How does the Royal family in England get and keep its power?

Question

If someone answers that its bloodlines, what bloodlines are you exactly talking about? Ancient bloodlines that still exist to this day? Has this gone on for hundreds of years? Are the families interbreeding? Sorry for all the questions, Im doing a research paper on this topic....

Answer 1

For bloodlines, study the Houses of Royalty. To the victor go the spoils, in this case, the Crown. Then it's passed down from generation to generation. There isn't a single ancient bloodline, because over the centuries, wars have been fought, and kings defeated, and the new king takes over. interbreeding is common... only Royal may marry Royal, usually, great political alliances were forged through marriage. Queen Victoria's children can be found scattered all over Europe's various thrones. This is not an easy question to answer shortly and sweetly, but, as you do your research, you'll find it fascinating, albeit confusing.

Answer 2

Well over hundreds of years ago, invaders into Great Britain (which was full of tribes and once under the Roman Empire) fought bloody battles and some guy William the Conquerer in 1066 was one of the first Kings of England and it went from there. It's still here because the majority of British people do not want to get rid of them.

Answer 3

To condense a very long story:

I) William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066, overthrowing the Anglo-Saxon King, Harold. He based his claim on a familial relationship to Edward the Confessor, whom he claimed had invited him to take the throne upon his death. It took until about the time of Chaucer and the Black Death, say about 1350, for the English to assimilate their Norman overlords. At that time, the English courts stopped using French and started using English in their proceedings. In the meantime, Norman knights had married Anglo-Saxons.

2) Since succession is based on primogeniture, meaning the oldest son inherits, a series of oldest sons followed their fathers over time. Norman Kings were succeeded by Stephen of Blois, the Plantagenet Dynasty, the Lancaster Dynasty, the Houses of York, Tudor, Stuart, and then by the Hanovers, a family that has continued to reign (not rule) under two different names--Saxe-Coburg Gotha and Windsor.

3) When no legitimate son existed, or he died after a very short reign, the Crown went to a daughter--Mary I (daughter of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon), Elizabeth I (also daughter of Henry VIII), Mary as in William and Mary, Ann, Victoria, and Elizabeth II. If the royal family didn't have any immediate surviving descendants, then the line of succession passed over to their nearest distant relatives, for example, the Stuarts followed the Tudors, and the Hanovers followed the Stuarts. The current queen, Elizabeth II, however, is still a descendant of William the Conqueror. She can also trace her lineage directly back to Charlemagne.

Since traditonally royalty only married royalty, and the royal houses of Europe over time decreased dramatically, royalty, by necessity, married distant cousins. Prince Phillip, for instance, is a fifth-cousin to Elizabeth II, although their marriage is reputed to have been a love match. Of course, commoners who lived in rural villages also probably also married cousins.

4) During the last millennial, the English kings and queens have gradually become less "absolute" in their power as Parliament and the Prime Minister have gradually take over the rule of England. Indeed, the Stuarts learned that if they proclaimed too strenously their "Divine Right of Kings" that Parliament would take matters into its own hands.

In 1649, Parliament publically executed Charles I, and for ten years, England was a Republic under the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell. When Oliver's son, Richard, abandoned his Protectorship (for lack of a better word), the English called back the son of the beheaded Charles I, Charles II, to be king.

5) From that time on, the English kings never had the power they had had before the English Revolution. Gradually the English Monarchy has assumed primarily ceremonial duties. Sovereignty still rests with the Crown, but political party rests with the electorate as represented by Parliament.
Voters, incidentally, elect a political party not a Prime Minister.

Answer 4

What power? Britain's a constitutional monarchy, the monarch is a figurehead and titular Head of State but has no actual power.

Answer 5

It started with William the Conquerer, who overthrew the Anglo-Saxon monarchy and set up his own kingdom, and his direct descendants have been ruling ever since.