Loryn's British Royalty Page
The House of Stuart
James I of England and VI of Scotland (6/19/1566 - 3/27/1625)
- Born at Edinburgh Castle
- Married Anne of Denmark on 11/24/1589 in Oslo, Norway
- Children - Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales (died 1612); Elizabeth; Margaret, died young; Charles; Robert, Mary, and Sophia, all 3 died young
- Succeeded as King of Scotland on 7/24/1566 and as King of England and Ireland on 3/24/1603
- Died at Theobalds, Hertford, from premature old age, a quartan ague (fever with paroxysms) having developed a chill
- Buried in King Henry VII's Chapel, Westminster Abbey
- James was the only child of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Henry, Lord Darnley. He was proclaimed king of Scotland on his mother's abdication shortly after his birth, but the kingdom's administration was conducted by a succession of regents until James became the nominal ruler in 1576. However, it wasn't until 1581 that James assumed actual control. In 1582 he was kidnapped by a group of Protestant rebels led by William Ruthven, Earl of Gowrie; he was held prisoner until he escaped the next year.
- Little by little James reduced the power of the great Roman Catholic nobles. His 1589 marriage to Anne of Denmark brought him closer to Protestants. After the Gowrie Conspiracy (1600), in which he killed Protestant leader the Earl of Gowrie, James persecuted Protestants and Catholics alike. He replaced the feudal power of the nobility with a strong central government and enforced the superiority of the state over the church while maintaining the divine right of kings.
- In England James' policy, based on divine right, angered Parliament and prepared the way for the Great Rebellion. He alienated the Nonconformists by his rudeness at the Hampton Court Conference in 1604, and his undue severity toward Roman Catholics led to the Gunpowder Plot in 1605. He initiated the Ulster Settlement in 1607. James tried unsuccessfully to advance the cause of religious peace in Europe by marrying off his daughter Elizabeth to the Elector Palatine Frederick V, leader of the German Protestants, and attempting to arrange a marriage between his son Charles and the Infanta of Spain, then the principal Catholic power. Because of his bad planning, England was drawn into the Thirty Years' War.
- Like King Alfred, James aspired to literary fame. He wrote a number of works in verse and in prose. Under his patronage a group of scholars prepared the Authorized Version of the Bible in English; they called it the King James Bible in his honor.
Charles I (11/19/1600 - 1/30/1649) posthomously as King & Martyr
- Born at Dunfermline
- Married Henrietta Maria of France on 6/25/16__
- Children - Charles, died 1629; Charles, Mary, James, Elizabeth, Anne, Catherine, Henry, Henrietta, Anne
- Succeeded as King of England, Scotland, and Ireland on 3/27/1625
- Died at the Banqueting Hall of Whitehall Palace by execution (decapitation)
- Buried at Windsor
- He was the second son of James I and became heir apparent when his brother Henry died in 1612. After his unsuccessful attempt to wed the Infanta of Spain, he subsequently excited popular enthusiasm by advocating war with Spain.
- The once-popular Charles gained the people's ill will by marrying the Roman Catholic Princess Henrietta Maria of France. He was a puppet in the hands of the Duke of Buckingham, whom Charles appointed Prime Minister against public opinion. Charles dissolved three Parliaments in four years because of their refusal to comply with his arbitrary measures. The third Parliament met in 1628 and presented a statement of its position known as the Petition of Right. Charles made a few concessions and dissolved the Parliament, although Buckingham's assassination solved one of their grievances. In addition, Charles had eleven of Parliament's leaders imprisoned. Charles then governed without Parliament for 11 years, influenced by the Queen, Archbishop Laud, and chief advisor Sir Thomas Wentworth (later Earl of Stafford). The Star Chamber and High Commission Courts gave legal sanction to forced loans, poundage, tonnage, ship money, and other measures to meet governmental expenditures. His attempt to impose episcopacy provoked the Scots to restore Presbyterianism and to adopt the Solemn League and Covenant on 28 February 1638. In 1639 Charles assembled an army to enforce his will and summoned the Short Parliament, which refused his demands and drew up a statement of public grievances and insisted on peace with Scotland. Obtaining money by irregular means, Charles advanced against the Scots, who crossed the border, defeated his army at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and soon occupied Newcastle and Durham. With his money exhausted, Charles was forced to call the Long Parliament, which met 3 November 1640. Led by John Pym, it proceeded to redress grievances and showed its resolution by impeaching and imprisoning Laud and Stafford. The peers refused to condemn Stafford, but a luckless plot to overcome Parliament by military force sealed the ministers' fate. A bill of attainder was passed, and Charles signed Stafford's death warrant and confirmed a bill by which Parliament wasn't to be dissolved without its own consent. Then Charles visited Scotland.
- On his return from Scotland, Charles went before the Commons with an armed force to demand the arrest and delivery of Pym and other members on treason charges. The country was angered and the king fled with his family to Hampton Court. Seven months later civil war broke out. The Royalists under Prince Rupert were victorious at Worcester on 23 September 1642; but after several reverses the Parliamentary forces, led by Oliver Cromwell and Baron Fairfax, defeated Prince Rupert at Marsten Moor on 2 July 1644 and destroyed the Royal army at Naseby on 14 June 1645. Warfare continued until Charles surrendered himself to the Scottish army at Newark on 5 May 1646. He was delivered to the English Parliament and was then assigned a residence at Holmby House near Northampton. Three months later he escaped to the Isle of Wight where he hoped to receive aid from the governor of Carisbrooke Castle, but he was imprisoned instead. The Independents compelled Parliament to pass an act of treason against further negotiation with Charles, who was moved to Hurst Castle.
- Parliament appointed a court to try Charles. He was moved from Hurst Castle to Windsor on 23 December 1648, and on 20 January 1649 he was taken to Westminster Hall. Charles denied the court's legality and refused to plead. On 27 January he was sentenced to death as a tyrant, murderer, and enemy of the nation by 67 out of the original 70 judges. Scotland protested, the royal family entreated, France and the Netherlands interceded, all in vain. Charles was beheaded at Whitehall on 30 January 1649.
Charles II (5/29/1630 - 2/6/1685)
- Born at St James' Palace
- Married Catherine of Braganza on 5/21/1662
- No legitimate children
- Succeeded as King of England, Scotland, and Ireland on 1/30/1649. Within a few days the Rump Parliament abolished monarchy. Crowned King of Scotland on 1/1/1651 at Scone. Parliament reclaimed him as King on 5/8/1660; landed at Dover on 5/23/1660 and entered London on his 30th birthday
- Died at Whitehall Palace after a stroke
- Buried at Westminster Abbey
- He was the second, but eldest surviving, son of Charles I and Prince of Wales since birth. He took his seat in the House of Lords in 1641, held a nominal command in the Civil War's early campaigns, and was nearly captured at Edgehill in 1642. Appointed general of the western forces, he parted from his father at Oxford on 4 March 1645 and remained in safety in Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall. After the Royalist defeat at Naseby, he escaped through Sicily and Jersey to join his mother in Paris, where he spent two years. In July 1648 he sailed from Helvoetsluis with a small fleet for the Thames, where he won some prizes. He issued a proclamation of conciliation to the Londoners and Scots, and returned to The Hague, where he had done the utmost to his father during his trial. Charles even forwarded a blank charter with his signature attached for Parliament to inscribe its own terms of clemency.
- At his father's death Charles assumed the title of king and was proclaimed in Scotland, Ireland, the Channel Islands, and even a few places in England, then ruled by Oliver Cromwell. After spending some time in Holland, France, and Jersey, with the intention of invading Ireland, he went back to Holland, and embarking at Terheyden for Scotland, landed at Cromarty Firth on 24 June 1650. He was crowned at Scone on 1 January 1651. Charles invaded England the following August with 10,000 men and was proclaimed king at Carlisle and other places along his advance. Cromwell surrounded him and routed his army at Worcester on 3 September 1651. Charles was hunted and a bounty put on his head, but he safely embarked at Shoreham on 15 October and landed at Fécamp, Normandy, the next day.
- He spent eight years in exile in France and at Cologne and Bruges. Cromwell died in 1660. His son and successor Richard Cromwell wanted to resign as Protector; General Monck led the restoration of the monarchy. In the Declaration of Breda, Charles announced his intention to accept a parliamentary government and grant amnesty to his political opponents. He was proclaimed king at Westminster on 8 May 1660. He landed at Dover on the 26th and was welcomed at Whitehall by both Houses of Parliament on the 29th.
- Charles was crowned on 23 April 1661. He made Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, his chief minister. Episcopacy was restored and English and Scottish Nonconformists and Presbyterians were persecuted. He extended an indemnifying Act dating from 1 January 1637 to 24 June 1660 to all political offenders (except the regicides, 13 of whom were executed). Charles gave in to the abolition of the federal rights of knight service, wardship, and purveyance in consideration of a $6 million annuity, which was never fully paid. Charles married Catherine of Braganza in 1662 for her large dowry, but he still needed money. In return for French subsidies, Charles sent England into war with Holland in 1672.
- The Dutch War of 1672 was not successful. Some knowledge of the negotiations with France and Charles' efforts toward absolutism brought him into conflict with his Parliament (which lasted for 9 years); he was finally able to dissolve Parliament in 1681. Charles' leanings toward the Roman Catholic Church led to the Popish Plot. For the last four years of his reign he ruled as an absolute monarch. On his deathbed he received absolution from a Roman Catholic priest.
James II (10/15/1633 - 9/6/1701)
- Born at St James' Palace
- Married (1) Anne Hyde
- Married (2) Maria Beatrice d'Este (Mary Modena)
- Children - (1) Charles, Mary, James, Anne, Charles, Edgar, Henrietta, Catherine; (2) Catherine, Isabella, Charles, Elizabeth, Charlotte, James (Old Pretender) Louisa
- Succeeded as King of England, Scotland, and Ireland on 2/6/1685. Left for France on 12/23/1688. A Convention in London in 1/1689 announced he had abdicated
- Died in St Germain six months after a paralytic stroke
- Buried at St Germain
- He was the second son of Charles I and Henrietta Maria. After the death of his first wife Anne Hyde in 1671, he made a public profession of his conversion to the Roman Catholic faith. In 1673, Parliament passed the Test Act, which required all officials to subscribe to a declaration against transubstantiation and to receive the sacrament according to the rites of the Established Church; James consequently resigned as Lord High Admiral. Soon after, he married Mary of Modena. In 1679 the House of Commons made an attempt to bar his succession to the throne by passing the Exclusion Bill; it was defeated in the House of Lords.
- James became king in 1685. That same year he crushed the revolts of the Dukes of Argyll and Monmouth. He managed to alienate many supporters by his severe reprisals. He attempted to win the support of the Dissenters and Roman Catholics by issuing in 1687 the Declaration of Indulgence and a declaration of liberty of conscience. He underestimated the power of the Established Church. The birth of his son James (a Roman Catholic heir) pushed his opponents to invite his son-in-law William of Orange to take the throne. William landed with an army at Tor Bay in November 1688 and marched on London. James was deserted by his troops and fled to France, where Louis XIV gave him a pension and a home in St Germain. In the following year, helped by a small French army, James landed in Ireland in an attempt to regain his throne. He was defeated at the Battle of the Boyne. He returned to St Germain where he remained until his death.
William III (11/4/1650 - 3/8/1702)
Mary II (4/30/1662 - 12/28/1694)
- Born at The Hague (him) and St James' Palace (her)
- Married on 11/17/1677 in London
- No recorded children
- He succeeded as birth as William Henry of Nassau, Prince of Orange, Stadtholder of the United Provinces (Netherlands). They jointly succeeded as King and Queen of England and Ireland on 2/23/1689
- She died at Kensington Palace of smallpox; he died at Kensington Palace of pleurisy following a broken collarbone sustained when his horse stumbled over a molehill.
- She is buried in King Henry VII's Chapel, Westminster Abbey; he is buried in Westminster Abbey
- Mary favored the Church of England despite her father's desire to re-establish Roman Catholicism in England. After the Glorious Revolution in 1688, Mary was invited by English noblemen to become joint ruler with her husband Prince William of Orange. They wear crowned the next year and William went to fight James' adherents in Ireland; Mary ruled until his return in 1690. She governed prudently and was popular with the English people until the dismissal of John Churchill, later Duke of Marlborough, from the Privy Council in 1692.
- He was the posthumous son of William II (1626-50) and his wife Mary (1631-60), eldest daughter of Charles I. In 1672, following the invasion of Holland by French King Louis XIV, the leadership of the Dutch statesman Jan De Witt was repudiated and William was elected stadholder, captain-general, and admiral. William fought the French fiercely, even cutting dykes around Amsterdam to halt France's advances. The Dutch suffered sever reverses in battle, but as a result of William's great diplomacy (including his marriage to his English cousin Mary), Louis XIV agreed to stop fighting. Under the terms of the peace treaty concluded at Nijmegen in 1678 he obtained little more than a few Dutch frontier fortresses.
- On 30 June 1688, seven English noblemen formally invited William (the leading European Protestant) to bring a liberation army to England. William and his 15,000 troops landed at Tor Bay on 5 November 1688. Most English nobility sided with William and James fled to France on 23 December. William accepted the Declaration of Right passed by the Convention Parliament (which met on 22 January 1689). On 13 February, William and Mary were proclaimed joint sovereigns of England. The Glorious Revolution was over.
- The Scottish Parliament accepted the new rulers, and rebellion in the Highlands was finally put down in 1692. Roman Catholic Ireland had to be taken by force. In 1690 William led the army that defeated James and his Irish army at the Battle of the Boyne. William's reign was marked by failed Jacobite plots to restore James to the throne. William ruled alone after his wife's death in 1694.
- In 1689, William brought England into the League of Augsburg (later known as the Grand Alliance). For the next 8 years, he was involved in wars on the Continent. He managed to hold the alliance together. In 1697, under the terms of the Peace of Ryswick, Louis surrendered much of the territory he had won and recognized William as England's rightful king. In 1701, when France (by its control of Spain) threatened to upset the European balance of power, William headed the second Grand Alliance, which got involved in the War of the Spanish Succession. He died before he could take an active part in the struggle.
- William wasn't as successful domestically. He could take no personal credit for his reign's reforms, like the establishment of the Bank of England, the introduction of ministerial responsibility in government, and the encouragement of a free press. Personally William was a cold, calculating and blunt man who never really won the affection of his subjects.
Anne (2/5/1665 - 8/1/1714)
- Born at St James' Palace
- Married George of Denmark on 7/28/1683 in Chapel Royal, St James' Palace
- Children (excluding nine stillborn) - Mary, died 1687; Anne Sophia, died 1687; William, Duke of Gloucester, died 1700; Mary, died 1690, George, died 1692
- Succeeded as Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland on 3/8/1702; first titular Queen of Great Britain and Ireland after 5/1/1707, the date of operation of the Act of Union
- Died at Kensington Palace two days after an apoplectic fit
- Buried in Westminster Abbey
- She was the second daughter of James II and Anne Hyde. In 1683 she was married. Soon after, Lady Churchill (wife of the Duke of Marlborough) became her intimate friend and acquired great influence at court. Anne consented to the act by which the throne was secured to the Prince of Orange in the event of his surviving her sister Mary, but was afterward drawn into intrigues for the restoration of her father, or to secure the succession of the throne to his son. Although she had borne seventeen children, all died young, and she was without a direct heir when, on the death of William III in 1702, she succeeded to the throne. Anne, tiring of Lady Churchill's domination, found a new favourite in Lady Abigail Masham. Through her influence, Lady Masham brought about the change in government in 1710, when the Whigs were cast out and the Tories came into office. The most important political event of Anne's reign was the Act of Union with Scotland (1707).
All information © 2000, S.L. Cearley
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