After Harold had broken his oath to William an army of Norman adventurers was quickly raised to attempt the conquest of England. With the excuse that the expedition was to punish Harold for breaking a solemn vow, William had the blessing of the Pope and the help of the Church. Many adventurers from western Eurpoe joined the expedition.

On the death of William the Conqueror England was successfully claimed by the Conqueror's second son William II known as Rufus the Red. He was extravagant and selfish. For four years there was no Archbishop until, fearing death, he appointed Anselm in 1093. Walter Tirel killed the King in a hunting accident in the New Forest. There was a rumour that Tirel was in the pay of William's brother Henry.

Henry the Scholar succeeded his brother and tried to please the English people by marrying Matilda, daughter of the King of Scots. He recalled Anselm from Rome.

Stephen's reign was the worst in our history. With no one to control them the barons did as they wished. Merchants were seized, tortured and plundered. Due to the wars within the country many ordinary people starved to death.

Matilda's son became King Henry II. With the help of his friend and Chancellor, Thomas Becket, Henry restored royal authority over the barons. Then, to increase his power over the Church, he desired that Becket should become Archbishop of Canterbury. Henry subsequently quarrelled with Becket and some Knights took him at his word that he wished to be rid of Becket. His wife Eleanor and sons, Richard, John and Henry were all involved in rebellions against the King.

Richard spent only a few months of his reign in England. Part of the time he spent in fighting against King Philip of France. For the greater part of his reign Richard was engaged in the third, the greatest, of the Crusades. In his absense his brother John schemed against him.

John lost the English possessions in France. He angered the barons and made an enemy of the Church. The medieval Church, which was a united body under the Pope, at that time Innocent III, was far more powerful than kings or princes.

Henry III was only a boy of nine when he became king. England was in considerable distress; John had died while figting the barons, who had invited the French King's son to take John's place as king. Fortunately a group of loyal and competent men rallied round the young king. In 1253 Henry III granted a charter for a weekly market at Epping.

With the regin of Edward we return to a period of strong and effective rule. Edward has been called the "Lion Of Justice" for his wise laws and administration. He hoped to united the British Isles and his crown. First he attempted to conquer Wales.

When Alexander III of Scotland was thrown over a cliff by his horse and his grand daughter Margaret the maid of Norway died at the end of a voyage across the North Sea it was left to Edward to choose the new Scottish king from the thirteen who claimed it. Edward was 43 and well-built and he refused to die. What happened next depends on who you want to believe. The popular version goes that Isabella or Mortimer or Edward's jailers (or all of them) hit on a way to dispose of him. On September 21 1327 he was wedged between two tables and a hunting horn inserted up his anus. Into this was shoved a red-hot spit or poker.

As near and jealous neighbours, England and France were usually either at war or preparing for war. The Hundred Years War was really a sequence of wars rather more serious than usual because the English King claimed the crown of France. They began in 1338.

Courageous and sincere Richard II son of the Black Prince was never popular. His desire for peace irritated the nobles;his promises to the peasants angered the merchants. He lacked support from the bishops and his despotic measures estranged all sections of his people.

The first king of the House of Lancaster. During his reign there were revolts in Wales and also problems in Scotland. Supporters of John Wycliffe who had translated the New Testament into English in 1380 were often burnt at the stake for supporting the view that church property should be put to charitable purposes. Henry died from leprosy.

Famous for his victory at Agincourt. Died at the age of thirty five from dysentry in France.

Under the feeble rule of Henry VI the nobles had grown more and more powerful, defying all authority and waging war against one and another without restraint. The more peaceful parts of the country were beginning to look to the Duke of York as their strongest leader against misgovernment. In 1453 Henry VI became insane. Parliament sent Somerset to the Tower and made the Duke of York Protector. However Henry recovered and Queen Margaret persuaded him to restore Somerset and dismiss York. This lead to the War of the Roses. In a battle at St. Albans the king was defeated and captured. Somerset was killed and York was left back in control

A Lancastrian victory lead by Margaret defeated York at Wakefield where he was beheaded. Meanwhile York's son Edward and Warwick entered London to cries of "Long Live King Edward". Another battle at Towton saw defeat for Henry, who was taken to the Tower, but Margaret escaped. With Edward as king Margaret and Warwick plotted to restore Henry. When Henry was released from the tower to become king again it is believed that Richard brother of Edward killed the former king. The reign of Edward saw the invention of the Caxton Printing Press. This was brought to Westminster in 1476.

Edward V was a boy king of thirteen. Reigned for eleven weeks. His uncle Richard Duke Of Gloucester was made Protector. Edward and his brother, Richard disappeared.

Richard's brother Edward IV had two sons, Edward V and Richard. The Bishop of Bath declared that the marriage of Edward IV was not proper. Richard Duke Of Gloucester the Protector of the young princes became king. Richard was poorly acknowledged as king by a number of Londoners. At Bosworth Richard wearing the crown lead a charge at Henry but was killed in the attempt.

The crown that Richard had worn throughout the battle was placed on Henry's head on the battlefield by Lord Stanley. Henry became the first of the Tudor monarchs. Henry's first task was to re-establish the authority of the Crown and to secure his own position as king. He married Elizabeth the neice of Richard III For nearly a hundred years English nobles and their adherents had strengthened themselves by supporting first one claimant to the throne, then another. Intrigue, corruption and treachery made life insecure. Henry re-established the monarchy Thomas More a historian for Henry wrote that Richard III killed the young princes to become king.

The discovery of the New World made it necessary for England, if she were to share in the race for land and trade, to have a bigger and better fleet. The Channel too, was again infested with pirate ships and England needed a naval defence. Henry VIII decided that his kingdom should have it. First wife, Catherine of Aragon, mother of Mary, was previously married to Henry's brother. Whether the child marriage was consumated is not known but was a great excuse for divorce in those times Second wife, Anne Boleyn, pregnant with Elizabeth during her coronation was executed for adultary. The reality was that she did not produce a son for Henry Third wife, Jane Seymour, mother of Edward died young. Fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, was not as attractive as Henry had been lead to believe. So Henry divorced her. Fifth wife, Catherine Howard married Henry at nineteen. She was executed for having boyfriends prior to her marriage to Henry Sixth wife, Catherine Parr outlived Henry and went on to marry Henry's brother-in-law Thomas Seymour.

Edward at ten was the youngest of Henry's three children (Mary, Elizabeth and Edward) Before his death Henry had appointed a council to act as regents during his son's minority. One of them was appointed Lord Protector, with the title of Duke of Somerset.

Mary Tudor was thirty-eight when she became queen. She was the Catholic daughter of Catherine of Aragon, whom Henry VIII had set aside to marry Anne Boleyn. Mary never forgot this and hated all enenies of the Pope. She believed that God would wish her to punish them.

Elizabeth was the last of the Tudor sovereigns. The daughter of Anne Boleyn and a Protestant, she had many enemies. Many Roman Catholics hoped that her cousin Mary would become Queen. This would indeed be the case if Elizabeth remained unmarried. Mary was accused of contriving the death of her second husband Darnley. Mary Queen of Scots fled to her cousin Elizabeth for protection. It took twenty years before Elizabeth had her executed for conspiring to seize Elizabeth's throne. Her death hastened the coming of the Spanish Armada.

After the execution of Mary Queen of Scots her son already reigning in Scotland as James VI became heir to the English throne. As Elizabeth never married her crown passed to the Stuart kings of Scotland. James was the great-grandson of Henry VII the first Tudor monarch of England. Famous for not being blown up in the Gunpowder Plot.

Both James I and his son Charles I believed that kings ruled by Divine Right. They also believed that Parliament should do as kings commanded.

Prince Charles, in theory Charles II was nineteen when his father was beheaded. He fled abroad after Cromwell's final victory over the Royalists at Worcester, September 1651. He remained in exile for eleven yers in France and the Netherlands. Cromwell died in 1658 and his son Richard returned to his farms, General Monk brought an army from Scotland to London. He made the old Parliament dissolve itself. The new Parliament of March 1660 sent envoys to Holland to ask Charles to become king. Samuel Pepys described the king's arrrival at Dover.

When James succeeded his brother, Charles II, he was already unpopular and was a Roman Catholic. James II had two Protestant daughters but in 1688 produced a Roman Catholic son and heir.

A number of Parliamentarians invited James's daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange to save England from "Popery".

After many years of negotiation Queen Anne in 1707 signed an Act of Union between England and Scotland.

George was a German who did not speak English. This lead to the first British Prime Minister Robert Walpole. Imprisioned his wife Dorothea for thirty two years. It is rumoured that Count Konigsmark, the Queen's lover was buried under the floorboards of Dorothea's dressing room.

The Seven Years War between Britain and France was fought in Europe, on the seas, in India and in America where the colonists were threatened by the French colonists of Canada.

When peace was signed Paris, 1763, Canada became a British possession. It was a small colony of French farmers on the St. Lawrence river. The first King of Britain and Ireland. Victorious over the French Navy at Trafalgar and Waterloo. Lost the American colonies. Brought Buckingham Palace.

Since his father was prone to bouts of madness should as Regent during these times. A somewhat large prince with no sense of humour about being fat. The author of a "Fat Adonis of Fifty" was placed in prison for two years.

It took until 1834 for slaves throughout the British Empire to be freed by Lord Grey in Parliament. Became king at the age of sixty five.

Princess Victoria the eighteen year old daughter of the Duke of Kent became queen in 1837. During the sixty-four years of her reign she added new dignity to the British monarchy. Her natural language was German from her Hanover ancestory. The nation reached its climax of walth and prosperity, became conscious of its imperial power and carried out great social reforms at home.

Victoria and Albert did not wish Edward to grow up to be the same sort of man as the four Georges. Edward grew up to be a womanising bully. (Just like the Georges).

Changed the family name from the German Wettin to Windsor. The royal family at this time feared the British people would overthrow them. His cousin Kaiser William II was George's cousin. Refused to allow Tsar Nicholas, another cousin, sanctuary in England.

Edward was never crowned prefering to marry the divorcee Wallis Simpson. A king who sacrificed the crown for love.

The first British Monarch to visit America.

Possibly the richest woman in world. Three of her four children have married and divorced.

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