Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/509

 ii s. i. JUNE 25, i9io.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

501

LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 25, 1910.

CONTENTS.-NO. 20.

IfOTES : The Edwards, Kings of England, 501 Inscrip- tions at Malaga, 502 Shakespeariana, 504 Shakespeare

Allusions "In cauda venenum" "Dulcarnon" in Chaucer, 505 " Denizen "Dr. Thomas's Notebook at Hallow Starling, a Christian Name A George IV. Mug, 506 A Spanish Sonnet and its English Translation, 507.

QUERIES : Dr. Maginn's Writings Tennyson's ' Mar- garet' Fonts: their size, 507 Queen Katherine Parr Author Wanted Elephant and Castle Princess Clara Emilia of Bohemia Paris Family Cowes Family- Bishops of Gloucester: their Portraits Talbot, 508 Wollescote Hall: Milward : Oliver Jane Bennett: Lieut. J. Pigott Sir John and George Day, 509" Dicky Birds " = Omnibus Conductors " Senpere ": ? Bridge- keeper Feoffment Separitite Bath King of Arms Arms of Stoneley Priory, 510.

REPLIES -.Genealogical Society for the United Kingdom, 510 China and Japan De Quincey and Swedenborg Dr. Beke's Diary Warming City Churches, 511" Saun- ter," 512 Gulf Stream "Hogler" Milton and Cheadle's Journey, 513 Authors Wanted Initial Letters for Names Richard II. near Calais, 514 Arabian Horses' Water- loo Banquet' Mr. Agnew on the Huguenots, 515 Major Johnson Cisterns in Kensington Gardens, 516 St. Pan- eras Church Bulgarian River Tradition Candle Auc- tions "Clob," 517 Richard Glynn Andrew Hearsey Maddock Family Ann of Swansea, 518.


 * NOTES ON BOOKS: 'The Parish Registers of England'

'The Rector's Book, Clay worth, Notts.'

Booksellers' Catalogues.

Notices to Correspondents.

THE EDWARDS, KINGS OF ENGLAND.

THE following historical facts and recur- rences may be worth recording in the pages of ' N. & Q.' at the present time, when we are all still deeply affected by our great national loss of a most popular and beloved monarch.

His late Majesty, not taking into account months or days, came to the throne 1,000 years after Edward the Elder, succeeded his father King Alfred, who died " six days before the mass of All Saints," A.D. 901. Edward the Elder was himself the first who extended his authority over the whole of Great Britain. He could not have been much more than 50 when he died in 925, as his father was born in 849.

Our late King appears to have been the longest-lived of all the Edwards, except perhaps that strange being Edward the Confessor ; but he was a prematurely aged man, and may not have reached even 65.

Edward I., who is styled " IV." or " first after the Conquest n in the ' Chronicle of Lanercost,' died in 1307, or 600 years, less three, before his late Majesty, and at the same age 68 though he had survived his

last birthday only 19 days and had reigned 34 years instead of 9. His beloved wife Eleanor, ." the Infanta Leonor " of Castile and Leon, had a son named Alfonso, after her brother the king of that name ; but he died at the age of 11. It was not until the late King's reign that a connexion between the royal families of England and Spain, bringing together the names of Edward and Alfonso once more, was renewed, after the long interval of nearly six centuries, by the marriage in 1906 of the Bang's niece the Prin- cess Victoria with King Alfonso XIII.

Edward I., Edward II., and Edward III. were father, son, and grandson, a succession of which there is only one other example in English history, viz., Henry IV., Henry V., and Henry VI. It is a curious fact that the third king of the three following Chris- tian names reigned the longest, namely, Henry III., Edward III., and George III. all coming to the throne in their nonage. Edward III. reigned too long, and was " forced to forsake the world ere his breath had forsaken him " ; but he was only 64 when he died, although so venerable - looking, with long grey hair and beard like the Confessor.

As to the other kings of the name, Ed- ward IV. was only 41 when he died, Ed- ward II. 42, Edward V. 12, Edward VI. 15, and Edward the Martyr about 20.

The very first of this Christian name known was Edward the Elder himself ; it does not occur in any of the old genea- logies, as those in Florence of Worcester's ' Chronicle,' in lists of bishops, or elsewhere before his time.

The first foreign sovereign named Edward was king of Portugal 1433-8, a great grand- son of our Edward III., after whom he was so called. In Portugal the name took root in the abbreviated form of " Duarte."

The following may be considered a re- markable recurrence. When Queen Eliza- beth died 300 years less two before Queen Victoria, her principal Secretary of State was Robert Cecil, first Earl of Salisbury, who died 9 years after her, "worn out by the affairs of State." When Queen Victoria passed away the Prime Minister was the Marquis of Salisbury Robert Cecil, the 9th Earl, though none of the seven inter- vening Earls had borne that Christian name. He, too, died soon after.

The familiar official initials E. R. of the late King were last previously used, not by Edward VI., but by Queen Elizabeth.

A. S ELLIS.

Westminster.