Ok, so I am going to begin a series of blogs on the British Monarchy… so if you fancy an overview then stick with me. And for starters I am going to go through how you remember all those kings and queens – as we have had quite a few!
My puppets of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon - he's probably the most famous King of England... but who came before him and who came after him? Read on to find out!
One of the reasons I became a guide was because in my mid-20s I was a little ashamed that I knew very little about British history. I didn’t know what the main periods were and in terms of Kings and Queens I only really knew about Henry VIII (only that he had 6 wives and executed some of them), Elizabeth I (because she was hardcore) and our current Queen Elizabeth II, and I knew that plague was a dangerous thing giving you buboes (big boils) in your armpits and boils (the type of things kids remember). So I trained to be a Professional Blue Badge Tourist Guide for London, the best tourist guiding qualification in the world (we think!) and it forced me to learn my history. And now you can learn it too!
So, first things first, I had to learn all my Kings and Queens. Now there are quite a few…you could go all the way back to the Anglo-Saxon period (from the end of Roman rule in the 400s to 1066) – but for some of that period the realm was divided into kingdoms (think Game of Thrones) and there were loads of rulers so it can get quite confusing - so for the sake of simplicity and so we cover the more famous monarchs I am going to start this with the invasion of William of Normandy in 1066, who ruled the whole of England and from whom you can draw a continuous line (albeit a bit fragmented sometimes) from him to our current Queen Elizabeth II.
So, since 1066 and William of Normandy there have been some 45 rulers of this fair realm (hold your horses those of you who are sticklers for accuracy… the number is variable depending on what and who you are counting, so I am giving a rough number… don’t want people to switch off straight away!). So 45 odd rulers are quite a lot to remember, especially in order, so where do you start? Well you learn this poem:
Willie, Willie, Harry, Steve
Harry, Dick, John, Harry 3;
One, two, three Neds, Richard 2
Henry four, five, six... then who?
Eddie, Eddie, Dick the bad,
Harrys twain and Ned the Lad;
Mary, Bessie, James the Vain,
Charlie, Charlie, James again...
William, Mary, Anna Gloria,
Four Georges, William and Victoria;
Eddie 7 and Georgie 5,
Eddie 8 and Gerogie 6,
And now Elizabeth alive!
And once that is in your head, then you can workout which is which, work out your Royal Houses and start adding some interesting information about each of them until you know them all and you start giving me and my guides a run for their money (some on our Royal London Tour and test us!)!
So, have fun learning it (stick the poem on your fridge!) and more posts to come on our English, and British, Monarchs. See you soon!