istorie si civilizatie engleza - colipca gabriela

Universitatea Dunrea de Josdin Galai

Facultatea de Litere

Specializarea:Limba i literatura romn Limba i literatura englez

Istorie i civilizaieenglez

Conf. dr. Gabriela Iuliana Colipc

Anul I, Semestrul I

D.I.D.F.R.

Dunarea de Jos University of GalatiFaculty of Letters

British Historyand Civilization

Course tutor:

Associate Professor Gabriela Iuliana Colipc, PhD

Galai2010

Table of Contents

British History and Civilisation 3

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. GREAT BRITAIN. GEOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND. BRITISHINSULARITY

5

2. INVASIONS AND PATTERNS OF SETTLEMENT IN THEBRITISH ISLES

7

2.1. Ancient Britain 72.1.1. The Stone Age: the Megalithic Men 72.1.2. The Bronze Age: the Beaker People 82.1.3. The Iron Age: the Celts 82.1.4. The Romans 10

2.2. The Middle-Ages 112.2.1. The Anglo-Saxons 112.2.2. The Vikings 142.2.3. The Normans 14

2.3. Battles of Britain 162.3.1. The Defeat of the Spanish Armada (1588) 162.3.2. Fighting the German Luftwaffe (1940) 17

2.4. Practical Applications (1) 17

3. British Monarchy: from the Anglo-Saxon Kings to theTwenty-first Century House of Windsor

19

3.1. The Anglo-Saxon Kings 193.2. The Normans 203.3. The Angevins 203.4. The Plantagenets 213.5. The Lancastrians 233.6. The Yorkists 243.7. The Tudors 243.8. The Stuarts 253.9. The Hanoverians 283.10. The House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha 313.11. The House of Windsor 323.12. Practical Applications (2) 33

4. Main Developments in Britains Political Life 364.1. The Anglo-Saxon Witan 364.2. The Norman Curia Regis 364.3. The English Parliament 37

4.3.1. The First English Parliament 374.3.2. The Tudors and the Parliament 374.3.3. The Stuarts and the Parliament 39

4.4. Political Life in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Britain 414.4.1. The Whig Oligarchy 414.4.2. The Right to Freedom of Speech 424.4.3. Tory Policies and the Castlereagh Administration 424.4.4. The Reform Period 434.4.5. The Chartist Movement 44

Table of Contents

4 British History and Civilisation

4.4.6. Political Life in the Victorian Age 444.4.7. The Rise of a Third Party 45

4.5. Political Life in Twentieth and Twenty-first Century Britain 464.5.1. Reforms in Edwardian Britain 464.5.2. The Interwar Depression 464.5.3. Post World War II Britain. The Welfare State 474.5.4. Britain, Europe and the USA 474.5.5. Troubles in Ireland 484.5.6. Margaret Thatchers Conservative Administration 494.5.7. Tony Blairs Labour Administration 50

4.6. Practical Applications (3) 51

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 54

Section 1. Great Britain. Geographical Background. British Insularity


SECTION 1. Great Britain. Geographical Background.British Insularity

The first thing that strikes when one looks at the map of the United Kingdomof Great Britain and Northern Ireland (for this is the full political title of thecountry) is that it is in fact an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean situated offthe coast of north-west Europe.

Surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the North Sea to theEast, the English Channel to the South, the largest island i.e., GreatBritain is divided into the historical provinces of England, Scotland andWales:

England stretches from the English Channel (that separates theisland from the European continent) to the Scottish Borderrepresented by the Cheviot Hills (the scene of many battles betweenthe Scots and the English) and it is subdivided into the South, theMidlands and the North.

o The South (from the English Channel to the River Severn in thewest and the Bay of Wash in the east) is distinguished by itsgreen pastures, natural beauty, green-shouldered hills,churches, cathedrals, schools and universities.

o The Midlands (from the SevernWash line to the Merseyestuary in the west and the Humber estuary in the east) displaya mixture of large industrial areas (the so-called Black Countryin the West Midlands, developing since the eighteenth-centuryIndustrial Revolution) and farming land (the counties ofShropshire and Worcestershire).

o The North (from the Mersey-Humber line to the Cheviot Hills) ischaracterised by the same contrast between green pasturesand beautiful hilly countryside, and large industrial towns andcoal mining areas.

Scotland, a once independent kingdom, which lost its politicalindependence and was united to England in 1707, covers thenorthern, mainly mountainous part of the island (the GrampianMountains), and it is subdivided into the Highlands and the Lowlands.Along its rocky, highly-indented shores1, there are three largearchipelagos, i.e., the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Orkney Islands,and the Shetland Islands. The Highlands and the Islands are thinlypopulated; people lead a hard and lonely life and many of them stillspeak Erse, a Scottish form of Gaelic, a Celtic dialect.

Wales, a rebellious region in the past, united to England under the firstTudors (Henry VII and Henry VIII), stretches in the eastern part of theisland, in a largely mountainous area (the Cambrian Mountains). Onefifth of its inhabitants speak both English and Welsh, which is also aCeltic dialect.

1 The small estuaries of the Scottish coastline, where most of the Scottish rivers (the Forth, the Clyde,etc.) flow into the ocean are called firths.

Section 1. Great Britain. Geographical Background. British Insularity


As for Northern Ireland (also called Ulster), a province of Celtic origintorn by religious (the Catholic Irish versus the Protestant English) andpolitical unrest, it lies across the Irish Sea, in the north-east of Ireland.

Several other islands should be included to complete the picture of theBritish archipelago, i.e., the Isle of Man and Anglesey in the Irish Sea, theIsle of Wight in the south, Jersey and Guernsey, also called the ChannelIslands, off the European coast, and the Scilly Islands in the south-west ofCornwall (the largest peninsula of Great Britain). The Isle of Man and theChannel Islands are not part of the United Kingdom, but self-governingCrown Dependencies that possess their own administrative structures.

Britains peculiar geographical position has influenced its climate, itspeople and history in more than one direction:

Benefited by the warm Atlantic Current (Gulf Stream), the climate ismore temperate than would otherwise be the case, with mild wintersand warm summers. However, the weather of the British Isles is onelong series of exceptions to its own traditional rules, with spring daysin winter and winter days in spring, autumn days in summer andexquisite, summer days at the end of autumn.

The insular position may also account for the peoples character:restrained, reserved, with a conservative mentality marked by apreference for traditional habits and structures (e.g. talking about theweather; carrying an umbrella and a jacket on a warm day because itmight rain or turn cold; the five oclock tea; etc.); (other features of theBritish people: unemotional, private, independent individuals, with arespect for the eccentric and personal initiative, and a certaintendency to aggressiveness and stubbornness; dry sense of humourbased on understatement, self-criticism, use of language subtleties).

As for the countrys history, the sea has turned the English into a sea-faring nation, able to roam the oceans of the world and to build up agreat maritime empire. The sea provided potential security fromforeign invasions from the continent, but also imminent danger fromenemies from the north (and not only).

Section 2. Invasions and Patterns of Settlement in the British Isles


SECTION 2. Invasions and Patterns of Settlementin the British Isles

2.1. Ancient Britain

Britain was not always an island. It became one after the end of the last iceage, when the temperature rose and ice melted flooding the lower-lying landthat is now under the North Sea and the English Channel.

Archaeologists revealed evidence of human life (a few stone tools) inBritain dating as far back as 250,000 BC. However, with the renewedadvancement of ice, Britain became hardly inhabitable until probably anothermilder period around 50,000 BC. The people from that period apparentlylooked similar to the modern British, but were probably smaller and had a lifespan of only about 30 years.

Around 10,000 BC, towards the end of the Ice Age, people in Britainformed small groups of hunters, gatherers and fishers (but only few hadsettled homes).

Britain finally became an island about 5,000 BC. That turned out to bea disaster for the wanderer-hunter culture as the cold-loving deer and otheranimals on which they largely lived died out.

2.1.1. The Stone/Neolithic Age: the Megalithic Men

About 3,000 BC, a first wave of settlers probably came from theIberian Peninsula (hence, their being referred to as the Iberians) or evenfrom the North African coast. They were small, dark, long-headed people(probably the ancestors of the dark-haired inhabitants of Wales andCornwall), and they kept animals, grew corn and knew how to make pottery.

These invaders settled in the western parts of Britain and Ireland,from Cornwall all the way to the far north.

Among the remains that reveal the huge organisation of labour inprehistoric Britain, due mention must be made, particularly, of the henges.They were centres of religious, political and economic power made of greatcircles of earth banks and ditches inside which there were wooden buildingsand stone circles. Stonehenge in the Salisbury Plain is by far the mostfamous and best preserved of them. Built in separate stages over more than2,000 years, it was made of monumental circles of massive vertical stonestopped with immense horizontal slabs called megaliths (hence, the name ofthese prehistoric people of Megalithic Men). At a second stage of theconstruction process, about 2,400 BC, huge bluestones were brought to thesite from South Wales. Its purpose is still a mystery, but its authority in Britainwas recognised. The movement of the bluestones was perceived as anextremely important event hence, these unwritten memories were recordedin 1136 in Geoffrey of Monmouths History of Britain. Other (earth or stone)henges were built in many parts of Britain as far north as the Orkney Islandsand as far south as Cornwall.



2.1.2. The Bronze Age: the Beaker People

After 2,400 BC, new groups of people came from Europe (France andthe Low Countries) and settled in south-east Britain. It is not known whetherthey invaded by armed force or they were invited by Neolithic Britonsbecause of their military or metal-working skills. Their influence was soon felt,as they became the leaders of British society.

They were round-headed, strongly built, taller than Neolithic Britons.They spoke an Indo-European language and were skilled in working metal(bronze) and in making pottery. They also brought a new cereal from Europe,i.e. barley, and introduced the first individual graves to replace the formercommunal burial mounds (barrows). Their graves were furnished withpottery beakers (hence, their being referred to as the Beaker people).

Stonehenge remained the most important centre until 1,300 BC(improved by the Beaker people with a new circle of 30 stone columns,connected by stone lintels or cross-pieces). After 1,300 BC, the hengecivilisation was overtaken by a new form of society in southern England, thatof a settled farming class. Family villages and fortified enclosures appearedacross the landscape, in lower-lying areas as well as on the chalk hills, andthe old central control of Stonehenge and the other henges was lost. Powershifted to the Thames valley and southern Britain. Hill-forts replaced hengesas centres of local power. One possible reason for the shift of power is thatpeople in the Thames area had more advanced metalwork skills, hence thebetter-designed bronze swords discovered in the area. Many of these swordshave been found in river beds, almost certainly thrown in for religiousreasons. This custom may be the origin of the story of the legendary KingArthurs sword, given to him from out of the water and thrown back into thewater when he died.

2.1.3. The Iron Age: the Celts

From the sixth century BC over the next seven hundred years, theCelts swept into the British isles, coming from central Europe or further east,in three successive waves, kindred indeed but mutually hostile and each witha dialect of its own:

The Goidelic/ Gaelic Celts settled in Ireland whence they spread toScotland and the Isle of Man. Their linguistic heritage is representedby: Gaelic (the national language in Ireland), Erse (in the Highlandsand the Islands of Scotland) and the now extinguished Manx (only inthe Isle of Man).

Two centuries later, the Brythonic Celts/ Britons settled in Englandand Wales. Their linguistic heritage is represented by: Welsh (inWales) and Cornish (spoken in Cornwall up to the end of theeighteenth century, to be revived nowadays).

About 100 BC, the Belgic tribes settled in the south-east of Britain.It seems that the Celts were tall, fair or red-haired men of an

impressive cleanliness and neatness. They used to wear shirts andbreeches, and stripped or checked cloaks fastened by a pin (possibly theorigin for the Scottish tartan and dress). They knew how to work with iron,hence they could make better weapons and introduce more advancedploughing methods to farm heavier soils. They built hill-forts which remainedeconomic centres for local groups long after the Romans came to Britain



(e.g. the tradition of organising annual fairs see the annual fair on the siteof a Dorset hill-fort in Th. Hardys Far from the Madding Crowd). They tradedacross tribal borders and trade was probably important for political and socialcontact between the tribes inside (hence the present-day capitals of Englandand Scotland stand on or near two Celtic trade centres) and beyond Britain(in Gaul).

Their religion was polytheistic; they believed in the sun, the moon andthe stars. They were ruled over by a warrior class, of which the priests theDruids seem to have been particularly important members. The Druidscould not read or write, but they memorised all the religious teachings, thetribal laws, history, medicine, and other knowledge necessary in the Celticsociety. Religious rituals (which sometimes included human sacrifice) werenot performed in temples but in sacred (oak) groves, on certain hills, by riversor by river sources. (The oak was considered the Gods favourite; hence thecustom of hanging up branches of mistletoe, which was believed to workwonders, on Christmas Eve.)

Women, especially from the upper strata, had more independence andthey were respected for their courage and strength in battle. (Roman writersleave an impression of a measure of equality between the sexes among thericher Celts.) Actually, when the Romans invaded Britain two of the largesttribes were ruled by women who fought from their chariots. The mostpowerful Celt to stand up to the Romans was a woman, Boadicea (61 AD).

With regard to the Celtic cultural heritage, at least three major aspectsshould be emphasised:

The very name Britain comes from Pretani, the name which theGreeks called the Celtic inhabitants of Britain, mispronounced by theRomans into Britannia.

There are numerous Celtic survivings in English including: names ofrivers and places (e.g. Avon, Thames; York, Kent, London), the firstsyllables in Winchester, Manchester, Gloucester, Exeter, etc., andwords like brat, cradle, down, mattock, etc.

The Celtic legends and sagas imbued with a sense of mystery, adramatic conception of mans existence as grip with fate, sung bybards at the accompaniment of the harp, have been an importantsource of inspiration for many writers. Two cycles of legends havecome down to us:

The Cycle of Ulster (the oldest literary attempts of the Irishepic recording the deeds of king Conchobar and the bravehero Cuchulainn);

The Cycle of Munster (focused on the heroic figures ofFinn and his son Ossian, a gifted bard).

In the late eighteenth century, the interest in the old Celtic literarytradition was revived by the Pre-Romantic movement. JamesMacphersons alleged translations from the legendary Irish bardOssian brought about the emergence of a new literary fashion inalmost the whole Europe, known as Ossianism.

All in all, Celtic literature has remained a vigorous mainstreamand source of inspiration for many a writer in Britain and Europe, chiefamong whom W. B. Yeats, James Joyce and Samuel Beckett.With the rise of nationalistic feelings in present-day Britain,

Britishness originally, a general term denoting national identity for the



inhabitants of England, Scotland and Wales has come to evoke the Celticorigin of Scotland and Wales as opposed to Englishness, evocative ofEnglands Anglo-Saxon roots and her ruling position.

2.1.4. The Romans

The Roman invasion seems to have been motivated by two particularreasons: 1. the Celts of Britain supported the Celts in Gaul against theRomans (sending them food and allowing them to hide in Britain). 2. Underthe Celts, Britain became an important food producer because of the mildclimate and the advanced ploughing technology. The Romans needed Britishfood for their own army fighting the Gauls.

A first step towards the conquest of Britain was made in 55-54 BC byJulius Caesar who raided Britain to stop the support the British Celts offeredto the Celts in Gaul.

In 43 AD, Britain was conquered by Emperor Claudiuss legions.Actually, the Romanised area stretched across the southern part of Britain,from the River Humber to the River Severn. The Romans intended toconquer the whole island; they met with fierce resistance from some of theCeltic tribes, but the Celtic leaders soon surrendered to the Emperor. Theonly revolt that seriously threatened the Roman rule was Boadiceas (60-61AD): she swept through southern Britain, destroying Colchester, London andVerulamium, so that the Roman rule had a hard time recovering after therebellion was put down. Anyway, the Celts were no match in military powerand strategy to the Romans as, on the one hand, the Romans were bettertrained and, on the other hand, the Celtic tribes fought among themselves.

The Romans also extended their control in Wales (the towns of York,Chester, etc.), but did not develop their culture there. Therefore, the area ofRoman occupation was divided into two sharply contrasting regions: theLatinised south and east, and the barbarian north and west.

They could not conquer Caledonia (i.e. Scotland). They built a strongwall along the northern border (Hadrians Wall) to keep out the raiders (Scotsand Picts) from the north. (Later on, Hadrians Wall marked the borderbetween England and Scotland.)

In 409 AD, Rome withdrew its last legions from Britain, as Rome itselfwas under fierce siege by the Germanic tribes. (Rome itself was sacked bythe Goths in 410.) The Romanised Celts were left to fight alone against theScots, the Irish and the Anglo-Saxon raiders from Germany. When Britaincalled to Rome for help against the raiders from Saxon Germany in mid-fifthcentury, no answer came.

The almost four hundred years of Roman rule in Britain had its culturalbenefits, among which due mention should be made of:

prosperous towns which were the basis of Roman administration andcivilisation (e.g. Colchester a seat of the imperial Cult, meant tofocus the loyalty of the province, where a temple of the deifiedClaudius was erected; London the business centre of the province, asupply port and the centre of the system of Roman roads);

stone-paved highways which continued to be used long after theRomans left and which became the main roads of modern Britain;

glass windows, central heating, running water; Roman baths; large farms (villas) outside the towns, belonging to the richer Britons

who had become more Roman than Celt in their manners (as opposed



to huts and villages in which most of the Celtic population continued tolive);

the introduction of figurative styles particularly in sculpture, wall-painting and mosaic, but also in the minor arts and crafts (jewellery,pottery, furniture, household goods);

the introduction of reading and writing (Latin alphabet): Latin speakingtown-dwellers and rich landowners/ vs./ the illiterate Celtic peasantry.However, with the coming of the Anglo-Saxons, Latin completelydisappeared both in its spoken and written forms. Consequently, it isdifficult to say how many Latin words penetrated the Englishvocabulary through Celtic. Examples of authentic borrowings fromLatin to Celtic are: caester, chester (castrum in Chester, Doncaster,Gloucester, etc.); coln (colonia in Lincoln, Colchester); port (portusin Porchester, Davenport, Portsmouth); wick/wich (vicus inWickham); pool (padulis in Liverpool); street (strata), wall(vallum), wine (vinum);

the introduction of Christianity in 313 under Emperor Constantine theGreat (his mother, Helen, was a Celtic princess from Britain). SaintPatrick first brought Christianity to Ireland (he became the islandspatron saint).

2.2. The Middle-Ages

2.2.1. The Anglo-Saxons

At first, the Germanic tribes only raided Britain, but, after 430 AD, theybegan to settle. One legend actually claims that they were initially hired bythe Romanised Celts to help them fight back the attacks of the Scots and thePicts (e.g. 449 Hengest and Horsa), but then they turned against theiremployers and decided to stay despite their hosts resistance. A much morereliable source is Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People, writtenthree centuries later, which was proven correct by archaeological evidence.

As Bedes Ecclesiastical History and archaeological evidence indicate,the Germanic invaders coming from northern Germany and southernDenmark belonged to three powerful tribes:

The Angles, who settled in the east and in the north Midlands; The Jutes, who settled in Kent and along the south coast; The Saxons, who settled from the Thames Estuary westwards,

between the Angles and the Jutes.The Anglo-Saxon migrations lasted from about 441 when they secured apermanent stronghold at the mouth of the Thames to about 600 when theyvirtually controlled the present-day England (land of the Angles).

The British Celts were killed, famished, enslaved and pushed into thecorners of the island in Wales (the land of the foreigners), Cornwall andsouthern Scotland. Others sailed to Ireland or to Brittany on the Frenchcoast. (The Celtic resistance to the invaders was immortalised in legendsdominated by the figure of King Arthur as a hero of many victories against theAnglo-Saxons.)

The Anglo-Saxons belonged to a Nordic culture which involved theworship of war gods like Woden (sky god and war god), Thor (god ofthunder), Frigga/Frija (the goddess of love and fruitfulness), Tiw (the god of



darkness and wrestling). (Some of these gods names gave the names ofsome of the week days, namely, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, andTuesday.)

Their warrior culture praised virtues like courage, strength,intelligence, and, above all, loyalty to the leader. Cowardice, desertion andlack of honour were publicly condemned.

Anglo-Saxon religion taught people not to be afraid of death and toaspire to the ideal of heroic sacrifice on the battlefield. Thus, the souls of thedead warriors would be taken by the Valkyries to the Scandinavian paradise,Valhalla.

Coldness and pessimism were defining features of the Anglo-Saxonreligion according to which Wyrd (Fate) was stronger than the godsthemselves and which preached that the world of both men and gods shouldcome to a terrible end (Ragnarok the Twilight of the Gods) in the brave, buthopeless fight against the forces of chaos, before it could be reborn fertileand idyllic.

The Anglo-Saxon myths and legends were collected in the Edda andhanded down from generation to generation. The body of epic poetrycelebrated heroes like Sigurd and Beowulf, whereas the elegies spoke of theups and downs of life, foregrounding, in lyrical terms, the values and beliefsof the Anglo-Saxon society.

The Anglo-Saxons also shared with the Scandinavians the art ofdecorating weapons, jewellery, and objects of daily use with patterns of greatbeauty and richness, as well as customs of war and agriculture. (e.g. theSutton Hoo archaeological site,1936)

By the sixth century, the Anglo-Saxon had already formed sevenkingdoms (the Heptarchy), i.e.,

Angles: Mercia, Northumbria, East-Anglia; Saxons: Essex, Wessex, Sussex; Jutes: Kent.

In the eighth century, however, as a result of the conflicts between the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Mercia, Northumbria and Wessex grew larger and morepowerful. And, by the ninth century, only the Anglo-Saxon kingdom ofWessex had managed to survive the Viking invasion.

The pivotal unit of government in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms was theshire (county), one of the worlds oldest still functioning government units. Ineach shire, one shire reeve/ sheriff was appointed as the kings localadministrator, in charge of raising taxes and recruiting soldiers.

Unlike the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons were not city dwellers. Theysettled in the countryside. The community was organised around the lordsmanor where the villagers paid taxes, justice was administered and menjoined the army (the fyrd). It was the beginning of the manorial systemwhich reached its full development under the Normans.

The Anglo-Saxon technology changed the shape of Englishagriculture. They cleared dense forests and drained wet lands. Their heavierploughs allowed them to better plough heavier soils in long straights linesacross the field. Their system of land ownership and organisation put theland of the community to better use. They divided the land into two-threelarge fields, which were further sub-divided into long thin strips (hides)owned by each family and cultivated in the same ways as the ones of theneighbours. One field was used for spring crops, a second one for autumncrops, and a third one was left to rest for a year and used, together with the



other fields after crop harvesting, as common land for animals to feed on.Thus, the Anglo-Saxons set the basis of English agriculture until theeighteenth century.

After their settlement, the Anglo-Saxons also developed a hierarchicalsystem based on gradations of rank. The highest in rank was the king(cyning): he was the ring-giver in time peace (arm-rings or neck-rings =gold pieces/ jewellery given as a reward to the warriors for their courage andvalues), and the shield and protector in times of war. The king was electedand assisted during his rule by the Witan, a council made of senior warriorsand churchmen. Without the Witans support, the kings authority was indanger. Next in rank were the noblemen eorlas (earls) or thanes: theyenjoyed material privileges in exchange for their loyalty and military supportto the king. Lower in rank were the ceorlas (free men entitled to their shareof the common land). The lowest in the social scale were the laet (serfs)(landless men who cultivated the soil for their lord), and the slaves. Theslaves were war prisoners or people sold by their families in time of famine tosave them from starvation or convicts in a law-suit. Slaves were workingmachines that could be bought or sold, even killed by their masters.

The Anglo-Saxons had their own system of punishing manslaughterby paying a sum of money (wergilt = war money) to the relatives of themurdered man. (The slaves were an exception in this respect; the masterpaid no wergilt.)

All in all, the Anglo-Saxon system represented a transition fromthe tribal to the feudal organisation.

In the early days of the Anglo-Saxon rule in Britain, only the Celts inWales, Scotland and Ireland were Christian. However, in 597 AD, PopeGregory the Great sent a monk, Augustine, to re-establish Christianity inEngland. He came as a missionary in Canterbury, at king Ethelbert of Kentscourt, and he became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in 601. Hecontinued to convert especially ruling families in Kent, East Anglia, Essex,Sussex and Wessex. In Northumbria, Christianity was introduced by Irishmonks 40 years later.

The ordinary people in Britain were converted by Celtic Churchbishops from Wales, Ireland and Scotland, who travelled from village tovillage to spread Christianity. That brought the Celtic Christian Church(ordinary people) in competition with the Roman Christian Church(interested in authority).

The contest between Roman and Celtic Christianity was settled in 663AD, when the Synod of Whitby decided in favour of the Roman Church. TheCeltic Church retreated as Rome extended its authority over all Christians, evenin the Celtic parts of the island.

Christianity brought about the return of learning, reading and writing inLatin, enriching the Anglo-Saxon language with Latin vocabulary. Themonasteries became seats of learning and teaching of Latin, Greek, music,astronomy, medicine, miniature art and history (e.g. the Venerable Bede,Ecclesiastic History of the English People).

Christianity also brought about a change in the system of values,preaching charity, humility, self-discipline, the distinction between body andsoul to the disparagement of the former, fear of and great hope about thenext life, submission to the authority (of the priest, of the Church, of the lord,



etc.). Thus, Christianity contributed to the process of feudalisation in Anglo-Saxon Britain.

2.2.2. The Vikings

The Vikings (pirates or people of the sea inlets) came from Norwayand Denmark. At the end of the eighth century, they first raided along theeast, north and west coasts of Britain and Ireland (London was raided in842). During the ninth and the tenth centuries, the Vikings plundered variousother parts of the world going as far as Piraeus and Constantinople.

The Scandinavian prose Sagas recorded with extraordinary realismtheir life of war and plunder. They were so feared that God spare us from thewrath of the Northmen became a regular prayer in England.

In 870, from among the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, only Wessex(incorporating Wessex, little of Kent and half of Mercia) survived the Vikingattacks. So, England was divided into Wessex and the Danelaw (the eastand north of England). It was Alfred the Great (871-900) that defeated theDanes in 878 and forced their leader Guthrum to sign the treaty of Wedmore,whereby the Vikings underwent baptism and agreed to retire into theDanelaw.

The pinnacle of the Viking rule in England was represented by KingCanute/ Knut/ Cnut. He was the Viking king of England (elected in 1016),Denmark (1018), Norway (1028) and parts of Sweden. He was on the way tofound a Northern Empire with Scandinavia for one pillar and England for theother, reinforcing the cultural bonds between these cultural spaces. When hedied in 1035, his incapable Danish successors dissipated the confederationand England returned to Anglo-Saxon monarchs.

The last Viking invasion took place during the rule of the last Anglo-Saxon king, Harold Godwinson. In 1066, Harold had to march north intoYorkshire to fight the Vikings led by Harald Hardrada, King of Norway. TheVikings were defeated at Stanford Bridge.

2.2.3. The Normans

In 1066, after the death of Edward the Confessor (1042-66), HaroldGodwinson was chosen by the Witan as the new king. He succeeded to thethrone under the suspicion of having usurped the rights of Edwards heir,William, Duke of Normandy. William claimed the English throne on accountof the fact that King Edward had promised the throne to him before his death,on the one hand, and that Harold, who visited William in 1064/1065,promised he would not take the throne for himself, on the other.

So, in order to regain what he considered rightfully his, William ofNormandy landed with his troops at Pevensey in October 13, 1066. Thedecisive battle took place at Hastings. Better armed, better organised andmounted on horses, the Normans defeated the Anglo-Saxons. Harold died onthe battlefield. (The story of the Norman triumph is recorded on the famousTapestry of Bayeux.)

William marched to London and he was crowned King of England inEdwards church of Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, 1066. His comingto the throne was soon followed by the harrying of the North, i.e., a series ofatrocious punitive campaigns meant to put down the resistance of the Saxonearls in the North of England.



The new rule introduced in England the Norman feudal system, withits specific social hierarchy:

The King divided the land to the nobles. William gave half to theNorman nobles, a quarter to the Church and kept a fifth for himself.The nobles were given pieces of land in different parts of the countryso that no noble could easily or quickly gather his fighting men torebel.

The nobles received from the king the feu, i.e., land held in return forduty or service to the lord. Thus, they became the kings vassals andowed him obedience, help in time of war and part of the produce oftheir land. The greater nobles gave parts of their lands to lessernobles, knights, and other freemen (yeomen).

The vassals showed their obedience to the king, their lord,through the so-called homage ritual: the vassal kneeled before thelord, his hands placed between those of his lord. (Nowadays this ritualis part of the coronation ceremony of British kings and queens.)

The freemen (yeomen): Some paid for the land by doing militaryservice, while others paid rent.

The peasants bound to the land (serfs) were not free to leave theestate and were often little better than slaves.The feudal social system was essentially based on two principles:

Every man has a lord, and every lord has land. The best documentaryevidence of the way in which feudalism functions in William Is England is theDoomsday Book (1088), i.e., a general survey of all the lands of thekingdom, their value, owners, quality of the soil, cattle or poultry. It was aninventory of both all the possessions of the country and the social distributionof the population, thus providing relevant information on the fate of thedefeated after Williams coming to the English throne: English lords weredeprived of their lands in favour of the French barons. All high offices both inthe church and state were exclusively filled by French-speaking foreigners.The English found themselves excluded from all roads leading to honour orpreferment. In 1088, only 5,000 thanes were recorded to survive as the localgentry.

However, the military invasion was followed by a more peaceful one ofNormandys industrial and trading classes that encouraged the developmentof culture in Norman England (bringing about what some historians call the13th century Renaissance).

Twenty-seven of Englands greatest cathedrals were built in thisperiod (e.g. Norwich, Gloucester, Oxford, Peterborough, Winchester, St.Albans, Durham, etc.) and new architectural styles were introduced, namelythe English Romanesque or Norman style (characterised by bold massiveconstruction, semicircular arches, flat buttresses, ponderous cylindricalpillars, geometrical patterns) and the Gothic style (characterised by pointedarches, clustered columns, pointed ribbed vaults, flying buttresses, tall andpointed towers and spires, stained glass).

Due mention should also be made of the development of crafts inwood, stone, glass, tapestry and painting (miniatures).

The two great universities of Oxford and Cambridge were founded in1249 and 1284, respectively, becoming important seats of learning(examples of brilliant minds of the time: John Duns Scotus, William ofOccam, Roger Bacon).



The art of chronicle writing continued to develop with The Anglo-Norman Chronicles (written in Latin, but lacking the impartiality of their Anglo-Saxon predecessors), with Matthew Pariss Chronica Majora (drawing onEnglish and Continental events from 1255) and Chronica Minora (referring tohome events between 1200-1250), and with Walter Maps Of CourtiersTrifles (remarkable through its violent attacks at the corruption and abuses ofthe clergy).

During this era three languages were spoken and written in England:Latin (the language of the church and scholarship), French (the language ofpublic life, aristocratic society, law-courts and royal administration, literature,art and cooking), and English (the language of the people at large, of theilliterate lower classes). This stage of the English language c. 110 and c.1500 is known as Middle English.

2.3. Battles of Britain

The Norman Conquest was the last great invasion of England. Thatdoes not mean that there were no subsequent attempts at invading Englandthroughout the centuries to come. Two of the most notable such attemptsthat ended in failure for Englands enemies will be presented below.

2.3.1. The Defeat of the Spanish Armada (1588)

In the 1570s-1580s, Anglo-Spanish relations had become particularlytense. On the one hand, Spain ruled over the Protestant Netherlands thatfought for independence and England supported the Dutch Protestant rebels.On the other hand, Spanish ships were systematically harassed by Englishprivateers (pirates unofficially supported by Queen Elizabeth I; e.g.:Francis Drake, Martin Frobisher, Walter Raleigh). As a result, Spain refusedto allow England to trade freely with the Spanish American colonies.

In addition, the conflict between the two countries was fuelled byreligious differences: Spain was a Catholic power, whereas England favouredProtestantism. On that account, the English queen Elizabeth I wasexcommunicated by Pope Pius V in 1570 and loyal Catholics were urged todepose her.

In the early 1580s, Philip II of Spain prospered: he annexed Portugal(1580) and the Azores (1582-3). So, he afforded to have a great fleet built, anArmada exceeding in size the combined fleets of England and theNetherlands. He decided to conquer England before he would be able todefeat the Dutch in the Netherlands.

On the Protestant side, the assassination in 1584 of the Dutch leader,William of Orange, created panic among English politicians who feared thatElizabeth I might fall victim too.

The events of the next year 1585 made the Spanish even moreconfident that they would triumph over their English rivals. Phillip II intendedto seize all English ships in Iberian ports. Elizabeth I responded by sendingthe Earl of Leicester to Holland with an army, but Leicester was defeated.

The first sign that the English might turn the tables on the Spanishwas the successful attack on and partial destruction of the Spanish Armadaby Francis Drake in the Cadiz harbour (1587).

In 1588, the re-built Spanish Armada (the largest that had ever goneto sea, but less faster than the English ships) carrying mainly soldiers (few



ships carried cannons and medium guns) aimed at conquering England andcontrolling the English Channel, so that subsequently Spanish troops couldhave easier access to the Netherlands. However, the Spanish Armada wasdefeated by the English weather and by the English guns. Some Spanishships were sunk, but most were blown northwards by the wind, many beingwrecked on the rocky coasts of Scotland and Ireland. In August 1588,Protestant England celebrated with prayers and public thanksgiving. The warwith Spain continued until Elizabeth Is death (1603), but the British Isles didnot become the scene of a foreign invasion.

2.3.2. Fighting the German Luftwaffe (1940)

In September 1939 Germany invaded Poland, and Britain entered thewar. The next year (May-June 1940), the German army invaded theNetherlands, attacked and defeated the French. France capitulated within 11days on June 10, 1940. The British army was driven into the sea and wassaved by thousands of private boats which crossed the English Channel atDunkirk.

Over the next months (summer autumn 1940), the German airforces (Luftwaffe) launched a major bombing and raiding campaign overBritain. Their targets were coastal shipping convoys, shipping centres, RoyalAir Force (RAF) airfields and infrastructure, aircraft factories and groundinfrastructure. Finally, the Lufwaffe resorted to attacks on strategic townareas which culminated in the serial bombing of London that killed thousandsof civilians and destroyed most of central London.

In this time of terror, Prime Minister Winston Churchill brilliantlymanaged to persuade a nation on its knees that it would win.

The failure of Germany to achieve its objectives of destroying Britainsair defences, or forcing Britain to negotiate an armistice or an outrightsurrender is considered both its first major defeat and one of the crucialturning points in the war. If Germany had gained air superiority, Adolf Hitlermight have launched Operation Sealion, an amphibious and airborneinvasion of Britain.

2.4. Practical Applications (1)

1. Provide brief but comprehensive explanations for the followingnotions/names:

henge; Beaker people; Erse; Ossianism;Hadrians wall; St. Patrick; Heptarchy; ceorlas;wergild; Augustine; Wedmore; Doomsday Book; homage;

Thirteenth-century Renaissance; Ulster; Francis Drake; RAF;shire; Tapestry of Bayeux; Caledonia.

2. Write one paragraph about the contribution to British history of each of thefollowing personalities:

Boadicea; Alfred the Great; King Canute;Edward the Confessor; William I.

3. State whether the following statements are true or false:



The Beaker people inaugurated the Stone Age in Britain. The henges were centres of religious, political and economic power

during the Stone Age. The Celts settled in Britain in 100 BC. The Druids religious rituals were not performed in temples but in

sacred (oak) groves, on certain hills, by rivers or by river sources. Ossian is a heroic figure of the Cycle of Ulster. The Romans conquered Britain in 43 AD. The area of Roman occupation was confined to England and Wales. Emperor Constantine the Great brought Christianity to Britain. The Anglo-Saxons belonged to a Nordic culture which involved the

worship of war gods. In the sixth century, only one Anglo-Saxon kingdom survived the

Viking invasion. The lowest in the Anglo-Saxon social hierarchy were the slaves. In 663, the Synod of Whitby decided in favour of the Celtic Christian

Church. In 870, England was divided into Wessex and the Danelaw. The last Viking invasion took place under King Canute. Harold Godwinson was defeated by William of Normandy in 1066. The Norman social system represented a transition from the tribal to

the feudal organisation. The feudal social system was essentially based on two principles:

Every man has a lord, and Every lord has land. England refused to allow Spain to trade freely with the American

colonies. The Spanish Armada was defeated in 1588 under Queen Elizabeth I. In 1940 the German air forces launched a major bombing and raiding

campaign over Britain.

4. Draw up a list of effects of British insularity and write a paragraph toexplain which you consider the most significant, and why.

5. Write an essay on one of the topics below:a) Invasion Patterns in Ancient Britain;b) Medieval Invasions of Britain;c) Attempted Invasions of Modern England.

Section 3. British Monarchy


SECTION 3. British Monarchy: from the Anglo-SaxonKings to the Twenty-first Century House of Windsor

3.1. The Anglo-Saxon Kings

In the Anglo-Saxon society, the king was elected by the Witan theKings Council a formal body including senior warriors and churchmen whoissued laws and charters. It was not at all democratic and the king couldchoose to ignore the Witans advice. But he knew that it might be dangerousto do so. For the Witans authority was based on its right to choose kings,and to agree to the use of the kings laws. Without its support, the kings ownauthority was in danger. The Witan established a system which remained animportant part of the kings method of government. Even today, the king/queen has a Privy Council, a group of advisers on the affairs of state.

From the seventh century on, the power of the recently ChristianisedAnglo-Saxon kings increased as they were supported by the RomanChristian Church. It is worth mentioning here that, in 597, Augustine startedthe process of Christianisation of the Anglo-Saxons from king Ethelbert ofKents court, and that, in its competition with the Celtic Christian Church thathad been spreading Christianity among ordinary people, the Roman ChristianChurch (interested in the upper classes) became a winner because in 663, atthe Synod of Whitby, the king of Northumbria decided in its favour.

Saxon kings helped the Church to grow, but the Church alsoincreased the power of kings. Bishops gave kings their support, which madeit harder for royal power to be questioned. Kings had Gods approval. Forexample, when king Offa of Mercia arranged for his son to be crowned as hissuccessor, he made sure that this was done at a Christian ceremony led by abishop. It was good political propaganda, because it suggested that kingswere chosen not only by people but also by God.

From among the late Anglo-Saxon kings, by far one of the most heroicfigures was Alfred the Great (871-900). Chosen by the Witan upon his elderbrothers death, he was compared to Charlemagne owing to his many-sidedtalents as:

a warrior. He defeated the Danes led by Guthrum and forced them tosign, in 878, the treaty of Wedmore.

an administrator. After the war, the burghs/boroughs (walledsettlements), initially built for defence, became prosperous markettowns.

a scholar. He taught himself Latin and translated, or ordered to betranslated, books of theology, history and geography. He had BedesEcclesiastical History of the English People translated into Anglo-Saxon, in fact into the West Saxon dialect. He initiated the keeping ofthe Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, the first year-by-year historical recordsever composed in English. He encouraged the foundation of the firstpublic schools in the monasteries.

Unlike Alfred the Great, the last Anglo-Saxon kings could not protect Englandfrom the new waves of invaders and with them the Anglo-Saxon age inEngland came to an end.



To be more specific, Edward the Confessor (1042-66) was more of aNorman than an Englishman; he spent most of his life in Normandy. He wasmore interested in the Church than in kingship, as he lived among Normanmonks during the Danish rule in England.

Consequently, under his rule, his secretaries and chaplains at courtwere Normans and he raised several Normans to be Bishops while he madea Norman Primate of England, i.e. Archbishop of Canterbury. The pattern ofthe English village, with its manor house and church, dates from Edwardstime. He began the building of Westminster Abbey in London.

After his death, though chosen by the Witan, Harold Godwinson(1066), the descendent of the most powerful family of Wessex, waschallenged by the one who claimed to be the Confessors real heir, i.e.,William, Duke of Normandy. Challenged in 1066 by both the Vikings and theNormans, he managed to defeat the Norwegian king Harald Hardrada atStanford Bridge, but he was defeated by the Normans at Hastings. He diedon the battlefield with his eye pierced by an arrow.

3.2. The Norman Kings

Crowned at Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066, William I ofNormandy and England (1066-87) controlled two large areas: Normandy,which had been given by his father, and England, which he had won in war.Both were personal possessions. To William, the important differencebetween Normandy and England was that, as Duke of Normandy, he had torecognise the king of France as his lord, whereas in England he was kingwith no lord above him.

After William Is death, the management of Normandy and Englandbecame a family business. Henry I (110-1135) succeeded his elder brotherWilliam II as King of England in 1100 and defeated his eldest brother RobertCurthose to become the Duke of Normandy in 1106. He spent the rest of hislife fighting to keep Normandy from other French nobles who tried to take it.After his sons death, he hoped that the noblemen would accept his daughterMatilda, married to Geoffrey Plantagenet, a great noble in France. His deathbrought about new warfare between Matilda and her husband from Anjou, onthe one hand, and Henrys nephew, Stephen of Blois, from Boulogne, on theother hand. The terrible civil war came to an end when Matilda and Stephenagreed that Stephen could keep Englands throne but only if Matildas son,Henry, could succeed him.

3.3. The Angevins

Henry II (1154-89) was the first unquestioned ruler of the Englishthrone of the last hundred years. The first of the Plantagenets, he ruled overfar more land than the previous kings: owing partly to his marriage withEleanor of Aquitaine, he reigned over quite an empire stretching from theScottish border to the Pyrenees.

He left England with a legal administrative system and a habit ofobedience to government.

His firm rule opposed him to the Church: his controversy with ThomasBecket, the Archbishop of Canterbury (1162), ended in 1170 with the lattersmurder in the Canterbury Cathedral apparently by order of the former.



Thomas Becket was sanctified and his shrine in Canterbury attractedthousands of pilgrims.

Henrys quarrels with his wife, Eleanor, and his sons, Richard andJohn, loyal to their mother and to the French king, caused a severe familybreach. So, in 1189, Henry II died a broken man, disappointed and defeatedby his own sons and by the French king.

Richard I (Coeur de Lion - the Lion-hearted) (1189-99) was one ofEnglands most popular kings, a chivalry romance knight errant figure turnedinto a full blooded Englishman. (According to the legends, he thrust his handdown the throat of an attacking lion, tore out his heart and ate it with salt.)

Actually, he spent very little time in England, since he participated inthe third Crusade for the recovery of the Holy Land from the Muslims.

Captured by the Duke of Austria with whom he had quarrelled inJerusalem, we was ransomed after two years by the English, but he waskilled, five years later, in France.

Richard I was followed to the throne by his brother, King John (Lack-a-land) (1199-1216). The latter misused the machinery of state he hadinherited in order to extort money from his subjects, which he spent inunsuccessful wars to defend his French possessions against the rising powerof the Capet kings in France. Despite his efforts, in 1204, he lost Normandyto Philip Augustus of France. (Hence, King Johns nickname Lack-a-Land)

King John also quarrelled with the Pope over who should beArchbishop of Canterbury (1209-14), which caused him to become unpopularwith the Church too.

As a consequence of his inefficient government, in 1215, the barons,joined by angry merchants and supported by the Church and all the otherclasses (burghers and yeomen), forced King John to sign a Charter ofliberties Magna Carta at Runnymede (outside London) that marked thetransition from the age of traditional rights to the age of written legislation.

3.4. The Plantagenets

The reign of Henry III (1216-72) was marked by the failure of hiscampaigns in France (1230 and 1242) and his disputes (caused by hiskeeping foreign advisers and by his excessive expenses in supporting thepope in Sicily) with the barons, led by Simon of Montfort, who summoned thefirst Parliament in 1264. (Montfort was eventually defeated in 1265 in thebattle of Evesham and killed by prince Edward.)

Despite the fact that he defeated Simon of Montfort, when he came tothe throne, Edward I (1272-1307) decided to continue the experiment ofsummoning the Parliament (then made up only by what later on became theHouse of Lords, presided over by the King or by the Kings Lord Chancellor).Edward used his royal authority to establish the rights of the Crown at theexpense of traditional feudal privileges, to promote the uniform administrationof justice, to raise income to meet the costs of war and government, and tocodify the legal system.

Between 1282-84, Edward I managed to break the opposition of theWelsh and to bring them under control. (His eldest son, Edward II, wascreated Prince of Wales, a custom preserved ever since.) He interfered inScotland as an arbitrator among the pretenders of the Scottish crown only toproclaim himself king of Scotland in 1296. His taking over the Scottish crown



faced a popular resistance movement, led at first by William Wallace(defeated at Falkirk in 1298 and executed), and then by Robert Bruce(Edward I was defeated by Bruce and died on his way for a second campaignto Scotland to fight him.)

Unlike his father, Edward II (1307-27) was a weak king. Innocentminded, lazy, incapable, he estranged himself from his queen, Isabella ofFrance, and from his barons, surrounding himself by favourites like Gaveston(eventually captured and beheaded). His weakness allowed Robert Bruce togain ground in Scotland, after the latters victory at Bannockburn in 1314.

Defeated by his wifes army, Edward II had to abdicate in favour of hisson Edward III (the first time that an anointed king of England had beendethroned since Ethelred in 1013). He was later murdered at Berkeley Castle(allegedly by the Queens lover, Mortimer; later on, the Parliament decidedthat Mortimer should be sentenced to death by hanging and the Queenshould be deprived of all power and confined for life). (See also ChristopherMarlowes The Troublesome Reign and Lamentable Death of Edward theSecond)

Edward III (1327-77) restored the authority of the king and foundedthe Order of the Garter in 1348. He started the long series of wars againstFrance, known as the Hundred Years War, invading France throughFlanders in 1337 and scoring two great victories at Crcy (1346) and Poitiers(1356) (which turned Edwards son The Black Prince into a legendary idealof chivalry). At the treaty of Brtegny (1360), the whole southern-westernFrance was assigned to England. The war was equally motivated by theEnglish monarchys genealogical claims to the Throne of France and byeconomic reasons (i.e. maintaining Flanders as an export market for Englishwool).

Unfortunately, in the late years of Edward IIIs reign, the ravagescaused by the Black Death (the plague 1348-9, 1361-2, 1369), the criticismelicited by his attempts at raising higher taxes, as well as the rather moderatesuccess in France (after the Treaty of Bruges in 1375, only Calais and acostal strip near Bordeaux were Englands) caused his popularity to decline.

Richard II (1377-99). Though still a child (14), he handled well thePeasants Uprising (1381) led by Wat Tyler and Jack Straw. (Wat Tyler waskilled and the uprisings in the rest of the country were crushed over the nextfew weeks.)

Highly cultured, Richard II was one of the greatest royal patrons of thearts (patron of Chaucer).

His authoritarian approach brought him in conflict with severalParliamentarian leaders, here including his uncle, Gloucester, and his cousin,Henry of Bolingbroke, who were banished. On the death of Henrys fatherJohn of Gaunt (a younger son of Edward III) in prison, Richard confiscatedthe vast properties of his Duchy of Lancaster (which amounted to a statewithin a state) and divided them among his supporters. In 1399, whileRichard was on a campaign in Ireland, Henry of Bolingbroke returned toclaim his fathers inheritance. Supported by some of the leading baronialfamilies, Henry captured and deposed Richard. Bolingbroke was crownedKing as Henry IV. Risings in support of Richard led to his murder inPontefract Castle. (See William Shakespeares Richard II)



3.5. The Lancastrians

Henry IV (1399-1413) spent his reign establishing his royal authority.The outbreak of the plague in 1400 almost coincided with the rebellion inWales led by Owen Glendower/Glyndwr. In 1403, Henrys supporters, thePercys of Northumberland, turned against him and conspired withGlendower. The Percys and the Welsh were defeated by Henry at the Battleof Shrewsbury. (See also William Shakespeares Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2)

As for the war with France, it also continued during Henry IVs reignwith moderate and fluctuating success on the English side.

The type of warrior-king that was the ideal of the time, Henry IVs son,Henry V (1413-22), scored a great victory against the French at Agincourt onOctober 25, 1415. In alliance with unreliable Burgundy, and assisted by hisbrothers (the Dukes of Clarence, Bedford and Gloucester), Henry gainedcontrol of Normandy in subsequent campaigns. By the Treaty of Troyes(1420), he gained recognition as heir to the French throne, and marriedCharles VIs daughter Katherine. (See William Shakespeares Henry V)Unfortunately, his success was short lived and he died of dysentery at theage of 34, in 1422.

An ill-fated king, Henry Vs son, Henry VI (1422-61, 1470-1),ascended to the throne of England and France when less than one year old,upon his fathers and grandfathers deaths within months of each other. Untilhe came of age, regency was assumed by his uncles Cardinal Beaufort andthe Duke of Gloucester (who opposed each other) in England, and byanother uncle, the Duke of Bedford, in France.

Though genuinely interested in cultural patronage and education, hebecame a weak, ineffectual king, despised by his queen and his lords, anunsuitable king in a violent society. The consequences of his weakness weredisastrous.

Thus, on the one hand, the French, led in battle by Joan of Arc, andruled by King Charles, started fighting back the English army. Furthermore,after the Duke of Bedfords death (1435), Englands Breton and Burgundianallies lost confidence in the alliance. Thus, by the end of the Hundred YearsWar in 1453, England had lost everything and the only English possession onthe Continent was the port of Calais.

On the other hand, Henry VIs simple-mindedness and periods ofmental illness allowed for instability at home, as the nobles began to askquestions about who should be ruling the country. Civil war (The War of theRoses 1455-1485) broke out between Henry VIs supporters theLancastrians and those of the Duke of York, Richard Plantagenet (son ofthe Earl of March, who had lost the competition for the throne when RichardII was deposed in 1399). In 1460, the Duke of York claimed the throne and,after his death in battle, his son Edward took up the struggle and won thethrone in 1461. Henry VI was sent to the Tower, but in 1470, he was rescuedby a new Lancastrian army. Yet he did not rule for long: in 1471, the Yorkistsled by Edward defeated the Lancastrians at Tewkesbury (Henrys son,Edward, Prince of Wales, died in that battle) and Henry VI was murdered inthe Tower. (See William Shakespeares Henry VI. Parts 1, 2 and 3)



3.6. The Yorkists

After Henry VIs death and Edward IVs regaining the throne (1461-70, 1471-83), civil strife did not stop. In 1478, Edward IV had to imprison inthe Tower his brother George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, who wasexecuted (allegedly by drowning in a barrel of Malmsey wine). At Edwardsdeath in 1483, his heir was too young to rule (only 12) and his ambitiousbrother Richard of Gloucester took advantage of the situation.

Though previously loyal to his brother Edward IV, Richard, who wasappointed Edward Vs protector, became suspicious of the queens(Elizabeth Woodville) faction. He received young Edward in London forcoronation, but the ceremony never too place: Edward V and his youngerbrother were sent to the Tower never to be seen again (they were murdered).

An unpopular king, disliked by both Lancastrians and Yorkists,Richard III (1483-5) was challenged by the half-Welsh Henry Tudor, Earl ofRichmond, who came from France, claiming the throne as a directdescendant of John of Gaunt, one of Edward IIIs younger sons. Supportedby many discontented lords, both Lancastrians and Yorkists, Henry Tudordefeated Richard III at Bosworth in 1485 (thus putting an end to the Wars ofthe Roses) and was crowned on the battlefield. (See William ShakespearesRichard III)

3.7. The Tudors

The founder of the Tudor line, Henry VII (1485-1509) united theHouses of Lancaster and York by his marriage in 1486 with Elizabeth of York(Edward IVs daughter), restored the centralised power of the state andmanaged to keep the nobles under control.

He protected the interests of the rising bourgeoisie and of the newnobility and created the merchant fleet. Under the circumstances, literacyextended among the people at large. (In 1476, William Caxton set his printingpress at Westminster.)

Henry VII used dynastic royal marriages to establish his dynasty inEngland and help maintain peace.

Henry VIIs second son, Henry VIII (1509-47) succeeded to the throneafter his elder brothers death and married his former sister-in-law Catherineof Aragon.

He built an effective fleet of royal fighting ships and interfered, more orless successfully, in European politics (Spain, Germany, France andScotland).

The name of Henry VIII is connected with the English Reformationwhich marked the breach with the Roman Catholic Church. Henrys reasonswere both political i.e., breaking with Rome and putting an end to papalinterference in English affairs and personal i.e., his wish to divorceCatherine of Aragon (whose only surviving child was Princess Mary) in orderto marry Anne Boleyn (who, the king hoped, could give him a son and heir,but who gave birth to another daughter, Elizabeth). The Pope refused togrant the divorce and excommunicated Henry, who broke with Rome andmarried Anne. By the Act of Supremacy (1531), approved of by theParliament, Henry VIII became the only supreme head of the AnglicanChurch of England, and all those who refused to take the Oath of



Supremacy were charged with treason and executed. Henrys reformationproduced dangerous Protestant-Roman Catholic differences in the kingdom.

Henry VIII finally got his male heir (Edward) after the execution ofAnne Boleyn in 1536 (allegedly for adultery) and his marriage with AnneSeymour.

Intellectually precocious, but physically weak, his son - Edward VI(1547-53) became king at the age of 9 and his short reign was dominatedby nobles (e.g. Edward Seymour, his eldest uncle, and the Duke ofNorthumberland) using the Regency to strengthen their own positions. Duringhis reign, the Church of England became more explicitly Protestant.

After Edward VIs untimely death, it was Henry VIIIs eldest daughter -Mary I (1553-8) that came to the throne. Though declared illegitimate andremoved from the succession to the throne by an Act of Parliament duringher fathers lifetime, she nonetheless benefited from public support as HenryVIIIs daughter against the claimant Jane Grey, named as heir by the dyingEdward VI. A fervent Catholic, she restored papal supremacy in England andbegan the conversion of the country back to Catholicism, even at theexpense of turning it into a blood bath. (Bloody Mary) Her decision ofmarrying a Catholic prince, Philip of Spain, made her even more unpopular.

Upon her sisters death, Elizabeth I (1558-1603) finally ascended tothe throne. As she had been declared illegitimate, Elizabeths right to thethrone had to be recognised by the Treaty of Edinburgh on July 6, 1560.

In 1559, Elizabeth I reinforced the Act of Supremacy and re-established the Anglican Church. She showed political ability in solvingreligious problems accepting neither the Roman Catholic Church nor theCalvinist variant of European Protestantism, but relying mostly on theProtestant clergy and wisely keeping England away from the religious warstearing France apart.

Suspicious of the old aristocracy, the queen relied on new men like SirWilliam Cecil and Francis Walsingham and defended her position on thethrone cold-mindedly. Her long reign was marked by spectacular executions,chief among which those of the Duke of Norfolk (1572), Babbington (1586)and Mary Stuart of the Scots (1587), as well as of the Earl of Essex (1601).

Under Elizabeth I, England launched into the contest for commercialand naval leadership against Spain and France. Though officially denying it,the queen supported the privateers (e.g. Frobisher, Francis Drake, WalterRaleigh) who roamed the seas in search of new maritime ways but also oftreasure-laden ships to maraud. Furthermore, new trading companies werefounded encompassing a vast area from Venice, the Greek islands and theMohammedan Empire to the Indian seas. Thus, the way was paved for thegreat British colonial empire in the centuries to come.

The queen carefully kept England away from open conflagration. Theonly serious attempt at invading England by the Spanish Armada ended up indefeat of the Spanish on July 26, 1588.

3. 8. The Stuarts

As Queen Elizabeth I died heirless, the throne was passed to hernephew James, son of Mary Stuart, Queen of the Scots, who thusinaugurated, by combining the thrones of England and Scotland for the firsttime, the first line of kings of the United Kingdom. James I (1603-25) had



been king of Scotland (James VI) for 36 years when he became King ofEngland.

A theologian and an arts patron, James I supported culturaldevelopment: e.g.: the new translation of the Bible known as the AuthorisedKing Jamess version of the Bible, and the flourishing of the theatre.

Nonetheless, his reign was marked by civil unrest. On the one hand,he mismanaged the Roman Catholic question. That led to the GunpowderPlot (November 5, 1605), an attempt of a group of Catholic gentlemen of theJesuit Party to blow up the king and the Houses of Parliament. The leader,Guy Fawkes, was arrested on November 4. (His effigy is still merrily burnt bythe English each November 4.) The failure of the plot brought about the re-imposition of strict penalties on Roman Catholics.

On the other hand, James I had a tense relation with the Parliament.Strongly believing, like Elizabeth I, in the divine right of kings, he tried to rulewithout the Parliament as much as possible. To cover the huge debt heinherited from Elizabeth I, he had to ask the Parliament to raise a tax, whichthe Parliament agreed with on condition James would discuss his home andforeign policy with the Parliament. James insisted that he alone had thedivine right to make these decisions. He managed to rule successfullywithout the Parliament as long as England was at peace, i.e. between 1611and 1621. But when England got involved in the Thirty Years War in Europe(1618-48), James could not afford the costs of an army and disagreed withthe Parliament who wished to go against the Catholics. Until his death in1625, James continued to quarrel with the Parliament over money and overits desire to play a part in his foreign policy.

He neglected the navy and deprived England of her naval power for30 years. Yet, England continued her international trade in wool, cotton andsilk and the ships of the East India Company were sailing as far as Persiaand India.

During James Is reign, the Puritans denounced the extravagancesand dissolute living at the kings court, and attacked the theatre on account ofits being the favourite amusement of an immoral aristocracy. Some Puritansfled across the Atlantic in 1620 to escape prosecution and founded theMassachusetts Colony. (The Pilgrim Fathers celebrated by the Americanpeople on Thanksgiving Day) Others chose to remain in England andbecame the focal point for resistance against the Stuarts, known as theRoundheads and the extremists. (See the Puritan Parliament MembersOliver Cromwell, John Milton, John Hampden and John Pym)

An art lover, like his father, Charles I (1625-49), who succeeded to thethrone in 1625, spent a lot inviting artists like Van Dyck and Rubens to workin England and buying a great collection of paintings by Raphael and Titian,thus increasing the crowns debts. Moreover, he married Henrietta Maria ofFrance, a fervent Catholic.

He also quarreled with the Parliament especially with the House ofCommons - even more bitterly, mainly over money. He tried to rule withoutthe Parliament, but, when he needed to have new taxes and loans voted, hehad to re-summon it. The violent debate over Charless financial devices andthe reform of the Church along Puritan lines eventually led to the kingsattempt to arrest the leaders of the Parliament. (The Great Remonstrance1641) It became then obvious that people had to choose sides as the CivilWars (1642-46; 1648-49) broke out, opposing James I and the Cavaliers to



the House of Commons, Oliver Cromwell and his Ironsides (the NewModel Army).

The winning New Model Army, concluding that permanent peace wasimpossible whilst Charles lived, decided that the King, whom the Scots hadsurrendered to the Parliament, must be put on trial and executed. InDecember 1648, Parliament was purged, leaving a small rump totallydependent on the Army, and the Rump Parliament established a High Courtof Justice in the first week of January 1649. On January 20, Charles wascharged with high treason. Charles refused to plead, saying that he did notrecognise the legality of the High Court. He was sentenced to death onJanuary 27. Three days later, on January 30, 1649, Charles was beheadedon a scaffold outside the Banqueting House in Whitehall, London. TheCommonwealth or Republic (1649-60) was proclaimed, in fact a militarydictatorship in which the main power was exerted by Oliver Cromwell.

To prevent the anarchy after Cromwells death, the ConventionParliament elected in 1660 called back Charles II (1660-85) from his exile inHolland. The Restoration era began. The king issued the Declaration ofBreda (1660), promised pardons, arrears of Army pay, confirmation of landpurchases during the Interregnum and liberty of tender consciences inreligious matters, yet a number of repressive measures were taken (e.g. theAct of Conformity which required all clergy, college fellows andschoolmasters to belong to the Anglican Church).

The early years of Charles IIs reign were also marked by thepersecution of the prominent figures of the Commonwealth, the growingunpopularity of the restoration of extravagant frivolity at the court, and thegrowing concern of the Parliament with Charles IIs attraction to the CatholicChurch (The Test Act 1673, which prevented any Catholic from holdingpublic office) and with monarchy becoming again too powerful.

By far the most disastrous years of Charles IIs reign were 1665-67,when the unpopularity of the king was increased partly by wrong politicaldecisions, partly by a series of natural disasters. To be more specific, in1665, a plague epidemic broke out in London. In 1666, the Great Firevirtually destroyed the London of the Middle Ages and of Shakespearesplays. It changed the architectural aspect of London and Christopher Wrendesigned the plan for the rebuilding of London by replacing neoclassicmarble and stone for the medieval brick and timber. (E.g. magnificentbuildings in classical Baroque like St. Pauls Cathedral; other buildings byWren: the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford and Pembroke College Chapel inCambridge). On the same year, there was the Covenanters uprising (aCovenant was signed all over Scotland for the defense of the Protestantreligion and against the government of the Church by bishops). Finally, in1667, the second Dutch war, born of English and Dutch commercial andcolonial rivalry, ended in a humiliating defeat of the English.

Charles IIs Roman Catholic brother, James II (1685-88) had atroubled reign marked by the rebellion in 1685 led by Charles IIs illegitimateson and champion of Protestantism, the Duke of Monmouth, supported bythe Earl of Shaftesbury. The defeat of the rebels was followed by Jamesscruel revenge: he embarked upon a rapid Romanizing of the country, claimedthe royal prerogative to suspend the laws of the land, and, in general,pursued with ever increasing violence and illegality the policy to prepare theforcible reconversion of England to Roman Catholicism. In 1685, the KingsDeclaration of Indulgence that put on trial several bishops and the birth of a



Catholic heir to the throne determined the Tories and the Whigs to offer thecrown to the first couple of joint monarchs in the English history, i.e., William(1689-1702) and Mary (1689-94) of Orange. On November 5, 1688, Williamof Orange, the husband of James IIs Protestant daughter Mary, landed atTorbay. James II was deprived of the crown on account of his deserting hiskingdom and the crown was offered to William and Mary. This bloodlessGlorious Revolution decided the balance between Parliamentary and royalpower in favour of the former and, in accordance with the Declaration/ Bill ofRights, no king ever attempted to govern without Parliament or contrary tothe votes of the House of Commons.

The Act of Settlement (1701) secured the Protestant succession tothe throne, and strengthened the guarantees for ensuring the parliamentarysystem of government. According to it, if Mary had no children, the crownwould pass to her sister Anne; if she also died without children, the crownwould go to a granddaughter of James I, who had married the Germanelector of Hanover and her children. Even today, if a son or daughter of amonarch becomes a Catholic, (s)he cannot inherit the throne.

The crown was passed in 1702 to Marys sister, Queen Anne (1702-14). Under her rule, the War for the Spanish Succession (1702-13) endedwith the recognition by Louis XIV of France of Protestant succession in GreatBritain and turned John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, into a national hero.Further disagreement over the succession to the throne between the Englishand the Scottish Parliaments allowed the exiled Roman Catholic son ofJames II, James Edward Stuart, to land in Scotland in 1708, but he wasforced to withdraw to France. (The scene was set for the later uprisings inScotland led by the Stuart Pretenders against the Hanoverian kings.)

In 1707, Scotland and England were formally united under thename of Great Britain and the flags of the two nations (St. Andrews Crossfor Scotland and St. Georges Cross for England) were combined to form thepresent Union Jack. (St. Patricks Cross would be added in 1801 after Irelandwould be united with Great Britain.)

3.9. The Hanoverians

The great-grandson of James I through the female line, George I(1714-27), Elector of Hanover came to the throne under the Act ofSettlement. His claim was challenged by James Edward Stuart (the OldPretender) who landed in Scotland in 1715, following a rising of Scottishclans on his behalf; this was unsuccessful and he soon withdrew.

The new king spoke only little English and was unfamiliar with thecustoms of the country, he was dependent on his ministers (the Whigsdominated the Parliament during his reign the Whig oligarchy).

His sons reign George II (1727-60) was marked by warfareabroad as well as in Scotland.

Despite the kings bravely participating alongside his soldiers in thebattle of Dettingen in Germany and scoring a victory against the French, theWar of the Austrian Succession (1740-48) ended in defeat for the English,except in North America.

In 1745, Georges reign was threatened by Charles Edward Stuart (theYoung Pretender). After some initial success in Scotland where theHighland clans rallied to his cause and defeated the Hanoverians nearEdinburgh, the Pretender was defeated in the battle of Culloden (April 1746)



and fled to France, thus ending the Stuart attempts to return to the Britishthrone.

The kings initial unpopularity gradually turned into a general respectowing to the countrys prosperity. It was under George IIs reign that thefoundations of the Industrial Revolution were laid with new levels ofproduction in industries such as coal mining and shipbuilding and also inagriculture. Overseas, trade was boosted by successes such as Clivesvictories in India at Arcot (1751) and Plassey (1757), which placed Madrasand Bengal under British control, and Wolfes capture of the French-heldQuebec in 1759 (part of a successful campaign which transferred Canadawith its wealthy trade in fish and fur from the French to the British rule duringthe Seven Years War in North America).

Born of Prince Frederick of Wales and Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, George III (1760-1820) was the first Hanoverian king born in Englandand using English and his first language. The early years of his reign weremarked by his conflict with the Prime Minister William Pitt the Elder and withthe House of Commons caused by his attempts at taking a more active partin governing Britain and his wish to choose his own ministers from among asmall number of aristocrats who controlled the Parliament. The Kings policywas severely criticised by John Wilkes, an MP, who demanded liberty of thepress, the right of the people to choose their own representatives, theabolition of abusive imprisonment. When the king retorted by imprisoningWilkes, the London citizens rose in protest rioting in front of St. JamessPalace and throughout the city.

The foreign policy under George III was marked by: The Seven Years War (1754-1763): George III considered the war

too expensive and he made peace with France in 1763, withoutinforming Prussia, which was thus left to fight France alone. TheTreaty of Paris turned out satisfactory for the British who got controlover Canada and Florida (thus controlling all North America east ofMississippi) as well as Bengal (this brought French power in India toan end and made way for British hegemony and eventual control ofIndia).

The War of American Independence (1775-1783): Initially startingfrom the serious quarrels over taxation between the Britishgovernment and its colonies in America, the conflict, which opposedBritain to half of the world (the rebelling colonies were supported byFrance, Spain and the Netherlands), ended in a disastrous defeat forthe British government, which lost everything except for Canada. TheUnited States were granted independence in 1783.

The Napoleonic Wars: The English retorted to the French ContinentalSystem by the Continental Blockade and Admiral Nelson saved theEnglish honour when he defeated the combined French and Spanishfleets at Cape Trafalgar (1805). Further British involvement in theNapoleonic Wars allowed the Duke of Wellington (the Iron Duke) toemerge as a military leader who defeated Napoleon first at Leipzig(1813) and then, after Napoleons return from Elba, at Waterloo(1825).

Towards the end of his life, George III suffered from seizures of insanity(1811-20). His son Prince George acted as Regent (the Regency).



The early days of the reign of George IV (1820-30) were marked bymarriage difficulties. He had secretly and illegally married a Roman Catholic,Mrs. Fitzherbert. In 1795 he officially married Princess Caroline of Brunswick,but the marriage was a failure and he tried unsuccessfully to divorce her afterhis accession in 1820 (Caroline died in 1821).

Because of the crowns debts, George IV was in a weak position inrelation to his Cabinet of ministers. In 1829, he was forced by his ministers,much against his will and his interpretation of his coronation oath, to agree toCatholic Emancipation. By reducing religious discrimination, thisemancipation enabled the monarchy to play a more national role.

As for George IVs younger brother, William IV (1830-37), his reignwas marked by the Reform crisis, which started with the Great Reform Bill(1832) that abolished the worst abuses of the electoral system andrepresented the capitulation of English landed gentry to the middle-classes.

Queen Victoria (1837-1901) is associated with Britains great age ofindustrial expansion, economic progress and, especially, empire. At herdeath, it was said, Britain had a worldwide empire on which the sun neverset.

Throughout the early part of her reign, she was very much influencedby her husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg, who took an active interestin the arts, science, trade and industry; the project for which he is bestremembered was the Great Exhibition of 1851 (the Crystal Palace). After hisdeath, the queen could not get over her sorrow and refused to appear inpublic for a long time, which caused newspapers to criticise her and toquestion the value of monarchy. Eventually, her advisers persuaded her totake a more public interest in the business of the kingdom and she becameextraordinarily popular.

With regard to home policy under Queen Victoria, due mention shouldbe made of the Little England policy supported by the Liberal PrimeMinister William Gladstone. It implied avoiding foreign entanglements,supporting the Home Rule for Ireland, and promoting the Third Reform Bill(1884) which virtually provided manhood suffrage.

In terms of foreign policy, several major aspects are worth expandingupon. On the one hand, reference should be made to the Englishinvolvement in the Crimean War (1854-56). Britain feared that Russia woulddestroy the weak Ottoman Empire, which controlled Turkey and the Arabcountries, and that would change the balance of power in Europe, puttingBritains sea and land routes to India in danger. Unfortunately, the outmodedand inadequate British army was defeated (see the famous Charge of theLight Brigade).

An important contribution to alleviating the terrible sufferings of theBritish troops was that of Florence Nightingale and her band of nurses whoreformed the medical and sanitary conditions in the army and paved the wayfor womens entry into the medical profession a few years later (ElizabethGarrett Anderson 1877).

On the other hand, Queen Victoria was a very strong supporter of theEmpire, which brought her closer to some of her Prime Ministers, i.e.,Benjamin Disraeli and the Marquess of Salisbury. The former, inparticular, promoted a Conservative Big England policy aimed atenhancing British prestige throughout the world. (1875 the purchase of theSuez Canal; 1876 Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India.)



Nonetheless, even under Queen Victoria, there were troubles in theBritish Empire that foreshadowed the decrease in power of the Britishcolonisers. Thus, in India, the unwise treatment of Indian soldiers resulted inrevolt in 1857 (The Indian Mutiny). This Sepoy rebellion quickly became anational movement against foreign rule, led by a number of Hindu andMuslim princes. Both the British and the Indians behaved with great violence,and the British cruelly punished the defeated rebels. India was removed fromthe political jurisdiction of the East India Company and was placed under theCrown, but that did not help the relations between the British and the Indiansto recover. The feeling of distrust and distance between the colonisers andthe colonised would grow into the Indian independence movement of thetwentieth century.

In Africa, the interest in slave trade caused the British to useChristianity as a tool for building a commercial and political empire. Thatbrought them in conflict with other European settlers, like the Dutch Boersfrom South Africa who were defeated only with great difficulty in 1899-1902.(In 1906, self government was set up in South Africa.)

In Canada, Australia, New Zealand, from the 1840s onwards, as aresult of the rapid increase in population in Britain, many British settlers werecalled for the development of colonies. The new comers took over the land tothe detriment of the populations which already lived in the three countries. InCanada, most of the natives were pushed westwards, and those not killedbecame part of the white culture. In Australia, most of the aboriginalinhabitants were killed, and only few survived in the central desert areas. InNew Zealand, the Maori inhabitants suffered less, but they still lost most oftheir land. These white colonies were, in time, allowed to govern themselveson condition they accepted the British monarch as their head of state.

As part of her colonial policy, Britain was also engaged in the war withChina (1857-58) and interfered in the American Civil War, supporting theSouthern Confederacy between 1861-65.

By the end of the 19th century, Britain controlled the oceans and muchof the land areas of the world. But even at this great moment of power,Britain spent more on its empire than it took from it, and this heavy burdenwould become impossible to bear in the twentieth century, when the coloniesbegan to demand their freedom.

3.10. The House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha

Though his time (the Edwardian era) was one of significant politicaland socio-economic changes, Edward VII (1901-10) himself contributed littleto the reforms which marked British political and social life. Criticised for hissocial life, Edwards main interests lay in foreign affairs, and military andnaval matters. In particular, Edward played an active role in encouragingmilitary and naval reforms, pressing for the reform of the Army MedicalService and the modernisation of the Home Fleet. He died before theconstitutional crisis that opposed the Conservatives to the Liberaladministration could be solved by the latters victory in the 1910 elections.

During the First World War (1914-18), the increasing anti-Germanfeeling led Edward VIIs successor, George V (1910-36), to change the nameof the royal house from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor in 1917. The kingtried to play a conciliatory role during both the civil war in Ireland (which



started with the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916) and the Great Strike in 1926.The Civil War in Ireland resulted in the setting up of the free Irish state (laterthe Republic of Eire), while the six northern counties (where 67% of thepopulation were Protestant) remained part of the United Kingdom (asNorthern Ireland).

3.11. The House of Windsor

Edward VIII (Jan. Dec. 1936) reigned less than a year during 1936only to stage the first voluntary abdication in British history. A qualified pilotand a highly popular public figure owing to his successful tours at home andoverseas, his good war record and genuine care for the unprivileged, EdwardVIII had, unfortunately, a very controversial love life. After a number of affairs,he fell

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