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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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royal house
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The beginnings of a royal house in Great Britain can be traced back to the *Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of the 8C, followed by the emergence in the 9C of *Alfred the Great as the first man who could lay claim to be king of the English. The entire English kingdom fell for a while to the *Danes (1016–42) and was conquered from 1066 by the *Normans.
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The present royal house descends in an unbroken line from the house of *Normandy. The marriage of the Norman princess *Matilda led to the rule of the house of *Plantagenet. *Wales was incorporated within this royal house once *Edward I had conquered the principality in the late 13C and established his son as the *Prince of Wales. By the 15C rival Plantagenet branches, the houses of *Lancaster and *York, were fighting the internecine *Wars of the Roses. But at the end of that century the house of *Tudor healed the breach and introduced a period of strong centralized control.
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By now *Ireland too was a possession of the English crown. Irish chieftains had first done homage to *Henry II in the 12C; but it was not until the 16C that England was strong enough to dominate her smaller neighbour. And in 1603 Scotland became linked through the *union of the crowns, when the house of *Stuart (see the *royal house of Scotland) inherited the English throne. For the first time all parts of the British Isles were ruled by a single monarch, though in the form of three separate kingdoms – England (including the principality of Wales), Scotland and Ireland. They were eventually merged into a single country through the Acts of *Union.
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Fears of a return to Roman Catholicism caused the *Revolution of 1688 and subsequently the change to the house of *Hanover; Queen Victoria's marriage introduced the brief house of *Saxe-Coburg & Gotha; and that in turn was transformed in the face of anti-German sentiment into the present house of *Windsor. Since the independence of the republic of Ireland in 1921, the realm has been the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
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