Kings and Queens: Miscellaneous

This page provides various random facts about kings and queens of England since 1066.

The Six Wives of Henry VIII

		Name	Years			Issue	Reign		Fate
1		Catherine of Aragon	1509–33	23 yrs 346 days		Mary I	1553–8		Divorced
2		Anne Boleyn	1533–36	2 yrs 345 days		Elizabeth I	1533–1603		Beheaded
3		Jane Seymour	1536-37	1 yr 147 days		Edward VI	1547–53		Died in childbirth
4		Anne of Cleves	1540	155 days		None			Divorced
5		Catherine Howard	1540–42	1 yr 200 days		None			Beheaded
6		Catherine Parr	1543–47	3 yrs 200 days		None			Survived

Catherine of Aragon was pregnant six times between 1509 and 1518. The first and fourth terms ended in stillbirths (a daughter and a son respectively). The second resulted in a son – Henry, Duke of Cornwall – who was born on New Year's Day 1511, but died on 23 February aged 54 days. The third and sixth pregnancies resulted in live births – a son and a daughter respectively – but the son lived only a few hours and the daughter may have died after a similar time, but may have survived for up to a week.

Mary I was born on 18 February 1516, as a result of the fifth pregnancy.

Henry VIII divorced Catherine 15 years after the sixth (unsuccessful) pregnancy, and Elizabeth and Edward were his only subsequent issue.

All three boys (the first of whom lived for 54 days, the second lived for a few hours, and the third was stillborn) were named Henry and given the title Duke of Cornwall. Apart from Mary, none of the girls was named.

Edward VI named Lady Jane Grey as his heir presumptive, in defiance of Parliament which had passed an act in 1543 (the year of Henry's marriage to Catherine Parr, and four years before his death) returning both Mary and Elizabeth to the line of succession behind Edward. Jane was the great–granddaughter of Henry VII, through his younger daughter Mary, and thus the great–niece of Henry VIII and Edward's first cousin once removed. Edward died on 6 July 1553, aged 15, and Jane was proclaimed queen four days later (10 July). Nine days after the proclamation (19 July), the Privy Council switched allegiance and proclaimed Edward's Catholic half–sister Mary. Jane was executed on 12 February 1554, aged 16, after being found guilty of signing letters "Jane the Quene". Many historians do not consider her to have been a legitimate monarch.

The Nine Children of Queen Victoria

Born			Married	Died
1840	F	Created Princess Royal in 1841	Frederick III, German Emperor	1901		Victoria
1841	M	Succeeded as King Edward VII	Alexandra of Denmark	1910		Edward
1843	F	First to die	Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse	1878		Alice
1844	M	Duke of Saxe–Coburg and Gotha	Grand Duchess Maria Androvna of Russia	1900		Alfred
1846	F		Prince Christian of Schleswig–Holstein	1923		Helena
1848	F	Duchess of Argyll	John Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll	1939		Louise
1850	M	Duke of Connaught and Strathearn	Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia	1942		Arthur
1853	M	Duke of Albany	Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont	1884		Leopold
1857	F		Prince Henry of Battenberg	1944		Beatrice

The Three Unmarried Kings

William II

Edward V

Edward VI

Other

Consort of Queen Victoria; father of Edward VII		Prince Albert
Last Queen not born in Britain (Danish – consort of Edward VII)		Alexandra
Last Stuart monarch		Anne
Last monarch of England and Scotland separately, and first of Great Britain (the two kingdoms were united during her reign – 1707)
Last to withhold Royal Assent (Scottish Militia Bill, 1707)
Founded Ascot racecourse (1711)
Bore 14 children – 8 stillborn, 3 others survived less than 24 hours; also had 4 miscarriages; one (Mary, 2nd born) died in February 1687 aged 20 months; Anne Sophia (3rd born) died 6 days earlier aged 8 months; William, Duke of Gloucester (7th born) died in 1700 aged 11
Mother of Elizabeth I		Anne Boleyn
Reputed to have had 11 fingers
Reputedly haunts Hever Castle, Kent (her childhood home)
Divorced by Henry VIII after six months (1540) on ground of non–consummation (and her previous betrothal to Francis, heir to the Duchy of Lorraine); subsequently remained in England and outlived him		Anne of Cleves
Last of Henry VIII's wives to die (outliving Catherine Parr by ten years)
The Queen who commissioned the Queen's House, Greenwich (a crucial early Commission for Inigo Jones) – consort of James I		Anne of Denmark
Eldest son of Henry VII, elder brother of Henry VIII, and first husband of Catherine of Aragon (it was said that the marriage was never consummated); died in 1502, aged 15		Arthur (Prince of Wales)
Consort of Richard I: the queen who never set foot in England		Berengaria of Navarre
Mother of Mary Tudor; daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain; first marriage was to Henry VIII's elder brother Arthur		Catherine of Aragon
First cousin of Anne Boleyn; youngest of Henry VIII's six wives (at least 29 years his junior – married when he was 49 and she was at most 20); he referred to her as "the rose without a thorn"; divorced and executed on the grounds of "involvements" with Francis Dereham before her marriage to Henry, and Thomas Culpeper, Henry's favourite courtier and her distant cousin, after it		Catherine Howard
Final words, according to popular folklore, were, "I die a Queen, but I would rather have died the wife of Culpeper"
Henry VIII's widow; was herself married four times (Henry was her third husband)		Catherine Parr
Grandfather of William III, Mary II and Queen Anne		Charles I
Marriage to Henrietta Maria, youngest daughter of King Henry IV of France and Marie de Medici (when Prince of Wales), required a special dispensation from the Pope because it was the first time a Catholic princess had married a Protestant prince
Hid in an oak tree (in Boscobel Wood, Shropshire) to avoid capture, after the Battle of Worcester (1651); subsequently escaped from Bentley Hall, near Walsall, to Bristol, disguised as William Jackson, supposed to be the servant of Jane Lane (daughter of one of his supporters)		Charles II
Benefited from the Restoration of the monarchy (1660)
Last to be crowned in Scotland
29th May was declared a holiday (Oak Apple Day) to celebrate the birthday of
"Great plague" of London and Fire of London (1665–6) occurred in the reign of
Built the Royal Observatory at Greenwich for John Flamsteed
James Scott, Duke of Monmouth was the illegitimate son of; Charles and James Beauclerk were other illegitimate sons of
Bore 15 children, 13 of whom survived into adulthood; persuaded by one of her sons to become patron of a London maternity hospital, which was eventually named after her		Queen Charlotte (consort of George III)
Title originally bestowed on Henry VIII by Pope Leo X in 1521, for supporting the supremacy of the Pope in opposition to the Protestant Reformation; revoked by Pope Paul III in 1530, but conferred on Edward VI and his successors by Parliament in 1544		Defender of the Faith
Fourth son of George III; father of Queen Victoria		Edward, Duke of Kent
Father of the first English Prince of Wales		Edward I
Brought the Stone of Scone to Westminster, and commissioned the Coronation Chair to hold it
Had a series of great castles built in Wales
Summoned the Model Parliament, 1295
Married Eleanor, "the Infanta of Castile"; built a series of 12 crosses to mark the route of her coffin to London following her death near Lincoln in 1290 (Charing Cross being the last)
Married to Margaret, the daughter of King Philip III of France – who was forty years his junior – for the last ten years of his life (after nine years as a widower)
Issued the Edict of Expulsion, expelling the Jews from England (it was formally overturned under Oliver Cromwell, 367 years later)
Was the first English Prince of Wales (born in Caernarfon Castle)		Edward II
Defeated by Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn (1314)
Piers Gaveston, 1st Earl of Cornwall (1284–1312) was the 'favourite' of
Deposed in 1327, in favour of his 14–year–old son, by his wife Isabella, in alliance with Roger Mortimer; murdered eight months later in Berkeley Castle, by disembowelment with a red–hot poker (according to a story that began to circulate soon afterwards, and attained general currency, but is now doubted by most historians)

Succeeded by their grandsons		Edward III (Richard II)
		George II (George III)

Father of Edward of Woodstock (the Black Prince) and John of Gaunt		Edward III
Grandfather of Richard II (of York) and Henry IV (of Lancaster)
Founded the Order of the Garter (1350)
Prompted the Hundred Years War (1337) by claiming to be the rightful king of France, through his mother Isabella
First king of the House of York		Edward IV
Father of the Princes in the Tower (Edward and Richard)
George, Duke of Clarence, drowned (according to tradition) in a butt of malmsey in the Tower of London in 1478, was the brother of (and was put to death by)
Married Elizabeth Woodville, three years after his accession, making her the first commoner since the Norman Conquest to be crowned queen
Banned a game known as "Hands in and Hands Out" – often said to be an early form of cricket – because it distracted the lower orders from farming, archery practice etc. (1477)
Died as one of the Princes in the Tower (along with his younger brother Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York)		Edward V
Only surviving son of Henry VIII; succeeded his father aged 9, died 6 years later		Edward VI
Ruled under John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, and later his uncle Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset and 1st Earl of Hertford (elder brother of Jane Seymour), as Lords Protector
Authorised the Book of Common Prayer (written by Thomas Cranmer)
The only one to have been born at Buckingham Palace, and the only one to die there		Edward VII
Coronation was delayed for six weeks while he had his appendix out
Popularised the Homburg hat; first to have the title Emperor of India
Consort (Queen Alexandra) was the daughter of Christian IX of Denmark
The last Duke of Clarence was Albert Victor (1864–92), son of
Lillie Langtry, Lady Randolph (Jennie) Churchill (mother of Sir Winston), Sarah Bernhardt and Alice Keppell were four of the lovers or mistresses of
Consort of Henry II; mother of Richard I and King John; previously married to Henry VII of France (marriage annulled on grounds of consanguinity, having failed to produce a son)		Eleanor of Aquitaine
George I's title before becoming King of Great Britain		Elector of Hanover
Last Tudor		Elizabeth I
Last to be excommunicated (by Pope Pius V, after having over 750 Catholic rebels executed)
Virginia was named after
First to visit a Communist country (Yugoslavia, 1972)		Elizabeth II
Title bestowed on Victoria, New Years Day 1877		Empress of India
Consort of Queen Matilda, and father of Henry II (the first Plantagenet king)		Geoffrey of Anjou
First Hanoverian		George I
The first after Henry VIII to be divorced (born in 1660, married in 1682, divorced in 1692, came to the throne in 1714)
Couldn't speak English, although he did live mainly in Britain during his reign
Last to be buried abroad (died on a trip to Hanover, and was buried there)
Power of the monarchy diminished, and the post of Prime Minister (Walpole 1721–42) grew in importance, during the reign of
Handel's Water Music (1717) was written for
The last to be buried outside the UK
Last to be born outside Britain		George II
Last to live at Hampton Court
Last to lead his troops into battle (Dettingen, 1743)
Georgia (USA) was named after
Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks (1749) was written for
The last to be buried in Westminster Abbey, and the last not to be buried at Windsor
Longest–reigning king		George III
Married Princess Charlotte, the daughter of Duke Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg, "partly because she had been brought up in an insignificant north German duchy, and therefore would probably have had no experience or interest in power politics or party intrigues" (Wikipedia)
Queen Victoria's paternal grandfather
On the throne during the French Revolution and the American War of Independence, and throughout the terms of the first four American presidents
Frederick, the Grand Old Duke of York, was the son of
Surrendered the hereditary revenues of the Crown in exchange for the Civil List
Secretly married Catholic widow Mrs. Maria FitzHerbert when Prince of Wales (1785); forced by parliament to marry his cousin Caroline of Brunswick (1795), and attempted to divorce her on grounds of adultery; refused to allow her to attend his coronation		George IV
Played cricket for his county (Berkshire) when Prince of Wales
Had Brighton Pavilion built (current building 1815–22 – also largely when Prince of Wales)
Changed the family name from Saxe–Coburg–Gotha to Windsor		George V
First to broadcast, including the first Christmas message (1932 – on radio)
The Sussex seaside resort of Bognor was granted the suffix 'Regis' following the visit, for convalescence, of
Played at Wimbledon when Duke of York (1926)		George VI
First to visit the USA
Last Emperor of India
Name shared by the elder brothers of Richard I and Charles I – both of whom predeceased their fathers and so never succeeded to the throne		Henry
Died in France, from (according to his physician) "a surfeit of lampreys"		Henry I
Buried in Reading Abbey, which was largely demolished during the dissolution of the monasteries, causing his body to be lost – leading to a search following the discovery of Richard III in Leicester in 2012 and his reburial in Leicester Cathedral in 2015
Prince William Adelin, drowned when the White Ship was wrecked in the English Channel in 1120, was the only legitimate heir to
First Plantagenet King (House of Anjou)		Henry II
Father of Richard I and John
Quarrelled with Thomas Becket – "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest!"
Rosamund Clifford – "the Fair Rosamund" – was a mistress of
Succeeded his father, King John, aged 9, under the regency of William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke (William the Marshal); Hubert de Burgh, 1st Earl of Kent, was also influential		Henry III
Crowned in Gloucester Cathedral, nine days after the death or his father, and at Westminster four years later; ordered the rebuilding of Westminster Abbey, in the 30th year of his reign, and was the first to be buried there
Subservience to the Papacy and foreign favourites led to de Montfort's revolt, 1264
Son of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster		Henry IV
Known prior to his accession as Henry Bolingbroke (after his Lincolnshire birthplace)
Married to Joan of Navarre, the dowager Duchess of Brittany, for the last ten years of his life (after nine years as a widower)
Died in the Jerusalem Chamber, Westminster
Leader of the English army at Agincourt		Henry V
Was struck in the face by an arrow at the Battle of Shrewsbury (1403 – when heir to the throne, aged 16)
Was insulted (probably mistakenly) by a gift of tennis balls from Charles, the Dauphin of France – as told by Shakespeare
Youngest to succeed to the throne, at 266 days (8 months 25 days); succeeded to the French throne 50 days later, on the death of his uncle Charles VII; crowned King of France as Henry II aged 9 years – the only crowned king of both England and France; but most English possessions in France were lost during his reign (leaving only Calais)		Henry VI
Founded Eton College in 1440, and King's College Cambridge in 1441
The claim to his throne of Edward, Duke of York, led to the Wars of the Roses
Died (in 1471) while imprisoned in the Tower of London, 17 days after the death of his son Edmund of Westminster, Prince of Wales, at the Battle of Tewkesbury
The first Tudor		Henry VII
Born at Pembroke Castle in 1457
Last (to date!) to win the throne in battle
Margaret Beaufort, wife of the Earl of Richmond, was the mother of
Buried in Westminster Abbey with his wife Elizabeth of York (represented on a playing card), in a tomb by Torrigiani
Great–grandfather of Mary, Queen of Scots
Sponsored the journeys of John and Sebastian Cabot to North America (1497)
Granted the title Defender of the Faith by Pope Leo X, 12 years into his reign; later excommunicated on two separate occasions, five years apart, by popes Clement VII and Paul III		Henry VIII
First to have 'King of Ireland' in his title
First to be addressed as 'Your Majesty'
Stood for election as Holy Roman Emperor
Sodomy was first outlawed in his reign (by the Buggery Act of 1533)
United England and Wales
Instigated the dissolution of the monasteries
Succeeded by all three of the children that survived him
Henry Fitroy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset, was an illegitimate child (by his mistress Elizabeth Blount) of, and the only one acknowledged by
First Stuart King of England		James I
James VI of Scotland
Born at Edinburgh Castle, the son of Mary Queen of Scots
Intended victim of the Gunpowder Plot
Described by Henry IV of France as 'the wisest fool in Christendom'
Author of the treatise A Counterblaste to Tobacco
Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, who died of typhoid aged 18 – predeceasing his father by 13 years – was the eldest son of
Ordered the execution of Sir Walter Raleigh
Both his mother and his son were beheaded
The Mayflower sailed, and landed in the New World, during the reign of
Elizabeth of Bohemia, a.k.a. the Winter Queen (wife of Frederick V of the Palatinate, King of Bohemia for 14 months and known as the Winter King) was the second child and eldest daughter of
Last Roman Catholic King of England		James II
Last to wash the feet of the poor on Maundy Thursday
Opposed by the Monmouth Rebellion
Argyll's Rising was part of the above attempt to overthrow
Deposed by the so–called 'Glorious Revolution'
The Duke of York that New York (City) was named after, later became
Father of Mary II and Queen Anne; grandfather of Prince Charles Edward Stuart – 'Bonnie Prince Charlie' (known to Protestants as the Young Pretender)
De facto queen for nine days, July 1553 (between Edward VI and Mary I)		Lady Jane Grey
Signed (put his seal to) the Magna Carta (1215)		John
Died in Newark Castle, after losing his crown jewels (according to one contemporary account) in The Wash; buried in Worcester Cathedral
Excommunicated by Pope Innocent III, over a dispute about who had the right to appoint the Archbishop of Canterbury (1309)
Younger son of Edward III – father of Henry IV		John of Gaunt
Elder sister of Henry VIII: married James IV of Scotland; mother of James V, thus grandmother of Mary Queen of Scots and great–grandmother of James I of England		Margaret
Wife and consort of Henry VI: effectively ruled the country during his frequent bouts of mental illness; called for the Great Council of 1455 which excluded Yorkists and thus sparked the Wars of the Roses; leader of the Lancastrian faction against Richard, Duke of York (father of Edward IV and Richard III)		Margaret of Anjou
Younger sister of Henry VIII: married Louis XII of France; grandmother of Lady Jane Grey (her daughter Frances, from her second marriage, was Jane's mother)		Mary
The first undisputed Queen of England in her own right		Mary I (Mary Tudor)
Married Philip II of Spain
Ordered the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots
Two full sisters who ruled England in their own right (both daughters of James II)		Mary II
		Anne
Consort of George V, mother of Edward VIII and George VI		Queen Mary (of Teck)
Wife of William I: traditionally believed to have commissioned and helped to create the Bayeux Tapestry (in France it's also known as La Tapisserie de la Reine Mathilde) – 20th century research shows that in fact it was commissioned by Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, William's half brother		Matilda
Daughter of Henry I, mother of Henry II; married to Holy Roman Emperor Henry V, and thus known as Empress		Matilda
Second marriage was to Geoffrey of Anjou, an enemy of the Normans; their son Henry II and his descendants formed the house of Plantagenet
Disputed the crown with her cousin Stephen, in a long period of civil strife known as The Anarchy; secured the crown for a few weeks, in 1141, but was never crowned
Fled from Oxford Castle wearing a white cape (or sheets) as camouflage against the snow
Also known as Maude (an anglicised version of her French name Mahaut, via Latin)
England's most–married queen (4: Edward, Lord Borough; John Neville, Lord Latimer (d. 1542); Henry VIII; Thomas Seymour) – died in childbirth 1548		Catherine Parr
Spent only 6 months of his reign in England		Richard I
Popularly believed to have adopted St. George's emblem as the flag of England
Married Berengaria of Navarre, the queen who never visited England, in Cyprus (while on his way to the Holy Land)
Killed whilst besieging the castle of Châlons, France chalons
Son of Edward of Woodstock, the Black Prince, and Joan, Countess of Kent (known to history as the Fair Maid of Kent)		Richard II
Quelled the Peasants' Revolt (1381)
Usurped by his first cousin Henry Bolingbroke (Henry IV)
The white hart was the personal badge of
Died in Pontefract Castle under mysterious circumstances
A pupil of Westminster School once claimed that in 1766 – or 1776 – he had stolen (from his tomb in Westminster Abbey) the jawbone of
The last Plantagenet king; born at Fotheringay Castle		Richard III
Confirmed as king by an Act of Parliament known as Titulus Regius (Title of the King) – which ratified Parliament's declaration of the year before, that the marriage of his brother (Edward IV) to Elizabeth Woodville had been invalid (as Edward had previously been betrothed to Lady Eleanor Butler), and consequently their children were illegitimate and therefore debarred from the throne
Married Anne Neville, daughter of the 16th Earl of Warwick ('the Kingmaker') and the great–niece of his mother Cecily Neville
Last King of England to be killed in battle (Bosworth Field, 1485)
Obituary appears in The Times on 22nd August each year
The Princes in the Tower are traditionally believed to have been killed on the orders of
The white boar was the personal heraldic device or badge of
Caricatured in the nursery rhyme as Humpty Dumpty
Died with Edward V – the other 'prince in the Tower'		Richard, Duke of York
George V changed the Royal Family's name to Windsor from		Saxe–Coburg–Gotha
Mother of Edward VI, Henry VIII's only male heir; died two weeks after the birth		Jane Seymour
The only wife of Henry VIII to receive a queen's funeral; buried at St. George's Chapel, Windsor, and he was buried alongside her following his death ten years later
Wife of George I, but he divorced her in 1794 (20 years before he came to the throne); she was then imprisoned near Hanover for over 30 years until her death in 1727		Sophia Dorothea of Celle
Last Norman King; secured the throne on the death of his uncle Henry I, against the claim of Henry's daughter Matilda, claiming that Henry had named him as his successor on his deathbed; regained the throne after Matilda secured it for a few weeks in 1141; eventually reached a compromise with her whereby her son (Henry II) would succeed him		Stephen
Last holder of the title Empress of India		The Queen Mother
Daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, fourth son of George III		Victoria
Came to the throne aged 18 yrs 27 days, died aged 81 yrs 270 days; bore 9 children (4 boys, 5 girls)
Last in the House of Hanover
Crowned Empress of India, 1876
Married her first cousin (Albert's father, Duke Ernest I of Saxe–Coburg and Gotha, and Victoria's mother, Princess Victoria of Saxe–Coburg–Saalfeld, were brother and sister)
Last to marry while on the throne
Said to have popularised the white wedding dress, after wearing a white lace dress for her wedding
First to live in Buckingham Palace (it became the official residence of the monarch on her accession)
Illegitimate son of a tanner's daughter (probably)		William I
Formerly Duke of Normandy
Crowned on Christmas Day
Ordered the compilation of the Domesday Book
Founded the Tower of London
Robert II Curthose, Duke of Normandy, was the eldest son of
Shot, possibly accidentally, by an arrow while hunting in the New Forest – possibly by Walter Tirel (who denied it)		William II (Rufus)
Died of septicaemia after falling from his horse which stumbled on a molehill – giving rise to the Jacobite toast "to the little gentleman in black velvet"		William III
The maze at Hampton Court was made for
Oldest to come to the throne (at 64 years, 309 days), when he succeeded his elder brother		William IV

© Haydn Thompson 2017–24