June 3, 1937 – The Duke of Windsor marries Wallis Simpson.

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1936 Abdication Crisis, Duke of Windsor, Duke of York, Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, George VI of the United Kingdom, Prince Albert, Privy Council, Wallis Warfield Simpson

Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; June 23, 1894 – May 28, 1972) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire, and Emperor of India from January 20, 1936 until his abdication in December of the same year.

Edward was born during the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria as the eldest child of the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George V and Queen Mary.

Edward was created Prince of Wales on his 16th birthday, seven weeks after his father succeeded as king. As a young man, Edward served in the British Army during the First World War and undertook several overseas tours on behalf of his father. While Prince of Wales, he engaged in a series of sexual affairs that worried both his father and then-British prime minister Stanley Baldwin.

Upon his father’s death in 1936, Edward became the second monarch of the House of Windsor. The new king showed impatience with court protocol, and caused concern among politicians by his apparent disregard for established constitutional conventions.

Only months into his reign, a constitutional crisis was caused by his proposal to marry Wallis Simpson, an American who had divorced her first husband and was seeking a divorce from her second.

The prime ministers of the United Kingdom and the Dominions opposed the marriage, arguing a divorced woman with two living ex-husbands was politically and socially unacceptable as a prospective queen consort.

Additionally, such a marriage would have conflicted with Edward’s status as titular head of the Church of England, which, at the time, disapproved of remarriage after divorce if a former spouse was still alive.

Edward knew the Baldwin government would resign if the marriage went ahead, which could have forced a general election and would have ruined his status as a politically neutral constitutional monarch. When it became apparent he could not marry Wallis and remain on the throne, he abdicated.

Edward VIII was succeeded by his younger brother, Prince Albert, the Duke of York, who chose to reign as King George VI to display continuity with his father, George V.

With a reign of 326 days, Edward VIII is the shortest-reigning British monarch. Although it’s possible to consider Edgar Ætheling or Edgar II (c. 1052 – 1125 or after) the shortest reigning British monarch.

Edgar was the last male member of the Royal House of Wessex. Edgar was elected King of English by the Witenagemot in October 1066, after the defeat of Harold II Godwinson by William I the Conqueror. Edgar was never crowned.

When William crossed the Thames at Wallingford, he was met by Stigand, who now abandoned Edgar and submitted to the invader. As the Normans closed in on London, Edgar’s key supporters in the city began negotiating with William. In early December, the remaining members of the Witan in London met and resolved to take the young uncrowned king out to meet William to submit to him at Berkhamsted, quietly setting aside Edgar’s election. Edgar, alongside other lords, did homage to King William at his coronation in December. Thank you for indulging my little tangent. 😊

On December 12, 1936, at the accession meeting of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, George VI announced his intention to make his brother the “Duke of Windsor” with the style of Royal Highness.

George VI wanted this to be the first act of his reign, although the formal documents were not signed until March 8, the following year. During the interim, Edward was known as the Duke of Windsor. George VI’s decision to create Edward a royal duke ensured that he could neither stand for election to the British House of Commons nor speak on political subjects in the House of Lords.

Letters Patent dated May 27, 1937 re-conferred the “title, style, or attribute of Royal Highness” upon the Duke, but specifically stated that “his wife and descendants, if any, shall not hold said title or attribute”.

Some British ministers advised that the reconfirmation was unnecessary since Edward had retained the style automatically, and further that Simpson would automatically obtain the rank of wife of a prince with the style Her Royal Highness; others maintained that he had lost all royal rank and should no longer carry any royal title or style as an abdicated king, and be referred to simply as “Mr Edward Windsor”.

On April 14, 1937, Attorney General Sir Donald Somervell submitted to Home Secretary Sir John Simon a memorandum summarising the views of Lord Advocate T. M. Cooper, Parliamentary Counsel Sir Granville Ram, and himself:

“We incline to the view that on his abdication the Duke of Windsor could not have claimed the right to be described as a Royal Highness. In other words, no reasonable objection could have been taken if the King had decided that his exclusion from the lineal succession excluded him from the right to this title as conferred by the existing Letters Patent.

The question however has to be considered on the basis of the fact that, for reasons which are readily understandable, he with the express approval of His Majesty enjoys this title and has been referred to as a Royal Highness on a formal occasion and in formal documents.

In the light of precedent it seems clear that the wife of a Royal Highness enjoys the same title unless some appropriate express step can be and is taken to deprive her of it.

We came to the conclusion that the wife could not claim this right on any legal basis. The right to use this style or title, in our view, is within the prerogative of His Majesty and he has the power to regulate it by Letters Patent generally or in particular circumstances.”

The Duke married Simpson, who had changed her name by deed poll to Wallis Warfield, in a private ceremony on June 3, 1937, at Château de Candé, near Tours, France. When the Church of England refused to sanction the union, a County Durham clergyman, the Reverend Robert Anderson Jardine (Vicar of St Paul’s, Darlington), offered to perform the ceremony, and the Duke accepted.

George VI forbade members of the royal family to attend, to the lasting resentment of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Edward had particularly wanted his brothers the dukes of Gloucester and Kent and his second cousin Lord Louis Mountbatten to attend the ceremony.

The denial of the style Royal Highness to the Duchess of Windsor caused further conflict, as did the financial settlement. The Government declined to include the Duke or Duchess on the Civil List, and the Duke’s allowance was paid personally by George VI. The Duke compromised his position with his brother by concealing the extent of his financial worth when they informally agreed on the amount of the allowance

Later that year, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor toured Nazi Germany.

March 30, 2002: Death of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother

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14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, Duke of York, Empress of India, Glamis Castle, King George VI of the United Kingdom, Peerage of Scotland, Prince Albert, Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother

Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 to 6 February 1952 as the wife of King George VI. She was the last Empress of India from her husband’s accession as King-Emperor in 1936 until the British Raj was dissolved in August 1947. After her husband died, she was known as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, to avoid confusion with her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II.

Early life

Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon was the youngest daughter and the ninth of ten children of Claude Bowes-Lyon, Lord Glamis (later the 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne in the Peerage of Scotland), and his wife, Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck. Her mother was descended from British Prime Minister William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, and Governor-General of India Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley, who was the elder brother of another prime minister, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington.

Wedding of Prince Albert, Duke of York, and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon

Prince Albert, Duke of York—”Bertie” to the family—was the second son of King George V. He initially proposed to Elizabeth in 1921, but she turned him down, being “afraid never, never again to be free to think, speak and act as I feel I really ought to”. When he declared he would marry no other, his mother, Queen Mary, visited Glamis to see for herself the girl who had stolen her son’s heart.

She became convinced that Elizabeth was “the one girl who could make Bertie happy”, but nevertheless refused to interfere. At the same time, Elizabeth was courted by James Stuart, Albert’s equerry, until he left the Prince’s service for a better-paid job in the American oil business.

In February 1922, Elizabeth was a bridesmaid at the wedding of Albert’s sister, Princess Mary, to Viscount Lascelles. The following month, Albert proposed again, but she refused him once more.

Eventually, in January 1923, Elizabeth agreed to marry Albert, despite her misgivings about royal life. Albert’s freedom in choosing Elizabeth, not a member of a royal family, though the daughter of a peer, was considered a gesture in favour of political modernisation; previously, princes were expected to marry princesses from other royal families. They selected a platinum engagement ring featuring a Kashmir sapphire with two diamonds adorning its sides.

They married on April 26, 1923, at Westminster Abbey. Unexpectedly, Elizabeth laid her bouquet at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior on her way into the abbey, in memory of her brother Fergus.

Elizabeth became styled Her Royal Highness The Duchess of York. Following a wedding breakfast at Buckingham Palace prepared by chef Gabriel Tschumi, the new Duchess and her husband honeymooned at Polesden Lacey, a manor house in Surrey owned by the wealthy socialite and friend Margaret Greville. They then went to Scotland, where she caught “unromantic” whooping cough.

Elizabeth came to prominence in 1923 when she married the Duke of York. The couple and their daughters Elizabeth and Margaret embodied traditional ideas of family and public service. The Duchess undertook a variety of public engagements and became known for her consistently cheerful countenance.

In 1936, Elizabeth’s husband unexpectedly became king when his older brother, Edward VIII, abdicated in order to marry the American divorcée Wallis Simpson.

Elizabeth then became queen consort. She accompanied her husband on diplomatic tours to France and North America before the start of the Second World War. During the war, her seemingly indomitable spirit provided moral support to the British public. After the war, her husband’s health deteriorated, and she was widowed at the age of 51. Her elder daughter, aged 25, became the new queen.

After the death of Queen Mary in 1953, Elizabeth was viewed as the matriarch of the British royal family. In her later years, she was a consistently popular member of the family, even when other members were suffering from low levels of public approval. She continued an active public life until just a few months before her death at the age of 101, which was seven weeks after the death of her younger daughter, Princess Margaret.

January 23, 1820: Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn. Part I.

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Canada, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz., Commander in Chief, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, Duke of York, Frederick, Gibraltar, King George III of the United Kingdom, Prince Edward

Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, (November 2, 1767 – January 23, 1820) was the fourth son and fifth child of King George III of the United Kingdom and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.His only legitimate child became Queen Victoria.

As a son of the British monarch, he was styled His Royal Highness The Prince Edward from birth, and was fourth in the line of succession to the throne. He was named after his paternal uncle, Prince Edward, the Duke of York and Albany (1739 – 1767), who had died several weeks earlier September 17, 1767, and was buried at Westminster Abbey the day before Edward’s birth.

The Prince began his military training in the Holy Roman Empire in 1785. King George III intended to send him to the University of Göttingen, but decided against it upon the advice of the Duke of York. Instead, Edward went to Lüneburg and later Hanover, accompanied by his tutor, Baron Wangenheim.

On May 30, 1786, he was appointed a brevet colonel in the British Army. From 1788 to 1789, he completed his education in Geneva Switzerland. On August 5, 1789, aged 22, he became a mason in the L’Union, the most important Genevan masonic lodge in the 19th century.

In 1789, he was appointed colonel of the 7th Regiment of Foot (Royal Fusiliers). In 1790, he returned home without leave and, in disgrace, was sent off to Gibraltar as an ordinary officer. He was joined from Marseilles by Madame de Saint-Laurent.

After suffering a fall from his horse in late 1798, he was allowed to return to England. On April 24, 1799, Prince Edward was created Duke of Kent and Strathearn and Earl of Dublin, received the thanks of parliament and an income of £12,000 (£1.21 million in 2020).

In May that same year, the Duke was promoted to the rank of general and appointed Commander-in-Chief of British forces in North America. He took leave of his parents July 22, 1799 and sailed to Halifax. Just over twelve months later he left Halifax and arrived in England on August 31, 1800 where it was confidently expected his next appointment would be Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

Edward was the first member of the royal family to live in North America for more than a short visit (1791–1800) and, in 1794, the first prince to enter the United States (travelling to Boston on foot from Lower Canada) after independence.

On March 23, 1802, he was appointed Governor of Gibraltar. The Duke took up his post on May 24, 1802 with express orders from the government to restore discipline among the drunken troops. The Duke’s harsh discipline precipitated a mutiny by soldiers in his own and the 25th Regiment on Christmas Eve 1802.

His brother Frederick, the Duke of York, then Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, recalled him in May 1803 after receiving reports of the mutiny, but despite this direct order he refused to return to England until his successor arrived. He was refused permission to return to Gibraltar for an inquiry and, although allowed to continue to hold the governorship of Gibraltar until his death, he was forbidden to return.

As a consolation for the end of his active military career at age 35, he was promoted to the rank of field marshal and appointed Ranger of Hampton Court Park on September 5, 1805. This office provided him with a residence now known as The Pavilion. (His sailor brother, William, with children to provide for, had been made Ranger of Bushy Park in 1797.) The Duke continued to serve as honorary colonel of the 1st Regiment of Foot (the Royal Scots) until his death.

Though it was a tendency shared to some extent with his brothers, the Duke’s excesses as a military disciplinarian may have been due less to natural disposition and more to what he had learned from his tutor Baron Wangenheim. Certainly Wangenheim, by keeping his allowance very small, accustomed Edward to borrowing at an early age. The Duke applied the same military discipline to his own duties that he demanded of others.

Though it seems inconsistent with his unpopularity among the army’s rank and file, his friendliness toward others and popularity with servants has been emphasized. He also introduced the first regimental school.

The Duke of Wellington considered him a first-class speaker. He took a continuing interest in the social experiments of Robert Owen, voted for Catholic emancipation, and supported literary, Bible, and abolitionist societies.

January 20, 1936 – Death of King George V of the United Kingdom

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Duke of York, Edward VII of the United Kingdom, George V of the United Kingdom, House of Windsor, King Christian IX of Denmark, Marie of Edinburgh, Prince Albert Edward, Prince Albert Victor, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Sandringham Estate

George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; June 3, 1865 – January 20, 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from May 6, 1910 until his death in 1936.

George was born in Marlborough House, London. He was the second son of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, and Alexandra of Denmark, Princess of Wales (future King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra). His father was the eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and his mother was the eldest daughter of King Christian IX and Queen Louise of Denmark (born a Princess of Hesse-Cassel).

He was baptised at Windsor Castle on July 7, 1865 by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Longley.At birth George was third in the line of succession to the British throne behind his father and elder brother, Prince Albert Victor. From 1877 to 1892, George served in the Royal Navy, until the unexpected death of his elder brother in early 1892 put him directly in line for the throne.

As a young man destined to serve in the navy, Prince George served for many years under the command of his uncle, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, who was stationed in Malta. There, he grew close to and fell in love with his cousin, Princess Marie of Edinburgh. His grandmother, father and uncle all approved the match, but his mother and aunt—the Princess of Wales and Maria Alexandrovna, Duchess of Edinburgh—opposed it.

The Princess of Wales thought the family was too pro-German, and the Duchess of Edinburgh disliked England. The Duchess, the only daughter of Emperor Alexander II of Russia, resented the fact that, as the wife of a younger son of the British sovereign, she had to yield precedence to George’s mother, the Princess of Wales, whose father had been a minor German prince before being called unexpectedly to the throne of Denmark. Guided by her mother, Marie refused George when he proposed to her. She married Ferdinand, the future King of Romania, in 1893.

Princess Marie of Edinburgh

In November 1891, George’s elder brother, Albert Victor, became engaged to his second cousin once removed Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, known as “May” within the family. Her parents were Francis, Duke of Teck (a member of a morganatic, cadet branch of the House of Württemberg), and Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, a male-line granddaughter of King George III and a first cousin of Queen Victoria.

On January 14, 1892, six weeks after the formal engagement, Albert Victor died of pneumonia during an influenza pandemic, leaving George second in line to the throne, and likely to succeed after his father.George had only just recovered from a serious illness himself, after being confined to bed for six weeks with typhoid fever, the disease that was thought to have killed his grandfather Prince Albert. Queen Victoria still regarded Princess May as a suitable match for her grandson, and George and May grew close during their shared period of mourning.

Prince George of Wales and Princess Mary of Teck on their wedding

A year after Albert Victor’s death, George proposed to May and was accepted. They married on July 6, 1893 at the Chapel Royal in St James’s Palace, London.

Throughout their lives, they remained devoted to each other. George was, on his own admission, unable to express his feelings easily in speech, but they often exchanged loving letters and notes of endearment.The death of his elder brother effectively ended George’s naval career, as he was now second in line to the throne, after his father.

George was created Duke of York, Earl of Inverness, and Baron Killarney by Queen Victoria on her birthday May 24, 1892, and received lessons in constitutional history from J. R. Tanner.

The Duke and Duchess of York had five sons and a daughter. Randolph Churchill claimed that George was a strict father, to the extent that his children were terrified of him, and that George had remarked to the Earl of Derby: “My father was frightened of his mother, I was frightened of my father, and I am damned well going to see to it that my children are frightened of me.”

In reality, there is no direct source for the quotation and it is likely that George’s parenting style was little different from that adopted by most people at the time. Whether this was the case or not, his children did seem to resent his strict nature, Prince Henry going as far as to describe him as a “terrible father” in later years.

They lived mainly at York Cottage, a relatively small house in Sandringham, Norfolk, where their way of life mirrored that of a comfortable middle-class family rather than royalty. George preferred a simple, almost quiet, life, in marked contrast to the lively social life pursued by his father.

On Victoria’s death on January 22, 1901, George’s father ascended the throne as Edward VII, and George was created Prince of Wales.

George became King-Emperor George V on his father’s death in 1910.

George V’s reign saw the rise of socialism, communism, fascism, Irish republicanism, and the Indian independence movement, all of which radically changed the political landscape of the British Empire. The Parliament Act 1911 established the supremacy of the elected British House of Commons over the unelected House of Lords.

Emperor Nicholas II of Russia and King George V of the United Kingdom

As a result of the First World War (1914–1918), the empires of his first cousins Emperor Nicholas II of Russia and German Emperor Wilhelm II fell, while the British Empire expanded to its greatest effective extent.In 1917, he became the first monarch of the House of Windsor, which he renamed from the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as a result of anti-German public sentiment.

In 1924, George appointed the first Labour ministry and the 1931 Statute of Westminster recognised the Empire’s dominions as separate, independent states within the British Commonwealth of Nations.

He suffered from smoking-related health problems, such as chronic chronic bronchitis, throughout much of his later reign.

In 1925, on the instruction of his doctors, he was reluctantly sent on a recuperative private cruise in the Mediterranean; it was his third trip abroad since the war, and his last. In November 1928, he fell seriously ill with septicaemia, and for the next two years his son Edward took over many of his duties.In 1929, the suggestion of a further rest abroad was rejected by the King “in rather strong language”.

Instead, he retired for three months to Craigweil House, Aldwick, in the seaside resort of Bognor, Sussex. As a result of his stay, the town acquired the suffix “Regis”, which is Latin for “of the King”. A myth later grew that his last words, upon being told that he would soon be well enough to revisit the town, were “Bugger Bognor!”

George never fully recovered. In his final year, he was occasionally administered oxygen. The death of his favourite sister, Victoria, in December 1935 depressed him deeply.

On the evening of January 15, 1936, the King took to his bedroom at Sandringham House complaining of a cold; he remained in the room until his death. He became gradually weaker, drifting in and out of consciousness.

By January 20, he was close to death. His physicians, led by Lord Dawson of Penn, issued a bulletin with the words “The King’s life is moving peacefully towards its close.” Dawson’s private diary, unearthed after his death and made public in 1986, reveals that the King’s last words, a mumbled “God damn you!”, were addressed to his nurse, Catherine Black, when she gave him a sedative that night.

Dawson, who supported the “gentle growth of euthanasia”, admitted in the diary that he hastened the King’s death by injecting him, after 11:00 p.m., with two consecutive lethal injections: 3/4 of a grain of morphine followed shortly afterwards by a grain of cocaine. Dawson wrote that he acted to preserve the King’s dignity, to prevent further strain on the family, and so that the King’s death at 11:55 p.m. could be announced in the morning edition of The Times newspaper rather than “less appropriate … evening journals”.

Neither Queen Mary, who was intensely religious and might not have sanctioned euthanasia, nor the Prince of Wales was consulted. The royal family did not want the King to endure pain and suffering and did not want his life prolonged artificially but neither did they approve Dawson’s actions.British Pathé announced the King’s death the following day, in which he was described as “for each one of us, more than a King, a father of a great family”.

His eldest son succeeds to the throne, becoming Edward VIII. The title Prince of Wales is not used for another 22 years.

December 14, 1895: Birth of Prince Albert of York, future King George VI of the United Kingdom

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Duchess of Teck, Duke of Cambridge, Duke of York, Edward VII, King George VI of the United Kingdom, Mausoleum Day, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince Albert of York, Prince of Wales, Princess Alice of the United Kingdom

George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; December 14, 1895 – February 6, 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from December 11, 1936 until his death in 1952. He was concurrently the last Emperor of India until August 1947, when the British Raj was dissolved. King George VI was the father of the United Kingdom’s current monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.

The future George VI was born at York Cottage, on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk during the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria. His father was Prince George, Duke of York (later King George V), the second and eldest surviving son of the Prince and Princess of Wales (later King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra).

His mother, the Duchess of York (later Queen Mary), was the eldest child and only daughter of Francis, Duke of Teck, and Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, Duchess of Teck. Mary Adelaide of Cambridge was the daughter of Adolphus of Cambridge, son of George III of the United Kingdom.

The new prince’s birthday, December 14, 1895, came on the 34th anniversary of the death of his great-grandfather Albert, Prince Consort, and the 17th anniversary of the death of Queen Victoria’s daughter, Princess Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine.

Uncertain of how the Prince Consort’s widow, Queen Victoria, would take the news of the birth on “Mausoleum Day”, the Prince of Wales wrote to the Duke of York that the Queen had been “rather distressed”. Two days later, he wrote again: “I really think it would gratify her if you yourself proposed the name Albert to her.”

The Queen was mollified by the proposal to name the new baby Albert, and wrote to the Duchess of York: “I am all impatience to see the new one, born on such a sad day but rather more dear to me, especially as he will be called by that dear name which is a byword for all that is great and good.”

Queen Victoria holding her great-grandson Prince Henry of York. Sitting on the cushion at her feet is Prince Albert of York. Behind him is his sister Princess Mary and standing next to the Queen is Prince Edward of York.

Consequently, he was baptised “Albert Frederick Arthur George” at St Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham on February 17, 1896. Within the family, he was known informally as “Bertie”, the same name his grandfather the future King Edward VII was known by.

The Duchess of Teck did not like the first name her grandson had been given, and she wrote prophetically that she hoped the last name “may supplant the less favoured one”. Albert was fourth in line to the throne at birth, after his grandfather, father and elder brother, Edward.

The Duchess of Teck’s wishes came true when Prince Albert chose George as his regal name when he succeeded his brother as King on December 11, 1936.

When Prince Albert was born on December 14, 1895 his style and title was His Highness Prince Albert of York.

On May 28, 1898 Queen Victoria issued Letters Patent granting Albert (and his brothers and sister) the style of “Royal Highness”.

May 28, 1898 Letters Patent

“Victoria by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen Defender of the Faith To all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting: Whereas by virtue of Our Letters Patent dated the thirtieth of January one thousand eight hundred and sixty four wherein We declared Our Royal will and pleasure in that behalf the children of the sons of any Sovereign of Great Britain and Ireland are entitled to the style of “Royal Highness” Know Ye that in the exercise of our Royal and undoubted prerogative and of Our especial grace We do hereby declare our further Royal will and pleasure that the children of the eldest son of any Prince of Wales shall have and at all times hold and enjoy the style title or attribute of “Royal Highness” in addition to such titular dignity of Prince or Princess prefixed to their Christian names or other titles of honour if any as they may otherwise possess Our will and pleasure further is that Our Earl Marshal of England or his deputy for the time being do cause these our Letters Patent or the enrolment thereof to be recorded in Our College of Arms to the end that Our officers of Arms and all others may take due notice thereof. In Witness whereof we have caused these Our Letters to be made Patent.. Witness Ourself etc.”

December 11, 1936: Acession of HRH Prince Albert, Duke of York as King George VI of the United Kingdom

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Balmoral, Duke of York, Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, External Relations Act, King George VI of the United Kingdom, Prime Minister, Prince Albert, Sandringham, Stanley Baldwin

As King Edward VIII was unmarried and had no children, Prince Albert, Duke of York, was the heir presumptive to the throne. Less than a year later, on December 11, 1936, Edward abdicated in order to marry Wallis Simpson who was divorced from her first husband and in the process of divorcing her second.

Edward VIII 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. He abdicated and Albert, though he had been reluctant to accept the throne, became king. The day before the abdication, Albert 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.”

As mentioned yesterday the abdication document was signed on December 10, 1936 At Fort Belvedere. King Edward VIII signed his written abdication notices, witnessed by his three younger brothers: Prince Albert, Duke of York , Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester; and Prince George, Duke of Kent.

The abdication wasn’t officially legal until the following day, with the passing of an Act of Parliament: His Majesty’s Declaration of Abdication Act 193.

On the day of Edward VIII’s abdication, the Oireachtas, the parliament of the Irish Free State, removed all direct mention of the monarch from the Irish constitution. The next day, it passed the External Relations Act, which gave the monarch limited authority (strictly on the advice of the government) to appoint diplomatic representatives for Ireland and to be involved in the making of foreign treaties. The two acts made the Irish Free State a republic in essence without removing its links to the Commonwealth.

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, Prince George, Duke of Kent.

Albert assumed the regnal name “George VI” to emphasise continuity with his father and restore confidence in the monarchy. The beginning of George VI’s reign was taken up by questions surrounding his predecessor and brother, whose titles, style and position were uncertain. He had been introduced as “His Royal Highness Prince Edward” for the abdication broadcast, but George VI felt that by abdicating and renouncing the succession, Edward had lost the right to bear royal titles, including “Royal Highness”.

In settling the issue, George’s first act as king was to confer upon his brother the title “Duke of Windsor” with the style “Royal Highness”, but the letters patent creating the dukedom prevented any wife or children from bearing royal styles. George VI was forced to buy from Edward the royal residences of Balmoral Castle and Sandringham House, as these were private properties and did not pass to him automatically. Three days after his accession, on his 41st birthday, he invested his wife, the new queen consort, with the Order of the Garter.

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

October 5, 1658: Birth of Princess Maria Beatrice of Modena, Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland

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Duke of York, Exclusionist, Glorious Revolution, James II-VII of England and Scotland, King Louis XIV of France, King Philip IV of Spain, Maria Beatrice of Modena, Popish Plot, Queen of England and Scotland, Titus Oates

Maria Beatrice of Modena (October 5, 1658 – May 7 1718) was queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland as the second wife of James II-VII (1633–1701). Maria Beatrice d’Este, the second but eldest surviving child of Alfonso IV, Duke of Modena, and his wife, Laura Martinozzi. A devout Roman Catholic, Maria Beatrice married the widower James, who was then the younger brother and heir presumptive of Charles II (1630–1685). She was uninterested in politics and devoted to James and their children, two of whom survived to adulthood: the Jacobite claimant to the thrones, James Francis Edward, and Louisa Maria.

The Duchess of York’s Catholic secretary, Edward Colman, was, in 1678, falsely implicated in a fictitious plot against the King by Titus Oates. The plot, known as the Popish Plot, led to the Exclusionist movement, which was headed by Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury. The Exclusionists sought to debar the Catholic Duke of York from the throne.

Their reputation in tatters, the Yorks were reluctantly exiled to Brussels, a domain of the King Felipe IV of Spain, ostensibly to visit Lady Mary—since 1677 the wife of Prince Willem III of Orange. Accompanied by her not yet three-year-old daughter Isabella and Lady Anne, the Duchess of York was saddened by James’s extra-marital affair with Catherine Sedley. Maria Beatrice’s spirits were briefly revived by a visit from her mother, who was living in Rome.

Despite all the furore over Exclusionism, James ascended to his brother’s thrones easily upon the latter’s death, which occurred on February 6, 1685 possibly because the said alternative could provoke another civil war. Maria Beatrice sincerely mourned Charles, recalling in later life, “He was always kind to me.” Maria Beatrice and James’s £119,000 coronation, occurring on April 23, OS, Saint George’s day, was meticulously planned. Precedents were sought for Mary because a full-length joint coronation had not occurred since the ceremony performed for Henry VIII of England and Catherine of Aragon.

Maria Beatrice is primarily remembered for the controversial birth of James Francis Edward, her only surviving son. It was widely rumoured that he was a “changeling”, smuggled into the birth chamber in a warming pan, in order to perpetuate her husband’s Catholic Stuart dynasty. Although the accusation was almost certainly false, and the subsequent Privy Council investigation affirmed this, James Francis Edward’s birth was a contributing factor to the “Glorious Revolution”, the revolution which deposed James II and VII, and replaced him with Mary II, James II’s eldest protestant daughter from his first marriage to Anne Hyde (1637–1671). Mary II and her husband, Willem III of Orange, would reign jointly as “William III and Mary II”.

Exiled to France, the “Queen over the water”—as she was known among Jacobites call—Maria Beatrice lived with her husband and children at Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, provided by Louis XIV of France. Maria Beatrice was popular among Louis XIV’s courtiers; James, however, was considered a bore. In widowhood, Maria Beatrice spent time with the nuns at the Convent of Chaillot, frequently during summers with her daughter, Louisa Maria Teresa.

In 1701, when James II died, young James Francis Edward became king at age 13 in the eyes of the Jacobites. As he was too young to assume the nominal reins of government, Maria Beatrice represented him until he reached the age of 16. When young James Francis Edward was asked to leave France as part of the settlement from the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, which ended the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714), Maria Beatrice of Modena stayed, despite having no family there, her daughter Louisa Maria Teresa having died of smallpox. Fondly remembered by her French contemporaries, Maria Beatrice died of breast cancer in 1718.

Life of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham.

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2nd Duke of Buckingham, Duke of York, Henry Stafford, House of Plantagenet, House of Stafford, King Edward III of England, King Edward V of England, King Henry VII of England, King Richard III of England, Richard Duke of York, Wars of the Roses

Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, (September 4, 1455 – November 2, 1483) was an English nobleman known as the namesake of Buckingham’s rebellion, a failed but significant collection of uprisings in England and parts of Wales against Richard III of England in October 1483. He is also one of the primary suspects in the disappearance (and presumed murder) of the Princes in the Tower.

Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham

Henry Stafford was the only son of Humphrey Stafford, Earl of Stafford, and Anne Neville (d.1480) was a daughter of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, and his second wife Lady Joan Beaufort, the legitimised daughter of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, the third surviving son of King Edward III of England. His first wife, Blanche of Lancaster, was also his third cousin; both were great-great-grandchildren of King Henry III.

Henry Stafford became Earl of Stafford when he was three years old in 1458 upon his father’s death, and was made a ward of King Edward IV of England. He became the 2nd Duke of Buckingham at age 4 in 1460 following the death of his grandfather Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham, at the Battle of Northampton.

Catherine Woodville, Duchess of Buckingham

In February 1466, at age 10, Henry was married to Catherine Woodville, the daughter of Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers, and Jacquetta of Luxembourg, the eldest daughter of Peter I of Luxembourg, Count of Saint-Pol, Conversano and Brienne, and his wife Margaret of Baux. Catherine Woodville was sister of Edward IV’s queen, Elizabeth Woodville.

The Duke of Buckingham and Catherine Woodville had four children:
* Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham (February 3, 1478 – May 17, 1521)
* Elizabeth Stafford, Countess of Sussex (c. 1479 – 11 May 1532)
* Henry Stafford, 3rd Earl of Wiltshire (c. 1479 – April 6, 1523)
* Anne Stafford, Countess of Huntingdon (c. 1483 – 1544)

Upon the death of Edward IV in 1483, the Duke of Buckingham allied himself to the king’s younger brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, helping him succeed to the throne as Richard III in lieu of Edward’s living sons.

Buckingham’s rebellion of 1483

In 1483, a conspiracy arose among a number of disaffected gentry, many of whom had been supporters of Edward IV and the “whole Yorkist establishment”. The conspiracy was nominally led by Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, who was Richard III’s former ally and first cousin once removed.

Richard III, King of England, Lord of Ireland

Although it had begun as a Woodville-Beaufort conspiracy (being “well underway” by the time of the duke’s involvement). Indeed, it has suggested that it was “only the subsequent parliamentary attainder that placed Buckingham at the centre of events”, in order to blame a single disaffected magnate motivated by greed, rather than “the embarrassing truth” that those opposing Richard were actually “overwhelmingly Edwardian loyalists”.

It is possible that they planned to depose Richard III and place Edward V back on the throne, and that when rumours arose that the young King Edward V and his brother, Richard, Duke of York, were dead, Buckingham proposed that Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, should return from exile, take the throne and marry Elizabeth of York, elder sister of the Tower Princes.

However, it has also been pointed out that as this narrative stems from Richard III’s own parliament of 1484, it should probably be treated “with caution”. For his part, Buckingham raised a substantial force from his estates in Wales and the Marches. Henry, Earl of Richmond, in exile in Brittany, enjoyed the support of the Breton treasurer Pierre Landais, who hoped Buckingham’s victory would cement an alliance between Brittany and England.

Henry VII, King of England, Lord of Ireland (Formerly The Earl of Richmond)

As Richard III’s ally, the plausibility of Buckingham being a suspect in the murder of the Princes in the Tower depends on the princes having already been dead by the time the Duke of Buckingham was executed in November 1483. It has been suggested that Buckingham had several potential motives.

As a descendant of Edward III, through two of his sons, John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster and Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester on his father’s side, as well as through John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster through John Beaufort, son of John of Gaunt on his mother’s side, Buckingham may have hoped to accede to the throne himself in due course; alternatively, he may have been acting on behalf of a third party.

Some, notably Paul Murray Kendall, regard Buckingham as the likeliest suspect: his execution, after he had rebelled against Richard III in October 1483, might signify that he and the king had fallen out; Alison Weir takes this as a sign that Richard had murdered the princes without Buckingham’s knowledge and Buckingham had been shocked by it.

A contemporary Portuguese document suggests Buckingham as the guilty party, stating “…and after the passing away of King Edward V in the year of 83, another one of his brothers, the Duke of Gloucester, had in his power the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York, the young sons of the said king his brother, and turned them to the Duke of Buckingham, under whose custody the said Princes were starved to death.”

A document dated some decades after the disappearance was found within the archives of the College of Arms in London in 1980; this stated that the murder “be the vise of the Duke of Buckingham”. This led for some historians to suggest that possibly some of Richard’s prominent supporters, including Buckingham and Tyrell, murdered the princes on their own initiative without waiting for Richard’s orders.

It is noted In the document “After the King’s departure Buckingham was in effective command in the capital, and it is known that when the two men met a month later there was an unholy row between them.” This supports theory that a rift between Buckingham and Richard III after the king learned of Buckingham’s involvement in the murders of his nephews.

Buckingham is the only person to be named as responsible in a contemporary chronicle other than Richard himself. However, for two reasons he is unlikely to have acted alone. First of all, if he were guilty of acting without Richard’s orders it is extremely surprising that Richard did not lay the blame for the princes’ murder on Buckingham after Buckingham was disgraced and executed, especially as Richard could potentially have cleared his own name by doing so.

Secondly, it is likely he would have required Richard’s help to gain access to the princes, under close guard in the Tower of London, although Kendall argued as Constable of England, he might have been exempt from this ruling. As a result, although it is extremely possible that he was implicated in the decision to murder them, the hypothesis that he acted without Richard’s knowledge is not widely accepted by historians.

While Jeremy Potter suggested that Richard would have kept silent had Buckingham been guilty because nobody would have believed Richard was not party to the crime, he further notes that “Historians are agreed that Buckingham would never have dared to act without Richard’s complicity, or at least, connivance”. However, Potter also hypothesised that perhaps Buckingham was fantasising about seizing the crown himself at this point and saw the murder of the princes as a first step to achieving this goal.

For his participation in the rebellion against the King, Henry Stanford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham was executed for treason by Richard III on November 2, 1483: he was beheaded in the courtyard between the Blue Boar Inn and the Saracen’s Head Inn (both demolished in the 18th century) in Salisbury market-place. He is believed to have been buried in St Peter’s Church in Britford in Wiltshire.

After the execution of the 2nd Duke of Buckingham, his widow, Catherine Woodville, married Jasper Tudor, second son of Owen Tudor and King Henry V’s widow, Catherine of Valois. After Jasper Tudor’s death on December 21, 1495, Catherine Woodville married Sir Richard Wingfield (d. July 22, 1525). Catherine Woodville died 18 May 1497.

The Life of James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth (1649-1685)

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1st Duke of Monmouth, Duke of York, English Civil War, Illegitimate, James Scott, King Charles II of England, King James II of England, Lucy Walter, Rebellion, Royal Bastard

James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, 1st Duke of Buccleuch (April 9, 1649 – July 15, 1685) was a Dutch-born English nobleman. Originally called James Crofts or James Fitzroy, he was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the eldest illegitimate son of Charles II of England, Scotland, and Ireland with mistress Lucy Walter

During the summer of 1648, Charles, Prince of Wales was in exile as the English Civil War was being played out. The Prince of Wales captivated by Lucy Walter, who was at The Hague for a short while about this time. He was only eighteen, and she is often spoken of as his first mistress, but they may have had a tryst as early as 1646.

James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, 1st Duke of Buccleuch

Charles moved to The Hague during 1648, during the Second English Civil War, where his sister Mary and his brother-in-law William II, Prince of Orange, were providing more support to his father Charles I‘s cause than his French relations.

James was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, then spent his early years in Schiedam.

There is some question to whether or not Prince Charles was the father of James Scott. Research by Hugh Noel Williams suggests that Charles had not arrived at The Hague until the middle of September 1648 – seven months before the child’s birth, but that he had met Lucy in July. Some voices later whispered that in the summer of 1648 Lucy had been the mistress of Colonel Robert Sidney, a younger son of the Earl of Leicester. When the child grew to manhood, those loyal to the Duke of York (whom the exclusionists wished to replace as heir to the throne) publicly put about the story that they saw a semblance to Sidney.

Charles II, King of England, Scotland and Ireland. Father of The Duke of Monmouth.

These voices may have been encouraged by the Duke of York himself, brother of King Charles II, who was afraid of any of the acknowledged fourteen royal bastards’ possible claims to the throne, Charles having no legitimate surviving children. In 2012, a DNA test of Monmouth’s patrilineal descendant the 10th Duke of Buccleuch showed that he shared the same Y chromosome as a distant Stuart cousin; this is evidence that Charles II was indeed Monmouth’s father.

Lucy Walter, mistress of King Charles II and Mother of the Duke of Monmouth.

As an illegitimate son, Monmouth was ineligible to succeed to the English or Scottish thrones, unless he could prove rumours that his parents had married secretly. Monmouth came to maintain that his parents were married and that he possessed evidence of their marriage, but he never produced it. Charles II, as King, later testified in writing to his Council that he had never been married to anyone except his queen, Catherine of Braganza.

On February 14, 1663, at the age of 13, shortly after having been brought to England, James was created Duke of Monmouth, with the subsidiary titles of Earl of Doncaster and Baron Scott of Tynedale, all three in the Peerage of England, and on 28 March 1663 he was appointed a Knight of the Garter.

On April 20, 1663, just days after his 14th birthday, he was married to the heiress Anne Scott, 4th Countess of Buccleuch. James took his wife’s surname upon marriage. The day after his marriage, the couple were made Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch, Earl and Countess of Dalkeith, and Lord and Lady Scott of Whitchester and Eskdale in the Peerage of Scotland. Monmouth, as he became known, was popular, particularly for his Protestantism, whereas the official heir presumptive to the throne, the King’s brother James, Duke of York, had openly converted to Roman Catholicism.

In 1665, at the age of 16, Monmouth served in the English fleet under his uncle, Prince James, the Duke of York in the Second Anglo-Dutch War. In June 1666, he returned to England to become captain of a troop of cavalry. On September 16, 1668 he was made colonel of the His Majesty’s Own Troop of Horse Guards. He acquired Moor Park in Hertfordshire in April 1670.

James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, commanding the English against the Dutch in 1672, by Jan Wyck

In June of this 1679. It was at about this time that he was first seriously proposed as the rightful heir to the Crown, despite the obvious problem of his illegitimacy, and his father’s refusal to acknowledge that he had married Lucy Walter. Monmouth may have come to sincerely believe that his parents had been married.

Rebellion

As his popularity with the masses increased, Monmouth was obliged to go into exile in the Dutch United Provinces in September 1679. Following the discovery of the so-called Rye House Plot in 1683, which aimed to assassinate both Charles II and his brother James, Monmouth, who had been encouraged by his supporters to assert his right to the throne, was identified as a conspirator. On King Charles II’s death in February 1685, Monmouth led the Monmouth Rebellion, landing with three ships at Lyme Regis in Dorset in early June 1685, in an attempt to take the throne from his uncle, James II-VII.

He published a “Declaration for the defence and vindication of the protestant religion and of the laws, rights and privileges of England from the invasion made upon them, and for delivering the Kingdom from the usurpation and tyranny of us by the name of James, Duke of York”: King James II and VII responded to this by issuing an order for the publishers and distributors of the paper to be arrested.

Coat of Arms of the 1st Duke of Monmouth and Buccleuch: The royal arms of King Charles II differenced with a baton sinister argent overall an inescutcheon of pretence of Scott (Or, on a bend azure a mullet of six points between two crescents of the field).

Monmouth declared himself as the rightful King at various places along the route including Axminster, Chard, Ilminster and Taunton. The two armies met at the Battle of Sedgemoor on 6 July 1685, the last clear-cut pitched battle on open ground between two military forces fought on English soil: Monmouth’s makeshift force could not compete with the regular army, and was soundly defeated.

Capture

Following the battle a reward of £5,000 was offered for his capture. On 8 July 1685, Monmouth was captured and arrested near Ringwood in Hampshire,

Following Monmouth’s capture, Parliament passed an Act of Attainder, 1 Ja. II c. 2:

Treason. ¶Whereas James Duke of Monmouth has in an hostile Manner Invaded this Kingdome and is now in open Rebellion Levying Warr against the King contrary to the Duty of his Allegiance, Bee it enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majestie by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spirituall and Temporall and Commons in this Parlyament assembled and by the Authoritie of the same, That the said James Duke of Monmouth Stand and be Convicted and Attainted of High-Treason and that he suffer Paines of Death and Incurr all Forfeitures as a Traitor Convicted and Attainted of High Treason.

The King took the unusual step of allowing his nephew an audience, despite having no intention of extending a pardon to him, thus breaking with a longstanding tradition that the King would give an audience only when he intended to show clemency. The prisoner unsuccessfully implored his mercy, and even offered to convert to Catholicism, but to no avail. The King, disgusted by his abject behaviour, coldly told him to prepare to die, and later remarked that Monmouth “did not behave as well as I expected”. Numerous pleas for mercy were addressed to the King, but he ignored them all, even that of his sister-in-law, the Dowager Queen Catherine.

James II, King of England, Scotland and Ireland. Uncle of The Duke of Monmouth.

Monmouth was beheaded by Jack Ketch on July 15, 1685, on Tower Hill. Shortly beforehand, Bishops Turner of Ely and Ken of Bath and Wells visited the Duke to prepare him for eternity, but withheld the Eucharist, for the condemned man refused to acknowledge that either his rebellion or his relationship with Lady Wentworth had been sinful.

It is said that before laying his head on the block, Monmouth specifically bade Ketch finish him at one blow, saying he had mauled others before. Disconcerted, Ketch did indeed inflict multiple blows with his axe, the prisoner rising up reproachfully the while – a ghastly sight that shocked the witnesses, drawing forth execrations and groans. Some say a knife was at last employed to sever the head from the twitching body. Sources vary; some claim eight blows, the official Tower of London fact sheet says it took five blows, while Charles Spencer, in his book Blenheim, puts it at seven.

James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, 1st Duke of Buccleuch

Monmouth was buried in the Church of St Peter ad Vincula in the Tower of London. His Dukedom was forfeited, but his subsidiary titles, Earl of Doncaster and Baron Scott of Tindale, were restored by King George II on March 23, 1743 to his grandson Francis Scott, 2nd Duke of Buccleuch (1695–1751).