The Stewart Kings & Queens Vaught-Jasper-Trusty-Molloy, Genealogy Tree James l Born: Edinburgh Castle, 19 June 1566. Titles: Duke of Rothesay (from birth), Duke of Albany, Earl of Ross and Baron Ardmannoch. Crowned: James I of England: Westminster Abbey, 25 July 1603. Ruled: 24 July 1567-27 March 1625. Married: 23 November 1589, at Oslo, Norway, Anne (1574-1619), dau. Frederick II of Denmark and Norway. 9 children. Died: Theobalds Park Hertfordshire 27th March 1625 aged 58. Buried: Westminster Abbey.   James I, king of England, was also James Vl of Scotland. We tend to overlook the fact that he had been king of Scotland already for thirty-six years, twenty-three of those since he had taken the reins of government. He was the first king to rule the whole of Britain (only the Isle of Man retained a separate kingship but was subject to the Crown).  James was the only son of Mary Queen of Scots and Henry, Lord Darnley. Through both his parents he was the great-grandson of Margaret Tudor, sister to Henry VIII of England, and he was thus heir to the English throne should Elizabeth, the queen of England, have no children. He was just thirteen months old when his mother was forced to abdicate and, as with most of the Stewart kings of Scotland, their reigns began under a regency amid intense rivalry. James's was complicated by two factors. First his mother was still alive and her supporters, the papists, led by John Hamilton, archbishop of St Andrews, were still powerful amongst the Scots. Second, accusations were still flying over the murder of his father, Lord Darnley. Both his mother and his uncle, the earl of Moray, were implicated. Although both were eventually cleared of the charges, Moray (who almost certainly was a party to it) succeeded in casting the blame on to William Maitland of Lethington, who had been Mary's secretary of state. Maitland was thrown into prison but was never tried and though released later died in prison. Moray became regent of Scotland. He was the head of the pro-Reformation faction that opposed Mary. Although he had his enemies, Moray was a strong and able governor. Had he been conceived on the right side of the sheets he would have been a good king. He succeeded in subduing rebels in the Borders like no previous monarch, and it was primarily through his guidance that Protestantism spread throughout Scotland and took too strong a hold to fail. Nevertheless his enemies eventually got the better of him, and in January 1570 Moray was murdered by James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, nephew of Archbishop Hamilton. Although the younger Hamilton was not brought to book, his uncle was. Elizabeth of England knew that Hamilton was the power behind a series of border incidents. She took advantage of the divisions between the Scottish nobility to encourage Matthew Stewart, earl of Lennox and James's grandfather, to attack and devastate Hamilton's lands. Lennox was promoted to the regency. Although he was becoming old and weak, he was still a passionate supporter of the King and in the ensuing months he captured Archbishop Hamilton who was tried, found guilty of complicity in the murders of Darnley and Stewart, and hanged. Over the ensuing months Lennox pressed home his advantage. His Protestant faction eventually won the day, though Lennox himself was shot and killed in a skirmish in Stirling in September 1571. The next regent was John Erskine, earl of Mar, who governed for just over a year, but the real power behind the throne, and the next regent, was James Douglas, earl of Morton. Morton had his enemies but he established a firm and stable government. He was the strongest champion of the Protestant cause, to the extent of passing legislation that enabled justiciars to levy fines for non-conformity to the new faith. Although he was briefly ousted from the regency by the earls of Argyll and Atholl in 1578, he regained control for a further two years. The young king did not like Morton, who was cold and ruthless. James had been starved of parental affection for all of his childhood, and this allowed him to warm to the ebullient and avuncular Esme Stuart, a cousin of his father's, who had been raised in France but who was also an heir to the throne. He came as an agent to Scotland in 1579 in the hope of converting the country back to Catholicism. Through his urbanity he soon won the affection of the young king and succeeded in overthrowing Morton who was charged with involvement in the murder of Darnley. Morton was arrested and executed in 1581. Stuart's true colours however now emerged and the threat of a popish plot caused the more extreme Protestant faction to react. William Ruthven seized James in August 1582 and refused to release him until James agreed to the banishment of Esme Stuart. Once this was accomplished James was freed in June 1583. The episode, known as the Ruthven Raid, demonstrated what a powerful force Protestantism had become by the late sixteenth century, and how much the king was perceived as the figurehead in determining the direction of the church. James's relationship with Esme has caused some to regard James as homosexual, or at the least bisexuals it is quite likely as, starved of affection in his youth, James showered love and affection on anyone who showed him a personal interest. James had not been the most attractive of children. He was short and walked with a rolling gait that was suggestive of rickets. He had somewhat bulbous eyes and apparently had trouble swallowing so that he frequently drooled. This affliction also affected his speech which was, at times, slurred. How much of this picture of James was the product of his enemies is less easy to interpret, because much of it is recorded by later English chroniclers, some of whom found it difficult to understand James's broad Scottish accent. Other more dangerous rumours were spread about James. The most extreme was that he was a changeling child, swapped because Mary's had been stillborn. Some noticed a remarkable resemblance with John Erskine, earl of Mar. The remains of a newborn baby were found at Edinburgh Castle during renovations in the nineteenth century, but nothing was proved. Although James had exercised some authority in government since 1578, by 1583, at the age of seventeen, he decided he would no longer be the pawn of factions within his aristocracy. All those who attempted to control him, such as James Stewart, the new earl of Arran (and cousin of the previous earl, James Hamilton, former suitor of Mary, Queen of Scots), found their power rapidly curtailed. By 1586 James had established a government of moderates who moved along with his own wishes towards a firm relationship with England and a strong control over Protestant affairs. This did not stop James being an eternally nervous king, in regular fear of assassination, a consequence of his upbringing rather than of his current state. It also made him cautious in his foreign affairs. By 1586 he had reached an informal agreement with Elizabeth of England whereby he became her successor, and James would do nothing to endanger that. For that reason he remained silent while his mother was tried and executed in February 1587, and remained neutral during England's war with Spain and the invasion of the Spanish Armada in July 1588. The death of Mary, Queen of Scots, reduced the power of the Catholic faction who now had no figurehead. Most of the Catholics were in the north of Scotland where Protestantism had barely reached. The Highlanders professed Catholicism, but many still held true to the old Celtic church, whilst others often practiced pagan worship. (Claims of witchcraft amongst the Highlanders were rife in the 1590s. James compiled a volume railing against witchcraft and satanism called Daemonologie (1597) and in 1603 introduced an act with the aim of abolishing its practice, though with little effect.) It was these northern Scots who still held dialogue with the Spanish and were a threat to Scottish uniformity - not that that was new in Scottish history. The Highlands and the Lowlands had seldom been one kingdom, for all they might have purported to be one country. Nevertheless, James could not have the north siding with Spain and creating a Catholic kingdom north of the Clyde. In 1589 he quashed one potential rebellion when he discovered that the earls of Huntly and Errol had been in communication with Spain over an invasion. James treated the earls lightly. But in 1592 James became aware of similar plans again involving Huntly and Errol, this time in league with the earls of Angus and Bothwell. James bided his time, working matters to his own advantage until in 1594 he was able to surprise the earls and banish them from the kingdom. At the same time he was increasingly nervous of the power of the Protestants, especially once Presbyterianism was introduced by Act of Parliament in 1592. These reformists regarded themselves as beholden only to God, not to the King. The King was as much a vassal of God as were they, and God's on Earth was spokesman the General Assembly. This meant that James VI effectively had no authority over the church, a matter of which Andrew Melville, the instigator of Presbyterianism, was prone to remind the king. James VI now worked one faction against another. In 1596 he recalled the northern earls and stated that these and other northern magnates should have their own equal representation on the General Assembly. Hitherto the Assembly had been composed almost entirely of earls from the south under the domination of Melville. Moreover, although Melville believed James could not abolish the General Assembly, James had statutory control over the holding of any assembly. He could thus control when the Assembly could meet and who was on it. In one quite masterful stroke he weakened the power of the Presbyterians and ensured the northern earls were no longer isolated. He was soon to remind Melville and his colleagues of his own belief in the authority of kingship. In 1599 he produced his book, Basilikon Doron, which espoused the divine right of kings. It was a direct challenge to Melville's Presbyterianism. Fifty years later it would lead to the death of James's son Charles. After 1596 James was in complete control of his kingdom. Occasional skirmishes erupted, but nothing that seriously endangered his authority. The worst example was the Gowrie Conspiracy in August 1600 when it was alleged Alexander Ruthven, the brother of the earl of Gowrie, lured James to his house in Perth on some pretext only then to attack James. In the resultant fracas, Ruthven and the earl were killed. There has been some speculation over whether James fabricated this story to explain the death of Gowrie to whom James owed considerable sums of money, but the weight of opinion has settled in favour of James. Gowrie's primary opposition to James had been over his passion to unite England and Scotland, for which purpose James had planned to raise an army to ensure his succession. James had used the authority of kingship to unite a kingdom more completely than any previous Scottish king. He still did not crack the inveterate obstinacy of the Highlanders who paid him mock allegiance but otherwise played by their own rules, but he had little interest in them anyway. By now Elizabeth of England was in her sixties, and her lack of an heir meant that it was only a matter of time before, barring accidents, James inherited the crown of England. He had married Anne of Denmark in 1589 and had a son and heir, Henry, born in February 1594, and a daughter, Elizabeth, in August 1596. Others would follow. No other king was so confident in his kingdom, and no other nation so expectant as Scotland. The news came on 26 March 1603 when a messenger arrived at Holyrood to inform the king that Elizabeth had died two days previously. Two days later another messenger arrived to say that the English Privy Council had decreed James was her successor.  On 5 April James left Scotland for England. Although he promised to revisit it often he only returned once in the next twenty-two years. Scotland may have gained a kingdom but it had lost its king.   James was full of the joys of spring when he arrived in Westminster in April 1603. He had grand schemes to unite England and Scotland and establish a Great Britain. Unfortunately these plans failed. Although the Scottish Parliament, which had been left under the control of James’s second cousin Louis Stuart, passed an Act of Union in 1607, the English Parliament would have nothing to do with it, so that England and Scotland remained two discrete kingdoms. Nevertheless, to have two kingdoms ruled by one king meant that the border disputes that had cost so many lives for so many centuries now become a thing of the past. James rapidly found that governing England was not like Scotland. They did things differently. Although the English statesmen welcomed him as their new king, and one with a considerable reputation, he was nevertheless a foreigner, and one who spoke in a strange accent and brought with him favourites of his court. After Elizabeth's final few years, which had become rather dour and constrained compared to the earlier glories, James was invigorating, but he was also pompous, full of considerable self-importance, and paranoid about his safety. The English found him difficult to understand, and James took a while to become accustomed to the English Parliament and way of life. In fact he and his Parliament usually disagreed so strongly after a while that he regularly dissolved it in order to find other ways to meet his needs, especially for money. James disliked having to acquire the approval of Parliament to raise money for foreign activities. All this uncertainty about James added to his increasing unease, which was not helped by Robert Catesby's Gunpowder Plot of 1604/5, when extremist Catholics sought to destroy James and parliament. In this respect James was sorely misunderstood. Although he was not Catholic, he was not as fervent a Protestant as the members of the Scottish Kirk that he had left behind - even if the Gunpowder Plot made him appear a near martyr for Protestantism. James worked long and hard at moderating Presbyterianism. When he came south James delighted in the Church of England, which had retained an Episcopalian structure and gave James ultimate authority over it, whereas the Presbyterian Assembly treated James as an equal and denied him control. In England James had more opportunity to impose his will. In 1605 he outlawed the Assembly and those who objected he arrested on grounds of treason. Andrew Melville was summoned to England and imprisoned in the Tower of London for mocking the English church. He was not released until 1611, when he left England for France and did not return. James had broken the back of the General Assembly and was able to impose his own system of diocesan bishops over the Scottish church. He also imposed moderation on the English Puritans, whom he attempted to force to conform to the Anglican Church. As the final stroke in his reforms of the church, James introduced his own Authorised Edition of the Bible, usually known as the King James's Bible, in 1611.  In other English affairs James fared moderately well. Ruling Scotland from a distance enabled him to work through others to achieve ends he might never have done at home. In 1608, through the earl of Argyll, he arrested the leading clansmen in the Hebrides and forced them into submission. A subsequent rebellion by the MacDonald’s in 1614, hoping to revive the lordship of the Isles, was soon quashed, as was the rebellious lifestyle of James’s second cousin, Patrick Stewart, earl of Orkney, who was eventually executed in 1615. James also began the plantation of English and Scottish Protestants into Ulster from 1611 on. In foreign affairs James had mixed fortunes. Scotland's original friendship with Spain allowed him to curtail England's war with Spain expeditiously, though relationships were never again the same. In 1607 the first English colony in North America was established by John Smith at Jamestown in Virginia. James's "kingdom" extended to Bermuda in 1609 and to New England in 1620 with the Pilgrim Fathers in the Mayflower. James endeavoured, through the marriages of his children, to establish a strong Protestant alliance throughout Europe. His crowning achievement was the marriage of his daughter Elizabeth to the Elector Palatine Frederick in February 1613 (from whom the Hanoverian kings of England were descended). He also hoped to marry his sons into the Spanish royal family. This was never likely, but even the possibility was thwarted when his son-in-law Frederick became king of Bohemia in 1618 and found himself at war with the Habsburg monarchy in Austria. Spain was the ally of Austria, and James came under pressure to support Bohemia against two of the greatest nations in Europe. He succeeded in maintaining his distance - mostly because the English Parliament would not vote him money for the enterprise - but his scheme of a Protestant alliance in Europe rapidly crumbled. By now premature senility was dulling his powers, and a series of poor decisions throughout the last fifteen years of his reign meant that this once ingenious and clever monarch became gradually more incompetent. It was not without good reason that he earned the reputation as "the wisest fool in Christendom", a phrase coined some years earlier by Henri IV of France. Some of the scandals in his later years included the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury in 1613 and the subsequent pardoning of the earl of Somerset and Lady Essex who were convicted of masterminding the poisoning; the execution in 1618 of Sir Walter Ralegh, whom James had long believed was conspiring against him; and the arrest and imprisonment of Sir Francis Bacon on the grounds of bribery and corruption. Despite these darker spots James showed himself to be forward looking. He became interested in scientific development, especially where it might aid the defence of the realm. He was the patron of several inventors including the remarkable Dutch scientist Cornelius Drebbel, who presented him with a purposted perpetual-motion machine. Drebbel is remembered for the development of the microscope and thermometer, but he should be better remembered for having developed the first submarine, which was really a submersible rowing boat. He demonstrated it in the Thames in 1620 and even took James I for a trip, making him the first king ever to travel underwater. By the end of his reign, with his intellect fading, James found himself under the strong influence of George Villiers later Duke of Buckingham, with whom James had become acquainted in 1614 and who rose rapidly to power. Villiers's schemes were often ill advised but James came wholly under his spell. James's final years thus saw him as a weak and dispirited monarch, a shadow of his former self. Nevertheless he had been an active king for over forty years, and in name had been a king almost all of his life. He had, in fact, ruled longer than any other Scottish king and had left a greater impact upon his nation of birth than any preceding him. Although it was only an accident of birth that caused him to become king of England, he nevertheless succeeded in governing both countries despite considerable handicaps and opposition, his ability to survive such trials and tribulations marks him down as one of the most remarkable and cunning of kings. James I England and the Molloys are 7th cousins 12 times removed. Their common ancestors are John "of Gaunt" Prince of England and Catherine De Roet.

Charles I Born: Dunfermline Palace, 19 November 1600. Titles: King of England, Scotland and Ireland, Prince of Wales (1616-25), Duke of Albany, Marquess of Ormonde, Earl of Ross, Baron of Ardmannoch, Duke of York (from 1605), Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay (from 1612) and Earl of Chester (from 1616). Crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey, 2 February 1626, and King of Scotland at Holyrood Abbey, 8 June 1633. Ruled 27 March 1625-30 January 1649. Married: 13 June 1625, at St Augustine's Church, Canterbury, Henrietta Maria (1609-69), dau. of Henri IV, king of France: 9 children. Died (executed): Whitehall Palace, London, 30 January 1649, aged 48. Buried: St George's Chapel, Windsor. Charles was the first king to succeed to the kingdoms of both England and Scotland. His father, James VI of Scotland, had inherited the English throne (as James I) on the death of Elizabeth because of his descent from Henry VII. Charles did not become the heir apparent until 6 November 1612 when his elder brother Henry died of typhoid. Charles also had an elder sister, Elizabeth, who survived him and from whom the later kings of England from George (I) are descended, although all his other brothers and sisters died in infancy. Charles himself was a weak child, backward and unable to walk or talk in infancy. He was left behind in Scotland when his father and family moved to London in 1603 and he followed a year later. He was nursed by Lady Carey who nurtured and strengthened him, so he could talk by the time he was four, though he never lost his stammer, and could walk by the age of seven. He was short (his final height was about five feet four inches), but grew into a more handsome figure than his father. He was devoted to his brother and sister and was much saddened at his brother's death and when, a few months later, his sister married the Elector Palatine of the Rhine and went to live at Heidelberg. Charles's teens were lonely years during which time he forced himself to become assertive, a trait important in a king but which was to become his downfall. Charles was the first king to be raised within the Church of England. This religious divide made it impossible to marry the Infanta Maria of Spain, whom he visited incognito in 1623 with his friend George Villiers, who that year became, the duke of Buckingham. Instead he married the French princess Henrietta Maria, but only on condition that she was allowed the free practice of the Catholic religion and to control the upbringing of their children. Their marriage happened two months after Charles succeeded to the throne. At first the marriage was unhappy: Henrietta was only fifteen and did not seem schooled in the art of courtship. She disliked Charles's childhood friend, the duke of Buckingham, and may have felt there was more than male bonding between them. Charles clashed with the large retinue that Henrietta had brought from France, which included a bishop, twenty-nine priests and over four hundred attendants. Within a year he had despatched these back to France. In 1628, Buckingham was murdered and it seems, with both these barriers removed, that their relationship warmed, and their first child was born in May 1629 (but died the same day). Henrietta always managed to maintain a controlling hand over Charles and exerted an increasingly unwise influence. For the first three years of his reign Charles was heavily influenced by Buckingham whose exploits, which earlier might have seemed all a joke, became politically dangerous. Thanks to Buckingham, Charles found himself at war, first with Spain and then (in 1627) with France, with the intention of aiding the Huguenots. Buckingham led abortive and costly expeditions in both campaigns, and caused further international scandal by allegedly seducing the queen of France. Charles was also anxious to assist his brother-in-law Frederick to regain the Rhine Palatinate. Parliament did not like Buckingham and refused to grant Charles the finances for the wars. Charles consequently took what other avenues he could to raise money, including drawing on his wife's dowry and exacting loans from the wealthier peers. He also failed to pay soldiers. This attitude and his cavalier approach to Parliament, which he only called when he chose and then tended to ignore, incensed the Commons. They drew up a Petition of Right in 1628 to control Charles’s excesses. Although he accepted it, he chose largely to ignore it. Charles's clash with Parliament continued beyond the murder of Buckingham in August 1628. In the end, when Charles adjourned Parliament in March 1629, he did not call another for eleven years, ruling in absolute authority and not seeking parliamentary sanction for his actions. He raised money through taxes and custom duties (known as "tonnage and poundage") as he chose, and also imposed forced loans and purchased knighthoods upon his wealthier subjects. Although he saved much expenditure by bringing the pointless wars to a close, he frequently did not pay members of the royal household, even though he continued to live in great luxury. He further upset his subjects, particularly those in Scotland, when he attempted to bring the Scottish church in line with the Church of England, imposing a new service book on Scotland, and introducing his own prejudices within the church, especially a tendency - known as Arminianism - to oppose strict Calvinist views of predestination. This was associated with high church practices, which echoed much of the Catholic service. Charles worked with William Laud, the new archbishop of Canterbury, and Thomas Wentworth, later earl of Strafford, who, in 1628, was created President of the North. Between the three they endeavoured to create an absolutism in church and state with Charles as the "most absolute prince in Christendom", ruling by divine right. In some actions Charles might almost be justified. Wentworth's activities in Ireland after 1633, where he was lord deputy, were remarkable compared to past campaigns. Whereas previously the expenditure on Ireland had always oustripped any revenues received, Wentworth made the island profitable through his imposition of taxes and custom dues, his elimination of piracy, the introduction of a sound agricultural programme relying on the cultivation of flax, and the transformation of the army into an orderly force. This was done with a heavy-handedness that did not endear Wentworth to the king's subjects, but it was effective. Attempts to run roughshod over the Scottish church, however, did not work so well. The Scots rejected Laud's new service book and declared defiant loyalty to the old Kirk. They formed a National Covenant in 1638 in opposition to Charles's policies. Following Wentworth's suggestion, Charles decided to impose his intentions by force. He raised an army in the spring of 1639, only to discover how little loyalty he commanded from his troops. Many of the English defected, not expecting to be paid and regarding the Scots as oppressed. The planned force of 30,000 ended up as only 8,000. Charles was easily defeated by the determined Scots in what became known as the First Bishops' War. Charles was in a predicament. He did not have the finances for a second campaign and had no alternative but to summon Parliament in April 1639. This Parliament, known as "the Short Parliament" because it was dissolved after only a few weeks, refused to grant Charles money unless he heard their grievances. Charles refused. Again he raised an army and again the Scots defeated him in the Second Bishops' War that August. Charles was again forced to call Parliament, and this time he was not allowed to dissolve it (hence it became known as "the Long Parliament"). Parliament chose Wentworth as the scapegoat for Charles's rule of tyranny, treating the understanding that Wentworth had promised to summon the army from Ireland to subdue the Scots as evidence of treason. Charles was forced to sign Wentworth's death warrant, and he was executed on Tower Hill on 12 May 1641. Charles conceded some of Parliament's wishes, particularly over the ship-taxes he had imposed, but he would not give way on his reform of the Church of England. Charles attempted to rally support in Scotland but without success. However, when he returned to London he believed some support amongst Parliament was swinging his way. When John Pym presented his list of grievances against the king, known as the Grand Remonstrance, in November 1641, it did not receive universal support. Charles, encouraged by his queen, believed he could swing the balance in Parliament by removing the main opposition. In January 1642 Charles entered the House of Commons with an armed guard intending to arrest the five primary offenders. The five Members, who included Pym, had already escaped. This was the final straw. There was much public opposition to Charles's actions, so he withdrew from London. Negotiations over the next seven months failed to reach any agreement with the king totally intractable and Parliament increasing its demands. Civil war became inevitable and the king formally declared hostilities at Nottingham on 22 August 1642. This was not the first civil war to divide England, and it was not the first to result in the deposition of a king, but because it was the first and only war in England to result in the abolition of the kingship, it has become known as the Civil War. The Royalists, or Cavaliers, generally had the upper hand in the early encounters, though they failed to strike decisively at the first main engagement at Edgehill on 23 October 1642 against the Parliamentarians, or Roundheads, under Robert Devereux, third earl of Essex (and son of Elizabeth's favourite). As the conflict continued, so the Roundheads began to take the offensive, especially when Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell took command with their specially trained cavalry and restructured New Model Army. They achieved victories at Marston Moor in 1644 and particularly at Naseby on 14 June 1645. With his defeat Charles deliberated about his position for nearly a year before surrendering to the Scots, expecting greater clemency. For their part, the Scots expected Charles to meet their terms over his church reform, but when Charles defiantly refused, the Scots handed him over to the English. While Charles was held by the Scots at Newcastle, the English Parliament issued a set of terms which became known as the Propositions of Newcastle in July 1646. These terms were to agree to the Covenant, abolish episcopacy, authorise Parliament's control over foreign policy and the army and amend his reforms of the Church. Charles refused. When handed over to the English, Charles was confined to Hampton Court, where Fairfax and Cromwell sought to come to terms with him over a formal written constitution. Again Charles refused. Escaping from Hampton Court, he sought refuge on the Isle of Wight, where he was confined to Carisbrooke Castle. Charles now intriguingly played one party against the other, negotiating at once with both the Parliamentarians and the Scots. The Scots reached an agreement with Charles which became known as the Engagement, signed on 26 December 1647. Under its terms the Scots would restore Charles as their king provided he would accept Presbyterianism for a trial period. This would be imposed upon the English and the two kingdoms united - though in fact it was a Scottish takeover of the English Parliament. Although not all Scots were united over this agreement, it was sufficient for an army to invade England in July 1648, only to be decisively defeated by Cromwell in three engagements in August at Preston, Wigan and Warrington. Fairfax's army also rapidly subdued a Royalist revolt in southern England. In January 1649 Charles was brought to trial for treason, on the grounds that he had fought against his subjects. Charles refused to recognize the court as having any authority over him and thus offered no defence. He remained dignified but disdainful of the proceedings. When the court delivered its verdict the 135 judges were split almost evenly, 68 finding him guilty and 67 innocent. Thus by a majority of just one, Charles was condemned to death. He was executed at Whitehall on 30 January. He wore two shirts so as not to shiver from the cold and give the impression he was afraid. The Scots were vehemently opposed to the execution of their monarch by the English parliament but following their recent defeat they felt powerless to react. They nevertheless transferred their allegiance to Charles's son, Charles (II), while in England the kingship was abolished. Charles failed as a king in every respect except authority, and in that he presumed too much. He was an absolute dictator or autocrat who nevertheless, in practice, could not operate without the support of his Parliament. His dignity and defiance against the odds might make him a romantic figure were it not for his complete and utter intransigence and arrogance. Whilst he failed to pay his soldiers and supporters, he spent a small fortune on commissioning and acquiring works of art. Where Henry VIII and Elizabeth had the support of the people even though they acted in an almost similar way, Charles did not, because Charles worked against rather than for his subjects. It was left to his son to restore the humanity, if not the credibility, to the Crown. Charles I King of England and the Molloys are 8th cousins 11 times removed. Their common ancestors are John "of Gaunt" Prince of England and Catherine De Roet.

Charles II Born: St James's Palace, London, 29 May 1630. Titles: King of England, Scotland and Ireland; Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay. Crowned: Scotland: Scone Abbey, 1 January 1651. England: Westminster Abbey 23 April 1661. Ruled: Scotland, 11 June 1650-3 September 1660 (fled into exile): restored 29 May 1660-6 February 1685. England, 29 May 1660-6 February 1685. Married: 22 May 1662, in Portsmouth, Katherine Henrietta (1638-1705), dau.of John IV, Duke of Braganza: 3 children (all stillborn). Charles had at least 16 illegitimate children by 8 mistresses. Died: Whitehall Palace, 6 February 1685, aged 54. Buried: Westminster Abbey.   Charles was the eldest surviving son of Charles (I) and Henrietta Maria. He was twelve when the Civil War broke out. Until then he had been raised in the stately magnificence of Charles's royal palaces and had received a good if not extensive education. He rapidly became skilled in the arts of war, fighting alongside his father in the early engagements and being made commander of his troops in the West Country in March 1645, when only fourteen. As the tide of the war changed, however, Charles wisely left England, settling first (1646) in France and then (1648) Holland, where his sister, Maria, the Princess Royal, had married Prince William of Orange. Charles had at least two sexual encounters during these years, and probably more. Rumours persist that he had fathered a son, James, while in Jersey in 1646 but of more significance was a second son, also called James, born in the Hague on 9 April 1649. The mother was Lucy Walter. The son, who became the duke of Monmouth, later claimed his parents were married and that he was the legitimate heir to the throne.   It was while living in the Hague that Charles learned of his father's execution. On 16 February he was proclaimed king in Jersey. A few days later the Scottish Parliament proclaimed Charles their king, provided he was prepared to accept the Scottish Covenant. This widened the rift between Scotland and England, where the new Parliament abolished the monarchy in March 1649. Charles really wanted to be king of England, and accepting the Scottish Covenant would have barred that route completely. Charles learned early on, therefore, that he needed to be cautious and devious. He was a remarkably pragmatic individual whose main aim was to enjoy himself, but he was prepared to fight and prove himself. He felt that everyone should be allowed to lead their own life, and thus he would bend with the wind and take whatever options best served his purpose. He therefore bided his time, exploring what other avenues might exist. He found Ireland closed to him by Cromwell's army while, in April 1650, an unofficial advance guard under the command of James Graham, the marquess of Montrose was defeated and Montrose hanged. Charles had to act so, in June 1650, he signed a treaty which he managed to keep sufficiently ambiguous but which effectively made him a covenanted king of the Scots. Twelve days later he landed in Scotland, a stranger in his own land. He was dubiously accepted as king but not allowed to exert any authority. He was more a figurehead than a sovereign, but his very presence posed immense danger, not only from rival factions in Scotland but from the English. A month later Cromwell led an army into Scotland. It was not overtly an invasion force, rather a move to explore the relationships between the two countries, but it left little doubt that Cromwell meant business if he met any opposition. However, as many past campaigners had found, Scotland is a difficult land to conquer without a massive support infrastructure and Cromwell's was disrupted by weather and disease. Nevertheless he engaged and overwhelmingly defeated a Scottish force at Dunbar on 2 September 1650, taking possession of Edinburgh and Leith. This was the downfall of the government of Covenanters under Archibald Campbell, marquess of Argyll, and the chaos that followed saw an untrusting but necessary alliance between the extremist factions who overthrew the anti-Royalists (known as the Remonstrants) and proclaimed Charles their king. He was crowned at Scone on I January 1651. Cromwell continued to stamp his authority on Scotland, and in July 1651 Charles led a hopeful army south into England. He was met by Cromwell's army at Worcester on 3 September 1651 and soundly defeated. Charles was lucky to escape with his life. He fled into Shropshire and sought refuge at Boscobel House, where he was helped by the yeoman Richard Penderel. It was at this time that the famous episode happened of Charles hiding in an oak tree whilst Cromwell's soldiers scoured the woods. Charles disguised himself as a servant and a few weeks later made his escape to France. It was difficult for Charles to disguise himself as he had a most distinctive physique. He was tall, at last six feet three inches, which is surprising considering the shortness of his parents. He probably inherited the genes through his Danish grandmother. He spent the next eight years on the continent, wheeling-and-dealing with whatever power might assist him. He was well placed, as during the next few years England found itself at war with first the Dutch (1652-54) and then Spain (1656-9). Charles took advantage of both conflicts to gain support for his own cause. These hostilities brought the English closer to the French as allies, which further helped Charles because of his own close affinity with the French. An Anglo French force defeated the Spanish in northern France in 1658, as a consequence of which the Spanish surrendered Dunkirk to the English, who once again held territory in France. During this period Cromwell's hold on England and Scotland grew. The Commonwealth was declared and, in 1653 Cromwell was made "Lord Protector". Though he governed through a Parliament, he was granted almost absolute powers and, indeed, in May 1657 Cromwell was offered the title of king. He refused but accepted the right of succession, so that his son, Richard, would be Lord Protector after him. For a brief period religious tolerance was observed throughout England and the Jews were readmitted, but towards the end of Cromwell's government there was a backlash against puritanism and extremism, and a return to a more Catholic practice. Nevertheless civic marriages were allowed and the registration of birth, deaths and marriages enforced. Charles II King of England and the Molloys are 9th cousins 10 times removed. Their common ancestors are John "of Gaunt" Prince of England and Catherine De Roet.

James ll    Born: St James's Palace, 14th October 1633. Titles: King of England and Scotland; Duke of York (from 1644), Earl of Ulster (from 1659), Crowned: Westminster Abbey, 23rdApril 1685. Ruled: 6 February 1685-11 December 1688 (deposed). Married: (1) November/December 1659, at Breda, Holland, Anne (1637-71), dau. Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon: 8 children; (2) 21 November 1673, at Dover, Kent. Mary (1658-1718), dau. of Alfonso d'Este, Duke of Modena: 12 children. Died: St Germain-en-Laye, Paris. 16th September 1701. Aged 67 Years. Buried: English Benedictines Church, Paris.   James was the younger brother of Charles II and the son of Charles I. As the second son of the monarch he was granted the title Duke of York, though this was not formally bestowed until January 1644. The English Civil War disrupted his education, which always remained moderate. He was just nine when he witnessed the battle of Edgehill (October 1642); he was then removed for his protection to the Royalist headquarters at Oxford where, apparently, he enjoyed the company of dwarfs. When Oxford was captured by the Roundheads in 24 June 1646, the young prince was taken prisoner and confined to St James’s Palace in London, where he remained for nearly two years. In April 1648, disguised as a girl, and pretending to be playing hide-and-seek, he effected his escape and fled to Holland, joining his brother Charles with their sister Mary in the Hague. He frequently quarrelled with his brother and mother. Unlike Charles, who was good-natured and happy-golucky, James was rather dour and serious. This made him a better soldier than his brother and, in 1652, he was commissioned into the French army, serving under Turenne in the French wars in Spain and the Netherlands, being promoted to lieutenant-general. He had to resign this commission when France and England reached an alliance, but he subsequently served with Spain against France and England in 1658, and was noted for his courage.   During this period James had entered protected negotiations with the duke of Longueville to marry his daughter, but these came to nothing. His mistress at this time was Anne Hyde, daughter of Charles's chief minister Edward Hyde, and lady-in-waiting to James's sister Mary. He entered into a private marriage contract with her in Holland in November or December 1659. When news leaked out relatives were horrified. Most refused to acknowledge the marriage, and even James denied it for a while. However, with the Restoration of the monarchy in May 1660, and Anne now heavily pregnant, James went through a public ceremony on 3 September 1660 in London. It was some years, however, before there was any real family harmony. With Charles installed as king, James had a number of titles bestowed upon him. In addition to Duke of York, he became the duke of Albany and was made an honorary duke of Normandy by the French king, the last English monarch to hold that title. He also became Lord High Admiral. He commanded the navy during the Anglo-Dutch war, defeating the Dutch at the battle of Lowestoft in June 1665. In 1664 the English had captured New Amsterdam in North America from the Dutch. It was presented to James and renamed New York after him. In 1668 James and Anne converted to Catholicism but kept this secret until Charles was able to force his Declaration of Indulgence through Parliament in March 1672. Anne had died the previous year and James was soon negotiating to marry the ardently Catholic Mary of Modena. The Whig government under the Earl of Shaftesbury was horrified and in March 1673 forced the King to withdraw his Declaration of Indulgence and to pass the Test Act, which banned Catholics from holding public office. James, who had served bravely again in the third Anglo Dutch War at Solebay in May 1672, had to step down as Lord High Admiral. The Government also tried to pass an Exclusion Bill which would have removed James from the succession. Charles was able to thwart this on three occasions between 1679 and 1681, but this and the Popish Plot of 1678 where rumour spread of a plan to assassinate Charles and install James on the throne, caused a massive wave of anti-Catholic feeling. James prudently went into exile in Brussels, and thence to Scotland, in December 1679. He was greeted with considerable caution and trepidation. The Scots had been in upheaval over the last year against potential Catholic reform, and the presence of a Catholic heir in their midst did nothing to pacify them. James, however, remained the soul of discretion for the brief period he was there, and he was generally accepted. However on his return a year later, with the Exclusion Bills rejected, James became less moderate. In July 1681 he forced two bills through the Scottish Parliament. The Act of Succession made it clear that religious differences were no bar to the Succession to the Scottish throne. The Test Act forced all those holding official posts to sign a document pledging their adherence to Presbyterianism, Episcopalianism and Catholicism. Few would comply and most resigned, James using this as an opportunity to purge government of any opposition. Over the next three years, even after he returned South, James continued to persecute the Covenanters and there are many stories (possibly not all true) of the atrocities committed by him and in his name. These persecutions continued in Scotland after James became king in February 1685. Although he was proclaimed king, he never took the Scottish coronation oath and was the first king of Scotland not to be crowned in Scotland. In fact, he never visited it again. From the moment of his accession there was mounting opposition to James. Neither Scotland nor England wanted a Catholic monarch, especially one with such a cruel and vindictive streak. Two political exiles united with plans to invade their respective countries and oust the king. In Scotland this was Archibald Campbell, earl of Argyll, who invaded Scotland in May 1685, whilst in England it was James Scott, duke of Monmouth, Charles II's eldest illegitimate son, who arrived at Lyme Regis on II June 1685 and was proclaimed king at Taunton nine days later as the real James II. Both men were astonished that so little support rallied to their cause. Argyll was not joined by his clan. His small army was soon overpowered as it marched south. He was captured, imprisoned without trial and executed in Edinburgh on 30 June. Monmouth was defeated at Sedgemoor on 5 July and captured three days later. He was executed at Tower Hill in London on 15 July. The infamous judge Jeffreys was sent on a Bloody Assizes circuit of the West Country, where many of Monmouth's followers were captured and executed. James now imposed a reign of terror, determined to restore Catholicism in England and Scotland. He introduced a Declaration of Indulgence in April 1687 restoring rights to Catholics, and any protesters were imprisoned, including seven bishops, accused of seditious libel. His complete disregard for the wishes of Parliament and his evident intention to overthrow the Church of England at last galvanised his opponents into action. The last straw was the birth of a son, James on 10 June 1688 after a succession of stillbirths and daughters who had died in infancy. Until then it was possible the church might have tolerated James, as his heir presumptives, Mary and Anne, were both Protestants, but the young James would be raised a Catholic and that prospect was too much. Rumours - false but declared in hope - that the new-born baby was a changeling and that James’s child had died at birth, circulated rapidly and had sufficient credibility to allow the bishop of London and six supporters (known as the "Immortal Seven") to invite James’s son-in-law, William of Orange, to England to protect his wife's succession to the throne. William was himself alarmed at the return of England and Scotland to Catholicism, as it would confirm Britain as an ally of France against the Netherlands and in France's current mobilisation against Germany. On 29 September William sent a declaration to the English Lords accepting their offer and laying out his terms for a "free and lawful Parliament." Delayed at first by bad weather, William's army landed at Brixham on 5 November 1688 and was welcomed at Exeter. Over the next two weeks most of the major cities and bishoprics in England declared their support for William. James's army was first based at Salisbury, but in the light of William's advance he retreated to Reading and called a war council. His commander-in-chief, John Churchill, and others defected to William on the same day, and the next day James discovered that his daughter, Anne, had also defected. Realising he had been deserted, James called a Great Council and agreed to major concessions, including the dismissal of Catholics from office. Negotiations, led by the Marquis of Halifax, continued for a week, but they were little more than a delaying tactic. On 10 December James fled from London, discarding the Great Seal in the Thames. He was captured at Sheerness in Kent and returned to London, but William allowed him to escape again and he fled to France on 23 December. William accepted the government six days later.   James was installed at the chateau of Saint-Germain, near Paris and established a court-in-exile. With him was his eldest surviving illegitimate son and chief agent and negotiator, James Fitzjames, Duke of Berwick, son of Arabella Churchill, the sister of John Churchill. There were still pockets of support for James, especially amongst the Irish Catholics and the Scottish Jacobites. Following a rebellion amongst the Irish in January 1689, James landed at Kinsale in Ireland and in May 1689 held a Parliament in Dublin which still acknowledged his authority. James raised an army in Ireland, including support from France, and governed for a year, passing a number of acts in favour of the Catholics. In June 1690 William brought his army to Ireland and defeated James at the battle of the Boyne on I July 1690. James fled back to France three days later. He continued to plot and scheme for the next seven years, including a further attempted invasion in 1692 and another planned for but not executed in 1695. He eventually devoted himself to religious pursuits after 1697 and apparently suffered a mental decline. He succeeded in obtaining recognition from France that his legitimate son, James (the Old Pretender), should become king after the death of William III. James's arrogance and viciousness cost him his crown, but surprisingly not his life. Continued support for him and his son amongst the Scots would result in two Jacobite rebellions over the next fifty years, and his descendants would remain pretenders to the Scottish and English thrones until 1807. James II King of England and the Molloys are 9th cousins 10 times removed. Their common ancestors are John "of Gaunt" Prince of England and Catherine De Roet.

William III 1689-1702 & Mary II 1689-1694 William III, designated William II of Scotland. Born: Binnenhof Palace, Holland, 4 November 1650. Full name and titles: King of England, Scotland and Ireland; Stadtholder of Holland, Prince of Orange and Count of Nassau-Dillenburg (from 1672). Crowned: Westminster Abbey, II April 1689. Ruling jointly with: MARY II, 13 February 1689-8 March 1702. King of England and Scotland. Married: 4 November 1677, at St James's Palace, London, Mary, dau. of James II of England: 3 children, all stillborn Died: Kensington Palace, 8 March 1702, aged 51. Buried: Westminster Abbey. Mary II Born: St James's Palace, London, 30 April 1662. Title: Queen of England and Scotland. Crowned: Westminster Abbey, II April 1689. Ruling jointly with: William III (II of Scotland), 13 February 1689-28 December 1694. Married: 4 November 1677, at St James's Palace, William III, prince of Orange: 3 children, all stillborn. Died: Kensington Palace, London, 28 December 1694, aged 32. Buried: Westminster Abbey. William III William III was descended from the ancient house of Nassau in Germany and was the great-grandson of William the Silent, Prince of Orange, who became Stadtholder (or chief executive) of the Netherlands in 1572. His father, William II, died just eight days before William was born. His mother, Maria Henrietta, was the daughter of Charles I of England and Scotland. He was thus the nephew of James II, whose daughter, Mary (II), he subsequently married. William was deprived of his titles in Holland in his childhood because of his father's arguments with the regents of Holland, but he was restored in 1672 following the overthrow of the dictatorial John de Witt who had governed Holland, first in alliance with France and then, after war broke out with France in 1667, with England and Sweden. Young William led the Dutch against the French and succeeding in forcing a peace in 1678 in which all of the Dutch terms were agreed. As a precursor to this, in his negotiations with his uncle, Charles II, who was acting as mediator between France and the Netherlands, William secured a political marriage with England by marrying his cousin, Mary, in 1677.   When James came to the throne and began to pursue his active Catholic measures, William first distanced himself and then, afraid that James might actually tip the balance and secure a Catholic majority in Parliament, and thereby become an immediate ally of the French, decided to intervene. He responded to an invitation from seven English peers, invaded England in November 1688 and within eight weeks had succeeded in a bloodless coup. The English Parliament determined that by fleeing the country James had abdicated, whilst the Scots argued that he had forfeited the Crown by his pro-Catholic actions against the Scottish nation. Either way James was no longer recognized as king other than in Ireland. There was some support for a regency, but while James II was still active, and support grew in Ireland and Scotland, Parliament did not want an interminable interregnum. William, on his part, did not want to be solely seen as a king consort, and was prepared to return to Holland. The English did not want a vacant throne and Mary was uncomfortable about reigning alone, especially as it looked as if she had usurped her father's throne. As a consequence in February 1689 William was offered joint sovereignty with Mary. Although common in the time of the early Saxon rulers, there had been no joint rule in England for over eight hundred years, and none in Scotland since the time of Edmund and Donald in the eleventh century. A Declaration of Rights was issued which outlawed the way James II (and others) had exercised their royal prerogative. The next month a Mutiny Act was passed, to make the existence of an army in peacetime depend on the agreement of the House of Commons. The Commons also tightened the control over the royal expenditure with a Civil List Act. These measures restricted the royal authority considerably and because William needed the support of England for Holland he was prepared to accept these changes. They went a long way toward the modern form of constitutional monarchy. William still needed to secure his authority across the realm. James II was causing problems in Ireland where he remained King and his army was besieging Derry. William sent troops into Ireland in August 1689 and followed himself in June 1690. He defeated James II at the battle of the Boyne on I July, which forced James to flee back to France. The Irish Catholics fought back but were defeated again, the following July, at Aughrim. Uprisings amongst the Scottish Highlanders were less easily dealt with, and the clansmen were given an ultimatum to swear their allegiance to the King by I January 1692 or face the consequences. When Alexander Maclan MacDonald failed to make the deadline the troops made an example of him, and nearly forty members of his clan, including women, children and MacDonald himself, were massacred at Glencoe on 13 February. This was a deep stain on William's character and few Scots forgave him, even after he sought to acquit himself with a public enquiry three years later. This brought the perpetrators to justice but no sentence was enforced. The action was not typical of William, but not surprising either. He was a deeply serious man, boringly so, who tolerated no nonsense, had no sense of humour, and had little interest in Scotland. He was short (Mary was five inches taller, and generally larger all round), bad-tempered - a tendency exacerbated by his asthma and obsessive about his desire to keep the French out of Holland. Everything drove him towards that goal, and apart from consulting with Parliament in order to raise finances for his foreign activities, William avoided government altogether, leaving this to his wife, Mary. Since Mary had no interest in government either, but merely followed her husband's wishes, Parliament had its own way much of the time. There were two attempts by jacobites to overthrow William. The Lancashire Plot in July 1694 failed virtually before it began, while Sir John Fenwick's conspiracy to assassinate William and restore James was uncovered in February 1696. William's war with France dragged on until 1697. There were victories on both sides, none overwhelmingly decisive, but often involving severe losses. Although William was victorious in the naval battle of La Hogue on 19 May 1692, which curtailed James II's efforts to invade England, the English and Dutch suffered major losses at Neerwinden on 29 July 1693. The Treaty of Ryswick in September 1697 brought a temporary and uncertain end to the hostilities. One of the outcomes of this war was the establishment of the Bank of England in 1694 to help organize the finances required to support the war. Mary had died of smallpox in December 1694. The couple had not been well matched. William was often accused of having homosexual tendencies, though it was also known that Elizabeth Villiers was his mistress. Mary was frigid and in her youth had had a lesbian relationship. They were also ill-matched physically, Mary being much larger than William, who was probably embarrassed by the whole procedure. Though they strove for an heir, they had a succession of stillbirths. The public had tolerated William because of their respect for Mary and, after her death, his popularity diminished further. This only drove him more into his foreign negotiations, in which he delighted. From 1698 till his death he became embroiled in the problems over the Spanish succession. A succession crisis in England emerged in 1700 with the death of his nephew William, Anne’s only surviving son. As a consequence an Act of Settlement was passed, which secured the Protestant succession to the throne, specifically the Hanoverian succession (see George I). William died as the result of a riding accident. In February 1702 his horse stumbled on a mole hill and threw William, breaking his collarbone. A fever set in, followed by pleurisy and pneumonia from which he died. William may not have been a much-loved king, but he was more stable than James and, because of his general lack of interest in England, he allowed the strength of parliament to grow (even though he tried to by-pass it when he needed to). It was in his reign that parliamentary government began to emerge. William III oF England and The Molloys are 10th cousins 9 times removed. Their common ancestors are John "of Gaunt" Prince of England and Catherine De Roet. Mary II Mary was the eldest surviving child of James II and an heiress in her own right, though the Exclusion Bills which Parliament sought to introduce during 1679-81, which would have denied her father's accession to the throne, could in turn have denied her. Moreover when James did succeed, his fervent pro-Catholic acts might have closed the succession completely to Protestants, which would have denied Mary's accession again. It was James's Catholicism and his too close an alliance with France that caused Mary's husband, William of Orange, to challenge and ultimately overthrow James. William and Mary became joint sovereigns of England (see under William III for details). Mary remained forever in the shadow of her husband and contributed little to government beyond her good humour. She was the more loved sovereign of the two, and her gay demeanour was much needed at court and in Parliament to lighten William's surliness. Nevertheless Mary had not been raised for government, and did not like it, preferring to defer to William except when he was out of the country. Mary had not welcomed the match with William. She had apparently wept when it was announced. Apart from his ill humour, he was short, almost hump-backed, and with little passion. Mary for her part had no especial liking for men either. The two had three stillborn children in the first two years of their marriage and nothing thereafter. She lived in Holland from 1677 to 1689, where she was much loved by the Dutch. Mary fell out with her sister (and eventual successor) Anne over John Churchill, the Earl of Marlborough. It was Churchill's defection to William in the rebellion of 1688 that had made William's accession so easy, and Churchill had served him valiantly since, but did not feel he had been suitably rewarded. Rumours emerged that Churchill was starting to plot against William. Churchill's wife, Sarah, was a longtime friend of Anne's, having been her maid of honour and lady of the bedchamber. When Churchill was arrested and imprisoned in 1692, Mary expected Anne to dismiss Sarah, but Anne chose not to, and Mary regarded this as an affront. The two were not reconciled within Mary's lifetime. Mary was only thirty-two when she contracted smallpox and died in December 1694. The country mourned her passing far more than her husband's eight years later. Mary strove to improve the nation's morals, and instructed magistrates to be more active in enforcing the vice laws. She supported the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, which eventually took shape in 1698, and she had plans to build a hospital at Greenwich, which William carried through after her death. Mary II of England and the Molloys are 10th cousins 9 times removed. Their common ancestors are John "of Gaunt" Prince of England and Catherine De Roet.

Anne Born: St James's Palace, London, 6 February 1665. Titles: Queen of England, Scotland, France and Ireland (became Great Britain, Ireland and France from I May 1707). Crowned: Westminster Abbey, 23 April 1702. Ruled: 8 March 1702-1 August 1714. Married: 28 July 1683, at St James's Palace, George (1653-1708), son of Frederik III, King of Denmark: 19 children, of which 14 were stillbirths or miscarriages. Died: Kensington Palace, London, I August 1714, aged 49. Buried: Westminster Abbey.   Anne was the second daughter of James; duke of York (later James II) and through her mother, Anne, the grand-daughter of Edward Hyde, earl of Clarendon. She was comparatively poorly educated and preferred sport and riding to reading and art. In 1683, when she was eighteen, hot on the heels of a court scandal, when she was reputedly seduced by one of the courtiers, Lord Mulgrave, Anne was married to Prince George, brother of the Danish king Christian V. Whilst George had received a good education he seems to have absorbed remarkably little of it, as he was lacking in the most basic general knowledge and seemed to revel in being a nonentity. He was harmless, well-meaning and a good husband, and the pair made a pleasant couple, but no one wanted George as a possible future king. When Anne came to the throne in 1702, George was kept securely in the background. He certainly tried to do his duty in fathering an heir, but of nineteen children (including twins), fourteen were stillborn, and only one survived beyond infancy and he, William, died in July 1700, aged eleven, of hydrocephalus. Since each child arrived within scarcely a year of the previous one, Anne's body must have been exhausted - she was pregnant for at least thirteen of her twenty-five years of marriage. Anne was over-weight, a condition that probably contributed to the lack of a healthy child, and she frequently needed to be carried in a chair (which may be why the sedan chair became so popular during her reign). She also suffered from gout and rheumatism, and must constantly have been in pain. How she maintained her generally bright and kindhearted demeanour is a tribute to her stoicism and conscientiousness. She may not have wanted to be queen, she may have been ill equipped for it, but she nevertheless sought to do her duty. She relied heavily on Sidney Godolphin, the Lord High Treasurer and nearest equivalent of the day of the Prime Minister. Before she became queen, Anne fell out of favour with her sister Mary (II) over the relationship with the Churchill family. John Churchill was imprisoned in 1692 for possible acts against the king. John's wife, Sarah, was Anne's closest friend and lady of the bedchamber. They had virtually grown up together. Sarah was rather a masculine woman and it became common gossip that the two were having a lesbian affair. Anne refused to dismiss Sarah and, as a consequence, Mary cut off relations with her. They were never reconciled, but William made amends after Mary's death. Early in her reign Anne demonstrated her interests in the Church and the needy by establishing a fund, known as Queen Anne's Bounty, which increased the stipends of poorer clergy. She also insisted upon the construction of more churches in London. Anne's reign was dominated abroad by the War of the Spanish Succession. This had arisen because Louis XIV of France accepted the Spanish throne on behalf of his grandson Philip, instead of recognizing Charles of Austria as the successor, as had been agreed by the Partition Treaty of 1700. Britain, Austria, Portugal, Denmark and the Netherlands sided against France, Spain and Bavaria. War was declared in May 1702 and peace was not concluded until the Treaty of Utrecht in April 1713. England's hero in the war was John Churchill, whom Anne elevated to duke of Marlborough and gave a considerable income. His great victory was on 13 August 1704 at Blenheim, in Germany, where he stopped the French advance. When he came to establish his great estate at Woodstock, near Oxford, Churchill named it Blenheim Palace after his victory. Also of lasting consequence in the war was the capture by Admiral Sir George Rooke in July 1704 of Gibraltar, which has remained a British possession ever since. Anne took an interest in the war but, like her subjects, grew tired of its inexorability. It forced her to take a stronger hand in her dealings with her government and even made her dismiss her chief ministers on more than one occasion. In this respect, while Parliament remained paramount and Anne had virtually become a constitutional monarch, she wielded sufficient authority to keep the government on its toes. She also believed that her actions reflected the mood of the nation as a whole. She wielded a similar authority against others in her life, eventually dismissing Sarah Churchill from her official duties in 1711, partly because the lady had become high and mighty, but mostly because she had been promoting Whig propaganda against Anne's own Tory preferences. Anne became lonely after the death of her husband in 1708, and her constant pain made her more moody and vindictive. Her closest friend was Lady Abigail Masham, the cousin of Sarah Churchill who remained with her in her final years. During this period Anne endeavoured to negotiate with her half-brother James (the Old Pretender), imploring him to set aside his Catholic faith for the sake of the succession. The Act of Settlement of 1701 had conferred the succession on Anne's second cousin, Sophia, widow of the Elector of Hanover. She died six weeks before Anne, and the succession passed to her son, George I. By the time of her death in 1714 Anne had become so big she could not move and needed to go everywhere in a wheelchair. Her coffin was almost square. The most significant change during Anne's reign was the Act of Union, effective from I May 1707, which united England and Scotland as one kingdom - Great Britain. This was personally encouraged by Anne who believed that the full economic and political union was the best development for both countries. Anne's reign is often associated with the growth in tea and coffee houses, which themselves became the centres for developing businesses and commerce (the London Stock Exchange grew out of a coffee house). Trade grew considerably during this period, especially with the establishment of the South Sea Company in 1711, trading with South America, and the increased trade coming from India and the East. The new kingdom of Great Britain began to prosper as never before and the seeds of the British Empire were sprouting. Anne Queen of England and the Molloys are 10th cousins 9 times removed. Their common ancestors are John "of Gaunt" Prince of England and Catherine De Roet.   JAMES (VIII) THE OLD PRETENDER.  Proclaimed King in France as James III of England and James VIII of Scotland on 16 September 1701. Born: St James's Palace, London, IO June 1688. Died. Rome, I January 1766, aged 78.Buried: StPeter's Basilica, Vatican. Married: I September 1719, at Montefiascone, Italy, Maria (I 702-35) dau. Prince James Sobieski of Poland. James Francis Edward Stuart, known commonly as the Old Pretender, was the only surviving legitimate son of James ll and Mary of Modena. At his birth many believed that he was a changeling, introduced into the royal bed in a warming pan. In the rebellion of 1688 he preceded his father in flight to France, where he was raised. He received the support of the French king as successor to the thrones of England and Scotland, and was declared king on the death of James. He made an abortive attempt to land in Scotland in 1708, but was defeated by the English. In the next few years he served with great courage in the French army in the War of the Spanish Succession. All this time he yearned to regain the English throne. His cousin Anne urged him to renounce his Catholicism and embrace the Church of England. He would then be the rightful heir. But James refused, sticking steadfastly to his faith. His next opportunity came in 1714, following Anne's death. By this time there were increasing Jacobite sympathies linked with concern over the Hanoverian succession. James's remoteness in France made it difficult for him to mobilise support. When rebellion broke out in Scotland on 26 August 1715, under John Erskine, earl of Mar, Louis XIV of France had ,Just died, and James was indisposed. It took him months to cross France and gain a ship to Scotland, landing at Peterhead on December 22. The Jacobites were able to capture Perth, and James VIII held his court at Scone, but Edinburgh and Stirling resisted them. Over the next two weeks James's supporters at last got to know the man who had not set foot in Scotland for twenty-seven years. Although he had the regal bearing of the Stewart monarchy, and appeared balanced and sincere, he did not rouse them to Jacobite fervour. Quite the opposite. He was a rather gloomy individual resigned to failure from years of ill luck. His support, which at most had not exceeded 12,000, rapidly dwindled. Six weeks after his arrival in Scotland, James departed, slipping quietly out of the country and returning to France. He remained a refugee in Europe for the rest of his life, finally settling in Rome where the pope awarded him an income and demanded that he be known as the king of England. Only one other opportunity presented itself - in 1718 when Philip V of Spain agreed to support James. Another Spanish Armada set sail but, like the other two, it suffered in the bad weather and only a small force made it through to the Hebrides, without the Pretender. He retired to Rome where he took a bride, though it was far from a happy marriage. When the jacobites rose again in 1745, James was too old and tired to bother and it was his son, Bonnie Prince Charlie who answered the call. (See under George ll ).