The Role of the Monarchy

Monarchy is the oldest form of government in the United

Kingdom.

In a monarchy, a king or queen is Head of State. The British

monarchy is known as a constitutional monarchy. This
means that, while The Sovereign is Head of State, the ability
to make and pass legislation resides with an elected
Parliament.

Although the British Sovereign no longer has a political or

executive role, he or she continues to play an important part
in the life of the nation.

As Head of State, The Monarch undertakes constitutional and

representational duties which have developed over one
thousand years of history. In addition to these State duties,
The Monarch has a less formal role as 'Head of Nation'. The
Sovereign acts as a focus for national identity, unity and
pride; gives a sense of stability and continuity; officially
recognises success and excellence; and supports the ideal of
voluntary service.
 In all these role The Sovereign is supported by members of
their immediate family.

Symbols of the Monarchy

Flags, stamps and coins all represent the Crown in different
ways, while symbols such as the Crown Jewels exert a
powerful fascination.

With the passage of years, the history and meaning of many

of these symbols has become obscured. Find out more about
Royal symbols and their origins in this section:

The principal symbol of the Monarchy is often deemed to be

the Sovereign themselves. However, throughout the history
of the Monarchy the authority of the Sovereign has been
represented by symbols.

The Royal Coats of Arms

The most notable symbols of Monarchy are the Crown Jewels

and regalia, the Honours of Scotland and the Principality of
Wales. Lesser known symbols include the Great Seal and
personal emblems of the Monarch such as the Royal
Standard and Coats of Arms.

Even buildings such asBuckingham Palace, Windsor

Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouseare often said to
be a physical representation of the Monarchy.
 Bucking
ham Palace - the Queen's official and main royal London home

Windsor Castle
The Palace of Holyroodhouse

Balmoral Castle
 Items such as the Crown Jewels, and especially the regalia,
represent the continuity of the Monarchy. The regalia forms
an integral part in the Coronation service for a new
Sovereign and certain elements of the Crown Jewels are born
before the Sovereign at the State Opening of Parliament. The
Queen wears the Imperial State Crown as she delivers the
speech.

The Honours of Scotland Imperial State Crown

The image of the

Monarch is also seen
as a symbol of the
Monarchy with The
Queen represented on
items such as bank
notes and stamps.
Such images have
been used for
hundreds of years with
images on Kings,
Queens and Emperors
being used on coins throughout Europe. Even ceremonies
such as the Trooping of the Colour are seen as important
symbols of the Monarchy.
 The Queen

The Queen is Head of State in the United Kingdom. As a

constitutional monarch, Her Majesty does not 'rule' the
country, but fulfils important ceremonial and formal roles
with respect to Government. She is also Fount of Justice,
Head of the Armed Forces and has important relationships
with the established Churches of England and Scotland.
Read more about The Queen's State roles in the UK and
Crown dependencies in this section.

Members of the Royal Family support The Queen in her

many State and national duties, as well as carrying out
important work in the areas of public and charitable service,
and helping to strengthen national unity and stability.
 Members of the Royal Family

Those who undertake official duties are members of The

Queen's close family: her children and their spouses, and
The Queen's cousins (the children of King George VI's
brothers) and their spouses.

Younger members
of the Royal
Family who are
presently in
education or
military training -
such as Prince
William and Prince
Harry - do not
undertake official
duties full-time,
but often play a role in important national events and
commemorations.

Prince Harry on patrol in Garmsir

Every year the Royal Family as a whole carries out over

2,000 official engagements throughout the UK and
worldwide.
 These engagements may include official State
responsibilities. Members of the Royal Family often carry out
official duties in the UK and abroad where The Queen cannot
be present in person. The Prince of Wales and The Princess
Royal, for example, may present members of the public with
their honours at an Investiture.

When official events such as receptions, State banquets and

garden parties are held, the Royal Family supports The
Queen in making her guests welcome.

Members of the Royal Family also often represent The Queen

and the nation in Commonwealth or other countries, at
events such as State funerals or national festivities, or
through longer visits to strengthen Britain's diplomatic and
economic relations.

The Royal Family also plays an important role in supporting

and encouraging the public and charity sectors. About 3,000
organisations list a member of the Royal Family as patron or
president.

The huge range of these organisations - covering every

subject from education to the environment, hospitals to
housing - allows members of the Royal Family to meet
people from a wide spectrum of national and local life, and
to understand their interests, problems and concerns.

Finally, the Royal Family as a whole plays a role in

strengthening national unity. Members of the Royal Family
are able to recognise and participate in community and local
events in every part of the UK, from the opening of new
buildings to celebrations or
acts of commemoration.

The Queen working by

herself would be unable to
attend every engagement to
which she is invited.
Members of the Royal Family
 can undertake local or specialist engagements which would
otherwise have to be declined.

----

The Queen on the day

of her Coronation, 2 june 1953

British monarchy timeline

Timeline of the Kings and Queens of England

from 1066 to 1603
The Normans
(1066 - 1154)

Plantagenets
1154-1216 1216-1399
The House of Lancaster The House of York
(1399 - 1461) (1461 - 1485)
The Tudors
(1485 -1603)

Kings and Queens of the United Kingdom

from 1603 to the present day
 The Stuarts
(1603 - 1649) (1660 - 1714)
The House of Hanoverians
(1714 -1901)
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and The Windsors
(1901 -1910) (1910 - Today)

Interesting Fact:
The only time when there was no King or Queen in
Britain was when the country was a republic between
1649 and 1660. (In 1649 King Charles I was executed
and Britain became a Republic for eleven years. The
monarchy was restored in 1660.)

The Normans

The Normans were descendants of Vikings who had

settled by force in North East France around the mouth of
the Seine River. The land they occupied became known as
Normandy. (The name Normandy comes from the French
normand, meaning Norsemen and Normans)

The Plantagenets
 The Plantagenets were a huge powerful family not just in
England but throughout Europe. The first Plantagenet
was King Henry 2nd whose father owned vast lands in
Anjou an area as big as Normandy around the modern town
of Tours. Henry’s wife Eleanor ruled the even larger territory
to the south called Aquitaine. Plantagenet Kings were thus
the richest family in Europe and ruled England and half of
France. Their name came from planta genista, the Latin for
yellow broom flower, which the Counts of Anjou wore as an
emblem on their helmets.

The Lancastrians

The accession of Henry IV sowed the seeds for a period of

unrest which ultimately broke out in civil war. Fraught by
rebellion and instability after his usurpation of Richard II,
Henry IV found it difficult to enforce his rule. His son, Henry
V, fared better, defeating France in the famous Battle of
Agincourt (1415) and staking a powerful claim to the French
throne. Success was short-lived with his early death. By the
reign of the relatively weak Henry VI, civil war broke out
 between rival claimants to the throne, dating back to the
sons of Edward III. The Lancastrian dynasty descended from
John of Gaunt, third son of Edward III, whose son Henry
deposed the unpopular Richard II.
Yorkist claimants such as the Duke of York asserted their
legitimate claim to the throne through Edward III's second
surviving son, but through a female line. The Wars of the
Roses therefore tested whether the succession should keep
to the male line or could pass through females. Captured
and briefly restored, Henry VI was captured and put to
death, and the Yorkist faction led by Edward IV gained the
throne

The Yorkists

The Yorkist conquest of the Lancastrians in 1461 did

not put an end to the Wars of the Roses, which
rumbled on until the start of the sixteenth century.
Family disloyalty in the form of Richard III's betrayal
of his nephews, the young King Edward V and his
brother, was part of his downfall. Henry Tudor, a
claimant to the throne of Lancastrian descent,
defeated Richard III in battle and Richard was killed.

With the marriage of Henry to Elizabeth, the sister of

the young Princes in the Tower, reconciliation was
finally achieved between the warring houses of
Lancaster and York in the form of the new Tudor
dynasty, which combined their respective red and
white emblems to produce the Tudor rose.

The Tudors
 The five sovereigns of the Tudor dynasty are among the
most well-known figures in Royal history. Of Welsh origin,
Henry VII succeeded in ending the Wars of the Roses
between the houses of Lancaster and York to found the
highly successful Tudor house. Henry VII, his son Henry VIII
and his three children Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I ruled
for 118 eventful years.
During this period,
England developed
into one of the leading
European colonial
powers, with men
such as Sir Walter
Raleigh taking part in
the conquest of the
New World. Nearer to
home, campaigns in
Ireland brought the
country under strict
English control.
Culturally and socially,
the Tudor period saw many changes. The Tudor court played
a prominent part in the cultural Renaissance taking place in
Europe, nurturing all-round individuals such as William
Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser and Cardinal Wolsey.

Execution of
Lady Jane Grey, is often known as

"The Nine Days

Queen"
The Tudor period also saw the turbulence of two changes of
official religion, resulting in the martyrdom of many innocent
believers of both Protestantism and Roman Catholicism. The
fear of Roman Catholicism induced by the Reformation was
to last for several centuries and to play an influential role in
the history of the Succession.

The Stuarts
Scotland provided England with a new line of kings, the
Stuarts. They were to bring disaster to the nation for, coming
from Scotland where royal power had not been curbed by
Parliament, they had no understanding of the more
democratic ways that had developed in England.

The Union of the Crowns was followed by the Union of the

Parliaments in 1707.

Although a new Scottish Parliament now determines much of

Scotland's legislation, the two Crowns remain united under a
single Sovereign, the present Queen.

The Hanoverians
 The Hanoverians came to power in difficult circumstances
that looked set to undermine the stability of British society.
For all that, the Hanoverian period was remarkably stable,
not least because of the longevity of its kings. From 1714
through to 1837, there were only five monarchs, one of
whom, George III, remains the longest reigning king in British
History. The period was also one of political stability, and the
development of constitutional monarchy.

For vast tracts of the eighteenth century, great Whig

families dominated politics, while the early nineteenth
century saw Tory domination. Britain's first 'Prime' Minister,
Robert Walpole, dates from this period, and income tax was
introduced. Towards the end of the Hanoverian period, the
Great Reform Act was passed, which amongst other things
widened the electorate. It was also in this period that Britain
came to acquire much of her overseas empire, despite the
loss of the American colonies, largely through foreign
conquest in the various wars of the century.

By the end of the Hanoverian period, the British Empire

covered a third of the globe. The theme of longevity was set
to continue, as the longest reigning monarch in British
history, Queen Victoria, prepared to take the throne.

Saxe-Coburg-Gotha

The name Saxe-Coburg-Gotha came to the British Royal

Family in 1840 with the marriage of Queen Victoria to Prince
Albert, son of Ernst, Duke of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha. Queen
Victoria herself remained a member of the House of
Hanover.
The only British monarch of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
was King Edward VII, who reigned for nine years at the
beginning of the modern age in the early years of the
twentieth century.

King George V replaced the German-sounding title with that

of Windsor during the First World War. The name Saxe-
Coburg-Gotha survived in other European monarchies,
including the current Belgian Royal Family and the former
monarchies of Portugal and Bulgaria.

The House of Windsor

The House of Windsor came into being in 1917, when the

name was adopted as the British Royal Family's official name
by a proclamation of King George V, replacing the historic
name of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. It remains the family name of
the current Royal Family.

During the twentieth century, kings and queens of the United

Kingdom have fulfilled the varied duties of constitutional
monarchy. One of their most important roles has been acting
as national figureheads lifting public morale during the
devastating wars of 1914-18 and 1939-45.

The period saw the modernisation of the monarchy in

tandem with many social changes which have taken place
over the past 90 years. One such modernisation has been
the use of mass communication technologies to make the
Royal Family accessible to a broader public all over the
world.

George V adopted the new relatively new medium of radio to

broadcast across the Empire at Christmas; the Coronation
ceremony was broadcast on television for the first time in
1953, at The Queen's insistence; and the World Wide Web
has been used for the past seven years to provide a global
audience with information about the Royal Family.

During this period, British monarchs have also played a vital

part in promoting international relations. The Queen retains
close links with former colonies in her role as Head of the
Commonwealth.

The English Monarchy has undergone many changes

throughout the years. There have been several rulers. Each
has brought changes to their country and to the world, which
is why it is important to study the different monarchs and
periods of English history.