Chandler Toole
Stanton
English 4
3-18-15
The Way Monarchs Ruled Back in the Day
Monarchs have different ways in which they rule, some are good and some are bad. Back in the day there was many different ways in which leaders acted. Some say the female Monarchs ruled more easily and were closer to the people, but that’s just personal opinions. In this essay I will describe three different Monarchs and the way in which they ruled. These Monarchs that I will be talking about are, Henry VIII, Queen Victoria, and the fictional leader Macbeth.
First off I’m going to talk about King Henry VIII. He had and older brother named Arthur who was expected to take the thrown after his father Henry VII. Arthur died at age 15 and Henry was now the heir, he also took Arthurs wife Catherine of Aragon. They didn’t get married until Henry VII died in 1509. They were both later crowned king and queen. Henry went through multiple wives, because all of them but one couldn’t give him a male heir. This problem was mostly Henrys fault due to the fact that he had a rare blood type. Henry divorced 2 of his wives, executed 2 of his wives, one was widowed when Henry died, and the other one Jane Seymour died in child birth. Henry was a never a good ruler, he was always killing people for different reasons. Killings became worse with Henry as he got older due to his Medical problems that made him mentally declined. His people only respected him because they feared him. Usually if they didn’t do what he wanted or respect King Henry, he would have them killed or take their land from them. Henry did this sort of thing quite often, especially to his wives. Henry lived until the age of 55, he died overweight and with many problems. Henry was later buried by his only “true” wife Jane Seymour, because she was the only one that gave him a male heir.
The next person I’m going to be talking about is Queen Victoria, whom was probably the nicest to her people out of all the rulers I’m going to be talking about. Victoria took the thrown after her father King Edward died. She married her husband Prince Albert in 1840; they fell deeply in love until the day that he died in 1861. Victoria and her husband had a total of 9 kids together, most of them which married into royal families. There were a total of 7 attempts to kill Victoria, all of them failed. People saw that she was a stronger woman than they thought she was once they had realized how many failed attempts to kill her there were and how she reacted to them. Queen Victoria reigned for almost 64 good years in which her people liked her for the most part. She later died January 22, 1901 and was buried beside her beloved husband.
Last but definitely not least is the fiction ruler Macbeth. Macbeth got his powers by a curse that witches bestowed upon him. It all happened when Macbeth became Thane of Cawdor. He and his wife both had evil intentions to take the thrown from the former king Duncan. They invited Duncan to their home one day and had devised a plan to kill him. One night they waited for Duncan to go to sleep and they drugged the guards. Later on that night once the guards were asleep, Macbeth went in there and killed Duncan and later killed the guards to make it look like they had killed Duncan. Macbeth was crowned king but everyone knew that he had killed Duncan. Duncan’s son Fliance fled quickly from the thought that Macbeth may want to kill him also. Later Fliance and Malcom’s son come back with an army to fight Macbeth and get revenge on him. The fight wasn’t working out on Macbeth’s side because the other army used the trees for protection and Macbeth’s soldiers saw that and retreated. Macbeth went back and sat on his throne waiting for Fliance to arrive. The witches told Macbeth he couldn’t be killed by a man born by a woman but Fliance wasn’t born from a woman he was born by c – section. Fliance later kills Macbeth and bestows his family’s right to the throne.
In conclusion you can say that 2 of the 3 rulers were bad, Henry killed many just because he could and he did. Macbeth killed the king and was cursed by witches just to get his powers and tried to blame the killing on the guards. But Victoria was a good ruler and never really caused that much harm and her people greater respected her with time after the killing attempts.