The Unofficial British Royal Family Pages

England's Non-Royal Consorts

If we study the history of many European royal families, we will find references to house laws which, amongst other things, declare that "only equal marriages" are full marriages for dynastic purposes. The marriage of a prince to a woman of a lesser rank was considered either morganatic or not valid at all. She, and any issue of the marriage, would not have enjoyed the rightful titles, privileges and inheritance due to a member of the dynasty. That meant that princes either had to marry members of their own family or, more likely, marry someone from another realm.

No such equal marriage laws ever existed in England, and members of the royal house could marry into ordinary noble families, or even those below the nobility. A king could marry any subject. Despite this, it was still usual for kings and prospective kings to marry the scions of foreign ruling houses, for political and strategic reasons. Of the 48 consorts since the Norman Conquest, 38 have been foreign-born. The stories of the ten native-born consorts (all women) do not always make happy reading.

The first of these was not even acknowledged as Queen. Isabelle of Gloucester was married to John, youngest son of Henry II, in 1189, when she was no older than 18. They were within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity, but this impediment was quietly ignored until John succeeded to the throne ten years later, and used it as grounds to obtain an annulment. Isabelle (alternatively known as Hadwisa, Hawise, Joan, Eleanor, Avise and Avisa!) went on to contract two further marriages before dying in 1217.

Nearly 300 years passed before England had another native-born Queen, and she, too suffered from a challenge to the legality of her marriage. Elizabeth Woodville married King Edward IV in 1464 after reputedly refusing to give in to his amorous advances without marriage. Her elevation to royal status brought members of her relatively low-born family to court, and their advancement created resentment and factionalism. When the king died in 1483, Elizabeth's young son succeeded as Edward V, and her brother-in-law, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, became Lord Protector of the realm. But within months, Richard and his allies had found, or concocted, evidence that Elizabeth's marriage to Edward IV was invalid. Since this meant that Edward V was illegitimate, Richard seized the throne for himself, as Richard III. The young king and his brother were imprisoned in the Tower, never to be seen again, while Elizabeth lost her royal status and took sanctuary with her younger children, fearing for her life. From sanctuary, Elizabeth conspired with the Lancastrian claimant to the throne, Henry Tudor, to overthrow Richard III, promising him her daughter Elizabeth's hand in marriage. Henry's success at Bosworth and accession as Henry VII saw a reversal in Elizabeth's fortunes, with her marriage being declared legal after all, her royal status restored, and her daughter becoming Queen consort to the new king.

While Elizabeth Woodville's fortunes were low during the reign of Richard III, a third English-born queen served as consort. Anne Neville was a daughter of Richard, Earl of Warwick - "Warwick the Kingmaker" - and was a pawn in his political ambitions, as he supported one side and then the other in the Wars of the Roses. At the age of 14, Anne was married off to Edward, Prince of Wales, the son of Henry VI, whom Warwick had recently helped restore to the throne. Within the year, Edward was killed at the Battle of Tewkesbury, and her father-in-law was deposed for the second time, and later murdered. Anne's future lay in the hands of the restored House of York, and she gained the attentions of the Duke of Gloucester. The two had known each other since childhood, and this may have been a genuine love-match. Anne and Richard were married in 1472, when she was still only 16, and remained together for 13 years. For the last two years, Anne was Queen consort, but in 1484 she saw the death of her only son, a year later she also died, and a few months after that, Richard was deposed and killed at the Battle of Bosworth.

Elizabeth of York, daughter of Elizabeth Woodville and wife of Henry VII, was England's only Queen consort to be both native-born and of royal blood. Her marriage to Henry was politically expedient, since it united the Lancastrian and Yorkist claims to the throne, and it lasted 17 years, until she died in 1503.

Four of England's ten native consorts achieved their positions thanks to Elizabeth's son, Henry VIII, whose marital exploits are infamous in English history. The most celebrated of them was the first, Anne Boleyn, with whom Henry became infatuated at a time when it also suited him to be rid of his first wife and marry again, in pursuit of a male heir. Their relationship and marriage was a heady mixture of romance, intrigue, politics and disillusionment, which produced the English reformation and fundamental changes to the state and society, but ended in accusations of adultery followed by the trial and execution of the Queen.

Henry finally realized his ambition of a male heir in his third marriage, to another Englishwoman, Jane Seymour. Jane may have been his greatest love, and yet, tragically, complications following the birth of her son, Edward, led to her own death after only 17 months of marriage. When the king was eventually persuaded to take another wife, he was talked into a dynastic marriage, to Anne of Cleves, which was a disaster and ended in rapid divorce. The king returned to English queens. The first, Catherine Howard, was much younger than him, and a pawn in the political ambitions of her family. She felt repelled by her old and fat husband, and sought solace in the company of other men. This inevitably led to accusations of adultery, which were followed by the exposure of other pre-marital relationships which she had denied. Her downfall was swift, although she spent several months in prison before being executed for treason, like her cousin, Anne Boleyn.

Henry's final wife, and the last English-born queen until the 20th century, was already twice-widowed when she attracted the attention of Henry and was obliged to marry him instead of the real object of her affections, Thomas Seymour (brother of Jane). Catherine was an intelligent and capable queen who succeeded in outliving Henry and was trusted with the government of the country for a time while the king was away in France. She was instrumental in reconciling the king to his bastardised daughters, and, after Henry's death, she and Thomas Seymour (whom she finally married) were entrusted with the care of the future Elizabeth I.

During the next two and a half centuries, the only king to have married an English woman was James II, but she (Anne Hyde) died before he acceded to the throne. The Hanoverian monarchs all married Germans, and the first monarch of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Edward VII, married a Danish princess. Their son, George V, married Mary of Teck, who was a German princess by title, but English by birth and upbringing. George and Mary's son, George VI, was the first British king since Henry VIII whose queen was of non-royal English birth (although her ancestry was Scottish). Unlike the traumatic experiences of many of their predecessors, these last two subject-consorts enjoyed longevity and popularity as queens and dowager queens.

The next Englishwoman who looks set to become consort is the present Duchess of Cornwall, but it seems likely that she will be known as Princess Consort rather than Queen.

- Paul James