An alternative history of success rather than decline anf fall. The actual history is set out and the alternative history with Old Time Lines (OTL) for reference. It is a vivid narrative, deeply researched, full of events and people, great and minor igur6es who come to life. It is a story of division and controversy concerning imperial and dynastic ambition and struggle, often caustic family relationships, cultural and religious disputes with surviving paganism and the classical philosophy of Neo-Platonism, and exandng Christianity in church and state in both Empires. The Empires are expanding in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Division and crisis is followed by restoration, more division but finally re-unification. AUTHOR: Dr Timothy Venning obtained his PhD from King's College, London, published as Cromwellian Foreign Policy (1995). He is a specialist in the history and biography of the 17th century and Cromwell and the English (British) Civil Wars. He has special interest in the history of Parliament and has worked on the Robert Boyle Papers and the History of Parliament Projects for the University of London, the History of Parliament Trust and on biographies of leading figures in Parliamentary history. He has contributed to the New Dictionary of National Biography on leading Civil Wars figures including Secretary John Thurloe and Cromwell's Ambassadors and Council members. Timothy Venning is an established author of academic and general interest histories with many publications for leading publishers including Pen and Sword and Amberley. The present book follows his Cromwell's Failed State and the Monarchy (Pen and Sword). 16 b/w illustrations