Orange Revolution

Martin Luther probably had no idea the storm he was unleashing when he nailed his grievances on the door of a church at Wittenberg. The Protestant Reformation spread like wildfire, and within 50 years half of Europe had split from the Catholic church.  In England, Henry VIII was strongly pro-Catholic until the Pope refused him a divorce, at which point he declared the entire country Protestant.

But the reason he wanted a divorce was because his wife had only born him one daughter, Mary, and when she came to throne not only was she Catholic, but she had her own grievances against those who helped her father divorce her mother. (History would know her as "Bloody Mary.")

For the next 100 years, it was almost farcical as each heir came to the thrown alternated between Catholic and Protestant, and the winds of the country shifted appropriately. Elizabeth I succeeded Mary and restored the Church of England.  Her successor would have been Mary, Queen of Scots, but she was Catholic, so Elizabeth held her in the Tower of London for 19 years, and then executed her.  Her son, James I, was a protestant, and his son, Charles I, was also protestant but made the grave mistake of marrying a Catholic, and was executed.  After a brief flurry as a Republic, Charles II -- protestant -- was invited  to restore the monarchy, but was succeeded by his brother, James II, a Catholic.

But it gets better: James II had two daughters by his first wife, who were protestant, and one son by his second wife, who was Catholic.  When James named his son as heir, it was too much for Parliament, who invited his eldest daughter -- now married to the Dutch King, William of Orange -- to invade.

When William and Mary sailed to England, James II promptly fled to France, making it probably the easiest invasion in history.  And in fact, most historians completely ignore the fact that it was an invasion, claiming James II had abdicated the throne, and today it is referred to as the "Glorious Revolution." However, had it been a succession, Mary would have been queen and William merely the 'Princess Consort' (similar to today, with Elizabeth II as queen and her husband, Prince Phillip, as her consort).  However, William -- who had brought an army with him -- forced Parliament to declare him King, and Parliament made the odd choice to make them separate and joint rulers, "William and Mary."

Both died childless, however, so Mary's sister, Anne, succeeded.  When she also failed to provide an heir, things got weird.  Parliament was not tolerating another Catholic monarch, but the next 50 or so people in line for the throne were all Catholic!  The 'Act of Settlement' in 1701 passed over all 50 people to settle on the Electress Sophia of Hanover, a province in Germany!

The House of Hanover -- or more accurately, the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha -- has ruled since, although in 1917 George V changed the name to the House of Windsor, due to anti-German settlement preceding World War I.

That's enough nattering today, but here's a nice trivia question: What is Elizabeth II's surname?  (And no, it's not Windsor.)