![]() | Royalty Kings and Queens Posterity alone rightly judges kings. Posterity alone has the right to accord or withhold honours. | ![]() |
Here we set our history into the context of the monarchs reigning in England/Britain
Saint Helena Island Info will not work fully because Javascript is not enabled in your browser.
This page covers monarchs reigning in England/Britain from the discovery of St Helena onwards. Also included are the two Lord Protectors during the Interregnum (1649-1660). Note that Great Britain was created by the Act of Union in 1707, which merged England and Scotland into a single kingdom. Prior to 1707 St Helena was an English possession so only English monarchs are shown in that period.
For more details see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_monarchs (1502-1707) and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_British_monarchs (1707-today) or click the image to see the Wikipedia page for each individual monarch.
Below: King Henry VII King Henry VIII King Edward VI Lady Jane Grey Queen Mary I Queen Elizabeth I King James I King Charles I No Monarch Oliver Cromwell Richard Cromwell No Monarch King Charles II King James II No Monarch King William III & Queen Mary II King William III Queen Anne King George I King George II King George III King George IV King William IV Queen Victoria King Edward VII King George V King Edward VIII King George VI Queen Elizabeth II
Other Records-based pages: |
For the pre-discovery history of St Helena, see our pages Geology of St Helena, Before Discovery and Endemic Species.
Monarch | Portrait | St Helena Events |
---|---|---|
King Henry VII1485-1509 | ⋅ 1502: St Helena is discovered by João da Nova ⋅ 1503: Ascension Island is discovered by Portuguese navigator Afonso de Albuquerque ⋅ 1506: Tristan da Cunha is discovered by Portuguese explorer Tristão da Cunha | |
King Henry VIII1509-1547 | ⋅ 1515: A Rhinoceros visits ⋅ 1516: Fernão Lopez arrives, the first inhabitant ⋅ 1546: Fernão Lopez dies on St Helena | |
King Edward VI1547-1553 | ||
Lady Jane Grey1553 | ||
Queen Mary I1553-1558 | ||
Queen Elizabeth I1558-1603 | ⋅ 1580: Francis Drake, circumnavigating the world, locates St Helena but does not land ⋅ 1584: William Barrett is the first Englishman to write about St Helena ⋅ 1588: The First Englishman visits ⋅ 1589: Dutchman Jan Huygen van Linschoten visits and starts the myth of our discovery being on 21st May ⋅ 1593: Captain Sir James Lancaster makes his first visit | |
King James I1603-1625 | ⋅ 1603: Sir James Lancaster visits again ⋅ 1608: Dutch officer Admiral Wittert visits and the Dutch take an interest ⋅ 1613: Dutch warship the | |
King Charles I1625-1649 | ⋅ 1625: British & Dutch fight the Portuguese for possession of St Helena (unsuccessfully) ⋅ 1633: The Dutch formally claim St Helena, planning to occupy & fortify it ⋅ 1644: Richard Boothby proposes to The East India Company that St Helena be colonised | |
No Monarch1649-1653 | ⋅ 1649: The East India Company begins using St Helena as a rallying point for its homeward-bound vessels ⋅ 1651: The Dutch abandon plans to occupy St Helena | |
Oliver Cromwell1653-1658 | ⋅ 1657: Oliver Cromwell grants The East India Company patents to occupy and develop St Helena | |
Richard Cromwell1658-1659 | ⋅ 1658: Dutchman Johan Nieuhof visits ⋅ 1658: The East India Company decides to occupy St Helena | |
No Monarch1659-1660 | ⋅ 1659: Governor Dutton builds the Fort of St. John ⋅ 1659: The English occupy & fortify St Helena | |
King Charles II1660-1685 | ⋅ 1660: The fort is renamed James Fort, the town Jamestown and the valley James Valley, in honour of the Duke of York, later King James II ⋅ 1661: King Charles II formalises The East India Company occupation with a Charter ⋅ 1667: People displaced by the Great Fire of London are brought to St Helena (possibly) ⋅ 1671: The first chaplain of The East India Company arrives ⋅ 1672: The Dutch VoC fleet invades and captures St Helena ⋅ 1673: King Charles II re-affirms England’s ownership of St Helena by Royal Charter ⋅ 1673: Dutch invaders are expelled by Richard Munden and his force ⋅ 1675: enslaved people begin to be sent regularly to St Helena ⋅ 1677: Edmond Halley visits and catalogues the stars in the Southern hemisphere and observe the Transit of Mercury | |
King James II1685-1688 | ||
No Monarch1688-1689 | ||
King William III & Queen Mary II1689-1694 | ⋅ 1690: Several French Protestants arrive and start a wine industry ⋅ 1691: Captain Dampier visits ⋅ 1693: Governor Joshua Johnston is shot and killed during the ‘Jackson Mutiny’ | |
King William III1694-1702 | ⋅ 1698: Rats and goats reported to be out of control and destroying the island | |
Queen Anne1702-1714 | ⋅ 1708: Council approves Governor John Roberts’ scheme to rebuild James Fort, creating what is now The Castle ⋅ 1710: The Great Wood is reported destroyed | |
King George I1714-1727 | ⋅ 1715: Governor Pyke proposes that the island be abandoned and everybody moved to Mauritius | |
King George II1727-1760 | ⋅ 1733: Coffee plants are introduced to the island ⋅ 1742: The island’s first hospital is built | |
King George III1760-1820 | ⋅ 1761: Nevil Maskelyne visits to observe the Transit of Venus ⋅ 1771: Captain James Cook visits ⋅ 1774: St. James’ Church is completed, the oldest Anglican Church in the southern hemisphere ⋅ 1775: Captain James Cook visits for the 2nd time ⋅ 1776: Horatio Nelson visits (before he was famous) ⋅ 1783: The ‘Arrack Rebellion’ is caused by attempts to control drunkenness ⋅ 1790: Saul Solomon arrives on St Helena ⋅ 1791: Plantation House is built ⋅ 1792: Captain Bligh visits ⋅ 1792: It becomes illegal to import enslaved people ⋅ 1805: Arthur Wellesley, the 1st Duke of Wellington visits, and nearly drowns ⋅ 1810: Chinese labourers arrive ⋅ 1810: Tristan da Cunha is settled by Jonathan Lambert, from the USA ⋅ 1815: St Helena is chosen to detain Napoleon ⋅ 1815: Britain claims Ascension Island ⋅ 1816: The UK claims and occupies Tristan da Cunha ⋅ 1816: Many descriptions and histories of St Helena begin to appear ⋅ 1817: William Thackeray visits as a child and sees Napoleon ⋅ 1818: All children born to enslaved people are declared to be free | |
King George IV1820-1830 | ⋅ 1821: Napoleon dies at Longwood House ⋅ 1827: The emancipation of enslaved people begins ⋅ 1829: Mynah Birds are introduced to control cattle ticks ⋅ 1829: The ‘Inclined Plane’ railway from Jamestown to the Ladder Hill Fort begins operating | |
King William IV1830-1837 | ⋅ 1831: The Jamestown Upper Theatre is destroyed by fire ⋅ 1834: St Helena becomes a Crown Colony ending 175 years of rule by The East India Company ⋅ 1836: The first British Governor arrives, Governor George Middlemore ⋅ 1836: Charles Darwin visits in the HMS | |
Queen Victoria1837-1901 | ⋅ 1837: Attempts to set up a local whaling company fail ⋅ 1838: Dr James Barry leaves St Helena ⋅ 1840: The British Navy begins intercepting Slavers, liberating the captives onto St Helena ⋅ 1840: Napoleon’s body is returned to France ⋅ 1842: William Alexander Thorpe is born on St Helena ⋅ 1842: The St Helena Regiment is formed ⋅ 1846: ‘The Rollers of 1846’ destroy 13 ships ⋅ 1851: St Helena Coffee wins a prize at the Great Exhibition ⋅ 1851: St. Paul’s Cathedral is completed ⋅ 1854: Baptists arrive on St Helena ⋅ 1858: Longwood House and Napoleon’s Tomb are transferred to French ownership ⋅ 1860: HRH Prince Alfred visits ⋅ 1860: ‘White Ants’ from one of the ships carrying the enslaved are destroying Jamestown ⋅ 1863: The St Helena Regiment is disbanded ⋅ 1869: The Suez Canal opens, further reducing St Helena’s role in global shipping ⋅ 1870: The Liberated Slave Depot is closed. 25,000 have passed through St Helena, maybe 1,000 choosing to stay ⋅ 1871: The ‘Inclined Plane’ railway is re-engineered to become Jacob’s Ladder ⋅ 1874: The first flax industry fails ⋅ 1874: High Knoll Fort is expanded to its present form ⋅ 1882: Jonathan the tortoise arrives, aged about 50 ⋅ 1888: Streetlights are introduced in Jamestown ⋅ 1890: A large rockfall kills nine people and destroys 14 houses ⋅ 1890: Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo arrives ⋅ 1891: The ‘Rockfall Memorial Fountain’ is dedicated ⋅ 1897: Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo departs ⋅ 1898: Joshua Slocum visits while sailing around the world ⋅ 1899: The undersea cable connects St Helena to the world ⋅ 1900: The first of 6,000 Boer PoWs arrive on St Helena | |
King Edward VII1901-1910 | ⋅ 1902: The Boer PoWs depart from St Helena ⋅ 1905: The last execution takes place on St Helena (for the Prosperous Bay Murder) ⋅ 1907: The Flax Industry re-starts ⋅ 1908: The lace-making school is opened | |
King George V1910-1936 | ⋅ 1910: Mr Mosely’s fish-processing industry starts - and closes ⋅ 1910: The Duke of Connaught visits ⋅ 1911: The SS ⋅ 1914: The island’s first cinema, Thorpes Bioscope, opens in Jamestown ⋅ 1914: World War 1 begins and the island comes under Martial Law ⋅ 1917: The island borders on starvation due to disruption of shipping by World War 1 ⋅ 1918: St Helena escapes the world-wide Flu epidemic ⋅ 1920: Norwegian ship Spangereid arrives on fire and burns out in James Bay. ⋅ 1921: The first Saint men leave to work on Ascension Island ⋅ 1925: HRH Edward, Prince of Wales visits ⋅ 1929: The island’s first car is imported to St Helena ⋅ 1934: The first flight over St Helena is made by a seaplane from HMS | |
King Edward VIII1936 | ||
King George VI1936-1952 | ⋅ 1936: Lord and Lady Baden-Powell visit ⋅ 1939: World War 2 brings many troops to the island ⋅ 1941: Education becomes compulsory and the Government of St Helena takes over all schools ⋅ 1941: The RFA ⋅ 1942: SS City of Cairo is torpedoed near St Helena and most survivors arrive here ⋅ 1947: HRH King George VI visits with the Royal Family, the first visit by a reigning monarch of Great Britain ⋅ 1949: The 100 Men leave for the UK ⋅ 1951: The Flax Industry reaches its peak | |
Queen Elizabeth II1952- | ⋅ 1956: The (current) General Hospital opens ⋅ 1957: HRH The Duke of Edinburgh visits ⋅ 1958: The first known radio broadcast is made ⋅ 1965: The Flax Industry collapses ⋅ 1966: Democracy is introduced with a part-elected Legislative Council ⋅ 1967: The island’s first radio station, Radio St Helena, starts broadcasting ⋅ 1971: St Helena adopts Decimal Currency ⋅ 1976: St Helena banknotes begin circulating ⋅ 1977: The first ⋅ 1980: The Ebony is re-discovered ⋅ 1982: The first ⋅ 1983: The British Nationality Act 1981 denies Saints their right to live and work in the UK{1} ⋅ 1984: St Helena gets a new flag, motto and Coat of Arms ⋅ 1984: HRH Prince Andrew visits ⋅ 1986: The first islanders leave to work on the Falkland IslandsW ⋅ 1988: Prince Andrew School opens to pupils. ⋅ 1989: the second ⋅ 1990: The second ⋅ 1995: Television is introduced ⋅ 1996: The Internet first becomes available ⋅ 1999: Saints begin celebrating the start of the new Millennium{2} |
Footnotes:
{1} Restored in 2002.{2} Events shown on this page stop at 31st December 1999.
⋅ Click the highlighted marker (if any) to return to where you were before.
HISTORY: History pages index
PEOPLE: People pages index
INFORMATION: Information pages index
Royalty | Copyright © John Turner