BACHELOR KINGS.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 7 February 1936, Page 8

BACHELOR KINGS.

SIX EDWARDS WERE BACHELORS

Of the eight Kings of England or of Great Britain, named Edward who have conic to the throne since the Norman Conquest, six were unmarried when they succeeded. On the other hand, Edward the First had been married for 18 years before he "became King, and Edward the Seventh for 38. Two Edwards, the Fifth and the Sixtli died unmarried. So did William Rufus.

Britain has never had a bachelor King that is a King who remained a bachelor throughout his reign. England had two bachelor Kings before James the First became the first King lot' Great Britain by the union of the ,Crowns of England and Scotland in 1003. Both these, however, died as mere boys.

Three Kings of Great Britain before Edward the Eighth have, however, been bachelors when they ascended the throne. In each of the three cases, the King married within a year or so.

While James Stuart was married to Anne of Denmark, when he added the Crown of England to that of Scotland, on the death of the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth, in 1003, his son, Charles the First, was a bachelor when he succeeded his father in 1(525. This was more by accident than by design. Plans had been made for the marriage of Charles to the Infanta of Spain, several years earlier. Charles and. the Duke of Buckingham had made a romantic visit to Spain, but the result was disastrous to the marriage project. After the breaking off of the negotiations for the Spanish match, Charles was betrothed to Henrietta Maria of France. They were married soon after the accession of Charles the First to the Throne and were crowned together. Charles the Second, the son of Charles the First, was not married when he was restored to the Throne of Britain in 1000. BOMBAY AS DOWRY.

It was not till 1001 a year after his Restoration, that Charles married •Catherine of (Portugal. It was this marriage, by the way, that made Bombay an English possession. The island was part of Catherine's dowry. Just a century later than the accession of Charles, in 1760, George the Third came to the Throne, He, too, was then a bachelor. lie married Queen Charlotte in September, 17G1. A few weeks before his Coronation.

Queen Victoria, was, of course, not married when she came to the Throne in 1537, at the age of eighteen. It was not till three years later that she married Prince Albert:

On the other hand her son, King the Seventh, had been married •Tor 38 years when he succeeded his ijinother in 1901. Two of the actual bachelor Kings i of England, before the union of the were named Edward. One was j v the little Edward, the Fifth, who succeeded his father, Edward the Fourth, in 1453. He was then a boy of 13, and a few weeks later he and his little brother were strangled in the Tower of London.

Edward the Sixth, son of Henry the Eighth, came to the throne in 1537, at the ag r e of 10. Never a strong boy, he died in 1.3.13, at the age of 16,

His half-sister. Elizabeth, who reigned for 45 years, from 1558 to IGO3, 'never married, except in the imaginations of those incurable romanticists ,who hold that she secretly married the 'Earl of Leicester, and was the mother of William Shakespeare.

The other bachelor King was William Rufus, who never married though lie iwas 44 when he was killed by an arrow in the New Forest.

HENRY VIII. AS BACHELOR

Henry the Seventh, first King of the House of Tudor, was a bachelor when he became King, as the result of the defeat of Richard 'Crookbaek on Bosworth Field in 1485. In the following year, 1486, lie married Elizabeth of York, sister of Edward the Fifth.

Henry the Eighth was a bachelor when he succeeded his father, Henry the Seventh, in. 1509, at the age of 18. A few weeks later he married his brother's widow, Katherine of Aragon, and they were crowned together.

This was the first of six marriages for Henry. Four of his wives were his own subjects, while one, Anne of Cleves, was the daughter of a minor German Prince. Five of his marriages were in the last 14 years of his life, for he did not divorce Katherine till 1533

Six Edwards have come to the Throne as bachelors. Edward of York, fourth king of that name, did not marry Elizabeth Woodville till 1404, three years after his accession. As for Henry the Sixth, the pious Monarch whom Edward ousted from the Throne in the Wars of the Roses, he was a child of one when he came to the Throne in 1422. He was, incidentally, the only English King ever crowned as King of France. This was in 1431, when Joan of Arc was about to overthrow the English rule in France, Henry married the strongminded Margaret of Anjou six years before he was deposed.

I Henry the Fifth again Avas a bachelor king for live years. Then, in 1420, he married Catherine of Valois, daughter of the King of France. Five years after his death, she married the Welsh squire, Owen Tudor and their son was the father of Henry the Seventh. Richard the Third was only 10 when he succeeded his grandfather, Edward the Third, in 1377. Nine years later he married Anne of Bohemia. Edward the Third was a bachelor when he succeeded Ms murdered

father, Edward the Second, in 13.27, A few years later he married Phillippa of Hainault. Again Edward the Second was a bachelor when he succeeded Edward the First (Longshanks), in 1307, though he had reached the considerable age (for those days), of 23. It was in 1308 that he married Isabella of France —to his sorrow. Edward the First, on the other hand, had been married to Eleanor of Castile for 18 years before he succeeded to the Throne.