Monarchs and succession

The monarchs the handbook names, in order, with what each reign is known for. This is not a complete regnal list: the book names monarchs episodically, when one matters to a story it is telling, so the gaps between these names are real and no reign, house or date has been supplied that the notes do not give.

The facts are learnable; placing them is what goes wrong — Magna Carta, the Armada, the union of the crowns and the Act of Union all get filed under the wrong reign.

56 entries · Core: learn this or risk failing · Useful: worth a look · Context: read once, don’t memorise

Before the English kingdoms

  1. The Emperor ClaudiusLed the new invasion of AD 43, which succeeded where Julius Caesar's invasion of 55 BC had failed, and after which the Romans occupied almost all of Britain.CoreEarly Britain
  2. BoudiccaQueen of the Iceni in what is now eastern England, she was one of the tribal leaders who fought against the Romans, and there is a statue of her on Westminster Bridge in London.UsefulEarly Britain
  3. The Emperor HadrianBuilt a wall in the north of England to keep out the Picts, the ancestors of the Scottish people, and parts of it, including the forts of Housesteads and Vindolanda, can still be seen.UsefulEarly Britain

The Anglo-Saxons, the Vikings and the Norman Conquest

  1. King Alfred the GreatDefeated the Vikings, and the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in England united under him.CoreEarly Britain
  2. Cnut, also called CanuteWas the first of the Danish kings, the short period that interrupted Anglo-Saxon rule of what is now England.ContextEarly Britain
  3. Kenneth MacAlpinThe threat of Viking attack encouraged the people of the north to unite under him as one king, and the term Scotland began to be used.UsefulEarly Britain
  4. HaroldThe Saxon king of England, defeated and killed by William, the Duke of Normandy, at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.UsefulEarly Britain
  5. William the ConquerorWon the Battle of Hastings in 1066 in the last successful foreign invasion of England, and the Domesday Book made under him listed the towns and villages of England, the people who lived there, who owned the land and what animals they owned.CoreEarly Britain

The Middle Ages

  1. King JohnWas forced by his noblemen in 1215 to agree to a charter of rights called Magna Carta, which established the idea that even the king was subject to the law and restricted his power to collect taxes or to make or change laws.CoreThe Middle Ages
  2. King Edward IIntroduced the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284, which annexed Wales to the Crown of England.UsefulThe Middle Ages
  3. King Henry VWon the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, at which a vastly outnumbered English army defeated the French.UsefulThe Middle Ages
  4. King Richard IIIHouse of YorkWas killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, which ended the Wars of the Roses.UsefulThe Middle Ages

The Tudors

  1. King Henry VIIHouse of TudorBecame the first king of the House of Tudor after leading the House of Lancaster to victory in the Wars of the Roses, and married King Richard's niece, Elizabeth of York, uniting the two families.UsefulThe Middle Ages
  2. Henry VIIIBroke away from the Church of Rome and established the Church of England when the Pope refused to approve the divorce of his first wife, married six times, and during his reign Wales became formally united with England by the Act for the Government of Wales.CoreThe Tudors and Stuarts (part 1)
  3. Edward VIThe Book of Common Prayer was written for use in the Church of England during this strongly Protestant reign, which lasted just over six years and ended when the king died at the age of 15.UsefulThe Tudors and Stuarts (part 1)
  4. Mary, known as 'Bloody Mary'Persecuted Protestants as a devout Catholic, which is how she got her name, and died after a short reign.UsefulThe Tudors and Stuarts (part 1)
  5. Queen Elizabeth IRe-established the Church of England as the official Church, found a balance between Catholics and more extreme Protestants that avoided serious religious conflict within England, and saw off the Spanish Armada in 1588.CoreThe Tudors and Stuarts (part 1)

The Stuarts, and the years without a monarch

  1. Mary Stuart, 'Mary, Queen of Scots'Became queen of Scotland when she was only a week old, fled to England after her husband was murdered, was kept a prisoner by her cousin Elizabeth I for 20 years, and was eventually executed, accused of plotting against her.UsefulThe Tudors and Stuarts (part 1)
  2. James VI of Scotland, King James I of EnglandInherited Elizabeth I's throne as her heir when she died in 1603, becoming king of England, Wales and Ireland while Scotland remained a separate country, and gave his name to the 'King James Version' of the Bible.CoreThe Tudors and Stuarts (part 1)
  3. Charles IEntered the House of Commons to arrest five parliamentary leaders — no monarch has set foot there since — then lost the civil war that began in 1642 and was executed in 1649.CoreThe Tudors and Stuarts (part 2)
  4. Oliver CromwellRuled not as a king but as Lord Protector of the republic England declared after the execution, having established the authority of the English Parliament in Ireland with a violence that makes him a controversial figure there today, and ruled until his death in 1658.UsefulThe Tudors and Stuarts (part 2)
  5. Richard CromwellBecame Lord Protector in his father's place but was not able to control the army or the government, and after 11 years as a republic people began to talk about the need for a king.ContextThe Tudors and Stuarts (part 2)
  6. Charles IIWas invited back from exile in the Netherlands by Parliament in May 1660 and crowned king of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, understanding that he would sometimes need to reach agreement with Parliament.UsefulThe Tudors and Stuarts (part 2)
  7. James II, King James VII of ScotlandBecame king when his brother died in 1685, favoured Roman Catholics and did not seek agreement with Parliament, and the birth of his son made a Catholic succession suddenly likely.UsefulThe Tudors and Stuarts (part 2)
  8. William III, William II of Scotland, and MaryWere asked by important Protestants to take the throne in the Glorious Revolution of 1688, so called because there was no fighting in England, and ruled jointly after James II fled to France, defeating him at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland in 1690.CoreThe Tudors and Stuarts (part 2)
  9. Queen AnneHad no surviving children, which created uncertainty over the succession in England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland, and during this reign the Act of Union — the Treaty of Union in Scotland — was agreed in 1707, creating the Kingdom of Great Britain.CoreA global power (part 1)

From George I to Queen Victoria

  1. George IWas chosen by Parliament in 1714 as Queen Anne's nearest Protestant relative, and did not speak very good English, which increased his need to rely on his ministers, the most important of whom became known as the Prime Minister.UsefulA global power (part 1)
  2. George IIHis army defeated Charles Edward Stuart at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, after which the Scottish clans lost a lot of their power and influence.UsefulA global power (part 1)
  3. Queen Victoria1837–1901Became queen of the UK in 1837 at the age of 18 and reigned almost 64 years, a period known as the Victorian Age, in which the British Empire grew to cover all of India, Australia and large parts of Africa.UsefulA global power (part 2)

The 20th century and the present day

  1. King George VISir William Walton wrote a march for this coronation, which is the only thing the notes say about the reign.ContextArts and culture (part 1)
  2. Queen Elizabeth IISince 1952Has reigned since her father's death in 1952, and in 2012 celebrated her Diamond Jubilee, marking 60 years as queen.UsefulThe development of British democracy / The British constitution

Claimants who never became monarch

  • Those who continued to believe that James was the rightful king, particularly in Scotland, became known as Jacobites.The Tudors and Stuarts (part 2)
  • An attempt by Scottish Jacobites to put James II's son on the throne instead of George I was quickly defeated.A global power (part 1)
  • Charles Edward Stuart, known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, was the grandson of James II; he landed in Scotland, was supported by clansmen from the Scottish highlands, raised an army, and escaped back to Europe after his defeat.A global power (part 1)

How the monarch's power was limited

  • A Declaration of Rights was read at the coronation of William and Mary, confirming that the king could no longer raise taxes or administer justice without the agreement of Parliament, and the balance of power between monarch and Parliament had now permanently changed.A global power (part 1)
  • The Bill of Rights of 1689 confirmed the rights of Parliament and the limits of the king's power.A global power (part 1)
  • Parliament took control of who could be monarch and declared that the king or queen must be a Protestant.A global power (part 1)
  • Every year the monarch had to ask Parliament to renew funding for the army and the navy.A global power (part 1)
  • The laws passed after the Glorious Revolution are the beginning of what is called constitutional monarchy, in which the monarch remained very important but could no longer insist on particular policies or actions if Parliament did not agree.A global power (part 1)
  • After William III, the ministers gradually became more important than the monarch, but this was not a democracy in the modern sense.A global power (part 1)

The monarchy today