Who Ruled Britain First

After Edward of Elder conquered eastern England (Danelaw), Athelstan had most of England under his control. He added Northumbria to his kingdom, making him the first king of all England. King Alfred 849-899 (22 at coronation)For 100 years, from 787 to 878, the Vikings attacked the coasts of England. In 870, a huge force landed in East Anglia with the mission of taking control of all of England. They turned north and plundered Northumbria, then marched south, eventually meeting the stronger and better organized Wessex royal family, Ethelred the King and his younger brother Alfred. There were many battles against the Viking Danes, led by a determined Guthrum who eventually won all of England and ruled in time. King Ethelred was killed and Brother Alfred hid in the Somerset marshes near Athelney. 7 weeks later he returned and won with some of his loyal warriors a decisive victory against Guthrum at Edington Wiltshire-879. Guthrum was forced to return half of his recently conquered England to Alfred (now king) and even recognize Alfred as king of all England. The land was divided between the north-east and south-west along the ancient Roman road called Watling Street, which ran from Dover to the Roman city of Chester via London.

(Modern roads A2 and A5) The Saxons ruled directly to the south and the Vikings to the north. Until the Norman conquest of England, Wales had remained largely independent of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, although some Welsh kings sometimes recognized the Bretwalda. However, shortly after the Norman conquest of England, some Norman lords began to attack Wales. They conquered and ruled parts of it, recognizing the supremacy of the Norman kings of England, but with considerable local independence. Over many years, these „marching lords“ increasingly conquered Wales, against considerable resistance from various Welsh princes, who also often recognized the supremacy of the Norman kings of England. Since the accession of James VI and I to the throne in 1603, the Stuart dynasty has ruled England and Ireland in personal union with Scotland. Under the Stuarts, the kingdom plunged into a civil war, which culminated in the execution of Charles I in 1649. The monarchy returned in 1660, but the Civil War had set a precedent that an English monarch could not rule without the consent of Parliament. This concept was legally established during the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Since then, the Kingdom of England and its successor states, the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United Kingdom, have functioned as a constitutional monarchy. [nb 5] On May 1, 1707, the Kingdoms of England and Scotland united under the Acts of Union of 1707 to form the aforementioned Kingdom of Great Britain.

[3] [4] The kings of Mercia ruled England679 The Mercians now became the most powerful kingdom and ruled all of Wessex in 757. Mercia is populated by Angles. Their first notable king was Penda 735-55.757 Offa 757-96 became King of Mercia and overlord of all England below Northumbria. Known for his good commercial and religious relations with Charlemagne, he introduced a new currency, the penny with the same silver content as a French coin, which is interchangeable for trade. Also known for building an impressive 26-foot-high, 120-mile-long earth dam to defend England from the „British“ in Wales. Some say the first king of all England. Athelstan`s half-brother called Edmund the Elder and the „Magnificent“, who was sadly murdered by a notorious outlaw Liofa at a festival at his castle in Pucklechurch Dorset when he was only 26 years old. However, he had two wives, the first at the age of 18, Saint Elgiva, who had two sons and a daughter, and then she died.

Secondly, Ethelflleda, who, when she was a widow, became a nun, which was quite common for widows and unmarried sisters of kings. Militarily, he followed the strong family tradition by suppressing viking uprisings in Northumberland and Mercia and a Welsh threat in Cumbria. He had to befriend the King of Scotland Malcolm by giving him Cumbria. HARTHACANUTE 1040 – 1042 Son of Canute the Great and Emma of Normandy, Harthacanute sailed with his mother for England, accompanied by a fleet of 62 warships, and was immediately accepted as king. Perhaps to appease his mother, the year before his death, Harthacanute invited his half-brother Edward, Emma`s son from his first marriage to Aethelred the Unfinished, from exile in Normandy. Harthacanute died at a wedding while toasting the bride`s health; he was only 24 years old and was the last Danish king who ruled England KAUS (CANUTE THE GREAT) THE DANE 1016 – 1035 Canute became after the death of Edmund II. King of all England. Sweyn Forkbeard`s son ruled well and won the favor of his English subjects by sending most of his army back to Denmark. In 1017, Canute married Emma of Normandy, widow of Aethelred II. And divided England into four counties of East Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria and Wessex.

Perhaps inspired by his pilgrimage to Rome in 1027, legend has it that he wanted to show his subjects that as king he was not a god, he ordered the flood not to enter, knowing that it would fail. Ethelred one prepared. Half-brother of Edward the Martyr. Father King Edgar, Mother Elfrida.Ethelred had two wives, first Elfled of Northumbria and then Emma of Normandy. His son from Elfled became Edmund Ironside and his son about Emma, Edward the Confessor.The word „Unbereit“ was actually the Saxon word „unraed“, meaning he was not advised or did not want to listen to his advisers. His long reign of 37 years was an absolute disaster. The Danish Vikings resumed their interest in England with a landing in the southeast (Essex) in 980. Ethelred`s response was to buy them with money by imposing a tax called Danegelt, which brought in £10,000. The Kingdom of England has existed in many forms since the early Middle Ages, and very early on there were many kingdoms in present-day England. Traditionally, England considers itself the successor state to the Kingdom of Wessex, a Saxon kingdom in southern Britain; That`s why we started our list with the first kings of Wessex. According to this logic, the first king of England was the Saxon ruler Egbert, although most of them probably argue that today`s Kingdom of England was founded on Christmas Day 1066, when William the Conqueror was crowned King of England. EGBERT 827 – 839 Egbert (Ecgherht) was the first monarch to establish stable and extensive rule over all of Anglo-Saxon England.

Returning from exile at the court of Charlemagne in 802, he regained his kingdom of Wessex. After his conquest of Mercia in 827, he controlled all of England south of the Humber. After further victories in Northumberland and North Wales, he was given the title of bretwalda (Anglo-Saxon, „ruler of the British“). A year before he died at the age of almost 70, he defeated a united force of Danes and Cornwall at Hingston Down in Cornwall. He was buried in Winchester, Hampshire. ELIZABETH II 1952 – Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, or „Lilibet“ for the immediate family, was born in London on April 21, 1926. Like her parents, Elizabeth was heavily involved in the war effort during World War II, serving in the Women`s Division of the British Army known as the Auxiliary Territorial Service and completing training as a driver and mechanic. Elizabeth and her sister Margaret anonymously joined the crowded streets of London on the fifth to celebrate the end of the war. She married her cousin Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and they had four children: Charles, Anne, Andrew and Edward. On the death of her father George VI, Elizabeth became Queen of seven Commonwealth countries: Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan and Ceylon (now known as Sri Lanka). Elizabeth`s coronation in 1953 was the first to be televised, increasing the popularity of the medium and doubling the number of television licenses in the UK. The great popularity of the royal wedding in 2011 between the Queen`s grandson, Prince William and commoner Kate Middleton, now Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, reflected the high profile of the British monarchy at home and abroad.

2012 was also an important year for the royal family as the nation celebrated the Queen`s Diamond Jubilee, her 60th year as Queen. ALFRED THE GREAT 871 – 899 – Son of AETHELWULF Born in Wantage, Berkshire around 849, Alfred was well educated and is said to have visited Rome twice. He had proved to be a strong leader in many battles and, as a wise leader, had managed to secure five troubled years of peace with the Danes before they attacked Wessex again in 877. Alfred was forced to retreat to a small island in Somerset levels, and from there he planned his return, perhaps „burning the cakes“ accordingly. With great victories at Edington, Rochester and London, Alfred established Saxon Christian rule first over Wessex and then over most of England. To secure his hard-won borders, Alfred established a standing army and an embryonic Royal Navy. To secure his place in history, he began with the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. .