The method here used of memorising the order of the English sovereigns
from William I., the Conqueror, to Victoria possesses the following
novelties:--
(1) We learn the order of the entire series of thirty-seven sovereigns
by means of the relations, direct and indirect, which we establish with
the reigning sovereign, Victoria.
(2) The precise credit is claimed for this method which it is entitled
to receive. In a list of proper names we sometimes have several surnames
alike, with usually a difference of Christian names, as in the
presidential series we have--_William Henry_ Harrison and _Benjamin_
Harrison, and _John_ Adams and _John Quincy_ Adams, and we also
sometimes have the same Christian names prefixed to different surnames,
as James _Madison_ and James _Monroe_. But in the Sovereigns of England,
from William I. to Victoria, we have many Christian names alike, and the
differences indicated by _ordinal_ numbers, as George I., George II.,
George III., George IV. This order of the English Kings is most
extraordinary, neither the Popes of Rome, nor the French, nor any other
list of kings, furnishing any parallel in more than a few incidents. It
is these unique coincidences and recurrences that make it so easy to
find relations between these sovereigns. This method is not applicable
to the American Presidents, Prime Ministers of England, or hardly any
other series.
(3) No accidental relations of parts of names is resorted to, as was
done in the case of the American Presidents.
(4) The series is so taught that it can be recited forwards and
backwards--the only true test of learning any series.
(5) The series is completely worked out and nothing is left to chance or
possible mistakes so liable to be committed by novices in dealing for
the first time with a new process that has to be applied to many
details.
(6) When the series is carefully studied and the relations painstakingly
_characterised_, it is quickly learned and it is hard to forget.
(7) When the series is learned by this method and the relations are
occasionally reviewed and _identified_, its recital both ways once or
twice a day for a month helps to develop the Attention as well as the
Assimilative powers.
(8) The _exact name_ of each Sovereign is learned. The student relies on
real relations and names, and not on unidentified jingles of threes and
threes and twos and twos, like three Edwards and three Henrys and two
Edwards and two Henrys, with the inevitable necessity of having
afterwards to learn _which_ Edward and _which_ Henry was meant, &c. But
summations can follow specifications.
(9) Pestalozzi [1745-1827] taught that we must proceed from the "known"
to the "unknown;" but this principle mainly applies to learning the
words of a foreign language. When we begin to learn such words they are
wholly unknown to us. But in learning ordinary series of names or prose
or poetry by heart, all the names and words used may be equally well
known by us; but it is mainly the _order_ in which these occur that we
wish to memorise, and we begin at the beginning and proceed as we learn
on from the Better Known or Best Known. In the list of American
Presidents the series extends back to a little more than a century; but
in the case of the English Sovereigns, when we begin with the Conqueror,
the series extends back to 1066--upwards of 800 years--and, although in
such a series the names of all the Sovereigns may be known, yet the
latest is vastly better known to us than the earliest. In such a case it
may be most useful to begin with the Best Known.
(10) Fortunately in this case the Best Known Sovereign is a PIVOT around
which all the other Sovereigns are directly or indirectly related.
_How_, we will proceed to show. Something of the method will be
intimated by the difference of type and spaces between the names:--
William I. Henry VII.
William II. Henry VIII.
Henry I. Edward VI.
Stephen. _Mary._
Henry II. _Elizabeth._
James I.
Richard I. Charles I.
John. Council of State and Parliament.
Henry III. Oliver Cromwell.
Edward I. Richard Cromwell.
Edward II. Council of State and Parliament.
Edward III. Charles II.
James II.
Richard II. William III. and Mary.
_Anne._
Henry IV. Henry IV.
Henry V. George I.
Henry VI. George II.
Edward IV. George III.
Edward V. George IV.
William IV.
Richard III. VICTORIA.
We begin with the Best Known, or Victoria, and we take note that she is
an independent Queen, since she has never shared sovereignty with
anyone; but Mary, of "William III. and Mary," was not an independent
Queen, because she did share the Sovereign Power with her husband.
Hereafter, when I use the word Queen I mean an independent Queen, except
when Mary, of "William III. and Mary," is mentioned, and her name will
be used only in Connection with William III. England has had only four
independent Queens, namely, Mary [Tudor], Elizabeth, Anne, and Victoria.
(I.) Victoria is the _last_ queen and Mary was the _first_ queen
[Exclusion between _first_ and _last_, or Ex.], and Mary, _first_ queen,
was preceded by the _last_ Edward, or Edward VI. [Ex.] And Mary, the
_first_ queen, was followed by the the _first_ and only Elizabeth [In.]
And the _first_ and only Elizabeth was followed by James the _First_, or
I. [In.] Again, _Queen_ Elizabeth was followed by _King_ James, making a
clear case of Ex. Again, Anne, the _third_ queen, was preceded by Wm.
the _Third_, or III., and Mary [In.] And these _two_ co-equal
Sovereigns were preceded by James the _Second_, or II. [In., between
cardinal number _two_ and the ordinal number _Second_]. This series of
Queens concludes with Victoria the _fourth_ Queen, who was preceded by
William the _Fourth_, or IV. [In.], and William the _Fourth_, or IV.,
was preceded by George the _Fourth_, or IV. [In.]; and George IV. by
George III., and he by George II., and he by George I.,--a concurrence
reversed, and William IV. was preceded, as we have seen, by William III.
and Mary--and William III. by William II., and William I. at the very
beginning of the series--Con.
Now let us recall in the forward and reverse order what we have learned
so far. William I., William II., Edward VI., Mary, Elizabeth, James I.,
James II., William III. and Mary, Anne, George I., George II., George
III., George IV., William IV., and Victoria, and the order reversed is
Victoria, William IV., George IV., George III., George II., George I.,
Anne, William III. and Mary, James II., James I., Elizabeth, Mary,
Edward VI., William II., William I.
(II.) Disregarding for the moment the four periods of what is usually
called the Commonwealth, we see that between Elizabeth and William III.
and Mary, are four monarchs, the two James and the two Charles. We
have already learned that Elizabeth was followed by James I. and that
William III. and Mary were preceded by James II. Hence we see that the
two Charles must come _between_ the two James, and, of course, that
Charles I. must precede Charles II., and that the order of these four
monarchs _must_ be James I., Charles I., Charles II., and James II.--a
plain case of Con. reversed. We saw that there were two of these four
monarchs before the Commonwealth; there must then be two after it,
making James I. and Charles I. before the Commonwealth and Charles II.
and James II. after it.
On the day that Charles I. was executed (January 30, 1649), the
Parliament (the House of Commons) abolished the kingly office and House
of Lords, and appointed a Council of State of 41 members, which with the
House of Commons was to be the government. Intermediate then between
Charles I. and Charles II. there came--
Council of State and Parliament.
Oliver Cromwell.
Richard Cromwell.
Council of State and Parliament.
Here we see there was a Council of State and Parliament at the beginning
and close of these intermediates, and between them came Oliver Cromwell
and his son, Richard Cromwell. Charles I., followed by Council of State
and Parliament, made a case of Exclusion and the Council of State and
Parliament, followed by the Protector Oliver Cromwell, gives another
example of Ex. and a case of In. between Oliver Cromwell and his son
Richard, who inherited the protectorate, but a case of Ex. again between
the powerful Oliver and his weak son Richard, and another example of Ex.
between the protectorate of Richard Cromwell and the Council of State
and Parliament, and another between the latter and the full-fledged
monarchy of Charles II.
Now review what we have learned so far and we have William I., William
II., Edward VI., Mary, Elizabeth, James I., Charles I., Council of State
and Parliament, Oliver Cromwell, Richard Cromwell, Council of State and
Parliament, Charles II., James II., William III. and Mary, Anne, George
I., George II., George III., George IV., William IV., and Victoria.
Reverse the recital and we have Victoria, William IV., George IV.,
George III., George II., George I., Anne, William III. and Mary, James
II., Charles II., Council of State and Parliament, Richard Cromwell,
Oliver Cromwell, Council of State and Parliament, Charles I., James I.,
Elizabeth, Mary, Edward VI., William II., and William I.
(III.) We now proceed to learn the eighteen kings intermediate between
William II. and Edward VI. We notice at once that the _first_ and _last_
of these intermediates are the _first_ and _last_ Henrys [Ex.], viz.,
Henry I. and Henry VIII. We see also that Henry the _First_, or I., is
followed by Henry the Second, or II. [Con.], with the _first_ and only
Stephen as the _first_ single intermediary [In.]. Returning to Edward
VI., we see that he, the _last_ Edward, is preceded by Henry VIII., or
the _last_ Henry [In.] We also notice that Edward VI. is preceded by
Henry VI., and Henry VI. by Henry III., or the half of six [In. by W.
and P.]. Finally we observe that between William II. and Mary, there are
three series of kings completed--eight Henrys, six Edwards, and three
Richards. Making the three Richards _reference_ points we can easily fix
the residue of the eighteen kings for we see that Richard I. or the
_First_, is preceded by Henry II. and followed by Henry III., with the
_first_ and only John as the _second_ single intermediary [In.] and that
Richard II. is preceded by Edward I., Edward II., and Edward III., or
three Edwards, and followed by Henry IV., Henry V., and Henry VI., or
three Henrys, and that Richard III. is preceded by Edward IV. and Edward
V., or two Edwards, and followed by Henry VII. and Henry VIII., or two
Henrys.
Recalling the succession from William I. to Edward VI., we have William
I., William II., Henry I., Stephen, Henry II., Richard I., John, Henry
III., Edward I., Edward II., Edward III., Richard II., Henry IV., Henry
V., Henry VI., Edward IV., Edward V., Richard III., Henry VII., Henry
VIII., Edward VI. Reversing the order, we have Edward VI., Henry VIII.,
Henry VII., Richard III., Edward V., Edward IV., Henry VI., Henry V.,
Henry IV., Richard II., Edward III., Edward II., Edward I., Henry III.,
John, Richard I., Henry II., Stephen, Henry I., William II., and William
I.
We conclude with the recital both ways of the thirty-seven Sovereigns
from William I. to Victoria.
William I. VICTORIA.
William II. William IV.
Henry I. George IV.
Stephen. George III.
Henry II. George II.
Richard I. George I.
John. ANNE.
Henry III. William III. and Mary,
Edward I. James II.
Edward II. Charles II.
Edward III. Council of State and Parliament.
Richard II. Richard Cromwell.
Henry IV. Oliver Cromwell.
Henry V. Council of State and Parliament.
Henry VI. Charles I.
Edward IV. James I.
Edward V. ELIZABETH.
Richard III. MARY.
Henry VII. Edward VI.
Henry VIII. Henry VIII.
Edward VI. Henry VII.
MARY. Richard III.
ELIZABETH. Edward V.
James I. Edward IV.
Charles I. Henry VI.
Council of State and Parliament. Henry V.
Oliver Cromwell. Henry IV.
Richard Cromwell. Richard II.
Council of State and Parliament. Edward III.
Charles II. Edward II.
James II. Edward I.
William III. and Mary. Henry III.
ANNE. John.
George I. Richard I.
George II. Henry II.
George III. Stephen.
George IV. Henry I.
William IV. William II.
VICTORIA. William I.