Although the British Empire now belongs to history, appointments to the Order of the British Empire continue to be conferred for services to that empire at home or abroad. Such honors (commonly referred to as "gongs") are granted by the monarch
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in her New Year's and Birthday lists, but the decisions are now made by the government in power. In recent years there have been efforts to popularize and democratize the dispensation of honors, with recipients including rock stars and actors. But this does not prevent large sectors of British society from regarding both knighthood and the peerage as largely irrelevant to modern life.
The Royal Lines of England and Great Britain
England
SAXONS AND DANES
Egbert, king of Wessex 802-839 Ethelwulf, son of Egbert 839-85 8 Ethelbald, second son of Ethelwulf 858-860 Ethelbert, third son of Ethelwulf 860-866 Ethelred I, fourth son of Ethelwulf 866-87 1 Alfred the Great, fifth son of Ethelwulf 871-89 9 Edward the Elder, son of Alfred 899-924 Athelstan the Glorious, son of Edward 924-94 0 Edmun d I, third son of Edward 940-946 Edred, fourth son of Edward 946-95 5 Edwy the Fair, son of Edmun d 955-95 9 Edgar the Peaceful, second son of Edmun d 959-97 5 Edward the Martyr, son of Edgar 975-97 8 (murdered) Ethelred II, the Unready, second son of Edgar 978-101 6 Edmun d II, Ironside, son of Ethelred II 1016-101 6 Canute the Dane 1016-103 5 Harold I, Harefoot, natural son of Canute 1035-104 0 Hardecanute, son of Canute 1040-104 2 Edward the Confessor, son of Ethelred II 1042-106 6 Harold II, brother-in-law of Edward 1066-106 6 (died in battle)
HOUSE OF NORMANDY
William I the Conqueror 1066-1087 William II, Rufus, third son of William I 1087-1100 (shot from ambush) Henry I, Beauclerc, youngest son of
William I 1100-1135
HOUSE OF BLOIS
Stephen, son of Adela, daughter of William I 1135-1154
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HOUSE OF PLANTAGENET
Henry II, son of Geoffrey Plantagenet by
Matilda, daughter of Henry I 1154-1189 Richard I, Coeur de Lion, son of Henry II 1189-1199 John Lackland, son of Henry II 1199-1216 Henry III, son of John 1216-1272 Edward I, Longshanks, son of Henry III 1272�1307 Edward II, son of Edward I 1307�1327 (deposed) Edward III of Windsor, son of Edward II 1327-1377 Richard II, grandson of Edward III 1377�1399 (deposed)
HOUSE OF LANCASTER
Henry IV, son of John of Gaunt, son of
Edward III 1399-1413 Henry V, Prince Hal, son of Henry IV 1413-1422 Henry VI, son of Henry V 1422-1461 (deposed),
1470-1471 (deposed)
HOUSE OF YORK
Edward IV, great-great-grandson of Edward III 1461-1470 (deposed),
1471-1483 Edward V, son of Edward IV 1483-1483 (murdered) Richard III, Crookback 1483-1485 (died in battle)
HOUSE OF TUDOR
Henry VII, married daughter of
Edward IV 1485-1509 Henry VIII, son of Henry VII 1509-1547 Edward VI, son of Henry VIII 1547-1553 Mary I, "Bloody," daughter of Henry VIII 1553-1558 Elizabeth I, daughter of Henry VIII 1558-1603
HOUSE OF STUART
James I (James VI of Scotland) 1603-1625 Charles I, son of James I 1625�1649 (executed)
COMMONWEALTH & PROTECTORATE
Council of State 1649-1653 Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector 1653�1658 Bichard Cromwell, son of Oliver 1658�1660 (resigned)
HOUSE OF STUART (RESTORED)
Charles II, son of Charles I 1660-1685 James II, second son of Charles I 1685�1688
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(INTERREGNUM, 11 DECEMBER 1688 TO 13 FEBRUARY 1689)
William III of Orange, by Mary,
daughter of Charles I 1689-1701
and Mary II, daughter of James II �1694 Anne, second daughter of James II 1702�1714
Great Britain
HOUSE OF HANOVER
George I, son of Elector of Hanover and
Sophia, granddaughter of James I 1714�1727 George II, son of George I 1727�1760 George III, grandson of George II 1760�1820 George IV, son of George III 1820-1830 William IV, third son of George III 1830-1837 Victoria, daughter of Edward, fourth son
of George III 1837-1901
HOUSE OF SAXE-COBURG AND GOTHA
Edward VII, son of Victoria 1901-1910
HOUSE OF WINDSOR (NAME ADOPTED 17 JULY 1917)
George V, second son of Edward VII 1910-1936 Edward VIII, eldest son of George V 1936-1936 (abdicated) George VI, second son of George V 1936�1952 Elizabeth II, daughter of George VI 1952
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Reli gions in England
In the sixth century C.E., missionaries from Ireland and the Continent introduced Christianity to the Anglo-Saxons�actually, reintroduced it, since it had briefly flourished in the southern parts of the British Isles during the Roman occupation, and even after the Roman withdrawal had persisted in the Celtic regions of Scotland and Wales. By the time the earliest poems included in the Norton Anthology were composed, therefore, the English people had been Christians for hundreds of years; such Anglo-Saxon poems as "The Dream of the Rood" bear witness to their faith. Our knowledge of the religion of pre-Christian Britain is sketchy, but it is likely that vestiges of paganism assimilated into, or coexisted with, the practice of Christianity: fertility rites were incorporated into the celebration of Easter resurrection, rituals commemorating the dead into All-Hallows Eve and All Saints Day, and elements of winter solstice festivals into the celebration of Christmas. In English literature such "folkloric" elements often elicit romantic nostalgia. Geoffrey Chaucer's Wife of Bath looks back to a magical time before the arrival of Christianity in which the land was "fulfilled of fairye." Hundreds of years later, the seventeenth-century writer Bobert Herrick honors the amalgamation of Christian and pagan elements in agrarian British culture in such poems as "Corinna's Gone A-Maying" and "The Hock Cart."
Medieval Christianity was fairly uniform across Western Europe�hence called "catholic," or universally shared�and its rituals and expectations, common to the whole community, permeated everyday life. The Catholic Church was also an international power structure. In its hierarchy of pope, cardinals, archbishops, and bishops, it resembled the feudal state, but the church power structure coexisted alongside a separate hierarchy of lay authorities with a theoretically different sphere of social responsibilities. The sharing out of lay and ecclesiastical authority in medieval England was sometimes a source of conflict. Chaucer's pilgrims are on their way to visit the memorial shrine to one victim of such struggle: Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, who opposed the policies of King Henry III, was assassinated on the king's orders in 1120 and later made a saint. As an international organization, the church conducted its business in the universal language of Latin, and thus although statistically in the period the largest segment of literate persons were monks and priests, the clerical contribution to great writing in English was relatively modest. Yet the lay writers of the period reflect the importance of the church as an institution and the pervasiveness of religion in everyday life.