List of English monarchs
This list of kings and reigning queens of the Kingdom of England begins with Alfred the Great, who initially ruled Wessex, one of the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which later made up modern England. Alfred styled himself king of the Anglo-Saxons from about 886, and while he was not the first king to claim to rule all of the English, his rule represents the start of the first unbroken line of kings to rule the whole of England, the House of Wessex.
Arguments are made for a few different kings thought to have controlled enough Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to be deemed the first king of England. For example, Offa of Mercia and Egbert of Wessex are sometimes described as kings of England by popular writers, but it is no longer the majority view of historians that their wide dominions were part of a process leading to a unified England. The historian Simon Keynes states, for example, "Offa was driven by a lust for power, not a vision of English unity; and what he left was a reputation, not a legacy." That refers to a period in the late 8th century, when Offa achieved a dominance over many of the kingdoms of southern England, but it did not survive his death in 796. Likewise, in 829 Egbert of Wessex conquered Mercia, but he soon lost control of it.
It was not until the late 9th century that one kingdom, Wessex, had become the dominant Anglo-Saxon kingdom. Its king, Alfred the Great, was the overlord of western Mercia and used the title King of the Angles and Saxons though he never ruled eastern and northern England, which was then known as the Danelaw and had been conquered by the Danes, from southern Scandinavia. Alfred's son Edward the Elder conquered the eastern Danelaw. Edward's son Æthelstan became the first king to rule the whole of England when he conquered Northumbria in 927. Æthelstan is regarded by some modern historians as the first true king of England. The title "King of the English" or Rex Anglorum in Latin, was first used to describe Æthelstan in one of his charters in 928. The standard title for monarchs from Æthelstan until John was "King of the English". In 1016, Cnut the Great, a Dane, was the first to call himself "King of England". In the Norman period, "King of the English" remained standard, with occasional use of "King of England" or Rex Anglie. From John's reign onwards, all other titles were eschewed in favour of "King" or "Queen of England".
The Principality of Wales was incorporated into the Kingdom of England under the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284, and in 1301, King Edward I invested his eldest son, the future King Edward II, as Prince of Wales. Since that time, the eldest sons of all English monarchs, except for King Edward III, have borne this title.
After the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603, her cousin King James VI of Scotland inherited the English crown as James I of England, joining the crowns of England and Scotland in personal union. By royal proclamation, James styled himself "King of Great Britain", but no such kingdom was created until 1707, when England and Scotland united during the reign of Queen Anne to form the new Kingdom of Great Britain, with a single British parliament sitting at Westminster. That marked the end of the Kingdom of England as a sovereign state.
House of Wessex (886–1013)
Disputed claimant
There is some evidence that Ælfweard of Wessex may have been king in 924, between his father Edward the Elder and his half-brother Æthelstan, although he was not crowned. A 12th-century list of kings gives him a reign length of four weeks, though one manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says he died only 16 days after his father. However, the claim that he ruled is not accepted by all historians. Also, it is unclear whether—if Ælfweard was declared king—it was over the whole kingdom or of Wessex only. One interpretation of the ambiguous evidence is that when Edward died, Ælfweard was declared king in Wessex and Æthelstan in Mercia.House of Denmark (1013–1014)
England came under the control of Sweyn Forkbeard, a Danish king, after an invasion in 1013, during which Æthelred abandoned the throne and went into exile in Normandy.House of Wessex (restored, first time) (1014–1016)
Following the death of Sweyn Forkbeard, Æthelred the Unready returned from exile and was again proclaimed king. His son succeeded him after being chosen king by the citizens of London and a part of the Witan, despite ongoing Danish efforts to wrest the crown from the West Saxons.House of Denmark (restored) (1016–1042)
Following the decisive Battle of Assandun on 18 October 1016, King Edmund signed a treaty with Cnut under which all of England except for Wessex would be controlled by Cnut. Upon Edmund's death just over a month later on 30 November, Cnut ruled the whole kingdom as its sole king for nineteen years.House of Wessex (restored, second time) (1042–1066)
After Harthacnut, there was a Saxon Restoration between 1042 and 1066.House of Godwin (1066)
Disputed claimant (House of Wessex)
After King Harold was killed at the Battle of Hastings, the Witan elected Edgar Ætheling as king, but by then the Normans controlled the country and Edgar never ruled. He submitted to King William the Conqueror.House of Normandy (1066–1135)
In 1066, Edward the Confessor had no direct heir upon his death and several rival claimants to the English throne emerged. Among them were Harold Godwinson, Harald Hardrada and Duke William II of Normandy. Harald Hardrada and William both invaded separately in 1066. Godwinson successfully repelled the invasion by Harald Hardrada, but ultimately lost the throne of England in the Norman conquest of England.Following the death of Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, the Anglo-Saxon Witenagemot elected as king Edgar Ætheling, the son of Edward the Exile and grandson of Edmund Ironside. The young monarch was unable to resist the invaders and was never crowned. William was crowned King William I of England on Christmas Day 1066, in Westminster Abbey, and is today known as William the Conqueror, William the Bastard or William I. William made permanent the recent removal of the capital from Winchester to London.
Disputed claimants
Matilda was declared heir presumptive by her father, Henry I, after the death of her brother on the White Ship, and acknowledged as such by the barons. Upon Henry I's death, the throne was seized by Matilda's cousin, Stephen of Blois. During the ensuing "Anarchy", Matilda controlled England for a few months in 1141. She was the first woman to do so, but was never crowned and is rarely listed as a monarch of England.House of Blois (1135–1154)
Before naming Matilda as heir, Henry had been in negotiations to name his nephew Stephen of Blois as his heir. When Henry died, Stephen travelled to England, and in a coup d'etat had himself crowned instead of Matilda. The period which followed is known as The Anarchy, as parties supporting each side fought in open warfare both in Britain and on the continent for the better part of two decades.House of Plantagenet (1154–1485)
The House of Plantagenet takes its name from Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, husband of Empress Matilda and father of Henry II. The name Plantagenet itself was unknown as a family name per se until Richard of York adopted it as his family name in the 15th century. It has since been retroactively applied to English monarchs from Henry II onward. It is common among modern historians to refer to Henry II and his sons as the "Angevins" due to their vast continental empire, and because most of the Angevin kings before John spent more time in their continental possessions than in England.Angevin kings of England
King Stephen came to an agreement with Matilda in November 1153 with the signing of the Treaty of Wallingford, in which Stephen recognised Henry, son of Matilda and her second husband Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, as the designated heir. The royal house descended from Matilda and Geoffrey is widely known by two names, the House of Anjou or the House of Plantagenet, after his sobriquet. Some historians prefer to group the subsequent kings into two groups, before and after the loss of the bulk of their French possessions, although they are not different royal houses.The Angevins ruled over the Angevin Empire during the 12th and 13th centuries, an area stretching from the Pyrenees to Ireland. They did not regard England as their primary home until most of their continental domains were lost by King John. The direct, eldest male line from Henry II includes monarchs commonly grouped together as the House of Plantagenet, which was the name given to the dynasty after the loss of most of their continental possessions, while cadet branches of this line became known as the House of Lancaster and the House of York during the Wars of the Roses.
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. It has generally been used as the motto of English monarchs since being adopted by Edward III.