Church of St Mary and All Saints, Fotheringhay
The Church of St Mary and All Saints, Fotheringhay is a parish church in the Church of England in Fotheringhay, Northamptonshire. It is noted for containing a mausoleum to leading members of the Yorkist dynasty of the Wars of the Roses; the work on the present church was begun by Edward III who built a college as a cloister on the church's southern side. After completion in around 1430, a parish church of similar style was added to the western end of the collegiate church with work beginning in 1434, it is the parish church. The large present church is named in honour of St Mary and All Saints, has a distinctive tall tower dominating the local skyline; the church is Perpendicular in style and although only the nave and octagonal tower remain of the original building it is still in the best style of its period. The church has been described by Simon Jenkins as float on its hill above the River Nene, a galleon of Perpendicular on a sea of corn; the college continued to 1547, when it was seized by the Crown, along with all remaining chantries and colleges.
The chancel was pulled down after the college was granted to John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland by King Edward VI. A grammar school was founded in its place which lasted until 1859. John Aboveton 1412 - 1423 John Maston 1423 - 1426 John Bokeland 1426 - 1434 John Pecham 1434 - 1437 Richard Wancourt 1437 - 1461 Thomas Buxhall 1461 - 1481 William Felde 1481 - 1509 John Russel 1521 - 1539 Thomas Wood 1539 - 1550 John Sadler 1550 - 1554 John Lowthe 1554 - 1556 Sir James Woode 1556 - 1557 Thomas Thurland 1557 - 1558 John Welby 1558 - 1596 John Johnson 1596 - 1643 Jonathan Welby 1643 -???? Thomas Bennett 1696 - 1697 James Holcott 1697 - 1700 Samuel Whitworth 1700 - 1713 John Loveling 1713 - 1735 Richard Dobinson 1735 - 1736 John Jenkinson 1736 - 1740 John Jones 1740 - 1775 George Griffiths 1775 -1790 William Tate 1790 Robert Linton 1790 - 1833 Thomas Linton 1833 - 1859 Alfred Longhurst 1859 - 1881 John Lloyd 1881 - 1890 Richard Croyden-Burton 1890 - 1924 Cyril Croyden-Burton 1924 - 1935 John Francis Tumer 1935 - 1949 Leslie Raymond Kingsbury 1949 - 1954 Sidney Ratcliffe 1954 - 1956 William John Terrance Oakley 1956 - 1974 Arthur Parsons 1974 - 1977 Vernon Scott 1977 - 1981 Michael William Rock Covington 1981 - 1996 Brian Victor Rogers 1996 - Nearby Fotheringhay Castle was the principal home of two Dukes of York.
Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York, killed at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 was buried in the church. He had earlier established a college for twelve chaplains at the location. Edward's burial provided the basis for the adoption of the church as a mausoleum to the Yorkist dynasty. In 1476 the church witnessed one of the most elaborate ceremonies of Edward IV's reign - the re-interment of the bodies of the king's father Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York and his younger brother Edmund, Earl of Rutland, buried in an humble tomb at Pontefract. Father and son fell at the Battle of Wakefield on December 30, 1460. Thomas Whiting, Chester Herald, has left a detailed account of the events: on 24 July the bodies were exhumed, that of the Duke, "garbed in an ermine furred mantle and cap of maintenance, covered with a cloth of gold" lay in state under a hearse blazing with candles, guarded by an angel of silver, bearing a crown of gold as a reminder that by right the Duke had been a king. On its journey, Duke of Gloucester, with other lords and officers of arms, all dressed in mourning, followed the funeral chariot, drawn by six horses, with trappings of black, charged with the arms of France and England and preceded by a knight bearing the banner of the ducal arms.
Fotheringhay was reached on 29 July, where members of the college and other ecclesiastics went forth to meet the cortege. At the entrance to the churchyard, King Edward waited, together with the Duke of Clarence, the Marquis of Dorset, Earl Rivers, Lord Hastings and other noblemen. Upon its arrival the King'made obeisance to the body right humbly and put his hand on the body and kissed it, crying all the time.' The procession moved into the church where two hearses were waiting, one in the choir for the body of the Duke and one in the Lady Chapel for that of the Earl of Rutland, after the King had retired to his'closet' and the princes and officers of arms had stationed themselves around the hearses, masses were sung and the King's chamberlain offered for him seven pieces of cloth of gold'which were laid in a cross on the body.' The next day three masses were sung, the Bishop of Lincoln preached a'very noble sermon' and offerings were made by the Duke of Gloucester and other lords, of'The Duke of York's coat of arms, of his shield, his sword, his helmet and his coursers on which rode Lord Ferrers in full armour, holding in his hand an axe reversed.'
When the funeral was over, the people were admitted into the church and it is said that before the coffins were placed in the vault, built under the chancel, five thousand persons came to receive the alms, while four times that number partook of the dinner, served in the castle and in the King's tents and pavilions. The menu included capons, herons, rabbits and so many good things that the bills for it amounted to more than three hundred pounds. In 1495 the body of Cecily Neville, Duchess of York was laid to rest beside that of her husband the Duke of York, as her will directed, she bequeathed to the College a square canopy, crymson cloth of gold, a chasuble, two tunicles, three copes of blue velvet, with three albs, three mass books, three grails and seven processioners. After the choir of the church was destroyed in the Reformation during the sixteenth century, Elizabeth I ordered the removal of the smashed York tombs and created the present monuments to
Baptism
Baptism is a Christian rite of admission and adoption invariably with the use of water, into Christianity. The synoptic gospels recount. Baptism is considered a sacrament in most churches, as an ordinance in others. Baptism is called christening, although some reserve the word "christening" for the baptism of infants, it has given its name to the Baptist churches and denominations. The usual form of baptism among the earliest Christians involved the candidate's immersion, either or partially. John the Baptist's use of a deep river for his baptising suggests immersion: The fact that he chose a permanent and deep river suggests that more than a token quantity of water was needed, both the preposition'in' and the basic meaning of the verb'baptize' indicate immersion. In v. 16, Matthew will speak of Jesus'coming up out of the water'. Phillip and the Eunuch went down and came up out of water. Baptism is likened unto a burial in Romans 6:3. "Dip" is translated from baptō. The traditional depiction in Christian art of John the Baptist pouring water over Jesus' head may therefore be based on Christian practice.
Pictorial and archaeological evidence of Christian baptism from the 3rd century onward indicates that a normal form was to have the candidate stand in water while water was poured over the upper body. Other common forms of baptism now in use include pouring water three times on the forehead, a method called affusion. Martyrdom was identified early in Church history as "baptism by blood", enabling the salvation of martyrs who had not been baptized by water; the Catholic Church identified a baptism of desire, by which those preparing for baptism who die before receiving the sacrament are considered saved. As evidenced in the common Christian practice of infant baptism, Christians universally regarded baptism as in some sense necessary for salvation, until Huldrych Zwingli denied its necessity in the 16th century. Quakers and the Salvation Army do not practice baptism with water. Among denominations that practice baptism by water, differences occur in the manner and mode of baptizing and in the understanding of the significance of the rite.
Most Christians baptize "in the name of the Father, of the Son, of the Holy Spirit", but some baptize in Jesus' name only. Much more than half of all Christians baptize infants; the term "baptism" has been used metaphorically to refer to any ceremony, trial, or experience by which a person is initiated, purified, or given a name. The English word baptism is derived indirectly through Latin from the neuter Greek concept noun baptisma, a neologism in the New Testament derived from the masculine Greek noun baptismos, a term for ritual washing in Greek language texts of Hellenistic Judaism during the Second Temple period, such as the Septuagint. Both of these nouns are derived from the verb baptizō, used in Jewish texts for ritual washing, in the New Testament both for ritual washing and for the new rite of baptisma; the Greek verb baptō, "dip", from which the verb baptizo is derived, is in turn hypothetically traced to a reconstructed Indo-European root *gʷabh-, "dip". The Greek words are used in a great variety of meanings.
Baptism has similarities to Tvilah, a Jewish purification ritual of immersing in water, required for, among other things, conversion to Judaism, but which differs in being repeatable, while baptism is to be performed only once. John the Baptist, considered a forerunner to Christianity, used baptism as the central sacrament of his messianic movement; the apostle Paul distinguished between the baptism of John, baptism in the name of Jesus, it is questionable whether Christian baptism was in some way linked with that of John. Christians consider Jesus to have instituted the sacrament of baptism; the earliest Christian baptisms were normally by immersion, complete or partial. Though other modes may have been used. Though some form of immersion was the most common method of baptism, many of the writings from the ancient church appeared to view the mode of baptism as inconsequential; the Didache 7.1–3 allowed for affusion practices in situations where immersion was not practical. Tertullian allowed for varying approaches to baptism if those practices did not conform to biblical or traditional mandates.
Cyprian explicitly stated that the amount of water was inconsequential and defended immersion and aspersion practices. As a result, there was no uniform or consistent mode of baptism in the ancient church prior to the fourth century. By the third and fourth centuries, baptism involved catechetical instruction as well as chrismation, laying on of hands, recitation of a creed. In the early middle ages infant baptism became common and the rite was simplified. In Western Europe Affusion became the normal mode of baptism between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, though immersion was still practiced into the sixteenth. In the sixteenth century, Martin Luther retained baptism as a sacrament, but Swiss reformer Huldrych Zwingli considered baptism and the Lord's supper to be symbolic. Anabaptists denied the val
Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset
Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, KG, was an English nobleman and an important figure in the Wars of the Roses and in the Hundred Years' War. He succeeded in the title of 4th Earl of Somerset and was created 1st Earl of Dorset and 1st Marquess of Dorset, Count of Mortain, he was known for his deadly rivalry with Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York. Edmund Beaufort was the third surviving son of John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset, Margaret Holland, his paternal grandparents were John of Gaunt, Katherine Swynford. His maternal grandparents were Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Alice FitzAlan. Alice was a daughter of Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Eleanor of Lancaster. Edmund was a cousin of both Richard, Duke of York and the Lancastrian King Henry VI. Although he was the head of one of the greatest families in England, his inheritance was worth only 300 pounds. By contrast his rival, Duke of York, had a net worth of 5,800 pounds, his cousin King Henry VI's efforts to compensate Somerset with offices worth 3,000 pounds only served to offend many of the nobles and as his quarrel with York grew more personal, the dynastic situation got worse.
Another quarrel with the Earl of Warwick over the lordships of Glamorgan and Morgannwg may have forced the leader of the younger Nevilles into York's camp. His brothers were taken captive at the Battle of Baugé in 1421, but Edmund was too young at the time to fight, he acquired much military experience. In 1427 it is believed that Edmund Beaufort may have embarked on an affair with Catherine of Valois, the widow of Henry V. Evidence is sketchy, however the liaison prompted a parliamentary statute regulating the remarriage of queens of England; the historian G. L. Harriss surmised that it was possible that another of its consequences was Catherine's son Edmund Tudor and that Catherine, to avoid the penalties of breaking the statute of 1427–8, secretly married Owen Tudor, he wrote: "By its nature the evidence for Edmund Tudor's parentage is less than conclusive, but such facts as can be assembled permit the agreeable possibility that Edmund'Tudor' and Margaret Beaufort were first cousins and that the royal house of'Tudor' sprang in fact from Beauforts on both sides."
Edmund received the county of Mortain in Normandy on 22 April 1427. Edmund became a commander in the English army in 1431, in 1432 was one of the envoys to the Council of Basel. After his recapture of Harfleur and his lifting of the Burgundian siege of Calais, he was named a Knight of the Garter in 1436. After subsequent successes he was created Earl of Dorset on 28 August 1442 and Marquess of Dorset on 24 June 1443. During the five-year truce from 1444 to 1449 he served as Lieutenant of France. On 31 March 1448 he was created Duke of Somerset; as the title had been held by his brother, he is sometimes mistakenly called the second duke, but the title was created for the second time, so he was the first duke, the numbering starting over again. Somerset was appointed to replace York as commander in France in 1448. Fighting began in Normandy in August 1449. Somerset's subsequent military failures left him vulnerable to criticism from York's allies. Somerset was supposed to be paid £20,000, he failed to repulse French attacks, by the summer of 1450 nearly all the English possessions in northern France were lost.
By 1453 all the English possessions in the south of France were lost, the Battle of Castillon ended the Hundred Years War. The fall of the duke of Suffolk left Somerset the chief of the king's ministers, the Commons in vain petitioned for his removal in January 1451. Power rested with Somerset and he monopolised it, with Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry VI, as one of his principal allies, it was widely suspected that Edmund had an extra-marital affair with Margaret. After giving birth to a son in October 1453, Margaret took great pains to quash rumours that Somerset might be his father. During her pregnancy, Henry had suffered a mental breakdown, leaving him in a withdrawn and unresponsive state that lasted for one and a half years; this medical condition, untreatable either by court physicians or by exorcism, plagued him throughout his life. During Henry's illness, the child was baptised Prince of Wales, with Somerset as godfather. Somerset's fortunes, soon changed when his rival York assumed power as Lord Protector in April 1454 and imprisoned him in the Tower of London.
Somerset's life was saved only by the King's seeming recovery late in 1454, which forced York to surrender his office. Henry agreed to recognise Edward as his heir, putting rest to concerns about a successor prompted by his known aversion to physical contact. Somerset was honourably discharged, restored to his office as Captain of Calais. By now York was determined to depose Somerset by one means or another, in May 1455 he raised an army, he confronted Somerset and the King in an engagement known as the First Battle of St Albans which marked the beginning of the Wars of the Roses. Somerset was killed in a last wild charge from the house, his son, never forgave York and Warwick for his father's death, he spent the next nine years attempting to restore his family's honour. Edmund married sometime between 1431 and 1433, daughter of Richard de Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick and his first wife, Elizabeth. Eleanor was an o
Raby Castle
Raby Castle is a medieval castle located near Staindrop in County Durham, among 200 acres of deer park. It was built by John Neville, 3rd Baron Neville de Raby, between 1367 and 1390. Cecily Neville, the mother of the Kings Edward IV and Richard III, was born here. After Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland, led the failed Rising of the North in favour of Mary, Queen of Scots in 1569 Raby Castle was taken into royal custody. Sir Henry Vane the Elder purchased Raby Castle in 1626 and neighbouring Barnard Castle from the Crown, the Earls of Darlington and Dukes of Cleveland added a Gothic-style entrance hall and octagonal drawing room. From 1833 to 1891 they were the Dukes of Cleveland and they retain the title of Lord Barnard. Extensive alterations were carried out in the 18th centuries, it is famed including works by old masters and portraits. After 1733 it was frequented from his young age of eleven by the poet Christopher Smart, who eloped at the age of thirteen with Anne Vane, daughter of Henry Vane, who succeeded to the Barnard title.
It is a Grade I open to the public on a seasonal basis. The castle remains the seat of the Vane family, the Barons Barnard. Due to the 11th Baron's dedication to the extensive renovation and restoration works, much of the castle's rare interior architectural features have been preserved; the house of Neville held the manor of Raby from the 13th century, although the family had no formal title, from 1295 they were summoned to Parliament as Barons of Raby. His heir, John Neville, became a member of Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster's household, beginning the family's link with the Earls of Lancaster. Raby was the family's caput, their seat of power, there may have been a fortified house on the site of the present building from around 1300. In the second half of the 14th century the Nevilles began rebuilding several of their properties in northern England, including Raby Castle between 1367 and 1390. In the closing years of the century the Nevilles were becoming one of the most powerful families in northern England, comparable to the House of Percy, made Earls of Northumberland in 1377.
In 1378 Thomas Hatfield Bishop of Durham granted John de Neville a licence to fortify his property at Raby. John was succeeded by his son, Ralph. Nothing of the family's papers survive from this period so there is little documentary evidence of Raby Castle's construction; the dating is based on architectural details. In the words of historian Anthony Emery, the work "converted it from a defendable house into a palace-fortress". Ralph was created Earl of Westmorland on 29 September 1397 by Richard II as a reward for his loyalty in the face of political unrest; however his family's traditional association with the Earls of Lancaster meant that when Henry Bolinbroke of the House of Lancaster invaded in July 1399 Neville sided with Bolingbroke. Neville helped persuade Richard II to abdicate and Henry was crowned as Henry IV. Neville was made Earl Marshal of England on the day of Henry's coronation and a Knight of the Order of the Garter in 1403. Henry Neville, 5th Earl of Westmorland, was succeeded by his son, Charles.
The Nevilles were Catholics and Charles was one of the leaders of the failed Rising of the North in 1569 against England's Protestant Queen Elizabeth I. Owing to the severity of the threat to the Crown, more than 800 rebels were executed and Charles Neville and Thomas Percy fled into exile. In 1571 an attainder was issued against Neville and his lands were forfeited to the Crown. After the Rising of the North the castle became the property of the Crown for more than forty-three years before being bought by Henry Vane the Elder, he was impressed by the size and lands, contrasting with Barnard Castle, hemmed in by the surrounding town. The House of Vane was responsible for much of the modernising of the castle the interior; this included renovation of drawing room. The family drove a carriageway though the castle. Architect William Burn carried out alterations to Raby Castle between 1843 and 1848, including adding new roofs to the great hall and the chapel and adding a drawing room to one of the towers in Jacobean style.
The present family is responsible for the great collection of art in the castle. On 17 March 1849, William the Prince of Orange, succeeded to the throne of the Netherlands, he was at that moment a guest of the Duchess of Cleveland in Raby Castle. In 1890 the former 4th Duke of Cleveland died, leaving the line of succession to the castle and its vast estates unclear; the case was decided in 1891 when the Committee of Privileges of the House of Lords deemed his relative, Henry de Vere Vane, to be the 9th Baron Barnard and inheritor of the vast estates of Raby. He did not, inherit the title of Duke of Cleveland, which became extinct. Raby Castle is open at Easter. In 2007/08 about 26,000 people visited the castle. Raby Castle has an irregular plan, with nine towers along its perimeter; the main entrance was in the west through the four-storey Neville Gateway. Access to the gatehouse was via a drawbridge, since replaced by a flagged causeway; the gatehouse contained three portcullises, as is shown by the still-visible grooves used to work them.
Two smaller towers beside the gatehouse have no defensive function and were added during the renovations of Henry Vane, 2nd Earl of Darlington. Access to t
Anne Neville
Anne Neville was an English queen, the daughter of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick. She became Princess of Wales as the wife of Edward of Westminster and Queen of England as the wife of King Richard III; as a member of the powerful House of Neville, she played a critical part in the Wars of the Roses fought between the House of York and House of Lancaster for the English crown. Her father Warwick betrothed her as a girl to Edward, Prince of Wales, the son of Henry VI; the marriage was to seal an alliance to the House of Lancaster and halt the civil war between the two houses of Lancaster and York. After the death of Edward, the Dowager Princess of Wales married Richard, Duke of Gloucester, brother of Edward IV and of George, Duke of Clarence, the husband of Anne Neville's older sister Isabel. Anne Neville became queen when Richard III ascended the throne in June 1483, following the declaration that Edward IV's children by Elizabeth Woodville were illegitimate. Anne Neville predeceased her husband by five months, dying in March 1485.
Her only child was Edward of Middleham. Anne Neville was born at Warwick Castle, the younger daughter of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, Anne de Beauchamp, her father was one of the most powerful noblemen in England and the most important supporter of the House of York. Her grandfather's sister, Cecily Neville, was the wife of Richard, Duke of York, who claimed the crown for the House of York. Much of Anne Neville's childhood was spent at Middleham Castle, one of her father's properties, where she and her elder sister, met two younger sons of the Duke of York: Richard, Duke of Gloucester and George, Duke of Clarence. Richard attended his knighthood training at Middleham since mid-1461 until at least the spring of 1465, or since 1465 until late 1468, it is possible that at this early stage, a match between the Earl's daughters and the young dukes was being considered. The Duke of York was killed on 30 December 1460 but, with Warwick's help, his eldest son became King Edward IV in March 1461.
In July 1469, Lady Isabel married Clarence, while in July 1470, after the Earl of Warwick's flight to France and change of allegiance, Anne Neville was betrothed to Edward of Westminster, the Lancastrian heir to the throne of England, married to him by the end of the same year. The Earl of Warwick had been at odds with Edward IV for some time, resenting the rise in the king's favour of the new queen's family, the Woodvilles. In 1469, the earl tried to put his son-in-law George on the throne, but met resistance from Parliament. After a second rebellion against King Edward failed in early 1470, he was forced to flee to France, where he allied himself with the ousted House of Lancaster in 1470. With King Henry VI imprisoned in the Tower of London, the de facto Lancastrian leader was his consort, Margaret of Anjou, suspicious of Warwick's motives. To quell these suspicions, Anne Neville was formally betrothed to the son of Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou, Edward of Westminster, at the Château d'Amboise in France.
They were married in Angers Cathedral on 13 December 1470, to make Anne Neville the Princess of Wales. Warwick restored Henry VI to the throne in October 1470, however Edward IV returned to the country in March 1471 and captured London and the person of Henry VI; the mentally troubled Henry VI was taken by Edward IV as a prisoner to the Battle of Barnet, where Warwick was killed on 14 April 1471. Edward IV incarcerated Henry VI in the Tower of London. Following the decisive Yorkist victory at the Battle of Tewkesbury on 4 May, Henry was reported to have died of "pure displeasure and melancholy," although "The Great Chronicle of London" reported that Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was responsible for his death; as Constable of England, he delivered King Edward's order to kill Henry to the Constable of the Tower. Margaret of Anjou had returned to England with Anne Neville and Prince Edward in April, bringing additional troops. At the Battle of Tewkesbury, Edward IV crushed this last Lancastrian army.
Prince Edward was killed in or shortly after the battle, Anne Neville was taken prisoner. She was taken first to Coventry and to the house of her brother-in-law the Duke of Clarence in London, while her mother Anne Beauchamp, Warwick's wife, sought sanctuary in Beaulieu Abbey; when the crisis settled down and the Countess wished to be restored to her estates, Edward IV refused her safe conduct to plead her case. Anne, now widowed, became the subject of some dispute between George of Clarence and his brother Richard of Gloucester, who still wanted to marry her. Anne Neville and her sister, the Duchess of Clarence, were heiresses to their parents' vast estates. Clarence, anxious to secure the entire inheritance, treated her as his ward and opposed her getting married, which would strengthen her position to claim a share. There are various accounts of what happened subsequently, including the story that Clarence hid her in a London cookshop, disguised as a servant, so that his brother would not know where she was.
Gloucester is said to have tracked her down and escorted her to sanctuary at the Church of St Martin's le Grand. In order to win the final consent of his brother George to the marriage, Richard of Gloucester renounced most of Warwick's land and property, including the earldoms of Warwick and Salisbury and surrendered to Clarence the office of Great Chamberlain of England; the exact date of the wedding of Anne Neville and Richard, Duke of Gloucester, is not known, although most sources agree that a ceremony took place sometime in the spring of 1472 in the chapel of St S
Dynasty
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family in the context of a feudal or monarchical system, but sometimes appearing in elective republics. Alternative terms for "dynasty" may include "family" and "clan", among others; the longest-surviving dynasty in the world is the Imperial House of Japan, otherwise known as the Yamato dynasty, whose reign is traditionally dated to 660 BC. The dynastic family or lineage may be known as a "noble house", which may be styled as "royal", "princely", "ducal", "comital" etc. depending upon the chief or present title borne by its members. Historians periodize the histories of numerous nations and civilizations, such as Ancient Egypt and Imperial China, using a framework of successive dynasties; as such, the term "dynasty" may be used to delimit the era during which a family reigned, to describe events and artifacts of that period. The word "dynasty" itself is dropped from such adjectival references; until the 19th century, it was taken for granted that a legitimate function of a monarch was to aggrandize his dynasty: that is, to expand the wealth and power of his family members.
Prior to the 20th century, dynasties throughout the world have traditionally been reckoned patrilineally, such as under the Frankish Salic law. In nations where it was permitted, succession through a daughter established a new dynasty in her husband's ruling house; this has changed in some places in Europe, where succession law and convention have maintained dynasties de jure through a female. For instance, the House of Windsor will be maintained through the children of Queen Elizabeth II, as it did with the monarchy of the Netherlands, whose dynasty remained the House of Orange-Nassau through three successive queens regnant; the earliest such example among major European monarchies was in the Russian Empire in the 18th century, where the name of the House of Romanov was maintained through Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna. In Limpopo Province of South Africa, Balobedu determined descent matrilineally, while rulers have at other times adopted the name of their mother's dynasty when coming into her inheritance.
Less a monarchy has alternated or been rotated, in a multi-dynastic system – that is, the most senior living members of parallel dynasties, at any point in time, constitute the line of succession. Not all feudal states or monarchies were/are ruled by dynasties. Throughout history, there were monarchs. Dynasties ruling subnational monarchies do not possess sovereign rights; the word "dynasty" is sometimes used informally for people who are not rulers but are, for example, members of a family with influence and power in other areas, such as a series of successive owners of a major company. It is extended to unrelated people, such as major poets of the same school or various rosters of a single sports team; the word "dynasty" derives from Latin dynastia, which comes from Greek dynastéia, where it referred to "power", "dominion", "rule" itself. It was the abstract noun of dynástēs, the agent noun of dynamis, "power" or "ability", from dýnamai, "to be able". A ruler from a dynasty is sometimes referred to as a "dynast", but this term is used to describe any member of a reigning family who retains a right to succeed to a throne.
For example, King Edward VIII ceased to be a dynast of the House of Windsor following his abdication. In historical and monarchist references to reigning families, a "dynast" is a family member who would have had succession rights, were the monarchy's rules still in force. For example, after the 1914 assassinations of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his morganatic wife Duchess Sophie von Hohenberg, their son Duke Maximilian was bypassed for the Austro-Hungarian throne because he was not a Habsburg dynast. Since the abolition of the Austrian monarchy, Duke Maximilian and his descendants have not been considered the rightful pretenders by Austrian monarchists, nor have they claimed that position; the term "dynast" is sometimes used only to refer to agnatic descendants of a realm's monarchs, sometimes to include those who hold succession rights through cognatic royal descent. The term can therefore describe distinct sets of people. For example, David Armstrong-Jones, 2nd Earl of Snowdon, a nephew of Queen Elizabeth II through her sister Princess Margaret, is in the line of succession to the British crown.
On the other hand, the German aristocrat Prince Ernst August of Hanover, a male-line descendant of King George III of the United Kingdom, possesses no legal British name, titles or styles. He was born in the line of succession to the British throne and was bound by Britain's Royal Marriages Act 1772 until it was repealed when the Succession to the Crown Act 2013 took effect on 26 March 2015. Thus, he requested and obtained formal permission from Queen Elizabeth II to marry the Roman Catholic Princess Caroline of Monaco in 1999. Yet, a clause of the English Act of Settlement 1701 remained in effect at that time, stipulating that dynasts who
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry was the second Tudor monarch, succeeding his father, Henry VII. Henry is best known for his six marriages, in particular his efforts to have his first marriage, to Catherine of Aragon, annulled, his disagreement with the Pope on the question of such an annulment led Henry to initiate the English Reformation, separating the Church of England from papal authority. He appointed himself the Supreme Head of the Church of England and dissolved convents and monasteries, for which he was excommunicated. Henry is known as "the father of the Royal Navy". Domestically, Henry is known for his radical changes to the English Constitution, ushering into England the theory of the divine right of kings. Besides asserting the sovereign's supremacy over the Church of England, he expanded royal power during his reign. Charges of treason and heresy were used to quell dissent, those accused were executed without a formal trial, by means of bills of attainder.
He achieved many of his political aims through the work of his chief ministers, some of whom were banished or executed when they fell out of his favour. Thomas Wolsey, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, Richard Rich, Thomas Cranmer all figured prominently in Henry's administration, he was an extravagant spender and used the proceeds from the Dissolution of the Monasteries and acts of the Reformation Parliament to convert into royal revenue the money, paid to Rome. Despite the influx of money from these sources, Henry was continually on the verge of financial ruin due to his personal extravagance as well as his numerous costly and unsuccessful continental wars with King Francis I of France and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. At home, he oversaw the legal union of England and Wales with the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542 and following the Crown of Ireland Act 1542 he was the first English monarch to rule as King of Ireland, his contemporaries considered Henry in his prime to be an attractive and accomplished king.
He has been described as "one of the most charismatic rulers to sit on the English throne". He was an composer; as he aged, Henry became obese and his health suffered, contributing to his death in 1547. He is characterised in his life as a lustful, egotistical and insecure king, he was succeeded by the issue of his third marriage to Jane Seymour. Born 28 June 1491 at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, Henry Tudor was the third child and second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. Of the young Henry's six siblings, only three – Arthur, Prince of Wales, he was baptised by Richard Fox, the Bishop of Exeter, at a church of the Observant Franciscans close to the palace. In 1493, at the age of two, Henry was appointed Constable of Dover Castle and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, he was subsequently appointed Earl Marshal of England and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland at age three, was inducted into the Order of the Bath soon after. The day after the ceremony he was created Duke of York and a month or so made Warden of the Scottish Marches.
In May 1495, he was appointed to the Order of the Garter. The reason for all the appointments to a small child was so his father could keep personal control of lucrative positions and not share them with established families. Henry was given a first-rate education from leading tutors, becoming fluent in Latin and French, learning at least some Italian. Not much is known about his early life – save for his appointments – because he was not expected to become king. In November 1501, Henry played a considerable part in the ceremonies surrounding his brother's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, the youngest surviving child of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile; as Duke of York, Henry used the arms of his father as king, differenced by a label of three points ermine. He was further honoured, on 9 February 1506, by Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I who made him a Knight of the Golden Fleece. In 1502, Arthur died at the age of 15 of sweating sickness, just 20 weeks after his marriage to Catherine.
Arthur's death thrust all his duties upon the 10-year-old Henry. After a little debate, Henry became the new Duke of Cornwall in October 1502, the new Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester in February 1503. Henry VII gave the boy few tasks. Young Henry was supervised and did not appear in public; as a result, he ascended the throne "untrained in the exacting art of kingship". Henry VII renewed his efforts to seal a marital alliance between England and Spain, by offering his second son in marriage to Arthur's widow Catherine. Both Isabella and Henry VII were keen on the idea, which had arisen shortly after Arthur's death. On 23 June 1503, a treaty was signed for their marriage, they were betrothed two days later. A papal dispensation was only needed for the "impediment of public honesty" if the marriage had not been consummated as Catherine and her duenna claimed, but Henry VII and the Spanish ambassador set out instead to obtain a dispensation for "affinity", which took account of the possibility of consummation.
Cohabitation was not possible. Isabella's death in 1504, the ensuing problems of succession in Castile, complicated matters, her father preferred her to stay in England, but Henry VII's relations with Ferdinand had deteriorated. Catherine was therefore left in limbo for some time, culminating in Prince Henry's rejection of the marriage as soon he was able, at the age of 14. Ferdinand's solution was to make his daugh
