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My entry for ISTD 2012.
Citation preview
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William IThe Conqueror
William I
Stephen
Matilda
Adela
Henry I
Henry II
Richard I
John I
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| 13 Event 1 : The Anarchy
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The Magna Carta is a document
which King John was forced to sign
near the end of his reign, though he
didn’t have much choice in the
matter. Various barons and nobility
incited rebellion and left him no
option other than death or
resignation.
The charter greatly reduced the
power held by the Monarchy, and
later the aristocracy, by allowing the
formation of a parliament of the
people.
Event 2 : Magna Carta
The Magna Carta became the basis
for English citizen’s rights and
thereby became the founding
document of civil liberties in
England; the very first constitution
and thus formed the basis for all
such future documents.
Many attempts to draft
constitutional forms of government,
including the United States
Constitution, trace their lineage
back to Magna Carta.
16 | What Makes A Diamond: The 6 Events that mde the Jubilee Possible
John inherited the throne from his brother
Richard (The Lionheart) after he died
returning from the Crusades.
John had a very uneasy relationship with his
barons who attempted to force him to sign
the Magna Carta.
After the original documented was set aside
the Barons tried to depose John and his line
in favour of the Prince Louis the son of the
French King but changed their minds on the
death of King John and attempted to rule
through his son Henry III.
Henry III
Edward the Black Prince
Edward I
John I
Edward II
Richard II
Edward III
John of Gaunt
Edmund of York
Henry IV cont. pg 23
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The British dominions of Australia,
New Zealand, Canada, the former
Union of South Africa and
Southern Rhodesia,all reflect the
influence of the Magna Carta in
their laws. The Charter impacted
on the states that were to evolve
from the British Empire and had
great cultural and historical
significance.
The Magna Carta was originally
issued in the year 1215, translated
into vernacular-French as early as
1219 and reissued later in the 13th
century in modified versions.
The latter versions excluded the
most direct challenge to the
monarch’s authority that had been
present in the 1215 charter; the
Pope questioned the documents
authenticity by saying that because
King John was forced to sign it
under duress, it would infringe
upon the kings rights as God’s
chosen monarch – King John gladly
accepted the Pope’s ruling.
The charter eventual passed into
common law in 1225 (after John’s
death) where it was preceded and
directly influenced by the Charter
of Liberties in 1100, in which King
Henry I had specified particular
areas wherein his powers would be
limited and promised good
governance to his people.
The 1215 charter required King
John of England to proclaim certain
liberties and accept that his will
was not arbitrary, for example, by
explicitly accepting that no
“freeman” (in the sense of non-serf)
could be punished except through
the law of the land - a right which is
still exists today.
The events leading up to this began
in1209 when numerous barons
began to conspire against King;
Over the course of his reign the
combination of high taxes,
unsuccessful wars that resulted in
the loss of English barons’ titled
possessions in Normandy following
the Battle of Bouvines (1214), and
ongoing conflicts with pope
Innocent III had made King John
unpopular with many of his barons.
With growing resentment and
pressure from his Barons, John
played for time. During
negotiations between January and
June 1215, a document was
produced, which historians have
termed ‘The Unknown Charter of
Liberties’, seven of the articles of
which would later appear in the
Magna Carta.
In May, King John offered to
submit issues to a committee of
arbitration with Pope Innocent III
as the supreme arbiter, but the
barons continued in their defiance.
With the support of foreign powers,
the Barons entered London in force
on 10 June 1215, with the city
showing its sympathy with their
cause by opening its gates to them.
They, and many of the moderates
not in overt rebellion, forced King
John to agree to a document later
known as the ‘Articles of the Barons’
, to which his Great Seal was
attached in the meadow at
Runnymede on 15 June 1215.
The Magna Carta was originally issued the
year 1215, but did not pass into common law
till 1225.
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In return, the barons renewed their
oaths of fealty to John on 19 June
1215, which is when the document
Magna Carta was created.
The document was at the time a
serious challenge to John’s authority
as a ruling monarch. He renounced
it as soon as the barons left London;
and Pope Innocent III also annulled
the document calling it;
The Pope rejected any call for
restraints on the King, saying it
impaired John’s dignity. He saw it
as an affront to the Church’s
authority over the King and the
‘papal territories’ of England and
Ireland, and released John from his
oath to obey it.
The rebels knew that King John
could never be restrained by Magna
Carta and so they sought a new
King. England was plunged into a
civil war, known as the First Barons’
War. With the failure of Magna
Carta to achieve peace or restrain
John, the barons reverted to the
monarchies like that of France
were abolished often resulting in
bloody carnage.
Had the monarchy been
abolished later, like so many
others, we would not be
celebrating the Diamond Jubilee.
“shameful and demeaning agreement, forced
upon the King by violence and fear.”
more traditional type of rebellion by
trying to replace the monarch they
disliked with an alternative.
In a measure of some desperation,
despite the tenuousness of his claim
and despite the fact that he was
French, they offered the crown of
England to Prince Louis of France.
As a means of preventing war
Magna Carta was a failure, rejected
by most of the barons, and was
legally valid for no more than three
months. It was the death of King
John in 1216 which secured the
future of Magna Carta.
The Magna Carta despite initially
being a danger to the Monarchy
subsequently served to protect it.
While revolutions in the last 200
years have robbed many of their
thrones the fact that in England the
Monarch rules in tandem with
Parliament not as an absolute power
meant it made an easy transition
into the modern era while other
| 19 Event 2 : Magna Carta
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| 21 Event 2 : Magna Carta
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The War of the Roses was a
dynastic conflict that arose among
the defendants of Edward III, part
of the conflict was caused by the
senior line being quite weak due to
the death of the Black Prince and
the succession of his nine year old
son Richard.
With a young child on the throne
and regents ruling in his stead there
was many with issues against the
crown, this eventually broke out
into civil war after Henry
Lancaster deposed Richard and
seized the crown for himself. Being
the descendent of a fourth son of
Edward III several others felt they
had a better claim, especially the
defendants of Edmund of York.
Over the course of many years a
great struggle ensued among the
countries nobility as supporters of
Lancaster and york clashed against
each other with speedy an great
changes of fortune every few years.
The conflict finally came to a
conclusion when a Lancastrian
claimant (Henry VII) won the
battle of Bosworth and secured his
claim to the throne by marrying
Elizabeth of York.
Although small skirmishes
continued after this and sevral
pretenders to the throne appeared,
the conflict was eventually done.
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The War of the Roses was caused in large part to
Edward III having a great number of children who
were granted powerful Dukedoms.
John of Gaunt
Edmund of York
Edward the Black Prince
Richard II
Richard III
Edward IV
Edward III
Richard of Consingburg
RichardDuke of York
Henry IV
Henry VII
Henry V
Henry VI
Edward V
Edward of Westminster
John Beaufort
John Beaufort
Margaret Beaufort
Elizabeth of York
Henry VIII cont. pg 31
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“England hath long been mad, and scarr’d herself:
The brother blindly shed the brother’s blood;
The father rashly slaughter’d his own son;
The son, compell’d, been butcher to the sire.
All this divided York and Lancaster...”
- William Shakespeare, Richard III
This dynastic race for the throne
was unwittingly created by King
Edward III in the fourteenth
century. Edward and his wife
Philippa of Hainault had thirteen
children, including five sons who
grew to maturity.
Edward created for them the first
ever English dukedoms: Cornwall,
Clarence, Lancaster, York and
Gloucester. The Dukedoms
bestowing unprecedented power on
the royal children.
Edward III was succeeded in 1377
by his nine-year-old grandson
Richard II, whose father Edward,
the Black Prince had died in 1376.
Edward’s second son, Lionel of
Antwerp, the first Duke of
Clarence, had also predeceased him
and left one daughter, Philippa,
who became heiress presumptive to
Richard II.
When the Black Prince’s line failed,
the crown should have passed by
law of primogeniture to Edmund
Mortimer, as the descendant of
Lionel of Antwerp. But it did not;
and this was the crucial issue in
what became known as the Wars of
the Roses.
Richard’s reign managed to alienate
both his family and the nobility and
inevitably disaster struck in 1399,
when his powerful cousin, Henry of
Lancaster mounted a successful
coup d’état and deposed Richard.
For the next few decades Henry’s
heirs ruled England in relative
Legally the crown should have passed by law of
primogeniture to Edmund Mortimer. It did not.
The childless Richard II named her
son Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of
March as his heir presumptive
(following her death), but Roger
Mortimer also died in 1398, leaving
a young son Edmund Mortimer,
5th Earl of March.
peace, until the early 1450’s when
Richard, Duke of York, a
descendant of Edward III started
making trouble.
The Lancastrian claim to the
throne descended from John of
Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, the
fourth son of Edward III.
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Henry VI’s right to the crown was
challenged by Richard, Duke of
York, who could claim descent from
Edward’s third and fifth sons
(arguably a stronger claim),Lionel of
Antwerp and Edmund of Langley,
1st Duke of York.
Richard of York, at the time held
several important offices of state
under the reign of Henry VI,
quarrelled with prominent
Lancastrians at court and with
Henry ‘s queen, Margaret of Anjou.
Although minor armed clashes had
occurred previously between
supporters of York and Lancaster,
the first open fighting broke out in
1455 at the First Battle of St Albans.
Several prominent Lancastrians
died, but their heirs continued a
deadly feud with Richard. Fighting
resumed more violently in 1459.
York’s most powerful supporter, the
Earl of Warwick (the “Kingmaker”),
invaded England from Calais and
captured Henry at the Battle of
Northampton allowing York to
became Protector of England, but at
the time he was dissuaded from
claiming the throne outright.
When York attempted to put down
Lancaster forces in the North he
and his second son Edmund were
killed at the Battle of Wakefield in
December 1460. The Lancastrian
army advanced south and
recaptured Henry at the Second
Battle of St Albans, but failed to
occupy London, and subsequently
retreated to the north.
York’s eldest son, Edward, Earl of
March, was proclaimed King
Edward IV. He quickly gathered
the Yorkist armies and won a
crushing victory at the Battle of
Towton in March 1461.
Not long after his victory Edward
had a falling out with the Earl of
Warwick, and also alienated
numerous friends and family by
favoring the “upstart family” of his
Queen, Elizabeth Woodville (a
commoner), whom he had married
in secret (thereby ruining
Warwick’s negotiations with
France for a bride).
Warwick first attempted to
supplant King Edward with his
younger brother George, Duke of
Clarence, and then to restore
Henry VI to the throne.
This resulted in two years of rapid
changes of fortune, before Edward
IV once again won complete
victories at Barnet (April 1471),
where Warwick was killed, and
Tewkesbury (May 1471) where the
Lancastrian heir, Edward, Prince of
Wales, was executed after the battle.
Henry was then supposedly
murdered in the Tower of London
several days later, ending the direct
Lancastrian line of succession.
A period of comparative peace
followed, but King Edward died
unexpectedly in 1483.
His surviving youngest brother,
Richard of Gloucester, moved to
prevent the unpopular Woodville
family of Edward’s widow from
participating in the government
during the minority of Edward IV’s
Event 3 : War of tje Roses
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son; Edward V by taking control of
the boy himself.
To this end he seized the throne for
himself, using the suspect legitimacy
of Edward IV’s marriage as pretext
and imprisoning Edward V and his
brother, the two children were
never seen again.
Henry Tudor, a distant relative of
the Lancastrian kings who had
inherited their claim after the death
of Edward of Westminster at
Tawesbury, defeated Richard at
Bosworth in 1485.
He was crowned Henry VII
, and married Elizabeth of York,
daughter of Edward IV, to unite and
reconcile the two houses.
The true extent of the
consequences of the War of the
Roses may never be fully
understood, however because of the
heavy casualties among the nobility,
the wars are thought to have
continued the changes to feudal
English society caused by the
effects of the Black Death.
This includes a weakening of the
feudal power of the nobles and a
corresponding strengthening of the
merchant classes, and the growth of
a strong, centralized monarchy
under the Tudors.
It heralded the end of the medieval
period in England and the
movement towards the
Renaissance. On the other hand, it
has also been suggested that the
traumatic impact of the wars was
exaggerated by Henry VII to
magnify his achievement in
quelling them and bringing peace.
The post-war period was also the
death knell for the large standing
baronial armies, which had helped
fuel the conflict and troubled
monarchs for numerous
generations.
Henry VII, wary of further
fighting, kept the barons on a very
tight leash, removing their right to
raise arms, or supply armies of
retainers so that they could not
make war on each other or the king
preventing conflicts like the Baron’s
War during King John’s era.
As a result the military power of
individual barons declined, and the
Tudor court became a place where
baronial squabbles were decided
with the influence of the monarch.
Therefore by the law of succession
the decedents of Edmund
Mortimer should have been the
inheritors of the throne, his
exclusion and the conflicts that
followed secured the throne for the
Tudors inheritance and therefore
the line that would eventually
culminate in today’s monarch
Elizabeth II.
After the Battle of Bosworth Henry VII married Edwards
IV’s eldest daughter Elizabeth of York, uniting the Houses
of York and Lancaster.
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| 29 Event 3 : War of tje Roses
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In 1534, King Henry VIII separated
the English Church from Rome .
The English Reformation was a
series of events in 16th century
England by which the Church of
England broke away from the
authority of the Pope and the
Roman Catholic Church.
These events were associated with
the wider process of the European
Protestant Reformation, a religious
and political movement initiated by
Martin Luther, John Calvin and
other early Protestants.
This affected the practice of
Christianity across most of Europe
during this period; the ideological
points were not large but proved
significant to their believers.
Many factors contributed to the
process including the decline of
feudalism and invention of the
Printing Press, and increased
circulation of the Bible.
However, the actual change was
result of Henry VIII’s desire for
an annulment of his marriage so
he coulf rewed and get a male
heir to secure the Tudor dynasty.
Previously the idea was
discussed by theologians but did
not gain political support until
Henry VIII sought an
annulment of his marriage to
Catherine of Aragon. Henry’s
attempts to do so were, at the
time, referred to as “The King’s
Great Matter”.
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By the mid 1520’s Henry VIII had
grown desperate for a son and heir
and began to seek a divorce from his
wife Catherine of Aragon (mother of
Mary I) and wanted to wed his wife’s
lady in waiting Anne Bolyn (mother
of Elizabeth I).
His disagreements with the Pope led
to the separation of the English
church from Rome and years of
distrust towards Catholics in England.
Henry VII Elizabeth of York
Henry VIII
Charles I
James Iof England
Edward VI
James II
Mary I
Elizabeth I
Jane
James Vof Scotland
Margaret Queen of Scots
Mary
Queen of Scots
Elizabeth
of Bohemia
cont. pg 40
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King Henry, although previously
opposed to Protestantism (earning
the title “Defender of the Faith”
erned for ironically defending the
sacrament of mariage),turned to this
faith to fulfill his earthy desires.
This removed the Church of
England from Catholic influence
and Henry was soon thereafter
excommunicated by Pope Paul III.
The matter came about when
Henry became impatient with
Catherine’s inability to have the
male heir which he greatly desired
as he sought to consolidate the
power of the Tudor dynasty.
Henry had three options: legitimize
Henry FitzRoy (his illegitimate
son), which would take the
intervention of the pope and would
be open to challenge; marry off his
only legitimate child Mary as soon
as possible and hope for a grandson
to inherit directly, but Mary was an
under sized child and was seen as
unlikely to conceive easily; or
somehow reject Catherine and find
someone else.
The third proved the most
attractive possibility.
In 1525, as Henry grew more
intolerant of Catherine, he became
enamoured of his mistress Mary’s
sister, Anne Boleyn, then a
charismatic young woman in the
Queen’s entourage.
It was clear that by 1528 Henry was
infatuated by his mistress and was
beginning to plan a second
marriage.When Henry confronted
Catherine in 1527, claiming that
their marriage had never been valid
the Old Testament forbade
marrying the wife of your brother
in Leviticus 20:21 – all hope of
tempting Catherine to retire to a
nunnery or otherwise stay quiet
were lost.
Henry tried to appeal directly to
the Holy See, independently from
his own Cardinal Thomas Wolsey,
from whom he kept his plans to
marry Anne secret.
The grounds were that the bull
(allwingthe marriage in the first
place) of Pope Julius II was
obtained by false pretences,
because Catherine’s brief marriage
to the sickly Arthur had been
consummated.
However, as the Pope was at that
time imprisoned by Catherine’s own
nephew, Emperor Charles V,
Henry’s miniters had difficulty in
getting access to him, and so only
managed to obtain the conditional
dispensation for a new marriage.
This made it clear that the Pope
was unlikely to be able to give
Henry the annulment which he
was seeking. The pope forbade
Henry to proceed to a new
marriage before a decision was
given in Rome, not in England.
To further his own ideas Parliament
was approached with the
proclamations and opinions of the
theologians at Oxford and
Cambridge that the marriage of
Henry to Catherine had indeed
been unlawful.
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Breaking the power of Rome in
England proceeded slowly.
In 1532, a lawyer who was a
supporter of Anne, Thomas
Cromwell (later chancellor),
brought before Parliament a
number of acts including the
Supplication against the Ordinaries
and the Submission of the Clergy,
which recognized Royal
Supremacy over the church.
In the winter of 1532, Henry
attended a meeting with Francis I of
France at Calais in which he
enlisted the support of the French
king for his new marriage.
Immediately upon returning to
Dover in England, Henry and
Anne went through a secret
wedding service. She soon became
pregnant and there was a second
wedding service in London on 25
January 1533.
On 23 May 1533, Cranmer, sitting
in judgment at a special court
convened at Dunstable Priory to
rule on the validity of the king’s
marriage to Catherine of Aragon,
declared the marriage of Henry and
Catherine null and void.
Five days later, on 28 May 1533,
Cranmer declared the marriage of
Henry and Anne to be valid. Henry
adopted the position as the
Supreme Head of the Church of
England to and basically annuled
his own marriage.
Catherine was formally stripped of
her title as queen, and Anne was
crowned queen consort on 1 June
1533. The queen soon gave birth to
a daughter slightly prematurely on
7 September 1533. The child was
christened Elizabeth, in honour of
Henry’s mother, Elizabeth of York.
(later Elizabeth I)
Rejecting the decisionsof the Pope,
Parliament validated the marriage
of Henry and Anne with the First
Succession Act 1533). Catherine’s
daughter, Mary, was declared
illegitimate (barring her from the
succsession), and Anne’s issue were
declared next in the line of
succession.
Most notable in the was a clause
repudiating “any foreign authority,
prince or potentate”.
All adults were required to
acknowledge the Act’s provisions by
oath; those who refused were
subject to imprisonment for life.
Any publisher or printer of any
literature alleging that the marriage
was invalid was automatically
guilty of high treason and could be
punished by death.
Despite this Henry maintained a
strong preference for traditional
Catholic practices and, during his
reign, Protestant reformers were
unable to make many changes to
Event 4 : English Reformation
Henry adopted the position as the
Supreme Head of the Church of England and
annuled his own marriage.
34 | What Makes A Diamond: The 6 Events that mde the Jubilee Possible
the practices of the Church of
England. Meaning that to begin
with the Church of England
remained Catholic in all but name.
Indeed, this part of Henry’s reign
saw the trials for heresy for both
Protestants as well as Catholics.
Under his son Edward VI, more
Protestant-influenced forms of
worship were adopted.
Under the leadership of the
Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas
Cranmer, a more radical reformation
proceeded.A new pattern of
worship was set out in the Book of
Common Prayer (1549 and 1552).
The reformation however was cut
short by the death of the king.
Queen Mary I, who succeeded him,
returned England again to the
authority of the Pope, thereby
ending the first attempt at an
independent Church of England.
During Mary’s reign, many leaders
and common people were burnt for
their refusal to recant of their
reformed faith. These are known as
the Marian martyrs and their
persecution has led to her nickname
of “Bloody Mary”.
Mary, like her brother died
childless and it was left to the new
regime of her half-sister Elizabeth
to resolve the direction of the
church. The settlement under
Elizabeth I (from 1558), known as
the Elizabethan settlement,
developed the via media (middle
way) character of the Church of
England, a church moderately
Reformed in doctrine, as expressed
in the Thirty-nine Articles, but also
emphasizing continuity with the
Catholic and Apostolic traditions of
the Church Fathers.
The exact nature of the relationship
between the church and state
would be a source of continued
friction well into the next century
specifically that of Charles I, who’s
reign culminated in the English
Civil War and the Protectorate of
Oliver Cromwell and the
temporary abolishion of the
moanrchy.
The formation of the Church of
England as a separate entity from
that of Rome held far reaching and
complex results; the conflicts which
arose put William III and his wife
Mary II on the throne as Protestant
alternatives to Mary’s Catholic
father James II and later secured
the succession for George I the
direct ancestor of Elizabeth II and
the modern monarchy.
However much more than simply
securing the line of succession for
Elizabeth the separation of the
Church of England helped bring
new learning and influence to
England and eventually exported
those values into the foundation of
America and their later colonies
creating the foundations of various
moral and legal systems in
numerous countries and states
across the globe, all through one
king’s passion for one woman.
| 35 Event 4 : English Reformation
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| 37 Event 4 : English Reformation
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| 39
At the age of 54, after the death of
Queen Anne of Great Britain,
George ascended the British throne
as the first monarch of the House of
Hanover. Although over fifty
Roman Catholics bore closer blood
relationships to Anne, the Act of
Settlement 1701 prohibited
Catholics from inheriting the
British throne; George was Anne’s
closest living Protestant relative.
This was the first time and only
time that such a huge familial leap
was made in the succession, the first
time that the crown passes to a
relatively distant family member
through law rather than war (such
as was the case with Henry VII).
George’s succession was the result
of over 100 years of change which
began with Henry VIII’s English
Reformation. Indeed has England
remained Catholic then George I
would not have succeeded to the
English throne and would have
remained a German Elector alone.
40 | What Makes A Diamond: The 6 Events that mde the Jubilee Possible
In his lifetime George the 1st, previously 57th in line for the
British throne became the first Hanoverian monarch to take
the throne.
Such a huge leap in the succsession would have previosly
caused major civil war but in 1714 was a sign of the quickly
changing world.
Charles I
James Iof England
George II
George III
Victoria I
George IV
William IV
George I
Charles II
Mary II
Anne I
James II
William III
MaryPrincess Royal
Elizabeth
of Bohemia
Sophiaof Hanover
FredrickPrince of Wales
EdwardDuke of Kent
Edward VIIcont. pg 47
| 41
Shortly after George’s accession to
his paternal dukedom (Hanover),
Prince William, who was second-
in-line to the English and Scottish
thrones, died increasing the
liklihood of George’s ascension to
the British throne.
By the terms of the English Act of
Settlement 1701, George’s mother,
Sophia (a granddaughter of James I)
, was designated as the heir to the
English throne if the then reigning
monarch (William III) and his
sister-in-law, Princess Anne of
Denmark (later Queen Anne) died
without surviving issue.
The succession was so designed
because Sophia was theclosest
Protestant relative of the British
Royal Family; fifty-six Catholic
relations with superior hereditary
claims were bypassed. The
likelihood of any of them
converting to Protestantism for the
sake of the succession was remote;
some had already refused.
Sophia’s family came under
consideration as the descendants of
Elizabeth of Bohemia, the only
surviving child of James I to have
reached adulthood. Elizabeth bore
nine children who reached
adulthood, of whom Sophia of
Hanover was the youngest.
In 1701, the senior living
representatives of the family passed
over the throne in favor of Sophia.
In August 1701 George was
invested with the Order of the
Garter and, within six weeks, the
nearest Catholic claimant to the
throne of England, ex-King James
II, died.
William III died the following
March and was succeeded by
Anne. Sophia became heiress
presumptive to the new Queen of
England. Sophia was in her
seventy-first year, older than Queen
Anne by thirty-five years, but she
was very fit and healthy and
invested time and energy in
securing the succession either for
herself or her son.
However, it was Sophia’s son
George who understood the
complexities of English politics and
constitutional law, which required
further acts in 1705 to naturalize
Sophia and her heirs as English
subjects (thus enabling them to
inherit the throne), and to detail
arrangements for the transfer of
power through a Regency Council.
Though both England and
Scotland recognized Anne as their
Queen, only the English Parliament
had settled on Sophia, Electress of
Hanover, as the heir. The
Parliament of Scotland had not
formally settled the succession
question for the Scottish throne.
In 1703, the Estates passed a bill
that declared that their selection for
Queen Anne’s successor would not
be the same individual as the
successor to the English throne,
unless England was willing to
granted full freedom of trade to the
Scottish merchants in England and
its numerous colonies.
At first Royal Assent was withheld
but the following year Anne
capitulated to the wishes of the
Estates and assent was granted to
the bill, which became the
Act of Security 1704.
In response the English Parliament
passed measures which threatened
to restrict the Anglo-Scottish trade
and potentially cripple the Scottish
economy if their Estates did not
Event 5 : Hanoverian Succsession
42 | What Makes A Diamond: The 6 Events that mde the Jubilee Possible
evetually agree to the Hanoverian
succession in England and
Scotland.
Eventually, in1707, both
Parliaments agreed on an Act of
Union which united England and
Scotland into a single political
entity, the Kingdom of Great
Britain, and established the rules of
succession as laid down by the Act
of Settlement 1701. The union
created the largest free trade area
in eighteenth century Europe.
Once it was known that Queen
Anne’s health was failing and
politicians in Britain were jostling
for power the regency council was
swiftly revised, she suffered a
stroke, which left her unable to
speak and died on 1 August.
The list of regents was opened, the
members sworn in, and George
was proclaimed King of Great
Britain and Ireland.
Partly due to contrary winds,
which kept him in The Hague
awaiting passage, he did not arrive
in Britain until 18 September.
King George was crowned at
Westminster Abbey on 20 October.
All this occurred only through the
creation of the Act of Settlement
(along with the Act of Union
1707), otherwise any of the 50
Catholics between Anne and
George would have become the
reigning monarch thus barring the
line that today culminates in
Elizabeth II and her decedents and
England may never have become
Great Britain.
The Act of Settlement provided
that the throne would pass to the
Electress Sophia of Hanover and
her Protestant descendants who
had not married a Roman Catholic;
those who were Roman Catholic,
and those who married a Roman
Catholic, were barred from
ascending the throne “for ever”.
For many reasons, various
constitutionalists have praised the
Act of Settlement: calling it
“the seal of our constitutional laws” and placing its importance above
the Bill of Rights 1689.
Naamani Tarkow has written:
“If one is to make sweeping
statements, one may say that, save
Magna Carta (more truly, its
implications), the Act of Settlement
is probably the most significant
statute in English history.”
In many ways George’s ascension
was a sign of the changing world,
the unification of England and
Scotland into Great Britain. The
strengthened trade of Great
Britain later allowed for the
Imperilism of the following
generations.
George I as a direct anscestor of
Queen Elizabeth was the first step
in bringing the Hoverian line to
England (today the Windsor
family).
Though this family line came to
power in very unstable and
unprecedented circumstances, for
all that, the Hanoverian period
turned out to be one of remarkabe
stable, not least because of the
longevity of its kings.
| 43
From 1714 through to 1837, there
were only five monarchs, one of
whom, George III, remains the
longest reigning king in British
History.
The period also deveoped into
one of political stability, and the
fulle development of a
constitutional monarchy.
The Hanoverian dnasty also saw
Britain’s first ‘Prime’ Minister,
Robert Walpole, and the
introduction of income tax.
Towards the end of the
Hanoverian period, the Great
Reform Act was passed, which
amongst other things widened
the electorate.
It was also in this period that
Britain came to acquire much of
her overseas empire, despite the loss
of the American colonies, largely
through foreign conquest in the
various wars of the century. By the
end of the Hanoverian period, the
British Empire has spread so that it
covered a third of the globe.
The theme of longevity was set to
continue, as the longest reigning
monarch in British history, Queen
elizabeths great-great-grandmother
Queen Victoria, prepared to take the
throne.
Event 5 : Hanoverian Succsession
George III, remains
the longest reigning
king in British
History.
44 | What Makes A Diamond: The 6 Events that mde the Jubilee Possible
| 45
46 | What Makes A Diamond: The 6 Events that mde the Jubilee Possible
After the death of King George in
1936, during the tenuous period
between WWI and II, Edward
VIII became King. Known for his
wild lifestyle and affairs with
various women the initial concerns
about his ascension were confirmed
when he made his wish to marry
Wallis Simpson an American who
was seeking divorce from her
second husband.
Due to the very different society of
the times the proposed marriage
had numerous opponents and was
though to bring forth social discord
and outrage. (Unlike the 2005
wedding of Prince Charles, which
featured many similar issues).
Over the course of his reign there
was much discussion concerning
how the issue could potentially be
resolved, the issues over the
proposed marriage and although
several possibilities were
considered.
It was eventually decided that
Edward would have to abdicate if
he wished to go forth with his
marriage plans and e did so in
December of 1936 passing the
crown to his brother, Elizabeth’s
father, King George VI.
| 47
After the death of Gorge V, Edward
VIII suceeded as King.
However due to his wish to marry
divorcee Wallis Simpson , he
reigned for a little less then a year
and was succeeded by Elizabeth’s
father George VI.
Had Edward remained King,
Queen Elizabeth would only be
celebrating 40 years on the throne
rather than 60.
Victoria I
Edward VII
George V
George VI
Elizabeth II
Edward VIII
48 | What Makes A Diamond: The 6 Events that mde the Jubilee Possible
The 1936, a constitutional crisis in
the British Empire was caused by
King-Emperor Edward VIII’s
proposal to marry the Wallis
Simpson, an American socialite
who was divorced from her first
husband and was pursuing a
divorce of her second.
The marriage was opposed by the
governments of the United
Kingdom and the autonomous
Dominions of the British
Commonwealth. Religious, legal,
political, and moral objections were
raised. As British monarch,Edward
was the nominal head of the Church
of England, which did not allow
divorced people to remarry if their
ex-spouses were still alive; so it was
widely believed that Edward could
not marry Wallis Simpson and
remain on the throne.
Mrs Simpson was perceived to be
politically and socially unsuitable as
a consort because of her two failed
marriages. It was widely assumed
by the Establishment that she was
driven by love of money or position
rather than love for the King.
Despite the opposition, Edward
declared that he loved Simpson and
intended to marry her whether his
governments approved or not.
At Fort Belvedere, on
10 December, Edward VIII’s
written abdication notice was
witnessed by his three younger
brothers: Prince Albert, Duke of
York (who succeeded Edward as
George VI); Prince Henry, Duke of
Gloucester; and Prince George,
Duke of Kent.
The following day, the abdication
was given legislative form by a
special Act of Parliament (His
Majesty’s Declaration of Abdication
Act 1936).
Under changes introduced in 1931
by the Statute of Westminster, a
single Crown for the entire empire
had been replaced by multiple
crowns, one for each Dominion,
worn by a single monarch in an
organization then known as the
British Commonwealth.
Edward’s abdication required the
consent of each of the
Commonwealth state, which was
duly given; by the parliament of
Australia, (which was at the time in
session), and by the governments of
the other Dominions, whose
parliaments were in recess.
However, the government of the
Irish Free State, taking the
opportunity presented by the crisis
and in a major step towards its
eventual transition to a republic,
passed an amendment to its
constitution to remove references to
the Crown.
The King’s abdication was
recognized a day later in the
External Relations Act of the Irish
Free State and legislation
eventually passed in South Africa
declared that the abdication took
effect there on 10 December.
Mrs Simpson was at one time also thought to be
a spy for the Germans and was later accused of,
along with her husband Edward to have Nazi
sympathies
| 49
It was Edward’s Royal Assent to
these Acts, rather than his
abdication notice, which gave legal
effect to the abdication.
Since Edward VIII had not yet
been crowned, his coronation date
became that of his brother Albert,
now styled George VI, instead.
On the day his reign officially
ended, 11 December 1936, Edward
made a BBC radio broadcast from
Windsor Castle; no longer King, he
was introduced as “His Royal
Highness Prince Edward”.
The official address had been
polished by Churchill and was
moderate in tone, speaking about
Edward’s inability to do his job to
his full ability.
Edward’s reign had lasted 327
days, the shortest of any British
monarch since the disputed reign of
Lady Jane Grey over 380 years
earlier.
The day following the broadcast he
left Britain for Austria. He remains
the only British monarch to have
voluntarily renounced the throne
since the Anglo-Saxon period.
He was succeeded by his brother
Albert, who took the regnal name
George VI.
Edward was given the title His
Royal Highness the Duke of
Windsor following his abdication,
and he married Wallis Simpson the
following year.
They remained married until his
death 35 years later. While the
crown later passed to his brother
Albert’s daughter Elizabeth II.
The abdication might not have as
far reaching implications as other
events mentioned in this text, as
Edward and Wallis died childless
the crown would eventually have
passed to Elizabeth regardless.
It is however important to note that
without Edward’s abdication she
would not have become the
reigning monarch until his death in
1972 rather than her own father’s
death in 1952.
This would mean that this year in
2012 we would not be celebrating a
Diamond Jubilee as she would only
have occupied only 40 years on the
throne.
Event 5 : Abdication Crisis
“as I would have
wished” without the
support of “the
woman I love”.
50 | What Makes A Diamond: The 6 Events that mde the Jubilee Possible
| 51 Event 5 : Abdication Crisis
52 | What Makes A Diamond: The 6 Events that mde the Jubilee Possible
The 2012 Diamond Jubilee of
Queen Elizabeth II has been a
great celebration throughout the
year marking the 60th anniversary
of her accession of to the thrones of
seven countries upon the death of
her father, King George VI, on 6
February 1952.
She is today queen regnant of 16
sovereign states, 12 of which were
British colonies or Dominions at
the start of her reign. Her reign has
seen great changes in the world
from recovering from WWII to
the multinational 2012 Olympics
which she opened in London.
Queen Victoria is the only other
monarch in the histories of the
United Kingdom, to have
celebrated a Diamond Jubilee,
which she did 115 years ago in
1897.
She is the longest-lived and second-
longest-reigning monarch of the
United Kingdom and the second-
longest-serving current head of state
(after King Bhumibol Adulyadej of
Thailand).
“In this special year, as I dedicate myself anew
to your service, I hope we will all be reminded of
the power of togetherness and the convening
strength of family, friendship and good
neighbourliness ... I hope also that this Jubilee
year will be a time to give thanks for the great
advances that have been made since 1952 and to
look forward to the future with clear head and
warm heart”.
In a message released on her
Accession Day, she stated:
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