BRITISH MONARCHY AND ITS INFLUENCE UPON GOVERNMENTAL INSTITUTIONS
p> Even Royal Families which are not reigning are dedicated to the service
of their people, and continue to be regarded as the symbol of the nation's
continuity. Prominent examples are H.R.H. the Duke of Braganza in Portugal
and H.R.H. the County of Paris in France. Royal Families forced to live in
exile, such as the Yugoslav and Romanian, are often promoters of charities
formed to help their countries. KINGS AND QUEENS OF ENGLAND The history of the English Crown up to the Union of the Crowns in 1603 is
long and varied. The concept of a single ruler unifying different tribes
based in England developed in the eighth and ninth centuries in figures
such as Offa and Alfred the Great, who began to create centralised systems
of government. Following the Norman Conquest, the machinery of government
developed further, producing long-lived national institutions including
Parliament. The Middle Ages saw several fierce contests for the Crown, culminating in
the Wars of the Roses, which lasted for nearly a century. The conflict was
finally ended with the advent of the Tudors, the dynasty which produced
some of England's most successful rulers and a flourishing cultural
Renaissance. The end of the Tudor line with the death of the 'Virgin Queen'
in 1603 brought about the Union of the Crowns with Scotland. THE ANGLO-SAXON KINGS In the Dark Ages during the fifth and sixth centuries, communities of
peoples in Britain inhabited homelands with ill-defined borders. Such
communities were organised and led by chieftains or kings. Following the
final withdrawal of the Roman legions from the provinces of Britannia in
around 408 AD these small kingdoms were left to preserve their own order
and to deal with invaders and waves of migrant peoples such as the Picts
from beyond Hadrian's Wall, the Scots from Ireland and Germanic tribes from
the continent. (King Arthur, a larger-than-life figure, has often been
cited as a leader of one or more of these kingdoms during this period,
although his name now tends to be used as a symbol of British resistance
against invasion.) The invading communities overwhelmed or adapted existing kingdoms and
created new ones - for example, the Angles in Mercia and Northumbria. Some
British kingdoms initially survived the onslaught, such as Strathclyde,
which was wedged in the north between Pictland and the new Anglo-Saxon
kingdom of Northumbria. By 650 AD, the British Isles were a patchwork of many kingdoms founded
from native or immigrant communities and led by powerful chieftains or
kings. In their personal feuds and struggles between communities for
control and supremacy, a small number of kingdoms became dominant: Bernicia
and Deira (which merged to form Northumbria in 651 AD), Lindsey, East
Anglia, Mercia, Wessex and Kent. Until the late seventh century, a series
of warrior-kings in turn established their own personal authority over
other kings, usually won by force or through alliances and often cemented
by dynastic marriages. According to the later chronicler Bede, the most famous of these kings
was Ethelberht, king of Kent (reigned c.560-616), who married Bertha, the
Christian daughter of the king of Paris, and who became the first English
king to be converted to Christianity (St Augustine's mission from the Pope
to Britain in 597 during Ethelberht's reign prompted thousands of such
conversions). Ethelberht's law code was the first to be written in any
Germanic language and included 90 laws. His influence extended both north
and south of the river Humber: his nephew became king of the East Saxons
and his daughter married king Edwin of Northumbria (died 633). In the eighth century, smaller kingdoms in the British Isles continued to
fall to more powerful kingdoms, which claimed rights over whole areas and
established temporary primacies: Dalriada in Scotland, Munster and Ulster
in Ireland. In England, Mercia and later Wessex came to dominate, giving
rise to the start of the monarchy. Throughout the Anglo-Saxon period the succession was frequently
contested, by both the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy and leaders of the settling
Scandinavian communities. The Scandinavian influence was to prove strong in
the early years. It was the threat of invading Vikings which galvanised
English leaders into unifying their forces, and, centuries later, the
Normans who successfully invaded in 1066 were themselves the descendants of
Scandinavian 'Northmen'. HOUSE OF WESSEX AND ENGLAND 802 – 1066 EGBERT = Redburga (802–839) ETHELWULF = Osburga dau. of Oslac of Isle of
Wight (839–855) ETHELBERHT ALFRED
the Great = Ealhswith ETHELBALD (860–866) ETHELRED (871–899) (855–860) (866–871) Ecgwyn =
EDWARD THE ELDER= Edgiva (899–924) ATHELSTAN (924–939) Elgiva = EDMUND I EDRED
(939–946) (946–955) EDWY Ethelfleda = EDGAR = Elfrida,
dau. of Ordgar, Ealdorman of East Anglia (955–959) dau. of (959–975) Ealdorman Ordmaer EDWARD THE MARTYR (975–979) Elfgifu = ETHELRED II THE
UNREADY = Emma (979–1016)
(later (deposed 1013/14)
married CANUTE) EDMUND II IRONSIDE (Apr.–Nov.1016) Godwin = Gytha EDWARD THE = Eadgyth HAROLD II CONFESSOR (Edith) (Jan.–Oct.1066) (1042–1066) EGBERT (802-39 AD) [pic] Known as the first King of All England, he was forced into exile at the
court of Charlemagne, by the powerful Offa, King of Mercia. Egbert returned
to England in 802 and was recognized as king of Wessex. He defeated the
rival Mercians at the battle of Ellendun in 825. In 829, the Northumbrians
accepted his overlordship and he was proclaimed "Bretwalda" or sole ruler
of Britain. ЖTHELWULF (839-55 AD) [pic]Жthelwulf was the son of Egbert and a sub-king of Kent. He assumed
the throne of Wessex upon his father's death in 839. His reign is
characterized by the usual Viking invasions and repulsions common to all
English rulers of the time, but the making of war was not his chief claim
to fame. Жthelwulf is remembered, however dimly, as a highly religious man
who cared about the establishment and preservation of the church. He was
also a wealthy man and controlled vast resources. Out of these resources,
he gave generously, to Rome and to religious houses that were in need. He was an only child, but had fathered five sons, by his first wife,
Osburga. He recognized that there could be difficulties with contention
over the succession. He devised a scheme which would guarantee (insofar as
it was possible to do so) that each child would have his turn on the throne
without having to worry about rival claims from his siblings. Жthelwulf
provided that the oldest living child would succeed to the throne and would
control all the resources of the crown, without having them divided among
the others, so that he would have adequate resources to rule. That he was
able to provide for the continuation of his dynasty is a matter of record,
but he was not able to guarantee familial harmony with his plan. This is
proved by what we know of the foul plottings of his son, Жthelbald, while
Жthelwulf was on pilgrimage to Rome in 855. Жthelwulf was a wise and capable ruler, whose vision made possible the
beneficial reign of his youngest son, Alfred the Great. ЖTHELBALD (855-8 (subking), 858-60) While his father, Жthelwulf, was on pilgrimage to Rome in 855, Жthelbald
plotted with the Bishop of Sherbourne and the ealdorman of Somerset against
him. The specific details of the plot are unknown, but upon his return from
Rome, Жthelwulf found his direct authority limited to the sub-kingdom of
Kent, while Жthelbald controlled Wessex. Жthelwulf died in 858, and full control passed to Жthelbald. Perhaps
Жthelbald's premature power grab was occasioned by impatience, or greed, or
lack of confidence in his father's succession plans. Whatever the case, he
did not live long to enjoy it. He died in 860, passing the throne to his
brother, Жthelbert, just as Жthelwulf had planned. ЖTHELBERT (860-66 AD) [pic]Very little is known about Жthelbert, who took his rightful place in
the line of succession to the throne of Wessex at around 30 years of age.
Like all other rulers of his day, he had to contend with Viking raids on
his territories and even had to battle them in his capital city of
Winchester. Apparently, his military leadership was adequate, since, on
this occasion, the Vikings were cut off on their retreat to the coast and
were slaughtered, according to a contemporary source, in a "bloody battle." ЖTHELRED I (866-71 AD) Anglo-Saxon king of Wessex, and son of King Жthelwulf, who ruled England
during a time of great pressure from the invading Danes. He was an affable
man, a devoutly religious man and the older brother of Alfred the Great,
his second-in-command in the resistance against the invaders. Together,
they defeated the Danish kings Bagseg and Halfdan at the battle of Ashdown
in 870. ALFRED «THE GREAT» (871-899) Born at Wantage, Berkshire, in 849, Alfred was the fifth son of
Aethelwulf, king of the West Saxons. At their father's behest and by mutual
agreement, Alfred's elder brothers succeeded to the kingship in turn,
rather than endanger the kingdom by passing it to under-age children at a
time when the country was threatened by worsening Viking raids from
Denmark. Since the 790s, the Vikings had been using fast mobile armies, numbering
thousands of men embarked in shallow-draught longships, to raid the coasts
and inland waters of England for plunder. Such raids were evolving into
permanent Danish settlements; in 867, the Vikings seized York and
established their own kingdom in the southern part of Northumbria. The
Vikings overcame two other major Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, East Anglia and
Mercia, and their kings were either tortured to death or fled. Finally, in
870 the Danes attacked the only remaining independent Anglo-Saxon kingdom,
Wessex, whose forces were commanded by King Aethelred and his younger
brother Alfred. At the battle of Ashdown in 871, Alfred routed the Viking
army in a fiercely fought uphill assault. However, further defeats followed
for Wessex and Alfred's brother died. As king of Wessex at the age of 21, Alfred (reigned 871-99) was a
strongminded but highly strung battle veteran at the head of remaining
resistance to the Vikings in southern England. In early 878, the Danes led
by King Guthrum seized Chippenham in Wiltshire in a lightning strike and
used it as a secure base from which to devastate Wessex. Local people
either surrendered or escaped (Hampshire people fled to the Isle of Wight),
and the West Saxons were reduced to hit and run attacks seizing provisions
when they could. With only his royal bodyguard, a small army of thegns (the
king's followers) and Aethelnoth ealdorman of Somerset as his ally, Alfred
withdrew to the Somerset tidal marshes in which he had probably hunted as a
youth. (It was during this time that Alfred, in his preoccupation with the
defence of his kingdom, allegedly burned some cakes which he had been asked
to look after; the incident was a legend dating from early twelfth century
chroniclers.) A resourceful fighter, Alfred reassessed his strategy and adopted the
Danes' tactics by building a fortified base at Athelney in the Somerset
marshes and summoning a mobile army of men from Wiltshire, Somerset and
part of Hampshire to pursue guerrilla warfare against the Danes. In May
878, Alfred's army defeated the Danes at the battle of Edington. According
to his contemporary biographer Bishop Asser, 'Alfred attacked the whole
pagan army fighting ferociously in dense order, and by divine will
eventually won the victory, made great slaughter among them, and pursued
them to their fortress (Chippenham) ... After fourteen days the pagans were
brought to the extreme depths of despair by hunger, cold and fear, and they
sought peace'. This unexpected victory proved to be the turning point in
Wessex's battle for survival. Realising that he could not drive the Danes out of the rest of England,
Alfred concluded peace with them in the treaty of Wedmore. King Guthrum was
converted to Christianity with Alfred as godfather and many of the Danes
returned to East Anglia where they settled as farmers. In 886, Alfred
negotiated a partition treaty with the Danes, in which a frontier was
demarcated along the Roman Watling Street and northern and eastern England
came under the jurisdiction of the Danes - an area known as 'Danelaw'.
Alfred therefore gained control of areas of West Mercia and Kent which had
been beyond the boundaries of Wessex. To consolidate alliances against the
Danes, Alfred married one of his daughters, Aethelflaed, to the ealdorman
of Mercia -Alfred himself had married Eahlswith, a Mercian noblewoman - and
another daughter, Aelfthryth, to the count of Flanders, a strong naval
power at a time when the Vikings were settling in eastern England. The Danish threat remained, and Alfred reorganised the Wessex defences in
recognition that efficient defence and economic prosperity were
interdependent. First, he organised his army (the thegns, and the existing
militia known as the fyrd) on a rota basis, so he could raise a 'rapid
reaction force' to deal with raiders whilst still enabling his thegns and
peasants to tend their farms. Second, Alfred started a building programme of well-defended settlements
across southern England. These were fortified market places ('borough'
comes from the Old English burh, meaning fortress); by deliberate royal
planning, settlers received plots and in return manned the defences in
times of war. (Such plots in London under Alfred's rule in the 880s shaped
the streetplan which still exists today between Cheapside and the Thames.)
This obligation required careful recording in what became known as 'the
Burghal Hidage', which gave details of the building and manning of Wessex
and Mercian burhs according to their size, the length of their ramparts and
the number of men needed to garrison them. Centred round Alfred's royal
palace in Winchester, this network of burhs with strongpoints on the main
river routes was such that no part of Wessex was more than 20 miles from
the refuge of one of these settlements. Together with a navy of new fast
ships built on Alfred's orders, southern England now had a defence in depth
against Danish raiders. Alfred's concept of kingship extended beyond the administration of the
tribal kingdom of Wessex into a broader context. A religiously devout and
pragmatic man who learnt Latin in his late thirties, he recognised that the
general deterioration in learning and religion caused by the Vikings'
destruction of monasteries (the centres of the rudimentary education
network) had serious implications for rulership. For example, the poor
standards in Latin had led to a decline in the use of the charter as an
instrument of royal government to disseminate the king's instructions and
legislation. In one of his prefaces, Alfred wrote 'so general was its
[Latin] decay in England that there were very few on this side of the
Humber who could understand their rituals in English or translate a letter
from Latin into English ... so few that I cannot remember a single one
south of the Thames when I came to the throne.' To improve literacy, Alfred arranged, and took part in, the translation
(by scholars from Mercia) from Latin into Anglo-Saxon of a handful of books
he thought it 'most needful for men to know, and to bring it to pass ... if
we have the peace, that all the youth now in England ... may be devoted to
learning'. These books covered history, philosophy and Gregory the Great's
'Pastoral Care' (a handbook for bishops), and copies of these books were
sent to all the bishops of the kingdom. Alfred was patron of the Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle (which was copied and supplemented up to 1154), a patriotic
history of the English from the Wessex viewpoint designed to inspire its
readers and celebrate Alfred and his monarchy. Like other West Saxon kings, Alfred established a legal code; he
assembled the laws of Offa and other predecessors, and of the kingdoms of
Mercia and Kent, adding his own administrative regulations to form a
definitive body of Anglo-Saxon law. 'I ... collected these together and
ordered to be written many of them which our forefathers observed, those
which I liked; and many of those which I did not like I rejected with the
advice of my councillors ... For I dared not presume to set in writing at
all many of my own, because it was unknown to me what would please those
who should come after us ... Then I ... showed those to all my councillors,
and they then said that they were all pleased to observe them' (Laws of
Alfred, c.885-99).
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