Throne of England in the context of "Richard, Duke of York"

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⭐ Core Definition: Throne of England

The Throne of England is the throne of the Monarch of England. "Throne of England" also refers metonymically to the office of monarch, and monarchy itself. The term "Throne of Great Britain" has been used in reference to Sovereign's Throne in the House of Lords, from which a monarch gives his or her speech at the State opening of Parliament.

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👉 Throne of England in the context of Richard, Duke of York

Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York (21 September 1411 – 30 December 1460), also named Richard Plantagenet, was a leading English magnate and claimant to the throne during the Wars of the Roses. He was a member of the ruling House of Plantagenet by virtue of being a direct male-line descendant of Edmund of Langley, King Edward III's fourth surviving son. However, it was through his mother, Anne Mortimer, a descendant of Edward III's second surviving son, Lionel of Antwerp, that Richard inherited his strongest claim to the throne, as the opposing House of Lancaster was descended from John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the third surviving son of Edward III. He also inherited vast estates and served in various offices of state in Ireland, France and England, a country he ultimately governed as Lord Protector due to the mental instability of King Henry VI.

Richard's conflicts with Henry's wife, Margaret of Anjou, and other members of Henry's court, such as Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, and his competing claim to the throne, were leading factors in the political upheaval of mid-fifteenth-century England, and a major cause of the Wars of the Roses (1455–1487). Richard eventually attempted to take the throne, but was dissuaded, although it was agreed that he would become king on Henry's death. However, within weeks of securing this agreement (the Act of Accord), he was killed at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460, alongside his son, Edmund. Two of his surviving sons later ascended the throne: Edward IV and Richard III.

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Throne of England in the context of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales

Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales KG (19 February 1594 – 6 November 1612) was the eldest son and heir apparent of King James VI and I and Anne of Denmark. His name derives from his grandfathers: Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley; and Frederick II of Denmark. Prince Henry was widely seen as a bright and promising heir to the English, Irish, and Scottish thrones. However, at the age of 18, he predeceased his father, dying of typhoid fever. His younger brother, the future Charles I, succeeded him as heir apparent to the thrones.

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Throne of England in the context of Henry VI of England

Henry VI (6 December 1421 – 21 May 1471) was King of England from 1422 to 1461 and 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. The only child of Henry V, he succeeded to the English throne at the age of eight months, upon his father's death, and to the French throne on the death of his maternal grandfather, Charles VI, shortly afterwards.

Henry was born during the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453). He is the only English monarch to have been crowned King of France, following his coronation at Notre-Dame de Paris in 1431 as Henry II. His early reign, when England was ruled by a regency government, saw the pinnacle of English power in France. However, setbacks followed once he assumed full control in 1437. The young king faced military reversals in France, as well as political and financial crises in England, where divisions among the nobility in his government began to widen. His reign saw the near total loss of English lands in France.

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Throne of England in the context of Henry V of England

Henry V (16 September 1386 – 31 August 1422), also called Henry of Monmouth, was King of England from 1413 until his death in 1422. Despite his relatively short reign, Henry's outstanding military successes in the Hundred Years' War against France made England one of the strongest military powers in Europe. Immortalised in Shakespeare's Henriad plays, Henry is known and celebrated as one of the greatest warrior-kings of medieval England.

Henry of Monmouth, the eldest son of Henry IV, became heir apparent and Prince of Wales after his father seized the throne in 1399. During the reign of his father, the young Prince Henry gained early military experience in Wales during the Glyndŵr rebellion, and by fighting against the powerful Percy family of Northumberland. He played a central part at the Battle of Shrewsbury despite being just sixteen years of age. As he entered adulthood, Henry played an increasingly central role in England's government due to the declining health of his father, but disagreements between Henry and his father led to political conflict between the two. After his father's death in March 1413, Henry ascended to the throne of England and assumed complete control of the country, also reviving the historic English claim to the French throne.

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Throne of England in the context of Richard II (play)

The Life and Death of King Richard the Second (1595), also Richard II, is a Shakespearean history play about the lifetime and reign of King Richard II of England (r. 1377–1399). As a dramatised period history of the English monarchy, Richard II chronicles the machinations of the noblemen of the royal court who conspire, precipitate, and realise the downfall and death of the King of England.

As the first work in the Henriad tetralogy of English history plays, the political narrative of Richard II is thematically followed throughout the stories of Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, and Henry V, which also are histories of the reigns of his royal successors to the Throne of England. Although the First Folio (1623) classifies The Life and Death of Richard the Second as an English history play, the earlier Quarto edition (1597) classifies Richard II as a tragedy, under the title The Tragedie of King Richard the Second.

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