Royal rivalries

We’ve all heard of sibling rivalry and family drama and the royal family aren’t immune from the odd falling out. Here are four of the biggest conflicts between royal family members in history.

George VI and Edward VIII

We’re starting off with a falling out that didn’t involve an execution or any blood shed at all really. Edward VIII is one of the shortest reigning monarchs, abdicating to marry the twice divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson, as Parliament wouldn’t grant him permission to marry her. While the idea of giving up your throne for love sounds like something we should celebrate, Edward and his new wife did rather disappoint by becoming friends with Hitler and causing drama for the rest of the royals. Edward was succeeded by his younger brother, George VI, who very reluctantly became king. Their relationship became strained almost immediately, with George refusing royal status for Wallis Simpson and forbidding any of the royals to attend the wedding.
The difficult relationship continued into the reign of George’s daughter Elizabeth II.

King John and everyone

King John is universally considered to be Britain’s least liked monarch, especially when compared to his brother Richard the Lionheart. Even before he became king, he had a difficult relationship with his many siblings, probably because he was not only the youngest of Henry II’s sons but also the favourite, something that he used to his advantage.

Henry decided to give John several castles which caused his older brothers Richard, Geoffrey and Henry the Young King to revolt. In turn, as a reward for standing by his father, John was given more territory, which further caused a rift. John would however go on to betray his father and team up with his brothers, only to abandon them again.

Later, when Richard became king and was captured while on crusade, John schemed with the King of France to keep him imprisoned so he could claim the throne. Richard, proving that he is the better person, forgave his brother and John would later become king on his death. He did however lose half of the crown’s treasury while travelling across a river in a storm, which likely didn’t endear him to the rest of the family.

The Tudors

The first generation were relatively friendly with each other but Henry VIII’s children fought amongst themselves and their cousins. Henry’s daughters Mary I and Elizabeth I never had a chance at a normal sibling relationship – Mary was the product of Henry’s marriage to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon and was declared illegitimate when her half sister, Elizabeth was born to Henry’s second wife, Anne Boleyn.

However, after Anne Boleyn’s execution, Elizabeth was also demoted and depending on which one of them had Henry’s favour, would depend which one had titles and power. Their younger half brother was named heir and the three of them spent much of their lives living separately but were reunited, with each other and their father, during his marriage to wife number six, Catherine Parr. The two girls were written back into the line of succession but it didn’t much improve their relationship.

After the premature death of their little brother Edward, their cousin Lady Jane Grey was named as his heir, so Mary gathered an army and took the throne, later executing Lady Jane and her husband. Mary, being a catholic, considered Elizabeth, who was a protestant, to be a threat to her position and would at various points imprison her, either under house arrest or in the Tower of London.

Elizabeth would end up becoming queen herself after the death of Mary but the feuding didn’t end there. Elizabeth would have a particularly famous feud with her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, which would result in Mary’s execution and continued to fight with the sisters of Lady Jane Grey – even imprisoning one in the Tower of London for daring to get married and have children without Elizabeth’s permission.

William, Robert and Henry

William the Conqueror had three sons, Robert, William and Henry and they were the only trouble he failed to conquer. On one occasion, William and Henry pranked Robert and when the king refused to punish them, Robert retaliated by laying siege to one of his castles in Normandy. Robert came off the worst – he ended up being exiled for three years.

The rift continued after their father’s death, William inherited the English crown as William II, Robert inherited the lands in Normandy and Henry only received their mother’s lands. Robert and William would then continue to fight each other trying to take each other’s lands, with Henry flitting between the two.

In 1100, William II was shot while out hunting with Henry who immediately secured the English treasury and became king as Henry I, it is widely believed that Henry orchestrated the whole thing. Later, Robert tried to invade England and failed, Henry returned the favour by launching his own invasion and took Robert prisoner, where he remained for the rest of his life.