by Alex David
5. Edward V
12 years, 5 months, 7 days
Born: 2 Nov 1470. Accession date: 9 Apr 1483
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Breakdown of
Male-to-Female Monarchs
in England/Britain
since 1066
Listed below and on the next page is a comparison table showing the breakdown of male-to-female monarchs on the English/British throne for different eras: the 951
years from 1066 to 2017; the two hundred years from 1817 to 2017; and the breakdown for each royal dynasty.
Note: Years are rounded up for all reigns. Also, the sums for 1066 to 2017 and for the Stuart dynasty do not add up to an equivalent number of years because of the shared reign of William III and Mary II between 1689 and 1694.
Male
Female
From 1066 to 2017
759 years
197 years
From 1817 to 2017
72 years
128 years
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Breakdown by dynasty:
Male
Female
Norman
88 years
0 years
Plantagenet
331 years
0 years
(including Lancaster & York)
Tudor
68 years
50 years
Stuart
87 years
17 years
Hanover
123 years
64 years
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
16 years
0 years
Windsor
35 years
65 years
194
English/British Monarchs
Born Outside England
Of the 41 monarchs who have sat on the English/British throne since 1066, 14 were born outside England. These monarchs are listed below with their places of birth grouped by country in chronological order.
Monarch
Place of Birth
Born in France:
William I
Falaise, Normandy
Born c.1027/28
William II
Normandy
Born c.1056/60
(exact location unknown)
Stephen
Blois, Loire Valley
Born c.1092/96
Henry II
Le Mans, Loire Valley
Born 5 Mar 1133
195
Monarch
Place of Birth
Richard II
Bordeaux, Aquitaine
Born 6 Jan 1367
Edward IV
Rouen, Normandy
Born 28 Apr 1442
Born in Wales:
Edward II
Caernarfon, Gwynedd
Born 25 Apr 1284
Henry V
Monmouth, Monmouthshire
Born 9 Aug 1386
Henry VII
Pembroke, Pembrokeshire
Born 28 Jan 1457
Born in Scotland:
James I
Edinburgh, Lothian
Born 19 Jun 1566
Charles I
Dunfermline, Fife
Born 19 Nov 1600
196
Monarch
Place of Birth
Born in The Netherlands:
William III
The Hague
Born 16 Nov 1650
Born in Germany:
George I
Hanover, Lower Saxony
Born 28 May 1660
George II
Hanover, Lower Saxony
Born 30 Oct 1683
197
English/British Monarchs
Born in the Modern
Greater London Area
Of the 41 monarchs who have sat on the English/British throne since 1066, 18 were born in the modern Greater London area (defined as the 32 modern London Boroughs plus the City of London). The list below gives the location of each monarch’s birth within the capital.
Monarch
London Location
Edward I
Palace of Westminster
Born 17 Jun 1239
Edward V
Westminster Abbey precincts
Born 2 Nov 1470
Henry VIII
Greenwich Palace, Greenwich
Born 28 Jun 1491
Edward VI
Hampton Court Palace, Hampton Court
Born 12 Oct 1537
198
Monarch
London Location
Mary I
Greenwich Palace, Greenwich
Born 18 Feb 1516
Elizabeth I
Greenwich Palace, Greenwich
Born 7 Sep 1533
Charles II
St James’s Palace, St James’s
Born 29 May 1630
James II
St James’s Palace, St James’s
Born 14 Oct 1633
Mary II
St James’s Palace, St James’s
Born 30 Apr 1662
Anne
St James’s Palace, St James’s
Born 6 Feb 1665
George III
Norfolk House, St James’s Square
Born 4 Jun 1738
George IV
St James’s Palace, St James’s
Born 12 Aug 1762
William IV
Buckingham House
Born 21 Aug 1765 (later rebuilt into Buckingham Palace)
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Victoria
Kensington Palace, Kensington
Born 24 May 1819
Edward VII
Buckingham Palace
Born 9 Nov 1841
George V
Marlborough House, St James’s
Born 3 Jun 1865
Edward VIII
White Lodge, Richmond Park
Born 23 Jun 1894
Elizabeth II
17 Bruton Street, Mayfair
Born 21 Apr 1926
Note: The current first three people in the line of succession—Prince Charles, Prince William and Prince George—have also been born in London.
200
Causes of Death
of Monarchs
The list below details the causes of death of each
English/British monarch since William the Conqueror’s in 1087. The list has been compiled from historical records, biographical accounts, and in some cases educated
guesses and/or interpretation since not every monarch’s exact cause of death is known.
William I
Date of death: 9 Sep 1087
Age at death: c.59-60
Cause: Internal injuries received while riding a horse during a military siege in France.
William II
Date of death: 2 Aug 1100
Age at death: c.44-46
Cause: Arrow shot in the heart as an accident during hunting. There is some reason to believe that the
accident was part of a murder conspiracy.
201
Henry I
Date of death: 1 Dec 1135
Age at death: c.66-67
Cause: Food poisoning caused by a surfeit of lampreys, a favourite dish Henry had been specifically advised not to eat.
Stephen
Date of death: 25 Oct 1154
Age at death: c.58-61
Cause: Stomach/intestinal illness, probably cancer.
Henry II
Date of death: 6 Jul 1189
Age at death: 56
Cause: Unidentified long-term illness aggravated by physical and emotional stress. Henry died shortly after fighting a rebellion led against him by his sons Richard and John.
Richard I
Date of death: 6 Apr 1199
Age at death: 41
Cause: Gangrene caused by an arrow in the shoulder received during a castle siege in France.
202
John
Date of death: 19 Oct 1216
Age at death: 49
Caus
e: Dysentery caught whilst campaigning against his barons in the First Barons’ War. A spurious legend later arose that he was poisoned by a monk.
Henry III
Date of death: 16 Nov 1272
Age at death: 65
Cause: Old age
Edward I
Date of death: 7 Jul 1307
Age at death: 68
Cause: Dysentery caught whilst travelling on military campaign to Scotland.
Edward II
Date of death: 21 Sep 1327
Age at death: 43
Cause: Murdered after his deposition from the throne, most likely by smothering. The notorious story that he died by having a red-hot poker inserted in his anus only started as a rumour decades after his death.
203
Edward III
Date of death: 21 Jun 1377
Age at death: 64
Cause: A series of strokes which progressively weakened him in the last years of his life, the last of which proved fatal.
Richard II
Date of death: around 14 Feb 1400
Age at death: 33
Cause: Either murdered, likely by smothering, or starved to death after his deposition from the throne.
Henry IV
Date of death: 20 Mar 1413
Age at death: 46
Cause: Unidentified chronic illnesses, the symptoms of which included a disfiguring skin condition, lower limbs weakness and seizures.
Henry V
Date of death: 31 Aug 1422
Age at death: 36
Cause: Dysentery caught whilst campaigning in France during the Hundred Years’ War.
204
Henry VI
Date of death: 21 May 1471
Age at death: 49
Cause: Murdered in the Tower of London, likely by a blow to the head, after his second deposition from the throne.
Edward IV
Date of death: 9 Apr 1483
Age at death: 40
Cause: Unidentified sudden illness. Chroniclers report this illness was made worse by years of overindulgence in food and drink.
Edward V
Date of death: unknown, likely between Aug-Oct 1483
Age at death: 12
Cause: Unknown. He was most probably murdered by smothering, in the Tower of London.
Richard III
Date of death: 22 Aug 1485
Age at death: 32
Cause: Fatal injuries received in battle against his rival claimant to the throne, Henry Tudor, who became Henry VII.
205
Henry VII
Date of death: 21 Apr 1509
Age at death: 52
Cause: Unidentified recurrent respiratory illness, perhaps tuberculosis.
Henry VIII
Date of death: 28 Jan 1547
Age at death: 55
Cause: Multiple ailments including morbid obesity, blood poisoning from infectious ulcers, and chronic injuries from a jousting accident in 1536. Other suggested
medical conditions for what caused his death include Type II Diabetes, syphilis, and MacLeod Syndrome.
Edward VI
Date of death: 6 Jul 1553
Age at death: 15
Cause: Unidentified respiratory illness, most likely tuberculosis.
Mary I
Date of death: 17 Nov 1558
Age at death: 42
Cause: Influenza. Although Mary I suffered from what is thought to have been a form of gynaecological cancer this was not the direct cause of her death. Chroniclers 206
report that Mary died of an influenza epidemic that swept through London in the autumn of 1558.
Elizabeth I
Date of death: 24 Mar 1603
Age at death: 69
Cause: Old age. A bout of depression brought on by the death of old friends caused her health to sink fast in the last few months of her life.
James I
Date of death: 27 Mar 1625
Age at death: 58
Cause: Multiple ailments including kidney disease, gout, and what seem to have been a series of strokes.
Charles I
Date of death: 30 Jan 1649
Age at death: 48
Cause: Execution by beheading with an axe, after being found guilty of treason against the people in a
Parliamentary trial.
Charles II
Date of death: 6 Feb 1685
Age at death: 54
Cause: Apoplexy brought on by kidney failure. Some attribute the kidney failure to have been the result of the 207
advanced stages of syphilis infection. In any case, it is very likely that the direct cause of his death was the intensive medical treatment Charles received following his apoplectic fit, which included massive bloodletting, extensive purging, and blistering on much of his body.
James II
Date of death: 16 Sep 1701
Age at death: 67
Cause: A series of fainting fits and strokes brought on by extreme penitential practices whilst in exile after he lost his throne.
Mary II
Date of death: 28 Dec 1694
Age at death: 32
Cause: Smallpox
William III
Date of death: 8 Mar 1702
Age at death: 51
Cause: Pulmonary fever aggravated by a broken collarbone after a fall off a horse two weeks earlier.
Contrary to popular legend, the fall was not the direct cause of William’s death but rather it weakened his chronic poor respiratory condition that had been present since childhood.
208
Anne
Date of death: 1 Aug 1714
Age at death: 49
Cause: Stroke, caused or aggravated by gout, obesity and stress.
George I
Date of death: 28 May 1727
Age at death: 67
Cause: Stroke whilst travelling by carriage from Britain to Hanover, Germany. George died in the palace of his
brother, the Prince-Bishop of Osnabruck, in Hanover, and legends says that he departed life in the very bed in which he was born.
George II
Date of death: 25 Oct 1760
Age at death: 77
Cause: Massive heart attack whilst emptying his bowels after waking up in the morning.
George III
Date of death: 29 Jan 1820
Age at death: 81
Cause: Old age aggravated by insanity and dementia.
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George IV
Date of death: 26 Jun 1830
Age at death: 67
Cause: Multiple ailments caused by years of overindulgence in food and drink. These included morbid obesity, arteriosclerosis, gout, bladder disease, and overdependence on medical drugs.
William IV
Date of death: 20 Jun 1837
Age at death: 71
Cause: Heart failure brought on by chronic pulmonary disease.
Victoria
Date of death: 22 Jan 1901
Age at death: 81
Cause: Old age, aggravated by an inability to sleep and poor appetite in the last weeks of her life.
Edward VII
Date of death: 6 May 1910
Age at death: 68
Cause: Cardiovascular attack and chronic bronchitis caused by a lifetime of smoking and overindulgence in food and drink.
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George V
Date of death: 20 Jan 1936
Age at death: 70
Cause: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease caused by life-long smoking. George’s direct cause of death
however was a fatal dose of mixed cocaine and morphine given to shorten his suffering and hasten his death.
Edward VIII
Date of death: 28 May 1972
Age at death: 77
Cause: Throat cancer caused by life-long smoking.
