Primogeniture is a pain. You can spend all your life waiting to be king or queen and then just have a few years on the throne - or you could be ruling for basically all of your life, which is probably a lot of responsibility.
Elizabeth II is under a year away from becoming the longest reigning monarch in the history of England or the United Kingdom - Victoria was on the throne for 63 years - with this in mind we were inspired to look at how other post-Norman conquest rulers have lasted.
The gold line shows how many years (in decimals) the monarch reigned and the blue shows the years of their life when they were not the country’s monarch. Although it is not quite as straightforward as it seems.
One example is Henry VI and Edward IV were duking it out and deposing each other during the Wars of the Roses.
Edward VIII spent the most years not on the throne, given that he abdicated and became the Duke of Windsor without lasting a full year. James II spent a similarly long proportion of his life without the crown because of the “Glorious Revolution”, which overthrew the ruler because of his moves towards Catholicism.
When the monarch’s exact date of birth was not available (e.g with William I) we have chosen the 1 June of the year we know was closest to their birthdate.
Anne was the first queen of Great Britain when the union with Scotland and Wales was signed in 1707 and in 1801 George III became king of the United Kingdom and Ireland - he was also the longest reigning King at 59 years.
