A Royal Soap Opera
Ryann Crosby wanted to know more about the saga that is the Royalty in England. Many of you expressed interest in this real life soap opera so I thought I would give you a general overview starting with Henry VIII
As you all know Henry VIII had many wives but only three legitimate children. His first wife, Catherine of Aragon resulted in Princess Mary. His second wife, for whom he created the Church of England to annul the marriage to Catherine, was Anne Boleyn. With Anne Boleyn he had a daughter, Elizabeth, and two years later he beheaded Anne for witchcraft and sedition to the throne. His third wife, Jane Seymour, finally gave him the son he always wanted but she died of natural causes. Later, on the advice of Lord Cromwell, he married Anne of Cleeves in order to establish stronger ties with the German Protestants. He eventually divorced Anne of Cleeves and beheaded Lord Cromwell for the poor advice. He then married Catherine Howard but two years into the marriage Henry had her beheaded for committing adultery. His last wife was Catherine Parr who outlived Henry when he died of natural causes in 1547. So to summarize…
(1) Catherine of Aragon 1509-1533 Divorced
(2) Anne Boleyn 1533-1536 Beheaded
(3) Jane Seymour 1536-1537 Died
(4) Anne of Cleeves 1540 Divorced
(5) Catherine Howard 1540-1542 Beheaded
(6) Catherine Parr 1543-1547 Survived
…and he had three legitimate children. Mary (Catholic), Elizabeth (Protestant), and Edward (Protestant)
As is standard with British law, the eldest male heir to the throne is next in line. Henry’s son Edward became King Edward VI. Edward was only nine years old and died six years later of Tuberculosis.
Next, Mary, the daughter of Henry and his first wife Catherine, became Queen Mary I. She restored the Catholic Church in England and prosecuted Protestants. Due to the many executions she carried out against protestants she earned the nickname of “Bloody Mary. Mary died of natural causes, most likely cancer, after five years at the throne.
As you all know, Elizabeth became Queen next. She established Protestantism by English law, but did not prosecute people for remaining Catholic. She ruled for 45 years and turned England into one of the most powerful kingdoms in Europe. She died in 1603 of natural causes at the age of 70.
Following Elizabeth was, again, the oldest living male relative. In this case, her nephew James the first took power, King James I. He was the son of Mary Queen of Scots, who was beheaded by Queen Elizabeth because she claimed the right to the throne and supported an uprising in northern England in support of Catholics against Elizabeth. He is also the King James of the King James Bible which gets its name from the fact that he commissioned a more accurate translation of the Bible, not from Latin, but from the original languages of Hebrew and Greek (the oldest recorded languages of the Bible). He was followed by…
King Charles I
(break from monarchy when Cromwell took over for a short time)
King Charles II
King James II
King William III
Queen Anne
King George I
King George II
King George III (This would be the king we rebelled against to establish the United States)
King George IV
King William IV
Queen Victoria
King Edward VII
King George V
King Edward VIII
King George VI
Queen Elizabeth II (the current Queen)
how dose the printing press work
joshua sizemore
April 23, 2008
mr.irvin
why did gailo write another book and then have some one to smugle it in to another counrty?
kayla
April 23, 2008
Why did people make up that mith that C-Bus thought that the world was flat?
Ryan
April 24, 2008
Where did People start to get certin names?
Ryan W.
April 24, 2008
Ryan, I honestly do not know. For most of history people did not have time to think about it because they were busy hunting and gathering and later farming. Once human beings had time to contemplate the earth it was not long before mathematics and observation proved that it had do be round. Some of the less educated people may have thought that but the general public, and especially the educated, knew the Earth was round.
mrirvin
April 24, 2008
Ryan, another good question. Names usually started out meaning something. For instance my fist name, Matthew, means “handsome one” or “Gods Gift” in Hebrew. Many of the first names we have today can be found in the Bible. Last names are often derived from a place or an occupation. This helped people determin which person was being spoken of. For example, Joan D’Ark actually means Joan of the town of Ark. Or, Margaret Thatcher (used to be head of the English Parlament) probably had ansesters who were thatchers (people who make and fixed roofs in the Middle Ages).
mrirvin
April 24, 2008
Ryan, one other thing. Some names are just made up. For example, the name Wendy was never recorded as a name until the book “Peter Pan” was written.
mrirvin
April 24, 2008
Kayla. He wanted to make sure that the truth was told and his ideas were published. The reason it had to be smuggled out of the country was because only a protestant country would have published his work at the time, due to the fact that the Pope had declared his work heresy.
mrirvin
April 24, 2008
Hey Mr. Irvin!
I wanted to now if a King/Queen got excommunicated how did they pick a new one to put in place of the old one?
Kayla Gemme
April 24, 2008
Kayla, good question. What happened if a King or a Queen was excommunicated depended on the people and situation. Sometimes when a King was Excommunicated the Pope would request help from another Catholic King to help depose the king and install a new Catholic monarch. Sometimes the people of the country would revolt against the king so that they do not have to serve under an heritic. Sometimes nothing would happen. For instance, Henry VIII was excommunicated when he created his own church, but the people liked him and there was not another kindom powerful enough to invade and install a different king.
mrirvin
April 25, 2008
Josh, good question. Johann’s press worked kind of like a stamp. The press operator would arrange a bunch of pieces of metal with raised letters in a wooden box. The letters would all come together to make whatever document was being printed. Once the letters were arranged the operator would roll ink over the letters and then pull a lever to “stamp” the paper with the words. That may not sound very fast to us, but it was many times faster than writing everything by hand.
mrirvin
April 25, 2008