The 

Monarchy of the
United Kingdom
 The British monarchy
is the constitutional form of government by which a hereditary
sovereign reigns as the head of state of
•the United Kingdom,
•the Crown dependencies (the Bailiwick of Guernsey, the Bailiwick of
Jersey and the Isle of Man) and
•the British Overseas Territories.

The current monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who ascended the

throne in 1952.
The British monarchy traces its origins
from the early medieval Saxon and
Norman kings
EGBERT 827 – 839 was the first king
STEPHEN 1135-1154 the last one
The House of Plantagenet was a royal house which
originated from the lands of Anjou in France. The
family held the English throne from 1154  to 1399,
when Richard II died in battle.
- Matilda, Duchess of Saxony
- Henry II
- Richard Lionheart
- John Without Land
- Henry III
- Edward I
- Edward II
- Edward III
- Richard II
In the 13th century   the Principality of
Wales became a client state of the
English Kingdom.
 Magna Carta Libertatum
commonly called Magna Carta  

is a royal charter of rights 
agreed to by King John of England 
at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215.
The House of Lancaster was a cadet
branch of the royal House of
Plantagenet, (held the throne 1399-1471)

- Henry IV
- Henry V
- Henry VI
The Wars of the Roses, were a series of civil
wars fought over control of the English throne in
the 15th century, fought between
Lancaster and York, with York being the victor.

 The wars were named many years afterward from

the supposed badges of the contending parties:
the white rose of York and the red rose of
Lancaster.
Following the war, the Houses of York and Tudor
were united, creating a new royal dynasty.
House of York 1461-1485
Edward IV
Edward V
Richard III

House of Tudor 1485-1603

Henry VII
Henry VIII
Edward VII
Jane Grey
Mary Tudor
Elizabeth I
From 1603, the English and Scottish kingdoms were
ruled by a single sovereign (Stuart Dynasty).

Between 1649 and 1660, the tradition of monarchy was

broken by the republican Commonwealth of England,
which followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.
In 1707, the kingdoms of England and Scotland
were merged to create the Kingdom of Great
Britain (House of Stuart)

In 1801, the Kingdom of Ireland joined to create

the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
(House of Hannover)
Edward VII (Saxe-Coburg-Gotha Dynasty) 1901-1910

In 1917, the name of the royal house was changed from

the German Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the
English Windsor because of anti-German sentiment in
the United Kingdom during World War I. 
There have been four British monarchs of the
House of Windsor since then: 
George V 
Edward VIII 
George VI and 
Elizabeth II.