Length of Reigns of the Kings and Queens of Britain. Updated

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Edgar Atheling, Empress Matilda, Kings and Queens of England, Kings and Queens of Great Britain, kings and queens of Scotland, Lady Jane Grey, Queen Elizabeth II

Since today is the 68th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II acceding to the throne. I’ve decided to update the Length of Reigns of the Kings and Queens of Britain.

One of the decisions I made in compiling this list was including the entirety of a monarch’s reign even when the title changed at some point during their reign. This happened twice. Queen Anne began her reign in 1702 as the Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland (the last to hold those titles). In 1707 England and Scotland we united into one country, the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. I could have chosen to divide her reign between the two kingdoms but decided not to. The same for George III who began his reign as King of Great Britain and Ireland, but in 1801 he became the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

This updated list includes three controversial monarchs, or shall I say, alleged monarchs. Empress Matilda at number 59 and Edgar II at number 76 and Lady Jane Grey respectively are questionable even though they may have held power or were proclaimed or elected king or queen.

1. Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom ~ 68 years, 00 days
2. Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom ~ 63 years, 216 days
3. King George III of the United Kingdom ~ 59 years, 96 days
4. King James VI of Scotland ~ 57 years, 246 days*
5. King Henry III of England ~ 56 years, 30 days
6. King Edward III of England ~ 50 years, 147 days
7. King William I of Scotland ~ 48 years, 360 days
8. Queen Elizabeth I of England ~ 44 years, 127 days
9. King David II of Scotland ~ 41 years, 260 days
10. King Henry VI of England ~ 38 years, 185 days
11. King Æthelred II of England ~ 37 years, 362 days
12. King Henry VIII of England ~ 37 years, 281 days
13. King Alexander III of Scotland ~ 36 years, 256 days
14. King Malcolm III of Scotland ~ 35 years, 241 days
15. King Henry I of England ~ 35 years, 120 days
16. King Henry II of England ~ 34 years, 254 days
17. King Edward I of England~ 34 years, 229 days
18. King Alexander II of Scotland ~ 34 years, 214 days
19. King George II of Great Britain ~ 33 years, 125 days
20. King James I of Scotland ~ 30 years, 323 days
21. King James V of Scotland ~ 29 years, 96 days
22. King David I of Scotland ~ 29 years, 31 days
23. King Alfred the Great of England ~ 28 years, 185 days
24. King James III of Scotland ~ 27 years, 313 days
25. King George V of the United Kingdom ~ 25 years, 259 days
26. King James IV of Scotland ~ 25 years, 90 days
27. King Ædward the Elder of England ~ 24 years, 264 days
28. King Charles II of England and Scotland ~ 24 years, 253 days
29. Queen Mary I of Scotland ~ 24 years, 222 days
30. King Charles I of England and Scotland ~ 23 years, 309 days
31. King Henry VII of England ~ 23 years, 242 days
32. King Edward the Confessor of England ~ 23 years, 211 days
33. King James II of Scotland ~ 23 years, 164 days
34. King Robert I of Scotland ~ 23 years, 74 days
35. King Richard II of England ~ 22 years, 99 days
36. King James I of England and Scotland ~ 22 years, 3 days*

37. King Edward IV of England ~ 21 years, 211 days

38. King William I of England ~ 20 years, 258 days

39. King Edward II of England ~ 19 years, 197 days

40. King Robert II of Scotland ~ 19 years, 56 days

41. King Canute II of Denmark and England ~ 18 years, 347 days

42. King John of England ~ 17 years, 196 days

43. King Alexander I of Scotland ~ 17 years, 106 days

44. King Stephen of England ~ 17 years, 99 days

45. King Robert III of Scotland ~ 15 years, 350 days

46. King Edgar I of England ~ 15 years, 280 days

47. King Æthelstan of England ~ 15 years, 86 days

48. King George VI of the United Kingdom ~ 15 years, 57 days

49. King Henry IV of England ~ 13 years, 172 days

50. King William III-II of England and Scotland ~ 13 years, 23 days

51. King George I of Great Britain ~ 12 years, 314 days

52. King William II of England ~ 12 years, 327 days

53. King Malcolm IV of Scotland ~ 12 years, 199 days

54. Queen Anne of Great Britain ~ 12 years, 146 days

55. King George IV of the United Kingdom ~ 10 years, 148 days

56. King Ædred of England ~ 09 years, 181 days

57. King Henry V of Edward ~ 09 years, 163 days

58. King Edward VII of the United Kingdom ~ 09 years, 104 days
59. Empress Matilda “Lady of the English” ~ 07 years, unknown days
60. King William IV of the United Kingdom ~ 06 years, 359 days
61. King Edmund I of England 06 years, 211 days

62. King Edward VI of England ~ 06 years, 159 days

63. Queen Mary II of England and Scotland ~ 05 years, 318 days

64. Queen Mary I of England ~ 05 years, 121 days

65. King James II-VII of England and Scotland ~ 03 years, 309 days

66. King John Balliol of Scotland ~ 03 years, 236 days

67. King Ædwig of England ~ 02 years, 312 days

68. King Ædward the Martyr of England ~ 02 years, 253 days

69. King Harold I of England ~ 02 years, 126 days

70. King Canute III of England and Denmark ~ 02 years, 83 days

71. King Richard III of England ~ 02 years, 57 days

72. King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom ~ 00 years, 326 days

73. King Harold II of England ~ 00 years, 282 days

74. King Edmund II of England ~ 00 years, 221 days

75. King Edward V of England ~ 00 years, 78 days

76. King Edgar II of England ~ 00 years, 63 days
77. Lady Jane Grey “Queen of England” ~ 00 years, 09 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.

February 6: A busy day in Royal History

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King Charles II of England, King Constantine II of Greece, King George VI of the United Kingdom, King James II-VII of England and Scotland, Kings and Queens of England, Kings and Queens of Great Britain, kings and queens of Scotland, kings and queens of the United Kingdom, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince Alfred of Edinburgh, Queen Anne of Great Britain, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Queen Frederica of Greece

February 6, 1665. Birth of the future Queen Anne. Anne was born at 11:39 p.m. on February 6, 1665 at St James’s Palace, London, the fourth child and second daughter of the Duke of York (afterwards James II and VII), and his first wife, Anne Hyde. Her father was the younger brother of King Charles II, and her mother was the daughter of Lord Chancellor Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon. was the Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland between March 8, 1702 and May 1, 1707. On May 1, 1707, under the Acts of Union, two of her realms, the kingdoms of England and Scotland, united as a single sovereign state known as Great Britain. She continued to reign as Queen of Great Britain and Ireland until her death. Anne remained Queen of Ireland in the form of a personal union with the British Crown and wouldn’t be politically united with Great Britain until 1801.

February 6, 1685. Death of King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland. Charles suffered a sudden apoplectic fit on the morning of February 2, 1685, and died aged 54 at 11:45 am four days later at Whitehall Palace. The suddenness of his illness and death led to suspicion of poison in the minds of many, including one of the royal doctors; however, a more modern medical analysis has held that the symptoms of his final illness are similar to those of uraemia (a clinical syndrome due to kidney dysfunction). In the days between his collapse and his death, Charles endured a variety of torturous treatments including bloodletting, purging and cupping in hopes of effecting a recovery. Charles was succeeded by his brother, the Duke of York, who became James II of England and Ireland and James VII of Scotland.

February 6, 1840. Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was naturalised by Act of Parliament, and granted the style of Royal Highness by an Order in Council, four days before his marriage to Queen Victoria. The British Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, advised the Queen against granting her husband the title of “King Consort”; Parliament also objected to Albert being created a peer—partly because of anti-German sentiment and a desire to exclude Albert from any political role. Albert claimed that he had no need of a British peerage, writing: “It would almost be a step downwards, for as a Duke of Saxony, I feel myself much higher than a Duke of York or Kent.” For the next seventeen years, Albert was formally titled “HRH Prince Albert” until, on June 25, 1857, Victoria formally granted him the title Prince Consort.

February 6, 1899. Prince Alfred of Edinburgh, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (October 15, 1874 – February 6, 1899), was the son and heir apparent of Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He died aged 24 under circumstances still not entirely clear. The exact circumstances of Alfred’s death are not known, and varying accounts have been published. His sister Marie’s memoirs simply say his health “broke down”, and other writers have said that he had “consumption”. The Times published an account stating he had died of a tumor, while the Complete Peerage gives the generally accepted account that he “shot himself”. He was a first cousin of King George V of the United Kingdom, German Emperor Wilhelm II, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia and brother of Queen Maria a Romania.

February 6, 1952. George VI of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland died and was succeeded by his elder daughter as Queen Elizabeth II. On the morning of February 6, at 07:30 GMT, George VI was found dead in bed at his Sandringham House in Norfolk. He had died from a coronary thrombosis in his sleep at the age of 56. Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh had just returned to their Kenyan home, Sagana Lodge, after a night spent at Treetops Hotel, when word arrived of the death of the King and consequently Elizabeth’s immediate accession to the throne. This marks her 68th year on the throne.

February 6, 1981. Queen Frederica of Greece, was born Her Royal Highness Princess Frederica of Hanover, and of Great Britain and Ireland, and of Brunswick-Lüneburg on April 18, 1917 in Blankenburg am Harz, in the German Duchy of Brunswick, she was the only daughter and third child of Ernst August, then reigning Duke of Brunswick, and his wife Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia, herself the only daughter of the German Emperor Wilhelm II. Both her father and maternal grandfather would abdicate their crowns in November 1918 following Germany’s defeat in World War I, and her paternal grandfather would be stripped of his British royal dukedom the following year. As a descendant of Queen Victoria, she was, at birth, 34th in the line of succession to the British throne.

Prince Paul of Greece (future King of Greece) proposed to her during the summer of 1936, while he was in Berlin attending the 1936 Summer Olympics. Paul was a son of King Constantine I and Frederica’s grand-aunt Sophia. Accordingly, they were maternal first cousins once removed. They were also paternal second cousins as great-grandchildren of Christian IX of Denmark. Their engagement was announced officially on September 28, 1937, and Britain’s King George VI gave his consent pursuant to the Royal Marriages Act 1772 on December 26, 1937. They married in Athens on January 9, 1938. Frederica became Hereditary Princess of Greece, her husband being heir presumptive to his childless elder brother, King George II.

Frederica died on February 6, 1981 in exile in Madrid of heart failure, reportedly following eyelid surgery (blepharoplasty), although a biographer has claimed the surgery was cataract removal. She was interred at Tatoi (the Royal family’s palace and burial ground in Greece). Her son, King Constantine II, and his family were allowed to attend the service but had to leave immediately afterwards.

New Series: Longest Reigning British Monarchs.

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Anglo-Saxon, King Henry III of England, Kings, Kings and Queens of England, Kings and Queens of Great Britain, kings and queens of Scotland, Queen Elizabeth II

When doing the post on the accession of Edward I of England I had at first included information on the historic length of his reign. Henry III reigned for 56 years, a record that would stand until the death of King George III in 1820 who had reigned for 59 years. Okay, if we’re counting England, Scotland and the United Kingdom equally, then the record set by Henry III was also surpassed by James VI of Scotland in 1625 who had reigned in Scotland for 58 years.

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

It gets confusing doesn’t it? The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as it is today consists of land that was historically separate with a complex history. So when analyzing lengths of reigns I believe it’s necessary to consider the separate nation-States along with the evolution of the lands these monarchs reigned over.

Although we consider Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II the longest reigning British Monarch, and she definitely is, she really cannot be considered the longest reigning English or Scottish Monarch because those states no longer exist as separate entities and even though Her Majesty reigns over Scottish and English lands.

I’ll link here why Elizabeth II should not be called the Queen of England or the Queen of Scots for that matter.

https://europeanroyalhistory.wordpress.com/2012/05/23/elizabeth-ii-is-not-the-queen-of-england/

So when determining who reigned the longest within the British Isles it’s necessary to take each political entity separately. Once you determine that you realize there are many states and kingdoms to consider. For example there are the many kingdoms within both England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland that existed before these kingdoms became single united Kingdoms. Then we must consider England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland as separate and independent states. Even the Kingdom of Great Britain and and the United Kingdom need to be dealt with individually.

William I, King of England, Duke of Normandy

When examining the Early English kingdoms we recognize that there were four main kingdoms in Anglo-Saxon England:
* East Anglia
* Mercia
* Northumbria, including sub-kingdoms Bernicia and Deira
* Wessex
The other main kingdoms, which were conquered by others entirely at some point in their history, before the unification of England consisted of.
* Essex
* Kent
* Sussex

England could even be further divided as their were at least 15 minor kingdoms, some considered dukedoms, that also existed prior to the unification of England into a single Kingdom under the Wessex dynasty.

Some of these 15 minor kingdoms were:

* Deira
* Dumnonia (only subject to Wessex at a later date)
* Haestingas
* The Hwicce
* Wihtwara
* Kingdom of the Iclingas, a precursor state to Mercia
* Lindsey
* Magonsæte
* The Meonwara, a Jutish tribe in Hampshire

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

In many cases the information and lists of Kings and their biographies are scant and little known and lost to history. I will not be considering these states in my assessments of the longest reigns within the British Monarchy.

So here is an official list of the realms I will be considering:

Anglo-Saxon England:
* East Anglia
* Mercia
* Northumbria, including sub-kingdoms Bernicia and Deira
* Wessex
* Essex
* Kent
* Sussex

Early Scottish Kingdoms

1. Picts
2. Dál Riata
3. Strathclyde
4. Bernicia
5. Northumbria

Henry VIII, King of England and Ireland.

Wales has an interesting history. By AD 500, the land that would become Wales had divided into a number of kingdoms free from Anglo-Saxon rules. The kingdoms were:
1. Gwynedd
3. Powys
4. Dyfed and Seisyllwg
5. Morgannwg
6. Gwent

Kingdom of England
Kingdom of Scotland
Principality of Wales
Kingdom of Ireland *
Kingdom of Great Britain
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland/Northern Ireland

* A note about Ireland. Prior to the Normandy invasion Ireland was divided into many many smaller kingdoms too numerous to mention. I will however highlight some ancient Irish Kingdoms but mostly this series will focus on the main English and Scottish kingdoms. The history of kingdoms within the Emerald Isle will have its own separate series.

November 4, 1677: Marriage of Princess Mary of England and Prince William of Orange.

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Glorious Revolution, Kings and Queens of England, kings and queens of Scotland, Mary II of England, Parliament, William III and Mary II, William III of England

Mary II (April 30, 1662 – December 28, 1694) was Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland, co-reigning with her husband, King William III-II England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1689 until her death. Popular histories usually refer to their joint reign as that of William and Mary.

Princess Mary of York

Mary, born at St James’s Palace in London on April 30, 1662, was the eldest daughter of the Duke of York (the future King James II-VII), and his first wife, Anne Hyde. Mary’s uncle was King Charles II, who ruled the three kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland; her maternal grandfather, Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, served for a lengthy period as Charles’s chief advisor. She was baptised into the Anglican faith in the Chapel Royal at St James’s, and was named after her ancestor, Mary I, Queen of Scots. Her godparents included her father’s cousin, Prince Rupert of the Rhine. Although her mother bore eight children, all except Mary and her younger sister Anne died very young, and King Charles II had no legitimate children. Consequently, for most of her childhood, Mary was second in line to the throne after her father.

James II-VII, King of England, Scotland and Ireland

At the age of fifteen, Mary became betrothed to her cousin, the Protestant Stadtholder of Holland, William III of Orange (November 4, 1650 – March 8,1702). William was the son of Willem II of Orange and Mary, Princess Royal, King Charles II’s late sister, and thus fourth in the line of succession after James, Mary, and Anne.

At first, Charles II opposed the alliance with the Dutch ruler—he preferred that Mary wed her second cousin Louis, the Grand Dauphin, the eldest son and heir of Louis XIV, King of France, and his spouse, Maria Theresa of Spain, thus allying his realms with Catholic France and strengthening the odds of an eventual Catholic successor in Britain. However, pressure from Parliament and with a coalition with the Catholic French no longer politically favourable, he approved the proposed union.

The Duke of York agreed to the marriage, after pressure from chief minister Lord Danby and the King, who incorrectly assumed that it would improve James’s popularity among Protestants. When James told Mary that she was to marry her cousin, “she wept all that afternoon and all the following day”.

William III, King of England, Scotland and Ireland, Stadtholder of the Netherlands and Prince of Orange.

William III of Orange and a tearful Mary were married in St James’s Palace by Bishop Henry Compton on November 4, 1677 (William’s 27th birthday). Mary accompanied her husband on a rough sea crossing back to the Netherlands later that month, after a delay of two weeks caused by bad weather in Rotterdam was inaccessible because of ice, and they were forced to land at the small village of Ter Heijde, and walk through the frosty countryside until met by coaches to take them to Huis Honselaarsdij. On December 14, they made a formal entry to The Hague in a grand procession.

Mary’s animated and personable nature made her popular with the Dutch people, and her marriage to a Protestant prince was popular in Britain. She was devoted to her husband, but he was often away on campaigns, which led to Mary’s family supposing him to be cold and neglectful. Within months of the marriage Mary was pregnant; however, on a visit to her husband at the fortified city of Breda, she suffered a miscarriage, which may have permanently impaired her ability to have children. She suffered further bouts of illness that may have been miscarriages in mid-1678, early 1679, and early 1680. Her childlessness would be the greatest source of unhappiness in her life.

Although their father James, Duke of York, was Roman Catholic, Mary and her sister Anne were raised as Anglicans at the wishes of their uncle, King Charles II. He lacked legitimate children, making Mary second in the line of succession as James’s eldest child. After coming to the throne King James II-VII attempted to rule by decree and the birth of his son, James Francis Edward Stuart, led to his deposition in the Glorious Revolution and the adoption of the English Bill of Rights.

Mary II, Queen of England, Scotlano and Ireland, Princess of Orange.

William and Mary both became King and Queen as William III and Mary II of England (William II) of Scotland and Ireland She wielded less power than him when he was in England, ceding most of her authority to him, though he heavily relied on her. She did, however, act alone when William was engaged in military campaigns abroad, proving herself to be a powerful, firm, and effective ruler. Her death left William as sole ruler until his own death in 1702, when he was succeeded by Mary’s sister Anne.

History of Styles and Titles, Part II: Tudor & Stuart Period.

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House of Stuart, House of Tudor, James I of England, James VI of Scotland, King Henry VIII of England, Kings and Queens of England, Kings and Queens of Great Britain, kings and queens of Scotland, Philip II of Spain, Pope Leo X, Pope Paul III, Queen Mary’s Marriage Act, styles, titles

After 1422 the royal title remained unchanged for almost a century. For these many years the title was, Rex Angliae et Franciae et Dominus Hiberniae (King of England and of France and Lord of Ireland). Numerous amendments, however, were effected during Henry VIII’s reign.

Here are the different ways Henry VIII was styled throughout his reign.

1535–1536
By the Grace of God, King of England and France, Defender of the Faith, Lord of Ireland, and of the Church of England in Earth Supreme Head.
1536–1542
By the Grace of God, King of England and France, Defender of the Faith, Lord of Ireland, and of the Church of England and of Ireland in Earth Supreme Head.
1542–1555
By the Grace of God, King of England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and of the Church of England and of Ireland in Earth Supreme Head.

After Henry wrote a book against the Protestant Martin Luther, Pope Leo X rewarded him by granting the title “Defender of the Faith”.

Henry VIII, King of England, France and Ireland

After disagreements with the Papacy over his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII broke away from the Roman Catholic Church, establishing the Church of England in 1533. Pope Paul III rescinded the grant of the title “Defender of the Faith”, but Henry continued to use it. In 1535 Henry added “of the Church of England in Earth, under Jesus Christ, Supreme Head” to his style in 1535; a reference to the Church of Ireland was added in 1536.

Meanwhile, advised that many Irish people regarded the pope as the true temporal authority in their nation, with the king of England acting as a mere representative, Henry VIII changed “Lord of Ireland” to “King of Ireland” in 1542. All changes made by Henry VIII were confirmed by an English Act of Parliament passed in 1544.

Mary I of England, Henry VIII’s Catholic daughter, omitted “of the Church of England and also of Ireland in Earth Supreme Head” in 1553, replacing it with “etc.”, but the phrase remained part of the official style until an Act of Parliament to the contrary was passed in 1555. In the meantime Mary had married the Spanish prince Felipe, son of King Carlos I of Spain (Holy Roman Emperor Karl V).

Mary I & Felipe II, King and Queen of England and France, Naples, Jerusalem and Ireland, Defenders of the Faith, King and Queen of Spain and Sicily

The monarchs adopted a joint style, “King and Queen of England and France, Naples, Jerusalem and Ireland, Defenders of the Faith, Princes of Spain and Sicily, Archdukes of Austria, Dukes of Milan, Burgundy and Brabant, Count and Countess of Habsburg, Flanders and Tyrol”, acknowledging both Mary’s and Felipe’s titles. Further changes were made after Felipe became King of Spain and Sicily (Felipe II) upon his father’s abdication.

England’s Parliament enacted Queen Mary’s Marriage Act to regulate the marriage. According to the Act, Felipe II was granted the title King of England and Ireland and it was stipulated that as long as their marriage lasted Felipe was considered co-sovereign along with his wife but with Mary retaining the majority of authority.

When the Protestant Elizabeth I ascended the Throne, she used the simpler “Queen of England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc.”. The “etc.” was added in anticipation of a restoration of the supremacy phrase, which never actually occurred.

James VI-I, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland (King of Great Britain).

After James VI, who was already King of Scotland, ascended the English Throne, the official style changed to “King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc.”; his mother Mary I, Queen of Scots, had already laid claim to these titles (in a different order, jointly with François II of France, then with the King’s father, Lord Darnley), but she was beheaded by her Protestant opponent, Elizabeth I.

In 1604 James VI made a proclamation permitting the use of “King of Great Britain” instead of “King of England and Scotland”. This new style, though commonly used to refer to the King, was never statutory; (it was never approved by Parliament) therefore, it did not appear on legal instruments. It did, however, appear on the inscriptions on coins. England and Scotland remained separate political bodies until 1707.

These Dates in History. October 14, 1066, 1322 & 1586.

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Battle of Hastings, King Edward II of England, Kings and Queens of England, kings and queens of Scotland, Mary I of Scotland, Queen Elizabeth I of England, Robert I of Scotland, William I of England

* 1066 – The Norman conquest of England begins with the Battle of Hastings.

William I-II the Conqueror, King of England and Duke of Normandy.

The Battle of Hastings was fought on October 14, 1066 between the Norman-French army of William II, Duke of Normandy, and an English army under the Anglo-Saxon King Harold II Godwinson, beginning the Norman conquest of England. It took place approximately 7 miles (11 kilometres) northwest of Hastings, close to the present-day town of Battle, East Sussex, and was a decisive Norman victory.

The day after the battle, Harold’s body was identified, either by his armour or marks on his body. Harold II’s personal standard was presented to William and later sent to the papacy.

William expected to receive the submission of the surviving English leaders after his victory, but instead Edgar the Ætheling was proclaimed king by the Witenagemot, with the support of Earls Edwin and Morcar, Stigand, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Ealdred, the Archbishop of York. William therefore advanced on London, marching around the coast of Kent. He defeated an English force that attacked him at Southwark but was unable to storm London Bridge, forcing him to reach the capital by a more circuitous route.

William moved up the Thames valley to cross the river at Wallingford, where he received the submission of Stigand. He then travelled north-east along the Chilterns, before advancing towards London from the north-west, fighting further engagements against forces from the city. The English leaders surrendered to William at Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. William was acclaimed King of England and crowned by Ealdred on December 25, 1066, in Westminster Abbey.

(See entry tomorrow for more information Edgar the Ætheling being proclaimed King of England).

* 1322 – King Robert I the Bruce of Scotland defeats King Edward II of England at the Battle of Old Byland, forcing Edward to accept Scotland’s independence.

Robert I, King of Scots.

The Battle of Old Byland (also known as the Battle of Byland Moor and Battle of Byland Abbey) was a significant encounter between Scots and English troops in Yorkshire on October 14, 1322, forming part of the Wars of Scottish Independence. It was a victory for the Scots, the most significant since Bannockburn, though on a far smaller scale.

Ever since Robert Bruce’s victory at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, the Scots had taken the initiative in the wars with England, raiding deep into the north of the country repeatedly and with comparative ease to attempt to force the English to the peace-table. The English king, Edward II seemed incapable of dealing with the problem, distracted, as he often was, in a political struggle with his own barons and refused to even begin peace negotiations with the Scots which would have required recognizing Robert the Bruce as King of the Scots. In early 1322 the situation had become critical, with some senior English noblemen, headed by Thomas of Lancaster, preparing to enter into an alliance with the Scots.

By the time Edward II was ready to begin his advance in early August Bruce was more than ready. He deployed his usual tactics: crops were destroyed and livestock removed and his army withdrawn north of the River Forth. Bruce crossed the Solway in the west, making his way in a south-easterly direction towards Yorkshire, bringing many troops recruited in Argyll and the Isles.

All that stood between them and a royal prize was a large English force under the command of John of Brittany, Earl of Richmond. John had taken up position on Scawton Moor, between Rievaulx and Byland Abbey. To dislodge him from his strong position on the high ground Bruce used the same tactics that brought victory at the earlier Battle of Pass of Brander. As Moray and Douglas charged uphill a party of Highlanders scaled the cliffs on the English flank and charged downhill into Richmond’s rear. Resistance crumbled and the Battle of Old Byland turned into a rout. Richmond himself was taken prisoner, as were Henri de Sully, Grand Butler of France, Sir Ralph Cobham (‘the best knight in England’) and Sir Thomas Ughtred. Many others were killed in flight. Edward – ‘ever chicken hearted and luckless in war’ – was forced to make a rapid and undignified exit from Rievaulx, fleeing in such haste that his personal belongings were left behind.

* 1586 Trial of Mary I, Queen of Scots.

Mary I, Queen of Scots

On August 11, 1586, after being implicated in the Babington Plot* Mary was arrested while out riding and taken to Tixall. In a successful attempt to entrap her, Walsingham had deliberately arranged for Mary’s letters to be smuggled out of Chartley. Mary was misled into thinking her letters were secure, while in reality they were deciphered and read by Walsingham. From these letters it was clear that Mary had sanctioned the attempted assassination of Elizabeth.

She was moved to Fotheringhay Castle in a four-day journey ending on September 25, and in October was put on trial for treason under the Act for the Queen’s Safety before a court of 36 noblemen, including Cecil, Shrewsbury, and Walsingham. Spirited in her defence, Mary denied the charges. She told her triers, “Look to your consciences and remember that the theatre of the whole world is wider than the kingdom of England”. She protested that she had been denied the opportunity to review the evidence, that her papers had been removed from her, that she was denied access to legal counsel and that as a foreign anointed queen she had never been an English subject and thus could not be convicted of treason.

Mary was convicted on October 25 and sentenced to death with only one commissioner, Lord Zouche, expressing any form of dissent. Nevertheless, Elizabeth hesitated to order her execution, even in the face of pressure from the English Parliament to carry out the sentence. She was concerned that the killing of a queen set a discreditable precedent and was fearful of the consequences especially if, in retaliation, Mary’s son, James VI, formed an alliance with the Catholic powers and invaded England. Elizabeth asked Paulet, Mary’s final custodian, if he would contrive a clandestine way to “shorten the life” of Mary, which he refused to do on the grounds that he would not make “a shipwreck of my conscience, or leave so great a blot on my poor posterity”.

On February 1, 1587, Elizabeth signed the death warrant, and entrusted it to William Davison, a privy councillor. On February 3, ten members of the Privy Council of England, having been summoned by Cecil without Elizabeth’s knowledge, decided to carry out the sentence at once.

* The Babington Plot was a plan in 1586 to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I, a Protestant, and put Mary, Queen of Scots, her Roman Catholic cousin, on the English throne. It led to the Queen of Scots’ execution, a result of a letter sent by Mary (who had been imprisoned for 19 years since 1568 in England at the behest of Elizabeth) in which she consented to the assassination of Elizabeth.

The long-term goal of the plot was the invasion of England by the Spanish forces of King Felipe II and the Catholic League in France, leading to the restoration of the old religion. The plot was discovered by Elizabeth’s spymaster Sir Francis Walsinghamand used to entrap Mary for the purpose of removing her as a claimant to the English throne.

This date in History. October 1, 959: Edgar the Peaceful becomes King of the English.

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Archbishop of Canterbury Edgar, Dustan, Edgar the Peaceful, Kenneth II of Scotland, King of England, King of the English, Kings and Queens of England, kings and queens of Scotland

Edgar (c. 943 – July 8, 975), known as the Peaceful or the Peaceable, was King of the English (England) from October 1, 959 until his death. He was the younger son of Edmund I King of the English and Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury, and came to the throne as a teenager, following the death of his older brother Eadwig. While Edgar may not have been a particularly peaceable man his reign was peaceful. The Kingdom of England was well established, and Edgar consolidated the political unity achieved by his predecessors. By the end of his reign, England was sufficiently unified in that it was unlikely to regress back to a state of division among rival kingships, as it had to an extent under the reign of Eadred.

His most trusted advisor was Dunstan, whom he recalled from exile and made Archbishop of Canterbury. Edgar was crowned at Bath and along with his wife Ælfthryth was anointed, setting a precedent for a coronation of a queen in England itself. Edgar’s coronation did not happen until 973, in an imperial ceremony planned not as the initiation, but as the culmination of his reign (a move that must have taken a great deal of preliminary diplomacy). This service, devised by Dunstan himself and celebrated with a poem in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, forms the basis of the present-day British coronation ceremony.

The symbolic coronation was an important step; other kings of Britain came and gave their allegiance to Edgar shortly afterwards at Chester. Six kings in Britain, including King Kenneth II of Scotland and Máel Coluim, King of Strathclyde, pledged their faith that they would be the king’s liege-men on sea and land. Later chroniclers made the kings into eight, all plying the oars of Edgar’s state barge on the River Dee Such embellishments may not be factual, and what actually happened is unclear.

Edgar died on July 8, 975 at Winchester, Hampshire. (aged 31/32) He was buried at Glastonbury Abbey. He left behind Edward, who was probably his illegitimate son by Æthelflæd (not to be confused with the Lady of the Mercians), and Æthelred, the younger, the child of his wife Ælfthryth. He was succeeded by Edward, although the succession was disputed, with the legitimacy of Edward the main issue. Edgar also had a possibly illegitimate daughter by Wulfthryth, who later became abbess of Wilton. She was joined there by her daughter, Edith of Wilton, who lived there as a nun until her death. Both women were later regarded as saints

This date in History: August 15, 1057. Death of King MacBeth of Alba (Scotland).

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Duncan I of Scotland, Grouch of Scotland, Kenneth III of Scotland, King of Alba, Kingdom of Scotland, kings and queens of Scotland, Lulach, MacBeth, Malcolm III of Scotland, William Shakespeare

Macbeth (c. 1005 – 15 August 1057) was King of Scots from 1040 until his death. He was titled King of Alba during his life, and ruled over only a portion of present-day Scotland.

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MacBeth, King of Alba (Scotland).

During this time period Scotland was called the Kingdom of Alba and I’d like to give some background on that terminology.

The Kingdom of Alba refers to the Kingdom of Alba (Scotland) between the deaths of Donald II in 900 and of Alexander III in 1286. The name is one of convenience, as throughout this period the elite and populace of the Kingdom were predominantly Pictish-Gaels or later Pictish-Gaels and Scoto-Norman, and differs markedly from the period of the Stuarts, in which the elite of the kingdom were (for the most part) speakers of Middle English, which later evolved and came to be called Lowland Scots. There is no precise Gaelic equivalent for the English terminology “Kingdom of Alba”, as the Gaelic term Rìoghachd na h-Alba means ‘Kingdom of Scotland’. English-speaking scholars adapted the Gaelic name for Scotland to apply to a particular political period in Scottish history during the High Middle Ages.

Little is known about Macbeth’s early life, although he was the son of Findláech of Moray and may have been a grandson of Malcolm II. He became Mormaer of Moray – a semi-autonomous lordship – in 1032, and was probably responsible for the death of the previous mormaer, Gille Coemgáin. He subsequently married Gille Coemgáin’s widow, Gruoch, although they had no children together. Grouch was the granddaughter of Kenneth III of Scotland via Boite mac Cináeda (“Boite son of Kenneth”; d. 1058) was a Scottish prince, son of King Kenneth III of Alba (Scotland).

In 1040, Duncan I launched an attack into Moray and was killed in action by Macbeth’s troops. Macbeth succeeded him as King of Alba, apparently with little opposition. His 17-year reign was mostly peaceful, although in 1054 he was faced with an English invasion, led by Siward, Earl of Northumbria, on behalf of Edward the Confessor.

Macbeth did not survive the English invasion for long, for he was defeated and mortally wounded or killed by the future Malcolm III (“King Malcolm Ceann-mor”, son of Duncan I) on the north side of the Mounth in 1057, after retreating with his men over the Cairnamounth Pass to take his last stand at the battle at Lumphanan. The Prophecy of Berchán has it that he was wounded and died at Scone, sixty miles to the south, some days later. Macbeth’s stepson Lulach was installed as king soon after.

Macbeth was initially succeeded by his stepson Lulach, but Lulach ruled for only a few months before also being killed by Malcolm III, whose descendants would rule Scotland until the late 13th century. Macbeth is today best known as the main character of William Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth and the many works it has inspired. However, Shakespeare’s Macbeth is based on Holinshed’s Chronicles (published in 1577) and is not historically accurate.

Name

Macbeth’s full name in Medieval Gaelic was Mac Bethad mac Findlaích. This is realised as MacBheatha mac Fhionnlaigh in Modern Gaelic, and anglicised as Macbeth MacFinlay (also spelled Findlay, Findley, or Finley). The name Mac Bethad, from which the anglicised “MacBeth” is derived, means “son of life”.[2]Although it has the appearance of a Gaelic patronymic it does not have any meaning of filiation but instead carries an implication of “righteous man”or “religious man”. An alternative proposed derivation is that it is a corruption of macc-bethad meaning “one of the elect”.

Royal ancestry

It is questioned by historians whether or not MacBeth had any royal ancestry at all. Some sources make Macbeth a grandson of King Malcolm II and thus a cousin to Duncan I, whom he succeeded. He was possibly also a cousin to Thorfinn the Mighty, Earl of Orkney and Caithness. Nigel Tranter, in his novel Macbeth the King, went so far as to portray Macbeth as Thorfinn’s half-brother. However, this is speculation arising from the lack of historical certainty regarding the number of daughters Malcolm had.

On this date in History: June 10, 1688. Birth of Prince James Francis Edward Stuart. Part I.

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Glorious Revolution, James Francis Stuart, King James II-VII of England and Scotland, Kings and Queens of England, kings and queens of Scotland, Louis XIV of France, Prince of Wales, William III of England, William of Orange

James Francis Edward Stuart (June 10, 1688 – January 1, 1766), nicknamed The Old Pretender, was the son of King James II-VII of England, Scotland and Ireland, and his second wife, Mary of Modena. He was born at St. James’s Palace and was automatically Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay, among other titles. Subsequently he was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester.

James II-VII, King of England, Scotland and Ireland.

The prince’s birth was controversial and, coming five years after his mother’s last conception, unanticipated on the part of a number of British Protestants, who had expected his sister Mary, from his father’s first marriage, to succeed their father. Mary and her younger sister Princess Anne had been raised as Protestants.As long as there was a possibility of one of them succeeding him, the king’s opponents saw his rule as a temporary inconvenience. When people began to fear that James’s second wife, Mary, would produce a Catholic son and heir, a movement grew to replace him with his elder daughter Princess Mary and his son-in-law/nephew, Willem III of Orange.

Rumors immediately began to spread that he was an impostor baby, smuggled into the royal birth chamber in a warming pan and that the actual child of James and Mary was stillborn. In an attempt to scotch this myth, James published the testimonies of over seventy witnesses to the birth.

Prince James Frances Edward, Prince of Wales

It is widely considered that the birth of Prince James Francis Edward was the sole reason that James II-VII was deposed. This event event certainly hastened the demise of king James’s reign, however, it was not the only cause. The second event that sealed the Kings fate was the prosecution of the Seven Bishops for seditious libel; this was viewed as an assault on the Church of England and their acquittal on June 30, destroyed his political authority in England. Anti-Catholic riots in England and Scotland now made it seem only his removal as monarch could prevent a civil war.

Let me provide more context to the second event. In April 1688, James re-issued the Declaration of Indulgence, subsequently ordering Anglican clergy to read it in their churches.

The Declaration granted broad religious freedom in England by suspending penal laws enforcing conformity to the Church of England and allowing persons to worship in their homes or chapels as they saw fit, and it ended the requirement of affirming religious oaths before gaining employment in government office.By use of the royal suspending power, the king lifted the religious penal laws and granted toleration to the various Christian denominations, including Catholic and Protestant, within his kingdoms.

While this was a progressive act, anti-Catholic sentiments ruled the day and many Protestant clergy viewed this act as an attack on their authority. When seven Bishops, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, submitted a petition requesting the reconsideration of the King’s religious policies, they were arrested and tried for seditious libel.

Protestant Clergy and Nobles had already entered into negotiations with Prince Willem III of Orange when it became known the Queen was pregnant, and the birth of a son reinforced their convictions. On June 30, 1688, when the group of Seven Bishops were acquitted, it resulted in wild celebrations throughout London, including within regiments of the Royal Army based in Hounslow, much to James’ annoyance and concern.

The same day of the acquittal seven Protestant nobles sent an Invitation to Willem III of Orange, ‘inviting’ him to take the throne on behalf of his wife Mary, James’ Protestant daughter. The invitation was signed by seven individuals selected from key elements of the political nation, including Tories, Whigs, Bishop Compton and the Royal Navy.

By September, it had become clear that Willem III sought to invade England. Believing that his own army would be adequate, James II-VII refused the assistance of Louis XIV, fearing that the English would oppose French intervention. When Willem arrived on November 5, 1688, many Protestant officers, including Churchill, defected and joined Willem as did James’s own daughter, Anne.

James lost his nerve and declined to attack the invading army, despite his army’s numerical superiority. On December 9, Mary of Modena disguised herself as a laundress and escaped with the infant James Francis Edward to France. On December 11, James II-VII tried to flee to France, first throwing the Great Seal of the Realm into the River Thames. He was captured in Kent; later, he was released and placed under Dutch protective guard. Having no desire to make James a martyr, the Prince of Orange let him escape on December 23. James was received by his cousin and ally, Louis XIV, who offered him a palace and a pension.

On this date in History: April 24, 1558, the marriage of Mary I, Queen of Scots and The Dauphin of France.

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Francis II of France, Henry II of France, House of Stewart, House of Stuart, James V King of Scots, King Henri II of France, King Henry VIII of England, Kings and Queens of England, kings and queens of Scotland, Kings of france, Margaret Tudor, Marie de Guise, Mary I of Scots, Mary of Guise, Mary Queen of Scots, The Dauphin

Mary was born on December 8, 1542 at Linlithgow Palace, Scotland, to King James V of Scots and his French second wife, Marie de Guise. Mary was said to have been born prematurely and was the only legitimate child of James V to survive him She was the great-niece of King Henry VIII of England, as her paternal grandmother, Margaret Tudor, was Henry VIII’s sister. On December 14, 1542 six days after her birth, she became Queen of Scotland when her father died from drinking contaminated water while on campaign following the Battle of Solway Moss.

Mary I, Queen of Scots

Since Mary was an infant when she inherited the throne, Scotland was ruled by regents until she became an adult. From the outset, there were two claims to the regency: one from Catholic Cardinal Beaton, and the other from the Protestant Earl of Arran, who was next in line to the Scottish throne. Beaton’s claim to the regency was based on a version of the King Jame V’s will that his opponents dismissed as a forgery. Arran, with the support of his friends and relations, became the regent until 1554 when Mary’s mother managed to remove and succeed him.

Henry VIII, King of England and King of Ireland.

King Henry VIII of England took the opportunity of the regency to propose marriage between Mary and his own son and heir, Edward (future Edward VI of England) seeking to unite Scotland and England. On July 1, 1543, when Mary was six months old, the Treaty of Greenwichwas signed, which promised that, at the age of ten, Mary would marry Edward and move to England, where Henry could oversee her upbringing. The treaty provided that the two countries would remain legally separate and that if the couple should fail to have children, the temporary union would dissolve. Cardinal Beaton rose to power again and began to push a pro-Catholic pro-French agenda, angering Henry, who wanted to break the Scottish alliance with France.

The French king, Henri II, desired to unite France and Scotland and proposed marrying the young queen to his three-year-old son, the Dauphin Francis. On the promise of French military help, and a French dukedom for himself, the regent Earl of Arran agreed to the marriage. In February 1548, Mary was moved, for her safety, to Dumbarton Castle. The English left a trail of devastation behind once more and seized the strategic town of Haddington. In June, the much awaited French help arrived at Leith to besiege and ultimately take Haddington. On July 7, 1548, a Scottish Parliament held at a nunnery near the town agreed to a French marriage treaty.

Mary I, Queen of Scots

With the promise of her marriage agreement in place, five-year-old Mary was sent to France to spend the next thirteen years at the French court. The French fleet sent by Henri II, commanded by Nicolas de Villegagnon, sailed with Mary from Dumbarton on August 7, 1548 and arrived a week or more later at Roscoff or Saint-Pol-de-Léon in Brittany.

At the French court, she was a favourite with everyone, except Henri II’s wife Catherine de’ Medici. Mary learned to play lute and virginals, was competent in prose, poetry, horsemanship, falconry and needlework, and was taught French, Italian, Latin, Spanish, and Greek, in addition to speaking her native Scots. Her future sister-in-law, Elisabeth of Valois, became a close friend of whom Mary “retained nostalgic memories in later life”.Her maternal grandmother, Antoinette de Bourbon, was another strong influence on her childhood, and acted as one of her principal advisors.

King Francis II and Queen Mary I of France and Scotland

Mary was eloquent and especially tall by sixteenth-century standards (she attained an adult height of 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m), while Henri II’s son and heir, Francis, stuttered and was abnormally short. Henri commented that “from the very first day they met, my son and she got on as well together. On April 4, 1558, Mary signed a secret agreement bequeathing Scotland and her claim to England to the French crown if she died without issue. Twenty days later, April 24,1558 she married the Dauphin at Notre Dame de Paris, and he became king consort of Scotland. When Henri II died on July 10, 1559 from injuries sustained in a joust, the fifteen-year-old Dauphin became King Francis II of France and sixteen-year-old Mary I, Queen of Scots became Queen of France.