British monarchy The United Kingdom operated under a constitutional monarchy . The Doctor and the monarchy . The Doctor had numerous encounters with the King s and Queen s of Britain . So much so that Elizabeth X grew up on stories of the Doctor in the 29th century . ( TV : " The Beast Below " ) The Doctor ' s relationships with the monarchs varied . The Tenth Doctor , after marrying Elizabeth I ( TV : " The End of Time " , " The Day of the Doctor " ) , infuriated her to the point that the next time she saw him , she ordered his execution . ( TV : " The Shakespeare Code " ) While Queen Victoria both knight ed and exile d him on the same day . ( TV : " Tooth and Claw " ) However , he also had good relationships with monarchs , such as Elizabeth II . ( TV : " Voyage of the Damned " , " Planet of the Dead " ) History . Early history . Athelstan of England was the King of England for some time in the 10th century . He received the Cup of Athelstan in 924 as a coronation gift from , King of the Welsh . ( TV : " Planet of the Dead " ) Harold Godwinson was King of England for most of 1066 , having succeeded King Edward , who was put to rest early that year . After King Harold defeated a Viking invasion , the Normans invaded England from the south . The Monk planned to change history by using advanced technology to aid King Harold , ensuring that his army would be better able to face the Normans . This plan was defeated by the First Doctor and Harold was defeated in the Battle of Hastings by William the Conqueror . ( TV : " The Time Meddler " ) Richard I of England , called Richard the Lionheart , was King of England during the Crusades . While he led his troops in the crusades , he worried that his younger brother John of England would usurp his throne back in England . Richard assisted the First Doctor and Ian Chesterton in rescuing Barbara Wright after her capture by Arabs . ( TV : " The Crusade " ) King John of England ruled England in the early 13th century . While the real King John was in London taking the Crusader ' s Oath , the android Kamelion was being used in a plot by to sabotage Earth history by preventing King John ' s signing of the Magna Carta , an event pivotal to the development of parliamentary democracy on that planet . This plot was foiled by the intervention of the Fifth Doctor . ( TV : " The King ' s Demons " ) Richard III of England ruled England for two years before being succeeded by Henry Tudor after his apparent death . ( AUDIO : " The Kingmaker " , PROSE : " Sometime Never . . . " ) 16th century . Henry Tudor ( Henry VII ) was the King of England until his death in 1509 . ( PROSE : " Sometime Never . . . " ) In his first incarnation , the Doctor claimed to have argued with Henry VIII so that he would be sentenced to the Tower of London where the TARDIS was located . ( TV : " Strangers in Space " ) After the death of Henry ' s successor , Edward VI , Jane Grey became queen at sixteen years as her father wished , although she never wanted to rule . On 19 July 1553 , she met Rani Chandra , a traveller from 2010 , on the ninth and final day of her reign . ( TV : " Lost in Time " ) Mary I had claimed the throne and proclaimed her a traitor , intending to sentence her to death . ( TV : " Lost in Time " ) Elizabeth I was the Queen of England from at least 1562 ( TV : " The Day of the Doctor " ) to at least 1599 ( TV : " The Shakespeare Code " ) and a spouse of the Tenth Doctor . ( TV : " The End of Time " , " The Day of the Doctor " ) After the Doctor never returned to her , she met a younger version of his tenth incarnation following the premiere of " Love ' s Labour ' s Won " , and was furious with him . ( TV : " The Shakespeare Code " ) 17th century . After the death of Elizabeth I some time before 1604 , the Scottish King James I inherited the English throne . From then onwards , both kingdoms were ruled by a single monarch . ( GAME : " The Gunpowder Plot " ) According to Barbara Wright , James ' rule was characterised by relative religious tolerance . Though a staunch Protestant , he discouraged persecution of Catholics . Barbara claimed that he realised that " to govern well it made sense to unify people rather than drive them apart . " ( PROSE : " The Plotters " ) In spite of this , on 5 November 1605 , Guy Fawkes and others attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament and kill James I as part of a Catholic conspiracy which became known as the Gunpowder Plot . Their efforts were unsuccessful . Both the First and Eleventh Doctor s were involved in these events . ( PROSE : " The Plotters " , GAME : " The Gunpowder Plot " ) He was succeeded by his son Charles I , who reigned during the English Civil War . The war was fought between his supporters , the Cavalier s , and the Roundhead s . The Roundheads emerged victorious and he was executed on the orders of Oliver Cromwell on 30 January 1649 . However , in 1660 , his son Charles II became king after Parliament invited him to take the throne . ( PROSE : " The Roundheads " ) Charles II , himself a Protestant , blamed the English Catholics for the Great Fire of London on 2 September 1666 . ( AUDIO : " The Glorious Revolution " ) In actuality , it was started when a Terileptil weapon overloaded in a building on Pudding Lane . The Fifth Doctor played a major role in causing the fire . ( TV : " The Visitation " ) The Fourth Doctor told Sarah Jane Smith that he met Charles II before he became king . At the time , he was on the run from the Roundheads and the Doctor helped him to hide in an old oak tree . ( PROSE : " The Republican ' s Story " ) Upon his death in 1685 , he was succeeded by his Catholic younger brother James II . In November 1688 , his reign was brought to an end by the Glorious Revolution when he was overthrown by William of Orange . Its less immediate consequences included the Jacobite Risings which culminated in the Battle of Culloden on 16 April 1746 . ( AUDIO : " The Glorious Revolution " ) 18th century . William of Orange died on 8 March 1702 — at least according to a newspaper that the Fifth Doctor and Turlough read . His death caused ordinary English subjects to toast the health of the heir - apparent , Princess Anne . He was the William referred to in the phrase " William and Mary " . ( AUDIO : " Phantasmagoria " ) King George I of England was from Hanover , Germany . The Second Doctor took up his German guise and said he spoke better English than the King . ( TV : " The Highlanders " ) George II was King of England in 1746 . The Redcoat s fought for him . ( TV : " The Highlanders " ) During the Jacobite Rising of 1745 , the Glaswegians fought on side of King George II and the English . ( PROSE : " The Wheel of Ice " ) George III was the King of the United Kingdom from 1760 to 1820 . In 1774 , he received the last mammoth in Europe as a gift from Catherine II of Russia . ( PROSE : " The Adventuress of Henrietta Street " , COMIC : " Political Animals " ) 19th century . Victoria , Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland , Empress of India , Defender of the Faith , usually known as Queen Victoria , was a powerful and influential monarch on Earth in the 19th century . Victoria met the Doctor at least twice : once during her coronation in 1838 , and in 1879 she shared an adventure with the Tenth Doctor . The latter encounter led her to banish the Doctor from her country and form the Torchwood Institute , as the British Empire ' s defence against the dark forces with which the Doctor seemed to consort . ( TV : " Tooth and Claw " ) 20th century . The Doctor claimed to have met Edward VII in Paris . ( TV : " Inferno " ) Edward VIII ' was King of the United Kingdom for most of 1936 . He chose to abdicate before marrying the twice - divorced American Wallis Simpson . ( PROSE : " Players " ) Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom was crowned on 2 June 1953 , ( TV : " The Idiot ' s Lantern " ) and served well into the 21st century . ( TV : " Voyage of the Damned " ) The alien Wire attempted to take the energy from the millions of human s watching her 1953 Coronation on their television s . However , the Tenth Doctor foiled the Wire ' s plans . ( TV : " The Idiot ' s Lantern " ) Students at Brendon Public School ( as well as the rest of Great Britain ) , where the Brigadier taught , celebrated the silver anniversary of Elizabeth II ' s coronation in 1977 . ( TV : " Mawdryn Undead " ) In 1988 , her path almost crossed that of the Seventh Doctor ( who almost but not quite recognised her ) at Windsor Castle as she walked her pet corgi s about the grounds . ( TV : " Silver Nemesis " ) Elizabeth II was concurrently the Queen of Australia , a situation with which not all Australians were satisfied . The Fourth and Fifth Doctor ' s companion Tegan Jovanka , who described herself as " downright Bolshie , " favoured her country ' s transition from a constitutional monarchy to a republic . ( AUDIO : " The Children of Seth " ) 21st century . On Christmas Day 2006 , the blood control powers of the Sycorax ( operating out of a ship hovering over London ) threatened to make Elizabeth II , as well as the rest of the British Royal Family jump off a roof and kill themselves . ( TV : " The Christmas Invasion " ) Due to the Sycorax invasion and the " Christmas Star " incident occurring on consecutive Christmases in London , most of the city ' s residents fled during Christmas 2008 . The Queen staunchly decided to remain in Buckingham Palace . On Christmas Day , the alien " Titanic " almost crashed into Buckingham Palace ; the Tenth Doctor telephoned the Palace and spoke a pre - arranged code number that resulted in the immediate evacuation of the Queen and her staff , but at the last moment he was able to pull the ship up above the palace . The Queen thanked the Doctor by name . ( TV : " Voyage of the Damned " ) In Easter 2009 , the Tenth Doctor left his TARDIS in Buckingham Palace gardens , telling Captain Erisa Magambo that the Queen did not mind . ( TV : " Planet of the Dead " ) Various accounts have Britain ruled by a king in 1997 ( TV : " Battlefield " , the 2000s ( AUDIO : " The Longest Night " ) , and July 2012 . ( PROSE : " The Shadows of Avalon " ) Whatever the date , eventually Queen Elizabeth was eventually succeeded by Charles III , along with his Queen , Camilla . Charles himself was succeeded by William V . ( PROSE : " Revenge of the Judoon " ) In 2050 , when the British government was controlled by Lomax , a Korven from the far future , Britain was ruled by a King . An Oroborus arrived on Earth around his birthday , causing time distortions which meant that some people complained about missing the King ' s birthday message , and others saw it twice . ( TV : " Oroborus " ) 22nd century . In 2161 , during the Dalek occupation , the last monarch of Britain died . In 2199 , Lord Haldoran planned to become the first monarch of Britain in thirty - eight years . ( PROSE : " Legacy of the Daleks " ) 52nd century . In 5145 , Elizabeth X caught River Song attempting to steal Vincent van Gogh ' s painting , " The Pandorica Opens " . After holding River at gunpoint , she saw the painting and learned for whom it was meant before letting her go . ( TV : " The Pandorica Opens " ) Far future . Elizabeth X of the United Kingdom , ( also known as Liz Ten ) was the Queen Regnant of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland during the time during which Earth was devastated by solar flare s in the late 30th century . Having made herself immortal ( or near - immortal ) , she lived for centuries ( TV : " The Beast Below " ) and lived until at least the 52nd century . ( TV : " The Pandorica Opens " ) At some point , the British monarchy was deposed and the last monarch was executed . Footage of that event could be viewed through the Gogglebox located on the Moon . ( AUDIO : " The Reaping " ) Alternate timelines . In an alternative timeline accidentally created by Jamie McCrimmon , the Glorious Revolution was a failure and James II retained the throne until his death . Consequently , the Jacobite Risings and the Battle of Culloden never took place . James II ' s grandson , Charles Edward Stuart , better known as Bonnie Prince Charlie , eventually ascended the throne as King Charles III . He was still the reigning monarch in 1788 . ( AUDIO : " The Glorious Revolution " ) In an alternate timeline in which Germany won World War II , Edward VIII was restored to the throne with Wallis as his Queen in 1940 . He signed a treaty which established Great Britain as a protectorate of the German Reich . ( PROSE : " " ) Parallel universes . In a parallel space - time continuum , the regime of the fascist Republic of Great Britain had the Royal Family executed in 1943 . ( TV : " Inferno " ) Edward IX was King of England in a more technologically advanced parallel universe . ( COMIC : " Who ' s Who ? " ) In a parallel world , the starship " Titanic " did hit Buckingham Palace and caused a nuclear explosion . ( TV : " Turn Left " ) In Arthur ' s World , a parallel universe , Arthur was King of England in the 8th century . ( TV : " Battlefield " ) Behind the scenes . Torchwood website . On the series 1 version of the Torchwood website , a case file outlined the fall of Torchwood One . It suggested after a massive loss in life and technology , that it was recommended to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for " the immediate closure of Torchwood One , together with the formation of a steering committee to fully examine future options . "