Monarchs of England and Britain

King of the West Saxons who halted the Viking advance at the battle of Edington in 878 and fortified a network of burhs across...

His eleven year personal rule without parliament and religious reforms ignited civil war. Defeated twice by parliamentary armies...

The oldest person to accede to the British throne, at 73, after more than seven decades as heir. He was crowned in Westminster...

Conqueror of Wales, where his castles at Caernarfon, Conwy and Beaumaris remain among the finest medieval fortresses. He codified...

Launched the Hundred Years War, claiming the French crown, and celebrated victories at Sluys and Crecy. He founded the Order of...

The last Tudor monarch, never married and styled the Virgin Queen. Her reign saw the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588...

Britain's longest serving monarch, reigning 70 years and 214 days across fifteen prime ministers from Churchill to Truss. She...

The first Hanoverian king born in Britain and to speak English as his first language, he reigned 59 years, a record until his...

First Plantagenet king, ruler of an empire from Scotland to the Pyrenees. He reformed royal justice, extending circuits of...

Immortalized by Shakespeare, he renewed the Hundred Years War and won the battle of Agincourt in 1415 with an outnumbered army of...

Married six times and broke with Rome when the pope refused an annulment, making himself supreme head of the Church of England...

The longest reigning English royal house, from Henry II to Richard III, spanning 331 years and fourteen monarchs. Under it...

Founded by Henry VII after his victory at Bosworth Field ended the Wars of the Roses. Five monarchs in 118 years oversaw the...

The royal house founded by George V by proclamation on 17 July 1917, when anti German feeling in the First World War forced a...

First Stuart king of England, already king of Scots for 36 years, uniting the crowns in 1603. He sponsored the King James Bible...

Lost Normandy to Philip II of France, quarreled with the pope and his own barons, and in June 1215 was forced to seal Magna Carta...

Queen for over 63 years, a record until Elizabeth II. Her reign spanned industrial supremacy, the expansion of empire, and she...

Warrior king who spent barely six months of a ten year reign in England, financing and leading the Third Crusade. He won the...

Duke of Normandy who won the throne of England at Hastings in October 1066. He built the Tower of London, ordered the Domesday...