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The Kings and Queens of England

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Some historians prefer to group the subsequent kings into two groups, before and after the loss of the bulk of their French possessions, although they are not different royal houses. The name Plantagenet itself was unknown as a family name per se until Richard of York adopted it as his family name in the 15th century. A subsequent proclamation by John of Gaunt's legitimate son, King Henry IV, also recognised the Beauforts' legitimacy, but declared them ineligible ever to inherit the throne. It is even recorded that George II died on the toilet, a victim to constipation – well and the stodgy English diet, I assume - or presume. You or I could have told them it was impossible – against the laws of physics – but, drunk on notions of regal greatness and their divine right, they bought into the notion again and again.

Antonia Fraser is the author of many widely acclaimed historical works, including the biographies Mary, Queen of Scots (a 40th anniversary edition was published in May 2009), Cromwell: Our Chief of Men, King Charles II and The Gunpowder Plot (CWA Non-Fiction Gold Dagger; St Louis Literary Award). Being essentially the chronicle of a family over the course of a thousand years, the dramatical effect is heightened and thought-provoking lessons and examples (a few positive, but many negative) abound. Written 20 years ago but I think the last two decades (with the exception of a number of royal weddings and births) have been relatively placid compared to the dramas and calamities witnesses by this longstanding “firm. James II was ousted by Parliament less than four years after ascending to the throne, beginning the century's second interregnum.This is an excellent book with which start learning about the British monarchy, particularly the very early Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman Kings. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever wondered how it all happened without having to delve into too many details. There are random facts and there is a lot of name dropping - duke this, and duke that - as if you should already know who they are and what is their historical importance. Throughout the middle ages, our rulers supposedly had the endorsement of God, which made their failures all the more humiliating.

Four years later, when Harold himself was dead, the new king, his half-brother Harthacnut, took revenge on Alfred’s behalf: he had Harold’s body dug up, beheaded and then chucked in a ditch. During the reign of his predecessor, his elder brother Richard the Lionheart, he tried to steal the throne by pretending Richard was dead. in the happy administration of her Grace's realms and dominions", but elsewhere says that Mary shall be the sole Queen. Did England make a sudden shift to a completely symbolic monarchy with George I, or was that just the beginning of a more gradual process? An annoying factor is Crofton’s habit of mentioning Shakespeare and the playwright’s depictions of kings.The Acts of Union 1707 were a pair of Parliamentary Acts passed during 1706 and 1707 by the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland to put into effect the Treaty of Union agreed on 22 July 1706.

Alfred styled himself king of the Anglo-Saxons from about 886, and while he was not the first king to claim to rule all of the English, his rule represents the start of the first unbroken line of kings to rule the whole of England, the House of Wessex. All the same, hard to imagine a tabloid being able to eke out an existence without the constant stream of stories this particularly dysfunctional family provides. Perhaps his most ridiculous moment came in 1205 when, having lost most of his French lands, he organised a massive expedition to try to get them back which, at the 11th hour, the entire English aristocracy refused to join. And, people have given their lives for really awful rulers who used them for their own purposes without guilt. I really enjoyed every one of these mini biographies, despite the complexity of sorting one king from another, who was related to who, who married who, and who was on who's side!Henry I, whose only legitimate son died in that shipwreck I mentioned, had nearly 30 children out of wedlock: 28 or 29 – something like that.

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