Name: Brief History of the Royal Family
Uploaded: 2018-11-15T06:04:47.000Z
Duration: 9 min
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

The start of the royal family on these fair
isles.

Well, there were kings and mini countries
before that and druids before that, and Pangaea

before that, but we have to start somewhere
and a millennia ago is plenty far -- if that

leaves out Æthelred the Unready, so it goes.

William the Conqueror, conquered in the 'Norman
Conquest' -- Norman here being code for *French*.

Because it's the olden days, people had lots
of kids, but to keep things simple this family

tree is going to leave out many of them on
each branch because not every child matters.

So William had three kids we care about: William
II, Henry I and Adela.

If you've seen the video about royal succession
-- click here if you haven't -- you'll know

that formal rules for passing on the crown
will get established, but for now, it's a

free-for-all, home team advantage to the eldest
son, but never forget bigger-army diplomacy.

Upon William the Conquerors death, William
II became king.

William II didn't marry, and on a bros day
out with Henry died in a 'Hunting Accident'

Henry I had at least 26 children of which
only two were 100% legit.

He declared his daughter would rule next (after
his son died in a ship wreck) and swore his

knights to honor Empress Matilda by crossing
their hearts, hoping to die, sticking a needle

in their eye -- *but* when Henry I died while
Matilda was in France, many ignored this while

her cousin Stephen raced to Westminster using
faster army diplomacy to get coronated first.

Empress Matilda did eventually return and
start a decades-long civil war -- that was

pretty much a stalemate because turtling in
the 1100s was an effective RTS tactic.

While she did rule part of the island, as
Matilda never had an official coronation,

Now, as Stephen's children were either dead,
disinterested, or a nun -- his crown went

to his nephew, Henry II who had four sons:
Henry the Young, Richard the Lionheart, King

Henry II saw the history thus far of conquering,
assassination, (maybe) usurpation, attritional

war -- and decided waiting until after the
death of the current king before sorting out

So Henry II changed the system and crowned
Henry the Young co-king with him, invoking

It was a good plan for stability, helped by
the young King's popularity, but unfortunately

-- the apprentice rebelled against the master,
rallying his brothers -- which resulted in

another civil war of disputed monarchs during
which Henry the Young died of dysentery, Henry

the Elder died of fever, and Richard I took
the crown.

After Richard came John and four eldest son
successions in a row: John to Henry III (insert

Magna Carta here) to Edward I (Longshanks)
to Edward II -- to Edward III.

Actually Ed II was overthrown by Isabelle
of France A.K.A the She-Wolf of France A.K.A.

After deposing her husband, she acted as regent
for their son.

Every one of these arrows glosses over a bit
of complexity.

Edward III had five sons: Edward the Black
Prince, Lionel, John, Edmund, and Thomas,

When Edward III died, his throne would have
gone to The Black Prince, but he was dead

at the time so the crown went to his boringly
named son Richard, now the second.

There's a bunch of drama lamma stuff around
Richard the second which your English teacher

might force you to read about -- but spoiler
alert, history's ending is always the same:

bigger-army diplomacy, this time from Henry
IV who gets the crown and Richard II gets

Another Henry before we get to the War of
the Roses:

A war that strikes terror (and boredom) in
the minds of students of history the nation

over who have to deal with *this* family tree
'simplified' to explain why everyone was angry,

but the shortest version ever is Edward III's
great, great, grandsons duked it out, even

though one of them was dead for part of the
fight -- but we can't get into that now so

Henry VI to Edward IV to Henry VI to Edward
IV.

Edward IV, on his deathbed left his crown
to his son.

But being twelve he needed protection, so
Richard, his best-ist uncle in the world,

Edward V then promptly disappeared under suspicious
circumstances that left Richard to become

But he didn't stay king for long because Edward
III's great, great, great, great grandson

Henry VII -- took the crown, put a ring on
Elizabeth of York to lock down that royal

legitimacy and then sired Henry VIII -- splitter
of churches, and ladies.

Henry VIII thought it was high time to formalize
the rules of inheritance, so he wrote them

out in his will -- basically saying oldest
boys first, girls only if there aren't any

boys -- and Parliament approved the rules.

Which should have made everything neat and
tidy, but we're about to enter the really

… Because Henry's son lived just long enough
to screw it up -- inheriting the throne at

9 there was, of course, a scheming protectorate
running things, yet he still declared at 15

that his father's rules were dumb and his
sisters were dumb and that his first cousin

once removed, Lady Jane Grey, should be the
next monarch instead.

Then he died and Lady Jane Grey became queen
at sweet sixteen, sort of -- in a disputed

status way for nine days, until beheaded by
Mary, the first really, truly officially nobody

Mary didn't have any kids, and passed the
crown to Elizabeth I who became the second

queen in a row… to also not have children.

But, no problem because Lady Jane Grey was
next in … oh.

Now, this is the point at which we acknowledge,
Scotland Exists.

They'd been doing their own royal thing which
for our purposes joins the English branch

where Edward III's great granddaughter married
into it in the 1400s and then goes: James,

James, James, James, James, Mary Queen of
Scotts, James.

Henry the VIII's sister importantly also married
into this line of the family giving it English

legitimacy points in the eyes of the English
Parliament, which asked to borrow Scotland's

James, making him king of two countries with
two numbers in his name depending on where

James had a son, Charles I, and you might
think this unification of the monarchs means

Cromwell didn't like kings and beheaded Charles
I: declaring no royals no longer, making himself

The Lord Protector which was in no way like
a king -- even though he was in charge and

it was a hereditary office passed to his son.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

Brief History of the Royal Family

dumb

parliament

neat

reluctant