April 11, 1689: Coronation of William III and Mary II as Joint Sovereigns of England, Scotland and Ireland

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Archbishop of Canterbury, Archbishop of London, coronation, Coronation Chair, James II-VII of England, Mary II of England, Mary of Modena, Stone of Destiny, Stone of Scone, William III of Orange, William Sancroft

During the Glorious Revolution of November 1688 James II-VII, king of England, Scotland and Ireland was deposed and replaced by his daughter Mary II and her husband, stadtholder William III of Orange, the de facto ruler of the Dutch Republic. The Glorious Revolution
can be seen as both the last successful invasion of England and also an internal coup that toppled the reigning monarch.

William III, King of England, Scotland and Ireland, Stadtholder of the Netherlands with his Imperial State Crown

The Revolution ended a century of political dispute and strife between the Crown and Parliament by confirming the primacy of Parliament over the Crown, a principle established in the Bill of Rights 1689.

English coronations were traditionally held at Westminster Abbey, with the monarch seated on the Coronation Chair. Main elements of the coronation service and the earliest form of oath can be traced to the ceremony devised by Saint Dunstan for Edgar’s coronation in 973 AD at Bath Abbey. It drew on ceremonies used by the kings of the Franks and those used in the ordination of bishops.

William III and Mary II are the only co-monarchs in English/British history. They’re still the only two people to have been jointly crowned as sovereign rulers. For example, Felipe II of Spain, claimed to rule England and Ireland via the concept Jure uxoris (a Latin phrase meaning “by right of (his) wife”) which describes that a title of nobility is being used by a man because his wife holds the office or title suo jure (“in her own right”).

Mary II, Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland with her Imperial State Crown

Despite all laws and statutes being issued jointly in Mary I and Felipe II’s name, Felipe II’s tenure on the throne ended with the death of Mary I in 1558 and he is regarded as a King Consort and not a sovereign in his own right.

Because of their joint rule their 1689 coronation posed a unique problem: the nation only had one set of coronation regalia. The original regalia had been destroyed when the monarchy had been abolished by order of Oliver Cromwell. After the restoration of the monarchy in 1661, a new set of regalia had been made for King Charles II by Sir Robert Viner.

The 1661 crown, called St. Edward’s Crown, would be used by the new King William III, but Queen Mary II — who actually had the better claim to the throne — would need a different set to use. William III of Orange was third in succession to the throne behind his wife Mary and her sister Anne. Anne allowed her place in the succession to be changed in favor of William to inherit the throne.

The consort’s regalia, which had been made in 1685 for Mary’s stepmother, Mary of Modena, was thought to be insufficient because Mary II wasn’t being crowned as a consort, she was a monarch in her own right, and she would need a set of regalia equal to that of her husband.

Coronation Crown of Mary II.

William III and Mary II were proclaimed joint sovereigns on February 1689. With the coronation set for April 11, 1689. The men charged with planning the coronation faced a major time crunch. Since William III and Mary II had gained the throne through revolution their supporters wanted them to be crowned as soon as possible to cement their legitimacy as monarchs.

It was an enormous task. An elaborate ceremony was planned which included a massive number of peers, and even a second wooden coronation chair for Mary had to be constructed and carved. Because of the time pressure, parts of Mary’s regalia ultimately were repurposed from Mary of Modena’s set.

During the portions of the coronation ceremony both William III and Mary II had to wear different crowns. William III was crowned with St. Edward’s Crown; Mary II was simultaneously crowned with Mary of Modena’s coronation crown.

William III also wore the Imperial State Crown made for Charles II in 1661, Mary II wore the state crown made in 1685 by Richard de Beauvoir for Mary of Modena.

That state crown is now on display at the Tower of London. While the state crown of 1685 remains today much as it was when it was made (albeit without the same gemstones), the coronation crown has been significantly altered over the centuries. It’s currently in the collection of the Museum of London, where it is displayed with imitation gemstones.

An interesting note, William Sancroft, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who typically presides over the coronation, refused to do so because he continued to support James II-VII. This fact is particularly ironic.

William Sancroft was the 79th Archbishop of Canterbury, and was one of the Seven Bishops imprisoned in 1688 for seditious libel against King James II-VII over his opposition to the king’s Declaration of Indulgence. Despite this fact he still supported James II-VII.

Coronation Regalia of William III. The Crown is the 1661 St. George’s Crown

Although Sancroft refused to officiate the coronation of William III and Mary II he was deprived of the office of Archbishop of Canterbury but not for that reason. He was eventually deprived of his office in 1690 for refusing to swear allegiance to William III and Mary II.

In officiating the ceremony Sanford was replaced by the Bishop of London, Henry Compton.

Being crowned by another bishop is something that happened several times in the Middle Ages, but there would often be a second coronation done with the Archbishop of Canterbury of for sake of continuity and because of fears over the illegitimacy of the ceremony.

King Edward’s Chair (or St. Edward’s Chair or the Coronation Chair) has been used for the coronation of English (and British later on) since Edward II, with the exceptions of Edward V and Edward VIII, both of whom were not crowned. Mary II was not crowned in the chair as well. A second chair was constructed before the coronation for Mary to sit in.

Underneath the Coronation Chair sits the Stone of Scone, also called the Stone of Destiny.

William III and Mary II

Various theories and legends exist about the stone’s history prior to its placement in Scone. One legend place the origins of the Stone in Biblical times and identify it as the Stone of Jacob, taken by Jacob from Bethel while on the way to Haran (Genesis 28:10–22). This very same Stone of Jacob was then supposedly taken to ancient Ireland by the prophet Jeremiah.

Historically, the artefact was kept at the now-ruined Scone Abbey in Scone, near Perth, Scotland, having been brought there from Iona by Kenneth MacAlpin circa 841 AD. After its forced removal from Scone during Edward I’s invasion of Scotland in 1296, it was used in the coronation of the monarchs of England as well as the monarchs of Great Britain and latterly of the United Kingdom following the Treaty of Union.

Orb for William III

Orb created for Mary II

Another orb also had to be created for Mary II to match the orb used by William III.

As joint sovereigns Mary II mostly deferred to William III a renowned military leader and principal opponent of Louis XIV, when he was in England. She did, however, act alone when William was engaged in military campaigns abroad, proving herself to be a powerful, firm, and effective ruler. Mary’s death from smallpox at the age of 32 in 1694 left William III as sole ruler until his death in 1702, when he was succeeded by Mary’s sister, Anne.

December 10, 1936: The Abdication Crisis

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Abdication Crisis, Archbishop of Canterbury, Duke of York, Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, George V of the United Kingdom, George VI of the United Kingdom, Wallis Simpson, Winston Churchill

In 1936 a constitutional crisis in the British Empire arose when King-Emperor Edward VIII proposed to marry Wallis Simpson, an American socialite who was divorced from her first husband and was pursuing the divorce of her second.

Opposition

Opposition to the King and his marriage came from several directions. Edward’s desire to modernise the monarchy and make it more accessible, though appreciated by many of the public, was distrusted by the British Establishment. Edward upset the aristocracy by treating their traditions and ceremonies with disdain, and many were offended by his abandonment of accepted social norms and mores.

Social and moral

Government ministers and the royal family found Wallis Simpson’s background and behaviour unacceptable for a potential queen. Rumours and innuendo about her circulated in society. The King’s mother, Queen Mary, was even told that Simpson might have held some sort of sexual control over Edward, as she had released him from an undefined sexual dysfunction through practices learnt in a Chinese brothel. This view was partially shared by Alan Don, Chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who wrote that he suspected the King “is sexually abnormal which may account for the hold Mrs S. has over him”. Even Edward VIII’s official biographer, Philip Ziegler, noted that: “There must have been some sort of sadomasochistic relationship … [Edward] relished the contempt and bullying she bestowed on him.”

Religious and legal

In Edward’s lifetime, the Church of England forbade the remarriage of divorced people in church while a former spouse was still living. The monarch was required by law to be in communion with the Church of England, and was its nominal head or Supreme Governor. In 1935 the Church of England reaffirmed that, “in no circumstances can Christian men or women re-marry during the lifetime of a wife or a husband”. The archbishop of Canterbury, Cosmo Gordon Lang, held that the king, as the head of the Church of England, could not marry a divorcée.

If Edward married Wallis Simpson, a divorcée who would soon have two living ex-husbands, in a civil ceremony, it would directly conflict with Church teaching and his role as the Church’s ex officio head.
Wallis’s first divorce (in the United States on the grounds of “emotional incompatibility”) was not recognised by the Church of England and, if challenged in the English courts, might not have been recognised under English law. At that time, the Church and English law considered adultery to be the only grounds for divorce. Consequently, under this argument, her second marriage, as well as her marriage to Edward, would be considered bigamous and invalid.

Options considered

As a result of these rumours and arguments, the belief strengthened among the British establishment that Simpson could not become a royal consort. British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin explicitly advised Edward that the majority of people would be opposed to his marrying Simpson, indicating that if he did, in direct contravention of his ministers’ advice, the government would resign en masse. The King responded, according to his own account later: “I intend to marry Mrs Simpson as soon as she is free to marry … if the Government opposed the marriage, as the Prime Minister had given me reason to believe it would, then I was prepared to go.” Under pressure from the King, and “startled” at the suggested abdication, Baldwin agreed to take further soundings on three options:

Edward and Simpson marry and she become queen (a royal marriage);

Edward and Simpson marry, but she not become queen, instead receiving some courtesy title (a morganatic marriage); or

Abdication for Edward and any potential heirs he might father, allowing him to make any marital decisions without further constitutional implications.

At Fort Belvedere, on December 10, 1936 King Edward VIII signed his written abdication notices, witnessed by his three younger brothers: Prince Albert, Duke of York (who succeeded Edward as King George VI); Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester; and Prince George, Duke of Kent.

The following day, it was given effect by Act of Parliament: His Majesty’s Declaration of Abdication Act 1936. Under changes introduced in 1931 by the Statute of Westminster, a single Crown for the entire empire had been replaced by multiple crowns, one for each Dominion, worn by a single monarch in an organisation then known as the British Commonwealth.

Though the British government, hoping for expediency and to avoid embarrassment, wished the Dominions to accept the actions of the “home” government, the Dominions held that Edward’s abdication required the consent of each Commonwealth state. Under the Statute of Westminster, the act passed by the UK parliament could become law in other Dominions at their request. This was duly given by the Parliament of Australia, which was at the time in session, and by the governments of Canada, South Africa, and New Zealand, whose parliaments were in recess.

The government of the Irish Free State, taking the opportunity presented by the crisis and in a major step towards its eventual transition to a republic, passed an amendment to its constitution on 11 December to remove references to the Crown and abolish the office of Governor-General of the Irish Free State; the King’s abdication was recognised a day later in the External Relations Act. In South Africa, His Majesty King Edward the Eighth’s Abdication Act 1937 declared that the abdication took effect there on December 10. Canada passed the Succession to the Throne Act 1937 to symbolically confirm the abdication.

Edward’s supporters felt that he had “been hounded from the throne by that arch humbug Baldwin”, but many members of the establishment were relieved by Edward’s departure.

On December 11, 1936, Edward made a BBC radio broadcast from Windsor Castle; having abdicated, he was introduced by Sir John Reith as “His Royal Highness Prince Edward”. The official address had been polished by Churchill and was moderate in tone, speaking about Edward’s inability to do his job “as I would have wished” without the support of “the woman I love”. Edward’s reign had lasted 327 days, the shortest of any British monarch since the disputed reigns of Lady Jane Grey over 380 years earlier, and Edgar II Ætheling who was elected King of the English after William I the Conqueror defeated Harold II Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings in October of 1066.

The day following the broadcast he left Britain for Austria.

Post-abdication

George VI granted his elder brother the Peerage title of Duke of Windsor with the style His Royal Highness on December 12, 1936. On May 3 the following year, the Simpsons’ divorce was made final. The case was handled quietly and it barely featured in some newspapers.

The Times printed a single sentence below a separate, and seemingly unconnected, report announcing the Duke’s departure from Austria.

Edward married Wallis in France on June 3, 1937. She became the Duchess of Windsor, but, much to Edward’s disgust, George VI issued letters patent that denied her the style of Her Royal Highness. The couple settled in France, and the Duke received a tax-free allowance from his brother, which Edward supplemented by writing his memoirs and by illegal currency trading. He also profited from the sale of Balmoral Castle and Sandringham House to George VI. Both estates are private property and not part of the Royal Estate, and were therefore inherited and owned by Edward, regardless of the abdication

The Queen Will Never Abdicate.

Tags

1936 Abdication Crisis, Abdication, Archbishop of Canterbury, Coronation Oath, King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, King George VI of the United Kingdom, Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Regency, Regent

This is an article floating around the internet…

“The Queen will step down and make her son, Prince Charles, king when she turns 95, a royal expert has claimed.

The Monarch will celebrate her 95th birthday in April, meaning we could see a change very soon if biographer and commentator Robert Jobson is correct.

Speaking on True Royalty’s Royal Beat programme, Jobson explains: “I still firmly believe when the Queen becomes 95, that she will step down.”

Royal reporter Jack Royston agreed, but said it will be a difficult decision for the Monarch, who has been on the throne since February 1952.”

You can read the rest of the article here…
https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/queen-will-step-down-next-22930246.amp?__twitter_impression=true

These types of predictions occur from time to time and I have to shake my head everytime I read these predictions because they never come true and in my opinion they never will.

The last time a British monarch voluntarily abdicated the throne was in 1936 when King Edward VIII abdicated to marry the woman he loved, the American socialite Wallis Simpson. 

King George V had severe reservations about Prince Edward, saying “After I am dead, the boy will ruin himself in twelve months” and “I pray God that my eldest son will never marry and that nothing will come between Bertie and Lilibet and the throne.” On 20 January 1936, George V died and Edward ascended the throne as King Edward VIII. In the Vigil of the Princes, Prince Albert and his three brothers (the new king, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, and Prince George, Duke of Kent) took a shift standing guard over their father’s body as it lay in state, in a closed casket, in Westminster Hall.

As Edward was unmarried and had no children, Albert was the heir presumptive to the throne. Less than a year later, on December 11, 1936, Edward abdicated in order to marry his mistress, Wallis Simpson, who was divorced from her first husband and divorcing her second. Edward had been advised by British prime minister Stanley Baldwin that he could not remain king and marry a divorced woman with two living ex-husbands. Edward VIII abdicated and this placed the Queen’s father on the throne as King George VI Who became the third monarch of the House of Windsor.

This was a position he was reluctant to accept. The day before the abdication, he went to London to see his mother, Queen Mary. He wrote in his diary, “When I told her what had happened, I broke down and sobbed like a child. 

The abdication was a traumatic and stressful event for the new king and his immediate family. Across Britain gossip spread that Albert was physically and psychologically incapable of handling the kingship. He worried about that himself. No evidence has been found to support the rumour that the government considered bypassing him in favour of his scandal-ridden younger brother, George.

The Queen does not intend to abdicate, though Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, is expected to take on more of her duties as Elizabeth, who celebrated her 94th birthday in 2020, carries out fewer public engagements.

This will be the continuing trend that the Prince of Wales will take on more and more duties. If the Queen becomes incapacitated and incapable of performing her duties Parliament would establish the Prince of Wales as regent which would effectively make him king in everything but name.

The Queen is dedicated to her duties and takes her coronation oath. During her coronation the Archbishop of Canterbury asked her:

Will you to your power cause Law and Justice, in Mercy, to be executed in all your judgements?

Queen answered: I will.
Archbishop. Will you to the utmost of your power maintain the Laws of God and the true profession of the Gospel? Will you to the utmost of your power maintain in the United Kingdom the Protestant Reformed Religion established by law? Will you maintain and preserve inviolably the settlement of the Church of England, and the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government thereof, as by law established in England? And will you preserve unto the Bishops and Clergy of England, and to the Churches there committed to their charge, all such rights and privileges, as by law do or shall appertain to them or any of them?
Queen. All this I promise to do.

The Queen is dedicated to her duties and although the Prince of Wales will more than likely increase taking over some of his mother’s duties In the future but the Queen will not abdicate. 

July 19, 1553 – Lady Jane Grey is replaced by Mary I of England as Queen of England. Part II.

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1st Duke of Northumberland., 1st Duke of Suffolk, Archbishop of Canterbury, Henry Grey, High Treason, John Dudley, Lady Jane Grey, Lord Gilford Dudley, Philip II of Spain, Privy Council, Queen Mary I of England, Thomas Cranmer, Thomas Wyatt Rebellion

The Duke of Northumberland faced a number of key tasks to consolidate his power after Edward VI’s death. Most importantly, he had to isolate and, ideally, capture Mary Tudor to prevent her from gathering support. As soon as Mary was sure of King Edward’s demise, she left her residence at Hunsdon and set out to East Anglia, where she began to rally her supporters. Northumberland set out from London with troops on 14 July to capture Mary.

The Privy Council switched their allegiance and proclaimed Mary queen in London, on July 19. The historical consensus assumes that this was in recognition of overwhelming support of the population for Mary. However, there is no clear evidence for that outside Norfolk and Suffolk, where Northumberland had put down Kett’s Rebellion; hence, where Princess Mary sought refuge.

John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland

Rather, it seems that Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel—whom Northumberland had arrested and detained twice as an ally of Somerset, before rehabilitating—engineered a coup d’état in the Privy Council in Northumberland’s absence.

Jane is often called the Nine-Day Queen, although if her reign is dated from the moment of Edward’s death on July 6, 1553, her reign could have been a few days longer. On July 19, 1553, Jane was imprisoned in the Tower’s Gentleman Gaoler’s (Jailer’s) apartments, her husband in the Beauchamp Tower. The Duke of Northumberland was executed on August 22, 1553. In September, Parliament declared Mary the rightful successor and denounced and revoked Jane’s proclamation as that of a usurper.

Trial and execution

Referred to by the court as Jane Dudley, wife of Guildford, Jane was charged with high treason, as were her husband, two of his brothers, and the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer. Their trial, by a special commission, took place on November 13, 1553, at Guildhall in the City of London.

Lady Janes Grey

The commission was chaired by Sir Thomas White, Lord Mayor of London, and Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. Other members included Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby and John Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Bath. As was to be expected, all defendants were found guilty and sentenced to death.

Jane’s guilt, of having treacherously assumed the title and the power of the monarch, was evidenced by a number of documents she had signed as “Jane the Quene”. Her sentence was to “be burned alive on Tower Hill or beheaded as the Queen pleases” (burning was the traditional English punishment for treason committed by women). The imperial ambassador reported to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, that her life was to be spared.

The rebellion of Thomas Wyatt the Younger in January 1554 against Queen Mary’s marriage plans with Felipe II of Spain sealed Jane’s fate. Her father, Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, and his two brothers joined the rebellion, and so the government decided to go through with the verdict against Jane and Guildford.

Their execution was first scheduled for February 9, 1554, but was then postponed for three days to give Jane a chance to convert to the Catholic faith. Mary sent her chaplain John Feckenham to Jane, who was initially not pleased about this. Though she would not give in to his efforts “to save her soul”, she became friends with him and allowed him to accompany her to the scaffold.

On the morning of February 12, 1554, the authorities took Guildford from his rooms at the Tower of London to the public execution place at Tower Hill, where he was beheaded. A horse and cart brought his remains back to the Tower, past the rooms where Jane was staying. Seeing her husband’s corpse return, Jane is reported to have exclaimed: “Oh, Guildford, Guildford.” She was then taken out to Tower Green, inside the Tower, to be beheaded.

While admitting to action considered unlawful, she declared that “I do wash my hands thereof in innocence”. Jane then recited Psalm 51 (Have mercy upon me, O God) in English, and handed her gloves and handkerchief to her maid. The executioner asked her forgiveness, which she granted him, pleading: “I pray you dispatch me quickly.”

Referring to her head, she asked, “Will you take it off before I lay me down?”, and the axeman answered: “No, madam.” She then blindfolded herself. Jane then failed to find the block with her hands, and cried, “What shall I do? Where is it?” Probably Sir Thomas Brydges, the Deputy Lieutenant of the Tower, helped her find her way. With her head on the block, Jane spoke the last words of Jesus as recounted by Luke: “Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit!”

Jane and Guildford are buried in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula on the north side of Tower Green. No memorial stone was erected at their grave. Jane’s father, the Duke of Suffolk, was executed 11 days after Jane, on February 23, 1554. Her mother, the Duchess of Suffolk, married her Master of the Horse and chamberlain, Adrian Stokes, in March 1555. She was fully pardoned by Mary and allowed to live at Court with her two surviving daughters. She died in 1559.

May 2, 1536: Arrest of Anne Boleyn, Queen of England.

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1st Earl of Essex, Adultery, Anne Boleyn, Archbishop of Canterbury, George Boleyn, Incest, King Henry VIII of England, Mark Smeaton, Thomas Cranmer, Thomas Cromwell, Tower of London, Traitors' Gate

Anne Boleyn (c. 1501 – May 19, 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536 as the second wife of King Henry VIII. Their marriage, and her execution for treason and other charges by beheading, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that marked the start of the English Reformation.

Anne was the daughter of Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Howard, and was educated in the Netherlands and France, largely as a maid of honour to Queen Claude of France. Anne returned to England in early 1522, to marry her Irish cousin James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond; the marriage plans were broken off, and instead she secured a post at court as maid of honour to Henry VIII’s wife, Catherine of Aragon.

Anne, Queen Consort of England

Henry VIII and Anne formally married on January 25, 1533, after a secret wedding on November 14, 1532. On May 23, 1533, newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer declared Henry and Catherine’s marriage null and void; five days later, he declared Henry and Anne’s marriage valid. Shortly afterwards, Pope Clement VII decreed sentences of excommunication against Henry and Cranmer.

As a result of this marriage and these excommunications, the first break between the Church of England and Rome took place, and the King took control of the Church of England. Anne was crowned Queen of England on June 1, 1533. On September 7, she gave birth to the future Queen Elizabeth I. Henry was disappointed to have a daughter rather than a son but hoped a son would follow and professed to love Elizabeth. Anne subsequently had three miscarriages and, by March 1536, Henry was courting Jane Seymour. In order to marry Seymour, Henry had to find reasons to end the marriage to Anne.

Henry VIII, King of England

Given Henry’s desperate desire for a son, the sequence of Anne’s pregnancies has attracted much interest. Author Mike Ashley speculated that Anne had two stillborn children after Elizabeth’s birth and before the male child she miscarried in 1536. Most sources attest only to the birth of Elizabeth in September 1533, a possible miscarriage in the summer of 1534, and the miscarriage of a male child, of almost four months gestation, in January 1536. As Anne recovered from her miscarriage, Henry declared that he had been seduced into the marriage by means of “sortilege”—a French term indicating either “deception” or “spells”. His new mistress, Jane Seymour, was quickly moved into royal quarters. This was followed by Anne’s brother George being refused a prestigious court honour, the Order of the Garter, given instead to Sir Nicholas Carew.

Anne’s biographer Eric Ives (and most other historians) believe that her fall and execution were primarily engineered by her former ally Thomas Cromwell. The conversations between Chapuys and Cromwell thereafter indicate Cromwell as the instigator of the plot to remove Anne; evidence of this is seen in the Spanish Chronicle and through letters written from Chapuys to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex

Anne argued with Cromwell over the redistribution of Church revenues and over foreign policy. She advocated that revenues be distributed to charitable and educational institutions; and she favoured a French alliance. Cromwell insisted on filling the King’s depleted coffers, while taking a cut for himself, and preferred an imperial alliance. For these reasons, Ives suggests, “Anne Boleyn had become a major threat to Thomas Cromwell.”

Cromwell’s biographer John Schofield, on the other hand, contends that no power struggle existed between Anne and Cromwell and that “not a trace can be found of a Cromwellian conspiracy against Anne… Cromwell became involved in the royal marital drama only when Henry ordered him onto the case.” Cromwell did not manufacture the accusations of adultery, though he and other officials used them to bolster Henry’s case against Anne. Historian Retha Warnicke questions whether Cromwell could have or wished to manipulate the king in such a matter. Such a bold attempt by Cromwell, given the limited evidence, could have risked his office, even his life.

Regardless of the role Cromwell played in Anne Boleyn’s fall, and his confessed animosity to her, Chapuys’s letter states that Cromwell claimed that he was acting with the King’s authority. Most historians, however, are convinced that her fall and execution were engineered by Cromwell.

Jane Seymour, Queen Consort of England

Henry himself issued the crucial instructions: his officials, including Cromwell, carried them out. The result was by modern standards a legal travesty, however the rules of the time were not bent in order to assure a conviction; there was no need to tamper with rules that guaranteed the desired result since law at the time was an engine of state, not a mechanism for justice.

Towards the end of April a Flemish musician in Anne’s service named Mark Smeaton was arrested. He initially denied being the Queen’s lover but later confessed, perhaps tortured or promised freedom. Another courtier, Sir Henry Norris, was arrested on May Day, but being an aristocrat, could not be tortured. Prior to his arrest, Norris was treated kindly by the King, who offered him his own horse to use on the May Day festivities. It seems likely that during the festivities, the King was notified of Smeaton’s confession and it was shortly thereafter the alleged conspirators were arrested upon his orders.

Norris denied his guilt and swore that Queen Anne was innocent; one of the most damaging pieces of evidence against Norris was an overheard conversation with Anne at the end of April, where she accused him of coming often to her chambers not to pay court to her lady-in-waiting Madge Shelton but to herself. Sir Francis Weston was arrested two days later on the same charge, as was Sir William Brereton, a groom of the King’s Privy Chamber.

Sir Thomas Wyatt, a poet and friend of the Boleyns who was allegedly infatuated with her before her marriage to the king, was also imprisoned for the same charge but later released, most likely due to his or his family’s friendship with Cromwell. Sir Richard Page was also accused of having a sexual relationship with the Queen, but he was acquitted of all charges after further investigation could not implicate him with Anne. The final accused was Queen Anne’s own brother, George Boleyn, arrested on charges of incest and treason. He was accused of two incidents of incest: November 1535 at Whitehall and the following month at Eltham.

On May 2, 1536, Anne was arrested and taken to the Tower of London by barge. It is likely that Anne may have entered through the Court Gate in the Byward Tower rather than the Traitors’ Gate, according to historian and author of The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, Eric Ives. In the Tower, she collapsed, demanding to know the location of her father and “swete broder”, as well as the charges against her.

Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury

On the very next day, Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote a letter to the king expressing his doubts about the queen’s guilt, highlighting his own esteem for Anne. After it was delivered, Cranmer was resigned to the fact that the end of Anne’s marriage was inevitable.

Four of the accused men were tried in Westminster on May 12, 1536. Weston, Brereton, and Norris publicly maintained their innocence and only the tortured Smeaton supported the Crown by pleading guilty. Three days later, Anne and George Boleyn were tried separately in the Tower of London, before a jury of 27 peers. She was accused of adultery, incest, and high treason.

By the Treason Act of Edward III, adultery on the part of a queen was a form of treason (because of the implications for the succession to the throne) for which the penalty was hanging, drawing and quartering for a man and burning alive for a woman, but the accusations, and especially that of incestuous adultery, were also designed to impugn her moral character. The other form of treason alleged against her was that of plotting the king’s death, with her “lovers”, so that she might later marry Henry Norris.

Anne’s one-time betrothed, Henry Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland, sat on the jury that unanimously found Anne guilty. When the verdict was announced, he collapsed and had to be carried from the courtroom. He died childless eight months later and was succeeded by his nephew.

On May 16, Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Archbishop of Canterbury saw Anne in the Tower and heard her confession and the following day, he pronounced the marriage null and void.

Christmas Coronations

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1066, 800, Archbishop of Canterbury, Charlemagne, Charles the Great, Christmas Day, coronation, King of the English, King of the Franks, Pope Leo III, William I of England, William the Conqueror

Merry Christmas from the European Royal History Blog!!

Today I will briefly mention two coronations that took place on Christmas Day.

Charlemagne. King of the Franks crowned Emperor 800.
William I The Conquer, King of the English, Duke of Normandy 1066

Charlemagne

In 799, Pope Leo III did not have a good relationship with the citizens of Rome and suffered sever abuse when the Romans tried to put out his eyes and tear out his tongue. Leo III, naturally fearing for his life, escaped and fled to the court of King Charlemagne at Paderborn. Charlemagne, under the advisement of scholar Alcuin, sojourned to Rome and in November of 800 and on the first of December held a council on 1 December. On December 23rd Pope Leo III swore an oath of innocence. And two days later during a Mass, on Christmas Day (25 December), Charlemagne knelt at the altar to pray, the Pope crowned him Imperator Romanorum (“Emperor of the Romans”) in Saint Peter’s Basilica. By doing this doing, the Pope effectively nullified the legitimacy of Empress Irene of Constantinople.

It was seen by scholars of the day that when Odoacer forced the abdication of Roman Emperor Romulus Augustulus in 476CE this did not effectively abolish the Western Roman Empire as a separate power Europe. Theoretically the powers of the Western Roman Emperor were said to have been reunited with or grafted into the Eastern Roman Empire. Therefore from that time contemporary scholars believed that there was a singular undivided Roman Empire. Pope Leo III and King Charlemagne, as well as their predecessors, also held to this political ideal of there being a singular Roman Empire that was one and indivisible.

However, the imperial coronation of Charlemagne was not believed to have caused a severance of the Roman Empire back into East and West factions. In the eyes Leo III and Charlemagne, along with contemporary political theorists, they were not revolting against a reigning sovereign, Empress Irene, but legitimately filling up the void of legitimate successors caused by the deposition Emperor Constatine VI in 797 and Charlemagne was held to be the legitimate successor, not of the Emperor Romulus Augustulus, but that of Emperor Constantine VI.

Despite the good intentions of Charlemagne’s coronation as Emperor, it intended to represent the continuation of the unbroken line of Emperors from Augustus to Constantine VI. The reality was that his imperial coronation had the effect of setting up two separate, and often opposing, Empires along with two separate claims to imperial authority.

One of the issues that has been debated by scholars is whether of not Charlemagne saw this prestigious gift bestowed on him on that Christmas Day? According to the twenty-eight chapter of Einhard’s Vita Karoli Magni which says that Charlemagne was ignorant of the Pope’s intent and did not want any such coronation:

“He (Charlemagne) at first had such an aversion to being granted the imperial title that he declared that he would not have set foot in the Church the day that theses imperial titles were conferred, although it was a great feast-day, if he could have foreseen the design of the Pope.”

A number of modern scholars, however, logically suggest that Charlemagne was indeed aware of the coronation. It has been said he certainly cannot have missed the bejewelled crown waiting on the altar when he came to pray; something even contemporary sources support.

Charlemagne is counted as Charles I, Holy Roman Emperor, but many scholars believe the state that evolved into the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation began with the coronation of Otto I, Duke of Saxony in 962. Otto I was crowned Emperor by Pope John XII at Olds St. Peter’s Basilica. The Pope also anointed Otto’s wife Adelaide of Italy, who had accompanied Otto on his Italian campaign, as empress. With Otto’s coronation as emperor, the Kingdom of Germany and the Kingdom of Italy were unified into a common realm, later called the Holy Roman Empire.

William I

Exactly when did William I The Conqueror become King of the English? Although he certainly became the De Facto King of the English when he defeated King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings in October of 1066, it was not until his coronation on Christmas Day of that year did will accede to the throne.

William may have hoped the English would surrender to his rule immediately after his his victory over Harold II but that just was not the case. A swiftly convened meeting of the Wittan, comprising the English clergy and magnates, elected Edgar the Ætheling King of the English. Edgar the Ætheling was of the House of Wessex and a nephew of King Edward the Confessor. The support for Edgar by the Wittan was very lukewarm.

Undeterred, William continued his conquest of England. He and his armies secured Dover, parts of Kent, and Canterbury, and also captured Winchester, where the royal treasury was located. These captures solidified his holdings in that region and also his line of retreat to Normandy, if that was needed. It was unnecessary.

William then marched northward to Southwark and into London in late November. Next he led his forces around the south and west of London, burning buildings of those in resistance along the way. He crossed the Thames at Wallingford in early December where Archbishop Stigand submitted to William. He moved on to Berkhamsted soon afterwards where Edgar the Ætheling, Morcar, Edwin, and Archbishop Ealdred also submitted. This solidified his power in London where William began the construction of the Tower of London And with his troops garrisoned in London William was crowned King of the English at Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066.

On this date in History. October 13, 1399: Coronation of King Henry IV of England and Lord of Ireland.

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Archbishop of Canterbury, coronation, Duke of Lancaster, Henry IV, Henry IV of England, John of Gaunt, Kings and Queens of England, Lords of Ireland, Richard II of England, Usurper

October 13, 1399 coronation of Henry IV and Lord of Ireland

Henry was the son of John of Gaunt (the fourth son of Edward III) and Blanche of Lancaster. John enjoyed a position of considerable influence during much of the reign of his nephew, King Richard II, whom Henry eventually deposed.

Henry IV founded the Lancaster branch of the House of Plantagenet. He was the first King of England since the Norman Conquest whose mother tongue was English rather than French. This also marked the first time since the Norman Conquest when the monarch made an address in English.

Coronation of Henry IV

Another interesting bit of information is that the coronation of Henry IV was conducted by Roger Walden, Archbishop of Canterbury. On November 8, 1397 Walden was chosen Archbishop of Canterbury in succession to Thomas Arundel who had been banished from the realm by King Richard II.

On October 13, 1399 he presided over the coronation of Henry IV. However, on October 19, six days later, Walden lost this position when the new king Henry IV restored Arundel to his previous position as Archbishop of Canterbury, and after a short imprisonment he passed into retirement, being, as he himself says, “in the dust and under feet of men.”

On this date in History: April 29, 2011. The wedding of Prince William of Wales and Catherine Middleton.

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Archbishop of Canterbury, Dean of Westminster, Duchess of Cambridge, Duke of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, kings and queens of the United Kingdom, Prince William and Catherine Middleton, Princess Diana, Queen Elizabeth II, royal wedding, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the prince of Wales, Westminster Abbey

The Kiss

The wedding of Prince William of Wales and Catherine Middleton took place on April 29, 2011 at Westminster Abbey in London, United Kingdom. The groom, Prince William of Wales (now the Duke of Cambridge) is second in the line of succession to the British throne. The bride, Catherine Middleton, had been his girlfriend since 2003.

HRH The Duke of Cambridge

Prince William Arthur Philip Louis, KG, KT, PC, ADC. (Born June 21, 1982) He is the eldest son of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Diana, Princess of Wales. Since birth, he has been second in the line to succeed his grandmother Elizabeth II, who is the Queen of the United Kingdom and 15 other Commonwealth realms.

On the morning of his wedding Her Majesty the Queen bestowed upon Prince William of Wales the hereditary titles of Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn, and Baron Carrickfergus. These titles were formally patented on May 26 that year.

HRH The Duchess of Cambridge.

Catherine Elizabeth Middleton was born at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading on January 9, 1982 into an upper-middle-class family. She is the eldest of three children born to Michael Middleton (b. 1949),and his wife, Carole (née Goldsmith; b. 1955), Catherine was baptised at St Andrew’s Bradfield, Berkshire, on June 20, 1982.

On November 16, 2010, Clarence House stated that Prince William of Wales was to marry Catherine Middleton “in the Spring or Summer of 2011, in London.” They were engaged in October 2010, while on a private holiday in Kenya; Prince William gave Middleton the same engagement ring that his father had given to William’s mother, Diana, Princess of Wales an 18-karat white gold ring with a 12-carat oval Ceylon (Sri Lankan) sapphire and 14 round diamonds.

Engagement Ring

The Dean of Westminster, John Hall, presided at the service; the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, conducted the marriage; Richard Chartres, the Bishop of London, preached the sermon; and a reading was given by the bride’s brother, James. William’s best man was his brother, Prince Harry, (now the Duke of Sussex) while the bride’s sister, Pippa, was maid of honor.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

The ceremony was attended by the bride’s and groom’s families, as well as members of foreign royal dynasties, diplomats, and the couple’s chosen personal guests. After the ceremony, the couple made the traditional appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. As Prince William was not the heir apparent to the throne, the wedding was not a full state occasion and many details were left to the couple to decide, such as much of the guest list of about 1,900.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

The build-up to the wedding and the occasion itself attracted much media attention, being compared in many ways with the 1981 marriage of William’s parents. The occasion was a public holiday in the United Kingdom and featured many ceremonial aspects, including use of the state carriages and roles for the Foot Guards and Household Cavalry.

Events were held around the Commonwealth to mark the wedding; organisations and hotels held events across Canada, over 5,000 street parties were held throughout the United Kingdom, and one million people lined the route between Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace. The ceremony was viewed live by tens of millions more around the world, including 72 million live streams on YouTube. In the United Kingdom, television audiences peaked at 26.3 million viewers, with a total of 36.7 million watching part of the coverage.

In accordance with the settled general rule that a wife takes the status of her husband Catherine is a Princess of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Duchess of Cambridge, Countess of Strathearn, and Baroness Carrickfergus.

Coronation of Edward the Confessor

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Archbishop of Canterbury, Canute II of Denmark, Edward the Confessor, Harold Godwinson, House of Wessex, Kings and Queens of England

On this date in History: April 3, 1043. Coronation of Edward the Confessor as King of England.

Edward the Confessor (Old English Ēadƿeard Andettere c. 1003 – January 5, 1066) The second-to-last Anglo-Saxon King of England and the last king of the House of Wessex, he ruled from 1042 to 1066.

Edward was the son of Æthelred II the Unready, King of England (978-1016) and Emma of Normandy, Edward succeeded Canute II the Great’s (1016-1035) son – and his own half brother – Harthacanute (1040-1042) (also known as Canute III) restoring the rule of the House of Wessex after the period of Danish rule since Canute II of Denmark conquered England in 1016. When Edward died in 1066, he was succeeded by Harold Godwinson, who was defeated and killed in the same year by the Normans under William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings. Edgar the Ætheling, who was of the House of Wessex, was proclaimed king after the Battle of Hastings in 1066, but never ruled and was deposed after about eight weeks.

Edward was crowned at the cathedral of Winchester, the royal seat of the West Saxons, on April 3, 1043.

The main elements of the coronation service and the earliest form of oath can be traced to the ceremony devised by Saint Dunstan for Edgar’s coronation in 973 AD at Bath Abbey. It drew on ceremonies used by the kings of the Franks and those used in the ordination of bishops. Two versions of coronation services, known as ordines (from the Latin ordomeaning “order”) or recensions, survive from before the Norman Conquest. It is not known if the first recension was ever used in England and it was the second recension which was used by Edgar in 973 and by subsequent Anglo-Saxon and early Norman kings.

Some background on Eadsige, Archbishop of Canterbury who crowned Edward as King of England.

Eadsige (died 29 October 1050), was Archbishop of Canterburyfrom 1038 to 1050.

Eadsige was a royal priest for King Canute II before he arranged for him to become a monk at Christ Church, Canterbury about 1030. About 1035, he served as a suffragan or coadjutor bishop to Archbishop Æthelnoth of Canterbury, with his see located at the church of St Martin in Canterbury.He was translated to the Archbishopric of Canterbury in 1038 after Æthelnoth’s death In 1040, he journeyed to Rome to receive his pallium from Pope Benedict IX. Eadsige may have crowned Harthacnut in 1040, but he definitely crowned Edward the Confessor on 3 April 1043 along with Ælfric Puttoc, the Archbishop of York.

On this date in History: February 13, 1542 Execution of Catherine Howard, 5th wife of King Henry VIII of England and Ireland.

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Archbishop of Canterbury, Catherine Howard, Duke of Suffolk, King Henry VIII of England, Kingdom of Ireland, Kings and Queens of England, Thomas Cranmer

On this date in History: February 13, 1542 Execution of Catherine Howard, 5th wife of King Henry VIII of England and Ireland.

Catherine Howard (c. 1523 – February 13, 1542) was Queen of England from 1540 until 1541, as the fifth wife of Henry VIII. She (then 16 or 17) married him (then 49) on July 28, 1540, at Oatlands Palace, in Surrey, almost immediately after the annulment of his marriage to Anne of Cleves was arranged.

Catherine’s uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, found her a place at Court in the household of the King’s fourth wife, Anne of Cleves. As a young and attractive lady-in-waiting, Catherine quickly caught Henry’s eye. The King had displayed little interest in Anne from the beginning, but on Cromwell’s failure to find a new match for Henry, Norfolk saw an opportunity. The Howards may have sought to recreate the influence gained during Queen Anne’s reign. According to Nicholas Sander, the religiously conservative Howard family may have seen Catherine as a figurehead for their fight by expressed determination to restore Roman Catholicism to England. Catholic Bishop Stephen Gardiner entertained the couple at Winchester Palace with “feastings”.

As the King’s interest in Catherine grew, so did the house of Norfolk’s influence. Her youth, prettiness and vivacity were captivating for the middle-aged sovereign, who claimed he had never known “the like to any woman”. Within months of her arrival at court, Henry bestowed gifts of land and expensive cloth upon Catherine. Henry called her his ‘rose without a thorn’ and the ‘very jewel of womanhood’. The French ambassador, Charles de Marillac, thought her “delightful”. Holbein’s portrait showed a young auburn-haired girl with a characteristically hooked Howard nose; Catherine was said to have a “gentle, earnest face.”

King Henry and Catherine were married by Bishop Bonner of London at Oatlands Palace on 28 July 1540, the same day Cromwell was executed. The marriage was made public on 8 August, and prayers were said in the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court Palace. Henry “indulged her every whim” thanks to her “caprice”. Catherine was young, joyous and carefree; Mannox had taught her to play the virginals. She was too young to take part in administrative matters of State. Nevertheless, every night Sir Thomas Heneage, Groom of the Stool, came to her chamber to report on the King’s well-being.

Downfall

It was alleged that, in spring 1541, Catherine had already embarked upon a romance with Henry’s favourite male courtier, Thomas Culpeper, a young man who “had succeeded [him] in the Queen’s affections”, according to Dereham’s later testimony. Culpeper called Catherine “my little, sweet fool” in a love letter; she considered marrying him during her time as a maid-of-honour to Anne of Cleves. The couple’s meetings were arranged by one of Catherine’s older ladies-in-waiting, Jane Boleyn, Viscountess Rochford (Lady Rochford), the widow of Catherine’s executed cousin, George Boleyn, Anne Boleyn’s brother.

During the autumn Northern Progress, a crisis began to loom over Catherine’s conduct. People who had witnessed her earlier indiscretions while still a ward at Lambeth contacted her for favours in return for their silence, and many of them were appointed to her royal household. The brother of Mary Lascelles, John Lascelles, tried to convince his sister to find a place within the Queen’s royal chamber, however, Mary refused stating she had witnessed the “light” ways of Queen Catherine while living together at Lambeth. After hearing this John Lascelles reported such news to Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, who then interrogated Lascelles’ sister and upon doing so became informed of Catherine’s previous illicit sexual relations while under the Duchess’ care.

Cranmer immediately took up the case to be made to topple his rivals—the Roman Catholic Norfolk family. Lady Rochford was interrogated, and from fear of being tortured, agreed to tell all. She told how she had watched for Catherine backstairs as Culpeper had made his escapes from the Queen’s room. During the investigation, a love letter written in the Queen’s distinctive handwriting was found in Culpeper’s chambers. This is the only letter of hers that still survives (other than her later confession).

On All Saints’ Day, November 1, 1541, the King was to be found in the Chapel Royal, praying as usual for this “jewel of womanhood”. He received there a warrant of the queen’s arrest that described her crimes. On November 7, 1541, Archbishop Cranmer led a delegation of councillors to Winchester Palace, Southwark, to question her. Even the staunch Cranmer found Catherine’s frantic, incoherent state pitiable, saying, “I found her in such lamentation and heaviness as I never saw no creature, so that it would have pitied any man’s heart to have looked upon her.” He ordered the guards to remove any objects that she might use to commit suicide.

Imprisonment and death

Establishing the existence of a precontract between Catherine and Dereham would have had the effect of terminating Catherine’s royal union, but it also would have allowed Henry to annul their marriage and banish her from Court, in poverty and disgrace, without having to execute her. Yet still she steadfastly denied any precontract, maintaining that Dereham had raped her.

Catherine was stripped of her title as queen on November 23, 1541, and imprisoned in the new Syon Abbey, Middlesex, formerly a convent, where she remained throughout the winter of 1541. She was forced by a Privy Councillor to return Anne of Cleves’ ring that the King had given her; it was a symbol of her regal and lawful rights. The King would be at Hampton Court, but she would not see him again. Despite these actions taken against her, her marriage to Henry was never formally annulled.

Culpeper and Dereham were arraigned at Guildhall on December 1, 1541 for high treason. They were executed at Tyburn on 10 December 1541, Culpeper being beheaded and Dereham being hanged, drawn and quartered. According to custom, their heads were placed on spikes atop of London Bridge. Many of Catherine’s relatives were also detained in the Tower with the exception of her uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, who had sufficiently distanced himself from the scandal by retreating to Kenninghall to write a grovelling letter of apology.

His son Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, the poet, remained a favourite of the King. The duke knew his family had fallen from grace, wrote an apology on December 14 to the King, excusing himself and laying all the blame on his niece and stepmother. All of the Howard prisoners were tried, found guilty of concealing treason, and sentenced to life imprisonment and forfeiture of goods. In time, they were released with their goods restored. The King sank into morbidity and indulged his appetite for food.

Catherine herself remained in limbo until Parliament introduced a bill of attainder on January 29, 1542, which was passed on February 7, 1542. The Royal Assent by Commission Act 1541 made it treason, and punishable by death, for a queen consort to fail to disclose her sexual history to the king within twenty days of their marriage, or to incite someone to commit adultery with her. This solved the matter of Catherine’s supposed precontract and made her unequivocally guilty.

When the Lords of the Council came for her, she panicked and screamed aloud, as they manhandled her into the waiting barge that would escort her to the Tower on Friday February 10, 1542, her flotilla passing under London Bridge where the heads of Culpeper and Dereham were impaled (and remained until 1546). Entering through the Traitors’ Gate she was led to her prison cell. The next day, the bill of attainder received Royal Assent, and Catherine’s execution was scheduled for 7:00 am on Monday, February 13, 1542. Arrangements for the execution were supervised by Sir John Gage in his role as Constable of the Tower.

The night before her execution, Catherine is believed to have spent many hours practising how to lay her head upon the block, which had been brought to her at her request. She died with relative composure, but looked pale and terrified; she required assistance to climb the scaffold. She made a speech describing her punishment as “worthy and just” and asked for mercy for her family and prayers for her soul. According to popular folklore, her final words were, “I die a Queen, but I would rather have died the wife of Culpeper”, however no eyewitness accounts support this. Instead, reporting that she stuck to traditional final words, asking for forgiveness for her sins and acknowledging that she deserved to die ‘a thousand deaths’ for betraying the king; who had always treated her so graciously. Catherine was beheaded with a single stroke of the executioner’s axe. She was about 18 or 19 years old.

Lady Rochford was executed immediately thereafter on Tower Green. Both their bodies were buried in an unmarked grave in the nearby chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula, where the bodies of Catherine’s cousins Anne and George Boleyn also lay. Other cousins were also in the crowd, including the Earl of Surrey. King Henry did not attend. Catherine’s body was not one of those identified during restorations of the chapel during Queen Victoria’s reign. She is commemorated on a plaque on the west wall dedicated to all those who died in the Tower. Upon hearing news of Catherine’s execution, Francis I of France wrote a letter to Henry, regretting the “lewd and naughty [evil] behaviour of the Queen” and advising him that “the lightness of women cannot bend the honour of men”.