SUCCESSORS OF ROME:
THE PERIPHERY OF FRANCIA,
445-Present

Introduction

The historically central kingdoms of Francia, besides

  1. France proper (West Francia), were
  2. Lorraine,
  3. Burgundy,
  4. Lombardy (or Italy),
  5. the East Frankish kingdom that became Germany, and
  6. the Pope's domain, the Papal States (originally the Romanian Exarchate of Ravenna), centered on Rome.

These were all part of the Empire of Charlemagne. (Lorraine was only briefly a separate kingdom and then became one of the Stem Duchies of Germany.) The Periphery of Francia thus means the surrounding kingdoms. These naturally fall into six groups.

  1. Spain,
  2. the British Isles, and the
  3. South of Italy, which were all originally parts of the Roman Empire (except for Ireland and northern Scotland),
  4. Catholic (and then Protestant) Eastern Europe,
  5. Scandinavia, and
  6. the Frankish Crusader kingdoms of "Outremer," which came to include the mainland kingdom of Jerusalem, the island kingdom of Cyprus, and the Latin Emperors in Constantinople.

Outremer ("across the sea"), however, considered as part of Mediaeval Romania, and mostly Orthodox or Islâmic in faith, was a kind of colony, and a temporary one, of Francia, not strictly part of the "periphery." All the parts of it ended up conquered by the Turks.

Culturally, the Periphery of Francia is distinguished by the same characteristics detailed for Francia, i.e. the original jurisdiction of the Catholic Church, the use of the Latin language and alphabet, etc. Some of these areas seem more peripheral than others. Spain became the center of European power in the 16th century, and Britain in the 19th. All the great wars of the 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, however, originated in the Core of Francia and then drew in the Peripheral states. An exception to all this was when Scandinavia was the center, if not of European power, certainly of the most energetic of European events. That stretched from the 9th to the 11th centuries, the "Second Dark Age." The Scandinavians of that period, Vikings (then Normans) in the West and Varangians (then Russians) in the East, were still pagan, and their raids and conquests were a threat everywhere in Francia. Christianization in the 10th and 11th centuries largely brought the threat to a close, except for the more conventional conquests of the Normans and Russians.

My sources for all these tables are often given with the specific tables. A discussion of general sources is given under Francia.

Index

The Kings of England,

Scotland ,

Ireland , and the

United Kingdom ,

445 AD-Present

The Roman withdrawal from Britain left the island outside of history until literate Anglo-Saxon kingdoms emerged. Three kingdoms of Angles (Northumbria, Mercia, & East Anglia), three of Saxons (Essex, Sussex, & Wessex), and one of the Jutes (Kent) eventually fell to a Kentish King of Wessex, Egbert, who had spent time in exile at the court of Charlemagne. Meanwhile, these invaders had converted to Christianity and become literate.

This was due to the mission of St. Augustine, who was sent by Pope Gregory the Great and founded the see of Canterbury. Meanwhile, however, the rest of the British Isles had already been converted to Christianity. Ireland, which was never Roman and was converted by St. Patrick in the 5th century, developed its own literate Christian culture and, in the person of St. Columba in the 6th century, proceeded to proselytize Scotland. Unfortunately, Ireland was never politically unified enough to follow cultural and religious influence with political power, or to resist incursions from Danes or Normans, or ambitious English dynasties, when they came. The Kings of all Ireland, as opposed to the kings of what later became counties (Munster, Connacht, etc.), were the "High Kings" (Ard Ri). They drew together the smaller kingdoms of the island, but a permanently unified Kingdom of Ireland was never fully established. The reign of Brian Baru, perhaps the high point of Irish unity and power, also seems to be the end of effective Irish organization. Henry II of England, whose Normans began to overrun the island, styled himself "Lord of Ireland" (c. 1172), and in 1541 Henry VIII altered this to "King of Ireland."

The kings of Scotland, starting, under English influence, nearly as early as the kings of a united England, ultimately succeeded to the throne of England itself. Wales, in effect the last piece of Roman Britain, was annexed by England as a principality. The heir to the throne of Britain is still styled the Prince of Wales. Although Britain was never an "empire," Queen Victoria did assume the imperial title for India, as successor to the Moghuls, in 1876. The House of York is shown in white as a reminder that York was the White Rose, as Lancaster was the Red Rose, in the War of the Roses. Since the House of Stuart was Scottish, it is shown in yellow for Scotland.

The earliest history and dates for Ireland are legendary and speculative. Niall Noígillach "of the Nine Hostages" may have lived in the previous century, and the dates given for St. Patrick depend on identifying him with a "Palladius," who is mentioned by a contemporary chronicler as having been sent by the Pope as the first bishop of the Irish. If Patrick was not this person, he would have lived shortly thereafter.

I have found an outstanding source for all British and Irish rulers, and some other royalty and nobility, in The Mammoth Book of British Kings and Queens by Mike Ashley [Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc., New York, 1998, 1999]. The treatment of Anglo-Saxon and Irish kings now has been corrected and updated using this book down to the end of the Plantagenets. The Irish (Gaelic) spelling of many of the names of the High Kings of Ireland, however, is derived from Bruce R. Gordon's Regnal Chronologies. I have only given two English kingdoms, Kent and Wessex, because these are the first and the last ones, respectively -- and there is no room for the parallel listing of more. Other kingdoms, Essex and Mercia, may be seen temporarily holding Kent. As in Ireland, what were originally local kingdoms simply became counties in the later united monarchy.

Kings of Kent
Jutes		 Kings of Wessex
Saxons		 High Kings of Ireland
Niall Noígillach of the Nine Hostages 379-405,
Tara
Dathi/Nath I 405-428
Hengest c.455-488 Lóeguire macNéill 429-463
St. Patrick, mission to Ireland, 432; d. 461
Oisc, Oeric (Aesc) c.488-516 Ailill Motl mac Nath I 463-483
Octha c.516-540 Cerdic c.538-554 Lugaid macLóeguiri O'Néill 483-507
Muirchertach macErcae O'Néill 507-534
Eormenric c.540-580 Cynric c.554-581 Tuathal Máelgarb macCorpri Cáech O'Néill 534-544
Diarmait macCerbaill O'Néill 544-565
St. Columba, mission to Scotland, 563; d. 597
St. AEthelbert I c.580-616 Ceawlin c.581-588 d.c.589 Domnall macMuirchertaig O'Néill 565-566
Forggus macMuirchertaig O'Néill 565-566
Ainmere macSátnai O'Néill 566-569
Báetán macMuirchertaig O'Néill 569-572
Eochaid macDomnaill O'Néill 569-572
Báetán macNinnedo O'Néill 572-581
Ceol 588-594 Aed macAinmerech O'Néill 581-598
Ceolwulf 594-611 Aed Sláine macDiarmato O'Néill 598-604
Colmán Rímid macBáetáin O'Néill rival,
598-604
Aed Uaridnach macDomnaill O'Néill 604-612
St. Augustine of Canterbury,
mission to England, 597; d. 605
Eadbald 616-640 Cynegils 611-643 Máel Cobo macAedo O'Néill 612-615
Suibne Menn macFiachnai O'Néill 615-628
Domnall macAedo O'Néill 628-642
Earconbert 640-664 Cenwealh 643-672 Conall Cóel macMáele Cobo O'Néill 642-654
Cellach macMáele Cobo O'Néill jointly,
642-658
Diarmait macAedo Sláine O'Néill jointly,
656-665
Blathmac macAedo Sláine O'Néill jointly,
656-665
Sechnussach macBlathmaic O'Néill 665-671
Egbert I 664-673 Seaxburh Queen,
672-673		 Cenn Fáelad macBlathmaic O'Néill 671-675
Hlothhere 673-685 Aescwine 674-676 Finsnechtae Fledach macDúnchada O'Néill 675-695
Centwine 676-685,
d.?
Eadric 685-686
686-687 Caedwalla
(Peter)		 685-687
d.688 in Rome
Mul 686-687 Ine 688-726
d.728 in Rome
Sigehere King of Essex,
687-688
Oswine 688-690
Swaeflheard 689-692
Wihtred 691-725 Loingsech macOengus O'Néill 695-704
Congal Cinn Magir macFergus Fánat O'Néill 704-710
Fergal macMáele Dúin O'Néill 710-722
& Ailech
Fogartach macNéill O'Néill 722-724
Cináed mac Irgalaig 724-728
AEthelbert II 725-748,
c.754-762		 AEthelheard 728-740 Flaithbbertach macLoingsig O'Néill 724-734
d.765
Aed Allán macFergal O'Néill 734-743
Eadberht I 725-c.762 Domnall Midi O'Néill 743-763
Ealric 725-?
Eardwulf c.748-754 Cuthred 740-756
Sigered 759-763 Sigebert 756-757
Ealhmund 762-764,
c.784-785		 Cynewulf 756-786
Heaberht 764-c.771 Niall Frossach macFergal O'Néill 763-770
d.778
Egbert II 764-c.784 Donnchad Midi macDomnaill Midi O'Néill 770-797
Offa King of Mercia,
757-796		 Beorhtric 786-802
c.785-796
Eadberht II 796-798 Aed Oirdnide macNéill Frossach O'Néill 797-819
Cuthred of Mercia 798-807 Egbert 802-839 Conchobar macDonnchado Midi O'Néill 819-833
Mercia, 807-823 King of England,
829-839		 Niall Caille macAedo Oirdnide O'Néill 833-846
Baldred 823-825
825-839 AEthelwulf England,
839-855

Kings of Gwynedd
Rhodri the Great 844-878
Anarawd ap Rhodri 878-916
Idwal the Bald 916-942
Hywel Dda King of
Deheubarth,
920-950
942-950
Iago ab Idwal 950-979
Ieuaf ab Idwal 950-969
Hywel ap Ieuaf 974-985
Cadwallon ap Ieuaf 985-986
Maredudd ap Owain King of
Deheubarth,
986-999
986-999
Cynan ap Hywel 999-1005
Llywelyn ap Seisyll 1005-1023
Iago ap Idwal 1023-1039
Gruffydd ap Llywelyn 1039-1063
Bleddyn ap Cynfyn 1063-1075
Rhiwallon ap Cynfyn 1063-1070
Trahern ap Caradog 1075-1081
Gruffydd ap Cynan 1081-1137
Owain Gwynedd 1137-1170
Maelgwyn ab Owain 1170-1173
Dafydd ab Owain 1170-1195,
d.1203
Rhodri ab Owain 1170-1190,
d.1195
Llywelyn the Great 1195-1240
Prince of
Wales,
1216-1240
Dafydd ap Llywelyn 1240-1246
Llywelyn the Last
ap Gryffydd		 1246-1282
Prince of
Wales,
1258-1282
Owain ap Gruffydd 1246-1255,
1277-1282
Dafydd ap Gruffydd 1282-1283
Conquest by England, 1283
Edward,
II of England		 Prince of
Wales,
1301-1307
King of
England,
1307-1327

Wales consisted of a number of small kingdoms since at least the 5th century. Gwynedd and Deheubarth became the principal states, with Gwynedd eventually predominating. A united and independent Wales, however, only survived briefly, until Edward I of England definitively annexed the country in 1283. The capital of Wales now is Cardiff, in the south, but Edward built Caernarvon Castle in Gwynedd to control the country. Edward is supposed to have promised the Welsh in 1284 that he would provide a prince for them born in Wales who did not speak a word of English. He then produced his son Edward, just born at Caenarvon, who of course didn't speak a word of anything. Edward was formally invested as Prince of Wales in 1301.

The descent of the Tudors from Welsh royalty is shown, but there are some uncertainties about this. The Mammoth Book of British Kings and Queens gives it [p.331] as though unproblematic, but Brian Tompsett's Royal and Noble genealogy gives an alternate descent and discusses other uncertainties. While the Welsh derivation of the Tudors is beyond doubt, one suspects that Henry VII or others might not be above manufacturing a royal version of the descent. While the main line of the Tudors died out, it will be noted below that all subsequent British royality is descended from Henry VII through his daughter Margaret and her husband, King James IV of Scotland.

Kings of England
Saxons		 Kings of Scotland High Kings of Ireland
AEthelwulf 839-855 Kenneth
MacAlpin		 840-858 Máel Sechnaill macMáele Ruanaid O'Néill 846-862
Mide
AEthelbald 855-860 Donald I 858-863
AEthelbert 860-865 Constantine I 863-877 Aed Findliath macNéill Caille O'Néill 862-879
Ailech
AEthelred I 865-871 Aed 877-878
Alfred the Great 871-899 Eochaid & Giric I 878-889 Flann Sionna macMáele Sechnaill O'Néill 879-916
Mide
Edward the Elder 899-924 Donald II 899-900 Niall Glúndubh macAedo Findliath O'Néill 916-919
Ailech
Elfweard 924 Constantine II 900-943 Donnchad Donn macFlann O'Néill 919-944
Athelstan 924-939
Edmund I 939-946 Malcolm I 943-954 Ruaidrí ua Canannáin rival,
944-950
Eadred 946-955 Indulf 954-962 Congalach Cnogba macMáel Mithig O'Néill 944-956
Edwy/Eadwig the Fair 955-959 Dubh 962-c.966 Domnall macMuirchertaig O'Néill 956-980
Edgar 959-975 Cuilean Ring c.966-971
Edward
the Martyr		 975-978 Kenneth II 971-995 Máel Sechnaill macDomnaill O'Néill 980-1002,
1014-1022
AEthelred II the Unready 978-1013,
1014-1016		 Constantine III the Bald 995-997
Danish occupation, 1013-1014 Kenneth III 997-1005 Brian Bóruma macCennétig,
Brian Boru		 Munster,
976-1014;
High King,
1002-1014
Edmund II Ironside 1016 Giric II 997-1005
Danes Malcolm II 1005-1034
Canute the Great 1016-1035 Killed in victory over Danes
at Clontarf, 1014
King of
Denmark
1018-1035		 Donnchad MacBrian Munster,
1022-1063;
d.1064
Harold I 1035-1040 Duncan I 1034-1040
Hardecanute King of
Denmark
1035-1042
1040-1042

Saxons MacBeth 1040-1057 Diarmait MacMáil na mBó 1042-1072 Leinster
Edward
the Confessor		 1042-1066
Harold II 1066 Lulach 1057-1058
Edgar the Aetheling 1066 Malcolm III
Canmore		 1058-1093
Normans
William I
the Conqueror		 the Bastard,
Duke of
Normandy,
1035-1087		 Toirdelbach O'Brien 1063-1086 Munster,
1072-1086 High King
1066-1087 Donald Bane 1093-1094,
1094-1097,
d.1099
William II 1087-1100 Edmund 1094-1097,
d.?		 Domnall macArdgar O'Lochlainn O'Néill 1090-1121
Ailech, Cenél
Duncan II 1094 Muirchertach II MacToirdelbaig O'Brien 1086-1119 Munster
Henry I 1100-1135 Edgar 1097-1107
Alexander I 1107-1124 Toirrdelbach (Turlogh) macRuaidrí na Saide Buide
ua Conchobair		 1106-1156 Connacht,
1121-1135, 1141-1150 High King,
d.1156
Stephen 1135-1154 David I the Saint 1124-1153
Plantagenets
Henry II 1154-1189 Malcolm IV 1153-1165 Muirchertach (Murtagh) macNéill macLochlainn 1136-1166 Ailech,
1150-1166 High King
Lord of
Ireland,
1175
Richard I
the Lionheart		 1189-1199 William the Lion 1165-1214 Ruaidrí macToirrdelbaig, Rory O'Connor 1156-1183 Connacht,
1166-1175 last High King,
d.1198
Third Crusade, 1189-1192 Conchobar 1183-1189 Connacht
John Lackland 1199-1216 Cathal 1189-1200 Connacht
Henry III 1216-1272 Alexander II 1214-1249 English rule
Alexander III 1249-1286 Brian Catha an Duin 1258-1260
Margaret
Maid of Norway		 1286-1290 English rule
Interregnum, 1290-1292
John Baliol 1292-1296
d.1315
1272-1307 Edward I 1296-1306
Edward II 1307-1327 Robert I
the Bruce		 1306-1329 Edward de Bruce 1316-1318
Edward III 1327-1377 David II 1329-1370 English rule
Hundred Years War, 1337-1453
Richard II 1377-1399,
d.1400

The Norman Conquest of England profoundly altered the nature and direction of English, and British, history. The cultural change may now be the most conspicuous. English has a larger vocabulary than most languages because the great number of French words introduced by the Normans doubled up with original Old English words -- for example "sheep" is from Old English while "mutton" is from French; "watch" is from Old English, "hour" is from French, and, just for good measure, "clock" is from Danish. Since there is usually not much point in having two words that mean exactly the same thing, the meaning of the doubled words varies somewhat, expanding nuance. Grammatically, English may be said to have French nouns and German verbs. Since the French noun system is simpler than the German (or Old English), and the German verb system is simpler than the French, English benefits in simplicity each way -- if, for some reason, simplicity is to be valued -- it does make the language easier to learn (if not to spell).

On the political side, the Norman Conquest unified the administration of England, preventing the kind of feudal fragmenation that troubled France for so long. The centralization of government at the same time made it the focus of efforts to limit its power, first by the nobility (resulting in the Magna Carta), later by well-to-do merchants (resulting in the English Revolution). Constitutionally, this gave England a head start over all the rest of Europe in the evolution of modern government. The centralization of power also depoliticized land ownership, loosening the ties of feudalism, including serfdom. Something approaching private property and a free labor market soon gave England an economic advantage that grew and lasted into the 20th century (see Alan MacFarlane, The Origins of English Individualism: The Family, Property and Social Transition [Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1978]).

The failure of male heirs to William the Conqueror's line resulted in some conflict, until Henry (II) of Anjou was firmly in place as the first of the Plantagenets. Henry brought with him additional French territory, and then obtained a large part of the whole Kingdom of France by marrying Eleanor, the hieress of Aquitaine and Gascony, who had recently divorced King Louis VII of France. This English "empire" in France dominated the history of both countries for some time thereafter. The incompetent King John not only was forced by the nobility into recognizing rights long honored as the origin of English constitutionalism, but his loss of English possessions in France north of the Loire (hence "Lackland") put the French Monarchy on course for the unification and centralization of political power in France -- whose success made France the predominant power in Europe in the 17th century but whose drawbacks ultimately produced the French Revolution. Meanwhile, some attention could be paid to the rest of the British Isles, where Ireland gradually came under English control, Wales was annexed by Edward I, and then Edward also briefly acquired Scotland, where he exploited offers of mediation in the succession dispute of 1290-1292. This episode is rather badly (even falsely) represented in the otherwise rather good movie Braveheart (Best Picture Oscar for 1995).

Lancaster Stuart
Robert II Stuart 1370-1390
Henry IV 1399-1413 Robert III 1390-1406
Henry V 1413-1422 James I 1406-1437
Henry VI 1422-1461
1470-1471		 James II 1437-1460
Wars of the Roses,
1455-1485
York
Edward IV 1461-1470
1471-1483		 James III 1460-1488
Edward V 1483
Richard III 1483-1485
Tudor
Henry VII 1485-1509 James IV 1488-1513
Henry VIII 1509-1547 James V 1513-1542
King of
Ireland,
1541
Edward VI 1547-1553 Mary
Queen of Scots		 1542-1567
d. 1587
Mary I 1553-1558
Elizabeth I 1558-1603
Stuart
1603-1625 James VI of Scotland
James I of England		 1567-1625
The period the Wars of the Roses illustrates something important about English history. In France, for a long time Royal brothers receiving major fiefs resulted in the fragmenation of power, most disastrously in the case of the Valois Dukes of Burgundy, who very nearly detached their realm from France itself. In England, however, the conflict that resulted from the many sons of Edward III was always over the Throne. When the winner, Henry VII emerged, it was to enjoy the power of the unified state. The Wars themselves lasted from 1455 to 1485, but the initial action was really the deposition of Richard II in 1399 by his cousin Henry (IV). This began the tenure of the House of Lancaster, which reached its summit with the victory of Henry V over the French at Agincourt in 1415 -- during the Hundred Years War which had begun with Edward III's claim of the French Throne in 1337. With England losing that war in 1453, the civil war proper got going with the struggle of the House of York to depose Henry VI. This was finally effected by 1471 by Edward IV, the third cousin of Henry. The conflict then ends with some obscurity and controversy. Edward's brother Richard (III) pushed aside the young Edward V and took the Throne for himself. Richard was killed by Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, in battle at Bosworth Field in 1485. Henry (VII) was a (legimated) member of the House of Lancaster on his mother's side. Richard was then painted in the blackest terms by subsequent Tudor historians (not to mention Shakespeare). The young Edward V and his brother, Richard, Duke of York, were murdered, but whether this was done by Richard III or Henry VII is still a good question. The history of the Tudors is subsequently brilliant, with much in the end hanging on the tragi-comic many marriages of Henry VIII. All this was in pursuit of a male heir, who, when finally produced (Edward VI), didn't last long. No other heirs, of any sex, were subsequently produced by Edward's generation. Mary's marriage to Philip II of Spain was barren, and then Elizabeth did not marry at all. Since Henry's divorces produced a break with the Church of Rome, these family doings were all intimately intertwined with religious conflict. Elizabeth's reign represented a final repudiation of Rome and support for the Dutch Revolt against Spain. The failure of the Spanish Armada to conquer, or even to land in, England in 1588 was the first clue that England (through the Royal Navy) might become a Great Power. With the death of Elizabeth, the Throne passed to James VI of Scotland, a great-great-grandson of Henry VII through his daughter Margaret.

Stuart
Charles I 1625-1649
Civil War, 1640-1649;
Commonwealth, 1649-1653;
First Dutch War,
1652-1654; Protectorate,
1653-1660
Oliver Cromwell Lord Protector,
1653-1658
Richard Cromwell 1658-1660,
d.1712
Charles II 1660-1685
Second Dutch War, 1664-1667;
New Amsterdam acquired,
becomes New York, 1664;
Third Dutch War, 1672-1674
James II 1685-1688
[interregnum] 1688-1689
Mary II 1689-1694
William III Stadholder of the
Netherlands,
1672-1702
1689-1702
War of the League of
Augsburg, 1688-1697;
War of the Spanish
Succession, 1701-1713
Anne 1702-1714
With the Stuarts (or Stewarts), conflict over Royal power mixed and unmixed with conflict over religion. The debate over the Divine Right of Kings, which in France in the 17th century went to the King, got Charles I of England and Scotland deposed and beheaded. Britain was not quite ready for a Republic, and what might have become one quickly became a kind of military dictatorship, under Oliver Cromwell. After his death, it was not entirely clear how exactly this was better than the Monarchy, so Charles II was brought back from exile. Cromwell's body was exhumed and desecrated, but his son Richard, cooperative with the Restoration, lived out his life unmolested.

This is where the undercurrent of religion comes in, for Charles had become sympathetic to Catholicism and began to tilt towards France (with the help of a secret subsidy, including women, from Louis XIV) and against the Protestant Netherlands, which Louis had invaded (1672). Otherwise, the exhuberance of the Restoration, and the infamous philandering of Charles, all look more libertine than Catholic. Some sense of this can be gleaned from the movie Restoration [1994]. However, actor Sam Niell did not make a very good Charles II. Charles, very tall and dark, with long black hair (click on image for larger version), not to mention productive of multiple illegitimate children, would be more like a dead ringer for "shock jock" radio personality Howard Stern. Charles did convert to Catholicism before his death, and then his openly Catholic brother, James II, became King. This produced the beginnings of modern political parties:  The Tories, who were for James, and the Whigs, against him. While James talked of no more than toleration for Catholics, his actions soon were for the persecution and suppression of Protestants. This was more or less tolerable as long as James's heirs were his Protestant daughters, Mary and Anne; but when he fathered a (Catholic) son on his new (Catholic) wife, Mary of Modena, resistance began to stiffen. William of Orange, husband of Mary, landed with a Dutch Army, the British Army went over to him, and James fled -- a bloodless transaction consequently called the "Glorious Revolution." Finding Catholic sympathy and support in Ireland (and, of course, from France), James was finally defeated at the Battle of the Boyne in 1689. William could then go on to organize the great alliances against France in the War of the League of Augsburg (1688-1697) and the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1713). Lack of heirs continued to bedevil the dynasty. With Anne, this was not from lack of trying. She had 14 children, evey single one of whom predeceased her. With a sad irony, Anne was the last British Monarch who exercised what were believed to be the healing powers of the Royal Touch -- though by Anne's day this was supposed only to be effective for scrofula, tuberculosis of the lymph glands. Presumably, this is not what afflicted her children. Unwilling to countenance the Catholic Stuart Pretenders (the "Jacobites"), Parliament brought in George I of Hanover, a great-grandson of James I through his daughter Elizabeth and granddaughter Sophie.

The Union of England and Scotland in 1707 produced the "United Kingdom," with a single Parliament, and the Union Flag, at left. A separate Scottish Parliament has been recently reestablished.

Formal Union with Ireland in 1801 added the familiar diagonal red stripes to the present Union Flag. These were based on red "saltire" cross of the Fitzgerald family, now a very old Irish family (cf. John Fitzgerald Kennedy) but originally among the Normans who conquered Ireland for England in the 12th century. Thus, the cross is usually not viewed as a genuine Irish national symbol.

Subsequent Kings are listed with their Prime Ministers. There is some uncertainty here about the Party affiliations of some of the early Prime Ministers. The Encyclopaedia Britannica says, "There were no formal political parties in the 18th century...nor was there a formal opposition in Parliament, and opposition to the king's ministry was regarded as factious and even traitorous." This does seem to introduce an element of vagueness into many of the Governments. There is also some disagreement and confusion sometimes about who the Prime Ministers were, since the title wasn't used until the 20th Century. Thus, there are different versions of when William Pitt the Elder was, if ever, Prime Minister. These assignments are based on Langer's An Encyclopedia of World History, mentioned above, the Britannica descriptions, the assignments and descriptions at http://britannia.com/gov/primes/ (which lists Palmerston as a Tory, which he certainly was not after 1830), the Encyclopedia of World History edited by Patrick K. O'Brien [Facts on File, 2000, p.522], and The World Amanac and Books of Facts, 2001 [World Almanac Books, 2001, p.490]. The latter two sources list Coalition ministries, which were especially common in wartime. Be that as it may, Lloyd George was a Liberal, and Winston Churchill was a Conservative, and that is how they are given here.

Hanover
George I 1714-1727 Prime Ministers
Whig/Liberal Tory/Conservative
Sir Robert Walpole 1721-1742
George II 1727-1760
War of the Austrian Succession, 1740-1748
Lord John Carteret/
Earl of Wilmington		 1742-1743
Henry Pelham 1743-1754
Duke of Newcastle 1754-1756, 1757-1762
Duke of Devonshire 1756-1757
Seven Years War, 1756-1763
George III 1760-1820 Earl of Bute 1762-1763
George Grenville 1763-1765
Marquis of Rockingham 1765-1766, 1782
William Pitt
the Elder		 1766-1768
Duke of Grafton 1768-1770
Lord Frederick North 1770-1782
American Revolution, 1775-1783
Earl of Shelburne 1782-1783
Duke of Portland 1783, 1807-1809
William Pitt
the Younger		 1783-1801, 1804-1806
Henry Addington 1801-1804
Lord William Grenville 1806-1807
Abolition of Slave Trade, 1807
Spencer Perceval 1809-1812
Earl of Liverpool 1812-1827
George IV 1820-1830
George Canning 1827
Viscount Goderich 1827-1828
Duke of Wellington 1828-1830, 1834
Catholic Emancipation, 1829
William IV 1830-1837 Earl Grey 1830-1834
First Reform Bill, 1832;
Abolition of Slavery, 1833
Viscount Melbourne 1834, 1835-1841
Sir Robert Peel 1834-1835, 1841-1846
Victoria
Empress of
India, 1876		 1837-1901
Abolition of Corn Laws, 1846
Lord John Russell 1846-1852, 1865-1866
Earl of Derby 1852, 1858-1859,
1866-1868
Earl of Aberdeen 1852-1855
Crimean War, 1854-1856
Viscount Palmerston 1855-1858, 1859-1865
Jewish Emancipation, 1858
Second Reform Bill, 1867
Benjamin Disraeli 1868, 1874-1880
William E. Gladstone 1868-1874, 1880-1885,
1886, 1892-1894
Third Reform Bill, 1884;
First Home Rule Bill, 1886;
Second Home Rule Bill, 1893
Marquis of Salisbury 1885-1886, 1886-1892,
1895-1902
Boer War, 1899-1902
Earl of Rosebery 1894-1895
The Whig Party, as the enemy of Royal prerogative, was by its very nature the original party of Parliamentary power. The story is that the Prime Ministership emerged because King George I of Hanover never did learn to speak English, while Sir Robert Walpole was one of the few people in Parliament who spoke German. George III, however, wished to reassert Royal power, and was able to engineer a Tory coalition of the "King's Friends" in Parliament. Thus, Tory governments predominated in the eras of the American and French Revolutions, both of which had Whig sympathizers, though some Whigs, like Edmund Burke, liked the former but not the latter. By 1830, the Whigs were reemerging as the Liberal Party, while the Tories, no longer simply supporting the King, were reorganizing as a modern Conservative Party, which often passed Liberal reforms, such as Catholic Emancipation in 1829 and abolition of the Corn Laws in 1846.

One of the great English political issues of the later 19th century was Irish Home Rule. The Irish Parliament had been dissolved in 1801 and Irish members elected to the British Parliament. Catholic emancipation in 1829 even meant that Irish Catholics could be elected to Parliament. However, the Parliamentary program of the Irish Members quickly became Irish independence. William Gladstone's Liberal government fell over a Home Rule Bill for Ireland in 1886, splitting the Liberal Party into Home Rule and Unionist factions. After a second Home Rule Bill was defeated in the House of Lords, Gladstone resigned in 1894 from his fourth and last ministry. A Home Rule Bill was finally passed in 1914, but its suspension for World War I resulted in open Irish rebellion in 1916 and years of terrorism by the Irish Republican Army (IRA). When Irish independence came, it was compromised by partition, as the Protestants of Ulster secured a separate regime for themselves. The "Red Hand of Ulster" flag was official until the Ulster Parliament was itself abolished in 1972, in British response to the "troubles" in Northern Ireland, which began with Catholic civil rights demonstrations in 1968 and expanded into IRA bombings and Protestant retaliation. Although several peace plans have been formally accepted by Britain, the Irish Republic, and most factions in Ulster, it is not clear that the situation is anywhere near real resolution. The recent economic awaking of the Irish Republic itself may help undercut some of the basically Marxist inspiration of the IRA.

Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (Windsor)
Edward VII 1901-1910 Prime Ministers
Liberal Labour
Tory/Conservative
Arthur J. Balfour 1902-1905
Sir Henry
Campbell-Bannerman		 1905-1908
Herbert H. Asquith 1908-1916
George V 1910-1936
Third Home Rule Bill, 1914;
World War I, 1914-1918
David Lloyd George 1916-1919/
1919-1922
Irish Easter Rebellion, 1916;
Irish Rebellion, 1919-1921;
Irish Free State, 1921
Andrew Bonar Law 1922-1923
J. Ramsay MacDonald 1924,
1929-1931/
1931-1935
Stanley Baldwin 1923-1924,
1924-1929,
1935-1937
Edward VIII 1936
Women's Suffrage, 1928
George VI 1936-1952 Neville Chamberlain 1937-1940
Winston S. Churchill 1940-1945,
1951-1955
Clement R. Attlee 1945-1950/
1950-1951
Partition of India,
Independence of India
& Pakistan, 1947
Elizabeth II 1952-present Sir Anthony Eden 1955-1957
Harold Macmillan 1957-1959/
1959-1963
Sir Alec Douglas-Hume 1963-1964
Harold Wilson 1964-1970,
1974-1976
Edward Heath 1970-1974
James Callaghan 1976-1979
Margaret Thatcher 1979-1983/
1983-1987/
1987-1990
John Major 1990-1992/
1992-1997
Tony Blair 1997-2001/
2001-present

Queen Victoria married Albert of the German House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. There was nothing awkward about this at the time, since Victoria herself was from the German House of Hanover, but it eventually became awkward when Britain and Germany went to war in 1914. As anti-German feeling rose, George V adopted the name "Windsor" for the Royal Family. The future Queen Elizabeth II married Prince Philip of Greece, who renounced his claims to the Greek Throne and adopted his mother's family name, "Mountbatten." The Mountbattens were another German family, the Battenbergs, that had also changed its name in Britain during World War I. Charles, the present Prince of Wales, would thus be the first King of the House of Mountbatten. Charles regarded the World War II hero, Lord Mountbatten of Burma, his great-uncle, as his "honorary grandfather." Queen Elizabeth has indicated her preference that it be styled the House of "Windsor-Mountbatten"; but what Charles calls it, when and if he becomes King, is presumably up to him.

By the 1970's, Britian was being called by some the "Sick Man of Europe," on analogy to the 19th century Ottoman Empire (a bitter irony, since British policy in the 19th century had succeeded in preventing the Empire from being overthrown by Egypt or conquered by Russia). The main problem was the "British Disease," namely labor unions which absolutely froze innovation in industries and which perpetuated money losing government industries, like coal, which had been nationalized by the Laborites after World War II. Britain was turning into a stagnant Soviet kind of economy. Margaret Thatcher, the "Iron Lady," came to office and completely turned this around, actually breaking unions and privatizing state industries. What used to be the industrial heartland of England, in the North, became a Rust Belt, and the South became the center of growth, innovation, and Tory voting strength. Thatcher became the longest serving Prime Minister of the 20th century, only to be deposed through an internal Party coup. The work was left unfinished, with welfare state white elephants, like the National Health Service, left untouched, though even now British unemployment is far from the double digits familiar in Euro-socialist France and Germany. The bland and supine John Major could live off Thatcherite capital for another seven years, until well earned electoral catastrophe in 1997. The Labor Party, which had been openly and insanely pro-Soviet in the 1980's, has been transformed into a close copy of Bill Clinton's dissimulating, Trojan Horse Democratic Party, whereby socialistic goals could be masked with simple paternalism -- which means, appalling, that paternalism now appeals to both American and British voters. Nevertheless, like Clinton, Blair has done a creditable job of keeping the British economy in reasonable shape, poised between booming Ireland and stagnant France. Despite brief furry over high gasoline prices, which in Britain cannot be blamed on private "corporate greed," Blair was resoundingly reelected in 2001.

Bibliography and Suggested Reading

The Sun Never Set on the British Empire

Dreadnought

British Coins before the Florin, Compared to French Coins of the Ancien Régime

Philosophy of History

Home Page

Copyright (c) 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002 Kelley L. Ross, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved

The Kings of Bohemia , Poland , and Hungary , 845-1795

By the year 1000, the Slavic kingdoms of Bohemia-Moravia, Poland, and Croatia and the Magyar kingdom of Hungary, had all become sufficiently organized and Christianized to enter European history. The earliest organization visible may be that of the Czechs under Samo (c.623-658), who succeeded in defeating the Franks (631). This state disintegrated with his death, however.
Kings of Great Moravia
Mojmir I 830-846
Rastislav 846-870
Sviatopluk 870-894
Mojmir II 894-906
More important was the Kingdom of Great Moravia under Sviatopluk (870-894). The King was converted to Christianity by the Romanian missionaries St. Cyril and Methodius (d.885), who invented the Cyrillic alphabet to write this first attested Slavic language. Before long, of course, the Czechs shifted allegiance to Rome (which brought with it the Latin alphabet), and it was Bulgaria that established Eastern Christianity and used the new alphabet. Great Moravia did not long survive Sviatopluk. The Kingdom disintegrated after a defeat by the Magyars (at the urging of the Franks) in 906 and subsequently becomes a dependency of the Dukes of Bohemia.

Dukes & Kings of Croatia
Viseslav Duke,
c.800-c.810
Borna c.810-821
Vladislav 821-c.835
Mislav c.835-c.845
Trpimir I c.845-864
Zdeslav 864,
876-879
Domagoj 864-876
Iljko 876
Branimir 879-892
Mutimir 892-910
Tomislav I 910-924
King,
924-928
Trpimir II 928-c.935
Kresimir I c.935-c.945
Miroslav c.945-c.949
Kresimir II c.945-c.969
Drzislav c.969-997
Suronja
Svetoslav 997-1000
Kresimir III 997-1030
Goislav 997-1020
Stephen 1030-1058
Kresimir IV 1058-1074
Slavic 1074-1075
Dimitar Zvonimir 1075-1089
Helena 1088-1091
Stephen II 1089-1091
Almos 1091-1093
Peter 1093-1097
to Hungary, 1097

The first durable state and kingdom in the East is that of Croatia, which was part of the Carolingian empire, revolting against it in 818. This contact, however, and the convenient situation for commerce on the Adriatic, enabled Croatia to develop a bit faster than the hinterland; and when Tomislav I accepted a crown from the Pope in 924, he created the first permanent Kingdom in Eastern Europe. Croatia, however, was not fated to endure on its own. Internal divisions tempted the Hungarians, who conquered the Kingdom in 1091, leaving it under the local rulers until the failure of the dynastic line. Meanwhile, Venice had conquered Dalmatia (1000), but the Hungarians retrieved it (1095-1102), beginning a long historical tug-of-war between the two states. Hungary (1001), Poland (1025), and Bohemia (1086, 1156) followed Croatia in becoming permanent Kingdoms.

Early Poland contended with the Germans for the intermediate territories (Lusatia and even Bohemia) but later steadily lost ground to the German move to the East, and to Bohemia, though in recent time much of this territory was abruptly recovered thanks to Soviet dispensation at the end of World War II. Pagan holdouts Prussia and Latvia were conquered and converted by the Teutonic Knights. By the 14th century, the last pagan holdout in Europe, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, finally converted and by a historic marriage joined its fate to Poland.

Poland, Hungary, and Bohemia form a natural unit as they often had ruling dynasties in common. Later, however, the intermarriage of these dynasties with those of Francia, and the Polish election of kings from Francia, delivered the kingdoms to external possession. The Hapsburgs ended up in permanent possession of Bohemia-Moravia and Hungary (until World War I), while Poland was surrounded and devoured by Prussia, Austria, and Russia. Bohemia, with a large German population, came to be considered part of Germany, and the King of Bohemia became an Elector of the Holy Roman Emperor. When Bohemia and Moravia then passed to the Hapsburgs, the King of Bohemia typically was also the actual Holy Roman Emperor. The Germans of Bohemia are now gone, since Hitler used them as a pretext to occupy Czechoslovakia in 1938, and they were expelled after World War II.

Bans & Kings of Bosnia
Boric Ban (viceroy),
1154-1163
to Romania, 1163-1180
Kulin 1172-1204
Stephen 1204-1232
Matthew Ninoslav 1232-c.1253
Prijezda I Kotromanic 1254-1287
Prijezda II 1287-1290
Stephen I 1267-1302,
d. 1313
Mladen I Subic 1302-1304
Mladen II 1304-1322
Stephen II Kotromanic 1322-1353
Tvrtko I 1353-1376
King,
1376-1391
Stephen Dabisa 1391-1395
Helena the Crude 1395-1398
Stephen Ostoja 1398-1404,
1409-1418
Tvrtko II 1404-1409,
1421-1443
Stephen Ostojic 1418-1421
Stephen Thomas 1443-1461
Stephen Tomasevic 1461-1463
Ottoman conquest, 1463
 
The territory of Bosnia was originally occupied by the Serbs and came under Roman control in the 11th century. After the collapse of Roman authority at the end of the century, the Serbs became independent again. Bosnia, however, came under the control of Hungary. Briefly retrieved by Romania, it returned to Hungarian suzerainty, under its own ban or viceroy, but then drifted in and out of Hungarian control. This finally meant complete independence as a Kingdom in 1376, just as Serbia had experienced its first defeat by the Turks (1371). This didn't leave Bosnia much time until the Turkish conquest. The modern mixed population of Catholics, Moslems, and Orthodox Christians in Bosnia still testifies to its intermediate and ambiguous position between Francia, Romania, and Islâm. The worst strife in the breakup of Yugoslavia, with the Serbs against Catholics (Croats) and Moslems (Bosniacs), and then Serbs and Catholics both against Moslems, resulted from these divisions. Only UN Peacekeeping forces restrain the communities now. Herzegovina ("free duchy") began as a dependency, sometimes less than dependent, of Bosnia. The two have generally been treated as one territory since the Turkish conquest.

Dukes or Princes
of Transylvania,
Hungarian Suzerainty
Lorand Lepes 1415-1438
Lancu of Hunedoara 1441-1456
to Ottoman Empire,
1526-1699
John Zapolya 1526-1540
King of
Hungary,
1526-1540
John Sigismund 1540-1571
Gasnar Bekesy 1571-1572
Polish Occupation,
1572-1576
Christopher Bathory 1576-1581
Sigismund 1581-1598
Andrew 1599-1600
Michael the Brave 1600-1601
Moyses Szekely 1602-1603
Austrian Occupation,
1602-1605
Stephen Bocskai 1605-1606
Sigismund Rakoczi 1607-1608
Gabriel Bathory 1608-1613
Gabriel Bethlen 1613-1629
Stephen Bethlen 1630
George Rakoczy I 1630-1648
George Rakoczy II 1648-1660
Achatius Bocskai 1658-1660
Johann Kemeny 1661-1662
Michael Apafi I 1661-1690
Emerich Tokoli 1682-1699
Michael Apafi II 1690-1699
to Austria-Hungary,
1699-1919
Francis Rakoczy 1704-1711
to România, 1919


Transylvania ("beyond the forest"), although largely Romance speaking, was historically part of Hungary. The history of the ethnic composition of the region is still hotly disputed by Hungarian and Romanian historians. Largely surrounded by mountains, the plateau of Transylvania, Dacia to the Romans, was relatively isolated and protected from the grassy lowlands around it, which were the avenues of incursion from the Steppe. Although certainly the name most commonly associated with Transylvania, one will search the list of Princes in vain for (Count) Dracula, who was actually the much earlier Prince Vlad of Wallachia. The Ottoman conquest of Hungary in 1526 brought the area under Turkish control, although it was then largely ruled through appointed Princes, as were Wallachia and Moldavia. When the Turks were expelled in 1699 by the Hapsburgs, Transylvania was then ruled again from Hungary, without the device of local Princes. It passed to România after World War I and, except for a part returned to Hungary by Hitler, has remained there ever since.

The small map of Eastern Europe above also shows the "Catholic Russias," meaning parts of Belorussia and the Ukraine. They acquired that religious character through long possession by Lithuania and union with Poland and were recovered for Russia first by the Tsars and then again, after another period of rule by Poland (1920-1939), by the Soviet Union (in the coordinated invasion and partition of Poland by Hitler and Stalin). Those who have held to their Catholicism have been troubled both under the Tsars and under the Communists.

Grand Dukes of
Lithuania
Mindaugas 1236-1263
Treniota 1263-1264
Vaisvilkas 1264-1267
Svarnas 1267-1270
Traidenis 1270-1281/2
Pukuveras c.1283-1294
Viten /
Vytenis		 1295-1316
Gediminas 1316-1331
Ivan I
of Moscow		 1331-1341
Jaunutis 1341/2-1345
Olgierd /
Algirdas		 1345-1377
Jogaila /
Jagiello		 1377-1434
converts to Christianty;
marries Jadwiga; becomes
Wladyslaw V of Poland
Vytautas /
Witold
the Great		 regent, 1392
Grand Duke
1401-1430
Swidrygiello 1430-1432
Zygmunt 1432-1440
Duchy passes to
Casimir IV

At left are the Grand Dukes of Lithuania. Mindaugas converted to Christianity and received a crown from the Pope, but after him the country reverted to paganism, the last country in Europe to practice pre-Christian religion. Although Lithuania resisted conversion for over a century, we unfortunately know very little about what its religion was like. Meanwhile it was expanding vigorously all the way into the Ukraine. The conversion of Jagiello to Christianity and his marriage to the Anjevian heiress of Poland, Jadwiga, produced a large powerful country and rounds off the Christianization of Europe. The defeat of the Teutonic Knights at Tannenberg in 1410 held the promise of a dominant position in Eastern Europe, but over time this promise slipped away.

My sources for some of the early material, especially Poland, show some conflicting information. Sorting out the Polish Kings was a bit of a compromise between Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski's Poland, A Historical Atlas [Dorset Press, New York, 1988, pp. 56-57] and Gene Gurney's Kingdoms of Europe [Crown Publishers, New York, 1982, pp. 521-522]. And I've kept coming across references to people who were elected briefly but not mentioned in those sources. I was able to fill some gaps in the line of the Dukes of Lithuania and some early Przemysls and Arpads from Bruce R. Gordon's Regnal Chronologies. The Kings of Croatia come from The Cambridge Medieval History, Volume II, c.700-c.900 [Rosmond McKitterick, editor, Cambridge, 1995, p.862] and from Gordon, as do the Kings of Bosnia. Now, however, I have a stupifying dense and complete source of information in the Erzählende genealogische Stammtafeln zur europäischen Geschichte. I have been able to make some additions and corrections for Bohemia from Volume I, Part 1, Deutsche Kaiser-, Königs-, Herzogs- und Grafenhäuser I [Andreas Thiele, Third Edition, R. G. Fischer Verlag, 1997], and for Hungary from Volume II, Part 2, Europäiche Kaiser-, Königs- und Fürstenhäuser II Nord-, Ost- und Südeuropa [Andreas Thiele, R. G. Fischer Verlag, Part 2, Second Edition, 1997]. I hope to make further additions and corrections as I am able to study this source.

The background colors in the table below (not above, except for Lithuania) are coded for dynasties rather than countries, since the overlapping of rulers is one of the conspicuous features of the histories of Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland. In the genealogical charts, however, red is used for Poland, green for Hungary, and blue for Bohemia. With each of the these, the word for "duke" may have ambiguities similar to what we find with the Russian word knyaz. This is certainly the case with Lithuanian, where kunigaikshtis can be translated either "prince" or "duke," and apparently with voivode in Hungarian. In Poland and Hungary, conversion to Christianty brought with it a royal crown from the Pope. Bohemia, as it became part of the East Frankish Kingdom, qualified less obviously for its own status as a Kingdom, which came later. With each of these, however, the word for "king" is noteworthy. In Czech it is král, in Polish król, and in Hungarian király. For comparison, the same word in Croatian is kralj, in Slovakian král', in Russian koról, and in Lithuanian karalius. Just as the Latin name Caesar gives us the word for "emperor" in many of these languages (and in German), here it looks like Carolus Magnus, Charlemagne, has given us the word for "king." Since the Slavic languages had not diverged very much in the 9th century, the title could have been borrowed into all of them virtually simultaneously, and then into Hungarian (which isn't Slavic, or even Indo-European) when the Magyars arrived. Note that "Wenceslas" and "Ladislas" are the Latin versions of, respectively, Václav in Czech and László in Hungarian.

Duke & Kings of
Bohemia & Moravia		 Dukes & Kings of Hungary Dukes & Kings of Poland
Przemysls
Borivoi
Przemysl		 Duke,
845-895		 Arpads
Spytihnev I 895-907 Árpád Duke, Khân,
or Prince,
c.896-907
Vratislav 907-921 Zoltan 907-946
St. Wenceslas 921-929 Fausz/Val 946-952
Boleslav I 929-967 Tacsony 952-972 Piasts
Boleslav II 967-999 Geza 972-997 Mieszko I Piast Duke,
960-992
Boleslav III 999-1003,
1004-1012,
d.1037		 St. Stephen I 997-1001 Boleslaw I
the Brave		 992-1025;
King, 1025
Udalrich 1012-1032,
d.1034		 King,
1001-1038		 Duke of
Bohemia,
1003-1004
Jaromir 1032-1034,
d.1038
Brestislav I 1034-1055 Peter Urseolo 1038-1041,
1044-1046		 Mieszko II 1025-1034
Samuel Aba 1041-1044, d.1046
Spytihnev II 1055-1061 Andrew I 1047-1061 [interregnum] 1034-1038
Bela I 1061-1063 Kazimierz I /
Casimir I
the Restorer		 1038-1058
Vratislav 1061-1086;
King,
1086-1092		 Solomon 1063-1074 Boleslaw II
the Bold		 1058-1079
Geza I 1074-1077
St. Ladislas I 1077-1095 Wladyslaw I
Herman		 1079-1102
Brestislav II Duke,
1092-1110		 Coloman
(Kalman)		 1095-1114 Boleslaw III
Wrywouth		 1102-1138
Vladislav I 1111-1125 Stephen II 1114-1131
Sobeslav I 1125-1140 Bela II 1131-1141 Wladyslaw II
the Exile		 1138-1146
Geza II 1141-1162 Boleslaw IV
the Curly		 1146-1173
Vladislav II 1140-1156;
King,
1156-1173		 Ladislas II 1162-1163
Stephen III 1162-1172
Stephen IV 1163-1165
[ten rulers] 1173-1197 Bela III 1172-1196 Mieszko III
the Old		 1173-1177
1194-1202
Ottokar I 1197-1230 Emeric 1196-1204 Kazimierz II
the Just		 1177-1194
Ladislas III 1204-1205 Leszek I
the White		 1202-1227
Wenceslas I 1230-1253 Andrew II 1205-1235 Wladyslaw III
Spindleskanks		 1228-1231
Bela IV 1235-1270 Henryk I
the Bearded
of Silesia		 1231-1238
Henryk II
the Pious		 1238-1241
Konrad I
Mazowiecki		 1241-1243
Ottokar II
the Great		 1253-1278 Boleslaw V
the Chaste		 1243-1279
Stephen V 1270-1272 Leszek II
the Black		 1279-1288
Henryk IV
Probus		 1288-1290
Ladislas IV 1272-1290 Przemyslaw 1290-1296
1278-1305 Václav II /
Wenceslas II		 Andrew III
last Arpad		 1290-1301 Wenceslas II
of Bohemia		 1300-1305
1301-1305
Wenceslas III
last Przemysl		 1305-1306 Otto (III)
of Bavaria		 1305-1307 Waclaw III /
Wenceslas III
of Bohemia		 1305-1306
Rudolf of Hapsburg 1306-1307
Henry of
Carinthia		 1307-1310 Charles I
of Anjou		 1308-1342 Wladyslaw IV
the Short		 1306-1333
John of Luxemburg 1310-1346 Kasimierz III /
Casimir III
the Great --
last Piast		 1333-1370
Charles I
Emperor Charles IV		 1347-1378 1342-1382 Louis I the Great
Ludwik		 1370-1382
Wenceslas IV 1378-1419 Mary of Anjou;
marries
Emperor
Sigismund		 1382-1385
1386-1395		 [interregnum] 1382-1383
Charles II
of Naples		 1385-1386 Jadwiga of Anjou
marries Jagiello		 1383-1399
1419-1437 Emperor Sigismund 1387-1437 Wladyslaw V Jagiello
Grand Duke of Lithuania		 1386-1434
1437-1439 Albert of Austria 1437-1439 Teutonic Knights
defeated at
Tannenberg, 1410
1439-1457 1440-1444 Vladislav
Jagiello/Wladyslav VI		 1434-1444
Ladislas I Posthumus
Ladislas V of Hungary		 1444-1457 [interregnum] 1444-1447
George Podiebrad 1459-1471 Matthias Corvinus 1458-1490 Kazimierz IV /
Casimir IV		 Grand Duke
of Lithuania, 1440
1446-1492
1471-1516 Ladislas II/
Vladimir Jagiello
Ladislas VI of Hungary		 1490-1516 John I Albert 1492-1501
1516-1526 Louis/
Louis II of Hungary--
killed by the Süleymân I
at the Battle of Mohács		 1516-1526 Alexander 1501-1506
1526-1564 Ferdinand of Austria John Zapolya,
Duke of Transylvania		 1526-1540 Sigismund I 1506-1548
1527-1564 Sigismund II Augustus 1548-1572
Bohemia, Moravia, & Hungary continue
with the Hapsburgs, 1564-1918		 Union of Poland
& Lithuania, 1569

Hungary is named after the Huns, who camped on the Hungarian plain in the 5th century. But the modern Hungarians are not Huns, they are Magyars, another steppe people speaking a Uralic language ultimately related to Finnish, Estonian, and other languages in Siberia. The Magyars arrived after being defeated by the Patzinaks in 892. They were encouraged by the Emperor Arnulf to attack Great Moravia, which they succeeded in overthrowing by 906. Unfortunately for the Franks, the Magyars then extended their attacks into Western Europe, adding to the misery of the "Second Dark Age" of that era, while the Vikings and Arabs raided from north and south. "Prince" is probably not the right title for the earliest leaders (I don't know if they used the Turko-Bulgarian khan), like the eponymous Árpád, but it became more appropriate after the Magyars were tamed by defeats at the hands of King Henry I at Riade in 933 and then especially by Otto I at Lechfield in 955. Soon Christianity and a royal crown from the Pope were brought to Hungary by St. Stephen, producing one of the great constituent Kingdoms of Francia. St. Stephen's sister even married a Doge of Venice, whose son then briefly succeeded Stephen. Some of the dates in the diagram are different from those in the table above. This reflects conflicts in the sources. The diagram also gives more of the Hungarian renderings of the names than in the table above. The origin of the Bavarian, Bohemian, and Anjevian claims to the Hungarian throne are evident in the marriages shown.

The genealogical diagram below begins well into the Premysl and Piast dynasties. With the Arpads given at left, the first King of Hungary shown below is Wenceslas II of Bohemia. The succession of the Piasts is bewildering, as the Throne jumps from brother to brother and then cousin to cousin. Then the Premsyls get involved, and then the houses of Luxemburg and Anjou. Later, as the Premysl and Piast male lines end, we get the entry of the Hapsburgs and Jagiellans (from Lithuania). The Hapsburgs come and go and then come back, by the end to permanently acquire Bohemia and Hungary. Poland, with a sprinkling of in-laws or unrelated Kings, passes to the Vasa dynasty of Sweden. With the end of the Vasa Kings, the elective principle reigns supreme in Poland. The Hapsburgs get their big break when the Jagiellan Louis II of Hungry is killed by the Turks in the Battle of Mohács in 1526 and his brother-in-law, Ferdinand of Austria, future Emperor and brother of the Emperor Charles V, pressed his claims to the kingdoms.

Kings of Poland
Henry of Valois 1573-1574
King of France
1574-1589
Stephen Bathory 1575-1586
Sigismund III Vasa 1587-1632
Wladyslaw VII 1632-1648
Tsar of Russia,
1610-1612
John II Casimir 1648-1668
Michael Wisniowiecki 1669-1673
John III Sobieski 1674-1696
Augustus II
the Strong
(I of Saxony)		 1697-1706
1709-1733
Saxony,
1694-1733
Stanislas Lesczynski 1704-1709
1733
Lorraine,
1737-1766
War of the
Polish Succession,
1733-1735
Augustus III
(II of Saxony)		 1733-1763
Saxony
1733-1763
Stanislas
Poniastowski		 1764-1795
Poland partitioned between
Prussia, Austria, & Russia:
1772, 1793, & 1795
Frederick Augustus
(III/I of Saxony)		 Grand Duke
of Warsaw,
1807-1815
Saxony
1763-1827

The end of the Jagiellan dynasty reveals the elective principle of the Polish Throne. After the brief tenure of the Vasa Kings, Polish candidates alternate with foreigners, and the election becomes a matter of European power politics, a Great Power tug-of-war between France and Russia, especially evident in the brief and farcical War of the Polish Succession. Real Polish interests stand little chance of survival in such a situation. Eventually, foreign control of the elections and candidates suggests direct foreign control of the country, and Poland and Lithuania vanish in three partitions.

At right are the stages in the partition of Poland, by which Prussia, Russian, and Austria erased Poland and Lithuania from the map of Europe. The last two stages seem to have been in part defensive measures against the French Revolution, to whose enthusiasms Poland, with a weak monarchy, was seen as susceptible. Napoleon's later revival of a Polish state confirmed the role of Poland as a subversive force. At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Poland was erased again. Russia ended up with most of the Prussian and Austrian shares of 1795, and some of Prussia's 1793 slice. Poland and Lithuania were not independent again until after World War I, only to have Poland partitioned again between Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939, with Lithuania absorbed by the latter in 1940. Stalin kept his part of Poland after World War II, compensating a communist Poland with large pieces of Germany. Lithuania only regained its independence with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

While the election of the Polish Kings is sometimes celebrated as creating a Republic, this was not only merely a government of self-interested nobility, the only electors, but it gives us the most sobering paradigm in all of history for the disaster that is invited in by a divided and hopelessly impotent government. Poland became a plaything, a joke, and then, after the German occupation in World War II, and place of incomprehensible crime and horror. The Jews of Poland, some 10% of the population of Poland in 1939, brought in by the Mediaeval Kings to create a commercial class, and then resented by Polish peasants for their consequent wealth and status, were all but exterminated by the Germans. Forty years of Soviet rule then served to suppress such commercial instincts as existed elsewhere. Now, post-communist Poles, while hating Communism (not to mention the Russians), still know little better than to elect ex-Communists to the government. After World War I, Bohemia (and Moravia) became part of Czechoslovakia with the hitherto Slovak part of Hungary.

Czechoslovakia Hungary Poland
Thomas Garrigue Masaryk 1918-1935 Miháaly Count Károlyi 1919 Jozef Pilsudski 1918-1922
Sándor Garbai 1919 Gabriel Narutowicz 1922
Eduard Benésh 1935-1938 Miklos Horthy 1920- 1944 Stanislaw Wojchiechowski 1922-1926
Ignacy Moscicki 1926-1939
German Occupation, 1938-1945 German Occupation, 1939-1945
Emil Hácha Bohemia- Moravia,
1938- 1945		 Jozef Tiso Slovakia
1939- 1945		 Ferenc Szálasi 1944- 1945
Eduard Benésh 1945-1948 Soviet Occupation, 1945-1991
Zoltán Tildy 1946- 1948 Boleslaw Bierut 1947-1952
Klement Gottwald 1948-1953 Árpád Szakasits 1948- 1950
Sándor Ronai 1950- 1952
Antonin Zápotocký 1953-1957 István Dobi 1952- 1967 Aleksander Zawadzki 1952-1964
Antonin Nóvotný 1957-1968 Edward Ochab 1964-1968
Ludvig Svoboda 1968-1975 Pál Kosonczi 1967- 1987 Marian Spychalski 1968-1970
Soviet Occupation, 1968-1991 Jozef Cyrankiewicz 1970-1972
Gustav Husák 1975-1989 Karoly Nemeth 1987- 1988 Henrik Jablonski 1972-1985
Bruno Straub 1988- 1990 Wojciech Jaruzelski 1985-1990
Václav Havel Czech
Republic,
1989- present		 Michael Kovác Slovakia
1993- 1998		 Árpád Goncz 1990- 2000 Lech Walesa 1990-1995
Rudolf Schuster 1999- Present Ferenc Mádl 2000- present Aleksander Kwaniewski 1995- present

The most prosperous country in Eastern Europe, Czechoslovakia was first dismembered and terrorized by Nazi Germany and then fell to Communism through an internal coup (with the probable murder, but official suicide, of Eduard Benésh, the pre-War President), the only country in Eastern Europe not to become Communist merely through Soviet occupation. Occupation it became after the "Prague Spring" of 1968, when Alexander Dubcek tried to reform the regime and create "Communism with a human face." This oxymoron was crushed by Soviet tanks, and freedom again slept until the miraculous year of 1989, when the regime abruptly fell.
Lithuania
Antanas Smetona 1919-1922,
1926-1940
Alexandras
Stulginskis		 1922-1926
Kazys Grinius 1926
Soviet Occupation, 1940-1941,
1944-1991
German Occupation, 1941-1944
Vytautas
Landsbergis		 1991-1992
Algirdas Brzauskas 1992-1998
Valdas Adamkus 1998-present
The saying was that it took ten years for Communism to fall in Poland, ten months in Hungary, ten weeks in East Germany, ten days in Czechoslovakia, and ten hours in Romania. A free Czechoslovakia then experienced its own internal crisis, the "velvet divorce," as Slovakia broke off to go its own way. This was a very bad deal for Slovakia, which was way, way behind Bohemia-Moravia economically. Reports of the situation in the new Czech Republic are mixed. Already with an industrial base, and after the most aggressive privatization program in Eastern Europe, the country is nevertheless troubled by the corruption characteristic of former Soviet regimes. Especially disturbing are the reports of a virtual slave trade of women who are brought or lured for forced prostitution from the much poorer countries to the east. Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, although intent on rejoining the mainstream of Western Europe, and already members of NATO, still have a large task ahead to overcome the heritage of the Soviet years -- especially given the false socialist ideals still held up to them by France and Germany.

Croatia
Yugoslavia, 1918-1941,
1945-1991
German Occupation, 1941-1945
Tomislav (II,
Aimone of Spoleto?)		 King,
1941-1943
Ante Pavelic 1943-1945
Franjo Tudjman 1991-1999
Stjepan Mesic 2000-present
Bosnia Herzegovina
Yugoslavia, 1918-1941,
1945-1992
German Occupation, 1941-1945
Alija Izetbegovic 1992-2001
Ziviko Radisic Serbian,
1998-2001
Ante Jelvic Croatian,
1998-2001
Bozidor Matic 2001-present
Of the Mediaeval Eastern European states of the Balkans examined above, two, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, ended up as parts of Yugoslavia after World War I. Their fate in the breakup of Yugoslavia is detailed with Modern Romania. Croatia, unfortunately, was previously revived as a German puppet state during World War II. After the Croatian declaration of independence in 1991, the Serbs regarded the new state as essentially Neo-Nazi, though the subsequent behavior of both Serbs and Croats would make observers wonder if that didn't apply to both of them. The worst acts by both sides were in Bosnia, with Bosnian Moslems caught between them. Bosnia remains more or less informally partitioned between the three groups, with foreign troops keeping the peace. Bosnia's position on the border between Francia and Romania, Francia and Islâm (i.e. Ottoman Turkey), is no more painfully evident than in this ethnic strife, atrocities, and partition.

Heads of State for the post-World War I nations are taken from the Regentenlisten und Stammtafeln zur Geschischte Europas by Michael F. Feldkamp [Philpp Reclam, Stuttgart, 2002].

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The Kings of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, 588 AD-Present

Scandinavia forms a natural unit in the Periphery of Francia, not the least because Denmark, Norway, & Sweden, whose early history is scrambled together, were also eventually united, by the Union of Kalmar, in 1397. Otherwise, converting to Christianity at about the same time as the Eastern European peoples, the Scandinavian kingdoms had relatively little influence on European history in general after the great period of pre-Christian Norse and Varangian raiding and conquest in West and East. This influence was considerable enough, even just noting the permanent foundations of Normandy, Norman Sicily and Naples, Norman England, and Varangian Russia. Gustavus Adolphus entering the Thirty Years War was then probably the last decisive Scandinavian intervention in European history.

The Flags the Scandinavian countries, as well as those of some dependencies, are based on the venerable, distinctively asymmetrical white cross on red of the Dannebrog, which is supposed to have been adopted by King Valdemar II, the Victorious, on 15 June 1219, establishing the earliest national flag in continuous use since. However, there is no real certainty that the flag was used before the reign of Valdemar III (1340-1375).

Here the background colors represent countries and combinations of countries. Denmark and Norway together appear as yellow; Norway and Sweden as blue; and all three together as white. These kingdoms pose a particular problem in listing the kings and giving the genealogy, since the historical rulers shade over gradually into the legendary, and then into the mythic, and it is very difficult to tell what kind of ground one is on. The table here begins with legendary rulers who are more or less historical, which means that they probably existed, even while dating them and identifying genuine events of their reigns involves considerable guesswork and uncertainty. Genealogy for the kings in the first table below, and for earlier legendary and mythic kings, is given separately at Legendary and Early Kings of Scandinavia. When that link is used, a new browser window will open for the page. If the window is reduced in size and positioned conveniently, the diagrams can be compared with the table in this window.

The picture here is a compromise between several sources. The best discussion of the difficulties and uncertainties is in the Royal Families of Medieval Scandinavia, Flanders, and Kiev by Rupert Alen and Anna Marie Dahlquist [Kings River Publications, Kingsburg, California, 1997]. While the title of this book mentions Flanders and Kiev, it deals with them from the perspective of intermarriages with Norwegan, Swedish, and Danish houses. Additonal information, especially on Denmark, Norway, and the early legendary and mythic material, is from The Mammoth Book of British Kings and Queens by Mike Ashley [Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc., New York, 1998, 1999]. These two books have been compared with the large genealogical chart, Kings & Queens of Europe, compiled by Anne Tauté [University of North Carolina Press, 1989], and with Kingdoms of Europe, by Gene Gurney [Crown Publishers, New York, 1982]. There is considerable disagreement between the sources, even for historical kings, not just on dates (which can be infuriatingly different) but even on the succession and the occurrence of various rulers. Priority is given to the sources as listed, but even Alen and Dahlquist are not always consistent in their own presentation -- e.g. they have one chart showing the Sweden King Inge II living and reigning until 1130, while otherwise placing Magnus Nielsson from Inge's death in 1125 to 1130. On the other hand, Tauté also has Inge ruling until 1130 and doesn't show Magnus at all. And this is a confusion about rulers well within the historical period. Early in the chart it will be noted that Ragnar Lodbrok is listed both for Denmark and for Sweden, but at somewhat different periods -- and neither set of dates works if Ragnar is the Viking chief who sacked Paris in 845 and treated with Charles the Bald. This is a good indication of the uncertainties and mismatches that can occur in the early chronology. That Erik I of Sweden occurs after Erik II is also a good clue. All the Swedish Eriks are, nevertheless, accounted for (with Erik the Victorious as Erik VI, not always the number he is given). What is not accounted for are Swedish Kings Charles (Karl) I-VI, who all appear to be mythic. The numbers really should be redone, but it is too late for that -- the present King of Sweden is Charles XVI. Sometimes earlier Swedish Knuts are numbered, but not here -- Knut I (1167-1196) is the first.

Kings of Denmark Kings of Norway Kings of Sweden
Ivar Vidfamne 588-647
Ingjald Illrade
 565-623
623-647
Harald I Hildetand 647-735, or d.c.750 Olaf the Tree-hewer 680-710 Harald Hildetand 647-735, or d.c.750
Sigurd Ring 735-750, or c.770-812
Randver c.750 Halfdan I 710-750 Ragnar Lodbrok 860-865, or 750-794
Eystein I 750-780 Eystein Beli 750 or 860-?
Sigurd I Ring 735-750, or c.770-812 Björn Järnsida 794-804,
or c.856
Horik I 850-854 Halfdan II Whitelegs 780-800 Erik II 804-808,
or d.c.870
Horik II 854-? Gudrod the Magnificent 800-810 Erik III 808-820
Ragnar Lobrok c.860-865 Olaf Geirstade 810-840 Edmund I 820-859
Sigurd II Snogoje 865-873 Halfdan III the Black 840-863 Erik I d.c.870
Hardeknut
Canute I		 873-884 Civil War, 863-885 Björn 870-920
Frodo 884-885 Harald I
Fairhair		 885-933 Olaf I Ring 920-930
Harald II Parcus 885-899 Eric I
Bloodaxe		 933-934 Eric IV Väderhatt ?
Gorm
the Old		 c.900-950 Haakon I
the Good		 934-963 Erik V 930-950
Harald III
Bluetooth		 c.950-986 First Christian King Edmund II 950-965
First Christian King Harald II
Graypelt		 963-977 Olaf II 965-970
Sweyn I
Forkbeard		 986-1014 Haakon Jarl of Lade,
977-995		 Eric VI the Victorious 970-995
Olaf I Tryggvason 995-1000
Eric Jarl of Lade,
1000-1015		 Olaf III Skötkonung 995-1022
Harald IV 1014-1018 St. Olaf II Haraldson 1015-1028,
d.1030
1018-1035 Canute II the Great King of England
1016-1035
1028-1035 First Christian King
Hardecanute,
Canute III		 1035-1042 Magnus I
the Good		 1035-1047 Anund Jakob Kolbrenner 1022-1050
King of
England,
1040-1042		 Edmund III Slemme 1050-1060
1042-1047 Stenkil 1060-1066
Sweyn II 1047-1074 Harald III
Hardrade		 1047-1066 Erik VII &
Erik VIII		 1066-1067
Magnus II 1066-1069
Harold V Hen 1074-1080 Olaf III
the Peaceful		 1066-1093 Inge I
the Elder		 1066-1080,
1083-1110
Halsten 1066-1070
Canute IV
the Holy		 1080-1086 Magnus III
the Barefoot		 1093-1103 Blot-Sven 1180-1183
Olaf IV Magnusson 1103-1115 Filip
Halstensson		 1110-1118
Olaf IV
the Hungry		 1085-1095 Eystein II 1103-1122 Inge II the
Younger		 1118-1125
Eric I
the Evergood		 1095-1103 Sigurd I
the Crusader		 1103-1130
Niels
the Elder		 1103-1134 Magnus IV
the Blinded		 1130-1135,
d.1139		 Magnus
Nielsson		 1125-1130
Eric II 1134-1137 Harald IV Gillechrist 1130-1136 Sverker I
the Elder		 1130-1156
Eric III 1137-1146 Inge I 1136-1161 St. Eric IX 1156-1160
Sweyn III 1146-1157 Sigurd II 1136-1155
Canute V
Magnussen		 1147-1157 Eystein III 1142-1157 Charles VII 1161-1167
Valdemar I
the Great		 1157-1182 Haakon II 1161-1162 Knut I 1167-1196
Canute VI
the Pious		 1182-1202 Magnus V 1163-1184 Sverker II
the Younger		 1196-1208,
d.1210
Valdemar II
the Victorious		 1202-1241 Sverre 1184-1202 Eric X 1208-1216
Eric IV 1241-1250 Haakon III 1202-1204 John I 1216-1222
Abel 1250-1252 Inge II
Baardson		 1204-1217 Eric XI 1222-1229
1234-1250
Christopher I 1252-1259 Haakon IV the Old 1217-1263 Knut II the Long 1229-1234

It has been noted that genealogical diagrams for the table above are given elsewhere. Genealogies for the following kings are given after their respective tables below. At right is a diagram for descent and marriages of some of the kings above that involve Emperors of Romania (Byzantium) and Grand Dukes or Princes of Kiev. This avenue of Romanian descent into subsequent European royalty and nobility is the best authenticated, despite the remaining uncertainty about the parentage of Irene. Otherwise, much less certain is the Romanian descent of the Counts of Savoy.

Noteworthy is also the connection to King Harold II of England, the Saxon King who was killed at the battle of Hastings in 1066, as William the Conqueror invaded England. While Harold did not have descendants in Britain directly, his descendants through Kiev and Denmark ultimately lead to the marriage of Margaret of Oldenburg to King James III of Scotland, from whom all subsequent Scottish and then British monarchs are descended.

Kings of Denmark Kings of Norway Kings of Sweden
Eric V 1259-1286 Magnus VI 1263-1281 Valdemar 1250-1275
Eric VI 1286-1319 Eric II 1281-1299 Magnus I 1275-1290
Haakon V 1299-1320 Berger 1290-1320
Christopher II 1320-1332 Magnus (VII of Norway, II of Sweden) 1320-1365
Haakon VI 1343-1380 Eric XII 1356-1359
Valdemar III 1340-1375 Albert 1365-1388
Olaf V (IV of Norway) 1376-1387 Duke of
Mecklenburg,
1379-1412
Union of Denmark & Norway, 1380
Queen Margaret I
 1387-1412
Union of Kalmar -- Denmark, Norway, & Sweden, 1397
Eric (VII of Denmark, III of Norway, XIII of Sweden)
 1412-1439
Christopher (III of Denmark)
 1439-1448
Christian I of Oldenburg
 Charles VIII 1448-1457
1464-1465
1467-1470
1448-1481
John/Hans (II of Sweden)
 1481-1513

Denmark Norway Sweden
Christian II
 1513-1523
Frederick I 1523-1533 Gustavus I Vasa 1523-1560
Christian III 1534-1558 Eric XIV 1560-1568
Frederick II 1558-1588 John III 1568-1592
Christian IV 1588-1648 Sigismund 1592-1604
Charles IX 1604-1611
Gustavus II Adolphus 1611-1632
Christina 1632-1654
d.1689
Frederick III 1648-1670 Charles X 1654-1660
Christian V 1670-1699 Charles XI 1660-1697
Frederick IV 1699-1730 Charles XII
"Madman of
the North" 		1697-1718
Queen Ulrika 1718-1720
Christian VI 1730-1746 Frederick 1720-1751
Landgrave of Hesse,
1730-1751
Frederick V 1746-1766 Adolphus Frederick 1751-1771
Christian VII 1766-1808 Gustavus III 1771-1792
Gustavus IV Adolphus 1792-1809
Frederick VI 1808-1839 Charles XIII 1809-1818
Christian VIII 1839-1848 Norway & Sweden, 1814
Charles XIV
Bernadotte		 1818-1844
Oscar I 1844-1859
Frederick VII 1848-1863 Charles XV 1859-1872
Christian IX 1863-1906 Oscar II 1872-1907
Frederick VIII 1906-1912 Haakon VII 1905-1957 Gustavus V 1907-1950
Christian X 1912-1947
Frederick IX 1947-1972 Olaf V 1957-1991 Gustav VI Adolph 1950-1973
Queen Margaret II 1972-present Harald V 1991-present Karl /
Charles XVI Gustaf		 1973-present

The Scandinavian countries are not well know for having colonial possessions. At the height of its power, Sweden was preoccupied with acquisitions in the Baltic area, like Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Pomerania. There was one distant colony of Sweden, however, in the future American State of Delaware, called "New Sweden." The first Swedish settlers were actually brought by the Dutch West India Company in 1638. The Swedish government then appointed a governor in 1640. But this was all on territory that was claimed by the New Netherlands, and the famous Dutch governor, Peter Stuyvesant, captured the Swedish colony in 1655. Danish possessions began rather earlier and were more distant and durable. Greenland, discovered by Eric the Red in 982, became a possesson of Norway, but the Union of Kalmar brought all Scandinavian possessions into the hands of Denmark. The settlement in Greenland actually died out, but colonization began again in 1721. Greenland remains Danish today. The story is similar for Iceland, discovered in 874. In 1262, the local Icelandic assembly, the Althing, voted for union with Norway. The Union of Kalmar then brought them together with Denmark. Denmark gave Iceland autonomy in 1874, and virtual independence in 1918, except that the King of Denmark was still the King of Iceland. This continued until Denmark was occupied by Germany in World War II. Iceland voted in 1944 to become a republic (which it had been from 930-1262). The stories of Greenland and Iceland, of course, are part of the earliest explorations of the Vikings. A Christianization of Scandinavia seems to have stilled the spirit of adventure and exploration. It was remembered that Lief Ericson had discovered lands beyond Greenland in about 1003, which he had named Vinland, and some efforts had been made at settlement there, but then the project lapsed, permanently. In the later Age of Discovery, the Danes ventured further. There were a couple of Danish footholds in India, Serampore (1616) and Tranquebar (1658), but these did not last long. More durable was Danish settlement in, of all places, the Virgin Islands. Danish forces landed in 1666 on St. Thomas. The settlement failed, but the Danes were back in 1671 and expanded to St. John in 1717. St. Croix was purchased from France in 1733. British occupation of the islands in the Napoleonic period (1807-1815) introduced an English speaking population. Eventually, Denmark simply sold the islands to the United States in 1917. Thus ended the modern phase of the Scandinavian colonial experience.

Finland
Per Evind of
Svinhufvud		 1917-1918
Carl Gustav Emil
von Mannerheim		 1918-1919
Carl J. Stahlberg President,
1919-1925
Lauri Relander 1925-1931
Per Evind of
Svinhufvud		 1931-1937
Kyösti Kallio 1937-1940
Risto Ryti 1940-1944
Carl Gustav Emil
von Mannerheim		 1944-1946
Juho Kusti
Paasikivi		 1946-1956
Urho Kekkonen 1956-1981
Mauno Koivisto 1982-1994
Marti Ahtisaari 1994-2000
Tarja Halonen 2000-present
 
Finland and Estonia (speaking closely related Uralic languages) enter history as dependencies of Sweden, then of Russia. Only in the 20th Century do they emerge as independent countries -- Estonia briefly in the 1920's and 30's and then only after fifty years of terror (1940-1991) under the Soviet Union.
Estonia
Konstantinion
Päts		 President,
1938-1940
Soviet Occupation,
1940-1941,
1944-1991
German Occupation,
1941-1944
Arnold Rüütel 1991-1992
Lennart
George Meri		 1992-present
Finland managed to preserve its independence continuously since breaking away from Tsarist Russia in 1917. This was no small achievement when the Soviet Union was right next door, with aggressive designs, and the worst consequences might have been expected from Finland being an open ally of German in World War II. Oddly enough, Stalin settled for Finnish neutrality. This despite the outright humiliation inflicted on the Russians when they attacked the Finns in 1939. The Nazi-Soviet Pact had divided up Eastern Europe between Hitler and Stalin. Hitler was not happy when Stalin began making territorial demands on Finland, but he wasn't ready to do anything about it. When the Finns resisted, Stalin attacked. This all made it obvious, at the time, that Stalin was as great an enemy of peace and freedom as Hitler (a matter confused in the minds of many when Stalin later joined the Allies thanks to Hitler's invasion of Russia). But Stalin was in for a surprise. The Finns, led by Carl von Mannerheim, well prepared for fighting in the snows of the north (and with the Soviet Army weaked by Stalin's purges), inflicted sharp defeats on the Russians. The British began thinking of ways to get aid to the Finns across neutral Norway and Sweden. This came to naught when Hitler conquered Norway, and the Finns were left to be worn down by the infinitely larger Russian forces. A peace was accepted with large cessions to Russia. Hitler made good by the Finns when he then invaded Russia in 1941, but, of course, his defeat then put Finland in a worse postion than before. Stalin could have demanded almost anything. The dictator, who otherwise took everything in sight, nevertheless let Finland off with the previous cessions, neutrality, and a reparations bill of $300,000,000. The Finns had paid that by 1952. Now they have nearly conquered the world themselves, with Nokia cell phones. Unfortunately, they have also adopted some particularly nasty socialistic ideas, like assessing traffic fines as percentages of income, which means a wealthy person can be fined thousands of dollars for the simplest driving infractions. The Finns seem to have forgotten that Ingmar Bergman stopped making movies in Sweden when the top tax rate became higher than 100%.

Iceland
Sveinn Björnsson 1944-1952
Asgeir Asgeirsson 1952-1968
Kristjan Eldjarn 1968-1980
Vigdis Finnbogadottir 1980-1996
Olafur Ragnar
Grimsson		 1996-present
Remote Iceland, associated with Norway in 1262 and then with Denmark in 1380, became independent, with the King of Denmark still as the King of Iceland, in 1918, and then a republic, as Denmark was still occupied by Germany, in 1944. Iceland was occupied as an important Allied base in World War II. It was also important for observation and logistics in the Cold War. Surnames preserve active patronymic suffixes, "-son" and "-dottir," as can be seen in the names of the Presidents.

Heads of State for the post-World War I nations are taken from the Regentenlisten und Stammtafeln zur Geschischte Europas by Michael F. Feldkamp [Philpp Reclam, Stuttgart, 2002].

Philosophy of History

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The Kings of

PLUS

ULTRA

Spain and Portugal ,
718 AD-Present



Spain, unlike Britain, never fell outside of history after the collapse of the Western Empire, which gives us a continuous record of rule from Rome through the Visigoths and beyond. Nevertheless, Spain underwent her own unique transformation in the trauma of the Islâmic conquest. The Visigoths were crushed and for almost three centuries a revived Christian kingdom, Asturias, could do little more than cling to the north coast and the northwest corner of Iberia. Nevertheless, more than one Christian state eventually organized and gradually reconquered the peninsula. Navarre (Navarra), Aragón, and Barcelona all began as march counties of Francia. Asturias/Galicia/León could claim direct succession from the Visigoths, while Castile (Castilla) was a march of León. There were at different times up to five different Spanish Christian kingdoms. These were all eventually consolidated. Portugal, which began as a county of León, was the only kingdom to ultimately maintain its independence of the rest of Spain. Spain was sometimes styled an "empire." Ferdinand I and Alfonso VII of Castile were sometimes styled "Emperor," but in Mediaeval Europe, the Popes regarded such a title as theirs to dispense, and no self-proclaimed emperors were going to get cooperation from the Church. In fact, Alfonso X of Castile was actually elected Holy Roman Emperor in 1257, but nothing came of it all. Alfonso never went to Germany, distracted by civil war (1275) and rebellion (1282), and it was already clear that the Pope had no intention of crowning him. When the Pope finally crowned Emperor a King of Spain, it was Charles V (Charles I of Spain), a 1/4 German Hapsburg who had been born and raised in Belgium. The Imperial crown then passed to Charles's brother Ferdinand of Austria, not to his son Philip II of Spain. [cf. J.H. Elliott, Imperial Spain, 1469-1716, Mentor, 1963; Adam Wandruszka, The House of Hapsburg, Anchor Books, 1965; & Denys Hay, Europe in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, Longmans, Green and Co. Ltd., 1966.]

An issue of note concerns the names of the Kings. Since the major languages of Christendom use many of the same names, it is often possible to give translations. This was formerly the most common, so that in English one talked about "Johns" and "Peters" in the Spanish Kingdoms. This is now sometimes frowned upon, but the desire to use the "native" language of the country in question can produce some gaffs:  One occasionally sees Kings of Portugal called "Juan," when this is actually just the Spanish, not the Portuguese, version of "John" -- that would be "João." Since there are other languages in the Iberian Peninsula -- Catalan, Basque, and Galician -- besides standard (Castilian) Spanish and Portuguese, it is often a good question just what vernacular language was being used in a particular time and place. There is also the complication that the Kings of Navarre marry into French Royalty and nobility and so after 1234 are all French speaking. The written langugage during much of the period, of course, would just be Latin.

"John" is "Juan" in Castilian, "Xoán" in Galician, "Ion" or "Jon" in Basque, "Joan" in Catalan, "Jean" in French, and "Johannes" in Latin (another form, "Iban," only occurs in the patronymic "Ibañez"). Simply using "John" would seem to be the least confusing and the most revealing. However, Portuguese and Spanish (Castilian) versions are given for most of the names (somewhat irregularly). Some names -- "Alfonso" and "Sancho" -- really do not have English equivalents. Sancho, the name of many Kings of Navarre, is written "Santxo" in Basque and may in fact have originally been a Basque name, though its origin in now obscure ("Santius" was the Latinized version). "Alfonso" becomes "Alphonse" in French, and this has been borrowed into English to an extent, but it is not very common, so "Alfonso," like "Sancho," is simply given in its Spanish form. Sometimes overlooked, again, is that the Portuguese, "Afonso," is different. Another problem is the English equivalent for Castilian "Juana," the feminine form of "Juan." Although this is simply "Jeanne" in French, or "Jone" in Basque, in English it could be "Joan," "Joanna," "Joanne," "Jane," or even "Jeanne." "Ferdinand" and "Fernando" are both of Spanish derivation, originally "Ferdinando." This was itself Visigothic, and the form now most familiar in English, "Ferdinand," is the version of the name as it passed into German with the marriage of Juana the Mad of Castile to Philip of Hapsburg. One of their sons was then the Emperor Ferdinand I. He was raised in Spain, speaking Spanish. His grandfather, Ferdinand II of Aragón, contemplated leaving the kingdom of Aragón to him in his will but thought better of it. Later, he was given the rule of Austria by his brother. Elected king of Hungary and Bohemia, he then succeeded his brother as Emperor.

His brother, of course, was the Emperor Charles V. It is "Charles" in French and English, "Carlos" in Spanish and Portuguese, "Carolus" in Latin, and "Karl" in German. The story about Charles is that he only spoke German to his horse. He was raised at the court of his grandfather, the Emperor Maximilian I, in the Netherlands, speaking Flemish, where his name would be, I think, "Karel," as in Dutch. There is a monument to Charles V in Guadalajara, Mexico. It actually calls him "King Charles V" ("Rey Carlos V"), which is not quite right since, as King of Spain, he was Charles I. All this seems to confuse everybody.

The colors here go with the kingdoms, but as the kingdoms combine, the color of the dominant kingdom supersedes the others. Thus yellow, the color for Castile (which started as a County of León, was detached by Sancho the Great of Navarre, and then was willed to his son Ferdinand I as a separate kingdom), is also the color for Spain as a whole, as Castile absorbs León, Aragón, and then, briefly, Portugal. A minor variation is that the red is darker for the Kingdom of the Asturias, of which León was essentially a continuation. The change in name took place after one of the characteristic divisons and then recombinations, several of which we see later, between brothers, sometimes brothers who become hostile and murderous to each other.

The Islâmic rulers of Spain, 756-1492, are listed separately from this page, with the other rulers of Islâm, linked in the table at right. The first three hundred years after the Islâmic Conquest were tough times, naturally, for Christian Spain, which took quite a while to even get organized in some areas. These years were largely those of the Omayyad Amirs and Caliphs, who may be said to have presided over the Golden Age of Islâmic Spain. The suprisingly rapid decline of the Omayyads in the 11th century quickly led to complete political fragmentation and to grave vulnerability to the rising Christian Kingdoms.

It should be noted that although Spanish Christians later referred to all Spanish, and also North African, Moslems as "Moors," this lumps together ethnically and linguistically distinct peoples, particularly those who were actually Arabs and those who were of North African Berber derivation. There was sometimes tension and conflict between these groups in Islâmic Spain. "Moors" also would mean native Spaniard converts to Islâm, the Muwalladûn. If one then considers sub-Saharan black African Moslems as "Moors," like Shakespeare's Othello, this adds another group, one that would have been noticeable in North Africa but probably not of much significance in Spain. To many people, however, "Moor" always means "black," and this is a serious confusion. Indeed, a factor in the 11th century in Spain were slave troops, the S.aqâliba, that consisted, not of Africans, but of captives from Christian Europe. Also confusing is the tradition of calling Christains in Islâmic Spain "Mozarabs."

Navarre, which is perhaps known too generally by the French version of its name, was originally a kingdom of the Basques, an apparently autochthonous people whose language has no demonstrable affinities to any other in the world, much less to any in the area. Interesting genetic information about this is reported by Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza in Genes, Peoples, and Languages [University of California Press, 2000]. The Basque region turns out to be the center of a characteristic gene component of European populations. Cavalli-Sforza says:

...the Basques once inhabited a much larger territory than today... During the last Paleolothic period the Basque region extended over almost the entire area where ancient cave paintings have been found. There are some cues [sic, "clues"?] that Basque descends from a language spoken 35,000 to 40,000 years ago, during the first occupation of France by modern humans... The artists of these caves would have spoken a language of the first, preagricultural Europeans, from which modern Basque is derived. [pp.120-121]

Thus, neither the French nor the Spanish ("Navarra") version of the name of the kingdom is necessarily more "accurate" than the Basque version, "Nafarroa." While Navarre was the dominant Spanish kingdom under Sancho the Great, its power and extent declined quickly and decisively. Of the seven Basque provinces in Spain and France (where only about 12,000 people speak Basque any longer), only two ended up belonging to Navarre proper. I have not noticed Basque nationalists claiming to have invented art (i.e. the cave paintings), but they apparently would have as reasonable a claim as anyone.

Islamic Conquest of Spain, Visigoths Overthrown;
Battles of Jerez de la Frontera & Ecija,
Cordova captured, 711; Seville & Toledo captured,
712; Battle of Segoyuela, Saragossa (Zaragoza)
captured, 713; Valencia captured, 714
Kings of Asturias,
at Oviedo		 Arabs stopped in
Francia, Battle of
Poitiers, 732
Pelayo, Pelagius 718-737
Arabs stopped, Battle
of Covadonga, 718
Favila 737-739 Basques,
Kings of Navarre,
Navarra, Nafarroa
Alfonso I, the Catholic 739-757
Fruela I, the Cruel 757-768
Aurelio, Aurelius 768-774 Charlemagne
defeated at
Roncesvalles, 778
Silo 774-783
Mauregato,
Mauregatus		 783-788 Iñigo Jimenez Count,
d.822?
Vermudo/Bermudo I,
the Deacon		 788-791 Enneco,
Iñigo Iniguez Arista		 King,
822-
c.851
Alfonso II, the Chaste 791-842 County of Barcelona,
in Francia, 801
Nepociano, Nepotian 842 (?)
(852?)		 García I Iniguez 852-
882
Ramiro I 842-850 García (II) Jimenez rival,
d.c.885
Ordoño I 850-866 Iñigo Garcés c.885-?
Alfonso III, the Great 866-910 Fortuno,
Fortun Garcés		 882-
905
Garcia 910-914 Sancho I Garcés 905-925
Ordoño II Galicia,
910-924
914-924
Kings of León
Fruela II, the Cruel 924-925
Sancho Ordoñez Galicia,
925-929		 Jimeno Garcés 925-931
Alfonso IV, the Monk 925-931
Ramiro II Galicia,
929-951		 García II Sánchez I 931-971
931-951
Ordoño III 951-955 Count of
Aragón,
922-971
Sancho I, the Fat 955-958,
960-966
Ordoño IV,
the Wicked		 958-960 Sancho II
Gárces II Abarca		 971-994
Ramiro III 967-982,
d.985
Vermudo II 982-999 García III
Sánchez II		 994-c.999
Alfonso V, the Noble 999-1027
Some lists of Kings of Navarre leave out the first Garcia, which means the numbering of subsequent Garcias is one less than shown. Also, the double names of these Kings mean that there is some variety in which names get numbered. Two numbers are thus given for several Kings. "Garcés" sometimes is seen as "Gárces."


The names of the early Kings of Navarre, like those of the early Basque Dukes of Gascony, display the active use of the patronymic suffix -ez/s. This later becomes conspicuous in Spanish and Portuguese surnames, but here bespeaks Basque derivation -- like the names with which it is used, viz. Sancho (Santxo) and García.

Navarre became the suzerain of Aragón in the 9th century. After some intermarriage, the county was united to Navarre in 971 (or 970). Because of this process, different events sometimes are referred to by different sources. Thus, Bruce R. Gordon says that Navarre acquired Aragón "c.850," but The New Penguin Atlas of Medieval History says 970 (p.50, note 2). The New Cambridge Medieval History, Volume III, c.900-c.1024 [Timothy Reuter, editor, Cambridge, 1999] gives the details [p.689, with the year 970, but then the year 971 on p.717]. There are other uncertainties about this period. While the picture in Gordon is that the Asturias was divided among three sons of Alfonso III, ultimately with all inherited by Alfonso IV, The New Cambridge Medieval History, Volume II, c.700-c.900 [Rosamond McKitterick, editor, Cambridge, 1995, p. 863] and Volume III [p. 716] list Ordoño II and Fruela II as successive Kings of León after Garcia. The details are given in Volume III [pp.674-675]. The independent (rebellious?) kingdoms in Galicia are the confusing factor. In this period the capital of the principal kingdom was moved from Oviedo in Asturias to Zamora and then, perhaps by Ordoño II, to León, which now gives its name to the whole.

The following genealogy was originally derived from Volume III of the Cambridge Medieval History, based on the text where the diagrams [pp.716-717] unaccountably differ. Also, the text refers to the daughter of Sancho García of Castile who marries Sancho III of Navarre as "Mayor" [p.687], even though the diagram calls her "Elvira" and "Mayor" is elsewhere given in the text as the heiress of Ribagorza [p.690]. Now, according to the Erzählende genealogische Stammtafeln zur europäischen Geschichte, Volume II, Part 1, Europäiche Kaiser-, Königs- und Fürstenhäuser I Westeuropa [Andreas Thiele, R. G. Fischer Verlag, Third Edition, 2001], "Munia Mayor"
Counts of Aragón
Anzar I Galindez ?
García the Bad d.858
Galindo I Anzárez 858-c.867
Anzar II Galindez c.867-c.893
Galindo II Anzárez c.893-922
Andregoto Countess,
922-972
annexed by Navarre, 971
was both the daughter of Sancho I García and the heiress of Ribagorza, while Sancho III had no other wife. (An Elivra is shown as a sister of Sancho García who married Vermundo II of León.) The earlier part of this genealogy, including the Counts of Aragón and Castile, has now been constructed from the Stammtafeln. One drawback of that source is that Thiele doesn't give the diacritics or the full patronymics for many names.

The problem of the annexation of Aragón gets muddied a bit further. The heiress of Aragón, Andregoto (seen elsewhere as "Andregoro"), is shown dying in 972, which looks close (at least) to the dates given by the Cambridge History and the Penguin Atlas. However, Andregoto's husband, García II Sanchez of Navarre, already is given, without a date, as Count of Aragón because of his marriage. This is simple enough, but then García is said to have divorced (verstoßen) Andregoto circa 940. So did Andregoto remain Countess of Aragon despite the divorce? The 971 could then be the year that her son, Sancho II Abarca, inherited Navarre and so, perhaps, also Aragón.

It is notworthy that the lines of Asturias, Castile, and Navarre begin with simultaneous or alternating reigns of rival cousins or even in-laws, i.e. husbands of cousins. How this worked seems clearest in Asturias and most obscure in Castile.

In what follows, before Iberia settles down to just two Kingdoms again (Spain and Portugal), things get very complicated. This is where we get up to five independent Christian thrones -- six counting Barcelona -- not to mention the Moslem states. Thus, the table of rulers has been broken up into more convenient sections. Each section is preceded by maps of the period and followed by a family tree of the rulers. Navarre is given special treatment after the extinction of the Kingdom in Spain. It might be noted that after 1037, every ruler in Christian Spain is a descendant of Sancho III of Navarre.

It should be noted that the Kings of the Asturias, Galicia, León, Castile (Castilla), and Spain (España) share a common numbering, but that the Kings of Navarre, Aragón, and Portugal are all numbered independently. Thus, Sancho II of Navarre (970-994) is different from Sancho II of Aragón (1063-1094), Sancho II of Castile (1065-1072), and Sancho II of Portugal (1223-1245); but Alfonso IX of León (1188-1230) is numbered in succession to Alfonso VIII of Castile (1158-1214).
Counts of Castile,
Castilla, at Burgos
Nuño Nuñez I 899-c.909
Nuño Nuñez II 914/15
Gonzalo Tellez 903-929
Munio Fernandez c.921
Fernando Ansurez 916-920,
927-930
Gonzalo Fernandez 930-932
Fernán(do) González 932-970
García I Fernandez
White Hands		 970-995
Sancho I García
Good Laws		 995-1017
García II Sanchez 1017-1028
annexed by Navarre, 1029
Ferdinand II of Aragón (1479-1516) becomes Ferdinand V of Castile and of Spain (united with his marriage to Isabella I of Castile). It is tempting to see Sancho III of Navarre as Sancho I of Castile (as he is Sancho I of Aragón), since he bestowed Castile as a kingdom on his son, Sancho II. But Castile was not until then a kingdom at all. It had previously been a march county of León. Sancho I of León (955-958) thus might be considered Sancho I of Castile instead, especially given the co-numbering of the Kings of León and Castile. Or, Sancho I might just be the previous Count of Castile, Sancho I of the Good Laws (995-1017), who can be seen in a list of Counts at right.

The following period sees the beginning of the Reconquista, the reconquest of Islâmic Spain by the Christian states. It is certaintly a bad period for the native Moslem states. Their weakness and divisions make it possible for Alfonso VI of León and Castile to capture Toledo in 1085, the traditional beginning of the Reconquista. However, the alarm of Islâm at this turn drew in the Almoravids (Murabits) from North Africa, who then defeated Alfonso at Zallâqa in 1086, without, however, recovering Toledo. This therefore began a new era for Islâmic Spain as well as for Christian, since native Islâmic Spain was now unable to withstand the Christians on its own and became dependent on North African powers. The confusions of the period become a source of great romance. When Alfonso, deposed by his brother, Sancho II of Castile, returned to power in Castile as well León, he took on many of Sancho's retainers, including one Rodrigo Díaz (d. 1099). Rodrigo came to fall out of favor and in 1081 became a mercenary, fighting for both Christians and Moslems. After taking Valencia in 1094, he passed into legend as El Cid, interestingly an Arabic title, Sîd, "lord, master."

Kings of León Kings of Navarre
Vermudo/Bermudo III 1027- 1037
Sancho/Santxo III Garcés III the Great,
Sancho I of Aragón
 1000- 1035
Kings of

Castile 		Kings of

Aragón 		García IV Sánchez III 1035- 1054
1037- 1065 Ferdinand/Fernando I the Great 1035- 1065 Ramiro
I		 1035- 1063
1065- 1070,
1072- 1109		 Alfonso VI King of
Galicia		 Sancho II 1065- 1072 Sancho IV 1054- 1076
García 1065- 1071,
1072- 1073
d.1094
1073-1109 1072-1109 1063- 1094 Sancho II Ramirez,
Sancho V of
Navarre		 1076- 1094
captures Toledo, made capital of Castile;
beginning of the Reconquista, 1085;
but defeated by Almoravids, Zallâqa, 1086
Counts & Kings

of Portugal		 Urraca (married to Alfonso I of Aragón) 1109- 1126 Peter/Pedro I 1094- 1104
Henry,
brother,
Odo I of
Burgundy		 Count
1093- 1112		 Alfonso I el Batallador
(co-ruled León & Castile, 1109-1126)		 1104- 1134
Afonso I Count
1112- 1139		 Alfonso VII Galicia,
1112- 1126
King
1139- 1185		 1126- 1157 occupation of Saragossa, 1118-1130
Portugal León Castile Aragón Navarre

In the following period the Almoravid state, which began to weaken, is replaced and the position of Islâmic Spain is restrengthed by a new North African force, the Almohads (Muwahids), who came to Spain in 1147. This respite turns out to be relatively brief. The Christian Kingdoms are growing and occasionally can even cooperate. The Almohads were then crushed at Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212. They had abandoned Spain by 1229, and St. Ferdinand III of Castile and León began to roll up the heart of Andalusia, with Cordova falling in 1235 and Seville in 1248. This would leave only the Sultânate of Granada, in the difficult Sierra Nevada, as a remnant of Islâmic Spain.

Kings of Portugal Kings of León Kings of Castile Kings of Aragón Kings of Navarre
Sancho I 1185- 1211 Ferdinand II 1157- 1188 Sancho III 1157- 1158 Ramiro II 1134- 1137 Garcia V Ramirez 1134- 1150
Alfonso VIII 1158- 1214 union with County of Barcelona, 1137
Queen Petronilla 1137- 1173
capture of Saragossa, 1146, new capital of Aragón
Afonso II 1211- 1223 Alfonso IX 1188- 1230 Alfonso
II		 1173- 1196 Sancho VI 1150- 1194
defeat by
Muwahids at
Alarcos, 1195;
victory at
Las Navas de
Tolosa, 1212		 Pedro II 1196- 1213 Sancho VII 1194- 1234
Sancho II 1223- 1245 Henry I 1214- 1217 James/
Jaime I		 1213- 1276
1230- 1252 St. Ferdinand III
San Fernando
Rey de España		 1217- 1252 Thibault,
Teobaldo
I, of
Cham- pagne		 1234- 1253
capture of
Cordova, 1235,
Seville, 1248		 capture of
Valencia, 1238,
Murcia, 1266		 Thibault,
Teobaldo II		 1253- 1270

The marriage of Blanca of Navarre to Theobald of Champagne means that for a while the Counts of Champagne become the Kings of Navarre. Greater detail of that genealogy can be examined on the page for Champagne. What this leads to is examined further below.

In the following period the Reconquista is completed, and Spain, unified, becomes a World Power, perhaps truly the first such, as Spanish sailors circle the planet and claim most of it, with the claims sticking in much of the New World, the Philippines, and elsewhere -- even as the inheritance of the united Kingdom by the Hapsburgs made Spain a partner to the dominant political forces of Catholic Europe. One detail noticeable on the maps but not thoroughly indicated in the table or genealogy below (but shown at right) is the temporary Aragonese Kingdom of Majorca, conquered from the Almohads and then left to a brother, James II, of Peter III. Eventually, Peter IV disposessed his cousin and returned the islands to Aragón (1343).

Meanwhile, with the competion of the Reconquista, there was the nagging problem of the non-Christians, the Jews and Moslems, who were scooped up in the new possessions. There had already been forced conversions of Jews, both by Christians and by the Almoravids and Almohads. Some Jews, like Moses Maimonides (1135-1204), had seen the handwriting on the wall back then and left. Under Christian rule, however, many Jews had converted -- the Conversos. Christians often suspected, correctly, that many Conversos were still secretly practicing Judaism. These were derisively called Marranos, perhaps derived from a Spanish word for "swine." The Spanish Inquisition in great measure was created to test the faith of Marranos, many of whom were burned at the stake or otherwise punished for the actual or suspected practice of Judaism. In the fateful year of 1492, the religious problem was taken up a couple of notches. After a long and hard campaign, Granada surrendered, finishing the Reconquista. The last Sult.ân left for North Africa, but one condition of the surrender was religious toleration for Moslems. This was not going to last long, only until 1499. By 1502, Moslems of Granada were supposed to accept baptism or leave; and by 1526 this was the choice for the last Moslems of Valencia and Aragón. Those who remained and converted were the Moriscos, who thus joined the Marranos as suspected crypto-infidels. Meanwhile in 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella decided to expel all unconverted Jews from Spain. Portugal followed suit in 1497 and Navarre in 1498. Jews went to North Africa, distant Turkey, the Netherlands, and other places. Those who remained and converted, of course, were now open to the tender investigations of the Inquisition. The greater threat to the regime, however, seemed to be the Moriscos, who continued to speak Arabic and retained their traditional garb and customs. They were occasionally ordered to stop and assimilate. These orders were generally ignored, but as the Spanish state strengthened, the threat became more serious. The enforcement of a 1566 (or 1567) order finally provoked a Revolt at the end of 1568. With the Turkish navy contesting the Mediterranean, and crypto-Moslem Moriscos calling for help, the Revolt became part of the larger contest with Islâm that troubled Philip II. With much hard fighting, and even subsequent years of guerrilla actions, the Revolt was largely suppressed in 1570. Philip decided to remove the remaining Moriscos from Granada and scattered them throughout Spain. This ended their threat as a serious internal enemy, but it did not end their existence as a cultural and religious irritation. The suspicion of Marranos and Moriscos by the Church and the Crown poisoned Spain for many years. In so far as the Moriscos were concerned, however, this didn't last too long, since Philip III decided in 1609 to expell them from Spain altogether, whether they were really Christians or not. This was accomplished by 1614, after which only the persecution of Marranos would continue. Many of them, rather than fleeing Spain altogether, moved to the Spanish colonies in the New World, where their exalted status over the Indians made their disabilities back home less conspicuous and significant. Astonishingly, even today some families surivive in New Mexico with the memory, passed down the generations, that they had once been Jews. The deliberate destruction of the Jewish and Moslem communities in Spain, however, was no help to Spain either culturally or economically. As the Arab historian Philip Hitti said, Spain shone for a few years with a "borrowed glory" from its creative mediaeval communites, but then sank into the status of a cultural and political backwater all the way into the 20th century.

For a good part of the following period the royal houses of Spain and Portugal were both illegitimate:  Trastámara and Avis. Also, John of Avis had an illegitimate son, the Duke of Braganza, who leads to the Kings of Portugal after Spanish rule is overthrown in 1640. Also noteworthy is the fact that Queen Isabella of León and Castile usurped the throne of her niece, Joanna la Beltraneja. Isabella's half-brother, Henry IV, was called "the Impotent" because this is what his first wife, Blanche of Navarre, said. He cannot have been completely impotent, however, since his second wife had Joanna. Later, although Joanna the Mad (Juana la Loca) is only listed as Queen until 1516, she was actually titular Queen until her death in 1555. But since Charles I (V) was both Regent and Heir, and Emperor, he is usually simply regarded as the de facto King.

A 2001 movie, Juana la Loca, was Spain's nominee for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. It did not make the final list of five nominees, however. I have not seen the movie yet and cannot say whether it is of historical interest.

Kings of Portugal Kings of Castile Kings of Aragón Kings of Navarre
Afonso III 1245- 1279 Alfonso X, the Emperor, the Learned, the Wise 1252- 1284 Peter/
Pedro III		 1276- 1285 Henry I 1270- 1274
King
of Sicily, 1282- 1285		 Jeanne/
Juana I		 1274- 1305
Diniz/
Dinis		 1279- 1325 Sancho IV 1284- 1295 Alfonso III 1285- 1291
Ferdinand IV 1295- 1312 James II 1291- 1327 Luis,
Louis X
of France		 1305- 1314
Sardinia ceded
by Pisa, 1326 		France,
1314- 1316
Afonso IV 1325- 1357 Alfonso XI 1312- 1350 Alfonso IV 1327- 1336 Philip I,
V of
France		 1314- 1322
Charles I,
IV of
France		 1322- 1328
Peter/
Pedro I		 1357- 1367 Peter the Cruel 1350- 1366,
1367- 1369		 Peter IV 1336- 1387 Jeanne/
Juana II		 1328- 1349
Ferdinand/
Fernando I		 1367- 1383 Henry/
Enrique II		 1366- 1367,
1369- 1379		 Philip II,
d'Evreux		 1328- 1343
John/
João I of Avis		 1385- 1433 John/
Juan I		 1379- 1390 John/
Juan I		 1387- 1395 Charles II, the Bad 1349- 1387
Henry III 1390- 1406 Martin I 1395- 1410 Charles III, the Noble 1387- 1425
Edward/
Duarte I		 1433- 1438 John II 1406- 1454 Ferdinand I 1412- 1416 Blanche/
Blanca		 1425- 1441
Alfonso V 1416- 1458
King
of Naples, 1442- 1458
Afonso V 1438- 1481 Henry IV 1454- 1474 1458- 1479 John II 1425- 1479
John/
João II		 1481- 1495 Isabella/
Isabel I		 1474- 1504 1479- 1516 Ferdinand
II;
Ferdinand V of Castile /
Spain;
Ferdinand
of
Navarre		 Eleanor/
Leonora		 1479
fall of Granada, end of Reconquista, 1492 François Phébus/
Francisco
Febo		 1479- 1483
Emanuel/
Manuel I		 1495- 1521 Juana the Mad (d. 1555;
& Philip I, of Hapsburg,
d. 1506)		 1504- 1516 Regent of Castile, 1506- 1516 Catherine/
Catalina		 1483- 1512,
d.1517
1512- 1516
John/
João III		 1521- 1557
Charles/Carlos I of Spain / Emperor Charles V
d. 1558
 1516- 1556
Sebastian/
Sebastião I		 1557- 1578
Philip/Felipe II of Spain / Philip I of Portugal
 1556- 1598
Cardinal Henry/
Henrique		 1578- 1580
1580- 1598
Philip III of Spain / Philip II of Portugal
 1598- 1621
 

Spanish and Portuguse Colonial Possessions

The Pillars of Hercules

Kings of Navarre
Catherine/Catalina 1483-1517
John III d'Albret 1484-1516
Henry II 1517-1555
Jeanne III 1555-1572
Anthony de Bourbon
Duke of Vendôme		 1555-1562
Huguenot leader,
dies of wounds, 1562
Henry III,
Henry IV of France		 1572-1610
King of France,
1589-1610
 
The family tree, above, of the rulers of Spain ends for Navarre with the marriage of Jeanne/Juana I to King Philip IV of France. This introduces an interesting but obscure chapter in history, straddling Spain and France and consequently tending to be left by treatments of Spain to French history, and by treatments of France to Spanish history. Especially neglected is what happened when Ferdinand of Aragón annexed Navarre in 1512. Not all of it was ultimately retained by Spain, but readily accessible sources don't seem to show either the difference between the old and new boundaries or what happened to the rulers of Navarre after the annexation -- the table at right picks up at that point. This seems like a grave oversight for the history of France. Jeanne was already of the house of Champagne; female heirs of the line subsequently married four times into new houses of French nobility (Evreux, Foix, Albret, & Vendôme) and once to Spanish royalty (Aragón); and it all leads to Henry of Navarre, who founded the Bourbon dynasty of France as King Henry IV in 1589.

The large genealogical chart, Kings & Queens of Europe, compiled by Anne Tauté [University of North Carolina Press, 1989], simply ends the line of Navarre with Jeanne I. For a long time, the only family tree I had seen of subsequent rulers was in Europe in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centures, by Denys Hay [Longmans, London, 1966, p. 404], which ends with Queen Catherine, who lost the Kingdom to Ferdinand. Family trees for the Bourbons, such as given here, almost never go back further than the father, Henry, of Henry IV's mother Jeanne. Brian Tompsett's Royal and Noble genealogy originally enabled me to fill in the gaps, but there are some obscurities and questions in the information of both Tompsett and Hay that I had to compare with other sources. The first complete list of the Kings of Navarre I have found is in the Regentenlisten und Stammtafeln zur Geschichte Europas by Michael F. Feldkamp [Philipp Reclam, Stuttgart, 2002, pp.146-148]. A complete genealogy can now be found in the Erzählende genealogische Stammtafeln zur europäischen Geschichte, Volume II Part 1, Europäische Kaiser-, Königs, und Fürstenhäuser I Westeuropa, by Andreas Thiele [R.G. Fischer Verlag, 2001, p.185-192].

The most striking thing about the succession for Navarre is that the last Capetian Kings of France, Louis X to Charles IV, were all Kings of Navarre. John I doesn't seem to get counted as a King of Navarre, but then, only reigning eight days, he is sometimes not even counted as a King of France -- on the other hand, it may be necessary to count him if the husband of Catherine is to be counted as John III of Navarre, which means that John II of Aragón was also John II of Navarre -- there was no earlier John (Jean/Juan) in Navarre to be John I, if not the Capetian. With the death of Charles IV (Charles I of Navarre), a curious thing happens. The succession of France jumps to the House of Valois, but, as it happened, Louis X had a surviving daughter, Jeanne. She was ignored for the French Throne because of the Salic Law, which prohibited female succession, but the Salic Law did not apply to Navarre. So while the French Thone passed to Philip VI in 1328, the Throne of Navarre passed to Jeanne/Juana (II).

Jeanne's son was Charles "the Bad." A lengthy account of his doings can be found in Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror [Ballantine, 1978], which is about the events of the 14th century. The County of Evreux, which he inherited from his father, was in Normandy, which means he spent a great deal of his life in intrigues very distant from the Pyrenees.

Two generations later, we get to Queen Blanche/Blanca, who marries Spanish rather than French, namely the future King of Aragón, John II. After Blanche's death John remarries. He then outlives all of Blanche's children but one, Eleanor/Leonora. Aragón goes to a son, Ferdinand, by his second marriage, but Navarre passes to Leonora, who does not survive the year. Her husband, Count Gaston of Foix, and her son, Gaston also, both predeceased her, so the succession passes to her grandson, Francis Phoebus (François Phébus in French; Francisco Febo in Spanish), and then her granddaughter, Catherine/Catalina. Here I had a question, because Hay shows two Gastons in between Leonora and Catherine. This seemed to be a mistake, and I followed Brian Tompsett. I have now been able to confirm this with the Erzählende genealogische Stammtafeln zur europäischen Geschichte, Volume II Part 1, Europäische Kaiser-, Königs, und Fürstenhäuser I Westeuropa, by Andreas Thiele [R.G. Fischer Verlag, 2001, p.191].

What Tompsett didn't have in his database was the young (23) Gaston de Foix, Duke of Nemours, who was killed at the battle of Ravenna in 1512. Elsewhere on the Web, Gaston was listed as a son of Jean de Foix and a grandson of Gaston IV of Foix and Eleanore (Leonora) of Aragón. So I took it that Gaston and Leonora had at least two sons, though I had no sources that listed them both. Now, however, I do, since the Erzählende genealogische Stammtafeln [ibid., p.191] shows not only this, but that Gaston and Leonora had four sons and five daughters. Gaston's mother was Marie d'Orléans, a sister of King Louis XII of France.

Catherine now married French nobility again, this time John of Albret. The two of them were doomed to suffer from the ambition of her cousin, Ferdinand of Aragón, who invaded Navarre in 1512 and got the Pope to officially dethrone Catherine and John and certify the transfer. In 1515 Ferdinand, who had joined Navarre to the Crown of Aragón, transfered it to that of Castile, lest the Navarrese claim the extra privileges enjoyed by the Aragonese. A small part of Navarre north of Pyrenees, Lower Navarre ("Basse Navarre" in French or "Nafarroa Beherea" in Basque), was retroceded by Charles V in 1530, so a landed Monarchy continued, with, of course, its growing French holdings. The table also shows an interesting alliance of the d'Albret family. John's sister Charlotte married Cesare Borgia, though he abandoned the marriage after four months. The succession then passes to Henry II. Here Tompsett had a question, since he gave Henry as the grandson of Catherine but then noted obscurities over Catherine's son, named Henry also. The Encyclopaedia Britannica flatly states that Henry II himself was the son of Catherine and John d'Albret, so I followed that. This construction is confirmed by the Erzählende genealogische Stammtafeln [ibid., p.192].

Henry II marries a sister, Margaret, of King Francis I of France. She is somewhat celebrated, as Margaret (or Marquerite) of Navarre (or of Angoulême), patroness of Rabelais and author of a collection of stories, the Heptameron. Henry's daughter, Jeanne (III), then marries the senior heir of the Bourbons, Anthony (Antoine), Duke of Vendôme. Their son, Henry III of Navarre, becomes heir to the French Throne, claiming it, amid civil war, in 1589, as Henry IV. After 261 years, the Thrones of France and Navarre are again joined.

The map at left shows the lands that Henry brought to the French Monarchy. We have seen how Foix, Albret, and Vendôme accrued to Navarre, and how most of Navarre proper was lost to Spain. It is noteworthy that the blue territories, previously belonging to the Dukes of Bourbon, who were separate from Henry's line, had previously reverted to the French Throne. The outline of France shown is slightly unfamiliar because Savoy, Alsace, Lorraine, and the Free County of Burgundy have not yet been added to France's eastern frontier.

The Heiresses of Navarre
Heiress Husband
Blanca d.1229 Theobald of
Champagne		 d.1201
Jeanne I Queen,
1274-1305		 Philip IV
of France		 France,
1285-1314
Jeanne II Queen,
1328-1349		 Philip of
Evreux		 Navarre,
1328-1343
Blanca Queen,
1425-1441		 John II
of Aragón		 Navarre,
1425-1479
Aragón,
1459-1479
Leonora Queen,
1479		 Gaston IV
of Foix		 d.1472
Catherine Queen,
1483-1517		 John III
d'Albret		 Navarre,
1484-1516
Jeanne III Queen,
1555-1572		 Anthony
of Bourbon		 Navarre,
1555-1562
Ironically, the rulers who were deprived of their home in Spain by force end up returning to rule all of Spain by invitation. When Philip of Bourbon was named successor to Charles II of Spain in 1700, as shown below, the House of Navarre acquired the Throne of all of Spain. The small pied à terre held of old Navarre (Lower Navarre) after 1530 is now, on the other hand, a permanent part of France. With the Monarchy long gone in France, the Bourbon (Borbón) King Juan Carlos is one of the principal surviving Monarchs of Europe, ennobled by his establishment of democracy in Spain after the long dictatorship of Francisco Franco. On the other hand, the national consciousness of the Basque people continues to trouble the unity of the nation states. Besides Spanish Navarra and French Lower Navarre, two other Basque provinces, Labourd and La Soule, exist in France, and three others, Vizcaya, Guipúzcoa, and Alava, exist in Spain. The capital of Spanish Navarra, Pamplona (from Latin Pompeiopolis or Pampaelo), Iruña in Basque, is famous for the annual running of the bulls; but Basque nationalism has a more troubling aspect in Spain, with a long and continuing campaign of terrorist attacks to the credit of the extremists. Thus, Navarre and the Basque country have a significance far beyond their size in both mediaeval and modern history.

Portugal Spain
1621- 1640
Philip IV of Spain /
Philip III of Portugal
 1621- 1665
Revolt of Portugal, 1640; Revolt of Catalonia, 1640-1659
John/João IV of
Braganza/
Bragança		 1640- 1656 defeat at Rocroi
by France,
end of Spanish
hegemony, 1643
Afonso VI
d. 1683		 1656-1667 Charles/
Carlos II		 1665-1700
Peter/
Pedro II		 1667-1706
John/
João V		 1706-1750 Philip of
Anjou/Felipe V
de Borbón		 1700-1746
War of the Spanish Succession, 1701-1714
Joseph Emanuel/
José Manuel		 1750-1777 Ferdinand VI 1746-1759
Charles III King of Sicily,
1734-1759
1759-1788
Maria I 1777-1816 Charles IV 1788-1808
Peter/
Pedro III		 1777-1786
John/
João VI		 Regent
1799-1816		 Ferdinand/
Fernando VII		 1808
French Occupy Portugal & Spain, 1807
in Brazil
1807-1821		 Joseph
Bonaparte		 1808-1814
1816-1826 Ferdinand VII,
restored		 1814-1833
Peter/Pedro IV /
Peter I of Brazil		 1826
Emperor
of Brazil
1822-1831
Maria II 1826-1828
1834-1853
Peter/Pedro II
Emperor of Brazil		 1831-1889 Isabella/
Isabel II		 1833-1868
Ferdiniand/
Fernando II		 1837-1853
Miguël 1828-1834
Peter/
Pedro V		 1853-1861
Louis/Luis 1861-1889 First Republic, 1868-1871
Amadeo
of Savoy		 1871-1873
Alfonso XII 1874-1885
Charles/
Carlos		 1889-1908 Alfonso XIII 1886-1931
Manuel II 1908-1910
d. 1932
Republic, 1910-1926
Provisional President
Theophilo Braga 1910-1911
President
Manoel de
Arriaga		 1911-1915
Gen. Pimenta
de Castro		 1915
Bernardino
Machado		 1915-1917
Gen. Sidonio Pães 1917-1918
Antoio José
de Almeida		 1919-1925
Bernardino
Machado		 1925-1926
The modern period of Spanish history begins with body blows to Spanish hegemony in Europe:  the revolts of Portugal and Catalonia (1640) and then the defeat by France at Rocroi (1643) in the Thirty Years War. With these, France became the country to beat in European wars and Spain was far gone in a decline not unlike that of her erstwhile great religious enemy, Ottoman Turkey. How to recover Spanish fortunes was the key question for the next four hundred years. At first, a change in leadership seemed like the right idea. The sickly and deformed Charles II of Hapsburg himself decided that the succession of the French Bourbons would turn the trick. However, all it really did was make Spain the junior partner of France, which won little for Spain except breathing room -- and the epic loss of Gibraltar.

A similar alliance with Napoleon only meant that the Spanish as well as the French fleet was destroyed by Nelson at Trafalgar in 1805, followed by Napoleonic betrayal and a French invasion of Spain. The subsequent Peninsular War against France, with the help of Britain, and especially of the Duke of Wellington, was one of the great moments of Spanish history, memorably illustrated by Goya -- Spain has never been short of great artists. However, this proximity to the English did not spell any substantial adoption of English liberal ideas, which are the only things that could have properly pulled Spain into the 19th century, let alone the 20th. Subsequent history is all too familiar from later "underdeveloped" countries, far too much politics and far too little of the rule of law and basic personal and property rights. This culminated in the fiasco of the Spanish Republic and then the Civil War, when socialist nonsense brought on a devastating conservative reaction. As Fascists battled Socialists, and the Socialists were often murdered by Communists, the leftist Cause Celèbre of the late 1930's represented a battle in which Spain would lose no matter which side won. The suspicion, as it happens, is that Stalin really didn't want the Spanish Left to win, since it would have been outside his control. Better that heretics be killed, even in a losing cause. Fortunately for Spain, the victorious Fascist Dictator Franco, although chummy enough with Hitler and Mussolini, was not interested in their War, even when Hilter offered him Gibraltar, free of charge, if he would let Germany attack it by land. This bit of prudent restraint earned Franco a peaceful (if protracted) death in bed in 1975 rather than the more horrible ends of the others in 1945.

Portugal Spain
Fascist Dictatorship,
1932-1974		 Second Republic,
1931-1939
President Prime Minister President
António Óscar de Fragoso Carmona 1926-1951 António de Oliveira Salazar 1932-1968 Alcalá Zamora 1931-1936
Manuel Azaña 1936-1939
Spanish Civil War,
1936-1939
Fascist Dictatorship, 1936-1975
Francisco Franco 1936-1975
Francisco Higino Craveiro Lopes 1951-1958
Américo de Deus Rodrigues Tomás 1958-1974 Marcelo Caetano 1968-1974
Republic,
1974-present
António de Spínola 1974 Adelino da Palma Carlos 1974
Francisco da Costa Gomes 1974-1976 Vasco dos Santos Gonçalves 1974-1975 Prime Minister
Monarchy Restored Carlos Arias Navarro 1973-1976
José Batista Pinheiro de Azevedo 1975-1976 Juan Carlos 1975-
António dos Santos Ramalho Eanes 1976-1986 Mário Soares 1976-1978 Adolfo Suárez González 1976-1981
Alfredo Nobre da Costa 1978
Carlos Mota Pinto 1978-1979
Maria de Lurdes Pintassilgo 1979-1980
Francisco Sá Carneiro 1980
Francisco Pinto Balsemão 1980-1983 Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo y Bustelo 1981-1982
Mário Soares 1983-1985 Felipe González Márquez 1982-1996
Mário Soares 1986-1996 Aníbal Cavaço Silva 1985-1995
Jorge Sampaio 1996- António Guterres 1995- José María Aznar Lopez 1996-

The deaths of both Spanish and Portugese dictators then ushered in the first real periods of democracy in the history of either country. The socialist, if not the communist, temptation was still here, but King Juan Carlos held off conservative coups in Spain, and the people of both countries came a bit more to their senses, although still burdened with the false ideals of Euro-socialist regimes like France. With a long history of trying to ignore the government, as in Italy, the Spanish economy may have been healthier, thanks to off-the-books transactions, than other statistics (like official unemployment, 22.5%) might have shown. Nevertheless, this still imposed a cultural as well as a political burden on Spain and Portugal really rising to a competitive level in the world economy. Now, however, Prime Minster Aznar has begun to be spoken of together with Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. Slashing taxes in 1997, the Spanish economy kicked up quickly. Although the 2001 (official) unemployment rate, at 14%, is still virtually a Depression level, the economy is growing at over 3% a year, almost twice as quickly as France. This may be just what Spain needs to join the ranks of heathiest economies, as well as healthiest democracies.

Philosophy of History

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Copyright (c) 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 Kelley L. Ross, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved

The Kings of Spain and Portugal, 718 AD-Present, Note 1

Ferdinand I's Kingdom of Castile was divided between his three sons:  Sancho II received Castile, Alfonso VI, León, and a new Kingdom of Galicia was broken off León for García. However, Sancho II prevented García from taking up his kingdom and then proceeded to attack Alfonso VI. In 1070, Sancho actually defeated Alfonso and drove him into exile, reassembling the whole kingdom of Ferdinand I. But when Sancho was killed in 1072, the whole kingdom immediately fell to Alfonso, who maintained its unity by imprisoning García until his death. How Sancho was killed is still a matter of uncertainty. He seems to have been meeting an incursion from Alfonso in exile, but the death may have been one of betrayal than just of battle. Whether Alfonso was even present is variously represented.

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The Kings of Spain and Portugal, 718 AD-Present, Note 2

St. Ferdinand III was the King of Castile and León responsible for the conquest of the heartland of Islâmic Spain:  Andalusia. "San Fernando Rey de España" was the name given to one of the Franciscan missions in California -- the King is shown, at right, in glory above the altar of the Mission. From it is derived the name of the San Fernando Valley, which is largely occupied by the City of Los Angeles, together with the independent cities of San Fernando, Burbank, Glendale, and Calabasas. Near the center of the Valley is Los Angeles Valley College, the mailing address for The Proceedings of the Friesian School, Fourth Series. The San Fernando Valley is ringed by the Santa Monica, Santa Susana, San Gabriel, and Verdugo Mountains and the Chatsworth and Hollywood Hills. The Los Angeles River rises in the Valley and flows out through Burbank and Glendale. Although the River normally runs nearly dry, flash floods do occur occasionally during the winter. A flood control network consequently was constructed after devastating flooding in 1938. The most conspicuous feature in the network is the Sepulveda Dam, which has been used in countless movies, television shows, and commercials to represent, not just dams, but military fortifications or even prisons as well.

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