[1] Thomas I, the second son of Henry IV of England and brother to Henry V of England was the Duke of Clarence until his brother was killed by a stray arrow during the Battle of Agincourt during Henry V's failed campaign to secure the French crown for himself. Thomas, Duke of Clarence had been left behind in England to manage the affairs of the realm. The news of Henry V's fall in France came as a great shock but what was even worse was the forced retreat of the few remaining English forces as the French began reclaiming lost ground. Thomas I found himself having to raise a new army just to retain the lands in France that the English still had, but despite his efforts the English found themselves being pushed back further and further into Normandy, by the end of the latest stage of the Hundred Year's War the English were barely hanging onto to a handful of ports and a humiliating peace treaty left the English presence in France negligible.
Due to this perceived weakness the King's grip on the nation became weakened as his ambitious brothers John the Duke of Bedford, Humphrey the Duke of Glouchester, and their cousins in the House of York began plotting and scheming for power, a situation made worse due to the King having a long period of time in which he had no children. Thomas I's first marriage (made before he was King) to Margaret Holland, Countess of Somerset had produced no children, so the King forced her into a convent and married again to Anne of Burgundy, which also produced no children. When Anne of Burgundy died unexpectedly of a fever at age 28 the King married a third time to Jacquetta of Luxembourg which finally produced children and heirs for the English throne, seven in total.
This helped the King stabilize the nation for the remainder of his reign, but the English claims to the French throne remained and the House of Valois had seen two mad Kings sit the French throne, giving Thomas's successors hope of pressing the claim once again.
King Thomas I died of 'complications of gout' at age 67 and passed the crown to, his son, Prince Jack.
[2] Known affectionately as Prince Jack to his family - though christened and eventually reigning under the name of John. He was in his mid twenties when he inherited the throne, married to Margaret of Anjou, the daughter of the King of Naples. With a weaker husband, Margaret would have wielded almost absolute power - but with a moderately educated husband who had been given a strong role model in King Thomas, Margaret and John were a veritable power couple and together they crippled the power base of the disruptive House of York and their allies, culminating with the beheading of Edward, Duke of York for insurgent activity and planning regicide (evidence that Margaret may have actually manufactured). The York's had their titles and lands taken, all absorbed by the crown and a possible power struggle for the throne was halted before it had even really started. To validate their claim to the title they quickly invested their three eldest male children as Prince of Wales, Duke of Lancaster and Duke of York - and when John died of heart failure in his fifties, he left Margaret to survive him by a decade and one of his sons to take the throne.
[3] Henry was the second child and oldest son of King John II and Queen Margaret, born in 1457, he was 28 when he assumed the throne. Henry had always been a sickly child and had primarily been raised by his mother and not his father. His mother was basically ruling during his reign, which was short due to his illness. Although there were rumors that one of his brothers, Lancaster or York, had poisoned him. There had always been contempt between Henry and his brothers, who like their father were vigorous men. On Henry's death there was turmoil as the two Dukes contended for the throne before the Duke of York, Rupert, was confirmed as the new king.
[4] Rupert was a rather sinister man. He once burned down a entire village simply because he could.
One day in 1489 he was out hunting with his right hand man Roddy, when an assassin came out of nowhere and tried to shoot Rupert with an arrow but he missed.
In 1490 Rupert had traveled to Ireland but however when he was returning back to England, his ship sank and he drowned.
[5] Youngest son of John II. As leader of rebelion against king Rupert he was accussed of high treason and had to escape country. He spend remaining years of Rupert's rule in exile in France and Italy. After death of cruel king Rupert, John as last male member of House of Lancaster returned to England to claim the throne. John, during his long reign, was known as patron of Renaissance art, but also strong opponent of Protestant reformation and was given title
Fidei defensor by the Pope.
[6] John III had been the last male member of the House of Lancaster - to a fashion. Geoffrey, second son of King Thomas, had been granted his father's pre-regnal title of Duke of Clarence upon his eighteenth birthday and the title had passed down to his son (also) Geoffrey (title held 1500-1520), his grandson William (title held 1520-1538) and eventually to his eighteen year old great grandson Richard (title held 1538 to 1539). Richard was the great great grandson of a great King and endeavoured to settle the discord of the House of Lancaster that predated his rule by formally calling himself the first King of the House of Lancaster and Clarence - and he succeeded, more or less. His first step was to permanently retire the titles of Duke of Lancaster and Duke of York - with London, Clarence, Buckingham and Gloucester being the titles traditionally bestowed upon sons of the monarch when avaliable going forward. Following his distant cousins role within the Roman Catholic church, Richard continued his religious work and sought out a good Catholic bride - and ended up marrying a Habsburg: Margaret, illegitimate daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, a promising wife even in her illegitimacy. Margaret only bore Richard two children, with the second birth being so traumatic that she went out of her way to avoid any sexual activity with him - she devoted herself to religion and he devoted himself to ensuring his children were ready to rule upon his death, and enjoying time with his mistresses and own illegitimate issue and appointing the many FitzRichards to positions of authority in England. The power attained by "Richards Bastards" unnerved some and a handful who had attained the wrong office found themselves accidentally falling down stairways or drowning in puddles. It was clear that despite his best attempts and the protection of the Holy Roman Empire, Richard hadn't managed to eliminate the hunger for power that had marked his three predecessors. Eventually he died at the age of fifty-nine when he was stabbed by Edmund FitzOxford, an illegitimate son of the Earl of Oxford who had married one of his own illegitimate daughters, Amelia FitzRichard. Both Edmund and Amelia were beheaded by Richard's successor, his oldest daughter Mary.
[7] Queen Mary was the first regnant Queen of England as her father had only two legitimate children that were both daughters, her and her younger sister, Princess Eleanor. Queen Mary married James V Stuart, the King of Scotland, a distant cousin through his great-great-great grandfather's marriage to the daughter of Thomas I, Elizabeth. Queen Mary was a strict Catholic and was not kind, to put it mildly, to her Protestant subjects. They labeled her "Terror Mary." Many of them immigrated to North America later in her reign as her terror increased. They began the colony of New England (where OTL Virginia is) in 1588. To counter this a royal colony was created to the north of New England by the crown called New Lancaster and one to the south of the Protestant colony called Maryland. Queen Mary, under the advice of King James, who was as devout a Catholic as she but had a protestant majority population in Scotland and thus had learned the value of tolerance, encouraged her Protestant subjects to move to New England, granting an edict of tolerance for the colony. She survived her husband's death, seeing her child, Thomas, become the monarch of Scotland, who upon her own death a year later became the first king of both Scotland and England.
[8] Also King of Scotland as Thomas I. Oldest surviving son of Mary, after taking throne on London, Thomas rarely even visited Scotland and treated his father's country almost like England's colony. Lords of Scotland, unhappy with his rule, started a rebellion under leadership of Thomas' cousin, Robert of Lennox, who claimed throne for himself. Thomas crushed rebel forces and sentenced his cousin to death, but due to cruel repressions against rebels he was remembered by people of Scotland as bloody tyrant.
[9] James I & VI was the eldest son of Thomas II & I. He was already a young man when the Scottish Rebellion of 1625 occurred. After that he was sent to Edinburgh to represent his father. His time in Scottland before he inherited the throne 13 years later led him to a more benevolent attitude towards the northern kingdom. It also made him more open to Protestants in his realm, like his namesake, his grandfather James V of Scotland. (It was rumored he actually converted to Presbyterianism secretly.) As King in 1646 he issued the edict of tolerance allowing Protestants to freely assemble and worship in England and Catholics in Scotland, as long as each congregation paid a half tithe to the established Church of the Kingdom: Catholic in England and Presbyterian in Scotland. James married
Henrietta Maria of France with whom he had numerous children. He died in the fire of London from smoke inhalation when he refused to leave the city or the Whitehall Palace. He was succeeded by his grandson, Edric I.
[10] Edric I, the eldest son of David, Prince of Wales who tragically died during the royal family's flight from the Great Fire of 1666, was the first King to bear the name 'Eadric' since the conquest, his father begin fond of the Anglo-Saxon period of English history had named his children names that hadn't been used since Harold Godwinson's time. Despite this the new King found himself suffering from breathing problems in the aftermath of the fire, modern medical experts believe he inhaled something toxic during the fire and damaged his lungs as a result.
Due to this the King's reign only lasted nine, painful years as he slowly died, however Edric I proved a capable ruler despite this, organizing the reconstruction of London in the aftermath of the fire, resettling the royal family in a small manor known as Castle Hill Lodge outside of the city, a property that was also expanded into a new royal residence that would come to be called Castle Hill Palace.
Edric I never married nor had children and spent the last three years of his reign in bed, slowly dying while his cousin and heir, William of Orange, ruled the realm on his behalf. Edric I died at age 20, reportedly his last words were a request for wine and fresh flowers by the bed.
[11] William of Orange was the cousin of Edric in that James I & VI's daughter, the Mary, Princess Royal, had married William's father, a Dutch prince who was a protestant. This was intended as a good will gesture to James' Protestant subjects. A lot of the royal family had perished in the fire of London and thus Edric's heir was his aunt Mary, who died before Edric, leaving the Dutch and Protestant William his heir. There was a lot of controversy over a Protestant taking the throne of England and William had to swear to protect all his Catholic subjects' rights and privileges and commit to a greater role of Parliament in government before he was approved by them. It was during William's reign that Parliament began having a prime minster who'd form a cabinet to run a government all under the King's authority. In 1705 the Parliaments of England and Scotland chose to unite the kingdoms into one as the
United Kingdom of Great Britain with one Parliament in London. William had promised to marry a Catholic princess as part of the agreement for him to take the throne. He chose
Mary of Modena and they wed the same year as his coronation. He was 23 and she was 16. Also, although he was only the second of his name to be king of Scotland, he was universally known as William III and after him the numbering system of monarchs ignored the proper number related to Scotland.
[12] William III produced several heirs but they all predeceased him, his aunt Margaret had entered a nunnery after being widowed when her Dutch husband died of pneumonia after six months of marriage and produced no heirs. When it became clear that the House of Orange would be short lived, Parliament passed an Act of Settlement determining that the King of Britain must be Catholic but that the senior most Protestant member of the royal family would be appointed Lord Protector of Scotland under the Kings command. For a suitable heir, Parliament had to backtrack to Queen Mary's sister, Princess Eleanor, who had married into the French royal family - specifically the Duke of Orleans - and her great great great grandson, the brother of the present Duke of Orleans (who had recently converted to Lutheranism himself), the twenty year old Peter d'Orleans. Peter and his French wife arrived in London and before he had been crowned, he faced a stand-off with the Protestant claimant, Henry of Gloucester, grandson of Queen Mary through her younger son, the designated Lord Protector of Scotland, and closer in the line of succession than Peter if it weren't for the Act of Settlement. This launched a period known as The Prince's War which lasts from 1711 to 1716 culminating in the Battle of Culloden and Peter's victory although Peter was almost killed and his coronation held on the battlefield with Henry's heirs disinherited and his Dukedom passed to his younger brother Andrew, who became the first proper Lord Protector of Scotland. After a twenty year rule with several children living to adulthood, Peter died in his sleep from a heart attack.
[13] Peter I and his wife were both French when they came to Britain and already had an infant son, Prince Henri, who'd been born in France. Like his father, Prince Henri married young, but in his case it was deemed proper by Parliament that he marry a British descendant of the royal family and especially not someone from France in that the United Kingdom waged a war with France over colonial possessions with Britain winning and taking possession of the French Maritime colonies north of New Lancaster: New Aquitaine, Algonqueans, and Acadia. The War was called the Eight Year War and ended in 1730.
Prince Henri married a descendant of John of Gaunt, the son of King Edward III, Lady Deborah Beaufort, daughter of Edward Beaufort, the 7th of Duke of Somerset. The Somersets were an old cadet line with a direct male line of 8 generations from John of Gaunt to Edward, the 7th Duke. They were a loyal family to the Lancastrian line from the start and then the Catholic cause. They married on the prince's 18th birthday 1729. Shortly after that the Prince sailed to America to fight in the Eight Year War. He'd been ordered to command from behind the lines but a raid by native allies of the French wounded him and he died shortly there after. But Princess Deborah was with child, and upon his birth in 1730 he became the heir to the throne. He was named after his grandfather- Peter.
When King Peter I died less than a year later, the infant Peter II, became king. His maternal grandfather, Duke Edward, became regent until Peter was of age in 1748 when he was coronated and took over his royal duties. Peter II was raised more as a Beaufort than as an Orleans-Clarence. He was the quintessential 18th Century Englishman. The Wars with France continued and in his coronation year the United Kingdom was again at war with France in the War of the Savoy Succession, which again was a colonial war, called the French and Indian War in America. To show his identity as an Englishman not a Frenchman, Peter had himself crowned as a Clarence, dropping the Orleans part of his family. His first Royal decree was that all members of the United Kingdom were were part of his family were to do the same, which of course they all did.
Peter II lived a long life and since he became King in his first year, his reign of 96 years still remains as the longest know reign of a monarch in History. Peter's Britian saw the Industrial Revolution, the older British American colonies becoming independent with the help of France, the French Revolution and the following wars, and the first elements of the British Empire beyond the Americas in India, the South Seas, and China. In 1801 the status of Ireland changed as it was incorporated into the union and Parliament. The Union Jack flag became the flag it is today and thus the flag that flew around the world.
Peter II had many children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and even one great great grandson when he died. He was survived by his Queen, Charlotte, who lived four more years, dying at the ripe old age of 101. She thus saw her son, Francis take the throne. She was a cousin on the Beaufort side, being the granddaughter of Duke Edward, 7th Duke of Somerset through his eldest child, Lady Elizabeth who'd married the Duke of Suffolk.
[14] Francis, oldest son of Peter II, was already old man, when he took the throne, he reigned for just one year before dying at age 76, leaving throne to his oldest son, Edward.
[15] Edward IV succeeded his father, Francis, at the age of 53. He had only one child, Princess Charlotte, who was 25 on his ascension. Her mother, who had died in childbirth, also named Charlotte, was a grand daughter of Old King Peter and Queen Charlotte. Princess Charlotte was made Princess of Wales the day after her father's own coronation, leaving no doubt she was the heir. Edward's reign saw two major changes in the British system. The half tithe on non-established Churches was dissolved and full religious freedom was granted the citizens of the United Kingdom. The other was the extension of the voting franchise to all men who either owned property or rented property in the Reform Act of 1833. The colony of Hong Kong was chartered by Edward IV. Edward was a large man with a big appetite for food and drink. He had many illegitimate children from his many affairs, but he never married again. He died at age 68 due to heart problems.
[16] The best laid plans - as the saying goes - often go wrong. And after Edward IV died of a heart condition, his daughter was the planned heir - except she had died of pneumonia mere weeks before the Kings own death, perhaps precipitating his emotional and physical exhaustion. This left his brother, the Duke of Cumberland to take the throne instead - and given his advanced age, the fact he had children and grandchildren and even a single great grandchild upon his coronation was a clear bonus to the line of succession. As with Charlotte before, his eldest child was officially invested as Princess of Wales, and in a surprising move by monarch and parliament, male primogeniture evolved into absolute primogeniture. A younger brother would no longer outrank an older sister - this was his major contribution to the monarchy. But he also accepted the personal gift of the Congo basin - which had presumed to be getting handed to the Belgian King - and in a surprising move, he halted any colonial expansion further than basic trading posts. This placed him into conflict with his government but as the territory was privately owned, they had to back off on further action though the crown allowance was decreased accordingly. Peter sent his second son to the English Congo as a Lord Protector of the Commonwealth - a sort of governor to oversee the trading posts. This opposition to expansion caused conflict with other European monarchies following his refusal to allow expansion after the Paris Conference to the extent that Peter found it difficult to find suitable matches for his unmarried grandchildren and great grandchildren, so he looked within British nobility for suitable matches and to American sources, with the result that one of his grandsons married the daughter of the American President. When Peter was on his death bed - from old age - the crown was passed onwards, and the conflict with Parliament and Europe continued to brew.
[17] Princess Deborah had grown up close with her cousin. Although Princess Charlotte had never married (those in the know knew she was a Lesbian), Princess Deborah married a distant cousin, the direct descendant of Regent Edward- Richard the 12th Duke of Somerset. Deborah expected her younger brother, Prince Charles, would inherit the throne eventually after Charlotte died, as he was male. But her father changed things and she became the heir instead. Queen Deborah, later Empress Deborah, was already in her sixties when she inherited the throne. She saw great changes including the the extension of the voting to all males, the electrifying of London, and the great exposition of 1890. The tension with the rest of Europe finally turned into war with the War of 1885, which saw Britain victorious along with her one ally, the Russian Empire. This led to the Empire controlling all of eastern Africa from Egypt to South Africa and the construction of the Cairo to Capetown Railroad. Also a cross peninsula railroad was built across India. Canada, New Zealand, and Australia were given "Dominion" status and Deborah remained queen of these nations too even though otherwise they were independent of Britain.
