atestatu` ups and downs

8/8/2019 ATESTATU` Ups and Downs

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Abstract

I choose this theme because I think that even though it does not have the enoughpower to rule entirely, the Monarchy plays an important role in the United Kingdom and

that it is relevant to find out about its crises. The fist chapter is about the only king,

Charles I, in the Monarchys history that has been executed for his mistakes. The second

chapter presents Queen Victoria, the longest reigning monarch. The third main chapter

draws to attention the only king that abdicated, Edward III and the last one brings to light

the death of Princess Diana.

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Introduction

The British people have had a monarchy for over a thousand years. Therelationship between the monarch and the people has suffered some serious crises in the

countrys history, but the monarchy always seems to recover.

The biggest crisis in the monarchys history came in 1649 when the King was

actually condemned to death by parliament. Charles I wanted the monarchy to have more

power, and in 1629 he dismissed the parliament and ruled for eleven years without it.

In 1649 a Civil War broke out between the Royalists and the supporters of

parliament, the Roundheads under Oliver Cromwell. The Roundheads won, Charles was

beheaded and the monarchy abolished. England was, in effect, a republic for eleven

years, governed by Lord Protector (first Cromwell then his son). But in 1660 the age of

Restoration began when Charless son, Charles II, was made King.

When Queen Victorias husband, Prince Albert, died in 1861, the Queen suffered a

terrible depression. She withdrew from public life and spent more time at her palaces in

Scotland and on Isle of Wight than she did in London. For over 20 years she performed

no national duties. People became critical of the monarchy and, in a time of huge

industrial and scientific progress, members of the parliament began to talk about

republicanism. But Victoria recovered and in 1897 her Diamond Jubilee, celebrating a

record 60 years on the throne, was a great public relations success with a huge

processions, ceremonies and public celebrations.

When George V died in January 1936, his heir Edward was in love with a twice-

divorced American woman, Wallis Simpson. His family and the government disapproved

of Mrs. Simpson, but Edward wanted to marry her. In the end he was forced to choose

between his love and the throne. In December of that year, five months off his planned

coronation and with war threatening the world, Edward VIII addressed the nation by

radio and told them that I have found impossible to carry on the heavy burden of

responsibility and to discharge the duties of King without the help and support of the

woman I love. His brother George VI took his place at the coronation, and proved to be

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a strong monarch. When Georges daughter, Princess Elisabeth came to the throne in

1952 the monarchy was once again extremely popular.

In the modern times, people began to see the monarchy as outdated, but the royal

family was given a tremendous boost in 1981, when Prince Charles married the popular

Princess Diana. Diana became an international superstar, more popular than her husband

from whom she divorce in 1996.

When she died in a car crash in 1997 many people accused the royal family of

treating her badly during her marriage and abandoning her after the divorce.

The Queen and Prince Charles suffered a huge drop in popularity and they were

advised to modernize and become less formal and distant. Celebrations for the Queens

Golden Jubilee in 2002 were deliberately low-key, as the organizers feared that the public

would not be interested.

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Chapter I. Revolution: Charles I of England

Charles I

King of England, Scots and IrelandReign 27 March 1625 30 January 1649

Coronation 2 February 1626

Predecessor James I of England

Successor Charles II de jure

Oliver Cromwell, de facto (as leader of the Commonwealth of England)

Consort Henrietta Maria of France

Issue

Charles II

Mary, Princess Royal

James II and VII

Elizabeth of England

Anne of England

Henry, Duke of Gloucester

Henrietta Anne of England

Titles and styles

HM The King

The Prince of Wales

The Duke of York

The Duke of Albany

The Prince Charles

Royal house

House of Stuart

Father James I of England

MotherAnne of Denmark

Born 19 November 1600

Dunfermline, Scotland

Baptised 23 December 1601

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Dunfermline, Scotland

Died 30 January 1649 (aged 47)

Whitehall, England

Burial 7 February 1649

Windsor, England

1.1 Early life

The second son of James VI, King of Scots and Anne of Denmark and Norway,

Charles was born at Dunfermline Palace, Fife, on 19 November 1600. He was an

underdeveloped child who was still unable to walk or talk at the age of three. When

Elizabeth I died in March 1603 and James VI became King of England as James I,

Charles was originally left in Scotland in the care of nurses and servants because it was

feared that the journey would damage his fragile health.

Charles was not as well-regarded as his elder brother, Henry, Prince of Wales;

Charles himself adored Henry and tried to emulate him. In 1603, Charles was created

Duke of Albany in Scotland. Two years later, Charles was created Duke of York, as was

then customary in the case of the Sovereign's second son. When his elder brother died at

the age of 18 of typhoid in 1612, two weeks before Charles's 12th birthday, Charles

became heir apparent and was subsequently created the Prince of Wales and Earl of

Chester in November 1616. His sister Elizabeth married in 1613 to Frederick V, Elector

Palatine and moved to Heidelberg.

Charles was a very different character to his father James I and had none of the

latter's political skill. Both kings were advocates of Divine Right monarchy, but James

listened to the views of his subjects and favoured moderation, compromise and

consensus. Charles I was shy and diffident, but also self-righteous, stubborn, opinionated,

determined and confrontational. Charles believed he had no need to compromise or even

explain his policies and that he was only answerable to God. He famously said: "Kings

are not bound to give an account of their actions but to God alone", "I mean to show what

I should speak in actions". Those actions were open to misinterpretation, and there were

fears as early as 1626 that he was a potential tyrant.

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1.2 Early reign

On 11 May 1625 Charles was married to Henrietta Maria of France, nine years his

junior, by proxy. His first Parliament, which he opened in May, was opposed to his

marriage to Henrietta Maria, a Roman Catholic, because it feared that Charles would lift

restrictions on Roman Catholics and undermine the official establishment of

Protestantism. Although he agreed with Parliament that he would not relax restrictions

relating to recusants, he promised to do exactly that in a secret marriage treaty with Louis

XIII. The couple was married in person on 13 June 1625, in Canterbury. Charles was

crowned on 2 February 1626 at Westminster Abbey, but without his wife at his side due

to the controversy. They had nine children, with three sons and three daughters surviving

infancy.

Distrust of Charles's religious policies was increased by the controversy

surrounding the ecclesiastic Richard Montagu. In a pamphlet, Montagu argued against

the teachings of John Calvin, immediately bringing himself into disrepute amongst the

Puritans. A Puritan member of the House of Commons, John Pym, attacked Montagu's

pamphlet during debate, prompting Montagu to request the aid of Charles I in a pamphlet

entitled "Appello Caesarem" (Latin "I appeal to Caesar", a reference to an appeal against

Jewish persecution made by Saint Paul the Apostle). Charles I made the cleric one of his

royal chaplains, increasing many Puritans' suspicions as to where he would lead the

Church.

Charles's primary concern during his early reign was foreign policy. The Thirty

Years' War, originally confined to Bohemia, was spiralling out of control into a wider

war between Protestants and Catholics in Europe.

The war with Spain went badly, largely due to Buckingham's incompetent

leadership. Despite Parliament's protests, however, Charles refused to dismiss him,

dismissing Parliament instead.

1.3 Personal Rule

Sir Anthony van Dyck, Charles I's court painter, created the famous "Charles I,

King of England, from Three Angles", commonly known as the "Triple Portrait". This oil

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painting, of around 1636, was created in order that the Italian sculptor, Bernini, could

create a marble bust of Charles.

In January 1629, Charles opened the second session of the Parliament, which had

been prorogued in June 1628, with a moderate speech on the tonnage and poundage issue.

Members of the House of Commons began to voice their opposition in light of the Rolle

case. Rolle was an MP who had his goods confiscated for not paying tonnage and

poundage. This was seen by many MPs as a breach of the Petition of Right, who argued

that the freedom from arrest privilege extended to goods. When Charles ordered a

parliamentary adjournment in March, members held the Speaker, John Finch, down in his

chair whilst three resolutions against Charles were read aloud. The last of these

resolutions declared that anyone who paid tonnage or poundage not authorised by

Parliament would "be reputed a betrayer of the liberties of England, and an enemy to the

same". Though the resolution was not formally passed, many members declared their

approval. The fact that a number of MPs had to be detained in Parliament is relevant in

understanding that there was no universal opposition towards the King. Nevertheless, the

provocation was too much for Charles, who dissolved parliament the same day.Charles

resolved not to be forced to rely on Parliament for further monetary aid. Immediately, he

made peace with France and Spain. The following eleven years, during which Charles

ruled without a Parliament, have been known as both the Eleven Years Tyranny or

simply as the Personal Rule.Due to an unstable absolute power, assassination or capture

was at risk for the king and many close nobles including instructors Thomas Hobbes and

John Pym.

1.4 Religious conflicts

Charles wished to move the Church of England away from Calvinism in a more

traditional and sacramental direction. This goal was shared by his main political adviser,Archbishop William Laud. Laud was appointed by Charles as the Archbishop of

Canterbury in 1633 and started a series of unpopular reforms in an attempt to impose

order and authority on the church. Laud attempted to ensure religious uniformity by

dismissing non-conformist clergymen and closing Puritan organizations. This was

actively hostile to the Reformist tendencies of many of his English and Scottish subjects.

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His policy was obnoxious to Calvinist theology, and insisted that the Church of England's

liturgy be celebrated using the form prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer. Laud was

also an advocate of Arminian theology, a view whose emphasis on the ability to reject

salvation was viewed as heretical and virtually "Catholic" by strict Calvinists.

To punish those who refused to accept his reforms, Laud used the two most feared

and most arbitrary courts in the land, the Court of High Commission and the Court of

Star Chamber. The former could compel individuals to provide self-incriminating

testimony, whilst the latter could inflict any punishment whatsoever (including torture),

with the sole exception of death.

The lawlessness of the Court of Star Chamber under Charles far exceeded that

under any of his predecessors. Under Charles's reign, defendants were regularly hauled

before the Court without indictment, due process of the law, or right to confront

witnesses, and their testimonies were routinely extracted by the King and his courtiers

through extensive torture.

In 1639, when the First Bishops' War broke out, Charles sought to collect taxes

from his subjects, who refused to yield any further. Charles's war ended in a humiliating

truce in June of the same year. In the Pacification of Berwick, Charles agreed to grant his

Scottish subjects civil and ecclesiastical freedoms.

Charles's military failure in the First Bishops' War in turn caused a financial and

military crisis for Charles, which caused the end of Personal Rule. Due to his financial

weakness, Charles was forced to call Parliament into session by 1640 in an attempt to

raise funds. While the ruling class grievances with the changes to government and

finance during the Personal Rule period were a contributing factor in the Scottish

Rebellion, it was mainly due to the key issue of religion that Charles was forced to

confront the ruling class in Parliament for the first time in eleven years. In essence, it was

Charles's and Laud's confrontational religious modifications that ended what the Whig

historians refer to as "The Eleven Years of Tyranny".

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1.5 The Short and Long Parliaments

Disputes regarding the interpretation of the peace treaty between Charles and the

Church of Scotland led to further conflict. To subdue the Scots, Charles needed more

money; therefore, he took the fateful step of recalling Parliament in April 1640. Although

Charles offered to repeal ship money, and the House of Commons agreed to allow

Charles to raise the funds for war, an impasse was reached when Parliament demanded

the discussion of various abuses of power during the Personal Rule. As both sides refused

to give ground on this matter, Parliament was dissolved in May 1640, less than a month

after it assembled; thus, the Parliament became known as the Short Parliament.

In the meantime, Charles attempted to defeat the Scots, but failed miserably. The

humiliating Treaty of Ripon, signed after the end of the Second Bishops War in October

1640, required the King to pay the expenses of the Scottish army he had just fought.

Charles took the unusual step of summoning the magnum concilium, the ancient council

of all the Peers of the Realm, who were considered the Kings hereditary counsellors. The

magnum concilium had not been summoned for centuries. On the advice of the peers,

Charles summoned another Parliament, which, in contrast with its predecessor, became

known as the Long Parliament.

The Long Parliament assembled in November 1640 under the leadership of John

Pym, and proved just as difficult for Charles as the Short Parliament. Although the

members of the House of Commons thought of themselves as conservatives defending

the King, Church and Parliamentary government against innovations in religion and the

tyranny of Charless advisors, Charles viewed many of them as dangerous rebels trying to

undermine his rule.

In November 1641, the House of Commons passed the Grand Remonstrance,

denouncing all the abuses of power Charles had committed since the beginning of his

reign. The tension was heightened when the Irish rebelled against Protestant English ruleand rumours of Charless complicity reached Parliament. An army was required to put

down the rebellion but many members of the House of Commons feared that Charles

might later use it against Parliament itself. The Militia Bill was intended to wrest control

of the army from the King, but Charles refused to agree to it. However, Parliament

decreed The Protestation as an attempt to lessen the conflict.

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When rumours reached Charles that Parliament intended to impeach his Catholic

Queen, Henrietta Maria, he took drastic action. It was possibly Henrietta who persuaded

him to arrest the five members of the House of Commons who were perceived to be the

most troublesome on charges of high treason, but the MPs had already slipped away by

the time Charles arrived. Charles entered the House of Commons with an armed force on

4 January 1642, but found that his opponents had already escaped. This move was

politically disastrous for Charles. It caused acute embarrassment for the monarch and

essentially triggered the total breakdown of government in England. Afterwards, Charles

could no longer feel safe in London and he began travelling north to raise an army against

Parliament; the Queen, at the same time, went abroad to raise money to pay for it.

1.6 English Civil War

The Civil War started on 26 October 1642 with the inconclusive Battle of Edgehill

and continued indecisively through 1643 and 1644, until the Battle of Naseby tipped the

military balance decisively in favour of Parliament. There followed a great number of

defeats for the Royalists, and then the Siege of Oxford, from which Charles escaped in

April 1646. He put himself into the hands of the Scottish Presbyterian army at Newark,

and was taken to nearby Southwell while his hosts decided what to do with him. The

Presbyterians finally arrived at an agreement with Parliament and delivered Charles to

them in 1647. He was imprisoned at Holdenby House in Northamptonshire, until cornet

George Joyce took him by force to Newmarket in the name of the New Model Army. At

this time, mutual suspicion had developed between the New Model Army and Parliament,

and Charles was eager to exploit it.

He was then transferred first to Oatlands and then to Hampton Court, where more

involved but fruitless negotiations took place. He was persuaded that it would be in his

best interests to escape - perhaps abroad, perhaps to France, or perhaps to the custody ofColonel Robert Hammond, Parliamentary Governor of the Isle of Wight. He decided on

the last course, believing Hammond to be sympathetic, and fled on 11

November.Hammond, however, was opposed to Charles, whom he confined in

Carisbrooke Castle.

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1.7 Trial

Charles was moved to Hurst Castle at the end of 1648, and there after to Windsor

Castle. In January 1649, in response to Charless defiance of Parliament even after defeat,

and his encouraging the second Civil War while in captivity, the House of Commons

passed an Act of Parliament creating a court for Charless trial. After the first Civil War,

the parliamentarians still accepted the premise that the King, although wrong, had been

able to justify his fight, and that he would still be entitled to limited powers as King under

a new constitutional settlement. It was now felt that by provoking the second Civil War

even while defeated and in captivity, Charles showed himself incorrigible, dishonourable,

and responsible for unjustifiable bloodshed.

The idea of trying a king was a novel one; previous monarchs had been deposed,

but had never been brought to trial as monarchs. The High Court of Justice established by

the Act consisted of 135 Commissioners (all firm Parliamentarians); the prosecution was

led by Solicitor General John Cook.

His trial on charges of high treason and other high crimes began on 20 January

1649, but Charles refused to enter a plea, claiming that no court had jurisdiction over a

monarch. The court, by contrast, proposed that no man is above the law. Over a period of

a week, when Charles was asked to plead three times, he refused. It was then normal

practice to take a refusal to plead as pro confesso: an admission of guilt, which meant that

the prosecution could not call witnesses to its case. However, the trial did hear witnesses.

Fifty-nine of the Commissioners signed Charless death warrant, on 29 January 1649.

After the ruling, he was led from St. Jamess Palace, where he was confined, to the

Palace of Whitehall, where an execution scaffold had been erected in front of the

Banqueting House.

1.8 ExecutionThis contemporary German print depicts Charles I's decapitation at 12 O'clock at

night because the public were too keen to see Charles decapitated.

His last words were, "I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown, where no

disturbance can be."

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In an unprecedented gesture, one of the revolutionary leaders, Oliver Cromwell,

allowed the King's head to be sewn back on his body so the family could pay its respects.

Charles was buried in private and at night on 7 February 1649, in the Henry VIII vault

inside St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle. The King's son, King Charles II, later

planned an elaborate royal mausoleum, but it was never built. With the monarchy

overthrown, power was assumed by a Council of State, which included Oliver Cromwell,

then Lord General of the Parliamentary Army. The Long Parliament (known by then as

the Rump Parliament) which had been called by Charles I in 1640 continued to exist until

Cromwell forcibly disbanded it in 1653. Cromwell then became Lord Protector of

England, Scotland and Ireland; a monarch in all but name: he was even "invested" on the

royal coronation chair. Upon his death in 1658, Cromwell was briefly succeeded by his

son, Richard Cromwell. Richard Cromwell was an ineffective ruler, and the Long

Parliament was reinstated in 1659. The Long Parliament dissolved itself in 1660, and the

first elections in twenty years led to the election of a Convention Parliament which

restored Charles I's eldest son to the monarchy as Charles II.

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Chapter II. Retirement: Victoria of the United

Kingdom

Victoria

Queen of the United Kingdom, Empress of India

Reign 20 June 1837 22 January 1901

Coronation 28 June 1838

Predecessor William IV

Successor Edward VII

Consort Albert, Prince Consort

Issue

Victoria, German Empress, Queen of Prussia and Princess Royal

Edward VII

Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse

Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Helena, Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein

Louise, Duchess of Argyll

Arthur, Duke of Connaught

Leopold, Duke of Albany

Beatrice, Princess Henry of Battenberg

Full name

Alexandrina Victoria

Titles and styles

HM The Queen

HRH Princess Victoria of Kent

Royal house House of Hanover

Royal anthem God Save the Queen

Father Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent

Mother Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld

Born 24 May 1819(1819-05-24)

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Kensington Palace, London

Baptised 24 June 1819

Kensington Palace, London

Died 22 January 1901 (aged 81)

Osborne House, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom

Burial 2 February 1901

Frogmore, Windsor, Berkshire, United Kingdom

2.1 Early life

At the age of 50, Edward, the Duke of Kent and Strathearn, the fourth son of

George III, married a widow, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. Victoria, the

couples only child, was born in Kensington Palace, London on 24 May 1819. At birth

she was fifth in line for the British crown, but her grandfather was elderly, and his

children had failed to produce legitimate issue.

Victoria was christened in the Cupola Room of Kensington Palace on 24 June 1819 by

the Archbishop of Canterbury (Charles Manners-Sutton). Although christened

Alexandrina Victoria - and from birth formally styled Her Royal Highness Princess

Victoria of Kent - Victoria was called Drina within the family. She was taught German,

English, Italian, Greek, Chinese, and French, arithmetic, music and her favourite subject,

history.

Victorias father died of after a brief illness, just eight months after she was born.

Her grandfather, King George III, died six days later. Her uncle, the Prince of Wales,

inherited the Crown, becoming King George IV, but he too died childless when Victoria

was only 11. The crown now passed to his brother, the Duke of Clarence and St

Andrews, who became King William IV.

2.2 Heiress to the Throne

King George IIIs eldest son, the Prince of Wales and future King George IV, had

only one child, Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales. When she died in 1817 the

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remaining unmarried sons of King George III scrambled to marry and father children to

guarantee the line of succession.

Although William was the father of ten illegitimate children by his mistress, the actress

Dorothy Jordan, he had no surviving legitimate children. As a result, the young Princess

Victoria, his niece, became heiress presumptive.

Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Princess Victoria met her future husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha,

when she was just 16 years old in 1836. But it was not until a second meeting in 1839

that she said of him, dear Albert He is so sensible, so kind, and so good, and so

amiable too. He has besides, the most pleasing and delightful exterior and appearance

you can possibly see.Prince Albert was Victorias first cousin; his father was her

mothers brother, Ernst. As a monarch, Victoria had to propose to him. Their marriage

proved to be very happy.

2.3 Early reign

Accession to the Throne

On 24 May 1837 Victoria turned 18, meaning that a regency was no longer

necessary. On 20 June 1837, Victoria was awakened by her mother to find that William

IV had died from heart failure at the age of 71. Victoria was now Queen of the United

Kingdom. Her coronation took place on 28 June 1838.

At the time of her accession, the government was controlled by the Whig Party,

which had been in power, except for brief intervals, since 1830. The Whig Prime

Minister, Lord Melbourne, at once became a powerful influence in the life of the

politically inexperienced Queen, who relied on him for advice. However, the Melbourne

ministry would not stay in power for long; it was growing unpopular and, moreover,

faced considerable difficulty in governing the British colonies. In 1839 Lord Melbourne

resigned.

Victoria's principal adviser was her uncle King Leopold I of Belgium (her mother's

brother, and the widower of Princess Charlotte). The Queen then commissioned Sir

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Robert Peel, a Tory, to form a new ministry, but was faced with a crisis known as the

Bedchamber Crisis. At the time, it was customary for appointments to the Royal

Household to be based on the patronage system (that is, for the Prime Minister to appoint

members of the Royal Household on the basis of their party loyalties). Many of the

Queen's Ladies of the Bedchamber were wives of Whigs, but Sir Robert Peel expected to

replace them with wives of Tories. Victoria strongly objected to the removal of these

ladies, whom she regarded as close friends rather than as members of a ceremonial

institution. Sir Robert Peel felt that he could not govern under the restrictions imposed by

the Queen, and consequently resigned his commission, allowing Melbourne to return to

office.

Marriage and assassination attempts

The Queen married her first cousin, Prince Albert, on 10 February 1840, in the

Chapel Royal of St. James's Palace, London. Albert became not only the Queen's

companion, but also an important political advisor, replacing Lord Melbourne as the

dominant figure in the first half of her life.

During Victoria's first pregnancy, eighteen-year old Edward Oxford attempted to

assassinate the Queen while she was riding in a carriage with Prince Albert in London.

Oxford fired twice, but both bullets missed. He was tried for high treason, but wasacquitted on the grounds of insanity. The shooting had no effect on the Queen's health or

on her pregnancy and the first of the royal couple's nine children, named Victoria, was

born on 21 November 1840.

Two further attempts to assassinate Queen Victoria occurred in May and July 1842.

2.4 Early Victorian politics and further

assassination attempts

Peel's ministry soon faced a crisis involving the repeal of the Corn Laws. Many

Tories - by then known also as Conservatives - were opposed to the repeal, but some

Tories (the "Peelites") and most Whigs supported it. Peel resigned in 1846, after the

repeal narrowly passed, and was replaced by Lord John Russell. Russell's ministry,

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though Whig, was not favoured by the Queen. Particularly offensive to Victoria was the

Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, who often acted without consulting the Cabinet, the

Prime Minister, or the Queen.

In 1849, Victoria lodged a complaint with Lord John Russell, claiming that

Palmerston had sent official dispatches to foreign leaders without her knowledge. She

repeated her remonstrance in 1850, but to no avail. It was only in 1851 that Lord

Palmerston was removed from office; he had on that occasion announced the British

government's approval for President Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte's coup in France without

prior consultation of the Prime Minister.

The period during which Russell was prime minister also proved personally

distressing to Queen Victoria. In 1849, an unemployed and disgruntled Irishman named

William Hamilton attempted to alarm the Queen by firing a powder-filled pistol as her

carriage passed along Constitution Hill, London. Hamilton was charged under the 1842

act; he pleaded guilty and received the maximum sentence of seven years of penal

transportation.

2.5 Ireland

The young Queen Victoria fell in love with Ireland, choosing to holiday in

Killarney in Kerry. Her love of the island was matched by initial Irish warmth towards

the young Queen. In 1845, Ireland was hit by a potato blight that over four years cost the

lives of over one million Irish people and saw the emigration of another million. In

response to what came to be called the Irish Potato Famine, the Queen personally donated

2000 pounds sterling to the starving Irish people.

The policies of her minister Lord John Russell were often blamed for exacerbating

the severity of the famine, killing a million Irishmen, which adversely affected the

Queens popularity in Ireland.Victoria was a strong supporter of the Irish. Victorias first official visit to Ireland,

in 1849, was specifically arranged by Lord Clarendon, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the

head of the British administration, to try both to draw attention off the famine and also to

alert British politicians through the Queens presence to the seriousness of the crisis in

Ireland. Despite the negative impact of the famine on the Queens popularity she

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remained popular enough for nationalists at party meetings to finish by singing God Save

the Queen.

By the 1870s and 1880s the monarchys appeal in Ireland had diminished

substantially, partly because Victoria refused to visit Ireland in protest at the Dublin

Corporations decision not to congratulate her son, the Prince of Wales on both his

marriage to Princess Alexandra of Denmark and on the birth of the royal couples oldest

son, Prince Albert Victor.

Victoria refused repeated pressure from a number of prime ministers, lords

lieutenant and even members of the Royal Family, to establish a royal residence in

Ireland.

Victoria paid her last visit to Ireland in 1900, when she came to appeal to Irishmen

to join the British Army and fight in the Second Boer War. Nationalist opposition to her

visit was spearheaded by Arthur Griffith, who established an organisation to unite the

opposition.

2.6 Widowhood

Albert, the Prince Consort, died of typhoid fever on 14 December 1861 due to the

primitive sanitary conditions of Windsor Castle. His death devastated Victoria,who

entered a state of mourning and wore black for the remainder of her life. She avoided

public appearances and rarely set foot in London in the following years. Her seclusion

earned her the name "Widow of Windsor". She blamed her son Edward, the Prince of

Wales, for his father's death, since news of the Prince's poor conduct had come to his

father in November, leading Prince Albert to travel to Cambridge to confront his son.

Victoria's self-imposed isolation from the public greatly diminished the popularity of the

monarchy, and even encouraged the growth of the republican movement. Although she

did undertake her official government duties, she chose to remain secluded in her royalresidences, Balmoral in Scotland, Osborne House on the Isle of Wight and Windsor

Castle. During this time, one of the most important pieces of legislation of the nineteenth

century the Reform Act 1867 was passed by Parliament. Lord Palmerston was

vigorously opposed to electoral reform, but his ministry ended upon his death in 1865. He

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was followed by Earl Russell (the former Lord John Russell), and afterwards by Lord

Derby, during whose ministry the Reform Act was passed.

Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli was a staunch supporter of the expansion and

preservation of the British Empire. He introduced the Royal Titles Act 1876 which

created Queen Victoria Empress of India, raising her from queen to empress, the same

level as the German Emperor and the Russian Tsar for the purposes of protocol.

2.7 Later years

Diamond Jubilee

On 22 September 1896, Victoria surpassed George III as the longest reigning

monarch in English, Scottish, and British history. The Queen requested all special publiccelebrations of the event to be delayed until 1897, to coincide with her Diamond Jubilee.

The Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain, proposed that the Diamond Jubilee be made

a festival of the British Empire.

The Prime Ministers of all the self-governing dominions and colonies were invited. The

Queens Diamond Jubilee procession included troops from every British colony and

dominion, together with soldiers sent by Indian Princes and Chiefs as a mark of respect to

Victoria, the Empress of India. The Diamond Jubilee celebration was an occasion marked

by great outpourings of affection for the septuagenarian Queen. A service of thanksgiving

was held outside St. Pauls Cathedral. Queen Victoria sat in her carriage throughout the

service. Queen Victoria wore her usual black mourning dress trimmed with white lace.

Death

Following a custom she maintained throughout her widowhood Victoria spent

Christmas at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. She died there from a cerebral

haemorrhage on 22 January 1901, at the age of 81. At her deathbed she was attended by

her son, the future King, and her oldest grandson, German Emperor William II. As she

had wished, her own sons lifted her into the coffin. She was dressed in a white dress and

her wedding veil. Her funeral was held on 2 February, and after two days of lying-in-

state, she was interred beside Prince Albert in the Frogmore Mausoleum at Windsor

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Great Park. Since Victoria disliked black funerals, London was instead festooned in

purple and white.Victoria had reigned for a total of 63 years, seven months and two days

the longest of any British monarch.

2.8 Legacy

Queen Victoria's reign marked the gradual establishment of modern constitutional

monarchy. A series of legal reforms saw the House of Commons' power increase, at the

expense of the House of Lords and the monarchy, with the monarch's role becoming

gradually more symbolic. Since Victoria's reign the monarch has had only, in Walter

Bagehot's words, "the right to be consulted, the right to advise, and the right to warn".

As Victoria's monarchy became more symbolic than political, it placed a strong emphasis

on morality and family values, in contrast to the sexual, financial and personal scandals

that had been associated with previous members of the House of Hanover and which had

discredited the monarchy. Victoria's reign created for Britain the concept of the 'family

monarchy' with which the burgeoning middle classes could identify.

Internationally Victoria was a major figure, not just in image or in terms of

Britain's influence through the empire, but also because of family links throughout

Europe's royal families, earning her the affectionate nickname "the grandmother of

Europe". For example, three of the main monarchs with countries involved in the First

World War on the opposing side were either grandchildren of Victoria's or married to a

grandchild of hers. Eight of Victoria's nine children married members of European royal

families, and the other, Princess Louise, married the Marquis of Lorne, a future

Governor-General of Canada.

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Chapter III. Abdication: Edward VIII of the

United Kingdom

Edward VIIIKing of Great Britain, Ireland and the British

Dominions beyond the Seas, Emperor of India

Reign 20 January 11 December 1936

Predecessor George V

Successor George VI

Spouse Wallis, Duchess of Windsor (post-abdication)

Full name

Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David

Titles and styles

HRH The Duke of Windsor

HM The King

HRH The Prince of Wales

HRH The Duke of Cornwall

HRH Prince Edward of Wales

HRH Prince Edward of Cornwall and York

HRH Prince Edward of York

HH Prince Edward of York

Royal house House of Windsor

Royal anthem God Save the King

Father George V

Mother Mary of Teck

Born 23 June 1894(1894-06-23)

White Lodge, Richmond, London, England

Baptised 16 July, 1894

White Lodge, Richmond, London, England

Died 28 May 1972 (aged 77)

Paris, France

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Burial 5 June, 1972

Frogmore, Berkshire, England

3.1 Early lifeEdward VIII was born on 23 June 1894, at White Lodge, Richmond, Surrey,

England. He was the eldest son of The Duke of York (later King George V), and The

Duchess of York (formerly Princess Victoria Mary of Teck). His father was the second

son of The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) and The Princess of Wales (formerly

Princess Alexandra of Denmark). His mother was the eldest daughter of The Duke of

Teck and The Duchess of Teck (formerly Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge). As a

great grandson of Queen Victoria in the male line, Edward was styled His Highness

Prince Edward of York at his birth.

He was baptised in the Green Drawing Room of White Lodge on 16 July 1894, by

Edward White Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury.Edward VIII was named after his late

uncle, who was known to his family as Eddy or Edward, and his great-grandfather

King Christian IX of Denmark. The name Albert was included at the behest of Queen

Victoria. His last four names George, Andrew, Patrick and David came from the

Patron Saints of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. The Prince was nevertheless, for

the rest of his life, known to his family and close friends by his last given name, David.

Edwards parents, The Duke and Duchess of York, were often removed from their

childrens upbringing, like other upper-class English parents of the day. His father,

though a harsh disciplinarian, was demonstrably affectionate and his mother displayed a

frolicksome side when dealing with her children that belies her austere public image. She

was amused by the children making tadpoles on toast for their French master,and

encouraged them to confide matters in her which it would have provoked his father to

know.

3.2 Prince of Wales

Edward automatically became Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay when his

father, George V, ascended the throne on 6 May 1910. The new King created him Prince

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of Wales and Earl of Chester on 23 June 1910, and officially invested him as such in a

special ceremony at Caernarfon Castle on 13 July 1911. For the first time since 1616 (and

the evidence for that ceremony is thin) this investiture took place in Wales at the

instigation of the Welsh politician David Lloyd George, Constable of the Castle, who at

that time held the position of Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Liberal

government.Lloyd George invented a rather fanciful ceremonial which took the form of a

Welsh pageant, coaching the prince to utter some sentences in Welsh.

Military career

When the First World War (19141918) broke out, Edward had reached the

minimum age for active service and was keen to participate. He had joined the army,

serving with the Grenadier Guards, in June 1914, and although Edward was willing to

serve on the front lines, the Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener, refused to allow

it, citing the immense harm that the capture of the heir to the throne would cause.

Despite this, Edward witnessed trench warfare firsthand and attempted to visit the

front line as often as he could, leading to his award of the Military Cross in 1916. His role

in the war, although limited, led to his great popularity among veterans of the conflict.As

of 1911 he was also a Midshipman in the Royal Navy, making Lieutenant in 1913.

Edward undertook his first military flight in 1918 and later gained his pilot's licence.Onhis succession he became Admiral of the Fleet in the Navy, Field Marshal in the Army,

and Marshal of the Royal Air Force.

Romances

In 1930, King George V gave Edward a home, Fort Belvedere, near Sunningdale in

Berkshire. There Edward had relationships with a series of married women including

half-British half-American textile heiress Freda Dudley Ward, American film actress

Mildred Harris and Lady Furness (born Thelma Morgan) an American woman of part-

Chilean ancestry, who introduced the Prince to fellow American Wallis Simpson. Mrs.

Simpson had divorced her first husband in 1927 and subsequently married Ernest

Simpson, a half-British half-American businessman. Mrs. Simpson and the Prince of

Wales, it is generally accepted, became lovers while Lady Furness travelled abroad,

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though Edward adamantly insisted to his father the King that he was not intimate with her

and that it was not appropriate to describe her as his mistress.

King George V was disappointed in Edward's failure to settle down in life and

disgusted by his many affairs with married women. He was reluctant to see Edward

inherit the Crown. Edward's relationship with Mrs. Simpson further weakened his poor

relationship with his father. Although the King and Queen met Mrs. Simpson at

Buckingham Palace in 1935, they later refused to receive her. But Edward had now fallen

in love with Wallis and the couple grew ever closer.

Edward's affair with the American divorced led to such grave concern that the

couple was followed by members of the Metropolitan police Special Branch, to examine

in secret the nature of their relationship.

3.3Reign

King George V died on 20 January 1936, and Edward ascended the throne as King

Edward VIII. The next day, he broke royal protocol by watching the proclamation of his

own accession to the throne from a window of St. Jamess Palace in the company of the

then still-married Mrs. Simpson. It was also at this time that Edward VIII became the first

monarch of the Commonwealth Realms to fly in an aeroplane, when he flew from

Sandringham to London for his Accession Council.

Edward caused unease in government circles with actions that were interpreted as

interference in political matters. On visiting the depressed coal mining villages in South

Wales the Kings observation that something must be done for the unemployed coal

miners was seen as directly critical of the Government, though it has never been clear

whether the King had anything in particular in mind.

On 16 July 1936 an attempt was made on the Kings life. An Irish malcontent,

Jerome Brannigan (otherwise known as George Andrew McMahon) produced a loadedrevolver as the King rode on horseback at Constitution Hill, near Buckingham Palace.

Police spotted the gun and pounced on him; he was quickly arrested. At Brannigans trial,

he alleged that a foreign power had approached him to kill Edward. The court sent him

to jail for a year.

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By October it was becoming clear that the new King planned to marry Mrs.

Simpson, especially when divorce proceedings between Mr. and Mrs. Simpson were

brought at Ipswich Crown Court. Preparations for all contingencies were made, including

the prospect of the coronation of King Edward and Queen Wallis. Because of the

religious implications of any marriage, plans were made to hold a secular coronation

ceremony not in the traditional religious location, Westminster Abbey, but in the

Banqueting House in Whitehall.

3.4 Abdication

On 16 November 1936, Edward invited Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin to

Buckingham Palace and expressed his desire to marry Wallis Simpson when she became

free to re-marry. Baldwin informed the King that his subjects would deem the marriage

morally unacceptable, largely because remarriage after divorce was opposed by the

Church, and the people would not tolerate Wallis as Queen.

Edward proposed an alternative solution of a morganatic marriage, in which

Edward would remain King but Wallis would not become Queen. She would enjoy some

lesser title instead, and any children they might have would not inherit the throne. This

too was rejected by the British Cabinet as well as other Dominion governments,whose

views were sought pursuant to the Statute of Westminster 1931.

The King informed Baldwin that he would abdicate if he could not marry her.

Baldwin then presented Edward with three choices: give up the idea of marriage; marry

Mrs. Simpson against his ministers wishes; or abdicate.It was clear that Edward was not

prepared to give up Mrs. Simpson. By marrying against the advice of his ministers, he

would cause the government to resign, prompting a constitutional crisis. He chose to

abdicate.

Edward duly signed the instruments of abdication at Fort Belvedere on 10December 1936, in the presence of his three brothers, The Duke of York, The Duke of

Gloucester and The Duke of Kent. The next day, he performed his last act as King when

he gave royal assent to His Majestys Declaration of Abdication Act 1936, which applied

to the United Kingdom. The provisions of the Statute of Westminster required that the

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parliaments of the United Kingdom and the Dominions each pass a separate Act allowing

the abdication.

On the night of 11 December 1936, Edward, now reverted to the title of Prince Edward,

made a broadcast to the nation and the Empire, explaining his decision to abdicate. He

famously said, I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and

to discharge my duties as king as I would wish to do without the help and support of the

woman I love.

After the broadcast, Edward departed the United Kingdom for Austria, though he

was unable to join Mrs. Simpson until her divorce became absolute, several months

later.His brother, Prince Albert, Duke of York succeeded to the throne as George VI, with

his elder daughter, The Princess Elizabeth, first in the line of succession, as the heiress

presumptive.

3.5 Duke of Windsor

On 12 December 1936, at his Accession Privy Council, George VI announced he

was to make his brother Duke of Windsor, and also re-admit him to the highest degrees

of the various British Orders of Knighthood. He wanted this to be the first act of his

reign, although the formal documents were not signed until 8 March of the following

year. But during the interim, Edward was universally known as the Duke of Windsor.

The King's decision to create Edward a royal duke ensured that he could neither stand for

election to the House of Commons nor speak on political subjects in the House of Lords.

However, letters patent dated 27 May 1937, which re-conferred upon the Duke of

Windsor the "title, style, or attribute of Royal Highness", specifically stated that "his wife

and descendants, if any, shall not hold said title or attribute". The Duke of Windsor

married Mrs. Simpson, who had changed her name by deed poll to Wallis Warfield, in a

private ceremony on 3 June 1937, at Chateau de Cand, near Tours, Indre-et-Loire,France. The new king, George VI, absolutely forbade members of the Royal Family to

attendEdward had particularly wanted Prince Henry and George (the Dukes of

Gloucester and Kent) and Lord Louis Mountbatten (Earl Mountbatten of Burma after

1947) to be thereand this continued for many years to rankle with the now ducal

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couple, notwithstanding the obvious awkwardnesses involved should royalty have been

on hand because of the King's role as Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

The denial of the style "HRH" to the Duchess of Windsor caused conflict, as did

the financial settlementthe government declined to include the Duke or the Duchess on

the Civil List and the Duke's allowance was paid personally by the King. But the Duke

had compromised his position with the King by concealing the extent of his financial

worth when they informally agreed on the amount of the sinecure the King would pay.

Edward's worth had accumulated from the revenues of the Duchy of Cornwall paid to

him as Prince of Wales and ordinarily at the disposal of an incoming king. This led to

strained relations between the Duke of Windsor and the rest of the Royal Family for

decades. Edward became embittered against his own mother.

3.6 Later life

The couple returned once again to France to live at 4 rue du Champ d'Entranement

on the Neuilly-sur-Seine side of the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, where the City of Paris

provided him with a house and the French government exempted him from income tax.

Effectively taking on the role of minor celebrities, the couple were for a time in the 1950s

and 1960s regarded as part of caf society. They hosted parties and shuttled between

Paris and New York; many of those who met the Windsors socially, including Gore

Vidal, reported on the vacuity of the Duke's conversation.

In the late 1960s, the Duke's health deteriorated. In 1972, Queen Elizabeth visited

the Windsors while on a state visit to France, however only the Duchess appeared with

the Royal party for a photocall. On 28 May of that year the Duke, who was a smoker

from an early age, died at his home in Paris from throat cancer. His body was returned to

Britain, lying in state at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle; an unexpectedly large

number of people filed by the coffin. The funeral service was held in the chapel on 5 Junein the presence of the Queen, the royal family, and the Duchess of Windsor, and the

coffin was buried in the Royal Burial Grounds behind the Royal Mausoleum of Queen

Victoria and Prince Albert at Frogmore. Increasingly senile and frail, the Duchess died 14

years later, and was buried alongside her husband simply as "Wallis, Duchess of

Windsor".

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Chapter IV. Tragedy: Diana, Princess of Wales

Diana

Princess of Wales

Spouse Charles, Prince of Wales

(1981 1996)

Issue

Prince William of Wales

Prince Henry of Wales

Full name

Diana Frances Spencer

Titles and stylesDiana, Princess of Wales

HRH The Princess of Wales

Lady Diana Spencer

The Hon Diana Spencer

Royal house House of Windsor

Father Edward, Earl Spencer

Mother Frances Shand Kydd

Born 1 July 1961(1961-07-01)

Park House, Sandringham

Baptised St. Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham

Died 31 August 1997 (aged 36)

Paris, France

Burial Althorp, Northamptonshire

4.1 Early life

Diana Frances Spencer was the youngest daughter of Edward John Spencer,

Viscount Althorp, later John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer, and his first wife, Frances

Spencer, Viscountess Althorp (formerly the Honourable Frances Burke Roche). She was

born at Park House, Sandringham in Norfolk, England and baptised there at St. Mary

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Magdalene Church by the Rt. Rev. Percy Herbert (rector of the church and former Bishop

of Norwich and Blackburn). She was the third child to the couple, her four siblings being;

The Lady Sarah Spencer (born 19 March 1955), The Lady Jane Spencer (born 11

February 1957), The Honourable John Spencer (born and died 12 January 1960), and

Charles Spencer (born 20 May 1964).

During her parents acrimonious divorce in 1969, (over Lady Althorps affair with

wallpaper heir Peter Shand Kydd) Dianas mother took her and her younger brother to

live in an apartment in Londons Knightsbridge, where Diana attended a local day school.

That Christmas the Spencer children went to celebrate with their father and he

subsequently refused to allow them to return to London at their mother. Lady Althorp

sued for custody of her children, but Lady Althorps mothers testimony against her

daughter during the trial contributed to the courts decision to award custody of Diana

and her brother to their father. On the death of her paternal grandfather, Albert Spencer,

7th Earl Spencer in 1975, Dianas father became the 8 th Earl Spencer, at which time she

became Lady Diana Spencer and moved from her childhood home at Park House to her

familys sixteenth-century ancestral home of Althorp.

In 1976 Lord Spencer married Raine, Countess of Dartmouth, the only daughter of

romantic novelist Barbara Cartland, after being named as the other party in the Earl and

Viscountess Althorps divorce. During this time Diana travelled up and down the

country, living between her parents homes - with her father at the Spencer seat in

Northamptonshire, and with her mother, who had moved to the Island of Seil of the west

coast of Scotland. Diana, like her siblings, did not get along with her new stepmother.

And for that they dubbed her acid Raine.

4.2 Royal descent

Diana was born into an aristocratic family of royal Stuart descent.On her mothersside, Diana had Irish, Scottish, English, and American ancestry. Her great-grandmother

was the New York heiress Frances Work. On her fathers side, she was a descendant of

King Charles II of England through four illegitimate sons.

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The Spencers had been close to the British Royal Family for centuries, rising in

royal favour during the 1600s. Dianas maternal grandmother, Ruth, Lady Fermoy, was a

long-time friend and a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

In August 2007, the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston,

Massachusetts, published Richard K. Evanss The Ancestry of Diana, Princess of Wales,

for Twelve Generations, a comprehensive account of the Princesss forebears in all lines.

4.3 Education

Diana was first educated at Silfield School in Kings Lynn, Norfolk, then at

Riddlesworth Hall in Norfolk and at West Heath Girls' School (later reorganised as the

New School at West Heath, a special school for boys and girls) in Sevenoaks, Kent,

where she was regarded as a poor student, having attempted and failed all of her O-levels

twice.In 1977, at the age of 16, she left West Heath and briefly attended Institut Alpin

Videmanette, a finishing school in Rougemont, Switzerland. At about that time, she first

met her future husband, who was dating her sister, Lady Sarah. Diana reportedly excelled

in swimming and diving and is said to have longed to be a ballerina but did not study

ballet seriously and she was too tall for such a career.

Once it was clear that she would not earn any formal educational qualifications, Diana

begged her parents to allow her to move to London, a request granted before she was

seventeen. An apartment was purchased for her at Coleherne Court in the Earls Court

area, and she lived there until 1981 with three flatmates.

4.4 Marriage

Prince Charles love life had always been the subject of press speculation, and he

was linked to numerous glamorous and aristocratic women. In his early thirties, he was

under increasing pressure to marry. Legally, the only requirement was that he could not

marry a Roman Catholic; a member of the Church of England was preferred. In order to

gain the approval of his family and their advisers, any potential bride was expected to

have a royal or aristocratic background, be a virgin, as well as be Protestant. Diana met

these qualifications.

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Engagement and wedding

Their engagement became official February 24, 1981 and they married at St Pauls

Cathedral on 29 July 1981, watched by a global audience of 28.40 million.

Problems and separation

In the late 1980s, the marriage of Diana and Charles fell apart, an event at first

suppressed, then sensationalised, by the world media. Both the Prince and Princess of

Wales allegedly spoke to the press through friends, each blaming the other for the

marriages demise. Charles resumed his old, pre-marital affair with Camilla Parker

Bowles, while Diana had an affair with her riding instructor, James Hewitt. She later

confirmed the affair with Hewitt in a television interview with Martin Bashir for the BBC

programme Panorama. Charles had confirmed his own affair over a year earlier in a

televised interview with Jonathan Dimbleby.

Diana was also alleged to have had a relationship with James Gilbey, her telephone

partner in the so-called Squidgygate affair. Another supposed lover was her

detective/bodyguard Barry Mannakee, who was assigned to the Princesss security detail,

although the Princess adamantly denied a sexual relationship with him. After her

separation from Prince Charles, she was said to have become involved with the married

art dealer Oliver Hoare, to whom she admitted making numerous telephone calls, and

with the rugby player Will Carling. Other men rumoured to have been her lovers, both

before and after her divorce, included the property developer Christopher Whalley, the

banker Philip Waterhouse, the singer Bryan Adams, and John F. Kennedy, Jr.. There is

little evidence to support the idea that her relationships with these men were anything

more than friendships.

The Prince and Princess of Wales were separated on 9 December 1992, by whichtime her relations with some of the Royal Family, excepting the Duchess of York, Sarah

Ferguson, were difficult

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Divorce

Their divorce was finalised on 28 August 1996.

Diana received a lump sum settlement of around 17,000,000 along with a legal

order preventing her from discussing the details.

Days before the decree absolute of divorce, Letters Patent were issued by Queen

Elizabeth II containing general rules to regulate the titles of people who married into the

Royal Family after divorce. In accordance with those rules, as she was no longer married

to the Prince of Wales, and so had ceased to be a Royal by-marriage, Diana lost the title,

Her Royal Highness and instead was called, Diana, Princess of Wales.

Buckingham Palace stated that Diana was still officially a member of the Royal

Family, since she was the mother of the second- and third-in-line to the throne.

4.5 Personal life after divorce

After the divorce, Diana retained her apartment in Kensington Palace, completely

redecorated, and it remained her home until her death. She gave her staff members a pay

rise.

She publicly dated the respected heart surgeon from Pakistan, Hasnat Khan, who

was called the love of her life, for almost two years, before Khan ended the relationship

due to cultural differences.She soon after began her relationship with Dodi Al-Fayed,

with whom she was publicly intimate. These details were confirmed by witnesses at her

inquest in November/December 2007.

After her divorce, Diana worked particularly for the Red Cross and campaigned to

rid the world of land mines. Her work was always on a humanitarian rather than a

political level. She was extremely aware of her status as mother of a future King and was

prepared to do anything to prevent harm to her sons. She pursued her own interests in

philanthropy, music, fashion and travel - although she still required royal consent to take

her children on holiday or to represent the UK abroad. Without a holiday or weekend

home, Diana spent most of her time in London, often without her sons, who were with

Prince Charles or at boarding school. She assuaged her loneliness with visits to the gym

and cinema, private charity work, incognito midnight walks through Central London and

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by compulsively watching her favourite soap operas (EastEnders and Brookside) with a

TV dinner in the isolation of her apartment.

The alternative court she cultivated was sometimes seen as unconventional and

controversial. Included within it were numerous New Age healers and spiritualists, the

feminist empowerment therapist Susie Orbach, well known personalities such as Gianni

Versace, George Michael, Elton John, and Michael Barrymore with whom she would

visit Soho nightclubs, bohemian members of the aristocracy such as Annabel Goldsmith,

university students, several tabloid journalists and Stephen Twigg, nicknamed Rasputin

for his influence. It was apparently Twigg who helped Diana realise her potential as an

INFP, and introduced her to Jungian theories in general, which she had previously

derided as an interest of her ex-husband.

4.6 Charity work

Starting in the mid- to late 1980s, the Princess of Wales became well known for her

support of several charity projects. This stemmed naturally from her role as Princess of

Wales - she was expected to engage in hospital visitations where she comforted the sick

and in so doing, assumed the patronage of various charitable organisations - and from an

interest in certain illnesses and health-related matters. Owing to Public Relations efforts

in which she agreed to appear as a figurehead, Diana used her influential status to

positively assist the campaign against landmines, a cause which won the Nobel Prizein

1997 in tribute, and with helping to decrease discrimination against victims of AIDS.

4.7 Death

On 31 August 1997, Diana died after a high speed car accident in the Pont d'Alma

road tunnel in Paris along with Dodi Al-Fayed and the acting security manager of the

Htel Ritz Paris, Henri Paul, who was instructed to drive the hired Mercedes-Benz

through Paris secretly eluding the paparazzi. Their black 1994 Mercedes-Benz S280

crashed into the thirteenth pillar of the tunnel. The two-lane tunnel was built without

metal barriers between the pillars, so a slight change in vehicle direction could easily

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result in a head-on collision with a tunnel pillar. None of the four occupants wore

seatbelts.

Blood analysis showed that Henri Paul was illegally intoxicated with alcohol whilst

driving. He drove at high speed in order to evade the pursuing paparazzi. Tests showed

he had consumed amounts of alcohol three times that of the French legal limit. Fayed's

bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, who was in the passenger seat, was closest to the point of

impact and yet he was the only survivor of the crash. Henri Paul and Dodi Fayed were

killed instantly, and Diana unbelted in the back seat- slid forward during the impact

and, having been violently thrown around the interior, "submarined" under the seat in

front of her, suffering massive damage to her heart with subsequent internal bleeding.She

was eventually, after considerable delay, transported by ambulance to the Hpital Piti-

Salptrire, but on the way she went into cardiac arrest twice. Despite lengthy

resuscitation attempts, including internal cardiac massage, she died at 4 a.m. local time.

Her funeral on 6 September 1997 was broadcast and watched by an estimated 2.5 billion

people worldwide.

Grave

Diana was buried on 6 September 1997. The Prince of Wales, her sons, her mother,

siblings, a close friend, and a clergyman were present. Diana wore a black long sleeveddress designed by Catherine Walker; she had chosen that particular dress a few weeks

before. Diana was buried with a set of rosary beads in her hands, a gift she received from

Mother Teresa, who died the week after Diana. Her grave is on an island in the grounds

of Althorp Park, her family home.

The original plan was for her to be buried in the Spencer family vault at the local

church in nearby Great Brington, but Diana's brother, Charles, the 9th Earl Spencer, said

that he was concerned about public safety and security and the onslaught of visitors that

might overwhelm Great Brington. He decided that he wanted his sister to be buried where

her grave could be easily cared for and visited in privacy by her sons and other relations.

The island is in an ornamental lake known as The Round Oval within Althorp

Park's Pleasure Garden. A path with thirty-six oak trees, marking each year of her life,

leads to the Oval. Four black swans swim in the lake, symbolising sentinels guarding the

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island. In the water there are several water lilies. White roses and lilies were Diana's

favourite flowers.

Memorials

Immediately after her death, many sites around the world became briefly ad hoc

memorials to Diana, where the public left flowers and other tributes. The biggest was

outside the gates of Kensington Palace.

Conspiracy theories

The death of Diana has been the subject of widespread conspiracy theories,

supported by Mohamed Fayed, whose son died in the accident. Her former father in law,

Prince Philip, seems to be at the heart of most of them but her ex-husband has also been

named, and was questioned by the Metropolitan Police in 2005. Some other theories have

included claims that MI6 or the CIA were involved.

Conspiracy theorists have also claimed that Paul's blood samples were swapped

with blood from someone else - who was drunk and contended that the driver had not

been drinking on the night Diana died.

Another particular claim, appearing on the internet, has stated that the princess was

battered to death in the back of the ambulance, by assassins disguised as paramedics.

Nonetheless, in 2004 the authorities ordered an independent inquiry by Lord Stevens,

former Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, and he suggested that the case was "far

more complex than any of us thought" and reported "new forensic evidence" and

witnesses. The French authorities have also decided to reopen the case. Lord Stevens'

report, Operation Paget, was published on December 14, 2006 and dismissed all

allegations of conspiracy as without foundation.

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Conclusion

Charles I (19 November 1600 30 January 1649) was King of England, King ofScotland and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution.

Charles famously engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England.

He was an advocate of the Divine Right of Kings, and many in England feared that he

was attempting to gain absolute power. Many of his actions, particularly the levying of

taxes without Parliament's consent, caused widespread opposition.

Religious conflicts permeated Charles's reign. He married a Catholic Princess,

Henrietta Maria of France, over the objections of Parliament and public opinion. Many of

Charles's subjects felt this brought the Church of England too close to Roman

Catholicism. Charless later attempts to force religious reforms upon Scotland led to the

Bishops Wars that weakened England's government and helped precipitate his downfall.

His last years were marked by the English Civil War, in which he was opposed by

the forces of Parliament, which challenged his attempts to increase his own power, and

by Puritans, who were hostile to his religious policies and Catholic sympathy. Charles

was defeated in both Civil Wars (I 1942 - 1945; II 1948 - 1949) and afterwards was

captured, tried, convicted, and executed for high treason. The monarchy was then

abolished and a republic called the Commonwealth of England was declared. Charles's

son, Charles II, became King after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660.

Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 22 January 1901) was the Queen of

the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837, and the first

Empress of India from 1 May 1876, until her death on 22 January 1901. Her reign lasted

63 years and seven months, longer than that of any other British monarch.

Although Victoria ascended the throne at a time when the United Kingdom was

already an established constitutional monarchy in which the king or queen held few

political powers, she still served as a very important symbolic figure of her time. The

Victorian era represented the height of the Industrial Revolution, a period of significant

social, economic, and technological progress in the United Kingdom. Victoria's reign was

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marked by a great expansion of the British Empire; during this period it reached its

zenith, becoming the foremost global power of the time.

Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; later The

Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor; 23 June 1894 28 May 1972) was King of the United

Kingdom from the death of his father, George V (19101936), on 20 January 1936, until

his abdication on 11 December 1936.

As a young man he served in World War I, undertook several foreign tours on

behalf of his father, and was associated with a succession of older married women.

Only months into his reign, Edward forced a constitutional crisis by proposing

marriage to the American divorced Wallis Simpson. Although legally Edward could have

married Mrs. Simpson and remained king, his various prime ministers opposed the

marriage, arguing that the people would never accept her as queen. Edward knew that the

ministry of British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin would resign if the marriage went

ahead; this could have dragged the King into a general election thus ruining irreparably

his status as a politically neutral constitutional monarch. Rather than give up Mrs.

Simpson, Edward chose to abdicate, making him the only monarch of Britain, and indeed

any Commonwealth Realm, to have voluntarily relinquished the throne. He is one of the

shortest-reigning monarchs in British history, and was never crowned.

After his abdication he reverted to the style of a son of the sovereign, The Prince

Edward, and was created Duke of Windsor on 8 March 1937.

Diana, Princess of Wales (Diana Frances; born Spencer; 1 July 1961 31 August

1997) was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales. Their sons, Princes William and

Henry (Harry), are second and third in line to the thrones of the United Kingdom and

fifteen other Commonwealth Realms.

A public figure from the announcement of her engagement to Prince Charles,

Diana remained the focus of near-constant media scrutiny in the United Kingdom and

around the world up to and during her marriage, and after her subsequent divorce. Her

sudden death in a car accident was followed by a spontaneous and prolonged show of

public mourning. Contemporary responses to Diana's life and legacy have been mixed but

a popular fascination with the Princess endures, and conspiracy theories about her death

are currently the subject of an inquest.

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Appendix

Charles I Portrait by Henrietta Maria (c. 1633) by

Anthony van Dyck, 1636 Sir Anthony van Dyck

This contemporary German print Queen Victoriadepicts Charles I's decapitation.

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Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in a Edward VIII official portrait by

photograph taken in 1854 before John St Helier Lander, 1936

an evening Court.

Left-facing currency portrait of Edward VIII U.S. President Richard Nixon and the

Duke and Duchess of Windsor in 1970

Opening of community centre, John Travolta and Diana dancing

Bristol, May 1987 at the White House

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Reference

http://en.wikipedia.org/http://www.britannia.com/history/monarchs/

http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page5.asp

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