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the Queens of England of the sixty-six monarchs who have ruled over England since the Norman Conquest only eight have been Queens these women have had to fight to gain and hold power through most of English history men outranked
History Tea Time explores the lives of England's female monarchs, from Matilda and Lady Jane Grey to Mary I, Elizabeth I and Victoria, and their struggles for power.
Key Takeaways
- Women rulers in English history faced legal, political and social barriers to holding power.
- Several female monarchs governed effectively despite opposition, as Elizabeth I and Matilda show in different ways.
- Succession law changes have gradually made the throne more accessible to women.
What the video covers
- Only eight of the sixty-six monarchs who have ruled England since the Norman Conquest have been queens regnant.
- Women inherited the throne only if they had no living brothers, since men outranked women in the line of succession.
- Matilda fought a civil war with her cousin Stephen and was briefly crowned Queen of England before being ousted.
- Lady Jane Grey was named queen by Edward VI but reigned only nine days before Mary I's supporters overthrew her.
- Mary I, known as Bloody Mary, reigned five years, persecuted Protestants, and died after a false pregnancy.
- Elizabeth I was a politically moderate and intelligent ruler who survived assassination plots and defeated the Spanish Armada.
- The transcript covers Mary Queen of Scots, William and Mary, Anne, and Victoria, including their marriages, losses, and political challenges.
- Queen Victoria's husband Albert and her long mourning after his death are highlighted, along with her relationship with John Brown.
- Elizabeth II's reign is discussed, including the abdication crisis that brought her to the throne and the record for the longest reign.
- Changes in succession law removed the preference for sons over daughters, moving the ratio of queens to kings closer to equal.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction: Women and the English Throne
- 01:32Matilda and the Anarchy
- 03:38Lady Jane Grey's Nine Days
- 05:29Mary I and the Counter-Reformation
- 07:59Elizabeth I and the Golden Age
- 13:20William and Mary, Anne and the Stuart Queens
- 17:00Queen Victoria and Albert
- 25:20Elizabeth II and the Modern Monarchy
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
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women in the line of succession so the only way for a woman to inherit the throne was if she had no living brothers the wives of Kings while called Queens are not monarchs in their own right and are referred to as queen consorts some
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of the female monarchs who were fortunate enough to occupy the throne were a less than brilliant rulers but some reigned with wisdom and justice proving a woman could do the job just as well as a man here are their stories
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Matilda as a princess Matilda was seen as a marriage pond at the age of eight she was sent to Germany to live at the court of her betrothed the Holy Roman Emperor at eleven she married the 27 year old Emperor Henry v as Empress she
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was very successful and popular frequently serving as regent while her husband was away at war Henry died of cancer eleven years later and the 22 year old Empress had an unclear future as she and the Emperor hadn't had any
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children she had no right to remain at the German Court she could either become a nun or remarry she chose the latter and accepted a proposal from Geoffrey the fifth count of Anjou back in England Matilda had a younger brother William
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who is expected to be king at seventeen he held a raucous party on board the white ship the passengers and crew were all drunk and the ship crashed into the rocks everyone on board drowned their cries could be heard on land all night but no
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one could save them in the dark this left Matilda the only living child of King Henry the first of England the King tried to make his noble swear loyalty to his daughter but they were reluctant as they didn't believe a woman
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could rule when the King died Matilda was in aa Jew and before she could make it back home her cousin Stephen of Blois seized the throne he had the support of some of the Barons who recognized that he was weak and would do nothing to stop
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them doing as they pleased Matilda gathered support to press her claim and England was divided between the two Stephens followers turned against him when he confiscated lands and emptied the Treasury in an attempt to bolster support Matilda's army
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captured Stephen and Matilda was crowned as the first Queen of England in her own right however she was used to politics in Germany where the Emperor's every word was law but in England things were different when the barons of England
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demanded that she swear a coronation oath limiting her power and giving power to them she was baffled and refused her imperious attitude was intolerable to the English so they tossed her out and had her cousin Stephen back as their
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king Matilda remained in England for several years applauding to regain her throne and pass the torch on to her son Henry who continued to war with Stephen when Stephens own son Eustace died suddenly Stephen made Henry his adopted
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son and heir and died shortly thereafter making Matilda the mother of a new dynasty that would dominate England in the Middle Ages the House of Plantagenet Jane Henry the eighth's longed for son Edward the Six had only been on the
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throne for six years when it became clear that the sickly young man would die with no sons or brothers to inherit the next in line was his older sister Mary who was a staunch Catholic Edward was just as fervently Protestant and
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balked at the thought of his sister returning England to the Vatican so he devised to skip both his sisters on the grounds of a legitimacy and make his cousin Queen instead Jane was the granddaughter of Henry the eighth's younger sister Mary
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the Queen of France upon hearing that she would be queen she fainted Jane had an outstanding humanist education and was a dedicated Protestant she may have been an excellent queen but the scheme to swap out Jane from Mary was doomed
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from the start Mary was popular with the people and they felt they had been duped Mary easily raised an army and marched to London ending Jane's reign after only nine days the men who had put Jane in this dangerous position saw the writing
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on the wall and abandoned her to save their own skins her own father arrested her Jane and her husband Dudley were imprisoned in the Tower of London Mary now Queen recognised that Jane had been a political pawn and did not wish to
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execute her cousin but when a rebellion in Jane's favour frightened Mary's betrothed from coming to England Mary signed the death warrant and the sixteen-year-old nine days queen lost her head Mary the first Henry the eighth's eldest child Mary had had to
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fight her whole life for her position after her mother Catherine of Aragon had been cast out as Queen when Mary came to the throne at 37 she made quick work of undoing her father and brothers efforts to convert the nation to Protestantism
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she was a devout Catholic and became known as Bloody Mary by burning some 280 Protestants at the stake in her short five-year reign she married her cousin Philip the second king of Spain and loved him dearly but her affections were
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not returned she was desperate for an heir to keep the throne from her Protestant younger sister Elizabeth but with her husband frequently away in his own Kingdom this proved challenging at last Mary began to exhibit symptoms of pregnancy
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but as the tenth and eleventh months ticked by with no signs of labour her swollen belly began to recede she probably suffered a combination of a tumor - psychosomatic episode following the humiliation of her false pregnancy Philip returned to war on the continent
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and Mary was heartbroken she died at the age of 42 most likely of uterine cancer Elizabeth the first the daughter of Henry the eighth and his second wife and belen had spent her half-sister Mary's reign desperately avoiding any
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association with plots against the Queen even so Mary was always deeply suspicious of her Protestant younger sister and had her in and out of imprisonment and always close to the chopping block when Mary died Elizabeth was declared Queen at the age of 25 she
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was incredibly intelligent an outstanding leader and is considered one of the greatest monarchs in English history she was more politically moderate than her father and siblings had been and promoted religious tolerance in response the Pope declared that any Catholic who killed the English
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Queen would be innocent of sin the many assassination attempts that ensued were all foiled by her Secret Service as her mother had been beheaded on her father's order it is no surprise that Elizabeth refused to marry and became known as the
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Virgin Queen she did however have many favorites throughout her life she was particularly close to Robert Dudley whose wife died in a fall down the stairs that may have been orchestrated by Dudley to free him up in case the
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Queen proposed marriage she didn't however and rebuffed her many foreign suitors as well including her sister's widower philip ii of spain who in his disappointment brought the Spanish Armada to overthrow Elizabeth against great odds she led the country to one of
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the greatest military victories in his history and defeated Philips fleet Elizabeth dressed fabulously and more elaborate red wigs and fine poisonous LED makeup she was idealized in art and encouraged her people to worship her as a demigod during her reign the wool
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trade flourished and the English became wealthier than ever she was loved by most but still had one enemy her cousin Mary Queen of Scots was the center of many Catholic plots to overthrow Elizabeth Mary was not the Queen Elizabeth was she
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had married a foolish and violent man Henry Darnley who in a jealous rage murdered Mary's friend and secretary in front of her while Mary was pregnant another Scottish Lord James Bothwell orchestrated darn Lee's death by blowing up his bedroom Mary then married
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Bothwell and everyone suspected that she'd been involved in her first husband's murder she was forced to flee to England where she was immediately arrested Elizabeth put off executing Mary for years she had a horror of killing her cousin and a fellow monarch
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but when Mary was found to have participated in a plot to have Elizabeth assassinated Elizabeth signed the death warrant and Mary lost her head Queen Elizabeth's 44-year reign was known as the Elizabethan era and was a time of
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stability and prosperity it was a period of flourishing arts led by the likes of Shakespeare who wrote such timeless plays as Romeo and Juliet Hamlet and Macbeth exploration and colonization of the Americas was led by the legally sanctioned pirate Francis Drake and by
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Walter Raleigh who named Virginia after his beloved Queen Elizabeth died at 67 ending a golden era in England mary ii after a century of squabble over the throne between Protestants and Catholics the Protestant majority was saddled with a dreaded Catholic King James the second
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Parliament wouldn't stand for it so they invited the Protestant William and Mary to peacefully invade the country and depose James William was the Prince of orange and ruled the Dutch his wife and cousin Mary as the daughter of the
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deposed King James ii had a better claim on the throne but she insisted that her husband be her co-ruler this suited william fine as he was not a man to play second fiddle to his wife because they were ruling at Parliament in
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Asian Parliament finally got to call the shots no standing army no raising taxes no going to war without Parliament's permission and Parliament got to decide who was monarch it was called the Glorious Revolution because royal power was redefined free of bloodshed King
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James made a bid to regain the crown from his daughter and son-in-law by raising Catholic troops in Ireland but his forces were defeated at the Battle of the Boyne William was more interested in his land in the Netherlands and spent
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much of his time there so Mary did most of the ruling in England she promoted religious tolerance but otherwise understood her new royal position and stayed out of politics primarily functioning as a ceremonial figurehead five years into their joint reign Mary
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died of smallpox at the age of 32 William deeply mourned his wife's passing but the pair hadn't had any children possibly because William favoured the company of young men the couple's heir was Mary's younger sister Queen Anne Anne like her sister Anne was
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married to a Protestant Prince George of Denmark he it was an indolent alcoholic and she had no interest in sharing power with him and was the first married Queen to rule on her own she reveled in the ceremony and majesty of monarchy in 1707
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parliament passed the acts of Union which finally made England and Scotland a single sovereign state called Great Britain all monarchs from this point on would be known as British rather than English a combination of the two countries flags called the Union Jack
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became widely used as several Kings before her had male favorites Anne had female favorites the most significant was Sarah Churchill ancestor of the World War to Prime Minister Winston Churchill Sarah's husband was a top military commander and Sarah's close
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relationship with the Queen made her the second most powerful woman in the country Sarah was beautiful and charming while Anne was plain sick and shy Sara often used her influence to her advantage and wasn't afraid to disagree with the Queen
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the couple were politically opposed Sara supported the progressive Whigs and Queen Anne at the religious and conservative Tories and grew tired of Sara's political lectures and attempts to influence policy particularly in prolonging the war on the continent led
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by Sarah's husband eventually and transferred her affections to another lady-in-waiting Abigail Marshall who was young and demure quite the opposite of Sarah in the midst of this new relationship and banished her first love from court clean and must have spent some time with her
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husband because she had 17 pregnancies tragically most ended in miscarriage or stillbirth it is believed by medical historians that Anne's numerous pregnancy losses were due to her having Hughes syndrome which causes the blood to be sticky and thick this
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would explain many of Anne's health problems which confined her to a wheelchair later in life sticky blood has a hard time traveling through the veins of an adult but it is near impossible for it to travel through the
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tiny veins of the fetus and now commonplace medication aspirin would have thinned Anne's blood and saved her baby's lives Anne's one great hope her son Prince William died at the age of eleven of smallpox with no clear air to
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take the throne after Anne it was important that Parliament decide who the next monarch would be so they passed the Acts of settlement which laid down the rules by which the British line of succession is still decided today the
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rules were no Catholic will ever again sit on the throne only legitimate children are eligible spouses of the monarch are not eligible and male primogeniture or sons would outrank daughters in the succession that last rule was struck in 2013 but we'll get to
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that later Anne's closest Protestant relative was Sophia of Hanover who despite being in her 80s was determined to outlive the sickly 49 year old Ann and take the throne she almost succeeded but a letter from an accusing her of plotting to take the throne so
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shocked her that she died two months before an the crown went to Sophia's son George and a new German dynasty stepped onto the British stage Victoria Victoria was the only living child of her generation and was incredibly precious
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to the royal family her father died when she was a year old she was raised by her controlling mother who saw her only child as a meal ticket the future Queen was kept isolated from other children she had to sleep in her mother's room
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until she was 18 and wasn't allowed to go up or down stairs without holding someone's hand lest she fall and hurt herself her mother secretary John Conroy tried to control her he bullied Victoria to sign papers guaranteeing himself
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power when she came to the throne but teenage Victoria was strong-willed and refused her uncle King William the fourth managed to live just past her 18th birthday so that she could take the throne without her mother pushing in as
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regent once Victoria was Queen she sent her mother away and basked in her newfound freedom the prime minister Lord Melbourne was her mentor and she appointed the wives and daughters of his friends as her ladies-in-waiting when an election austin mal born in favour of
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Robert Peel the new PM wanted some of the ladies-in-waiting to be replaced with his own supporters women Victoria refused and Peel resigned in protest this was a big no-no monarchs were no longer allowed to take sides in politics
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and those who did sometimes lost their head the French Revolution was still in living memory after all Victoria fell in love with her handsome German cousin Albert of saxe-coburg and Gotha the Queen had to propose to him as it
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would have been improper for a man to ask for a monarchs hand in marriage at the wedding she began the tradition of brides wearing white before this women wore their best dress whatever the color albert also introduced the
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christmas-tree a German tradition to Britain Victoria was quite pleased with Albert in the bedroom as well and the couple had nine children but what should Albert be called Mary the first had been happy to hand over power to her husband
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the king of Spain and that had been a disaster Elizabeth the first refused to marry rather than share the crown Mary the second husband had been a co ruling King and Anne had kept her husband as far away from the throne as possible
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Victoria loved and trusted Albert and she might have let him be king Albert the first but the people didn't trust a foreign prince and wouldn't stand for it it was decided that Albert would be named Prince Consort the title held by
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the current Queen's husband Prince Philip not able to be King Albert needed something to do he had a good head for finance and did an excellent job of forming the Royal pocketbook he discovered numerous insufficiencies in the way the palace was run and dozens of
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people on staff who were paid for doing unnecessary jobs such as setting a banquet table every night for King George who had long been dead Albert got Victoria in the black and secured the wealth of future generations of British
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Royals he also put his talents into arranging the Great Exhibition which showcased new inventions such as The Telegraph and photography as well as cultural displays from around the world the exhibition was held in the Crystal Palace specially built for the occasion
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Albert threw himself into everything he did so much so that he wore himself down and after an argument with their eldest son Albert contracted typhoid fever and died at the age of 42 Victoria was heartbroken and spent the
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rest of her life in mourning popularizing many mourning practices including wearing black she spent much of her time at Balmoral Castle in Scotland where her closeness to a servant named John Brown earned her the nickname mrs. Brown she retreated from
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public life leading many to wonder why their tax money was going to pay for a queen who didn't work for them the Industrial Revolution was in full swing the world had changed and many believed there was no place for a monarchy one
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republican hung a for rent sign on the gates of Buckingham Palace but the government saw the use of the monarchy the pageantry inspired the people to patriotism and Victoria's nine children made useful political marriages spreading British influence all over
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Europe Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli coaxed the Queen out of her hiding with a grand ceremony crowning her Empress of India while Victoria had been hiding her armies had been busy conquering and colonizing a quarter of the planet and
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creating the largest empire the world had ever seen it was said that the Sun never set on the British Empire and Israeli wanted the millions of subjects around the world to see themselves not under a conquering army and a bunch of
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bureaucrats but under a matronly and regal Queen Victoria became the logo of the Empire and her likeness was seen everywhere she celebrated a 50-year gold and a 60-year diamond jubilee with parades and celebrations by the end of her life Victoria had ninety living
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descendants many of whom carried her genes for porphyria and hemophilia the disease that would cause the downfall of the Russian royal family in 1917 Victoria broke the record with her 64 year reign and set the pattern for British royals to be the focus of
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ceremony and emblems of their people but not involved in politics Elizabeth the second Elizabeth was never meant to be Queen but with her uncle Edward the eighth abdicated a mid scandal in order to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson Elizabeth's father became King
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George the sixth the royal family were very popular during World War two they refused to abandon London even when Buckingham Palace was bombed the young Princess Elizabeth had served as a truck driver and mechanic in the auxiliary territorial service Elizabeth was in
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Africa on a tour of the Commonwealth when her father passed away suddenly and she unexpectedly became Queen she was 25 the same age that her namesake had taken the crown her youth and glamour were an emblem of hope and a source of escapism
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for Britain's still recovering from the devastation of world war ii her coronation was the first to be televised and spurred thousands to buy their first TV by her side was her handsome husband Prince Philip Philip was a member of the
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Greek and Danish royal family but had become a British citizen upon his engagement to Elizabeth the two had been introduced by Philips uncle Louis Mountbatten and when they fell in love Louie was thrilled that future generations of the British monarchy
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would be named Mountbatten but it was decided that no the name of the royal house would continue to be Windsor Elizabeth famously bought her wedding dress with war ration coupons in fact she is very frugal despite her estimated
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worth of 500 million pounds estates and jewelry she insists on eating leftovers and having worn out clothes repaired rather than replaced Elizabeth and Philip had four children Charles and Andrew and Edward the eldest Charles was invested as heir to the throne and the
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Prince of Wales in 1969 in the early 70s Charles fell in love with a vivacious young woman named Camilla the pair dated for several years but it became clear that the royal family would not accept a marriage between the couple Camilla was
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not a virgin and she wasn't from the right sort of family seeing the situation as hopeless Camilla accepted a marriage proposal from another man but she and the Prince couldn't keep away from each other they continued an on-off
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relationship even as Charles married the woman handpicked for him Diana sir Diana was demure and beautiful seen as a fairytale princess but the public didn't see the unhappiness in her marriage until later on their honeymoon Charles was more interested in reading
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than in his new bride he tried to stay away from Camilla at first but they rekindled their affair and the Queen had very little sympathy for her lonely daughter-in-law Diana became incredibly popular with the people both for her glamour and for her
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charity work particularly with victims of AIDS and landmines she was known as the people's princess and the princess of hearts so in 1992 when Diana and Charles split and the unhappiness of their marriage was exposed Charles and Camilla got the blame that same year two
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of the Queen's other children were divorced and from Mark Phillips and Andrew from Sarah Ferguson the Queen called 1992 her honest horrible as' or horrible year because on top of all the drama with her children her favorite home and namesake Windsor Castle caught
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fire and was partially destroyed when it was announced that taxpayers would foot the repair bill the people were outraged the Queen was already exempt from paying taxes on her massive fortune and on top of that she received millions of pounds
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a year from the government Minnie didn't and still don't see the sense of public funds going to a monarchy the symbol of an outdated system the Queen finally conceded that she would pay income tax and pay allowances to minor Royals from
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her own pocket in 1997 Diana died in a car crash in Paris and the outpouring of grief around the world was enormous but was met with silence from the Queen Charles reacted immediately with sadness at the loss of the mother of his
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children but the Queen remained hidden for over a week the people saw this as cold-hearted and out of touch Prime Minister Tony Blair finally convinced her that she needed to make a statement Queen Elizabeth's reign has seen the British
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Empire come into the modern era and that includes the loss of most of its territories now part of the Commonwealth or entirely independent nations she has become the face of Britain around the world and not just on stamps with the
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jet age she's been able to go to dozens of countries in person on state visits as always the monarchy has teetered between popularity and ridicule Charles who will be the next king assuming he outlives his mother finally married his lifelong love Camilla at
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least they're happy because public sentiment is mixed Charles and Diana's eldest son and probable future King William married a commoner Kate Middleton his younger brother Prince Harry married african-american actress Megan Markel propelling the royal family further into modernity the two couples
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glamorous weddings and adorable children have gone a long way to win back the hearts of the people in 2013 just in time for the birth of Will and Kate's first child a new succession to the crown Act was passed giving daughters
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equal importance to sons in the line of succession so in future the ratio of Queens to Kings will be closer to 5050 in 2015 Elizabeth surpassed her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria and now holds the record for the longest reigning monarch in English history it
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remains to be seen what lies in store for the future of the British monarchy if you enjoyed this video please consider supporting me on patreon and help me make more fascinating videos patrons get cool perks like exclusive content mentions in videos and can even
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request video topics a link to my patreon is in the description thank you for watching
Topics:English monarchyqueens of EnglandMatildaLady Jane GreyMary IElizabeth IQueen VictoriaElizabeth IIBritish historywomen in history
