This list of kings and reigning queens of the Kingdom of England begins with Alfred the Great, who initially ruled Wessex, one of the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which later made up modern England. 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.[1]
Arguments are made for a few different kings thought to have controlled enough Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to be deemed the first king of England. For example, Offa of Mercia and Egbert of Wessex are sometimes described as kings of England by popular writers, but it is no longer the majority view of historians that their wide dominions are part of a process leading to a unified England. 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."[2] This refers to a period in the late 8th century when Offa achieved a dominance over many of the kingdoms of southern England, but this did not survive his death in 796.[3][4] Likewise, in 829 Egbert of Wessex conquered Mercia, but he soon lost control of it.
It was not until the late 9th century that one kingdom, Wessex, had become the dominant Anglo-Saxon kingdom. Its king, Alfred the Great, was overlord of western Mercia and used the title King of the Angles and Saxons, but he never ruled eastern and northern England, which was then known as the Danelaw, having earlier been conquered by the Danes from southern Scandinavia. His son Edward the Elder conquered the eastern Danelaw, but Edward's son Æthelstan became the first king to rule the whole of England when he conquered Northumbria in 927, and he is regarded by some modern historians as the first true king of England.[3][4] The title "King of the English" or Rex Anglorum in Latin, was first used to describe Æthelstan in one of his charters in 928. The standard title for monarchs from Æthelstan until John was "King of the English". In 1016 Cnut the Great, a Dane, was the first to call himself "King of England". In the Norman period "King of the English" remained standard, with occasional use of "King of England" or Rex Anglie. From John's reign onwards all other titles were eschewed in favour of "King" or "Queen of England".
After the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603, her cousin King James VI of Scotland inherited the English crown as James I of England, joining the crowns of England and Scotland in personal union. By royal proclamation, James styled himself "King of Great Britain", but no such kingdom was actually created until 1707, when England and Scotland united during the reign of Queen Anne to form the new Kingdom of Great Britain, with a single British parliament sitting at Westminster. This marked the end of the Kingdom of England as a sovereign state.
There is some evidence that Ælfweard of Wessex may have been king in 924, between his father Edward the Elder and his half brother Æthelstan, although he was not crowned. A 12th-century list of kings gives him a reign length of four weeks, though one manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says he died only 16 days after his father.[7] However, the fact that he ruled is not accepted by all historians. Also, it is unclear whether—if Ælfweard was declared king—it was over the whole kingdom or of Wessex only. One interpretation of the ambiguous evidence is that when Edward died, Ælfweard was declared king in Wessex and Æthelstan in Mercia.[4]
England came under the control of Sweyn Forkbeard, a Danish king, after an invasion in 1013, during which Æthelred abandoned the throne and went into exile in Normandy.
Name
Portrait
Birth
Marriage(s)
Death
Claim
Sweyn[20] Sweyn Forkbeard 25 December 1013 – 3 February 1014 (41days)
House of Wessex (restored, first time) (1014–1016)
Following the death of Sweyn Forkbeard, Æthelred the Unready returned from exile and was again proclaimed king. His son succeeded him after being chosen king by the citizens of London and a part of the Witan,[21] despite ongoing Danish efforts to wrest the crown from the West Saxons.
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.[23] Upon Edmund's death just over a month later on 30 November, Cnut ruled the whole kingdom as its sole king for nineteen years.
Name
Portrait
Birth
Marriage(s)
Death
Claim
Cnut[24] Cnut the Great 18 October 1016 – 12 November 1035 (19years, 26days)
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. He submitted to King William the Conqueror.
In 1066, several rival claimants to the English throne emerged. Among them were Harold Godwinson (recognised as king by the Witenagemot after the death of Edward the Confessor), Harald Hardrada (King of Norway who claimed to be the rightful heir of Harthacnut) and Duke William II of Normandy (vassal to the King of France, and first cousin once-removed of Edward the Confessor). Harald and William both invaded separately in 1066. Godwinson successfully repelled the invasion by Hardrada, but ultimately lost the throne of England in the Norman conquest of England.
After the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, William the Conqueror made permanent the recent removal of the capital from Winchester to London. Following the death of Harold Godwinson at Hastings, the Anglo-Saxon Witenagemot elected as king Edgar Ætheling, the son of Edward the Exile and grandson of Edmund Ironside. The young monarch was unable to resist the invaders and was never crowned. William was crowned King William I of England on Christmas Day 1066, in Westminster Abbey, and is today known as William the Conqueror, William the Bastard or William I.
Name
Portrait
Birth
Marriage(s)
Death
Claim
William I[32] William the Conqueror[e] 25 December 1066 – 9 September 1087 (20years, 259days)
Henry I left no legitimate male heirs, his son William Adelin having died in the White Ship disaster of 1120. This ended the direct Norman line of kings in England. Henry named his eldest daughter, Matilda (Countess of Anjou by her second marriage to Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, as well as widow of her first husband, Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor), as his heir. Before naming Matilda as heir, he had been in negotiations to name his nephew Stephen of Blois as his heir. When Henry died, Stephen travelled to England, and in a coup d'etat had himself crowned instead of Matilda. 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.
Name
Portrait
Birth
Marriage(s)
Death
Claim
Stephen[35][36] Stephen of Blois 22 December 1135[iii] – 25 October 1154 (18years, 308days)
Matilda was declared heir presumptive by her father, Henry I, after the death of her brother on the White Ship, and acknowledged as such by the barons. Upon Henry I's death, the throne was seized by Matilda's cousin, Stephen of Blois. During the ensuing Anarchy, Matilda controlled England for a few months in 1141. She was the first woman to do so, but was never crowned and is rarely listed as a monarch of England.[f]
Name
Portrait
Birth
Marriage(s)
Death
Claim
Matilda[36][37] Empress Matilda 7 April 1141 – 1 November 1141 (209days)
Count Eustace IV of Boulogne (c. 1130 – 17 August 1153) was appointed co-king of England by his father, King Stephen, on 6 April 1152, in order to guarantee his succession to the throne (as was the custom in France, but not in England). The Pope and the Church would not agree to this, and Eustace was not crowned. Eustace died the next year aged 23, during his father's lifetime, and so never became king in his own right.[38]
The House of Plantagenet takes its name from Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, husband of Empress Matilda and father of Henry II. 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. It has since been retroactively applied to English monarchs from Henry II onward. It is common among modern historians to refer to Henry II and his sons as the "Angevins" due to their vast continental empire, and most of the Angevin kings before John spent more time in their continental possessions than in England.
King Stephen came to an agreement with Matilda in November 1153 with the signing of the Treaty of Wallingford, in which Stephen recognised Henry, son of Matilda and her second husband Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, as the designated heir. The royal house descended from Matilda and Geoffrey is widely known by two names, the House of Anjou (after Geoffrey's title as Count of Anjou) or the House of Plantagenet, after his sobriquet. 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 Angevins (from the French term meaning "from Anjou") ruled over the Angevin Empire during the 12th and 13th centuries, an area stretching from the Pyrenees to Ireland. They did not regard England as their primary home until most of their continental domains were lost by King John. The direct, eldest male line from Henry II includes monarchs commonly grouped together as the House of Plantagenet, which was the name given to the dynasty after the loss of most of their continental possessions, while cadet branches of this line became known as the House of Lancaster and the House of York during the War of the Roses.
Henry II named his son, Henry the Young King (1155–1183), as co-ruler with him but this was a Norman custom of designating an heir, and the younger Henry did not outlive his father and rule in his own right, so he is not counted as a monarch on lists of kings.
Richard I[42] Richard the Lionheart 3 September 1189[v] – 6 April 1199 (9years, 216days)
The future 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. The then-Prince Louis landed on the Isle of Thanet, off the north Kent coast, on 21 May 1216, and marched more or less unopposed to London, where the streets were lined with cheering crowds. At a grand ceremony in St. Paul's Cathedral, on 2 June 1216, in the presence of numerous English clergy and nobles, the Mayor of London and Alexander II of Scotland, Prince Louis was proclaimed King Louis of England (though not crowned). In less than a month, "King Louis" controlled more than half of the country and enjoyed the support of two-thirds of the barons. However, he suffered military defeat at the hands of the English fleet. By signing the Treaty of Lambeth in September 1217, Louis gained 10,000 marks and agreed he had never been the legitimate king of England.[44] "King Louis" remains one of the least known kings to have ruled over a substantial part of England.[45]
Name
Portrait
Arms
Birth
Marriage(s)
Death
Claim
Louis[46] Louis the Lion 2 June 1216 – 20 September 1217 (1 year, 111 days)
It is from the time of Henry III, after the loss of most of the family's continental possessions, that the Plantagenet kings became more English in nature. The Houses of Lancaster and York are cadet branches of the House of Plantagenet.
Name
Portrait
Arms
Birth
Marriage(s)
Death
Claim
Henry III[47] Henry of Winchester 28 October 1216[vii] – 16 November 1272 (56years, 20days)
This house descended from Edward III's third surviving son, John of Gaunt. Henry IV seized power from Richard II (and also displaced the next in line to the throne, Edmund Mortimer (then aged 7), a descendant of Edward III's second son, Lionel of Antwerp).
Name
Portrait
Arms
Birth
Marriage(s)
Death
Claim
Henry IV[53] Henry of Bolingbroke 30 September 1399[xii] – 20 March 1413 (13years, 172days)
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.
The Wars of the Roses (1455–1485) saw the throne pass back and forth between the rival houses of Lancaster and York.
Name
Portrait
Arms
Birth
Marriage(s)
Death
Claim
(1st reign) Edward IV[57] 4 March 1461[xv] – 3 October 1470 (9years, 214days)
The Tudors descended in the female line from John Beaufort, one of the illegitimate children of John of Gaunt (third surviving son of Edward III), by Gaunt's long-term mistress Katherine Swynford. Those descended from English monarchs only through an illegitimate child would normally have no claim on the throne, but the situation was complicated when Gaunt and Swynford eventually married in 1396 (25 years after John Beaufort's birth). In view of the marriage, the church retroactively declared the Beauforts legitimate via a papal bull the same year.[61] Parliament did the same in an Act in 1397.[62] 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.[63] Nevertheless, the Beauforts remained closely allied with Gaunt's other descendants, the Royal House of Lancaster.
John Beaufort's granddaughter Lady Margaret Beaufort was married to Edmund Tudor. Tudor was the son of Welsh courtier Owain Tudur (anglicised to Owen Tudor) and Catherine of Valois, the widow of the Lancastrian King Henry V. Edmund Tudor and his siblings were either illegitimate, or the product of a secret marriage, and owed their fortunes to the goodwill of their legitimate half-brother King Henry VI. When the House of Lancaster fell from power, the Tudors followed.
By the late 15th century, the Tudors were the last hope for the Lancaster supporters. Edmund Tudor's son became king as Henry VII after defeating Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, winning the Wars of the Roses. King Henry VII married Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV, thereby uniting the Lancastrian and York lineages. (See family tree.)
Edward VI named Lady Jane Grey as his heir in his will, overruling the order of succession laid down by Parliament in the Third Succession Act. Four days after his death on 6 July 1553, Jane was proclaimed queen—the first of three Tudor women to be proclaimed queen regnant. Nine days after the proclamation, on 19 July, the Privy Council switched allegiance and proclaimed Edward VI's Catholic half-sister Mary queen. Jane was later executed for treason.
Name
Portrait
Arms
Birth
Marriage(s)
Death
Claim
Jane[67] Lady Jane Grey 10 July 1553 – 19 July 1553 (9days)
Under the terms of the marriage treaty between Philip I of Naples (later Philip II of Spain from 15 January 1556) and Queen Mary I, Philip was to enjoy Mary's titles and honours for as long as their marriage should last. All official documents, including Acts of Parliament, were to be dated with both their names, and Parliament was to be called under the joint authority of the couple. An Act of Parliament gave him the title of king and stated that he "shall aid her Highness... in the happy administration of her Grace's realms and dominions"[70] (although elsewhere the Act stated that Mary was to be "sole queen"). Nonetheless, Philip was to co-reign with his wife.[69][k]
Elizabeth's cousin, King James VI of Scotland, succeeded to the English throne as James I in the Union of the Crowns. 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. In 1604, he adopted the title King of Great Britain. However, the two parliaments remained separate until the Acts of Union 1707.[75]
After a coup d'etat in 1653, Oliver Cromwell forcibly took control of England from Parliament. He dissolved the Rump Parliament at the head of a military force and England entered The Protectorate period, under Cromwell's direct control with the title Lord Protector.
It was within the power of the Lord Protector to choose his heir and Oliver Cromwell chose his eldest son, Richard Cromwell, to succeed him.
Richard Cromwell was forcibly removed by the English Committee of Safety in May 1659. England again lacked any single head of state. After almost a year of anarchy, the monarchy was formally restored when Charles II returned from France to accept the throne.
James II was ousted by Parliament less than four years after ascending to the throne, beginning the century's second interregnum. To settle the question of who should replace the deposed monarch, a Convention Parliament elected James' daughter Mary II and her husband (also his nephew) William IIIco-regents, in the Glorious Revolution.
Houses of Stuart and Orange
Name
Portrait
Arms
Birth
Marriage(s)
Death
Claim
Mary II[85] 13 February 1689[xxvi] – 28 December 1694 (5years, 319days)
England, Scotland, and Ireland had shared a monarch for more than a hundred years, since the Union of the Crowns in 1603, when King James VI of Scotland inherited the English and Irish thrones from his first cousin twice removed, Queen Elizabeth I.
The standard title for all monarchs from Æthelstan until the time of King John was Rex Anglorum ("King of the English"). In addition, many of the pre-Norman kings assumed extra titles, as follows:
Æthelstan: Rex totius Britanniae ("King of All Britain")
Edmund the Magnificent: Rex Britanniæ ("King of Britain") and Rex Anglorum cæterarumque gentium gobernator et rector ("King of the English and of other peoples governor and director")
Eadred: Regis qui regimina regnorum Angulsaxna, Norþhymbra, Paganorum, Brettonumque ("Reigning over the governments of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxons, Northumbrians, Pagans, and British")
Eadwig the Fair: Rex nutu Dei Angulsæxna et Northanhumbrorum imperator paganorum gubernator Breotonumque propugnator ("King by the will of God, Emperor of the Anglo-Saxons and Northumbrians, governor of the pagans, commander of the British")
Edgar the Peaceful: Totius Albionis finitimorumque regum basileus ("King of all Albion and its neighbouring realms")
Cnut the Great: Rex Anglorum totiusque Brittannice orbis gubernator et rector ("King of the English and of all the British sphere governor and ruler") and Brytannie totius Anglorum monarchus ("Monarch of all the English of Britain")
In the Norman periodRex Anglorum remained standard, with occasional use of Rex Angliae ("King of England"). The Empress Matilda styled herself Domina Anglorum ("Lady of the English").
From the time of King John onwards all other titles were eschewed in favour of Rex or Regina Angliae.
In 1604 James I, who had inherited the English throne the previous year, adopted the title (now usually rendered in English rather than Latin) King of Great Britain. The English and Scottish parliaments, however, did not recognise this title until the Acts of Union of 1707 under Queen Anne (who was Queen of Great Britain rather than king).[l]
↑ Æthelred was forced to go into exile in mid-1013, following Danish attacks, but was invited back following Sweyn Forkbeard's death in 1014.[18]
↑ Harold was only recognised as Regent until 1037, when he was recognised as king.[26]
↑ After reigning for approximately 9 weeks, Edgar Atheling submitted to William the Conqueror, who had gained control of the area to the south and immediate west of London.[30]
↑ Matilda is not listed as a monarch of England in many genealogies within texts, including Carpenter, David (2003). A Struggle for Mastery. p.533.; Warren, W.L. (1973). Henry II. Berkeley. p.176. ISBN9780520022829.; and Gillingham, John (1984). The Angevin Empire. p.x..
↑ The date of Edward II's death is disputed by historian Ian Mortimer, who argues that he may not have been murdered, but held imprisoned in Europe for several more years.[50]
↑ Edward V was deposed by Richard III, who usurped the throne on the grounds that Edward was illegitimate. He was never crowned.[58]
↑ Edward Hall and Raphael Holinshed both record an earlier secret wedding between Henry and Anne, which was conducted in Dover on 15 November 1532.
↑ Philip was not meant to be a mere consort; rather, the status of Mary I's husband was envisioned as that of a co-monarch during her reign. (See Act for the Marriage of Queen Mary to Philip of Spain.) However the extent of his authority and his status are ambiguous. The Act says that Philip shall have the title of king and "shall aid her Highness... in the happy administration of her Grace's realms and dominions", but elsewhere says that Mary shall be the sole Queen.
↑ As the new King of England could not read English, it was ordered that a note of all matters of state should be made in Latin or Spanish.[69][71] Coins were minted showing the heads of both Mary and Philip, and the coat of arms of England was impaled with Philip's to denote their joint reign.[72] Acts were passed in England and in Ireland which made it high treason to deny Philip's royal authority (see Treason Act 1554).[73]
The Act of Settlement is an act of the Parliament of England that settled the succession to the English and Irish crowns to only Protestants, which passed in 1701. More specifically, anyone who became a Roman Catholic, or who married one, became disqualified to inherit the throne. This had the effect of deposing the remaining descendants of Charles I, other than his Protestant granddaughter Anne, as the next Protestant in line to the throne was Sophia of Hanover. Born into the House of Wittelsbach, she was a granddaughter of James VI and I from his most junior surviving line, with the crowns descending only to her non-Catholic heirs. Sophia died less than two months before Queen Anne, and Sophia's son succeeded to the throne as King George I, starting the Hanoverian dynasty in Britain.
The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the form of government used by the United Kingdom by which a hereditary monarch reigns as the head of state, with their powers regulated by the British Constitution. The term may also refer to the role of the royal family within the UK's broader political structure. The monarch since 8 September 2022 is King Charles III, who ascended the throne on the death of Queen Elizabeth II, his mother.
James Francis Edward Stuart was the House of Stuart claimant to the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland from 1701 until his death in 1766. The only son of James II of England and his second wife, Mary of Modena, he was Prince of Wales and heir until his Catholic father was deposed and exiled in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. His Protestant half-sister Mary II and her husband William III became co-monarchs. As a Catholic, he was subsequently excluded from the succession by the Act of Settlement 1701.
Duke of Cornwall is a title in the Peerage of England, traditionally held by the eldest son of the reigning British monarch, previously the English monarch. The Duchy of Cornwall was the first duchy created in England and was established in a royal charter in 1337 by King Edward III. As of 2022, Prince William became Duke of Cornwall following the accession to the throne of his father, King Charles III; William's wife, Catherine, became Duchess of Cornwall.
The coat of arms of the United Kingdom, also referred to as the royal arms, are the arms of dominion of the British monarch, currently Charles III. They are used by the Government of the United Kingdom and by other Crown institutions, including courts in the United Kingdom and in some parts of the Commonwealth. Differenced versions of the arms are used by members of the British royal family. The monarch's official flag, the Royal Standard, is the coat of arms in flag form.
A speech from the throne, or throne speech, is an event in certain monarchies in which the reigning sovereign, or their representative, reads a prepared speech to members of the nation's legislature when a session is opened. The address sets forth the government's priorities for its legislative agenda, for which the cooperation of the legislature is sought. The speech is often accompanied by formal ceremony. It is often held annually, although in some places it may occur more or less frequently, whenever a new session of the legislature is opened.
The Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom, originally the Crown Jewels of England, are a collection of royal ceremonial objects kept in the Jewel House at the Tower of London, which include the coronation regalia and vestments worn by British monarchs.
The coronation of the monarch of the United Kingdom is an initiation ceremony in which they are formally invested with regalia and crowned at Westminster Abbey. It corresponds to the coronations that formerly took place in other European monarchies, which have all abandoned coronations in favour of inauguration or enthronement ceremonies. A coronation is a symbolic formality and does not signify the official beginning of the monarch's reign; de jure and de facto his or her reign commences from the moment of the preceding monarch's death or abdication, maintaining legal continuity of the monarchy.
The Kingdom of England was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from the early tenth century, when it was unified from various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, until 1 May 1707, when it united with Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, which would later become the United Kingdom. The Kingdom of England was among the most powerful states in Europe during the medieval and early modern periods.
The Great Seal of the Realm is a seal that is used to symbolise the sovereign's approval of state documents. It is also known as the Great Seal of the United Kingdom. To make it, sealing wax is melted in a metal mould or matrix and impressed into a wax figure that is attached by cord or ribbon to documents that the monarch wishes to seal officially. The formal keeper of the seal is the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain.
Succession to the British throne is determined by descent, sex, legitimacy, and religion. Under common law, the Crown is inherited by a sovereign's children or by a childless sovereign's nearest collateral line. The Bill of Rights 1689 and the Act of Settlement 1701 restrict succession to the throne to the legitimate Protestant descendants of Sophia of Hanover who are in "communion with the Church of England". Spouses of Catholics were disqualified from 1689 until the law was amended in 2015. Protestant descendants of those excluded for being Roman Catholics are eligible.
From the year 1340 to 1802, excluding two brief intervals in the 1360s and the 1420s, the kings and queens of England and Ireland also claimed the throne of France. The claim dates from Edward III, who claimed the French throne in 1340 as the sororal nephew of the last direct Capetian, Charles IV. Edward and his heirs fought the Hundred Years' War to enforce this claim, and were briefly successful in the 1420s under Henry V and Henry VI, but the House of Valois, a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty, was ultimately victorious and retained control of France, except for Calais and the Channel Islands. Following the Hundred Years War, English and British monarchs continued to call themselves kings of France, and used the French fleur-de-lis as their coat of arms, quartering the arms of England in positions of secondary honour. This continued until 1802 when Britain recognised the French Republic and therefore the abolition of the French monarchy. The Jacobite claimants, however, did not explicitly relinquish the claim.
The Royal Badge of Wales was approved in May 2008. It is based on the arms borne by the 13th-century Welsh prince Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, with the addition of St Edward's Crown atop a continuous scroll which, together with a wreath consisting of the plant emblems of the four countries of the United Kingdom, surrounds the shield. The motto which appears on the scroll, PLEIDIOL WYF I'M GWLAD, is taken from the national anthem of Wales; it was also an element of the Welsh designs for £1 coins minted from 1985 until 2000. The badge formerly appeared on the covers of Assembly Measures; since the 2011 referendum, it now appears on the cover of Acts passed by the Senedd and its escutcheon, ribbon and motto are depicted on the Welsh Seal.
The monarchy of Antigua and Barbuda is a system of government in which a hereditary monarch is the sovereign and head of state of Antigua and Barbuda. The current Antiguan and Barbudan monarch and head of state, since 8 September 2022, is King Charles III. As sovereign, he is the personal embodiment of the Crown of Antigua and Barbuda. Although the person of the sovereign is equally shared with 14 other independent countries within the Commonwealth of Nations, each country's monarchy is separate and legally distinct. As a result, the current monarch is officially titled King of Antigua and Barbuda and, in this capacity, he and other members of the Royal Family undertake public and private functions domestically and abroad as representatives of Antigua and Barbuda. However, the King is the only member of the Royal Family with any constitutional role.
The history of the monarchy of the United Kingdom and its evolution into a constitutional and ceremonial monarchy is a major theme in the historical development of the British constitution. The British monarchy traces its origins to the petty kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England and early medieval Scotland, which consolidated into the kingdoms of England and Scotland by the 10th century. The Norman and Plantagenet dynasties expanded their authority throughout the British Isles, creating the Lordship of Ireland in 1177 and conquering Wales in 1283. In 1215, King John agreed to limit his own powers over his subjects according to the terms of Magna Carta. To gain the consent of the political community, English kings began summoning Parliaments to approve taxation and to enact statutes. Gradually, Parliament's authority expanded at the expense of royal power.
References
Citations
↑ Ashley, Mike (2003). A Brief History of British Kings and Queens: British Royal History from Alfred the Great to the Present. Running Press.
1 2 3 4 Keynes, Simon (2001). "Rulers of the English, c 450–1066". In Lapidge, Michael (ed.). The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England. p.514.
↑ Miller, Sean (2001). "Æthelstan". In Lapidge, Michael (ed.). The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England. p.16.
1 2 Keynes, Simon (2001). "Edward the Elder". In Higham, N. J.; Hill, D. H. (eds.). Edward, King of the Anglo-Saxons. Routledge. pp.50–51.
↑ Thacker, Alan (2001). "Dynastic Monasteries and Family Cults". In Higham, N. J.; Hill, D. H. (eds.). Edward the Elder. Routledge. p.253.
↑ "Aethelstan". archontology.org. Archived from the original on 17 March 2007. Retrieved 15 March 2007.; "Athelstan (r. 924–939)". royal.gov.uk. 12 January 2016. Archived from the original on 25 January 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
↑ "Eadmund (Edmund)". archontology.org. Archived from the original on 17 March 2007. Retrieved 17 March 2007.; "Edmund I (r. 939–946)". royal.gov.uk. 12 January 2016. Archived from the original on 25 January 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
↑ "Eadred (Edred)". archontology.org. Archived from the original on 16 March 2007. Retrieved 17 March 2007.; "King Edred". britroyals.com. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 17 March 2007.; "Edred (r. 946–55)". royal.gov.uk. 12 January 2016. Archived from the original on 25 January 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
↑ "Eadwig (Edwy)". archontology.org. Archived from the original on 17 March 2007. Retrieved 17 March 2007.; "Edwy". newadvent.org. Archived from the original on 5 April 2007. Retrieved 17 March 2007.; "Edwy (r. 955–959)". royal.gov.uk. 12 January 2016. Archived from the original on 1 July 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
↑ "Richard III". archontology.org. Archived from the original on 16 October 2007. Retrieved 25 October 2007.; "Richard III (r. 1483–1485)". royal.gov.uk. 14 January 2016. Archived from the original on 25 January 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
↑ Michael K. Jones and Malcolm G. Underwood, The King's Mother: Lady Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby, (Cambridge University Press, 1995), 19–20.
↑ Chris Skidmore, The Rise of the Tudors: The Family That Changed English History, (St.Martin's Press, 2013), 22.
↑ Pollard, A. F. (2007). The History of England–From the Accession of Edward VI to the Death of Elizabeth (1547–1603). Read Books.; Groot, Wim de (2005). The Seventh Window: The King's Window Donated by Philip II and Mary Tudor to Sint Janskerk in Gouda (1557). Uitgeverij Verloren.
↑ Marks, Richard; Payne, Ann; British Museum; British Library, eds. (1978). British heraldry from its origins to c. 1800. British Museum Publications Ltd.; The Numismatist. American Numismatic Association. 1971.
↑ Edwards, Robert Dudley (1977). Ireland in the age of the Tudors: the destruction of Hiberno-Norman civilisation. Taylor & Francis.
↑ "William III". archontology.org. Archived from the original on 29 October 2007. Retrieved 25 October 2007.
↑ "Anne (r. 1702–1714)". royal.gov.uk. 30 December 2015. Archived from the original on 25 January 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2018.; "Anne (England)". archontology.org. Archived from the original on 29 October 2007. Retrieved 25 October 2007.
↑ "Welcome". parliament.uk. Archived from the original on 15 October 2008. Retrieved 7 October 2008.
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