Countdown to the Coronation IV: Early Coronations & Westminster Abbey

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Bath Abbey, coronation, Edward the Confessor, Harold Godwinson, King Æthelstan of England, King Eardwulf of Northumbria, King Edgar of England, Kingdom of England, Mary II, Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, William III, William the Conqueror

A coronation is the act of placement or bestowal of a crown upon a monarch’s head. The term also generally refers not only to the physical crowning but to the whole ceremony wherein the act of crowning occurs, along with the presentation of other items of regalia, marking the formal investiture of a monarch with regal power.

Aside from the crowning, a coronation ceremony may comprise many other rituals such as the taking of special vows by the monarch, the investing and presentation of regalia to the monarch, and acts of homage by the new ruler’s subjects and the performance of other ritual deeds of special significance to the particular nation.

Western-style coronations have often included anointing the monarch with holy oil, or chrism as it is often called; the anointing ritual’s religious significance follows examples found in the Bible. The monarch’s consort may also be crowned, either simultaneously with the monarch or as a separate event.

In England, the Anglo-Saxon king Eardwulf of Northumbria was “consecrated and enthroned” in 796, and Æthelstan was crowned and anointed in 925.

At a council at Kingston upon Thames in 838, Ecgberht and Æthelwulf granted land to the sees of Winchester and Canterbury in return for the promise of support for Æthelwulf’s claim to the throne. The archbishop of Canterbury, Ceolnoth, also accepted Ecgberht and Æthelwulf as the lords and protectors of the monasteries under Ceolnoth’s control.

These agreements, along with a later charter in which Æthelwulf confirmed church privileges, suggest that the church had recognised that Wessex was a new political power that must be dealt with. Churchmen consecrated the king at coronation ceremonies, and helped to write the wills which specified the king’s heir; their support had real value in establishing West Saxon control and a smooth succession for Ecgberht’s line.

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 King Edgar’s coronation in 973 AD at Bath Abbey. It drew on ceremonies used by the kings of the Franks and those used in the ordination of bishops.

Two versions of coronation services, known as ordines (from the Latin ordo meaning “order”) or recensions, survive from before the Norman Conquest. It is not known if the first recension was ever used in England, and it was the second recension which was used by Edgar in 973 and by subsequent Anglo-Saxon and early Norman kings.

Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 39 English and British monarchs, and a burial site for 18 English, Scottish and British monarchs. At least 16 royal weddings have occurred at the abbey since 1100.

Although the origins of the church are obscure, there was certainly an abbey operating on the site by the mid-10th century, housing Benedictine monks.

Between 1042 and 1052, Edward the Confessor began rebuilding St. Peter’s Abbey to provide himself with a royal burial church. It was built in the Romanesque style and was the first church in England built on a cruciform floorplan.

The church got its first grand building in the 1060s under the auspices of the English king Edward the Confessor, who is buried inside. Construction of the present church began in 1245 on the orders of Henry III.

The building was completed around 1060 and was consecrated on December 28, 1065, only a week before Edward’s death on January 5, 1066. A week later, he was buried in the church; nine years later, his wife Edith was buried alongside him. His successor, Harold Godwinson, was probably crowned here, although the first documented coronation is that of William the Conqueror later that year.

Early coronations

The first documented coronation at Westminster was that of William the Conqueror on 25th December 1066. Before this year there had been no fixed location for the ceremony. Edward the Confessor does not seem to have deliberately planned his new Abbey as a coronation church.

His immediate successor, Harold Godwinson, is likely to have been crowned here following the Confessor’s death but there is no surviving contemporary evidence to confirm this ceremony. William probably chose the Abbey for his coronation to reinforce his claim to be a legitimate successor of Edward.

The Abbey’s role as a coronation church influenced Henry III’s rebuilding of the church in the Gothic style of architecture from AD 1245 and a large space or “theatre” was planned under the lantern, between the quire and the high altar. The first king to be crowned in the present Abbey was Edward I in 1274.

Other coronations

The two monarchs who did not have any coronation were Edward V (the boy king), who was presumed murdered in the Tower of London before he could be crowned, and Edward VIII who abdicated 11 months after succeeding his father and before the date set for his coronation.

William III and Mary II were the only joint monarchs to be crowned and the chair specially made for Mary’s use in 1689 is on view in the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries in the Abbey triforium.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, public spectacle sometimes overshadowed religious significance. At George III’s coronation some of the congregation began to eat a meal during the sermon. George IV’s coronation was a great theatrical occasion but he flatly refused to allow his estranged wife Caroline to enter the Abbey. William IV had to be persuaded to have a coronation at all and spent so little money on it that it became known as ‘the penny coronation’. With Queen Victoria’s coronation in 1838 came a renewed appreciation of the true religious meaning of the ceremony.

By the time Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in 1953 millions around the world were able to witness her coronation on television.

King Charles III is Not the King of England!

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King Charles III, King George III, King Henry VIII, Kingdom of England, Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Kingdom of Ireland, Kingdom of Scotland, Northern Ireland, Principality of Wales, Queen Anne, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

From the Emperor’s Desk: This is an updated and expanded article I wrote in 2012 at the start of my blog when Elizabeth II was Queen.

Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

I am a bit of a stickler for correct and proper usage of styles and titles. So it is a bit of a pet peeve of mine when these are used improperly. The main one that bugs me is calling Charles III, King of England. That bothers me because “King of England” is not his correct title! His correct title, simplified here, is King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. England has not been a separate sovereign state since 1707.

Wales

The country of Wales was once an independent Principality. The conquest of Wales by Edward I of England was completed by 1283, though Owain Glyndŵr rebelled against English rule in the early 15th century and briefly re-established an independent Welsh principality. The whole of Wales was annexed by England and incorporated within the English legal system under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542.

Ireland

In 1166, Mac Murrough King of Leinster, had fled to Anjou, France, following a war involving Tighearnán Ua Ruairc, of Breifne, and sought the assistance of the Angevin King Henry II of England, in recapturing his kingdom.

In 1171, Henry arrived in Ireland in order to review the general progress of the expedition. He wanted to re-exert royal authority over the invasion which was expanding beyond his control. Henry successfully re-imposed his authority over Strongbow and the Cambro-Norman warlords and persuaded many of the Irish kings to accept him as their overlord, an arrangement confirmed in the 1175 Treaty of Windsor.

The invasion was legitimised by reference to provisions of the alleged Papal Bull Laudabiliter, issued by an Englishman, Pope Adrian IV, in 1155. The document apparently encouraged Henry to take control in Ireland in order to oversee the financial and administrative reorganisation of the Irish Church and its integration into the Roman Church system.

In 1172, Pope Alexander III further encouraged Henry to advance the integration of the Irish Church with Rome. Henry was authorised to impose a tithe of one penny per hearth as an annual contribution. This church levy called Peter’s Pence, is extant in Ireland as a voluntary donation. In turn, Henry II assumed the title of Lord of Ireland which Henry conferred on his younger son, John Lackland, in 1185.

This defined the Anglo-Norman administration in Ireland as the Lordship of Ireland. When Henry’s successor, King Richard I of England, died unexpectedly in 1199, King John inherited the crown of England and retained the Lordship of Ireland. The Kings of England remained Lord of Ireland until the Crown of Ireland Act 1542.

Henry VIII, King of England and Ireland

When King Henry VIII broke away from the Catholic Church to marry Anne Boleyn his legal claim to the lordship of Ireland was tenuous because that title had been granted by the Pope and was connected to the Roman Catholic Church. The solution to this quandary was to elevate Henry’s title from Lord to King.

By the terms of the Crown of Ireland Act 1542, the Parliament of Ireland created Henry VIII of England as “King of Ireland”. Although the Kings of England, and later the Kings of England and Scotland, we’re also Kings of Ireland, Ireland was not politically joined to England and Scotland and remained a separate independent Kingdom and was ruled in a personal union by the king or queen.

With Wales having been incorporated within the Kingdom of England, and Ireland as a separate Kingdom ruled by the English monarch, let us now focus on how the kingdoms of England and Scotland were united.

Here is a little historical background on the issue. For centuries England and Scotland were separate sovereign Kingdoms each with their own monarch. There was not always peace between the two states as England constantly tried to keep Scotland subdued. Edward I of England (1272-1307) is not known as the Hammer of the Scots for nothing!

The Kingdoms of England and Scotland ruled by separate monarchs until 1603. Queen Elizabeth I of England and Ireland died without issue and her closest relative that had a claim to the throne was her cousin King James VI of Scotland (1567-1625).

James I-VI, King of England, Scotland and Ireland

James VI of Scotland was deemed the rightful heir though there is debate as to whether or not Queen Elizabeth I actually named the Scottish King as her successor; he was accepted as King and became King James I of England and Ireland. There were other candidates for the English Throne besides the Scottish King, but that’s a subject for another blog entry.

The accession of the Scottish King on the English throne did not politically unite the two nations. Both Kingdoms were ruled by James but remained individual sovereign states that retained their own parliaments and laws. In England and Ireland he is reckoned as James I and in Scotland he is reckoned as James VI.

Although James I-VI liked to consider himself as the first King of Great Britain this title was self appointed and was not approved of by Parliament and the title had no legal barring.

Therefore, from 1603 until 1707 (excluding the Commonwealth period when the monarchy was abolished) the title of the monarch was King/Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland (they also called themselves the Kings of France but that is another story).

In 1707 came the Act of Union uniting the Parliaments of England and Scotland creating the new nation of Great Britain. The uniting of England and Scotland has a complex history which I have written about before on this blog, and will do a deeper dive into it at some future point.

Anne, Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland 1702-1707, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland 1707-1714

Suffice it to say, at this point England and Scotland ceased to be independent sovereign states and were then, and now, considered separate states within the union. Ireland remained separate from Great Britain and remained in personal union with the monarch.

The title of the monarch changed accordingly at this time and the titles of King or Queen of England and King or Queen of Scotland passed into history. Anne was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland when the Act of Union of 1707 was passed and her title was changed to Queen of Great Britain and Ireland.

George II, King of Great Britain and Ireland, Elector of Hanover and Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg

The title remained King or Queen of Great Britain and Ireland for 93 years until the nation expanded once more. The Act of Union of 1801 joined the Parliament of Ireland with the Parliament of Great Britain. Ireland was now included in the political union with Great Britain and the new state became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

King George III (1760-1820) was the monarch at the time and his title changed accordingly. He was now King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was at this point the pretence to the title King of France was finally dropped.

George III, King of Great Britain and Ireland, Elector of Hanover and Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg 1760-1801, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, George II, King of Great Britain and Ireland, King of Hanover and Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg

From 1714 to 1837 the British monarch was also Elector of Hanover and Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg within the German Holy Roman Empire until 1806 when the Empire was abolished. In 1814 Hanover was created a Kingdom by the Congress of Vienna in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars and the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire. Although the British monarchs listed their Hanoverian titles among their British titles, Britain and Hanover were ruled separately and were not politically unified.

In 1920 in the reign of King George V (1910-1936) a large portion of Ireland was given its independence and only the northern counties remained united with Britain. However, this part of Ireland continued to be a constitutional monarchy with the King of the United Kingdom as to their Head of State. The Free State of Ireland was separate from Northern Ireland which was still a part of the United Kingdom.

The Free State of Ireland came to an end with The Republic of Ireland Act 1948, which came into force on April 18, 1949, the 33rd anniversary of the beginning of the Easter Rising. This act created The Republic of Ireland.

Charles III, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Outside the Irish state, “Great Britain, Ireland” was not officially omitted from the royal title until 1953 when Elizabeth II began her reign.

Today, the official title of the King is: Charles III, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of his other realms and territories, King, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.

Now having said my rant and given the historical background on the evolution of the title of the British monarch I must be honest and say that I do miss the traditional titles of King or Queen of England and King or Queen of Scotland. Those are in the past unless devolution comes to the UK and England and Scotland becomes independent once again. If that does happen I think we would see a return to how things were prior to 1707 when both England and Scotland shared the same monarch.

Longest Reigning British Monarchs

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King Charles III of the United Kingdom, Kingdom of England, Kingdom of England and Scotland, Kingdom of Great Britain, Kingdom of Scotland, Kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons, Longest Reigning British Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Longest Reigning Monarchs of the British Isles. This list begins with Alfred the Great as King of the Anglo-Saxons and combines the Kingdoms of England and Scotland and Great Britain and the United Kingdom together to list the longest reigning monarchs.

1. Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom ~ 70 years
2. Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom ~ 63 years
3. King George III of the United Kingdom ~ 59 years
4. King James VI of Scotland ~ 57 years*
5. King Henry III of England ~ 56 years
6. King Edward III of England ~ 50 years
7. King William I of Scotland ~ 48 years
8. Queen Elizabeth I of England ~ 44 years
9. King David II of Scotland ~ 41 years
10. King Henry VI of England ~ 38 years
11. King Æthelred II of England ~ 37 years
12. King Henry VIII of England ~ 37 years
13. King Alexander III of Scotland ~ 36 years
14. King Malcolm III of Scotland ~ 35 years
15. King Henry I of England ~ 35 years
16. King Henry II of England ~ 34 years
17. King Edward I of England~ 34 years
18. King Alexander II of Scotland ~ 34 years
19. King George II of Great Britain ~ 33 years
20. King James I of Scotland ~ 30 years
21. King James V of Scotland ~ 29 years
22. King David I of Scotland ~ 29 years
23. King Alfred of the Anglo-Saxons ~ 28 years
24. King James III of Scotland ~ 27 years
25. King George V of the United Kingdom ~ 25 years
26. King James IV of Scotland ~ 25 years
27. King Edward the Elder of the Anglo-Saxons ~ 24 years
28. King Charles II of England and Scotland ~ 24 years
29. Queen Mary I of Scotland ~ 24 years
30. King Charles I of England and Scotland ~ 23 years
31. King Henry VII of England ~ 23 years
32. King Edward the Confessor of England ~ 23 years
33. King James II of Scotland ~ 23 years
34. King Robert I of Scotland ~ 23 years
35. King Richard II of England ~ 22 years
36. King James I of England and Scotland ~ 22 years*
37. King Edward IV of England ~ 21 years
38. King William I of England ~ 20 years
39. King Edward II of England ~ 19 years
40. King Robert II of Scotland ~ 19 years
41. King Canute of Denmark and England ~ 18 years
42. King John of England ~ 17 years
43. King Alexander I of Scotland ~ 17 years
44. King Stephen of England ~ 17 years
45. King Robert III of Scotland ~ 15 years
46. King Edgar I of England ~ 15 years
47. King Æthelstan of England ~ 15 years
48. King George VI of the United Kingdom ~ 15 years
49. King Henry IV of England ~ 13 years
50. King William III of England and Scotland ~ 13 years
51. King George I of Great Britain ~ 12 years
52. King William II of England ~ 12 years
53. King Malcolm IV of Scotland ~ 12 years
54. Queen Anne of Great Britain ~ 12 years
55. King George IV of the United Kingdom ~ 10 years
56. King Ædred of England ~ 09 years
57. King Henry V of England ~ 09 years
58. King Edward VII of the United Kingdom ~ 09 years
59. King William IV of the United Kingdom ~ 06 years
60. King Edmund I of England 06 years
61. King Edward VI of England ~ 06 years
62. Queen Mary II of England and Scotland ~ 05 years
63. Queen Mary I of England ~ 05 years
64. King James II-VII of England and Scotland ~ 03 years
65. King John Balliol of Scotland ~ 03 years
66. King Ædwig of England ~ 02 years
67. King Ædward the Martyr of England ~ 02 years
68. King Harold I of England ~ 02 years
69. King Hardicanute, (Canute III) of England and Denmark ~ 02 years
70. King Richard III of England ~ 02 years
71. King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom ~ 326 days
72. King Harold II Godwinson of England ~ 282 days
73. King Edmund II of England ~ 221 days
74. King Edward V of England ~ 78 days
75. King Edgar II of England ~ 63 days
76. King Charles III of the United Kingdom ~ 3 days

* James VI-I of England and Scotland. As King James VI of Scotland he ruled Scotland for 57 years. As King James I of England he ruled for 22 years.

The Name of the Kingdom. Part I.

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Act of Union of 1707, Act of Union of 1801, Kingdom of England, Kingdom of Scotland, Parliament King of Great Britain, Queen Anne of Great Britain, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

The other day I got into a debate on the internet about the name of the Kingdom after the passing of the Act of Union of 1707 which united England and Scotland.

I was under the impression that this new Kingdom was simply called “Great Britain” or the “Kingdom of Great Britain” and Queen Anne’s title becoming “Queen of Great Britain and Ireland.”

Anne, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland

At the time Ireland was not joined to Great Britain but was in personal union with the sovereign and didn’t politically join Great Britain until the Act of Union of 1801. Therefore in 1801 the country then became known as “The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland” and the sovereigns title reflected that change.

Now my internet debating friend insisted that the name of the kingdom after the Act of Union of 1707 became ” The United Kingdom of Great Britain.”

I assert the term “United” in association with the name of the kingdom only came into effect with the Act of Union of 1801 and not the 1707 Act.

For his proof he cited the UK Parliament website:

“The Acts of Union, passed by the English and Scottish Parliaments in 1707, led to the creation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain on 1 May of that year. The UK Parliament met for the first time in October 1707.”

https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/legislativescrutiny/act-of-union-1707/#:~:text=The%20Acts%20of%20Union%2C%20passed,first%20time%20in%20October%201707.

I had never heard that before! All text books and biographies of various monarchs have all said that the Act of Union of 1707 created the Kingdom of Great Britain and the term United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland didn’t come into being until 1801.

I know this may seem a bit petty so forgive me for that…but is the UK Parliament website (and my debating friend) correct or all my old history books right?

If you have any evidence or thoughts leave me a comment!

February 2, 1141: Battle of Lincoln, Stephen & Matilda

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Adela of Normandy, Empress Matilda, Geoffrey of Anjou, Henry I of England, Holy Roman Emperor Henry V, Kingdom of England, Stephen Henry of Blois, Stephen of England, The Anarchy, The Battle of Lincoln

Stephen (1092 or 1096 – October 25, 1154), often referred to as Stephen of Blois, was King of England from December 22, 1135 to his death in 1154.

Stephen was a younger son of the Stephen Henry, Count of Blois and Adela of Normandy. Stephen’s mother, Adela, was the daughter of William the Conqueror and Matilda of Flanders, famous amongst her contemporaries for her piety, wealth and political talent.

Stephen was married to Matilda of Boulogne. Her father was Count Eustace III of Boulogne. Her mother, Mary, was the daughter of King Malcolm III of Scotland and Saint Margaret of Scotland. Through her maternal grandmother, Matilda was descended from the Anglo-Saxon kings of England.

This made Stephen, was Count of Boulogne jure uxoris (by right of his wife) from 1125 until 1147 and Duke of Normandy from 1135 until 1144. His reign was marked by the Anarchy, a civil war with his cousin and rival, the Empress Matilda, whose son, Henry II, succeeded Stephen as the first of the Angevin kings of England.

Empress Matilda (c. February 7, 1102 – September 10, 1167), also known as the Empress Maude, was one of the claimants to the English throne during the Anarchy. The daughter of King Henry I of England, she moved to Germany as a child when she married the future Holy Roman Emperor Heinrich V.

Matilda travelled with her husband into Italy in 1116, was controversially crowned in St Peter’s Basilica, and acted as the imperial regent in Italy. Matilda and Heinrich V had no children, and when he died in 1125, the imperial crown was claimed by his rival Lothair of Supplinburg.

Matilda’s younger brother, William Adelin, died in the White Ship disaster of 1120, leaving Matilda’s father and realm facing a potential succession crisis. On Emperor Heinrich V’s death, Matilda was recalled to Normandy by her father, who arranged for her to marry Geoffrey of Anjou to form an alliance to protect his southern borders.

Stephen, King of England and Count of Blois

Henry I had no further legitimate children and nominated Matilda as his heir, making his court swear an oath of loyalty to her and her successors, but the decision was not popular in the Anglo-Norman court. Henry died in 1135, but Matilda and Geoffrey faced opposition from Anglo-Norman barons. The throne was instead taken by Matilda’s cousin Stephen of Blois, who enjoyed the backing of the English Church.

In the ensuing civil war a decisive battle, The Battle of Lincoln, or the First Battle of Lincoln, occurred on February 2, 1141 in Lincoln, England between King Stephen of England and forces loyal to Empress Matilda. Stephen was captured during the battle, imprisoned, and effectively deposed while Matilda ruled for a short time.

The forces of King Stephen of England had been besieging Lincoln Castle but were themselves attacked by a relief force loyal to Empress Matilda and commanded by Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester, Matilda’s half-brother.

The Angevin army consisted of the divisions of Robert’s men, those of Ranulf, Earl of Chester and those disinherited by Stephen, while on the flank was a mass of Welsh troops led by Madog ap Maredudd, Lord of Powys, and Cadwaladr ap Gruffydd. Cadwaladr was the brother of Owain, King of Gwynedd, but Owain did not support any side in the Anarchy. Stephen’s force included William of Ypres; Simon of Senlis; Gilbert of Hertford; William of Aumale, Alan of Richmond and Hugh Bigod but was markedly short of cavalry.

As soon as the battle was joined, the majority of the leading magnates fled the king. Other important magnates captured with the king were Baldwin fitz Gilbert; Bernard de Balliol, Roger de Mowbray; Richard de Courcy; William Peverel of Nottingham; Gilbert de Gant; Ingelram de Say; Ilbert de Lacy and Richard fitzUrse, all men of respected baronial families; it had only been the Earls who had fled.

Even as the royal troops listened to the exhortations of Stephen’s lieutenant, Baldwin fitz Gilbert, the advancing enemy was heard and soon the disinherited Angevin knights charged the cavalry of the five earls.

On the left Earl William Aumale of York and William Ypres charged and smashed the poorly armed, ‘but full of spirits’, Welsh division but were themselves in turn routed ‘in a moment’ by the well-ordered military might of Earl Ranulf who stood out from the mass in ‘his bright armour’.

The earls, outnumbered and outfought, were soon put to flight and many of their men were killed and captured. King Stephen and his knights were rapidly surrounded by the Angevin force.

Then might you have seen a dreadful aspect of battle, on every quarter around the king’s troop fire flashing from the meeting of swords and helmets – a dreadful crash, a terrific clamour – at which the hills re-echoed, the city walls resounded. With horses spurred on, they charged the king’s troop, slew some, wounded others, and dragging some away, made them prisoners.

No rest, no breathing time was granted them, except in the quarter where stood that most valiant king, as the foe dreaded the incomparable force of his blows. The earl of Chester, on perceiving this, envying the king his glory, rushed upon him with all the weight of his armed men. Then was seen the might of the king, equal to a thunderbolt, slaying some with his immense battle-axe, and striking others down.

Then arose the shouts afresh, all rushing against him and him against all. At length through the number of the blows, the king’s battle-axe was broken asunder. Instantly, with his right hand, drawing his sword, well worthy of a king, he marvellously waged the combat, until the sword as well was broken asunder.

On seeing this William Kahamnes [i.e. William de Keynes], a most powerful knight, rushed upon the king, and seizing him by the helmet, cried with a loud voice, “Hither, all of you come hither! I have taken the king!”

After fierce fighting in the city’s streets, Stephen’s forces were defeated. Stephen himself was captured and taken to Bristol, where he was imprisoned. He was subsequently exchanged for Robert of Gloucester, who was later captured in the Rout of Winchester the following September. This ended Matilda’s brief ascendancy in the wars with Stephen.

The Angevin Empire: Part I.

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Angevin Empire, Count of Anjou, Duchy of Aquitaine, Duchy of Normandy, House of Anjou, House of Pl, King Henry II of England, Kingdom of England, Kingdom of France

The Angevin Empire describes the possessions of the Angevin kings of England who held lands in England and France during the 12th and 13th centuries. Its rulers were Henry II (ruled 1154–1189), Richard I (r. 1189–1199), and John (r. 1199–1216). The Angevin Empire is an early example of a composite state.

A composite monarchy (or composite state) is a historical category, introduced by H. G. Koenigsberger in 1975 and popularised by Sir John H. Elliott, that describes early modern states consisting of several countries under one ruler, sometimes designated as a personal union, who governs his territories as if they were separate kingdoms, in accordance with local traditions and legal structures. The composite state became the most common type of state in the early modern era in Europe. Koenigsberger divides composite states into two classes: those, like the Spanish Empire, that consisted of countries separated by either other states or by the sea, and those, like Poland–Lithuania, that were contiguous.

The Angevins of the House of Plantagenet ruled over an area covering roughly half of France, all of England, and parts of Ireland and Wales, and had further influence over much of the remaining British Isles. The empire was established by Henry II, as King of England, Duke of Normandy, Count of Anjou (from which the Angevins derive their name), as well as Duke of Aquitaine by right of his wife, and multiple subsidiary titles. Although their title of highest rank came from the Kingdom of England, the Angevins held court primarily on the continent at Angers in Anjou, and Chinon in Touraine.

The influence and power of the House of Anjou brought them into conflict with the kings of France of the House of Capet, to whom they also owed feudal homage for their French possessions, bringing in a period of rivalry between the dynasties. Despite the extent of Angevin rule, Henry’s son, John, was defeated in the Anglo-French War (1213–1214) by Philip II of France following the Battle of Bouvines. John lost control of most of his continental possessions, apart from Gascony in southern Aquitaine. This defeat set the scene for further conflicts between England and France, leading up to the Hundred Years’ War.

The term Angevin Empire is a neologism* defining the lands of the House of Plantagenet: Henry II and his sons Richard I and John. Another son, Geoffrey, ruled Brittany and established a separate line there. As far as historians know, there was no contemporary term for the region under Angevin control; however, descriptions such as “our kingdom and everything subject to our rule whatever it may be” were used. The term Angevin Empire was coined by Kate Norgate in her 1887 publication, England under the Angevin Kings. In France, the term espace Plantagenet (French for “Plantagenet area”) is sometimes used to describe the fiefdoms the Plantagenets had acquired.

The use of the term Empire has engendered controversy among some historians over whether the term is accurate for the actual state of affairs at the time. The area was a collection of the lands inherited and acquired by Henry, and so it is unclear whether these dominions shared any common identity and so should be labelled with the term Empire.

Some historians argue that the term should be reserved solely for the Holy Roman Empire, the only Western European political structure actually named an empire at that time, although Alfonso VII of León and Castile had taken the title “Emperor of all Spain” in 1135. Other historians argue that Henry II’s empire was neither powerful, centralised, nor large enough to be seriously called an empire. Furthermore, the Plantagenets never claimed any sort of imperial title as implied by the term Angevin Empire.

However, even if the Plantagenets themselves did not claim an imperial title, some chroniclers, often working for Henry II himself, did use the term empire to describe this assemblage of lands. The highest title was “king of England”; the other titles of dukes and counts of different areas held in France were completely and totally independent from the royal title, and not subject to any English royal law. Because of this, some historians prefer the term commonwealth to empire, emphasising that the Angevin Empire was more of an assemblage of seven fully independent, sovereign states loosely bound to each other, only united in the person of the king of England.

* A neologism is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not yet been fully accepted into mainstream language.

History of Male British Consorts

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Anne of Great Britain, British Monarchy, Elizabeth I of England, Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom., King Scotland, Kingdom of England, Kingdom of Great Britain, Male Consorts, Mary I of England, Mary I of Scotland, Mary II of England and Scotland, United Kingdom, Victoria of the United Kingdon

In the British Monarchy, and most monarchies on Continental Europe, the wife of a sovereign King will hold the title Queen, though technically a Queen Consort. But what is the title of a male Consort to a Queen Regnant, a Queen that holds sovereignty in her own right and does not hold the title “Queen” as a Consort of a sovereign King?

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Queen Elizabeth II and The Duke of Edinburgh

For this series I will examine the spouses of the Queen Regnants of England and Scotland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom. It is debatable to how many Queen Regnants there have been in the British Isles. In Scotland the reign of Margaret the Maid of Norway is disputed and in England the reigns of the Empress Matilda and Lady Jane Grey are also disputed.

In Scotland the reigns that are not disputed are that of Mary I, Queen of Scots and Mary II who was not only Queen of Scots but also Queen of England and Ireland. In England the Queen Regnants were Mary I (of the House of Tudor) and her sister Elizabeth I.

Queen Anne was the last Queen Regnant to hold the individual titles of Queen of England and Queen of Scotland respectively. In 1707 with the Union of England and Scotland Anne became the first and only Queen Regnant of Great Britain. The current and previous Queen Regnants have been Queen’s of the United Kingdom of Great Britain.

In this series I will examine the titles of the spouses of these Queen Regnants and demonstrate how their titles changed and evolved.

Was St. Edward’s Crown really destroyed by Oliver Cromwell?

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Alfred the Great, Charles II of England and Scotland, Edward the Confessor, English Civil War, Kingdom of England, Oliver Cromwell, Restoration, St. Edward's Crown

Edward the Confessor wore his crown at Easter, Whitsun, and Christmas. In 1161, he was made a saint, and objects connected with his reign became holy relics. The monks at his burial place of Westminster Abbey claimed that Edward had asked them to look after his regalia in perpetuity for the coronations of all future English kings.

Although the claim is likely to have been an exercise in self-promotion on the abbey’s part, and some of the regalia probably had been taken from Edward’s grave when he was reinterred there, it became accepted as fact, thereby establishing the first known set of hereditary coronation regalia in Europe. A crown referred to as St Edward’s Crown is first recorded as having been used for the coronation of Henry III in 1220, and it appears to be the same crown worn by Edward.

An early description of the crown is “King Alfred’s Crown of gold wire-work set with slight stones and two little bells”, weighing 79.5 ounces (2.25 kg) and valued at £248 in total. It was sometimes called King Alfred’s Crown because of an inscription on the lid of its box, which, translated from Latin, read: “This is the chief crown of the two, with which were crowned Kings Alfred, Edward and others”. However, there is no evidence to support the belief that it dated from Alfred’s time, and in the coronation order it always has been referred to as St Edward’s Crown.

St Edward’s Crown rarely left Westminster Abbey, but when Richard II was forced to abdicate in 1399, he had the crown brought to the Tower of London, where he symbolically handed it to Henry IV, saying “I present and give to you this crown with which I was crowned king of England and all the rights dependent on it”.

The monarchy was restored in 1660 after the English Civil War (1642-1649) and in preparation for the coronation of Charles II, who had been living in exile abroad, a new St Edward’s Crown was supplied by the Royal Goldsmith, Sir Robert Vyner. It was fashioned to closely resemble the medieval crown, with a heavy gold base and clusters of semi-precious stones, but the arches are decidedly Baroque.

In the late 20th century, it was assumed to incorporate gold from the original St Edward’s Crown, as they are almost identical in weight, and no invoice was produced for the materials in 1661. A crown was also displayed at the lying in state of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England from 1653 until 1658. However, it is believed the crown at Cromwell’s lying in state was probably made of gilded base metal such as tin or copper, as was usual in 17th-century England; for example, a crown displayed at the funeral of James VI-I had cost only £5 and was decorated with fake jewels.

On the weight of this evidence, writer and historian Martin Holmes, in a 1959 paper for Archaeologia, concluded that in the time of the Interregnum St Edward’s Crown was saved from the melting pot and that its gold was used to make a new crown at the Restoration.

His theory became accepted wisdom, and many books, including official guidebooks for the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London, repeated his claim as fact. In 2008, new research found that a coronation crown and sceptre were made in 1660 in anticipation of an early coronation, which had to be delayed several times.

Last evening I watched a documentary on YouTube called, The History of the British Monarchy Crown Jewels. In the documentary it is said that it is possible that the bottom half of St. Edward’s Crown is the original crown. Evidently there is only a record of a bill for the arches, the monde and the cross and this was due to the fact that the bottom half of the crown already existed and was in fact the original St. Edward’s Crown that had been saved from Cromwell’s destruction.

Pierre II (1418–1457), Duke of Brittany, Count of Montfort

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Arthur III of Brittany, Duchy of Brittany, Earl of Richmond, Henry IV of England, John IV of Brittany, Kingdom of England, Peter II of Brittany

Pierre II (1418–1457), was Duke of Brittany, Count of Montfort and titularEarl of Richmond, from 1450 to his death. He was son of Duke Jean VI and Jeanne of France, a daughter of Charles VI of France and Isabeau of Bavaria. Pierre II was a younger brother of François I, Duke of Brittany.

While Pierre II was Count of Guingamp, he fought against the English in Normandy in 1449 and in 1450 with his brother, François I, Duke of Brittany, and his uncle the Constable de Richemont.

They took several cities, including Coutances, Saint-Lô and Ferns. Upon the death of his brother in 1450, Peter became Duke. Since François did not have a son, according to the provisions of the first Treaty of Guerande (1365) that did not allow the succession of girls, he appointed Pierre in preference to his own daughters, Margaret and Marie, to succeed him.

Pierre II then pursued the murderers of his other brother, Gilles.

By 1455, Pierre II and his wife, Françoise d’Amboise, had failed to produce offspring. Given the health problems of Pierre II, this raised the question of succession. To prevent the throne of Brittany from falling into foreign hands, the Duke decided to marry his niece, Margaret, the eldest daughter of his deceased brother François, to his cousin, François, Count of Étampes.

To seal the marriage, the Duke summoned the Estates of Brittany, a sovereign court, at Vannes to meet on November 13, 1455, in the upper room of la Cohue. The court, composed of the main Breton lords bishops, abbots and representatives of cities approved the marriage.

The wedding started on November 16 with a grand mass in Saint Peter’s cathedral in Vannes, presided over by the Bishop of Nantes, Guillaume de Malestroit. Further celebrations subsequently took place including banquets, dances and jousts.

During dinner, the Duke led the newly espoused lady to a room in the Hermine, where she sat in the middle of the canopy … The Duke dined in the room with the main Lords … The Duke had the groom near him, under his canopy … After dinner, at about four hours, the dance began with the high minstrels.

The Duke led the Lady Malestroit, Monsieur de Laval led the duchess, other Lords led other Ladies, and continued to dance to the night … The next day the games began, which lasted four days; and after the Lords had passed the time in great joy and feasts they left Vennes.

The relatively short reign of the Duke did not make a mark on history. His contemporaries described Pierre II as simple, well advised by his wife, but little suited to the ducal function, heavy mind as body, prone to mood swings.

He participated in the Battle of Castillon in 1453. While he was still only Count of Guingamp, he had a tomb carved from himself in the Notre-Dame de Nantes which was lost during the French Revolution.

It is said that, in 1803, when the church was being destroyed, the engineer Pierre Fournier opened the tomb but found only a mannequin. It is unknown whether the Duke was actually buried in the tomb.

Family

In June 1442 Pierre married Françoise d’Amboise (1427–1485), daughter of Louis d’Amboise, Viscount of Thouars and Prince of Talmond, Françoise was later beatified by the Catholic Church. The marriage never produced any children.

Succession

Pierre II died in 1457 with no known issue. He was succeeded by his uncle Arthur who became Arthur III, Duke of Brittany.

Arthur III, Duke of Brittany, was more commonly known as Arthur de Richemont. The name Richemont reflects the fact that he inherited the English title of Earl of Richmond, which was held by previous dukes of Brittany, but his tenure was never recognized by the English crown.

Arthur III was a younger son of Duke Jean IV of Brittany and his third wife Joanna of Navarre. Joanna was a daughter of King Charles II of Navarre and Jeanne of France (the daughter of Jean II of France [called The Good], and his first wife, Bonne of Luxembourg).

Joanna of Navarre was later Queen of England by marriage to King Henry IV. She served as regent of Brittany from 1399 until 1403 during the minority of her son. She also served as regent of England during the absence of her stepson, Henry V, in 1415.

After the death of Arthur’s father, the English Crown refused to recognize his heirs as earls. Nevertheless, they continued to style themselves “Count of Richmond”, while the English title was given to John Plantagenet, Duke of Bedford (1389–1435) in 1414.

François II, Duke of Brittany, and the English Royal Family.

Tags

Duchy of Brittany, Earl of Richmond, Francis II of Brittany, House of Lancaster, House of York, King Edward IV of England, King Henry VI of England, King Henry VII of England, Kingdom of England, Wars of the Roses

On June 30th I did a post on King Charles VIII of France who married Anne of Brittany. In my research I discovered that her father, François II, Duke of Brittany, had a strong connection to the English Royal Family.

François II of Brittany

François II of Brittany (June 23, 1433 – September 9, 1488) was Duke of Brittany from 1458 to his death. He was the grandson of Jean IV, Duke of Brittany.

François II was born to Richard of Brittany, Count of Étampes (1395–1438) and his wife, Margaret of Orléans, Countess of Vertus (1406–1466), the daughter of Louis I, Duke of Orléans, and Valentina Visconti. Richard of Brittany was the youngest son of Duke Jean IV of Brittany. Richard’s older brothers, Jean V and Arthur III, both succeeded their father as duke, but upon Arthur’s death in 1458 (Jean V’s sons François I and Peter II died in 1450 and 1457 respectively, without sons), the only legitimate male heir was his nephew François II.

Relationship with English royalty

Coat of Arms of King Henry VI of England

Protector of the House of Lancaster

Duke François II unexpectedly became the protector of England’s House of Lancaster in exile from 1471–1484.

During the latter half of the 15th century, civil war existed in England (Known as the Wars of the Roses) as the House of York and House of Lancaster fought each other for the English throne. In 1471, the Yorkists defeated their rivals in the battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury. The Lancastrian king, Henry VI of England and his only son, Edward of Westminster, died in the aftermath of the Battle of Tewkesbury.

Their deaths left the House of Lancaster with no direct claimants to the throne. Subsequently, the Yorkist king, Edward IV of England, was in complete control of England. He attainted those who refused to submit to his rule, such as Jasper Tudor and his nephew Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond (later King Henry VII of England), naming them as traitors and confiscating their lands.

The Tudors tried to flee to France but strong winds in the English Channel forced them to land at Le Conquet in Brittany, where they were taken into the custody of Duke François II. Henry Tudor, the only remaining Lancastrian noble with a trace of royal bloodline, had a weak claim to the throne, and King Edward IV regarded him as “a nobody”. However, François II viewed Henry as a valuable tool to bargain for England’s aid, when in conflicts with France, and therefore kept the Tudors under his protection.

François II housed Jasper Tudor, Henry Tudor, and the core of their group of exiled Lancastrians at the Château de Suscinio in Sarzeau, where they remained for 11 years. There, François II generously supported this group of exiled Englishmen against all the Plantagenet demands that he should surrender them.
In October 1483, Henry Tudor launched a failed invasion of England from Brittany. Duke François II supported this invasion by providing 40,000 gold crowns, 15,000 soldiers, and a fleet of transport ships. Henry’s fleet of 15 chartered vessels was scattered by a storm, and his ship reached the coast of England in company with only one other vessel.

Arms of Duke François II of Brittany

Henry realized that the soldiers on shore were the men of the new Yorkist king, Richard III of England, and so he decided to abandon the invasion and return to Brittany. As for Henry’s main conspirator in England, Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, he was convicted of treason and beheaded on November 2, 1483, way before Henry’s ships landed in England. For Henry’s conspiracy against King Richard III had been unravelled, and without the Duke of Buckingham or Henry Tudor, the rebellion was easily crushed.

Survivors of the failed uprising then fled to Brittany, where they openly supported Henry Tudor’s claim to the throne. On Christmas Day in 1483 at the Rennes Cathedral, Henry swore an oath to marry King Edward IV’s daughter, Elizabeth of York, and thus unite the warring houses of York and Lancaster. Henry’s rising prominence made him a great threat to King Richard III, and the Yorkist king made several overtures to Duke Francis II to surrender the young Lancastrian.

François II refused, holding out for the possibility of better terms from the King. In mid-1484, François was incapacitated by one of his periods of illness, and while recuperating, his treasurer, Pierre Landais, took over the reins of government. Landais reached an agreement with King Richard III to send Henry and his uncle Jasper back to England in exchange for a pledge of 3,000 English archers to defend Brittany against a threatened French attack.

John Morton, a bishop of Flanders, learned of the scheme and warned the Tudors in time. The Tudors then managed to separately escape, hours ahead of Landais’ soldiers, across the nearby border into France. They were received at the court of King Charles VIII of France, who allowed them to stay and provided them with resources. Shortly afterwards, when François II had recovered, he offered the 400 remaining Lancastrians, still at and around the Château de Suscinio, safe-conduct into France and even paid for their expenses. For the French, the Tudors were useful pawns to ensure that King Richard III did not interfere with French plans to acquire Brittany. Thus, the loss of the Lancastrians seriously played against the interests of Francis II.

Titular Earl of Richmond

Circa 1136, King Stephen of England named Alan of Penthièvre of Brittany (also known as Alan the Black) the 1st Earl of Richmond. After Alan, the title and its possessions (the Honour of Richmond) were typically bestowed upon the Dukes of Brittany, with a few interruptions, through the ducal reign of Jean IV, which ended in 1399. After Jean IV, the English kings would bestow the title Earl of Richmond on nobles other than the Dukes of Brittany, including Edmund Tudor, Henry Tudor’s father. However the dukes of Brittany from Jean V through François II would continue to use the titulary Earl of Richmond.

It is possible that François willed whatever remained of his claims to the earldom and the Honour of Richmond to Henry Tudor. On successfully gaining the English crown after the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, Henry VII merged the earldom and its possessions into the crown.