Schneizel el Britannia

Schneizel el Britannia is one of the primary antagonists of Code Geass. He is the Second Prince of the Holy Britannian Empire and the Prime Minister of Britannia. He is a strategist on par with Lelouch vi Britannia.

First Season
Schneizel el Britannia makes his first but brief appearance in attending Prince Clovis la Britannia's funeral while the Emperor of Britannia and his father, Charles zi Britannia, makes a speech on the virtues of inequality and the social battle for evolution and betterment. However, he later makes his first major appearance, where he orders his floating battleship, the Avalon, to bombard Shikine Island, intending to sacrifice Suzaku Kururugi in order to kill Zero. While searching for Princess Euphemia li Britannia, Schneizel, Lloyd Asplund and Cecile Croomy survey the island's ancient ruins. Lelouch vi Britannia, Suzaku, and Kallen Kozuki and Euphemia meet, a symbol of Geass appears in the ground and they suddenly fall into the ruins. Lelouch and Kallen steal a prototype Knightmare Frame, Gawain, and escape. Suzaku is detained for insubordination, as it is revealed that Lelouch Geassed Suzaku, giving him the command to live. He supports Euphemia's idea of creating the Special Administrative Zone of Japan for the Elevens, but fails to mention it to Princess Cornelia li Britannia when he told Euphemia he would. This is because he believed that the plan would weaken the support for the terrorist groups in Area 11, thus helping to pacify the region and restore public order, possibly even eliminating the Black Knights in the process. He is shocked and horrified when he sees her acting uncharacteristically and killing the Japanese people, and suspects something is responsible for Euphemia's change.

When Schneizel's older brother, Prince Odysseus eu Britannia, is too indecisive to act during Zero's attack on the Tokyo Settlement, especially after Euphemia's death, Schneizel steps up and volunteers to go to Cornelia's aid, taking the Pacific fleet to Area 11 to relieve her battered forces and restore order. Before that, Schneizel assumes that Charles is at the ruins again.

Second Season
Schneizel commands all of the Britannian forces attempting to conquer the Europia United-controlled Europe. His most brilliant accomplishment was conquering various E.U. territories, and ending the war with a peace treaty despite repeated victories. As he explains to Nina Einstein, he did this because nothing but conquest invites defeat since it destroys hope. The Chinese Empress Tianzi was being forced into a political marriage to Odysseus. The wedding was orchestrated by the High Eunuchs, who would become nobles of Britannia, in exchange for turning over half of their territories to Schneizel. As the wedding begins, Li Xingke initiates a coup-d'etat to overthrow the High Eunuchs, but before he can tree Tianzi, Zero appears and takes her hostage. He decides to give up on his plan, noting that leaders who do not have the support of their people cannot be called leaders at all. Faced with open rebellion, Schneizel orders all Britannians to retreat, and Xingke eliminates the High Eunuchs and rescues his comrades. After the fall of the High Eunuchs, Schneizel begins efforts to annex the Chinese Federation's fragmented territories. He is present in Tokyo during the invasion of Japan by the Black Knights and learns the true identity of Zero which is that of his brother, Lelouch vi Britannia. During the meeting between Lelouch and Suzaku at the Kururugi family shrine, Schneizel sends troops to follow Suzaku in order to identify and arrest Zero and also make it appear that Suzaku has betrayed Lelouch again and obtains the recorded conversation of the confession of Lelouch and states "now, I'm controlling the game", confident of his victory. During the second battle of Tokyo, Schneizel is aboard the Avalon along with Lloyd and Nina, watching the battle of Tokyo unfold before his eyes. He retreats when Suzaku under the Geass fires F.L.E.I.J.A. at Zero which misses and obliterates the entire government complex and surrounding area, wiping out units from both sides that were not able to escape the blast. He selectively uses the information he acquired regarding Zero, in tandem with the devastation caused by F.L.E.I.J.A., to convince the Black Knights to abandon Zero. He begins his plot to usurp the throne after Suzaku volunteers to assassinate the Emperor in exchange for the Knight of One status, noting that the Emperor's dismissal of the war as a "trifling matter" as well as his research into Geass makes him unfit to rule. While talking to Kaguya Sumeragi and the rest of the UFN and assuming that Anya Alstreim is reporting to the Emperor while Suzaku is trying to assassinate him, he decides to go to Kamine Island to deal with the rebellion noting how events started to turn out. After reaching Kamine Island, Bismarck Waldstein comes to report Schneizel about the rebellion as they are suppressing it and is later questioned how much he knows and reply by saying that what is he referring to. While events began to unfold throughout the world, Bismarck informs Schneizel that once Charles' plan succeeds, he can govern what's left of the world until the plan ceases, Bismarck then senses something wrong with the Emperor. When Lelouch ends up killing Charles and taking the throne, Schneizel is content to allow his brother have it, placing more concern on a bigger confrontation betweeen Lelouch's Geass and his floating fortress, the Damocles. He uses a F.L.E.I.J.A. warhea to annihilate the Britannian capital, Pendragon, then reveals to Lelouch that he plans to have Nunnally vi Britannia, assumed to be dead, become the new Empress.

In private, he shows Cornelia his plan to place Damocles in a position to strike every country in the world, enforcing peace through terror and making him a god. By letting Lelouch take over as Emperor, Schneizel makes himself seem like the lesser of two evils and the only hope to end Lelouch's reign of evil, enabling him to convince the Black Knights to work with him for the sake of stopping Lelouch so that no obstacles can stand in his way. However, when Lelouch and Suzaku manage to break through Damocles' defenses even as Schneizel prepares to evacuate, Lelouch manages to trap Schneizel aboard the shuttle. He then proceeds to use his Geass on him, forcing him to serve Zero and tell him the location of the Damocles' Key.

Two months later, Schneizel, along with the UFN delegates and the Black Knights, are being transported to their public execution. Schneizel's method of transport is designed to be far more humiliating than the others as he is chained to a post and he is dressed in rags instead of the standard prisoner uniform. He is released after Lelouch's death. During the epilogue, he is shown to be working with the new incarnation of the Black Knights; as his Geass command was to serve Zero and not Lelouch, he is now loyal to Suzaku.