'England' is the largest and most populous of the
constituent countries of the
United Kingdom (the United Kingdom is a nation which was created by the bonding of the four
predecessor states). The division dates from the arrival of the
Anglo-Saxons in the
5th century. The territory of
England has been politically united since the
10th century. This article concerns that geographic region. However, before the
10th century and after the accession of
James VI of Scotland to the throne of England in
1603, it becomes less logical to distinguish
Scottish and
Welsh from English history since the union of these nations with England.
Britannia
: ''Main site:
Prehistoric Britain,
Iron Age Britain and
Roman Britain''
Stonehenge, thought to have been erected c.2500-2000BC
Archaeological evidence indicates that what was southern old
Britannia was colonised by humans long before the rest of the British Isles due to its more hospitable climate between and during the various
ice ages of the distant past. The first historical mention of the region is from the
Massaliote Periplus, a sailing manual for merchants thought to date to the
6th century BC, although cultural and trade links with the continent had existed for millennia prior to this.
Pytheas of Massilia wrote of his trading journey to the island around
325 BC. Later writers such as
Pliny the Elder (quoting
Timaeus) and
Diodorus Siculus (probably drawing on
Poseidonius) mention the tin trade from southern Britain but there is little further historical detail of the people who lived there.
Tacitus wrote that there was no great difference in language between the people of, what was southern
Britannia and northern
Gaul and noted that the various
nations of
Britons shared physical characteristics with their continental neighbours.'
Julius Caesar visited southern Britain in
55 and
54 BC and wrote in ''
De Bello Gallico'' that the population of southern
Britannia was extremely large and shared much in common with the other highly civilised Celtic nations on the continent. Coin evidence and the work of later Roman historians have provided the names of some of the rulers of the disparate tribes and their machinations in what was Britannia.
From the Earliest Pre-history up until the
Roman Conquest of Britain, Britain's British population was relatively stable. There is ongoing fierce academic debate about when and how that population began speaking
Celtic languages (see the article on
Celts for a much more in depth discussion), but at least by the time of
Julius Ceaser's invasion, the
British population of what was old Britain was speaking a Celtic language generally thought to be the forerunner of the modern
Gaelic languages. The Romans set up a series of colonies in what was old Britannia and - despite several notable rebellions - held onto the southern part of the island until about 410. The Northern boundaries of Roman control are the precursors of the modern boundaries between modern England and its Celtic neighbours -
Scotland,
Wales, and
Cornwall.
Surprisingly few historical sources describe Roman Britain. For example, we have only one sentence describing the reasons for the construction of
Hadrian's Wall. The Claudian invasion itself is well attested and
Tacitus included the uprising of
Boudica, or "Boadicea", in
61 AD in his history. Following the end of the
1st century, however, Roman historians only mention fragments of information from the distant province. The Roman presence strengthened and weakened over the centuries, but by the
5th century Roman influence had all but disappeared, opening the way for new power struggles between "Romanised"
Britons, the
Gaelic and
Welsh speaking populations that had remained outside the areas of Roman control, and new waves of Germanic invaders from
Germany.
History of the conquest of Celtic Britain
: ''Main article:
History of Anglo-Saxon England''
In the wake of the Romans, who had abandoned the south of the island by about
410 in order to concentrate on difficulties closer to home, present day England was progressively settled by successive and often complementary waves of
Germanic tribesmen.
The prevailing view is that waves of Germanic barbarian and pagan tribes,
Jutes together with larger numbers of
Frisians and
Saxons from north-western
Germany, and
Angles from what is now
Schleswig-Holstein - commonly known as
Anglo-Saxons - who had been partly displaced on mainland
Europe, invaded Britain in the mid
5th century and again around the middle of the
6th century. They came under military leaders and settled at first on the eastern shores. They are believed to have fought their way westward, looking for more land to cultivate, taking lowland and leaving less desirable lands in the hills to the
Celtic
Britons.
Professors John Davies and A.W. Wade-Evans believe that the
Saxons did not sweep away the entire population of the Celtic Britons in the areas they overran, as was supposed by
19th century historians. Population estimates based on the size and density of settlements put Britain's population at about 3.5 million by the time Romans invaded in A.D. 43. Some historians now believe subsequent Germanic invaders from mainland Europe had little genetic impact on the British. The notion that large-scale migrations caused drastic change in early Britain has been widely discredited, according to the view of Simon James, an archaeologist at Leicester University, England.
For the English, their defining period was the arrival of Germanic tribes known collectively as the Anglo-Saxons. Some researchers suggest this invasion may have consisted of as few as 12,000 to 28,000 people — not enough to displace existing inhabitants. However, the latest genetic studies, by Oxford's Bryan Sykes, of the modern
British population suggests an intermediate situation, with around 60% or more of
Britons remaining in
England, the figure increasing from east to west
[1]. The reason for this relatively high ratio of Saxons in the modern population may be due to Viking age immigrants, a higher reproductive rate (Proc Royal Soc B 2006).
Analysis of human remains unearthed at an ancient cemetery near
Abingdon, England, indicates that
Saxon immigrants and native
Britons lived side-by-side. David Miles, research fellow at the Institute of Archaeology has said: "Probably what we're dealing with is a majority of British people who were dominated politically by a new elite. ... They were swamped culturally but not genetically". Simon James writes: "It is actually quite common to observe important cultural change, including adoption of wholly new identities, with little or no biological change to a population".
[2]
Increasingly, the British-Roman population (the
Britons) was assimilated, a process enabled by a lack of clear unity amongst the British people against a unified armed foe, and the culture pushed westwards and northwards. The settlement (or invasion) of what was later to become known as England is known as the Saxon Conquest or the
Anglo-Saxon (sometimes "English") Conquest.
In approximately
495, at the
Battle of Mount Badon (Latin ''Mons Badonicus'', Welsh ''Mynydd Baddon'') possibly at Badbury Rings near the Roman Porchester-Poole road, Britons inflicted a severe defeat on an invading Anglo-Saxon army which halted the westward Anglo-Saxon advance for a long period. While it was a major political and military event of the 5th and 7th centuries in Britain, there is no certainty about who commanded the opposing forces. This victory made it possible to halt the Saxon invasion and secured a long period of peace for Celtic Britain.
The earliest source does not name the commanders of the opposing forces, but by the 9th century the victory was attributed to King Arthur. The 8th century Historia Brittonum records traditions that name the Romano-British / Celtic leader as Arthur. An old Welsh poem ascribed to Taliesin (who lived in the last half of the 6th century), refers to "the battle of Badon with Arthur, chief giver of feasts… the battle which all men remember". In that sort of society, "chief giver of feasts" implies supreme leader.
Gildas writes "ad annum obsessionis Badonici montis ... quique quadragesimus quartus ut novi orditur annus mense iam uno emenso qui et meae nativitatis est", which has been translated in more than one way. It may mean "at/to the year of the siege of Mount Badon ... which happened 44 years and one month ago, and which is [the year] of my birth".
King Maelgwn of Gwynedd was still living when
Gildas wrote this, therefore Gildas wrote this on or before 547. This suggests the date 503 or shortly before for the battle.
Bede treated this passage as saying that the battle was 44 years after the Anglo-Saxons came to Britain (which he said was in 449). Adding 44 years to 449 gives the date 493 for the battle. Adding 43 years to 43 (when Thanet was conceded to Hengist) gives the date 491 for the battle. Some would argue that Bede's copy of Gildas was much closer to Gildas's time than any extant; however, the age of a manuscript (especially one no longer existing) is no guide to its accuracy. However uncertain the place, date, or participants of this battle may be, it clearly halted the Anglo-Saxon advance for some years.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is silent about this battle, but documents a gap of almost 70 years between two major Anglo-Saxon leaders (
Bretweldas) in the fifth and sixth centuries.
Procoppius records a story, told to him by a member of a diplomatic delegation from the Franks, including a group of Angles, which included that some Anglo-Saxons and British found their island so crowded that they migrated into northern Gaul to find lands to live on. There are other tales from the mid-6th century about groups of Anglo-Saxons leaving Britain to settle across the English Channel. All of these point to some kind of reversal in the fortunes of the invading Anglo-Saxons.
Archaeological evidence collected from the cemeteries of the pagan Anglo-Saxons suggests that some of their settlements were abandoned and the frontier between the invaders and the native inhabitants pushed back some time around 500. The Anglo-Saxons held the present counties of
Kent,
Sussex,
Norfolk,
Suffolk, and around the
Humber; it is clear that the native British controlled everything west of a line drawn from the mouth of the
Wiltshire Avon at Christchurch north to the
river Trent, then along the Trent to where it joined the Humber, and north along the river
Derwent and then east to the North Sea, and an enclave to the north and west of London, and south of
Verulamium (near St. Albans), that stretched west to join with the main frontier. The Britons defending this pocket could securely move their troops along Watling Street to bring reinforcements to London or Verulamium, and thus keep the invaders divided into pockets south of the Weald, in eastern Kent, and in the lands around the Wash.
In the decisive
Battle of Deorham, in
577 between the West Saxons and the Britons, the British people of Southern Britain were separated into the West Welsh (
Cornwall,
Devon Dorset and
Somerset) and the
Welsh by the advancing Saxons. Deorham is usually taken to refer to Dyrham in Gloucestershire. The battle was promptly followed by the Saxon occupation of three cities:
Cirencester (
Corinium), probably a provincial capital in the Roman period; Gloucester (Glevum), a former legionary fortress and a colonia; and Bath (Aquae Sulis), a renowned pagan religious centre and spa city. However, their advance southwestward was held up for about a hundred years, until the battle of Peonnam, and was not complete until the 10th century. Though there were some gains towards Wales, it remained largely independent from the Saxons.
The remains of many villas are found in the vicinity of these cities, implying that the area was wealthy as well as relatively sophisticated: it must be inferred that this Saxon advance was a significant blow to the Britons. The battle is also considered by some to be decisive since it drove a land wedge between the Britons of what was to become Wales and those in the southwest peninsula. It has however been objected that, though the battle may have had an impact on large-scale movements, the passage of Welsh-speaking individuals was evidently not impossible: a Welsh genealogy appears to record that, in the 7th century, the descendants of kings of Pengwern founded a dynasty in the Glastonbury region. It would not have been difficult to make such a journey by boat. In fact, archaeology suggests that, although the Anglo-Saxons quickly took over the Cirencester region after the battle, it took some time for them to colonise Bath and Gloucester.
From the
4th century AD, many Britons had migrated across the English Channel from Wales, Cornwall and southern Britain, with their chiefs, soldiers, families, monks and priests, and started to settle and colonise the western part (
Armorica) of
Gaul (France) where they founded a new nation:
Brittany. The immigrant Britons gave their new country its current name and contributed to the
Breton language, Brezhoneg, a sister language to Welsh and Cornish. The name "Brittany" (from "Little Britain") arose at this time to distinguish the new Britain from "Great Britain". Brezhoneg (the British language) is still spoken in Brittany in
2006.
Beginning with the raid in
793 on the monastery at
Lindisfarne,
Vikings made many raids on England.
At
Dore (now a suburb of the
City of Sheffield)
Egbert of Wessex received the submission of
Eanred of Northumbria in
829 and so became the first Saxon overlord of all England.
England in 878
After a time of plunder and raids, the Vikings began to settle in England and trade, eventually ruling the
Danelaw from the late
9th century. One Viking settlement was in
York, called
Jorvik by the Vikings. Viking rule left significant traces in the
English language; the similarity of
Old English and
Old Norse led to much borrowing.
The principal legacy left behind in those territories where it is agreed that significant numbers of
Britons remained is that of toponyms. Most of the place-names in
Cornwall, and some in
Cumberland and
Westmorland, and in other pockets, are
Brythonic in origin, as are the names of most former
Romano-British cities, including
London,
Dorchester,
Dover, and
Colchester. A few place-name elements, referring to physical features, are thought to be
Brythonic in origin, such as '''bre''' - and '''tor''' for hills, '''carr''' for a high rocky place, and '''coombe''' for a small deep valley (a rare example of a Brythonic word that had been borrowed into
Old English).
Until recently it has been believed that those areas settled by the
Anglo-Saxons were uninhabited at the time or the Britons had fled before them. However, genetic studies suggest that the British were not pushed out to the
Celtic fringes but many tribes remained in what was to become
England (see
C. Capelli et al. 'A Y chromosome census of the
British Isles. Current Biology 13, 979–984, (
2003)). Capelli's findings strengthen the research of
Steven Bassett of
Birmingham University; his work during the
1990s suggests that much of the west
Midlands was only very lightly colonised with
Anglian and
Saxon settlements (though this is not supported by the place-names of the region).
England during the Middle Ages
The defeat of
King Harold Godwinson at the
Battle of Hastings in
1066 at the hands of William II of
Normandy, later styled
William I of England, and the subsequent
Norman takeover of
Saxon England led to a sea-change in the history of the small, isolated, island state. William ordered the compilation of the
Domesday Book, a survey of the entire population and their lands and property for tax purposes.
William ruled over Normandy, then a powerful duchy in France. William and his nobles spoke and conducted court in
Norman French, in Normandy as well as in England. The use of the Anglo-Norman language by the aristocracy endured for centuries and left an indelible mark in the development of modern English.
The English
Middle Ages were to be characterised by
civil war, international war, occasional insurrection, and widespread political intrigue amongst the aristocratic and monarchic elite. England was more than self-sufficient in cereals, dairy products, beef and mutton. The nation's international economy was based on the
wool trade, in which the produce of the sheepwalks of northern England was exported to the textile cities of
Flanders, where it was worked into cloth. Medieval foreign policy was as much shaped by relations with Flemish textile industry as it was by dynastic adventures in western France. An English textile industry was established in the fifteenth century, providing the basis for rapid English capital accumulation.
Henry I, also known as "Henry Beauclerc" (so named because of his education—as his older brother
William was the
heir apparent and thus given the practical training to be king, Henry received the alternate, formal education), worked hard to reform and stabilise the country and smooth the differences between the Anglo-Saxon and
Anglo-Norman societies. The loss of his son,
William, in the wreck of the
White Ship in November
1120, was to undermine his reforms. This problem regarding succession was to cast a long shadow over English history.
During the disastrous and incompetent reign of
Stephen (
1135–
1154), there was a major swing in the balance of power towards the
feudal barons, as
civil war and lawlessness broke out. In trying to appease
Scottish and Welsh raiders, he handed over large tracts of land. His conflicts with his cousin
The Empress Matilda (also known as Empress Maud),led to a civil war, from 1139 - 1153 . Matilda’s father, Henry I, had required the leading barons, ecclesiastics and officials in Normandy and England, take an oath to accept Matilda as his heir. England, was far less than enthusiastic to accept an outsider, and a woman, as their Ruler. There is some evidence suggesting Henry was unsure of his own hopes and the oath to make Matilda his heir. In likelihood, Henry probably hoped Matilda would have a son, and step aside, as Queen Mother, making her son the next heir. Upon Henry’s death, the Norman and English barons ignored Matilda’s claim to the throne, and thus through a series of decisions, Stephen, Henry’s favorite nephew was welcomed by many in England and Normandy, as their new ruler. On December 22, 1135, Stephen was anointed king, with the implicit support of the church and nation. Matilda, and her own son, stood for direct descent by heredity from Henry I, and bided her time in
France. In the autumn of
1139, she invaded England with her illegitimate half-brother
Robert of Gloucester. By the time her husband -
Geoffroy V of Anjou- conquered Normandy but did not cross the channel to help his wife, satisfied with Normandy and Anjou.
Stephen was captured and his government fell. Matilda was proclaimed queen but was soon at odds with her subjects and was expelled from
London. The period of insurrection and civil war that followed continued until
1148, when Matilda returned to France. Stephen effectively reigned unopposed until his death in
1154, although his hold on the throne was still uneasy. Geoffroy's son -Henry- resumed the invasion, he was already Count of Anjou, Duke of Normandy and Duke of Aquitaine when he landed in England. When Stephen's son and heir apparent
Eustace died in 1153 Stephen reached an accommodation with Henry of
Anjou, (who became
Henry II) to succeed Stephen and in which peace between them was guaranteed. England was at that time part of a greater union retrospectively named the
Angevin Empire. Henry II expanded his power through various means and to different levels into Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Flanders, Nantes, Brittany, Quercy, Toulouse, Bourges and Auvergne.
The reign of Henry II represents a reversion in power back from the barony to the monarchical state in England; it was also to see a similar redistribution of legislative power from the Church, again to the monarchical state. This period also presaged a properly constituted legislation and a radical shift away from
feudalism. In his reign new Anglo-Angevin and Anglo-Aquitanian aristocracies developed, though not to the same point than the Anglo-Norman once did, and the Norman nobles interacted with their French peers.
Henry's successor,
Richard I "the Lion Heart", was preoccupied with foreign wars, taking part in the Third Crusade and defending his French territories against Philip II of France. His younger brother
John, who succeeded him, was not so fortunate; he suffered the loss of Normandy and numerous other French territories following the disastrous
Battle of Bouvines. He also managed to antagonise the feudal nobility and leading Church figures to the extent that in 1215, they led an
armed rebellion and forced him to sign the
Magna Carta, which imposed legal limits on the King's personal powers.
John's son,
Henry III, was only 9 years old when he became King. His reign was punctuated by numerous rebellions and civil wars, often provoked by incompetence and mismanagement in Government, and Henry's perceived over-reliance on French courtiers (thus restricting the influence of the English nobility). One of these rebellions, led (curiously enough) by a disaffected courtier,
Simon de Montfort, was notable for its assembly of one of the earliest precursors to
Parliament. Aside of fighting the
Second Barons' War Henry III made war against Saint Louis and was defeated during the
Saintonge War, yet Louis IX did not capitalise his victory, respecting his opponent's rights.
The reign of
Edward I (1272–1307) was rather more successful. Edward enacted numerous laws strengthening the powers of his Government, and summoned the first officially sanctioned
Parliaments of England (such as his
Model Parliament). He conquered
Wales, and attempted to use a succession dispute to gain control of the
Kingdom of Scotland, though this developed into a costly and drawn-out military campaign. His son,
Edward II, suffered a massive defeat at
Bannockburn; but the campaign continued until the early years of
Edward III, and was only finally abandoned after the conclusion of the
Treaty of Northampton in 1328.
The Black Death, an epidemic of
bubonic plague that spread over the whole of
Europe, arrived in England in
1349 and killed perhaps up to a third of the population. International excursions were invariably against domestic neighbours: the
Welsh,
Irish,
Cornish, and the
Hundred Years' War against the
French and their
Scottish allies. Notable English victories in the Hundred Years' War included
Crécy and
Agincourt. In addition to this, the final defeat of the uprising led by the Welsh prince,
Owain Glyndŵr, in 1412 by Prince Henry (later to become
Henry V) represents the last major armed attempt by the Welsh to throw off English rule.
Edward III gave land to powerful noble families, including many people with Royal blood in their veins. Because land was equivalent to power in these days, this meant that these powerful men could now try to make good their claim to the Crown. The autocratic and arrogant methods of
Richard II only served to alienate the nobility more, and his forceful dispossession in
1399 by
Henry IV sowed the seeds for what was to come. In the reign of
Henry VI, which began in
1422, things came to a head because of his personal weaknesses and mental instability. Unable to control the feuding nobles, he allowed outright civil war to break out. The conflicts are known as the
Wars of the Roses and although the fighting was very sporadic and small, there was a general breakdown in the authority and power of the Crown.
Edward IV went a little way to restoring this power but the spadework was generally done by
Henry VII.
Tudor England
: ''Main article:
Early Modern Britain''
The Wars of the Roses culminated in the eventual victory of the relatively unknown Henry Tudor,
Henry VII, at the
Battle of Bosworth Field in
1485, where the Yorkist
Richard III was slain, and the succession of the Lancastrian House was ultimately assured. Whilst in retrospect it is easy for us to date the end of the Wars of the Roses to the
Battle of Bosworth Field,
Henry VII could afford no such complacency. Before the end of his reign, two pretenders would try to wrest the throne from him, aided by remnants of the Yorkist faction at home and abroad. The first,
Lambert Simnel, was defeated at the
Battle of Stoke (the last time an English King fought someone claiming the Crown) and the second,
Perkin Warbeck, was hanged in
1499 after plaguing the King for a decade.
In
1497,
Michael An Gof led Cornish rebels in a march on London. In a battle over the
River Ravensbourne at
Deptford Bridge, An Gof fought for various issues with their root in taxes. On
June 17,
1497 they were defeated, and Henry VII had showed he could display military prowess when he needed to. But, like
Charles I in the future, here was a King with no wish to go "on his travels" again. The rest of his reign was relatively peaceful, despite a slight worry over the succession when his wife
Elizabeth of York died in
1503.
King
Henry VIII split with the
Roman Catholic Church over a question of his divorce from
Catherine of Aragon. Though his religious position was not at all
Protestant, the resultant schism ultimately led to England distancing itself almost entirely from Rome. A notable casualty of the schism was Henry's
chancellor, Sir
Thomas More. There followed a period of great religious and political upheaval, which led to the
English Reformation, the royal expropriation of the monasteries and much of the wealth of the church. The
Dissolution of the Monasteries had the effect of giving many of the lower classes (the
gentry) a vested interest in the Reformation continuing, for to halt it would be to revive
Monasticism and restore lands which were gifted to them during the Dissolution.
Edward and Mary
Henry VIII had one legitimate child and two illegitimate children who survived him, all of whom would wear the Crown. The first to reign was
Edward VI of England. Although he showed piety and intelligence, he was only a boy of ten when he took the throne in
1547. His uncle,
Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset tampered with Henry VIII's will and obtained
letters patent giving him much of the power of a monarch in March of that year. He took the title of Protector. Whilst some see him as a high-minded idealist, his stay in power culminated in a crisis in
1549 when many counties of the realm were up in protest.
Kett's Rebellion in Kent and the
Prayer Book Rebellion in
Devon and
Cornwall simultaneously created a crisis during a time when invasion from Scotland and France were feared. Somerset, disliked by the Regency Council for his autocratic methods, was removed from power by
John Dudley, who is known as
Lord President Northumberland. Northumberland proceeded to adopt the power for himself, but his methods were more conciliatory and the Council accepted him.
When Edward VI lay dying of
tuberculosis in
1553, Northumberland made plans to place
Lady Jane Grey on the throne and marry her to his son, so that he could remain the power behind the throne. His putsch failed and
Mary I took the throne amidst popular demonstration in her favour in London, which contemporaries described as the largest show of affection for a Tudor monarch. Mary, a devout Catholic who had been influenced greatly by the Catholic King of
Spain and
Holy Roman Emperor,
Charles V, tried to reimpose Catholicism on the realm. This led to 274 burnings of Protestants, which are recorded especially in
John Foxe's
Book of Martyrs. She was highly unpopular among her people, and the Spanish party of her husband,
Philip II caused much resentment around Court. Mary lost
Calais, the last English possession on the Continent, and became increasingly more unpopular (except among Catholics) as her reign wore on. She successfully repelled a rebellion by
Sir Thomas Wyatt.
Elizabeth
The reign of
Elizabeth restored a sort of order to the realm following the turbulence of the reigns of Edward and Mary when she came to the throne following the death of the latter in
1558. The religious issue which had divided the country since Henry VIII was in a way put to rest by the
Elizabethan Religious Settlement, which created the
Church of England in much the same form we see it today. Much of Elizabeth's success was in balancing the interests of the
Puritans (radical Protestants) and "die-hard" Catholics. She managed to offend neither to a large extent, although she clamped down on Catholics towards the end of her reign as war with Catholic Spain loomed.
The
slave trade that established Britain as a major economic power can be attributed to Elizabeth, who granted
John Hawkins the permission to commence trading in 1562. The number of Africans transported to England was so great due to the slave trade that by 1596 Elizabeth complained that "several blackamoores have lately been brought into this realm of which kind of people there are already too much here". She tried unsuccessfully to expel them via a Proclamation in 1601.
Elizabeth maintained relative government stability apart from the
Revolt of the Northern Earls in
1569, she was effective in reducing the power of the old nobility and expanding the power of her government. One of the most famous events in English martial history occurred in
1588 when the
Spanish Armada was repelled by the English navy commanded by
Sir Francis Drake, but the war that followed was very costly for England and only ended after Elizabeth's death. Elizabeth's government did much to consolidate the work begun under
Thomas Cromwell in the reign of Henry VIII, that is, expanding the role of the government and in effecting common law and administration throughout England. During the reign of Elizabeth and shortly afterward, the population grew significantly: from three million in 1564 to nearly five million in 1616.
[3]
In all, the Tudor period is seen as a decisive one which set up many important questions which would have to be answered in the next century and during the
English Civil War. These were questions of the relative power of the monarch and Parliament and to what extent one should control the other. Some historians think that Thomas Cromwell affected a "
Tudor Revolution" in government, and it is certain that Parliament became a lot more important during his chancellorship. Other historians say the "Tudor Revolution" really extended to the end of Elizabeth's reign, when the work was all consolidated. Although the
Privy Council, which was the mainstay of Tudor government, declined after the death of Elizabeth, while she was alive it was very effective.
The Stuarts and the Civil War
Main articles: English Civil War
Elizabeth died in
1603 without leaving any direct heirs. Her closest male
Protestant relative was the
King of Scots,
James VI, of the
House of Stuart, who following the
Union of the Crowns became
King James I of England. King James I & VI as he was styled became the first King of the entire island of
Great Britain, though he continued to rule the
Kingdom of England and the
Kingdom of Scotland separately. A number of assassination attempts were made on James, notably the
Main Plot and
Bye Plots of
1603, and most famously, on
November 5,
1605, the
Gunpowder Plot, by a group of
Catholic conspirators, led by
Guy Fawkes, which was stoked up and served as further fuel for antipathy in England towards the Catholic faith.
The
English Civil War broke out in
1642, largely as a result of an ongoing series of conflicts between James' son,
Charles I, and
Parliament. The defeat of the Royalist army by the
New Model Army of Parliament at the Battle of
Naseby in June 1645 effectively destroyed the King's forces. Charles surrendered to the Scottish army at Newark. He was eventually handed over to the English Parliament in early 1647. He escaped and the Second English Civil War began, although it was to be only a short conflict, with Parliament quickly securing the country. The capture and subsequent trial of Charles led to his beheading in January
1649 at
Whitehall Gate in London. A republic was declared and
Oliver Cromwell became the
Lord Protector in 1653. After he died, his son
Richard Cromwell succeeded him in the office, but soon abdicated. The monarchy was restored in
1660, after England entered a period of anomie, with King
Charles II returning to London.
(In 1665, London was swept by a visitation of the
plague, and then, in
1666, the capital was swept by the
Great Fire, which raged for 5 days, destroying approximately 15,000 buildings).
The death of Charles II in
1685 saw his Catholic brother crowned
King James II & VII. England with a Catholic King on the throne was too much for both people and parliament and in
1689 the
Dutch Protestant
Prince William of Orange was invited to replace King James II in what became known as the
Glorious Revolution. Despite attempts to secure his reign by force, James was finally defeated by William at the
Battle of the Boyne in
1690. However, in parts of
Scotland and
Ireland Catholics loyal to James remained determined to see him restored to the throne and there followed a series of bloody though unsuccessful uprisings. As a result of these, any failure to pledge loyalty to the victorious King William was severely dealt with. The most infamous example of this policy being the
Massacre of Glencoe in
1692.
Jacobite rebellions continued on into the mid-18th century until the son of the last Catholic claimant to the throne, (
James III & VIII), mounted a final campaign in
1745. The Jacobite forces of
Prince Charles Edward Stuart, the "Bonnie Prince Charlie" of legend, were resoundly defeated at the
Battle of Culloden in
1746.
Colonial England
In 1607 England built an establishment in Virginia (Jamestown). This was the beginning of English colonisation. Many English settled then in North America for religious or economic reasons. The English merchants holding plantations in the warm southern parts of America then resorted rather quickly to the slavery of Native Americans and imported Africans in order to cultivate their plantations and sell raw material (particularly cotton and tobacco) in Europe. The English merchants involved in colonisation accrued fortunes equal to those of great aristocratic landowners in England, and their money, which fueled the rise of the middle class, permanently altered the balance of political power.
The Industrial Revolution
: ''Main article:
Economic history of Britain''
The late
18th and early
19th centuries saw considerable social upheaval as a largely agrarian society was transformed by technological advances and increasing mechanisation, which was the
Industrial Revolution. Much of the agricultural workforce was uprooted from the countryside and moved into large urban centres of production, as the steam-based production factories could undercut the traditional
cottage industries, due to economies of scale and the increased output per worker made possible by the new technologies. The consequent overcrowding into areas with little supporting infrastructure saw dramatic increases in the rise of infant mortality (to the extent that many Sunday schools for pre working age children (5 or 6) had funeral clubs to pay for each others funeral arrangements), crime, and social deprivation.
The transition to industrialisation was not wholly seamless for workers, many of whom saw their livelihoods threatened by the process. Of these, some frequently sabotaged or attempted to sabotage factories. These saboteurs were known as "
Luddites". This view of the Luddite history should also be set against alternative views, such as
that of E. P. Thompson.
Recent history
: ''Main article:
History of the United Kingdom''
The
Acts of Union between the
Kingdom of England and the
Kingdom of Scotland in
1707 saw the dissolution of both the
Parliament of England and
Parliament of Scotland in order to create a unified
Kingdom of Great Britain governed by a unified
Parliament of Great Britain .
The
Act of Union of
1800 formally assimilated Ireland within the British political process and from
1 January 1801 created a new
state called the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, which united the
Kingdom of Great Britain with the
Kingdom of Ireland to form a single political entity.
Therefore, since 1707
England, while ceasing to exist as an independent political entity, has remained highly dominant in what is now the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Due to her geographic size and large population, the dominant political and economic influence in the UK stems from England.
London has remained the
capital city of the UK and has built upon its status as the economic and political centre of the UK. It is also one of the world's great cities.
During the early
19th century, the working classes began to find a voice. Concentrations of industry led to the formation of guilds and unions, which, although at first suppressed, eventually became powerful enough to resist.
Chartism is thought to have originated from the passing of the
1832 Reform Bill, which gave the vote to the majority of the (male) middle classes, but not to the 'working class'. Many people made speeches on the 'betrayal' of the working class and the 'sacrificing' of their 'interests' by the 'misconduct' of the government. In
1838, six members of Parliament and six workingmen formed a committee, which then published the People's Charter.
The
revolutions which spread like wildfire throughout mainland Europe during the
1840s did not occur in England and
Queen Victoria's reign was largely one of consensus, despite huge disparities in living standards between the few rich and the multitudinous poor.
The Anglo-Irish treaty of
1921 established the
Irish Free State (now the
Republic of Ireland) as a separate nation, leaving
Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom; its official name became "The
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland".
England bore the full brunt of German bombing during
World War II, many of its cities were badly damaged and huge amounts of infrastructure destroyed. England rapidly recovered after the war, and while internationally the relative wealth and power of Britain has faded, England still remains the dominant partner within the UK.
During
1999 the
UK Government policy of
devolution to some of the UK
constituent countries saw the reconvening of the
Scottish Parliament and the establishment of the
Welsh Assembly. The
Northern Ireland Assembly was reconvened on May 8, 2007. There is no English equivalent of
home rule and this in part is a reflection of the dominance English affairs have played within the proceedings of the UK parliament.
References
in england the hourses were give shous which is made of gold.
Further reading
★
A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World, 3500 BC – 1603 AD by
Simon Schama, BBC/Miramax, 2000 ISBN 0-7868-6675-6
★
A History of Britain, Volume 2: The Wars of the British 1603–1776 by
Simon Schama, BBC/Miramax, 2001 ISBN 0-7868-6675-6
★
A History of Britain - The Complete Collection on DVD by
Simon Schama, BBC 2002
★
The Isles, A History by
Norman Davies, Oxford University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-19-513442-7
★
The History of England, From the First Invasion by the Romans to the Accession of William and Mary in 1688,
1819 by
Father John Lingard (
Roman Catholic perspective)
★
Shortened History of England by
G. M. Trevelyan Penguin Books ISBN 0-14-023323-7
★
History of the English-Speaking Peoples by Sir Winston Churchill Cassell reference, ISBN 0-304-36389-8 — the writing of which helped bring Churchill to public attention in the 1930s, and which forms the basis of many later reference works
★ Letters of the Kings of England, now first collected from the originals in royal archives, and from other authentic sources, private as well as public by J O Halliwell-Phillipps, London, H. Colburn, 1846. vol. 1 — Google Books
★ Stephen and Matilda The Civil War of 1139-53 by Jim Bradbury, Alan Sutton Publishing, Ltd., 1996, ISBN 0-7509-0612-X
See also
★ History by county or city: Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Birmingham, Bristol, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Cornwall, County Durham, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Devon, Dorset, East Sussex, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Herefordshire, Hertfordshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, London, Manchester, Merseyside, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Northumberland, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Rutland, Sheffield, Shropshire, Somerset, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Tyne and Wear, Warwickshire, West Midlands, West Sussex, Wiltshire, Worcestershire, History of Yorkshire
External links
★ Full text of ''The History of England From the Norman Conquest to the Death of John (1066–1216)'' from Project Gutenberg.
★ New and Improved Timeline of England coming soon from BBC.
★ Timeline of England.
★ Medieval England
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