GrumpyOldMan
First Post
S'mon said:
Sorry, but this is plain wrong.
In 1066 William the Bastard was an invader, who killed the reigning monarch. Or he was the rightful King, promised the throne by Edward the Confessor (the 'truth' depends whether you're a Saxon or a Norman) Before 1066 there was no guarantee that a kings eldest son would inherit, but this changed and
William's son William Rufus was ‘killed in a hunting accident.’ He was hunting with many people including his brother:
Henry ‘Beauclerc’ who was on the throne for 35 years but whose male heirs died, leaving him only with a daughter, Matilda, who he married off more than once. Her second husband was Geoffrey of Anjou. Henry declared war on Geoffrey, and died. This left his nephew
Stephen with a chance to claim the throne. The war between Stephen and Matilda will be familiar to Cadfael fans. It ended when it was agreed that Matildas son Henry would inherit from Stephen.
Henry Curtmantle had the misfortune to have too many sons. Two of these were
Richard Coeur de Lion who decided to fight in Palestine and got himself killed allowing his brother
John Lackland to take the throne. John was in theory a strong ruler but the barons imposed the Magna Carta on him to rein in some of his excesses. Arguably, after that there were some restrictions on the king. When John died his son
Henry III, who was nine years old, at the time inherited the throne. Henry III was on the throne for over 50 years. By the end of his reign kingship was limited by law. Henry’s son
Edward Longshanks clawed some power back from the Barons during his 30 years but
Edward II was weak and after 20 years was deposed and replaced by his son
Edward III who ruled for 50 years but was predeceased by his son Edward 'the Black Prince.' Consequently the Black Prince’s son
Richard II inherited from his grandfather. But when the Lords Appellant tried several of Richard’s cronies for treason (because of the peasants revolt) he hanged three of them and exiled two others. One of the two was Henry Bollingbroke. Richard left for Ireland and Henry took his chance. Parliament elected Henry king. (Could they do that?)
Henry IV spent most of his reign suppressing rebellions but stabilised the kingdom enough to allow his son
Henry V to inherit unopposed. But Henry V died young and his son
Henry VI was a child when he came to the throne. His reign was complicated by the fact that, in his youth, his kingdom was run by two ‘protectors’ one in England and one in France. Then that pesky Jean d’arc turned op to complicate things further (so we’ll stick to England).
Henry was deposed by Edward IV and we’re into the Wars of the Roses.
Edward V was 13 and lasted two months before his uncle Richard Crookback seized the throne until he was killed at Bosworth field in battle against the red rose forces of Henry Tudor, first of his line who became the highly regarded but not particularly famous Henry VII
So in over 400 years we have
Several 20-50 year reigns and some periods of power grabbing by nobles, but not all strong kings survived (William Rufus may, arguably be a case in point) and not all weak kings were deposed (if they were there, would be no 9-year old kings).
Most monarchs were not overthrown because they were ‘weak’ they were overthrown because they made to many enemies within the kingdom. Raw personal power counts for little if you’re arrogant, ignorant and foolish.
