The king’s College of our lady of Eton beside Windsor 4 page

Dogged by ill health, Mary died later that year, possibly from cancer, leaving the crown to her half-sister Elizabeth.

Elizabeth I (1558-1603)

Elizabeth I - the last Tudor monarch - was born at Greenwich on 7 September 1533, the daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn.

Her early life was full of uncertainties, and her chances of succeeding to the throne seemed very slight once her half-brother Edward was born in 1537. She was then third in line behind her Roman Catholic half-sister, Princess Mary. Roman Catholics, indeed, always considered her illegitimate and she only narrowly escaped execution in the wake of a failed rebellion against Queen Mary in 1554.

Elizabeth succeeded to the throne on her half-sister's death in November 1558. She was very well-educated (fluent in six languages), and had inherited intelligence, determination and shrewdness both parents"

Her 45-year reign is generally considered one off the most glorious in English history. During it a secure Church of England in the 39 Articles of 1563, a compromise between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.

Elizabeth herself refused to 'make windows into men's souls ... there is only one Jesus Christ and all the rest is a dispute over trifles'; she asked for outward uniformity.

Most of her subjects accepted the compromise as the basis of their faith, and her church settlement (probably saved England from religious wars like those which France suffered in the second half of the 16th century.

Although autocratic and capricious, Elizabeth had astute political judgement and chose her ministers these included Burghley (Secretary of State), Hatton (Lord Chancellor) and Walsingham (in charge of intelligence and also a Secretary of State).

Overall, Elizabeth's administration consisted of some 600 officials administering the great offices of state, and a similar number dealing with the Crown lands (which funded the administrative costs). Social and economic regulation and law and order remained in the hands of the sheriffs at local level, supported by unpaid justices of the peace.

Elizabeth's reign also saw many brave voyages of discovery, including those of Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh and Humphrey Gilbert, particularly

prepared England for an age of colonisation and trade expansion, which Elizabeth herself recognised by establishing the East India Company in 1600.

The arts flourished during Elizabeth's reign. Country houses such as Longleat and Hardwick Hall were built, miniature painting reached its high pointy theatres thrived - the Queen attended the first performance of Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' Composers such as William Byrd and Thomas Tallis worked in Elizabeth's court and at the Chapel Royal, St. James's Palace.

The image of Elizabeth's reign is one of triumph and success. The Queen herself was often called 'Gloriana', 'Good Queen Bess' and 'The Virgin Queen'.

Investing in expensive clothes and jewellery (to look the part, like all contemporary sovereigns), she cultivated this image by touring the country in regional visits known as 'progresses', often riding on horseback rather than by carriage. Elizabeth made at least 25 progresses during her reign.

However, Elizabeth's reign was one of considerable danger and difficulty for many, with threats of invasion from Spain through Ireland, and from France through Scotland. Much of northern England was in rebellion in 1569-70. A papal bull of 1570 specifically released Elizabeth's subjects from their allegiance, and she passed harsh laws against Roman Catholics after plots against her life were discovered.

One such plot involved Mary, Queen of Scots, who had fled to England in 1568 after her second husband's murder and her subsequent marriage to a man believed to have been involved in his murder.

As a likely successor to Elizabeth, Mary spent 19 years as Elizabeth's prisoner because Mary was the focus for rebellion and possible assassination plots, such as the Babington Plot of 1586.

Mary was also a temptation for potential invaders such as Philip II. In a letter of 1586 to Mary, Elizabeth wrote, 'You have planned ... to take my life and ruin my kingdom... I never proceeded so harshly against you.' Despite Elizabeth's reluctance to take drastic action, on the insistence of Parliament and her advisers, Mary was tried, found guilty and executed in 1587. In 1588, aided by bad weather, the English navy scored a great victory over the Spanish invasion fleet of around 130 ships - the 'Armada'. The Armada was intended to overthrow the Queen and re­establish Roman Catholicism by conquest, as Philip II believed he had a claim to the English throne through his marriage to Mary.

During Elizabeth's long reign, the nation also suffered from high prices and severe economic depression, especially in the countryside, during the 1590s. The war against Spain was not very successful after the Armada had been beaten and, together with other campaigns, it was very costly.

Though she kept a tight rein on government expenditure, Elizabeth left debts to her successor. Wars during Elizabeth's reign are estimated to have cost over Ј5 million (at the prices of the time) which Crown revenues could not match - in 1588, for example, Elizabeth's total annual revenue amounted to some Ј392,000.

Despite the combination of financial strains and prolonged war after 1588, Parliament was not summoned more often. There were only 16 sittings of the Commons during Elizabeth's reign, five of which were in the period 1588-1601. Although Elizabeth freely used her powef to veto legislation, she avoided confrontation and did not attempt to define Parliament's constitutional position and rights.

Elizabeth chose never to marry. If she had chosen a foreign prince, he would have drawn England into foreign policies for his own advantages (as in her sister Mary's marriage to Philip of Spain); marrying a fellow countryman could have drawn the Queen into factional infighting. Elizabeth used her marriage prospects as a political tool in foreign and domestic policies.

However, the 'Virgin Queen' was presented as a selfless woman who sacrificed personal happiness for the good of the nation, to which she was, in essence, 'married'. Late in her reign, she addressed Parliament in the so-called 'Golden Speech' of 1601 when she told MPs: There is no jewel, be it of never so high a price, which I set before this jewel; I mean your love.' She seems to have been very popular with the vast majority of her subjects. Overall, Elizabeth's always shrewd and, when necessary, decisive leadership brought successes during a period of great danger both at home and abroad. She died at Richmond Palace on 24 March 1603, having become a legend in her lifetime. The date of her accession was a national holiday for two hundred years.

James VI. of Scotland, son of Mary, Queen of Scots, great grandson of James IV. of Scotland, by Margaret, daughter of Henry VII. of England. Born 1566. Crowned King of Scotland, 1567. Married Anne, Princess of Denmark, 1589. Succeeded to the crown of England, March 24th, 1603.

First styled King of Great Britain 1604, when he came to London, being then in the thirty- seventh year of his age. Right glad was he to enter that southern "Elysium "-where he became freer from the somewhat harsh tutelage and control which had marked his earlier youthful experiences as King of Scotland.

He was the son (as above said) of the accomplished and "voluptuous" Mary, and the foolish and debauched Darnley; his mother, during her pregnancy, had seen Rizzio assassinated before her face; he had for his tutor Buchanan, who made him a pedant, "which was all," he said, "that he could make of him"; he was a King at the age of one; and he continued more or less childish (according to contemporary chroniclers, of whom many have described his peculiarities and weaknesses) as long as he lived: at once clever and foolish, confident, and in some respects of no courage.

A great hunter, this first of the Stuarts, clad all in grass green with a green feather; big head, slobbering tongue, rickety legs, quilted, "stiletto-proof" clothes, which he would wear to rags, none too cleanly in his person, addicted to drinking, not ordinary light French and Spanish wines, but strong Greek wines; "the bottle governed him; the favourite governed him; his horse and dogs governed him; pedantry governed him; passion governed him; and when the fit was over repentance governed him as absolutely." Thus has James I.'s character been summed up. "His shrewdness and learning only left him, in the phrase of Henry IV., the wisest fool in Christendom.'"

"As it is atheism and blasphemy to dispute what God can do, so it is presumption and a high contempt in a subject to dispute what a King can do, or to say that a King cannot do this or that." From a Star Chamber declaration of James I., touching the "Divine right of Kings"; of which more was to be heard later in the reign of one of his successors.

A breach firstly with the Puritans was followed by a breach with the Catholics: the outcome of which was "the Gunpowder Plot." Barrels of powder were placed in the vaults of the Parliament House, with the intent to blow up King and Ministry, on November 5th, 1605-a conspiracy that failed; Guido Fawkes (a soldier of fortune), Garnet, and others, prime movers in it, all being either killed or sent to the block.

Buckingham, Bacon (the great Chancellor), and Carr, Earl of Somerset, were notable personages of this reign. James it was who beheaded Raleigh!

Charles I. 1625 to 1649Only surviving son of James I. Born 1600. The year of his accession married Henrietta, daughter of Henry IV. of France. Crowned at Westminster, February 2nd, 1626, and at Edinburgh, 1633.

The court of Charles was decorum and virtue itself, in comparison with that in which he had been reared. Drunkenness disappeared, and there were no scandalous favourites such as Carr, and he on whose neck James loved to loll; though George Villiers, the first Duke of Buckingham, retained his ascendancy as the friend and assistant of Charles as king. Of a much less jovial temperament was he than his father, and of more virtue; though there was still (we read) a good deal of "private licence" at Whitehall. "Oaths!" exclaimed Charles II., "Oaths! Why, your Martyr was a greater swearer than I am."

It has been questioned also, whether, in other respects, Charles I.'s private conduct was so "immaculate" as the solemnity of his latter years and his unhappy fate have led people to conclude. Whose private conduct, prince or peasant, in early life is immaculate? Why kings more than their subjects?

Charles I. might, unpolitically, have been less unpopular, but for his unsympathetic nature, his stiffness and reserve, a certain "frigid haughtiness," and his profound belief in his own wisdom, which could gain little or nothing from being brought into touch with the opinions of other men. He had been schooled, politically speaking, to look upon government as the "Divine right" of the King, independent of the will of the governed a lesson taught him by his father. But with all his faults he was "a diligent and earnest reader of books." Not a few faults are atoned by that excellent quality. Moreover, he was a connoisseur and patron of art. Adversity rather than prosperity shows Charles I. in the more favourable light. The great events of his reign are familiar to everyone: his attempt to seize the five members of the House of Commons (1641-2); his standard raised at Nottingham the same year, the beginning of the Civil War; his traffic with the Scots and betrayal (1646); his seizure by Colonel Joyce at Holmby (1647); his retreat to the Isle of Wight, and confinement in Hurst Castle (1648); his removal to Windsor, and then to St. James's Palace; and, finally, his trial in Westminster Hall, and execution before Whitehall, January 30th (1649), aged forty-nine. He lies buried in St. George's Chapel, Windsor.

Charles II, 1660 to 1685 Born 1630. On May 19th, 1649, the year in which Charles I. was beheaded, a Commonwealth was declared. Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector, 1653-8, and Richard Cromwell, his son, 1658-9, what time Charles II. remained in exile.

Charles, who, together with his brother James, Duke of York, had escaped from St. James's Palace (April 23rd, 1648), landed in Scotland (1650), and was crowned at Scone the year following. Crossed over into England, and was defeated at the battle of Worcester; went ' 12.5

afterwards to Holland. Landed at Dover May 29th, 1660 and restored to the throne. Crowned at Westminster, April 13th, 1661, and the year following married Catherine, Infanta of Siain. The Restoration marks the birth of "Modern England "-that England yet in the full of her fame, whose eventual destiny under the greater and more comprehensive name and title of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the British Dominions beyond the seas; India, the Dominion of Canada, Australasia, United South Africa, and the lesser British Dependencies: whose eventual destiny as an Empire none could have forecast. Though the British Empire would later crumble, it was perhaps the wealthiest and most powerful Empire the world has ever known.

By far the ablest of the House of Stuart was Charles II.: "Of great quickness of conception, great pleasantness of wit, with great variety of knowledge, more observation, and truer judgment of men than one would have imagined... He desired nothing but that he might be easy himself and that everybody else should be so." Thus Sir William Temple, the well- known statesman of the Restoration period.

Everyone who has read Pepys knows all about Charles II., his court, his mistresses, children, dogs and ducks, dress, jokes, debts, theatre-going, horse-racing, gambling, and so on. His transactions with France and Holland are discussed in like manner by Pepys; the naval victories of the Dutch, and the money payments of the French king.

Nor are the "Regicides" forgotten, twenty-eight of whom were brought to trial, and thirteen executed, for their share in the trial and death of the late King, whose "Divine right" did not greatly trouble his son and successor. His object was to carry on the Government of England peacefully and pleasantly; to rest, in a word, being brought out of great tribulation, and be thankful.

James II, 1685 to 1688 James VII. of Scotland. Second son of Charles I. Born 1633.

Married, firstly, Anne Hyde, daughter of the Lord Chancellor Clarendon; and, secondly, after her death, Mary, Princess of Modena, to whom a son was born, June 10th, 1688, some five months before the coming of William of Orange. Crowned at Westminster the year of his accession. Monmouth's (natural son of Charles I. by Lucy Walters) rebellion took place the same year. He was defeated at Sedgemoor, near Bridgewater, and beheaded on Tower Hill (1685).

The "Bloody Circuit" of Chief Justice Jeffreys through Somerset and Dorset, which brought infamy to his name, followed; the which series of judicial murders had not a little to do with the deposition of King James II.; that infamous vengeance - "this marble is not harder than the King's heart," said one of his generals - and the committal to the Tower of the "Seven Bishops."

James II fled from St. James's Palace on the night of December 12th, 1688, was seized soon after at Feversham, and brought back. He finally left England, December 23rd of the same year. After an abortive attempt to regain his kingdom by landing in Ireland (Kinsale), 1689, he returned to France, 1690, and died at St. Germains in 1701.

"To preserve the government, both in Church and State, as it is now by law established," was the promise made by James II. at the date of his Accession. Before the three years of his brief reign had expired, he had succeeded in breaking it in almost every particular. It would not be easy to say which king's promises were the least to be relied on, Charles I.'s or James II.'s. Certain is it that the memory of the first is generally regarded with more consideration than that of the second. Although the Civil War undoubtedly caused more Sos bloodshed in the kingdom, the second Stuart tyranny" provoked more hatred among the common people. It may be doubted whether the "Bloody Circuit" and its judge have their counterpart for ruthless injustice and cruelty in the pages of English history. "Do you not know that I am above the law? " said James to one of his court on a notable occasion. "You may be, your Majesty, but I am not," was the reply. A king who could speak thus, in the concluding years of the seventeenth century, having regard to his father's fate, was obviously not likely to reign over long "above the law" of the land, which law he had promised to maintain.

Three years proved sufficient. Had King James II. reigned longer, a second civil war would

probably have been the result. When he slipped away first from St. James's Palace, most

people were glad to be rid of him, and sorry when he was brought back.

The second occasion, he got away for good, and ended his days in exile plotting his

restoration.

William III and Mary II, 1689-1702,1689-1694 respectively William III. was son of William, Prince of Orange, by Mary, daughter of Charles I. Born 1650. Mary II., his wife, was daughter of James II. Born 1662. A brief interregnum, from December 11th, 1688, to February 13th, 1689. National discontent with the policy and conduct of James II. culminated in a national rising in support of the landing of William of Orange, who had been invited over by leading English statesmen to accept the crown vacated by James's flight.

The Prince landed at Torbay, with an army of thirteen-thousand men, November 5th, 1688, and, marching on Exeter, was hailed with joyous enthusiasm by its citizens, other cities and towns throughout the kingdom following the example of the West of England in hailing the revolt with delight. Everywhere in England it was triumphant.

In due order of events, the Prince's army reached Salisbury, and presently entered London, and the Revolution of 1688 became an accomplished fact; the expression of the national feeling being in favour of a "Free Parliament and the Protestant Religion." After debate it was agreed by Parliament that William and Mary should be acknowledged as joint-sovereigns, but that the actual administration should be left with William alone. The memorable "Declaration of Rights" was drawn up, and on February 13th, 1689, presented to William and Mary in the Banqueting-house, Whitehall.

In full faith that its principles would be accepted and maintained by the Prince and Princess of Orange, the Crown was tendered to them. They were declared King and Queen, and crowned in Westminster Abbey April 11th following.

Those who would read the character of William III. at length should turn to Macaulay's History: a brave and successful commander, an able and high-minded statesman, and a noble man; Mary, his wife, a good and sensible woman, lively and affable, self-sacrificing, devoted to her husband, who was also deeply attached to her. A small gold locket containing "a lock of the hair of Mary," was found nearest his heart when he died. He was tried as few English kings have been tried; frequently plotted against by Jacobites, and more than once threatened with assassination; but remained the same sincere, energetic, and brave King to the last; not altogether popular, but by sheer force of character gaining men's admiration and esteem.

The famous siege and relief of Londonderry, and the battle of the Boyne, were of King William's reign; but much more famous than these is the fact that all claim of the King's “Divine Right,” or of his “hereditary right, independent of the law,” was formally put an end to by the crowning at Westminster of William and Mary.

Anne of Great Britain Anne (6 February 1665 - 1 August 1714} became Queen regnant of England, Scotland and Ireland on 8 March 1702, succeeding her brother-in-law and cousin, William III of England and II of Scotland. Her Catholic father, James II and VII, was deemed by the English Parliament to have abdicated when he was forced to retreat to France during the Glorious Revolution of 1688/9; her brother-in-law and her sister then became joint monarchs as William III & II and Mary II. After Mary's death in 1694, William continued as sole monarch until his own death in 1702.

On 1 May 1707, under the Acts of Union 1707, England and Scotland were united as a single sovereign state, the Kingdom of Great Britain. Anne became its first sovereign, while continuing to hold the separate crown of Queen of Ireland and the title of Queen of France. Anne reigned for twelve years until her death in August 1714. Therefore she was, technically, the last Queen of England and the last Queen of Scots.

Anne's life was marked by many crises, both personal and relating to succession of the Crown and religious polarisation. Because she died without surviving children, Anne was the last monarch of the House of Stuart. She was succeeded by her second cousin, George I, of the House of Hanover, who was a descendant of the Stuarts through his maternal grandmother, Elizabeth, daughter of James I and VI.

Early life Anne was born at St. James's Palace, London, the second daughter of James, Duke of York (afterwards James II), and his first wife, Lady Anne Hyde. Her paternal uncle was King Charles II and her older sister was the future Queen Mary II. Anne and Mary were the only children of the Duke and Duchess of York to

survive into adulthood.

As a child, Anne suffered from an eye infection. For medical treatment, she was sent to France, where she lived with her grandmother, Henrietta Maria of France at the Chateau de Colombes near Paris. Anne later lived with her aunt, Henriette, Duchess of Orleans, following her grandmother's death in 1669. She grew up with her cousins Marie Louise and Anne Marie d'Orleans, fixture maternal grandmother of Louis XV. Anne returned to England in 1670 at the death of her aunt Henriette Anne.

In about 1673, Anne made the acquaintance of Sarah Jennings, who became her close friend and one of her most influential advisors. Jennings later married John Churchill (the future Duke of Marlborough), who was to become Anne's most important general.

In 1673, Anne's father's conversion to Roman Catholicism became public. On the instructions of Charles II, however, Anne and her sister Mary were raised as Protestants.

On 28 July 1683, Anne married the Protestant Prince George of Denmark, brother of King Christian V of Denmark (and her second cousin once removed through Frederick II). Though it was an unpopular union, it was one of great domestic happiness. ^J Sarah Churchill became Anne's Lady of the Bedchamber. By Anne's desire to mark their mutual intimacy and affection, all deference due to her rank was abandoned and the two ladies called each other Mrs. Morley and Mrs. Freeman.

The "Glorious Revolution" Forbidden by James to pay Mary a projected visit in the spring of 1688, Anne corresponded with her and was no doubt aware of William's plans to invade the country. On the advice of the Churchills (Anne's conduct during this period was probably influenced a great deal by them; ^J she refused to show any sympathy for James after William landed in November and wrote instead to William, declaring her approval of his action. Churchill abandoned the king on the 24th of that month, Prince George on the 25th, and when James returned to London on the 26th, he found that Anne and her lady-in-waiting had done likewise the previous night. He put the women under house arrest in the Palace of Whitehall. However, escaping from Whitehall by a back staircase they put themselves under the care of the bishop of London, spent one night in his house, and subsequently arrived on 1 December at Nottingham, where the princess first made herself known and appointed a council. Then she travelled to Oxford, where she met Prince George in triumph, escorted by a large company. Like Mary, she was reproached for showing no concern at the news of the king's flight, but her justification was that "she never loved to do anything that looked like an affected constraint." She returned to London on 19 December, where she was at once visited by her brother-in-law William.

In 1689, a Convention Parliament assembled and declared that James had abdicated the realm when he attempted to flee, and that the Throne was therefore vacant. The Crown was offered to Mary, but accepted jointly by William and Mary, who thereafter ruled as the only joint monarchs in British history. The Bill of Rights 1689 settled succession to the Throne; Princess Anne and her descendants were to be in the line of succession after William and Mary. They were to be followed by any descendants of William by a future marriage.

During this period, Prince George and Princess Anne suffered great personal misfortune. By 1700, the future Queen had been pregnant at least eighteen times; thirteen times, she miscarried or gave birth to stillborn children. Based on her foetal losses and physical symptoms, a medical historian has diagnosed disseminated lupus erythematosus.

Of the remaining five children, four died before reaching the age of two years. Her only son to survive infancy, William, Duke of Gloucester, died at the age of eleven on 29 July 1700, precipitating a succession crisis. William and Mary had not had any children; thus, Princess Anne, the heir apparent to the Throne, was the only individual remaining in the line of succession established by the Bill of Rights 1689. If the line of succession were totally extinguished, then it would have been open for the deposed King James or his son James Francis Edward Stuart (the "Old Pretender") to claim the Throne.

Thus, to preclude a Catholic from obtaining the Crown, Parliament enacted the Act of Settlement 1701, which provided that, failing the issue of Princess Anne and of William III by any future marriage, the Crown would go to Sophia, Electress of Hanover, and her descendants, who descended from James I of England through Elizabeth Stuart. Dozens of genealogically senior claimants were disregarded due to their Catholicism. Anne acquiesced to the new line of succession created by the Act of Settlement.

Anne's reign A William III died on 8 March 1702 and Anne was crowned on 23 April 1792.

The War of the Spanish Succession almost as soon as she succeeded to the throne, Anne became embroiled in the War of the Spanish Succession. This war, in which England supported the claim of Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor to succeed to the Spanish Throne, would continue until the last years of Anne's reign and dominated both foreign and domestic policy.

Soon after her accession, Anne appointed her husband Lord High Admiral, giving him control of the Royal Navy. Anne gave control of the army to Lord Marlborough, whom she appointed Captain- General. - Marlborough also received numerous honours from the Queen; he was created a Knight of the Garter and was elevated to the ducal rank. - The Duchess of Marlborough was appointed to the post of Mistress of the Robes, the highest office a lady could attain.

The Act of Union In passing the Act of Settlement, in 1701, the English Parliament neglected to consult with the Parliament of Scotland or Estates of Scotland, which, in part, wished to preserve the Stuart dynasty and its right of inheritance to the Throne. - The Scottish response to the Settlement was to pass the Act of Security, a bill which stated that — failing the issue of the Queen — the Estates had the power to choose the next Scottish monarch from amongst the numerous descendants of the royal line of Scotland. The individual chosen by the Estates could not be the same person who came to the English Throne, unless various religious, economic and political conditions were met. Though it was originally not forthcoming, Royal Assent to the act was granted when the Scottish Parliament refused to impose taxes and threatened to withdraw Scottish troops from the Duke of Marlborough's army in Europe.

In its turn, the English Parliament — fearing that an independent Scotland would restore the Auld Alliance with France — responded with the Alien Act 1705, which provided that economic sanctions would be imposed and Scottish subjects would be declared aliens (putting their right to own property in England into jeopardy), unless Scotland either repealed the Act of Security or moved to unite with England. Eventually, the Estates chose the latter option, and Commissioners were appointed by Queen Anne to negotiate the terms of a union between the two countries. Articles of Union were approved by the Commissioners on 22 July 1706, agreed to by an Act of the Scottish Parliament passed on 16 January 1707 and an act of the English Parliament passed on 6 March 1707. Under the Acts, England and Scotland became one realm, a united kingdom called Great Britain, on 1 May 1707.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 749