History UsefulNotes / TheHouseOfStuart

A few things are named for her. Annapolis, the capital of Maryland and location of the [[YanksWithTanks United States Naval Academy]], may have been named for her while she was still a princess (or it may have been named for Lord Baltimore's wife Anne Arundel like the county in which it sits); so was the plant Queen Anne's lace (unless it was named for her grandmother Anne of Denmark) and Blackbeard's {{pirate}} ship, the ''Queen Anne's Revenge'' (nobody's really sure why).

The other memorable thing about Queen Anne is that she was the last ever British monarch to veto a law. [[note]]The Scottish Militia Bill. Nobody is quite sure what was in the law that she objected to; the main theories are that the proposed militia was unpopular, or else that she was worried about creating a rival power base.[[/note]] At one point she was primarily famous for being dead; "Dead as Queen Anne" is a common expression in novels from [[VictorianBritain the Victorian era]] and TheEdwardianEra. Nowadays, she isn't even famous for that.

James's Catholicism was a serious problem for Britons raised on stories of Bloody Mary Tudor and the Protestant Martyrs. His reign was short and troublesome both in Great Britain and in Ireland. Both sides in TheTroubles tended to harp on about his campaign in Ireland; the Republicans saw James as a tragic hero, the rightful King victimised for his faith, while Unionists celebrated the victory of "good King Billy" over the Catholics and adopted orange (from the Dutch House of Orange) as their colour. But James's ingratitude and contempt towards his Irish followers (and his abandonment of the country after the Battle of the Boyne, earning him the unenviable nickname ''Séamus an Chaca'' - 'James the Shit') has muddled his legacy. While nationalist history tends to emphasise the justness of his ''cause'', the focus is often less on James the man and more on the heroic Irish general Patrick Sarsfield, who kept up the fight for more than a year after James had fled.

** Furthermore, the parliament would prominently display the execution warrant of Charles I in the vesting room where the Monarch puts on his Royal Regalia before the speech, just to drive home the point on who is really in charge here. In return, the Commons is required to send a MP to Buckingham Palace to serve as hostage to ensure the safe return of the Monarch. Apparently, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rMDdetCA-M the Palace is still duty-bound to shoot that hapless MP if something bad should happen to Her Majesty]].

Physically unimpressive (he was a very short man) and cursed with a speech impediment, Charles had it tough to begin with. Having to deal with several kingdoms while plagued with money troubles and religious strife which began decades prior to his reign would not have been easy for anyone, but unfortunately Charles' character made things a lot worse. He believed (as did his father) in the DivineRightOfKings to rule and quickly grew angry at attempts from Parliament to exact more power in exchange for finances. He levied fines without Parliament, in a highly unpopular move, for 11 years from 1629-1640, until his religious problems caused him to recall it.

After leaving England, James II was supported by the kings of France and other Catholic monarchs on the continent while retaining considerable support in both England, especially from the Catholics, and Scotland (the Highlands, in particular). This movement, called the Jacobites, posed considerable threat to the Protestant kings of England for a few decades. His son, James (aka James III) and grandson, Charles (aka Bonnie Prince Charlie) kept instigating revolts to overthrow the Hanoverian monarchy who took over England after the reign of William III below. Needless to say, they did not succeed. Eventually, by 1788, the leadership of the Jacobite movement passed to Henry Stuart, also called the Cardinal-Duke because, in addition to the title of Duke of York that he claimed, he was also a cardinal of the Catholic Church (he became a clergyman possibly because he was gay, as was widely suspected by the contemporaries.) By this time, Jacobite movement in both England and Scotland had largely run out of steam and European monarchs had more important things to worry about--FrenchRevolution would take place just a year after the Cardinal-Duke took over the leadership of the Jacobites. Ironically, the monument to the Jacobites in Rome was paid for by the Hanoverian King George IV, who was a fan of heroic literature that grew around the exploits of Bonnie Prince Charlie.

Fed up with their presumption of power, Charles marched into a sitting session of the House of Commons with his guards and assumed the Speaker's chair. This was an extraordinary act -- English monarchs had the legal power to do all this but they were expected, partly by custom and partly by their supposed understanding of the need to respect Parliament, to never do so. He attempted to arrest the ringleaders of the opposition cause, but they had escaped and he looked foolish, running away from London (which given BritainIsOnlyLondon was a mistake) raising his standard at Nottingham in 1642 -- so beginning the {{English Civil War}}s. Parliament, and the country, was split in half between his supporters and opponents.

'''Consort''': Margaret Tudor

* Banquo's prominence and flattering portrayal in ''{{Theatre}}/Macbeth'' is due to King James I tracing his ancestry back to him, and Shakespeare wishing to please his patron.

* Banquo's prominence and flattering portrayal in ''Theatre/Macbeth'' is due to King James I tracing his ancestry back to him, and Shakespeare wishing to please his patron.

Mary instead married into the French royal family, the House of Valois, and spent a brief time as Queen-Consort of France. After her husband died, she returned to her own kingdom of Scotland. She remarried, this time to her cousin, Lord Darnley, a nobleman from Yorkshire who had a reasonably strong claim to the English throne (the same as Mary's; their grandmother was Henry VIII's sister) and a more distant one to the Scottish (he was a member of the House of Stuart in the male line, descending from the second cousin of the first Stuart king Robert II). Lord Darnley later died under suspicious circumstances, and Mary married his suspected killer (likely because he'd also kidnapped and raped her, rendering her "soiled" if she didn't under the mores of the time).

--> '''Robert III:''' I bet you think the Stuarts were an English dynasty!
--> '''James VI:''' Ah, but we only came to England when the crown belonged to me!
--> '''Mary, Queen of Scots:''' Our clan may hail from Scotland, but our tale's not a bonnie one, you'll see!
-->- Series/HorribleHistories, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmTK34kXOC4 "Blue Blooded Blues"]]

Had a fear that witches were trying to get him. Also wrote [[http://www.laits.utexas.edu/poltheory/james/blaste/ one of the first anti-smoking pamphlets]]. No, really. In fact, that little pamphlet did more to damn him in the eyes of tobacco-addicted Whig historians than either his sexual orientation or his belief in the divine right of kings.

Physically unimpressive (he was a very short man) and cursed with a speech impediment, Charles had it tough to begin with. Having to deal with several kingdoms while plagued with money troubles and religious strife which began decades prior to his reign would not have been easy for anyone, but unfortunately Charles' character made things a lot worse. He believed (as did his father) in the divine right of kings to rule and quickly grew angry at attempts from Parliament to exact more power in exchange for finances. He levied fines without Parliament, in a highly unpopular move, for 11 years from 1629-1640, until his religious problems caused him to recall it.

He was beaten by a girl, or rather Catherine of Aragon's army, at the Battle of Flodden Field. His big weakness was some rather old-school tactics, such as informing your enemy of your invasion several months in advance and fighting on the front line along with his men. He died in that battle, the last British monarch to die in a war. His body passed around various nobles and his head was used as a plaything. Flodden Field was also the last real battle in Britain involving spears and arrows.

James is also the distant direct ancestor (via at least ten lines, by his wife and by various mistresses) of US politician Howard Dean.

** Furthermore, the parliament would prominently display the execution warrant of Charles I in the vesting room where the Monarch puts on his Royal Regalia before the speech, just to drive home the point on who is really in charge here. In return, the Commons is also required to send a MP to Buckingham Palace to serve as hostage to ensure the safe return of the Monarch. Apparently, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rMDdetCA-M the Palace is still duty-bound to shoot that hapless MP if something bad should happen to Her Majesty]].

* King James I is referenced a few times in [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon Disney's]] ''Disney/{{Pocahontas}}''. Most notably, he appears in Governor Ratcliffe's ImagineSpot during the song "Mine, Mine, Mine". In the DirectToVideo sequel ''Disney/PocahontasIIJourneyToANewWorld'', King James appears in person as a supporting character, voiced by Creator/JimCummings and portrayed as an easily manipulated buffoon.

* As per the quote tag on his entry, Charles II has become one of the most popular characters on the BBC's historical sketch comedy series ''Series/HorribleHistories''.

* Charles I was played by Creator/StephenFry in the special ''Series/{{Blackadder}}: The Cavalier Years'' in a thinly-veiled impression of the king's namesake, [[UsefulNotes/BritishRoyalFamily Prince Charles]].

* King James I is referenced a few times in Disney's ''{{Disney/Pocahontas}}''. Most notably, he appears in Governor Ratcliffe's ImagineSpot during the song "Mine, Mine, Mine". In the DirectToVideo sequel ''Disney/PocahontasIIJourneyToANewWorld'', King James appears in person as a supporting character, voiced by Creator/JimCummings and portrayed as an easily manipulated buffoon.

* In the first book of the ''[[Literature/{{Alatriste}} Captain Alatriste]]'' series, Alatriste is offered money to assassinate a couple of Englishmen travelling through Madrid. One of them turns out to be a young Charles I, secretly in Spain to consider taking the Infanta Maria Anna for his bride.

The playhouses, closed by the Puritans, reopened in Charles's time to a new audience hungry for frivolous entertainment. For the first time in English history women took the stage to acclaim, and the new genre of RestorationComedy vied with older plays by Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Davenant. John Milton, a Puritan and republican, wrote his master work ''ParadiseLost'' during Charles's reign, and Samuel Pepys's diaries were written during this time period.

James's Catholicism was a serious problem for Britons raised on stories of Bloody Mary Tudor and the Protestant Martyrs. His reign was short and troublesome both in Great Britain and in Ireland. Both sides in TheTroubles tended to harp on about his campaign in Ireland; the Republicans saw James as a tragic hero, the rightful King victimised for his faith, while Unionists celebrated the victory of "good King Billy" over the Catholics and adopted orange (from the Dutch House of Orange) as their colour. But James's ingratitude and contempt towards his Irish followers (and his abandonment of the country after the Battle of the Boyne, earning him the unenviable nickname ''Seamus an Chaca'' - 'James the Shit') has muddled his legacy. While nationalist history tends to emphasise the justness of his ''cause'', the focus is often less on James the man and more on the heroic Irish general Patrick Sarsfield, who kept up the fight for more than a year after James had fled.

All three kingdoms under his rule had different Christian denominations as the majority: England was by this time identifiably Anglican (with many internal disputes among Church members about what that should mean), while Scotland was solidly Presbyterian and Ireland was Catholic. Charles' attempt to impose uniformity on the Scottish church caused them to rebel in what are called the Bishops' Wars. Needing additional funds he called Parliament, who after 11 years were inclined to be bitchy. His having a Catholic wife (whom he faithfully loved) at a time when there were rumors of massacres of Protestants in Ireland (in truth around 2-3000 were likely killed in the Irish revolt but this was widely inflated) didn't help matters. They demanded their authority be confirmed and increased, sentenced the King's chief minister to death and generally both sides riled each other up, until...

!!'''[[UsefulNotes/CharlesII Charles II of England and Scotland]]'''

Mary instead married into the French royal family, the House of Valois, and spent a brief time as Queen-Consort of France. After her husband died, she returned to her own kingdom of Scotland. She remarried, this time to her cousin, Lord Darnley, a nobleman from Yorkshire who had a reasonably strong claim to the English throne (the same as Mary's; their grandmother was Henry VIII's sister) and a more distant one to the Scottish (he was a member of the House of Stuart in the male line, descending from the second cousin of the first Stuart king Robert II). Lord Darnley later died under suspicious circumstances, and Mary married his suspected killler.

A less-known item from her reign is the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/Statute_of_Anne Statute of Anne]], the first modern-type copyright protection (in which the intellectual property is assigned to the author--before, it had been assigned to the printer).

To cut a very long story short, Charles lost the First Civil War and was imprisoned ([[LuxuryPrisonSuite in comfort]]) by 1646. As the victors tried to figure out what the hell to do next Charles refused to compromise (his FatalFlaw) continuing to play sides against each other, drawing the Scots (who had fought against him) to renew the fight against Parliament in 1648. He lost again, and this time he had convinced his enemies that he could not be trusted and must be killed or he would simply keep raising armies to fight more wars (his enemies referred to him as "that man of blood", a Biblical reference to the Literature/BooksOfSamuel and [[Literature/BookOfNumbers Numbers]]). As the Parliamentary forces divided themselves over the issue, Charles was tried for Tyranny and High Treason and executed on 30th January 1649. Charles notably managed to show more dignity and presence during his trial (where he lost his habitual stutter and refused to recognize the legitimacy of the court) than at any other point, asking for another coat when he prepared for his execution, so that the crowd would not mistake his shivering for fear. Was made a saint by the later Church of England. Charles made a difficult situation worse with his FatalFlaw of refusing to accept the inevitable in the face of defeat, or compromise to head off trouble down the road. Like his father, he was an instinctive autocrat who had no intention of surrendering any of his power. Unlike his father, he had no understanding of how power actually worked, seemingly sincerely believing that the English people were required to succumb to his will.

To cut a very long story short, Charles lost the First Civil War and was imprisoned ([[LuxuryPrisonSuite in comfort]]) by 1646. As the victors tried to figure out what the hell to do next Charles refused to compromise (his FatalFlaw) continuing to play sides against each other, drawing the Scots (who had fought against him) to renew the fight against Parliament in 1648. He lost again, and this time he had convinced his enemies that he could not be trusted and must be killed or he would simply keep raising armies to fight more wars (his enemies referred to him as "that man of blood"). As the Parliamentary forces divided themselves over the issue, Charles was tried for Tyranny and High Treason and executed on 30th January 1649. Charles notably managed to show more dignity and presence during his trial (where he lost his habitual stutter and refused to recognize the legitimacy of the court) than at any other point, asking for another coat when he prepared for his execution, so that the crowd would not mistake his shivering for fear. Was made a saint by the later Church of England. Charles made a difficult situation worse with his FatalFlaw of refusing to accept the inevitable in the face of defeat, or compromise to head off trouble down the road. Like his father, he was an instinctive autocrat who had no intention of surrendering any of his power. Unlike his father, he had no understanding of how power actually worked, seemingly sincerely believing that the English people were required to succumb to his will.

William and Mary were childless. Nobody's sure quite why they had no liveborn children; one hypothesis is that the miscarriage Mary suffered shortly after their marriage led to an infection, while another supposes that their close relationship as first cousins was to blame. At any rate, Mary died in 1694 of smallpox, and William never remarried.

She's mainly remembered for having been pregnant at least 18 times. Two of her children survived infancy, but neither reached adulthood; most of her pregnancies ended in stillbirths. As with Mary nobody's sure exactly why this happened, but the consensus as of 2013 is either that she suffered from some kind of infection (listeria and herpes being leading candidates) or that she had some kind of gynecological defect. No matter the reason, she died childless at the age of fifty, and was succeeded by her distant Protestant cousin George I of UsefulNotesTheHouseOfHanover.