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2 | What Makes A Diamond: The 6 Events that mde the Jubilee Possible

| 9

William IThe Conqueror

William I

Stephen

Matilda

Adela

Henry I

Henry II

Richard I

John I

| 13 Event 1 : The Anarchy

| 15

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.


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

| 17

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.


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

| 21 Event 2 : Magna Carta


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.

| 23

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


“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.

| 25

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


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.

| 27 Event 3 : War of tje Roses

| 29 Event 3 : War of tje Roses


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”.

| 31

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


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.

| 33

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.


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

| 37 Event 4 : English Reformation

| 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.


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


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.


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


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”.

| 51 Event 5 : Abdication Crisis


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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