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History of the English monarchy

Extended content

Tentative outline Anglo-Saxons (800s–1066) Anglo-Saxon government House of Wessex Cnut the Great and his sons Edward the Confessor Harold Godwinson Normans (1066–1154) Norman government William the Conqueror Henry I Stephen Plantagenets (1154–1399) Henry II Richard the Lionheart John Henry III Edward I Edward II Edward III Richard II Lancastrians (1399–1461) Henry IV Henry V Henry VI Yorkists (1461-1485) Edward IV Edward V Richard III Tudors (1485–1603) Henry VII Henry VIII Edward VI Mary I Elizabeth I Union of the Crowns (1603)

Normans (1066–1154)

Norman government

The Norman dynasty descended from a Viking warlord named Rollo. He benefited from the disintegration of royal authority within West Francia and gained control of Rouen and surrounding areas around 911. Rollo became the vassal of King Charles the Simple, and his successors became known as the counts of Rouen. Normandy became a major region within the Frankish kingdom, and Rollo's great-grandson Richard II (r. 996–1026) assumed the more prestigious title of duke.

Norman administration was based on traditional Carolingian divisions, the pagi or comitatus. Each of these was led by an official appointed by the duke called a viscount.

After the Norman Conquest, the kings of England were, as dukes of Normandy, nominal vassals to the kings of France. For the next centuries, the English monarchy would be deeply involved with French politics, and English kings usually spent most of their time in France.

William the Conqueror

The White Tower, built by William the Conqueror, is a symbol of royal power.

Main article: William the Conqueror

Not in article:
After securing his new kingdom, William returned to Normandy in March 1067. He took with him the remaining English leaders—Archbishop Stigand of Canterbury, Edgar the Æthling, Edwin, Morkere, and Waltheof, the earl of Northumbria. He left England in the care of his half-brother, Bishop Odo of Bayeux, and William fitzOsbern. 

It took nearly five years of fighting before the Norman Conquest of England was secure. Across England, the Normans built castles for defence as well as intimidation of the locals. In London, William ordered construction of the White Tower, the central keep of the Tower of London. Once finished, the White Tower "was the most imposing emblem of monarchy that the country had ever seen, dwarfing all other buildings for miles around."

At times, there was tension between the monarch and his Norman vassals, who were used to French models of government in which royal power was much weaker than in England. The 1075 Revolt of the Earls was defeated by the king, but the monarchy continued to resist forces of feudal fragmentation.

The church was critical to William's conquest of England. In 1066, it owned between 25 and 33 per cent of all land, and appointment to bishoprics and abbacies were important sources of royal patronage. Pope Alexander II supported the Norman invasion because he wanted William to oversee church reform and to remove unfit bishops. William forbade ecclesiastical cases (those involving marriage, wills, and legitimacy) from being heard in secular courts; jurisdiction was handed over to church courts. But William also tightened royal control over the church. Bishops were banned from traveling to Rome, and royal permission was needed to enact new canon law or to excommunicate a noble.

Plantagenets (1154–1399)

John

King John stayed in England more than any other due to the loss of the Angevin territories. He expanded the number of royal residences, spending £4,000 (equal to £6,747,917 today) on them over his reign.

Henry III

See discussion of Westminster Palace in Prestwich (I think page 46 or above it)

Henry III inherited 58 castles. This number had fallen to 47 by Edward I's accession. Many royal castles were poorly maintained. A few, however, were used as displays of royal power and wealth. This included the Tower of London, which was extended and modernized by Henry III. Edward I continued work on the Tower. He built St Thomas Tower, which was more of a residence than a castle.

Edward I

• Feast of the Swans
• The Vows of the Heron

See Prestwich pages circa 52 for court life under Edward I

Richard II

Lancaster had been the most powerful noblemen in England with thirty castles and a private army of four thousand men.

Lancastrians (1399–1461)

Henry V

In June 1421, Henry was forced to return to France after his brother and deputy Thomas, duke of Clarence, died in battle. While in France, the King became ill and died on 31 August 1422. 

Henry V had 3 brothers: ; John, duke of Bedford; and

Yorkists (1461–1485)

Edward V and Richard III

Edward IV died on 9 April 1483, and his twelve-year-old son became Edward V (r. April – June 1483). His father made him Prince of Wales very young, and the Council of Wales and the Marches administered the principality. Since the age of three, Edward had lived at Ludlow Castle under the care of his uncle Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers, and John Alcock, Bishop of Worcester.

The coronation was scheduled for 4 May, but conflict erupted between the Woodvilles and the King's paternal uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, for control of the minority government. Richard arrested Anthony, took custody of the King, and postponed the coronation. For six weeks, Richard ruled England as lord protector.

In June, Richard declared himself king, claiming that Edward and his brother Prince Richard were illegitimate children. The two brothers disappeared after being moved to the Tower. Contemporary opinion widely believed the Princes in the Tower were dead by September 1483 and that Richard was responsible.

He was never crowned and reigned for 78 days.

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.

References

Bibliography

• Ashley, Mike (1998). The Mammoth Book of British Kings and Queens. London: Robinson. ISBN 1-84119-096-9.
• Bartlett, Robert (2000). England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings, 1075-1225. New Oxford History of England. Clarendon Press. ISBN 9780199251018.
• Borman, Tracy (2021). Crown & Sceptre: A New History of the British Monarchy, from William the Conqueror to Elizabeth II. Grove Atlantic. ISBN 9780802159113.
• Butt, Ronald (1989). A History of Parliament: The Middle Ages. London: Constable. ISBN 0094562202.
• Cannon, John; Griffiths, Ralph (1988). The Oxford Illustrated History of the British Monarchy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-822786-8.
• Cheetham, Anthony (1998). "The House of Lancaster and House of York". In Fraser, Antonia (ed.). The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England (revised and updated ed.). Weidenfeld and Nicolson. pp. 113–159. ISBN 9781841880273.
• Crouch, David (2002). The Normans: The History of a Dynasty. Hambledon Continuum. ISBN 1852855959.
• Fraser, Antonia, ed. (1975). The Lives of the Kings & Queens of England. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-76911-1.
• Gillingham, John (1998). "The Normans". In Fraser, Antonia (ed.). The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England (revised and updated ed.). Weidenfeld and Nicolson. pp. 17–39. ISBN 9781841880273.
• Huscroft, Richard (2016). Ruling England, 1042-1217 (2nd ed.). Routledge. ISBN 978-1138786554.
• Jolliffe, J. E. A. (1961). The Constitutional History of Medieval England from the English Settlement to 1485 (4th ed.). Adams and Charles Black.
• Jones, Dan (2012). The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England (revised ed.). Penguin Books. ISBN 978-1-101-60628-5.
• Jones, Dan (2014). The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors. Penguin Books. ISBN 9780698170322.
• Loyn, H. R. (1984). The Governance of Anglo-Saxon England, 500–1087. Governance of England. Vol. 1. Stanford University Press. ISBN 9780804712170.
• Lyon, Ann (2016). Constitutional History of the UK (2nd ed.). Routledge. ISBN 9781317203988.
• Maddicott, J. R. (2010). The Origins of the English Parliament, 924-1327. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199585502.
• Pollard, A. J. (2004). "The Houses of Lancaster and York, 1399–1485". In Ormrod, W. M. (ed.). The Kings and Queens of England. Tempus. pp. 161–188. ISBN 0752425986.
• Powell, J. Enoch; Wallis, Keith (1968). The House of Lords in the Middle Ages: A History of the English House of Lords to 1540. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 0297761056.
• Starkey, David (2010). Crown and Country: A History of England through the Monarchy. HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 9780007307715.

• Fraser, Antonia, ed. (1998). The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England (revised and updated ed.). Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 9781841880273.

• Jones, Clyve, ed. (2009). A Short History of Parliament: England, Great Britain, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Scotland. The Boydell Press. ISBN 9781843837176.

Possible but not used yet

• Green, Judith A. (2017). Forging the Kingdom: Power in English Society, 973–1189. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521193597.
• Loades, David (1997). Power in Tudor England. British Studies Series. Macmillan Education. ISBN 9781349250486.

Templates

• {{reign | 1042 | 1066