The Queen of England is Dead. Long Live the King!
Hadn’t you heard?
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Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Second, gained many titles when she ascended the throne on the death of her father, King George VI. Lord of Mann, for example, by virtue of being the head of state of the Isle of Man. Not Lady of Mann, you’ll note.
Likewise, she also became Duke of Normandy through her position in the Channel Isles of Guernsey and Jersey, where the Loyal Toast is drunk to “The Queen, our Duke!”
But she never became Queen of England. That title has been moribund for over three hundred years. Instead, she became Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The United Kingdom was formed because in 1603 Queen Elizabeth I died childless, and the crown of England passed to the next in line, James Charles Stuart, her first cousin twice removed, who happened to be King James VI of Scotland.
James VI thus became James I of England, and the two kingdoms had a single monarch who was both King of England and King of Scotland. This situation lasted for over a century — apart from the interruption of Oliver Cromwell — until the Act of Union on 1 May 1707 saw the two kingdoms become one to form the United Kingdom.
Queen Anne — the monarch at that time — relinquished her titles of Queen of England and Queen of Scotland, and became Queen of the United Kingdom. She also had the title of Queen of France, but not the actual job.
It’s all rather confusing, really
Queen Anne was therefore the last person to hold the title Queen of England. She died in 1714, and was succeeded by her second cousin George I, who happened to be a German prince, and had a staggering array of British, German, and French titles.
His son George II was also born in Germany, but with George III (born in London) things settled down and became pretty regular after that, down to the present day.
So there isn’t such a person as the Queen of England. Her Majesty is certainly an English queen, but that isn’t her official title.
Maybe things might change…
In 2014 Scotland voted in a referendum to leave the United Kingdom. That was unsuccessful, but with Brexit being vastly unpopular in Scotland, there is a good chance that they will have another go, and the titles would change, and there would be once again a Queen of Scotland and a Queen of England, who would happen to be the same person.
But not Queen of France. The British gave up that particular claim as a lost cause in 1800, when Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of France.
Her Majesty might not be Queen of England, but she is definitely Lord of Mann and Duke of Normandy, and as The Beatles noted, a pretty nice girl.
So that’s one more thing that Americans (and to be honest, just about everyone else) get wrong about the British. You can win bets and trivia contests with all this stuff. Just have the Wikipedia articles bookmarked before you collect your winnings, and send down a glass of something nice to me, okay?
Britni
Britni Pepper writes for Kindle Direct Publishing. She runs a blog where she reviews erotica, and rambles on about this and that. She may be reached on Twitter and Facebook.
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