, divided, limited-access toll roads connects major cities and is maintained by toll-collecting enterprises. Roads within major cities and other settlements are mostly publicly maintained and provided. In 2009 there were a total of 35 million licensed vehicles in Cumbria.
Cumbria has a total of 18,168 km of railway, operated by dozens of Cumbrian railway companies that compete in regional and local passenger transportation markets. Major companies include the twelve formerly state-owned Cumbrian Railways Group companies, the Llandaff Corporation, Hendra Railways and Victoria Railways. Additionally, some 250 high-speed bullet trains connect major cities. Cumbrian trains are renowned for their safety and punctuality.
Cumbrian airports handle over 200 million passengers per year. The largest airports in the country are Chelsea (Macquarie) International Airport, Carseldine Airport and Wimbourne Airport. Macquarie Airport receives the most international passenger traffic of any airport in Torras. A new facility, Wells International Airport, near the township of Wells to the north of Greater Chelsea, is under ongoing construction, and was designed to relieve traffic from the increasingly congested central hub at Macquarie Airport.
As of 2011, 50% of energy in Cumbria was produced from gas, 30% from coal, and 20% from nuclear power. Cumbria is a net producer of energy, having abundant resources of crude oil and natural gas, producing energy for domestic consumption as well as for export. Due to its considerably stronger ozone layer, the planet Torras does not face the same issues of carbon-induced global warming that Earth does, and, as such, the necessity of transitioning to green energy sources is not present on Torras. Nevertheless, solar power is attracting increasing consumer popularity as a means of private household energy production.
Demographics
Ethnic origins of people in Cumbria (2011 estimation)
Cumbria does not have a periodic census, but accurate estimates are frequently made. In 2011, the total population of Cumbria was estimated to be approximately 68,034,691. At 215.8 inhabitants per square kilometre, Cumbria remains one of the most densely-populated countries in the world, although there is a much higher concentration of people in Chelsea and Northumbria. The total fertility rate (TFR) across Cumbria is 2.69 children per woman and rising, which represents a minor baby boom relative to recent times.
For almost the entirety of Cumbrian history the majority of settlers and immigrants came from the "Home Nations" of the Cambrian Isles—Brent, Albany and Ierne, although during the medieval period a substantial proportion of settlers also came from the Continental dominions of the Orleans dynasty which ruled Brent, namely Gallics, Brehons and Walians. As a result the people of Cumbria are predominantly of Cambrian (Anglo-Celtic) ethnic origin. Due to immigration in the 20th Century, Oriental ethnic groups make up the next largest ancestral origin of the Cumbrian population, followed by the indigenous Parmar people and Caucasians of non-Cambrian origin. Immigration in the 20th Century has contributed to a more ethnically-diverse population makeup, especially in Chelsea. The most common ancestry among Cumbrian people is Brentish, followed by Alban, Erse, Gallic, Preuton, Parmar, Norse, Hoennese, Scanish, Caulayan, Assamese, Macanese, and Maday. In 2011, approximately 8.3% of the population were born elsewhere, and 15.6% had at least one overseas-born parent. Approximately 94% of Cumbria's population is of Rhodean (white) ancestry, the remainder being predominantly of Parmar or Orient heritage.
The rural population of Cumbria in 2012 was estimated at 14,727,979 (23% of the total population). The Parmar population was estimated at 1,280,693 (2% of the total population) in 2011, a proportion that has generally remained consistent, even if decreasing in the long-term. Settled Parmars experience similar levels of education, life expectancy, outcomes and quality of life as the white majority, as discrepancies between the two groups have long been ironed out over centuries of cultural integration.
Largest cities or towns in Cumbria
June 2019 General Register Office estimates (urban areas) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Island | Pop. | Rank | Island | Pop. | ||||
 Chelsea  Wimbourne |
1 | Chelsea | Northumbria | 9,787,426 | 11 | Camborne | Northumbria | 617,280 | Newport Newport Perth Perth |
| 2 | Wimbourne | Northumbria | 3,083,635 | 12 | Tintagel | Northumbria | 508,916 | ||
| 3 | Newport | Northumbria | 2,947,741 | 13 | Kingston | Lindsey | 482,640 | ||
| 4 | Perth | Northumbria | 2,147,872 | 14 | Torpoint | Northumbria | 474,485 | ||
| 5 | Cardiff | Cumbria | 1,199,629 | 15 | Edgbaston | Cumbria | 466,266 | ||
| 6 | Truro | Lindsey | 864,122 | 16 | Birkenhead | Northumbria | 447,287 | ||
| 7 | Tremaine | Northumbria | 855,569 | 17 | Inverness | Northumbria | 376,633 | ||
| 8 | Launceston | Northumbria | 774,891 | 18 | Preston | Mona | 372,775 | ||
| 9 | Dundee | Northumbria | 729,977 | 19 | Charters Towers | Northumbria | 359,262 | ||
| 10 | Cairns | Northumbria | 685,368 | 20 | Teneriffe | Northumbria | 335,415 | ||
Language
English is Cumbria's de facto national language, despite not being an official language. It is estimated that more than 95% of the Cumbrian population are monolingual English speakers. Cumbrian English is a major variety of the language with a distinctive array of unique regional lexicons and accents. The most well-known variety of Cumbrian English is the distinctive dialect of Chelsea, the "Chelsea accent". Hyperlect Cumbrian, or the "Queen's Cumbrian", is a prestige accent of Cumbrian English, very similar to Received Pronunciation, that is spoken by the Cumbrian upper and upper-middle classes and has served as a regionless "standard" dialect since the Jacobean Era.
"Standard" English, as spoken in Brent and the rest of the English-speaking world, has only been widespread in Cumbria since the 16th Century. Prior to that, the English spoken in Cumbria had diverged significantly from that spoken in Brent due to centuries of geographical and political isolation, such that, by the time of the Wars of Independence in the 16th Century, the dialect spoken in Cumbria might be said to have diverged into a separate language, similar to the status of Scots. Only in Chelsea did the local variant of English remain close to that of Brentish English during the Middle Ages, due to its being a hub for trans-oceanic commerce. "Standard" English only became widespread in Cumbria after the 16th Century, most likely due to the cultural influence of the new Cumbrian royal court, where the royal family spoke Brentish English. Use of the prestige dialect of Brentish English spread among the aristocracy and the Church, and eventually spread to the population at large, although old vocabulary and dialectical idiosyncrasies can still be heard at a local level.
A variety of other languages are spoken natively by many people in Cumbria as a legacy of immigration in the 20th Century. After English, the next most common languages spoken at home are Erse, Hindi, Italian, Macanese, Pontic, Hoennese and Gallic. A significant proportion of first- and second-generation immigrants are bilingual. Common languages taught as a second language in Cumbria are Parmar, Latin, Gallic, Hoennese, Macanese, Scanish, Norse, Preuton, Pyrenean and Maday. Parmar, the language of Cumbria's indigenous people, is spoken by very few people as a first language today, although the language has experienced a resurgence of interest outside the Parmar community since the 19th Century, and today Parmar is taught in many schools. Most Cumbrian pupils do at least rudimentary study of a foreign language in school.
Religion
Christianity has dominated religious life in Cumbria since the beginning of Brentish colonisation in 1176, the first Rhodean settlers in Cumbria having, notably, been monastic missionaries who founded Bangor Abbey. The Apostolic Church played a prominent role in the early period of settlement history, and a diocese was first established in Cumbria in 1200, shortly after settlement. Christianity has been central to Cumbrian culture and society for much of the nation's post-settlement history.
Prior to white settlement, the polytheistic beliefs of the Parmar people had been practiced for up to eight hundred years. The Parmar religion revolved around a pantheon of gods and goddesses which occasionally interacted with humanity, spirits and magical creatures that lived in a spirit realm, and an afterlife similar to concepts of heaven and hell. Parmar religion shaped native law and customs, and were reflected in Parmar art, story and dance. The Parmar religion gradually died out in the centuries following Rhodean settlement of Cumbria, the Parmars mostly adopting Christianity over that time.
Cumbria remains a greatly religious country; the vast majority of the population are religious, most of whom are Christians. Approximately 90% of the population are Christian, including 84.2% as belonging to the Apostolic Church, and 5.2% as various Protestant denominations. 8.8% are estimated as having no religion, with a further 1.2% having a different religion, including Jinsei and Buddhism. Of the 90% of Cumbrian people who identify as Christians, the majority attend some sort of worship regularly, and thus Christian belief and piety is of a high level in Cumbria.
The Apostolic Church is the largest Christian denomination in Cumbria, and the Church has been at the centre of cultural, social and political life in Cumbria since its foundation in the earliest days of the settlement. Many of Cumbria's most notable buildings are cathedrals, monasteries and churches of the Apostolic Church, such as Kent Minster in Chelsea, Cumbria's unofficial "national cathedral", where the Cumbrian monarch is coronated and where the bodies of all Cumbrian monarchs are buried, as well as Bangor Abbey, Cumbria's most prestigious monastery.
Education
Main article - Education in Cumbria TBC
Health
Cumbria has a generally efficient healthcare system, despite relatively low health expenditure for a developed country. Life expectancy is 80 for males and 85 for females, placing Cumbria 4th overall in Torras for life expectancy. Virtually the whole population has access to superior water and sanitation facilities. There are fewer than 10 annual deaths from HIV per 100,000 people, as well as a high level of immunisation, although adult obesity is among the highest in the world. Cumbria also consistently has among the lowest infant mortality rate in the world.
Culture
Since the beginning of Rhodean settlement in the late 12th Century, Cumbrian culture has developed according to an array of diverse cultural influences. Although the influence of Brentish culture has always been prevalent, the cultural and ethnic diversity of medieval Cumbria contributed to the development of a distinctive national culture that draws on a variety of cultural influences. Distinctive components of Cumbrian culture have also arisen from Cumbria's natural environment and location in the world, indigenous Parmar culture, Cumbria's history and the circumstances of Cumbria's early development. The traditions of more recent immigrants have also contributed to the formation of a distinctive Cumbrian culture.
Core Cumbrian culture was established by medieval settlers primarily from the Cambrian Isles and the Continental dominions of the Brentish monarchs, such as Gauls, Brehons and Walians, and shaped by the process of frontier settlement and the Cumbrian colonial way of life. Traits developed by early colonists were passed down to descendants and transmitted to immigrants through assimilation.
Visual art
The earliest visual arts in Cumbria were the rock and cave art of the first indigenous (Parmar) people of Cumbria. Parmar art forms advanced over time, developing forms of sculpture and metalwork. Parmar standing stones, which still dot the Cumbrian landscape, are a legacy of pre-colonial Parmar civilisation. The Parmars also incorporated Western art techniques into their own art in the period following colonisation, producing unique new forms of indigenous art.
Settler art was highly influenced by trends in Old World, and consciously tried to imitate the Rhodean art of the time. Ralph Bloch emerged as a notable Cumbrian Renaissance painter in the mid 16th Century. Later Cumbrian artists drew inspiration from the natural landscape, which has consistently remained a major theme in Cumbrian art, seen in the works of Richard Towers, Thomas McKinlay and the Cumbrian Impressionist School. Other major Cumbrian artists include: the Romantics Oliver Carey, David Knowles, Joseph Evans and Matthew de Courcy; the portrait painters Patrick Green and Colin O'Brien; the landscape artists Gregory McGann, Stephen Tate, Lewis Peters and Nicholas Pfeffel; the pop artists Howard Barker and Robert McRoberts; and the sculptors Thomas de Grey, Edward Pettigrew, Alistair Scargill and Daniel Gwilt.
The Royal Academy is the most prominent promoter of visual arts in Cumbria. The National Gallery of Cumbria is the largest art gallery in the country and maintains a large Cumbrian and overseas art collection. Other important art galleries include the National Portrait Gallery, the Chelsea Gallery of Modern Art, and the National Gallery of Cumbrian Art. Major schools of art in Cumbria include the Chelsea Institute, Goldsmiths College, the Campbell School of Fine Art, the Wimbourne School of Fine Art, the Royal College of Design, and the Grenville School.
Literature, poetry and philosophy
Medieval Cumbrian literature boasts the celebrated 14th Century poet William Pusey, author of Cumbrian Tales. Other medieval Cumbrian authors include Henry Corbett, Gerald Burke and Stephen Norries. Notable medieval Cumbrian philosophers included the scholastics Jeremy Aubrey and Thomas Bellamy.
Early Modern Cumbrian literature showcased Cumbrian English diverging from Brentish English, the most celebrated proponent of Early Modern Cumbrian English literature being Henry Mortimer. Other notable Cumbrian Renaissance authors include Nicholas Pakenham, Timothy Moore, Alexander Pearce and Henry Fortescue. Thomas Mallory and his student and protégé, William Boucher, were acclaimed 16th Century theologian-jurists who substantially shaped modern Cumbrian jurisprudence and established the now-widespread Ely School of philosophical thought. Cumbrian independence in 1552 led to a flourishing of political philosophy, including most notably the intellectual movement known as Anarcho-Toryism, exemplified by the writer John Sacheverell, which sought to champion the Cumbrian socio-political order of the time.
Cumbrian Enlightenment philosophers included Lord Trevelyan, Sidney Fry and Robert Forbes. The 18th Century produced a flowering of culture including such authors as Thomas Meyers, Matthew Blake and William Carey. In the 19th Century, Cumbrian Romantic authors and poets gained wide acclaim such as Archibald Donovan, Francis Lake, Bernard Ward, Mary Montague, Alexander Prior, Nicholas Moran, George Wallace and Samuel Bell. Other authors from the Georgian Era (1840–1902) include novelists G.M. Irvine, Patricia Sewell, Oliver Biset, E.G. Vane and Noel Montgomery; as well as poets I.M. Swanson, D.S. Parrington, Thomas Lewes and Harriet Bales. Geoffrey de Mandeville, who wrote from 1885 until his death in 1916, was a playwright and poet whose works, including Anne of Six Husbands, Prince of Madaya, Tomkinson and Miranda and Mary have become among the most acclaimed pieces of English language literature.
In 1945, N.J. Macallister produced The History of Cumbria, the definitive work of Cumbrian history up to the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Since the Elizabethan Era, Cumbria has continued to produce acclaimed authors such as Donald Cane, R.G. Chershaw, Charles Morgan, Elizabeth Pryce, John Babington, Georgina Cardew, E.M. Sergeant, George Gatton, Siobhan Hayes and Humphrey Langley.
Music and performing arts
Traditional Parmar music was a distinctive style of music making use of unique rhythms, harmonies and melodies. Traditional Parmar music was often vocal accompanied only by percussive instrumentation, although simple instruments such as flutes were not uncommon. Much traditional Parmar music was used as accompaniment for group folk dancing, and was often characterised by fast melodies and percussion. Contemporary Parmar folk music makes use of introduced Western instruments, especially string instruments such as violins and double basses, while retaining the distinctive traditional Parmar musical essence. Contemporary Parmar folk music is still popular among Parmar Traveller communities.
Western folk music was first brought to Cumbria by Rhodean medieval settlers. Folk music traditions from the various cultures of Cumbria's settler population were common in medieval Cumbria. A distinctive Cumbrian folk tradition developed in the medieval period, drawing from the eclectic range of styles that the population of Cumbria brought with them from Rhoda. The travelling "gleemen", who were invariably of Erse background, were early exponents of musical lyric poetry in the fledgling Cumbrian folk style. Cumbrian folk styles rose to greater prominence in the Romantic era, in which classical composers such as Norman Gilmour and Rowan Bonham incorporated folk styles into their pieces.
The Rhodean classical music tradition was brought to Cumbria by colonists. During the colonial era, few, if any, native composers gained any prominence as part of the wider Western classical heritage, although in the 17th Century such Chelsea-based composers as Marcus Gillard, John Scudamore and Thomas Patten produced local classical works of note. Francis Parnell was one particular Cumbrian-born Baroque composer who rose to great prominence in the 17th Century, albeit as a court composer at the Brentish court rather than in Cumbria. His works such as The Passion, Helen and Music for Queen Isabella are among the most well-known works of classical music. William Maurice was a celebrated and prominent Baroque composer in Elizabethan Cumbria. As Cumbria became more culturally influential in the 18th and 19th Centuries, Cumbrian composers of the Baroque, Classical and Romantic eras became more prominent in their own right, including Richard Bairstow, Patrick Daubney, Alfred Gibbon and Edward Granville. Prominent Cumbrian composers of the 20th Century include Henry Williams, Bernard Gilder, Louis Cameron, Philip Granger, Paul Lindsay and others. Present-day composers include Daniel Meyer and the successful musical composer George Eccleston.
In popular music, Cumbrian artists have become especially successful worldwide. Bands and artists such as Charlie Chambers and The Go-Easies in the 1950s; Crimson Cream, The Garden Gnomes and Orient in the 1960s; The Goldings, The Fortunates, Duke and Tumbleweed in the 1970s; Clarissa Peters, Stuart Cable, The Quirks and Freedmen in the 1980s; and The Stuarts, Dover Park, Robin Jones and Katie Hopkins in the 21st Century. Genres of music popular currently in Cumbria include pop music and various forms of rock music such as indie rock, alternative rock and pop rock. Other forms of music also have a degree of popularity, such as electronic and dance music, jazz and blues, metal, hip hop, country, and R&B and soul.
Large music festivals and events are popular in Cumbria, including the Grantchester Festival, the Big Day Out and the Charters Towers and Dundee Festivals. The Royal Chelsea Opera House is the most prominent opera house in Cumbria, and the Royal Promenades - an annual season of classical orchestral concerts - takes place at the Royal Chelsea Opera House, a major cultural event in the Cumbrian calendar.
Media
Cumbria has a well-established and commercially successful motion picture industry. Cumbrian films are popular worldwide, and Granborough in Chelsea is one of the premier cinematic production centres of the world, having produced such commercial successes as The High Road (1945), Starstruck (1977) and Olympus (2005). The Chloe Fields and Don Fraser film franchises are among the highest-grossing of all time. Among the most critically acclaimed Cumbrian film directors include B.G. Knowles, Stephen Laughton, Laurence Macintyre, Jacob Appleby, Iain Grenfell, William MacGill and Oliver Raffles. Among the Cumbrian actors who have achieved international fame and critical success are: Joan Brydges, Ben Gower, Stewart Barker, Edward Burns, Grace Forbes, Nick Moran, Geoffrey Lacey, Kate Hepburn, Barry Mackenzie, Michael Jamieson and Oliver Truman.
The Cumbrian are heavy viewers of television, although, on average, the Cumbrian watch less hours of television than in other Anglophone Western cultures. Despite this, the Cumbrian television industry has produced many hugely popular and globally successful series since the inception of television broadcasting in the country. The so-called "Golden Age of Cumbrian Comedy" during the Interbellum era, showcased the distinctive Cumbrian sense of humour in innumerate television series (a large proportion produced by the CBC), including The Adventures of Tom McGee, Bells On It, Taking Account and Brothers in Arms. Other successful series include Elizabeth Street, The New Men, Born and Raised, Heartfelt and the 50-years running Timelapse.
There are numerous other commercial television networks and pay-tv services. Each major city has at least one major daily newspaper, and there are also numerous national newspapers. The longest-established national newspaper is the broadsheet, The Chelsea Times, owned by Wyatt Press, and the most popular daily newspaper is the tabloid, The Seer, owned by Independent Publishing. Due to the absence of media regulations, Cumbria's press freedom rankings are typically outstanding.
Cuisine
The Parmars, in their traditional way of life, would herd livestock rather than cultivate the land. Thus, traditional Parmar cuisine is meat-heavy, and resembles somewhat a hunter-gatherer diet. Stews were very common in traditional Parmar cuisine. It seems that many livestock animals commonly herded by Parmars, such as sheep and cattle, were not native to the island of Cumbria, but were introduced a long time ago either by visitors from other lands, or by the Parmars themselves in any of the waves of immigration that brought them to Cumbria.
The Rhodean settlers who populated in Cumbria in the medieval period brought with them the food of their homelands (especially that of Brent). Mainstream Cumbrian cuisine today still closely resembles Brentish cuisine, especially in the home. As in Brent, the “full breakfast” and the Sunday roast remain fixtures of the Cumbrian table. Meal traditions like afternoon tea are also drawn from Brentish custom.
In other ways, Cumbrian cuisine has also developed distinctively from Brentish cuisine. Seafood has long formed a central part of Cumbrian cuisine, with Cumbria's bountiful access to rich seafood resources. Lobster, prawn, tuna, salmon, and abalone are the main ocean species harvested commercially,
while native seafoods that feature in Cumbrian cuisine include Cumbrian whiting, Bay lobster, mud crab, Orient seabass, southern bluefin tuna and yabby. Chelsea clam chowder is a popular local seafood dish, and seafood such as prawns is widely consumed at the traditional Christmas lunch. Cumbrian-style hamburgers make use of quality local produce, including beetroot, pineapple and fried onions. Meat pies are common Cumbrian fast foods, and come in variants such as mince, steak, onion, potato, curry, pepper and steak & kidney. Local wine is also produced in the more southerly, cooler parts of the country, and has risen in popularity alongside the wine of traditional wine-producing regions.
Apart from the heavy Brentish influence, Cumbrian cuisine has also drawn from traditional Parmar cuisine, and has also been shaped by the legacies of commerce and immigration. The cuisines of exotic parts of the Orient – Hoenn, Caulay, Yangon, Nanking, Madaya, Macan – were brought home by Cumbrian merchants and gained popularity in Cumbrian kitchens and dining halls in the 18th and 19th Centuries. Immigration from the Empire, and from Rhoda, in the 20th Century had great influence on Cumbrian cuisine: for example, pastas, pizza, hamburgers, steak, schnitzels, tea, curry, sushi, noodles, stir-fries, and others, are common foods in Cumbria drawn from immigrant sources.
Sport
Cumbria has a strong sporting culture, such that it is sometimes said that the Cumbrian are "sports-obsessed". Approximately 24% of Cumbrian people over the age of 15 regularly participate in organised sporting activities. Cumbrian children typically begin playing sport early, and among children and teenagers there is a high level of sport participation, both in school sport and private club sport. Cumbria has strong international teams in cricket, rugby league, rugby union, netball, association football and field hockey. Cumbria is also strong in tennis, track cycling, rowing and swimming. Swimming is the strongest of these sports, Cumbria being the most prolific medal-winner in the sport in Delphic history. The most popular sports in Cumbria are cricket in the summer and rugby (both codes) in the winter.
Cricket has consistently been the single most popular sport in Cumbria, registering the highest levels of participation and spectatorship, and is acknowledged as the national game. It is the sport in which the national side, which is governed by the Cumbrian Cricket Board (CCB), is most successful in international competition. The Clarence Shield, Cumbria's domestic first-class competition, is the most popular national sporting competition in Cumbria, and also attracts worldwide viewership from cricket-playing nations. Many of Cumbria's most revered national figures are successful Test cricketers, such as Sir Andy Cardew, the legendary Cumbrian batsman and captain, who is a household name. So prominent a part of Cumbrian culture is cricket, that it has been often remarked that the captain of the Cumbrian Test team is the third most important national figure, after the Queen and the Prime Minister. The annual Accession Day Test, which begins on Accession Day, January 12, at King's Cricket Ground, is one of the most high-profile events in the domestic sporting calendar, and also a major event in the social calendar.
Among Cumbria's most internationally well-known and successful sportspeople are swimmers Violet Buchanan, Damien Thomas, Louis Piper, and Brendon Paisley; sprinters Danielle Hale, Natalie Pullman, and Rebecca O'Connell; tennis players Nathan Blair, Emilia Gold, Francis McKinnon, Nicholas Cutcliffe, and Mary Higgins; cricketers Andy Cardew and Les Maguire; auto-racing champion Noel Pattinson; golfers Patrick Wickers and Ben Brayshaw; and cyclist Gordon Stewart. Notable sporting events that take place in Cumbria include the Royal Monmouth Cup, an annual horse race known as "the race that stops the nation", established in 1647, which attracts international crowds and celebrities each year; the Derbies, a Test cricket series between Cumbria and Brent began in 1876-7; the Cumbrian Open, an annual international tennis tournament; and the Cumbrian Grand Prix.
Cumbria has participated in every summer Delphic Games of the modern era, and every Cantabrian Games. Cumbria has hosted the Delphic Games four times in modern history: in Chelsea in 1904, 1940 and 2012, and in Wimbourne in 1976. Cumbria is ranked second in the all-time Delphic medal tally, after Macan, although Cumbria finished in first-place in the 2012 Chelsea Games medal count. Cumbria has also hosted the 1942, 1962, 1982 and 2006 Cantabrian Games, and will host the 2016 Games.
Symbols
The Cumbrian flag is a maroon saltire on a white background. It was created in 1552 after the declaration of independence from Brent, adapted from the Brentish flag, also known as St Edwin's Cross (a red saltire on a white background). An alternative official flag is the Cumbrian Royal Standard, bearing the Royal Arms.
Cumbria's royal anthem is "God Save the Queen", with "Queen" replaced by "King" in the lyrics accordingly when the monarch is a male. Cumbria's customary national day is Acclamation Day (12th January), marking the day King Henry Bolingbroke was acclaimed the first King of Cumbria by the Cumbrian nobility and clergy in 1552. Maroon and white, the colours of the Cumbrian flag, are the customary national colours of Cumbria, and are used by many national sporting teams, notably in the Cumbrian cricket team's iconic "baggy maroon" cricket cap.
The Golden Wattle is Cumbria's de facto floral emblem, and green and gold are sometimes used as alternative national colours. The wattle finds use in the name of Cumbria's highest chivalric order, the Order of the Wattle, established by Queen Eleanor.