January 7, 1536: Death of Infanta Catherine of Aragon, Queen of England

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Anne Boleyn, Archbishop of Canterbury, Arthur Tudor, Infanta Catherine of Aragon, King Fernando II of Aragon, King Henry VIII of England and Scotland, Pope Clement VII, Prince of Wales, Queen Catherine of England, Queen Isabella I of Castile, Queen Mary I of England and Ireland, Thomas Cranmer

Infanta Catherine of Aragon (December 16, 1485 – January 7, 1536) was Queen of England as the first wife of King Henry VIII from their marriage on June 11, 1509 until their annulment on May 23, 1533. She was previously Princess of Wales as the wife of Henry’s elder brother, Arthur, Prince of Wales.

The daughter of Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Fernando II of Aragon. Infanta Catherine was three years old when she was betrothed to Prince Arthur, heir apparent to the English throne.

Infanta Catherine of Aragon

They married in 1501, but Arthur died five months later. Catherine spent years in limbo, and during this time, she held the position of ambassador of the Aragonese crown to England in 1507, the first known female ambassador in European history.

She married Arthur’s younger brother, the recently ascended Henry VIII, in 1509. For six months in 1513, she served as regent of England while Henry VIII was in France. During that time the English crushed and defeated a Scottish invasion at the Battle of Flodden, an event in which Catherine played an important part with an emotional speech about English courage and patriotism.

By 1525, Henry VIII was infatuated with Anne Boleyn and dissatisfied that his marriage to Catherine had produced no surviving sons, leaving their daughter Mary as heir presumptive at a time when there was no established precedent for a woman on the throne.

He sought to have their marriage annulled, setting in motion a chain of events that led to England’s schism with the Catholic Church. When Pope Clement VII refused to annul the marriage, Henry defied him by assuming supremacy over religious matters.

Portrait of a noblewoman, possibly Mary Tudor c. 1514 or Catherine of Aragon c. 1502, by Michael Sittow. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

On May 23, 1533 Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, sitting in judgement at a special court convened at Dunstable Priory to rule on the validity of Henry’s marriage to Catherine, declared the marriage unlawful, even though Catherine had testified that she and Arthur had never had physical relations. Five days later, on May 28, 1533, Cranmer ruled that Henry VIII and Anne’s marriage was valid.

Until the end of her life, Catherine would refer to herself as Henry’s only lawful wedded wife and England’s only rightful Queen, and her servants continued to address her as such. Henry refused her the right to any title but “Dowager Princess of Wales” in recognition of her position as his brother’s widow.

Catherine went to live at The More Castle, Hertfordshire, late in 1531. After that, she was successively moved to the Royal Palace of Hatfield, Hertfordshire (May to September, 1532), Elsyng Palace, Enfield (September 1532 to February 1533), Ampthill Castle, Bedfordshire (February to July, 1533) and Buckden Towers, Cambridgeshire (July 1533 to May 1534).

She was then finally transferred to Kimbolton Castle, Cambridgeshire where she confined herself to one room, which she left only to attend Mass, dressed only in the hair shirt of the Order of St. Francis, and fasted continuously.

King Henry VIII of England and Ireland

While she was permitted to receive occasional visitors, she was forbidden to see her daughter Mary. They were also forbidden to communicate in writing, but sympathisers discreetly conveyed letters between the two.

Henry offered both mother and daughter better quarters and permission to see each other if they would acknowledge Anne Boleyn as the new Queen; both refused.

In late December 1535, sensing her death was near, Catherine made her will, and wrote to her nephew, the Emperor Charles V, asking him to protect her daughter.

Catherine died at Kimbolton Castle on January 7, 1536. The following day, news of her death reached the king. At the time there were rumours that she was poisoned, possibly by Gregory di Casale.

Queen Catherine of England

According to the chronicler Edward Hall, Anne Boleyn wore yellow for the mourning, which has been interpreted in various ways; Polydore Vergil interpreted this to mean that Anne did not mourn. Chapuys reported that it was King Henry who decked himself in yellow, celebrating the news and making a great show of his and Anne’s daughter, Elizabeth, to his courtiers.

This was seen as distasteful and vulgar by many. Another theory is that the dressing in yellow was out of respect for Catherine as yellow was said to be the Spanish colour of mourning. Certainly, later in the day it is reported that Henry and Anne both individually and privately wept for her death. On the day of Catherine’s funeral, Anne Boleyn miscarried a male child.

Queen Mary I of England and Ireland

Rumours then circulated that Catherine had been poisoned by Anne or Henry, or both. The rumours were born after the apparent discovery during her embalming that there was a black growth on her heart that might have been caused by poisoning. Modern medical experts are in agreement that her heart’s discolouration was not due to poisoning, but to cancer, something which was not understood at the time.

Her daughter Mary would become the first undisputed English queen regnant in 1553.

December 17, 1538: Henry VIII of England is Excommunicated for a second time.

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Alessandro Farnese, Anne Boleyn, Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishop of Rome, Church of England, Emperor Charles V, Excommunication, Giulio de' Medici, King François I of France, King Henry VIII of England, Papal Bull, Pope Clement VII, Pope Paul III, Protestant Reformation, Thomas Cranmer

When Pope Paul III excommunicated King Henry VIII of England on December 17 this was the second time the King had been excommunicated. I will begin by giving some background information on Pope Clement VII and the first excommunication of the King.

King Henry VIII of England and Lord of Ireland

Pope Clement VII (May 26, 1478 – September 25, 1534) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from November 19, 1523 to his death on September 25, 1534.

Born Giulio de’ Medici, his life began under tragic circumstances. On April 26, 1478—exactly one month before his birth—his father, Giuliano de Medici (brother of Lorenzo the Magnificent) was murdered in the Florence Cathedral by enemies of his family, in what is now known as “The Pazzi Conspiracy”.

The future Pope was born illegitimately on May 26, 1478, in Florence; the exact identity of his mother remains unknown, although a plurality of scholars contend that it was Fioretta Gorini, the daughter of a university professor. Giulio spent the first seven years of life with his godfather, the architect Antonio da Sangallo the Elder.

Thereafter, Lorenzo the Magnificent raised him as one of his own sons, alongside his children Giovanni (the future Pope Leo X), Piero, and Giuliano. Educated at the Palazzo Medici in Florence by humanists like Angelo Poliziano, and alongside prodigies like Michelangelo, Giulio became an accomplished musician. In personality he was reputed to be shy, and in physical appearance, handsome

Following Adrian VI’s death on September 14, 1523, Cardinal Giulio overcame the opposition of the French King and finally succeeded in being elected Pope Clement VII in the next conclave (November 19, 1523).

Elected in 1523 at the end of the Italian Renaissance. Pope Clement VII was deemed “the most unfortunate of the popes”, Clement VII’s reign was marked by a rapid succession of political, military, and religious struggles—many long in the making—which had far-reaching consequences for Christianity and world politics.

Pope Clement VII came to the papacy with a high reputation as a statesman. He had served with distinction as chief advisor to Pope Leo X (1513–1521), Pope Adrian VI (1522–1523), and commendably as gran maestro of Florence (1519–1523).

Pope Clement VII, Bishop of Rome

Assuming leadership at a time of crisis, with the Protestant Reformation spreading; the Church nearing bankruptcy; and large, foreign armies invading Italy, Clement VII initially tried to unite Christendom by making peace among the many Christian leaders then at odds. He later attempted to liberate Italy from foreign occupation, believing that it threatened the Church’s freedom.

The complex political situation of the 1520s thwarted Clement’s efforts. Inheriting unprecedented challenges, including Martin Luther’s Protestant Reformation in Northern Europe; a vast power struggle in Italy between Europe’s two most powerful kings, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and King François I of France, each of whom demanded that the Pope choose a side; and Turkish invasions of Eastern Europe led by Suleiman the Magnificent.

Clement’s problems were exacerbated by King Henry VIII of England’s contentious divorce, resulting in England breaking away from the Catholic Church; and in 1527, souring relations with Emperor Charles V, leading to the violent Sack of Rome, during which Clement was imprisoned.

After escaping confinement in the Castel Sant’Angelo, Clement—with few economic, military, or political options remaining—compromised the Church’s and Italy’s independence by allying with his former jailer, Charles V.

First Excommunication

King Henry VIII himself, at least in the early part of his reign, was a devout and well-informed Catholic to the extent that his 1521 publication Assertio Septem Sacramentorum (“Defence of the Seven Sacraments”) earned him the title of Fidei Defensor (Defender of the Faith) from Pope Leo X. The work represented a staunch defence of papal supremacy, albeit one couched in somewhat contingent terms.

It is not clear exactly when Henry changed his mind on the issue of papal supremacy as he grew more intent on a second marriage. Certainly, by 1527, he had convinced himself that Catherine had produced no male heir because their union was “blighted in the eyes of God”.

Indeed, in marrying Catherine, his brother’s wife, he had acted contrary to Leviticus 20:21, a justification Thomas Cranmer used to declare the marriage null. Martin Luther, on the other hand, had initially argued against the annulment, stating that Henry VIII could take a second wife in accordance with his teaching that the Bible allowed for polygamy but not divorce.

Henry VIII now believed the Pope had lacked the authority to grant a dispensation from this impediment. It was this argument Henry VIII took to Pope Clement VII in the hope of having his marriage to Catherine annulled, forgoing at least one less openly defiant line of attack.

In 1527 Henry VIII asked Clement to annul the marriage, but the Pope, possibly acting under pressure from Catherine’s nephew, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, whose effective prisoner he was, refused.

According to Catholic teaching, a validly contracted marriage is indivisible until death, and thus the pope cannot annul a marriage on the basis of an impediment previously dispensed.

Many people close to Henry VIII wished simply to ignore Clement, but in October 1530 a meeting of clergy and lawyers advised that the English Parliament could not empower the Archbishop of Canterbury to act against the Pope’s prohibition. In Parliament, Bishop John Fisher was the Pope’s champion

In response, to Clement VII ‘s refusal to grant the anulment the Reformation Parliament (1532–1534) passed laws abolishing papal authority in England and declared Henry VIII to be head of the Church of England. Final authority in doctrinal disputes now rested with the monarch. Though a religious traditionalist himself, Henry relied on Protestants to support and implement his religious agenda.

Henry subsequently underwent a marriage ceremony with Anne Boleyn, in either late 1532 or early 1533. The marriage was made easier by the death of the Archbishop of Canterbury William Warham, a stalwart friend of the Pope, after which Henry VIII persuaded Clement VII to appoint Thomas Cranmer, a friend of the Boleyn family, as his successor.

Pope Clement VII granted the papal bulls necessary for Cranmer’s promotion to Archbishop of Canterbury, and also demanded that Cranmer take the customary oath of allegiance to the pope before his consecration.

However, as mentioned, laws made under Henry VIII already declared that bishops would be consecrated even without papal approval. Cranmer was consecrated, while declaring beforehand that he did not agree with the oath he would take. Cranmer was prepared to grant the annulment of the marriage to Catherine as Henry VIII required. The Pope responded to the marriage by excommunicating both Henry VIII and Cranmer from the Catholic Church.

Second Excommunication

I will begin this section with some background information on Pope Paul III.

Pope Paul III, Bishop of Rome

Pope Paul III (February 28, 1468 – November 10, 1549), born Alessandro Farnese, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from October 13, 1534 to his death in November 1549.

Born in 1468 at Canino, Latium (then part of the Papal States), Alessandro Farnese was the oldest son of Pier Luigi I Farnese, Signore di Montalto (1435–1487) and his wife Giovanna Caetani, a member of the Caetani family which had also produced Pope Gelasius II and Pope Boniface VIII.

The Farnese family had prospered over the centuries but it was Alessandro’s ascendency to the papacy and his dedication to family interests which brought about the most significant increase in the family’s wealth and power.

As a young cleric, Alessandro lived a notably dissolute life, taking a mistress, Silvia Ruffini. Between about 1500 and 1510 she gave birth to at least four children: Costanza, Pier Luigi (who was later created Duke of Parma), Paolo, and Ranuccio. In July 1505, Pope Julius II legitimated the two eldest sons so that they could inherit the Farnese family estates. On June 23, 1513, Pope Leo X published a second legitimation of Pier Luigi, and also legitimated Ranuccio (the second son Paolo had already died).

On March 28, 1509 Alessandro was named Bishop of Parma – although he was not ordained a priest until June 26, 1519 and not consecrated a bishop until 2 July 2,1519. As Bishop of Parma, he came under the influence of his vicar-general, Bartolomeo Guidiccioni. This led to Alessandro breaking off the relationship with his mistress and committing himself to reform in his diocese. Under Pope Clement VII (1523–34) he was named Cardinal Bishop of Ostia and Dean of the College of Cardinals.

Pontificate

On the death of Clement VII in 1534, he was elected as Pope Paul III on October 13, 1534. Farnese, who did not fall within any of the factions, was considered a very good choice by the cardinals since his age (66) and state of health denoted a short papacy which would give those cardinals time to select a proper candidate for a future conclave. On November 3rd Paul III was formally crowned by the protodeacon Innocenzo Cybo.

Pope Paul III came to the papal throne in an era following the sack of Rome in 1527 and rife with uncertainties in the Catholic Church following the Protestant Reformation. His pontificate initiated the Counter-Reformation with the Council of Trent in 1545, as well as the wars of religion with Emperor Charles V’s military campaigns against the Protestants in Germany.

Pope Paul III recognized new Catholic religious orders and societies such as the Jesuits, the Barnabites, and the Congregation of the Oratory. His efforts were distracted by nepotism to advance the power and fortunes of his family, including his illegitimate son Pier Luigi Farnese.

In 1538, the chief minister Thomas Cromwell pursued an extensive campaign against what the government termed “idolatry” practised under the old religion, culminating in September with the dismantling of the shrine of St. Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral.

Paul III proved unable to suppress the Protestant Reformation, although it was during his pontificate that the foundation was laid for the Counter-Reformation.

As a consequence of the extensive campaign against “idolatry” in England, and also Pope Paul III upset over the dismantling of the shrine of St. Thomas Becket at Canterbury, decreed the second and final excommunication of Henry VIII of England on December 17, 1538.

Were They A Usurper? King Henry IV. Part I.

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1st Earl of Northumberland, Archbishop of Canterbury, Duke Lancaster, Duke of York, Edmund of England, Henry Bolingbroke, Henry Percy, House of Lancaster, John of Gaunt. King Charles VI of France, King Henry IV of England and Lord of Ireland, King Richard II of England and Lord of Ireland, Lords Appellant, Usurper

John of Gaunt, uncle of the King, occupied the role of a valued counsellor of King Richard II and loyal supporter of the Crown. He did not even protest, it seems, when his younger brother Thomas was murdered at Richard’s behest. It may be that he felt he had to maintain this posture of loyalty to protect his son, Henry Bolingbroke, who had also been one of the Lords Appellant who rebelled against the King, from Richard’s wrath.

Henry Bolingbroke experienced an inconsistent relationship with King Richard II than his father, John of Gaunt had. First cousins and childhood playmates, they were admitted together as knights of the Order of the Garter in 1377, but as mentioned, Henry participated in the Lords Appellants’ rebellion against the king in 1387.

After regaining power, Richard did not punish Henry, although he did execute or exile many of the other rebellious barons. In fact, Richard elevated Henry from Earl of Derby to Duke of Hereford.

The relationship between Henry and King Richard II met with a second crisis. In 1398, a remark regarding Richard II’s rule by Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk, was interpreted as treason by Henry who reported it to the king.

Henry and Thomas de Mowbray agreed to undergo a duel of honour (called by Richard II) at Gosford Green near Caludon Castle, Mowbray’s home in Coventry. Yet before the duel could take place, Richard decided to banish Henry from the kingdom (with the approval of Henry’s father, John of Gaunt) to avoid further bloodshed. Mowbray was exiled for life.

King Richard II of England and Lord of Ireland

John of Gaunt died in February 1399. Without explanation, Richard cancelled the legal documents that would have allowed Henry to inherit Gaunt’s land automatically. Instead, Henry would be required to ask for the lands from Richard.

While in exile in France, and after some hesitation, Henry met the exiled Thomas Arundel, former Archbishop of Canterbury, who had lost his position because of his involvement with the Lords Appellant. In England King Richard II went on a military campaign against Ireland.

In June 1399, Louis I, Duke of Orléans, gained control of the court of the insane Charles VI of France. The policy of rapprochement with the English crown did not suit Louis’s political ambitions, and for this reason he found it opportune to allow Henry Bolingbroke to leave France for England.

With a small group of followers, Henry Bolingbroke and Thomas Arundel, landed at Ravenspur in Yorkshire towards the end of June 1399.

With Arundel now as his advisor, Henry began a military campaign, confiscating land from those who opposed him and ordering his soldiers to destroy much of Cheshire. Henry initially announced that his intention was solely to reclaim his rights as Duke of Lancaster,

Men from all over the country soon rallied around him. Meeting with Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, who had his own misgivings about the King, and Bolingbroke insisted that his only object was to regain his own patrimony.

Percy took him at his word and declined to interfere. The king had taken most of his household knights and the loyal members of his nobility with him to Ireland, so Bolingbroke experienced little resistance as he moved south.

Keeper of the Realm Edmund, Duke of York, had little choice but to side with Bolingbroke. Meanwhile, King Richard II was delayed in his return from Ireland and did not land in Wales until July 24. The King made his way to Conwy, where on August 12 he met with the Earl of Northumberland for negotiations.

On August 19 Richard surrendered to Henry Bolingbroke at Flint Castle, promising to abdicate if his life were spared. Both men then returned to London, the indignant king riding all the way behind Henry. On arrival, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London on September 1.

Henry was by now fully determined to take the throne, but presenting a rationale for this action proved a dilemma. It was argued that Richard II, through his tyranny and misgovernment, had rendered himself unworthy of being king.

However, Henry was not next in line to the throne; the heir presumptive was Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, great-grandson of Edward III’s second surviving son, Lionel, Duke of Clarence.

Bolingbroke’s father, John of Gaunt, was Edward’s third son to survive to adulthood. The problem was solved by emphasising Henry’s descent in a direct male line, whereas March’s descent was through his grandmother, Philippa of Clarence.

Henry Bolingbroke, Duke Lancaster and later, King Henry IV of England and Lord of Ireland

According to the official record, read by the Archbishop of Canterbury during an assembly of lords and commons at Westminster Hall on Tuesday September 30, King Richard II gave up his crown willingly and ratified his deposition citing as a reason his own unworthiness as a monarch.

On the other hand, the Traison et Mort Chronicle suggests otherwise. It describes a meeting between Richard and Henry that took place one day before the parliament’s session. The king succumbed to blind rage, ordered his own release from the Tower, called his cousin a traitor, demanded to see his wife, and swore revenge, throwing down his bonnet, while Henry refused to do anything without parliamentary approval.

When parliament met to discuss Richard’s fate, John Trevor, Bishop of St Asaph, read thirty-three articles of deposition that were unanimously accepted by lords and commons. On October 1, 1399, Richard II was formally deposed. On October 13, the feast day of Edward the Confessor, Henry Bolingbroke was crowned as King Henry IV of England and Lord of Ireland.

Henry IV’s coronation at Westminster Abbey, may have marked the first time since the Norman Conquest that the monarch made an address in English.

King Henry IV had agreed to let Richard live after his abdication. This all changed when it was revealed that the earls of Huntingdon, Kent, and Salisbury, and Lord Despenser, and possibly also the Earl of Rutland – all now demoted from the ranks they had been given by Richard – were planning to murder the new king and restore Richard in the Epiphany Rising.

Although averted, the plot highlighted the danger of allowing Richard to live. Richard is thought to have been starved to death in captivity in Pontefract Castle on or around February 14, 1400, although there is some question over the date and manner of his death. His body was taken south from Pontefract and displayed in St Paul’s Cathedral on 17 February before burial in King’s Langley Priory on March 6.

November 17, 1558: Death of Mary I, Queen of England and Ireland. Part IV.

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Archbishop of Canterbury, False Pregnancy, John Foxe, King Felipe II of Spain, Pope Julius III, Queen Mary I of England and Ireland, Reginald Pole, Thomas Cranmer

Mary and her husband Felipe

In September 1554, Mary stopped menstruating. She gained weight, and felt nauseated in the mornings. For these reasons, almost the entirety of her court, including her physicians, believed she was pregnant. Parliament passed an act making Felipe regent in the event of Mary’s death in childbirth.

In the last week of April 1555, Elizabeth was released from house arrest, and called to court as a witness to the birth, which was expected imminently. According to Giovanni Michieli, the Venetian ambassador, Felipe may have planned to marry Elizabeth in the event of Mary’s death in childbirth, but in a letter to his brother-in-law Maximilian of Austria, Felipe expressed uncertainty as to whether Mary was pregnant.

Thanksgiving services in the diocese of London were held at the end of April after false rumours that Mary had given birth to a son spread across Europe. Through May and June, the apparent delay in delivery fed gossip that Mary was not pregnant. Susan Clarencieux revealed her doubts to the French ambassador, Antoine de Noailles.

Mary continued to exhibit signs of pregnancy until July 1555, when her abdomen receded. Michieli dismissively ridiculed the pregnancy as more likely to “end in wind rather than anything else”. It was most likely a false pregnancy, perhaps induced by Mary’s overwhelming desire to have a child.

In August, soon after the disgrace of the false pregnancy, which Mary considered “God’s punishment” for her having “tolerated heretics” in her realm, Felipe left England to command his armies against France in Flanders. Mary was heartbroken and fell into a deep depression. Michieli was touched by the queen’s grief; he wrote she was “extraordinarily in love” with her husband and disconsolate at his departure.

In the month following her accession, Mary issued a proclamation that she would not compel any of her subjects to follow her religion, but by the end of September 1553, leading Protestant churchmen—including Thomas Cranmer, John Bradford, John Rogers, John Hooper, and Hugh Latimer—were imprisoned.

Mary’s first Parliament, which assembled in early October, declared her parents’ marriage valid and abolished Edward’s religious laws. Church doctrine was restored to the form it had taken in the 1539 Six Articles of Henry VIII, which (among other things) reaffirmed clerical celibacy. Married priests were deprived of their benefices.

Mary rejected the break with Rome her father instituted and the establishment of Protestantism by her brother’s regents. Felipe persuaded Parliament to repeal Henry’s religious laws, returning the English church to Roman jurisdiction.

Reaching an agreement took many months and Mary and Pope Julius III had to make a major concession: the confiscated monastery lands were not returned to the church but remained in the hands of their influential new owners. By the end of 1554, the pope had approved the deal, and the Heresy Acts were revived.

Around 800 rich Protestants, including John Foxe, fled into exile. Those who stayed and persisted in publicly proclaiming their beliefs became targets of heresy laws. The first executions occurred over five days in February 1555: John Rogers on February 4, Laurence Saunders on February 8, and Rowland Taylor and John Hooper on February 9.

Thomas Cranmer, the imprisoned archbishop of Canterbury, was forced to watch Bishops Ridley and Latimer being burned at the stake. He recanted, repudiated Protestant theology, and rejoined the Catholic faith. Under the normal process of the law, he should have been absolved as a repentant, but Mary refused to reprieve him.

On the day of his burning, he dramatically withdrew his recantation. In total, 283 were executed, most by burning. The burnings proved so unpopular that even Alfonso de Castro, one of Felipe’s own ecclesiastical staff, condemned them and another adviser, Simon Renard, warned him that such “cruel enforcement” could “cause a revolt”. Mary persevered with the policy, which continued until her death and exacerbated anti-Catholic and anti-Spanish feeling among the English people. The victims became lauded as martyrs.

Reginald Pole, the son of Mary’s executed governess, arrived as papal legate in November 1554. He was ordained a priest and appointed Archbishop of Canterbury immediately after Cranmer’s execution in March 1556.

After Felipe’s visit in 1557, Mary again thought she was pregnant, with a baby due in March 1558. She decreed in her will that her husband would be the regent during the minority of their child. But no child was born, and Mary was forced to accept that her half-sister Elizabeth would be her lawful successor.

Mary was weak and ill from May 1558. In pain, possibly from ovarian cysts or uterine cancer, she died on November 17, 1558, aged 42, at St James’s Palace, during an influenza epidemic that also claimed Archbishop Pole’s life later that day. She was succeeded by Elizabeth. Felipe, who was in Brussels, wrote to his sister Joan: “I felt a reasonable regret for her death.”

Although Mary’s will stated that she wished to be buried next to her mother, she was interred in Westminster Abbey on December 14, in a tomb she eventually shared with Elizabeth. The inscription on their tomb, affixed there by James I-VI when he succeeded Elizabeth, is Regno consortes et urna, hic obdormimus Elizabetha et Maria sorores, in spe resurrectionis (“Consorts in realm and tomb, we sisters Elizabeth and Mary here lie down to sleep in hope of the resurrection”).

August 9, 1902: Coronation of Edward VII, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India

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Alexandra of Denmark, and Emperor of India, Archbishop of Canterbury, Archbishop Temple, coronation, Edward VII, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the British Dominions, Koh-i-Noor Diamond, perityphlitis, Westminster Abbey

Edward VII (Albert Edward; November 9, 1841 – May 6, 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from January 22, 1901 until his death in 1910.

The eldest son of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and nicknamed “Bertie”, Edward was related to royalty throughout Europe. He was Prince of Wales and heir apparent to the British throne for almost 60 years.

During the long reign of his mother, he was largely excluded from political influence and came to personify the fashionable, leisured elite. He travelled throughout Britain performing ceremonial public duties and represented Britain on visits abroad. His tours of North America in 1860 and of the Indian subcontinent in 1875 proved popular successes, but despite public approval, his reputation as a playboy prince soured his relationship with his mother.

When Queen Victoria died on 22 January 1901, Edward became King of the United Kingdom, Emperor of India and, in an innovation, King of the British Dominions. He chose to reign under the name of Edward VII, instead of Albert Edward—the name his mother had intended for him to use—declaring that he did not wish to “undervalue the name of Albert” and diminish the status of his father with whom the “name should stand alone”.

The numeral VII was occasionally omitted in Scotland, even by the national church, in deference to protests that the previous Edwards were English kings who had “been excluded from Scotland by battle”. J. B. Priestley recalled, “I was only a child when he succeeded Victoria in 1901, but I can testify to his extraordinary popularity. He was in fact the most popular king England had known since the earlier 1660s.”

Preparations

The 1838 coronation of Queen Victoria, Edward VII’s mother and predecessor, had been an unrehearsed and somewhat lacklustre event in the Abbey, though the newly extended street procession and celebrations around the country had been a great popular success.

The success of Victoria’s Golden and Diamond Jubilees had created the expectation that Edward’s coronation would be an expression of the nation’s status as a great imperial power. In December 1901, an Executive Coronation Committee was formed, whose leading member, Viscount Esher, worked closely with the King to set the agenda for the event.

Esher had been responsible for organising the Diamond Jubilee in 1897 and was one of the driving forces behind the renewed enthusiasm for royal ceremonial. The position of Director of Music was given to Sir Frederick Bridge, the organist and choirmaster at Westminster Abbey; the first Abbey organist since Henry Purcell to be given that role. Bridge had successfully transformed the quality of music at the Abbey and had directed the music at the Golden Jubilee, for which he had been made a Member of the Royal Victorian Order.

Illness and postponement

By the time of his accession, the 59-year-old Edward was overweight and fond of large meals and cigars. He launched himself into his new role, but his first busy months on the throne were bedevilled by a succession of illnesses and injuries. On June 23, three days before the date set for the coronation, Edward and his wife, Alexandra of Denmark, returned from Windsor Castle to Buckingham Palace in preparation.

Foreign journalists noted that he appeared “worn and pale” and was leaning heavily on his cane. That evening, the King and Queen hosted a formal dinner for seventy British and overseas royal guests.

On the following day at noon, a telegram marked “OFFICIAL” was dispatched around the Empire, with the news that the coronation was postponed and that the King was undergoing an operation. Shortly afterwards, a bulletin was released from Edward’s medical team, stating that “The King is suffering from perityphlitis.

The condition on Saturday was so satisfactory that it was hoped that with care His Majesty would be able to go through the Coronation ceremonies. On Monday evening a recrudescence became manifest, rendering a surgical operation necessary today”. It was undersigned by, among others, Lord Lister and Sir Frederick Treves, who actually carried out the operation on a table in the Music Room at Buckingham Palace, to drain his abdominal cyst.

On June 26 itself, a “solemn service of intercession” was held at St Paul’s Cathedral, which was attended by many of the British and foreign dignitaries who were in London for the coronation. Although workmen immediately received instructions to begin dismantling the wooden stands that had been erected along the route of the procession, Edward was insistent that regional celebrations and a planned “Coronation Dinner for the Poor of London” should go ahead.

Organized by Sir Thomas Lipton, 500,000 dinners were served to Londoners on July 5 at 800 locations around the capital. The King personally contributed £30,000 towards the cost and there were donations by commercial companies and wealthy individuals. The confectionery maker Rowntree’s provided each diner with a tin of chocolate and a rather better one for the 60,000 people who had acted as stewards, on the grounds that they would “be of greater influence socially than the poor”.

Many people had intended to watch the coronation procession, and rooms along the planned route had been rented out at high rates for the expected day of the coronation. The postponement of the coronation led to many demands for refunds on the rental contracts, resulting in the “Coronation cases”, which set an important precedent in the doctrine of frustration of purpose in the English common law of contract.

The service

he contents of the service itself had been carefully selected to ensure that its spiritual character was maintained, while keeping the ceremony as brief as possible. The draft was mainly the work of Randall Davidson, the Bishop of Winchester.

The service was conducted by the elderly and infirm Archbishop of Canterbury, Frederick Temple, who died before the end of the year. He steadfastly refused to delegate any part of his duties and had to be supported throughout by two other bishops. Because of his failing eyesight, the text of the service had to be printed in gigantic type onto rolls of paper called “prompt scrolls”; they are preserved in the Lambeth Palace Library.

Archbishop Temple provided most of the upsets in an otherwise splendid ceremony; he was unable to rise after kneeling to pay homage and had to be helped up by the King himself and several bishops, he placed the crown back-to-front on the King’s head, and when a colleague enquired after his well-being, he was told to “go away!” in a loud voice that was plainly heard by the congregation.

The King also deviated from the order of service; when the Prince of Wales touched the Crown and kissed his father’s left cheek in the traditional gesture of homage, the King rose to his feet and threw his arms around his son’s neck in an unusual display of affection. Another disruption came from the King’s sister, Princess Beatrice, who noisily, albeit accidentally, dropped her service book from the royal gallery onto a gold-plate table.

Because he was still convalescing, Edward had been crowned with the Imperial State Crown instead of the heavier St Edward’s Crown. Alexandra was crowned immediately after her husband by William Dalrymple Maclagan, Archbishop of York, with a new crown containing the Koh-i-Noor diamond.

August 2, 1100: Death of Willam II, King of the English

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Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, Duke of Normandy, Henry I of England, Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV, King of the English, Lanfranc, Pope Urban II, Robert Curthose, Robert II of Normandy, William II of England, William Rufus, William the Conqueror

William II (c. 1056 – August 2, 1100) was King of the English from 26 September 1087 until his death in 1100, with powers over Normandy and influence in Scotland. He was less successful in extending control into Wales. The third son of William the Conqueror, he is commonly referred to as William Rufus (Rufus being Latin for “the Red”), perhaps because of his ruddy appearance or, more likely, due to having red hair as a child that grew out in later life.

William’s exact date of birth is not known, but it was some time between the years 1056 and 1060. He was the third of four sons born to William the Conqueror and Matilda of Flanders, the eldest being Robert Curthose, the second Richard, and the youngest Henry.

Richard died in a hunting accident in the New Forest in a collision with an overhanging branch, probably in 1070 or shortly afterwards. He was buried at Winchester Cathedral.

Richard is sometimes referred to as the “Duke of Bernay”, as if part of his father’s continental possessions, as in Burke’s Peerage; this is a mistake based on the misinterpretation of a 16th-century inscription on his tomb, which was also intended for the Earl Beorn, nephew of Cnut the Great.

William Rufus Becomes King of the English

William I “The Conqueror” left England towards the end of 1086. Following his arrival back on the continent he married his daughter Constance to Duke Alan of Brittany, in furtherance of his policy of seeking allies against the French kings.

William’s son Robert, still allied with the French king, appears to have been active in stirring up trouble, enough so that William led an expedition against the French Vexin in July 1087. While seizing Mantes, William either fell ill or was injured by the pommel of his saddle.

He was taken to the priory of Saint Gervase at Rouen. The dying King William I left Normandy to Robert, and the custody of England was given to William’s second surviving son on the assumption that he would become king. The youngest son, Henry, received money.

After entrusting England to his second son, the elder William sent the younger William Rufus back to England on September 7 or 8 bearing a letter to Lanfranc ordering the archbishop to aid the new king. William the Conqueror died September 9, 1087 and William Rufus succeeded to the throne of England on September 26, 1087.

William Rufus became William II, King of the English, while the eldest son, Robert Curthose, became Robert II, Duke of Normandy.

The division of William the Conqueror’s lands into two parts presented a dilemma for those nobles who held land on both sides of the English Channel. Since the younger William and his brother Robert were natural rivals, these nobles worried that they could not hope to please both of their lords, and thus ran the risk of losing the favour of one ruler or the other, or both.

The only solution, as they saw it, was to unite England and Normandy once more under one ruler. The pursuit of this aim led them to revolt against William in favour of Robert in the Rebellion of 1088, under the leadership of the powerful Bishop Odo of Bayeux, who was a half-brother of William the Conqueror.

As Robert failed to appear in England to rally his supporters, William won the support of the English with silver and promises of better government, and defeated the rebellion, thus securing his authority.

In 1091 William invaded Normandy, crushing Robert’s forces and forcing him to cede a portion of his lands. The two made up their differences and William agreed to help Robert recover lands lost to France, notably Maine.

This plan was later abandoned, but William continued to pursue a ferociously warlike defence of his French possessions and interests to the end of his life.

William II was thus secure in his kingdom. As in Normandy, his bishops and abbots were bound to him by feudal obligations, and his right of investiture in the Norman tradition prevailed within his kingdom during the age of the Investiture Controversy that brought excommunication upon the Salian Holy Roman Emperor Heinrich IV.

The king’s personal power, through an effective and loyal chancery, penetrated to the local level to an extent unmatched in France. The king’s administration and law unified the realm, rendering him relatively impervious to papal condemnation. In 1097 he commenced the original Westminster Hall, built “to impress his subjects with the power and majesty of his authority”.

Less than two years after becoming king, William II lost his father’s adviser and confidant, the Italian-Norman Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury. After Lanfranc’s death in 1089, the king delayed appointing a new archbishop for many years, appropriating ecclesiastical revenues in the interim.

In panic, owing to serious illness in 1093, William nominated as archbishop another Norman-Italian, Anselm – considered the greatest theologian of his generation – but this led to a long period of animosity between Church and State, Anselm being a stronger supporter of the Gregorian reforms in the Church than Lanfranc.

William II and Anselm disagreed on a range of ecclesiastical issues, in the course of which the king declared of Anselm that, “Yesterday I hated him with great hatred, today I hate him with yet greater hatred and he can be certain that tomorrow and thereafter I shall hate him continually with ever fiercer and more bitter hatred.”

The English clergy, beholden to the king for their preferments and livings, were unable to support Anselm publicly. In 1095 William II called a council at Rockingham to bring Anselm to heel, but the archbishop remained firm. In October 1097, Anselm went into exile, taking his case to the Pope. The diplomatic and flexible Urban II, a new pope, was involved in a major conflict with Holy Roman Emperor Heinrich IV, who supported Antipope Clement III.

Reluctant to make another enemy, Pope Urban II came to a concordat with William, whereby William recognised Urban as pope, and Urban gave sanction to the Anglo-Norman ecclesiastical status quo. Anselm remained in exile, and William was able to claim the revenues of the archbishop of Canterbury to the end of his reign.

Death

William went hunting on August 2, 1100 in the New Forest, probably near Brockenhurst, and was killed by an arrow through the lung, though the circumstances remain unclear. The earliest statement of the event was in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which noted that the king was “shot by an arrow by one of his own men.”

Later chroniclers added the name of the killer, a nobleman named Walter Tirel, although the description of events was later embroidered with other details that may or may not be true.

The first mention of any location more exact than the New Forest comes from John Leland, who wrote in 1530 that William died at Thorougham, a placename that is no longer used, but that probably referred to a location on what is now Park Farm on the Beaulieu estates. A memorial stone in the grounds of Beaulieu Abbey, Hampshire, states “Remember King William Rufus who died in these parts then known as Truham whilst hunting on 2nd August 1100”.

The king’s body was abandoned by the nobles at the place where he fell. An arrow maker, Eli Parratt, later found the body. William’s younger brother, Henry, hastened to Winchester to secure the royal treasury, then to London, where he was crowned within days, before either archbishop could arrive.

William of Malmesbury, in his account of William II’s death, stated that the body was taken to Winchester Cathedral by a few countrymen, including Eli who discovered the body.

To the chroniclers, men of the Church, such an “act of God” was a just end for a wicked king, and was regarded as a fitting demise for a ruler who came into conflict with the religious orders to which they belonged.

Over the following centuries, the obvious suggestion that one of William’s enemies had a hand in this event has repeatedly been made: chroniclers of the time point out themselves that Tirel was renowned as a keen bowman, and thus was unlikely to have loosed such an impetuous shot.

Moreover, Bartlett says that rivalry between brothers was the pattern of political conflict in this period. William’s brother Henry was among the hunting party that day and succeeded him as king.

Modern scholars have reopened the question, and some have found the assassination theory credible or compelling, but the theory is not universally accepted.

Barlow says that accidents were common and there is not enough hard evidence to prove murder. Bartlett notes that hunting was dangerous. Poole says the facts “look ugly” and “seem to suggest a plot.” John Gillingham points out that if Henry had planned to murder William it would have been in his interest to wait until a later time.

It looked as though there would soon be a war between William and his brother Robert, which would result in one of them being eliminated, thus opening the way for Henry to acquire both England and Normandy through a single assassination.

Tirel fled immediately. Henry had the most to gain by his brother’s death. Indeed, Henry’s actions “seem to be premeditated: wholly disregarding his dead brother, he rode straight for Winchester, seized the treasury (always the first act of a usurping king), and the next day had himself elected.”

William’s remains are in Winchester Cathedral, scattered among royal mortuary chests positioned on the presbytery screen, flanking the choir. His skull appears to be missing, but some long bones may remain.

Contemporary assessment

William II was an effective soldier, but he was a ruthless ruler and, it seems, was little liked by those he governed. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, he was “hated by almost all his people and abhorrent to God.”

Chroniclers tended to take a dim view of William’s reign, arguably on account of his long and difficult struggles with the Church: these chroniclers were themselves generally clerics, and so might be expected to report him somewhat negatively.

His chief minister was Ranulf Flambard, whom he appointed Bishop of Durham in 1099: this was a political appointment, to a see that was also a great fiefdom. The particulars of the king’s relationship with the people of England are not credibly documented.

Contemporaries of William II, as well as those writing after his death, roundly denounced him for presiding over what these dissenters considered a dissolute court. In keeping with the tradition of Norman leaders, William II scorned the English and the English culture.

Sexuality

Contemporaries of William II raised concerns about a court dominated by homosexuality and effeminacy, although this appears to have had more to do with their luxurious attire than with sexual practices.

Citing the traditions of Wilton Abbey in the 1140s, Herman of Tournai wrote that the abbess had ordered the Scottish Princess Edith (later Matilda, wife of Henry I) to take the veil in order to protect her from the lust of William Rufus, which angered Edith’s father because of the effect it might have on her prospects of marriage.

The historian Emma Mason has noted that while during his reign William himself was never openly accused of homosexuality, in the decades after his death numerous medieval writers spoke of this and a few began to describe him as a “sodomite”.

Modern historians cannot state with certainty whether William was homosexual or not; however, he never took a wife or a mistress, or fathered any children. As a bachelor king without an heir, William would have been pressed to take a wife and would have had numerous proposals for marriage.

That he never accepted any of these proposals nor had any relations with women may show that he either had no desire for women, or he may have taken a vow of chastity or celibacy.

Barlow said that the Welsh chronicles claim that Henry was able to succeed to the throne because his brother had made use of concubines and thus died childless, although no illegitimate offspring are named.

Barlow also allows that William may have been sterile. Noting that no “favourites” were identified, and that William’s “baronial friends and companions were mostly married men”, despite having concluded that the chroniclers were “hostile and biased witnesses”, Barlow considers that “there seems no reason why they should have invented this particular charge” (of homosexuality) and states that, in his opinion, “On the whole the evidence points to the king’s bisexuality“.

June 1, 1533: Anne Boleyn is Crowned Queen of England

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1st Earl of Wiltshire, Anne Boleyn, Archbishop of Canterbury, Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII of England, Lady Elizabeth Howard, Pope Clement VII, Thomas Boleyn, Thomas Cranmer

Anne Boleyn (c. 1501 – May 19, 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and of her execution by beheading for treason and other charges 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.

Early in 1523, Anne was secretly betrothed to Henry Percy, son of Henry Percy, 5th Earl of Northumberland, but the betrothal was broken off when the Earl refused to support their engagement. Cardinal Thomas Wolsey refused the match in January 1524 and Anne was sent home to Hever Castle.

In February or March 1526, Henry VIII began his pursuit of Anne. She resisted his attempts to seduce her, refusing to become his mistress, as her sister Mary had previously been. Henry soon focused his desires on annulling his marriage to Catherine so he would be free to marry Anne.

Wolsey failed to obtain an annulment of Henry’s marriage from Pope Clement VII, and when it became clear that Clement would not annul the marriage, Henry and his advisers, such as Thomas Cromwell, began the breaking of the Catholic Church’s power in England and closing the monasteries and the nunneries. In 1532, Henry made Anne the Marquess of Pembroke.

Henry VIII and Anne formally married on January 25, 1533, after a secret wedding on November 14, 1532. On May 23, 1533, the 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, Clement excommunicated Henry and Cranmer. As a result of this marriage and these excommunications, the first break between the Church of England and the Catholic Church 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.

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 had Anne investigated for high treason (including incest) in April 1536. On May 2, she was arrested and sent to the Tower of London, where she was tried before a jury of peers, including Henry Percy, her former betrothed, and her uncle Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk; she was convicted on May 15 and beheaded four days later.

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.