James VI: Ah, but we only came to England when the crown belonged to me!
Mary, Queen of Scots: Our clan may hail from Scotland, but our tale's not a bonnie one, you'll see!
A Royal House of Scotland and later England and Ireland. Notable for the ascension to the throne of England of James VI of Scotland (thenceforth also James I of England) in 1603, following the death of his childless distant cousin Elizabeth I of The House of Tudor, thus creating the union of the crowns. Ruled until 1714, with a bit of a blip from 1649-1660 when first a Commonwealth (under the Rump Parliament) and then a Protectorate under Oliver Cromwell and briefly his son was in place instead, who for the sake of completeness are mentioned below.
The Stuarts traced their lineage to a 12th-century Norman-Breton knight named Walter Fitzalan, who came to England and supported Empress Matilda in the Anarchy. When Matilda lost to Stephen, Walter moved to Scotland, as he had befriended Matilda's uncle, King David I of Scots. David liked Walter so much that he appointed him High Steward of Scotland, and made the position hereditary for Walter's descendants, who subsequently became known as the "Stewarts" (reflecting Scots pronunciation of the position); they intermarried with the various Scottish royal families over the generations, and in 1371 Robert Stewart—son of Marjorie, daughter of Robert the Bruce, and her husband Walter Stewart—inherited the throne from his uncle David II. Thus the dynasty was called Stewart until Mary Queen of Scots changed the spelling (her French in-laws kept mispronouncing it).
Robert II of Scotland
Reigned: 22 February 1371 — 19 April 1390
Parents: Walter Stewart, High Steward of Scotland, and Marjorie Bruce
Consort: (1) Elizabeth Mure (1336-1355); (2) Euphemia de Ross (1355-1387)
The son of the High Steward of Scotland and maternal grandson of Robert the Bruce, hero of the First War of Scottish Independence, Robert Stewart's entire life was wracked with drama.
His mother Marjorie was initially passed over as Robert I's heir by Parliament in favor of his brother Edward, then died from either childbirth complications or in a hunting accident (reports vary) not long after delivering Robert. Edward Bruce's death in battle in 1318 sent the succession back to him. Then he became second in line when his grandfather had a son, David.
As a teen, Robert Stewart fought in a war of succession during the minority of David II when Edward Balliol, son of the deposed ex-King of Scotland John Balliol, tried to press his claim to the throne against David with the backing of Edward III, sparking the Second War of Scottish Independence. In 1334 he was appointed Guardian of Scotland—regent for David II, who was in hiding in France—along with John Randolph, Earl of Moray, then submitted to Edward Balliol and lost the job in 1335. Then he regained it when David II was taken prisoner at the Battle of Neville's Cross in 1346, then was finally relieved of the position permanently when the 1357 Treaty of Berwick ended the war and ransomed David for 100,000 merks, to be paid in installments.
That ransom itself led to further trouble: David used much of the money for other purposes and then tried to get out from under it by bequeathing the succession to Edward III's son Lionel, Duke of Clarence. The Scottish Council (parliament) threw this out in favor of keeping Robert Stewart as his heir, which led to a brief rebellion against David by Robert himself.
David died childless in 1371 and Robert took the throne, but his coronation was delayed by a protest by William, Earl of Douglas. He went to a significant effort to consolidate power under the House of Stewart, but generally worked through negotiation and Altar Diplomacy—for which his very large family was extremely useful. Robert was a serial philanderer who had several mistresses and affairs, and is believed to have fathered at least twenty-six children by his two wives and a minimum of three other women. Fourteen legitimate children survived to adulthood, as did twelve of his bastards. In 1347 he even had to petition Pope Clement VI to legitimize his marriage to his first wife Elizabeth Mure, because one of his lovers before marrying her was her cousin Isabella Boutellier.
A power struggle between two of his sons, John, Earl of Carrick, and Alexander, Earl of Buchan, led to a renewed but thankfully less violent internal conflict: arguments over administration and how to conduct continued hostilities to recover English-held lands in the south (Carrick's domain). Robert sided with Alexander, but the Scottish Council sided with John and stripped Robert of authority to govern in November 1384, leading to a renewed war with England. The Scots were generally successful on the battlefield, but the power struggle eventually reversed itself: a Succession Crisis in County Douglas, previously held by an ally of John, ended in success for the faction led by Robert, Earl of Fife, which then restored Robert II to power.
Robert died at Dundonald Castle in 1390.
Robert III of Scotland
Reigned: 19 April 1390 — 4 April 1406
Parents: King Robert II of Scotland and Elizabeth Mure
Consort: Anabella Drummond
Born John Stewart, he confusingly took Robert III as his regnal name despite having both a father and a younger brother named Robert (likely to dissassociate himself from John Balliol). His birth was of questionable legitimacy due to his father's philandering, but he and his nine full siblings were formally legitimized by papal dispensation in 1349.
After joining his father in his brief uprising against King David II, he was named the Earl of Carrick by David in 1368, then became heir to the throne upon David's death in 1371. His princehood was marred by power struggles in Scotland: he was appointed the king's lieutenant in 1384 after influencing the Scottish Council to remove his father from direct rule, but then lost it to his aforementioned younger brother Robert, Earl of Fife, in 1388 after his ally James Douglas was killed at the Battle of Otterburn. As a consequence of the machinations between palace and parliament, John/Robert ascended the throne in 1390 without the authority to rule directly: that was held by Fife.
Robert III finally did regain the right to direct rule in 1393 with the assistance of his son David, to whom he had delegated his title to Carrick. He was able to make peace with King Richard II of England, but was increasingly criticized for his inability to pacify the west and north of Scotland, the latter of which was under the influence of his brother Alexander, Earl of Buchan. This led the council to order Fife and David, now respectively the Dukes of Albany and Rothesay, to lead an army against the King's northern brothers as well as Donald, Lord of the Isles in 1398. Over the next winter, out of displeasure with Robert II's misrule, the council stripped him of power again and placed David in charge. Unfortunately the power went to his head: David's abuse of power led to his arrest in 1402; he died in prison that March, possibly murdered by Albany and the Earl of Douglas.
Robert managed to reestablish himself in politics by late 1404, but by the next year his health was failing. Due to his enemies at home, the household agreed to send his heir James to France to put him out of the reach of Robert of Fife/Albany. This went badly awry, and James Stewart was taken prisoner by English pirates off of Flamborough Head, who delivered him to the hostile King Henry IV of England.
Robert III died at Rothesay Castle shortly after, without ever seeing his last surviving son again.
James IV of Scotland
Reigned: 11 June 1488 –- 9 September 1513
Parents: King James III of Scotland and Margaret of Denmark
Consort: Margaret Tudor of England
His father was killed in a rebellion when he was fifteen, and he did penance each Lent for the rest of life as he felt indirectly responsible.
His wife was Margaret Tudor, sister of Henry VIII of England, which gave his descendants a claim to the English throne.
An effective ruler and rather intellectual (he performed some surgery), he initially supported Perkin Warbeck, a male model who was a pretender to the English throne, before realising peace with his southern neighbour was better.
When the Italian Wars broke out (specifically the War of the League of Cambrai in 1508), Scotland had conflicting treaty obligations to both France and England. James eventually chose to support France and, taking advantage of Henry VIII's absence, invaded England.
Sadly - for James - and fortunately for England, Henry VIII had left behind one last line of defence: his wife, Catherine of Aragon, and the Duke of Norfolk. Thanks to James's biggest weaknesses — some rather old-school tactics, such as informing your enemy of your invasion several months in advance (meaning Catherine and Norfolk knew exactly when and where James would be turning up!), and fighting on the front line along with his men plus the ever deadly English Longbows — Catherine and Norfolk were able to plan well, gathering forces to their side. Norfolk may have been old (he was seventy at the time) but he had survived the Wars of the Roses in one piece, which not many could claim, and was experienced; this, along with the fact that Catherine knew battle (having seen her own parents plan and fight battles with her own eyes) helped the English to Victory.
The Battle of Flodden Field can, for the Scots, only be referred to as a an utter disaster: James and much of the Scottish nobility were killed in the bloodbath that followed. His bloodstained surcoat was sent by Katherine of Aragon to her husband, at war in France at the time, as a trophy - Catherine originally wanted to send James's head to Henry, but realised that would be too vulgar for the English, so sent his coat instead - while James's body passed around various nobles and his head was used as a plaything. Flodden Field was also the last real battle in Britain involving spears and arrows and poor James was the last British monarch to die in a war.
James V of Scotland
Reigned: 9 September 1513 –- 14 December 1542
Parents: King James IV of Scotland and Margaret Tudor of England
Consorts: (1) Madeleine of Valois (1537); (2) Mary of Guise (1538-–1542)
Ascended to the throne when he was seventeen months old, after his father died at Flodden Field. Had many bastard children, including Lord John of Coldingham and James Stuart, Earl of Moray. His only surviving legitimate child was a daughter; at her birth, he is said to remarked, "[The Crown] came with a lass, and it will pass with a lass", referring to the marriage of Marjorie Bruce into the Stuart family. Mary averted this fate by marrying Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, her half-cousin through his mother (Lady Margaret Douglas) and a more distant cousin through his father (Matthew Stuart, Earl of Lennox).
Royal genetics are fun. At least it's not as bad as the Hapsburgs. If you're wondering... don't. It's not pretty.
He spent some time being a virtual prisoner of his stepfather and was very displeased about it. After escaping, he took revenge on the family... which included exile and burning someone alive. The only person excluded from this was his half-sister, Margaret, living in England.
James died of the side effects of what is believed to have been a nervous collapse after receiving word of his army's crushing defeat to the English at the Battle of Solway Moss in 1542. He would be the last monarch to die in Scotland until Elizabeth II 480 years later.
Mary I of Scotland / Mary, Queen of Scots
Reigned: 14 December 1542 –- 24 July 1567
Parents: King James V of Scotland and Mary of Guise
Consorts: (1) King Francis II of France (1558—1560); (2) Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley/1st Duke of Albany (1565-–1567); (3) James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell (1567-–1578)
Became Queen at only six days old, when her father died of what was probably cholera, although the loss of the Battle of Solway Moss didn't help.
Having an infant as the leader of your country opens a lot of doors for less-than-honorable noblemen, so Mary's mother kept her little court safe in one of the harder to penetrate castles. About this time, Henry VIII asked to have his great-niece betrothed to his son, Edward, and thus unite their crowns a generation early, but Mary's mother, being French, said no. Henry VIII was rather insulted by this, and, when his "Rough Wooings" (read: attacks) didn't work, he snubbed Mary in his will, passing over her lawful claim to the throne.
Mary instead married into the French royal family, the House of Valois, and spent a brief time as Queen-Consort of France. After her husband died, she returned to her own kingdom of Scotland. She remarried, this time to her cousin, Lord Darnley, a nobleman from Yorkshire who had a reasonably strong claim to the English thronenote and a more distant one to the Scottish (he was a member of the House of Stuart in the male line, descending from the second cousin of the first Stuart king Robert II). Lord Darnley later died under suspicious circumstances, and Mary married his suspected killer (whether she consented to the marriage or he'd kidnapped and raped her is still open to debate).
While clever, Mary proved to be too impulsive and naive to deal with the factional politics in Scotland, was forced to abdicate in favor of her baby son (seeing a pattern here?) and eventually, as a perennial focus for Catholic conspiracies, was duly if reluctantly executed by her cousin, Elizabeth I. Some historians believe Mary may have mildly suffered from a rare condition called porphyria which can cause madness, as well as rather painful stomach aches. Mary’s descendant King George III is believed to have developed a very bad case of it in his later years.
James VI of Scotland / James I of England
Reigned: 24 July 1567 – 27 March 1625 (Scotland); 24 March 1603 –- 27 March 1625 (England)
Parents: Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley and Mary, Queen of Scots
Consort: Anne of Denmark
Nickname: The Wisest Fool in Christendom; Scottish Jimmy
Became King in Scotland at only 1 year old (his mother having been deposed) and had various regents. Evil or no, they were all definitely Protestants, and made sure he was raised in the Protestant Church of Scotland. Still, three child monarchs for Scotland in a row...
After becoming King of England he hardly ever returned to Scotland, enjoying a far more extravagant lifestyle at the wealthier English court. Angry Catholics, fearful of greater repression from the new king, tried to blow him up in 1605 in the Gunpowder Plot, which did not go well for them to say the least. James was liberal with money, running up massive debts, is believed to have been bisexual, almost certainly involved in numerous same-sex relationships, which didn't help his popularity. (It also didn't help that he had virtually no interest with women other than his wife Anne of Denmark, with whom he apparently was infatuated for a while, but of whom he soon tired and a Scottish woman called Anne Murray) Traditional interpretations were harsh, seeing him as irresponsible and doing little more than storing up trouble for his successor, but more recent analysis highlights his commitment to European peace, studious nature and successful reign in Scotland. Culture flourished round about this time, especially with some chap named William Shakespeare being around. And he commissioned a particular translation of The Bible which today bears his name. Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement what is now the United States, was founded during his reign and named in his honor.
Had a fear that witches were trying to get him. Also wrote one of the first anti-smoking pamphlets
. No, really. In fact, that little pamphlet did more to damn him in the eyes of tobacco-addicted Whig historians than either his sexual orientation or his belief in the Divine Right of Kings.
Charles I of England & Scotland
Reigned: 27 March 1625 –- 30 January 1649
Parents: King James VI & I and Anne of Denmark
Consort: Henrietta Maria of France
Nickname: The Martyr
Had what might charitably be described as a difficult reign. Had what might uncharitably be described as a shit reign.
Physically unimpressive (he was a very short man, and ended up even shorter) and cursed with a speech impediment, Charles had it tough to begin with. Having to deal with several kingdoms while plagued with money troubles and religious strife which began decades prior to his reign would not have been easy for anyone, but unfortunately Charles' character made things a lot worse. He believed (as did his father) in the Divine Right of Kings to rule and quickly grew angry at attempts from Parliament to exact more power in exchange for finances. He levied fines without Parliament, in a highly unpopular move, for 11 years from 1629-1640, until his religious problems caused him to recall it.
All three kingdoms under his rule had different Christian denominations as the majority: England was by this time identifiably Anglican (with many internal disputes among Church members about what that should mean), while Scotland was solidly Presbyterian and Ireland was Catholic. Charles' attempt to impose uniformity on the Scottish church (trying to bring them in line with what was effectively High Church Anglicanism) caused them to rebel in what are called the Bishops' Wars. Needing additional funds he called Parliament, who after 11 years were inclined to be a bit sour. His having a Catholic wife (whom he faithfully loved) at a time when there were rumors of massacres of Protestants in Ireland (in truth around 2-3000 were likely killed in the Irish revolt but this was widely inflated) didn't help matters. They demanded their authority be confirmed and increased, sentenced the King's chief minister to death and generally both sides riled each other up, until...
Fed up with their presumption of power, Charles marched into a sitting session of the House of Commons with his guards and assumed the Speaker's chair. This was an extraordinary act — English monarchs had the legal power to do all this but they were expected, partly by custom and partly by their supposed understanding of the need to respect Parliament, to never do so - not even Henry VIII in his attempts to obtain a divorce tried that and he created a whole new church. Charles attempted to arrest the ringleaders of the opposition cause, but they had escaped and he looked foolish, running away from London (which given Britain Is Only London was a mistake) raising his standard at Nottingham in 1642 — so beginning the English Civil Wars. Parliament, and the country, was split in half between his supporters and opponents.
- Since then, the monarch has been banned from entering the House of Commons. For the State Opening of Parliament, a messenger known as the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod (or Lady Usher if they are female) is sent. The door is ceremonially slammed in their face when they approach, so they bangs on it with their titular big stick. Then they are let in and invites the MPs to the King's Speech. From at least the 1980s until he lost his seat of Bolsover in 2019, republican Labour MP Dennis Skinner made a habit of making a snarky remark in response, to which everyone else laughed heartily, or booed disapprovingly depending on their particular politics; unfortunately no one has picked up the role since he left Parliament. Then they all get up and stroll—not process, but stroll—across the way to the House of Lords, which, as a sign of their independence, they enter talking loudly and making jokes; in another bit of "Commons against the Crown" camaraderie, the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition usually walk together, as do the Cabinet members and corresponding Shadow Cabinet members.
- Furthermore, the parliament prominently displays a copy of the execution warrant of Charles I in the vesting room where the Monarch puts on the Royal Regalia before the speech, just to drive home the point on who is really in charge here. In return, the Commons is required to send an MP to Buckingham Palace to serve as hostage to ensure the safe return of the Monarch. Apparently, the Palace is still duty-bound to shoot that hapless MP if something bad should happen to His Majesty.
To cut a very long story short, Charles lost the First Civil War and was imprisoned (in comfort) by 1646. As the victors tried to figure out what the hell to do next Charles refused to compromise (his Fatal Flaw) continuing to play sides against each other, drawing the Scots (who had fought against him) to renew the fight against Parliament in 1648. He lost again, and this time he had convinced his enemies that he could not be trusted and must be killed or he would simply keep raising armies to fight more wars (his enemies referred to him as "that man of blood", a Biblical reference to the Books of Samuel and Numbers to refer to evil kings; the language would be revived about 150 years later to refer to another monarch of another Great Power). As the Parliamentary forces divided themselves over the issue, Charles was tried for Tyranny and High Treason and executed on 30th January 1649. Charles notably managed to show more dignity and presence during his trial (where he lost his habitual stutter and refused to recognize the legitimacy of the court) than at any other point, asking for another coat when he prepared for his execution, so that the crowd would not mistake his shivering for fear. Was made a saint by the later Church of England. Charles made a difficult situation worse with his Fatal Flaw of refusing to accept the inevitable in the face of defeat, or compromise to head off trouble down the road. Like his father, he was an instinctive autocrat who had no intention of surrendering any of his power. Unlike his father, he had no understanding of how power actually worked, seemingly sincerely believing that the English people were required to succumb to his will.
Charles II of England & Scotland
Reigned: 29 May 1660 –- 6 February 1685 (de facto); 30 January 1649 — 6 February 1685 (officially)
Parents: King Charles I and Henrietta Maria of France
Consort: Catherine of Braganza
Nickname: The Merry Monarch
- We have a pretty witty king,
And whose word no man relies on,
He never said a foolish thing,
And never did a wise one
—->— Charles Wilmot, Earl of RochesterThat's true, for my words are my own, but my actions are those of my ministers.— Charles II
Declared in Scotland upon his father's death but not acknowledged elsewhere, Charles fought for his father's English throne but was defeated comprehensively at Worcester in 1651, famously having to hide in a tree to escape – from which incident many pubs in Britain are still named the 'Royal Oak' to this day. With Ireland also under the control of Parliament, he lived on the Continent for many years. After the collapse of the English government following the death of Oliver Cromwell, Charles was invited to take the throne in 1660, in what is known as the Restoration of the Monarchy.
After his return he pardoned most of the rebels but executed the regicides of his father, even digging up those who had died and hanging their corpses.note Oliver Cromwell was one of these; his severed head was originally placed on a spike as a warning to other 'traitors', and was eventually blown down. In a piece of (probably) accidental symbolism, this happened around 1688 when the Glorious Revolution forced King Charles II's successor, James II, from power. It changed hands a few times afterwards but has since been re-buried in the grounds of Cromwell's old college (Sidney Sussex) at Cambridge University.
Charles II was known as the Merry Monarch (a Boisterous Bruiser perhaps) for his colourful reign, a stark contrast to the Puritan regime that preceded him. He kept tensions in the Kingdoms under control to some extent, although the problems that had dethroned his father remained and he had some conflict with Parliament. Despite having at least thirteen children from five mistresses, he left no legitimate issue. He may have converted to Catholicism on his deathbed, although conflicting reports had him in a coma at the time; certainly he flirted with the idea beforehand and promised to promote it secretly (though how serious he was we cannot know) in exchange for French money. His last words concerned taking care of Nell Gwyn, his favourite mistress.
Charles's popularity was in part attributed to him staying in London when the Great Fire of London hit in 1666 and helping out with the firefighting (similar to how the Royal Family gained respect when they stuck around for the Blitz in 1940). It didn't hurt that he played the Merry Monarch to such an extent that the entire country played along with him.
The playhouses, closed by the Puritans, reopened in Charles's time to a new audience hungry for frivolous entertainment. For the first time in English history women took the stage to acclaim, and the new genre of Restoration Comedy vied with older plays by Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Davenant. John Milton, a Puritan and republican, wrote his master work Paradise Lost during Charles's reign, and Samuel Pepys's diaries were written during this time period.
He was succeeded as king by his openly Catholic brother James.
James II of England / James VII of Scotland
Reigned: 6 February 1685 –- 11 December 1688
Parents: King Charles I and Henrietta Maria of France
Consorts: (1) Anne Hyde (1660—1671); (2) Mary of Modena (1673—1701)
James's Catholicism was a serious problem for Britons raised on stories of Bloody Mary Tudor and the Protestant Martyrs. His reign was short and troublesome both in Great Britain and in Ireland. Both sides in The Troubles tended to harp on about his campaign in Ireland; the Republicans saw James as a tragic hero, the rightful King victimised for his faith, while Unionists celebrated the victory of "good King Billy" over the Catholics and adopted orange (from the Dutch House of Orange) as their colour. But James's ingratitude and contempt towards his Irish followers (and his abandonment of the country after the Battle of the Boyne, earning him the unenviable nickname Séamus an Chaca - 'James the Shit') has muddled his legacy. While nationalist history tends to emphasise the justness of his cause, the focus is often less on James the man and more on the heroic Irish general Patrick Sarsfield, who kept up the fight for more than a year after James had fled.
The city of New York was specifically named after him (when he was the Duke of York), rather than after the English city of York directly. He also tried to bring a form of united colonial governance to some of the American colonies, the "Dominion of New England", but this was never popular.
By 1688, the Protestant leadership of England and Scotland had had enough of him. The tipping point was probably the birth of a healthy son to his second wife, Mary of Modena, after years of trying and many stillbirths. With the prospect of an enduring Catholic dynasty in view, the leaders formally asked the Dutch stadtholder William of Orange to bring a Dutch army over to England and take over. James, recognizing the weakness of his position, left England soon after.
After leaving England, James II was supported by the kings of France and other Catholic monarchs on the continent while retaining considerable support in both England, especially from the Catholics, and Scotland (the Highlands, in particular). This movement, called the Jacobites, posed considerable threat to the Protestant kings of England for a few decades. His son, James (aka James III) and grandson, Charles (aka Bonnie Prince Charlie) kept instigating revolts to overthrow the Hanoverian monarchy who took over England after the reign of William III below. Needless to say, they did not succeed. Eventually, by 1788, the leadership of the Jacobite movement passed to Henry Stuart, also called the Cardinal-Duke because, in addition to the title of Duke of York that he claimed, he was also a cardinal of the Catholic Church (he became a clergyman possibly because he was gay, as was widely suspected by the contemporaries.) By this time, Jacobite movement in both England and Scotland had largely run out of steam and European monarchs had more important things to worry about—The French Revolution would take place just a year after the Cardinal-Duke took over the leadership of the Jacobites. Ironically, the monument to the Jacobites in Rome was paid for by the Hanoverian King George IV, who was a fan of heroic literature that grew around the exploits of Bonnie Prince Charlie.
Mary II of England & William III /Mary II of Scots and William II
Reigned: 13 February 1689 –- 8 March 1702 (William); 13 February 1689 –- 28 December 1694 (Mary)
Parents: King William II, Prince of Orange and Mary, Princess Royal (William); King James II & VII and Anne Hyde (Mary)
After James II fled England for safety at the court of King Louis XIV of France, Parliament declared William and his wife Mary as co-monarchs. The reason for this unique co-monarchy lies in their tangled relationship as husband and wife, first cousins, and descendants of Charles I: Mary was James II's elder daughter, while William was his nephew by his sister, the Princess Royal. Before the birth of their Catholic half-brother, Mary was James II's heiress presumptive and should have been the sole monarch with Anne and then William as heirs after that, but as James had fled in part because William had brought over his army it was thought best that he co-reign with his wife and cousin. It also helped immensely that William was Dutch, because (1) the English had been fighting the Dutch off and on for dominance of the ocean trade routes for several decades and both sides could use a rest; (2) William brought with him experience with the latest Dutch financial innovations, like cheques, central banking, publicly-traded limited-liability joint-stock companies, and easy credit, which the English moneyed classes were all about adopting; and (3) because the Netherlands was formally a vaguely confederal republic in which each of the constituent members almost always "happened" to elect the head of the House of Orange their chief magistrate (and which Holland "happened" to dominate), William had experience dealing with the kind of constitutional government that Parliament wanted.
The ouster of James eventually became known as the "Glorious Revolution" It also led to the English Bill of Rights, which in turn formed the basis for the (unwritten) British Constitution and ultimately inspired both the American Constitution and those of the future members of the Commonwealth of Nations, which, to quote our article on Australian Politics, "got a free British Political System" with independence.
As can be imagined, this "Glorious Revolution" didn't seem all that glorious to the supporters of James II. These Jacobites (from "Jacobus", the Latin for "James") refused to recognise William and Mary's precedence over what they considered the legitimate Stuart line. They were perhaps loudest after the accession of George I, but there are still Jacobites around today: the current Jacobite King, known as the "King over the Water" to true believers, is Franz, Duke of Bavaria, who maintains a neutral stance on the issue. (To be honest he probably doesn't care.)
William and Mary were childless. Nobody's sure quite why they had no live-born children; one hypothesis is that the miscarriage Mary suffered shortly after their marriage led to an infection, while another supposes that their close relationship as first cousins was to blame. At any rate, Mary died in 1694 of smallpox, and William never remarried. The fact that he never remarried and only had one mistress led to rather dubious accusations of homosexuality, though very few historians take that idea seriously. William's own account in his private journal of being extremely distraught at Mary's death lends credence to the view that, while their marriage was political, William and Mary were simply a good match personally.
William died in 1702 due to complications following a fall from his horse which had stumbled on a molehill; he broke his collarbone and subsequently caught pneumonia. The Jacobites were delighted, and for many years afterwards drank to the health of the mole that had dug the hill, 'the little gentleman in the black velvet waistcoat'.
Anne of Great Britain
Reigned: 8 March 1702 –- 1 August 1714
Parents: King James II & VII and Anne Hyde
Consort: Prince George of Denmark and Norway
The Bill of Rights passed in 1689 had stipulated that Mary's sister Anne would succeed William and Mary to the throne should Mary die childless. After she did in 1694, Anne became the first (and, to date, the only) female heir apparent in British history.note All other undisputed English and British queens regnant had been heir presumptive. An heir apparent will be the next monarch assuming they don't predecease the reigning monarch, the government doesn't change succession laws, or the monarchy isn't abolished, while an heir presumptive is next in line but can be supplanted by the birth of an heir with a better claim, such as a baby brother. note
It was during her predecessor's reign that the Act of Settlement 1701 passed the English Parliament, ensuring that only Protestants could inherit the throne, thus officially de-legitimising Anne's younger half-brother (from her father's second marriage) James. This act survives to this day and provoked controversy both in England and Scotland.note More worrying, a failed Scottish scheme to set up a colony in Panama raised the possibility that the Scots nobility might ally with France and bring back King James if they weren't compensated for their losses. This convinced England and Scotland to finally unite as a single country with a single crown and Parliament pursuant to the Acts of Union, enacted in 1707. Anne is often said to be the last queen of England, the last queen of Scotland, and the first queen of Great Britain.note
Many British patriotic songs and sea shanties date from her reign, mainly due to the War of the Spanish Succession, including Over the Hills and Far Away and Spanish Ladies.
She's mainly remembered for having been pregnant at least 17 times (one pregnancy was with twins), meaning Anne had at least 18 children. Tragically, most of Anne’s pregnancies resulted in either miscarriage or stillbirth. Only 5 children were born alive, and only 3 lived for more than a day. A son, William, Duke of Gloucester and two daughters (named Mary and Anne Sophia) survived. The surviving daughters died before the age of 2 and William passed away aged 11, shortly after his birthday. As with Anne’s sister Mary nobody's sure exactly why this happened, but the consensus as of 2013 is either an infection (listeria and herpes being leading candidates, the latter quite likely transmitted to her via her husband), lupus, a gynecological disorder, or most likely Hughes Syndrome (a condition which makes someone’s blood sticky and thick, and sticky blood is almost impossible for pregnancy). No matter the reason, she died with no surviving children at the age of 49, and was succeeded by her second cousin George I of The House of Hanover. She only barely survived his mother Sophia, the Electress of Hanover, the originally-designated heiress in the Act of Settlement 1701 (from whom all heirs to the British throne today descend) by several weeks — the much older Sophia, unlike Anne, had enjoyed rude good health (and fecundity, obviously) for her entire life and died at the age of 83 after getting caught in a downpour. Sophia remains the oldest heir to the British throne in history.
While Queen Anne's poor health was a source of frustration for many, particularly Anne herself, it did have an impact on the development of medical science. Anne assembled a team of various medical professionals to tend to her household, and this collaboration between disparate specialists contributed to their field's drift away from an understanding of human physiology and psychology based on the Four Temperaments. Anne also wrote extensively in her journal about her efforts to conceive and birth a Protestant heir who could secure the Stuart line, including detailed information about her menstrual cycle, one of the earliest examples of an individual woman tracking her period. On a side note, her preferred euphemism for her period was "Lady Charlotte" (e.g. "Lady Charlotte visited today").
The other memorable thing about Queen Anne is that she was the last British monarch to veto a law. note At one point she was primarily famous for being dead; "Dead as Queen Anne" is a common expression in novels from the Victorian era and The Edwardian Era, and 1066 and All That introduces her under the heading "A Dead Queen." Nowadays, she isn't even famous for that.
A less-known item from her reign is the Statute of Anne, the first modern-type copyright protection. Before the Statute, copyright consisted of a monopoly of a printer to print a specific work (e.g. the Bible, or the works of Plato, or some such); after the Statute, copyright is what we think of it today: a right of the author of a work to control its reproduction.
A few things are named for her, including styles of furniture and architecture. Annapolis, the capital of Maryland and location of the United States Naval Academy, may have been named for her while she was still a princess (or it may have been named for Lord Baltimore's wife Anne Arundel like the county in which it sits); so was the plant Queen Anne's lace (unless it was named for her grandmother Anne of Denmark) and Blackbeard's pirate ship, the Queen Anne's Revenge (nobody's really sure why. Maybe he liked her as a monarch, despite the fact that the Statute of Anne would make a future form of piracy more difficult?)
Depictions in fiction
- Cromwell stars Richard Harris as Oliver Cromwell and Alec Guinness as Charles I. Timothy Dalton shows up as Prince Rupert.
- Part 2 of the mini-series Gunpowder, Treason and Plot charts James I's (played by Robert Carlyle) ascension to the English throne and climaxes with the Gunpowder plot.
- To Kill A King about the trial of Charles I, played by Rupert Everett. Tim Roth played Oliver Cromwell.
- As per the quote tag on his entry, Charles II has become one of the most popular characters on The BBC's historical sketch comedy series Horrible Histories.
- Charles II is mentioned in The Hellequin Chronicles by the protagonist, who, back when working for Avalon, traditionally gave the English monarchs (and at least one American President) a little talk about where exactly they (and all other human rulers) sat in the food-chain and not to get ideas. Specifically, he notes that he's pretty sure that Charles was an interesting person, who was either drunk or high throughout the meeting.
- We get a glimpse of James I in the Elizabeth mini-series starring Helen Mirren.
- Charles I was played by Stephen Fry in the special Blackadder: The Cavalier Years in a thinly-veiled impression of the king's namesake, Prince Charles.
- In the first book of the Captain Alatriste series, Alatriste is offered money to assassinate a couple of Englishmen travelling through Madrid. One of them turns out to be a young Charles I, secretly in Spain to consider taking the Infanta Maria Anna for his bride.
- King James I is referenced a few times in Disney's Pocahontas. Most notably, he appears in Governor Ratcliffe's Imagine Spot during the song "Mine, Mine, Mine". In the Direct to Video sequel Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World, King James appears in person as a supporting character, voiced by Jim Cummings (1952) and portrayed as an easily manipulated buffoon.
- Banquo's prominence and flattering portrayal in Macbeth is due to King James I tracing his ancestry back to him, and Shakespeare wishing to please his patron.
- Hark! A Vagrant plays this for laughs in her Macbeth comics by having Shakespeare write that Banquo's sons would be kings...and they would become handsomer and handsomer up to James I.
James: Did that really happen!!
Shakespeare: Yes.
- Hark! A Vagrant plays this for laughs in her Macbeth comics
- The Favourite is a very loose, darkly comic adaptation of Queen Anne's reign. The film focuses on the relationships that Anne, played by Olivia Colman, had with two of her ladies-in-waiting, Sarah Churchill, the Duchess of Marlborough, played by Rachel Weisz, and Abigail Masham, who is portrayed by Emma Stone, as well as Anne’s obsession with bunnies.
- Though taking place in the Victorian era, the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual" is about one family's long-standing duty to guard the hidden crown of Charles I. The duty is so long-standing that the family members have forgotten what the ritual actually is, and it's not until Holmes gets involved that the crown finally sees the light of day again.
- King Ralph: After a freak accident wipes out the House of Windom and the American Ralph Jones is discovered to apparently be the only living heir to take the throne, Lord Percival Graves advocates that Parliament declare the Windoms to be at an end and to declare the House of Stuart the royal line again, which would leave Graves as King. When the Prime Minister tells Graves that Ralph has a legitimate claim and that until he made a mistake the UK would have to live with Ralph, Graves begins plotting on how to trip Ralph up in a way that he would have to Abdicate the Throne.
- In Paradox Interactive's historical Grand Strategy game series:
- The very earliest members of the Stewart dynasty in Scotland can be played in Crusader Kings II from a custom start date between the Late Middle Ages bookmark at 1350 AD and the game's end date of 1453.
- Europa Universalis: The House of Stewart is the ruling dynasty of Scotland throughout the game, and the game allows the player to reenact the union with England to create Great Britain.
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