Our Sovereigns From Alfred To George Vi

OUR SOVEREIGNS from Alfred to George VI 8711937 OSBERT LANCASTER With 56 portraits in colour LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. First Edition November ig 6 Second Edition March 1937 Made and Printed in Great Britain by Butler Tanner Ltd., Frome and London CONTENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS The dates after the Sovereigns names represent the years of their reign INTRODUCTION PAGE vii FROM ALFRED TO GEORGE VI xii ALFRED THE GREAT 871901 i EDWARD THE EIDER 901925 2 ATHELSTAN 925940 3 EDMUND 940946 4 EDRED 946955 5 EDWY 955958 6 EDGAR 958975 6 EDWARD THE MARTYR 975978 8 ETHELRED THE UNREADY 9781016 9 CANUTE 10161035 n HAROLD 10351040 n HARDICANUTE 10401042 n EDWARD THE CONFESSOR 10421066 . . ., 13 HAROLD E 1066 17 WHXIAM I 10661087 21 WILLIAM n 10871100 25 HENRY I 110011 35 29 STEPHEN 11351154 . 33 HENRY n 11541189 37 RICHARD I 11891199 43 JOHN 1199 1216 . 47 HENRY III 12161272 .51 EDWARD I 12721307 55 EDWARD II 13071327 59 EDWARD III 13271377 63 RICHARD n 13771399 6 7 HENRY IV 13991413 7 V CONTENTS PAGE HENRY V 14131422 75 HENRY VI 14221461 79 EDWARD IV 14611483 8 5 EDWARD V 1483 89 RICHARD m 14831485 93 HENRY VH 14851509 97 HENRY VIE 15091547 I01 EDWARD VI 15471553 I0 7 MARY I 1553 1558 m ELIZABETH 1558 1603 115 JAMES I 1603 1625 119 CHARLES I 16251649 123 THE COMMONWEALTH 1649 1660 129 OLIVER CROMWELL RICHARD CROMWELL 1658 1659 CHARLES n 16601685 13 5 JAMES H 16851688 139 MARY H 16881694 143 WLUIAM HE 16881702 147 ANNE 17021714 151 GEORGE I 1714 1727 155 GEORGE n 1727 1760 159 GEORGE LU 1760 1820 163 GEORGE IV 18201830 169 WILLIAM IV 1830 1837 173 VICTORIA 1837 1901 177 EDWARD VII 1901 1910 183 GEORGE V 19101936 187 EDWARD VHT 1936 193 GEORGE VI 1936 199 The portraits of the Monarchs, withthe exception of Edward VIII and George VI, in this book are reproduced from the original collection assembled by the Proprietors of ENOS Fruit Salt for the Monarchy Chart with which they commemorated the Silver Jubilee of King George V. vi FROM Alfred to George VI the English throne has been occupied by no less than fifty-four sovereigns. Their lives and deeds have been exhaustively investigated and frequently chronicled, and some knowledge of their careers is the property of every schoolboy. Their likenesses, however, are, save in a few outstanding cases, less generally familiar, and those monarchs who were not so fortunate as Henry VIE and Charles I in possessing either a distinctive appearance or a genius as court painter, have frequently come featureless down the ages, or still worse, wearing masks not of their own devising. Thus the unfortunate little Edward V is known to many of us only through the romantic medium of the talented M. Delaroches highly imaginative art, and to the older generation of playgoers the features of Henry V are for ever those of the late Mr. Lewis Waller. With the coming of the cinema this process of substitution has notably increased, and even those kings whose appearance is familiar to all are now in danger of undergoing a slight but subtle metamorphosis thus Henry VHI already, one gathers, known to the youth of central Europe solely as Ein beriihmter Filmkonig has developed a strong likeness to characters so diverse as Rembrandt and Captain Bligh, and his dominating personality seems likely to merge as completely into that of his skilful impersonator as has LAiglons into the late Sarah Bernhardts. The purpose of the present volume is to present in acompact and accessible form a collection of portraits of all our kings reproduced from contemporary originals. These pictures are of varying merit, but all were painted either during the lifetime or shortly after the death of the sitters, who thus appear to us as they did to their vii contemporaries. Some, such as the splendid head of Henry VII and Lawrences dashing sketch of George IV, are works of art of a high order others derive their whole interest from their subject...