England is both the Duchess of Newcastle’s home and the Empress’s native country, linking the book’s intimate story of marital attachment and loss to its account of sovereign power abroad. Through the two women’s spiritual visit to the Duchess’s husband and the Empress’s later military intervention, England appears as a country marked by civil-war destruction and as the starting point for a campaign that converts aid into imperial dominance.

Native Country and Political Comparison

During their spiritual travels, the Empress and the Duchess compare rulers across the world. The Duchess describes the monarch of her own country as governing a smaller but stronger dominion through easy and safe laws, with subjects happier than those elsewhere. The Empress is eager to see him, and their visit takes them into the Duchess’s native country. The encounter gives the Empress a measure of English kingship distinct from her own absolute rule and from the other monarchies they have discussed.

The women’s visit also takes in a theatre and the royal court. The Empress judges that the scenery, dancing, and music make a stronger impression than the play itself, while the Duchess explains that plays combine old stories with new actions and theatrical additions. At court, the Empress admires the King’s blend of majesty and affability, praises the Queen’s virtue and piety, and finds the royal family marked by divine splendor. The Duchess credits her husband, the Duke of Newcastle, as the King’s earthly governor. England is thus presented through both its public spectacle and its courtly ideals, before the narrative turns toward the private losses of the Duchess’s household.

The Duchess’s Home and the Legacy of Civil War

The Duchess’s soul longs to see her husband, and the Empress accompanies her toward Nottinghamshire. They pass through Sherwood Forest, which delights the Empress as a dry, level, wooded place, pleasant to travel through in both winter and summer. They arrive at Welbeck, the Duke’s residence, surrounded by dense woodland. The Empress remarks that she has seen more wood in a small space nowhere else in the country, though she observes that the seas seem to carry more timber than the land because of the ships.

The Duchess explains the contrast through the long civil war: many of England’s finest timber trees and principal palaces were ruined or destroyed. Her husband lost half his woods, along with houses, land, and movable goods; the losses to his estate exceeded half a million pounds. The Empress wishes that some of the gold in the Blazing-World could repair the damage, but the Duchess replies that wishes cannot restore ruined property and that her husband bears his misfortunes with patience. Their exchange makes England’s political history tangible in depleted estates and altered landscapes, rather than leaving civil war as a distant abstraction.

Welbeck itself is described as useful rather than magnificent. The Duchess says that the Duke also has Bolsover Castle, about five miles away, but that it stands bare and without furnishings. When the Duke comes into the courtyard to see his horses of manage, the Duchess’s joy makes her airy vehicle shine as if lit by the sun. The Duke cannot see the two spirits, but the Empress watches the equestrian exercise and praises it as a noble pastime suited to heroic people. England’s damaged property and the Duchess’s powerful attachment to her husband meet in this brief, unseen reunion.

England as the Empress’s Native Country

The Empress later reveals that she too was born in England. When she reaches the country with the Blazing-World fleet, she sends a letter to its general and commanders, identifying herself as a powerful princess who has come to help them against their enemies and asking them to declare when they want her assistance. Their council cannot quickly agree on a reply because its members hold conflicting opinions. The delay angers the Empress, who considers returning without helping; the Duchess urges patience and observes that large councils move slowly when many people speak and dispute.

When the Empress appears before the English forces, her display is calculated to inspire awe. She is borne above the water on the heads and backs of Fish-men, while Bird-men and Fish-men carry flaming Fire-stones through the air and over the sea. As she comes nearer, she leaves the torches behind and appears in garments of light. The Englishmen kneel, but the spectacle produces competing interpretations: some call her an angel, others a sorceress, a goddess, or a devil in the shape of a beautiful woman. In her address, she calls them her countrymen despite their not knowing her, says that she has left the tranquility, riches, and pleasures of her other world to protect them, and promises to make their nation powerful. Her intervention is framed as loyalty to the country of her birth rather than a bargain for personal gain.

From Assistance to Tribute and Conquest

The Empress’s promise of protection quickly expands beyond defeating the invading fleets. After the enemy ships are destroyed, the King of Esfi tells her that hostile powers still obstruct his dominions’ trade. She responds by demanding that neighboring maritime nations pay tribute to him. When they refuse, she orders Fish-men to destroy foreign ships; the resulting disruption forces the nations to negotiate, but she offers no terms except submission and tribute. Their payment makes the King of Esfi master of the seas and, in consequence, of the world whose nations depend on maritime commerce.

The submission does not settle the conflict. The neighboring nations later combine their forces against the King, and the Empress again sends Fish-men to destroy their remaining naval power. Some nations can live without foreign trade, while others trade only by land, and these refuse tribute. The Empress threatens to burn their towns and cities, then sends Bird-men and Worm-men to set fire to smaller towns first, reserving destruction of larger cities if resistance continues. Her stated reluctance to cause more damage than necessary does not alter the coercive structure of the campaign: refusal leads from threatened loss to fire and possible total ruin.

At a gathering of princes, the Empress presents this new order as the reward for injustice against the King of Esfi and advises the rulers to pay tribute so they may live peacefully and happily. Her fleet then sinks beneath the sea and remains submerged until it returns to the Blazing-World. England’s place in the narrative is therefore double-edged: the Empress’s native country is the object of her sincere defense, but that defense becomes the justification for a world-spanning tributary order imposed by force. The contrast between her language of peace and the destruction used to secure submission exposes the costs concealed within her promise of protection.