monarchy

monarchy. Since heroic origins added to the prestige of monarchy, early Saxon chroniclers claimed descent for their dynasties from Woden, god of war. Later writers traced their monarchs to Brutus, great-grandson of Aeneas of Troy. Geoffrey of Monmouth was highly specific, explaining that Brutus landed at Totnes, overthrowing the race of giants, chief of whom was Gogmagog. Geoffrey's account, with Merlin's prophecy that Britain would be united, was used to claim supremacy over the Scots. Scottish chroniclers, not to be outdone, traced their monarchy's descent from Pharaoh of Egypt, whose daughter Scota had settled in their land.

More sober claims traced English monarchs back to Cerdic, king of Wessex in the early 6th cent. Even this was difficult to sustain, the royal blood running thin in places. Eighth-cent. Wessex kings are particularly badly documented and the link with Cerdic has largely to be taken on trust. Harold II had no royal blood at all, and William the Conqueror's claim was merely that his grandfather's sister, Emma of Normandy, had been married first to Æthelred, then to Cnut. But lineage was of such consequence that rulers whose claims looked shaky hastened to buttress them. The Conqueror's son Henry I married a Saxon princess, great-granddaughter of Edmund Ironside.

If we accept Cerdic as founder, the English monarchy dates back to about 519. The Scottish monarchy may be dated from c.843, when Kenneth MacAlpin of Dalriada united Picts and Scots to form the kingdom of Alba. The role of the monarch was essentially that of battle-leader. As a consequence, strict primogeniture was slow to establish itself, since it could result in a child or a simpleton on the throne. Few monarchs lasted long enough for old age to be a problem. In the earlier period, the king was chosen from the extended royal family and was often a brother or a cousin of his predecessor. With expectation of life short, it was unlikely that the eldest son would be old enough for the task. Edgar's eldest son Edward was only 13 when chosen in 975 but the innovation was hardly encouraging since he was murdered within three years. As royal power grew, kings increasingly chose their sons or were succeeded by them. The earlier convention increased the chances of having an effective ruler, but added to the risk of disputes, and many early kings were overthrown, exiled, or killed by their kin.

Apart from waging war—admittedly at times a demanding business—early kings had little to do. They attempted very few of the activities of the modern state. Justice was dispensed by landowners themselves; the king did not make law, though he might declare what it was; there was little revenue to collect, though he was entitled to support and hospitality. There was no economic or education policy to supervise. One doubts whether the army spent much time drilling, an occupation which fascinated later rulers. Foreign relations consisted of sending envoys to neighbouring kings, arranging alliances, and negotiating marriages. The most sophisticated organization was the church and sensible rulers devoted care to choice of archbishops and bishops.

But the great effort needed to push back the Danes in the 9th and 10th cents. produced important developments in the institutions of Wessex. Burhs, erected as strong points, had to be built and garrisoned, naval vessels commissioned and manned, and all had to be paid for. At Winchester, the capital of Wessex and then of England until the 12th cent., more than 3,000 yards of walls necessitated a garrison of 2,400 men. There were well over 50 burhs and they included places of great importance—Worcester, Bedford, Oxford, Colchester, Nottingham, Exeter, Derby, Stafford, Bath, Chichester, and Manchester. Even if the garrisons were not permanent nor necessarily efficient, a remarkable organizational effort was required, and the Burghal Hidage shows a systematic attempt to ensure adequate support. By the reign of Athelstan a much more complex governmental structure is apparent and the kingdom of England has emerged. Indeed, by the reign of Edgar, one can see the outlines of a claim to British sovereignty, with the monarch rowed on the Dee in 973 by kings from Scotland, from Wales, and of the British.

The monarchy was still, and for centuries remained, dependent upon the personal ability of the ruler. The 11th-cent. Saxon kingdom was unable to sustain the momentum. The return of Viking raids at the end of the 10th cent. proved almost too much for Æthelred and at his death the kingdom passed rapidly to Cnut. Though his rule was firm, he was no great innovator. The royal bodyguard and a navy were maintained and the revenue to support them raised. But his Scandinavian and imperial ambitions left him little time to ponder English problems, and the law code for which he is famous was largely derived from Edgar. Nor was Edward the Confessor, the last Saxon king, the man to invigorate government. The main development was the increasing use of the sheriff, a direct royal officer, to implement decisions in the shires.

With the Conquest in 1066 the kingdom was once more in alien hands, though to subjects accustomed to Scandinavian rule only a generation before, this may not have seemed novel, however unwelcome. By adding yet another people to be assimilated, the Conquest multiplied domestic problems, though the resentment felt by most of the English may have served to unify them. The first three Norman rulers were powerful. Their significance is seen more in relations with the other rulers in the British Isles than in domestic reform. Scotland felt the change quickly. William I paralleled the expedition by Cnut in 1031 with his own march to the Tay in 1072, which brought about the submission of Malcolm Canmore. His son William Rufus reoccupied Cumberland in 1092. Into Wales, the incursion of Norman lords began, particularly in the south, as early as one year after Hastings and William visited St Davids in 1081. The Norman attack upon Ireland was postponed until the 12th cent. and the reign of Henry II.

Since medieval government centred on the king, its efficacy varied greatly. Under strong rulers, the monarchy advanced, royal justice was extended, revenue increased, local government reorganized. Under weak rulers, control became slack and important concessions were made to subjects—Magna Carta in 1215, even if the immediate beneficiaries were the barons. Monarchs were frequently in danger since they were still expected to lead in battle: Edward II, Richard II, and Henry VI were deposed and killed, Edward V murdered, Richard III killed on the battlefield. The institution of monarchy was not in itself in danger—indeed, brutality often led to the survival of the fittest. Success in war, on the other hand, gave the king a strong, if not impregnable, position— William I, Edward I, Edward III, Henry V.

The prestige and standing of the monarchy was enhanced in a variety of ways. The coronation ceremony became more elaborate and more dignified. Some early coronations were so hasty that rehearsals could hardly have been possible. Harold was crowned the day after Edward's death, and Henry I apologized to Anselm for his coronation three days after succeeding Rufus, explaining that ‘enemies would have risen up against me’. Monarchs were competitive. The kings of France were proud that, at the coronation of Clovis, an angel had appeared bearing holy oil: fortunately the balance was more than restored when the Virgin Mary herself presented Becket with holy oil, which was quickly incorporated into the English coronation ceremony. Scottish kings in the 13th cent. petitioned the pope for permission to include anointing, but the English kings protested and the Scots were forced to wait until 1329. Similarly, hearing that the kings of France practised the royal touch, English monarchs from Edward I onwards began stroking.

It was also of value to a monarch to be associated with great buildings and great deeds. The Confessor built Westminster abbey, consecrated just before his death, and Henry III rebuilt it. Rufus built Westminster Hall and Richard II embellished it. Henry VI sponsored Eton and King's College, Cambridge. David I of Scotland founded the abbeys of Holyrood and Dunfermline, later turned into royal residences. Edward III's institution of the Order of the Garter was supported by a new chapel at Windsor, completed by Edward IV, and deliberately echoed the legendary deeds of King Arthur.

Cheaper was glory through the proliferation of titles. Edward I created his son prince of Wales in 1301; for decades the title of duke, first used in 1337, was reserved for members of the royal family. In 1483 the use of cloth of gold and purple was by statute limited to the king and his close relatives. By the 16th cent., the usual form of address had moved from ‘Your Grace’ or ‘Your Highness’ to ‘Your Majesty’. By the 1530s the breach with Rome had added to the monarch's authority his headship over the church.

By the 16th cent., the traditional role of the monarch as battle-leader was declining, though George II still led his men at Dettingen as late as 1743. But as warfare became more professional and since guns were no respecters of persons, royal valour diminished in importance. Though Henry VIII pined for military glory, he was usually kept at a safe distance from the action, and the greatest victory of his reign at Flodden was achieved not by the king but by Lord Surrey (Norfolk). Circumstance in both England and Scotland facilitated the change. In England Edward VI was too young, Mary and Elizabeth ruled out by sex, though Elizabeth's heroic speech at Tilbury was an effective substitute. In Scotland, James IV died fighting at Flodden in 1513; James V was too ill to take the field at Solway Moss; Mary, queen of Scots, could not fight in person, though she urged her men on; and the inclinations of James VI and I did not run towards martial glory. Charles I was with his troops all through the Civil War, but as supreme commander rather than a fighting man—a role subsequently played by William III.

The Tudor period is usually regarded as the apogee of the English monarchy. Certainly it was stronger than in the 15th cent., when the Wars of the Roses produced frequent changes of ruler. None of the Tudor rulers was to be trifled with. Yet lawlessness and rebellion were not easily stamped out. Henry VII faced risings on behalf of the pretenders Simnel and Warbeck, Henry VIII the Pilgrimage of Grace, Edward VI's government Kett's rebellion, Mary the Lady Jane Grey episode and the Wyatt rebellion, Elizabeth the rising of the northern earls and innumerable plots against her life. Several of their policies returned to haunt their successors. The take-over of church powers added greatly to the patronage of the monarch but also involved him more directly in religious disputation at a time when the waves of controversy were beginning to run high. The pope was no longer a lightning conductor for disgruntled critics, and James I's attempts to hold the line—‘no bishop, no king’—plunged his son into further difficulty. The Civil War, after all, began with Charles I's dispute over religion with his Scottish subjects. The vast proceeds of the dissolution of the monasteries were not merely squandered by the crown but finished up with the nobility, helping to strengthen its position. The house of Russell, which gained enormously from the dissolution, was prominent in its opposition to the crown in the 17th cent. Henry VIII's use of Parliament to effect the Reformation, and Mary and Elizabeth's use to adjust it, gave it confidence to challenge the monarchy in the following century.

Though at one level the Civil War was disastrous for monarchy—the king beheaded, the institution abolished—in the end it may have helped its survival. The role of the army in the 1650s and the social upheaval of the Commonwealth period sobered the gentry and nobility and prepared the ground for the peaceful restoration of Charles II in 1660. The complex negotiations of the early 1640s, in which Charles I had described the role of the crown as a balancing one, pointed the way to a compromise between crown and Parliament. From the melodrama of James II's reign, the monarchy emerged strengthened—limited certainly in its formal powers and prerogatives, but more in touch with the wishes of the nation.

From 1688 onwards, though the monarchy retained fundamental powers, it was in slow constitutional retreat. The Bill of Rights removed the suspending power and the dispensing power as it had been employed. The prolonged warfare under William and Anne meant that the crown could no longer avoid annual sessions of Parliament and the timing of a dissolution became a matter for ministers, in practice if not in form. The right of veto fell into abeyance after Anne's reign. Though the choice of ministers remained an important prerogative it was increasingly limited by the growth of party loyalty, and the fiasco of Lord Bute at the start of George III's reign suggested that royal favourites would no longer serve. During George IV's reign the debility of the monarchy was apparent. The king could no longer prevent catholic emancipation, though he regarded it, with some justice, as a breach of his coronation oath. In 1827 he contemplated leaving the choice of prime minister to the cabinet. Even the granting of honours fell largely into the hands of the prime minister and new orders had to be invented so that the monarch could retain some personal control.

But there were compensations in the changing role. It was not necessarily to the advantage of the monarch to be involved in the dust and reproach of day-to-day government, and the crown's retreat opened the way for a more national role. After the first three Georges, who had revealed little desire to show themselves to their subjects, George IV introduced a new note, with well-publicized visits to Scotland and Ireland. Victoria and Albert, a more appealing spectacle than a florid and elderly gentleman, were able to exploit the new railway age and built on George's foundations. Though Victoria was not a battle-leader, she undoubtedly became a symbol of the nation and of the empire, as her Golden and Diamond Jubilees in 1887 and 1897 demonstrated.

The 20th-cent. British monarchy survived when most others were swept away because it came to terms with democracy. The dangers that awaited it were, in the end, not red revolution or republican egalitarianism, but the more insidious difficulty of knowing what image to present in an age of rapidly changing standards. Like the church, the monarchy, once regarded as a rock of stability and certainty in a confusing world, came to seem, by the end of the century, as confused as its subjects. Royal advisers tended to be modernizers or traditionalists. The abdication of Edward VIII in 1936 appears in retrospect less a grave constitutional issue than an early warning of the problems that would arise if the monarch, or members of the royal family, were not prepared to do their duty. Though few people still regarded the monarchy as a sacred institution, they expected, as Baldwin pointed out, high standards from it in exchange for its social privileges. The monarchy was not helped by the growth of a vulgar, censorious, and meretricious press. Universal education produced a nation of critics, less respectful than their 7th-cent. ancestors. An increasing number of subjects felt that members of the royal family wished to be ordinary people when it suited them, royal when it did not. The monarchy had survived 1,500 years by a process of adaptation to change, but the pace and nature of change at the end of the 20th cent. were so rapid that the monarchy was in danger, not merely of being left behind, but of seeming increasingly irrelevant.

J. A. Cannon

Bibliography

Cannon, J. A. , The Modern British Monarchy: A Study in Adaptation (Reading, 1987);
Cannon, J. A., and and Griffiths, R. , The Oxford Illustrated History of the Monarchy (Oxford, 1988);
Golby, J. M., and and Purdue, A. W. , The Monarchy and the British People: 1760 to the Present (1988).