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Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................ 3
The House of Wessex ................................................................................................ 3

The House of Normandy ............................................................................................ 4

The House of Plantagenet .......................................................................................... 5
The House of Lancaster ............................................................................................. 5
The House of York ..................................................................................................... 7
The House of Tudor...8
The Stuarts.9
The House of Hanover.10

The House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha..11

The House of Windsor.11

Introduction

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The monarchy of the Kingdom of England began with Alfred the Great and ended
with Queen Anne, who became Queen of Great Britain when England merged
with Scotland to form a union in 1707 .

A new Kingdom of Great Britain was formed on 1 May 1707 with the merger of
the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland, which had been in personal
union under the House of Stuart since 24 March 1603. On 1 January 1801, Great
Britain merged with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland. After most of Ireland left the union on 6 December 1922, its
name was amended on 12 April 1927 to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland.

There have been many dynasties of differing lengths and importance such
as:House of Wessex ,House of Denmark , House of Normandy , House of Blois ,
House of Anjou, House of Plantagenet , House of Lancaster , House of York ,
House of Tudor ,House of Stuart , Commonwealth ,House of Hanover , House of
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , House of Windsor .

The House of Wessex

Eighth century England consisted of seven Anglo-Saxon sub-kingdoms which

existed in a state of internecine warfare. Occasionally a king of one of the larger
three kingdoms, Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria, would emerge from the
dynastic turmoil to be accepted as overlord by the others

Cerdic of Wessex ((519-534), the founder of the Wessex line, claimed a mythical
descent from the great Woden himself. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,
Cerdic was a Saxon Ealdorman who landed in Hampshire in 495 with his son
Cynric and fought with the Britons becoming the first King of Wessex.

The dynasty he founded was to rule England for over two hundred years and
produced such varying characters as Alfred (871-899), the only English monarch
ever to be bestowed with the epithet the Great, who amongst varied achievements,
established a peace with the invading Vikings and founded the Anglo-Saxon
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Chronicle and the ineffectual Ethelred the Redeless (978-1016) and his pious son,
Edward the Confessor (1042-1066) who was later canonized in 1161

The Anglo-Saxon line was interrupted for two decades by Viking conquerors, but
was re-established by Edward the Confessor. The Confessor is said to have willed
his throne to his brother-in-law, King Harold II Godwineson (r. January-October,
1066), who was killed at the Battle at Hastings, when the native Saxon House of
Wessex was displaced by the Normans in the person of William I, thereafter
known as the Conqueror.

The House of Normandy

The House of Normandy, occasionally known as the House of Longsword, had
Norwegian Viking roots and took the throne of England by conquest at the
momentous Battle of Hastings in 1066, when they displaced the ancient line of
native Saxon kings of the House of Wessex, which had ruled England since
827A.D.

The reign of William I, thereafter known as the Conqueror was stark and ruthless,
a time of subjection for the English people.

The dynasty lasted for three generations, through the reigns of William's two sons,
William II (1087-1100) and Henry I (1100-1135), both of whom were strong and
efficient rulers, until civil war engulfed England as two of his grandchildren,
Stephen (1135-54) (the son of the Conqueror's youngest daughter Adela) and
Matilda (only legitimate daughter of his youngest son Henry I) became locked in a
bitter struggle for the English crown. Leading to a Civil War known as the
Anarchy, which lasted for nineteen years, described by those who endured it as a
time when "Christ and his saints slept". The dynasty of Norman kings ended on the
death of King Stephen in 1154, who by the terms of the Treaty of Wallingford was
succeeded by the Empress Matilda's son, Henry Plantagenet.

The House of Plantagenet

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The House of Plantagenet had its origins in a cadet branch of the original counts of
Anjou, the dynasty established by Fulk I of Anjou at the beginning of the 10th
century. The Plantagenet dynasty ruled England for over three hundred years, from
1154 -1485. They were a remarkable family, providing England with fourteen of
its kings.

The surname Plantagenet, which was to become one of the most famous in
England, seems to have derived from a nickname adopted by Geoffrey, Count of
Anjou, the father of Henry II and refers to his habit of wearing a sprig of broom or
planta genista in his helmet.

The Plantagenets, described by Bacon as "a race much dipped in their own blood"
finally destroyed themselves in the bloody dynastic struggle we know of as the
Wars of the Roses. The later Plantagenets became divided into the Houses of
Lancaster and York which descended through different sons of King Edward III.
The Yorkist king Richard III was the last of his house, when he was killed in battle
on Bosworth Field, to be displaced by the Tudors, it was the end of an era. The
male line of the Plantagenets became extinct with the execution in 1499 of
Edward, Earl of Warwick, the son of George, Duke of Clarence, in the reign of
Henry VII, the first Tudor.

The dynasty produced such varied characters as the energetic Henry II, arguably
one of England's greatest monarchs and his legendary son, Richard the Lionheart,
who lead the Third Crusade against Saladin into the Holy Land. The highly
aesthetic Henry III and his son, the indominatable Edward I, who conquered Wales
and became known as the Hammer of the Scots for his campaigns into that
country, where he fought William Wallace and Robert the Bruce, the most famous
of Scotland's sons, and Henry V, the conqueror of France, who bequeathed the
diadems of both countries to his pious and ineffectual son, Henry VI.

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 The House of Lancaster
The House of Lancaster, a branch of the Plantagenet family, descended from John
of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the third surviving son of King Edward III and
produced 3 Kings of England- Henry IV (1367 -1413), Henry V (1386 - 1422) and
Henry VI (1421 - 1471).

The first Earl of Lancaster was Edmund Crouchback, younger son of King Henry
III, Edmund's son Thomas inherited his father's estates in 1296, but was executed
in 1322 after he joined a baronial rebellion against his cousin Edward II and his
titles and estates were forfeited to the crown. In 1326, Thomas' younger brother
Henry successfully petitioned to take possession of the Earldom of Lancaster and
Parliament posthumously reversed Thomas's conviction. On Henry's death in 1345
his titles and estates passed to his son, Henry of Grosmont, who was elevated to
Duke of Lancaster by Edward III.

Henry had no sons to succeed him but left two daughters, Maud and Blanche of
Lancaster. Blanche was married to Edward III's son John of Gaunt, who inherited
his possessions and ducal title through right of his wife. On Gaunt's death in 1399,
his lands were confiscated by King Richard II. Gaunt's exiled son and heir Henry
of Bolingbroke returned to England with an army and took control of the
Kingdom. Richard II was deposed and Henry of Bolingbroke was declared King
Henry IV. His son, Henry V, was a successful medieval martial ruler. He
conquered France in re-assertion of the claim to the French throne he inherited

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from Edward III and bequeathed to his infant son, the ill-fated Henry VI, two
kingdoms and an inheritance that was to prove impossible to maintain.

In 1453, at the age of 32, Henry VI began to exhibit signs of serious mental illness.
By means of a "sudden fright" he entered into a trance-like state reacting to and
recognizing no one. Catatonic schizophrenia or depressive stupor have been
suggested as a likely diagnosis. This was probably an inheritance from his maternal
grandfather, Charles VI of France, who himself suffered from bouts of
schizophrenia. His cousin Richard, Duke of York, who possessed a slightly senior
claim to the House of Lancaster according to cognatic primogeniture, was made
Lord Protector, but later laid claim to the throne for himself and his descendants.
York was killed at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460, after which the Yorkist claim
devolved on his eldest son, Edward Earl of March who deposed Henry VI and was
crowned Edward IV in 1461.

Henry's young son, Edward, the Lancastrian Prince of Wales was killed during or
after the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471, Henry VI met his death in the Tower of
London, on the night of the Vigil of the Ascension, 21st -22nd May, 1471. The
demise of his son at Tewkesbury had sealed his fate. While Edward of Lancaster
still lived, he had rendered the removal of Henry pointless. The demise of Henry
VI and the Beaufort male line left Margaret Beaufort, and her son, Henry Tudor, as
the senior representatives of the House of Lancaster. When the last Yorkist king,
Richard III was killed in battle at Bosworth Field in 1485. The new king, Henry
VII, who represented the Lancastrian line, married Edward IV's eldest daughter
Elizabeth of York, thereby uniting the claims of both houses in the person of their
son, King Henry VIII.

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 The House of York

The House of York, a branch of the Plantagenet family produced 3 Kings of

England- Edward IV, the boy king Edward V and Richard III. Threy descended in
the male line from Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, who was the fourth
surviving son of Edward III, but also descended from the senior line of descent
from Edward being cognatic descendants (through the female line) of Lionel, Duke
of Clarence, Edward's second surviving son. The Yorkist claimants therefore held a
senior claim to their Lancastrian rivals according to cognatic primogeniture but a
junior claim according to the agnatic primogeniture.

Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York (1341 - 1402), the founder of the House of
York, was the fourth surviving son of Edward III, and had two sons Edward, Duke
of York, who died at Agincourt and Richard, Earl of Cambridge, the Yorkist
dynasty based their claim to throne through the marriage of his younger son,
Richard to Anne Mortimer, great-granddaughter of Lionel of Antwerp, the second
son of Edward III. Richard, Earl of Cambridge was executed by the Lancastrian
king Henry V for his involvement in a plot to depose the Lancastrian King Henry
V in favour of his brother-in-law, Edmund, Earl of March, the appointed heir of
Richard II. When Edmund later died his claim to the throne devolved on his sister
Anne Mortimer. The dukedom of York and the Mortimer claim to the throne
passed to her son, Richard Plantagenet.

Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York produced four surviving sons, Edward, Earl of
March (1442-1483), who succeeded to the throne as King Edward IV in 1461,
Edmund of Langley, Earl of Rutland (b.1443), who was killed at the Battle of
Wakefield along with his father in 1460, George Duke of Clarence, Shakespeare's,
'false, fleeting, perjured Clarence', who was famously drowned in a butt of
malmsey in the Tower of London in 1478 and Richard, Duke of Gloucester (1452-
1485). Edward IV left the crown to his young son, Edward V, the elder of the so
called 'Princes in the Tower', but the throne was usurped by his uncle, Richard
Duke of Gloucester, who ascended the throne as Richard III (1452-1485). The
young Edward V and his brother, Richard, Duke of York, disappeared into the
depths of the Tower of London and were never seen alive again. Richard III was
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killed in battle at Bosworth Field in 1485. The new king, Henry VII, who
represented the Lancastrian line, married Edward IV's eldest daughter Elizabeth of
York, thereby uniting the claims of both houses in the person of their son, King
Henry VIII.

The House of Tudor

The House of Tudor took England's throne through victory over Richard III, the
last Plantagenet king, at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. Its founder, the
Lancastrian Henry VII laid down the foundations of his dynasty, brought an end to
the civil strife of the Wars of the Roses and through his marriage to the Yorkist
heiress Ellizabeth of York, securely established the Tudors on England's throne.

The heraldic symbol of the dynasty, the red and white Tudor rose, combines the
red rose of the House of Lancaster and white rose of York, meant to symbolize the
union of the two warring factions, whose claims were combined with the union of
Henry VII and Elizabeth of York.

The dynasty had relatively lowly beginnings, springing from an illicit liaison
between Katherine of Valois, the widow of Henry V, and Owen Tudor, her Welsh
Clerk of the Wardrobe. Owen was descended from Welsh prince Rhys ap
Gruffydd, through his daughter Gwenllian Rhys, who married Ednyfed Fychan,
seneschal of Gwynedd under Llewelyn the Great. Henry VII's claim to the English

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throne derived from his mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort (1443-1509), great-
granddaughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster through an illegitimate line.

The House of Tudor ruled England for 118 years. Henry VII's son, that best known
of English monarchs, the tyrannical and bloodstained Henry VIII (1509-47), is
famous for having six wives, executing two of them and bringing about the
Reformation in England.

The throne of England was inherited by all of his three legitimate children in
succession, the boy king, Edward VI (1547-53) , Mary I (1553-58), known as
'Bloody Mary' for her burning of Protestants and last but by no means least
Elizabeth I (1558-1603), highly astute and wily, she survived an appalling
childhood and adolescence to emerge as the greatest of her house and lead England
to victory over the Spanish, the greatest power of the age. The Tudor dynasty
became extinct on the death of Elizabeth without a direct heir in 1603. The crown
of England then passed to Henry VII's great-grandson, James VI of Scotland, who
became James I of England.

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 The Stuarts
The Stuarts, that highly romantic but luckless dynasty, succeeded to the English
throne on the death of the childless Tudor Queen Elizabeth I in 1603, in the person
of James I and VI (1603-1625), son of Mary Queen of Scots and Henry Stuart,
Lord Darnley, who became the first joint ruler of the kingdoms of both England
and Scotland. The spelling of the ancient Scottish dynasty of Stewart was changed
by Mary, Queen of Scots, during her long residence in France.

The earliest recorded member of the Scottish House of Stewart was Flaald I, who
was of Breton origins and was employed in the serice of the eleventh century Lord
of Dol and Combourg. Flaald and his immediate descendants held the hereditary
and honorary post of Dapifer, or food bearer in the Lord of Dol's household.

The Stuart claim to England's throne derived from Margaret Tudor, eldest daughter
of Henry VII, who married James IV. King of Scots. James I's successor Charles I
(1625-49) was executed on the orders of Parliament, when England was declared a
republic.

The monarchy was restored in 1660 when his son, the previously exiled Charles II
(1660-85), was invited to return. Charles, or the 'Merry Monarch' as he is otherwise
known, is famous for his many mistresses and his long liason with the actress Nell
Gwyn. On the death of his niece, Queen Anne in 1714 the Stuart dynasty was
displaced by its Hanoverian cousins. This section also contains biographies of the
Stuart Pretenders including the courageous but highly impulsive Bonnie Prince
Charlie.

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 The House of Hanover
When Britain's last Stuart monarch, Queen Anne died in 1714, the crown of
England passed by the 1701 Act of Setttlement to the Stuart dynasty's German
Protestant cousins, the House of Hanover, or Brunswick-Luneberg in the person of
King George I, who was actually 52nd in line to the throne at that time. The Act
effectively excluded the hereditary Stuart heir, James II's Catholic son, James
Francis Edward Stuart, thereafter referred to as the 'Old Pretender'.

The House of Hanover, a cadet branch of the German House of Welf or Guelph,
itself a branch of the House of Este, whose oldest traceable members resided in
Lombardy in the Dark Ages, produced five of Britain's monarchs.

On the death of William IV (1765-1837), the last Hanoverian king, Hanover and
England ceased to share a ruler, Victoria (1837-1901), the daughter of Edward
Augustus, Duke of Kent, fourth son of George III, succeeded her uncle in England
but since the Salic Law (which prohibited the succession through the female line)
prevailed in Hanover the dukedom was inherited by George III's fifth son, Ernest
Augustus, Duke of Cumberland.

On the death of Queen Victoria in 1901 the throne of Britain passed to the House
of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, in the person of her son, Edward VII. The present head of

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the House of Hanover is Prince Ernst August of Hanover, who is married to
Princess Caroline of Monaco.

The House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha

On the death of Queen Victoria in 1901 the royal house took the Germanic
surname of her consort Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. King Edward VII,
who reigned until 1910, was to become the only sovereign of that dynasty to reign
in Britain.

The House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha descended in the male line from the Wettin
family, German Prince-Electors of Saxony, the earliest traceable member of the
House of Wettin was Thiedericus who died in 982, who was probably based in the
Liesgau. Its earliest known ancestors pushed the frontier of Germany eastward into
formerly Slav territory. They acquired their name from their castle on the bank of
the Saale river.

At the height of World War I, when German xenophobia had reached boiling point,
Edward VII's son, King George V (1910- 1936) changed the family name to the
more English sounding House of Windsor.

Members of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha occupied the thrones of other

European countries, including Belgium, Portugal and Bulgaria.

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 The House of Windsor
The House of Windsor came into being in 1917, when King George V, formerly of
the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, concerned that his Germanic sounding surname
would alienate his British subjects at the height of German xenophobia during
World War I, changed the name of his dynasty to the more English sounding
Windsor. Declaring at a meeting of the Privy Council on 17th July 1917, that 'all
descendants in the male line of Queen Victoria, who are subjects of these realms,
other than female descendants who marry or who have married, shall bear the
name of Windsor'. The name Windsor has long been associated with the English
monarchy through its connections with Windsor Castle.

The House of Windsor has produced four British sovereigns, George V (1910-
1936), his son Edward VIII (1936) , who abdicated the throne to marry the twice
divorced American Wallis Warfield Simpson in favour of his brother George VI
(1936-52) and the present Queen, Elizabeth II.

In 1960, the Queen and her husband the Duke of Edinburgh came to the joint
decision that they would prefer their direct descendants to be distinguished from
the rest of the Royal Family (without changing the name of the Royal House),
declaring in the Privy Council that 'The Queen's descendants, other than those with
the style of Royal Highness and the title of Prince/Princess, would bear the
surname of Mountbatten-Windsor'.

This section not only covers the monarchs of the House of Windsor but also
contains biographies on the Queen's children, grandchildren and extended family,
the Gloucesters and the Kents.

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