Recent content by MarkUK

I had a short holiday in Worcestershire recently and visited four Royal tombs; King John (died 1216) and Arthur, Prince of Wales (died 1502, Henry VIII's elder brother) in Worcester Cathedral. King John's tomb is very good, Prince Arthur is in a side chantry and the step is worn down after...

Jean Bernadotte was French, one of Napoleon's famous Marshals. He impressed the Swedes with his humanity when he was Governor of French-occupied Swedish Pomerania. When it became apparent that the line of Swedish Kings would die out Bernadotte was chosen as Crown Prince by Parliament, with the...

It is thought that he story about Richard's remains being thrown into the river during the Dissolution in 1538 only began in the early 17th century, 70 years after the alleged event, due to a map maker who couldn't locate the King's tomb so made up the story about his body being lost to cover...

I can't see any country, existing or yet to be created, becoming a Monarchy. We're more likely to see Monarchs departing in this day and age.

Presumably as far back as the founding of the Romanov dynasty in 1613. That is why there is a dispute over the true heir to the Imperial Crown, is it the Grand Duchess Maria, who, under the laws of succession laid down by Tsar Paul, is ineligible as there are male heirs still living. A similar...

I have independently compiled a list of the 58 people who had a "better" claim to the Throne than George, Elector of Hanover in 1714. He only gained the Throne by the 1701 Act of Settlement. Amazingly I found when I joined here that my list tallied with the list compiled by a long standing...

All very true, but being of a cautious nature myself I would have had that law repealed pronto just so it wouldn't niggle me for the rest of my life, it would have been an simple thing to do.

Under rules set out by Tsar Paul I females can only succeed once the male line has become extinct. Then the nearest female blood relative to the last male Tsar can inherit.

For me it's one of history's villains; Henry, Lord Darnley husband of Mary, Queen of Scots. I've made it some way past his age of death though, 21.

Presumably Elizabeth's unwillingness to nominate an heir until she was on her deathbed prevented Parliament from repealing the 1544 Act, otherwise I'm sure they would have done it some time in the 1590s to be on the safe side. Even so I'm surprised James didn't have it repealed as soon as he was...

It was more than just Henry VIII's will, it was an Act of Parliament passed in 1544 which specifically excluded the Scottish line of succession. I can't find any evidence that the 1544 Act was repealed before Elizabeth I's death in 1603, so technically James VI's accession was illegal. Try...

Edward VIII's abdication document dated 10 December 1936 shows this. It was signed by four people; Edward, Albert, Henry and George. The uninitiated might think George was George VI, but it was his brother's signature, George, Duke of Kent. George VI signed himself by his first name Albert...

It is a very curious item. The young man does look more like the Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence than his younger brother Prince George, who wore a beard from his time in the navy in the 1880s. But it can only be Prince George for the reasons you gave in your first post. Assuming the boy...

I don't want to stray too far from the point, but the battle of Jutland was one of those curious battles in which one side won the fighting, Germany (fewer ships and men lost than the British) but lost the battle in the sense that they never again attempted to take on the Royal Navy and remained...

I thought it was very good overall. They dwelt a little too much on her spell in a mental institution perhaps, but her true character shone out in the end. We can see where Prince Philip gets his looks from, his mother was a beauty well into middle age and his father had a definate that rakish...