Moments in Royal History - January 31

1606 - Execution of Guy Fawkes

Guy Fawkes, as depicted in the 1840's

     
     During the trial at Westminster Hall for Fawkes and the other Gunpowder Plot co-conspirators (which was attended in secret by King James and his family), Fawkes declared that he was not guilty. However, the outcome was not in serious doubt: not only had Fawkes been found guarding the deadly gunpowder with a fuse in his pocket, but he and a fellow co-conspirator had confessed to the crime in their adjacent prison cells, and this was picked by a government spy. With the overwhelming evidence mounted against him, Fawkes was found guilty of treason. 

     On the day in question, he and three other co-conspirators were dragged by horse from the Tower of London to the Old Palace Yard opposite of the Houses of Parliament. Fawkes was the last to face his ultimate fate, and on the scaffold, he begged for forgiveness from the King and the state, and performed a brief Catholic ritual. He managed to avoid the agony of his sentence by falling and breaking his neck, but nevertheless, his body was hanged and quartered, and its pieces were distributed throughout the kingdom to warn of the fate for those who commit treachery.

1788 - The passing of the Young Pretender

Charles Stuart, the Young Pretender as he appeared in his later years

 
     Charles Edward Stuart was the elder son of James Francis Edward Stuart (the Old Pretender), who in turn was the only son of James VII & II, the last Catholic monarch of Britain, who was deposed during the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89 and replaced by his Protestant son-in-law William and daughter Mary.

     Stuart attempted to regain the British throne in the name of his father and grandfather during the Jacobite Uprising of 1745. By this time, the throne had been occupied by the Hanoverians - the German Protestant cousins of the Stuarts - for 30 years, and now they and Britain were at war with France over the issue of Austrian Succession. There were rumblings of dissatisfaction with the Hanoverian regime, and Stuart, with the backing of Louis XV of France, believed that it was the right time to retake the throne, especially with many British soldiers preoccupied with the war on the Continent. He landed in Scotland, and made some gains on his road to London, but the campaign ended in a crushing defeat at the Battle of Culloden, which was the last battle fought on British soil and effectively ended the active pursuit of the throne by the Stuarts and their descendant Jacobite claimants.

     Charles Stuart - known to history as Bonnie Prince Charlie - lived the rest of life in Rome at the grace and favor of the pope. Upon his death, he had no living legitimate children and his claims to the throne were vested in his younger brother, Henry Benedict Stuart, who was cardinal in the Church and therefore also died without an heir, thereby ending the Royal House of Stuart.

On This Day: January 8

871 - Alfred the Great leads an English army to victory over the Danes.

 

Alfred was not yet king that day, but he acted like one.

     In 871, Alfred the Great lead a West Saxon (Wessex) army to repel an invasion by the Vikings at the Battle of Ashdown. At the time, Alfred's brother Æthelred was King of Wessex, but Æthelred wanted to engage in prayer before the battle, whilst Alfred was chomping at the bit to engage with the Danes led by King Bagsecg. Alfred left the King at the church and took his men to a victory over the invaders, though with heavy casualties on both sides - including King Bagsecg and five Danish earls. The result was that the Danes were driven eastward toward London.

1107 - Edgar, King of Scots dies in Edinburgh.

Seal of King Edgar

 
     In 1107, King Edgar of Scotland died at the age of 33. He was the fourth of son of King Malcolm III, but the first to be considered eligible for the throne. His mother Margaret was a sister of Edgar the Ætheling, the last Anglo-Saxon King of England, and so Edgar was a direct descendant of Alfred the Great. King Edgar's reign is known for peace treaty with Norway, under which Norwegian claims in the west of Scotland were recognized and a boundary was settled. Following his death, King Egdar was buried at Dunfermline Abbey.

1746 - Bonnie Prince Charlie captures Stirling.

The Young Pretender, as seen in a painting by John Pettie.

 In 1746, Charles Edward Stuart and his rebel forces occupied the Scottish town of Sterling during the Second Jacobite Uprising. Charles - popularly known as Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Young Pretender - was the grandson of the deposed James VII & II, as well as the son of James Francis Edward Stuart - the Old Pretender. He was seeking to reclaim the British throne from his German cousin, George II, whose Protestant family had reigned in Britain since 1714 in order to avoid a succession by the Catholic Stuarts. This eventually resulted in failure, and it was the last attempt by the Stuarts and their descendants to regain the throne.

1864 - Birth of Prince Eddy, the King that never was.

If this man had become King, we never would have had Elizabeth II or the House of Windsor.

 
     In 1864, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale was born at Frogmore House in Windsor. He was the eldest son of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales and Alexandra of Denmark (the future Edward VII and Queen Alexandra), and was known as Eddy among his family. Prince Eddy served in the Royal Navy and was the second in line to throne, but predeceased his father and grandmother, Queen Victoria in 1892 due to influenza. The result was that his younger brother Prince George moved up the line of succession, and eventually became King George V. To this day, rumors and conspiracy theories have suggested that Prince Eddy was Jack the Ripper. 

2004 - The christening of a new Queen.

The Queen Mary 2 in Southampton in June 2013.

     In 2004, Queen Elizabeth II christened the new Cunard liner, RMS Queen Mary 2, in Southampton. The QM2 is the world's largest ocean liner (as opposed to cruise ship), and is named for the RMS Queen Mary of 1936, which in turn is named after the reigning queen's grandmother, Queen Mary - the wife of George V.



Photo Credit: Odejea via Wikimedia Commons cc, Barry Skeates via Flickr cc