Reply #54: Royal sovereignty is solely a birthright

[TorchTheWitch]

You can't marry your way onto the throne and thus into the position of ruler especially since the people in line for succession can - and often did - marry a foreigner, and you certainly can't have a foreigner marry into the line of succession and ever be in a position to rule England considering their ultimate loyalty is to their home country (marriages were business and political transactions in the time of England's royal rule).

Until Henry VIII broke with the Christian church (which at the time was only Catholic and headed by the Pope in Rome) had the ultimate decision as to who was next in line as the ruler of the realm, and the church had much more strict requirements such as no illegitimate children and no women, which was exactly Henry's reasoning in wanting to ditch his first wife - they could produce no living sons to succeed him as heir to the throne. Naturally, any king wanted his own progeny to inherit the throne upon their death rather than some more distant relative determined to be next in line and ultimately decided on by the church.

Who was next in line was for centuries a vexing problem as the church believed only the Pope could make such determination and the royal family believed rules of succession should be determined by themselves. Since only the Archbishop of Canterbury could crown the next ruler of England, the church had ultimate authority over England's royal sovereignty. The church had this ultimate authority over any Christian country throughout the world making the Pope even more powerful than any king in any Christian country. And naturally, the church would want to back those royal family members who would be most beneficial to the church (meaning money and power, which the church liked to call "supportive" of the church). This caused many wars and unrest due to battling royal family members for the throne... in England the most notable of which was the period called The Anarchy after the death of Henry I.

Henry I's only legitimate son and heir drowned at sea leaving his only daughter, Maud, and an illegitimate son, Robert of Gloucester, who Henry I loved and treated as a legitimate son. After the untimely death of his legitimate son and heir, Henry I had the nobility swear allegiance to his daughter, Maud, as she had recently birthed a legitimate son who should be next in line to the throne as Henry I was already old and knew that the church wouldn't want Maud's child (Henry II) to be crowned with his mother as Queen Regent because the church didn't think Henry I or any of his children were sufficiently "supportive" of the church. And he was right as the church backed Henry I's nephew, Steven, as heir to the throne because Steven was "supportive" of the church. Upon Henry I's death, the church very quickly crowned Steven as king before Maud and her half-brother Robert could muster an army to dispute the line of succession. As a result, 16 years of war between Steven and Maud on behalf of her son, Henry II, and backed by her half-brother Robert ensued. It was a long and bloody period of unrest with sovereignty going back and forth between Maud and Steven. Eventually, Steven died with no living son to inherit the throne, and the crown then passed to Henry II as by then he was plenty old enough to become king with no overseer.

Henry VIII was in terror of such a scenario coming to pass upon his own death as with his first wife, Katherine, no living sons were produced, and he decided to find a way to get rid of her and acquire himself a new queen who could provide him with the heir he desperately wanted when it became apparent that Katherine was no longer capable of producing any more children. Hence the reason for Henry VIII breaking with the church eliminating the church's ultimate power over English sovereignty. And thus, the Church of England was born which was not answerable to the Pope and whose head was the English king himself, and he could chose for himself who he wanted as Archbishop (who of course would be favorable to him alone). This gave Henry and his successors extremely expanded authority as there was no longer any check on English sovereign authority through the church. This also gave Henry VIII the ultimate power to decide the line of succession as he saw fit, and since at the time he neared death, the only legitimate children he had were his son, Edward, by his third wife, Jane Seymour; his daughter, Mary, born to his first wife, Katherine; and his daughter, Elizabeth born to his second wife, Anne Boleyn. As his only legitimate son, Edward, was quite young and also rather sickly as Henry VIII approached the time of his death, he eliminated the requirement of the church that no female could inherit sovereignty as he feared Edward would not rule long (and he was right about that)... thus, Henry VIII chose the line of succession to be Edward, then Mary and then Elizabeth, all of whom did rule England in that order for various time spans.

Other actual titles (peerages) aren't acquired by marriage either. The title of Duke or Duchess, for example, bestowed by marriage is only a title one is addressed as... only the children inherit the title along with the peerage (lands, structures and power) associated with nobility as just like with king and queen, nobility and royalty is solely a birthright. It does get a bit confusing as one can be an actual Duchess who inherited the title and the peerage, or one can be a Duchess merely because they married a Duke, and therefore, the title is only a courtesy title. As far as I know, if you marry an actual inherited Duchess you would be addressed as Duke but only as a courtesy title much like a woman who marries a Duke is then known as a Duchess but only as a courtesy title as it wasn't and won't ever be inherited by her. However, as I understand it if you marry a Duchess who is only a Duchess through marriage (as in marrying the widow of an actual Duke of a peerage who then acquired only the courtesy title of Duchess) you aren't given a courtesy title of Duke and are referred to as Mister (Mr.). Again, titles can either be mere courtesy titles through marriage or inherited titles along with the peerage through birthright.

Interestingly, Anne Boleyn was given the actual title and peerage of Marquess (Marquess of Pembroke specifically) by Henry VIII before they married along with the lands and structures which she held in her own right for herself and her descendants... the very first time a hereditary peerage title was granted to a woman. Rather interesting is that the patent for the granted title and peerage concerning who of her descendants could inherit did not specify only legitimate sons as was standard language for such patents. Therefore, any son she might have had that was illegitimate could inherit it. However, Anne never did have any sons - legitimate or otherwise - which is mostly the reason she lost her head.