King edward how many

He was subjected to a strict regime from an early age, as his parents were keen to ensure he was prepared to rule. He attended both Oxford and Cambridge and briefly joined the army.

A liaison with an actress caused considerable scandal and Prince Albert visited his son to reprimand him. Albert died two weeks later and Victoria held her son partly responsible for the death of his father. Victoria withdrew almost completely from public life, and Edward was allowed to represent her at state occasions, but given almost no chance to participate in affairs of state. He became a leader of London society, spending his time eating, drinking, gambling, shooting, watching racing and sailing.

In , he married Princess Alexandra of Denmark and they had six children, five of whom survived to adulthood. Edward also had a series of long-term mistresses, including the actress Lily Langtry. This was not ideal from a dynastic point of view, but it nonetheless strengthens his claim to being a proper King of England who we should probably count properly.

To be fair, the third forgotten Edward has the unpromising name of Edward the Martyr , which tells you everything you need to know about what his main achievement as king was. William the Conqueror or, less flatteringly, William the Bastard was followed by his son William Rufus. Other early monarchs revelled in such names as Edgar the Peaceable, Edmund Ironside and, most famously, Athelred the Unready.

At some point, though, people seem to have started switching to numbers. The fact three Edwards ruled in turn between and meant that, even in some chronicles published in his own lifetime, the last of these was referred to as Edward III. A matter, one assumes, of convenience. These numbers stuck, when a standard numbering began to appear some time in the 16th century — though whether this was because they were already in use, or because the Tudor chroniclers consciously decided to start counting at , is not exactly clear.

Perhaps inspired by his pilgrimage to Rome in , legend has it that he wanted to demonstrate to his subjects that as a king he was not a god, he ordered the tide not to come in, knowing this would fail. Harold was the illegitimate son of Canute; he claimed the English crown on the death of his father whilst his half-brother Harthacanute, the rightful heir, was in Denmark fighting to protect his Danish kingdom.

Harold died three years into his reign, just weeks before Harthacanute was due to invade England with an army of Danes. He was buried in Westminster Abbey before Harthacanute had his body dug up, beheaded, and thrown into the Thames. His bits were later gathered and re-buried at St. Clement Danes in London. Harthacanute died at a wedding whilst toasting the health of the bride; he was aged just 24 and was the last Danish king to rule England.

A deeply pious and religious man, he presided over the rebuilding of Westminster Abbey , leaving much of the running of the country to Earl Godwin and his son Harold. Edward died childless, eight days after the building work on Westminster Abbey had finished. With no natural successor, England was faced with a power struggle for control of the throne.

The election result failed to meet with the approval of one William, Duke of Normandy, who claimed that his relative Edward had promised the throne to him several years earlier.

Harold defeated an invading Norwegian army at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in Yorkshire, then marched south to confront William of Normandy who had landed his forces in Sussex. William came to England from Normandy, claiming that his second cousin Edward the Confessor had promised him the throne, and defeated Harold II at the Battle of Hastings on 14th October In the Domesday Survey was begun and all of England was recorded, so William knew exactly what his new kingdom contained and how much tax he could raise in order to fund his armies.

William died at Rouen after a fall from his horse whilst besieging the French city of Nantes. He is buried at Caen. He never married and was killed in the New Forest by a stray arrow whilst out hunting, maybe accidentally, or possibly shot deliberately on the instructions of his younger brother Henry.

Walter Tyrrell, one of the hunting party, was blamed for the deed. Well educated, he founded a zoo at Woodstock in Oxfordshire to study animals. His two sons were drowned in the White Ship so his daughter Matilda was made his successor. She was married to Geoffrey Plantagenet. When Henry died of food poisoning, the Council considered a woman unfit to rule and so offered the throne to Stephen, a grandson of William I.

A decade of civil war known as The Anarchy ensued when Matilda invaded from Anjou in A brilliant soldier, he extended his French lands until he ruled most of France. He laid the foundation of the English Jury System and raised new taxes scutage from the landholders to pay for a militia force. His sons turned against him, even his favourite John.

By the age of 16, he was leading his own army putting down rebellions in France. Although crowned King of England, Richard spent all but 6 months of his reign abroad, preferring to use the taxes from his kingdom to fund his various armies and military ventures. He was the leading Christian commander during the Third Crusade. On his way back from Palestine, Richard was captured and held for ransom. The amount paid for his safe return almost bankrupt the country. Richard died from an arrow-wound, far from the kingdom that he so rarely visited.

He had no children. Short and fat, he was jealous of his dashing brother Richard I whom he succeeded. He was cruel, self-indulgent, selfish and avaricious, and the raising of punitive taxes united all the elements of society, clerical and lay, against him.

The Pope excommunicated him. On 15th June at Runnymede the barons compelled John to sign Magna Carta , the Great Charter, which reinstated the rights of all his subjects.

John died — from dysentery — a fugitive from all his enemies. Brought up by priests he became devoted to church, art and learning. Henry was the greatest of all patrons of medieval architecture and ordered the rebuilding of Westminster Abbey in the Gothic style. He formed the Model Parliament in , bringing the knights, clergy and nobility, as well as the Lords and Commons together for the first time. Aiming at a united Britain, he defeated the Welsh chieftains and created his eldest son Prince of Wales.

When his first wife Eleanor died, he escorted her body from Grantham in Lincolnshire to Westminster, setting up Eleanor Crosses at every resting place. He died on the way to fight Robert Bruce. He was beaten by the Scots at the Battle of Bannockburn in Edward was deposed and held captive in Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire. His wife joined her lover Mortimer in deposing him: by their orders he was murdered in Berkley Castle — as legend has it, by having a red-hot poker thrust up his anus!

The two great victories at Crecy and Poitiers made Edward and his son, the Black Prince , the most renowned warriors in Europe, however the war was very expensive. In came the Peasants Revolt , led by Wat Tyler. The rebellion was put down with great severity. The sudden death of his first wife Anne of Bohemia completely unbalanced Richard and his extravagance, acts of revenge and tyranny turned his subjects against him.

Richard was murdered, probably by starvation, in Pontefract Castle in Henry spent most of his 13 year reign defending himself against plots, rebellions and assassination attempts. Back in England, Henry had great difficulty in maintaining the support of both the clergy and Parliament and between the Percy family launched a series of rebellions against him.

Henry, the first Lancastrian king, died exhausted, probably of leprosy, at the age of Henry had honed his fine soldiering skills putting down the many rebellions launched against his father and had been knighted when aged just He pleased his nobles by renewing the war with France in In the face of tremendous odds he beat the French at the Battle of Agincourt , losing just of his own soldiers with more than 6, Frenchmen killed.

On a second expedition Henry captured Rouen, was recognised as the next King of France and married Catherine, the daughter of the lunatic French king. Henry died of dysentery whilst campaigning in France and before he could succeed to the French throne, leaving his month old son as King of England and France. The Battle of St Albans in was won by the Yorkists.

Henry was restored to the throne briefly in His morals were poor he had many mistresses and had at least one illegitimate son and even his contemporaries disapproved of him. Edward had his rebellious brother George, Duke of Clarence, murdered in on a charge of treason. During his reign the first printing press was established in Westminster by William Caxton.

Edward died suddenly in leaving two sons aged 12 and 9, and five daughters. The eldest son of Edward IV, he succeeded to the throne at the tender age of 13 and reigned for only two months, the shortest-lived monarch in English history. He and his brother Richard were murdered in the Tower of London — it is said on the orders of his uncle Richard Duke of Gloucester. The ruthless extinction of all those who opposed him and the alleged murders of his nephews made his rule very unpopular.

At the Battle of Bosworth Field in Leicestershire he defeated and killed Richard in what was to be the last important battle in the Wars of the Roses. Archaeological investigations at a car park in Leicester during revealed a skeleton which was thought to have been that of Richard III, and this was confirmed on the 4th February His body was re-interred at Leicester Cathedral on 22nd March He married Elizabeth of York and so united the two warring houses, York and Lancaster.

He was a skillful politician but avaricious. The material wealth of the country increased greatly. His first wife was Catherine of Aragon, his brothers widow, whom he later divorced to marry Anne Boleyn.