Claire Ridgway - Illustrated Kings and Queens of England

As a self-confessed royalist, it is my great pleasure to introduce you to the kings and queens who have all had a hand in making the United Kingdom what it is today. I could, of course, write a Bible-sized book about these monarchs, but I have chosen instead to give you a taster of their lives and reigns.

English history is full of characters whod make ideal protagonists in block-buster novels - larger-than-life characters with soap opera style lives, swash-buckling warriors, saints, mad monarchs, virgin queens, religious zealots, regicides, alleged prince killers, Lotharios, romantic heroes, cake burners and tide-turners, monarchs with strange nicknames (Longshanks, the Unready, Ironside etc.), executed kings and tyrants - and thats just a few of them! It is hard to believe that some of them ever managed to lead a country or control governments and armies, while others had reigns that are known as Golden Ages for their advancements.

You will notice that the first monarch I introduce you to is Alfred the Great. He was not the first monarch of England, by any stretch of the imagination, but he was the first to claim to be King of the English, or King of the Anglo-Saxons.

When I found antique copies of John Cassells volumes of Illustrated History of England I decided that his beautiful 19th century engravings should be shared for future generations to enjoy. Bringing these old images to life by adding colour became a bit of a family project and I was excited to get my daughter Verity involved great for indoctrinating her with some history too! I believe that we have done justice to Cassells original work.

I do hope you enjoy this journey through English history, I certainly enjoyed re-visiting the stories of these people.

Claire Ridgway

Lucar, Spain

November 2014

Britain was created in around 6100 BC, when a tsunami caused it to break free from continental Europe and become separated by what we know today as the English Channel. At that time, Britain was home to tribes of hunter-gatherers who had travelled there following food sources like reindeer and mammoth as they migrated.

Somewhere between 5000 and 4000 BC, farming was introduced to Britain, heralding the start of the New Stone Age or Neolithic Era. The Bronze Age began in around 2500 BC, when the Beaker People settled on the island and began making things from copper, gold and then bronze. In 750 BC, iron was introduced into Britain and started to replace bronze as the material used for tools and weapons. The people who worked with iron were the Celts, who were mainly farmers and who lived in groups and tribes ruled over by a king or queen.

The Romans were Britains first invaders, crossing the English Channel in 43 AD and making Britain part of their empire. The Romans settled and lived in Britain until around 410 AD. They gave Britain its Roman roads, Roman baths, forts, the city of Londinium (London) and Hadrians Wall. When the Romans left Britain, the Angles, Saxons and Jutes (known collectively as the Anglo-Saxons) invaded Britain by boat from Germany, Denmark and Holland. The Anglo-Saxons divided Britain into kingdoms but were never able to conquer Cornwall, Wales and Scotland. Notable Anglo-Saxon kings include Aethelbert of Kent (c.560-616), who was the first Anglo-Saxon king to embrace Christianity, which had been brought to Britain by St Augustine in 597 AD; Eadwin of Northumbria (c. 586-c. 633), who was the first Christian king in the north of England; and Offa, King of Mercia, who ruled from 757-796, and whose dominance of England spread all the way up to the Humber and east to the border with Wales, where he built Offas Dyke.

In 793, the Vikings (or Norsemen) began their invasion of Britain from their homelands of Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Their first attacks were in Dorset and then on the monastery islands of Lindisfarne, just off the coast of Northumberland, and Iona, off the Scottish coast. In 829, Wessex became the most powerful kingdom in England, after King Egbert conquered Mercia and Northumbria, and in 843 the kingdom of Scotland was formed when the Pictish and Gaelic crowns merged. In 866, the Vikings launched attacks on northern England and East Anglia, and in 867 they captured York and made it their capital, naming it Jorvik. By 870 the Vikings had defeated the kings of Northumbria, East Anglia and Mercia, and so decided to attack Wessex, the only remaining Anglo-Saxon kingdom, ruled by King Aethelred. The Vikings defeated Aethelreds forces at the Battle of Reading, but Aethelred was victorious at the Battle of Ashdown. Unfortunately, this victory was followed by a series of defeats and Aethelred died on 23 April 871, leaving Wessex in the hands of his brother, Alfred.