This list of kings and reigning queens of theKingdom of England begins withAlfred the Great, who initially ruledWessex, one of theseven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which later made up modern England. Alfred styled himself king of theAnglo-Saxons from about 886, and while he was not the first king to claim to rule all of theEnglish, his rule represents the start of the first unbroken line of kings to rule the whole of England, theHouse of Wessex.[1]
Arguments are made for a few different kings thought to have controlled enough Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to be deemed the first king of England. For example,Offa of Mercia andEgbert of Wessex are sometimes described as kings of England by popular writers, but it is no longer the majority view of historians that their wide dominions were part of a process leading to a unified England. The historianSimon Keynes states, for example, "Offa was driven by a lust for power, not a vision of English unity; and what he left was a reputation, not a legacy."[2] That refers to a period in the late 8th century, when Offa achieved a dominance over many of the kingdoms of southern England, but it did not survive his death in 796.[3][4] Likewise, in 829 Egbert of Wessex conqueredMercia, but he soon lost control of it.
It was not until the late 9th century that one kingdom, Wessex, had become the dominant Anglo-Saxon kingdom. Its king, Alfred the Great, was the overlord of western Mercia and used the titleKing of the Angles and Saxons though he never ruled eastern and northern England, which was then known as theDanelaw and had been conquered by theDanes, from southern Scandinavia. Alfred's sonEdward the Elder conquered the eastern Danelaw. Edward's sonÆthelstan became the first king to rule the whole of England when he conqueredNorthumbria in 927. Æthelstan is regarded by some modern historians as the first true king of England.[3][4] The title "King of the English" orRex Anglorum in Latin, was first used to describe Æthelstan inone of his charters in 928. The standard title for monarchs from Æthelstan untilJohn was "King of the English". In 1016,Cnut the Great, a Dane, was the first to call himself "King of England". In the Norman period, "King of the English" remained standard, with occasional use of "King of England" orRex Anglie. From John's reign onwards, all other titles were eschewed in favour of "King" or "Queen of England".
After the death ofQueen Elizabeth I in 1603, her cousinKing James VI of Scotland inherited the English crown as James I of England, joining the crowns of England and Scotland inpersonal union. By royal proclamation, James styled himself "King of Great Britain", but no such kingdom was created until 1707, when England and Scotlandunited during the reign ofQueen Anne to form the newKingdom of Great Britain, with a singleBritish parliament sitting atWestminster. That marked the end of the Kingdom of England as a sovereign state.
There is some evidence thatÆlfweard of Wessex may have been king in 924, between his father Edward the Elder and his half-brother Æthelstan, although he was not crowned. A 12th-century list of kings gives him a reign length of four weeks, though one manuscript of theAnglo-Saxon Chronicle says he died only 16 days after his father.[7] However, the claim that he ruled is not accepted by all historians. Also, it is unclear whether—if Ælfweard was declared king—it was over the whole kingdom or of Wessex only. One interpretation of the ambiguous evidence is that when Edward died, Ælfweard was declared king in Wessex and Æthelstan in Mercia.[4]
Following the death of Sweyn Forkbeard,Æthelred the Unready returned fromexile and was again proclaimed king. His son succeeded him after being chosen king by the citizens of London and a part of theWitan,[21] despite ongoing Danish efforts to wrest the crown from theWest Saxons.
Following the decisiveBattle of Assandun on 18 October 1016,King Edmund signed a treaty withCnut (Canute) under which all of England except for Wessex would be controlled by Cnut.[23] Upon Edmund's death just over a month later on 30 November, Cnut ruled the whole kingdom as its sole king for nineteen years.
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Cnut[24] Cnut the Great after 23 Apr 1016 – 12 November 1035
After King Harold was killed at theBattle of Hastings, theWitan elected Edgar Ætheling as king, but by then the Normans controlled the country and Edgar never ruled. He submitted to King William the Conqueror.
In 1066, several rival claimants to the English throne emerged. Among them wereHarold Godwinson (recognised as king by theWitenagemot after the death ofEdward the Confessor),Harald Hardrada (King ofNorway who claimed to be the rightful heir of Harthacnut) andDuke William II of Normandy (vassal to the King of France, and first cousin once-removed of Edward the Confessor). Harald Hardrada and William both invaded separately in 1066. Godwinson successfully repelled the invasion by Harald Hardrada, but ultimately lost the throne of England in theNorman conquest of England.
After theBattle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, William the Conqueror made permanent the recent removal of the capital fromWinchester toLondon. Following the death of Harold Godwinson at Hastings, the Anglo-Saxon Witenagemot elected as kingEdgar Ætheling, the son ofEdward the Exile and grandson of Edmund Ironside. The young monarch was unable to resist the invaders and was never crowned. William was crowned King William I of England on Christmas Day 1066, inWestminster Abbey, and is today known as William the Conqueror, William the Bastard or William I.
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William I[32] William the Conqueror[e] 25 December 1066 – 9 September 1087 (20 years, 259 days)
Henry I left no legitimate male heirs, his sonWilliam Adelin having died in theWhite Ship disaster of 1120. This ended the direct Norman line of kings in England. Henry named his eldest daughter,Matilda (Countess of Anjou by her second marriage toGeoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, as well as widow of her first husband,Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor), as his heir. Before naming Matilda as heir, he had been in negotiations to name his nephewStephen of Blois as his heir. When Henry died, Stephen travelled to England, and in acoup d'etat had himself crowned instead of Matilda. The period which followed is known asThe Anarchy, as parties supporting each side fought in open warfare both in Britain and on the continent for the better part of two decades.
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Stephen[35][36] Stephen of Blois 22 December 1135[iii] – 25 October 1154 (18 years, 308 days)
Matilda was declaredheir presumptive by her father, Henry I, after the death of her brother on theWhite Ship, and acknowledged as such by the barons. Upon Henry I's death, the throne was seized by Matilda's cousin,Stephen of Blois. During theensuing Anarchy, Matilda controlled England for a few months in 1141. She was the first woman to do so, but was never crowned and is rarely listed as a monarch of England.[f]
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Matilda[36][37] Empress Matilda 7 April 1141 – 1 November 1141 (209 days)
CountEustace IV of Boulogne (c. 1130 – 17 August 1153) wasappointed co-king of England by his father,King Stephen, on 6 April 1152, in order to guarantee his succession to the throne (as was the custom in France, but not in England). ThePope and the Church would not agree to this, and Eustace was not crowned. Eustace died the next year aged 23, during his father's lifetime, and so never became king in his own right.[38]
The House of Plantagenet takes its name fromGeoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, husband of Empress Matilda and father of Henry II. The name Plantagenet itself was unknown as a family nameper se untilRichard of York adopted it as his family name in the 15th century. It has since been retroactively applied to English monarchs from Henry II onward. It is common among modern historians to refer to Henry II and his sons as the "Angevins" due to their vast continental empire, and most of the Angevin kings before John spent more time in their continental possessions than in England.
King Stephen came to an agreement with Matilda in November 1153 with the signing of theTreaty of Wallingford, in which Stephen recognisedHenry, son of Matilda and her second husbandGeoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, as the designated heir. The royal house descended from Matilda and Geoffrey is widely known by two names, theHouse of Anjou (after Geoffrey's title as Count of Anjou) or theHouse of Plantagenet, after hissobriquet. Some historians prefer to group the subsequent kings into two groups, before and after the loss of the bulk of their French possessions, although they are not different royal houses.
The Angevins (from the French term meaning "from Anjou") ruled over theAngevin Empire during the 12th and 13th centuries, an area stretching from the Pyrenees to Ireland. They did not regard England as their primary home until most of their continental domains were lost byKing John. The direct, eldest male line from Henry II includes monarchs commonly grouped together as the House of Plantagenet, which was the name given to the dynasty after the loss of most of their continental possessions, whilecadet branches of this line became known as theHouse of Lancaster and theHouse of York during theWar of the Roses.
Henry II named his son,Henry the Young King (1155–1183), as co-ruler with him but this was a Norman custom of designating an heir, and the younger Henry did not outlive his father and rule in his own right, so he is not counted as a monarch on lists of kings.
Richard I[42] Richard the Lionheart 3 September 1189[v] – 6 April 1199 (9 years, 216 days)
The futureLouis VIII of France briefly won two-thirds of England over to his side from May 1216 to September 1217 at the conclusion of theFirst Barons' War againstKing John. The then-Prince Louis landed on theIsle of Thanet, off the north Kent coast, on 21 May 1216, and marched more or less unopposed to London, where the streets were lined with cheering crowds. At a grand ceremony in St. Paul's Cathedral, on 2 June 1216, in the presence of numerous English clergy and nobles, the Mayor of London and Alexander II of Scotland, Prince Louis was proclaimed King Louis of England (though not crowned). In less than a month, "King Louis" controlled more than half of the country and enjoyed the support of two-thirds of the barons. However, he suffered military defeat at the hands of the English fleet. By signing theTreaty of Lambeth in September 1217, Louis gained 10,000 marks and agreed he had never been the legitimate king of England.[44] "King Louis" remains one of the least known kings to have ruled over a substantial part of England.[45]
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Louis[46] Louis the Lion 2 June 1216 – 20 September 1217 (1 year, 111 days)
It is from the time of Henry III, after the loss of most of the family's continental possessions, that the Plantagenet kings became more English in nature. The Houses ofLancaster andYork arecadet branches of the House of Plantagenet.
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Henry III[47] Henry of Winchester 28 October 1216[vii] – 16 November 1272 (56 years, 20 days)
This house descended from Edward III's third surviving son,John of Gaunt. Henry IV seized power from Richard II (and also displaced the next in line to the throne,Edmund Mortimer (then aged 7), a descendant of Edward III's second son,Lionel of Antwerp).
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Henry IV[53] Henry of Bolingbroke 30 September 1399[xii] – 20 March 1413 (13 years, 172 days)
The House of York claimed the right to the throne through Edward III's second surviving son,Lionel of Antwerp, but it inherited its name from Edward's fourth surviving son,Edmund of Langley, firstDuke of York.
TheWars of the Roses (1455–1485) saw the throne pass back and forth between the rival houses of Lancaster and York.
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(1st reign) Edward IV[57] 4 March 1461[xv] – 3 October 1470 (9 years, 214 days)
The Tudors descended in the female line fromJohn Beaufort, one of the illegitimate children ofJohn of Gaunt (third surviving son of Edward III), by Gaunt's long-term mistressKatherine Swynford. Those descended from English monarchs only through an illegitimate child would normally have no claim on the throne, but the situation was complicated when Gaunt and Swynford eventually married in 1396 (25 years after John Beaufort's birth). In view of the marriage, the church retroactively declared the Beauforts legitimate via apapal bull the same year.[61] Parliament did the same in an Act in 1397.[62] A subsequent proclamation by John of Gaunt's legitimate son,King Henry IV, also recognised the Beauforts' legitimacy, but declared them ineligible ever to inherit the throne.[63] Nevertheless, the Beauforts remained closely allied with Gaunt's other descendants, the RoyalHouse of Lancaster.
John Beaufort's granddaughterLady Margaret Beaufort was married toEdmund Tudor. Tudor was the son of Welsh courtier Owain Tudur (anglicised toOwen Tudor) andCatherine of Valois, the widow of the LancastrianKing Henry V. Edmund Tudor and his siblings were either illegitimate, or the product of a secret marriage, and owed their fortunes to the goodwill of their legitimate half-brotherKing Henry VI. When the House of Lancaster fell from power, the Tudors followed.
By the late 15th century, the Tudors were the last hope for the Lancaster supporters. Edmund Tudor's son became king asHenry VII after defeating Richard III at theBattle of Bosworth Field in 1485, winning the Wars of the Roses. King Henry VII marriedElizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV, thereby uniting the Lancastrian and York lineages. (Seefamily tree.)
Edward VI namedLady Jane Grey as his heir in his will, overruling the order of succession laid down by Parliament in theThird Succession Act. Four days after his death on 6 July 1553, Jane was proclaimed queen—the first of three Tudor women to be proclaimed queen regnant. Nine days after the proclamation, on 19 July, thePrivy Council switched allegiance and proclaimed Edward VI's Catholic half-sisterMary queen. Jane was later executed for treason.
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Jane[67] Lady Jane Grey 10 July 1553 – 19 July 1553 (9 days)
Under the terms of the marriage treaty betweenPhilip I of Naples (later Philip II of Spain from 15 January 1556) and Queen Mary I, Philip was to enjoy Mary's titles and honours for as long as their marriage should last. All official documents, includingActs of Parliament, were to be dated with both their names, and Parliament was to be called under the joint authority of the couple. An Act of Parliament gave him the title of king and stated that he "shall aid her Highness ... in the happy administration of her Grace's realms and dominions"[70] (although elsewhere the Act stated that Mary was to be "sole queen"). Nonetheless, Philip was toco-reign with his wife.[69][k]
After acoup d'etat in 1653,Oliver Cromwell forcibly took control of England from Parliament. He dissolved the Rump Parliament at the head of a military force and England enteredThe Protectorate period, under Cromwell's direct control with the titleLord Protector.
It was within the power of the Lord Protector to choose his heir and Oliver Cromwell chose his eldest son, Richard Cromwell, to succeed him.
Richard Cromwell was forcibly removed by theEnglish Committee of Safety in May 1659. England again lacked any single head of state. After almost a year of anarchy, the monarchy wasformally restored whenCharles II returned from France to accept the throne.
James II was ousted by Parliament less than four years after ascending to the throne, beginning the century's second interregnum. To settle the question of who should replace the deposed monarch, aConvention Parliament elected James' daughterMary II and her husband (also his nephew)William IIIco-regents, in theGlorious Revolution.
England, Scotland, and Ireland had shared a monarch for more than a hundred years, since theUnion of the Crowns in 1603, whenKing James VI of Scotland inherited the English and Irish thrones from his first cousin twice removed,Queen Elizabeth I.
The standard title for all monarchs fromÆthelstan until the time ofKing John wasRex Anglorum ("King of the English"). In addition, many of the pre-Norman kings assumed extra titles, as follows:
Æthelstan:Rex totius Britanniae ("King of All Britain")
Edmund the Magnificent:Rex Britanniæ ("King of Britain") andRex Anglorum cæterarumque gentium gobernator et rector ("King of the English and of other peoples governor and director")
Eadred:Regis qui regimina regnorum Angulsaxna, Norþhymbra, Paganorum, Brettonumque ("Reigning over the governments of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxons, Northumbrians, Pagans, and British")
Eadwig the Fair:Rex nutu Dei Angulsæxna et Northanhumbrorum imperator paganorum gubernator Breotonumque propugnator ("King by the will of God, Emperor of the Anglo-Saxons and Northumbrians, governor of the pagans, commander of the British")
Edgar the Peaceful:Totius Albionis finitimorumque regum basileus ("King of all Albion and its neighbouring realms")
Cnut the Great:Rex Anglorum totiusque Brittannice orbis gubernator et rector ("King of the English and of all the British sphere governor and ruler") andBrytannie totius Anglorum monarchus ("Monarch of all the English of Britain")
In theNorman periodRex Anglorum remained standard, with occasional use ofRex Angliae ("King of England"). TheEmpress Matilda styled herselfDomina Anglorum ("Lady of the English").
From the time ofKing John onwards all other titles were eschewed in favour ofRex orRegina Angliae.
In 1604James I, who had inherited the English throne the previous year, adopted the title (now usually rendered in English rather than Latin)King of Great Britain. The English and Scottish parliaments, however, did not recognise this title until the Acts of Union of 1707 underQueen Anne (who wasQueen of Great Britain rather than king).[l]
^Æthelred was forced to go into exile in mid-1013, following Danish attacks, but was invited back following Sweyn Forkbeard's death in 1014.[18]
^Harold was only recognised as Regent until 1037, when he was recognised as king.[26]
^After reigning for approximately 9 weeks, Edgar Atheling submitted to William the Conqueror, who had gained control of the area to the south and immediate west of London.[30]
^Matilda is not listed as a monarch of England in many genealogies within texts, includingCarpenter, David (2003).A Struggle for Mastery. p. 533.;Warren, W.L. (1973).Henry II. Berkeley. p. 176.ISBN9780520022829.; andGillingham, John (1984).The Angevin Empire. p. x..
^The date of Edward II's death is disputed by historianIan Mortimer, who argues that he may not have been murdered, but held imprisoned in Europe for several more years.[50]
^Edward V was deposed by Richard III, who usurped the throne on the grounds that Edward was illegitimate. He was never crowned.[58]
^Edward Hall andRaphael Holinshed both record an earlier secret wedding between Henry and Anne, which was conducted inDover on 15 November 1532.
^Philip was not meant to be a mere consort; rather, the status of Mary I's husband was envisioned as that of a co-monarch during her reign.(SeeAct for the Marriage of Queen Mary to Philip of Spain.) However the extent of his authority and his status are ambiguous. The Act says that Philip shall have the title of king and "shall aid her Highness... in the happy administration of her Grace's realms and dominions", but elsewhere says that Mary shall be the sole Queen.
^As the new King of England could not read English, it was ordered that a note of all matters of state should be made in Latin or Spanish.[69][71] Coins were minted showing the heads of both Mary and Philip, and thecoat of arms of England wasimpaled with Philip's to denote their joint reign.[72] Acts were passed in England and in Ireland which made ithigh treason to deny Philip's royal authority(seeTreason Act 1554).[73]
^Miller, Sean (2001). "Æthelstan". In Lapidge, Michael (ed.).The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England. p. 16.
^abKeynes, Simon (2001). "Edward the Elder". In Higham, N. J.; Hill, D. H. (eds.).Edward, King of the Anglo-Saxons. Routledge. pp. 50–51.
^Thacker, Alan (2001). "Dynastic Monasteries and Family Cults". In Higham, N. J.; Hill, D. H. (eds.).Edward the Elder. Routledge. p. 253.
^"Aethelstan".archontology.org.Archived from the original on 17 March 2007. Retrieved15 March 2007.;"Athelstan (r. 924–939)".royal.gov.uk. 12 January 2016.Archived from the original on 25 January 2018. Retrieved16 January 2018.
^"Eadmund (Edmund)".archontology.org.Archived from the original on 17 March 2007. Retrieved17 March 2007.;"Edmund I (r. 939–946)".royal.gov.uk. 12 January 2016.Archived from the original on 25 January 2018. Retrieved16 January 2018.
^"Eadred (Edred)".archontology.org.Archived from the original on 16 March 2007. Retrieved17 March 2007.;"King Edred".britroyals.com.Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved17 March 2007.;"Edred (r. 946–55)".royal.gov.uk. 12 January 2016.Archived from the original on 25 January 2018. Retrieved16 January 2018.
^"Eadwig (Edwy)".archontology.org.Archived from the original on 17 March 2007. Retrieved17 March 2007.;"Edwy".newadvent.org.Archived from the original on 5 April 2007. Retrieved17 March 2007.;"Edwy (r. 955–959)".royal.gov.uk. 12 January 2016.Archived from the original on 1 July 2018. Retrieved16 January 2018.
^"Richard III".archontology.org.Archived from the original on 16 October 2007. Retrieved25 October 2007.;"Richard III (r. 1483–1485)".royal.gov.uk. 14 January 2016.Archived from the original on 25 January 2018. Retrieved16 January 2018.
^Michael K. Jones and Malcolm G. Underwood,The King's Mother: Lady Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby, (Cambridge University Press, 1995), 19–20.
^Chris Skidmore,The Rise of the Tudors: The Family That Changed English History, (St.Martin's Press, 2013), 22.
^Pollard, A. F. (2007).The History of England – From the Accession of Edward VI to the Death of Elizabeth (1547–1603). Read Books.;Groot, Wim de (2005).The Seventh Window: The King's Window Donated by Philip II and Mary Tudor to Sint Janskerk in Gouda (1557). Uitgeverij Verloren.
^Marks, Richard; Payne, Ann; British Museum; British Library, eds. (1978).British heraldry from its origins to c. 1800. British Museum Publications Ltd.;The Numismatist.American Numismatic Association. 1971.
^Edwards, Robert Dudley (1977).Ireland in the age of the Tudors: the destruction of Hiberno-Norman civilisation. Taylor & Francis.
^"William III".archontology.org.Archived from the original on 29 October 2007. Retrieved25 October 2007.
^"Anne (r. 1702–1714)".royal.gov.uk. 30 December 2015.Archived from the original on 25 January 2018. Retrieved16 January 2018.;"Anne (England)".archontology.org.Archived from the original on 29 October 2007. Retrieved25 October 2007.
^"Welcome".parliament.uk. Archived fromthe original on 15 October 2008. Retrieved7 October 2008.
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