English monarchy depicts the
Norman Conquest of 1066. Following
Viking raids and settlement in the ninth century, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of
Wessex emerged as the dominant English kingdom.
Alfred the Great secured Wessex, achieved dominance over western
Mercia, and assumed the title "King of the Anglo-Saxons". His grandson
Æthelstan was the first king to rule over a unitary kingdom roughly corresponding to the present borders of England, though its constituent parts retained strong regional identities. The 11th century saw England become more stable, despite a number of wars with the Danes, which resulted in a Danish monarchy for one generation. The
conquest of England in 1066 by
William, Duke of Normandy, was crucial in terms of both political and social change. The new monarch continued the centralisation of power begun in the Anglo-Saxon period, while the
feudal system continued to develop. William was succeeded by two of his sons:
William II, then
Henry I. Henry made a controversial decision to name his daughter
Matilda (his only surviving child) as his heir. Following Henry's death in 1135, his nephew,
Stephen, claimed the throne and took power with the support of most of the
barons. Matilda challenged his reign; as a result, England descended into a period of disorder known as
the Anarchy. Stephen maintained a precarious hold on power, but agreed to a compromise under which Matilda's son
Henry II would succeed him. Henry accordingly became the first
Angevin king of England and the first monarch of the
Plantagenet dynasty in 1154. The reigns of most of the Angevin monarchs were marred by civil strife and conflicts between the monarch and the nobility. Henry II faced rebellions from his own sons, including the future monarchs
Richard I and
John, but nevertheless managed to expand his kingdom, forming what is retrospectively known as the
Angevin Empire. Upon Henry's death, his eldest surviving legitimate son Richard succeeded to the throne; Richard was absent from England for most of his reign, for he left to fight in the
Crusades. He was killed whilst besieging a castle; John succeeded him.
Arthur I, Duke of Brittany, son of John's deceased elder brother
Duke Geoffrey II and himself former heir of Richard, was dissatisfied but disappeared the following year after being captured by John in 1202; Arthur's sister,
Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany was placed under house arrest by John. John's reign was marked by conflict with the barons, particularly over the limits of royal power. In 1215, the barons coerced the king into issuing
Magna Carta (
Latin for "Great Charter") to guarantee the rights and liberties of the nobility. Soon afterwards, further disagreements plunged England into a civil war known as the
First Barons' War, and French Prince Louis also claimed the throne as Louis I with the support of the rebellious princes as John's nephew-in-law. The war abruptly ended when John died in 1216, leaving the Crown to his nine-year-old son
Henry III. Many rebellious lords also turned to support Henry III. In 1217, Louis was defeated and renounced the English throne. Eleanor's claim was not upheld, but according to John's will, she remained under house arrest until her death in 1241. The London Chronicle referred to her as the rightful heir to the throne, while the Lanercost Chronicle recorded a legend of Henry III giving her a golden crown before her death. With Geoffrey leaving no descendants, Henry III became the hereditary heir of the royal family. Later in Henry's reign,
Simon de Montfort led the barons in another rebellion, beginning the
Second Barons' War. The war ended in a clear royalist victory and in the death of many rebels, but not before the king had agreed to summon a parliament in 1265. In 1268, Henry III ordered the Amesbury Priory to commemorate both Arthur and Eleanor in commemoration of past kings and queens as well. (1030–1263),
parts of Africa around Tripoli (1146–1158), and the
Crusader state of the
Principality of Antioch. Not shown:
Principality of Tarragona (1129–1173). The next monarch,
Edward Longshanks, was far more successful in maintaining royal power and was responsible for the
conquest of Wales. He attempted to establish English domination of Scotland. However, gains in Scotland were reversed during the reign of his successor,
Edward II, who also faced conflict with the nobility. In 1311, Edward II was forced to relinquish many of his powers to a committee of
baronial "ordainers"; however, military victories helped him regain control in 1322. Edward was deposed by his wife
Isabella and his son,
Edward III, became king. Edward III claimed the French Crown, setting off the
Hundred Years' War between England and France. His campaigns conquered much French territory, but by 1374, all the gains had been lost. Edward's reign was also marked by the further development of Parliament, which came to be divided into two Houses; he died in 1377, leaving the Crown to his 10-year-old grandson
Richard II. Like many of his predecessors, Richard II conflicted with the nobles by attempting to concentrate power in his own hands. In 1399, while he was campaigning in Ireland, his cousin
Henry Bolingbroke seized power. Richard was deposed, imprisoned, and eventually murdered, probably by starvation, and Henry became king as Henry IV. Henry IV was the grandson of Edward III and the son of
John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster; hence, his dynasty was known as the
House of Lancaster. For most of his reign, Henry IV was forced to fight off plots and rebellions; his success was partly due to the military skill of his son, the future
Henry V. Henry V's own reign, which began in 1413, was largely free from domestic strife, leaving the king free to pursue the Hundred Years' War in France. Although he was victorious, his sudden death in 1422 left his infant son
Henry VI on the throne and gave the French an opportunity to overthrow English rule. The unpopularity of Henry VI's counsellors and his consort,
Margaret of Anjou, as well as his own ineffectual leadership, led to the weakening of the House of Lancaster. The Lancastrians faced a challenge from the House of York, so-called because its head, a descendant of Edward III, was
Richard, Duke of York, who was at odds with the Queen. Although the Duke of York died in battle in 1460, his eldest son,
Edward IV, led the Yorkists to victory in 1461, overthrowing Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou. Edward IV was constantly at odds with the Lancastrians and his own councillors after his marriage to
Elizabeth Woodville, with a brief return to power for Henry VI. Edward IV prevailed, winning back the throne at
Barnet and killing the Lancastrian heir,
Edward of Westminster, at
Tewkesbury. Afterwards he captured Margaret of Anjou, eventually sending her into exile, but not before killing Henry VI while he was held prisoner in the Tower. The
Wars of the Roses, nevertheless, continued intermittently during his reign and those of his son
Edward V and brother
Richard III. Edward V disappeared, presumably murdered by Richard. Ultimately, the conflict culminated in success for the Lancastrian branch led by
Henry Tudor, in 1485, when Richard III was killed in the
Battle of Bosworth Field. King Henry VII then neutralised the remaining Yorkist forces, partly by marrying
Elizabeth of York, daughter of King Edward IV and a Yorkist heir. Through skill and ability, Henry re-established absolute supremacy in the realm, and the conflicts with the nobility that had plagued previous monarchs came to an end. The reign of the second Tudor king,
Henry VIII, was one of great political change. Religious upheaval and disputes with the Pope, and the fact that his marriage to
Catherine of Aragon produced only one surviving child, a daughter, led the monarch to break from the Roman Catholic Church and establish the
Church of England (the Anglican Church) and divorce his wife to marry
Anne Boleyn. Wales – which had been conquered centuries earlier, but had remained a separate dominion – was annexed to England under the
Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. Henry VIII's son and successor, the young
Edward VI, continued with further religious reforms, but his early death in 1553 precipitated a succession crisis. He was wary of allowing his Catholic elder half-sister
Mary I to succeed, and therefore drew up a will designating
Lady Jane Grey as his heiress. Jane's reign, however, lasted only nine days; with tremendous popular support, Mary deposed her and declared herself the lawful sovereign. Mary I married
Philip of Spain, who was declared king and co-ruler. He pursued disastrous wars in France and she attempted to return England to Roman Catholicism (burning Protestants at the stake as heretics in the process). Upon her death in 1558, the pair were succeeded by her Protestant half-sister
Elizabeth I. England returned to
Protestantism and continued its growth into a major world power by building its navy and exploring the New World.
Scottish monarchy , as
King of the Picts, is often credited as the inaugural King of a united Scotland In Scotland, as in England, monarchies emerged after the withdrawal of the Roman Empire from Great Britain in the early fifth century. The three groups that lived in Scotland at this time were the
Picts north of the Forth and Clyde, the
Britons in the south, including the
Kingdom of Strathclyde, and the
Gaels or
Scotti (who would later give their name to Scotland), of the Irish petty kingdom of
Dál Riata in Argyll and the southern Hebrides.
Kenneth MacAlpin is traditionally viewed as the first king of a united Scotland (known as Scotia to writers in Latin, or
Alba to the Scots). The expansion of Scottish dominions continued over the next two centuries, as other territories such as Strathclyde were absorbed. Early Scottish monarchs did not inherit the Crown directly; instead, the custom of
tanistry was followed, where the monarchy alternated between different branches of the
House of Alpin. There was an elective element to early Scottish kings and this practice lingered for much longer in Scotland. For example, the first Stewart monarch, Robert II, was selected from among eligible royal males at Linlithgow in 1370 by the
Three Estates of the Scottish Parliament. However, as a result of this elective element, the rival dynastic lines clashed, often violently. From 942 to 1005, seven consecutive monarchs were either murdered or killed in battle. In 1005,
Malcolm II ascended the throne having killed many rivals. He continued to ruthlessly eliminate opposition, and when he died in 1034 he was succeeded by his grandson,
Duncan I, instead of a cousin, as had been usual. In 1040, Duncan suffered defeat in battle at the hands of
Macbeth, who was killed himself in 1057 by Duncan's son
Malcolm. The following year, after killing Macbeth's stepson
Lulach, Malcolm ascended the throne as Malcolm III. With a further series of battles and deposings, five of Malcolm's sons as well as one of his brothers successively became king. Eventually, the Crown came to his youngest son,
David I. David was succeeded by his grandsons
Malcolm IV, and then by
William the Lion, the longest-reigning King of Scots before the
Union of the Crowns. William participated in a rebellion against King Henry II of England but when the rebellion failed, William was captured by the English. In exchange for his release, William was forced to acknowledge Henry as his feudal overlord. The English King Richard I agreed to terminate the arrangement in 1189, in return for a large sum of money needed for the Crusades. William died in 1214 and was succeeded by his son
Alexander II. Alexander II, as well as his successor
Alexander III, attempted to take over the
Western Isles, which were still under the overlordship of Norway. During the reign of Alexander III, Norway launched an unsuccessful invasion of Scotland; the ensuing
Treaty of Perth recognised Scottish control of the Western Isles and other disputed areas. Alexander III's death in a riding accident in 1286 precipitated a major succession crisis. Scottish leaders appealed to King Edward I of England for help in determining who was the rightful heir. Edward chose Alexander's three-year-old Norwegian granddaughter,
Margaret. On her way to Scotland in 1290, however, Margaret died at sea, and Edward was again asked to adjudicate between
13 rival claimants to the throne. A court was set up and after two years of deliberation, it pronounced
John Balliol to be king. Edward proceeded to treat Balliol as a vassal and tried to exert influence over Scotland. In 1295, when Balliol renounced his allegiance to England, Edward I invaded. During the first ten years of the ensuing
Wars of Scottish Independence, Scotland had no monarch, until
Robert the Bruce declared himself king in 1306. Robert's efforts to control Scotland culminated in success and Scottish independence was acknowledged in 1328. However, only one year later, Robert died and was succeeded by his five-year-old son,
David II. On the pretext of restoring John Balliol's rightful heir,
Edward Balliol, the English again invaded in 1332. During the next four years, Balliol was crowned, deposed, restored, deposed, restored, and deposed until he eventually settled in England, and David remained king for the next 35 years. , King of Scotland from 1488 to 1513, with the
Crown of Scotland David II died childless in 1371 and was succeeded by his nephew
Robert II of the
House of Stuart. The reigns of both Robert II and his successor,
Robert III, were marked by a general decline in royal power. When Robert III died in 1406,
regents had to rule the country; the monarch, Robert III's son
James I, had been taken captive by the English. Having paid a large ransom, James returned to Scotland in 1424; to restore his authority, he used ruthless measures, including the execution of several of his enemies. He was assassinated by a group of nobles.
James II continued his father's policies by subduing influential noblemen but he was killed in an accident at the age of thirty, and a council of regents again assumed power.
James III was defeated in a battle against rebellious Scottish earls in 1488, leading to another boy-king:
James IV. In 1513 James IV launched an invasion of England, attempting to take advantage of the absence of the English King Henry VIII. His forces met with disaster at
Flodden Field; the king, many senior noblemen, and hundreds of soldiers were killed. As his son and successor,
James V, was an infant, the government was again taken over by regents. James V led another disastrous war with the English in 1542, and his death in the same year left the Crown in the hands of his six-day-old daughter,
Mary. Once again, a regency was established. Mary, a Roman Catholic, reigned during a period of great religious upheaval in Scotland. As a result of the efforts of reformers such as
John Knox, a Protestant ascendancy was established. Mary caused alarm by marrying her Catholic cousin,
Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, in 1565. After Lord Darnley's assassination in 1567, Mary contracted an even more unpopular marriage with the
Earl of Bothwell, who was widely suspected of Darnley's murder. The nobility rebelled against the queen, forcing her to abdicate. She fled to England, and the Crown went to her infant son
James VI, who was brought up as a Protestant. Mary was imprisoned and later executed by the English queen Elizabeth I.
Personal union and republican phase became the first monarch to rule over England, Scotland, and Ireland together. Elizabeth I's death in 1603 ended Tudor rule in England. Since she had no children, she was succeeded by the Scottish monarch
James VI, who was the great-grandson of
Henry VIII's older sister and hence Elizabeth's first cousin twice removed. James VI ruled in England as James I after what was known as the "
Union of the Crowns". Although England and Scotland were in
personal union under one monarch – James I & VI became the first monarch to style himself "King of Great Britain" in 1604 – they remained two separate kingdoms. James I & VI's successor,
Charles I, experienced frequent conflicts with the English Parliament related to the issue of royal and parliamentary powers, especially the power to impose taxes. He provoked opposition by
ruling without Parliament from 1629 to 1640, unilaterally levying taxes and adopting controversial religious policies (many of which were offensive to the Scottish
Presbyterians and the English
Puritans). His attempt to enforce
Anglicanism led to
organised rebellion in Scotland and ignited the
Wars of the Three Kingdoms. In 1642, the conflict between the king and Parliament reached its climax and the
English Civil War began. The Civil War culminated in the execution of the king in 1649, the overthrow of the English monarchy, and the establishment of the
Commonwealth of England. Charles I's son,
Charles II, was proclaimed King of Great Britain in Scotland, but he was forced to flee abroad after he invaded England and was defeated at the
Battle of Worcester. In 1653,
Oliver Cromwell, the most prominent military and political leader in the nation, seized power and declared himself
Lord Protector (effectively becoming a military dictator, refusing the title of king). Cromwell ruled until his death in 1658, when he was succeeded by his son
Richard. The new Lord Protector had little interest in governing, and he soon resigned. The lack of clear leadership led to civil and military unrest, and to a popular desire to restore the monarchy. In 1660, the
monarchy was restored and Charles II returned to Britain. Charles II's reign was marked by the development of the first modern political parties in England. Charles had no legitimate children and was due to be succeeded by his Roman Catholic brother,
James, Duke of York. A parliamentary effort to exclude James from the
line of succession arose; the "Petitioners", who supported exclusion, became the Whig Party, whereas the "Abhorrers", who opposed exclusion, became the
Tory Party. The Exclusion Bill failed; on several occasions, Charles II dissolved Parliament because he feared that the bill might pass. After the dissolution of the Parliament of 1681, Charles ruled without a Parliament until his death in 1685. When James succeeded Charles, he pursued a policy of offering religious tolerance to
Separatists and Roman Catholics, thereby drawing the ire of many of his subjects, who suspected his real aim was to reestablish Catholicism. The Tories were committed to the
Church of England, and the Whigs were committed to parliamentary authority. Many opposed James's decisions to maintain a large standing army, appoint Roman Catholics to high political and military offices, and imprison
Church of England clerics who challenged his policies. As a result, a group of Protestants known as the
Immortal Seven invited James II & VII's daughter
Mary and her husband
William III of Orange to depose the king. William obliged, arriving in England on 5 November 1688 to great public support. Faced with the defection of many of his Protestant officials, James fled the realm and William and Mary (rather than
James II & VII's Catholic son) were declared joint Sovereigns of England, Scotland and Ireland. James's overthrow, known as the
Glorious Revolution, was one of the most important events in the long evolution of parliamentary power. The
Bill of Rights 1689 affirmed parliamentary supremacy and declared that the English people held certain rights, including freedom from taxes imposed without parliamentary consent. The Bill of Rights required future monarchs to be Protestants and provided that, after any children of William and Mary, Mary's sister
Anne would inherit the Crown. Mary II died childless in 1694, leaving William III & II as the sole monarch. By 1700, a political crisis arose, as all of Anne's children had died, leaving her as the only individual left in the line of succession. Parliament was afraid that the former James II or his supporters, known as
Jacobites, might attempt to reclaim the throne. Parliament passed the
Act of Settlement 1701, which excluded James and his Catholic relations from the succession and made William's nearest Protestant relations, the family of
Sophia, Electress of Hanover, next in line to the throne after his sister-in-law Anne. Soon after the passage of the Act, William III & II died, leaving the Crown to Anne.
After the 1707 Acts of Union in 1707. After Anne's accession, the problem of succession re-emerged. The Scottish Parliament, infuriated that the English Parliament did not consult them on the choice of Sophia's family as the next heirs, passed the
Act of Security 1704, threatening to end the personal union between England and Scotland. The Parliament of England retaliated with the
Alien Act 1705, threatening to devastate the Scottish economy by restricting trade. The Scottish and English parliaments negotiated the
Acts of Union 1707, under which England and Scotland were united into a single
Kingdom of Great Britain, with succession under the rules prescribed by the Act of Settlement. later
Kingdom of Hanover was in
personal union with the British monarchy from 1714 to 1837. (Orange; borders shown 1814–1866.) In 1714, Queen Anne was succeeded by her second cousin, and Sophia's son,
George I,
Elector of Hanover, who consolidated his position by defeating Jacobite rebellions in 1715 and 1719. The new monarch was less active in government than many of his British predecessors, but retained control over his German kingdoms, with which Britain was now in personal union. Power shifted towards George's ministers, especially to
Robert Walpole, who is often considered the first
British prime minister, although the title was not then in use. The next monarch,
George II, witnessed the end of the Jacobite threat in 1746 when the Catholic Stuarts were completely defeated. During the long reign of his grandson,
George III, thirteen of Britain's American colonies were lost when they formed the
United States of America after the
American Revolutionary War, but British influence elsewhere in the world continued to grow. The
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was created by the
Acts of Union 1800. . From 1811 to 1820, George III was rendered incapable of ruling by
a mental illness. His son, the future
George IV, ruled in his stead as
regent. During
the Regency and his own reign, the power of the monarchy declined, and by the time of his successor,
William IV, the monarch was no longer able to interfere effectively with parliamentary power. In 1834, William dismissed the Whig Prime Minister,
William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, and appointed a Tory,
Robert Peel. In the ensuing elections, however, Peel lost. The king had no choice but to recall Lord Melbourne. During William IV's reign, the
Reform Act 1832, which reformed parliamentary representation, was passed. Together with others passed later in the century, the Act led to an expansion of the electoral franchise and the rise of the House of Commons as the most important branch of Parliament. The final transition to a
constitutional monarchy was made during the long reign of William IV's successor,
Victoria. As a woman, Victoria could not rule
Hanover, which permitted succession only in the male line, so the personal union of the United Kingdom and Hanover came to an end. The
Victorian era was marked by great cultural change, technological progress, and the establishment of the United Kingdom as one of the world's foremost powers. In recognition of
British rule over India, Victoria was declared
Empress of India in 1876. However, her reign was also marked by increased support for the
republican movement, due in part to Victoria's permanent mourning and lengthy period of seclusion following the death of
her husband in 1861. Victoria's son,
Edward VII, became the first monarch of the
House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1901. In 1917, the next monarch,
George V, changed "Saxe-Coburg and Gotha" to "
Windsor" in response to the anti-German sentiment aroused by the
First World War. George V's reign was marked by the separation of Ireland into Northern Ireland, which remained a part of the United Kingdom, and the
Irish Free State, an independent nation, in 1922.
Shared monarchy During the twentieth century, the
Commonwealth of Nations evolved from the
British Empire. Prior to 1926, the British Crown reigned over the British Empire collectively; the
Dominions and
Crown Colonies were subordinate to the United Kingdom. The
Balfour Declaration of 1926 gave complete self-government to the Dominions, effectively creating a system whereby a single monarch operated independently in each separate Dominion. The concept was solidified by the
Statute of Westminster 1931, which has been likened to "a treaty among the Commonwealth countries". The monarchy thus ceased to be an exclusively British institution, although it is often still referred to as "British" for legal and historical reasons and for convenience. The monarch became separately monarch of the United Kingdom,
Canada,
Australia,
New Zealand, and so forth; one person reigning in multiple distinct sovereign states, in a relationship likened to a
personal union. George V's death in 1936 was followed by the accession of
Edward VIII, who caused a public scandal by announcing his desire to marry the divorced American
Wallis Simpson, even though the Church of England opposed the remarriage of divorcees. Accordingly, Edward announced his intention to
abdicate; the Parliaments of the United Kingdom and of other Commonwealth countries granted his request. Edward VIII and any children by his new wife were excluded from the line of succession, and the Crown went to his brother,
George VI. George served as a rallying figure for the British people during World War II, making morale-boosting visits to the troops as well as to munitions factories and areas bombed by
Nazi Germany. In June 1948 George VI relinquished the title
Emperor of India, although remaining head of state of the
Dominion of India. At first, every member of the Commonwealth retained the same monarch as the United Kingdom, but when the Dominion of India became a republic in 1950, it would no longer share in a common monarchy. Instead, the British monarch was acknowledged as "
Head of the Commonwealth" in all Commonwealth member states, whether they were realms or republics. The position is purely ceremonial, and is not inherited by the British monarch as of right but is vested in an individual chosen by the Commonwealth heads of government. Member states of the Commonwealth that share the same person as monarch are informally known as
Commonwealth realms. An
all-island kingship of Ireland had been created in 854 by
Máel Sechnaill mac Máele Ruanaid. His last successor was
Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair, who had become High King of Ireland in early 1166 and exiled
Diarmait Mac Murchada, the King of
Leinster, a
vassal kingdom. Diarmait asked Henry II for help, gaining a group of Anglo-Norman aristocrats and adventurers, led by
Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, to help him regain his throne. Diarmait and his Anglo-Norman allies succeeded and he became King of Leinster again. De Clare married Diarmait's daughter, and when Diarmait died in 1171, de Clare became King of Leinster. Henry was afraid that de Clare would make Ireland a rival Norman kingdom, so he took advantage of the
papal bull and invaded, forcing de Clare and the other Anglo-Norman aristocrats in Ireland and the
major Irish kings and lords to recognise him as their
overlord. By 1542, King
Henry VIII of England
had broken with the Church of Rome and declared himself
Supreme Head of the Church of England. The Pope's grant of Ireland to the English monarch became invalid, so Henry summoned a meeting of the
Irish Parliament to change his title from
Lord of Ireland to
King of Ireland. In 1800, as a result of the
Irish Rebellion of 1798, the Act of Union merged the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The whole island of Ireland continued to be a part of the United Kingdom until 1922 when what is now the
Republic of Ireland won independence as the
Irish Free State, a separate Dominion within the Commonwealth. The Irish Free State was renamed Ireland in 1937, and in 1949 declared itself a republic, left the Commonwealth and severed all ties with the monarchy.
Northern Ireland remained within the Union. In 1927, the United Kingdom changed its name to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, while the monarch's style for the next twenty years became "of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas, King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India".
Modern status and popularity In the 1990s,
republicanism in the United Kingdom grew, partly on account of negative publicity associated with the royal family (for instance, immediately following the death of
Diana, Princess of Wales). However,
The Independent maintained polls from 2002 to 2007 showed that around 70–80% of the British public supported the continuation of the monarchy. In September 2022, shortly after the death of Elizabeth II,
The Guardian reported that a
YouGov poll showed that 68% of British people felt positively about the monarchy. The newspaper speculated that some of this may have been a reaction to the Queen's death, and said it showed dissatisfaction is higher among young people; 47% of people aged between 18 and 24 wanted the monarchy to continue, compared to 86% aged 65 and over. In May 2022, before the Queen's death, the newspaper reported that polling showed 33% of those aged between 18 and 24 wanted the monarchy to continue. In January 2023, a
YouGov survey of roughly 1,700 UK people found that 64% thought that the country should continue to have a monarchy. ==Religious role==