The Royal Story

Considering the never-ending fascination with British royalty, I would like to give my explanation of it.

There were two early kings of England that are credited with consolidating the country, Alfred the Great and his grandson Athelstan. They were from Wessex, one of the states that were combined to form a united England. I was born in the state that was then known as Mercia, and the Midlands of England are still occasionally referred to as Mercia.

Another significant early king was Canute, who was connected to Scandinavian royalty. His grandfather was Harald, who was known as "Bluetooth". Because he united Denmark and Norway, which are separated by sea. A thousand years in the future a computer protocol would be named for him that unites devices that are separated and not connected by wires.

The king of France had ceded some land of his north coast to the Vikings. These Vikings became known as Normans, and the land as Normandy. In 1066 the Normans crossed over to England and gained control of the country.

The Normans also settled in Wales. No country was affected as much by the Normans as Ireland, which we saw in the visit on this blog, "The Land Of St. Patrick". This added the "Norman Irish" to the original Irish people. In England and Wales, the Normans eventually melted into the population.

What the Normans contributed were language and castles. English is a Germanic, or Northern European, language related to German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish and, Norwegian. But the mixing in of Norman French made English a more difficult language to learn, but gave it the broad "span" that makes it suitable to be the world's language today.

Remember that we saw the tremendous Norman influence on the language in "Traces Of The Normans".

The other great Norman contribution was castles. They built castles everywhere. There is quite a bit of Norman architecture around where I was born. The ultimate land of castles might be Wales. Ironically, the cities of South Wales today are built around Norman castles that were originally built to defend against the native Welsh people.

In those days castles were difficult to attack. The defenders had the advantage. The unfortunate thing about the mobile warfare of today is that it encourages aggression by giving the advantage of momentum to the attacker.

The kings that followed William the Conqueror were known as the Angevin Kings. Due to a succession crises the first royal dynasty with a name arose, this was the House of Plantagenet, which ruled from 1154 to 1485.

The time that the Plantagenets ruled was very eventful and full of conflict. England was a united country but was still "sorting itself out". The nobility managed to force the king to sign a document, the Magna Carta, that limited his power relative to the nobility. There was the Crusades, the Catholic attempts to regain the Holy Land from Moslem control. The Norman Invasion had entwined England and France and now an English king claimed the French throne, leading to the Hundred Years War.

King Edward I added Wales to the Plantagenet realm and had great castles built there, notably the one at Caernarfon.

The Plantagenets established the supremacy of royalty over the nobility. But the House of Plantagenet fell into civil war between it's two cadet branches, the House of Lancaster and the House of York. Since the symbol of Lancaster was a red rose, and the symbol of York a white rose, the war was known as the War of the Roses.

Every dynasty, or royal house, has had a connection outside England. Just as the Plantagenets, following the Norman Invasion, had a French connection the following dynasty, the Tudors, had a Welsh connection.

In Pembroke Castle, in the far southwest of Wales, Henry Tudor, of the House of Lancaster was born. He led Lancaster to victory in the War of the Roses, and then married Elizabeth of the House of York. This reunited the country and the symbol of the new House of Tudor was a white rose inside a red rose. Since there had already been six kings named Henry, he took the throne as Henry VII ( The Seventh) in 1485. The Tudors would rule until 1603.

The House of Tudor was the peak of the monarchy of England and Wales. The central figure of the House of Tudor would be Henry's son and successor, Henry VIII (The Eighth). The remaining three monarchs of the House of Tudor would be the children of Henry VIII.

The wife of Henry VIII was Catherine of Aragon, in Spain. She was the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, the first monarchs of Spain after gaining complete independence from Moorish rule, and who commissioned the voyage of Christopher Columbus. Few people fully realize how interconnected the royal houses of different European countries are. I wonder if there is actually a preference for marrying foreign royalty to keep it that way.

Catherine did not produce a male heir, although they had a daughter named Mary. Henry wanted to marry Anne Boleyn but, although the Reformation was under way in northern Europe, England was still Catholic and the pope forbade him from divorcing Catherine. Henry simply broke with the Catholic Church and started his own Protestant church. This was the beginning of the Reformation in England. This, and the ensuing conflict, would be the defining event of the House of Tudor.

Henry VIII would be succeeded by his son, Edward. But he was ill and would die as a teenager. Edward was a devout Protestant and was worried that he would be succeeded by his Catholic half-sister, Mary. He deeded his throne to his cousin, Lady Jane Grey, who was about the same age as Edward. 

The succession line in England is male-preference but not exclusive. If a monarch died, a younger son would take precedence over an older daughter but the daughter could become queen if there were no sons.

Lady Jane Gray took the throne when Edward died. But Mary, the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, managed to outmaneuver her and the reign of Lady Jane Gray lasted only nine days. Mary took the throne as Mary I. 

Mary I was a devout Catholic. Her mother was Spanish and she had been married to King Phillip of Spain, the one that the Philippines is named for. She infamously tried to bring England back to Catholicism by force. The attempt was unsuccessful and her reign only lasted five years. But she did get a mixed drink named after her, the "Bloody Mary".

Upon the death of Mary I her half- sister took the throne as Elizabeth I. Elizabeth was what a queen should be, and I am a great admirer of her's. She was a Protestant and reversed the barbarity that her predecessor had unleashed. Elizabeth I was a kindly person and the glorious time of her reign is known as the Elizabethan Era.

One person that Elizabeth I did have executed was her cousin, the Catholic Scottish queen named Mary, Queen of Scots who had been forced to abdicate by the Reformation. She came south to England and many English Catholics wanted her as their queen.

What Elizabeth I is best-known for is her religious comprise. The Tudor era brought the Reformation to England and was a time of great religious strife, as Mary I had unsuccessfully tried to bring England back to Catholicism by force. Elizabeth I created the Anglican Church, or Church of England, as an attempt at comprise.

One one side were the Puritans, who wanted to rid the country of anything to do with Catholicism and thought that the focus should be on just the Bible itself. On the other side were the remaining Catholics. 

The Anglican Church was certainly a Protestant church that separated from the pope. But it kept some of the familiar Catholic hierarchical organizational structure, such as bishops and an archbishop. Even today the Anglican Church is said to have a "high church" side, representing Catholicism, and a "low church" side representing Puritanism. The Lutheran Church, in Scandinavia and northern Germany, was another Protestant church that kept some of the forms of the Catholic Church.

The Puritans who wanted nothing to do with anything remotely connected with Catholicism ultimately left to start their own society in Massachusetts. This is where America's Pilgrims and Puritans came from.

American history has it that the Pilgrims and Puritans came for religious freedom because they were not allowed to worship as they chose in England. It is true that there was a ban on starting new churches. But it was only a temporary measure, an attempt to maintain order, in a time of great religious turmoil.

The Anglican Church was England's state church but Protestantism is about freedom. Anyone can read the Bible for themselves and start their own church. The Archbishop of Canterbury is automatically a member of the House of Lords but, other than that, no one is compelled to be a member of the Anglican Church, nor does membership bring any benefits with regard to hiring or promotion. 

When America declared independence the Anglican Church there was renamed the Episcopal Church. But now it is reunited to the Anglican Communion and America's national cathedral is Episcopal.

But Elizabeth I never settled on a husband and died childless. A daughter of the first Tudor king, Henry VII (The Seventh), named Margaret Tudor had married the king of Scotland. This meant that the first in line to inherit Elizabeth's throne was the present king of Scotland, James VI (The Sixth), who was a cousin of Elizabeth I.

Elizabeth I is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". She got the U.S. state of Virginia named for her and Virginia also came into use as a girls' name.

We saw how every royal dynasty had a connection outside England. The Plantagenets had a French connection and the Tudors a Welsh connection. James VI of Scotland took the throne as James I of England and reigned over both countries. This brought about the next dynasty, the House of Stuart with it's Scottish connection, in 1603.

A king can rule more than one country. It is known as a personal union, but does not necessarily mean that the two countries are completely united. A more recent personal union in Europe was the Austro-Hungarian Empire. But a citizen would be either Austrian or Hungarian, but not both. Much earlier, King Canute had England and Scandinavia in a personal union.

England and Scotland landed on the same side of the Reformation. The personal union of the House of Stuart between the two countries would last over a century before they officially united in 1707. The personal union between England and Scotland was known as the Union of the Crowns.

Scotland was generally more Protestant than England, which tolerated Catholicism and still had a considerable number of Catholics. The Scottish Presbyterian Church rejected the hierarchical church organization of bishops and an archbishop, in favor of a more egalitarian model.

Northern England remained the most Catholic part of the country and there was a short-lived rebellion against the new Protestant order. There was also the plot to blow up the Parliament with barrels of gunpowder, and force the country back to Catholicism that we saw in the posting on this blog, "The Far-Reaching Story Of Guy Fawkes". 

The monumental achievement of James I, the first king of the House of Stuart, was to commission the King James Bible, as we saw in the posting on this blog, "Hampton Court Palace And The King James Bible", July 2016.

This Bible, first published in 1611, certainly did more than any other manuscript to shape the English language that we have today. There are modern translations now but still a movement in Christianity that will only use the King James Bible. This is the old Bible with the "thee" and "thou", the way people used to talk in those days.

During the Plantagenet era the royalty had established it's dominance over the nobility. That was why the following Tudor era was the peak of monarchical power, there was little to challenge it. But the House of Stuart had to contend with the rising power of Parliament. Royalty versus Parliament became entwined with the religious conflict between Anglicans and Puritans.

This led to England's Civil Wars. The Anglican Royalists were twice defeated by the Puritan Parliamentarians. The Puritan leader, Oliver Cromwell, took over as "Lord Protector" ruling the Protectorate. King Charles I, the son of James I, was executed. The son of Charles I escaped capture by the Parliamentarians by famously hiding in an oak tree near Worcester. Since Oliver Cromwell declined to be crowned as king, this was actually an interruption in the monarchy, known as the Interregnum.

Oliver Cromwell had won a great victory. But when he died, his son simply didn't inspire the same devotion. More people wanted a restoration of the monarchy. The son of Charles I, who had escaped by hiding in the oak tree, returned and took the throne as Charles II.

The Royalists now really wanted to execute Oliver Cromwell. It didn't even matter that he was already dead. They dug up his body and beheaded him.

Charles II was succeeded by his younger brother James II, who made it clear that he was a Catholic and would promote Catholicism. A powerful movement arose against him. His daughter, Mary, favored Anglicanism.

Mary's husband, William, was the Protestant king of the Netherlands, of the House of Orange, whose mother was English. A plan was made where William would be invited to "invade" England and rule jointly with Mary.

The "invasion" was met by a welcoming committee, James II left for exile, and the two ruled as William and Mary. This is known as England's "Glorious Revolution" and William and Mary were so popular that they got a university in Virginia named for them.

The Dutch-born William and his House of Orange is why there is an orange stripe on the Irish flag and why one of the predecessor states of South Africa was called the Orange Free State. Since eastern New York State was originally a Dutch colony, it is probably why sports teams at Syracuse University are called The Orange.

Can you believe how our values have changed? In those days, religion was what was important. A nation was nothing more than an earthly collection of people. It didn't matter if our king or queen came from a foreign land, as long as their religious views were the same as ours.

When William and Mary died childless the throne passed to Mary's younger sister, who took the throne as Queen Anne. When Queen Anne also died childless, that was the end of the House of Stuart, in 1714. Like the Tudors before them, the Stuarts had died out.

There was religious freedom. But after the bloodshed during the reign of Mary I, mostly-Protestant England wanted to be sure that there would never again be a Catholic monarch. A law was passed that no one who was Catholic, or married to a Catholic, could be king or queen. A movement, known as the Jacobites, arose among mostly Catholics that James II had been deprived of being the rightful king and demanded that he, or his appropriation descendent, be restored to the throne.

As stated earlier every royal dynasty had a connection outside England. The throne went to Queen Anne's nearest Protestant relations, which were the House of Hanover in what is now a united Germany. Hanover became a personal union with England.

It is ironic that, during the days of Catholic England, the country's patron saint would be St. George, but there was never a king named George. Now, during the House of Hanover, when England had been established as definitely a Protestant country, there would be four kings in a row named George. Although one of them presided over the loss of the American colonies, they got the U.S. state of Georgia named after them.

But the relative power of the monarchy continued to decline during the House of Hanover. A new authority arose, that of the Prime Minister. England certainly still respected it's kings and queens, it was just that now some of the power was held by Parliament and the Prime Minister. During the Tudor era, there had been nothing but the monarchy.

While the relative power of the monarchy was declining another factor was at work. It was the Imperial Age and, like the other European powers, Britain was building an empire. Toward the end of the House of Hanover era, the British Empire would be at it's peak. As far as the monarchy went, toward the end of the Hanover era, there would be the phenomenon of phenomenons.

That phenomenon would be Queen Victoria. She was barely five feet (152 cm) tall and became queen as a teenager. But she had a very long reign when the empire was at it's peak. She didn't have the absolute power of the monarchy that Henry VIII and Elizabeth I had. But she had a global empire that they had not had. She also had the recent development of photography and widespread periodicals and news going for her.

The phenomenon of Queen Victoria can be seen by her name. When she took the throne Victoria was a rare girls' name. Today it is not only a popular name but mountains, lakes, rivers, islands, cities, towns and streets across the world are named Victoria. Her era is known as the Victorian Age, as are the furniture, architecture and, way of life during that time.

In Niagara Falls Queen Victoria Park, right along the Canadian side of the river by the falls, was opened to celebrate her birthday in 1888.

Queen Victoria is known as the "Grandmother of Europe". As stated earlier, the European royal families are more interconnected than most people realize. Among others, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and the final Romanov empress of Russia were her grandchildren.

How great a king or queen becomes is not entirely under their control. It is a great advantage to have a long reign. If the monarch lives a long life, while their predecessor dies early, the reign might be very long.

Although males are preferred under British succession rules a girl can become queen, other than by marriage, if she has no brothers. But that was not true of the Hanover, and that ended it's personal union with England when Victoria became queen. So Victoria was the last monarch of the House of Hanover. Queen Victoria died in 1901.

Victoria's son, Edward, was the first monarch of the House of Saxe-Coburg. His reign was generally a continuation of the good times of the Victorian Age, before the First World War. His time is referred to as the Edwardian Age.

There were two kings named George, and between them the brief reign of Edward VIII who abdicated the throne when told that he couldn't be allowed to marry a divorcee. During the First World War the name of the House of Saxe-Coburg was changed to the House of Windsor.

In 1952 the present Queen Elizabeth II took the throne. She doesn't have the absolute power of the monarchy that Henry VIII and his daughter, Elizabeth I, had going for them. Although she has the modern Commonwealth, she doesn't have the global empire that Queen Victoria had going for her.

But what Queen Elizabeth II does have is the media. As Queen Victoria came along just in time for photography, Queen Elizabeth came along just in time for both television and jet travel, and later the internet and social media.

Queen Elizabeth II ended up becoming far and away the most visible queen or king in the history of the world.

More than a quarter of the nations in the world are members of the Commonwealth, led by Queen Elizabeth. The Commonwealth is a rather informal organization, looking for ways to make the world a better place. Most of the nations of the Commonwealth are republics. But some, known as Commonwealth Realms, recognize Elizabeth as their queen, although she may not have actual ruling powers.

If a woman becomes queen by marriage, and gives birth to a daughter who becomes queen in her own right, the woman will be known as the "Queen Mother" during her daughter's reign. The mother of the present Queen Elizabeth II was also named Elizabeth, and was known as Queen Elizabeth. She died in 2002.