The Astrological Saga of the “Sussex Royals”

England’s royalty in the present day gets plenty of coverage in the media, both for the pageantry of the ceremonies they participate in, and for some of the ups and downs of the members of the Royal Family. Of astrological interest is the fact that there is a birth date for the monarchy that coincides with the birth of what was known, from 927 to 1707, as the Kingdom of England. That first year was marked by a meeting at which a King named Athelstan consolidated what had at one time been 12 separate kingdoms into a single kingdom. According to the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, this occurred on July 12, 927 at what today is known as Eamont Bridge, which is near the town of Penrith.

The date just mentioned is subject to some scholarly debate which we won’t go into here, but the reader can find the details on a site called . It seems to have firm enough support from historians to give it an astrological tryout here. The date itself is, of course, based on the “Old Style” Julian calendar, and since we have no way of determining an exact birth time, noon local mean time is used for the chart, enabling us to see how the Sun and planets were placed at the halfway point during the day. A chart set for local noon on