by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2018

Æthelstan, regarded as the first true king of England, presenting a book to St. Cuthbert, the earliest surviving portrait of an English king, circa 930; Credit – Wikipedia

king – noun – a male sovereign or monarch; a man who holds by life tenure, and usually by hereditary right, the chief authority over a country and people.

Origin of the word king – first used before 900 in Middle English; from Old English cyng, cyning; *cognate of German König, Dutch koning, Old Norse konungr, Swedish konung, Danish konge

*cognate – descended from the same language

from https://www.dictionary.com

Map of today’s United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; Credit – Denver Public Library

From England to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

From the beginning of human civilization, there was someone who was in charge of groups of people – head of a family, tribal leader, a village chieftain – leading eventually to some kind of hereditary leader. In Old English, the word cyn (meaning kin, tribe, people) was changed into a different word by adding the suffix –ing. The new word cyning meant descendant of one of noble birth and eventually became the English word king.

Æthelstan (circa 894 – 939) became the first king to rule all of England when he conquered Northumbria in 927. He is generally regarded by historians as the first true king of England. The title Rex Anglorum in Latin (King of the English) was first used to describe Æthelstan in a 928 charter. King of the English remained in use until King John became king in 1199 when the title became King of England.

An invasion of Ireland starting in 1169 by King Henry II eventually brought about the end of rule High Kings of Ireland. In 1177, King Henry II gave the part of Ireland he controlled at that time to his ten-year-old son John as a Lordship and John became Lord of Ireland. When John succeeded as King of England in 1199, he remained Lord of Ireland, bringing the Kingdom of England and the Lordship of Ireland into personal union. In 1284, the territory of the King of England increased when the Principality of Wales was incorporated into the Kingdom of England under the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284. The title of King of Ireland was re-created in 1542 during the reign of King Henry VIII.  All of Ireland remained under British rule until the Irish Free State, today’s Republic of Ireland, became independent in 1922.

While British sovereigns had other titles which will be dealt with in another article, the titles King of England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom will be dealt with here. In 1603, Queen Elizabeth I died childless and James VI, King of Scots also became King James I of England, joining the crowns of England and Scotland in a personal union, the combination of two or more states that have the same monarch while their boundaries, laws, and interests remain separate. This practice continued through the Stuart dynasty until 1707, during the reign of Queen Anne, when England and Scotland were formally united into Great Britain by the Acts of Union 1707. The sovereign then was King/Queen of Great Britain.

In 1800, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was created by the Acts of Union 1800 and King George III went from being titled King of Great Britain to King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922, the Irish Free State, today’s Republic of Ireland, gained independence. Northern Ireland remained under British control and is still a part of today’s United Kingdom. The Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927 recognized the change in the status of Ireland and also recognized the various British dominions and so the sovereign’s title became King/Queen of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas. In 1953, separate styles and titles were adopted for each of the realms over which the sovereign reigned, for instance, King/Queen of Canada. The sovereign then became King/Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of His/Her other Realms and Territories.

For more information, see

• Unofficial Royalty: British Index (biographical articles and much more)
• Unofficial Royalty: British Sovereigns’ Titles
• Wikipedia: List of changes to the royal style

The King’s Styles

Over the years, sovereigns were occasionally and indiscriminately styled as My Lord/My Lady, His/Her Grace, His/Her Highness and His/Her Majesty. Around 1519, the Holy Roman Emperor and the King of France assumed the style Majesty and King Henry VIII copied them. Previous English sovereigns had sometimes used Majesty but it became more common during Henry VIII’s reign. However, it was not used exclusively. A legal judgment issued during King Henry VIII’s reign used three different styles: Article 15 begins with, “The Kinges Highness”, Article 16 with, “The Kinges Majestie”, and Article 17 with, “The Kinges Grace.” It was not until the reign of King James I that Majesty became the official style.

Regnal Numbers

Regnal numbers are used to distinguish sovereigns with the same name. If only one sovereign has used a particular name, no regnal number is used. For example, Queen Victoria is not known as Victoria I. During the reign of the House of Stuart, some sovereigns had two different regnal numbers because they were sovereigns of both England and Scotland. For instance, King James VI of Scotland was also King James I of England as he was the sixth King of Scots with the name James and the first King of England with the name James. When England and Scotland were united with the Acts of Union 1707, sovereigns followed the numbering consistent with the English sequence of sovereigns. This caused some controversy in Scotland. When Queen Elizabeth II came to the throne, the controversy arose again. She was the second Elizabeth to reign in England but the first Elizabeth to reign in Scotland. In 1953, Prime Minister Winston Churchill suggested that in the future, the higher of the two regnal numbers from the English and Scottish sequences should always be used.

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