The Roman practise, of shaving off their facial hair, seems to have outlasted them in Europe for a long time. However at the end of the twelfth century it started to make a comeback, as what was known as a "circle beard", but was almost certainly a beard joined to a moustache.
The moustache alone seems to have been quite unknown until the fourteenth century, when it appears the practise was revived by the Knights. It also seems likely that they did this for a similar reason than the Greeks, for strength and virility. However it does not seem to have spread to the general public, and it remained restricted to royalty, and the upper classes, throughout the Tudor period.
That all changed when Elizabeth the First took the throne, as she could not grow a moustache or a beard, and this seems to be why James I, her cousin, King of Scotland, and now successor to the English throne, cultivated his facial hair - in order to stress that things would be different now a man was in charge. Though he was also rather vain, and liked the thought his moustache made him more attractive.
Once he took the throne, it seems that everyone started growing moustaches, whatever their social standing. And his son, King Charles I, would raise the moustache to even more popular acclaim, even sitting for a very unusual portrait in which his moustache can be seen, and admired, from the front and both sides all at once. Sadly his lavish lifestyle came to an abrupt end, and he was executed, aged forty-eight, on the thirtieth of January, 1649.
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This set looks ancient, and yet it was only released in 1925. There is a theory that it sat on the shelf for a long while before being released, and this is actually supported by the fact that the most modern royal on it is Queen Victoria, who died in 1901. She was succeeded by King Edward VII, who does not appear here, and he was followed by another King, George V., who had been on the throne for fifteen years when this set was released, and is missing from it too.
It is also a complete mish-mash as far as the timeline of the cards goes, for they are :
- Mary (wife of William III)
- Edward VI
- George IV
- Mary II
- Victoria
- Henry VII
- Stephen
- Richard III
- Henry VIII
- Edward I
- George I
- Edward III
- Anne
- George II
- Henry II
- Elizabeth
- William III
- Richard III
- William I
- John
- Henry VI
- Charles I
- Edward II
- William IV
- Oliver Cromwell
- William II
- James I
- Henry I
- Edward V
- George III
- Henry V
- Edward IV
- Henry VI
- Charles II
- Henry III
- Richard I
- James II
There is something else that you may not have noticed on our card, and that is a mis-spelling, regarding the Gunpowder Plot, where it states "An anonymous letter caused the plot to be discovered, Faukes and others being put to death as traitors." - but his name was Fawkes, not Faukes. And this seems an uncharacteristic error for such a large and prominent firm as Godfrey Phillips. However, there is mention of another lapse in checking, in its first appearance in our original Godfrey Phillips reference book, RB.13, published in 1949, which reads :
- 97. 37 KINGS & QUEENS OF ENGLAND. Small cards, size 67 x 36 m/m. Fronts lithographed in colour. Backs in black, with descriptive text. 1922-1940 issue (issued ? 1925). Nos. 1 and 4 have the descriptive text transposed ; when this error was discovered these two cards were withdrawn from circulation.Post cards are known based on the same originals as were used for this series.
The transposition is a reasonable error as those cards are both Queen Marys. However I would like to know more about the post cards.