1.
Queen mother
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Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon was the wife of King George VI and the mother of Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon. She was the last Empress consort of India, born into a family of British nobility, she came to prominence in 1923 when she married Albert, Duke of York, the second son of King George V and Queen Mary. The couple and their daughters embodied traditional ideas of family and public service and she undertook a variety of public engagements and became known as the Smiling Duchess because of her consistent public expression. In 1936, her husband became king when his brother, Edward VIII. She accompanied her husband on diplomatic tours to France and North America before the start of World War II, during the war, her seemingly indomitable spirit provided moral support to the British public. In recognition of her role as an asset to British interests, after the war, her husbands health deteriorated and she was widowed at the age of 51. Her elder daughter, aged 25, became the new queen, on the death of Queen Mary in 1953, Elizabeth became the most senior member of the British royal family after the sovereign, and was viewed as the family matriarch. In her later years, she was a popular member of the family. She continued a public life until just a few months before her death at the age of 101, seven weeks after the death of her younger daughter. Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon was the youngest daughter and the ninth of ten children of Claude Bowes-Lyon, Lord Glamis, other possible locations include Forbes House in Ham, London, the home of her maternal grandmother, Louisa Scott. Her birth was registered at Hitchin, Hertfordshire, near the Strathmores English country house, St Pauls Walden Bury, which was also given as her birthplace in the census the following year. She was christened there on 23 September 1900, in the parish church, All Saints. She spent much of her childhood at St Pauls Walden and at Glamis Castle and she was educated at home by a governess until the age of eight, and was fond of field sports, ponies and dogs. When she started school in London, she astonished her teachers by precociously beginning an essay with two Greek words from Xenophons Anabasis and her best subjects were literature and scripture. After returning to education under a German Jewish governess, Käthe Kübler. On her fourteenth birthday, Britain declared war on Germany, four of her brothers served in the army. Her elder brother, Fergus, an officer in the Black Watch Regiment, was killed in action at the Battle of Loos in 1915, another brother, Michael, was reported missing in action on 28 April 1917. Three weeks later, the family discovered he had captured after being wounded
2.
British queen mothers
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Queen mother is defined as a queen dowager who is the mother of the reigning sovereign. A queen mother is a person satisfying the criteria, She is the mother of the current monarch. She must have been queen consort, but not having ceased to be so due to a divorce or annulment, Queen mother does not mean mother of the Queen, it applies whether the current monarch is queen or king. As a queen, a queen mother retains the style of Her Majesty, following is a list of women who, on the above definition, were entitled to be known as queen mother at some point in their lives. Mother of George V. 1936–1952 Mary of Teck, mother of Edward VIII and George VI. 1952–2002 Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, mother of Elizabeth II, her fifty years is by far the longest ever that anyone has held the status of queen mother, Dictionary of National Biography Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Chambers Biographical Dictionary Encyclopædia Britannica
3.
Queen consort of the United Kingdom
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A royal consort is the spouse of a ruling King or Queen. Consorts of monarchs in the United Kingdom and its predecessors have no status or power. Some royal consorts, such as current consort Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, have helped to enhance the image of the Monarchy by becoming celebrities in their own right. Since the foundation of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707, it, queens between 1727 and 1814 were also Electress of Hanover, as their husbands all held the title of Elector of Hanover. Between 1814 and 1837, queens held the title as Queen of Hanover, in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Hanover was annexed by Prussia and became the Province of Hanover. Not all wives of monarchs have become consorts, as they may have died, been divorced, had their marriage declared invalid prior to their husbands ascending the throne, or married after abdication. Such cases include, Sophia Dorothea of Celle, wife of George I of Great Britain, married 22 November 1682, divorced 28 December 1694, maria Anne Fitzherbert, wife of George IV of the United Kingdom, married 1785, marriage declared null, died 1837. Wallis Warfield Simpson, wife of Edward VIII, and therefore not the wife of a king, married 3 June 1937. It has been stated, however, that it is intended that she should be styled not as a queen consort, all female consorts have had the right to be and have been styled as queens consort. It was suggested at first that he would in fact become King, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, husband of Elizabeth II, already raised to the peerage as Duke of Edinburgh in 1947, was made a Prince of the United Kingdom in 1957. He is not styled as Prince Consort, since 1707, only George I and Edward VIII have been unmarried throughout their reign
4.
Dominion
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Dominions were semi-independent polities under the British Crown, constituting the British Empire, beginning with Canadian Confederation in 1867. They included Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the Irish Free State, and then from the late 1940s also India, Pakistan, and Ceylon. The Balfour Declaration of 1926 recognised the Dominions as autonomous Communities within the British Empire, earlier usage of dominion to refer to a particular territory dates to the 16th century and was used to describe Wales from 1535 to 1801 and New England between 1686 and 1689. At the outset, a distinction must be made between a British dominion and British Dominions, all territories forming part of the British Empire were British dominions but only some were British Dominions. At the time of the adoption of the Statute of Westminster, there were six British Dominions, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Newfoundland, at the same time there were many other jurisdictions that were British dominions, for example Cyprus. The Order in Council annexing the island of Cyprus in 1914 declared that, from 5 November, Dominion, as an official title, was conferred on the Colony of Virginia about 1660 and on the Dominion of New England in 1686. These dominions never had full self-governing status, the creation of the short-lived Dominion of New England was designed—contrary to the purpose of later dominions—to increase royal control and to reduce the colonys self-government. Under the British North America Act 1867, what is now eastern Canada received the status of Dominion upon the Confederation of several British possessions in North America. However, it was at the Colonial Conference of 1907 when the colonies of Canada. Two other self-governing colonies—New Zealand and Newfoundland—were granted the status of Dominion in the same year and these were followed by the Union of South Africa in 1910 and the Irish Free State in 1922. The Statute of Westminster 1931 converted this status into legal reality, following the Second World War, the decline of British colonialism led to Dominions generally being referred to as Commonwealth realms and the use of the word dominion gradually diminished. Nonetheless, though disused, it remains Canadas legal title and the phrase Her Majestys Dominions is still used occasionally in legal documents in the United Kingdom. The phrase His/Her Majestys dominions is a legal and constitutional phrase that refers to all the realms and territories of the Sovereign, thus, for example, the British Ireland Act,1949, recognised that the Republic of Ireland had ceased to be part of His Majestys dominions. The later sense of Dominion was capitalised to distinguish it from the general sense of dominion. The word dominions originally referred to the possessions of the Kingdom of England, oliver Cromwells full title in the 1650s was Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, and the dominions thereto belonging. In 1660, King Charles II gave the Colony of Virginia the title of dominion in gratitude for Virginias loyalty to the Crown during the English Civil War, the Commonwealth of Virginia, a State of the United States, still has the Old Dominion as one of its nicknames. Dominion also occurred in the name of the short-lived Dominion of New England, in all of these cases, the word dominion implied no more than being subject to the English Crown. The foundation of Dominion status followed the achievement of internal self-rule in British Colonies, Colonial responsible government began to emerge during the mid-19th century
5.
Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth
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King George ascended the throne upon the abdication of his brother, King Edward VIII, on 10 December 1936, three days before his 41st birthday. Edwards coronation had been planned for 12 May 1937 and it was decided to continue with his brother, the peers of the realm then paid homage to the King before a shorter and simpler ceremony was conducted for the Queens coronation. The event was designed to be not only a sacred anointing and formal crowning, but also a public spectacle, may 1937 included a programme of royal events lasting nearly the entire month to commemorate and mark the occasion. For the event itself, the ministers of each Dominion took part in the procession to the abbey. Contingents from most colonies and each Dominion participated in the procession through Londons streets. It was also the first coronation to be filmed, as well as the first to be broadcast on radio. In January 1936, King George V died and his eldest son, Edward, Prince of Wales, in October 1936, Simpson filed for divorce a second time and the King informed the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, that he intended to propose to her. The widespread unwillingness to accept Simpson as the Kings consort, and Edwards refusal to give her up and he was succeeded by his next younger brother, Albert, Duke of York, who chose the regnal name of George VI, in honour of his father. In 1923, George had married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the daughter of the Earl of Strathmore, although the reign of the British monarch begins on their succession to the throne, the coronation service marks their formal crowning. While Edward VIII was away, cruising on the Nahlin with Wallis Simpson, his brother, Albert, Duke of York sat in his place on the committees. Owing to his office, he was a member of both the Executive Committee and the Coronation Committee, which dealt with the detail and, as such, he attended all of the rehearsals. He tended to take a role in the planning process, becoming a key mediator when queries arose. He was also keen to ensure that the King and Queen understood the nuances of the service. The Archbishop met with the King and Queen on the evening before their coronation, running through the ceremony, as it happened, the King delivered his speech without stuttering. The coronation cost £454,000, which was more than three times the cost of the 1911 ceremony and this cost included the construction of the annexe, which was built as a temporary add-on at the entrance of the abbey for each coronation. 400 tons were used alongside 72,000 cubic feet of wood, the theatre and sacrarium were also lowered to floor level for the first time since the restoration. The Coronation Committee altered the rite to reflect this change, the King now swore to maintain the Protestant Reformed Religion only as established by law in the United Kingdom. This was the first amendment to the oath since the coronation of King William III, members of the extended Royal Family attended and all peers and members of parliament were invited
6.
Empress consort of India
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The term Emperor of India is also used to refer to pre-British Indian emperors. The new title was proclaimed at the Delhi Durbar of 1877, the title had been eagerly assumed by Victoria in 1876, after she had been pressuring Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Benjamin Disraeli to agree to her assuming the title for some years. The idea of having Victoria proclaimed empress of India was not new as Lord Ellenborough had already suggested it in 1843 on becoming governor-general of India. The Queen, possibly irritated by the sallies of the republicans, the tendency to democracy, by January 1876, the Queens insistence was such that the Prime Minister felt he could procrastinate no more. Another reason Queen Victoria was titled Empress of India was because her daughter Victoria was to be eventually Empress of Germany so she didnt want to be ranked behind her daughter. The new styling would underline the fact that the states were no longer a mere agglomeration. When Victorias successor Edward VII ascended the throne in 1901, he continued to use the title Emperor of India, the title continued after India became independent on 15 August 1947 until it was formally abandoned on 22 June 1948 during the reign of King George VI. When signing off Indian business, the reigning British King-Emperors or queen-empress used the initials R I or the abbreviation Ind, when a male monarch held the title his wife, the queen consort, used the style queen-empress, though she was not herself a reigning monarch. British coins and those of the Empire and Commonwealth routinely included the abbreviated title Ind, imp. although in India itself the coins said Empress, and later King Emperor. When in 1947 India became independent all coining dies had to be changed, canadian coins, for example, were minted well into 1948 stamped 1947, the new years issue indicated by a small maple leaf in one corner. In Great Britain itself the title appeared on coinage through 1948
7.
Hitchin
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Hitchin is a market town in the North Hertfordshire District in Hertfordshire, England, with an estimated population of 33,350. Hitchin is first noted as the place of the Hicce people mentioned in a 7th-century document. The tribal name is Brittonic rather than Old English and derives from *siccā, meaning dry, which is perhaps a reference to the local stream, the Hiz. Evidence has been found to suggest that the town was provided with an earthen bank and ditch fortification, probably in the early tenth century. The modern spelling Hitchin first appears in 1618 in the Hertfordshire Feet of Fines, the name of the town also is associated with the small river that runs through the town, most picturesquely in front of the east end of St. Marys Church, the towns parish church. The river is noted on maps as the River Hiz, contrary to how most people now pronounce the name, that is to say as spelt, the z is an abbreviated character for a tch sound in Domesday Book. It would have been pronounced River Hitch, Hitchin is notable for St. Marys Church, which is remarkably large for a town of its size. The size of the church is evidence of how Hitchin prospered from the wool trade and it is the largest parish church in Hertfordshire. Most of the dates from the 15th century, with its tower dating from around 1190. During the laying of a new floor in the church in 1911, in form, they appear to be a basilican church of a 7th-century type, with a later enlarged chancel and transepts, perhaps added in the 10th century. This makes the older than the story that the church was founded by Offa. In 1697, Hitchin were subject to what is thought to have been the most severe hailstorm in recorded British history, by the middle of the 19th century the railway had arrived, and with it a new way of life for Hitchin. The corn exchange was built in the place and within a short time Hitchin established itself as a major centre for grain trading. The latter half of the 20th century has brought great changes in communication to Hitchin. Motorways have shortened the time and brought Luton, a few miles away on the M1. By the close of the 20th century, Hitchin had become a dormitory town for London. Hitchin also developed a fairly strong Sikh community based around the Walsworth area, during the medieval period, both a priory and a friary were established, both of which closed during Henry VIIIs Dissolution of the Monasteries. They were never reformed, although The Biggin was for years used as almshouses
8.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
9.
Royal Lodge
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The Royal Lodge is a Grade II listed house in Windsor Great Park in Berkshire, England, half a mile north of Cumberland Lodge and 3 miles south of Windsor Castle. It was the Windsor residence of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother from 1952 until her death there in 2002, since 2004 it has been the official residence of Prince Andrew, Duke of York. The Lodge dates originally from the century, there being a house on the site by 1662. By 1750 the small Queen Anne style brick house was being used in conjunction with the adjacent dairy, by this time it was known variously as the Lower Lodge, to distinguish it from Cumberland Lodge, then known as the Great Lodge, or the Dairy Lodge. From the mid-eighteenth century it was home to the topographer and artist Thomas Sandby. The house was known as the Deputy Rangers House. It was enlarged by 1792, and was the home of Joseph Frost, the Park Bailiff, George, Prince of Wales, planned to rebuild Cumberland Lodge, after he had become Prince Regent. He used the Lower Lodge as temporary accommodation in 1812, alterations and additions were undertaken by John Nash for the Prince of Wales. The chapels of the Royal and Cumberland Lodges proved too small for the households in the early 19th century. The chapel is less than a hundred yards from Royal Lodge and it was now a large and elaborate cottage in the contemporary style of the cottage orné, with thatched roofs, verandas, and a conservatory. It became known as the Prince Regents Cottage after the prince moved into it in 1815, the renovation of Cumberland Lodge was abandoned. In 1823 Jeffry Wyatt succeeded Nash as architect, and the became known as the Royal Lodge in the late 1820s. After 1830, King William IV ordered the demolition of all of the house and it became a residence again in 1840, and was used as accommodation for various officers of the Royal Household to 1843, and 1873–1931. The grounds extend to 98 acres, partly under its own head gardener, while the house has grown piecemeal since the 1840s, and remains relatively small and informal, the grounds have a unifying plan. This was the result of work undertaken by the Duke and Duchess of York in the 1930s, with the assistance of Sir Eric Savill, the grounds contain the miniature cottage Y Bwthyn Bach, a gift to Princess Elizabeth as a child from the people of Wales. In 1931, King George V granted Royal Lodge to the Duke, wings were added on each flank in the 1930s. There are two lodges at the entrance, and groups of three each side of the lodges. The main building has some 30 rooms, including 7 bedrooms, after the death of George VI in 1952, The Queen Mother continued to use the house as one of her country retreats as a grace and favour residence, until her death
10.
Windsor, Berkshire
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Windsor is a historic market town and unparished area in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England. It is widely known as the site of Windsor Castle, one of the residences of the British Royal Family. The town is situated 23 miles west of Charing Cross, London,7 miles south east of Maidenhead and it is immediately south of the River Thames, which forms its boundary with its ancient twin town of Eton. Windlesora is first mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the name originates from old English Windles-ore or winch by the riverside. By the late 12th century the settlement at Windelsora was renamed Old Windsor, the early history of the site is unknown, although it was almost certainly settled some years before 1070 when William the Conqueror had a timber motte and bailey castle constructed. The focus of royal interest at that time was not the castle, however, from about the 8th century, high status people started to visit the site occasionally, and possibly this included royalty. From the 11th century the sites link with king Edward the Confessor is documented, after the Conquest of 1066 royal use of the site increased, probably because it offered good access to woodlands and opportunities for hunting – a sport which also practised military skills. Windsor Castle is noted in the Domesday Book under the entry for Clewer, although this might seem strange, it occurred because plans for the castle had changed since 1070, and more land had been acquired in Clewer on which to site a castle town. This plan was not actioned until the early 12th century, King Henry married his second wife at Windsor Castle in 1121, after the White Ship disaster. The settlement at Old Windsor largely transferred to New Windsor during the 12th century,1170, under Henry II, following the civil war of Stephens reign. At about the time, the present upper ward of the castle was rebuilt in stone. It had a merchant guild from the early 13th century and, under patronage, was made the chief town of the county in 1277. Somewhat unusually, this gave no new rights or privileges to Windsor. Windsors position as town of Berkshire was short-lived, however. Wallingford took over this position in the early 14th century, as a self-governing town Windsor enjoyed a number of freedoms unavailable to other towns, including the right to hold its own borough court, the right of membership and some financial independence. The town accounts of the 16th century survive in part, although most of the once substantial borough archive dating back to the 12th century was destroyed, probably in the late 17th century. New Windsor was a significant town in the Middle Ages. Its prosperity came from its association with the royal household
11.
St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle
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St Georges Chapel is the place of worship at Windsor Castle in England, United Kingdom. It is both a royal peculiar and the chapel of the Order of the Garter, the chapel is governed by the Dean and Canons of Windsor. The chapel is located in the Lower Ward of the castle, the Society of the Friends of St Georges and Descendants of the Knights of the Garter, a registered charity, was established in 1931 to assist the College in maintaining the chapel. In 1348, King Edward III founded two new colleges, St Stephens at Westminster and St Georges at Windsor. The new college at Windsor was attached to the Chapel of St Edward the Confessor which had constructed by Henry III in the early thirteenth century. The chapel was rededicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, St Edward the Confessor. Edward III also built the Aerary Porch in 1353–1354 and it was used as the entrance to the new college. St Georges Chapel became the Mother Church of the Order of the Garter, and their heraldic banners hang above the upper stalls of the choir where they have a seat for life. The period 1475–1528 saw a redevelopment of St Georges Chapel, set in motion by Edward IV and continued by Henry VII. The Horseshoe Cloister was constructed for the new community of 45 junior members,16 vicars, St Georges Chapel was a popular destination for pilgrims during the late medieval period. The chapel was purported to contain several important relics, the bodies of John Schorne and Henry VI of England and these relics all appear to have been displayed at the east end of the south choir aisle. The Chapel suffered a great deal of destruction during the English Civil War, parliamentary forces broke into and plundered the chapel and treasury on 23 October 1642. Further pillaging occurred in 1643 when the chapter house was destroyed, lead was stripped off the chapel roofs. Following his execution in 1649, Charles I was buried in a vault in the centre of the choir at St Georges Chapel which also contained the coffins of Henry VIII. A programme of repair was undertaken at St Georges Chapel following the Restoration of the monarchy, the reign of Queen Victoria saw further changes made to the architecture of the chapel. On the roof of the chapel, standing on the pinnacles, the original beasts dated from the sixteenth century, but were removed in 1682 on the advice of Sir Christopher Wren, the present statues date from 1925, when the chapel was restored. Members of the meet at Windsor Castle every June for the annual Garter Service. After lunch in the State Apartments in the Upper Ward of the Castle they process on foot, wearing their robes and insignia, if any new members have been admitted to the Order they are installed at the service
12.
George VI
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George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death. He was the last Emperor of India and the first Head of the Commonwealth, known as Albert until his accession, George VI was born in the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria, and was named after his great-grandfather Albert, Prince Consort. As the second son of King George V, he was not expected to inherit the throne and spent his life in the shadow of his elder brother. He attended naval college as a teenager, and served in the Royal Navy, in 1920, he was made Duke of York. He married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923 and they had two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret, in the mid-1920s, he had speech therapy for a stammer, which he never fully overcame. Georges elder brother ascended the throne as Edward VIII upon the death of their father in 1936, however, later that year Edward revealed his desire to marry divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson. British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin advised Edward that for political and religious reasons he could not marry a divorced woman, Edward abdicated in order to marry, and George ascended the throne as the third monarch of the House of Windsor. During Georges reign, the break-up of the British Empire and its transition into the Commonwealth of Nations accelerated, the parliament of the Irish Free State removed direct mention of the monarch from the countrys constitution on the day of his accession. The following year, a new Irish constitution changed the name of the state to Ireland, from 1939, the Empire and Commonwealth – except Ireland – was at war with Nazi Germany. War with Italy and Japan followed in 1940 and 1941, respectively, though Britain and its allies were ultimately victorious in 1945, the United States and the Soviet Union rose as pre-eminent world powers and the British Empire declined. After the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947, George remained king of countries, but relinquished the title of Emperor of India in June 1948. Ireland formally declared itself a republic and left the Commonwealth in 1949, George adopted the new title of Head of the Commonwealth. He was beset by problems in the later years of his reign. He was succeeded by his eldest daughter, Elizabeth II, George was born at York Cottage, on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, during the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria. His father was Prince George, Duke of York, the second and eldest-surviving son of the Prince and his mother was the Duchess of York, the eldest child and only daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Teck. His birthday was the 34th anniversary of the death of his great-grandfather, Albert, uncertain of how the Prince Consorts widow, Queen Victoria, would take the news of the birth, the Prince of Wales wrote to the Duke of York that the Queen had been rather distressed. Two days later, he again, I really think it would gratify her if you yourself proposed the name Albert to her. Consequently, he was baptised Albert Frederick Arthur George at St. Mary Magdalenes Church near Sandringham three months later, within the family, he was known informally as Bertie
13.
Elizabeth II
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Elizabeth II has been Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand since 6 February 1952. Elizabeth was born in London as the eldest child of the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth and her father acceded to the throne on the abdication of his brother Edward VIII in 1936, from which time she was the heir presumptive. She began to undertake duties during the Second World War. Elizabeths many historic visits and meetings include a visit to the Republic of Ireland. She has seen major changes, such as devolution in the United Kingdom, Canadian patriation. She has reigned through various wars and conflicts involving many of her realms and she is the worlds oldest reigning monarch as well as Britains longest-lived. In October 2016, she became the longest currently reigning monarch, in 2017 she became the first British monarch to commemorate a Sapphire Jubilee. Elizabeth has occasionally faced republican sentiments and press criticism of the family, however, support for the monarchy remains high. Elizabeth was born at 02,40 on 21 April 1926, during the reign of her paternal grandfather and her father, Prince Albert, Duke of York, was the second son of the King. Her mother, Elizabeth, Duchess of York, was the youngest daughter of Scottish aristocrat Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and she was delivered by Caesarean section at her maternal grandfathers London house,17 Bruton Street, Mayfair. Elizabeths only sibling, Princess Margaret, was born in 1930, the two princesses were educated at home under the supervision of their mother and their governess, Marion Crawford, who was casually known as Crawfie. Lessons concentrated on history, language, literature and music, Crawford published a biography of Elizabeth and Margarets childhood years entitled The Little Princesses in 1950, much to the dismay of the royal family. The book describes Elizabeths love of horses and dogs, her orderliness, others echoed such observations, Winston Churchill described Elizabeth when she was two as a character. She has an air of authority and reflectiveness astonishing in an infant and her cousin Margaret Rhodes described her as a jolly little girl, but fundamentally sensible and well-behaved. During her grandfathers reign, Elizabeth was third in the line of succession to the throne, behind her uncle Edward, Prince of Wales, and her father, the Duke of York. Although her birth generated public interest, she was not expected to become queen, many people believed that he would marry and have children of his own. When her grandfather died in 1936 and her uncle succeeded as Edward VIII, she became second-in-line to the throne, later that year, Edward abdicated, after his proposed marriage to divorced socialite Wallis Simpson provoked a constitutional crisis. Consequently, Elizabeths father became king, and she became heir presumptive, if her parents had had a later son, she would have lost her position as first-in-line, as her brother would have been heir apparent and above her in the line of succession
14.
Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon
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Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, CI, GCVO, GCStJ was the younger daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom and the only sibling of Queen Elizabeth II. Margaret spent much of her childhood in the company of her older sister and her life changed dramatically in 1936, when her paternal uncle, King Edward VIII, abdicated to marry a divorcée, Wallis Simpson. Margarets father became King, and her sister became heir presumptive. During World War II, the two stayed at Windsor Castle, despite suggestions to evacuate them to Canada. During the war years, Margaret was considered too young to perform any official duties, after the war, Margaret fell in love with Group Captain Peter Townsend. In 1952, Margarets father died, her sister became Queen, early the following year, he proposed to Margaret. Many in the government believed he would be a husband for the Queens 22-year-old sister. Margaret eventually abandoned her plans with him and in 1960, she accepted the proposal of the photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones, Margaret was often viewed as a controversial member of the British royal family. Her divorce earned her publicity, and she was romantically associated with several men. Her health gradually deteriorated in the two decades of her life. A heavy smoker for most of her life, she had a lung operation in 1985, a bout of pneumonia in 1993. She died at King Edward VII Hospital on 9 February 2002, Margaret was born on 21 August 1930 at Glamis Castle in Scotland, her mothers ancestral home, and was affectionately known as Margot within the royal family. The Home Secretary, J. R. Clynes, was present to verify the birth, the registration of her birth was delayed for several days to avoid her being numbered 13 in the parish register. At the time of her birth, she was fourth in the line of succession to the British throne and her father was Prince Albert, Duke of York, the second son of King George V and Queen Mary. Her mother was Elizabeth, Duchess of York, the youngest daughter of the 14th Earl, King George V disliked the name Ann but approved of the alternative Margaret Rose. Margaret was baptised in the chapel of Buckingham Palace on 30 October 1930 by Cosmo Lang. Margarets early life was spent primarily at the Yorks residences at 145 Piccadilly and she was educated alongside her sister, Princess Elizabeth, by their Scottish governess Marion Crawford. Margarets education was supervised by her mother, who in the words of Randolph Churchill never aimed at bringing her daughters up to be more than nicely behaved young ladies
15.
Dynasty
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A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a feudal or monarchical system but sometimes also appearing in elective republics. The dynastic family or lineage may be known as a house, historians periodize the histories of many sovereign states, such as Ancient Egypt, the Carolingian Empire and Imperial China, using a framework of successive dynasties. As such, the dynasty may be used to delimit the era during which the family reigned and to describe events, trends. The word dynasty itself is often 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 increase the territory, wealth, and power of his family members. The longest-surviving dynasty in the world is the Imperial House of Japan, dynasties throughout the world have traditionally been reckoned patrilineally, such as under the Frankish Salic law. Succession through a daughter when permitted was considered to establish a new dynasty in her husbands ruling house, however, some states in Africa, determined descent matrilineally, while rulers have at other times adopted the name of their mothers dynasty when coming into her inheritance. It is also extended to unrelated people such as poets of the same school or various rosters of a single sports team. The word dynasty derives via Latin dynastia from Greek dynastéia, where it referred to power, dominion and it was the abstract noun of dynástēs, the agent noun of dynamis, power or ability, from dýnamai, to be able. A ruler in a dynasty is referred to as a dynast. For example, following his abdication, Edward VIII of the United Kingdom ceased to be a member of the House of Windsor. A dynastic marriage is one that complies with monarchical house law restrictions, the marriage of Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, to Máxima Zorreguieta in 2002 was dynastic, for example, and their eldest child is expected to inherit the Dutch crown eventually. But the marriage of his younger brother Prince Friso to Mabel Wisse Smit in 2003 lacked government support, thus Friso forfeited his place in the order of succession, lost his title as a Prince of the Netherlands, and left his children without dynastic rights. In historical and monarchist references to formerly reigning families, a dynast is a member who would have had succession rights, were the monarchys rules still in force. Even since abolition of the Austrian monarchy, Max 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 descendants of a realms monarchs. The term can therefore describe overlapping but distinct sets of people, yet he is not a male-line member of the royal family, and is therefore not a dynast of the House of Windsor. Thus, in 1999 he requested and obtained permission from Elizabeth II to marry the Roman Catholic Princess Caroline of Monaco. Yet a clause of the English Act of Settlement 1701 remained in effect at that time and that exclusion, too, ceased to apply on 26 March 2015, with retroactive effect for those who had been dynasts prior to triggering it by marriage to a Catholic
16.
House of Windsor
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The House of Windsor is the royal house of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms. The houses of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Windsor have provided five British monarchs to date, including four kings, the name was changed from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the English Windsor in 1917 because of anti-German sentiment in the British Empire during World War I. During the reign of the Windsors, major changes took place in British society, the British Empire participated in the First and Second World Wars, ending up on the winning side both times, but subsequently lost its status as a superpower during decolonisation. Much of Ireland broke with the United Kingdom and the remnants of the Empire became the Commonwealth of Nations, the current head of the house is monarch of sixteen sovereign states. As well as these separate monarchies, there are also three Crown dependencies, fourteen British Overseas Territories and two associated states of New Zealand. Edward VII and, in turn, his son, George V, were members of the German ducal House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha by virtue of their descent from Albert, Prince Consort, husband of Queen Victoria. The King and his family were convinced to abandon all titles held under the German Crown and to change German titles. 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, Prince Alastair and Princess Victoria died unmarried and childless. Princess Mary married into the Lascelles family, and Princess Patricia married Alexander Ramsay, neither of the Prince Arthurs had any further children, meaning all subsequent members of the House of Windsor descend from the sons of George V. In 1947, Princess Elizabeth, heir presumptive to King George VI and he was a member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, a branch of the House of Oldenburg, and had been a prince of Greece and Denmark. It is the translation of the German battenberg, which refers to Battenberg. Philip privately complained, I am nothing but a bloody amoeba, I am the only man in the country not allowed to give his name to his own children. Still, Elizabeth also decreed that her descendants who do not have that style and title would bear the surname Mountbatten-Windsor. This came after months of correspondence between the Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and the constitutional expert Edward Iwi. Iwi had raised the prospect that the Royal child due to be born in February 1960 would bear the Badge of Bastardy if it were given its mothers maiden name rather than its fathers name and she clearly wished to make this change before the birth of her child. The issue did not affect Prince Charles or Princess Anne, as they had been born with the name Mountbatten, Prince Andrew was born 11 days later, on 19 February 1960. Any future monarch can change the name through a similar royal proclamation. At the creation of the House of Windsor, its head reigned over a unitary British Empire, in the chart below, the countries are differentiated between light green, medium green, and dark green
17.
King George VI
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George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death. He was the last Emperor of India and the first Head of the Commonwealth, known as Albert until his accession, George VI was born in the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria, and was named after his great-grandfather Albert, Prince Consort. As the second son of King George V, he was not expected to inherit the throne and spent his life in the shadow of his elder brother. He attended naval college as a teenager, and served in the Royal Navy, in 1920, he was made Duke of York. He married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923 and they had two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret, in the mid-1920s, he had speech therapy for a stammer, which he never fully overcame. Georges elder brother ascended the throne as Edward VIII upon the death of their father in 1936, however, later that year Edward revealed his desire to marry divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson. British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin advised Edward that for political and religious reasons he could not marry a divorced woman, Edward abdicated in order to marry, and George ascended the throne as the third monarch of the House of Windsor. During Georges reign, the break-up of the British Empire and its transition into the Commonwealth of Nations accelerated, the parliament of the Irish Free State removed direct mention of the monarch from the countrys constitution on the day of his accession. The following year, a new Irish constitution changed the name of the state to Ireland, from 1939, the Empire and Commonwealth – except Ireland – was at war with Nazi Germany. War with Italy and Japan followed in 1940 and 1941, respectively, though Britain and its allies were ultimately victorious in 1945, the United States and the Soviet Union rose as pre-eminent world powers and the British Empire declined. After the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947, George remained king of countries, but relinquished the title of Emperor of India in June 1948. Ireland formally declared itself a republic and left the Commonwealth in 1949, George adopted the new title of Head of the Commonwealth. He was beset by problems in the later years of his reign. He was succeeded by his eldest daughter, Elizabeth II, George was born at York Cottage, on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, during the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria. His father was Prince George, Duke of York, the second and eldest-surviving son of the Prince and his mother was the Duchess of York, the eldest child and only daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Teck. His birthday was the 34th anniversary of the death of his great-grandfather, Albert, uncertain of how the Prince Consorts widow, Queen Victoria, would take the news of the birth, the Prince of Wales wrote to the Duke of York that the Queen had been rather distressed. Two days later, he again, I really think it would gratify her if you yourself proposed the name Albert to her. Consequently, he was baptised Albert Frederick Arthur George at St. Mary Magdalenes Church near Sandringham three months later, within the family, he was known informally as Bertie
18.
Queen Elizabeth II
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Elizabeth II has been Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand since 6 February 1952. Elizabeth was born in London as the eldest child of the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth and her father acceded to the throne on the abdication of his brother Edward VIII in 1936, from which time she was the heir presumptive. She began to undertake duties during the Second World War. Elizabeths many historic visits and meetings include a visit to the Republic of Ireland. She has seen major changes, such as devolution in the United Kingdom, Canadian patriation. She has reigned through various wars and conflicts involving many of her realms and she is the worlds oldest reigning monarch as well as Britains longest-lived. In October 2016, she became the longest currently reigning monarch, in 2017 she became the first British monarch to commemorate a Sapphire Jubilee. Elizabeth has occasionally faced republican sentiments and press criticism of the family, however, support for the monarchy remains high. Elizabeth was born at 02,40 on 21 April 1926, during the reign of her paternal grandfather and her father, Prince Albert, Duke of York, was the second son of the King. Her mother, Elizabeth, Duchess of York, was the youngest daughter of Scottish aristocrat Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and she was delivered by Caesarean section at her maternal grandfathers London house,17 Bruton Street, Mayfair. Elizabeths only sibling, Princess Margaret, was born in 1930, the two princesses were educated at home under the supervision of their mother and their governess, Marion Crawford, who was casually known as Crawfie. Lessons concentrated on history, language, literature and music, Crawford published a biography of Elizabeth and Margarets childhood years entitled The Little Princesses in 1950, much to the dismay of the royal family. The book describes Elizabeths love of horses and dogs, her orderliness, others echoed such observations, Winston Churchill described Elizabeth when she was two as a character. She has an air of authority and reflectiveness astonishing in an infant and her cousin Margaret Rhodes described her as a jolly little girl, but fundamentally sensible and well-behaved. During her grandfathers reign, Elizabeth was third in the line of succession to the throne, behind her uncle Edward, Prince of Wales, and her father, the Duke of York. Although her birth generated public interest, she was not expected to become queen, many people believed that he would marry and have children of his own. When her grandfather died in 1936 and her uncle succeeded as Edward VIII, she became second-in-line to the throne, later that year, Edward abdicated, after his proposed marriage to divorced socialite Wallis Simpson provoked a constitutional crisis. Consequently, Elizabeths father became king, and she became heir presumptive, if her parents had had a later son, she would have lost her position as first-in-line, as her brother would have been heir apparent and above her in the line of succession
19.
List of British consorts
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A royal consort is the spouse of a ruling King or Queen. Consorts of monarchs in the United Kingdom and its predecessors have no status or power. Some royal consorts, such as current consort Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, have helped to enhance the image of the Monarchy by becoming celebrities in their own right. Since the foundation of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707, it, queens between 1727 and 1814 were also Electress of Hanover, as their husbands all held the title of Elector of Hanover. Between 1814 and 1837, queens held the title as Queen of Hanover, in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Hanover was annexed by Prussia and became the Province of Hanover. Not all wives of monarchs have become consorts, as they may have died, been divorced, had their marriage declared invalid prior to their husbands ascending the throne, or married after abdication. Such cases include, Sophia Dorothea of Celle, wife of George I of Great Britain, married 22 November 1682, divorced 28 December 1694, maria Anne Fitzherbert, wife of George IV of the United Kingdom, married 1785, marriage declared null, died 1837. Wallis Warfield Simpson, wife of Edward VIII, and therefore not the wife of a king, married 3 June 1937. It has been stated, however, that it is intended that she should be styled not as a queen consort, all female consorts have had the right to be and have been styled as queens consort. It was suggested at first that he would in fact become King, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, husband of Elizabeth II, already raised to the peerage as Duke of Edinburgh in 1947, was made a Prince of the United Kingdom in 1957. He is not styled as Prince Consort, since 1707, only George I and Edward VIII have been unmarried throughout their reign
20.
Empress of India
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The term Emperor of India is also used to refer to pre-British Indian emperors. The new title was proclaimed at the Delhi Durbar of 1877, the title had been eagerly assumed by Victoria in 1876, after she had been pressuring Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Benjamin Disraeli to agree to her assuming the title for some years. The idea of having Victoria proclaimed empress of India was not new as Lord Ellenborough had already suggested it in 1843 on becoming governor-general of India. The Queen, possibly irritated by the sallies of the republicans, the tendency to democracy, by January 1876, the Queens insistence was such that the Prime Minister felt he could procrastinate no more. Another reason Queen Victoria was titled Empress of India was because her daughter Victoria was to be eventually Empress of Germany so she didnt want to be ranked behind her daughter. The new styling would underline the fact that the states were no longer a mere agglomeration. When Victorias successor Edward VII ascended the throne in 1901, he continued to use the title Emperor of India, the title continued after India became independent on 15 August 1947 until it was formally abandoned on 22 June 1948 during the reign of King George VI. When signing off Indian business, the reigning British King-Emperors or queen-empress used the initials R I or the abbreviation Ind, when a male monarch held the title his wife, the queen consort, used the style queen-empress, though she was not herself a reigning monarch. British coins and those of the Empire and Commonwealth routinely included the abbreviated title Ind, imp. although in India itself the coins said Empress, and later King Emperor. When in 1947 India became independent all coining dies had to be changed, canadian coins, for example, were minted well into 1948 stamped 1947, the new years issue indicated by a small maple leaf in one corner. In Great Britain itself the title appeared on coinage through 1948
21.
British nobility
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The British nobility refers to the noble families of the United Kingdom. In everyday speech, the British nobility consists of peers and their families, { however, members of the peerage carry the titles of Duke, Marquess, Earl, Viscount and Baron. Peers ranked from Marquess to Baron are frequently referred to generically as Lords, however, the Scottish Baron, an official title of nobility in the United Kingdom, is addressed as The Baron of X. The untitled nobility consists of all those who bear formally matriculated, or recorded, other than their designation, such as Gentleman or Esquire, they enjoy no privilege other than a position in the formal orders of precedence in the United Kingdom. Scottish lairds names include a description of their lands in the form of a territorial designation, in Scotland, a territorial designation implies the rank of Esquire, thus this is not normally added after the name, Lairds are part of Scotlands landed gentry and—where armigerous —minor nobility. The Peerage is a term used both collectively to refer to the body of peerage titles, and individually to refer to a specific title. All modern British honours, including peerage dignities, are created directly by the British monarch, the Sovereign is considered the fount of honour, and as the fountain and source of all dignities cannot hold a dignity from himself, cannot hold a British peerage. Before the twentieth century, peerages were generally hereditary and, descended in the male line. The eldest son of a Duke, Marquess or Earl almost always one of his fathers subsidiary titles as a courtesy title, for instance. The modern peerage system is a vestige of the custom of English kings in the 12th and 13th centuries in summoning wealthy individuals to form a Parliament. The economic system at the time was manorialism, and the privilege of being summoned to Parliament was related to the amount of land one controlled. In the late 14th century, this began to be granted by decree. Non-hereditary positions began to be created again in 1867 for Law Lords, in 1958, the Life Peerages Act enabled life peers to sit in the House of Lords, and from then on the creation of hereditary peerages rapidly became obsolete, almost ceasing after 1964. This, however, is only a convention and was not observed by former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who asked the Queen to create three hereditary peerages. Until changes in the century, only a proportion of those holding Scottish and Irish peerages were entitled by that title to sit in the House of Lords. Until constitutional reforms in 1999, possession of a title in the peerage entitled its holder to a seat in the House of Lords. Since then, only 92 hereditary peers are entitled to sit in the House of Lords, of which 90 are elected by the hereditary peers by ballot and replaced on death. Typically, those due to inherit a peerage—or indeed have done so, in recent times—have been educated at one of the public schools
22.
King George V
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George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. He was the son of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales. From the time of his birth, he was third in the line of succession behind his father and his own brother, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence. From 1877 to 1891, George served in the Royal Navy, on the death of his grandmother in 1901, Georges father became King-Emperor of the British Empire, and George was created Prince of Wales. He succeeded his father in 1910 and he was the only Emperor of India to be present at his own Delhi Durbar. His reign saw the rise of socialism, communism, fascism, Irish republicanism, the Parliament Act 1911 established the supremacy of the elected British House of Commons over the unelected House of Lords. In 1917, George became the first monarch of the House of Windsor, in 1924 he appointed the first Labour ministry and in 1931 the Statute of Westminster recognised the dominions of the Empire as separate, independent states within the Commonwealth of Nations. He had health problems throughout much of his reign and at his death was succeeded by his eldest son. George was born on 3 June 1865, in Marlborough House and he was the second son of the Prince and Princess of Wales, Albert Edward and Alexandra. His father was the eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and he was baptised at Windsor Castle on 7 July 1865 by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Longley. As a younger son of the Prince of Wales, there was expectation that George would become king. He was third in line to the throne, after his father and elder brother, George was only 17 months younger than Albert Victor, and the two princes were educated together. John Neale Dalton was appointed as their tutor in 1871, neither Albert Victor nor George excelled intellectually. For three years from 1879, the brothers served on HMS Bacchante, accompanied by Dalton. They toured the colonies of the British Empire in the Caribbean, South Africa and Australia, and visited Norfolk, Virginia, as well as South America, the Mediterranean, Egypt, Dalton wrote an account of their journey entitled The Cruise of HMS Bacchante. Between Melbourne and Sydney, Dalton recorded a sighting of the Flying Dutchman, after Lausanne, the brothers were separated, Albert Victor attended Trinity College, Cambridge, while George continued in the Royal Navy. He travelled the world, visiting many areas of the British Empire, during his naval career he commanded Torpedo Boat 79 in home waters then HMS Thrush on the North America station, before his last active service in command of HMS Melampus in 1891–92. From then on, his rank was largely honorary
23.
Mary of Teck
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Mary of Teck was Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Empress of India as the wife of King-Emperor George V. Although technically a princess of Teck, in the Kingdom of Württemberg, she was born and her parents were Francis, Duke of Teck, who was of German extraction, and Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, a granddaughter of King George III. She was informally known as May, after her birth month, the following year, she became engaged to Albert Victors next surviving brother, George, who subsequently became king. Before her husbands accession, she was successively Duchess of York, Duchess of Cornwall and she supported her second son, Albert, who succeeded to the throne as George VI, until his death in 1952. She died the year, during the reign of her granddaughter Queen Elizabeth II. Princess Victoria Mary of Teck was born on 26 May 1867 at Kensington Palace and her father was Prince Francis, Duke of Teck, the son of Duke Alexander of Württemberg by his morganatic wife, Countess Claudine Rhédey von Kis-Rhéde. Her mother was Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, the child and younger daughter of Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge. She was baptised in the Chapel Royal of Kensington Palace on 27 July 1867 by Charles Thomas Longley, before she became queen, she was known to her family, friends and the public by the diminutive name of May, after her birth month. Mays upbringing was merry but fairly strict and she was the eldest of four children, the only girl, and learned to exercise her native discretion, firmness, and tact by resolving her three younger brothers petty boyhood squabbles. They played with their cousins, the children of the Prince of Wales, may was educated at home by her mother and governess. Although her mother was a grandchild of King George III, May was only a member of the British Royal Family. Her father, the Duke of Teck, had no inheritance or wealth, however, the Duchess of Teck was granted a parliamentary annuity of £5,000 and received about £4,000 a year from her mother, the Duchess of Cambridge. Despite this, the family was deeply in debt and lived abroad from 1883, the Tecks travelled throughout Europe, visiting their various relations. They stayed in Florence, Italy, for a time, where May enjoyed visiting the art galleries, churches, in 1885, the Tecks returned to London, and took up residence at White Lodge, in Richmond Park. May was close to her mother, and acted as an secretary, helping to organise parties. She was also close to her aunt, the Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, during the First World War, the Crown Princess of Sweden helped pass letters from May to her aunt, who lived in enemy territory in Germany until her death in 1916. In December 1891, May was engaged to her second cousin once removed, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, the eldest son of the Prince of Wales. The choice of May as bride for the Duke owed much to Queen Victorias fondness for her, as well as to her strong character, however, Albert Victor died six weeks later, in a recurrence of the worldwide 1889–90 influenza pandemic
24.
Edward VIII
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Edward VIII was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire, and Emperor of India, from 20 January 1936 until his abdication on 11 December the same year. Edward was the eldest son of George V and Mary of Teck and he was named Prince of Wales on his sixteenth birthday, nine weeks after his father succeeded as king. As a young man, he served in the British Army during the First World War, Edward became king on his fathers death in early 1936. However, he showed impatience with court protocol, and caused concern among politicians by his apparent disregard for established constitutional conventions. Only months into his reign, he caused a crisis by proposing marriage to Wallis Simpson. When it became apparent that he could not marry Wallis and remain on the throne and he was succeeded by his younger brother, George VI. With a reign of 326 days, Edward was one of the monarchs in British history. After his abdication, he was created Duke of Windsor and he married Wallis in France on 3 June 1937, after her second divorce became final. Later that year, the couple toured Germany, after the war, Edward spent the rest of his life in retirement in France. Edward was born on 23 June 1894 at White Lodge, Richmond Park and he was the eldest son of the Duke and Duchess of York. His father was the son of the Prince and Princess of Wales and his mother was the eldest daughter of Francis and Mary Adelaide, Duke and Duchess of Teck. At the time of his birth, he was third in the line of succession to the throne and he was baptised Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David in the Green Drawing Room of White Lodge on 16 July 1894 by Edward White Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury. The names were chosen in honour of Edwards late uncle, who was known to his family as Eddy or Edward and he was always known to his family and close friends by his last given name, David. As was common practice with children of the time, Edward. One of Edwards early nannies often abused him by pinching him before he was due to be presented to his parents and his subsequent crying and wailing would lead the Duke and Duchess to send him and the nanny away. The nanny was discharged after her mistreatment of the children was discovered, Edwards father, though a harsh disciplinarian, was demonstrably affectionate, and his mother displayed a frolicsome side with her children that belied her austere public image. She was amused by the children making tadpoles on toast for their French master, initially Edward was tutored at home by Helen Bricka. Upon his parents return, Edward was placed under the care of two men, Frederick Finch and Henry Hansell, who brought up Edward and his brothers
25.
Edward VIII abdication crisis
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The marriage was opposed by the governments of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth. Religious, legal, political and moral objections were raised, as British monarch, Edward was the nominal head of the Church of England, which did not then allow divorced people to remarry in church if their ex-spouses were still alive. For this reason, it was believed that Edward could not marry Simpson. Simpson was perceived to be politically and socially unsuitable as a queen consort because of her two failed marriages. It was widely assumed by the Establishment that she was driven by love of money or position rather than love for the King, despite the opposition, Edward declared that he loved Simpson and intended to marry her whether his governments approved or not. The widespread unwillingness to accept Simpson as the Kings consort and Edwards refusal to give her up led to his abdication in December 1936 and they remained married until his death 35 years later. Edward had been introduced to Wallis Simpson, an American citizen and wife of British shipping executive Ernest Aldrich Simpson, Ernest Simpson was Walliss second husband, her first marriage, to U. S. Navy pilot Win Spencer, had ended in divorce in 1927. It is generally accepted that Wallis Simpson and the Prince of Wales became lovers in 1934, however, Edward adamantly insisted to his father that he was not physically intimate with Simpson and that it was inappropriate to describe her as his mistress. Edwards relationship with Simpson further weakened his poor relationship with his parents, although King George V and Queen Mary met Simpson at Buckingham Palace in 1935, they later refused to receive her. The prospect of having an American divorcee with a questionable past having such sway over the heir apparent led to anxiety among government and establishment figures, Edward VIII succeeded his father on 20 January 1936, after which Simpson attended more official functions as the Kings guest. Despite her name appearing regularly in the Court Circular, the name of her husband was conspicuously absent, nevertheless, Canadians and expatriate Britons, who had access to the foreign reports, were largely scandalised by the coverage. By October, it was rumoured in high society and abroad that Edward intended to marry Simpson as soon as she was free to do so. At the end of month, the crisis came to a head when she filed for divorce. Judging by the letters from British subjects living in countries where the Press has been outspoken. Senior British ministers knew that Hardinge had written to the King, the King invited Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin to Buckingham Palace the following Monday and informed him that he intended to marry Simpson. Baldwin replied that such a marriage would not be acceptable to the people, the Queen becomes the Queen of the country. Therefore in the choice of a Queen the voice of the people must be heard, baldwins view was shared by the Australian High Commissioner in London, Stanley Bruce, who was a former Australian prime minister. On the same day that Hardinge wrote to the King, Bruce met Hardinge and then wrote to Baldwin, some of us wish that he gave more positive signs of his awareness
26.
Wallis Simpson
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Wallis, Duchess of Windsor was an American socialite. Her third husband, Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII, Walliss father died shortly after her birth, and she and her widowed mother were partly supported by their wealthier relatives. Her first marriage, to U. S. naval officer Win Spencer, was punctuated by periods of separation, in 1934, during her second marriage, to Ernest Simpson, she allegedly became the mistress of Edward, Prince of Wales. Two years later, after Edwards accession as king, Wallis divorced her husband in order to marry Edward. She was instead styled as Her Grace, a style reserved for non-royal dukes and duchesses. Before, during, and after World War II, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor were suspected by many in government, in 1937, they visited Germany and met Adolf Hitler. In 1940, the Duke was appointed governor of the Bahamas, in the 1950s and 1960s, the Duke and Duchess shuttled between Europe and the United States living a life of leisure as society celebrities. After the Dukes death in 1972, the Duchess lived in seclusion and was seen in public. Her private life has been a source of speculation. An only child, Bessie Wallis Warfield was born in Square Cottage at Monterey Inn and her mother was Alice Montague, a daughter of insurance salesman William Montague. Wallis was named in honour of her father and her mothers sister, Bessie. Her father died of tuberculosis on 15 November 1896, initially, they lived with him at the four-story row house,34 East Preston Street, that he shared with his mother. In 1908, Walliss mother married her husband, John Freeman Rasin. There she became a friend of heiress Renée du Pont, a daughter of Senator T. Coleman du Pont of the du Pont family, a fellow pupil at one of Walliss schools recalled, She was bright, brighter than all of us. She made up her mind to go to the head of the class, Wallis was always immaculately dressed and pushed herself hard to do well. In April 1916, Wallis met Earl Winfield Spencer, Jr. a U. S. Navy aviator, at Pensacola, Florida and it was at this time that Wallis witnessed two airplane crashes about two weeks apart, resulting in a lifelong fear of flying. The couple married on 8 November 1916 at Christ Episcopal Church in Baltimore, Win, as her husband was known, was a heavy drinker. He drank even before flying and once crashed into the sea, in 1920, Edward, the Prince of Wales, visited San Diego, but he and Wallis did not meet
27.
Second World War
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
28.
Adolf Hitler
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Adolf Hitler was a German politician who was the leader of the Nazi Party, Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and Führer of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945. As dictator of the German Reich, he initiated World War II in Europe with the invasion of Poland in September 1939 and was central to the Holocaust, Hitler was born in Austria, then part of Austria-Hungary, and raised near Linz. He moved to Germany in 1913 and was decorated during his service in the German Army in World War I and he joined the German Workers Party, the precursor of the NSDAP, in 1919 and became leader of the NSDAP in 1921. In 1923 he attempted a coup in Munich to seize power, the failed coup resulted in Hitlers imprisonment, during which he dictated the first volume of his autobiography and political manifesto Mein Kampf. Hitler frequently denounced international capitalism and communism as being part of a Jewish conspiracy, by 1933, the Nazi Party was the largest elected party in the German Reichstag, which led to Hitlers appointment as Chancellor on 30 January 1933. Hitler aimed to eliminate Jews from Germany and establish a New Order to counter what he saw as the injustice of the post-World War I international order dominated by Britain, Hitler sought Lebensraum for the German people in Eastern Europe. His aggressive foreign policy is considered to be the cause of the outbreak of World War II in Europe. He directed large-scale rearmament and on 1 September 1939 invaded Poland, resulting in British, in June 1941, Hitler ordered an invasion of the Soviet Union. By the end of 1941 German forces and the European Axis powers occupied most of Europe, failure to defeat the Soviets and the entry of the United States into the war forced Germany onto the defensive and it suffered a series of escalating defeats. In the final days of the war, during the Battle of Berlin in 1945, Hitler married his long-time lover, on 30 April 1945, less than two days later, the two killed themselves to avoid capture by the Red Army, and their corpses were burned. Hitler and the Nazi regime were also responsible for the killing of an estimated 19.3 million civilians, in addition,29 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of military action in the European Theatre of World War II. The number of civilians killed during the Second World War was unprecedented in warfare, Hitlers father Alois Hitler Sr. was the illegitimate child of Maria Anna Schicklgruber. The baptismal register did not show the name of his father, in 1842, Johann Georg Hiedler married Aloiss mother Maria Anna. Alois was brought up in the family of Hiedlers brother, Johann Nepomuk Hiedler, in 1876, Alois was legitimated and the baptismal register changed by a priest to register Johann Georg Hiedler as Aloiss father. Alois then assumed the surname Hitler, also spelled Hiedler, Hüttler, the Hitler surname is probably based on one who lives in a hut. Nazi official Hans Frank suggested that Aloiss mother had been employed as a housekeeper by a Jewish family in Graz, and that the familys 19-year-old son Leopold Frankenberger had fathered Alois. No Frankenberger was registered in Graz during that period, and no record has been produced of Leopold Frankenbergers existence, Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau am Inn, a town in Austria-Hungary, close to the border with the German Empire. He was one of six born to Alois Hitler and Klara Pölzl
29.
British royal family
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The British royal family comprises the monarch of the United Kingdom and her close relations. There is no legal or formal definition of who is or is not a member of the British royal family. Different terms may be applied to the same or similar group of relatives of the monarch in his or her role as sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realms, for example, in Canada, the family is known as the Canadian royal family. Some members of the family have official residences named as the places from which announcements are made in the Court Circular about official engagements they have carried out. The state duties and staff of some members of the family are funded from a parliamentary annuity. Since 1917, when King George V changed the name of the house from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, members of the royal family belong, either by birth or by marriage. In 2014, the family were regarded as British cultural icons. Today, they often perform ceremonial and social duties throughout the United Kingdom, in the other countries of the Commonwealth royalty do not serve as Counsellors of State, although they may perform ceremonial and social duties on behalf of individual states or the organisation. Wives of the said enjoy their husbands precedence, and husbands of princesses are unofficially but habitually placed with their wives as well and she did not alter the relative precedence of other born-princesses, such as the daughters of her younger sons. The Oxford Illustrated History of the British Monarchy and they Serve the Queen, A New and Authoritative Account of the Royal Household. The Lives of the Kings & Queens of England, symbol and Privilege, The Ritual Context of British Royalty. Britains Royal Families, The Complete Genealogy, Royal Family is a celebrated and reverential BBC documentary made by Richard Cawston to accompany the investiture of the current Prince of Wales. The documentary is frequently responsible for the greater press intrusion into the royal familys private life since its first broadcast. Official website of the royal family Official YouTube Channel House of Windsor Family Tree, archived from the original on 2010-12-02
30.
Lord Glamis
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Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne is a title in the Peerage of Scotland and the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was first created as Earl of Kinghorne in Peerage of Scotland in 1606 for Patrick Lyon, in 1677, the designation of the earldom changed to Strathmore and Kinghorne. A second Earldom was bestowed on the 14th Earl in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1937, leading to him being titled as the 14th and 1st Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. An earlier creation of Baron Bowes, in favour of the 10th Earl became extinct on his death in 1821, the first three are in the Peerage of Scotland, the last two in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The eldest son of the Earl uses Lord Glamis as a courtesy title, normally, the highest subsidiary title would be used, but Lord Glamis is used instead to prevent confusion with the officer of arms, Lord Lyon King of Arms. The Earl is also Chief of Clan Lyon, elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the Queen consort of King George VI from 1936 until 1952, and mother of the present Sovereign, was the daughter of the 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. The family seat is Glamis Castle, in Angus, Scotland, other family seats were Gibside, near Burnopfield, County Durham and Streatlam Castle, near Barnard Castle in County Durham. The traditional burial place of the Earls of Strathmore and Kinghorne is in an aisle of Glamis parish church. The first recorded family member, John Lyon, Lord of Glamis, was a courtier and diplomat and he acquired significant lands, and on 18 March 1372, Robert II granted him the free barony of Glamuyss in the sheriffdom of Forfar. Glamis has remained the seat of the family ever since
31.
Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne
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Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne is a title in the Peerage of Scotland and the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was first created as Earl of Kinghorne in Peerage of Scotland in 1606 for Patrick Lyon, in 1677, the designation of the earldom changed to Strathmore and Kinghorne. A second Earldom was bestowed on the 14th Earl in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1937, leading to him being titled as the 14th and 1st Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. An earlier creation of Baron Bowes, in favour of the 10th Earl became extinct on his death in 1821, the first three are in the Peerage of Scotland, the last two in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The eldest son of the Earl uses Lord Glamis as a courtesy title, normally, the highest subsidiary title would be used, but Lord Glamis is used instead to prevent confusion with the officer of arms, Lord Lyon King of Arms. The Earl is also Chief of Clan Lyon, elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the Queen consort of King George VI from 1936 until 1952, and mother of the present Sovereign, was the daughter of the 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. The family seat is Glamis Castle, in Angus, Scotland, other family seats were Gibside, near Burnopfield, County Durham and Streatlam Castle, near Barnard Castle in County Durham. The traditional burial place of the Earls of Strathmore and Kinghorne is in an aisle of Glamis parish church. The first recorded family member, John Lyon, Lord of Glamis, was a courtier and diplomat and he acquired significant lands, and on 18 March 1372, Robert II granted him the free barony of Glamuyss in the sheriffdom of Forfar. Glamis has remained the seat of the family ever since
32.
British Prime Minister
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The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is the head of Her Majestys Government in the United Kingdom. The prime minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Monarch, to Parliament, to their political party, the office is one of the Great Offices of State. The current prime minister, Theresa May, leader of the Conservative Party, was appointed by the Queen on 13 July 2016. The position of Prime Minister was not created, it evolved slowly and erratically over three hundred years due to acts of Parliament, political developments, and accidents of history. The office is therefore best understood from a historical perspective, the origins of the position are found in constitutional changes that occurred during the Revolutionary Settlement and the resulting shift of political power from the Sovereign to Parliament. The political position of Prime Minister was enhanced by the development of political parties, the introduction of mass communication. By the start of the 20th century the modern premiership had emerged, prior to 1902, the prime minister sometimes came from the House of Lords, provided that his government could form a majority in the Commons. However as the power of the aristocracy waned during the 19th century the convention developed that the Prime Minister should always sit in the lower house. As leader of the House of Commons, the Prime Ministers authority was further enhanced by the Parliament Act of 1911 which marginalised the influence of the House of Lords in the law-making process. The Prime Minister is ex officio also First Lord of the Treasury, certain privileges, such as residency of 10 Downing Street, are accorded to Prime Ministers by virtue of their position as First Lord of the Treasury. As the Head of Her Majestys Government the modern Prime Minister leads the Cabinet, in addition the Prime Minister leads a major political party and generally commands a majority in the House of Commons. As such the incumbent wields both legislative and executive powers, under the British system there is a unity of powers rather than separation. In the House of Commons, the Prime Minister guides the process with the goal of enacting the legislative agenda of their political party. The Prime Minister also acts as the face and voice of Her Majestys Government. The British system of government is based on an uncodified constitution, in 1928, Prime Minister H. H. Asquith described this characteristic of the British constitution in his memoirs, In this country we live. Our constitutional practices do not derive their validity and sanction from any Bill which has received the assent of the King, Lords. They rest on usage, custom, convention, often of slow growth in their early stages, not always uniform, the relationships between the Prime Minister and the Sovereign, Parliament and Cabinet are defined largely by these unwritten conventions of the constitution. Many of the Prime Ministers executive and legislative powers are actually royal prerogatives which are still vested in the Sovereign
33.
William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland
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The 24 years between his two terms as Prime Minister is the longest gap between terms of office of any Prime Minister. He was known before 1762 by the courtesy title Marquess of Titchfield and he held a title of every degree of British nobility—Duke, Marquess, Earl, Viscount, and Baron. He is also a great-great-great-grandfather of Queen Elizabeth II through her maternal grandmother, Lord Titchfield was the eldest son of William Bentinck, 2nd Duke of Portland and Margaret Cavendish-Harley and inherited many lands from his mother and his maternal grandmother. He was educated at Westminster and Christ Church, Oxford, on 8 November 1766, Portland married Lady Dorothy Cavendish, a daughter of William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire and Charlotte Boyle. They were parents of six children, William Bentinck, 4th Duke of Portland. Married Charles Greville, and they had three sons, Charles Cavendish Fulke Greville, Algernon Greville, and Henry William Greville, paternal grandfather of Cecilia Bowes-Lyon, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne, ancestor of the 6th and latest dukes of Portland, and of Lady Ottoline Morrell. Lord Frederick Cavendish-Bentinck married Lady Mary Lowther, daughter of William Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale,16 September 1820, had issue, through his son Charles, Portland is a great-great-great-grandfather of Queen Elizabeth II. He was elected to sit in the Parliament for Weobley in 1761 before entering the Lords when he succeeded his father as Duke of Portland the next year. In April 1783, Portland was brought forward as titular head of a government as Prime Minister, whose real leaders were Charles James Fox. He served as First Lord of the Treasury in this ministry until its fall in December of the same year, during his tenure the Treaty of Paris was signed formally ending the American Revolutionary War. In 1789, Portland became one of vice presidents of Londons Foundling Hospital. This charity had become one of the most fashionable of the time, at its creation, fifty years earlier, Portlands father, William Bentinck, 2nd Duke of Portland, had been one of the founding governors, listed on the charitys royal charter granted by George II. In 1793, Portland took over the presidency of the charity from Lord North and he continued to serve in the cabinet until Pitts death in 1806—from 1801 to 1805 as Lord President of the Council and then as a Minister without Portfolio. Portlands second government saw the United Kingdoms complete isolation on the continent but also the beginning of recovery, in late 1809, with Portlands health poor and the ministry rocked by the scandalous duel between Canning and Castlereagh, Portland resigned, dying shortly thereafter. He was Recorder of Nottingham until his death in 1809, the 3rd Duke of Portland died at Bulstrode Park, Buckinghamshire, after an operation to remove a kidney stone on 30 October 1809 and was buried in St Marylebone Parish Church, Marylebone, London. He had lived expensively, with an income of £17,000 a year, he had debts at his death computed at £52,000, which were paid off by his succeeding son selling off some property including Bulstrode. The Portland Vase of Roman glass was given its due to its having been owned by Portland at his family residence at Bulstrode Park. Portland parish in Jamaica was named after the 3rd Duke of Portland, the Titchfield School, founded in 1786, also in the parish is also named in his honor
34.
Governor-General of India
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The office was created in 1773, with the title of Governor-General of the Presidency of Fort William. The officer had direct control only over Fort William, but supervised other British East India Company officials in India, complete authority over all of British India was granted in 1833, and the official came to be known as the Governor-General of India. In 1858, the territories of the East India Company came under the control of the British government. The governor-general headed the government of India, which administered the provinces of British India, including the Punjab, Bengal, Bombay, Madras, the United Provinces. To reflect the role as the representative of the monarch to the feudal rulers of the princely states, from 1858 the term Viceroy. Until 1858, the governor-general was selected by the Court of Directors of the East India Company, after 1947, the sovereign continued to appoint the governor-general, but did so on the advice of the Indian government. Governors-General served at the pleasure of the sovereign, though the practice was to have them serve five-year terms, Governors-General could have their commission rescinded and if one were removed or left a provisional governor-general was sometimes appointed until a new holder of the office could be chosen. Provisional governors-general were often chosen from among the provincial governors, many parts of the Indian subcontinent were governed by the East India Company, which nominally acted as the agent of the Mughal Emperor. In 1773, motivated by corruption in the Company, the British government assumed control over the governance of India with the passage of the Regulating Act of 1773. A Governor-General and Supreme Council of Bengal were appointed to rule over the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal, the first Governor-General and Council were named in the Act, their successors were to be elected by the East India Companys Court of Directors. The Act provided for a term for the Governor-General and Council. The Charter Act 1833 replaced the Governor-General and Council of Fort William with the Governor-General, the power to elect the Governor-General was retained by the Court of Directors, but the choice became subject to the Sovereigns approval. After the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the East India Companys territories in India were put under the control of the Sovereign. The Government of India Act 1858 vested the power to appoint the Governor-General in the Sovereign, the Governor-General, in turn, had the power to appoint all lieutenant governors in India, subject to the Sovereigns approval. India and Pakistan acquired independence in 1947, but Governors-General continued to be appointed over each nation until republican constitutions were written, Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma remained Governor-General of India for some time after independence, but the two nations were otherwise headed by native Governors-General. India became a republic in 1950, Pakistan became an Islamic one in 1956. The Governor-General originally had power only over the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal, the Regulating Act, however, granted them additional powers relating to foreign affairs and defence. The powers of the Governor-General in respect of foreign affairs were increased by the India Act 1784, while the Governor-General thus became the controller of foreign policy in India, he was not the explicit head of British India
35.
Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley
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Richard Colley Wesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley KG PC PC was styled Viscount Wellesley from birth until 1781 and was known as Earl of Mornington from 1781 until 1799. He was an Irish and British politician and colonial administrator and he was the eldest son of The 1st Earl of Mornington, an Irish peer, and Anne, the eldest daughter of The 1st Viscount Dungannon. He was also the brother of Field Marshal The 1st Duke of Wellington and he first made his name as Governor-General of India between 1798 and 1805 and later served as Foreign Secretary in the British Cabinet and as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Wellesley was born in 1760 in Ireland, where his family were part of the Ascendancy and he was educated at the Royal School, Armagh, Harrow School and Eton College, where he distinguished himself as a classical scholar, and at Christ Church, Oxford. He was elected Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Ireland in 1782, due to the extravagance of his father and grandfather, he found himself so indebted that he was ultimately forced to sell all the Irish estates. However, in 1781 he was appointed to the position of Custos Rotulorum of Meath. In 1784 he joined also the British House of Commons as member for Bere Alston, soon afterwards he was appointed a Lord of the Treasury by William Pitt the Younger. Mornington seems to have caught Pitts large political spirit in the period 1793 to 1797, Robert Clive won and Warren Hastings consolidated the British ascendancy in India, but Mornington extended it into an empire. On the voyage outwards, he formed the design of annihilating French influence in the Deccan, soon after his landing, in April 1798, he learned that an alliance was being negotiated between Tipu Sultan and the French republic. Mornington resolved to anticipate the action of the enemy, and ordered preparations for war, the first step was to effect the disbandment of the French troops entertained by the Nizam of Hyderabad. The invasion of Mysore followed in February 1799, and the campaign was brought to a conclusion by the capture of Seringapatam on 4 May 1799. In 1803, the restoration of the Peshwa proved the prelude to the Mahratha war against Sindhia and he found the East India Company a trading body, but left it an imperial power. He was an excellent administrator, and picked two of his brothers for his staff, Arthur was his military adviser, and Henry was his personal secretary. He founded Fort William College, a training centre intended for those who would be involved in governing India, a free-trader like Pitt, he endeavoured to remove some of the restrictions on the trade between Britain and India. He reached England just in time to see Pitt before his death and he had been created a Peer of Great Britain in 1797, and in 1799 became Marquess Wellesley in the Peerage of Ireland. He formed a collection of over 2,500 painted miniatures in the Company style of Indian natural history. A motion by James Paull to impeach Wellesley due to his expulsion of the traders from Oudh was defeated in the House of Commons by 182 votes to 31 in 1808. Resolutions condemning him for the abuse of power were moved in both the Lords and Commons, but defeated by large majorities, in 1809 Wellesley was appointed ambassador to Spain
36.
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
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His defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 put him in the top rank of Britains military heroes. Wellesley was born in Dublin, belonging to the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland and he was commissioned as an ensign in the British Army in 1787, serving in Ireland as aide-de-camp to two successive Lords Lieutenant of Ireland. He was also elected as a Member of Parliament in the Irish House of Commons and he was a colonel by 1796, and saw action in the Netherlands and in India, where he fought in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War at the Battle of Seringapatam. He was appointed governor of Seringapatam and Mysore in 1799 and, as a newly appointed major-general, following Napoleons exile in 1814, he served as the ambassador to France and was granted a dukedom. During the Hundred Days in 1815, he commanded the army which defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. Wellesleys battle record is exemplary, he participated in some 60 battles during the course of his military career. Wellington is famous for his defensive style of warfare, resulting in several victories against numerically superior forces while minimising his own losses. He is regarded as one of the greatest defensive commanders of all time, after ending his active military career, Wellington returned to politics. He was twice British prime minister as part of the Tory party, from 1828 to 1830 and he oversaw the passage of the Catholic Relief Act 1829, but opposed the Reform Act 1832. He continued as one of the figures in the House of Lords until his retirement. As such, he belonged to the Protestant Ascendancy and his biographers mostly follow the contemporary newspaper evidence in saying that he was born 1 May 1769, the day that he was baptised. He was most likely born at his parents townhouse,24 Upper Merrion Street, Dublin, but his mother Anne, Countess of Mornington, recalled in 1815 that he had been born at 6 Merrion Street, Dublin. He spent most of his childhood at his familys two homes, the first a house in Dublin and the second Dangan Castle,3 miles north of Summerhill on the Trim Road in County Meath. In 1781, Arthurs father died and his eldest brother Richard inherited his fathers earldom and he went to the diocesan school in Trim when at Dangan, Mr Whytes Academy when in Dublin, and Browns School in Chelsea when in London. He then enrolled at Eton, where he studied from 1781 to 1784, moreover, Eton had no playing fields at the time. In 1785, a lack of success at Eton, combined with a shortage of funds due to his fathers death, forced the young Wellesley. Until his early twenties, Arthur showed little sign of distinction and his mother grew concerned at his idleness, stating. A year later, Arthur enrolled in the French Royal Academy of Equitation in Angers, where he progressed significantly, becoming a good horseman and learning French, upon returning to England in late 1786, he astonished his mother with his improvement
37.
Westminster
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Westminster is an area of central London within the City of Westminster, part of the West End, on the north bank of the River Thames. Historically the area lay within St Margarets parish, City & Liberty of Westminster and it has been the home of the permanent institutions of Englands government continuously since about 1200 and is now the seat of British government. In a government context, Westminster often refers to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the closest tube stations are Westminster, St Jamess Park on the Jubilee, Circle, and District lines. Within the area is Westminster School, a public school which grew out of the Abbey. Bounding Westminster to the north is Green Park, a Royal Park of London, the area has a substantial resident population, indeed most of its listed buildings are residential. A proportion of residents are people of limited means, living in council, hotels, large Victorian homes and barracks exist nearer to Buckingham Palace. The name describes an area no more than 1 mile from Westminster Abbey, the settlement grew up around the palace and abbey, as a service area for them. The need for a church, St Margarets Westminster for the servants of the palace. It became larger and in the Georgian period became connected through urban development with the City along the Strand. It did not become a local government unit until created as a civil parish. Indeed, the Cathedral and diocesan status of the church lasted only from 1539 to 1556, as such it is first known to have had two Members of Parliament in 1545 as a new Parliamentary Borough, centuries after the City of London and Southwark were enfranchised. The historic core of Westminster is the former Thorney Island on which Westminster Abbey was built, the abbey became the traditional venue of the coronation of the kings and queens of England from that of Harold Godwinson onwards. From about 1200, near the abbey, the Palace of Westminster became the royal residence, marked by the transfer of royal treasury. Later the palace housed the developing Parliament and Englands law courts, thus London developed two focal points, the City of London and Westminster. The monarchs later moved to St James Palace and the Palace of Whitehall a little towards the north-east, the main law courts have since moved to the Royal Courts of Justice. The Westminster area formed part of the City and Liberty of Westminster in Middlesex, the ancient parish was St Margaret, after 1727 this became the civil parish of St Margaret and St John, the latter a new church required for the increasing population. The area around Westminster Abbey formed the extra-parochial Close of the Collegiate Church of St Peter surrounded by —, until 1900 the local authority was the combined vestry of St Margaret and St John, which was based at Westminster City Hall in Caxton Street from 1883. The Liberty of Westminster, governed by the Westminster Court of Burgesses, also included St Martin in the Fields, Westminster had its own quarter sessions, but the Middlesex sessions also had jurisdiction
38.
Ham, London
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Ham is a suburban district in south-west London which has meadows adjoining the River Thames where the Thames Path National Trail also runs. Most of Ham is in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and, chiefly, within the ward of Ham, Petersham and Richmond Riverside, Ham is centred 9.25 miles south-west of the centre of London. Together with Petersham, Ham lies east of the bend in the river almost surrounding it on three sides,1 mile south of Richmond and 2 miles north of Kingston upon Thames. Its elevation mostly ranges between 6m and 12m OD but reaches 20m in the foothill side-streets leading to Richmond Park, apart from semi-rural Petersham, Richmond Park and the town of Kingston, the neighbouring land is on the opposite side of the river, Teddington and Twickenham. Ham is bounded on the west, along the bank of the River Thames, part of this former pasture land was used for gravel extraction. The last remnant of these gravel pits now forms an artificial lake, in this area is the Thames Young Mariners 10 acres site, operated as a water activity centre by Surrey County Council. The area along the riverside is preserved as a public amenity, mostly on low-lying river terrace, Ham today is bounded to the east by Richmond Park, where the land rises at the escarpment of the Richmond and Kingston hills. Small streams that drain this higher ground flow into a watercourse that flows south-north along the foot of the hill, known as Latchmere Stream to the south, Ham lies within the London Basin and its London clay bedrock. The low-lying flood plains to the west consist of fluvial gravels, sands, the name derives from the Old English word Hamme meaning place in the bend of a river. The Thames Valley has been inhabited since the Palaeolithic period and finds of Palaeolithic flints near to White Lodge and these have not been excavated, so it is impossible to date them precisely, but barrows are known to span the period from 3500BC to 900BC. Many of these artifacts are part of the Edwards Collection and housed in the Museum of Richmond, other finds from Ham are held at the Museum of London including an early Bronze Age collared urn, also from the Edwards Collection. The first early Saxon settlement found in the Greater London area was a Pit-house, or Grubenhaus, along with pottery finds dated to the 5th century AD, this suggests the area was amongst the first colonised by Saxon settlers. Historically, Ham covered a larger area, the boundaries shown in the tithe map of 1843 are believed to have changed little, if at all, for centuries. The earliest known record of Ham as a separate village dates from the 12th century when Hamma was included in the royal demesne as a member of Kingston. 4d. in 1168 towards the marriage of Matilda, the eldest daughter of Henry II, the related history of the Earls of Dysart dominated the development of Ham and Petersham for the following four centuries. In return for this, a deed was struck which has protected most of the remaining common land, Ham Common. The enclosed land, whilst lost to agriculture, remained within Hams administrative boundaries, the whole area was referred to as Ham cum Hatch, or Ham with Hatch, until late Victorian times. Hesba Stretton, the Evangelical childrens writer, retired to Ivycroft, Ham Common in 1892, since 1965 Ham has been mostly in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames
39.
Hertfordshire
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Hertfordshire is a county in southern England, bordered by Bedfordshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Buckinghamshire to the west and Greater London to the south. For government statistical purposes, it is placed in the East of England region, in 2013, the county had a population of 1,140,700 living in an area of 634 square miles. Four towns have between 50,000 and 100,000 residents, Hemel Hempstead, Stevenage, Watford and St Albans. Hertford, once the market town for the medieval agricultural county derives its name from a hart. Elevations are high for the region in the north and west and these reach over 240m in the western projection around Tring which is in the Chilterns. The countys borders are approximately the watersheds of the Colne and Lea, hertfordshires undeveloped land is mainly agricultural and much is protected by green belt. The countys landmarks span many centuries, ranging from the Six Hills in the new town of Stevenage built by local inhabitants during the Roman period, Leavesden filmed much of the UK-based $7.7 Bn box office Harry Potter film series and has the countrys studio tour. Saint Alban, a Romano-British soldier, took the place of a Christian priest and was beheaded on Holywell Hill and his martyrs cross of a yellow saltire on a blue background is reflected in the flag and coat of arms of Hertfordshire. Hertfordshire is well-served with motorways and railways, providing access to London. The largest sector of the economy of the county is in services, Hertfordshire was the area assigned to a fortress constructed at Hertford under the rule of Edward the Elder in 913. Hertford is derived from the Anglo-Saxon heort ford, meaning deer crossing, the name Hertfordshire is first recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 1011. Deer feature in many county emblems, there is evidence of humans living in Hertfordshire from the Mesolithic period. It was first farmed during the Neolithic period and permanent habitation appeared at the beginning of the Bronze Age and this was followed by tribes settling in the area during the Iron Age. 293 the first recorded British martyrdom is believed to have taken place. Saint Alban, a Romano-British soldier, took the place of a Christian priest and was beheaded on Holywell Hill. His martyrs cross of a saltire on a blue background is reflected in the flag. He is the Patron Saint of Hertfordshire, with the departure of the Roman Legions in the early 5th century, the now unprotected territory was invaded and colonised by the Anglo-Saxons. By the 6th century the majority of the county was part of the East Saxon kingdom
40.
English country house
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An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to time in the country and in the city—hence, for these people. However, the term also encompasses houses that were, and often still are, frequently, the formal business of the counties was transacted in these country houses. With large numbers of indoor and outdoor staff, country houses were important as places of employment for rural communities. In turn, until the agricultural depressions of the 1870s, the estates, of country houses were the hub. However, the late 19th and early 20th centuries were the swansong of the traditional English country house lifestyle, increased taxation and the effects of World War I led to the demolition of hundreds of houses, those that remained had to adapt to survive. While a château or a schloss can be a fortified or unfortified building, if fortified, it is called a castle, but not all buildings with the name castle are fortified. The term stately home is subject to debate, and avoided by historians, as a description of a country house, the term was first used in a poem by Felicia Hemans, The Homes of England, originally published in Blackwoods Magazine in 1827. In the 20th century, the term was popularised in a song by Noël Coward. The books collection of homes also includes George IVs Brighton town palace. The country houses of England have evolved over the last five hundred years, before this time, larger houses were usually fortified, reflecting the position of their owners as feudal lords, de facto overlords of their manors. The Tudor period of stability in the saw the building of the first of the unfortified great houses. Henry VIIIs Dissolution of the Monasteries saw many former ecclesiastical properties granted to the Kings favourites, woburn Abbey, Forde Abbey and many other mansions with abbey or priory in their name became private houses during this period. Other terms used in the names of houses to describe their origin or importance include palace, castle, court, hall, mansion, park, house, manor, and place. Burghley House, Longleat House, and Hatfield House are among the best known examples of the prodigy house. Some of the best known of Englands country houses were built by one architect at one time, Montacute House, Chatsworth House. They finally ran out of funds in the early 20th century, an example of this is Brympton dEvercy in Somerset, a house of many periods that is unified architecturally by the continuing use of the same mellow, local Ham Hill stone
