Post by Keith F. LynchQueen Elizabeth II ruled Britain for more years than all seven of the
kings who have ruled since George III died more than two centuries ago
-- put together.
1) When will this cease to be the case?
2) What would have to have to happen for the above answer to change?
There are several correct answers.
3) Since what date have kings and queens ruled Britain for an exactly
equal amount of time? (There are three correct answers. And all
three answers change each day.)
Here is the final version of a file that I maintained,updated,
and reposted steadily from 2010 to 2022 as the Queen's reign
lengthened...
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Consider,if you would,the United Kingdom and Empire
as they were on July 8th 1881.
Queen Victoria,under 7 weeks past 62,was on the throne;
she was over five years from her Golden Jubilee,her Diamond Jubilee
would be ten years after that.The future Edward VII was more than 4
months short of 40 (the current Prince of Wales is under 3 months from 74),
the future George V was only 5 weeks past 16(the Duke of Cambridge is
over 2 months past 40--George V became Heir Apparent at 35 when all
his children were younger than Princess Charlotte is now,and George VI
was Heir Presumptive at the Duke's present age),not yet Duke of York,
and not yet heir apparent to his father;nor was his elder
brother (who had over a decade to live) yet 18.
The future Archbishop of Canterbury who would crown King Edward was
Bishop of Exeter.The oldest British royal was George III's daughter-in-law
the Duchess of Cambridge (Augusta of Hesse-Cassel),born 1797 and with
over seven and a half years to live.
The Church of England dioceses of Birmingham,Blackburn,Bristol,
Coventry,Chelmsford,Derby,Guildford,Leicester,Newcastle,Portsmouth,
St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich,Sheffield,and Southwark did not yet
exist...nor did those of Bradford and Wakefield,now abolished,
or that of Southwell,from which Derby would one day be severed.That of
Liverpool was under a year and a half old.
Lloyd George,Macdonald,and Baldwin were teenagers,
Chamberlain was twelve and Churchill was six years old,
and no later Prime Minister(including Attlee)
had yet been born (nor had any person in the world alive after 1999).
Keir Hardie,who years later would found the original Scottish
Labour Party,then the Independent Labour Party,and then the Labour
Party proper,was aged twenty-four and would not be an MP for over
a decade.
William Gladstone (born 1809) was the only living person who had been
Prime Minister (years younger than his predecessors).His government
had not yet sought passage of the Representation of the People Act 1884
(which would for the first time enable most men to vote),which would
be followed by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 (which would establish
the norm of single-member constituencies) which would first come into
effect with the following election.(The secret ballot had been law
for nine years).
Women would not vote in a General Election for over thirty-seven years.
Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot(born 1803),Father of the House of Commons,
had been a member since 1830...before any of the Reform Bills.(Charles
James Mahon,born 1800,had been a member discontinuously since then).
Lord Coleridge (born 1820) was Lord Chief Justice,and had been
the last Chief Justice of the Common Pleas (a position abolished
by the Judicature Act of 1873).The 1st Lord Esher(born 1815 or 1817,
sources disagree) had yet to become Master of the Rolls.The Royal
Courts of Justice building was under construction and today's Old
Bailey would not open for decades.
Many of the Colonies had yet to be colonized,Hong Kong was over a
decade from adding the New Territories.
Battleships that would be scrapped as obsolete in the reign of Edward VII
had yet to be laid down,nor had either HMS Victoria,which would sink in
an 1893 collision,or the ironclad HMS Camperdown,which would sink it.
Ships built with sailing rigs were still in the active fleet,
some with wooden hulls were still performing reserve and training functions,
and it was years before HMS Temeraire would make port under sail alone
for the final time.
The Admirals of the Fleet included Sir George Sartorius(born
1790,a commander in 1812 and post-captain in 1814),and
Sir Provo Wallis (born 1791,a lieutenant 1808,and commander 1813);
Sartorius had been a midshipman on HMS Tonnant at Trafalgar in 1805
nearly 9 years before Francis Scott Key's visit to that ship led to
"The Star-Spangled Banner" being written,witnessed the surrender of
Napoleon,commanded a fleet in the Portugese Civil War of the 1830s,
and risen through the admiral ranks starting in 1849;Wallis had
taken temporary command of HMS Shannon when it captured USS
Chesapeake in 1813.
The 1st Baron Strathnairn(born 1801) was a Field Marshal,
while Sir Richard Dacres(born 1799),the 3rd Earl of Lucan
(born 1800,a lieutenant colonel 1826),who had ordered the
Charge of the Light Brigade,and three men born in 1804
had yet to receive promotion to that rank.
The eldest Dukes included the 6th of Northumberland(b. 1810,
great-great-great-grandfather of the 11th and the current 12th Duke)
the 2nd of Wellington(b. 1807,elder brother of the great-great-grandfather
of the present 9th Duke born 1945,an MP 1829 and army major 1830),
the 7th of Devonshire(b. 1808,great-great-great-grandfather of the
present 12th duke born 1944,he had first become an MP in 1829 and
a peer in 1834),the 5th of Buccleuch/7th of Queensberry(b. 1806,
succeeded in 1819,a Knight of the Garter since 1835,previously of
the Thistle from 1830,great-great-great-grandfather of the present
12th Duke),the 12th of Somerset(b. 1804,second cousin of the
great-great-great-grandfather of the current 19th Duke),
and the 4th (and last) of Cleveland (born 1803).
The 1st Duke of Abercorn,so created in 1868,had succeeded to the
Marquessate thereof in 1818 and been a Knight of the Garter since 1844.
The 3rd Marquess of Donegall (born 1797) was alive and would be
succeeded by a younger brother born in 1799(the present peer is the
great-great-great-grandson of their first cousin).
The 7th Earl of Shaftesbury(born 1801,an MP from 1826,great-
great-great-grandfather of the present peer and his predecessor),the
3rd Earl Grey (born 1802,also an MP from 1826,elder brother of the
great-great-grandfather of the octogenarian present peer and of his
predecessor),and the 2nd Earl of Harrowby(born 1798,an MP from 1819,
a Lord of the Admiralty in 1827,great-great-great-grandfather of the
septuagenarian present Earl) were among the Knights of the Garter.
The 1st Earl of Lovelace (born 1805) had over a decade to live,and
had been a Lord-Lieutenant since 1840.
The 3rd and 4th Earl of Mansfield and Mansfield(born 1806 and with
over 15 years to live) had been a Knight of the Thistle since 1843,
and had been an MP from 1830 to 1840,with a spell in Government 1834-5.
The 4th Earl of Arran(born 1801) had been a Knight of
St. Patrick since 1841 and been charge d'affaires in
Buenos Aires 1832-4.
Also among the Earls were the 6th Earl of Essex(born 1803),
and the 6th of Albemarle,born 1799,a veteran of the Battle of Waterloo.
The eldest of Earls were the 2nd Earl Mount Cashell,
born 1792,the 6th Earl of Buckinghamshire,
born 1793,and the 2nd of Stradbroke,born 1794,
commissioned in the Army in 1810,a Lieutenant 1814,
who missed Waterloo on account of a wound.
The Earl of Sandwich had held his title since 1818.
The 9th Viscount of Arbuthnott(born 1806) was alive,the
current peer is the 17th.
The 1st Viscount Portman (born 1799,first elected MP in 1823) was
alive,the present peer is the 10th.
The oldest Viscount,however,was the 1st and last of Eversley,born in 1794
and Speaker of the House of Commons 1839-57.
The senior Viscount was the 2nd Frankfort de Montmorency,
who had inherited his title in 1822.
Barons included the 3rd Baron Gardner,who had inherited that title
in 1815,the 2nd Baron Mostyn(born 1795,great-great-great-great-
grandfather of the present peer),the 2nd Baron Brougham and Vaux
(born 1795,great-great-grandfather of the octogenarian present peer),
the 16th Baron Saye and Sele(born 1799,great-great-grandfather of
the 101-year-old present peer),the 1st Baron Cottesloe (born
1798,great-great-great-grandfather of the present peer),
and the 1st Lord Ebury,born 1801 and a Privy Counsellor since 1830,
who had over a decade to live;
the oldest peerage holder was Lady Sempill,born 1790 or possibly 1789.
The Lord Bishop of Chichester was Richard Durnford,born 1802,
and that of Llandaff Alfred Ollivant,born 1798.
Sir Moses Montefiore,born 1784,was the oldest baronet.
Sir Thomas Sabine Pasley had held his baronetcy since 1808.
Cardinal Manning (born 1808) was Catholic Archbishop of Westminster,
but Cardinal Newman(born 1801) was the oldest British cardinal.
Abroad Alexander III had been Emperor and Tsar-Autocrat of all
the Russias for less than four months,and Leo XIII(born 1810) had
more than five-sixths of his time as Pope ahead of him.
Slavery was still legal in Brazil and would be for years.
Wilhelm I,grandfather of the World War I Kaiser,born in 1797,
still ruled Germany.Bernhard II,though abdicated from Saxe-
Meiningen,was still alive and had become Duke during the
Holy Roman Empire.
Consider all the changes,natural and manmade,visited upon the world
in all the time from then to September 2022.
And now consider this...Queen Elizabeth II was on the Throne
for MOST of that time from then until her death...and until
June 2093 [SIC...I think April is correct]
will have been on the Throne for most of the time
since her accession.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
As to your questions,and noting that in the closing weeks of
her reign the Queen's reign surpassed the entire lifespan of
George V,and the lengths of the consecutive reigns of William IV
and Victoria(someone born the day before George IV died and
died the day after Edward VII acceded would have lived a
shorter time than one born the day after Elizabeth II acceded
and dying the day before she did)...
*The task of adding up to longer time on the Throne than she had
[noted in my closing paragraph]
is presented to be divided up among Charles,William,and a
by-then-nearly-80 George.
The pre-Victorian kings George IV and William IV covered
January 29,1820 to June 20,1837...the four "inter-reginal"
kings Edward,George,Edward,and George covered January 22,1901
to February 6,1952,and Charles III has had the 9 months
since September 8,2022.
If you add the 17 years 142 days of the earlier two
to the 51 years 15 days between Victoria and Elizabeth,
you get 68 years 157 days,and with those six retrospective
partners Charles only has to add 2 years 58 days so he'd
reach it in November 2024.(Elizabeth would cease to have
reigned longer than the six kings since the death of
George IV if he lasts through April 2035...if William is
King by then the number of kings after George IV of course
reverts to seven).
If at any time before a desired sum is reached Charlotte
accedes,the count for "king time" of course stops.
Do your multiple answers relating to "Britain" relate to
the Acts of Union?
-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.