Channel 4's The Real Monarch

[Rowan]

I have just watched Channel 4’s “The Real Monarch” presented by Tony Robinson and was aghast at the number of times he referred to the royal family as being the royal family of “Britain”. Firstly, there is no such thing! The royal family is of the United Kingdom and secondly, there WAS no United Kingdom before 1603, prior to this there were the separate royal families of Scotland and England. Therefore this programme totally ignored the facts – that even if Edward IV WAS illegitimate it would have had no effect on the royal family of Scotland whose descendants are the royal family of the United Kingdom.

Apart from this the tracing back was excellent, finding who should have been the "true" king of England (not Scotland or Britain) in Australia. It finally explains the murtder of George of Clarence by Edward IV, his elder (half) brother and the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower, supposedly by Richard III (but could have been Henry VII). It also explains the systematic wiping out by Henry VIII of almost all George of Clarence's descendants.

Incidentally, according to my reaearch that line from the marriage of Henry Tudor to Elizabeth of York was also illegitimate, since Henry Tudor's line was illegitimate, and Elizabeth of York was illegitimate due to the marriage of her father Edward IV and her mother, Elizabeth Woodville's marriage being bigamous since he was already married to Eleanor Butler.

[dita]

Rowan, Larry my husband who is keen on History agrees with you. All we can say is you know your stuff.

[Rowan]

Thank you Dita. I am fascinated by the lives of those who came before us.