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In 1066 and All That, Sellar and Yeatman defined one conception of royalty: 'Charles II was always very merry and was therefore not so much a king as a Monarch', but Queen Elizabeth I took the thought in a different direction 'I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too'. James V summarized the fate of the crown of Scotland, on learning of the birth of Mary Queen of Scots 'It came with a lass, and it will pass with a lass'. Mary's own motto was 'In my end is my beginning'.
Kings and queens have always had strong views on prospective spouses: Henry VIII famously found Anne of Cleves so different from her picture that he swore they had brought him a Flanders mare, but George IV's comment on first seeing his future wife Caroline of Brunswick is less well-known: 'Harris, I am not well; pray get me a glass of brandy'. Christina of Denmark took a very practical view of the possibility of marrying Henry VIII: 'If I had two heads, I would happily place one at the disposal of the King of England'. In a very different era, Edward VIII said in his abdication broadcast, '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'.
George I had little time for the arts: 'I hate all Boets and Bainters' while George II took a robust line on military affairs, as evidenced by his reply to the Duke of Newcastle, who had complained that General Wolfe was a madman: 'Mad, is he? Then I hope he will bite some of my other generals'. Queen Victoria famously said 'We are not amused'.
There have been good times and bad for British monarchs. Queen Elizabeth II described 1992 as an 'annus horribilis', but at the end of her reign Elizabeth I summed up: 'Though God hath raised me high, yet this I count the glory of my crown: that I have reigned with your loves'.
The Kings and Queens of Britain by John Cannon and Anne Hargreaves is published by Oxford University Press on 26 March 2009. The book contains almost 600 entries covering the rulers of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales from pre-conquest times to the present day House of Windsor and includes feature articles on key royal topics, such as Coronations and Regalia, and on royal residences including Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle. Click here for more details.
19/03/2009
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