The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-07-06
BRITAIN'S FOREIGN KINGS.
Since Alfred the Great, Two.fiftbs Of the
Time Foreigners Have Sat on the
Throne Now Occupied by Victoria.

Says the London correspondent OF the
Sun: 1t is curious to count UP now, at
the end of the longest reign in certined
and verified history, the number OF
years that England first and Great
Britain next has been ruled over by
foreigners. England and Britain ana
the British, as we over here know from
Fearing ad nauseam, never, never, new
err never, never, never, never shall De
slaves: but the reiteration of twaddie
until we believe it does not prevent us
from having spent as a nation two
fifths of our life under the governance
of foreign kings and queens, and
consideration of the foreigners might
be interesting now.
Burke's Peerage, the Bible of the
wealthier families of Great Britain
traces Queen Victoria's pedigree back
to Alfred, commonly called the Great.
So let us also start with him.
Alfred was a Saxon, the son of q
Saxon, and he was succeeded by Sax
ons; so from S71 to 1915. when Canute
the Dane succeeded Edmund 1ronside,
the kingdom of England was ruled by
Anglo Sa xons. Canute and his sons,
Harold Harefoot and Hardicanute,
ruled for twenty-six years, until lo4Z,
then the Anglo" Saxon came back in the
shape of Edward the Confessor In
1865 Harold II. succeeded the pious Ed
ward, to be followed by the first pro-
fessionally foreign king. William the
Conqueror.
A PROFESSIONAL FOREIGNER.
He was a professional foreigner be-
cause his Norman duchy was more to
him than his English kingdom: be-
fore this time the foreign kings had
treated England as something of i'm
portance. William the Conqueror had
to spend some years in England to
complete the conquest; but he was
Norman, duke. and only inciden-
tally King of England. So, too, were
William the Ruddy and Henry the
Scholar: nominally kings of Normandy,
thew warred with that brother for
nearly twenty years to obtain his
duchy. After Henry l. came Stephen,
Count of Blois; to be followed by the
Angevin Kings, the Counts of AnJou
in France, who ruled from 1135 to 1400.
Not all of these rulers were foreign
| ers, however; but Stephen, 1135-1154;
Henry H.. 1154-11S9; Richard l., 11S9-
| 1l9E; John, 1199-1216. were distinctly
| foreign. In fact, Richard l. did not
| spend a year all told in England. But
all the rulers of the line married
| French women, so that there was not
| English blood in any one of the list.
From 1916 to 1400 the Angevins were
nonnnally English; they lost most of
| their French territory and had to live
| in England. Then came the Lancas-
| trians, the first really English reign
| Ing house since the Conquest. Henry
| T.. was the son of old John of Gaunt;
| his mother was English-he married
| an English woman; but his reigning
| descendants went to France for their
| wives.
| The Yorkists were better English
| than the Lancastrians, but their reign
was shorter, and lasted only twenty
! four years. Then came the Tudors, and
they. too. were English; and after the
| Tudors, in 1903, came the first of a
line Of foreigners, whose foreign de-
scendant still sits on the British
throne.
James Stuart had been King of Scot
land for more than thirty years when
he succeeded Elizabeth as sovereign
of England. English history is almost
silent as to this fact; 1t admits that
he was King of Scotland, but then lets
that fact slip, and remarks that he
began to reign" in 1903. He, like
Canute and William l.. was a foreign
| ruler. Charles l., born in Scotland, died
on the scaffold in 1919.
WILLIAM OF ORANGE.
In 1858 came another foreigner. Will
liam, Prince of Orange, who ruled as
William the Third until 1902. Then
came Anne, the last of the English SOW
ereigns of England, and when she died
in 17l4, came the fourth foreigner,
George l., Elector of Hanover, which
his English subjects have misspelled
Hanover. George III, born in 1888, was
indeed born in England; and the varl'
ous monarchs since his time have TAX
en- care that their princely children
shall first see the light in England.
But they are not English.
Some time ago some paper looked up
the pedigree of the Prince of Wales, ia
determine whether he had more Eng
lish than French blood in his veins
The paper decided that he had more
French blood than English, inasmuch
as his nearest English ancestor was
Margaret, queen of James ". of Scot
| lanu, VINO uleu IN 1911, Wnlle MS near
est French ancestor was Margaret OF
Lorraine, queen of James V. of Scot
land. This was wrong, because Henry
Stuart, Lord Darnley, was father tc
James VI, and was OF half English
blood. But since Darnley's time the
house of England has been maintained
wholly by Germans.
| James vi. of Scotland married Ann,
of Denmark: his daughter Elizabeth
married Frederick, Elector of Brand
enburg. Elizabeth's daughter Sophia
married the Elector of Hanover
Sophia's son, having married Sophis
Dorothea of Zelle, became King of Eng
land in 1714. He reigned for thirteei
years, most of which time he spent II
Hanover. George III. married Carolin
OF Brandenburg; Frederick, Prince o
Wales ("only Fred'D married a prin
cess of Saxe-Gotha; George III. mar
ried Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Sch
in; Edward, Duke of Kent, married
princess OF SAKE -Coburg; Victoria, tn
present queen, married a prince O
Saxe-Coburg; and the Prince of Vale
married a princess of Denmark, who's
father, before he became a King. wa
: Prince of Schleswig- -Holstein- Sender
burg -Glucksburg. Is 1t any wonder tina
the royal family of Great Britain speal
English with a German accent? Th
wonder would be II they spoke withou
il. Even in America, where naturali