King of the United Kingdom
The King or Queen of the United Kingdom, fully named the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, (TV: Tooth and Claw) the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, (PROSE: The Flaming Soldier, The Daughters of Earth, AUDIO: Minuet in Hell) and the United Kingdom of Britain and Northern Ireland, (TV: The Beast Below) was the title given to the ruler of the country of the United Kingdom.
Occasionally, the title of King or Queen of England was used synonymously when referring to the monarch of the United Kingdom as a whole. (PROSE: The Dying Days, A History of Humankind)
History[[edit] | [edit source]]
Formation[[edit] | [edit source]]
In 1603, Elizabeth I, the Queen of England and last Tudor monarch, died. (AUDIO: The Marian Conspiracy) The throne subsequently passed to her cousin, (PROSE: Girl Power!) the Stuart (PROSE: Verdigris) King of Scotland James VI, resulting in the union of the English and Scottish crowns. According to the Eighth Doctor, James VI of Scotland became James I of the United Kingdom. (PROSE: The Dying Days) Other accounts indicated that James was James I of England (WC: Case File Eight) and that the two domains continued to exist as separate nations in the following decades.
James was succeeded by his son Charles I. After his reign, there was a period when the country was a Protectorate led by a Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell then Richard Cromwell, but Charles II was ultimately invited to retake the throne. (PROSE: The Roundheads) He was followed by James II who was overthrown by his daughter Mary II and her husband William III, reigning jointly. (AUDIO: The Glorious Revolution) They were succeeded by Queen Anne, (AUDIO: Phantasmagoria) the last of the Stuarts, who died in 1714. (AUDIO: Doctor Who and the Pirates)
Eventually, the English were "alienated by the autocratic Scottish Stuart Kings" and threw them out of the "United Kingdom", replacing them with the Hanoverian German Georges. George I was succeeded by George II, (PROSE: The Highlanders) who was then succeeded by his grandson, George III. (PROSE: The Wheel of Ice) At the end of the 18th century, the nation he ruled was referred to as "the Kingdom of Britain". He was eventually succeeded by George IV. (PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street)
With Ireland[[edit] | [edit source]]
Victoria became Queen in 1837 and her reign spanned sixty-three years, lasting until the beginning of the 20th century. (PROSE: A History of Humankind) In 1879, Victoria desribed herself as the "Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland", indicating that the crown of Britain had united with the crown of Ireland, (TV: Tooth and Claw) the latter of which was held by the Kings of England since James I at the latest. (PROSE: The Roundheads) In an alternate timeline, Victoria was succeeded by her husband John Hart following the premature death of her son. His reign lasted until the end of the universe in 2017. (AUDIO: The Death of Captain Jack)
In the normal timeline, Victoria was succeeded by Edward VII. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive, Save Our Souls) He reigned until his death on a Saturday in May 1910 and was succeeded by George V. (PROSE: In Case of Emergencies)
With Northern Ireland[[edit] | [edit source]]
At some point, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (TV: Tooth and Claw) became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. (PROSE: The Flaming Soldier, The Daughters of Earth, AUDIO: Minuet in Hell) George V remained the King of the United Kingdom until 1936.
Early in the year, George was succeeded by Edward VIII. However, soon afterwards Edward announced his plans to marry the twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin informed him that neither his subjects nor the British government would accept the marriage and he eventually chose to abdicate after weeks of deliberation, (PROSE: Players) commencing the process on 10 December. (AUDIO: Neverland) He was succeeded by his younger brother, George VI. (PROSE: Players) In an alternate timeline in which Germany won World War II, Edward VIII was restored to the throne with Wallis as his Queen in 1940. He signed a treaty which established the United Kingdom as a protectorate of the Greater German Reich. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus)
Queen Elizabeth II acceded to the throne following the death of her father, King George VI, on 6 February 1952. (PROSE: A History of Humankind) She had a long reign which was briefly interrupted in 1997 when she was deposed by Xznaal the First of the Argyre clan during an Ice Warrior invasion. After the invasion was defeated, she received a recoronation ceremony on 23 November, clearing the constitutional way for a new election of Parliament. (PROSE: The Dying Days) Sources differed on dates by which she was no longer Queen although timeframes given included the 2000s, (AUDIO: The Longest Night) 2010, (PROSE: Mad Dogs and Englishmen) 2012, (PROSE: The Shadows of Avalon) 2020, (AUDIO: Black and White) and 2027. (AUDIO: A Death in the Family) However, others stated that she was still the reigning monarch in the early 2020s. (PROSE: The Edge of Glory)
Whatever the precise date, Elizabeth was ultimately succeeded by Charles III who reigned with his wife Queen Camilla. They were immediately succeeded by William V. (PROSE: Revenge of the Judoon) By 2050, the reigning monarch was still a King. (TV: Oroborus)
After the 21st century[[edit] | [edit source]]
Elizabeth IV's coronation space yacht passed through the Time Vortex resulting in her reign lasting only thirty-six minutes. The previous record for shortest reign had been held by Lady Jane Grey, Queen of England for nine days. (PROSE: Time Traveller's Diary)
The Doctor was an old drinking buddy of Henry XII.
In the 29th century, Earth was threatened by solar flares and Starship UK was constructed around a star whale to house the population as the ship travelled through space. Elizabeth X was the Queen at this point. However, despite the name of the ship incorporating the abbrievation "UK", Scotland left the union, choosing instead to build a ship of their own. The Eleventh Doctor referred to the new nation as "the United Kingdom of Britain and Northern Ireland". (TV: The Beast Below) Elizabeth was still Queen in 5145, having ruled for over two millennia. (TV: The Pandorica Opens)
