Category Archives: History

In Part III, we discussed Richard’s strained relationship with his father. As the King’s health is failing, Richard secures his inheritance of the throne by force, fearful that the King will name Richard’s younger brother, John, heir. Henry II dies on July 6, 1189 and Richard is officially crowned September 3. Richard has a naturalContinue reading “History of the British Monarchy, Part IV: Richard the Lionheart & the Third Crusade”

Link to Part II here. Stephen of Blois (“blue-uh“) was only the nephew of King Henry I, but he was treated like a son to the King because Stephen’s parents–the King’s siblings–had died young. However, before he died, King Henry I proclaimed his daughter, Matilda, heir to the throne. Technically, Matilda was the rightful heirContinue reading “History of the British Monarchy, Part III: King Henry II & The Rise of the Plantagenets”

The legendary figure known today as William the Conqueror, from who all British monarchs of the past thousand years have descended, is born in 1028 as William the Bastard, the illegitimate son of the unmarried Robert, Duke of Normandy. The Duke dies when William is just seven years old, and upon the Duke’s death, itContinue reading “History of the British Monarchy, Part II: William the Conqueror & The Normans”

A thousand years of British history. I began this project some years back and worked on it sporadically, only completing about half of it. It then fell to the wayside as life, as they say, got in the way. But after recently watching the Netflix movie “The King,” about Henry V and the Battles of bothContinue reading “History of the British Monarchy, Part 1: House Wessex, Cnut the Great, and Pre-Norman Britain”