DEVELOPING Latest updates on the major wildfires currently burning in Canada
Thousands of Canadians have been displaced as fires burn in Alberta, B.C. and Manitoba. Here are the latest updates.
We may associate the Royal Family with strict protocols and stiff upper lips, but King Charles III and the House of Windsor can trace their lineage back through centuries of bloody wars and brutal power struggles to 1066, when the illegitimate son of a duke and grandson of a tanner ascended the throne.
William the Conqueror was crowned on Christmas Day, 956 years ago in Westminster Abbey. Known as “William the Bastard” in his day, his father was the Duke Robert I of Normandy and his mother, Herleve, was the daughter of a tanner, according to the Royal Family's website.
Born around 1028, he became heir to the duchy following the death of his father in 1035 and was knighted at 15 by King Henry I of France – an ally who unsuccessfully tried to invade Normandy a decade later.
“The history of the British monarchy is a little like Game of Thrones, only real,” Graham Broad, an associate professor of history and department chair with King's University College at Western University, said in a phone interview on Friday.
“Defenders of the monarchy, their core argument is that it promotes stability, but for centuries in medieval Britain, in medieval Europe, the reality was almost incessant war over questions of dynastic lineage, dynastic succession…Monarchs who were unable to furnish a male heir always felt precarious and vulnerable.”
Since the High Middle Ages, or the end of the Viking era, European countries have taken hereditary succession and primogeniture very seriously, according to Daniel Woolf, author and professor of history at Queen's University. England was especially serious about it, and when it was “set aside” – as it was in 1399 when Richard II was deposed by his cousin, who became Henry IV – things got extremely ugly.
“That deposition essentially precipitated 100 years of almost Game of Thrones-like struggle – what we now call the War of the Roses,” Woolf said in a phone interview on Friday.
Even marriages were no guarantee for peace. Edward II, who reigned from 1307 to 1327, for example, “had few of the qualities that made a successful medieval king,” according to his biography on the Royal Family website. His own wife, Isabella of France, led an invasion against him in 1326. Within a year, he was murdered after being forced to pass the crown to his son.
“Marriage throughout the Middle Ages up to the 19th century was very much part of diplomatic alliances and deal making and very much arranged,” Woolf said.
“There was so much intermarriage between the royal houses of Europe that it would be difficult to find anybody who isn't actually descended, at least in part, from a whole bunch of famous people from a thousand years ago.”
Stability finally came after Britain became a constitutional monarchy following the Glorious Revolution of 1688.
“Only once in the last 350 years has a British monarch overturned a piece of legislation, for example, and that was over 300 years ago,” Broad said.
“So at this point, you've really got a stable dynastic succession because no one's going to go to war anymore over a figurehead position.”
Monarchists today argue that knowing who's going to be the next monarch for decades to come through a system of succession promotes stability, he added.
To follow King Charles III's family tree back nearly a thousand years is a complicated and convoluted exercise involving royal houses, cadet branches of other houses, beheadings, conquests, and of course, marriages and alliances.
“It's about 34 generations – depending on how you count them, but you can actually trace a direct line from William the Conqueror to Charles III,” Woolf said.
“There's all sorts of jumps and changes in family name along the way, as you may imagine.”
The Windsors became the reigning royal family when King Edward VII ascended the throne in 1901. They are descended from the Hanoverians, which was the line that took power in 1714. The House of Hanover, with its German origins, had succeeded the Stuarts, who ruled Scotland for centuries until 1603 when Scotland's James VI became the King of England and Ireland as James I.
James I had succeeded Elizabeth I, famously known as the Virgin Queen. She was the last member to reign from the House of Tudor, the ruling royal family of the 16th century in England.
“When Elizabeth I died, that line was extinct. So basically it went to Elizabeth's cousin who was King of Scotland. He in turn, was a great grandson of Henry VII, the first Tudor king,” explained Woolf.
Henry VII could trace his ancestry to Edward III in the 14th century, who in turn was a descendent of Henry II in the 12th century. Henry II was the great grandson of William the Conqueror.
William managed to survive childhood and became known for his military successes.
“Lots of people were trying to get rid of him because it's rough being a child and inheriting the duchy,” said Woolf.
His online royal biography describes him as “a very experienced and ruthless military commander, ruler and administrator who had unified Normandy and inspired fear and respect outside his duchy.”
William spent more than half a year preparing his invasion of England, bringing a force of around 7,000 men across the Channel via some 600 ships. He claimed that Edward the Confessor, a distant cousin, had promised him the throne, and that Harold II, the last crowned Anglo-Saxon English king, was a usurper.
With the support of Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV and the approval of the Pope, William and his fleet of invaders landed in England in 1066. It was a closely fought battle that William eventually won after Harold and two of his brothers were killed.
“This created a change in who all British monarchs will be going forward,” Broad said.
“But it also created a link between the thrones of France and England that would, in the centuries to come, be the source of great tension and even long periods of war because eventually the kings of England would come to claim the throne of France.”
It also took centuries before the English were willing to admit that William the Conqueror's invasion had actually been a conquest, Woolf added.
“They kept to this kind of myth that William had actually had a legitimate right...It's really quite a complicated and neat story. But if the Battle of Hastings had gone a different way, there might have been no Norman conquest and we might all still be speaking Old English.”
Thousands of Canadians have been displaced as fires burn in Alberta, B.C. and Manitoba. Here are the latest updates.
Although a global workers' treaty has been in force in Canada since January, an employment lawyer believes it won't do anything more to protect employees from violence and harassment.
Auto technology has evolved and many newer cars use wireless key fobs and push-button starters instead of traditional metal keys. But that technology also makes things easier for thieves.
Slovak politicians have called for calm in the Central European country after Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot multiple times by a would-be assassin on Wednesday, a rare instance of political violence that came as a shock despite deep political polarization.
Canada's transportation department had a UFO 'lead' who tried to 'quell' media interest and planned to meet with U.S. intelligence officials.
Regaining your focus requires you to be mindful of how you are using technology -- a daunting task if you consider the average American spends at least 10 hours a day on screens.
May 20 is Victoria Day. If you're going across the border this long weekend, follow these tips for a smoother trip.
Chief Robert Michell says relief isn't the right word to describe his reaction as the search begins for unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school he attended in northern British Columbia.
Of the $40-million Aiden Pleterski was handed over two years, documents show he invested just over one per cent and instead spent $15.9 million on "his personal lifestyle." The 25-year-old Oshawa, Ont. man was arrested and charged with fraud and money laundering on Tuesday.
When Adam Kirschner wrote 'Slap Shot,' he never imagined the song would be embraced by his favourite team.
A team is ready to help an entangled North Atlantic right whale in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
A $200 reward is being offered by a North Vancouver family for the safe return of their beloved chicken, Snowflake.
Two daughters and a mother were reunited online 40 years later thanks to a DNA kit and a Zoom connection despite living on three separate continents and speaking different languages.
Mother's Day can be a difficult occasion for those who have lost or are estranged from their mom.
YES Theatre Young Company opened its acclaimed kids’ show, One Small Step, at Sudbury Theatre Centre on Saturday.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.