The Kings and Queens of England

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But this ruthlessness, while showing ambition and vigour, was no barrier to incompetence or vainglorious delusion. For most of the middle ages from the Norman Conquest onwards, the kings of England were obsessed with acquiring or re-acquiring large sections of France. They went so far as to claim that they were in fact the rightful kings of France despite all the evidence to the contrary and repeatedly threw all their resources into mounting military expeditions to ruin the lives of thousands of innocent French residents which achieved, in even the medium term, precisely nothing.

The Angevins formulated England's royal coat of arms, which usually showed other kingdoms held or claimed by them or their successors, although without representation of Ireland for quite some time. Dieu et mon droit was first used as a battle cry by Richard I in 1198 at the Battle of Gisors, when he defeated the forces of Philip II of France. [39] [40] It has generally been used as the motto of English monarchs since being adopted by Edward III. [39] NameChris Skidmore, The Rise of the Tudors: The Family That Changed English History, (St.Martin's Press, 2013), 22. Cromwell, Richard". archontology.org. Archived from the original on 16 October 2007 . Retrieved 25 October 2007. Following the death of Sweyn Forkbeard, Æthelred the Unready returned from exile and was again proclaimed king on 3 February 1014. His son succeeded him after being chosen king by the citizens of London and a part of the Witan, [21] despite ongoing Danish efforts to wrest the crown from the West Saxons.

This is an excellent book with which start learning about the British monarchy, particularly the very early Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman Kings. Edward Hall and Raphael Holinshed both record an earlier secret wedding between Henry and Anne, which was conducted in Dover on 15 November 1532.The date of Edward II's death is disputed by historian Ian Mortimer, who argues that he may not have been murdered, but held imprisoned in Europe for several more years. [50]