Everything about King Consort totally explained
King consort is a title given in some
monarchies to the
husband of a
queen regnant. Nowadays, it's a symbolic title only, the sole constitutional function of the holder being similar to a
queen consort, namely to produce an
heir to the throne.
Spain,
Portugal,
England and
Scotland have all had kings consort; however, since the rank of
king normally outranks that of
queen, in most monarchies the queen's husband is given the title of
prince or
prince consort instead, as in the case of
Prince Albert,
Queen Victoria's husband. In
Denmark and the
Netherlands, the queen's husband is made a prince. In England,
Mary I's husband, the future
Philip II of Spain, was named King Consort; however, no English, Scottish or subsequent British queen regnant's husband has been granted the title. (The husband of
Mary II,
William III, was named co-sovereign with his wife and he was thus not king consort.)
Except for earlier, the husband of an heiress became the possessor of her lands (and titles)
jure uxoris, "in right of his wife". In the Middle Ages, this was invariably true even for queens regnant and princesses regnant. Accordingly, the husband of the reigning female monarch became monarch, and from this the denotation "King Consort" is a consequence. In some cases, the king thus ascended, remained king even after the death of the wife, and in some cases left the kingdom to their own heirs who were not issue of the wife in question (cf
Władysław II Jagiełło of Poland, ascended as husband of
Queen Jadwiga). In the event of a divorce between a reigning female monarch and her husband, the husband would remain the monarch and the wife would lose her status. One example of this is when
Marie of Boulogne and
Matthew I of Boulogne were divorced in 1170. Marie ceased to be Countess, while Matthew I continued to reign until 1173.
Later, the woman remained the monarch, but the husband had some power, usually as co-regent. For example,
Maria Theresa of Austria was queen regnant of
Hungary and
Bohemia, but her husband
Francis was king consort.
Queen Mary I, queen regnant of
England (reigned 1553 - 1558), accordingly styled her husband
Philip King of England and that was recognized in the administration of the realm, where the dating went "Mary & Philip"; Philip was also King of Naples, and later in his own right King Philip II of Spain (reigned 1556 - 1598) and King Philip I of Portugal (reigned 1580 - 1598). Philip lost his English title when his wife died.
Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots (reigned 1542-1567), married
Henry Stuart,
Lord Darnley, the eldest son of the Earl and Countess of
Lennox in July 1565. Darnley was a grandson of King
Henry VII of England and Mary's first cousin, and he was considered to have a strong claim to the Scottish throne. On the evening before their marriage, Mary proclaimed Darnley "King of Scots", a title that she couldn't legally grant him without the consent of Parliament, but which was never formally challenged. However, this title didn't grant him any automatic right of rule or of succession to the throne if Mary should die. For that to happen, it was necessary that Mary should grant him the
Crown Matrimonial of Scotland. In 1558, the Crown Matrimonial had been granted to her short-lived first husband,
Francis II, King of France, with the consent of the Scottish Parliament, which meant that if Mary had died before Francis, Francis would have also become the king of Scotland and Scotland might well have become permanently subject to the French Crown. Mary's marriage to Darnley rapidly became unhappy, and despite Darnley's constant demands for the Crown Matrimonial, Mary never gave it to him. If she had, Darnley would have inherited the throne of Scotland if Mary (and their children, if any) had predeceased him. Under that scenario, if Darnley had then remarried and had children with his new queen, he'd have started a new dynastic line and those children also would have been the legitimate heirs to the Scottish throne. (However, Darnley and Mary did have one son, who outlived both parents and became
James VI of Scotland and later
James I of England and Ireland, the heir not only of his mother Mary but also of
Elizabeth I, Queen of England.)
In Portugal, there were specific conditions to a male consort could be a Consort King: to bear a royal heir.
It happened twice, first in the late 18th Century, when the Queen
Maria I of Portugal, who started reigning in 1777, gave to her husband (and uncle) not only the title of Consort King but also an
ordinal as he reigned as
Peter III, together with his wife (and niece).
In 1836, Queen
Maria II of Portugal married her second husband,
Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, a direct cousin of Prince Albert. Ferdinand got the title of Consort King the next year (in 1837), as soon as their first child was born, and he reigned as Ferdinand II, together with his wife.
Queen Maria's first husband,
Auguste of Beauharnais, was only consort Prince, because he died before he could bear a royal heir).
Victoria of the United Kingdom (reigned 1837 - 1901) wanted to make her husband
Albert king consort. But the British government refused to introduce a bill allowing it, as Albert was a foreigner. She instead gave him the title of
Prince Consort in 1857.
In the
United Kingdom, there's no automatic right of the consort of a queen to receive any title, as with any husband of a
suo jure peeress.
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom (reigned 1952 - ) didn't create her husband
Philip, Duke of Edinburgh a
Prince of the United Kingdom until 1957, five years after her accession. He has never been formally designated Prince Consort or King Consort.
Further Information
Get more info on 'King Consort'.
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