Dwain Northey (Gen X)

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/live-blog/king-charles-coronation-live-updates-rcna80824

Today was the day of King Charles III coronation and the world watched as a new chapter in British history begins. Charles surely will not have the reign that his mother Queen Elizabeth II had. Elizabeth was crowned in 1953 at the age of 27 after the passing of her father King George VI and her reign end with her death in September of 2022, she was Queen for nearly 70 years. Charles was 5 years old when his mother became Queen. We can all do math even if Charles lives to the same age as his mother that only gives him 21 years as King. His first-born William is next in line for the throne, he was born in 1982 and if Charles does live to see 96 years of age that will make William a King in his 60’s.

In the current British government monarch, the King, takes little direct part in government. The authority to use the sovereign’s formal powers is almost all delegated, either by statute or by convention, to ministers or officers of the Crown, or other public bodies. At this point in history the Royal family of England really has ceremonial function although they do remain one of the wealthiest families in the world.

Charles is the latest in the line of Tudors going back to King Henry VII. There have been questions in the family line since Henry VII really made his own connection to the crown by circumventing a previous line of succession.

Henry became King of England because he defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field and declared himself king. His claim to the English throne by blood was weak.

Henry was a nephew of the previous Lancastrian king, Henry VI, but they were related not by Henry V’s bloodline, but by Catherine of Valois’ second marriage to Owen Tudor. Catherine of Valois had been Queen consort of England as the wife of Henry V, but after Henry’s death her affair with Owen Tudor, who was probably appointed keeper of Catherine’s household or wardrobe, led to the birth of Henry VII’s father, Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond. There is no evidence that Owen and Catherine were ever married, making Henry VII’s claim to the throne as a legitimate heir even more tenuous.

This is all ancient history but to me it has always been fascinating how a royal line was defined and some ‘noble’ families feel and felt like it was their divine right to rule.

With that note of history let’s recognize the newly crowned King of England Charles III.