King of England

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The King or Queen of England was the title given to the ruler of the country of England.

History

The early Kingdom of England

According to one account, after helping Arthur to remove the sword from the stone, the Doctor became the King of England for a day before abdicating in Arthur's favour. The Doctor considered the whole affair a "lot of fuss about nothing" but concluded that there was "no real harm done". (PROSE: Silhouette)

According to another account, Alfred the Great, a King of Wessex, became the first King of England in the late 9th century. Alfred met the Sixth Doctor during his war with King Guthrum, who had already conquered Mercia and Northumbria. Assuring him he was not fighting in vain, the Doctor compared Wessex to the North Star and told Alfred "It may be on its own now, but as the night draws in it will be joined by others. Many many others. Thanks to you they will coalesce and reform into a greater whole. You will become king, not only of a region, but of a whole country. A country that shall eventually be called England". (PROSE: The Man Who Wouldn't Give Up)

After Edward of Wessex killed Æthelfrid of Mercia in 918 and took control of the territory, he was able to unite the north of England with the south, which John Bleak defined as "the whole country". (AUDIO: The Lady of Mercia) This paved the way for the coronation of Athelstan in 924, whom the Tenth Doctor described as the first King of Britain. (TV: Planet of the Dead) However, many other accounts stated that England still existed as its own state with one instead dating the formation of the Kingdom of Britain to the 18th century. (PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street)

In the early 11th century, England was ruled by King Ethelred. The Eighth Doctor once visited his court and cured him of a heavy fever, an act witnessed by his son, future king Edward the Confessor. (AUDIO: Seasons of Fear) Ethelred died in 1016 (PROSE: The Immortals) and, sooner or later, was succeeded by Cnut, who was also the King of Denmark. The rule of the Danes eventually ended (PROSE: The Real Hereward) when Edward the Confessor was put on the throne by the powerful Godwin family as a puppet king sometime prior to 1055. Deciding they wanted an heir, they married off their daughter Edith to Edward. However, they never had children and were able to maintain peace during their reigns by promising the throne to William of Normandy, Harald Hardrada and, according to the Doctor, "everyone who wanted it". (AUDIO: Seasons of Fear) After Edward died in January 1066, it was ultimately Harold Godwinson, his brother-in-law, who succeeded him. Hardrada and William both invaded England to stake their claims. (PROSE: A History of Humankind) Hardrada was defeated in the Battle of Stamford Bridge on 25 September but William was triumphant during the Battle of Hastings on 14 October in which Harold was supposedly killed. William was crowned King of England on 25 December (TV: Co-Owner of a Lonely Heart) and reigned until his death in 1087. (PROSE: Vampire Science)

Another succession crisis arose with the death of King Henry in the early 12th century. Although Empress Maude was Henry's heir, considered by Sister Patrick to be Henry's only true heir, the throne was also contested by Stephen. A war was fought (AUDIO: Abbey of Heretics) and the order of succession was clear by the reign of Henry II, (PROSE: A History of Humankind) who was a Plantagenet, later in the century. Both of Henry's children became Kings of England. (PROSE: The King's Demons) Richard I reigned from 1189 until his death in 1199 and was succeeeded by John. (PROSE: A History of Humankind) John's son and successor was Henry III who ruled for over fifty years (PROSE: The King's Demons) from his coronation in 1216 at the age of nine. (TV: Fugitive of the Judoon)

The Wars of the Roses and the Tudors

Further conflicts ensued in 1399 when Henry IV, also known as Henry of Bolingbroke and Henry Plantagenet, seized the throne from Richard II. Henry eventually emerged victorious in 1400 after it transpired that Richard had died, having been starved while imprisoned in Pomfret Castle on the orders of Thomas Arundel. Henry was succeeded by his son, also named Henry, (AUDIO: The Doctor's Tale) who was the King of England for the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. (PROSE: The Reign Makers) Edward IV of the York family, a key figure in the Wars of the Roses, died on the night of 9 April 1483. His successor was supposedly Edward V, a twelve-year-old boy. (AUDIO: The Battle of the Tower) Although he was a King of England for a few weeks, his uncle, the future Richard III, prevented him from being crowned on 24 June after declaring his illegitimacy by invalidating the marriage of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville. The new King then put Edward and his brother Richard, leading them to become known as the Princes in the Tower. According to one account, Edward IV only had daughters, Susan and Judith, and when Richard discovered this ruse intended to keep up a clear line of succession, he took the throne to prevent scandal and later allowed to work under their uncle "Clarrie" at the Kingmaker. (AUDIO: The Kingmaker) Other sources agreed with the events as history recorded them by stating that Edward and Richard were boys. (PROSE: Sometime Never...)

Richard III's reign ended in 1485 with the Battle of Bosworth. Henry Tudor was victorious and soon afterwards became Henry VII. According to one account, it was an injured William Shakespeare who was killed at Bosworth while Richard replaced Shakespeare in his native time of 1597. (AUDIO: The Kingmaker) Henry married Elizabeth of York to unite the warring houses of York and Tudor and had four children: the future Henry VIII, Arthur, Margaret and Mary. Henry VII's reign ended with his death in 1509 and he was succeeded by his son. Henry VIII was the King of England until his death in 1547 and had three children by three different wives, all of whom wore the crown. (TV: The Coach with the Dragon Tattoo) The Reformation began during his reign and he declared himself head of the English church. (PROSE: Eye of the Gorgon) Edward VI, a Protestant, was Henry's immediate successor (AUDIO: The Marian Conspiracy) and product of his marriage to Jane Seymour but he died at only fifteen in 1553. (TV: The Coach with the Dragon Tattoo) The Protestant Lady Jane Grey became the Queen aged sixteen after Edward's death on the wishes of her her father-in-law although she never wanted to rule. Her reign eventually lasted just nine days from 10 July to 19 July before she was deposed by Mary I, a Catholic (TV: Lost in Time) and the daughter of Henry VIII by Catherine of Aragon. (TV: The Coach with the Dragon Tattoo) Her reign lasted until November 1558, during which she had married Philip of Spain. (AUDIO: The Marian Conspiracy) She was succeeded by Elizabeth I, the daughter of Henry VIII by Anne Boleyn. (AUDIO: Recorded Time) In 1562, Elizabeth married the Tenth Doctor, who remarked that he would be "King" upon her acceptance of the proposal. (TV: The Day of the Doctor) Elizabeth died in 1603, (AUDIO: The Marian Conspiracy) childless, thus ending the Tudor dynasty. (TV: The Coach with the Dragon Tattoo)

The union of the crowns

By the time of Elizabeth I's last days, the throne was secure. James I was to inherit the crown, assuring the Protestant succession. (PROSE: Birthright) The Stuart monarch (PROSE: Verdigris) was related to Elizabeth through his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots, who was her cousin. (PROSE: Girl Power!) James had been the King of Scotland since childhood (TV: The Witchfinders) and so his accession to the throne of England marked the union of the crowns with, according to one account, James VI of Scotland becoming James I of the United Kingdom. (PROSE: The Dying Days) Other sources held that the two domains continued to exist as separate nations. (PROSE: The Roundheads) James' rule ended with his death in 1625. (WC: Case File Eight)

James was succeeded by his son Charles I. Though the previous heir had been Prince Henry, Henry predeceased his father and Charles was subsequently prepared for the throne by George Villiers. By Charles' reign, the Kings of England also held the title of King of Ireland. For eleven years, he ruled without regard for the Parliament which ultimately sparked the English Civil War and the rise of Oliver Cromwell. By December 1648, Charles was a prisoner on the Isle of Wight and then in Hurst Castle. He was executed on 30 January 1649. This put a temporary end to the British monarchy as the country became a Protectorate led by a Lord Protector for approximately a decade. (PROSE: The Roundheads)

Abolition and restoration of the Stuart monarchy

Oliver Cromwell was made the first Lord Protector soon after the execution of Charles I in 1649. He ruled the country until his death in 1658 and was succeeded in the position by his son Richard Cromwell. However, Richard proved that the hereditary principle should not have been used in the assignment of Lord Protectors and Charles II was invited to take the throne after only "a few scant months" with Richard earning himself the derisive nickname "Tumbledown Dick". (PROSE: The Roundheads)

Charles was the King of England, Scotland and Ireland until at least 1666, when he oversaw the devastation caused by the Great Fire of London, for which he blamed the Catholics. At some point, he was succeeded by the Catholic James II and VII of England and Scotland respectively, whose own reign ended in 1688 after the Glorious Revolution. James was overthrown by his Protestant daughter Mary II and her husband William of Orange. The pair reigned jointly as monarchs in their own right. (AUDIO: The Glorious Revolution)

By the time of William III's death on 8 March 1702, Mary had already predeceased him. William was succeeded by the heir, Princess Anne. (AUDIO: Phantasmagoria) As stated by Evelyn Smythe, Anne was the last of the Stuarts and reigned from 1702 until 1714. (AUDIO: Doctor Who and the Pirates)

Great Britain and the United Kingdom

According to most accounts, England ceased to exist as an independent state around the time of the Stuart dynasty's end. 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". (PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street)

Despite this, as late as 1997, the title of "King of England" was still occasionally used, with England in this context usually synonymous with the United Kingdom. During his coronation, Xznaal was told that he would be the rightful King of England when the crown was placed upon his head. (PROSE: The Dying Days) Additionally, a 20th century history textbook from the Coal Hill library alleged that Victoria became the "Queen of England" in 1837 (PROSE: A History of Humankind) despite Victoria introducing herself more correctly and fully as the "Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland" in 1879. (TV: Tooth and Claw)