Queen Mary died of smallpox in 1694 and, in 1702, William died after his horse tripped over a molehill. Jacobites may have raised a toast to ‘the little gentleman in a black velvet waistcoat’ but it was a typically futile,…
Glorious Revolution
Charles II converted to Catholicism on his death bed in February 1685 and, because he had no legitimate heirs (though he apparently had plenty of illegitimate ones), his brother, the Catholic James II, succeeded him to the throne. James had…
The Stuarts and the Republic of Britain
So, from 1603 the Kingdoms of England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland all had the same monarch – James Stuart. Scotland retained its separate sovereignty. I must confess to not having much affection for the Stuart monarchs – they seem…
Dawn of Empire
Elizabethan England has a very different atmosphere to any previous period in Britsh history. Elizabeth I succeeded to the throne of England on the death of her elder Catholic half-sister ‘Bloody’ Mary in 1558. She was twenty-five. Her 45 year…
Losing our religion – how Henry VIII changed the world and his wife
No challenge blighted Henry VIII’s accession to the throne. England was at peace and it seemed a golden age. In contrast to the ailing, bloated, tyrant he was to become, the youthful king is often portrayed as a true renaissance…
The victor of Bosworth
Not everybody agreed in 1485 that the new Tudor King, Henry VII, had the best claim to the throne of England. It has actually been described as ‘flimsy’. He was the son of a formidable mother, Margaret Beaufort, and Owen…
A violent royal soap opera
English history in the second half of the 15th century is scarred by civil war – the Wars of the Roses – a label which became popular in Victorian times based on the red and white roses of the rival…
When death walked the land
The Black Death or Great Pestilence swept through Europe between around 1346–1353, where it eventually killed between 30-60% of the population – an estimated 25 million people. Some sources calculate twice that. The disease originated ‘somewhere in the east’ and…
Why France isn’t part of Britain
You may have noticed that France isn’t part of Britain. But at one time the Kings of England ruled chunks of what is now France. It all began when Duke William of Normandy became King William I of England in…
Whatever happened to Wales?
Wales, like Scotland, was not a unified political entity in the early Middle Ages. It consisted of a number of kingdoms, the largest of which were Gwynedd in the north west, Deheubarth in the south west and Powys in between…