Spare Heirs Who Were Never Meant To Take The Throne – Until Fate Intervened

John I was the youngest of King Henry II’s eight children — three of whom were older males, which put him extremely low on the succession totem pole. When a family land dispute erupted into an honest-to-goodness revolt in 1173, Henry had to fight off an alliance of three of his sons — Richard I, Geoffrey, and Henry the Young, who had unusually taken the throne while his father was still alive in 1170. Though the family squashed their beef after the failed takeover, it did leave Henry in no doubt that John was his favorite son!

Unfortunately for Henry, the tension didn’t go away for long. When Henry the Young lost his life in a battle with his brother Richard’s forces, Henry was forced to reassign the kingdom — England, Anjou, and Normandy would be Richard’s domain, while John would get Aquitaine. Richard fought this, though, as he didn’t believe his little brother had the experience to rule. Naturally, 15-year-old John was then encouraged by his father to wage war on Richard for this slight. Wait, what?!

John teamed up with Geoffrey, and their armies took on Richard — but even combined, they still lost. This time, in the aftermath, Henry decided Richard could keep Aquitaine, while John would be the Lord of Ireland. In 1186, though, Geoffrey died, and Richard sought an alliance with the king of France to take on his father again. To his horror, Henry would soon find out that John — his favorite son who had never taken up arms against him — had switched sides to join his traitorous brother. He reportedly died the day after learning this terrible news.

So, Richard had fought tooth and nail to finally become king — but he spent only six months of his ten-year reign in England! He was too busy leading the Crusades in the Holy Land, and his zeal for battle earned him the nickname Richard the Lionheart. While he was away, however, Richard refused to leave the government in John’s control, and never specified that John would be his successor if he died. Being passed over like this reportedly bred a sense of resentment and injustice in John.

Indeed, when Richard died from an infected crossbow wound in 1199, John did become king — although he was an unpopular choice among Richard’s officials. His reign wound up being very unpopular too, as England was torn apart by civil war and the kingdom lost huge swathes of its territory in France. Historians disagree over whether he was a good administrator and a hard-working king, or a petty, cruel, and spiteful ruler. The latter tends to win out in cultural depictions, though — he is a villain in the many adaptations of Robin Hood, after all.

Richard III’s historical reputation has always been heavily shaped by William Shakespeare’s play, in which he was depicted as a scheming, “deform’d, unfinish’d” hunchback. In reality, it’s now generally accepted that he suffered from scoliosis, which gave him a curved spine, and that he might not have been quite the tyrannical monster Shakespeare presented him as. It’s hard to get away from the rumors he had his nephews King Edward V and Richard of Shrewsbury murdered, though! Allow us to explain.

In 1461 Edward IV became King of England, which made his brother — nine-year-old Richard III — Duke of Gloucester. While Edward was king, Richard was loyal, and this led to him ruling lands that were once the domain of those who had challenged the king. Then, in 1482, he played an integral part in the invasion of Scotland, which saw his influence on the court increase. By the time Edward passed away in 1483, Richard was so well thought of that he was appointed Lord Protector of the Realm.

Basically, this new title meant it was Richard’s responsibility to look out for his nephew Edward V, as the line of succession meant he would become king at 12 years of age. His uncle had designs on the throne, though, and it’s believed he set in motion a devious plan to seize it. First, Edward IV’s marriage to Elizabeth Woodville — which bore Edward V and Richard of Shrewsbury — was declared invalid due to Edward IV’s earlier dalliance with another woman. This made the boys illegitimate sons of a bigamous union and cleared a path for Richard.

The young would-be king Edward V and his little brother were locked up in the Tower of London while their uncle became king on July 6, 1483. They were seen from time to time by doctors and other staff for a few months, but then totally vanished from the summer onward. Rumors soon spread amongst the population that the “Princes in the Tower” had been killed under their uncle’s orders. Indeed, this explanation for their disappearance is what was dramatized in Shakespeare’s play. The full truth will likely never be known.

In the end, all of Richard’s skulduggery didn’t lead to a long, distinguished reign as king. He died at the Battle of Bosworth in August 1485, meaning he ruled for a little over two years. His reputation has enjoyed a boost in modern times, with many modern scholars disputing that he ordered his nephew’s deaths. Theater director Ben Spiller also argued to the BBC, “Shakespeare’s Richard is based mainly on historical chronicles that made him out to be a nasty piece of work because he was disabled — a damaging link between body and morality.”

These days, it seems bizarre for royalty to have multiple children simply because they need a “spare” heir in case anything happens to their firstborn. After all, with the wonders of modern medicine, heirs are much less likely to die young. In the 16th century, though, as The Washington Post writer Emilie M. Brinkman put it, “... death was an omnipresent aspect of everyday life for everyone, regardless of social status. Plague and disease often did not discriminate between the elite and the poor.”

One of the most infamous kings from history, Henry VIII, was a spare who only inherited the throne when his older brother Arthur, Prince of Wales, was struck dead by the “sweating sickness” in 1502. This was a viral epidemic which affected Europe from 1485 to 1551, and it has never been conclusively defined by molecular biology. It is just known that victims would perish within hours of taking ill — in Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, Thomas Cromwell quips, “It kills in a day. Merry at breakfast, they say: dead by noon.”

At the time of his death, Arthur was only 15 years old and was already married to Catherine of Aragon. This union had been engineered to seal an alliance between England and Spain against the French. After he died, his widow — also only 16 — was still convinced the throne of England lay in her future, and seven years later she got her wish by marrying King Henry VIII in 1509, only two months after he ascended to the throne. Catherine was 23 and Henry 18, and initially they seemed besotted with each other.

Unfortunately, things soured dramatically over time. Perhaps because of the circumstances of his becoming king, Henry became obsessed with siring a male heir and, ideally, a spare as well. This led to a very famous succession of six wives and a string of pregnancies, many of which resulted in miscarriages, stillbirths, or the babies dying soon after birth. It took until Jane Seymour, Henry’s third wife, for his male heir to arrive — the future King Edward VI — while Catherine and Anne Boleyn bore him Queen Mary I and Queen Elizabeth I respectively.

Henry’s treatment of his wives — two of whom he had executed and two he divorced — was abominable, and it goes hand in hand with his historical reputation as a tyrant. By the time he died, he weighed 400 pounds, suffered terrible health problems including leg ulcers, and was said to be depressed, anxious, paranoid, and vengeful. These days, it’s believed he may have had diabetes, thyroid problems, or even syphilis, all of which could have affected his health and behavior in tragic ways.

Henry VIII died in 1547, leading to his sole male heir Edward VI becoming king — at just 10 years old. Yes, really. For six years on the throne, the boy was manipulated by the Duke of Northumberland John Dudley, who pushed the Protestant Reformation of the Church. When it became obvious the teenage king was about to die from tuberculosis, Dudley knew he had to do something drastic to stop the throne passing to Henry’s daughter Mary I — a strict Catholic.

You see, when Henry divorced Catherine of Aragon, he had the marriage declared null and void. This made Mary I, their daughter, illegitimate to the court of England. In young Edward VI’s will, Dudley convinced him to remove Mary I and his other half-sister Elizabeth I from the official line of succession, leaving the path clear for 15-year-old Lady Jane Grey — who had just married one of Dudley’s sons — to become Queen. Grey ascended to the throne on July 10, 1553 — but would remain there for only nine days!

At 37 years of age, Mary I — also known as Mary Tudor — wasn’t going to take this insult lying down. She assembled an army and successfully deposed Grey, who found herself imprisoned in the Tower of London and accused of treason. She and her husband were beheaded for their part in the plot to seize the throne, as was her father-in-law Dudley. Mary’s first act as queen was to make her parents’ marriage official again, and then she set about bringing Catholicism back to England — by any means necessary.

Unfortunately for the country, Mary was just as brutal a ruler as her father. She would gain the nickname “Bloody Mary” due to her heresy law — the breaking of which saw 300 Protestants literally burned at the stake. During her reign, she married Philip II of Spain and they tried to conceive an heir, mainly so the throne wouldn’t pass to her Protestant sister Elizabeth I upon her death. This is exactly what happened, though, when the childless Mary died in 1558.

Thankfully, Elizabeth I would prove to be one of the most iconic monarchs in history. Her 44-year reign is known as the Elizabethan era and is noted for the country’s relative prosperity, peace, and focus on the arts. Shakespeare rose to prominence during her reign, supported by the Queen, who was known to be a fan of the theater. She also played the lute and loved to dance. Interestingly, Elizabeth never took a husband and had no children — one of her nicknames is the “Virgin Queen.”

January 14, 1892, was the day Prince Albert Victor succumbed to the deadly influenza outbreak which had originated in St. Petersburg three years earlier. The prince — oldest son of Queen Victoria and heir to the throne of England — had taken ill the day before his 28th birthday, and his death hit Victoria extremely hard. After all, her husband Albert had passed away in 1861 from typhoid fever, and her second son George had only recently recovered from the same disease, which had left him bed-ridden for six weeks.

At the time of his older brother’s death, George had been serving in the Royal Navy. Despite showing more intellectual prowess than his brother when they were children — with many observers believing he may have been a better candidate for the throne — he was still the second-born, so was never groomed for power. By contrast, Albert Victor — who had dropped out of Cambridge University and found himself embroiled in a brothel scandal — was about to tie the knot with Princess Mary of Teck and take on the role of Viceroy of Ireland.

It would take another 18 years for George to ascend to the throne, and in that period he was removed from the Navy and given all the education a royal hopeful could ever need. When Queen Victoria died in 1901 he became Prince of Wales and his father became King Edward VII. Then, when his dad passed in 1910, he became King George V. His queen was none other than Mary of Teck, his brother’s ex-fiancée, whom he had wed in 1893 only 18 months after Albert Victor’s death.

During his reign, George V made a huge decision which remains a royal fixture today — he created the Royal House of Windsor in 1917! Prior to this, the lineage was known as the Royal House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, which is German in origin. George recognized a growing public dislike of Germany due to the horrors of World War I, so he chose “Windsor” — inspired by the royal castle in Berkshire — as the name of the “House” and also the royal family’s surname.

Overall, George V somehow became a relatable king, with the British public feeling like they truly knew him as a person. In fact, their adoration even moved him to tears at his Silver Jubilee celebration in 1935. Historian Alexandra Churchill wrote, “The man who had been totally unprepared for his role, had become a father figure to the nation. He had gone so far, with his trusted and long-serving advisors, as to rebrand the monarchy, strengthen it and bring it into the 20th century. The blueprint he left endures to this day.”

Prince Albert — who became King George VI when he took the throne — had his story immortalized in 2010’s The King’s Speech. Colin Firth won the Best Actor Academy Award for playing the nervous, unassuming royal who had no problem with his elder brother Edward becoming king. In fact, as royal author Sally Bedell Smith wrote in George VI and Elizabeth: The Marriage That Saved the Monarchy, “He never aspired to be monarch, nor was he groomed for the role. When it was thrust upon him, he wept on his mother’s shoulder.”

Indeed, Bedell claimed, “As the ‘spare’ to Prince Edward, the eldest son and heir, young Albert — known as ‘Bertie’ among family and friends — was diffident and often ill. He lacked confidence and was prone to dark moods as well as angry eruptions. Worst of all, this sensitive boy developed a stutter around the age of eight. ‘Get it out!’ his father [George V] demanded, making the stammer worse.” He wound up working with a vocal coach to be able to get through his coronation vows and deliver his public addresses.

Bertie dubbed the national crisis which led to him becoming king a “dreadful moment.” His brother had taken the throne when their father George V passed away in January 1936, but wound up abdicating after less than a year to marry divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson. He had never intended to be the man on the throne and had actually found true purpose and meaning in the role of royal spare. His good works led to him becoming known as the “Industrial Prince.”

Bedell explained, “During the 1920s and ’30s, there was a fair amount of labor unrest, and he was diligent about working with laborers and miners and factory workers and industrial leaders to promote good will... He didn’t know it, but it helped prepare him to be king because it exposed him to people from all walks of life and further imbued him with duty and service and representing his father. He also did it for himself. It gave him satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment.”

Despite his reticence to take the mantle, Bertie actually wound up becoming a beloved monarch. He gained the respect of the British people for staying in Buckingham Palace during the Blitz — in fact, two bombs blew up the courtyard while he and Queen Elizabeth were there. He sat atop the throne until his death in 1952 and was succeeded by his daughter Queen Elizabeth II, who would go on to rule for more than 70 years, making her the longest reigning British monarch ever.