As many of you know from reading my bio, when I was in college I learned a little rhyme that lists the Kings & Queens of England in order. Useless to some. Not at all useless to a romance novelist who might, at any moment, in the absence of Wikipedia, be required to call on such vast historical knowledge.
And so…today…I give you the poem that will impress your friends, send your enemies cowering in the corner, and quite possibly win you a friendly game of Trivial Pursuit.
Willy, Willy, Harry, Stee,
Harry, Dick, John, Harry three.
One, two, three Ned, Richard two,
Harrys four, five, six.
Then who?Edwards four and five, Dick the bad,
Harry’s twain, Ned six, the lad.
Mary, Bessie, James you ken,
then Charlie, Charlie, James again.Will & Mary, Anna Gloria,
Georges four, Will four, Victoria.
Edward seven next, and then
came George the Fifth in 1910.Ned the eighth soon abdicated,
then George the sixth was coronated,
After which, Elizabeth!and ‘that’s all folks’until her death!
Join us next week, on Randomness from Sarah’s Brain!
June 29th, 2009 at 2:26 am
Haha, this is great! Thanks, Sara!
June 29th, 2009 at 4:20 am
Bless you for this. I was trying to remember which of my online friends had said they had such a poem, and coming up blank, but I really wanted to learn it!
June 29th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
It will take some practice to remember all that! I wish we had learned that in modern European History in high school or my class on the History of London in London!
June 29th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
@QNPB…it saved the day a number of times during my Early English History and Shakespeare Histories classes!
@Kelly…you should learn it! Then we can be history nerds together!
July 3rd, 2009 at 3:42 pm
There was a lot of Harry's. And Williams. And Edwards. And Ned. James. Charlies. AGHHH didn't they have any imagination in names back then? =P
May 14th, 2010 at 4:19 am
Oh fabulous. I didn't know there was such a rhyme. I only know the one for the first 20 elements of the periodic table. . . The fella and I are always arguing about the order of the British monarchs (yep, that's how we roll), but once I have this memorized I should be able to win every time.
April 4th, 2011 at 11:55 am
Where are George I-III?
April 4th, 2011 at 1:37 pm
Hi Jamie–
“Georges four”…George in the plural covers I-IV!
xo
October 4th, 2012 at 6:37 am
Have known this poem for many years but who was the poet?
May 21st, 2013 at 10:39 am
This is technical, but thats also phenomenal.
May 21st, 2013 at 10:40 am
I agree with a lot of what you’re saying here but it could do with more detail. – Thats whats cool about working with computers. They dont argue, they remember everything and they dont drink all your beer. Attributed to Paul Leary