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Kings and Queens
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King Henry VIII
King Henry VIII of England is perhaps the
most notorious of England’s Kings. Best
known for having six wives and removing the
Church of England from the control of the
Pope, Henry VIII also increased royal power
by using accusations of treason and heresy
to banish and execute those that opposed
him. Henry VIII was born on June 28, 1491,
in Greenwich Palace, Kent. After the death
of his elder brother Arthur in 1502, Henry
became the heir to the English throne which
he ascended on April 21, 1509. His first
marriage was to Arthur’s widow, Catherine of
Aragon. This marriage ended in annulment in
1533. His second wife Anne Boleyn was
executed in 1536, his third wife Jane
Seymour died in 1537. Henry VIII divorced
his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, in 1540, he
executed his fifth wife Catherine Howard in
1542 and his sixth wife, Catherine Parr,
outlived him. One of Henry VIII’s legacies
was the formation of the Royal Navy. During
Henry’s reign he increased the number of
ships from five to more than forty. The
Mary
Rose and Henry Grace à dieu were two of his
more famous ships. Henry VIII died in London
on January 28, 1547. |
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King Edward VI
Edward VI
was born at Hampton Court Palace on October
12, 1537, and his mother, Queen Jane
Seymour, died just 12 days later. Edward
succeeded his father Henry VIII as King of
England on January 28, 1547, although, as he
never reached his majority, a Regency
Council of sixteen governed the kingdom. The
Regency Council appointed Edward Seymour
Lord Protector of the Realm and Governor of
the King’s Person, effectively giving him
control of the kingdom. In 1547,
Henry VIII's
great ship
Henry Grace à Dieu was renamed by Edward
VI. After a period of
rebellion broke out across England, Edward
Seymour was blamed for the unrest and
replaced by John Dudley, Earl of Warwick,
who became Lord President of the Council and
Great Master of the King’s Household. Edward
VI was a protestant King and when he fell
ill in February 1553, he worried that his
half sister Mary, who was Catholic, would
succeed him. To counter this he put together
a Devise for the Succession that would see
his cousin Lady Jane Grey succeed him. King
Edward VI died in Greenwich Palace at the
age of 15 on July 6, 1553, and Lady Jane
Grey was proclaimed Queen. |
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Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria was born in London on May 24,
1819. Her father, the Duke of Kent and the
fourth son of King George III, died in 1820,
the same year as George III. Victoria
ascended the throne of the United Kingdom on
June 20, 1837, after her father’s three
elder brothers had died without leaving any
legitimate children. Following her
Coronation on June 28, 1838, Victoria became
the first monarch to live in Buckingham
Palace. Queen Victoria married Prince Albert
of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha on February 10,
1840, four months after proposing to him.
The couple had nine children in total and
during her first pregnancy Victoria was shot
at while travelling in a carriage with
Albert. She was unharmed on this occasion
and would survive a further five attempts on
her life. Two deaths in 1861 affected her
badly, the first was her mother, who died in
March, and the second was her husband
Albert, who died from typhoid fever in
December. The loss of Albert led her into a
life of mourning and seclusion; she wore
black for the rest of her life and became
known as the Widow of Windsor. Queen
Victoria made an informal visit to the steam
powered iron clad warship
HMS Warrior
when it guarded Osborne House on the north
east coast of the Isle of Wight. Queen
Victoria died on January 22, 1901, at
Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. |
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Queen Elizabeth II
Queen Elizabeth II was born in London on
April 21, 1926. She became heir presumptive
to the throne of the United Kingdom when her
father, the Duke of York, acceded to the
throne upon the abdication of his brother
King Edward VIII. Elizabeth served in the
Auxiliary Territorial Service during WW2 and
married Philip Mountbatten, a former Prince
of Greece and Denmark, in 1947. She has four
children, Charles, Prince of Wales; Anne,
Princess Royal; Andrew, Duke of York; and
Edward, Earl of Wessex. On February 6, 1952,
she became Queen Regnant of the United
Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Ceylon, New
Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa as well
as Head of the Commonwealth. Elizabeth’s
coronation took place on June 2, 1953, in
Westminster Abbey, London. On June 25, 1957,
Elizabeth II opened the restored clipper
Cutty Sark to
the public. On July 11, 1976,
Queen Elizabeth II and Philip received a 21
gun salute from
USS
Constitution as they entered Boston
Harbor aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia.
They also received a tour of the American
frigate. On January 8, 2004, Elizabeth named
Cunard's transatlantic liner
RMS Queen
Mary 2. Queen Elizabeth II marked her Silver Jubilee
in 1977, her Golden Jubilee in 2002, her
Diamond Jubilee in 2012 and, in 2017,
Elizabeth became the first British Monarch
to achieve a Sapphire Jubilee. As of 2018
she remains the longest reigning Queen
Regnant in the world. |
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