A highly religious man, Athelwulf travelled to Rome with his son Alfred to see the Pope in 855. When Edward died in 1910 it is said that Queen Alexandra brought his current mistress Mrs. Keppel to his bedside to take her farewell. EGBERT 827 – 839Egbert (Ecgherht) was the first monarch to establish a stable and extensive rule over all of Anglo-Saxon England. EDWARD III 1327 – 1377 Following his conquest of Mercia in 827, he controlled all of England south of the Humber. He became king aged about 10, but fled to Normandy in 1013 when Sweyn Forkbeard, King of the Danes invaded England. Cromwell went on to crush the Irish clans and the Scots loyal to Charles II between 1649 and 1651. Consequently when he renounced the throne to marry Mrs. Wallis Simpson the country found it almost impossible to believe. She died in 1558 at Lambeth Palace in London. This was following the Declaration of Breda and an invitation to reclaim the throne from the Convention Parliament of 1660. His body was re-interred at Leicester Cathedral on 22nd March 2015. Although very popular he was a weak king and his foreign policy was inept. Edward V was deposed by Richard III, who usurped the throne on the grounds that Edward was illegitimate. EDWARD THE CONFESSOR 1042-1066 EDWARD V 1483 – 1483 His latter years were overshadowed by his concern about the Prince of Wales and his infatuation with Mrs. Simpson. In an effort to have a son, Henry married four further wives, but only one son was born, to Jane Seymour. JOHN 1199 -1216 Dieu et mon droit was first used as a battle cry by Richard I in 1198 at the Battle of Gisors, when he defeated the forces of Philip II of France[63][64] It has generally been used as the motto of English monarchs since being adopted by Edward III.[63]. In less than a month, "King Louis I" controlled more than half of the country and enjoyed the support of two-thirds of the barons. HENRY VIII 1509 – 1547 The House of York claimed the right to the throne through Edward III's second surviving son, Lionel of Antwerp, but it inherited its name from Edward's fourth surviving son, Edmund of Langley, first Duke of York. Historian Simon Keynes states, for example, that "Offa was driven by a lust for power, not a vision of English unity; and what he left was a reputation, not a legacy. Although supported by Archbishop Dunstan, his claim to the throne was contested by supporters of his much younger half-brother Aethelred. George was the last English king to lead his army into battle at Dettingen in 1743. Edward VI was crowned on 20 February 1547. Alfred was forced to retreat to a small island in the Somerset Levels and it was from here that he masterminded his comeback, perhaps ‘burning the cakes‘ as a consequence. He and his brother Richard were murdered in the Tower of London – it is said on the orders of his uncle Richard Duke of Gloucester. After King Harold was killed at the Battle of Hastings, the Witan elected Edgar Ætheling as king, but by then the Normans controlled the country and Edgar never ruled. The son of Henry IV, he was a pious, stern and skilful soldier. Unlike his father, Richard lacked military experience and as such failed to gain respect or support from his New Model Army. George had not expected to be king, but when his elder brother died he became the heir-apparent. The period which followed is known as The Anarchy, as parties supporting each side fought in open warfare both in Britain and on the continent for the better part of two decades. He is buried at Winchester in Hampshire. The execution of Mary Queen of Scots marred what was a glorious time in English history. James was more of a scholar than a man of action. Brother of Edward IV. Following the decisive Battle of Assandun on 18 October 1016, King Edmund signed a treaty with Cnut (Canute) under which all of England except for Wessex would be controlled by Cnut. His beautiful tomb in Gloucester Cathedral was erected by his son, Edward III. She married her cousin Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and they had four children: Charles, Anne, Andrew and Edward. Known as the ‘Sailor King’ (for 10 years the young Prince William, brother of George IV, served in the Royal Navy), he was the third son of George III. His wife joined her lover Mortimer in deposing him: by their orders he was murdered in Berkley Castle – as legend has it, by having a red-hot poker thrust up his anus! EGBERT 827 – 839 When his first wife Eleanor died, he escorted her body from Grantham in Lincolnshire to Westminster, setting up Eleanor Crosses at every resting place. Anglo-Saxon Chronicles History > Monarchs of England. Following the death of his sister Aethelflaed of Mercia, Edward unites the kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia. The son of Cnut the Great and Emma of Normandy, Harthacanute sailed to England with his mother, accompanied by a fleet of 62 warships, and was immediately accepted as king. He was a bluff, hearty man with a ‘quarter-deck’ manner. His grandsonRaedwald, was the fourth Bretwalda, and is considered the king who was buried inthe long-boat excavated at Sutton Hoo in 1939. Following Eadwig’s mysterious death, Edgar immediately recalled Dunstan from exile, making him Archbishop of Canterbury as well as his personal adviser. James II was crowned on 23 April 1685 with. He had two daughters but they did not live. ), he was the illegitimate son of Robert the Devil, whom he succeeded as Duke of Normandy in 1035. Harthacanute died at a wedding whilst toasting the health of the bride; he was aged just 24 and was the last Danish king to rule England. James was descended from the Tudors through his great-grandmother, Margaret Tudor, the eldest daughter of Henry VII and wife of James IV of Scotland. The son of Edward the Elder by his third marriage to Eadgifu, Eadred succeeded his brother Edmund following his premature death. [70] "King Louis I of England" remains one of the least known kings to have ruled over a substantial part of England.[71]. The Reform Act was passed in 1832, this extended the franchise to the middle-classes on a basis of property qualifications. Henry had two daughters both to become rulers of England – Mary, daughter of Catherine of Aragon, and Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn. The following year, Edward is killed in a battle against the Welsh near Chester. Discover the monarchs of the kingdom of Mercia, from King Icel in the early 500’s all the way through to Ælfwynn who annexed the kingdom to Wessex in 918. EADWIG 955 – 959 He is buried in Winchester. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies. In 1653 he finally expelled the corrupt English parliament and with the agreement of army leaders became Lord Protector (King in all but name). William defeated James at the Battle of the Boyne and James fled again to France, as guest of Louis XIV. Caroline and George had one daughter, Charlotte in 1796 but she died in 1817. A devout Catholic, she married Philip of Spain. Although crowned King of England, Richard spent all but 6 months of his reign abroad, preferring to use the taxes from his kingdom to fund his various armies and military ventures. She had 17 pregnancies but only one child survived – William, who died of smallpox aged just 11. Henry VII was crowned on 30 October 1485. The 54 year old George arrived in England able to speak only a few words of English with his 18 cooks and 2 mistresses in tow. It has since been retroactively applied to English monarchs from Henry II onward. Archaeological investigations at a car park in Leicester, the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642. George was in close touch with the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill throughout the war and both had to be dissuaded from landing with the troops in Normandy on D-Day! His best known mistress was Lillie Langtry, the ‘Jersey Lily’. Shortly after his succession a Danish army landed and sacked Winchester before being defeated by the Saxons. Edward died childless, eight days after the building work on Westminster Abbey had finished. The remainder of Aethelred’s reign was one of a constant state of war with Sweyn’s son Canute. Failing to gain agreement on constitutional change in government with Charles I, Cromwell was a member of a ‘Special Commission’ that tried and condemned the king to death in 1649. The prestige of the throne was low when he became king, but his wife Elizabeth and his mother Queen Mary were outstanding in their support of him. William II was crowned on 26 September 1087. He defeated King Harold II and became King. Jane was executed for treason in 1554, aged 16. He is buried at Sherbourne Abbey in Dorset. In 1399 Henry of Lancaster returned from exile and deposed Richard, becoming elected King Henry IV. This divorce caused the split from Rome and Henry declared himself the head of the Church Of England. The American Colonies proclaimed their independence on July 4th 1776. However he suffered military defeat at the hands of the English fleet. Canute became king of all England following the death of Edmund II. Louis VIII of France briefly won two-thirds of England over to his side from May 1216 to September 1217 at the conclusion of the First Barons' War against King John. His son ruled as Prince Regent after 1811 until George’s death. In 1893 he married Princess Mary of Teck, his dead brother’s fiancee. It was during Anne’s reign that the United Kingdom of Great Britain was created by the Union of England and Scotland. EDWARD IV 1461- 1483 In 1605 the Gunpowder Plot was hatched: Guy Fawkes and his Catholic friends tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament, but were captured before they could do so.