Commoner Queens of England

The United Kingdom has a new Queen Consort, Camilla. She is the first Queen of England to have been born a commoner since Catherine Parr (1547). Since the Norman conquest in 1066, English and British Royals have almost exclusively married other royals, usually as part of treaties with powerful neighboring nations. Of the 42 royal consorts, 13 have been French, 8 German, 5 Spanish, 4 Danish, 1 Dutch, 1 Italian, 1 Portuguese and 1 Scottish. But on a few, rare occasions an English monarch put his heart (or his lust) before his head and chose instead to make an English woman his Queen. There have been 9 English Queens of England, one was a member of a rival branch of the English royal family. 2 were from noble families and 6 were commoners...
Elizabeth Woodville
Anne Neville
Anne Boleyn
Jane Seymour
Catherine Howard
Catherine Parr
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
Camilla Shand
Plus Future Commoner Queen Catherine Middleton

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Music: Yonder Hill & Dale by Aaron Kenny

[benjamintillema]

Not English but one of the most dramatic, real life Cinderella stories in history is Catherine I of Russia. She was born a peasant in Prussia, was captured in war and sent to Russia to be a domestic worker, became the mistress of the czar, married him in secret, became his official queen and then inherited his title and ruled Russia after his death.

[danielsantiagourtado]

My favorite has to be Elizabeth Woodville. She survived the wars of the roses and while she lost her precious boys she managed to make her daughter Elizabeth Queen of England by marriage to henry VII to help the Tudor dynasty and her blood remains on the family to this day! Bravo! 👸👸👸👸

[mrsbluesky]

Charles unfortunately felt he had to do what the family wanted. Remember at that time Diana had to be examined by a dr to verify she was a virgin ! That’s how antiquated they were. I was horrified for her. She was in love, he wasn’t, and he made her very unhappy. Rest in peace Princess ❤

[uchiwasasuke]

if only charles married camila first, diana would have been still alive and happy...both the parties would have been happy instead of going through all that trauma.

[justinmager]

If we are counting Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon as aristocratic, Anne neville and Katherine Howard should be counted as nobles as well one was a male line granddaughter of a duke and the other was the daughter of an earl

[avaglennon]

Katherine Howard is my favorite of Henry VIII's wives. She truly deserved so much better. She was just a teenager manipulated and hurt by so many powerful men.

[ruyfernandez]

I would not call Catherine Howard a commonner. She might not be the daughter of a peer, but she was still the niece of a duke, and a member of the ancient and noble Howard dynasty.

[caitlinmarie]

I like the way you framed Catherine Howards story. I've watched many Tudor documentaries and they never show enough sympathy for her. She was taken advantage of and abused by most of the men in her life. She was so young and has such a tragic tale.

[ray]

Elizabeth woodville's background is being scrutinized more because the yorkists won. Her mom Jacquetta was married to Henry V's brother so she was Henry VI's aunt and her sister is married to Margaret of Anjou's uncle so she had close connections to both the Lancastrian King and queen of England. The sticking point is her second husband who is ranked lower. The Woodvilles are somewhat similar to the Tudors. The female matriarch had the name and prestige (catherine of valois, margaret beaufort and jacquetta) and their Tudor husbands and Richard Woodville were somewhat ranked lower than them. The fate scripwriters were on point when the Woodvilles and Tudors agreed to unite and take down Richard III.

[danielsantiagourtado]

I just love getting the historical "tea" from you lindsay. The ammount of information you manage to convey is AMAZING! Your story telling skills are incredible. British history always seems so much more interesting than ANY other!. Keep the tea flowing. I'm here for it.

[anubratabit]

None the queens mentioned here can be called commoners. This term is meant only for the peasants who didn't had any luxury of having a family coat of arms. All of the queens listed here came from the lower ranks of aristocracy, which isn't enough to classify them as commoner. A marriage of an aristocrat with a true commoner would have been considered as a morgnactic marriage in medieval era.

[DarkLadyJade]

As for Anne if Cleves, Henry did NOT reject her because of her looks. Basically what happened is that when they first met she didn't recognize him as he was in disguise and no one told her he liked to do this. He flirted with her, some accounts say he kissed her, and she rebuffed him, not knowing he was the king. He was embarrassed and left and then she was told that the man she had rejected was actually the king. The king returned, dressed as a king but by then it was too late. She had wounded his ego. So in order to save face he said not so flattering things about her (but he never said she was ugly or looked like a horse!).

[andreamiles]

You've picked a common misconception about Henry VIII's break from Ronme. It was nothing to with Protestantism, he just refused to see the Pope as head of the church and made himself head of the Catholic church in England.

[rptilsrcool]

I read the title as “Common Queers of England” and got so excited lmao

[cloudburstlia]

I would argue Camila is not more popular at all but Charles has done a great job keeping her name out of the press negatively and instead throws his sons and their wives to the wolves.

[alexanderturner]

Jacquetta of Luxembourg wasn’t the daughter of the duke of Luxembourg, she was the daughter of Peter I de Luxembourg, Count of Saint-Pol. They are called “of Luxembourg” because they were members of a distant branch of the House of Luxembourg which originated in Luxembourg but went on to rule Bohemia, the HRE, Hungary and many other states.

[tabithatrimm-hooson]

I feel so much for the Charles, Camilla, Diana circle. Privileged aside no one deserves to be in such a situation. Let people marry who they love.

[joannabaparileszczynska]

I always found it funny that a marriage could be called void if the couple actually never did the deed. Even if a priest blessed them, no sex= no marriage 😂

[piratesswoop]

28:25 Not quite true. The heir to the principality of Liechtenstein is married to Duchess Sophie of Bavaria, the heir to the grand duchy of Luxembourg is married to Countess Stephanie de Lannoy, and the King of the Belgians (whose heir is currently unmarried) is married to Mathilde d’Udekem d’Acoz, the daughter of a baron (now a count).

[jaclinecarter]

While they have no royal titles of any sort, I would still say they are more then commoners because they had enough money and reputation to have connections to get into the eye sight of a royal. I would say a commoner would be more along the lines of Edward's wife Sophie. She didn't come from any kind of money and worked her way through life. If Edward didn't have an interest in television and film, those 2 never would have met by any chance. Now THAT is a Cinderella story of finding your prince charming. Lol