Following the failed revolt of Silken Thomas in 1534-35, Grey, the lord deputy, had some military successes against several clans in the late 1530s, and took their submissions. By 1540 most of Ireland seemed at peace and under the control of the king's Dublin administration; a situation that was not to last for long. Henry was proclaimed King of Ireland by the Crown of Ireland Act 1542. The Act was passed by the Irish Parliament. The new kingdom was not recognised by the Catholic monarchies in Europe. After the death of King Edward VI, Henry's son, the papal bull of 1555 recognised the Roman Catholic Queen Mary I as Queen of Ireland. The link of "personal union" of the Crown of Ireland to the Crown of England became enshrined in Catholic canon law. In this fashion, the Kingdom of Ireland was ruled by the reigning King of England. This placed the new Kingdom of Ireland in personal union with the Kingdom of England.

In line with its expanded role and self-image, the administration established the King's Inns for barristers in 1541, and the Ulster King of Arms to regulate heraldry in 1552. Proposals to establish a university in Dublin were delayed until 1592. In 1603 James VI King of Scots, became James I of England, uniting the Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland in a personal union. In 1653-59 the three kingdoms were merged briefly into the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland. In 1660 Charles II of England was restored as King of Ireland without any public dissent, backdated to his father's execution in 1649 (see: Irish Restoration). Political union between England and Scotland was established in 1707 with the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain and thereafter, in 1801, the Kingdom of Ireland merged with the Kingdom of Great Britain to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

The Irish Rebellion of 1798, and the rebels' alliance with Great Britain's long time enemy the French, led to a push to bring Ireland formally into the British Union. By the Act of Union, voted for by the Irish Parliament, the Kingdom of Ireland merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Great Britain to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The Irish Parliament ceased to exist, though the executive, presided over by the Lord Lieutenant, remained in place until 1922. In 1937, the link to the U.K. Crown was repealed, but the monarch was the de jure King in the new State until 1949. In the Republic of Ireland the 1542 Act was repealed in 1962, The monarchy of Ireland still continues in Northern Ireland, which remains a part of the sovereign state that is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. From 1921 until 1973, the British monarch was officially represented in the North by the Governor of Northern Ireland.

List of the Monarchs of Ireland

   

The History of the House of Windsor

 The House of Windsor is the royal house of the Commonwealth realms. It was founded by King George V by royal proclamation on the 17 July 1917, when he changed the name of his family from the German Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (a branch of the House of Wettin) to the English Windsor, due to the anti-German sentiment in the United Kingdom during World War I. Currently, the most prominent member of the House of Windsor is Queen Elizabeth II, the reigning monarch of the Commonwealth realms.

 

Edward VII, and, in turn, his son, George V were members of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, a German ducal family, by virtue of their descent from Albert, Prince Consort, husband of Queen Victoria. High anti-German sentiment amongst the people of the British Empire during World War I reached a peak in March 1917, when the Gotha G.IV, a heavy aircraft capable of crossing the English Channel began bombing London directly. The aircraft became a household name, and the name Gotha was part of the name of the royal family, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. These bombings were coupled with the abdication of King George's first cousin, Nicholas II, the Tsar of Russia on 15 March 1917, which raised the spectre of the eventual abolition of all the monarchies in Europe. The King and his family were finally convinced to abandon all titles held under the German Crown, and to change German titles and house names to anglicised versions. Hence, on 17 July 1917, a royal proclamation issued by George V declared:

Now, therefore, We, out of Our Royal Will and Authority, do hereby declare and announce that as from the date of this Our Royal Proclamation Our House and Family shall be styled and known as the House and Family of Windsor, and that all the descendants in the male line of Our said Grandmother Queen Victoria who are subjects of these Realms, other than female descendants who may marry or may have married, shall bear the said Name of Windsor

Upon hearing that his cousin had changed the name of the British royal house to Windsor, German Emperor Wilhelm II remarked jokingly that he planned to see Shakespeare's play The Merry Wives of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.The name had a long association with British royalty, through the town of Windsor, Berkshire and Windsor Castle, a link reflected in the Round Tower of Windsor Castle being the basis of the badge of the House of Windsor. Also in 1917 Prince Louis of Battenberg adopted the surname Mountbatten, a partial translation into English. Prince Louis is the maternal grandfather of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. From 1917 to 1919, George V also stripped 15 of his German relations - most of whom belonged to the House of Hanover - of their British titles and styles of prince and princess.

Descendants of Elizabeth II

When Princess Elizabeth (as she then was) married Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, the standard practice would be to adopt the name of his royal house. Because he was a prince, Prince Philip did not have a surname but he was of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, a branch of the House of Oldenburg, and that ruled or rules as Kings of Greece, Denmark and Norway. Not wishing to repeat the difficulties of three decades previous, before his marriage Prince Philip renounced his titles and adopted the surname Mountbatten, the literal translation of the German Battenberg that his maternal grandfather had adopted in 1917. The Mountbatten - Battenberg name refers to Battenberg, a small town in Hesse.

On 9 April 1952, Queen Elizabeth II officially declared her "Will and Pleasure that I and My children shall be styled and known as the House and Family of Windsor, and that my descendants who marry and their descendants, shall bear the name of Windsor." On 8 February 1960, the Queen confirmed that she and her children would continue to be known as the House and Family of Windsor, as would any agnatic descendants who enjoy the style of Royal Highness, and the title of Prince or Princess. Still, Elizabeth also decreed that her agnatic descendants who do not have that style and title would bear the surname Mountbatten-Windsor. Any future monarch can change the dynastic name through a similar royal proclamation, as royal proclamations do not have statutory authority.

      

 The History of the House of Wettin 

The House of Wettin is a dynasty of German counts, dukes, prince-electors (Kurfürsten) and kings that once ruled the area of today's German states of Saxony, the Saxon part of Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia for more than 800 years as well as holding at times the kingship of Poland. Agnates of the House of Wettin have, at various times, ascended the thrones of Great Britain, Portugal, Bulgaria, Poland, Saxony, and Belgium; of these, only the British and Belgian lines retain their thrones today. The oldest member of the House of Wettin who is known for certain was Thiedericus (died 982), who was probably based in the Liesgau (located at the western edge of the Harz). Around 1000, as part of the German conquest of Slavic territory, the family acquired Wettin Castle, after which they named themselves. Wettin Castle is located in Wettin in the Hosgau on the Saale River. Around 1030, the Wettin family received the Eastern March as a fief. The prominence of the Wettin family in the Slavic marches caused Emperor Henry IV to invest them with the March of Meissen as a fief in 1089. The family advanced over the course of the Middle Ages: in 1263 they inherited the landgraviate of Thuringia (though without Hesse), and in 1423 they were invested with the Duchy of Saxony, centred at Wittenberg,thus becoming one of the prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire.

 

 The family divided into two ruling branches in 1485 when the sons of Frederick II, Elector of Saxony divided the territories hitherto ruled jointly. The elder son Ernest, who had succeeded his father as Prince-elector, received the territories assigned to the Elector (Electoral Saxony) and Thuringia, while his younger brother Albert obtained the March of Meissen, which he ruled from Dresden. As Albert ruled under the title of "Duke of Saxony", his possessions were also known as Ducal Saxony. The older, Ernestine branch remained predominant until 1547 and played an important role in the beginnings of the Protestant Reformation. Their predominance ended in the Schmalkaldic War, which pitted the Protestant Schmalkaldic League against Emperor Charles V. Although itself Protestant, the Albertine branch rallied to the Empire's cause; Charles V rewarded them by forcing the Ernestines to sign away their rights to the Electoral title and lands to the Albertines.

 

The Ernestine line was thereafter restricted to Thuringia, and its dynastic unity swiftly crumbled. The Albertine Wettin maintained most of the territorial integrity of Saxony, preserving it as a significant power in the region, and using small appanage fiefs for their cadet branches, few of which survived for significant lengths of time. The Ernestine Wettin, on the other hand, repeatedly subdivided their territory, creating an intricate patchwork of small duchies and counties in Thuringia. The junior Albertine branch ruled as Electors (1547-1806) and Kings of Saxony (1806-1918) and also played a role in Polish history: two Wettin were Kings of Poland (between 1697-1763) and a third ruled the Duchy of Warsaw (1807-1814) as a satellite of Napoleon. After the Napoleonic Wars, the Albertine branch lost about 40% of its lands, including the old Electoral Saxony, to Prussia, restricting it to a territory coextensive with the modern Saxony.

 

Monarchs of Great Britian -1707 - Present

House of Stuart

Queen Anne had been queen of England, Scotland and Ireland since 8 March 1702, and so became Queen of Great Britain upon the Union of England and Scotland.

Name	Portrait	Birth	Marriages	Death	Claim
Anne 1 May 1707 -1 August 1714		6 February 1665 St. James's Palace daughter of James II and VII and Anne Hyde	George of Denmark St. James's Palace 28 July 1683 17 children	1 August 1714 Kensington Palace aged 49	daughter of James II and VII (cognatic primogeniture; Bill of Rights 1689); Queen of England and Scotland upon the Union; (Treaty of Union and Acts of Union 1707)

House of Hanover

The Hanoverian succession came about as a result of the Act of Settlement 1701, passed by the Parliament of England. In return for access to the English plantations in North America, the Hanoverian succession and the Union were ratified by the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. After the death of Anne with no living children, George I, the son of Sophia of Hanover, granddaughter of James VI of Scotland and I of England through his daughter Elizabeth of Bohemia, was the closest Protestant heir to the throne.

Name	Portrait	Birth	Marriages	Death	Succession right
George I 1 August 1714 - 11 June 1727		28 May 1660 Leineschloss son of Ernest Augustus, Elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Sophia of Hanover	Sophia Dorothea of Brunswick-Lueneburg-Celle 21 November 1682 2 children	11 June 1727 Osnabrück aged 67	son of Sophia of Hanover, granddaughter of James I & VI; (Act of Settlement 1701 and Acts of Union 1707)
George II 11 June 1727 - 25 October 1760		30 October 1683 Herrenhausen son of George I and Sophia Dorothea of Brunswick-Lueneburg-Celle	Caroline of Ansbach 22 August 1705 8 children	25 October 1760 Kensington Palace aged 76	son of George I
George III 25 October 1760 - 29 January 1820		4 June 1738 Norfolk House son of Frederick, Prince of Wales and Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha	Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz St James's Palace 8 September 1761 15 children	29 January 1820 Windsor Castle aged 81	grandson of George II
George IV 29 January 1820 - 26 June 1830 (Prince Regent since 1811)		12 August 1762 St James's Palace son of George III and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz	(1) Maria Anne Fitzherbert Park Lane 15 September 1785 (2) Caroline of Brunswick St James's Palace 8 April 1795 1 daughter	26 June 1830 Windsor aged 67	first son of George III
William IV 26 June 1830 - 20 June 1837		21 August 1765 Buckingham Palace son of George III and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz	Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen Kew Palace 13 July 1818 2 children	20 June 1837 Windsor Castle aged 71	third son of George III
Victoria 20 June 1837 - 22 January 1901		24 May 1819 Kensington Palace daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld	Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha St James's Palace 10 February 1840 9 children	22 January 1901 Osborne House aged 81	granddaughter of George III (by his fourth son)

House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Although he was the son and heir of Victoria, Edward VII inherited his father's names and is therefore counted as inaugurating a new royal house.

Name	Portrait	Birth	Marriages	Death	Succession right
Edward VII 22 January 1901 - 6 May 1910		9 November 1841 Buckingham Palace son of Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha	Alexandra of Denmark St George's Chapel 10 March 1863 6 children	6 May 1910 Buckingham Palace aged 68	son of Queen Victoria

House of Windsor

The house name Windsor was adopted in 1917, during World War I. It was changed from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha because of wartime anti-German sentiment in the United Kingdom.

Name	Portrait	Birth	Marriages	Death	Succession right
George V 6 May 1910 - 20 January 1936		3 June 1865 Marlborough House son of Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark	Mary of Teck St James's Palace 6 July 1893 6 children	20 January 1936 Sandringham House aged 70	son of Edward VII
Edward VIII 20 January - 11 December 1936 (abdicated)		23 June 1894 White Lodge son of George V and Mary of Teck	Wallis Warfield Simpson Château de Candé 3 June 1937 no children	28 May 1972 Neuilly-sur-Seine aged 77	son of George V
George VI 11 December 1936 - 6 February 1952		14 December 1895 Sandringham House son of George V and Mary of Teck	Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon Westminster Abbey 26 April 1923 2 children	6 February 1952 Sandringham House aged 56	son of George V
Elizabeth II 6 February 1952 - present		21 April 1926 Mayfair daughter of George VI and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon	Philip of Greece and Denmark Westminster Abbey 20 November 1947 4 children	Incumbent	daughter of George VI

 

Blazon of the Royal Arms

This table breaks down the official blazons to enable comparison of the differences between the general coat and the coat used in Scotland.

	Everywhere except Scotland	Scotland
Quarterly I and IV	Gules three lions passant gardant in pale Or armed and langued Azure	Or a lion rampant Gules armed and langued Azure within a double tressure flory-counter-flory of the second
II	Or a lion rampant Gules armed and langued Azure within a double tressure flory-counter-flory of the second	Gules three lions passant gardant in pale Or armed and langued Azure
III	Azure a harp Or stringed Argent
Surrounded by	The Order of the Garter	The collar of the Order of the Thistle
Crest	Upon the Royal helm the imperial crown Proper, thereon a lion statant gardant Or imperially crowned Proper	Upon the Royal helm the crown of Scotland Proper, thereon a lion sejant affronté Gules armed and langued Azure, Royally crowned Proper holding in his dexter paw a sword and in his sinister a sceptre, both Proper
Supporters	Dexter a lion rampant gardant Or imperially crowned Proper, sinister a unicorn Argent, armed, crined and unguled Or, gorged with a coronet Or composed of crosses patée and fleurs de lis a chain affixed thereto passing between the forelegs and reflexed over the back also Or	Dexter a unicorn Argent Royally crowned Proper, armed, crined and unguled Or, gorged with a coronet Or composed of crosses patée and fleurs de lis a chain affixed thereto passing between the forelegs and reflexed over the back also Or holding the standard of Saint Andrew, sinister a lion rampant gardant Or imperially crowned Proper holding the standard of Saint George
Motto	Dieu et mon Droit (French)	In My Defens God Me Defend, abbr. In Defens (Scots)
Order Motto	Garter: Honi soit qui mal y pense (Old French)	Thistle: Nemo me impune lacessit (Lati

The Family Titles and Styles